Functional Medicine | Women's Health
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND In naturopathic and also in functional medicine, we have a saying “when in doubt, start with the gut.” The reason is that gut health has a profound effect on the rest of your body, by impacting your absorption of nutrients and initiating inflammation. This inflammation may be an autoimmune process like Hashimoto’s or …
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By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I’m hearing from so many of you who are struggling with finding the time, energy and motivation to exercise, or even get outside for a walk most days. Between working from home, gyms being closed, winter weather and almost nowhere to go during this lockdown, so many people are barely moving during their work week. For …
Continue Reading about How Sedentary is Your Life? Simple tips to increase your daily activity →
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND With so many people working from home over the past 9 months, it’s possible that your indoor air quality may be impacting your health. If you feel that your health has changed, especially with allergies, congestion, fatigue or brain fog, this may be important to investigate. Here is a brief overview of things you …
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND The Organic Acid Test is one of my favourite tests, especially for patients with complex conditions when standard lab testing like bloodwork and ultrasound comes back looking very normal. I sometimes call it “the test where I find what I wasn’t looking for,” because often the reason for running the test is not the main …
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND As we approach the shortest and darkest days of winter and the weather starts to shift, it's common to feel more lethargic, unmotivated, hungry and down. Some people are better able to adapt to the winter season than others, and this year in particular you may find that some of your usual strategies like going to the …
Continue Reading about Top 3 Tips for Seasonal Affective Disorder →
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I have spent the past 25 years carefully observing health-care trends, staying on top of the latest in naturopathic, integrative and functional medicine, and can honestly say that it’s time to evolve how we look at human health and wellness. The issues we have been facing have intensified over the past year due to …
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By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND Sleep issues come up in my discussions with patients very frequently, and sleep is one of the most important health foundations for optimal health, and also to heal from any health issue. I will admit that there are cases where it is difficult to completely fix sleep struggles, as with menopause, concussion and chronic …
Continue Reading about My favourite sleep tips to rest, recover and repair →
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND A pattern that I see over and over again is women who are so hard on themselves. It’s as if we’re trying to be everything to everyone, and on top of this have strong standards about how we think we should be living our lives. Having the perfect diet, fitting in exercise regularly and consistently, top performance at …
Continue Reading about The first step to healing is Self-Compassion →
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND The biggest discussion lately is how to support your immune system right now, especially as the weather change, and as we enter typical cold and flu season. Please note that this is not an article on how to treat or prevent COVID-19, but rather some reminders on what you can do to keep your immune system working …
