Brain Health → Body Health?

The beginning of fall begins a new series! 🍁

Pause the scroll to spend a second with me here.

Most people don’t think twice about brain health unless they notice problems with their memory or concentration.

But your brain is the control center for everything else in your body! 🧠

How well your brain functions has a direct and significant effect on your stress response, hormone production, gut health, and hunger cues.

(Not to mention productivity and mood.)

We just cannot separate the body from the brain.

Some of the best ways to protect brain health?

✅ Deep Breathing

✅ Good Nutrition

✅ Movement

✅ Sleep

When we say we take a holistic approach to health, this is exactly what we mean.

Follow along for more information about BRAIN HEALTH!

REFERENCES:

Herman JP, Nawreen N, Smail MA, Cotella EM. Brain mechanisms of HPA axis regulation: neurocircuitry and feedback in context Richard Kvetnansky lecture. Stress. 2020;23(6):617-632. [link]

Mayer EA, Nance K, Chen S. The Gut-Brain Axis. Annu Rev Med. 2022;73:439-453. [link]

Morales I. Brain regulation of hunger and motivation: The case for integrating homeostatic and hedonic concepts and its implications for obesity and addiction. Appetite. 2022;177:106146. [link]

A Surprising Risk of Mouth Breathing!

Do you tend to breathe more through your mouth or your nose? 👄👃

Your mouth has a microbiome of its own, but did you know that the oral microbiome depends on how you breathe?

A study of children found that mouth breathing had an adverse effect on the oral microbiome by increasing the number of pathogenic (bad) bacteria in the mouth 😬

Here are 5 ways to support a healthy oral microbiome:

1️⃣Nasal (rather than mouth) Breathing 👃

2️⃣Tongue Scraping 👅

3️⃣Flossing 🦷

4️⃣Replacing Toothbrush Heads Regularly 🪥

5️⃣Avoiding Antiseptic Mouthwash 🚫

Optimizing the oral microbiome can support the health of your teeth, gums, & digestion.

❤️Like this post if you learned something and follow for more tips on improving your health naturally!

Reference

Fan C, Guo L, Gu H, Huo Y, Lin H. Alterations in Oral-Nasal-Pharyngeal Microbiota and Salivary Proteins in Mouth-Breathing Children. Front Microbiol. 2020;11:575550. Published 2020 Oct 9. [link]

Tribble GD, Angelov N, Weltman R, et al. Frequency of Tongue Cleaning Impacts the Human Tongue Microbiome Composition and Enterosalivary Circulation of Nitrate. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2019;9:39. Published 2019 Mar 1. [link]

Is Your Gut Calling for Help?

Most people don’t realize this 👉

It’s a common misconception that the only signs of poor gut health are digestive problems, like gas, bloating, heartburn, constipation, or diarrhea.

Problems in the gut can also cause or aggravate:

▪️ Food Sensitivities

▪️ Skin Irritations

▪️ Food Cravings

▪️ Mood Changes

▪️ Brain Fog

While there can also be other factors contributing to these issues, it’s worth considering the domino effect that gut health has on nearly everything else in the body.

Want tips on improving your gut health? Be sure to follow for my upcoming posts.

12 Indoor Exercises for Winter

12 Indoor Exercises to Avoid the Cold 🥶

Movement is essential to health! If you don’t want to brave the cold and don’t have a gym membership, here are some things that anybody can do in their own living room:

🔹 Jump Rope

🔹 Push-Ups

🔹 Jumping Jacks

🔹 Squats

🔹 Run in Place

🔹 Free Weights

🔹 Skip

🔹 Dance

🔹 Stretch

🔹 Shake

🔹 Yoga

🔹 Push-Ups

Health is not hard. You just have to commit.

You've got this! 🙌

How to Eat in Season This Month!

What’s in season?

There are lots of benefits to eating seasonal produce—the most important being that it tastes better!

It’s easy to eat local produce through the summer months, but the winter gets a bit trickier. Here are some produce options that are in season in parts of the US and Canada in February & March:

▪️Broccoli: Roast it in the air-fryer with some olive oil and salt or stir-fry with garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes!

▪️Brussels sprouts: So good when roasted in the oven and topped with a sauce of peanut butter, tamari, and hot sauce 🌶️

▪️Cauliflower: There are so many things you can do with this veg, from simply roasting and topping with parmesan cheese to making gluten-free breadsticks 🥖

▪️Kale: People like to slam kale, but it’s so versatile that you can make it into chips, stir-fry, or even smoothies.

Another bonus of this seasonal produce is that they are all cruciferous vegetables, which means they support healthy detoxification and even hormone health 👏

Other produce in season includes citrus fruits, squash, sweet potatoes, fennel, radishes, and potatoes 🥔