Before the 19th century, life expectancy rarely exceeded 40-50 years, making it difficult to even understand menopause as a phase of life. Today, menopause remains an awkward topic, often avoided in discussions, leaving many to experience symptoms in silence. Recently, however, those in the perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopausal stages are feeling more comfortable discussing their experiences. This growing openness is driving increased interest, conversation, and research in the area. While there is still much to learn about menopause and its treatment, we aim to normalize the conversation and provide support to those experiencing it.

Although we can support mental health through nutrition and lifestyle, sometimes some additional support is needed. This is where supplements may be beneficial in mood enhancement, particularly for calming. Supplements for mood support can range between herbs, vitamins, and other compounds. It is important to note that use of traditional medications to support mental health may interact with supplementation, therefore, it is important to consult a medical professional or healthcare provider for your individualized use of supplements to support mental health. That being said, here are our top supplements for calming the mind and body and supporting a healthy mood.

We often only discuss the physical benefits of improving your dietary patterns, but did you know that nutrition can impact your mental health too? It's true! There is a strong connection between your gut environment and brain through what is scientifically known as the enteric nervous system. Because of the strong connection between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract, feeding your body with mood boosting food may improve mental health and overall motivation to achieve health goals.

Metabolic and bariatric surgery impacts hormone health in a variety of ways. Adipose or fat tissue plays a large part in endocrine system function and hormone communication. Changes in weight after surgery can disrupt hormone balance overall. In addition, gut hormones such as leptin and ghrelin, which impact hunger and fullness cues are impacted due to absorption and anatomical changes. Metabolic and bariatric surgery often improves hormonal functioning such as blood glucose control and sex hormones, however, if imbalance was present before surgery we may still need to dive deeper.

After addressing PCOS through nutrition and lifestyle interventions, if further support is needed we may look to use supplementation to help your body manage symptoms. There is strong evidence that some supplements can help allay symptoms that are associated with PCOS, but not every supplement is recommended for every person with PCOS. As with everything surrounding PCOS, supplementation should be individualized. Lucky for you, we are here to help discuss top supplements for PCOS management and would love to support you in finding the best supplements for you.

How can lifestyle affect PCOS? Let’s explore this deep connection. If you haven’t gotten a chance to see how to better support hormonal balance through nutrition, we encourage you to check out our previous blog, “A beginners guide to nutrition for PCOS” first. Focusing efforts on the nutritional pieces to PCOS is important, but lifestyle changes can also play a huge role.

PCOS? What is it, what does it stand for, and what can you do about it? Around 6-10% of women between ages of 15-45 live with this hormonal disorder known as polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Typically, making small lifestyle changes including nutrition and exercise is a large part of the care plan that can help improve the symptoms of PCOS. Today, we will start by explaining what PCOS symptoms are and how nutrition can make a large impact.

Changing dietary habits to promote fertility may seem harder than it has to be. In our last blog, Nutrition for fertility, we outlined the important nutrients to improve reproduction in both partners. Below is an example menu of how to eat to consume all of those important nutrients within one day. We hope you find this outline simple and insightful on how to change your nutrition to support fertility.

We understand that fertility and trying to conceive can be a sensitive process for many. Perhaps you are just starting the process, have been trying for a while now, or are planning for the future. Overall, nutrition may have a large impact on one’s ability to conceive. It is important to note that even the healthiest diet cannot cure more serious conditions that cause infertility, however, the influence of nutrition and lifestyle choices should not be underestimated.

We are now two weeks into 2024 and you may already feel busier than you were last year! In our last blog, we discussed improving your mental motivation for sustaining new year’s resolutions and long-term goals. But, how do you actually put this into action? We chose using the example of how using small frequent meals to improve your motivation and are giving you some easy meal prepping ideas for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner to help get you started! All of these meal or snack examples are quick, simple, and delicious. We hope you love them this new year as much as we do.

I think we can all agree the holidays are a joyous, yet stressful time. Although we put all the pieces in place with nutrition and lifestyle, sometimes we need an extra stress reduction boost to further support weight loss goals. This is where supplementation and an extra emphasis on mental health step in. We aim to outline actionable items for stress reduction as it plays an integral role in health, inflammation, weight, and chronic disease.

Have you ever heard “you need to reduce your stress” or “you are too stressed out”, but never been given tangible tools for stress reduction? If this is your experience, look no further. We aim to outline actionable items for stress reduction as they play an integral role in health, inflammation, weight, and chronic disease.

You may have heard that increased stress in your life can contribute to the development of chronic diseases, but have you ever considered how stress may be affecting your weight? If your weight loss has slowed or halted, you may want to consider how chronic stress may be playing a role in your weight loss journey.

Did you know the last point of hormone breakdown is in your digestive tract? This is why hormone health and gut health play such a balancing act within the body. Oftentimes, we can get distracted by one or the other in terms of symptoms, frustrations, and treatment, so why not add nutrition to your diet for both?!

Female hormonal balance and weight - what do they have in common? When approaching weight loss, balancing sex hormones may be a missing link for weight loss.