November 23, 2015 by Meredith

The Roots of Health – Episode 60: My Favorite Things

Click here to go right to the show in iTunes or on Stitcher or on WebTalkRadio.net.

It’s that time of year again when we begin to think about the people that we love and how grateful we are for them in our lives… and oftentimes we want to express that gratitude with a gift. And I thought that I would pull together some of my favorite things to give you some inspiration for this holiday season.

My list includes:

Protip: as I was pulling this together, this was kind of therapeutic for me, you might want to sit down and think about what your favorite things in life are, you might be surprised at what is on your list – I know that I was.

Thanks to Audionautix.com for some of the tunes.

Thanks to The Grand Canyon National Park System for the audio clip. And to hear more of Katy Bowman chat about Move Your DNA – follow this link.

You can subscribe to The Roots of Health at WebTalkRadio.net, iTunes, and Stitcher.

November 16, 2015 by Meredith

The Roots of Health – Episode 59: Heart Health to Total Health with Dr. William Davis, Part 1

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Nearly 1 out of 4 deaths in the US today can be attributed to heart disease, it’s the number 1 cause of death. And our conventional way to treat heart disease is to prescribe statin medications, to tell people to move more, to eat less fat., to eat a healthy diet including heart healthy whole grains. My guest today is a cardiologist who just doesn’t agree with this conventional protocol. Dr. William Davis practices cardiology in Milwaukee and he’s also the author of the book Wheat Belly – Total Health I recently reached out to Dr. Davis to talk to him more about his own ex as a card and what he has seen as the most influential lifestyle interventions to reverse and halt the progression of heart disease. This is part 1 of a 2 part interview where I find out how this cardiologist turned out to be a nutritionist of sorts.

We chat about how his practice changed over the years, how his own dietary interventions failed him, how his mom passed away of heart disease, his shift toward prevention rather than invasive intervention, the Milwaukee Heart Scan initiative and what he gleaned from the data that he collected from thousands patients, the lifestyle interventions that made the biggest difference with respect to heart health, and the curious side effects of those interventions. We talk about how grains (and primarily refined grains) dominate the diet today, and why, we chat about small dense LDL particles (See: Cholesterol Clarity with Jimmy Moore), we talk about calcium scans as a proxy for atherosclerosis, we talk about grain and sugar elimination, and the importance of vitamin D and iodine sufficiency in heart health.

For more info on how to switch from health care to self-care – visit my online program, Humanosity.

Music by audionautix.com

You can subscribe to The Roots of Health at WebTalkRadio.net, iTunes, and Stitcher.

November 9, 2015 by Meredith

The Roots of Health – Episode 58: Red Meat and Cancer

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Seems like at least once a year, we’re seeing headlines about how red meat is killing us. The latest news is from the World Health Organization – who has just announced that processed meats are carcinogenic, and that red meat is probably carcinogenic. This conclusion was determined by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, or IARC, and is based on data from about 800 research papers.

So what does this mean for you? Do you have to avoid bacon like the plague? Do steaks have to be a thing of the past? Well, before your relationship with food gets compromised any further… let’s get some perspective on this.

This show includes a discussion about how humans have eaten meat throughout their evolution, a bit about what the first American settlers ate and the history of red meat consumption in America, an excerpt from an article from The Atlantic written by Nina Teicholz, author of Big Fat Surprise, called “How Americans Got Red Meat Wrong”, I discuss what the IARC’s categories for carcinogenicity mean, hazard vs. risk, and the proposed relative increase in the risk of getting colorectal cancer from eating processed meat, the limitations of observational studies, not all meat is created equal, and I read some correspondence between myself and Sabine Rohrmann, co-author of a study published in 2013 called, “Meat consumption and mortality – results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition”.

Thanks to Healthcare Triage for the clip, and Audionautix.com for the music.

You can subscribe to The Roots of Health at WebTalkRadio.net, iTunes, and Stitcher.

November 3, 2015 by Meredith - 1 Comment

The Roots of Health – Episode 57: Ecotherapy with Phoenix Smith

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How would you feel if you had headaches and you were stressed out and you couldn’t figure out what was wrong but you wanted to feel right again. And you went to your doctor and they did a medical intake, and talked to you about what was going on in your life, and then they left you with a prescription, a prescription to go outside and spend time in nature.

This might actually happen today. There is growing evidence that time spent in nature is healing to a body.

I was recently introduced to the field of ecotherapy when I stumbled across an article and video in The Atlantic. Ecotherapy is an emerging field of care that facilitates healing by introducing nature into your equation. I recently talked with Phoenix Smith, a certified Ecotherapist, about what exactly ecotherapy is, and what health conditions can be treated by ecotherapy, and how exactly does nature heal us.

We discuss what ecotherapy is and all of the different types of evidence-based ecotherapy approaches, find out if ecotherapy is right for you, what nature deficit disorder is, what sets us up for nature deficit disorder, what health issues can be addressed using ecotherapy (anxiety, depression, lack of creativity, trauma, isolation, other mental health issues), we chat about how nature heals, the explosion of the awareness of nature as a healer, and what it’s like to work with an ecotherapist.

There are many resources out there for you to learn more about ecotherapy and ways for you to reconnect with nature. There’s the Healthy Parks, Healthy People campaign and the Children and Nature Network. You can also pick up Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods, Theodore Roszak’s book The Voice of the Earth, or Howard Clinebell’s book Ecotherapy: Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth.

Phoenix’s Bio:

Phoenix Smith, MSW has been a certified Ecotherapist for the past 5 years. She provides ecotherapy through teaching, community engagement and ceremonies designed to awaken, restore and heal our connections to the natural world. Her work has been featured in a video and article entitled: The Nature Cure in the national magazine The Atlantic.www.ecosoulwisdom.org

Music by Audionautix.com and Listening Earth.

You can subscribe to The Roots of Health at WebTalkRadio.net, iTunes, and Stitcher.

October 26, 2015 by Meredith

The Roots of Health – Episode 56: Can Jaswig change your health and our world?

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One of my primary messages is that our environment shapes us. Our environment literally shapes our bodies, our health, our mental state. If you want to change your body, your health, your mental state, you need to change your environment.

Over the past year on The Roots of Health, I’ve interviewed a number of guests who have helped me to relay this message. [Check out the previous episodes if you’re curious about any of these shows] I’ve chatted with Katy Bowman about casts in our modern environment and why it’s important to re-define movement in your life. I’ve chatted with Scott Robsion about how our modern environment shapes your body and Juliet Starrett about her mission to get stand up desks in front of all school children within 10 years time to keep their bodies and minds healthy. Kit Perkins of Ergodriven told me about the Topo Mat, an antifatigue mat designed to drive dynamic movement, to keep your body in motion in your environment. Dayna Baumeister of Biomimicry 3.8 shared her story of healing breast cancer by creating an environment in her body that was conducive to life. I talked with Cathryn Nagler whose research team discovered an important link between the environment in your gut and your propensity for food allergy. Jasmina Agonovic talked to us the importance of treating our bodies as the ecosystems that they. Jane Antonovich helped to give us a feel about how all of the stuff in your environment is influencing your wellbeing. And finally, Coach Stevo of Habitry gave us some ideas about how to change your habits and environment.

And this show is no different. Mathias Ellegiers and his colleagues at Jaswig, are on a mission to make you feel better, to give you more freedom, to improve your health and productivity, and to help you know that you’ve made a socially and environmentally responsible choice in your life. They’ve created a stand up desk, and a movement to improve the environment and to educate our youth about their connection to the environment and what that means for their health.

Mathias and I chat about what Jaswig is, about their business model that is influenced by biomimicry and the circular economy, the story behind their business, I describe their desk, we talk about the larger mission of their company (hint: awareness about your environment & your health), who was the desk designed for?, we refer to Stand Up Kids (hear my interview with Juliet Starrett here), in light of their business model, we chat about what will happen to the desks after they’ve lived their useful lives, learn about the opportunities to work with Jaswig to support educational outreach.

Music by audionatix.com.

You can subscribe to The Roots of Health at WebTalkRadio.net, iTunes, and Stitcher.

October 19, 2015 by Meredith

The Roots of Health – Episode 55: Less Sugar with Veronica Chavez

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Parents, you may have kids at home, and you may recognize a connection between what your child eats, and how they behave. Last week, I did a show about sugar, about all of the names for sugar on a label, about artificial sugars and what they might do to us, about how swapping refined sugar for natural sugars can be an easy way to wean off of sugar… but there was something missing… the potential link between sugar and behavior.

I’ve recently met a woman named Veronica Chavez who has an inspiring story to tell about awareness, and putting into place a few simple measures, and weaning her child off of a prescription medication, allowing him to live again, undulled by the medicine that he was required to take.

Veronica’s son was diagnosed with ADD (attention deficit disorder), we chat about the symptoms that led to this diagnosis and medication that he was ultimately prescribed. We talk about what the medication did to him, from the school’s perspective, from her perspective, and from his perspective. I quote from webmd about ‘busting the sugar-hyperactivity myth’, about how there remains no scientific link between sugar consumption and behavior, (I’ve met so many parents that beg to differ). Veronica continues her story with her tipping point, her awareness around the role of sugar in our health (she saw the documentary “Fed Up”, available to view on Netflix.), we learn her strategy to reduce her son’s sugar consumption and how it effected his behavior… spoiler alert: he no longer needs his medication.

Finally, because it’s nearly Halloween, we chat about what we can do to reduce the sugar that we release into the world… and into our kids…

Despite the lack of scientific consensus, consider the idea that the amount of sugar that your child consumes on a daily basis may just have an impact on their behavior. You’ll never know until you try.

Thanks to SoulStealerSlayers for the scary music

Background music by audionautix.com

You can subscribe to The Roots of Health at WebTalkRadio.net and also on iTunes.

October 12, 2015 by Meredith

The Roots of Health – Episode 54: SUGAR.

Click here to go right to the show in iTunes or on WebTalkRadio.net.

You know what sugar is, it might even rule your world. You’ve grown up in a world where sugar is cheap and plentiful, it’s awesome sweetness makes you want to eat your food – and the food industry knows this. On the other hand, you’ve probably heard that sugar is poison or that it’s as addictive as cocaine, or that it’s linked to an increase in obesity and chronic disease. As such, you might have been convinced to give up sugar in favor of some zero-calorie sweetener.

Let’s take a closer look at sugar today to better understand sugar, the role that it plays in your life, and how you can change your relationship with sugar without going crazy.

You’ll learn what sugar is, the various names for sugar (get the list here!), a brief history of sugar, how much sugar are we’re eating, the recommendations for sugar intake (World Health Organization recommendation, American Heart Association Recommendation), about labels and added sugar (FDA), high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners and your health, sugar isn’t the only culprit – it’s holistic picture, and the ancestral perspective with respect to sugar.

FYI – Sugar has 16 calories per teaspoon. A teaspoon is about 4 grams.

You can subscribe to The Roots of Health at WebTalkRadio.net and also on iTunes.

October 5, 2015 by Meredith

The Roots of Health – Episode 53: End Myopia with Jake Steiner

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I was first prescribed glass in 3^rd grade. They were giant lenses with enough real estate to adorn with stickers. That was close to ~32 years ago, and my prescription has progressively gotten stronger ever since. Up until recently – I thought the only option that I had to correct my vision was corrective lenses – or lasik surgery.

That is, until I found my guest, Jake Steiner. Jake is on a mission to not only make you aware that your eyes are not broken, but to teach you how to reduce and eventually eliminate your dependence on corrective lenses.

Jake and I discuss what IS broken (if it’s not our eyes), how your eye is actually designed to function (like a camera), why did I need my first prescription (teaser: I didn’t – you probably didn’t either), what exactly is myopia? (click here for some visual aids), how can you influence your own vision, we talk a lot about your focusing muscle – the ciliary muscle and how it can be ‘stuck’, how your corrective lenses make your vision worse over time, we chat about nutrition and eyesight, and about ‘eye yoga hippies’. Did you know that your corrective lenses are making your eyeball longer? – Yes. We chat about how your trip to the optometrist stacks the deck against you, about the history of corrective lenses, how you can measure your own ‘prescription’, and a warning about monkeying with your own vision without knowing exactly what you are doing – because ultimately, you’re monkeying with your brain health.

Please, please, please visit endmyopia.org to learn more about this.

Music by audionautix.com.

You can subscribe to The Roots of Health at WebTalkRadio.net and also on iTunes.

September 28, 2015 by Meredith

The Roots of Health – Episode 52: Combat ‘Flat & Level’ with the Topo Mat

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I am a student of Nutritious Movement, a course of study designed by biomechanist Katy Bowman that draws an analogy between the nutrient requirements that humans have from food, and the various loads that human beings require from movement. This is no ordinary study… It recognizes movement ‘macronutrients’ like walking – and movement ‘micronutrients’ like walking on varied terrain. In a modern environment that was designed for our comfort, safety, and efficiency, are we overdosing on vitamin ‘flat & level’ ground?

Today I’m chatting with Kit Perkins, CEO of a company called Ergodriven… about a new product that they’ve released into the wild called the Topo mat… it was designed to help you combat the effects of the ‘flat & level’ ground in your environment.

Kit and I chat about what ‘flat & level’ means, and I digress with a trip to see a house called Bioscleave that was intentionally designed NOT to be flat & level, designed to combat the effects of aging by changing one’s environment to change their life, in light of recent shows about how our modern environment shapes us, and about how to get kids out of chairs at school, is the answer to sitting all of the time simply standing all of the time? We talk about a traditional anti-fatigue mat is and how the Topo mat is different, how it was designed, who it is designed for and the health benefits of interacting with it, and why the Topo mat is a superior choice to a treadmill desk.

The Topo mat currently (as of Oct 2015) retails for $119… a small price to pay to get yourself up and moving while you work…. without even realizing it.

Behold, the Topo!

Music by audionautix.com

You can subscribe to The Roots of Health at WebTalkRadio.net and also on iTunes.

September 21, 2015 by Meredith

The Roots of Health – Episode 51: Noise Pollution with Dr. Louis Hagler

Louis 52-01 Click here to go right to the show in iTunes or on WebTalkRadio.net.

If it’s one thing that we’re good at doing in our modern environment… it’s not recognizing the effect of noise in our life. I live on a pretty busy road – and I rarely notice the sound of cars driving by. It’s just become part of my environment. At least once a year I get out into the middle of nowhere in southwestern WY… where the absence of modern noise is notable.

Is the noise of our modern environment is negatively impacting on our health without us even knowing it?

My guest today has co-authored a paper entitled: Noise Pollution: A Modern Plague. Dr. Louis Hagler joins me today to discuss noise pollution and the negative health effects of noise.

Louis and I discuss what ‘noise’ is, that we can’t ‘turn off’ our ears, we chat about the evolution of noise pollution over time, the noises of our modern environment, the financial and physical cost of noise pollution, we learn that there used to be a governmental Office of Noise Abatement and Control, the 7 categories of adverse effects of noise on health proposed by the World Health Organization, what a safe level of sound is, how to measure the soundscape in your home and environment, how to protect your child’s hearing and to help them succeed in school, our individual rights when it comes to noise pollution, and how to escape the sounds of our modern environment.

And as always – I want to thank my primary show sponsor Mother Dirt. If you haven’t yet visited their website – give it a view… your ecosystem will thank you (wonder how noise influences your ecosystem? Oh, so many questions).

You can subscribe to The Roots of Health at WebTalkRadio.net and also on iTunes.