Naturopathic Medicine

4 Reasons You Should Be Taking Magnesium

What comes to mind when you hear Magnesium? Hopefully not Milk of Magnesia or something gross like that.

If you’re too young to know what Milk of Magnesia is, it’s basically a drink that makes you poop. Because getting a healthy dose of magnesium can do just that – get the bowels moving.

Magnesium does a lot more than help you when you’re stopped up. It’s a cofactor in over 300 enzymatic metabolic reactions, which means your body needs this essential mineral. Despite it’s necessity in our bodies, most of us are chronically deficient in magnesium. Some estimates say that only 25% of us are actually getting enough magnesium on a daily basis.

There are plenty of foods that contain a nice dose of magnesium, but often times supplementation is necessary to get levels up to where they need to be.

Boosting your daily intake of magnesium is easy, and has some wonderful benefits, including:

Improved Digestion

Regular bowel movements are an important part of overall health and wellness. If you’re not going to the bathroom regularly, you might be suffering from a magnesium deficiency. Along with fiber intake and water, magnesium plays a significant role in functional constipation.

Improved Energy

Magnesium plays a role in a number of biochemical reactions, including those that help your body create ATP, or energy. Research has found that …

Leptin: The Fountain of Youth

01/06 by Pragati Gusmano 16 Comments

Diet has everything to do with health and wellness. Let’s talk about Leptin and the Fountain of Youth, which is much closer than you think!

Happy New Year, lovelies! I took a nice long break from blogging/social media, but I’m back at it and excited to get the new year started.

January has an uncanny ability to inspire us to make changes, because #newyearnewyou. Most of us are starting new workout routines and giving our diets the overhaul. The evolving “New Year” diet is something that really interests me. I love that people are so inspired by the new year to make significant changes.

Why? Because any excuse to change your diet is good enough for me. Most of us know that diet plays a huge role in our overall health and wellness. Your diet isn’t simply a source of nutrients and energy, it can also prevent chronic disease and prolong your life.

Food is basically the fountain of youth.

The reason why is pretty simple: Eating well reduces inflammation. Eating poorly causes inflammation.

Inflammation is significant because nearly every disease process, from diabetes and heart disease to cancer and premature aging, has one thing in common: inflammation.

It’s no surprise that the Standard American Diet is much to blame. Not only are we chronically overeating, but our portion sizes are increasingly out of control. All of these excess calories lead to weight gain, specifically around the stomach and midsection….

No Chicken Noodle Soup

12/22 by Pragati Gusmano 34 Comments

A simple and delicious immune boosting No Chicken Noodle Soup. The perfect winter soup for vegetarians and vegans!

I can hardly believe that Christmas is just days away. How fast has this year gone?

In true Pragati fashion, I came down a with little bug this weekend. A few of my coworkers got sick after our trip to Nashville earlier this month and every since that trip I’ve felt like I was on the verge of a cold. That, combined with a total lack of sleep last week, finally got me. Thankfully, I’m feeling better today and hopefully I’ll be back to full health by Christmas.

In the meantime, I pampered myself with a big bowl of No Chicken Noodle Soup which seemed to do the trick. Any time I make soup, I like to put garlic, ginger and onions in the broth. This trio is full of phytonutrients that support the health of the immune system. And when you’re fighting a cold (or on the verge of getting sick) it can really help.

More importantly, this is my first Recipe Redux post! I’m pretty excited to join this group of bloggers who focus of fun and healthy meals to share with each other. Each month a theme is given to bloggers and this month the theme was Grab a Book & Cook:

We’re repeating last December’s theme due to popular demand: It’s the end of the year and we’re taking a moment to reflect – The Recipe ReDux has been around for 54 months! To celebrate, we’re playing a little party game this month: Grab your nearest cookbook and ReDux the recipe on page 54 or 154.

Matt and I don’t own many cookbooks, in fact we only own 1! The recipe on page 54 was for a super smoothie, which didn’t seem appropriate for the season. Page 154 had this:…

The Secret to a Good Sweat

11/12 by Pragati Gusmano 48 Comments

Most of us associate a good sweat with a good workout: crossfit, spinning or zumba can all get your heart pumping and the sweat flowing. Aside from the rowing machine, there’s one critical area in the gym that you’re neglecting: the sauna.

The sauna and steam room are usually associated with a spa treatment and we view the time spent relaxing as more of an indulgence, rather than a part of our health and wellness routine.

We’re the only country that thinks that way.

Other cultures have viewed sweating and dry heat as a health benefit for centuries. The Russians are known for their banya, the Finnish use saunas almost daily and the Koreans traditionally use the Hanjeungmak. Why? The benefits of sweating through dry heat are plentiful and modern research is finally catching up.

When I lived in Seattle we discovered Banya5, a unique place that combines the tradition of Turkish hammams, Russian banyas, Finnish saunas and Japanese bath houses to create an environment of wellness and vitality. The experience at Banya5 includes:

Parilka: similar to a sauna but much hotter
Turkish steam room: 113 degree steam room filled with fresh eucalpytus
Salt water tepid pool: 87 degree mineral salt bath
Cold plunge pool: an ice cold plunge pool
Hot pool: 104 degree hot tub
Tea Lounge and Nap room: an area to relax between rounds in the water

How did it work? I would always start in the parilka and heat up. Once I was ready, I would take a dip in the ice plunge. Going from hot to an immediate cold wakes up your body and increases circulation. Next, I’d dip into the salt water pool to recover from the shock of the cold plunge. Then I’d relax in the hot pool, followed by a steam before hitting the parilka again. It might sound kind of crazy, but the combination of water temperatures, moist and dry heat are incredibly invigorating. I would leave Banya with an insane amount of energy. It was a feeling like no other and it makes me miss Seattle so much.

Are you convinced to get into the sauna yet? If not, there’s more:

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How to Choose the Right Probiotic

09/10 by Pragati Gusmano 14 Comments

I was provided a free sample of UP4 Probiotics to review. I was not compensated for this review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Who here has had a stomach bug before?

Last Christmas I got a horrible, awful case of food poisoning. It was just a few days before Christmas and it was the first time I had food poisoning in a long time. I couldn’t bear to eat anything but I force fed myself two things: coconut water and probiotics.

Yes. I forced myself to take supplements while I was sick.

The reason? Probiotics are friendly, good gut bacteria that help remove bad bacteria. Bad bacteria, as in the bacteria that caused my little bug. I knew that whatever was making me sick would leave quicker if I used probiotics. And guess what? I felt better after a healthy dose of my favorite supplement.

The standard American diet and lifestyle can really impact the health of the bacteria in your gut. Over time, less than ideal food choices, stress, age, and lifestyle can create an imbalance in the beneficial bacteria in your digestive tract. It’s important to restore balance because probiotics play a variety of roles in your overall well being, including:

maintaining healthy digestion
supporting a healthy immune system
keeping offending bacteria to a minimum
relieving gas, bloating and constipation
improving nutrient absorption

In more acute situations, probiotics can be beneficial for:

Where do you start when it comes to probiotics? How do you know which product is right for you?

How to Choose the Right Probiotic

Look for the following:

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Naturopathic Medicine

4 Reasons You Should Be Taking Magnesium

Improved Digestion

Improved Energy

Leptin: The Fountain of Youth

No Chicken Noodle Soup

The Secret to a Good Sweat

How to Choose the Right Probiotic

How to Choose the Right Probiotic

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