Moving Forward from the Chit-Chat on Lavender Oil, Tea Tree Oil, and Man Boobs Last week, I focused on debunking the latest, among many, misleading media-hypes about essential oils. The most current claimed that a study “proved” that lavender and tea tree oil were “endocrine disruptors.” This “evidence” was a repeat of a bad-tasting...
A Brief Review of the Latest Study Regarding Tea Tree and Lavender Oils’ (Isolated Constituents) “Endocrine Disruption” (Found in a Petri Dish, Using Human Cancer Cells)
For the Love of Science, Can We Stop the Chit-Chat on Lavender, Tea Tree, and Man Boobs?! Last week, another ruckus was made proclaiming “new evidence” supported that tea tree and lavender essential oils were capable of hormonal disturbances. (source, source, source, source) I received a few emails asking my take on this latest...
The Mind-Body-Belief Connection: More on the Power of the Placebo (and Nocebo) Effect
Good Expectations, Negative Beliefs, and Their Health Consequences The placebo effect is a phenomenon that occurs when a substance without known medical properties produces a beneficial result in subjects due to their positive expectations of its efficacy. A nocebo effect is when a similarly inert material is used in an intervention and causes...
This One’s for the Boys (and the Women and Partners That Love Them): Male Libido, Hormones, Fertility, and Essential Oils- Part I
Last week, we explored the importance of physical connection and intimacy in relationships. Libido and sex drive are influenced by a variety of interacting factors that are biological, emotional, and psychological. Focusing solely on addressing one aspect, such as hormones or physiological responses, is often just treating one symptom in a complex condition. It...
Libido: The Healthy Relationship-Intimacy-Lifestyle-Essential Oil Connection for Spring Fever
In my series of posts for American Heart Month, we’ve explored that taking care of the physical heart is important, but just one aspect of optimizing our cardiovascular system’s functioning. It is now known that the heart-brain connection and the state of coherence, the synchronization of our physical, mental and emotional systems, has...
The Macrocosm of the 2018 Winter Olympics Meets the Microcosm of the Universal Coherence in Our Hearts
Applying What We Learned About the Heart-Brain to Be Champions in Healing and Wholeness The closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics brought with it a final demonstration that with a focus and commitment to a higher cause and a shared goal, anything is possible. Just as athletes continued to break “impossible” records and awed the...
Blood Type, Genetics, and Heart Risk- Balancing Our Genes with Our Epigenetics
In honor of American Heart Month, my February articles are focusing on a broader perspective of cardiovascular health and disease prevention. In the first two posts, I have brought you on a journey that broadens our previously accepted “truths,” and into the mysteries of this central organ and its associated pathways. First, I...
Could Isolation or Toxic Relationships Be Harming Your Heart and Health?
The Healing Power of Connection and the Dangers of Loneliness Part I: The Power of Healthy Social Connection for Healing You’ve “cleansed” your body of toxins, individualized your supplement protocol, overcome orthorexia tendencies, fully nourished your body, and hacked your sleep. Yet, you still feel lousy. Could it be that the person you’re eating...
The Heart’s Mysteries Explored and Why It May Be More Than a Pump: Integrative Medicine for Heart Health- Epigenetics, Essential Oils, and Beyond
Part I: The Psychophysiology and Neurocardiology of the Heart: The Research of HeartMath Institute Federally designated by President Lyndon B. Johnson (via Proclamation 3566) on December 30, 1963, the Congress, by joint resolution on that date, has since requested the President to proclaim February as American Heart Month. In correspondence with this, and...
Using Lifestyle, Nutrition, Integrative Medicine, Mind-Body Practices, and Essential Oils to Create Optimal Health through Epigenetics: Part I
The Empowering Study of Epigenetics Epigenetics is a relatively new area of study which is producing an explosion of evidence on how we can influence and alter our cellular functions at the DNA level, through our everyday choices. Although we can’t change our genes, we can alter how they express themselves. There...