You may or may not be aware, but good health starts in the gut!  It is a wee bit more complex than that, due to the intricate connection between the gut and the brain/ nervous system, but essentially if we do not have a healthy digestive system, it is really tough to have healthy hair, skin, nails, joints, immunity, energy, vitality, cardiovascular health, etc.
We have all heard “You are what you eat…”, which is true and I would add to that “… and absorb.”  In short, what we put into our bodies matters, as does what our bodies are able to do with these foods: how well we can pull nutrients from the foods through the small intestine and release waste products through the bowel.  So, what are the elements involved in the digestive process and what can we do to support ourselves?
Components of digestion:

• Gut: mouth, throat, stomach, intestines: small and large (colon), rectum, anus
• Accessory organs: liver, gallbladder, pancreas, appendix, omentum
• Nervous system: brain, vagus nerve, enteric plexus, migrating motor complex
• Microbiome: micro – tiny; biome – living… the tiny living creatures in our gut (bacteria, yeast/ fungi, viruses)
  

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My personal health journey has seen me labelled with conditions such as “anxiety” and “depression” by incredibly well-meaning and knowledgeable health professionals.  At the times when I was offered these diagnoses, in my early 20s when my path of healing really began, I had the where-with-all… shall we say inner wisdom? To desire to reject these diagnoses.  Not to say that these symptoms I was experiencing were not real and often quite debilitating, which they very much were!  And as far as these professionals were concerned, I absolutely fit the criteria that they could access through their large volumes filled with psychiatric conditions.

Somehow, though, I couldn’t quite connect with their belief that because I was having these symptoms meant that I was “broken” and needed “fixing”, be it via proffered medications or the promise of cognitive behavioural therapy to “fix” (get rid of, banish) these troublesome thoughts that would cause my being to go into fight or flight or freeze.  The result of which, in my case, would be anxiety and panic or if that got to be too much, freeze: depression.  For me it was never quite the “satiation depression” that we often hear about, where both serotonin and dopamine are lacking and one can’t get themselves out of bed, can’t eat, loses interest in life, etc.  For me it was more of an “arousal depression” that resulted in low serotonin but reasonable dopamine so that no matter what I could push myself through and robot around through life, feeling flat… but still getting stuff done: therefore on the surface looking totally put together and ‘normal’ (incidentally, what even is normal??).
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I have been in practice for almost 17 years, and life for over 46, and the longer I live and work the more strongly I believe in the importance of whole health healing, particularly digging deeper to the true causes of poor health.  So much so that this past summer I enrolled in the Whole Health Medicine Institute, a program for healers that was created by Lissa Rankin, MD over 6 years ago.  This program is based on the 6 steps to healing, as outlined in her first book, Mind Over Medicine: The Scientific Proof You Can Heal Yourself and on the concept of the Whole Health Cairn, a visual model to describe the key components of health, where each stone represents a component and that the stones are placed in a particular essential order onto the cairn, with the most foundational aspects forming the base of the cairn.
I invite you to take a look at the stones of the cairn and do a gentle and curious inventory of how firmly placed each stone of the cairn is in your life, and how you feel about the order of importance placed on each stone.  Many people are often surprised to see the foundational stones including things like: creativity, spirituality and sexuality, with the physical health stone resting on the top.  This isn’t to say the physical health stone, nor the mental health stone, also precariously near to the top of the cairn, are not of vital importance, they are! But what this model describes is that in order to have health in these areas, one must have the underlying stones in place.
How many of you have struggled with focussing mainly on your physical health? Pushing yourself to exercise more, eat cleaner, take more supplements, etc.? or concerned yourself of your mental health and taken supplements or pharmaceuticals to support you through anxiety, depression or insomnia?
And how many of you find these may have benefit but their benefits don’t last?  Or are hard to sustain?  Or maybe don’t work at all?
If this feels familiar, ask yourself if you have a relationship with the other stones of the cairn?  Do you have a relationship with your “inner pilot light”?  This is Dr. Rankin’s term for intuition/ inner wisdom/ our wise inner being/ the voice of our soul?  Or does hearing this question send you reeling into confusion?  Which can often be the case as we are not taught how to discern the voices of the programs that run in our heads from the wiser stiller voice deep within.  Are you doing work in your life that brings joy and meaning to you?  How healthy are your relationships?  Do you engage in creative play?  What is your spiritual orientation?  All of these have a significant impact on our physical and mental health as they dictate how settled we feel within our bodies and our environments.  This causes a corresponding shift in the flow of energy out of the fight or flight nervous system and into the rest-digest-heal-libido nervous system.  And from this latter nervous system activation, healing can actually take place.  From here the food choices we make, the supplements we take, how and when we move our physical bodies all have a greater impact.  We make choices that are aligned with our inner wisdom, making them that much more nourishing for us.
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I often hear people claim that “there is nothing left to eat!” when it is suggested to them that they remove refined foods, wheat/ breads, sugar, dairy, etc. from their diets and move to a more whole foods diet. Another common concern is that it takes too much time, effort and planning or is more expensive.
However, I want to assure you that it is possible to eat healthfully and conveniently!
If it weren’t, I would be in trouble!  As my life is rich and full and I do NOT love spending time in the kitchen, meal planning or grocery shopping!  The bulk of my planning goes to ensuring that we have enough healthy foods and ripe produce for the week.   And the bulk of the effort is in the wash and preparation of it, however honestly it can end there for difficulty.
Often my meals are fast and easy as life doesn’t allow me, due to the choices I make, to cook fancy meals from a recipe every day or even on a semi-regular basis.  So I have a “toss together” strategy when building my “healthy plate” for myself and for my family.
Breakfasts are often smoothies packed full of goodness. A handful of greens, some diluted oat or coconut milk, frozen berries, a half an avocado, a heaping spoon full of almond butter or hemp hearts for protein, a couple hearty scoops of ground flax seeds (the best medicine!), some sort of super food: cacao nibs, maca, or lucuma and a chunk of banana or drizzle of maple syrup for some added sweetness, are my favorite things to toss in my blender.
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I like to say “change is good, it is the transition that is difficult.”As humans we are incredibly adaptable creatures.  We are, after all, a part of the ever-changing, constantly in flux, natural world, as much as we try to deny, fight against and try to control this reality.  If we look to nature, we see examples aplenty of adaptability and the creation of resiliency through devastation.  A fire rips through a forest and after the burn the vegetation returns, growing healthier in the compost created by the flames.
A wind storm uproots trees and, in the process, offers the opportunity to smaller plants in their canopy to now experience greater light and oxygen and grow up to replace them.  Animals experience sickness, death and surrender to the cycle of life.
All this to ask you to look back on your past couple of years.  This period of time since March 2020 and the coronavirus turned our world upside down.  Think of all of the things that you felt you weren’t going to be able to handle, and that you did!  Working from home, taking an online yoga class (and actually enjoying it!), learning to visit from 6 feet away, having to wear a mask every where you went.  This is evidence of how adaptable we are and how we can healthfully move through any situation we are faced with when we can adopt a mindset of surrender.  This is not to say that on the road to acceptance of our new reality there might not be the need for some (or lots) of sadness, fear or anger (or a wild combination thereof), as healthy transition does necessitate the honoring of the natural normal feelings of grief as we let go of the old in order to be able to welcome the new.  Working through the stages of grief, as identified by Elizabeth Kubler Ross (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression & finally Acceptance) are instrumental on our passage through to change.  In this way we can greet change without the resistance that causes us to suffer.
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All right, it’s time to talk immune health!
Maintaining a healthy body involves getting adequate sleep, learning how to manage stress and getting regular exercise especially outdoors.  Nutrition of course plays a pivotal role in the proper functioning of our immune systems and I wanted to outline, in point form, a few of my favorite nutrition and supplement strategies for you here, and if you read the linked article more details can be found as to their specific benefits.

• Echinacea, Elderberry, Reishi mushroom
• Zinc, Vitamin D
• Increase your intake of organic fruits and veggies, along with Vitamin C rich foods and foods that have natural anti-microbial and immune boosting properties.
• Reduce foods that promote inflammation and mucous production and that lower immunity.
• Use green drinks and keep hydrated.
• Keep your microbiome healthy through the consumption of organic foods, fermented foods, a fiber-rich diet, and by taking extra probiotic supplements.

This is but a small handful of all the amazing tools available to you, courtesy of mother earth, and through your own disciplined health practices. 

*Originally written and posted on our clinic blog in June 2020, this information on the healing powers of nature remains ever applicable.

With each phase of Re-Open Saskatchewan, we are offered the opportunity to slowly re-integrate ourselves back into the world outside of our homes and computer screens, a welcome relief for the majority of us.  Yesterday morning my eight-year old son woke up, exclaiming “yay! It’s Friday! I’ve been waiting for this day.  The playgrounds open today!!”
We have absolutely been cooped up for long enough, kids and adults alike.  I know for myself my own mental health has been affected by these pandemic times: like a leaf blowing in the wind sometimes up, sometimes down and often spinning somewhere in between.  For me getting outside and into nature has been a tremendously medicinal part of my last several months and I believe it is what has kept me resilient enough to weather the inner and outer turmoil that have been very much real in my life since mid-March.
If any of you are feeling any trepidation about what this means to be accessing playgrounds, beaches, golf courses, tennis clubs or any other outdoor venue that may be open to us at this time, rest assured of the safety of these environments.  Even if there are up to 30 people gathered!  A researcher recently put together this fantastic article about the transmission of COVID-19.  
It outlines those places where one is more likely to acquire the virus, and those that are safest.  As you will read being outdoors in the sun and wind there is next to zero transmission.  Perhaps this will bring you comfort as you venture out again, and perhaps it will even bring with you a new appreciation for these very windy days here in Saskatchewan of late!  Maybe Mother Earth is just trying to help us out and encourage us out!
READ MORE and WATCH EARTHING: THE DOCUMENTARY​

Last night I watched the movie Brittany Runs a Marathon.  Here is a link to the trailer.
It’s well worth the watch, predictable as it is, it both hits home and inspires.  And it is actually inspired by a real life woman, a friend of the writer and director’s.  I feel it’s three big take-away messages are:
1.  In this movie the main character is confronted by the reality that her physical, mental and emotional health are all being challenged and she is given a wake-up call from a doctor who asks her to make difficult lifestyle changes in lieu of giving her medication.  Initially she has trouble wrapping her head around the cause and effect, that her nights of drinking, her poor lifestyle habits, food choices, toxic relationships and lack of exercise could have anything to do with her difficulties with focus and concentration and energy and on making something of her life.  It is a testament to how poor we can be at listening to our bodies!  Our bodies are always speaking to us and as I am frequently known to say: “when we listen to our bodies when they whisper, we don’t have to hear them scream.”  The first step starts with stepping out of denial and towards awareness and accepting responsibility for our choices.
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This article was originally written and published on March 15, 2020, just before the world shut down for two years.  I am reposting this now, not that all of the information is still applicable to where we are, however the immune boosting principles of supplementation and healthy nutrition and stress management are ever applicable.  Hopefully this information remains relevant in empowering YOU to take control of your health!

COVID-19 is spreading the globe and it is time for us at Prairie Sky Integrative Health to weigh in on the conversations, including providing you with some strategies to boost your immunity at this uncertain time, so keep reading!Please, take a deep breath, keep a level head and review the following information in order to help us reduce the spread of this viral illness and keep our community as strong and healthy as we can!
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