Book Your Health Coaching Call

Good Medicine

Holistic Health Coaching

Brain Health

Beat August Stress: Essential Oils for Brain Health & Mental Clarity

· ·

I cannot even believe we are already talking about August! Is your 2025 going as fast as mine is? 🤪😳
 
Yes, August is back to school month, but it’s also a great time to take a breath for a moment and plan for how to manage the last 1/3 of the year……because if the first 2/3rds of 2025 was a blur, chances are high things are only going to accelerate August thru Dec. That’s where brain health comes in!
 
Stress on the brain is highly inflammatory no matter your age, and it’s to everyone’s benefit to navigate stress in a healthy manner with healthy tools. Thankfully, our friends at YL know this too 🙂, and give us tools…. and this month, 3 of them are free (with qualifying purchase).
 
100 PV Loyalty Order
Retail value: $24.67
YL science 🤓 tip: oils high in d-limonene (such as tangerine) may modulate serotonin and dopamine signaling and also appear to support healthy cortisol levels…. the result? helping calm overactive minds, relieving nervous tension, and uplifting mood.
 
200 PV Order
Retail value: $31.25
YL science 🤓 tip: vetiver is one of the most studied essential oils for its effects on those people who suffer from chronic “squirrel” 🐿brain. It can be so helpful in oil blends to help reduce overthinking and constant mental chatter, overwhelm, and “hyper brain”.
 
300 PV Order
Retail value: $89.47
YL science 🤓 tip: Omega 3’s have been proven to protect neurons from oxidative stress and cell death (none of us need dead or dying brain cells 😉 ). Omega 3’s are power packed for other areas of the body too… it’s not just for neurons.
 
If your world appears to be spinning faster and faster in 2025, take some time for self care friends. Do the things. We have access to some pretty amazing tools (you can also learn more about de-stressing in healthy ways in my book, Becoming Your Own Health Detective, Volume II… available on Amazon or now at Seeds of Thyme).
 
xoxo~ liz
 
PS: Have you used vetiver before? I’m so curious about how/ where you use it. If you have a blend/concoction you’ve had success with, please do consider sharing here with everyone. Together we protect and heal!

Does Everyone Need Hormone Support?

· ·

Hormone Quiz: True or False (answers are at the bottom 🙂 ).
1. Hormones are no longer important after menopause.
2. There is a close relationship between hormones and gut health.
3. Synthetic hormones are safe and closely match our hormones.
4. Adequate sex hormones help protect and can even improve cognition and brain function.
5. Men and women have the same hormones, just different amounts.
6. We have hormone receptors in our kidneys.
7. Our lungs are healthier if we have adequate hormones serving them.
8. Women tend to live longer if they incorporate hormone support during their period and menopause.
9. Getting hormones checked with labwork after menopause is unnecessary.
10. Labs are important, but the most important indicator is how you feel.
11. Hormones play a role in our muscle mass before and after menopause.
12. Hormones don’t play a role in our sleep quality.
13. If hormones are unbalanced or deficient, it can affect the quality of my voice.
14. If I have junk (toxins) in my body that prevents hormones from “docking” on a receptor site, I just need more hormones on board to overcome that obstacle.
15. Phyto (plant-based) estrogens do not increase cancer risk.
 
Are you ready for some answers now? I’ll put numbers by each answer in the rest of this post.
Hormones are incredibly important throughout our body until the day we die! While that doesn’t mean having babies til we’re in our 90s like Sarah in the Bible, they have a profound effect elsewhere in the body. (1) Let’s talk about that, shall we? I’m hitting highlights here, but I think you’ll get the picture….. As our hormone production goes down, various parts of the body suffer. Our gut (and gallbladder) health declines because there are hormone receptors lining our digestive tract, where most of the immune system resides. Why are women more prone to acquiring autoimmune diseases than men? Could it be because our hormone (or lack thereof) production wanes drastically in the event of surgical or natural menopause, stress, or many other factors, and the gut is affected negatively? (2)
We have receptors for hormones throughout the brain. They help maintain cognition. An estimated 80% or more of the people in neurodegenerative facilities likely wouldn’t be there if they had given their brains an “assist” when hormones were waning. (4) This is especially important for progesterone support. It’s been found that those who do not support hormones as they age tend to age at their normal physiological rate (which picks up speed at every decade). Hormone support slows that process down. Yes, men need estrogen and progesterone too….. Just as women need testosterone, in different ratios of course (5).
After the age of 40, hormones begin waning, and another organ that potentially can take a hit is the kidneys. A decrease in hormones often results in a decrease in kidney filtration rate and function. (6)
The lungs in both men and women are especially responsive to progesterone (7) in several ways. Progesterone helps the lungs repair from injury and also helps protect FROM injury. They’ve done some studies during COVID and found that (according to the studies), progesterone appeared to help with lung recovery.
Multiple studies have shown that women live longer, more productive lives if they have hormone support. ( The largest study ever run by the NIH and Nat Library of Medicine looked at 1.5 million women who had estrogen-supportive therapy versus those who did nothing. The outcome? ….. Those with “help” lived 20% longer. (😎
Many doctors quit running hormone labs once you’ve gone through menopause. Is this ok? Noooooooooo. (9) Your hormones continue to require you to be the conductor of your life’s dance and a little labwork can help with that dance. The best indicator tho??? …… that‘s you. How do you feel? If you feel good, great!!! If you don’t feel great, productive, and energetic most days, it’s past time for an evaluation of what’s working and what’s not. (10)
This is your life, and you play the starring role. You’re also the Director of your life’s show. Exercise is important, as is keeping and building muscle mass. The loss of muscle mass happens as we age. It’s hugely common to hear women talking about losing their strength while gaining a few inches around their belly. You can thank lack of estrogen (11) support for that (as well as excess cortisol usually….. Go check out the post on cortisol!).
Sleep is equally important. We cannot heal and recover from anything without sleep, nor can we function optimally without it. Progesterone “deficiency” is one of the key players in the loss of sleep quality. (12) Yes….. why certainly you could take prescription meds for sleep, but there will be consequences (a 33% increased risk of dementia is one of them.)
Perhaps even you hear a change in people’s voices as they age. The quality (range, tone, strength) all begins to deteriorate. This is not surprising. We have hormone receptors on our esophagus and vocal cords (13)…. I think you’re getting the picture, right? Those little hormone receptors are EVERYWHERE.
To compound the problem, fake hormones (also known as endocrine disruptors) are everywhere. (3) Those little suckers plop themselves right into where the hormones are supposed to attach themselves to do their work. Once those receptor sites are filled up, there’s no more room, and what hormones our body IS producing can’t do their work properly. This is why it’s so important to keep toxins out of your body (which also includes synthetic hormones like birth control) and to detox pretty regularly (NingXia Red and SulfurZyme are both great daily gentle adjuvants for that course of action).
Now…… we are all created differently and need different amounts and even different help in some areas more than others. Here’s a picture of my 4 favorite things that have helped me in my journey through menopause and beyond. Others will have other favorites. I love that I can use plants to support my hormones safely (15).
Go through the entire Happy Hormones Class. It’s entirely worth your while. Live your life abundantly….. And you’re gonna need hormones to do just that! 💖
Xoxo~ liz
(PS: how’d you do on the quiz?)
#happyhormones

Benefits of Peppermint Essential Oil

· ·

My goal has always been to become more self-empowered in taking care of myself and my family, and then pay it forward by passing along what I’ve learned so that others can do the same. It’s baby steps all the way….. get good at doing the little things, so you are proficient and confident when the big things go down!
In 2024, I’m making a concerted effort to focus on bringing the science🤓 to you in a way that is easy to understand. Oftentimes, people fear or turn away from what they don’t understand. At the same time, they are often quick to accept what a supposed authority states to be true without doing their research… only to find out much later that the information was🧐 slanted. Discernment and evaluating information are key if we are to be our healthiest version of ourselves!
************************
In addition to Thieves and Lavender, one of the first oils I researched heavily more than a decade ago was Peppermint! (The 15ml size is part of the freebies this month when 190PV is purchased.) I thought it might be fun to kind of unpack some of the science behind this oil over the next few days….. and even then, I’ll only be touching the tip of the iceberg. It’s such a powerhouse🌿💪 plant of versatility!
Starting with the effects of peppermint on the brain 🧠, heart🫀, and lungs🫁….. can a scent affect alertness and focus? You betcha!
Note that YL Peppermint EO can be used topically, diffused, or taken internally. Not all peppermint EO can be used topically or internally because of adulterants. I use peppermint in all 3 ways regularly!
🤓Study 1: involved consuming 1-2 drops of peppermint essential oil, and then evaluating both cognitive performance and fatigue at 1 and 3 hours after consuming the peppermint. Note the graph pic…… the 2 drops of EO had a profound effect, especially at the 3rd-hour mark.
🤓Study 2: involved consuming 1 drop of peppermint EO and then exercising. Grip force, vertical and long jumps, blood pressure, heart rate, and breath rate were evaluated at 5 minutes and one hour. Compared to the placebo group, those who received peppermint oil had an average of 36.1% increase in grip force, 7% increase in standing vertical jump, and 6.4% increase in standing long jump. There was also considerable enhancement in the breathing of the peppermint group.
I’ll post links to each study in the comments. Both studies can also be found on the YL website under the “discover the research” button at the bottom of the Peppermint Vitality page.
Stay tuned for more peppermint factoids!
xoxo~ liz

Reset 2024

· ·

Hey friends! 2024 is about to get real! Is resetting or ramping up your health one of the things on your 2024 bucket list?
We are seeing incredible testimonies come out of the 14-day reset (we’ve been doing them as a team YL for several months now💪):
✅Increased energy
✅decreased pain and inflammation
✅pounds lost
✅Clearer thoughts
✅decreased brain fog
✅Improved Blood Sugar numbers
( And much more.)
If you have 102 ounces of NingXia you are ready to go. 💪 If not, but you want to join in, grab some NingXia ( YL members, use your “shop order” and get $15 off using 15OFF promo code. If you don’t yet have an account but would like to give the reset a go…. use this link: https://bit.ly/14-Day-Reset and the code “SHAREYL” for 10% off your first order ).
I am adding a few links in the comments below to learn more about how this type of reset can completely transform your health in 2024. 🎆
Have you done a reset yet? I’d love to hear your personal results!
Finally, there is a reset group zoom call this evening… (Thursday) December 28th at 7pm CST if you’d like to learn more about what a 14 day reset looks and feels like.
If “something’s got to change” has been rolling around in your mind….. the reset could be a game changer for you in 2024.
xoxo~ liz
 

Yoga Helps the Lymphatic System

· ·

Just completed my second class in Yoga Medicine over the last few months. Their curriculum takes yoga to the next level…. this particular course focus was on lymphatics, and it it did not disappoint! 🤓🔥🧘‍♀️
 
A few highlight moments for me:
🫶 flow in all systems of the body is key. If any are stagnant, health will, without question, suffer.
🫶even if you think you don’t need to…. help your lymphatic system do its job! Nobody’s got time for excess trash to be sitting around creating mayhem in the body.
🫶 the lymphatic system doesn’t work nearly as well as it could if you are stuck in fight, flight, or freeze mode.
🫶 the left side of the body does alot more work than the right side when it comes to lymphatic drainage (don’t neglect either side tho!) Lymphatic flow increases 10fold during exercise💪
🫶 deep diaphragmatic breathing is absolutely essential on the daily!… not just for pulling neurological trash out of the brain, but for healthy lymph flow in general. Nobody’s got time for brain diseases!!!! Just do it.
🫶deep sleep is critical for maximum brain cleaning (if you aren’t sleeping, message me, and I’ll give you some tips for improved zzzzzzzz’s🥱)
🫶Risk factors of developing lymphedema include older age, muscle loss, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, sedentary lifestyle, cardiovascular disease, cancer treatment, and post operative recovery period.
🫶just as in detoxing elsewhere, open the exit doors first before loving on your lymphatic system.
 
 

Book Your Health Coaching CallBook Now