Lake Norman Integrative Wellness Blog
A functional medicine viewpoint on birth control pills
If you take birth control pills, it’s important to understand how oral contraceptives can affect your hormone balancing, your liver, your thyroid, and your brain. This functional medicine viewpoint can help you make an informed decision about contraception, or give you insight into buffering potential consequences. Birth control pills flood the body with an unnatural…
LED streetlights: Should you wear sunglasses at night?
Have you noticed how shockingly bright streetlights are these days? Although they’re great for night time visibility, the newer LED streetlights tamper with the body’s internal clock, skewing metabolic function and raising disease risk. The effect of blue-rich white light at night on human health is so significant that the American Medical Association (AMA) issued a policy…
Being "hangry" too often ages the brain
Do you crash when you go too long without eating, losing energy and becoming “hangry?” Hanger—hunger plus anger—is that explosive combination of low blood sugar and irrepressible irritability that turns a normally nice person into a multi-headed hydra. People joke about being hangry, but when it happens regularly, it means your body and brain are…
Scientists confirm gluten sensitivity is a real thing
Research has confirmed what many people have long known: Gluten sensitivity is a real thing. A Columbia University Medical Center study found gluten sensitivity is not an imagined condition, as many seem to think these days, and that celiac disease or a wheat allergy are not required to react to gluten. Although people with gluten sensitivity…
How to prep for Cyrex Labs tests so you don’t waste money
It’s a frustrating but not uncommon scenario: You struggle with food or chemical sensitivities, suspected autoimmunity, and leaky gut symptoms. You plunk down hundreds of dollars (or more) for state-of-the-art testing from Cyrex Labs, eager for specific guidance. And all the results come back negative. Or they all come back positive. Either way, you’re poorer…