Curate Your Health with Dr Heather Hammerstedt

Bonnie Koo, MD is here today to discuss Food, Money and Investing in Yourself. The decision to invest in yourself is an important one and often seems difficult to do. What price will you pay in 1, 5, or even 10 years if you don't invest in yourself today? And it turns out, our thoughts can be similar around money and around food--emotional eating is like emotional spending. A budget feels like a "...

Vanessa Ford is here to discuss Perimenopause - Taking Back Control of YOU. How much do we really know and understand about perimenopause? Wouldn't it be great to know more before it starts so we can efficiently talk to our doctor about our options? Vanessa has done the research to explain what's going on in our bodies and how it impacts our lives, as well as the triggers that bring on the symptom...

Ni-Cheng Liang, MD is here today to discuss Neuroplasticity, Meditation and Medicine. Mindfulness intervention helped her through an aggressive cancer diagnosis. While many people catastrophize and "what if" through a situation like this, meditation helped her manage her thoughts and contributed to a better quality of life. By practicing mindfulness, which is "paying attention on purpose to the pr...

Dr. Janeeka Benoit, aka Dr. J, will discuss Exercise as Medicine - H.A.B.I.T Building. Some of us have genetic dispositions for health issues, but we can make changes through exercise. We don't need to have limiting beliefs; we can take control of our lives and break unhealthy cycles. How can we start healthy exercise habits? Dr. J will share tips and helpful information to explore exercise as med...

Peter Koshland, Pharm. D joins us today to discuss the Compounding Pharmacy - A Unique Approach for Unique Patients. A compounding pharmacy tailors options to the individual patient when a commercial drug isn't working by making customized prescription medications from scratch. For example, they can make a dosage that doesn't commercially exist, or include a discontinued drug (when it's still avai...

Dr. Tracy Asamoah joins us to discuss Mind Body Brain Connection in Parenting. We put ourselves under so much pressure to be perfect parents and get everything right, but we can give ourselves a break! We can take a step back and a deep breath and approach parenting this way. It's important to notice how well we manage our emotions as this affects our parenting. Tracey will discuss things like kid...

Minako Abe, MD is here today to discuss Modulating Cancer Through Lifestyle Changes. Dr. Abe explains cancer, and gives us tips to boost our immune systems. She'll speak at length on the impact of exercise, nutrition, and mindset, among other subjects, on cancer. So many people are getting diagnosed with cancer (around 1 out of 3 women in the US), and the time to make changes is now!   Minako Abe,...

Devin Burke is here today to discuss The Mindset of Sleep. Generally, there are four or five 90-minutes cycles of sleep per night with biological processes taking place during these cycles. REM sleep is deep, dreaming sleep, but light sleep is just as important as it gets you to your deeper stage of sleep. Sleep is so crucial, but is unfortunately put on the side lines too often. So, can we natura...

Michelle Quirk, MD joins us for today's topic: "The Mindful Marathoner Waxes in on Motivation." What is it about running—or exercise in general—that moves us? How do we slow down in order to appreciate it? What happens when we're in a slump? Michelle shares some great tips with us today.   Dr. Michelle Quirk is a board-certified pediatrician and a certified run coach with the Road Runners Club of...

Kemunto Mokaya, M.D., aka Dr. Kemmy, is here today to discuss Peri and Post-Menopausal Dermatology Skills. How can we keep our skin as healthy as we can as we age? This is a big transitional period for us and estrogen levels will decrease quickly, which affects the hydration and collagen in our skin. In the first five years of menopause, we lose up to 30% of our collagen, which causes skin to be t...

Shideh Shafie is here today to discuss Learning to Love Your Life as You Are. How can we better concentrate on the "now" when we're always looking ahead to the next thing we're reaching for? Do we know what we actually want (rather than what we should want)? What feels soothing or restorative to us? Dr. Shafie talks to us about skills and ways to live in the present and not focus on the "arrival f...

Carly Grennor is here today to discuss How to Get Unstuck. Remember those poor habits we developed in college that have continued into adulthood? To help break these habits, it's so important to figure out a strong WHY that's in alignment with our core values. It's also important to determine our goals and hold ourselves accountable! The small wins can be just as great as the big wins.   Carly is...

Brook Choulet, MD, is here today to discuss How and Where and Why to Seek Help. There has been an uptick of adults AND kids who have anxiety. How do you know when it's time to seek help? Getting treatment isn't a sign of failure. There are several effective types of therapy, like cognitive behavioral therapy (or CBT), which helps us understand how our thoughts are affecting our behavior, and EMDR....

Dr. Rashmi Schramm joins us today to discuss Energy, Focus and Clarity through Meditation. Dr. Schramm defines meditation as moving from activity into silence, and explains that it's about practicing mindfulness, which is essentially paying attention to the moment without judgment and with curiosity. She will also discuss the benefits of regular meditation for our health, especially during a pande...

Tim James joins us today to discuss Abundance, Excitement and Contrast. How does stress affect us? How can we make changes to stressful situations so that we stay healthy? What difference does mindset make? Why are we using food to manage our stress? Tim talks about how important it is to love ourselves more.   Tim James is one of those guys that will leave you feeling younger and more energetic j...

Dr. Kamilah Williams is here today to discuss The Single Well. What's so unique about the single parent and his or her wellness journey? Parenting has changed so much over the years, especially with the pandemic. We need support for so much, though we tend to want to do everything ourselves! What are the major themes that most single parents face right now?   Dr. Milah is a board-certified family...

Robyn Tiger, MD joins us to discuss Healing from Chronic Stress. Robyn talks about regulating your own nervous system and working with your thoughts in order to feel better and be calm in the chaos, no matter what's going on in your life. Chronic stress is associated with so many diseases as well as our longevity, so stress management is crucial. She will also teach us some useful breathing techni...

Ana Vucetic is here for the second of a two-part series to discuss How to Prepare and Thrive During Pregnancy. This is such an important time in our lives. How do we be the healthiest we can be, both physically and mentally? This can be overwhelming! What vitamins and foods are important? What's the difference between each trimester for our bodies? Ana will help us understand and clarify the answe...

Ana Vucetic is here for the first of a two-part series to discuss Recovering from Dieting and Disordered Eating. Dieting is someone else telling you what, when and how much to eat. What if you don't like it, or don't digest it well, or don't feel happy after eating it? It's listening to someone else's opinion and feeling in control, but it's quite the opposite. We don't know what we like or how it...

Esther Cohen, MS, RD joins us today to discuss Nourishment and Embodiment. How do we nourish ourselves with things other than food? We are consuming and digesting more than just food, but also our environment and our experiences. It's so important to be more present and mindful of the moment we're in so that we're more nourished by it, whether it's spending time with family or simply enjoying our...

Dr. Krystal Sodaitis is here to discuss Our Primitive Brain, Planning, and Rebellion. There seems to be so much resistance to planning, whether it be exercise, self-care, or simply reading a book. Planning is scientifically based. There are two main parts of our brain—the one that sets long term goals and the one that protects us. These two parts of our brains are frequently at odds when it comes...

Jamie Sabat is here to discuss Manifesting Your "Second Act." Manifestation is the 3D world that we create around us based on our mindset. Jamie uses the language of the mind as one of the tools for manifestation, for example, to reframe the story of what's going on in your life. Your subconscious mind was created from the ages of 0-7, so this method helps you to release negative feelings from tha...

Dr. Colin Zhu joins us to discuss Food as Medicine. We know that there is very little nutritional training as part of most medical schools, so Dr. Zhu got curious and trained as a chef and a health coach at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health & Culinary Arts and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. He tells us that the concept of culinary medicine "is blending the art of food with the sci...

Ann Dowsett Johnston joins us today to discuss a Tricky Situation - Alcohol and Women. Why is this a female-specific issue? It turns out that women drink because of stress much more than men do, and now alcoholic beverages have become marketed specifically to women. There is no real health link between alcohol and our hearts, and in fact there is a link between alcohol and cancer. So, why are we d...

Errin Weisman is here to discuss the wonderful topic of Self Compassion. Do you ever stop and notice the messages you send yourself throughout the day from your inner critic? How can you choose you and be you, and choose kind boundaries? Sometimes saying no means saying yes to yourself. Dr. Weisman shares tips on how we can choose ourselves.   Errin Weisman, DO openly speaks on her experience of p...