Get Personal with Dr. Kris

We naturopathic doctors love a good compound pharmacy, where you can get custom-made, individualized medications that only use the best ingredients. These pharmacies offer all kinds of fascinating and very powerful treatments that are difficult to find elsewhere. Today, I am joined by Megan Kilkeary, a PhD pharmacist who works at Strive Compound Pharmacy, to talk about some of our absolute favorit...

We have been using GLP-1 receptor agonists like semaglutide (aka Ozempic) for about two years now. We have learned a lot and we still have a lot left to learn. But one thing we feel pretty confident saying now is that this is not a fad, it is a breakthrough! On this episode, I am joined by my fellow naturopathic doctor, Spice Lussier, my colleague and the practice owner at Desert Wellness Center i...

We all know that as we get a little older, it can be a little harder to stay in shape and prioritize ourselves and our health. When we get into our late 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond, we have so many other priorities — kids, careers, whatever — and it can feel like we have no energy or time left for ourselves. My guest today has gone through this common problem herself and spent a lot of time thinking...

When we go to the doctor, we are used to getting pills. Whether it's pharmaceutical drugs or more natural supplements it’s always easiest to think that our health problems can be cured by a quick dose of some kind of medication. Even when we visit a naturopathic doctor, we can fall into that kind of thinking. But on today’s episode we are talking about an exact opposite approach to health and heal...

We’ve talked about gut health now in our past two episodes. And we have learned a lot—like how central it is to your overall health and how it affects your immune system, mood, and of course, digestion. We broke down the key components of gut health—motility, microbiome, and inflammation. And we talked about the most important things you can do to improve it—with supplements, mental health care, a...

Our last episode was a basic primer on all things gut health from a naturopathic perspective. We talked about motility, inflammation, and elimination. Today, we are going to go deeper into all those things but with a special focus on hormones. We don't normally think of hormones as being a major factor in gut health, but they absolutely are. Your digestive system is full of estrogen receptors and...

Gut health has been one of the biggest health trends on social media and beyond in the past few years. And luckily, naturopathic doctors like myself have had a big head start in this area. Gut health has been a major focus for us for many, many years — and for good reason. The reality is that so much of what makes you feel good and healthy happens in your gut. Your immune system lives there, your...

On this episode of Get Personal with Dr. Kris, we are getting very personal. It’s all about sexual health and intimacy, which is a very important part of holistic health, just like mental health. I talk to the co-founders of Iris Proper, an intimacy shop designed to help women reclaim their pleasure and sexual health. Myria Kniffen and Leigh Piper are moms and wives who proudly call Arizona their...

Last episode we kicked off mental health awareness month by talking to a licensed counselor about what stress is, how it affects us, and how we can shift are thinking around it. This episode is all about one of my absolute favorite treatments to relieve it — acupuncture. We know that stress can disrupt nearly every system of the body and throw things out of balance. Acupuncture does the exact oppo...

May is mental health awareness month, and that will be the theme for our next two episodes of Get Personal. I've talked a lot on previous episodes about my background in counseling and the mind-body connection, so this has always been one of my favorite topics. Too often, the mind gets left out of the equation, but you absolutely cannot have a holistic view of health without it. In my practice, I...

You’ve probably heard of — or maybe even tried — a health challenge like 75 Hard or Whole30. Today we are talking about these challenges, and also health challenges in general. Are they right for you? How much of in impact can they really have in the short term and the long term? 75 Hard and Whole 30 are a big deal on social media, and have been really popular with my patients in the past couple y...

I have been very busy preparing for my Relax, Rejuvenate, and Reconnect Retreat, which is happening from April 19-21 in Page Springs, Arizona. And it has me thinking about all of my favorite tools for the mind and body. I’ve always been a huge believer in the role of the mind in health, dating back all the way to when I earned my master’s degree in psychology. So for this podcast episode, I am joi...

Everything in moderation has always been my motto and I, like many people, love wine. I believe that if you do it right, drinking wine can be a perfectly acceptable part of a healthy lifestyle. When I went to Italy this summer, I drank wine almost everyday and I never felt it the next day! If I drink that much wine here at home in the U.S., I definitely do feel it the next day. This is a common ex...

So many women that I know and see in my work have a similar experience. They are getting into their mid-30s and 40s, and they are tired, anxious, their hair is falling out—they know something is off. They might go to the doctor and do some basic tests but everything looks normal on the surface. They’re told they're perfectly fine, and they know that cannot be right! That is where my guest today, D...

My patient Jenn was shocked to be diagnosed with diabetes in her early 30s. It didn’t run in her family and it was nothing she ever expected to deal with. Her doctors at the time put her on a variety of medications and she got really serious about getting healthier. She lost 20 pounds pretty quickly, but she had a hard time keeping the weight off and getting her blood sugar down. That’s when Jenn...

Today we’re talking to one of my go-to nutrition experts Leah Beaird-Yenter. She’s a dietician (MS,RD), currently studying for a doctorate in clinical nutrition at Maryland University of Integrative Health, and she is the founder of Star Health Coaching and Nutrition. We both sometimes refer our patients to the other because we know you need the full picture to understand anyone’s health situation...

As we start a new year, we want to take a second to look back on 2023. We had a lot of great guests and interesting conversations on the podcast this past year and I, along with my son and podcast producer, Anthony, wanted to reflect to some of our biggest takeaways from them. No topic was bigger this year than semaglutide, so in this episode I recap what I've learned from what has now been nearly...

A couple months ago we played you a talk I did about hormones for a group of women a lot like my patients and you—my podcast audience. I loved doing that presentation and we heard that you liked listening to it too. So on this episode, we're bringing you the follow up to that talk. This one was inspired by an amazing book by Dr. Jennifer Landa called “The Sex Drive Solution for Women.” This is a t...

On this episode I am stepping again into the role of interviewee. That’s because one of my favorite patients, Kristen Cantrell, had me on her own podcast, Moms in Real Estate. Her podcast is all about how busy moms can juggle being a mom, having a career, and still taking care of yourself. As a holistic, naturopathic doctor, I know that every part of your life matters when it comes to your health....

For a while now, everyone has been talking about semaglutide, Ozempic, and Wegovy. We’ve covered those in previous episodes, but today my son Anthony and I are talking about natural supplements that can have a similar effect. Berberine – which has been called “nature's Ozempic,” psyllium husk, and apple cider vinegar. All of these things have been getting a lot of attention online recently and the...

On this episode, we’re switching roles and I’m going from interviewer to interviewee. My long longtime friend Tim Vasquez started a podcast with two of his buddies called “People Do That” and they invited me on as a guest. All the guys on the show are 45+ and they had many of the same basic questions I hear every day from patients about feeling tired, waking up in the middle of the night, and drin...

By now nearly everyone’s heard of semaglutide, a peptide treatment for weight loss. But semagludtide is just one peptide among hundreds—and they can provide a huge range of benefits, from building muscle to improving immune function. Recently, I’ve been using them with my patients to address lots of issues and there’s probably a peptide out there that could help you. In this episode, I’m joined by...

On today's episode, I'm joined again by my son, Anthony, to talk about an article from Time Magazine that struck a nerve with both of us. It's called "Hormone Balancing and Cycle Syncing are a Myth." As you know, as a listener to this podcast, these are both things I address with my patients all the time and I certainly don't consider them to be myths. Anthony is a journalist with his own experien...

Patrick Sullivan Jr. is the founder of Jigsaw Health — a supplement company that I have loved for a long time. I recommend their magnesium products to lots of patients so I was really excited to be able to talk with him about how the company got started and how they create such high quality supplements. We talked about supplement purity and potency, how supplements are evaluated by the FDA, and ho...

Jessica Dory is the founder and CEO of a CBD company called Verde Collection. When it comes to CBD, and any supplement, the producer really matters. And I can say firsthand that Verde Collection's CBD products are excellent. I love to use their topical oil for my neck and upper shoulder pain and their sublingual oil for headaches and anxiety. For that reason, I was super excited to talk with Jess...