The GetWellBe Podcast

It's that time again! Trying to stay on top of health- and wellness-related news and events can be overwhelming. It's a lot to digest (pun intended). We saved you the trouble. Here's what happened in December and January, WellBe-style. 1. Johnson & Johnson Knew About Asbestos in Baby Powder — And Now They're Paying for It 2. Kids' Gut Health Linked to Autism, Leukemia, and Future Mental Disorders...

Dr. Joel Gator is a conventionally trained pediatrician.  One day during his residency, he was faced with a 10-year-old boy with juvenile arthritis. None of the doctors had any idea of the cause, and labeled it simply as idiopathic. But Dr. Gator, noticing that the boy was always snacking on junk food like chips and candy, brought up the possibility that his diet might be connected to the symptoms...

Writer, director, and producer of the documentary,  Heal,  Kelly Noonan Gores wants you to know one thing: that humans are designed to heal, and that each of us has the power to help our own bodies and minds to achieve optimal wellness. But, as with anything in the health and wellness world, things quickly become complicated. There's the clash between Western medicine and more holistic routes, the...

"I just went into this really low swing of major depression for about nine months. I didn't have a period for nine months. I gained 30 pounds. I never wanted to see friends. I didn't see the point in anything." For a year, Gabriella Campagna struggled with fatigue, joint pain, hair loss, depression, being tired all the time, and always feeling cold, but blamed the symptoms on the stress of post-co...

Rachel Winard went from never being sick and having great skin to suddenly having a constant fever, getting covered in full-body rashes, and having all sorts of other weird illnesses. It took her 15 doctors to finally get diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune disease where your immune system attacks your own tissues and organs. She was eventually put on chemotherapy for...

A lot of studies and news stories come out everyday that are related to wellness and healthcare and the industries that touch them, some of which have a huge impact on our health. It's a lot to digest (pun intended). We decided to start making The WellBe Wrap-up in July 2017 as a monthly (or bi-monthly when news is slower in the summer) written piece for our readers. Our readers told us they wante...

Carley Smith goes by "The Fairy Gutmother" moniker, but the Nutritional Therapy Practitioner isn't just administering wisdom to make others' (health) dreams a reality. After Smith, unknowingly contracted Lyme disease, it led to a series of challenges and misguided advice from doctors that harmed her physical and mental health and quality of life. It was only when she started researching Gut and Ps...

When Dana James first began studying nutrition, she looked at the link between food and skin — and found it really boring. Instead, she was drawn toward the mental health aspect of nutrition and weight management, the ways in which our particular psychologies shape how and what we eat. This interest led her to study cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and functional medicine along with nutrition, a...

When Max Lugavere's mom started showing signs of memory loss a few years ago, the journalist threw himself into researching how diet and lifestyle could've contributed to her dementia diagnosis. His new book, "Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life," is the culmination of that work, for which he talked to top researchers around the world abo...

"It's all connected, it's one tube." -Dr. Reid L. Winick, D.D.S., founder of Dentistry for Health New York Your mouth holds all the secrets of your body's gut health, nutrition, acidity and much more. We learned so much from Dr. Winick about integrative dentistry and how our oral health gives us vital clues into the health of our entire bodies. Winick started as a conventional dentist and changed...

When Courtney Maiorino was officially diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2012, she was prescribed steroids and immunosuppressants — and told that she'd be on the drugs for the rest of her life. This felt wrong to her, but her symptoms were too serious and her fear too great for her to refuse the drugs, and so she took them. But after years of side effects and an inner sense that she could feel bett...

Dr. Maya Shetreat was first inspired to go into the field of psychoneuroimmunology (the study of how the mind affects our health and resistance to disease) by a documentary — but it wasn't until she had a firsthand health scare with her own son that no doctors had answers for but ultimately was caused by a food he regularly ate, that she made it her mission to educate people about the gut-brain-im...

From the time she was a child, Dana Lee Williamowsky remembers experiencing chronic migraines. When the migraine symptoms would come on, she would be confined to a dark room while her head throbbed and she lost vision from the pain. She was desperate for anything that would bring migraine relief. At age 13, she saw a specialist who put her on migraine medication. She ended up remaining on the migr...

In the August + September 2018 WellBe Wrap-up we covered a number of big news stories that dropped, as well as a few studies that have big implications for our health. Here are the top 8 that we thought you needed to know to protect yourself and your family, and which show some big moments in the wellness and integrative health movement. Major pediatrician group, The American Academy of Pediatrics...

Latham Thomas is a maternity lifestyle maven, celebrity doula and the founder of Mama Glow, a destination for hip expectant and new moms to explore optimal well being and celebrate pregnancy and motherhood. After her own birth experience with her son brought to light the lack of holistic pregnancy options in the traditional healthcare system, she was driven to found Mama Glow, which provides doula...

When Alisa Vitti started college at Johns Hopkins University, she didn't just gain the "Freshman 15," she put on 60 pounds. Her acne went from mild, teenage breakouts to full-blown cystic acne and she developed severe insomnia, anxiety, and depression. It wasn't just the transition and stress of starting something new that triggered these issues— she was dealing with endocrine issues that led to h...

60-70 Million Americans experience heartburn and acid reflux on a weekly basis. When people come to see Dr. Jonathan Aviv complaining of a hoarse throat or allergy-like symptoms, they're often perplexed when he returns with his diagnosis: acid reflux. But the ear, nose, and throat doctor and clinical professor of otolaryngology at Mr. Sinai says that misinformation about acid reflux is abundant an...

Just before Nitika Chopra was diagnosed with psoriasis at age 10, while her family still thought it might be eczema, she remembers her uncle saying: "I really hope it's not psoriasis, because if it is, her life is really going to be affected by it." That moment was a premonition of what was to come, of the 15 years she would spend battling the crippling disease, of the additional diagnosis of psor...

Christina Sfakianos went from feeling fit and energized to noticing she was sluggish and unfocused. Her regular GP doctor tested her for Lyme, but missed the positive test result. She said age was to blame — Christina was 35 at the time. Her health worsened.  At one point she didn't even realize she'd cut herself until she was bleeding into her daughter's dinner (that was from the nerve damage). A...

A lot of studies and news stories come out everyday that are related to wellness and healthcare and the industries that touch them, some of which have a huge impact on our health. It's a lot to digest (pun intended). We decided to start making The WellBe Wrap-up in July 2017 as a monthly (or bi-monthly when news is slower in the summer) written piece for our readers. Our readers told us they wante...

When Lauren Bongiorno was seven, her mom began noticing that something seemed off. Lauren was constantly thirsty, going to the bathroom upwards of 10 times a night; she was cranky, a departure from her normal happy self; and she was inexplicably losing weight. A visit to the hospital left her with the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, setting off a years-long journey of learning to manage the disease...

Gerard Mullin, MD is the associate professor of medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, a renowned integrative gastroenterology and nutrition expert and the author of "The Gut Balance Revolution". I sat down with Dr. Mullin to talk about the role of the gut microbiome in overall health, the amazing research that has emerged in the past decade about it, and the various factors that have led to a ho...

Imagine suffering from range of ailments that totally controlled your childhood and then having a psychotic breakdown at 18 that led to institutionalization. For Ally Hilfiger, now in her 30s, that was the reality of the bulk of her childhood. When she was 7, Hilfiger was bitten by a tick, but not diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease until 19. For all those years in between, she had to deal with se...