The Good Mood Podcast

This is a podcast about mental health. And while it may seem trivial, I suppose, hair loss is one of the most psychologically and emotionally upsetting symptoms that plagues the people who come into my office.  Treating hair loss is also sometimes the bane of my existence. There are so many reasons why hair loss can occur, or why someone may deal with brittle or dry hair. There are so many differe...

Is nutrition a confusing and sometimes shame-inducing topic for you? Do you read one headline after the next confused about coconut oil, bananas, red meat, or what foods are "good" and what foods are "bad"? The topic is daunting, so I created this solo episode, on the The Dos and Don'ts of Human Nutrition. You can hardly blame us. As someone who studies health and nutrition for a living, even I fi...

Christina De Avila is a certified diabetes educator and naturopathic doctor. In this episode, we talk type II diabetes — how lifestyle is really at the core of managing this very common and chronic, often devastating, end-stage condition, and how to take a balanced approach to modifying one’s lifestyle: it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing Diet with a capital D.  Small, meaningful changes that...

I don't like treating weight loss. As a naturopathic doctor, my principles are to treat the root cause of disease, do no harm, and work with the healing power of nature. Most patients who want to lose weight expect to be put on a calorie-restricted diet and, frustratingly, calorie-restricted diets don't work.  Most people enter a cycle of calorie (or carb, or meal) restriction, find the diet gets...

Depression is a sneaky little bugger. Most people associate it with sadness--crying, etc.  And yes, while sadness can be a common feature of depression, low motivation and activation, leading to something called "The Impossible Task" can be pretty universal as well.   In this solo episode I highlight the features of the Impossible Task, explain why it exists from a biochemical/neuroscience perspec...

This is an episode that originally aired on That Naturopathic Podcast, the famous ND podcast with host Dr. David Miller, ND (the Gut Gangsta, who appeared in one of the episodes on this pod, where we talk about the vagus nerve). TNP interviews NDs in our profession doing something a little different to give you a sense of what it's like to work with us, to go behind your "normal" blood tests, or y...

“I was involved in ______ and then, the Pandemic hit...” how many of us have that story? I feel so so lucky to have had surfing in the last year. Something to get me out, give me purpose, exercise and community. Something that can be done outside at a distance, for relatively little money (once you have the gear, that is). I did a podcast with Queen’s University’s Health and Nutrition Society. The...

Victoria Sabo, registered psychotherapist is back for a second episode where we talk about surviving the lockdowns, this time part 2.  We spent the last episode lingering in validation and acknowledgment of all the things going on during this past year with our mental health.  Victoria talked about increased cognitive load, the "Covid Fatigue" characterized by lack of motivation, exhaustion and an...

As Ontario, Canada heads toward a third round of lockdowns, we're experiencing what Victoria Sabo and her colleagues call "Covid Fatigue". That low motivation, low-grade anxiety, indescribable feeling and set of emotions that characterize our response to over a year of this pandemic.  Victoria and I met to talk about the issues that people are experiencing: whether they be children, essential or f...

Ayan comes back on the Good Mood Podcast to talk Polyvagal Theory, trauma and dissociation. In our last episode together we talked trauma and how trauma lives in and impacts the brain. We also talked extensively on the science and process of a trauma-based therapy, EMDR, which helps to rewire traumatic experiences in the brain. We left that last episode off, talking about the exceptions--the peopl...

Dr. Anne Hussain is back on the Good Mood Podcast to talk peaceful periods, PCOS and why Ovulation is good for your mood--not just for fertility.  In this pod episode we talk about the menstrual cycle, how our hormones impact our mood, problems with the oral contraceptive, and why ovulation is not just important for fertility--it builds the progesterone in your body that can vastly impact your moo...

Erica is back on the Good Mood Podcast to talk ADHD and how we can heal our inflamed brains with nutrition. We talk the symptoms of ADHD, what goes on in the brain, Erica's journey with getting diagnosed and trying Vyvanse for 9 months, to how she mastered her productivity and brain health using nutrition. According to Erica a lot of people with ADHD go undiagnosed, as their symptoms don't fit the...

I think we're starving. Not for food per se, but something else. Something deeper. Something perhaps more nourishing (once you have enough food, of course). We're starving for pleasure. And this can show up with low appetite. Think about how if all you ate was the gruel porridge they were eating in the Matrix you probably wouldn't be that interested in food anymore. We're hungry for pleasure and a...

So, my friend and colleague, naturopathic doctor, Laura Brown wrote a book--Beyond Digestion. We've talked digestion on The Good Mood Podcast: the structure and function of the vagus nerve and how putting your hands on can help diagnose and treat disease with Dr. David Miller, the gut microbiome and your trillions of little friends with Dr. Kim Bretz. BUT we can never talk too much digestion. As D...

I met Dr. Aaron at an addiction workshop he hosted with a colleague Dr. Tanya (who was then Dr. Tanya Mate, daughter in law to THE Gabor Mate), called Project Starlight. Aaron is a naturopathic doctor and addictions counsellor, with a passion for mental health and providing healing, support, empowerment, community and resources for those living with and dealing with addiction.  We haven't had an a...

Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND hosts another solo episode sharing her story: her health and food journey, and her thoughts and beliefs around food and how to eat for health.  Topics: Cravings Different Diets Restrictions/Dieting Culture Listening to the Body and Intuitive Eating  And more.  Please subscribe to the pod and like us on Apple!  Get full access to This Might Help at drtaliand.substack.com/...

Dr. Dimpi rejoins the Good Mood Podcast to continue a conversation we started on Instagram.  What makes us frustrated in the doctor-patient interaction? What unseen obstacles step in the way of our healing? So many times we've met and worked with patients who have seemingly done all the work and yet still struggle with feeling lost, that they're not making progress. This can be such a frustrating...

Another solo episode with Dr. Talia What do the great minds of neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, literature, science and religion have to say on the topic of loneliness? Is there a pill for loneliness? Can you be lonely in a crowded room? Does solitude equal loneliness? How can we cope with grief? What do the Buddhists and Stoics say about loneliness? And, most of all, how can we cope with an...

Why do I focus on mood and mental health? Well, at the core of it, when I was working with patients who were suffering from various physical ailments, I often found mood, mental and hormonal health at the bottom of it.  After all, what do we want to be if not happy? I mean the reason your IBS or your PCOS or your CFS or your MS bothers you is that, ultimately, it makes you unhappy. And so, for me...

Presence... is that the key to healing? Being present in one's body, being present with one's thoughts. Existing in the present moment. The present moment is where everything is happening. It gets us out of the head and into the body.  The body is our home. It's where our emotions live, as they manifest in real-time, where they can be processed. Being present and embodied are the key states for he...

I am always scared to talk about environmental medicine. I know it's a big topic and that eliminating the chemicals from our lifestyle: our environment and our bodies is an important aspect of keeping us well.   But the more I learn about environmental medicine the more I feel the doom and gloom of hopelessness--and the more overwhelmed I feel about what must be done.    However, Marillea Yu, a na...

Resilience is the body and mind's ability to adapt to stress, challenge and change. Some of us would refer to it as "bouncing back" from hardship. But even better, if we are truly resilient when hardship hits, we're able to "bounce forward". Coming out of trauma or difficulty with more strength and grit than we had going into it.  Dr. Tara Guzzo is a fellow naturopathic doctor and acupuncturist wh...

We talk extensively as naturopathic doctors about the mind-body connection. Of course many of us have been told that our mental health or physical symptoms are "all in our head", and while this can seem dismissive and invalidating it's definitely true that our mindset plays a role in how we feel.  Adele Tevlin walks us through the connection between our thoughts, our beliefs and our environment an...

Shinrin-Yoku, or Forest Bathing, as it is literally translated from the original Japanese, is one of my personal therapeutic lifelines. My mentor and colleague, Dr. Cyndi Gilbert, agrees. In fact, Cyndi wrote a book about it called Forest Bathing: Discovering health and happiness through the Japanese practice of Shinrin-Yoku. Cyndi and I talk about how immersing oneself in nature in some capacity:...

Hello and welcome to the Good Mood Podcast! Today I have the pleasure of talking to my buddy from the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine Dr. Yousuf Siddiqui, ND. Yousuf and I talk about sexual health and naturopathic medicine.  How do we talk to patients about sexual health? Where do sexual health concerns like low libido come from? Yousuf discusses some of the ways he opens up the conversa...