Your Health Toolkit: The Neurology Sessions

Send us Fan Mail Your brain isn’t on a fixed path. In this episode of Your Health Toolkit: The Neurology Sessions , you’ll hear from Dr. David Merrill, adult and geriatric psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and director of the Pacific Brain Health Center , as he shares how precision brain health can help you prevent or slow cognitive decline by targeting root causes you can actually change. You’ll lear...

Send us Fan Mail Memory loss isn’t always a one-way street. In fact, it can be the first sign your brain is asking for help. In this episode of Your Health Toolkit: The Neurology Sessions , Dr. Lauren Young and Dr. Ashley Burkman sit down with Dr. Heather Sandison, naturopathic physician, researcher, and founder of memory care residential community, Marama, to chart a new path through brain fog, m...

Send us Fan Mail Your heart and brain are in constant conversation, and when that connection falters, everything from memory to mood to energy pays the price. In this episode of Your Health Toolkit: The Neurology Sessions , Dr. Lauren Young and Dr. Ashley Burkman sit down with cardiologist Dr. Jeffrey Thompson and physician assistant Shawn Brady to explore how your heart and brain work in sync, an...

Send us Fan Mail What if the key to reversing symptoms of multiple sclerosis, or protecting your brain from fatigue, pain, and fog, was sitting right on your plate? In this inspiring episode of Your Health Toolkit: The Neurology Sessions , Dr. Lauren Young and Dr. Ashley Burkman sit down with Dr. Terry Wahls, clinical professor, researcher, and author of The Wahls Protocol . Dr. Wahls shares her r...

Send us Fan Mail When most people think of naturopathic medicine, the brain isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Digestion? Sure. Hormones? Definitely. But your brain and nervous system are at the very center of it all—and without their optimal function, nothing else works the way it should. In this opening episode of The Neurology Sessions , Dr. Lauren Young and Dr. Ashley Burkman set the st...

Send us Fan Mail A lot of us have heard of fasting. It’s an ancient practice that dates back to the 15th century as a way to alleviate symptoms from certain types of illnesses. Over thousands of years fasting has been used by different cultures and through religious practices to maintain not only physical health but mental health as well.  I will often speak to my patients about fasting and I’ll a...

Send us Fan Mail Let’s face it. Men are pretty good at taking care of their physical health when they are younger. But as age, time, and priorities start to shift, their overall wellness can take a back seat.  As naturopathic physicians, so many of our first-time male patients come to us through their wives who tend to be a bit more proactive in managing their health. So that’s what we are going t...

Send us Fan Mail According to the CDC, about 695,000 people in the United States die from heart disease each year, which is about one in every five deaths total.  If that doesn’t concern you, think about this. One person in this country dies from heart disease every 33 seconds. And if you don’t think you need to worry because you don’t have high blood pressure or there is no history of heart probl...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about poop, which might seem a little odd but there is a very good reason for it. Last year, the American Gastroenterological Association released new data showing that nearly 40% of Americans have stopped routine activities in the last year due to uncomfortable bowel symptoms, including exercising, running errands, and seeing family and friends. Even though d...

Send us Fan Mail If you follow naturopathic health, you’ll know that food is medicine and there is actually some merit to the old saying “you are what you eat”. From Chinese medicine to Ayurveda in India, the significance of maintaining good health through food is something we’ve practiced for thousands of years. But even as science continues to uncover the amazing ways that nutrients influence ou...

Send us Fan Mail If you’re feeling extra nervous, stressed, or just not yourself these days, you aren’t alone. According to the most recent Pew Research Center analysis , four-in-ten U.S. adults have experienced high levels of psychological distress at least once since the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak. That’s 41% of Americans and the percentage skyrockets to 58% when you isolate the da...

Send us Fan Mail A good night’s sleep is the foundation of proper health. From our internal organs to the way our brains work, every function of our body relies on rest. But with more demands from world, the gravitational pull of devices, and skyrocketing stress, the sleep that we need is more elusive than ever.   If you’re worried about those restless nights, you’re not alone. More than one-third...

Send us Fan Mail Massage, chiropractic care, acupuncture, reflexology. These are just a few examples of bodywork, a commonly known but lesser used therapy that promotes healing in both the body and the mind.  From a naturopathic perspective, bodywork is an essential part of our care regimen for many reasons that we’re going to get into today. Many of the ancient practices can offer comparable or b...

Send us Fan Mail Difficulty using the bathroom, painful sex, lower back pain? These might sound like average post-partum symptoms or even another delight of aging. But what many people don’t know is that there is another, lesser-known medical issue that could be the root cause. Pelvic floor dysfunction affects one in every three women and it’s a problem that many general practitioners and even OB/...

Send us Fan Mail If you pay attention to any news about natural health, you probably know a little bit about cannabis and how it’s now being used to alleviate pain and treat other health conditions. The active compounds, called cannabinoids, are of particular interest in the medical world and they affect the body very uniquely. Since medical marijuana was introduced and legalized in California in...

Send us Fan Mail Chances are that psychedelic therapy has made its way into your newsfeed over the past few months. From states voting to legalize psychedelics for medical treatment to the FDA’s pending approval of hallucinogenic mushrooms, what was once known as “party drugs” are getting a serious and well-deserved second look. What’s interesting is that many psychedelic drugs have always been a...

Send us Fan Mail Hot flashes, night sweats, irritability. These are just a few of the well-known symptoms that women experience as they begin to enter menopause. But what many people don’t know is the myriad of emotional and hormonal symptoms that can also creep into the day-to-day, and that our husbands might be experiencing them too. So what’s the deal with menopause and how can we help ourselve...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the show! Today we are talking about inflammation which is pretty buzzy in the medical world right now. It seems like every ailment we talk about has some kind of link to inflammation both as a cause and a symptom, which is interesting because it's certainly not new. So what is the deal with inflammation? Why are we suddenly so obsessed with it? Is it as bad as it’...

Send us Fan Mail For today’s show, we’re changing gears a bit to focus on one of the most important aspects of our wellness and longevity - our kids. If you’re a parent, you probably work pretty hard to keep your children healthy. But with everything from your typical school and playground germs to some of the more serious pediatric illnesses, it can be hard to know what’s best. Because so many of...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode is about sex drives and aging, a topic that isn’t talked about enough if you ask me. As we age, certain things are expected to wain - our health, our energy, and our desire for intimacy. But for many people, a healthy sex drive is very important, both for themselves, and their relationships. According to a recent study of adults between the ages of 65 and 80 years...

Send us Fan Mail If you are in the Northeast or upper Midwest areas of the United States, you’re probably more familiar with Lyme disease than most people.  With all the research and new information that we have access to, there is still a lot of confusion around Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses, especially because the symptoms mirror so many other common medical issues.  So what do we...

Send us Fan Mail We all know the saying that “beauty is only skin deep”, but with the U.S. cosmetics industry raking in close to a whopping $50 billion dollars last year, it’s safe to say that appearance still really matters to American consumers. It seems like for a lot of us, aging is still a concept that we’re trying to come to terms with. We all age, right, so why are we so anti? Well, that’s...

Send us Fan Mail If you follow any health-related account on social media, you’ve probably seen people talking a lot about their guts recently. The truth is that, as doctors, the gut microbiome is something that’s always on our radar. Our digestive system is actually one of the most important parts of our bodies, dictating everything from our mood to how likely we are to get sick. The gut is actua...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s show is all about fatigue, a problem most of us have faced at one time or another. Now to be clear fatigue isn’t just feeling tired. It’s really more of a persistent exhaustion that interferes with our day-to-day lives. If you’ve ever pushed through a 70-hour work week or you’re the parent of young kids, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Sure, we all go through p...

Send us Fan Mail If you feel like everyone around you is sick all the time, you're not wrong. After several years of heightened hygiene and a lot more time in relative quarantine, the post-COVID one-two punch of viruses has made it a lot harder to stay healthy. From schools to nursing homes, sickness has been very difficult to avoid which puts strains on not only our healthcare system but als...