Episode 244: Thyroid Dysfunction 101
HORMONES, FUNCTIONAL NUTRITION The Funk'tional Nutritionist HORMONES, FUNCTIONAL NUTRITION The Funk'tional Nutritionist

Episode 244: Thyroid Dysfunction 101

Thyroid dysfunction affects approximately 28 million Americans–8 out of 10 of which are women. In fact, hypothyroid is so commonplace that Levothyroxine is consistently one of the top-prescribed drugs year after year. There are a lot of ways to support the thyroid before it gets to this point, so we have to ask ourselves WHY this issue is so common and how we can be proactive about achieving optimal thyroid health.

Like most other areas of our health, thyroid health is multifaceted, and there are plenty of possible causes for dysfunction. In under 60 minutes, Erin breaks down the symptoms of hypothyroid; the impact of root causes such as caloric restriction, liver health, and non-thyroid hormonal balance; things your conventional medicine practitioner might miss in lab results; and the relationship between the energetic body and the thyroid.

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Episode 242: Hormones & Your Brain Chemistry
HORMONES The Funk'tional Nutritionist HORMONES The Funk'tional Nutritionist

Episode 242: Hormones & Your Brain Chemistry

In this episode re-release, we're discussing how the brain directly affects your hormones, the distinction between consuming and integrating information, and ways to train your brain to be more resilient to life's stressors.

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Episode 210: Coffee & Adrenals: Do You Have to Wean the Caffeine?
HORMONES Erin Holt HORMONES Erin Holt

Episode 210: Coffee & Adrenals: Do You Have to Wean the Caffeine?

You’ll hear this time and time again on the show: there’s a lot of nuance and gray area when it comes to our health. What’s right for one person may not be right for another. It’s your unique context that determines not just WHAT is appropriate for you, but also WHEN—because context can change. Sometimes knowing what’s right for us gets confusing, especially when we hear conflicting health information. Today Erin offers insight into coffee, caffeine and the health signs to consider when evaluating your intake. Tune in to hear how caffeine affects our stress response, how to recognize what your body is asking for when you want to drink more and more coffee, how to lessen caffeine withdrawal symptoms, and coffee alternatives to try.

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Episode 209: Health & Environmental Effects of CBD & Full Spectrum Hemp

Episode 209: Health & Environmental Effects of CBD & Full Spectrum Hemp

Today Erin sits down with Ret Taylor, cofounder of Ned & Co, to give us a high overview of Ned’s full spectrum hemp, how CBD, CBG and CBN interact with our body and affect stress and sleep, plus the importance of magnesium for our overall health. Tune in to hear Erin and Ret discuss consumerism culture, health and environmental effects of sourcing and farming practices, and how Ned truly puts their money where their mouth is.

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Episode 206: Weight Gain in Menopause: What Gives??
METABOLIC HEALTH Erin Holt METABOLIC HEALTH Erin Holt

Episode 206: Weight Gain in Menopause: What Gives??

Menopause is a phase in women’s lives that involves big physiological changes. Like during puberty and pregnancy, women going through menopause experience huge hormonal shifts that can have cascading effects on blood sugar, gut microbiome and adrenal health. These changes can also affect body composition: women who never struggled with weight are suddenly dealing with more belly fat and love handles. Understandably feeling a lack of control, many seek out answers to help understand what’s going on.

However, many in conventional health still tell women going through perimenopause and menopause to simply work out more and eat less, which can oftentimes exacerbate the new issues these women face.

Like Erin discussed in last week’s episode: if the approach isn’t working, try a new approach. If the physiology changes, we NEED to change the approach.

Today Erin peels back the layers on not just what is happening during perimenopause and menopause, but WHY these changes occur and highlights underlying factors that can lead to problems like insulin resistance, adrenal fatigue, cortisol dysregulation, sleep issues, gallbladder problems and weight gain. She also outlines things to consider for adjusting to these physiological changes and ways to support your health during this phase. If you or someone you know is going through menopause and wants to know what a new approach could look like, this will be a valuable episode to hear.

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Episode 204: Cortisol, Blood Sugar & Improving Your Sleep Hygiene
METABOLIC HEALTH Erin Holt METABOLIC HEALTH Erin Holt

Episode 204: Cortisol, Blood Sugar & Improving Your Sleep Hygiene

Being healthy in today’s world can often come with a high price tag. Fortunately sleep doesn’t have to be one of those things, and in today’s episode Erin discusses the top three things that might be impeding your sleep at night and what you can do about them. From circadian rhythm to cortisol, bladder function to blood sugar, Erin highlights why making sure you’re getting the basics down is the very first thing you should be doing to improve sleep hygiene. 

If you have trouble falling asleep, if you often wake up at night needing to pee or wake up with a racing heart, or feel tired and sluggish no matter how many hours you slept, this will definitely be an episode for you to hear!

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Episode 202: When Your Doctor Doesn’t Believe Your Pain: Sexism in Healthcare
MINDSET, FUNCTIONAL NUTRITION Erin Holt MINDSET, FUNCTIONAL NUTRITION Erin Holt

Episode 202: When Your Doctor Doesn’t Believe Your Pain: Sexism in Healthcare

What do you do when your doctor doesn’t listen? When your provider doesn’t believe you?

A 2019 interview with Selma Blair on Good Morning America brought to light a scary fact: women are not being heard by their medical providers. Chronic conditions are going undiagnosed for YEARS, despite the fact that women are reporting real physical problems. When you layer in intersectionality, the issue gets even worse. This lack of care can have irreversible consequences, and despite increased awareness, the problem still persists today.

In this episode, Erin interviews Dr. Cristin Zaimes of Oceanside Physical Therapy to discuss how sexism in healthcare creates shame and distrust in our own bodies. While this episode originally aired in March 2019, Erin and Cristin highlight why this conversation is just as relevant and important today. Tune in as they discuss what we can do to change this—including ways to tap into our innate power to heal.

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Episode 201: Parasite “Cleansing,” Food Combining & Alkaline Diets with Natosha Ash
GUT HEALTH Erin Holt GUT HEALTH Erin Holt

Episode 201: Parasite “Cleansing,” Food Combining & Alkaline Diets with Natosha Ash

Today on the Funk’tional Nutrition Podcast, Erin sits down with Naturopathic medical student and TikTok aficionado Natosha Ash to separate fact from fiction with the latest fad diets trending on social media. Speaking from both personal experience, through research and in working clinically with real people, Erin and Natosha clear up the confusion surrounding parasite cleansing, food combining and alkaline diets. On top of bringing evidence-based research to the table, they also touch on bigger picture topics like orthorexia, body resiliency and mindfulness surrounding health information sources.

If you’ve ever wondered about the validity of trending diets on social media or have gut issues and considered one of these diets, this will be a great one to hear!

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Episode 194: The Hormone-Brain Connection
HORMONES, MINDSET TFN Admin HORMONES, MINDSET TFN Admin

Episode 194: The Hormone-Brain Connection

An often overlooked topic when we are talking about hormone imbalance or adrenal fatigue is how to support hormones by supporting the brain. The brain literally tells our organs and glands how and when to make hormones. So in order to have “healthy hormone balance”, the brain has to be healthy, resilient and balanced.

This episode has lots of nuggets of info, with one major message: Your thoughts and stress levels influence your brain and your physical body. If we want to change the physical body and feel better, then we have to start at the top. Listen in as Erin dives into the upstream factors of hormonal health, why information alone won’t solve your problems, and her top 3 tips for paying attention to thought patterns.

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Episode 189: Metabolism Series Part 3: Glucose Monitoring, Red Flags & Metabolic Health
METABOLIC HEALTH TFN Admin METABOLIC HEALTH TFN Admin

Episode 189: Metabolism Series Part 3: Glucose Monitoring, Red Flags & Metabolic Health

This minisode is Part 3 of a 3 part series Erin is doing on Metabolic Health, where she answers some of the most common questions she has received on all things metabolism! Tune in as Erin wraps up this series with topics like red flags to look for with high and low blood sugar, glucose monitoring, lethargy after eating, how much hunger is “normal”, what stress/sleep have to do with blood sugar, and the best types of movement practices for your hormones.

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Episode 173: Wim Hof Breathwork for Resiliency & Immune Health
IMMUNE SUPPORT Laura Fox IMMUNE SUPPORT Laura Fox

Episode 173: Wim Hof Breathwork for Resiliency & Immune Health

Erin talks to Resiliency Coach Robert van der Heyden about why the Wim Hof style of breathwork is beneficial from an immune and overall health standpoint. Robert and Erin discuss how this invigorating style of breathing compares to others, benefits to gut and immune health, cultivating more presence through breathwork, the benefits of nose & belly breathing vs mouth breathing, plus Robert leads us through a 15min breathwork practice that you can do anywhere.

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Episode 171: A Root Cause Look at Blood Pressure

Episode 171: A Root Cause Look at Blood Pressure

Today we’re getting into specifics with blood pressure, and Erin dives into possible root causes of high/low blood pressure such as diet, lifestyle, and other internal factors that can contribute. Because there are usually no warning signs until there’s a problem, Erin unpacks contributing factors that can lead to this imbalance and offers practices you can incorporate to reduce your risk.

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