Tagged: mental illness

The Key to Better Mental Health: Balanced Blood Sugar

Balancing your blood sugar is more crucial than you might think!

Recent research reveals that many mental health issues are linked to chronic inflammation, rather than just imbalances in neurotransmitters. Surprisingly, unstable blood sugar often plays a significant role in driving this inflammation.

So, how does inflammation impact your mood?

It reduces the production of essential brain chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and GABA.
It hampers brain cells’ ability to produce vital energy.
It leads to cell degradation, which releases toxins that cause further brain damage.

This inflammation can manifest as depression, anxiety, and even contribute to conditions like Alzheimer’s.

When we consume excessive sugars or carbs, our bodies produce too much insulin, a hormone that helps glucose enter cells for energy. Keeping your blood sugar levels steady is key to mitigating these issues.

Here are some practical tips to help stabilize your blood sugar:

Start your day with a protein-rich breakfast that includes healthy fats.
Eat every 3-4 hours to maintain energy levels.
Avoid consuming only sugary foods.
Engage in regular exercise.
Opt for healthy fats, such as coconut or olive oil.
Have a small high-protein snack before bed.
Skip caffeine as an energy boost; instead, choose a nutritious snack with protein, fat, and some carbs, and drink water.
Ensure you get plenty of restful sleep.

Take Charge of Your Mood—By Balancing Your Blood Sugar

Don’t underestimate the power of stable blood sugar when it comes to your mental clarity and emotional well-being. Start with one small change today—like a protein-rich breakfast or skipping that mid-afternoon sugar fix. Your brain (and body) will thank you.

Need help creating a plan that works for your lifestyle?
Let’s talk—schedule a free consultation today.

Integrative Medicine

Integrative Medicine: A Holistic Approach to Supporting Mental Health

Are you experiencing shifts in mood, thought patterns, behavior, or emotions? These changes can be caused by hormonal imbalances, past traumas, genetics, or lifestyle factors.

If you’re noticing signs of mental illness, it’s important to reach out to a licensed professional for support and guidance.

At our office, we take a natural and holistic approach to explore any physical factors that may be affecting your emotional and mental well-being. For mental health concerns like depression, stress, and anxiety, an integrative approach can be particularly effective. By focusing on nutrition, stress management, and lifestyle changes, it supports the whole person—mind, body, and spirit. While mental health is a key area for integrative medicine, many other conditions, both physical and emotional, can benefit from this well-rounded, personalized approach.

We’re here to support you on your journey to better health.

Medical Sound Healing

There are scientifically proven meditations that can help you on your way to success if you struggle with any of the following issues:

Better Health: You want to heal your body or work on preventing disease.
Dream Body: You’re working hard, eating right and exercising… but still you’re not seeing the results you want.
Anxiety, Overwhelm, Chronic Procrastination and Feeling STUCK: You want to feel peace and calm, make progress towards your goals… but you keep finding yourself in an unhealthy cycle that you desire to break free from!
Emotional Stability: You’ve gone through a heartbreak, loss, divorce and you’re having trouble stabilizing your emotions to recapture your purpose and joy.

Our experts in medical sound healing are a great adjunct to any lifestyle plan to supplement your healing journey.

Nutrition Education

Functional Nutrition for Leaky Gut

Your chronic stomach issues, bloating, mental fogginess, and skin issues are not normal! Leaky gut or intestinal permeability is a newly researched condition that doctors often look over. Unfortunately, this syndrome is precisely how its name describes it: the intestinal lining has cracks and large holes, letting bacteria and other toxins into our gut, causing inflammation, fibromyalgia, mental health problems, and arthritis.

Our Holistic Wholeness Nutritional Team will uncover what is causing inflammation and disruption of gut flora.

What causes a leaky gut? Researchers believe that leaky gut is induced by our Standard American Diet (SAD). The greasy meats, processed sugars, and heavy fats inflame the gut causing this disruption. In addition, other factors are reported to disrupt our intestinal linings, such as heavy alcohol use and genetics. Those who have undergone radiation or chemotherapy in the past can also be prone to this condition.

Our Holistic Wholeness Nutritional Team will uncover what is causing this inflammation and disruption of gut flora. We will then reintroduce foods back into your system to see what exactly is triggering your leaky gut. Each person is different in terms of which foods bother them, but the most common foods that cause intestinal permeability are:

Gluten Products: Bread, pasta, baked goods, oats, barley, rye, cereal
Alcohol Products: Leaky gut is very common in those who drink excessive amounts of alcohol. Patients should replace their evening beverages with flavored water or low sugar kombucha.
Processed and Cured Meats: Bacon, deli meat, hot dogs, and fast food meats are culprits of inflammation in the body.
Dairy Products: Milk, ice cream, cheese, and yogurt react poorly with many individuals gut bacteria
Processed Foods: Chips, sweets, fast foods, sugary drinks/ juices, sauces, and salad dressings are just a few of the many processed foods available to us today. However, you don’t have to give up your favorite foods completely! There are many healthy alternatives to your favorite foods, such as healthy banana pancakes and air-fried potato chips!
Refined Oils: These are the oils that have been treated with chemicals such as acid or have been bleached. Examples of these oils include vegetable, canola, peanut, and soybean. Instead, opt for cooking with extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, or avocado oil!

When your diet is clean, you will start to see an improved quality of life. Our team will work with you beyond your nutritional needs to get your body back to normal. We conduct functional testing which helps identify the things causing your leaky gut. We will evaluate other health factors, such as stress, sleep, and exercise, to help determine these issues’ root cause. Schedule a consultation with us today to get started on your path to a healthy gut again!

Nutrition Education

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are mental illnesses that influence one’s obsessive behavior with food and outward appearance. These physical and mental diseases are incredibly prevalent in America, with 28.8 million experiencing this illness in their lifetime. Eating disorders claim the highest mortality rate of any other mental illness. While eating disorders are associated with developing in young women, they can affect any gender, race, or age. The most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa is the severe restriction of calories and overexercising to maintain a low body weight. Those suffering from this disease fear gaining weight and tend to think they are bigger than they are. Many with anorexia use the restriction of food to cope with emotional problems and external issues. Patients put constraints on their food as a sense of control. The mortality rate for this disease is 12 times higher than any other cause of death for females ages 18-24. Our nutrition team at Holistic Wholeness Institute helps individuals with this illness restore a healthy body weight. We teach individuals how to have a better and more neutral relationship with food through education on how nutrition affects the body.

Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia Nervosa is an eating disorder where individuals binge eat after a period of restriction, followed by purging or another extended period of fasting. Binging means eating an excessive amount of food past the point of wanting to stop. Individuals with this illness may take laxatives and force themselves to throw up or overexercise to eliminate the calories consumed. Purging or taking laxatives is especially dangerous, as it can lead to dehydration, heart problems, and disrupt your reproductive system. Many patients with this disease can appear to be at a healthy weight, so it can be hard to spot. If you suspect a loved one to have Bulimia, look for things like dieting/fasting, not wanting to eat in front of others, or eating a large amount of food at once.

Treatment for eating disorders and getting back into a healthy relationship with food is possible! While each person’s treatment should be individualized based on their condition, methods typically involve a mix of nutrition counseling, psychotherapy, and having a sound support system. Our nutrition team at the Holistic Wholeness Institute is here to educate individuals on how they can work to a healthy weight, develop meal plans, and educate on how nutrition works with the body. If you or a loved one is experiencing an eating disorder and seeking nutritional counseling, please contact our office to set up an appointment with our team!

Clean Living Blog