Dr. Desiree Galante

12/22/2021

Who else’s luteal phase has lined up with the week before Christmas? 🙋🏻‍♀️

PMS cravings are REAL and the abundance of holiday treats in addition to our holiday indulgent mindsets can be a recipe for disaster when it comes to PMS.

This post is NOT intended to guilt trip you for enjoying a couple of extra holiday cookies. You have the authority to choose what enters into your body and you also have the authority to be aware of how it makes you feel. If your grandmother baked your favorite cookies in the world and you feel happy and loved when you eat one, great! If you binge eat 15 cookies and now you feel like you failed at life, that’s ok too. Just start bringing awareness to how you feel mentally and physically after eating throughout the holidays. This will allow you to start to make the choices that make you and your body feel best.

Ok, now here are 3 tips of how to manage those cravings:

1. Pack in those magnesium rich foods. Magnesium does SO much in the body but a biggie is that it helps to balance blood sugar levels which can help curb those sugar and carb cravings. Focus on getting in some pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, almonds, cashews, and spinach.

2. Avoid late night eating. Try to be done eating and drinking at least 3 hours before you go to sleep. Late night eating and drinking (talking alcohol and sugary drinks here) set us up for blood sugar disaster which will not only impact our sleep but also the crazier the ups and downs of our blood sugar, the more vicious are carb and sugar cravings.

3. Focus on getting in FAT and PROTEIN in your first meal of the day. When you start your day with carb rich foods such as bagels, muffins, cinnamon buns, pancakes, etc your blood sugar is doomed from the start. Think about how you can start your day with foods high in healthy fats and proteins such as avocado, nut butter, nuts, eggs, healthy oils (olive, avocado, grass-fed ghee/butter). Fat and protein help your blood sugar stay nice and even rather than have sharp peaks and drops. Starting your day with stable blood sugar levels will set you up to have less cravings and make healthier choices throughout the day.

Happy Holidays and may your PMS be tame!

09/11/2020

Hair loss is something both men and women commonly struggle with.

Hair loss can be caused by many different factors, especially in women. This post is specifically going to be talking about an easy way to reduce hair loss in women where the root cause of hair loss is due to high androgen levels. Hair loss due to high androgen levels is known as androgenic alopecia.

It was estimated by the National Institute of Health in 2018 that approximately 30 million women and 50 million men suffer from androgenic alopecia. WOAH.

From a conventional med perspective there are only two medications approved for the treatment of androgenic alopecia. The first is an oral med known as finasteride and the second is a topical known as minoxidil or commonly known as Rogaine. Finasteride proved helpful for improving hair growth in men but a ton of men started displaying IRREVERSIBLE sexual dysfunction after taking it (i’ve personally seen this in practice).

Let’s bring to light a third option: Rosemary oil. When used topically, rosemary oil can enhance micro capillary perfusion. This is a fancy way of saying it can increase blood flow to our tiny blood vessels such as the ones that supply our scalp and hair follicles.

A study was carried out on 100 women who were diagnosed with androgenic alopecia. 50 of them applied rosemary oil to their scalp for 6 months and 50 of them applied Rogaine to their scalp for 6 months. At the end of the 6 months both groups experienced a significant increase in hair count meaning that rosemary oil was just as effective for hair growth as Rogaine was.

Lastly, please understand I am NOT saying that rosemary oil is going to address the underlying cause of your androgen imbalance. That needs to be addressed ideally under guidance of a naturopathic or functional medicine doctor but it’s always nice to have effective and natural options to complement our healing processes and rosemary oil is one of them.

Whether you have androgenic alopecia or not, add a few drops of organic rosemary essential oil to your shampoo, lather up, and enjoy the scent of rosemary during your shower while it’s simultaneously working to support hair health.

PMID: 25842469

08/26/2020

Check out our clinic's latest post on hyperthyroidism!

HYPOthyroidism, is the most common thyroid disorder. However, lately we are starting to see an increase in a less common thyroid disease called HYPERthyroidism.

Hyperthyroidism is the opposite of hypothyroidism. This occurs when the thyroid gland becomes overactive and begins to produce too much thyroid hormone.

Symptoms of hyperthyroidism include anxiety, tremors, excessive sweating, bulging eyes, heat intolerance, heart palpitations, weight loss, insomnia, fatigue, and diarrhea.

The most common form of hyperthyroidism is called Graves’ disease, which is an autoimmune disease.

Conventional treatment focuses on suppressing the thyroid function, in hopes that it eventually returns to normal. Sometimes it does, but for many individuals, they can have lingering effects and symptoms. It’s important to identify the underlying cause and if there is in fact an autoimmune process occurring.

Certain bacterial infections (H. pylori, Y. Enterocolytica) can actually trigger the autoimmune process of Grave’s disease. This is commonly overlooked because these bacteria cause digestive diseases like reflux, ulcers and severe diarrhea.

So what do bacteria that cause digestive diseases have to do you with your thyroid?

When your immune system begins to attack these bacteria, the antibodies formed against the bacteria can cross-react with receptors on your thyroid gland, thus triggering the thyroid to make more hormone.

Comprehensive microbiome testing is critical in these situations to assess if these bacteria (or others) are triggering the auto-immune process.

When treatment just focuses on dampening the thyroid function, it neglects addressing the underlying cause. We focus on getting our hyperthyroid clients symptomatic relief while also addressing the underlying cause. The bacterial triggers are just one component and there are many other factors that can trigger Grave’s disease. Some other triggers can be viral infections, anxiety and high stress levels.

PMID: 21073613, 3017619

07/21/2020

Who’s heard of seed cycling? 🙋🏻‍♀️

The general idea is that you’re using various seeds to support your hormones throughout your cycle, which helps to balance and regulate your cycle. It may sound woo woo but it works!

What do you need?
-Organic flax seeds (whole seeds)
-Organic pumpkin seeds (no shell)
-Organic sesame seeds
-Organic pumpkin seeds (no shell)
-A way of grinding the seeds prior to consumption (coffee grinder or blender)
-A fridge or freezer to store the seeds to assure max quality

How does it work?
Days 1-14 of our cycle is known as our Follicular Phase. During this phase the main focus is on supporting ESTROGEN. If you have no idea what “Day 1” means, it’s the first day of your menstrual cycle. During these 14 days the goal is to consume 1 tablespoon of the flax seeds and 1 tablespoon of pumpkin seeds daily.

Days 15-28 of our cycle is known as our Luteal Phase. During this phase the goal is to support PROGESTERONE. During these days you’ll want to consume 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds and 1 tablespoon of sunflower seeds daily.

If your cycle is ALL over the place or you’re not menstruating, you’ll want to use the moon as your guide for when to start the different seeds. Yes, I know this may also sound woo woo but our cycles do indeed naturally sync up with the moon. So if you don’t have a normal cycle consider your Day 1 the day of the new moon and your Day 15 the day of the full moon.

Why does this work?
-Both flaxseeds and pumpkin seeds contain phytoestrogens. Phytoestrogens are very similar in structure to our own estrogen hormone so they have regulating abilities on estrogen metabolism. In addition to the phytoestrogen properties, seeds are naturally rich in fiber which can help to bind any excess estrogen in the gut to prevent it from being reabsorbed back into circulation.
-Sesame seeds have been used effectively for infrequent menstruation to induce a healthy period and also to boost progesterone production. Sunflower seeds are very high in vitamin E which also increases progesterone production by improving corpus luteal blood flow.

05/22/2020

Can the birth control pill impair our ability to recognize emotions? Unfortunately, yes!

A study compared two groups of healthy women and found that the group of women who were actively taking oral contraceptives (the pill) were less accurate in recognizing emotions when compared to the group of women who were not taking oral contraceptives.

They found that the differences in emotion recognition were most pronounced during the processing of negative expressions compared to positive ones.

The study is contributing the impaired emotion recognition to changes in various hormones induced by oral contraceptives. The pill suppresses estrogen and progesterone levels and also affects other hormones such as oxytocin, all of which are thought to play a role in how we process emotional expressions.

Previous studies have shown that both estrogen and progesterone levels modulate activity in the areas of the brain (prefrontal and temporal regions) that are in involved in processing emotional expressions.

So if masks alone weren’t enough of a deterrent for being able to read facial expressions, if you’re on the birth control pill, you may really have some trouble!

PMID: 30804733

05/01/2020

Hi all! I'm excited to announce I've recently signed up to be a Beautycounter consultant. If you haven't heard of them, they are an amazingly high quality and clean (toxin-free) makeup and skin care company that offer products for women, men, and some kid products too. I love them because they are huge advocates for educating and empowering individuals on what's in their beauty products (plus their products actually work).

They are currently offering 20% off your first order for the month of May and also discounting the cost to become a consultant yourself if you wanted to sign up. I'm primarily doing this because I work with tons of women with hormonal imbalances and these products are vital to swap out in order to keep our hormones healthy and happy so I love to be able to offer them this resource. If you have any personal questions please feel free to reach out and feel free to browse the site using my link.

Beautycounter's mission is to get safer products into the hands of everyone.

04/04/2020

If you have a loved one that is a healthcare worker or first responder who you think could use a little extra TLC right now please pass along the information that we are offering free 30 minute virtual consults (phone or video) during the months of April and May in light of supporting those directly affected by COVID19.

Potential areas we could support:
-Stress
-Immune support
-Self care
-Nutrition
-Sleep
-Venting (we are great listeners!)

If you or a loved one falls into this category and is interested in booking an appointment please email me at drgalante@terrainclinic.com or you can visit our website www.terrainclinic.com to learn more about us. Feel free to share this post to make others in your community aware.

Sending lots of love and healing energy to everyone during this time - Dr. Galante

03/24/2020

We can never have enough options for managing painful periods, am I right?!
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I used to have THE WORST menstrual cramps. Nausea, vomiting, down for the count, I’m a naturopath but am taking Motrin anyway kind of cramps. I’m not going to lie, sometimes every few months I’ll still have painful cramps but they have IMMENSELY improved from what I use to experience. It took years of gut and hormone balance to make that happen but sometimes it’s nice to have some pain relieving tools in the toolbox for those times when you really need it.
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Enter, fennel aka Foeniculum vulgare.
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Fennel has both antiinflammatory and antispasmodic activity. It also has estrogenic activity. All of these features contribute to it’s ability to help relieve those awful menstrual symptoms such as pain, bloating, and nausea.
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Here are some findings from different studies utilizing fennel as a tool for menstrual symptoms:
-Nausea intensity and weakness decreased during the menstrual period and a significant difference was found after 2-3 months of use
-No pain was reported in 80% of the group using fennel and was superior to NSAID use for pain
-Fennel was shown to relieve menstrual pain as effectively as the NSAID, however fennel took about 75 minutes to kick in whereas the NSAID took around 65 minutes to kick in
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In regards to the dosing most of the studies were using 30 drops 3-4x daily, however please feel free to reference the study for specifics as I’m only summing up what the research was using. Please note that fennel seeds alone are not likely to have the same effect in regards to menstrual pain relief.
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Fennel is also great to be used after meals for decreasing gas, bloating, and intestinal cramping.
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Tag someone who can use a little fennel magic in their lives.
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Article 📄: The Effect of Fennel on Pain Relief in Primary Dysmenorrhea: A Systematic Review of Clinical Trials
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01/23/2020

Breast cancer accounts for about 1/3 of all female cancers. If detected early there is an 85% chance of survival compared to only a 10% chance if detected late.

That being said, early detection is vital to ensuring a long life of healthy and happy b***s.

Women are typically recommended to begin getting a mammogram done after age 40. Mammograms are currently the gold standard in the medical community for breast cancer screening.

There are a few big issues when it comes to mammograms:

1. The first is the most obvious and that is that it exposes women to radiation. And yes, maybe it’s not a mega-dose of radiation but radiation causes DNA damage and DNA damage is at the root of why cancer occurs so why the hell would be want to be exposing our breasts to something that causes DNA damage when the whole point is preventing DNA damage?

2. In women less than 35 years old, it is only able to diagnose less than 2% of breast cancers making it a very poor diagnostic tool for this large age group (hence why it’s not recommended until after 40).

3. False positives. According to a study in 2017, the false positive diagnosis rate for women after having a mammogram every year for 10 years was 49.1%.

4. They are less effective for women with dense breasts (which is the category I fall into, thanks mom). All “dense breasts” means is that you have more fibrous and glandular tissue rather than having more fat tissue like non-dense breasts would have. When breasts are dense, they can mask the visibility of tumors that may be developing within the tissue.

Infrared breast thermography is an especially useful screening tool in younger women and women with very dense breasts. Thermography works by identifying areas of the body where the surface temperature is increased by using an infrared camera. These temperature increases can be caused by increased blood flow and increased cellular activity that may correlate to pre-cancerous or tumor activity. In short, tumors are more metabolically active than normal tissue so they generate more heat.

In individuals with healthy breasts containing no tumors, the surface temperature of both breast is almost identical. When there is a tumor, fibrosis, inflammation, or an infection the temperature between the two breasts are altered and no longer the same.

The detection of a temperature change is how the thermogram can help to identify any early breast abnormalities and allow an individual to take action to prevent cancer from ever developing rather than waiting for a mammogram to identify a tumor when it is too late to prevent.

Women with increased vasculature in a breast are 7x more likely to develop breast cancer, so why not utilize a tool that can help identify this increased vasculature before it actually becomes cancer?

Infrared breast thermography can detect the first signs of tumor development 8-10 years before a mammogram can.

Thermograms are also starting to be used to identify inflammation in other areas of the body such as the intestines for cases of inflammatory bowel disease (think Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis), oral cavities and the neck for cases post dental surgeries, mercury filling removal, and also in autoimmune thyroid disease.

With thermography you have the option of getting a scan done of the entire body, the upper half of your body, or only your breasts and the bonus is that it’s very affordable.

At our office we have a certified thermographer come into the office every couple of months to offer thermograms. If you’re local reach out to me if you’d like to book an appointment or check out who is offering them in your location!

P.S. I am in no way claiming that thermography should take the place of a mammogram. Your course of action is for yourself and the physician you are working with to decide. I am just here to inform and spread awareness.

PMID: 30149621

***s