Point. Holistic Wellness

01/17/2023

I won’t lie and say that Im not looking forward to getting back to my pre-pregnancy body, so I can fit into ALLLLLL the clothes in my closet and not be winded during workouts or not feel as strong as I used to. But I also spent decades imagining this special time in my life and I want to celebrate my body and the miraculous things it can do for me and my daughter. I know it will take time to get back to myself again, but “myself” is going to be way different than the self I was before in so many ways, and that’s ok.

01/17/2023

New website coming soon with photos courtesy of

Thanks friend! ✨💕🙏🏼

11/16/2022

10/18/2022

I’m sure you’ve heard of it before, that Mother Fc**er gene. But what does it mean?

MTHFR is a gene that provides instructions for your body to make the MTHFR protein, which helps your body process folate. 60% of the population have a genetic mutation on this MTHFR gene which makes it difficult to process the synthetic form of folate, folic acid.

Inadequate folate intake, or supplementing with folic acid when you genetically cannot utilize it, increases the risk of neural tube defects.

So to recap:
🧪 Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate which 60% of the population cannot breakdown.

🍞 If you are one of this people it may be a good idea to stay away from folic acid-enriched pastas, breads, and cereals, as this can build up over time.

🌿 Make sure your prenatals and supplements contain the bioavailable form, 5-methyltetrahydrofolate.

🍳 Get your folate from food sources.

10/13/2022

Not all prenatals are created equal.

💊 Look for "activated" B vitamins.

Often the form of nutrients in your vitamins is different than what is found in your food sources. Your supplements tend to have synthetic forms of nutrients that are not as well utilized by your body. Sometimes this is done with cost in mind, opting for the least expensive forms of vitamins instead of whats most bioavailable.

🌿 Folate (L-methylfolate, also called 5-methyltetrahydrofolate)
🌿 Vitamin B6 (pyridoxal-5" -phosphate)
🌿 Vitamin B12 (methylcobalamin and/or adenosylcobalamin)

💊 Beta carotene is not a reliable source of Vitamin A

Some prenatals completely leave out preformed Vitamin A (retinol) opting for the less potent beta carotene. Vitamin A supplementation over 10,000IU per day is contraindicated in pregnancy but there are no prenatal vitamins with amounts this excessive. Your prenatal should contain at least a portion of its Vitamin A in the active form - retinyl palmitate.

💊 Make sure its a comprehensive formula

Make sure your formula contains iodine, vitamin B12, choline, magnesium, selenium, vitamin D, and vitamin K2. This may mean that your prenatal may have you taking 6-8 pills/day; it takes a lot of pills order to get the right amount of nutrients.

Also, take alongside a meal or snack rather than on an empty stomach, as this improves absorption and minimizes side effects, like nausea.

Follow me for more great FERTILITY tips. 👶🏼👶🏼👶🏼



Source: Lily Nichols, Real Food for Pregnancy

09/06/2022

This is an actual text message from one of my FET (frozen embryo transfer) patients. Her transfer was threatened to be cancelled bc her lining was only 4.4mm and not thick enough for an embryo to implant. With a Chinese herbal formula we were able to grow the lining to an average of 8.5mm in less than a week! And I can happily say I will be attending her transfer next Tuesday!

07/21/2022

🤍Why do I love Chinese medicine?🤍

First off if you're a patient of mine then you've probably heard me mention that I got into this field because I was terrified of needles as a child and didn't understand why anyone would pay money to lay on a table with a bunch of needles to treat anything, much less anxiety. I was so curious how this medicine could stand the test of time, yet be so intimidating to me.

So I tried it! And then I started studying it. And then the skeptic New Yorker in me wanted to call BS on it, so I moved to California to dive deep into the medicine and see if it was real.

And 13 yrs later I still believe in it. And the reason is, we don't treat symptoms. We treat the patterns that show up. In Western medicine if 2 people go to the doctor for a headache they’d be treated the same way. But in our medicine I might discover that one of those patients also has high blood pressure, is easily angered, and might physically have a red face. The other patient is pale and just finished their monthly cycle. One of these patients needs to be nourished and built back up, the other needs to be grounded and have heat cleared. By treating the patterns indirectly treating their main symptom of headache and in addition to clearing that headache I bet we’d also be fixing all the other small symptoms that have always been there but they have learned to live with. We treat the roots, not the branches. Western medicine tends to just treat the branches; and by treat, I really mean mask. 😬

This doesn’t mean Im against western medicine. I believe it has a place in our society, just not the pedestal we put it on. If you break your arm or have a heart attack don’t come to me. But if you have chronic back pain, or migraines, irregular or painful menstrual cycles, or are looking to prevent wrinkles or constipation, or insomnia then medications with a list of side effects the length of a CVS receipt or surgery is not really your answer. (ALSO, for all you ladies, BIRTH CONTROL is not an answer! You’re not addressing any of your hormonal issues by stopping yourself from bleeding or having a regular pill bleed).

CONTINUED IN COMMENTS

01/27/2022

Tbt: to when I found out that I had Hashimotos- an autoimmune disease affecting the thyroid after backpacking through Asia in 2006.

Finding that out explained why I was always so tired all the time. I've been on medication ever since that day but whenever my TSH would fluctuate my Dr would tell me to increase my dosage. Since I was told I was going to be on this medication for the rest of my life, I didn't think increasing my dosage every so often after my body adjusted to it was any answer. More than once I told my doctor "No, thank you. I'll find another way".

I went gluten free, I tried keto - and while those changes helped it wasnt something I was going to be able to do all the time, long term. Luckily, my symptoms weren't crazy. I didn't have a lot of weight gain but I did feel tired often, bloated, and had a lot of hair loss.

Then recently, in 2020, out of nowhere my TSH levels sky rocketed to over 10 (Western range is 1-4) and I had no idea why. Once again, I knew that medication was just going to mask what was really going on and wouldn't be the answer. Sure, the meds could fix the number but I wanted to know why it was so high in the first place.

I spoke to my mentor, Megan Joyce and she suggested I run a stool test, an organic acids test, and a Dutch test. After running these tests it was discovered that I had leaky gut, some bad bacteria, a lot of inflammation, as well as stage 3 adrenal fatigue. Using functional medicine I went on a year + long protocol of taking a lot of supplements (think 20+) each day and changing it up every few months to address different issues. Today, without ever changing my levothyroxine dosage (I never took more than 50 mcg which is very low), my TSH is now within range at 2.74 and a lot of my symptoms are gone. I will be redoing the rest of those tests soon to see if I'm in the clear or still have more work to do.
Thank you, Megan!

*Just a note for all my patients trying to conceive: you may be within range if you are between 1-4 but in order to be optimal for fertility your TSH should be closer to 1.5.