Healing Nutrition of Sonoma

03/24/2026

This is the tea company where I get my Pu’erh tea. 25% of through March 26!

A local shop introduced me to Rishi and I still buy from them. But most people don’t have a tea shop in their town that sells amazing organic tea.

Keep in mind that you can pour over Rishi’s tea leaves and tea cake cakes up to five times. I save the leaves in the glass tea pot in the fridge after pouring off the tea that I make and keeping it in a jar to reheat. Drinking two or 3 ounces a day of the Pu’erh has brought my LDL an Apolipoprotein B into the ideal range. I add th Pu’erh it to my homemade h**p milk along with mushroom mushrooms and a chai spice adaptogen blend, and liver support blend from a local herb shop. I’ll put the links in the comments. You can find more about my mushroom drink mix on my website under Articles.

Rishi also has sweet glass tea pots. I bought one from them and I’m very happy with it.

Shop our entire range of high-quality teas and botanicals -- selected, imported and made in direct-trade partnership with the distinguished farms around the world.

03/22/2026

I just ordered my favorite nuts from my favorite supplier, Missouri Organic Pecans.

Why pecans? Rich in Ellagic acid, an important polyphenol that has various actions against breast cancer growth. They are also very high in heart healthy monounsaturated fat (60%), much of which is oleic acid, the same mono saturated fat you get in olive oil. Plus they are delicious!

Why not just buy my nuts from a local store or Costco? Because Missouri Organic Pecans packages freezes their nuts immediately after harvest. This maintains their freshness and polyphenols. You have no idea what you’re getting when you buy a bag of nuts from a store. You can taste the difference.

Once delivered, I double wrap them in the freezer and keep a glass jar full in the fridge for daily use.

I also buy their pecan oil, which I use to make fresh nut butter for baking cookies. My favorite is macadamia nut butter!

I don’t get anything from recommending this company. Just love them!

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03/21/2026

Let’s do it!

03/21/2026

I particularly like how she calls out reference ranges for not being “normal.“. Reference ranges are compiled from all the people who go into the lab getting the particular lab marker. Typically those people have reasons to get the labs and aren’t necessarily the healthiest cohort. Follow the functional ranges, which are the ideal range. Some of these are not exactly on target for breast cancer but they are close. For example, we don’t like ferritin above 70.

03/21/2026

Many people regularly take glucosamine for osteoarthritis (OA). When the 2019 UK Biobank study first reported a 15% lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) among habitual glucosamine users, it was met with both surprise and considerable scepticism. Several mainstream clinicians and scientists questioned how such a widely used joint supplement could plausibly confer cardioprotection, or suggested that this observational finding was confounded, simply reflecting a healthy-user bias rather than a true biological effect.

In this prospective (following forward rather than looking back) UK Biobank analysis of 466,039 participants without CVD at baseline, habitual glucosamine use over about 7 years was linked to a 15% lower risk of total CVD events (hazard ratio, HR, 0.85, 95% confidence interval, CI, 0.80 to 0.90), a 22% lower risk of CVD death (similar effect to statin drugs) (HR 0.78, CI 0.70 to 0.87), an 18% lower risk of coronary heart disease (HR 0.82, CI 0.76–0.88), and a weaker association for stroke (HR 0.91, CI 0.83–1.00). Apparent benefit was even larger in the 2020 US NHANES study, where regular glucosamine/chondroitin users had substantially lower CVD mortality (HR 0.42, CI 0.23–0.75) and lower all-cause mortality (HR 0.73, CI 0.57–0.93), although the exposure was combined and therefore not glucosamine alone. More recently, an observational plus Mendelian randomisation (MR) study suggested a modest reduction in incident heart failure over 9 years (MR HR 0.92, CI 0.87–0.96).

However, the evidence is not uniformly protective. In a very large OA cohort in China (about 686,000 participants), glucosamine use over about 6 years was associated with a 10% higher overall CVD risk (HR 1.10, CI 1.08–1.11) and a 12% higher coronary heart disease risk (HR 1.12, CI 1.09–1.15), with an even stronger association among adherent users (HR 1.68, CI 1.59–1.78). It should be noted that the Biobank/NHANES databases are generally more transparent, more comprehensively adjusted and one is prospective (Biobank). The Chinese study may have been confounded by NSAID use, although the authors did adjust for this on the information they had (that did not cover OTC use).

Randomised trial data for glucosamine on hard cardiovascular outcomes are lacking. In a very small, randomised crossover trial, glucosamine hydrochloride (1500 mg/d) plus chondroitin sulfate (1200 mg/d) for 28 days reduced C-reactive protein by approximately 23% compared to placebo. This is compatible with an anti-inflammatory mechanism, and CRP is now a widely recognised risk factor in CVD.

Now a newer 2026 UK Biobank analysis has focused specifically on 54,096 high-risk people with prediabetes or diabetes (type 1 and type 2). Over a median 10.6 years, habitual glucosamine use was associated with a 6% lower overall CVD risk (HR 0.94, 0.91–0.96), a 11% lower heart failure risk (HR 0.89, 0.81–0.99), a 11% lower ischaemic heart disease risk (HR 0.89, 0.84–0.95), and a 14% lower stroke risk (HR 0.86, 0.77–0.97). Paradoxically, the lowest risks were observed among users with low CRP at the beginning of the study (HR 0.85, 0.82–0.89). Multiple sensitivity analyses yielded comparable results.

While this new study strengthens the consistency of the protective association with glucosamine use in a higher-risk metabolic group, it remains observational, based on self-reported supplement use without dosage data, and therefore cannot establish causality. At this point in time glucosamine should not be recommended as a proven strategy for cardiovascular prevention, but there should be no harm (despite the Chinese study) in prioritising its use (probably with chondroitin) in patients with OA who are also at risk of CVD.

For more information see:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31088786/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33219063/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37422736/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36145069/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25719429/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41712318/

03/18/2026

https://donnieyance.com/allulose-as-a-glp-1-like-sugar-mechanisms-and-therapeutic-implications/

Allulose (D-psicose) is a rare monosaccharide sugar naturally occurring at low concentrations in select foods including figs, raisins, wheat, maple syrup, and molasses.

03/14/2026

When a physician receives “the diagnosis”…

In this essay, a hematologist and endurance athlete discovers an aggressive breast cancer, causing her to redefine endurance as embracing uncertainty and vulnerability while navigating life as both physician and patient.

02/27/2026

Taking a statin long term for breast cancer prevention could lead to other chronic health problems. It's important to balance risks with benefits of off-label drugs when in remission.

From the study: Researchers determined that compared to those who had never taken statins, continuous statin users displayed a 25% decline in grip strength and a 73% decline in appendicular lean mass, and this was irrespective of genetic susceptibility to statin response.

Researchers also speculated that beyond being directly harmful to muscle tissue, statins may aggravate insulin resistance and risk for type 2 diabetes, as well as accelerate aging and influence broader pathological outcomes. They noted, “These pathways suggest that statin- related muscle decline is not an isolated effect on muscle fibres, but part of a wider spectrum of metabolic disturbances.”

A study published recently in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle raises concerns about a possible side-effect of long-term statin drug use: a significant decline in muscle mass and function.

02/06/2026

Glad to see a conventional OB-GYN encouraging discussion amongst her peers about this important issue.

“If 13.1% of women nationwide will experience breast cancer, there may be a subgroup of this substantial patient population for which the benefits of MHT may outweigh the risks. MHT for breast cancer survivors can and should be approached the same way that breast cancer itself is treated: individually.”

This Viewpoint discusses the benefits and risks of systemic hormone therapy in breast cancer survivors following the US Food and Drug Administration’s removal of black box warnings from menopausal hormone therapy.

02/05/2026

UPDATE—LOW FODMAP VERSION: I finally bit the bullet and started making Dr. William Davis’s L Reuteri yogurt. A friend shared some starter capsules she bought on his site. And once you make the first batch you can use the starter from the batch for 20 more batches. She and I perfected a lower fat version using healthier A2 2% milk instead of cream. I’ll post it in the comments.

I had to buy a new yogurt maker because my Instant Pot doesn’t have a programmable temperature even though it has a yogurt making cycle. This yogurt must be fermented for 36 hours at 99°F. I purchased the Ultimate Yogurt Maker for this purpose. I was lucky to find an Amazon return on eBay for a deep discount.

If you’re looking to do some deep gut healing, L Reuteri yogurt is a big step up from typical commercial yogurt or even yogurt you can make at home.

Ultimate Health includes two 1-quart glass containers with the yogurt maker. If you post a photo of your yogurt maker on social media, they will send you an additional two 1-quart glass containers or Eight 6 oz jars.

01/29/2026

A colleague of mine has created a free resource for those with an early breast cancer diagnosis who have finished treatment. This is a beautiful and gentle guide to help you find your way through this part of the journey.

Finished treatment but still feel unsettled? This free re-entry guide for life after breast cancer offers gentle, body-based self-care support for survivorship—without pressure, fixing, or overwhelm.