Ashley Lakin Nutrition

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Hoffman Estates, IL
Ashley Lakin Nutrition

As a licensed nutritionist and yoga instructor, I use my blended education to address the root cause of your symptoms from various angles.

I focus on utilizing whole foods, not just nutrients, to heal the body.

01/30/2026

Hormones are complicated, and having some kind of hormone imbalance feels really overwhelming. If you’re having heavy periods, PCOS, hormonal acne, hot flashes, or just feel “off”, it feels really hard to know where to start to address thee concerns.

This is where the hormone hierarchy comes in! If you want to find the root cause of your hormonal issues, look “upstream.” Whether it’s blood sugar dysregulation, chronic stress, impaired detoxification, or inflammation, you can’t have long-term relief without addressing these root causes.

Want to learn more? Come to my workshop next Saturday!

Why Your Hormones Feel Off: A Root-Cause Approach to Hormone Balance
Where: Active Care Chiropractic and Rehabilitation
902 W Northwest Hwy
Arlington Heights, IL 60004
When: Feb 7th at 1:00 pm

01/26/2026

⭐️Client Testimonial ⭐️

If you feel like no one has been able to give you the proper tools to tackle your health concerns, book a discovery call with me to see how I can help!

01/07/2026

I love supporting my clients through their journeys to start or expand their family 🤰

My own pregnancy and morning sickness as a humbling experience, so while I always focus on prioritizing nutrient-dense foods, I understand that this may not cover all the bases at every stage of pregnancy. This is why I always recommend taking a prenatal supplement to fill in the gaps.

There’s a lot of prenatal supplements out there and it feels overwhelming to figure out which one is the best choice to support your pregnancy, so I’ve outlined some key things that I look for when recommending a prenatal.

It’s not easy to find a single supplement that fills all these needs, and trying to check all of these boxes can lead to taking a lot of capsules every day! For clients who don’t want to take so many capsules or are having a hard time with this due to morning sickness, I really love Needed’s Prenatal Multi Essentials because it packs a huge nutrition punch in just 3 capsules/day.

As always, the “best” prenatal is the one that fits your body, preferences, and stage of life. For most, I also usually recommend pairing any high-quality prenatal multivitamin with a DHA supplement and an additional vitamin D if necessary.

Be sure to save or share this post if you found it helpful!

12/08/2025

There’s a reason why your menstrual cycle is often called the fifth vital sign. It’s a monthly check-in with your body and hormones, and your cycle can act as an early warning system if something is off with your health.

This is why it’s so important to pay attention to your cycle and take an active role in your health. At the very least, I recommend tracking your cycle using a journal or app. For a more in-depth analysis, I’ve been loving my tracker to see my hormone levels throughout my entire cycle.

Comment with any questions below!

*This is not intended as medical advice or to provide a diagnosis. Instead, use this as a starting point to speak with your medical provider if your cycles fit any of the patterns mentioned in this post.*

12/01/2025

I always ask my clients to get some foundational blood work when we start working together. It’s the best way for me to understand what’s happening in your body right now.

But sometimes that’s just not enough.

Blood work tells us what the “low-hanging fruit” are with your health: areas that need to be addressed before anything else. These include blood sugar regulation, inflammation, anemia, nutrient deficiencies, thyroid issues, and autoimmunity.

What it doesn’t always reveal is why these issues are happening. That’s when I turn to functional labs for deeper insights: tests like stool analysis, SIBO breath testing, urinary hormone panels, organic acid testing, mycotoxin tests, or even environmental toxin screening.

These are often not covered by insurance, so yes, there is an out-of-pocket cost, but I never recommend these unless I truly feel like this additional data is crucial for your care. My goal is to give you the most comprehensive, thoughtful support possible, and that means getting the clearest answers we can.

11/10/2025

It’s true! Your gut health has a direct impact on your hormonal health through something called the estrobolome.

Certain microbes in your gut play a huge role in your body’s metabolism of estrogen. These microorganisms are collectively referred to as the estrobolome. Many of these microbes produced an enzyme in your gut called beta-glucuronidase that is key to regulating estrogen levels in your body.

Let’s back up and run through the steps of estrogen metabolism real quick: estrogen is produced by the ovaries, circulates in your blood stream, and then needs to be detoxified by the liver and excreted. The main pathway for excreting estrogen is through the gut, meaning you have to 💩 it out. By the time that estrogen makes it to the gut, it has been altered by the liver to become inactive and bound to something called glucuronic acid.

Alright, now back to the role to the gut microbiome here! Beta-glucuronidase breaks this bond between estrogen and glucuronic acid, which then makes it possible for your body to reabsorb estrogen before it is fully excreted.

If you have lots of bacteria in your gut that make beta-glucuronidase, you will reabsorb more estrogen, allowing it to recirculate, and causing high estrogen symptoms like breast tenderness, menstrual cramps, heavy periods, PMS/PMDD, and even uterine fibroids. Additionally, if you aren’t have a bowel movement daily, this gives your body more time to reabsorb this estrogen from your gut as well.

Like or leave a comment if you want some tips on how to improve your hormones through your gut health!

10/27/2025

⭐️Client Testimonial ⭐️

Education should always be a major part of your healthcare!

I always joke with my clients that, as much as I truly love seeing them, my job is to educate so that they don’t have to work with me forever.

Book a discovery call with me if you want to learn more about what your own body needs (link in bio).

10/16/2025

✨I have some exciting news! ✨

Ashley Lakin Nutrition is now in-network with Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) PPO. This means that if you have BCBS PPO insurance, your visits may be covered, making it easier and more affordable to prioritize your health.

What this means for you:
- Potentially lower out-of-pocket costs for your appointments
- Easy insurance claims and billing
- More accessible nutrition care to support your wellness journey

If you’d like to use your BCBS PPO benefits for your upcoming appointments, please reach out to me directly or reply to this email so I can help you verify your coverage and guide you through the process.

I’m thrilled to make your nutrition care even more convenient and look forward to supporting your health goals!

08/25/2025

There are very few things that I say almost every person should have in their diet, but research has shown so many benefits to green tea consumption that I might just have to say that everyone should include it in their daily routine. It’s rich in antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and may even be therapeutic in hormonal conditions like PCOS and endometriosis.

If you want to know more about exactly how green tea provides all of these benefits, check out the link in my bio to find my latest blog post!

08/18/2025

⭐️Client Testimonial ⭐️

Proof that small, consistent steps really do add up. I love helping clients feel better in their bodies and their lives! Thank you for trusting me with your care!

06/11/2025

Perimenopause is a big topic in women’s health right now, and thank goodness for that! Most of us have no idea what perimenopause even looks like until we’re in it, and it’s so much harder at this point to do the real work that needs to happen to make this transition smoother. In reality, every person with ovaries should focus on healthy changes in their 30s (probably even 20s, too!) to help their body handle the changes of menopause.

Perimenopause is the period before menopause when hormonal changes start happening and ovarian function begins slowing down. During menopause, ovarian function fully stops. When this happens, the ovaries are no longer producing estrogen and progesterone as they normally would throughout a menstrual cycle. Before menopause, the adrenals glands act as a back-up supplier of estrogen. One the ovaries clock out from their shift, now the adrenals glands are the primary source of estrogen production.

Pretty cool, right? Well there’s one major problem with this….. the adrenal glands are also a major part of regulating our body’s stress response, which is a hugely important job. After decades of chronic stress that most of us experience, the adrenal glands are often over-taxed, so when they need to take on this additional work of s*x hormone production in menopause, they’re already maxed out.

When the adrenals glands can’t pick up the slack of s*x hormone production, this makes menopausal symptoms (hot flashes, mood swings, sleep issues, fatigue, etc.) more extreme 🥴

Fortunately, small changes in how you live your life today and make all the difference when menopause comes. I’ll be sending out my top 5 tips to prepare for menopause in my newsletter next week, so sign up if you want to check those out (link in bio)!

04/14/2025

I think it’s officially safe to say that we are in “false spring” here in the Midwest. The temperature is swinging wildly day to day, we’ve got rain, hail, and snow all in the same week, and the wind is cold and intense. All of this means that seasonal allergies are at their peak.

One of the main players in allergy symptoms is histamine. Histamine is a compound produced in the body from mast cells, a specific cell in the immune system, in response to some allergen. This can be a food allergy, pollen, mold, dander, or anything else you may be allergic to. Histamine plays a role in the inflammatory immune response that helps to neutralize the allergen that has been deemed a threat.

Chronic histamine symptoms (like congestion, itchy eyes, and skin irritations) happen when there is more histamine than the body can break down, and one main cause for this is insufficient levels of DAO, an enzyme that breaks down histamine.

Here are some nutrients and foods that I recommend prioritizing in your diet during allergy season to manage histamine:

Monounsaturated fats: olive oil, avocado, nuts, and seeds
Omega-3 fatty acids: salmon, tuna, walnuts, flax seeds
Quercetin: red apples, onion, berries, citrus, parsley, and green tea
Copper and Zinc: shellfish, beef liver, dark chocolate, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds
Vitamin C: citrus, bell peppers, strawberries, kiwi
Sprouted legume seeds provide a dietary source of DAO

If you deal with seasonal allergies and are looking for more natural relief options, DM me!

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Hoffman Estates, IL
60169

Website

http://www.ashleylakinnutrition.com/

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