About this episode
If we want to repair our broken health care system and move culture towards true, long-term sustainable wellness, then medicine must embrace a a new approach to healing. An approach that's so new, it's old. Less reductive, more holistic. Less diagnose & prescribe and more all-encompassing, functional and preventive. Let’s kick start that conversation. This week's guest is nutritionist, acupuncturist, herbalist, Reiki Master and expert Chinese Medicine practitioner Heather Lounsbury , author of Fix Your Mood with Food* . Although she gave up meat nearly 30 years ago for ethical reasons, Heather was a junk food vegetarian with zero interest health until hers hit the skids. Moody and constantly fatigued, she began experimenting with nutrition and was astonished to discover the extent to which she could modulate her physical and emotional vitality relative to the types of foods she would eat. This realization lead Heather to pursue graduate degrees in nutrition and Chinese medicine. Today Heather is a well respected clinical practitioner with over a decade of experience treating patients with a wide variety of mental, emotional and physical issues. Her basic message? Live natural. Live well. Food has a far greater impact than we recognize on not only our physical health but on our mental and emotional health as well. Not only can proper diet (amplified by additional holistic healing measures) alleviate stress and elevate your mood naturally, it can prevent and often reverse a wide variety of chronic infirmities, including heart disease, elevated cholesterol, digestive issues, diabetes (diabesity!) and more. Over the course of our conversation we discuss: How pain and digestive disorders can be holistically managed and alleviated; How holistic healing practices can be used to treat mental health & addiction issues; The importance of progress over perfection; The role and function of certain herbs on physiological functions; Primer and origin of food allergies; Thoughts on GMO’s, Omega- 3 EFA's & Supplementation; and Addressing the social barriers that impede healthy eating. Lots of good stuff to chew on this week. I hope you enjoy the conversation. Peace + Plants, Rich