Radio Naturopath Episode 496: Lumbar Spinal Cortisone Injection, Acetyl-L-Carnitine, Menopausal Athlete Nutrition

This week, I talked about my experience with having a lumbar spinal cortisone shot at UConn. Spoiler alert: it was a great experience! Just waiting for it to take full effect, but I already have a lot less overall nerve pain. It's exciting! Maybe I'll be back on the bike next weekend!  I talked about the health benefits of acetyl-l-carnitine, an amino acid that can help with nerve pain and function. I'm taking it for my nerve pain, and I'll see if it helps! I started to discuss peri- and postmenopausal women and nutrition. Low energy availability and relative energy deficit are totally a thing, and women tend to arrive their because they undereat due to a fear of gaining weight! We get some expert opinions on why older women, especially athletes, should eat more. 

Radio Naturopath Episode 428: Detox Preview: Sarcopenia: Keep Your Muscle Mass!

This week we previewed next week's talk, which will be about detoxification, especially as it relates to tick borne illness. We'll review everything from binders to epsom salt baths. Our focus for THIS week was on sarcopenia: muscle loss, especially due to aging. If you want to maintain muscle mass, you've got to move it or lose it! However, ANYONE can increase muscle mass at any age, and there are studies that show that. Retaining muscle mass is a predictor for healthy aging. So eat your protein, get your rest, and GET MOVING! 

Radio Naturopath Episode 427: Treating Lyme and Coinfections with Buhner Herbs; Sarcopenia

Today I talked about focusing on treating Lyme disease with herbs using the Buhner protocol. Stephen Buhner was instrumental in elaborating specific herbs that work on different issues with tick borne illness. Some of the herbs support immunity; some are antimicrobial; some are nutritive; some are antioxidant and neuroprotective. These herbs tend not to upset the digestive system the way that antibiotics do. They also tend not to produce or maintain persister cells, that is Lyme cells that are able to evade the immune system using biofilm proteins or round/encysted forms. It takes a lot of herbs but in my experience it's worth doing! We also managed to start next week's topic of sarcopenia, losing muscle mass past age 50. We'll elaborate more on that next week.