Critical Conversations about Women's Health & Wellness | Nutrition & Supplements | Holistic

We've all heard sugar is bad for us. But, have you ever stopped to think about the consequences of substituting sugar for 'DIET' alternatives – such as those brightly colored, zero-calorie, artificial sweeteners instead?

Sucralose (Splenda), Saccharin (Sweet & Low), Aspartame (Equal or NutraSweet), Stevia (Sweet Leaf), & Sugar Alcohols (like Xylitol) are hiding in too many standard American food items to count. They've all been made in a lab by chemists discovering how to make our food sweeter with less calories – at the expense of our long term health.

Plus, we can't deny the fact that they've been perfectly marketed to us as one of the most recognizable condiments available to us at almost every coffee shop and restaurant in America – for FREE.

If you don't know them by name – we can confidently assume that you know them as the little "pink, yellow and blue packets" always crammed in next to the sugar.

What's not to like about FREE stuff? Or better yet … SWEET stuff?

We hope to make you stop and think about this long and hard today.

Are they good for us?

Are they harmless?

… Is zero calories really better?

We dive into all of this and more during this episode while expanding on the bigger conversation from episode 10 where we discussed Added Sugar, the popular motto YOLO & It's Hidden Effects on Your Long-Term Health

We want to give you your Power back.

What you do with this information is up to you.

We're two critical care nurses on a mission to inspire you, motivate you, and empower you.

- Briana Reesing & Laura Gluck -

More information about us & this show can be found on our website at www.criticalconversationspodcast.com (including full show notes and resources from each episode.)

Join Our Community on Instagram @CriticalConversations

YOLO (you only live once). It may be a 'fun' common way to say 'live a little' - but we take it's meaning - Quite Literally.

SUGAR – is known to cause cavities, diabetes (type 2) and weight gain when consumed in high amounts on a regular basis. But, DID YOU KNOW – it has now also been linked to digestive issues such as leaky gut and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, high blood pressure, heart disease, Alzheimer's, dementia and has even been linked to increase the likelihood and growth rate of certain cancers?

That being said... What if we told you, you had the power to take your health back and do your best to prevent these above mentioned diseases solely by paying attention to what you're eating …. Would you do something about it?

Change your habits? Switch up your morning routine? Maybe skip the coffee & donut combo every single day and reach for something more nutritious for the health of it?

How much sugar have you eaten today?

Truly take a minute to think about it.

Google it – Look into it. Turn the package around.

According to the World Health Organization - It's recommended that women consume no more than 25 grams of ADDED sugar on a daily basis at most. (For men – the recommended amount is no more than 30 grams – max.)

Use that information & go from there.

Information is Power.

& The sole reason we show up every week for this podcast is simple..

We want to give you your Power back.

What you do with this information is up to you.

We're two critical care nurses on a mission to inspire you, motivate you, empower you.

- Briana Reesing & Laura Gluck -

More information about us & this show can be found on our website at www.criticalconversationspodcast.com (including full show notes and resources from each episode.)

Join Our Community on Instagram @CriticalConversations

WARNING: Everybody poops. But, no one is talking about it.

So, we're taking the liberty of opening up the conversation around digestive health to a much deeper level today. Do you poop often enough? Do you pay attention to what it looks like?

More on this (diarrhea and constipation), along with a multitude of other symptoms that may be silent symptoms of poor gut health that you've been ignoring. Psoriasis, Eczema, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Diabetes, Weight Gain, Fatigue, Brain Fog, Hypoglycemia, ADHD, MS, headaches …. You name it . It's all connected.

In this episode we dive deeper into the importance of your microbiome as well as the simple solutions that are in your hands on a daily basis.

Get the full breakdown, show notes, quotes, links, & resources on our website: www.criticalconversationspodcast.com/episode009

& join our incredible community on instagram @CriticalConversations

Your hosts: Laura Gluck & Briana Reesing

*LEGAL DISCLAIMER: The information in this podcast is to be viewed as general knowledge and is not a substitute for professional medical help. Our opinions are our own and do not reflect that of our employers. We are registered nurses, not doctors, pharmacists or nutritionists.

We are providing general information and are here to open up conversation on heath care related topics. The content found here is our educated opinions and, should you require medical assistance, we urge you to seek medical professionals who are equipped to give you the personalized care you need.

Leaky Gut. Microbiome. #GutHealth. IBS. Food Sensitivities. Probiotics … There's a chance you may have heard these words mentioned in recent conversation with your doctor, coworker, friend or possibly even on social media.

But, do you truly understand why "gut health" is such a hot topic of conversation lately?

You can access the full show notes, links and resources at www.criticalconversationspodcast.com/episode008

Or join the conversation on instagram @criticalconversations

With this episode, we hope to help you understand the microbiome on a deeper level while leaving you with tangible tips and tricks of what you can do about it – how to avoid the things that may be harming you – and how to replenish the good bacteria in your body that's trying to help you thrive and survive.

Still eager to learn more? We Highly recommend you checkout Dr. Josh Axe's website as a resource for easy to understand information about the microbiome and more.

- - - He also has a book with deeper information and solutions for gut health you might find interesting:

it's called Eat Dirt & it's available to purchase on Amazon.com

- - - lastly, we'd love to see you at SHE DAY – APRIL 29th, 2018 - in Phoenix, Arizona. Learn more & purchase tickets at:

shechangeseverything.com/she-day-phoenix

We will be speaking on one of the panels with Integrative Dietitian Nutritionist Jennifer Klotz, MS, RD, LDN who also happens to be one of the founders of the event. Learn more about her HERE & follow her on Instagram @jenniferklotz_rd

- laura gluck & briana reesing -

www.criticalconversationspodcast.com

In this episode, Laura Gluck of www.fitasgluck.com shares her personal story with us for the first time. Ironically, it starts just like anyone else & we have a feeling you'll be able to relate. It begins … when she was born. Healthy. Strong. Without Complications. Until a multitude of childhood infections led to multiple antibiotic prescriptions, resulting digestive issues, ovarian cysts, birth control, gallbladder surgery, hospital admission for sepsis - and so much more.

Laura takes us through her personal medical history and reveals how, what seemed to be a moment in time, was the middle piece of a very complex puzzle. She starts by explaining parts of her history she didn't realize were so important or so connected to other areas of her health until recently.

From labs showing glucose intolerance, elevated stress hormones and altered thyroid function, to casually being put on oral birth control to manage symptoms at age 15, no questions asked. We realize now how connected it truly all was.

More than a decade later - after taking "the pill" without knowing any better - Laura discusses the various research she has since uncovered linking her seemingly harmless prescription pill to potentially be the cause of her gallbladder issues and multitude of other digestive symptoms when she was younger.

As always, we encourage you to do your own research and continue to seek out answers to your questions for yourself. For your reference, here's the article about gallbladder disease and certain oral contraceptives that Laura refers to in this episode: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3091897/

It's because of this complex history - that Laura decided to explore her own health under a new lens, while employing the listeners to truly understand the risks associated with medications.

Ultimately, while discussing their own health histories in episodes 6 & 7, Laura Gluck & Briana Reesing - the co-hosts of this podcast - hope to remind each of you listening to approach your health story holistically - while being mindful of bio-indivduality, realizing that the risk/benefit of each medication, diagnosis or treatment decision will be different for each person.

Nothing in life is a one size fits all, especially when it comes to health and the treatment prescribed. In this episode, Laura helps to bridge the gap to make her primary message extremely clear - everyone has their own story & although it's possible to learn from eachother's experiences, we also need to approach our own health in our own way - while figuring what solution works best for you, individually.

Never stop pursuing what 'health' looks like to you - as we hope to inspire each and everyone of you to persistently learn, educate yourselves and expand your knowledge around your health. That is, after all - at the core of why we show up for this podcast every week.

Learn more about Laura Gluck,

the face behind @FitAsGluck over at: www.fitasgluck.com

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Discover more information behind this podcast and the hosts at www.criticalconversationspodcast.com

&

Join our community on instagram for daily motivation @criticalconversations

Thank you so much for your support! Please be sure to 'subscribe' leave us a rating and review if you haven't already and share this episode with your friends or family!

We truly appreciate YOU.

– Laura Gluck & Briana Reesing –

*LEGAL DISCLAIMER: The information in this podcast is to be viewed as general knowledge and is not a substitute for professional medical help. Our opinions are our own and do not reflect that of our employers. We are registered nurses, not doctors, pharmacists or nutritionists.

We are providing general information and are here to open up conversation on heath care related topics. The content found here is our educated opinions and, should you require medical assistance, we urge you to seek medical professionals who are equipped to give you the personalized care you need.

Thank you for listening to our podcast, we hope you enjoy it.

We're all unique – with our own health history, symptoms and life events. In this episode, critical conversations co-host: Briana Reesing of www.beachlifeorganic.com shares her own personal story in hopes of motivating you to seek out answers for the symptoms you may be having before it's too late.

It's not always easy to get a clear diagnosis when the symptoms you're having are vague or infrequent. But, that doesn't mean you should give up. Be your own best advocate, listen to the signals and symptoms your body is showing you and begin to dial into those.

Briana shares her own personal 'journey' of autoimmune issues triggered by increased stress in her adult life accompanied by a multitude of factors that had been leading up to the problem for years before the symptoms began presenting themselves.

She was getting married, buying a house, fighting to stop a termite fumigation of her house, and working full time as a charge nurse of a busy ER when her body began shutting down.

If we learned anything from this year long process of uncovering the root cause of Briana's issues … it's this:

There is power in discovering what is at the root cause of your symptoms.

Prescription medications may be a necessary tool to utilize as a short term fix – but keep in mind – they are not the cure. They do not address the root of the problem & it's up to you to consider seeking out answers about your health in order to solve and reverse the trigger causing it all.

In Briana's case – after struggling with depression and social isolation due to her symptoms – she began strictly following a 3 month guided elimination diet, in which she was ultimately able to uncover the trigger behind all of her symptoms: GLUTEN.

Discuss with your doctor if an elimination diet might be right for you.

The book Briana used to guide her elimination diet was written by a well known functional medicine doctor, recognized as one of the top leaders of integrative medicine; his name is Dr. Leo Galland & you can learn more by reading his book: The Allergy Solution.

Lear more about Briana Reesing, the face behind @beachlifeorganic over at: www.beachlifeorganic.com

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Discover more information behind this podcast and the hosts at www.criticalconversationspodcast.com

&

Join our community on instagram for daily motivation @criticalconversations

Thank you so much for your support! Please be sure to 'subscribe' leave us a rating and review if you haven't already and share this episode with your friends or family!

We truly appreciate YOU.

- Laura Gluck & Briana Reesing –

Let go of the rules, Live simply & Eat real food.

That's obviously easier said than done when you're just getting started on your health journey – but we want to do our best to help simplify it for you in this episode.

We hope to inspire you to become motivated by a meaningful WHY that will leave a positive impact on the long term benefits behind your decisions around food.

This episode is part 2 of 2 – in other words – a continuation of episode 4 – in which we dove in to our own personal stories and told you which fad diets and food rules we have both previously subscribed to.

Neither of us were able to maintain a restrictive diet long term – due to food cravings, subsequent health issues and underlying flaws that are always associated with restrictive food rules - i.e. – unnecessary stress, shame and guilt around food.

Here are a few of the resources we mentioned at the end:

The newest book that we're both currently reading & loving is written by a well known functional medicine doctor at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Mark Hyman – if you haven't heard of him – we hope you fall in love with his message as much as we have.

It's called…

FOOD: What the Heck Should I Eat?

We also briefly mention the book Bri followed for the elimination diet in 2016 which allowed her to pinpoint the symptoms linked to the adult onset food allergies she had developed. You can learn more about the underlying causes and symptoms of food allergies you might be suffering from in this life changing book written by Dr. Leo Galland ...

It's called ...

The Allergy Solution

& an incredible cookbook that will get you back in the kitchen and inspire you to love your home cooked food again – written by a holistic chef who also happens to be a very good friend of ours, Laura Lea Goldberg, you can learn more about her on instagram at @lauraleabalanced

Her cookbook is …

The Laura Lea Balanced Cookbook: 120+ Everyday Recipes for the Healthy Home Cook

We dive deeper into the food camps and fad diets during this episode – discussing the differences between – Vegan – Vegetarian – Paleo – Keto – Whole 30 – Weight Watchers – Atkins – 21 day fix – you name it …. Ultimately we believe they actually all have something in common – to help you become aware of the food that you're eating and how it's making you feel.

However, they don't reach the ultimate goal like we want them to – for us it's always about your overall, long-term health & happiness.

That's what needs to be at the center of anything and everything you choose to do.

Stay connected and sign up for our newsletter over on our website www.criticalconversationspodcast.com

& join our supportive community on Instagram for daily motivation @CrIticalConversations

*Links to the two books mentioned above are Amazon Affiliate links. When purchasing a product through affiliate links - your cost is still the same - and we in turn will receive a small commission for referring the product to you. Sharing links via the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program helps us to share our favorite items with you while also covering some of the cost of production that goes into creating this podcast for you, we genuinely appreciate your support & promise to only ever share and link to resources we find beneficial and useful in relation to the topics within each episode.

Let's dive into the messy and complicated world of FOOD – sorting out fad diets, dogmatic food rules and discussing the different food camps that are currently popular in 2018.

As registered nurses, we're not nutritionists or dietitians - but we are human. So we've had many of our own experiences around food. Plus, we've each fallen victim to the peer pressure at different stages of our lives based on our goals & we've each had our own personal journey around the discovery of the nutrition hiding in our food & the way of eating that works best for us individually.

In this episode - we discuss how we got to where we our today – what our opinions are on all of it – while trying to uncomplicate it for you to understand it all better and make the best decisions for yourself in regards to food.

We get personal – telling you which fad diets and dogmatic food rules we've subscribed to in the past and how that worked for us long term.

Spoiler alert – it never works long term – it always comes back around to one basic, simple rule.

Not any one single way of eating is perfect for everybody.

Vegan, Vegetarian, Keto, Paleo, Macro, High Fat – Low Carb, High Carb – Low Fat, Weight Watchers, Atkins, Whole 30, 21 day fix….

The list goes on and on.

But the answer is simple.

Eat Real Food. Mostly Plants. Not too much. - Michael Polan said it best, and we've come to realize – that no matter which dogmatic food camp you may be subscribed to – we can all agree that REAL FOOD is at the core of our ultimate health and well being.

Did you know…..

Oreos and Coca Cola are vegan?

– our point being …. No matter what group you belong too – you still need to take personal responsibility for the daily food choices you're making while understanding the long-term effects of the foods your choosing to consume and WHY.

Understanding the why behind the food we're eating will ultimately allow you to simplify your food choices long term, walk away from the rules, remove the emotional entrapment you've most likely felt at least once in your life around food – and we hope to allow you to begin enjoying food and the way it's making you feel at your core – quite possibly for the first time in your life once you discover the 'why' behind our passion on this topic.

If you enjoyed this episode - please share it with your friends and family. Hit the subscribe button and leave us a review if you haven't done so already.

You can find more about us on our website:

www.criticalconversationspodcast.com

Or join our community over on Instagram to expand this conversation on a daily basis @CriticalConversations

We can't thank you enough for listening. Episode 005 will be a continuation of this two part series.

We hope you enjoyed it.

Laura Gluck RN, BSN, CCRN

&

Briana Reesing RN, BSN, CEN

One of the most requested topics - let's discuss the difference between western and holistic medicine modalities.

We also announce an exciting event coming up in Phoenix, Arizona - April 29th, 2018 called SHE DAY . We will be speaking on a panel about our food freedom story & also doing a matcha latte demo at the start of the day.

Learn More & Buy your tickets here: https://www.shechangeseverything.com/she-day-phoenix

You guys have asked:

What type of doctor should I see?

Is my primary care doctor actually listening to me?

Are Naturopaths and Integrative Functional Medicine Physicians worth the cost?

... In this episode, we're diving into the differences between Holistic/Integrative/Functional medicine versus Western Medicine and what you can expect from a visit with your primary care physician.

But, keep in mind - you are the guardian of your own health and you need to show up prepared in order to get the most out of it - no matter which type of physician you choose to see.

Start by seeking out a physician covered under your insurance plan to decrease cost and see what baseline lab work and tests you can have done.

If you're struggling with additional symptoms that aren't being addressed you can seek out additional help (but keep in mind - you may have to pay higher out of pocket costs) when seeking out Holistic/Functional/Naturopathic Care.

You can start searching for a functional medicine practitioner in your area by utilizing this resource: https://www.ifm.org/find-a-practitioner/ & you can always refer back to Yelp for user submitted reviews based on their experiences with that individual doctor.

We can't encourage you enough to seek out a 'wellness visit' before you're sick.

... You should know your baseline when you're at your HEALTHIEST - that way you have information to compare to if you start having symptoms later on.

Still have questions after listening to this episode?

Reach out to us at www.criticalconversationspodcast.com

Instagram @CriticalConversations

The first episode kicked off introducing ourselves - who we are as critical care nurses - and why we care so much about preventative health.

In this episode, we do our best to simplify the definition of preventative health and discuss simple lifestyle changes you can make to SIMPLIFY your daily life. Prevention should improve your overall health - without overcomplicating your life.

Here's the New York Times article that fueled this discussion, it's titled 'Preventive Care Saves Money? Sorry, It's Too Good to Be True'

... we've linked the article below and share our opinions around it within the episode. (( spoiler alert - we don't agree.))

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/upshot/preventive-health-care-costs.html

Prevention starts with you.

You're responsible for your health.

We truly believe this.

Here are a few other facts we shared during the episode, sourced from NIH.gov

- 33.9% of adults 18 and older in the US are pre-diabetec

- by 2050 1 out of every 3 americans will be diabetic

- Serum Hemoglobin a1c of 5.7-6.4 is considered pre-diabetic

- Serum Hemoglobin a1c of 6.5 or greater is diabetic

- Serum fasting glucose less than 100 is considered normal

- Serum fasting glucose of 100-125 is considered pre-diabetic

- 2 in 3 American adults (70.2 percent) are considered to be overweight or have obesity

Thank you for listening.

Laura Gluck BSN, RN, CCRN

Briana Reesing BSN, RN, CEN, MICN

You can find more about us at:

www.criticalconversationspodcast.com

Join our amazing online community on instagram:

@CriticalConversations