One of the most important things that you can do, for yourself, in terms of your health is to know yourself. I have been on that journey for my whole life. The more you know yourself, the more you can tap into unbridled joy, for love and acceptance of self. Then, you are fully present for other people around you, with your heart wide open to bless those you love, around you.

So, looking through the lens of health, start with your diet. Do you feel better eating a diet higher in protein or not? I eat mainly a vegan diet (free of dairy products but am flexible to eat chicken, turkey, fish, free range eggs or even red meat on occasion). I try to consume wild fish twice a week to get omega 3 and also supplement with omega 3 oils daily. I am eating more servings of vegetable protein in the form of beans. I cook them in my pressure cooker to get rid of the lectins as per Dr. Stephen Gundry’s advice. I do watch when I eat more protein in the day. If I eat a higher protein meal, I eat it earlier in the day so it digests well before I go to bed (3 hours). When I mention genetics, this will make more sense.

Having MS necessitates that I eat a diet low in saturated fat. I keep my level of saturated fat under 25 grams a day. I am quite liberal with using raw flaxseed oil. I use it on my toast instead of butter and I use it on air popped popcorn along with nutritional yeast. I use some olive oil in cooking but it is minimal. I make homemade vegetable broth and sauté with that on occasion.

I am strict with elimination of dairy and gluten and eat sugar only on occasion, if at all. This keeps me the healthiest. Sugar, I do not miss as I feel it ruined my health in my past. I know because I am in remission from MS doing this. I feel vital and strong, tapped into my intuition about my daily food choices.

I eat a lot of vegetable servings. I aim for 6 to 10/day. I make one or two servings a day be leafy greens, in the form or organic kale, gailan greens, organic collards, or organic lettuce. I eat about five servings of fruit daily and try to get a variety when it comes to my food choices.

I notice how much my gut health has improved over the years. I used to see a lot of undigested food in my stools. That has completely gone away. I believe that is due to the amount of fiber I am consuming on a daily basis and how long I have been working on my gut health (years). I do not feel my gut is leaky like in my past. I eat grains that are gluten free as mentioned but not as much as in my past. I still enjoy rice and gluten free pasta, quinoa, gluten free oats when I choose to eat grains.

If you need more help with your help, please book in with me. Go to www.robinvinge.com and then click on the contact me button to be led to my Jane booking site. Hope you had a good holiday! Dr. Robin Vinge, ND

Healing is about loving your entire mind, body and spirit. It is about engaging and spending as much time in the parasympathetic nervous system as possible versus the sympathetic nervous system (which is all about fight or flight and the stress response). To engage the parasympathetic nervous system, you can lie down and focus on slow deep breathing which will relax you. Dean Ornish, who is a well-known medical doctor in the U.S., recommends spending and hour on relaxation practices once a day. Doing this you can began to activate healing in your body. Dr Joe Dispenza who is a leading expert in the mind/body/spirit field recommends focusing on your heart and then to create a unified healing field, to focus on things that elevate your vibration like appreciation, gratitude, compassion, generosity and love for others/pets/plants etc. in order to help your body heal. Being a spiritual person, I like to quote Scripture here Philippians 4:8 ‘whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. And the God of peace will be with you’. So, there are so many nuggets here to help you heal. I would say self love and self acceptance and cultivating those qualities in every moment is a key for me. Wishing everyone a happy holiday full of love and healing. To book a session with me I have my Emotional Freedom Technique and counseling rate at $85.00 for the hour right now. Go to www.robinvinge.com and then the contact me button to book on my Jane booking site. Much love, Dr. Robin Vinge, ND

I have so many important documents I have used in my practice over the years. I was thinking about an old patient of mine. She had a lot of relatives who had experienced a breast cancer diagnosis. She felt so much fear yet you have so much power if you know what can help offset risk. I am going to repost Dr. Kristi Funk’s diet. She is an MD that is very well known in the US for her work on prevention of breast cancer. Here it is…

Recommendations for Breast Cancer- Dr. Kristi Funk, MD- The Ultimate Cancer fighting diet

Cut meat and dairy products. You can cut risk back by 50% by following a plant-based diet. Cut alcohol out and exercise daily for at least 30-45 minutes.

Sulforaphane in broccoli helps as do ellagic acid in berries and walnuts. Plants prevent broken DNA-stimulate your DNA to create apoptosis in abnormal cells.

Soybeans bind to activated B receptors and shut down alpha receptors which estrogen binds to and shuts aromatase down which would increase estrogen. Soy is beneficial to consume and protects against cancer- 58% of women consuming soy had lowest risk of cancer. Eating 2-3 serving of soy had decreased rate of reoccurrence.

If you have 1 serving decreases estrogen 21%. Soy never makes the cancer grow. Make it non- GMO and organic soy.

Breast superfoods include

1. cruciferous vegetables (the family)- when you choose these foods eat them raw or lightly steamed. Heat destroys myrosinase conversion of isothiocyanate to sulforaphane. Eating broccoli sprouts-1/4 cup daily in your salad gives you 100x the sulforaphane of broccoli. You can eat steamed broccoli with a little mustard powder stirred in to activate the sulforaphane. Eat 2 servings from the cruciferous family daily to reduce risk.
2. Leafy greens. Eat a big salad daily with many different types of greens- kale, leaf lettuce, collards, chard, etc.
3. Allium family- need to be fresh- leeks, garlic, shallots.
4. Mushrooms- contain natural aromatase inhibitors. White button mushrooms have the highest estrogen blocking activity. A thumbs worth is all you need to eat! This decreases androgens being converted into estrogens. Have to lightly cook the mushrooms vs eat raw.
5. Green tea- consuming ½ cup green tea per day regularly dropped breast cancer rates by 89%.

3 cups of green tea per day – squeeze a fresh lemon in for even more cancer protective properties (increases ECGC 5x which cuts breast cancer risk by 50%).

Coffee may cause breast cysts and swelling in some people because of the methylxanthines.

6. Flax seeds- Eat 1-2 tbsp ground flaxseed daily to reduce risk of breast cancer.
7. Alcohol- NOT protective. Any amount can increase cancer risk. Limit to red wine if you are going to consume any because of resveratrol in the grape skins.

Happy December everyone. If you want to book an appointment with me go to www.robinvinge.com and click on the contact me button for a link to my online booking site on Jane. Much love, Dr. Robin Vinge, ND 4034670039