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

If we are lucky to make it to adulthood, we may be plagued by memories of imperfection embodied in our youth. I know for a fact, that I would not be dealing with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis if I had not pushed myself so hard throughout life. I was very driven as a child especially when it came to sports. I loved sports and spent great effort in playing sports but did not pay enough attention to taking care of myself when I was younger.  I regret not treating myself with kindness and compassion in my youth. But as there are consequences from every action in the 3D world, I think I am pretty grateful to be here now. I had anorexia nervosa in my early teens (age 11 to 14) which I did overcome and have not relapsed since I was 21. My stress levels were very high at that time.

I also developed MS because I ate poorly for about five years. There are no accidents just consequences to every action. I had a sugar addiction when I was attending university. I would also binge drink on occasion at that time too. I know now from going to naturopathic medical school that those two behaviors will contribute to gastrointestinal permeability. Also being a high-performance athlete contributes to gastrointestinal permeability. Gastrointestinal permeability is a key factor in developing an autoimmune disease.

 We trained hard being varsity athletes. We would do early morning runs on three days of the week. We would practice from 4:30 to 6:30 pm after university classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We would play games on Wednesday nights at 7 pm. We would often travel on the weekends to play other teams and universities. That was my most favorite time of my life though. I regret that I was not conscious and aware of how important it was to eat well when I was younger. My parents provided me with sound nutrition. I just made poor choices at times and now my poor choices have caught up with me.

My intuition told me when I was in my mid twenties to study naturopathic medicine and that was one of the best decisions that I made.  I have since learned how to take excellent care of my health with diet and lifestyle. I will forever be compensating for errors of my youth but I have accepted that as my wisdom that I can pass on to other people. I have had patients over the years that have confessed to me that some of the errors of their youth resulted in health challenges (a smoker with a diagnosis of tongue cancer comes to mind).

I would love to be able to speak to young athletes in schools and universities of the importance of sound nutrition and watching alcohol intake in order to preserve life long health. I feel I have to eat perfectly for the rest of my life. My sister says I have orthorexia now and she may be right about that. I did go into the perfect field to maintain my health.

 I do know that one trigger that I have trouble overcoming is overwork. I often don’t know my limits until I have overextending myself and have wound up in the ditch. That is typical of autoimmune. I am learning to make peace with the driven side of myself and am learning the wisdom that my body communicates to me every day.

 Life is a long journey. Your intuition can guide you. Your personal will needs to be united with divine will in order for your life to unfold in such a way that you can be used for God’s service and as an instrument of God’s love.

www.robinvinge.com