Posts by Sara Szal MD
Track Equanimity + Adjust Sooner in 2012
Peace. Stress hormones, particularly the queen of ‘em, cortisol, normalizes. Briefly. Not too high. Not too low. Tank full, even overflowing, and it’s the overflow I give to others—my family and friends, my clients, my book. When I’m in my equanimitous zone, I have time to meditate each morning for 20 minutes, to write, to…
Read MoreHoliday Hormones: Harvard MD Teaches You How to Surf 'Em
It’s the end of the year. Are you depleted? Burned out? Gaining weight over the holidays? Asexual? How much is it worth for you to shift in 2012 to vital, sexy & thin again? I’m Dr. Sara Gottfried, the integrative physician who coaches depleted women with slow metabolism to feel energized, buoyant, joyous and lithe…
Read MoreChina Dispatch #2: Chinese Originated Bioidentical Hormones in 1025 AD
Did you know that the Chinese were the first to create, compound, document and prescribe bioidentical hormones to replace what’s lost due to aging? Certainly not me, yet I am not surprised to learn of this–as my interviewee last week, fourth-generation Chinese Doctor 刘英山 Liu Ying Shan, tells me that the main tenet of Traditional Chinese…
Read MoreChina Dispatch #1: "Too much pressure. Too much stress." Followed by an extraordinary night of sleep.
“Hell, Yes.” That was my response when my husband, David Gottfried, founder of the US Green Building Council and LEED, was asked to give a speech at a green conference in Shenzhen, the “Silicon Valley” of China near Hong Kong, and David asked if we should go. I had visions of interviewing Traditional Chinese…
Read MoreYoga for an Easeful Birth: From Correct Baby Positioning to Endurance "Presence" Training
Guest post by Lexi Yoga Giving birth is not an easy task. Getting pregnant, carrying a child in your womb and having to suffer the pains of childbirth isn’t something you can easily dismiss. Not all women can handle the pain and even if they can, they shouldn’t have to suffer so much during the time of childbirth. Anesthesia can…
Read MoreHormonal Hostage: Six Reasons Your Thyroid is Sluggish + Metabolism Slow
When your thyroid is working against you, your body feels slow. Reflexes? Not as rapid-fire as they were 10 years ago. You don’t react as fast to changes in your environment. Thyroid is the hormone of metabolism, similar to the “idle” position in a car. If your idle is slow, the processes in your body…
Read More5 Quick Tips to Jumpstart Your Vitality
Today is our final day of the first Mission Ignition, so I decide to share our Jumpstart with our larger community. I create a Jumpstart once per week in Mission Ignition to help you focus and stay whelmed, rather than overwhelmed. Begin with one of these tips, and notice how it changes your old patterns.…
Read MoreEnergy of Desire: How Overproviding Gets in the Way
Guest post by Rosie Vega This week we’ve been focusing on how to integrate all we’ve learned in Mission Ignition. But my mind is still being blown by all I’ve learned so far. Some concepts are deceptively simple: get more sleep, breathe, listen to your body, ask for what you want. But these core directives…
Read MoreDr. Sara's Top 8 Hormone Tests: Find Your Blind Spots + Track Your Progress
If you read O Magazine as avidly as I, you know that December features a story on the quantified self, called Beyond Measure. Author Catherine Price describes the Hawthorne Effect, which is the phenomenon that we behave differently when watched, or put another way: when your yoga teacher gazes at you in class, your…
Read MoreMaking a Stop-Doing List and Checking It Twice
By Guest Writer Rosie Vega If I had to pick one song that best fits my life it would have to be “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” by Warren Zevon, from his self-titled 1975 debut album. It seems that I’ve been chronically underslept for decades. And, like Warren, I figured it was something I could…
Read More