The Powerful Immune-Boosting Benefits of Elderberry

Known for it's knack to naturally improve cold and flu symptoms, reduce inflammation, fight chronic fatigue, allergies and more, the benefits of elderberry are impressive across the board.

Don't underestimate the potency of this tiny fruit and the fact that most medicinal formulas come in the form of a 'syrup'. Elderberry benefits packs a punch and lately we're tossing back Pressed Juicery's immunity-boosting shots like crazy. Blended with honey, cloves and cinnamon, these elderberry shots are the easiest thing we're doing to keep our immune systems strong this season. Here's a comprehensive breakdown of elderberry benefits from functional medicine doctor, Dr. Josh Axe...

Looking for a natural remedy that has a very long history of medicinal use? There’s evidence that the elderberry may have been cultivated by prehistoric man. There are also recipes for elderberry-based medications dating back to Ancient Egypt.

However, most historians typically trace its healing abilities back to Hippocrates, the ancient Greek known as the “father of medicine,” who described the plant as his “medicine chest” because of the wide array of health concerns it seemed to cure. Whether we’re talking cavemen, ancient Egyptians or ancient Greeks, this natural remedy definitely goes way back, so it’s no wonder it’s known as one of the top antiviral herbs on the planet.

Health benefits of the elder plant include naturally improving colds, the flu, sinus issues, nerve pain, inflammation, chronic fatigue, allergies, constipation and even cancer. When used within the first 48 hours of onset of symptoms, the extract has actually been found to reduce the duration of the flu with symptoms being relieved on an average of four days earlier. During the 1995 Panama flu epidemic, the government actually employed the use of the elderberry to fight the flu.

I’m sure you’re getting the picture that this medicinal berry is a real powerhouse for good health. Let’s examine exactly why.

9 Elderberry Benefits for Immunity + Heart Health

Major Cold and Flu Relief | Elderberries are an excellent general immune system booster. The berries contain chemical compounds called anthocyanidins, which are known to have immunostimulant effects. Is elderberry good for a cold? Research actually shows that elderberry extract is a safe, efficient and cost-effective treatment for both cold and flu symptoms.

A 2016 study published in Nutrients showed that elderberry supplementation can reduce the duration and symptoms of a cold in air travelers. Travelers using this herb from 10 days before travel until four to five days after arriving overseas experienced, on average, a two-day shorter duration of their colds and also a noticeable reduction in cold symptoms.

Several studies have demonstrated that elder extract is highly effective in mitigating flu-like symptoms. Specifically, the flavonoids in the elderberry extract bind to the H1N1 human influenza virus as well as the H5N1 avian influenza virus.

A 2009 study randomized patients into two groups: One group was given four doses of 175-milligram proprietary elderberry extract daily, and the other group received a placebo daily for two days. The extract-treated group showed significant improvement in most flu symptoms, while the placebo group showed no improvement or an increase in severity of symptoms. Researchers conclude that the extract is effective in controlling influenza symptoms.

Another study published in the Journal of International Medical Researchshowed that when the extract is used within the first 48 hours of the onset of flu symptoms, it shortens the duration of flu symptoms by an average of four days.

Sinus Infection Aid | With elderberry’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, it makes sense that it can help sinus issues. A sinus infection is a condition in which the cavities around the nasal passages become inflamed, and this antiviral herb has promise as a sinus infection natural remedy.

A study conducted by the Institute of Complementary Medicine’s Department of Internal Medicine at the University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland examined the use of a proprietary product, Sinupret, which contains elderberry flowers. The researchers used Sinupret to treat bacterial sinusitis along with an antibiotic (doxycycline or vibramycin) and a decongestant. People who took the combination did better compared to those who did not take Sinupret at all.

Lower Blood Sugar | Both the elder flower and the berry have traditionally been used to treat diabetes. Research has confirmed that extracts of elderflower stimulate glucose metabolism and the secretion of insulin, lowering blood sugar levels.

Research published in the Journal of Nutrition evaluated black elderberry’s insulin-like and insulin-releasing actions in vitro. The study found that an aqueous extract of elder significantly increased glucose transport, glucose oxidation and glycogenesis without any added insulin. What is glycogenesis, and why is it important? Glycogenesis is the process by which excess sugar is cleared out of the bloodstream and into your muscles and liver, which helps maintain normal blood sugar.

And a 2017 animal study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences suggests that elderberries can serve as a potential source of bioactive compounds for formulations that are used for the management of diabetes. Researchers found that both lipophilic and polar extracts of elderberry lowered insulin resistance in wistar rats with type 2 diabetes.

Natural Diuretic | Elder has been shown to promote both urination and bowel moments. Studies have indicated that elderberry or Sambucus has natural diureticeffects. A diuretic is a substance that promotes the production of urine. Doctors prescribe diuretics when the body is retaining too much fluid, which is a common problem in older adults.

Natural Laxative | Elderberry may also help with constipation. A small, randomized trial looked at a compound commonly used in Brazil to treat constipation. The compound contains elderberry. The results of the study indicate that this elder-centric remedy is an effective natural laxative for the treatment of constipation. Unfortunately, there are currently no studies isolating elderberry itself for constipation relief, so more research is needed.

Encourage Healthy Skin | Elderberry has made its way into cosmetic products, and for good reason. Its bioflavonoids and antioxidants, along with its high vitamin A content, make it awesome for skin health. Researchers suspect that a compound found in the elderberry could give a natural boost to skin.

A compound found in elderberry, called anthocyanin, has proven to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Researchers found that this compound may improve the skin’s structure and condition.

Ease Allergies | The flowers of the elder plant are known to be an effective herbal allergy remedy. Since allergies involve an overreaction of the immune system as well as inflammation, elderberry’s ability to improve the immune system and calm inflammation can help provide allergy relief.

Some herbalists put black elder flower on the list of most effective herbsused for treating hay fever-like symptoms. It can be used for allergies on its own or in combination with other herbs. Elderflower is also said to act as a detoxification aid by enhancing liver function.

May Help Prevent Cancer | Edible berry extracts like elderberry extract are rich in anthocyanins and have been shown to have a broad spectrum of therapeutic, pharmacologic and anti-carcinogenic properties. Laboratory studies specifically indicate that the elderberry has some chemopreventive properties. A chemopreventive inhibits, delays or reverses cancer formation.

One study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food compared the anticancer properties of European and American elderberry fruits. European elderberry (Sambucus nigra) is known for its medicinal use and contains anthocyanins, flavonoids and other polyphenolics, which all contribute to the high-antioxidant capacity of its berries. American elderberry (Sambucuscanadensis) has not been grown or promoted as a medicinal plant like its European relative.

This study took extracts of both berries and tested them to access anticancer potential. Both extracts demonstrated significant chemopreventive potential. Additionally, the American elder extract showed inhibition of ornithine decarboxylase, which is an enzyme marker related to the promotion stage of cancer formation. These findings indicate the potential as a natural cancer treatment option.

May Improve Heart Health | Although the studies in this field have found mixed results, there is research suggesting that elderberry extract may improve cardiovascular health. When mice with high cholesterol and HDL cholesterol dysfunction were given anthocyanin-rich black elderberry extract, they had a reduction in hepatic cholesterol levels with improvement in HDL function. This may be due to the presence of anthocyanins, which are polyphenols found in elderberry that have demonstrated antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities.

And another study found that elderberry extract may have beneficial effects on high blood pressure. When polyphenols extracted from the elderberry plant were given to rats with hypertension, in combination with renin inhibitors, they reduced arterial pressure. Researchers suggest that using polyphenols, like those found in elderberry, to lower blood pressure may also help to reduce the side effects of antihypertensive agents and improve patient quality of life.

The Chalkboard Mag and its materials are not intended to treat, diagnose, cure or prevent any disease. 
All material on The Chalkboard Mag is provided for educational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified healthcare provider for any questions you have regarding a medical condition, and before undertaking any diet, exercise or other health-related programs. 

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8 Affordable Clean Beauty Brands You Can Find At Target

When the mothership of fun-on-a-budget shopping, Target, jumps on the clean beauty bandwagon, you know that major industry shifts are really happening. 

While it's tempting to save a buck and turn a blind eye to potentially dangerous ingredients in cheaper beauty products, that impulse is becoming less and less necessary. Keep an eye out for affordable clean beauty brands like these and start making swaps. Target is lining more and more of it's aisles with products that are safe, efficacious and pose no health risks to humans or the planet -- a major step toward progress.

Here are a few of our top picks from makeup to skincare and shower essentials...

8 Affordable Clean Beauty Brands You Can Find At Target

 

W3LL PEOPLE: This is the ultimate toxin-free, eco-luxe cosmetic brand made in small batches with premium natural and organic ingredients. You'll find delightfully easy to use products like this sheer foundation stick this is unmatched in delivering a natural "no-makeup" look. Founded by an elite makeup artist, cosmetic dermatologist and tree-hugging entrepreneur, you'll love this clean brand for all your flawless face needs. SHOP HERE

Odele: Odele is a brand new women-owned and operated haircare line designed, formulated and manufactured in Minneapolis, MN. Their products are vegan, cruelty-free, allergy tested and dermatologist tested—not to mention premium, high-performing at approachable prices—all without harmful or disruptive ingredients. Bonus: All Odele products are gender neutral and meant to be shared. We use this to add beachy texture love to our locks. SHOP HERE

 

Olive & June: Need a salon worthy mani at home? Olive & June delivers. It's a non-toxic long-lasting polish that applies smooth and streak-free in three strokes or less and comes in a chic rainbow of shades. On top of this, it's 7-Free, which means they're formulated without harmful ingredients. Gorgeous nails, the clean way. SHOP HERE

Honest Beauty: Jessica Alba's Honest Beauty is known for its commitment to health, safety and the efficacy of high-performance products. Honest focuses on clean ingredient assessment, carefully choosing the ones they put into our products and the ones we leave out—in essence, everything you need and nothing you don’t. This double-sided mascara is one of the best around. SHOP HERE

 

Everyone For Every Body: This no-nonsense brand relies on decades of manufacturing plant-based body care products, all to choose safe, natural, organic and sustainably-farmed ingredients. They are fully transparent about every ingredient in every bottle, so you know exactly what you suds with every day. Great scents and wide range of useful basics from breath spray to hand sanitizer. SHOP HERE

Cora: Cora is committed to giving all women access to safe and effective period products as well as valuable and trustworthy information to educate and empower. Cora doesn't use conventional cotton in any product, only organic. (And their tampons are even GOTS certified, meaning they’re guaranteed to be ethically sourced, free of pesticides, and made without child labor.) Win-win for us too, every month. SHOP HERE

Vital Proteins: Vital Proteins makes sustainably-sourced nutrition products, promoting health, fitness and natural beauty. Most notably, collagen. Our bodies’ collagen production slows as we age, so our need for it only grows as our bodies become less efficient and we maintain a vibrant life. Vital Proteins make it easy to add a boost to your everyday diet. SHOP HERE

Versed: We're very into the Versed mission: High-performance, not hype. Their products are made with proven ingredients at skin-changing levels, and without the fussy packaging and conventional markups. So you only pay for what matters—the goop inside the bottle. We swear by their cleansing balm to remove the day and their brand new toners are just what you need to step up your skincare game. SHOP HERE

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Dr. Mark Hyman On The Truth Behind Our Broken Food System

Wellness trailblazer Dr. Mark Hyman—functional medicine pro, podcast host and best-selling author—wants us to eat in a way that combines good science with common sense. In his new book, Food Fix: How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Communities, and Our Planet—One Bite at a Time, Dr. Hyman argues that our food system is fundamentally flawed. With our health, our communities and our ecosystem at stake, Hyman is exploring potential solutions for creating a food system that will help us thrive...

There is one place that nearly everything that matters today in the world converges. It is our food and our food system—the complex web of how we grow food, how we produce it, distribute and promote it; what we eat, what we waste and the policies that perpetuate unimaginable suffering and destruction across the globe that depletes our human, social, economic and natural capital.

Food is the nexus of most of our world’s health, economic, environmental, climate, social and even political crises. While this may seem to be hyperbole or an exaggeration, it’s not. The problem is real and big and scary, but there is so much we can do to solve it. My new book, Food Fix, will help you connect the dots and most importantly start making powerful changes in your own life that have global impacts.

 

How Our Food System Became A Global Crisis + What We Can Do About It

Let’s take a look at some of the problem areas that show just how broken our food system is:

Chronic disease will cost America $95 trillion over the next 35 years in direct and indirect health care costs if we don’t change our food system now. Historically, most deaths were caused by infections, poor sanitation, or what we call communicable diseases. Now, 70% of deaths worldwide are caused by “non-communicable disease”—heart disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer and dementia. These are caused by our habits and lifestyle—bad food, stress, smoking and lack of physical exercise.

But our ultra-processed diet is the number one cause of chronic disease worldwide killing 11 million people a year. Much of these deaths (and the 250 million years of disability associated with eating ultra-processed food) could prevented by shifting our environmentally destructive agricultural systems that produce highly-processed crops that make us sick and fat (corn, soy and wheat) to producing real whole foods in ways promote health and address the catastrophic environmental and climate impacts of our current system. There’s also another factor largely contributing to this…

Big Food puts our children’s health at risk. Obesity rates in children have tripled since the 1970s and one in three is overweight or obese. In fact, one in four teenagers now has type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes—something we used to call adult-onset diabetes. If a child is overweight his life expectancy might be 10-20 years less. Every year, companies such as Coke and McDonald’s spend $1.8 billion marketing their products to children as young as 2 years old. The average child between 2 and 14 years of age sees 10 to 11 of these ads per day. That’s roughly 4,000 ads a year. According to the American Psychological Association, children under the age of 8 don’t instinctively recognize the difference between TV commercials and programs, which makes them particularly vulnerable.

Washington is at the whim of Big Food. Big Food companies claim to be good stewards of public health, but they’re actually putting extreme manpower and money into the opposite. It’s estimated that there are around 100,000 lobbyists, both registered and so-called shadow-lobbyists, working in Washington, spending more than $9 billion a year to get when they want. Some examples of this include:

In 2009, the American Beverage Association filed 80 different lobbying reports related to 24 bills in Congress. Among the legislation, it sought to influence was the Ban Poisonous Additives (BPA) Act of 2009, which would have ended the use of bisphenol-A (commonly known as BPA) in children’s food and drink containers. BPA, a synthetic hormone that imitates estrogen in the body, has been linked to cancer, obesity and heart disease.

A bill passed in 2016 limited your right to know whether GMOs lurk in your food. It’s no surprise that some of the biggest spenders were companies that depend heavily on high fructose corn syrup, vegetable oils and other GMO ingredients. Six companies (Coke, Pepsi, Kraft, Kellogg’s, Land O’Lakes and General Mills) spent at least $12.6 million lobbying against GMO labeling laws. In 2015 alone, the whole industry spent $192 million to defeat the GMO labeling bill.

Fast food companies don’t want to be sued for making people fat, sick and diabetic. They are terrified of the disclosure of their tactics that would happen in a lawsuit. For more than a decade, they’ve spent millions trying to get politicians to pass laws shielding them from obesity-related lawsuits. As of 2018, at least 26 states have passed these so-called Commonsense Consumption measures, which are better known as “cheeseburger laws.”

These problems are big, but they don’t have to be permanent...

+ We can vote with our dollars to purchase unprocessed, organic, non-GMO foods for ourselves and our families and donate to campaigns with integrity.

+ We can vote with our voices to tell our representatives to shift nutrition and agriculture policies to ones that promote strict new rules on lobbying and corporate responsibility.

+ We can vote with our vote by putting people in charge who care about these issues.

This is part one in a two-part series from Dr. Hyman's new book. Check back for part-two soon.
In the meantime, we have extensive Dr. Hyman's archives to explore!

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7 Steps To Chill Your Social Anxiety + Panic Attacks Right Now

Susy Markoe Schieffelin of The Copper Vessel is a Los Angeles-based sound healer, reiki master, yoga and meditation teacher. Inspired by her own healing journey, she uses these modalities to help others transform their lives and find healing from within. When she's not leading restorative crystal alchemy sound bath ceremonies, Susy works her healing magic as a sobriety coach. She's deeply vocal about her own path to sobriety, journey with alopecia, and struggles with social anxiety and panic attacks. Her courage encourages us to brave the blocks that stand in the way of living our most radiant lives. We're sharing Susy's seven powerful techniques to off-set anxiety and panic attacks that are working for us...

When I was younger, I experienced crippling social anxiety. For most of my life I’ve suffered from an autoimmune condition called alopecia, which causes my hair to fall out at random. When I was a teenager, I would be anxious that someone would notice my bald patches or my wig in every single social situation. I was terrified that someone would learn my secret. In my adolescence, I turned to alcohol to numb my social anxiety. Unsurprising, this led to a vicious cycle of panic and numbing.

You don’t have to have a condition to experience social panic. In fact, most people experience social anxiety in some capacity. It looks something like this: You’re out for the night with your friends and everything is going fine. Suddenly, your mind starts to race, your palms become sweaty, and your heart pounds in your chest. Your head starts to spin, your breathing becomes strained, and a sense of panic begins to arise.

7 Effective Ways To Mitigate Social Anxiety + Panic

Turning to alcohol or other external crutches to feel ‘more comfortable’ in social settings is a pretty common way to try to tame these symptoms, but what if I told you that you don’t need to turn outside of yourself or run away to ease your anxiety? Since dedicating my life to guiding others down a path of self-empowerment, I have found many powerful tools for mitigating panic and anxiety in public.

Chant a mantra | Chanting a mantra in your head can help halt a spin of anxious and negative thoughts and turn those thoughts into positive ones. My favorite mantras for mitigating panic attacks are: I am okay or I am safe.

Hum | Humming is like giving yourself an internal sound bath. This practice will shift your vibration from one of frantic anxiety into one of peace and calm.

Take deep breaths | In my lineage of yoga, we believe that if you are able to control your breath, you can control your life. Try this simple breathing meditation: Inhale for 4 counts, hold the breath for 4 counts and exhale for 4 counts.

Take a break | Excuse yourself from the situation and head outside, if you can. Take a walk around the block and breathe in the fresh air. Taking off your shoes and feeling the earth beneath your toes can help you feel safe and grounded.

Practice self-love | Before you head into a social situation, send yourself some love. Remind yourself of all of the things that make you great and lovable and take a few moments to truly appreciate these things about yourself.

Observe sensations in your body | Notice where you feel sensations and breathe into them. Panic will often manifest as a tightness in the chest or a feeling of disconnection. Don’t judge the feelings, just notice them and allow them to pass.

Phone a friend | Reach out to someone you know and trust, like a friend or therapist, who can support you in reframing the situation and bring you back to a safe and centered place.

I would recommend trying each of these practices and find what works best for you. You can even think of it as a game. Each time you walk into a social situation, you can try a new practice and see if it works. If you do end up feeling panicked, don’t beat yourself up about it. Take what you learned and resolve to do it a bit differently the next time. Once you find a panic mitigating tool that fits, you can walk into every social situation prepared for almost anything.

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How to Tell if You Have Leaky Gut: Signs, Symptoms + Treatment

Chronic health problems may be attributed to many things, but a leaky gut may top the list. Our favorite gut-health guru and founder of Body Ecology, Donna Gates (check her many insights here!) is here to dispel common myths surrounding inflammation, what good gut health really means—and how to achieve it.

The term “leaky gut” is often used to describe a condition that occurs when the lining of the intestines becomes inflamed (or “wounded”) and porous—some even say, permeable. If you were to rub a leaf of poison ivy on your arm, your external skin would soon become inflamed and irritated. The internal skin of your intestines can indeed become quite inflamed and irritated as well.

While adults who have an inflamed or wounded gut may experience discomfort and health issues, a “leaky,” permeable gut is a good thing early in life. All babies are born with a permeable gut lining so that they can fully benefit from the nourishment of their mother’s colostrum.

What Is Leaky Gut?

The inner ecosystem of your digestive tract is a rich community. It is bustling with bacteria and yeast. These bacteria and yeast do more than help digest food and manufacture nutrients. The bugs in your gut also interact with your immune system, the chemicals in your brain, and your hormones. When functioning properly, the gut mucosal layer protects the interior of the body from large food particles, other large molecules, and opportunistic microorganisms like bacteria, parasites and viruses.

This activates the immune system. Messenger chemicals, called cytokines, tell the rest of the body to respond. In the same way that motorists respond to an ambulance rushing down a street, sirens sounding and lights flashing, the immune system sends out biochemical “sirens,” and this alerts the rest of the body. Usually, the response involves inflammation, which dilates vessels and creates blood flow while also recruiting white blood cells to fight off the foreign invaders.

So when your gut lining is permeable and inflamed, bacteria, toxins and food can leak through your gut wall into the blood causing a systemic issue. Your body must then deal with these foreign invaders, and react to them by creating antibodies against the food, leading to food allergies, fatigue, aching and other symptoms of ill health.

Signs + Symptoms Of Leaky Gut

It’s important to note that if you have a few of these symptoms, or even have many of them, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have leaky gut. I am a big proponent of being informed, not scaring those into running to their nearest functional medicine doctor to get tested.

There are plenty of people that aren’t affected by symptoms as much (goes back to the Principle of Uniqueness and/or our genetic makeup) so wouldn’t even think they had it. Yet, you should be particularly aware of these signs in the event you have an autoimmune disease, candida, unexplained symptoms or chronic illness. Here are a few:

+ fatigue/lethargy/drowsiness/”drained”
+ poor memory
+ feeling “spacey” or “unreal”
+ inability to concentrate or make decisions
+ numbness, burning or tingling
+ insomnia/trouble sleeping
+ muscle aches, weakness or paralysis
+ pain and/or swelling in joints
+ abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea
+ bloating, belching or gas
+ anxiety/panic attacks
+ irritability or jitteriness
+ incoordination
+ frequent mood swings
+ headaches
+ dizziness/loss of balance
+ food sensitivity or intolerance
+ carrying extra weight
+ weakened immune system

What Factors Contribute To A Permeable Gut?

A permeable gut is not caused by one single factor. There are many reasons why you might be suffering from an inflamed and leaking gut. Perhaps you were not “inoculated” with a vibrant inner ecosystem at birth to protect you throughout your life. Or maybe you weren’t breastfed as a child and the beneficial microflora weren’t fed the sugars found in breast milk that allowed them to grow and form a civilization of beneficial microflora inside you to protect your gut lining. Even if you did develop a healthy inner ecosystem at birth, years of stress and the Standard American Diet could have depleted your microflora.

Stress alone kills microflora and is a major cause of inflammation in your gut. Alcohol, wine and coffee contribute to gut inflammation.

Contributing factors can also include:

+ mental, emotional, or physical stress
+ stress hormones, hormone imbalance
+ continued use of NSAIDs, antibiotics or steroids
+ exposure to chemical toxins
+ candida overgrowth
+ gut infection
+ foods that irritate the lining of the digestive tract (ex. gluten)
+ environmental triggers
+ genetics (the FUT2 gene)

How Do You Heal Your Gut?

Because gut bacteria have such a close relationship with your immune system and intestinal cells, the inner ecosystem is your target when healing a leaky gut. Your gut wall is more than a barrier. It’s the pathway that your gut bacteria and immune system use to hold conversation.

Often, several variables need to be considered while going through the process of healing a leaky gut in the event you have several issues going on at once. Regardless of where you are, here are my most highly suggested ways to try to strengthen your gut wall and soothe your immune system by supporting healthy communities of good gut bacteria:

Eat Probiotic Foods | Probiotic foods are foods that have been inoculated with good bacteria and then allowed to ferment. During the fermentation process, good bacteria consume sugars in food and form robust communities. When you eat probiotic foods like cultured vegetables and kefir, you escort these robust communities of probiotics into your colon where they do the most good.

If you have SIBO | I would hold off on introducing cultured vegetables and try young coconut kefir instead—it provides a wonderful source of easily assimilated nutrients and is full of beneficial bacteria that aids digestion and build immunity.

Bifidobacteria is best | This is a probiotic bacteria to use to target leaky gut (and candida), which has been shown to help balance the immune system and control the expression of pro-inflammatory messages (repairing leaky gut and protecting against Candida overgrowth).

Eat Prebiotic Foods | Prebiotic foods nourish healthy communities of gut bacteria. These are high-fiber foods that aren’t readily broken down by enzymes—but they are broken down in the colon by your gut bacteria and can survive the harsh environment of your intestine.

Consume fiber-rich foods | They produce short-chain fatty acids. Short-chain fatty acids promote a healthy intestinal lining and give the right amount of stimulation to the immune system. Overall, their impact is anti-inflammatory.

Examples of prebiotic foods include:

+ dandelion greens, asparagus
+ onions, garlic
+ green tea (my favorite is Pique tea)
+ grain-like seeds, such as quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth, and millet

Prebiotic dietary fiber | This comes in powder form with chicory root and also acts as food for the good bacteria, and is great for when you’re on the go and want to throw into an anti-inflammatory smoothie or drink.

Digestive Enzymes | Many times, leaky gut and candida go hand in hand. One usually isn’t there without the other. And depending on how long the candida overgrowth has been around for, it may need a powerful force to get rid of it since it’s so resistant. Full spectrum enzymes that contain cellulase and hemicellulase are key enzymes that may break down the cell wall of Candida and destroy its protective biofilm, thus preventing digestive overload and candida overgrowth in the gut.

avoid gluten, dairy + sugar | This includes carb-like flours. Always remember, when healing leaky gut, avoid processed and refined foods. Think about calming the inflammation. Also, steer clear of conventionally raised animal products that contain traces of antibiotics.

ratios matter | You can optimize your digestion (and avoid bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine) by following certain principles of food combining. As babies, most of us have an inner ecosystem teeming with bifidobacteria—especially if we are breastfed. But as we age, the numbers of bifidobacteria decline. Studies show that bifidobacteria produce special fats that feed intestinal cells. These fats, called short-chain fatty acids, also team up with the immune system and get rid of inflammation.

Genetics | And here’s where genetics can come in to play too. The FUT2 gene controls how much bifidobacteria you carry in your digestive tract. It decides whether or not the body will show blood type tags in bodily secretions (like saliva, gastric juice, and breast milk) and in the lining of the gut. Everyone has a blood type, but not all of us communicate our blood type in saliva and in the mucus lining the gut.

These secretions (and whether or not they contain tags for our blood type) influence the kind of bacteria that grow in the gut. Roughly 20% of people carry a variation of the FUT2 gene that does not allow the body to reveal its blood type in secretions and in the lining of the gut. This 20%, called non-secretors, is also unable to house a robust community of bifidobacteria. This may leave those vulnerable to autoimmune disorders, inflammatory bowel disease, Candidiasis or even B12 deficiency.

Want to go even deeper into all things leaky guy?
Dive into our Donna Gates gut health archives to learn more!

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Bread Redemption: In The Kitchen With Traditional Baker Shane Edelman

Meet Shane Edelman, Los Angeles creative and traditional bread baker on a mission to "bring bread back." How? Shane aims to clean up bread's bad rap one stone-milled, fermented loaf at a time.

When Shane's not baking and hand-delivering his naturally leavened, fermented loaves made from freshly milled in-house grains, he's schooling people on all things bread. His findings? When people eat his homemade bread made from slow-fermented, organic, stone-milled grains they don't experience the same digestive intolerances as they do from store-bought bread. During his private in-home bread making classes, he dives deep into the science behind why bread in its traditional state may be able  to be enjoyed without the nuisance of internal flare-ups.

Shane's philosophy is simple: Eat whole foods and whenever possible get it from farmers and your community. We love soaking up kitchen inspo, especially when it's the kind of old school, pure and simple living you'll find here...

What I Do: Creative director, bread baker, dad, owner of chickens—not necessarily in that order.

I Can’t Start My Morning Without: A large glass of room temperature water.

Breakfast Is Normally: Oatmeal or chia pudding.

In My Kitchen You’ll Find Plenty Of: Handmade ceramic bowls.

Best Food Memory: This question is impossible! It's like, What’s your favorite movie? (Ok, "Annie Hall"). But how can I choose? So many. How about let's just start with my last meal: Perfectly roast chicken, butter lettuce salad with tarragon, and good bread with butter and sel gris.

Food Philosophy: Try making it yourself, and if you buy it, buy it from a farmer.

Essential Cookbooks: Japanese Cooking by Sonomo Sakai, Sunday Suppers at Luques by Suzanne Goin, Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey.

Favorite Ingredient Lately: Beans.

Ideal Pairings For Sourdough: A jammy egg, dunked in soup, vegetable sammy, but mostly with a good butter (I love Myoko’s vegan butter).

Favorite Bread That Goes With Everything: Sonora country loaf.

Healthiest Daily Habit: Meditation.

Currently I’m Most Obsessed With: Japanese country cooking.

Listening To When I Bake: Mocky’s album, “Key Change” or my guy, Neil Young.

Always Thinking About Lunch At: Langer’s Delicatessen.

Current Mantra: This is me. Dance.

Current Homemade Bread Obsession (And How To Make It!): My longtime love affair with Jewish Rye. Go here for the recipe and substitute rye flour (Landrace rye from Tehachapi Grain Project) and add caraway seeds.

What Excites You Most About Fermentation: It is the pure act of creation. Something is created out of nothing. You have flour and water and you have nothing. You have flour, water, the bacteria in the air, and time—you have bread.

The Biggest Misconception About Gluten: It’s not the gluten that has our bellies aching. It’s the current state of most flour, how it’s milled and the bread baking process in general. Even if it’s organic wholewheat flour you’re buying in Whole Foods, it’s probably crap. I could go on and on and on…

This Matters To You Because: I have kids, and I don’t want them to be avoiding a beautiful thing like bread when they get older. They are a hell of a lot smarter than my generation was, and the future of regenerative farming and a lifestyle that sustains them, as well as the planet, is in their hands.

Compelling Facts For Those Who Might Not Be Sold: 87% of people who think they are gluten-intolerant are not. Only 6% of people in the entire United States are actually gluten-intolerant.

How Can We Better Support Gut Health By Eating Fermented Bread? Only, and I mean only eat bread from bakers who use stone-milled grain from local farmers, slow-fermented and organic. Baking bread is a hell of a lot easier than you think. Gather a group of friends, reach out to me and I would gladly come to your home and teach you how to make the best damn bread you’ve ever eaten.

Loving this kitchen series? We've got tons more of this series to explore. 

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5 Simple Cancer Prevention Tips From A Leading Doctor

Cancer prevention as a lifestyle, will always be top of mind for us. Cancer expert, Dr. Stacie J. Stephenson is one of the first female health physicians to offer integrative care to patients in the Midwest. As Chair of Functional Medicine at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America she is ahead of the curve about all things preventive. Here she shares five powerful habits, we can all do now to focus on prevention...

As a functional medicine doctor, I bring an integrative perspective to the subject of cancer. Integrative medicine in general, and functional medicine in particular, tend to focus more on prevention than treatment. While I work with many doctors who are excellent practitioners of conventional medicine and cancer treatment, my job is to advise on how to increase health to avoid disease, and support the body’s natural healing abilities when disease is present.

5 Daily Habits To Protect Yourself Against Cancer

Here are five things I wish everyone would do every day for cancer prevention, or its recurrence:

Take Aspirin | You’ve probably heard of taking aspirin to prevent a heart attack, but there is some compelling research that taking low-dose aspirin (81 milligrams) daily may also reduce your risk of colon, prostate, and rectal cancer by as much as 50% in adults age 50 and older. There is also evidence that aspirin can reduce recurrence of breast cancer, death from breast and stomach cancer, and can also slow the spread of lung cancer.

Take Vitamin D | Most people who don’t live in the tropics are low on vitamin D and most of the studies on vitamin D and cancer have shown that people with higher vitamin D levels have a lower incidence of colon, breast, prostate, and ovarian cancer, as well as lower mortality rates from cancer. I recommend a vitamin D serum level of at least 50, which you can achieve from both sun exposure and vitamin D3 supplementation for cancer prevention.

Lose Excess Body Fat | Easier said than done, I know, but fat cells act like endocrine organs, producing their own hormones and disrupting hormone balance. This can put you at greater risk for cancers with a hormonal component, including endometrial, breast, ovarian, and thyroid cancer, as well as from other cancers (likely due to inflammation, which is common with obesity), including esophageal, liver, kidney, colorectal, and pancreatic cancer; multiple myeloma (a blood cancer); and meningioma (a brain cancer). The rates of cancer in people who are obese are so much higher than in those of normal weight that this alone is an urgent reason to reduce fat stores.

Take A Turmeric Supplement | Turmeric contains curcumin, which is the substance that gives turmeric (and curry powder) its yellow color. It also happens to be the most potent anti-inflammatory plant chemical we know of.  Although research on curcumin and cancer is ongoing, one 2019 study showed that curcumin could inhibit bone cancer cells and promote healthy bone cell growth. Other studies have shown potential benefits in inhibiting cancer cell growth, signaling, and other mechanisms, especially for breast, lung, blood, and digestive cancers. It’s easy to use in cooking and widely available in supplement form.

Move It | Here’s another easy one: Get out there and exercise. There is quite a lot of evidence that people who exercise have a lower risk of colon, breast, and endometrial cancer (and probably other types). Scientists speculate that this may be due to exercise’s hormonal balancing, anti-inflammatory, and immune-boosting benefits, among other positives. On the flip side, people who are sedentary tend to have higher rates of cancer as well as heart disease, diabetes, and premature death.

Every one of these suggestions is easy to incorporate into a daily routine, and as a professional who sees too many people suffering from a potentially preventable disease, I urge you to take preventive action today.

The Chalkboard Mag and its materials are not intended to treat, diagnose, cure or prevent any disease. All material on The Chalkboard Mag is provided for educational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified healthcare provider for any questions you have regarding a medical condition, and before undertaking any diet, exercise or other health-related programs.

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5 Sustainable Beauty Brands you Should Know Now

There is nothing more chic than giving a damn. (About the environment, our resources, our children, their future and the planet in general.) Over the years we've really nailed the non-toxic, safe and clean beauty thing, but what about sustainable packaging and processes? Oof, it's a whole new challenge to take on and we're grateful for some guidance.

In 2020, clean, curated beauty marketplace, The Detox Market is taking on sustainability on a whole other level. By challenging brands to meet new lower-waste standards and making changes across their own retail landscape (have you seen their NYC store?), the retailer is pulling ahead as a super-responsible option for shopping beauty and lifestyle.

In the coming year, the retailer is rolling out a full program of sustainability initiatives we're truly inspired by -- stay tuned. In the meantime, we asked the team at The Detox Market to let us in on which brands are nailing sustainability in a meaningful way and this is what they had to share...

5 Sustainable Beauty Brands To Know Now

Meow Meow Tweet | This small-batch skincare company creates vegan products with pure, all-natural, organic ingredients and zero waste. We love the Grapefruit Baking Soda Free Deodorant Stick. It offers potent plant oils and mineral powders with a sweet citrusy scent in a convenient push-up paper tube— it's as effective and it is biodegradable.

Aether Beauty | Aether Beauty offers high-quality, vegan and sustainable makeup that harnesses the power of nature. The product line was created with expertise by beauty pro, Tiila Abbitt, who has over a decade of product development experience in the beauty biz. This Rose Quartz Crystal Gemstone Palette is beautiful and offers recyclable packaging.

Detox Mode | Detox Mode is their in-house brand, created to offer safe, clean and effective replacements to the many dirty products. Our favorite? The Impossible Soap—it's a universal soap with nourishing fruit oils that work in tandem to gently cleanse hands and body, leaving skin feeling silky, never stripped. Bonus: Refill the glass bottle at select stores.

Stasher | It's a reusable silicone sandwich bag, so you can say goodbye to single-use plastic bags, for good. These silicone bags come in a wide range of colors and sizes, and they can hold everything from food to floss. The clear sandwich and standup bags are perfect for your carry-on when traveling and checking-in with TSA.

Davids Toothpaste | Made in California, Davids offers premium natural toothpaste in a recyclable metal tube. It's good for the environment, and the best to safely and effectively fight to remove plaque, whiten teeth and freshen breath. It also comes with a key so you can squeeze every last drop out from the tube. Genius.

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Yoga At Home For Busy Moms With Sophie Jaffe

Moms need a little self-care. Make that a lot. Short on time and energy, it can feel like self-love is stuck at the bottom of the never-ending to-do list. We asked the intentional mama behind Philosophie, wellness guru Sophie Jaffe, for a little pep talk to encourage me-time for busy moms. Her answer came in the form of four stress-reducing poses for yoga at home. We love how this mini-do-anywhere-anytime restorative flow sequence floods our system with physical, emotional and mental serenity. Self-love box—checked.

In a mother’s perfect world, we would have time at least one to two times a week to make our way to our favorite yoga studio and check out for just an hour. But in reality, it’s simply not possible—especially when you have littles running around your home. So what do you do? You make the time! You make it happen in whatever form that looks like even if it’s a quickie little flow are your living room floor.

Give yourself what you need! Do what you need to refuel and give you the energy to DO IT ALL. Things can feel overwhelming and unmanageable as a mom but really all is okay and you will make it through. Everything is manageable. As long as your children are happy and safe, everything else is extra credit.

The 4 Best Yoga Poses For Busy Moms

There are several poses you can do when you’re strapped for time that can relieve any tension or stress and drop you back into your body. Best of all, you can do them from your couch! While your kiddos are at school, on a playdate or during a nap try all or one of these poses to restore your energy. For deeper relaxation, turn off any other distractions, stay in each pose for a little longer and set the energy in your space with music, candles and sage. Here are my favorite poses:

Supported Heart-Opener | This pose will increase flexibility in your spice, open up your heart center and ease digestion. A supported inversion like this is great for relieving headaches and nervous tension, balancing the hormonal system, and lengthens/tractions lower back.

How-to: From a seated position on a low couch or bed, slowly drop over the side until you’re able to support yourself with your arms and top of your head. Keep your legs bent or straighten them to deepen the pose. Hold for 10-15 breaths or however long you’d like—listen to your intuition.

Pigeon Pose | This pose is a beautiful hip-opener as it stretches both the hip rotators and hip flexors. It is also helpful in finding relief from back pain and releases built-up stress, trauma, fear and anxiety.

How-to: From a low lunge with the right leg forward, extend the left leg back with the top of your foot flat, and then bend the right leg, squaring your hips. Lengthen the spine and exhale, folding forward over the front of the leg with your arms, chest and head. Breathe for one minute to three minutes and repeat on the other side.

Butterfly Pose | Any type of forward fold helps to release any built-up tension and stress. Butterfly further opens you up, by stretching your upper inner thighs, where we tend to hold much of our energy.

How-to: From a seated position, bend your knees and place the bottoms of your feet together, so they’re touching. Start to slowly extend your heart towards your toes. Hands can be at prayer or at the sides of your feet. Hold for 10 to 15 breaths to truly reap the rewards of this opening pose.

Restorative Savasana | Enter a deep relaxation with the oh-so-yummy savasana! This pose works wonders for our brains and calms any anxious thoughts, while also giving us space to rest and surrender to the moment. Use pillows or a bolster to support any soreness, pain or tightness.

How-to: To move into this simple, but beautiful pose, lie flat on your back and face up to the sky. Let the arms rest on the earth, allowing the palms to face up or place them on your heart and belly. Inhale to open the heart and expand the chest, then exhale to rest back into the earth. Relax everything from your toes to your fingertips, and allow the tongue to fall away from the roof of the mouth. Take a deep breath in, and on each exhale, completely let go.

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Living Well With LPA’s Pia Baroncini

Pia Baroncini lives at the intersection of effortless cool and studied chic. Sure, she's the creative director and designer of the culty namesake label LPA but her boss babe factor doesn't stop there. There's also Pia's Pod where we go for insider (hilarious) talks with her creative comrades in fashion, wellness and more. And then, there is her life on the gram — a slice of her beautifully unfiltered world.

We once came for the fashion, but now we stay for the clean skincare content, nutrition tips and green living inspo. While other media-savvy entrepreneurs cultivate heavily curated online personas, Pia charmingly unravels hers. She's the cheerleader for modern lifestyle realness—a skincare and wellness junkie who isn't afraid to share adult acne flare-ups and indulgent pasta recipes.

Join us for an even deeper peek into Pia's world, we know you'll dig it as much as we do...

I am : Pia Baroncini.

What I do: Creative Director LPA, host of Pia’s Pod, CMO of Ghiaia Cashmere.

I Wake Up At: 7am.

Daily Breakfast: Right now I'm on the clean program, so I’ll have a yerba matte or matcha with some adaptogens and then around 11am I’ll have a smoothie. Please note: I hate smoothies.

My Daily Supplements: So right now, duh, clean program supplements, but my usual is Thorne prenatal, Super Hair and Super You from Moon Juice, Nordic Naturals prenatal DHA fish oil and Thorne methyl-guard plus.

My Food Philosophy In One Sentence: Your plate should either be full of delicious clean nutrient-rich ingredients (I like to look at my plate and make sure everything has a health benefit), OR be something that is just filling your belly with joy (pasta).

Healthy Dish I Rely On Lately: Brown rice, black beans, salmon, spinach, cilantro, parsley, green onion, lemon and olive oil.

Can’t Live Without My: Husband, mom and dog.

Workout I Love: Hot 8 yoga.

At Least Once A Month I Indulge In: Pasta or pizza.

Ingredient In Food Products I Always Avoid: Sugar.

Ingredient In Skincare Products I Always Avoid: I have non-toxic skincare so I don’t have to worry about that!

Go-To Health Or Skin Resources: Honestly, Amanda Bacon.

Crazy Health Idea That Actually Works: Oh man, I have no clue.

Always In My Medicine Cabinet: Miceller water, Zitsticka, probiotics, gauze pads, ZIIP.

Non-Negotiable: Tequila.

Current Mantra To Stay Balanced: If I’m not going to care about it in a week, I don’t care about it at all.

Health Passion Right Now: Balancing my hormones.

Skin Passion Right Now: Even skin tone—staying snatched.

My Go-To Juice Or Smoothie: I die for a giant green juice with cucumber, celery, lots of lemon or lime, a lil ginger and kale or something else dark green.

My Uniform This Season: LPA sweats, Ghaia sweater and an LPA puffy coat.

Natural Beauty Tip: Just drink water.

Always In My Day Bag: KOSAS baseline chapstick and RMS nude liner.

Health Habit That Changed My Life: Eat like you want to life a disease-free life.

The Hardest Truth About Owning A Business: It’s a nightmare. If you're not a social butterfly or don’t have a trust fund, finding funding is insane.

The Loveliest Truth About Owning A Business: When you see a human out in the wild with your product.

Advice You Would Have Given Yourself At The Beginning Of Your Career: Don't get tattoos.

If you love sneak peeks like this, we've got more. Browse our Living Well With archives and go deep!

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These 4 CBD Formulas All Serve Different Needs + We’re Here For it

You'd have to be living under a rock not to notice the boom in CBD-based products. From skincare to sublinguals to edibles, there are so many premium cannabinoid products on the market, it's hard to keep up. When we discover a standout, we're thrilled.

We see a ton of CBD products for review -- and we're not mad about it. But when we first tried Mineral Health it stood out to us because of the line of products we're detailing below. Mineral's distinctive line of sublingual hemp oil formulations are crafted so specifically we had to educate ourselves just to keep up. CBN? Terpenes?  We're familiar...but these products are so specific we had to do a deep dive.

This line of focused solutions aims straight for for modern living's biggest pain points. Namely, balance, sleep, recovery and focus...

Can CBD Really Do All That?

Mineral Health utilizes the whole plant which allows cannabinoids and terpenes to create a symbiotic relationship as they do in nature. Whole plant formulations increase the likelihood of a solution delivering targeted benefits. Here are the four hemp oil formulations that Mineral Health has crafted to target specific needs...

Balance | Notes of citrus, raspberry and white jasmine. Balance is designed to improve mood, reduces anxiety and stress. It's a CBD/CBG blend to reduce inflammation, so you can use it as a day or night formula. Formulated to accomplish bliss in the body and mind, this cannabinoid dense formula has a full, in-plant terpene expression led by Limonene to improve mood and CBD, CBG to reduce inflammation. Shop now

Sleep | Hints of cedarwood, black pepper and California pine. This formula is a calming blend of cannabinoids and terpenes to induce rest and relaxation. Begin with 25 mg, Mineral advises that you'll eventually need less with each application for the nighttime. Formulated for night time anxiety and inflammation, a calming blend of cannabinoids and terpenes associated with sedation to induce a night of deep, restorative sleep. Shop now

Recovery | 'Recovery' has the highest concentration of cannabinoids and terpenes, made with organic avocado oil for topical and sublingual application. It reduces inflammation, stress and anxiety, and you can use it day or night. Formulated with organic avocado oil for topical and sublingual applications. High in CBD and Linalool, with ancillary amounts of CBG for inflammation, stress, and anxiety reduction. A perfect blend for the body and mind. Shop now

Focus | Notes of lemon, rosemary and white jasmine. 'Focus' is a plant-based alternative to stimulants. Start with a ½ dropper for sharpness, and this could improve mood and memory. Formulated as a plant-based alternative to stimulants. Focus is a blend of cannabinoid-rich hemp oil and therapeutic terpenes to inspire sharpness and improve mood and memory. At the same time, it calms the senses, creating for clear communication between body and mind. Shop now

Shop Mineral Health's interesting collection of CBD solutions here.
Curious about hemp and want to learn more?
Explore our extensive archives!

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LA Bite Of The Month: Bondi Harvest In Culver City

Yes, there are a million cafe in Los Angeles, but no, not all of them nail the three things we need: healthy eats that taste good (that's two things!) and a well-designed environment. Nothing is more exciting than discovering a local gem that balances a beautiful space with healthy bites.

Bondi Harvest's new Culver City set-up at Platform takes on nutritious eats in a thoughtfully designed, refreshingly modern and sun-drenched interior. Their new Los Angeles location (the OG was a tiny and charming spot in Santa Monica) is everything we're after in an afternoon hang and chef Guy Turland seems to be right at home serving his wholesome menu here with all the Aussie beach vibes. Think: sunny, seasonal, vibrant and zingily fresh flavors...

 

What we ate: We popped in to sample what Chef Guy Turland is serving up and knew he wouldn't disappoint. Brussel sprout fans will rejoice with a sweet and sour number that comes resting atop a mound of almond whip. Turmeric and fermented veggies fanatics will find heaven in the rainbow bowl that adds quinoa tabouli, pomegranate, avo and an egg into the mix. And breakfast has never been as delish since these squash pancakes came into our lives. The avo chocolate mousse that comes on top is just icing on the (pan)cake.

Why we ate it: Almost all the menu options here are maxed out with greens and superfoods. There are vegetarian, gluten-free and vegan options and you can add fish and chicken to everything.

Why you need: There's so much to dive into at Bondi Harvest from breakfast, bowls, salads and wraps to CBD and collagen smoothies, cocktails and get this, 'babyccinos' for the kids. Try an Aussie classic Big Surfers Brekkie than take a stroll around Platform LA, one of our fave prime shopping locales.

All this talk making you hungry for more?
Check out more healthy bites around town with our LA + NYC Bite Of The Month series!

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How She Does It: Inside Facialist Joanna Vargas’ Skincare Routine

Joanna Vargas is The queen of radiant skin. Just ask Eva Mendes, Greta Gerwig, Julianne Moore or Mindy Kaling how they get their golden glow. Her unique combination of technique, technology and clean ingredients has made her one of the most sought-out estheticians and experts in the beauty industry. Joanna is on a mission to help us glow from coast-to-coast both with famously transformative facials at her signature NYC and LA salons and her namesake skincare collection (personally, we love the sheet masks!). Now, Joanna is debuting a new book, Glow From Within, chock full of insider beauty secrets -- including plenty of health tips.

We asked Joanna to share her personal skincare routine below in a new series we're debuting on the routines of beauty mavens we love. Here's Joanna...

My Skin Philosophy: My focus has been and will always remain on restoring confidence, which is why I preach to people every day that there is no magic solution—anyone can achieve the skin they want by doing the right steps every day.

Favorite Daily Products: My Rejuvenating Serum will always be my favorite. I love the smell! It reminds me of the honeysuckle bushes that were across the street from my house growing up. The simple combination of my favorite oils creates this perfect, soothing blend to make you glow all day. I couldn’t live without it. Some others:

Sara Happ Lip Balm | You can put on the smallest amount and it makes your lips feel instantly healed and hydrated.

MD Solar-Sciences | Probably my favorite sunscreen line, offering both chemical and physical blocks. I love the Mineral Moisture Defense SPF 50, which goes on easily even though it’s a mineral-based sunscreen. It’s also excellent protection for people like me who tend to get melasma on the face easily.

dry brushING| A great drugstore beauty buy. It costs about $10 and you can get it anywhere. Dry brushing is my favorite method of body exfoliation because it is multi-tasking – it's actually incredible as a cellulite treatment and increases elasticity.

Super Nova Serum | A retinol to help control the oiliness of the skin while gently addressing aging. I use it at night.

my Daily Serum | The green juice for the skin. It has hyaluronic acid and oat grass in it. It helps depuff and is hydrating without being heavy.

Cloud Bar | A face cleansing bar that is soothing, calming and hydrating.

my Exfoliating Mask | A mini facial while you sleep. I encourage my celebrity clients to sleep in my it the night before a red carpet event. It evens out pigment, takes down inflammation and after a good night’s sleep in it, you wake up fresh-faced as if you have just had a facial!

My new book | Glow from Within is about my specific product recommendations and how to find the best ingredients and skincare products for you!

My Daily Skincare Routine:

AM routine: In the morning when I wake up, I wash my face with my Cloud Bar. I dry brush my body before I get in the shower. After my shower pre-makeup, I’ll do my Daily Serum, Rejuvenating Serum, Daily Hydrating Cream, Revitalizing Eye Cream and some sunscreen.

PM routine: For nighttime, I wash my face with my Vitamin C Face Wash. I exfoliate twice a week with my Exfoliating Mask and I do a sheet mask every night. Lately, I’ve been using my Twilight Face Mask with Epidermal Growth Factor. I follow that with my Super Nova Serum, which is my retinol serum.

Why clean beauty matters to me: I worry that people are perpetuating a lot of misconceptions about product safety. But ultimately I look to source organic ingredients wherever I can, while providing people with the best formulas for their skin.

Health habit for beauty I swear by: Eating healthy is obviously good for many things, but if you want glowing skin, it is more important than you think to have a good diet.

I find that the best skin diet is one that involves eating veggies of different colors for every meal and a green juice every day. There is really no substitute and it works on everyone! If I have a client who doesn’t eat salad or drink green juices, I tell them to go to Whole Foods and buy liquid chlorophyll, it tastes like mint, it oxygenates the skin, keeps skin clean, works from the inside out see a huge difference in your skin in a matter of days. I would also strongly suggest avoiding sugar, dairy and wheat. All of those things are hard to digest and lead to breakouts, even in adult skin. Most people don't realize that skin directly correlates to our digestive system. If we eat something we can't digest or have trouble digesting, there are consequences!

Beauty treatment/tool I'm obsessed with: My new Twilight Facial, which is a combination of radiofrequency with microneedling. It’s as close to a facelift and skin rejuvenation that I’ve ever seen in my life. I tend to get microneedling done to my face monthly just for skin tightening and pore refining. If you have acne scars, maybe you do three of those treatments a year or a little more. But you do see a result immediately, which is exciting!

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Ab Fab For The New Age: Meet The Co-Hosts Of That’s So Retrograde

That's So Retrograde turns five this month and we are first in line to celebrate the weekly podcast that has us laughing into our adaptogenic lattes. Co-hosts Elizabeth Kott and Stephanie Simbari bridge the gap between comedy and wellness  with flip realness—it's no wonder they've been coined "the Ab Fab of the new age."

We couldn't wait to get into the minds of these BFF's for a little 'she-said, she-said' to share what revs them up, their latest vibe and critical insights on maintaining peak work-wife status year after year...

we are: Elizabeth Kott and Stephanie Simbariof of That's So Retrograde

Our Mission: Making wellness fun and accessible through curiosity and humor!

Hardest Truth About Owning A Business Together:
Elizabeth: The stakes feel higher creating and building something with someone who I am so close with outside of anything that has to do with work.

Steph: Sometimes you just want to be friends but have work to do and that can be challenging to create boundaries.

Loveliest Truth About Owning Business Together:
Elizabeth: It is a lot of work but we have so much fun.

Steph: How much we trust and care about each other and what we are doing.

Health Habit That Changed My Life:
Elizabeth: Right now, refraining from alcohol has brought on a new form of clarity and connection with myself that was missing for a while.

Steph: Learning to say no—radical truth of self, anti-codependency. Also, eating for my blood type. And on a “health” tip, nutritional muscle testing has healed my eye inflammation in a major way (shout out to Vee's Honey).

Craziest/Coolest Thing I Learned From A Guest:
Elizabeth: That’s hard because I have basically an Encyclopedia Britannica of lessons...coolest right now is the cycle syncing method from Alisa Vitti. It is a game changer—through following our own biological rhythm we can maximize productivity, creativity and overall quality of life. This is crazy because this information is relatively new to mainstream, and its like why weren’t we given this intel sooner?!

Steph: Definitely the cycle intel from Alisa Vitti was mind blowing on a cultural and personal health level—some things in my chart have been insanely spot on. Remington Donovan’s numerology reads have given me such incredible guidance; bonding with Fran Drescher over cannabis was insane bucket list shit; Marianne Williamson checking us for infantilizing ourselves was epic…it's honestly impossible to list a best/favorite because it's all been wildly crazy, cool and expansive!

Currently Obsessing Over:
Elizabeth: Prima night magic face oil (it is fragrance free and really good for any sort of skin irritation), Rising Springs water, my Imperfect Foods weekly produce deliveries, Matcha Bar Hustle Zero Sugar Energy Drink, a really minimal skincare routine and Handel Group life coaching.

Steph: Nip Lip lipstick that is prescribed based on your nipple color, Root Of It All tinctures, facial cups with the Prima oil, Ilia super serum skin tint, Yachak Sparkling Yerba Mate, jewelry from Joy and You Were Born For This by Chani Nichols.

Always In My Day Bag:
Elizabeth: Saie brow butter, Avene thermal water spray, Dr. Bronners hand sanitizer, Ilia Super serum skin tint, Rooted Powder ginger packets and at least five different lip things (right now: Henne Organics, Beauty Counter, Laniege, Bite Beauty and Aquaphor).

Steph: Tiny Moleskin notebook, a pen, rms concealer, Brett Glam brow gel, dental floss from Cocofloss, hand sanitizer, Kiva Edible, a bunch of loose vitamins and bobby pins, a spicy or sweet essential oil from Nemat Perfume, Ouli’s Ointment all-purpose balm and Givenchy lipstick (Rouge Interdit Vinyl Noir).

What I’ve Learned About Myself While Building A Business:
Elizabeth: Everything and nothing.

Steph: So much, but I would describe it more as confirmation of things I've always felt but never had language or experience to validate.

What We’ve Learned About Each Other:
Elizabeth: That Steph is the smartest person I know.

Steph: That Elizabeth is the smartest person I know (she made me say this).

What I’ve Learned About Wellness:
Elizabeth: It’s personal, and there is absolutely no one size fits all. Also, I hate the word wellness.

Steph: It’s always evolving, and gentleness is key.

What I’ve Learned About Self-Care:
Elizabeth: It is not a thing for the to-do list or something you “should be doing,” it is about making space, aligning to your needs and what will serve you best in any given moment across the board.

Steph: It's joyful to do and people should talk about it way less.

Can’t Live Without:
Elizabeth: Sleep Crown pillow, facials from corrective skincare, Dr. Barbara Sturm foaming face wash, my iPad and Rent the Runway unlimited plan.

Steph: Eight hours of sleep, Lord Jones bath salts, my Tiles, Four Sigmatic coffee packets, Standard process Spanish Black radish and Metagenics Methyl Care.

Current Mantra:
Elizabeth: Choose easy.

Steph: Less is more.

What We’re Up To Next:
Breathing, hydrating and world domination!!

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No Sweat, Literally: A 20 Minute Workout To Get Your Back Into Your Skin

We've been inspired by Taryn Toomey's yoga-inspired, body-mind-boot camp since the get-go. Recently, we were invited to an event with The Class' Sophie Kass based on The Class Relieve, a 20-minute workout with no sweat required. Intrigued, much?

We love the idea of simply getting back into our own bodies during or after a day of chasing class schedules, babies or emails. The Class Relieve is a quick, sweat-free option for those of us who want to efficiently clear the mind and flush heaviness from the body but are short on time or space, or both. In other words, it's the perfect mid-day routine to move the body, witness the mind, cleanse energy and reboot.

Sophie shared this simple 20-minute workout routine to incorporate the classes healing effects into our day, anywhere, anytime. The result is a return and reconnection to self, in just a few minutes...

Create a playlist | One that gets you going and helps you clear your mind.

Stand up | Take a few minutes to simply stand when you start to feel antsy or jittery.

Walk around | Take a stroll through the office or allow yourself to get out of the space you are in.

Get tall | Once back to your desk, take a few moments to feel your feet on the ground and stand as tall as you can.

hands on | Put your hands on your body, if it feels safe, and take few deep breaths.

sound on | Put the playlist on (headphones, fine) and listen. Give your body some nice shakes, working from the ground up.

hop it out | Take a few hops. A few up and down little jumps can do wonders.

Shrug It | Shrug those shoulders, move your head around, maybe flutter your lips.

Listen in | Now just listen...This is the time to tune in to your body and do whatever it wants to do.

Get SteadY | When you begin to feel that high, slow down and get yourself nice and steady.

Take a seat | And now, you can sit and take a few deep breaths.

Feel the difference that you made for yourself with your own body. And then begin again.

We've been making this work-in part of our daily midday practice here at HQ. The team is loving how it makes us feel clear, grounded and present. These steps are perfect for anyone who feels disconnected, wants to open the creative pathways, or simply needs to reset and shake off the residue from a stressful experience, person or atmosphere.

Learn more about The Class, their new digital studio or find a location near you.

The post No Sweat, Literally: A 20 Minute Workout To Get Your Back Into Your Skin appeared first on The Chalkboard.

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