Author name: Michelle Durkin

  I believe that food, exercise, sunlight, fresh air, relationships, and stress affect our health more than we will ever know. It is these things that we need to be spending our time, money, and effort on in order to live a healthy life. It is our daily habits that will determine the overall quality […]

I can’t believe 2016 is pretty much over. I also can’t believe that I have published approximately 50 editions of Doctor as Teacher Tuesday. So I want to end this year by bringing you a little preview of what I am going to try to do more of next year – video! As always please

The Christmas season tends to be the most common time of year that people stray away from their healthy eating goals. I find it interesting how the indulgences of Christmas Day have evolved over time to span the entire month of December. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the Christmas cookies that my mom makes

Wouldn’t it be important to know whether or not you are at risk of developing diabetes ten or even twenty years in advance? Well with this blood test it is entirely possible to do just that. One of the most common underlying causes of weight gain, fatigue, poor sleep, high blood pressure, and aching joints

Did you know that you have more receptors for serotonin in your gut than you do in your brain? Also, the bacteria in our gut make more than 90% of important neurotransmitters, serotonin being one of them. Mental health is interdependent on gut health. It’s biochemically that simple. Serotonin is often known as our happy

  So many patients confide in me that even though the holidays are such a fun time of year they can also be quite stressful. More demands on your time, more opportunities to stray from good eating habits, more coordinating of schedules, and sleep deprivation can turn a wonderful time of year sour pretty easily.

Did you know that there are ten times more bacteria in your digestive tract than there are cells in your body? Called the gut microbiome, these tiny bacterial allies play a fundamental role in the immune system. When the delicate balance of these bacteria are disrupted, it sets the stage for inflammation, which is at the

One of my favourite take-out meals used to be pad thai but I stopped eating it because of all the pasta. Even though it is gluten-free (rice pasta) there are still too many carbs in it to be healthy for my blood sugar (if you remember in a previous post, my thyroid is so much

It’s amazing the number of patients that I work with that experience anxiety or list anxiety as one of the health concerns on their intake form. Many times in conventional medicine patients are just prescribed an anti-anxiety medication eg. Ativan, or an anti-depressant like an SSRI. Unfortunately just as commonly in alternative health care, patients

We’ve made it to that season again…flu season. We’ve all been brainwashed to start dreading it instead of preparing properly. Let’s think differently this year. I put this up on our facebook page last year and it got some of the most likes we’ve had all year so I thought I would share it with