Naturopathic Blog

 
 
 
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Naturopathic Mental Health Mondays: Mediation for Aging with Grace

Kim Brown is an expert at finding and teaching others about the healthy ways of dealing with anxiety, feelings of unworthiness, panic attacks, sadness, and anger.

On this Mental Health Monday, I sit down with Kim, and together we discuss how our minds are undeniably connected to how well we age.

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Naturopathic Mental Health Monday: Emotional Impact of Infertility

An estimated 15% of couples will have difficulty conceiving a child and as many as 33% of Americans will seek fertility treatments. Infertility and infertility treatments can have a major emotional impact on a couple and their relationship. Women seeking fertility treatment will often struggle with anxiety and depression as well as issues with identity and self esteem. How does one cope with the outside world while going through fertility treatment? How can someone decide that all options to resolve infertility have failed and it is time to stop treatments?

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Naturopathic Mental Health Monday: Time to Stress Less

Wow what a year it has been! Due to condition beyond our control, many of us have spent more of our time in stress and worry than ever before. Fear of our financial future, the health of our family or the grim prospect of never being able to find a partner has been keeping many of us up at night or paralyzed us with stress in the morning.

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Aphrodisiacs: Let's Spice Things Up

Just because it's cold outside, doesn't mean your bedroom should be. So it's time to turn up the heat!  Named after the Greek goddess of love and sexuality, Aphrodite, aphrodisiacs have been used for...

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Naturopathic Mental Health Mondays: The New Work Place

Lately many of us have found that the boundaries of home and business have now become blurred. As a result we maybe having difficulty managing expectations for ourself and our colleagues when it comes to delivering on work product or project. Even worse after living in a state of uncertainty for months now, we can be struggling with how to cope with the constant (and often unpredictable) changes in the workplace.

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Naturopathic Mental Health Mondays: Relationships

Relationships can be wonderful part of being alive except when they are not. Some relationships unfortunately toxic and can be made worse due to substance abuse and emotional eating. Now that we are spending so much time indoors with our loved ones these issues are more intense than ever especially as people seek comfort in addictive behaviors.

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Surprising Reasons Your Gut is a Mess

When it comes to digestive issues such as acid reflux (GERD) or IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), the natural holistic tends to point the finger at food allergies and sensitivities. Patients will often be given food diaries to identify potential food triggers or a script for an IgG food allergy panel (NOT IgE as that will not identify delayed food sensitivities/allergies associated with digestion).

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Naturopathic Approach to Tapering off Antidepressants

Over six years ago a man was referred to my naturopathic practice by a psychologist because he was “stuck.” How was he “stuck?” He been prescribed multiple antidepressants including Effexor the decade prior for anxiety and insomnia he had experienced during grad school. Now he had spent the last 5 years trying to wean himself but had literally stuck on his first step down dose of Effexor

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

What Anxiety does to Your period

In the past few months since the world went on lockdown, many of us have spent more of our time in worry than ever before. Fear of our financial future, the health of our family or the grim prospect of never being able to find a partner has been keeping many of us up at night.

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Could Staying at Home Cause Headaches?

Recently at the start of my virtual naturopathic appointments, I have been giving my patients space to voice their concerns around COVID and the challenges of staying healthy while being trapped inside. One common concern that has come up besides weight gain, anxiety and insomnia, is headaches.

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Getting off the Roller coaster of Emotional Eating

With spending so many hours inside, it can be so easy to seek comfort in food. Especially when some of us have enormous stock piles of tasty snacks and quick shelf stable carbohydrates like cereal, pasta and rice. Perhaps emotional eating is a new phenomena or we’ve struggled over the years with binge eating.

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Pay-As-You-Wish Virtual Appointments

We could have never imagine that our whole world would change in just 2 weeks. It can be so easy now that we are staying indoors to fall out of our healthy routine and allow habits that might not serve us to creep in.

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Staying Healthy and Sane When You're Stuck at Home

For some of us spending all day at home is a dream come true, but for the overwhelming remainder it is literally our worse nightmare (this naturopath included). As a New Yorker I am blessed with an abundance of things to do outside of my tiny box called an apartment.

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

What’s Tanking your Thyroid?

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to share some startling statistics with the women of Kathy Gelfand’s Empowered Lunch Hour. Believe it 1 out of 8 women will develop a thyroid condition in their lifetime and women are 3-5 times more likely to suffer from thyroid problems than men.

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Healthy New Year! Healthy Podcast!

 

In December, Tom Fuld interviewed me for his podcast series,"The Heart of Healing...The Healer's Journey."  We spent a delightful afternoon chatting about my journey to becoming a naturopath...

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Spice Rack Medicine

When you think herbal medicine, you might think of exotic herbs from distant lands with impossible to pronounce names. However, there are many powerful herbs that are readily available in your kitchen...

Read More
Ivy Branin Ivy Branin

Why You Should be Fermenting Your Foods

That unidentified container covered in blue fur might have colonized some interesting microbes but I wouldn't  advocate you eating it.  The fermented foods I'm talking about can be easily found at you...

Read More
logan cox logan cox

Thunderbolt Pose (Vajrasana)

 

Shin-shin-toistu-do is a variation of yoga brought to Japan in the 1940s by Tempu Nakamura.  This form of yoga focuses on developing Ki (life force) through seated and moving meditation, breath techni...

Read More