Sounds of My Nightly Routine: Chaos, Singing, Humming, and Chanting Om

Chanting om has become an effective way to release stress, center my mind, and soothe my children to sleep.

As a mother of three young kids, I experience the bedtime routine mostly as a battle. Starting at 5pm, the battle begins: I battle with my children to wash their hands before eating dinner, to eat dinner, to not dance on the furniture while eating, to take a bath, to…

Why Eating Right and Exercise May Not Be Enough

Toxic exposures from consumer products is the unknown pillar of health and wellness.

In high school, I was known as the healthy one because I ate well and exercised a lot. This always made me wonder, Then why do I feel so bad?

Decades later, I would discover an unknown pillar of health and wellness: toxic exposures from consumer products. …

The Power of Environmental Factors

It seems like common sense that environmental factors — the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink — affect our health. So why don’t most of us (including the medical community) consider their role in shaping our biology?

In 2009, my husband experienced a carotid artery dissection, a tear in the major artery in his neck. Though the event was unusual for a 37-year-old, he was released from the hospital with no recommended changes in diet or lifestyle (aside from blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering medication).

Disappointed by the…

Are We More Sick Than Ever?

The health trends among children and adults are alarming. Sophia Ruan Gushee, author of A to Z of D-Toxing, wants more people to consider the role of environmental factors that we can control: toxic exposures from what we buy.

I grew up during the 1970s and 1980s in upstate New York — in Binghamton, a city of about 200,000 residents at the time. I attended various schools that were diverse: a Jewish nursery school with approximately 15 to 20 children per class; a public elementary school for kindergarten through…