Podcast

Episode 21: How our footwear shapes our bodies with Dr. Ray McClanahan, DPM

Welcome to episode 21 of the Woodall Wellness Podcast! We are so excited to have Dr. Ray McClanahan come on and be a guest on our show!

Dr. McClanahan’s practice, Northwest Foot & Ankle in Portland, Oregon, allows him to care for those who find their highest joy when in motion. In his 18 years as a podiatrist, he has learned that the most common foot problems can be easily corrected by restoring natural foot function. I first found out about Dr. Ray when I was doing a continuing education course. I watched a 2-hour presentation by him and it blew me away! I’ve definitely gone in and out of the natural foot health movement, but after hearing Dr. Ray speak, I knew this was something I needed to make a permanent shift towards.

Dr. Ray is the inventor of Correct Toes, silicone toe spacers. His professional goal is to provide quality natural foot health services with an emphasis on sports medicine, preventative and conservative options as well as education on proper footwear. He’s offering free shipping on this product to our listeners who use WOODALLWELLNESS at checkout.

Dr. McClanahan is an active runner and athlete. In 1999, he finished 14th in the U.S. National Men’s Cross-Country Championships and had a near Olympic Trials qualifying 5,000 meter mark of 13:56 in 2000. He then qualified for the World Duathlon Championships in 2001.

Please enjoy this episode and be sure to check out his website correcttoes.com for tons of videos are resources on preventative natural foot health!

Follow him on Instagram and Facebook


Show notes

What does a natural human foot actually look like and how does that change due to environmental or genetic factors?

  • the widest part of the foot should be at the toes, most people are widest at the ball

  • foot shape begins to shift beginning at age 3- these subtle changes end up becoming big things over time.

  • What footwear factors are shaping our feet over time?

  • Mentor: William Rossy

Common foot problems related to poor footwear and foot-body misalignment: shin splints, hammer toes, weak arch muscles, ball of the foot problems, bunions, crooked toes, neuromas,

Predictably at some point, over time, one foot won’t work anymore. Their body has learned bad positions and bad movement patterns

"A lot of what we see going wrong in peoples bodies is because we’ve changed the shape of our feet.”

Finding your best fit

  • Pull sock-liner or insole out of shoe. Does your foot go over the edges?

  • Sock liner test is gold standard for finding what your shoe size is. Clinical research (still to be published) is showing that 10% of people fit their footwear.

  • Video: Sock liner test

"We can painlessly deform ourselves with our footwear. Children are not saying 'mommy and daddy my feet hurt' because it’s a painless process.”

Building healthy foot health in children

(It’s really exactly the same principles as building healthy foot health for adults)

  • Anyasreviews- Barefoot Shoes for Kids

  • Video: Choosing Healthy Shoes for Children

  • What to look for in a shoe: Lightweight, flexible, flat, not a lot of material between the ground and the foot to promote good proprioception.

  • Shoes are solely for protection: “There’s too much marketing out there leading us to believe that we need a special shoe for every sport. If our feet are strong and aware, all we need is protection.”

  • When we stimulate our skin by going barefoot, our skin hypertrophies.

Common concern: “I have high arches” or "I need more support”

  • Arch height is not a predictor of disability

  • We don’t know if it’s a problem unless we align you and strengthen you first

  • People with high arches tend to support their own foot better than a person with a weak foot

  • Sprained ankles, Peroneal tendonopathy, use metatarsal pad to support the high arch

  • You have support built in if you position your foot the way nature intended

  • Video: Pronation vs. Overpronation

  • "The way athletic shoes are built today take away our natural support mechanism, creating the need for an artificial support mechanism and it’s a multi-billion dollar industry."

Csapo research: 2 inch heel vs flat shoe after about a year, MRIs showed 14% shortening of calf muscles and overlapping of achilles fibers.

Phil Hoffman: traveled the world

Haile Gebrselassie

Shortening of posterior calf muscles and shortening and contracting anterior calf muscles- creates muscle imbalances.

What does foot retraining look like? Depends on:

  • Age

  • Willing to change shoes

  • Rehab strategies

Case report: In 16 months, 3.5 year old boy was cured of crooked toes.

Bunions: rather than doing a surgery, I correct their footwear and teach them the bunion stretch, toe extensor stretch

How to start building stronger feet:

  • Start by engaging your bare feet in your home. Arch muscles get 10% stronger just by going bare foot more often.

  • “Even if you never touched your feet, never did an exercise but just spread your toes, got a flat shoe and started living your life that way, you’re gonna get healthier!”

  • Take it slowly- allow time for adaptation

Video: Shape of Strength- balance benefits, bunion reversal benefits, arch height increase benefits, performance benefits

Natural Podiatry Group

"Having a stable foundation and strong arch muscles correlates to health elsewhere in the body”

Barefoot running

Video: Abebe Bikila’s 1960 Olympic marathon victory (running barefoot on Rome’s cobblestone streets)

Some of the best ultra runners in the world don’t run a lot, they walk a lot like the Tarahumara Indians. (with naturally aligned feet)

Born to run: got everyone excited about what you should do but hurt the reputation of the minimal shoe movement because people would switch to barefoot or natural shoes without a transition period and would end up hurting themselves.

  • The failure wasn’t a failure of the shoe construction. People make foolish mistakes. They don’t understand adaptation and the need to implement new strategies very slowly.

  • Vibram’s class action lawsuit, charged for making false claims about benefit of minimalist shoes on feet but Now there are at least 7 good studies showing exactly what vibram five fingers said the shoes would do.

The transition phase: it has to be slow.

Michael Sandler- Barefoot running “Don’t go more than 200 yards the first time you go outside barefoot.”

Summary:

We need to get people out of shoes that are making them unhealthy by slowly transitioning in a safe, deliberate and intentional manner, restore natural spacing using Correct Toes and upregulate sensory input by walking barefoot or using toe socks.

Biggest take home message for audience: Use The sock liner test when checking if footwear fits you

Healthy Feet community on facebook

Episode 20: Concerns with a Vegetarian Diet in Pregnancy with Lily Nichols, RDN

In this episode, Dr. Mark and Anisa dive deep with Lily Nichols, RDN into the true concerns for mamas and babies when a woman chooses to follow a vegetarian (or even limited animal protein) diet. Though there is so much to be discussed on this topic, we covered the key concerns of what true protein needs are in pregnancy, essential pregnancy micronutrients often deficient on a vegetarian diet, the differences between animal and plant forms of nutrients, and the challenge of balancing blood sugar on a limited protein diet.

Lily Nichols is a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist, Certified Diabetes Educator, researcher, and author with a passion for evidence-based prenatal nutrition. Her work is known for being research-focused, thorough, and unapologetically critical of outdated dietary guidelines. She is the author of two bestselling books, Real Food for Pregnancy and Real Food for Gestational Diabetes. You can find her work at LilyNicholsRDN.com and follow her on Instagram: @lilynicholsrdn

We fully understand that this is a controversial topic and ask that each person listening does so with an open mind and accepting the information we discuss from a place of curiosity and in the best interest of mama and babe.

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Show notes

2:45: Anisa’s personal challenges following a vegetarian diet

3:20: How protein needs vary for women in pregnancy and other common concerns with protein in pregnancy

RDA is arguably too low even outside of pregnancy

  • Current RDA: 0.8 g/kg (about 10% of caloric intake). After `13 weeks goes up to 1.1 g/kg

  • Other recommendations: 70g in last 2 trimesters

9:30: 2015 first study on estimating protein needs in pregnancy for Estimated Average Requirements (EARs: meets 50% of group’s needs)

  • Estimated that protein needs in early pregnancy are 39% higher than conventionally recommended and 73% higher than current recommendations for late pregnancy.

  • Downside of not getting enough protein: elevated blood sugar (Gestational Diabetes)

  • Study showed that recommendations should be at least 1.22 g/kg for early pregnancy and 1.52 g/kg in late pregnancy. Study referenced: Stephens TV, Payne M, Ball RO, Pencharz PB, Elango R. Protein requirements of healthy pregnant women during early and late gestation are higher than current recommendations. J Nutr. 2015;145(1):73-78.

  • “There’s a lot of evidence that suggests the RDA is way underestimated when it comes to protein…Based on what we know about nutrient needs in these stages of pregnancy, the goal may even be 1.5 g/kg protein in early or 1.8-2 g/kg in late pregnancy.”

  • For a 134 lb woman (61 kg) current recommendations would suggest 48g of protein needed but if we were to use this study’s recommendation 92g would be needed (almost double!)

12:30: Micronutrients found in protein-rich foods and common protein-rich pregnancy “superfoods”

27:45: Differences between forms of nutrients of animal-based vs plant-based foods

  • 29:00:Omega 3 fats

    • Needed for optimal brain and vision development - another example of a nutrient that when deficient can have irreversible effects. When a mother is not consuming adequate amounts in pregnancy, there are irreversible vision deficits in childhood

    • Forms of omega-3s: DHA + EPA are found together in food sources and they work synergistically together and with choline. DHA is not found in plants (ALA is plant sourced). Some plant sources of ALA: flax, chia, walnuts

    • Our bodies have the capability of converting some ALA to DHA but this is very inefficient. At best the conversion rate is 3.8%. Plus, if your diet is high in omega-6 (concentrated in seeds, nuts and vegetable oils and other plant based omega 3 sources) then this conversion rate drops to 1.9%.

    • When you supplement breastfeeding women with flaxseed oil and measure DHA levels in breastmilk, the levels are no different.

    • The only plant-based source that is significant enough is an algae-based DHA supplement. Like this one.

    • You can get plenty of DHA if you eat 12-16 oz/week of high omega 3 seafood sources (like salmon and sardines)

    • Concerns about heavy metal (like mercury) toxicity: Do benefits outweigh the risks? Avoid larger fish that bioaccumulate mercury like swordfish, mackerel, tuna, shark.

    • Safecatch Tuna: low mercury tuna

    • Most fish are high in selenium that can help bind mercury, preventing from absorbing much of whats in the fish

    • Studies assessing fish consumption and neurodevelopment in babies show it’s worth it: study out of UK 12,000 mother infant pairs, consumption of more than 12 oz fish/week was strongly linked fish consumption to higher IQ and communication skills as worst cognitive outcomes among children whose mothers consumed no seafood in pregnancy, resulting in issues with fine motor skills, social development and communication skills. Neurodevelopmental outcomes were better despite consuming some seafood containing mercury. Seafood is micronutrient rich (B12, DHA, B6 Choline, Selenium, Iodine)

    • Omegaquant RBC fatty acid profiles omega 3 at home test kit

    • Cochrane: >5% RBC DHA reduces risk of preterm birth, study referenced: Middleton P, Gomersall JC, Gould JF, Shepherd E, Olsen SF, Makrides M. Omega‐3 fatty acid addition during pregnancy. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2018;2018(11).

  • 39:30: Vitamin A

47:00 Why is it harder to manage blood glucose when following a vegetarian diet in pregnancy and why is blood sugar regulation so important?

  • Risks of elevated blood sugar in pregnancy: changes in rate of fetal growth, larger than average size, increased insulin resistance,

  • “As a result of [consistently elevated maternal blood sugar] their pancreas is larger than normal, pumps out more insulin than normal, they’re more insulin resistant than normal, and they also can face a higher risk of Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity by the time they’re 13- upwards of 6-19-fold higher risk.”

  • Almost all whole-food vegetarian protein sources are packaged with carbohydrates. Many vegetarian meals are also low fat which further increases glycemic load of meals.

  • Lily’s Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) Experiment

54:00 Rapid Fire Questions

What are you excited about or what are you researching currently that keep you interested in your current profession?

  • Just how little we know about nutrition. Current research is extremely lacking - especially when it comes to Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs)

  • Interesting study on how non-essential amino acids (like glycine and taurine- both primarily found in animal foods) is a misnomer- “animals and humans cannot adequately synthesize nonessential amino acids to meet optimal metabolic and functional needs ‘under either normal or stressed conditions’ pregnancy would definitely be a stressed condition in my opinion.” Study referenced: Hou Y, Wu G. Nutritionally nonessential amino acids: a misnomer in nutritional sciences. Adv Nutr. 2017;8(1):137-139.

  • Repeated theme: Regardless of if you’re following the “guidelines”, if you still have symptoms or don’t feel optimal, keep digging.

58:30: Common piece of advice that’s incomplete or misinformed

Concept of eating for 2: You need to eat more of certain micronutrients for sure. However, the way people interpret “eating for two” is to eat double or increase the quantity of their food without regard to the quality. But it’s nowhere near double, you add maybe an additional 300-500 kcal depending on activity and body size.

LilyNicholsRDN.com

Books: Real Food for Pregnancy and Real Food for Gestational Diabetes

As a thank you for supporting Lily’s small business, those who purchase a paperback copy of Real Food for Pregnancy **directly from her site** will get a 30-recipe e-cookbook as a FREE gift.


This e-Cookbook is available for purchase separately -OR- you can get it for FREE when you order a paperback copy (details below).

For Lily’s U.S. readers, there are a few reasons you may want to buy paperback copies direct from her shop:

  1. FREE goods! All paperback purchases will come with a FREE copy of the new e-Cookbook! That’s a $19.99 value. Simply add BOTH items to your cart (paperback + e-Cookbook) and use code GIFT at checkout. The cost of the e-Cookbook will be deducted from your order.

  2. Discounts on 5+ copies. A lot of people like to gift Real Food for Pregnancy to their friends or clients, but don’t meet the 15 minimum copy threshold for wholesale orders. Solution: Lily’s BUY4GET5 offer. Add 5 copies of Real Food for Pregnancy to your cart. Use code BUY4GET5 and the cost of one book will be deducted from your order.

  3. FREE shipping on all orders in the continental U.S. Although she can’t beat the expediency of 2-day prime shipping (not quite ready for a personal fleet of delivery vehicles and autonomous warehouse robots, haha), Lily can offer standard shipping for free.

  4. Support Lily’s work more. Direct book sales from the author mean a larger percentage of your purchase goes to support her. More support for her work means she can spend more of her time on freely-available content, like her in-depth blog posts and interviews.


Episode 19: Naturopathic Insights Into Pelvic Pain with Dr. Beebe Dericks

In this episode, Dr. Beebe Dericks shares with us how she approaches treatment with pelvic pain, endometriosis, and cesarean birth healing from a body-mind-spirit perspective. She explains how she integrates the uses of meditation, breathwork, manual therapy, visceral manipulation, red light and cold laser therapy, ozone, and of course, food and herbs all as resources in her toolkit to guide her patients to a place of healing.

Dr. Beebe Dericks is a graduate of Bastyr University where she earned her doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine and Master of Science in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Dr. Beebe is the owner of Dericks Family Medicine in Seattle, Washington and co-owner of VisRx, a supplement company dedicated to providing high quality immune support. Dr. Beebe specializes in fertility, pelvic pain, birth trauma and natural ways to recover from cesarean birth. Dr. Dericks leads international retreats focused on reigniting feminine potential and offers courses on fertility and cesarean birth recovery and repair.

Her private practice website is dericksfamilymedicine.com

You can find her supplement line at visrx.com

And learn more about her birth recovery work and resources at healingcesareanbirth.com

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Click this image to see the recipes Dr. Beebe recommends in this episode!

Click this image to see the recipes Dr. Beebe recommends in this episode!


Show Notes

3:30: Orienting ourselves: the pelvic diaphragm and anatomy

7:00: Parasympathetic effects on the pelvic space

11:00: Effects of stress/sympathetic nervous response

17:00: “We could think of trauma as being just as intense or severe to the fracture of tissue as surgery. We know that when we have scar tissue after a surgery, if that scar tissue is not tended to the same way a trauma is not tended to literally, then it just spreads through all the fascial planes of the body.”

20:30 The benefits of intra-vaginal touch

“I which in our culture we could embed this belief that receiving touch in those areas [through intra-vaginal massage] is therapeutic. It doesn’t have to be hypersexualized.

“We wouldn’t think twice about going and getting a neck/shoulder massage, and our neck and shoulders are holding up our head which is so heavy, but guess what? Our pelvic bowl and diaphragm are holding up the whole rest of our body! And these muscles need touch too.”

22:00: Non-intra-vaginal self-care options

22:50: Factors contributing to Endometriosis (and the difference between Endo and general period pain) - it might not always be trauma related


30:00: top food recommendations for achieving better hormone balance (especially for endometriosis and estrogen dominance)

31:30: “Tea Juice” and Hormone-balancing/fertility smoothie and Bastyr Soup Recipes

Anisa’s Green Soup

34:00 Top Chinese/English herbs for balancing hormones

  • Milk thistle

  • White peony with Licorice

  • Vitex

  • Schisandra

36:00 Forms of herbal administration- Tinctures, Classical Pearls herbal granules

37:40 Effect of pregnancy in positively/negatively affecting pelvic healing

"I think that pregnancy and the postpartum time is the richest time a woman’s life for healing.”

  • Healing effects of stretching tissue/breaking up scar tissue

  • Presence of stem cells

  • Healing Birth Podcast where Dr. Beebe shares her experience of healing through pregnancy and birth

  • The completion of the birth energy loop, the energetic release of birth

45:45 Common physical consequences after C-section surgery and Cesarean birth recovery treatment modalities

48:15: The use of low-level laser/red light therapy in pelvic healing, birth recovery, urethral caruncle, fertility/amenorrhea, menopause

51:30 Intravaginal ozone for scar tissue healing and fertility (increases in AMH- Anti-Müllerian hormone: a test assessing ovarian reserve)

53:30: Use of ozone and baking soda for preventing pregnancy-related demineralization and tooth decay

Slight tangent: Mark and Anisa use Honest O3 ozonated toothpaste and Pure O3 oil pulling solution for tooth and gums


Rapid Fire Questions

55:30: Most common nutrient deficiency you see in female population- Zinc

56:00: Most overrated exercise- Kegel: we’re not doing it right

Most underutilized exercise- breath work

57:30: what would you change about the curriculum in your freshman health class after working in this field?

58:30: Contact

visrx.com- The vis = the vital force

Cesarean birth healing- healingcesareanbirth.com

Episode 18: Planting for the next 200 years with permaculture master Alexia Allen

In this episode, Dr. Mark and Anisa join Alexia Allen on Hawthorn Farm in Woodinville, WA. In this inspriing conversation, we explore the concepts of true nutrient density, creating vitality from the Earth and its creatures, and what it can look like to be a steward of the land.

Alexia Allen has lived at Hawthorn Farm since 2003, crafting a vision of the world she wants to live in. This includes beautiful and productive gardens, ample wild space and creatures, happy farm animals, and vibrant, loving human relationships. Studying nature for the past 20 years has brought her a deep appreciation of the threads that weave ecological and human communities together. She is indebted to her many years of work at Wilderness Awareness School in Duvall, WA. Creativity guides her life, whether in making a stylish felt vest or a tasty goat cheese (and we can attest that that, it’s delicious). After many years of being vegan, she went on to become a YouTube sensation with a video on humane butchering.

After a year of eating all hand-harvested food in 2017, Alexia got passionately interested in growing nutrient-dense, year-round food for herself and the 10-person household she lives in. As a suburban homesteader, they eat well and diversely from the sunshine that falls in Woodinville, WA. She loves sharing the joy and possibilities to encourage others to grow and forage food. Her motto is "Good food within walking distance for everyone.”

Alexia offers garden consultations to aspiring gardeners and homesteaders all over and sells farm-crafted goods straight from Hawthorn Farm. You can learn more about her work and offerings at http://www.HawthornFarm.org and https://www.facebook.com/hawthornfarmheals

Join us on the farm and listen in! And just a note, because we’re recording outdoors, there are a few moments of wind that drown out our voices but please stay tuned, there are lots of gems in this one.

Alexia Allen WWP IG post quote.png

Show notes

Episode 7: Why we long to live wild and free with Nate Summers

Path to nature connection and wilderness skills

A year living off the land

  • the experience

  • key learnings from failures

Permaculture- How she practices it on her farm and what it means to her

  • Plants that offer minimal tending, maximal nutrition

  • perennial food sources (nuts and fruits)

  • Rainwater harvesting

  • Heating a greenhouse with compost

  • Chickens scratching up a garden bed

  • “My job as a permaculturist is to orchestrate the landscape”

  • Rabbits as lawnmowers

  • Ducks keep the slugs away

  • Human community: growing, living and eating together

How did nutrition evolve through your life?

  • vegetarian at age 10

  • Devout vegan from age 12 through early 20s

  • Tempted by beef jerky while on a survival trip

  • Realizing that if she eats meat, it will be animals that she will kill/process herself

  • Not economical/ethical to raise meat chickens

  • Rabbits can grow a lot of protein from what we can grow here

  • Fat sources on the farm

Essential oil distillation

  • An offering to share that doesn’t require tons of compost and sending nutrients off the farm

  • The conifer branches are already falling down in a windstorm: Juniper, Douglas fir, Cedar

Rapid fire questions

What advice do you hear in the permaculture/homestead community that you disagree with?

“Just add more organic matter” this doesn’t always fix the nutritional deficiencies in the soil

  • how to identify nutritional deficiencies

  • Soil tests with Logan Labs

What crops are difficult to grow but rewarding in the process or in their harvest?

  • Squash

  • Field/flint corn (5 gal buckets of cascade ruby gold, Saskatoon white, hookers blue)- these are what get them through the hunger gap time of year in late winter/early spring. One 5 gal bucket will easily feed one adult as main calorie source for a month.

Most prized garden equipment

  • myself and my willingness to be connected to the landscape

  • Ponies and horse-drawn farm equipment


If there was one policy change you could make in our current food/agricultural system at a macroscopic level- what would it be?

  • Farmers will get paid by nutrient production not calorie production

Services

  • Kids programs

  • Garden/homestead consulting

Contact: http://www.HawthornFarm.org and https://www.facebook.com/hawthornfarmheals

Episode 17: New Frontiers in Holistic Psychiatry with Dr. Mark Shortt

Join us in today’s episode with Dr. Mark Shortt where we discuss holistic psychiatric approaches to mental health, specifically exploring ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Dr. Mark Shortt is a Naturopathic Doctor seeking to integrate holistic approaches to mental health with modern pharmaceutical options, embodying naturopathic principles of treating the whole person and removing the obstacles to healing. Dr. Shortt has studied at Bastyr University and with front-runners in the movement of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. He currently consults with Field Trip Health Inc, a mental wellness company at the forefront of the scientific re-emergence of psychedelic-enhanced therapies, where he assists in increasing access to ketamine-assisted psychotherapy to patients throughout North America. He also continues to see patients in private practice and is available for consultation.

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Show Notes

  • 2:50: The current state of mental health care

  • 11:10: The history of ketamine- origin and uses

  • 19:30: The discovery of ketamine as an rapid-acting, long-lasting anti-depressive agent

  • 24:40: Ketamine treatment alone is a missed opportunity neurologically.

  • It can induce neuroplasticity.

  • 26:00 “Ketamine allows different routings to be possible. You have a whole potential world for behavioral change, change in thinking patterns and cognitive restructuring. You can change the way that you react to things in your life.”

  • "It’s great that depressive symptoms can stabilize and even lift [when using psychadelics] but if that’s all you’re doing then I really think it’s a missed opportunity. Because if you’re removing this obstacle to getting better, then why not walk through the gate? I think that’s the beauty and the power of psychedelics is that they offer that opportunity, but they don’t do it for you. They give you a vision of how your life can be different but then you have to walk into that."

  • 29:00: Story of patient with treatment-resistant depression

  • 32:50: How ketamine can influence neuroplasticity and cognitive re-patterning

  • 38:30: How our experiences early in life can set up our neurological patterning and how we respond to future experiences

  • 47:15: Different forms of ketamine and how they can impact effects of treatment

  • 56:20: What kind of policies should be enacted in our culture and country to improve the mental health of our nation?

  • 1:03: Recommended resources

Episode 16: Gaps in Prenatal Nutrition with Needed cofounders Julie and Ryan

Julie Sawaya and Ryan Woodbury are the co-founders of Needed, a nutrition company on a mission to empower women to understand and meet their needs before, during, and after pregnancy. Both lifelong nutrition enthusiasts, the two started Needed while at Stanford's graduate business school when they realized through nutrition testing that they were both very deficient in several key nutrients for pregnancy. They dug into the research and learned that up to 97% of women take a prenatal vitamin during pregnancy, and yet 95% have key nutrient deficiencies, leading to lifelong health consequences. That’s because most prenatals are designed to meet bare minimum needs—not to optimally nourish women.

Less is not more when it comes to prenatal nutrition. So Julie and Ryan got to work, redesigning the Prenatal Multi from the ground up in partnership with health practitioners who regularly test the nutrient levels of women who are trying to conceive, pregnant, or postpartum. Needed’s Complete Nutrition Plan launched in August 2020 and includes a Prenatal Multi, Omega-3 Liposomal Powder, Collagen Protein, and Pre/Probiotic, all specifically tailored to meet a mama and her baby’s needs.

Find them on instagram at @nourishmentisneeded

thisisneeded.com use code ANISA

Needed Quote photo

Julie’s Nutrition Journey:

I discovered my passion for nutrition around my family dinner table. My dad (an MD) was diagnosed with diabetes when I was just 5 years old. His illness had a profound effect on me, leading me to research and advocate for the connection between our health and how we choose to nourish ourselves. My passion for nutrition only grew as I began my journey to motherhood and experienced firsthand how vital proper nourishment is for a healthy low-risk pregnancy, an optimal postpartum recovery, and baby’s foundation for lifelong health.

Ryan’s Nutrition Journey:

My interest in nutrition and health grew out of my interest in the environment. As a young girl in California, I started volunteering at a local aquarium, leading educational tours to teach kids about marine science and environmental advocacy. It was clear to me, even then, that our health as humans is directly connected to the health of our environment. Advocating for broader awareness of the human and environmental health connection has carried through much of my life. This was only heightened as I began my journey to motherhood, seeing how important a mama’s internal ecosystem, especially the microbiome, is for a healthy pregnancy and baby. I believe fundamentally that nourishing mamas will directly support nourished communities and a nourished planet.

Show Notes

Julie and Ryan started Needed 3 years ago when they learned through nutrient testing that they were hugely deficient in key prenatal nutrients, despite eating carefully. That means that, had they gotten pregnant at that point in time, they would have joined the more than 95% of women who begin pregnancy already deficient in key nutrients. This impacts everything from fertility, to hormone balance, to pregnancy viability, to how women feel during and after pregnancy, how high risk a pregnancy is (blood sugar and pressure), how women heal postpartum, and the lifelong health of baby.

They know from clinical research, and through partnering with health practitioners that these nutrient deficiencies often worsen throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding.

You might be wondering, but aren’t prenatal vitamins designed to fix or prevent this?

The answer is unfortunately, no. The vast majority of prenatals are designed to meet just the bare minimum needs, like avoiding scurvy, or other serious diseases. NOT to ensure that women reach and maintain optimal nutrient levels. They use poorly absorbed nutrient forms, and extremely inappropriate dosages. More on that later.

This conservative, “less is more” approach to prenatal and postnatal nutrition is totally backwards. Because pregnancy and breastfeeding are the most nutritionally demanding times in a woman’s life.

So prenatals aren’t cutting it. That’s a huge part of the problem. The other is that the women rely on their OBGYNs or prenatal vitamin recommendations receive almost zero nutritional training. They simply are not qualified to help women choose the right prenatal. Not to mention, the average OB visit is just 7 minutes long, leaving little time for a thorough discussion. Instead, well-meaning OBs very commonly say to “just take anything, it doesn’t matter”.

So, they set out to create products and education with REAL DIFFERENTIATION, based on the latest research as well as the clinical experience of informed doctors. Unlike most consumer companies that white label their vitamins, they’ve spent the last 3 years formulating our products from the group up, extensively studying and vetting every nutrient dosage, nutrient form, and source.

The result is their Prenatal Multi, the most comprehensive prenatal vitamin available in powder form. It also happens to be a totally delightful and easy-to-take vanilla powder that even nauseous mamas love. Find recipes to to include it in here.

As told by Ryan and Julie:

We’d like to walk you through a few of the nutrients included in our Prenatal Multi to show you how vastly different our Prenatal is from others. We include a total of 24 vitamins and minerals, all of which are very important, but here we highlight just a few to give you a sense for the research we’ve done.

Nutrients:

A note on RDA levels: There’s a gender health research gap that’s left us in the dark when it comes to women’s health. This is especially true during pregnancy, as nobody wants to run studies on pregnant women for fear of miscarriage or birth defects.

As a result, the government sets recommended nutrient levels for pregnant and expecting women at bare minimum nutrient levels--just enough to avoid things like scurvy (a severe deficiency of Vitamin C), but not nearly enough for higher-level functions of an optimal body. There is a big difference between avoiding a disease versus optimally nourishing.

We determine optimal dosages not solely by relying on the RDA. But, instead, by staying up to date on the latest nutrition research, and by integrating the clinical experience of those that regularly test mamas’ nutrient needs.

Choline: this is one of the nutrients where there actually is solid nutrition research behind the RDA level. 550mg, but we are the ONLY prenatal that actually meets the RDA. Most include none, or just 1/10th of what’s recommended. Choline is as important for baby’s brain and neural development as Folate (better known by its synthetic alternative, Folic Acid), so it’s very concerning how low most prenatals are dosing Choline. To put this in context, you’d need to consume 6 eggs/day every day to get enough through diet!

Folate: the RDA level is leading vitamin companies to overdo-it on nutrients like Folic Acid (which we always avoid in favor of the methyl form of Folate). Some supplement companies got the memo that methylfolate is better than Folic Acid, as 40-60% of mamas can’t process Folic Acid due to the MTHFR genetic variation. But, in doing so, they have started to dose too high. Too little Folate can affect maternal mood, but so too can an excess. We dose right around 900mcg, which is the “goldilocks” just right amount.

Magnesium, Calcium and other minerals -- most prenatals are missing or seriously lacking in proper forms and dosages of minerals. The primary reason is that they are bulky nutrients, that are difficult to fit into a gummy, or a 1-2/day pill form. Our soil is very depleted of minerals, and thus our food is too. These minerals are vital to baby’s skeletal system and bone formation, among other things like regulating mama’s blood pressure.

B12: this is a great example of a nutrient where the RDA levels for pregnancy and breastfeeding are way way way off, by a factor of 70-100x. That’s a crazy degree of error! The result is that many mamas are excessively fatigued, and B12 is also linked to early pregnancy loss as it is vital to DNA synthesis.

Other Key Nutrients Mamas Are Missing/why we offer them in our Complete Plan

Summary:

Less is not more when it comes to prenatal nutrition. It starts with an upgraded prenatal vitamin to help mamas thrive, not just survive. Mamas do need more than just vitamins and minerals, so we offer a complete plan that wraps in the other key supplement needs.

Beyond products, we are really focused on empowering mamas with the information and access to experts that’s needed for an optimal pregnancy and beyond.

If you take away nothing else, we hope it’s the following:

i) be very skeptical of prenatal vitamins in gummy or “1 or 2 pills a day” form. There’s now a FAR better option (our vanilla powdered Prenatal Multi) for mamas that need an easy-to-take option.

ii) there's a lot of noise (and science marketing) in the prenatal space right now, make sure you are relying on the right experts, with rigorous nutrition training, to help you cut through it.

Resources discussed

At home Omega-3 RBC test kit

GBS reduction study: Ho M, Chang Y-Y, Chang W-C, et al. Oral Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 to reduce Group B Streptococcus colonization in pregnant women: A randomized controlled trial. Taiwanese Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2016;55(4):515-518.

  • The probiotic supplement was taken for an average of 20 days. At the time of admission to the hospital for delivery, a repeat screen for GBS was completed. Among the women who received probiotics, 43% tested negative for GBS compared to only 18% in the placebo group. Cited in post by Lily Nichols, RDN

Placenta: The Forgotten Chakra by Robin Lim- reference to midwife’s observation about differences in placentas of vegetarian compared to omnivorous women


Placental weight study: Placental weight and its ratio to birth weight in normal pregnancy at Songkhlanagarind. J Med Assoc Thai .2006 Feb;89(2):130-7.

  • Average size of a placenta being about 1-2 lb

Ebook with recipes to include Prenatal Multi and Collagen Protein powders.

Episode 15: Sunshine + Seawater = San Juan Island Sea Salt

brady from sji sea salt

Welcome back to the Woodall Wellness Podcast, you’re listening to episode 15!

We’re excited to share with you today our favorite local sea salt company, San Juan Island Sea Salt, in a conversation with their founder, Brady Ryan. Located just a ferry-ride away from the Washington mainland, we first learned about this company at the small island farmer’s market that we would always explore every time we came to visit Dr. Mark’s grandmother and grandfather, the oldest resident on the island.

Born and raised in Washington, Brady Ryan went to the University of Washington for school, spent several years working on a vegetable farm, and doing beekeeping outside of Seattle after graduation. He returned to his island roots in 2014 and has been raising his family and trying to grow his business ever since.

San Juan Island Sea Salt offers their products online at sanjuanislandseasalt.com and you can use the code WOODALL for 10% off your order. Now stay tuned to learn all about how Brady turns our local Puget Sound seawater into my favorite flakiest, mineral-rich sea salt and seasoning formulations.

Learn more about Anisa’s 21-Day Real Food Reset offering beginning January 6th! Use code WOODALLWELLNESS for 15% off enrollment!

salt crystals

Episode 13: Becoming BirthFit with Emily Stanwyck

birthfit WWP quote

Emily Stanwyck is a birth doula, a BIRTHFIT Coach, a strength and conditioning coach, wife and mother. Emily has been in the fitness world for almost 10 years and has dedicated her life to helping others. Finding BIRTHFIT closed the circle of this desire to serve. Since becoming a mother in 2018, Emily has made it her mission to build a business that is inclusive of every phase of the motherhood transition.

In this episode we cover:

  • Why it’s important to train fitness in pregnancy

  • How fitness during pregnancy looks different than general strength training

  • Understanding intensity parameters in pregnancy

  • Using fitness to train mindset for birth

  • The importance of diaphragmatic breathing

  • Ways to encourage the healing of diastasis recti

  • Why a woman might choose to birth at home

Follow Emily on intagram at @emilystanwyck and view her soon-to-be released website emilystanwyck.com

For Family Success coaching, email: emily@birthfit.com

Favorite quotes:

“Fitness isn’t everything but it is a really good tool for birth mindset.”

“Being mentally tough enough to just ride it out comes with training and for some that training looks like meditation, but for me, it’s fitness.”

"Having a strong diaphragm-to-pelvic floor 360-degree muscular structure is the best way to prevent a diastasis recti that doesn’t heal.”

"We live in a very coddled society where we don’t want to experience pain, and that carries over to birth."

“Anytime I attend a hospital birth I always say, ’Thank God I did this at home.’”

Rapid fire questions:

Bad advice in your profession: “Don’t lift more than 5 lb”

Health/Wellness purchase under $100: personalized supplementation (slippery elm bark for the gut)

Mark’s favorite purchase under $100: voodoo floss bands

Book that changed your life: Mindset by Carol Dweck

What is Birthfit?

Initially founded by chiropractor and doula, Lindsey Matthews, Birthfit is a community of industry leaders providing fitness programs to cultivate connection and enhance awareness through efficient, sustainable movement.

According to their website "BIRTHFIT is a state of readiness and willingness to surrender and trust. The transition into motherhood and parenthood is perhaps the most physical, mental, and spiritual experience of any human’s life. We want you to be ready in body, mind, and soul so that you may truly experience this shift within your heart and on a cellular level. We are a team of leaders, educators, doulas, practitioners, coaches, therapists, men, and women involved in our local communities and part of the greater BIRTHFIT Community."

Birthfit as an organization and their individual leaders offer a variety of services including prenatal and postpartum training programs, both online and in-person. Having taken their in-person professional seminar myself, I can vouch for the thoughtfulness and care that goes into the approach towards supporting women along their motherhood journey. We look forward to continuing to explore concepts along this theme with other leaders in the Birthfit community as well.

To learn more about Birthfit visit birthfit.com and follow along @birthfit

Episode 12: Sustainable Period Care with Hediyeh Rappard of June Co.

june cup quote

Hediyeh Rappard is an attorney turned e-commerce entrepreneur as the founder of June Co. She continues to work in the field of law while also starting an e-commerce business selling sustainable menstrual care products. Her goal is to empower the community to take charge of their menstrual care in a sustainable manner.

In our conversation, we discuss common side-effects, to our bodies and the environment, associated with conventional menstrual care products such as pads and tampons and sustainable alternatives to explore.

She is currently selling the June Cup at cost ($6 plus flat rate shipping $3.99) to off-set the impact of COVID-19 and to address the clear shortage of access to resources and traditional menstrual care products during the pandemic.

You can learn more at: https://www.thejunecup.com and on IG @thejunecup

Episode 11: Baby food for a healthier planet with Serenity and Joe Carr

Welcome to episode 11 of the Woodall Wellness podcast! Today you’ll be joining us for a conversation with Joe and Serenity Carr, the founders of Serenity Kids Baby Food. Serenity and Joe are on a mission to change the baby food industry. 

Browsing the aisles of the grocery store as a new parent with a new eater, you might struggle to find healthy baby foods that fit your expectations. Just like you, when Joe and Serenity began looking for baby foods, they were outraged by how much sugar and how little nutrition was available, so they made their own! Created to mimic the nutrients of breast milk, Serenity Kids baby food is made from pasture raised meats sourced from small American family farms and high-quality organic vegetables and oils. Serenity Kids’ purees are balanced blended savory meals that contain the most nutrition per bite for your little one.

In this conversation, we learn about the optimal macronutrient breakdown for babies, how fruit purees can interrupt their natural flavor palate development, and how you can vote with your dollar to give your baby the food it needs to be healthy while also supporting small family farms practicing sustainable, regenerative agriculture.

You can learn more and order at their website (and use code ANISA for 15% off) at

https://myserenitykids.com/  Find them on instagram @myserenitykids

Meet the founders

Serenity Carr, co-founder and CEO of Serenity Kids Baby Food, is on a mission to promote wellness starting with the first bite. Formerly employed in tech and logistics, Serenity left her job to pursue her passion of health coaching where she helped clients achieve their personal health goals. Having healed her digestive issues through a lifestyle diet change, Serenity is transforming the baby food industry by developing innovative nutrient dense products because every bite counts.

Joe Carr, co-founder and President of Serenity Kids Baby Food, is a certified life coach and educator devoted to social justice activism. Joe serves on the Advisory Board for Autism Hope Alliance and also works with other autistic adults to help them harness the gifts of their autism. As President of Serenity Kids, Joe oversees day-to-day operations and leads sales that will transform the baby food industry.

Favorite quotes from the episode:

“A typical baby food pouch has an average of 9g of sugar per pouch which, for a 15lb baby if you equate that to a 150 lb adult, that’s 90g of sugar in one serving! And sometimes they are having multiple servings a day!"

"...In addition to [conventional baby food pouches] being high in sugar, they're indoctrinating babies to prefer sweet flavors at a really early age, a critical flavor window which is a key time to be introducing savory flavors.”

“It’s not easy to get a baby to eat food so every bite they manage to get into that little mouth and swallow down is a victory. You want as many of those bites to be as nutrient-dense and chock-full of yummy goodness as possible!”

“We learned that we can source our ingredients from small family farms and make an economic impact of the farms that are “doing it right” and support them that improves their lives and the environment with regenerative agriculture.”

“What makes babies healthier is also better for the animals, better for the farmers, better for the planet”

“The sugary baby food purees addict them to sugar from day one and then of course all they want is sugar because that’s all you gave them when their palate was being formed- 4 months to 18 months is the flavor window- where it’s documented that what they eat will determine what they will eat later in life.”

A percentage of proceeds go to Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund

Episode 10: The Risks of Hormonal Birth Control and How to Optimize Fertility with Lisa Hendrickson-Jack

Lisa HJ WWP IG post quote

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack talks about vaginas a lot! She’s a certified Fertility Awareness Educator and Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner who teaches women to chart their menstrual cycles for natural birth control, conception, and monitoring overall health. In her new book The Fifth Vital Sign, Lisa debunks the myth that regular ovulation is only important when you want children, by recognizing the menstrual cycle as a vital sign. Drawing heavily from the current scientific literature, Lisa presents an evidence-based approach to fertility awareness and menstrual cycle optimization.

She hosts the Fertility Friday Podcast, a weekly radio show devoted to helping women connect to their fifth vital sign by uncovering the connection between menstrual cycle health, fertility, and overall health. With well over a million downloads, Fertility Friday is the #1 source for information about fertility awareness, and menstrual cycle health, connecting women around the world with their cycles and their fertility — something our education systems have consistently failed to do. When she’s not researching, writing, and interviewing health professionals, you’ll find her spending time with her husband and her two sons.

In this episode we explore:

  • How hormonal contraceptives (HC) are contributing to and worsening menstrual and fertility challenges many women are facing today

  • Why HC-users should be coming off the pill long before trying to conceive

  • The Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) and how to use your body’s signals to understand your fertility

  • How male fertility standards have changed through the years and why men need to be focusing on building their fertilty

To learn more, visit fertilityfriday.com.

Instagram: @fertilityfriday Facebook: Facebook.com/FertilityFridays Twitter: @FertileFriday Pinterest: FertilityFriday

Favorite Quotes from the interview:

“To be clear, from the beginning when the pill was first developed, the pill bleed was an added feature so that it would seem as though it was natural."

“It’s almost like they think we’re just baby-making machines and so if we’re not making babies then those parts don’t have a funciton which is really reductionistic and ignorant to reduce us to that.”

“We have receptors for estrogen and progesterone everywhere throughout our entire bodies: in our brains, our bones, our breasts. So whether or not you want to have babies, when it comes to the menstrual cycle, your reproductive system is not separate from the rest of your body.”

"When you look at research that examines all of the menstrual cycle health parameters on average its taking about a year before those cycles fully normalize but that doesn’t mean you can’t get pregnant because pregnancy is possible in any cycle with ovulation.”

“Women who used condoms [prior to TTC] took about 4 months on average to conceive and women who were on the pill, the patch, the ring, etc. took on average 8 months to conceive, so fully twice as long to conceive!”

“If you had problems with your period before going on hormonal contraceptives then you’re at a greater risk of having a delay in the return of your period and your fertility.”

“The cervical fluid has these channels, it’s like a highway, that rapidly transports the sperm in, and if that isn’t enough, it also screens out abnormal sperm… the cervical mucus is dense enough so that if the sperm did have poor motility, they can’t really swim through and they get trapped.And the cervical fluid has these structures that attach to sperm with abnormal morphology and prevent them from moving forward.”

“Your average man in the 1940s had 113 mil sperm per mL and the average man today has an average of say 50 mil sperm/mL… suffice it to say, we have a huge problem because within a generation or two, we might not have men who can impregnate their spouses. Fortunately there are many things you can do to improve sperm quality!”

Nutrients for sperm quality: vitamin A, CoQ10, Fish oil (no smoking or marijuana)

The research minimizes the fact that there is a temporary delay in the return of fertility and… when you come off the pill and you’re not pregnant the day after, you start freaking out and so many of these women by month 6 or month 12 are already doing fertility treatments and they have no idea that there is a temporary delay in the return of normal fertility after the pill… these women are so stressed because they are going through what they didn’t know was a transition period post-pill. If someone had told you that your body needs a minimum of 6 months to a year to recover, this experience could be totally different for you."

Episode 9: The Power of Herbal Medicine with Dr. Eric Yarnell

Eric Yarnell, ND, RH(AHG) (Bastyr University, 1996) is a researcher and professor at Bastyr University. He has been in practice for 24 years, primarily in the fields of men’s health, urology, and nephrology, with a heavy emphasis on using botanical medicines. Dr. Yarnell is chief creative officer of Wild Brillance Press, a provider of natural medicine textbooks, and president of Heron Botanicals. He is a co-founder of the Boucher Institute of Naturopathic Medicine in Vancouver, BC. He previously served as chair of the department of botanical medicine at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and helped edit the Journal of Naturopathic Medicine. His published works include Clinical Botanical Medicine 2nd ed, Natural Approach to Urology 2nd ed, Natural Approach to Prostate Conditions 2nd ed, Natural Approach to Gastroenterology 2nd ed, The A-Z Guide to Drug-Herb-Vitamin Interactions, and The Natural Pharmacy.

https://www.urologynd.com

Textbooks available at wildbrilliancepress.com

Twitter: @dryarnell7

Bastyr University

Heron Botanicals

  • Eric’s journey to Naturopathic Medicine

  • Practicing Naturopathic Medicine in the 1990s, (when nobody was doing it)

  • A Side-journey in Mid-wifery

  • Mentors

    • Mary Bove ND

    • Silena Heron ND

  • Comet Hale-Bopp

  • WHOLE Herb vs. Single Herb Extracts

    • Artemesia Annua (artemisinin)/Malaria

    • Artemesinin- Kills malaria

    • Flavonoids (Sweet Annie-) prevent resistance

    • Flavonoids block the efflux pumps

      2019 Whole herb

“Science is an incredibly powerful tool, but you can’t see things that your not looking at.”

Artemisia annua and Artemisia afra tea infusions vs. artesunate-amodiaquine (ASAQ) in treating Plasmodium falciparum malaria in a large scale, double blind, randomized clinical tria

  • Western Artemesia tridentata for local bitter- (leaves) Vs. Gentian Root

  • Slippery Elm- (Dutch Elm Disease)

  • Pygeum Prunus African- Tree (bark) for Enlarged prostate vs. Saw palmetto- FRUIT

  • Goldenseal and Ginseng

  • Resins

    • Pine Tree- Sticky stuff “tears”

    • Pine Family and Cyprus Family (inner part of bark, canals make sticky thick gue (aromatic)

    • Spruce, Fir, Hemlock’s

  • Blood Diamond Industry of Frankinsense

  • Respiratory infections, (Terpenoids- Fat Soluble molecules) Kidney’s and lungs get rid of them

  • Balm of Gilead- (Cottonwood trees) Flower in Winter- Flower buds coated with this resin

Rapid FIre Questions

Favorite Tea

Episode 8: Using your menstrual cycle to guide your life with Herbalist, Veronica Ricksen


Veronica Ricksen is a clinical Western herbalist and creator of Kapu, a holistic care company for women. She loves creating resources and products that connect women to nature and their bodies.

In this episode Veronica shares about her experience in finding herbal medicine and natural contraception through her own grueling decade-long experience of using a variety of hormonal contraceptives and IUDs, resulting in pelvic pain, severe acne, and more. These experiences led her to reconnecting with her menstrual cycle, both as a form of informed contraception as well as a way to inform the choices she makes in her life throughout her cycle. She shares about important herbs that women of fertile years should consider to promote their wellbeing while blending in the use of the Fertility Awareness Method in conjunction with her beautiful Menstrual Calendar Journal (co-created along with Anna Friedland ). Toward the end of our conversation, we touch on the topic of pelvic herbal steaming and when it may be a beneficial tool in a woman’s holistic health care regimen.

Veronica loves creating resources and products that connect women to nature and their bodies. Veronica lives in the Bay Area of California where she researches, creates, educates and offers herbal consultations. You can learn more about her herbal services and menstrual calendar journal at kapu.community.

Find her on instagram: @kapu.community

Resources discussed:

Why We Long to be Wild and Free with Nate Summers

nate summers wwp

Today on the podcast, we are joined by Nate Summers for a conversation spanning topics including sharpening your senses to nature’s bio-rhythms, developing appreciation for the cycles of life, and how connecting with a part of our primal spirit can help heal our planet and ourselves.

Nate Summers, author of "Primal: Why We Long to be Wild and Free" and soon to be released, "Awakening Fire: An Essential Guide To Waking Flame, Wood and Ignition", has been a survival skills instructor for over 20 years with a background in anthropology, Asian studies, and natural medicine. He taught and directed at the Wilderness Awareness School for over 15 years, and has served as faculty for the Desert Institute of Healing Arts, the Asian Institute of Medical Studies, and as adjunct faculty for Prescott College. Nate's passions include ethnobotany, natural mentoring, hunter-gatherer childhoods, natural movement, herbal medicine, internal martial arts, mentoring, and leadership.

You can connect with him online on his website primalnate.com and on instagram @primalnate.

Book: Primal: Why We Long to Be Wild and Free

Pre-order: Awakening Fire: An Essential Guide to Waking Flame, Wood, and Ignition 

Survival, Resilience, and Preparedness Online Course

The Art of Movement: Rewilding Our Bodies Online Course