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Sara Gottfried MD
  • Home
  • About Dr Sara
    • Media
    • Contact
  • Books
    • Women, Food, and Hormones
    • Younger
    • Brain Body Diet
    • Hormone Reset Diet
    • The Hormone Cure
  • Upcoming Events
  • Blog
    • Recipes
    • Women’s Health
    • Hormones
    • Weight Loss
    • Cleanse
    • Stress Management

Posts Tagged ‘Long Haulers’

Covid-19: Comorbidities, Long-Haul Symptoms, and Immune Resilience

By Sara Gottfried MD | February 2, 2021
Sara Gottfried MD Women's Health Article |Long-haul Covid| Covid-19: Comorbidities, Long-Haul Symptoms, and Immune Resilience

Vaccines are getting distributed at increasing rates. Researchers are testing 68 vaccines in human clinical trials, 20 are the final stage of testing, and two are approved for full use according to the New York Times vaccine tracker. However, depending on your risk category and the state in which you live, it could be months…

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PRAISE

“For the first time in my adult life I feel that I have gained control over food. I feel healthier, look better and have gained an interest in making sure that what I am putting into my body is the best it can be. And I lost 10 pounds in all the right places.”

– Janice Lunde, Dr. Sara’s Detox Challenge Participant

“Dr. Sara is the height of excellence! She is incredibly knowledgeable and gives very generously of her time. I feel so blessed to have been able to work with her.”

– Yvonne Varah

“You don’t have to settle for being stressed out, binging on sugar and chocolate, and aging prematurely. Stop blaming yourself and step into sacred action. It’s your birthright. You can have the joyous, mission-driven life you want, and Dr. Sara is here to show us how.”

– Marci Shimoff, New York Times Bestselling Author of Happy for No Reason and Love for No Reason

“Dr. Gottfried offers powerful and effective tools for addressing the most difficult health issues facing women and men today. She is warm and kind and has so much experience to draw upon, it’s inspiring. Thank you Dr. S!”

– Cassandra Mick

“Dr. Sara Gottfried is a modern-day healer goddess if ever there was one, and she also happens to be a Harvard Medical School graduate and rigorous physician-scientist.”

– Christiane Northrup MD, author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom

“Dr. Gottfried’s book and detox came at a time when I was ready to give in to old age. Hot flashes, low energy and libido, weight gain, increasing blood pressure and cholesterol levels were unacceptable to me. I now know that hormone levels and what I eat are a huge influence on how I feel and look. To now be able to control something that was out of control is empowering…”

Cheryl V., Dr. Sara’s Detox Challenge Participant

“My health coach told me about your book and I took the [hormone] test, and lo and behold, I found I was a mess, hormonally speaking. Now I’m getting on track and I love your videos and your book. I feel like I’m getting my life back again, when not long ago I truly thought I was losing it!”

-Tracy, Registered Nurse

“You don’t have to accept the hormonal hell of being tired, stressed, overweight, and never in the mood for sex as you grow older. In her fabulous new book, the brilliant Dr. Gottfried gives you an effective, easy-to-follow plan to balance your hormones and become lean, energetic, and loving life again. Stop settling and reclaim your sexy!”

–JJ Virgin, Author of Six Weeks to Sleeveless and Sexy and The Virgin Diet

“I lost 10 lbs., reset my hormones and metabolism and eliminated my sugar cravings! I have also found that I respond to stress much differently, I feel it, notice it and move on from it. Stress no longer has a grip on me. Dr. Sara’s conference calls and detox information was invaluable. I am so grateful for this program. Thank you Dr. Sara!”

–Sophia, Dr. Sara’s Detox Challenge Participant

“The Hormone Cure is the playbook for your mojo, your mind, and your bootie. With every chapter I thought, ‘So THAT’s how that works.’ I wanted to call every girlfriend and give them the goods on how to glow… now and always.”

-Danielle LaPorte, Author of The Fire Starter Sessions and The Desire Map

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It’s not fair but it’s a fact: women are much It’s not fair but it’s a fact: women are much more vulnerable to hormonal imbalance than men. 👉An underactive thyroid affects women up to fifteen times more often than men. The thyroid gland secretes hormones that regulate the activities of almost every cell in our bodies. It controls the body’s sensitivity to other hormones, such as estrogen and cortisol. It regulates how quickly we burn calories and maintains our metabolism, which explains why weight control is such a problem when the thyroid is out of whack. In other words, your thyroid is your very own metabolic thermostat. When your thyroid is working properly, you feel energetic, think clearly, and are upbeat. Your weight is easier to manage. Your bowel moves food along at a normal pace, in a transit time from ingestion to elimination of twelve to twenty-four hours. And you don’t need to wear socks to bed. Thyroid hormones often get out of balance as we get older and I commonly see a triad of symptoms in midlife women—fatigue, weight gain, and depression—that I like to call thyropause, a term coined by a colleague of mine, Mary Shomon. Conventional physicians often respond with skepticism, and even hostility to women who earnestly ask for thyroid help. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that doctors are well-intentioned but woefully underinformed about the thyroid, in particular, what are considered to be the normal ranges for thyroid hormones. Another reason is that women are disempowered in the doctor’s office. I’ve heard countless stories from my own patients as well as here about women getting dismissed with a pat on the back and the remark, “You’re just getting older,” in response to thyroid complaints. For years now, I’ve been on a mission to amplify the message around thyroid health and help people struggling unnecessarily due to low thyroid function. I’m going to share symptoms, optimal ranges, and solutions so you can become an educated healthcare consumer and have a frank yet firm discussion with your doctor about your thyroid. . . . #thyroid #thehormonecure #womenfoodhormones
I gave a keynote last week on Personalized Medicin I gave a keynote last week on Personalized Medicine for Mental Health. As my daughter and I flew together to Denver before the lecture, I reviewed my slides and thought… wow, that’s a lot of slides and an overwhelming volume of data. My heart’s desire is more of a group process where I invite the audience to get out of their chairs and dance with me, and instead of 45 slides, I use 5. I tell stories to illustrate personalized medicine in action. I ask the group to share their stories. That’s the future of medicine. A whole body yes. Then I got scared. I told my leadership coach that this group of mostly physicians was still conventional and it may not work to ask them to dance, to inhabit their bodies more fully. Doctors are conservative, I rationalized. So I compromised: I cut out half the slides, shared stories, but didn’t dance. A few hours later, my mentor Joan Borysenko gave a “lecture,” led the group out of their seats to gather in a circle, holding hands, and singing verses from Leonard Cohen’s song, HALLELUJAH. It was a sweet celebration of mind, body, and spirit triumphing through the past 2.5 years of the isolating and heartbreaking pandemic—and now we are finally reuniting in person. Joan is fearless. At the young age of 76, she is still showing me the way. Watch out, next time, we’re dancing! 💃🏻 What would you do if you had no fear? Let me know in the comments below👇🏼
Your cortisol level should naturally wax and wane Your cortisol level should naturally wax and wane with the highest levels in the morning, gradually decreasing throughout the day and into the evening. How do some people end up with a flat diurnal pattern? Addison’s disease is a rare cause in which your adrenal glands produce too little due to autoimmune attack of the adrenals, but it’s rare. Flat diurnal levels of cortisol are often due to burnout. Burnout is a silent, insidious process. Many of my patients describe exhaustion, apathy, lack of interest in eating healthy food or getting regular exercise. For me, burnout makes me feel numb. Relentless workplace stress erodes health and identity until you’re a shell of who you once were. Burnout is not a disease; it’s a cluster of symptoms that emerge from dysfunction. It leads to the downstream consequences of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-thyroid-gonadal axis dysregulation, chronic stress, inflammation, and blood sugar abnormalities. If your HPATG is in a state of chaos, your body will go into survival mode — the opposite of thriving. Elevated cortisol levels can then lead to low cortisol, or you might have high and low levels simultaneously. This makes you feel exhausted and drained, like a car trying to run on an empty gas tank. Low cortisol is the end game of an overtaxed stress-regulating system. Irritability, burnout, and depression are common symptoms, along with low blood pressure, orthostatic hypotension (which is when your blood pressure drops when you stand and you feel light-headed), and uncharacteristic pessimism. You feel out of sorts and out of sync with the natural rhythm that you once had. After 25 years of practicing precision and integrative medicine, I can tell you that burnout is far easier to prevent than to treat, so do your body a favor and implement at least one stress-relieving tactic I’ve talked about this week, starting today! Your physiology will benefit! Like, save, and share😍 . . . #stressrelief #stressfree #stressmanagement #stressrelieving #brainbodydiet #theyoungerbook #cortisol #heartratevariability #hpaaxis #hpaaxisdysregulation #hpaaxisdysfunction #burnout #burnoutrecovery #burnoutprevention
It’s almost ten years old but still as relevant It’s almost ten years old but still as relevant today. That’s my @wanderlustfest talk on seven ways to rock your cortisol and manage your stress. When your level of cortisol is appropriate: ☑️You feel calm, cool, and collected most of the time. ☑️You bounce out of bed in the morning, and because you slept well, there are no bags under your eyes. ☑️You eat normally with no blood sugar swings. ☑️You feel like your body has a good rhythm, and your total load—the amount of physical and psychological stress you’ve got on your plate—is manageable and engaging. ☑️You eat nutrient-dense food. ☑️You strike a balance in your life between input and output. ☑️You can take or leave sugar. ☑️You feel buoyant, positive, and upbeat. ☑️You eat every four to six hours, without feeling shaky, irritable, or low in blood sugar. ☑️When faced with stress, you don’t recoil in horror. Everything feels “figure-out-able.” ☑️You focus on problems you can modify, not the problems you can do nothing about. ☑️Your blood pressure and fasting glucose (blood sugar) are normal, which means that you don’t crave coffee and all things chocolate. ☑️You have the time to accomplish your tasks, usually with pleasure and not future-tripping on what’s next. ☑️When your kids bug you, your partner acts out, or something goes wrong, you take a deep breath and let your belly expand. ☑️You are more proactive, less reactive. ☑️You know how to calm yourself swiftly and effectively. ☑️You are skillful at coping with stress through breath, exercise, time with girlfriends, massage, and mindfulness. Can you check off all the things on this list? Some of them? None of them? Then you should listen to the full talk - follow the link in my bio to watch. . . . #stressrelief #stressfree #stressmanagement #stressrelieving #brainbodydiet #theyoungerbook #cortisol #heartratevariability #quantifiedself #biofeedback #endurance #knowthyself
Over the years I have experimented with various wa Over the years I have experimented with various ways to measure and tame stress and increase adaptability. One of those ways is by tracking and improving heart rate variability (HRV). Here’s how it works: your sympathetic nervous system controls your heart rate via the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine, which increase HRV (the variable time between each heart beat). Your parasympathetic nervous system controls heart rate via acetylcholine, which decreases HRV. HRV is the pattern of your heart rate— if you have a resting heart rate of sixty, you might think that’s one beat per second, but that would be a very low HRV. You actually want variability between the time of each heartbeat; for example, the first gap between heartbeats is 1.00 seconds, and the second is 1.02 seconds, and the next 0.98 seconds, and so on, in order to indicate healthy HRV. Research proves that when your HRV is optimized, your body is showing better stress resilience and health. Think of HRV as a measure of the flexibility of your nervous system, and more flexibility is usually better. A certain level of variability is considered adaptive and advisable. The variability results from several factors, including external (lifestyle, behavioral, and environmental) and internal (neural refex, neural central, hormonal and other humoral infuences). I prefer the Oura ring, WHOOP, Garmin, or a chest strap to measure HRV. I measure HRV every morning to determine my brain/heart connection and capacity for exercise. If you’re rested and recovered from exercise, there’s a balanced state between the two parts of the nervous system, and you have a high level of HRV, ideally around 60 to 100. When my HRV is ≥ 50, I walk or practice yoga. When my HRV is ≥ 70, I go hard on @onepeloton Power Zone Training, like a max ride or heavy weights. When I’m < 50, I use a foam roller and take a day off. 👉Think of a low resting heart rate and increased HRV as being associated with longevity. Do you track your HRV? . . . #stressrelief #stressfree #stressmanagement #stressrelieving #brainbodydiet #theyoungerbook #cortisol #heartratevariability #quantifiedself #biofeedback #endurance #knowthyself
Is your cortisol level high? These are my recomme Is your cortisol level high? These are my recommendations to help lower your stress hormone. Find more details in chapter 4 of my book THE HORMONE CURE 🟣Reduce caffeine. It directly induces the adrenocortical cells to produce more cortisol, as well as more epinephrine, norepinephrine, and insulin. For those that tolerate it better than I do, find the smallest dose of caffeine that supports your productivity yet doesn’t undermine your health.⁠ 🟣⁠Limit alcohol. It raises cortisol, which then disrupts your sleep as well as your insulin. One night of bad sleep makes you more insulin resistant the next day. Higher cortisol may disrupt the regular insulin signal. Chronically disrupting cortisol with a moderate to heavy amount of alcohol leads to more insulin resistance. ⁠⁠ 🟣Track your heart rate variability (HRV). Your HRV is the pattern of your heart rate. You want high variability between the time of each heartbeat. Research proves that when your HRV is high or optimized, your body is showing better stress resilience and health. A low HRV (little variation between beats) may indicate less resilience and greater stress.⁠ ⁠🟣Add in vitamins and supplements. Unremitting cortisol-raising stress can deplete certain micronutrients, including vitamins B1, B5, B6, B12, C, and tyrosine. Vitamin C has been shown to lower cortisol levels. L-theanine is thought to reduce stress and calm down the sympathetic nervous system. L-tyrosine is an amino acid that serves as a precursor to important neurotransmitters that can be depleted by stress, such as norepinephrine and dopamine. Phosphatidylserine (PS) is one of my faves to counter the effects of stress. PS dose: 400 to 800 mg/day⁠ Scroll back to the previous post for my recs on botanicals for stress. 🟣Develop a mind-body practice. There are so many options: yoga, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), meditation, or diaphragmatic breathing. The key is to choose one you like best and stick with it. 👉Do you want to hear more? Watch my @wanderlustfest talk - 7 Ways to Rock Cortisol and Manage Stress #linkinbio . . .#stressrelief #stressfree #stressmanagement #stressrelieving #thehormonecure
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