Looking for an easy, healthy way to start your morning? Try a nutrient-packed breakfast smoothie! Eating the right foods is crucial when you’re working to maintain healthy hormone levels, and the right smoothie can help you do just that.

Of course, many store-bought smoothies are loaded with sugar, which can wreak havoc on hormones. If you have a blender, it only takes a minute to skip the sugar and prepare your own delicious, power-packed smoothies at home.

The key to a healthy smoothie is the right balance of nutrients. These five key ingredients will help balance your hormones, boost your energy and keep you feeling fuller longer.

Blend These 5 Ingredients into Your Morning Smoothie

When blending a healthy, hormone-balancing smoothie, keep in mind the Fab Five ingredients: protein, fiber, healthy fats, greens, and non-dairy milk. Combining these together helps to elongate your blood sugar curve and keep you feeling fuller longer–helping you resist the urge to reach for those mid-morning snacks.

1. Protein

Protein is an important part of any diet. It builds and repairs muscles and tissues, and helps to make hormones and enzymes. High-Quality protein powder is a great base for any breakfast smoothie and helps to jumpstart your day and keep you full until lunch rolls around.

If your diet includes dairy, an organic whey protein powder is ideal as it offers all nine essential amino acids, making it a complete protein.

Egg white protein powder is also a great option. Or, for a plant-based option, combine pea protein with a hemp or rice protein to round out the amino acid profile.

2. Fiber

Fiber plays an important role in gut health, and according to some studies, it may also help regulate hormones such as insulin and help maintain a healthy weight.

Chia seeds, flax seeds, and acacia fiber are excellent ways to add fiber to your morning smoothies. You can also add in ground almonds or oatmeal for a fiber boost. Aim for 1-2 tablespoons.

If you like to add fruit to your smoothies, opt for fiber-rich fruits such as pears, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and kiwi. Try to keep fruits to a ½ cup or less.

3. Healthy Fats

Omega-3 fatty acids and monounsaturated fats give you energy, help balance blood sugar and insulin levels and raise good cholesterol while reducing bad cholesterol. They can even help reduce the risk of heart disease.

Those chia, hemp, and flax seeds not only count as your fiber source, but they’re also rich in healthy fats!

Adding ¼ of a fresh avocado to your smoothie provides healthy fats as well as giving your smoothie a thick, creamy texture. Coconut oil is a great option, too. When you’re ready to change up the flavor, try a couple of tablespoons of almond, walnut or cashew butter.

4. Greens

Greens like spinach, kale, mustard greens, and swiss chard are low in calories and high in folate, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, making them one of the healthiest things you can add to your daily smoothie. They can reduce the risk of heart disease, lower blood pressure, burn fat and more.

Spinach is a favorite for adding to smoothies, and it’s high in magnesium and iron, which are essential for healthy hormones. Swiss chard is high in antioxidants, while mustard and collard greens can help balance estrogen.

Fresh herbs like basil and dandelion greens are a great addition as well!

5. Non-Dairy Milk

Rounding out your smoothie with almond or coconut milk adds calcium and healthy fats while providing optimal texture and smoothness for a drinkable meal.

Try These Hormone-Balancing Smoothie Recipes

Need help getting started? These 3 smoothie recipes are great options for boosting energy, maintaining healthy hormone levels and helping you stay full until lunch.

You’re making efforts to live your healthiest life. You’re careful about what you put into your body and focus on eating healthy, wholesome foods. You make the time to exercise. You meditate. And all of these efforts are rewarded with a fuller sense of health and wellbeing.

But are you paying close attention to what you put on your body? After all, most of us use quite a few beauty and body products, and they could be undercutting all your other efforts.

Think about your daily beauty routine, from the body wash you use in the shower to the face cream you apply every night. After all, that lotion is from a “natural” product company and that fresh grapefruit on the label looks mighty convincing!

Unfortunately, many cosmetics are hiding a dirty secret. In fact, hormone disruptors and toxic chemicals are lurking in everything from our shampoo and body lotion to our mascara and foundation makeup. What’s worse, many of these products tout their “natural” ingredients on the front of the label while hiding their not-so-innocent chemicals in fine print on the back.

Thankfully, just as with your diet and exercise, you have a lot of control over the products you choose to apply on your body. That’s why we’re sharing our top 3 tips for cleaning up your beauty routine by recognizing and weeding out harmful toxins in your beauty products.

1. Watch Out For Greenwashing

Let’s talk about our example above: the “natural” face cream with fresh fruit on the front label. It may tout “natural grapefruit extract” and say it’s “paraben free” to sound safe, but if you peek at the ingredients list, you may find a plethora of hard-to-pronounce chemicals listed in fine print. Have you been bamboozled? Certainly. But there’s another name for this deceptive marketing tactic, and it’s called greenwashing.

Greenwashing is when companies market their products as eco-friendly, natural or organic when they are anything but. This type of marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that a company’s products or policies are safe, natural and environmentally friendly. Terms like “organic” and “natural” are not well regulated in body products, and just because a product contains an organic or natural ingredient doesn’t mean it’s free of chemicals.

So don’t take any company at its word. Look beyond the front-of-package hype and dig into the ingredients list.

2. Avoid Endocrine (Hormone) Disruptors

Many common beauty and household products are packed full of chemicals that are known to be hormone disruptors, and this is a serious problem. After all, what good is using an anti-aging cream if it’s making you sick in the long run?

These hormone disruptors interfere with the endocrine system and can cause major issues in the body. Some of them are even known to cause cancer, immune problems and neurological disorders.

So how do you spot one of these toxins in your beauty products? Look for the following chemicals hiding in the ingredients list:

Parabens
Look for words ending with “paraben” such as butylparaben, methylparaben, propylparaben, and isobutylparaben. Parabens can even cause reproductive problems, which is why many pregnant women are cautioned against using paraben-based products.

Phthalates
These toxins are tricky because they can cause problems when applied to your body as well as when breathed in through the air. Phthalates are found in a number of popular air freshener plug-ins, candles and sprays as well as all sorts of body products and cosmetics. While there are more than 20 types of phthalates, the most common to see on a label is diethylhexyl phthalate DEHP/DOP. Avoid this, or look for a product that is phthalate-free.

Synthetic Fragrances
Avoid anything labeled as “fragrance” or “parfum”. Some 95% of the chemicals used in synthetic fragrances come from crude oil production and contain carcinogenic and hormone disrupting compounds.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
Also labeled as SLS, it’s found in everything from shampoo to engine degreasers. SLS has been linked to endocrine disruption as well as neurotoxicity, organ toxicity, skin allergies and cancer.

Triclosan
This widely-used antimicrobial chemical can be found in toothpaste, antibacterial soaps, and deodorants. It’s a known endocrine disruptor and can especially affect thyroid and reproductive hormones.

3. Use Technology to Your Advantage

It used to be easy for companies to pull the wool over our eyes, but these days, investigating a product is as easy as a few taps on your phone.

Download the Think Dirty app on your phone, and you’ll be able to scan or search products to find easy-to-understand info on their ingredients. The handy rating system lets you know where a product falls on a scale of safe to harmful.

Similarly, the cosmetics database at Skin Deep offers ingredient details, safety ratings, and product recommendations for a variety of body and beauty products.

With these few simple steps, you’ll take back control of your beauty regime in no time, and you’ll be healthier for it!

Inflammation hurts. If you have arthritis, an autoimmune disease or some other condition that causes inflammation, then you know it can cause tremendous pain and suffering.

While it may be tempting to reach for the medicine cabinet first, pain medication merely soothes the symptoms. To get to the root of your discomfort and prevent further inflammation, you’ll need to evaluate what’s in your food pantry and refrigerator.

When you consume high amounts of sugar, highly refined carbs, and processed foods, it can cause a sudden spike (and subsequent drop) in blood glucose levels, which activates your body’s systemic stress response. This triggers a normal inflammatory response in the body.

However, when these foods are eaten on a regular basis, the result is ongoing, painful inflammation that begins to affect your daily functions and quality of life.

Not only can some foods you eat cause and trigger inflammation, but others can help reduce it. As a general rule, avoid heavily processed and packaged foods, and opt for a healthy variety of fresh, whole foods.

If you’re ready to get a handle on your pain and inflammation, here are 5 foods to avoid, starting today.

5 Inflammatory-Causing Foods To Avoid

1. Sugar

Sugar can be hard to resist. But that breakfast pastry, after-dinner dessert, and sugary soda are not your friends. And even if you don’t have an insatiable sweet tooth, sugar can be hard to avoid. After all, it’s found in everything from juices and cereal to condiments like ketchup.

That’s why it’s important to become a label reader. Sugar is a sneaky culprit and goes by many names on labels, so look out for fructose, sucrose, and corn syrup.

And if you can’t help but sweeten your morning cup of coffee, opt for an anti-inflammatory sweetener like local honey. Contrary to sugar, honey has a long medicinal history and is beloved for its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.

2. Trans Fats

Trans fats — often listed on labels as partially hydrogenated oil, hydrogenated soybean oil and more — are another cause of inflammation. They are often found in products such as margarine and other processed foods to extend shelf life.

Opt for healthy fats and oils (such as olive oil) instead.

3. Refined Carbohydrates

While carbohydrates are an essential, energy-producing element of any healthy diet, refined carbs can be problematic. Research suggests that consuming refined carbs can increase inflammation as well as the risk of obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, and higher blood sugar.

Avoid eating “white” fiber–such as white bread, pasta, rice, and pizza dough. Opt instead for high-fiber, unprocessed carbohydrates such as 100% whole grain bread and pasta, and plenty of fiber-rich beans, vegetables, and fruits.

4. Omega 6 Fatty Acids

While Omega 6 fatty acids are an essential fatty acid that our bodies require, it’s important that they are consumed in moderation and well balanced with Omega 3 fatty acids. In fact, studies suggest that Omega 6 fatty acids can cause inflammation, while Omega 3 helps to reduce it. And while not conclusive, some research suggests that too many Omega 6 fats can lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, inflammatory, and autoimmune disease.

These Omega 6 fatty acids are found in everything from fast food, fatty meats, and peanut butter to salad dressings and vegetable, peanut, soy and corn oils.

5. Gluten and Casein

You don’t have to be diagnosed with Celiac Disease for gluten to cause problems in your body. While gluten may not be a problem for everyone, many who suffer from inflammation find relief from cutting out gluten and casein.

Gluten is found in grains such as wheat, barley, and rye and it’s found in many of the foods we eat. Avoiding foods like pasta, bread, crackers, wheat bran, and gluten-based flours can help. Opt for fresh, whole foods and choose gluten-free options when it comes to packaged foods.

Now that you know what to avoid, keep an eye out for our next blog, which will highlight healthy, anti-inflammatory foods to eat more of!

There aren’t many places on your body that’s left untouched from the effects of aging, and that includes your teeth.

Unfortunately, once you retire or hit 65, you’re on your own when it comes to cleanings, X-rays, and procedures. Medicare doesn’t cover it and finding affordable coverage is tricky.

But, your teeth need tending — no one wants to deal with pain or decay. So, how do you afford the quality dental care you need (and deserve)? Here are three ways.

Use Free or Public Dental Providers

You have a couple of options when it comes to finding free or low-cost dental services.

For example, many charities, faith-based groups, and professional dental organizations will donate their services to meet the overwhelming need of people who need care but don’t have insurance to afford it.

The wait time can be lengthy, and some only serve seniors, people with medical conditions or disabilities, or low-income patients. However, volunteer dentists and specialists make sure you get quality care. You can contact your local branch of United Way to learn more about what’s available in the Greater Mid South area.

Alternatively, you can find taxpayer-funded clinics that are run by local and/or state healthcare departments or community health centers. These clinics charge low prices, fixed rate prices, or they use a sliding scale that determines what you pay based on what you can afford. Offering free exams, cleanings, X-rays, fillings, crowns, and surgical tooth extractions, this is a great option if you have a suitable income to pay for services to some extent.

If you aren’t eligible for either of the above, some dentists operate on a sliding pay scale. You can contact the American Dental Association to find out who does so in Tennessee and Mississippi.

Search for Coupons

You can also save money at your next dental appointment by checking out deals on sites like Groupon and Living Social. Or, you can sometimes find coupons in the Valpak you receive in the mail.

And, hey, and why not call up your favorite dentist and ask if they’re running any specials, deals, or savings in the next few months? Many dentists understand seniors can’t rely on their Medicare coverage for dental care, or that sometimes, dental insurance just isn’t affordable.

If you’ve been a loyal patient over the years, you may be surprised what your dentist can do to help make sure you can afford the care you need. Let him or her know your position and see if you can get a discount or if they can refer you to someone who may be able to do so.

Visit a Dental School

You can help aspiring dentists gain experience and save money on dental care by visiting a local dental school.

For example, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center offers routine dental care provided by their students, special services from graduates, and treatments and procedures from their staff. They also assist with emergencies. You can visit their website to learn more about services, cost, and scheduling.

Free and public dental clinics, coupons, and dental schools are three easy ways to take care of your teeth when you don’t have dental coverage. As a hormone therapy clinic that believes insurance-driven healthcare is a quick way to get lackluster service anyway, we strive to help you find alternatives that are equal in quality and results. Want to learn more about aging with grace and vitality? Give us a call today!

“Adulting” has become a buzzword among young adults and millennials. It means what it says: to carry out the duties and responsibilities expected of a fully grown individual.

But ⅔ of young people don’t feel prepared for the milestone, according to a survey by Bank of America and USA Today. In fact, one of the age group’s most popular jokes is not knowing how to make a doctor’s appointment. So, it begs the question, how do we make sure our children will be prepared to take charge of their health once they leave the nest?

When You Advocate for Your Health, Your Kids Learn to Care for Themselves Too

If you’ve ever heard a toddler repeat a cuss word, you know kids want to emulate everything their parents say and do. At a young age, children learn by picking up attitudes, behaviors, and interactions.

Teens and young adults are no different — they may need a little more pushing to pay attention, though. So, the best way to prepare your 18-year-old for the big, wide world of health care is to be an advocate for your own health. Here’s what you can do:

Understand Your Health Insurance

Health insurance is complicated even for us doctors. But understanding your policy can help you cut down on unexpected, costly bills. If you familiarize yourself with terms like deductible, copay, out-of-pocket maximum, and coinsurance, you’ll be ahead of most Americans.

You probably won’t get your teen to read the policy with you. But, as you go to visits or checkups, have your child go through the process of payment with you. Talk to them about why there’s a copay, how much you’re paying, and what that’ll mean in regards to the final bill (i.e., you won’t be out-of-pocket).

Be Prepared for Your Visit

If you see a general practitioner, your doctor is likely pressed for time and will only have around 7 minutes to listen, diagnose, and treat. Arriving prepared to your appointment can help you make the most of that visit and ensure you get treatment that’s aligned with your goals and desires.

Create a list of questions to ask your doctor. You may want to list out your symptoms, when you first noticed them, and any other relevant information you think could be pertinent to the diagnosis. Don’t be afraid to ask questions! Doctors have a wealth of knowledge and tend to talk over your head. But, when you ask, they’ll stop and explain it to you.

Maintain Your Health Records

We know someone who showed up to his doctor’s office to get his weekly allergy shot — something that can’t be missed — only to read a sign that said the office was now closed. Luckily, he already had access to his medical records via an online portal (and owned the vials for his shots), but if he hadn’t, he would have missed an injection and potentially have to start the treatment over.

Transferring records can be a hassle, but when you maintain your copies, they won’t get lost in the shuffle. And you can see what your doctor is seeing.

Communicate Financial Concerns

Errors in medical billing are more common than you think. So, firstly, demonstrate to your children that it’s important to review all your bills (even if the visit was fully covered).

Secondly, don’t be shy about bringing up financial concerns with a doctor. Many doctors have medication samples, coupons, or even know of financial programs that can help you afford the care you need.

Your young adult will likely encounter a situation where he/she can’t afford care. Teach your children to speak up if money is an object. Physicians do have options, and they will help you.

Understanding your health insurance, being prepared, maintaining health records, and communicating are all very important ways to be an advocate for your health AND model responsible behavior to your children.

What other ways do you teach your young adults to, well, adult?