OH, STRESS!
Stress is a natural part of life. Some stress is useful - it keeps our faculties and brains sharp. Runaway and chronic stress, on the other hand, is problematic, leading to downstream toxic effects like chronic disease, chronic pain, mental health issues, and even death…
I really want you to navigate your stress better. Read on!
After a long hiatus, it’s almost time to begin the process of writing again.
But before I begin laying out words, here’s a podcast interview that may be of interest to you.
Happy listening and see you soon!
What a joy it’s been to start teaching the neuroscience of meditation for Nalanda Institute’s Meditation Teacher Training at Pure Yoga West. My two other co-instructors Megan Mook and Scott Tusa are truly AMAZING meditation teachers! Looking forward to an awesome next 10 weeks! More to come soon! ♡
As you may know, I took a short break from The Year of Yes. It’s been a full and sometimes overly intense last few weeks. I needed some time to regroup.
As promised, The Year of Yes will be including quick & easy plant-based meals! (See episode 20 for more details).
My friend Scott and new East Williamsburg CSA neighbor-friend gave me the idea of garlic scape pesto. I took a look at a few recipes, but decided to make my own. So easy & quick! And so darn delicious!!
Ingredients:
2 bunches basil
1 handful garlic scapes
olive oil
salt
pumpkin seeds
fresh / dried fresh pasta
Pulse together from lowest speed to medium in your Vitamix (or food processor if you have one.) I added more olive oil than I originally thought I needed - enough to soften the leaves and make a nice chunky but moistened consistency. If you’d like to add parmesan to the mix, the pesto won't be completely plant-based, but i’m sure it’d be splendid and adda wonderful umami flavor.
I used a fresh dried (eggless) tagliatelle. Pro tip* add enough salt your boiling pot of water to make it as salty as the sea.
Pair it with a side of pan-roasted asparagus and cast-iron pan charred zucchini, pic 2! Or salad! Or sautéed spinach. Y U M . 💚
The Year of Yes is a weekly photo-and-word installment by Dr. Shah written with the purpose of evoking hope, resilience, and a gentle movement toward healthy change in all of us.
and NO to the DIRTY DOZEN (think: high toxin burden) . . .
Excellent resource, the EWG
If you’re familiar with the Environmental Working Group, great! If you’re not, the EWG is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment. Definitely check out their website if you’re not familiar with them - they have lots of great information on everything from safer foods, the health of our tap water, and the harmful contents of beauty products (ewg.org).
Do keep in mind, however, that organic foods and farming, like anything else in life, is a complex issue, and never a black or white affair. Many factory "organic" farms are not as wholesome as they'd like to appear to be. When possible, I still choose locally grown organic foods for the reasons outlined below.
Why choose organic? Non-organic foods are often laden with endocrine disrupting toxins and have been linked to such issues as cancer, autism, ADHD, neurological issues, and pulmonary disease. There are also many other health issues that may be linked to pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides that science is only starting to uncover. For example, there are studies exposing the burden of pesticide residue in breast milk.
Take a look at the two lists above. Since purchasing organic is usually more expensive than conventional produce, the CLEAN FIFTEEN and the DIRTY DOZEN are exceptionally helpful resources to help you decide which produce to purchase organic.
Why organic farming? Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring comes to mind when I think about the current state of farming affairs in the U.S. and in many parts of the world today. Organic farming is usually better than current conventional agri-business farming for a number of reasons other than your own health. When done correctly, organic agriculture promotes long-term land and soil sustainability, minimizes water pollution, decreases climate change (by decreasing the use of petrochemical fertilizers & agricides and increasing the sequestration of carbon in the soil), and improves biodiversity (why those summer heirloom tomatoes are so darn tasty.) It’s also safer for those who are working to cultivate the food that gets to your local grocery and onto your plate every day.
What else can you do? Other ways you can help your health and the environment: purchase and eat produce that’s in season, eat less animal-foods and eat more plants, purchase what you can at your local farmer’s market, and join a CSA (community-supported agriculture). You can also take a look here for some safer alternatives to pesticides for insect control. Choosing these options help to remind us that we are all deeply interconnected - with the Earth, seasons, waterways and each other - and that your choices on a day-to-day basis matter.
Safe, healthy food for all
It deeply saddens me that toxin-laden foods are the norm and it seems completely inhumane that safer foods cost more that “conventional” foods. It’s another way in which socio-economic stratification develops in our communities and culture, where those who cannot afford healthier foods are left behind. We can speak with our dollars when we thoughtfully purchase organic foods, regularizing safer food for all. 💚
The Year of Yes is a weekly photo-and-word installment by Dr. Shah written with the purpose of evoking hope, resilience, and a gentle movement toward healthy change in all of us.
Superorganisms are not funny, though the band Superorganism (poster above) surely is a good time.
The spread of deadly drug-resistant infections (“superbugs” / "superorganisms") is growing exponentially globally, and it is posing a huge threat. Avoiding taking antibiotics except when absolutely necessary is a big step that you can take to help combat this major problem.
Working in an urgent care facility a while back, I was privy to the rampant use of antibiotics to treat infections that are usually not bacterial or don’t necessarily require antibiotics, i.e. bronchitis, many sore throats, colds, flus, sinusitis, ear infections, pink eye …
Patients were requesting them at breakneck speed, and urgent care physicians, eager to please, rarely said no. On the other end of the spectrum, all of my time at Columbia University Medical Center / New York-Presbyterian Hospital has been hopeful, where fostering “antibiotic stewardship” is the norm - a set of coordinated strategies to improve the use of antimicrobial medications with the goal of enhancing patient health outcomes and reducing resistance to antibiotics (and preventing superfluous health care spending).
When you use antibiotics unnecessarily, in addition to promoting bacterial infections that can’t be treated in the future for both you but also millions of others, you are also completely altering your microbiome, both in your gut and otherwise. That is, you’re killing off good bacteria in your intestines that are necessary for all sorts of important functions as well as in other parts of your body (ahem, think about such distressing things as yeast infections).
I have seen some horrific infections in the hospital in my day, and still commonly do when I'm working on the hospital wards. These are infections where patients may be required to stay in healthcare facilities for months at a time. Physicians like me have to don impervious spacesuit-like gowns, hoping to avoid being colonized by scary bacteria such as resistant Staph aureus, Enterococcus, and C. diff. Then there are things like resistant strains of gonorrhea... enough said.
So the next time you’re sick, if you and your physician or health care provider decide together that you require antibiotics, make sure you’re taking them for a very specific reason. Educate yourself. Ask questions. Check out the CDC's website to find some great patient information to learn more about the basics.
And, if you’d like to go more in depth, take a look at this great New York Times article, this Telegraph UK article, and this interesting Consumer Reports article.
Not to fear monger, but this is no joke...
The Year of Yes is a weekly photo-and-word installment by Dr. Shah written with the purpose of evoking hope, resilience, and a gentle movement toward healthy change in all of us.
At home with my Indian spice box.
It’s Valentine's Day tomorrow after all… so let’s get spicy!
Name a spice!
Tumeric, cumin, coriander, cayenne, caraway seeds, chili powder, black pepper, clove, star anise, mustard seeds, ginger, paprika, chili flake, garlic, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamon, asafoetida, chipotle... shall I go on?
Why are spices so amazing? For thousands upon thousands of years, spices have been used in food preparation and preservation as well as for their medicinal properties. At one time they were the hottest commodity out there (no pun intended), more valuable than gold, think spice trade, spice routes, and the accidental run-in with the Americas. As authors from Oxford Academic BioScience journal write, “Spices taste good, because they are good for us.”
1. Beauty, Flavor & Joy - Spices add gorgeous color and exquisite flavor to foods making them a joy to cook with and eat.
2. Health - Many spices have potent antimicrobial, anti-fungal, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and/or anti-cancer properties making them a healthy addition to your meals. A BMJ population based prospective cohort study showed that compared with those who ate spicy foods less than once a week, those who consumed spicy foods 6 or 7 days a week showed a 14% relative risk reduction in total mortality. Furthermore, unhealthy pre-packaged and processed foods are full of added fats, salt, sugar and additives like MSG (monosodium glutamate) to entice our palates, mainly because they have stepped away from using spices for flavor.
3. Variety - They’re readily available, take up little room in your kitchen, and can be blended in nearly endless combinations, often working synergistically with one another or with other foods making them even more healthy (example: the active compound curcumin found in tumeric + piperine found in black pepper). Cooking with spices is a great way to keep things interesting while also keeping your body, mind, heart, and soul healthy.
It’s no lie: variety is the spice of life. Look at all of the options you have! Comment below and let me know what your top three favorite spices are and why.
Happy Valentine's Day! 💋 XOXO
The Year of Yes is a weekly photo-and-word installment by Dr. Shah written with the purpose of evoking hope, resilience, and a gentle movement toward healthy change in all of us.
Looking up, outside my window at home in east williamsburg, brooklyn
YES, look up. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Like billions of others, I am guilty of standing in line, riding the subway, and walking to my next destination with my head down, cell phone in hand. But, why does it matter?
I’ve been considering the larger consequences of looking downward as much as we do - usually the result of using a digital device.
✦ BODY: For one thing, there’s a major posture issue, physical therapists informally refer to this issue as “text neck”. A study from 2014 suggests that the pressure on your neck when looking down at a cell phone is the equivalent of placing the weight of a small child on it. Dr. Kenneth Hansraj, a New York based surgeon, writes in his paper, "as the head tilts forward the forces seen by the neck surges to 27 pounds at 15 degrees [all the way to] 60 pounds at 60 degrees," (see corresponding image here). In my own practice, I have seen countless patients with neck and upper back pain, often stemming from the same repetitive habits.
✦ MIND: Then there’s the problem of our focus and mental aptitude diminishing. A recent study at the University of Texas showed that your cognitive capacity is reduced when your smartphone is within eyeshot, even if it is turned off. What a bummer!
✦ CONNECTION: Finally, the lack of connection with others that we perpetuate when we’re always looking down is a real issue. A study from 2016 playfully named this act “phubbing,” a portmanteau of “phone” and “snubbing.” But, it's far from funny. The very devices that promise increased connectivity (hey look! I’ve got 7 gazillion friends on Facebook!) is actually getting in the way of genuine human interaction.
I’m by no means suggesting that digital devices are evil or should be banished in some way. But in this new era of everything digitized, perhaps we can start using our devices more thoughtfully.
So, take a break from your smartphone - quiet it completely, or better yet turn it off, and put it away out of eyesight. Then look up.
You may see the expanse of our ever-changing sky. Or a beautiful tree gracefully reaching up. Or the eyes of another human or animal, causing the compassion center of your brain to light up.
Looking up connects us. It brings us into the everlasting present moment. It's life - you know, that thing happening here and now. 💛
