excerpt from The Estrogen-Depression Connection

Remember the stops along a subway system, where we can hop off to make a phone call, that is, to send a message? Imagine that estrogen has the ability to send a text message via cell phone. Estrogen helps direct the creation of the structures we mentioned earlier, and it also sends those biochemical messages. The biochemical messages, much like the text messages of our cell phone, are sent via chemicals known as neurotransmitters. Just as we need to have the right phone number to send the text message, we also need to have the correct neurotransmitter.

by guest blogger Stephanie Sarkis, Ph.D., author of 10 Simple Solutions to Adult ADD, Making the Grade with ADD, and ADD and Your Money

Recently a study published in the journal Pediatrics found a possible correlation between pesticides and ADHD. Out of the 1,139 children in the study (ADHD and non-ADHD), 94 percent were found to have some levels of organophosphate (pesticide) compound in their urine. Out of the children with an above-average level of the compound, 20 percent had ADHD. The rate of ADHD was 10 percent in children who had no level of the compound. This study has caused some concern among parents and others in the ADHD community. However, before we all start buying 100% organic everything, we need to take a closer look at the study.

excerpt from The Holistic Baby Guide

Treating your baby’s fever and acute symptoms at home is easy enough. The goal of treatment is to encourage healing and stimu¬late a strong immune response. Reducing the fever is not the goal, as the fever will do what is necessary to fight the illness. Natural remedies will encourage the fight.

The first and easiest remedy to try is homeopathic Belladonna. The classical indications for Belladonna are fever with sudden onset, radiating heat, and flushing and redness of the skin. There may be redness (indicating inflammation) at some specific location in the body: in the throat, the ears, the eyes, the skin—pretty much anywhere. Older children will complain of a headache. Babies who need Belladonna are often quiet and subdued, moaning and very hot to touch. Or they may be crying with discomfort. Belladonna is indicated before significant discharge develops with a cold or other symptoms appear later in an illness that would point the way to another remedy.

If babies are very uncomfortable and screaming in apparent pain, then you may want to try giving homeopathic Chamomilla. Often one dose will calm your baby and allow her to get back to sleep.

Excerpt from Coping with Erectile Dysfunction

It is easier and healthier to deal with physical and psychological changes together rather than in isolation. This is particularly true of ED, which affects you, your partner, and your relationship. To pretend otherwise is to violate a major tenet of mental health: Do not fool yourself. ED is truly your common foe. The likelihood of overcoming ED increases significantly if you work as a team.

Excerpt from Transforming Depression

How well you manage your attitudes and emotions each day determines to a large extent how much vitality you will experience overall. Most people think fatigue sets in because of all the things they have to do or because they didn’t get enough sleep. They often overlook the energy drain from out-of-control emotions.

Different triggers in life can cause stress to run through your system, creating frayed nerves, fatigue, and overwhelming, out-of-control feelings. Once this occurs, it’s important to recover from the stress fast, otherwise your energy drains away. Taking emotional responsibility to get into heart rhythm coherence helps to rebalance your system. Coherence also helps you develop the intuitive discernment to see how to stop draining energy and renew your vitality. This is especially important when you are trying to lift depression.

by guest blogger Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., author of

1. There’s nothing wrong with hope.
2. Make peace with your body.
3. Give yourself permission to do something you’ve been putting off.
4. Remove something from your self-improvement or to-do list.
5. Ask for support.

excerpt from Everyday Bliss for Women

After I emerged from years of paralysis, I felt a tremendous need to apol­ogize for being slow, overweight, and lacking in strength. I did this by telling the story of my broken back to everyone I met, elaborating on both how much I had suffered—and was still suffering—and how hard I was working on my recovery.

Thanks to brilliant, caring friends and an extraordinarily dedi­cated yoga teacher, I realized that I wasn’t simply a broken-back story and got on with living my life.

by guest blogger Kathryn R. Simpson, M.S., author of The Perimenopause & Menopause Workbook and The Women’s Guide to Thyroid Health

Take this simple quiz to see if you may have low thyroid function:

by guest blogger Sameet Kumar, Ph.D. author of Grieving Mindfully and The Mindful Path Through Worry and Rumination

The old saying “as above, so below” is particularly well suited to learning both the practice of mindfulness and the revolutionizing changes that mindfulness can bring. Mindfulness can change how you experience yourself and thereby affect how you manage your relationships with others. The more mindful you become of your thoughts and feelings, the less likely are you to be controlled by ruminations and irrational worries, or get swept up into the maelstrom of destructive emotions.

by guest blogger Stephanie Silberman, author of The Insomnia Workbook

During the holiday season, many people find themselves sleep-deprived. The reasons for lack of sleep can be positive or negative. Although staying up late at parties, eating and drinking a lot, and having friends and family over at your house can be a significant source of fun and pleasure and something that you’ve looked forward to for quite some time, it can also lead you to deprive yourself of much needed sleep. On the other hand, if the holidays are causing you to feel stressed due to financial concerns, tension at family get-togethers, or other similar reasons, you may be lying in bed at night wishing the holidays were over already so that you could go back to sleeping better. Although it’s quite common to have trouble sleeping during stressful periods of your life, insomnia can easily turn from a short-term problem into a chronic one. Before letting poor sleep affect both your physical and mental well-being, try these simple tips to improve your sleep this holiday season.