A wellness cheat sheet from an integrative health coach | The Curl Code | The Curl Code: how curl care and self care means wellness for all

Description

Lori Fish Bard is a wellness expert, licensed clinical nutritionist and board certified integrative health coach, and long-time client of Oasis. After finally becoming comfortable with her curls, Lori's hair began thinning after childbirth. She discovered she had an autoimmune disorder called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Her wellness journey began, leading her to the importance of gut health, integrated effects on the body of hormones and more. Now, as a nutritional counselor, Lori takes a holistic functional approach to wellness, focused on digestive and gut health, metabolic syndrome, thyroid health, autoimmunity, celiac disease/gluten sensitivity, and food allergies or sensitivities to help people develop sustainable habits and live a healthy, nourished, balanced life. She played a significant role in helping Wafaya and the team at Oasis learn how to better their own health, including some tricks that benefit hair and scalp health as well. Learn all about those and some other simple things to help improve your health from head to toe!

In this episode:

Postpartum hair loss is a fairly common, but temporary, phenomenon resulting from hormonal changes during and after pregnancy.

A study on black seed oil's effect on thyroid in rats.

Essential oil aromatherapy reducing fatigue in women with hypothyroidism.

More on the microbiome and immune system.

GI-MAP (Gastrointestinal Microbial Assay Plus) testing is a relatively new technology, and while manufacturer Diagnostic Solutions defends the results, independent testing has shown low reliability and high false positives. If you are experiencing gastrointestinal issues you should consult your physician about options.

Studies have linked sugar to inflammation and metabolic disorders, and shown addictive qualities which may indeed trigger a higher reward response than cocaine in test animals.

Studies have linked pesticides to gut microbiome changes and secondary effects on hosts.

The Environmental Working Group provides the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen lists based on up-to-date USDA data.

While the link of specific foods to inflammation is often debated, certain diets have been linked to anti-inflammatory results.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Speaker #0
What choices you make day to day, what you decide to put in your body can truly affect your health. There is so much information that's out in the world. It's just a lot of noise. And I kind of see my role and my job as helping clients filter through that noise because a lot of that stuff is true. A lot of it is very valid. But I help people figure out, OK, what is true for you?
Speaker #1
Lori Fishbard is a licensed clinical nutritionist and board-certified integrative health coach and a long-time client of Oasis. Lori knows firsthand that health is a gift, having faced her own battles with an autoimmune disorder called Hashimoto's. Through her personal journey, she discovered her love for sharing that gift with others. She has taught the full Oasis team about healthy living and even some hair and scalp tips. Lori's knowledge spans metabolic syndrome, autoimmunity, celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, thyroid, digestive and gut health, and so much more. I can say she's made nutritious eating so much fun, not only for myself, but my picky family too. I use the tips and cleanses she shares on her websites all the time. You've got to check it out. Lori, welcome to The Curl Code. Thank you for being here. It's a pleasure. I'm so excited to be here. You have been such a tremendous and wonderful resource for me, for sure. How much I learned from you. I mean, thank you.
Speaker #0
Well, first of all, I have to thank you because you were my very first client when I decided that I was going to actually switch gears and go back. to school and get educated in health coaching and nutrition. You agreed to be my first client. That was like 14 years ago. So thank you so much.
Speaker #1
That was so wonderful and eye-opening. You blew me away with all that you shared.
Speaker #0
It was incredible. Yeah. Thank you. I mean, back then, I feel like people weren't talking about nutrition as much as they're talking about it now. And we didn't really have this, you know, flooding of information from social media like we do now. So the health and wellness space was not inundated with all of this stuff. It was really just, you know, if you were interested in it, then maybe you learned about it. And so I just remember every time we met, your eyes would just get wide and you'd come back and be like, and I tried this and I feel this way and it's so great. It was really, it was a wonderful experience.
Speaker #1
So you're a curly girl with stunning curls. Tell us a little bit about your curl journey.
Speaker #0
My curl journey. Oh, my goodness. Well, I never appreciated or liked my curls. You know, I think when I was really little, my mom just kind of left them alone. And then she started brushing them out. And I have thick, coarse hair. So it just didn't work. It just didn't look good. So unfortunately, I grew up not loving my curls for a really long time. And it wasn't, I mean, it was just like I had this big fluff of hair. You know, I remember in middle school, the guy sitting behind me, like hiding pencils in my hair. It was awful. It was awful. And I just kind of went along with it and pretended like I was part of the joke and in on the joke because otherwise it'd be really hurtful. Anyway, so I wasn't until college. I finally let my hair grow out because my mom always kept it really short. She always said it looked. look better short. And then I started appreciating my curls, started knowing a little bit what to do with them. But it wasn't until really I met you and had the experience of knowing really what to do to bring out the best in my curls. And also the cut, knowing how to frame my face, because it was always just really thick and big and it had no shape.
Speaker #1
Well, and especially when you have thick hair. People really are just overwhelmed and not sure what to do with it. Yeah. And you've had also some different struggles with your hair and scalp, right, around health.
Speaker #0
Yes, I think I have gone through many stages. So I have three kids. I think it was after the first one, I lost a tremendous amount of hair. I mean, I had like bald spots and I didn't know, but I was developing a thyroid issue. was later diagnosed with hypothyroidism and then Hashimoto's. And I think the hormones from after giving birth, there were a lot of different factors. But that was just terrifying and so hard. And I just didn't know what to do with it. And then it kind of happened again after the birth of my second child. And then things kind of were back to normal. And then as I kind of struggled with my thyroid issues, it would thin out. It was just unstable. I kind of never knew what was going on. I look back now at pictures, and I was like, wow, I was really bald for a good couple months. And I don't know how I got through. I think I just had other priorities.
Speaker #1
Well, you had newborns.
Speaker #0
And I had newborns, yeah. But it was hard. It was troubling. And then I think for the past, I don't know, 10 years, 15 years, things have been good. I have noticed lately, though, as I've hit menopause, that my hair is thinning out a little bit more.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And these dysregulated hormones or imbalance of hormones, whether postpartum, or going into menopause certainly affects the thickness of hair. I don't think a lot of people know that. I know when I had my babies, I had no idea that you have this tremendous amount of hair loss about three or four months after giving birth. And a lot of women that come here, now we talk about it so that they're aware. And often you don't even know how much you lost until it starts growing back in. And you're thinking, what's all this short hair growing in?
Speaker #0
Right. Yeah, I wish I would have known that.
Speaker #1
Yeah, it is definitely a conversation that we need to have with people. You were the first to introduce us to the power of using a high quality essential oil. So let's start there a little bit. Tell us about some, like a couple of key ways that. we can use essential oils to help make our lives a little bit better.
Speaker #0
So yes, so as I started learning and went back to school and learning about the power of food and nutrition, I also learned about other things that can enhance our health and that included herbs and essential oils. I started diffusing lavender in my home at sleep time for my kids. It was very calming. It kind of, you know, promoted relaxation. I was using rosemary oil on my scalp because it promotes hair growth. They have all these proprietary blends of certain oils that have been studied to do certain things. So they have one that's immunity boosting. You know, I started making my own cleaning products with lemon essential oils. And as I was doing this, I was just sharing it with you. And we kind of went on that journey together. Because as I was doing it, I was just so excited about the results I was getting. I remember you invited me to come and speak to your staff and your team about the value of essential oils. You were sharing some of your wins. So it was great.
Speaker #1
Yes. And we use it in the salon. And just so you know, every new team member that comes on board, I gift them. the On Guard, which is from doTERRA. That's the immunity blend. Right. Because I need them to stay healthy. And especially during a pandemic. I mean, it's and it is amazing. It's amazing. And, you know, the fact that you taught me there's really three ways to use essential oils. You can diffuse it. Right. Some are ingestible, not all. And then, of course, rubbing it on the bottom of your feet. Because tell me again why the bottom of the feet?
Speaker #0
Yeah, I think that it's the nerve endings that are there. It's highly absorbable. You can also rub it in. I use frankincense oil and I rub it on my thyroid for my hypothyroidism because there's been some studies. You know, more and more studies are popping up using essential oils and their benefits. And that can be beneficial, too.
Speaker #1
We sell the rosemary oil to clients who feel that they're somehow follicly challenged. Yes. And it works. I mean, your hair is much thicker than just even a few years ago when you were having the, you know, different thyroid issues kind of come up.
Speaker #0
Yeah. And it goes up and down, up and down. But every single morning I'm putting my rosemary oil in my hair. And I just love the way it feels also because it's an awakening oil. It's kind of a stimulating oil. So not only do I love the benefit that it's having to my hair follicles, I just love the smell and the way that it makes. me feel.
Speaker #1
And the Breathe Blend, you know, I have a son who struggles with allergies during the spring and he diffuses it in his room every night and can sleep through the night, no issues. So that's awesome. It really is. And he doesn't have to take anything for that. That's great. So let's just jump to gut health because, come on, it is the thing right now. And you are ahead of the curve. I mean, you were the one talking to me about it long before Dr. Mark Hyman, you know, had a platform. And it's so interesting. I have to share this story. A friend of mine who's my age, 59, is having a variety of issues. Every time she eats, she has heartburn or she gets bloated. And so I told her, I said, you've got to have like a gut health test. Is it called a stool test? You know, how we poop tells us a lot about our gut, how we're, you know, digesting food, how we're absorbing nutrients. And so she went to her internist last week and she said, what's the name of the test? And I responded. And she said, my doctor said she doesn't know what that is.
Speaker #0
Right.
Speaker #1
Oh, my goodness. And I know also there's a strong link to, of course, nutrition. I feel like hair and skin is an alarm.
Speaker #0
Yeah,
Speaker #1
for sure. If your hair isn't, you know, acting right or your skin isn't right, it's telling you there is a deeper issue that needs attention.
Speaker #0
I agree. Your skin, your hair, the whites of your eyes, all of that are windows into how things are going and functioning inside. And really. The engine of our bodies is our gut. It's our gut health. And the reason your friend's doctor doesn't know about some of the microbiome tests is because they haven't really hit allopathic conventional medicine yet. They're still in that functional integrative medicine space. I feel like those two areas of medicine are slowly coming together. I was trained in functional medicine, integrative medicine. My daughter is... going to medical school in July, which is so exciting. And I'm so excited to see if she's going to learn more than, you know, her cohort did five, 10 years ago or 20, 30 years ago, because I think we are learning so much more about the microbiome and how important that bacteria is in our gut and how it affects every system in our body. But I just think, doctors, it's just not. part of their training was not part of their training and not part of their like standard knowledge base. If nutrition is on the forefront and you know why and what you're putting into your body, then you're going to understand how that can benefit your gut health. We have tons of microbes that live in our gut. We have beneficial bacteria that make nutrients. They make vitamins. Then we have some non- beneficial bacteria that are fine as long as they're not overgrown. But if they take over, I call them like the bullies in the school or the weeds in the garden, then they can kind of disrupt the balance that we need. We need that balance because 70 to 80 percent of our immune system lives in our gut. So we need to make sure that our gut is healthy because if our gut is healthy, then our immune systems are healthy. we're having digestive issues, then that goes back to what does our gut look like? And that's what these gut tests can tell us. I use something called the GI map, which is a microbiome PCR DNA stool test by a company called Diagnostic Solutions. And basically you give a stool sample, it gives us all the beneficial bacteria, all of the opportunistic dysbiotic bacteria. All of those digestive markers you mentioned, inflammation markers, there's a gluten marker. So there's an anti-gliadin marker to see if somebody's reacting to gluten. There's so much information, H. pylori, certain gases. So we can really get an overview. I tell my clients it's like a selfie for your gut. And it tells us so much information that we can actually give people strategic. interventions that will make a big difference in their gut health and therefore in their overall health.
Speaker #1
Wow. I don't understand why that's not the first thing they're teaching in medical school. I mean, if you have a car, you're going to know what fuel you're putting in it, right? And I know personally, I was bloated all the time. I had heartburn often, and it turned out I had something called SIBO, small intestinal bacterial. overgrowth, meaning that the bacteria in the, I guess, in the large intestine was kicking into the small intestine where it didn't belong and wreaking havoc on my system. Right. And once, I mean, it took some time, but once we addressed it, like, I don't have those issues anymore. I just thought, oh, I'm older. This is what happens. And then, of course, you know, all the food that we're taking in. Like right now, I decided to have no sugar, no processed sugar. I wake up with no joint pain, none. Is this something that you found with others as well?
Speaker #0
Oh, for sure. I do a two-week cleanse, seasonal cleanse program, which you've done before. You did a while ago. I offer it every season, and we really take out those inflammatory foods, and we see how your body reacts for two weeks. Not only do we take out inflammatory foods, we're flooding the body with very nutrient-dense foods. And people report the same sort of thing, no joint pain. I usually get headaches. I don't have my headaches. I have this weird rash on my back that went away. You know, I don't have, I sleep better. I have more energy. I don't have stomach aches. And there's a real connection between what we eat, right? The foods that we're putting, that we're feeding ourselves and the way that we feel. And a lot of us know this, I think, but it's another thing to then actually do something about it on a day-to-day basis.
Speaker #1
Well, we know it, but I don't know that we know everything we need to know. For example, organic versus conventional produce, right? The way I understand it is when it's certified organic by the, I guess, FDA, it means that the soil for three years prior hasn't had any pesticides used in it. And so I'm thinking, so what does conventional produce have?
Speaker #0
Yeah, I mean, there's pesticides. They're using chemicals that are killing the bugs that are messing up the fruits and vegetables. But they're also wreaking havoc on our internal system, our gut. There's a great resource that the Environmental Working Group comes out with, which I think I told you about. They come out with the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15. So the dirty dozen are those fruits and vegetables that have the highest percentage of pesticides. The clean 15 have the lowest. And during the cleanse, for instance, we use all organic because we don't want things getting, messing up the body, messing up our hormones, messing up our endocrine system like pesticides do. And a lot of my clients will say, is it really that important? important. And I love those resources because there's some fruits and vegetables and you don't have to buy organic because I know organic is sometimes more expensive, but it's an investment in your health. And it's an investment also in the future of our earth, like our soil. It's so much better, right? For our planet to be not putting tons and tons of chemicals. I just had a client tell me yesterday, he just got back from Europe and he said, I just felt so good there. And I was eating. all sorts of food. Yeah. And I just felt really good. And I come back here and I was still eating kind of healthfully and I just, all my aches and pains are back.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Foods that cause inflammation. What are some of those foods?
Speaker #0
So it's different for everyone, but I would say Some of the biggies that we find that kind of across the board can cause inflammation, gluten, that's a big one. Dairy is another one. Corn, soy, eggs. It's a lot of those same ones that are the top kind of allergenic foods that can also cause inflammation. And a lot of people may think they might have a sensitivity to one of these foods. but they're not sure, a good way to find out is to kind of take it out of your diet for a little bit, see how you do, and then bring it back in and see what happens after you do that.
Speaker #1
What about sugar?
Speaker #0
Sugar is definitely a big one. It's funny. I don't think of it because it's like a food, it's like an ingredient, right? It's a big one though. Sugar is definitely inflammatory and it's in everything.
Speaker #1
In everything. Yeah. My husband seems to think that If he's getting sick, he should buy Tropicana. And so I decided to look at it, the Tropicana orange juice, and it says serving size, eight ounces and 22 grams of sugar per serving. So I decided to find out, well, what's 22 grams? It's four and a half teaspoons.
Speaker #0
Yeah. All the fruit juice is super high in sugar. And then people are like, but there's vitamin C. Well, so he can eat an orange and get the fiber and the vitamin C, right? Yeah. There's a lot of sugar in everything. They just put it in everything. And we are a country that's addicted to sugar.
Speaker #1
So even in ketchup?
Speaker #0
It's in ketchup. It's in tomato sauce. It's in salad.
Speaker #1
Salad dressing. Oh, my gosh. It's hard.
Speaker #0
How long have you been off of sugar?
Speaker #1
Well, I was off of it for a long time. And then I don't know why this year in the holidays, I just went for it. And I'm back to being off of it again. I mean, I know this. I know. Yet they say, and it's true, it's more addictive than cocaine. It really is. Are there healthy ways that we can sweeten?
Speaker #0
There are. You know, if you know you are addicted to sugar, then sugar is sugar is sugar. So even if you're using raw honey, for instance, which has a lot of health benefits, there's enzymes in there that are antimicrobial, antibacterial, antiviral, but it's still sweet. So if it triggers you to have more and more sweet, then that could be a problem. But if you can kind of just have a little bit and be okay with it, I think the natural sugars are a better choice. So your raw honey, your maple syrup. Your coconut sugar, that's shown to be lower glycemic than like regular brown sugar or white sugar. What else?
Speaker #1
How about date?
Speaker #0
Yep, dates. Dates are a great thing. I throw dates in my smoothie sometimes. And now there's stevia and monk fruit, which are, you know, non-nutritive sweeteners, but I think healthier. And the research shows healthier than aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, all of those. non-nutritive sweeteners that we grew up, you know, we're about the same age. We grew up with those and people thought those were healthy.
Speaker #1
And so the key then is to reduce. But when you are going to have it, make one of these choices. Or if you're baking, use maybe a smaller amount of whether it's organic maple syrup or the coconut sugar. And dark chocolate is like a superfood, right?
Speaker #0
Yeah, so cacao is super high in magnesium. And dark chocolate has a higher percentage of cacao in it. So yeah, I have worked with clients who say, I only like milk chocolate. I've worked with them to try to like switch to dark chocolate just because of the health benefits. And nine times out of 10, like they learn to love it. But again, if chocolate's like a problem for you, if you can't, if you have to eat a whole bar of chocolate and not just a couple squares. then you might have to eliminate it. You know, we say that moderation is the key to everything. Some people can't do that with sugar. If you can do that, that is, I think, a good place to be because there is kind of sugar in the world. But if you need some time to just, you know, put it on a shelf and not touch it for a little bit to get your body accustomed to not having it, then that's probably the best thing. Yeah,
Speaker #1
and personally, you mentioned several things where you know, people felt better, like sleeping better, but also waking up better, having a clearer mind, that brain fog. And for a while I just thought, again, it's age related. And come to find out, it's like, no, we can actually feel much better.
Speaker #0
Oh, so many people say that. Oh, it's just age or, oh, my family, we just have, we have very sensitive stomachs. It's just, it's genetic. And there are some real genetic markers. I mean, You know, celiac is one of them. I have celiac disease. My daughter has celiac disease. We have the gene for that. The gene has expressed itself. We have celiac. We can't change that. But we can make our guts as healthy as it can, even with this autoimmune condition. So I had a mother-daughter that I'm working with who, you know, they're just like, oh, this is just our stomach. But we've done the GI map. Turns out they both had SIBO, like you mentioned. We're treating the SIBO. They're already feeling so much. better.
Speaker #1
I mean, definitely. And when we did your cleanse, I was so excited because I learned so many new recipes as well that didn't involve meat. Yes,
Speaker #0
it's all vegan.
Speaker #1
But again, that brain fog was gone.
Speaker #0
That's one of the major things people say after the cleanse is the brain fog is gone. And I think that's related to inflammation. I think it's those processed foods. We don't eat processed foods on the cleanse. So we don't eat meat. I love meat. I eat meat all the time. But for the cleanse, for the two weeks... I don't do it because it's a little bit harder to digest and the cleanse is a time to give your liver just a break and to give your digestion a little bit of a break. And so we're just giving it, you know, whole foods, nuts, seeds, plants, legumes. We're laying off the sugar, the dairy, the gluten, those like high, more highly inflammatory foods.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I've learned so much doing that cleanse. I really strongly recommend it for everyone. Lori, tell me some of your favorite magic potions or gems that people should know about that are around us that we could use in our day-to-day to improve the quality of our lives.
Speaker #0
Well, for our gut and our liver. I always come back to greens. I remember when you and I worked together, one of the things you were so fascinated with is all the greens that you had never put in your grocery cart before. Yeah. Right. And now are probably vegetables that you have all the time. Things like Swiss chard and bok choy and leeks and mustard greens and cabbage. You know, all of these things have, all of these vegetables are plant fibers that feed the beneficial bacteria. bacteria in the gut. So they're prebiotics, right? They feed the beneficial bacteria. So we want to constantly be giving our bodies, our guts, you know, fueling ourselves with these very vitamin-rich prebiotic fibers.
Speaker #1
And the more colors, the better.
Speaker #0
The more colors, the better, right? Because each color has different phytonutrients in them, different antioxidants. that feed the cells in different ways. So I always say for vegetables, think of diversity and think of abundance.
Speaker #1
For a long time, I simply started my day with lemon water. What do you think of that?
Speaker #0
So that's one of the things we do on the cleanse. Lemons are very, even though you think of them as acidic, they're very alkaline for the body and they're very supportive for liver health. And so what they do is they prime the body for digestion. They help the body to get ready to produce stomach acid, which breaks down our food, which helps our food go down the digestive tract. So that's a great way to start your day, start a meal. It also has tons of vitamin C in it, which we all in this very stressful world are constantly just burning through our vitamin C. So giving ourselves more vitamin C is always beneficial. So there's so many good reasons to start your day like that. So I do that sometimes even after the cleanse that that kind of sticks.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And what about as far as supplements? What are, you know, I know it's by person and it's individual, but what are some general supplements that are kind of good for everybody to take?
Speaker #0
I think a broad spectrum probiotic is a really good idea. For a while, I think, you know, we were like. What are probiotics? Should we be taking probiotics? And I don't think they're make or break. I don't think that you've had chronic stomach issues by taking one probiotic is going to move the needle. But it's part of the whole picture. Many of us are deficient in vitamin D. It's really hard to get vitamin D from foods. Mushrooms have vitamin D. Egg yolks have vitamin D. But it's not easy to get from foods. It's also not easy to get from... sunlight if you live north of the equator. So I think taking a vitamin D supplement is always a good idea. And I will ask clients to ask their doctors or I can send them a script to know what their vitamin D levels are because then we know how much to dose. Optimal is really between 60 and 80. But normal vitamin D, if you just look on labs, will say 30 to 80. But we know that 30 is not, yeah, it might be normal, but it's not optimal. And vitamin D is so crucial for bone health, immune system health. It's a cofactor for so many other vitamins like calcium and K. So we need good vitamin D. We learned that kind of through COVID and the whole pandemic era.
Speaker #1
Now, is that vitamin D3 specifically?
Speaker #0
Yeah, D3.
Speaker #1
And does it need to have, is it K with it in order to be absorbed?
Speaker #0
Not necessarily. Some of the research does say that D combined with K has a more synergistic effect and is better absorbed. But I've seen both personally and with my clients moving the needle with just doing a D3.
Speaker #1
What about calcium?
Speaker #0
I think it's better to get your calcium through food. And I think, you know, when I was growing up, I remember, you know, drink your milk. That's how you get your calcium. It's all in the dairy. And I don't think that's necessarily true. There is a lot of calcium in dairy, but it's not 100% absorbable. So we know that our beans and our greens have a higher rate of absorption and a nice amount of calcium. So if you are vegan or if you are trying to avoid dairy or if you have a sensitivity to dairy, there are definitely ways you can still get your calcium. Sesame seeds, too. Tahini and sesame seeds is another great way to get calcium. What else? Magnesium, I will often recommend, especially if somebody tells me they're a little bit, you know, backed up, constipated, or their sleep is a little bit wonky. Magnesium can be very effective for both of those, for motility and for restful, calm sleep. But with every client, I will kind of figure out what might be missing. And then try to either food first, always food first approach. But when we can't get enough through food, look at supplements.
Speaker #1
So we're here and we have a stage. If there is one thing you could say to people to start taking their health more seriously,
Speaker #0
what would that one thing be? I think I would say what. Choices you make day to day, what you decide to put in your body can truly affect your health. So your day to day choices can have a huge impact on your health.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I'm even, you know, hearing even mental health.
Speaker #0
Oh, oh yeah, for sure. There's so much information we're learning about how neurotransmitters that are made in the gut. right, are affected by how robust or how weak that gut health is. So that is super important. And I get that there is just so much information that's kind of out in the world about the supplements and about, you know, food choices. And it's just a lot of noise. And I kind of see my role and my job as helping clients filter through that noise. Because a lot of that stuff is true. A lot of it is very valid. But I help people figure out, okay, what is true for you?
Speaker #1
I don't think this is the last podcast we're going to do together. I know there is so much more to say. And every time you come in to the salon where we're supposed to take care of you, I feel that we get so much information and helpful information for us and how we can better live our lives.
Speaker #0
I love how you're always soaking up everything that I say. Just so inquisitive and curious because that's what it's all about. It's staying curious and wanting to learn more and more about how, you know, to live the healthiest life we can.
Speaker #1
So, Lori, where can people find you?
Speaker #0
They can find me on my website, healthyheartbeat.com. It is like the beet, like the vegetable beet, B-E-E-T. I'm on Instagram at healthyheartbeat. That's where you can find me.
Speaker #1
That's my happy place. Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker #2
The Curl Code is brought to you from the Oasis Curl Salon in Rockville, Maryland, hosted by the one and only Wafeya Abdallah. If you like the show, please leave us a five-star rating, and if you've got some nice things to say, go ahead and leave us a review. But most importantly, share the show with any curly girls or curl-curious people you know. That really is the best way to help them find us. You can learn more about the salon at curlyoasis.com. And continue your curl education journey by finding them on Instagram and YouTube. The Curl Code is a Say More production.

About The Curl Code: how curl care and self care means wellness for all

The Curl Code explores individual stories of how learning to embrace our natural hair can unlock the journey to embracing and empowering our most authentic selves. Each episode reveals a unique story of an individual journey, starting with a decision to lean into and learn to care for their curls, unwinding a process of transformation in how they view the world, society, and themselves.

Wafaya Abdallah, owner of Curly Oasis curl salon and curl educator based in Rockville, MD, brings decades of experience in the beauty industry, and leads conversations including practical advice on hair and self care, how she runs a co-elevating, team-based business, and how uncovering our most authentic selves allows all of us to vibrate at our highest frequency.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About The Curl Code: how curl care and self care means wellness for all

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Description

In this episode:

Postpartum hair loss is a fairly common, but temporary, phenomenon resulting from hormonal changes during and after pregnancy.

A study on black seed oil's effect on thyroid in rats.

Essential oil aromatherapy reducing fatigue in women with hypothyroidism.

More on the microbiome and immune system.

Studies have linked sugar to inflammation and metabolic disorders, and shown addictive qualities which may indeed trigger a higher reward response than cocaine in test animals.

Studies have linked pesticides to gut microbiome changes and secondary effects on hosts.

The Environmental Working Group provides the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen lists based on up-to-date USDA data.

While the link of specific foods to inflammation is often debated, certain diets have been linked to anti-inflammatory results.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Speaker #0
What choices you make day to day, what you decide to put in your body can truly affect your health. There is so much information that's out in the world. It's just a lot of noise. And I kind of see my role and my job as helping clients filter through that noise because a lot of that stuff is true. A lot of it is very valid. But I help people figure out, OK, what is true for you?
Speaker #1
Lori Fishbard is a licensed clinical nutritionist and board-certified integrative health coach and a long-time client of Oasis. Lori knows firsthand that health is a gift, having faced her own battles with an autoimmune disorder called Hashimoto's. Through her personal journey, she discovered her love for sharing that gift with others. She has taught the full Oasis team about healthy living and even some hair and scalp tips. Lori's knowledge spans metabolic syndrome, autoimmunity, celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, thyroid, digestive and gut health, and so much more. I can say she's made nutritious eating so much fun, not only for myself, but my picky family too. I use the tips and cleanses she shares on her websites all the time. You've got to check it out. Lori, welcome to The Curl Code. Thank you for being here. It's a pleasure. I'm so excited to be here. You have been such a tremendous and wonderful resource for me, for sure. How much I learned from you. I mean, thank you.
Speaker #0
Well, first of all, I have to thank you because you were my very first client when I decided that I was going to actually switch gears and go back. to school and get educated in health coaching and nutrition. You agreed to be my first client. That was like 14 years ago. So thank you so much.
Speaker #1
That was so wonderful and eye-opening. You blew me away with all that you shared.
Speaker #0
It was incredible. Yeah. Thank you. I mean, back then, I feel like people weren't talking about nutrition as much as they're talking about it now. And we didn't really have this, you know, flooding of information from social media like we do now. So the health and wellness space was not inundated with all of this stuff. It was really just, you know, if you were interested in it, then maybe you learned about it. And so I just remember every time we met, your eyes would just get wide and you'd come back and be like, and I tried this and I feel this way and it's so great. It was really, it was a wonderful experience.
Speaker #1
So you're a curly girl with stunning curls. Tell us a little bit about your curl journey.
Speaker #0
My curl journey. Oh, my goodness. Well, I never appreciated or liked my curls. You know, I think when I was really little, my mom just kind of left them alone. And then she started brushing them out. And I have thick, coarse hair. So it just didn't work. It just didn't look good. So unfortunately, I grew up not loving my curls for a really long time. And it wasn't, I mean, it was just like I had this big fluff of hair. You know, I remember in middle school, the guy sitting behind me, like hiding pencils in my hair. It was awful. It was awful. And I just kind of went along with it and pretended like I was part of the joke and in on the joke because otherwise it'd be really hurtful. Anyway, so I wasn't until college. I finally let my hair grow out because my mom always kept it really short. She always said it looked. look better short. And then I started appreciating my curls, started knowing a little bit what to do with them. But it wasn't until really I met you and had the experience of knowing really what to do to bring out the best in my curls. And also the cut, knowing how to frame my face, because it was always just really thick and big and it had no shape.
Speaker #1
Well, and especially when you have thick hair. People really are just overwhelmed and not sure what to do with it. Yeah. And you've had also some different struggles with your hair and scalp, right, around health.
Speaker #0
Yes, I think I have gone through many stages. So I have three kids. I think it was after the first one, I lost a tremendous amount of hair. I mean, I had like bald spots and I didn't know, but I was developing a thyroid issue. was later diagnosed with hypothyroidism and then Hashimoto's. And I think the hormones from after giving birth, there were a lot of different factors. But that was just terrifying and so hard. And I just didn't know what to do with it. And then it kind of happened again after the birth of my second child. And then things kind of were back to normal. And then as I kind of struggled with my thyroid issues, it would thin out. It was just unstable. I kind of never knew what was going on. I look back now at pictures, and I was like, wow, I was really bald for a good couple months. And I don't know how I got through. I think I just had other priorities.
Speaker #1
Well, you had newborns.
Speaker #0
And I had newborns, yeah. But it was hard. It was troubling. And then I think for the past, I don't know, 10 years, 15 years, things have been good. I have noticed lately, though, as I've hit menopause, that my hair is thinning out a little bit more.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And these dysregulated hormones or imbalance of hormones, whether postpartum, or going into menopause certainly affects the thickness of hair. I don't think a lot of people know that. I know when I had my babies, I had no idea that you have this tremendous amount of hair loss about three or four months after giving birth. And a lot of women that come here, now we talk about it so that they're aware. And often you don't even know how much you lost until it starts growing back in. And you're thinking, what's all this short hair growing in?
Speaker #0
Right. Yeah, I wish I would have known that.
Speaker #1
Yeah, it is definitely a conversation that we need to have with people. You were the first to introduce us to the power of using a high quality essential oil. So let's start there a little bit. Tell us about some, like a couple of key ways that. we can use essential oils to help make our lives a little bit better.
Speaker #0
So yes, so as I started learning and went back to school and learning about the power of food and nutrition, I also learned about other things that can enhance our health and that included herbs and essential oils. I started diffusing lavender in my home at sleep time for my kids. It was very calming. It kind of, you know, promoted relaxation. I was using rosemary oil on my scalp because it promotes hair growth. They have all these proprietary blends of certain oils that have been studied to do certain things. So they have one that's immunity boosting. You know, I started making my own cleaning products with lemon essential oils. And as I was doing this, I was just sharing it with you. And we kind of went on that journey together. Because as I was doing it, I was just so excited about the results I was getting. I remember you invited me to come and speak to your staff and your team about the value of essential oils. You were sharing some of your wins. So it was great.
Speaker #1
Yes. And we use it in the salon. And just so you know, every new team member that comes on board, I gift them. the On Guard, which is from doTERRA. That's the immunity blend. Right. Because I need them to stay healthy. And especially during a pandemic. I mean, it's and it is amazing. It's amazing. And, you know, the fact that you taught me there's really three ways to use essential oils. You can diffuse it. Right. Some are ingestible, not all. And then, of course, rubbing it on the bottom of your feet. Because tell me again why the bottom of the feet?
Speaker #0
Yeah, I think that it's the nerve endings that are there. It's highly absorbable. You can also rub it in. I use frankincense oil and I rub it on my thyroid for my hypothyroidism because there's been some studies. You know, more and more studies are popping up using essential oils and their benefits. And that can be beneficial, too.
Speaker #1
We sell the rosemary oil to clients who feel that they're somehow follicly challenged. Yes. And it works. I mean, your hair is much thicker than just even a few years ago when you were having the, you know, different thyroid issues kind of come up.
Speaker #0
Yeah. And it goes up and down, up and down. But every single morning I'm putting my rosemary oil in my hair. And I just love the way it feels also because it's an awakening oil. It's kind of a stimulating oil. So not only do I love the benefit that it's having to my hair follicles, I just love the smell and the way that it makes. me feel.
Speaker #1
And the Breathe Blend, you know, I have a son who struggles with allergies during the spring and he diffuses it in his room every night and can sleep through the night, no issues. So that's awesome. It really is. And he doesn't have to take anything for that. That's great. So let's just jump to gut health because, come on, it is the thing right now. And you are ahead of the curve. I mean, you were the one talking to me about it long before Dr. Mark Hyman, you know, had a platform. And it's so interesting. I have to share this story. A friend of mine who's my age, 59, is having a variety of issues. Every time she eats, she has heartburn or she gets bloated. And so I told her, I said, you've got to have like a gut health test. Is it called a stool test? You know, how we poop tells us a lot about our gut, how we're, you know, digesting food, how we're absorbing nutrients. And so she went to her internist last week and she said, what's the name of the test? And I responded. And she said, my doctor said she doesn't know what that is.
Speaker #0
Right.
Speaker #1
Oh, my goodness. And I know also there's a strong link to, of course, nutrition. I feel like hair and skin is an alarm.
Speaker #0
Yeah,
Speaker #1
for sure. If your hair isn't, you know, acting right or your skin isn't right, it's telling you there is a deeper issue that needs attention.
Speaker #0
I agree. Your skin, your hair, the whites of your eyes, all of that are windows into how things are going and functioning inside. And really. The engine of our bodies is our gut. It's our gut health. And the reason your friend's doctor doesn't know about some of the microbiome tests is because they haven't really hit allopathic conventional medicine yet. They're still in that functional integrative medicine space. I feel like those two areas of medicine are slowly coming together. I was trained in functional medicine, integrative medicine. My daughter is... going to medical school in July, which is so exciting. And I'm so excited to see if she's going to learn more than, you know, her cohort did five, 10 years ago or 20, 30 years ago, because I think we are learning so much more about the microbiome and how important that bacteria is in our gut and how it affects every system in our body. But I just think, doctors, it's just not. part of their training was not part of their training and not part of their like standard knowledge base. If nutrition is on the forefront and you know why and what you're putting into your body, then you're going to understand how that can benefit your gut health. We have tons of microbes that live in our gut. We have beneficial bacteria that make nutrients. They make vitamins. Then we have some non- beneficial bacteria that are fine as long as they're not overgrown. But if they take over, I call them like the bullies in the school or the weeds in the garden, then they can kind of disrupt the balance that we need. We need that balance because 70 to 80 percent of our immune system lives in our gut. So we need to make sure that our gut is healthy because if our gut is healthy, then our immune systems are healthy. we're having digestive issues, then that goes back to what does our gut look like? And that's what these gut tests can tell us. I use something called the GI map, which is a microbiome PCR DNA stool test by a company called Diagnostic Solutions. And basically you give a stool sample, it gives us all the beneficial bacteria, all of the opportunistic dysbiotic bacteria. All of those digestive markers you mentioned, inflammation markers, there's a gluten marker. So there's an anti-gliadin marker to see if somebody's reacting to gluten. There's so much information, H. pylori, certain gases. So we can really get an overview. I tell my clients it's like a selfie for your gut. And it tells us so much information that we can actually give people strategic. interventions that will make a big difference in their gut health and therefore in their overall health.
Speaker #1
Wow. I don't understand why that's not the first thing they're teaching in medical school. I mean, if you have a car, you're going to know what fuel you're putting in it, right? And I know personally, I was bloated all the time. I had heartburn often, and it turned out I had something called SIBO, small intestinal bacterial. overgrowth, meaning that the bacteria in the, I guess, in the large intestine was kicking into the small intestine where it didn't belong and wreaking havoc on my system. Right. And once, I mean, it took some time, but once we addressed it, like, I don't have those issues anymore. I just thought, oh, I'm older. This is what happens. And then, of course, you know, all the food that we're taking in. Like right now, I decided to have no sugar, no processed sugar. I wake up with no joint pain, none. Is this something that you found with others as well?
Speaker #0
Oh, for sure. I do a two-week cleanse, seasonal cleanse program, which you've done before. You did a while ago. I offer it every season, and we really take out those inflammatory foods, and we see how your body reacts for two weeks. Not only do we take out inflammatory foods, we're flooding the body with very nutrient-dense foods. And people report the same sort of thing, no joint pain. I usually get headaches. I don't have my headaches. I have this weird rash on my back that went away. You know, I don't have, I sleep better. I have more energy. I don't have stomach aches. And there's a real connection between what we eat, right? The foods that we're putting, that we're feeding ourselves and the way that we feel. And a lot of us know this, I think, but it's another thing to then actually do something about it on a day-to-day basis.
Speaker #1
Well, we know it, but I don't know that we know everything we need to know. For example, organic versus conventional produce, right? The way I understand it is when it's certified organic by the, I guess, FDA, it means that the soil for three years prior hasn't had any pesticides used in it. And so I'm thinking, so what does conventional produce have?
Speaker #0
Yeah, I mean, there's pesticides. They're using chemicals that are killing the bugs that are messing up the fruits and vegetables. But they're also wreaking havoc on our internal system, our gut. There's a great resource that the Environmental Working Group comes out with, which I think I told you about. They come out with the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15. So the dirty dozen are those fruits and vegetables that have the highest percentage of pesticides. The clean 15 have the lowest. And during the cleanse, for instance, we use all organic because we don't want things getting, messing up the body, messing up our hormones, messing up our endocrine system like pesticides do. And a lot of my clients will say, is it really that important? important. And I love those resources because there's some fruits and vegetables and you don't have to buy organic because I know organic is sometimes more expensive, but it's an investment in your health. And it's an investment also in the future of our earth, like our soil. It's so much better, right? For our planet to be not putting tons and tons of chemicals. I just had a client tell me yesterday, he just got back from Europe and he said, I just felt so good there. And I was eating. all sorts of food. Yeah. And I just felt really good. And I come back here and I was still eating kind of healthfully and I just, all my aches and pains are back.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Foods that cause inflammation. What are some of those foods?
Speaker #0
So it's different for everyone, but I would say Some of the biggies that we find that kind of across the board can cause inflammation, gluten, that's a big one. Dairy is another one. Corn, soy, eggs. It's a lot of those same ones that are the top kind of allergenic foods that can also cause inflammation. And a lot of people may think they might have a sensitivity to one of these foods. but they're not sure, a good way to find out is to kind of take it out of your diet for a little bit, see how you do, and then bring it back in and see what happens after you do that.
Speaker #1
What about sugar?
Speaker #0
Sugar is definitely a big one. It's funny. I don't think of it because it's like a food, it's like an ingredient, right? It's a big one though. Sugar is definitely inflammatory and it's in everything.
Speaker #1
In everything. Yeah. My husband seems to think that If he's getting sick, he should buy Tropicana. And so I decided to look at it, the Tropicana orange juice, and it says serving size, eight ounces and 22 grams of sugar per serving. So I decided to find out, well, what's 22 grams? It's four and a half teaspoons.
Speaker #0
Yeah. All the fruit juice is super high in sugar. And then people are like, but there's vitamin C. Well, so he can eat an orange and get the fiber and the vitamin C, right? Yeah. There's a lot of sugar in everything. They just put it in everything. And we are a country that's addicted to sugar.
Speaker #1
So even in ketchup?
Speaker #0
It's in ketchup. It's in tomato sauce. It's in salad.
Speaker #1
Salad dressing. Oh, my gosh. It's hard.
Speaker #0
How long have you been off of sugar?
Speaker #1
Well, I was off of it for a long time. And then I don't know why this year in the holidays, I just went for it. And I'm back to being off of it again. I mean, I know this. I know. Yet they say, and it's true, it's more addictive than cocaine. It really is. Are there healthy ways that we can sweeten?
Speaker #0
There are. You know, if you know you are addicted to sugar, then sugar is sugar is sugar. So even if you're using raw honey, for instance, which has a lot of health benefits, there's enzymes in there that are antimicrobial, antibacterial, antiviral, but it's still sweet. So if it triggers you to have more and more sweet, then that could be a problem. But if you can kind of just have a little bit and be okay with it, I think the natural sugars are a better choice. So your raw honey, your maple syrup. Your coconut sugar, that's shown to be lower glycemic than like regular brown sugar or white sugar. What else?
Speaker #1
How about date?
Speaker #0
Yep, dates. Dates are a great thing. I throw dates in my smoothie sometimes. And now there's stevia and monk fruit, which are, you know, non-nutritive sweeteners, but I think healthier. And the research shows healthier than aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, all of those. non-nutritive sweeteners that we grew up, you know, we're about the same age. We grew up with those and people thought those were healthy.
Speaker #1
And so the key then is to reduce. But when you are going to have it, make one of these choices. Or if you're baking, use maybe a smaller amount of whether it's organic maple syrup or the coconut sugar. And dark chocolate is like a superfood, right?
Speaker #0
Yeah, so cacao is super high in magnesium. And dark chocolate has a higher percentage of cacao in it. So yeah, I have worked with clients who say, I only like milk chocolate. I've worked with them to try to like switch to dark chocolate just because of the health benefits. And nine times out of 10, like they learn to love it. But again, if chocolate's like a problem for you, if you can't, if you have to eat a whole bar of chocolate and not just a couple squares. then you might have to eliminate it. You know, we say that moderation is the key to everything. Some people can't do that with sugar. If you can do that, that is, I think, a good place to be because there is kind of sugar in the world. But if you need some time to just, you know, put it on a shelf and not touch it for a little bit to get your body accustomed to not having it, then that's probably the best thing. Yeah,
Speaker #1
and personally, you mentioned several things where you know, people felt better, like sleeping better, but also waking up better, having a clearer mind, that brain fog. And for a while I just thought, again, it's age related. And come to find out, it's like, no, we can actually feel much better.
Speaker #0
Oh, so many people say that. Oh, it's just age or, oh, my family, we just have, we have very sensitive stomachs. It's just, it's genetic. And there are some real genetic markers. I mean, You know, celiac is one of them. I have celiac disease. My daughter has celiac disease. We have the gene for that. The gene has expressed itself. We have celiac. We can't change that. But we can make our guts as healthy as it can, even with this autoimmune condition. So I had a mother-daughter that I'm working with who, you know, they're just like, oh, this is just our stomach. But we've done the GI map. Turns out they both had SIBO, like you mentioned. We're treating the SIBO. They're already feeling so much. better.
Speaker #1
I mean, definitely. And when we did your cleanse, I was so excited because I learned so many new recipes as well that didn't involve meat. Yes,
Speaker #0
it's all vegan.
Speaker #1
But again, that brain fog was gone.
Speaker #0
That's one of the major things people say after the cleanse is the brain fog is gone. And I think that's related to inflammation. I think it's those processed foods. We don't eat processed foods on the cleanse. So we don't eat meat. I love meat. I eat meat all the time. But for the cleanse, for the two weeks... I don't do it because it's a little bit harder to digest and the cleanse is a time to give your liver just a break and to give your digestion a little bit of a break. And so we're just giving it, you know, whole foods, nuts, seeds, plants, legumes. We're laying off the sugar, the dairy, the gluten, those like high, more highly inflammatory foods.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I've learned so much doing that cleanse. I really strongly recommend it for everyone. Lori, tell me some of your favorite magic potions or gems that people should know about that are around us that we could use in our day-to-day to improve the quality of our lives.
Speaker #0
Well, for our gut and our liver. I always come back to greens. I remember when you and I worked together, one of the things you were so fascinated with is all the greens that you had never put in your grocery cart before. Yeah. Right. And now are probably vegetables that you have all the time. Things like Swiss chard and bok choy and leeks and mustard greens and cabbage. You know, all of these things have, all of these vegetables are plant fibers that feed the beneficial bacteria. bacteria in the gut. So they're prebiotics, right? They feed the beneficial bacteria. So we want to constantly be giving our bodies, our guts, you know, fueling ourselves with these very vitamin-rich prebiotic fibers.
Speaker #1
And the more colors, the better.
Speaker #0
The more colors, the better, right? Because each color has different phytonutrients in them, different antioxidants. that feed the cells in different ways. So I always say for vegetables, think of diversity and think of abundance.
Speaker #1
For a long time, I simply started my day with lemon water. What do you think of that?
Speaker #0
So that's one of the things we do on the cleanse. Lemons are very, even though you think of them as acidic, they're very alkaline for the body and they're very supportive for liver health. And so what they do is they prime the body for digestion. They help the body to get ready to produce stomach acid, which breaks down our food, which helps our food go down the digestive tract. So that's a great way to start your day, start a meal. It also has tons of vitamin C in it, which we all in this very stressful world are constantly just burning through our vitamin C. So giving ourselves more vitamin C is always beneficial. So there's so many good reasons to start your day like that. So I do that sometimes even after the cleanse that that kind of sticks.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And what about as far as supplements? What are, you know, I know it's by person and it's individual, but what are some general supplements that are kind of good for everybody to take?
Speaker #0
I think a broad spectrum probiotic is a really good idea. For a while, I think, you know, we were like. What are probiotics? Should we be taking probiotics? And I don't think they're make or break. I don't think that you've had chronic stomach issues by taking one probiotic is going to move the needle. But it's part of the whole picture. Many of us are deficient in vitamin D. It's really hard to get vitamin D from foods. Mushrooms have vitamin D. Egg yolks have vitamin D. But it's not easy to get from foods. It's also not easy to get from... sunlight if you live north of the equator. So I think taking a vitamin D supplement is always a good idea. And I will ask clients to ask their doctors or I can send them a script to know what their vitamin D levels are because then we know how much to dose. Optimal is really between 60 and 80. But normal vitamin D, if you just look on labs, will say 30 to 80. But we know that 30 is not, yeah, it might be normal, but it's not optimal. And vitamin D is so crucial for bone health, immune system health. It's a cofactor for so many other vitamins like calcium and K. So we need good vitamin D. We learned that kind of through COVID and the whole pandemic era.
Speaker #1
Now, is that vitamin D3 specifically?
Speaker #0
Yeah, D3.
Speaker #1
And does it need to have, is it K with it in order to be absorbed?
Speaker #0
Not necessarily. Some of the research does say that D combined with K has a more synergistic effect and is better absorbed. But I've seen both personally and with my clients moving the needle with just doing a D3.
Speaker #1
What about calcium?
Speaker #0
I think it's better to get your calcium through food. And I think, you know, when I was growing up, I remember, you know, drink your milk. That's how you get your calcium. It's all in the dairy. And I don't think that's necessarily true. There is a lot of calcium in dairy, but it's not 100% absorbable. So we know that our beans and our greens have a higher rate of absorption and a nice amount of calcium. So if you are vegan or if you are trying to avoid dairy or if you have a sensitivity to dairy, there are definitely ways you can still get your calcium. Sesame seeds, too. Tahini and sesame seeds is another great way to get calcium. What else? Magnesium, I will often recommend, especially if somebody tells me they're a little bit, you know, backed up, constipated, or their sleep is a little bit wonky. Magnesium can be very effective for both of those, for motility and for restful, calm sleep. But with every client, I will kind of figure out what might be missing. And then try to either food first, always food first approach. But when we can't get enough through food, look at supplements.
Speaker #1
So we're here and we have a stage. If there is one thing you could say to people to start taking their health more seriously,
Speaker #0
what would that one thing be? I think I would say what. Choices you make day to day, what you decide to put in your body can truly affect your health. So your day to day choices can have a huge impact on your health.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I'm even, you know, hearing even mental health.
Speaker #0
Oh, oh yeah, for sure. There's so much information we're learning about how neurotransmitters that are made in the gut. right, are affected by how robust or how weak that gut health is. So that is super important. And I get that there is just so much information that's kind of out in the world about the supplements and about, you know, food choices. And it's just a lot of noise. And I kind of see my role and my job as helping clients filter through that noise. Because a lot of that stuff is true. A lot of it is very valid. But I help people figure out, okay, what is true for you?
Speaker #1
I don't think this is the last podcast we're going to do together. I know there is so much more to say. And every time you come in to the salon where we're supposed to take care of you, I feel that we get so much information and helpful information for us and how we can better live our lives.
Speaker #0
I love how you're always soaking up everything that I say. Just so inquisitive and curious because that's what it's all about. It's staying curious and wanting to learn more and more about how, you know, to live the healthiest life we can.
Speaker #1
So, Lori, where can people find you?
Speaker #0
They can find me on my website, healthyheartbeat.com. It is like the beet, like the vegetable beet, B-E-E-T. I'm on Instagram at healthyheartbeat. That's where you can find me.
Speaker #1
That's my happy place. Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker #2
The Curl Code is brought to you from the Oasis Curl Salon in Rockville, Maryland, hosted by the one and only Wafeya Abdallah. If you like the show, please leave us a five-star rating, and if you've got some nice things to say, go ahead and leave us a review. But most importantly, share the show with any curly girls or curl-curious people you know. That really is the best way to help them find us. You can learn more about the salon at curlyoasis.com. And continue your curl education journey by finding them on Instagram and YouTube. The Curl Code is a Say More production.

About The Curl Code: how curl care and self care means wellness for all

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About The Curl Code: how curl care and self care means wellness for all

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

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Description

In this episode:

Postpartum hair loss is a fairly common, but temporary, phenomenon resulting from hormonal changes during and after pregnancy.

A study on black seed oil's effect on thyroid in rats.

Essential oil aromatherapy reducing fatigue in women with hypothyroidism.

More on the microbiome and immune system.

Studies have linked sugar to inflammation and metabolic disorders, and shown addictive qualities which may indeed trigger a higher reward response than cocaine in test animals.

Studies have linked pesticides to gut microbiome changes and secondary effects on hosts.

The Environmental Working Group provides the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen lists based on up-to-date USDA data.

While the link of specific foods to inflammation is often debated, certain diets have been linked to anti-inflammatory results.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Speaker #0
What choices you make day to day, what you decide to put in your body can truly affect your health. There is so much information that's out in the world. It's just a lot of noise. And I kind of see my role and my job as helping clients filter through that noise because a lot of that stuff is true. A lot of it is very valid. But I help people figure out, OK, what is true for you?
Speaker #1
Lori Fishbard is a licensed clinical nutritionist and board-certified integrative health coach and a long-time client of Oasis. Lori knows firsthand that health is a gift, having faced her own battles with an autoimmune disorder called Hashimoto's. Through her personal journey, she discovered her love for sharing that gift with others. She has taught the full Oasis team about healthy living and even some hair and scalp tips. Lori's knowledge spans metabolic syndrome, autoimmunity, celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, thyroid, digestive and gut health, and so much more. I can say she's made nutritious eating so much fun, not only for myself, but my picky family too. I use the tips and cleanses she shares on her websites all the time. You've got to check it out. Lori, welcome to The Curl Code. Thank you for being here. It's a pleasure. I'm so excited to be here. You have been such a tremendous and wonderful resource for me, for sure. How much I learned from you. I mean, thank you.
Speaker #0
Well, first of all, I have to thank you because you were my very first client when I decided that I was going to actually switch gears and go back. to school and get educated in health coaching and nutrition. You agreed to be my first client. That was like 14 years ago. So thank you so much.
Speaker #1
That was so wonderful and eye-opening. You blew me away with all that you shared.
Speaker #0
It was incredible. Yeah. Thank you. I mean, back then, I feel like people weren't talking about nutrition as much as they're talking about it now. And we didn't really have this, you know, flooding of information from social media like we do now. So the health and wellness space was not inundated with all of this stuff. It was really just, you know, if you were interested in it, then maybe you learned about it. And so I just remember every time we met, your eyes would just get wide and you'd come back and be like, and I tried this and I feel this way and it's so great. It was really, it was a wonderful experience.
Speaker #1
So you're a curly girl with stunning curls. Tell us a little bit about your curl journey.
Speaker #0
My curl journey. Oh, my goodness. Well, I never appreciated or liked my curls. You know, I think when I was really little, my mom just kind of left them alone. And then she started brushing them out. And I have thick, coarse hair. So it just didn't work. It just didn't look good. So unfortunately, I grew up not loving my curls for a really long time. And it wasn't, I mean, it was just like I had this big fluff of hair. You know, I remember in middle school, the guy sitting behind me, like hiding pencils in my hair. It was awful. It was awful. And I just kind of went along with it and pretended like I was part of the joke and in on the joke because otherwise it'd be really hurtful. Anyway, so I wasn't until college. I finally let my hair grow out because my mom always kept it really short. She always said it looked. look better short. And then I started appreciating my curls, started knowing a little bit what to do with them. But it wasn't until really I met you and had the experience of knowing really what to do to bring out the best in my curls. And also the cut, knowing how to frame my face, because it was always just really thick and big and it had no shape.
Speaker #1
Well, and especially when you have thick hair. People really are just overwhelmed and not sure what to do with it. Yeah. And you've had also some different struggles with your hair and scalp, right, around health.
Speaker #0
Yes, I think I have gone through many stages. So I have three kids. I think it was after the first one, I lost a tremendous amount of hair. I mean, I had like bald spots and I didn't know, but I was developing a thyroid issue. was later diagnosed with hypothyroidism and then Hashimoto's. And I think the hormones from after giving birth, there were a lot of different factors. But that was just terrifying and so hard. And I just didn't know what to do with it. And then it kind of happened again after the birth of my second child. And then things kind of were back to normal. And then as I kind of struggled with my thyroid issues, it would thin out. It was just unstable. I kind of never knew what was going on. I look back now at pictures, and I was like, wow, I was really bald for a good couple months. And I don't know how I got through. I think I just had other priorities.
Speaker #1
Well, you had newborns.
Speaker #0
And I had newborns, yeah. But it was hard. It was troubling. And then I think for the past, I don't know, 10 years, 15 years, things have been good. I have noticed lately, though, as I've hit menopause, that my hair is thinning out a little bit more.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And these dysregulated hormones or imbalance of hormones, whether postpartum, or going into menopause certainly affects the thickness of hair. I don't think a lot of people know that. I know when I had my babies, I had no idea that you have this tremendous amount of hair loss about three or four months after giving birth. And a lot of women that come here, now we talk about it so that they're aware. And often you don't even know how much you lost until it starts growing back in. And you're thinking, what's all this short hair growing in?
Speaker #0
Right. Yeah, I wish I would have known that.
Speaker #1
Yeah, it is definitely a conversation that we need to have with people. You were the first to introduce us to the power of using a high quality essential oil. So let's start there a little bit. Tell us about some, like a couple of key ways that. we can use essential oils to help make our lives a little bit better.
Speaker #0
So yes, so as I started learning and went back to school and learning about the power of food and nutrition, I also learned about other things that can enhance our health and that included herbs and essential oils. I started diffusing lavender in my home at sleep time for my kids. It was very calming. It kind of, you know, promoted relaxation. I was using rosemary oil on my scalp because it promotes hair growth. They have all these proprietary blends of certain oils that have been studied to do certain things. So they have one that's immunity boosting. You know, I started making my own cleaning products with lemon essential oils. And as I was doing this, I was just sharing it with you. And we kind of went on that journey together. Because as I was doing it, I was just so excited about the results I was getting. I remember you invited me to come and speak to your staff and your team about the value of essential oils. You were sharing some of your wins. So it was great.
Speaker #1
Yes. And we use it in the salon. And just so you know, every new team member that comes on board, I gift them. the On Guard, which is from doTERRA. That's the immunity blend. Right. Because I need them to stay healthy. And especially during a pandemic. I mean, it's and it is amazing. It's amazing. And, you know, the fact that you taught me there's really three ways to use essential oils. You can diffuse it. Right. Some are ingestible, not all. And then, of course, rubbing it on the bottom of your feet. Because tell me again why the bottom of the feet?
Speaker #0
Yeah, I think that it's the nerve endings that are there. It's highly absorbable. You can also rub it in. I use frankincense oil and I rub it on my thyroid for my hypothyroidism because there's been some studies. You know, more and more studies are popping up using essential oils and their benefits. And that can be beneficial, too.
Speaker #1
We sell the rosemary oil to clients who feel that they're somehow follicly challenged. Yes. And it works. I mean, your hair is much thicker than just even a few years ago when you were having the, you know, different thyroid issues kind of come up.
Speaker #0
Yeah. And it goes up and down, up and down. But every single morning I'm putting my rosemary oil in my hair. And I just love the way it feels also because it's an awakening oil. It's kind of a stimulating oil. So not only do I love the benefit that it's having to my hair follicles, I just love the smell and the way that it makes. me feel.
Speaker #1
And the Breathe Blend, you know, I have a son who struggles with allergies during the spring and he diffuses it in his room every night and can sleep through the night, no issues. So that's awesome. It really is. And he doesn't have to take anything for that. That's great. So let's just jump to gut health because, come on, it is the thing right now. And you are ahead of the curve. I mean, you were the one talking to me about it long before Dr. Mark Hyman, you know, had a platform. And it's so interesting. I have to share this story. A friend of mine who's my age, 59, is having a variety of issues. Every time she eats, she has heartburn or she gets bloated. And so I told her, I said, you've got to have like a gut health test. Is it called a stool test? You know, how we poop tells us a lot about our gut, how we're, you know, digesting food, how we're absorbing nutrients. And so she went to her internist last week and she said, what's the name of the test? And I responded. And she said, my doctor said she doesn't know what that is.
Speaker #0
Right.
Speaker #1
Oh, my goodness. And I know also there's a strong link to, of course, nutrition. I feel like hair and skin is an alarm.
Speaker #0
Yeah,
Speaker #1
for sure. If your hair isn't, you know, acting right or your skin isn't right, it's telling you there is a deeper issue that needs attention.
Speaker #0
I agree. Your skin, your hair, the whites of your eyes, all of that are windows into how things are going and functioning inside. And really. The engine of our bodies is our gut. It's our gut health. And the reason your friend's doctor doesn't know about some of the microbiome tests is because they haven't really hit allopathic conventional medicine yet. They're still in that functional integrative medicine space. I feel like those two areas of medicine are slowly coming together. I was trained in functional medicine, integrative medicine. My daughter is... going to medical school in July, which is so exciting. And I'm so excited to see if she's going to learn more than, you know, her cohort did five, 10 years ago or 20, 30 years ago, because I think we are learning so much more about the microbiome and how important that bacteria is in our gut and how it affects every system in our body. But I just think, doctors, it's just not. part of their training was not part of their training and not part of their like standard knowledge base. If nutrition is on the forefront and you know why and what you're putting into your body, then you're going to understand how that can benefit your gut health. We have tons of microbes that live in our gut. We have beneficial bacteria that make nutrients. They make vitamins. Then we have some non- beneficial bacteria that are fine as long as they're not overgrown. But if they take over, I call them like the bullies in the school or the weeds in the garden, then they can kind of disrupt the balance that we need. We need that balance because 70 to 80 percent of our immune system lives in our gut. So we need to make sure that our gut is healthy because if our gut is healthy, then our immune systems are healthy. we're having digestive issues, then that goes back to what does our gut look like? And that's what these gut tests can tell us. I use something called the GI map, which is a microbiome PCR DNA stool test by a company called Diagnostic Solutions. And basically you give a stool sample, it gives us all the beneficial bacteria, all of the opportunistic dysbiotic bacteria. All of those digestive markers you mentioned, inflammation markers, there's a gluten marker. So there's an anti-gliadin marker to see if somebody's reacting to gluten. There's so much information, H. pylori, certain gases. So we can really get an overview. I tell my clients it's like a selfie for your gut. And it tells us so much information that we can actually give people strategic. interventions that will make a big difference in their gut health and therefore in their overall health.
Speaker #1
Wow. I don't understand why that's not the first thing they're teaching in medical school. I mean, if you have a car, you're going to know what fuel you're putting in it, right? And I know personally, I was bloated all the time. I had heartburn often, and it turned out I had something called SIBO, small intestinal bacterial. overgrowth, meaning that the bacteria in the, I guess, in the large intestine was kicking into the small intestine where it didn't belong and wreaking havoc on my system. Right. And once, I mean, it took some time, but once we addressed it, like, I don't have those issues anymore. I just thought, oh, I'm older. This is what happens. And then, of course, you know, all the food that we're taking in. Like right now, I decided to have no sugar, no processed sugar. I wake up with no joint pain, none. Is this something that you found with others as well?
Speaker #0
Oh, for sure. I do a two-week cleanse, seasonal cleanse program, which you've done before. You did a while ago. I offer it every season, and we really take out those inflammatory foods, and we see how your body reacts for two weeks. Not only do we take out inflammatory foods, we're flooding the body with very nutrient-dense foods. And people report the same sort of thing, no joint pain. I usually get headaches. I don't have my headaches. I have this weird rash on my back that went away. You know, I don't have, I sleep better. I have more energy. I don't have stomach aches. And there's a real connection between what we eat, right? The foods that we're putting, that we're feeding ourselves and the way that we feel. And a lot of us know this, I think, but it's another thing to then actually do something about it on a day-to-day basis.
Speaker #1
Well, we know it, but I don't know that we know everything we need to know. For example, organic versus conventional produce, right? The way I understand it is when it's certified organic by the, I guess, FDA, it means that the soil for three years prior hasn't had any pesticides used in it. And so I'm thinking, so what does conventional produce have?
Speaker #0
Yeah, I mean, there's pesticides. They're using chemicals that are killing the bugs that are messing up the fruits and vegetables. But they're also wreaking havoc on our internal system, our gut. There's a great resource that the Environmental Working Group comes out with, which I think I told you about. They come out with the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15. So the dirty dozen are those fruits and vegetables that have the highest percentage of pesticides. The clean 15 have the lowest. And during the cleanse, for instance, we use all organic because we don't want things getting, messing up the body, messing up our hormones, messing up our endocrine system like pesticides do. And a lot of my clients will say, is it really that important? important. And I love those resources because there's some fruits and vegetables and you don't have to buy organic because I know organic is sometimes more expensive, but it's an investment in your health. And it's an investment also in the future of our earth, like our soil. It's so much better, right? For our planet to be not putting tons and tons of chemicals. I just had a client tell me yesterday, he just got back from Europe and he said, I just felt so good there. And I was eating. all sorts of food. Yeah. And I just felt really good. And I come back here and I was still eating kind of healthfully and I just, all my aches and pains are back.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Foods that cause inflammation. What are some of those foods?
Speaker #0
So it's different for everyone, but I would say Some of the biggies that we find that kind of across the board can cause inflammation, gluten, that's a big one. Dairy is another one. Corn, soy, eggs. It's a lot of those same ones that are the top kind of allergenic foods that can also cause inflammation. And a lot of people may think they might have a sensitivity to one of these foods. but they're not sure, a good way to find out is to kind of take it out of your diet for a little bit, see how you do, and then bring it back in and see what happens after you do that.
Speaker #1
What about sugar?
Speaker #0
Sugar is definitely a big one. It's funny. I don't think of it because it's like a food, it's like an ingredient, right? It's a big one though. Sugar is definitely inflammatory and it's in everything.
Speaker #1
In everything. Yeah. My husband seems to think that If he's getting sick, he should buy Tropicana. And so I decided to look at it, the Tropicana orange juice, and it says serving size, eight ounces and 22 grams of sugar per serving. So I decided to find out, well, what's 22 grams? It's four and a half teaspoons.
Speaker #0
Yeah. All the fruit juice is super high in sugar. And then people are like, but there's vitamin C. Well, so he can eat an orange and get the fiber and the vitamin C, right? Yeah. There's a lot of sugar in everything. They just put it in everything. And we are a country that's addicted to sugar.
Speaker #1
So even in ketchup?
Speaker #0
It's in ketchup. It's in tomato sauce. It's in salad.
Speaker #1
Salad dressing. Oh, my gosh. It's hard.
Speaker #0
How long have you been off of sugar?
Speaker #1
Well, I was off of it for a long time. And then I don't know why this year in the holidays, I just went for it. And I'm back to being off of it again. I mean, I know this. I know. Yet they say, and it's true, it's more addictive than cocaine. It really is. Are there healthy ways that we can sweeten?
Speaker #0
There are. You know, if you know you are addicted to sugar, then sugar is sugar is sugar. So even if you're using raw honey, for instance, which has a lot of health benefits, there's enzymes in there that are antimicrobial, antibacterial, antiviral, but it's still sweet. So if it triggers you to have more and more sweet, then that could be a problem. But if you can kind of just have a little bit and be okay with it, I think the natural sugars are a better choice. So your raw honey, your maple syrup. Your coconut sugar, that's shown to be lower glycemic than like regular brown sugar or white sugar. What else?
Speaker #1
How about date?
Speaker #0
Yep, dates. Dates are a great thing. I throw dates in my smoothie sometimes. And now there's stevia and monk fruit, which are, you know, non-nutritive sweeteners, but I think healthier. And the research shows healthier than aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, all of those. non-nutritive sweeteners that we grew up, you know, we're about the same age. We grew up with those and people thought those were healthy.
Speaker #1
And so the key then is to reduce. But when you are going to have it, make one of these choices. Or if you're baking, use maybe a smaller amount of whether it's organic maple syrup or the coconut sugar. And dark chocolate is like a superfood, right?
Speaker #0
Yeah, so cacao is super high in magnesium. And dark chocolate has a higher percentage of cacao in it. So yeah, I have worked with clients who say, I only like milk chocolate. I've worked with them to try to like switch to dark chocolate just because of the health benefits. And nine times out of 10, like they learn to love it. But again, if chocolate's like a problem for you, if you can't, if you have to eat a whole bar of chocolate and not just a couple squares. then you might have to eliminate it. You know, we say that moderation is the key to everything. Some people can't do that with sugar. If you can do that, that is, I think, a good place to be because there is kind of sugar in the world. But if you need some time to just, you know, put it on a shelf and not touch it for a little bit to get your body accustomed to not having it, then that's probably the best thing. Yeah,
Speaker #1
and personally, you mentioned several things where you know, people felt better, like sleeping better, but also waking up better, having a clearer mind, that brain fog. And for a while I just thought, again, it's age related. And come to find out, it's like, no, we can actually feel much better.
Speaker #0
Oh, so many people say that. Oh, it's just age or, oh, my family, we just have, we have very sensitive stomachs. It's just, it's genetic. And there are some real genetic markers. I mean, You know, celiac is one of them. I have celiac disease. My daughter has celiac disease. We have the gene for that. The gene has expressed itself. We have celiac. We can't change that. But we can make our guts as healthy as it can, even with this autoimmune condition. So I had a mother-daughter that I'm working with who, you know, they're just like, oh, this is just our stomach. But we've done the GI map. Turns out they both had SIBO, like you mentioned. We're treating the SIBO. They're already feeling so much. better.
Speaker #1
I mean, definitely. And when we did your cleanse, I was so excited because I learned so many new recipes as well that didn't involve meat. Yes,
Speaker #0
it's all vegan.
Speaker #1
But again, that brain fog was gone.
Speaker #0
That's one of the major things people say after the cleanse is the brain fog is gone. And I think that's related to inflammation. I think it's those processed foods. We don't eat processed foods on the cleanse. So we don't eat meat. I love meat. I eat meat all the time. But for the cleanse, for the two weeks... I don't do it because it's a little bit harder to digest and the cleanse is a time to give your liver just a break and to give your digestion a little bit of a break. And so we're just giving it, you know, whole foods, nuts, seeds, plants, legumes. We're laying off the sugar, the dairy, the gluten, those like high, more highly inflammatory foods.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I've learned so much doing that cleanse. I really strongly recommend it for everyone. Lori, tell me some of your favorite magic potions or gems that people should know about that are around us that we could use in our day-to-day to improve the quality of our lives.
Speaker #0
Well, for our gut and our liver. I always come back to greens. I remember when you and I worked together, one of the things you were so fascinated with is all the greens that you had never put in your grocery cart before. Yeah. Right. And now are probably vegetables that you have all the time. Things like Swiss chard and bok choy and leeks and mustard greens and cabbage. You know, all of these things have, all of these vegetables are plant fibers that feed the beneficial bacteria. bacteria in the gut. So they're prebiotics, right? They feed the beneficial bacteria. So we want to constantly be giving our bodies, our guts, you know, fueling ourselves with these very vitamin-rich prebiotic fibers.
Speaker #1
And the more colors, the better.
Speaker #0
The more colors, the better, right? Because each color has different phytonutrients in them, different antioxidants. that feed the cells in different ways. So I always say for vegetables, think of diversity and think of abundance.
Speaker #1
For a long time, I simply started my day with lemon water. What do you think of that?
Speaker #0
So that's one of the things we do on the cleanse. Lemons are very, even though you think of them as acidic, they're very alkaline for the body and they're very supportive for liver health. And so what they do is they prime the body for digestion. They help the body to get ready to produce stomach acid, which breaks down our food, which helps our food go down the digestive tract. So that's a great way to start your day, start a meal. It also has tons of vitamin C in it, which we all in this very stressful world are constantly just burning through our vitamin C. So giving ourselves more vitamin C is always beneficial. So there's so many good reasons to start your day like that. So I do that sometimes even after the cleanse that that kind of sticks.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And what about as far as supplements? What are, you know, I know it's by person and it's individual, but what are some general supplements that are kind of good for everybody to take?
Speaker #0
I think a broad spectrum probiotic is a really good idea. For a while, I think, you know, we were like. What are probiotics? Should we be taking probiotics? And I don't think they're make or break. I don't think that you've had chronic stomach issues by taking one probiotic is going to move the needle. But it's part of the whole picture. Many of us are deficient in vitamin D. It's really hard to get vitamin D from foods. Mushrooms have vitamin D. Egg yolks have vitamin D. But it's not easy to get from foods. It's also not easy to get from... sunlight if you live north of the equator. So I think taking a vitamin D supplement is always a good idea. And I will ask clients to ask their doctors or I can send them a script to know what their vitamin D levels are because then we know how much to dose. Optimal is really between 60 and 80. But normal vitamin D, if you just look on labs, will say 30 to 80. But we know that 30 is not, yeah, it might be normal, but it's not optimal. And vitamin D is so crucial for bone health, immune system health. It's a cofactor for so many other vitamins like calcium and K. So we need good vitamin D. We learned that kind of through COVID and the whole pandemic era.
Speaker #1
Now, is that vitamin D3 specifically?
Speaker #0
Yeah, D3.
Speaker #1
And does it need to have, is it K with it in order to be absorbed?
Speaker #0
Not necessarily. Some of the research does say that D combined with K has a more synergistic effect and is better absorbed. But I've seen both personally and with my clients moving the needle with just doing a D3.
Speaker #1
What about calcium?
Speaker #0
I think it's better to get your calcium through food. And I think, you know, when I was growing up, I remember, you know, drink your milk. That's how you get your calcium. It's all in the dairy. And I don't think that's necessarily true. There is a lot of calcium in dairy, but it's not 100% absorbable. So we know that our beans and our greens have a higher rate of absorption and a nice amount of calcium. So if you are vegan or if you are trying to avoid dairy or if you have a sensitivity to dairy, there are definitely ways you can still get your calcium. Sesame seeds, too. Tahini and sesame seeds is another great way to get calcium. What else? Magnesium, I will often recommend, especially if somebody tells me they're a little bit, you know, backed up, constipated, or their sleep is a little bit wonky. Magnesium can be very effective for both of those, for motility and for restful, calm sleep. But with every client, I will kind of figure out what might be missing. And then try to either food first, always food first approach. But when we can't get enough through food, look at supplements.
Speaker #1
So we're here and we have a stage. If there is one thing you could say to people to start taking their health more seriously,
Speaker #0
what would that one thing be? I think I would say what. Choices you make day to day, what you decide to put in your body can truly affect your health. So your day to day choices can have a huge impact on your health.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I'm even, you know, hearing even mental health.
Speaker #0
Oh, oh yeah, for sure. There's so much information we're learning about how neurotransmitters that are made in the gut. right, are affected by how robust or how weak that gut health is. So that is super important. And I get that there is just so much information that's kind of out in the world about the supplements and about, you know, food choices. And it's just a lot of noise. And I kind of see my role and my job as helping clients filter through that noise. Because a lot of that stuff is true. A lot of it is very valid. But I help people figure out, okay, what is true for you?
Speaker #1
I don't think this is the last podcast we're going to do together. I know there is so much more to say. And every time you come in to the salon where we're supposed to take care of you, I feel that we get so much information and helpful information for us and how we can better live our lives.
Speaker #0
I love how you're always soaking up everything that I say. Just so inquisitive and curious because that's what it's all about. It's staying curious and wanting to learn more and more about how, you know, to live the healthiest life we can.
Speaker #1
So, Lori, where can people find you?
Speaker #0
They can find me on my website, healthyheartbeat.com. It is like the beet, like the vegetable beet, B-E-E-T. I'm on Instagram at healthyheartbeat. That's where you can find me.
Speaker #1
That's my happy place. Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker #2
The Curl Code is brought to you from the Oasis Curl Salon in Rockville, Maryland, hosted by the one and only Wafeya Abdallah. If you like the show, please leave us a five-star rating, and if you've got some nice things to say, go ahead and leave us a review. But most importantly, share the show with any curly girls or curl-curious people you know. That really is the best way to help them find us. You can learn more about the salon at curlyoasis.com. And continue your curl education journey by finding them on Instagram and YouTube. The Curl Code is a Say More production.

About The Curl Code: how curl care and self care means wellness for all

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About The Curl Code: how curl care and self care means wellness for all

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Description

In this episode:

Postpartum hair loss is a fairly common, but temporary, phenomenon resulting from hormonal changes during and after pregnancy.

A study on black seed oil's effect on thyroid in rats.

Essential oil aromatherapy reducing fatigue in women with hypothyroidism.

More on the microbiome and immune system.

Studies have linked sugar to inflammation and metabolic disorders, and shown addictive qualities which may indeed trigger a higher reward response than cocaine in test animals.

Studies have linked pesticides to gut microbiome changes and secondary effects on hosts.

The Environmental Working Group provides the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen lists based on up-to-date USDA data.

While the link of specific foods to inflammation is often debated, certain diets have been linked to anti-inflammatory results.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Speaker #0
What choices you make day to day, what you decide to put in your body can truly affect your health. There is so much information that's out in the world. It's just a lot of noise. And I kind of see my role and my job as helping clients filter through that noise because a lot of that stuff is true. A lot of it is very valid. But I help people figure out, OK, what is true for you?
Speaker #1
Lori Fishbard is a licensed clinical nutritionist and board-certified integrative health coach and a long-time client of Oasis. Lori knows firsthand that health is a gift, having faced her own battles with an autoimmune disorder called Hashimoto's. Through her personal journey, she discovered her love for sharing that gift with others. She has taught the full Oasis team about healthy living and even some hair and scalp tips. Lori's knowledge spans metabolic syndrome, autoimmunity, celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, thyroid, digestive and gut health, and so much more. I can say she's made nutritious eating so much fun, not only for myself, but my picky family too. I use the tips and cleanses she shares on her websites all the time. You've got to check it out. Lori, welcome to The Curl Code. Thank you for being here. It's a pleasure. I'm so excited to be here. You have been such a tremendous and wonderful resource for me, for sure. How much I learned from you. I mean, thank you.
Speaker #0
Well, first of all, I have to thank you because you were my very first client when I decided that I was going to actually switch gears and go back. to school and get educated in health coaching and nutrition. You agreed to be my first client. That was like 14 years ago. So thank you so much.
Speaker #1
That was so wonderful and eye-opening. You blew me away with all that you shared.
Speaker #0
It was incredible. Yeah. Thank you. I mean, back then, I feel like people weren't talking about nutrition as much as they're talking about it now. And we didn't really have this, you know, flooding of information from social media like we do now. So the health and wellness space was not inundated with all of this stuff. It was really just, you know, if you were interested in it, then maybe you learned about it. And so I just remember every time we met, your eyes would just get wide and you'd come back and be like, and I tried this and I feel this way and it's so great. It was really, it was a wonderful experience.
Speaker #1
So you're a curly girl with stunning curls. Tell us a little bit about your curl journey.
Speaker #0
My curl journey. Oh, my goodness. Well, I never appreciated or liked my curls. You know, I think when I was really little, my mom just kind of left them alone. And then she started brushing them out. And I have thick, coarse hair. So it just didn't work. It just didn't look good. So unfortunately, I grew up not loving my curls for a really long time. And it wasn't, I mean, it was just like I had this big fluff of hair. You know, I remember in middle school, the guy sitting behind me, like hiding pencils in my hair. It was awful. It was awful. And I just kind of went along with it and pretended like I was part of the joke and in on the joke because otherwise it'd be really hurtful. Anyway, so I wasn't until college. I finally let my hair grow out because my mom always kept it really short. She always said it looked. look better short. And then I started appreciating my curls, started knowing a little bit what to do with them. But it wasn't until really I met you and had the experience of knowing really what to do to bring out the best in my curls. And also the cut, knowing how to frame my face, because it was always just really thick and big and it had no shape.
Speaker #1
Well, and especially when you have thick hair. People really are just overwhelmed and not sure what to do with it. Yeah. And you've had also some different struggles with your hair and scalp, right, around health.
Speaker #0
Yes, I think I have gone through many stages. So I have three kids. I think it was after the first one, I lost a tremendous amount of hair. I mean, I had like bald spots and I didn't know, but I was developing a thyroid issue. was later diagnosed with hypothyroidism and then Hashimoto's. And I think the hormones from after giving birth, there were a lot of different factors. But that was just terrifying and so hard. And I just didn't know what to do with it. And then it kind of happened again after the birth of my second child. And then things kind of were back to normal. And then as I kind of struggled with my thyroid issues, it would thin out. It was just unstable. I kind of never knew what was going on. I look back now at pictures, and I was like, wow, I was really bald for a good couple months. And I don't know how I got through. I think I just had other priorities.
Speaker #1
Well, you had newborns.
Speaker #0
And I had newborns, yeah. But it was hard. It was troubling. And then I think for the past, I don't know, 10 years, 15 years, things have been good. I have noticed lately, though, as I've hit menopause, that my hair is thinning out a little bit more.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And these dysregulated hormones or imbalance of hormones, whether postpartum, or going into menopause certainly affects the thickness of hair. I don't think a lot of people know that. I know when I had my babies, I had no idea that you have this tremendous amount of hair loss about three or four months after giving birth. And a lot of women that come here, now we talk about it so that they're aware. And often you don't even know how much you lost until it starts growing back in. And you're thinking, what's all this short hair growing in?
Speaker #0
Right. Yeah, I wish I would have known that.
Speaker #1
Yeah, it is definitely a conversation that we need to have with people. You were the first to introduce us to the power of using a high quality essential oil. So let's start there a little bit. Tell us about some, like a couple of key ways that. we can use essential oils to help make our lives a little bit better.
Speaker #0
So yes, so as I started learning and went back to school and learning about the power of food and nutrition, I also learned about other things that can enhance our health and that included herbs and essential oils. I started diffusing lavender in my home at sleep time for my kids. It was very calming. It kind of, you know, promoted relaxation. I was using rosemary oil on my scalp because it promotes hair growth. They have all these proprietary blends of certain oils that have been studied to do certain things. So they have one that's immunity boosting. You know, I started making my own cleaning products with lemon essential oils. And as I was doing this, I was just sharing it with you. And we kind of went on that journey together. Because as I was doing it, I was just so excited about the results I was getting. I remember you invited me to come and speak to your staff and your team about the value of essential oils. You were sharing some of your wins. So it was great.
Speaker #1
Yes. And we use it in the salon. And just so you know, every new team member that comes on board, I gift them. the On Guard, which is from doTERRA. That's the immunity blend. Right. Because I need them to stay healthy. And especially during a pandemic. I mean, it's and it is amazing. It's amazing. And, you know, the fact that you taught me there's really three ways to use essential oils. You can diffuse it. Right. Some are ingestible, not all. And then, of course, rubbing it on the bottom of your feet. Because tell me again why the bottom of the feet?
Speaker #0
Yeah, I think that it's the nerve endings that are there. It's highly absorbable. You can also rub it in. I use frankincense oil and I rub it on my thyroid for my hypothyroidism because there's been some studies. You know, more and more studies are popping up using essential oils and their benefits. And that can be beneficial, too.
Speaker #1
We sell the rosemary oil to clients who feel that they're somehow follicly challenged. Yes. And it works. I mean, your hair is much thicker than just even a few years ago when you were having the, you know, different thyroid issues kind of come up.
Speaker #0
Yeah. And it goes up and down, up and down. But every single morning I'm putting my rosemary oil in my hair. And I just love the way it feels also because it's an awakening oil. It's kind of a stimulating oil. So not only do I love the benefit that it's having to my hair follicles, I just love the smell and the way that it makes. me feel.
Speaker #1
And the Breathe Blend, you know, I have a son who struggles with allergies during the spring and he diffuses it in his room every night and can sleep through the night, no issues. So that's awesome. It really is. And he doesn't have to take anything for that. That's great. So let's just jump to gut health because, come on, it is the thing right now. And you are ahead of the curve. I mean, you were the one talking to me about it long before Dr. Mark Hyman, you know, had a platform. And it's so interesting. I have to share this story. A friend of mine who's my age, 59, is having a variety of issues. Every time she eats, she has heartburn or she gets bloated. And so I told her, I said, you've got to have like a gut health test. Is it called a stool test? You know, how we poop tells us a lot about our gut, how we're, you know, digesting food, how we're absorbing nutrients. And so she went to her internist last week and she said, what's the name of the test? And I responded. And she said, my doctor said she doesn't know what that is.
Speaker #0
Right.
Speaker #1
Oh, my goodness. And I know also there's a strong link to, of course, nutrition. I feel like hair and skin is an alarm.
Speaker #0
Yeah,
Speaker #1
for sure. If your hair isn't, you know, acting right or your skin isn't right, it's telling you there is a deeper issue that needs attention.
Speaker #0
I agree. Your skin, your hair, the whites of your eyes, all of that are windows into how things are going and functioning inside. And really. The engine of our bodies is our gut. It's our gut health. And the reason your friend's doctor doesn't know about some of the microbiome tests is because they haven't really hit allopathic conventional medicine yet. They're still in that functional integrative medicine space. I feel like those two areas of medicine are slowly coming together. I was trained in functional medicine, integrative medicine. My daughter is... going to medical school in July, which is so exciting. And I'm so excited to see if she's going to learn more than, you know, her cohort did five, 10 years ago or 20, 30 years ago, because I think we are learning so much more about the microbiome and how important that bacteria is in our gut and how it affects every system in our body. But I just think, doctors, it's just not. part of their training was not part of their training and not part of their like standard knowledge base. If nutrition is on the forefront and you know why and what you're putting into your body, then you're going to understand how that can benefit your gut health. We have tons of microbes that live in our gut. We have beneficial bacteria that make nutrients. They make vitamins. Then we have some non- beneficial bacteria that are fine as long as they're not overgrown. But if they take over, I call them like the bullies in the school or the weeds in the garden, then they can kind of disrupt the balance that we need. We need that balance because 70 to 80 percent of our immune system lives in our gut. So we need to make sure that our gut is healthy because if our gut is healthy, then our immune systems are healthy. we're having digestive issues, then that goes back to what does our gut look like? And that's what these gut tests can tell us. I use something called the GI map, which is a microbiome PCR DNA stool test by a company called Diagnostic Solutions. And basically you give a stool sample, it gives us all the beneficial bacteria, all of the opportunistic dysbiotic bacteria. All of those digestive markers you mentioned, inflammation markers, there's a gluten marker. So there's an anti-gliadin marker to see if somebody's reacting to gluten. There's so much information, H. pylori, certain gases. So we can really get an overview. I tell my clients it's like a selfie for your gut. And it tells us so much information that we can actually give people strategic. interventions that will make a big difference in their gut health and therefore in their overall health.
Speaker #1
Wow. I don't understand why that's not the first thing they're teaching in medical school. I mean, if you have a car, you're going to know what fuel you're putting in it, right? And I know personally, I was bloated all the time. I had heartburn often, and it turned out I had something called SIBO, small intestinal bacterial. overgrowth, meaning that the bacteria in the, I guess, in the large intestine was kicking into the small intestine where it didn't belong and wreaking havoc on my system. Right. And once, I mean, it took some time, but once we addressed it, like, I don't have those issues anymore. I just thought, oh, I'm older. This is what happens. And then, of course, you know, all the food that we're taking in. Like right now, I decided to have no sugar, no processed sugar. I wake up with no joint pain, none. Is this something that you found with others as well?
Speaker #0
Oh, for sure. I do a two-week cleanse, seasonal cleanse program, which you've done before. You did a while ago. I offer it every season, and we really take out those inflammatory foods, and we see how your body reacts for two weeks. Not only do we take out inflammatory foods, we're flooding the body with very nutrient-dense foods. And people report the same sort of thing, no joint pain. I usually get headaches. I don't have my headaches. I have this weird rash on my back that went away. You know, I don't have, I sleep better. I have more energy. I don't have stomach aches. And there's a real connection between what we eat, right? The foods that we're putting, that we're feeding ourselves and the way that we feel. And a lot of us know this, I think, but it's another thing to then actually do something about it on a day-to-day basis.
Speaker #1
Well, we know it, but I don't know that we know everything we need to know. For example, organic versus conventional produce, right? The way I understand it is when it's certified organic by the, I guess, FDA, it means that the soil for three years prior hasn't had any pesticides used in it. And so I'm thinking, so what does conventional produce have?
Speaker #0
Yeah, I mean, there's pesticides. They're using chemicals that are killing the bugs that are messing up the fruits and vegetables. But they're also wreaking havoc on our internal system, our gut. There's a great resource that the Environmental Working Group comes out with, which I think I told you about. They come out with the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15. So the dirty dozen are those fruits and vegetables that have the highest percentage of pesticides. The clean 15 have the lowest. And during the cleanse, for instance, we use all organic because we don't want things getting, messing up the body, messing up our hormones, messing up our endocrine system like pesticides do. And a lot of my clients will say, is it really that important? important. And I love those resources because there's some fruits and vegetables and you don't have to buy organic because I know organic is sometimes more expensive, but it's an investment in your health. And it's an investment also in the future of our earth, like our soil. It's so much better, right? For our planet to be not putting tons and tons of chemicals. I just had a client tell me yesterday, he just got back from Europe and he said, I just felt so good there. And I was eating. all sorts of food. Yeah. And I just felt really good. And I come back here and I was still eating kind of healthfully and I just, all my aches and pains are back.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Foods that cause inflammation. What are some of those foods?
Speaker #0
So it's different for everyone, but I would say Some of the biggies that we find that kind of across the board can cause inflammation, gluten, that's a big one. Dairy is another one. Corn, soy, eggs. It's a lot of those same ones that are the top kind of allergenic foods that can also cause inflammation. And a lot of people may think they might have a sensitivity to one of these foods. but they're not sure, a good way to find out is to kind of take it out of your diet for a little bit, see how you do, and then bring it back in and see what happens after you do that.
Speaker #1
What about sugar?
Speaker #0
Sugar is definitely a big one. It's funny. I don't think of it because it's like a food, it's like an ingredient, right? It's a big one though. Sugar is definitely inflammatory and it's in everything.
Speaker #1
In everything. Yeah. My husband seems to think that If he's getting sick, he should buy Tropicana. And so I decided to look at it, the Tropicana orange juice, and it says serving size, eight ounces and 22 grams of sugar per serving. So I decided to find out, well, what's 22 grams? It's four and a half teaspoons.
Speaker #0
Yeah. All the fruit juice is super high in sugar. And then people are like, but there's vitamin C. Well, so he can eat an orange and get the fiber and the vitamin C, right? Yeah. There's a lot of sugar in everything. They just put it in everything. And we are a country that's addicted to sugar.
Speaker #1
So even in ketchup?
Speaker #0
It's in ketchup. It's in tomato sauce. It's in salad.
Speaker #1
Salad dressing. Oh, my gosh. It's hard.
Speaker #0
How long have you been off of sugar?
Speaker #1
Well, I was off of it for a long time. And then I don't know why this year in the holidays, I just went for it. And I'm back to being off of it again. I mean, I know this. I know. Yet they say, and it's true, it's more addictive than cocaine. It really is. Are there healthy ways that we can sweeten?
Speaker #0
There are. You know, if you know you are addicted to sugar, then sugar is sugar is sugar. So even if you're using raw honey, for instance, which has a lot of health benefits, there's enzymes in there that are antimicrobial, antibacterial, antiviral, but it's still sweet. So if it triggers you to have more and more sweet, then that could be a problem. But if you can kind of just have a little bit and be okay with it, I think the natural sugars are a better choice. So your raw honey, your maple syrup. Your coconut sugar, that's shown to be lower glycemic than like regular brown sugar or white sugar. What else?
Speaker #1
How about date?
Speaker #0
Yep, dates. Dates are a great thing. I throw dates in my smoothie sometimes. And now there's stevia and monk fruit, which are, you know, non-nutritive sweeteners, but I think healthier. And the research shows healthier than aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, all of those. non-nutritive sweeteners that we grew up, you know, we're about the same age. We grew up with those and people thought those were healthy.
Speaker #1
And so the key then is to reduce. But when you are going to have it, make one of these choices. Or if you're baking, use maybe a smaller amount of whether it's organic maple syrup or the coconut sugar. And dark chocolate is like a superfood, right?
Speaker #0
Yeah, so cacao is super high in magnesium. And dark chocolate has a higher percentage of cacao in it. So yeah, I have worked with clients who say, I only like milk chocolate. I've worked with them to try to like switch to dark chocolate just because of the health benefits. And nine times out of 10, like they learn to love it. But again, if chocolate's like a problem for you, if you can't, if you have to eat a whole bar of chocolate and not just a couple squares. then you might have to eliminate it. You know, we say that moderation is the key to everything. Some people can't do that with sugar. If you can do that, that is, I think, a good place to be because there is kind of sugar in the world. But if you need some time to just, you know, put it on a shelf and not touch it for a little bit to get your body accustomed to not having it, then that's probably the best thing. Yeah,
Speaker #1
and personally, you mentioned several things where you know, people felt better, like sleeping better, but also waking up better, having a clearer mind, that brain fog. And for a while I just thought, again, it's age related. And come to find out, it's like, no, we can actually feel much better.
Speaker #0
Oh, so many people say that. Oh, it's just age or, oh, my family, we just have, we have very sensitive stomachs. It's just, it's genetic. And there are some real genetic markers. I mean, You know, celiac is one of them. I have celiac disease. My daughter has celiac disease. We have the gene for that. The gene has expressed itself. We have celiac. We can't change that. But we can make our guts as healthy as it can, even with this autoimmune condition. So I had a mother-daughter that I'm working with who, you know, they're just like, oh, this is just our stomach. But we've done the GI map. Turns out they both had SIBO, like you mentioned. We're treating the SIBO. They're already feeling so much. better.
Speaker #1
I mean, definitely. And when we did your cleanse, I was so excited because I learned so many new recipes as well that didn't involve meat. Yes,
Speaker #0
it's all vegan.
Speaker #1
But again, that brain fog was gone.
Speaker #0
That's one of the major things people say after the cleanse is the brain fog is gone. And I think that's related to inflammation. I think it's those processed foods. We don't eat processed foods on the cleanse. So we don't eat meat. I love meat. I eat meat all the time. But for the cleanse, for the two weeks... I don't do it because it's a little bit harder to digest and the cleanse is a time to give your liver just a break and to give your digestion a little bit of a break. And so we're just giving it, you know, whole foods, nuts, seeds, plants, legumes. We're laying off the sugar, the dairy, the gluten, those like high, more highly inflammatory foods.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I've learned so much doing that cleanse. I really strongly recommend it for everyone. Lori, tell me some of your favorite magic potions or gems that people should know about that are around us that we could use in our day-to-day to improve the quality of our lives.
Speaker #0
Well, for our gut and our liver. I always come back to greens. I remember when you and I worked together, one of the things you were so fascinated with is all the greens that you had never put in your grocery cart before. Yeah. Right. And now are probably vegetables that you have all the time. Things like Swiss chard and bok choy and leeks and mustard greens and cabbage. You know, all of these things have, all of these vegetables are plant fibers that feed the beneficial bacteria. bacteria in the gut. So they're prebiotics, right? They feed the beneficial bacteria. So we want to constantly be giving our bodies, our guts, you know, fueling ourselves with these very vitamin-rich prebiotic fibers.
Speaker #1
And the more colors, the better.
Speaker #0
The more colors, the better, right? Because each color has different phytonutrients in them, different antioxidants. that feed the cells in different ways. So I always say for vegetables, think of diversity and think of abundance.
Speaker #1
For a long time, I simply started my day with lemon water. What do you think of that?
Speaker #0
So that's one of the things we do on the cleanse. Lemons are very, even though you think of them as acidic, they're very alkaline for the body and they're very supportive for liver health. And so what they do is they prime the body for digestion. They help the body to get ready to produce stomach acid, which breaks down our food, which helps our food go down the digestive tract. So that's a great way to start your day, start a meal. It also has tons of vitamin C in it, which we all in this very stressful world are constantly just burning through our vitamin C. So giving ourselves more vitamin C is always beneficial. So there's so many good reasons to start your day like that. So I do that sometimes even after the cleanse that that kind of sticks.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And what about as far as supplements? What are, you know, I know it's by person and it's individual, but what are some general supplements that are kind of good for everybody to take?
Speaker #0
I think a broad spectrum probiotic is a really good idea. For a while, I think, you know, we were like. What are probiotics? Should we be taking probiotics? And I don't think they're make or break. I don't think that you've had chronic stomach issues by taking one probiotic is going to move the needle. But it's part of the whole picture. Many of us are deficient in vitamin D. It's really hard to get vitamin D from foods. Mushrooms have vitamin D. Egg yolks have vitamin D. But it's not easy to get from foods. It's also not easy to get from... sunlight if you live north of the equator. So I think taking a vitamin D supplement is always a good idea. And I will ask clients to ask their doctors or I can send them a script to know what their vitamin D levels are because then we know how much to dose. Optimal is really between 60 and 80. But normal vitamin D, if you just look on labs, will say 30 to 80. But we know that 30 is not, yeah, it might be normal, but it's not optimal. And vitamin D is so crucial for bone health, immune system health. It's a cofactor for so many other vitamins like calcium and K. So we need good vitamin D. We learned that kind of through COVID and the whole pandemic era.
Speaker #1
Now, is that vitamin D3 specifically?
Speaker #0
Yeah, D3.
Speaker #1
And does it need to have, is it K with it in order to be absorbed?
Speaker #0
Not necessarily. Some of the research does say that D combined with K has a more synergistic effect and is better absorbed. But I've seen both personally and with my clients moving the needle with just doing a D3.
Speaker #1
What about calcium?
Speaker #0
I think it's better to get your calcium through food. And I think, you know, when I was growing up, I remember, you know, drink your milk. That's how you get your calcium. It's all in the dairy. And I don't think that's necessarily true. There is a lot of calcium in dairy, but it's not 100% absorbable. So we know that our beans and our greens have a higher rate of absorption and a nice amount of calcium. So if you are vegan or if you are trying to avoid dairy or if you have a sensitivity to dairy, there are definitely ways you can still get your calcium. Sesame seeds, too. Tahini and sesame seeds is another great way to get calcium. What else? Magnesium, I will often recommend, especially if somebody tells me they're a little bit, you know, backed up, constipated, or their sleep is a little bit wonky. Magnesium can be very effective for both of those, for motility and for restful, calm sleep. But with every client, I will kind of figure out what might be missing. And then try to either food first, always food first approach. But when we can't get enough through food, look at supplements.
Speaker #1
So we're here and we have a stage. If there is one thing you could say to people to start taking their health more seriously,
Speaker #0
what would that one thing be? I think I would say what. Choices you make day to day, what you decide to put in your body can truly affect your health. So your day to day choices can have a huge impact on your health.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I'm even, you know, hearing even mental health.
Speaker #0
Oh, oh yeah, for sure. There's so much information we're learning about how neurotransmitters that are made in the gut. right, are affected by how robust or how weak that gut health is. So that is super important. And I get that there is just so much information that's kind of out in the world about the supplements and about, you know, food choices. And it's just a lot of noise. And I kind of see my role and my job as helping clients filter through that noise. Because a lot of that stuff is true. A lot of it is very valid. But I help people figure out, okay, what is true for you?
Speaker #1
I don't think this is the last podcast we're going to do together. I know there is so much more to say. And every time you come in to the salon where we're supposed to take care of you, I feel that we get so much information and helpful information for us and how we can better live our lives.
Speaker #0
I love how you're always soaking up everything that I say. Just so inquisitive and curious because that's what it's all about. It's staying curious and wanting to learn more and more about how, you know, to live the healthiest life we can.
Speaker #1
So, Lori, where can people find you?
Speaker #0
They can find me on my website, healthyheartbeat.com. It is like the beet, like the vegetable beet, B-E-E-T. I'm on Instagram at healthyheartbeat. That's where you can find me.
Speaker #1
That's my happy place. Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker #2
The Curl Code is brought to you from the Oasis Curl Salon in Rockville, Maryland, hosted by the one and only Wafeya Abdallah. If you like the show, please leave us a five-star rating, and if you've got some nice things to say, go ahead and leave us a review. But most importantly, share the show with any curly girls or curl-curious people you know. That really is the best way to help them find us. You can learn more about the salon at curlyoasis.com. And continue your curl education journey by finding them on Instagram and YouTube. The Curl Code is a Say More production.

About The Curl Code: how curl care and self care means wellness for all

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About The Curl Code: how curl care and self care means wellness for all

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

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