What To Eat To Improve Your Nerve Health | 10 NUTRIENTS

Do you suffer from nerve pain? Whether it’s sciatica, median nerve tension, carpal tunnel, thoracic outlet syndrome, chronic nerve pain into the hands, or maybe it’s even chemotherapy-induced or diabetic neuropathy? It’s important to address the root causes of any nerve pain, and most importantly, optimize your nutrition so that you can improve your nerve health.

Here are 10 different nutrients that you can consume through foods or supplementation that can optimize your nerve health.

1. Vitamin B12

This is important for the myelin sheath, which is surrounding the nerve. It’s been shown that even high doses of vitamin B12 can potentially repair damaged nerves. Good sources of vitamin B12 are yogurt, fatty fish such as salmon, cod, and sardines.

2. Vitamin B6

We need vitamin B6 to be able to absorb vitamin B12. Rather than supplementing with B6, which can potentially cause damage to the nerves, you can get this through your foods. Good sources of vitamin B6 are tuna, salmon, chicken, and spinach.

3. Vitamin B1

This is important for our muscular system and nervous system. It also converts carbohydrates to energy in the form of ATP which is our energy source. This is something that we only get a small fraction of through the metabolism of it so this is something you could supplement with, in addition to getting it from foods. Good sources of vitamin B1 are navy beans, other forms of beans, green peas, and sunflower seeds.

4. Vitamin B2

This is necessary for the absorption of B6 and B12. Good sources of vitamin B2 are soybeans, spinach, almonds, and asparagus.

5. Antioxidants

This can be powerful to optimize the myelin sheath and prevent any damage to the nerve. Good sources of antioxidants are berries such as blueberries, blackberries, or raspberries, dark leafy greens, fatty fish, and walnuts. Try to eat a rainbow every day!

6. Ginger

This can be a powerful anti-inflammatory agent. Try using a couple of teaspoons in hot water or you can incorporate it into salads, soups, and stews. It is very helpful for nerve inflammation and pain.

7. Omega 3

This is important in repairing the myelin sheath that the nerve is wrapped in. Good sources of Omega 3 are fatty fish, walnuts, and flaxseeds.

8. Water

We are made up of 70% water. All of our nerves, bones, ligaments, and connective tissue is inside of our lymphatic system which essentially is water. It’s our aquarium. We want to make sure that we are well hydrated so that our nerves can function at their peak.

9. & 10. Magnesium and Potassium

Magnesium helps the nervous system to relax where potassium is helping to transmit those signals or messages efficiently. Good sources of potassium and magnesium are pumpkin seeds, quinoa, and fresh fruit.

These ten nutrients may not eliminate your nerve pain, but they can definitely help optimize your nerve health. Remember, you always want to get to the root of the issue.  You want to look at this from an integrative perspective and recognize that the nutrients that you are consuming or not consuming are going to impact how you are recovering from your nerve injury.




Did you ever wonder why you get cravings and why these cravings can be so overpowering they prevent you from sticking to your nutrition plan? There are four key reasons for cravings.

1. Dopamine response

You may have heard someone say they’re addicted to sugar or you may even be addicted to sugar. Sugar can cause a dopamine response, just like it can with things like alcohol, drugs, or cigarettes. This can cause a neurochemical and biochemical response in the body, therefore attributing to cravings. Think of it as a feed-forward mechanism.

2. Gut bacteria

We have a trillion different bacteria in our gut that all like different things like fiber, carbohydrates, and fat. When we don’t give them what they want they get pissed off. These specific bacteria are, in essence, seeking out certain foods so it’s important that we have a diverse healthy diet filled with lots of antioxidants and phytonutrients. If we feed it with exactly what it needs and wants, we won’t have cravings for other things, perhaps like carbohydrates, salt, or sugar.

3. Habits

You may go hours and hours without eating and without checking in with your body, and then all of a sudden, you are starving. This is a perfect example of how your habits and not being internally aware of what you need can attribute to your poor eating habits and choices. This will impact the cravings that you have for sugar, carbohydrates, and energy-rich foods that are giving you a quick burst of energy because you have let the tank stay empty way too long.

4. Blood sugar

This is really imperative in making sure that you are decreasing cravings. Let’s start with the basics. Every four to six hours you should be eating unless you are hungry. Now there are some exceptions if you are doing intermittent fasting. If there is already some existing blood sugar dysregulation, that would mean that you probably have to eat a little bit sooner than that, but ultimately that is our goal. Now to do that, we have to have a balance of nutrients; a protein, a healthy fat, and a fiber source. If we’re getting these balanced meals every four to six hours, then we should be able to keep our blood sugar stabilized. If you happen to just wake up, eat a bunch of sugar and carbohydrates such as oatmeal with honey and blueberries, our blood sugar is going to go way up, and then crashing down. Then, you will crave carbohydrates. So, make sure you are consistently incorporating a protein, a fat, and a fiber source in each of your meals to optimize your blood sugar control and prevent cravings.

In essence, being able to regulate cravings is within your control 100 percent. There are lots of ways to address it. Even if you have some preexisting health conditions, like insulin resistance, or dysregulation of your blood sugars, etc.; this could impact your cravings. However, try to work on these key fundamental things so that you can decrease your cravings and ultimately feel your best.

If you need help on your journey to better health, contact drarianne@themovementparadigm.com to schedule a FREE 15 minute virtual consultation.


What is SIBO?| Is this the cause of your digestive issues?

Have you heard about SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) or perhaps you’ve been diagnosed with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) but you don’t know what to do about it? You may be wondering  if this is the cause of your digestive issues? Is this what’s making you feel so terrible? Let’s start by saying that SIBO is very complex and there is not one easy roadmap to treat SIBO. It is really important to understand what it is, the anatomy behind it, the risk factors, some of the symptoms that you could experience, and most importantly, the underlying causes. SIBO is exactly what it sounds like, an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine. It is not necessarily an imbalance between the good and bad bacteria, although it can be pathogenic, it is in essence, an overgrowth. The small intestine is meant for digestion and absorption of nutrients, where the large intestine is meant to house our beneficial bacteria. When we have a backflow of this bacteria into the small intestine, that’s when we can begin to overpopulate and have an overgrowth.

Let’s go over some brief functional anatomy so that you understand what’s happening. When you start chewing your food, you produce salivary enzymes to help begin the digestive process. The food is then passed through our esophagus, i.e. the food pipe, into the stomach. The stomach begins to produce hydrochloric acid (HCL) to break down the food even further. We have our gallbladder that releases bile to help break down the food moving into the small intestine. Our pancreas is also releasing enzymes to help further break down this food. Once the food moves into the small intestine which is 18 to 25 feet long, so it’s not small, digestion and absorption of nutrients occurs. The small intestine connect into our large intestine. There’s an ileocecal valve that prevents any backflow. From here, we then move the food into our rectum for waste removal. We can think of the large intestine as the house for the good bacteria and our storage for waste and excretion.

What symptoms can you have with SIBO?

One of the most frequent complaints is bloating. This is when the gases build-up from the bacteria eating the food. When the gas is releases, it causes pressure or distension in the abdomen. The small intestine is not made for any kind of buildup. When this buildup occurs and we’re not able to process it or digest it properly, this is when you can begin to have symptoms of nausea and acid reflux. The other two symptoms that are very common are constipation and/or diarrhea. You may have both and it could be alternating, or you could gravitate more towards one or the other. This can often be referred to as SIBO-C or SIBO-D. In addition to all the common digestive complaints associated with SIBO such as constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux, cramping, and abdominal pain, you can also have other health issues. This can range from skin issues to significant fatigue to anxiety or depression, and the list goes on.

What are the risk factors for SIBO?

1. Disease states. That can be an autoimmune disease or any other chronic disease that can be a driving factor.

2. Surgery. Specifically abdominal surgeries that create adhesions from scar tissue. This can impact the motility of the small intestine.

3. Medications. This can be any kind of pharmaceutical drugs or antibiotics that you may have been taking, chemotherapy, etc. All of these can drive SIBO.

Now, what are the underlying causes of SIBO?

This is often much more difficult to figure out, and sometimes requires a lot of investigation. The underlying cause essentially is when the system fails. When this protection mode and the normal process of digestion is not happening the way that it should. This can happen for various reasons.

1. If we do not have the appropriate amount of stomach acid in the stomach to be able to begin to break down food properly.

2. If there is an enzyme deficiency, which means that you do not have the capability of being able to break down food and absorb the nutrients.

3. The immune system. Seventy percent of the immune system is in our gut specifically in the gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT). You can appreciate that if this system begins to fail and our immune system becomes more heightened, this can be an underlying cause of SIBO.

If you have IBS or have chronic digestive issues, you may look into this as a possible cause. You can get tested for SIBO here.




Do you have abdominal fat that you just cannot seem to get rid of? You’ve tried different nutrition plans and exercise programs, and it just won’t budge. You also know that there is a lot of risk of having abdominal weight gain, but you’re just not sure what to do about it. Although you may not want to hear this, abdominal weight gain is linked to high cortisol levels, which is one of our key stress hormones that is released during the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, our stress pathway. When we have chronic stress, we have chronic cortisol release, among other stress hormones that are linked to abdominal weight gain, obesity, and increased visceral and subcutaneous fat.

There are two types of fat that we’ll see in the abdominal region, one of which is subcutaneous fat, and two is visceral fat. Subcutaneous fat produces helpful hormones, one of which is leptin which suppresses your appetite and helps to burn fat. Two is adiponectin which helps regulate fats and sugars.  So, if there’s any increased abdominal fat, then this will impact the production and function of these hormones. The visceral fat will be found around the liver, intestines, other organs, and even underneath the abdominal wall. An interesting thing about visceral fat is that the more visceral fat you have, the harder and thicker it becomes. It becomes denser, so that’s when you may feel that your stomach feels hard and not as elastic as it once did. This of course can increase inches to your waistline. In addition to that, you also have increased cytokines in your visceral fat. There are more cytokines in the visceral fat than there are in subcutaneous fat. These proteins are linked to low-level inflammation and inflammation is linked to many chronic diseases. Lastly, it also releases more retinol-binding protein, which will contribute to more insulin resistance.

Based on research, having increased abdominal fat is linked to colorectal cancer, dementia, asthma, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Just remember that abdominal weight gain does not discriminate among genders. So, men and women both can get abdominal weight gain. Women are more susceptible to it after they’ve gone through menopause because their estrogen levels have decreased, which is linked to high cortisol levels over time and chronic activation of the stress pathway.

Now, what can you do about it?

1) Stress management: This could include practicing mindfulness, meditation, journaling, speaking to a counselor, and trying to be aware of your responses during your day to day actions of life. We cannot get rid of stress, but we can learn how to respond to our stressors more effectively. We can respond with clarity and creativity, rather than reacting. When we can begin to do this we can shift our nervous system into a state of more social engagement, safety, a grounded, mindful state rather than in a fight or flight or freeze state.

2) Anti-inflammatory diet: This can be very challenging for many people. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is filled with processed, high sugar, high fat foods. Aim to have a diet low in sugar, processed foods, and try to eat more clean and natural whole foods.

3) Exercise. First, determine what level of exercise is appropriate for you. If you are in a state of chronic stress, then doing high-intensity interval training is not appropriate because that is also a stressor that can put you into a state of complete overload. Identify the appropriate level of exercise, be consistent with your exercise, and remember that exercise is not the same as movement. We exercise 30 minutes a day, but we should be moving all day long. We should be consistently increasing our movement levels, which means sitting for no more than 20 to 30 minutes at a time before we get up and move our bodies. Our bodies are meant to move, they crave movement, and if we don’t do it, we lose it.

4) Sleep. Sleep is more important than nutrition and exercise combined. Aim for seven to nine hours a night.  But, It’s not only about how much sleep you’re getting but it’s about the quality of sleep you’re getting. How much REM and deep sleep are you getting? Are you giving yourself enough time to down-regulate your nervous system before you go to sleep, are you using your phone up late at night or watching TV and stimulating your nervous system as opposed to calming it down and preparing for a restoration process? If you are chronically sleep deprived, this will increase the stress response in your body and contribute to weight gain, specifically around the mid-section.

Good luck in addressing your abdominal weight gain, i.e. stress belly.



MINDFUL EATING 101 | Having a healthy relationship with food

Did you ever wonder how mindful eating can help you have a healthier relationship with food? The first step in having a healthier relationship with food is really to begin to change your perspective about food. Food is amazing. It is a connection, it is a way to bring people, families, and cultures together. If we think of it from the perspective of medicine; food is medicine. It can be healing in so many ways. Not only can help with mot chronic and autoimmune diseases, but it can also be preventative for the majority of lifestyle-related diseases. Food is also information. This is so important! Food is constantly giving us information, it’s just whether or not we decide we want to listen to it or not. It gives us information about how it affects our energy levels, it may or may not contribute to digestive issues, or even aches and pains in our body.  Once again, we just have to listen to it and explore it. Food is a powerful. When we think of it as this powerful gift that we have in our lives that not only allows us to  survive in this world but to thrive; it seems that we can be more present in our eating and improve our relationship with food.

When you sit down to eat your meal, be aware of what’s happening in your body. Are you actually hungry, or are you full, bored, stressed, or even sad? Take inventory of what’s happening and a pause to tune in to see why you’re eating. Then, aim to eliminate all distractions. Try to clear your environment and make sure there’s no TV or phone. Try to limit all distractions so that you can be present with your meal, be in tune with the process of eating. Next, you want to think of non-judgment, one of the pillars of mindfulness. We tend as humans to judge ourselves and other people especially as it relates to food. We can tend to have a lot of rules and rigidity about what’s good and what’s not good. So, taking that moment to pause and allow yourself to be present, to be still, and to think about the food that you are putting in your mouth. Free yourself of all the rules and allow yourself to experience the process of eating.

Now, try to use your senses to experience the process of eating. What do you see, hear, feel, smell, and taste? Let’s say that you are going to have an apple. You can start by observing the apple. What shape is it? What color is it? What texture is it? You can even smell it. Smell it before and maybe after you take a bite of it. After you take a bite of it, chew the food thoroughly, 20 to 30 times.  The digestive enzymes in the saliva allow for the start of a healthy digestive process.  Actually taste the food in your mouth and assess all  the flavors.  Then as it goes down the esophagus into the stomach, try to sense what’s happening. How does that feel as it moves through your body, what does it feel like after you chew the food entirely? Assess your experience. It can be such a beautiful experience because it can shift your perspective on how you look at food. If we did this all the time, none of us would eat too much. We also wouldn’t eat foods that don’t make us feel good because we’re really in tune and completely present in the moment with our eating.

Try to introduce mindful eating into your life. It’s a way to begin practicing mindfulness. It is a way to begin to have a healthier relationship with food. It is a way to eat what your body is signaling you need to eat, as opposed to just eating because you’re stressed or bored and using emotional triggers as a driver. There are so many benefits to this. I encourage you to explore it and see how it is for you and how you can introduce more of it into your life.



5 INFLAMMATORY TRIGGERS you should know about

Do you suffer from chronic conditions such as chronic pain, joint stiffness, muscle stiffness, digestive issues, skin issues, delayed onset allergies that have seemed to haunt you later in life, or perhaps any other chronic health condition you’ve been suffering from? In this case, you may have what we refer to as systemic inflammation, where your body had a loss of tolerance and it is not able to manage inflammation well on its own. Seventy five to ninety percent of all human disease is linked to excessive or persistent inflammation, so it is really important to figure out what may be inflammatory for you in your body. Let’s discuss five different categories of inflammatory triggers.

1) Food. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is a western-style diet filled with rich, processed foods, fatty foods, and sugary foods. It is the classic pro-inflammatory diet that a large majority of Americans consume. Additionally, there are also 12 potentially inflammatory foods that could be driving your health conditions. Some of these foods may seem healthy and very well can be, however that doesn’t mean they are healthy for everyone. This could be anything from soy, peanuts, processed meats, red meat, shellfish, and the list goes on. Click HERE for a video on 12 inflammatory foods. Your friend may be able to eat gluten, but you may not be able to.

2) Bugs. This could be a parasite that is causing an infection and ongoing inflammation in your body. It is really important to be tested for this especially with chronic health conditions that you’re trying to determine what the root cause is and a comprehensive stool test including a parasite test will evaluate for that specifically. This could also be something like a tick-borne illness contributing to an ongoing infection that your body is trying to manage.

3) Toxins. This can include internal toxins as well as external toxins. External toxins are things like herbicides, pesticides, and cleaning chemicals. We also have it in the products that we use on our bodies. On average, a woman uses 168 chemicals before they leave the house in the morning and a male uses 87. A female teenager uses even more than that. So, we want to think about the toxins that we are exposed to in our daily environment but also in our outside environment. Mold is a common example of a toxin that many people are exposed to without knowing. We can also have internal toxins. Yeast overgrowth, for example, is an internal infection your body many be trying to manage or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). There’s a lot of toxins that we are exposed to in our environment, even if we try to control what we can control.

4) Trauma. This can be anything from chemical trauma, mechanical trauma, or emotional trauma. One of the biggest aspects of trauma is going to be stress. Stress is one of the number one things that contribute to inflammation in the body. There is also physical trauma.  You could roll your ankle or hurt your knee while you’re running, etc., which can cause acute inflammation. If your body can’t manage it, then it can become systemic inflammation.

5) Hormone dysfunction. Oftentimes we think of just the sex hormones when we think about hormone dysfunction. However, the hormone dysfunction that typically is the kick starter for most people is our stress hormones (think cortisol!) and especially right now in life. This is such a challenging time for so many of us that the stress hormones really can drive thyroid issues and other sex hormone issues such as estrogen dominance or progesterone and testosterone deficiency. Everything works in a hierarchy. Don’t forget about our hunger hormones, too. Leptin is a hormone produced by the fat cells in your body. Its main role is to regulate fat storage and how many calories you eat and burn but not if it’s dysregulated. Weight gain anyone??  If you are consuming too many carbohydrates and sugar, insulin can also become dysregulated.  Hormone dysfunction is complex, multifactorial, and can surface in many ways.

You will have a greater inflammatory response when more of these receptors from all these different categories light up. Think of this as molecular signaling. So if you are a person that is eating inflammatory foods, you’re under a lot of stress, you already have a thyroid issue, then your inflammatory response is likely going to be greater. Therefore, you will lose tolerance and you will have systemic inflammation which puts you at great risk for many diseases. This can range from heart disease to cancer to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, MS, and Alzheimer’s. You want to think about how you can manage these five categories, and looking at all of them clearly and carefully to determine what are the driving forces for you that are contributing to you not feeling your best.

At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about…feeling your best. How can you optimize your health, how can you take ownership of your health, and make sure that you are living with vitality and not just skating through the world? You CAN feel energized, motivated, and live you’re best life.



12 Immune-Boosting Foods

Let me ease your mind by giving you 12 different immune-boosting foods that you can use to support your immune system!

1. Citrus foods

These include grapefruits, oranges, clementines, lemons, and limes, and many more. Citrus are perfect immune-boosting foods for the nice weather. They are packed with vitamin C and have the ability to increase the production of white blood cells. They can help you build antibodies and help you resist bacteria and viruses that you’ve encountered before.

2. Red bell peppers

These are perfect for stir-fries, salads, fajitas, etc. They are also packed with vitamin C and have beta carotene. Beta carotene is converted into vitamin A in the body, which is great for vision health, skin health, and immune health. 

3. Almonds

These are a great little snack to have, and the good news is you only need half a cup a day (two servings) to get the recommended daily amount (RDA) of Vitamin E. They are packed with vitamin E, which acts as an antioxidant in the body to protect the cells and help fight off free radicals.

4. Ginger

Ginger has powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. It is a really easy thing to add to your meals and cooking. It has been known to help with a sore throat, and it has also been known to decrease inflammation. Gingerol is the main bioactive compound in ginger, responsible for much of its medicinal properties.

5. Green tea

Green tea is packed with flavonoids and antioxidants, specifically one of the antioxidants that’s really powerful for immune function, which is epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG. Now, this specific antioxidant is destroyed during the fermentation process of black tea. However, green tea is steamed not fermented, therefore it is not destroyed during that process. So sip your green tea every day!

6. Spinach

This is also perfect for a salad or a side dish with your meal. It is packed with vitamin C, as well as beta carotene. Just remember, many of the nutrients are destroyed during the cooking process, so you can enjoy spinach with just a little olive oil and herbs, and it tastes delicious.

7. Shellfish

Who would have thought shellfish would make this list? Shellfish contains lots of zinc, and because we only need a small amount of zinc in our diet, a small serving of that can provide it. Men need 11 milligrams, and women need eight milligrams for the recommended daily allowance. It’s a great thing to add to some of your dishes, and it’s a nice variety to your typical cooking.

8. Garlic

We all know how we love our garlic! It has been known to be an anti-inflammatory mainly due to the sulfur-containing compounds specifically, one of the compounds, allicin. Sprinkling this on different dishes that you might be having will be fantastic for your immune system. Using actual garlic cloves will have much more of the bang for the buck from a nutrient perspective, however, powder is simple and convenient.

9. Broccoli

It is supercharged with vitamins and minerals, specifically vitamins A, C, and E. This, just like spinach, does lose a lot of its nutrient value when you cook it, so you do want to cook it as little as possible. Perhaps considering steaming, but not overcooking. Including this in different dishes and having it as a side or throwing it on a salad is a great way to get the benefits of this food.

10. Poultry

Yes, your chicken and turkey are great sources of vitamin B-6, which not only helps to prevent you from getting sick in the first place but can also help with minimizing cold symptoms. Vitamin B-6 is also important in so many chemical reactions in the body, and also the formation of blood cells. We can get our recommended daily amount from having two to three-ounce servings of chicken or turkey a day.

11. Probiotics

In order to maintain colonization in the digestive tract, probiotics must be taken or eaten regularly. General recommendations call for ingesting 1 to 25 billion colony-forming units (CFUs) daily. Whether you’re getting these from fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, or even perhaps yogurt, most store-bought probiotic yogurts, however, contain about 1 billion CFUs per serving.

To get the maximum benefit from fermented foods, it’s important to read product labels and choose only those that contain “active, live cultures” and preferentially raw, unpasteurized, perishable ingredients. You could choose to get it from food, but if you feel like you’re not getting that on a consistent basis, then a probiotic is recommended for most people. You do want to make sure that you have two specific strains which are lactobacillus and bifidobacterium that can also help with the gut-brain connection. This is something that can improve our gut bacteria and really help keep our immune system optimal. Remember, 70 percent of our immune system is in our gut.

12. Papaya

This is packed with vitamin C, potassium, vitamin E, and folic acid. Papaya has 224% of the RDA of vitamin C from just one papaya! It also has a digestive enzyme called the papain, which actually has anti-inflammatory benefits. It tastes wonderful with coconut milk, so give that a try!


In summary, eating just one of these immune-boosting foods is not enough to stave off disease and infection, especially COVID-19. However, having a variety of foods in your diet, and perhaps including some or all of these immune-boosting foods can be really powerful. The more diverse your diet is, the more ability you are going to have to include all of the vitamins and minerals that you need. I hope this helps, and I hope that you stay healthy during these times.



Other things that may interest you:

Why you should consider eliminating gluten and dairy | Elimination Diet


What To Eat To Improve Your Nerve Health | 10 NUTRIENTS