Ep 617: Losing 85# before GLPs were a thing & keeping it off with BJ Whittle

Ep 620: Natural Skincare, Herbal Tinctures & Wildcrafting Secrets with Kristine Courville

In this episode of The Health Fix Podcast, Dr. Jannine Krause sits down with Kristine Courville, founder of Sahale Botanicals, bioregional herbalist, and Cornell University Medicinal Plants Certificate graduate, to explore the powerful world of herbal medicine, wildcrafting, plant energetics, and natural skincare. Kristine shares how questioning conventional healthcare led her to rediscover the wisdom of traditional herbalism and the healing power of plants. Together, we discuss how herbal energetics can help you understand your body's patterns, why fresh herbs often create more potent remedies, and how sustainable wildcrafting protects both our health and the environment. Whether you're curious about making herbal teas, tinctures, infused oils, or creating toxin-free skincare, this conversation offers practical insights for beginners and seasoned herbal enthusiasts alike. If you're looking for natural ways to support your health, reduce your toxic burden, and deepen your connection with nature, this episode is for you. In this episode you'll learn: ✔️ Kristine Courville's journey into herbal medicine and founding Sahale Botanicals ✔️ Why herbal medicine was pushed aside in modern healthcare ✔️ The impact of the Flexner Report on traditional healing practices ✔️ What plant energetics and tissue states reveal about your health ✔️ How to safely and sustainably wildcraft medicinal plants ✔️ Why fresh herbs often make stronger herbal remedies ✔️ Best practices for harvesting herbs throughout the seasons ✔️ The truth about "clean" skincare ingredients ✔️ How to make herbal teas, tinctures, infused oils, and bath infusions ✔️ Herbal support for midlife wellness and healthy aging ✔️ Building a lifelong relationship with nature through folk herbalism Chapters 00:00 – The Birth of Sahale Botanicals 02:53 – Rediscovering Plant Medicine 06:02 – The Power of Potency in Herbal Skincare 08:50 – Understanding Herbal Energetics 11:45 – Creating Effective Herbal Skincare 14:38 – Clean Beauty vs Truly Healthy Skincare 17:19 – Wildcrafting & Seasonal Harvesting 20:24 – Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants 23:28 – Herbal Elixirs for Midlife Wellness 25:12 – Crafting Herbal Tinctures 29:35 – The Art of Folk Herbalism 34:21 – How to Identify & Harvest Wild Herbs 39:17 – Firesider, Herbal Remedies & Home Apothecaries 44:19 – Sustainable Harvesting Practices 49:07 – Herbal Bath Teas & Self-Care Rituals About Our Guest Kristine Courville is the founder of Sahale Botanicals, a Pacific Northwest herbal skincare and wellness company dedicated to ethical wildcrafting and sustainable plant medicine. Inspired by traditional herbal wisdom and backed by modern education—including a Medicinal Plants Certificate from Cornell University and an apprenticeship in herbalism—Kristine creates toxin-free skincare and herbal wellness products using responsibly harvested botanicals native to the Pacific Northwest. Her work blends folk herbalism, plant energetics, sustainability, and modern science to help people reconnect with nature and support their health naturally. Resources From The Show: • Sahale Botanicals [https://www.sahalebotanicals.com/about] - get 15% off your 1st order with code: DOCJ15 • Cornell University Medicinal Plants Certificate [https://ecornell.cornell.edu/certificates/food-and-plant-science/medicinal-plants/] Connect with Dr. Jannine If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to: 👍 Like this video 💬 Leave your questions about herbal medicine below. 🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on functional medicine, longevity, hormones, metabolism, and natural health. Share this episode with someone interested in herbal medicine, natural skincare, and living a healthier life. Head to doctorjkrausend.com for more information on Dr. Jannine Krause [https://doctorjkrausend.com/]

Ep 619: The Shifts That Help Women Lead at Work and Be Present at Home With Alicia Ayala

Have you achieved success on paper but still feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or like something is missing? In this episode of The Health Fix Podcast, Dr. Jannine Krause sits down with Alicia Ayala, Transformational Life & Leadership Coach, former Senior Director in Technology, speaker, and founder of the Inner Leadership Method, to explore how reconnecting with your authentic self can transform your health, career, and relationships. After spending 22 years climbing the corporate ladder and preparing for a VP role, Alicia realized that external success wasn't creating the fulfillment she expected. She left corporate leadership to help ambitious women, entrepreneurs, and working moms build lives rooted in alignment, self-trust, and purpose. If you've ever struggled with balancing your career, your health, and your family while wondering why success doesn't feel satisfying, this conversation is for you. In This Episode You'll Learn: * Why inner leadership is the foundation for lasting confidence and fulfillment * How to build genuine self-trust and make decisions with confidence * Why identifying your core values changes every area of life * Practical strategies for balancing career, family, and personal health * How fear keeps high achievers stuck—and how to move through it * Why authenticity creates greater success than perfection * The power of visioning and intentional goal setting * Simple journaling exercises to reconnect with your true self * How to stop living on autopilot and start living in alignment * Why success feels different when it reflects who you truly are About Alicia Ayala Alicia Ayala is a Transformational Life & Leadership Coach, speaker, and mother of two. Following a successful 22-year corporate career leading technology teams and founding Women in Technology (WIT), Alicia transitioned into coaching women who want to thrive in both their careers and personal lives without sacrificing themselves in the process. Through her signature Inner Leadership Method, she helps ambitious women release limiting beliefs, strengthen self-trust, reduce overwhelm, and create lives aligned with their deepest values. Resources From The Show: * Alicia Ayala's Website [https://www.aliciaayala.com/meet-alicia] * Alicia's Her Alchemy 12 Week Program Discovery Call [https://aliciaayala.lpages.co/heralchemy26/] * Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/its_alicia_ayala/], Linked In [https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaliciaayala] * Dr. Jannine Krause [https://doctorjkrausend.com/] If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to: 👍 Like this video 💬 Leave a comment with your biggest takeaway 🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations on functional medicine, longevity, hormones, mindset, and living your healthiest life after 40.

Ep 618: Decoding Your Insomnia with The Chinese Medicine Organ Clock

Waking up between 2-5 AM every night? Your sleep struggles may not actually start at bedtime. In this episode of The Health Fix Podcast, Dr. Jannine Krause dives into the neurological, energetic, and Chinese Medicine perspective of insomnia and why what you do during the day may be the biggest factor impacting your nights. After years of battling insomnia herself and surviving on just 2-4 hours of sleep Dr. Jannine shares her journey through endless sleep solutions including melatonin, herbs, L-theanine, ashwagandha, 5-HTP, progesterone, magnesium, and more. But eventually, the supplements stopped working. The missing piece? Looking beyond the nighttime routine and understanding how your daily habits, digestion, hydration, circulation, stress, hormones, and organ rhythms influence your sleep. In this episode, you'll learn how the Chinese Medicine Organ Clock may provide clues about why you wake up at specific times and what your body could be communicating. Dr. Jannine also explores why detox pathways, lymphatic flow, gallbladder function, liver health, and lung function may influence insomnia patterns. If you've tried "all the things" for sleep and nothing seems to work, this episode offers a different perspective. Your body isn't broken it's asking for a different approach to sleep. What You'll Learn In This Episode: * Why waking between 1-3 AM may connect to liver function, stress, detox pathways, and emotional processing * The connection between 3-5 AM wake ups and lung health, oxygen delivery, circulation, and stress * How digestion during the day impacts nighttime sleep * Why hydration between 3-5p matters for detox and sleep quality * How your afternoon habits may be sabotaging your nights * Why your sleep hygiene starts at 1p * How HRV tracking helped identify the habits improving Dr. Jannine's own sleep Chinese Medicine Sleep Clock Breakdown 9 PM - 11 PM: Lymphatic + endocrine reset Trouble falling asleep may indicate stress, lymph stagnation, or nervous system imbalance. 11 PM - 1 AM: Gallbladder Possible connection with digestion, fat metabolism, and unresolved decisions. 1 AM - 3 AM: Liver Associated with detoxification, hormones, blood processing, stress, anger, and frustration. 3 AM - 5 AM: Lung Connected with breathing, oxygen, grief, immune function, allergies, and circulation. Resources From The Show: * Vibrant Blue Oils [https://vibrantblueoils.com/] * Deanna Hansen's Workshop with Dr. Krause [https://doctorjkrausend.com/block-therapy-deanna-hansen-workshop/] for diaphragm release and relieving shoulder pain * HRV tracking with the Elonga device [https://www.elonga.com/en-us?partner=DrJannineKrause] * Chinese Medicine Organ Clock from Radiant Shenti [https://radiantshenti.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/The-Chinese-Medicine-Body-Clock-Description.pdf]

Ep 617: Losing 85# before GLPs were a thing & keeping it off with BJ Whittle

Have you ever felt trapped in the cycle of dieting, restricting, overeating, and promising yourself you'll "start again Monday"? You are not alone. In this episode of The Health Fix Podcast, Dr. Jannine Krause sits down with Belinda Jean Whittle (BJ) — Mindset Coach and Food Peace Specialist — to talk about the deeper reasons women struggle with food, weight, and cravings, especially in midlife. Belinda shares her powerful story of surviving ovarian cancer at age 29, developing an eating disorder afterward, and spending years learning that her relationship with food was never actually about food. After losing 85 pounds without hunger, extreme dieting, or GLP medications, Belinda explains how true transformation came from healing emotional eating, understanding food noise, and learning how to nourish her body instead of fighting it. What You'll Learn In This Episode: * Why cutting off symptoms doesn't fix the root problem * How stress, fear, and emotions can drive overeating * Why food cravings are often about what food is doing FOR you * How to break free from the diet mentality * What food freedom actually looks like 20 years later * How midlife women can create sustainable habits for energy, health, and vitality Belinda reminds us that the problem is not that you lack willpower — the missing piece is understanding the relationship you have with food and yourself. If you've tried every diet, feel exhausted by constant food thoughts, or feel like your weight is controlling your life, this conversation will give you a completely different perspective. About Belinda Jean Whittle Belinda Jean Whittle is a Food Peace Specialist and Mindset Coach who helps midlife women break free from dieting, emotional eating, and the exhausting cycle of restriction and guilt. After surviving ovarian cancer and struggling with an eating disorder, Belinda spent over 20 years researching, healing, and developing a deeper understanding of food relationships and behavior change. Today, she helps women reduce food noise, overcome emotional eating patterns, and build a peaceful relationship with food. Her work focuses on: • Healing the diet mentality • Understanding emotional eating • Reducing cravings and food obsession • Creating sustainable behavior change • Supporting women in binge eating recovery alongside appropriate professional care Resources From The Show: Learn more about Belinda's Food Peace approach and upcoming workshops: Embracing Food Freedom Workshop [https://belindajean.com/live-workshop] Learn why diets don't work, how emotional eating develops, and how to begin rebuilding trust with food. 12-Week Food Peace Experience [https://belindajean.com/programs] Dr. Jannine Krause's Website

Ep 616: How Amino Acids Can Stop Cravings, Anxiety & Brain Fog with Laurie Hammer

What if your cravings, mood swings, brain fog, and emotional overwhelm were signs of a nutrient deficiency rather than a lack of willpower? As we age, hormonal shifts, chronic stress, poor sleep, and nutrient depletion can significantly impact brain chemistry. Many people over 40 experience increased anxiety, brain fog, sugar cravings, and emotional volatility without realizing that amino acid deficiencies may be contributing. In this episode of The Health Fix Podcast, Laurie Hammer shares her powerful personal journey with amino acid therapy and how it transformed her mental health, cravings, emotional resilience, and overall brain function. We dive into the science behind amino acids as the building blocks of neurotransmitters and why they can be especially supportive for adults over 40 navigating stress, detoxification, and hormonal changes. You'll learn how amino acid testing works, the signs of deficiency, and practical ways to integrate amino acid support into a holistic health plan. About Laurie Hammer Being a mom and business owner isn't easy. Juggling responsibilities, sleepless nights, and constant demands can feel overwhelming and Laurie knows this struggle firsthand. Before becoming a mother, Laurie battled an eating disorder, anxiety, and depression, challenges that affected her health, relationships, and overall well-being. Discovering Amino Acid Therapy changed everything, helping her reclaim her life and igniting a passion for health and wellness. With a degree in psychology and certification in nutritional therapy, Laurie created the Calm Mom Method®, a proven approach designed to help moms reduce anxiety, restore energy, and live with greater purpose and resilience. What You'll Learn In This Episode: ✅ Laurie's personal journey with amino acid therapy and what led her to explore this approach for mental and emotional health. ✅ How amino acids influence neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and GABA—and why that matters for mood, sleep, focus, and cravings. ✅ The different ways to test amino acid levels and assess deficiencies, including how the body's responses can provide important clues. ✅ Why cravings and emotional eating may be rooted in brain chemistry rather than willpower alone. ✅ How targeted amino acid support can help with emotional regulation, stress resilience, and mental clarity. ✅ The role of amino acids in detoxification and brain health, including support for neuroprotection and recovery from chronic stress. ✅ How to integrate amino acids with functional medicine, nutrition, lifestyle habits, and other holistic health practices for a personalized approach to healing. Resources From The Show: * Check out Laurie Hammer's Website [https://www.lauriehammer.com/about-laurie] * Listen in to Laurie's Podcast - Take Back My Brain [https://www.youtube.com/@takebackmybrain9073/podcasts] * Dr. Jannine Krause's Website [https://doctorjkrausend.com/]