We're moving to a new location!

Dearest Friends and Patients,

We are excited to announce that we are moving to a new nearby location in Lafayette, CA

starting on December 1st, 2021!

This new office is a short 6 minute drive from the current location and I’m proud to announce,

this is my own office with plenty of space for future expansion of services and in a beautiful

office setting with many aesthetics/beauty, chiropractic and colon hydrotherapy providers. The

office is on the 2nd floor and yes, there is plenty of free parking nearby.

Our new address is 1043 Stuart Ste #210 Lafayette, CA 94549 (email/phone/fax will not change)!

Our office will be closed for the transition from Nov 22nd to Dec 4th. We

will begin seeing clients in the new space December 8th 2021.

Click for directions…

https://goo.gl/maps/vpzyo45MvigFR8668

We realize that change can be difficult but we hope to make the transition as smooth as

possible for you.

While many offices have switched to 100% virtual care, I decided to not follow suit as in person

visits provide the hands-on healing that many still need and want at this time. It is because of

your trust and referrals to our office that demand has grown, so I thank you for your love and

support over our 11 years in practice!

It is a pleasure working with you and I Iook forward to seeing you at our new location. If you

have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us 510-230-2282.

Dr. Vera Singleton

The Leaky Gut Solution: When nothing else is working...

FACT: Most people put up with digestion symptoms on average for 1-2 years longer than most conditions..

FACT: Leaky Gut is actually a combination of 3 or more gut issues colliding all at once!

MYTH: There is nothing more you can do to test for, or to heal Leaky Gut. This is something you have to deal with forever!

I put together a quick AMA (ask me anything) video to show you my step-by-step approach.

Sharing with you my secret sauce to success and this approach is why I get referrals from other doctors and practitioners to help breakthrough difficult cases.

Check this out! and if you have more specific question related to your symptoms, you can always book a free consult.

Want better sleep? Do something different

The jury is out as to whether melatonin is the silver bullet, but if you’ve tried melatonin or other sleep products in the past and noticed “it didn’t work” or stopped working, this can be because of two reasons:

1. A 2017 study of 31 different over the counter melatonin preparations found that, when analyzed, the dosage of 71% of the products didn’t match what was stated on the label. And 70% had a melatonin concentration that was less than 10% of what was claimed.

2. You are using the wrong type of melatonin or sleep support for your sleep issue

Insomnia especially with hormonal imbalances like thyroid, adrenal and in peri-menopause is characterized by struggling with falling asleep and staying asleep, or both. Either way, it’s important to get control of your sleep/wake cycle to improve your balance of hormones.

Try this:

• Change Product

• Change Forms

• Change Dosing

Melatonin is best taken anywhere from 30-90 min before desired bed time. Chewable, liquid and liposomal formulations seem to be faster acting as they bypass the digestive tract.

• When it comes to sleep issues in Peri-Menopause, melatonin may be your best choice because it helps to lower your body temperature.

• My advice is to start with a low dose and watch for side effects before working up to a higher dose.  

Melatonin, in my opinion, always works better when you have herbal support for your underlying hormonal condition.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

L-theanine-A 2011 study in the Journal of Functional Foods found that L-theanine decreased heart rate, enhanced alpha-band activity and improved attention, performance and reaction-time responses in anxiety prone students.

Lemon Balm-Lemon balm has been in use as a calming herb since the Middle Ages. It is typically used to treat anxiety, reduce stress and relieve insomnia. A 2010 study found that it worked very well as a treatment for mild to moderate anxiety and showed improvements in calm and focus.

Passion flower-A 2017 study in Medicina Oral found that passion flower capsules showed a similar anxiolytic effect as the prescription drug midazolam. In the study, both were used for conscious sedation and produced the same rate of lowered anxiety, but passion flower was found to have less interference with memory, after the fact.

Ashwagandha-The Ashwagandha plant originates from India, where practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine hold it in high regard. Also known as “Indian ginseng,” the dried and crushed plant matter provides you with a calm feeling that soothes the nervous system while boosting energy. Ashwagandha is an integral part of Indian culture and has a 3,000-year legacy of use among the Indian people to relieve stress. A wonderful herbal adaptogen that has been used to support the immune system, reduce anxiety/depression, improve mental clarity and enhance sexual function.

If you need support re-balancing your sleep/wake cycle, or picking the right combination of sleep supports to help you, reach out to me anytime.

Experiencing deeper sunburn or eczema flares this summer? Here's why...

Finally,  we've made it to summer and if you're like me, you've been enjoying the sun and the outdoors more than usual.

What's different about your skin this year is 3 unique things…

• We’ve been so hyper-focused with other health concerns, that you may not have paid attention to your skin in the past year.

• We have all aged a little bit quicker due to the ongoing stress marathon. So, it’s no surprise that cortisol is breaking down elastin/ collagen faster in our skin. Did you know that??

• If you’re like many, key antioxidants have been consumed from protecting your body against higher cholesterol & blood sugar levels, and lower vitamin D (from stress eating in 2020/2021).

  • When many of my patients finally did annual labs this year, 80% of their levels were VERY abnormal.

So don’t be surprised if your sunburn or eczema gets worse- even if you have brown skin or skin that tans easily!

FYI: You typically won’t see the deeper DNA damage for a couple of months (Sept/October/Nov)

Here’s what you can do to offset this right now…

• Load up on skin loving nutrients- TODAY!

• Get suspicious spots checked out

• Use photo specific anti-inflammatories

I have a skin clinic monthly where you can have your skin examined for free and I’ll share with you my top list of nutrients to take if you got a really bad burn.

So if you haven’t been able to get into your dermatologist office, here’s your invitation. If you have a suspicious spot that’s changed within the past 6 months (got bigger, redder, or cycling through healing/scabbing phase) you should definitely book some time with me!

Grab a spot on my calendar and let’s take a closer look. Skin clinics are held in Lafayette and Berkeley.

Sunday Sept 19th 2021  in Lafayette

Sunday Oct 17th 2021  in Berkeley

XOXO,

Dr. Vera

P.S. Check out my video on the #1 go-to for preventing and healing burned skin—> click here

Benadryl vs Melatonin: What's better for you?

When your sleep is horrible during peri-menopause, you might try every and anything to get you back to sleep. Here’s a quick breakdown of Benadryl v. Melatonin. In case you were feeling desperate and wanting to try either.

Benadryl

Taking Benadryl to help you get to sleep is okay in small doses once in a while.  It will work, but at a cost.

Anti-histamines can pressure your body to spend more time in the lighter stages of sleep. So you’ll actually wake up feeling unrested even though you’ve slept 7+ hours.

Benadryl (diphenhydramine) also makes most people drowsy, cause dry mouth and nasal membranes leaving you feeling stuffy and congested.

Melatonin

Melatonin on the other hand helps control your natural sleep-wake cycle. Some research suggests that melatonin supplements might be helpful in treating jet lag or reducing the time it takes to fall asleep and can improve the signal for your sleep hormones to jumpstart.

You can actually test for melatonin levels in the body, and I typically do this for patients when Benadryl and other sleep meds stop working.

The benefit of testing?

When you test for melatonin, you get instant clarity on whether your body has trouble producing the key hormone. If you aren’t making enough, this changes the game entirely on the long term effectiveness of any sleep meds you’ll try in the future. (Ask me about how to get this test)!

Either way, tolerance to the sedative effects of sleep aids (even natural ones) can develop quickly — so the longer you take them, the less likely they are to make you sleepy.

Here’s what you can do if both stop working:

• Stop consuming too much caffeine late in the day. Cut off after 11am

• Keep a regular sleep/wake time to maintain your body’s sleep-wake cycle

• Cut off loose ends and worry so that your mind’s chilled out before you hit the bed

• If you’re waking up frequently during the night, a shift in your last meal to include complex carbs can prevent middle of the night hunger pangs

• Get those night sweats under control. It’s the #1 reason for sleepless nights in peri-menopause

• Cut yourself off from emails, social media and stimulating television shows by a certain time

• Listening to a guided meditation or soothing music

Get Grounded: Nurture your body with this easy technique

As we close out Mindfulness May, I challenged myself to meditate every day, for even 5 mins. Well, it wasn’t a perfect 100% but I realized something in the journey…

I’d been feeling blah, dead, less lively, less like my bubbly self. With all that’s taken place since the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve just been on autopilot with survival as my energy source. Sound familiar?

As things have loosened up and masks have come off, I’ve noticed feeling disconnected STILL and haven’t been able to connect back fully with myself and with my environment even as things are opening up.

As I know in the world of available medication, there is no pill to make you feel more alive, more connected to the soul- to your true self. But, I know in practicing medicine that healing happens thorough energy exchange.

And because I’ve been feeling like dead wood, that flow of energy wasn’t moving as I needed.

I love the saying, “Ask and Ye shall receive” because that’s exactly what happened.

In walked a Chakra Meditation that saved my life! It changed the game.

Chakras are set energy milestones along the center of your body, from where your butt touches the ground to the top of your head. There are 7 of them and each just happens to overlap with key endocrine organs.

1- Reproductive organs

2.-Digestive system

3- Adrenal

4- Heart

5-Thyroid

6-Pituitary

7- Brain

Most chakra meditations focus on using imaging, color or sounds to recharge each center.

I started with the root chakra, #1 as this is the chakra to help with stoking creativity, fire, connection, and bringing forth life to surge oxytocin (one of the key hormones of love & attraction)

This has been a game changer in breathing life into the “dead wood”!

So I decided to create a sacral-root chakra meditation ( and share it with you for free) based upon imagery, sound and engaging the senses. Perhaps if you are feeling the same, I invite you to try this new prescription:

Explore using root chakra mediation to recharge. Take the time to nourish yourself, and if you like, continue with other chakra meditations.

There’s still some time left in May to check it out!

Hope you enjoy this meditation!!

XOXO

Dr. Vera

Ways to Reduce Feeling Overly Anxious

When I learned of the Mindfulness May movement, it thought it was right on time.

It’s not always about the food we eat, but how we are living in our bodies on a daily basis.  Many of the clients I’ve seen recently are completely fried..

This is a classic nervous system dysfunctional response.  

Since a majority of my clients are women in their 40s, many symptoms present as flares of early onset  peri-menopausal  symptoms such as sleepless nights, worsening memory or changes in the menstrual cycle.    

The most disturbing changes occur in the limbic system. This looks like fatigue, anxiety, exhaustion, (the stress eating cycle) and worse of all, changing your internal programming to accept living a blunted life within this dysfunctional pattern. 

As an integrative clinician, I dig down and find out the roots of which hormones need adjusting and use all forms of medicine to achieve the alignment.

My favorite off label go-to for healing the limbic dysfunction is having clients create mantras or meditations for themselves. Have you tried this before?

If not, now‘s a great time to begin.

Here is a freebie meditation on generating more self-compassion. I teach you how to mantra. It will literally reprogram your brain to function differently.

Check it out!

XOXO

Dr. Vera

Still not feeling great after recovering from a COVID diagnosis?

Lingering post COVID symptoms is something you don’t hear about in the headlines.

We hear about the extreme cases of intubation and coma, but as we all know many of you who did test positive or thought you may have contracted it, may still have residual mild symptoms for which traditional medicine has no answer for.

Let's get clear on something- YOU ARE NOT CRAZY or LAZY! While we don’t have clear data about length of time one can experience COVID side effects, as with any fallout from viral infection, there may be susceptibility to develop symptoms- both short and long term.

I've got the support you need... keep reading!

I attended a lecture by a doc who specializes in post infectious fibromyalgia and it of course it makes perfect sense that a deep viral infection like COVID will leave the body in a state of nutritional and energy deficiency.

You must support the deep energy centers within your cells to jumpstart systems back online.

I’d like to share with you this protocol and lecture by my colleague Dr. Teitelbaum who specializes in Fibromyalgia and post viral & infectious disease. While some of the content may be hypermedical because its directed towards physicians, I think you’ll get incredible value by having this email on hand for you, or anyone you know who may be affected as an incredible resource.

Here's the cliff notes version...

Classic symptoms post COVID infection (or post vaccination):

• Fatigue with sleeplessness

• Chest heaviness

• Low stamina/ endurance

• Blood pressure instability

• Brain Fog

• Body Pain

• Muscle Cramping

• Experiencing increased perception of stressors

Where to start?

You need to do labs:
CBC, CMP, CRP, ESR, Full panel for Thyroid including reverse T3, B12, Folate, Iron, Ferritin with TIBC, random iodine, AM cortisol, and of course and a full sex hormone evaluation.

I am happy to run these for you if you are cash pay (I have discounted rates) or have a PPO and we can bill insurance. Otherwise good luck with getting your HMO or Kaiser doc to run these!

Begin the SHINE protocol

Check out the Post COVID Recovery Protocol I created for you in Fullscript. It's got all the essential supplements needed to recover your body. Take advantage of this resource! If you have question about which nutrient(s) would work best, reach out to me!

It’s important to activate the SHINE protocol if these symptoms sound familiar to you! It’s a comprehensive way to restore the body once again. Often times treating only one area will improve symptoms, but will regress over time.

• Sleep- get sleeping again. Restore hypothalamic signaling aka adrenals!

• Hormonal imbalance- restore cortisol and thyroid function to optimal

• Infection- Test & eliminate low grade yeast/candida, bacteria, HHV, EBV, CMV, persistent viral symptoms

• Nutritional- Restore the base nutrients levels consumed in viral infections, feed mitochondrial systems, polypeptides

• Exercise- Strike a balance. Not HIIT! Walking, improve stamina and muscle conditioning is key. 5-10K steps/day

Perhaps one or all of these areas haven't quite recovered. Ask yourself if you are 100% feeling better and if not...now is the time to begin that recovery process.

Although you may not feel yourself immediately after an infection like this, know that you always have me in your corner if you need a more thorough workup then your primary will provide.

Reach out to me if your have questions about your symptoms or if you need support

Book your 30 min free consult here…

Sending healing energy to you!

Dr. Vera