Sabtu, 17 September 2011

New Undergrad Intern!

Welcome Sarah Altvater - our 2nd undergraduate intern! We now have our original, Alyssa Rieser; our high school intern, Chelsea Polk; and now Sarah! Look for articles written by these lovely ladies and don't be surprised to see them sitting in observing patient appointments.

Ashley


I developed an interest in nutrition in my early twenties when I discovered a link between my frequent headaches and sugar consumption. My interest quickly evolved into a passion, and, three years ago, after spending ten years as a corporate marketing executive in the radio and newspaper industries, I decided to go back to school to become a registered dietitian. I am excited to enter my second year of Bastyr University’s graduate program in nutrition science this fall. Of particular interest to me is the role of food as medicine, especially in the areas of oncology and neurology. It’s truly fascinating to me how proper nutrition can help facilitate healing and recovery in a number of disease states and I plan to focus my future work, both as a nutrition expert and as a researcher, in this area.

I took a break from classes this summer to focus on volunteering and have had some unforgettable experiences including working on an organic farm in Ecuador and counseling diabetic children on carb counting at Camp Sealth on Vashon Island. Currently, I am working as an assistant in the Human Nutrition Lab at Fred Hutchinson Center for Cancer Research and as a research coordinator for a study on Parkinson’s disease at Bastyr University. I am thrilled to be the new intern at Crave Health and am looking forward to learning more about food and health outside of the classroom.

Sarah

Rabu, 07 September 2011

What are your numbers?


In celebration of summer coming to an end and me preaching Vitamin D into the Fall, I thought it was only fair to share my own numbers. Every year, each of you should get a Lipid Panel (cholesterol), Fasting Glucose (diabetes) & Vitamin D Panel (sunlight/seattle) done at your MD's office. Insurance pays for it and it matters to know where you stand health-wise on a cellular level. If you dont have insurance, I offer wholesale lab pricing and can get your labs pulled here at Crave Health for cheap.

So here are my own personal labs from June of 2011:

Lipid Panel

Total Cholesterol: 171
(Healthy Range = Less than 200)

Triglycerides: 80
(Healthy Range = 40-149)

HDL (Happy Cholesterol): 55
(Healthy Range = Greater than 40)

LDL (Lousy Cholesterol): 100
(Healthy Range = Less than 129)

Diabetes

Fasting Glucose: 78
(Healthy Range = 65-99)

Vitamin D Panel

Vitamin D 25OH: 40
(Healthy Range = 30-100)


**Now this is NOT to brag, its just to show you that I have to work hard to maintain my own health as well. I take 5000 IU's of Vitamin D per day to get that vitamin D level up, I work out 3-4 times per week, I take my multivitamin every day and I eat heart healthy fats like nuts and fish to keep my cholesterol low. Does that mean I eat perfectly? No. I still love pizza, wine, chips and salsa, etc. I just try to keep it balanced. At least its nice to know your dietitian is healthy though, right?!

Bring your labs in for an appt and Ill show you how to get them back into the healthy ranges through food, not medicine.

Ashley