There has been a lot of debate out there in recent years about vaccines, and the COVID-19 vaccine only added fuel to the fire. How safe are vaccines, really? Are they worth getting? Do the long-term benefits outweigh the risks?

While I can't answer these questions for you, I can tell you why I chose to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

First of all, I want to make it clear that I do feel getting vaccinated should be a personal choice. If you choose not to get the vaccine, I'm not judging you! I do think that we aren't always told about all the side effects that may occur from vaccines, and as I have discussed in a previous post, there are plenty of people who would say that they can be much more dangerous than the mainstream medical establishment would have you believe. However, vaccines have also provided untold benefits to human society, and we almost certainly would not be as successful and long-lived as a species without them.

All this to say, I am not an "anti-vaxxer," but I would describe myself as a "responsible vaxxer." (I do think it is completely irresponsible to give a baby with a developing brain of a few months old a cocktail of multiple drugs designed to protect against diseases they likely won't be exposed to for many years, if ever, but that's a discussion for another day.)

As a natural health blogger, a number of people have asked me my thoughts about the COVID vaccine, and while I was initially on the fence, here's why I ultimately decided to get vaccinated.

Welcome to May - my favorite month of the year! (And not just because of my birthday.) :-)

This time of year is so beautiful, with everything green and growing and blooming! Usually it's not too hot, and bugs aren't too bad yet, and although it is the beginning of the busiest time of year for me, it's enjoyable work like planting and mulching and watching things grow.

I even put the hammock out this weekend - a bit earlier than usual, but since we were enjoying an 80-degree afternoon, it seemed fitting. :-)

Anyway, on to this month's freebie! I'm pretty excited to share this with you, as Marjorie is one of the homesteaders I respect the most. She has such a fun-loving personality, and she's always sharing new and interesting ideas about health, gardening, homesteading, and more. She has a new book coming out this year on all of these topics, and to celebrate and promote her book launch, she's hosting a 3-day online event on sustainable living, medicine making, growing your own food, and more! Check it out below to learn more and register to attend for FREE.

Are you washing your hair too much?

It may seem like a weird question, but surveys show that Americans wash their tresses an average of 4.59 times per week. Most hairstylists and dermatologists agree that this is way too much. Kind of like with clothing, washing your hair creates wear and tear that can damage your hair over time, leaving it limp, dry, oily, and unhealthy.

Most experts agree that for most people, you should wash your hair no more than 3 times per week. This gives your hair and scalp time to rebalance and recover from the stresses of washing.

However, this doesn't mean you have to walk around with dirty hair half the time! In fact, part of the problem is probably the commercial shampoo you are using. Most commercial shampoos contain harsh detergents that strip your hair of its natural oils and disrupt its pH balance. This leads to over-production of scalp oils, which, in turn, leaves your hair feeling greasy and limp in between washes.

It's a vicious cycle, and in order to break it, your hair may need to go through a little "detox" period after going off commercial shampoos. But if you can power through, and choose healthier shampoo alternatives for washing your hair, you will soon discover you have the naturally shiny, bouncy, and vibrant hair that those shampoo commercials have been promising all along!

Climate change can be a pretty emotional topic, but in many cases, the conversation isn't all that productive. It's hard to wrap your mind around the scale of how our planet is changing and what that means for life on Earth, and even harder to sometimes realize how our small, individual actions can make an actual difference.

Consequently, it can feel daunting, depressing, or downright frightening to think about, so too many of us opt to just bury our heads in the sand and try not to think about climate change at all. But this is not the solution - and in fact, it's part of the reason that the problem has gotten so serious.

Not only is it important to think about and talk about this issue, but it is imperative for our future as a species.

On this podcast episode Dr. Mark Hyman takes a look at climate change from a more positive and hopeful perspective. Changing the conversation is key to translating ideas and discussion into actions that will make a real difference for the future of our world. Check it out below...

In recent years, more and more research has indicated the deadly impacts of chronic inflammation. In fact, inflammation has been linked to nearly all of today's modern diseases and health problems, including high cholesterol, cancer, heart disease, obesity, digestive issues, chronic pain, and more.

Unfortunately, there are numerous contributors to chronic inflammation in the modern world - most notably, frequent stress, but also consumption of processed foods, sugar, alcohol, and tobacco, as well as exposure to pesticides and other toxins in the environment, among other factors.

While it may not be possible to entirely avoid all of these causes, the good news is, it is possible to make fewer inflammatory choices in our daily lives, and to take steps to support our body's natural healing systems that can help to prevent some of the worst consequences of inflammation.

This month's "freebie" is a 26-page eBook on Tips to Manage and Address Chronic Inflammation. Grab your copy now to discover simple lifestyle choices you can make - starting today - to reverse and even stop inflammation in its tracks.

We are back from our short and rainy beach vacation and busy catching up on things. It's so lovely to see all the flowers starting to bloom and green buds popping out everywhere! Still, we have a few weeks to go before the last vestiges of winter are gone, so I'm trying to pace myself with the spring planting...

One thing we are blessed with this spring is lots of tasty fresh greens! Our kale and collards made it through the cold winter just fine thanks to nearly constant snow cover (although the voles devoured a lot of the kale, which is apparently their favorite winter snack), and have been growing quite vigorously in the warmer weather for the past couple of weeks.

Our chickens have also been busy laying up a storm, so we are always looking for tasty ways to enjoy eggs, and I came across this yummy soup... It's full of tasty veggies like kale, potatoes, carrots, and celery, and the eggs add a satisfying richness to the delicious broth, without being too heavy. For a more substantial meal, add a side salad and some warm, crusty bread.

This recipe would be great in the winter as well, but since we have lots of greens and eggs this spring, we'll be enjoying this on one of the upcoming cold nights that still remain! I hope you enjoy it as well.

While we are still learning new things about the human brain all the time, we are beginning to understand just how connected our gut and brain truly are. In fact, some scientists have even begun to call the gut our "second brain" as it is so intimately connected with our brain and our overall health. But one thing we don't often think about is how much the food that we eat impacts our brain function.

In fact, more and more evidence is revealing that our diet has a HUGE impact on our brain health as well as our thought patterns, mental functions, and more. From "foggy brain," to inability to focus, anxiety, and even depression, how we eat can have a major effect. What's more, some of the foods that you eat on a regular basis may actually be causing damage to your brain over time, and some evidence shows that diet may even be linked to serious brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.

The dietary choices you make today can have long-term consequences for your brain health, and it's time to start taking these consequences seriously - before it's too late.

The guest article below explores some of the worst foods for your brain, as well as some foods that may protect and actually improve your brain health.

Welcome to your March freebie! This month, we've got a great recipe book full of delicious recipes that are packed with healthy ingredients that have powerful healing benefits for both your gut microbiome, and your brain. These two areas of the body are intimately connected, and modern medicine is just beginning to realize how important this connection truly is to our overall health.

As we have recognized the connection between oral health and cardiovascular disease in recent years, the medical establishment has begun to prioritize oral health in preventing future cardiovascular problems. In a similar fashion, I believe that in the years ahead, the health of the gut will be emphasized in maintaining good brain health, and even possibly helping to treat existing mental issues such as depression and addiction.

You can get a head start on a healthy brain by downloading this free recipe book and incorporating these nutrient-dense healing recipes into your regular diet!

Spring hasn't even arrived yet (although it feels a lot more like it this week), and we are already inundated with eggs. After receiving 2-4 eggs most days throughout the winter, suddenly we are getting 5-7 per day almost every day, and we are swimming in eggs! We've been giving them away to friends and neighbors, and my husband is looking into some of the various egg preservation methods, but in the meantime, we are just eating a lot of them!

We plan out our dinner menus for the week with eggs in mind, stock the fridge with bowls of hard-boiled eggs for salads and snacks, and enjoy them for breakfast whenever we have a few minutes to whip some up. We ran out of homegrown greens to feed the hens a few weeks ago, so the yolks are currently as pallid as store-bought (although I've read that French chefs simply call these "winter eggs"). We are looking forward to brightly-colored spring and summer eggs, and in the meantime, I have started sprouting some wheat grass for the hens to try to give them at least a bit of greenery...

Regardless, with eggs on the brain right now, this week I thought I'd share a simple and delicious eggs Benedict recipe. This is a keto-friendly version of the old classic, so even if you're low-carb or gluten-free, you can still enjoy this tasty breakfast. It looks super fancy, but it's surprisingly easy to make!

While dieting itself has been popular for decades, it wasn't until more recently that our choice of diet has become so controversial. This is not surprising, considering that more and more people are starting to realize that the way we've been eating is making us sick - and the planet we live on as well.

Factory farming or industrial agriculture is one of the major causes of climate change as well as other related environmental issues, such as soil depredation, erosion, water pollution, and more. It's no wonder that we are becoming more passionate about what we eat, and how it is raised and produced! However, this change has also lead to many heated debates and not-entirely-constructive criticism of each other's dietary choices...

There is no doubt that our food system needs to change. It is also no doubt the case that we in the wealthy Western world are in large part to blame and need to take a good hard look at our contributions to the problem - which are huge and many. Most of us could stand to eat a little less meat and a lot more vegetables. All of us could stand to take more responsibility for our diets and how they are contributing to the massive issues of modern disease, food inequality, and environmental degradation around us.

Although the new administration is already taking steps to address some of these problems, it is highly unlikely that these issues will be solved by any one solution - or by any one president in 4 or even 8 years. Instead, this is going to take a concerted and ongoing effort by citizens and government officials alike to take steps in multiple areas to fix our food system. (Dr. Mark Hyman's excellent book, Food Fix, details some of these possible solutions.)

However, today we are here to talk specifically about meat. We Americans love our beef, but the beef industry is one of the most destructive when it comes to environmental issues. Factory farming has caused so many evils in the world, and I won't go into them all here today, but you can read this post for more information on this topic.

But is the answer simply to give up meat altogether? Some would say yes, while others argue we simply need to change our methods of meat production. A shift towards regenerative agriculture is beginning to occur, and I believe it is a necessary step. Will it solve everything? Probably not, but it can certainly make a positive difference and start moving us in the right direction.

On this episode of The Doctor's Farmacy, Dr. Mark Hyman discusses the possibilities of regenerative agriculture with two experts on the topic. Check it out below: