Radix Integrative Medicine

  Wildfire Smoke & Your Health: Practical Ways to Protect Yourself and Your Family Summer in Utah and in the west brings beautiful days on the lake, hiking, camping, and evenings spent outside, but it also brings wildfire season. Even if a fire is hundreds of miles away, smoke can travel long distances and significantly impact the air we breathe. As someone who values prevention and whole-person health, I believe one of the simplest things we can do is reduce our exposure before symptoms become severe. Whether you're healthy, pregnant, caring for young children, or living with asthma or heart disease, here are practical ways to protect yourself during smoky days. Why Wildfire Smoke Matters Wildfire smoke isn't simply an unpleasant smell. It contains tiny particles called PM2.5 (fine particulate matter) that are small enough to travel deep into the lungs and even enter the bloodstream. Exposure may contribute to: Eye, nose, and throat irritation Coughing or wheezing Shortne...

Your Simple Tool to Understand Stress, Energy, and Cortisol Patterns Could Stress and Cortisol Be Affecting Your Health? Most people are familiar with the idea of “high cortisol” as the cause of fatigue, weight gain, anxiety, or poor sleep. It has become a popular explanation for a wide range of symptoms.  But in clinical practice, the story is often more complex. Many individuals who believe they have “high cortisol” actually have patterns such as low morning cortisol, elevated evening cortisol, or a flattened daily rhythm. These patterns can create very similar symptoms, even though the underlying physiology is different. This is why symptoms alone can be misleading, and why understanding your daily stress response is so important. To help you explore this in your own life, I created a simple 24-hour Stress Response Tracker available on my website at Radix Integrative Medicine . What Cortisol Actually Does Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands that plays a central ...