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This Saturday, October 4, 2014 come help celebrate 40 years of nurse-midwifery in Santa Cruz. Local members of the California Nurse-Midwives Association are organizing a fundraiser and silent auction at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center with live music by local band SambaDa.

We have posted a version of this information before, but with autumn here and the exceptionally nasty enterovirus 68 making the news, it is well worth repeating our cold and flu guidelines.

The reishi mushroom is an herbal adaptogen, meaning it demonstrates a non-specific effect on the body’s ability to resist environmental stressors. Adaptogens are a group of natural medicines that help our bodies adapt to a wide variety of stressors including environmental, chemical, physical, or emotional. Too much long term stress on the body can wreak havoc on our health and immune system and may lead to a variety of illnesses or health conditions including a weakened immune system, which opens the possibility for a whole wealth of health issues, cardiovascular disease, and fatigue and stamina problems.

As I’m sure most everyone is aware, we are coming up on the anniversary of my mom, Martha Benedict’s death. This past year has certainly not been an easy one for our family: we lost two matriarchal figures just over a week apart and this year has been a journey for each of us to find our new normal. Out of death comes new life and this has proven true for us, as each one of us has embarked on new endeavors. The happiness that we have tastes bittersweet knowing that while my mom was instrumental in creating this change, we can only share it with her from within our hearts.

One of the things I enjoy about living in Ohio (once I block out the never ending political ads) is knowing I’m putting my vote to good use. Every vote counts, and no where is it more apparent than in my adopted state.

Because it is breast cancer awareness month, instead of talking about how to treat cancer once you’ve been diagnosed, we thought we’d talk about ways to keep your breasts healthy. Frequent readers of this blog will no doubt notice that our recommendations by and large remain the same regarding how you can keep yourself healthy.

One of today’s hot button parenting issues is whether or not to breastfeed your baby. In our culture, everyone has an opinion on breastfeeding and it seems to be okay to share it whether you’re a mom or not. There are many factors that contribute to the low breast feeding rates in the United States, maternity leave being a primary contributor but inadequate knowledge and available education in places such as hospitals.

The fight against GMO crops and food has been on our radar for a while, but has recently heated up significantly with Proposition 37 being added to this November’s ballot in California. Those of us who live outside of California may question whether this directly affects us, the answer to that: it does. That is the reason why corporations from Monsanto to DuPont to Coca Cola as well as many  more have contributed over $25 million dollars to defeat Prop 37 and continue to funnel money toward that cause. They know that if California starts requiring GMO products to be labeled, the rest of country will eventually as well.

In my part of the world, most kids are already back to school and in fact we are busy getting ready to send our daughter to preschool for the very first time. Taking care of purchasing the supply list and school clothes are small time issues. The biggest worry on my mind is when she comes home with the first back to school bug that we all know is inevitable.

Most of us try to live a healthy lifestyle: eat a good diet, exercise regularly, and tread lightly on the planet. Even so, sometimes it can be hard to incorporate herbs into our regular routine and keep it up when we don’t have a pressing health issue. I know I have this issue and as the daughter of a health care practitioner I would imagine I might be in the habit of taking herbs more regularly than a lot of people. (You should see my mini-pharmacy!) One way to make this easier is to incorporate herbs into your diet.