Howard Wakefield, a New York City lawyer, hides out in the attic of his home for weeks, coming out in the daytime when his family is gone to shower and eat. His withdrawal leads him to examine his life, and he rationalizes that he has not abandoned his family because he is still in the house. When a former boyfriend re-enters his wife's life, he realizes that he may not be able to return to life he has abandoned.

Scientists and spiritual teachers discuss how thoughts, beliefs, and emotions impact human health and the ability to heal.

This 13 episode lifestyle series is focused around a vibrant, healthy diet and what it means to live a Paleo lifestyle. Series 1 recently aired on Channel 7 with an incredible Series 2 currently in post production. 

​When Nader (Payman Maadi), a bank employee, refuses to leave Tehran, his wife, Simin (Leila Hatami) sues for divorce in the hope that she can make a better life for their young daughter abroad. Needing someone to care for his senile father while he's at work, Nader hires Razieh (Sareh Bayat), a married woman whose chador hides her pregnancy. One day, after becoming angry with Razieh, Nader shoves her, and she has a miscarriage, leading Razieh's husband to take Nader to court.

​Chinese food is popular in America, and this series brings viewers information about a certain type of the ethnic food, Chaoshan cuisine. Each episode focuses on an ingredient that is often used in Chaoshan cooking, exploring where the ingredients come from and what they are used for, as well as bringing to light the stories of the people behind the cuisine's creation. The featured ingredients range from common foods like olives to more exotic fare like yusheng, a freshly sliced raw fish that is eaten with vegetables and dipping sauce.

On the way to meet with an independent artist in the South, newlywed art dealer Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz) is convinced by her husband, George (Alessandro Nivola), that they should stop to meet his family in North Carolina. Madeleine's affluent lifestyle clashes with the family, but she befriends George's wide-eyed and pregnant sister-in-law, Ashley (Amy Adams), who is nearing her due date. Through the family, Madeleine gains greater insight into George's character.

​Spurred on by a promise he made to his daughters, Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) embarks on what would become a 20-year quest to obtain the movie rights to "Mary Poppins." The author, P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), proves to be an uncompromising curmudgeon who has no intention of letting her beloved characters become mangled in the Hollywood machine. However, when the books stop selling and she finds herself in need of money, Travers reluctantly agrees to consider Disney's proposition.

A husband (Morgan Freeman) and wife (Diane Keaton) spend a hectic weekend pondering the sale of the apartment they've shared for more than 40 years.

Former Texas Rangers Frank Hamer and Maney Gault join forces to try and capture notorious outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.

Quirky dog-lover Jocelyn and many-time married Bernadette decide to start a book club exclusively dedicated to Jane Austen, primarily to help distract their friend Sylvia from the fact that her husband has just dumped her. Frustrated French teacher Prudie, Sylvia's daughter Allegra and sci-fi fan Grigg join up as well.

​Gertrude Bell's life as a writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer, and political attaché for the British Empire at the dawn of the twentieth century.

It never fails, I always have a new tale to tell with an adverse reaction.  I'm wondering out there: Has anyone had adverse reactions to stinging insects since being diagnosed with fibromyalgia?  

The other day I was trimming in my garden.  It had just down poured and released a few degrees off the heat wave we're having here. This allowed me to grab a few minutes outdoors to get some much needed gardening in.

Now, I'm quite aware that I have adverse reactions since being diagnosed so I'm extremely careful when out doors and around insects that bite or sting.  Bushes, in particular, can hide wasp nests.  So I broached it stealthy eyeing every nook and crevices between the leaves.  Nothing!  Nonetheless I exerted extreme caution while tackling and clipping the overgrown branches.

I was moving at a fairly smooth pace at one point since I could see the entire trunk of the bush easily.  All of a sudden, a wasp flew directly at me forming a straight line, onto the tip of my nose and stung with force.  No other wasp accompanied it so he must have been rouge, possible drenched from the torrential down pour and just got his wits about him.  .

Oh what pain! Everything is a 1,000 times worse when you have fibromyalgia.  It resonated through every cranny in your body.  I felt dizzy, pained, and off balance.   I rushed inside following suite with the normal wasp procedure:

• wash the sting area with soap and water to remove as much of the venom as possible
• douse the area with vinegar
• apply a cold pack to the wound site to reduce swelling and pain
• keep the wound clean and dry to prevent infection
• cover with a bandage if desired

I also lathered on hydrocortisone cream.  Then I waited like usual to see if anything unexpected will begin to pop up.  Nothing.  I thought I was in the clear.

Two days letter I woke up with severe swelling in my nose and below my left eye.  "Oh, no!" I lamented. "I thought I was in the clear!"  It seemed I had developed some form of Cellulitis which is a common, potentially serious bacterial skin infection. The affected skin appears swollen and red and is typically painful and warm to the touch .Left untreated, the infection can spread to your lymph nodes and bloodstream and rapidly become life-threatening. 

I had most of the symptoms:

​Possible signs and symptoms of cellulitis, which usually occur on one side of the body, include:

• Red area of skin that tends to expand
• Swelling
• Tenderness
• Pain
• Warmth
• Fever
• Red spots
• Blisters
• Skin dimpling

Off to see the doctor!  Once diagnosed I was told I could be given a steroid shot.  Knowing my chemical sensitivities and the fact that if this is a bacterial infection, my immune system may go a bit haywire, I opted for the antibiotics.  Several years ago I was released on antihistamines only to find out several days later I had incubated a severe case of cellulitis.  Which, in turn, sent me back to the doctors office for antibiotics.

The PA was a bit gruff indulging me in his self-wisdom of the correct route, but knowing that my illness is not something a medical professional can fully understand, I opted for personal intuition this time.  In fact, I found personal intuition was what got me on my feet working again to begin with.  If I spent my life basking on every word my doctors told me, I'd be on 20 different pills and in bed most of the day.

This is by no means telling you to counter what your doctor is telling you.  It is encouraging you to use common sense on minor situations.  

For those of you following along, we've been working on The Tapping Solution to reduce pain and anxiety in our lives.  I have been faithfully tapping daily and noticing subtle changes in my life.

I've mentioned previously about the app called The Tapping Solution that is FREE to download.  ​There are several FREE meditations to utilize once you sign up.  If you are sold on the concept, you can purchase a monthly subscription for $11.99 or a reduced rate yearly fee.  I have not gotten to that point yet as I am in route of a thorough investigation first. Then I will consider full purchase. 

My first few meditations have centered on, "Releasing Anxiety".  Anxiety seems to play a crucial role in pain tolerance.  If I am stressed and out-of-sorts, I can bet that pain will soon follow.  I've decided to use this first meditation daily in the morning to set my sights on greener, calmer pastures.  It's working.  My anxiety level has plummeted to a "2" on the scale that I must assess pre and post meditative.  I'm going to keep that up each day.

Yesterday afternoon, I felt like perusing the FREE meditations and came upon "Quiet My Racing Mind."  Well, there's one that I experience throughout the day.  Anytime a new task is embarked upon, I can feel my mind begin to race.  Add a few more "normal" routines in there and my body begins to border on high alert.  I am still uncertain as to why this happens, but once I begin my day, it is a never-ending barrage of "Gosh, more to do, I just can't handle this!" 

So I decided to take the plunge.  As I began to relax into the mediation I felt the rapid-fire thought process begin to slow.  And then Nick said something interesting, "You racing mind is your body's protection mechanism so that negativity can't take hold and hurt you."  That hit the spot!  I am always concerned that I will not do things correctly, or I'll find myself off guard and blindsided.  I speculated that my mind was against me previously  because I was unable to quiet it most days.  Then I'd get angry!  "Why, Mind, are you doing this to me all the time?" I'd lament.  I had never thought of it as a protection process, that my mind did have my back!

Little thoughts like this change you're view of thinking.  It changes how you internalize your daily flow of life. And, it can make a big difference for those of us who suffer from chronic pain by quieting that central nervous system that causes pain.  

So, at this point taking in all this amazing information, you may be asking, "How long has then been around? Why haven't I heard of this before?"  ​It began in 1980, with a psychologist by the name of Roger Callahan, and a patient with an extreme phobia towards water. Mary’s fear of water controlled her life and kept her from performing many otherwise normal daily activities. She was unable to take her children to the beach, and found it impossible to drive near the ocean. She grew fearful when it rained, and could not even stand the sight of water on TV. She even had vivid nightmares involving water. 

Dr. Callahan and Mary had been working on this problem together for over a year. Finally, Mary worked up the courage to sit within sight of the pool at Dr. Callahan’s house. Even doing this caused Mary extreme distress, and though she found ways to cope with the intense fear and emotional pain, she had not yet overcome her phobia. 

Her fear of being near the water caused Mary to have stomach pains – a common “gut reaction.” Dr. Callahan had recently been studying traditional Chinese medicine, which included learning about the meridians and how they worked. Suddenly he had an inspiration. Remembering that there was an acupuncture point for the stomach meridian on the cheekbone, he asked her to tap there, thinking it might help with her stomach pains. 

Mary tapped her cheekbone as directed, and this little action changed medicinal history! The response seemed miraculous, to both Mary and Dr. Callahan. Her stomach pains disappeared. But even more amazingly, her fear of water disappeared too! She ran down to the pool and began splashing herself with water, rejoicing in her newfound freedom from her phobia. 

Based on this discovery, Dr. Callahan began a series of investigations to develop and refine this technique, which he termed “Thought Field Therapy.” It was fairly complex, and required a trained practitioner to use specific algorithms and techniques to determine which meridian points to stimulate to obtain the desired results. 

Gary Craig, an engineer in California, trained under Dr. Callahan’s tutelage in the 1990’s, learning the procedures for TFT. As time passed, he began to improve the process by creating a simpler tapping sequence that could be easily learned and repeated, even by the patient him/herself. 

The result was the development of a new type of therapy that Gary named EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques). But perhaps even more importantly, he created a community around EFT, allowing the technique to be learned, applied, and shared freely. Because of this, hundreds of thousands of people all over the world have used Tapping to resolve emotional problems and physical conditions.

I'm a firm believer that anything you can do self-help towards pain reduction must always be traced back to anxiety.  Have you ever noticed when you are calm and serene the pain seems to dissipate? But, our systems have rewired themselves allowing for consistent concern and worry throughout the day targeting situations that others may recognize as trivial, but to us they are monumental. 

Not only that, but we squash these feelings not allowing any identifiable traits because most of those traits seem ludicrous to begin with.  Top that off with the fact that we really don't want to know!  Let's just slip another component of this illness under the rug because that just makes it easier to deal with, and allows us the ability to keep sane.  

But my last two weeks of daily tapping has shifted my views on this a bit.  I'm noticing that if I accept and validate this anxiety, regardless of where it stems from, I am enabling my body to view it and let go.  It doesn't matter if it seems ridiculous to begin with, apparently my mind is giving it more worth than I've been these last seven years.  And maybe, just maybe it is subtly trying to tell me something.  That is one of the layers I haven't unfolded yet.  But that first layer tells me to understand and appreciate my symptoms.  It is prompting me to adjust and accept.  That hasn't been easy.  But, I am noticing a shift of acceptance for my general well-being.  More importantly the symptoms are not lasting as long.  Something is happening.  

Why are we so quick to pitch our connection with our own self every time it lets us down?  Rather than accept and move on, we have a tendency to sweep all the things we don't like about ourselves under the rug.  Overweight? Let's just look at the positive side of all that, "I'm being my own person.  I've accepted myself."  That personal view is hard to retain when you're smacked with a recent blood test that shows your acceptance of yourself is now a health hazard.  

Why have we disconnected so much from ourselves?  Are we too busy?  Have we become a society of enablers?  Tapping has a long history.  This history stems from non acceptance of our own innate mechanisms that keep us alive and healthy.  

Like many healing arts that draw upon ancient wisdom, Tapping has been met with a fair share of skepticism. Some doctors and psychologists have been quick to dismiss it as “woo woo,” despite the heaping anecdotal evidence from the results of clinical trials, practitioner reports, individual case studies, and those who have used EFT Tapping on their own. 

In recent years, however, there’s been a growing pool of undeniable research proving that Tapping produces real, lasting breakthroughs. It significantly improves, and can even even eliminate, conditions that hospital treatments, medications, and years of psychotherapy often fail to adequately resolve. 

Studies performed around the world, including the prestigious Harvard Medical School, continue to verify these assertions. We’ve collected a quite a few of these research studies for you to review yourself. 

The scientific basis for Tapping therapy revolves around the functions of a specific almond-shaped part of your brain called the amygdala. It is part of the body’s limbic system, the source of emotions and long-term memory. The amygdala is known as the brain’s fear center, from which the “flight or fight” response originates, alerting other parts of the brain that it senses danger. This, in turn, initiates the firing of other brain receptors and the release of specific hormones that allow the body to respond to the perceived danger. 

This process is highly useful when faced with a real survival situation or an actual threat, but can be detrimental when developed into an “irrational fear” such as public speaking or a fear of rejection. 

Tapping has been shown to literally “turn off” the amygdala, disrupting the stress response and allowing the brain synapses to be rewired for a more appropriate emotional response to a given situation.

Every day I think about how I can help more people by connecting them with the incredible power of EFT Tapping.

And now, harnessing the power of technology, we’ve created something that will bring Tapping into the palm everyone’s hand – literally.

It’s The Tapping Solution App! And it’s now available on all mobile devices.

This, in my mind, is the greatest thing The Tapping Solution has ever created and I’m SO excited to share it with you! - Nick Ortner

The Tapping Solution App Categories

Inside The Tapping Solution App, you’ll find guided Tapping Meditations for:
Stress Relief • Motivation • Confidence • Emotional Freedom • Sleep Support • Relationships• Healing Your Body • Weight Loss & Body Confidence • Releasing Fears • Wealth & Abundance • Productivity • Pregnancy & Early Motherhood • Active Military and Veteran Support • Teacher Support

The Tapping Solution App Features

Not only will The Tapping Solution App be filled with incredible content, but we’ve also packed in a ton of useful features as well. Such as:

• Your Personal Dashboard with Daily Inspirational, Motivational, and Insightful Quotes
• Personalized Progress Tracker for each Tapping Meditation you’ve listened to
• Mark Your Favorite Tapping Meditations to quickly return to later
• Built-In Intensity Rating Scale at the beginning and end of each Tapping Meditation
• Independent Voice and Background Music Volume Control
• Visual Tapping Point Graphics to keep you on track during each Tapping Meditation
• Download Option for when you’re not connected to WiFi or the Internet
• And more!

 
How to Get The Tapping Solution App
The Tapping Solution App is now available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

Download The Tapping Solution App here! 

The Tapping Solution App is FREE to download, with multiple upgrade options to unlock all of the available Tapping Meditations and Features.

This is a very exciting time for Tapping, and more importantly, for YOUR health, wealth, and well-being! Never before has it been this simple to learn and to make a daily habit of Tapping.

I’m so excited for you and for your future!

I came along something again to share quite by accident.  I was loading an app on my phone to upgrade when something caught my eye "Tapping Solution".  It was green icon which seemed to speak my colors lately of serenity and peace.  "What the heck?" I asked myself and downloaded it.  It couldn't hurt!

I don't know about you, but most days my nerves are haywire.  Oh, and it doesn't take much to turn on the switch.  From the moment my feet hit the floor upon rising from my bed that circuit is alive in 30 minutes, thoughts traveling the rate of the speed of light.  You'd think that highway would get jammed and bump a few off on the nearby exits.  Not a chance!  Every little thing that is viewed produces mounds of unwanted needs and expectations. 

So, I was well versed on how anxiety produces more pain.  And pain is a facet of life these days.  The trick is to reduce that steady amount of pain.  Doesn't it make sense if we can rewire, or coat those existing wires with a little more insulation, they don't get frazzled?  This is where my talents falter.  I have never been able to reduce that initial anxiety I feel that revs me up all day long.   

But this new technique promised a complete rewiring.  And all you had to do is tap away.  

I tried the tapping.  I felt relief.  So, of course, I needed more information!  Let me give you a bit of the story:

​Tapping, also known as EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), is a powerful holistic healing technique that has been proven to effectively resolve a range of issues, including stress, anxiety, phobias, emotional disorders, chronic pain, addiction, weight control, and limiting beliefs, just to name a few. 

Tapping therapy is based on the combined principles of ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology. Tapping with the fingertips on specific meridian endpoints of the body, while focusing on negative emotions or physical sensations, helps to calm the nervous system, rewire the brain to respond in healthier ways, and restore the body’s balance of energy.

Tapping makes full use of the mind-body connection, acknowledging and integrating the concepts that physical pain, disease, and mental well being are intricately connected to our emotional states. 

The body is equipped with an energy system that travels along pathways known as meridians. Tapping on these meridian endpoints helps to stimulate this system, and when verbally or mentally addressing the root causes of distress, the areas of blocked energy are able to release and flow naturally. 

The basic Tapping technique requires you to focus on the negative emotion at hand - a fear, a worry, a bad memory, an unresolved problem, or anything that’s bothering you. While maintaining your mental focus on this issue, you use your fingertips to tap 5-7 times on each of the 9 specific meridian points of the body. 

Tapping on these meridian points in sequence while concentrating on the negative emotions engages both the brain’s limbic system and the body’s energy system, encouraging a sense of safety and resolution. And as the scientific field of epigenetics is proving, when you change your internal environment - your emotions and beliefs - external changes in your mental & physical health will follow. 

In some ways, Tapping is similar to acupuncture. Like Tapping, acupuncture achieves healing through stimulating the body’s meridians and energy flow. However, unlike Tapping, acupuncture involves needles! “No needles” is definitely one of the advantages of Tapping! 

Tapping is simple and painless. It can be learned by anyone, and you can apply it to yourself whenever you want, wherever you are. It can be used with a specific emotional intent towards your own unique life challenges and experiences. Most importantly, Tapping gives you the power to heal yourself, putting control over your destiny back into your own hands.

​"Over 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. Lower back pain alone accounts for more than $50 billion of lost work time and worker's compensation claims annually. And let's consider the fact that there are 600,000 knee replacement surgeries performed each year in the United States, and sadly, 20 percent of those patients end up with chronic pain after surgery. The normal "solutions" we've been taught involve seeking out more doctors, surgeries, injections, and medications, all of which have a place in healing. But when it comes to chronic pain, conventional medicine isn't getting the job done. So what can we do? In The Tapping Solution for Pain Relief, which builds on the information contained in the New York Times bestseller The Tapping Solution, Nick Ortner presents a startling alternative. He lays out a step-by-step plan that teaches people how to use tapping, or EFT (emotional freedom techniques), to reduce or eliminate chronic pain. Looking at the scientific research surrounding pain, stress, and tapping, he opens readers eyes to just how powerful tapping can be, and then outlines tips and techniques to address pain in both the short and long term. Nick guides readers on a journey that begins on the surface--tapping to address the pain itself--and moves to the deeper issues that often affect pain. With easy-to-follow tapping scripts and exercises to guide readers into their pasts, Nick helps them heal the emotional pain and underlying beliefs that often keep people stuck. He also addresses topics that many people don't know are associated with chronic pain, such as: Releasing the past Creating personal boundaries Dealing with toxic relationships Clearing resistance to change Understanding the power of a diagnosis Working through anger There are many different ways the brain and body can create, increase, and prolong pain. In these pages, Nick helps readers understand what is causing their pain and provides them with the tools to achieve complete and lasting pain relief. But it's about more than just pain relief; it's about empowering readers to take back their bodies, so they can live the life they most desire."--

​Are you getting enough vitamin D? According to recent studies, there’s a good chance you aren’t. In 2009, researchers reported levels of vitamin D in the U.S. population had dropped between the years of 1988 and 1994, and then again between 2001 and 2004. Not only had average levels dropped, more than 75 percent of the people studied had inadequate levels of vitamin D in their blood.

Vitamin D deficiency is linked with an increased risk for serious diseases. Reduced levels of the vitamin are associated with cancer, cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, and autoimmune disorders. Deficiency is also linked with multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, depression, fibromyalgia and more. That’s why it’s so import to get enough vitamin D. But identifying vitamin D deficiency can be tricky.
Our bodies don’t make vitamin D, so we have to get it from our environment. The primary source of vitamin D is the sun, but we can also get it from some foods. Lifestyle, race, age, and other factors can put you at risk for vitamin D deficiency

The truth is that it’s extremely difficult to tell whether you have a vitamin D deficiency. The only way to be absolutely sure is to take a blood test. Most people with a vitamin D deficiency won’t be aware of it. It doesn’t usually produce noticeable symptoms. However, symptoms are possible. If you are vitamin D deficient, you may experience:

• muscle/joint pain and weakness
• bone pain
• tiredness or fatigue
• depression

​Your body is designed to get the vitamin D it needs by producing it when your bare skin is exposed to sunlight. The part of the sun’s rays that is important is ultraviolet B (UVB). This is the most natural way to get vitamin D.

​Large amounts of vitamin D3 are made in your skin when you expose all of your body to summer sun. This happens very quickly; around half the time it takes for your skin to turn pink and begin to burn. This could be just 15 minutes for a very fair skinned person, yet a couple of hours or more for a dark skinned person.
You don’t need to tan or to burn your skin in order to get the vitamin D you need. Exposing your skin for a short time will make all the vitamin D your body can produce in one day. In fact, your body can produce 10,000 to 25,000 IU of vitamin D in just a little under the time it takes for your skin to turn pink. You make the most vitamin D when you expose a large area of your skin, such as your back, rather than a small area such as your face or arms.

The assumption that vitamin D supplements will protect you against diseases associated with low vitamin D levels is incorrect, according to Australian researchers. The report found that vitamin D supplements are immunosuppressive and may actually make diseases worse. 

Vitamin D Nuclear Receptor (VDR) influences the expression of over 1,000 genes, including those associated with diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis. According to the new study, supplemental vitamin D actually blocks VDR activation, which is the opposite effect to that of sunshine. Instead of positively impacting gene expression, vitamin D supplements appear to suppress your immune system.

Vitamin D has a remarkable role to play in your health, influencing nearly 3,000 of your 25,000 genes, and playing a critical role in your immune response. Vitamin D could rightly be described as a “miracle nutrient” for your immune system, as it enables your body to produce well over 200 antimicrobial peptides, which are indispensable in fighting off a wide range of infections.

​They say “the eyes are windows to the soul.” And while that may be true, way down at the opposite end of the body, our feet our offer a surprising number of clues about what’s going on inside us. And during these summer months, where insulated winter boots have made way for sandals, as a general rule, feet are exposed more than during any other season. Whether we’re lounging at the beach or walking barefoot through the grass, our feet tend to see the light of day more when the weather is warm. While we take deliberate action each day to care for our teeth, our hair, our skin, and more, we tend to take our feet for granted. As with many other parts of the body, we all but ignore our feet, expecting that they’ll always magically operate just as nature intended. Until, that is, something makes us take notice.

Many things about our feet can reveal issues going on at a deeper level inside us. The good news is, we don’t have to be podiatrists to recognize when something doesn’t look right. Also, when combined with other, seemingly “mild” or innocuous symptoms, out-of-the-ordinary issues with our feet can lend evidence as to what might be going on elsewhere in the body.

Cold feet aren’t just for weddings. When feet are uncomfortably cold on a regular basis, this may be indicative of hypothyroidism (particularly if experienced along with cold hands and other symptoms of low thyroid function). When toes become painfully cold, or possibly even numb, it may indicate Raynaud’s phenomenon. Another clue to Raynaud’s would be a color change: in Raynaud’s, blood vessels in the fingers and toes constrict and narrow, resulting in reduced blood flow to these extremities, giving them a white or even blueish appearance. (It tends to happen during cold weather and/or when affected individuals are under a lot of emotional stress.) Little is known about what causes Raynaud’s, but it is separated into two categories: Primary Raynaud’s, called Raynaud’s disease, “happens on its own” and is not associated with an underlying associated medical condition, while secondary Raynaud’s, or Raynaud’s phenomenon, is a condition that results when more serious diseases reduce blood flow to fingers and toes.

Other uncomfortable sensations in the feet and toes may be indicative of more dire health issues. Feelings of numbness, or feeling like one is wearing socks or stockings when they aren’t, may be symptoms of peripheral neuropathy or diabetic neuropathy. Coldness, tingling, and “pins and needles” sensations in the feet (and hands) could be symptoms of pernicious anemia, which stems primarily from a vitamin B12 deficiency.

Ridges and lines in the toenails not due to trauma/injury might be signs of nutrient deficiencies. Iron insufficiency may result in fingernail ridges, abnormally shaped nails, or even nails that are concave in spots (called koilonychias), and this may be mirrored in the toenails. Unsightly yellowish toenails may be a sign of fungal infection (the most common cause), but they could also be a sign of compromised liver function, with jaundice causing a yellowing of skin, nails, and whites of the eyes.

Another indication of an underlying issue our feet clue us in to is enlargement of the big toe, particularly when accompanied by redness, pain, and a sensation of heat. Taken together, these may be a sign of gout. Originally thought to be due mainly to a high intake of dietary purines (high purine foods include animal proteins and beer), more recent evidence suggests that excess fructose consumption contributes to gout. Some studies suggest that overconsuming even natural fruits and fruit juices that are relatively higher in fructose compared to other fruits may also contribute to gout, so it’s not just sodas sweetened with sugar or HFCS, as are often “blamed” in such situations.

While our feet do send us these clear messages, most of these issues would occur along with other signs and symptoms. For example, numbness and tingling in the feet and toes are unlikely to be the only signs of peripheral neuropathy or pernicious anemia. And cold feet would certainly not be the only symptom of hypothyroidism a patient would experience. But for those people—and there are plenty—who tend to ignore all “the little nagging things,” until they become very serious problems, paying more attention to their feet might help hammer home the possibility that something more sinister is going on elsewhere in the body.

Feet aren’t glamorous. Unlike the adrenal glands or the gut microbiome, there isn’t a lot of buzz about them in popular health and nutrition news. But we ignore the signals they send us at our peril. by Dr. David Brady