Healthy Beauty and The Science of Natural Radiance [Interview][Transcript]
Guest: Dr. Pina LoGiudice
Presenter: Neal Howard
Guest Bio: Dr. Pina LoGiudice is an expert in the field of natural medicine and cofounder of naturopathic clinic Inner Source Health. Dr. Pina is also an author and the past vice-president of the New York Association of Naturopathic Physicians as well as an honored member of the American Association for Naturopathic Physicians.
Segment overview: In this segment Dr. Pina LoGiudice, ND, LAc, is here to talk about her new book, THE LITTLE BOOK OF HEALTHY BEAUTY: Simple Daily Habits to Get You Glowing (TarcherPerigee – July 12, 2016), and some of the science and research behind natural radiance and vitality.
Transcription
Health Professional Radio – The Science of Natural Radience
Neal Howard: Hello and welcome to Health Professional Radio. I’m your host Neal Howard, thank you for joining us today. Our guest in studio is Dr. Pina Lo Giudice, she’s here to talk about her new book ‘The Little Book of Healthy Beauty: Simple Daily Habits to Get You Glowing,’ to tell us how we can achieve and maintain what’s called ‘the glow.’ Welcome to Health Professional Radio Dr. Pina.
Dr. Pina Lo Giudice: Thank you so much for having me, it’s a pleasure.
N: Thank you. As a Naturopathic Doctor talk about what a Naturopathic doctor is and how you differ from say a traditional doctor for those of us who may not be familiar with naturopathy.
L: Sure, that’s a great question. So a naturopathic doctor is someone who went to four year medical school just like your conventional medical doctor that we take the same basic sciences in terms of anatomy, physiology, pharmacology but our training is focused on advanced diet, nutrition, herbal medicine and vitamin therapy. So in our philosophy in medicine we take a very holistic approach to mind, body, spirit where in the conventional medical world you’re broken up into parts, it’s called allopathic medicine so its very system based so that’s why you have a gastroenterologist, rheumatologist, gynecologist and so on. So we’re licensed as primary care physicians so we practice as general physician but instead of always resorting to pharmaceuticals we try to use natural means whenever possible first.
N: I’ve got a copy of your book and your introduction talks about your mom. Is your mom the inspiration for you going into naturopathic science rather than traditional medicine or was it something that happened totally unrelated?
L: Well my mom is definitely an inspiration for me, she’s really a remarkable woman but really for me what got me into natural medicine was my own health journey. I really suffered when I was younger even as early as 6 years old with a lot of digestive issues and my parents took me to different physicians over the course of the years and…this is your life, you’re gonna have to live with this and it wasn’t until I graduated college, I was starting to go to take the test for conventional medical school then I was actually, fortunately introduced to my first holistic practitioner and I saw that person within two weeks he changed my life, I had amazing turn around, I felt strong, I felt that vitality, I had no digestive issues and with that I’m like “This is what I have to study.” So that’s when I pursue with naturopathic medical school rather than the conventional and it’s funny because with my mom, my mom was born in Sicily and even growing up she always used different natural remedies for my stomach that I don’t even know were natural remedies I just thought they were Italian but not really making the connection about “Oh these are plants and mother earth gave us these wonderful things to help heal our bodies” and so with that thankfully her doing that and I’ve been able to take that inspiration and learn with it.
N: Now you’re also a co-founder of a naturopathic clinic, where is it located?
L: So I have this clinic since my husband, Dr. Peter Bongiorno, we started it over 12 years ago and we’re right here in New York. So we have two office locations, one in Manhattan and one on Long Island. So we’ve been working together over the course of the twelve years, we actually met prior to medical school doing research at the National Institute of Health but fortunately we were both are passionate about natural medicine, so went to medical school together and then came back home to New York and started to practice and so we have a few associates and been trying to spread the word of naturalist into the community.
N: Can our listeners get more information about Inner Source Health?
L: Absolutely, they can go to our website where we try to put out really good information, we put up-to-date research about natural medicine and the different herbs or nutrients and you could find this at innersourcehealth.com.
N: Your book, The Little Book of Healthy Beauty: Simple Daily Habits to Get You Glowing, it didn’t say simple healthy habits to make you feel better or make you look better, you said glowing – that’s pretty specific. What exactly are you talking about when you’re talking about someone glowing? I mean we’ve heard someone glowing because they’re about to have a baby or they’re happy. What are you talking about, what is the glow?
L: Right, I am trying to articulate that almost indescribable radiance and beauty and energetic vitality that people exude when they’re truly healthy and happy. So I wanted to write a book where people can know and be empowered that they can actually feel like that. They don’t have to go through life feeling less than or feeling not a hundred percent as I was told many years ago so that you could definitely make simple positive changes in your life so that you can get that glow and that inner joy to shine through.
N: So it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a two thousand dollar suit on or if you’re running around in t-shirt and jeans and then tennis shoes. You’re talking about that inner glow that exudes outwardly once you’re content and happy with making some changes in your life?
L: Right. It’s not about like okay how much make-up you have on, it’s really how your eyes shine. There’s a sense of strength in the body and then confidence and then sense of peace and well-being that you could see that person. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to your high school or college reunion where you see some people like okay aging is not their friend whereas people as though like okay they’re in a time capsule and what are they doing and so that’s what I’m talking about. Like wow it’s just that sense of vitality that people can maintain throughout their life.
N: We talked briefly about some of the differences between your practice and traditional practice. Talk about some of the I guess the science, what would you say to someone who’s I guess more familiar with traditional forms of healing when you’re trying to get them to consider naturopathy?
L: Yeah, well what I find usually happens is that patients usually come to see us after they’ve seen every other conventional doctor and they still haven’t received help and they just still not feeling good or they’re tired of being on multiple pharmaceuticals. So I see patients a lot of times patients I do a lot of lecturing, I do lot of TV work and it’s not one that medicine is better than the other, it’s just finding the best medicine for you at the time because sometimes if someone is in a very inflamed place and then you use a certain medication be like you know what get on the medicine, let’s stop that process and one must do the natural things because they do take more time and they’re a little bit slower to get you off those things and get you healthier and stronger where other times I’ll tell patients where “You know what absolutely natural medicine is a great place because there’s so many areas that the body can heal itself. If given the opportunity your body can heal, it just needs that opportunity to do so because if you’re constantly bombarding it with heavy medications or with a bad diet or poor sleep. It’s not gonna be getting that chance”.
N: Your book is written in very personal warm and friendly way.
L: Thank you.
N: You’re an Acupuncturist as well. Acupuncture it looks painful, I’m sure that it’s not because so many people have said so many great things about it. In your experience when we’re talking about of something above and beyond the simple daily habits that your book will, in a user friendly way teach everybody that we’re all different and there are things that you can do on a daily basis but above and beyond that maybe acupuncture is that something that is touched on your book?
L: It is, because what we do inherently in our practice is personalized medical care because three people can come along with digestive issues, reflux but how they came to that issue is very different. So that’s why we go to these basic tenants or these basic keys that I wrote in the book but then above that then yes I will recommend acupuncture and most people they think acupuncture needle “ouch, no way” but the needles are so thin that if you actually took an acupuncture needle it’ll fit inside a sewing needle, it’s that thin. So once people get over the concept of like “Oh this is gonna be painful” it really isn’t it actually I find even more relaxing than getting a massage. So I’ll recommend acupuncture to patients, so I’ll recommend various supplementation or other type of body therapies like craniosacral, like they can do meditation. All of these other things that they can do to help themselves rebalance and get that vitality.
N: Great. Now where can our listeners get a hold of ‘The little Book of Healthy Beauty: Simple Daily Habits to Get You Going’ maybe a little bit more information about yourself and Inner Source Health?
L: Right, absolutely. So there’s actually a few ways, there’s my practice website of innersourcehealth.com where my husband and I put out a lot of…information about recent research on natural medicine or new information about various health topics. You could also go to drpinamd.com to also get the book and there’s also Amazon they can purchase there as well.
N: Thank you so much. You’ve been listening to Health Professional Radio, I’m your host Neal Howard and we’ve been in studio with Dr. Pina Lo Giudice, Natural Medicine Practitioner, also the Author of The Little Book of Healthy Beauty: Simple Daily Habits to Get You Glowing, talking about the science behind what she calls ‘the glow’ – that healthy inner radiance when we’re truly healthy and happy. It’s been great having you here with us today Dr. Pina.
L: Thank you so much for having me, it’s been a pleasure.
N: Thank you. Transcripts and audio of this program are available at healthprofessionalradio.com.au and also at hpr.fm and you can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes.