Aiya Functional Wellness

12/17/2025

For all the kimchi lovers- more reasons to eat it! For those who haven’t tried it, try it!

12/08/2025

My 54-year-old male client came to me at 290 lbs with fatty liver, prediabetes (A1C 5.9), high triglycerides, liver inflammation, weekend drinking, and constant right-side abdominal pain.

He wanted to lose weight — but also to feel like himself again.
So we focused on proven, sustainable changes:

✔️Mediterranean-style nutrition
✔️Lean protein, seafood, fiber
✔️No alcohol, low sugar, low saturated fat
✔️Resistance + cardio workouts
✔️Sauna sessions
✔️Targeted supplements for liver, mitochondria, antioxidants, and gut health

Three months later…
✅30 lbs down
✅Lower triglycerides
✅Lower liver enzymes
✅A1C back in the normal range
✅More energy
✅Pain almost completely gone

One thing I always tell my clients:
You don’t need perfection — you need consistency.
And in his case, the support from his wife made all the difference💕

If you’re ready for a real transformation — one rooted in science, not quick fixes —DM me and let’s chat how I can help you!

11/30/2025

Made green banana pancakes for breakfast today. Green banana flour contains resistant starch (RS) (40-60 g RS per 100 g flour). RS feeds beneficial bacteria, many of which make butyrate. Butyrate has so many health benefits (will make separate post about it). Baking greatly reduces RS content, while cooking pancakes appears to preserve it.

My husband and son loved eating pancakes with avocado. I enjoyed it with avocado, broccoli sprouts, and sauerkraut.

11/29/2025

Fiber-rich breakfast. GF chia, flax seed bagel with avocado, sprouts, and sauerkraut.

11/14/2025

A nice article describing who is Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS)

https://naturemed.org/the-certified-nutrition-specialist-a-whole-health-expert-in-personalized-nutrition/?fbclid=IwZnRzaAOEZpRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEe2qsXYxVcdf9TVHAC_6MdY54cdDee4v7vOs1UfNTNaX3BsT8iO1cyTwiDALs_aem_lV1o6xVFH2u5lcxq7zccGg

Certified Nutrition Specialists design individualized nutrition strategies to target root causes and promote optimal health.

11/05/2025

Eating 35-40 g of fiber daily has so many health benefits as evidenced by many studies. One of them is decrease in all-cause mortality.

Round two of how to fit 40 grams of fiber into your day!

What are your favorite fiber-rich foods?

10/31/2025

Avoid regular consumption of emulsifiers and food additives

10/16/2025

10/16/2025

BIG NEWS!

If you have Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) or UnitedHealthcare (UHC) insurance…
your nutrition visits with me may be covered at 💯% — no copay, no deductible!

That means you can get personalized, one-on-one nutrition support for your health goals with $0 out-of-pocket.

Every plan is a little different, but most include full coverage for preventive nutrition counseling.

Want to find out if you’re covered?
Send me a message and I can help you check your benefits!

Let’s make healthy eating simple, sustainable, and (best of all) fully covered.

10/15/2025

Antibiotics are not the only medications that can negatively affect your gut microbiome

Hot off the press: For the first time, researchers have systematically assessed the impact of long-term medication use on the gut microbiome.

This 2025 retrospective study, "A hidden confounder for microbiome studies: medications used years before sample collection," found that multiple medicines affected the gut microbiome for many years after use.

Typically, we think of antibiotics as the primary medication that alters the gut ecosystem in the long term. However, this study found that beta-blockers, benzodiazepine derivatives, glucocorticoids, PPIs, biguanides (metformin is the most widely prescribed drug in this class), and antidepressants affected the gut microbiome for several years after discontinuing use. And for many of them, the effects at the microbiome level are additive.

Overall, of the 186 drugs analyzed, 167 were found to be associated with the microbiome—affecting alpha diversity, beta diversity, or the abundance of at least one bacterial species—and 78 of those exhibited long-term effects on the gut.

Of note, benzodiazepines—nervous system depressants commonly prescribed for anxiety—impact the microbiome even more than several broad-spectrum antibiotics. The impacts of benzodiazepines and broad-spectrum antibiotics were detectable even when the drugs had not been used for over three years prior to microbiome sampling.

Read the full study at PMID: 40910778

10/08/2025

Eating 30 plant-based foods per week has been shown to be associated with optimal health benefits. This is one of the key approaches I use in my work with clients.

The most effective way to support your gut microbiome is through plant foods that are high in polyphenols, fiber, and prebiotics. 🌱 🫐 🧄

09/02/2025

Excited to incorporate the results of this study for my SIBO clients

Olive Leaf Tea Successful in SIBO Treatment - Hot off the Press!

As many patients (and clinicians) can attest, successful eradication of SIBO can sometimes be a challenge - whether this is with pharmaceutical options or natural medicines, like herbs and probiotics. So as a clinician, I’m always on the hunt to add more well-researched, efficacious tools into my SIBO treatment toolbox. Cue this olive leaf study….

49 patients with SIBO (as defined by a positive glucose breath test) were enrolled into this trial. Just over half the subjects (25) were randomly allocated to the olive leaf tea group and the other half to a no-treatment control group. Patients with hydrogen, methane (IMO), and mixed SIBO were enrolled – 40.8% were hydrogen producers, 34.7% methane, and 24.5% mixed.

For 2 months, patients in the tea group drank 2 cups of olive leaf tea daily. Each cup contained 1.7g of dried powdered olive leaves (~2 tsp) brewed in 250ml hot water for 7-10 mins. It is worth noting that they did not do any dietary changes. Breath tests, gut symptom assessment, and metabolic parameters were assessed at the beginning of the trial and then again after 2 months.

After 2 months, 88% of subjects in the olive leaf tea group were no longer positive for SIBO on breath testing vs 4.2% in the control group (P