When it comes to nutrition and women’s health, Meghan Punda, NP, knows her subject matter. As the founder of the new integrative health company Nourished + Well, she is passionate about helping women reach their highest possible level of good health. This involves not only working to prevent diseases but also reversing chronic diseases by implementing the proper lifestyle and nutrition interventions, steps she focuses on with her clients.
Meghan brings an impressive background to her business: As a nurse and then nurse practitioner she worked first in medicine at Johns Hopkins and, for the past twenty years, continued her career in primary care and oncology. While working with adults and seeing many different aspects of medicine she was also dealing with her own autoimmune disorder and gastrointestinal issues. She educated herself on eating the best foods and supplements to help her recover. She then brought her own self-knowledge of reaching good health along with her years of experience in clinical medicine to start a company helping others achieve the same results.
According to Meghan, your body really wants to live in a state of balance and, given the right opportunity, it will try to balance itself if you take away the roadblocks. For those women interested in the Nourished + Well program she will spend time finding out about the individual’s goals including what her health challenges are, and then devises a detailed, individualized plan to help her arrive at a healthier state of wellness.
With her clients she focuses on four fundamental aspects of achieving and maintaining good health:
1.) First, the importance of getting quality sleep. She believes that people completely underestimate the importance of sleep and how the body repairs itself during sleep. Besides getting the appropriate number of hours of rest at night, getting natural light, especially in the morning, helps keep your circadian rhythm in balance. Getting fresh air several times a day is a great idea. Not eating three hours before we go to bed is helpful and people should be aware that drinking alcohol can also affect getting a good night’s sleep.
2.) Proper nutrition is another important element of good health. As a functional nutritionist she creates individual plans on how to best fuel one’s body. These take into account such health situations as hormonal imbalances, digestive issues and food sensitivities. Helping women navigate perimenopause and menopause is her specialty and sometimes she will offer testing for women whose hormone levels are fluctuating and declining. She will suggest supplements if she thinks they are necessary.
3.) When it comes to exercise, Meghan is a big proponent of strength training. She writes that “You might be surprised to learn that our muscular system is the largest organ system in the body. Muscles are central to our overall health as they help to regulate our metabolism and maintain our posture, movement, and breathing.”
4.) Managing stress is the fourth essential step to achieving optimal health. “People absolutely underestimate how stress affects the body,” she says. By guiding her clients on learning how to decompress and activate the parasympathetic state she teaches them that by relaxing more one is able to balance the body and hormones, another important example of ways to achieve a healthier life.
For those interested in learning more about Nourished + Well and working with Meghan, go to the website www.nourishedandwellco.com, email Meghan at meghan@nourishedandwellco.com or call her at (410) 917-2197.
