Podcasts about Rachel Dutton

Rachel Dutton a.k.a The Period Whisperer is pretty much one of the most knowledgeable women to grace this podcast. She is not only a women's health coach, but a yoga teacher, reflexologist, aromatherapist and womb massage therapist to name just a few of her credentials. Rachel specialises in women's health and fertility - including PCOS. As a PCOS warrior herself, Rachel knows first hand the struggle to get an accurate diagnosis, life with PCOS symptoms but perhaps most importantly, how to manage and even reverse symptoms. As this month is PCOS Awareness Month, I am giving you guys a little treat. Last month, Rachel came and delivered a private talk to the members of my Live and Thrive membership, and today, to celebrate PCOS Awareness Month, I'm sharing it with you! Now, just as a heads up, some of this talk has been cut as I wanted to ensure my member's privacy, and half the talk was a Q&A session. Additionally, Rachel's talk was delivered with slides so you may hear her from time to time refer to something on the screen, but all the info you need is provided in this audio. In this episode, Rachel and I discuss Here's what we cover: The definition of PCOS, the associated symptoms and the key causes of the condition. The diagnostic criteria and how to get an accurate diagnosis. The core strategies for managing PCOS and reversing symptoms. How to safely and effectively exercise for PCOS management The best types of essential oils for PCOS and how to use them. The difference between ovarian cyst types and how to spot them. Show Notes Rachel's website Rachel's Instagram Free resources: This podcast!  Endometriosis Net Column Endometriosis News Column Newsletter Instagram Ways to work with me: This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course One to one coaching info and application This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works Produced by Chris Robson

Today, Dr. Rachel Dutton, Science Resident at the Astera Institute in Berkeley, California, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the complex (and tasty) microbial communities responsible for cheese as a model system for microbial interactions, as well as her interesting path through science. Host: Mark O. Martin Guest: Rachel Dutton Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Spotify Become a patron of Matters Microbial! Links for this episode An introduction to the idea of sociomicrobiology. A more technical review of sociomicrobiology. Another more recent technical review of sociomicrobiology.  A popular introduction to the ideas behind microbiology and cheesemaking. An article about cheese microbes. An article about viewing fermented foods like cheese as a way to study microbial ecosystems. Evidence for horizontal gene transfer within cheese microbial communities. A wonderful video about cheese microbiology. A video by Dr. Dutton about her work in cheese microbiology. A more recent (2023) video from Dr. Dutton about her cheese community research. Dr. Dutton's website on cheese microbiology. Dr. Ben Wolfe's website on cheese microbiology. A podcast with Dr. Dutton from ASM. A popular article about Dr. Dutton's work with cheese microbiology. Dr. Dutton's Wikipedia page! An overview of Arcadia Science. An overview of the Astera Institute. Dr. Dutton's site at Astera.  Intro music is by Reber Clark Send your questions and comments to mattersmicrobial@gmail.com

Today, Lainey and I read The Moose Who Loved Noodles by Rachel Dutton. 

Graham Laycock introduces Rachel Dutton from the Guildford Astronomical Society featuring a review of 2023 for the latest developments in Space and Astronomy plus Astrocast looking at what to watch for in the coming month, Target of the Month and news of forthcoming local events.

Graham Laycock talks to Rachel Dutton from the Guildford Astronomical Society about observing the moon at Newland Corner for the NASA organised International Observe The Moon Night on Saturday 21st October.

We review the book "The Moose Who Loved Noodles" by Rachel Dutton.Support the show

ASK CAROLINA ANYTHINGIn America, we as a society are not taught enough about women's health, anatomy, or menstrual cycles. So much has to be learned by one's self, but we often learn when there is a need or a huge problem.This does not have to be you on top of trying to conceive. In this epic episode, Rachel Dutton and Carolina explore what your cycle should be like and why knowing your cycle will be the most important thing for your fertility. What you'll learn: 1:22 Who is the period whisperer4:41 What certification to get to be able to do womb massage7:40 How to know when you are fertile20:12 Why fluids are important28:19 Why periods are important for people going through IUI or IVFIf you ever wanted to know anything about your period, this is the episode for you.Listen and enjoy!Connect with Rachel:Instagram: @thehealthywombFacebookYoutubeLet's connect!The Carolina Sotomayor Podcast is brought to you by Carolina Sotomayor and the Fertility Foundation.Carolina Sotomayor is an Expert Womb Healer who helps women conceive by removing physiological blockages with Reiki. She is the host of the Carolina Sotomayor Podcast, a show that covers everything from fertility to postpartum to motherhood, and the creator of Fertility Foundation Collective, an online membership that helps women heal at their own pace to boost their fertility.Carolina has served over 500 women from around the world to heal. She is passionate about helping women create their families. As a result, there are over 60 reiki babies in the world. Carolina Sotomayor Reiki: https://carolinasotomayor.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carolinasotomayorreiki/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecarolinasotomayor/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecarolinSupport the showLiked this episode? Share it with a friend. Love the show? Write a 5-star review (even just one sentence helps us keep bringing you the content you want to hear.) Want to get pregnant? Connect to your spirit and heal your fertility blockages inside the Make A Baby Membership. Try it for FREE! DOWNLOAD HERE our free Womb to Dream Connection Sleep Meditation: Connecting to Your Spirit Baby! Connect with Carolina: Website TikTok Instagram Pinterest Facebook DISCLAIMER: This episode is not a substitute for professional medical care but aims at relaxation and stress reduction to support natural healing. Reiki complements, never replaces, medical care. Carolina is not a licensed healthcare provider; always seek appropriate professional help for physical and mental health. Individual results may vary.

Rachel Dutton a.k.a The Period Whisperer is pretty much one of the most knowledgeable women to grace this podcast. She is not only a women's health coach, but a yoga teacher, reflexologist, aromatherapist and womb massage therapist to name just a few of her credentials. Rachel specialises in women's health and fertility - including PCOS. As a PCOS warrior herself, Rachel knows first hand the struggle to get an accurate diagnosis, life with PCOS symptoms but perhaps most importantly, how to manage and even reverse symptoms. As this month is PCOS Awareness Month, I am giving you guys a little treat. Last month, Rachel came and delivered a private talk to the members of my Live and Thrive membership, and today, to celebrate PCOS Awarenness Month, I'm sharing it with you! Now, just as a heads up, some of this talk has been cut as I wanted to ensure my member's privacy, and half the talk was a Q&A session. Additionally, Rachel's talk was delivered with slides so you may hear her from time to time refer to something on the screen, but all the info you need is provided in this audio. In this episode, Rachel and I discuss Here's what we cover: The definition of PCOS, the associated symptoms and the key causes of the condition. The diagnostic criteria and how to get an accurate diagnosis. The core strategies for managing PCOS and reversing symptoms. How to safely and effectively exercise for PCOS management The best types of essential oils for PCOS and how to use them. The difference between ovarian cyst types and how to spot them. Show Notes Rachel's website Rachel's Instagram Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. This episode is sponsored by Invivo; diagnostics and therapeutics to measure and modulate multiple human microbiomes that impact our health. Try their Bio.Me Prebio PHGG for 20% off with code ENDOLIFE20. The IC Retreat - use code ENDOBELLY10 for 10% off. Date: September 16-18, 2022. Where: Online virtual event via Zoom. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works

Welcome!

New Cold Storage Method Solves Freezer Burn—And Saves Energy Have you ever pulled a long-anticipated pint of ice cream out of the freezer, only to find the strawberries crunchy and the normally creamy substance chalky and caked with ice? Freezer burn, a phenomenon caused by water in food crystallizing into ice inside the ice cream or fruit or meat during freezing, is a menace to taste buds, a driver of food waste, and even damages some of the nutritional benefits of food. And it's always a risk as long as food preservation relies on very cold temperatures. Even flash-freezing, which works much faster, can still create small ice crystals. But United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) food scientists, working with a team at the University of California-Berkeley, have a method that could help solve this problem. Normal food freezing, called isobaric, keeps food at whatever pressure the surrounding air is. But what if you change that? Isochoric freezing, the new method, adds pressure to the food while lowering temperature, so the food becomes cold enough to preserve without its moisture turning into ice. No ice means no freezer burn. And, potentially, a much lower energy footprint for the commercial food industry: up to billions fewer kilowatt-hours, according to recent research. Ira talks to USDA food technologist Cristina Bilbao-Sainz and mechanical engineer Matthew Powell-Palm about how pressure and temperature can be manipulated to make food last longer, and hopefully taste better. Plus, the challenges of turning a good idea into a widespread technology. Koji: The Mold You Want In Your Kitchen When chef Jeremy Umansky grows a batch of Aspergillus oryzae, a cultured mold also known as koji, in a tray of rice, he says he's “bewitched” by its fluffy white texture and tantalizing floral smells. When professional mechanical engineer and koji explorer Rich Shih thinks about the versatility of koji, from traditional Japanese sake to cured meats, he says, “It blows my mind.” Koji-inoculated starches are crucial in centuries-old Asian foods like soy sauce and miso—and, now, inspiring new and creative twists from modern culinary minds. And Shih and Umansky, the two food fanatics, have written a new book describing the near-magical workings of the fungus, which, like other molds, uses enzymes to break starches, fats, and proteins down into food for itself. It just so happens that, in the process, it's making our food tastier.  You can grow koji on grains, vegetables, and other starchy foods, and make sauces, pastes, alcohols, and vinegars. Even cure meats. Umansky and Shih say the possibilities are endless—and they have the koji pastrami and umami popcorn to prove it.   The Bacteria Behind Your Favorite Blues, Bries, and More Cheese lovers, you can thank microbes for the flavorful funk of Camembert cheese and the perforated pattern of Swiss. According to microbiologist Rachel Dutton, one gram of cheese rind is home to 10 billion bacterial and fungal cells. Dutton describes our favorite cheese-microbe pairings and explains why the cheese rind is ripe for teaching us about the basic interactions of bacteria.   The World According To Sound: When Your Wine Bottle Sings A few years ago, Chris Hoff was making himself some plum wine. He had a nice big plum tree in the apartment he was renting in San Francisco, and it had been a plentiful year. During the process he came across a beautiful, simple sound that made him get out his recording gear. It came from his little metal funnel. Each time Hoff poured liquid through his funnel to fill a bottle, it made this pleasant rising arpeggio of bubbles. When the pitch reached its height, the bottle was filled, and Hoff moved on to the next one. He liked it so much that he grabbed his small handheld recorder and captured the sound. This simple, everyday sound is the result of a complex interaction of the liquid, bottle, air, and funnel. While water pours down through the funnel, air is being forced out of the bottle and up through the liquid, where it makes a bubble on the surface and then pops. As the level of liquid decreases in the funnel, the pitch of the popping bubbles rises. Read more at sciencefriday.com.    

As some of you may know, I’m doing a lot of work at present to free up my pelvic area from adhesions and tightness caused by pulled fascia and a tight pelvic floor, which in physio speak is a hypertonic pelvic floor. So I thought  this would be a great time to talk about some strategies you can bring into your daily life to help loosen adhesions and a frozen pelvis. Transcript: I’ve talked about adhesions and fascia before, but let’s do a quick recap of what adhesions and fascia are.  So fascia is a thin sheet of tissue made from collagen that sits beneath your skin and holds your organs and muscles in place. It also surrounds all the organs, nerves, blood vessels, etc. Fascia surrounding the body is like a bed sheet, if you pinch it or one end, the rest will wrinkle. So what can happen when we’ve had surgery is that these incisions create puckering and scarring in the fascia, which ends up tightening the fascia and pulling it in other directions. Fascia can also become distorted from inflammation, injuries and muscular problems like pelvic floor dysfunction. Adhesions are a form of scar tissue. They are web-like structures and bands of collagen that grow in response to injury and trauma, to ‘knit’ back together a wounded area and as part of the healing process from infection and inflammation. Collagen strands bond together to protect the damaged area to allow healing to occur in a safe and isolated environment, and if an infection is present, they protect the rest of the body by preventing the spread.  Adhesions occur in nearly all cases of abdominal surgery, the results vary from study to study but one large and long study found that between 55% to 100% of women who had pelvic surgery developed adhesions, and up to 90% of people who had major abdominal surgery - so something like a caesarean - developed adhesions. So, if you’ve had one or more surgeries for endo, it’s very likely that you have some adhesions.  Adhesions can also form from inflammation, which we know occurs in those of us with endo due to the lesions and can occur in those of us with SIBO, because the body sees it as an infection. Again, as you probably know by now, research has shown that up to 80% of us with endo may have SIBO, so this could be an additional cause of your adhesions and frozen pelvis. It’s also worth noting here that adhesions can actually cause SIBO too, because they prevent the normal flow of gut.   So, what can we do about it? Thankfully, there are numerous ways to loosen adhesions and free up a frozen pelvis, and as a result, lower the pain and other challenges associated with them. So let’s dive in to my top 8 strategies. This list isn’t exhaustive by any means, and you don’t need to do them all! Just pick those that feel the most helpful for you and suit your lifestyle and budget.    1. Foam Rolling Number one is foam rolling, which is an effective and affordable at home strategy which you can use every day if you’d like to! With foam rolling, we’re really looking at loosening the fascia rather than working on the adhesions directly. As I said earlier, fascia can get tight, pulled, puckered, and wrinkled, and if it’s experiencing it in one place, it can affect other areas in the body.  Foam rolling helps to release a distorted fascia and is when we literally use a long foam cylinder to roll back and forth across various areas of our body. With foam rolling for endo or other pelvic pain issues, we’re not just rolling back and forth on our pelvis, we’re rolling across our hips, bums, back, upper back and legs.  In the show notes I have linked to videos on how to do this, by physiotherapist Dr. Nicole Cozean. You can order foam rollers from Amazon for about £11 and in the beginning, I would suggest starting gently with a soft roller that’s smooth, especially if you’ve experiencing a lot of pain. Now with all of these methods, listen to your body. Some discomfort is normal when we’re working with releasing facia and adhesions, but if it’s really painful, ease up and go lightly or if it doesn’t feel right at all, appreciate that this may not be the right approach for you at first.  In an ideal world, we’d use these strategies under the guidance of a physiotherapist, but I know that’s not always an affordable option for everyone, so carefully watch the tutorials and if you’d like to do some further research to be really comfortable, I suggest reading Know Your Endo by Jessica Murnane, as she interviews Heba Shaheed, who I’ve had on the podcast before as well, and they talk about foam rolling extensively in the book.   2.   Visceral Manipulation  Next up is visceral manipulation, which honestly, if you can afford it, I really believe is worth a try! Visceral manipulation is a form of organ massage which was designed by physiotherapist Jean-Pierre Barral with the particular intention to free up organs from adhesions and other structural issues that are restricting them. Organs are supposed to be able to expand and move gently as our body moves, and glide smoothly over muscles and nerves as we go about our day. When adhesions or some kind of other structural problem is keeping them stuck, that’s when we can experience pain and organ dysfunction.  Visceral manipulation is very effective for releasing these organs and loosening adhesions and I’ve seen some incredible results with my clients. What I will caution here is that it can feel quite intense and aggressive at times, and if your pelvis is very stuck, you may be better off starting more gently with a different type of massage like some kind of womb massage such as the one I’m going to suggest in the next point.  If you’re going to try visceral manipulation, make sure you’re comfortable with your therapist and be very clear with them about the pain or discomfort you experience within the session, so they know when to ease up or when to stop working on an area if it feels too much. I can tell you from personal experience that gritting your teeth and baring it does not always end well!  Other greats forms of organ/abdominal massage include Mercier Therapy and Clear Passage. Clear Passage is really the holy grail with lots of research behind it for endo and SIBO, but it’s incredibly expensive, so you may be better off trying the other techniques first. However, I do highly recommend it if you can afford it!  I’ve linked in the show notes how to find practitioners for all of these that I’ve just mentioned.   3.  Arvigo Massage Third on our list is Arvigo Therapy, which is a form of abdominal massage that is much more gentle than the ones I just mentioned previously. The benefit of Arvigo Therapy is that you only need one session, which can be done over Zoom, to learn it from a therapist, and then you can just practice it daily at home every evening.  Now in my conversation with Tara Ghosh, who is an Arvigo Therapist and actually taught me personally, she shares that whilst Arvigo Therapy doesn’t directly loosen adhesions like visceral manipulation does, it does encourage circulation to the area and helps to relax the muscles and organs in the area, which can then have the indirect effect of loosening a frozen pelvis. However, I have seen some articles by therapists claiming it can loosen adhesions, perhaps they mean indirectly or perhaps there are differing opinions, but you can listen to the interview with Tara in episode 127 to learn more.  I highly recommend working with Tara because she’s just the loveliest person, and you can reach out to her directly via the details she shared in the interview (and I’ll put her Instagram in the show notes) but if you want to find another therapist, I’ve linked to the directory in the show notes. I’m pretty sure Tara sees clients from all over the world.   4.  Breaking up your time sitting down Number four is all about breaking up the time you spend sitting down at your desk, specifically by using a standing desk and by taking regular breaks.  Now, there’s been a lot of debate and controversy over this in the past few days. You may have seen in my stories I posted about my standing desk, which I use at varying intervals during the day, alternating between sitting and standing. I do this because my own physios and my colleagues, many of who are pelvic floor physios and my pelvic pain training, have always taught me that sitting for long periods of time without a break can worsen pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms through shortening and weaking the muscles in the area and restricting blood flow.  My understanding was that sitting down for long periods of time without breaks shortens the muscles in the front of our hips and pelvis, which means when we stand, walk or do anything else that isn’t sitting, we have restricted movement, tension, tightness and are more likely to experience pain. And if we have adhesions in the area, sitting down for long periods of time lessens the opportunity to stretch them and release them, making their hold on our organs stronger and tighter. However, I had quite an strongly worded message form a physio informing me that this simply isn’t true and that muscles don’t shorten or lengthen, which absolutely threw me. So I went away and spoke to some colleagues and they all said that yes, muscles shorten and that sitting for prolonged periods of time causes this and can worsen pelvic floor issues. So I was quite confused!  I wanted to dig a bit deeper to understand why this physio said they don’t and I think what it boils down to is terminology, and oversimplification to make physio language easy for patients to understand. From what I gather through my own research and conversations is that the muscles don’t actually change length, but they lose their ability to stretch so they become restricted. Here’s how one of the PTs I spoke to put it.  Martha Spalding, Circle of Health Physical Therapy, CA: “Muscle length stays the same so no, they don’t elongate but they can be contracted, weak in both eccentric and concentric contractions, strained, sprained, torn and severed. Ligaments can be overstretched and they can have laxity, which is common during pregnancy and some people just have genetic ligamentous laxity. Prolonged sitting is stressful on the entire spine and pelvic floor as it is a prolonged static position in weight bearing on the pelvis. The pelvis is generally rotated posteriorly. Depending on the muscles, you can determine the stress component in the sitting position. This prolonged position does impact the fascial slings which can become restricted.” So to help understand this better, eccentric contraction means when muscle length increases from tension during a movement, like a stretch. In contrast, concentric contraction is when a muscle shortens and tenses in order to bear weight and counteract resistance, so think about lifting a dumbbell in a bicep curl. So in short, the ability to perform these contractions can become weaker. Laxity is defined as ‘looseness of muscle’, but I wouldn’t say this would be occurring here, it’s just an example she’s providing to demonstrate how muscles change.   After these conversations, the physio who originally contacted me also replied to say that sitting all day without any movement would cause joint and muscle stiffness, but she was also very clear to state that there are no detrimental effects on the pelvis with sitting.  So clearly there are some cross overs here, but also some differing of opinions. As I’m not a physio, I can’t really give you a definite answer so I’m providing you with the information I have gained and also what I have learned in my own time in training and working with physios. To my knowledge, yes, sitting without breaks and movement can have an impact, but I’ll leave it to you to decide.  My practice is to alternate between sitting and standing throughout the day, as I feel comfortable. When I start to feel tired and my legs need a break, I sit down, and when I feel like I’ve been sitting for long enough, I stand. And every 30 minutes to an hour of sitting at my desk working, I get up and do some form of movement, usually it’s a couple of minutes of rebounding, stretching, walking around the house or a few minutes of exercise and literally it’s just like 3 to 5 minutes. Now I appreciate that if you have chronic pelvic pain and a weak core from pelvic floor dysfunction and from living with chronic pain, that using a standing desk can be difficult to do. So I suggest starting when only you’re ready with smaller periods of time to build up the strength in the core and to also have a cushioned mat under your feet or cushioned slippers to soften the impact. If you need to first spend some time just practicing taking breaks with gentle movement to build up your strength, or if you need to do some physio first or work on pain alleviation, do that first. This is just an option and you have to do what feels right for you – don’t rush into using a standing desk just because I’ve talked about it today, make sure it’s the right choice for you.  If you do buy a standing desk, you should also be swapping your positions when you’re standing up, so you’re not just constantly bearing down on your joints. I’ve linked to a helpful article in the show notes on different positions to adopt and how to stand in a healthy way when using a standing desk. There’s now mounting information on the health risks of sitting for long periods of time without breaks or movement, including heightened inflammation, which you guys know is super important for us to keep on top of, so if you’re employed by a company, they really shouldn’t be surprised by you asking for a standing desk. And in fact, it should fall under reasonable adjustments to help make you feel more comfortable when living with endometriosis. If you have trouble getting your company to agree, I suggest having a listen to my interviews with Vickie Williams and Clare from See Her Thrive, which are both about your rights as an employee with endometriosis in the workplace. If you’re curious to learn more about the health considerations and research behind prolonged sitting, I’ve linked to a couple of articles in the show notes. If you’re self-employed like I am, you can easily order a standing desk online. Prices range dramatically from whole desks which adjust to become either a seated or standing desk at about £1000 or cardboard desk toppers that you just put on top of your desk, and that you rest your keyboard and computer or laptop on, and these are around £15.  If you’re not quite ready for a standing desk or you’d like something extra to support your pelvis further when sitting, it’s best to take a quick break from sitting every 30 minutes if possible. I recently spoke to Rachal Dutton, The Period Whisperer, and she suggested getting up and doing hip circles both clockwise and anticlockwise for a minute or so or doing cat cow stretches whilst still in your chair. There are tonnes of movements you can do whilst seated to give your pelvis a quick break, so if you’d like more options, do some extra research until you find some that suit you!  To bring this unusually controversial tip to an end, I want to reassure you that if you need to sit down or lay down regularly, it’s okay. The key really is about trying to add in healthy movement as and when your health allows, and to take frequent short breaks from the sitting position, again as and when your health allows. I understand that there are days when all you can do is stay curled up, I’ve been there too! But on the days when you feel stronger, consider some small movements like rotating your hips or a quick cat cow to break things up a bit.    5.  Pelvic floor stretches You knew I was going to go there. Pelvic floor physio stretches are essential, in my opinion, to loosening adhesions and freeing up a frozen pelvis. Of course, in an ideal world, we’d all go to pelvic floor physiotherapists who can give us tailored stretches to do daily at home, but that’s not an option for some people on smaller incomes. So if that’s you, you’ll be pleased to know that there are so many pelvic floor stretches for endo and chronic pelvic pain available online and in books.  I’ve linked to videos, articles and books in the show notes for you to choose from, and all of these are designed by professional and specialised women’s health pelvic floor physiotherapists. What I will say is to listen to your body here. If you’re experiencing pain, or you have a strong reaction, ease up or try a different stretch – you may be currently too tight or ‘frozen’ in the pelvic area to attempt certain stretches for the time being, so start slower and allow some space and flexibility to build before attempting those pain triggering ones again. You could add these in during your day, as part of your break from sitting, or in the morning as a way to wake your body up, or in the evening to help you to wind down. Whatever it is, find a time that suits you and don’t worry, you don’t have to spend half an hour on this! Ten or even five minutes is fine! Just start and try to get them in as often as possible, daily if you can – but don’t stress if you can’t!  Now of course, I don’t know your personal circumstances, so if stretching isn’t the right choice for you right now, don’t worry, try something else from this list that is.   6.  Proteolytic enzymes  Alright, number six is proteolytic enzymes. Proteolytic enzymes are enzymes which break down proteins into amino acids. Proteolytic enzymes, when used for healing, help to reduce inflammation post-surgery and aid in clearing waste products from the wound site, and help to reduce adhesion formation. This is because of course, the building blocks of tissue are proteins!  However, because they reduce adhesion formation, there is the risk that if there is an infection at the site of the wound, that it could spread, as adhesions play a role in isolating infection sites from the rest of the body. This is rare but has been known to happen. Another thing to note is that the research is limited, with most of the research being in oral surgery or sports related injuries. The only study we have on enzymes for endo specifically is one we use commonly at IWHI and that’s Wobenzyme. Wobenzyme was shown to reduce pain and inflammation post-surgery and inhibit the formation of new blood vessels, reducing the chances of further endo development and adhesion formation.  The dose used in the study was the label dose for 40-60 days pre-op and then 60 days post op. You need to take Wobenzyme away from food, otherwise the enzymes will just be used for digestion.  Now most of the studies on adhesion formation are conducted pre and post-op, so I really can’t say whether they’d make a difference if you surgery was five years ago for example, my instinct is that they wouldn’t aid with the adhesions but they might help with inflammation.    7.  Castor oil  So number seven is castor oil and this one is also a little controversial, so I’ll provide you with the info and you can make your own decision about it.  I know countless leading women’s health practitioners who use castor oil to soften and break down adhesions and who experience great success with it with their clients. However, it’s generally considered that more research needs to be done, though there is research on castor oil’s abilities to lower inflammation, reduce symptoms of constipation, improve circulation, and stimulate muscle relaxation.  You may have heard Arvigo Therapist Tara Ghosh break it down in my interview with her. She explained that castor oil actually triggers the immune system, due to some of its chemical components, however, on responding to the call and finding no poison to clear, the immune system goes about utilising its tools on repairing and healing the pelvic area, which in turn helps to break down and clear adhesions. She also emphasises that the lowering of inflammation and improving of blood flow to the area, thanks to castor oil, is part of how this process works.  She’s not the only fan either. I had a conversation about castor oil with my colleagues and so many of them used castor oil packs to break down adhesions, and Nicole Jardim is a fan of using them for endometriosis and period pain.  So if you want to learn how to make your own castor oil pack and how and when to safely use them, I advise listening to my interview with Tara who has a really quick and easy method as opposed to the often messy and sticky traditional approach!   8.  Heat Therapy Last up is heat therapy. Yet another controversial one.  Heat therapy is often used by practitioners to help loosen fascia, muscles and break down adhesions. I recently spoke to Rachel Dutton who strongly recommended it to me to help with the lower right side of my pelvis, which is really stuck and isn’t responding well to body work therapy because it’s just too frozen and so I need to start with a gentler approach. She explained to me that heat therapy stimulates blood flow, which as a result helps to break down scar tissue and suggested this as one of the first options I should try.  Additionally, increased blood flow will allow the muscles to relax as more oxygen is delivered and so any muscles which were contracting due to restricted access to oxygen, which is common when you have a tight, bunched up pelvis, can start to loosen and become more mobile. There’s also research showing how heat therapy can prevent adhesions from building up so much after injury. Unfortunately PubMed was down at the time of writing this, so I haven’t got a tonne of studies to stick in the show notes but I’ve put in a few articles and one or two studies, and of course you can do some of your own research as well. So now the controversy comes in. Some sources, but not many, claim that heat can loosen adhesions and fascia and then as they cool, they stiffen up again, and become stiffer than before. I dug into this further and honestly, I couldn’t really decipher how they sources came to that conclusion, and I spoke to multiple colleagues about this who were equally as baffled and looked at the articles with me, and didn’t really feel the claims were fully supported.  However, one research paper does discuss the rebound phenomenon, where the positive effects of heat therapy are actually only present for 20-30 minutes. So for 20 to 30 minutes, blood vessel dilate and blood flow increases, but afterwards, the blood vessels actually start to constrict again, preventing blood flow, so this is definitely worth taking into consideration.  After I raised this to my colleagues, they all agreed that they only use heat therapy for 20 to 30 minutes in terms of hot water bottles, normally applied alongside castor oil packs and perhaps alongside a massage therapy treatment. They were also very keen to stress that they never use boiling water in a hot water bottle, only warm water. However, I’m curious about whether we can go a step further than hot water bottles. For a long time now, I’ve been very interested in the research behind infrared therapy, which has been shown to heal muscle injury, tissue damage and lower inflammation. For this reason, I’ve been really curious about infrared sauna belts and infrared heat pads for my chronic bladder pain, because they have so many benefits, but I just haven’t bought one yet as I’m spending so much on SIBO healing. The prices that I have seen range between £50 and £60, so not that expensive, but for some of us a hot water bottle is the more affordable choice.  So whilst I can be sure about the theory that adhesions and muscles get worse after heat therapy, clinically, heat therapy seems to achieve remarkable results, especially when combined with castor oil packs and massage. Of course, if you’re going to use hot water bottles, just keep it to less than 30 minutes and don’t use water straight off the boil. I think a wonderful way to try heat therapy is to use heat 30 minutes prior to a home massage, like Arvigo Therapy, to relax and soften the muscles so they’re more pliable and open to movement and stretch.  So I hope that has given you some ideas to help you soften your fascia, loosen adhesions and release a frozen pelvis. Remember, what works for one may not work for another, always listen to your body and be guided by what it’s telling you and ideally, consult a practitioner if you can afford to do so.  I would love to hear which strategies you try and how you get on! Please remember I am not a physiotherapist or a masseuse. This information comes from my training as a health coach, my conversations and interviews with leading pelvic floor physios and my experiences a patient. This podcast is here for educational purposes only. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk Show Notes Adhesions https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11528133/   Foam Rolling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJOzcFS6fGE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umTObqSYay0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6cR3knKFIA   Visceral Manipulation https://www.iahp.com/pages/search/index.php https://clearpassage.com https://www.merciertherapy.com (You currently need to email them directly for a referral)   Arvigo Therapy https://www.arvigotherapy.com/team-members   Sitting https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/expert-answers/sitting/faq-20058005 https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/why-sitting-too-much-is-bad-for-us/ https://www.startstanding.org/standing-desks/10-standing-desk-mistakes/#positions   Stretching https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXigFK5hLLF82uZ72jzTvmg/videos https://www.harpercollins.com/products/beating-endo-iris-kerin-orbuch-mdamy-stein-dpt?variant=32903931691042 https://thepelvicexpert.com/blog/6-simple-exercises-to-ease-endometriosis/   Heat Therapy https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31115522/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6214933/ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/300270473_Superficial_Heat_and_Cold_Applications_in_the_Treatment_of_Knee_Osteoarthritis   Castor Oil https://nicolejardim.com/castor-oil/      

My guest this week is Dr. Rachel Dutton from UCSD who is recognized in both scientific and culinary circles for her ingenious use of cheese rinds as a model system to study microbial ecology. Learn more about what inspired her to take up this line of research and what they have learned so far.

Cheese is delicious, and also the product of a complex mixture of microbes. Different communities of microbes produce the wide variety of cheeses made around the world. Dr. Rachel Dutton is an Assistant Professor at the University of California San Diego who studies cheese microbiomes. Dr. Dutton talks about how cheese is made, how the cheese microbiome is a great model for understanding how microbes interact with each other, how the microbial community determines what type of cheese is made, how her experience working on a cheese farm influenced her research, how the long history of cheesemaking practices gives great insight into microbial interactions, where the holes in Swiss cheese come from, and how studying the cheese microbiome has the added benefit of being able to eat your experiments. microTalk was pleased to be joined by Dr. Jimmy Ballard (University of Oklahoma Health Science Center) when this podcast was recorded at the ASM Microbe 2019 conference in San Francisco, CA. The microCase for listeners to solve is about Houser Sampson, whose voracious appetite for sushi causes him to come down with a mysterious illness. Participants: Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA) Rachel Dutton, Ph.D. (University of California San Diego) Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA) Mylea Echazarreta (UTSA) Jimmy Ballard (OUHSC)

This is part II of the Mindful Soul Center Podcast's interview with Rachel Dutton (Rachel Eyre) We speak about charting from the basics to more involved charting and how knowing your body can change your life. Rachel is clearly passionate about her work. There is so much information for both men and women. Women, you can get to know your body better and men, you can gain some insights into women's cycles and both partners fertility. If you haven't listened to part one, be sure to go back and learn even more abount women's health. Music in this episode includes: ​​​God Fury by Anno Dominii Beats Birds by Silent Partner Cast of Pods by Doug Maxwell ​Support the podcast: give us a review, buy a product or follow us on social media: Support the podcast by subscribing here or on your fav podcast platform. You can also support us by leaving a review on Apple, Spreaker, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher, RadioPublic or your fav platform. The more reviews and likes we get means that more people will have the opportunity to listen to this podcast too.Let me know what you think in the comments and don't forget to subscribe to the channel, visit the blog and follow on social media. Website: https://themindfulsoulcenter.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/themindfulsoulcenter Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/themindfulsoulcenter Twitter: https://twitter.com/mindfulsoulctr Facebook: https://facebook.com/themindfulsoulcenter If you'd like to support The Mindful Soul Center and our mission, please consider purchasing one of our magazines or other products. https://gum.co/xhZeU https://themindfulsoulcenter.com/shop

Rachel Eyre Dutton Interview on The Mindful Soul Center Podcast - Part I of 2 Rachel of The Healthy Womb is a women's health expert. She's also known as the Period Whisperer. In this interview she shares a depth of information that was so vast the interview was broken into 2 parts. In part one we cover PMS, PCOS, infertility, postpartum depression, what's 'normal' for a woman, estrogen dominance, hormone balancing, the fourth trimester of pregnancy and so much more. Support the podcast by subscribing here or on your fav podcast platform. You can also support us by leaving a review on Apple, Spreaker, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher, RadioPublic or your fav platform...you'll find us because we're everywhere :-) The more reviews and likes we get means that more people will have the opportunity to listen to this podcast too. ----- You can find the show notes at https://themindfulsoulcenter/podcast/ *** Music in this episode includes: God Fury by Anno Dominii Beats Birds by Silent Partner Cast of Pods by Doug Maxwell Let me know what you think in the comments and don't forget to subscribe to the channel, visit the blog and follow on social media. Website: https://themindfulsoulcenter.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/themindfulsoulcenter Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/themindfulsoulcenter Twitter: https://twitter.com/mindfulsoulctr Facebook: https://facebook.com/themindfulsoulcenter The Mindful Soul Center was created as a hub for life long learners who want to evolve and grow to live with less stress, more consciousness, less anxiety, more peace and more joy. We're dedicated to producing thought-provoking media and creating tools you can use to help make the journey lighter. If you'd like to support The Mindful Soul Center and our mission, please consider purchasing one of our magazines or other products. https://gum.co/xhZeU https://themindfulsoulcenter.com/shop Amy Adams, author of Gratitude Shmatitude: Don't just think it, do it!, is the founder of The Mindful Soul Center (formerly Conscious Life Space.) The Mindful Soul Center is a publishing and media company that produces The Mindful Soul Center magazine a bi-monthly magazine with 6 issues per year and The Mindful Soul Center podcast. She hosts The Mindful Soul Center, a talk show distributed as a podcast. The show explores various lifestyle topics. Minisodes are broadcast every other week. On alternating weeks are interviews with a variety of people - practitioners and experts in wellness, meditation, yoga, and more. Guests share their expertise and what they've learned with others so we can hear stories and learn together. Be inspired, get motivated and have a listen!

Cheese rinds contain microbial communities that are relatively simple to study in the lab while offering insight into other, more complex microbial ecosystems. Rachel Dutton discusses her work studying these cheese microbiomes, one of the few microbial ecosystem types where almost all of the microorganisms are culturable. Subscribe (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Also available on the ASM Podcast Network app. Julie’s Biggest Takeaways The cheese microbiome makes a great study system because The communities are relatively simple (as few as 3 different microbial species) The microbial members are almost all culturable (in stark contrast to most microbial communities) The microbes colonize the cheese rind as a biofilm, which consists of the microbes and their secreted extracellular products. Like all biofilm communities, architecture and spatial structure are important for microbial interactions on cheese rinds, as are oxygen gradations, food access, and proximity to microbial neighbors. Rachel and her lab performed DNA sequencing on over 150 cheese samples from 10 countries to identify the microbes present on these rinds. By comparing these sequences to those they could grow in the lab (Rachel’s lab makes “in vitro” cheese medium consisting of desiccated, autoclaved cheese), they realized almost all of the organisms identified by molecular means were present in their cultures. Does the cheese environment influence the microbial communities or do the microbial communities influence the cheese environment? Both! The pH, temperature, added salt and temperature act as knobs or dials that allow cheese makers to fine tune the final cheese product. Rachel was inspired to work on cheese after taking the Microbial Ecology course at Woods Hole, where the students spent a lot of time looking at the beautiful but complex interactions within microbial mats. Upon cutting open some Tomme de Savoie from a French colleague, she noted similarities between the microbial mat and the layered cheese rind Featured Quotes “The biofilm that colonizes the surface of the cheese has a lot to do with how the cheese ends up looking and smelling and tasting, and we actually eat this biofilm when we eat the cheese.” “We’re able to see that of all of the things that we identified by reasonable sequence abundance, we could also find them in culture. This told us that we were able to get a lot of these microbes in culture, which is not really possible in microbial ecosystems, but is one of the really strong advantages of working in the fermented food community.”  “We’re looking at these interactions because they’re happening on cheese and we can study them in the lab but they are things that are happening broadly across ecosystems, which I think is very exciting.” “We’ve done some work on the succession of species over time. You have these very very reproducible successions over time, even though a lot of these cheeses are not inoculated with specific species; these are species that are coming in from the environment but they’re very reproducible communities. There are some beautiful dynamics that happen and we’re starting to look at the interactions between species that may be driving some of these dynamics.” “We have this big need for model systems. One of the things I hope is that we’ll have more people developing simple model systems for microbial ecology so we can compare results and see what the general principles are.” Links for This Episode MTM Listener Survey, only takes 3 minutes! Thanks;) Rachel Dutton Lab Website Wolfe BE, Sutton JE, Santarelli M, and Dutton RJ. Cheese Rind Communities Provide Tractable Systems for in situ and in vitro Studies of Microbial Diversity. Cell 2014. Wolfe BE and Dutton RJ. Towards an ecosystems approach to cheese microbiology. Book chapter: Cheese and Microbes. ASM Press and Microbiology Spectrum (2014). Microbes After Hours: The Microbiology of Cheese (YouTube) Competition and Cooperation of Cheese Rind Microbes Exposed (The Scientist) Related: The Natural History of Cheese Mites HOM Tidbit: Peoria Historian Blog Post HOM Tidbit: Journal of Bacteriology Classic Spotlight: Crowd Sourcing Provided PenicilliumStrains for the War Effort

In today’s episode of the Happy Half Hour, hosts Erin Chambers Smith, Troy Johnson, and producer Archana Ram discuss local dining news, including rumors about a brick and mortar location for the hush-hush dinner series Cow by Bear, the newly renovated (and newly named) rooftop at Hotel Solamar, and a new two-level market coming to North Park. Plus, Whisknladle Hospitality has announced a new project set to debut in late 2018. Joining us is Rachel Dutton, assistant professor at UC San Diego’s Division of Biological Sciences who studies cheese and its microbes. Yes, a professor of cheese! We profiled the scientist in our June issue and today Rachel drops by to talk about how her research can lead to better tasting cheese, a must-read food nerd book by Harold McGee, and what it’s like to be married to one of the Cheese Twins, who also took home gold in Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race. We’re also discussing how scientists just can’t figure out how to make a natural version of Lucky Charms. We end the show with recommendations for Two People/$50, including Lionfish at the Pendry Hotel, Bahia Don Bravo, The Taco Stand, and Facing East Noodle & Bar.

Your host Christina in a tempeh kitchen, for science! In her episodes of Transistor, biologist Christina Agapakis is exploring the microbiome: the trillions of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that live in and on our body. The microbiome is hot right now and in these episodes Christina will explore what we do know in the face of so much hope and hype. She starts with food. Bacteria-rich foods such as tempeh, cheese, pickles and yogurt have long been praised for their probiotic effect. But can you really add enough good bacteria to your digestive system to outnumber the bad? Inside the Episode: Barry’s business partner Gordon Bennett mixing the Rhizopus culture into the soybeans. Christina pays a visit to an industrial kitchen in Long Island City, Queens, where Barry Schwartz and a small team meet up every other week to make Barry’s Tempeh, the only fresh tempeh sold in New York State. Wanting to better understand tempeh – aka “blue cheese of tofu” – Christina then calls her friend Colin Cahill in Indonesia where tempeh originated. He explains how it’s more than just soybeans and fungus that give tempeh in Indonesia its regional flavor. Then, if a single bacteria food like tempeh is good, studying a more complex ecosystem like the bacteria on cheese rind might tell us more about bacteria interact with each other and in our digestive systems – at least that’s Harvard biologist Rachel Dutton‘s goal. She’s studied more than a hundred different types of cheese from around the world, trying to better understand how cheese gets its flavor and why they are all so different. She’s now the go-to biologist for world-famous chefs like David Chang of Momufuko and Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery in New York, helping them explore ways to make foods taste new, different and better. Christina then shares her early love of fermentation with fermentation revivalist Sandor Katz. Sandor’s never met a fermented food he didn’t like, but he’s skeptical of anyone who says fermented foods can make us healthy on their own. This episode was produced by Kerry Donahue and Sruthi Pinnamaneni, and mixed by Tim Einenkel.

This two-part Profiles features a conversation with microbiologist Rachel Dutton and highlights of an archived interview with farmer Marcia Veldman.

Have you ever wondered why mozzarella bubbling and stretching between pizza slices is so different from the earthy flavors of blue-veined gorgonzola? The diversity of cheeses we love are created by encouraging and manipulating the growth of specific microbes. The American Society for Microbiology is excited to explore and celebrate the roles microbes play in the production of a variety of cheeses - from milk-gathering to cheese aging. This video was streamed live from ASM headquarters in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 2014, as part of its Microbes After Hours program. Presenter's include: Dr. Rachel Dutton, Harvard UniversityAfter receiving her PhD in Microbiology from Harvard Medical School, Rachel Dutton was awarded a Bauer fellowship at Harvard University to start an independent research group. She combined her passions of microbiology and food into a research program that has the goal of using cheese as a way to understand microbial ecosystems. Cheese is home to a fascinating assortment of microbes; from bacteria, yeasts and molds, to microscopic mites. Work in the Dutton lab involves studying the microbial diversity of cheeses from around the world, and looking at how cheese microbes interact with each other to form communities. Rachel has been a speaker at events such as the World Science Festival, and regularly gives classes to the general public on the science of cheese and other fermented foods. Research from the Dutton lab has been featured in Lucky Peach Magazine, The Mind of a Chef TV series on PBS, EdibleBoston, the Boston Globe, NPR, and the New York Times. Mateo Kehler, Jasper Hill FarmsMateo Kehler started Jasper Hill Farm with his brother Andy in 2003 where they produce a wide range of cheeses from the milk of their herd of 45 Ayrshire cows. In 2008 they started a new venture, the Cellars at Jasper Hill, a 22,000 square foot underground cheese ripening facility, to lower the barriers to entry for new cheesemakers by maturing, marketing and selling cheeses, managing logistics and administration and providing technical support to local producers. The Cellars at Jasper Hill is committed to developing economic mechanisms to keep the working landscape in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom working, and delivering deliciousness is a core and principle component in this effort. Mateo lives on the farm in Greensboro, VT with his wife Angie and children Reed and Zola.

Have you ever wondered why mozzarella bubbling and stretching between pizza slices is so different from the earthy flavors of blue-veined gorgonzola? The diversity of cheeses we love are created by encouraging and manipulating the growth of specific microbes. The American Society for Microbiology is excited to explore and celebrate the roles microbes play in the production of a variety of cheeses - from milk-gathering to cheese aging. This video was streamed live from ASM headquarters in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 2014, as part of its Microbes After Hours program. Presenter's include: Dr. Rachel Dutton, Harvard UniversityAfter receiving her PhD in Microbiology from Harvard Medical School, Rachel Dutton was awarded a Bauer fellowship at Harvard University to start an independent research group. She combined her passions of microbiology and food into a research program that has the goal of using cheese as a way to understand microbial ecosystems. Cheese is home to a fascinating assortment of microbes; from bacteria, yeasts and molds, to microscopic mites. Work in the Dutton lab involves studying the microbial diversity of cheeses from around the world, and looking at how cheese microbes interact with each other to form communities. Rachel has been a speaker at events such as the World Science Festival, and regularly gives classes to the general public on the science of cheese and other fermented foods. Research from the Dutton lab has been featured in Lucky Peach Magazine, The Mind of a Chef TV series on PBS, EdibleBoston, the Boston Globe, NPR, and the New York Times. Mateo Kehler, Jasper Hill FarmsMateo Kehler started Jasper Hill Farm with his brother Andy in 2003 where they produce a wide range of cheeses from the milk of their herd of 45 Ayrshire cows. In 2008 they started a new venture, the Cellars at Jasper Hill, a 22,000 square foot underground cheese ripening facility, to lower the barriers to entry for new cheesemakers by maturing, marketing and selling cheeses, managing logistics and administration and providing technical support to local producers. The Cellars at Jasper Hill is committed to developing economic mechanisms to keep the working landscape in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom working, and delivering deliciousness is a core and principle component in this effort. Mateo lives on the farm in Greensboro, VT with his wife Angie and children Reed and Zola.

Have you ever wondered why mozzarella bubbling and stretching between pizza slices is so different from the earthy flavors of blue-veined gorgonzola? The diversity of cheeses we love are created by encouraging and manipulating the growth of specific microbes. The American Society for Microbiology is excited to explore and celebrate the roles microbes play in the production of a variety of cheeses - from milk-gathering to cheese aging. This video was streamed live from ASM headquarters in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 2014, as part of its Microbes After Hours program. Presenter's include: Dr. Rachel Dutton, Harvard UniversityAfter receiving her PhD in Microbiology from Harvard Medical School, Rachel Dutton was awarded a Bauer fellowship at Harvard University to start an independent research group. She combined her passions of microbiology and food into a research program that has the goal of using cheese as a way to understand microbial ecosystems. Cheese is home to a fascinating assortment of microbes; from bacteria, yeasts and molds, to microscopic mites. Work in the Dutton lab involves studying the microbial diversity of cheeses from around the world, and looking at how cheese microbes interact with each other to form communities. Rachel has been a speaker at events such as the World Science Festival, and regularly gives classes to the general public on the science of cheese and other fermented foods. Research from the Dutton lab has been featured in Lucky Peach Magazine, The Mind of a Chef TV series on PBS, EdibleBoston, the Boston Globe, NPR, and the New York Times. Mateo Kehler, Jasper Hill FarmsMateo Kehler started Jasper Hill Farm with his brother Andy in 2003 where they produce a wide range of cheeses from the milk of their herd of 45 Ayrshire cows. In 2008 they started a new venture, the Cellars at Jasper Hill, a 22,000 square foot underground cheese ripening facility, to lower the barriers to entry for new cheesemakers by maturing, marketing and selling cheeses, managing logistics and administration and providing technical support to local producers. The Cellars at Jasper Hill is committed to developing economic mechanisms to keep the working landscape in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom working, and delivering deliciousness is a core and principle component in this effort. Mateo lives on the farm in Greensboro, VT with his wife Angie and children Reed and Zola.

Few foods can seem as “last chance” as a piece of moldy cheese. While some of us contemplate the age-old question of whether to cut off the fuzzy bits and eat the rest, Brian Ralph is carefully cultivating mold at Murray’s Cheese Shop in Greenwich Village. He’s the cave master at the store and oversees the ripening of various cheeses in Murray’s five cheese caves. Ralph currently works in consultation with Dr. Benjamin Wolfe, a microbiologist researching mold at Harvard University. He calls Wolfe up with questions about how to cultivate and maintain various cheese molds, each of which serves an important purpose. “Depending on the species or subspecies of that mold, it’ll create different flavor profiles,” Ralph explained. “Like this one tastes grassy or this one tastes yeasty. But does it taste like beer yeast or champagne yeast?” This week’s Last Chance Foods segment took place in Murray’s cheese cave number four. It’s a vaulted, air-conditioned room, permeated with a strong, sharp smell. Wooden and metal shelves lined the walls and were filled with neat rows of domestic and imported natural-rind cheeses. “We’re putting [cheeses] in here so they can breathe,” Ralph said. “And what you’re smelling is the cheeses breathing and they’re letting off ammonia, they’re letting off other by products as they’re ripening the cheeses. Essentially, we’re letting them express themselves so that it doesn’t go back into the cheese and create off flavors.” Located in the basement of Murray’s, cheese cave number four is the most nose-tingling and pungent. Walking inside, Wolfe admitted he loves the smell. “These are molds that we’ve grown on cheese, we’ve grown to make miso, we’ve grown to make a lot of different products over thousands of years,” he said. “We’ve essentially domesticated these molds.” Wolfe works with Dr. Rachel Dutton at Harvard’s FAS Center for Systems Biology in educating food makers and other scientists about helpful, harmless molds. In particular, Ralph works with Wolfe on sporendonema casei, a bright orange mold specific to Hudson Flower, the cave master’s signature cheese. On a recent visit from Cambridge, Mass., Wolfe brought petri dishes of lab-grown mold to use as comparison against what was growing on Murray’s cheese. “We like to think of [the cheese cave] as a frat house or something where you get like all these different people coming and expressing themselves in different ways,” Ralph said with a chuckle. “And we kind of treat it like a day spa where we come in, we pat them, we flip them over. If there’s cheese mites, we brush them off or suck them up with vacuum and make sure they’re not burrowing too far into the product itself.” That’s right: some varieties of cheese host microscopic mites that are invisible to the human eye. Ralph can tell they’re present by the dust the mites create on and around the cheeses. There’s no cause to be alarmed by the tiny creatures, though, says Wolfe. “I like to think of cheese mites as the gophers of cheese rinds or the groundhogs of cheese rinds,” he explained. “So they’re running around this moldy landscape, which could be like a lawn, and they’re eating the grass, but in this case the grass is mold. So they’re munching on various parts of the rind.” Wolfe pointed to a brown spot visible under a portable microscope. It was a mold called scopulariopsis. “We think of scopulariopsis as the cheese mite bar,” he said. “They love this particular mold. It’s one of the most delicious molds for them. So anytime you have scopulariopsis on a cheese like this, you have a mite party.” Wolfe was careful to add that, like mold, the mites were simply a natural part of the cheese’s ecosystem. “They’re not doing anything bad, necessarily, to the cheese unless they go out of control,” he said. “So that’s where Brian comes in and makes sure their numbers don’t go too crazy high.” Photo: Brian Ralph, Amy Eddings, and Benjamin Wolfe outside a cheese cave at Murray's Cheese Shop/Jennifer Hsu (WNYC)

This week Cutting the Curd gets gets cut down to size, or rather gets shrunk, with the help of microbiologist Rachel Dutton who is a fellow at FAS Center of Systems Biology. There she is putting cheese under the microscope and using the simplified, experimentally tractable microbial ecosystems found growing on the surface of cheeses as models for the behavior of microbes in complex communities. These communities, and their rich assembly of metabolic capacities, contribute much of the diversity in flavors, smells, and textures of the hundreds of different varieties of cheeses. But don’t worry if this all sounds over your head Anne Saxelby is there to guide you through world of cheese big and small. This episode is sponsored by Fairway Market.

An audiobook recording of Suzi Gablik's 'Conversations Before the End of Time', produced by Cast Iron Radio for European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017. Conversations Before the End of Time was first published by Thames and Hudson in 1995. Copyright © 1995 Suzi Gablik Reproduced by permission of Thames & Hudson Inc. All rights reserved.