Dr Michelle VDW

Dr Michelle VDW I’m Dr. Michelle—an MD who found a more connected way to heal through rhythm, nature, and regeneration.

I help health-aware individuals return to simplicity, trust, and true wellness—after stepping beyond the system to follow what actually worked.

For me, it’s early morning UVA light.Not supplements.Not a complicated protocol.Not the latest health trend.Simply getti...
06/04/2026

For me, it’s early morning UVA light.

Not supplements.
Not a complicated protocol.
Not the latest health trend.

Simply getting outside in the morning as the sun begins to rise higher in the sky.

I’ve noticed that when I’m consistently getting morning UVA exposure, I sleep better, my mood is steadier, my energy is more resilient, and I generally feel more like myself.

The fascinating part is how quickly I notice when I stop.

A busy week, travel, or too many mornings spent indoors, and I can feel things start to drift. My sleep isn’t quite as deep. My energy isn’t quite as stable. My motivation and focus aren’t quite the same.

When I prioritize it again, the shift often happens within days.

Morning UVA helps set the body’s circadian clocks, supports healthy cortisol and melatonin rhythms, stimulates the production of nitric oxide, and acts as an important environmental signal that tells our biology what time of day—and season—it is.

It’s one of the simplest practices I know, yet it continues to deliver some of the biggest returns.

What’s one thing you’ve implemented that made such a difference you wish you’d started years ago?👇🏻

06/03/2026

One of the greatest gifts we can give our children isn’t another supplement, therapy, or activity.

It’s helping them live in alignment with the rhythms their biology expects.

Morning sunlight. Outdoor play. Darkness at night. Consistent sleep. Time in nature.

Simple things that support energy, mood, resilience, attention, and long-term health.

As parents, we don’t have to be perfect. But understanding the principles of circadian health can make everyday decisions a whole lot easier.

Comment PROTOCOL if you’d like a discount link to a circadian parenting protocol that I personally love. It’s not my program, but it was created by a practitioner I deeply trust and respect.

Want to learn why I keep talking about light?Join me live on Tuesday, June 2 from 9:30–10:00 AM PST for a brief Zoom on ...
06/01/2026

Want to learn why I keep talking about light?

Join me live on Tuesday, June 2 from 9:30–10:00 AM PST for a brief Zoom on light, health, and one of my favourite simple tools that can be added into your daily routine with very little effort.

It’ll be 15 minutes of teaching, followed by time for Q&A.

Possibly the best 15 minutes you’ll spend all day.

Instead of doom scrolling, checking your email for the tenth time, or pretending you’re “just going to look something up” and then disappearing into the internet…

Come learn why light is such an important determinant of health.

We’ll talk about how light impacts energy, repair, resilience, and the body’s ability to communicate and how a simple wearable phototherapy tool may support those natural processes.

This is a walking zoom, casual and beginner-friendly.

Bring your questions!

Comment HEALTH or send me a message and I’ll send you the Zoom link.

05/28/2026

We’ve made hydration way too basic.

Drink more water.
Add electrolytes.
Carry the giant bottle.
Hit your litres for the day.

And yes, water intake matters.

But hydration is not just about how much water you drink.

It is about whether that water is clean, mineralized, structured, and actually able to get into the right places in the body.

It is also about whether your mitochondria are healthy enough to make water from the inside.

This is the piece most of us were never taught.

At the end of the electron transport chain, your mitochondria produce water. That water is often described as a byproduct, but it is anything but irrelevant.

Then there is the whole conversation around structured water, also called exclusion zone water or EZ water — the more ordered, gel-like form of water described by Gerald Pollack that forms next to membranes, mitochondria, collagen, fascia, and other biological surfaces.

This is where water becomes much more than fluid.

It becomes part of charge, communication, boundaries, detoxification, and energy production.

So yes, drink water.

But also ask:

Can my cells use it?
Can my mitochondria make it?
Can my body hold charge?
Is my water mineralized?
Am I getting the light signals my biology expects?

Hydration is not just a water bottle problem.

It is a redox issue.

Full article is up on Substack. Link in bio.

05/27/2026

The ideas that change the world almost always sound impossible at first.

Radio waves. Cell phones. The internet. Even the idea that a tiny pill could influence biology would once have sounded absurd.

So when people hear about a patch that uses light to communicate with the body, I understand the skepticism.

But light biology is not fringe.

The body already uses light, frequency, electrons, peptides, and cellular signalling as part of repair and communication. This technology simply works with that reality in a way most people have never been taught to consider.

Im not asking you to abandon discernment, but history has shown us that the next major innovation often looks strange before it becomes obvious. So you owe it to yourself to take another look!!

Curious about what these patches are doing and why so many people are paying attention? Comment ‘Patch’ for more info.

I wrote this because “show me the research” gets thrown around a lot, but most of us were never really taught how to rea...
05/20/2026

I wrote this because “show me the research” gets thrown around a lot, but most of us were never really taught how to read it.

Peer-reviewed does not always mean perfect.
Natural does not always mean safe.
Company-funded does not automatically mean false.
And evidence-based medicine was never meant to replace discernment.

This piece is a real-world look at research, funding bias, natural health, and why reading the abstract does not count as reading the paper.

New post is up on Substack.
Curious to hear what you think.

05/18/2026

There’s a reason we instantly relax around water.

The ocean. A river. Rain falling. Even hearing water run can calm the nervous system.

We usually explain this by saying “nature is relaxing,” but I think it goes deeper than that.

We are essentially water. And not just the 70% we were taught. By molecular count, the body is closer to 99% water molecules. Water isn’t just sitting inside us passively either. It’s structured, intelligent, and deeply involved in communication inside the body.

The more I learn about the fourth phase of water, the more fascinated I become by the idea that water stores energy, carries information, and helps create coherence in living systems.

Maybe that’s why nature feels so regulating.
The water inside us responding to the water outside us.

In a world of artificial light, noise, stress, and constant stimulation, our biology loses rhythm. Nature restores it.

Sometimes healing starts with things that seem almost too simple to matter: sunlight, rivers, oceans, grounding, mineralized water, stillness.

The body remembers coherence when it feels it. 🌊

I used to think travel support meant packing more.More supplements. More powders. More “just in case” remedies. Possibly...
05/14/2026

I used to think travel support meant packing more.

More supplements. More powders. More “just in case” remedies. Possibly a second suitcase if I’m being honest.

But the more I’ve learned about circadian biology, light, mitochondria, water, DHA and the body’s relationship with the earth, the more I’ve simplified.

Travel doesn’t just disrupt sleep.

It disrupts your body clocks.

Your light signals.
Your melatonin rhythm.
Your food timing.
Your hydration.
Your nervous system.
Your sense of place.

And that changes the way I think about “jet lag.”

I wrote more about this on Substack, including the travel foundations I actually prioritize now: morning light, UVA, blue blockers, mineralized water, seafood, and geo-locating the body after arrival.

Had you thought about jet lag this way before, less as something to hack and more as your body trying to re-orient to a new environment?

Full post is on Substack if you want the deeper dive.

05/10/2026

Back from a few days away with the LifeWave team, and I came home fired up.

Fired up to keep learning. Fired up to keep sharing. Fired up to help more people think differently about health, feel better in their bodies, and create more options in their lives. Health-wise, financially, and practically.

It was such a gift to spend time with people who are genuinely building something with purpose. People who care about education, empowerment, community, and helping others find another way forward.

And yes, I brought my son with me, because family and work-life integration are a huge part of why I’m building this in the first place. I don’t want a version of work that constantly pulls me away from my family. I want something that can include them.

Coming home involved a 6-hour airport layover, which meant a lot of blue light, EMFs, recycled air, and basically no natural light. Could airports please start adding outdoor sunlight spaces? Thanks.

So no, let’s not joke ourselves, I needed coffee.

But I’m also leaning into the foundations I usually come back to after travel: sunlight, seafood, grounding, mineralized water, and getting my feet back in the sand and sea so my body can remember where on earth we are again.

A beautiful trip, a beautiful team, and a reminder that health, freedom, family, and purpose can actually belong in the same conversation.

People think they’re lazy because they can’t follow through.But you can’t build habits on a dysregulated nervous system....
01/29/2026

People think they’re lazy because they can’t follow through.
But you can’t build habits on a dysregulated nervous system.

When your biology is in threat mode, consistency isn’t a character flaw. It’s biologically unavailable.
Your brain is choosing survival over self-improvement every single time.

What actually shifted things for me wasn’t more discipline. It was rebuilding safety.
Sleep that was protective instead of sacrificed.
Morning light that anchored my nervous system.
Less blue light at night.
Eating to nourish, not control.
Breathing more. Feeling more. Rushing less.
Choosing safety over speed, again and again.

Discipline isn’t something you force.
It’s what shows up naturally once the system feels safe.

I’m curious.
When you notice yourself “falling off,” what do you usually do next?

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