Mission Health & Wellness

06/01/2026

Mission Health & Wellness offers integrative naturopathic care in both Wenatchee and Ellensburg, with telehealth appointments available throughout Washington.

I’m Dr. Kristen Acesta, a licensed naturopathic physician, herbalist, movement educator, and mental health counseling associate under supervision. I’ve been practicing as an ND since 2013 and have been rooted in the Wenatchee Valley since 2016 through my clinic, Mission Health & Wellness.

My practice blends physical and mental health care with a strong focus on education, collaboration, and long term wellness. I offer laboratory testing and diagnostics, hormone and metabolic support, herbal medicine, prescriptions when appropriate, supplement guidance, counseling under supervision, lifestyle medicine, nutrition support, movement and somatic awareness, and individualized wellness planning.

I work with a wide range of concerns including hormones, metabolic health, digestive issues, stress and anxiety, fatigue, autoimmune and chronic illness support, cardiovascular health, musculoskeletal complaints, preventative care, and general wellness.

My approach is rooted in what I consider the foundations of health: eat, play, engage. Health is not just symptom management, it’s quality of life.

You may also recognize me from teaching yoga classes here and there, involvement in community arts and music projects, or noodling away on clarinet at CWU.
In person appointments are available in Wenatchee and Ellensburg, with telehealth appointments available throughout Washington.

Patients can schedule online at:
www.becomeyourmission.org

Dr. Kristen Acesta, ND, LMHCA, ERYT500
Mission Health & Wellness

05/04/2026

I’m Dr. Kristen Acesta, a naturopathic physician and mental health counselor, and honestly, I don’t see those as separate things.

I work with people who want to feel better in their bodies, clearer in their minds, and more like themselves again. That can look like hormone and metabolic support, mental health counseling, or getting back to the foundations like sleep, nutrition, and nervous system regulation.

My approach is practical, collaborative, and rooted in the full picture. Not just symptoms, but what’s actually driving them.

I offer in-person care, telehealth, evening sessions, and Sundays, because real life doesn’t run on a 9 to 5 schedule.

Mission Health is my practice, and it’s built to meet you where you’re at and help you move forward in a way that actually sticks.

Schedule online, link in bio.

And follow my movement account here:

04/24/2026

At Mission Health, I bring together naturopathic medicine and mental health counseling into one integrated approach. My work includes hormone and metabolic support, nutrition, herbal medicine, labs and diagnostics, medication and supplement management, and the foundations of health like sleep, movement, stress, and nervous system regulation. I also integrate somatics, movement, and coaching, because insight doesn’t mean much unless it’s actually lived and applied.

I work with people who want a more connected understanding of their health, across physical and mental patterns, labs, habits, and day to day life, and who are ready to make meaningful, sustainable changes.

I offer evening sessions, online telehealth, and Sunday appointment options. Most major insurance is accepted, including Medicaid.

www.becomeyourmission.org

01/28/2026

Soy, Red Meat, and Cancer Risk: What the Evidence Shows

Large human studies do not show that eating soy foods increases cancer risk. Major cancer organizations, including the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR), consider whole soy foods safe when eaten in typical dietary amounts.

Soy foods include tofu, tempeh, edamame, miso, and soymilk (not the weird soy isolates you'll find in processed foods and protein supplements). These foods contain phytoestrogens, which are much weaker than human estrogen and do not behave the same way in the body. Early concerns about soy largely came from animal studies using extremely high doses or from isolated soy or isoflavone supplements, not from normal human diets.

In human populations, soy consumption is associated with either no increase or a lower risk of certain cancers, including breast cancer. Studies in breast cancer survivors also show no increased risk of recurrence with moderate soy food intake, and some studies suggest improved outcomes.

Most cancer organizations clearly distinguish between soy foods and soy or isoflavone supplements. Cancer prevention guidance applies to foods, not high-dose supplements.

In contrast, the link between red meat and especially processed meat and cancer risk is much stronger and more consistent.

Processed meat (such as bacon, sausage, hot dogs, deli meats, and pepperoni) has been classified by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as carcinogenic to humans, meaning there is sufficient evidence that it causes colorectal cancer.

The American Cancer Society and WCRF/AICR recommend:

-Limiting red meat intake to less than 12-18oz a week

That amount is roughly equivalent to:
2–3 deck-of-cards–sized portions for the whole week

Did I mention the environmental impact as well? 🤔

12/28/2025

"Many people today are choosing low-carb, high-red-meat diets believing they’re making a healthy choice. I understand why. Meat is familiar, filling, and often framed as “ancestral” or “natural,” and some people do experience short-term improvements in certain symptoms when eating this way.

However, there’s an important biological detail that’s almost never discussed, and it may help explain why red meat repeatedly shows up in well-done studies linked to seemingly unrelated issues like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other chronic illnesses.

That detail is Neu5Gc.

Neu5Gc (short for N-glycolylneuraminic acid) is a type of sugar found in mammalian foods, especially red meat like beef, pork, lamb, bison, and venison, and to a lesser extent some dairy. Humans do not make Neu5Gc at all. We lost the ability to produce it millions of years ago through evolution.

That means any Neu5Gc found in human tissues comes from dietary exposure to mammalian foods. Period.
When someone eats red meat, Neu5Gc can be absorbed and incorporated into tissues, including blood vessels, organs, and cell surfaces. Unfortunately, the immune system may recognize it as foreign.
The result?

A chronic, low-grade immune response sometimes called xenosialitis, meaning ongoing immune activation directed at something that has become part of us.

This is not an allergy. There are no obvious symptoms. It’s quieter, slower, and potentially far more damaging over decades.

Important clarification: This mechanism is not “proven” in humans the way a drug trial is proven. There is no single study that settles this question. That’s not how nutrition science or chronic disease research works, and anyone claiming absolute certainty in either direction is overstating the evidence.

However, Neu5Gc is a strong biological candidate for explaining a pattern we see consistently in high-quality long-term data:

• Higher red meat intake correlates with increased cardiovascular disease risk
• Higher red meat intake correlates with certain cancers
• Higher red meat intake correlates with increased all-cause mortality"

Info from Dr. Daniel Chong

12/21/2025

😆

12/16/2025

12/01/2025

Heading into the winter months is the perfect time to check in with ourselves—our routines, our foundations, the patterns we fall into when the days get darker. Winter asks us to hunker down, and in that quiet we either settle deeper into old habits or allow them to move through a natural death-and-rebirth cycle. Even the smallest seed begins its transformation beneath the snow.

This season invites reflection, intentional shifts, and gentle restructuring. How are you nourishing yourself? What rhythms are supporting you, and what needs to be composted so something healthier can grow?

Schedule online anytime: www.becomeyourmission.org