by Jen Owen, N.P. | Oct 8, 2021 | Integrative Medicine
I asked for suggestions for blog posts and found that many people would like ideas on how to beat insomnia (trouble sleeping). Insomnia can mean different things to different people. Some people have trouble falling asleep, some have trouble staying asleep, and some have both.
Insomnia can be caused by many factors and anyone who has followed me or seen me as a patient will know that I strongly believe in finding the root of the problem. It can be caused by stress, hormonal changes, adrenal imbalances, thyroid issues, food sensitivities, alcohol overindulgence, certain medications and more. If these simple tips don’t help you sleep, then you really need to see a practitioner who can help you get to the bottom of your sleep struggles.
Practical Sleep Tips
First, let’s look at some practical tips for insomnia.
~Avoid caffeine later in the day.
~Establish a regular routine of going to bed at night and rising in the morning. Many people sleep better if they are asleep before 10pm.
~Use a white noise machine or fan to block out noise.
~Make your room as dark as possible. Even a small amount of light, like from an alarm clock can confuse your system to thinking it is daytime.
~Don’t eat large meals late in the day and limit fluids after 8pm if you are getting up to urinate during the night and cannot get back to sleep.
~Add meditation to your life to help with stress.
Supplements for Insomnia
If you’ve tried all of those things and nothing helped, you can try some over-the-counter herbs and supplements for insomnia. My two favorite supplements to help you sleep are melatonin and magnesium.
Melatonin helps to reset your circadian rhythm, which affects your sleep/wake cycles. Melatonin resets your internal clock to tell your body when to sleep and when to wake. A dose of 2-3mg for a few weeks will often do the trick. For long-term use, I recommend a dose of 1mg or less.
Magnesium deficiency can cause excitability in the muscles and the brain. It plays important roles in the contraction and relaxation of muscles and less understood roles in the nervous system. I’ve found magnesium to be very beneficial for many people with insomnia, especially those who can’t sleep due to aches and pains or restless legs. It also seems to have a calming effect on the brain, allowing for more restful sleep. The dose of magnesium depends on the type you are taking. Check out this blog for more information on insomnia.
Herbs for Insomnia
As usual, herbs are my favorite remedies for insomnia. Herbs for sleep are gentle and work very effectively. Valerian is an old favorite for insomnia and is a non-addictive. The root is the part used for medicine and can be taken as extract, capsules, or tea, if you are brave. Valerian smells a bit like dirty old socks. Some people, including yours truly, are stimulated by Valerian, but this does not seem to be true for most people.
Skullcap is one of my personal favorites for insomnia, as well as mild anxiety. It doesn’t have a sedating effect, but works to strengthen the entire central nervous system. When the nervous system is strong, there’s much less nervous stress, thus inducing more restorative and peaceful sleep.
Chamomile is another great herb for insomnia and most people really enjoy the taste as a tea. Chamomile helps to calm the nerves and relieve tension. It also has anti-inflammatory effects, so can relieve mild aches and pains and digestive disturbances.
Good quality sleep is so important. We cannot be the best we can be if we are not restoring all of our systems each evening. We should all be getting 7-8 hours of sleep each night and a little more when we can. If you are not sleeping well, give these suggestions a try. I have a few other tricks up my sleeve, as well if they do not work and you would like to schedule a consultation.
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Wishing you blissful beauty sleep!
by Jen Owen, N.P. | Sep 10, 2021 | Mind-Body Medicine
Getting Comfortable with Joy
How comfortable are you with feeling joy?
I know that question might seem silly, and you may be thinking, ‘Of course I’m comfortable with feeling joy’.
The truth is that most of us aren’t.
From a young age, we’ve been doing things on our own, proving our worth with effort, and feeling like we have to cross one barrier after another.
We are comfortable with struggle and effort.
When things in our lives start to slow down, when we finally reach our biggest goals, when we have everything we’ve been wishing for, we often don’t know how to enjoy it all.
This was definitely true for me.
After a divorce, 2 nursing degrees, single motherhood, and maintaining a home with an acre of land on my own, things changed for me.
I found my life partner and I created the integrative practice of my dreams.
I had someone to help me care for my home, support me in motherhood, and help me with all the things it takes to own your own practice.
I had love and support from many angles and my patients were thriving.
I basically had, “it all”.
Yet, I found it hard to enjoy it. I couldn’t get comfortable with the joy.
I realized that my comfort was in struggle, effort, and proving myself.
When struggle is our norm, the brain receives its reward from more struggle. We feel good when we accomplish things, when we defeat odds, and when we get more done.
Reward doesn’t come from things like rest, play, pleasure, and joy.
When we want more joy, happiness, and satisfaction, we have to reward these things in big ways. We have to retrain our brains to look for more of these things rather the opposite .
If the only reward your brain gets is from struggle, you may be unintentionally creating more of it so that your brain feels safe and comforted.
If you want to get more comfortable with joy, you must reward yourself for it.
Relish in rest.
Delight yourself with pleasures when they come your way.
Savor every bite of delicious food.
Do more happy dances when things are feeling good.
Get used to good feeling emotions and allow them to flood your being.
If you want more joy in your life, you literally have to allow it.
You have to make it comfortable.
Schedule an appointment now or consider joining my signature, transformational program, The Flourish Way™ Experience for guidance on feeling more joy in your life!
by Jen Owen, N.P. | Aug 27, 2021 | Integrative Medicine, Mind-Body Medicine, Seasonal Health
For years, I’ve been checking hormone panels for females experiencing many different hormonal symptoms. Overall, the most common pattern I’ve seen is referred to as estrogen dominance. The estrogen level is normal while the progesterone level is low. This creates symptoms such as bloating, breast tenderness, low sex drive, headaches, irregular periods, decreased sex drive, mood swings, fatigue, trouble sleeping, weight gain around the abdomen and hips, foggy thinking & memory loss, and PMS.
This pattern often occurs when the person is experiencing a higher-than-normal stress level. Because progesterone naturally provides some of our cortisol (stress-managing hormone), during times of increased stress, the body will “steal” progesterone to make more cortisol.
I’m very used to seeing this and treating this.
What I’m not used to seeing is a pattern that has become quite prevalent over the past 1.5 years during the pandemic and other issues of these times.
In almost every hormone panel I’ve checked, another hormone is elevated: DHEA.
DHEA is short for dehydroepiandrosterone (D-hi-dro-epp-E-an-dro-ster-own), a hormone made by the adrenal glands located just above the kidneys. Of the more than 150 hormones made by the adrenal glands, the most abundant is DHEA. DHEA is generally converted into testosterone and estrogens.
Most of the time, when I check this hormone, it’s low. I’ve supplemented it many times in females to increase low testosterone and low estrogen.
Because DHEA is also produced from the ovaries, in the past I would see elevated DHEA associated with abnormal hair growth (think beard), acne, and PCOS.
Not now.
DHEA is appearing high across the board and not just a little high, it’s often double or triple the level it should be, without any of the usual and expected symptoms.
Now, this is not all bad news. Some studies suggest that DHEA may elevated as a counterbalance to elevated cortisol, so it’s likely a healthy adaptive response by the body.
At the same time, it means that the body is overloaded with stress hormones, and it’s working diligently to manage this and bring the body back to balance.
I’ve talked a lot about managing stress since COVID began. If you missed my previous posts, see the bottom of this page.
During the first year of the pandemic, I gave everyone a pass. I appreciate personally how hard it’s been to adapt to all of it; how challenging it’s been to eat right, find new ways to exercise, and avoid getting into negative habits to help manage our stress.
Now, we must face the reality that not much is likely to change anytime soon. We have to find ways to adapt, to manage our stress so that our bodies don’t take the toll from all of this.
We have to find new ways to experience joy, appreciation, love, and freedom.
When people come to see me, I can feel how much they want a quick fix to what they’re feeling. It’s frustrating to hear that stress is the underlying cause of their symptoms.
Yet, here we are and it’s been true for almost everyone I’ve seen.
The good news is that my stress-management toolkit is deep and when my patients implement the plans we develop together, they feel better.
Start with one thing…what’s the one thing that you could change in your life right now, that if you changed it, it would make a really big difference? Do that first and let it be for a few weeks. Then, work with the next thing. Trying to make a bunch of changes all at once simply creates more stress and likely, more DHEA.
If you’d like my help, schedule an appointment here.
Check out these articles to understand the stress response more fully and for more ideas of how to manage it:
Are You in Fight-or-Flight or Rest-and-Digest?
Self-Care for Stressed Times
Health Basics Check-in
Stop and Breathe…
How to Handle the Strain and Drain
My Top 5 Herb Choices for Stress
Exercise Can Be Fun
5 Tips to Protect Your Energy
by Jen Owen, N.P. | Jul 9, 2021 | Food Medicine, Mind-Body Medicine
This blog is about returning to the basics.
I’m not sure what it is about our society. We seem to have an “all-or-nothing” approach to health. If we’re not greatly restricting food, exercising in a bootcamp style, or majorly pushing our limits, we don’t really do anything.
I see this time and time again. People show up to my clinic exhausted. When I ask about their health habits, they tell me they try to do those things I mentioned above, but haven’t been able to maintain them.
Well, of course they can’t, and I couldn’t either.
When people focus on hard core health changes and can’t keep with it, they feel like they failed and then they forget to do the very basics to keep their bodies and minds well.
So, today as you read this blog, I want you to do a check-in about each area of life I discuss.
How are you doing in each category?
If any of the basic categories aren’t being fulfilled, start there.
If you’re doing all of these things every day, then come in for an appointment and we’ll dive into what else might be going on.
Water
I know this probably sounds very basic and yet, we all need water to survive. The old adage of drinking 8 glasses of water each day still works pretty well for most people. Yet, when I ask my patients how much water they’re drinking every day, the response is often 2-4 glasses.
And, remember that caffeinated drinks and alcohol are actually dehydrating, so you need extra water if you drink those.
Check-in: Track how much water you drink today and increase if needed.
Tip: Use an opaque water bottle or mason jar for your daily water so you can literally see how much you’re drinking.
Air
Another basic one, I know. During the vitals signs assessment, I check the oxygen saturation of my patients. The level that should be 100% (yes, even with a mask on). Most people come in around 95-97%.
This means that they are likely shallow breathing a good portion of the time.
When we’re running around in fight-or-flight all the time, we don’t take enough deep breaths, so we don’t circulate adequate oxygen to all of our parts. This leaves us feeling even more tired and when our brains don’t get enough oxygen, we can feel light-headed or experience foggy-thinking.
Check-in: Are you getting enough deep breaths in throughout the day?
Tip: Check out this blog and Stop and Breathe.
Food
Another interesting societal norm is that when we want to change our eating patterns, we almost always start with taking things away.
I actually recommend adding things in first. And, I start with the most obvious foods: fruits and vegetables.
Fruits and vegetables are full of the antioxidants our bodies require for proper cellular function and detoxification.
Check-in: Are you eating every color of vegetable/fruit every day?
Tip: Start first by eating the “Rainbow Diet”. Read more about that here.
Sleep
I know you know sleep is important for every cell and system in your body. Yet, it’s often one of the least valued components of flourishing health.
Many people stay up too late or don’t take advantage of times when they can sleep in.
I work with a lot of parents of small children who tell me that after the kids go to bed is the only time they have alone together. I get this. Time alone together is important. And, is there another time you could work out to be alone together? Maybe you could trade with another couple and each take each other’s kids once a week? Get creative.
Sleep truly needs to be at the top of the priority list.
Check-in: How much good quality sleep are you getting every night?
Tips: Sleep when your kids sleep. Go to bed early and relax with a good book if you don’t feel tired yet. Practice good sleep hygiene (Google this term if you don’t know what this is.)
If you still can’t sleep, come in for an appointment and we’ll get this sorted.
Next steps:
Once these four basics of human body function are met, you can start looking into body movement, love, joy, etc.
Those are basic human needs as well, yet when we’re not breathing, drinking water, eating foods that nourish us, or sleeping, not much else can fall into place.
At my clinic, I focus on treating the whole person and my practice has gotten more and more simple over the years. I’ve realized that more than anything people need help with life.
They usually don’t need complicated protocols or extensive health plans. They need help finding balance, peace, and more FUN!
Please stop beating yourself up with restrictive diets and rigorous exercise regimens.
Start with the basics and you’ll be amazed at how much small shifts in your daily life can bring about big changes.
Ready to dive deeper into the basics?
My online program, Health Transfomations is for you!
Work at your own pace on your own time and transform your life in 8 weeks.
Join the program and get started now!
by Jen Owen, N.P. | Jun 21, 2021 | Mind-Body Medicine
Life is getting more and more open. Things are slowly returning to normal.
Yet, many bodies are not.
I’m seeing more and more people who are concerned about weight gain they haven’t been able to resolve with diet and exercise, fatigue that doesn’t go away after rest, and/or trouble sleeping that isn’t helped with the usual sleep hygiene principles or supplements.
When we check labs, we’re finding elevated DHEA levels and cortisols that don’t follow the normal diurnal pattern. Cortisol should rise in the morning and gradually decrease throughout the day until becoming low at bedtime when melatonin takes over.
The lab findings we’re looking at are based on the adrenal glands, which are located just above your kidneys. The adrenal glands secrete hormones that help the body suppress inflammation, utilize fats, proteins, and carbohydrates, regulate blood pressure, and increase blood sugar when needed. When the brain senses stress, it signals the adrenal glands to secrete these hormones. To learn more, check out this blog where I go into more detail about the anatomy and physiology of the adrenal glands.
In times of acute stress, the adrenal glands will secrete extra DHEA and cortisol to help the body adapt. This is perfect when we’re running from a bear. When there is no bear, it can be less than optimal and cause all the symptoms my patients are concerned about.
It seems that dealing with a pandemic and everything else that’s happened over the past 15 months is left many of us in a state of chronic stress.
In order to get out of this, there are two main recommendations I’d like to make:
- Rest More, and
- Have More FUN!
After having many conversations with my patients about all of this, I’ve come to the conclusion that the real issue comes down to control. Most of us feel the need to have control of everything that happens to us.
I’m not judging. I get it.
The problem is that over the past 15 months, we’ve had very little control.
And, the stress this has caused in us is making us sick.
I’d love for you to ask yourself how much fun you’ve been having lately. I mean TRUE FUN where you let your hair down, laugh raucously, or lie in the grass and watch the clouds.
When lab findings reveal issues with the adrenal glands, I’m finding that most of my patients then want to control this, too. They do hours of research on what’s going on and ask me about stringent lifestyle or supplement regimens.
This is the opposite of what needs to happen to resolve the issues.
The best way to fix your adrenal issues is to rest and have fun. Seriously. That’s it.
What times of the day are you most stressed?
What people or activities cause you stress?
What phone calls make your heart rate rise?
What does your morning routine feel like?
How do you relax in the evening?
Could you be over-exercising and causing even more stress to your body?
Take a look at your lifestyle, find your causes of stress, and do what you can to eliminate them. If stressful situations occur, take time to rest afterward. Let yourself yell and scream when you become angry. Dance, cry, shake it off, have fun with your family and friends, stop and take some deep breaths, whatever, just stop the cycle of the stress response.
Not sure where to start, here’s a blog to help.
Are you concerned about your adrenal function?
Feel free to schedule an appointment and we’ll dive into this together.
Otherwise, focus on fun and allow your body to rest completely.
And, be sure to share this article with friends who need to hear it, too.
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