A Little Check-In

Just thought I'd pop off a quick post to say hello and check in. This morning I awoke to a light dusting of snow on my fence and holly tree. How pretty! It's not quite wintery yet in Nashville- some trees still have colorful leaves- but it's finally cold and it feels like winter is encroaching.

I'm still trucking along on my functional medicine protocol. I'm not full autoimmune paleo, as I continue to test the waters with different foods and watch for symptoms. Some happy news: I can now tolerate chocolate without any sign of IBS, which is such a relief! I haven't been stuffing my face with it, but it's been heavenly to make a nice mug of hot cocoa or have a square of dark chocolate here and there. I've also added small amounts of almonds and walnuts back, but I haven't been eating many nuts in general. I find I don't seem to crave them as much as I used to. I've only occasionally been eating a small amount of nightshades. I don't think they affect me adversely. As for grains, I've mostly steered clear of them and plan on continuing to do so.

I still have the occasional minor skin breakout (though my skin remains much improved), so I have to troubleshoot the details there. My progesterone still looks to be low, so I have added a vitex product (Nature's Way Femaprin).

A neat discovery I accidentally made is that my body really likes SAM-e (S-adenosylmethionine). I had originally been taking 5-HTP to support serotonin, and then a bit of Seasonal Affective Disorder started to hit me, where I'd feel sad on dark or cloudy days. I did a little research and found that switching the timing of taking my 5-HTP to between 3-4 pm and then again at bed really made it work better.

Then, I ran out and I happened to have a bottle of Cell Food SAM-e liquid (which I had mistakenly ordered, thinking it was Cell Food liquid oxygen) and I remembered that SAM-e is used for mood disorders, so I thought I might as well save myself some money and try it for serotonin support. Well, not only did it help with that, but I quickly found myself feeling WAY more motivated and downright cheerful. As I have a history of low dopamine symptoms, this is so very welcome. I've been on dopamine support for ages, and it does help, but the SAM-e has had a dramatic effect. It has also given me more mental clarity. I hope it keeps working because my house is staying so much cleaner and I'm getting a lot more done.

And, finally, I'm reading a really cool book about the mind/body connection called "You Are The Placebo" by Joe Dispenza. It's fascinating and the premise is that if your mind can create placebo-based physical effects, then in understanding that process, it can be used to create healing. It makes sense: if our negative emotions and stress states can trigger inflammatory compounds and harmful epigenetic expression, can we mitigate these and reverse them by actively seeking to change the way our mind is wired so that positive mental and emotional processes produce healing epigenetic and hormonal signals? Just reading about the history of the placebo effect alone is fascinating.

I will continue to keep you posted and I have some autoimmune paleo recipes that need a little nailing down, but that I look forward to posting.

Cheers!
-Erin

Adventures in Breathing

If you've read my blog in the past, you may have seen me mention proper breathing as being integral to health and healing. How many of us even pay attention to how we breathe, let alone use specific types of breathing to further our healing?

My own history with breath work has been with traditional Qigong belly breathing. It was amazing how hard it was to take a proper deep belly breath when I first learned it. I had no idea how shallowly I was breathing before that.

Lately, I've added another type of breathing into the mix: alternate nostril breathing (or Nadi Sondhana), which is part of the yogic Pranayama tradition.
I'd vaguely heard of it in the past, but it never interested me until I read about the benefits of it in Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life by Dr. Claudia Welch. She comes from a Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda background. This is a seriously great book, as it gives real, practical context to things like yin, yang and energy flow and how they impact our health and hormones.

In the book, Dr. Welch discusses alternate nostril breathing as a powerful tool for brain balance and hormone balance, both of which I am striving to achieve right now. She even gives accounts of her patients having hot flashes and insomnia cease after implementing the practice.


Here are some of the alleged benefits:

-Improves brain function and brain balance. Deep breathing oxygenates the brain and alternating between each nostril activates both hemispheres. Favoring one nostril can also be used to activate the opposite hemisphere.
Who d
-A calmer mind. Who doesn't need that?

-Improves sleep. Breathing through the left nostril is said to especially activate a parasympathetic response and quiet the mind so your busy brain doesn't keep you awake and your body can relax.

-Regulates and balances hormone production through balancing the yin (feminine) and yang (masculine) energy in the body. For those who think that sounds wacky, consider that TCM medicine uses this as the premise for increasing fertility and balancing hormones and it has a great track record for getting the job done.


There are other benefits, too, but those are the big ones that appeal to me. Also, it's FREE, so how can I possible pass up trying it, right?

So far, I've only done a few short sessions, but it definitely has a profound effect on my mental clarity and it induces a nice, calm state. It also helps to clear my sinuses.


Here's a short video demonstrating the technique. She doesn't mention pausing between inhales and exhales, but it's really beneficial and quieting to the mind to pause between breaths. The usual pattern is to inhale for 4 counts, hold for 12 and exhale for 8. Long exhales really calm the mind and body and induce a powerful parasympathetic response.




Now, take a deep breath and enjoy!

-Erin

Insomniac

I've been meaning to post something new for awhile. I even have a couple of nearly completed posts that have been waiting for weeks to be finished. What is my lame excuse for not getting them done, you ask? Insomnia, I answer. Insomnia has been kicking my butt intermittently for about six weeks, and hardcore for the last two weeks. In fact, I've only had maybe two full night's sleep in the last two weeks and I don't function well like this.

Insomnia and I have an on-again, off-again history. Years ago, I went through a rough spell of waking every few hours or being awake for several hours in the middle of the night. Acupuncture/Chinese herbs took care of that. That combo has also made a difference in my tendency toward excessive REM cycling/lack of delta wave deep sleep (a lesser known sleep disorder), which can make you feel like you hardly slept due to the abundance of vivid, technicolor dreams that result. There are so many kinds of insomnia and some are easier to fix than others.

About a six weeks ago, a mixture of a couple of nights where I had a hard time falling asleep plus me being naughty and staying up late (being the lifelong night owl that I am) resulted in having a hard time falling asleep before 2 am. However, I had no problem sleeping in and getting enough sleep, so, other than being annoyed about waking up late at 10:30 every morning, it wasn't a big deal- more an issue of sleep hygiene than anything. I was able to get back to a more normal sleep schedule without much trouble.

But, then, a few weeks ago, something bad happened: Even though I was finally falling asleep fine, I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't fall back asleep. It happened the next day and the next. For some reason, I could only stay asleep for 5-7 hours (not good when I need 8.5-9 hours). I wasn't able to take a nap, either. The sleep just wasn't happening.

After a week, I was beginning to feel physically exhausted, with a constant headache, (all the while trying to avoid living on coffee) and by week two, my nervous system was beginning to get very out of whack and I began having a lot of anxiety about waking up early, which doesn't exactly help me to fall back to sleep... anyway, it's been hard to be productive, let alone have the brain power I need to finish those posts to my liking (they're a bit more involved than this one).

So, what happens when we don't get enough sleep? We start to build up a considerable sleep debt. Our brain keeps track of how many hours of sleep below our sleep need we're getting, according to Dr. William Dement PhD, the world's foremost sleep researcher and author of the fascinating book "The Promise of Sleep", which is my current bedtime reading. In order to have zero daytime drowsiness, we have to pay back all that sleep debt and sleeping in an extra hour here and there isn't going to cut it if you've built up a sleep debt of, say, 28 hours over the course of a few weeks (like I have).

So, at the moment, a lot of my energy has been taken up with trying to fix my sleep problem. I've decided to work on my sleep hygiene, since it's always been on the bad side, so I purchased The Effortless Sleep Method at the recommendation of a friend. It's a combo of book and brainwave enhancing MP3's, one of which is used during the day to enhance SMR brain waves, which insomniacs tend to not make enough of.


I also went to see my holistic doc and he suspects that my cortisol cycle is out of sync and that I'm releasing my morning cortisol several hours too early, so he had me start taking phosphorylated serine at bedtime, which inhibits cortisol release and normalizes the cortisol rhythm. It can take awhile to work- up to months for people with a long standing issue to normalize cortisol rhythm feedback, but hopefully I'll respond quickly since I've only had this issue for a couple of weeks.

As to why this suddenly started happening, I'm not really sure. The only other time this has happened was late last summer, after a period of intense adrenal stress, leading to adrenal fatigue. I haven't been in that situation recently.

One thing I suspect might be happening is progesterone deficiency, which is notorious for messing up sleep. I've always been deficient to some degree, but levels often start to drop off steeply around age 35 and I'll be 35 this year, so I may be at the tipping point, progesterone-wise.
I've added a small dose of sublingual bioidentical progesterone as a trial. I don't really recommend taking progesterone without saliva tests (which I plan on doing) but I know for a fact that I've never had anything less than somewhat low-to-low progesterone levels. The advantage of sublingual is that it doesn't build up in the body like the cream does, so if you take too much, it won't take months to clear it our of your body.

I've started to make some progress. The first day on progesterone, I was able to take a short nap in the late afternoon for the first time in weeks. It seemed to calm down my nervous system. I've also been taking l-theanine (my favorite chill pill) to help deal with my nervous system hyperarousal during the day. It's awful to be so tired and yet so wired and anxious and the theanine keeps me sane and even-keel.

The other night, between the progesterone and a dose of Nyquil (not something I like to take, but I was desperate!), I managed to stay asleep for 10.5 hours. What a difference that made! The following night of the same cocktail got me 8 hours, but I woke several times (I'm blaming the Nyquil for that). Last night I managed 7 hours without the Nyquil, so I'm rather tired, but at least I'm kind of getting somewhere.

I'll keep you posted about my progress. I know I'm not the only one out there not sleeping well. Wish me luck!

-Erin

Catching Up

Happy April! I feel so guilty for going so long between posts. So, I decided to just write something. I figure I'd catch up with you all before doing a "real" post on a "real" subject.

I don't know what the source of my post procrastination is, since I have a few things I'd love to write about. I want to write about how spring is the liver season in Traditional Chinese Medicine and how to work with that. I want to write about how awesome qigong is (and what it is, for the unfamiliar). I want to write about cold thermogenesis and my adventures with it. For now, I'll just catch you all up.

This spring has been unusually warm here in Nashville. My vegetables are starting to grow and, due to a very warm winter, some of them (kale, lettuce, chard and parsnips) never stopped growing. I added some cherry trees and raspberry bushes to the garden and some potted strawberries to the front porch, where they stand a chance against rabbits and birds (unlike last year). Now, to figure out how to keep the birds from eating all my blueberries...

We had a crazy hail storm awhile back and it turns out that my roof is totaled, so I'm getting a whole new roof, completely paid for by my insurance. I'm really excited to replace the old, lame roof shingles!

This is after the hail had melted a bit!

Lately, I've been developing natural perfumes and colognes I hope to eventually sell. It's been nice being in my perfume studio, working on a regular basis. I love working with scent. It's challenging and fascinating. I've also been developing and creating the aromatic component of a product that I can't yet disclose as it's still in development...


A community acupuncture clinic opened up nearby, so I've been taking advantage of inexpensive acupuncture (yay!) I always leave it feeling so good. It's become part of my regimen of hormone and endocrine balancing, along with the Leptin Rx and cold thermogeneis. My hormones are recalibrating and my inflammation is way down. I've also had some good body composition shifts. This is good stuff and I'll go into more details in a proper post.

I've decided that April is workout month for me. I hadn't been working out on a regular basis due to some adrenal fatigue, which was due to lingering viral/bacterial stuff from a nasty adenovirus last November. It's amazing how a pathogen can decimate your adrenals! Now that I'm ok again, it feels like the right time to hit the kettlebells and isometrics again. The cold thermogenesis is doing wonders for my muscle power and recovery, so that makes working out even more rewarding (not to mention less painful!) It seems like my muscle is developing faster, too.

So, good things are going on. Progress is being made. I'll write again soon!

-Erin

Adrenal Fatigue

This is a subject that I wish I knew nothing about. Unfortunately, I know a whole lot about it, having experienced varying degrees of adrenal fatigue over the years, from mild to I-can-barely-function severe. This is something that so many people are dealing with and, having recently suffered a bout of it, I thought I'd give it a proper post.

Adrenal fatigue creeps into our lives via so many different avenues. Stress, over-work, trauma, lack of sleep, major life changes, surgeries, infections, autoimmune disease, over-training, blood sugar fluctuations (these stress the adrenals), vegetarian/vegan diets (high in copper/low in zinc, as well as high in carbs that can cause blood sugar swings), Leaky Gut Syndrome, pregnancy... the list of contributing factors just goes on and on.

My own adventures in adrenal fatigue began with major knee surgery when I was 14, followed by years of poor sleep habits and hypoglycemia, coupled with a high-carb, low protein vegetarian diet, which made the hypoglycemia worse. I treated myself with vitamins and herbs with varying degrees of success (I never really corrected my poor sleep habits, which is critical. I can't stress this enough!).
By the time I was 31, I had a pretty severe case of adrenal fatigue going on. As a result, my reproductive hormones and cortisol had taken a major nosedive (as well as my fertility) I had to quit my stressful job, do a lot of lifestyle and diet changes, as well as alternative therapies (acupuncture and medical qigong) to get back on my feet.

To illustrate how easy it can be to end up with adrenal fatigue, let me tell you a little story: back in August, I went on vacation to my hometown. Though fun, while I was there, I got little sleep, ate more sugar than usual and had a stressful family situation occur. By the time I got back home, after the 11 hour drive, I was the most exhausted that I've been in years. I had scheduled an extra day to recover from my drive but then a coworker got sick and I had to immediately rush back to work and work several extra long days in a row while already feeling exhausted from my trip. By the weekend, I was fighting off a summer cold. About a month later, I got a nasty respiratory thing that was making the rounds and it really took the wind out of my sails and it felt like it took FOREVER to fully recover! Through all of this, I had really slacked off on my qigong practice, which didn't help matters!
All of that left me feeling fatigued and draggy and flabby (6+ weeks of not being able to work out due to fatigue/illness, coupled with whacked out adrenal hormones= a noticeable increase in belly fat!) I also had a very short and extremely painful menstrual cycle that month.

I went to my holistic doc and did an Adrenal Stress Index and it came back showing that my morning cortisol was very low, my progesterone was low and my DHEA was borderline low. My doc gave me an herbal formula to take in the morning and at noon to raise cortisol levels and he put me on a low dose of pregnenolone- the hormone precursor to progesterone and DHEA. I took coenzymated B vitamins with extra B5 as well as extra vitamin C.
I'm happy to report that my energy levels are really bouncing back. Also, my last menstrual cycle was longer and much more comfortable than the previous one.

We always hear about stress-induced high cortisol, which does all kinds of not-fun things like increasing belly fat and killing brain cells! But what happens when you've cranked out the stress hormones for so long that you've exhausted your adrenals? You start experiencing hormone cascade disruption in the form of "pregenolone steal":

What happens is that, instead of converting pregenolone into DHEA and then into sex hormones, it gets shifted toward cortisol production (cortisol is more vital to our existence than sex hormones are and so it gets prioritized. Cortisol is a major steroid hormone and too little of it really drives up inflammation).

Here's a little video discussing pregnenolone steal:

Effects of Stress - Pregnenolone Steal from Dr. Bryan Walsh on Vimeo.

There are 4 stages of adrenal fatigue:

Stage 1: Alarm Response/Fight-or-Flight (Increase in cortisol is still within the body's output capacity).

Stage 2: Resistance Response/chronic stress (The adrenals are not able to keep up with cortisol demand. Fatigue is present. Ability to handle stress is decreased. Sleep disruption occurs. Thyroid hormone conversion is affected.)

Stage 3: Adrenal Exhaustion (Low cortisol. Hormone production suffers and clinical symptoms appear. Muscle breakdown. Chronic fatigue. Increased pain).

Stage 4: Adrenal crash/failure

For a more detailed look at the stages of adrenal fatigue, please read Dr. Lam's informative article.


So, what are the symptoms of adrenal fatigue? Could I have it?

Morning fatigue/morning headache.
Not really feeling awake until around 10 a.m.
Afternoon “low” (feelings of sleepiness or clouded thinking) from 2 to 4 p.m.
A burst of energy at 6 p.m. when you finally feel better from your afternoon lull
Sleepiness around 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. However, you resist going to sleep
A “second wind” at 11 p.m. that lasts until about 1 a.m.
Never feeling rested, no matter how much sleep you get
Cravings for foods high in salt and fats
Increased thirst/frequent urination (water goes right through you)
Chronic low blood pressure
Sensitivity to cold and feeling chilled
Increased PMS or menopausal symptoms
Mild depression
Mood swings
Mental fog
Memory problems
A decreased ability to handle stress
A decreased ability to recover from illness/injury
Heat intolerance
Light-headedness when getting up from a sitting or lying down position
Decreased sex drive
Frequent sighing
Inability to handle foods high in potassium or carbohydrates unless they’re combined with fats and protein
Sugar cravings
Leaky Gut Syndrome
Increased food/seasonal allergies
Increased sensitivity to sunlight
Low progesterone/DHEA and possibly estrogen
Hot flashes
General inflammation
Achiness or joint pain
Poor exercise recovery
Difficulty losing weight/belly fat
Difficulty in changing body composition/hard gainer
Muscular weakness
Purple or blue under-eye circles
Vertical lines in the fingertips
Ringing in the ears
Heart palpitations or tachycardia
Thyroid hormone (T3) conversion impairment

You can fill out this questionnaire if you suspect adrenal fatigue.

A lot of these are symptoms of other health issues (and there's a lot of overlap between adrenal fatigue and other issues, as well) but if you score high on the questionnaire I recommend getting an Adrenal Stress Index. You don't need a doctor's prescription, although it's preferable to work with a doc or practitioner who is familiar with saliva tests and adrenal fatigue.
NOTE: Many conventional doctors do not recognize adrenal fatigue as a medical condition, nor utilize saliva hormone panels. They are trained to only recognize full-blown Addison's Disease. If your doctor falls into this category, you're going to have to find another practitioner to help you.


Once you know that you have adrenal fatigue, you have to be willing to commit to lifestyle changes in order to heal. If you have mild adrenal fatigue, you can recovery quickly with the right tools and changes. If it's more severe, realistically it will take a minimum of several months and it's highly recommended to seek the care of a good practitioner (someone who practices Functional Medicine/FunctionalEndocrinology or even a skilled acupuncturist/OMD). There may be underlying factors that need addressing that are beyond your ability to identify or address.

Be aware that for more advanced adrenal fatigue, the healing process is not a linear one. You might start to feel good and then feel not so great again for a little while. Be patient!


Some helpful things for healing adrenal fatigue:

-SLEEP! As much as possible, get 9+ hours. Yes, this is a lot, but you need that much to heal. Don't make the mistake I did by skimping on sleep!

-Get to bed early! Getting to bed before 10 is preferable. You want to go to sleep in that window of sleepiness before your second wind hits. That second wind is a surge of cortisol (not good!) and will work against your progress.

-Eat a diet (preferably Paleo/Primal!) that's easy on your blood sugar. Eat lots of protein and fat and to avoid blood sugar fluctuations and eat carbs like sweet potatoes or berries that are easier on your blood sugar. The cold, hard truth (that I learned the cold, hard way) is that it's a lot harder to heal adrenal fatigue on vegetarian/vegan diets (as per Dr. James Wilson, one of the most experienced in his field).

-Don't exercise too hard. You'll only set back your progress. Learn to gauge what you can actually handle. If you can't recover quickly or feel worse the next day, it's too much. I recommend sticking to short walks, gentle yoga and esp. tai chi or qigong (qigong really helped my healing!) Now is not the time to be trying to get buff (you won't be able get buff anyway until your cortisol/sex hormone levels are healthy!)

-Add 1/4-1/2 tsp. unrefined salt (any salt with color like Redmond Real Salt or Pink Himalayan) to your water. This sounds odd, but when you're in a state of pregnenolone steal, you're not making much aldosterone (see the chart), the hormone that regulates sodium/potassium levels and the balance of these minerals is upset, causing sodium loss, which is made worse by drinking large amounts of water, which further dilutes blood sodium levels (hence the low blood pressure/dizziness upon standing/muscle weakness/heat intolerance.) The salt will quickly correct those symptoms.

-Read "Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Syndrome" by James Wilson. This is a fantastic book and it covers ALL aspects of healing adrenal fatigue.

-Be kind and patient with yourself. Give yourself permission to not get stuff done if it's not immediately pressing. Let go of perfectionism. Get help from others when possible.

-To help with mental stress, try L-Theanine. Theanine is an amino acid found in green tea and it helps the brain make alpha waves, which will put you into a calmer, more focused state. 100-400 mgs at a time is the dose. It can be a sanity saver!

-Deep breathing. Such a fundamental thing, but most of us don't even know HOW to breathe properly! Get yourself into the habit of doing a few minutes of deep breathing upon waking, before meals and before bed. I promise you will feel a difference!

Here's my favorite video illustrating proper breathing (qigong style!):




-Meditation. Meditation doesn't have to be complicated and you don't have to do it for an hour to reap the benefits. I like to do a meditation called the "5-8 Meditation", which is a simple breath awareness technique. All you have to do is sit in a comfortable position and breath into your relaxed belly through your nose for 5 counts, pause, and exhale slowly through your nose for 8 counts. Just be aware of how your breath feels and allow any thoughts to pass through you.
If you'd like to add a visualization, you can imagine cool, white light or water flowing down through the center of the top of your head and washing through you, taking any tension and stress with it. You can start with 5 minutes. Doing this in the morning before you start your day can have a profound effect on your whole day. It's also a great way to end the day.


For those who suspect mild adrenal fatigue or just need a little extra help with handling stress:

Besides taking advantage of the suggestions above, you can use supplements for a little extra help:

-Himalaya Stress Care is one of my favorite adaptogenic, adrenal supplements. It's been extensively researched over the decades (see Geriforte research papers) and is proven to reduce cortisol and boost adrenal function (it's also a great antioxidant!) You can take the recommended dose for maintenance or take a higher dose during periods of stress and/or fatigue.



I truly hope this info will help those that are feeling less than good due to the effects of adrenal fatigue!

-Erin