April 18, 2018 • 37 mins
Wednesday, April 18 2018
Dr. Shunney explains how you can prepare yourself to finally get to sleep and stay asleep. If you're anything like me sleep is THE hardest part of your fitness journey. Constantly thinking about what I missed out on that day, or what I have coming up in the next day, week, or year! There are simple things you can do to set yourself up for success and natural sleep aids to help you finally get the rest you need to restore your energy for the next day and rebuild the body you've been working so hard on. Let me know what you think of the podcast. You can always hit me up on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat with questions, comments and suggestions on topics or guests you'd like to hear on the next Workout Wednesday podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to the Workout Wednesday podcast. Thank you so much
again for making some time and hanging out with me.
Hopefully you're finding some things in this podcast to help
you along whatever your journey is, a fitness journey, a
health journey. UM. One of my biggest things, and I've
talked about this before, is I don't sleep. And I
know that out of all the things that you're supposed
(00:26):
to do for a healthy life lifestyle, uh, sleeping and
drinking water or like, two of the biggest things that
you can possibly do. I did get myself to kind
of a sleep schedule a couple of weeks ago, and
and actually everything else in my life in terms of
health and fitness got easier. I was waking up easier out,
which means I was having breakfast, which means I was
(00:47):
showering for work, which means I was getting my workouts
in earlier because I didn't go home and nap um.
But recently the past couple of weeks that fell apart,
and all of that came down crumbling with the fact
that I wasn't falling asleep proper or sleeping at all
really some days. So I've got someone on the podcast
this week that's going to be able to kind of
(01:08):
guide us through some ways to get to bed to
make sure you're you're setting yourself up for success. I
guess when it comes to sleeping and some natural ways
to get to bed using some natural sleep aids that
could help you out once you get all the other
factors out of the way and create kind of a
good sleeping environment. So let me introduce someone who hopefully
(01:30):
will help me fall asleep. Finally, um M A Shanny,
Dr M Shanny. I should say, hey, how are you?
Thanks for having me on? What is your your specialty?
What is your your world? So my specialty is women's
health and hormone balancing, So that's probably about of my practice. Um.
That being said, I see both men and women for
a variety of chronic and acute health issues. I also
(01:52):
do a ton of digestive health work also kind of
functional gastro intestinal disorders. But when you're dealing with a
lot of hormone imbalanced stuff, um, you are inevitably seeing
a lot of sleep, fatigue, anxiety, depression, metabolic issues, etcetera. Yeah,
and I'm in Santa Cruz, California. I've been in private
practice here for um, gosh, about twelve years and I
(02:15):
was in New York and Connecticut prior to that. The
people in New York and Connecticut were probably way more
strung out and stressful. Probably the people in California. Well
it was different. Let's say it was different. Um, you know,
everybody's got their own their own strain of it, so
to speak. But but yeah, I mean I left New
York because I can go just as fast as everybody there,
(02:37):
and I knew it wasn't good for me. I wanted
to be somewhere where. Um, the pace, the desired pace
was actually a little slower. As someone who has tried
to get into somewhat of a regular sleep pattern but
always struggles actually falling asleep, Like, do what are some
of the biggest issues people have with just falling asleep
and getting a good night's sleep? Yeah, well I think
(02:58):
that there's severn roll. I mean, one is just I mean,
I know it sounds oversimplified, but going back to the
basics of sleep hygiene, which is like what what is
your sleep world? Like, I mean I do actually when
I see patients take the time to coach them through
things like is it dark enough, is it too hot?
Is it too cold? Is it too noisy? Like when
(03:19):
was the last time you ate? How much alcohol did
you drink? And when did you stop? Are you watching
scary movies? Do you have your device in your bed
with you? You know? I feel like the bedroom should
be for sleep and sex. There should be no television,
there should be no devices, there should be no food,
and you know, preferably there should be no animals or
(03:39):
you know, grown children anyway, right, I mean, it should
really be a sacred space that makes easy to sleep.
So a lot of times we're talking about supplements. I
can take, herbs, I can use, medicines I can use
and we haven't looked at any of that stuff. So
I mean that's a big one right there. Wait, hold on,
if I don't have my phone or any devices by me,
how do I check Instagram the second I wake up? Exactly?
(04:02):
It forces you to have a little more time untethered,
rich I think is really important, which brings me to
a second point, right, is that we are so tethered,
whether it's to our devices and electronics, or to our work,
or to the go go go of our lives. I mean,
I think obviously there are medical conditions that can contribute
to sleep problems. Right, there's sleep abne as, there's you know,
heart issues, there's neurologic issues, things like that, hormonal issues
(04:26):
for women in a big one also in particular. But
I think for the vast majority of people that I see,
and you know, your average Joe, the issue is that
we just can't quite shut our brains off, like we're
so webbed up from just our go go go lifestyle.
And I think the biggest challenge for people to calm
down and fall asleep is to kind of calm down
(04:48):
their mind, which will then let their body come down
and get to that place where we can rest. Right,
if we think about the nervous system, you've got the
sympathetic nervous system, which is in charge of fight or flight,
which keeps us adapting, in moving and kind of ready
for whatever the world throws at us. And you know,
and it's opposite, it's it's Yin to that yang is
the parasympathetic nervous system, which is when we rest and
(05:11):
digest and recuperate and grow new cells and all that
good stuff. And if you're in sympathetic overdrive all the time,
parasympathetic just loses loses all the attention loses loses the spotlight.
And if that's kind of where you're at, then sleep
is going to suffer. Digestion is going to suffer. You know,
your immune system is going to suffer. You're gonna be like,
(05:33):
why do I like overnight? I look older, My hair
is dryer, And that's because you're you've got too much
sympathetic overdrive going on. And you know, for the context
of this conversation, sleep is a really good signal that
something's wrong in that department you mentioned kind of your
your sleeping habitat, if you will, kind of what your
bedroom is set up, Like, what are some of the
(05:55):
the basics that people can say, All right, I'm gonna
go home today, I'm gonna go into my bedroom right now.
I'm going to clear out these things. I'm going to
make sure my bedroom has some of these core environmental properties. Yeah.
So obviously, you know, anything that's plugged in besides a
light and a and an alarm clock would preferably go um,
(06:18):
you know, but I think part of it is is
really looking at light, noise, and temperature, those three things
like temperature, so um, you know, I used to live
in New York I know you did too, um. And
the body is incredibly adaptive. I remember moving into an
apartment which was fantastic. We didn't know until we moved
in that there was a bus stop right underneath the
bedroom window, right, so every hour on the hour, doude do, dude?
(06:41):
I mean it was. It was nuts And I cried
for two days. Um. And then, along with the help
of some ear plugs and a white noise machine and
my body's own, thankfully great ability to adapt, I was
able to manage that. But you know, if you've got
that kind of noise disruption, particularly in the early morning
hours when you sleep, can be really tenuous and easy
(07:02):
to interrupt. Um, don't be afraid of ear plugs, don't
be afraid of white noise machines. These things can really help.
If the light it's a problem for you, there's a
plethora of mask options available, not to mention blackout shades,
things like that. And then temperature too hot, too cold.
You really do want it to be just right. And
if that means using a fan, if that means, um,
(07:25):
you know, getting some air in there. If that means
usually usually it's that it's too hot, not that it's
too cold, gotcha. So let's say you you block out
some of the noise, whether it's ear plugs or a
white noise machine, which, by the way, I got a
recently got this Phillips like a long clock thing, so
it was like natural light. Probably overpaid for it, but
it has this like ocean sound to put you to
(07:46):
sleep at night. It actually has been helping. Oh, it's great,
good for you. So let's say you create this environment, right,
you have the ear plugs, blackout shades, the temperature is
just right, and you still can't fall asleep. Right Oh no, yeah,
then you then you can feel really good about the
fact that you've set the stage and now you can
(08:06):
look at what might make the most sense to add.
So again, you know, as a doctor, I'm gonna have
to put this caveat out there, which is that you know,
if your difficulties with sleeping have been persistent, lasting more
than let's just throw two or three weeks out there,
and um, and if it's if you're getting less than
five hours of sleep at night during this time, I
(08:28):
would absolutely advise you to see a doctor and just
make sure that something else isn't going on. So let's
just say that right there. Um. Now, the bummerre about
going to see your doctor is that most of the
time there won't be something else going on, and they'll
end up giving you a sleeping pill. And I would
really encourage you to try some of these other things
I'm about to talk about before you take sleeping pills,
because um, they are addicted, addictive, They have some nasty
(08:51):
side effects and the quality of the sleep that you
get on them, while you might be sedated and knocked out. Um,
you know there there's a there's a difference between getting
RESTful sleep and you know, being unconscious. Right if someone
punched me in the face and knocked me out, I'm
assuming that's not great rest No like like that that
shouldn't be your option. D Like if this herb doesn't work,
I'm just gonna have my buddy knocked me in the head. Yet. No,
(09:13):
absolutely not. Um, so you know you want to think
about things. So all right, what is it for me
about sleep? Is it that, um, I can't quiet my
brain down? Is it that I'm anxious? Is it? Um?
You know you kind of guessing, and I'm guessing that
most people listening are thinking it's it's the I can't
show my I can't shut my brain. I mean when
I the second I put my head down to go
(09:34):
to sleep every night, I either automatically start thinking about
the things I didn't get done that day or all
the things I need to get done in the next
three days. Life is really it's like it's really just
this carousel, right you just like stop stop that I
want to get off kind of thing, Like it just
doesn't slow down. So, you know, I have used over
the years I've been in practice almost seventeen years, there's
(09:57):
classes of herbs to support the nervousness, to to calm down.
You may have heard of some of these, you know,
things like valerian passion, flower, skull cap hops, camameal, peppermint.
I mean, these things all just have very gentle comming effects.
If you go out and buy nighttime herbal tea or
those kind of things, they're all in there. They're the
usual suspects. A lot of people do really well with
(10:19):
valerian um. You know, these are kind of gentle things
that I would often recommend for people, UM if people
have a lot of revved up anxiety. UM. Traditionally I
would go more towards things like cava cava or um
California poppy UM, just a little heavier hitters UM. But
I have to tell you that my practice has been
(10:41):
really transformed in the last two years since I started
using um cb D, which is cannaba die all, which
is a non psychoactive cannabinoid from the cannabis plant UM,
and I use hemp derived CBD products, and I have
found that it has UM maximize my ability to help
(11:02):
people fall asleep, get good rest, UM, kind of create
more stress resilience, lower anxiety, etcetera. UM, and to do
it faster UM than any of those other really wonderful
traditional modalities I just mentioned. So it's been my go
to for the last about two years. So what do
you Because I have this list of things that you
(11:23):
were going to talk about. Obviously, UM, some of them
I've never heard of. Some of them. I wouldn't even
know where to go about acquiring them. How much is
a good amount? Like what do you do? Do you?
So what we should what we should talk about then,
is something called the endocannabinoid system. So this is a
physiologic system of your body, like your digestive system, like
(11:45):
your you know, like your cardiovascular system, your nervous system.
This is one of the key physiologic systems um that
we didn't even know about until the nineteen nineties. So
we actually have something called an endocannabinoid system. It is
made up of cannabinoid like compounds that we make ourselves.
So ENDO stands for endogenous, meaning the body produces it,
(12:07):
so endocannabinoids. We have enzymes that produce those endocannabinoids and
break them down, and then we have cannabinoid receptors in
every organ system of our body. So this endocannabinoid system
is its main job is balance and to keep us
functioning optimally while adapting to change. And because those receptors
(12:31):
are everywhere in our body, and because the major job
of that system is to keep us balanced, we see
a huge myriad of effects on every system of the
body when our endocannabinoid system is out of balance. So
what puts our endocannabinoid system out of balance. Well, it's
going to be our standard American diet. The fact that
we tend to be overweight, we have high circulating levels
(12:53):
of inflammatory chemicals were stressed out. So CBD cannabin dial
which is a cannabin annoy derived from a plant as
opposed to one that we make right. It can come in,
it can it can help support and balance this system.
So the reason I backed up to tell you that
when you asked how much CBD you need is because
(13:15):
how much CBD do you need versus how much I
need could be really different based on what's happening with
my endocannabinoid system. Okay, that makes I mean, that makes sense.
So what do you do? So what I do is
I start really low with people. So I might start
three to six milligrams of CBD UM. Again, I don't
(13:36):
use a CBD that's all by itself, just isolated there
in some oil. I use CBD in the in the
hemp extract um. So basically I'm getting all the other
constituents that are in that plants, which are and I
know a lot of these are biochemical terms that people
may or may not know, but other cannabinoids and terpenes
which have some of their own um and anxiety effects
(13:58):
and flabnoise or or anti occidents, and you know, lots
of other stuff in there and the CBD. So I
might start with three to six milligrams something like that
of cbd UM in a whole hamp extract and then
I give people instructions for how to slowly and gradually
kind of work their way up until they find their
right dose. I can tell you from looking at data
in my practice over the last two years that I
(14:19):
have some people whose sleep has been fully restored with
three milligrams, and I have people who need fifty or
sixty milligrams to sleep well. So there really is a
very big difference. The good news is this stuff is
super super safe, so you really do have a lot
of room to experiment and find your right dose. And now,
is that something that you end up doing like every
(14:41):
night before you go to bed? Do you wean off
of it at some point? How does what's that for? Yeah,
so a lot of it depends on Like so you
were saying that a real challenge for you is falling asleep,
and some people have issues with sleep on set, some
people have issues staying asleep, some people wake up early.
So the good news with this particular and greedy it
is that it works quite quickly, So it's in ten
(15:02):
to fifteen minutes. You can kind of get a handle
on what that dose did for you. If you're using
the liquid form, if you're swallowing capsules, that can take
up to forty five minutes. So when we're starting, a
lot of times I start with the liquid so that
people can be like, all right, I've been laying here
for twenty minutes, I'm going to take a little more. Um. Yeah, exactly.
(15:22):
And likewise, if you're if you're up and it's like
three in the morning and it's like the lights just
went on, right, I'm sure you have a few people
listening who experience that you can keep it right next
to your bed, you can. You can take a little
bit then too, And so the idea is kind of
finding you know, that the sweet spot um. And you know,
sometimes you usually when I get the right dose for
people at bedtime, they will stop waking up in the
(15:45):
middle of the night, or they will wake up less frequently,
and if they do wake up, they can get back
to sleep without a problem. Occasionally we do need a
middle of the night dozing to UM. Well, yeah, definitely.
I've definitely woken up in the middle of the night
if there's like a ambulance or pleas car going right
outside my apartment, and then you can't get back to
sleep exactly. So if you have something there, you're like
(16:07):
all right, I'm gonna give myself like ten minutes, and
if nothing's happening, I'm just gonna take a little bit.
And usually with intent of fifteen minutes, you can feel
your body just kind of drifting back because part of
what it does, right is that when your endocannabinoid system
is balanced, it actually keeps your stress response nice and low.
So when you take this on a regular basis and
(16:30):
you start to develop more endocannabinoid tone, that ambulance, instead
of sending you throw the roof, which he then takes
an hour to get back from, you might just kind
of spike up a little bit as your body wakes
up and goes, okay, I'm not in danger, and then
you can get back more easy. So over time, instead
of needing more or relying on this forever, over time,
(16:51):
you're going to create more endocannabinoid balance, more tone, and
you're actually gonna find that you start to need it
less and you start to be able to use it
on as needed asis. So I mean, this is what
we want from all the stuff we take right, So
um to be actually seeing that clinically, and my practice
is very cool. Okay, Now let's say I'm taking a
an overnight flight, a red eye flight from Seattle back
(17:13):
to New York to go see some of my family.
Is that something that I can like pop in a
couple of milligrams and just pass out on the plane?
Do you have to worry about it when I wake up?
You have to worry about like sleep walking or any
other crazy things that go on. Yeah, like when you
take half an ambient and then you arrive and they
literally have to drag you off the plane. Yeah. Um no,
you don't have to worry about any of that. If
you take you have to watch how much you take
(17:35):
based on the time, right. So I mean I even
see for myself. I use it personally, and you know,
my system adapts, right. So part of the way that
I often know that it's time to reduce my dose
is that I wake up in the morning and I've
literally got to shake my head for a second because
I'm groggy, and I go, all right, I don't need
quite that much at night. So that's the worst thing
(17:56):
that's going to happen if you use it on a
plane like that, is that you just might have to
shake your head for a minute, but you're not going
to be disoriented like if you took a sleep medication, UM,
and then depending you know, sometimes for me, not so
much cross country or like a red eye, I would
just do the CBD UM. But like if you were
going to Europe or something like that, or just traveling further,
I would do CBD with melatonin. And I find that
(18:19):
to be a really nice combination for those longer trips.
How do I get my hands on any of that stuff?
So if you live in a plate so there's a
couple of different ways. Right. If you live in a
place um where you can get medical or recreational cannabis,
you can go into a dispensary and you can ask
for a high cb D low th HC product right um.
(18:41):
And you know I would encourage you to move away
from isolates and look for CBD that's in a whole
plant extract. Now, my bias is to use a hemp
derived CBD product UM. And I'll tell you why in
a second. But the great um, you know, the great
thing about the hemp derives CBD is that it's if
if they're federally lawful, because it's a hemp, it's a
(19:02):
hemp product, federally lawful, it's in health food stores. It's
in over seventeen hundred health food stores across the country. UM,
and you can get it online, so you know, the
brand that I like is called plus C B D oil,
So if you go to Triple W plus CBD oil
dot com UM, you can get it. And it's shipped
to all fifty states. So it's not something you don't
have to worry about, like the weed laws or whatever
(19:24):
in your state. No, because hemp is federally lawful, so
if you're getting it from a dispenser, you would. There's
a couple other benefits to hemp that I just want
to mention. One is that if what you're not if
you're not interested in th HC, t HC has certainly
recreational benefits and has medical benefits as well. But if
you're not so interested in th HC when you get
(19:45):
into a dispensary, it can be really hard to tell
exactly how much th HC is in a product. It
depends on the state, the labeling, blah blah blah. If
you're getting a hemp product, you know that there is
less than point three th HC in that product, So
you know, UM that by the virtue of the fact
that it's called hemp, there's not going to be enough
t HC in there to give you any kind of
(20:06):
altering effect. M Second, when you're using a hemp product, UM,
you know that, particularly for using what I would call
like a gold tier supplement line UM, they'll be transparent
about their sourcing. You'll be able to see if any
chemical pesticides or fertilizers were used. You'll be able to
see third party testing that looks at UM, solvents, pesticides,
(20:29):
heavy metals, molds, all that stuff. UM. And that's really
important to me. You go into a dispensary, I mean,
the industry at this point is not regulated yet, so
you don't know what chemicals you're getting exposed to. You
don't know what's in that stuff, and that could be
problematic for people. And obviously we're trying to keep it
natural as a whole point of fighting five natural sleep
aids UM. But some of the other stuff you have
(20:50):
on this list that you sent over, Hey, I don't
even know what it is. B I wouldn't even know
where to look for it. So what I'm looking at
on here you mentioned it actually earlier was kava kava
uh uh huh, I don't even know what that is.
Am I dumb for not knowing? Am I dumb for
not knowing that that is absolutely not. Aca is a
fantastic herb um. It has a long you can get
(21:10):
it in the health food store, you can get it
in capsules, you can get it in tincture, you can
find it in tease. Um. It is uh. It has
a many centuries of traditional use, particularly used ceremoniously by
the islanders of Fiji and other places like that, And
basically they prepare it in a certain way and they
drink it and it brings on this incredible calm and relaxation,
(21:34):
tranquility and for some people even con border on euphoric um.
The way it exists kind of in western herbal medicine
as we have access to it is that it's really
it's fantastic for anxiety um and it's been quite well
studied as well, So there's even some literature that suggests
that it is as effective, if not more effective than
(21:55):
a lot of the anti anxiety medications that people are
offered without there being any kind of you know, addictive
aspect to it. So um cava is fantastic when it
comes to anxiety. It can be a great intervention. Although
you know, if I'm completely honest, I've really I use
more CBD than cava for anxiety these days, and I
(22:16):
think the results are even faster and better. Um, but
but that's where cava is. And um, you know a
lot of this stuff, um people use in combination, you know,
together people kind of find the right blend for themselves,
so you know we're all a little different. Okay. Then, uh,
there was one five h t P. What is that
(22:38):
because it sounds like it sounds like I'm going on
a website. Five htp. It's five hydroxy trip to fan
and it is an amino acid based product. Trip to fan.
L trip to Fan, which is what it's derived from,
is an amino acid and L trip to fan can
turn into five htp. Yeah, okay, that I've heard it. Okay,
(22:58):
And five htp turn into serotonin, so you might think
about serotonin in regards to mood, and five HTP is
often used for mood, but um, you need enough serotonin
to be able to make enough melatonin, and adequate melatonin
is extremely important for sleep cycles as well. So if
(23:20):
you're you know, if you're somebody who's having sleep issues
and is also having mood issues, particularly depression. Um, using
some five HTP at bedtime can often kind of help
on both fronts. Okay, that seems simple enough. That's something
actun just getting a capsule form at exactly health food
store or what else where else can I get that? Yeah?
Health food store online? Yeah, absolutely easy to find. And
(23:43):
then the other thing that I don't know, I didn't
know existed before you sent over this list was nervine,
which sounds actually pretty scary. I'm not gonna lie so,
so nervine or nervine potato potato. It's a class of herbs.
I kind of mentioned them in the beginning. Actually it's
a it's a class of herbs. Um, you know, So
there are different classes of herbs. You've got nervings, which
(24:05):
support the nervous system. You've got adaptogens, which help you
kind of balance and adapt to stress. Right. Um, You've
got uh, you know, Demulson's which helped soothe things, um
like you would use for your throat. So there's different
kinds of classes of herbs, right, And so nervings support
the nervous system. So and usually for most people, what
(24:26):
that means is calms the nervous system. So that's your valerian,
your passion flower, your skull cap, your camerameal. Nervings, um
are very ton ifying, so they're kind of supporting your
body's natural function. They're generally considered to be very safe,
safe for children. A lot of them are even safe
in pregnancy. So it's just it's a very calming, nurturing
(24:49):
class of herbs. And you know, if you've got some
really serious, um intractable issues, though, the nervings are often
not going to be strong enough to not get back.
And that's the other think that's just a health food
store type of thing. Yeah. Absolutely, And like I mentioned,
if you look for some of those ninety night herbal
teas that so many of us love, myself included, um,
(25:10):
a lot of them are filled with nervines. Okay, then
there is something I did know that was on this list,
cinnamon and holy basil. So another issue why some people
wake in the middle of the night, for example, usually
it's a it's a it's a wake up thing as
opposed to falling asleep thing. Is because um, they're blood
sugar drops in the middle of the night, and in
a response to that blood sugar dropping. And why would
(25:32):
your blood sugar drop in the middle of the night.
I mean, assuming that you're not sick um or diabetic,
it would drop in the middle of the night because
you ate too much before bed that hat. You know,
you had a pine of ice cream. Um, you drank
three bottles of wine or maybe three glasses or know whatever,
we all have our women three bottles. That's a big
night and just for me. But you know, whatever is
(25:55):
that so your blood sugar spikes up because of that
ice cream or that wine. Right, and then in the
middle of the night, when you're supposed to be sound asleep,
knocks you weigh down. When your body knows your blood
sugar is not supposed to be super low. So one
of the ways that it tries to bring that blood
sugar up is that your cortisol comes up. Right, So
your cortisol comes up and that will wake you up
because cortisol is your major stress hormone. So you know,
(26:18):
one thing we talked about with people is really limiting
the sugar and the refined carbohydrates that people are having
close to bedtime. Um, maybe getting rid of dessert. Maybe
if you really need a snack before bed. Have it
be more protein based, although frankly, I would just as
soon tell most people to really avoid having dinners. Fine,
leave it at dinner, just leave it how long? How
(26:39):
long I've I've seen different like studies on this. But
if you're saying, all right, stop eating this many hours
or this many minutes before bed, is there like a
kind of standard that people should hold themselves to. I
think most data supports two to three hours before bed
is just best from a digestive I'm sleep and go
right to bed, which probably isn't great for me. Yeah,
(27:00):
and I think a lot of people do. I mean,
I have people who get home from work at eight
nine o'clock. I mean people, you know, So you got
to do the best you can with your lifestyle. I mean, obviously,
if you do eat late at night and you eat
before bed, um, I would really suggest that that be
one of your lighter meals that you would have, you know,
one of your bigger, heavier and more nutrient dense meals
be earlier in the day. And then obviously don't go
(27:22):
to bed hungry. Give yourself something to eat, um, but
have it be lighter so your body is not spending
the whole night working on managing that. It's almost leading
to because and you probably feel this too, You go
out for a big meal, maybe get like a big
pasta dish or something, and you automatically want to go
to sleep. Like so it almost in your head works
(27:44):
in reverse. Even though you are tired and stuff, it's
just not going to give you a great sleep, so
you don't want to do that right before you go
to bed. It's totally true, you know, and just I
know this is not exactly in line with our conversation,
but I would say that if you feel really tired
after a meal, that's your body giving you some very
direct information about that meal. You know, one is did
(28:05):
I eat too much? How much did I eat? And
number two is what was the ratio of protein to
carbohydrates in that meal? Um, what most people experience is
that when they over eat, they feel tired. When they
eat a good amount, they don't. And secondly, most people
find that when they eat a meal that has good balance,
(28:25):
and of course the pasta made me think of this
good balance of protein and carbs, they don't feel as
zonked out, whereas if they eat a lot of carbs
they feel more zonked out. It's the same thing we
were just talking about. It's like your blood sugar goes
up because carbs break down into sugar super fast, and
then it knocks you right down on your butt and
drops your sugar low and then you feel tired. Right.
(28:46):
So obviously you know, looking at if there's a component
of that to your issue is important. And then there
are supplements that you can take, um, which can help
to balance your blood sugar also. I mean, obviously you
don't want to be supplementing on top of eating a
pine of ice cream every night. Um, but you know,
so things like uh, cinnamon, things like holy basil, which
(29:08):
is an ir Vedic herb which also happens to be
great for the stress response. Um. You know, things like
berberine and bitter melon. I mean, there's a whole host
um of herbal and supplemental formulations that you can use
to help if blood sugar balance is an issue. UM.
So you know, there's like testing I would do in
the office to try to figure out if there was
(29:29):
a blood sugar issue before I went that route. Um,
but you know it's worth looking at in response to
trying to create your best night's sleep, Like am I
sabotaging this UM by virtue of keeping my blood sugar
really fluctuating? Well, I like what I love about this
conversation is it's about using Obviously, these are all going
(29:49):
to end up being sleep aids in some capacity, but
they're not masking an issue. They're hopefully getting to the
root of an issue and helping everyone find out what
their issues are and then them there. Once you start
attacking those issues. Let's say you're using the cinnamon to
regulate a little bit of blood sugar or whatever. You
can then say, all right, instead of leaning on the
(30:09):
cinnamon every night or this holy basil every night, let
me try to change my diet at least before I
go to bed, you know. And if it's using any
any of the other things we've talked about, it's let
me figure out what the root of the problem is.
I'll use whatever this supplement is, this sleep aid to
tackle that issue now as I try to develop better
(30:30):
habits so that I don't need them exactly. And that's
really the beauty of integrative medicine or holistic medicine, right,
is that when it's being done properly, UM, we are
not just treating symptoms. We are actually getting at the
getting at the cause. And yeah, I mean, you know
if somebody, if you could just treat somebody with diet
(30:51):
and lifestyle, that would be fantastic. But you know the
truth of the matter is, once you get into clinical practice,
no matter how naive I was coming out of naturopathic school,
you know I got in there, it's like, you know, what,
these people need to be meditating and going to the
gym and making more food and blah blah blah blah.
But they don't have the energy, the motivation, the focus
(31:12):
to do any of this right now. So what can
I do for them to kind of help them get
some of those things so that then they can move
into all of those dietary and lifestyle components and then
they need less of the supplementation. I mean, when you're
when you're in a realm of medicine where your major
tool is a pharmaceutical prescription. Pharmaceuticals are meant to treat symptoms.
(31:35):
They do nothing to get at the cause. And of
course are conventional docs as well, meaning as they may be,
they have ten minutes with the patients and they don't
have time to talk about diet and lifestyle and cause
or connect with you and listen, it's terrible, and most
of them will tell you it's terrible as well. So
this kind of medicine really affords you the ability to
(31:56):
to make make some real change and gives you, you know,
the the empowerment to you know, figure it out and
do it on your own and change things on your own.
And it's always, obviously, no matter what your issue is,
it's always good to talk to a professional first, like yourself, um,
and then look just to make sure there isn't anything
glaring that you're you're missing um. But it's also great
(32:16):
to just do the research and figure out what you
could do on your own without a shoving chemicals in
your body to to fix whatever issue you have going on.
It is a lot of it. I mean, you probably
say this to your clients at a lot of this
stuff that we deal with is self inflicted to a degree.
It is. And you know you have to be careful
the way you say that, right, because the last thing
you want to do is kind of make somebody feel
(32:37):
guilty or you know that you're responsible for being sick.
I mean, it's one thing if you can't sleep right,
it's another thing. If you've got cancer or auto you
never want to say that. But at the same time, though,
I mean there is there is a nuanced way to say,
you know, here are the things that you're doing on
a regular basis which are impacting your condition and and
(33:01):
and really encouraging them to say, okay, what what two
of these can we bite off? First? What can you do? Um?
Because again, the way conventional care is kind of existing
for people right now, it's just like, it's not it's
not sharing this this health journey between patients and doctors.
It's just like, Okay, this is the doctor, here's what
(33:22):
you do. If you don't do it that way, then
I've got nothing else for you. Next, it's not all
doctor's fault either. It's the fact that a lot of
people just want a quick answer. They just want, all right,
what do I take to fix this problem so I
can keep doing everything exactly the same. Yeah, that's an
interesting point. But doing everything exactly the same is what
got you there to a degree in the first place.
It's not I mean, there are obviously bigger issues at play,
(33:43):
but are you helping yourself? I think is the biggest
question you could ask yourself you's your's totally right. I
mean I always go back to the system and how
broken it is, but you are right. We have all
been well trained and we've been indoctrinated that you know,
just the purple little purple pill, you know what I mean.
I believe me. I've sat in many patient visits and
just said, oh, hey, tell me what you're willing to
do right now, because I can't make you do anything.
(34:04):
I mean, this is and this is that it's core
kind of a a fitness podcast or that's the other
way to started as and I mean there are there's
a whole industry out there for people who don't want
to actually change their diet or work out, but still
want to be fit. It's that quick it's that quick
fix that everyone's searching for. When you get to where
you are at that point in life. Let's say you're
you're extremely overweight or something. Yeah, there are genetic factors
(34:26):
that go into that and whatnot, but it took you
years to get to that point. It's not going to
take you five days to get back to where you
want to go. Yeah, Like if I buy that thing
and I strap it around my middle and then it
submits these little electronic impulse and then I'm gonna have
a six pack. It sounds great, it sounds fantastic. Well, Dr,
thank you so so much for for hanging out. I'm
(34:48):
gonna try at least some of the things we've talked
about too, maybe get some sleep at some point in
my life. Excellent. Let me know how it goes. And
if any of your listeners want to know more about
cbd UM, I would highly recommend plus cbd oil dot com.
And if you end up placing an order, I believe
that if you put radio fifteen so Radio one five
(35:10):
into the promotion code, it's fifteen percent off any order
if you want to give any of that a try.
And I am at Triple W dot Dr shawnny dot com,
so d R S h U N n e y
dot com and I've got lots of podcasts and videos
and blogs and all kinds of fun stuff up there
for people to check out for free if they're interested. Well,
(35:30):
Dr hopefull, I know you have a lot of other
things that you do outside of, you know, talking about sleep.
Maybe I'll have you on again. I'd love to You're
awesome and talk to you so Thank you so much.
For hanging out would be my pleasure. Thank you. So
hopefully you can take something from this podcast and use
it tonight, whether it's making sure the temperature in your
bedroom is good or making sure you know any of
those other surrounding things. I know it's going to be
(35:52):
difficult for definitely me and most people. Is you know,
turning your phones off, for keeping your phones and your
devices oh way from your bed. I've read articles where
you're not supposed to look at your phone screen like
an hour before you go to bed, which I know
for a lot of people, and I'm part of this
with this group, that's hard to do, especially when you're
(36:13):
checking emails right before you go to bed seeing what
we have coming up, or you're scrolling through Instagram or
trying to look for someone on bumble or tender. But
that will be my goal for the week. So pick
something from this podcast, pick one of these healthy sleep habits,
try to implement it in your week, and hopefully by
this time next week you're sleeping a little better. Uh.
Those natural sleep remedies, give one a try if you want.
(36:34):
I'm thinking about trying the CBD oil myself. I mean,
if you're anything like me, sleeping is like one of
the hardest things and one of the most disruptive things
of your day would and it shouldn't be. It should
be the time that you're you're resting and we're all
kind of recovering from whatever else we've done for this
fitness or health journey that we're on. Uh. Next week,
I'm gonna have a really close friend of mine on
(36:55):
the podcast. She is a dermatology physicians assistant. So it's
gonna be a little bit of a different podcast where
we find out what we should do to kind of
look like we're healthy at least, because you know, being
on this journey is great, but if you look like
you're eighties seven years old when you're really forty, that's
probably not a great thing for you. So we're gonna
learn about that. If you have questions, always email My
(37:18):
Day Friday Show at Gmail or hit me up on Instagram, Twitter, uh, Snapchat.
I don't really check it that off on Facebook at worst.
Anthony on all of that stuff, Thank you so much
for making time for the Workout Wednesday podcast. Good luck
on your journey. I'll talk to you next week.
Welcome to the Workout Wednesday podcast. Thank you so much
again for making some time and hanging out with me.
Hopefully you're finding some things in this podcast to help
you along whatever your journey is, a fitness journey, a
health journey. UM. One of my biggest things, and I've
talked about this before, is I don't sleep. And I
know that out of all the things that you're supposed
(00:26):
to do for a healthy life lifestyle, uh, sleeping and
drinking water or like, two of the biggest things that
you can possibly do. I did get myself to kind
of a sleep schedule a couple of weeks ago, and
and actually everything else in my life in terms of
health and fitness got easier. I was waking up easier out,
which means I was having breakfast, which means I was
(00:47):
showering for work, which means I was getting my workouts
in earlier because I didn't go home and nap um.
But recently the past couple of weeks that fell apart,
and all of that came down crumbling with the fact
that I wasn't falling asleep proper or sleeping at all
really some days. So I've got someone on the podcast
this week that's going to be able to kind of
(01:08):
guide us through some ways to get to bed to
make sure you're you're setting yourself up for success. I
guess when it comes to sleeping and some natural ways
to get to bed using some natural sleep aids that
could help you out once you get all the other
factors out of the way and create kind of a
good sleeping environment. So let me introduce someone who hopefully
(01:30):
will help me fall asleep. Finally, um M A Shanny,
Dr M Shanny. I should say, hey, how are you?
Thanks for having me on? What is your your specialty?
What is your your world? So my specialty is women's
health and hormone balancing, So that's probably about of my practice. Um.
That being said, I see both men and women for
a variety of chronic and acute health issues. I also
(01:52):
do a ton of digestive health work also kind of
functional gastro intestinal disorders. But when you're dealing with a
lot of hormone imbalanced stuff, um, you are inevitably seeing
a lot of sleep, fatigue, anxiety, depression, metabolic issues, etcetera. Yeah,
and I'm in Santa Cruz, California. I've been in private
practice here for um, gosh, about twelve years and I
(02:15):
was in New York and Connecticut prior to that. The
people in New York and Connecticut were probably way more
strung out and stressful. Probably the people in California. Well
it was different. Let's say it was different. Um, you know,
everybody's got their own their own strain of it, so
to speak. But but yeah, I mean I left New
York because I can go just as fast as everybody there,
(02:37):
and I knew it wasn't good for me. I wanted
to be somewhere where. Um, the pace, the desired pace
was actually a little slower. As someone who has tried
to get into somewhat of a regular sleep pattern but
always struggles actually falling asleep, Like, do what are some
of the biggest issues people have with just falling asleep
and getting a good night's sleep? Yeah, well I think
(02:58):
that there's severn roll. I mean, one is just I mean,
I know it sounds oversimplified, but going back to the
basics of sleep hygiene, which is like what what is
your sleep world? Like, I mean I do actually when
I see patients take the time to coach them through
things like is it dark enough, is it too hot?
Is it too cold? Is it too noisy? Like when
(03:19):
was the last time you ate? How much alcohol did
you drink? And when did you stop? Are you watching
scary movies? Do you have your device in your bed
with you? You know? I feel like the bedroom should
be for sleep and sex. There should be no television,
there should be no devices, there should be no food,
and you know, preferably there should be no animals or
(03:39):
you know, grown children anyway, right, I mean, it should
really be a sacred space that makes easy to sleep.
So a lot of times we're talking about supplements. I
can take, herbs, I can use, medicines I can use
and we haven't looked at any of that stuff. So
I mean that's a big one right there. Wait, hold on,
if I don't have my phone or any devices by me,
how do I check Instagram the second I wake up? Exactly?
(04:02):
It forces you to have a little more time untethered,
rich I think is really important, which brings me to
a second point, right, is that we are so tethered,
whether it's to our devices and electronics, or to our work,
or to the go go go of our lives. I mean,
I think obviously there are medical conditions that can contribute
to sleep problems. Right, there's sleep abne as, there's you know,
heart issues, there's neurologic issues, things like that, hormonal issues
(04:26):
for women in a big one also in particular. But
I think for the vast majority of people that I see,
and you know, your average Joe, the issue is that
we just can't quite shut our brains off, like we're
so webbed up from just our go go go lifestyle.
And I think the biggest challenge for people to calm
down and fall asleep is to kind of calm down
(04:48):
their mind, which will then let their body come down
and get to that place where we can rest. Right,
if we think about the nervous system, you've got the
sympathetic nervous system, which is in charge of fight or flight,
which keeps us adapting, in moving and kind of ready
for whatever the world throws at us. And you know,
and it's opposite, it's it's Yin to that yang is
the parasympathetic nervous system, which is when we rest and
(05:11):
digest and recuperate and grow new cells and all that
good stuff. And if you're in sympathetic overdrive all the time,
parasympathetic just loses loses all the attention loses loses the spotlight.
And if that's kind of where you're at, then sleep
is going to suffer. Digestion is going to suffer. You know,
your immune system is going to suffer. You're gonna be like,
(05:33):
why do I like overnight? I look older, My hair
is dryer, And that's because you're you've got too much
sympathetic overdrive going on. And you know, for the context
of this conversation, sleep is a really good signal that
something's wrong in that department you mentioned kind of your
your sleeping habitat, if you will, kind of what your
bedroom is set up, Like, what are some of the
(05:55):
the basics that people can say, All right, I'm gonna
go home today, I'm gonna go into my bedroom right now.
I'm going to clear out these things. I'm going to
make sure my bedroom has some of these core environmental properties. Yeah.
So obviously, you know, anything that's plugged in besides a
light and a and an alarm clock would preferably go um,
(06:18):
you know, but I think part of it is is
really looking at light, noise, and temperature, those three things
like temperature, so um, you know, I used to live
in New York I know you did too, um. And
the body is incredibly adaptive. I remember moving into an
apartment which was fantastic. We didn't know until we moved
in that there was a bus stop right underneath the
bedroom window, right, so every hour on the hour, doude do, dude?
(06:41):
I mean it was. It was nuts And I cried
for two days. Um. And then, along with the help
of some ear plugs and a white noise machine and
my body's own, thankfully great ability to adapt, I was
able to manage that. But you know, if you've got
that kind of noise disruption, particularly in the early morning
hours when you sleep, can be really tenuous and easy
(07:02):
to interrupt. Um, don't be afraid of ear plugs, don't
be afraid of white noise machines. These things can really help.
If the light it's a problem for you, there's a
plethora of mask options available, not to mention blackout shades,
things like that. And then temperature too hot, too cold.
You really do want it to be just right. And
if that means using a fan, if that means, um,
(07:25):
you know, getting some air in there. If that means
usually usually it's that it's too hot, not that it's
too cold, gotcha. So let's say you you block out
some of the noise, whether it's ear plugs or a
white noise machine, which, by the way, I got a
recently got this Phillips like a long clock thing, so
it was like natural light. Probably overpaid for it, but
it has this like ocean sound to put you to
(07:46):
sleep at night. It actually has been helping. Oh, it's great,
good for you. So let's say you create this environment, right,
you have the ear plugs, blackout shades, the temperature is
just right, and you still can't fall asleep. Right Oh no, yeah,
then you then you can feel really good about the
fact that you've set the stage and now you can
(08:06):
look at what might make the most sense to add.
So again, you know, as a doctor, I'm gonna have
to put this caveat out there, which is that you know,
if your difficulties with sleeping have been persistent, lasting more
than let's just throw two or three weeks out there,
and um, and if it's if you're getting less than
five hours of sleep at night during this time, I
(08:28):
would absolutely advise you to see a doctor and just
make sure that something else isn't going on. So let's
just say that right there. Um. Now, the bummerre about
going to see your doctor is that most of the
time there won't be something else going on, and they'll
end up giving you a sleeping pill. And I would
really encourage you to try some of these other things
I'm about to talk about before you take sleeping pills,
because um, they are addicted, addictive, They have some nasty
(08:51):
side effects and the quality of the sleep that you
get on them, while you might be sedated and knocked out. Um,
you know there there's a there's a difference between getting
RESTful sleep and you know, being unconscious. Right if someone
punched me in the face and knocked me out, I'm
assuming that's not great rest No like like that that
shouldn't be your option. D Like if this herb doesn't work,
I'm just gonna have my buddy knocked me in the head. Yet. No,
(09:13):
absolutely not. Um, so you know you want to think
about things. So all right, what is it for me
about sleep? Is it that, um, I can't quiet my
brain down? Is it that I'm anxious? Is it? Um?
You know you kind of guessing, and I'm guessing that
most people listening are thinking it's it's the I can't
show my I can't shut my brain. I mean when
I the second I put my head down to go
(09:34):
to sleep every night, I either automatically start thinking about
the things I didn't get done that day or all
the things I need to get done in the next
three days. Life is really it's like it's really just
this carousel, right you just like stop stop that I
want to get off kind of thing, Like it just
doesn't slow down. So, you know, I have used over
the years I've been in practice almost seventeen years, there's
(09:57):
classes of herbs to support the nervousness, to to calm down.
You may have heard of some of these, you know,
things like valerian passion, flower, skull cap hops, camameal, peppermint.
I mean, these things all just have very gentle comming effects.
If you go out and buy nighttime herbal tea or
those kind of things, they're all in there. They're the
usual suspects. A lot of people do really well with
(10:19):
valerian um. You know, these are kind of gentle things
that I would often recommend for people, UM if people
have a lot of revved up anxiety. UM. Traditionally I
would go more towards things like cava cava or um
California poppy UM, just a little heavier hitters UM. But
I have to tell you that my practice has been
(10:41):
really transformed in the last two years since I started
using um cb D, which is cannaba die all, which
is a non psychoactive cannabinoid from the cannabis plant UM,
and I use hemp derived CBD products, and I have
found that it has UM maximize my ability to help
(11:02):
people fall asleep, get good rest, UM, kind of create
more stress resilience, lower anxiety, etcetera. UM, and to do
it faster UM than any of those other really wonderful
traditional modalities I just mentioned. So it's been my go
to for the last about two years. So what do
you Because I have this list of things that you
(11:23):
were going to talk about. Obviously, UM, some of them
I've never heard of. Some of them. I wouldn't even
know where to go about acquiring them. How much is
a good amount? Like what do you do? Do you?
So what we should what we should talk about then,
is something called the endocannabinoid system. So this is a
physiologic system of your body, like your digestive system, like
(11:45):
your you know, like your cardiovascular system, your nervous system.
This is one of the key physiologic systems um that
we didn't even know about until the nineteen nineties. So
we actually have something called an endocannabinoid system. It is
made up of cannabinoid like compounds that we make ourselves.
So ENDO stands for endogenous, meaning the body produces it,
(12:07):
so endocannabinoids. We have enzymes that produce those endocannabinoids and
break them down, and then we have cannabinoid receptors in
every organ system of our body. So this endocannabinoid system
is its main job is balance and to keep us
functioning optimally while adapting to change. And because those receptors
(12:31):
are everywhere in our body, and because the major job
of that system is to keep us balanced, we see
a huge myriad of effects on every system of the
body when our endocannabinoid system is out of balance. So
what puts our endocannabinoid system out of balance. Well, it's
going to be our standard American diet. The fact that
we tend to be overweight, we have high circulating levels
(12:53):
of inflammatory chemicals were stressed out. So CBD cannabin dial
which is a cannabin annoy derived from a plant as
opposed to one that we make right. It can come in,
it can it can help support and balance this system.
So the reason I backed up to tell you that
when you asked how much CBD you need is because
(13:15):
how much CBD do you need versus how much I
need could be really different based on what's happening with
my endocannabinoid system. Okay, that makes I mean, that makes sense.
So what do you do? So what I do is
I start really low with people. So I might start
three to six milligrams of CBD UM. Again, I don't
(13:36):
use a CBD that's all by itself, just isolated there
in some oil. I use CBD in the in the
hemp extract um. So basically I'm getting all the other
constituents that are in that plants, which are and I
know a lot of these are biochemical terms that people
may or may not know, but other cannabinoids and terpenes
which have some of their own um and anxiety effects
(13:58):
and flabnoise or or anti occidents, and you know, lots
of other stuff in there and the CBD. So I
might start with three to six milligrams something like that
of cbd UM in a whole hamp extract and then
I give people instructions for how to slowly and gradually
kind of work their way up until they find their
right dose. I can tell you from looking at data
in my practice over the last two years that I
(14:19):
have some people whose sleep has been fully restored with
three milligrams, and I have people who need fifty or
sixty milligrams to sleep well. So there really is a
very big difference. The good news is this stuff is
super super safe, so you really do have a lot
of room to experiment and find your right dose. And now,
is that something that you end up doing like every
(14:41):
night before you go to bed? Do you wean off
of it at some point? How does what's that for? Yeah,
so a lot of it depends on Like so you
were saying that a real challenge for you is falling asleep,
and some people have issues with sleep on set, some
people have issues staying asleep, some people wake up early.
So the good news with this particular and greedy it
is that it works quite quickly, So it's in ten
(15:02):
to fifteen minutes. You can kind of get a handle
on what that dose did for you. If you're using
the liquid form, if you're swallowing capsules, that can take
up to forty five minutes. So when we're starting, a
lot of times I start with the liquid so that
people can be like, all right, I've been laying here
for twenty minutes, I'm going to take a little more. Um. Yeah, exactly.
(15:22):
And likewise, if you're if you're up and it's like
three in the morning and it's like the lights just
went on, right, I'm sure you have a few people
listening who experience that you can keep it right next
to your bed, you can. You can take a little
bit then too, And so the idea is kind of
finding you know, that the sweet spot um. And you know,
sometimes you usually when I get the right dose for
people at bedtime, they will stop waking up in the
(15:45):
middle of the night, or they will wake up less frequently,
and if they do wake up, they can get back
to sleep without a problem. Occasionally we do need a
middle of the night dozing to UM. Well, yeah, definitely.
I've definitely woken up in the middle of the night
if there's like a ambulance or pleas car going right
outside my apartment, and then you can't get back to
sleep exactly. So if you have something there, you're like
(16:07):
all right, I'm gonna give myself like ten minutes, and
if nothing's happening, I'm just gonna take a little bit.
And usually with intent of fifteen minutes, you can feel
your body just kind of drifting back because part of
what it does, right is that when your endocannabinoid system
is balanced, it actually keeps your stress response nice and low.
So when you take this on a regular basis and
(16:30):
you start to develop more endocannabinoid tone, that ambulance, instead
of sending you throw the roof, which he then takes
an hour to get back from, you might just kind
of spike up a little bit as your body wakes
up and goes, okay, I'm not in danger, and then
you can get back more easy. So over time, instead
of needing more or relying on this forever, over time,
(16:51):
you're going to create more endocannabinoid balance, more tone, and
you're actually gonna find that you start to need it
less and you start to be able to use it
on as needed asis. So I mean, this is what
we want from all the stuff we take right, So
um to be actually seeing that clinically, and my practice
is very cool. Okay, Now let's say I'm taking a
an overnight flight, a red eye flight from Seattle back
(17:13):
to New York to go see some of my family.
Is that something that I can like pop in a
couple of milligrams and just pass out on the plane?
Do you have to worry about it when I wake up?
You have to worry about like sleep walking or any
other crazy things that go on. Yeah, like when you
take half an ambient and then you arrive and they
literally have to drag you off the plane. Yeah. Um no,
you don't have to worry about any of that. If
you take you have to watch how much you take
(17:35):
based on the time, right. So I mean I even
see for myself. I use it personally, and you know,
my system adapts, right. So part of the way that
I often know that it's time to reduce my dose
is that I wake up in the morning and I've
literally got to shake my head for a second because
I'm groggy, and I go, all right, I don't need
quite that much at night. So that's the worst thing
(17:56):
that's going to happen if you use it on a
plane like that, is that you just might have to
shake your head for a minute, but you're not going
to be disoriented like if you took a sleep medication, UM,
and then depending you know, sometimes for me, not so
much cross country or like a red eye, I would
just do the CBD UM. But like if you were
going to Europe or something like that, or just traveling further,
I would do CBD with melatonin. And I find that
(18:19):
to be a really nice combination for those longer trips.
How do I get my hands on any of that stuff?
So if you live in a plate so there's a
couple of different ways. Right. If you live in a
place um where you can get medical or recreational cannabis,
you can go into a dispensary and you can ask
for a high cb D low th HC product right um.
(18:41):
And you know I would encourage you to move away
from isolates and look for CBD that's in a whole
plant extract. Now, my bias is to use a hemp
derived CBD product UM. And I'll tell you why in
a second. But the great um, you know, the great
thing about the hemp derives CBD is that it's if
if they're federally lawful, because it's a hemp, it's a
(19:02):
hemp product, federally lawful, it's in health food stores. It's
in over seventeen hundred health food stores across the country. UM,
and you can get it online, so you know, the
brand that I like is called plus C B D oil,
So if you go to Triple W plus CBD oil
dot com UM, you can get it. And it's shipped
to all fifty states. So it's not something you don't
have to worry about, like the weed laws or whatever
(19:24):
in your state. No, because hemp is federally lawful, so
if you're getting it from a dispenser, you would. There's
a couple other benefits to hemp that I just want
to mention. One is that if what you're not if
you're not interested in th HC, t HC has certainly
recreational benefits and has medical benefits as well. But if
you're not so interested in th HC when you get
(19:45):
into a dispensary, it can be really hard to tell
exactly how much th HC is in a product. It
depends on the state, the labeling, blah blah blah. If
you're getting a hemp product, you know that there is
less than point three th HC in that product, So
you know, UM that by the virtue of the fact
that it's called hemp, there's not going to be enough
t HC in there to give you any kind of
(20:06):
altering effect. M Second, when you're using a hemp product, UM,
you know that, particularly for using what I would call
like a gold tier supplement line UM, they'll be transparent
about their sourcing. You'll be able to see if any
chemical pesticides or fertilizers were used. You'll be able to
see third party testing that looks at UM, solvents, pesticides,
(20:29):
heavy metals, molds, all that stuff. UM. And that's really
important to me. You go into a dispensary, I mean,
the industry at this point is not regulated yet, so
you don't know what chemicals you're getting exposed to. You
don't know what's in that stuff, and that could be
problematic for people. And obviously we're trying to keep it
natural as a whole point of fighting five natural sleep
aids UM. But some of the other stuff you have
(20:50):
on this list that you sent over, Hey, I don't
even know what it is. B I wouldn't even know
where to look for it. So what I'm looking at
on here you mentioned it actually earlier was kava kava
uh uh huh, I don't even know what that is.
Am I dumb for not knowing? Am I dumb for
not knowing that that is absolutely not. Aca is a
fantastic herb um. It has a long you can get
(21:10):
it in the health food store, you can get it
in capsules, you can get it in tincture, you can
find it in tease. Um. It is uh. It has
a many centuries of traditional use, particularly used ceremoniously by
the islanders of Fiji and other places like that, And
basically they prepare it in a certain way and they
drink it and it brings on this incredible calm and relaxation,
(21:34):
tranquility and for some people even con border on euphoric um.
The way it exists kind of in western herbal medicine
as we have access to it is that it's really
it's fantastic for anxiety um and it's been quite well
studied as well, So there's even some literature that suggests
that it is as effective, if not more effective than
(21:55):
a lot of the anti anxiety medications that people are
offered without there being any kind of you know, addictive
aspect to it. So um cava is fantastic when it
comes to anxiety. It can be a great intervention. Although
you know, if I'm completely honest, I've really I use
more CBD than cava for anxiety these days, and I
(22:16):
think the results are even faster and better. Um, but
but that's where cava is. And um, you know a
lot of this stuff, um people use in combination, you know,
together people kind of find the right blend for themselves,
so you know we're all a little different. Okay. Then, uh,
there was one five h t P. What is that
(22:38):
because it sounds like it sounds like I'm going on
a website. Five htp. It's five hydroxy trip to fan
and it is an amino acid based product. Trip to fan.
L trip to Fan, which is what it's derived from,
is an amino acid and L trip to fan can
turn into five htp. Yeah, okay, that I've heard it. Okay,
(22:58):
And five htp turn into serotonin, so you might think
about serotonin in regards to mood, and five HTP is
often used for mood, but um, you need enough serotonin
to be able to make enough melatonin, and adequate melatonin
is extremely important for sleep cycles as well. So if
(23:20):
you're you know, if you're somebody who's having sleep issues
and is also having mood issues, particularly depression. Um, using
some five HTP at bedtime can often kind of help
on both fronts. Okay, that seems simple enough. That's something
actun just getting a capsule form at exactly health food
store or what else where else can I get that? Yeah?
Health food store online? Yeah, absolutely easy to find. And
(23:43):
then the other thing that I don't know, I didn't
know existed before you sent over this list was nervine,
which sounds actually pretty scary. I'm not gonna lie so,
so nervine or nervine potato potato. It's a class of herbs.
I kind of mentioned them in the beginning. Actually it's
a it's a class of herbs. Um, you know, So
there are different classes of herbs. You've got nervings, which
(24:05):
support the nervous system. You've got adaptogens, which help you
kind of balance and adapt to stress. Right. Um, You've
got uh, you know, Demulson's which helped soothe things, um
like you would use for your throat. So there's different
kinds of classes of herbs, right, And so nervings support
the nervous system. So and usually for most people, what
(24:26):
that means is calms the nervous system. So that's your valerian,
your passion flower, your skull cap, your camerameal. Nervings, um
are very ton ifying, so they're kind of supporting your
body's natural function. They're generally considered to be very safe,
safe for children. A lot of them are even safe
in pregnancy. So it's just it's a very calming, nurturing
(24:49):
class of herbs. And you know, if you've got some
really serious, um intractable issues, though, the nervings are often
not going to be strong enough to not get back.
And that's the other think that's just a health food
store type of thing. Yeah. Absolutely, And like I mentioned,
if you look for some of those ninety night herbal
teas that so many of us love, myself included, um,
(25:10):
a lot of them are filled with nervines. Okay, then
there is something I did know that was on this list,
cinnamon and holy basil. So another issue why some people
wake in the middle of the night, for example, usually
it's a it's a it's a wake up thing as
opposed to falling asleep thing. Is because um, they're blood
sugar drops in the middle of the night, and in
a response to that blood sugar dropping. And why would
(25:32):
your blood sugar drop in the middle of the night.
I mean, assuming that you're not sick um or diabetic,
it would drop in the middle of the night because
you ate too much before bed that hat. You know,
you had a pine of ice cream. Um, you drank
three bottles of wine or maybe three glasses or know whatever,
we all have our women three bottles. That's a big
night and just for me. But you know, whatever is
(25:55):
that so your blood sugar spikes up because of that
ice cream or that wine. Right, and then in the
middle of the night, when you're supposed to be sound asleep,
knocks you weigh down. When your body knows your blood
sugar is not supposed to be super low. So one
of the ways that it tries to bring that blood
sugar up is that your cortisol comes up. Right, So
your cortisol comes up and that will wake you up
because cortisol is your major stress hormone. So you know,
(26:18):
one thing we talked about with people is really limiting
the sugar and the refined carbohydrates that people are having
close to bedtime. Um, maybe getting rid of dessert. Maybe
if you really need a snack before bed. Have it
be more protein based, although frankly, I would just as
soon tell most people to really avoid having dinners. Fine,
leave it at dinner, just leave it how long? How
(26:39):
long I've I've seen different like studies on this. But
if you're saying, all right, stop eating this many hours
or this many minutes before bed, is there like a
kind of standard that people should hold themselves to. I
think most data supports two to three hours before bed
is just best from a digestive I'm sleep and go
right to bed, which probably isn't great for me. Yeah,
(27:00):
and I think a lot of people do. I mean,
I have people who get home from work at eight
nine o'clock. I mean people, you know, So you got
to do the best you can with your lifestyle. I mean, obviously,
if you do eat late at night and you eat
before bed, um, I would really suggest that that be
one of your lighter meals that you would have, you know,
one of your bigger, heavier and more nutrient dense meals
be earlier in the day. And then obviously don't go
(27:22):
to bed hungry. Give yourself something to eat, um, but
have it be lighter so your body is not spending
the whole night working on managing that. It's almost leading
to because and you probably feel this too, You go
out for a big meal, maybe get like a big
pasta dish or something, and you automatically want to go
to sleep. Like so it almost in your head works
(27:44):
in reverse. Even though you are tired and stuff, it's
just not going to give you a great sleep, so
you don't want to do that right before you go
to bed. It's totally true, you know, and just I
know this is not exactly in line with our conversation,
but I would say that if you feel really tired
after a meal, that's your body giving you some very
direct information about that meal. You know, one is did
(28:05):
I eat too much? How much did I eat? And
number two is what was the ratio of protein to
carbohydrates in that meal? Um, what most people experience is
that when they over eat, they feel tired. When they
eat a good amount, they don't. And secondly, most people
find that when they eat a meal that has good balance,
(28:25):
and of course the pasta made me think of this
good balance of protein and carbs, they don't feel as
zonked out, whereas if they eat a lot of carbs
they feel more zonked out. It's the same thing we
were just talking about. It's like your blood sugar goes
up because carbs break down into sugar super fast, and
then it knocks you right down on your butt and
drops your sugar low and then you feel tired. Right.
(28:46):
So obviously you know, looking at if there's a component
of that to your issue is important. And then there
are supplements that you can take, um, which can help
to balance your blood sugar also. I mean, obviously you
don't want to be supplementing on top of eating a
pine of ice cream every night. Um, but you know,
so things like uh, cinnamon, things like holy basil, which
(29:08):
is an ir Vedic herb which also happens to be
great for the stress response. Um. You know, things like
berberine and bitter melon. I mean, there's a whole host
um of herbal and supplemental formulations that you can use
to help if blood sugar balance is an issue. UM.
So you know, there's like testing I would do in
the office to try to figure out if there was
(29:29):
a blood sugar issue before I went that route. Um,
but you know it's worth looking at in response to
trying to create your best night's sleep, Like am I
sabotaging this UM by virtue of keeping my blood sugar
really fluctuating? Well, I like what I love about this
conversation is it's about using Obviously, these are all going
(29:49):
to end up being sleep aids in some capacity, but
they're not masking an issue. They're hopefully getting to the
root of an issue and helping everyone find out what
their issues are and then them there. Once you start
attacking those issues. Let's say you're using the cinnamon to
regulate a little bit of blood sugar or whatever. You
can then say, all right, instead of leaning on the
(30:09):
cinnamon every night or this holy basil every night, let
me try to change my diet at least before I
go to bed, you know. And if it's using any
any of the other things we've talked about, it's let
me figure out what the root of the problem is.
I'll use whatever this supplement is, this sleep aid to
tackle that issue now as I try to develop better
(30:30):
habits so that I don't need them exactly. And that's
really the beauty of integrative medicine or holistic medicine, right,
is that when it's being done properly, UM, we are
not just treating symptoms. We are actually getting at the
getting at the cause. And yeah, I mean, you know
if somebody, if you could just treat somebody with diet
(30:51):
and lifestyle, that would be fantastic. But you know the
truth of the matter is, once you get into clinical practice,
no matter how naive I was coming out of naturopathic school,
you know I got in there, it's like, you know, what,
these people need to be meditating and going to the
gym and making more food and blah blah blah blah.
But they don't have the energy, the motivation, the focus
(31:12):
to do any of this right now. So what can
I do for them to kind of help them get
some of those things so that then they can move
into all of those dietary and lifestyle components and then
they need less of the supplementation. I mean, when you're
when you're in a realm of medicine where your major
tool is a pharmaceutical prescription. Pharmaceuticals are meant to treat symptoms.
(31:35):
They do nothing to get at the cause. And of
course are conventional docs as well, meaning as they may be,
they have ten minutes with the patients and they don't
have time to talk about diet and lifestyle and cause
or connect with you and listen, it's terrible, and most
of them will tell you it's terrible as well. So
this kind of medicine really affords you the ability to
(31:56):
to make make some real change and gives you, you know,
the the empowerment to you know, figure it out and
do it on your own and change things on your own.
And it's always, obviously, no matter what your issue is,
it's always good to talk to a professional first, like yourself, um,
and then look just to make sure there isn't anything
glaring that you're you're missing um. But it's also great
(32:16):
to just do the research and figure out what you
could do on your own without a shoving chemicals in
your body to to fix whatever issue you have going on.
It is a lot of it. I mean, you probably
say this to your clients at a lot of this
stuff that we deal with is self inflicted to a degree.
It is. And you know you have to be careful
the way you say that, right, because the last thing
you want to do is kind of make somebody feel
(32:37):
guilty or you know that you're responsible for being sick.
I mean, it's one thing if you can't sleep right,
it's another thing. If you've got cancer or auto you
never want to say that. But at the same time, though,
I mean there is there is a nuanced way to say,
you know, here are the things that you're doing on
a regular basis which are impacting your condition and and
(33:01):
and really encouraging them to say, okay, what what two
of these can we bite off? First? What can you do? Um?
Because again, the way conventional care is kind of existing
for people right now, it's just like, it's not it's
not sharing this this health journey between patients and doctors.
It's just like, Okay, this is the doctor, here's what
(33:22):
you do. If you don't do it that way, then
I've got nothing else for you. Next, it's not all
doctor's fault either. It's the fact that a lot of
people just want a quick answer. They just want, all right,
what do I take to fix this problem so I
can keep doing everything exactly the same. Yeah, that's an
interesting point. But doing everything exactly the same is what
got you there to a degree in the first place.
It's not I mean, there are obviously bigger issues at play,
(33:43):
but are you helping yourself? I think is the biggest
question you could ask yourself you's your's totally right. I
mean I always go back to the system and how
broken it is, but you are right. We have all
been well trained and we've been indoctrinated that you know,
just the purple little purple pill, you know what I mean.
I believe me. I've sat in many patient visits and
just said, oh, hey, tell me what you're willing to
do right now, because I can't make you do anything.
(34:04):
I mean, this is and this is that it's core
kind of a a fitness podcast or that's the other
way to started as and I mean there are there's
a whole industry out there for people who don't want
to actually change their diet or work out, but still
want to be fit. It's that quick it's that quick
fix that everyone's searching for. When you get to where
you are at that point in life. Let's say you're
you're extremely overweight or something. Yeah, there are genetic factors
(34:26):
that go into that and whatnot, but it took you
years to get to that point. It's not going to
take you five days to get back to where you
want to go. Yeah, Like if I buy that thing
and I strap it around my middle and then it
submits these little electronic impulse and then I'm gonna have
a six pack. It sounds great, it sounds fantastic. Well, Dr,
thank you so so much for for hanging out. I'm
(34:48):
gonna try at least some of the things we've talked
about too, maybe get some sleep at some point in
my life. Excellent. Let me know how it goes. And
if any of your listeners want to know more about
cbd UM, I would highly recommend plus cbd oil dot com.
And if you end up placing an order, I believe
that if you put radio fifteen so Radio one five
(35:10):
into the promotion code, it's fifteen percent off any order
if you want to give any of that a try.
And I am at Triple W dot Dr shawnny dot com,
so d R S h U N n e y
dot com and I've got lots of podcasts and videos
and blogs and all kinds of fun stuff up there
for people to check out for free if they're interested. Well,
(35:30):
Dr hopefull, I know you have a lot of other
things that you do outside of, you know, talking about sleep.
Maybe I'll have you on again. I'd love to You're
awesome and talk to you so Thank you so much.
For hanging out would be my pleasure. Thank you. So
hopefully you can take something from this podcast and use
it tonight, whether it's making sure the temperature in your
bedroom is good or making sure you know any of
those other surrounding things. I know it's going to be
(35:52):
difficult for definitely me and most people. Is you know,
turning your phones off, for keeping your phones and your
devices oh way from your bed. I've read articles where
you're not supposed to look at your phone screen like
an hour before you go to bed, which I know
for a lot of people, and I'm part of this
with this group, that's hard to do, especially when you're
(36:13):
checking emails right before you go to bed seeing what
we have coming up, or you're scrolling through Instagram or
trying to look for someone on bumble or tender. But
that will be my goal for the week. So pick
something from this podcast, pick one of these healthy sleep habits,
try to implement it in your week, and hopefully by
this time next week you're sleeping a little better. Uh.
Those natural sleep remedies, give one a try if you want.
(36:34):
I'm thinking about trying the CBD oil myself. I mean,
if you're anything like me, sleeping is like one of
the hardest things and one of the most disruptive things
of your day would and it shouldn't be. It should
be the time that you're you're resting and we're all
kind of recovering from whatever else we've done for this
fitness or health journey that we're on. Uh. Next week,
I'm gonna have a really close friend of mine on
(36:55):
the podcast. She is a dermatology physicians assistant. So it's
gonna be a little bit of a different podcast where
we find out what we should do to kind of
look like we're healthy at least, because you know, being
on this journey is great, but if you look like
you're eighties seven years old when you're really forty, that's
probably not a great thing for you. So we're gonna
learn about that. If you have questions, always email My
(37:18):
Day Friday Show at Gmail or hit me up on Instagram, Twitter, uh, Snapchat.
I don't really check it that off on Facebook at worst.
Anthony on all of that stuff, Thank you so much
for making time for the Workout Wednesday podcast. Good luck
on your journey. I'll talk to you next week.
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