May 16, 2024 • 34 mins
Join me for the latest Art of Healing Episode, where we will explore how to approach mental health and wellness for a Functional Medicine approach. During this episode, we will explore:
- What is Functional Medicine
- Major Mental Health Disorders
- How Digestion Impacts Mental Health
- How Immune Function Interplays with Mental Health
- The relationship between mitochondrial health and symptoms of mental health disorders
- How Hormonal imbalance can masquerade as a mental health disease
Want to learn more about this approach? Join me for the Live Masterclass:
Toolkit for Mental Health and Wellness
Saturday, May 25th, 2024 at 12:00PM CST (Find your time at this link)
Welcome to the Art of Healing Podcast community. This podcast is devoted to helping you find what works on your journey to health and wellness. This podcast is devoted to providing information on many healing modalities. Learn more about:
- Reiki
- Functional Medicine
- Meditation
- Energy Healing
and more!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and thank you for joining me for this week's
episode of the Art of Healingpodcast.
For today's episode we're goingto be discussing mental health
awareness.
Similar to the previous episodea few weeks ago, I thought it
might be nice to cover mentalhealth in how we approach it in
the functional medicine practice.
(00:21):
If you'd like to learn moreabout my functional medicine
practice, including states thatI accept, which is recently
expanded from California all theway to Ohio, several states in
between navigate todrcharlisecom to learn more
about how you can work with me.
I do also have a quickannouncement.
(00:45):
We as a community have beengathering once a month and
having some great discussionsthat cover both functional
medicine and Reiki.
So there is going to be anupcoming live meeting, live
class, called the Toolkit forMental Health and Wellness.
This will be on May 25th, 2024at noon, central standard time.
(01:10):
This is free to attend.
All you have to do is sign up.
If you sign up and you're notable to attend, you can get a
copy of the recording.
So during this meeting we'regoing to cover common mental
health disorders.
We'll go a little bit more indepth with how we can approach
those from a functional medicineand an energy medicine
perspective.
So please join me, especiallyif you're wanting to have your
(01:34):
questions answered live andindividually.
For today's episode, I thoughtit might be nice to review what
the functional medicine approachis, and then we're going to
apply that approach to how wewould approach your care.
(01:54):
If you are dealing with thingssuch as major depression in
which you're treating withmedications and you're
interested in a strategy to weanoff your medications, and
you're interested in a strategyto wean off your medications.
Another common issue patientswill come to me with is
suffering from anxiety andwanting to have a holistic
approach to heal anxiety thatdoesn't rely on medications,
(02:16):
particularly benzodiazepines,which can become habit forming.
So functional medicine is acare delivery model that focuses
on healing the root cause ofillness.
To do this, you have to look atthe past, the present and the
future, and what you're tryingto determine is whatever the
(02:41):
dis-ease or disorder, whatpotentially was the cause?
And then, in order to heal theroot cause, what you need to do
is to try to determine what yourbody's optimal biology is, so
where your body wants to beright now.
Then the steps to get your bodyback to that place In the
(03:10):
traditional medical model whenwe're dealing with diseases or
disorders of the psychology ormental health disorders.
We would probably look at maybea few simple questionnaires
which you've probably completedthem or heard of them, such as
the PHQ-9, which is either twoquestions or nine questions that
(03:32):
evaluate your risk fordepression.
There's also a questionnairecalled a GAD-7, which looks at
anxiety, and then several othersort of set questionnaires or
parameters that we can look atfor bipolar disorder, insomnia.
(03:57):
Several of those disorders Goover a set of questions, maybe
talk about some further risk.
Make sure that you're notseriously ill and don't need to
be in the hospital Because, aswe know, mental health diseases
can be severe enough that theycan threaten your life and then
(04:18):
discuss treatment In thetraditional medical model.
More than likely the treatmentwill rely on medications.
I found this so frustratingwhenever I was in a
hospital-owned practice becauseI would say roughly 70-75% of
the mental health issues I dealtwith really could have
responded to a more holisticapproach.
That didn't have to be rightaway the prescription, but
(04:42):
unfortunately so many of thepublic and physicians are
trained that once somethingdoesn't feel right you take a
prescription.
And this is even morechallenging when someone suffers
from something more in therealm of a persistent mood
rather than an overall disease.
So someone that may be plaguedwith worry thoughts constantly
(05:06):
doesn't necessarily need to beon a prescription.
When they could learn to workwith their mind matter, they
could learn to work with theirthoughts, they could practice
mindfulness, but a lot of timesthat's where it would end up.
So in the traditional medicalmodel, you present with what you
(05:26):
feel it is and unfortunately,because of the time crunch, many
patients self-diagnose.
They say I'm depressed and theclinician says okay, here's an
antidepressant.
Or I'm anxious and theclinician says okay, here's
something for your anxiety.
So for in the traditionalmedical model, that approach
just starts there and thenusually you follow up to make
sure the medication did okay oryou didn't have a bad response
(05:50):
to the medication.
This is different from a moreholistic, functional medicine
approach.
So a more holistic approachwould start with gathering as
(06:11):
much detail as we can reasonablyto determine what it is you're
truly experiencing.
So the gathering of informationwould include your current
feelings or sensations.
Now trying to get an idea ifthere are some physical symptoms
that go with it.
Trying to get an idea if thereare some physical symptoms that
go with it, because I couldsafely say that really there's
(06:33):
no mental health symptom thatdoesn't exist with a physical
symptom.
It's just doing a little bit ofdigging to discover what could
be related.
Learning what we can about yourpast is important.
(06:54):
So learning about your pastmedical history and, if we have
the information available,learning about your family
medical history so that can tellus what you may be predisposed
to if you have a family historyof schizophrenia or family
history of bipolar disorder, itdoesn't necessarily mean that
you will develop those, but itcould tell us something about
(07:16):
what you could be going throughnow and then gathering
information about anything weknow that could have made the
feeling or the symptom worse.
So it could be something like Istarted a medication and I felt
better.
It could also be something likeI started a new position at
(07:37):
work and I felt worse all theway to.
I had a surgery and I noticedmy depression was worse during
the recovery from the surgery.
So clearly it's really no limitas to the factors of what could
be making this better, worse,driving it.
(07:57):
But gathering that informationand it takes time.
The longer that I practice infunctional medicine, I'm
definitely seeing more time as acircular rather than linear,
where I'm understanding now thatI really will need to have an
encounter multiple times with mypatients.
Sometimes I understand theirexperience because it's just in
(08:19):
layers it just doesn't come thatquickly.
Layers it just doesn't comethat quickly.
Once we gather information interms of what could be causing,
creating or making the symptomor experience worse which are
sometimes referred to asantecedents, triggers or
(08:40):
mediators then we want to startto look at your body's systems
or your body's biology.
So we'll want to look at howyour body can digest material.
Are you absorbing nutrients?
Is the microbiome or your gutoptimized?
(09:06):
So actually making a linkbetween your digestive patterns
and is it optimized and is thatsomehow related to your gut
health?
In my own work with my patients,it seems like the relationship
we seem to make a lot isstarting an antibiotic for a
(09:27):
serious infection and thennoticing depression or anxiety
several weeks after that event.
I think that's the closest I'veseen, but then also very much a
link between irregular bowelmovements, constipation,
diarrhea, along with the mood,and definitely a link of someone
who has waves of anxiety oranxiety attacks that go with
(09:52):
diarrhea.
So having a look at the guthealth is a great place to start
.
The next place is if yourimmune system is working with
you or not, against you or notworking at all.
So, looking at the immunesystem's ability for you to heal
(10:13):
from injury or infection, foryour body to heal the joints, is
the immune system in overdriveor is the immune system
attacking your tissues?
And I would say that, althoughthe medical textbooks don't make
that relationship, my own workwith patients is I've often
(10:35):
discovered a link betweenautoimmune disease and
depression, whereas the patientcame to me thinking it was just
depression, but the more thatwe're able to interact, that
they're depressed in the morningbecause their joints are
swollen and painful.
And it turns out that it's notjust depression.
So if we had just taken thequick route and just treated the
(10:55):
depression and put them on anSRI without exploring what else
is going on, we would havepossibly helped their mood
somewhat.
Without exploring what else isgoing on, we would have possibly
helped their mood somewhat, butthey would have an autoimmune
disease that keeps going aheadand it could be causing damage.
(11:17):
Many individuals who are dealingwith what they suspect is
depression complain of severefatigue with what they suspect
is depression, complain ofsevere fatigue.
So, being aware of how theirbody regulates energy,
mitochondrial health, the healthof sugar metabolism.
That's important to make surethat's not the underlying issue,
(11:40):
because there is a strong linkbetween diseases such as
diabetes and depression.
The last statistic that I heardwas that somewhere around 30%
of individuals who are diagnosedwith diabetes complained of
symptoms of depression withinthe six months of their
diagnosis, and it makes sensewhen you think about the fact
(12:04):
that high sugars does.
It's not asymptomatic.
You definitely have symptoms.
The symptoms might be subtle,they may not be stand out or
(12:30):
really jump out at you, but justwant to plug that there will be
a free event for us to connecton May 25th 2024 at noon,
central standard time.
If you'll check your show notes, you'll be able to see the link
for my upcoming livemasterclass, the Health and
Wellness Mental Health Toolkit.
If you're interested inconnecting live, you have
(12:52):
questions that you'd like toshare with me, I definitely
recommend you sign up, and ifyou sign up you're not able to
attend live, you'll get a copyof the recording.
Other pieces of informationwe'll want to know are how is
(13:13):
your heart health?
Even, how is your lymphaticsystem?
Seems like it wouldn't berelated, but there is a strong
relationship between the healthof your heart and the health of
your mind.
Institutions such as theHeartMath Institute that have
(13:35):
rolled out just so much researchconcerning heart health,
coherence what happensindividually as far as mental
health the HeartMath Institutealso looks at what happens with
heart, coherence andsociety-wise.
But we do know that certainchemicals produced within the
brain can affect the heart andalso the heart potentially has
(14:00):
ability to store memories.
Having heart issues or heartdisease could be a precursor to
having depression.
You may be aware of the linkbetween having major depression
after a heart attack.
A heart attack is when thecorneal arteries become blocked
and aren't able to get blood tothe muscles of the heart, and
(14:24):
when they become blocked, thatmuscle begins to get very low
oxygen, cramps and then evendies off from not having enough
oxygen.
And it's been a lot of researchin the last 30 years that ties
in that people who survive thatevent frequently suffer from
depression.
And why that is still a littlebit of a mystery, but it turns
(14:48):
out that the heart has its ownneurological system.
The heart makes its own set ofhormones which influence the
vagus nerve, which can influencethe brain.
So it does appear that there'smany reasons why having blocked
arteries and a heart attack canaffect the brain, and there's
(15:09):
even more research coming outthat shows that having
depression can increase yourrisk of having a heart attack.
The other information that wewant to know that could be
causing mood issues or affectingyour mental health is if your
(15:34):
hormone balance is optimized forwhat you and your body want.
I say it that way because thestate of our hormones and how
our organs talk to each other,it changes depending on where
you are in your life.
Organs talk to each other.
It changes depending on whereyou are in your life.
(15:54):
So, for instance, if you're inpuberty, it's an intense process
in which there has to be a lotof talk between the brain and
the adrenal glands and theorgans that determine your
gender.
There has to be a lot of talkbetween your bones and your
thyroid gland, your parathyroidgland and your brain.
During puberty, that should bea fairly intense process of lots
(16:15):
of surges and things, whereasduring the process of menopause
that there are hormone surgesthat aren't necessarily for
reproduction.
But as the female body beginsto wind down what used to be the
phases and cycles of ovulation,she definitely will feel
(16:37):
changes.
And we know that menopause or,in men, andropause, which isn't
necessarily a cessation ofhormone production, but the
dowling down of making as muchtestosterone can make us feel
differently, and one of thegreat places to start in terms
of a holistic approach isdetermining where those are,
(17:01):
where those hormones might be,because you can find points and
places of things that you canoptimize that really don't even
require a prescription.
Things such as if you're notproducing enough melatonin,
consuming foods that are high inmelatonin throughout your day
to support resting and sleepingat night, if your thyroid is
(17:23):
starting to become inflamed andthat's what you sense, that ends
up being what's causing you tofeel depressed and tired.
Changing your diet so thatyou're not consuming as much
gluten, or maybe skipping glutenfor a little bit to see if your
thyroid recovers.
So finding out where yourhormone balance is and is it
optimized for you and where youwant to be in life.
(17:45):
So, as we are gathering thatinformation which it takes some
time, and it takes time andspace to get those pieces of
information lined up as far aswhat's happening in your biology
, if we're trying to help yourmental health and support your
(18:08):
mental health, or, which Imentioned in the beginning, if
maybe you're having certainsymptoms but it's not
necessarily the diagnosis.
So maybe there's times whereyour mood feels low and you're
tired, but you don't necessarilyhave depression.
The main places that we know wecan interact, that there's some
interventions that can happenbeyond just prescription
(18:29):
medications, are your sleep andif you relax, if you get healthy
movement into your day, yournutrition, of course, stress and
your relationships In terms ofsleep, how sleep could be
(18:58):
affecting your mood.
For most of us, it's going to benot getting enough sleep.
It's just a hazard of modernlife.
We have so many reasons to beoverstimulated.
We have screens in front of us,screens in our bedroom, we have
work responsibilities in ourbedroom.
We have work responsibilities,homework, graduate studies a
long list but one of the firstthings we can all do is make
(19:21):
sure that we leave enough roomin our schedule for sleep.
So making sure that you've got agood bedtime routine.
It could seem overwhelming, butjust even looking at simple
things, I know for myself.
One of the simple things Irecently started looking at is
when I need to do my nighttimechores, don't wait until it's
time to go to bed.
It's so simple, but it finallyoccurred to me that I was
(19:42):
waiting to do my dishes untilpretty late at night when I
really wanted to be going to bed.
So maybe changing that up sothat I make sure just to get the
dishes done earlier.
So same for you.
It could be things like youmight feel like you're rushing
and there's so much to do in theevening.
One of the things I ask mypatients is, as you're looking
(20:02):
at your evening routine andyou're looking at what needs to
be done, how many of those tasksreally have to be done at
bedtime?
If you don't do that task, willit put someone at harm or put
someone's life at risk?
And depending on how you answerthat, then you can realign your
priorities.
So we can acknowledge that youmay have a lot on your plate but
(20:25):
it doesn't all have to be doneright now tonight, so that maybe
if answering those 10 emailscould wait till in the morning
and you might do them muchfaster.
If you close the laptop, goahead and dim the lights in your
room and start unwinding forbed.
Even if you don't go straightto bed, just start acknowledging
that it's going to be time torest and let your pineal gland
(20:49):
make the melatonin that it wantsto make.
That can help you get to sleep,Moving your body in a way that
feels good, or healthy movementand I try to practice that term
(21:11):
with myself as much as possibleand not so much, say, exercise,
because sometimes that healthymovement could look like many
things.
So there's going to be timeswhere moving your body in terms
of maybe you're making too manystress hormones and we want to
(21:31):
maybe burn some of those off, sohealthy movement could be a
brisk walk for you.
Maybe in your workup we'vedetermined that your metabolism
is not great and you're leaningtowards having elevated blood
sugars.
Healthy movement for you maylook like using the muscles and
(21:51):
doing some resistance work.
So maybe you do it formally interms of you pick up a dumbbell
and actually do some crunches,or maybe you do some resistance
work in terms of, as you'reputting your groceries away,
maybe adding a few additionallifts, or maybe it could even be
resistance work as far as doingsome sorting of your garage
(22:14):
that you hadn't done in a while.
I like to see it that waybecause you can incorporate it
into your day without itnecessarily being stressful.
Unless you really do enjoyexercising, then we can talk
about it that way.
But for a lot of people thatterm doesn't bring about warm
fuzzies or they don't feel sogood.
So I like to say healthymovement.
Likewise, maybe you're noticingthat mid-afternoon or evening
(22:41):
you get muscles that twitch.
You're twitching in the musclesof your eyes, so your eyelid
twitches, or you have twitchesin your thigh muscles twitches,
or you have twitches in yourthigh muscles and as we're
working together we discoverthat you are making excessive
amounts of stress hormones.
Healthy movement for you mightbe something where you can
(23:03):
engage your vagus nerve, whereyou can take deep, long inhales
and exhales, and maybe evendoing that while you're getting
a chance to stretch the musclesand let those relax.
So that's maybe something morelike a yoga practice for a
period of time, because it seemsthat maybe you're tending
(23:26):
towards having anxiety, so thathealthy movement may be better.
Or maybe your body's recentlybeen through a lot of trauma,
you've been through a surgery oryou're recovering from cancer
and we know that your immunesystem is fired up and the
healing systems in your body areengaged and activated and
they're going full throttle toheal whatever's just happened.
(23:46):
Healthy movement for you may bepracticing breath work, doing
pranayama, which is a part ofyoga, or doing something called
yoga nidra, in which you canfocus on the breath or even
doing guided meditations, whereyou visualize your body healing
(24:06):
and recovering.
Recovering that might behealthy movement for you and may
go a long way, so that we'renot trying to push your body
systems that are trying to healan incision or heal a wound, or
you've got a surgical cavitythat's still with fluid in it,
but we can gently engage thebreath and help your body heal
itself without adding morestress.
(24:28):
So healthy movement can look alot of ways, just like I was
saying, with like hormonebalance, depending on where you
are right now, when your mentalhealth is not where you want it
to be and is not optimized.
Of course we have to look atwhat's going inside of your body
(24:50):
.
So, nutritionally, are yougetting everything that your
body needs and desires?
Are you getting too much ofwhat your body doesn't want or
can't use?
Are there nutrients that youare getting but for some reason
you're not absorbing them?
So, knowing where you are asfar as your nutrition, the
(25:15):
members in my practice have afew ways that they can track
what they're eating along and Ican track along with them.
And then, of course, does thereneed to be healthy replacements?
Does there need to be thingsthat are eliminated?
Are there things that need togo above replacements?
Does there need to be thingsthat are eliminated?
Are there things that need togo above and beyond?
I have a few patients that have.
We're saying mental health isjust a catch-all term, but I
have a few patients who weretrying to work on some pretty
(25:37):
big things with their health andI'm considering how we might
need to supplement, above andbeyond, things like fatty acids,
omega-3s.
Are they getting enough proteinso that their muscles feel good
and don't drain their digestivesystem?
Are they getting enough what'scalled phytonutrients colorful
food colors in their diet fromplant-based foods?
(26:01):
Well, of course, there's anumber of ways and a number of
resources to make sure yourdiet's optimized, but the
quickest, fastest, dirtiestadvice is that I tell my
patients if it tastes reallygood and you want a second
helping of it, it's probably notgood for you, meaning that it's
probably something that's toohigh in sugar.
(26:21):
Sugar is not great for ourmental health, of course.
Too high in trans fats, whichyou know can lead to cravings
not good for our v health, ofcourse.
Too high in trans fats, whichcan lead to cravings not good
for our vascular health orinflammation.
So if it's something thatdrives a craving, then probably
it's something that we don'twant.
And in your nutrition, ifyou're thinking of what you'll
(26:41):
be doing as far as wanting tofeel better mentally and it's
not always a direct link, butjust making sure that you've got
as much whole fruits,vegetables, healthy grains,
beans and legumes in your dietas much whole food as you can
and then considering and if youare a DIY in it, this may be
(27:04):
when you wanna think aboutworking with someone, knowing
where you are as far as vitaminsand if you need to supplement.
If you are interested in what Irecommend, I have listed an
online dispensary which I listmy highly recommended
supplements for pretty mucheveryone at drsharlicecom.
(27:25):
So you can have a look there atmy dispensary.
But when it comes to nutrition,starting with the food first,
the supplement should come aftereverything else, preferably.
But if you're working withsomeone, discover you have
shortages, losses, you may needto supplement in addition to
your nutrition.
(27:48):
In addition to your nutrition,managing your stress proactively
is an important aspect oftaking this holistic functional
medicine approach.
So knowing your sources ofstress right now is important,
but beyond that is anticipatingwhat may cause you stress.
You don't really have to waitfor it to happen.
You can have a strategy inplace.
So for you, what that couldlook like is an anticipated
(28:11):
stress maybe starting a new job,maybe travel.
I'm getting ready to take atrip and I know that how I
respond to air travel and flightwith dehydration, my gut health
suffers.
I always have trouble withelimination.
I know that I'm going to havesome muscle cramps.
So a proactive response for meis making sure I get enough
(28:33):
magnesium, making sure I've gota way to stay well hydrated,
making it easy, easily available, so I don't create more stress
when I know that stress iscoming because I'm traveling and
a lot's out of my control, thatstress is coming because I'm
traveling and a lot's out of mycontrol.
So having a proactive strategy,so knowing the sources of
stress in your life that you canhave a strategy for.
(28:54):
So if there's a certain meetingthat causes you stress, could
you take five minutes ofmindfulness before the meeting
so that you could be centered?
Or if you know that you'regoing to have a long day like
Wednesdays are a long daybecause of da, da, da, da, da is
there things that you could do?
Is it possible to meal prepTuesday or Monday and have all
(29:18):
of your meals ready and fired up, where you could just heat them
up and have them ready to go onthose long days.
I'm not saying these are thingsyou have to do, just a way that
we start to think a little bitdifferently beyond.
Just Wednesdays are stressful.
Take a pill.
I think you get what I'm sayingthat we could think in terms of
how we could be flexible and beready to respond to stress.
(29:41):
In addition to knowing what hasbeen previous sources of stress
for us and how to react,awareness of our relationships
also is an important aspect ofour care, and these
(30:04):
relationships can berelationships with our friends,
our family, our spouses,relationship with ourselves,
relationship with food.
So just knowing how we show upin those and getting a sense of
how we feel in our relationshipsis an important part of mental
health and wellness.
Of course, that's an importantpart of working with a therapist
(30:25):
and I had mentioned before thatwhen I'm working with my
patients, that's often going tobe a place that I like my
patients to work, because whenyou're working in therapy, it
gives you time to reflect andtime to think and you get asked
questions you may not have askedyourself before, been afraid to
, but that definitely canreflect upon your overall health
(30:48):
, especially those corerelationships, relationships
with parents.
For some of my patients, theparental relationship has become
a pivotal point in their ownhealth, and it's not so much
that we look for someone toblame.
We just step back and we startto look at what your parents may
(31:08):
have gone through, how they mayhave modeled certain behaviors
and how that's turned out inyour life, and sometimes we can
find little points in there thatsomething that you may have
been doing out of habit issomething you learned.
It doesn't serve you and youdon't even want to do it, and we
can just release it right away.
It becomes very simple.
So that gives us an overview ofhow we can take a functional
(31:39):
and holistic approach to ourmental health.
Don't forget that.
If you want to sign up for thelive masterclass on May 25th,
check your show notes.
Every episode of this podcast Ipost to my website, healing
arts, health and wellnesscom, soif you would prefer to read a
(31:59):
summary of it or you wanted tohave notes, I will put a link
there that you can advocate toto have a summary of this that
you can read and also, if youwould like, a copy of this sent
to your email.
Every week, every Friday, Isend out a newsletter with
reminders, information and acopy of the podcast that you can
actually download straight toyour device and listen on your
(32:21):
own time.
So thank you so much forjoining me for this week.
Next week we'll cover mentalhealth and we're going to cover
from an energy medicineperspective.
So we'll talk about mentalhealth in terms of the chakras
and we'll actually talk someabout mental health and the
meridians.
We'll use a little traditionalChinese medicine.
All right, I'll see you nextweek.
(32:43):
Thanks,
Hello and thank you for joining me for this week's
episode of the Art of Healingpodcast.
For today's episode we're goingto be discussing mental health
awareness.
Similar to the previous episodea few weeks ago, I thought it
might be nice to cover mentalhealth in how we approach it in
the functional medicine practice.
(00:21):
If you'd like to learn moreabout my functional medicine
practice, including states thatI accept, which is recently
expanded from California all theway to Ohio, several states in
between navigate todrcharlisecom to learn more
about how you can work with me.
I do also have a quickannouncement.
(00:45):
We as a community have beengathering once a month and
having some great discussionsthat cover both functional
medicine and Reiki.
So there is going to be anupcoming live meeting, live
class, called the Toolkit forMental Health and Wellness.
This will be on May 25th, 2024at noon, central standard time.
(01:10):
This is free to attend.
All you have to do is sign up.
If you sign up and you're notable to attend, you can get a
copy of the recording.
So during this meeting we'regoing to cover common mental
health disorders.
We'll go a little bit more indepth with how we can approach
those from a functional medicineand an energy medicine
perspective.
So please join me, especiallyif you're wanting to have your
(01:34):
questions answered live andindividually.
For today's episode, I thoughtit might be nice to review what
the functional medicine approachis, and then we're going to
apply that approach to how wewould approach your care.
(01:54):
If you are dealing with thingssuch as major depression in
which you're treating withmedications and you're
interested in a strategy to weanoff your medications, and
you're interested in a strategyto wean off your medications.
Another common issue patientswill come to me with is
suffering from anxiety andwanting to have a holistic
approach to heal anxiety thatdoesn't rely on medications,
(02:16):
particularly benzodiazepines,which can become habit forming.
So functional medicine is acare delivery model that focuses
on healing the root cause ofillness.
To do this, you have to look atthe past, the present and the
future, and what you're tryingto determine is whatever the
(02:41):
dis-ease or disorder, whatpotentially was the cause?
And then, in order to heal theroot cause, what you need to do
is to try to determine what yourbody's optimal biology is, so
where your body wants to beright now.
Then the steps to get your bodyback to that place In the
(03:10):
traditional medical model whenwe're dealing with diseases or
disorders of the psychology ormental health disorders.
We would probably look at maybea few simple questionnaires
which you've probably completedthem or heard of them, such as
the PHQ-9, which is either twoquestions or nine questions that
(03:32):
evaluate your risk fordepression.
There's also a questionnairecalled a GAD-7, which looks at
anxiety, and then several othersort of set questionnaires or
parameters that we can look atfor bipolar disorder, insomnia.
(03:57):
Several of those disorders Goover a set of questions, maybe
talk about some further risk.
Make sure that you're notseriously ill and don't need to
be in the hospital Because, aswe know, mental health diseases
can be severe enough that theycan threaten your life and then
(04:18):
discuss treatment In thetraditional medical model.
More than likely the treatmentwill rely on medications.
I found this so frustratingwhenever I was in a
hospital-owned practice becauseI would say roughly 70-75% of
the mental health issues I dealtwith really could have
responded to a more holisticapproach.
That didn't have to be rightaway the prescription, but
(04:42):
unfortunately so many of thepublic and physicians are
trained that once somethingdoesn't feel right you take a
prescription.
And this is even morechallenging when someone suffers
from something more in therealm of a persistent mood
rather than an overall disease.
So someone that may be plaguedwith worry thoughts constantly
(05:06):
doesn't necessarily need to beon a prescription.
When they could learn to workwith their mind matter, they
could learn to work with theirthoughts, they could practice
mindfulness, but a lot of timesthat's where it would end up.
So in the traditional medicalmodel, you present with what you
(05:26):
feel it is and unfortunately,because of the time crunch, many
patients self-diagnose.
They say I'm depressed and theclinician says okay, here's an
antidepressant.
Or I'm anxious and theclinician says okay, here's
something for your anxiety.
So for in the traditionalmedical model, that approach
just starts there and thenusually you follow up to make
sure the medication did okay oryou didn't have a bad response
(05:50):
to the medication.
This is different from a moreholistic, functional medicine
approach.
So a more holistic approachwould start with gathering as
(06:11):
much detail as we can reasonablyto determine what it is you're
truly experiencing.
So the gathering of informationwould include your current
feelings or sensations.
Now trying to get an idea ifthere are some physical symptoms
that go with it.
Trying to get an idea if thereare some physical symptoms that
go with it, because I couldsafely say that really there's
(06:33):
no mental health symptom thatdoesn't exist with a physical
symptom.
It's just doing a little bit ofdigging to discover what could
be related.
Learning what we can about yourpast is important.
(06:54):
So learning about your pastmedical history and, if we have
the information available,learning about your family
medical history so that can tellus what you may be predisposed
to if you have a family historyof schizophrenia or family
history of bipolar disorder, itdoesn't necessarily mean that
you will develop those, but itcould tell us something about
(07:16):
what you could be going throughnow and then gathering
information about anything weknow that could have made the
feeling or the symptom worse.
So it could be something like Istarted a medication and I felt
better.
It could also be something likeI started a new position at
(07:37):
work and I felt worse all theway to.
I had a surgery and I noticedmy depression was worse during
the recovery from the surgery.
So clearly it's really no limitas to the factors of what could
be making this better, worse,driving it.
(07:57):
But gathering that informationand it takes time.
The longer that I practice infunctional medicine, I'm
definitely seeing more time as acircular rather than linear,
where I'm understanding now thatI really will need to have an
encounter multiple times with mypatients.
Sometimes I understand theirexperience because it's just in
(08:19):
layers it just doesn't come thatquickly.
Layers it just doesn't comethat quickly.
Once we gather information interms of what could be causing,
creating or making the symptomor experience worse which are
sometimes referred to asantecedents, triggers or
(08:40):
mediators then we want to startto look at your body's systems
or your body's biology.
So we'll want to look at howyour body can digest material.
Are you absorbing nutrients?
Is the microbiome or your gutoptimized?
(09:06):
So actually making a linkbetween your digestive patterns
and is it optimized and is thatsomehow related to your gut
health?
In my own work with my patients,it seems like the relationship
we seem to make a lot isstarting an antibiotic for a
(09:27):
serious infection and thennoticing depression or anxiety
several weeks after that event.
I think that's the closest I'veseen, but then also very much a
link between irregular bowelmovements, constipation,
diarrhea, along with the mood,and definitely a link of someone
who has waves of anxiety oranxiety attacks that go with
(09:52):
diarrhea.
So having a look at the guthealth is a great place to start
.
The next place is if yourimmune system is working with
you or not, against you or notworking at all.
So, looking at the immunesystem's ability for you to heal
(10:13):
from injury or infection, foryour body to heal the joints, is
the immune system in overdriveor is the immune system
attacking your tissues?
And I would say that, althoughthe medical textbooks don't make
that relationship, my own workwith patients is I've often
(10:35):
discovered a link betweenautoimmune disease and
depression, whereas the patientcame to me thinking it was just
depression, but the more thatwe're able to interact, that
they're depressed in the morningbecause their joints are
swollen and painful.
And it turns out that it's notjust depression.
So if we had just taken thequick route and just treated the
(10:55):
depression and put them on anSRI without exploring what else
is going on, we would havepossibly helped their mood
somewhat.
Without exploring what else isgoing on, we would have possibly
helped their mood somewhat, butthey would have an autoimmune
disease that keeps going aheadand it could be causing damage.
(11:17):
Many individuals who are dealingwith what they suspect is
depression complain of severefatigue with what they suspect
is depression, complain ofsevere fatigue.
So, being aware of how theirbody regulates energy,
mitochondrial health, the healthof sugar metabolism.
That's important to make surethat's not the underlying issue,
(11:40):
because there is a strong linkbetween diseases such as
diabetes and depression.
The last statistic that I heardwas that somewhere around 30%
of individuals who are diagnosedwith diabetes complained of
symptoms of depression withinthe six months of their
diagnosis, and it makes sensewhen you think about the fact
(12:04):
that high sugars does.
It's not asymptomatic.
You definitely have symptoms.
The symptoms might be subtle,they may not be stand out or
(12:30):
really jump out at you, but justwant to plug that there will be
a free event for us to connecton May 25th 2024 at noon,
central standard time.
If you'll check your show notes, you'll be able to see the link
for my upcoming livemasterclass, the Health and
Wellness Mental Health Toolkit.
If you're interested inconnecting live, you have
(12:52):
questions that you'd like toshare with me, I definitely
recommend you sign up, and ifyou sign up you're not able to
attend live, you'll get a copyof the recording.
Other pieces of informationwe'll want to know are how is
(13:13):
your heart health?
Even, how is your lymphaticsystem?
Seems like it wouldn't berelated, but there is a strong
relationship between the healthof your heart and the health of
your mind.
Institutions such as theHeartMath Institute that have
(13:35):
rolled out just so much researchconcerning heart health,
coherence what happensindividually as far as mental
health the HeartMath Institutealso looks at what happens with
heart, coherence andsociety-wise.
But we do know that certainchemicals produced within the
brain can affect the heart andalso the heart potentially has
(14:00):
ability to store memories.
Having heart issues or heartdisease could be a precursor to
having depression.
You may be aware of the linkbetween having major depression
after a heart attack.
A heart attack is when thecorneal arteries become blocked
and aren't able to get blood tothe muscles of the heart, and
(14:24):
when they become blocked, thatmuscle begins to get very low
oxygen, cramps and then evendies off from not having enough
oxygen.
And it's been a lot of researchin the last 30 years that ties
in that people who survive thatevent frequently suffer from
depression.
And why that is still a littlebit of a mystery, but it turns
(14:48):
out that the heart has its ownneurological system.
The heart makes its own set ofhormones which influence the
vagus nerve, which can influencethe brain.
So it does appear that there'smany reasons why having blocked
arteries and a heart attack canaffect the brain, and there's
(15:09):
even more research coming outthat shows that having
depression can increase yourrisk of having a heart attack.
The other information that wewant to know that could be
causing mood issues or affectingyour mental health is if your
(15:34):
hormone balance is optimized forwhat you and your body want.
I say it that way because thestate of our hormones and how
our organs talk to each other,it changes depending on where
you are in your life.
Organs talk to each other.
It changes depending on whereyou are in your life.
(15:54):
So, for instance, if you're inpuberty, it's an intense process
in which there has to be a lotof talk between the brain and
the adrenal glands and theorgans that determine your
gender.
There has to be a lot of talkbetween your bones and your
thyroid gland, your parathyroidgland and your brain.
During puberty, that should bea fairly intense process of lots
(16:15):
of surges and things, whereasduring the process of menopause
that there are hormone surgesthat aren't necessarily for
reproduction.
But as the female body beginsto wind down what used to be the
phases and cycles of ovulation,she definitely will feel
(16:37):
changes.
And we know that menopause or,in men, andropause, which isn't
necessarily a cessation ofhormone production, but the
dowling down of making as muchtestosterone can make us feel
differently, and one of thegreat places to start in terms
of a holistic approach isdetermining where those are,
(17:01):
where those hormones might be,because you can find points and
places of things that you canoptimize that really don't even
require a prescription.
Things such as if you're notproducing enough melatonin,
consuming foods that are high inmelatonin throughout your day
to support resting and sleepingat night, if your thyroid is
(17:23):
starting to become inflamed andthat's what you sense, that ends
up being what's causing you tofeel depressed and tired.
Changing your diet so thatyou're not consuming as much
gluten, or maybe skipping glutenfor a little bit to see if your
thyroid recovers.
So finding out where yourhormone balance is and is it
optimized for you and where youwant to be in life.
(17:45):
So, as we are gathering thatinformation which it takes some
time, and it takes time andspace to get those pieces of
information lined up as far aswhat's happening in your biology
, if we're trying to help yourmental health and support your
(18:08):
mental health, or, which Imentioned in the beginning, if
maybe you're having certainsymptoms but it's not
necessarily the diagnosis.
So maybe there's times whereyour mood feels low and you're
tired, but you don't necessarilyhave depression.
The main places that we know wecan interact, that there's some
interventions that can happenbeyond just prescription
(18:29):
medications, are your sleep andif you relax, if you get healthy
movement into your day, yournutrition, of course, stress and
your relationships In terms ofsleep, how sleep could be
(18:58):
affecting your mood.
For most of us, it's going to benot getting enough sleep.
It's just a hazard of modernlife.
We have so many reasons to beoverstimulated.
We have screens in front of us,screens in our bedroom, we have
work responsibilities in ourbedroom.
We have work responsibilities,homework, graduate studies a
long list but one of the firstthings we can all do is make
(19:21):
sure that we leave enough roomin our schedule for sleep.
So making sure that you've got agood bedtime routine.
It could seem overwhelming, butjust even looking at simple
things, I know for myself.
One of the simple things Irecently started looking at is
when I need to do my nighttimechores, don't wait until it's
time to go to bed.
It's so simple, but it finallyoccurred to me that I was
(19:42):
waiting to do my dishes untilpretty late at night when I
really wanted to be going to bed.
So maybe changing that up sothat I make sure just to get the
dishes done earlier.
So same for you.
It could be things like youmight feel like you're rushing
and there's so much to do in theevening.
One of the things I ask mypatients is, as you're looking
(20:02):
at your evening routine andyou're looking at what needs to
be done, how many of those tasksreally have to be done at
bedtime?
If you don't do that task, willit put someone at harm or put
someone's life at risk?
And depending on how you answerthat, then you can realign your
priorities.
So we can acknowledge that youmay have a lot on your plate but
(20:25):
it doesn't all have to be doneright now tonight, so that maybe
if answering those 10 emailscould wait till in the morning
and you might do them muchfaster.
If you close the laptop, goahead and dim the lights in your
room and start unwinding forbed.
Even if you don't go straightto bed, just start acknowledging
that it's going to be time torest and let your pineal gland
(20:49):
make the melatonin that it wantsto make.
That can help you get to sleep,Moving your body in a way that
feels good, or healthy movementand I try to practice that term
(21:11):
with myself as much as possibleand not so much, say, exercise,
because sometimes that healthymovement could look like many
things.
So there's going to be timeswhere moving your body in terms
of maybe you're making too manystress hormones and we want to
(21:31):
maybe burn some of those off, sohealthy movement could be a
brisk walk for you.
Maybe in your workup we'vedetermined that your metabolism
is not great and you're leaningtowards having elevated blood
sugars.
Healthy movement for you maylook like using the muscles and
(21:51):
doing some resistance work.
So maybe you do it formally interms of you pick up a dumbbell
and actually do some crunches,or maybe you do some resistance
work in terms of, as you'reputting your groceries away,
maybe adding a few additionallifts, or maybe it could even be
resistance work as far as doingsome sorting of your garage
(22:14):
that you hadn't done in a while.
I like to see it that waybecause you can incorporate it
into your day without itnecessarily being stressful.
Unless you really do enjoyexercising, then we can talk
about it that way.
But for a lot of people thatterm doesn't bring about warm
fuzzies or they don't feel sogood.
So I like to say healthymovement.
Likewise, maybe you're noticingthat mid-afternoon or evening
(22:41):
you get muscles that twitch.
You're twitching in the musclesof your eyes, so your eyelid
twitches, or you have twitchesin your thigh muscles twitches,
or you have twitches in yourthigh muscles and as we're
working together we discoverthat you are making excessive
amounts of stress hormones.
Healthy movement for you mightbe something where you can
(23:03):
engage your vagus nerve, whereyou can take deep, long inhales
and exhales, and maybe evendoing that while you're getting
a chance to stretch the musclesand let those relax.
So that's maybe something morelike a yoga practice for a
period of time, because it seemsthat maybe you're tending
(23:26):
towards having anxiety, so thathealthy movement may be better.
Or maybe your body's recentlybeen through a lot of trauma,
you've been through a surgery oryou're recovering from cancer
and we know that your immunesystem is fired up and the
healing systems in your body areengaged and activated and
they're going full throttle toheal whatever's just happened.
(23:46):
Healthy movement for you may bepracticing breath work, doing
pranayama, which is a part ofyoga, or doing something called
yoga nidra, in which you canfocus on the breath or even
doing guided meditations, whereyou visualize your body healing
(24:06):
and recovering.
Recovering that might behealthy movement for you and may
go a long way, so that we'renot trying to push your body
systems that are trying to healan incision or heal a wound, or
you've got a surgical cavitythat's still with fluid in it,
but we can gently engage thebreath and help your body heal
itself without adding morestress.
(24:28):
So healthy movement can look alot of ways, just like I was
saying, with like hormonebalance, depending on where you
are right now, when your mentalhealth is not where you want it
to be and is not optimized.
Of course we have to look atwhat's going inside of your body
(24:50):
.
So, nutritionally, are yougetting everything that your
body needs and desires?
Are you getting too much ofwhat your body doesn't want or
can't use?
Are there nutrients that youare getting but for some reason
you're not absorbing them?
So, knowing where you are asfar as your nutrition, the
(25:15):
members in my practice have afew ways that they can track
what they're eating along and Ican track along with them.
And then, of course, does thereneed to be healthy replacements?
Does there need to be thingsthat are eliminated?
Are there things that need togo above replacements?
Does there need to be thingsthat are eliminated?
Are there things that need togo above and beyond?
I have a few patients that have.
We're saying mental health isjust a catch-all term, but I
have a few patients who weretrying to work on some pretty
(25:37):
big things with their health andI'm considering how we might
need to supplement, above andbeyond, things like fatty acids,
omega-3s.
Are they getting enough proteinso that their muscles feel good
and don't drain their digestivesystem?
Are they getting enough what'scalled phytonutrients colorful
food colors in their diet fromplant-based foods?
(26:01):
Well, of course, there's anumber of ways and a number of
resources to make sure yourdiet's optimized, but the
quickest, fastest, dirtiestadvice is that I tell my
patients if it tastes reallygood and you want a second
helping of it, it's probably notgood for you, meaning that it's
probably something that's toohigh in sugar.
(26:21):
Sugar is not great for ourmental health, of course.
Too high in trans fats, whichyou know can lead to cravings
not good for our v health, ofcourse.
Too high in trans fats, whichcan lead to cravings not good
for our vascular health orinflammation.
So if it's something thatdrives a craving, then probably
it's something that we don'twant.
And in your nutrition, ifyou're thinking of what you'll
(26:41):
be doing as far as wanting tofeel better mentally and it's
not always a direct link, butjust making sure that you've got
as much whole fruits,vegetables, healthy grains,
beans and legumes in your dietas much whole food as you can
and then considering and if youare a DIY in it, this may be
(27:04):
when you wanna think aboutworking with someone, knowing
where you are as far as vitaminsand if you need to supplement.
If you are interested in what Irecommend, I have listed an
online dispensary which I listmy highly recommended
supplements for pretty mucheveryone at drsharlicecom.
(27:25):
So you can have a look there atmy dispensary.
But when it comes to nutrition,starting with the food first,
the supplement should come aftereverything else, preferably.
But if you're working withsomeone, discover you have
shortages, losses, you may needto supplement in addition to
your nutrition.
(27:48):
In addition to your nutrition,managing your stress proactively
is an important aspect oftaking this holistic functional
medicine approach.
So knowing your sources ofstress right now is important,
but beyond that is anticipatingwhat may cause you stress.
You don't really have to waitfor it to happen.
You can have a strategy inplace.
So for you, what that couldlook like is an anticipated
(28:11):
stress maybe starting a new job,maybe travel.
I'm getting ready to take atrip and I know that how I
respond to air travel and flightwith dehydration, my gut health
suffers.
I always have trouble withelimination.
I know that I'm going to havesome muscle cramps.
So a proactive response for meis making sure I get enough
(28:33):
magnesium, making sure I've gota way to stay well hydrated,
making it easy, easily available, so I don't create more stress
when I know that stress iscoming because I'm traveling and
a lot's out of my control, thatstress is coming because I'm
traveling and a lot's out of mycontrol.
So having a proactive strategy,so knowing the sources of
stress in your life that you canhave a strategy for.
(28:54):
So if there's a certain meetingthat causes you stress, could
you take five minutes ofmindfulness before the meeting
so that you could be centered?
Or if you know that you'regoing to have a long day like
Wednesdays are a long daybecause of da, da, da, da, da is
there things that you could do?
Is it possible to meal prepTuesday or Monday and have all
(29:18):
of your meals ready and fired up, where you could just heat them
up and have them ready to go onthose long days.
I'm not saying these are thingsyou have to do, just a way that
we start to think a little bitdifferently beyond.
Just Wednesdays are stressful.
Take a pill.
I think you get what I'm sayingthat we could think in terms of
how we could be flexible and beready to respond to stress.
(29:41):
In addition to knowing what hasbeen previous sources of stress
for us and how to react,awareness of our relationships
also is an important aspect ofour care, and these
(30:04):
relationships can berelationships with our friends,
our family, our spouses,relationship with ourselves,
relationship with food.
So just knowing how we show upin those and getting a sense of
how we feel in our relationshipsis an important part of mental
health and wellness.
Of course, that's an importantpart of working with a therapist
(30:25):
and I had mentioned before thatwhen I'm working with my
patients, that's often going tobe a place that I like my
patients to work, because whenyou're working in therapy, it
gives you time to reflect andtime to think and you get asked
questions you may not have askedyourself before, been afraid to
, but that definitely canreflect upon your overall health
(30:48):
, especially those corerelationships, relationships
with parents.
For some of my patients, theparental relationship has become
a pivotal point in their ownhealth, and it's not so much
that we look for someone toblame.
We just step back and we startto look at what your parents may
(31:08):
have gone through, how they mayhave modeled certain behaviors
and how that's turned out inyour life, and sometimes we can
find little points in there thatsomething that you may have
been doing out of habit issomething you learned.
It doesn't serve you and youdon't even want to do it, and we
can just release it right away.
It becomes very simple.
So that gives us an overview ofhow we can take a functional
(31:39):
and holistic approach to ourmental health.
Don't forget that.
If you want to sign up for thelive masterclass on May 25th,
check your show notes.
Every episode of this podcast Ipost to my website, healing
arts, health and wellnesscom, soif you would prefer to read a
(31:59):
summary of it or you wanted tohave notes, I will put a link
there that you can advocate toto have a summary of this that
you can read and also, if youwould like, a copy of this sent
to your email.
Every week, every Friday, Isend out a newsletter with
reminders, information and acopy of the podcast that you can
actually download straight toyour device and listen on your
(32:21):
own time.
So thank you so much forjoining me for this week.
Next week we'll cover mentalhealth and we're going to cover
from an energy medicineperspective.
So we'll talk about mentalhealth in terms of the chakras
and we'll actually talk someabout mental health and the
meridians.
We'll use a little traditionalChinese medicine.
All right, I'll see you nextweek.
(32:43):
Thanks,
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