Transcript EP 287 – Dr. Taz’s Take: Alternative Methods of Healing

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Dr. Taz: Welcome back, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Super Woman Wellness, where you know I am determined to bring you back to your superpowered self. So we are going to talk about some fun healing methods. Now, we never get a chance to do this. And if you’re listening to me, you may not be able to see what I’m doing, but these are just fun wellness hacks that you can do on your own at home. They don’t cost very much. They’re inexpensive. They’re easy to do. You can even do them on the go because, look, what we’re really dealing with nowadays is everyone being very stressed out, having trouble disconnecting, disengaging from all their electronics and all their responsibilities, and in a constant state of cortisol overproduction, right? You know what I’m talking about. We’re talking about everything from the sweaty palms, maybe the occasional palpitation, the brain fog that sets in because you’re so tired and so exhausted from making decisions all day that you simply can’t think anymore.

Dr. Taz: And guess what happens next when you’re in that state of what I call superwoman syndrome? Burnout, fatigue, you can name it, call it whatever you want. But when you’re in that state, you usually engage in behaviors that you know are not good for you, but you just don’t have the bandwidth to make a different decision. I was right there recently, when I was transporting my daughter to Florida for her tennis camp. And I was tired, I’m not going to lie. I had a busy week. I had just gone to New York, come back, actually done some of what we’re talking about today on The Today Show. And had another flight, had a delay, my plane was late four or five hours. I was starving. I was hungry. I was cranky. I was tired. And there was a chocolate brownie just calling my name.

Dr. Taz: And in my decision fatigue, I succumbed and I actually had a half of a brownie, which in any other situation I would never do. So I’m trying to teach you guys these wellness hacks really so that we can all in those moments when we are truly being superwomen and we have a million things pulling at you, we have a toolbox to reach into, pull these hacks out so that we can kind of reset and get those cortisol levels back in balance. So hopefully you’re ready. The first one is super fun. This one is face tapping. That’s right. Your face is actually a little microcosm of your entire body. Everything on the face is a picture of your health. And this is taken straight from Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine, where they would use the face, your hands, your tongue, anything they could find to really try to understand and get to the root of what the issues were for you.

Dr. Taz: And they would personalize care that way too. It’s fascinating. Well, face tapping kind of stems around this whole idea that our face is a map, a map of the entire body. And in our face, we hold areas of tension that oftentimes we’re unaware of. So for example, that incident of the brownie, what I could have done instead was taken five minutes to decompress and maybe engaged in some very gentle face tapping. It’s so easy to do, but they’re key energy centers throughout the body. There’s one throughout the body, and then of course on the face as well. So there’s one on the top of the head. There’s one right here between the eyebrows. One right here under the eyes, so you can tap away right there. One right here under the nose, down at the chin, and even in the collarbone. Now, each of these correlate to different meridians or to different energy functions of the body.

Dr. Taz: So for example, the gallbladder meridian is kind of up here all through the forehead, and right here in what we call the third eye. So opening that up, especially if you’ve been on a screen for a long period of time, is very helpful. We have the vertex, which is where all this mental tension is being held. Then we have under the eyes here, often this is a sinus point. So sometimes you can almost feel like you’re leaving yourself of sinus pressure as you tap here. And then right under the nose, we have the center point here, which is considered a heart meridian or a heart base point. And again on the chin and then down on the collarbone. So the way this works is fairly easy. We start at the top of the head. You can use the pads of your fingers. And you just gently tap maybe three to five seconds, one, two, three, four, five. And then come on down to the next energy center, which is right here above your eyebrows.

Dr. Taz: I hope you guys, if you’re walking or driving and you’re doing this with me, maybe if you’re driving you can’t do this, but if you’re walking, you can do a little bit of this as you go. I’m just tapping right here on my forehead, trying to loosen up all this pent up energy. Just came from a three hour meeting, so of course my brain is a little bit exhausted. Then I come down here, come right up here under my eyes. I’m tapping away. I don’t feel any sinus pressure, but I do know I hold a lot of job pressure. You guys can probably almost see it, so I’m going to tap away there as well.

Dr. Taz: Down here under the chin. Right here under my nose. And I’m going to come down into my collarbone. So literally, let’s see one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. So eight times about three to five seconds. Under a minute, you can do a whole rotation of face tapping. Unblock the energy that you might be storing in your face. Oh, gee, already feel better, believe it or not. And really relax some of the muscles of the face that we hold so tightly from tension or from all the other things that we do day in and day out. So face tapping, a wellness hack. Doesn’t cost a thing. You can do it anywhere. Just use your hands. Amazing. I actually already feel better.

Dr. Taz: All right, guys, I’m so excited to introduce this. Our next partner has a product I use literally every day. I started taking Athletic Greens for one particular reason. And you guys probably know this if you’ve been listening to the show, but it’s all about your gut and your liver. And sometimes it’s so hard, right? To eat properly every single day, or make sure you’re getting all the fiber you need. Make sure you’re getting all the great antioxidants you need. Well, that’s why I love Athletic Greens. It tastes great. It cuts down on my need for a lot of pills and vitamins and additional supplements. And it’s easy. I really feel like the key to having a great routine is starting in the morning or maybe having a routine at night. And I can take a scoop of Athletic Greens, mix it into something I’m drinking, and have it in the morning or evening, and feel amazing throughout the day.

Dr. Taz: So let’s talk about this. What is Athletic Greens? Well, with one scoop of Athletic Greens, you’re absorbing 75 high quality vitamins, minerals, whole food source superfoods, probiotics, and adaptogens, all to help you start your day right. This special blend of ingredients supports your gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, and so much more. It’s even anti-aging. Here’s the deal, guys. It’s just really hard to get all these different ingredients in our day through our food, especially when you’re a superwoman, right? You’re running around, you’re juggling, you are trying to balance so many different things. So having a routine that works and works for you is key. Why do I consume Athletic Greens? Again, because of the convenience, it tastes great, and I know I’m doing something helpful for my gut and for my liver, which, as I’ve said before, is the laundromat of the entire body.

Dr. Taz: I love the taste. It’s not like a typical green powder that has almost that kind of bitter taste to it. So I actually really love the taste. And I do take it with me whenever I travel. Here’s some fun facts that might be helpful for you to know. This is lifestyle friendly, guys. Whether you eat keto, vegan, dairy free, gluten free, no matter what, you can carry this with you and it works for you. All right, many of us are looking and I get this all the time. Do I need to take a multivitamin? Here’s the deal. Multivitamins are sort of that one stop, right? You’re trying to cram everything into one pill. This is a great option instead of a multivitamin, because you’re getting so many great nutrients in the scoop and it’s easy to take. It’s not a pill that you have to swallow.

Dr. Taz: Athletic Greens is a small micro habit with big benefits. So this is super exciting. I think everyone, no matter what sort of diet you’re on, you can benefit from this for sure. And it definitely supports mental clarity and alertness. So again, it’s just you’re doing something good for you, so that’s incredible. This was created, by the way, when the founder experienced a ton of gut health issues and really wanted a solution to gut health. And it’s kind of, sort of cheaper than getting all the different supplements. You’re spending, sometimes I’ve had patients add it up, they’re spending a thousand dollars a month trying to manage their supplement load. So this was really designed as an all-in-one nutritional sort of experience to really optimize your overall nutrition and make sure you’re getting in all the nutrients that you need.

Dr. Taz: So check it out. I think it’s an amazing product. I like it. I use it as a part of my morning routine. And right now, it’s time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition, especially headed into the flu and cold season. It’s just one scoop and a cup of water every day, that’s it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health. To make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a free, I love this, guys, a free one year supply of immune supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/drtaz. Again, that is athleticgreens.com/drtaz to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance.

Dr. Taz: All right, moving on from face tapping. Let’s talk about one that we’ve actually talked about before, essential oils. And I have some sitting here. This is another way that I try to pick my energy up very fast. So let’s see what I’ve got sitting here. I actually have a heart-based oil here. But remember, essential oils are acting in different ways. First of all, essential oils can penetrate the skin and then enter the bloodstream. So many times you’ll see people put them on the wrist like I am right now, or put them right behind the ears or kind of right on the sides of the nose. But what we’re doing is we’re activating the limbic system. So scent travels into the limbic system, which is the emotional center of the body that actually helps us to kind of have an emotional response depending on the oil that we’re using.

Dr. Taz: So if you’re using a lavender, it’s more of a relaxation response. If you’re using a citrus oil, it’s more invigorating, more energizing. If you’re using sandalwood, sometimes that also helps with just kind of calming the nervous system down. And again, many of these oils are used for different purposes. And there’s a whole field and a litany of research around using essential oils and how they can really help to calm down this cortisol crisis that so many people are in currently. All right, face tapping, essential oils. I feel like I should have a bag and pull up my next bag of magic tricks here. So the next one we want to talk about is dry brushing. I don’t know if any of you have tried this before, but dry brushing, you basically take a very hard bristle brush and you’re brushing up towards the heart and then away from the heart.

Dr. Taz: So you’re brushing into the heart and away from the heart. You’re improving circulation, sometimes you’re exfoliating. But the key here is we’re stimulating our lymphatics, which in turn help us to detox, get rid of toxins, and to help move the sort of system that we don’t talk very much about, right? And we don’t talk about our lymphatics. The lymphatics is where we store chronic viruses, all kinds of particles, and they impede and bleed through into different areas of the circulation, entering the liver. And overall, when our lymphatics are sluggish, we’re not improving our toxic burden or our toxic load. And that, in turn, is going to impact other pathways of the body, and I know we’ve talked about this before. So dry brushing, you can do that. Maybe in the shower, start at the bottom, work your way up to towards the heart. You’re going in nice, round, I don’t have a brush, but hopefully… oh, here’s a steak brush. We can try a steak brush. How’s that?

Dr. Taz: But basically, pretending this was a dry brush, we’re wearing nice, round circles all the way up towards the heart. And that’s helping to stimulate the lymphatics and giving you a nice energy burst in the process, so give that a try. See what you think there. Sound bats I love, and I almost want to play one. Let me see if you can find one for you, but literally you can get the sound drums and you can beat on them. And this is now using vibration, the power of vibrations and overlapping vibrations to kind of elucidate a calming response, a way for the body to relax and unwind, and really for the nervous system to calm down. So I’m going to try to pull one up just so you know what I’m talking about here. Let me see if I can find one quickly, because I actually do this on my phone in the morning, but I’ve ordered the actual sound, kind of the sound bats, because I want to try to do it more commonly.

Dr. Taz: All right, let’s see here. Sound bats. Let’s see. I know we’ve got one on here. Hang on. Oh, here we go. This is the one I usually listen to. So again, you have experienced this in yoga class or just use it in your meditation. But by having an actual sound bar, or little sound drums, you can beat it, different variations, the sound or the note carries. And again, the idea here is that we have a relaxing response that we can calm cortisol down. Again, one of my favorites for sure. And then last, but certainly not least, Epsom salts. We’ve talked about this before. Remember, Epsom salts are a salt compounded with magnesium. Magnesium is the miracle micronutrient. It helps us to calm our nervous systems down. It actually helps with so many different processes in the body.

Dr. Taz: But the sad part about magnesium is that it’s actually one of the most deficient minerals out there because our soil is also becoming depleted in magnesium. So over and over again, I’ll look at labs of different patients and I’ll find that magnesium levels are pretty low. So of course we can eat magnesium rich foods like leafy greens, nuts and seeds, or we can supplement with magnesium. There are all kinds of magnesium powders and pills. But Epsom salts are an indirect way to really, again, bring that cortisol level down. You have the power of a bath, you add the magnesium salt. Sometimes it comes with an aroma therapy or an essential oil attached. 15 to 20 minutes a day, maybe two or three times a week, really to help kind of put the world away. Get off Bluetooth, get off wifi, and really, really take a moment to unplug.

Dr. Taz: So all of these techniques are really trying to do the same thing at the end of the day. They’re using either sound or touch or scent or, again, motion to help to bring the nervous system back into balance. And one of the things, the further along I get and the more I do this that I am a hundred percent sure of, is that we are in a cortisol crisis. And understanding how to manage that crisis, whether it’s for our little ones or for our elders or for ourselves, continues to be a challenge. And it is the place from which so much disease begins. So I urge you, I encourage you to try one of these little hacks or whatever it is that you love. Here’s my general rule. Do something to manage your nervous system at least 10 to 20 minutes twice a day, and schedule and really set aside two to three hours a week to help your nervous system calm down, get cortisol in check. It is a prescription for prevention that I promise you nothing else can beat.

Dr. Taz: All right, superwomen, stay strong, get out there, do your thing. But remember that we can’t burn the candle at both ends. I don’t want you guys powering through. We got to power up, and we want to share that knowledge and wisdom so that we can all continue to contribute to our societies. All right, guys, thank you for watching this episode of Super Woman Wellness. Remember, you can rate and review it and share it with your friends. I will see you guys next time.