Category Archives: Sleep Issues

Does Your Gut Need Some Remediation?

Have you read Dr. Gershon’s book, The Second Brain: The Groundbreaking New Understanding of Nervous Disorders of the Stomach and Intestine? Did you know that the bowel (stomach, esophagus, small intestine, and colon) are linked to your capacity for intuition and instinct? There can be 5-20 lbs of undigested matter in the gut at any time, producing parasites and unwanted bacteria.  This is why it’s important to do regular detoxes, use the principles of intermittent fasting and eat right for your blood type. Folks that we serve let go of a lot of anxiety and negative thought patterns just by addressing their gut issues.  

Here’s seven ways that your belly is trying to signal you that you need to address your gut issues: 

1) Are you feeling like a hot mess? An imbalanced microbiome can mess with your hormones that lead to mood fluctuations such as chronic irritability, premenstrual issues, and menopausal issues.

2) Trouble sleeping or often in a grumpy mood? Almost 70% of serotonin, GABA, and dopamine neurotransmitters are manufactured in your gut. When there is much inflammation in the gut, you feel inflamed with irritability too.

3) Suffering aggravating digestive issues? Constipation/diarrhea, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), Crohn’s disease, acid reflux, bloating, and excessive gas are all symptoms of deeper gut issues. 

4) Cravings for sugar, salt, coffee, junk food, or alcohol are symptoms of deeper behaviours residing in an imbalanced microbiome.

5) Repeat infections? Stress hormones such as elevated cortisol can wear down your immune function leading to a chronic imbalance in your healthy gut bacteria.  

6) Are you in constant fight, flight, or freeze?  Adrenaline can be working hard to address all those lions it perceives knocking at your door, leaving your belly bereft of healthy digestive secretions, causing peristalsis in the gut to stop absorbing nutrients from your foods in a relaxed state.  

7) Not sure what you want or need? Feeling stuck in your life is often related to your gut health.  Unblocked bacterial islets of organization in the gut can lend to changes in geography, a stagnant job, a flatlined relationship, or stale friendships.

Five Homeopathic Remedies for Insomnia

When sleep issues arise, there are often easy fixes – given that they are not being caused by a deeper, chronic condition. I’ve included some of the top homeopathic insomnia remedies below.

“Sad man holding pillow” by Vic https://flic.kr/p/aSDdHK

Aconite: Have you recently been exposed to a cold, dry wind? This is the most typical trigger for an aconite state. Especially the kind of cold that comes on suddenly, and unexpectedly, like at the change of seasons. While aconite is a common remedy for many cough and cold symptoms, it also addresses a specific type of insomnia. The Aconite insomnia is extremely restless, and may even feel anxious. The fast pace in denser urban centers may also create an aconite state in your nervous system. Tossing and turning, and even bad dreams may fill your night in this state. Around the hour of midnight is where you may feel some of the worst of the aconite state expressing itself.

Arnica: A classic arnica situation is one where the day and night schedule has been turned upside-down, as in shift work. Especially if you are on rotating shifts from one week to the next. Even if you’re now on day shifts, the old night shift disruption to your circadian rhythm will often be retained as a cellular memory.

Shock can also be a primary trigger for an arnica state. This can be either from being directly involved in a car accident, or just witnessing one. Any form of physical or emotional shock will trigger an arnica state. Sleep is not restful, and the bed may even feel too hard to be able to get comfortable.

Chamomilla: In one word, the chamomilla state is ‘fussy’. Your partner may be feeling fed up with your ever-changing demands, when in this state. You might feel sleepy in the evening, but then suddenly wide awake once you go to bed. The trigger for this state can be physical pain, such as from a recent injury, or from menstrual cramps. Restlessness and complaining are the  top characteristics. This state may be triggered by a recent troubling emotional event, which is not easy to let go of. The characteristic feeling is “I want something, but don’t know what…”.

Coffea: The keyword for coffea is ‘overstimulation’. It could even be the case that you’ve had too much coffee today, and now can’t wind down for sleep. Coffea is the remedy you need. Similarly, you may have been watching over stimulating TV shows before bed, or gotten embroiled in a heated debate on social media. Just recall the buzz you’ve ever had after drinking too much coffee. Anything which simulates this experience qualifies you for a dose of homeopathic coffea.

Nux Vomica: is for what I call the ‘jack in the box’ syndrome. You’ll fall asleep for a spell of time, but then keep popping back up all night long.  There’s hypersensitivity to noise, and just about anything else will keep waking you up. Chances are that you’ll wake with a fully formed to do list in your head.  This state is an unfortunate reality for many who have to take their work home with them, and effectively always feel ‘on call’ like an ambulance driver. The “off switch” has been deactivated in the nervous system.

As I mentioned above, the correct homeopathic remedy can put an end to your insomnia rapidly – given that there isn’t a deeper, chronic health issue that needs to be addressed. If it’s hard to match your insomnia picture to one of the descriptions above, then you may need a more comprehensive assessment for your condition.

 

This topic is further expanded in Step 6 of The 8 Steps to Natural Fertility Your Doctor Doesn’t Know About.

You can download your free copy here.

Too Many Cooks In The Kitchen; How to Stop Spoiling the Broth

June 2017 Newsletter

We’re all trying to balance so much! Often times, it’s not just the business, home life and kids to keep organized, and on a schedule, often times we’re having to be responsible for the collective consciousness for the entire household. Consider how often you’re asked, “Ok, so what’s next?”. Or “You should have just asked me to do that and I would have gladly helped you out.”

So many women I serve, and some men too, will cite extreme exhaustion. Not only for the actual tasks they perform at the office or at home, but  because they also feel like the CEO of operations. This unexpected job description often surprises us out of nowhere. Who put me in charge anyway? Where was that written? How do I exit this role without the whole damn ship sinking?

How did the job of  knowing what’s next fall on me? I’d never asked my husband, “What’s next?” in over a dozen years of marriage. How is it that as a reasonably intelligent woman I always felt my corpus callosum log-jammed every time? Perhaps my lesson was to learn how to engage with my own instincts and activities, leaving intellectual management to other individuals. That, actually would make sense.

In those moments, I definitely know I could use help. The first thing would be to take the task-manager role off my shoulders. When was this bestowed on me? Please supply a two page answer single spaced while I dress this roast of bison and finish prepping the potatoes. Perhaps you’ve lived this too.

While the offer to help is, in itself, an act of generosity, it can annoy the living daylights out of a Mom in a Sepia state. How many CEO’s of multinational companies can think on the spot of the detailed activities to be executed by a worker who barges into his office while he’s on the phone and also in the midst of forecasting the budget for the next annum? You see it, right? It doesn’t happen. At the very least, you make an appointment or see a more junior manager. Perhaps your spouse might ask one of the kids. Ah, not a bad idea, a kid will always tell you precisely what to do to serve them.

I recall feeling totally burnt out in the early stages of my marriage. In fact, I had the feeling that if one more person asked me what they could do, I might run my laser eyes clear through their guts while launching enough swear words at them to burn off their eyebrows. They’d grow back, right?!

I once recall trying to prepare supper while nursing an infant on the breast, with a toddler pulling all the pots and pans out on the floor, stirring a pot of rice pasta with the phone in one ear speaking to the guy rescheduling to come service the dishwasher who I had stayed home all day waiting for. It was a Friday.

At that moment, my husband walks into the kitchen having just arrived home from the office, and wants to know what he can do. The first answer that popped up to the fore is, “no clue” and then, “isn’t it obvious?” or to silently turn back and offer a tear of frustration into the pasta. This gesture alone can create a ton of animosity and then spouses wonder why dinner conversation is a little stunted and the weekly sex is dwindling.

I spent years stuffing my feelings down and taking Sepia regularly until my breast finally swelled with a 1.5 inch tumour. Among this, and other dynamics, I’d say this phenomenon cost us the marriage. It wasn’t until these very same issues started to crop up in my second marriage that I began to “get it”. The whole family plumbed solutions to help relieve me of the burden of doer and decision-maker. At the time, I was running a household, half a business, part of the farm, a kids’ camp (in the summer), writing a book and doing postgraduate research. Brutal, I know!

The summation of this post is that we finally did solve it with some creative problem solving. It took a team effort, but you can read that article here.