Our gut health serves as a powerful tool for hormone release and regulation. When we take care of our nutrition and pay attention to our stress levels we can start to see the connection between how it also affects our sleep. Esther Blum, Integrative Dietitian, and Author of several books has helped women become clear on what they need to eat to create both an internal and external environment for healing while aiming to get on a consistently restful sleep schedule. In her episode of The Sleep is A Skill Podcast, Esther tells us all about her 13-year long journey and struggles with sleep even as a practitioner and her empathetic approach to the individualistic needs we all have when it comes to our dietary needs to accomplish a great night’s rest. BIO: Esther Blum is an Integrative Dietitian and High-Performance Coach. She has helped thousands of women by teaching her clients how to get clear and decisive about what to eat while healing their relationship with food and their bodies. Esther is the bestselling author of Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat, Eat, Drink and Be Gorgeous, Secrets of Gorgeous, and The Eat, Drink, and Be Gorgeous Project. She currently maintains a busy virtual practice where she provides 360 degrees of healing with physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual support. Esther believes that diet and supplements are the foundation to healing, but treating the whole person is paramount. Widely respected as an industry expert, Esther was voted Best Nutritionist by Manhattan Magazine. She has appeared on Dr. Oz, the Today Show, A Healthy You with Carol Alt, the ISAAC show, ABC-TV, FOX- 5’s Good Day NY, and Fox News Live. Esther is an in-demand authority frequently quoted in E! Online, In Touch, Time Magazine, The New York Post, The Los Angeles Times, In Style, Bazaar, Self, Fitness, Marie Claire, and Cosmo.
SHOW NOTES:
🥗 Even Practitioners Struggle with Their Sleep Health Too!
🥗 The Dirty Secret Behind How Long Sleep Medications Actually Last in Your Body
🥗 Your Gut Health Could Be Preventing A Good Night’s Sleep
🥗 Tests You Can Do to See If Your Hormone Levels Are Working For You
🥗 There is No One Size Fits All Approach
🥗 The Detrimental Effects of Cortisol - The Stress Hormone
🥗 How Meditation is Clinically Proven to Change the Shape of Your Brain
🥗 Tackling Chronic Illness with Restful Sleep
🥗 The Neverending War on Carbs - Needs to End!
🥗 Learn to Understand Your Body’s Specific Needs
🥗 Things You Can Start Doing Today to Improve Your Sleep Hygiene
🥗 Natural Solutions and Replacements for Sleep Meds
🥗 All Good Things - Take Time (Why Natural Solutions Require Patience Practices)
QUOTES:
“My goal in coming on today is really to save other people from going through what I've been through.”
“The Dutch test also looks at neurotransmitters. And so we can tell in your brain, what's happening. Do you have some gut inflammation going on? Where you're not able to make the right neurotransmitters because the right neurotransmitters, they‘re chemical messengers in your brain that go out to your body and say, And they're most of them, 90% of them are made in your gut and your intestinal tract. So they talk to the body and say, it's time to go to sleep now, or it's time to stay asleep.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
sleep, people, esther, night, cortisol, hormones, test, insomnia, book, supplements, carbs, progesterone, eat, dutch, practitioner, therapist, hear, women, months, important
00:04
Welcome to the sleep as a skilled podcast. My name is Mollie McGlocklin. And I own a company that optimizes sleep through technology accountability and behavioral change. Each week, I'll be interviewing world class experts ranging from doctors, innovators and thought leaders to give actionable tips and strategies that you can implement to become a more skillful sleeper. Let's jump into your dose of practical sleep training.
00:35
Welcome to the sleep as a skilled podcast. My guest today is Esther Blum. And I will share with you all about her background and why you want to make sure you listen to this podcast if you're looking to improve your sleep and know or maybe you don't know that improving your gut health can make a huge difference on your sleep results. And this is actually part of a series of podcasts episodes that I'm starting to drip out the release of over the next few weeks that I had recorded quite some time ago. And I'm excited, we've actually brought on some new people to help with the process of getting all these podcasts out to you guys. So I'm very excited to finally get this out because Esther provided a lot of information in here. So I think you're gonna really enjoy it. But a little bit about her background. She is a nutritionist and author of cave women don't get fat, great title, how your gut health is preventing you from getting restful sleep. And you know what really we go into on this episode is how much our gut health really serves as a powerful tool for hormone regulation and the importance of paying attention to this area for optimizing your sleep results. So she's gonna give a lot of practical information on steps that you can take now to make a difference in this area. But first, a little bit about Esther's background. Esther bloom is an integrative dietitian and high performance coach. She has helped 1000s of women by teaching her clients how to get clear and decisive about what to eat while healing their relationship with food and their bodies. Esther is the best selling author of cave women don't get fat, eat, drink and be gorgeous Secrets of the gorgeous and the eat, drink and be gorgeous project. She currently maintains a busy virtual practice where she provides 360 degrees of healing with physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual support. Esther believes that diet and supplements are the foundation to healing but treating the whole person is paramount. widely respected as an industry expert Esther was voted best nutritionist by Manhattan magazine. She has appeared on Dr. Oz the today show a healthy you Isaac show ABC TV Fox fives Good day New York Fox News Live. And Esther is an in demand authority frequently quoted in IE online in touch Time Magazine, New York Post, the Los Angeles Times in style was our self fitness Marie Claire and Cosmo. So you're gonna really enjoy what Esther has to say on this topic of health and sleep. Now before we get into the podcast, I do want to take a quick minute to give a shout out to our sponsor better help or as I like to call it a therapist in your pocket. It's the exact app that I use when I was going through my really challenging period of insomnia while traveling overseas. And the ability to maintain a consistent therapist in real life was just really not an option for me since we were jumping around from country to country. So the ability to with using my phone have video calls weekly with my therapist that was paired with a for me Actually, I connected with a great therapist right off the bat. But I do know other people who have been able to kind of shop around with some of the therapists on that app until they find a great fit for them. And in between those calls. One of the things that I found was really helpful is that you can also send voice notes, text messages, images in between that you no longer weekly video call, so that you do have this really very real ongoing connection and support that I certainly at least in my experience hadn't felt with real life therapists that I'd used in the past and also the pricing structure is much more competitive than a lot of the real life therapists that you can come into contact with. So I found it to be a lot of benefits. I recommend it to a lot of people that are just kind of going through struggles in their life or just simply want to be able to uplevel and get bringing that level of reflection and awareness into their life about what's both working and not working and you can certainly cancel it anytime and for our sleepy community that Help company has hooked us up with 10% off if you go to better help calm forward slash sleep is a skill again, better help calm forward slash sleep is a skill. Welcome to the sleep as skill Podcast. I am so grateful for you being able to take the time out.
05:17
Thank you so much for having me. Millions stoked to be here.
05:21
So awesome. Yeah, I'm excited for our conversation. So I think we can just jump right into the beginning of how it is that you got into this area of work for yourself and how this can relate to this conversation that we're so passionate about over here and sleep is a skill on how this can make a difference for people with their sleep.
05:39
Yeah, so well, I got into nutrition into Clinical Nutrition. Because I was surrounded by physicians. My grandfather was in the ears, nose and throat surgeon and he took my tonsils out in his home. He had an operating room in his home in Brooklyn, in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and he trained my grandmother who was then a dietitian to be the anesthesiologist. So she literally put the mask over my face. So you know, just six or seven years old, I sleep over nanny and Poppy's house, I go downstairs in my night gown and like, go on the operating table and have my tonsils out just another day in paradise. So my dad was a dermatologist. My mother was a nurse cousins were pharmacists. So we were a real medical family. And I knew I did not want to go to medical school much my grandfather's dismay, he told me I would never when I told him, I said, I'm gonna go into Clinical Nutrition because it's pre med degree. Basically, it's, it's less physics. It's no physics, and a little less chemistry. He was like, why would you do that? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Like, you'll never be a success. You're never going to make money. I was like, Oh, yeah, watch me. So
06:53
I love that the challenge accepted.
06:56
That was a good challenge. I saw his challenge and met him. So I began the sleep piece though Molly happened when I gave birth as my son is now 13. As we record this in 2020, I had never had any sleep issues in my life. The month before my wedding, I couldn't sleep, I took some Ambien here and there. And that was that and did acupuncture was fine. After my son was born, I nursed him for a year and my sleep did not go back to normal. It didn't even come back. I mean, I was sleeping two to four hours a night maybe broken sleep, I was working. And writing my second and third book then and had severe postpartum depression didn't really know that I even had it No, like, I am a perfect example of being a practitioner who fell right through the cracks with all of this and then proceeded to bounce from practitioner to practitioner to practitioner and to this day, no one really knows what happened. I have people team, you know, great medical team working on it. And you know, we clear out one thing after the other. I'm not on any medication anymore. I use natural medicine, but by no means is my sleep normal, but I totally function. And I'm feel fine. So my goal and coming on today is really to save other people from going what I've been through to this day. I'm one of the worst cases I've ever seen. I don't. So I know my purpose is to do it and help other people through what I've gone through. And to show you there's light on the other side. Well, thank
08:36
you so much for saying that. Because actually, that was a big part of why I had created sleep as a skill. Because when I went through my period of insomnia sounds like a similar conversation to yours. And one of the big things I wanted to hear more of was that those success stories that it's not always going to be like that, because when I was in it, you know, when you're in the storm, it can feel like oh my God, is this how life is going to be for me? Am I just destined to have this reality. And so thank you for sharing that. And too, I love to hear more. And so I'm taking notes as you're speaking and I'm wondering if you can help paint the picture walk us through what did begin to work to help begin bringing back that normalcy to or homeostasis to degree to your sleep. And I know you've done a lot of work around, you know, hormones and rebalancing of what was out of alignment. So you can walk us through that. That'd be amazing.
09:31
Yeah, I will say, you know, I tried different medications and the one that really was the hardest to get off of for me was Xanax. And I was only taking one eighth of a pill that was point five milligrams, and I had to do a cold hard detox where you know, and Xanax and any of those, especially the benzodiazepines will accumulate in your system and they don't have a half life of four hours. They take months if not a full year to clear out of your system. That's the dirty secret no one ever tells you. So that took me five months of having severe rebound anxiety. And there's no there is no way around it, you just have to really feel yourself to not be very productive and not and there were a couple years I really didn't work much, where you just have to kind of say, Alright, this gives suck, I'm going to plan to nap every day and I'm going to take some things off my plate and not be my best self for a while. But long term, it's like the best thing you'll ever do is to not be hooked on those medications, because they do they take forever to get out of your system. So first and foremost, I had diet changes. One of the practitioners I worked with believed I had epstein barr virus because when I was younger when my grandfather took my tonsils out, I had had ear infections every single month as a kid my mom joked It was like getting my period. But like with antibiotics, and they did not they were very classically trained practitioners. So of course there was antibiotics was no zinc and vitamin C and getting me off dairy. And he included in healing my immune system. None of that was even a thought. But clearly, I did have some epstein barr virus, my tonsils were always large, always sick. And pregnancy and menopause and big hormonal changes do reignite the virus rears its ugly head and it goes from a dormant state into a live active state. So during that time, and this is the funniest thing, Molly, I had my book cave, women don't get fat coming out at that time. And I had to go on a vegan diet because epstein barr feeds on animal fats or so the theory goes. So I went vegan for a while, which was really, really hard for me. I felt okay in the beginning, but then, you know, my body was dying for me and protein, but I went a good year without any red meat. I eventually brought in fish after about six months. And then chicken and then eventually had read me again. And I went on a good antiviral protocol with lots of silver and lysine and cat's claw and so many other the coconut oil, the lauric acid, all the monolaurin supplements, all of those really helped kill the viral load down. Then after that, I started doing environmental detoxes after doing mold detox, we had a mold issue in our home. So I've had the mold, remediated. Now I'm doing my second mold detox, because the first didn't work. And we bought infrared sauna and put that in your home. So I do that three times a week along with taking a lot of binders and medication. And then after that, we're going to redo my Lyme test because it wasn't so accurate. And many Lyme tests this will be by the time I redo it will be my fourth Lyme test. But it's very possible. I live in Connecticut, I live in the woods, we hike all the time, and we have a dog, it's very possible I've had a tick bite and did not know it. So that will be the next I think in final frontier. And then I'm also doing a GI map test. To look at my gut function. I've done the Dutch test. And I've done a lot of neurotransmitter therapy. And that is what enabled me to sleep once I got off the Xanax was the neurotransmitter therapy. Really, really important. And if you've had any kind of gut inflammation, which I knew I did on epstein barr, I put my before and after pictures on social media of like, I look five to six months pregnant in one picture. And the next picture like me rocking a bikini body, it really made a big difference. And I did test positive for parasites to through an infectious disease specialist in New York. So I write there's so many layers, so many onions and I layers of the onion that I work on one layer at a time you're hearing out a 13 year journey. This did not happen overnight.
14:06
Yes, thank you so much for sharing all of that. Because it's one I really appreciate you what you said about Xanax because there's so many people that you know what, by the time they come to sleep as a skill they for many, many of them have been on, particularly Xanax, that's a big one that I hear people coming through in there, whether or not they're trying to get off it or failed attempts at getting off of it. And of course, other drugs in the benzodiazepine group or the hypnotics group. But the difference that can be made on the other side of that because of course, we know what that does to inhibit some of the really important areas of sleep, the sleep architecture that we want to be encouraging, are really not able to be accessed in the same way when we are on those really sensitive. So I really appreciate you sharing that journey because it is not an easy road and the vulnerability that that takes so thank you, and so I'm taking notes You're speaking and like the list of all the different tests that you went through, right? So I wonder if you can help share some insight for people, because this is one of the things that I'll speak to with people, and then they just get so overwhelmed, and kind of have this analysis, paralysis, decision fatigue of where to begin, and also just the financial fatigue of how much is this going to cost? Where do I start? You know, and then they don't take a step. So where would you say, and I know this, obviously, it's different case by case basis. But do you have kind of a basic rubric for people if they are having this difficulty around sleep where it might be make sense to begin?
15:37
Yes, and I am glad you brought that up. Because I certainly know that whoever is listening to this, like, I'm a practitioner, so I'm gonna just embrace every therapy that comes my way because I know what will help me help you. But know, most people, I do not put most people through what I have gone through. Because usually we solve the problem long before then my case is probably one of the worst I have seen. I do have a brother who is disabled and he has horrible sleep because he's in chronic pain and, and he refuses to do the prescription meds. So I understand that. But for the most part, a lot of this is fixable, and it will improve. So I don't want to scare you away. Typically, where I personally start, there's two tests I will do. And usually I even start with one of those two. One is the Dutch test, the Dutch stands for dried urine test for comprehensive hormones. And I like the Dutch test because a lot of people who come to me are menopausal or middle menopausal women or middle aged men, all having sleep issues. So the Dutch test first of all, it looks at all seven of your progesterone seven of your estrogens seven of your testosterones. If you have a blood test done, this will look at one, maybe two. This is a urine test. So it looks at the metabolites. It looks at how you're producing, it looks at their ratios to each other. And it looks at how you're metabolizing and methylating and detoxifying these or not. So as we go through menopause, for example, your progesterone can really drop and progesterone is responsible for helping your brain make GABA and your gut make GABA, which is a neurotransmitter which helps you fall and stay asleep. So speaking of neurotransmitters, the Dutch test also looks at neurotransmitters and so we can tell in your brain you know what's happening? Do you have some gut inflammation going on, where you're not able to make the right neurotransmitters because the right neurotransmitters are chemical messengers in your brain that go out to your body and say, and they're most of them night said they're made in your gut in your intestinal tract. So they talked to the body and say it's time to go to sleep now or it's time to stay asleep. Now, they won't let you wake up all night long. They put you in a you know, in a deep, deep state of rest and repair. So the depth looks at neurotransmitters looks at hormones. It also looks at awakening cortisol and metabolized cortisol. And again, cortisol is a stress hormone, small amounts. It's a Goldilocks hormone, right? Small amounts are great, like during exercise, but then chronically elevated cortisol is not and what I'm seeing is people are having very high cortisol levels 24 seven, and so what's happening is they're getting out of bed like wired and tired like they can't sleep and they get up and their cortisol is jacked so high just their baseline This is before they even had a cup of coffee. So of course all jacked really high in the afternoon they crash and burn and then at night it comes
18:51
up again.
18:52
So we like I personally had a reverse cortisol hair or my clothes, I was low all day and then high all night. So that was like, right. Okay,
19:01
same same
19:05
thing that how are you working?
19:07
Oh, so that was when I was in the height of my insomnia. So it was the exact opposite. I was having like nocturnal panic attacks, it was just a mess. And yeah, that was really that long journey of kind of repairing that and so that's really where sleep is a skill was born out of was exactly that problem. So thank you for highlighting that.
19:26
Yeah, so that the Dutch is a great starting point because it will enable me to say how can we naturally balance your hormones, with supplements with diet with lifestyle and stress management? And then do you need some hormone replacement therapy also to get your GABA up and a lot of women come to me and just do so beautifully adding in different types of estrogens either creams or gels or topicals progesterone same thing. These hormones can be oral too. But I like to get ones compounded through pharmacy so that they're bio identical. But I have clients that do fine on synthetics too. So I don't let
20:11
perfect be the
20:12
enemy of done if someone just wants to go to a regular doctor and not go into functional medicine route, and they get progesterone that works for them, Far be it for me to stop that I'm all about the end game of sleep without pharmacology, if possible, and getting people off. And the way you know, the nice thing is with supplements, right? You can add in the supplements and then gradually decrease the medication. So there's a minimal transition effect. I did it cold turkey, I didn't have the supplements to really back me up, I kind of did it in reverse my practitioners, the people I went to just didn't know how to really help me, it took me a while to find the right ones. So I kind of did the not the way I would tell anyone else. So it's great because I help people minimize, you know, the transition of getting off their medication, not getting on their supplements. So
21:05
that's nice. It's great. Do you have any suggestions for people that no, you're in Connecticut, right? neighboring over by New York in New Jersey, that can have some difficulty with the testing, you know, kind of regulations around the Dutch test or any of these tests. Unfortunately, it can get tricky in those states. Many suggestions for those people who are particularly dealing with some sleep disturbances right now, based on what they're dealing with the virus and you know, a number of other issues compounded as
21:36
well. So the upside of the Dutch test is you can do it at home, you don't have to go to a quest or anything. But if you're in a state that's stricter with regulations, there is a box, you can check, we certify you've done the test out of state. So you can go visit a relative and do it there. You can cross the state line to collect some samples, you know, to do the best you can to, to work around it for sure.
21:58
Yeah, thank you for sharing that too. Because that's been such a blocker for so many of my New York, New Jersey clients. So hopefully, that will be something that progressed. So we don't even have that in the conversation. But and then for the rest of us in within America, that's something that we can do. And then of course, outside of internationally, you know, some of my other clients are working with different you know, so like, let's get checked is another one that's pretty International, you know. So there's a couple other sources that we can utilize to ensure that people aren't being stopped based on their geography. It's so tricky based on where people are, and so many things to consider. Okay, so then you get your testing done, you see that there's abnormality around your hormones. And you had mentioned some of the steps that people can take for those people that like I do have some clients that they say they don't want to take anything synthetic or external. Do you have any suggestions for those people from a behavioral standpoint, or as far as dietary or exercise that you would suggest?
23:00
Yes, but I want to say just from a place
23:03
of
23:04
without judgment, but just real empowerment is all the yoga in the world cannot raise your progesterone, it's or your you know, maybe your testosterone a little bit but at some point, right, when you're sick of being sick, and you've just had enough, you will do whatever it takes to get better and kind of get over that that hump that block. But certainly there is a lot you can do lifestyle wise if it's more of a cortisol issue and less of a menopausal issue. If it's a trauma, death in the family, a divorce, a life change a move, of course, those can all spark insomnia at any given point. So a couple of real basics that probably a lot of people say but bear repeating. Okay, number one is good old fashioned meditation we there is clinical research on monks where CAT scans were done on the brains before and after meditation. And the difference in blood flow to regions of the brain, particularly where your amygdala is, that's your Fight or Flight Center, that gets activated under stress. So we now know that blood flow to the MiG do lead changes under duration of meditation, you know, and all it takes is 1020 minutes a day doesn't even all have to be at one time. But within 60 to 90 days, you can reshape the amygdala and hormones start from the top down. So this is a great example. I had a woman come to me with horrible Hashimoto, she didn't know she had hashimotos we ran tests her doctor did half of them I say go back to your doctor do the other half and lo and behold, her autoimmune titers were through the roof for how she moves and she was up An EFT therapist. That's the Emotional Freedom Technique that's happening. And she'd gone through two horrible divorces and had horrible PTSD. And we said, you need to actually take your own medicine because like the supplements aren't going to fix this until you fix the stress piece. And she did. And without any medication, her thyroid returned to completely normal and her antibodies dropped. We took dietary measures to make sure her antibodies dropped, we cleared out gluten, we cleared out dairy. But hormones at the story illustrates how hormones start from the top down. And if you don't manage your stress, like nothing's going to get fixed, and no amount of pills or diet changes will change. If you also don't embrace the mental peace, that's how important it is. So it's meditation, it's journaling if need be where you do a you write down, at least three I like say 10 things you're grateful for because it really reframes the context of your stress and your problems. I'm a big believer and living in a clutter free home. clutter creates a tremendous amount of stress, disorganization and anxiety. And that like I always keep a notepad next to my bed. And I at night, kind of before I meditate, I do a brain dump of what I need to get done the next day who I need to reach out to loose ends that need tying up, you know, all those things are really, really, really important. So decluttering your mind decluttering your home environment, physically exercising as well also is free for sleep. If you are someone with insomnia where maybe you fall asleep, you can't stay asleep, you know, or any kind of insomnia even if you can't fall asleep, but you do stay asleep. Get your exercise first thing in the morning and outdoor exercise the light spectrum is 100 times greater than indoor light. So getting outside regulating your circadian rhythm, your melatonin production, all of those pieces are really important and getting outside in nature lowers cortisol as well. No caffeine past 12. You know, I have many people with such bad insomnia, we cut out caffeine altogether and their energy actually comes up, they feel much better. And I remember the height of my insomnia, I couldn't even tolerate caffeine.
27:29
Yes,
27:30
right. Because I felt nauseous on a cup of tea, I couldn't do it.
27:34
And also for women, I'm sure when you're managing these, this delicate balance of hormones and sex hormones and the amount of stress that can kind of flare up and adrenal elements that can kind of get dysregulated with caffeine, you know, large amounts of caffeine at different times of the day can Yeah, you're really pointing to something powerful there. Sometimes it needs it warrants being eliminated for a period of time, if not indefinitely. And that's why I mentioned for for women in particular, you know, that we have to be mindful of our own freedom and rhythm in addition to our circadian rhythm. So those are a lot of things for us to kind of pay attention to. You also mentioned this topic of carb snacks, cherry juice, some of these kind of approaches that you have, that can make a difference in sleep and optimizing for sleep. I was wondering if you could speak about those?
28:27
Yes. So in the wake of paleo and keto and a lot of really low carb eating plans, with insomnia, something that really really helps is to have a carb snack before bed and you compare it with protein if you like. A couple of rice cakes, a spoon of raw honey, some people do fine on some fruit. You know most nutrition experts are like I cannot believe you're recommend carbs before bed that's gonna make you fat. So if someone doesn't want carbs for bed, they can have a really nice amount of carbs at dinner, at least three quarters cup to a cup of carbs to jack up your serotonin and dopamine because the thing is this you can either not have the carbs and not sleep. This is if carbs work for you right cannot have the carbs did not sleep which is going to disrupt your insulin sensitivity and your blood glucose and make you gain weight. Or you can have a little bit of carbs and you sleep through the night which resets your insulin receptors and manufactures your growth hormone and lowers your insulin and your cortisol so of course I'm in can't be right which and I can tell you after years and years and years of experimenting, I can always tell in the nights I didn't sleep that I had a lower carb dinner because I'm just not always hungry at night I eat well during the day, my appetites well controlled. Like I almost have to force feed myself carbs at night sometimes but if I don't it really bites me in the acid. The most liberating thing I heard was working with a practitioner who was like genetically you actually really need carbs. It's like, thank you. That's what I felt my whole life and I'm not someone who's ever gotten lean on, you know, keto or anything that low carb, I feel terrible. So it's really metabolically individual now, I do have some clients that I'll be honest with you one of my cuts a male and he got a horrible headache after trying honey at night and he wasn't sleeping. Well, we did Dutch test. His metabolize cortisol was literally off the charts. It was the highest I'd ever seen any kept complaining about nighttime urination. And so we're really working on lowering, you know, his cortisol up in his neurotransmitters, and in time, and having his eat really regularly. He was overeating. He was eating a ton of sugar. During the day, he was a recovering addict and just always crave that sugar. So it's really rebalancing his narrow transmitters and his personality, when we first start working with very anxious he always, you know, was reaching out me support. And since then I've noticed just a shift where he's more centered and calm. And sometimes these take months to the differences that the hardest thing for people I think, Molly is that medication works that night, medication works within an hour, right? Natural Remedies don't they take months to work I took one of the other things I did was my doctor had me injecting decent, that's a delta, do sleep peptide. And she said, Oh, no problem, this will work in one to two months, it took four months for it to work for me to see a difference. So and she said, Oh, that's good to know. You're different than other people. And especially if you're one of those people, I don't know, if you are this is me to a tee, whatever works for everyone else never worked for me. People and like the wind blows differently, and your body freaks out and you're sensitive to everything. Right? Then, you know, you have to know it's gonna be a longer ride. And just to be patient.
32:06
Yes. And it's interesting to I have a lot of people wearing continuous glucose monitors to monitor this topic of glucose instability throughout the day and the night and to see how much that can fluctuate while we're sleeping. And, you know, so we do do a lot of kind of manipulation for people to find that balance to ensure that then they're not having those crashes. Yeah, that can be very problematic for sleep. And then just for mood management, emotional regulation. Yeah, number of things. It's fascinating how much of a difference that can make
32:38
and you know, the first and second half of the cycle, you can see a huge difference in your blood sugar fluctuations are still menstruating female
32:46
100% Yeah, so we Yeah, so women have all the more work cut out for us in this biohacking arena because there's a lot of other things that are not necessarily Count ownable depending on where you are in your cycle, so they can very drastically shift. So okay, so to finish that you do you recommend the cherry juice as well?
33:09
Yeah, cherry juice, no two ounces of tart cherry juice helps boost melatonin production as well. But here's the other thing is you ever see all those Tylenol pm commercials and how they help you sleep? Well guess what? A lot of people don't realize that they have aches and pains that are waking them up. And that's why the Tylenol works so well. And so a great joint detox is celery juice in the morning and cherry juice at night and I've seen it clear out gout. Get down. You know people with chronic back pain, start sleeping better people with just arthritic joints or autoimmune conditions where they're really inflamed. The cherry juice and the celery juice help with the joint inflammation too. So if you're cleaning up inflammation, you'll sleep better too.
33:57
That's another piece of the puzzle big time. Absolutely. And then along with depression and that conversation for as it relates to depression and anxiety and how that can link up with inflammation. Great points there. And then you also mentioned Of course, blue blockers so we know the power around light and sleep and of course circadian rhythm light being one of the number one impactors as external cues to regulating our circadian rhythm. So I was wondering if you could share your practices with being mindful of your blue light and you know wearing different blockers and how you manage all that?
34:33
Yeah, so I have I was looking at my desk and my blue blockers are by my bedside but at night I do wear blue light blockers. You can get really beautiful pairs on Amazon like when I first started I have those dorky construction glasses right? You know after 8pm I really try and shut my phone off and not look at it. I put it on nighttime mode, but inevitably Right The Knights were on the phone laid the news cycle being what it is, it's will make anyone not sleep. And I do have main nights as it is lying awake thinking about things so and the state of the world so, and your phone by the way, you can get apps that will work offline where you can turn off your Wi Fi connection,
35:21
and
35:22
not and so if you do meditate at night where your blue light blockers to get to the screen, you need to get to on your phone and then you know, shut the phone off Wi Fi put it in airplane mode. So it's not emitting EMF. There's now you know, clinical studies that show that the EMF severe from a cell phone that's within 10 feet of you raises cortisol at night. So it's important to take it really seriously. Yeah, the blue light blockers, I could practically fall asleep. I do watch TVs at night, a few nights a week and nights I'm wearing my blue light blockers in front of the TV like I can fall asleep on the couch and just whatever reason it just blocks the light better. I get much sleep here because obviously blocks the blue light. But I think again, creating a bedtime ritual where you're not on a screen up until the very second you get into bed and everyone's like having threesomes. It's like themselves, their spouse and their iPad. Right? It's a big fat three. So
36:20
I find I haven't heard it described like that, but it's true.
36:25
So yeah, you want to make sure you do not have technology I was in bedroom is for sleeping and sex. And that's it like no TVs I've literally had many clients take their TVs out of the bedroom. Even things like a smoke alarm or a fire detector, put black electrical tape over and cover the lights get blackout shades. I know you guys all talk about those the sleep mask the air, plug the noise machine, you know, do what you have to do write down things, your brain is not busy at night and go to sleep, or take some homeopathics or
37:02
put some
37:03
lavender on your pillow and take your nutrients and go to sleep asleep. Create a ritual around it though,
37:09
I love what you're speaking to. Yeah, and and clearly this has come from so much research time, energy, effort, trial and error all the thing you know, to get to this point. So I so appreciate you sharing all of this. And I'm wondering if you can help parse out for people a bit more, because I know you have been quite the accomplished writer as well. And so with the different books that you have created, what those can do in this conversation around sleep, and then also how people can learn more about you be connected to what it is that you all the things that you're putting out right now. Sure.
37:45
So the biggest way the books will help it start if you just are hearing this for the first time and you really don't know where to start, feel very overwhelmed. Start with blood sugar balance that alone can get people off, there's equal at night and these are literal testimonials. I've heard from people who just read my books or wrote an Amazon review. So start you know each one could be gorgeous as my first book
38:09
the whole
38:10
motto is your body may be a temple but who says it can't be a nightclub. So it's really like the sex middle of that nutrition. You know, there's a chapter in there on on hangover recovery on PMS on sex, greed, sex through great nutrition and just it's very fun and a good overall foundation of how to get protein how to get what are the right carbs, what are the right fats and just a pink Bible, if you will, secrets of gorgeous is one tip per page of just overall wellness tips. And then there was the eating can be gorgeous project. And that really speaks to women who have been you know, eating a fairly balanced diet but not seeing the results they did maybe in their 20s this is for women in their you know, 30s who were getting in shape or staying in shape is harder. So I have high protein meal plans on their muscle building plans. I have gluten and dairy free, I have a balanced plan. All of those are sure to balance your blood sugar,
39:16
get you accountable. There's
39:17
a food log in there as well to really produce some cognitive behavioral therapy for you. So that you really know how to start incorporating bigger changes in your life and there's post workout muscle mocktails in their supplement recommendations. And then my final book keep women don't get fat is a paleo diet for women because most paleo diets are written for men. So this book kind of starts to get into more of the effect that nutrients have on your hormones and your adrenals on your thyroid, how protein affects you the first and second half of the cycle and your blood sugar's change and there's lots of recipes in there. That book is great for women, you know, in their late 30s 40s 50s, beyond. And I'm proud to say I've had a lot of strangers read it and say they've lost 25 pounds in three months, and it really balanced their blood sugar fixed a lot of inflammation in the gut. So those are some great books too.
40:21
That's excellent. And I'm sorry, you said too, for your website. You mentioned that one. Just
40:27
on my website, too. I have three free ebooks as
40:31
well. Great.
40:32
My website is Esther Bluhm, it's e s, t, h, e r b LU m, Esther bluhm.com. And for the first 12 people who hear this, I've opened up some spots in my calendar, you can book a 30 minute strategy session with me, where you'll come away with three customize strategies for you to you know, get results on a goal that you are working on. So it's a $500 value, I cannot recommend it enough to book it, you go to Esther beloved.com, forward slash call.
41:09
And you can
41:10
also when you opt into my list, you can get a free ebook on how three simple tricks to lose three pounds this week, which again, the tricks in that book, I'll be honest with you, they will apply to your sleep, they'll they will benefit you across the board.
41:27
Yeah, that's one of the most interesting things when you begin to really take on your sleep, as you discover that in order, you might go into thinking, Okay, in order to impact my sleep, it's going to look very linear might be nighttime approach. But really, so much of what we need to do occurs during daylight hours, involves, you know, what we're eating, when we're moving the way we're moving so many things to impact, you know, one just getting to homeostasis with their sleep, and then to then going to optimize and actually improve beyond what's kind of considered normal for sleep in the 21st century. Anyway, we and you know, the one thing we didn't really
42:06
cover here was booze also, which is like, yes, biggest wrench in the sleep works and the hormone department in the thyroid functioning. So booze sadly, you know, for some people, a glass of wine helps them sleep for the majority, it helps wake them up yet causes that anxiety when your livers trying to detox in the middle of the night and your blood sugar drops and your cortisol goes up. So I would say no one sleeps very few people sleep better, and most people sleep much better.
42:38
100% Yeah, thank you for putting in that asterisk to that very important reminder. Because, you know, we'll have so many people that will look to well, how can I organize this? How can I strategy? How can I biohack this, and largely It is one of those things that you know, there's small, you know, if you're going to do it, okay, fine, maybe put it earlier in the day, what have you, but largely, it's not gonna, you'll see it in your sleep, I can always tell with clients because I'm tracking them on all different types of sleep trackers across the globe. And I will know if they drank the night before unequivocably. For most people, it's just so clear. And you'll see raising body temperature heart rate, drop an HRV, multiple wakeups I mean, it's just so obvious. It's, it's wild. And believe me, I like I would love to, I would love to find the ability to make that not the case. And yet it very much is if you want to take this area seriously. So thank you for reminding us about true
43:35
well, and you just get up to pee many times a night. I mean, even that alone is just so disruptive.
43:40
Yes, absolutely. 100% then you're hot and headaches. And I mean, come on. Yeah. So yeah, thank you so much for putting that in there. And then we'll also be sure to include all the books and the website in the shownotes. And thank you for that generous offer round the calls, that's wonderful for people to take advantage of. Because as you've evidence and as you've gone through yourself, you know, you can either take multiple, multiple years which you know same for me and for you trying to navigate this or partner with others that have kind of been there and can help shortcut you know, all the processes that it does take and help eliminate a lot of the suffering that doesn't have to be that way. And look on the other side I think there's it's an important to remember the positive on for personally in my journey, I know I would not have been so committed to my health unless I had gotten so bad that I had to actually really change everything. And you know, you clearly You're so committed to your health and well being as a result of all this and the awareness, the unusual level of awareness that now you have and can help guide people around to help support their sleep and the commitment that it takes to live a life like that. Bring on put your blue blockers on do the things you know that are required to maintain this. You know, it's just important to remember that that is possible and that does come in As a result of sometimes the suffering that we go through, but we can expediate the process by which we navigate that when we do, you know, have these kinds of conversations. So thank you so much for sharing that.
45:12
Oh, my pleasure. It's
45:14
Yeah, whatever it takes, you know?
45:16
Absolutely. Oh, my goodness. Well, thank you for taking the time. I really, really appreciate it. And maybe we'll have to have you back for part two follow up on kind of parsing out more of those all the tests that you outlined, and there's a lot there.
45:31
I would love that. Thanks, Molly.
45:35
You've been listening to the sleep is a skill podcast, the number one podcast for people who want to take their sleep skills to the next level. Every Monday I send out something that I call Molly's Monday obsessions containing everything that I'm obsessing over in the world of sleep, head on over to sleep as is gil.com to sign up