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What is the best supplement for me? What potency is right? What does the research show? Is it worth the money? These and all of your other supplement questions are answered here. Jared St. Clair brings well researched information so that you can make more informed decisions regarding your health, specifically focused on how to effectively use natural supplements to optimize your health and Vitality. Of course supplement and food choices aren't the only factors in optimal health. Jared also shares a regular series of Emotional Vitality episodes that will help you release the negativity that may be holding you back and embrace your full potential. Vitality Radio is not JUST about health, it is about HEALTH FREEDOM. Jared provides needed insight into the current threats to your health as well as the threats coming from government agencies, pharmaceutical companies and modern medicine as a whole. With over 35 years of experience in the natural products world, and a hearty dose of wit and sarcasm, Vitality Radio isn't just educational but entertaining and enlightening.
Gut/Brain Connection
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Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Vitality Radio podcast, your source for the truth about health, wellness, and real alternatives to drugs. Surgeries and the status quo of healthcare. Here, you'll find information that empowers you to take control of your health, but it's not just about health and wellness. It's about the politics of healthcare and protecting your health freedom.
Now, here's your host Jared St. Clair.
Jared: What do you do when you're feeling blue? I didn't anticipate a rhyme to start Vitality Radio, but, uh, what do you do naturally when you're dealing with things like depression, anxiety, attention deficit, [00:01:00] bipolar, um, mood swings around that time of the month for women who are dealing with PMs issues? Any of these types of things from mild to extreme all have.
Health and wellness components having to do with what's happening in the physical body, not just in the brain, which of course is part of the physical body. But one of the things that I find frustrating when I talk to people about this and I talk to people who've talked to psychiatrists or or their doctors about these things is that there seems to be this.
Overwhelming desire to recommend one of two things, therapy or drugs. Now, I'm not generally opposed to therapy per se, but I have talked to a lot of people who've been in therapy for a long time and still deal with many of the same issues. And so therapy I think can be very [00:02:00] hit and miss. And of course there's always that matching up of the therapist and the client, which isn't always an easy match to make.
Uh, it's maybe similar to online dating, uh, trying to find the right therapist for you. So it's not really about bagging on therapy as much as therapy itself. Talk therapy has its limitations as. Do a lot of things when it comes to mental health. Well, I was at Be Healthy Utah, which is, has become one of my favorite destinations every year, every April I do the Be Healthy Utah, uh, expo.
And it's just awesome. It was better this year than it was last year, and it was better last year than the first time that we did it. And I was able to speak at that show and many of you that listened to Vitality Radio on a regular basis know that that happened. But you're nowhere near Utah. I couldn't make it in.
I had someone that flew in from California to meet me and to hear me speak as well as all the other speakers and said it was a wonderful trip. I was glad she did it. [00:03:00] And if you're listening now, thank you so much. That's a heck of a trip, uh, to take for that. And I hope it paid off for you and you found some really great information.
For the rest of you who didn't make it to be healthy Utah, though, I decided that I was gonna go ahead today and. Redo my talk here on Vitality Radio. I've got about the same amount of time that I had there, 45 ish minutes. And, uh, the topic was mental wellness and supplementation, the microbiome, how all of that plays, uh, together.
And what I'm aiming to give you today are answers that maybe you didn't already have in maybe a cohesive way that makes sense in terms of sort of building it up from a holistic standpoint. Cuz while I am known as the guy that knows supplements, Supplements are a big part of what I'll talk about today, but there are some amazing things that you can do that don't cost a penny, that I can't sell you, but that I can help to teach [00:04:00] you that can also be incredibly valuable when it comes to your mental wellbeing.
So we're gonna talk about answers for all of those types of things today on Vitality Radio. If you have questions about anything you hear on the show today, you can call us at eight oh one. 2 9 2 66 62. That's 8 0 1 2 9 2 66 62. And whether you're in town near us or not, that phone number's available to you wherever you're at.
You can also jump online where we have a chat feature and you can peruse our store@vitalitynutrition.com. Or of course, we'd love to have you in person at Vitality Nutrition in Bountiful. Okay, let's go ahead and talk about this. And first I will talk about deficiencies. I have a real. Simple way of looking at most health issues, and that is that the human body by design is built specifically to give us the support that we need under the stressors that we.
[00:05:00] Experience, even extreme stress. If we break a bone, for instance, the body knows how to repair itself and if we can get the bone back in place correctly, it does just that. If we cut ourselves, we burn ourselves, it will repair. The challenges are in the ifs. You know, if the right nutrition is there, our body will take good care of us.
If the wrong toxins aren't there, uh, then our body will take care of us. But basically we always have to ask, you know, what's missing, uh, from the body and what might be in the way of the body recovering from whatever it is that ails us, whether it's an autoimmune disease or a cold, or the flu or depression or anxiety.
And so I always wanna start with what's missing. Because there are so many things that in our modern society, we become, have, become deficient in because of modern farming practices, because of the overuse of things like antibiotics and steroids and all kinds of other pharmaceuticals that in many cases [00:06:00] wreak havoc on our bodies.
And so let's start there first with just the, the basic premise that. Maybe 90% of Americans, depending on who you ask and what research you look at, are deficient in magnesium. Our forefathers not that long ago, uh, not as far ago as Abraham Lincoln, um, they were getting around 600 milligrams of magnesium every single day in their diet without having to supplement at all.
And while their lifestyles were. Very physically demanding. They were probably less emotionally demanding, uh, maybe than ours are with, uh, the constant barrage of. Everything coming at us from the 24 hour news cycle and Facebook and Twitter and you know, all the other things, right? And so we have all these mental stresses that are a little bit different.
We have less physical stress, I would say, by and large than they did, but we're only getting about 250 milligrams of magnesium a day [00:07:00] versus the 600 they had. And if we understand that the magnesium burn rate is how it's kind of charted how our body. Burns magnesium utilizes magnesium, uh, for the calming of the central nervous system and the muscular system.
Then we recognize that the more stress we're under, the more efficient we become because we use more magnesium to balance out that stress. So if we're already 350 milligrams short of what our ancestors were, and maybe we have a higher stress lifestyle, at least from the mental emotional side, then magnesium deficiency is a real problem.
And many of the best researchers have shown that that is exactly what's going on. And I've certainly talked to plenty of people who couldn't sleep that great until they started supplementing magnesium, didn't feel mentally calm until they started supplementing magnesium and so on and so on. So magnesium is number one.
It's an efficiency that I can just about guarantee you have. And if you have it [00:08:00] filling, it makes a difference in how you feel. Particularly on the stress side of things. I mentioned at the very beginning that we talked about, you know, depression and anxiety and things like that. But even the stress of a, uh, menstrual cycle, uh, for women who are experiencing that.
Is a major call for more magnesium, uh, the significant cramping that can come with severe PMs, the significant mood swings that can come with PMs. Magnesium is phenomenal for those things, so I always recommend about three to 400 milligrams of magnesium bisk glycinate. That is going to be the most effective form based on the research and because it is just filling a need that the body already has.
As a general rule, we don't experience a bunch of side effects or anything. And with the bisg glycinate form, in most cases it doesn't even cause a laxative effect, which some magnesium supplements will. So magnesium is number one, and the magnesium bis glycinate is my absolute favorite form. Um, I use it in my [00:09:00] formula, the Vital five Magnesium.
Glycinate. So that's number one. It's if you're not doing it, if you're, frankly, if you, if you don't have any mental health issues at all, you just wanna be healthier. Magnesium is there for you, but it can be really, really great, uh, for the stresses of life as well. The next thing is that the gut and the brain talk, and I think we all.
Kind of know this by now, and if you listen to Vitality Radio much, you've certainly heard me speak about it a lot. The microbiome is a real thing. It is the, it's all the bugs in and on our bodies, the good and the bad. But we're hoping to have an overwhelming majority of good bugs, good bacteria, probiotic bacteria as it's known.
Uh, by comparison to the more, uh, pathogenic type bacteria and, uh, bugs and things like that that might accumulate in the body. But this is the thing that I think a lot of people don't know, and it's a big eye-opener. Literally, when I talk to people about it, I [00:10:00] see their eyes open wide and say, whoa, I didn't know that.
Well, brain cells are also known as neurons, right? And neurons are generally thought to be. Well, brain cells therefore found in the brain, but we know that the gut has about five times as many neurons, brain cells as the brain does. We also know that the lungs, the respiratory system has a bunch of neurons in it as well, and so.
Breathing means something when it comes to stress. It's one of the biggest reasons why we tend to breathe shallowly when we're under stress and get into that fight or flight mode. But, uh, also of course,
what's happening in the gut makes all the difference when it comes to mental health. So if we are.
Just bypassing all this and jumping straight to an SSRI type of a medication or a Xanax or something [00:11:00] like that. These are selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors or benzodiazepines for anxiety or uh, mood stabilizers for things like bipolar. These are drugs that are really bypassing the body's natural way of doing things, and inso doing can create a myriad of different side effects and potential addictions, particularly with benzos, which are.
Harshly addictive and not talked about enough in this opioid addiction world that we deal with, opioids have stolen the show and benzos are still. Looked at as kind of benign by a lot of people, but they are not. And so when we're looking at things like Xanax, we're looking at things like Ambien, uh, that are these other, uh, psychotropic drugs.
We can get ourselves into a lot of trouble really quickly, and we're really not. Addressing what's actually wrong with the body. We're more kind of numbing and taking the top off of the, of the feelings of those things without actually addressing the need [00:12:00] that the body has that's underlying, that would prevent our body from finding balance and our brain from finding balance.
So we always have to look at the gut and the biggest question I always have my clients, uh, I always ask my clients is, what's your antibiotic history look like? And nobody has a book. That shows their antibiotic history. In fact, many people, if I ask 'em, you know, how was it as a child? They don't know if mom and dad aren't around anymore to ask or if mom and dad are a little foggy on the details.
That makes it even harder to figure out. But we do know that the first three and a half. Ish years of life is when the full human adult microbiome is formed. And if you're in those first few years and you're dealing with ear infections and strep throat and these types of things, uh, then you are probably on lots of antibiotics which are wrecking a microbiome that hasn't even been fully established yet, and will then.
Prevent that microbiome from ever becoming fully [00:13:00] established the way that it would have been in the absence of those antibiotics. Then you have to ask yourself, okay, so when I was a kid, you know I did or I didn't have a lot of these things. What about in adulthood? And one of the mistakes that I find a lot of people make is they think, well, I've only been on a few.
That's not enough to cause that much trouble, but it. Is not the case. A few or even one can cause a lot of trouble. We know that amoxicillin, which is a run-of-the-mill antibiotic for, you know, the average ear infection or yeast infection or sinus infection or something like that can wipe out half of the good guys in the intestinal tract and therefore it's a long ways from full.
At that point, your body has to try to get. Back to full. And we found in the research that that just doesn't happen without doing something therapeutically to get your gut back in order. And so that's where spore forming probiotics come in. Oh, one other question that you have to ask yourself too is what's my diet [00:14:00] like?
How much of my food is organic? And how much of is genetically modified or sprayed with glyphosate? Because glyphosate and all genetically modified crops that I'm aware of, which are sprayed heavily with glyphosate, Is a human antibiotic as well. So you may be getting antibiotics when you aren't even technically thinking you're getting antibiotics or taking them.
You are getting them. So it makes sense routinely for a few months every year or uh, even just a couple times a week to be on a good spore forming probiotic as a maintenance dose. But if you're actively dealing with mental health, Issues, depression, anxiety, any of the Ds, uh, the disorders that you might be diagnosed with, bipolar, um, and all of these types of things.
Then you have to recognize that the gut should be really. Ground zero for rebuilding the brain, and I know that does sound a little foreign to some people, but it is absolutely true. If we [00:15:00] bypass the gut, we're never going to get the benefit that the brain needs from all the neurons down there that are making the things like serotonin and dopamine and so many other key.
Uh, neurotransmitters that help to regulate brain activity and frankly make us feel safe and make us feel calm and make us feel sharp and not foggy and so on. So all of those things are largely dictated by what's going on in the gut. So what I recommend as far as protocol on that, is a good. Spore forming probiotic, precision.
Probiotic is my formula, the Vital Spores formula. There are many other really great ones on the market as well. Uh, but you do have to be careful to make sure you're finding a brand that you feel you can trust. Uh, but a good. High potency spore forming probiotics should have three to 8 billion units of good bacteria in it with at least these two [00:16:00] bacillus coagulants and bacillus sub tillis.
I'm also a big fan of bacillus clai, uh, in those spore forming probiotics. To help with the, uh, reestablishment of the proper levels and diversity of gut probiotics. In fact, they've found in the studies that they're not just calling these probiotics anymore. They're now calling them psychobiotics. Not because they're crazy, but because they work.
On the psychology of the human body, they work on, uh, as, um, psychoactive, you could kind of say, um, therapies for the brain because as you're rebuilding and strengthening the gut microbiome, You're creating better signaling pathways from the gut to the brain through what's called the vagus nerve. And you are creating a situation where all of those brain cells, those neurons can actually fire.
Like they should make what they should and send the [00:17:00] messages where they need to be sent. And so one of the things I've mentioned on Vitality radio before, and it's a question you can ask yourself if you're dealing with mental health struggles, Do you also have gut struggles? Do you find irritable bowel syndrome to be a problem?
Do you find constipation to be a problem? Uh, do you find gassiness or bloating after meals or acid reflux or any of these types of issues to be a problem if you do? That's a fantastic indicator that your gut is probably root cause to what's going on in the brain.
Now, it doesn't mean that you haven't had trauma in your life.
Uh, we all have had some level of trauma and that that trauma might be creating issues, and that's where, you know, other. Uh, avenues that you can look at therapy and a variety of other things can potentially be useful. But I will tell you that you can do all the things that you want and if your gut's a mess, your brain's not gonna communicate like it should.
And so you really need to look at that [00:18:00] as a baseline thing. I consider it kind of a non-negotiable when it comes to. Fixing what's going on upstairs. You've gotta look downstairs and see what's going on down there. Now, another thing that is incredibly useful, maybe not as much of a sure thing as far as deficiencies, but I would say if you find yourself to be in a high stress type of a environment, Your, your world itself is stressful to you.
You don't handle stress very well. Then odds are you're also deficient in the B complex vitamins. That's gonna be, you know, B 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and so on, all the way up through B12 and. You're gonna want the methylated forms of those B vitamins where they are available or the cell ready forms. So like in the vitamin B one, for instance, you're looking for benfotiamine as a better option, or sulbutiamine versus just thiamin.
In b12, you're looking for things like adenyl cobain [00:19:00] or methyl cobain as opposed to c cobain, which is not gonna be nearly as effective and is not gonna be as good in the brain as those other ones are. You're gonna want look for methyl folate, not folic acid, and if you are not aware of. Mt. H F R, that mutation, genetic mutation, that can create an issue with your body's ability to actually convert these B vitamins or methylate them so they can get where they need to be.
You may wanna dig into that. This show is not on M T H F R. That could be five other shows all by themselves, but. If you are familiar with Mt. Hfr, you're not sure if you have Mt. H ffr and you're not sure if you want to cough up the hundreds of dollars to figure it out. One thing that you can do, and it's not as simple as it sounds, but it is something I suggest doing, is eliminate folic acid from your diet as much as you can.
That means you gotta look at all your packaged foods, anything with enriched flour or enriched rice or something like that, and it will have folic acid added. A lot of supplements have folic [00:20:00] acid in them, and you're gonna wanna get rid of all of those. And start taking methyl folate and probably B6 and b12.
They'll play really well together in their methylated forms. And if you'll do that for a couple of months, Get rid of the folic acid, put in the methyl folate, and you feel way better. There's a pretty good chance that you have some sort of mutation that's actually preventing you from utilizing folic acid, and that all by itself can cause anxiety and depression in some people.
Okay? Uh, so the B complex. In the methylated form I, my favorite product there, there's a couple of ways you can go with it. Um, I love the Vitality Multivitamin, which I developed, the Ultimate Vitality Multi, which has all the methylated bees in it. Uh, also you can get a good methylated B complex in the anxiety release formula, um, that we have.
And you can get it on its own. My favorite methylated form, uh, or B-vitamin, is by natural factors. If you're just looking for the B complex, it's called active, [00:21:00] uh, B complex. All of those are great options for you as well. The last supplement that I think I I, I put into the deficiency category, cuz it's such a common issue, is omega.
Three. I prefer omega-3 fish oil until somebody proves to me that it's not the best. I'll stick with it being the best and making sure you're getting at least two to 3000 milligrams of omega-3 fatty acids. Not two to 3000 milligrams of fish oil, but two to 3000 milligrams of omega-3. Uh, my two favorites are going to be the vital five Omega.
Three or the natural factors, omega-3 RX ultra, sorry, ultra RX Omega it's called, where just two or three capsules a day will get you up to that 2000 milligram amount If you're covering those bases, the B complex, the magnesium, the spore forming probiotics, the Omega three s, I think you're gonna see some really incredible benefits.
Because that should cover [00:22:00] most, not all of the potential, um, deficiencies that would lead to these kinds of issues. So that's the, the recommendation that I have as far as supplementation goes on the kind of baseline required things that you want to at least experiment with and test out. And the interesting thing is, you know, people say, well, what about for depression?
Well, what about for anxiety? Well, what about for a d d? Well, what about for bipolar? Well, the truth of the matter is, I don't really care. I don't care what the mental health disorder is per se. Those nutrients are required to solve many of the deficiencies that you'll have that will lead to those things.
So when, whether you're a depressed person or an anxious person, oh, and also, Watch your mouth. That's a really important thing that we're gonna talk about next. Uh, when it comes to what you define yourself as, but if you find yourself feeling those times, types of things, don't get too worried about, well, what if it's anxiety or, what if it's depression?
In modern [00:23:00] medicine, in the drug culture that we live in, the pharma culture that we live in, where everything is answered by a pill that the doctor prescribes what you have or you have, you have some very powerful potential symptom relievers. They're shooting at symptoms, they're not shooting at root causes, and so yes, they'll give you a benzodiazepine to calm anxiety, and they'll give you an SSRI to calm depression.
Now, whether or not those are gonna be effective for you, that's a whole different story, but that's what will be prescribed. But the reason why I don't say, well, yeah, psychobiotics are great for anxiety, but not for depression. Or magnesium's great for anxiety, but not for depression or, B complex is good for attention deficit, but not for anxiety or whatever is because what we are doing is getting to the root baseline deficiencies that impact mental wellness.
Period, no matter what the mental health diagnosis might be. So those are the ones, uh, keep in mind whenever you're listening to Vitality Radio or the, or on the podcast or on the radio station, [00:24:00] You'll want to check the podcast app, uh, on your phone for the specific, uh, links to everything that I'm talking about.
That way, if you're driving down the street, you still have access to those things after the fact. Okay. I said, watch your mouth and I meant, meant it. I really did. I met a woman, um, who I later fell in love with about five years ago. My sweetheart Jen, who if you haven't heard Jen's story on the Vitality Radio podcast, she was gracious enough to share, uh, her story of recovery from addiction and, uh, especially her bipolar diagnosis through taking care of her body, uh, rather than, uh, overriding it with drugs.
And so long story short, She doesn't deal with those things like she used to. She has a little bit of tendency, uh, in those ways, but, She snaps right out of it. She is hyper resilient compared to what she ever once was. Uh, and uh, one of the things that I [00:25:00] recognized in her and I chatted her for, even though I barely knew her, I mean, we met on a dating app for Pete's sake, but very early in the relationship, like maybe the second or third time we talked, I can't remember for sure.
I said, you are not bipolar. And she said, yes, I am. And I said, no, you are not. You might have bipolar symptoms, but. You are not bipolar, so watch your mouth. Because if you say, I'm a depressed person, person, I'm an anxious person, I have a D, d, I have bipolar, I am bipolar, any of those types of things reiterate in your mind that you are indeed broken in some way and yet you are not.
Things are. Maybe not functioning like you'd like them to be, and you may not be feeling your best, but that doesn't mean that things are broken beyond repair. And I believe that most people, when they receive a mental health diagnosis, they consider themselves broken beyond repair. Instead, what they'll do is tape things up [00:26:00] a little bit, try and make it work, but you're never gonna be quote unquote, Normal.
I refuse to buy into that line of thinking. I just don't believe that's how we were designed. I have a little bit more faith in our maker than that. I believe we are hyper resilient beings and that if we give our beautiful bodies what they need, they will take incredibly good care of us. So quit.
Pigeonholing yourself into the diagnosis that you may have received. Instead, consider yourself someone who can be great in all of the different places that you want to be. Great, even if you don't currently feel all that great in those areas, because half of this, maybe two thirds, three quarters, I don't know, I might not be able to go with a big enough number, is mental.
And I don't mean mental health, but I mean mental [00:27:00] outlook, believing that you can be well is a massively critical component of all of this. So watch your mouth and if you've got children, please, please, please don't. Talk about your children with a D H D. Don't talk about your child who has anxiety. Don't talk about your child who has depression.
You can reword things. My son deals with some struggles when it comes to focus in the, in the classroom. Uh, my daughter, uh, sometimes struggles with feelings of anxiety. That's not the same as saying my anx, my anxiety riled daughter or my daughter, the the anxiety case or whatever else. I think you get the point.
There are different ways to word it, and those words matter, especially when you're talking to them about themselves. It's a really, really critical thing. So watch your mouth. It [00:28:00] matters. Okay. How about some lifestyle tips before we jump back into a little bit more with symptom relieving supplements?
Because sometimes we don't wanna wait a month or so to get going, uh, and feeling better on things like psychobiotics and. Omega three s and magnesium and things like that. We want to get help right away. I'll share that at the end on how to do that. But let's talk about some lifestyle things. Remember I talked about spore forming probiotics, and if you wanna hear all about spore forming probiotics, I have many episodes on that.
They'll be linked in the show description, um, below this podcast and you can dig deeper into it. I've got two episodes all about psychobiotics, but spore probiotics are. Found around us. They are part of our environment. They're known as commensal strains of bacteria, and those commensal strains are really wonderful for us.
And yet we are trying to get rid of them in so many different ways nowadays, especially in the post covid world where everything is [00:29:00] sanitized to the max. And we have to recognize that getting dirty is actually what we were meant to do. You're gonna hear something, uh, kind of a through line. That is all nature.
For the next five minutes, I'm gonna talk about grounding. I'm gonna talk about breathing. I'm gonna talk about sunshine. I'm gonna talk about water, and I'm gonna talk about sleep. All of these are just kind of natural parts of. Being alive, being human on this earth, and all of them play a major role in your mental health.
So get in the dirt and I mean, literally in the dirt. Take off your shoes when you're outside. Walk around in the grass, walk around in the dirt. Get dirty with your kids. Allow your kids to get dirty. It's a really big thing. Not only will you get some great natural. Environmental probiotics that you'll pick up from getting dirty, but you'll also connect with the energy of the earth.
And that might sound all [00:30:00] kinda woo woo, but it actually really isn't all that woo woo at all. We know that the earth has a frequency, different elements have frequency, and we know that our bodies can be balanced by being. Part of the earth. We're very insulated from the earth. Now. We're inside our cars.
We're inside our homes. We're inside our places of business. We're inside our clothing. We're inside our shoes. Our shoes are made primarily out of rubber and foam and things like that, that insulate us from the earth itself. And it's a problem. And I'll tell you, it's a problem for me. I'd be lying if I said that.
Yeah, I'm constantly walking around barefoot. I don't. But I'm learning to do more of it because it really does matter. Uh, look into grounding. There's some amazing things that you can do just by getting in touch, literally with the earth. Hug a tree. It's a really good thing to do. I promise. I know it sounds funny, but I do promise.
Breathe. Okay, we're all breath experts. We would [00:31:00] not be here if we didn't know how to breathe, but one of the things that happens, and it happens to me on Vitality Radio, cuz I only have an hour to get all this information out and you see I like to talk really fast sometimes, which means I take really short breaths and uh, Very shallow breaths, and after I'm done with Vitality radio, I feel like I need to just sit and breathe for five minutes to gather it all back in.
So after my hour of doing these episodes, I spend a little bit of time. I. Breathing, breathing deeply because it matters. Just focusing on your breath like you would if you were trying to get into a meditative state just for a few minutes. Learning the straw breath that.
That you use to get back into calm after being hyper excited because of the stress of the day or whatever has taken us into that fight or flight mode. We must learn [00:32:00] how to control it and we can control it with our breath. Our breath is an interesting thing. It's part of the autonomic nervous system. We literally don't have to think to breathe.
Unfortunately, we take advantage of that and don't think to breathe. But if we think about our breathing and we focus on our breathing, we can learn in just a few minutes here and a few minutes there, and in many cases, even just a few seconds, how to get control of that breath. And as we get control of that breath, we can calm our stress.
Breathing is essential, deeper. Ends all the way down to the bottom of the lungs and longer outs all the way through. Particularly breathing in through the nose is a really, really big thing. Sunshine. Sunshine is where we get vitamin D. Ideally, I sell vitamin D at vitality and you're welcome to buy some from me, but.
Ideally we were designed to get it from the [00:33:00] sun. In fact, the good Lord himself decided I wasn't getting enough vitamin D and made me bald about 30 years ago. And so I have, uh, this amazing solar panel on top of my head that I get to utilize. And as long as I don't utilize it for more than about 20 minutes before I put a hat on, I do fine.
Uh, get lots of vitamin D that way, but allow your. Kids to get vitamin D before you're slathering on the sunscreen. And if you are slathering on the sunscreen, don't use the toxic chemical stuff. Use the mineral based sunscreens. It is a better thing for all, all of us, but uh, get the sun because not only does the sun provide vitamin D I think we actually look at the sun as this amazing source of vitamin D and this amazing source of skin cancer.
And that doesn't seem like. Do those things go together in your head? I believe we were meant to be creatures of the sun, that we're supposed to get a lot of sun and uh, the more that we take care of our need for the sun, the more [00:34:00] resilient our skin becomes to the sun. Excuse me, which is kind of interesting, but it's kind of like exercise, right?
The more you work that muscle, the more you can work that muscle. Well, we have a lot of evidence about that with sun exposure as well. But getting more sun and allowing yourself sunshine doesn't just make you vitamin D. It makes you happy. Who doesn't love a beautiful blue sunli sky? The wispy white clouds.
It's beautiful. It cheers you up. It's so much better than the gray dark. Some of us like gray and dark. I kind of do. I actually really like the winter months. I like gray days, but. I'd be lying if I said I don't prefer a sunshine day. Sunshine on your shoulders does indeed make you happy, so make sure you're getting plenty of sunshine and also that you're getting plenty of clean water, not tap water.
Please, please, please stop, stop the tap water. Uh, good filtered water. [00:35:00] There's a lot of ways to filter water. You can get well water, you can get spring water. There's a lot of options. I'm not gonna talk about all that in detail today, but. Not tap water. Even if it's a Brita filter or a pure filter or the fridge filter, that's still all better than tap, although it's kind of the, you know, the next worst thing.
It's better than nothing and a lot better than nothing, I would say. So clean up your water and drink plenty of it, at least. I think about an ounce for every two pounds of body weight. Makes sense for most people. And then sleep. If you're not sleeping well, um, I've done some good shows on sleep and, uh, we can certainly talk about that and we'll, uh, link, uh, some sleep shows in the show notes here.
But, uh, if you're not getting enough sleep, sometimes it's because you're choosing not to get enough sleep. That's my problem. I, once I get sleep, I usually sleep pretty well, uh, sometimes with a little assistance from vital sleep or something herbal that I like to use. But when we talk about. Sleep. I think one of the biggest issues that we have is we don't allow ourselves enough [00:36:00] sleep.
We tend to stay up until 11 or 12 knowing we have to get up at six or seven and we're just not gonna get eight hours If we do that, and that matters like a lot, it matters. Most of us function dramatically better on seven to eight hours of sleep minimum. Some of us even need a little bit more than that.
Listen to your body. It will tell you what to do. Make sure you're getting plenty of sleep. Okay, so those are your lifestyle tips, and now let's jump into the helpful but not required. Herbs and, uh, amino acids and things that you can use to calm things down. Right now, perhaps my favorite herb is Ashwaganda.
Now, ashwaganda isn't good for everybody. Some people don't feel that great on Ashwaganda, but for most people it's really, really helpful and we know that Ashwaganda, particularly the Sensoral brand of Ashwaganda, Which is the, the, I think the most researched and, and I believe the best when it comes to mental [00:37:00] health stuff, stress, anxiety, depression, uh, a d d, these types of things.
Ashwaganda is amazing. It's an adaptogen, so it can actually help to provide, provide more stable energy when your body is fatigued. It can help to provide calm when your body is excited. And what I love about Ashwaganda is that, and, and the Sensoral in particular is that they've, Clinically proven that it reduces cortisol by about 24 to 26% within just about an hour of taking Ashwaganda.
So I don't love Ashwaganda first thing in the morning. I actually love it, uh, afternoon and evening, or even bedtime because as we reduce our, um, need, or sorry, our cortisol levels, our body is able to calm. And become far more relaxed and we tend to think a lot more clearly. So Ashwaganda is fantastic.
It's something you can take safely long term if you need to, but in many cases, if people do what I did, I said at the beginning of the show and get there. There are [00:38:00] deficiencies taken care of through some of those vital five things, the magnesium, the probiotics, the omega three s. Then, uh, in many cases, ashwaganda can be more of an occasional use thing, which is how I use it.
I don't use Ashwaganda every day, but I do use it. I use my vi uh, vitality. Um, Anxiety release. Can think of the name of my own product prior to doing these episodes. Most weeks I didn't today and I do feel a little more scattered, so maybe that's why. But most weeks, uh, when I'm doing this show, that's what I take before and it's got Ashwaganda in there and I think it really helps me to just kind of calm down and focus in on the task at hand.
And I would've used it today. I just ran out and, uh, didn't get down to vitality before I recorded the show. So, Note to self, go grab more anxiety release. Okay. What do you know about gaba? GABA is gamma aminobutyric acid. Um, that's why we call it gaba. GABA is an inhibitory [00:39:00] neurotransmitter. As an inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA is responsible, or at least partly responsible for calming.
Us down when there's tons of mental racing going on. We're having a hard time focusing on the task at hand. We can't keep those racing thoughts from intruding our mind and preventing sleep or preventing relaxation. All of those things GABA plays a role in. And unfortunately, like many things, when we get to the point where stress is.
Kind of extreme, a little higher than what it normally would be. Our brain just simply doesn't keep up with GABA production. Part of that is because the gut isn't doing its job as well, and that's why I recommend the spore forming probiotics because we can make more GABA if all the neurons in the gut are working like they should.
But part of it is just. Can't keep up when things are high stress. Our body's kind of burning through the magnesium like I talked about. It's burning through the beef vitamins like I talked about, and it's burning through gaba. The problem is GABA as a supplement, which is very popular, [00:40:00] is just kind of okay.
Uh, for a lot of people. It doesn't seem to, to cut it for many people. And I won't say don't do gaba. I sell GABA and I like GABA for the people it works for. But overall I've had better results with two other things that I think do better than GABA by allowing your body to do what it does naturally, which is to make more GABA and then keep more GABA cycling as it goes.
So those two things are lemon balm, the herb, which actually breaks down. The GABA enzyme that breaks down gaba, so it allows 'em the GABA that's in the brain to cycle longer and stay in the brain for a longer period of time. Lemon balm is fantastic for that. And then Altheine, perhaps my favorite amino acid.
I love Altheine and I love Altheine with Ashwaganda. And I like theanine, ashwaganda, and a little bit of caffeine for people that have that kind of squirrel brain and deal with a little bit of a challenge with [00:41:00] focus. Uh, I like that for adults and for kids if it's dosed correctly. Altheine is fantastic for this because it actually helps the body make more gaba and also helps the brain to get into more of what's called an alpha brain state or an alpha wave state, uh, which is the same state that our brain gets into when we're under a, uh, Or we're in a meditative state, is, is is the word I'm looking for.
So Altheine Ashwaganda. Lemon balm are all fantastic for just calming things down, taking it down a bit. Really, really effective here and now. Stuff for you, uh, when you're struggling right now or when your children are struggling right now while you're doing the rebuilding in the background, what I talked about at the very top of the show with the magnesium, the probiotics, the spores specifically, uh, the B complex in the methylated form, the omega-3.
Fatty acids from fish oil while you're rebuilding and, [00:42:00] uh, restructuring things. With that, you can jump into these other things to calm things down. Right now, anxiety release. The formula that I usually take prior to recording this show has the sensor Ashwaganda, the Lemon Bal, and the altheine in it, as well as the Be Complex.
So you can cover a lot of bases with just that. It's one of the reasons I. Take it. Well, it is the reason I take it before the show because it covers so many bases all by itself. So all of that will be listed in the show notes, uh, the show description on your podcast app if you're listening on local radio.
Thank you for joining me on Saturday mornings. I really appreciate it. Check out the podcast. Because there's two of 'em a week, not just one. And you do get some extra good info in the show notes. If you have any questions about anything from this side of the show, you can call us at (801) 292-6662. That's 8 0 1 2 9 2 66 62.
You can also check us [00:43:00] out@vitalitynutrition.com. Okay, so now I'm gonna welcome my guest. Her name is Sandra. Homan and, uh, she's gonna tell us all about the music festival she's got coming up in Ogden on Memorial Day weekend. All right. Now I'd like to introduce you to someone. I just got introduced to myself, uh, by a good friend of mine, Lamont Wilcox.
You've heard him on Vitality Radio before? Uh, he introduced the two of us because he felt like, uh, The event that we're gonna discuss right now, uh, has a lot of value to it and wanted to get the word out as much as possible. And so we're gonna use Vitality Radio to do just that. I'd like to introduce you to Sandra Holman or Sandra Holman.
I just asked her how to pronounce her name and then did it wrong. Anyway, uh, she, she's organizing the first ever mitten d mental health music awareness. Festival Now, if you don't know what Mitten DCH means, I'm gonna tell you the name is honoring her German heritage, but also. Is a [00:44:00] serious take on the children's game.
Bear hunt. We can't go over it. We can't go under it. We just gotta go straight through it. That is what mitten DCH means. Mental health challenges run in her family, and it is a big challenge here in Utah is 33% of all utahns suffer from mental health illnesses. As a festival goer herself, she always wanted to organize an event like this because it's near and dear to her heart.
After she got hurt in a car accident and received a settlement, she finally had the opportunity to stay true to her word and organize a festival herself. So now let's welcome Sandra Homan to Vitality Radio. Hey,
Sandra: Jared. Thank you for having me on.
Jared: Absolutely. It's good to have you. We had a nice conversation, of course, just a week or so ago about this.
Yes. And unfortunately, um, I have, uh, a. So many things. The weekend, uh, that this is happening, I'm not even gonna be there, but I'm really excited for what you're trying to [00:45:00] accomplish here. Thank, and I wanted to get the word out to as many people as we can. So tell us a little bit about the festival, uh, first just where it is, uh, what, what time, all of that stuff, just the basics, and then we'll get into a little bit more about why you organized it.
Sandra: So the festival is going is, is being called Mitten DEU Festival. It's going to be in a, on the 27th of May. It's, um, the music starts at two, but festival goers can come in at one 30 and it's gonna be till nine, but hopefully four figures me sing one or two songs longer, and so maybe it'll be till nine 30 in the Octa.
Jared: All right. Now I, I'm a big music fan myself. I've been to lots of concerts. In fact, I, I brag a lot about my 2019 right before everything shut down. Yeah. I went to 25 concerts that year. Mm-hmm. Uh, so I'm a big music [00:46:00] fan and one of the things that I have always been a little jealous of people from Europe.
And particularly, uh, Germany because it's, uh, that seems like there are many really great music festivals there. And I, I need to go to one, one of these days. So this is in the, in the, uh, the same vein as that. But the, of course, it's not just a music festival. You're doing this with a purpose. So what's the idea behind this?
Sandra: I want to raise awareness for mental health, um, challenges because often people, uh, I feel like. People are ashamed or embarrassed to talk about their challenges and often just want to look good. Even so, we are all having those challenges. As a matter of fact, 33% have mental health illnesses, which is a little bit more than a challenge, and if we, if we all come together and talk about it and, and, and normalize it, then maybe we can talk and ask others for [00:47:00] help or for.
Advice on how, how they got through
Jared: things. Yeah. And I, uh, agreed. And it is one of those things that carries a bit of a stigma with it. And unfortunately with mental health, it's, it's all over the map in terms of the types of issues that people deal with and also the types of solutions that they find, because of course, pharmaceuticals Yeah.
Are part of the, uh, part of that. Uh, but also, you know, Therapy and all kinds of other things that people do, and there's mainstream things that are a little bit more medical oriented. And then there's more alternative things like what I talk about on Vitality radio. And one of the things that I really liked when we, when we met and you were telling me about this, is that you've really tried to open this up to.
All walks of life, so to speak, people that are interested in alternative options, people that are interested in maybe a little bit more traditional approach. Yes. All ages, um, all varieties of people. Uh, you talked about how some of these festivals, uh, [00:48:00] tend to sort of be down a specific vein for a specific type of people.
Yes. And this one is designed to be all inclusive basically.
Sandra: Correct. I I don't want to just target one community. I want to target all of us cuz we are all struggling and music is the one, what, what can unite us? But I don't want to, I mean, I have volunteered for Love Loud and which, which, which targets, um, teenagers in, in the L G T Q Q community and I loved it, but I also felt like that, um, teenagers in.
In other communities are left out, especially even in, in minor communities, um, left out when we just gonna target one community and not all of them.
Jared: Yeah. Yeah. I w and I th I thought that was a great idea. I absolutely, uh, agreed with you on that and I think it makes a lot of sense. Now you're gonna have a bunch of bands, uh, at this, it is a music festival.
Do you wanna mention a few of the bands that are gonna be
Sandra: [00:49:00] there? So the first band I always wanted to have is foreign figures. They actually perform in, in school samples and, um, all over, uh, Utah. And, uh, and they're talking about anti-bullying and, uh, self-esteem and uh, and being kind. And, uh, I did not know that.
Um, EJ Mitchell was on the Voice just last week. He, uh, was let go, but I did not know that he was, uh, on the Voice. And EJ came out I think a couple years ago as, um, as, as gay, but he was also married and they knew about it, but he also wanted to be just, um, just a good person. And we, we, we always, Like in, in Christianity, often we think we are not good when we have something going on.
And that's why I think source festivals are kind of important to say, you are normal. [00:50:00] You're, you are okay. You are a good person. You, you, you wanna be kind and do right. So I um, so he's a lead singer of foreign fakers and he was just on the Weis, so that's Swan band. And then I want to have, um, and then I'm going to have his blind love Broken Killby, um, sing a song.
I want to be Okay during, um, the Covid Pandemic, which was played on all on national radio stations. And, um, he's just a kindhearted person. And I, and I like the rock wipe. I mean, he's, he's, they're gonna be my harder bands. And then I have the Chunk percussion tri, which also played at a mental health awareness festival.
I was last year, and they're just gonna play on. On, uh, trashcans and chunk. And then I have future ex-boyfriend, which is an which. Um, I met the trauma in a, so they're kind of playing the A scene. So I [00:51:00] wanted to give a, a future ex-boyfriend. And then I have my friend, old Ghost, which is Nick gn, who wants to become himself a therapist.
And mental health illnesses, um, mental health awareness is something which is dear to his heart.
Jared: Gotcha. Okay. And besides music, what else is gonna be going on?
Sandra: I will have, right now I have about 15 B booths and I'm in booth space like, and it's gonna be, I have, um, Washington Heights Counseling Center. I have Mama Dragons, I have encircle, I have normal, uh, often therapy, cooperative counseling centers.
And since, I mean, I have every, I'm, I contacted everybody from all communities I could have. So, and they're going to give information and I have Lamont, uh, who is. Who, [00:52:00] who, who are in the TOAs,
Jared: right? Yeah. So, yeah. And, and, and I'll tell you that, uh, anybody that hasn't met Lamont needs to, he's a kind of a contagious personality.
Yes. He's cool. He's cool. Yes. Yeah. And, and really, you know, I, I would love to have been there. You invited me as well, and, and if it wasn't for the, uh, the timing, I would be there and I would love to. Set up a booth right next to Lamonts cuz I, I like to go to the places he goes. We always have a lot of fun.
Uh, I think it's gonna be, uh, it sounds anyway like it's gonna be a great event. Um, we, uh, probably need more of this, uh, in our community where people are trying to get together and, uh, and show, um, uh, you know, comradery and acceptance and, and a helping hand and, and really be. Excuse me, exposed to more options when it comes to these kinds of issues.
Of course, the mental health thing on my end is also quite near and dear because yes. [00:53:00] I've had so much, um, I've learned over the years so much more nuance in my feelings and thoughts about all of this stuff. Uh, my sweet, my sweetheart, Jen, uh, used to, uh, consider herself after diagnosis. Uh, to be bipolar and we were able to find, uh, solutions for her to where she doesn't consider herself to have that issue anymore and has been able to come off of medications.
Uh, and if you're interested in, in learning more about that type of stuff, uh, on the Vitality Radio podcast, I interviewed her for Jen's story. We'll link that in the bottom of this episode as well. But ever since I met Jen, I, uh, which has been five years ago now, I have recognized that some of the people who struggle the most with mental wellness, Are some of the most powerful people in our society.
They're amazing individuals that just have some yes, trauma and some issues that [00:54:00] are keeping holding them back. And that if we can give people the help that they need, uh, they can really represent, uh, a wonderful asset to our community at large. So, I, I love what you're doing with this. Um, let's. One more time for everybody listening.
Uh, date, time, cost, anything else that people need to know about the event?
Sandra: So it's going to be on May 27th in the . It's called . Tickets are $20 and you can get them on even prior.
Jared: And we'll have a link for that, uh, in the podcast, uh, notes, uh, so that you can click to that as well. As well as a link to the Ogden night, uh, that has a great article on, uh, the event as well.
So again, it's on the 27th. Uh, it's gonna run most of the day from about one 30 until nine ish. Yeah, uh, it sounds like, and, uh, should be a really great time. I. Thank you, Sandra, for being on Vitality Radio. Thank you for organizing this event. I hope it's a big success and that we're [00:55:00] talking about it again next year.
Sandra: Yeah. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. Thank
Jared: you so much. Absolutely. And for everybody listening, uh, check it out. Uh, the event is, I'm not gonna say it with nearly as great of an accent, but Mitton Deutch, am I close? Deu? Yes. Okay. Deu. Uh, and, uh, it is on the 27th at the Ogden Amphitheater. Like I say, there will be links, uh, in the podcast show notes, and, uh, if someone wants to go, uh, if they're listening to this on the radio, Sandra, what's the best way for people to find it?
Just, uh, on Eventbrite?
Sandra: Yeah, that's on, on. You can also see it on Facebook. The event, and it links to
Jared: the ticket too. And I'm gonna spell it for you. It's M I T T E n D U R C H. Uh, and uh, we also have flyers at Vitality, nutrition. So if you're driving down the road, you can't write this down, you can call us at (801) 292-6662 and we'll guide you in the right direction.
I've gotta run. Uh, thank you again, Sandra, for joining me. Thank you so much. [00:56:00] You bet. And thank you for listening to Vitality Radio. I appreciate you very much. Have a wonderful weekend. I'm Jared St. Clair and this has been Vitality Radio.
Intro: You've been listening to the Vitality Radio podcast. Enjoy your week. In the meantime, Jared will be feverishly searching for the latest nutrition info to educate you on and waiting into mounds of propaganda to help steer you through it. Vitality Radio is researched and written by Jared St. Clair. Our awesome music is by Brian Bob Young, support Vitality Radio by subscribing and giving us a five star review on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcast source.
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