Good Medicine Everyday: Water

What’s up with us humans and water? Why is it so hard for us to drink enough, even though it’s our lifeline? Many of my clients are not drinking enough water and it’s usually one of the first things we work on. Guess what they come back telling me? Their energy is better! Fewer headaches! Less brain fog! Better digestion!

I believe one of the big problems is how hyperpalatable (and usually sweet) we’ve made most beverages today. Why drink plain boring old water when you could drink fruit juice or a vanilla latte or something else much more appealing to the taste buds? These things CAN contribute to our overall hydration, but I count how much water you drink in terms of just plain water.

Most of us are chronically dehydrated and we don’t even realize it. Here are some symptoms of chronic dehydration (1): 

• Fatigue

• Constipation

• Dry skin

• Headaches

• Brain Fog

• Muscle weakness

• Dizziness

Staying well hydrated keeps everything moving - it keeps joints lubricated, it aids in digestion, prevents constipation and helps flush toxins out of the body. Often the cure for a headache is water. It keeps our brains happy. It maximizes our physical performance. Bottom line: we’ve gotta start hydrating ourselves properly.

“In a study of young women, fluid loss of 1.36% after exercise impaired both mood and concentration, and increased the frequency of headaches. Another similar study, this time in young men, showed that fluid loss of 1.59% was detrimental to working memory and increased feelings of anxiety and fatigue. (2)”

A common question I get is, how much water should I be drinking? A general rule of thumb is half your body weight in ounces. If you’re active or live in a hot area, it’s likely you’ll need more. I usually aim for at least 64 ounces. And I mean straight water - not including coffee or tea or fruits and vegetables (thought all those things DO contribute to hydration levels). I say that simply because people start to bargain with me about what counts as “water”. Just drink water, straight and plenty of it.

I highly recommend choosing a cup or water bottle that you know the size of and find a way to track your water intake - you can do this mentally, on your phone or any other way that helps you remember. If I’m at home I like to use 32-ounce mason jars - that way I know I have to drink at least two of those to meet my daily water requirements. If I’m out and about I use my water bottle, which is 16 ounces and I know I need to drink at least four of those. I’m pretty good with mental tracking, so that’s what I do, but do whatever works for you!

It will take some practice, but as you start increasing your water intake, I promise you’ll notice the benefits. It will also become easier to drink more and more water. Give it a go! Cheers!

PS - I’m not going to get into water quality here, but you can read more about it in another post I wrote. I’m also linking my favorite water filter pitcher to ensure your water is the cleanest it can be.

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Good to Know: My Experience with the Paragard Copper IUD

First, a little background about my experience with birth control. I started taking hormonal birth control when I was 16, but after stopping and starting it again in college, I hated the way it made me feel, so I opted not to take it. I still used condoms in conjunction with the pill. I had researched other options but none of them really appealed to me, plus most of them still had hormones. Even before I knew about the dangers of hormonal birth control, my body intuitively knew that it didn't feel good on it.

So for the next few years I relied on condoms as birth control. My friend had gotten a Mirena IUD. I loved the fact that it was so effective and hands off and that it was a long term solution. I was still hesitant about the hormones, even though they are a low dose. Then I heard about the Paragard copper IUD - no hormones, 99% effective and could be left in for 10 years? Sounds too good to be true!

Screenshot from what comes up on Google when you search "paraguard IUD".

Even though I didn't know almost anything about holistic health compared to what I know now, I still had a feeling that a foreign object in my body could have consequences. I remember googling what copper does in the body and found little research. As someone who is hyper-paranoid about getting pregnant, the pros seemed to outweigh any potential cons. I decided to get a copper IUD in the spring of 2014, just after my 25th birthday.

Long story short: it worked for me until it didn't.

The first few years I loved it. I couldn’t feel it. The copper IUD is known for increasing heavy bleeding and cramping. I did experience these symptoms, but they weren’t that bad. Perhaps the most annoying thing that happened was that I would spot up to a week before my period.

In the last year or so (year 4), my IUD began bothering me. I started having cramps at random times and sometimes I would get sharp pains. I became much more aware of its presence in my body.

In the last few months before I decided to have it removed, I started experiencing fatigue and occasional brain fog. I had NEVER experienced these symptoms before, so it was very unlike me. I'm a wake-up-bursting-with-energy kind of person (you're probably rolling your eyes, but it's true). So when it's hard for me to wake up, it means something's off.

The brain fog is what bugged me the most. I'm normally super sharp and focused, and all of a sudden it felt like my brain was just above my head. I was having a hard time working on the computer. It was like whatever was in front of me just wasn't fully registering.

The reason I started the think it was the IUD was this - I had been taking a zinc supplement because you're supposed to take one if you have the Paragard because it helps balance copper in the body. I ran out of zinc and didn't immediately order more. My fatigue/brain fog seemed to get worse. When I got more zinc, I felt almost immediate relief. But then the symptoms continued to come and go.

On a spiritual/energetic level, it felt like a block. I felt that energy in my body wasn't flowing as freely as it could be, and I felt like this physical thing was preventing me from connecting to my intuition (as women, a lot of this resides in our wombs).

This is a screenshot from a Google search. Copper toxicity CAN cause headaches. Weight can be affected since excess copper can affect the thyroid.

After looking into copper toxicity symptoms, I decided that's most certainly what I was experiencing and I made an appointment to get the IUD removed. Getting it out was not too bad, but they do just yank it out - which is still painful and jarring.

After the IUD was out, I designed my own little detox program to help my body get any excess copper out. In doing research for this, two big things came up for me: 1. the process of detoxing copper can take years and can be pretty brutal. This freaked me out and I hoped that I hadn't waited too long. 2. Vegetarian diets tend to be higher in copper. I didn't know this and had been eating primarily vegan for the past 5 years. I had been feeling the pull to reintroduce some good quality animal products into my diet for the past few months, and this was the push that made me decide to go for it.

The first few days after it was out, I was still feeling some of the brain fog come and go - I was super worried I would be experiencing this for awhile. Thankfully, it improved a lot after the first week. I focused on taking a high quality zinc supplement (this is the one I used and I would recommend you take if you currently have a copper IUD), drinking juice, incorporating lots of parsley and cilantro which help to detox heavy metals, incorporate seaweed which supports the thyroid which can be affected by too much copper. I followed my own little program for about a month and the brain fog and fatigue subsided significantly.

A few other things I noticed: my mood improved - like, a lot. I found myself just smiling for no reason, and generally feeling upbeat. I hadn't realized that I hadn't been feeling that way in quite some time. This came as a big surprise to me. Another big thing I noticed - and sorry if this is TMI for you, but sexual health and experience is super important - is that my orgasms were better and stronger. Yep. I had just kind of thought that maybe getting older was affecting my experience or something, but it turns out having a foreign object in your prime sexual area can really impact sensation! I overall just felt so much better, so much more in tune with my body.

As for birth control now, I’m just sticking to condoms. At some point in the future I will probably become more dedicated to natural birth control options like the Fertility Awareness Method.

So now you're probably thinking - so what are signs of copper toxicity? I've listed a few big ones below, but I encourage you to check out CopperToxic.com to find out more about toxicity symptoms.

• fatigue and exhaustion

• hypothyroid

• racing mind (feeling wired but tired)

• panic attacks

• anxiety

• depression

• brain fog and concentration problems

• headaches

• joint aches and pains

• emotional numbness

• ruminating negative thoughts

I know, these seem general and we tend to chalk them up to other things going on in our lives, but if you have a copper IUD, give some extra thought to these symptoms. A lot of the time, we women know intuitively what's going on with our bodies.

I wanted to share my experience because frankly, there's not a lot of information about the copper IUD out there. Specifically, there's not a lot of information about copper toxicity and it can have pretty dire consequences that take years to resolve. I'm extremely grateful that I decided to get mine out pretty quickly after noticing symptoms, but I've read about it taking years for women to feel "normal" again.

Do you have any questions about the Paraguard IUD? Leave them below!

Good Medicine Everyday: Sleep

Without sleep, everything else you do for your health is pretty much for naught. Sleep is the baseline, your lifeline. I cannot stress enough the importance of sleep - not just quantity, but quality. Sleep is free and one of the most basic things we can do for our health, but feeling like we don’t have enough time is what gets most people tripped up. Some people even feel guilty for sleeping! I encourage you to drop that right now. It needs to be prioritized. You charge your phone at night, right? No one and nothing else is going to charge YOUR battery for YOU.

So what happens if you don’t get enough sleep?

• You feel tired, obviously

• Poor cognitive function and brain fog

• Elevated blood sugar...

• ...which leads you to crave carbs and sugar…

• ...which puts you on a blood sugar roller coaster all day long

• Bad mood (plus all the things associated with that - like being short with people we love, being a jerk to our coworkers, etc.)

• For some of us, anxiety and depression

• Weakened immunity, which can lead to getting sick more often

• Difficulty maintaining a healthy weight

• Increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes

So how much sleep do we need? We’ve all heard “8 hours” enough times that it’s drilled in our brains. But we also get messages like “sleep is for the weak” or “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” or hear about CEOs bragging that they only need 5 hours. The short answer - everybody’s a little different. Finding your sleep sweet spot will take a little experimentation, but it’s generally between 7 and 9 hours.

New research suggests we should view sleep by how many ninety-minute sleep cycles we get per week, rather than becoming overly focused with how many hours we get per night. We should aim for 35 sleep cycles per week. This includes naps! And this helps take some of the pressure off of always getting 8 hours every night. (which can be anxiety-inducing for some people).

I’ve personally never been a napper and find it really hard to sleep during the day, so I always prioritize my sleep at night. I generally get around 8 hours. I go to sleep between 9 and 10 and I’m usually up around 6. Even when I was younger, I intuitively knew I had to get good sleep to feel good. Fun fact - I’ve never pulled an all-nighter, not even in college. If I had a lot of work to do, I would go to sleep at a decent hour and wake up extra early to work on it. But hey, that’s just what works for me.

A few other tips to ensure the quality of your sleep:

• Sleep in a really dark room - get blackout curtains, cover up lights from devices

• Keep the room cool

• Use the bedroom for sleep and sex only

• Turn off Wifi at night, put your phone on airplane mode or even better - move it out of the bedroom

• No screens 1 hour before bed

• Write down your to-dos for tomorrow or journal to clear your brain of any thoughts that might keep you up

Here's to more and better sleep!