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00:00Welcome back to the Essence Wellness House, where we are going to be rejoined by Emmy Award
00:10journalist and author of Thinspired, Mara Schiavacompo. Mara Schiavacompo is absolutely amazing,
00:18and she has been doing a great job with so many different panels. Right now, we're going back to
00:23physical wellness. We're going to look more about our insides and how we can really be our best
00:29healthiest self during this pandemic. I know I, for one, can definitely put down some of the Corona
00:34snacks, and I'm not going to speak for all of you, but our next guest is Dr. Cora Spalding, and she is
00:39an incredible physician, health coach, and acupuncturist who's going to talk with Mara about
00:45ways that we can really protect our health and improve our health and wellness during this
00:49difficult time. This segment is proudly powered by AARP, and both Dr. Spalding and AARP have amazing
00:57downloadable takeaway resources for everyone watching this segment, so make sure you look
01:01at that purple bar underneath this video screen and click and download and enjoy.
01:31Hello, Essence fam. Well, this has forced a lot of us to focus on renewed health and becoming
01:51really as strong as possible. So right now, we're going to talk about five ways that you can improve
01:57your health right now. And joining me to break that all down is Dr. Cora Spalding. Dr. Spalding
02:03is double board certified in both family and integrative medicine. She is also the founder
02:07and CEO of Synergy Integrative Medicine Consulting on a Holistic Approach. Dr. Spalding, thank you
02:13for being here. Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm looking forward to it. This is a really
02:20important conversation, you know, about things that we can do right now, very practical tips.
02:24And one of your biggest tips is to focus on stress management, which right now feels like it's never
02:31been harder to reduce stress because of all of the challenges that we're facing. So first, let's talk
02:36about why this is important. What effect does stress have on our health? Well, stress has some pretty
02:44deleterious impacts on our health, particularly over time. I want to talk a little bit about the stress
02:52response in general. When something happens, stress is a response when you notice danger or harm.
03:00And so acutely, that's actually sometimes a good thing because obviously you want to flee
03:06from any harm. To give you an example, living in Alaska, often I'll open my garage door
03:13and I've been met by bears and moose. And so the stress response actually allows me to flee to run
03:22when I see a bear or moose. So that's quite appropriate. Wow. Yeah. The interesting thing
03:27about stress though, is it doesn't actually have to be a physical threat. It can be an imagined threat.
03:34So for example, last year, my neighbor's kids were playing outside and the place where the bears and
03:39moose were, and I had the same physiologic response. Your heart rate goes up, your respiratory rate goes
03:46up, and you feel like you want to run. So acutely, stress can be good or stress can be bad. But over
03:54time, if you chronically have stress, that can have some pretty negative effects on your health. It can
04:00affect your cardiovascular health so that you have a higher risk of developing hypertension, MI or stroke,
04:05and it can affect your immune system so that your immune system is actually weakened. It can cause
04:10you to have insomnia, obesity, diabetes, depression, and anxiety. So definitely all of us need to think
04:18of ways that we can mitigate the stress that happens in our lives. Things are a little bit different now
04:24than say they were 200 or 300 years ago because the stress in our life now is constant. I mean, we're inundated
04:31with daily annoyances. And your body doesn't know the difference between a bear chasing you sometimes
04:37and that daily annoyance. And so we have to figure out ways to integrate techniques into our lives each and
04:43every day to mitigate that stress.
04:46Now, you made a really important point on the phone when we spoke prior to this segment that I found
04:50absolutely fascinating. You said that your body doesn't know the difference between a real threat, that bear
04:57that's outside of your house, and an imagined threat. You're thinking about losing your job or
05:02coming down with COVID. But your body can't distinguish between the two. Tell me about that.
05:07Right, right. So your body just responds to whether there's the perception of a threat or a real threat.
05:15And that's because your brain processes the threats. You have a memory of things that have happened before.
05:21So you've probably experienced this when you've been in the bed, you've been dreaming,
05:26and then you wake up and you weren't actually being chased by a bear at all. But your heart rate
05:31is going a lot faster, you're breathing a lot faster. So that's one of the downsides of the acute
05:38stress response. And I think because of the speed with which everything goes today, I think it can have
05:47some deleterious effects that, you know, maybe people didn't see 300 years ago, we're constantly bombarded.
05:54So if you think about COVID, that can be just as stressful as the bear chasing you.
06:00And, you know, some of us tend to think that, well, if I think about something, I can work
06:05through the problem, I can maybe come up with a solution, we think that there's some intrinsic
06:09value in worry. But does the potential consequence to your health outweigh the benefit of, if there is
06:19any of really thinking about worst case scenarios all day long?
06:22Well, I think that's a great point, Mara, because often we spend more time thinking about the past
06:31or the future. And really, all we have to work with is now. And so that's what we have to focus on.
06:38It's important to strategize, to think about what can I do differently, but not to spend all of your time
06:44in the future. And so the techniques that I'm talking about, help you to focus on the now,
06:50they help to keep you in the now. And they also help you to be clear headed about what you need
06:55to do about things in the future. And so even though your circumstances don't change immediately
07:02with these techniques, the way that you perceive them, and your ability to create a space
07:08so that it improved. Yeah, so let's talk about some of those techniques, because the good news is,
07:16your body doesn't know the difference between a real and a perceived threat. So if it is a perceived
07:21threat, our perception has a very big impact on how our body responds. So you recommend breathing
07:28exercises and coming up with a mantra. Tell me about that. Right, so let me just go back a little bit.
07:36So with the stress response, that is an involuntary response. And we don't control that that happens,
07:43the brain just makes that go. But there's actually a parallel part of our body of our nervous system
07:50that can elicit another response, the relaxation response, where we can lower our heart rate,
07:55where we can lower our respiratory rate. And so we have to learn to tap into that. It used to be thought
08:03that that was involuntary as well. But now we know with these techniques that you can definitely tap
08:08into it. It's not just relaxation breathing. There are multiple other techniques. There's biofeedback,
08:13there's hypnosis, there's guided imagery. But what I'm going to talk today about is just
08:18relaxation breathing with a simple mantra. And a mantra is just a word or phrase or a sound
08:27that you can use that you can use. And you accompany your breathing with the mantra.
08:32The purpose of the mantra is to help you to anchor your breathing so that you're focusing on the
08:38breathing. And it can be a word that has some religious significance, like amen or shalom. It can
08:45just be a sound like um, or it can be a word that you want to create in your life, you want to create a
08:52sensation or feeling in your life. So for example, calm. So what I would like to do is just to show
08:59you a really brief relaxation technique that you can use. The beauty of this is you can use it anytime
09:06you want to. It's free. It's easy to do. You can, I've told people, you know, do it in the bathroom.
09:12I've had people go to the bathroom when they're at work or they're feeling really stressed out.
09:16And the beauty is that it works. I had a client who had to participate in a trial and she was very
09:24nervous about the trial. And she basically during the breaks would go into the bathroom and do this
09:31relaxation breathing. And that allowed her to continue and to testify and to get through the session.
09:38So I'm going to choose the word now. And the way that the relaxation technique works is
09:45you breathe in through your nose and then you breathe out through your mouth and then you say
09:50the word now. So you're saying this in your mind, you're saying this in your mind, that you don't have to
09:56speak the word now. Well, that's an interesting question. Actually, I would speak the word now
10:03because that sort of reinforces it. But you can do it both ways and see which way you like. Would you like me to
10:11demonstrate? If you can, if you can speak it, I think it'll help us understand even if you're saying
10:16in your mind how the process works. Yes. Yes. Okay. So what we're going to do is just take a deep breath
10:21breath in deep breath out. And now deep breath in, deep breath out, and now deep breath in through
10:36your nose deep breath out through your mouth and now deep breath in through your nose out through
10:46your mouth and now one last time deep breath in and out and now okay so and the important
11:03thing it's the rhythmic pattern of it feels very soothing yes and when you pay attention to the
11:11breath that way that induces the relaxation response now people will often say oh my gosh
11:19as I was doing that my mind was going all sorts of ways you know I was thinking about my grocery
11:24list that's normal those intrusive thoughts and what I tell people to do is think of those thoughts
11:30like bubbles when they pass through your mind just let them burst don't attach yourself to them
11:36don't spend a lot of time thinking about them just let them drift in and out if you haven't done
11:41relaxation breathing before I encourage people to do this for about two minutes because that way you
11:48don't get frustrated by not being able to keep the thoughts coming but eventually you want to work up
11:53to ten to twenty minutes a day and this can help to set the tone for the day it can help to keep you
12:01relaxed but you can also use it acutely on the fly say something happens at work you have a bad
12:09interaction with a colleague say you get some bad news this is a great opportunity to use a relaxation
12:15breathing to help you to control the stress response and and when you talk about people you know being
12:21concerned about their mind wandering I remember having a similar conversation with someone who's
12:25a big proponent of meditation he meditates several hours a day this is kind of his life's work and I
12:30said I'm so bad at it my mind is always wandering and he said everybody's bad at it the value is when
12:36you notice your mind wandering and you bring it back that's the point that's the only point and that
12:42gave me so much peace the other tip that I have for people when you're start first starting to do
12:51this to sit comfortably with your head neck and back and alignment try to have some support against your
12:57back and keep your feet on the floor then you take your hands you can use a number of positions but I'd
13:03like to tell people initially to fold the hands in in your your palm to the back of your hand and then
13:09just set them gently in your lap and over time as you do that you condition your body that when you
13:16fold your hands it's time to relax so just that movement alone will say to your brain okay this is
13:23the time we're gonna relax and it'll happen a lot faster your second tip of the five tips for better
13:30health now is also tied to stress management and you say involve all of your senses or as many as
13:36possible how do you do that absolutely absolutely so I'll give you an example my mother died a couple
13:44years ago but she was in the hospital for a prolonged period of time and during that period we thought
13:51about what we could do to make her comfortable to make the stay as relaxing as possible and so we
13:59involved all the senses and taking care of her so in her room we had aromatherapy so that involved the
14:07sense of smell we made sure that there were things that she could touch that were very comforting so
14:13she actually had silk pajamas and every day we bring her different pair of silk pajamas which she loved
14:18and additionally I bought a little dog a mechanical dog that had this inflatable pouch in it and a battery
14:26and the dog what the dog would breathe and it looked like a real dog it looked like a puppy and so that
14:34was comforting for her and so that was visual and touch as well and then we played us we had sound
14:41music that she liked or either a soundscape that she liked as well and so we tried to involve as many
14:49senses as possible to make her comfortable and relaxing the interesting thing about that is the nurses
14:56would often come into her room and they would love to take breaks in her room because they would
15:02say this is a very relaxing space and so we can do a lot to change our environment to make it relaxing
15:10think about the elements that are important to you do you have things touchstones that have sentimental
15:16value that when you hold them it brings back positive memories and so we want to create a space
15:23where there's lots of positivity and where we're using all of our senses to
15:29engaging all of our senses to create create that relaxation to augment the relaxation
15:34I love that idea of curating your environment you know someone said to me recently a fish is only as
15:41healthy as the water it swims in and I just thought that was so powerful that you can curate in spaces you can control you can't control everything but you can curate these really positive
15:52uplifting spaces for yourself which is which is a nice way to think about it so I'd like to move on to tip number three so this is away from stress management but also very very important which is sleep
16:04so we all know that sleep is important but yet we don't really prioritize it so many of us still put that last we do everything first the dishes the laundry the watching the netflix and then you sacrifice sleep for those things why is it so hard to prioritize something that we know we need
16:20and that's fun you know I think people don't necessarily understand the consequences of not sleeping because they are as serious as the consequences of being stressed I mean sleep deprivation also causes you to have a greater risk of heart attacks some cancer diabetes obesity depression anxiety so sleep deprivation is serious and
16:48so sleep deprivation is serious not to mention you know the accidents I think 20% of accidents car accidents are related to a lack of sleep I think one of the things that make it makes it very challenging for us now is that the ubiquity of these electronic devices and so you know we have in our hands computers and we spend a lot of time looking at them and hate that the computers the television any electronic gadget
17:16electronic gadget the light that is emitted from there affects our circadian rhythms it affects our ability to get to sleep and we don't get the signal from our body oh I'm sleepy if you think about a hundred years ago people went to bed at eight o'clock as soon as the sun went down and so they had no trouble with their circadian rhythms but we have light constantly and you need a period of darkness for your brain to get the signal it's time
17:46to go to bed the other thing is you know as a society we value hard work and it seems that the more work people are doing other people esteem them for that so if you say oh I didn't sleep you know I worked all day and I got six hours of sleep in some way that can be a badge of courage but we really have to get away from that because sleep is very critical to our health it's just as important as stress management just as important as taking care of your
18:15you know diabetes or hypertension or any other problem that you have so when you talk about that light limiting exposure to that electronic light for a period before bed you know I find that all of my leisure activities involve the phone even if I'm reading I'm reading on the Kindle app on my phone or you're watching television or you're catching up with people on social media can you recommend any activities that are best for bedtime that help you wind down without any electronic
18:45sure well let me say this good sleep begins the moment that you wake up and so you should really develop a routine look at your day and see if there are things other things that you're doing that are going to prevent you from sleeping so for example examine how much caffeine you're eating exercise is great for sleep if you're doing it early enough in the day so you want to add activities that are going to help you to relax and then in the evening
19:12what I recommend to people is that they turn off the devices a couple hours before bed so if you are using a Kindle maybe read a book you can journal you can listen to music you can take a warm bath you can you know light candles you can meditate you can think so there are lots of activities that you can do in the evening and I recommend people start the process of
19:42going to sleep about going to sleep about an hour before because you have to invite sleep in you can't make it come to you so you have to create the right environment in your bedroom we talked about the importance of environment it's really critical that you have a space where in your bedroom you do two things you can sleep or you can have sex that's it nothing else and preferably you should go into another room to read or to meditate
20:09meditate or do those things now if you don't have the space find a chair don't do it in the bed though because you want to condition yourself the bed is only for sleep
20:16and and other yes quality of your sleep you know correct me if I'm wrong but when you're stressed and you're worried that that can sometimes interfere with your ability to sleep oh absolutely
20:36I've got myself on many nights recently you know I'm in New York we're at the epicenter of this crisis right now laying in bed staring at the ceiling for hours just overcome with fear and sadness
20:47yeah how can you address issues of insomnia or even you know you wake up and you can't go back to sleep are there ways that you can facilitate good sleep
20:57sure and that's part of what I call sleep hygiene and that just really refers to a patterns a pattern of behaviors that you use to
21:06induce sleep so if you go to bed and you wake up and it's more than 10 minutes you need to get out of bed because you need to tell your brain this is only for sleeping this is not for looking at the ceiling in the middle of the night so you get out of bed go do an activity that you found relaxing one of the ones that we talked about on the list and then wait until you're sleepy and then get back in bed the other thing that you can do I tell people if they wake up in their
21:36you're worried to have a pad by the bedside and to write what you're worried about on the bedside and then say to your brain thank you very much for reminding me about that now I'm going to go back to sleep the others there's another thing you can do you can use music at night and actually I have going to show you guys this is tell me if you can see this so this is a headband
21:59it's a bluetooth headband it's a bluetooth headband that you can buy online and you can listen to music there are lots of free mp3s on youtube with guided imagery with meditation with relaxation breathing that you can do if you wake up or just to go back to sleep you can you can use those there are also apps on your phone calm you know 10% happier paid apps that you can buy
22:29some of them have some of them actually have bedtime stories for adults and so you can use those to kind of help you to relax before you go back to sleep so you can either go to sleep with that with the headband relaxing to that or you know when you get up you can use it
22:45those are great tips okay let's move on to tip number four which is movement and you actually have a really good tip for jumping rope in the house something thought of what is that
22:57yes so when I was about four years old I was a little bit frustrated because I wasn't coordinated enough to jump rope by myself and so I went to my mom and I said can you cut this rope and she said well why would you want to do that and I said so I can jump and literally I cut the rope and I went outside and I proceeded to jump all day and I never missed and so I tell people about this all the time
23:24and basically I have another little show and tell thing so this is a rope it doesn't cost very much at all and what I do is just get a pair of scissors and the end where the circle is for the rope I just cut that and so what you're left with is two pieces and then what I do is you can do this by the way sitting you can do it standing almost in any position
23:52and so you cut the rope so that it doesn't touch the floor because you don't want it you know hitting against the floor as you're jumping and once it's cut you just take the handles into your hands and then you proceed as if you're jumping rope so there's nothing under you to keep you from or to make you miss and so you can continuously do this the beauty of it is you can jump as you normally would you know two feet on the floor
24:21or alternating but you can also do other kinds of movements so it doesn't get quite as boring and you can do scissor kicks if you can't jump you can use this you can do leg lifts lifting one leg at a time so if you have bad knees or problems with your knees if you have problems with your hips you can actually sit in the chair and then just spin the rope around and you get a good arm workout and so this is a great way to get your cardio in
24:51without having to miss a lot of times people get frustrated with jump rope because you know they you know get up to a count of 10 and then they miss and then they have to start over this way that never happens to you and so I've taken this on vacation and you know I've used this in lots of different settings
25:10settings well a lot of us are working out from home right now because gyms are closed absolutely it's great for a small space and also so you're not disturbing your neighbors downstairs too much with that rope going
25:20yes that's right we're all a little on edge to begin with right now the last thing that's right absolutely
25:27uh tip number five tell you one more thing about that this is a great exercise to do with your children because it will tire them out
25:37you can have a competition um you know earlier in the evening and by the end of the day you know let them win
25:44let them get up to 200 and uh they'll sleep soundly right I love it um and tip number five which I love you
25:53you say add vegetables even if you change nothing else and I love this because it is such a manageable thing
26:00it's like okay you're not taking away like my gin and my m&ms just yet yes you're just telling me to add some broccoli
26:05absolutely yeah you know because I think it is harder to take something away than it is to add something
26:13you know over time particularly if you want to lose weight you may have to modify your diet in other ways
26:19but adding vegetables is pretty simple so if you're having a rice dish just throw some vegetables in there
26:25and it's great because you get added vitamins you get minerals you get fiber which you know many people
26:31are deficient in so you know that way you're not constipated you get the benefits of the vegetables
26:36they're antioxidants in the vegetables they're anti-cancer fighting chemicals um in the the vegetables
26:43so we know that a plant-based diet confers a lot of health advantages you know you have less hypertension
26:49um you know heart attacks cardiovascular disease some some types of cancer are actually reduced when you
26:57eat a high fat I mean a high vegetable diet so I definitely tell people to add that and I have
27:03another thing to show you guys so this is a plate you don't have to buy this but um use a plate that's
27:11slightly smaller than normal and then divide the plate and as you can see here one whole half of this
27:18is vegetables and fruits and so that's the goal and then a quarter is your starch and a quarter is the meat
27:25and so I tell people add vegetables first to your plate put half of the plate uh vegetables fruits
27:32and vegetables and then after that add the meat and then the carb and when you say fruits and vegetables
27:39are we talking about like fruits you know pineapple and grapes and vegetables you got the kale like this
27:45or do you want them even or do you want to eat yeah yeah that that's a great question and in fact I
27:51usually don't say fruits and vegetables thank you for correcting me I usually say vegetables and fruits
27:57because people do remember to eat the fruit because it has the sugar and they don't remember to eat the
28:04vegetables so yes so add as many vegetables as possible because there are some fruits that are you
28:11know higher in sugar and so you don't want to eat those all day like you don't want to eat pineapple
28:16all day because of the sugar content so make sure you're adding green leafy vegetables and actually
28:22eat the rainbow when you're eating foods when you go to the grocery store try to find vegetables of
28:28all colors and when you when you see those colors think oh this is supplements on a stalk these are my
28:35vitamins and supplements but they come on a stalk you know I don't have to go and find a bottle to get
28:41those things so get as many colors as you can and try it again you know five to ten a day and before
28:48we wrap this up do you have any creative suggestions for getting your vegetables like I hate cold
28:53vegetables don't give me a salad right so I started putting kale and spinach in a smoothie do you have
28:59any suggestions people put like some vegetables in brownies they try to like hide them any creative
29:05ways to get those servings of that sure you you know a great way is to add vegetables to a smoothie
29:12um and I actually add spinach to everything I take a handful of spinach and whatever I'm cooking I just
29:18throw it on there so what if it's a burrito there's some spinach on it you know if it's rice there's some
29:23spinach on it the other thing is to puree the vegetables so you can add them to soup you can add
29:29them to rice if you're making rice just throw some mixed vegetables in there um you know you can
29:35easily do that so yeah so as much as possible I would just say put some in whatever you're cooking
29:42Dr. Spaulding so many great tips and you have more tips for people in a resource card Dr. Spaulding
29:48has created a beautiful resource guide for us you can find that at the bottom of your screen it's a purple
29:54bar click on that it'll take you to that resource cards there's a lot more information to be found
29:59Dr. Spaulding thank you for these tips really useful information thank you so much I enjoyed being here
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