In Episode 99 Dr. Jill Interviews Jodi Cohen, Founder of Vibrant Blue Oils on Essentials Oils for Stress Relief and Sleep and More!
Key Points
- How to use Essential Oils to improve adrenal function and parasympathetic balance
- Essential Oil Blends for detoxification, histamine balance and sleep
- Top tips for anxiety, stress and insomnia for a great night’ sleep
Related Links
Vibrant Blue Oils
Vibrant Blue Oils formulates proprietary blends of organic or wild-crafted essential oils that help balance organ systems and regions of the brain, including balancing emotions and supporting symptoms, so the body can function optimally and heal.
https://dv216.isrefer.com/go/VBO/drjill
Our Guest – Jodi Cohen
Jodi Cohen is a bestselling author, award-winning journalist, and founder of Vibrant Blue Oils, a top resource for essential oils online, which welcomes 300,000 visitors every year. Her #1 bestselling book, Healing with Essential Oils, synthesizes decades of leading scientific research to help explain how essential oils can work to support the body and the brain. Random House will publish her second book, Essential Oils to Boost the Brain and Heal the Body, on March 16, 2021.
Dr. Jill
Dr. Jill Carnahan is Your Functional Medicine Expert® dually board certified in Family Medicine for ten years and in Integrative Holistic Medicine since 2015. She is the Medical Director of Flatiron Functional Medicine, a widely sought-after practice with a broad range of clinical services including functional medical protocols, nutritional consultations, chiropractic therapy, naturopathic medicine, acupuncture, and massage therapy. As a survivor of breast cancer, Crohn’s disease, and toxic mold illness she brings a unique perspective to treating patients in the midst of complex and chronic illness. Her clinic specializes in searching for the underlying triggers that contribute to illness through cutting-edge lab testing and tailoring the intervention to specific needs.
Featured in Shape Magazine, Parade, Forbes, MindBodyGreen, First for Women, Townsend Newsletter, and The Huffington Post as well as seen on NBC News and Health segments with Joan Lunden, Dr. Jill is a media must-have. Her YouTube channel and podcast features live interviews with the healthcare world’s most respected names.
A popular inspirational speaker and prolific writer, she shares her knowledge of hope, health, and healing live on stage and through newsletters, articles, books, and social media posts! People relate to Dr. Jill’s science-backed opinions delivered with authenticity, love and humor. She is known for inspiring her audience to thrive even in the midst of difficulties.
The Podcast
The Video
The Transcript
#99: Dr. Jill Interviews Jodi Cohen on Essential Oils for Stress Relief and Sleep and More!
Dr. Jill 00:12
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Dr. Jill Live. I'm here with Jodi Cohen, a friend. We were just talking about where we've crossed paths before—different conferences and holistic gatherings. But this is maybe one of the longest conversations we've been able to have, and I'm so excited today to learn more from her.
Dr. Jill 00:31
I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for solutions that are more gentle. I know that probably many of you out there listening are more experts than me on essential oils. And today we have a guest who's definitely an expert. Jodi is the founder of Vibrant Blue Oils. And I'm going to just pick her brain and learn along with you about some of the great oil blends that she's created and some of the uses that we can do.
Dr. Jill 00:53
Just a little background: You can find all of my episodes on my YouTube channel. We are at number 99, so soon to be 100. I know, right? Crazy! You can also find us anywhere you listen to podcasts: Amazon, Stitcher, YouTube, iTunes, etc.—all of those places. I think we're on like 15 platforms. You can listen to all these in your car or on your walk. Please do. If you go to iTunes and give us a rating, that would be so helpful to get us out there.
Dr. Jill 01:25
If you want to find more information, I love writing and there's tons and tons of free content over the last decade on my website. You can find that at JillCarnahan.com. You can find all our products and services at DrJillHealth.com. And if you look below, wherever you're listening to this or on YouTube, we will be sure and include the links for Vibrant Blue Oils as well if you're interested in checking those out.
Jodi, it is so awesome to have you here. Thank you for taking the time to join me!
Jodi Cohen 01:52
It's always great to connect with you!
Dr. Jill 01:54
Yes, and I love your decor. It's the beautiful blue, that cobalt blue that's in the oil, the bottles. That's one of the things I love. You did a really good job of choosing and marketing. I want to know your story, but I have a quick question for you. Why Vibrant Blue Oils? What's behind the name? How did that come about?
Jodi Cohen 02:12
It's funny; my mom loved antique stores, and she convinced my sister and me to spend more time in them by getting us to collect things. My sister picked symbols and I picked blue bottles, like those old blue glass bottles. I'd keep them on the windowsill. I loved it when the light would shine through. I brought them with me to college in my whole post-college life. When oils were first introduced to me, they came in these blue bottles and I was like, “Isn't that interesting?” It got my attention. That was how I started it.
Jodi Cohen 02:50
I was an athlete, and I thought I was eating healthy. Then my second kid was a lot harder to wrangle than my first one. It turned out that certain foods changed his personality. Once I figured that out, I went deep down the rabbit hole because I didn't discover that until he was three. And [after] years of trial and error, I couldn't believe it was just food. I went back and got a degree in nutrition and was trying to help other moms. But kids are wiggly, and they are hard to assess. I live in Seattle, near Bastyr. I took a muscle testing class, which I used as a shortcut to help figure out: What's the root cause? And what remedy is going to support it?
Jodi Cohen 03:34
And then my own life fell into disarray. I knew my husband was depressed, but he started getting more depressed than I felt like I could support. We moved him to a residential treatment facility. Once I knew he was safe and it wasn't my job to keep him alive, my adrenals ran out of gas [inaudible].
Dr. Jill 03:55
The tank. Oh, fight or flight. I see that so often, Jodi, where people just go, go, go. When the pressure is there and we need to show up for family, friends, loved ones, or work, we can sustain this crazy level. Then, all of a sudden, something happens. Sometimes it's even the death of a loved one where—the caregivers out there know how this goes—you've been caring for a loved one for years and years and years. Then, all of a sudden, your body's like, “Oh, I can rest.” And I'm sorry to hear that, but obviously, it led you to a great place with learning. What happened after that? Tell me more.
Jodi Cohen 04:30
Yes. Our kids were five and seven. And truthfully, I had been single-parenting since they were born. But then he was my other child. Once I knew he was going to be okay, I could barely get out of bed. I would wake up with the kids, make them breakfast, pack their lunch, drive them to school, come home, crawl back into bed, and set the alarm for pickup. You know that with kids, laundry, cooking, cleaning—all of that stuff just felt like so much. And I knew nutrition. I knew it was my adrenals. I was taking every adaptogenic and glandular herb I could think of, and nothing was helping.
Jodi Cohen 05:10
Fortunately, I had been that go, go, go class parent overachiever. And I had helped a friend with a fundraiser who had bought me a big box. She was into oils, so she came over with this huge box. After this happened, she said: “You have been so high cortisol for so long”—which means high inflammation—”I bet your gut is so inflamed that nothing you are ingesting is getting into your system. Try these. You can smell them. You can put them on your skin.” Desperation is the mother of invention. I was like, “I'll try anything.” I muscle-tested the box. “Will anything in here help my adrenals?” I got a very strong yes.
Jodi Cohen 05:48
But then I couldn't narrow it down. I kept getting the same five oils, which confused me until it occurred to me: “Oh, wait a minute, they're liquid. I can combine them.” Then I started. “Okay, seven drops of this, five of this.” I was brand new to oils. I blended them in a shot glass and put them on my adrenal glands on my low back. I was pretty quickly like: “Oh wait, I could go running. And for the last two weeks, climbing the stairs felt like a lot.” I was like, “I'm going to just go with it.” And I just kept putting it on and kept feeling like myself.
Jodi Cohen 06:24
That night I was lying in bed; I got the kids to sleep. It's so common that when you have adrenal function and exhaustion during the day, you can't fall asleep at night. You have insomnia on the other side. And I knew of a GABA remedy that you could put above the ears. I thought, “I wonder if I could apply an oil blend above the ears for the pineal gland.” I made something up and put it on. I don't even remember falling asleep. I just remember my five-year-old jumping on the bed and waking me up. I thought: “Okay, that's a win.”
Dr. Jill 06:56
Ooh, that worked.
Jodi Cohen 06:58
Yes, exactly. When you're in practice for long enough, you start to see the blind spots. It's very hard to help people drop into the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system. It's very hard to move lymph. There were certain blind spots that I always struggled with, so I had this idea: “Let's just see what I can make up.” So I just kept making things up and feeling better.
Jodi Cohen 07:21
When I got to the point where I started to feel like myself, my friends wanted to try it. It was working for them. They kept saying, “You should do something with this.” I thought, “Gosh, someone clearly must be doing something with this.” I went online, and no one was looking at oil blends through the lens of balancing the nervous system, brain, and organs in the body. I was almost grateful that my mental capacity was not what it normally is because, when I started researching, I realized if I had gone there first, I would have felt completely underqualified and probably wouldn't have done it.
Dr. Jill 07:58
Yes. I love that, Jody! And that's one of the things I loved when I went to your website after you shared. We've been in the same circles, and I was like, “Oh, you're doing oils!” My perspective is this: What I find for myself and a lot of patients and probably similar to you, is that I can take the big guns, like huge remedies and huge supplements that are 20 ingredients and super strong. What I've learned over time is that my body, as an HSP (a highly sensitive person), if any of you out there know what that means… You can read Elaine Aron's book. Probably both of us are a little bit that way. We're those canaries in the world, so we're going to be more environmentally chemical-sensitive. We're going to be more sensitive to stress and cortisol effects, all of these things, and even emotions. We're empaths. Those people like you and me who are in that realm and then working hard and pushing in that—we do better with remedies that are more gentle.
Dr. Jill 08:46
I remember when I first did mold detox. I did binders and all these things, and I completely crashed and burned. I trashed my system. And I love that you're talking about lymphatics, and we'll talk about histamine and some of these little links that are difficult to overcome. For many of the patients, the tinctures or the herbs that we use are too strong. This is one of the reasons I wanted to bring you on and talk about essential oils because I feel like they're very gentle but powerful. The cool thing is they're gentle for those people who are sensitive. And I know there are ways to do internal, but we're talking mostly topical applications, right?
Jodi Cohen 09:19
Yes. It's funny; people don't realize this. People think it has to get into the bloodstream to be effective. Like, “If I put it on my wrist, then it has to go to the vein, to the heart, to the whole body.” You can use topical on acupuncture points. Basically, it's gentle and driving towards alignment. It's not pushing too hard, too fast.
Dr. Jill 09:44
Yes, and some of us, like myself—over time, I've learned to do a lot better.
I noticed you mentioned muscle testing, and what I find is that for patients—whether it's intuition, muscle testing, or some of these ways that are energetically finding what's right—even though that's not taught in traditional allopathic medical school, there's a power to that. And this is where—whether it's myself learning, “Okay, what feels like the right thing for me,” or checking in with patients—there's such a power. There could be a one-size-fits-all adrenal remedy, and for 9 of the 10 patients, it's too strong, too weak, or the wrong thing. And I loved the beginning of your story because it was a very, very intuitive way to say: “These five herbs feel like the right thing for me.” And then, of course, it was. I think that with oils, when we go into these realms that are not only external but energetic, 1) they're powerful, 2) they're very gentle, and then 3) we can often feel what is helping us and what is not versus just the one-size-fits-all thing.
Jodi Cohen 10:43
Exactly.
Dr. Jill 10:44
I love how you've done that work. We talked briefly before coming on, and there were three big areas that I think our listeners would love to hear about. One is about stress—parasympathetic adrenals. We'll go into that first. After that, I'd like to talk about histamine and some of the issues with mold and Lyme and these cases where people have mast cell activation and histamine. That's a particularly good population, because that population has trouble with things like tinctures and oral stuff, so this is a great remedy for them. You can talk about some of the blends that you have. Sleep is a big one too. You mentioned sleep briefly and adrenals.
Dr. Jill 11:20
Before we jump into the parasympathetic adrenals, for those of you listening, I'm going to give you just a one-minute lecture on adrenals so that you know if this is you. Adrenal glands sit on top of our kidneys. They're these little diamond-shaped organs, and they are stress response organs. They help buffer us from the environment. Often what happens is if we have stress—we're taking care of a loved one, we have work hours, children, or these things—they mount the response and give us that cortisol and allow us to get through the day. They produce norepinephrine, which is noradrenaline, and then epinephrine, which is adrenaline. They also produce cortisol. Cortisol is our buffer from environmental toxins and allergens. If we have no cortisol, number one, it's hard to get out of bed, like you explained. But it can also be more allergies, more [of a] histamine response, and more asthma. The lower the cortisol [is], you [will] also have more environmental reactivity because cortisol is that buffer.
Dr. Jill 12:09
Symptoms you might have if you have adrenal issues: Hard time getting up in the morning, like you mentioned. I've been there too at times. Hard time falling asleep. You get the second wind and sometimes your curve will go up and then, all of a sudden, at 9:00 or 10:00 o'clock at night, you're wired and you can't fall asleep. Often you'll wake up at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. because your blood sugar is unstable during the night, and you'll be wide awake and you can't get back to sleep. Other things are: Easily overwhelmed. You might crave salt because your adrenals help to control mineralocorticoids. They help to balance electrolytes and hydration. And if the adrenals aren't working, you often drink and pee, and drink and pee, and you can't stay hydrated or you'll crave salt. One other common thing is that if you stand up quickly, you'll get dizzy or lightheaded because it controls the blood pressure. There are more symptoms, but that just gives you a groundwork because I bet some of you can be like: “Yes, that's me. That's me.”
Dr. Jill 12:57
Jodi, what would we do? You created some formulas. What would be your top two or three things for adrenals and the parasympathetic system?
Jodi Cohen 13:04
First of all, that was the best, most detailed, tiny summary I've ever heard. So go you. That was really good.
The adrenals are part of the endocrine system. One of the things that people don't realize is that the endocrine system starts with the hypothalamus.
My dogs [inaudible].
Dr. Jill 13:23
We love dogs, so no problem.
Jodi Cohen 13:27
Sorry.
Dr. Jill 13:27
Like, “Go, Mom!”
Jodi Cohen 13:28
The hypothalamus signals your pituitary to tell your adrenals to release cortisol.
I'm sorry, it's my daughter coming home. Hey sweetie, I'm recording something.
That signal is a two-way signal. The hypothalamus is sending signals down to your endocrine glands and then the endocrine glands are sending the signal back up to the hypothalamus to tell you: We're good. We have a blend for the hypothalamus because, just like your phone can glitch when too many things are coming in, the hypothalamus can get out of balance. And it's really hard to get remedies into the brain because the blood-brain barrier protects everything that's not super small and fat-soluble. Essential oils—that's one reason people smell things and they say it goes directly to that area. I like to apply our hypothalamus blend on the third eye.
Dr. Jill 14:24
Oh, perfect. Right there.
Jodi Cohen 14:26
And then we have an adrenal blend that I believe works a little bit like an adaptogenic herb. You mentioned cortisol rhythms. It's a little bit like Goldilocks: It can be too hot or too cold; you want it to be just right. And at different times of day, it should be high. Cortisol should be high in the morning when you wake up so that you have energy and start to wane down as you go to bed. Sometimes we're completely dysregulated. We put the Adrenal blend on the low back over the adrenal glands. If it's too low, it helps bring you up. If it's too high, it helps to calm you down. It's just a nice, sustaining remedy during the day.
Jodi Cohen 15:07
There are a lot of pathways for stress in the brain. There's the amygdala in the limbic system and the hypothalamus in the endocrine system. And then our nervous system is one of the first responders. The autonomic nervous system controls automatic functions—breathing and heart rate. And just like your car has two speeds, if there is danger—be it a car changing lanes, a lion chasing you down the street, or you turning on the news and being afraid that you're in danger—the sympathetic branch of your nervous system, the survival branch, jumps into action and resources are allocated towards survival.
Jodi Cohen 15:49
Blood is routed away from the organs of digestion and detoxification to your arms and limbs so you can run fast. Your vision changes. Your pupils, the black part of your eyes, get big to take in light to make those life-or-death decisions. But you're not able to access your stronger problem-solving, your prefrontal cortex. You can't have a deep, thoughtful conversation with someone when their pupils are really large. And then, when the danger passes, you regulate. You return to the parasympathetic branch of your nervous system, and blood is routed back toward digestion and detoxification. Housekeeping kicks in and you start to heal.
Jodi Cohen 16:30
This is supposed to be fluid. You're supposed to be both in sympathetic and then toggle back into parasympathetic. But so many of us get stuck in that survival gear, and then our delayed maintenance is perpetually delayed. And that's when disease can present. It's the vagus nerve, the longest nerve in our body, that most people have never heard of.
Give me just one second. My dogs are making a weird noise. Sorry. I'm back.
The vagus nerve, cranial nerve number 10, that helps it. You stimulate the vagus nerve and you can activate the parasympathetic nervous system.
Dr. Jill 17:14
Oh, sorry. I wanted to make sure I'm putting links in our chat.
Jodi Cohen 17:21
When I first started playing with oils… And I knew from yoga that you can activate the vagus nerve from deep breathing, splashing your face with cold water, or gagging yourself with a tongue depressor. But I also knew that this point right behind the earlobes—that divot between your earlobe and your mastoid bone—was where the vagus nerve was the most accessible to the surface.
Jodi Cohen 17:45
There was some research in 2012. A New York neuroscientist named Kevin Tracey was surgically implanting pacemaker-like devices in that spot, and he was getting a lot of success. The FDA has approved that technique for epilepsy, migraines, and depression. When I heard “stimulate,” a light bulb went off because several oils are stimulatory. You know this: If you were to put it on your skin, it might feel hot; it might turn red. Peppermint, oregano, thyme, rosemary—those are all stimulatory oils—cloves, cinnamon.
Jodi Cohen 18:17
I started playing with: What can I use that can stimulate but not burn that will get into the skin quickly? Clove is super stimulatory and has this constituent eugenol. It's the all-star favorite in terms of what it can do for your body and your nervous system. But it's got medium-sized molecules so when you combine it with lime, you get this stimulatory combination. It gets into the skin quickly and also is less hot, so it doesn't necessarily make you feel red or cause irritation.
Dr. Jill 18:53
Oh, I love that. Is that in the Parasympathetic?
Jodi Cohen 18:55
Yes. That's the Parasympathetic blend. There are many remedies. There's GABA. There are a bunch of things that you can take that calm your nervous system. But this, you can do it really quickly. You can carry it in your pocket. Even if you're in a meeting or at a meal and you feel anxious, it's subtle so that you can regulate yourself without the world necessarily knowing.
Dr. Jill 19:20
And I can attest. I have this little darling lavender pouch that I take with me to the coffee shop when I'm writing or working. And I have your Uplift and your Attention and your Focus. I can never decide which one. I like them all, so I sometimes even blend those. And this is a whole other topic but when I want to get into writing or whatever, I feel like in the last five years with stress and everything else, my focus isn't quite as crisp. I used to be a laser-focused person. I could get into something and stay there for five hours and all of a sudden the time was gone. And I feel like focus is harder than it used to be, which is an adrenal symptom as well. It's a whole other topic but I love your oils for focus as well.
Dr. Jill 20:01
The bottom line is that I carry them around with me. That's why I want to talk to you because I thought, “Gosh, if these are helping me, there's going to be other people out there who would like to have access to them.” They're not that expensive. They're easy to carry. It's all-around great. We talked about Parasympathetic and Adrenal and where to put those. Just quickly, on my Focus and Attention, can you tell me the difference [between] how you created the Focus, the Attention, and the three that I mentioned, and then where you'd put them?
Jodi Cohen 20:27
Yes. Attention was for ADD kids. And it's this idea of grounding. A lot of times with ADD, they're so in their head that they can't get into their body. Vetiver and the herbs or plants that have really deep roots in the earth, the trees, the cedar—it was a combination of those grounding herbs that you put on the bottom of the feet so these kids can feel like they're in their bodies. That's activating your parasympathetic nervous system. You feel in your body; you feel safe.
Dr. Jill 21:01
What's interesting is that most of the time people think of attention as a lack of brain power. If we look at an fMRI, it's too much activity in the brain; it's not too little. Pulling that down and allowing less activity—grounding. And I'm just thinking about [how] when I'm driving, I'm thinking about a million things. This would be a great formula for me to apply to my feet before I drive, right? [laughs]
Jodi Cohen 21:24
And smelling it because that's what's so wonderful about plants: They have their own energetic frequency. This goes back to your intuition point. I give people suggestions, and then you can take that where you want. If you're very drawn to put something on your wrist, put it there. The bottom of the feet is just one of many places you can apply it. You can apply it on your tailbone or you can smell it. That was the principle behind the Attention blend.
Jodi Cohen 21:52
And then the Focus blend. It's really interesting; there are so many areas of the brain, and it's the prefrontal cortex that controls the executive function and the ability to plan and prioritize. That's right behind the forehead. And your nostrils—nose cells are brain cells and they go directly to that area. Just smelling things—there's tons of research on rosemary and peppermint. If you're forgetting vocabulary words and then you smell it again before the test, it helps you recall.
Dr. Jill 22:24
I love it. And that's my favorite. I love peppermint, which makes sense because it is very activating for the brain. So I love that.
I know a lot of our listeners have, all of you listening, mast cell activation. Some of my favorite talks have been around mast cell activation and mold-related illness, which triggers mast cells and histamine response and allergies. You have a couple of formulas [that are] really specific. Let's talk first about the Histamine [Balance] formula. And then I want to talk about the liver and gallbladder because that area is so key. Like you said before we got on here, it doesn't get much respect sometimes.
Dr. Jill 22:57
When I went to Switzerland, one of the funnest things that I learned—we did a lot of work—was the liver-gallbladder detox. They called the liver the queen. “We need to respect the queen.” I love that wording because the liver doesn't get a lot of respect, but it is one of the most important organs in our body, and the gallbladder is right next to it in that whole detox pathway. So let's talk about your Histamine [Balance] formula and then about Liver and Gall Bladder.
Jodi Cohen 23:21
Yes. The Histamine [Balance] formula—there's this one plant, blue tansy, that is exceptionally amazing for modulating the histamine response. I'm very sensitive. I had mold at one point. The house is clean now. But I can tell. When I walk into a hotel, I'm like, “Oh, mold is there.” I have a friend who has to bring her tent because sometimes she just can't sleep in the hotel. But I found I have a histamine balance that's high in blue tansy. It has a bunch of other herbs. It gets me through. I put it on the back of the neck, behind the ears, and the bottom feet. I was at a bat mitzvah party recently and they had a smoke machine. The bat mitzvah girl was very sensitive. Her whole face exploded, and her mom was like, “Oh my gosh!” We turned off the smoke machine, and then we put the Histamine [Balance] around her neck. She was fine within a matter of minutes. It's all about regulation. It supports a return to balance.
Dr. Jill 24:21
And then the gallbladder, like we said before we came on, doesn't get a lot of respect. But you have a gallbladder formula too. And a real quick lecture for you guys listening: The gallbladder is your storage organ for bile. Bile holds cholesterol, but it also grabs onto toxins. Our bile circulation in the gut is very, very efficient. So what happens is we circulate it through the bowels. We reabsorb about 95% of it, and we just have this merry-go-round of toxins. A couple of things for bile are that if you have poor and sluggish bile flow, you will be more toxic and you will potentially get an overgrowth of bacteria in the small bowel. We want bile flow. We want all this pulling out of the toxins. What do you have for the gallbladder?
Jodi Cohen 24:59
Yes. What I realized is that each organ has its own frequency. This is a tenet/principle as well. Plants and humans are biofamiliar, and you can combine the different essences of plants to match the frequency of healthy organ function. We have a gallbladder blend that is helping the gallbladder return to its appropriate healthy frequency.
Jodi Cohen 25:25
It's slightly complicated, but the way I explain it is that when you're teaching a kid to ride a bike, it's complicated. They have their training wheels, and they need to figure out how to balance while moving forward. Some kids get it in two seconds; some kids take two months. It's when the body remembers: Oh yes, this is what it feels like. And that's what we're trying to do by topically overlaying the healthy frequency of both the liver, which gives it vitality, and the gallbladder. It's just another training wheel or support. You're taking all the right nutrients and eating the right food internally. And then from the outside in, we're putting the frequency in balance so that the gallbladder can better function and return to regulation more quickly.
Dr. Jill 26:07
I love that. And you would apply a little bit topically to the right upper quadrant?
Jodi Cohen 26:11
Exactly. I love to do it with castor oil before bed. It's my favorite time.
Dr. Jill 26:15
You read my mind. I was just going to say, could you do it with castor oil or with a heating pad or something? I love that.
Jodi Cohen 26:23
I tell people to combine castor oil, the oil, and then do an Epsom salt bath and [to] use that as the heating.
Dr. Jill 26:28
Oh, I love that! If you don't know about castor oil packs, there are some great resources out there. Queen of the Thrones makes ones you can wrap around you. We probably both know about that. I love that stuff. You can apply that castor oil on top of this oil. That will also help that whole axis dump and excrete and get rid of those toxins. And then you want to make sure your bowels are moving because part of the excretion route is through the bowels. And just a tip there: If you have constipation or struggle with bowel motility, magnesium citrate—simple, easy, you can find it anywhere—is a really good and gentle bowel mover.
Dr. Jill 27:05
Let's talk in our last little bit here about sleep. In fact, I have a dear friend who struggled with insomnia for years and tried everything. I was thinking through: “Okay, how can I help her? We've tried medications, we've tried herbs, we've tried all kinds of things.” And sometimes they'll work for a short period of time, but then she would either become resistant or it'd stop working. I was thinking deeply and intuitively about it. I think I reached out to you by email and I said, “What do you have for sleep?” because I realize she's an empath; she a highly sensitive person. And I thought, “I bet essential oils would be gentle enough yet more effective than what she's tried.” So far, she's having great luck. What would you recommend for someone who's having trouble with sleep?
Jodi Cohen 27:50
It's funny because I look at sleep as four different challenges. You mentioned one of them: The adrenal blood sugar wake-up. I say if you're having trouble falling asleep, that is a cortisol-melatonin issue. Sometimes when your cortisol is too high, it pushes down your melatonin. It's your pineal gland that releases melatonin. Our pineal gland is in the center of the brain and is susceptible to fluoride, aluminum, and all sorts of toxins. It can get a little calcified; just a little compromised. So the more we can return it to balance… Melatonin is great.
Jodi Cohen 28:27
We have a blend called Circadian Rhythm that I mentioned. I started with it above the ears and then I put it on the top of the head in the back of the head as well, trying to surround the center of the brain without putting it on your face because, if you're a toss and turn sleeper, it could get in your eyes. That's my remedy for falling asleep.
Jodi Cohen 28:48
If you wake up in the middle of the night because you have a blood sugar dip and the adrenals kick out too much energy into the blood, we have one for the pancreas that helps to pull the sugar out of the blood and into the cells. That seems to help people when they have that blood sugar wake-up around 1:00 a.m.
Jodi Cohen 29:09
If you're waking up around 3:00 and maybe use the bathroom and are a little groggy, that tends to be when your liver and gallbladder or your hormones are the most active. So I recommend the Liver and Gall Bladder before bed. You can reapply if you wake up at that time. And that helps people get back to sleep more quickly or even sleep through the night.
Dr. Jill 29:28
Wow. I love that. You and I know why the liver, why the adrenals, and all this. But if you're out there listening and are like, “I can't sleep,” you would not necessarily go to the shelf and pick up Liver formula. And I totally get that because I always ask them, “If you're waking up, what time is it?” And like I said, 2:00 a.m. is typically more adrenal axis, and then 3:00 a.m. is more liver detox. So that makes perfect sense. But I love that you mentioned that. And I love Circadian Rhythm. Do you also have one specifically called Sleep for insomnia?
Jodi Cohen 29:58
We have one called Sleep. And here's what's interesting: The best oils for sleep are Valerian root, which smells like stinky feet, and spikenard, which smells slightly better. The sleep blend was a more gentle tranquilizer. A lot of people use Circadian Rhythm and Sleep together. And everyone is like, “Oh, lavender is the best.” Lavender has great research, but what's fascinating is that all the research on lavender for sleep is always in combination with other oils. Lavender is a sedative and it combines really well, especially with citrus. Citrus is really light and uplifting. The Sleep blend is spikenard, lavender, and some of the citrus blends. It's a gentle, nice combination. I like it for children because it's really calming. My son, on the 17th, still wasn't tired. [inaudible].
Dr. Jill 30:51
I'm sure moms out there are like, “Okay, I want to try some of that for the kids.” It's better than Benadryl. There are moms that are like: “Secretly, I give them some Benadryl.”
Jodi Cohen 31:00
Benadryl made him more hyper. We tried that on [inaudible]. That was the longest plane ride of my life.
Dr. Jill 31:07
I bet. Yes, it's definitely a paradoxical activity for many kids where the anticholinergic antihistamines cause this hyperactivity.
Wow, we have been through a lot. This is just for smell: What do people feel is the best-smelling oil that you have? Is there one that's so deliciously smelling?
Jodi Cohen 31:27
Honestly, it's the small intestine one that I created for boundaries. I've gone down many rabbit holes with Chinese medicine and how organs are connected to emotions. We have one for lungs for grief. But the Small Intestine Support smells like heaven to me.
Jodi Cohen 31:45
So many of us women are such pleasers. We do everything for everyone else. Reese Witherspoon was like: “I'm eating a bagel. My kid is like, ‘I want the bagel.' ‘Oh, you want it? Here, it's all yours.'” We all need to have a little bit more—”I'm going to finish this, and then I will get something for you”—polite boundaries.
Dr. Jill 32:06
Oh, boundaries are huge. I've done so much work and continue because of the same thing—empath/pleaser. I love that. I'm going to have to get that one next from you.
Jodi Cohen 32:19
Everyone that I've given it to thinks it smells wonderful. We also have a heart-opening blend that people love.
Dr. Jill 32:26
I love that. And that one you mentioned before. [With] yoga, sometimes you'll use the Heart [inaudible].
Jodi Cohen 32:30
Yes. That's my new favorite. I put a little bit on my heart in yoga. If you think about all the downward dog and planking, you smell it the whole practice. And every time you do a backbend, it just helps you [inaudible].
Dr. Jill 32:42
Oh, that's really good. Gosh, I could talk to you for hours.
The last thing I'm thinking about is that right now, people are coming out of these crazy two years. I was talking to my dentist today. I went to get my teeth cleaned, and I said, “I can't remember the last time I got X-rays.” I realized it was before the pandemic. I said, “It feels like it's just been yesterday,” but it's been that long. This pandemic has warped our sense of time because marked activities and things throughout the year, like our vacations and stuff—all those markers have been gone. For those people listening who are either overwhelmed or trying to reorient, [do you have] any simple remedies or ideas on overwhelm, fear, or stress and reorientation to cycles and life? Thoughts on that.
Jodi Cohen 33:28
I am the anxiety queen. That is my wheelhouse. I can speak to that with two things. [There's] one thing I learned from a functional neurologist, Titus Chiu. There's a whole branch of chiropractic called functional neurology that's looking at the different hemispheres of the brain. He taught me that when I'm having a panic attack or feeling completely overwhelmed, it is my right frontal lobe, right forehead, that's overactive.
Jodi Cohen 33:55
The way to balance that is to smell anything—anything you have in your house; it could be citrus fruit that you peel—through the left nostril. Even though the right brain controls the left body, the right nostril goes to the right brain, and the left nostril goes to the left brain. Use your thumb to plug your right nostril. Smell anything through the left nostril. Usually within three to five breaths, smell satiation [occurs]. You feel it. Your hemispheres balance and you feel so much better. I used to get panic attacks in the supermarket checkout lines and have to abandon the cart, which is so disappointing. But now I can tell you that the more you do it, the results are additive and cumulative. So that helps a lot.
Jodi Cohen 34:43
Also, your parasympathetic nervous system. You can put oil behind your ear. You can use your tongue like a paintbrush and paint the roof of your mouth. You can hum. For my book—BoostTheBrainBook.com\gift—I have 25 ways to activate it. There's so much that's going on that is outside of our control, and that can make us feel overwhelmed or like a victim. Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl liked to say, “Between the stimulus and the response there is a space, and in that space lies our power.” And by activating your parasympathetic nervous system, you give yourself that space. You give yourself that pause, where you observe whatever you're observing and pause before you react. And you get to choose how you react. You get to realize that you can choose to be grateful at any moment in time. You can choose to show up as your best self. You are in charge of your reaction, and that feels very empowering.
Dr. Jill 35:44
Wow, those are some amazing pearls that I think anyone listening at some time in their life could use. I love that. I really, really do—especially the pause. Like I said, Jodi, we could talk for a long time. I have really enjoyed what you've shared. I love what you're doing for the world by bringing this. And thank you so much today for taking the time to talk to us. Any last tips, tricks, or anything you want to leave with our audience?
Jodi Cohen 36:10
No. If you're new to oils, just go to Whole Foods and pick one that you like. Most people like orange. Most people like citrus. Just start very small. You can add a few drops to an Epsom salt bath. If you want premade formulas, we have them. But if you're just testing the waters, you can't do it wrong.
Dr. Jill 36:31
I love that. If you're like me, you're like, “Oh, I don't want to mess up; I don't want to do it wrong.” And that's even me with the Focus and Attention. Like, “I don't know which one to use; I'm going to use them all.”
Jodi Cohen 36:39
Yes.
Dr. Jill 36:40
I love it. Oh Jodi, thanks for what you do in the world, and thank you for your time today. I have really enjoyed it!
Jodi Cohen 36:46
Thank you so much for having me.
Dr. Jill 36:48
You're welcome.
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The product mentioned in this article are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The information in this article is not intended to replace any recommendations or relationship with your physician. Please review references sited at end of article for scientific support of any claims made.
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