Articles

1) Eat Right

The food you eat matters. The best advice I have on food is always focused on putting food into your body that provides a benefit for your health. If you use that as your guiding principle when eating you will be doing a great job eating a healthy diet. Processed food and high amounts of sugar do not fit into the category of improving your health. If you find yourself completing most of your grocery shopping in the middle aisles of the grocery store you need to reevaluate your food choices. The majority of the food you want to eat is along the perimeter of the store. You want fresh produce (organic to avoid pesticides when available) and quality meat (think grass fed and free range if possible) to be filling your grocery cart. Anything else make sure you read those ingredient lists! If it has words you do not know, do not eat it. If it contains added colors and dyes, do not eat it. Bottom line, eat real food not chemically produced food. I do not care if the FDA says it is safe, if it does not contain food, do not put it into your body. Always look at the sugar content also, they put sugar, and a lot of it, in our food. I am way less worried about fat calories than I am about grams of sugar.

Simple right? Wrong. It is hard, I get it. I went through my own “learning how to actually eat food” journey. It isn’t easy. We are addicted to sugar. We love our junk food. We love soda. We also love to have energy and feel our best and unfortunately we can not have it all. Make slow changes. You do not have to immediately give up everything and eat just celery and bananas. You will have to make changes though. Set achievable goals for yourself, and rewards for your success. Example, if you give up soda and start drinking water and tea instead you get to go see a movie with a friend. Start trying new foods. It will take time for your body to adjust from eating processed to eating real food (addiction remember) but keep trying. Search the internet for free healthy meal plans, recipes, and cookbooks to inspire you and teach you how to eat. Find the joy in cooking your own food. It takes time, and I struggle with being too busy to cook also- but as I learn I get faster, have more time efficient meals to draw from, and involve the whole family in the process. The kitchen is supposed to be a place to gather, talk, and make our own food. Let’s take back our kitchens this year and eat food to improve our health.

2) Think Right

Oh those negative thoughts, always holding us back from the life we want to live. I listened to 2 audiobooks this summer titled No Excuses and The Confidence Gap. Both are free from audible if you feel inclined to listen to them as you go about your life (for me I listen while I fold laundry, drive to work, and while walking/running). These books changed my entire attitude about life and what I can achieve. The takeaways from them were- we are responsible for our life. The decisions we make, the lifestyle we choose to have, the food we choose to eat, the relationships we choose to have, the work we choose to pursue, and the way we choose to spend our time is ours to own. We need to figure out what is not ideal in our life, and what we did to cause it or what we can do to change it. We are in control and need to not blame others for our misfortune but to learn from mistakes and to grow and change as needed.

Negative thoughts are the way our brain was trained to think for survival. Our brain naturally thinks of the worst case scenario to protect us from perceived danger. This was great for keeping us from being killed by wild animals but today mostly just keeps you from doing things that you might fail at. Our brain tells us we could never speak in public, pursue the job we dream of, write a book, date that person. The Confidence Gap teaches that these thoughts are normal, we can not prevent them from happening, but we can learn to manage and deal with them. One strategy I find helpful is to literally thank your mind for its negative opinion and then keep pursuing what you want to achieve. Do not let your thoughts hold you back, they are just thoughts. Thoughts do not actually do anything, they are just words and only hold meaning if you give them meaning. Similarly, fear is just a feeling, and a feeling also only has meaning if you give it meaning. The book teaches you how to recognize what fear feels like, and not to get rid of it (not really possible) but to acknowledge it, make room for it, and use it to fuel you instead of hold you back. Life changing stuff.

3) Poop Right

Poop. There I said it. Poop, Poop, Poop. Let’s get over avoiding the topic of poop and instead talk about how important how your poop is for your health. How should your poop look you may be wondering? Poop should be easy to get out (mushy like toothpaste) and mostly be light brown in color. You should not have trouble feeling like you got it all out and it should also not be hard to control (diarrhea and worry about where the bathroom is everywhere you go). You should also poop at least once daily to get rid of the waste your body does not need. Simply pooping daily isn’t enough to know you have a healthy digestive tract and gut. It also matters how long it takes for your food to journey from going in your mouth to exiting on the other end. This is called gut transit time and although it varies for each person ideally should be between 12 and 24 hours. Any faster than that usually means you are not absorbing enough of the nutrients from your food and any slower can mean toxins are building up in your system. It is easy to measure your personal transit time by eating something that will be very visible in your poop. A cup of whole kernel corn or beets will be easy to identify when they come back out. If your poop is not measuring up to the ideal standards there are some things you can do to improve. Clean up your diet, get rid of the processed food and replace it with fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and drink plenty of water during the day. Ensuring you have a balanced gut colonization of good bacteria through probiotic supplements can also help with poop problems. The other avenue to consider with gut issues is food allergies. A food elimination diet can help you determine if food is causing you digestive issues.

4) Move Right

Moving your body every day can help transform your health. Exercising will lead to weight loss through calorie burning, will strengthen your muscles, will improve your balance, and will cause your body to release endorphins to make you feel happier. When starting a new exercise regimen, start slow. Jumping off the couch you have been sitting on for 5 years and trying to run 2 miles will quickly land you back on the couch. Setting personal and realistic goals, including rewards for achieving them, will get you on the right track. Making small changes that grow over time will eventually lead to big results. Ideas to get started are to walk more every day, find a work out video you enjoy doing (usually have beginner moves for getting started), invest a little money into some hand weights, kettlebells, or a dumbbell to start strength training, learn some yoga moves to improve your strength and flexibility. Having a partner to hold you accountable for your desired work out regimen helps keep you motivated.

5) Sleep Right

It is important to have a good sleeping environment. Ideal conditions are a dark room, quiet or ambient noise such as a fan or sound machine (waves, wind, rain), and a place with few distractions (sleep and sex for the bedroom- watch TV somewhere else). You should also shut down technology before bed. The brain needs some non-stimulation time to prepare for sleep. Read a book, drink some herbal tea, talk with your spouse, take a bath or shower. Do something to unwind and tell your body it is time for bed. Routine before bed is as important for adults as it is children. We need to have things we do that helps us change gears and get prepared for sleep. Limiting alcohol, caffeine, and sugar intake during the day will help to avoid sleep disturbances at night. If you are someone who has trouble quieting your thoughts at night, make a list of things to do or journal before bed to clear your head. Sleeping and waking at the same time every day, yes on the weekend too, will keep your sleep cycle more consistent.

6) Medicate Right

Medications are important and life-saving at times, but being over medicated is becoming an American trend. We take a prescription for every pain, every feeling of sadness or anxiety, for weight loss, for digestive issues… the list goes on and on. This is not necessarily wrong, but what is wrong with our current health system and patient mindset is that every symptom needs to be resolved with a medication. We are now so focused on fixing each individual problem that we are losing sight of the whole body picture and that each symptom is really a sign of a larger problem in the body. Many problems can be fixed by backtracking and figuring out what we are doing with our lifestyle, food, exposure to allergens, and toxic burden that may be causing the symptoms we have. I am a pharmacist and I know a lot about medications and would never advocate to stop your medications or to avoid taking medications. What I am hoping people will do is change their attitude about medications. They are not the answer to our health problems. To be healthy and live better we need to change ourselves and how we eat, think and live. Follow the recommendations of your doctor, by all means, take prescriptions to help treat your health problems-often they are necessary but do not stop there. You need to find out what is leading to your sickness. Are you eating the wrong foods? Are you not dealing with stress positively? Are you not exercising your body? Are you lacking meaningful time with friends and family? Do you need to supplement your diet with vitamins/minerals/protein because you are lacking? What can you start doing to fix your body? It is your body, you need to take ownership of it and take control of the care you give it. Your doctor cannot fix you if you are unwilling to do the work to get better. Also if you take medications, you should make sure they are not interacting with one another (prescription, vitamins, over the counter medications, and herbal supplements). Many prescriptions can cause collateral damage to your body which may include nutritional/vitamin deficiencies or potential side effects. Consult with myself or your local pharmacist to ensure everything you take is safe to combine together and that your body is tolerating the medications.

Your Health Matters!

Tiffany Herring
PharmD

**THIS AUTHOR AND SITE INTENDS ONLY TO SHARE INFORMATION AND NOT TO DIAGNOSE OR TREAT DISEASE.

Inflammation is one of the major factors in the rise of chronic illness. Our bodies are under attack from our lifestyle, our food, the toxins we are exposed to, and it is damaging us. Diabetes, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases, mental disorders, and cancers have all been on the rise in the last few decades. Our bodies are not changing and evolving fast enough to handle life we lead now in America. Our immune systems are in overdrive trying to heal us and it is leading to a chronic inflammatory response. Inflammation is a good thing when it is in response to a sudden trigger such as an injury or infection. It helps to mount an attack response to a bacteria or to heal an injury. This response is designed to start when needed and stop when the threat is over. The problem is for most of us, the threat is never gone. Our bodies are never finding a state of balance and are constantly trying to fight against our poor lifestyle. This constant fight mode is causing the body to break down and leading to chronic illness.

Lets go through what the basic inflammation response is and then how that response can lead to many of the chronic symptoms people experience. The body is exposed to a trigger for inflammation. According to Dr. Charles Sefcik, a functional medicine chiropractor, these triggers can best be abbreviated as STAMP.
(S) sleep quality, sedentary lifestyle, stress, sugar
(T) toxins
(A) allergens
(M) microbes
(P) poor posture, pain from injury
This trigger (or usually multiple triggers) will start the inflammation cascade in the body. This process is complex and involves multiple mediators, enzymes, and cells in the body. The cells involved in the initial response to a trigger send out signals causing the blood vessels to dilate. This results in a more open membrane to allow other cells and fluid to flow to the area of concern in the body. These cells produce mediators which cause the inflammation reaction of swelling, redness and pain. The problem is when exposed to triggers over and over again these mediators are always in the body and start to do damage by causing the inflammatory response to areas that are not injured or infected. When inflammation becomes widespread throughout the body, affecting many systems, it can lead to symptoms such as:

– brain fog
– high/low blood pressure
– inability to handle stress
– fatigue
– muscle and joint pain
– digestive problems
– unable to sleep
– headaches
– depression
– anxiety
– inability to lose weight
– difficulty regulating body temperature

These are all symptoms experienced by a body that is being overly exposed to triggers of inflammation and leading to a continual decline in health. It is so important for the long-term health of our bodies to decrease the number of triggers to inflammation we expose ourselves to. Our “normal” lifestyle is full of the causes of inflammation. Investing in yourself and your health now will lead to big payoffs as you age. Think of the ability of your body to handle all the inflammation like a bucket. You keep filling the bucket with things that are causing inflammation and you feel fine… until the bucket overflows. We all have a an overflow point when our body can no longer handle all of the stress we are putting on it. It is much harder to fix and repair all the damage the overflow causes throughout the body than to make changes now to ensure the bucket doesn’t overflow and cause chronic illness.

I have learned so many valuable lessons in living a healthy lifestyle through my own healing journey I wish had been taught to me as preventative measures. Some of it seems so obvious now, and some of it I instinctively knew I should be doing, but ignored because I was so “busy” and “felt fine” so why make changes. Had I taken better care of myself it likely would have helped prevent my body from getting to a crashing point. I will walk you through the STAMP causes of inflammation on how you can tackle each one to reduce your exposure to inflammation triggers and improve your overall health.

(S): Get more sleep. I am not talking getting a solid 9 hours every night because that is pretty unachievable. Do focus on getting better sleep, and try for 6-7 hours. Get better sleep by having a relaxing bedtime routine that does not involve staring at your phone until the moment you close your eyes. Give your body some time to unwind by doing some light stretches, have a cup of herbal tea, read a book- or whatever works for you to start shutting down your brain for the night. Have a room with no distractions like TV or other light/noise to sleep in (I always liked the concept of the bedroom should be for sleep and sex only). Best sleep is said to be before midnight so try to get to bed around 10 and wake up earlier to get things done. Have a consistent sleep schedule if you can. It is better to sleep and wake at the same times throughout the week and weekend to keep your body in a good rhythm.

Now on to sugar. Seriously this stuff is addictive and unless it is a natural sugar like from fruit it is not providing you with any health benefit. Avoid it like the plague. You need to read food labels, they put sugar in everything. Sugar causes your body to have spikes and crashes in energy, which leaves you feeling awful and causes stress on your body and triggers an inflammatory response. I know it tastes amazing, but trust me on this, if you scale back the amount of processed sugar you take in, you will enjoy natural sugar and healthy food more. Dried fruit like dates and apricots are delicious and you will appreciate their sweetness so much more when you are not constantly intaking sugar. Sugar consumption is a huge piece of the American health crisis and you need to stop eating so much of it now to protect your health.

You need to move your body. I am not saying start your full marathon training today, but start moving your body every day to strengthen it. Sitting still and remaining sedentary all the time is not good for your muscles, including your heart. Go for a walk, play tag with your kids, lift some weights, jump rope, do some push-ups, stretch when you get up in the morning and before bed. Start moving your body every day to get your heart beating a little faster and prevent injury and decline in strength. It will get easier and improve your physical and mental health.

Stress is a real thing. Sometimes (if you are like me) you can create stress that is unnecessary, but even then it is still real and has real impacts on the health of your body. I am still always trying to retrain my thought process to one of less stress and anxiety. This is not easy, but it is working. I am a different person now than I was in college and through pharmacy school. I may have enjoyed the learning process more and not have wrecked my body had I been more able to process and handle stress. Things that have worked for me now to manage my stress are yoga, meditation, light jogging/walking, and listening to some self-help audiobooks (usually while walking or driving) teaching how to retrain your thoughts. The one that really helped me the most was The Confidence Gap by Russ Harris. It helps you understand fundamentally why all the negative thoughts develop from your brain and how to manage and deal with them. Find what works for you and start managing your stress. Stress can be good for the body in times of crisis (ex. injury, need to get out of a dangerous situation, need to help someone in trouble) but mostly our bodies do not need to be in a constant state of stress as this wears it down, leads to inflammation, and wreaks havoc on your overall health.

(T): The toxic burden on our bodies is an increasing problem. Chemical exposure is getting impossible to avoid even if you are very conscious about it, and most of us are not. Chemicals are used on our food supply, in our cleaning products, in our skincare, makeup, shampoos, in our environment. From the moment we wake up and get in the shower to the evening routine of washing our face we are exposing ourselves to various chemicals. All I can say is try to clean up your environment and lessen your chemical exposure. Use natural products (coconut oil makes for an amazing all over body moisturizer), find makeup that is mineral based and uses natural and organic materials in it, read the labels on your body wash and shampoo and find ones with words you can understand and read, buy “green” cleaning products, and try to buy organic food when you have access to it. You will greatly help your body have less inflammation and prevent your “stress” bucket from overflowing if you decrease your exposure to chemicals. I have a link on the website to a toxicity assessment you can complete and I will help you assess your possible toxicity burden. I am able to help guide you through a detox if necessary.

(A): Allergens are something most of us do not take very seriously. I know many people who are allergic to their pets but keep them anyway because they love them. Many people also stay in environments they know contain dust mites or mold they react to without making changes to improve their air quality or situation. The other allergen avenue most people do not even want to think about is food allergies. Antihistamine tablets do work to stop the symptoms you are experiencing to the allergen, but they are a band-aid and do not fix the reaction your body is having to the allergen which can cause inflammation in the body. The best way to manage the allergens is to try to reduce your exposure to them. This may mean some clean air machines throughout your home, dust mite mattress and pillow covers, extra cleaning, perhaps not owning a cat, and avoiding being outside during pollen season when the pollen count is at the peak. To determine if you are experiencing food allergies it is recommended that every person at least once complete a 4-week food elimination diet. This eliminates the most common allergic foods (corn, wheat, soy, dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts) from your diet for 4 weeks and then you gradually 1 food at a time test your body by eating it for a few days. If you feel no different (tired, headache, joint pain, brain fog, stomach issues) then that food is likely fine for you to keep eating. If you have a reaction to it though, you know it causes damage to your body when eating it and you should avoid it. This is tedious, and for sure a challenge to complete with our American Diet and lifestyle, but so worth it to feel good and not be exposing your body to food causing you damage.

(M): Microbes is the catch-all phrase for the bacteria and yeast that may be out of balance causing problems in your body. The microbiome of bacterial colonies present in our bodies is so important for overall health. The probiotic colonies in our gut help with proper digestion of food and play a large role in the function of our immune system. Signs that your bacteria are out of balance are bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation, depression, brain fog, and poor immune system. Yeast is also present normally in our body but can become out of balance and have overgrowth causing mouth, vaginal, and gut yeast infections. The way to keep the balance in the body of the good so they do not overgrow and become bad is limiting sugar we intake (the bad ones like to eat sugar and grow), ensure we replace the good colonies with probiotic containing food or supplements when taking an antibiotic, and make sure we eat a balanced diet full of fruit, veggies, and fiber to give the good bacteria the right nutrients to thrive and work properly. The other avenue to consider with microbes is an infection. Long-term chronic infections that go untreated can cause damage to your body in many ways, one being the inflammatory response your body generates trying to battle the infection. An important issue for medicine currently with chronic infection is Lyme Disease. It can go undetected for a long time and mimics many other conditions making it hard to diagnose (along with the inaccurate testing currently available). Lyme disease is present now in most areas of America but is endemic in the upper North East and Upper Midwest. If living in one of these areas and you have deteriorating health with symptoms such as joint pain, fatigue, brain fog, depression, rashes, and anxiety make sure to see a doctor who is educated in Lyme Disease to rule out that infection.

(P): The position of your body is very important when it comes to your overall health. When your muscles, bones, and joints are not in alignment it draws inflammation to that area in an attempt to fix the problem. This is exactly what you want with a sudden injury, but not daily because your neck or spine is being pulled out of place due to muscle tension or misalignment. Ways to make sure your body position is not causing you inflammation is to see a chiropractor, massage therapist, or physical therapist for the pain you are having in your body. They will help make sure your bones and muscles are where they need to be and adjust you or teach you exercises to increase the strength and flexibility where you need it. Do not just ignore pain or try to alleviate with pain medications, try to figure out why you have it and fix it. Yoga stretches and weight lifting and ways you can improve your strength and flexibility at home to prevent injuries and keep your body in proper alignment.

This has been a crash course on inflammation, what causes it, and what you can do about it. I am available to answer questions and provide guidance on improving your health anytime. Message me from the website- would love to help you with your health journey.

Your Health Matters

Tiffany Herring
PharmD

**THIS AUTHOR AND SITE INTENDS ONLY TO SHARE INFORMATION AND NOT TO DIAGNOSE OR TREAT DISEASE.

The concept of functional medicine is not a new-age revolution of medicine. It has been considered the best practice for achieving health and wellness for a very long time.

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food -Hippocrates

The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition. – Thomas Edison

Optimum nutrition is the medicine of tomorrow- Dr. Linus Pauling

Until about 3 months ago, I had never heard the term Functional Medicine. I am a doctor of pharmacy, my training has been on medications. I know when to use certain medications, I know how medications work in the body, and I know how medications work with another medication. In other words, I was trained in what a doctor will prescribe you when your body is not working right, is sick, is broken. I learned medicine the same way the medical schools train doctors. We learn about the body when it is healthy and functioning correctly. Then we are taught about each health condition that can happen to the body. We learn about how to deal with each symptom that may arise by using a medication. This is the current model of our health care system.

The problem is, can you really call that healthcare? A pharmaceutical medication can certainly help a symptom or problem by making it “go away”… but the problem isn’t really gone. For example, if you have chronic constipation and take a medication to regulate your bowel movements that will make you less constipated but it does not address the issue in your body that is causing you the symptom of constipation. Maybe it is that your diet is not providing enough fiber to create easy flow in the intestines. Maybe you do not have the right balance of probiotics to properly break down what you are eating. Maybe you are lactose intolerant and need to avoid dairy so your gut can function correctly. This is the thought process of functional medicine. It is the idea of getting to the root cause of why the body is not functioning. I was recently listening to a podcast on which the doctor speaking gave the greatest break down of the difference between traditional western medicine and functional medicine. She put it like this: As doctors, we are taught about the healthy body (anatomy) and the sick body (pathology) but not about how the body goes from healthy to sick and how to reverse that process so the body can return to health. Healing the body and returning it to a state of health is functional medicine.

Hearing this made me shout YES in my car. That is the kind of medicine I want to be helping people with. It just makes sense. Like an “aha” moment of clarity. It is the difference between “sick care” and “healthcare”. A pharmaceutical medication, of course, has its place in a journey back to health, it just shouldn’t be the stop where you get off the health train and remain at for your final destination. The body is providing you clues to what is going on, and the answer is not to just take a medication for the rest of your life. It is possible depending on the situation that you will have to take a medication to control a health condition long term, but if your body is broken you also have to fix it at the functional level. You need to figure out what is wrong and what your body needs to begin to heal itself. I do not want to see patients just putting band-aids on the issues of their health, I want to see them healing the wounds underneath. This idea makes me so excited. The idea that we can figure out what is wrong with our body and begin to actually fix it. It is empowering.

To heal the body and return it to the best level of function it can have takes more than nutritional supplements. It requires balancing supplements with pharmaceuticals and also lifestyle and diet changes. If you are ready to begin the journey toward your best health please contact me for guidance and support. It is important to make sure you have a health professional advising you on the proper nutritional supplements your individual body needs.

Your Health Matters

Tiffany Herring PharmD

 

So tired today. No, I am not sleepy, it is more like exhausted. The can’t get out of bed in the morning and catch my breath if climbing stairs tired. Also been feeling anxious and depressed when I really have no reason to be. Have you seen my phone? I just had it but can’t remember where I put it and I am late for an appointment I completely forgot about….

Any of this sound like you? I have been there.

I was fortunate enough to find the help of a practitioner who knew about Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome and wanted to pass on what I have learned to the next exhausted and sick person who has no idea how to feel better.

Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome occurs when the adrenal glands in your body are overworked and produce too much hormone either very quickly or are overworked for a long time and finally can no longer keep up with the stress on your body. The adrenal gland is not an often thought of part of the body, yet it plays a very important role in how the body functions and responds to stress. The adrenal glands are located right above your kidneys and are the key to how your body responds to stress during the day. When under stress, the adrenal glands produce a hormone called cortisol which allows you to adapt to the situation.

Cortisol is the hormone responsible for the “fight or flight” response you have likely heard of. A stressful situation causes your body to undergo changes to prepare it for action. Cortisol increases sugar released into the body to use as energy, enhances sugar use in the brain and increases the release of substances into the body to help in healing tissues and decreasing inflammation. Long-term emotional, physical, or mental stress can cause the adrenal glands to be in a continued state of producing cortisol. After a while, the adrenal gland will be unable to keep up with the demands of the stressed body and will get “tired” and not produce enough cortisol. The reason it is unable to produce enough cortisol is usually lacking enough vitamins within the body to continue hormone production. A body responding the best way to stress will be able to produce enough cortisol to respond to a stressful event, and then be able to turn off the response and return to a normal state.

Examples of stress on the body:

injury

surgery

infection

poor nutrition

emotional stress from work, relationships, situations

continued exposure to environmental issues such as allergens and chemicals

There is currently no medical lab test that can accurately detect adrenal fatigue. There is a condition called Addison’s disease which happens when the adrenal gland is almost non-functioning. With adrenal fatigue, the adrenal glands still work but are unable to keep up with the demands of a body under long-term stress. Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome is usually detected by knowing what the signs and symptoms are. Some providers will say Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome is not a true diagnosis or problem because it can not be evaluated or measured with a lab test. I can tell you from personal experience the symptoms are real and can be fixed with the proper nutritional supplements.

Signs of Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome can include:

energy levels following a pattern of swinging from low to high (very tired when waking, feel a boost of energy during the late morning, followed by a crash of energy levels mid-afternoon, increased levels again at 6 pm and crash again at 9 pm)

craving salty foods

mood swings

low sex drive

foggy brain/ trouble with memory

shortness of breath

depression/anxiety

unexplained hair loss

pain in the neck and upper back with no apparent cause

fat excess in the belly area

The adrenal glands produce cortisol through the process known as the adrenal cascade. All of the B-vitamins play a role in the production of hormones through the adrenal gland. Providing the body with the nutrients it needs to function properly will allow you to respond better to stress. The 8 B-vitamins are:

thiamine (B-1)
riboflavin (B-2)
niacin (B-3)
pantothenic acid (B-5)
pyridoxine (B-6)
biotin (B-7)
folic acid (B-9)
cyanocobalamin (B-12)

Other important vitamins involved in energy production in the body and important to supplement if experiencing Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome include:

Vitamin C
Magnesium
Zinc

There are many products I recommend to help your body return to a place of full function and health. The supplements I use are supplied by the NutriDyn company because they are so thoroughly tested for quality, safety, and backed up by research studies on how effective they are. I love the quality and how they are diligent with providing gluten and GMO-free supplements which is important to me. Here is a list of nutrient supplements I feel will best provide your fatigued body with what it needs to heal and feel its best with Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome.

Cortico-B₅B₆ (Vitamins C, B-5, B-6, Calcium, Magnesium, Citrus Bioflavonoids) Contains the vitamins most important for cortisol production

Adrenogen (Vitamins B-2,B-5, B-6, Raw Adrenal Concentrate, PABA- part of folic acid production) Contains an extract from cow adrenal glands which helps your body make more cortisol.

Adrenal Resilience  Blend of herbal extracts to support the process of hormone production by the adrenal gland and will help body to respond to stress

Multigenics Intensive Care  Multivitamin designed for best absorption by the body

Zinc Lozenge  I tried many different zinc supplements before I found this one. Zinc can cause nausea but this lozenge is very easy to stomach, tastes good, and provides enough zinc to boost your immune system.

NutriDyn Fruits and Greens  Daily drink with the antioxidant power of 20+ servings of fruits and vegetables- comes in 8 different flavors. Tastes amazing and fuels your body with what is missing from your diet (we are all lacking in this area, even with best intentions it is very difficult to achieve all the nutrients needed to function at our greatest potential).

UltraFlora Balance  Probiotic combination to provide digestive and immune health. When the body has been under stress it affects the entire system and our health begins in our gut. Supporting the body with a proper balance of probiotic bacteria will enhance our immune system and help the gut recover from the damage done by inflammation in the body caused by Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome.

You do not have to use every one of these products, but I do suggest at the very least you add into your health routine some fruits and greens drink, one of the options to provide your body with the necessary B-vitamins and a quality probiotic.

In addition to nutrient supplements, your body also needs some ways to decrease and manage the stress. I will not go into a lot of detail in this article but will touch on a couple of techniques I have found to be helpful. Most mornings I have a quick (5-10 minute) yoga routine to get my blood and energy moving and to stretch all my tight muscles. It does not have a be a 45-minute yoga session to improve flexibility and reduce chronic pain. Sometime soon I will post a video of the moves I do each morning. The other technique I recommend you add in to reduce stress is a form of meditation. You will have to experiment with different options and find the one that makes the most sense/ is most helpful for you. The meditation I have found easiest for me is color breathing. You can practice this anytime but it is especially helpful when feeling stressed or anxious. What you do is close your eyes and picture your favorite color is filling the space surrounding you. Take a deep breath and imagine you are breathing in that color and absorbing all the positive thoughts and feelings it gives you and breath back out white air. Continue to take deep breaths trying to spread the color into all parts of you and breathe out the white air since you absorbed all the color. Do this until you have calmed down or as long as you want to practice meditation. The purpose of meditation is to train your mind to be focused on one thought. This practice is referred to as mindfulness and helps to reduce the chaos of thoughts and stimulus impacting the body every day.

Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome can make it feel like the life has been sucked out of you. It is exhausting and makes getting through every day a struggle. We all experience stress each and every day to some extent. I remember feeling very disappointed in my body when learning that this was caused by stress, almost mad at myself that I was so unable to handle the stress in my life that my body broke down because of it. It is not your lack of being able to “deal with stress” that leads to adrenal fatigue though. It is just a body that has been wearing down and not provided the nutrients needed to build itself back up and keep going. I am still having to take supplements every day to keep my body going, but at least it is going now. I can get up, get through the day and have energy at the end of it for my family. Contact me with questions and I will try to guide you down the right path to heal your body and reclaim your health.

Your Health Matters

Tiffany Herring PharmD

**THIS AUTHOR AND SITE INTENDS ONLY TO SHARE INFORMATION AND NOT TO DIAGNOSE OR TREAT DISEASE.

 

Mail-order pharmacy. Sigh. This phrase instantly makes me annoyed. When I began practicing as a pharmacist, mail order pharmacy was not available. Now 8 years later, patients have the option of having their prescriptions mailed right to their house. Often this is the chosen route because of perceived convenience, but sometimes the insurance plan they have left them no choice. Preventing a patient from coverage at their local pharmacy is just plain wrong.

I do plenty of online shopping and appreciate the ease and rapidness of receiving what I ordered 2 days later. I live rather rural and have to drive a good distance for major shopping opportunities. Medicine is not the same as a cookbook or a new pair of shoes though. I do not need someone to explain my purchase of an object to me.

Medicine affects your entire body. It may have side effects that need to be explained. The directions may be confusing. The medicine may interact with other medications you are on. You may have concerns about the medicine your doctor is starting you on for the first time. As part of my job, I have to call mail order pharmacies on occasion. I wait on hold a long time. I get transferred to many people. Sometimes I get hung up on. It is not easy to talk to a pharmacist. When you do reach a pharmacist, they do not know you. They have never seen your face. Although they may perform their job well, they do not have a personal connection with you.

When you walk into my store, it is likely one of the staff knows your name. They may know your mom, or their kids go to school with your kid. They grew up in the same city as you. When a new prescription is given to you, a pharmacist, in person, explains it to you. You can call with questions and reach your pharmacist quickly. Your pharmacist cares about you and your health.

Mail-order pharmacies also have to deal with the mail. Your prescription may get lost in transit. Your prescription may have run out of refills delaying your delivery. You may run out of your medication and have to go without. I have helped many patients who use mail-order pharmacy with obtaining their medication when it does not arrive on time. This requires some effort on my part. I have to call the doctor, have them send to me a prescription for a short supply of medicine. Then I have to call the insurance and have them place an override allowing me to fill the prescription that the mail-order pharmacy was unable to achieve in a timely manner. I do this because it is important to me to ensure each patient has access to their medicine. Even when the mail-order pharmacy is at fault.

The pharmacist is the most accessible health care professional. We are available to answer any question from concerns about a medication, to recommendations on how to help a baby with colic. We will even try to coax your crying baby to smile while we talk with you. Most of us became a retail pharmacist because we wanted to help the community we serve improve their health. Mail order pharmacy is drawing people away from a valuable service. A retail pharmacist has more to offer than just filling your prescription.

The profession of pharmacy is continually growing and expanding. Your local pharmacy now likely offers many services aside from prescription filling. Many are free or billable to your insurance. Programs such as blood pressure checks, medication therapy appointments, and vaccinations are just a few of the options available at many retail pharmacies now. I love my job and having a personal connection with as many patients as I can. I feel it helps me understand the entire picture of their health and needs as it relates to their medicine. Choose local pharmacies, they will provide you with the best care. Your health is more important than convenience.

Take Care

Tiffany Herring PharmD

 

Probiotics seem to be gaining in popularity over the last few years. When I began practicing as a pharmacist 8 years ago, I hardly ever answered questions from patients related to probiotics. Now it seems daily I will give a recommendation on which probiotic to use, when to take it, and why take one at all.

Lets start with why probiotics are important. Probiotics are the good guys in your gut, the bacteria who aid in the fight against bad bacteria entering the body. The actual definition of probiotic is: Live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, provide a health benefit to the host. Some names for these good guys are:

• Lactobacillus
• Bifidobacterium
• Bacillus species
• Saccharomyces boulardii.

Your gut is the place where nutrients are absorbed and is the first place where bad bacteria will run into the immune system. It is here that initial security forces are in place, to defend the body against the bad coming in and to heal any of the damages of infection and inflammation caused during battle. My husband is in the army and probiotics remind me of soldiers, fighting and fixing at the same time.

The concept of a large role of the immune system being centered in the gut was new to me. As a pharmacist, I understood the good bacteria are important to protect from having too much bad bacteria. I also knew to counsel patients on taking a probiotic while on an antibiotic to keep the good guys going… but didn’t realize just how important the gut was to health. Reading that 70% of the immune system lives in the gut was surprising to me.

A quick run down of the immune system….

The immune system is made up of 2 parts: the innate immune system and the adaptive immune system. The innate immune system consists of cells with antennae like structures to feel for any bad guys entering your body. These cells live on the surface of the intestine and send messages up the chain of command to the adaptive immune system when an enemy is present. The adaptive immune system cells adapt to the ever-changing battle field and will send into action the immune cells responsible for making the antibodies to kill the enemy. These immune cells ( T cells and B cells ) are located within the intestine lining.

This system functions like a perfect machine when everything is in order, but if the system malfunctions in any way it causes chaos for the entire body. 

When all is well in the gut, there is a balance of bacteria that keeps the immune cells functioning as designed. The good bacteria help the immune cells to learn good from bad, self from enemy. They also help the body produce antibodies to respond to the enemy.

So how does the balance become undone?

We have all heard it is good for children to get dirty (or eat dirt if it is my kid…). There is truth in this statement, when not exposed to germs and bad bacteria, the body has no chance to learn that some are good and will instead attack all that is bacteria. When prevented too much from having germs enter the body, the good guys and the immune system may not achieve a strong working relationship to battle the bad bacteria together. In other words, do not be overly obsessive with hand sanitizer or having a disinfected and dirt free home. 

Antibiotic use will put a patient at risk for unbalance since the good bacteria will get killed in the cross fire of attacking the bad bacteria.

A diet lacking in fermented foods (think sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha, yogurt) and fiber from grains, fruits and vegetables can lead to a lack of good bacteria colony in you gut.

So, how do you know if a probiotic is something your body needs? There are many signs given by the body when the good to bad bacteria balance is not right. When the gut is not happy, you usually can feel it:

Gas

Bloating

Constipation

Diarrhea

Cramping

Indigestion/acid reflux

Probiotics are also taken to prevent issues when taking an antibiotic. When used for this purpose, it is important to remember to take the probiotic either 1 hour before or 2 hours after antibiotic. This allows time for probiotic to colonize before antibiotic swoops in and tries to kill them all again.

While it is possible for a probiotic product to lead to an infection of bacteria in a bad way through your system, the bacteria used are already commonly found in the gut of humans. Patients with very low immune system function may want to use caution if starting a probiotic.

Now, how do you go about choosing the best probiotic? I prefer to recommend products that contain more than 1 type of probiotic. The greater the amount and diversity of good bacteria the more balanced and prepared the gut will be going forward against bad bacteria. I personally rely on probiotics daily because of antibiotic use, and have a few different options in my home to switch up the good bacteria and maintain a balance of colony types in my gut. I also enjoy drinking kombucha tea. (If you have not tried it, it comes in a large variety of flavors. Some will have a vinegar taste to them, but many do not. I have even had orange soda flavored kombucha tea!) 

Your Health Matters

Tiffany Herring PharmD

**THIS AUTHOR AND SITE INTENDS ONLY TO SHARE INFORMATION AND NOT TO DIAGNOSE OR TREAT DISEASE.

  

Hello and welcome to The Best Prescription. My name is Tiffany and I have been a practicing pharmacist in the beautiful state of Wisconsin for 8 years. I am one of the lucky pharmacists that has the pleasure of working in a small community at an independent and family owned pharmacy. I feel my calling is to assist others with improving their health and wellbeing. My expertise is in prescription medications, but to achieve the best possible health it takes more than what a doctor will write a prescription for.

I have personal experience with the challenges of healing from a chronic illness, and it has forever altered my ideas on health and happiness. The goal of this blog is to provide direction and information to help you gain the best health possible. Whether you take prescriptions, are more naturalistic or somewhere in between this will be a place to come and find the resources you need to achieve your personal health goals.