Category: Natural Remedies

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Sleeping Better

How to Get More & Better Sleep

We’ve all had nights, here and there, where no matter what we do we cannot get to sleep. It’s normal. What is not normal is struggling to get to sleep every night, using drugs or alcohol to try to get to sleep, or hoping the TV will help you fall asleep in the wee hours of the morning.

These are the indications of insomnia, which is a treatable disorder or dysfunction. We know that insomnia is the inability to sleep, yet it’s much more than that. It is considered habitual sleeplessness, meaning more than two nights without good sleep. Acute insomnia is associated with a few weeks of not sleeping, typically associated with a traumatic or highly stressful event. Chronic insomnia is the habitual lack of sleep for months or years.

Caffeine & Insomnia

Caffeine is a stimulant, which means it stimulates the nervous systems, the metabolism, as well as mental function. It takes twelve, yes that’s 12, hours for your body to process the caffeine you consume. For example – you consume 1 cup of coffee (average of 95mg of caffeine) at 8am, by 8pm half of that caffeine (47.5mg) is still there in your system stimulating function. Well no wonder you can’t get to sleep.

Certain medications, like antidepressants, water pills (diuretics), high blood pressure and high cholesterol medications, and allergy medicines have a stimulating effect on the body much like caffeine and can keep you up. They also interfere with normal hormone production which can throw the whole system and all of its cycles out of balance. If you suspect your medications talk with your doctor about trying supplements or herbal remedies to help or even changing medications to help.

Anxiety & Insomnia

Most adults have had some trouble sleeping because they feel worried or nervous, but for some it’s a pattern that interferes with sleep on a regular basis. When this happens for many nights (or many months), you might start to feel anxiousness, dread, or panic at just the prospect of not sleeping. This is how anxiety and insomnia can feed each other and become a cycle that should be interrupted through treatment. There are cognitive and mind-body techniques that help people with anxiety settle into sleep, and overall healthy sleep practices that can improve sleep for many people with anxiety and insomnia. Anxiety symptoms that can lead to insomnia include:

  • Tension
  • Getting caught up in thoughts about past events
  • Excessive worrying about future events
  • Feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities
  • A general feeling of being revved up or overstimulated

Insomnia & Lifestyle

Insomnia can be triggered or perpetuated by your behaviors and sleep patterns. Unhealthy lifestyles and sleep habits can create insomnia on their own (without any underlying psychiatric or medical problem), or they can make insomnia caused by another problem worse. Examples of how specific lifestyles and sleep habits can lead to insomnia are:

  1. You work at home in the evenings. This can make it hard to unwind, and it can also make you feel preoccupied when it comes time to sleep. The light from your computer could also make your brain more alert.
  2. You take naps (even if they are short) in the afternoon. Short naps can be helpful for some people, but for others they make it difficult to fall asleep at night.
  3. You sometimes sleep in later to make up for lost sleep. This can confuse your body’s clock and make it difficult to fall asleep again the following night.
  4. You are a shift worker (meaning that you work irregular hours). Non-traditional hours can confuse your body’s clock, especially if you are trying to sleep during the day, or if your schedule changes periodically.
  5. You regularly use stimulants to wake up and get through your day.

Mother Jai’s Remedies

Chamomile Tea – chamomile tea soothing to the nervous system and helps you feel relaxed and ready to sleep. Use at least 1hour before bed for best results.

Relax & Sleep Tea – a blend of chamomile, lavender, and hops. Deliciously calming and soothing.

Relax & Sleep Oil– organic sunflower oil with blue chamomile, Valerian, and roman chamomile essential oils. Apply to chest or feet to calm the body and mind for a deep, restful sleep.

Herbal Tea Blend - 4oz Bag

Herbal Tea Blend – 4oz Bag

Herbal remedies to use instead of over-the-counter chemicals.

$12.00
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Need More Sleep?

We all know sleep is an absolute necessity for living, not just feeling well. So, to help you not only get more sleep, but also better sleep, I’ve put together multiple techniques that are known to induce relaxation in the body and practices that help quiet the mind. With these easy techniques, you’ll be sleeping hard and dreaming strong in no time, just try it.

The average person needs 7 hours of sleep every night, but because we are all so different the range is between 5 and 10 hours. So, a big part of getting better sleep is to understand yourself. This is done by taking time to understand your sleeping habits. Before you attempt any changes take time to observe your habits, taking notes if need be, to get an idea of what you are doing before bed and how well you are sleeping.

A sleep journal can be just as important as a dream journal in helping you to understand yourself. I suggest taking it with you to bed so you can easily write in it as you go to bed and wake in the morning. List your activities that are common for you before bed and list all of the activities you do in your bed. After about a week of this, go back through your journal and review what you have written. You can get an idea of what you need to work with by answering these simple questions:

  • What are the patterns or habits that you notice?
  • Why is your bed being used for activities besides sleeping and sex?
  • What can you change to improve your bedtime habits?
  • How many hours are you sleeping most nights?
  • Are you sleeping hard and remember dreaming?

Now that you’ve spent some time getting to know yourself better and have developed an understanding of your habits, now you can change them.

Some Supplements Can Help Bring Sleep

  1. Melatonin is a hormone that helps regulate the sleep/wake cycle, an internal pacemaker that controls the timing and our drive for sleep. It causes drowsiness, lowers body temperature, and puts the body into sleep mode.
  2. Warm milk. You can put a tasty spin on your grandmother’s natural insomnia remedy by sipping warm milk before bed. Almond milk is an excellent source of calcium, which helps the brain make melatonin.
  3. Sleepy-time snacks. The best sleep-inducing foods include a combination of protein and carbohydrates, a light snack of half a banana with a tablespoon of peanut butter, or a whole wheat cracker with some cheese. Eat one of these snacks about 30 minutes before hitting the hay.
  4. Magnesium apparently plays a key role with sleep. Research has shown that even a marginal lack of it can prevent the brain from settling down at night. Good sources include green leafy vegetables, wheat germ, pumpkin seeds, and almonds.
  5. Valerian root. This medicinal herb has been used to treat sleep problems since ancient times. Research on the effectiveness of valerian for insomnia is mixed. It can take a few weeks for it to take effect. Talk to your doctor before taking valerian and follow label directions.
  6. Chamomile flowers. When consumed in a tea or light infusion they are a gentle sedative with strong calming, pain relief, and anti-inflammatory properties. Stronger dilutions have stronger and longer lasting effects.
  7. Lavender flowers. As a tea, it is a light sedative for those with minor stress interfering with sleep.
  8. Kava Kava root. Caution must be used, in large doses and with continued use Kava can cause liver failure. In small amounts with foods and other supplements it can help reduce anxiety and its associated insomnia.
  9. 5-HTP is a derivative of the amino acid tryptophan. It is used to boost serotonin in the body. 5-HTP is also the precursor of melatonin, which regulates sleep cycles.
  10. Eleuthero (Siberian) ginseng. Studies suggest that his herb (Eleutherococcus senticosus) can help enhance mental activity as well as physical endurance.
  11. Coenzyme Q10. This vital nutrient is involved in cellular energy production throughout the body.
  12. Ashwagandha. This Ayurvedic herb is prized for its ability to help the body deal with stress.
  13. Cordyceps. This traditional Chinese medicinal mushroom may help fight fatigue and boost energy levels.

Essential Oils to Help You Sleep

Lavender: Most people are aware that lavender is somehow related to sleep, but what most people don’t know is that this has been studied extensively and its effectiveness is more than just an Old Wives Tale.

Vetiver: distilled from the roots of the plant. It’s rich and earthy smelling, and helps the brain “shut-off” for the night. Try mixing it with “lighter” oil, such as lavender or roman chamomile.

Roman Chamomile: known for is calming, soothing, and relaxing properties. Simply smelling the oil has a calming effect, which can help you feel relaxed and more prepared for sleep.

German (Blue) Chamomile: is a very strong sedative, almost narcotic when undiluted. This can be diffused into the air or sprayed on to bedding before bed.

Bergamot: citrus fruit and the oil is cold-pressed from the rind or peel. It’s bright, yet calming at the same time.

Marjoram: wonderful for soothing muscles and joints, but it also excels in creating peaceful sleep.

Relaxing Techniques for Better Sleep

Before bed is a great way to wind down, calm the mind, and prepare for sleep.

  1. Deep breathing. Close your eyes, and try taking deep, slow breaths, making each breath even deeper than the last.
  2. Progressive muscle relaxation. Starting with your toes, tense all the muscles as tightly as you can, then completely relax. Work your way up from your feet to the top of your head.
  3. Visualizing a peaceful, restful place. Close your eyes and imagine a place or activity that is calming and peaceful for you. Concentrate on how relaxed this place or activity makes you feel.
  4. Rubbing or massaging the soles of your feet. Using fingertips and thumbs, rub lotion into the bottom of your feet. Using as much pressure as is comfortable and possible. Massaging in circles in the bottom of the foot releases large amounts of tension. If you cannot reach with your hands, use a broom handle laid across in front of you and rub the bottoms of your feet, with/without lotion or socks, on the handle, gently rolling it under your foot back and forth.
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Eating Right, Not Dieting

Consider the prospect of never having to diet again. Simply by eating nutritious foods and avoiding counting calories. Consider some nutrition facts below.

Nutrition

The process of breaking down food and substances taken in by the mouth to use for energy in the body. Now more focused on the steps of biochemical sequences through which substances inside us and other living organisms are transformed from one form to another – metabolism and metabolic pathways.  Nutrition also focuses on how diseases, conditions and problems can be prevented or lessened with a healthy diet. In addition, nutrition involves identifying how certain diseases, conditions or problems may be caused by dietary factors, such as poor diet (malnutrition), food allergies, metabolic diseases, etc.  The human body consists of elements and compounds (nutrients) ingested, digested, absorbed, and circulated through the bloodstream to feed the cells of the body.

Nutrients

There are six major classes of nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, minerals, protein, vitamins, and water. These nutrient classes can be categorized as either macro-nutrients (needed in relatively large amounts) or micronutrients (needed in smaller quantities).

  1. The macronutrients include carbohydrates (including fiber), fats, protein, and water. The micronutrients are minerals and vitamins. The macronutrients (excluding fiber and water) provide structural material (amino acids from which proteins are built, and lipids from which cell membranes and some signaling molecules are built) and energy. Some of the structural material can be used to generate energy internally, and in either case it is measured in Joules or kilocalories.
  2. Other micronutrients include antioxidants and phytochemicals, which are said to influence (or protect) some body systems.

Nutrient Dense Foods

These are fresh, unprocessed foods that were grown or raised in the best, most natural conditions.  They possess and provide the most nutrients per ounce of food; the nutrients are combined within in a way to promote proper utilization within the human body.  In other words, they contain a variety of nutrients in specific combinations necessary for proper digestion, absorption, and use within the body.  When foods are processed, their molecular structure is broken down and certain components are lost, especially delicate vitamins and minerals, thus making processed foods empty calories that have little nutritional value. 

Diet and Physical Health

A nutritious diet is essential to promote and maintain overall physical health for any age.  The body needs nutrients in their naturally occurring forms to function and heal appropriately.  A diet full of nutrient dense foods provides the most effective nutrient combinations for promoting optimal physical health and helping the body to maintain its strength and integrity, defeat infection, and deter cancer development.  The best diet for health is one composed of wholesome and fresh foods that are prepared by hand and not processed for ease of consumption.  Avoiding white flour and high fructose corn syrup as much as possible can help to greatly decrease inflammation and promote joint health. 

Guidelines for Healthy Eating:

  • Aiming for regular, balanced meals and snacks, every day.
  • Hitting most of the major food groups each day to meet your needs for growth and health. 
  • Balancing nutrition-rich foods with small to moderate amounts of other foods like sweets or fast foods. 
  • Eating when hungry and stopping when full.
  • Learning about nutrition, but keeping your food as just one important part of your life, not obsessing over what you eat. 

Healthy eating habits are essential to maintaining a healthy weight and a person’s weight is the result of several factors:

  • How much and what kinds of foods you eat.
  • Your physiologic and genetic make-up.
  • Your age and health status.
  • Whether your lifestyle includes regular physical activity.
  • Whether you use food to respond to stress and other situations in your life.

Reading Labels

A big part of healthy eating is understanding what is in the packaged foods you’re buying.  Understanding labels and product contents is very useful for planning a healthy menu.  Reading product labels is a simple habit to establish that can ensure you are purchasing the least processed foods containing the least amount of chemical additives possible.  If you cannot pronounce what is on the label then you should not be eating it. 

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Basics of Herbal Remedies

These are supplements or products made from whole plants or plant extracts that are prepared and consumed in different ways for the purpose of nourishment, prevention, and healing.

Common Types of Herbal Remedies

Spice: ground dried plant materials used in cooking, added to foods for additional flavoring and nourishment

Tea: dried plant materials steeped in boiled water to extract nutrients and drunk, washed with, or used in a poultice on the skin.

Decoction: dried plant materials are boiled for a longer period to extract denser chemcial compounds for stronger healing medicines.

Infusion: dried plant material is soaked in a liquid base in a warm place to gently extract nutrients for use on the skin or as supplement. Ex – honey or oil.

Salve: liquid plant extracts and animal fats combined for external injury and wound healing.

Balm: dense moisturizing blend of waxes, butters, and/or oils; heals cracked skin, dermatitis, psoriasis, eczema, etc.

Syrup: making a decoction of plant materials and then cooking it with a sweet base like maple syrup or honey until thick. Great for everyday remedies like for allergies or colds.

Standardized Extracts: encapsulated concentrated herbs, not always what they say, labeling often misleading

photo of jar near cinnamon sticks

Safely Healing Herbs & Spices

Gain benefits from eating, drinking, or soaking in any of these herbs.

Basil leaf: nourishing, balancing, clearing, toning

Black Pepper: anti-inflammatory, healing, warming, calming, pain relieving

Calendula flower: common marigold; anti-inflammatory, healing to mouth and digestive tract, soothing to rashes and irritation

Catnip leaf: antianxiety, calming, relaxing, sedative, soothing

Chamomile flowers: anti-inflammatory, sedative, relaxing, pain relieving

Cinnamon bark: anti-inflammatory, detoxifying, sugar balancing, antioxidant

Dandelion Root & Leaf: nourishing to kidneys and liver, diuretic and water balancing, highly alkaline and reduces acidity

Echinacea root: antiviral, immune boosting, colds and flu, repiratory infections; should not be taken for more than 2 weeks in a row.

Eucalyptus leaf: mucolytic, clearing, opening, healing, soothing, pain relieving, calms coughs and muscle spasms

Fennel seed: digestive, great for gas, nausea, upset stomach, heartburn

Ginger root: helps relieve every digestive issue, alleviates vertigo and motion sickness, and calms the nervous system.

Jasmine flowers: antidepressant,nourishing, calming, sedative, healing, balancing, regulating

Lavender flowers: calming, relaxing, balancing, soothing, and healing

Licorice root: digestive, calming, sweet, hormone balancing, sugar balancing

Marjoram leaf: mucolytic, cough suppressant, fights cold and flu, relaxing

Nettles leaf: antihistamine, clearing, balancing, detoxifying, nourishing

Oregano: antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, healing

Passionflower herb: calming, sedative, hormone balancing, aphrodisiac, nourishing, regulating of cycles

Peppermint leaf: digestive regulator, reduces heartburn, balances peristalsis, stimulating to system

Rose petals: nourishing, calming, soothing, healing, balancing, uplifting

Rose Hips (fruit): full of Vit C, more than oranges, nourishing and healing

Rosemary leaf: stimulating, healing, and regulating to therespiratory and digestive tracts.

Sage leaf: cough suppressant, antispasmodic, fights cold and flu

Thyme: anti-inflammatory, hormone balancer, antibiotic

Turmeric: anti-inflammatory, pain relief, antioxidant, healing, balancing, tonic

Yarrow flower & leaf: anti-inflammatory, headache relief, calming, clearing, detoxifying

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Vitamins & Minerals

Vitamins and Minerals

These are considered essential nutrients—because acting in concert, they perform hundreds of roles in the body. They help shore up bones, heal wounds, and bolster your immune system. They also convert food into energy and repair cellular damage.

  • There is a fine line between getting enough of these nutrients and getting too much.
  • Eating a healthy diet remains the best way to get the vitamins and minerals you need.
  • Although they are all considered micronutrients, vitamins and minerals differ in basic ways. Vitamins are organic and can be broken down by heat, air, or acid. Minerals are inorganic and hold on to their chemical structure.
  • Minerals in soil and water easily find their way into your body through the plants, fish, animals, and fluids you consume.
  • Vitamins from food and other sources are harder to get into your body because cooking, storage, and simple exposure to air can inactivate these fragile compounds.
  • Vitamin D enables your body to pluck calcium from food sources passing through your digestive tract rather than harvesting it from your bones. Vitamin C helps you absorb iron.
  • The interplay of micronutrients isn’t always cooperative; vitamin C blocks your body’s ability to assimilate the essential mineral copper and even a minor overload of manganese can worsen iron deficiency.

Water-Soluble Vitamins

These are packed into the watery portions of the foods you eat. They are absorbed directly into the bloodstream as food is broken down during digestion or as a supplement dissolves. Your kidneys continuously regulate levels of water-soluble vitamins; excess goes out in urine.

  • B vitamins: Biotin (vitamin B7), Folic acid (folate, vitamin B9), Niacin (vitamin B3), Pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), Riboflavin (vitamin B2), Thiamin (vitamin B1), Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12
  • Vitamin C

Here are some examples of how different vitamins help you maintain health: Generally, water-soluble vitamins should be replenished every few days.

  • Release energy. Several B vitamins are key components that help release energy from food.
  • Produce energy. Thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, and biotin for energy production.
  • Build proteins and cells. B6, B12, and folic acid metabolize amino acids; help cells multiply.
  • Make collagen. One of many roles played by vitamin C is to help make collagen, which knits together wounds, supports blood vessel walls, and forms a base for teeth and bones.
  • Can stay in the body for long periods of time; several years’ supply of vitamin B12 in your liver; folic acid and vitamin C stores can last more than a couple of days.
  • Very high doses of B6—many times the recommended amount of 1.3 milligrams (mg) per day for adults—can damage nerves, causing numbness and muscle weakness.

Fat-soluble vitamins

These gain entry to the blood via lymph channels in the intestinal wall and travel through the body only under escort by proteins that act as carriers. These include: Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E and Vitamin K. Together this vitamin quartet helps keep your eyes, skin, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and nervous system in good repair. Here are some of the other essential roles these vitamins play:

  • Build bones. Bone formation is impossible without vitamins A, D, and K.
  • Protect vision. Vitamin A also helps keep cells healthy and protects vision.
  • Interact favorably. Without vitamin E = difficult to absorb/store vitamin A.
  • Protect the body. Vitamin E also acts as an antioxidant.
  • Fat-soluble vitamins are stored in your body for long periods; toxic levels can build up most likely when taking supplements, rare to get too much of a vitamin just from food.

Major minerals

These are no more important to your health than the trace minerals; they’re just present in your body in greater amounts. Travel through the body in various ways. Potassium, for example, is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, where it circulates freely and is excreted by the kidneys, much like a water-soluble vitamin. Calcium is more like a fat-soluble vitamin because it requires a carrier for absorption and transport. Major minerals include: Calcium, Chloride, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sodium and Sulfur.

One of the key tasks of major minerals is to maintain the proper balance of water in the body. Sodium, chloride, and potassium take the lead in doing this. Three other major minerals—calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium—are important for healthy bones. Sulfur helps stabilize protein structures, including some of those that make up hair, skin, and nails. Having too much of one major mineral can result in a deficiency of another. Here are two examples:

  • Salt overload: Calcium binds with excess sodium in the body and is excreted when the body senses that sodium levels must be lowered: too much sodium through table salt or processed foods means losing needed calcium as your body rids itself of the surplus sodium.
  • Excess phosphorus: can hamper your ability to absorb magnesium.

Trace minerals

Their contributions are just as essential as those of major minerals, they include: Chromium, Copper, Fluoride, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Selenium and Zinc. Trace minerals carry out a diverse set of tasks. Here are a few examples:

  • Iron is best known for ferrying oxygen throughout the body.
  • Fluoride strengthens bones and wards off tooth decay.
  • Zinc helps blood clot, is essential for taste and smell, and bolsters the immune response.
  • Copper helps form several enzymes; assists with iron metabolism and the creation of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood.

Too much of one can cause or contribute to a deficiency of another. Here are some examples:

  • A minor overload of manganese can exacerbate iron deficiency.
  • Too little iodine thyroid hormone production slows, causing sluggishness and weight gain as well as other health concerns. The problem worsens if the body also has too little selenium.

The difference between “just enough” and “too much” of the trace minerals is often tiny. Generally, food is a safe source of trace minerals, but if you take supplements, it’s important to make sure you’re not exceeding safe levels.

Antioxidant

A term for any compound that can counteract unstable molecules such as free radicals that damage DNA, cell membranes, and other parts of cells. Your body cells naturally produce plenty of antioxidants to put on patrol. The foods you eat—and, perhaps, some of the supplements you take—are another source of antioxidant compounds. Carotenoids (such as lycopene in tomatoes and lutein in kale) and flavonoids (such as anthocyanins in blueberries, quercetin in apples and onions, and catechins in green tea) are antioxidants. The vitamins C and E and the mineral selenium also have antioxidant properties. Antioxidants are able to neutralize marauders such as free radicals by giving up some of their own electrons.

Free radicals

Are a natural byproduct of energy metabolism and are also generated by ultraviolet rays, tobacco smoke, and air pollution. Free radicals have a well-deserved reputation for causing cellular damage. When immune system cells muster to fight intruders, the oxygen they use spins off an army of free radicals that destroys viruses, bacteria, and damaged body cells in an oxidative burst. Vitamin C can then disarm the free radicals.

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