LET’S “TALK” ABOUT

BEAUTY!
3 EXPERT TALK TRANSCRIPTS
from HEALTHMEANS
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Which Foods Sap (or
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Sherry Strong with Maria Claps,
CHHC, FDN-P
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Sleep and Skin
Trevor Cates, ND with
Michael Breus, PhD
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Skincare with Ayurveda
Cate Stillman with Pratima Raichur
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Sherry: Hello, I’m Sherry Strong,
and welcome to the Sweet Freedom
Summit, which is dedicating to help
end sugar addiction for good. And
today, the expert I’m speaking to
today to help you in your journey
for ending sugar addiction
for good is Maria Claps. And she’s
a certified health coach. She’s a
mother of four grown children and
a women’s healthy aging advocate,
which I absolutely love. I’m a pro-
aging girl myself.
So after receiving substandard care
in New York City, reenrolled in the
Institute for Integrative Nutrition,
and pursued a solution for her
perimenopausal symptoms that
began when she turned 40. She
was inspired by her training at IIN,
and she started to pursue three
additional hormone- centered
training, so Dr. Sara Gottfried’s
training, Functional Diagnostic
Nutrition program, and the U.K.-
based 3rd Age Woman Certification
program with Burrell Education.
And more recently, Maria has
launched an 8-week online program
called Balance Your Hormones,
Love Your Life to educate woman
on hormone health and DUTCH lab
testing. She’s got a dash of sass and
fun. And what she helps is women
in their 40s and 50s who feel like
they’re not getting the support they
need from the medical community,
she helps them benefit from having
a supportive group setting, as well
Which Foods Sap (or Support)
Your Beauty?
Sherry Strong with Maria Claps, CHHC, FDN-P
Click here to watch this interview!
The purpose of this presentation is to convey information. It is not intended to
diagnose, treat, or cure your condition or to be a substitute for advice from your
physician or other healthcare professional.
as her own coaching.
When she’s not facilitating her
online community, she keeps
current in her knowledge by
attending functional health
seminars, and enjoys reading,
recipe creation, and finding new
things to eat at the farmer’s market,
a passion that we both share. And
so thank you so much, Maria, for
joining us on the Sweet Freedom
Summit. I’m grateful to have you
here.
Maria: Thank you. I’m so excited to
be here.
Sherry: Well, although I talked
a bit about your journey in the
introduction, I would love you to
just tell us in your own words, what
happened to you that really led you
to the passion of how you’re helping
women now?
Maria: Oh, sure. Okay. So when I
turned 40, I hit the perimenopause
wall. I didn’t know what it was at
the time. But I knew something
wasn’t quite right. So I decided to
consult with a holistically-minded
medical doctor in New York City,
because I said, “Well, I’ve been kind
of holistically-minded my whole life
and into nutrition and wellness.”
I wasn’t going to go to the corner
GP because I knew that I was
probably just going to get offered
an antidepressant or maybe an
antianxiety. And so I went into New
York City. And the visit was just shy
of what I would call an epic fail. The
only reason I’m not calling it an epic
fail was because the visit motivated
me to seek answers for myself.
The doctor wanted to give
me estrogen, progesterone,
testosterone, Boniva. I wasn’t
even in menopause yet. I certainly
wasn’t. Massive doses, granted it
was only for six weeks, but 50,000
IUs of vitamin D, which vitamin
D in pill form, it’s very debatable.
There are experts that say it’s good.
Some experts say it’s not good. It
didn’t resonate with me at all, his
methodology.
So I said, “There has to be a better
way. There absolutely has to.” So I
knew to be questioning and just to
have that seeker’s mind. And that’s
when I enrolled in the Institute for
Integrative Nutrition. And before
the ink was dry on that certificate,
I studied with Sara Gottfried. And
then before the ink was dry on that,
I enrolled in functional diagnostic
nutrition. And I found answers.
And I can’t say that everything has
been worked out and my health
is perfect. Actually, if you do find
anyone who says that, they’re
probably lying. But I did find a lot of
answers. A lot of things resonated
and made sense. And yeah, that’s
pretty much what I do now. I help
women that find themselves in a
similar situation.
Sherry: Great! Can you backtrack
a little in your story and help
listeners? In the respect of the
typical diagnosis, it’s so normal for
people to be prescribed a whole
range of hormones. And many
of them, if not all of them are
synthetic,
that kind of thing. Can you give
us a little insight from a holistic
viewpoint of the dangers of that or
the inefficiencies, at the very least?
Maria: Oh, absolutely! Well. Okay.
So it’s interesting when you say
that women will go and they’ll
get some kind of a prescription,
unfortunately, I think that we’ve
been conditioned to want a remedy.
And that remedy is usually in the
form of a drug. Or if it’s not a drug,
then it’s a supplement, maybe a
healthy supplement.
And again, I am not against
supplements at all. I think they play
a role. But when we just use them
to treat our symptoms, but we don’t
work on finding the root cause,
that just becomes a form of green
allopathy. And allopathy being just
like the…I’m going to let you define
that one better because I think
you’re going to do a better job of
that. So allopathy is…
Sherry: Well, I just refer to that as
the traditional route, where you’re
treating the symptom, rather than
shifting the behavior that causes
the symptom.
Maria: Right. And I don’t really
think, to me there’s nothing
inherently wrong with treating
symptoms. I don’t believe
anyone should have to suffer.
So sometimes we need to treat
symptoms so that we have the
energy, the motivation, maybe
just the alleviation of pain and
suffering, so that we can continue
to work in a deeper way on our
health. So the average woman at
around age 40 is probably starting
to go into perimenopause. And for
many women, this shows up as
weight issues. For me, it wasn’t an
issue with weight. For me, it was
insomnia, which was really crushing
and debilitating.
So let me just go back to the
average woman, typically is a weight
issue, because her hormones are
fluctuating and her body’s changing
so goes to the doctor. And the
doctor says, “Well, maybe like let’s
eat less and exercise more.” Not
necessarily bad advice, but that’s
not the full picture of what’s going
on. And it’s not just about eating
less and exercising more. It’s really
stopping and doing a whole life
evaluation. “How do you want to
live? What’s important to you?” Yes,
maybe you do. I actually turned to
my husband the other day in the
car, and I said, “Honey, do you know
that advice, that standard advice
that’s really not very good, “Eat less
and exercise more?” I told him, I
said, “I think I need to do that.” So
that’s not necessarily bad advice. It
just doesn’t encompass the whole
woman.
Okay, so for myself, it wasn’t
weight. It was insomnia. So I was a
whole bunch of hormones, which
I probably did for about six weeks
before I completely lost my patience
with that methodology of treating
the symptoms. It requires a lot
of tweaking. And I was also given
some supplements, which I did for
a short time. And I was also offered
an antianxiety medicine, Klonopin.
Clonazepam is the generic because
it can help with sleep. I ended up
getting hooked on that for about six
years, really not good. So thankfully,
I’m off, and sleeping better, not
perfect, but better. And that’s the
benzodiazepine. That can be very
dangerous. There are studies
showing the dangers of benzos.
They’re a controlled substance. So
these are the types of things, these
are the types of remedies that
women are getting.
I said I was offered, at 40 years old,
I was offered Boniva, which you
can have that necrosis of the jaw
and you can have spontaneous
fractures. I wasn’t told, “Well, you
know, let’s up your intake of kale
and broccoli and sesame seeds and,
if your bladder is sound, do some
exercises that can help stimulate
the osteo…” It’s the osteoclasts.
No, it’s the osteoblast. I always get
that mixed up—blast and clast. The
osteoblast, the cells that help to
build bone. I wasn’t told any of that.
I was just told to take Boniva. And
mind you, this was from a holistic,
an integrative health center in New
York City. So it was like I said, it was
an epic fail, except for the fact that
it motivated me to seek the answers
I needed.
Sherry: Fantastic! There’s two
things that came up for me when
you were talking. One was the
whole thing about drugs to help
people sleep. We learned from Doc
Parsley, one of the interviews in
the summit, is that they don’t even
give you a proper night sleep. So it’s
a true Band-Aid measure. It gives
you the illusion that you’re actually
sleeping. So you’re not in that
healing mode.
One of the things, obviously, this is
the Sweet Freedom Summit, and
we’re talking about sugar. So can
you talk about yes, you weren’t told
about the kale and the broccoli
and how that can help. But what I
also find in the traditional route is
you’re very rarely told that sugar
is a problem that can impact your
hormone. So what have you learned
from your studies about how sugar
impacts our hormones that impacts
our sleep and our sugar, skin, all of
those things? I’d love you to share.
Maria: Yeah, thank you, thank
you so, so much, such a rich
and varied topic. Okay. So sugar
actually causes the beta cells of
the pancreas to secrete insulin.
And when there is a certain level of
insulin in the body…And insulin’s
a powerful hormone and it’s not
bad. I always think that when
people hear these things, they
think, “Oh, that’s bad.” No, these
are all wonderful things. We just
need them in right amounts. But
when we have high levels of insulin
in the body, which insulin happens
in the presence of sugar, for sure,
and empty carbs that pretty much
act like sugar, the white flour that’s
ubiquitous, everywhere, bagels,
buns, crackers, things like that,
so but when that insulin gets up,
then an enzyme in the body called
aromatase goes up, as well.
Now, aromatase is responsible for
estrogen production. And estrogen
is our wonderful archetypal female
hormone. But we need it in just the
right amount. Too much is actually
dangerous. So sugar, so doughnut,
insulin, aromatase, too much
estrogen. So it all started with that
doughnut.
And then, in terms of our sleep,
so sugar increases insulin, insulin
increases cortisol, cortisol is our
main stress hormone. So for people
that are on this—I call this little
insulin merry-go-round all day or
the sugar merry-go-round— they’re
eating lots of junky carbs or sugar.
And then, maybe two hours later
or three hours later, they’re eating
again and they’re eating again. So
what happens is when you go to
sleep at night, you’re not eating.
So maybe what happens—and this is
a theory, but it makes sense—is your
blood sugar drops in the middle
of the night when you should be
sleeping. And what happens when
blood sugar drops is that cortisol
comes in to raise blood sugar,
because that’s what it’s supposed to
do. And that little bump in cortisol
might be some of the reasons why
you are not able to sleep through
the night. So just getting off of
that sugar rollercoaster and eating
more whole, real foods, it can have
massive changes in someone’s
health, just on that
alone.
Sherry: And can you talk a little
bit about your experience? Was
sugar ever an issue for you in your
journey?
Maria: Yeah, I used to like to think
that it wasn’t. But yeah, it definitely
was. And it’s actually still something
that I struggle with a little bit. Yes.
Good. Good. And most of the times,
I’m satisfying it in healthier ways like
a little small piece of dark chocolate
or a sweet potato. I will be honest,
sometimes a sweet potato doesn’t
cut it, but a good amount of times
it does. So healthier treats made
with almond flour, yes. So I’ve taken
what was more of an addiction for
just a big bready pizza, which just
to let you know, to me, that stuff
counts as sugar. I know a lot of
people don’t really understand that.
But to me, it does because it really
does act like sugar in the body, so
yeah, absolutely.
And the key for me was really just
increasing whole foods, getting in
lots of fiber from vegetables. So
thankfully, I do like vegetables.
Those people that struggle with
that, they’re going to have a little
bit harder of a time breaking away
from sugar. And then, just eating
those complex carbs like the sweet
potato, like the winter squashes, the
parsnips. Yeah. So yeah, absolutely
struggled with it, and definitely
still do at times, and eating well is
definitely helpful, and sleeping is
absolutely huge. In fact, if I had to
put food and sleep side by side, for
me, I would say sleep is probably
more important.
Sherry: Yeah, I would agree. I would
actually agree. You think about it, in
order to live healthily, we do require
around eight hours, depending on
the human. But you don’t require
eight hours of eating to [laughs].
Marie: I’ve never looked at it
that way. That’s very good. That’s
excellent.
Sherry: Time wise. Although, there
have been times in my life where
I’ve definitely participated in eight
hours of eating a day. Yeah. And my
body showed it.
Yeah, I love the transparency. I
think that it’s really healing for a lot
of people to hear is that you can
actually be active, as a professional,
and respected and helping people,
and still have challenges. And I think
that transparency is really helpful,
rather than trying to project this
image of perfection, right.
Maria: Oh, absolutely.
Sherry: So thank you for that, that’s
a real--
Marie: Oh, my pleasure.
Sherry: It’s an act of service. So with
the aging and the skin and sugar,
you’ve talked about how it actually
happens. Can you talk a little bit
about how women, in particular,
what are some of the challenges
that they have to maintain good
skin throughout the decades that
they?...
Maria: Oh, yeah, the ones that are
up there a little bit?
Sherry: Yeah. Yeah.
Maria: Okay, same here. Okay. So
collagen is what gives our skin its
plumpness. And the sugar actually
just breaks down collagen. And I’d
like to say Father Time respects
nobody. We’re all going to wrinkle
and the face lose its volume as we
age. There’s no getting around that.
And there’s, to me, there’s no value
in trying to look like you’re 20, when
you’re 45 or 50. I think we should
just look the best. Whatever age
we are, we should look the best we
possibly can within the dictates of
what’s normal for that age.
But I have seen women in their 60s
that look great. They have beautiful
skin still. And I really do think you
can have a beautiful skin. I think
it was probably partially genetic,
but I’ve seen even older women
with, for their age, pretty good skin.
And I think it comes down to not
eating too much sugar, not getting
too much UV radiation on the
face. I love the sun, and I think it’s
wonderful. But I think that, that is
actually one of the fastest ways to
age your face is to get excessive UV
radiation, so that, and not smoking.
So sun is number one for staying
away to keep your—we’re mostly
talking about the face—so good
skin, not smoking is huge, and then
drinking some fresh water. Herbal
teas are all great, and then really
truly believe that good skin starts
in the kitchen, like that saying, “Abs
start in the kitchen,” good skin
starts in the kitchen. Your body,
your skin, really every cell in your
body depends on a huge amount of
nutrients and cofactors in order to
do its job. And when you’re nutrient
deficient, you’re going to get away
with it in your 20s, your 30s, maybe
even your early 40s, but by the time
50 hits, it’s going to start to show up.
So for my younger sisters in their
20s and 30s that are watching this,
do all the good that you can do now
because, even though you don’t
realize it, it’s going to show up later.
And for my ladies in their 40s, 50s,
60s, and up, just keep eating the
spinach, the kale, the really bright-
colored fruits and vegetables, the
micronutrients, the phytochemicals,
not only are they good for your
skin, they’re incredibly good to your
hormones, as well.
Sherry: Fantastic! I have a little
story around that, in the sense
that for the first, easily the first
three decades of my life, I did not
treat my skin well. And I had lots
of hormonal issues, lots of acne,
scarring, and all that kind of thing.
I lived in Australia for 22 years,
didn’t use sunscreen, because I
don’t. I’m not a fan of it. I’d rather
have wrinkles on the outside, than
wrinkles on the inside, that was my
theory.
But one of the things that I noticed
is what you say about good skin
starting in the kitchen is absolutely
essential. So even though, I have
visible effects of the aging and the
scarring and all that kind of thing,
what I will notice is when I’m on my
game, and I’m eating high-water
content foods, highly-nourishing
foods—I’m always a water fan,
so that’s not a problem—but
I get compliments on my skin,
despite the scarring. And I have
this theory—you may want to
talk about it—is that I believe the
electromagnetic energy in the plant
foods that we’re eating, the living
foods, actually contributes to our
radiance. So it’s almost energetically
that it shows up in the skin. What
are your thoughts on that?
Maria: Yeah, you know what? It’s so
interesting that you are speaking
about that. I personally don’t know
a lot about that. But it is something
that’s really, it’s been coming into
my field of interest and awareness.
And I definitely need to learn more
about that. But it is interesting,
everything does have a vibration
and an energy.
And yeah, those things I guess,
I never thought me, the really
conservative, really science-based
person would be saying that
everything has energy and there’s
a vibration. But yeah, I totally do
believe that. And, by the way, I do
think like so maybe you’re saying
that you did a lot of damage to your
skin, but I think just looking at you,
there is testament to the fact that
you can turn that around because
you definitely have a glow to me.
Sherry: Wow!
Maria: And you do look great. Yeah.
Sherry: Well, yeah, fortunately
there’s not high definition that’s
showing up here [inaudible]. I’ve
seen those things. But I’ll tell you,
and this is probably off the beaten
track of where I meant to be as an
interviewer, but for my first few
interviews for the summit, I actually
put foundation on. And I just, I
disliked it so much, not just the
feel—I’ve always disliked that—but I
dislike the look. It looked to me not
natural. And I was using a natural
version. And so it was…
But there’s something about real
that appeals to me. And the other
piece around the science is that
just because we don’t have the
technology to measure it, at a
certain point, I think the thing is that
we don’t think it’s scientific if we
haven’t developed the technology
to measure it, it doesn’t mean that it
doesn’t exist.
Maria: I agree.
Sherry: And we’re now developing
that technology to actually measure
the megahertz in food. So with that
in mind, what are specific foods that
you would recommend to nourish
the skin, one from the inside out,
and from the outside in? I’d love to
hear your thoughts on that.
Maria: Sure. So I’m a big believer
in healthy fats. I don’t know that I
necessarily agree with eating 80%
of your calories as fat. I know that
that’s a common thing nowadays.
To me, it’s too cookie cutter to put
people into that particular diet. So
we don’t have to name names. I’m
sure most people will know what
I’m talking about. But I absolutely
believe you do need some fat,
fiber, and protein at every meal,
and possibly even every snack.
So having said that, I am not a
happy lady if I don’t have at least
four or five avocados in varying
stages of ripeness on my kitchen
counter or in my refrigerator if
they’re super ripe. So I absolutely
love them. I chop them and put
them on chilies. I just put them
almost everywhere I can. And one
of the things I absolutely love to do
with avocados is I put them in my
smoothie. And I started doing that a
few years ago. It gives an incredible
richness to it.
And again, not really, I don’t like
to get too label oriented around
foods, but I will say that for my
own self for keeping my weight in
check, I just try to eat on the low
glycemic side. So therefore, I don’t
eat a lot of bananas. I don’t want
to vilify bananas. But I don’t eat a
lot of them. So we used to make
smoothies with a ripe banana. And I
still do occasionally because we like
the texture.
Now, I put avocado instead. So I
think avocados are great.
I love walnuts. I think people are
not eating enough walnuts. It’s a
great plant source of omega-3s,
so a good healthy fat there in the
walnuts. Other fats that I like, love
olive oil. I think I would be remised
as an Italian American if I didn’t
say I loved olive oil, but the really
pure, first pressed, cloudy, green,
like that, so a good quality olive oil.
And it’s primarily monounsaturated
fat. And if everyone’s worried, it’s
like the one category of fat that
everyone loves—the American
Heart Association, the American
Diabetes Association, the raw
foodist, the holistic people, the
standard doctors. So if everyone
has any worries about fats, like do
olive oil. You can’t go wrong there.
So I also love salmon, so wild Pacific
salmon. I will only eat it if it is from
the Pacific coast and it’s wild caught.
So I don’t do farm raised. And let’s
see. So coconut oil is definitely a
given. So coconut oil is really great
internally and it’s great externally,
as well. So I think you have to have
your head in the sand over these
past few years to not realize that
coconut oil is great. And again, I
don’t think that we should be eating
tons and tons of coconut oil.
But I think a little bit here and
there. I use it to sauté vegetables.
I do occasionally put some MCT
oil in coffee or in my smoothie.
Coconut oil is just great for the skin.
It’s great for taking off makeup. I
think actually it’s like a traditional…
Indian woman put coconut oil as a
hair treatment. That’s something
I did years ago. But they do that
traditionally. And that’s why Indian
women have these like really shiny,
thick black locks.
Externally, you can actually do
lemon juice. And I would just start
it on maybe like discoloration.
Lemon juice can be very astringent
and very drying. So I wouldn’t put
it over the whole face like that.
What else can we do externally?
Coconut oil, lemon juice, nothing
else is springing to mind right now.
Oh, actually, I’m sorry, one other
thing just spring to mind. So in the
summer, we like to do pineapple.
And I cut the pineapple, that really
thick skin off, and I cut it up in
pieces about this big. And I just like
to rub it all over my face. I feel like
I’m getting those alpha hydroxy fruit
acids, natural ones. And I think it’s
an exfoliation of sort. So I like to do
that. I feel like I’m using the whole
pineapple, and not wasting it.
Sherry: Awesome! I also use the
mango skins and the pith to rub
it on my face like a little kind of
thing, and cucumber. What are your
thoughts on cucumber?
Maria: I love the high-water content
of cucumber. And I think—maybe
you know better than me about
this—but I think cucumber is a good
source of the mineral silica. And
that’s just really good for the skin,
as well.
Sherry: Yeah. And your nails and
hair grow dramatically more when
you’re having lots of cucumber. I
go to the farmer’s market, and I
literally, there’s this one guy who
grows them, and get the long
English ones. And when they’re
in season, I will literally have one a
day. Like, I just love it.
Maria: How nice.
Sherry: Anyway, that’s nuts. So
I’m with you on the banana thing
in the smoothie, partly because I
know what happens to even organic
bananas to get them over to North
America. Not good. But I also think
there’s a lot of wisdom in North
America, particularly, as we get
a bit more North, that we’re not
eating tropical fruits all the time
throughout the winter. What would
you recommend for newbies who
are wanting to go the smoothie
route, but need a little natural
sweetness? What would be your go
to for that?
Maria: Okay, so again, I think
bananas are like we could say
maybe the damage can be in the
dose. So I don’t recommend that
you do just an oversized banana in
your smoothie, have like one-third
of it. Again, I don’t want to vilify
a banana. That’s good. Berries,
berries to me are like the, to me
they’re the ultimate super fruit,
the colors coming out of them, the
phytochemicals. And really, when
they’re in season, they’re very, very
sweet. And you’ve got fiber. To me, I
really can’t get enough berries.
So what else can we do for
sweetness? Okay, so like a few
cubes of pineapples. Again, we’re
going back to tropical. I think it’s
okay to have that as long as you
don’t put too much in. All right,
so you’ve got the mango, again
just amazing flavors. I do use
occasionally a few drops of Stevia. I
don’t know how you feel about that.
I’m going to try to grow it this year
and see if I can throw the
leaves in the blender, and see
what happens. So that should be
interesting. I know that I can grow it.
Sherry: Great.
Maria: Yeah.
Sherry: Thank you. Now, I know
you’ve had a success story. And I’d
love you to mine your database of
people that you’ve worked with,
your tribe, and to find a story where
sugar played a part in someone’s
hormone health, and maybe talk
about the journey they had and the
success they had in working with
you.
Maria: Sure. So believe it or not, a
lot of women who come to me are,
we’ll just say median age is about
45, and their body is changing, and
they’re attuned to health. Maybe
they don’t know that much, but they
want to know more.
And they want to start to change
some things. So what I see with
women at 45 is also they want to
lose some weight. The weight is
starting to come on and they’re just
getting really frustrated.
And so we’ve got to deal with
inflammation in this age stage.
But we also really just have to deal
with changing the food that we eat.
You cannot do two glasses of wine
every night. Now, I believe it’s the
American Heart Association says
that oh, it’s probably one glass for
women, two glass for men.” Right. If
you want to lose weight and lower
inflammation, then I just think
you need to rethink how you think
about wine.
So these women are coming to
me. They’re eating a fairly modern
American diet, and a lot of meat.
And meat is…I’m not necessarily
against it, but I’m very concerned
about the chemicals and the
hormones that are in it. So I really
do try to move them off that. And
I try to get them onto eating like
80% to 90% plant based, and then
adding in the things that you feel
comfortable with. So my client is
45, let’s just say. And she has a lot
of weight in the waist and she’s
probably fatigued. And I’m just
saying, I’m giving you a generalized
who my client is without saying a
name.
And so I’ll just think of a local lady
like myself, Italian American, said
that she loved pasta and she loved
wine. And I said to her, “Okay, but
do you want to lose weight and get
healthier?” And she said, “Yes, I do.”
I said, “Well, those things are going
to have to be minimized.” I never
really tell people they can’t have
anything. I feel like that’s up to them
to make that decision. That’s not
up to me to dictate exactly what
you should be eating. My job is, is
mostly, it’s educational.
So we get her on a cleaner eating
plan. Sometimes I do a two-week
kick start. And she has seen that’s
a little more drastic. And I just say,
“Well, we’re just going to get you
started this way. And then, we
can kind of add back some things.
Because my typical client, she wants
to see some results straight out of
the gate. And I understand that. I
really do because we’re motivated
by seeing some crumbs. We need
some crumbs to fall from the table.
We can’t labor at this for too long
without seeing some results before
we get really discouraged.
So she goes on a kick start. And
within two weeks, she lost 11
pounds, which is pretty good. And
then, when I check in with her about
a month later, she told me she’s
doing so good because she has
really changed her diet. So whereas,
she hasn’t completely given up
pasta and wine, she’s really put it on
the backburner and she’s learned
to eat a lot more vegetables. And
I think we could probably just end
this summit here if we said, “Eat
a lot more vegetables.” It sounds
extremely boring.
And I have to tell you, it’s funny, as
an Italian American, people they
think that Italians are about pasta.
Well, yes, we are. But you’d be
surprised at how vegetables play a
central role in true Italian cuisine,
and the meats, the cured meats. And
there’s plenty of “unhealthy stuff” in
Italian cuisine. But vegetables really
do play a huge role.
And thankfully, I get just clients
to eat a lot more vegetables. I get
her to basically to return to eating
vegetables because that’s how
she was brought up. But through
pressure and raising a family, and
putting herself second or third or
fourth, she has let that go. So I get
her to return to eating wholesome
food. I get her to manage her stress
a little bit better, or so this is what
she tells me. And now, she is too
months in and she’s lost 20 pounds.
And she’s got a goal of, I think it was
about 25 pounds. And it’s really just
evaluating where you are in this life
stage, and deciding what you want
to do.
Sherry: And what about her skin
and energy levels 20 pounds down?
Maria: Yeah. Her energy definitely
returned. I don’t know that she,
this particular client, said anything
about her skin. But interestingly
enough, I have in the past. And
I’m so glad you brought that up. I
have had clients tell me, “My hair
is amazing! It’s just so healthy. It’s
glossy. I think it’s even thicker.” And
that’s from getting the nutrients
that you need. You give the body
what it needs, and in most cases, it’s
going to respond. And it’s going to
respond fairly quickly. These things
really should not take months. I
would say, if you’re giving the body
what it needs, you should probably
see some changes within four
weeks.
Sherry: Absolutely. I noticed in the
past with clients that the before,
more often than not, if they have a
high sugar, wheat, and meat diet,
their skin is gray. Like there’s this
grayness to their skin. And as they
get the plant foods in, it’s like it’s
almost energy coming into their
skin. One of the things I’d love you
to comment on is how does dairy
impact the skin, and in particular,
like the low-fat dairies with the
bumped-up lactose?
Maria: I am so not a fan of dairy.
I just will put it straight out there.
It’s something that I have so many
women…I talk to them. I educate
them. And I tell them about this.
And dairy is mucous forming. I
raised four children. They’re 18
through 25 now, little to no dairy.
They’re 6’2”. They’re 6’3”. They’re
super healthy. They probably
never get sick. You have to get sick
when you’re young to develop the
immune system. But maybe we’ve
had two courses of antibiotics in 25
years, amongst four children.
Now, there are other things that
had to go with it that I believe
contributed to that. But we didn’t
do dairy. I didn’t pump my boys
up with milk. So I do like to use
that story with my ladies. But the
dairy can just, I feel like it makes, if
you’re prone to acne, it just makes
it worse. Mucous. Commercial
dairy, I know for a fact, I’ve done
the research, the hormone or the
drug is called Posilac, and cows are
given this. It artificially stimulates
the cow’s utter so that farmers can
produce. They can bring more milk
to market. Cows are inhumanely
treated. It’s just bad all around. So
it’s bad for the environment. It’s bad
for us. Maybe, maybe raw milk is a
little bit better. But it’s so incredibly
difficult to get a good source of it.
And it’s still really might be mucous
forming.
So dairy, and I think it raises
something called insulin-like
growth factor, I just think it has so
many deleterious affects that my
preference is for my ladies to just
get off. Just get the heck off dairy.
I’m a little passionate about dairy.
Sorry, it’s turning into a bit of a rant.
Sherry: No, I don’t find it a rant.
I think it’s just when you start to
realize how much it’s indoctrinated
into our society…I remember
when I was studying at University,
Deakin University in Melbourne,
and I asked the lecturer, I said,
“What about the mucous-forming
properties of dairy?” And the
lecturer just snapped back at
me. She rolled her eyes. And she
said, “Sherry, I think you’ll find
that’s largely psychosomatic.”
And I was like, “Really. Like.” And
I looked down. I looked at the
Powerpoint slide. And the notes
were sponsored by the Dairy
Corporation.
Maria: Oh! Absolutely!
Sherry: So I was like, “Well, how?”
She’s a lecturer at University. And
all these people are just taking this
information in without questioning
it. And it becomes this way of
thinking that just becomes part
of the culture. And I always think
the thing that, if you think about
breast milk, and what it’s designed
to do for a human, and cows’ milk
is designed to take a calf and turn
it into a 1200-pound beast, “ha, ha,
ha,” that alone just makes me think,
“Mmm, mmm, what are we doing
here?” Anyway, I digress, as well.
Maria: And yeah, that’s okay. And
low-fat dairy, the last I checked, and
it’s been a few years now, low-fat
dairy actually is higher in sugar--
Sherry: Way higher.
Maria: than whole milk dairy. And
it’s just so incredibly processed. So
I’ve seen a lot of good results of
people getting off dairy. They’ve just
had very positive, positive effects.
And if you even have a sensitivity
to it, anything we have a food
sensitivity to, can cause us to retain
weight. Yeah.
Sherry: Mmm, there are so many
questions around protein powders
and things like that. And I thought,
“You put a lot of work into that.”
And I think it’s a fabulous guide. Can
you just tell people a little bit about
why you put that together and what
they can expect with that?
Maria: Oh, sure. So okay. So the
question I got all the time, which
is, “Which protein powder should
I use?” And again, so I don’t love
protein powders. I think that they’re
a second-rate substitution for real
food. But I can’t be pie in the sky. I
need to reach people where they’re
at. And so I put together a guide
because there are so many bad
protein powders out there with
sucralose. And actually, so sucralose
is the first one that comes to mind.
But I’ve seen a protein powder with
like two or three fake sugars. And
I want to say, “You couldn’t stop
at one? You had to put three fake
sugars in there.”
And we don’t know the source of
some of this stuff. So it could be the
commercial protein powders that
are whey. I do have some whey-
based protein powders in there
that I think are the best quality.
But there are whey- based protein
powders on the market that we
don’t know the source of that whey.
How were those cows treated?
Were they given hormones? Were
they given drugs?
So I’ve vetted it down to companies
that I have done research on, that
I’ve spoken to the principles. And
there’s several plant-based protein
powders in there. Third-party
testing is pretty important when
it comes to these things. So I’ve
made sure to put only the highest-
quality brands. And the great
thing is I’m not beholding to any
particular brand. And I give reviews
to about 30. I think I review about
31 different protein powders in this
little eBook.
Sherry: Yeah, it’s fantastic. I highly
recommend that.
Maria: My pleasure.
Sherry: So to leave us with all
this information you have, life
experience, working with people,
I always like to bring it back to
information alone doesn’t change
our behavior, that it’s a much more
holistic approach. And I believe that
wisdom is one of the best ways to
access that. To put your wisdom
cap on, and to give a message
to the people who are actually
listening, as far as that whole piece
about we know sugar is going to
prematurely age us, and yet, we are
attached, well, not kind of, for most
of us, we’re quite attached to it, it’s
hard to give up, what’s the piece of
wisdom you’d like to leave people
with in that whole piece?
ways to be satisfied besides that
which we put in our mouth.
And I think when you are just living
a life that you are happy with, even
in the midst of trouble or challenge,
you can still find ways to bring some
joy into your life. And when you
do have joy, not saying that you’re
not going to go for that little nightly
square of dark chocolate, but you’re
probably going to be less likely to
be satisfying some kind of hunger
with toxic types of sugar.
Sherry: Well, we’re definitely on the
same page there. And that definitely
speaks to me as far as wisdom
goes. So thank you so much, Maria,
for joining us on the Sweet Freedom
Summit.
Maria: Great.
Sherry: Yeah, so thank you so much
for contributing value, wisdom,
knowledge, and your heart with us.
Maria: Thank you! My pleasure.

Maria: Sure. Okay. Two things

spring to mind. So maybe if I’m
short, I can give you two. But okay,
I think that it’s not a moral failing to
like sweets. And I think that in the
context of a healthy lifestyle, you
can have some sweets, but choose
much healthier versions. Choose
the cookie that’s made with almond
flour and maybe maple syrup and
honey because then you have some
minerals in there and some fiber
and some whole foods. So it’s not a
moral failing.

And then, just try to find some

sweetness in your life in non-food
ways. So it’s incredibly sweet to
be outside walking and smelling
flowers, like looking into the eyes of
someone you love, whether that’s a
fur baby or a spouse, those things
are incredibly satisfying. Doing work
that you love, whether that’s for-
profit work or volunteering, making
someone’s day happy, there are

Dr. Cates: Today, I’m interviewing
Dr. Michael Breus. And we’re talking
about sleep and skin. Thank you for
joining us today, Dr. Breus!
Dr. Breus: Well, thank [inaudible]!
Dr. Cates: So Dr. Michael Breus
is a clinical psychologist and a
diplomat of the American Board
of Sleep Medicine and a Fellow of
the American Academy of Sleep
Medicine. Dr. Breus is on the
Clinical Advisory Board of the Dr. Oz
Show and has been on the show 23
times. Wow!
[Both laugh]
Dr. Breus is also the author of
The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan: Lose
Weight Through Better Sleep
and Beauty Sleep: Look Younger,
Lose Weight, and Feel Great
Through Better Sleep. In addition
to his private practice, Dr. Breus
consults with major airlines, hotel
chains, mattress manufacturers
and retailers to provide the
optimal sleep experience for their
customers. His audio relaxation CD
distributed in Crown Plaza Hotels
helps millions of people fall asleep
each year. And for over 14 years,
Dr. Breus has served as a sleep
expert for Web MD.
So you’ve definitely got a lot of
experience on this sleep topic.
Sleep and Skin
Trevor Cates, ND with Michael Breus, PhD
Click here to watch this interview!
The purpose of this presentation is to convey information.
It is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure your condition or to be a substitute
for advice from your physician or other healthcare professional.
Dr. Breus: I do! It’s been my life for
a very long time.
Dr. Cates: And 23 times on Dr. Oz.
That’s impressive.
Dr. Breus: It’s been a great run.
And Dr. Oz and I have had a lot of
fun working together. And he, too,
recognizes just like you have the
importance of sleep and how it can
affect the way you look, how you
feel, and even your energy level.
Dr. Cates: Yeah. So let’s talk about
that. So how does sleep affect us?
How does it affect our skin? How
does it affect our health?
Dr. Breus: Well, so first of all,
we all know that sleep is critical.
And without sleep a lot of really
bad things happen. And we know
that a lot of people have what’s
called sleep deprivation. What’s
interesting about sleep deprivation
is it’s different for everyone. So
I’ve been a 6.5 to 7 hour sleeper
almost my whole life. But my wife,
for example, needs 8.5 to 9 hours
to feel good. So if she got the 7
hours that makes me feel good, she
would feel sleep deprived.
So one of the things to remember
for everybody out there is your
sleep need is going to change,
not only between you and maybe
somebody that you love or
somebody that’s your bed partner,
but also over the course of time.
You may need more or less sleep
as you get older and/or if you
become more medically frail. So
as an example if you have some
type of medical situation going on
that could actually require you to
need more sleep or in some cases,
believe it or not, less sleep.
But sleep turns out to be pretty
critical for three different areas:
physical, emotional and cognitive.
So when we think about sleep
we know that the physical has to
do with what we’re going to talk
a lot about today, which is our
appearance, but also reaction time.
It turns out that when you’re sleep
deprived, your reaction time slows
down by three-fold. This can be
really important for people who are
driving a car, like car pool or you
who maybe drive vehicles or things
like that for their work during the
day.
The emotional section is what my
daughter calls being a grumpy
fish, right. So if you don’t get a
good night’s rest, we all know what
happens. We become more reactive
and reactive particularly in negative
emotions, not necessarily positive
ones. Positive emotions seems to
come down, whereas with negative
emotions, what we see is they seem
to go up. So we react more for
anger. We react more for sadness.
All these things exacerbate when
we’re sleep deprived.
The third is cognition, which is also
pretty interesting. We think more
slowly, the more sleep deprived
we are. And we all can figure that
one out when we’re trying to solve
a problem. There’s an old adage
of sleeping on an idea. And in our
house whenever we make a big
decision, we always say, “We’re
going to sleep on it.”
And it turns out it’s a really practical
reason why. During sleep, you go
into a stage of sleep called REM
sleep. And we know that that is
actually the stage of sleep whereby
you organize your thoughts. You
move information from your short
term memory to your long term
memory during REM sleep. And
that’s a big deal. So when you’re
trying to solve a problem and your
brain is trying to reach out and grab
that piece of information, if you
haven’t slept well, it really probably
isn’t there. And that could be a big
problem.
Dr. Cates: Awesome. And those
are all important for day-to-day life.
We really need sleep to not only
just function, but also be optimally
healthy and vibrant.
Dr. Breus: Absolutely.
Dr. Cates: And that’s certainly true
for our skin and for…Tell us about
your book. You have a book called
Beauty Sleep. What is beauty sleep?
Dr. Breus: So lots of people ask me
this question. So first of all, beauty
sleep is not a myth. There really is
a thing called beauty sleep. It turns
out that beauty sleep is stages 3
and 4 sleep or what we call deep or
delta sleep.
So in going to sleep, you go through
a very particular dance, if you will.
You go from wake to stage 1, stage
2. Then you go into stage 3 and 4,
back to 2, and then in to REM. And
that’s considered a sleep cycle. It
takes about 90 minutes. And you’re
going to have about 5 of those
across the night. But that stage 3
and 4 is really where the beauty
sleep lies and here’s why.
During stages 3 and 4 is the largest
release of something called growth
hormone. So for those folks out
there that don’t know what growth
hormone is, growth hormone does
a lot of different things for our
body. But one of the things that it
does is it helps repair tissue so from
all the insult or injuries that might
have occurred during the day, we
want those things repaired.
And we now know that growth
hormone does a lot of that. And
most of that repair occurs during
our sleep. So it’s like going into
the body shop at night and all
of a sudden you come out and
you’ve got a car that doesn’t have
any dings on it, that doesn’t have
any scratches on it, that looks
significantly better.
We also know that during sleep,
we’re fasting, right. We’re not
actually eating during sleep unless,
of course, you have a sleep eating
disorder, which is a whole another
topic. And we can talk about that
some other time. But you’re usually
not eating during sleep. And
that fasting period, your body is
starting to wonder, “Where are the
nutrients? What’s coming in? What’s
going on here?” That turns out to
be a pretty big deal and growth
hormone, actually we think is a
protective mechanism for our tissue
during that period of time.
The other thing that’s pretty
interesting from a beauty sleep
perceptive is when you sleep, you
perspire. As a matter of fact, you
lose a tremendous amount of heat
through your head. And there’s a
good bit of moisture that goes back
into your skin while you’re sleeping.
Well, we know that moisture is one
of the things that helps with glowing
and radiant skin on a regular
basis. And so when you sleep and
you wake up in the morning, that
actually turns out to be the time
that’s one of the best for your
skin because you’ve literally been
moisturizing your skin naturally all
evening long.
We also know that there are a lot of
different…When people use night
creams or things like that, we also
know that those can be very, very
effective in the evenings, especially
while you sleep for a couple of
different reasons. Number one
is you don’t have the ultraviolet
lights that are coming in during
the daytime when you’re walking
around because guess what? You’re
sleeping in the dark, hopefully.
Number two, we also know that
you’re lying in a recumbent position
and your blood flow changes. So
gravity is no longer having a major
effect, not only in your skin from a
drooping standpoint, but also from
a blood flow. It’s much easier for
blood to flow [inaudible] position
than if you’re standing upright.
So that part of that radiance that
we like to talk about, and part of
that feeling of better [inaudible]
from increased circulation and
better blood flow. And we get better
blood flow when we’re sleeping
merely from being in the horizontal
position and being out of the sun.
Dr. Cates: Wow! You know those
are all really great things to think
about with helping restore our
skin while we sleep. And it’s such
an easy thing to do. We just sleep.
But it’s not that easy for everybody,
right?
Dr. Breus: It’s really not. It’s pretty
fascinating. When we look at
sleep in general, approximately
10 percent of the population has
chronic insomnia and 30 percent,
30 percent at any given time is
not sleeping particularly well. We
now also think that for men, about
24 percent of men and about 17
percent of women actually have
a situation that’s very detrimental
called sleep apnea. And what we’re
learning about sleep apnea…By the
way, that’s a situation where you
stop breathing in your sleep.
Generally speaking, we like our
patients to breathe, right. That’s
a good thing. When you stop
breathing in your sleep, it can have
all kinds of different effects. One
of those effects has to do with
hydration. The other has to do
with keeping you out of the deeper
stages of sleep like we’re talking
about. If you’ve got sleep apnea
and it’s not being treated, you may
never get to beauty sleep. And
that’s where it starts to affect you
pretty dramatically.
Dr. Cates: So how do people know
if they’re getting that kind of high-
quality beauty sleep? How do they
know if they’re getting that?
Dr. Breus: Well, first of all, the first
thing you do is when you wake
up in the morning, how do you
feel, right? If you have to hit the
snooze button more than one time,
there’s a pretty high likelihood
that you’re not getting all the sleep
that you need. Number two, are
you requiring an alarm clock to
help keep you awake. In a lot of
instances, if you need an alarm,
you are probably not getting some
of the sleep that you really need.
If you wake up naturally on your
own within a couple of minutes
before your alarm, that means your
circadian rhythm has got you right
where you’re supposed to be and
you’re naturally waking up from
sleep as opposed to some jarring
alarm that is music or some crazy
sound that jerks you out of sleep.
The other way you can know if
you’re getting enough sleep or if
you’re getting your deepest sleep
is how quickly do you fall asleep.
When I was with Oprah Winfrey and
we were talking about Stedman, it
was pretty funny because she said,
“He falls asleep. And the minute his
head hits the pillow, he’s out like
a light.” Well, that’s actually not a
good thing.
Sleep is actually a process that
has to occur. Sleep is not an on/
off switch. It’s more like slowly
pulling your foot off the gas and
slowing putting your foot onto the
brake. There’s about a 15 to 20
minute process that actually has to
occur. And if you’re slamming your
body into sleep very, very quickly,
that means you’re probably sleep
deprived. So one of the things I tell
my patients is if you fall asleep in
under 5 minutes that means you’re
probably not getting enough deep
sleep.
Dr. Cates: Mmm. That’s interesting.
I haven’t heard some of those
things. That’s great tips, great
information. So you know what,
you mentioned sleep apnea is a
problem for some people? What
are some of the other reasons why
people can’t sleep? Why they don’t
get into that deep beauty sleep?
Dr. Breus: One of the things that
we’re now learning…I was actually
doing an executive sleep getaway,
if you will, with some Fortune 100
executives. And one of the things
they started asking me about is how
do I know when I’m getting good
quality sleep and can I hack my
sleep or can I get 8 hours inside of
6 hours? People are always looking
for the edge.
And what I tell people all the time is
anxiety turns out to be one of the
biggest factors in not letting people
get into good deep sleep. There’s
even data to now show that if you’re
doing something that makes you
anxious before bed, it can actually
prevent you from getting into some
of these deeper stages of sleep.
So one of the techniques that I
teach people—and I talk about it
in my books—is called the power
down hour. So let’s say that you’re
going to bed normally at 10 o’clock.
At 9 o’clock, I ask you to set your
alarm clock for 9 o’clock p.m. to
make you walk into your bedroom
to turn it off. That reminds you, “Oh,
this is that place I’m supposed to be
getting to in about an hour.”
Then I give you 20 minutes to do
whatever it is that you just got to
do, whether it’s getting backpacks
ready for school, laying out your
clothes. Whatever it happens to
be that you know you just got to
get done. In our house, it’s finding
shoes, all kinds of crazy stuff.
Then you use 20 minutes for
hygiene, whether that’s taking a
warm bath, whether that’s brushing
your teeth, washing your face,
getting ready for bed, whatever
you need to do. For women, maybe
it’s taking off their makeup. By the
way, you should try taking off your
makeup in a dimly lit bathroom,
not in a bright bathroom because
a brightly lit bathroom actually tells
your brain, “It’s morning.” And your
brain doesn’t produce melatonin
nearly as well so turning those
lights down in the bathroom can be
very helpful during the power down
hour.
And then, 20 minutes for some
type of meditation or relaxation. So
that could be everything from yoga
stretching poses to prayer to just
an overall relaxation or mediation,
even guided imagery can be very,
very helpful during this power down
hour.
What this does is it sets the body
up for a better night’s rest because
remember you don’t just want to
turn that switch off. You want to
slowly guide yourself in there. And
this really helps relieve anxiety.
I’m going to give everybody out
there another tip that I have people
use for people who have a hard
time turning off their brain when
they go to sleep because that’s the
number one complaint that I hear,
Dr. Cates, is that I can’t turn off my
brain when I sleep. This is going to
sound crazy. But I swear to you it
works.
Count backwards from 300 by 3s,
go ahead and try that for a second,
right. So it’s 300, 297, 294, 291. It’s
mathematically so complicated, you
can’t think of anything else. And it’s
so doggone boring. You’re out like a
light. It works like a charm. I’ve used
that even myself, on occasions,
when I haven’t been able to get a
great night sleep.
Dr. Cates: Wow! Okay. Great. That’s
a great tip. So that’s when you’re
having difficulty falling asleep, right?
Dr. Breus: Right.
Dr. Cates: Any other tips to help
you fall asleep?
Dr. Breus: Well, another one that’s
great for people—and actually quite
good for the skin—is taking a hot
bath right before bed. So we know
that that allows for that moisture
to come back in the skin because
we know that we all become
dehydrated throughout the day. I
happen to be living in Scottsdale,
Arizona. And it’s pretty warm here
during the summer times. And a lot
of people get dehydrated very, very
quickly.
So taking a hot shower or a hot
bath before bed, not only does it
rehydrate your skin, but there’s
now data to show that by increasing
your core body temperature, that
subsequent fall back to normal
temperature is actually a signal to
the brain to release melatonin. So
hot baths before bed.
And you want to get the water a
good 98 to 100 degrees can really
be very, very sleep inducing. That’s
one of the things I have a lot of
my patients do who really have a
hard time relaxing. And, of course,
there’s nothing better than a hot
bath to relax you right before bed
anyway.
Dr. Cates: Right. And so with that
drop in temperature, does that
mean that you should be sleeping
in a cool bedroom?
Dr. Breus: It does. Very good.
So one of the things we know is
that the bedroom environment
is critical. When I talk with people
about sleep, I believe that sleep
is a performance activity, right.
So if you were to go for a run in
flip- flops with some cut-offs and a
torn T-shirt and a big radio on your
shoulder, your time wouldn’t be
too good. You’d get from point A to
point B. But you probably wouldn’t
have a good performance.
But if you had your running
shoes and your dri-fit wear and
your music going, you’re going to
perform better. The same holds
true with sleep. And the sleep
environment turns out to be critical
to all of this. So when I think about
sleep environment, I think of 4 of
the 5 senses to really help me guide
me through this. And as a matter
of fact, in my Good Night App, I
actually teach people how to do a
bedroom makeover. But we’ll do
something quickly here to teach
everybody now.
So the first thing you think of is light.
It turns out that light is one of the
biggest factors in prohibiting people
from being able to sleep. Believe it
or not, they even make lightbulbs
now that pull out the blue light
out of light because that turns out
to be what prevents people from
producing melatonin at night. So
if you’ve got your IPad or you’re
playing Candy Crush in the middle
of the night or something like that,
that’s definitely having an effect on
your ability to sleep because that
light is hitting your face and telling
your hypothalamus and particularly
your pineal gland, “Hey, there’s no
reason to go to sleep because it’s
sunlight outside,” so really be careful
about the light that’s in your room.
The next is sound—thinking about
all the different sounds that could
come about, believe it or not, the
quieter your room is, the more
acute your hearing gets so having
a little bit of background noise is
never going to be bad. I’ve often
talked to people about something
called “Pink noise.”
You can download all kinds of
different Apps about pink noise
all the time. And what’s nice about
pink noise is it’s not the super high
range and it’s not the super low
range. It’s all the noise that happens
in the middle. This is great. It
almost sounds like an ocean sound.
Believe it or not, ocean sounds
have been clinically proven to help
people fall asleep at night.
So we’ve got our light lowered
down in the evening. And hopefully,
when you’re sleeping, its hopefully
pitch black. We’ve got our sound to
be muffled, or again with that more
pink noise or ocean sounds.
Now, we’re going to go to touch.
So what does touch mean? Pillow,
mattress, and sheets. I think of that
as a sleep system, not just separate
components to sleep. And there’s
no question in my mind, if you don’t
have a good mattress and you don’t
have a good pillow or good sheets,
you are not going to perform well at
the process of sleep. So what does
that mean?
Well, what that means is you
probably should be trading out
your mattress at least once every
7 years. Most people think 10 or
even longer. And let me tell you
something. I’ve seen mattresses
that look like a taco with people
lying in the center of them. And
that’s just not good for your back.
A pillow turns out to be needing
to be replaced every 12 to 18
months. The structural integrity
of the pillow, itself…You’ve got
to remember, your head weighs
approximately 8 pounds. And it’s
on this thing all night long. And so if
you don’t have a really structurally,
a good integrity pillow, your neck
falls to the side. And that can
cause neck strain across the side
of your neck. And that can cause
pain, which will keep you out of the
deeper stages of sleep, so replacing
your pillow turns out to be one of
the easiest ways to improve your
overall sleep.
When you look at sheets, I like to
go with more cotton-based sheets.
But there are now technology in
sheets that are moisture wicking.
So as an example, if you’re going
through menopause and you get
hot flashes in the middle of the
night and profuse sweating, there’s
now materials that can actually pull
that moisture off of your skin so it
doesn’t wake you up in the middle
of the night.
Another part of touch that you
touched on before is temperature.
The ideal temperature turns out to
be somewhere between 68 and 72
degrees for being able to fall asleep.
But there’s a problem there. I live
in Arizona, okay. If you’re in my
house in August, if I could cool my
house to 72 degrees, I would not be
able to pay my air conditioning bill
because it would be so high.
So what you’re really looking for is
probably 20 to 25 degrees off of the
daily high during the summer and
then maybe 20 or 30 degrees up
from the daily low in the winter is
probably where you want to go. You
never want your home to be colder
than about 65 degrees if you can
help it because there’s now data to
show that that will also pull you out
of the deeper stages of sleep and
affect your beauty sleep.
Dr. Cates: Wow! I didn’t realize
there was that specific amount or
that kind of temperature that was
so important. I just heard that it was
the cooler, the better. So it’s great
to hear this information. Great.
And so falling asleep, a lot of people
are reading tablets. They’re looking
at tablets and Kindle. And that also
has light, right?
Dr. Breus: It does.
Dr. Cates: So you touched on that.
I just want to bring that to people’s
attention because I know so many
people that read before bed. So
should we go back to old-fashioned
little books and paper books?
Dr. Breus: Yeah. Here’s what I tell
people all the time. First of all, I’m a
big fan of the printed page anyway.
And so I like to hold the book. And
I use a book light because then
it’s not direct light at my eyes. It’s
pointing directly at the page for me.
And so it doesn’t affect me nearly
as much. But there is some really
nice factor to having your tablet and
being able to read.
Believe it or not, you can now
purchase a shield that can go across
that will actually filter out that blue
light. I think they’re called sleep
shields. And you can buy them on
Amazon or wherever. And they’re
pretty interesting because there’s a
filter for that blue light. But reading
doesn’t bother me and, believe it
or not, neither does television. So
I’m the only sleep doctor in the
Universe who’s going to tell people
it’s okay to fall asleep watching TV.
And here’s why.
I’ve found that there’s a select
group of my patients that can’t turn
off their brain and by watching
some monotonous television show
that they’ve probably watched 100
times, it actually helps them occupy
their mind enough to fall asleep.
So as an example, what they really
do is listen to TV to fall asleep. They
actually don’t really watch it. They
close their eyes. And the TV is on
and 99 percent of the televisions
these days have timers built in to
the software so just set the timer
for 45 minutes. And then you can
fall asleep watching TV. And it won’t
affect your sleep.
But you should not be playing
Candy Crush until the wee hours
of the morning. And here’s why.
It’s just too engaging, right. You’re
in there. And you’re trying to get
your high score or things like that.
You probably don’t want to answer
emails while you’re trying to fall
asleep or other thing like that
because, again, too much mental
engagement really does not allow
for people to start that process of
walking down the road to sleep.
Dr. Cates: Okay. Great, great tips.
What about the people that wake
up during the night? And some
people can’t fall back to sleep. But
that is going to disturb that level of
sleep rhythm, right?
Dr. Breus: No question about it.
And believe it or not, the most
popular form of insomnia is sleep-
maintenance insomnia or that fall
asleep, wake up, fall asleep, wake
up type of sleep. And so one of the
things I talk about to people is what
are some strategies that you can
use in the middle of the night to
sleep better?
First of all, if you don’t have to go to
the bathroom, don’t! Many people
wake up at 2 o’clock or 3 o’clock.
And it’s really interesting, people
always seem to wake up at a very
precise time. They say, “I wake up at
2:24 every night.” Number one, the
first thing you can do is look at the
clock because here’s what happens.
You instantly do the mental math.
And you say, “It’s 2:30. I’ve got to be
up at 6:30. I’ve only got 4 hours left
of sleep. Okay, sleep, sleep, sleep,
sleep.” And you really try hard to fall
asleep. Trying to fall asleep never
seems to work. You just need to
allow that process to occur.
So number one, turn your clock
around and that will be one of the
easiest things you can do to help
you fall asleep. Number two, if you
don’t have to go to the bathroom,
don’t go, don’t just go because
you’re up because what you do is
by going from a horizontal position
to a vertical position, guess what?
You’ve now actually told your body
it’s time to get up and do things.
And all of the metabolic processes
and all of the neurologic processes
seem to occur and wake you up. So
unless you really have to go to the
bathroom, it’s probably best to stay
put.
The third thing I tell people to do is
to do my counting backwards from
300 technique. It really works very,
very well, occupies your mind, and
allows you to fall back to sleep.
Dr. Cates: What about people
that…Those are great tips. What
about people that they’re mind is
still racing. They’re like, “I’ve got to
remember this one thing that I’ve
got to do. And if I don’t write this
down or if I don’t do this right now,
then I’m going to forget it.” Do you
recommend people writing things
down or is that a bad idea?
Dr. Breus: Well, here’s the thing is
for some people they have to turn
on a light to write it down. And so if
you…And I know a lot of people do
this and it’s probably not the best
idea. But people do it anyway. If you
have your phone charging on your
bedside table, hit the voice recorder
and just record whatever the
thought is for your voice. And then
put it to the side and go back
to sleep.
But a better method is just before
you go to bed, write yourself a list
of anything and everything that you
need to do the next day or things
that you accomplished that day,
almost like a little journal, and be
able to get it all out of your head
and on to paper. What you’ll find is
is you’ll have less of a likelihood in
the middle of the night to have to
get up and write something down.
Dr. Cates: Yeah. Okay. Great. That’s
great information. So you talked
about at different times in our life,
we need different amounts of sleep.
Dr. Breus: Correct.
Dr. Cates: And I know my 16 year
old and my 13 year old kids, they
seem to sleep forever.
Dr. Breus: Yes, they do!
Dr. Cates: And they need that extra
sleep, right?
Dr. Breus: Right. Absolutely.
Dr. Cates: But as we get older, how
do we know…I know that you talked
about some of the science. But
when does that change and how
many hours at which decade of life?
Can you give us some ideas on that?
Dr. Breus: Absolutely. So first of
all, what we’re now learning—and
I actually talk about this in the
Ebook that’s going to be available
to everybody—how much sleep do
you really need and when in the
times of your life do you need that
sleep. So we know that when your
immune are comprised or when
you’re sick or things like that, you’re
always going to need more sleep
because, again that’s the time that
the body repairs.
With kids, I have a 13 year old
myself, they want to stay up until
2 and sleep until 2. And not only
do they need more sleep at those
ages, but their sleep timing is off,
right. Their circadian rhythms are
very, very different. When you
get [inaudible], by the time you’re
18, about 7 hours actually is what
we’re learning now seems to be the
optimal amount of sleep that you
need. For some people, if they sleep
more than that, they feel worse. Or
if they sleep less than that, they feel
worse so finding that sleep need.
Again, remember, it’s individual. But
you can figure it out.
As people get on into their senior
years into the 60s, 65, 70 range,
what we find is that they still need
as much sleep as they ever did.
However, one of the things that’s
really interesting is they take naps
all day long. And so what ends
up happening is, not only do they
fall asleep earlier because their
biological clock has shifted in the
opposite direction of a teenager,
but they don’t sleep for nearly as
long.
So they go to bed at 8 and they
wake up at 2. And they’re ready to
start their day because they already
took two naps during the day. So
keeping a constant sleep schedule,
like we were talking about before,
really keeps people in line from a
circadian rhythm perspective.
And the rest ends up sorting itself
out. So you don’t necessarily need
more or less sleep. You just need it
at the right times.
Dr. Cates: Okay. So at the right
times, so I’ve heard that you should
always try and go to bed before
10 o’clock. Is that true or is that a
myth?
Dr. Breus: That’s a myth. So one
of the things we know is that the
national average in the United
States, at least, for going to sleep
is around 10:30. But that has more
to do with core body temperature
rhythm than anything else. Your
core body temperature has a
rhythm that actually climbs and
climbs and climbs and when it hits
right around 10:45-11:00 o’clock, it
has a peak. And then it starts to dip.
That is actually the signal to your
brain to release melatonin.
So just like taking a hot bath, which
we discussed before, makes you
feel sleepy, this automatic core
body temperature drop of about
a quarter of a degree centigrade
actually releases that melatonin.
It’s the signal to the brain. So you
can actually stay up a little bit later.
And that’s one of the things that
most people don’t do. So many of
my patients go to bed too early and
that really messes up their sleep at
night.
Dr. Cates: Okay. Okay. Well, that’s
great. There are so many myths
out there about sleep. And we’ve
talked about some of them. What
are some of the other myths about
sleep that you commonly get asked
about?
Dr. Breus: Well, the biggest one
that I get asked about all the time
is turkey. So people always say…
It is right? They’re like, “I’m always
exhausted after Thanksgiving. And
if I just eat a turkey sandwich before
bed maybe that will help me sleep.”
You’d have to eat a 46-pound
turkey to get enough tryptophan to
actually make you fall asleep. And
tryptophan doesn’t work well in the
presence of protein. So it probably
still wouldn’t work.
The reason people are tired after
Thanksgiving, more times than not,
is because they’ve had all the family
over to their house and they’ve
been preparing for weeks and
weeks and the stress has finally left
the building. And that’s really when
people to start to feel that sleep
deprivation kick in and make them
feel sleepy.
The other big myth is the 8-hour
myth, all right. Very, very few
people actually need exactly 8
hours of sleep. We’re now learning
that 7 is probably the new 8. But
more importantly, it’s really about
the schedule, keeping a constant
bedtime and a constant wake-
up time is even bigger and more
important than anything because
when you wake up, you reset that
circadian clock every single day.
And that turns out to be the key to
better health and better sleep.
Dr. Cates: Yeah. I know that the
mornings that I wake up before my
alarm clock, I have so much more
energy during the day. I feel so
much better. So you’re saying that
just doing that regularly, getting
that pattern every day is…
Dr. Breus: Including the weekends.
Dr. Cates: Including the weekends.
And that’s tricky, too, for people
because they like to stay up later
and they like to sleep in a little bit.
But you’re saying that it’s important
to keep that schedule 7 days a
week?
Dr. Breus: Well, what I’m saying
is it’s important to wake up every
day at the same time. You don’t
necessarily have to go to bed at the
same time every day. So if it’s Friday
night and my wife and I want to
go out to dinner, we may stay out
a little bit later than we normally
would have. But I’m still getting
up at roughly the same period of
time because here’s what happens
is you stay up late Friday, sleep in
Saturday, stay up late Saturday,
sleep in Sunday.
And guess what your body wants to
do Sunday night? Stay up late and
then Monday morning, sleep in.
And that’s really where it gets very,
very difficult for people so keeping
that constant wake-up time, turns
out to be the anchor for circadian
rhythms and better sleep.
Dr. Cates: Okay. Great. And so
I know that some people, they
need help resetting their circadian
rhythm. Maybe they’ve traveled
or they’ve just gotten into a really
bad sleep cycle. Are there any
supplements? Do you recommend
melatonin? You mentioned
tryptophan. Do you recommend
any of these things for people?
Dr. Breus: Great question. So a
couple of things about melatonin
that people need to understand is
first of all, melatonin is a hormone.
It’s not a supplement. I guess it’s
considered a supplement. But it’s
not…You wouldn’t go to the local
health food store and buy estrogen
or testosterone, right? Just the same
way, you probably shouldn’t buy
melatonin.
Ninety-five percent of melatonin
is actually sold in an over-dosage
format currently in the United
States. Melatonin should be
somewhere between a half and one
milligram should be the appropriate
dose to get plasma concentration
levels up to help you.
But here’s the kicker about
melatonin. Melatonin is a sleep
regulator, not a sleep initiator. So
melatonin isn’t a sleeping pill. But
what you’ve correctly identified it,
melatonin is a circadian rhythm
changer. So what melatonin does
is it basically tells your brain, “It’s
night outside. And it’s time to go to
sleep.”
Believe it or not, it takes 90 minutes
for melatonin to reach those
plasma concentration levels. So you
don’t take it right before bed. You
would take it 90 minutes before
you would want to go to sleep. So if
you’re thinking about 10:30 as your
optimal bedtime, you would take
your melatonin around 9 o’clock.
Here’s the problem though, making
sure you get the right dosage. We’ve
already discussed that, but getting
it from a reliable source turns out
to be a really big deal. Because it’s
not FDA-regulated, I could make
melatonin in my garage and I can
sell it on the Internet. And nobody
would be the wiser. Not that I do
that, because I don’t. But you got to
think those things through.
Also, many people don’t know
that melatonin is by “prescription
only” in Europe because it is such
a powerful, powerful sleep aid.
So oftentimes, what I’m talking
about with people is if you do have
to reset your circadian rhythm,
it’s probably okay to take your
melatonin about 90 minutes before
bed. And then when you wake up, I
actually have people use something
called Light Therapy.
So remember how light stops
the production of melatonin, so
I actually have people buy—and
these are commercially available—
light boxes that you can actually
purchase. And they’re quite small.
And you can sit them…They’re this
big.
And you can sit them on your desk
or while you’re having your bowl of
cereal in the morning or whatever
it is, you can have them off to the
side. They don’t have to be right
in front of your face. And it resets
your circadian clock. And I can tell
you that I’ve helped more jetlagged
and more insomnia just by using a
little bit of melatonin and some light
therapy than just about anything
else.
Dr. Cates: Great. Great information.
But what about the taking
melatonin on a regular basis? Is this
something that people should take
every day or every night?
Dr. Breus: No, it’s not. Yeah, not
every day, every night. Well, here’s
the thing about it is nobody out
there’s sleeper is broken. Okay.
Everybody actually has the ability
to sleep. If you need to take a pill
every single night to help you sleep,
then my advice to you is we really
need to sit down and talk about
why you feel you need a pill every
night to sleep. Don’t get me wrong,
there are some instances where it
might make sense.
So, for example, if I have a patient
who’s going through chemotherapy,
if I have a patient who has severe
pain like low back pain or shoulder
pain or things like that, those
are instances where it makes
sense where you might take
something on a nightly basis. But
general speaking, if you have to
take something every night, you
probably have a bigger issue going
on. And you’re going to want to
talk somebody like me, a sleep
specialist, or even your doctor a
little bit more about why you’re
needing to take that medication on
a regular basis.
Dr. Cates: And that’s so true. And
certainly, women and men, too, but,
especially women. As we get older,
our hormones change. And that
plays a huge role in our sleep, right?
Progesterone and…
Dr. Breus: Oh, absolutely! As
a matter of fact, it’s great that
you bring this up. I have actually
changed women’s sleep cycles
based on their menstrual cycles.
And so even women, not even as
they get older, but just through
their menstrual cycles as the week
right before you get your period,
a lot of women are very, very
tired. I have women going to bed
earlier then because of the rise of
progesterone.
And then I have women after their
period, they actually need a later
bedtime. So you may even change
your bedtime over the course of
your cycle. As women then go into
menopause, it has a tendency to
even itself out. But you’ve got hot
flashes to deal with and you’ve got
profusive sweating. You’ve
got all those other issues that can
be quite challenging. I’ll be honest
with you. Women don’t have an
easy ride when it comes to sleep at
all. But it is absolutely manageable.
Dr. Cates: Yeah, it certainly is. Okay.
So going back to tryptophan, 5-HTP
tryptophan, what do you think? Do
you think those are helpful?
Dr. Breus: I think they can be
helpful in certain situations. And I
don’t really have a big problem with
it. One of the things I think about
with melatonin and tryptophan,
as you know they’re precursors
to serotonin, almost everybody’s
already got all of that inside them.
And they probably have enough
of it. So again, for occasional use,
it makes sense to me, but not
on a daily use. I just don’t see it
happening.
Dr. Cates: Great. Thank you, for
sharing that. And the same thing
with sleep medications, right?
How do you feel about sleep
medications?
Dr. Breus: Well, here’s the first
thing. I don’t want anybody out
there to stop taking their sleep
medication if they’re watching this
and decide, “Oh, Dr. Breus and
Dr. Cates said I should be off my
medication.” You need to speak to
your doctor before you stop any
type of medication, number one.
But number two, there are
instances where it may be
appropriate. But again, generally
speaking, you really shouldn’t have
to take a pill every single night
whether it’s an over the counter
or a prescription sleep aid. Again,
certain instances will apply. But
generally speaking, I in my practice
rarely use medications to help
people sleep better. And I usually,
within 6 to 8 sessions— week-long
sessions—I can get people usually
sleeping significantly better just by
scheduling their bedtimes, helping
calm their anxiety, and teaching
them more about the process of
sleep.
Dr. Cates: Wow! That’s fantastic!
And I think that I wish everybody
could hear what you’re saying
because there’s so many people on
sleep medications that are relying
upon that. And they do come with
side effects, right?
Dr. Breus: Oh, there’s no
question about it. Some of these
medications are now getting into
side effects where there’s things
like sleep eating. So sometimes
when people are taking some of
these medications, they lose their
inhibition. One of the biggest
mistakes that people make with
sleep medications is they take it
before they go to bed. And they
say, “I’m just waiting for it to have
an effect. I’m going to go brush my
teeth, wash my face, get ready for
bed.”
Meanwhile, they say, “You know
what, I can use a bedtime snack?”
Well, they’re inhibitions have
dropped. And so when they look
in their refrigerator and they see
the chocolate cake, they don’t just
have a slice. They eat the whole
cake because they’re inhibitions
have dropped so dramatically.
Some people have gotten into the
car and driven to go get food or
driven across town because they
remembered something that they
thought.
Sleeping medications are powerful
medications. And you have to
respect the medication. Sleeping
medications, you should take them
and turn out the light. You shouldn’t
go brush your teeth and wash
your face. You should actually take
them and be in a safe place with
hopefully somebody that can watch
you and turn out the light.
Dr. Cates: Yeah, good points, really
good points. And you were talking
about eating. Any tips on what to
eat or not to eat before bedtime?
Dr. Breus: Well, one of the things
we haven’t talked about yet is both
alcohol and caffeine. So I don’t have
a problem if you want to have a
glass of wine with dinner, even two.
But you want to leave one hour per
alcoholic beverage before lights out.
So if you stop drinking and you’ve
had two glasses of wine by 8 o’clock,
I wouldn’t want you even considering
getting into bed before 10 o’clock.
Alcohol, while it makes you feel
sleepy, keeps you out of the deeper
stages of sleep, keeps you out of
beauty sleep, and is a diuretic. So
it dehydrates you. So it’s going
to make your skin actually look
worst in the mornings rather than
better because you’ve become so
dehydrated from the alcohol.
Caffeine has a half-life of between
8 and 10 hours. So we really want
people to stop drinking caffeine
around 2 o’clock in the afternoon
because then enough of it is out of
their system so they’re able to fall
asleep by 10-10:30.
Dr. Cates: Yeah, good points.
I know that if I have caffeine
after lunch time, I have a hard
time sleeping. But I think that
everybody’s a little bit different on
how caffeine affects them, same
thing with alcohol. But certainly,
it seems like that’s the majority of
people, right?
Dr. Breus: Yeah. No. Absolutely.
We’ve now learned that there’s
different caffeine sensitivities. And
we also now have learned that
depending upon what time you
drink alcohol, it will have differing
affects. So Happy Hour, it turns out
really is “Happy Hour.”
When you drink alcohol between
those hours, it gives you more of
an uplifting or energetic effect,
whereas if you drink later into the
evening, it gives you more of a
sedative effect. So we really aren’t
looking at how does our body
clock time us and when we put
something inside us, how is it going
to affect our sleep?
Dr. Cates: Okay. Great. And then,
as far as food goes, some people
say eating less or more protein
at bedtime, does that make an
impact?
Dr. Breus: It does. So there’s now
data to show that carbohydrates
actually help people with sleep.
Part of the reason is is when we
ingest carbohydrates, it actually
eventually helps increase our levels
of serotonin, which is the calming
hormone.
If you’re looking for a bedtime
snack, what I oftentimes tell
people, and this is actually in my
book, is we talk about having
about 20 percent protein, about 80
percent carbohydrate for about a
250-calorie snack. You don’t want to
go much over 250 calories because
you’re just going to be adding more
calories that your body’s going
to have to burn later on. And the
carbohydrate/protein mix, actually
it turns out to work out really well.
Dr. Cates: Well, give you an
example of that kind of…
Dr. Breus: An example of
something like that might be
cheese and crackers, might be a
bowl of oatmeal made with milk
instead of water, might even
be—I know you’re going to cringe
when I say this—a small piece
of cheesecake would actually
probably fall into that category,
as well. So there’s lots of different
things that you can have.
And it’s okay to treat yourself a
little bit and have one of these
snacks. But you don’t want to go
into the super-high fat, super-high
sugar. I know depending upon the
cheesecake that you get, that could
actually fall into that category. But
those types of things would actually
work out very, very well.
Dr. Cates: I usually tell my kids—
and so you can tell me if I’m wrong
on this—have some fruit and nuts.
Would that be a good combination?
Dr. Breus: I would probably change
that combination a little bit. I would
rather actually, believe it or not,
see them eat a small bowl of non-
sugar cereal would actually be a
really good thing because you’ve
got the carbohydrates and you’ve
got the protein from the milk. And
that actually turns out to be a really
good mix to help people fall asleep.
Nuts and protein is a lot harder to
digest. And so that could actually
maybe, could in some cases, be
a little bit more stimulating. And
also, depending upon the fruit,
they could have a very high-sugar
content. And that could also have
something to do with it.
Dr. Cates: Okay. Good to know.
Good to know. I’ll have to mix it up a
little bit. [Both laugh]
Great. Well, this is really great
information. And I imagine that you
got into this sleep specialty. Is there
a particular reason? Did you have
issues with sleep or was this just
something?...
Dr. Breus: Great question. I’ve
always been a fairly decent sleeper.
I always have my bad nights.
Everybody has a bad night of sleep
every once in a while.
I really got into this…It was
interesting. I did a rotation during
my residency at the sleep lab. And
by day number 3, I absolutely fell
in love with clinical sleep medicine
because I can change people’s lives,
literally, in 24 hours.
And as you know, in medicine,
sometimes treatments take quite
a while to take an effect. And when
you can identify somebody, let’s say
with sleep apnea or help somebody
who’s got insomnia really, really
quickly, it’s so amazingly rewarding
that I just said, “This is my thing.”
Dr. Cates: Yeah. Perfect. All right.
Well, one last question for you. And
that is you were talking about skin,
it’s a Glowing Skin Summit, what
do you do personally for your skin?
It sounds like you get a good night
sleep, I imagine.
Dr. Breus: I do. So there’s a couple So if you want to own this talk
of things that I do to actually help or you missed any of our other
with my skin. Number one is I amazing presentations, just click the
hydrate. I’m a big fan of hydration. banner by or below this video for
Right when I wake up in the information on how to access the
mornings, I have a very large glass entire Glowing Skin Summit.
of ice water, not ice water, usually
just regular water, sometimes Thank you! And have a great day!
a glass and a half, even before I
consider having coffee or food.
That actually helps jumpstart the
metabolism. But it also rehydrates
me almost immediately.
The other thing that I do is I do
make a point of washing my face
at night before bed, not with any
harsh astringents, but just a little
water, a little Dove soap. And it
seems to work out well for me. I’m
47 years old. And people tell me
that I don’t necessarily look like
I’m 47 years old. So I take that as a
compliment and hopefully having
good skin and, of course, decent
genetics.
Dr. Cates: Right. And you’re getting
that beauty sleep it sounds like, that
deep sleep that we all need.
Dr. Breus: I’m sure trying. That’s for
sure.
Dr. Cates: Okay. All right, well,
thank you so much for your
interview today, Dr. Breus!
Dr. Breus: Oh, thank you, Dr. Cates!
And thanks to all the viewers out
there. We’re very excited to be here!
Dr. Cates: Great! Thanks everyone
for joining us today on The Glowing
Skin Summit. Dr. Breus has shared
a lot of great information today
on how to improve your sleep
so you can get that beauty sleep,
that to help improve your skin. It
sounds like for some people, it’s
a really simple thing to sleep. But
other people really need help.
So Dr. Breus has shared a lot of
information today on how to get
that deep sleep that we all really
need.

Cate: Hello. This is Cate Stillman
with the Ayurveda Summit. And
I have the pleasure and honor of
being here with Dr. Pratima
Raichur of PratimaSkinCare.com.
Dr. Raichur is a visionary and
pioneer of the Ayurvedic skincare
field. She combines the wisdom of
Ayurveda with her expertise as a
chemist, a botanist, an aesthetician,
and Ayurvedic doctor to compose a
holistic system for skin wellness and
a remarkable line of pure organic
products. Welcome, Dr. Raichur.
Dr. Raichur: Well, thank you, Cate,
for having me.
Cate: Yeah, I’m glad to be able to
bring this conversation that’s more
centered on a beauty and skincare
attuned to our audience. I first read
your book, Absolute Beauty, soon
after it came out. And I actually
used it in my Living Ayurveda
course for years with teaching
Ayurveda online to students. So I’ve
been a fan of your work for a few
decades now.
Dr. Raichur: Oh, thank you. Thank
you that you are using. I’m so glad,
because that book is written almost
20 years back now.
Cate: Yeah.
Dr. Raichur: What would you like to
know?
Cate: Yeah. And it’s relevant to me
Skincare with Ayurveda
Cate Stillman with Pratima Raichur
Click here to watch this interview!
The purpose of this presentation is to convey information.
It is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure your condition or to be a substitute
for advice from your physician or other healthcare professional.
as it was when you wrote it.
Dr. Raichur: I hope so because
that’s what Ayurveda is all about.
It’s not like fashion trendy or
anything like that. It is there for
7,000 years. And I hope it will be
there for another 7,000 years.
Cate: So of the many paths
Ayurveda can take us, tell us more
about why you decided to go down
the beauty path with Ayurveda.
Dr. Raichur: I think the main
reason is that every human being,
from a small child to 80-year-old, I
think every one of us want to look
really beautiful. And I think beauty
to me is a byproduct of happiness,
peace, contentment. If we are not
happy, we won’t look beautiful.
That’s my definition of beauty.
And Ayurveda shows you a very
clear path of how to balance your
energies and create this happiness
in our daily life.
Cate: It’s like if we’re not all good on
the inside, we’re not going to look
that good on the outside.
Dr. Raichur: Yes, exactly. That’s the
basic principle of this book.
Cate: So tell us more the path that
led you to write Absolute Beauty
and create your skincare line and
your spa. What were some of the
decisions you had to make along
the way?
Dr. Raichur: When I started
working in Manhattan, opened my
own skincare place, I realized that
women think just by using some
external product they can look
beautiful. So I wanted everyone to,
most women, to understand that
if we want lasting beauty, we need
to look within our self, just by using
external product.
There is no one product that’s going
to make one look beautiful. It has
to come from within. And by using
external product and skincare or
synthetic chemicals, we are not
going to look beautiful. But if we
look within our self, and change our
lifestyle, and balance our self from
within, then I think we can achieve
lasting beauty.
Cate: I’m curious of how much
of your work that you’re doing in
Manhattan with Pratima Skincare,
how much is educational for your
new clients?
Dr. Raichur: Educational means
how much do I have to prepare
them or teach them? Is that what
you’re asking?
Cate: Yes, to teach them in order
for them to experience their inner
beauty that they’re coming for?
Dr. Raichur: When they’re coming
to me, basically they come to me
because of some kind of a skin
problem. That’s how I started
working. So they are not interested
in learning. People are interested in
looking beautiful. They just want the
results.
So I don’t teach them the whole
philosophy of Ayurveda, because
that’s not possible. So what I do is I
change their diet a little bit and then
ask them to use external products
and then give them some particular
herbs which will balance them. To
me, external products is actually a
nutrition. External nutrition, internal
nutrition is very necessary.
So if I make some changes in their
life, and when they see that it
works, they believe. Then they’re
ready to study a little bit more. If
the first time I ask them to change
their entire lifestyle, it’s not possibly.
But slowly and gradually they start
seeing the changes and then they
start believing in Ayurveda.
Cate: And then they want to learn
more.
Dr. Raichur: Yeah. Then, of course,
they want to keep learning more
and more. Then they are eager
to learn because I want to teach
them breathing exercises. I want to
go into meditation. And all those
changes happen slowly. But I don’t
have to make much effort to prove
them because it’s already proven
that they see the results. And then
they start learning by themselves.
They want to learn more and more.
I don’t have to force them.
Cate: It really brings up that
because Ayurveda is a holistic
science that the entry point,
whether it’s to beauty or to back
pain, it ends up feeding into the
whole, into the diet, into the
breathing practices, into the daily
rhythms.
Dr. Raichur: Yes.
Cate: And in your work, beauty is
the entrance point.
Dr. Raichur: Exactly. If I tell everyone
who’s coming to me, “Okay, start
following a complete Ayurvedic
lifestyle,” it’s almost impossible. But
when they see the results—they look
pretty, they look beautiful—they
want to learn more and more. So it
is the entrance point.
Cate: I love that.
Dr. Raichur: Many, many people
who come to me, they say, “Oh,
my God, you changed my life
completely.” And I think that’s the
beauty of it. It does change, but it
takes a little time. And they have to
believe in it.
Cate: Yes. And then they have to
honor the results they’re getting
from the practices that are creating
those results.
Dr. Raichur: Yes.
Cate: I love what you’re saying
about small changes over time.
Do you want to talk a little bit
about that, about actually learning
slowly so that we can digest what
we’re learning and what the cause
and effect that relationship is? If
someone’s coming in and they have
blemished skin and they’ve had skin
issues for years and now they’re
starting to learn how to take care of
their whole mind, body, spirit, and
how that takes time.
Dr. Raichur: For example, just like
acne. It’s a simple skin problem,
right? A lot of younger generation
suffers from it. And normally first
they go to a dermatologist. They
don’t come to me. They go to a
dermatologist. And most of the time
what the dermatologist offer them
or give them are antibiotics.
So they do take antibiotics for a
little while. The acne, they do see
some results, but it doesn’t go
away completely. And then after
two, three months, they get the
acne again. And at that time they
start thinking about it. “Oh, maybe I
should follow some other path.” And
then that’s how they come to me.
So when they come to me, they
are ready to change their lifestyle
a little bit. Not completely, because
they haven’t seen the results. But
once after going to dermatologist,
then when they come to me, then
I make them understand that acne
is a result of some either hormonal
imbalance, nutritional imbalance, or
maybe they’re having a lot of stress
in their life. So there are many
reasons for it.
So we look at everything. I try to
look at their constitution. Make
them understand what their
constitution is, whether their pitta is
high or kappa is high. Why the skin
is oily? What are they eating?
And then we make some small,
small changes, just simple things
like not eating too much dairy and
cheese and sugar. A few changes.
Not the whole life change, but a
few changes. And once they start
making those small changes,
and they start using the skincare
product, and they start to take the
herbs, and they start seeing the
results, then they want to make
complete change in their life.
Cate: Beautiful. So considering how
Ayurveda is this ancient science
and how people with modern
imbalances, let’s just talk a little
about this tri-doshic approach,
about understanding constitution,
understanding the nature of the
imbalance, getting to the root of
the issue, and just what your clients
really discover in that process, that
beauty isn’t just skin deep.
Dr. Raichur: Okay. Understanding.
What basic principle of Ayurveda is
that we are all born with these five
different energies. And it’s a hard
concept for people to understand
what is this energy. But once I
try to make them understand
the basic principles of Ayurveda,
five energies—earth, water, fire,
air, and space—and then what
are they born with? What is their
predominant energy? And because
of that particular combination of
energies, their constitution, what
are they prone to? And if they
understand the tendencies, I think
they make peace with it, and they
are able to follow the principles.
“Okay, I am born with too much
fire. My constitution is pitta. Okay,
then I’m not supposed to eat too
much fiery or acetic food, or I will
get rashes and hives and acne.” So
they understand that. Once they
understand the basic principle
of Ayurveda, then they are more
willing to follow the principles and
make the changes.
Cate: Yeah. And in that path
as they’re discovering their
constitution, their Prakruti. And
they’re discovering the nature of
their imbalances or their Prakruti.
How does this Ayurveda wisdom
shift your clients, their body image,
or their self-perception?
Dr. Raichur: Once they know their
constitution, then they are able
to appreciate and embrace the
Ayurveda principle more easily. If
somebody has a tendency to gain
weight and if they understand that,
“Okay, I am born with this kapha
constitution, that means my natural
tendency is to gain weight.” Then
they do understand that every
constitution has some positive
things and few negative things.
There is nothing good or bad. I
always tell them, there is no one
constitution which is good or a
constitution which is bad. We all
have all these five energies. But we
are born with some predominant
energies, so that’s our nature. That’s
our constitution.
So once we understand that, then
we need to accept it and then look
at what are the good points. “Okay,
I’m born with kappa tendencies.
So it’s easy for me to gain weight.”
But at the same time, I make them
understand that kappa people are
more dependable, more loving,
more serene. So there are a lot of
good qualities about kappa also.
So once they know that there are a
lot of different good qualities, then
they mostly pay attention to those,
then they don’t feel that bad. I think
that’s how I feel. Then they readily
accept, okay, yeah, I’m kappa. But
I don’t have to worry about aging
process, because kaphas age very
slowly. They have their own pace.
Beautiful, moist skin. Very loving,
very caring people. So they look at
those qualities. And they feel much
better. Does that make sense to
you?
Cate: Yeah. And really what I’m
hearing and what you’re saying is
they’re able to embrace themselves.
Dr. Raichur: Accept. Yes.
Cate: And the level of depth that
previously they may have actually
rejected or pushed away their
natural tendencies and just not
understood their natural gifts.
Dr. Raichur: Yes. Exactly.
Somebody makes peace with
themselves, they naturally feel good
about themselves. Their self-esteem
comes back and they start taking
care of themselves. So naturally
they look much more peaceful,
happy, and beautiful.
Cate: Can you talk a little bit about
that concept in Ayurveda of svastha,
of being seated in the self because
I think that really ties into this
conversation of absolute beauty,
the teaching of svastha, of being
seated in the self, this Ayurveda
teaching of svastha. Because a lot
of what we’re talking about with
body image and understanding our
constitution and making changes in
alignment with our constitution, it
has that effect of becoming seated
in the self. And I just wondered if
you wanted to expand on that at all.
Dr. Raichur: All these things that
we talked about are still external:
the diet, the nutrition, and all
that. Then once they are a little
bit happier with themselves—how
they are looking, they gain some
self-esteem—then I actually take
them much deeper. And I teach
them breathing exercises. Because
according to Ayurveda, there are
five koshas: annamaya kosha,
pranamaya kosha, manomaya
kosha, vijnanamaya kosha, and
anandamaya kosha. There are five
koshas. And until we balance all
the five koshas, we are not totally
happy and peaceful.
So once they see the difference
externally, then I take them a little
bit deeper, and then I teach them
breathing exercises. And then we
go a little bit deeper about their
emotions, how their emotions
are affecting their skin. If they are
angry, how it affects the liver. If they
are very anxious, how it affects the
kidneys. If they are very sad, how
it affects their lungs. And it’s the
cells in the body. So I make them
understand all those things.
And then how to deal with the
emotion, how to deal with the
stress. And once they understand
the stress, I always tell them, “The
stress doesn’t exist actually. The
stress is our own perception.” And
once they start learning that, they’re
a lot more peaceful. They know how
to handle the stress, how to change
the diet, how to breath, how to do
exercises, how to use the external
product. So it’s a complete holistic
lifestyle. And when they start doing
meditation, naturally they become
more peaceful, more beautiful, and
they achieve everlasting beauty. Did
I give you a very big answer?
Cate: Yeah. No, I’m right there with
you, especially with the teaching
that stress is a perception. Stress
is optional. We can choose ease
or stress. It’s out choice. And if we
land that to our listeners in terms
of what is stress look like, let alone
feel like? But just from that external
beauty, how everyone else might
see the image of us, versus what
does ease look like, living at ease
within ourselves? So I’m really glad
that you mentioned that.
Dr. Raichur: The ease looks like you
are happy. Your face relaxes. Your
skin glows. And you look naturally
healthy. I wouldn’t know how else
to define that.
Cate: Beautiful. Yeah, that’s
beautiful. So it’s a very powerful
teaching right there.
Dr. Raichur: Thank you. I hope so.
Cate: So let’s talk about skincare
products. One of the first things I’d
like to ask is around plants and how
has your connection with plants
influenced your skincare products?
Dr. Raichur: Skincare products
is the external nutrition for the
skin. So it’s not just a combination
of some herbs or some oils. But
Ayurveda goes beyond that. The
Ayurvedic skincare is totally based
on the fundamental principles of
Ayurvedic nutrition, depending on
the constitution.
If there’s a vata person, they have
normally dry skin. But vatas are
balanced with sweet, sour, salty.
That’s the principle of Ayurveda
nutrition. So when I combine
herbs or essential oils, they are all
based on those basic balancing
principles. So it doesn’t just balance
the external skin, but it balances
the skin, mind, and soul. It works
on all the three levels. And I think
that’s the main difference between
Ayurvedic skincare products and
the other products.
Cate: Can you talk about that a little
bit more deeply, about balancing
not just the skin, but the mind and
the soul? About how that works or
what the experience is like?
Dr. Raichur: Mind. What is mind?
Mind is thoughts. And thoughts
are sometimes we are angry,
sometimes we are anxious. Like I
said before, the angry thoughts will
make the skin blush, will use hives,
break your capillaries. Skin will be
red, rosacea, acne. All these are
manifestations of anger.
But on the other hand, if one is very
anxious, like vata people are, their
tendencies are, then the skin will
be very dry and dehydrated. And
for kappas, it’s mostly oily. The skin
is oily, large pores. And then they
have a tendency to have cystic acne
or even internal cysts also, whether
it’s a cyst in the breast, or a cyst in
the uterus, or a cyst on the skin. It’s
all the same manifestation.
And thoughts affect the skin
because thought is a hormone.
Every single thought secretes a
hormone. And that affects the skin.
So unless we change the thoughts,
the perception, we cannot change
the hormonal secretion. So by
changing the hormonal secretion
and by balancing the external
nutrition, internal nutrition, we
can achieve health and happiness.
And of course that end product is
beauty.
Cate: Beautiful. So can you tell us
a little bit of how your relationship
with plants influences your skincare
products? Some more of the
external influence in your products?
Dr. Raichur: Knowing about the
chemistry and botany about the
plants, it helped me what can
be combined, what cannot be
combined. The harmony. How to
create the harmony between the
herbs and the oils and how to mix
them, how to use them. And that’s
where that knowledge helped me
for the combination, and then of
course the knowledge of Ayurveda
all together. And my experience, I’ve
been in skincare for almost the last
40 years. I think everything together
I created this line. And it does make
a change.
Cate: And what are some of your
favorite plants personally to use in
skincare, for yourself?
Dr. Raichur: There are lots of
plants. Every plant, every herb,
they’re plenty. It’s not about my
liking, but it’s about their properties.
Each one has a different property.
And they have 20 different
characteristics. Whether they are
oily or dry, whether they are hot or
cold. And there are so many. I won’t
go into all that.
But based on that, I combine or do
the combinations of the skincare
product. It doesn’t depend on
what I personally like. Yes, I do
like turmeric. I like all the spices.
I like neem. I like shatavri. But
[inaudible], there are so many
different herbs which I use in my
skincare product. But based on
their characteristics and based on
the constitution, I use different
herbs and different essential oils in
different products.
Cate: Of course, yeah. I understand
that. My sense is that often as
humans we often develop a
personal relationship with plants,
just like we do with certain
people, where there’s a high, high
resonance.
Dr. Raichur: I like all kinds of
flowers, like jasmine, rose, and
vetiver. There are so many beautiful
flowers, which of course there’s
a tremendous effect on the mind
with all these essential oils, very
soothing, very calming. So but I
do like neem. Neem is antiviral,
antiseptic, antibacterial, and I can
use for most of my skin diseases or
skin problems. I do use neem.
I do like shatavri, which balances
the female hormones and creates
a lot of happiness. I do like amla.
Amla is supposed to be very
rejuvenating for every constitution.
So there are many products in
many plants. I love and I use them.
Cate: So tell me this, too. With
Ayurveda and for you being from
India and using plants from India,
many herbal and supplements
skincare companies rely on these
traditional Ayurvedic plants from
India, and from the ecosystem that
are being used by people living in
other ecosystems across the planet.
And often the local then in living
in the ecosystems, whether the
herbs are from India or from
Nepal or wherever, the locals there
often get priced out of their local
medicines. Often plants now are
over-harvested or not harvested
with care as there’s more demand
in the global economy for these
plants. And so I’m just curious
about just how you navigate this
with your choices, and just get your
thoughts on this. There’s more
demand for plants maybe outside
of the ecosystem where they’re
being used.
Dr. Raichur: I can’t talk about
everyone else. But we make sure
that we source our plants from the
organic farms in India and make
sure that the people, the farmers,
who work there, they get paid very
well. They are taken very good care
of. So we make sure about those
things.
And then the most of the herbs
which we use, we do buy them
from India, because the soil, the
temperature is very good for those
particular plants which we use in
our skincare, or even internal or
external. Because the richness of
the Indian soil and the temperature
and the climate is very good for
them. They grow nicely over there.
And I personally do use wild plants
also, not just particularly harvested,
because we believe when the plant
grows in its own climatic condition,
it is always more stronger, healthier,
more effective. So just make sure
that the farmers are paid well and
taken good care of.
Cate: And so let’s talk a little bit
about in terms of ritual in your life,
in terms of aging with grace and
aging with this inner beauty, would
you just like to share a little bit
about the role of ritual yourself in
your life?
Dr. Raichur: Ritual to me is
something which we do every day,
kind of lifestyle. Getting up early in
the morning. In my life, yes, I do get
up early. I say thank you to God or
thank you for the whole world for
waking me up in the morning. I do
use my own toothpaste and tongue
scraping and do the exercise,
the breathing exercise. Then the
proper eating, proper nutrition or
the breakfast. These are all in a
way rituals. Meditation is a very big
aspect of my life.
But besides that, to take care of the
skin also, we do need to properly
cleanse the skin, keep the skin
moisturized. Cleaning, moisturizing
is the normal routine things one has
to do. And what we do every day
I think affects our life more than
doing once a month or once a week.
But there are different rituals. I will
say there are certain things have to
be done every day. Certain things
have to be done once a week.
Certain things have to be done
every six months, like detoxification
program or panchakarma. Those
are also rituals. So there are lots
of different rituals. And there is
a purpose for all those. And if we
follow those, it naturally keeps
us more healthy. Like doing
panchakarma every six months,
detoxify the body, it will prevent a
lot of further problems. It will make
us healthy and keep us happy.
So there are different rituals for
different reasons. And if we follow
them, it creates a discipline in the
life, faith in the life, and I think
that’s what makes us happy and
ages more gracefully, or prevent
the aging process. Slow the aging
process, I should say. I can’t say
prevent it, but it slows the aging
process. That’s my own experience.
Cate: That’s good to reflect that the
rhythm, what you just described,
that ritual is a rhythm. And it’s my
experience, too, and I’m sure for
many of the listeners who are far
attuned themselves to rhythm and
ritual, that it ties back into what we
talked about earlier, with an ease
versus stress. And like ritual itself,
it doesn’t sustain stress. It sustains
ease. And that really affects how
rapidly or slowly we age.
Dr. Raichur: Exactly. It basically
creates faith, I think, and happiness.
Cate: Yes. So I’d love to in closing
ask about you’ve grown a successful
skincare line in Manhattan around
Ayurveda. And many have tried
there and failed. And Ayurveda,
whether it’s rituals and rhythms
around going to bed early and
walking up early and eating a clean
diet, those things are not easy in
Manhatan. So I’m just curious what
you attribute your success to.
Dr. Raichur: My success. I’m glad
to hear that I am successful. When
people come to us, or anywhere,
when we go to the doctors, the
basic thing is we expect results.
Otherwise people won’t trust you.
So I think my belief is that when
they come here, by changing, by
reducing their stress, by changing
their nutrition, by teaching them
breathing, meditation, I give them
results. And the results are lasting.
And I think that is what keeps
my business going, because then
one person tells other person. So
it’s word of mouth. And it keeps
growing and growing. And thank
God for that.
Cate: Beautiful. Is there anything
else that you would like to mention
in the Ayurveda Summit as far as
what you’d like people to know
about skincare or about Ayurveda?
I just want to give you the floor for
whatever topic you want to bring
up, if any.

Dr. Raichur: No. What I will say that

Ayurveda is a very ancient 7,000-
year- old science. So I would love
people to learn its basic principles,
use them in their daily routine life,
and make one’s self healthy, happy,
and beautiful.

Cate: Beautiful.

Dr. Raichur: Thank you.

Cate: Nameste.

Dr. Raichur: Namaste. Thank you

very much.

Cate: So again everyone,

this is Dr. Pratima Raichur, at
PratimaSkinCare.com. And you
can find her skincare line and her
practice in Manhattan

Dr. Raichur: Thank you.

Cate: I appreciate your time. That

was lovely to connect.

Dr. Raichur: I appreciate, too, your

time. Thank you very much.

Cate: You’re welcome.

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