Bonus: Dr. Maggie Luther, Leading Ladies in Wellness

Episode Summary

Title: Bonus Dr. Maggie Luther, Leading Ladies in Wellness - Dr. Maggie Luther recommends starting with assessing your diet to see where the nutrient gaps are before taking supplements. Fill in those gaps rather than just taking a multivitamin. - Digestive herbs like peppermint and chamomile are a good introduction to herbs and can help with gas and bloating. Adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha help your body adapt to stress. - Look for supplements made with high quality, bioavailable forms of vitamins and minerals. Do research on companies to ensure they use proper sourcing and testing. - Aim for 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Calming herbs like valerian can help transition your mind and body into a relaxed state for sleep. - Collagen, B vitamins, ceramides and silica supplements may help hair, skin and nails but work best alongside a healthy diet and lifestyle. - Make wellness habits non-negotiable and build them in slowly over time. Remind yourself of the benefits you want to gain. - Supplements complement a healthy diet and lifestyle. They are not magical pills. Find a company invested in your overall health and sourcing quality ingredients.

Episode Show Notes

Where do you start if you're new to wellness? How much sleep should you really be getting? Is a multivitamin better than individual vitamins? On this bonus episode, Dr. Maggie Luther, Care/of’s Medical Director and Formulator, answers all our self-care questions.

Episode Transcript

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At Morgan & Morgan, we've made it really easy. Anything that we need from you, you're able to do from the comfort of your home. You can just dial pound law and you talk to someone like me. SPEAKER_02: If you or any one of your family has been injured, call Morgan & Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. We've collected over $15 billion for our clients. It's easy. Visit forthepeople.com for an office near you. SPEAKER_01: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Encyclopedia Wamanica. This bonus episode of Leading Ladies is brought to you by Care Of. Whether you're a leading lady of stage and screen, or just of your everyday life, we all want to feel and look our best. That starts from the inside out. Care Of has all the vitamins and supplements you need to prepare for your best performance. To round out these supplements, and to answer our wellness-related queries, we decided to go to the source and speak with Care Of's medical director and formulator. Meet Dr. Maggie Luther. I have never taken vitamins or supplements. SPEAKER_10: Where do I even begin? So I always have people start with looking at their diet. I have a lot of people who are looking at their diet. SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a really important part of the process. We start with looking at their diet and their nutrient intake. We know that people don't generally get much vitamin D in their diet. Things like K2 is also a great vitamin, but people don't get a ton of that in their diet. And then choline, which is a really important vitamin that just got a new daily value. And then there's nutrients that we might get some of, like calcium, potassium fiber, but we're not getting enough of it in our diet globally. So really looking at your diet and understanding where the gaps are, and then supplementing with a supplement to those gaps, rather than just assuming like, oh, everyone needs a multivitamin, let's take a multivitamin, right? It's really good to really pair up your supplements with your diet. So I'm also a big fan though of herbs, and I think digestive herbs are a really great introduction for people. Cause I would say probably most of us have experienced, you know, gas floating in digestion, and we all could probably benefit from some herbs. So things like peppermint, lemon balm, chamomile, fennel, some of these you might be like, oh yeah, I've heard those before, that's a cooking spice. And the reason is because they help with digestive function and just sort of reduce any gas or bloating. So those are great herbs if you're interested in like, oh, I've kind of already got some vitamins and minerals. I would love to like branch out a little bit. Digestive herbs are great. And then because I don't want to leave you hanging, I always recommend people check out what's called adaptogenic herbs. And these herbs are great. They help you adapt to stress, and we all experience a ton of stress in our life. So adaptogens can help us adapt to physical stress, mental, emotional stress. And I know we're all sort of going through a lot of stress with recent events in the world. So herbs like ashwagandha, rhodiola, holy basil, these are really great herbs to help you sort of like feel a little bit less stressed, however that expresses in your body. How do I ensure that the vitamins I'm taking are made with the best ingredients? There's cheaper forms of vitamins and minerals, and then there's more ideal forms of vitamins and minerals. So when we think about vitamins and minerals, if we're getting more ideal forms, you'll see things like methylated forms of vitamins, such as methylfolate versus like a folic acid. And that can be better for just the global population to be consuming methylfolate. Could also mean something like you're getting calcium from a plant versus calcium carbonate, which is more like akin to calcium rock carbonate. So you wanna make sure that what they're using is in ideal forms, and then how they're formulating is ideal for you, right? So like, I know it sounds like it can be a little difficult, but if you just start reading, read blogs, definitely go to publications, because we can realize that like, everything on the internet isn't true, right? So we wanna make sure that we're reading this and we're seeing it and it's popping up, or like we've talked to a trusted friend. We all have a trusted friend who, is probably the person who takes the most supplements out of everyone we know, right? Like what have they learned along the way? So definitely do a little bit of homework before, but then dive in with some companies that seem like they know what they're doing when it comes to mixing the product together and then giving you the right forms. SPEAKER_08: How much sleep should I be aiming to get and can a supplement help? SPEAKER_00: Sleep, the ultimate question. It's kind of like exercise, right? Like, it's like, you know it's good for you, but you're not sure how much or what type to get. Yeah, so I think in general, seven and a half to eight and a half hours of sleep is what we should strive for. And so, you know, I know there's a lot of people who are like, oh, I can push the five and a half hours of sleep, but eventually that does catch up with you. You might be able to do it for five, 10 years, but it does, you know, when we look epidemiologically, it does show that that can actually contribute to aging. So, you know, sleep is so important. There's so much that goes on when we sleep. Our bodies really are in heal mode. So we wanna make sure that we're valuing that time enough that we can carve it out of our schedule. In regards to different supplements, I think people are probably most familiar with melatonin, which is a hormone, and that helps with occasional sleeplessness. It's really great for jet lag. I also like to tell people about some of the calming herbs. So things like passion flower and valerian and lemon balm, these can be really great for not really like knocking you out, but more so calming down the body, right? So when we're going to sleep, we need to, our brain has to move through these different waves. So like beta waves is like where you're at when you're awake and you're oriented and you're like in the middle of a project, right? And then you need to move to alpha waves in order to really like then be able to go into the deeper REM sleep. And so a lot of times it happens for people with sleep issues is they just have trouble getting from that beta to alpha state, cause they're just so revved up from the day. Even if they're physically tired, they can be mentally revved up. So a lot of times these herbs can be used in capsule form, or you could get a tea form of the ones that taste good. Some of them don't always taste that delicious. They might be a little bitter, but these herbs are really great at just helping calm the body and mind down to be able to get you into that state of sleep. SPEAKER_05: So can supplements help my skin, my nails and my hair? SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so when it comes to those topical things, we can definitely, I like to encourage people to first think of the basics, right? So are you drinking adequate water? Do you eat plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit? Do you eat primarily whole foods versus processed foods? And then what are you doing to protect your skin, right? When it comes to supplements, there's definitely some that have been shown to help with those end points. Collagen, there's some B vitamins just because they help with the biochemical processes. Things like ceramides, silica can be helpful. Even some herbs that are related to stress. So like ashwagandha is a pretty well known herb. This helps us reduce our cortisol and oftentimes higher cortisol can have negative impacts on skin, hair, nails, so the thing though is that you have to continue to take these things, right, to have that intended benefit. So that's why it's almost like a both and, you definitely wanna make sure you're doing all the diet and lifestyle stuff for the ultimate benefits. And then if you're looking to get like a boost in those areas, you can definitely look to those supplements that I just mentioned that will help boost it up. Is the multivitamin better or less than taking individual vitamins? Yeah, totally. This is a great question, because again, I will say it really depends on the individual, right? So if I am someone who, you know, doesn't really eat much in the way of fresh vegetables and fruit daily, if I eat mostly processed foods, if I don't drink a ton of water, if I'm not giving my body those nutrients in food form, then I actually would be a good candidate for a multivitamin. So other reasons you would consider a multivitamin are maybe you drink alcohol routinely, maybe you're on birth control or medication that is known to deplete certain vitamins and minerals. And some of them can be so additive that it's just better to take a multi versus those individual inputs. SPEAKER_05: Hey, I'm a pretty active and healthy person, and I'm just wondering if I should add protein powder to my diet, if that would help me bulk up. Thanks. Totally, so there's no like rule that says, SPEAKER_00: like if you work out, you automatically need more protein, right? And if you're eating adequate protein for yourself, then there's no bulking up with protein in and of itself. It's generally when people are eating lots and lots of calories, and then also really working out hard at the gym. SPEAKER_08: Do you have any tips for managing stress in these crazy times? SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is crazy, definitely. I think I always like to think about, okay, what can I do that's free or like low lift in my life, right? So exercising, we know is a great stress reducer. Doing something that's calming or grounding, we were talking earlier about bringing your brain from that beta, like almost high state to an alpha wave state. And so things like meditation and guided imagery and even doing like just a body scan, you know, take five minutes in your day and do some deep breathing and close your eyes and just like pay attention to all the parts of your body and just notice like what's happening in my body right now. That can be really helpful to reduce your stress. I think taking breaks from news and social media is uber important. There's so much going on. And a lot of times it's not new, it's just like a new spin. So like, yeah, you wanna stay updated, but you don't have to like be so updated that you're like going crazy from reading all of this over and over. I also think, you know, getting social support is really important. I know it's hard right now with everything and social distancing, but even if it means like, you know, calling up a friend you haven't talked to in a while or making a Zoom date or, you know, doing whatever, it feels weird, but at the same time, having that social support is more nutritive than I think a lot of people, well, people probably realize it, but sometimes we don't make the space for it. And then it's like, oh, I was so glad to like catch up and see how that person was doing. And then again, yeah, I did mention adaptogens. I just love these. They're herbs that generally tend to have a fairly immediate effect. A lot of times the supplements, people are like, should I feel something? Should I not feel something? And that really comes down to what you're taking. So a lot of times if you're taking a vitamin D because you know you probably don't get enough in your diet, you're likely not gonna feel an effect from that vitamin D. Whereas when you take some other things, herbs included, you are more likely to feel an effect. So if you're someone who just at the end of the day is completely just like all worked up and you can't calm down, you might consider an adaptogen like ashwagandha, which is really great for lowering cortisol and cortisol sort of our fight or flight. Think of like, oh, I'm running from the bear. Or if you're someone who's like needs a little, maybe you have like the 2PM slums, or you're just kind of like, your focus is a little bit difficult, but something like rhodiola, which is a little more stimulating might be better for you. So these herbs really can have that experiential effect, which is really nice. SPEAKER_08: What are simple tricks for making wellness a priority? SPEAKER_00: I think with wellness, it's another habit that you're building. So I find that people need to consider making some of these things non-negotiables, right? You wanna make sure that you're adding things into your lifestyle that you can then say, okay, this is something I have to do because I want to do it. I want the benefits from it, right? Because it's really easy to get super excited. It's a completely normal response to get super excited about something, do it for like a week and then fall off. Because what happens is the initial motivation, which had some like adrenaline and excitement built into it, that wanes over time. So we wanna make sure that we're building it for the long run, right? So some people are the slow and steady type. Some people are the rip the bandaid off type. I would say, look at your past and see where have you succeeded before and what did you utilize in order to succeed, right? Did you say, I had to give up this in order to get this? Like try that again. Or maybe you were like, for 30 days, I just committed to it. Like I have the mental power and I just did it and I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna set my alarm and there I go. But it's definitely, you'll run into trial and error. But I think, the more you can say, I'm committing this because I want the results and remind yourself that over and over and over again, put stickies up, put it on your bathroom mirror, put it on your fridge, then I think you're more likely to succeed with it. SPEAKER_08: Is there anything about wellness that you think people get wrong? SPEAKER_00: This is a wonderful question. So many things I'd love the world to know. I think I'd love to leave everyone with, diet, lifestyle, our habits every day, how we learn to manage our stress are all the foundation of our health and wellbeing. And supplements are intended to supplement that, right? They're gonna supplement your diet or they're gonna help you with specific health goals. And supplements are not created equal. So there are supplements popping up all the time that may seem like they're this magical pill, right? And I think what people need to understand is that supplements are not pharmaceuticals or over the counter drugs. They're not intended to just be like treating this one very specific thing and make that symptom disappear while you're taking it. They're intended more to like add value into your overall health routine. So, signing yourself up with a company that really is invested in that as well, I think is really important, right? Anyone can put something in a bottle and label it and sell it to you. But there's only a couple companies, right? I'm not saying like three, I'm saying like probably a hundred, right? That are truly helping you move the needle on your health. Like this is something that you want to put in your body and have an effect from. So, make sure that you're not being lost with shiny object syndrome when it comes to supplements and you truly are understanding, oh, this is going to help me. And the reason it's gonna help me is because this company really is invested in sourcing well and they do their testing and their formulators are people who are really knowledgeable about nutrition and herbs and things like that. And they're vested in helping their consumers heal as well. I hope you found this special bonus episode SPEAKER_01: as informative as I did. Thank you to Care Of for sponsoring this bonus episode of Encyclopedia Wamanica. I recently took the Care Of quiz myself and I'm so excited to get my products. I'm particularly excited to get my collagen powder, which is supposed to help with my skin. I also got vitamin D, which is supposed to help my bones, vitamin C for immunity and rhodiola for energy. I'm always looking for more energy. So I'm also really pumped to try out these quick sticks. 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