537: Your Natural Medicine Chest: HPA Axis Balance

In today’s episode of the Learn True Health Podcast, Dr. Ellen Kamhi returns for part two of our powerful conversation on natural healing. We dive deep into understanding the HPA axis—how your hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands work together to regulate stress, energy, sleep, weight, digestion, and so much more.

You'll learn how chronic stress throws the entire body out of balance—and how simple, natural tools like herbal medicine, better sleep habits, and plant-based remedies can help restore true health. Dr. Kamhi shares practical, time-tested solutions you can start using right away to support your body's innate ability to heal itself.

If you’ve ever struggled with fatigue, brain fog, thyroid issues, gut problems, or low immunity, this is a must-listen episode!

Highlights:

• Dr. Ellen Kamhi highlights that hundreds of health issues—like migraines, weight gain, and insomnia—are linked to an imbalanced HPA axis.
• The HPA axis (hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal) controls stress response, digestion, immune function, mood, and energy levels.
• Chronic stress keeps cortisol levels elevated long-term, weakening the immune system and leading to fatigue, obesity, thyroid issues, and gut problems.
• Getting deep, dark sleep—by blocking out all light and minimizing screen exposure at night—is essential for balancing the HPA axis.
• Mimosa (Albizia) flower is called the “Tree of Happiness” and naturally boosts mood, calms the nervous system, and supports endocrine balance.
• Magnolia bark lowers cortisol, reduces inflammation, and binds to serotonin receptors, helping relieve anxiety and emotional tension.
• Castor oil packs applied over the adrenal glands or thyroid help stimulate natural healing and restore hormonal balance.
• Valerian root helps promote deep sleep, but individual reactions vary—some feel calm, while others may feel stimulated.
• Passionflower is excellent for calming the mind during the day without sedation, making it ideal for stress-related HPA dysfunction.
• Lifestyle habits like prayer, meditation, rest, and limiting light exposure at night are simple yet powerful ways to heal the body naturally.
  

Intro:

Hello True Health Seeker and welcome to another exciting episode of the Learn True Health Podcast. We have an amazing episode for you today, with Dr. Ellen Kamhi coming back on the show. She was with us in last episode 536, part one, where we discussed using herbal medicine to support our immune health and to eliminate or control pain, and also support the body's ability to heal itself while we're going through injury or illness. Today, we're diving into understanding the HPA axis—the hypothalamic, pituitary, adrenal axis—and how that plays a major role in everything from migraines, obesity, digestion, back pain, insomnia, energy—the list goes on and on. A lot of times when we go to a doctor with symptoms, the doctor starts treating the symptoms instead of going upstream to the root cause of the problem. There are hundreds of problems that are all caused by a dysregulated HPA axis, so today you're going to learn about how to support your HPA axis and how to support your body's ability to come back into balance and your body's ability to heal itself.

Here at Learn True Health, we believe in the body's innate and God-given ability to heal itself. We grew ourselves from a single cell into over 32.7 trillion cells that are a symphony within a symphony. In fact, a biologist once said that the single human cell is more complex. There's more things going on in one human cell than all of Manhattan. If you can imagine how busy it is in New York City, let alone Manhattan, you think about Manhattan, you think about just everything that's happening, imagine one human cell is more busy than that. It's more busy than all of New York. There's more things going on, and we're just scratching the surface. Every day we're just learning more and more and more.

Yet there's this ancient medicine, long before pharmaceutical, drug-based, chemically patented pharmaceutical interventions. I'm not saying we should ignore those. I'm saying we should look at the whole picture. If you needed an entire toolbox to fix a car but I only let you have access to one of the shelves of that toolbox, how effective would you be at repairing that car? Maybe you could change a tire, but you couldn't change the oil. I don't know. Point being, if we want to take care of ourselves, we really should have access to and an understanding of the full plethora of what is available for us.

Holistic, plant-based medicine—so herbal medicine, for example—was used even by medical doctors up until about the 1950s when, because of the way their education was manipulated by the pharmaceutical industries, those practices fell by the wayside. Yet we have effective, easy-to-use herbal remedies to support the body's ability to heal itself. We have access to so much now. Because you're listening to this, because we have the internet, we can start exploring. We can start finding practitioners. Doesn't have to be even in our town or our city. They don't even have to be in our state or our country. We can connect with people worldwide and learn how to support a body's ability to heal itself.

I highly recommend checking out our previous episode 536, where we began this talk with Dr. Kamhi. You can listen to it out of order. You can continue listening to this, then go back to the last episode if you haven't already, because it's a wonderful journey to learn from her. I also encourage you to go to my website.

My name's Ashley James. If you are new to this podcast, welcome. I've been doing this podcast now coming up on 10 years. It's amazing, I can't believe it. Together we are learning how to heal our bodies and learning how to create true health, which is a balance of emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical health. You can go to LearnTrueHealth.com and use the search function to find dozens of episodes on topics that you're interested in. You can also schedule a free phone call with me. I'd love to help you.

I've been a holistic, integrative health coach for many years. I am now a proud author. I published a book last year called Addicted to Wellness. You can check it out by going to LearnTrueHealth.com/addictedtowellness. I'm also an anxiety cessation expert. That's something that I do talk about, but not as often. I think I should talk about it more, because so many people suffer with anxiety, and I've been teaching people since 2005 how to eliminate anxiety. Can you believe it's been 20 years? What? That's crazy. I have been helping people for two decades to completely eliminate anxiety from their life, and I have these amazingly powerful tools that I can teach you.

If you want to work one-on-one with me, I'd love for you to hire me as your health coach. You can also sign up for a free consultation if you'd like to have a chat with me. I love talking to you guys. I love, love, love connecting with you. I have so many resources. If you're sick of suffering from physical ailments or if you just really want to have that peace of mind and you've been struggling with anxiety or insomnia or depression, or struggling with food and not knowing how to eat healthy or get on the right track to getting your energy back—just any of these things—please book a free consultation with me. I'd love to help you. I have some amazing resources that I can send your way, one of them being the phototherapy patches, which have been so life-changing. I've got some amazing tools that I could point you in the right direction. If you want to hire me, you are absolutely welcome to. If you want someone to hold your hand and guide you through, I'd love to be there for you as well.

I also really recommend checking out TakeYourSupplements.com. It's a fantastic resource if you're ready to take your health back and take your life back. The supplements there, the protocols that they have, saved my life coming up on 13, 14 years ago. It was right around 2011. That's when I got on their protocols, and they helped me to reverse what I was told was irreversible PCOS and infertility. I have an amazing son to prove it, that we conceived naturally after getting on these supplements. They helped me to reverse my type 2 diabetes and my chronic adrenal fatigue, which was amazing to have vanished as a result of nutrition, natural supplements, and diet changes.

What I'm saying is that there's so much suffering going on out there, and I was in it. I suffered for years while being cared for by MDs, by medical doctors, and they really didn't have any answers for me. Now I believe that drugs and the medical system—the hospitals and those clinics—are good tools. When we break our arm or when we get into an accident, we want to have them at our disposal. They really fail us when it comes to supporting our body's ability to heal itself. They just don't have those tools.

So this episode, this entire podcast, my over 500 and now 37 episodes, are dedicated to showing you that there's a world out there that isn't in the mainstream media. That's a whole other topic as to why, but it's here for you, and it's been around for a long time, and it's proven itself. It's proven itself effective, and it's also gentle, and it is something that it's about coming back to ourselves and nourishing ourselves and supporting what our body actually needs to heal itself.

So dive down this rabbit hole with me. Enjoy the ride. It's a lot of fun. If you're new, welcome. If you've been a health nut for a while, I know I'm preaching to the choir. Please share this episode with those you care about. We are going to help end the suffering of millions of people through helping them learn true health.

Enjoy today's episode.

Welcome to the Learn True Health Podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James. This is episode 537.

Ashley James (0:09:06.042)

I am so excited for today's guests and to have back on the show Dr. Ellen Kamhi. Your website is naturalnurse.com. We had Dr. Ellen back in episode 536. That was part one. I feel we're just going to jump right into part two. We talked about some amazing things about herbal medicine.

You should be a national treasure. There should be a Secret Service guarding you. The amount of information you have, it's life-changing. I'm so happy that we have you here today because you are going to change lives today with the information you're sharing. We're going to dive into understanding how we can get out of that stress response to then help the body go into that healing mode through balancing the HPA, the hypothalamus-adrenal-pituitary access.

That's so cool. But first, I really want to talk about the fact that you have very affordable online courses. One coming up in March. I'm so excited. I'm joining it. I'm going to be one of your students. I'm inviting my listeners to come join. It's such life-changing information. So affordable, so accessible. Tell us a little bit about your course that's coming up in March. Naturalnurse.com

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:10:29.173)

Well, thank you so much for the opportunity. I've been doing herbal medicine since 1964. What has been so exciting about that is seeing people really get well. They seem when they're just put on pharmaceuticals during a two-minute visit or eight minutes if they get a whole long time with their doctor, all that happens is they're given a prescription drug, which sometimes can be useful.

But does not usually heal the situation. In fact, I would say it almost never does. That's unfortunate because people then get on a roundabout. Well, when we use a natural intervention such as herbal medicine, now herbal medicine, of course, was always used even by physicians until very, very recently. So even in the 1950s in the United States, and all other countries. Herbal medicine was what anything that might be called a pharmaceutical and was found in a pharmacy. Those were all herbal medicines. 

Only after a big political agenda, and I write all about that in my book, The Natural Medicine Chest, The history of Natural Medicine, there was something called the Flexner Report that was actually commissioned by the Rockefellers and was part of a discussion of the AMA, the American Medical Association, as it came into being. That is when purposefully and politically there was a move to restrict both access and information about herbal medicine and other natural healing modalities such as homeopathy and other things that can be very useful that we use in integrative and functional medicine.

There was a movement to actually stop the teaching of any of those things. It was called Irregular Medicine. To actually stop the teaching of that to physicians in medical schools. To restrict the teachings to physicians to only one source of information that had to do with only two modalities. One is pharmaceuticals and one is surgery.

So when people say, how come my doctor did not tell me about this? It worked so great and it was so inexpensive and it had no adverse effects. Why didn't my doctor tell me about this particular natural healing modality, such as herbs, which we'll be talking about now? The answer is unfortunate because it's actually politically maneuvered. That's a topic for another whole show. 

But as I came into my understanding of natural medicine, which actually happened for the first time when I fell off a horse and had a very severe back injury, which doesn't heal on its own, and I was told I needed surgery, which would be appropriate in most cases, but I sort of had a little bird talk to me, I would say a spiritual revelation.

So look into that because the doctor had told me I would never walk again without surgery, but I did not believe it. So I went to the local library and looked through the card catalog. For those of you old enough to remember those things, they're little drawers that you pull out. Remember, there was no internet. There were no credit cards. This is a long time ago. But I looked through the card catalog about natural therapeutics for a hurt back, which I had. I found so much information and I actually got in touch with all those places I read about such as Dr. Bernard Jensen was one. All of his writings are still worth diving into by any of our listeners today, as well as I myself wrote 18 books. They're all listed on my website at naturalnurse.com books. 

So Dr. Bernard Jensen and many other people that I studied with all talked about using herbs for healing. So that is really where I got my start. One thing that I have noticed over many years, because I'm very involved with the American Herbalist Guild. The American Herbalist Guild is an excellent place to get information about herbal medicine, but I do notice that many of the in-depth training that are offered to the public are very, very, very expensive. 

So therefore, it's going to be limited only to those people of high means to be able to take some of those courses. So I specifically decided to give back to society to have a basic class in herbal medicine so people can do any one of the above. 

They could either be able to intelligently decide what herb or group of herbs, an herbal protocol, would be the right thing for them and their family, just locally for themselves, their family. Then also, the course incorporates for health care professionals who are already doing something that is now being called integrative or functional medicine, which means natural health suggestions for their clients, how a professional also could intelligently and correctly put together herbal protocols. So that's why I started this class. I think it's been going on for about 15 years. So it's new next to some of the things I've been doing for 57 years or more since 1964 in terms of herbal medicine. 

So this class I think is wonderful and I love to share it with people. It's given through the Florida School of Holistic Living, which is a wonderful organization in Florida that does both online training as well as in-person training. I do a lot of in-person as well where we go out in the field and identify plants and actually make them into medicine. That's part of herbal medicine. So in this class, the Natural Nurse Basics of Herbal Medicine actually also offers 18 CEUs for anyone who does have a license. So that might be a nurse or a massage therapist or a holistic practitioner of some kind who is also a licensed health professional. So that's why we put this class together, to be useful for anybody who really wants to study herbal medicine.

It's broken into four classes. We have one class a month. The first one is called the Basics of Herbal Medicine. Here we learn the fundamentals and essential terminology that is relevant to herbalism. Just like nurses, which I'm also a nurse, I'm a PhD RN, nurses have a, I say, a cliquish language. Everyone does. Hairdressers do. Everybody has their own little cliquish language.

In the first class, we have assignments. So we meet for an hour and a half. It's usually on a Sunday for an hour and a half in the morning. You're also given tons and tons of handouts that you're given to actually download and keep forever in your computer. They're given as PDFs. That would be both what I use to lecture from and discuss from, as well as many other handouts about that topic. There is quite a bit of homework. Now, if you want to just listen in and not do the homework, that's fine. But if you want a beautiful certificate given by the Florida School of Holistic Medicine and also the CE units, those are only necessary for someone who already has a license. If you want to get those, then you have to do the homework.

The homeworks are very in-depth because the homeworks are where you learn. So you would look up all these special words for herbal medicine so you could talk to another herbalist. What is a cologog? Do you know? If you do, you're probably pretty well versed in herbal medicine. What is a mucilaginous agent? When would you use that? So that's the kind of thing that we learn in the Natural Nurse class.

So if anybody wants to take it, you can just go online to naturalnurse.com, Classes and Events. The second class is Botany and Botanical Nomenclature. Because if you want to talk about herbs, then you really should understand a little bit about the actual plants that you're talking about. So the botany class covers the importance of Latin names when communicating with other herbalists.

Something very special called the Doctrine of Signatures. The Doctrine of Signatures is a very special thing that has to do with the fact that a plant, when you actually look at the plant, can tell you because of its shape and its size and its function and its color, it can actually tell you what it is used for in the body.

So that's a fantastic aspect of the Doctrine of Signatures. We go deeply into that spiritual signature that a plant has. Also identifying plant families and how we decide if a plant is edible, medicinal, or a very important topic is plants that are poisonous. It's a real good thing to study before you go out and gather plants for food and medicine. 

So if you do not come on board with the class when we have it at that time, you can always get it on the archive. Once you sign up for the class, you will get a link to come to the live sessions and you will get all the handouts for you to download. Then you also get an archive link so you can join us anytime. If you don't come in when we're doing it live, you can come in basically anytime at your convenience to finish the course.

You have about a year to hand in all the assignments. The third class is very specific. It's called Using Herbs for Yourself and Your Family. Now, any of these classes, by the way, you can take just that one class rather than the full series. You can always take just one class. Each class gives three CE units for professionals. Well, if you take the whole class, the whole course and do all the homework, then you get 18 CEUs. But the third class is using herbs for yourself and your family. This covers common herbal first aid that people might use for colds and flus and ear infections, upset stomach, skin rashes, and other mild daily health issues that can be handled at home. 

Actually, herbs are much better than let's say the over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, where if you read some of them, they still have a long list of possible adverse effects, as well as dyes and coloring agents and all kinds of things like that. So even if you just want to know how to use herbs for yourself and your family and put together your own protocol and have me review it and go, that's pretty good, or not, and why not, and where you could look for better information. So that's class three, which is Using Herbs for Yourself and Your Family. 

Then we wrap it up with the fourth class. The fourth class is actually about our very deep spiritual connection to plants. This is called actually feeling the consciousness of plants. Because since ancient times, people have experienced plant communication. Almost anybody can walk outside their door and there's a tree that lives there and the tree might be living there a lot longer than you're living there. It will validate the reality of that feeling that you have. Most people have that feeling. What's so interesting is that scientific investigation now completely supports the fact that plants do communicate.

In fact, there are cellular structures on every single cell in our body. There are specific structures for what's called interdimensional communication and intra and even among species. There are specific cellular parts of each and every cell that are for communicating with your own species. 

So with humans, that would be called intraspecies communication if we're speaking to another human. But let's say your dog comes over and he or she can tell you that they want to go for a walk. That is intraspecies communication. We're communicating with a different species. Guess what? We have those same receptors for the messages that plants put out and now they're actually being measured. 

The actual ancient shamans as always were able to tune into that. So can we, if you learn those techniques, as well as learning dowsing. That's another great technique to communicate. Besides that, getting back to more scientific-based stuff, you definitely want to know exactly how to do herb-drug communication in terms of herb-drug interactions. Before you take any herbs, or suggest any herbs for any particular person or even a pet, you really need to know what possible herb-drug interaction would happen. So in terms of plant dowsing, there are definitely techniques to use, and then when we're talking about herb-drug interactions, it's very important to know which are the best websites to use, and before you're going to start bringing a lot of herbs into your routine or suggest that someone else does, you really have to take a list of their drugs and then look up herb-drug interactions, because sometimes that can actually be dangerous. I'll give you one example here. Let's say you're working with an elderly person, and unfortunately, unlike myself, let's say my mom, my mom's 96 and she's on exactly zero pharmaceuticals, but that's very unusual. In fact, when I do take her for a checkup or something, the doctor will send in four people because the first person he came in, there was nothing on the list of her pharmaceuticals. So they send someone else and say, my dear, I guess you don't understand this question. Let's look at your list of drugs. Oh, you don't have it? Okay, let's ask your daughter. Maybe she knows them. I'll back her up and say zero is the answer. She is not on any pharmaceuticals. It's a shocking thing when I think it should be really the normal thing. 

However, when you have slight imbalances of one kind or another, an herb usually can help bring it back. It should be the remedy of first choice. Later, if or else fails, you need to look at things like exercise, stress reduction therapeutics, all kinds of natural remedies, and then you might want to consider a pharmaceutical. But really, most people should get through their entire life with not one single pharmaceutical. That's actually my belief. As a PhD RN, I think that even more so because we understand the science. So those are what those four classes are.

Again, if you are an acupuncturist, a massage therapist, an RD, a midwife or nurse, or anyone who has a license, then you can get the 18 CE units that are through the Florida Department of Education. Other people in other states take it and also have submitted it to their licensing bureaus, and it is accepted. But if you don't have a license, then you just take the class for your own edification and you also still get a certificate saying that you completed the course. It's nice for people who are herbalists, such as an RH. An RH is a registered herbalist. If anyone's interesting in becoming an RH, I am a mentor who bring people through that whole process, which this class, the Natural Nurse Herbal Certification course, can be used towards your RH. The RH is more comprehensive than just this class and involves quite a bit of study. It's really in the United States one of the only recognized certifications so that it's standardized, meaning anyone who's an RH, which is a registered herbalist through the American Herbalist Guild, they all have to complete the same kind of educational processes. So anyone within RH is definitely a knowledgeable herbalist. So that's the class called the Natural Nurse Herbal Certification Course. You can find it at naturalnurse.com and then go to classes and events because we have lots of other things going on, sort of everyday lectures, et cetera.

Ashley James (0:29:25.632)

I love it. If someone wanted to hire a registered herbalist to work with them, what's the best way to find one, either local or online? Are you available to work with people or do you have a website you can refer people to, a directory?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:29:42.368)

I do. So I personally did one-on-one, where we made and we set up an herbal protocol for an individual. I did that for 57 years, but no more because I am way too busy. I am really way too busy. So my focus now is if an individual wants to walk the path of becoming an herbalist, I do a lot of one-on-one education. Walking them through the process that I do. But not, you have a cold or flu, take these herbs. That I did. 

Now, I did write 18 books. So we have all kinds of books with very specific protocols in them, as well as lectures, individual lectures, what you do for colds and flus. You can take that from my on-demand site. That's Natural Nurse Academy. Those are only $35.

So we're talking about really low-cost information. But to become an RH, you can work with a mentor. I do that one-on-one. That is through a specific organization, which is called the American Herbalist Guild. The American Herbalist Guild is who grants the RH, which is a registered herbalist. That's my favorite, let's say, certification for people to get who would like to call themselves an herbalist because there are many, many programs around who grant something called master herbalist. 

When you look into the different programs who teach it and then it goes to master herbalist when you're done with their program, there's no coherence necessarily. Some of them are excellent and in-depth. Some of them are, a three-hour class and all of a sudden you're a master herbalist. Kind of like other things, a holistic health counselor. There are some that are excellent, a health coach. Someone who has a certification as a nurse health coach is deeply qualified. Other people who call themselves a health coach because they took an online course for a week and never even took anatomy and physiology are not well trained. So that's the difference. An RH is a very well trained, knowledgeable herbalist who has gone through all the requirements of the American Herbalist Guild.

Ashley James (24:22.37)

So the American Herbalist Guild, if we were to look that up, do they have a directory so anyone who's listening could find someone who is certified by them and local to them, for example.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:32:23.662)

That's an excellently stated question to make it clear. So people can just go to the American Herbalist Guild, type that into your browser, American Herbalist Guild, and once you get to their site, they do have a directory of registered herbalists. Then I do think it's set up maybe by state, so you could find someone local if you want to work locally.

Of course, nowadays, one of the positive things that I think happens because of that whole COVID incident was it really opened up people being able to work with people at a distance. A lot of people are much more comfortable with that now. So you might find an herbalist right down the street, or you may find one anywhere in the world that you vibe with, that you would like to work with. So that is a good place to find an herbalist. If someone is an RH, I can't promise you that you will love that person or work well with them, just like any doctor that you work with. But I can guarantee that they are well-trained, knowledgeable herbalists, because to become an RH, they have to go through quite a bit of training.

Ashley James (0:33:34.798)

Wonderful, and I'm very excited to take your classes. So I'm going to be going to naturalnurse.com and I'm going to be signing up it starts in March so I'm going to make sure I sign up before March and  of course, this is evergreen, people can be listening to this years from now go to naturalnurse.com and sign up for for whenever the next class is. Just to check it out. Just to continue our own education and of course all your books and let's go back and listen to episode 536 if you haven't already. We learned so much and I'm so excited to dive in. Before we do, I want to let  what you shared with us about the immune stuff helped so much.  My whole family, going through the holidays, we were around people who had the crud, and several times I woke up in the middle of the night throughout the last few months—just a few times where I woke up and was like, okay, I feel maybe there's something in my throat or a sore throat's coming on.

I immediately took that homeopathic you recommended, put it under my tongue, went back to bed, woke up fine, no problem. It was just the first sign of any kind of symptom. I was actively around people who were coughing, and my friends had fevers, and I was running over to their house to deliver goodies to them, natural stuff to help them, including that homeopathic. When my son got sick, I gave him all the remedies that you suggested and he just blew it out of his system. We saw it made such a difference. So episode 536 is worth its weight in gold because it is so great.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:35:19.350)

Thank you. That's why I called one of my books The Natural Medicine Chest, because everyone should set that up in their house ahead of time, especially for anything that people get—sore throats and little colds and things like that, upset stomach. You should have that all there ahead of time, both herbal and homeopathic. So when someone in the family needs it, it's right there.

To stock the whole entire chest with high-quality remedies is not terribly expensive. Also, a good herbal extract never goes bad. So if you buy it now and you need it four years from now, it doesn't go bad. So you can use it then. The same with homeopathics.

Ashley James (0:36:04.271)

Same with homeopathy. Exactly. Yes. So after literally moments after we hung up from our last interview, I went and I purchased everything you recommended and I had it ready. No one was sick then, but I was like, I am going to be prepared. We were prepared and we used them throughout the crud, the crud season. It was great.

Of course, all of us, we talked about how a lot of people get sick because they actually eat way too much sugar, they overindulge in alcohol and sugar, staying up late, the stress, and just everything that we do between Thanksgiving and New Year's lowers the immune system. Then we kind of blame the pharmaceutical industry created the PR campaign of its flu season, get your flu shot. We're really not taking as great care of ourselves during that time.

So my focus for my family was to make sure that we take care of ourselves. If we do get exposed to some germs that our body starts to respond to, we can dive into those natural remedies quickly at the first sign of symptom to help our bodies overcome very quickly. And it worked. It was wonderful. So I thank you for that guidance. I bet you've helped so many of my listeners with that. So I'm just equally as excited to dive in today to learn more about what herbs we can do for the HPA axis. Of course, maybe we start by talking about what is this HPA axis and why is it so important that we have some herbal remedies for it?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:37:45.943)

Yes, we will do that. But I just want to say, just now, since you did bring up everything about dealing with these various seasonal challenges, the FDA just today decided that the new vaccines have to have stronger warnings because a lot of them cause a beret syndrome, which is a neurological problem, and that has to do with what we're talking about today. So this is very much being watched.

So the more you're prepared naturally, the less you come in contact with some of those very harmful kinds of therapeutics. So that's a great idea to talk about stress, like you said, and support for the HPA axis, and we'll talk about what that is. I will say I have an article that I wrote, which is in several major journals, and it's called Herbal Support for the HPA Axis. So if anybody wants a copy of that full article, I can actually email it to them if they request it, and it'll have a lot of what we're talking about today. It was published in the Journal of Integrative Medicine way back in fact in December of 2016, but everything in it is still physiologically correct.

So we talk about things like yeast and microorganisms and all the things that can cause stress in your body. Then looking at how the HPA axis, which really has to do with your endocrine organs. So some of the organs that are involved in this axis are the pituitary gland, the pineal, the hypothalamus—that's the H—also the pancreas, the gonads, the adrenals, the adrenals, we're going to talk about the thyroid gland, and also the parathyroid gland.

So all of these glands in our system work together in an energy connection that is like a dance. When one pushes, the other one pulls. They are found all throughout our body. So some of these things are in our brain—the hypothalamus and the pituitary. Those are in the brain. The thyroid gland, anyone can look these up now. It's so easy to find. You don't have to go to medical school to take a look at it. It looks just like a bow tie, which is really interesting in a spiritual aspect when you think about someone wearing a bow tie. Where did that shape come from and exactly where it's placed. Did you ever look at that?

The thyroid gland is right where a bow tie would be if a gentleman uses it on his collar, and it's that exact shape. So all these representations for me always have a spiritual significance. When we see how they play together, a symphony and the different hormones that are involved with each.

For instance, in the hypothalamus, there's a lot of different hormones—dopamine and growth hormone and gonadotropin, which has to do with sexual action, oxytocin, all kinds of hormones—and they play in an intimate dance with the pineal gland, the thyroid, the pituitary, but each one has kind of a special focus.

If we look at the HPA and we look at the hypothalamus for the H, it controls things like body temperature, hunger and thirst, and also, interestingly, parenting and attachment behaviors. When you feel like you're in love with someone, it's really monitored by hypothalamus activities, as well as fatigue, sleep, and circadian rhythms, which are the rhythms that go on on a daily basis in our body.

So it's really interesting to see how they interact. The pituitary gland, which is just a little protrusion under the hypothalamus, has to do with growth and blood pressure, which we'll discuss another time, sexual function, how your thyroid works, as well as aspects of pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing.

It's not like you can actually divide these things up into one or another. The adrenal gland is very interesting because one thing is the adrenal gland has an outer covering. The outer covering of the adrenal gland is called the adrenal cortex. That releases certain hormones, which we're going to be talking about—cortisol, because cortisol is also known as the stress hormone, and also DHEA. Those both come from the cortex, which is the outer covering on the adrenal gland.

Then there's the inside of the adrenal gland, which is called the adrenal medulla, and that releases epinephrine and norepinephrine, which maybe some people have heard of. For instance, they actually use that at the dentist in an injection when you're going to get your teeth worked on in terms of the epinephrine.

It works, it's helpful for pain reduction, but it also causes some people to get heart palpitations, so everything has two sides. So where are the adrenal glands? Everybody can actually massage their adrenal glands because if you know where your kidneys are, which are in the small of your back, if you just round your back and put your two fists back there, and you will feel what's called the small of your back—right in there is your adrenal glands. They are sitting right on top of your kidneys.

Many people, if they reach back there and massage that area, they'll find that there's a soreness there. So it's really a good thing to pay attention to because the adrenal cortex releases cortisol and cortisone. This has to do with stress, physical activity, low blood glucose levels, and also there's a difference with short-term cortisol release and long-term cortisol release. People could probably even sort of know when that's going on. 

For instance, short-term cortisol release is when, let's say, you step off a curb and a car is coming fast and it doesn't hit you but it almost does, you jump back from it, you will feel that cortisol. Anybody has felt this at some time. Something happens that's worrisome, but it puts you into what's called that fight or flight response.

When you're in that flight or fight response, you get that rush. It's called, sometimes they call it an adrenaline rush, but it's actually linked to that cortisol release. Different things happen, it narrows the arteries while then the epinephrine, which is also released, causes the heart to beat faster and you'll feel that heart palpitation when you're in a stressful situation. But then very often the stressful situation is resolved. You jump back out of the traffic, you go, he wasn't going to hit me anyway, it's okay. My child is okay. Take a few deep breaths and before you know it, you kind of back to normal. That's different than long-term cortisol release. Many disease processes are linked more to that long-term cortisol release that doesn't shut off appropriately. It sort of stays on, lower dose release of cortisol, but it doesn't go off. That's when you're experiencing things like insomnia, migraine headaches, even obesity and GI complaints. Usually have a long-term cortisol release part of it. It weakens the immune system and you have imbalanced emotions, low resistance where you kind of catch everything that goes around. So stress in the adrenal glands are very, very intimate in terms of how well we feel. The pancreas is involved, the thyroid is involved, all of them are sort of turned on and off by this cortisol and also DHEA.

Ashley James (0:46:48.783)

You talked about how the thyroid is involved. It's so fascinating. Is someone with long-term stress, that long-term cortisol release where it's kind of can't shut off, do they tend to become more hypothyroid or hyper? Does that come together? Do you see thyroid function being impacted directly from long-term cortisol being kept on?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:47:18.674)

Absolutely, I'll talk about that in terms of T3 and T4. But first, I just want to bring in where we had mentioned about the parenting aspect with cortisol, because it's so interesting that specific studies have been done showing maternal stress and elevated cortisol during the child's infancy relates to anxiety and depression, particularly in teenage girls. So that is really, really interesting that because of the mother's stress, even after the child is born, we find a higher level of anxiety and depression in teenage girls. Studies are so interesting when they find things that we know anyway.

So yes, let's talk about the thyroid gland. That's another whole gland. I said, it's shaped like a bow tie. There's two biologically active thyroid hormones. One is called T4. It's also often called thyroxine. It's another name for it. Then there's T3. There's more, but the two important ones that are often measured are T3 and T4.

They're both derived from an amino acid called tyrosine. So if you don't get enough tyrosine, you often will have thyroid problems. So the tyrosine is converted in the body into T4 and T3. Those are the main thyroid hormones. Here's the difference between them. During a normal day, your thyroid will secrete about 80 micrograms of T4 and only five micrograms of T3. So you see there's much, much more T4 that your body generates. It generates just a little bit of T3. 

However, T3 is much more important in terms of biological activity. So it's interesting because the body will then convert some of that T4, which it has lots of, into T3. It will do that if it has all the nutritional support needed and all the enzymes that might be needed to do that to keep the thyroid functioning better. So there is a whole lot of conversion of T4 to T3 that takes place in the liver and the kidneys.

Then the T3 is released into the bloodstream and floats around and does its actions. But if any of those things are interfered with, such as liver toxicity or kidney toxicity, then there's not going to be enough conversion, which means you won't have enough of that really active T3. So the body is just incredibly complex and beautiful.

This is where a lot of people hear that they may be deficient in iodine. This is where that comes in because iodine is important in the thyroid gland and also in the uptake in the energy cycle. How do we make energy in our body? Some people may have heard of this. It's called ATP, adenosine triphosphate and ADP, adenosine diphosphate. This is where the thyroid gland has a lot to do with how much energy you have. How good does that transfer happen? But this is interesting. Adenosine tri. What does the word tri mean? Adenosine di. What does the word di mean? You can guess. So it goes to three phosphate molecules, that's adenosine triphosphate. It releases a phosphate molecule and becomes adenosine diphosphate, which has two phosphate molecules. 

But let's think about what phosphate is. Phosphate, if you think about a match, if you strike a match, what you see there on that flame is linked to phosphate because phosphate is something that gives off light. So to me, that's really amazing because this entire HPC access that we're talking about and HPA axis with the adrenal glands has to do with how well our intracellular light-releasing mechanisms are. So we look at that both from a physical aspect of the phosphorylation action, which has to do with the release of a phosphate molecule from ATP to ADP, releasing energy.

That's how we walk around. That's how we think. That's how we do everything. So we are actually light energy beings. So when people say, that's just kind of a new age, floppy concept of some sort, it really isn't. It is actually how we work. We work energetically on light. That's not just a philosophical, new agey kind of statement. That's an actual statement.

In terms of how our body releases energy in this HPA axis. So these hypothalamus and the anterior pituitary, the thyroid, they all work together. Then, what do they do then? In the cardiovascular system, it increases heart rate and how well you have vasodilation, which is your veins and arteries as they open and close, how they affect blood flow. In your central nervous system,

If somebody feels all kinds of mentally sluggish and anxious, well, that has to do with this thyroid hormone not working well. It's kind of all across the body where we can feel these things. So then another gland I'd love to go into here is the pineal, because the pineal then moves into a very, very interesting thing because it works by light.

The pineal gland in humans depends on the light-dark cycle. Right now, in our modern culture, we are way over-inundated with light. When you're inundated with too much light, the pineal gland can no longer produce melatonin. That's why many people have sleeping difficulties, because of the melatonin interference.

So, it all fits together in terms of how well we feel, how much energy we have. That HPA axis is incredibly important. We could talk about some herbs that can be useful to help balance it.

Ashley James (0:54:35.321)
I'd absolutely love that. Just really curious about how many people are walking around with a diagnosis of one or another, that it actually all comes back to, I don't know how to put it in the correct way, but an unhealthy or an imbalanced HPA axis.

People are walking around being put on all kinds of drugs from blood pressure to weight loss to blood sugar to thyroid to adrenal. So many different issues in the body. This is my frustration, I'm sure yours as well, that so many MDs and because of their training, they're not taught to go upstream and support the body's ability to heal itself.

That's what we really need. Need to stop looking at drugs as the answer and look inward at the body is the answer. The body wants to heal itself. We got to give it what it needs and get it of its own way. Could you name a few illnesses that people suffer, common ones that people suffer from, that when they balance their HPA? Of course, obviously make sure they're doing all the appropriate lifestyle, lifestyle medicine things as well. But when they balance the HPA with herbal medicine, those issues resolve. What are the more common issues that we would be able to see resolve by helping the body heal its HPA axis?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:56:18.475)

Definitely, I'll just name a few. Insomnia is very big. Migraine headaches. Obesity in general, having too much weight that you can't get rid of. Any kind of GI complaint, ongoing things that are called Crohn's or this, that, or the other name that they give them.

Would you believe when you go to a gastrointestinal doctor, they do not do a food diary? That is criminal because lining your gastrointestinal tract is actually the biggest part of your immune system. It's called IgG. There's different parts of our immune system, which would be a topic for another day. But IgG is the part of the immune system that completely lines the whole entire gastrointestinal tract.

So if you want to do a test for food allergies, a good test would be an IgG food allergy panel. So you can see when that food hits your gut, how it reacts. Now that's linked into the cortisol, because when too much cortisol is there, then the IgG cannot function correctly. It gets turned off. It gets turned off because your body is put into a fight or flight mode, even though it's a slower long-term one.

So then your body decides, well, it's not so important to digest properly because I might have to run at any minute, so let's keep it so that my muscles can run. So all of that is true. All of those things are linked to this specific axis of hormones dancing together.

Also, a weak immune system, which of course leads to every illness. Just on a daily level, having low energy, imbalanced emotions, low resistance, and just a general low level of well-being are all linked into this particular group of hormones, which when they work well together are in constant communication and they kind of talk to each other, they turn each other on or they turn each other off.

Even things like having a very strict vegan diet can definitely interfere with the amount of tyrosine that you have. If your tyrosine is too low, then you're going to have trouble keeping up with the T4, T3. So we talked about T4, T3, that is your thyroid hormone. So all of them are in balance, you're feeling better than when they're out of balance.

Taking one pharmaceutical or other is probably not, like you said, going to back and balance all of those things. Neither is just taking any herb, either. I just like herbal interventions because they will often deal with what's going wrong. They're like food. They have different nutrients in them that can address various parts that you might be missing.

Then there are specific diseases that happen. Graves' disease. That's a condition caused by excessive production of thyroid hormone. That's where you see an enlarged thyroid gland. People actually get a lump in their neck or protrusion sometimes of eyeballs that kind of stick out a little bit as well as a rapid heartbeat and being very excitable in terms of nervousness.

So those are things that can be really recognized even by a doctor. Then, of course, with the thyroid, there's hypothyroidism, which has to do with not having enough, or hyperthyroidism, where you're having too much of those thyroid hormones. But there are many herbal remedies that can help address this.

Ashley James (1:00:26.875)

Well, I know so many people just generally complain about wanting better sleep, more mental clarity, and more energy. Those are major, major issues. If you can resolve, if you can give everyone better sleep, better mental clarity, better energy, you're sold. Everyone's going to take my money, just tell me what to do. 

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:00:51.411)

Well, but I don't find that they actually will often do it because one of the first things you have to do is get more dark in your life because light is one of the main things that throws the HPA axis off because it's actually scheduled to have a lot of dark. I mean real dark. I don't mean looking at your phone dark. I don't mean having the TV and lights on in the room, or the little lights that are even on the clock, or the little light on the modem, all of that interrupts the production of melatonin, which has everything to do with sleep. Just popping some extra melatonin is definitely not a good idea either, because melatonin itself can be toxic when it's in an unnatural, irregular form.

Ashley James (1:01:45.823)

So the solution is lights out, put a mask, eye mask over your eyes?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:01:53.629)

That is a good idea. Meditate. Meditation actually naturally increases melatonin. Deep meditation, it could be just prayer. Doesn't have to be meditation with one guru or another or saying some mantra. It can just be deep prayer. In other words, getting into that deep state of quiet mind, and there's some very good studies on that as well, that can help your body produce more melatonin.

So there are natural things you can do. First, recognizing that it's a problem. Then there is self-awareness that's so important, but also the ability to change habits. It sounds easy. Oh, eat healthy. But how do we do that? Get more rest. Well, how do we do that? If you're raising three kids and everybody's got to get to school and you're having a full-time job, it's not necessarily so easy.

Ashley James (1:02:51.035)

Going to sleep when you put your kids to sleep. I know it sounds crazy because so many moms but that's my me time. If you go to bed when your kids go to bed, you will have your me time in the morning before the kids wake up. I had an amazing morning before my son woke up this morning. My whole personality has always been a night night person. I had to train myself. I had to basically protect my sleep, get very protective, a pit bull, get very protective of my sleep.

Do that little switch in your head that goes, my health is more important than scrolling through whatever social media or whatever I was going to do on a screen at 10 at night and protect your sleep. I do notice deeper sleep, better sleep when I wear an eye mask, even just because you want to block out even the tiny little light that might be coming in through the street lamp, just tiny little light block, totally block it out.

I get much deeper sleep and I feel so much better in the morning when I protect my sleep and keep the light out. They said get darker, the moment you said that I thought, are we going to talk about dark, leafy green vegetables?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:04:07.911)

That's part of it. But definitely that eye mask is great and there are different ones. The one I always recommend is, you put it over your eyes but it's not flat on your eyes. It's almost cups. But then it goes around and it has a specific brand and a specific name but there's several of them. The reason is because then when you go into different sleep stages, REM sleep and the various sleep stages, which is another whole discussion in and of itself. When you have the ones that press right on your eye, it stops your eyes from fluttering because it squishes in your eyelashes. So they don't have their natural movement because your eyes actually do flutter when you're in that deep, deep sleep. But if you have the right kind of mask, it doesn't interfere with it, but it completely blocks the light.

Ashley James (1:04:57.847)

That's such a good point to make. Because so many people just have those eye masks that do touch the eyes. I have long eyelashes, and I don't want anything. I couldn't stand the feeling of something pushing up against them. But you're right. You've got to get the ones that are cupped. I can't believe that it blocks the deeper sleep. That's amazing if you don't have the cupped kind.

So, we have a good understanding of the different issues. I've actually been diving into studying the hypothalamus when it comes to metabolism, which is really interesting, how it regulates hunger, how it regulates that whole obesity thing and how it plays a really big role in that.

Our diet, for example, saturated fat crosses the blood-brain barrier and impacts the hypothalamus and causes inflammation and it impacts our desire to eat more and gain more weight. Whereas eating a cleaner, healthier diet and there's certain lifestyle things we can do actually impact metabolism. But from that standpoint, if we are balancing the whole system, it's exciting to know that if someone's suffering from one or more of those things you mentioned, that they'll have some really good results to look forward to.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:06:30.183)

They do. That's right, Ashley. It has to do with a commitment to oneself and really reversing that concept that, if I just go to this doctor or that doctor, then it will be taken care of. But, with the big movement towards those GLP-1 drugs, the weight loss drugs that are becoming so popular, they definitely do help people lose weight.

They do address some of these issues, but they do it in a way that has quite a bit of negative impact and side effects. What they actually do is make people have less of an appetite so they eat less. But there's lots of natural ways to do that. When you exercise more, you have a lower appetite, for example.

Ashley James (1:07:17.319)

Is it black cumin? Is something that lowers appetite?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:07:24.595)

Yes, in fact, black cumin, which is an oil, that's one thing that I really love. There's a combination of omega-3 fatty acids along with black seed oil. Black seed oil is black cumin oil. Black seed is another name. It's for the seed of the cumin. Now, it's really amazing because it's also highly antimicrobial. That is a really good thing to add into your diet, black seed oil.

Ashley James (1:07:53.201)

Interesting. I actually just bought the actual seeds because I was going to grind it up myself and add it to my food. So, I'm going to play around with it. It is not wild that something we can take so naturally can have it in our own kitchen and can make such a positive difference. I feel very sorry for the people who are those doctors who are getting them on the GLP drugs because studies are showing that people not only lose some fat, but they lose muscle mass. We're seeing they actually lose heart muscle. That is, you want to protect your heart, your skeletal muscle, and your skeleton at all costs. This is your longevity. This is your health in the second half of your life. If you are wasting that for 20, 30 pounds of fat loss, you're robbing Peter to pay Paul and you're actually going to end up coming up short basically by robbing yourself of the parts of your body that are going to take you healthfully into the rest of your life. It’s very scary, and you never get on a drug that's new. You just don't. Don't be a guinea pig. It's so sad.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:09:18.413)

You're right. It's hardly tested. So we'll see what happens with that one in 20 years. But there certainly are a lot of herbs that have been used for thousands of years. One that I love to share about is mimosa. If anyone has ever seen a mimosa tree, in the spring it gets these feathery, beautiful pink flowers. The name of the plant is albizia, the mimosa tree. It's called the tree of happiness because it calms the spirit and relieves constrained emotions. 

So when we go deeper into how does this work, we know that it's very high in specific active medicinal constituents called subponins, such as triterpenes and flavosubponins. They're also very high in quercetin. Quercetin is definitely a known nutrient that helps with staying calm. Helps the adrenals and helps the heart. So all of these are found in the mimosa tree, in particular the flowers. So of course you can only get it when the flowers are out, but you can purchase a product that might be made with it. It's a nervine, which means it calms our nervous system with both immune regulating and cancer inhibiting effects. We even know how it works. By binding to the 5-HTP receptor, and that influences depression, anxiety, and irritability. So how great is that? Because it has an effect on GABA, dopamine, and serotonin. GABA, dopamine, and serotonin are those chemicals actually in our system that have to do with staying calm or feeling really stressed out with being able to sleep well or not, with feeling you're in a good mood or not. People with low blood pressure, low mood, low thyroid, or anxiety and poor energy are very much helped by mimosa. 

It also has no known adverse effects. So it's an absolutely wonderful link to the whole endocrine system that we've been talking about. It works via the pituitary gland. So mimosa is one that is a really good adjunct to staying healthy. You don't need a lot. If you get a liquid mimosa extract, you can use a few dropperfuls a day. They have it in capsules. There's actually no reports of adverse effects or interactions. So mimosa is a really good one to look into. 

But of course, if you start any herb for the first time, you want to check your reaction. Don't take 15 new herbs all at once. Take one, take it for a week or two, go, it feels a little good. Then you might want to add in another one. For our discussion today with the HPA axis, another really great one to add in is magnolia, which is another gorgeous flower.

It's interesting how much flowers actually are linked to human mood, anxiety, and happiness. But magnolia actually binds to a lot of important targets that are mood regulating, such as serotonin. That's one that it binds to. It has to do with cortisol, which we've been talking about. That whole stress hormone cortisol, magnolia lowers it. It also suppresses NF-kappa B. NF-kappa B is one of the things that makes us have inflammation. So very, very good herb to add to your herbal thing. Then, castor oil pack, which is another whole discussion that we could go into at another time. But putting the castor oil pack on your adrenal glands and on your thyroid gland, switching it off one day on one, one day on another, maybe twice a week, can really make your body make its own stress-supportive hormones. So that's another great thing to do.

Ashley James (1:13:30.118)

So that would be  a castor oil pack on the lumbar spine while you're sleeping? 

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:13:35.054)

Yes, you can put it there or could put it on your thyroid gland, which is remember that bow tie right on your neck.

Ashley James (1:13:41.990)

For the magnolia, what's the good dosage to start with?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:13:47.266)

Well, I can give it to you, but I always say you have to, if you're purchasing a product, read the label because it depends. Is it standardized? Is it a capsule? Is it a liquid? But the amount that is usually recommended is 160 to 500 milligrams depending on the weight and condition of the person using it. Also, if it is standardized to one of the active constituents that are known, such as Magnylalol, or Hanakyal, then it's usually about 1 to 10 percent of the basic bark extract. So I would just always say when you're going to get an herbal product, read the label. Of course, if you gather your own and make your own, then you're not going to know the exact milligram amount, and that's okay.

Ashley James (1:14:36.542)

Would someone make a tea out of magnolia flowers?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:14:41.218)

You could. You can make tea out of it. It was named originally by a person who first named it. His name is Pierre Magnol. So he was a French botanist, which is often the case. There's some really great studies. If any of our listeners go to PubMed, P-U-B-M-E-D, PubMed, you can just plug in to PubMed anything you want to know about any herb. If you want to know about magnolia, just plug it in there and you'll get tons of studies. There's one called Magnolia and Mood. There's all these studies about every single plant, every single one, anything you want to know. You can look it up and find out for yourself. Print it out, bring it to your doctor, see what he says. They'll usually go, no, I don't know. If your doctor says, I don't know about natural remedies, then I like that because they don't know because remember we talked right at the beginning about the interruption of medical education because of the Flexner Report with them specifically taking out any knowledge about natural medicine. That's honorable. If your doctor says, I don't know because I didn't study it, but I will work with you, you can take it, just report back to me. Do you feel calmer? I'll do some blood work to make sure everything's okay. I'll listen to your heart to make sure it didn't make your heart, that kind of thing. They can be supportive with what they do best while you're working on a natural protocol.

Ashley James (1:16:16.533)

It's okay to fire a doctor if your doctor isn't supporting you and find a doctor who studies holistic medicine, a naturopath, an osteopath, even a functional medicine doctor or a doctor who just woke up and realized that there's more to medicine than drugs. So many of these MDs come on the show and they all have that revelation. They realize that their profession really is limited in supporting people's ability to heal themselves and they want to dive deeper. You deserve to have a team of practitioners that want to support you in getting as healthy as you can be. There are doctors out there who limit their patients with their own belief system.

So don't let a doctor think just if a doctor says, well, you have to be on this drug for the rest of your life because you're a or, you no, you can't heal your Type 2 diabetes. If they say these ridiculous things, or when you have arthritis, you'll always have arthritis. These are just ridiculous limitations. They're limiting you. You got to find a doctor who believes in your body's ability to heal itself and wants to support you. Now you got to do the work, but you got to find doctors who want to support you and also have the experience to back them.

I love that you said, print out the PubMed studies, show them to your doctors, and then gauge your doctor's response. Because we want to surround ourselves with practitioners who are there to support our healing journey. That's really exciting. Is Mimosa the same as Mimosa Puruka?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:17:52.545)

Yes. It's a tree with beautiful pink fluffy flowers. I always think it looks, since you have kids, maybe you look at Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss has a trifle tree as one of its characters that always looks to me like it. But the genus and species is albesia, albesia julebricen.

So that what you're talking about might be just the common name of a mimosa tree. It's got beautiful leaves and it gets these gorgeous pink parachute-flowers only in the spring. So if you're going to use the flowers, you have to think about gathering them while they're there. Also the bark. The bark is used as well.

Ashley James (1:18:37.330)

I actually know a mimosa tree in my area. So I'm excited this spring to go look at its flowers and maybe I can get my really tall husband to help me harvest some. He's really tall. The mimosa pudica seeds are used in, I believe, Ayurvedic medicine as one of the anti-parasitic. They have anti-parasitic properties. That's how I know it from.

But it's really cool how you take a plant, like a tree, and the bark does one thing, the leaves do another, the roots do another thing, the flowers do another thing. I love that part of herbal medicine, that it's so beautiful in that way.

So we have three things to start with, the mimosa, the magnolia, and the castor oils. Is anything else that would be really good to know to bring the HPA axis into balance?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:19:38.336)

Well, we did talk about other things, like getting enough darkness. That is so important. in our common life right now, it's actually difficult. You have to make a specific effort, because just going to bed and kind of shutting the light off, like you said, does not do it. So I would say that's a good place to start. 

People do use melatonin as a supplement. For some people, that's really helpful. But I don't particularly like the use of melatonin as a supplement because unlike an herb, melatonin is a specific hormone and it's produced as a chemical when you take it. So I'm not a big fan of actually taking it unless you get it measured and your doctor can measure your melatonin level and if it's actually low, then it might be worthwhile to take it. But it's being overused even in the natural products industry. In almost every natural herbal combination for rest, they'll throw in some melatonin, and I'm not a fan of that. 

There's a lot of other herbs that can be useful, Valerian, passionflower, really great passionflower, by the way, although it does create rest and calmness and is very supportive for the HPA axis. How it's got its name, people think it's a sexual enhancer. That's another whole show, and I did write a book on that called The Natural Guide to Great Sex. But it's actually not about passion. It was named because the Jesuit priests, when they came to the New World and saw these gorgeous passion flowers growing, thought that it was the doctrine of signatures, another thing we mentioned earlier, of the passion of Christ. Because the petals inside and the little stigmas are in the shape of five nails. So that's how Passion Flower got its name. Not having anything to do with love and lust passion, but actually having to do with the Passion of Christ. Most people don't know that. Passion Flower is a really excellent carminative, calming the system, but without making you sleepy.

So if you're someone who just needs a little bit more stability and calmness because of the HPA dysregulation or for any other reason, during the day while you are going about your daily chores, passion flower is a very good one to use.

Ashley James (1:22:11.614)

Cool. I was going to ask about when the best timing would be. Valerian is maybe better in the afternoon or evening.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:22:20.890)

That will knock you out. No. Valerian, you want to take, maybe an hour before you really want to go to sleep. Another thing you can use it for is if you wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep, Valerian can be useful. But the first time you take Valerian, you have to gauge your personal reaction because while it does act to calm many people and even act as a sedative and help them sleep, some people, it has the opposite reaction, to where it actually is agitating and makes them not sleep. That does happen at times, depending on a person's wiring. So it's a good thing to try it by itself once and see how it does for you. I have it by my bedside. I don't take it every single day. But if it's one of those days there's a lot on my mind and I'm having some trouble falling asleep, I will take it. It definitely helps. But I'll combine it with a homeopathic also that's helpful for sleep. I always combine homeopathics and herbs.

Ashley James (1:23:25.610)

Do you have a specific homeopathic for sleep you'd recommend or is it more individual? 

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:23:31.822)

I have one. No, I have one that's a branded product, but I'll tell you the name of it. It's called Combs Forte, the word comb with an s, Combs Forte. It is very mild and gentle. I've used it on my kids when they were little. It's really, really helpful without any kind of side effect.

Ashley James (1:23:52.536)

I love it. How much Valerian is a good place to start for people?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:24:00.412)

So it depends again on what kind of extract you are going to use. Is it going to be standardized to where how much active you're going to get, or is it going to be, let's say, a Nature's Answer alcohol-free full plant, in which case you want to take about 1,000 milligrams, which would be one dropper full. So what you want to do is actually read the bottle if you're not growing your own. Just follow the recommendations there. Sometimes it's about 450 milligrams. That's something that you'll often see.

Ashley James (1:24:36.418)

Got it. Passionflower, same question. Do we just follow the bottle or is there a range of milligrams we'd like to try?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:24:48.754)

Again, that is because is it one that's going to be standardized to an active constituent or is it going to be a full plant? It's usually between 500 and 1,000 depending on the one that you get. It will say on the bottle. If it's a capsule, it'll tell you the milligram amount or if it's a liquid, it depends on if it's an extract or a tincture because extracts are much more highly concentrated than tincture.

Ashley James (1:25:16.036)

Now, in our previous episode, you had mentioned you don't publicly pick sides when it comes to brands. I totally respect that. But we want to make sure, what are the things to look for in the label to make sure that it is a high quality, good brand? Is it organic, wild crafted? You said, standardized. What are the words that we should see on the label to know that this is probably a good brand to try?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:25:46.772)

Right. Well, what I would say is definitely read the label and see how many, let's say, registrations that company has, because the herbal industry in particular is definitely a wild west and a lot of people are in the business when they don't have the right kind of facility. So what you want to know is that they are what's called a GMP registered facility. That means they're doing testing in terms of what's going in. What kind of raw ingredients are they using? What's coming out? Then also, what kind of adulteration is there? Are there microorganisms when they're done? Are you sure there's not? So those are some of the things I would test for. Also, how long has the company been in business? Because some herb companies have been around for over 50 years. That's going to be one that has been able to stand the test of time. So that's a good indicator as well. Also, if you're Jewish, do they have kosher products? If you're a Muslim, is it halal? That might be important to some people as well.

Ashley James (1:26:58.778)

God and vegan, most, most herbs are vegan.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:27:05.660)

Well, I think all herbs are vegan. I never met an herb that's an animal. I mean, yes and no, when you go in, the capsule itself, that's right. The capsule itself, if you're using capsules, might be a bovine or a porcine, which is from PIC. That's absolutely true. Or it might be a vegan capsule. So if that's important to you, that's another thing to consider. I just want to take back that, because when we delve into Chinese medicine, they do use animals and plant parts as part of the medicinal components. So sometimes they do, you're right.

Ashley James (1:27:41.866)

Right. We talked about that in our last interview, a really interesting muscle that actually decreases pain. I was just floored. Thought it was cool, just an interesting thing. Listeners, if you haven't gone back, check out 536, episode 536 for that information. I love what you've laid out for us. We've got the going to sleep with an eye mask on, and do some deep prayer meditation. Do some deep breathing. It's okay to go to bed early and then you have a beautiful day. Wake up with the sunrise and you'll be full of energy. The thing is you actually feel better in the morning and you have more energy and then you're more productive and everything feels better when you get that deep sleep and that deep sleep does require us to have a little bit of self-discipline later in the evening to keep things you said dark and we've got the mimosa and the magnolia.

All of these things are going to be in the show notes of today's podcast at LearnTrueHealth.com. All these notes, I'll make sure are there. Of course, we transcribe all episodes at LearnTrueHealth.com. I'm really excited to try some of these with my son who's 10. Is there any counter indications for children? Obviously smaller doses, but Valerian tea, one of those night time teas with Valerian, is that safe for children?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:29:10.414)

If it's a tea, I would say yes. How old is your child?

Ashley James (1:29:12.690)

He's almost 10.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:29:14.166)

So how much does he weigh? That's what we really go more on. He might be over 100.

Ashley James (1:29:19.747)

Oh, probably not. No, he's 85, 90 pounds.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:29:23.823)

Right, so he's getting close to 100. So at that point, it's not the same as a five-year-old, who weighs 40 pounds or a three, so with that kind of weight, there's very little herb that you need to be worried about, especially if you're talking about buying just tea and making tea. That would not be a high concentration, so it's not a problem. You could try it.

Ashley James (1:29:47.299)

For people who have, let's say, five-year-olds who are really hyperactive and that it's hard to get them to go to sleep at night, would making a small amount of Valerian tea be safe?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:29:56.635)

I know when we're getting down in the four- and five-year-olds, I would go more with a combination of very relaxing herbs: chamomile, hops, those would be good ones for younger children. Chamomile, hops, and peppermint, that might be a nice combination. There's something called Sleepy Thyme Tea, which is specifically for children, that would be a nice combination to use.

Ashley James (1:30:20.041)

Got it.  they could also try the combs forte homeopathic blend that you had mentioned.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:30:28.393)

Yes. That is. That you can use also for children.

Ashley James (1:30:31.390)

Awesome. It has been, again, amazing to have you on the show. I really want to have you back so many times because it is just beautiful learning from you. I can't wait to jump into naturalnurse.com, your website, and sign up for your upcoming courses starting in March. But of course, no matter when you're listening, go to naturalnurse.com and check out the courses. 

We also talked about in the last episode that you do eco tours where people can actually plan their next vacation with you and they get to go and have this beautiful vacation where they're learning the indigenous herbal remedies and making them and harvesting them and just having such an adventure. So don't go to Disney. Don't go to Fort Lauderdale or something. Don't go to some beach. Go on an eco tour with Dr. Ellen Kamhi. It would be amazing. That's on my bucket list.

Thank you so much for coming on the show. Can't wait to have you back. This has been wonderful. You've already given us so much homework, is there anything you want to say to wrap up today's interview?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:31:42.018)

Thank you so much, Ashley. It was a pleasure.

I just want to thank everyone for joining us. Be self-critical a little bit. Look at your life and see if you can make changes, not when I have enough money to go to a holistic doctor. Don't wait for that. Basically, what can you do? Can you eat a little healthier? Can you cut out wheat from your diet as a first step? That's a really good first step. 

We talked about coddling yourself to sleep with these really natural things. So that's a good place to start, I would say, with self-care, but also with self-responsibility.

Ashley James (1:32:17.170)

I love it. Thank you so much. Again, naturalnurse.com. I'm excited to join you in March for your classes and I hope to see everyone there.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:32:28.046)

Very good. Be well.

Outro:

I hope you enjoyed today's interview. It was just so mind blowing. I absolutely love Dr. Kamhi. I want to let you know that if you haven't already made an appointment, it's a free consultation with Jennifer Saltzman. Go to TakeYourSupplements.com. Jennifer Saltzman is absolutely phenomenal and the supplements that she works with are the same ones that helped me get my health back 13 years ago, coming on 14 years. They're the reason why I was able to conceive. I was told I'd never be able to have kids. They're the reason why I don't have type two diabetes, chronic adrenal fatigue, why I don't have infertility, why I don't have PCOS, and just got my life back. 

So go to TakeYourSupplements.com. She has a wonderful program and she works with you. It's an individualized system. They do have wonderful protocols for immune support for people who are suffering with more chronic immune issues and chronic digestion issues, anything from hair loss, from skin, hair and nails to supporting your heart health, your brain health, your liver health. They have wonderful programs, wonderful supplement programs, and also recommendations with how to adjust your diet to best support your health. I really like their immune support stuff and especially bigger immune things that you're facing. They have some pretty cool, pretty cool things, so check her out.

I know if you thought that this episode was interesting, you would think talking to Jennifer Saltzman would be very interesting. It's wild that she gives a free session and it doesn't cost any more to buy the supplements than if you bought them on your own, but these aren't in the stores directly. She helps you order the right ones for you, based on your needs, based on your budget, based on your weight. It's all measured by body weight and dosed by body weight, and she gives you a wealth of resources as well. So it's a really great rabbit hole to go down. I highly recommend going to TakeYourSupplements.com and chatting with Jennifer Saltzman. She's absolutely phenomenal. Thank you so much for being a listener and thank you so much for sharing my podcast so we can end the needless suffering of millions and millions of people, and you are a part of that by sharing. Thank you.

Get Connected with Dr. Ellen Kamhi

Website – Natural Nurse

Facebook

YouTube

Instagram

Books by Dr. Ellen Kamhi

The Natural Medicine Chest

Arthritis

Supplements For Pain

---

Join the Learn True Health Community Group on Facebook

Order High-Quality Supplements

Visit Our YouTube Channel