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YHM 082 - Mastering Stress: Insights and Strategies with Dr. Rachel Sawires
39 Plays1 year ago
Discover how stress impacts your health on this episode of "Your Health Minute." Join us as Dr. Rachel Sawires shares her journey to becoming an ND and reveals surprising research on the physical and mental effects of stress. Plus, learn practical strategies to build resilience and manage stress in your daily life. Don't miss this insightful discussion on turning stress into a tool for growth!
Follow Dr. Rachel:
@dr.rachelsawires
www.forhealthssake.ca
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Transcript
Introduction to Your Health Minute
00:00:11
Max
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Your Health Minute, brought to you by
Meet the Hosts and Guest
00:00:15
Max
Aqua Omega. I am your host, Max Marion. And with me, as always, is my co-host, Calvin Morrow. Hello. And we also have Alana in the room today that will will be moderating for us. Hello. Today, we have a very special guest, Dr. Rachel Sowiris, naturopathic doctor.
The Impact of Stress on Health
00:00:32
Max
And we have a great topic we're going to be talking about, something that I think impacts everybody. I mean, I hear this all the time. You you know, you're hanging out with your friends. like I am so stressed. Well, today we're going to be talking about the impact of this stress on your health. ah Welcome to to the show, Dr. Rachel.
00:00:47
Rachel Sawires
Thank you. Pleasure.
00:00:49
Max
It's great to have you here. I think this is going to be a great
Dr. Sowiris's Journey into Naturopathy
00:00:51
Max
conversation today. I think a lot of people are going to benefit from things you have to say, from personal experience, the things that you've seen ah with your your patients in practice and things that people might not know about this stress and how it's impacting their overall their overall health. But before we do that, I always love to have our guests tell our listeners a little more about themselves and and also your why. Why did you decide to become a naturopathic doctor and what was your journey like?
00:01:15
Rachel Sawires
Yeah. um So I was in undergrad to go into med school, actually, like most of my colleagues. And during that program, i um unfortunately, my mother got breast cancer.
00:01:27
Max
I'll start here.
00:01:27
Rachel Sawires
And so I was doing research on it. And you know the recommendation of conventional medicine to me just didn't resonate. They just wanted to give her a ton of chemo and radiation. And she was pretty young and healthy in all other aspects. And so I took it upon myself to do kind of like my own research at that time. And we decided to just do like a lumpectomy and do treatment naturally for her instead of going chemo radiation.
00:01:54
Max
Wow, cool.
00:01:56
Rachel Sawires
um And she actually remitted for 12 years after that, which was amazing.
00:01:59
Max
twelve years
00:02:01
Rachel Sawires
ah No chemo and radiation.
00:02:01
Max
With no chemo? Oh man, if I don't want to give you a chakra like I did, it's like, that's an off parlour though.
00:02:04
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, just a lumpectomy.
00:02:09
Rachel Sawires
big risk experimenting
Support for Naturopathic Medicine
00:02:10
Max
You're kidding.
00:02:11
Rachel Sawires
with my mother, but it turned out.
00:02:13
Max
Wow.
00:02:14
Rachel Sawires
um And so yeah, so that's when I actually first initially heard about naturopathic medicine. I had no idea what it was prior to. And um so I switched into preparing to get into CCNM, which is the naturopathic college out here in Ontario. And and That's really my why and it it really obviously motivates me dearly and sincerely because and family is obviously very important to you. and so Going through an experience like that and seeing the effects on someone so close to you, it made me want to be able to provide that for everyone else. you know There's lots of people out there who go through similar experiences and they just don't know the alternatives. and It's not really readily available. It's not knowledge that everyone has access to. and so
00:02:59
Rachel Sawires
This is why I'm here.
00:03:01
Max
I love it. I absolutely love that. do you So i you know we love CCNM and Boucher and we love naturopathic medicine. We're very involved in what they do. um But we are big supporters of the ICC um at CCNM and actually that was just and We were featured in the national post. They did a ah kind of cool I don't know if you saw it or not. It's ah i was just a few days ago, I think it just went out.
00:03:22
Rachel Sawires
i think
00:03:24
Max
Yeah. And they're actually talking about the benefits of naturopathic medicine with like traditional kind of care and chemotherapy and how that can support those different types of treatments.
00:03:32
Rachel Sawires
Absolutely.
00:03:34
Max
and i It was really cool, you know, I think like for us, it means a lot. And I think, you know, everybody knows somebody that cancer has touched um at some point in their life and and understanding that this different type of care or support that can come along with it or different types of treatments.
00:03:41
Rachel Sawires
Exactly.
00:03:47
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:03:50
Max
I think it's I think it's It's really really it's important. have an outath there yeah Yeah, I think that information is important. Like you said like a lot of people it's a scary time when someone comes down with a diagnosis like that um for everybody, you know from the patient down to the family and Everybody that it touches directly or indirectly and this this information so I love the
Understanding Stress and Its Triggers
00:04:10
Max
story. I think it's fantastic i think It's so cool.
00:04:10
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:04:12
Max
Love your why I think it's really cool you know, I'm assuming that's gonna segue into stress and how it impacts your health because that's gonna You know, that's going to cause some inflammation, some elevated cortisol levels, which in, you know, we know inflammation is the silent killer, right?
00:04:19
Rachel Sawires
but
00:04:23
Rachel Sawires
Absolutely.
00:04:26
Max
It's a, every disease that we, the chronic disease that we see today. So let's, yeah, maybe that's a good place to start.
00:04:31
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:04:33
Max
Like why is it that being stressful affects your health? like
00:04:36
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, ironically, it does segue nicely into that. Because my mother, for example, she's um somebody who never smoked, never drank, eats very clean. She was a nutritionist before she became moved on in her career. um And so for her to get a diagnosis like that, it was actually quite shocking. But the one thing that my mother does not really manage well is her stress. And so to me, yeah.
00:05:01
Max
I feel like that resonates with so many people, especially like this day and age. and Maybe, maybe i I don't want this to come off sound in the wrong way, but women, especially more than, more
00:05:10
Rachel Sawires
Absolutely.
Gender Differences in Stress Handling
00:05:11
Max
than men, right?
00:05:12
Max
Cause there's like so much more, especially in families, right? Like it's, it feels like even in my personal life, like it feels like sometimes I can, I can shut it off or I can turn it on, but my wife, it feels like she can never fully shut it off. She's constantly in mom mode, you know? And sometimes I can just go, I can be dad mode and I can just be me mode.
00:05:27
Rachel Sawires
yeah Right.
00:05:30
Max
It's like, I'm going to go golfing today. You're able to walk into a room and see all the things that need to be done. Yeah. I see it, but I don't feel like I need to attack it right away.
00:05:39
Rachel Sawires
right Yeah, um with my mother particularly, she um was running a household, but also was kind of the breadwinner of her family as well.
00:05:50
Max
Wow.
00:05:50
Rachel Sawires
And so that put a lot of burden on her shoulders and she had three kids to raise. And and my husband, but my husband, her husband, my father was like an amazing partner as well.
00:05:57
Max
Wow.
00:06:01
Rachel Sawires
But um like you said, like, it's a little bit different for men and for women. Like, he went to work and so okay like out when he came home.
00:06:05
Max
It is, right? And it's important to recognize that, I think.
00:06:09
Rachel Sawires
no Yeah.
00:06:11
Max
It's important to be able to recognize that, I think, that but you know we react to stress in different ways. And I'm sure you see that in practice all the time. is like people can Some people can just roll.
00:06:20
Rachel Sawires
100%.
00:06:22
Max
It feels like nothing stresses them out, and some people just hold hold that in.
00:06:27
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:06:27
Max
and think And I think, too, people like don't really acknowledge the stress. I think it's like, Maybe it's society, maybe it's social media. Who knows? But and no one wants to admit it. Anytime you talk to somebody, it's like, hey, how are you doing? is it good I'm good. I'm fine.
00:06:38
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:06:39
Max
Good. Yeah. Except for your giant ball of stress or stress energy. you know yeah
00:06:45
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, I'm so glad you said that, Max, because that's exactly what stress is. It's really like our reaction to a certain event or stressor or um challenge or threat. It's how you react to it. It's not actually the threat itself. And so you can either do exactly what you said, you can either roll with it and kind of just flow or you can get worked up about it and like let it destroy your day or like let it kind of ruminate and like create this huge dark looming gray cloud over you as you continue to kind of move through life. So there's really two pathways when being faced with a stressor and I think that response is really the key in how you impact health and how you kind of take control over it.
00:07:26
Max
Yeah, I thought I saw I saw a quote the other day. It was like on a, it was like on a mental health page is we've we've done some some good work on that as well. Like we actually have a study we're waiting to come out with ah with CCNM on diet, nutrition, and high potency omega threes and the impact on on anxiety. And anyway, the the quote was it's like 90% of the stress or something like that that's in our life, and we actually make it up in our own mind.
00:07:51
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:07:51
Max
yeah Right. So it's not necessarily the event or what's actually happening.
00:07:56
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:07:56
Max
It's, it's the scenarios you're playing out in your head without anything actually having happened yet. So true. Yeah. Yeah. I believe that. I know like just going on vacation or taking a little road trip. It's like all the things you didn't pack that is like stressing you out. Yeah. And it's, it can be hard to just let that go and be like, you know what, all I need is my credit card. and I'll be fine. You know? like
00:08:17
Rachel Sawires
Yes.
00:08:17
Max
So so whats how how is the stress impacting people's health? Things they might not know, like what are the underlying causes um of stress or the the impacts on your
Modern Stress Factors and Statistics
00:08:28
Max
overall health? like You might not feel right away, but you know eventually they're going to show up.
00:08:32
Rachel Sawires
absolutely so yeah I was doing a little bit of research prior to hopping on the podcast with you guys, and I wanted to see really like what does it show in the research in terms of stats on its impact on stress and its impact on health. And there's something called the American Institute of Stress. So there's a whole institute dedicated to studying stress, which I think is very important. And they said that 75% to 90% of doctor visits patients come in for stress-related illnesses or complaints.
00:09:02
Max
Whoa, that's a lot.
00:09:02
Rachel Sawires
So imagine that, that's a huge stat.
00:09:03
Max
That's a big stat. That is huge.
00:09:07
Rachel Sawires
And on top of that, they also stated that um about $300 billion dollars is lost because of people not being able to show up to work, calling in sick, all related towards stress. So I really i really do think that...
00:09:23
Max
ah so yeah When it affects your day-to-day life, that's when you realize, like okay, I need to look into this and find a solution.
00:09:27
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:09:30
Max
yeah I feel like it's on the rise.
00:09:31
Rachel Sawires
yeah
00:09:33
Max
It's just like anxiety, depression is on the on the rise. I feel like stress is on the rise too. I mean, there's so much like, you know, whether it's like media or social media, or just like, like inflation, inflation, like, you know, cost a lot of politics, environmental concerns, um you know, family, family issues, like, you know, it's,
00:09:48
Rachel Sawires
you
00:09:56
Max
It's, it just feels like it's not the same as when we were kids. And I don't know. I don't know. Like, are we just spending less time outside? Are we less active than we used to be?
00:10:03
Rachel Sawires
Absolutely. Yeah.
00:10:05
Max
You know, are you you know cause there's a certain impact with like, you know, if you feel a little stressed and you go for a workout, you just feel great after and just like, oh what the hell was I even worried about in the first place?
00:10:12
Rachel Sawires
Mm
00:10:14
Max
You know, like what it was like, you know, I just feel really good now. It's like all this stress kind of lift off my shoulders. Is it because we're not we're not getting that that daylight we're not getting that exercise that this stress is just building up in our bodies more?
Pandemic's Role in Stress Levels
00:10:28
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, and I think that and I know like this has been like probably like spoke on time and time again, but there's a massive difference in patients pre COVID and post COVID. Like it did some it did really did a number on people's stress and anxiety and um just really kind of shifted everyone's baseline so that we're a lot less resilient to stress after that. um
00:10:51
Max
What if there's a, I don't know if you've done any research on it or if you have any theories, but I mean, mine right away jumps to like, we're social creatures.
00:10:52
Rachel Sawires
ivan
00:10:57
Max
You take out our social component and you isolate us.
00:10:58
Rachel Sawires
here
00:11:01
Max
You're going to feel, you're just going to feel a lot more isolated and stressed out overall, right? Like there was someone was talking about like the the frontal lobe or the hippocampus, like people, like they had measures people like frontal lobe and it actually shrank, which is like the social part of like, your yeah, like COVID. And I was like, that's crazy. Like you, you know, well, it's just like in, you know, I was watching that new show on Netflix there.
00:11:23
Rachel Sawires
Yep.
00:11:23
Max
What's it called? Unlocked. And they were talking, they're like throwing people. You saw that. It's pretty cool.
00:11:26
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, I did.
00:11:27
Max
I thought the social experiment was super cool. The prison one?
00:11:29
Rachel Sawires
So did I.
00:11:29
Max
Yeah. Yeah. I watched the first episode. Did you? You didn't get hooked right away? I fell asleep. That's it. It's been a day. So but anyway, I mean, the whole, the whole experiment is is really interesting, but like, you know, the, the, the prisoners talk about when they get thrown into like isolation or like into the the hole or whatever. And it's like, the stress they feel by going there is like crazy. But if you take out like even any type of social interactions or whatever, it feels like, you know, that was COVID, right? Like you were kind of jam packed, you know, with your and didnt divorce rates go through the roof as well, which I assume stress had a crazy impact on that, right?
00:12:06
Rachel Sawires
There was nowhere to escape to, stuck in the household with your partner.
00:12:07
Max
Right. You need that escape. right Right. And, and the, and you know, what else was, was, I think was interesting about that too is I think kids probably suffered the most out of all
Building Stress Resilience
00:12:19
Max
that. Cause like as an adult, like you may not want to admit it, but you can recognize like I'm stressed, like I'm stressed or I'm feeling a certain way, but kids had no way of dealing with that. Right. And so if they start acting out, cause they don't know what, what's going on and parents aren't used to that and that stresses them out, you know, there was like, the there was like some stats, like a lot of like,
00:12:36
Rachel Sawires
Right.
00:12:40
Max
verbal, physical abuse was up, things like that. And like, those are things that kids don't know how to process and they, they stays with them forever. So it'll be really interesting to see like the long-term effects on like children from like all that isolation.
00:12:49
Rachel Sawires
Oh, yeah.
00:12:53
Max
Yeah. Yeah. It's not interesting. Probably sad. You know, it's probably not the right word is interesting.
00:12:57
Rachel Sawires
Mm
00:12:58
Max
It's fascinating, right?
00:13:00
Rachel Sawires
hmm.
00:13:01
Max
It's something that we went through as a human race, you know, and it's hopefully something we don't have to do again. And if we do,
00:13:07
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:13:09
Max
Ideally we've learned from it because of these studies. There's other things that had come up that were comparable I think when it came to kids stress like there was like the Great Depression other they like traumatic events and stuff like that pretty wild You would um you would mention like having a resilience to to stress.
00:13:16
Rachel Sawires
Oh, wow.
00:13:20
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:13:23
Max
Is that something that people should do?
00:13:24
Rachel Sawires
Of course.
00:13:26
Max
Like should we try and be building up a resilience to stress?
00:13:28
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, because the The sad part or the the reality of the situation is that you're, it's almost impossible to avoid stress, right? Like it's going to happen. It's whether that's like a ah silly mundane, like I spilled my coffee on my shirt or like a larger life event you're moving or, you know, someone passed away in the family near and dear to you. There's, there's so many stressors that are going to kind of pop up in life. And really the only thing that you can do that is in your control is building your resiliency to that stress.
00:13:57
Max
Right.
00:13:57
Rachel Sawires
Um, and so I talk a lot about this with my patients that there's like pillars of health. Stress management is one of those pillars.
00:14:05
Max
I believe.
00:14:05
Rachel Sawires
And when stress is kind of just through the roof, my theory is you really have to rely on your other pillars of health, which is sleep, nutrition, and hydration. I kind of lump that together and then movement. So those four pillars of health essentially kind of really improve or increase your resiliency to any stressors that you're out there facing.
00:14:27
Max
Okay. So it's not focusing directly on the things causing you stress, but it's like improving the other qualities of your life. And that will help deal with the stress overall.
00:14:35
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, absolutely.
00:14:35
Max
Kind of like when you before, right? Like you do a workout and you feel better.
00:14:38
Rachel Sawires
Well, exactly. Well, think about it. You didn't eat that day.
00:14:40
Max
ah for a while I think people underestimate the power of just taking a walk.
00:14:44
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:14:45
Max
Yeah.
00:14:46
Rachel Sawires
Nature.
00:14:47
Max
Yeah. Just turn it up. We take a walk in nature.
00:14:48
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:14:49
Max
Hug a tree. Yeah. Like powerful stuff and hugging trees, you know, blue and good stuff.
00:14:53
Rachel Sawires
I'm a big tree hugger.
00:14:55
Max
All right. Yeah. I love that too. its So it's crazy. You know what? i I love grounding. Like, I don't know, you know, kind of taking my shoes off and walking outside.
00:14:59
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:15:02
Max
I actually bought some grounding sheets and I felt like it's crazy. Have you ever tried the ground like grounding sheets?
00:15:06
Rachel Sawires
Nope. Grounding what? Sheets?
00:15:09
Max
Yeah.
00:15:09
Rachel Sawires
No, I never heard of that.
00:15:10
Max
No, you never heard it. you were the tell Tell us about it.
00:15:12
Rachel Sawires
Does that not get your feet dirty?
00:15:13
Max
It's really, so you plug the sheet into your ground of like your plug and then you connect the sheet and there's like the grounding kind of like vibrations that essentially run through the sheets.
00:15:22
Rachel Sawires
oh
00:15:22
Max
I'm like super sensitive to all that kind of stuff. I feel it. I feel like it's crazy. I can feel like a, like a low grade vibration in the body.
00:15:27
Rachel Sawires
Sorry, is this a synthetic version of grounding?
00:15:29
Max
It's supposed to help reduce inflammation, relieve stress, things like that. It's really cool.
00:15:34
Max
Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:35
Rachel Sawires
oh
00:15:35
Max
But you plug it into the ground of your, your plugs, which are essentially plugged into the ground outside and, and the, the grounding essentially resonates through the.
00:15:43
Rachel Sawires
Interesting.
00:15:44
Max
but Yeah. You wake up with no static care. Well, no, that's um I don't have, I don't have any air.
00:15:49
Rachel Sawires
True question.
00:15:54
Max
What about the like healthy stressors versus unhealthy stressors?
Chronic Stress and Health Impacts
00:15:58
Max
but That's what I was thinking. Like, because you know, I think I think when you think about stress, too, there's like, there's good stress, you want some, you know, some like exercise or going for a run, or you're stressing your body, but in a good way, right? I think what you want to avoid, maybe you can talk about this is like constantly being in in a fight or flight type mode.
00:16:10
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:16:18
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, that's exactly it. So stress is actually biologically adaptive for us. We need stress in order to function. It really regulates our energy.
00:16:25
Max
and survive, right? Our ancestors needed to say you needed to get you, right?
00:16:27
Rachel Sawires
Exactly, it is.
00:16:29
Max
yeah
00:16:29
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, so, um sorry, I just lost my train of mind. Yeah, you need stress.
00:16:35
Max
Cause before we were like, before we were like apex predator, you need stress to create alertness to be like not die.
00:16:36
Rachel Sawires
um
00:16:41
Max
You know, it's like, okay, well, I'm stressed out where my next meal is coming from. should go find it Exactly. Right. it its good And it gives you that extra boost of energy or something. Like I remember playing hockey, like when I used to play hockey, there's like those butterflies you get in your stomach before a game and you get like, you get some energy and some power that comes from that stuff or big lift or big whatever, you know, it's like, okay, I'm going to do this.
00:16:54
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:16:59
Max
You know, it's like you go to like ultra focus mode.
00:17:00
Rachel Sawires
Exactly. Yeah.
00:17:02
Max
How can you tell it doesn't seem like good ones and bad ones?
00:17:03
Rachel Sawires
In short words. Yeah, because in short, in short stress is very beneficial. Like if you're writing an exam playing a hockey game, you need that stress to kind of increase your focus and really go and like kill whatever it is you're about to do. But in chronic terms, that's when stress becomes harmful. If it's prolonged and it's over a long period of time, Stress shuts off the blood flow to all other organs in the body so that you can like run from the tiger or play really great in your hockey game or do amazing on your chemistry exam. um So when it's prolonged, that's when the blood doesn't get to the vital organs like the liver and the liver is clears out the cholesterol and then that's going to help have effects on our cardiovascular health.
00:17:48
Max
Detoxes. How are you doing?
00:17:48
Rachel Sawires
um
00:17:50
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, same with immune system. like Stress is really important for our immune system to be able to fight and and ah overcome a pathogen or an an infection or an illness, but when it becomes prolonged, that actually reduces our defenses against infection and illnesses. so
00:18:04
Max
Yeah, so that would be a sign of like, if you're getting sick all the time, that's a sign of elevated stress levels.
00:18:08
Rachel Sawires
Absolutely.
00:18:09
Max
Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you in a compromised immune system. How can you recognize that you're like chronically stressed out? Is it you get sick more often? That is interesting. That's fascinating.
00:18:17
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, that's definitely one of the the signs. There's many physical manifestations that can show up.
00:18:22
Max
How it's always sick, always getting a little cold. I mean, it's my work, work work.
00:18:25
Rachel Sawires
Are you?
00:18:32
Max
Bye.
00:18:32
Rachel Sawires
um Yeah, you you definitely want to be able to identify when you're in those periods of like high prolonged chronic stress because they can be detrimental on your on your health. in um longer terms. um For me personally, like I'm a very high functioning stressed person. So it's actually very difficult for me to tell. When I first started practicing, and this is kind of like a little bit of my personal story was stressed because um I've always kind of, you know, CC&M wasn't a walk in the park.
00:19:00
Max
yeah let's hear but
00:19:06
Rachel Sawires
That was a very stressful program to go through. And, you know, I feel like I managed it pretty well. There was definitely good days and bad days. But coming out of CC&M and starting practice, that was like a whole nother ballgame. Like I was the amount of stress that I experienced, just like, you know, the pressure of having so many people's lives in your hands. You don't have a supervisor to check over to make sure you're not killing anybody.
00:19:27
Max
Yeah, let's hear about it.
00:19:29
Rachel Sawires
You're like prescribing the wrong herbs or combination of things.
00:19:29
Max
Right.
00:19:32
Rachel Sawires
And, um, my first three months, I've never had eczema in my life, but my entire arms broke out into rashes.
00:19:39
Max
wow
00:19:39
Rachel Sawires
from the inside out, like big red hives. It was itchy. It was like, I've never experienced it before. And I was like, huh, like I'm doing a lot. I'm stressing. I'm going home and I'm thinking about parent my patient, Karen, X, Y, or Z. And I'm like, I cannot be, this is not sustainable. Like I can't do this for the rest of my life.
00:19:58
Max
Wow.
00:20:00
Rachel Sawires
And I really had to like, what's up?
00:20:03
Max
I said that's good that you recognize that I feel like a lot of people that would just add more stress.
00:20:07
Rachel Sawires
Well, it's kind of hard to ignore. I was like breaking up into boils on my body and I was like, what is happening here?
00:20:09
Max
Yeah.
00:20:14
Rachel Sawires
um So yeah, I really had to be able to have like that serious conversation with myself about, you know, um my health is so important. That is utmost importance in terms of being able to take care of other people's health. And so I had to really like prioritize taking care of my pillars of health in order to be able ah to be a pillar for others so that I can take care of their health in a sense or you know, facilitate them improving their health.
Cultural Perspectives on Stress
00:20:41
Max
And what does that look like for you? Just better nutrition and exercise or?
00:20:45
Rachel Sawires
Stress management was the one that I was going going for in that case.
00:20:48
Max
so what kind of truth you is For listening, yeah, maybe they want to do the same thing, but meditation, and yoga, some exercise.
00:20:50
Rachel Sawires
yeah there is
00:20:57
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, meditation's huge for me, honestly. I really do lean on meditation.
00:20:59
Max
Me too. I love that.
00:21:02
Rachel Sawires
Even like this morning when I woke up, I woke like woke up a little nervous, excited, and anticipating the podcast, and I had to sit there and do calm myself down, do a five-minute meditation before getting ready.
00:21:12
Max
positive thought, right?
00:21:12
Rachel Sawires
and
00:21:13
Max
So much so just fun thought and thought is so powerful. That's all you need. Five, 10% find that good energy.
00:21:16
Rachel Sawires
It shit can totally shift you. Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:22
Max
You know, it's interesting. I find like other cultures prioritize that a lot more than us. Like I just got back, we just got back from a trip to Maui with, with the family.
00:21:26
Rachel Sawires
the
00:21:31
Max
And it was so interesting to see like, you know, here on this side of the world, it's like, you know, it at least it feels like it's like, go, go, go, go, go, go. work, work, work, work, work, and then play when you can. And over there, it was so fun. It's like, it's like man, ah I'll work when I have to and surf whenever I can, you know, as much as I can.
00:21:50
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:21:52
Max
You know what I'm saying?
00:21:52
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:21:52
Max
Oh, interesting. Yeah. um It's just island time, you know? It's like everybody's just like relaxed and chill. there's ah There's a certain amount of really good vibes that come off the ocean, and like really good energy.
00:22:02
Rachel Sawires
100%.
00:22:02
Max
it's here like it just You just feel that kind of, you know, you can't help but feel it when you're close to it. But yeah, it's just like, you know, and right from like
00:22:07
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:22:10
Max
adults to kids. Like it just transcends the entire kind of island. Like it's, it's really, really cool.
00:22:14
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:22:16
Max
Like kids get up, like there's like, you know, I'm watching like three year old surf in like some big ways. I'm like, this is crazy.
00:22:22
Rachel Sawires
It's
00:22:23
Max
But like, but it's just like, yeah, but they don't spend, they're not, they're not on like screens or they're not on like, I mean, sometimes I'm sure, but like, you know, spend so much more time outside than, than kids probably here in the, in, on our side of the world.
00:22:26
Rachel Sawires
the culture. Yeah.
00:22:33
Rachel Sawires
There.
00:22:37
Max
Yeah.
00:22:37
Rachel Sawires
Exactly. The vibe is contagious. And I noticed that it's sweet because I lived in Vancouver for 10 years.
00:22:40
Max
Oh man, for sure. A soul lead back. but
00:22:46
Rachel Sawires
And so coming out to CC&M for my program, it's like an instant shift in energy and the way that the lifestyle is in the West Coast versus the East Coast.
00:22:54
Max
ah You can feel it in the air, right?
00:22:54
Rachel Sawires
Like, oh, yeah.
00:22:55
Max
Like in Toronto and stuff like that. Like it's, you
00:22:58
Rachel Sawires
Feel it on the 401. no
00:23:00
Max
all Oh, man, I feel like that's a stressor. Talk about that as a stress on Valley Parkway. Oh my god, like, and you see people are so angry. And it's like, I'm not, you know, judging anybody who feels like they they they want to do that, or they have to do that. But like spending an hour and a half to two hours a day trapped on the highway.
00:23:19
Rachel Sawires
and Yeah.
00:23:20
Max
I mean, that cannot be good for your house.
00:23:21
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:23:22
Max
No, there's no
00:23:22
Rachel Sawires
Unless they're listening to your health minute.
00:23:26
Max
right yeah yeah how the episode take still little meditation when you're on the dvp hang out a little bit fancy
00:23:34
Rachel Sawires
It's all about your reaction to the stressor. like Yeah.
00:23:37
Max
drink some camelile to you it's just yeah relax hey i so I was kind of scrolling through your your Instagram.
Stress Management Techniques
00:23:47
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:23:47
Max
And I noticed the thing, if you were up in Banff, it looks like you were doing some some cold water therapy.
00:23:52
Rachel Sawires
Oh yeah.
00:23:52
Max
i've done That's cold water. I've been in the glacier water.
00:23:54
Rachel Sawires
Anything.
00:23:55
Max
It's cold. But I do have an ice bath. in my garage. And I liked, to I find it's a great tool for like boosting my immune system for like, if I go on a long run, I'll go like on a 10 K. And as soon as I get back, like my old knees and back, I get them in there. And I feel, I feel like so rejuvenated after, but I don't know if you like it's such a trending, and like maybe explain to our listeners, like the benefit that you can get from cold therapy.
00:24:11
Rachel Sawires
Yeah. Yeah. It is. Yeah. For sure. And that's a great example of a healthy stressor.
00:24:24
Max
Hmm.
00:24:24
Rachel Sawires
Cold punching. Yeah. that Like it doesn't feel great. It's very stressful being in there. You're like, eyes widen and you're like freezing. You get all up tight and then you, you, you love it.
00:24:31
Max
um i'm more weird I love it. never sola I don't take hot showers, only cold showers. And I love taking night baths. like i I haven't taken a cold shower and or hot shower, aside from maybe if I get a quiet head cold and I like to kind of clear my sinuses out.
00:24:48
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:24:48
Max
But but i I crave it. i got
00:24:50
Rachel Sawires
How long are you sitting in there for?
00:24:53
Max
The ice bath really set it to like maybe eight and I do like 15 minutes.
00:24:53
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:24:57
Rachel Sawires
like Wow.
00:24:58
Max
Yeah. That's eight Fahrenheit. Yeah. Just about freezing. No, no, Celsius.
00:25:02
Rachel Sawires
You know, minutes, right?
00:25:04
Max
No, no, 15. Yeah. It'd be like 15 minutes and like eight degrees.
00:25:08
Rachel Sawires
That's a lot.
00:25:09
Max
And it feels good.
00:25:11
Rachel Sawires
Wow.
00:25:11
Max
Yeah.
00:25:12
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, no, cold plunging is great for the body. um That's just, again, working with our heart to allow the vasculature to constrict and contract so that you can um either pump the blood towards the organs or a country constrict it so that it's pumping through the heart. And so that really, really in enhances our vessel's ability. There's good research on cold plunging being just as effective as exercise in terms of its benefits on the vasculature, because it really did
00:25:39
Max
Pumps your oxytocin to you. Come out of there feeling great. Like, you know, you I think that's why I crave it in the morning.
00:25:42
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:25:44
Max
like the So I started taking cold showers like a lot before it became cool to do that stuff.
00:25:49
Rachel Sawires
yeah
00:25:50
Max
And and that that was like the research I had read. It was like, if you can if you can shock your body, first thing in the morning with like like an ice cold shower or an ice cold bath or whatever you you like all it's like a you go into like a fight or flight right so all your blood kind of like redirects itself to your vital organs and it helps flush out your liver your kidneys helps improve heart health and your brain health right because it's like it drives away from the extremities and it goes directly to your vital organs and that helps kind of flush out those toxins and things they got which is like
00:26:23
Max
I don't know, I just like how it feels. um And I thought it was really cool and I kind of stuck with it to the point now that I i just, I love it. ah You know, I kind of crave it.
00:26:30
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:26:31
Max
And I try to, sometimes I try to get Calvin to do it that if we're traveling together. Well, I'll do it. And I will be like, then you admit I don't crave it. I feel great afterwards.
00:26:37
Rachel Sawires
oh yeah
00:26:38
Max
But like the second I put my feet in like the bath water, I'm just like, why am I doing this right now? It was 16 a.m.
00:26:43
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:26:44
Max
This was a terrible idea. for the whole You feel good. It kills your inflammation, you know, versus taking like a boiling hot shower.
00:26:50
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:26:52
Max
It feels great at the time, but it doesn't like... but you kind of You come out and kind of feel sluggish a little bit. you know I don't find you feel great when you come out of there.
00:26:59
Rachel Sawires
yeah
00:26:59
Max
And it's damaging to your skin too. Because instead of your blood all flushing to your your vital organs, it flushes to the the surface of the skin to protect your biggest organ, your skin.
00:27:10
Rachel Sawires
Mm-hmm.
00:27:10
Max
And it kills a lot of the healthy bacteria that's on your skin and stuff like that too. So, oh I do it.
00:27:15
Rachel Sawires
I love the passion for the cold clenching here.
00:27:16
Max
I love it. I just, yeah, I think it's great.
00:27:20
Rachel Sawires
That is great.
00:27:20
Max
but Yeah, I'll agree.
00:27:21
Rachel Sawires
I agree.
00:27:22
Max
It felt good. So what happens to like, not just your, your body and your health and your physical, but like, if you let stress kind of control you, can it like seep into other parts of your life, like relationship or work, or can it make you make ah other
Stress's Influence on Choices and Health
00:27:35
Max
bad decisions?
00:27:35
Rachel Sawires
Yeah. Absolutely. That's a big one, I think. And I think that comes back to your statistic with COVID there of how it really increased divorce rates, how there was a lot more physical abuse and violence, substance abuse, huge one.
00:27:45
Max
um Substance abuse it comes to mind. Yeah.
00:27:49
Rachel Sawires
That's, that's.
00:27:49
Max
Remember the, remember that, I remember that report. It was like, I think it was on CTV or so anyway. And they were like, somebody was walking down the street and they're showing people's recycling bins. And they were like full of like wine bottles and beer bottles and beer cans.
00:28:01
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:28:04
Max
And yeah, it was crazy.
00:28:04
Rachel Sawires
yeah
00:28:05
Max
I think alcohol consumption had gone up like 75% or the sales. I mean, we couldn't directly see.
00:28:09
Rachel Sawires
It's the only thing open.
00:28:11
Max
Any good way to manage stress or, or no.
00:28:17
Rachel Sawires
I mean, maybe in moderation, a glass with wine, not a bad idea, but like bottles on end, not sure how I feel about that. um And it's so funny, because I find like this is like the Toronto classic, like the finance guy, he drinks 10 coffees during the day and then drinks like 10 ounces of whiskey at night. And like, it's really that like wired but tired picture. They're just so stressed that they don't even, they're like high functioning stress. They don't even realize it. And they use alcohol to really like numb it or almost yeah, to almost just hide behind almost in a sense.
00:28:47
Max
It's a depressant, right?
00:28:54
Rachel Sawires
I have a lot of patience that I have that conversation with. I'm like, You know, you, you work so hard during the day and then you're drinking so much at nighttime. You're really not giving your body a break from stressors. Like you don't have.
00:29:05
Max
But you don't sleep either, right? Like you, cause you don't, so you kind of keep drawing at your sleep bank.
00:29:08
Rachel Sawires
Not well.
00:29:09
Max
Yeah. Like it's like, it's not full restful sleep. You're not ever entering that full kind of REM sleep when you're, when you're consuming alcohol or drugs or sleeping pills too.
00:29:16
Rachel Sawires
and Exactly.
00:29:20
Max
Right. That's why people, you know, they take those, those sleep aids and they become dependent on them to actually get any kind of sleep. And then it's like, you never really sleeping. You're just kind of in a, like in a, like almost like a coma type state, right?
00:29:31
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:29:33
Max
Yeah.
00:29:34
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:29:34
Max
your restful Interesting. Yeah, that can't that can't help long term. Well, no, then you draw on your sleep bank. Yeah, you know, you're you're buying sleep towers. Yeah.
00:29:42
Rachel Sawires
Yeah. That's our pillar of health. We ought to really build up in order to manage. Yeah.
00:29:49
Max
The hours of sleep, should people be targeting in your opinion, you know, say seven, eight.
00:29:52
Rachel Sawires
um Yeah. I range from between seven to eight, I'd say.
00:29:56
Max
And some people need more, right?
00:29:57
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:29:58
Max
Some people need less, maybe not less. I mean, what about people that say, like, I thrive on four hours? I'm like, man, you're crazy.
00:30:04
Rachel Sawires
I had a patient like that yesterday. She's like, if I sleep, she's like, I need nine hours of sleep. If I get anything between like seven, eight, six hours, I stay up so that I'll only get five hours. If I'm not going to get my full nine hours, because I feel like crap. If I go, I know that was my face. yeah Interesting.
00:30:20
Max
doesn't me do that It's kind of interesting though because I you know, you know when you take like a red eye everybody's taking a red eye before
00:30:28
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:30:29
Max
and overnight flight. Yeah. Right.
00:30:30
Rachel Sawires
yeah
00:30:30
Max
But like sometimes you get off of that. You didn't really sleep on the flight or you didn't say, well, that's for sure. But like your cortisol levels are so jacked that you're just like primed. Yeah. You know, the next day is still primed. So I wonder if it's something like that where she's just got to, you know, okay, I'm not going to sleep.
00:30:42
Rachel Sawires
yeah Yeah.
00:30:46
Max
I'm asleep three hours and four hours. and I'm going to jack my cortisol and then I'm going to feel great instead of kind of like being in that in between. It's like taking a 20 minute nap versus like, 30 and you wake up and you're either energized or sluggish.
00:30:54
Rachel Sawires
and after the
00:30:57
Max
Yeah. Yeah. You either feel like you didn't get enough sleep or you got a good little, right?
00:31:01
Rachel Sawires
ugly yeah Sleep is a funny one.
00:31:02
Max
True.
00:31:05
Max
Can people use stress to like help them make good decisions in their life and like find their passions or like find ah a job or a person?
Trusting Instincts and Gut Health
00:31:14
Rachel Sawires
yeah Yeah.
00:31:14
Max
how could Yeah. How can you like, everybody says that right. Pressure makes diamonds. raise that yeah
00:31:20
Rachel Sawires
Absolutely. And then even in the sense of if you find, you know, for example, you walk into a room and you instantly get tensed up and you feel uncomfortable or it's stressful for you to be in that environment, that might be your body sign of telling you like necessarily, um, maybe that's not the best room for you to be in. Maybe that's not the best environment for you. Maybe you need to sit and think like, why is that stressing you out? Is it my work? Is it the, you know, maybe the relationships I have with the people in that room?
00:31:49
Max
I was gonna say that's like something I think people ignore, right?
00:31:49
Rachel Sawires
You really,
00:31:52
Max
Like I think people like, you know...
00:31:52
Rachel Sawires
Wow.
00:31:54
Max
maybe they have like childhood friends or like people grow up and they change, right? And you start hanging all you' hanging out with these same people just because you feel like you have to, but maybe they don't make you feel so good, you know?
00:32:01
Rachel Sawires
Yeah. Exactly.
00:32:05
Max
that's what you But you do it anyway, but like you just feel like shit after doing it. It's like, if you feel like that, it's like, it's generally your body or you even your gut, right?
00:32:10
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:32:14
Max
Cause I'm sure your gut is like, ah has a great sense or telling you what's going on. It's like, what is it? Like the gut brain access. It's like your second brain.
00:32:20
Rachel Sawires
Exactly. Yeah.
00:32:21
Max
If your gut's getting a little bubbly or you're not feeling so good about something, like you need to recognize and listen to that.
00:32:26
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, the enteric nervous system, that's basically our brain of the gut. Yeah, our second brain. um And there's so many, you know, it's funny because they recognize this so long ago, like there's so many sayings in our language or vocabulary that like relates to how important that gut brain access is, like you just said, like getting butterflies in your tummy. Like, what does that mean to somebody that that's really like your nerves being represented in your in your gut? And you, or if someone says, you know, like, I knew it in my gut that that was wrong for me, like.
00:32:55
Max
Mm There's a new show that like or a new documentary that's on Netflix. It was like something about so something to do with your gut I just saw briefly I threw it on my watch list yesterday, but like in the preview they were talking about like basically Artificial foods and food preservatives and it's like they had a term for it I don't know if you know it but it was like the the synthetic gut or something like that but it was something like all like these synthetic foods that we put in our gut and the amount of impact that it has on your
00:33:26
Max
your brain and your overall health, because there is that direct connection between the two, right?
00:33:28
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:33:30
Max
So if you have an unhealthy gut, probably have an unhealthy brain to a certain extent. The show is called Happy your Health, the secret to your gut.
00:33:36
Rachel Sawires
Absolutely.
00:33:38
Max
Yeah, your health. Okay, the secrets. Watch the watchlist.
00:33:40
Rachel Sawires
yeah Yeah. I've seen the other preview of Mm-hmm.
00:33:42
Max
Yeah. Yeah, seems really interesting. It's all and it has all about like how food preservatives and artificial foods and sugars and dyes and things that like we're not supposed to eat, but how it's like completely reshaping and reforming the gut microbiome. And the impact that that has on health.
00:33:59
Rachel Sawires
Yeah. Yeah.
00:34:01
Max
Yeah.
00:34:01
Rachel Sawires
It goes back to how you're saying, you know, you feel like everyone's a lot more stressed now than when we were kids. And that's probably the access to food that we have now, what we're surrounded by.
00:34:09
Max
well
00:34:10
Rachel Sawires
Like, yeah, we were spending more time in front of screens, but we're also not feeding ourselves real food.
00:34:10
Max
Still
00:34:15
Max
so So interestingly enough, even when I was in when i was in Maui, and Janelle and I, were my wife, we were talking about this, and I was like, it's really interesting like that out there, it's like you know the food, when it kind of it takes the time it takes, that's all it is, but everything's fresh, and it's like real ingredients, and it's like real things, and I'm sure that has a direct impact on people's behavior, how they act, or what they prioritize, and it's like, because what you eat doesn't matter what you were eating. I mean, the Pokeballs were like, Oh my God. It's like insane. But like, but like, um, its it just feels like you anything you ate, you never really felt terrible. Like he just great even, even like the, you know, when you're there, there was like this local brewery and we're having like, we'd have a few of those beers. You never felt bad after.
00:34:15
Rachel Sawires
We're eating a lot of.
00:35:04
Rachel Sawires
Mhmm.
00:35:04
Max
you know, versus like something with like all the the food preservatives or like cooked fast or like, cause like, like it feels like in a lot of cultures or at least here, it's like we prioritize big portions, like almost oversized portions.
00:35:07
Rachel Sawires
Mhmm.
00:35:17
Max
And it's gotta be fast and convenient.
00:35:17
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:35:19
Max
You know, that's what I want. Fast, convenient, and I want value. The value over here is like it's on portion size, not on quality or freshness of the ingredients in a lot of cases.
00:35:28
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:35:30
Max
And if you're throwing off your gut, you're throwing off your brain. And if you throw off your brain, you're going to throw off your ability to process stress.
00:35:37
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:35:37
Max
But if your brain feels good, it feels healthy, you feel energized, and something comes up, it's like you you have like this swagger, this confidence, like I can handle this shit. absolutely Yeah, it doesn't please you yeah yeah make you to spend the whole day in bed.
00:35:46
Rachel Sawires
yeah
00:35:49
Max
Right.
00:35:49
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, that's why everyone...
00:35:50
Max
It's crazy. I'm just doing the smallest thing that's like been weighing on you.
Tackling Stress-Inducing Tasks
00:35:54
Max
You just like do it. And it's called you it's called eating the frog, right? It's like there's that thing. It's like get it done first thing in the day instead of letting it weigh on you the entire day kind of thing.
00:36:03
Rachel Sawires
Someone told me that saying like the for the first time the other day and I was like, what? I had never heard this before. Why eating a frog?
00:36:08
Max
Yeah.
00:36:09
Rachel Sawires
I don't understand.
00:36:10
Max
Where did that come from? I don't know.
00:36:11
Rachel Sawires
I don't know.
00:36:12
Max
oh Sounds pretty gross.
00:36:14
Max
I'm just.
00:36:14
Rachel Sawires
Sounds awful.
00:36:15
Rachel Sawires
Yeah.
00:36:16
Max
I eat the frog at all. it's funny or lick the toad or like onto to things It's funny for me, I actually this afternoon, I'm going to test my sperm. I had a vasectomy three years ago, which is like, and I just never got it tested.
00:36:29
Rachel Sawires
Oh wow.
00:36:31
Max
I'm like, whatever it must have worked. We have no baby. No, nobody does, but like, I'll be, Sorry, my, my fiance will be like one day late and then she's just like super stressed out about it. Can't believe her, right? She's like, Oh, you just never got tested. Like you should just sort of got it tested. And it's pretty, you know, why I didn't go get tested. It's good. I'm going to go there. It'll be done. But yeah, three years. It's just been like kind of weighing on both of us. This ridiculous little thing. And I know once it's done, it feels so good. It took me three years to eat the frog or lick the toad, whatever we did, but.
00:37:02
Max
to it The whole saying is, if it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do the first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first. Okay.
00:37:12
Rachel Sawires
Okay.
00:37:13
Max
ten the nineteenth century Terrible job.
00:37:16
Rachel Sawires
For the 19th century, wow.
00:37:16
Max
i yeah alright Sounds like they were dealing with some stress back then too.
00:37:19
Rachel Sawires
Get the the tough stuff out of the way.
00:37:24
Max
I'm a frog eater.
00:37:26
Rachel Sawires
I'm gonna
00:37:27
Max
terrible. What is even the point of this?
00:37:29
Rachel Sawires
get the blue one.
00:37:33
Max
just make ah so youre the
00:37:37
Rachel Sawires
That's hilarious.
00:37:39
Max
um if If some of our listeners felt like they got some value out of this conversation, and they wanted to reach out to you and continue the conversation, you know, beyond the podcast, what would be the best way for them to get ahold of this?
Connect with Dr. Rachel Sowiris
00:37:50
Rachel Sawires
Yeah, so they can add me on Instagram at Dr. Rachel Sueras. It's just my name with a dot after the doctor.
00:38:00
Max
And then, did you want to plug your practice too in case someone's local to you?
00:38:03
Rachel Sawires
For sure. So my private practice is Rooted Solutions, and we're downtown at Bloren Spadina.
00:38:11
Max
Awesome. That's fantastic. So if you guys listening and you want to talk to Dr. Rachel about the stress in your life, feel free to reach out. anyhow Any health issues. Any health issues. You're right. Yeah, because I'm sure you've been more than just stressed. Yeah, you've been wonderful to talk to. You spoke in such a nice way.
00:38:23
Rachel Sawires
Yeah,
00:38:25
Max
I really want to thank you for being on the show.
00:38:27
Rachel Sawires
yeah thanks for having me.
00:38:28
Max
Absolutely. And, um, for everyone who liked the podcast, be sure to actually like the podcast, give it five stars and share it with everyone. Thank you again so much, everyone for being on the show. It's been so great having you. like our little