Amy Cortez: Heavenly Father, we lift up our law enforcement officers today, those who carry the weight of what they see and experience each day. Protect their hearts, their minds, and their bodies as they serve our communities. And Lord, we also lift up the spouses and the families who walk beside them. Give them wisdom, patience, and understanding when they see their loved ones struggling and aren't sure how to respond. What if mental health in law enforcement is being influenced by something we rarely talk about? Nutrition, gut health, and hormones. What if part of the problem is physiological, meaning within the body? Let us say a quick prayer. Let this conversation today bring awareness, encouragement, and a simple way to support the one that they love. In Jesus' Amen. Many first responders are unknowingly dealing with nutrient deficiencies, disrupted gut health, If this episode spoke to you today, don't just hold this information. Start somewhere. Start anywhere that is comfortable for you. and cortisol levels that are completely flipped from what they should be. And when the body stays in fight and flight mode Something as simple as addressing a vitamin deficiency or improving nutrition or supporting the gut health could help your loved one feel better. And who knows, it could even save a life. It doesn't just affect the mood. It affects their sleep, their hormones, inflammation in the body, and even how the brain processes the stress and trauma that they deal with on a daily basis. I am honored to welcome Dr. Heather Heck to Code Forty4 podcast. Heather is a holistic physician that focuses on nutrition, nervous system regulation, and natural support for mental health. and she works closely with first responders and veterans on their journey. Welcome Heather to Code Forty4 Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. honor to be here. Thank you. Thank you. So before we get started, why don't you tell everyone a little bit about yourself and your background? Yeah, so I've been a chiropractic physician for, it's coming up on 20 years. Oh wow. How? I know. You're 20. I'm 20. Okay, 24. It doesn't feel like that. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with somebody that also needs to hear it. So if we are serious about improving the mental health of our law enforcement. We have to start talking about something we rarely discuss, nutrition and the body. And be sure to follow code Forty4 for more conversations like this one and resources that are designed to help you, the spouse and family that supports the ones that we love in law enforcement. Supporting our loved one doesn't always start with a big change. Sometimes it just starts with an understanding and a simple change. God bless. Hi, my name is Amy Cortez. I'm the mother of two and a spouse of a law enforcement officer who has served for over 30 years. Code 44 was created to help spouses and families recognize, respond, So yeah, I've been in clinical practice and besides chiropractic I also have my master's in nutrition, ⁓ master's in public health, ⁓ I practice acupuncture. ⁓ a nice blend ⁓ traditional medicine and holistic interventions ⁓ ⁓ I also teach so that way I can ⁓ connect with students, stay abreast of all the research ⁓ yeah, working with this population is ⁓ ⁓ to my heart. You I had worked in the VA for a couple years. and support the mental health of the officers they love. after graduation and just saw what the veterans had gone through and also the first responders. I have friends and family that are first responders. So yeah, it's a close spot to my heart. Absolutely. And the work that you're doing is tremendous. let's talk a little bit about ⁓ you are seeing physically ⁓ first responders and law enforcement agencies ⁓ you're going through this journey with them. Yeah, so you know overall the arching theme seems to be just a combination of hypervigilance, adrenal burnout or fatigue or cortisol fluctuations, not necessarily in the good sense, insulin resistance, blood pressure, cholesterol issues, sleep deprivation, and really just the inability to turn it off and to promote healing in their body, which as we know trickles down to physical, chemical, emotional consequences. Absolutely. And as you were mentioning all of those, I'm thinking, yep, check, from my first responder, check, check. You know, you can physically see it. So why do you feel nutrition really isn't talked about when we talk about mental health in first responders? You know, that's a great question. feel, as a society, it's getting better. We just got a new food pyramid. And I love what is going on behind the scenes right now. It's foundational I think this probably started in the 50s and 60s when food became convenient and faster and both parents go to work and we just kind of stopped thinking about where our food comes from and how it nourishes our body. ⁓ So food truly the foundation. If we don't get the right food, we can't heal, we can't think, we can't function. Yeah, absolutely. And as you were saying that I was thinking about myself, like I eat just to not feel hungry. ⁓ always stop to think about, okay, what am I putting in my system and what is it doing for me? And so I think what you said makes a lot of sense. We're so much on the go all the time. And especially our law enforcement officers, like they're always on the go. So it makes a lot of sense. Let's talk a little bit about hyper vigilance ⁓ because I'm sure you saw the veterans and we're also seeing in our law enforcement officers, they are always on as you said, ⁓ you know, going into a public area with a lot of people ⁓ is a lot for Mike, husband. Or when we go to a restaurant, he's always sitting with his back to the door, right? But ⁓ always on. So how does that have an effect on our bodies and on their bodies when they are always on? Yeah, so short term it's not obviously not a bad thing because they need that to function. But the problem lies where it becomes a more of chronic issue and you can see you know a new first responder or a new officer they're fresh they have a clean slate and as the years go on that accumulates in the body all that trauma all the deprivation with sleep and all of that. coming from a nervous system perspective and chemical perspective, stress is good. We need that burst of cortisol to get away from that bear or tiger or whatever is chasing us. And then naturally what should happen is when we feel safe, the catch is feeling safe, then our body's like, okay, I can go back to getting out of that fight or flight with a sympathetic tone and go more into parasympathetic, which is rest and digest. So if we're chronically getting chased by something or always being on, then we're in that sympathetic tone. And then as a consequence, we're not sleeping and we're not digesting and we're not healing. So that leads to know the adrenal burnout, the hypervigilance, sleep issues and so forth. So do you really feel that stress ⁓ is ⁓ affecting the imbalance of the hormones in the brain? Yeah, 100%. if you're stressed... ⁓ that creates some inflammation in the body and inflammation is innately tied to the immune system and then consequences happen in the gut. We make a lot of the hormones like serotonin in the gut or neurotransmitters really. ⁓ And then with the hormone components, we make all of our hormones from fats and that can lead to either more inflammation or less inflammation depending on what kind of fat we get. So stress is a huge driver of that neurotransmitter hormonal imbalance cascade really. Okay you said inflammation. Is stress causing inflammation in our bodies? 100%. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah the more stressed we are and I think we've all been there to some extent the more stressed we are we don't digest as well because we can't. I mean you're in sympathetic tone and that depresses that some parasympathetics so we don't make the necessary digestive enzymes right. Our gut doesn't absorb the nutrition as well. inflammation also settles in the weak spots in our body. So if we have old injuries, we certainly notice when we're more stressed or inflamed. ⁓ And that can have consequences, of course, with the gut brain axis as well with neurological health. mental clarity, name it. Interesting. Isn't it interesting how our bodies support everything? It's all connected. It's all connected. You you said the word cortisol and I had a first responder wife say to me, what does cortisol have to do with any of this? So I'm going to have you explain it a little bit. Yeah. So cortisol, is something that is produced by the adrenal glands and it helps us again, get away from that bear. It affects our blood pressure, our glucose regulation and all of that, which you know, if we are running from that bear, blood pressure has to go up and we need to shunt sugar from our cells into our bloodstream to get our legs moving. So cortisol is good, it's not necessarily bad in a perfect world when we get up. It's high like at around 8 a.m. and it starts to taper around 2, 2 to 3 p.m. So for some people that can lead to that afternoon crash after lunch. Interesting. But with first responders and veterans what we see is their cortisol is kind of flat lined in the morning and it starts to peak at night. It peaks at night. Yeah, which can lead to why they're not sleeping as well. Interesting. so, ⁓ explain that again. So we are, as we are sleeping and waking up, ours are increasing as maybe a non-first responder or somebody who's just, you know, having a casual day at home. But for first responders who are always on, theirs is flatlining and then peaking right before they go to bed. And when I say peaking, does that mean decrease, basically? Increasing. Increases. Yeah, they're low in the morning and then they start to rise as the night goes on. Okay. Yeah. And so how is cortisol measured? ⁓ we can measure it in blood. Okay. Yeah, and that's something that they can ask to get checked. Okay. ⁓ It does of course matter what time of day it gets drawn because the lab values obviously change. But I just had a patient the other day who Gosh, her cortisol was off the charts and that led to all of her symptoms. Interesting. It was beautiful to get that confirmation. Yeah. So that's something that we can do in the blood work. So if we just show up at our doctors and say, check my cortisol, that's something that they can readily do. Yeah. Non-fasting and you can add that in with everything else. you know, for our veterans and first responders, it's always nice to get testosterone checked as well. vitamin D and B12, those all kind of play a huge role with that neurohormonal immune support that we talked about. I want to come back to that here in a minute because I think what you said is really interesting. ⁓ I know one of the previous conversations you and I have had is about the deficiencies that you commonly see in first responders. But before we go there, Why does trauma have to be healed physiologically, meaning within the body, before it can ⁓ process mentally? You know, that's a great question and I feel like that's not addressed enough. trauma is not just ⁓ cognitive. It's that physiological component. So the body remembers. There's actually a really good book called the body keeps score So when we experience a trauma and we don't necessarily appropriately deal with it We might not have time or we don't think it's an issue or we're just trying to be tough ⁓ We start the body depending on what that emotion or what that issue is. So from a physiological perspective with that trauma, the body will remember and act up and you know, a first responder veteran might be sitting on the couch with you watching a movie and then something is triggered with that trauma and then their body responds. So it's connected to the nervous system. And I think we know probably what some of those, when you say act up, what those symptoms are like, but let's kind of walk through them again. You use the analogy of sitting on the couch, you're watching a movie, everything's fine, and boy, I can resemble the smart, and it's like something just instantly changes. What are some of those symptoms that are typical that you see when that happens? Yeah, so irritability, panic, anxiety, the need to kind of get up and move around, restlessness, ⁓ mental clarity might be compromised. Those kind of all go hand in hand with us. What about scrolling? I will often notice Mike sometimes will just pick up his phone. We're in the middle of a movie, but he'll just pick up his phone and start scrolling. I've heard to it as numbing out. What would you say about that? Is that a symptom or a sign that we're seeing that maybe a trigger is happening? Yeah, so they might, and I'm just alluding to this hypothetically, they might have something that pops up and it might be... challenging to think about and so the scrolling releases dopamine, right? And dopamine makes us feel good. So for that it's a ⁓ neurochemical adaptation. ⁓ Scrolling, alcohol, nicotine, those are all kind of ways that are used to ⁓ address the neurochemical deficits that we see with trauma or physiological issues. Absolutely. All related, all intertwined. And it's so hard because those signs or those signals that we are seeing as spouses can really be related to so many other things too. But I think for me, being aware of they are constantly on and I love the tip about the cortisol. I'm going to have Mike If he's listening, sorry, Mike, but you're gonna go and get your cortisol checked. But I think those are all really interesting. Talk to me a little bit about other deficiencies that we see in nutrients in our first responders. Yeah, so one of the huge ones that we also burn through when we're stressed is magnesium. So if you've ever been stressed and you notice that like your eyelid starts to twitch or you start to get muscle cramps, you're like, what is going on? Magnesium is a natural muscle relaxant, but it also helps us sleep. It's a natural commutative for the body and the nervous system. So that's something that's commonly deficient. Omega threes, because we get omega threes primarily through diet. They're essential fatty. acids. ⁓ If we're not getting that in the diet then we're making it and then we're not supporting the brain. ⁓ can check omega-3s in the blood but it's not traditionally run in the doctor's office so it's what we call a functional test. So that would be something we have to ask for additionally if we were looking for that? Yeah, you'd almost have to see a nutritionist or holistic provider for that. Traditional docs aren't necessarily trained to test for that but it can be checked. ⁓ One of my favorite hacks so to speak with blood work is to do the function health. ⁓ It's typically out of pocket and you can use an HSA or FSA, but it gives you 160 functional titers. So testosterone, leptin and ghrelin, which are hormones that work with satiation and hunger, which again, a lot of the first responders and vets have an issue with, ⁓ omega-3s cholesterol and all that good stuff. So that's a way to go around it. ⁓ So magnesium, omegas, B's for sure. we're stressed, we use more B's that's easy to get through the blood work B12. My hack for that is if you're low in B12, you're probably gonna be low in B6 and B1 and B2. So and with B12, there's a little trick to that because about 40 to 50 % of the population can't convert B12 into the active form in the body. It's called a methylation issue. So for me, I just assume everybody can't methylate and I give them the transferred form anyway you can check for that. What does transferred form mean? So it's just making it from the inactive to the active form of the body. Okay. With methylation. ⁓ So what you're saying is going to a grocery store and picking up just a normal B vitamin might not be the best thing. Exactly. So for example I had a patient who she was getting B12 injections because she was chronically low and she always had to get them done. So what they use for like B12 injections is a synthetic form. ⁓ Body doesn't know how to use it. So we put her on a liquid supplement that's active and she doesn't have to go back for injections. Interesting. Super simple but a lot of people don't know about that. ⁓ D, D is another really big one. If you're in the Midwest, you don't see the sun a whole lot between September and April or May. And if you do, you're wearing clothes, you're wearing sunscreen. D is one of those that you can get through the diet, but you have to get a lot of salmon or I mean, you can get it through milk, but you'd have to get a lot of milk to get it. ⁓ So that's one that can be checked in the blood and work. I feel like those are the big ones. Yeah. Talk to me a little bit about magnesium because I know I made a common mistake thinking I could just go and buy magnesium, but it's not really magnesium. It's magnesium glycate. Did I say that correctly? Yeah. Yeah. So just like real estate, location matters, form matters, dose matters. Yeah. There's magnesium citrate, ⁓ glycinate, malate, and they all kind of do different things. I like glycinate the best. It's a little bit easier on the gut. helps with ⁓ the nervous system and you know with magnesium a good starting dose is like 120 to 150 milligrams once or twice a day you can go up to about 800 to a thousand milligrams. but you just have to divide the dose and you have to be careful because if you get too much at once, it'll work more as a laxative. Okay. Which isn't necessarily bad because that's another thing if we're not, if we're stressed and we're not pooping, we're not getting those toxins out of the body and we're reabsorbing those. So. Right. All interconnected. Absolutely. So a magnesium, I know taking a supplement is always an option, but getting it through our food is the preferred way. What would you eat or increase for magnesium? So leafy greens is one of the best. Kale, lots of kale. If you can't do the leafy greens, know, meat, seafood has it as well. Dark chocolate, so 70 % and above, or cacao, which for me is one of my preferred forms. You mean you can't get it in milk chocolate? No, it's not the same. There's just a little bit, but not as much. Okay. ⁓ You talked about vitamin D and fish. Is there any other way we can get natural vitamin D through food? Salmon is really about it. It is, you know, fortified in milk, but you'd have to drink gallons and gallons to really make up that deficit. ⁓ But really just the sunlight. Sunlight's the best. Sunlight. So if you're in states like Ohio that don't have a lot of sunlight, how much do you typically recommend for people to take? You know, it depends on the labs. So because vitamin D is fat soluble, it means it's stored in the fat. It can be stored in the fat in the liver. ⁓ You have to be careful. I've never had a patient in my 20 years become toxic from getting too much. But it's nice to know where you're at. because then you can dose accordingly. So a maintenance dose is anywhere from two to 10,000 IUs, international units a day. If a patient is deficient and the range is huge, it's 30 to 100. Even if they're like 31 or 35, to me they're still low, anything under 60 is low. So I might give them 100,000 units a day to ramp them up and then kind of titrate down. So blood work number one and then just a maintenance and stoves to start out until you know what the blood work is. Okay. You talk a little bit about gut health and honestly I didn't realize how important gut health was until we've started talking about it here. What can we do to get our gut in line? Are there probiotics we should be taking or what is it exactly that we ourselves as spouses but then also for our first responders, what are things that would help us there? Yeah, so one of the biggest, right, just eat real food. Okay, not McDonald's you mean Okay, the least process the better Probiotics for sure. mean most individuals if you've been on antibiotics recently ⁓ If you're stressed if you have IBS type symptoms a probiotic is always a good place to start one that you keep in the fridge ⁓ I know they have shelf stable ones, but my common mindset is it's a bacteria right they live longer in the fridge when they're cold So that's a good start ⁓ Again, we kind of talked about pooping a little bit with magnesium. That's really important. And, you know, I'm going to even throw in there like breath work, meditation. ⁓ Things that'll calm the gut. The gut literally is your second brain. if you're stressed up top, your gut's gonna be stressed. They talk back and forth. As we said earlier, we make about 80 to 90 % of the serotonin in our gut. So the gut health is critical for proper brain and neurological health. Wow. Big takeaway right there. Gut health is critically important for all of us. All of us. All of us. But especially those that are in fight or flight mode at all times. Absolutely. So shift work and our spouses in law enforcement sometimes don't have a regular schedule where they can eat. What does skipping meals and or just grabbing really quick bad meals do for them in their ⁓ high cortisol? Yeah. So skipping meals, you know, it creates some insulin dysregulation, affects the blood glucose. So ⁓ one of the easy things that they can do first thing in the morning is eat protein or whenever they get up, eat protein to kind of calm the insulin regulation in the cortisol. By skipping meals, it creates, you know, the spikes and dips with glucose, which affects inflammation and everything else in between. eating protein and fat throughout the day is always a good thing. And then again, you know, if they're eating super fatty foods or not real foods, then they're not getting the nutrition and that can affect the pancreas and stomach and everything else in between reflux, all of that good stuff. I know first responders are notorious for stopping at gas stations and drinking coffee all day long, right? Just to keep their probably adrenaline up and try to keep them going. What effect does that have on your body? Yeah. And I think we've all been there. It gives you a false sense of energy or security. You know, you're like, I'm so tired. I need coffee. Those monsters, energy drinks. Yes. I've seen them all. So what I will do for those that I work with is I'll recommend healthier options. for those ⁓ there's some really good healthy options that have herbs and amino acids in there that actually nourish their nervous system. Coffee itself you know it gives you that quick spike with caffeine that adrenaline rush and then you're dipping again so it doesn't sustain you long term. What are the things that you would recommend as us as spouses if we wanted to, you know, put a little care package together or give them things to, ⁓ to maybe sustain their hunger as they're going from call to call and maybe not having time to actually eat a really good meal. ⁓ I'm sure that's probably not candy bars and monsters, right? So what are some good, healthy examples that we could think about putting in their cruisers? Yeah. Yeah, it'd be great to put like a little care package in there or like those little sleeves that you can shove snacks in. know I have those for the kids. ⁓ protein, ⁓ ⁓ like packs of nuts. ⁓ some really good ⁓ protein bars out there. ⁓ is one of my favorite with protein and cleanliness. ⁓ ⁓ There's a cool company called Monk Pack that is just seeds and nuts. has low glycemic, keto, really good. Little electrolyte packs because that's another thing when we're stressed we burn through our electrolytes. ⁓ So are something like LMNT's ⁓ that you can just add into the water. ⁓ meat sticks, so like those chomps. I get those at Aldi's. Those are quick and easy. And then my another little favorite that I do is just the squeezy peanut butter packs. That way they can rip it, squeeze, and then you just have some protein and fat. ⁓ yeah. You talk a lot about protein. Protein must be key. It's huge. Yeah. Yeah. we all have careers, we have kids, we all have busy things. Sounds like protein, peanut butter, something of that nature is probably the key so that we don't have that crash, that sugar crash, right? Cause all to grab. something really unhealthy for us. Whether that's you know a candy bar or piece of candy or my peanut butter ⁓ &Ms. Does that count as protein? That's protein right? It's got peanut butter. Okay so maybe not peanut butter ⁓ &Ms. ⁓ we talk a little bit ⁓ their work and they have go through the drive-through a lot and ⁓ picking up McDonald's is always easy or Chick-fil-A or anything of that nature. What would be a good healthy alternative if they have to go through someplace quick? What would be something that you would maybe suggest to keep their energy high, good nutrients, good vitamins? Like what's the best thing? Yeah, that's a great question. So. protein, right? So like a grilled chicken tenders or grilled chicken sandwich would be great. I always say like pick your battles with carbs because carbs will, you know, bring it up and then drop you real fast. if you're going to have a bun with the burger, skip the fries. You know, like Chick-fil-A and a lot of other places have a little like kale salad or it's actually good at Chick-fil-A. It really is. They have yogurt now that's clean. So those are good little ways around it. You know Chipotle actually is pretty decent. I would just watch the rice Again kind of pick your battle. Do you want the wrap or do you want the rice? Because that way you're not adding to that glycemic load anything grilled for the most part is gonna be a better choice than fried. Of course. Why is it that fried always tastes so much better? Because it's fat! You know, but I have noticed the healthier that you eat, the less that fatty stuff or the stuff that's bad for you, it... doesn't sound as good sometimes. So that can be our hope anyhow, right? It's true. You once you start to change your taste buds, when you do kind of, I don't want to say regress, but have a moment and you have something fatty or fast food, like, now I know why I don't eat like. Yeah. So, but it's a matter of getting out of that cycle to start just small changes. Yeah. Are any of our cravings because we are lacking nutrients of some sort? Oh, 100%. Yeah. So again, like a chocolate craving is usually magnesium. When we're craving sugar, a lot of times that can mean we're not getting enough healthy fat. Healthy fat, that's interesting that you just said that because my daughter just said to me last night, I'm craving sugar. What should I have given her instead of that peanut butter ⁓ Yeah, so even if it's like peanut butter on sourdough, like that's easy when I do with my kids. Peanut butter toast, Walnuts ⁓ have the highest omega-3s, and if you think about it, they like a brain. right? That's interesting. That was not a joke by God, was it? No, no. was real. There's some intention behind there. ⁓ Brazil nuts, two Brazil nuts a day give you enough selenium for your thyroid. Okay. So that's something I always snack on because stress will not only wreak havoc on your hormones and your gut, but your thyroid too. Okay. So Seeds, nuts, we talked about nut butters. Those are the biggest ⁓ avocados, but again, it's not always gonna be easy to snack on an avocado. yeah. Avocados are really healthy for you. They are, they have more potassium than a banana. Really? Yep and they don't have that glycemic spike. Okay now it's so much easier to just grab and peel a banana but in a case that you have the opportunity I know I cut it up I mash it I put it on sourdough. Let's talk about sourdough. Why is that the preferred bread? Yeah it's fermented right so fermented foods a lot of cultures most cultures have fermented foods so whether that's kimchi or sauerkraut or natto or Miso, kombucha, those gut buddies, all the fermentation is really good for our gut and it helps feed the good gut buddies. So those are all really good too. But sourdough, yeah. One of the best. So you're talking again about the gut. Is it true that serotonin's made in the gut? It is, about 80 to 90%. And what does that do? Yeah, so serotonin makes us feel good, right? If we are not, and I tell my patients this often, if we're not exercising, If we're not sleeping, if we're not getting touched, if we're not having sex, then we're going to be looking for serotonin through, any guesses? What macronutrient we get serotonin through? I don't know. Bread. What? Yeah. Yep. So when we eat bread, you kind of get that euphoria, right? You get, you feel good. I love bread. Dip in a little oil. Okay. But it's so fleeting, right? It's that little serotonin surge. So yeah, that's why we need to be moving, touching, all the good things. Interesting. Yeah. You talk about touch. Why does that help our bodies? It makes us happy. Serotonin, it makes us feel safe. So from a neurological perspective, and if you've ever had kids, you know this well, immediately when they're distressed or angry or sad, they want hugs and hug tight. So I think, don't quote me on this, I think the research is about 10 seconds to have that therapeutic value of ⁓ hormonal influx for a hug. ⁓ But just feeling safe because again, And this population ⁓ is so focused, thankfully, on protecting everybody else, that a lot of times they need that safe spot. Yeah. And it's interesting because as Mike has gone through his journey early on into our relationship, if he was having a trigger of whatever sort, ⁓ I would always say, can I do to help you? Because we want to fix it. As spouses, as loved ones, we want to fix it. And he would always say, just touch me. Just touch my arm. And I was like, okay, but that's not doing enough, right? Like what else can I fix? But what you're saying is really sometimes when they're in those moments, just pure touching skin to skin so that they can feel us kind of reset. It makes them feel like they are safe. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. That are just, you know, touching and keeping eye contact or not even talking per se, but just being present. Wow. Interesting. When Mike, has on some ⁓ really bad when he came home ⁓ Sitting at the dinner table. I just feel like dinner table is so difficult for our law enforcement when they come home But what I notice immediately with he's struggling is that his eyes drop? Like during dinner, he will not look up. And so I don't know why, but I've always sent the kids away from the table and said, okay, I just, need you to look at me. Just look at me. And I never really understood why I did that or why it worked. But what you're saying is that that actually helps the body kind of reset. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, your eyes are windows to the soul, right? And if they, you know, this population sees such heavy and dark themes that they tend to absorb that. And again, not necessarily at anyone's fault, but they might not have the resources to appropriately. process all of that. So they're really struggling in that time. So that's why they you know, look down. ⁓ Wow. So insightful. It's like some things we just pick up as spouses to help our law enforcement but I never really understood the science behind it so that's been very helpful to understand. we talk about ⁓ a lot. ⁓ How is gut inflammation showing up as depression? ⁓ That's a great question. ⁓ So it's really cool actually. There's a good documentary on Netflix called Hack Your Gut H-A-C-K and there's a German physician, I think she's a gastro doc, that looks into, okay maybe surgery is not always the answer, maybe we should like look into prevention. So she goes through this whole journey with bacteria . and probiotics and all of that and food and it's really easy to understand, but it's cool. I think it's in California ⁓ They are studying ⁓ samples stool and from the stool without knowing any history of the individual They can say they have an ⁓ they have depression. ⁓ they're suicidal based on what gut bacteria they have or don't have. So they're making this huge compendium of all the strains correlative to these presentations. So depending on what your gut health is and what strains you have or don't have, that can have... with depression, anxiety, the whole works. And again, serotonin is made in the gut. So it kind of all feeds back into good gut buddies, ⁓ ⁓ and hormonal chemistry, kind of feeding that whole loop. Wow. Yeah, it's crazy. Who knew? And I'm going to say this, it's going to sound terrible, but who knew pooping was such an important thing in our life? Yeah, it's huge. I love talking about poop. And that's something I always ask, you know, are you pooping? Do you reflux? Any heartburn? Because not only are you absorbing the toxins, um... if you're not pooping, but depending on what your gut looks like, depends on how well you absorb your nutrition, your mental stability and your health, your outlook on life, everything. Are we really talking about pooping on a podcast? We are! Okay, well, let's... ⁓ Let's move right on into sleeping. ⁓ First responders are notorious for not sleeping. I think it's, you know, it's successful for them when they go in and say, hey, I had two hours of sleep last night and four monsters and I'm ready to go. But sleep is important. So the lack of sleep that our law enforcement is having, Why is that a concern? We need sleep to heal. So we make a lot of our hormones at night. ⁓ And again, another reason fat's so important, we make all of our hormones from cholesterol, from fat. So depending on what kind of fat you're getting, depends on how efficient you are making certain hormones or not, inflammation, not inflammation. ⁓ So that's huge right there. Sleeping is healing. Sleeping is proper hormone processing and it helps the brain process what went on in the day and it kind of, you know, resets. You really want that dream state of sleep to process everything. So if they're not sleeping, they're not going through all of that and... ⁓ can add up really. And what I heard you say at the beginning is that it resets your cortisol. 100%. Yeah. So what are some natural things we can do to help ourselves if we're not sleeping or our first responder? Yeah so number one is magnesium right? Magnesium is good for sleep, good for pooping, having a cool dark room. and then no electronics about half an hour to 45 minutes before bed. For me, as soon as I get home from work, and I know not everybody can do this, but if you're able to put your phone on airplane mode and either set it on the counter or if it's on airplane mode, you can set it next to you. I worry about the EMFs. EMFs can affect sleep too, which we won't get there today. What's EMF? So electromagnetic frequency, and that can affect your brain's healing, oxidative. of stress, inflammation, you know it, ⁓ all the above really. I actually have a little protector on my phone ⁓ to ⁓ kind of counterbalance that. And then if put phone on airplane mode, ⁓ it helps to shut off some of the EMFs. So that can be helpful. ⁓ you know sometimes like white noise might help. Just having good sleep hygiene if you have to be on the phone or on the computer. Blue light glasses. One of my favorites, if they're up for it, is meditation or breath work. That's something for me ⁓ that's made a huge difference with my sleep. ⁓ and we just did an episode on breath work. I believe it's episode 14, so if you want more information on that, go check out that one. But yeah, ⁓ it's amazing that ⁓ us as humans don't know how to naturally breathe in a way that's calming and resetting. And it's a quick hack to literally immediately shift your nervous system from fight or flight into rest and digest. You can usually fall asleep. Yeah. And for our first responders, sometimes they don't like going into a room for meditation. I asked Mike, said, Hey, do think we should have a group and have like all your first responders come in for meditation? And he's like, Amy, that's not going to happen. They're not going to come. And so if they don't like the more formal way, mean, breathing and learning how to breathe is an easy thing that they can do themselves. Absolutely. Even just like that, you know, box breath, count of four, hold, let out. Yeah, just easy. ⁓ ⁓ And then once you get into it, can really help. Absolutely. So sleeping's important. If they're not sleeping, that's definitely something we need to pay attention to. That's something that, you know, we need to figure out maybe some ways that we can help them to get better sleep. let's move our conversation over to alcohol because for first responders, alcohol I think is something that I don't know if expected is the word or maybe it's accepted is maybe more the word. let's talk about why ⁓ is alcohol something that we crave when maybe things are feeling so well? ⁓ Well, it's a great way to disengage, ⁓ right? It's depressant. ⁓ So ⁓ if your mind's a lot of times can a nice way to kind of blur it. ⁓ you know, alcohol and caffeine are two... ⁓ legal regulated drugs. They're drugs at the end of day and they're socially acceptable. The numbers now at least, it's pretty cool, know, alcohol intake is going down. But you do see this across, veterans and first responders, alcohol, tobacco and all of that. just to cope. Yeah. Coping mechanism. Coping. Anything to cope. Anything to numb. Anything just to get over that moment. for whatever reason we think if we can get over that single moment of anxiety that it's all gonna be better. drinking alcohol when it's depressing is kind of an oxymoron there, isn't it? It is. And you know think there's also that, that social acceptance that it's okay. Tough guys can have a beer or have a whiskey, That's just how society is framed. ⁓ But yeah, it works short term, but it's not sustainable long alcohol can further deplete your B vitamins and other things. So ⁓ that can exacerbate underlying deficiencies. Yeah. ⁓ Such great information today. so much to take away from this episode of things that we can start being aware of, you know, even checking ⁓ for the deficiencies and the blood work. I mean, that's something simple that we can do. define maybe just a couple of takeaways that we do from because there so much information that we talked about. If a spouse wants to support their law enforcement officer by nutrition We can't do everything, but what's one or two things that you would say right out of the gate? Start here and this is what's most important. Yeah, ⁓ small steps, right? So protein. as much as possible, especially when they first get up protein, whether that's a hard-boiled egg or whatever, ⁓ and then integrate some little protein snacks for their cruiser or that they can have in their pocket. That way, as we all know, if you don't plan ahead, you're gonna set yourself up for failure. So that sets them up for success. ⁓ Supplements, mean we can say supplements or food, but what would be the area that you would tell spouses to focus on ⁓ one or two supplements that maybe they could start their first responder right away? Which ones would you recommend? Yeah, so I love magnesium. We talked a lot about magnesium today. Magnesium glycinate is an easy one. ⁓ Sometimes you need a supplement. I love food as medicine, right? Yeah, that's primary. But sometimes you need a supplement because you can't get enough therapeutic value through food and it's just not convenient. So that's a good one. ⁓ You know, one thing, and we didn't touch on this, melatonin. I don't love melatonin because it's a hormone. Okay. And for some people it works for sleep and some it doesn't, but it doesn't fix the underlying issue. It masks it. Okay. That's one I don't love ⁓ in general. But magnesium is a great start. ⁓ B vitamins, if they need energy, B vitamins only in the morning or early afternoon. If you take it at night, it can keep you up. And then your omega-3s. And vitamin D? Did you say vitamin D? Vitamin D, yeah. Definitely get your blood work checked first, but it won't hurt you to do anywhere from 2 10,000 units a day. I always like a liquid because it's fat soluble. It's nice to have it emulsified. That way it helps. with again bioavailability. so a couple quick takeaways that we can maybe start with our loved ones. What would you say to an officer that maybe is listening today and they just think they have to be mentally tough like I just got to suck it up and I just got to do it. What would you say? ⁓ That's a question. You know I would say that ⁓ It truly is a physiological component. It's not just getting over it, so to speak, in your head. You know, I feel like that mentality doesn't promote healing and it's certainly not a nourishing mentality. There's certainly ways to promote safety and nourish, than just sucking it up. Yeah. Yeah. Because you can suck it up, but it'll come back and cause health consequences down the road. Absolutely. And you know, we talk about this a lot on other episodes, but them sucking it up is just bottling it up, pushing it down. And it's like a volcano. It's going to explode somehow, whether that's through your body shutting down or your emotional stability. Like it's not going to just dissolve. I think sometimes we just think if we don't acknowledge it if we don't talk about it It just evaporates into the sky and it doesn't especially not for them when they're seeing trauma time and time and time again Yeah, it's heavy and that becomes part of them. know, it's almost like putting weights on and never getting those weights off Mm-hmm every trauma they experience they just keep wearing it. Yeah, and that like you said it bottles up and it keeps coming up until something happens. Yeah, absolutely. Heather's got some great information. She also has her own podcast. It's called Holistic Health, right? ⁓ Dr. Heather Heck. So I encourage you if you want to learn more about nutrition and holistic ways to help your health. It's a great podcast that has a lot of information on it. So I'll link it in the description so you can find her podcast. that way. Also she is a holistic doctor in Ohio. ⁓ Do you do anything outside of Ohio if they contact you? Yeah I do. actually do telehealth for nutrition. ⁓ So yeah they can always reach out to me that way as well. Okay great so I'll put her contact information also in the description that you can reach out to her. I know personally for me and my family Heather's been a godsend and has helped us with our health even though I like peanut butter ⁓ &Ms. ⁓ I do take all sorts to supplement. You have to live, you still have to live. Right, and she doesn't make me feel guilty about any of it so reach out to her for any additional information. Heather it's been such an honor. Is there anything else that you would like to talk about or share as a final thought for our audience? No, just think that nutrition is often overlooked and it's a great foundation for healing. between that and stress management, those are great tools to kind of hit the ground running with. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for the work that you're doing with our veterans, with our first responders, our law enforcement. It's so important and I'm just so appreciative and thank you for being on our podcast today. Yeah, thank you for having me. Absolutely.