Chantel Ray: Hey, guys, welcome to today's episode, and I have a special guest for you, Jodi Cohen, and our title today is Essential Oils to Boost Digestion, Detoxification and Weight Loss for the Body. So welcome, Jodi.
Jodi Cohen: Oh, my gosh. Thanks for having me.
Chantel Ray: So tell us, I'm so excited about your new book. Tell us a little bit about it. You want to show it to us?
Jodi Cohen: Yeah. Yeah, it's it's actually a gift. It's a medical book. It's a gift book. It's kind of a combination of design. It was originally thought that it would be like in spars and things like that. And I have actually a whole section, a huge section on digestion and weight loss. And it's really interesting. I really try to share kind of what I found in clinical practice and then combine it with research to show how you can use oils and very strategic, very specific ways to kind of support the body's balance and help everything work well, including letting go of toxins and weight.
Chantel Ray: Awesome. So let's talk about with digestion, what are some of the recommendations you have that really get your body into that parasympathetic state and, well, getting you to really digest at an optimal level?
Jodi Cohen: Yeah. So just backing up a moment, your operating system for your body is your autonomic nervous system, and that controls digestion, detoxification, heart rate, breathing. And it really has two gears. It's kind of got the I am in danger and digestion has to be on the back burner because I have to survive and resources are allocated differently, like blood is routed away from digestion. And that's the sympathetic fight or flight state. And then there's the parasympathetic rest to digest. The danger has passed. I can digest, absorb and assimilate my nutrients. I can get rid of waste. The moving walkway that is my digestive system can turn on. And that all happens in the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system. When I when I learned this, I was blown away because I was that mom that used to, like, throw the sandwiches to the kids in the minivan on the way to soccer practice. And we weren't really eating in that calm state where the mouth releases saliva, the stomach releases hydrochloric acid, the pancreas releases enzymes, the gallbladder releases bile, which is critical to helping with bowel movements, you know, and then basically things wouldn't sit too long in the small intestine or the large intestine, so they'd be absorbed and eliminated. And what's really interesting is the gear shift between kind of the sympathetic branch of the nervous system and the parasympathetic is the longest nerve in the body that most people have never heard of. It's called the vagus nerve. It's cranial nerve. Number ten. You don't need to remember this. There will not be a test later, but it starts at the back of the head. Winds around both sides is most accessible right behind the ear lobe. Like if you're listening and you feel behind your ear lobe, you'll feel a bone. That's your mastoid bone. That's where it's the most accessible to the surface. And the reason that's important is because anywhere that it innovates, be it like the heart, the lungs, the gall bladder, you can use it to switch into the parasympathetic nervous system. So little feminicide around twenty twelve. When I was just getting into this in New York, neurologist named Kevin Tracy started playing with surgery like her pacemaker, like inserts into the neck and using an electrically stimulating device to kind of activate the vagus nerve. This has been approved by the FDA for epilepsy, depression, migraines. But what I realized is oils are stimulatory as well. And instead of getting like actually these two surgeries, one here and one down below, and then sometimes you have to change the batteries. So that's another surgery. You could just take a quick oil, jab it right behind your ear. And that helps turn on digestion. It helps turn on detoxification. It helps turn on weight loss. So it felt much easier and much more. You know, people did it more than other suggestions were like gag yourself with the tongue depressor, splash your face with freezing water, give yourself a coffee enema. Compliance was kind of minimal when I was suggesting that when I was like, here, here's an oil. It smells good. All you need to do is boom, boom there. They're like, Oh, that I can do.
Chantel Ray: Awesome. Well, I got some listener questions that I want to ask you to see if what your thoughts are on them to help people put in. So this first one is from Vanessa in Midlothian, Virginia. Thank you for your podcast. I love, love, love it. One episode I just recently listened to that I'm not sure about. I listen to one of your podcast on Essential Oils, and I think they are amazing. I use them all the time, but I don't know if they can help with all of the things that your guest had mentioned. It seems like people really stress that it can help with everything from headaches to sleep to sore throats. But do they really work? Like what is your experience? And are all of the essential oils? Are all of the essential oils at the same level? Doesn't seem like all the products are created equal. Can you expand on this? Vanessa and Midlothian? This was another guest that we had on. It was actually she must be listening. I'm thinking maybe Dr. Zis episode OK a while back. Yeah. So he's come on the podcast twice on thinking. Maybe that's the episode that he was talking about.
Jodi Cohen: Yeah! Hi, Vanessa. So basically the short answer is you really do want to buy organic oils because they were the concentrated essence of plants. And that is, I think, better than having concentrated pesticides. And to answer your question, the way I try to look at it in the book is to look at the underlying root cause. Like, for example, headache's usually has to do with circulation, making sure that you can get oxygen and blood sugar into the brain. And that's one thing that oils are really good at. So what you want to think about is dilating or expanding the vasculature. So think of if you've ever been driving on, say, a four lane freeway and three of them are under construction where it's under construction, you know, it's tight. And so traffic's going to creep crawl along. And then once the construction passes and all four lanes are open, traffic is a lot easier. Think of oxygen. If you can make your veins bigger by topically applying like mint, like peppermint or Cypress is another good one or even smelling it because then it gets into the bloodstream and can kind of work from the inside out, then you're going to improve your ability to both get oxygen in. But then things can get in and the bad things can get out. Like the neck actually can get really congested. The neck is the biggest bottleneck in your body because it's got a lot going on. It's a little bit like being in the middle airplane seat between linebackers. You know, there's so many things. There's the actual skeletal structure, the muscles, the nerves, the limbs, the vascular system. And there's been clinicians have actually taken ultrasounds, you know, like what you do to see the fetus developing of the neck and seeing how different systems congest into each other like your lymph system is really what carries all the garbage out of the brain. And when it gets congested and there's stagnation, then the garbage can't go out. It's like the garbage truck goes on strike in New York and the whole city smells because it just sits right. So the more you can make sure that things open up and flow, the better everything works. And there this research that looked at pictures of the neck, they figured out that topically applying certain essential oils. I give the exact recipe in the book, but it's basically a combination of mint that kind of opens things up. And then some of the root plants that help to pull things down because the lymph really is only goes in one direction. So the more you can kind of help pull that direction, the better. Then everything else works better and so your headache might go away. She mentioned two other things. Headaches and what else?
Chantel Ray: Headaches. Getting a lot of buzz from headaches to sleep to sore throats,.
Jodi Cohen: Yeah, sore throats, I think hot things like hot tea are better. And then there's a propolis, which is kind of extract of honey beekeeper's natural, makes a good throat spray for that. But sleep also you can work on with oils. I kind of detail it in the book. There are four underlying root causes for sleep. Like everyone, there's a lot of research on lavender for sleep. Interestingly, lavender in combination with other oils. If you're going to use lavender, the most effective way to use it as part is as part of an absence of bath. So two cups of and so one cup of baking soda. And then I use the bath tub as a mixing bowl. So three drops of lavender stir that into the dry ingredients before you add the hot water so that the oil doesn't float on top. But there's something about the heat that kind of opens the pores. Our skin is our biggest organ and the absence out, which is magnesium. It just carries the oil into the body in a really nice way for sleep. If you're having trouble falling asleep, that has to do with the sleep hormone melatonin that can be thrown off either by a high stress hormone cortisol or by environmental toxins like fluoride from the water glyphosate as the herbicides on your food and aluminum and oils. What they're really good at is movement. They help to kind of clear up stagnation, clean things out, get things moving. So there's one that you can apply kind of around the head that just helps get the pineal gland, which releases melatonin moving. If you're waking up in the middle of the night, that could be a number of things. It could be a blood sugar. Wake up, your energy dips too low, your adrenal glands releases emergency energy into the blood. Then that energy needs to be carried. Insulin from the pancreas kind of carries it into the cells so that you feel sleepy again. There are oils that can kind of help support that. And then if you're waking up at three a.m. and you're groggy, that is when your liver is over working and there actually are great essential oils that can help the liver. You just want to put them over your liver, which is kind of the right side of the body under the breast before bed.
Chantel Ray: Awesome. This next question comes from Sarah Jensen in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I listen to one of your episodes on Byul, but I didn't totally understand it. Could you explain it a little bit better? I'm really interested in learning more about byul, the liver and the gall bladder. The reason, as my sister just found out, she needs to get her gallbladder removed and I've been researching it and don't think she should. I looked up and saw that essential oils can help with bile and that geranium can assist the liver in by expanding bile ducts. German camomile can stimulate bowel secretions and liver detox and ginger can help a fatty liver. Do you think any of this is true? Sarah Johnson in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Jodi Cohen: Sarah Jensen, your sister is so lucky that you were going to save her gallbladder. You're totally right. There's a lot you can do. There's also an herb called checkup that kind of helps break milestones. So really simply BIAL is a fluid that's manufactured in the liver and stored in the gallbladder. And what happens is if you eat a fatty meal, it's kind of secreted from the gallbladder into the intestine to help emulsify and break down the fat so you can digest and absorb the fat. One of the challenges with some of the fat heavy diets like keto and paleo is that people file what can happen. Is it supposed to kind of flow like water, but it can get vicious and be more like molasses. So it doesn't actually release. It also carries a lot of times the toxins travel from the liver through the bile duct to the gall bladder, and then the toxins are carried through the bile into the intestine and then out of the body. So if it's viscous and not really flowing, you're not really breaking down your fat and you're not really eliminating toxins. They're either sitting or getting recirculated, which means that the liver just processed all of this stuff and now it's getting recirculated and needs to process it again. It's a little bit like, you know, your work week. You get all the work done on Monday and then somehow your computer crashes and everything you did is gone and you need to redo it. It's exhausting. So there are a lot of oils that can both help with the vitality of the liver, meaning energizing it so that it gets more done. And then also byul are read the you mentioned Camomile, which is a really good one. Black woman is another one that's kind of fabulous for Bellary support the blend that I recommend has actually Román Camomile Black come in and Rosewood's so you can play with different blends. Castroville is another great tool because it helps to calm inflammation. Kastrup can be either very complicated. You know, there's some good ones on the market. Just try to buy the Kestral in a glass bottle, not plastic or you can do it. Kind of a lazy man's version, which is just to put it on before bed, where an old ratty T-shirt that if it gets stained, you don't care and just use your body heat as kind of the warming device.
Chantel Ray: Hmm, great, this next question comes from Anonymous: I've been doing intermittent fasting in Akito diet and my poop is sticking to the bottom of the toilet, I looked it up on Google and it said that sticky poop can be a symptom of chronic digestive disorder or a result of a diet that contains too much fat. I'm wondering if I'm eating too much fat and need to trim back. Do you know any natural methods and can essential oils possibly help with my pooping?
Jodi Cohen: Hmm. You know, that I would want to see a food journal is kind of what I'm thinking. And I would want to look at some other aspects like pancreatic enzymes. But in the most general terms, what we talked about kind of using the essential oils on the vagus nerve to make sure you turn on the parasympathetic nervous system can be very helpful. The other thing that you might think about, you know, one of the things that we don't take into effect is, is different toxicity levels. You know, like if we have metal amalgams in our teeth that can up our toxic load and just make the liver and the gall bladder work harder. So there are things called binder's. It's like psyllium, charcoal clay that you can just take before bed and that really can kind of grab things, but also maybe support the consistency of the diet.
Chantel Ray: Awesome. All right, well, those are all the questions that I have, what things can you give people as far as give us a little tasting of the book of kind of like kind of the best parts of it that they might not know?
Jodi Cohen: My favorite thing for anyone who suffers from anxiety, you know, there's a whole branch of chiropractic called functional neurology where they're looking at different regions of the brain. And what's cool about oils you? The challenge with the brain is it's really hard to get the right remedy into the right area because the blood brain barrier really prevents anything but super small, fat soluble molecules to get in. For example, you can't do chemo in the brain because the molecules can't pass through the blood brain barrier. So oils can be used in very strategic ways to actually get into the brain and balance the brain. So if you're in the middle of an anxiety attack, that is the right side of your brain, the right forehead, frontal lobe, that's kind of overactive. So the way you calm that is you stimulate the left frontal lobe. Suddenly the two hemispheres are in balance and you feel less anxious. Doing that is as simple as plugging your right nostril and just smelling something through your left nostril. It could be any oil you have in the house. You can peel a tangerine. Basically, the essential oils live in the peel of citrus fruits and smell that. And if you're prone to anxiety, if your kids are prone to anxiety, it will calm you immediately. So that's just something you can do right now, every day at home.
Chantel Ray: Now, let's talk about kind of if you had to pick the five best essential oils for weight loss that you would say, hey, and it may be inadvertently. Right. So like it may be that, hey, if you have lavender, that might help promote your sleep, which then if you've gotten enough sleep, you're it can it's kind of that compound effect. And then what are some of the more direct essential oils that can really help with weight loss?
Jodi Cohen: Yeah, the two that have the most research are peppermint and cinnamon. There is actually research that, you know, the brain basically sends either hunger signals or societys signals to the body. And so that's how you know what to eat and that involves your vagus nerve. So making sure that you kind of turn on your parasympathetic nervous system is likely to make you feel more full. And then the hypothalamus in the brain, when you smell something like peppermint, it goes directly to the safety center. There is a researcher, Dr. Hirsch, who basically was doing research and found that just smelling peppermint before meals, people lost between five to 30 pounds in two months. So that's a great trick to try. Also, different parts of the body, like the skin is thinner. So the inner cheek is a really good way to take in oils. I know people add them to water. I feel like you waste more than you use. But there's a recipe that's a combination of peppermint, white, grapefruit, lemon, ginger, cinnamon and celery seed that I give it away in the book. But that's a nice one to really suppress appetite. You know, like even if you use it before meals so that you eat less or when you're hungry between meals. Totally funny story. Prie covid. My kids played soccer, which meant that we were often carpooling like an hour away to a field and I usually remembered tangerines in the car like as a snack if we needed them one day with horrible, horrible traffic. I forgot the tangerines. The kids are having a meltdown. We're hungry. And I had this blend in the car and I'm like, all right, we're going to try this. I want you to just, like, do a dab on your cheek and see how you feel. None of them were hungry. They wanted to do it before they started the game. Even after the game, like while they were at practice, I went and grabbed snacks. They were good.
Jodi Cohen: So that's you know, if it works on teenage boys, I think most of us.
Chantel Ray: I want you to talk for just a second about kind of the difference between, you know, ingesting essential oils, like, for example, like if someone took a cup of water and put a few drops of lemon essential oil in there or diffusing it or using a carrier oil and actually putting it on your body, talk a little bit about what is your preferred way and what do you suggest tips on that?
Jodi Cohen: Yeah, the most efficient way of assimilating in oil is literally it's called direct assimilation. It means you open the bottle, you hold it under your nose and you just smell and within like five seconds gets into your system and starts to work its magic.
Jodi Cohen: And part of that is that, you know, what you're really trying to do is get it into the bloodstream. Right. So, as I mentioned, the epidermis, the skin layer. Shows are really near the surface. That's why it's so common to get a bloody nose. But, you know, and it's also why they do anesthesia here, it's just the fastest way to get it into your system and into your bloodstream.
Jodi Cohen: The second fastest way is topical application, especially on pulse points, like there's a lot of blood flow on the wrist, a lot behind the ears. You know, if you warm your skin or if you exercise, that gets blood flowing. So that's kind of the second most effective way. Diffusing is is fine. But you know that you're filling the entire room and you're not you're sitting in part of the room. So it's a little bit wasteful and you don't necessarily want to do it. It's like, you know, if you're having cramps, you're not going to pop an Advil every five minutes. You're going to take maybe two, maybe if it's a hard day for, you know, and then wait a couple hours before you take more. These are medicine. You know, you just limit it to like 20 minutes, twice a day if you're diffusing and then ingestion. I worry about because the digestive process, it has to go through the stomach acid, then be processed by the liver before it even gets into the bloodstream. So it takes a long time assuming everything works right. If there's any kind of challenge in any part of the body, it really doesn't get to where it's going. So I just think it's it's less efficient.
Chantel Ray: Now, especially with especially depending on if you're using a more expensive, essential oil, I mean, some of those essential oils could be, you know, 30, 40, 50 dollars for a really small bottle. And if you're putting them.
Jodi Cohen: Yeah. It's crazy expensive, but it's fabulous.
Chantel Ray: Right. So let's talk about putting it on you as far as do you feel that, you know, do some of them do all of them need to be diluted with a carrier oil prior to use or do some of the essential oils already come pre diluted with carrier oil or, you know, give us some tips on that?
Jodi Cohen: Yeah, if you're buying a single oil, it's not going to be pretty diluted. And, you know, for a lot of them, especially the ones that are considered to be hot, meaning that you might notice your skin feels rather warm, like oregano, clove, cinnamon time. You know, you definitely want to dilute with a carrier oil, my oils, I kind of make them pretty diluted and different carrier oils have different properties like fractionated coconut oil is really like a quick hit. It has small molecules, gets into the system really quickly. Cahaba is more of a gradual, slow release. Like if you're trying to do something on the skin with frankincense or lavender, Cahaba would be a good choice because it would seem almost like a time delay throughout the day. But you can I mean, I'll be honest, I cook in the walk a lot and sometimes the oil splatters. I don't use diluted lavender. I just put it right on the burn and it works really well. Hitlerism that I mentioned is amazing for any kind of pain or focus. Sometimes I say just use a tiny drop like on the back of the head or frankincense as well. If you're using it over the heart, you know, that's another good one. If money is a concern like a rose oil or something and you want it to last a lot longer, absolutely dilute it. But I do feel like there's an element of personal preference involved.
Chantel Ray: Mm hmm. So you would say, is there one talk about that a little more so the ones that you would put directly on you would be which ones and which ones would you say? I definitely would want to use a carrier?
Jodi Cohen: Well, because, yeah, I mean, some people will say use a carrier oil for everything. You're not going to burn yourself with frankincense. Lavender, a chrism. Absolutely. Use a carrier oil for anything that's hot. So that would include peppermint. That would include rosemary, cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme, oregano, clove. Those are kind of the main ones and the ones that have kind of the the known heat component. The other application point that's really valuable is the bottom of the foot, not only because the skin is thicker so you don't react as much to the heat, but there are actually I'll show you, I did a really detailed graph in the book. There are all these reflex points. And it's pretty fascinating because you can put like the big toe, for example, is the brain reflux point. So say your husband hates smell, but, you know, using oil before bed is really good for you. You can put it on the bottom of your feet on these specific points, the work as well. And your husband doesn't need to smell it. So you save your marriage and your sleep.
Chantel Ray: That is great. You are going to go on vacation and let's say you can only take five oils with you like you are doing in Korea, and you couldn't take what's kind of the five oils that you just can never leave home without.
Jodi Cohen: Yeah, well, definitely my parasympathetic blend, which is clove and lime. I have one for the Adreno for stress and one for circulation, but I had to pick five singles. Lavender is great, especially because it's great for bug bites and sunburns. I love Blue Tanzy. It's really good for emotional release and actually for for liver stuff. Often if you're detoxifying like anger comes up, it's just great if you're if you're having an off day, it's also really good for mold. It kind of modulates mold, like if you're traveling in the hotel rooms just moldy. It just helps. You can put it behind your ears. Cyprus is kind of my current favorite favorite with covid, because what it does is it fortifies the lung barrier like we all hear about the cytokine storm. That's it's a two step process. It's kind of like if the the army's storming the castle and the drawbridge is up and the molt is full of water and alligators, you know, that's if you're lung barrier's safe. Nothing's getting in through that lung barrier. You're good. You can keep living on in the castle. You know, it's if this lung barrier is compromised, then that kicks off systemic inflammation. So I love that frankincense is always a good one. It's a little bit of an interesting sometimes it smells great, sometimes it doesn't. But it's really good to put kind of on the base of the skull to just enhance circulation and then clove and lime just because it's my go to for any kind of stress, any kind of overwhelm. And it smells great.
Chantel Ray: What about for thyroid? Do you have anything that you say that that really works for thyroid?
Jodi Cohen: Myrtle's the one that everyone says is good for thyroid and frankincense. For me, I've noticed that the more I support my liver and gall bladder and adrenals, the more the thyroid is. The thyroid is not the root of the problem. It's often detoxification and stress. So if I can support those two things, especially the liver, I've noticed because there's a huge correlation between the gallbladder and the thyroid, then my thyroid issues kind of dissipate. Awesome.
Chantel Ray: Well, this has been great, tell listeners where they can find you and where they can follow you, they can find me at vibrant blue oils.
Jodi Cohen: If they want a free chapter of the book, they can go to boost the brain book gift and get a free download. Everything about activating the parasympathetic state and then get vibrant blue oils. I'm on Facebook, Instagram and we have a Facebook discussion group where you can ask any questions.
Chantel Ray: Awesome. Well, you guys stay tuned. We have another episode coming up in just a few. Bye bye for now.