The Alternative Medicine Cabinet

Dr. P: Welcome to the show Kathy I’m happy to have you on.

Kathy: Oh thanks so much I appreciate it.

Dr. P: Now it’s funny how we kind of crossed each other’s paths because you essentially I heard you on a podcast and I was really intrigued by your by the title which was this alternative medicine cabinet just ways to help yourself naturally at home. And so I just knew I had to have you on the show. And so that was the main reason I want you on the show but I also found out that you are a speaker and you have a Ted x talk and I listen to your talk and it kind of resonated with this mind body connection that I’m really into. So before we get into that though I want to talk a little bit about how you got to where you are now. So tell me a little bit about how you got to this point in your life.

Kathy: Yeah absolutely. It’s a very convoluted story as I think everybody is pretty much as you know I just followed the breadcrumbs. I started out as an actor as a theater major. And when I was in college I very accidentally had never set out to do this. I started apprenticing with a woman that did massage and I watched her and helped her out every summer for a couple of years and at the end I thought Man I’m really good at this and she’s encouraging me to do this. And so when I was heading to California to pursue my acting career I decided that massage was going to be that sideline that thing I did during those you know award winning movies and the award winning movie didn’t come. But the MSO stayed. So I always had this parallel path of massage and healing and acting and healing and then the healing stuck. So when I moved to Santa Barbara I started building my massage practice. I started adding things like reiki and homeopathic herbs and nutrition and started writing books and got my PhD and so it was just it’s very organic pathway of me just saying yes to these opportunities that popped up as a side note my mom died when I was young so she passed away when I was 18 and thought that of course, you know you can’t have something like that to happen and not be a huge influence on you. I can’t specifically say she was sick so I now do healing stuff but it was definitely an influence and watching my dad be such an incredible caregiver to her. I think also instilled in me those those urges to explore options to have compassion and care for people. So whether I’m doing the hands on work that I do or know in front of an audience of a thousand. To me it’s about giving people options and choices. And that was one of that one of the main commands and I said X was you know options of going for it and living a full life. So yeah it is a winding path but here I am and I don’t know where the next part of the path goes. I have no idea but that’s interesting.

Dr. P: So you go from acting to massage and I find it interesting in your book you talk about some common misconceptions about massage that I actually also hear as well in practice I’m one of those things is does it get rid of cellulite.

Kathy: No sorry. It’s like oh oh no you know there are these roller techniques and all these things unfortunately it’s really hard to get rid of cellulite. There’s a huge hereditary component to it. So you can thank your parents for that but now it’s really tough to get rid of if you drink tons of water and you do this the rolling massage which is incredibly painful. It can shrink the look of it but unfortunately from what I have seen and read it just comes right back. So now you’re stuck with it for a little bit longer.

Dr. P, They also talk about I hear this all the time as well with my patients when they get massages they’ll get up and they’ll feel like the next day they’re sick or they’ll feel like they have the flu right. So does giving massage give you the flu?

Kathy: No no we need a virus for that. I’m not saying you don’t feel like crap. Know that that’s typically a healing crisis or her time or reaction and that’s from you know moving all those toxins around. I have had that happen from massage with that happened from exercise. So like if you haven’t done exercise in a while you don’t really intense class especially at heat. So like what I did I tried Bikram yoga once I was practically passed out in the corner. I don’t I don’t like heat and I don’t like yoga. So that’s what I was thinking. But you know I end up so sick I had a headache for days I felt fluky and noxious and that was just all these toxins trying to get out of my body too fat. It’s like opening up the freeway closing all the exits and everything you know floods into that one area and then it takes time for it to kind of dribble out. So now I’m not saying you don’t have the flu I am massage did not give it to you.

Dr. P: And then in your book, you also say that getting massage doesn’t make you less of a man. Tell me why you put that in there.

Kathy: You know I this was this was way back. You know I have met so many men who think it’s a it’s a pampering thing. They think it’s this girly thing you go to a spa and you relax and have a facial and you know for some reason there was this sort of group of men I kept bumping into who thought I was just emasculating thing and I’m a huge NFL fan. I grew up watching Pittsburgh Steelers I’m a Pittsburgh girl and you know you don’t think they’re getting massage after they’re done getting the crap beat out of them for four quarters and they absolutely are. You know it’s a way to up your game. It’s a way to optimize your physical performance. And to me it’s the same way with meditation. I’ve had a lot of men get very riled up when I suggest meditation that they’re going to lose their edge or they’re not going to be as on like it’s completely the opposite you’re actually gonna be more focused more on your game from doing this isn’t it. And self care is huge. And so I’m actually since I wrote that book I’m seeing a shift to more to more men saying yes to these things that in the past they might consider being pampering or something. So yes I think that’s shifting and it’s shifting.

Dr. P: Yeah I would agree I would say that I see more resistance on that side to recommendations when it comes to massage but once my patients get in there with the therapist that is more about kind of a medical approach. They find out it’s not about relaxing it’s not about going to sleep. It’s about fixing a problem.

Kathy: Yep absolutely. Absolutely.

Dr. P: So right now are you incorporating massage in with your practice.

Kathy: Yes. So I still have a full time. Well I do about 80 percent massage about 20 percent hypnotherapy a lot at some point that’s a lot of hands on. And that’s just what I’m here. I do a lot of traveling with a speaking. So when I am well gone obviously much I massage. I haven’t found a way to do that virtually. People don’t seem to want to pay me for me to call and tell them I’m massaging it right now. I’ve tried that Yes so when I’m in town that’s what promising to do all that aside and hypnotherapy. And then when I’m traveling and speaking to corporations organizations non-profits you know pretty much whoever well whoever flies me to where to speak let’s go back to the alternative medicine cabinet and go over essentially what people can do to stay healthy now.

Dr. P: One of the big things in the book that stuck out to me was back pain obviously because I treat back pain. So tell me some recommendations that you have for back pain that someone can do at home.

Kathy: Yeah absolutely. No I really think we just need to get on a foreign stretch and I don’t mean yoga. I’ve suggested stretching so many people and I think I should do yoga. That’s that’s great. If that’s your thing I actually find yoga actually messes up my back foot which kind of knows what to do. But just the way I’m built. Yoga doesn’t work for me. So I’m talking about like seriously just you know those like old fashioned calisthenics stretches that we learned in grade school or whatever that was a way of stretching out your hamstrings stretching as required bending down touching your toes twisting a little bit if it’s OK with any back issues you might have. I think it’s so important every day to move our bodies in that way. Everyone find stretching boring everyone tells me they don’t do it enough including me. But I think that’s really important to keep our bodies healthy and to keep us from having injuries in the future if you’re warmed up. You’re probably not going to be as prone to hurt yourself. The other thing is I know we’re not meant to set and I read a thing maybe a year or two ago said sitting is the new smoking which sounds like a great buzz catch phrase for and advertise it but it actually is true. I mean we’re sitting more than ever and I think we really have to make sure we’re going to keep getting up and moving at least once an hour standing desk drawer. Great but then that great whole nother set of problems that we need to be moving our bodies and with men specifically I feel like them sitting on this gigantic George court the other guy’s wallet from side belts. You should be sitting on something like that. It’s really thrown off your back. You know it would be like putting one teeny tire on your car compared to the other three and expecting the alignment to stay in place. It’s not going to work. So get those things out your pockets ladies be careful. Really heavy person. That’s that’s where your back off. Stretching moving drinking enough water making sure your bed is comfortable. You need pillows or bolsters create the sleep environment that you need specifically for your back.

Dr. P: And you know I mean this is what I deal with all day. I know you do a lot of stuff, so you know it’s an endless topic. And I’m glad you brought up sleep posture because that’ll get us into our next subject head home for sleep which this month ironically correlates with the launch of a pillow that I designed to help you by sleeping posture.So for those of you listening who haven’t yet seen my Kickstarter campaign go to Perfect Fit Pillow and you can see that it may not be live when this episode airs live but you can go still check and maybe buy a pillow. We’ll still have plenty of them for sale but sleep posture and sleeping is really important to me so let’s go into some topics that you have to help improve sleep.

Kathy: Yeah absolutely. You know the first thing is we have to have a good sleep environment. Have to sleep hygiene. And I have so many clients who complained they’re not sleeping and then tell me Oh the dog is in with them really got twelve cats on their head and I am not a fan of having animals in the room. I. People love their pets. They want to sleep with their dogs or cats or Marmot whatever they have an app but it’s not great for our sleep and the one that lets the animal truly goes to bed when you do and just conked out all night and actually gives you space in the bed. It’s not the best thing. You know it’s disturbing you and even if you don’t fully wake up it’s disturbing you enough or you’re aware of don’t roll over on the carpet or you know that kind of thing. So get it. Get the animal though the bed make sure it’s dark. Make sure it’s quiet. Maybe you need earplugs or blackout curtains. Don’t do anything on the electronics for about the half hour before you go to bed. From our watching violent TV or watching the news or something that’s going to upset you is not a good idea. That last half hour before we drift off to sleep is the most digestible time to our brain. So this is a perfect time to you know do your affirmations Journal do your gratitude work that sort of thing because all of that stuff goes straight into your subconscious. So I do affirmations every night and in the course of something called the Mental bank which is a sort of a life shifting program thing that I do and I do that literally I write in my little mental bank I close the book I go to sleep and those things that I have written about right before bedtime percolate around in my brain all night and actually start to influence how I really respond and make decisions and track things for my life. So I think what we do that last you know two minutes to half an hour is really important. And I think we overlook that time a lot. We turn off the news and go straight to bed which really for our psyche is that the best thing for us. So if you really have trouble sleeping. Hypnosis is great for sleep. Do your supplements like melatonin trip to find. Don’t take trips to find if you’re taking SSRI is for depression that can cause a really huge problem. But there’s a lot of options there’s a lot of things we can do to make sure we’re going to sleep. Sleep is vastly important it sets up everything else in our lives. So yes it’s too late. That’s an awesome topic and I’m so excited about your pillow. I want to go check that out.

Dr. P: Yeah yeah. It’s been a pretty good success we got funded day one so we’re really really excited for this.

Kathy: Oh that’s great. I have people all the time asking me about pillows and beds and I’ll get off and then there is the most common thing I get asked to so I knew I had to come up with some solution that I was comfortable recommending.

Dr. P: Now let’s go back in to another topic in your book office health in the winter season because this is another thing I asked a lot about in practice especially around this time of year. What can I do to help try to avoid or prevent or even lessen the symptoms of all these people that are sick around me?

Kathy: Yeah. You know to me one of the most important things. Yeah. I mean handwashing keep hand sanitizer around I’m a hand sanitizer person I’m not a huge get my hands wet person but it’s just not going to do besides eyes blossom and all that. My favorite thing I’ll admit love my hand sanitizer. But you know one of the things to me is not stressing out about it. There’s a huge mind body medicine component to our immune system and we can actually boost our immune system by telling it to boost by visualizing Army system by saying I am healthy and well my immune system is strong and resilient. We actually have the ability to make ourselves stronger in that way. So one of the big things I see is people come into my office like oh my gosh. It’s February I’m going to get sick and everyone’s sick around me and I hope I don’t get sick and oh gee do I look sick. Don’t get near me you’ll get sick dog and I get sick. And although reiterating his sick. And that again head straight into our subconscious and actually can make us sicker. Not to say we’re causing our own illness but we are depleting our own immune system by having the stress of paranoia about getting sick so thank positive dying. Distressed. Making sure you’re taking care of all those mental emotional things that are pounding on you is going to help your physicality and I think that’s something huge that we overlook. I’m a huge fan of the neti pot. If you feel something coming on to me it doesn’t seem to work. Once I’m already stuffed up it just seems to make it worse for me personally but if I’m that exposed the staff or you know even if it’s something like dust or flash people around me who are sick I’ll do a couple days of the neti pot which is a little like a teapot. Clears up your sinuses. So that’s really. I love that. I’m a huge fan of homeopathic and herbs and boosting the immune system that way just doing different mushroom products can be really great for boosting the immune system. I love a homeopathic called oscillococcinum which is basically a sort of a homeopathic flu shot is the way I always describe it. And it actually read I have started to really help if I feel something trying to take hold up my vitamin C you know there’s so many different options and it’s it’s interesting because some people work and some things work for some people and not for others. So when I would take airborne it would totally work for me. It did not work for one of my colleagues. So you have to experiment a little bit and really see what’s going to work for you. Chinese herbs don’t work as well for me as American herbs. I’m American. That’s my boy. I come from a very European background so I think we have to look at homeopathic work really good for me not good for somebody else. So you kind of have to experiment and see what’s going to work best for you which is the challenge sometimes with natural health. People want to pop a pill as if it’s an ad though and have everything magically disappear and it’s like well but it doesn’t work that way now. So we have to we have to experiment. We have to do that at trial and error thing to see what is going to be best for us.

Dr. P: Yeah it’s funny that you say that because I find the same thing when people ask me what I do personally. Most people don’t really want to know because when I tell them it’s like well I don’t want to do all that. That’s weird but I find that you know works for some people it doesn’t work for others. I do believe in trying different things and seeing what works for you. But again I’ve interviewed a lot of people. It’s really neat to see all these different ways to try and combat these different things that we all deal with. So and another one actually it leads into the next topic that’s common that I hear is acid indigestion. So give us some natural solutions that you have for combating acid indigestion.

Kathy: Yeah. This is so common right now. And it’s you know what I see advertised on TV tends to be the latest illness trend and you know for a while they were talking about the little purple pill and all these things that help reduce the acid. What I have found in so many of my clients who come to do a consult with the acid indigestion stuff is sometimes it’s sometimes it’s something called (inaudible). And to break that down hypo not enough core hydrochloric acid so there’s hydrochloric acid in our stomach. That’s what helps digest our food and when we put food in our mouth we start the enzyme reactions. It triggers to the stomach Hey get ready something’s come on and we built this chemical reaction to help digest the food. If we don’t have enough stomach acid the food churns around in there longer than it should because the sphincter at the end of the stomach waits to hit a certain level of acid before it goes. Oh OK. Call the food done. It opens up and things come out. It’s like a washing machine. It’s triggered hey we’re done with the rent it’s time to spend. That’s kind of what our stomach does. And if there’s not enough acid to trigger that sphincter to open to let the food out it’s its insurance more and more and more and more and more and more. So then you go to bed two hours later or you bend over to tie your shoes and you burp up gunk and you think oh that’s acid. Well sure it is but it’s also putrid by the food. It’s like you know food sitting in your garbage disposal overnight not quite gone. It’s disgusting. So you burp up you think it’s too much acid which on one hand it sort of is. They give you something to calm down and that sensation goes away. But what really and some people what the problem is they need more acid so you can actually work within that task. There is a test where they put a little tube down the stomach and they measure the stomach acid. I’m blanking a lot of them on that test. But you can do that you can also take Apple cider vinegar with your meals and I have had clients who had a dream reaction to taking a little bit of apple cider vinegar a couple of minutes before their meal with their food because it helps to upset stomach acid. So I have had really good luck with people trying to do that route as opposed to taking the acid reducer. Because in reality their problem is not that to begin with. So that is my favorite thing for for acid reflux and and GERD and if you have if you have an active ulcer that’s not going to feel very good. You don’t want to take the right to the hydrochloric acid tablets getting bigger. You gotta take digestive enzymes. You know we take like a family’s protease and that will help also digest the food not eating too late though is true. You don’t want to be having a giant meal at 10:00 at night and then going to bed. That’s just not not how our bodies are made to work. So yeah. So there’s my miners right now my still on hypochondria. It’s one of my favorite topics actually that thing to me.

Dr. P: That’s great. Now you also in your book mentioned that even wonder woman needs a day off and I think that kind of bridges into your talk. You talked a little bit about a trapeze. Tell us a little bit about that and how that fits in to helping with stress in my body.

Kathy: Yeah. You know I’m a total adventure junkie. I am. I love that adrenaline rush and I love to say yes the thing to me. We’re on this planet to explore to have fun to just enjoy ourselves. And I want to try new things. I want to I just say Yeah go for it. Been my motto since high school and I was talking to a client of mine and she said Oh my God. Because what in the world is left on your bucket list because I went through this list of all the stuff I had done and I said you know I don’t really believe in a bucket list which I mentioned in my fedex you know to me if you want to do something and it’s within your power financially. Time wise I’m going to go do it go do it. What are you waiting for. You know so many people write this list this mythical list and then they get to be you know 85 and they realize they haven’t done anything and now they’re too old it’s too late. You know I can’t ice skate anymore or whatever it is. Jill I told us on the day I always wanted to try flying trapeze because I saw the fourth thing I saw it on an episode of Sex And The City. Carrie was in New York. She was afraid of heights. She did the trapeze class. And I remember thinking Oh my God that’s something you can go do. Like anybody can go do this. And it was just fascinated. And some years later I found a trapeze Reagan fan, Monica. I tried it thought it would be a one time thing where I would just fly through the air and do the class and be finished with it. And now here I am five years later I’ve flown on probably a dozen rigs around the country. To me it’s it’s no adventure and it’s probably the most physical thing that I’ve ever tried to do. But it is a parallel for life. You have to do the thing and scary and you climb this really tall ladder and it’s shaky and you’re not sure if you can do it and you stand up on this platform and you have to jump off and how many times do we have that in life. There’s a thing that we’re facing that we’re afraid of. And it’s so simple. We just have to jump off and there’s a net and there’s someone to help us there’s somebody catch us. And their safety lines and you know we just need to take that leap. And so to me in that way it’s a parallel for life taking those risk taking those chances and just going for it. And it’s also a mindfulness practice if I’m thinking about anything else than what I’m doing right in that moment. You not only miss your trick you can get really hurt. And I’ve been injured three times during therapy is because I’m doing more about stuff. If you go with the first couple that you’re not going to get hurt incredibly safe. But I got hurt three times and because I was someplace else because I wasn’t the president well I was fast forwarding to the future thing and we do that so often in life too. How often are we sitting around what thing that negative future thing as opposed to just being present and enjoying and just taking in that moment of where we are really only creatures that want to be anywhere. Oh that’s right here. You know cats and animals and they’re not daydreaming about the next thing. They’re right here present and we need to do more of that.

Dr. P: And to me Kathy there’s just such a great exercise for that now in your talk you talk about three phrases of three words that are really important. So tell us what those three phrases are.

Kathy: Yeah. So go for it is one of them and that goes with the try to tell three story that might have acts of go forward as one of them. The other one is is why suffer twice. And that goes to the what if ing into that future. And I literally have had people say to me I hate Sunday. And I say well that’s kind of weird. Why do you hate Sundays. Well because I could go to work Monday well why are you ruining your Sunday to think about something tomorrow. At that point you can’t blame the mean boss or the weird co-worker or the overwork or the underpay that’s all you at that point you’re creating that your mind. And those were the things that took out hands that with your wife suffer twice worrying about what if that spot of cancer what if he leaves. What if I don’t get that promotion. Well that’s a future thing. And if something bad happens later you can suffer then. So why are you anticipating the suffering. And I see a lot of us do that. So why suffer twice as the other one and be here now or change your focus more to change your focus of what we look at as what we see which is kind of weird but you know I’m sitting here at my desk and I have 30 different things I can focus on. It’s the same thing in our life. We can focus on whatever we want. We can focus on that negative thing that happened or is happening or will maybe happen later or we can just focus on something else. And so I tell the story of how I got stranded in London during than England and just was told to sit there and look at something pretty as opposed to complaining about life. My quote negative situation and that was just such a huge life lesson of look at look at something else then you know we are so hard on ourselves especially women and I’ve seen so many women just pick themselves apart. You know they could be dressed to the nines and just looking beautiful and they’re mad because they broke a nail. And it’s like what do we want to focus on. It’s not about the little things that we can pinpoint that are wrong. It’s about focusing on those things that are so right. And there was all these moments of perfection that we overlook because we’re busy thinking about work on Monday. Pick it up. So to me that the X thing was just it was such an amazing experience just to get to do it. And I’ve had such great feedback on that talk and people from all over the world have watched it and contacted me and said how much they liked that. So I’m so glad you watched it and like that and I encourage I want to check it out. Yeah and I actually just booked another one I’m so excited so that’s actually going to be down south in southern California kind of near near the airport. But yeah I’m really excited that I’m going to do that one on us versus them and how we’re having so much division right now. I don’t know if you notice we’re a little divided right now. So I’m going to be doing that in March. So really excited about that and then I’m also working on my eighth book which is on us versus them. So very excited about that project as well.

Dr. P: Terrific. Well if people want to learn more about you or connect with you. Where would you tell to go.

Kathy: Yeah. You know www.KathyGruber.com is really the easiest thing I’ve got all my books there I’ve got links to a bunch of talks and some of my speaking and things like that. The alternative medicine cabinet has a lot of resources and stuff there as well. So those are the two main sites and I’m all over social media on Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter and Instagram and you pretty much find me everywhere I’ve got a great Wikipedia page which is really fun and then trapping videos Pepper all over the place. So yeah I’m kind of all over and I love when people reach out so I would love to hear from anybody that wants to.

Dr. P: We appreciate your time today on the show and look forward to looking through more your stuff. And again thanks for taking the time today.

Kathy: Oh thank you so much. I appreciate it.