Real-Life Wellness Q&A

In this listener Q&A episode, we answer your most-asked questions about bone density, making extra money, adult acne, seasonal allergies, and nervous system regulation.

Questions we answer:

1. How do I improve bone density and calcium levels? We cover the best exercises for bone health (strength training, walking with weights, whole body vibration, rebounding) plus the supplements that direct minerals to your bones instead of forming kidney stones. Learn why proper form matters and how to build bone density that lasts.

2. What are simple ways to earn extra money without getting another job? We share four proven resources: Offer Lab (completely free), mystery shopping (with vetted companies), Made to Share (social media income), and Next Level (advanced social media strategies). All discussed in detail in Episode 17.

3. I'm an adult with acne—what actually works? Discover the gut-skin connection and why probiotics, hydration, enzymes, and liver support (glutathione) are game-changers. We also cover pH balance, sunshine therapy, and the processed foods sabotaging your skin.

4. My seasonal allergies are ruining my sleep—help! Learn about fast-acting allergy relief supplements, nasal sprays, and why gut health determines your allergy response. Plus timing tips for nighttime relief so you can actually breathe and sleep.

5. What's the best way to regulate your nervous system (without expensive devices)? We break down free nervous system regulation tools: breathwork (Wim Hof method, box breathing), gargling, low-toned humming, earthing (grounding), nature therapy, and negative ion exposure. We also share our experience with float spas, salt rooms, and the science behind why walking barefoot and ocean air are so powerful.

Resources mentioned: Optimal Health Systems (use code DX2), Offer Lab, Mystery Shopping Mastery, Made to Share, Equip Foods, Element Electrolytes, Real Salt, Breath by James Nestor

Listen now for practical, actionable answers to your health and wellness questions!

Transcript

Welcome And Wheel Of Life

Debra 0:04

Welcome to the D Times 2 podcast, hosted by Sisters Denise and Deborah. We are all about finding balance in the various parts of life. Using the Wheel of Life as our guide, we explore how to keep each spoke rolling smoothly. We discuss health and wellness, education and spirituality, as well as mental and emotional growth. Join us for real conversations, practical tips, and a few laughs as we share stories, insights, and strategies to help you create a life that feels balanced, purposeful, and designed by you.

Vacation Toes And Perspective

Debra 0:36

What's up, Deborah? What's up? I feel like we're doing an 80s commercial or 90s. What's up? What's up? How are you? We're doing good. How are you doing today, Denise? I am doing well. Thank you for asking. Welcome you back to town. Yeah, welcome back. She's been gone. I've been gone. We were on vacation and it was lovely. So I want to just tell you a little observation I had though. Okay. While we were gone. One of the things, like before you go on vacation, there's always a whole list of things you're trying to get done before you go, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Sure.

Debra 1:13

One of the things that never made it to the top of my list of priorities or time available was getting a pedicure or doing my own pedicure. So my toenails. You didn't have cute toes on your I did not. I did not. And I was very aware of it because I just for my own personal happiness, I like to have my nails done. Like you can see them right now. It's clear. They're clear polish, but they are taken care of. And that my fingernails and my toenails. But I didn't have cute toenails. My like toenail polish is grown out halfway. No, there's they're colorful, but don't look too closely. And I knew that I was going to be mostly in sandals for a good two weeks. So I was just trying to be cool with it and not mortified by it because it did not meet my personal standard. As we were loading up our, like just getting ready to load everything into the car before we came home on our very last day, Tom looked at my feet and said, Oh, it looks like you need a pedicure. And I said, I sure do. Are you just now noticing this? Because it's been like that for a couple of weeks. He's like, I promise you have more interesting features to look at than your toes. And I was like, hallelujah. Because to me it mattered. I care for my own. And I promise you, there are a lot of women who noticed I didn't have a fresh pedicure. Tom, oblivious, didn't care in the least. And I just thought it was important to me, but it was one of the things that never made it to the top of my list. He couldn't have cared less. Yeah. So the things we care about aren't always what other people care about. True. That's true. I just thought it was so interesting and funny, and just the different perspectives and that people have. Yeah. I think that's probably a first for you to not have your pedicure down before you go somewhere. Especially when your feet are showing. My feet are yes, because even all winter long. Like we're in a cold area. I have had socks on, slippers, shoes closed all the time. Like no one else can see them, but I can see them. And they've been taken care of. Yes. So the one time that everybody could see them, they absolutely were not their cutest, but I lived and it was fine. You lived, but it's good. I lived. We'll be fine. So today, what are we going to talk about, Denise? We are going to do a QA. QA, questions and answers with Deb and Denise. From these are questions that have come to us from listeners. And we know if one person has a question or a few people have the question, that more people have the question. So we will try to do our best to answer. Answers according to us. Yes. As completely as we can. And you can take it for what it's worth. Okay, what's our first one?

Build Bone Density That Lasts

Debra 4:21

So the first one is I have been told that I need to get my calcium under control. It my levels are low. I'm concerned about bone density. What would you suggest? So your bone density has to do with what you consume, but also your activity. So you need to do activities that uh cause a little bit of stress on your skeletal system so that your skeletal system can be can strengthen itself. A couple of good things that we recommend are strength training. When you lift heavy things, your tendons on your muscles put force on your bones and cause your bones to reinforce themselves. Yes. So well said. Lift heavy things. Lift heavy things. And you only need to lift heavy things two to three times a week. And your heavy is different than my heavy. So lift what's heavy for you. Yeah. Don't look at your neighbor. Do your heavy things. Without overdoing. Yeah. Be smart about it. If you don't know how to lift heavy weights, talk to a trainer at your local gym. They'll talk to you for free. I'm just thinking, as dad always says, within your tissue tolerance. Yeah, his tissue tolerance is different than Deb's. So just lift heavy things according to what you can handle. So strength training, weight bearing exercise. Yeah. Like eight reps. Eight to ten reps. That's good, right? Another thing that you can do is actually walking. Walking is really good for your skeletal system. I would encourage you to use really good form when you're walking. So please don't lean forward if you notice you are landing heavier on one foot than another, than the other one. Because you only have two. Try to even out your stride. Make sure your hands are swinging forward and backward, not across your body. Like posture form matters when you're walking. It is a really good way to increase your bone density. It is. And especially if you can add some weight to your walk. Whether it's a rucksack or you're holding some hand weights or you're using a weighted vest, that puts a little extra demand on your skeletal system, which will then create demand for it to reinforce itself. Yeah. When you're doing that, if you're doing something on your upper body, it really is important to make sure your form is good because you don't want to be damaging. You want to be strengthening. So anytime you notice any compensation or breakdown or imbalance, you're done. Yeah. Or you need to modify.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Yeah.

Debra 7:11

Something else you can do is use a whole body vibration machine. One of my favorites. It's anybody can use it. If your child can stand, they can use it. If you're 99 years old, you can use it. Even if that means just putting your feet on it. I was gonna say stand or not. I have people sit on it. I have people lay on the floor and put their lower legs on it. Yeah. You anybody can use it. So what does a whole body vibration machine do? It kind of mimics walking. So it moves up and down. One side moves up and the other side moves down. Like a teeter top. Like a teeter top. Yeah, thank you. Yep. And so when your foot is land is coming up, the machine is hitting against your foot and it causes a reaction with your cellular structure to increase your bone density, the load on your bones. So it applies force and your body responds.

unknown 8:08

Yeah.

Debra 8:09

Another one you can do is rebounding, jumping on a mini trampoline. Yes. That's a really good one too. Because that portion where you land, even though it's not hard or aggressive, like your feet never have to leave the mat. You could just bounce that bottom of the motion and then the upward puts that force. That force on the system.

unknown 8:32

Yeah.

Debra 8:33

Do you have any other stepping? I do. And surprise, surprise, some of them are going to be nutritional. Oh, surprise. Kind of my wheelhouse that I live in. Some optimal health systems, correct? Well, so some of them, but what you talked about are like those are the absolute key, like everyone needs to do that. But some people need a little more help, especially if they are already testing as low in calcium or osteopenia or osteoporosis. If they're already there, they need like they would do better to incorporate some nutritional support. So sometimes osteoporosis or osteopenia, which is the precursor to osteoporosis, develop because you're getting the nutrients in your system, but your body isn't putting those minerals where they need to go. It's not properly. Instead of going to the bones to make stronger bones, the calcium or the minerals are going to the kidneys and making kidney stones or the gallbladder and making gallstones. We don't, those stones are almost always formed of minerals that have been improperly directed. The road sign isn't there, giving them the right direction. So we want to make sure the nutrients are going in, but also that they're being properly directed. So supplementally, the way to do that is the three things I would recommend. All of them come from Optimal Health Systems. We talked about that company a lot of times. We have a discount code, DX2, that can always give you a discount. But you want to take their bone plus calcium, literally designed to rebuild the bones. Okay. But also another product that I will almost always put with that is called longevity. So it's vitamin D3 with K2. And that K2 directs the minerals to the bones. Okay. Yep. So bone plus calcium and then longevity. If you're truly in crisis and need more aggressive help, I would add magnostem. That helps kick into gear in the bone marrow, increased cellular or increased cellular production. So you'll rebuild the bone more quickly. Never beat a dead horse. That saying has been around for a long time for a reason. People that are drinking energy drinks all day long just to stay functional, that's what they're doing. They are beating themselves up like they were a dead horse. We gotta stop doing that. The only energy drink that I recommend to my clients is update. It's clean energy without caffeine, so you don't have jitters and chaos and like the problems that caffeine causes in the body. And it also helps to give you focus and a clear mind. It's really the one I use and the one I recommend. To get a discount off of your order, go to drinkupdate.com and use the code DX2. That's D times 2. That's us. So drinkupdate.com and then the code for your discount is DX2. But you also fundamentally have to be putting the nutrients in. You have to have a good diet. You need to be getting protein, like all the things we talked about in the protein episode and in the fat episode and in the carbs episodes. Like fundamentally a good diet. But then sometimes we just need to change the road signs and those supplements will help do that. Awesome. Yeah, those are my best suggestions. I like them all. Okay. We've answered that one. Yeah, what's our next one? Okay, next question. Oh,

Simple Ways To Earn More

Debra 12:21

this is a whole different topic. Good. Okay. So a little while ago, I asked you about something that you're doing to make a little extra money. Can you remind me what that's called and tell me more about it? Oh, money, money, money. Yes. We've talked about this a couple of times. We have. In let's see. One of our earlier episodes was specifically designated to this whole topic. It's episode 17, Design Your Money to Serve Your Life, not the other way around. And in it we talked about ways to make extra money, not getting another job or increasing your hours at work, but things you can do on your own time. So there were four things we talked about. One is Offer Lab. Offer Lab is completely free to join. And you can put your own offers up there. You can promote other people's offers that are on there completely free. Yep. Free. If you listen to the episode, you will hear us say free many times. So Offer Lab is a good one. Mystery shopping is another one that you can do. That one does have a cost to join, but the opportunity far outweighs the cost. So I'm gonna say technically anyone can do mystery shopping. You can go online, find companies to register with, but a lot of them are sketchy. So we recommend you go through the mystery shopping mastery program, which has a little bit of a cost, but also gives you lists and categories of companies that are vetted and proven that you can trust. They are legit. Yes. And you can immediately start making money. And some of it's over the phone, some of it's going like I got an offer for one of them the other day because I do this. It was, I will not, I will drop names. Okay. It was to go shopping at Winco, get paid $10 to do it, get reimbursed $15 of my own money for whatever I'm buying for my own personal use. So basically I could come away with $25. And there were some parameters like interact with a couple of employees, buy one item from the deli, one item from over here, things I would normally buy anyway, but they're paying me to do it. Yeah. So mystery shopping you can do for free, but we would encourage you to do the mystery shopping mastery course. Yeah, then you can have legit resources. Yeah, and we have that linked for you in on our website.com. Yeah. Right there. Another one that you can do is called Made to Share. That is actually focused on social media, using social media to make an extra buck. Yep. Or a lot of extra bucks. A lot of extra because you can do social media stuff for like for free. There's not a cost to do it, but you will do better and make more from it if you have some guidance. And that made to share program is very inexpensive and very comprehensive. Yeah, they have a lot of information on there. Yeah. So you can really very quickly start making some money. The next one that goes above and beyond the made to share is called next level. It's for people who are a little more comfortable with social media and actually want to get to the next level and do more and bigger and better and make more income on there. So four resources for you. Yep. All discussed at more length in that previous episode, episode 17. Design your money to serve your life. Not the other way around. So check out that episode for more info on that. And then the links to each of those is also on our website. Good? Yeah. Okay. Next question. So

Adult Acne Gut And Skin Fixes

Debra 16:20

I have more acne than usual. I am a full-grown woman. I asked my doctor for some topical treatment, but haven't got it yet. What do you recommend? That one can be a little bit tricky. What is causing the acne, right? But there are some things that you can do on your own to help with that. One is your gut health is super important. It's directly tied to your skin health. Our dad teaches a concept about how if you took if you reached down somebody's throat and turned somebody inside out, the tissue would be the same from the mouth to the other end as it is on your skin. Because it's just a tube. It's just a tube. And it's all the same tissue. The skin is the largest organ in your body. And definitely your largest organ of elimination as well. So your gut health is directly related to your skin health. So it'd be important to get some probiotics going. Yep. You can take probiotics. Optimal help has a good one. There's two kinds. There's FloraPlus and there's Flora Blitz. Flora Blitz is a little more aggressive. Yeah. So you could take that if you're having an acne issue. Take some flora blitz. Please. Easy. But you can also eat probiotic foods. I like to put them together, eat probiotic foods, and then if and when you need the extra support, take the probiotic supplements. So the probiotic foods I like are kefir. I make milk kefir at home and I put it in my protein shakes and in soups. That's a really good probiotic. I also do water kefir. It's kind of the same concept, but I flavor it with all different kinds of things. I like to water kefir a lot for a lot of people, especially because it's non-dairy. And some people, even if it's a cultured fermented probiotic dairy, still have trouble with it. Where water kefir is not. There's no dairy on that one. But you're you're getting the benefits of the little kefir grains that produce probiotics from the things that you add to the water. And you can be like me and Denise and make it at home, or you can be like me and buy it at the store. I do both. So that that's a really good way to get it. And it I don't know, for me, water kefir is almost like a good treat if I feel like I need a soda pop or something. Have some water kefir because it's kind of fizzy. Yeah. It's fun. It's delicious. But also yogurt, truly fermented sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, fermented pickles specifically. So those are the she's talking about fermented, you said properly fermented sauerkraut. Yes. You can find those in the refrigerated section of your grocery store. Yes. Probiotic foods will always be refrigerated. You can look on the back of the container and see what's in it. And if there's vinegar in it, it's not going to be fermented. So just look at that. It usually says live cultures on it. Yeah, there will be a keyword, live cultured cultures or fermented or probiotic. Those are usually the words that are used. But if you're going to the middle of the store that's not refrigerated and you're looking at the sauerkraut and the pickles, that's those are just brine. They're not probiotic. So go to the refrigerated section. Let's talk about colostrum. It is a hot topic in the world these days. We're going to talk about Equip Foods Core Colostrum. Each scoop contains three grams of grass-fed, pasture-raised, antibiotic-free colostrum, where most on the market only contain one gram. Colostrum is a nutritional powerhouse that has been shown and proven to enhance immune function, gut health, and recovery with vital nutrients. So what exactly is it? Colostrum, also known as first milk, is produced immediately following a newborn birth. It is vital nutrition, providing all the nutrients and fluid a newborn needs in their early days. It also applies to all people. We all need that nutrition. Equip foods core colostrum is a type A1 and A2 milk, which is the highest tier milk you can get. Also, while chloricolostrum is a dairy product, it does not contain milk or lactose. So most people with lactose intolerance usually find colostrum very digestible and beneficial to gut health. Now I know you're wondering how you use it. It's so easy. You just need one scoop per day, and you can add it into tea or coffee, you can add it to a protein shake or to yogurt, or you can even add it into your favorite baked goods. It's also cost effective. So it's core colostrum is about 51 cents per serving compared to 91 cents per serving or more on for competitors. So if you go to equipfoods.com and use the promo code D times2 or DX2, you'll get a great discount. What else would you suggest, Deb? For the skin, for the acne. So one huge thing is hydration. And I preach it from the rooftops for a reason, but without proper hydration, your body can get polluted, and then those pollutants will come out however they can. And this so you need you need water so your body can get rid of things instead of your Blood and lymph and inside of your body looking like sludge. Right. It flows smoothly like water. Yeah. So we don't want a swamp, we want a smooth flowing river. And the water is crucial. And the water plus properly formulated electrolytes or real salt will work better. So electrolytes, we like element. Yes. And best ingredients. Best ingredients. And real salt has one. Real light. Some people find it a little salty, except they did just revamp their formula and it's not quite as salty. Yeah, those those three I really, really like. Sunshine. Sunshine on your skin is a great thing. Our brother Andy used to do work for our dad. And during his lunch break, he would go to the park and lay in the sunshine. He said it's the best thing I ever did for my skin. So sunshine is the best disinfectant. So if there are bacterial things or fungal things that are affecting your skin, the sunshine alone can help with that. But you also need the hydration. You do, yeah. Sweating. Sweating is good. Yep. Sweating helps your body get rid of toxins. So sit in the sauna, get in a hot bath, and sit there until your eyelids sweat. Or you have a sweat mustache. Have you ever sweat mustache? Or go for a brisk walk and get your blood flowing and sweat a little bit. Move things around. Yeah. So another thing though, and like I've helped a lot of a lot of clients with this, and one of the keys tends to be enzymes. Okay. So whether it's enzymes that you're getting from fresh or frozen pineapple or papaya, not cooked, not dehydrated, not freeze-dried, that kills the enzymes. But from pineapple or papaya, or if you're taking a formulated enzyme, like the digest a meal from Optimal Health, sometimes just adding the enzymes is what will do the trick. And it's because of how it affects the gut and breaking down the foods properly. Yeah. Another thing you can look at is the is changing the pH of your skin. Your skin should be a little bit acidic. So taking if you take a bath and put some vinegar in there. A splash of any old vinegar. Any kind. Yeah. And and just soak, it will change the pH of your skin. You can soak your feet in a vinegar water bath, just sit on the couch for 10 minutes. And then put your feet in there and let your feet soak it up because your feet absorb a ton of stuff. So that will actually help your pH in your body as well. Yeah. So I would be remiss if I didn't say part of the solution to acne is also cutting all the crappy, processed, refined, fake foods and drinks. Like don't put the poison in and then expect to have clear skin. Yeah. So eat good foods, drink good things, and then allow your body to function and detoxify how it was meant to. That we would be remiss also if we didn't mention glutathione and how it helps to clean the liver. Yeah. Your liver health has a lot to do with your skin health as well. Yeah, because the liver is really the filter. So if your filter gets clogged, it's gonna clog everything upstream and you're gonna see it come out through your skin. Yep. Yep, yep, yep. So glutathione, which again we like the effervescent wafers from optimal health systems. I have one every day. Me too. Me too. It's delicious. I love it so much. Yeah. So those things all factor. That's a lot of things. So if you need to listen to that section a couple of times. Then do because it will help your skin. Even if you don't have acne, you just want your skin to look better. One other thing, if you want your skin to look better, cut out alcohol. Oh. Yeah, I've never had to worry about that one. But yes, it affects the skin tremendously. So just go back and listen to that section a couple of times if you're having skin issues. I want to talk to you about my ice cream I have almost every night for dessert. I started making it about six months ago with some of my very favorite protein powder. It's from Equip Foods Prime Protein, and it's one of the safest, cleanest, doctor-formulated protein powders that helps to build muscle and shred fat that won't leave you gassy or bloated. That's one of the problems I have with other kinds of proteins. Anyway, it's 100% grass-fed and finished. I make my protein out of their chocolate and their peanut butter. So it's my amazing peanut butter chocolate protein ice cream. It helps me meet my protein goals and taste amazing. To get a nice discount, go to equipfoods.com slash dx2 to get 30% off of a subscription order or a nice 15% discount off of a one-time order. You'll love it.

Seasonal Allergy Relief At Night

Debra 27:04

Okay, next question is about seasonal allergies. So my seasonal allergies are really giving me trouble, particularly at night. I'm having a hard time sleeping because I can't breathe. Do you have any ideas for me? Allergies are the worst. And we live in a farming community. So when those tractors start plowing stuff up and planting stuff and spraying stuff, allergies kind of act up a lot. But it can affect you anywhere. Yes. I always say that's when we have textured air. Yeah. There's a lot of stuff in the air and it affects people. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So one thing you can do, super easy, back to optimal health. They have an allergy pack supplement that you can take. It's in a little packet, has several supplements in it. Just rip it open, take it in the morning. Yeah. It helps a lot. And one of the reasons that helps so much is because it also addresses the gut health. Because when your gut health is not dialed in, you will be more susceptible to seasonal allergies. So it helps with the allergy response, but also helps to replenish the gut. So I have a quick story about the allergy pack. Our mom a couple weeks ago was having, two weeks ago, was having serious allergies. We had so much wind. So much wind. And it was blowing all kinds of stuff up. And our mom started having really bad allergies. And she doesn't normally have allergies. No, ever. So she I was over there over at her house last week and I noticed the allergy pack on the on the counter. And I said, Are you having problems? She says, Not anymore. Well, I told her to take it. She didn't even finish the whole pack and she was good because it got her through her rough time and then she's fine. Yeah. So it works fast, works well. You can take it all through allergy season, whatever that is, because people it hits them at different times. But one other thing that some people need is called zinc oxy spray, and it's a sinus, a nasal spray. And it works great. It works like in the wintertime during cold and flu season, but it also helps with the allergy stuff. So I say use it during the time you need it and then put it on pause until you need it again. Yeah, that's just really good. Yep. So both of those are from optimal health systems. Another thing you can do, and we talked about this just a second ago, is take glutathione. Yep. The glutathione does help your liver. Your liver is helping to regulate your whole body, clean everything out. So help your liver out. Take some glutathione. Yep. At least one a day. And if you're really, really, really suffering with allergies and you're doing the allergy pack and the zinc oxy and the glutathione, you actually might need two glutathione a day. One earlier in the day and one later in the day, just to get that liver decongested and then back off of it a little bit. You could probably play with the time you take the allergy pack too. Like I noticed when I'm having allergies, it affects me more in the morning. So I would take it in the evening to prep my body for the morning. So and like this person who tack who sent this question, she's having trouble sleeping because she can't breathe. So evening would be a good time to take it at supper time or bedtime. The timing doesn't really matter, just however it feels best in your body. There's not a best time. Anything else for allergies? Just that gut health. So put those probiotic foods in too, but we already talked about that with the skin. Gut health affects everything. It affects everything. It sure does. So get that dialed in. I guess I will say one other thing that could help with it is the fruit and veggie powder from Optimal Health because it's such a variety of things and it has, I'm gonna say the different grasses. So there's like alfalfa and that kind of thing in it. And if you're getting it nutritionally, your body will have less likelihood to respond to it environmentally. There you go. Did that make sense? Uh-huh. Okay. Okay, last question that we have for today.

Regulate Stress With Free Tools

Debra 31:10

Um it started out with a question about a specific device that's supposed to help with a better sleep and regulating the nervous system. And they wanted my opinion on it. And I said it is overrated. I'm not gonna drop names on that one because we don't need to worry about it. So the follow-up question was what's the best way to regulate your nervous system? Or good ways? That's a good question. How can we regulate our nervous system? Well, there are some free ways you can do that. One is to breathe. Breathe, breathe, breathe. So deliberate specific breathing patterns, as we've talked about in previous episodes. So you can do box breathing, breathe in for four seconds, pause for two, breathe out for four, pause for two, and do that over and over like five or six times. That will help. And you can go on YouTube and search Wim Hof breathing, and he will walk, he will guide you through it so you don't have to do it on your own. That's one that I've noticed works best for me. It's just the Wim Hof breathing. It's really, really good. You introduced me to that. Thank you. You're welcome. Gargling also helps regulate the nervous system. So ideally, you gargle for at least a minute. I've never been able to gargle for that long. You start choking to death when I do. Or stuff starts foaming out of my mouth. But I'll gargle for a little bit and then when I'm done, I'm done. Or humming, low-toned humming. So not something high and melodic, something more, I'm gonna say, like you would think of in a chant. Like pretend you're a Tibetan monk and hum deep. The lowest tone that you can get will calm your nervous system. So I have to do it for a ton of time. You can do it for like a minute and take a break and do it for another minute. It will calm you down. Let's talk about the immune system. One of the best defenders we know comes from optimal health systems, and it's called Defense. So it supplies your body with researched back ingredients to shown to support your immune system and fight off illness. It also boosts the immune system, providing a potent dose of antibodies for a quick recovery and reduces the risk of viral infection. One of the things I love is that it increases the white blood cell count in your body almost immediately while filling your gut with healthy bacteria. This is one of those things I recommend to my clients to always have on hand. You can take it continuously through, quote, cold and flu season or when you're under a lot of stress, or just pop it in here and there if you feel like you're starting to come down with something. Take it for a day or two, maybe three, and then put it on pause. But it ultimately restores health to areas of your body that are affected by potentially unhealthy eating habits, like during the holidays, and also from overstressing. And it does it by using whole real food ingredients. You can go to optimalhealthsystems.com and use the code D times2, that's DX2, to get a great discount off your order. There are other things too that, and one of them I'm going to share a little story from my vacation about this, but you can also look at nature. You can be in nature or you can look at nature. So we've talked about being out in nature, walking in nature, looking at the trees, looking at all the things. But some people that's just difficult to do if you're stuck at work and your body's in fight or flight. You can put a screensaver on or pull up a picture of a beach and look at the beach, and it is about 90% as effective as actually being at the beach for your nervous system. Picture yourself there if it's the beach or the mountains, wherever calms you. Yep. So we just got back from vacation and we were, I'm gonna say, very tropical. We were on a cruise, we did some Caribbean ports, we were in Florida for a little while. And our very first stop that we went to was in the Bahamas and we were at the beach for most of the day. So we our feet were in the sand, we were breathing salt air, we were in the salt water. And the next day, my husband kept saying to me, I can't believe how deeply I slept last night. I can't believe how relaxed I am. So me being me said, Do you want to know the reason? Would you like me to give you a lecture about this? But it ultimately came down to the fact that in the sand and in the salt water, whether it's in the water or the sea air, there are a lot of negatively charged ions. And that balances our body chemistry, our body electricity against all of the positive ions we get all of the time in modern life. Like all of the electronics put off positive ions. So we get skewed positive, and that negative ion balance helps bring us into balance and settle everything down. Nice. It was very funny to me because we were in the salt air for many, many days, and every day he kept saying, I think you might be right. I think there's something to that negative ion thing. And I said, It's not me, but I am right, but it's not me. It's like literally scientifically proven. But you don't, again, have to be in the salty air or on the beach or in the sea water, ocean water to do that. You can just do what's called earthing. So putting your feet on the earth, your bare feet on the earth. Not on my patio, not on your patio, not or like yesterday. I was in my backyard and sitting in an area that was soil lined with plastic and rocks put on top. The plastic plastic is to keep the weeds down. That plastic insulates those negative ions. So nothing that's been insulated like that, it needs to be the actual earth, whether it's dirt or sand or grass, it doesn't matter. Okay. What about touching trees? Same.

unknown 37:40

Yeah.

Debra 37:40

Yep. Hug a tree, or I say feet because it's easiest to just like walk or sit in a chair and put your feet. But the more contact, if you want to lay on the ground, you can do that. The more contact you have with it, the earth is always giving off those negatively charged ions. We're just insulated it from it in our normal daily lives. We're wearing shoes or we're in houses or we're in cars, and all of that rubber plastic insulation keeps us from absorbing it. So go walk barefoot. Yes. Do you have another one? No, I just you say go walk barefoot. And the thing that I think about is I actually learned about this many, many years ago watching Pretty Woman.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

Oh.

Debra 38:23

Because she told him to go take off his shoes and walk in the park. And it would relax him. And that's why. Yeah. I mean, fully, fully removed from where we are now, but that's why. It's because of the earthing and the negative ions that the earth is giving off. That is one of the very best things to settle the nervous system. Supplementally, the stress reduction pack. That's hugely helpful for regulating and settling the nervous system. So sometimes people can do the other things, and I've been one of them, and it's still not enough. The body is just stuck. And that stress reduction pack or stress and anxiety reduction pack can really help. And that one comes from optimal health, also. Those are great things. I think those are the best ones for regulating the nervous system. You don't need to buy a fancy device. No. You can just hum, you can gargle, you can breathe. There's a book called Breath by James Nestor. And he talks about how breathing influences our body and our nervous system. If you want a deeper dive into how your breath works, read that book or listen to that book. I read that several years ago and it opened my eyes to how important breathing actually is and how we breathe. So take the, you can check that book out. I don't have a link for you already just kept code. You can just get it on Amazon. Breath by James Nestor. Breath by James Nestor. It's a really good resource. So I'm just thinking also there are, I'm gonna say, more expensive options. I've done one of them. There's a place in town that has what's called a halo room. And it's a room you go into and they have ionized salt dispersed into the air. So it's like sitting at the beach breathing in the salty sea air.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

Yeah.

Debra 40:19

It's quite expensive to do, but very effective. But you can also do any of these other options. Well, there's another one you can do if we're talking about expensive or something that costs money. They are called isolation pods. Oh you can go to a there are places all over the they're popping up more and more. Are you talking about flotation? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So they have it it looks like a pod, like you know, sci-fi pod with water in it that has magnesium. It's basically Epsom salt. Yeah, basically, okay. So Epsom salt. Generally about 500 pounds of it. Oh, that's a lot. It's a lot. But you but you float and you don't have to do anything to float. You just lay in there, it closes, and then it's completely dark and and and silent. You can turn light on if you want, but you can have music if you want music if you want. But if you go in there and just have a sensory deprivation time, and it's about 45-ish minutes, and it totally calms everything down because there's nothing, there's no input on any part of you. And it if you want a more aggressive approach, that one's that one's good. So I'm gonna say I'm a huge fan of those. I know it as a sensory deprivation tank or a float spa. And I first did that in California when we lived there because there were some float spas there, and I was having a trouble with back pain. Like from previous injuries, I couldn't get it to settle down. And I went and did that one time and it settled everything down. The nervous system, the pain. Like I came out of there so chill. I just wanted to go home and lay down and sleep. And that's what I did. And for me, sleep is always very, very beneficial. But because it relaxed my it helped my pain, it helped everything. I told Tom about it and insisted he go and do it and that he should do it as like the last appointment at night so he could just come home and sleep. It settled everything down on him, but because of that, he was fully recharged. Oh. So he left there and had all sorts of energy because everything had let go. Yeah. So people respond differently. But either way, the physiological response is the same. It will settle the nervous system. It will just settle everything down. But it does cost, yeah, cost more money. But if you are in need of an extra punch, settling extra strong, that'll do it for you. Thank you for mentioning that. I would have not thought about that one, but huge fan. Yeah.

Wrap Up And Where To Connect

Debra 43:12

All right. I think that's it. Yeah. So if you found anything helpful or useful in this episode, like it, share it. Somebody else is going to need help too. So share it with somebody. We really hope you get help from the answers. And if you have other questions, please feel free to send them to us. You can send them on our in the comments or you can find us on social media and send them to us. You can email them. Yep. There's all sorts of ways to contact us and and send those in. We are happy to share the best advice we can from our knowledge and experience. Just to try to help better. Yeah. If you go to our website, d times two podcast.com, that's dx2podcast.com. There are resources on there. You can click on the freebies link, and there are resources. Some are free, some cost. The discount codes. We mentioned optimal health a lot in this. We have optimal health discount code on there. It's D Times2. Yeah. Or DX2. Yep. So check those out. And until next time, keep your wheel rolling smooth. Bye. Thanks for listening to the D Times 2 podcast with Denise and Deborah. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share it with someone who's ready to roll toward a more balanced life. Your support means the world to us. And just a quick note we're sharing our own experiences and ideas, not professional advice. Always do your own research and talk to a qualified expert before making big decisions. Until next time, keep your wheel rolling strong.