Dr. Stephanie Maj

Helping on your Journey to Health & Wellness

Good Morning 2023 – The Miracle Morning with Dr Stephanie Maj

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SUMMARY:

In this episode of Women Seeking Wellness, Dr. Stephanie Maj greets her listeners and expresses her excitement for the new year. She reflects on her attempts to reboot her podcast over the past year and acknowledges that she lost steam during the pandemic but is determined to try again with the help of a production team. Dr. Maj shares that the purpose of the podcast is to introduce her listeners to the amazing people in her life and to have their conversations recorded for all of history. She feels hopeful for the new year and is not one to poo-poo New Year’s resolutions. Dr. Maj mentions that she had been in a rut due to the loss of her father last year, but is now determined to take more positive actions, including working on her morning routine again.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

  • Dr. Stephanie Maj’s thoughts on rebooting her podcast
  • The purpose of the Women Seeking Wellness podcast
  • Dr. Maj’s outlook on the new year and New Year’s resolutions
  • Dr. Maj’s challenges and what she is doing to get back on track

In this episode, Dr. Stephanie Maj talks about her journey with the podcast and her goals for the new year. She shares her experiences with the pandemic and how it affected her creativity and motivation for the podcast. Dr. Maj also highlights the importance of having a morning routine and the challenges she faces with mindlessly scrolling through social media. The listeners will learn about Dr. Maj’s determination to bring her podcast back to life and how she is working towards her goals.

QUOTES:

  • “I’ve been thinking and I’m just laughing at my attempts at reboot. Over the course of the last year or so, I lost my steam during the pandemic and then decided to try again and then try again.”
  • “I have found somebody that’s gonna help me with that process, so that all I need to do is have fun and talk, which, you know, I love to talk.”
  • “I think some amazing people are in my life and I want you guys to meet them and I want our conversations recorded for all of history.”
  • “My dad passed away last year in the spring and that pretty much dried up my creative juices, and God love him. He was very sick and you know, it wasn’t a tragedy, it was just age and, and. You know, he was free of his body.”

 

To make an appointment, call  773.528.8485 or go to CommunityChiropractic.net

1442 W. Belmont Ave., 1E Chicago, IL 60657

To learn more about Dr. Maj, go to drmaj.com/bundle to receive the digital copy of her book & speaker’s books and resources will be delivered right to your inbox.

 

TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Good morning everybody. It’s morning here in Chicago. Welcome to Women Seeking Wellness. Happy 2023, and I just wanna say hello. Hello. I missed you all. I’ve been thinking and I’m just laughing at my attempts at reboot. Over the course of the last year or so, I lost my steam during the pandemic and then decided to try again and then try again.

And here I am trying again. I’m doing more than trying. I’m doing it, I believe I cracked the code in that. I am hiring it out. I’m just hiring out the production. I don’t know if you guys all know this. I have been the one that does the recording. Obviously, this is my voice. I’m recording. I am the one that edits, I was the one that, audio [00:01:00] edits, tags publishes artwork, social media website.

It, it was a bit. It was, it was a bit, so it was always daunting for me to, think about doing more episodes. So I have found somebody that’s gonna help me with that process, so that all I need to do is have fun and talk, which, you know, I love to talk. And, also, I, have some interviews in store, which is very exciting.

You know, me and my interviews. I love that. It’s really one of the reasons why I started the podcast is that I. I think some amazing people are in my life and I want you guys to meet them and I want our conversations recorded for all of history. So, okay, what is going on with me? Let me think. So 2023. Whoop, whoop.

I am feeling [00:02:00] very hopeful for the year now. If you’ve listened to my podcast at all, you know,, I’m actually not one that poo poo’s a good New Year’s resolution. I mean, I’m all for anything that gives us a little energy towards goals, and yet for me, it was around the holidays, around when I was away for Christmas.

I realized that I had been in a bit of a rud. I haven’t really talked about this. My dad passed away last year in the spring and that pretty much dried up my creative juices, and God love him. He was very sick and you know, it wasn’t a tragedy, it was just age and, and. You know, he was free of his body.

I know that. I also know that grief is a funny thing and it took me a while to kind of come out of it. I think being home and seeing that, you know, life goes on and everybody’s doing well and thriving and. You [00:03:00] know, and I needed to take some more positive actions. So I started, I’m gonna talk about a couple things that that have been going on for me.

One of the things is that I started with my morning routine again, so I’ve always been somebody that gets up early. My problem is, is that I was getting up. and like frigging diving into Facebook, right? Instagram reels, you know, I could watch somebody, Do a cake decoration. I could watch a guy weed, and whack a lawn.

I know. That’s so weird. I like the videos that are like, start to finish the befores and the afters. We’re gonna take this rusty axe and we’re gonna make it into something that is restored brand new, like those. I just, , little Drs coming outta my mouth. It’s, it’s mind numbing. Emotion numbing, let’s call it what it is.

And,[00:04:00] and it, you know, serves me until it doesn’t serve me. So, so I started doing something, I don’t know why, I don’t really know how this, exactly came about. I, I think that part of it was me looking back into,what things worked well for me and, one of the things I’m, I’m looking at, I’m, I’m typing in my computer as we speak just because I want to have it in front of me.

So that, so you guys can have the, the correct resources, and I’ll put the resources again in the show notes, but I just was looking like, what, what were the things that really served me when I was the most active? Because I, I, I really believe we ebb and flow in these things and so there’s no beating myself up for being away from it.

It’s just now is the time for me to lean back into, a routine. So, I remembered that I did this four part four phase meditation, and if you go back, you’ll find it in some [00:05:00] previous episode. It starts out, no matter what time, let’s just use four minutes to make the math easy. So you do one minute of the four minutes your, your presence, getting present in your body, doing either a review of your body to relax it, but just getting present in that meditation.

The second minute you. Visualize or go back to a time where you were filled with gratitude, filled with love, filled with just joy, just some kind of thing that, Triggered that re most recently for me, my niece asked me to be the, person that officiates her wedding. And I was just overcome with such a joy and like, oh my gosh, thank you God kind of situation.

And and then the third minute, Is visualizing something in the future, some situation that, you are hoping to manifest and bringing that feeling of joy and love and [00:06:00] gratitude and, and all of that positiveness to that situation and visualizing it as if it has already happened to. You know, as if the universe is conspiring to your highest good, and then the last minute is coming back with that, that just bubble of joy, of what it was like in the past.

What, what the visualizing the future and bringing that back into your present. And so I remembered that as as a thing. And so I. I, I remembered that, I think it was Jesse Elders is the guy’s name, but he was on a podcast. Hal, his name is Hal Elrod. E L R O D and guess what? His podcast is called The Miracle Morning.

And so it’s one of those situations that I fell into the internet where I’m like, went for one thing and then I was like, oh, the miracle Morning. It kind of sounds like what I’m [00:07:00] looking for again. You know, there’s so many resources out there and there’s so many ways to start again. So I go and. get up a little earlier every day.

Okay, I can do that. I like it when I get up earlier. Well, he gives you ways to get up earlier, which I’m gonna share with you right now, which has been revolutionary for me. There’s five parts of it. Number one, first part of helping your body get outta bed is at night setting the intention. That I’m going to get up and perform, do the my, my morning routine.

For me, I have this affirmation. I can’t get wait to get up and have a cup of coffee. Like there’s something about that ritual. It’s like I get excited when I’m going to bed that I can get up and go have my cup of coffee. So the second thing is, is to set an alarm away from you. So that you have to actually have to get up out of bed.

So if you put your phone by your bed, you put your phone over on [00:08:00] your dresser or in the bathroom. for me, that doesn’t work for me because I was waking up my spouse. So I have a whoop, which is a, a fitness tracker that will vibrate and and it vibrates on my wrist and that gets me up out of bed. And so you immediately get up out of bed, you go to the bathroom, you brush your teeth.

So by the time you’re brushing your teeth, then you drink a glass of water cuz you’re dehydrated. Then the last thing you do is put on your workout clothes. So it’s set the intention, move your alarm, so it, you have to get up to turn it off. Three, you go in and you brush your teeth. Four, you drink a big glass of water, and five you put on your workout clothes.

By this time, That’s like a five minute process. You’re, you’re about, you’re awake, right? And, and so that helps you break this habit of snoozing. And so for me it’s worked. I mean, here [00:09:00] it is. I’m, I’m recording this. It’s, January 24th and I started this on December 27th, I think is what it was when I got back from the holidays.

So it’s been, it’s been amazing. It’s been absolutely amazing. I give. Sundays to kind of veer off and not have a scheduled wake up time. But every other day I’m, I’m waking up. And, it, it is, it is true that when it is a regular wake up time, your body really, my body thrives on that. So, so that has been, a really great transition for me.

And so then in the Miracle Morning, They talk about this acronym savers. So in your morning, having some kind of a structure. So savers is, one of those acronyms. S is for silence, A is for affirmation, V is for visualization. E is for exercise, R is for reading. S is for scribing writing, but [00:10:00] W doesn’t look good at the end of this.

So I write savers at the side of my journal, and, I’ve messed with this. I find that even though I’m tired, if I do my, four-part meditation, that includes the silence and the visualization, and, I do do an a, a written affirm. Afterwards. But, doing that first gets it done. Sometimes if I go right into reading, or writing, I run out of time to really do a, a good meditation.

But sometimes I’m too tired and I’m afraid I’m gonna fall back asleep. So, It’s a work, you know, it’s, it’s a work in progress. And then I went through my week and I said, okay, what kind of exercise can I do on each of these mornings to get the energy moving? You know, I have a Peloton bike, I can get on that bike.

I’ve been doing 15 minute rides in the morning, and it’s amazing. Stokes the [00:11:00] fire. and my exercise consistency has gone through the roof when I lower the bar and say, 15 minutes is enough, which I’m gonna talk about that in a second. and then, you know, the writing and, and the reading. I’m back to, you know, I was always reading, I was just reading Facebook, so now I have, I’m back to reading.

Plotting through my books. That’s really how I’ve gotten through reading some, you know, one of the books that, I’ve really, really resonated with is that badass woman. Her name is Jen, something or another. I’ll look at, I’ll look it up and put it in the show notes. it, she is, she has such, I, I have listened to her, as well as I have, read her books, her last name.

Dun da da da. Jen Sinero, S I N C E R O, and she wrote like, you’re a badass at making money. There’s a whole badass series. You are a badass. Badass [00:12:00] habits. Habits badass every day. She has a really great way of talking. And at first I was like, this is probably like bubblegum. It isn’t. Some good shit. There’s some good shit in there.

and one of the things I love that she says in there is that if you have a dream, that dream something that is always with you, it’s God-given. Like God put that dream into your consciousness and also will help you achieve it. If you take the right actions. And so, you know, that morning routine is a time where everybody else is asleep, that I’m able to really get back, some of that like, just centered time that I was missing, you know?

So, so this routine has really been amazing. My, that’s my hope for you is that you can carve out a little bit of time, you know, even if it’s like, today is a day where I’m in the. At 8:00 AM and and so today is not a day where I want to get up at five to do a workout. [00:13:00] So today’s a day that I’ve said, okay, let’s do some sun salutations.

Let’s do five minutes, and this is what I want to talk about next, is this movement. There was an article just, when was it? It was just, Recently, when was this article put out an ink magazine and it says, neuroscience says that, that this two minute rule will help you start every day feeling more energetic, focused, and mentally sharp.

And so it talks about how this This article that is in transitions in Sports Medicine, it’s a meta-analysis that was PU published in there, is saying that two minutes of exercise, moderate to high intensity exercise can improve your attention, your concentration, and your learning and memory functions for the next two hours.

So if you do two hours, two minutes. Of exercise, it will affect you for at least two hours. And so their recommendation is 5, 5, 5 30. There’s five pushups, [00:14:00] five squats, five lunges, and a 32nd plank. So something to get, your heart pumping. Something to get, your body moving to, you know, in, in Chinese medicine, they would say it’s something to move the chi you need to, there are certain, poses in yoga that are more relaxing poses, and there’s certain poses that move the chi, and so like moving your energy, getting that energy going like a downward dog, you know, in a sun salutation.

There’s, there’s some stretching, but there’s also a, a plank and a downward dog, and there’s, you know, other, other things like that, that really kind of move the energy. And so for you, , that is my hope, is that you find something and if you don’t find something, you know, doing this 5, 5, 5 30, 5 pushups, five squats, five lunges, and a 32nd plank.

Something to get your body moving. I also love a good cup of [00:15:00] coffee and I could do a whole podcast on how coffee works as far as getting a little bit of, you know, when it, a little bit of coffee. Can improve your focus, improve your productivity. You know, there’s, there is, more and more information out there That being said.

A little bit is good. Too much is too damn much. So anyway, I’ve blathered on enough. I cannot wait to share with you, different things this year. I don’t know where this podcast will take me. I just know that I have, recommitted and that I really am excited to, get into 2023 with you all and I love and appreciate you.

So thank you so much.

Chiropractic care for a More Effective Labor with Dr. Stephanie Maj and Anne Nicholson Weber

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To make an appointment, call  773.528.8485 or go to CommunityChiropractic.net

1442 W. Belmont Ave., 1E Chicago, IL 60657

To learn more about Dr. Maj, go to drmaj.com/bundle to receive the digital copy of her book & speaker’s books and resources will be delivered right to your inbox.

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Anne Nicholson Weber: 00:00 Welcome. This is episode 2. I’m so glad you’re here. My guest today is chiropractor, Dr. Stephanie Maj, who explains how chiropractic care during pregnancy can help prepare your body for a more effective labor and an easier childbirth. [music] This is the BirthGuide podcast — conversations about building your circle of support in the childbearing year. We connect you with experts in our community who can help you conceive, stay healthy in pregnancy, have a safe and satisfying birth and embrace the joys and challenges of becoming a new family. I’m your host, Anne Nicholson Weber, the founder of BirthGuideChicago.com, where every month thousands of Chicago area families find relationship-centered care, from preconception through the postpartum period. [music] Welcome to a new episode of the BirthGuide podcast. Today we’re talking about the benefits of chiropractic care in pregnancy. Joining me to talk about this is Dr. Stephanie Maj with Community Chiropractic. She has been practicing for 26 years and has specific expertise in the area of perinatal care, including Webster certification. So Dr. Maj, maybe you could talk first off about what kinds of issues can arise in childbirth that having had chiropractic in pregnancy could have helped to prevent. Dr. Stephanie Maj: 01:42 Yeah. Well, first off, thank you so much for having me on your show and for what you do in the Chicagoland community. It’s such a resource and it’s so helpful. Anne Nicholson Weber: 01:54 Well, thank you. Dr. Stephanie Maj: 01:55 I love talking about this. I love talking to new families that want to have a more proactive, a more intentional birth. And I really feel like my job is to help prepare them, where most everyone that I know has either an OB or a midwife or somebody assisting them and their job is more of monitoring — it’s watching, it’s testing, it’s looking for trouble, you know. And what my job is really to do is to prepare your body for delivery. And, you know, if we look at what the troubles are, we would back up to the first, just the anatomy. The baby — the uterus and the baby — are sitting on your pelvis. That bony pelvis is what that baby has to get through there. And so a lot of our focus is the alignment of that pelvis. So when you have a balanced pelvis, the hole that the baby comes out of is wide and open and uniform. Dr. Stephanie Maj: 03:02 So when the baby’s coming down the birth canal, there are bony landmarks that the baby has to hit and things happen when the baby hits them: the shoulders move, the baby twists. And this is how this dance of getting out of the uterus and getting born, this is the dance of that. There’s twists, there’s turns, it all relies on this pelvis being in the right alignment. So if your pelvis is twisted, it can interfere. It can actually make that hole distorted and interfere with the baby’s ability to get through your pelvis, the actual boniness of your pelvis. But it also can interfere with the baby, you know, when it’s supposed to hit this certain bone and trigger a reflex, and then the shoulders, you know, tilt and the head turns or whatever, if that bone isn’t there, then that doesn’t happen. And so that’s where the babies can get stuck in a certain portion of the birthing process. Dr. Stephanie Maj: 04:01 You know, most everybody that comes to me is looking to have a vaginal delivery. Basic. The people that come to me tend to have more of that intentional idea of like, not being medicated, not having interventions. You know, I wanna make sure that I help their bodies make that happen. Instead of thinking of it like what problems there are, it’s like, how do we avoid them before they happen, you know? So, I mean, the easy thing is if somebody is having hip pain, back pain, you know, that is your body’s sign that there’s something going on. You know, a lot of people think those indicators are just like stress. “Oh, that’s just stress. Oh, that’s just stress.” Or “I’m pregnant. Of course I have back pain. I’m pregnant. Everybody that is pregnant has back pain.” Not true, not true at all. Dr. Stephanie Maj: 04:53 And I have a lot of people that don’t have any issues, you know, have no pain yet. Their pelvis is twisted. And I see them later in their pregnancy and they’re wanting to have this vaginal delivery and the baby isn’t cooperating. You know, the baby is not in a great position. And so a patient that comes to me, she’s pregnant right now. I have two patients, her and the baby. So I have the, maybe the problem that they came in for, you know . . . So say they came in because they’re having back pain or they’re having pubic bone pain, which is pain in the front kind of in your groin. And so we wanna make sure we heal that. But we also have a baby that we wanna help get into the proper position. Dr. Stephanie Maj: 05:39 And we also have a delivery that needs to happen. And then you have a baby, you know, . And so a lot of times it’s like the delivery isn’t the end point, it’s the beginning point. So the healthier you are through this process and through the delivery, the more able you are to show up to your new baby. And the better the birth, the better the ability the baby has to latch and to, you know, any of those head issues or any colic or poop — you know, all the things that can happen in a new baby. So I really feel like wellness care is seeing these moms really early in their pregnancy and helping them with those things. Anne Nicholson Weber: 06:23 So about 20 questions occur to me. Let’s start with this one. Assuming you’re not having problems — so you don’t come in for your first chiropractic appointment that you’ve never done before because your back is hurting or your pubic bone is hurting — but talking about it, as you have, as preventive care, when’s the right time in a pregnancy to begin chiropractic care? Dr. Stephanie Maj: 06:48 Anytime. But the earlier the better. I mean, again, in our society, we’re a problem-based society. So I go to the doctor when I have a problem. And so sometimes when that happens, it’s later in the pregnancy, which means correcting that problem becomes more of an issue. So for instance, you know, when you’re pregnant, the front of you gets really heavy with the baby and with your chest and with everything, all that gets very heavy, which puts a strain on the back of you, the back of you has to hold you up. And so the heavier the front of you, the harder it is to balance the back of you. You know, I consider pregnancy a moving target. Meaning Anne comes to me. She has a pain in her SI joint, which is the joint in her pelvis. And we do the treatments necessary and she gets better over time. Anne isn’t pregnant. Dr. Stephanie Maj: 07:48 Okay. Sally comes to me, she’s pregnant. She’s two months pregnant. She has an SI pain. Well, even though, you know, the baby is very small, as that baby gets bigger, more stresses are on those areas. So it’s something that, once it’s healed, we need to just monitor it and keep it balanced. So if people come to me without symptoms, then it’s just, like I said, very boring, where they get adjusted and we make sure their pelvis is in line. There’s a way to do that very safely and naturally. You know, it’s kind of like whack-the-mole at the fair. You know, you go to the fair and you hit the whack-the-mole machine. And this is what, you know, prenatal care can be, is that, you know, as the baby gets bigger and the stress changes on the body and more relaxin and LA LA LA, then we just say, okay, how’s your body doing today? And we just help balance it wherever it needs to be balanced on that particular visit. Some people that’s every week, some people that’s two times a month, sometimes that’s once a month, just depends on the person. Anne Nicholson Weber: 08:51 Yeah. Well, philosophically, I’m interested to ask — particularly women who are kind of naturally-oriented and maybe heading for a natural childbirth, a physiologic childbirth, in that world within the birth world, you’ll hear, well, our bodies are made to do this. And so my question is, if our bodies are made to do this, why do we need chiropractic care during pregnancy? Dr. Stephanie Maj: 09:20 I love that question. That is an awesome question. Our bodies have this natural, innate ability to take egg and sperm and connect them and make a baby. And yes, our bodies don’t need any help, but they need no interference. So my job as a chiropractor is to remove the interference in either our nervous system or in our alignment, and just allow the body to, you know, just kind of manifest this pregnancy as it was supposed to be. You know, if you think about the world we live in now, this isn’t the way it’s been for very long, where we sit in front of computers, our level of stress with the pandemic and with the world as it is, is very high, you know. Laptops and screens and motor vehicle accidents and slips and all those things add into what’s going on in our bodies. Dr. Stephanie Maj: 10:22 And yes, I think that in an ideal world, our bodies need no help. Yet, making sure the pelvis is in a proper alignment, making sure the nerves are not interfered with and making sure that the round ligaments — which are those ligaments in the front of the belly — are supple and not cramping or uneven or asymmetric, because those are the things that can create tightness in the uterus and not allow the baby’s head, when it’s dense enough, to head south. You know, gravity happens. And when that baby’s head is dense enough, that head will go south and go head down. And if it isn’t, something’s interfering with it. And that’s what for me, that’s where the Webster technique got its reputation. Dr. Webster noticed that when babies were breech, he noticed a twist in the pelvis, he noticed spasming in the round ligaments. And he said, “I wonder if I get rid of the twist and get rid of the spasming, if the babies will turn?” And they did. And in my office, 75% of the time, that’s what happens — if I have enough time and they’re candidates. Well, he also said, why wait until they’re breech? Anne Nicholson Weber: 11:37 Mm-hmm Well, maybe you could talk a little bit, um, technically I guess, but in terms that someone like me can understand: What are you actually doing? Dr. Stephanie Maj: 11:48 So as a chiropractor, my job is so focused on the spine that people I don’t think really understand that it’s really about the nerves. So the nerves that run our whole body come from our brain through our spinal cord that is inside the bones of our spine. And then the nerves that run us, like the wires that run your house, come out in-between each one of those vertebrae. And so for us, we wanna make sure that those nerves are as free flowing as possible, that there is the least amount of interference. So if we say that the body is naturally able to do this, well, how is it naturally able to do this? Well, the nervous system is the driving force of that. It’s what triggers the hormonal system. It triggers the whole thing. So if the nerves aren’t working as well as they should . . . I always use the analogy of dominoes. Dr. Stephanie Maj: 12:45 You set a million dominoes up, it only takes one domino to go. And then it’s like, like over the bridge and around the windmill. So for me, I wanna make sure all the dominoes are in place in this delivery. So I wanna make sure the nerves are flowing. In the Webster technique, I wanna make sure that the pelvis is balanced. So there’s this technique called the pelvic drop technique. It’s very gentle. I have a special table where you can lay face down and you can put your belly in the table, a hundred percent safe for you and the baby. And the table just rises up about a half an inch and helps rock the pelvis back into neutral. And so how do I know if it’s not balanced? I don’t x-ray, obviously, pregnant women. But you know, 26 years of doing this and I can see it when you lay down. Dr. Stephanie Maj: 13:32 I mean, a lot of times when their partner is in the room, I say, see, I’ll show them, see how this, you know . . . they’ll lay down and the seam of their leggings or their pants will be shifted to one side or you can see one butt cheek is higher than the other, or one leg is shorter than the other. You know, that is a sign that there’s a twist in the pelvis. So the dropping helps rock that back to neutral. And after we check, they’re equal. And then we roll them over and on usually the opposite side, there’s a spasm in the round ligament. And just like very gently massaging, we help massage that. And what the two of those do is they help get rid of . . . almost like a balloon animal. If you have a balloon and you twist it in opposite directions, it will get tight in the middle. And that’s how they make balloon animals. Dr. Stephanie Maj: 14:19 Well, if you have a uterus and you twist it in opposite directions, it will get tight in the middle. And then that baby’s head won’t be able to get head-down. So what, what I really feel strongly about is regardless of how somebody wants to birth, the wild card is, that baby has a birth story and you don’t always get to choose. Right? So, you know, what I do know is the more you’re able to keep your baby in a proper in utero position, the less likely that that positioning is gonna cause a later problem. Like, I don’t know what this month is about, but this month has been a month of babies for me, and I’m talking about one month or younger babies having trouble latching, having head tilt — torticollis is what it’s called, you know, their head will only turn one way, not the other –, colic, you know, digestive issues, all these things, they all lead back to the fact that they were in a funky position in utero. All of them were vaginally delivered, yet they, you know — even in the most pristine situation, it’s dicey business coming through that birth canal. And so our job, you know, is a little bit of cleanup. Anne Nicholson Weber: 15:32 So you’re optimizing the way you go into both the childbirth and the postpartum period, Dr. Stephanie Maj: 15:40 Right. It’s just, for me, it’s just an honor to help these humans get born in this way. Anne Nicholson Weber: 15:47 Well, I think that should cover it. I’m so glad that you joined me to talk about this. I think that many women going through pregnancy are just not aware of all the resources there are available to them. And it’s helpful when you don’t have to just take it. You said early on, you know, people just assume, “well, of course my back hurts, I’m pregnant.” Once you’ve identified it and called it a problem, it turns out there are lots of ways to address it. Um, but it’s that first step of saying, this is something that could be better and there are steps I can take to make it better. Dr. Stephanie Maj: 16:24 Right. And that pain is your body telling you something. Yeah. So it’s not just telling you you’re pregnant, , it’s telling you there’s something going on. And so if you’re having these . . . you know, use it like a warning light on your dashboard, right? And if we can help you with that, it’s only gonna help all the other things along the way. Because again, once you have a baby, then you have a baby. And if you’re, you know, if you’re still having issues, you know, now you have a baby to care for. And so we wanna help with all of that. And, um, I mean, that’s why I do what I do. It’s beautiful. Anne Nicholson Weber: 17:01 Wonderful. Thank you so much. It was great to talk to you, Stephanie. Dr. Stephanie Maj: 17:05 Thank you. [music]

Magnesium’s Powerful Benefits

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Benefits of Magnesium:

  1. Better sleep – The sleep regulating hormone melatonin is disturbed when Magnesium is deficient. Furthermore, Magnesium brings balance and controls stress hormones. Stress and tension are often reasons why people suffer from insomnia in the first place.
  2. Relaxes the nervous system – Serotonin, which relaxes the nervous system and elevates mood, is dependent on Magnesium.
  3. Bigger, stronger muscles – Magnesium allows the body to produce more Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF-1), which is a major contributor to the growth and strength of muscles. Furthermore, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the cell’s energy store, and is created with help from Magnesium.
  4. Better flexibility – Magnesium loosens tight muscles. Without Magnesium, muscles do not relax properly and cramps occur. Magnesium is important for flexibility, because low Magnesium results in a buildup of lactic acid, causing pain and tightness.
  5. Bone integrity and strength – Magnesium helps to fix calcium properly. It may blow some people’s mind that the calcium supplements they’re taking are not only useless, but are actually contributing to osteoporosis! There are actually about eighteen essential nutrients that contribute to bone health; Magnesium is definitely one of the most essential, because it stimulates a particular hormone called calcitonin. And, it also suppresses a hormone called parathyroid that breaks down bone.
  6. Remineralizes teeth – Magnesium deficiency causes an unhealthy balance of phosphorous and calcium in saliva, which damages teeth.
  7. Alkalizes the body – Magnesium helps return the body’s pH balance. Magnesium reduces lactic acid, which is partly responsible for post-exercise pain (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness).
  8. Hydrates – Magnesium is a necessary electrolyte essential for proper hydration.
  9. Helps to relieve constipation – Magnesium can be used to cleanse the bowels of toxins.
  10. Enzyme function – Enzymes are protein molecules that stimulate every chemical reaction in the body. Magnesium is required to make hundreds of these enzymes work and assists with thousands of others.
  11. Diabetes – Magnesium enhances insulin secretion, which facilitates sugar metabolism. Without Magnesium, glucose is not able to transfer into cells. Glucose and insulin build up in the blood, causing various types of tissue damage, including the nerves in the eyes.

There are many other benefits of Magnesium: It helps prevent stroke, heart disease, period pain, and more. You can check out my website for further information on Magnesium and how exactly to increase magnesium levels effectively.