The Berne Podcast with Dr. Sam Berne

Dr. DeWittt is a Licensed Naturopathic Doctor and Acupuncturist with a focus on Mindbody Medicine. Dr. Kierstin uses her 3 step Holistic process to help people feel more connected to their mind and body, allowing them to move from stressed and overwhelmed to self-aware, empowered, and resilient. Overwhelm, creating sustainable health. You can learn more about Dr. DeWitt and reach her through her Instagram.

Learn more about the upcoming Whole Health Summit: https://www.drsamberne.com/summit/

Enjoy the show. If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at: www.drsamberne.com.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

overwhelm, people, reframe, impacts, Alzheimer, lives, pandemic, summit, brain dump, featured speakers, mind-body medicine, ways, cultivate, reconnect, work, manage, important, website, support, health

00:06

Hey everybody, it’s Dr. Sam and I want to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast as part of my health summit series which is going to be coming up January 14 to the 16th 2022. I am bringing on the speakers and doing some interviews and today we have one of our featured speakers for the summit, Dr. Kierstin DeWitt, she is a licensed naturopathic doctor and acupuncturist with a focus on mind body medicine. She uses her three step holistic process to help people feel more correct connected, and the mind body, I love the mind body as well. And she is going to be speaking about overwhelm and creating a sustainable health paradigm. So Dr. Kierstin Welcome to the show. I want to thank you for joining us today and how did you get into this? This area in naturopathic medicine around overwhelm? Give us a little background on that.

01:13

Yeah, well, thanks so much for having me on. I always loved chatting with you, we always have such great conversations. So I appreciate it. And I’m so excited for you know, your upcoming event. So how I got involved? Well, first with naturopathic medicine, with it being a holistic system, right. And same with traditional Chinese medicine, they’re both holistic systems, it was during school that I really saw how overwhelming stress has a direct impact on our physical well being. And that was really, really pointing out this mind body connection to me. So after school, I dove into, you know, other training and, and just learning more practices for how we can kind of reconnect the mind and the body together because of this direct link. Right. And we’re seeing so much more research coming out of how how directly connected the mind to the body is whether that’s through our immune system through our gut health, our cardiovascular health, so many different ways. And you mentioned the three part, you know, the the three part process that I walk people through, and to me, this is kind of how I view the whole person, right. So I always look at the what I call the inner self. So this is like the core of who we are, and moving out to our embodied self. And so this is more like that physical layer, and then out to what I call the interactive stuff. And this is more of how the environment impacts us and how we impact the environment and the world around us how we show up in the world, and how that impacts our our health and well being. And so we can see even with overwhelm how that really impacts these three different layers as well. And I’ve just been, you know, through my own experience with overwhelm, I’m sure you can recall just just going through school itself, right, that is such a, it can be a very stressful environment. And it’s a lot of work balance, you know, trying to maintain balance through school and through work, and then add on top of that pandemic, right, I think so many of us can really relate to this feeling of stress and overwhelm. So just seeing the way that it really can manifest and impact at so many different layers. To me, it’s just a really important topic to talk about until learn how to manage and cope with.

04:14

Well, you know, when you were coming on the show, people started to email me questions. So I’d like to go to a question. This is a listener who lives in upstate New York, and her mother, who is suffering, Alzheimer’s is going to be moving in with her in the family and she’s worried about Of course, not only her mom, but the holidays and then with the pandemic. And so she’s an overwhelmed, she said, Help Help. And so I said, Well, I’ll be talking to Dr. Kiersten today. What would be some things that you would offer her to maybe help her manage her overwhelm, knowing that she’s dealing with her mom and the holidays and family and so on?

04:57

Yeah, well, first, you know, my crib because my grandma had Alzheimer’s and so this is one of the one of the reasons there’s many people in my immediate family who have experienced ma...

Today we are discussing dry eye syndrome, its causes, diagnostic tests, and treatment options. Dry eye syndrome is characterized by symptoms such as stinging, burning, redness, and sandiness in the eyes. !t’s a complex condition with various symptoms and causes. Dr. Sam shares valuable information and treatment options beyond traditional approaches. Enjoy the show!

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

dry eye syndrome, eyes, glands, dry, eyelids, eyedrops, tears, inflammation, screens, gland dysfunction, test, oily, doctor, vision, prescription, produce, symptom, find, stress, osmolarity

00:05

Hey everybody, its Dr. Sam and I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. So before we get to today’s show, I’m going to give you some ways to contact me, you can send me your questions at [email protected]. Or you can text them to me at 1-844-932-1291.

00:32

I want to let you know about my new membership program. This is an exclusive membership where you get access to my content and resources, new information, articles, videos, webinars, even a live Q&A, where I will answer your questions. So you’ll be able to access valuable information to empower you to make informed decisions about your vision and your health. I’ll be offering personalized support and coaching, giving you recommendations, helping you with goal setting accountability, so you can achieve your goals.

01:18

This is a convenient way for you to access me 24/7 Without paying for appointments, or going to your doctor every week. So I’m so excited about this, I hope you can join me. And by the way, if you do join, you’ll get access to my advanced workshops in aromatherapy, color and light therapy, nutrition and physical vision therapy. So the sign up, go to my website www.drsamberne.com Now to today’s show.

02:14

Hey, everybody, its Dr. Sam and I’m on my morning walk I thought I would check in with you about my podcast today. So I want to talk about dry eye syndrome, my latest information on dry eye. So did you know that over 16 million people in the United States suffer dry I actually think that number is higher.

02:45

And today I want to talk about some of the causes of dry eye and what can you do about it besides just the regular pharmaceutical or surgical approach. So let’s begin by talking about what is dry eye. It is a condition where you experience things like stinging, burning, redness, sand in your eyes, you can wake up and it’s hard for you to open your eyes. So there’s a lot of variations to the symptoms of dry. One of the things I’ve learned by treating a lot of people with dry eye, it is definitely a puzzle. And everybody needs to be treated individually. So we can start with the meibomian glands. Those are the glands that are along the eyelids, and they’re called the oily glands. When you have dry eye syndrome, you’re probably not producing enough of the oil in the glands. And this is why the tears evaporate so quickly. And we have to include auto immune disease in this things like Sjogren’s or lupus. By the way, I’ve done a great video blog on Sjogren’s You can find that on my YouTube channel. But in any event, if you have any autoimmune disease, it can affect your eyes. Sjogren’s tends to affect the meibomian glands and also the salivary glands. So that’s number one. Now, in addition to the oily gland dysfunction, you can have inflammation in the eyelids as well. So you’ve got a double whammy, where the glands could be clogged, but also because of the inflammation in the eyelids. This also can cause an inability to produce the right kind of tears. And so when you don’t have the oily tears, you’re gonna get evaporation. So let’s talk about some of the tests that you can use to diagnose dry eye syndrome. The first test is called Shermer.

05:00

tear strip. This is where you take a little paper filter, and you put it on the inside part of the lower eyelid. You keep it there about five minutes. And this will give you a measurement on how much tears you actually produce. The second test I like to use is called tear breakup time. This is where I put a special dye on the cornea. And then I watch a person blink, and I can see how quickly the dry spots emerge on the cornea. And that tells me about their tear stability.

05:35

Another test I like to use is examining the meibomian glands, which sit right above the eyelashes, this is the place where we produce the oily part of the glands. So I can palpate that area, feel it and see if there’s any pain or inflammation is there hardness in the glands. And that’s going to tell me if the glands are impacted, or there’s a problem in the production of the oily part of the tears. Again, it’s the oily part of the tears that help us from the tears evaporating too quickly. And this is a major problem for most people. And that’s where you get the diagnosis meibomian gland dysfunction, o...

What can you do for Blepharitis and Demodex Mites? These things cause eyelid inflammation and on top of that, you’ve got these Demodex mites living in the hair follicles. For an integrative and holistic approach, I would think about tea tree oil. I’ll share how to use this essential oil and some other steps you can take. Enjoy the show. If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at: www.drsamberne.com and if you have questions, you can send them to [email protected].

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

eyelids, tea tree, inflammation, eye, mites, condition, tea tree oil, cornea, eyedrops, eyelashes, systemic, talk, boost, zeaxanthin, live, highly, msm, clarity, hydrated, wreaks

Hello, everyone, it’s Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting-edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to [email protected]. Now to the latest EyeClarity episode.

Hey folks, it’s Dr. Sam and I want to welcome you to another EyeClarity podcast. So today I’m going to take a question from a listener who lives in Canada she’s been following me for quite a while. She’s just been diagnosed with a condition called anterior blepharitis and Demodex mites so this particular condition wreaks havoc on our eyelids and our corneas. You know, and whenever we’re talking about Demodex, tiny mites, these live either in the hair follicles of the eyelashes or near the sebaceous glands, these produce the oily part of the tears that cover the cornea. This is highly contagious, it really creates a lot of things like itchiness, redness, inflammation, greediness, and anyway, she wants to know what would be a good thing to use? Well, whenever I think of blepharitis, I’m thinking about eyelid inflammation and on top of that, when you’ve got these mites, living in the hair follicles, if you want to go more integrative, holistic, I would think about tea tree oil.

As an aromatherapist, I feel the tea tree is one of my go-to as an antifungal, antiviral, and even antibacterial agent, and there are products out on the market that either can be in the form of a foam or mist. You can’t really put tea tree oil directly on the eyelids or the eyelashes because it’s too highly concentrated. So the way that I would do this is I would look for some tea tree oil soap, or maybe some kind of a foaming Tea Tree though they sell those on the market. You can even get tea tree eyelid wipes. So the eyes are closed and you can wipe the eyelids away and you have to do this, I would say maybe three times a day. And then, in addition, I would consider using some hydrating eyedrops like Optique or some Eliassen along with MSM.

During the day I like the MSM massage on the eyelids, as well. Some people will use an eyebright tea, compress, this would be a warming compress that you could use for about 10 minutes on the eyes. Again, the combination of keeping your eyes hydrated, reducing inflammation, and using an agent like tea tree would be the way to go on a systemic basis, of course, increasing your fats and oils, your vitamin A especially and then using you know those great antioxidants like bilberry and lutein, zeaxanthin and Astaxanthan that I talk about. These will be very helpful in terms of boosting your you know, your eye circulation and your eye health. And then I would use the end palm home exercise a few times a day. And of course, we’re in blue-blocking glasses for all my screen time. So I think if you’re really consistent with both the tea tree and the eyedrops, I think that you can get rid of this condition.

Remember, with Blepharitis. This is a chronic inflammation of the eyelids, I feel there’s always a systemic reason that feeds into the eye inflammation. And so really checking out your diet, your stress levels, you know, your ability to boost your immune health. These are all factors involved in being able to turn this condition around. So that’s my tip for today. I wish you all the best. Thanks for the question. Okay, everybody. Until next time, take care.

Thank you for listening. I hope you learned something from the EyeClarity podcast show today. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify and leave a review. See you here next time.

Join me today as I answer questions during this Facebook Live. We cover everything from cataracts to drusen to dry eyes and halos. If you have a question, feel free to email me at [email protected] or attend my Facebook Live every Wednesday at 5PM EST. If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at: www.drsamberne.com.

MSM Eye Mist

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

eye, cataracts, eyedrops, important, glaucoma, called, collagen, retina, health, people, vitamin, eyelids, glutathione, dry, question, surgery, inflammation, supplement, nodules, msm

Hello, everyone, it’s Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting-edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to [email protected]. Now to the latest EyeClarity episode.

I want to take a question. This is from Jared and he is dealing with halos around lights. He also has blurred vision, and he seems like his eyes are getting worse and worse. And he also has a significant floaters and he went to his doctor and he was diagnosed with something called posterior vitreous detachment. And he’s also got dry eye. And Jared also writes that he has had LASIK surgery about five years ago. And at first the surgery was really, really good. But now he needs glasses both at distance and near. And he’s struggling. Well, you know, I talk a bit about eye surgeries. And, you know, the more you avoid eye surgeries, I think the better it is, unless you really have to get it. Cataract surgery would be the one that I would say is a pretty safe, successful surgery. So with LASIK surgery, we’re changing the refractive error in the eyeball, but many times because there is a source or a cause of the prescription in the eyeball.

And that is based on mental habits and emotional habits anyway, reasons why we develop a prescription. And there’s the body prescription and there’s the eye prescription. And many times even though you do LASIK surgery, and it fixes the prescription in the eye, the prescription and the body wins out. And this is what’s happening in this case. So the good news here is that doing some physical IO therapy reeducation, where you’re doing some exercises to increase visual coordination, peripheral vision, visual relaxation. These are really time tested exercises that can help change the situation and you can actually reduce your myopia you can reduce your astigmatism. And the way I see physical therapy as a relates to, you know, post LASIK is that it’s the same thing as getting some type of physical therapy after you’ve had any kind of surgery. And surgeons tend to recommend physical therapy because there’s an integration process that needs to happen once the surgeon has done their job. In fact, I don’t really know of many surgeries that doctors do, where physical therapy is not recommended afterwards, but not an eye care. So what you can do is you can go to my website, and there’s a section on AI exercise protocols, and the one you would want to work with is the one for nearsightedness. And it’s a 90 day program, it’s about three exercises a day, it’s free. And you can do start doing those exercises in there a combination of activities that will increase your flexibility, your peripheral vision, your visual coordination. And it will start to get you to integrate what the surgery did to your eyes with your mind and your brain. And once you do that, and once you start moving in that direction, you’re definitely going to get clearer eyesight, and better lubrication and moisturization in your eyes, and it’s going to turn the tide for you. It’s also important just as a reminder that you’re getting really healthy nutrients, you know, I

03:41

can easily say if you do the rainbow diet of vegetables, that you have a really good chance of feeding the eyes in a way that they need. You know, with all the screen time that we’re all doing. We’re running marathons every day and it’s draining and stressing our eyes we’re not getting the nutrients that we need. Blue light is interfering with, you know the the health of your eyes. So that’s why you need to really boost your antioxidants, vitamin A obviously, things like the current noise I talked about lutein, Xanthan and Astra Xanthan, you know you can make a morning smoothie where you add some ginger root and Tumeric roots and kale, maybe some lime or lemon to get some vitamin C. And then adding things like celery and cucumber and maybe red bell pepper, you know, it’s good to get the red, orange, yellow green vegetables, get it in your Vitamix, a little coconut water and hit blend and that could be a drink that you could start doing variations of that ...

Fuchs’ corneal dystrophy is a fluid build-up in the cornea that’s the clear window in the eye. And what happens in Fuchs’ dystrophy, which is genetically passed on from generation to generation, is that the cornea begins to swell, it thickens and this leads to a lot of blurry cloudy vision. But there’s a new drug treatment on the horizon. And it’s called a ROCK inhibitor. A ROCK inhibitor in some of the latest research is beginning to show some benefit For Fuchs’ dystrophy and some of the clinical trials in this ROCK pathway. Enjoy the show. If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at: www.drsamberne.com.

Resources: Use of Topical Rho Kinase Inhibitors in the Treatment of Fuchs Dystrophy After Descemet Stripping Only

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

cornea, dystrophy, glaucoma, inhibitor, ROCK, eye, optic nerve, improve, xanthan, eat, protocol, vision, corneal, intraocular pressure, optic neuropathy, fuchs, noids, clarity, retinal ganglion, diet

Hello, everyone, it’s Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting-edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to [email protected]. Now to the latest EyeClarity episode.

Hey everybody, it’s Dr. Sam and I’d like to welcome you to another Eyelarity podcast. I received a question recently on a new treatment. And I wanted to address it. This is a gentleman who’s got a corneal dystrophy called Fuchs’ corneal dystrophy. And this is a fluid build-up in the cornea that’s the clear window in the eye. And what happens in Fuchs’ dystrophy, which is genetically passed on from generation to generation, is that the cornea begins to swell, it thickens and this leads to a lot of blurry cloudy vision. Glare, it’s difficult to actually get a pair of glasses that that work well for it. And it tends to degenerate over the years although I have used some of my own protocols to help slow the condition down MSM eyedrops are fabulous For Fuchs’ dystrophy. Castor oil I massage is great in the evening, continually increasing your fats and oils eating a low anti inflammatory diet. These are all things that we propose when a person has fruits dystrophy.

But there’s a new drug treatment on the horizon. And it’s called a ROCK inhibitor. Rho-associated kinase inhibitor, that’s actually the technical name of it. We’re just going to call it ROCK inhibitor and a ROCK inhibitor in some of the latest research is beginning to show some benefit For Fuchs’ dystrophy and some of the clinical trials in this ROCK pathway. It inhibits the ROCK pathway and contributes to cardiovascular benefits. Anti erectile dysfunction, anti hypertension, even some tumor metastasis, inhibition. So for those of you that have glaucoma out there, ROCK inhibitor have been used to increase the circulation in the eye if you’ve been diagnosed with glaucoma, and the way it works here is that we know that Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy and it has an accelerated effect targeting ganglion cell death, optic nerve jet death, and it’s characterized by cupping in the optic nerve, progressive thinning and the retinal fiber layer, reduced visual fields. And so this ROCK inhibitor has been reported through different research as a option for glaucoma met management. Doing a few things that we do says intraocular pressure and improves ocular blood flow. It inhibits scarring if there’s some kind of laser surgery done. And it also promotes the regeneration of retinal ganglion cell and axon

03:25

axon cells. Now, in the research around the cornea, and how this may be supporting people who have corneal dystrophies like Fuchs dystrophy. There was a small study that was published in the Journal of cornea and there was a significantly statistical improvement in people who were given these ROCK inhibitors. And these agents actually have been found to support better protein formation and improve endothelial health and that the endothelial health is the back layer of the cornea that’s really involved in the hydration of the cornea. So although it’s a drug, you know, I’m not against pharmaceutical drugs if they’re beneficial, and when you’ve got these very serious diseases like Fuchs’ dystrophy, or glaucoma. This ROCK inhibitor is a possible way for you to improve your eyesight and vision.

And then you can do some of the more integrative medical things like increase your fats and oils. Make sure you’re getting enough vitamin A, B, C, the annatto Vitamin E the crop noids lutein Xanthan asks Xanthan bilberry, gingko taurine, so you’re getting all these really healthy nutrients. And don’t forget your trace minerals. Magnesium is a big one, selenium, chromium, zinc. So if you’re doing all ...