We all know what it feels like to be rundown, stressed, and on the brink of burnout. My guest, Dr. Mariza Snyder, a specialist in using essential oils for hormone health, shares today how and why you should be including them in your health care routine, including as a way to reduce stress.
Like so many natural practitioners, Dr. Mariza had a youth plagued with headaches, weight issues, and hormonal imbalances she attributes to family legacy, or a “woman’s plight.” She knew that something had to change, so set out on a quest fuelled by nutritious food and daily exercise. When a friend recommended she try an essential oil blend to help protect her against illness, Dr. Mariza’s life changed.
Learn what the magic blend was that kept Dr. Mariza from getting ill for 3 and a half years, after getting sick 5-7 times per year. See how prioritizing self-care and daily defense can have a positive impact on your hormonal health. And then discover how different essential oils can help with different aspects of your life: sleep problems, energy depletion, headaches, and the menstrual migraine.
Do you have too much stress in your life and not enough stress reduction techniques? Do you know how to implement natural remedies to help with common hormonal problems? How do you make time for you?
In This Episode:
- How to learn to put yourself first
- How bringing self-care and establishing good boundaries affects your relationships
- How you can use essential oils to help you ground down
- How essential oils can help you manage your stress levels
- What instant energy is and how this oil blend will boost your mood
- How to figure out what oils you need at any given time
- What the best essential oils for sleep are
- What the “Menstrual Migraine” is and how essential oils can help with this
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Quotes:
“As a Latina woman, I felt that my worth was predicated by how much I did for others. I had to really wrestle with that belief.(2:30)
“Letting go of what’s not serving you, removing yourself or putting some hard lines between those healthy relationships, creating those boundaries really does free you up to be your best self and to have better-nourished relationships.” (4:45)
“I always tell people that the orange blossom or the sweet orange or the wild orange - I dare you to stay mad after breathing that oil. Try! Try to stay upset, try to stay frustrated. That oil will shift you so quickly from a state of distress to a state of happiness like that!” (13:49)
Links
Order The Essential Oil Hormone Solution
Follow Dr. Marisol on Facebook | Instagram
Listen to Essentially You
If you liked this episode, you should probably check out these past episodes:
- Are You Paying Attention To What Your Poop Is Telling You? with Dr. Marisol Teijeiro
- How Dr. Terry Wahls Diet Can Boost Your Immune System & Help With Chronic Pain?
- The Hidden Culprit of Sleep Disorders Nobody Talks About — Couch Talk With Dr. Michael Gelb
Full Episode Transcript:
Dr. Anna Cabeca
Hello everyone, welcome to Couch Talk. I'm your host Dr. Anna Cabeca. Today, we're going to be talking about hormones, essential oils, and really empowering your body to use these beautiful natural gems to restore hormonal balance and to help you along in your journey wherever you are on this continuum of our lifespan.
As a beautiful, wonderful surprise for everyone, we have a guest today: Dr. Mariza Snyder. I've known her and fell in love with her from the first time I met her. You will see for yourself today just her genuine authenticity, exuberance, and caring nature that she just brings with her everywhere she goes. I’m just so thrilled to have you on the call today. Welcome.
Dr. Mariza Snyder
Thank you so much, Dr. Anna. I am so happy to be here with you. Every time we connect, it is like instant sunshine and I feel very honored to be here.
Who is Dr. Mariza Snyder?
Dr. Anna Cabeca
Well, thank you. Tell our audience a little bit more about you, your journey, and how you you've really come to this committed stage and experience with essential oils which I love.
Dr. Mariza Snyder
Oils came into my life about six years ago.
But I fell in love with women's hormone health. You know, I come from a legacy of women who struggled with hormones. My mama did, my grandma did, my sister did - and it was so taboo for many years.
We didn't really talk about what was going on. It was just kind of a woman’s plight. I felt like it was our normal. It wasn't until I was in my late 20s, I really began to feel the effects of it. I always say that I played a big role, but I felt like a hot mess.
I felt like things are not working well for me. I was chronically exhausted, I found myself unable to lift my head up off the pillow most mornings and crawling into my office to see patients.
I remember I was putting on weight, what felt for no reason, couldn't lose it to save my life. I was exhausted, I was stressed, I had no stress resilience, mood swings, my PMS - goodness! Don't don't catch me during those days in the month.
It was a really difficult and challenging time for me when I knew something wasn't working right with my body.
I take a lot of responsibility because I knew I was living a lifestyle that was supporting hormonal imbalance. And I had to really dig deep, not only into the research to figure out how to get myself right, but also how to figure out how to change the way I was living my life.
It became about food, it became about movement, it became about self care. I was born being a Latina, maybe not all Latinas feel that way, but I felt like in my family, that my worth as a woman was predicated by how much I did for others.
I had to really wrestle with that belief. Because I realized that if I did not put myself first, at least sometimes, that I was not going to be able to show up the way that I wanted to show up.
That was a big lesson for me as I had to really begin to put myself first in many situations and rewire the way that I thought about what my body and what I deserved.
I realized that a lot of other women like myself, struggled with those very same beliefs and those very same issues around their hormones. It felt like it was why I was put on this earth. To really help women uncover what was going on so then they felt like they could show up the way that they wanted to show up for the people that mattered most for them.
Setting Boundaries is Vital
Dr. Anna Cabeca
So now, how has that affected you and your relationships? How is bringing in that concept of self care, having good boundaries, and knowing your limitations - how has that helped you and your relationships?
Dr. Mariza Snyder
I will say in the beginning, one of the biggest things was letting go of some of the relationships that weren't serving me.
I had a lot of toxic relationships in my life, and not so much like best friends or friends, it was even business partnerships. I felt like they were the energy vampires who leached all over and I needed to let those go.
I think one of the first things was saying no to the things that really didn't serve me and letting go of the toxic relationships. That opened up so much space in love, to focus and to take care of me, but also to really nourish the relationships that I wanted to nourish.
Because when you're burned out and exhausted and you've got no stress resilience, you're going to end up snipping up those people who you love most when you're that tired. So I feel like a lot of my relationships are the ones that were really safe and beautiful and happy, that brought me a lot of joy, that I hopefully brought a lot of joy to, became better over time.
And I was able to let go of what wasn't serving me and that felt so good.
Dr. Anna Cabeca
I think that's just so powerful because our audience needs to hear that, again: just letting go of what's not serving you. To removing yourself or really putting some hard lines between unhealthy relationships and creating those boundaries.
Because that does free you up to be your best self, to have even better nourish relationships, and to have the time to do the things that value most to your God given purpose.
Dr. Mariza Snyder
I 100% agree.
I think, all women, that's the thing we know in our hearts, deep in our soul. But we’ve got to be constantly be reminded of that.
Dr. Anna Cabeca
I think that's what you bring. You bring a level of authenticity and discernment into your work and into your new book: The Essential Oil Hormone Solution.
Dr. Mariza Snyder
There’s a lot of story in this book. My mama read and she's like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Marisa, you're sharing a lot of details!”
But I wanted people to understand what it felt like to be in those moments and having to come to terms with what mattered most. Because we, as women, you know, we're such beautiful goddesses and when we get to show our bright light, when we're living in that energy - we get to serve beyond what we ever thought was capable.
Dr. Anna Cabeca
And in order to do that, we have to keep that self care up. So it's that constant flow where we have to have the energy constantly flowing. I think that's key. You giving yourself permission to be authentic and honest and open.
This situation is not only helping millions of women worldwide, but it's also bringing in the reality that, “wow, we have so much power to really be able to heal our own bodies naturally. How cool is that? Right?” What a revelation for so many listening that that will be!
Essential Oils for Everyday Use
Let's talk about essential oils because essential oils are fascinating, right? There's thousands and thousands of years of usage of essential oils.
I'll share with you that my favorite is bergamot, I love bergamot and love Earl Grey tea. It's one of those grounding essential oils for me. But then there's also frankincense and lavender, rose, and my other favorite but I use for many household things as thieves oil.
Tell me about your journey with essential oils and what you think about my favorite.
Dr. Mariza Snyder
I love your favorites.
For instance, just focus on bergamot, rose, and lavender. All of those oils have been researched and demonstrated to lower serum cortisol levels inside of the body. They can lower your blood pressure, they can lower pulse point.
They're phenomenal for grounding, great for supporting the limbic brain - so much of our limbic brain is about that Stranger Danger survival mode. If we can just calm things down a little bit, we would not overreact to perceived stress.
Oils came into my life for immune system support. Because I was chronically stressed, I'll admit it, I was a self-proclaimed Type A chronically stressed a woman right here. Because I was always sick, my immune system was suppressed, I was always sick.
A good friend of mine came to me and she's like, “you know what, I am so sick and tired of you being sick and tired, I think I have an oil that can help you.”
It was an immune blend. It was a blend of citruses, clove, rosemary, Eucalyptus, all of these beautiful chemical constituents that are great at helping to fight bugs in the body and help to boost the immune system.
At the time I was doing tinctures, lots of vitamin C, I was doing everything I could to stay healthy. And yet, I was still getting sick, got a hold of this oil. And it changed everything for me!
I went and researched all of the different chemical constituents of these oils, found that viruses do not like these oils. And after using that particular blend consistently... I'll be honest with you, in the beginning, I didn't know what I was doing. I was just putting it everywhere.
I was like, “if this is not going to make me sick, I'm going to wear it!” I probably overused that oil a little bit, but I did not get sick for three and a half years because I was consistent and that changed my life.
I mean, nobody wants to get sick. But I was getting sick five to seven times a year. It was strep throat or It was a cold or it was a flu. And they just kept coming one after the other after the other.
That was kind of my first introduction to essential oils. All of these immune system benefits.
But at the time I was in practice, and most of the women in my practice were dealing with hormones. They didn’t want to get sick, so they were really happy about the “no sick oil,” the immune system blend.
They were also fatigued. They were also dealing with cravings. They were not sleeping throughout the night. They were stressed out during the day.
And I was like, “Well, how could essential oils support our lifestyle? Can essential oils help us go to sleep at night? Can they help us with more energy so we're not grabbing sugar or caffeine or whatever that may be? Are there oils that can really support the lifestyle decisions that we make every single day?”
And that's what I began to really looked into and found that oils were really that quick win!
Instead of about to yell traffic or scream at whoever it was, if I can grab an oil, I can really reset the way that I'm feeling at that moment. Or maybe I'm feeling anxious - there's an oil for that. Or maybe I do want to reach for that candy bar in the middle of the day because I'm feeling a little burned out or tired.
Dr. Anna Cabeca
Wait, there's an oil for that? What’s the oil?
Dr. Mariza Snyder
Yes, there's an oil!
So it depends. Let's say it’s instant energy. Let's say you need an instant energy boost. Because let's be honest, cravings are an unmet need.
Your liver never said, “Man, I really need that cupcake!” I'm pretty sure the liver’s like, “don't eat the cupcake! I got to work that out. I got to process that, I got to break that down. Don't do it!”
It's a craving. It's usually stress. It's usually emotions. It's usually energy issues, you're fatigued and you need that little pick me up at three in the afternoon.
My instant energy blend is just a combination of two oils: wild orange or grapefruit, either citrus, it doesn't matter, and peppermint. I do a drop of each on my palms, rub my palms together, take three to five deep belly breaths, I like to stand up, to get up - usually you're at your computer like a zombie kind of staring at the screen.
But breathe those oils in.
Not only is the citrus going to be an instant elevator, it boosts dopamine and serotonin levels. But the peppermint oxygenates and opens up the airways, brings oxygen to the brain so that you are feeling instantly energized.
Peppermint is a an appetite and craving suppressant. A lot of great research has been done on that. So girl when I'm having a craving, I grab that peppermint oil so fast, because I know it'll just nix that craving out, it'll crush it.
That's my two for one. It's a win-win all around.
Dr. Anna Cabeca
I love it. That sounds great. I love a combination. When I had my medical spa here in Southeast Georgia, one of our estheticians was an essential oil expert. My first introduction is probably like 10 years ago now. Oh my gosh, when was it 2005. So 13 years ago now that I was first introduced to those essential oils.
But then it was like, well, my mom grew up with incense and oils for anointing, using rose oil, orange blossom oil and different things that we've used, and I grew up with. I never thought of a therapeutic benefit. So that was my first introduction to that many years ago.
I remember that orange was just an energizing essence. So she would have that in our diffusers and I was like, “Wow. That's okay, if you think it's good, go ahead. I don't think it's going to hurt us. I'm the doctor in the clinic.” But then you really start to witness the improvements. And then just kind of the fine tuning what works and being able to discern what resonates with you.
What Essential Oils are Right for You?
So how do you help people figure that out? What is the oil that we need at this time?
Dr. Mariza Snyder
That's a great question.
I think it’s about what's going on with you at the moment.
Essential Oils for Stress
You mentioned the citrus. In one of my favorite studies in the Vanderbilt Hospital, in the ER, they measured stress resilience for a lot of the doctors and the nurses, prior to bringing the oils in. On a scale of one to 10,- their levels of stress exhaustion was literally at a nine and 10. All of them. But it was a very, very busy hospital.
They brought the oils in, they were diffusing the oils and they did it for a month. After, they ran the survey again. And their stress levels range between one and three.
I love it when doctors offices have citrus in particular, because no one's really allergic to citrus. We're used to oranges and lemons and limes. But because of the constituent properties, the limonene and the monoterpene, it lowers stress levels.
I always tell people that orange blossom, the sweet orange, or the wild orange - I dare you to stay mad after breathing that oil! Try! Try to stay upset, try to stay frustrated. That oil will shift you so quickly from a state of distress to a state of happiness like that, no matter where you are.
I use it for anxiety on planes all the times because I have flight anxiety.
Essential Oils for Sleep
I think it's really about what it is. If someone struggling with sleep at night, they've got mental chatter or that worry, that to-do list…
My top five oils for sleep are cedarwood, lavender, bergamot, Roman chamomile, and vetiver. Any combination of those. My power combo is lavender and cedarwood, diffusing by the bedside, applying to the back of the neck.
With your consistent everyday use, you begin to rewire the way that we think. You begin to set your brain up for wanting to go to bed at night. We diffuse oils for sleep every night and the minute we can smell that aroma my brains like, “oh, it's time to go to bed!” That's the aroma of bedtime.
Mind you, the oils in those, like lavendon and linalool, those chemical constituents in the oils shut the brain down and activate Gabba. So we know that there's a chemical process there but it's also behavioral. You're used to doing that.
Dr. Anna Cabeca
Tell me this again. So what is it that shuts Gabba down from the essential oils? Is that from lavender?
Dr. Mariza Snyder
Yes, from lavender. Roman chamomile has it as well. Bergamot has it, cedarwood has it. So all of these oils have the same chemical constituents in them. And that's what shuts the brain down.
Dr. Anna Cabeca
How cool! I love that. So working on our limbic system, our limbic brain, and helping us get a good night's sleep.
I'm glad you're talking about sleep because that's such a big issue. My go to way is using magnesium l-threonate, progesterone cream, and then the old concept of the lavender bath and using essential oil that way.
But going above that and thinking that these are my nighttime aromas and training our body in that extra olfactory signaling, from the nasal sinuses, but more than that. From the energetic perspective of the oils. That's a great addition. I'm going to start doing that tonight.
Dr. Mariza Snyder
It is and not everyone's got time for a bath. People take supplements, right, and there's a lot of different techniques: turn off the electronics, make sure your room is cool, and you're blocking out the light. All those things matter as well, but it's really about training your body.
That's why we use oils. We've been using oils at night, every night, for six years. Vetiver is a really powerful neuro oil. But it's also a really powerful sedative for a lot of people, like my husband. We have a combo of lavender, cedarwood, and vetiver and the second we start diffusing those, his train of thought - he loses all of it, his eyes are open and closing, open and clothing. He's a night owl, so if I really want to put them to sleep, I kind of just sabotage all that and I just put the oils on in front of him.
Essential Oils for Headaches
Dr. Anna Cabeca
Well, that sounds great for someone who's dealing with headaches and migraines. Right? Things like that would be a really good combination.
Dr. Mariza Snyder
Yeah, my headache blend is just a combination of lavender, peppermint, and frankincense. Those are usually the trio that gets the job done. I like it in a roller. I do 10 drops of each and top it off with fractionated coconut oil or a liquid carrier oil, like grape seed oil, in a roller. Then apply the roller around that area of concern.
My headaches are always cervicogenic if I get them. And here's a little roller right here, a jasmine roller, just roll it over. And it's such a great option instead of taking any kind of medication or any over the counter anti-inflammatories.
Dr. Anna Cabeca
So you're saying your headaches are from neck strain. And so you're putting the essential oils there.
Dr. Mariza Snyder
Yeah, so like, like every woman, right? The stress is there, the strain is there. I had a lot of neck trauma when I was younger. So it's my Achilles heel. Actually, the reason why I'm a practitioner is I had migraines for 15 years. Chronic migraines, everyday migraines, so I lived in a state of chronic pain for 15 years of my life.
My neck is still - I mean, I get a lot of care, I get a lot of support - but it's still the Achilles heel. And if I'm not mindful, and I get super stressed or I'm not enough sleep, that's usually the area that I will begin to experience. It's usually my telltale sign that something is not right.
I used to rely a lot on Imitrex, Excedrin migraine, Advil, I did lots of liver damage and gut damaged. So for me taking medications, it's just not an option. I kind of wore that system out. So I've been relying on oils for headaches.
I don't get them very often, but I do every now and again. I’ve been relying on oils for the last six years for headaches and migraines.
Dr. Anna Cabeca
That's fabulous. So we'll talk about that blend, because I know many of our listeners suffer with that too. So lavender, peppermint, and frankincense. And you mix it.
You go over this in your Essential Oil Hormone Balance book, right?
Dr. Mariza Snyder
Yes, I do.
We have recipes for headaches and migraines. For women when estrogen tanks, or progesterone tanks, and we go through that transition. I mean, I always had PMS driven migraines, as well. My hormones were imbalanced and I also had it just because I had a lot of neck trauma. So I do cover those recipes in the books. I know women are struggling with that.
Essentials Oils for Menstrual Migraine
Dr. Anna Cabeca
But that's a common thing that many women have like the menstrual migraine, right? So that's because the tank and progesterone is low. What helps with that?
Dr. Mariza Snyder
Absolutely. Yeah, I have a great blend. Clary sage is one of my go to oils for helping to boost those hormones.
I have a blend called my Superwoman blend. It's well known in the world of essential oils and it's specifically designed to help, not only boost estrogen and progesterone, but ease that time of the month, ease that period.
It's great for cramps, it's great for mood swings, and it's great for emotional stability. It really does lead to a lot of that. It is also a roller blend because I love 10mL rollers. They're so easy to apply. They're so easy to travel with.
I am like the queen of roller blends. There’s a lot of recipes in the book on rollers, because I want women to feel like they can carry four or five of those babies everywhere they go. And so my Superwoman blended in a roller and I can definitely send the recipe over, but it's 12 drops of clary sage, that's the queen bee of the of the hormone oil. 10 drops of lavender because lavender is great on muscles as well, soothing muscles and relaxing cramps. 5 drops of geranium, because geranium is also a progesterone booster. I also love geranium for PCOS. 5 drops of cedarwood for the emotional mood support aspect. Then 4 drops of ylang ylang because it is a heart centered oil, it's a great libido booster, t's great for estrogen levels, as well, and it helps to ease the mind of any anxiousness.
My Superwoman blend:
- 12 drops Clary Sage
- 10 drops Lavender
- 5 drops Geranium
- 5 drops Cedarwood
- 4 drops Ylang Ylang
I love women to put it over the ovaries, on the wrist, on the arms, on the neck. It smells divine. It smells like the most beautiful perfume ever and women go crazy for it. But it works! I usually recommend women using it every single day.
It's consistent usage of these oil that really are the game change for women.
Dr. Anna Cabeca
Love it, love it, Mariza! Thank you so much for sharing that. I love it. That sounds great. And I love that you call that you're Superwoman blend.
So tell our listeners, how they can get ahold of you and your book. I'm so excited to share it with.
Dr. Mariza Snyder
Absolutely So best place to find me because I get to interview gorgeous, beautiful, exceptional brilliant women like yourself, Dr. Anna. My podcast is the Essentially You podcast. I love to share my tips and tricks on essential oils, on hormones, on nutrition, you name it, and then bring over guests.
You can find your website drmarisa.com. It's also @DrMaritza on Insta and then the book will be in all the stores, wherever books are sold, but probably Amazon the easiest place to get it. The Essential Oils Hormone Solution.
Dr. Anna Cabeca
Love it. Thank you so much for sharing your time and energy with us and your information. You've downloaded a lot of information that I know our listeners have taken notes. Also, I’ll let our listeners know that you can get the show notes at dranna.com under my podcast link. And please share this interview and share Dr. Mariza’s book, The Essential Oil Hormone Solution. It's just loaded full of information and recipes. I'm so excited for this. So thank you so much.
Dr. Mariza Snyder
Thank you so much for having me.
Dr. Anna Cabeca
My pleasure.
All right. And so for our listeners again, please share this interview and like us on iTunes. Give us your review and rating. We appreciate that! They’re helping us reach more people. Thank you for spending time with us today and look forward to seeing you on our next podcast.
