Behaviors

Use hypnosis or focused distraction with children during shots, blood draws, dental work, or imaging procedures to reduce fear and pain. This can include advance training in self-hypnosis with the parent the week before and using personalized pleasant-place imagery based on where the child likes to be.

Hypnosis can be done collectively in groups, including therapeutic support groups, with participants discussing the experience afterward.

He mentions a hard run as a context after which sweet foods like mango may be better tolerated and used efficiently.

If trying glutamine to reduce sugar cravings, increase the amount gradually because it can cause gastric distress.

Talk to a physician before adding or changing anything in your diet or supplementation regimen, especially salt intake, to arrive at an intake that supports mental and physical health and performance.

Use blood pressure status and symptoms to determine whether to increase or decrease salt intake. If you have low blood pressure, orthostatic symptoms, orthostatic hypotension, or POTS, evaluate with a physician whether increasing sodium could improve blood pressure and reduce dizziness and related symptoms.

If your salt levels are low and you crave salt, salty beverages, or salty foods, generally follow that craving until it subsides, but do so in the context of healthy, non-processed foods and avoid foods or drinks with unhealthy additions.

Regardless of dietary pattern, limit processed and highly processed foods, especially when trying to dial in sodium intake or follow salt appetite accurately.

If feeling anxious, especially if related to low blood pressure or stress, slightly increasing sodium intake may help; do this through cleaner sources such as a little sea salt in water or salting food more, not processed foods or salty-sweet foods.

Low-carbohydrate diets increase water excretion and likely sodium and potassium loss, so make sure you get enough of both electrolytes.

If exercising fasted after drinking caffeine, replenish fluids and electrolytes including sodium before, during, and after exercise.

Avoid very high salt intake; health risks appear to rise substantially past about 6–7 g sodium per day.

If exploring increasing or decreasing sodium intake for health or performance, do so against a relatively pure, unprocessed-food background and use clean salt sources rather than salty processed or salty-sweet foods; some people find this also reduces sugar cravings.

Notice how you feel at different times of year, including summer vs. winter, and whether changes in day length, sunlight exposure, being indoors too much, or late-evening artificial light correlate with feeling more aggressive or irritable.

Approach heating cautiously: hydrate, do not overheat, and avoid excessive hyperthermia because heat stroke and death are possible. Check with your doctor first, especially if pregnant, nursing, heat-sensitive, or otherwise medically vulnerable.

After evening or nighttime sauna, take a brief warmish, warm, cool, or cold rinse shower—mainly to rinse off sweat—then get ready for sleep. This may help leverage the cooling phase for easier sleep onset.

If fever goes above 103°F, start getting concerned; at 104°F, cooling methods and urgent medical care may be needed to prevent hyperthermia.

Local hyperthermia therapy was described as heating a local patch of skin to 41°C (105.8°F) without damaging the skin to promote browning of white fat and systemic metabolic effects. Human protocol described: expose the supraclavicular fat deposits/upper shoulders-upper back area to 41°C heat for 20 minutes, three days per week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) for five weeks total.

Make sure you are hydrated before trying to learn, because hydration supports brain and body function.

If fish oil is in ethyl ester form, including prescription omega-3s like Lovaza/Vascepa, take it with food because absorption is otherwise poor.

Use International Fish Oil Standards testing to evaluate concentration, contaminants, and oxidation of fish oil products.

Keep fish oil in the refrigerator to reduce oxidation and extend shelf life.

Look for fish oil with total oxidation (TOTOX) under 10, ideally under 6.

Try to eat fatty fish a couple times a week in addition to fish oil.

Cooking can release magnesium but it can go into the water, so steam greens or consume the cooking liquid.

Take magnesium threonate and/or bisglycinate 30–60 minutes before sleep.

Do not go straight from very hot to very cold; wait a few minutes before going into cold due to blood-pressure/vertigo concerns.

A hot bath at around 104°F for 20 minutes, shoulders down, was described as producing robust activation of heat shock proteins and BDNF.

Japanese Waon therapy uses an infrared sauna at about 140°F, followed by wrapping in a towel and staying warm; the full protocol lasts about an hour.

If pregnant and considering melatonin supplementation, talk to your OBGYN and another doctor because melatonin can strongly affect placental development and the developing fetus.