Empowered Ease

Dr Bridget Lybarger, Headaches To Healing: Chiropractic, Acupuncture, And Functional Medicine Explained

• Jenn Ohlinger HN-BC, BSN, RN • Season 2 • Episode 2

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Hi!! I would love to hear from you!

Tired of feeling unheard, rushed, or stuck with symptoms that don’t add up? I sit down with Dr. Bridget Lybarger—chiropractor, acupuncturist, and functional medicine practitioner—to map a practical path from scattered care to whole-person healing. Her approach blends nervous system support, energy flow, and root-cause testing, then brings it home with simple daily habits that cost little but change a lot.

We break down how functional medicine uses comprehensive thyroid and hormone panels, cortisol checks, stool and urinalysis, and hair tissue analysis to reveal what basic labs miss. If hot flashes get waved away, gut issues go unexplored, or fatigue gets mislabeled, this deeper look can offer real clarity without breaking the bank. We also dig into supplement quality, hydration, protein and fat intake, and small nutrition shifts that stabilize energy and mood.

Acupuncture gets a clear, down-to-earth explanation: how meridians tie emotions to organs, why stagnation fuels pain and anxiety, and what a session actually feels like. Think 25 minutes of intentional calm that helps the nervous system reset. We add practical tools—qigong, yoga, breathwork—and show how posture, foam rollers, and cervical supports restore oxygenation and ease screen-driven strain. Sleep ties it all together as chemistry, not willpower: light timing, meal spacing, and consistent rhythms that rebuild resilience. Along the way we talk boundaries, solitude, and gratitude as mental hygiene that makes every other intervention work better.

If you’re ready to move from symptom-chasing to steady progress, our conversation lays out a path you can follow today—whether you book a consult, start with breath and posture, or finally protect your sleep. If this resonated, share it with a friend, subscribe for more grounded wellness talks, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.


Dr. Bridget Lybarger 
Absolute Chiropractic & Acupuncture 
Stages Wellness Holistic Center 
325 East Main St. 
Belleville, IL. 62220 
618-398-5476

http://www.drbridgetlybarger.com/

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello everyone and welcome back to Empowered Ease. I'm Jen Olinger, a holistic coach and critical care nurse. Twice a week, I sit down with amazing women who are making a difference in the lives of others. This week I bring you Dr. Bridget Liebarger. Bridget is a chiropractor, an acupuncturist, and a functional medicine practitioner. Bridget owns Stages Wellness Holistic Center and Absolute Chiropractic and Acupuncture, located in Belleville, Illinois. She focuses on a natural holistic approach combining chiropractic care, acupuncture, and functional medicine to help people find balance in mind, body, and spirit. Which helps people to live their fullest, happiest lives. I am so happy to introduce and bring you Dr. Bridget Liebarger. Welcome, Dr. Leibarger. How are you today? I'm so excited that you're here.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm doing really good. Thank you so much for having me, Jen.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. So I've been dying to have someone to come on to talk about actually all three things that you're into chiropractic, functional medicine, and acupuncture. So tell me a little bit about your practice and how you got into your practice to start. All right.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I own Stages Wellness Holistics Center in downtown Belleville, Illinois. And I have been a chiropractor for 22 years. I've been an acupuncturist for 15 years, and I've been offering functional medicine now for about six months. And I just rented out space for the first 15 years of my life and was just a chiropractic and acupuncture practice. But I took the lead three years ago, bought a building in downtown Belleville that was built in 1868, and I started a wellness center. Because really, what my practice focuses on is mind, body, and spirit balance.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. I love that. So how do you incorporate the mind, body, spirit aspect into your physical practices?

SPEAKER_01:

I teach patients a lot of what they can do outside of here, first and foremost, because I believe that we all have the power within us to heal ourselves. Quiet time in this busy, busy world, I try to teach people to just be quiet, meditate, go out in nature because healing yourself does not cost a lot of money. I mean, we've got the sunshine, we've got nature, you can go for a walk, walk your dog, but being alone, I think is very important too. And I think a lot of women, I think the expectations and the belief systems and all of that has just taken over this world. And we just get burnt out, burnt out full time. Yeah. Especially if you're, you know, working full-time, you've got a family, a marriage, friends. I just tell people it's all about self-care. And that's where I try to teach people is a lot of what they can do outside of my practice. And then holistic healthcare too. Holistic healthcare is a necessity. You know, getting adjusted, that's all about the nervous system. Acupuncture, that's all about your energy system and working that energy through your meridians because everything is energy and energy wants to move. So that's what's so cool about the acupuncture side of things is it really taps into that emotional body, which once again in this world, I think sometimes we're not taught how to deal with emotions. So that's a big part of what I do is try to help, especially women, deal with traumas, emotions. And then the functional medicine side of things, that's just getting to the root cause of issues through blood work testing, urinalysis, hair tissue samples. So it's kind of just a whole combined wellness center that offers all three things along with um energy work. I'm a big believer in energy work too.

SPEAKER_00:

I love the I love so many things that you said there. And I think you hit like three. I'm I've been a critical care nurse for like the past 12 years. So I'm a holistic, I'm board certified as a holistic nurse. And there's like I've always thought of like the nursing model is a holistic model. It's patient forward, but it's that part is so skipped in medicine. The education piece you said is so skipped, the the mental health piece is skipped, like the like all of that. There's and it's less and less these days, like preventative care education. It's like they it's all getting squeezed out. And that to me, these are like the fundamental things of how you avoid so much down the road. So I love that you touched on so much of that. What brought you to this practice? What do you think drew you to this kind of work?

SPEAKER_01:

I have always wanted to be a healthcare provider ever since my very first memories. I actually wanted to be a pediatrician. And then just going through high school, taking all the anatomy courses, biology, all that kind of stuff. I really was drawn to physical therapy. So then I went into college and all of a sudden I just, there's something I just did not want to be in the medical model. So kind of a divine intervention happened. I was going to school at, well, it used to be called Belleville Area College. It's now Swick, Southwestern Illinois College. And I was drawn to the library. I pulled out the giant book, blue book of colleges. And I was, I didn't want to go far away. So I was looking in St. Louis, Carbondale, and I saw Logan College of Chiropractic. And at that time, I was about 19 years old. I was in my first apartment on the West End of Belleville and a chiropractor practiced across the street. So I was like, I wonder what this chiropractic stuff is about. Because my mom was a nurse. We always did things. If you had an ache or a pain, you took ibuprofen. You know, it was just a whole different lifestyle than what I live now. But anyway, so I got in my car and I drove to Dr. Joe's office. He took me in as a patient, and I had chronic headaches my entire life. And it turns out they were coming from misalignments in my neck. 90% of headaches come from your neck. So he started adjusting me, educating me. And I decided I wanted to be a chiropractor and he wrote me my letter to get into school. So that's what happened.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. I love that so much. I, when I went into health care, I went in thinking that like the critical care was going to be like acute, like these acute outlier things. And now that I've been working in it over a decade, I'm like most of it's chronic illnesses, the result of like either just like not knowing or negligence of your health in some way, which there's no blame associated with that. But and the very small amounts of it are emergencies. Even when I worked in trauma, there was so much of like the chronic illness aspect. And so that these other modalities for health and wellness are so important to me. Functional medicine, I think, is amazing and so like underused because there is only so much you can get in our modern healthcare system when you want to look into what's going on, especially preventatively. I have this going on in my family right now with one of my brothers who said GI issues forever and doesn't have insurance. And the healthcare system will not really take a close look at him. And so that's why I love about functional medicine is it's like willing to dive a little bit deeper and give you like a really like close-up look at the well, actually, you tell me more about why it's so great. I'm like, I'm not you're the one to explain what it is. But tell me how functional medicine can aid people. And um, because I don't think people really know what it is.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. Functional medicine really is just a deep dive look at the root cause of an issue, like say a gut issue. So I can send you for blood work testing, thyroid panels, hormone panels, cardiac panels, cancer panels, all kinds of things. Cortisol, which doctors, MDs a lot of time don't look at just stress being an issue. But then also I can send you for urinalysis, stool samples to just take a deeper dive into the gut and the urinary system, and then hair tissue analysis. Hair tissue analysis really looks at like toxicity that you hold within your hair. It tests for like 25 different toxic substances and then about 25 different minerals, too, because we hold a lot in our hair. And honestly, we live in a world that is constantly radiating us, poisoning us with the tap water and the food. And you know, a lot of times MDs don't look at even just food. MDs actually only have four hours of training in nutrition, and your food is your medicine.

SPEAKER_00:

Sounds like the building blocks of your body.

SPEAKER_01:

It is, you know, and I find a lot of time people, number one, are chronically dehydrated. Oh, yeah. People are still drinking tap water. And then you talk about just the food. I mean, people aren't eating enough protein, good fats, people still think cholesterol is a bad thing. So it's just a whole holistic way of looking at things. And then two, I feel like it gives people hope. Because I think sometimes the medical world sometimes can take that from people because they don't listen to people. So I find that a lot of functional medicine docs are chiropractors. And I think a really big thing that we do is listen to people first and foremost. We have empathy for how they feel because a lot of us have been through, you know, those same issues too. So also, too, you know, the use of vitamins, you know, a lot of people are on vitamins. Vitamins are not FDA regulated. So a lot of times people are getting on Amazon and they're just, you know, listening to these spiels. I mean, you and I could make a vitamin and sell it, they're not FDA regulated. So I find a lot of times people are taking things that are not good for them and really don't need that much, you know. And thirdly, too, with functional medicine, it's it's affordable too. You know, when you look at the medical model, I mean, it can be so expensive. I mean, you can send people for just say a cortisol hormone check, which is which is your stress or hormone, it's$30 to be sent for that. So, you know, in terms of affordability, I think everyone at every income level has access to get the functional medicine. Sometimes I just don't think people know that or think that they can't afford it.

SPEAKER_00:

And I was under the understanding that a lot of the panels that you run are not even offered. I don't know if that's true or not. But I'm not sure go ahead.

SPEAKER_01:

I just find that when, like, say a woman goes to their MD and says she's having hot flashes, a lot of times they just get brushed off. Oh, you're in perimenopause. And they might send them for like an estrogen check, but there's a full hormone panel that needs to be looked at when you're going through perimenopause. It's like a list of seven or eight hormones. So, therefore, I think a lot of the MDs and even the gynecologists just aren't knowledgeable enough on how deep you can go into the dive of looking at hormones. And also, too, there's so much natural stuff that you can do to help hormones because a lot of times I find they're just throwing women on hormones without even checking what their levels are.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

That's just blindly treating someone.

SPEAKER_00:

I have an OBNP coming on next week, or well, she'll be on in a couple weeks after this, but um, she's my next interview, and she was that was her thing. It's like everyone keeps coming to me. We send them for this basic panel, and it shows nothing, but they're clearly having. So she went and got the advanced, I don't know what's went through, but all the advanced education that is newly available because we didn't bother to study it forever. But and so now she that's what she's offering and specializing in because it's it's so common and it's so sad that like you it's a f I've experienced it myself going to the doctor and being like something's off and just not there's just I'm not offered anything else, you know, which is sometimes you're just offered a pill, you know. Well, I was offered I was offered an antidepressant, but I do think that I was PMSing.

SPEAKER_01:

And I think that there's a a time and a place, you know, and I think every every individual is different. I do look at every single patient that comes in here different. You know, we consult, I listen, let them talk, and then we decide what avenue of care to start with. You know, but two, I just think that there's so many natural, I mean, God, spirit, the universe put so many natural things on this planet for us to use. And mainly sunshine, you know, vitamin D is so important to get from the sun. Supplementing in the wintertime is a good idea. Good water, rest, meditation, nature, all of that is free.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, so well, and affecting your life. Like you're what like a lot of people don't look at their own life, the patterns they're in, or just the responsibilities they've got and try to figure out how to work within that because we're always trying to change things instead of like work with what we have, too.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I think you know, a big thing too is just just silence, you know. I just feel like taking a break, putting the phone down, you know, stop the doom scrolling, stop trying to distract, you know, yourself from you know what you what you already had, the magic that's within you. So, you know, turning on your own power and seeing that we're all magical beings that have the power to heal ourselves. I mean, we really, these bodies that we were given are so magical. I think that people have just forgotten that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and we don't know how to listen to them anymore because we're creating there's such a separation now between even like I it took me like I I say I've said this on here a few times, but it's just so funny to me because I think so many people are in this place. Like the first time someone asked me where I felt an emotion in my body, I thought they had like three heads. I was like, what are you talking about? Now I'm like totally get it. I focus on that all the time. Where am I feeling this? Like, breathe into it. That's where the power's at. But that even realizing that concept was like, I was like, what? That doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, yeah, yeah, because you think of it as something that's like like outside of you. And that back to acupuncture. That's what's really cool about acupuncture is through your different energy meridians that go through your body, each organ is associated with an emotion. So when we talk about spleen, you know, that's about worry or trust. When people are worried all the time, everything's tight, stiff, achy, and your spleen controls all of the muscles in your body. And your gut, their muscles, their muscles too, they're just smooth muscles. So when you're worrying constantly, a lot of times people get constipated. Our liver, our liver is our kindness or our anger organ. I always have to nurture the liver because it's the detox metabolism organ too. But that's where we hold that anger and that go, go, go and do, do, do. And a lot of times, like you just said, when you tap into like say you're angry about something, if you really just quiet yourself, breathe a little bit, you can feel it in that actual organ. So it's just that's what's really cool about you know Chinese medicine too. It's been around for thousands of years and it really helps to release those emotions. I actually have a lot of people when they're getting acupuncture, they cry, you know, which is wonderful because tears are the window to the soul. It releases their when you cry. And a lot of times they've said to me, I have not cried in years, you know. So it's it's just it's beautiful to see. It really is.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm gonna have to come try, I've never tried acupuncture, but I've been so it's just fallen through. So I'm gonna have to book an appointment and come try it because I've been dying too. So absolutely, yeah. One of my roommates used to get it religiously, and she would just tell me how amazing it was. She just said it was so like stress-relieving for her.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, and that's exactly what it is. Because I mean, number one, you get, you know, 25 minutes to lay on a wonderful biomat with the needles in you to just chill with some nice music going and do some deep breathing. So it's kind of like a like a meditation, healing, you know, just a centering kind of a practice, too. You know, and too, qi gong. I don't know if you've ever heard of Qi Gong before. Qi gong is what people can do outside of here to help their bodies keep that energy flowing through those meridians because it's all about stagnation. You know, once again, energy just wants to be in motion. Tapping, you know, is a big part of qi gong. And there's all there's tons of free YouTube videos on Qi Gong. Lee Holden is one of my favorites. Yo Chi Yoga is another good one, but also too, you know, yoga. Yoga's movement, it's medicine, you know, and that's and that's all free. All you don't even need a yoga mat. You just put a blanket on the ground or you know, in your house, or go lay by a tree. Hug a tree. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. People who are from India like laugh about how we treat yoga here because it's really not that big of a deal there. It's like it's not well, it's a big deal, but it's not like treated like it is here. So funny. I love that. Okay, so you brought up some fun thing. I've been like, love that. So tell, can you explain maybe for people that don't understand acupuncture a little more too, who might be curious about it, like what that entails and how it works?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So with acupuncture, you have energy meridians that flow through your body and they're all connected by your organs. And there's something called qi energy, which it's spelled QI. They talked a lot about it in yoga and qigong, that qi energy flows through those meridians. And what happens from chemical, physical, emotional stress is that energy gets clogged or stagnant, or it starts moving too quickly. Most of the time, and especially in a country like this, where it's just the busy, busy life, things get stagnant. So when that energy gets stagnant, pain can happen, fertility issues can happen, stress, anxiety, insomnia. So, what the acupuncture needles do is they just they're just tiny little needles. Now, there's all different kinds of sizes of needles. I mean, they use some big ones over in China. The needles that I use are tiny. I mean, they do. I saw when I was acupuncture, I was like, no, thanks.

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't know that, but I find that so interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

Dental care to nub up the mouth. I'm like, nah, I'll just go to the dentist. But anyway, so these needles, they're tiny. They're about as thick as a piece of hair and they get inserted into these different points on your body. Right here is large intestine four. That's a very common in between your thumb and your pointer finger. That is the most commonly used acupuncture point. Most of the time, I'm inserting a needle into that point right there. So you insert that needle in. Sometimes I dial that needle in a little bit to get into that qi energy because your qi energy does flow through your blood. And then what happens is that invokes a nervous system response to get that energy moving through that pathway. So, and there's needles, you know, most of the time, your hands, your elbows, your chest, lung, large intestine, and heart run through your arms and your chest, stomach, spleen, low back.

SPEAKER_00:

Is there a forehead one? I feel like I've heard about the forehead one.

SPEAKER_01:

There is. There's actually one on the top of the head. It's a meeting of a thousand points that just resets your whole energy. But yeah, there's all kinds of like sinus points, third eye, sinus points here, TMJ, jaw points. You can do thyroid points, lung points. To open up that full chest, get that breath moving. Because once again, you know, back to breath, that is how we move the most energy in our body. So if anything, if anybody takes anything out of this, start breathing. Because, you know, a lot of us just don't breathe properly. But when those needles are inserted, you just lay there for about 20 or 25 minutes while those needles are doing their job of getting that energy moving. And then I just come in and take them out, and that's the session. And then also, too, you can lay on your face down too. And there's a whole bladder channel through your spine area. And that just really helps head, neck, mid back, low back, glutes, legs, sciatica points, things like that. So most of the time, people are laying on their back, though, because there's a lot of powerful points on the front of the body.

SPEAKER_00:

So what does that help for people who struggle with like chronic pain issues and autoimmune issues? I would assume are people that could really benefit from that?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Yeah. Because when it comes to, you know, autoimmune your body attacking itself or chronic fibromyalgia, really that's just a whole bunch of stagnation, which leads to inflammation in the body.

SPEAKER_00:

So usually people are stuffing emotions, right? Repression, isn't that autoimmune disease is repressing things?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. You know, and that's you know, chiropractic is really cool too, because of course the nervous system is the computer of your body. So getting adjusted is very important too. But I do find that sometimes acupuncture does tap into that deep down emotional body that sometimes an adjustment might not be able to get to. But you know, it's also about what that what that particular patient is, you know, willing to sometimes, you know, release too. But I think it really makes them aware of what they may be holding within their parents, causing pain.

SPEAKER_00:

That's what I found with energy work is sometimes I can tell something's off, but it takes me different modalities of energy work to really come to figure out what it is. Because I like no, but I can't figure out what exactly it is. And sometimes it's this kind of work that helps me figure out like, oh, it's this that I'm really struggling with, like this memory or this incident, and it relates to everything. But I would how does posture relate to health with from like with your chiropractic work?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, when grandma used to say stand up straight, she was definitely right. We live in such a digital world where everyone is just looking down at their phones or a computer or an iPad that when you when you hunch forward like that, number one, you're not getting that full oxygen up into your brain. And then two, it just, you know, punching forward like that really affects your low back and your hips too. So stretching, you know, stretching is everything while you're talking. Yeah, just moving, you know, rolling the head, you know, tapping into those areas to get energy moving. So posture is definitely key. We live in, you know, such a world where people are sitting, you know, eight hours a day. The body, the body is not made to sit like that. It throws off your hip flexors, it throws off your pelvis, and then it just creates such tension in the neck, you know, causing aches, insomnia. And then what that does is that causes uh subluxations, which are bones out of place in the spine, which that happens from chemical, physical, emotional stress. So posture really is key.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I had a client who had she survived a cancer diagnosis, but then developed some sleep apnea. But it was actually her straightening out her, she had this protective posture. And when she was able to fix her posture, her sleep apnea went away, which I was like, oh my god. I mean, like I would never have related the two, but now that I think about it, it makes total sense with everything. And so even the anatomy, but I just never thought about it. And I was like, man, that is so interesting. So it makes me think, and so much more is related to posture than we really realize. And I love watching, I love that your starters in physical therapy too, because there's some really great physical therapies that put therapists that put content about like how ADHD affects your posture and a lot of common health things that follow that that are all related to the way you carry your body. And I just didn't find that stuff so fascinating because we're so unaware of it. But it's like, wow, these are like simple things that just awareness can help you with.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, and that's one of the first things I check with every patient that comes in is their posture. And and most people don't, they don't even realize that they don't have good posture. I always recommend it's a styrofoam roller. I and it's they're on Amazon for about$20. And it's it's I always recommend the three-foot-long styrofoam roller that you can roll your back out on. You can roll your mid back out on, you can roll your glutes out, stretch your hamstrings, and 20 bucks to have with your little self-care area, you just can't beat it. And then rolling out that mid back from living in such a digital world where we're all looking down all the time. It just feels so good to open that chest up. I honestly don't know how people live without them. You know, because also, too, posture, you know, when it comes to posture from the front and the back, we should be perfectly straight, even shoulders, even hips. That's a rarity too, you know, in this world. From the side, you should have like a forward shaped curve in your neck and a back curve in your mid back and a forward shaped curve in your L back, kind of like an S. Most people are straight in that neck area, which puts a lot of tension onto your shoulders and the back of your neck. And then it's hard for oxygen to get up into your brain when you're all tied up in those areas.

SPEAKER_00:

So there's a I think mine actually curves the wrong way from I think it's from backpacking, but I know phones and stuff like that can do it too. But I backpack when I was a lot younger and you like curved to pull the weight. So I think that's where mine's from. But I've been a nurse too, so it's a lot of the same.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. And and you know, there's a there's a cervical, it's like a styrofoam thing that I recommend for people on Amazon. It's right around$20 too, and you just lay on it for about it. I know what you're talking about. Yeah, and that's a really good time to just take 15 to 20 minutes to yourself and just do a little bit of meditation, listen to some sulfegio tunes or some sound healing.

SPEAKER_00:

And under your red light.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. I love red light therapy. I'm really good about doing that during the winter time. It's awesome for your body.

SPEAKER_00:

It helps a lot with the seasonal because we live in the Midwest and it is gray here for like three months straight, and it really takes a toll on me. I'm like, oh my God, this is insane.

SPEAKER_01:

It definitely does. I agree.

SPEAKER_00:

So, in your practice, when people come in, do you offer these modalities individually? Do you assess people and make a plan? How does it go when people come to see you?

SPEAKER_01:

Everyone who starts here has a consultation. And in that consultation, we talk about, you know, exactly what they have going on, you know, whether it be pain, stress, they want to get blood work, you know, whatever it is. And then we decide which route to go, whether it be starting with acupuncture, chiropractic, or functional medicine. And a lot of times when people do the chiropractic or the acupuncture route, they end up getting one or the other as well. Because I do offer a combo service for a little bit of a discount at rate when you get both of those services on one day. But typically we start with just one modality just to see what's work, what works for people. I don't want to overwhelm anyone. Most of the time, I'll suggest just starting with a little bit of supplementation and go from there. And then just a lot of teaching them what they can do outside of here. You know, because two, that's that's accountability. You know, people have to be accountable for their own health. You know, I can only do so much here. You've got the power to do so much outside of here. And then also, too, you know, it makes them realize, you know, it's it's self-confidence, self-worth, you know. And then two, it's just cheaper in the long run, really. I'm not a I'm not a clinic where you're going to come get adjusted once or twice a week for three to six months. It's it's just not going to work that way. You know, I really want you to be able to do things outside of here. Maintenance care is very important too. You know, I always educate people about maintenance care, such as getting adjusted once a month is a good idea. That's what I do. I get a massage every month. I get Reiki energy work, probably about every one, two months, and then acupuncture once a month. So maintenance care is a good idea because that chemical, physical, and emotional stress that's always going to be there is just going to cause, you know, sometimes bones to misalign or energy channels to clog up. So it's just a good idea to do, you know, you think about going to the dentist, getting your oil changed. You know, it's important to take care of your teeth, your car, and your whole body.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that you say chemical with the stress because I don't think we associate that, but stress is chemicals. So I love that you say that because that makes it feel a lot more like it does affect your body. I like how you say that.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, you know, and too, you know, sleep is chemical too, because it's all about your, you know what I mean, your hormones. And, you know, a lot of times people just don't sleep. You know, they're staring, you know, looking at your phone at night before you go to bed is like looking at the sun at 12 p.m. You know, people stay up too late, they eat too late. Really, I find just getting trying to help people get into a good circadian rhythm helps so much the most. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. I was sleep deprived, I think, for like a decade and didn't even realize it until I like my husband was it was so good about sleep because he worked this job that went night day, and he taught me how to really respect my sleep. And I feel like so much of my health changed the moment I started really sleeping. It was just like this thing that I'm like, oh my God, how many people don't even know how and because we hear it so much, but how many people let it sink in? How are you really sleepy? Are you waking up at 3 a.m.? Are you tossing and turning? How much do you get up to pee? Are you really sleeping? And a lot of people aren't.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, when you sleep, you heal. And plus, too, you don't have to, you don't have to think about anything. You know, it's it's wonderful. But that's that's when your mitochondria, you know, the powerhouse of the cell, that's when they're recharging. Things are, you know, it's you heal when you sleep. It's extremely important to get into a good sleep routine.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. I love that. So powerful. So where do you suggest if people are listening to you this and they're like, oh my gosh, I need like all of that, but not everyone's like local in the area. So people that are just listening, what do you where do you suggest they get started or how they like you know get more of this kind of like education in their life?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, if people live around here, obviously coming to my wellness center, but if people don't live around here, I would really suggest finding a chiropractor or an acupuncturist. A lot of times chiropractors do acupuncture, just starting that route. And then two, a lot of times that doctor probably does functional medicine or knows someone that does. But two, if someone doesn't want to go the route of, you know, trying either of those modalities, meditating, just just quiet, you know, God's one and only voice is in silence. Spend some time alone. You know, I think a lot of a lot of illness comes from, and a lot of depression and anxiety comes from people just not being able to be alone, you know. I think people are scared of it. I mean, I love to be alone, but it it took me some time to give that gift to myself too. Because I think people too, the the guilt and the shame and the, you know, I've got this to do and I've got that to do. You you deserve it. Just give yourself some alone time every single day. And it's free.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. That's great. Yeah, I think uh it's hard for some of us to like there's a low-level anxiety people have to address sometimes. You have to learn to sit with, and it's hard, it's really hard.

SPEAKER_01:

It is hard, you know. And I too, I also, you know, hope. You know, always, you know, you're gonna have good days, you're gonna have bad days. Every day is a new day, and I think a gratitude, a gratitude practice is really nice too, because we really are just very lucky, you know. I think sometimes people just get caught up in that that monkey mind, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. Yeah, gratitude, that's such a great suggestion because gratitude seems is something that's so overlooked with how powerful it can be. I have like one of my really close friends lost a son, and and the only relevance I say that is because when I talk to her about like getting through it, gratitude is the thing she comes back to all the time. She's like, it sounds so silly, but being grateful for what is going well, what you have, the people in your life is like it's the hope that people need. And so a lot of us have a lot of things that we could be grateful for, and we just need to slow down and take the time to acknowledge it. And so when I'm like really struggling, I try to remember that I have this gratitude journal that one of my guests sent me, actually, and I like pull it out and I'm like, okay, gratitude time. Because it's true, there's a lot to be grateful for, regardless of what's going on in your life.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Yeah, and you know, just back to you know, listening to videos too, just retraining your mind. Wayne Dyer, Maya Angelo, Joe Dispenza. And there's so many free things that you can listen to on different platforms, and just have your headphones in and you know, just having that in the background because it takes retraining your mind to actually relax too. Because we're not taught, at least I wasn't taught that when I was growing up. I mean, they taught that in school. It was go, go, go, do, do, do, be better, be this, be that. That's not what we're here for.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I think that narrative is pushed in social media too. I I know there's a lot of wellness out there too, but wellness also can be this like perfectionism. Sometimes it can get twisted, and it's this like do everything, be everything to everyone, wear all these hats. And I really think health is kind of the opposite of that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you you really have to fill up your own cup before you fill up any else, anybody else's, too. You know, hard lessons learned for me, you know, people pleasing, taking care of everyone else, you know, before myself, that that's definitely not where it's at.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, you just burn yourself out even faster. I love that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you can't give from an empty cup, too.

SPEAKER_00:

So I did want to ask you one question that I forgot earlier. So if someone has a fear of like needles, or I know, like for in the nursing community, neck adjustments is something we're afraid of. And you know, the common things that come up when they hear about these modalities, how do you address those with people or how what would you say to those people?

SPEAKER_01:

So, in terms of people being afraid of needles, I will literally pull out each needle that I use is a one-time use. I will pull out a needle and I will put it into a couple different needles into my own body to show them how it's really not that big of a deal. That tends to alleviate a lot of their fear. I also tell them, too, and show them an acupuncture needle is nothing like a hypodermic needle. The size is 0.08 millimeters in terms of the needles that I use. It doesn't go into your veins like a hypodermic needle would. Um, so I literally will show them to dispel some of that fear. And then, in terms, and then too, a lot of people have tattoos, you know, and I'll ask, you know, do you have a tattoo? And most people do. And I'm like, well, this is nothing like getting a tattoo. If it's a woman and they've had a child, I will definitely say you have given birth. So you know what, you know, and everybody's had something that's caused a lot of pain in their body. It's it it's it's just nothing that even compares to that pain level. So I think too, just talking to them, you know, and answering any and all questions and being very informative. Because I'm a very analytical person. I want to know, well, how does this work? What are we doing? How long am I gonna be here? You know, and I think tell, you know, teaching people and talking to them dispels a lot of that fear too. And in terms of neck adjusting, you really have to be, you have to do orthopedic tests on people. Number one, to see if it's safe to manually adjust their neck, because there are some people that should not have their necks manually adjusted. A lot of elderly people, I wouldn't even think of adjusting their necks manually. And I think a lot of things, a lot of things that people don't know is there's thousands of ways to adjust the spine. Manually, low force tools, machines. I have a little activator. It's a spring-loaded device that I will use on people. Whereas, like when you're doing a manual adjustment, you know, typically I would, you know, take a contact, bend the head, turn it, just give it a little quick thrust in there. This little tool just comes up to the bone that's out of place, and I just click that bone into place. And then that when you don't have to worry about any of the blood supply, arteries, nothing like that. And then, two, I'm really big on doing muscle work because all of your muscles are connected to those bones. Most of the time, or a lot of the time, those tight muscles are pulling those bones out anyway. So we have to nurture that, get them breathing, get them taking probably a little bit of magnesium, drinking some water, doing some stretching. So there's other avenues other than just the manual adjusting. And there's people who have said to me, please don't manually adjust my neck. And I definitely, and I always remember that, and I respect what they say. But most of the time, people do like their necks manually adjusted, but I totally get it if they don't. There's other avenues.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that you said that muscle work too, because I think like, you know, it plays such a huge role in it because we, you know, we do these repetitive motions for whatever we do all the time. Our muscles over tighten in certain ways. And I know like shoulders, especially, like, you know, how many things muscles and ligaments are involved in your shoulders. Muscle work is so important. It's just gonna keep pulling you back out if you don't do the right muscle work.

SPEAKER_01:

100%.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. So if someone is listening to this and they live close enough to come see you, how would someone initiate that or get involved or where would they go? In case they're just getting it. Because I'm gonna put everything in the show notes, butcha.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, they can call the office and set up a consultation. 618-398-5476. They can get on the website, which is drbridgetlybarger.com, and the doctor is just DR and it's all lowercase. There's a contact form on there that they can email us and set up a consultation. They can also text the office cell, which is 618-401-3312. And then I'm on Facebook too. So I have a personal page and a stage as wellness holistic page under Dr. Bridget Liebarger. Feel free to DM me on Facebook or Instagram to set up a consultation as well.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. I love that. Okay, and so I ask all my guests this, but what is your go-to self-care when you when things are like spinning out of control for you?

SPEAKER_01:

I would say yoga, taking a nice salt bath. It's a whole routine. It would take me like three hours. I love it. Sitting in a sauna, doing red light, a little bit of yoga, a bath, and taking a nap. Eating a good lunch before I take my nap.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. That's great. It's a routine. That's great, like a crisis routine. That's great. I love that. Yeah. Okay. Is there anything you want to leave us with before we wrap up? Anything you want to say or put out there?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I just want to say, you know, just to give everybody hope. I mean, everybody's got the power to take care of themselves. You know, community is important too. You know, reach out to family, friends. I would say boundaries. Boundaries are very important too. I mean, my main thing would be, you know, just start a minimal self-care routine. You know, it's all about consistency, patience. And then I just want to thank you, Jen, for having me on this podcast. I really greatly appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yes. Anytime. I absolutely love that. I feel like there's so much more to learn about each one of these things. Like we just brushed the surface. So maybe we'll have to have you come back sometime so we can dig deeper into some of these. So thank you so much for coming.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. You're welcome. You have a great day.

SPEAKER_00:

You too.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you.

Head Shot

Jenn Ohlinger

Host
Head Shot

Dr Bridget Lybarger

Guest

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