Hi there and welcome to another episode of the Root Cause Clinic Podcast.
Thank you for your patience as we missed a week while I was in
Italy. And speaking of Italy,
one topic I wanted to touch on that a couple of you have asked
me about is how I stay on track with my health while traveling.
And the answer is, I don't really do anything specific.
The truth is, once you do the work to detox,
regulate your nervous system, and heal your metabolism,
your body has the resilience to have a couple of weeks without regular exercise,
eating lots of pasta, and basically getting quote-unquote off track.
With a healthy lifestyle. And that is the beauty of doing this work.
Knowing that in the future, you'll have more freedom and metabolic flexibility
to eat new things, try new things,
without the fear of symptoms popping up. I did bring my magnesium,
A-binder, and electrolyte packets,
but other than that, I wasn't too concerned.
about my food intake, and I drank some alcohol while I was there,
too. Another thing that made it easier in Italy was everyone walks everywhere,
so we were walking up to 20,000 steps per day.
and obviously they don't use GMOs or pesticides,
so all of their food is completely free of preservatives.
On one hand, this does make you realize just how many toxins they pump
into our foods in America, but on the other hand,
we always have a choice. We can make sacrifices in other areas of life
to choose organic, healthier foods. in America.
So I am still very grateful to have that choice here.
Okay, enough about Italy.
Let's jump into your questions and topics for this week.
The first topic was acne,
detox regarding acne, and the nervous system relationship to acne.
So I'll start with the first piece of this.
How does detoxification play an important role in healing acne?
One of the most overlooked organs I see when people are addressing chronic acne
is the liver. A sluggish liver can significantly disrupt the balance
of hormones in the body, particularly estrogen.
When the liver is not functioning optimally,
it struggles to metabolize and eliminate excess estrogen,
leading to elevated levels of estrogen in the bloodstream.
That excess estrogen can trigger an increase in oil production in the skin,
clogging pores, and promoting the development of cystic acne.
Additionally, the liver plays a crucial role in detoxifying the body.
So when it becomes sluggish, toxins can accumulate,
exacerbating skin issues and inflammation.
It's very rare for me to work with a client who struggles with this
acne that doesn't have some kind of dysregulation happening in the liver.
So that's an important piece of the puzzle and it was a huge factor
in my own acne healing journey as well.
Another thing to consider here is pathogens in the gut.
When we look at helminth parasites or pathogenic bacteria,
overgrowing in the gut, not only are they causing additional inflammation,
but they're creating micro abrasions on the gut lining,
aka tiny holes that leach food particles and toxins
into your bloodstream and cause an immune response.
This is what a lot of people call leaky gut.
And this is also where a lot of immune cases start to develop,
excuse me, autoimmune cases, and where we start to see a lot of food
allergies because your immune system is constantly over activated.
Some people, due to their genetics and health history,
are going to be more prone to developing acne spots when spikes of inflammation
happen. Everyone has their biological weaknesses,
for others it may be something like anxiety or chronic pain.
This is where the acne healing process can be frustrating too because it takes
so long, but you have to remember that because of this biological weakness,
acne is going to pop up pretty much throughout the entire detox process.
Every time a parasite dies off and releases histamines,
every time we shift to targeting a new toxin or pathogen,
every single time we elicit a small stress response,
the potential for a new acne spot is there and that's just how it
goes. So patience is really a virtue with acne healing.
For the second part of this topic, the relationship between acne and the nervous
system, it's a similar situation.
Stress activates the body's fight-or-flight response,
leading to the release of cortisol. When cortisol is levels become dysregulated
due to chronic stress or trauma,
it can result in an imbalance of other hormones,
including androgens, which stimulate sebaceous glands to produce more oil.
This excess oil, combined with stress-induced inflammation,
can clog pores and
create an environment conducive to the growth of acne-causing bacteria.
Additionally, high cortisol levels can impair the skin's healing processes,
making it even more prone to inflammation and cystic acne for a So,
there's a lot of interplay between stress,
cortisol dysregulation, and skin health that will look a bit different
depending on the person. Overall,
this just highlights the importance of working through the correct order of operations for
healing and leaving no stone unturned.
We want to open drainage pathways, especially the liver,
purge parasites, work on deeper toxins,
and throughout, place emphasis on foundational health pillars like nutrition,
reducing toxin exposures, and healthy stress management.
Alright, the next question was,
can you get parasites from your dog licking you after they've sniffed around a
public area or something contaminated,
and does it make a difference if your dog is on heartworm meds?
This is a great question because I am a huge dog lover and it
truly kills me that there's so much fear-mongering out there surrounding having pets.
So the short answer here is yes, you can pick up parasites and other
pathogens from coming in contact with a dog's mouth,
but you can also get parasites from walking barefoot,
eating literally any food with ova on it,
breathing in larvae, swimming in fresh water,
passed out in utero, the list goes on.
So instead of fearing these exposures,
the best mindset is knowing that they're going to happen regardless,
and creating a healthy terrain and strong stomach acid will
immediately kill anything you come in contact with.
So that's really what we want to focus on here.
Another way to look at it is we know from scientific studies that children
who grow up on farms around a lot of animals have healthier and more
robust immune systems and microbiomes.
So it's another one of those debates where we have to ask,
do we try to avoid and kill every pathogen,
or do we heal our terrain? And if you watched module one of the
Root Cause Clinic online course, you definitely already know my answer there.
When it comes to dogs, heartworm meds do help keep their parasite load
lower, and I do give my dog, my own dog,
heartworm. I know there's a lot of debate over that,
but it's what I've always done. I think it's important for humans to parasite
cleanse, and I think it's important for pets,
too. So when it comes to pets and pathogens,
it's really all about balance. All right,
next question was, will deep detoxing help with symptoms we may not have necessarily
been focusing on, such as PMS symptoms?
Yes, absolutely. The reason I don't focus on hormonal symptoms
is because they are a root cause. A great example is what I touched
on a bit earlier with acne.
If there's toxin buildup in the liver, it's not going to be able to
detox excess estrogen, and with that,
you're going to see symptoms like hormonal acne,
period cramps, etc. Most of my clients do notice huge hormonal
shifts, just like by working through root causes like drainage support,
parasite cleansing, and especially binding heavy metals from the endocrine glands and
the uterus. So, although from a conventional perspective,
it may not look like we're doing any work to support your hormones,
that's actually exactly what we're doing. But,
we're addressing the real root causes of the stress Which most hormone practitioners don't
do. So, it looks a lot different than your average quote-unquote hormone healing program.
Okay, next question here. Do store-bought liver support teas make an
effective difference as a part of liver care?
Or, what ways-slash-supplements would you suggest we use to upkeep our liver health
even after we've finished our protocol with you?
Like I often say, detox is a lifelong process.
Your body is never going to stop detoxing.
That's what keeps you alive. So, it is important to continue supporting your liver.
Even beyond our program together.
Some of my favorite ways to do this are with teas like dandelion root
or green tea, castor oil packs,
coffee enemas, and doing a more in-depth parasite cleanse once or twice
per year. And you'll receive more information on that during your off-boarding process as
well. The best and most important way to support your liver is
with functional nutrition, flooding the body with minerals,
keeping stress at a healthy level, and toxin reduction.
The best way to avoid toxin overload is not to detox,
but to reduce the toxin exposures in the first place.
So switching to non-toxin hair and body care products,
reducing or eliminating alcohol consumption,
avoiding pesticides, and other food-borne chemicals to the best of your ability are
all helpful in that respect. And if you're worried about this when we wrap
up your program, this is something we can touch on in more depth one-to-one,
and I can send over additional recommendations.
All right. That was all of the questions for this week.
As always, thank you for submitting these,
and let me know what other topics you'd like me to cover in the
next podcast. I hope you're enjoying the start of a new fall,
and I will touch base with you during all of your check-ins.
Have a great rest of your day. Bye-bye.
