Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark - What To Do After a Tick Bite + Can You Reverse Alpha-Gal? | Dr. Will Cole

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

One tick bite can change what you're able to eat for the rest of your life 🩸Dr. Will Cole is back on the show, and we're connecting the dots between Alpha-gal, Lyme, histamine intolerance, and autoimmune disease — why so many immune systems are suddenly turning on their owners. Then we get into the GLP-1 conversation everyone's dancing around: who these drugs are really for, and what nobody tells you about what happens when you stop.Thank you to our sponsors!GEVITI: Use code "ALEX" to get 20% off of your first purchaseLOVEBIRD: Use code 'ALEX20' for 20% off your purchasTOOTH PILLOW: Use code "ALEXCLARK" for a free video review upgradeA'DEL NATURAL COSMETICS: Use code "ALEX" for 25% off first time ordersPUORI: Use code "ALEX" for 32% off Puori Creatine+ when you start a subscriptionQ FOR QUINN: Use code "ALEX" for 15% off your non-toxic clothing todayOur Guest:Dr. Will Cole Dr. Will's Links:WebsiteInstagramYouTubeTikTokApple Podcast BooksFOLLOW ALEX:Instagram |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @realalexclark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@cultureapothecary⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @yoalexrapz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @RealAlexClark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcast |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to ‘Culture Apothecary’ on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. New episodes drop 6pm PST/ 9pm EST every Monday and Thursday.DISCLAIMER: This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always talk to a qualified healthcare professional for any health-related questions or decisions.

You go on a hike, you get bit by a tick, and then suddenly you can't eat steak anymore. How is that even possible? With Alvigal syndrome specifically, it's from a bite from the lone star tick. Our gut, our immune system, we're exposed to all the stuff, microplastics and forever chemicals and EMFs. The lone star tick or the deer tick, the straw that broke the camp was back. Mainstream medicine has spent decades making it their job to medically gaslight people with these, what they would call mystery illnesses, right? these stealth infections like chronic Lyme disease and alpha-gal and mold toxicity. It's this fear machine that's coming out to say, keep your kids inside or spray yourself with toxic insect repellent.

They should do neither one of these. A single tick bite can change what you eat for the rest of your life. A glass of wine can trigger what feels like a panic attack. Chronic fatigue, brain fog, autoimmune disease, even anxiety might have more in common than we've been led to believe. Today, we're connecting the dots between Alpha-Gal syndrome, Lyme disease, histamine intolerance, immune dysfunction, and the bigger question, why are so many people's immune systems suddenly turning against them? And we also tackle one of the hottest debates of medicine right now, GLP1 drugs, you know, who they're actually for, and what happens when you come off of them. Joining me is Dr. Will Cole, friend of the show, a leading functional medicine practitioner, host of the Art of Being Well podcast with Dear Media, and co-author alongside Dr. Josh Axe of heal yourselves reversing the irreversible, a book exploring how to reclaim energy, improve health, and support longevity.

Watch this one on the real Alex Clark YouTube or Culture Apothecary on Spotify, and then look for Dr. Will's interview of me on his show this week. Make sure before we start that you pause, leave a five-star review for us. Tell me your favorite guests that I've ever had on. Please welcome Dr. Will Cole to Culture Apothecary for a second time. Are we seeing an entirely new food allergy epidemic? because of ticks? Sadly, yeah. It's growing by leaps and bounds. What was completely rare we never heard of as a human race. It doesn't mean it wasn't going on, but it was just unknown in the early

2000s has now a hundredfold increase, I think is the latest statistics of alpha-gal syndrome. It's an allergy to a sugar molecule that's in mammalian products in meat and dairy, many meat in dairy. Everybody's talking about Alphagal. It's all I see on social media. So basically, the concept is you go on a hike, you get bit by a tick, and then suddenly you can't eat steak anymore. I mean, how is that even possible? There's lots of different variables that are at play here of why we're seeing the rise of these stealth infections and biotoxins as a whole. When you look at bacteria, virus, even mold, and parasites, it's a lot of things. I see it through an ancestral health perspective or the way that humans do things and the way that God does things. And the more

that humans pretend to be God, there's unintended consequences and sometimes intended consequences. Is there some kind of common denominator with people who are getting Al-Gal-Gal? Like they all have mold exposure or anything like that? With Al-Fagal syndrome specifically, it's from a bite from the lone star tick, which it's not just in Texas with the Lone Star Tick. It's from the Southwest, all the the way up to the northeast and New England. It's a lot of people. And again, we're seeing a hundred fold increase. That's the CDC statistic. I venture to say normally when you look at statistics like that, it's widely underreported undiagnosed. And why are we seeing this rise of tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease and co-infections to Lyme and Alpha-Gal syndrome? It's multifaceted. It's not

just one thing. It's a perfect storm of different variables as far as I'm concerned and what I'm seeing on the proverbial ground helping telehealth patients with it. But they get bit by the tick, and they have an allergy to the molecule, the sugar molecule that's in meat and dairy, and it's delayed. It'll have digestive problems. They'll have inflammatory problems, other inflammatory type symptoms, which can be far reaching for people. And it really can be debilitating. I mean, you're talking about meat and dairy, two of the most nutrient-dense foods in the planet. Now these people are not able to eat it, And it's our job in functional medicine to start to recalibrate the immune system, recalibrate the nervous system, to let the body know that it's safe once we deal with these chronic infections that's causing this hypervigilance.

So you're asking why, what's the common denominator? Well, first of all, the hundredfold increase, why we're seeing so many cases, part of it, we have to be fair. We're testing for it more now than before. There's more awareness. There's more, you know, the conversations on social media. People are becoming aware. They may have had symptoms before. This may have been going on to some degree in decades past,

but it just was this random allergy that showed up and they didn't know it was caused by a tick because most people don't even see the tick when they get bitten. But the Lone Star tick can cause a lot of different bacterial and other pathogen infections. One of it's called, or Likia, it's a specific type of bacteria like Borrelia burgdorferi with Lyme disease and the deer tick, even though we know it's not just about the deer tick,

there's other vectors too, other insects, but specifically, classically, the deer tick for Lyme disease, the lone star tick for alpha-gal syndrome, interliciosis, these other infections. So why is it happening? It is, at the very surface level, it's because of habitat, like a suburban sprawl, if you will. The deer are in our backyards more as humans are going into, the deer a forest to hang out with us basically and we're being exposed to these ticks whereas maybe before the deer were able to go into the forest and they weren't able they weren't around us as much that's part of it climate shifts are another one where maybe the winters are not killing off the ticks like they used to and that's cyclical it happens throughout human history we see climate shifts that's another possibility

of why it's been so bad the past few decades with alvigal specifically there's no evidence of this but for Lyme disease, I am interested in the potential, and it's highly likely, that there are at least one piece of the puzzle, not the entirety of it, was gain of function research. It was bio-weapons research done in the mid-20th century with Lyme disease, with the United States government and other interests, tinkering with nature to make pathogens more virulent. There's no evidence, again, for Alvigal syndrome, that this is happening. But the way that this is... Well, we know they did gain-of-function stuff for COVID. Yes. This is the same concept for people that don't know. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. These people think they

know better than God. They think they know better than nature. And there's unintended, or you could say intended consequences, but a lot of these accidental lab leaks or actually accidental lab leaks that happen, the tick bacteria have been around for eons. It's found in fossilized wood. So to be clear, humans didn't create these bacteria. But just like they did supposedly, allegedly with COVID, how can we make it spread faster, more severe in humans, and specifically the research with ticks and Lyme disease, is how can we use ticks as a vector for pathogens, for different bacteria? So is that a possibility?

It's been talked about in Congress. I've been books written about it. Willie Bogdorfer, who's the scientist that was the tick bacteria, Lyme bacteria, was named after, allegedly said before he died that he was doing research, gained a function research. So it's a lot of different variables that have to do with climate. We're around deer more. We're getting bit by these pathogens. And overall, look, it's not just the pathogen. It's the human resilience. Our gut, our immune system isn't, we're exposed to all this stuff, microplastics and forever chemicals and EMFs where it's, is the lone star tick or the deer tick, the straw that broke the camel's back. Is it this pathogen? Everything in moderation is killing us. Yeah, it's the perfect storm of variables.

And it's creating, like you said, this fear to get out in nature, to get out in God's creation. So that was my next question. Because of the threat of Alpha-Gal, do you think that parents should be keeping their kids indoors all summer? No, absolutely not. And I think that's the messaging, whether unintended or unintended sometimes with sort of the mainstream. Look, mainstream medicine has spent decades making. at their job to medically gaslight people with these, what they would call it mystery illnesses, right? These stealth infections like chronic Lyme disease and alpha-gal and mold toxicity,

long COVID as well. Like, you can't have it, right? It's just an acute infection, just take doxycycline, you're fine. They spent years medically gaslighting these people. Then all of a sudden, it's this fear machine that's coming out to say, keep your kids inside or spray yourself with toxic insect repellent. They should do neither one of these. Get it out in God's creation. Sunlight's one of the best healers. Nature is one of the best healers. If you look at the research of Shinran Yoku and using nature as a medicine and meditation, it's profoundly healing to get into God's creation. But be smart about it. Because we live in a crazy world that's broken, that's fallen, that's not the way that God designed it. For whatever reason, these pathogens are there.

Use non-toxic spray. Do a tick check. when you come inside. There's a lot of practical, common sense things that you can do to still get outside and get all the benefits of moving your body and being in nature and do not live in fear, because stressing about these things is sometimes worse than the potential, because even if somebody is bit by a tick, does that tick even have the bacteria or not? And then even if they do have it, it's a small percentage of bacteria will even, it doesn't mean you're going to have the transmission and have symptoms anyways. So my practical advice here is if you want to, if you can, find the tick, not everybody sees the tick when they get bit. How it's sent in, there's a lot of

labs around the United States where they're actually doing research on this to see if the tick tick that bit you or someone that you love. Does it carry the pathogen or not? And then if so, get yourself tested as well simultaneously to kind of see. Because I see many people that will come back positive for these pathogens and they're completely asymptomatic. So again, it's this convergence of epigenetics and genetics. Some people, I think, are just more prone to these hyper-inflammatory, symptoms because of what's going on in their health, if they don't have good metabolic health, if they don't have good gut health. There's certain gene variants that are called HLA gene variants, human leukocyte antigens. It's how the body regulates inflammation. There's so much

bioindividuality. So some people can be bit by tick, even if it has a pathogen and they're completely fine. Their body will create antibodies the way that God designed them to. That's these defense mechanisms. But the person feels fine. And then the next person that ticks in for just a little bit, but they have this gene variant, they have an unhealthy gut. It's this perfect storm of epigenetic and genetic components, and it triggers inflammatory symptoms that wrecks their life. So the point is, it's not cut and dried. Don't live in fear. Live your life.

Do the best you can. Give the rest to God. I know you just touched on this, but could you more in depth explain why our immune systems are becoming so easily hijacked by something like a tick bite? It starts with the food that we eat. If we really want to break down, what's the science say of why our body? our genome is living in a brave new world that our genetics they don't change I mean it's been been the same for thousands and thousands of years but our world has changed dramatically in a finite period of time so what research is called an

epigenetic genetic mismatch this chasm between our world our DNA our microbiome and our DNA and the microbiome's DNA all the trillions of bacteria in our gut have unchanged but yet the world around us is so different so it's the foods we're eating or the foods we're not eating. It's environmental toxins that things we're exposed to in our air and water. It's chronic stress. It's unresolved trauma. I think part of that's a spiritual disconnection that people have. And we know that from the research. I mean, people that have a spiritual practice in their life tend to live longer, happier lives. They're more resilient from a nervous system standpoint. There's less oxidative stress and inflammation on average. Plus, they feel

like they have a purpose. Right. Because I mean, whether, no matter what religion you believe in, and you believe there's a purpose of you being here and something you're supposed to accomplish and do. And so I think that also gives people motivation to live. Absolutely. So it's a combination of mental components, physiological components, spiritual components, that we have this great mismatch.

Something's got to give. So is it the foods, it's the environmental toxins, it's stress or trauma, is it spiritual disconnection? It's all of it. And what's the straw that broke the camel? back? What's the proverbial tipping point to quote Malcolm Gladwell? And for many people, it's this, it could be a traumatic time in their life. It could be, you know, a loss of a loved one, that their symptoms flared up after that. For some people, it could be a virus, right? It could be

COVID. It triggered a histamine intolerance or mass cell activation for some people. For some people, it's an unhealthy gut or its exposure to environmental toxin. Or for some people, it's a tick bite. Let's say I find a tick on me this afternoon. Should we save it? Do we call a dog? doctor, what's the biggest mistake people make? Ideally, I would recommend sending it in, sending in and having it tested. And now, you could, you don't, I'm not saying you have to. And for many people, they don't save it. And then there's a lot of regret and stress about it.

I should have sent it in, a lot of unknowns. Ideally, I would want to send the tick in. And there's, depending on the state that you're in, there's different labs that you can send it in and have it tested. And at that point, you can, the labs will actually tell you how long it was in. you. They'll tell you, does it have the pathogen or not? What type of co-infection, Babesia, Bartonella, Borrelia, and at that point, you can get a little bit more data on the context of it. And a lot of times these tick tests that you send the tick in, they're completely free.

So I would say the first thing is try to get the tick if you see it and send it in. And then what I would do, and it's happened to me before when I've been bitten, is to get, to start some proactive things you can do in the meantime. So some people choose to go get a round of doxycycline and antibiotic just to play it safe. I don't think you have to go that far unless you have a history of chronic Lyme symptoms and maybe some people that would be logical. But I would want to wait for a test, even though the test is not perfect. You can make that decision for yourself if you want to be putting yourself on a pharmaceutical antibiotic more casually.

But what I would do is at the very least taking some herbal antimicrobials. and that's what I do, what I recommend to our telehealth patients, if they're bitten, if we're waiting on labs, if they have a history of different inflammatory symptoms, and they just want to play it safe, play it conservatively. So what are the herbal things? I like a lot of South American antimicrobial. So the things that people haven't heard of oftentimes, but I find it be very effective when we retest on labs, this pathogen load and the inflammatory markers respond really well to it. It kills off these pathogens very effectively. One's called Waka Piranha, Cats Claw, which people would know that, Cemento is what it's caused indigenously. Houtunia is another herbal antimicrobial.

Cicropia is an anti-inflammatory that I like. Otoba is another one that I like. And then oregano is effective as well. Pouda-Arco. Yeah, those are some of the most common herbal antimicrobial. This is what I recommend to people to cycle them. Because depending on the pathogen, they're each, their work synergist,

So I like blends and I like cycling. So at that point, you're supporting the immune system in a more holistic way. What does that mean to cycle? Cycles. You're doing a few of the antimicrobials for one week and then you can cycle it on the next one for the second round for the second week. Or you can do a few weeks on one, three to four weeks on one round and then the other three to four weeks you're cycling on the other. We play around with it. There's a lot of sort of the art and science of this.

But we have to track how do you feel on these antimicrobials. So one herb per week? I would do a combination. Okay. So basically half of those. Okay. A round of half of those. And then another round of the other half.

Okay. Thanks for being super descriptive because I know the audience appreciates that. So at what point, like, do you call a doctor versus just keep an eye on it? It depends on you and your situation. Are you somebody that has a history? of being more sensitive. You have a history of autoimmune problems. You may want to be a little bit more vigilant, not hypervigilant, not stressing and obsessing about this. Keep in mind, the mental health component about this is really important. But you're going to make, you may take a little bit more steps that maybe some people will think it's overkill, but you know your body. So don't

let other people gaslight you and don't gaslight yourself. So what I mean by that is you're going to maybe want to get tested to see are these things reactivated. You're going to want to send the take in to see what is the context of it so you can have peace of mind. You're going to maybe not wait for those labs to get back so you start these herbal antimicrobials. And for all of this, let me just say this, is that these pathogens are one thing, but then some people, because of these genetic variants, the immune system, inflammation is a product of the immune system, and the larger, what's called the neuro-immuno-endocrin axis, which is the intersection between the nervous system, the immune system, and the endocrine system. The body

doesn't know that it's safe. So the pathogen may have been the tipping point that caused that hypervigilant inflammatory response, but we need to let the body know that it's safe. So that's where it's not just the antimicrobials. It's not just about that protocol, right? It's important to deal with the pathogen, but then we have to let the body know that it's safe and to support that parasympathetic, that resting, digesting. So I have every person in this category. or if they have symptoms to be doing things like vagal nerve stimulation. But just basically it's the largest cranial nerve in the body. It's responsible for that resting, digesting, because that person, they're stuck in that

sympathetic fight or flight stress state. So we have to find ways to support the nervous system, which is very important. Because in theory, you can deal with the pathogen. You can deal with whatever, or relicchio or Borrelia. It looks great on the lab, but the person still has symptoms. So what are your favorite ways to support your nervous system? I would pick something active and something passive is typically what I recommend. So something active is something that you do.

You have to show up and do the protocol. So it could be breathwork. It could be meditation. It could be EMDR therapy. It could be journaling, something as simple as journaling, what we call ugly journaling, a journal speak. If you've heard of that, Nicole Sachs' work. It's writing things that you would never tell anybody. But you're writing pen to paper, pencil to paper in a journal, not typing on your phone.

Because even writing versus typing works different parts of the brain that's healing in and of itself. And even conversation of, you know, cursive in schools. And just like maybe practice penmanship, practice cursive as a meditation in and of itself. But beyond the writing style itself, that's calming to the nervous system. But it's prompts that I'll give people like, what does it feel like to be me today? which is heavy when you don't feel good. This is for people that have the Lyme symptoms, that have the alpha-gal symptoms,

that have the mold toxicity symptoms, whatever we're talking about. But you're writing for 20 minutes a day. We prescribe that it's like showing up to the gym. You're doing that 20-minute somatic, cathartic, you're metabolizing stored stress and trauma in the body. You can burn it afterwards if you want. So it could be something like that,

could be EMDR, it could be some, I mentioned vagal nerve stimulation. Those type of things are more passive. Those are things, devices, wearables that you wear on the background, but it's stimulating weak parts of the nervous system. The vagus nerve is weak in a lot of people, and that's part of this lack of resilience, this bioterrain, if you will, that is weak. How do you stimulate it? It's almost like for lack of, this is how I describe it. It's kind of like e-stem on the skin, specifically on the ear or the neck, that is stimulating branches of the vagus.

nerve. Okay. G-U-S. That it's the largest cranial nerve in the body that we need to tone because it's weak. Because if you think of the autonomic nervous system like a seesaw, the sympathetic fight or flight is overactive. We don't need to train that so much for most of us. The paristhepathetic, the resting, digesting hormone balance, the grounded, safe state of the

nervous system is weak. So, yes, healing your gut, eating nutrient-dense foods is supporting nervous system regulation. but we also need to get a little bit more specific on the mental, emotional, sometimes spiritual components of how do we tell the body and let the body know that it's safe? Because there's 30 trillion cells that believe it's not for many people. I need to say something because I see this in my DMs every single day. Alex, I want to get my health together, but I just don't know where to start. Or I'll do it later when I have more money.

You know, I've heard every version of this and I get it. The system is confusing on purpose. You go to a doctor. They check like five things. They tell you you're fine. They send you home. Meanwhile, you're still feeling exhausted, inflamed, just off. So then you do nothing. You wait, and waiting becomes your health plan. This is why I'm really excited about what Jevity just did. They launched a completely free tier, not a trial, free. You go to gogevity.com, upload blood work that you already have from any lab, and they give you a personalized longevity blueprint that analyzes over 90 biomarkers and actually shows you what's going on. When I saw my blueprint,

I didn't just want to know. I mean, I saw all that info and I wanted to fix it. And if that's you, after finding out about what's going on with you, you can do the Jevity Plus membership. You get an actual functional clinician who walks through your results and builds a plan around you. Not a template. They build you a plan and they don't stop at just testing.

You get access to supplements, peptides, hormone optimization, nutrition help, real protocols based on your labs. They test over 90 biomarkers, retest every six months, adjust your plan. and you have a care team you can actually message. Go to gogevity.com, use code Alex. Again, go to gogevity.com, use code Alex. Let's talk about breakfast in America, which is essentially dessert, marketed to children.

You wake up, you pour a bowl of something that's been engineered in a lab by a man named Greg who hasn't seen sunlight since 2004, and you're like, this is a great way to start the day. Meanwhile, it's loaded with pesticides, refined sugar, artificial dyes, basically a chemistry set with a cartoon bird on the front so you don't ask questions.

And even the healthy cereals, Oh, don't even get me started. It's like, now with ancient grains. Okay, great. Still poison. You walk into the store, you're like, I'm not buying junk cereal. I'm getting Cheerios. I'm a good person. Let's talk about Cheerios. You're eating 729 parts per billion of glyphos. Oh, and if you really want to treat yourself, how about Honeynut Cheerios? Over 800 parts per billion. This is why Lovebird exists. Lovebird is a cereal brand that was invented by a dad who worked in big food. And he was like, I'm not feeding this garbage to my kid anymore, which is the most radical thing you can do in this country. country. Care. Lovebird took out all the fake stuff, no synthetic pesticides, no refined sugar, no weird lab ingredients, and replaced it with actual food. We're talking organic cassava, prebiotic fiber, lightly sweetened with honey, things your body recognizes instead of rejects, and now they've gone even further with their new protein cereal. 11 grams of protein made with grass-fed way, sweetened with organic coconut sugar, gluten-free, non-GMO, third-party tested, and it tastes phenomenal, which is rare because most healthy protein cereals taste disgusting. I'm not

going to lie to you. I love the cinnamon one. And if you're trying to get your kids off ultra-processed junk, this is the move. You swap in something familiar, right? You're not totally changing their life. They're used to cereal in the morning. But now you're going to start with something non-toxic. Also, Lovebird donates 20% of profits to fight childhood cancer. They're family-owned, independent, and they even have a program to swap junk cereal in schools for real food at the same price. So you can email them, find their info on their website, and tell them about your kids' school, and they'll send cereal for free, which is insane because they're basically losing money, just to fix the system. These are the types of companies that I sponsor on my show. Okay, so now do you understand. I am so picky. I want the game changers. I want the real parents making a difference. You can grab Lovebird at a grocery store near you, but if you want 20% off, go to Lovebird Foods.com. Use code Alex 20 for 20% off at Lovebirdfoods.com. Code Alex 20 at Lovebirdfoods.com.

What symptoms after a tick bite should never go ignored? Well, I mean, you know your body. So sometimes for Alpha-Gala, it's going to be digestive problems after you have the meat or the dairy. It could be beef. It could be the pork. It could be lamb. It could be any sort of meat, basically. I mean, they can have fish. They can have chicken.

They can have some meat. But most of these meats, from mammalians, they are not going to respond well to. And then dairy products. So if you have symptoms after you have these foods, digestive problems, and you think, oh, I can't have that dairy or I can't have that meat. And it came on all of a sudden. right, it may be alpha-gal. I would not normalize that. Digester problems after having these foods.

Now, there's obviously lots of different reasons of why someone can have a dairy and sensitivity. I'm not saying all-dairy sensitivity is alpha-gal. But just you know your body. If this came on all of a sudden, do not normalize it. Right. And then the classic for Lyme disease specifically, the brain fog, the fatigue, the histamine intolerance, the migraines, the inflammatory symptoms, the migrating pain around the body. These classic acute and chronic Lyme symptoms never normalize that. But it exists on a spectrum.

For some people, it's mild. And that's where the gaslighting can come in or it's not always there because it's relapsing and remitting. Do you not normalize this stuff. I would really advocate for yourself or advocate for your kids or someone that you love because there is, there's not a lot of information out there when it comes to conventional medicine. They'll run the basic Lyme test and the basic Western blot test, a basic Lyme screening, and a lot of, there's a lot of false negatives that you will show up negative by the CDC standards, but that you have to run more comprehensive Lyme-letterate tests to look at these co-infections and the other aspects of the immune system and how it's responding to pathogens like these.

What is your anti-tick routine like, I mean, do these natural bug sprays actually work or natural tick repellence? They're not perfect. What do you use? They're not perfect. I use specifically myself, I use a brand called WonderSide, which is just essential oils. You can make your own. You could get natural essential oils like lavender and warmwood and sage. These can be effective.

They're not perfect. You still do a tick check. There's no replacement for a tick check. You can do the best as a repellent, but those little nymphs, those little larva are very small, very small, microscopic. So I would not, again, to live in fear, but do a basic common sense tick check when you or your kids are outside after you can. come in. And it's in all 50 states. This is another big myth. People think I don't live in the northeast. I don't live in Connecticut. I don't live in New York, Pennsylvania. I live in Arizona or I live in Texas. I don't have to worry about this. Lyme disease is in all 50 states. Yes, it's more common if you live in the

woods in the northeast. Absolutely. But it's way more prevalent than people realize. Is there some sort of reliable test to know for sure if you have alpha-gal? Yeah, conventional labs will test for this. You measure the immune system response to alpha-gal, the actual sugar itself. But there's no perfect test. So you cannot rely on one snapshot in time. So we do the best we can with the data we have. But then at a certain point, even with the best testing, these are still snapshots in time.

So you run the test, and then you have to correlate it with how you feel, even if you have a negative test and you have symptoms, sometimes we retest, it's test multiple times. So you have to do the best you came with the lab access we have. And then at that point, sometimes we just treat being proactive because it's like, okay, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, even if a lab is negative, you want this person that's having a inflammatory symptom to be, to start to address the pathogens. So what do you tell them if somebody that your patient says, I have alpha-gal now, what do you say that they have to throw out of their pantry right away? The alpha-gal specifically, The symptoms exist on a continuum.

So it depends because I can get some reintroduction pretty quickly of meat, mammalian products. And they see online, I can't have that. And yeah, that may be true for someone else, but let's see what resilience your body has. So it's not this black and white. You can't have it. Cut it out. Yes, we want to be smart about it. Yes, we want to be conservative, titrate, low and slow.

But let's see what your body can do to start to build resilience. over time. So you're cutting out meat and dairy as a surface baseline for AlphaGal specifically, and then you're working on building resilience over time. There's a, in addition to dealing with antimicrobials, dealing with the nervous system regulation, there's a specific type of acupuncture technique called the Solomon Irregular Allergy technique. And it's ear acupuncture. And you're, if you ever had acupuncture before? I have. Yeah, many times I love it. Yeah, so this is a tiny micro needle that goes on a specific zone in the ear that people wear for three to four weeks. The studies that show that upwards of over 90% remission in alpha-gal symptoms with this specific type of acupuncture.

So that combined effect of different tools within the toolbox, people can bring reintroduction in. They don't have to live in fear of saying, I can't have this in perpetuity. I can never have meat and dairy. That's not necessarily true. How many people do you think are being treated for anxiety and chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, autoimmune disease, even depression, when the missing piece is actually just undiagnosed Lyme? It's a problem. And we've knew this in the autoimmune space for a long time of specifically chronic fatigue syndrome and MS. Are you looking at fatigue and neurological autoimmune symptoms?

We've seen it a lot over the years. People that they are told it's idiopathic. People just get it. It's genetic. There's autoimmunity in your family. Yes, we know these genes, there's a genetic component, all of these problems, as I talked about earlier with HLA and this methylation and other gene variants that code for how the body's immune system responds. Yes. But as the same goes, genetics loads the gun, epigenetics pulls the trigger. There's something environmental, even if it is MS, even if it is chronic fatigue syndrome. Think about that. I mean, being labeled as chronic having CFS, having chronic fatigue syndrome. Okay, anybody that has CFS already knows they're chronically tired. But why is the CFS happening in the first place? So from a differential diagnosis standpoint, that's just a description of symptoms. It's not telling you why you have the problem. It's just a label for conventional medicine, an ICDDN code. But we wouldn't look underneath the proverbial hood and what's causing that dysfunction. So for some people, it's a biotoxin,

like a tick-borne illness. For some people, it's mold. For some people, it's man-made environmental toxins. For some people, it's spiritual, mental, emotional, things like unresolved trauma and chronic stress. For a lot of people, it's confluence of factors. So, yeah, there's a lot of people that are just labeled with these inflammatory symptoms or nervous system dysregulation. You mentioned anxiety and depression. Okay, but why? I mean, there's a whole field of research looking at this. It's specifically for anxiety and depression. It's called the cytokine model of cognitive function. Cytokines are pro-inflammatory cells. It's researchers looking at how does inflammation impact how the brain works. Well, what are things that cause inflammation? God made

inflammation. Inflammation is not inherently bad. Something's causing an imbalance of the inflammation. So we have to look at what's going there. That's why health history is so important, right? If somebody is outside a lot, is getting seized ticks on them frequently, all right, let's start to see if these tick-borne issues are a factor. I don't want to make it the boogeyman and for people to think it's the cause of all the world's woes. It's not. But it is certainly undiagnosed and people can't address it if they don't know what they're dealing with. Why are we seeing such a massive increase with histamine issues? It's part of the, that larger, the body is feeling unsafe. And it's like histamines are a normal part of the human immune system.

God made histamines. They're meant to be these chemical means. mediators, the mass cells, part of our immune system, releases these histamines as an allergic response. That's an appropriate homeos, when the body's in homeostasis, you want histamines to come up and you want it to calm down when there's an allergen, there's something irritating the immune system. But because of this genetic, epigenetic mismatch, this chasm, more people than ever are, their histamines don't know how to calm down. So it's part of the inflammatory inflammation spectrum storm that many people are struggling. with and it's not just one thing. It limes part of the conversation, mold's part of the conversation,

but then think about this. Like lime, tick bacteria, mold even, have been around since the dawn of time and the Bible talks about it with mold and Leviticus says to burn the house down instead of, I mean, luckily we have remediators now. We don't have to burn the house down. But it's nothing new is what I'm trying to say. But why are we seeing this up, this rise, of these biotoxin issues, I gain a function possibility, the way that we're doing life, decreasing human resilience with the tick-borne issues,

but with mold and even for the bacteria and viral issues, is EMF's role on this. We know that EMFs, when people, we're in an electric room right now, most of us are inside all day long and surrounded by EMFs from our phones and Wi-Fi, et cetera. I believe this is a missing piece for many people, is that at the very least, conservatively,

a contributing factor for what's keeping their nervous system, immune system, and hypervigilance. Because they're the same people that have gene variants that code for a hyper-inflammatory response to mold and tick-borne issues also have gene variants that make them sensitive to EMFs oftentimes. The body doesn't know that it's safe. So is it the mold? Is it the tick-borne issue?

Or is it the fact that they're in or surrounded by? EMFs, man-made EMFs all day long. So one thing I notice with me is every single time I have alcohol, even just one glass of wine, I am so congested, almost within like minutes. Is that a histamine thing? Yeah, that sounds like a histamine. So histamines don't know how to calm down. So what I would do is I would measure two tests.

I would measure serum histamine. You can measure histamine in the blood to see if there's excess histamines in the body. And you can also measure the enzyme that breaks the. down histamines called diamine oxidase or DAO. So to see if they're on that sort of mass cell activation syndrome, histamine intolerance spectrum, it seems obviously you're not always having these symptoms. So it's not severe. For some people, it's, they could drink water and they're having symptoms. It's the immune system, nervous systems constantly in that state of mass cell activation. But these sort of more mild to moderate is when they have foods that are higher in histamines,

that are or histamine liberators, which a lot of healthy foods. I wouldn't put alcohol. on that list of healthy foods. But even things like avocados, citrus, strawberries, things that are healthy fruits and vegetables. Many of them can be either high in histamines themselves or histamine liberators. Fermented foods, obviously, it's a classic example, like sauerkraut, kimchi, fermented foods. I love recommending them. That's high in histamines.

See, I don't know. What foods are high in histamine? I don't even know. Yeah. Everything you just named I have every day. Yes. Those are all either higher histamine or histamine liberations. liberators. Does that mean everybody with histamine intolerance can't have them? No, there's a lot of

bioindividuality to that too. What's your cup? If you think of that sort of cup analogy, that's your bio-individual tolerance for stressors. Some people have big cups, some people have smaller buckets, and the more you're doing in life, it could be how you slept the night before. It could be your stress levels. I mean, it's these contributing factors to how much wiggle room, how much resilience, to use that term that I mentioned earlier, how much resilience do we have for that day? So for some people, they could have fermented foods and be fine one day, and the next day because they didn't sleep well, they're going through a stressful time in their life, or maybe they said more of the food, their body's having a part of time breaking down the fermented foods, which

all fermented foods are higher in histamines. Is it true that people who have histamine intolerance issues should be avoiding eating leftovers? Yes. In theory, now how much wiggle room, how much resilience does that person have? So for a true clinical nutrition, low histamine food protocol, yeah, if fresh is best, the more that food is staying in the fridge, even more so staying at room temperature that's left over, it's going to be breaking down and building histamines over time. Back to sort of the why fermented foods are like the end stage example of that, the more fermented, the more histamines are, are, uh, are

going to be. Bone broth is another example. I mean, I love bone broth, but bone broth is typically higher in histamines. So that just shows you there's, you can't make broad sweeping statements when you're talking about bioindividuality with these inflammatory symptoms. Well, is histamine intolerance something that you have it and you have it forever? Is it something you can get rid of or manage or what? No, back to the point. The histamine intolerance is that check engine light. Okay. Let's go over the top symptoms, like migraines, brain fog, skin issues, itchiness. digestive problems, sinus drainage. Those are some common histamine intolerant symptoms.

We know that's happening, so maybe it's triggered by walking into a moldy home. Maybe it's triggered by the wine or the sauerkraut or the yogurt, right? But it's not, it's really not for the overwhelming level of cases that I see. It's not the food's fault. Right. We have to figure out why the body's reacting so viscerally. to the high histamine foods. So, no, my goal is to build resilience.

To, yes, limit histamine releasing foods or high histamine foods in the short term, but then work on building resilience. The same with alpha-gal and chronic Lyme. Like these things that if you have a dairy allergy or a meat allergy from alpha-gal, how can we build resilience and tolerance over time that applies for all of these food sensitivity drivers?

We have somehow accepted that every kid needs braces. Like, it's just part of childhood. Oh, yeah, little Tommy, seven. time for soccer, multiplication tables, and 20 grand worth of orthodontics. Nobody ever stops and asks, why are all of these kids' jaws too small in the first place? You know, we act like mouth breathing and snoring and bedwetting, grinding teeth, ADHD symptoms, chronic congestion and crowded teeth are just quirky little personality traits or something that they grow out of.

They're common, okay? Yes, but that does not mean it's normal. One of the coolest companies that I found is tooth pillow because they're focused on helping kids while they're actually growing between ages 3 and 12 when jaw development can still be guided. The program is designed to support natural jaw growth, proper tongue posture, and healthy nasal breathing instead of waiting until everything's already developed and then you try to fix it later. As somebody who has spent years talking about why we need to ask better questions about kids' health, this just made so much sense to me and also finding out that so many of my

best friends who are moms have used this and swear by it was just the icing on the cake. If your child mouth breathes, snores, grinds their teeth, wetts the bed, has crowded teeth, or constantly sounds congested, has hearing issues, that's another big one. Don't just assume they'll grow out of it, or maybe that it's some crazy genetic thing, right? It could literally be mouth breathing. Go get them evaluated. Start with a free virtual assessment. A tooth pillow airway dentist will review how your child is developing and help you understand what comes next. Visit toothpillow.com and get your child assessed free using code Alex Clark. That's toothpillow.com and get your child assessed. free using code Alex Clark. Back to school season is almost here. I know. Horrible news. When I was

growing up, I loved back to school because I got to reinvent myself every August. You know, this is the year I'm going to be emo. This is the year I'm going to be athletic. That didn't pan out. Emo panned out more than athletic. I think that was surprised a lot of people. This is the year that people are going to realize I'm just effortlessly cool. Still waiting on that, you know, hasn't happened. By Labor Day, usually when I was still in school, you know, I was the exact same person eating goldfish during study Hall. Nothing changed. I was still not athletic. I was a wannabe emo and I still wasn't effortlessly cool. This was pre-maha Alex, obviously, but maybe this is your reinvention era, not by becoming somebody else, but by finally getting rid of the expensive makeup products that are full of ingredients that you don't

fully feel good about and they break you out or they just sit in a drawer collecting dust anyway. What if instead you invested in products that you're actually using from Adele Natural Cosmetics? They are a Christian conservative-owned company that makes them. thoughtfully formulated makeup and skincare design to work together that is non-toxic. I love their lip tints because they give a beautiful natural color without feeling like you're wearing heavy lipstick that's drying. It is perfect for every day, especially during the summer. Beauty doesn't have to be complicated. You know, I like products that make me feel polished and healthy and confident, and that's Adele Natural Cosmetics. Go to Adelnaturalcosmetics.com.

Use code Alex for 25% off your first order. That's Adele Natural Cosmetics.com. Code Alex for 25% off your first order. Okay, kind of an unrelated topic, but I want to touch on with you because you're one of those people that, I mean, I could talk to you about 800 different things. It's so fun to get your take. Before we wrap, I wanted to ask you about GLP-1s. We've had some time. Like, I mean, in 2024, I feel like the wellness community was very like, no, like anti-anti-anti, absolutely avoid at all costs. I wanted to see if your mind has changed. If you've always been pro, I don't know.

You know, is there anybody that you think should consider taking a. O-Zempic. Yeah, I've always stayed the same on the topic. So the United States doesn't have a ozempic deficiency. We have a massive metabolic problem. I mean, upwards of 93% of the United States has a massive metabolic issue. And there's some more on this insulin-resistant spectrum. And I find it interesting, right? As a culture, I don't want to digress, but, you know, out of 2020, the amount of like the body positivity movement that was happening online. that there was no such thing as a bad food, health at any size. I find it interesting that the minute that Ozempic and Mugovey came on the market,

it kind of changed a bit. Of course. You see the people losing weight left and right. Apparently that was just, in fact, virtue signaling. The big food companies actually love Ozempic, and they love JLP ones because they're like, great, because their whole problem is like we have to, which is why they came out with all the body positivity talking points, which by the way, it was big food companies were sending massive paychecks to TikTok influencers

to spout those types of talking points saying, you know, body, your health is at any size and all this garbage, which is just absolutely abhorrent. So they love this because they're like, great. We can give people skinny and they can still eat our crap. Which is what a lot of people are doing is they're getting on things like we go, you know, Zembek

or whatever, GLP1, and then they're still eating the same. So, first of all, is there anybody that you recommend, okay, you should maybe take it, even if for a short time. And then once they're on, what are the big mistakes people are making on them? Yeah. Well, I think the way the United States is using GLP-1s is completely antithetical to sustainable health. It's the American, clicheed American way. If a little is good, more is better. And we want a quick fix. We want, we want something, a get-out-of-jail-free card. So what if we're talking about somebody who is morbid obese as a jumpstart?

The way that I recommend peptides for people is a both and not either or approach. Like let's work on metabolic health. Let's teach them what, if they don't know about it, teach them about nutrient-dense food. Like, where's their protein? Where are they getting their fast? How are the carbs? How carbon-tolerant are they?

Introduce them to some good old intermittent fasting, right? Support their gut health. All these things that are why they have the problem in the first place. Why is 38% of American pre-teens pre-diabetic? It's not an ozempic deficiency. And now you see all these parents wanting to put their kids on this stuff, too. So we need some sound foundational things. But I think peptides can be a great tool within the toolbox when paired with that.

And guess what? When you actually pair with why you have the problem in the first place, dealing with these lifestyle epigenetic factors, you don't actually need to be on for most people. You don't have to be on high doses of them. you can do microdosing of glp1s you can be on them cyclically and temporarily and pulsed as needed so i think as long as they're clean pure and that's why obviously having this sort of proper like allowing oxygen within the peptide space and just not treating them like illicit drugs so not just gLP ones but these other growth hormones like the cjc and the epa merlans and the tessimorellins these other types of peptides

are also good for metabolic health outside of the glp1 class i think they all should be a part of the conversation. Some of them need more research than others to confirm. But specifically with the gLP ones, I think a microdose cyclical approach is where it's at. The problem that I see, and every time I talk about this phenomenon, are you hearing about like the ozempic zombie or zumbic personality?

I see them. You know them. Well, there's a look a lot of people have. It's really grotesque looking like skeletor sunken faces. I mean, I think a lot of people look really ugly on GLP-1s. This is, that's just besides the point.

I know what you're getting to. But physically, I think there is a look. How do you avoid the look before we get into the emotional part? Yeah, they're overdoing. They're overdoing something that could be a great tool

within the toolbox, but overdoing it. So they're like taking GLP-1s, but like not weightlifting, for example, or something. It's shutting down their hunger. Yeah. I mean, they're just hypochloric in perpetuity.

Yes, you do not need an atomic bomb shutting down your hunger cues, signaling cues for at infinitum forever and ever amen. It's like you're supposed to eat food, and I think they forgot that, and they're just, it's this sort of disordered eating backdoor in another way. It's like, oh, I love never feeling like I need to eat and nourish my body. I mean, that's sort of the disordered mental component that a lot of people, someone sent me this reality show. It was Secret Lives Mormon, the Mormon Wives show.

This girl, which I'm thankful for sharing her story and like normalizing these conversations, she said she was addicted. to glp ones, one of the girls in the show, because she was afraid that she'd gain it back. And it's, that's just, that's a disorder eating. So if somebody wants to come off, Ozempic, how do they avoid gaining everything back? That's why having both and not either approach. Like, let's focus on lifestyle. It's making sure you're focusing on, where's your protein? Are you at the least 100 grams of protein a day?

Most people don't know because we're not using grams. Like, I don't, I don't even know this is what I do for a living. I can ballpark it. but we all should be checking in at least periodically, not to become obsessive, but checking in what does my meals as medicine look like? What's my breakfast, lunch, and dinner constitute as far as like, am I eating enough foods, especially on this GLP1? Am I at a consistent, significant caloric deficit, which isn't going to be good if you're

not eating enough food and nourishing your body? A slight caloric deficit is one thing, but we're talking about starvation mode for many of these people that look at Gant, like Skeletor. And are we focusing on phytonutrients and all the vitamins, minerals that we need to get from our food? You're going to look emaciated. You're going to look sickly if you're doing this months, years on end. So I think that an interesting phenomenon that I see people reaching out to me about is how these GLP-1s are not just decreasing food noise, but decreasing the craving for love and relationship. Like they're saying to me, it's wrecking their marriage.

It's flattening emotions. It's flattening emotions. Yeah. It's like, and I'm not saying it's causing all these problems in people's romantic relationships and marriages, but I'm saying there may have been cracks before, but then you don't have dopamine signaling the way they used to. You don't have these reward centers. What's the long-term effect of shutting down these pathways too aggressively?

So that's not the way that we're meant to be. It's about balance again homeostasis. We're just overdoing something that could be a great tool. When somebody is morbidly obese and they're curious and wanting to talk to you about GLP-1s, but they're also concerned about, you know, stomach paralysis and blindness, all these really crazy disturbing side effects that are coming out about GLP-1s, how do you navigate that? Like, because there's obviously super serious risks also with being morbidly obese. So how do you, like, pick and choose your risk factors here and, like, which route to go?

I would say, what's the most effective option that causes the least amount of side effects? So many people aren't going to even need to go down the GLP-1 route if there's, They're really focusing on food and weightlifting and moving your body and picking up heavy stuff with good form and sweating and getting out in nature. It's like that's what America needs. It's actually the medicine cabinet I would like America to be leaning into. But there's a lot of people because of the mad, fallen world that we live in, they are doing all the things. But they are stuck at a plateau. And those are the people where I feel like the peptides can really come in and take them past that.

They're spinning their wheels. Because we have to look at what modernity, what the crazy things like microplastics and forever chemicals and herbicides and pesticides. What have they done to the human gut? What are they done to the human microbiome? So the idea, pragmatically, because of this crazy world to we live in,

that some people make, because where's the body make GOP1? It's in the gut. If your gut's healthy, and that's why supporting gut health is so profoundly important so your body can naturally andogenously make the GOP1 that God wants it, you know, that God created in the first place. That's where we want to go get goal-wise. But what have you been working on your gut health for years and years and years? And is there a good argument to say, because of the world we live in, their guts never going to be

100 percent? So the idea that a microdose, pragmatic, judicious, conservative dose of GOP1 could be a tool within the toolbox. I think we should not be shaming these people that are having, discernment for how to use these peptides appropriately. I love when people say, I don't take creatine because I'm not trying to look like the rock. Really? Neither am I. By that logic, I shouldn't drink water because I'm not trying to become a whale. People hear the word creatine and then they start picturing some guy named Blade screaming at a squat rack while dry scooping pre-workout and punching drywall. Meanwhile, there's actually a ton of research looking at creatine, not just for physical performance, but for cognitive function and mood too.

At this point, I'm interested in anything that helps me to remember why I walked into the kitchen. That's why I started taking Peory Creatine Plus. What caught my attention is that they combined 5 grams of creatine monohydrate with 400 milligrams of Torine in every serving. Both support energy during high-intensity workouts, and there's exciting research looking at their role in supporting cognitive performance and mental clarity, too. But honestly, the biggest reason I trust them is that Puri for creatine publishes the third-party testing results for every single batch, looking for heavy metals or anything else weird that you

want to avoid. Just scan the QR code on the back, and you can see exactly what's in your product. They're also the only supplement brand with the clean label project transparency certificate, meaning every batch is independently tested and the results are published online. Use code Alex at peory.com. That's P-U-O-R-I-P-R-I-C-C-O-R-I-C-C-O-R-C-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-E-R-E-R-E-E-R-E-E. Use code Alex at checkout for this exclusive offer. I have to tell you something that I wish I didn't know. Apparently, you're socks can be toxic. I'm sorry. And I'm not talking about stinky feet patrol. That's also toxic. I'm talking about materials that your socks are made out of. I already have trust issues with the airport,

seed oils, and people who clap on the plane lands. Now I have to interrogate my socks. But seriously, when Melita, the founder of Q for Quinn, was trying to find socks for her son who had eczema, she discovered that a lot of socks and underwear can contain things like BPAs, phthalates and other chemicals that you do not want hanging around your most absorbent body parts. You know, we absorb a ton through our feet. How is this real life you're thinking they're socks? They're just supposed to sock, right? Well, that's what happened.

Melita started Q for Quinn. She made socks and undergarments from organic cotton and merino wool that are GOTS certified. This is the cleanest, highest standard of organic textiles. They're clean, they're ridiculously comfortable, and they're even a favorite for kids with sensitive skin or sensory issues. Back to school shopping is already financially and emotionally violent enough. Don't buy mystery chemical socks. Right now, Q for Quinn is having their biggest kids back to basic sale. You can get up to 30% off and an extra 10% off with code Alex.

Just go to Q4 Quinn.com. Use code Alex. Your kids deserve better than radioactive ankle socks and underwear. What is the biggest mistake that we're making that's creating the next generation of chronic illness? Look, I think we could go macro or micro with it. I think that the larger hubris of humanity, which is a tale as old as time, I mean, going back to the Tower of Babel and the Garden of Eden itself, it's when humans pretend to be God, there's consequences. I think that that is, think about that's happening on a governmental, multinational corporation level, so arrogant that we can tinker with pathogens, gain of function labs around the world. We don't even know the pathogens.

that's a massive recipe for a disaster for another pandemic, God forbid. So I think that's a ticking time bomb of even the people that are, you know, they're saying a matter of, not a matter of if, but when something like that happens. So that kind of keeps me up at night. Again, not living in fear, but just thinking, we haven't fixed this. We haven't fixed this larger gain of function problem. But we can't control all that as individuals. So how can we take back our sovereignty on a micro level?

as an individual citizen of saying, you know, I can't control what these crazy world leaders, these crazy people in other countries do, but I can have agency on my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I can have agency on the products that I'm supporting and that I'm bringing into my life. And how can I build resilience for myself and my family? So if the things do hit the fan, we're going to be okay. So I would say having not relying and outsourcing your sovereignty to the government and multinational corporations. I think it's one of the biggest.

I just heard an eagle screech. Because many people even, well, we talked about on my pod, like even the well-meaning, freedom-loving American, they still have this indoctrination of thinking, well, yeah, this outside of you, they're going to have my best interest. necessarily the case. Right. I forget what we were talking about specifically in that circumstance. Oh, it was the podcast with the pastors of saying that like people, Christians shouldn't even be looking at food, right? And we should just be like, we should just be focusing on faith. We're lying to ourselves. And if this isn't about being obsessive, this is about just what can we do today to love my body back and be a good steward. What is one thing that every family could start doing tomorrow that costs nothing and will dramatically improve their house?

Take your shoes off and get out in nature. Put your feet in some grass in the ground. Even if you live in an urban touch grass baby literally Get out even if you have like at my telehealth clinic. I have one little measly's patch of grass. It's kind of an urban area and we have one little sad tree Put your feet on that in that one little patch of grass if you live in an urban area find that and if you live in a woods What area you can spray yourself with some natural tick repellent put something on do a tick check afterwards like we've been talking about. But I would say that's something we're so divorced from nature medicine. It's one of the most healing things we can have. I posted the other day and it got people thinking is that even just hearing birds chirping, bird song outside, that birds chirp, not like attack chirping, but you know what I mean, a defense chirping, but a happy bird chirp,

birds only do that when they feel safe. So there's something, somatic that tells us that we're safe too and the frequency of medicine, not to sound too woo-woo. But there's a lot of research coming out of Japan and South Korea when you look at Shimon Yoku, which translates from Japanese to English as forest bathing, literally taking in nature with all of your senses. Oh yeah. Vance is so big on forest bathing. He's like, let's go for a walk and forest bathing. The birds, the frequency medicine, the birds. And this is all God's medicine cabinet for us, from the plants that are grown in the soil, to the phytocinides, these essential oil compounds that researchers are looking at has a modulating effect on our own

microbiome, breathing in the biome of God's creation. Actually, there's studies that show that actually shifts our gut microbiome by breathing in and putting our hands in and playing in the dirt, getting out in nature. We're a part of this. What is the name of your podcast? It's called The Art of Being Well. Because you interviewed me on there, and we get into Charlie Kirk's assassination, the recent hearings on that case, my engagement as well as just like all of the drama in the past year of all the pesticide stuff I've been speaking out about. So it's a really good episode you guys need to check out. Plus, you just have a great podcast in general. Thank you. One of my favorite health and wellness podcasts. So listen to that. How can people work

with you as their doctor? Thank you. I recently merged everything's at Dr. Wilcoll.com, by the way, DR. Willcold.com. But I merge my telehealth with the Health Institute, which is helping people worldwide, a mutual friend of ours, Dr. Josh Axe, and actually Dr. Austin Lake is a part of the team now too. Oh, cool.

And Dr. Chris Motley. So good friends of mine, colleagues of mine that are kind of coming together like functional medicine Avengers to help people. So everything's at Dr. Wilcold.com or just Google the Health Institute. Dr. Josh Axe and I have a book called heal yourselves. It's based off of this Stanford study out of 2023,

and a recent one actually just a few weeks ago in 2026. One in five adults have one organ aging significantly faster than other organs. If you're interested in health span and longevity, but done in a way that's accessible and filled with grace and compassion, not the sort of sterile biohacker energy, but just how can we take back and take it? care of this temple that God gave us. So we know from the recent research that Americans are aging faster than ever.

There's another 2026 study. It was in nature medicine, I think, found that people born in the 90s are aging significantly faster than people that born in the 60s at the same age. We know this intuitively. We know this something off. We're living, again, in this brave new world. But it's not just one thing, but in the book, Dr. Axe and I really show how you can find out what there's different longevity tests, but even just we adapted some of the data into assessments that people can take for themselves in the book to kind of see how are my organs aging. Maybe it's the brain for one person and they have brain fog or fatigue. These are check engine lights.

Your bodies do not normalize this stuff. For maybe for some people it's the digestive problem. Maybe their digestive system is aging faster than the rest of their body. But how do we start to arrest that calm, reverse it, reversing biological age? It could be something as vain as the skin, like is the skin to check engine light for some people? I'm like, I'm aging too fast. Well, maybe that's that system that's aging faster than it should. So I'm really excited about it.

It's called heal your cells. It's reversing the irreversible. All the chronic illness things that we talked about, Lyme, Alpha-Gal, autoimmune issues. We talk about it in the book. Okay, and it's out now? It comes out September 8th. Yeah. Pre-order now.

We have lots of where Dr. Axe and I are having teaching classes for everybody pre-orders. So just go to Dr. Wilcold.com, go to books, heal yourselves, go to Amazon, support local booksellers. If you could offer one remedy to heal a sick culture, physically, emotionally, or spiritually, what would it be? We need to recalibrate our why. We need to recalibrate our why. back to humans pretending to be God. I really just keep coming back to that. I think a lot of our problems would be fixed

if we just remembered our place in the universe. So I oftentimes will take pictures of sunsets or when I'm traveling like a pretty sort of nature, something from God's creation, and I call it God art. I think we need to just take in the majesty of our surroundings a lot more. And I think that recalibrates something on a somatic primal level of just remembering

it's not all about us. let's keep the small things small remember who we are and whose we are these are important things there's something divine and sacred that recalibrates in heals a sick culture and then I would say not just getting out in nature but actually

getting your relationship with God right and I think that's not just going to church we know there's lots of people that do that they're eating like junk and living like the world but I'm saying to truly remember like get a practice to connect with God

and allow the Holy Spirit to really teach you all the things, because I see so many people kept back from living the life that God created them for. I know. They are, when you're fatigued, disregulated, and inflamed, you are not able to do the things

that God has called you to. This is my dad. My dad was a Christian, but he did not, I mean, just letting his health go and all the problems he had and everything, which I believe was totally diet and lifestyle induced.

Like, you know, was he believer? Yes. Do I believe I'll see him in heaven? Yes. But I also don't think that he was living out his life in the best way that I think God would have wanted him to because he was so sick and ill and tired and overweight and all the problems he had. Yeah. Like you said, this isn't like a eternity thing for people, but I would say, yeah, it's what, look, with heal yourselves, the book, I want people to enhance their health span and their lifespan to live a long healthy life that they can do the things that God's put on their heart. So this is an important thing, but life is so short, even for the longest living of it, even if we improve someone's biological age and I get their labs looking amazing and

they do all the longevity stuff that I'm talking about, what a blessing. 102 years is nothing compared to eternity. My grandma just passed away, 102, and she said that. She said, I feel like I'm 40 in my body. And it went by like the Bible says, like vapor. Yep. It is here and gone before we know it. So this is about are we adding life to our years and not just years to our life? So good.

So good. Always so great to have you, Dr. Wilco. I really recommend anybody go listen to our first episode that we did. I believe it was January of 2025, maybe. I think you're right. Yeah, that your first. episode came out with us and it was excellent and everybody loved it. So if you loved this, you're like, wait, I don't want it to end. Go back and listen to that one too. Thanks for coming

on Culture Apothecary. Thanks for having me. I've got so many messages from different people, you know, that are parents that are like, I don't know what to do about tics. I'm nervous to let my kids play outside. I hope that you have some peace now about tics and that, yes, is it something to take seriously? Of course, do your tick checks, like he said. But also, you can't just stop living life, right? We've got to send our kids outside. There's more benefits to playing outside than keeping them in, even if we are afraid of Alpha-Gal. So don't do that. New episodes come out every Monday and Thursday at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern, anywhere you

get your podcast, please leave us a five-star review on Apple or Spotify to support the show. Let me know what year you started listening. This episode is crucial to share to every group chat that you're in and your Instagram story. This content is for informational purposes only and it's not intended to be taken as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional regarding any questions or decisions related to your health or medical care. I'm Alex Clark, and this is Culture Apothecary.