Pursuit of Wellness - Toxins 101: Mold, Testing & Hidden Dangers From World Class Experts

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

Ep. # 125 In this week's Monday Mashups, we explore the crucial topic of living a toxin-free life with insights from leading experts. Hear from Darin Olien, co-host of Down to Earth with Zac Efron, as he examines the hidden dangers of modern conveniences and their impact on our health. Allison Evans of Branch Basics shares her personal journey to wellness and practical tips for maintaining a toxin-free home. Plus, Emily Morrow of CLEARSTEM Skincare reveals how to identify and address mold toxicity and build a supportive health team. Tune in for a powerful blend of expert advice on protecting your health from environmental toxins. Leave Me a Message - click here! For Mari’s Instagram click here! For Pursuit of Wellness Podcast’s Instagram click here! For Mari’s Newsletter click here! For Darin’s Instagram click here! For Darin’s Book Fatal Conveniences click here! For Branch Basics click here! and use code POW20 for 20% off For Emily’s Website click here!  For Emily’s Instagram click here! For POW Brand Promo Codes click here! Sponsored By:  Sleep is the foundation of health, and there is nothing better than waking up feeling refreshed and ready to attack the day. Use code POW for 20% off your order at dreamrecovery.io  Right now, Hungryroot is offering Pursuit of Wellness listeners 40% off your first delivery and free veggies for life. Just go to Hungryroot.com/POW, to get 40% off your first delivery and get your free veggies. For a limited time, you can get $30 off the first box - PLUS free Croissants in every box - when you go to Wildgrain.com/POW to start your subscription. That’s Wildgrain.com/POW, or you can use promo code POW at checkout. “Cozy Earth provided an exclusive offer for my listener’s today. Up to 40% off site wide when you use the code “PURSUIT” at cozyearth.com  Topics Discussed Darin Olien - 02:46 - Darin’s backstory and why he wrote his book 09:36 - Raising Awareness of a Hidden Toxic Products  12:30 - Exploring Fatal Conveniences and Health Impacts  14:57 - Lack of US health regulation  21:06 - Shelf stable food  23:13 - Detoxifying your bathroom  27:51 - Product recommendations  33:28 - Chemicals and human fertility impact Alison Evans - 38:58 - Tips for dealing with toxins in your home while pregnant  42:11 - All wet wipes have preservatives  46:01 - Branch basics kit  49:49 - Tips for starting your non toxic journey  55:36 - Clean eating  57:28 - Managing your household  01:01:58 - Tips for starting your non toxic journey  Emily Morrow - 01:06:03 - How Emily & Mari met  01:08:28 - Emily’s wellness journey 01:12:49 - Mold Toxicity, how it shows itself 01:14:46 - Common issues in lab work  01:17:05 - Normal ISN'T optimal  01:19:32 - Myths around cholesterol  01:21:47 - Everything in the body is connected  01:24:12 - How YOU can find and build your health team and what tests you should be asking for?

This is the Pursuit of Wellness podcast, and I'm your host, Mari Llewellyn. What is up, guys? Welcome back to the Pursuit of Wellness. Today, we have a fantastic episode all about how to live a life toxin-free. We are talking to top experts, Alison Evans, Darren O'Lean, and Emily Morrow. I think we all know in today's society, we are surrounded by toxins and it's causing major issues with our health, whether it's hormones, fertility, men's sperm count, various issues, gut health. And I think it's really important to consider the suggestions from these experts. We're talking about things like mold, testing, hidden dangers in everyday

products. I will say it's important to consider, take the advice and apply it to your life in the best way possible, but don't feel like everything has to be done. I think it can be so overwhelming sometimes to think that we need to eliminate absolutely everything that has toxins. And it simply is impossible. I think it's about living the best life you can while considering the suggestions from these experts and doing the best you can so that you are better prepared to be in a toxic environment. For example, something that's easily avoidable is a car air freshener. That's something that I've noticed really, really triggers my headaches. It makes me feel awful. So if there's anything in your life

that's easy to eliminate, I would focus on that. Before we hop into today's episode, I want to mention we are doing a giveaway every week for the month of August. We will be picking a listener to win a Bloom Sparkling Energy PR box, Pursuit of Wellness tote bag, and Healing Era hat. All you need to do is follow or subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple, leave a review on Apple Podcasts, follow Pursuit of Wellness podcast on Instagram, US entries only, and we'll be announcing every Sunday. Without further ado, let's hop into this episode. We'll be talking to Darren O'Lean, who is the co-host of Emmy award-winning number one Netflix docuseries, Down to Earth with Zac Efron. He's going to talk about raising awareness of toxic products,

exploring fatal conveniences and health impacts, chemical and human fertility impacts. Alison Evans, who's the co-founder of Branch Basics, someone I'm such a big fan of. She talks about tips for dealing with toxins while pregnant, products like wet wipes that have preservatives, tips for starting your non-toxic journey, and so much more. Then we are talking to Emily Morrow, who's a nutritional therapy and

integrative health practitioner, and she works with ClearStem Acne Lab. She talks about the importance of finding the root cause of your health issues, mold toxicity, and how you can build your health team and what tests you should be asking for. Let's hop right into this episode about toxins. Darren, you just wrote a book called Fatal Conveniences, which I think is a beautiful way to summarize the problem that more and more of us are starting to become aware of today. So much of what we use day to day is affecting our endocrine systems and making us sick. So I'm excited to dive in because I think this is such an important conversation to have. But firstly, I'd love to talk about how you personally became so passionate about this topic. Yeah, it came 30 years ago when my father started suffering from, you know, I was in university studying physiology, nutrition, kinesiology and and then just randomly my dad um reached out and said

hey if you're coming home and this was building like there's something going on with him and uh and he said hey there um i can't be around any perfumes or colognes or even carpets or T-shirts. I'm like, what? And so that was the first kind of weird moment because I thought it was in his head. And then he was a college professor. So he went into research and he went into like before the internet right so he was highlighting everything and making vhs tapes trying to educate his his family circle first but also at university he was needing to to educate his colleagues and basically what was going on is he was finally diagnosed with multiple chemical sensitivity so any

essentially any off-gassing of anything from a perfume to a cologne to a shampoo to a deodorant to even a heavy dyed shirt he couldn't it would fog him out and it would send him down this path of depression. And he couldn't think. And this is a highly intellectual guy who couldn't function. And so starting to grok that over the years, I then realized, oh oh this is a real condition and then um being around him i would have to use the products that he found so that uh i could detox myself and not smell right and and then quickly realizing that i didn't even know I was being affected by it, but I started feeling better. You know, it's like anything. And like, even when people aren't drinking your greens, when they

drink your greens, then they go, wow, I feel better. But you didn't know you weren't feeling good. Right. So it's, that's the weird thing about health. We get used to a certain way or a certain feeling. So that's how it hit me. And so in the back of my mind, it sent my dad down this path of having a really hard time being in the world at all because he couldn't educate the populace. Yeah. And so he was forced to retire. He was depressed. He picked up alcohol and ultimately ended up passing away of alcohol. And so cut to finishing university and all along

the way, serendipity of people telling me about weird stuff from electromagnetic fields and researchers I'd meet meet in obscure kind of situations. So this path of fatal conveniences has been kind of playing in my life for a long time. Obviously, health, you know, working out and taking and consuming good nutrient-dense foods is important. But then I'm staring at our modern-day world just continuing to invent this industrialized soup that's not being tested and not seeing long-term effect or not understanding the long-term effect. And obviously I saw the result that that had on my dad. So, so I was staring at, uh, I have to talk about this because it's, it's, it's only getting worse and it's showing up in our air and our water and our food and our clothing. And, uh, you know, as you're seeing like biohacking and people wanting to optimize their lives, if they don't deal with the invisible of these products and even, you know, electromagnetic fields and whatever they're trying to optimize, they're actually being undercut by that very thing they're trying to optimize

by not aware but not being aware of certain things that they're being exposed to so um yeah and we're dealing with the fragility of the world if we're buying things that are children or pets and unknowingly it's just a weird it's a weird world to to come to the realization that we can create a bunch of products the industry can fling them out on the populace without safety long-term data. And this delusion that the three and four letter agencies have our best interest is just radically a bad idea to think that they do because it's, you know, thousands of studies at this point looking at it going, wow, they know that too and they know that too and why is that still in a product? So that's what led me to needing to write this. I think there is very much an out of sight, out of mind attitude and I think a lot of people don't want to dig into the problem because it's easier not to and I think people like you are so needed to get conversations like this out there so everyone can become more aware. I'm so sorry

to hear about your dad. Very interesting to hear that that exists. And I think even on a milder scale, even I'm someone who can't be around a fragrant candle because I get an immediate migraine. And now knowing a little bit of what I know, I kind of view it as like a blessing because I kind of know what's going on. And clearly I'm not reacting well to it for a reason. I pulled a quote from you that I absolutely love. You said, do you believe life is happening for you or to you? I believe that life is happening for you because you are the builder. Every decision you make every day paves the way towards the next level of personal growth. Can you explain what you meant by that? Yeah, I mean, you know, that's where it's an easy shift in a certain,

you could write a whole fatal convenience on the outlook of life, right? So the outlook of life is anything can happen to any of us at any moment, life, death, challenge, and it will, right? And depending on how you look at it, will create the next steps for you. So you either can take on a victim kind of idea, or you can say, this is this is a potential to learn and to grow and expand and to to have another opportunity and and i think then you create a receivership of that opportunity right so i could look at this even this book and even the start of it as my dad was a victim of all of this stuff and everything else and then i could stay in that and just be kind of angry this whole time. Or I could transmute that and say, hey, I don't want other, the bottom line is I don't want, I don't want him to suffer, but he was suffering. I don't

want other people to suffer. So essentially, yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a challenging book to face, right? So if facing things, I think is the great liberator. You know, there's many people and bliss, you know, for them, if just the ignorance, fine. And that's a choice. And we all have that at moments. You just don't want to deal with something now. And I totally get that. But, you know, I think the opportunity that I've had in my life is if I'm willing to be honest with myself and turn into things rather than turn away from them, even though sometimes it takes a big deep breath. You're like, oh, man. You know, it's like even in partnership with someone, like, you know, you need to have that conversation. Because if you don't have that conversation, resentment, anger is going to build up and things happen and things are going to go sideways. And then

you're going to lose the actual opportunity of what was actually there unless you turn into something. So my whole thing of this book is it might feel intense, right? But the opportunities to turn into it so we can liberate ourselves and actually not be that victim to actually have a choice of possibility that we didn't know was there until we actually looked at it. And before we enter this conversation, I want to say for everyone listening, we are going to talk about solutions and things you can do to improve your health and little things you can do every day just to avoid these fatal conveniences. So let's hop into fatal convenience. How would you define a fatal convenience? Yeah, I can define it differently every day, but it's really the

things you're doing every day that you may feel you don't think about, but that may actually have a harmful effect. And one shining example is a cell phone, right? So, like, we're all using it every day. But how we're using it is determining a level of stress in the body. And that shows up in many different ways. We can talk about that later. Another fatal convenience is aluminum salts in deodorant. So it's turning into this everyday scenario we all find ourselves in in the modern world

and then unpacking it a little bit and then asking a few questions within it. Because if we don't, there could be more of the fatal side of it over time. And again, I don't want to be even fatalistic with all of this stuff. What I mean by that is, as you know, things added up over time will help you or hurt you, which is why a healthy lifestyle and exercise every day. If you exercise today and you don't for a month, you don't really get the benefits of that one day. You have to add things up. And so our modern world of these fatal conveniences have a lot of stuff that are 60 to 80,000 chemicals that are created that largely haven't been tested effectively on our biology,

nor virtually any of them as they interact with one another. So these fatal conveniences need to be, and we need to look back and turn into these things. And then, like you said, there's a lot of solutions and some are the easiest that you can possibly do, but it's just a matter of breaking that habit. You know, it's that smell of a laundry soap that your parent used and you're like, oh, that's what it means to be clean. Those are the types of things that we need to start questioning because are those in fact the same formula as before?

They're probably not. And they're probably more harmful than helpful. Yeah. Speaking of the laundry detergent, do you feel like ingredients have gotten worse over time? And I'm also curious if you feel like America is the epicenter of this issue. Do you see as many fatal conveniences in Europe, let's say, or elsewhere? Yes and yes. Right. So yes, they have gotten worse. And yes, the epicenter, unfortunately, the U.S. has horrible

regulations compared to the EU. I was even looking at, I was doing a deeper dive on appeal. Have you heard of appeal? The invisible barrier that they're putting on fruits and avocados. No. Yeah, so it was a funded, the helpful people at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, all these people, they funded this thing to help preserve fruits and vegetables. And I was just reading an article where the EU and the Great Britain were like, they read this and they're like, okay, well, there's remnants of trans fats in this invisible coating that yes gives greater shelf life and there's questions to even get into around that why are we sending food when we create a lot of food security in a lot of other ways right and i have a lot of good ideas

around that but so this appeal is is is monoglycerides and diglycerides and a bunch of other chemicals. And it somehow got through the FDA regulations. And so the EU and Great Britain said, no, no, no, it's no longer organic. So we can't have it on organic vegetables and fruits and things like that. So they just flat out said no, because it's no longer organic. So we can't have it on organic vegetables and fruits and things like that. So they just flat out said no because it's no longer organic. But here in the US, it's just being pushed through. So that's an example, a very immediate example.

So again, no long-term studies on this particular invention. And the EU and Great Britain put a block on it because they haven't proved that it's safe. But here in the US, they'd rather experiment than prove something to be safe. So this is something. So just to conclude that as a solution, anyone sees a little sticker that says appeal a-p-e-e-l uh just avoid it my personal opinion um it's there to create um ability for a fruit or vegetable to stay on the shelf longer i understand that a lot of these things have the appeal, right? The

convenient side of things, but that's why we need to look and look at this stuff. My point of view is as a US citizen, we need to push back and say, hey, you haven't proven this is safe, why don't you do that first? Yeah. And that's the alarming flip of the entire script that most of us don't realize the delusional nature that we feel and everyone's gonna be listening to this right now. You know that on some level you're going, someone has my back, someone has tested this for safety or they wouldn't sell this for safety, or they wouldn't sell it to my dog. They wouldn't sell it to my children. They wouldn't put my children at risk, etc., etc.

So, but I'm here to say, yes, of course, these agencies have great people doing great things, and they're testing things. I'm not saying they're innately corrupt, but there is this wielding power of profits that seem to govern more than the health and safety. And that's where the frustrating side of this is, that they're pushing these things out and caring more about those bottom lines than us as the populace. It seems like the process is completely backwards. Like they try it first, see how many complaints happen, see how many people get sick, and then install the regulation. And that's the exact formula all over the place. The exact formula is here in the U.S., we will throw it out there and only until there's an overwhelming pushback will we then do something about it.

Now, tell me how that can be a good thing for us. Of course it isn't, right? This is the same mentality, by the way, we're talking before we started on my property, which burned down in 2018. It's the same formula that the Edison company used. They knew there was a problem. They decided not to fix it. High winds came up. It blew down a derelict power pole and started the fire but they knew it was already bad but they have a innately how they repair things is they wait until it completely destroys even though they knew it was wrong and and and broken So this is the thing. We throw these things out there. And then how are we as consumers and as people, how are we supposed to know unless some actionable, you know,

the cosmetics for safe or the, what is it, the EWG, Environmental Working Group, or some organization that starts to fill the void of agencies that aren't doing what we expect them to do, right? So all these other systems pop up because the void is that things aren't, you know, don't have the proper safety standards in place. And when we say shelf stable, all that's really doing is increasing the profits of the company making the produce, right? Yeah. I mean, you can argue like, again, you're saying, okay, I understand. Like if you can

provide safety again and like less spoilage of food, more in the hands and the mouths of people, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That's amazing, right? Let's waste less. But when you're playing with chemistry and you haven't proven it's safe and then it's interacting you can't very carefully you can't wash it off it does not come off so like it's different than glyphosate or astrazine or a pesticide or herbicide you it does interact inside the fruits and vegetables you can wash some of it off because they spray so much upon ripening, but this stuff doesn't wash off. So now you're dealing with this chemistry that is now interacting with your food. So yeah, they haven't proven it's safe. That's the problem. But they market all the

good stuff. We're saving less, we spoilage more you know more good food to you because it hasn't spoiled etc it's longer lasting and there is some data to show that that's the case but again that's the convenience but if you haven't proven it as safe then it's still listen i have no trust virtually none in these organizations because i've i've stared at research over and over and over going going that's a likely that's a probable carcinogen and you still allow it in these products and there's no long-term data on what it's doing to the body. Not appeal. Wow. Not at all.

They're just flinging it out at us. So before we go into all of the other fatal conveniences, I want to break it down very simply because I think that's the key to helping people actually understand what's happening. I know there are a lot of terms with these toxins. There's the PFAs, the PFOs, the PTFEs, the list goes on. And I want to make sure we also talk solutions so people have a tangible idea of what they can do. So I was

thinking we could break this down by rooms in the house. I would love to start with the bathroom. Oh, that's a good one. I feel like we can talk about deodorant shampoo feminine care cosmetics let's get into it that's a good one and and on average the number fluctuates obviously depending on the person but women are exposed to about 127 uh created chemicals every day and and from your deodorants to your shampoos to your conditioners you're getting hit with phthalates and parabens and there's a lot of classes of these chemicals that are in all of this stuff like fragrances i created like almost a subchapter on just fragrance alone so if they're not all of these things have their own smells, right?

And so this is where a bunch of loopholes also in the industry happen. If something smell your shampoo and your conditioner and your body wash, they all have a different smell. And there could be hundreds of chemicals that they do not have to disclose right and of those um most are flow agents emulsifiers parabens things like that if if and i'll just say because it's obviously it's a

rabbit hole and those are directly connected to endocrine disrupting and accumulating in the body. There's an overall body burden that starts to happen over time. Now, does your body get rid of some of them? Yeah. But the problem is we just keep exposing ourselves, right? We just keep putting on the deodorant. We keep putting on the lotion. We keep shampooing. And so this stuff your body never really lets go of so um so the without

so so you go into the shower and is your shower filtered most people will probably say no right and could that just be an attachable shower head yeah i have one of those like a joley i think it's called yeah okay yeah so you can a lot. You can do a whole home filter, which is more expensive, but is worth it from my perspective. Or a, you know, $50 shower filter. So now your skin, because what goes on your skin goes in, right? So the water is a whole other conversation of exposure. PFAS, petroleum, pesticides, herbicides, pharmaceuticals, BPAs, BPHs, forever chemicals. You know, it's so, yeah, we need to.

And then when you heat up the water and your pores open, so that's just the, that's stepping into the shower, right? So, simple solution. You buy a water, a shower filter and now you don't have to think about it. You still take a shower, right? And you've protected yourself and your children and everything else. And then the shampoos and the conditioners and the what do you use for shampoo and conditioner hell i'll use sometimes hair and stuff i'll use just like vinegar and um diluted uh and then like once a month i'll treat it in aloe and avocado oil and stuff like that.

But I also wash less and rinse more, right? So I don't strip the sebum and the natural oils as much. So if people do multiple – feel they need to multiple shower just don't sud yourself maybe you know the the areas and the private parts that sweat more or whatever but there's no need to over dry your skin by the shampoo and the stuff like that and so yeah i keep it pretty simple from that perspective, but I have a lot of cool brands that I didn't know existed until I got into the book. I'd love to hear about those because I think that's a big problem is people say,

okay, I want to make a difference, but I'm not sure how. I think specifically deodorant is a big issue for people. I also think sunscreen and lotion. Thoughts on that? Yeah. I mean, there's some surprisingly great DIYs for deodorants, right? As simple as, try this out, people, organic lemon, right? An organic lemon, you can use sodium bicarbonate you can use arrowroot you can take your great um uh essential oil lavender rose and be beneficial to your microflora because again a lot of these things have disruptive qualities to them. So you're not only, you know, we're desperately not wanting to smell, but at the same time, that desperation. I mean, microbeads that are there to gum up your sweat glands and aluminum salts that are directly connected to Alzheimer's, dementia and heavy metal toxicity. Like it's, when you see what we've been doing,

it's just absolutely insane to me. It's like a Twilight Zone episode. So that's part of the, it's a red pill moment when people go, you know, I don't, another, I remember a comment the other day, one kid was talking about these health freaks. I get a lot of that too. And that's fine.

That dude or that person, do whatever your life, man. I don't need to convince you. You want to live your life, do your thing. You're free to do that, right? This is another type of person. This is a person that goes, yeah, you know what? That makes sense. You know what? I don't want that in my body i don't want to set myself up for pain and suffering why would i now knowingly put heavy metals under my armpit uh you know and and women and breast cancer and and the lymphatic and lymphatic drainage and like the great thing about most of these DIYs and the solutions, they actually are life enhancing solutions. So that's where it's like, just look at that deodorant switch. So now

you now are naturally detoxing because you're not toxifying yourself once a day, twice a day, multiple times a day, just so you don't sweat. What if you could actually give yourself the lemon with a rose hydrosol, right? So now you smell like a freaking rose. It's subtle energies to help uplift and drop your parasympathetic response right and or up level your parasympathetic response and and help you deal with stress that's where these things really get exciting because it's not just i'm not trying to be a pain in the ass to tell you don't use that deodorant. What I'm really trying to do is going, hey, when you follow what is life-affirming, it has effect that goes way beyond what we could possibly understand.

And so when you take those little steps and you change the lotion and you change the deodorant and you don't slather yourself with oxybenzones and benzoines and all of these carcinogenic compounds when you're afraid to get cancer from the damn sun when you're putting on things that have been known to cause cancer it's like unbelievably ridiculous right but again you're staring at this stuff when you go hey what if i naturally I naturally, if I'm going to go outside, what if I take a break on the fear, put on coconut oil, and naturally has an SPF ranging from three to seven, right?

You use common sense. You don't burn yourself ever, right? And you use some common sense with all that stuff. you realize oh wow it makes sense like we're going into flu season maybe i'll get as much sun as possible to activate my vitamin d and to and if also feel good and get sun and so that's the that's the underneath this whole thing of this book it's just to kind of wake wake up the sleeping uh that we have all become accustomed to right and i think there are so many mysterious issues happening with people's health nowadays there's hormone issues popping up acne uh periods lost crazy things happening and to me it's a little bit of an epidemic like almost everyone that i talk to my age is struggling in some way with their hormones fertility whatever

it may be and to me that's highly highly concerning and i think you said it so well before there's this conception that someone's looking out for us. And if there's anything someone could take from this conversation, it's that the only person who can look out for you the most is you. And doing research and learning and just treating your body with care is so powerful. Even if you just change a couple of things in your day, I think it can have such a great impact. I'm not perfect. I love this stuff. I love learning. But it's difficult. And I think taking one day at a time and taking one step in the right direction each day is going to get you further than you'd imagine. To your point that you mentioned before, so many people are getting exposed to this stuff. And I interviewed her for the book, Dr. Shanna Swan.

She's got a great book called Countdown. And she gets very deep into the understanding that our endocrine systems are being just thrashed. And with that, guys, sperm, viability, motility, strength is being wiped out. And women with menstruation cycles, too early, too late, painful, endometriosis, no one can get pregnant. We're sprinting towards our own demise. That's why like without having these conversations, we look at the fabric of us moving forward as a population and it's affecting that, the basic root of – because the whole idea of us as humans is we just want to move the race forward. We want – if something chases you, you're going to run. You want life to move forward. And by us doing all of these modern day products from the ease of this shampoo that smells a certain way or the lotion a certain way, it is literally affecting you and your endocrine system. And it mimics, it disrupts, it thwarts, and then that

has a long-term effect, especially when you keep doing it every day. So we go back to solutions. There's a lot of great things. You can still have all of the benefits of a lotion or of a smell, but just do it, shift a second and develop a new habit towards products that are going to be life affirming and life giving to you. And then just go have the best life ever and not be a victim to corporations and products that frankly just don't give a shit about you. value. We have had many guests on this show talk about the importance of sleep. I know personally, I can tell such a difference in my day, my energy, my mood when I get a better sleep. So are you ready for the best sleep of your life? Dream Recovery has science-backed solutions to help you feel your best each morning. If you guys have listened to my episodes with Todd Anderson, he is the founder of Dream Recovery,

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delivery and free veggies for life. Just go to hungryroot.com slash pow to get 40% off your first delivery and get your free veggies. That's hungryroot.com slash pow to get 40% off your first delivery and get your free veggies. That's hungryroot.com slash pow. Don't forget to use our link so they know we sent you. What would you say to people listening who are pregnant or trying to get pregnant who are maybe still using chemical cleaners in their homes? I would say if you are one of those really blessed people who is listening right now and you are not yet pregnant, you are in such an incredible position because that preconception stage for not just you, but for your partner, takes two to tango, is so important.

It's one of the best investments that you can make in your baby's future health, in their future fertility, in their ability to lower the risk of chronic illness and lower the risk of behavioral disorders, is to clean your home out now and make those changes now. And if you are pregnant, they're showing many, many studies that if you are exposed in your first, especially in your first and your third trimesters to certain chemicals, they cross the blood brain barrier. A lot of these toxic chemicals that are brought inside the home and considered safe, go straight through the blood brain barrier and can affect your baby many, many years later, these things can show up. And that's one of the things that makes it so hard to prove, right? I mean, there are studies, mounting studies that are happening, but when you have such a delayed effect, we think, oh,

that doesn't bother me. I've used these things my whole life. Oh, I got pregnant really easily. I'm fine. I don't have a headache. Well, be grateful if you're the person that does have the immediate reaction because most of us don't. And we don't wake up with autoimmune. We don't wake up with cancer. That didn't happen yesterday. It's not contagious, right? It is something that typically comes from a low-level exposure day and over a month, over a year, and that can directly affect the baby. So if you've already had a baby and you think, oh my gosh, I wish I had known this, guys, so did my mom because she's always like, if only I had known. She was like, you know, selling perfume and I can't, soy formula,

all the things that she, you know, didn't know back then. There's so much that the body can do even now if your kids are in your house and they're grown or if it's just you and your husband or you and your boyfriend, whatever it is, getting those toxins out is the best thing you can do for your liver. It is one of the easiest ways to create space for your body to heal from even old injuries and chronic illness. And it's not an either or. Go do the medical Western route. Go take the chemo. If that's what you're called to do or the fertility treatments. So this is something that can just support all the efforts that you are making. And the body has an incredible ability to heal. I mean, they say that there's actually a study that shows eating organic food. So basically removing glyphosate from your food because

organic is not bougie. It's just without the glyphosate, right? There we go. For three to five days only, that small window can reduce the circulating pesticides in your blood 80 to 90%. Now think about that. I mean, so let's say I've been eating conventional food my whole pregnancy. I'm now five months pregnant and I decide for the next four days to just eat all organic. I mean, what a blessing it is for the baby and all the things that are happening during this crucial time. So, so true. And I've heard you say with Branch Basics, you can even use the formula on like children's skin. Oh, yes. I just literally had to laugh the other day because my nanny, we usually have a little compartment in the house, like actually at our

bar where we have like the diapers and we do use dry wipes because I don't love any of the wet wipes on the market because they all have a preservative in them. And then we have like a little spray bottle of water, but we had run out of the water. And so she takes my two-year-old, who's yes, is very much still in diapers, sets her on the kitchen floor, grabs the all-purpose bottle that we use to do all of our dishes and just starts spraying her private area and wipes it. And I looked at her and I just thought, I love you. You get it. Because it took a while. Like the first few months she would show up in my house, it was just so many fragrances and she's putting her nose up at Bridge Basics and now she's spraying my baby's private parts. With Branch Basics. But that's incredible. And wait, okay, you said

something important that I think the moms listening are going to want to hear. Wet wipes have preservatives. So you're using a dry wipe that you spray the branch basics all purpose on and you can use that on skin. Exactly. And so y'all, I've done this for three kids. People will say, oh my gosh, it's just one extra step. But I'm telling you, I'm in this industry and it's like, when you know better, you do better. There is no way that you can take a cleaning product and apply it to a substrate, like a cloth, which is what a wet, a wet wipe is, and not add a preservative that is at a certain amount,

which is a pretty high amount, to be honest. Um, it, because if you don't, you'll get mold, right? And so there's a reason that you don't get mold. Because if you don't, you'll get mold, right? And so there's a reason that you don't get mold. So if you were to spray range basics on a dry wipe and leave it there, within two to three days, there's going to be mold, okay? So you have to add benzalconium chloride. You have to add methyl isothiolosanone. There are all these pesticide preservatives.

And like I said, even in a very small amount is going to epigenetics shows that they could actually turn on and off genetic expression. And think about the amount of times you're using a wipe. If it was just a once in a while thing, I'd be like, okay, whatever. But this is on a very tender, absorbable area of your child going pretty much straight into the bloodstream, super thin skin, multiple times a day. So I use Honest Company organic dry wipes, and I literally just spray it with water or a little bit of all-purpose,

and my kids have never had a diaper rash or anything like that. It's insane to me that those ingredients are in kids' products. I know. Well, and the non-toxic ones. And it makes sense, though. Like, why would a wipe remain moist and perfect and mold free? It has to have that preservative. Tell us what's in Branch Basics. Like how does it work? What's the magic? Because I know there's not a ton of stuff in there,

but what is in there? Yeah. I love that you're asking this. No one really asked this. And I'm not a chemist. I did not formulate our product. But who did actually formulate our product were the thousands of clients that Marilee has worked with for 35 years. They were the ones that were

really our testing group. And so we worked with many, many people over, we did, let's see, over a hundred iterations, about 18 months it took to come out with our concentrate. And essentially it is a natural surfactant. So we have cocoa gluc, cocoa glucoside and deco glucoside. All of our ingredients are rated either one or a two on the EWG. Um, but those are just general surfactants. We have sodium phytate, um, which is almost like a binder that binds, um, minerals and chemicals and then sodium citrate, which is a natural salt that acts as a water softener. And then we have chamomile, which is our preservative. So yeah, people say, what's one thing you can't live without?

You can take everything else away, but don't you take my concentrate. I use it for everything. So explain how it works because when you order Branch Basics, you kind of get a kit with the concentrate and glass bottles. Can you explain to us how it works? Yeah, sure. So we are direct to consumer. I mean, we have a couple places around the country that sell, but we're mainly direct to consumer because we love to have that relationship with our customer. And that was always our passion. We are an education company first, and then we are a product company. We really use our products as a vehicle for building community and educating and empowering people. So yes, when you receive

Range Basics, you receive a 32-ounce liquid soap and the empty bottles that go along with it, either glass or plastic. So you have all-purpose, you have bathroom, you have streak-free, a laundry bottle, and a hand foamer pump, and they all can be made from that same concentrate. And there's little fill lines on the sides. And so depending on the ratio, um, you're using, you can use it to replace every single cleaning product in your home. Um, and the cool thing is we have about 70,000, maybe, maybe closer to 60,000 people on subscription, but essentially these are people who, you know, you'll never buy the bottles again, the empty bottles. You just have the concentrate show

up at your door. So when you look at the sticker price, you're thinking, okay, this is kind of expensive. But if you actually break it down, it's like $3 or less per all-purpose bottle. And then it's not single-use plastics, which I'm not like a huge, you know, save the earth, hug the trees. Like in our opinion, human health comes first. And once you prioritize human health, the earth benefits. So in that way, I'm a huge advocate, but the point is I don't understand how this day and age with the stats that we have and how far advanced we are, we can still have a cleaning product aisle. It's just basically like the water aisle, but with chemicals in it. How are we using all these single-use plastics still when they are, I mean, they're not really even that much more effective. In fact, I would say that the way that

we have introduced cleaning can be just as effective as the toxic counterparts. Guys, I use Branch Basics. I have hand soap in every bathroom, dishwashing, the tablets. We use it as detergent. Like I use it all over our house and it's so effective. It doesn't smell like anything, which I really appreciate. And it's good. I feel good about using it. I have two dogs. I have a husband who's eating off of everything. The pet thing is huge. The pet thing is huge. They lick and they get everywhere. My dog's climbing. Cleaning your pets. Fleas. I'm not going to say anything about claims. Fleas hate Branch Basics. Wait.

Hate Branch Basics. So when we used to have a dog, we would take the dog to Petco with the big foamer. This was back in the OG days. We had like a huge, like 24, 32 ounce foamer, 24 ounce foamer. And we would drop off the foamer bottle already ready to go. And I would pick my dog up. We were living at our in-laws. And so we were required to clean our dog a certain amount of times. I finally had to turn to Petco. And they were like, what is in this stuff? The fleas were just literally just flying off of your lab. Oh my God. Because they hate soap. I mean, when you think about it, it's an exoskeleton reaction. It's not a neurological reaction. So soap is what a lot of non-toxic gardeners use to keep pests away

because it actually breaks up the exoskeleton. I had no idea that I could wash my dogs with it. No claims being made here. No claims are being made. Thank you, but I will be trying that. That sounds really good. It's great. It's great for their skin, you know, that gets so itchy. And if you really look at what we're putting in those quote unquote natural dog shampoos, the fragrances and, you know. I know. I feel bad when my dog smells like a papaya because I'm like, this really shouldn't be the case. It's not good for us. It's not good for them. Yeah. It's not cute. Yeah, papaya. You know what I'm saying? Like my dog shouldn't be smelling like a coconut papaya. You're right. You're right. Outside of a clean home and not using chemicals,

how do you go about living your healthiest life possible? I know we spoke about enemas. Oh, yeah. Can we talk about enemas? Oh, yes. We can definitely talk about enemas. Because you've struggled with your skin. You've struggled with PCOS.

I know recently you struggled with Lyme and mold. So still have, I was telling Mari before the podcast, you know, they're being pregnant is such a blessing and we keep getting pregnant. And so it's been about eight years and I nurse my babies usually until the next pregnancy. Um, but it has definitely, um, stifled my ability to release toxins. And, you know, so everything I do is obviously very gentle. I'm not using infrared sauna, but I still have candida and I still have mold. So when I hear about your story, I'm thinking, oh, wow, you're really cleared out. Your heavy metals and such. I have, my heavy metals are very, very, very low. But that candida can be super persistent.

Yeah. That was a tough, that was a tough one. Yeah. But that's not to say that I don't have other gut things now. Right. So I'm dealing with that now. Yeah. And sometimes Western medicine has to come into play. And that's something that I've had to realize. Even things like SIBO. I mean, sometimes you have to bring out the bigger guns for sure.

But just, you know, it's kind of like what I said a little bit earlier. We just have to know that when we do, it's usually not isolated to fixing that one issue. And so if we can support our body through the castor oil packs and the coffee enemas and the grounding and the removal of toxic pesticides and the not being addicted to our phones, which are just making everything so much harder, you know, practitioners these days, it's like the protocols that used to work. Marilee says, gosh, I can't tell you in the past 35 years, it has gotten so much harder for the same supplement and the same protocol and the same treatment plan to work. And she's like, it's a hundred percent because

of the electromagnetic fields. So that's a whole nother subject. But I think for me and just my lifestyle, people look at me and what I eat and what I do, which it's been 15 years now and it's second nature. And, you know, people will say, gosh, how do you eat that way? Or how do you avoid refined sugars? Or how are you taking the time for this? And for me, it's not a restriction that these are boundaries of my freedom. I've never felt better. And so people can say, you know, oh, well, I need more balance or you need more balance. And for me, I'm like, well, guess what's not balanced? Chronic pain and muscle relaxers and painkillers and living at a pharmacy and, you know, being told I would never get pregnant. Like that's not balanced or having

a child with chronic illness, you know? So I get, I get a little bit fired up on that topic because yes, I think that when we are feeling our best and we're not fighting a health issue, sure. Like go have that hamburger and fries and this and that. And listen, people, I have struggled with emotional eating. I understand that there's definitely a time and place for restrictive eating, but I'm, I'm more, more just talking about the bigger picture of choosing healthy products. And if the eating thing is a big thing, maybe put that aside and think about the things that you're cleaning with, that you're washing your hair with. Think about finding a person to dye your hair that doesn't use ammonia and formaldehyde.

You can start anywhere. Start at the place that causes the least amount of stress. Take the pesticides, mildewicides, fungicides out of your home. That can't be that stressful. They are the biggest underminer of our health. Open our windows, take our shoes off. It's not just about bringing dog poop in the house. It's about lowering the pesticide exposure in our home. So filter your water, get a Filtrete filter from Home Depot and put it on a box fan and filter your home air for 20 bucks. You know, meet yourself where you are. But there are things nowadays that I just

do. I love, yeah, back to the coffee enemas. I love them. I will say I've been doing it for 15 years. I did one this morning. I am five months pregnant. If you're listening, do not start them when you're pregnant. But our body produces glutathione. And so when you do a coffee enema and you are, especially with the coffee and the caffeine, it goes up the hemorrhoidal vein and it basically instigates your natural glutathione production by almost a hundred percent. And so it can upregulate your metabolism. It's amazing for skin. It's amazing for brain health, gut health. I could just go on and on about I've gotten so many of my friends addicted. People are leaving voice texts. Okay, now what do I do now?

That's going to be me. That's going to be me after the show. Me and Fia are going to do it together. Sending all buckets. What's the bucket for? Well, you have to put the coffee in a bucket, and then you hang it on a hook. And then you have like a small tube. It's nothing scary. Cause it has to travel down. Yep. Got, got it. You got to work with gravity, get on all fours and play your favorite song, read whatever you're going to do. And I'm telling you, even just like once a week, once every other week, it's one of those things that, um, detox, you know, habits that actually you can see the biggest difference in a short amount of time. I'm one of those things that detox, you know, habits that actually you can see the biggest difference in a short amount of time. I'm one of those that really likes like that quick, you know, like you have a dusty table and you just see where you're wiping, you know,

like I like the satisfaction of vacuuming and that's how I feel about coffee enemas. You know, the castor oil packs are amazing and the sesame oil pulling in your mouth and the oil cleansing, you can do all these amazing grounding, but I see the most bang for my buck with my coffee enemas. And you saw an improvement in your skin. That was honestly one of the biggest things. Wow. Yeah. That was one of the biggest things. Because if you really think about it, I mean, up in glutathione, your master antioxidant, you're upregulating so much of your body, you're helping your liver. And I will say, I think the skin and like that brightening eye and the energy was the biggest, plus obviously gut motility were the biggest pluses of the coffee enema. I love what you said about eating the way that

you do gives you freedom. And I feel that way as well. Like finding whole foods and eating the way I do allows me to live my life to the best of its ability. And I feel like there is some judgment around clean eating. And it's like, are you really enjoying yourself? Like it gets a little tricky. And I feel like when you've had a health issue, like chronic pain, like PCOS, like acne, food can be medicine. It can be so healing. And there's a time and a place. Like I'm going on a trip for my birthday. I will be having tacos. 100%. I will be having margaritas. Tacos are part of my boundaries, actually.

Oh. Boundaries of my freedom. You can do a clean taco. You can do a clean, mad clean taco. Wait, how do you do- Welcome to Texas, girl. How do you do your tacos? Um, I like to do the 100% organic corn and we'll, you know, steam the corn tortilla.

I've just started reintroducing cheese after two years, and I'm really enjoying this cheese journey. Oh, I can't wait. But I do raw, organic. You know, I don't do much. But that and then some, you know, great force of nature or primal pastures or, you know, whatever meat. I mean, we get very ancestral with our meat at my home. Liver. Lots of liver.

Maybe not my tacos. Although Force of Nature does a liver ancestral blend that is really wonderful. You wouldn't even know. You can hide it in those tacos. Your kids, yeah, they never know. Yeah. Got to add some cilantro and guac. So you guys recently moved from Houston to the

countryside. No opposite. So we actually, I grew up in Houston. We moved to Salado, which was north, which is north of Austin, lived there during COVID. And our house actually got taken, the house we're building got taken by a tornado two years ago. And so we moved back to Houston and that's where we are with our three girls and almost boy. How do you guys like to manage the household in terms of not having too much phone time and grounding and keeping everything like, you know? Oh man, it is a constant battle. We're actually moving homes next week. So our TV time has skyrocketed because we're like, this is the best babysitter while we pack the house. So it's just about giving yourself grace. And there are seasons where I feel like I really have it together as a mom. I have a seven, five and two year old and we got our Yodo players.

Yodo is like the, uh, it's like an audio, it's like an audio book for kids. And you collect these cards, you know, and I'm like, I am just like, I am on top of it. We haven't turned our, we have one TV. We haven't turned our TV on in a couple of weeks. This is great. And now we're like an everyday TV trying to keep it under two hours, you know? So I think there's just grace in parenting. I will say we would never treat our lawn.

We live in a neighborhood that doesn't have a mosquito truck and that's very intentional. And my kids are barefoot a lot. We have a guy that comes to our house once a week for heavyweight training. And he's like, do your kids even own shoes? I'm like, they do, but they don't wear them. They take them off immediately when they see grass.

So they've been well-trained. And there's just, there's, you know, I've thrown my kids in the infrared sauna, and it has done wonders for their health. So yeah, you told me. Okay, what did that do for them? So my firstborn was born, you know, healthy and strong and on time and at home. And then all of a sudden at six months old, we have this huge eczema issue. And I'm like, oh no, no, we do it all right. My kids don't have eczema. What is this?

It was a very humbling experience. And thank God I didn't go straight to the cortisone creams and the typical route because I ended up doing genetic testing and the poor girl, I mean, double MTHFR from her parents and really weak detoxification system. And she is the one that actually had me read Ben Lynch's book on dirty genes, which really convinced me about the power of epigenetics and how we are not victims of our genetics. My daughter has no eczema. We went through, we did herbals, we did binders. We stuck her in the sauna for 10 minutes,

slapped some Curious George on, three years old. And she is, her skin is perfectly clear. And we just didn't, we took a different route. And I'm so thankful because instead of taking the batteries out of the fire alarm, we really got to the fire. And it took time. It took like two years for her. It was really bad eczema.

But now there's not even a sign of it. And it's been really cool to see how epigenetics, which is basically the power of our choice and our lifestyle, it's called the science of hope. It has totally trumped the genetic deck that she was given because I had the CEO actually, or CMO of this genetic testing company reach out to my health practitioner who then forwarded me the email and said, this child is going to need a lot of support throughout her whole life. This is a really, really weak detoxification. I mean, I was just weeping as I'm reading this email and my child is so strong. She's rarely sick. She, yeah. So it just

shows it does, it does help. That's so inspiring to hear. I actually just did my own genetic testing and I could see that I have a hard time detoxifying. I don't have the M, what is it? MTHFR. I don't, which is shocking. That's amazing. I know it's shocking, but I do have other markers that indicate that I have a hard time clearing out the cell and there's certain things I don't absorb. So it's really nice to have that information and just know that going forward. Yes. Genetics loads the gun. Choices pull the trigger. Yeah. But great to know that we can put our kids in the sauna for 15 minutes. Oh my gosh. And kids, they heal so quickly. I remember being so jealous because we moved into a home with mold when my, my second child was one and a Lyme disease that I'd had my entire life and didn't know about was

activated. And I gave her Lyme through my breast milk, which of course I felt horrible about. She was just constantly crying and just vaginal redness. And she was just a mess. So we ended up taking her in, positive for Lyme, pretty high markers. We put her on some herbals. Again, put her in the sauna, 10 minutes, curious George, maybe some Peppa Pig. And within six months, tested negative for Lyme. And, you know, I'm still over here, like, testing very positive. Like, gosh, it's just amazing, you know?

And we were still living in some mold and the kids just are so resilient. Wow. It's inspiring for us though, to see, okay, if my child can do it, I can too. Yes, absolutely. It just takes us a little bit longer. We have, we have more baggage. For anyone listening who maybe wants to start their non-toxic journey and purchase Branch Basics, what would you recommend as like the starter product? Yeah. Well, I always tell people this, please don't buy Branch Basics thinking that this is your ticket and okay, I'm going to be healthy because this journey is not about actually buying anything. It's about removal. So when I send Branch Basics out, which I do a lot, I meet

someone and I'm like, give me your address. But I say, please get rid of X, Y, and Z from underneath your countertop. And please get rid of your Glade plugins. And please, I hate to name brands, but please, please get rid of your pesticide guy that's coming, you know? Yeah. And then bring in the non-toxic, you know? So our starter kit's great. That's where to start. And, you know, just know that it's really about removal. We have a, we have a toss the toxins online course that is essentially taking Marilee's almost 40 years of client consulting and putting it into a course where Marilee Kelly and I are basically sitting on a couch and we break down in 12 different modules where to start. So

pesticides, cleaning products, laundry room, we go through everything from, you know, filtering your water at a budget-friendly rate all the way to emotions because emotions are toxic. So if something here that I'm saying is making you feel overwhelmed, don't start there, you know, because it's toxic. So yeah, just power of removal. And then buying Branch Basics, I will say it does work and it does make the process easy. So you guys have probably seen on my Instagram, every Saturday, I like to either make a loaf of sourdough or some croissants. And sometimes I'll make it myself,

but that is really like a 24 hour to 48 hour ordeal. And that's why I love getting wild grain. It's the perfect way to make baked goods easily. I personally love to get the sourdough bread, the croissants, the cookies, and the fresh pastas. What I love about wild grain is that it's the first ever bake from frozen subscription box for sourdough breads, fresh pastas, and artisanal pastas. What I love about Wild Grain is that it's the first ever bake from frozen subscription box

for sourdough breads, fresh pastas, and artisanal pastries. Every item bakes from frozen in 25 minutes or less with a no thawing period. Your Wild Grain box is fully customizable, so you can choose any combination of breads, pastas, and pastries. They also just launched a new plant-based box featuring a wide selection of plant-based pastries, breads, and hand-cut pastas. What I love about Wildgrain is that they use the best possible ingredients. When you check the ingredients on the products, you'll see they're very limited, which means they're using the best and whole ingredients possible. For a limited time, you can get $30 off the first box plus free croissants in every box. When you go to wildgrain.com to start your subscription, you heard me, free croissants in every box when you go to wildgrain.com slash pow to start your subscription.

You heard me, free croissants in every box and $30 off your first box when you go to wildgrain.com slash pow. That's wildgrain.com slash pow or use code pow at checkout. When we talk about sleep, I think it's really important to create a sanctuary in your bedroom. You want things to be comfortable, relaxing, and the bedding you choose is even more important. And that's why I love to use Cozy Earth. Cozy Earth's best-selling sheet set is temperature-regulating and incredibly soft. It was one of Oprah's favorite things in 2018. They have so many amazing options from pillows to sheets and blankets. Indulge in the ultimate luxury. I swear it's like sleeping in a hotel bed. It's

so gorgeous. They also have a linen collection that adds a breezy classic charm to your space. You can really make every night a five-star experience with Cozy Earth's responsibly sourced temperature-regulating bamboo viscose bedding. I feel like if you're going to splurge anywhere, it should be on your bedding and they have so many beautiful options. Cozy Earth provided an exclusive offer for my listeners today, up to 40% off site wide when you use the code PURSUIT, P-U-R-S-U-I-T. That's Cozy Earth. For anyone who doesn't know, Emily is, I mean, I call you my doctor, my naturopath, my guardian angel. What would you refer to yourself as? Everyone calls me their doctor, but I'm not a doctor. I went through the dietitian program, thought I wanted to become a doctor, but did not love the curriculum and the agenda that often gets pushed in that.

So I went through two continuing education programs. So technically my title is integrative health practitioner and nutritional therapy practitioner. Perfect. And for anyone who doesn't know, Emily is the person who saved me when it comes to my acne and also my lab work. She is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to blood chemistry. I'm going to ask you how many labs you've seen because I know it's a lot. And I want to tell you guys how we initially met. I was at the lowest point with my skin, truly felt like I couldn't even leave the house, crying on a daily basis. It was running my life. And I felt like I talked to so many people at this point. And this was when Danielle from ClearStem said, okay, I have one more person.

Let me call in a favor. And she introduced me to Emily. And I was just telling Emily, this is the first time we've met in person because we've only done remote calls. And when I first got on the call, I fully expected Emily to be 70 years old, grandmother, like I, and then up popped this like pretty young girl my age. And I was like, what? Truly, one of the smartest people I've ever spoken to, I felt like I finally got answers about the underlying issues. I think so many of us think, I have high testosterone and that's it. Like it's an isolated issue. We don't have a full understanding of what's happening underneath that and why. And I felt like you gave me the answers I needed. And now for the first

time in 10 years, my skin is the clearest it's ever been. I'm not on spironolactone. I'm not on Accutane. I'm not on any skin medication or hormonal medication. I'm not on spironolactone. I'm not on Accutane. I'm not on any skin medication or hormonal medication. I'm not going to go into too much detail because I want Emily to break it down for us. But no one has ever taken me under their wing the way Emily has. So I'm so grateful for you. And let's hop in. Yeah, I've got a million and one questions as per usual, as does the community. They are so excited to have you here. So let's start with your journey to finding health and wellness. What brought you to where you are today? It's a very long story that I'm not going to go into in depth. We'd be

here for a long time, but I had my own health challenges. I was a collegiate soccer player, but you think back to even growing up and you and I had this conversation, console one, what was your childhood upbringing like? What were some of the things that were said to be normal, but they're not normal? I had strep throat growing up. I ultimately ended up getting my tonsils out. That's something that's in our society, just a normal thing. Same thing with gallbladder. People just get their gallbladder out and it's normal, but there's a reason that I needed those tonsils out. I had underlying strep bacteria, ongoing strep throat, ongoing antibiotics, and your tonsils

are the garbage disposal of the body. And if that gets backed up, it impacts then the appendix. Therefore, I had this overgrowth of bacteria that could have stemmed from being passed down from my parents because toxicity does get passed down. Heavy metals do get passed down. If you ever see a baby with eczema, they didn't just develop that right away at birth or shortly after. Unfortunately, things get passed down from the parents. And I ended up getting those tonsils removed. Well, that bacterial infection has to go somewhere. It has to colonize somewhere. So it'll go and colonize in other areas of the body, like the gut, like the appendix.

It's not uncommon for people who get their tonsils removed for 5, 10, 15 years later to all of a sudden have appendicitis and get their appendix removed. Have you had appendicitis? No. I'm really grateful that the body communicates and gives us symptoms. Acne is just a picture of what's going on internally. So with these ongoing health issues,

bloating, digestive distress, I had debilitating migraines. They kind of just lingered and I put band-aids on them. My doll for extreme period cramps. I got put on birth control, which is the story for so many women to fix, quote, fix some of these underlying issues, but my health fully tanked after college soccer. I think it finally felt safe because sometimes our symptoms won't surface until they

feel safe as a survival mechanism and no doctor could help me. And so the very short part of the long story is I had some of the top liver specialists in the country look me in the eyes and tell me I needed a liver transplant. I need to be on medication for the rest of my life and get hepatitis vaccines. At the time, I had started turning yellow. My palms were yellow. My eyes were yellow. I'd gained a ton of weight, and that was their answer. Top doctors in the country. I started diving into what are my other options. It did not sit well with me at all.

And even going to a lot of integrative and functional medicine doctors, it was still Band-Aids. It was here's turmeric for your inflammation. Here's dandelion for your liver. But no one was really getting to the root of, well, what is overwhelming your system? And I very fortunately came across one doctor who sat me down and ran a blood work panel. And he was my sort of guardian angel. And you get emotional thinking about it because when you've seen so many people and you've been told there's nothing else you can do and someone can point to, no, there's a reason,

it's life transformative. And he quickly glanced at a basic CBC and CMP that a past doctor had run and said, I think you have underlying infections. I think that heavy metals is a problem. I think mold is a problem. Have you ever lived in a moldy building? Well, of course, college dorms, they're filled with them. Homes growing up, water damage, filled with them. Even once you move out, fungus can colonize in the nasal passages and then it creates a whole body systemic issue. And he gave me that information and I ran with it. I started researching, diving into PubMed, attending conferences and seminars, immersing myself in education to really not only understand how do you fix those issues, but how do you establish health in the body as a whole to where it prevents those things from taking over? So building the shields and guards from a

foundational health standpoint, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, so that when you do have a bacteria or a food with heavy metals, your body can handle it. I feel like so many of us probably have toxic overloads in our system, myself included, which we'll get into, from living in dorm rooms, from growing up in houses with mold. Does mold toxicity show up differently in everybody or does it kind of show up the same way? So mold can impact people in different ways. Mycotoxins, endotoxins, biotoxins, they're produced from mold. So it depends on the type. Even when we ran mold tests, urinary mold tests, there's a variety of mycotoxins, biotoxins, they're produced from mold. So it depends on the type. Even when we ran mold tests, urinary mold tests, there's a variety of mycotoxins that can possibly show up. Some are more intense than others, but then you can see patterns in labs and blood work. One of the most

common things we see is the antidiuretic hormone gets impacted. If people are dealing with mold issues, they tend to wake up in the middle of the night to pee. Kids will wet the bed. Oh my gosh. Me. So me. I wake up like four times in the night, but it's gotten better. It's funny you say that. Mold will impact a lot of hormones in the system. And that's one of the key ones. And then we begin to see on a urinalysis of a blood work, the specific gravity marker start to creep lower and lower and lower, which is dehydration. You're drinking all of this water, but the diuretic hormones and mineral shuttling system is impacted, and then we have dehydration going on. And the brain needs hydration. Our body needs oxygen and water, and therefore,

one of the biggest side effects of mold toxicity or fungal overgrowth is brain fog. And not being able to find their words and not being able to focus and sort of feeling out of their body. And then another really common one is almost electrical shocks, where they'll go to touch something and experience an electrical shock. So symptoms paired with blood work can communicate this really great picture that something's going on. And we saw that in your blood work too, where we see the neutrophils, which is this first response white blood cell to foreign invaders, specifically bacteria and fungus,

and they'll begin to increase in the bloodstream in response to some of these dysfunctions like mold how many labs would you say you've looked at at this point probably well over 2000. after looking at so many labs what would you say are some of the most common issues you see in everyone's lab work almost Almost everyone has some sort of underlying infection load or toxin load. And it's just because our culture, society, the way the world is, it doesn't accommodate for optimal health. So you've got heavy metals that are added to baby foods and packaged foods. There are chemicals and toxins that are added to protein powders. And you also have glyphosate that's sprayed on a bunch of crops and gluten, and that are added to protein powders. And you also have glyphosate that's sprayed on a bunch of crops and gluten, and that's added to the food supply. You have kids drinking milk that is from

cows injected with antibiotics and steroid hormones to make them grow big and fat. And all of that is contributing to the overall toxic load. And since things can be passed down from parents, some babies are born with a bucket that's already a bit higher. With that, we tend to see those white blood cells dip below 5.5 in that long-standing chronic load infection toxin problem, and it'll increase above 7.5 in more acute cases. So I'd say overall, one of the biggest things we see is we're just dealing with a big toxicity issue,

especially since most buildings have water damage. And if you're in water-damaged buildings, working in them, living in them, that's going to create mold and mycotoxin issues with fungal overgrowth. That's one of the biggest things. I'd say secondary to that is gut and liver problems. I had that. Yeah. That's a big common thing we see.

And it tends to present itself in kids when they get to that puberty age and their hormones are raging and the liver cannot accommodate and keep up. And that's when a lot of them start experiencing painful period cramps and explosive acne and they go to OBs or dermatologists and the solution is spironolactone, Accutane, birth control. So can you put kids on the same supplements that let's say I take for my liver elevated enzymes? Yes. It just, the dosing is a little bit different. So a lot of the herbs that we even used for you can be dosed at one capsule per 50 grams of body weight. And then some are even better for younger kids, such as black walnut. That tends to be really well

tolerated in tincture form if it's from a high quality source. I've heard you say normal isn't optimal, and I love that quote. Tell us what you mean by that. When you look at blood work or a lot of the intake forms with questions, it's based upon a statistical analysis of 95% of the population. With those reference ranges, even on labs and blood work that are off to the far right-hand side, that is what's normal. But as chronic disease is increasing and people are diabetic, having heart disease, COPD, asthma, they are establishing those reference ranges based on a statistical analysis of that population. As the population gets sicker, those ranges get more skewed, where now they're not optimal, they're normal. And that's changed a lot over the past even 40 years, where 40 years ago, an optimal white

blood cell range was 5 to 8. Now, some labs have it listed as 2.9 to 11. If someone's sitting around a 3 or 4, that's normal on labs, but it's far from optimal. So when someone goes to a regular doctor, they are being judged based on a normal, typical range for most Americans, which in reality is a pretty unhealthy range. Yes, given that most are on medication and are on pharmaceutical drugs. And they're not even running full complete panels to get the full picture. And it's really sad because you'll have people come to you saying, but my doctor said everything is normal because they're the doctor. They have the white coat. Now I respect and honor and appreciate doctors. I just think that some of the information that

they're taught and not taught, like nutrition and labs, plays a big role in this, where I'll look at those same labs that a doctor said everything was normal, nothing was flagged, and there's 45 markers out of optimal range. Insanity. I feel like I'm the perfect example for this because I lead, I mean, health is so important to me. And I was living what I considered to be a super healthy lifestyle before meeting you. And I'm sure doctors would say I had great ranges. I mean, I think I was told that everything looked fine. And then when I sat with you and we actually went through it, I was shocked at how much improvement there was to make and how much improvement we have made in a matter of months just by some small tweaks, really. Small tweaks. And probably no one ever said,

hey, your cholesterol is a little bit too low. I mean, most people would think that that would be a good thing, right? I definitely want to talk about cholesterol. What are the myths around cholesterol? Let's just get into it now. Currently, the medical system, if they see cholesterol high, they tend to immediately go the statin route. They will tell you to stop eating red meat,

eggs, foods high in cholesterol. But when cholesterol goes high or low, it's an internally driven imbalance that often has very little to do with our actual food. It is more so an issue with fat digestion, liver and gallbladder health. If we tend to see that total cholesterol and LDL start to creep up, they are responding to an underlying load. It's not uncommon to even see those spike when people start to work on their health. Another really common reason you'll see total cholesterol and LDL go high is underlying hypothyroidism before the thyroid markers ever go out of range because it takes about a 25% dip in overall thyroid function for the thyroid markers to begin to shift out of balance. So it's almost giving you this clue that there's a thyroid problem before you can actually see it

on labs, but they're not even running a full thyroid panel. They're seeing this elevated cholesterol LDL and they're telling people to remove these foods that are actually very important for our overall health. That's a big myth that high cholesterol is an underlying root to cardiovascular disease, which is absolutely not the case. You need the particle size. You need to look at other specific lab markers in order to make that determination. And then no one talks about low cholesterol. They think, let's just lower it as low as we can to reduce the cardiovascular and heart attack and stroke risk. But it's a backbone to all your sex steroid hormones. When you talk about fertility and feeling good and balanced hormones, if you don't have enough cholesterol, you're not going to synthesize those really important hormones.

Why do you think I had low cholesterol if I do eat red meat frequently and things like that? Metals and mold will tank the cholesterol levels. Bacteria will tank the cholesterol levels. Bacteria will tank the cholesterol levels in chronic cases. The initial stages, it will increase them. But when that's been going on for a very long time, those toxins, bacteria, infections, they overwhelm the organ systems in the body, like the liver, and the cholesterol will tank. I think the biggest thing I've learned from you is how interconnected the body is because I, even at the beginning of this whole skin, you know, coming off my spironolactone, going the natural route, I was someone that thought, okay, I have high testosterone,

I'll take DIM, I will drink spearmint tea, kind of like surface level, like tip of the iceberg type treatment. And then when I sat with you and you went through everything with me, I realized that not one issue that I had was like isolated, if that makes sense. It does. Is that the case for anyone listening who maybe has PCOS, acne, any hormonal issue? What would you tell them? It's all connected. Let's take PCOS, for example. PCOS is polycystic ovarian syndrome, multiple cysts on the ovaries.

There is a reason that the body will create cysts. As females, we don't have testosterone factories like men do. That's why our levels are going to be significantly less. When it comes to testosterone, it is very blood sugar balancing. That's why a lot of PCOS women tend to have high fasting insulin levels. It's a blood sugar imbalance that's increasing their testosterone. And when the body as a female doesn't naturally make enough testosterone, it will grow cysts on the ovaries

that are capable of making testosterone. You have all these cysts that then build and grow on the ovaries to offset the blood sugar imbalance. Another really common reason for cysts that then build and grow on the ovaries to offset the blood sugar imbalance. Another really common reason for cysts is underlying bacterial infections. Lyme disease, these spirochetes, will wedge themselves into organs and systems and create these barriers over them that are cysts in the body for protective reasons to hide from antibiotics, to hide from antimicrobials. You go back to why do we have PCOS? Well, let's dig for the deeper imbalances and reasons. And usually it comes back to inflammation, toxins, infection, blood sugar dysregulation.

So this might be controversial for me to say, but isn't PCOS just a cluster of symptoms then? Like, why do we even need, I mean, technically I probably have PCOS, but why does it even matter to have the diagnosis when really the cure would just to be going to the symptoms or the problem underneath? I think that they throw that blanket diagnosis because they don't know how to fix it. They'll say you're stuck with this forever. There's nothing you can do. But I have several clients who did ultrasounds and had 40 cysts. They redid ultrasounds a few years later, and there's one or two. These things can be reversed when you address the reason that those cysts form to begin with. What do you recommend for someone listening who is maybe seeing a regular doctor

but isn't having their hormonal issues really addressed, and maybe they're on medication or whatever it may be, and they want to get lab work done what do you recommend for them finding their Emily their guardian angel I I train and teach others how to read blood work from a functional optimal lens and there's a referral list that I can give you and we can link of people who've been through it, who are certified, who are able to order those labs for individuals. And the reason I prefer that route

versus taking a bunch of codes to their doctor is a doctor is going to raise their eyebrow and either give you a really hard time or they're not going to run it because insurance doesn't cover a lot of these markers. You'll end up with a super bill in the mail for $800 upwards to $2,500 because insurance is only going to cover the bare basics. And even if you tell them,

please run a full thyroid panel, please run a full thyroid panel, you come back with TSH and T4. Okay. So what tests should they be getting right off the bat? CBC and CMP, complete blood count and complete metabolic panel, that's typically run from a doctor. And even if they have their labs now, that can be extremely insightful. If they look at that and see that their white blood cells are outside of that 5.5 to 7.5 range, that should be an alarm system for there is something throwing your body off. Your soldiers are overwhelmed. Raise the flags. We need to figure it out. If you even then look down at the, I call them your army of soldiers, and they each have a special title, that can communicate, okay, what? Neutrophils are at the very top, and that was something that yours

was off on in your initial blood work. Neutrophils will tend to increase with fungus, yeast, candida, bacterial overgrowth. And it will tend to decrease with severe immune dysfunction because those infections and toxins have been going on for way too long. And it tends to seesaw with the lymphocytes, the lymphs. If someone's lymphs is outside of that range of 24 to 42 or it's seesawing, it's decreasing or increasing as the neutrophils are increasing or decreasing. Same thing. Bacteria, fungus, yeast, virus, immune dysfunction. Just those three markers can communicate so much information. And then monocytes, if they are above seven, there is an

active infection. There is something going on that is triggering immune dysfunction. And then the next two markers we talked about, because they were normal in your initial blood work, the eosinophils and the basophils, and those respond to mast cells, allergies, and parasites. And they were normal. We did your follow-up blood work three months later, and they increased. Okay. Tell us why this is a good thing, though. This is a good thing. Yeah. This is a good thing. It sounds like a bad thing, but it's a good thing that I have parasites. If these worms, parasites, whatever they are, as gross as it seems,

are not detectable in the bloodstream, they're creative creatures. They've formed a protective barrier called a biofilm around themselves. You run the blood work, it's not showing up. A lot of these herbs and supplements that we use actually go in and pop that bubble, disrupt the barrier, destroy the house like a tornado, and now they're detectable by the

bloodstream. You can actually go after them. It's why you'll hear the term antibiotic resistant, because people will take these antibiotics and it won't work. So they were there the whole time. We've just cleared the rubble, as you told me, and now they are present and now we're killing them. You've heard the term health is like an onion. You peel back the layers. You can't see the center of the onion at the very top. And a lot of people give up too soon. When I really look at the clients I've worked with, the ones who've stuck it out and been committed to the process and from the beginning understand it's going to be an uphill battle sometimes.

Your skin, your body, your symptoms may feel like a roller coaster, but if you're willing to stick it out and keep peeling away those layers of the onion, things will reveal themselves and you can address them. Thanks for joining us on the Pursuit of Wellness podcast. To support this show, please rate and review and share with your loved ones. If you want to be reminded of new episodes, click the subscribe button on your preferred podcast or video player. You can sign up for my newsletter to receive my favorites at marilowelland.com. It will be linked in the show notes. This is a Wellness Out Loud production produced by Drake Peterson, Fiona Attucks, and Kelly Kyle.

This show is edited by Mike Fry. And our video is recorded by Luis Vargas. You can also watch the full video of each episode on our YouTube channel at Mari Fitness. Love you, Power Girls and Power Boys. See you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and does not constitute a provider-patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor or health team.