Realfoodology - 50: Lyme Free is the Way to Bee with Holly Owens

Episode Date: August 11, 2021

I speak with my friend Holly Owens all about her journey with Lyme disease.  She tells us the story from the moment she began having symptoms, to the struggle getting diagnosed and her different treatments/lifestyle changes.   Today she is essentially Lyme disease free.  I can't wait for you to hear here story.  It is so inspiring.  If you or anyone you know is struggling with Lyme disease, this is the episode for you.  For those of us not struggling with Lyme, Holly also teaches us how to prevent getting Lyme disease. Check out Holly: https://www.instagram.com/wellthybelly/ Find a Lyme Literate Doctor - https://www.ilads.org/ Netflix Unwell - https://www.netflix.com/title/81044208 The Heal Hive - https://thehealhive.com

On today's episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. I tell people this all the time that write me on Instagram. Sometimes they'll ask for advice and I'll say, oh, go ask your doctor for X, Y, and Z tests or whatever. And they'll come back and they'll be like, oh, my doctor said I didn't need that. I'm like, fire them, fire them. You can fire your doctor.

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an Instagram. If you're listening and you don't follow me on Instagram, head over to Instagram and follow me at Real Foodology. I started Real Foodology when I went back to school to get my master's in nutrition because I really just needed an outlet to share all the things that I was, when I went back to school to get my master's in nutrition, because I really just needed an outlet to share all the things that I was learning. And I have made it my, my life's purpose to educate people on what we're doing with our modern diet and our modern landscape, if you will, environment and what we're doing with our agriculture practices that are affecting our health. And so I really just hope to shed light on all the things that we are doing and provide you with real solutions that can better your health, better your family's health, your loved ones, because ultimately, you know, we're, I at least hope that most of us

are trying to be on this earth for as long as possible. And it's more than just living a long time. It's also feeling good in our bodies so that we don't have to suffer while we're here on this earth. And part of avoiding that suffering is taking care of our health and putting our health in our own hands. Because ultimately, you are the only one. No one is coming to save you. You are the one that can implement the changes that you need in order to feel better and to really take care of your health. Today's episode was a really fun one for me to do. This is actually one of my good girlfriends in LA. Her name is Holly Owens.

And if you are unaware of her, her name is wealthy belly on Instagram. I'll leave that in the show notes so you guys can find her. She's such a fun, great follow. We met a couple of years ago on a trip to Mexico. We have a lot of mutual friends and we just became friends over the years. She really struggled with Lyme the past couple of years and it took her four years just to even get to the diagnosis and the protocols that she went through, which I'm so excited for you guys to hear about. I'm not going to give anything away, which I'm so excited for you guys to hear about. I'm not going to give anything away, but I'm assuming that a lot of you have probably not heard of one of the things that really helped her

and helped her ultimately rid her body of any trace of Lyme. We were actually talking about this after we finished recording. I unfortunately forgot to ask her this while we were speaking, but I, I asked her afterwards, do you have any Lyme left? Do you really have any symptoms? And she said that she needs to get another test done. She got a basic test done and it showed negative, but she needs to get a more comprehensive one to really get an understanding if she's fully rid her body of Lyme. And if you guys are unaware of too much around Lyme disease, this is pretty unheard of. She has another girlfriend who completely rid her body of Lyme, and we're going to talk about how they did it. But in normal conventional diagnoses and in just the

conventional medical system, this is like pretty much unheard of. So it's really, really cool. And just to hear her journey and everything that she suffered through, and then to come out on the other side and really not have any symptoms left and have no trace of her body is really, really cool. So yeah, we go into Lyme. We give you resources on places to go, websites to go to, what kind of doctor to look for if you are suffering from Lyme or if you think you might be. Lyme is a really tricky one. It's hard to pinpoint. Usually what happens is people end up with the wrong diagnosis with Lyme, which is actually what happened to Holly, because there's such an extensive range of different symptoms that you can have with Lyme

disease that it's really hard to pinpoint. And then on top of that, it causes a cascade of so many other things going on in the body that people often get misdiagnosed. And sometimes it goes on misdiagnosed for years. So Lyme is a really tricky one. I highly urge you to listen to this, even if you think you might not have Lyme, because there's a lot of people that are silently suffering that have no idea. And it's really good if you are dealing with a lot of health issues. This is a really big one to get tested for and just make sure that you don't have it, get that out of the way. Another one too, we briefly mentioned this, so it's not really

a topic of a conversation, but if you're listening and you are suffering and you're really searching for answers, another one to look for is Epstein-Barr virus. A lot of conventional doctors don't even think to test for this. So if you're really suffering and looking for answers and you really don't know where to look, I would definitely get tested for Lyme and EBV, which is Epstein-Barr virus, or also it's like a form of mono essentially. So yeah, let's get into the episode. I really hope that you guys enjoy it. And as always, if you're enjoying the podcast, please rate and review.

It helps me so much. It helps this show. It helps us get into more ears, which is ultimately what I want to do because I just hope that I can provide resources and help people to get better and feel good in their bodies because that's ultimately my goal with this podcast. So I appreciate any and all of your support. Please write me on Instagram. Let me know how you're enjoying it. Of course, posting about it on Instagram is always so, so appreciated. I just love seeing your messages and your stories. So thanks so much, guys. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Nootropics or nootropics, I've actually heard them referred both ways, are really getting a lot of attention right now. A lot of studies coming out. A lot of people are talking about them and using them themselves. And for good reason. I think a lot of people are realizing that they either don't want to be dependent on pharmaceutical drugs, or they are looking for more natural alternatives, things that can help them, but without all the side effects. And I think this is why neurotropics are so fascinating if you're listening and you don't know what they are they they can be drugs or supplements or other substances that claim to improve cognitive function particularly executive functions like memory creativity or motivation so a lot of people turn to them to

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So if you want to take the next step in improving your health, go to lumen.me and use Real Foodology to get $100 off your Lumen. That is L-U-M-E-N dot M-E and use Real Foodology at checkout for $100 off. Thank you so much to Lumen for sponsoring this episode. This is really exciting. Organifi now has kid stuff. They just released two kid products. One is called Easy Greens, and it's a refreshing green apple juice where kids will never know that it's packed with veggies. And the other one is called Protect. It's a delicious wild berry punch like the Kool-Aid that we used to have as a kid, but without any sugar. This is really exciting. And if you've listened to the podcast for a while, you know that I'm a huge fan of Organifi and most specifically because every single product

that they make is glyphosate residue free. So you know that you're going to be able to give these powders to your kids and know that they will be able to consume them safely without any glyphosate in it. So let's break down each one. The Easy Greens is a nourishing and delicious blend of superfoods and veggies that provides essential nutrients, probiotics, and digestive enzymes to bring balance to kids' growing bodies without fillers, additives, or junk. It helps to fill in nutritional gaps, aids in growth and development, supports digestive health, has a rich micronutrient profile, and includes digestive enzymes. This would be a great way to sneak in greens for your little one without them actually knowing that it's healthy for them. And the second one, which is the wild berry punch similar to Kool-Aid is called Protect. And it is to support

your child's daily immune health with food derived nutrients that work to strengthen their body's first line of defense. I know just through girlfriends of mine that have children that when your kids are going to school, going to daycare, they're coming home sick a lot more often just because they're getting exposed to different kids and different viruses when they're out in the world playing with kids. So this would be a great way to help to support your little one's immune health. It's organic, and it's also made with real whole food ingredients. It has a delicious berry taste, and it's low sugar, and it's gentle enough for kids to take every single day. And I really love the ingredients in this one. It's orange and acerol cherry, which is a powerful source of vitamin C and antioxidants, astragalus, elderberry,

and propolis. These are all really great for overall immune health. If you want to try the products that I talked about today or any of the Organifi products, go to Organifi.com slash RealFoodology and use code RealFoodology for 20% off. Again, that's Organifi. It's o r g a n i f i.com slash real food ology. Holly, thanks for coming on today. I'm excited to have you. I'm excited to be here. Yeah. So I wanted to have you come on today because I want my listeners to hear your story with Lyme disease and really what you did to help kind of I don't know if you would say you've overcome it, but I know that your symptoms are pretty, um, pretty much non-existent. So if you want to kind of start telling your story, like how did you find out you had it? Yeah. So I had,

I mean, I was totally fine before all this happened. And so I remember like literally the day when my health just took a nosedive. And I thought it was so strange because I never had gut issues or food intolerances or anything like that. So it was a pretty drastic change for me when all this happened. I just moved to New York. It was probably almost, I think it was about six years ago. Moved to New York. I have photo, I model. So I have photo shoots up in Connecticut and the Hamptons, you know, I think it was about six years ago, moved to New York. I have photo, I model. So I have photo shoots up in Connecticut and the Hamptons, you know, I'm in tick country, basically. Wooded areas. Yeah. Yeah. And I had no knowledge or education or awareness around Lyme disease,

ticks, what to do. It just wasn't there. I think there's so much more now, but I think we're still needing more education around it just as like basic knowledge of what to do. Yeah. And so I remember one shoot, they were like, Oh yeah, there's a ton of ticks outside, like watch out. And I was like, Oh, whatever. Like didn't even, now I would have been like, I'm not going out there. Sorry. Like I refuse. So it didn't click until four years after all my symptoms that I did have a rash on my back that looked like the bullseye rash. And just to make it clear, the bullseye rash does not always happen. That's about about 20 of the time after someone gets bit by ticks so don't wait for the bullseye rash to show up and think you're in the clear if it doesn't because that does not mean you did not get infected with any sort of tick-borne infections

or illnesses so um i thought it was like ringworm or something from the gym i was going to the gym a lot and my primary care doctor just was like, oh, you're fine. Here's a cream to put on your back, whatever. I was like, okay, whatever. Thanks. Went on my way. And about a month after that, that's when all my symptoms started. So it just literally 30 days later, I had brain fog, fatigue,

some neck pain, neck stiffness, a lot of gut issues, food intolerances, it just came out of nowhere. I was in so much pain all the time. And the only place I knew kind of where to go is just through nutrition and my diet. So I just really got passionate about cooking at home and trying to figure out like which foods I could have. And then I finally met with a functional medicine doctor about six months after my symptoms had started. He diagnosed me with leaky gut and IBS and some vitamin deficiencies, but it just didn't sit right with me. It felt like there was something more going on. So I treated the leaky gut. Um, he put me on a supplement protocol and all that. So I did that. It helped a little, but I just knew in my gut,

like something's not right. This isn't like we didn't hit it on the head. So he sent me to some of his doctors, like a, like a gastroenterologist. I went to like three different gastroenterologists because most of my symptoms were gut symptoms. So the food intolerances, bloating, painful, painful bloating, a lot of like burping too. It just was a lot going on in there. It didn't matter what I ate. I could eat a piece of lettuce and be in pain. And so they all just chalked it up to be IBS and just wanted to give me some, like, I don't know, like an antibiotic or something just to take. I was like, does that

even do anything for this? I don't know. So then the other one sent me to get an endoscopy to make sure it wasn't celiac disease. So I went and got an endoscopy to make sure it wasn't celiac disease. So I went and got an endoscopy and he said it was fine in there. It looked beautiful. Like I, he doesn't understand why I have any symptoms. And then I just was like, this is enough. I've had too many doctor's appointments and tests. I'm spending a lot of money.

So I was chatting with my acupuncturist and she recommended I go see this new doctor who at the time I didn't even realize this is what I needed, but she's Lyme literate. So that means she's a doctor that's very educated in Lyme disease and knows how to treat it properly. So I went to meet her and the week before my appointment with her, I had started to see on Instagram more people talk about Lyme disease and get diagnosed. And that was one thing I hadn't even thought about or researched. So I started researching it. Things started to feel like they were connecting. So the first I literally walked in and was just like, I just need to be tested for Lyme disease because I think this is something that I need to figure out.

And she's like oh absolutely so she did it and through the hygienics testing they're like up in northern California I think they're privately owned um testing facilities so like they don't have to just go strictly based off the CDC so they can test for more strains of the bacteria um and two weeks later I got my results and. And she's like, you're right, you have a few strains of the, you know, Borrelia, and then also Babesia, which is a red blood cell parasite. So it's kind of like malaria, because ticks can carry lots of other types of diseases. So I had all that. And I just was like, freaking knew it. Something wasn't right. And then I finally feel like I got to the bottom of it. But it took like four years to get that

diagnosis. And it just was a pain in the butt. I mean, sadly, I feel like that's a lot of people's stories that ultimately get diagnosed with Lyme. They kind of jump around. They go to all these different doctors. They get all these different diagnoses. And yeah, it sucks. I think it's also why it's important that we're having this conversation because hopefully maybe people listening will be able to connect the dots.

I also have noticed that a lot of conventional doctors don't even know to look for or test for Lyme. Yeah, and it's hard because I feel like, one, four years to get diagnosed is sadly not that long of a time. I know people through Instagram that didn't get diagnosed for 20, 30 years and had all these symptoms. Whoa. And I'm just like, dude, why are we not just doing like basic testing for anyone that walks into like it's getting so common now that it should just be common knowledge like let's just test for Lyme just to see cover our bases but also it's tricky because the symptoms of Lyme disease are very similar to a lot of other

you know diseases or illnesses so it's really hard to pin down and it can often be misdiagnosed as like, or thought it could be like MS or lupus, which is crazy. And then sometimes they're like, oh, it was actually Lyme disease. I didn't actually have lupus. And you're just like, holy crap, that's a crazy diagnosis to get and for it to be wrong. I know. I know. That's what's so frightening about it. Yeah. It feels almost like Lyme is kind of this like silent disease. Like people kind of suffer silently in it. Cause also too, like, I don't know, maybe you feel differently about this having gone through Lyme, but just as an outsider kind of watching all this stuff come out the last

couple of years, it almost feels like Lyme is not being taken that seriously too. Like I remember when Bieber was diagnosed, there was a lot of people that were like, oh, it's exaggerated. Yeah, it's not that bad. Oh, you're just tired or what? I'm like, no, there's people that are literally bedridden and can't open. Like my friend, she was my age. She couldn't open her water bottle.

She had joint pain so bad or like her gas thing at her car. I'm like, that's, that's bad. Like that type of arthritic symptoms for someone who's literally 27 years old. Yeah. It's not normal. It's insane. Yeah. And you know, some of that is just a symptom, unfortunately of our conventional medical system is that there's a lot of, and I feel that women get this more than men is like, you go in, you get all these tests and they're just like, you don't have anything. It's like in your head, it's probably anxiety. And you're just like, dude, I'm suffering. Like there's gotta be something here. My first doctor, he was a functional medicine doctor too. Like I thought he, like the first thing he said to me when I walked

in was you look too healthy to be here. What could possibly be wrong? Why are you saying that to me? Like I'm clearly here. Have you seen my symptom checklist? I marked like 50 of the 70 symptoms. Like clearly, clearly I'm not healthy. Like something.

And that's the thing is like with Lyme disease too, your blood work can come back totally normal. You can look like you're fine and, but you're not. And so it's just, you really have to demand a test and it's really shitty that you have to go to your doctor and tell them like what you want done, but just kind of. I know it sucks, but you know what? It's just, it is what it is. You gotta be your own health advocate. Yeah, exactly. And that's why people hearing conversations like this, it's so important for them to know that they,

yeah, like you can go and ask your doctor. And also I tell people this all the time that write me on Instagram. Sometimes they'll ask for advice and I'll say, oh, go ask your doctor for X, Y, and Z tests or whatever. And they'll come back and they'll be like, oh, my doctor said I didn't need that. I'm like, fire them, fire them. You can fire your doctor for X, Y, and Z tests or whatever. And they'll come back and they'll be like, oh, my doctor said I didn't need that. He won't do it. I'm like, fire them.

Fire them. You can fire your doctor. Like, you don't have to just stick with them. Yeah. Exactly. Like, my doctor is so awesome. She's so open-minded. Anytime I go to her with something, she's like, let's look into it.

Absolutely. That's how it should be. She knows, like, I'm the one living in my body. I know when something's wrong. And I do. I feel like I have an advantage. I am very in tune with my body and I know when something has shifted. Whereas a lot of people don't, but, um, it can come to a fault too, where I'm like, always

like, Oh no, something's off. But it helped me, you know, with this whole journey at least. But yeah, you gotta find a doctor that's on your team. Exactly. And they're out there. They are. They are. It took me a while to find one, but I'm, I have the same relationship with my doctor too. Or anytime I'm like, Hey, I kind of feel like maybe this might be a thing. She's like, let's test it. Let's do it. What's, what's the problem with literally them like ordering a test? I'm the one paying. It's going through my insurance. Like why would you say no? I don't get it. I know. I really don't understand it either. I'm the one paying. It's going through my insurance. Why would you say no? I don't get it. I know. I really don't understand it either. I don't understand that. I hope that this next

generation of doctors is going to be more open because I think more and more people are coming to their doctors being like, hey, I kind of feel like I might have this. Can I get tested? And so I'm hoping that there's going to be a shift in that just because ultimately like we, they may be the experts in the human body, but we are the experts on our own bodies. Our body. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. It's got to be like a, you know, a working together. Yeah.

Um, so what is the Lyme test look like? Like how do they actually test for, is it a blood test? It's a blood test. Yeah. Okay. So there are like different ones that you can get tested. It's really complicated. I get DM'd a lot on Instagram when they're like, which one did you order? I'm like, I don't know. My doctor knew which one to do. And the Igenix one is pretty expensive.

It's mine was like over a thousand dollars to get tested. it's not everyone can afford that so it's really crappy that like the only one that is affordable is through the CDC and like they my test if it would have just gone through the CDC what they would have diagnosed me as negative because I didn't have enough strains but I had plenty of them but they were like oh like you're off by a couple so we're gonna diagnose you diagnose you as negative. Why? Yeah, that is really strange. See, again, this is why Lyme is so complicated. And so people always be like, oh, I got tested and it's negative. I'm like, well, which test did you do? Because there's a few out there and you need to do the one that's like the most comprehensive because there's some that just do the bare minimum and they don't test

all the different types of strains that you could have. That's interesting. So for anyone listening that thinks that they might have it, make sure you find a doctor that specializes in Lyme and actually knows what to look for and what tests to get. I think that's a really important. Yeah. There's a website. It's like the illads.com, I think, but that has a whole directory of Lyme literate doctors. Um, you just type in your zip code, I think, and it just tells you. Okay, sweet.

We'll put that in the show notes so you guys can, can go to that website and figure it out. So this episode is all about getting to the root of your suffering. Let's hope that you're listening and you're not suffering, but if you are, and you're really struggling to figure out exactly what's going on in your body, hopefully this is a great resource for you in this podcast. So I really want to talk about the different treatments and like protocols, maybe supplements, whatever you did in order to get to this place that you're in now. I know specifically there's one that I'm very interested to hear about, which is the bee venom therapy.

Yeah. So when I first got diagnosed, I had already become friends with this woman named Brooke, who did bee venom therapy. She was documenting it through Instagram. I had started following her like the year before and just thought she was like such a badass. I was like, holy crap, like this woman just took control of her health. And it was so insane to watch. And I remember thinking to myself, man, I'm so glad I don't have Lyme disease because I don't think I could do that. And then I ended up meeting her a few months later. And we became friends. And she was the second person I called once I got my positive diagnosis.

I called Carrie first, my boyfriend. He was like, oh, no. I was like, it's okay. I got this. I now have answers. I know, like, which path I need to take now. So I called Brooke and said, hey, positive what do I do and she just was like if you want to do bee venom therapy I'm happy to educate you about it help you do it safely

um because she was already done stinging she had been done stinging for about three years no symptoms no like she wasn't in remission like she fully eradicated it like it's not coming up on blood tests at all it's gone which is so unheard of like it's really hard like most people go into remission and you just kind of know like throughout your life you'll probably have certain symptoms pop up or you'll have flares where you just don't feel well but hers is eradicated it's gone um and I said hell yeah let's do it like I want to do it she's like wow normally people turn toenom therapy as like their last result because they tried everything and it just didn't work. So I just said, yeah, let's do it.

And then I went back to my doctor the next week and just said, this is what I want to do. I don't know if you're on board with it. She said, yeah, I've heard of people doing it and I've heard it can be really beneficial. So why don't you try it? I'm here to support you in any way I can, if you need blood work or any sort of, um, um, what's it called when like you get something for the prescription or whatever, like an EpiPen. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. For the allergic, possible allergic reaction. Yeah. Yeah. So she wrote me a prescription for an EpiPen and I went on my way and got an EpiPen and started learning about B-Venom and went on a low histamine diet. And that's pretty much all I did. I didn't go the herbal tincture route or the, my doctor had suggested doing ozone through IV. Um, I think it was called like

10 pass ozone, something. I don't know. It seemed expensive. I was like, holy moly. Like, why am I having to spend my hard earned money for treatment? That's not covered by my insurance. This is pretty lame. Why, why am I getting punished for something that I've already been dealing with for all these years? Right. It's so horrible. And just for people listening that are unaware of what ozone therapy is, it's like an IV that you get where they administer a reactive form of oxygen, which is, or called like ozone O3. And it's supposed to help your body combat, like people do it for a lot of different diseases. I think a lot of people do it for Epstein-Barr too. Yeah. But yeah, it's very expensive,

very expensive. Um, and so I just said, no, I, I tried one of her tinctures for three days and it knocked me on my butt. I felt so sick. I was like, Whoa, this is gnarly. Like I hold on. I don't know if I'm ready for that. That was the first time I was like, Oh, gnarly like I hold on I don't know if I'm ready for this that that was the first time I was like oh there it's real like I've like I could feel like it being aggravated by these tinctures and stuff and that was the first real feeling I had of oh this is what herxing is like so herxing is like when there's die off of the bacteria and so it basically dies off in your body and if you don't detox enough you get like the flu-like off of the bacteria and so it basically dies off in your body and if you don't detox enough you get like the flu-like symptoms or the joint pain like all your symptoms

just become 10 times worse um so I ended up doing B venom therapy uh the treatment was two years which at the time seemed like forever I thought oh my god I'm almost gonna be 30 by the time I'm done stinging like this sucks oh my god like I'm almost going to be 30 by the time I'm done stinging like this sucks. Oh my God. Like I'm going to miss out on so much of my life. But it flew by. You sting yourself three times a week. You start with one sting, you sting on either side of your spine and you start with one sting at the lower spine. And over the next probably six months, you slowly work your way up your spine and you start doing closer to 10 stings. So I stayed at one sting for, uh, probably six weeks, which is kind of a long time with this for most people do like one and then they kind of

move up quickly, but I just was not feeling well with it and I was swelling really badly. So I took it slower. And then you work your way up to 10 stings and you just go on cruise control for the next year and a half, two years, however long you need. I was still very functional when I had Lyme. I was still able to work out and I just I was not ever the person that was bedridden or couldn't do certain things. So I'm lucky that it wasn't too bad. Um, so for me, two years was on like the lesser side of the treatment schedule. Some people do three years, which is a long time. Um, that is crazy. I'm just in awe that you were able to do it. I mean, I have been this whole time, you know, like we, I feel like, I think we met right before you started doing it. And I remember

you started posting about it on Instagram and I had a similar reaction that you explained earlier, where I was like, God, I don't think I could ever do that. Oh yeah. And I just was like, warrior beast mode. Like I'm going to do this. I got this. It was just so cool. It was intense intense I literally like the first year I was like what the hell am I doing this is so insane and like people's reactions I was like should I not talk about this like and then thankfully I mean when I was doing it and I was sharing about it on Instagram because I had my Instagram going even before I got diagnosed. I was already sharing my healing journey and just the journey I was on with my health. And I was

really nervous at the, like the reactions that I was going to get. Um, because the bees do die. Yeah. It's sad. Like it's, you know, and I did have a few really hardcore vegans attack me. Of course, it's always the hardcore vegans. And I'm just like, I'm blocking everyone that tries to come at me because you're not in my position. You don't know what I'm going through. Most likely you haven't had to make a decision like this. So stay in your lane. Stop judging me because I'm doing something to feel better. Exactly. And I mean, and you made a great point.

It's like no one has any idea what you're going through. And obviously you were going through a lot if you were willing to go through something that. I was willing to sting myself with bees for two years. Like clearly something was up and clearly it wasn't that great for me because who wants to do that? Because that's, like, extreme. And I don't mean that in a bad way, but it's like you really needed to do something to take care of yourself. So for people listening that have not seen your stories, your videos, can you explain to them how you did it? How did you actually do it?

There are two companies that can ship you bees. One's in Northern California and one is in North Carolina, I think. They ship you bees in a tiny little box in two-day mail. It's so funny that they just get like mailed. I was like, my poor mailman. Literally the box is like live bees and like they're buzzing. They're like, I'm like, yikes, this box is terrifying. I and like they're buzzing they're like I'm like yikes this box is terrifying I'm not gonna touch that one um so funny so they get shipped to you you buy like a little it's called a bee buddy um or like a bees uh hut those are like two names of them they're like little boxes that you put um in your house so the bees live in your house what I didn't understand when I first started doing it was where were the bees gonna go I'd only ever seen one person do this there was nothing on Instagram besides my friend doing it

and so now when you go through the bee venom hashtag there's like thousands of videos and posts I'm like holy crap like this is becoming way more known now which is so cool really cool but yeah you have a little box you put the bees that get shipped to you in that little box and it has like a sliding door on it they're protected they can't get out you feed them honey give them water like they're basically your pets that you try to keep alive and keep as happy as possible. And, um, I have different types of tweezers. They're all in my Amazon store too. Um, there's, I use long tweezers to reach in, to grab them. And then I was trained to hold them with your fingers. So I would hold them lightly by their head and then their stinger would hit my nail so they can't sting

your nail and then I would reach back and look in the mirror and sting my back man yeah so I don't know if I could do it again I'm like I hope I don't get lime again god I was like oh no I'm not out of the woods forever like lime is still there in the world. But you reach back, you sting yourself. They release the stinger once it's put in it. The stinger has little barbs on it. So once you pull it out, the venom sac pulsing. And that's the venom like going into your body.

I think I have some videos on Instagram of like it pulsing. that's the venom like going into your body i think i have some videos on instagram of like it pulsing that's crazy that's so cool uh then you release the bee they don't die right away but they lose like part of this they lose part of their like intestine when they sting you so i would just say thank you and be grateful for them and put them out of their misery and put them like out in the garden or something to kind of full circle. Um, I try to be as respectful as possible because it's not an easy situation to do that. Um, but, and then, yeah, you just do that. That's it. You just sting yourself with a bee. Wow. Yeah. I bet so many people listening

to this are going to be like, Oh my God, I've never even like heard of this. Cause before you started posting about it, I had never heard about this. It was crazy. It's actually been done for centuries. It's been done for a really long time, mainly for arthritis, but it became a little more known for MS. And then I'd say probably in the last like 10 years, it's become more of a thing for Lyme disease, but it treats Lyme disease, Epstein-Barr, rheumatoid arthritis. Did I say that?

No. Lupus, MS. That's so interesting. It treats a lot of things. And it can also like help with, I think Parkinson's disease. So it can like help with those symptoms. Help a lot of things and it can also like help with i think parkinson's disease so it can like help with a lot of people yeah do you know what exactly it is that it like what how it helps i mean yes so the venom is antiviral antibacterial antimicrobial

antiparasitic anti-inflammatory so it is literally nature's antibiotic. It can tackle everything. The benefit of it is normally with Lyme treatment, depending on which strains you have or which co-infections you have, all those dictate that you need different treatments for each one. So like I would have had to do a different treatment if I didn't do B-Venom for Lyme and for Babesia. So I would have had to do two separate treatments. If you do B venom, it tackles literally everything. It can help with mast cell. It can help with MTHFR, POTS. Like it can help with literally everything.

So like you don't even have to be diagnosed with something for it to help something else. So that was kind of the benefit of it as well. Of doing it. Yeah, you got to tackle both of one. Yeah. That's so cool. I mean, the more I learn about bees and all the different things that they have, um, I guess to offer us so that we can get from their hive. It's pretty incredible. Like I think about propolis and bee pollen, all the different bee products that are so healing for our body. I know. I use them every day. Beekeepers Naturals all the way. I literally have this sitting here right now. It's so good.

It's so good. This is one of the products from Beekeepers Naturals that I talk about these. Sometimes I take them before every podcast that I do. Yeah. I take Propolis every day. Same. The little like throat spray. It's so good. Yeah. Yeah. It's really good for immune function. So, so outside of BVT, just for people listening that may be struggling with Lyme, what else? So I know you said that was pretty much all you did, but you said something about you

did some sort of diet as well. A low histamine diet. Oh yeah. Okay. So that's just because there's a lot of histamine with a bee sting. So you want to try and limit that as much as possible. Um, I didn't, I only stayed on that diet for the first, I think like three months and then continued my normal, healthy lifestyle, but it was fine. That's good. Yeah. And that's the thing with low histamine diets

is that they're never meant to be long-term. They're more just to like, for anyone listening, that's unaware of them. It's a lot of foods contain natural occurring histamines or can also just cause a histamine reaction in some people's bodies. And so the premise behind it is that you eat foods that don't cause that kind of histamine reaction because your body is already under inflammation and, you know, dealing with all the, all the histamines already. So you don't want to overload it. Um, what are some other things that people do that maybe you'd be unaware of? Like one of them I know is, um, like we have a mutual friend, Jordan, that has struggled with Lyme for a long time and she's talked a lot about doing saunas.

Yeah, I do a lot of saunas. So with the bee venom treatment, there are like I was doing coffee enemas. I was doing infrared saunas, sweating, using binders. So not only do you want to kill and attack the biofilms and the bacteria, but you need to detox those. Because if you don't, then you're just going to have a horrible reaction and it's just going to be circulating in your body. So you need to sweat. You need to get your lymph moving and cleaned out.

So rebounding, lymphatic drainage massages, colonics, saunas, Epsom salt baths, like anything just to sweat, to pee, to poop. Like you want it all. Just want to get it all out. Get it all out. For those listening that don't know what rebounding is, what is that? That is you literally just bounce on a mini trampoline for 10, 15 minutes. And it's just like a light little bounce and it's just the gravity pulling and it will just help your lymph kind of just start moving and flush it out that's cool um is there anything else that we haven't gone over as far as treatments that might help people um I mean mold oh yeah like you gotta figure out if you have mold because if you do that will hinder

every bit of healing that you could possibly get. So there's like the Great Plains Lab mycotoxin urine test, which you just do a urine test and send it in, and they'll tell you if you have any mycotoxin kind of just circulating in your body. And then if you do, like you need to detox that because there's a lot of homes in the world that have mold. And just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not there so test your home I did the ERMI testing E-R-M-I it's like a dust sample and you do it on your own it's really accurate um so we did that and then yeah

if you are trying to treat Lyme but you haven't looked into mold, that is a huge piece to the puzzle. Yeah, that's a great point. And you actually, you had mold in your apartment, didn't you? In your old apartment? Yeah. Yeah. We had a water leak that flooded our entire downstairs with two inches of water. Oh, cool. That was great. And I had already started Lyme treatment. It was like, shit. And then I got mold. So that sucked. I had to detox from that. And then we moved up to Santa Barbara and literally the second I got out of that place, it felt like my healing just sped up and it was just night and day of how I felt. Yeah. That's a really big, that's an important one too. So I hope people listening will take that seriously because mold is not something you want to mess around with. People get really, really sick. Yeah, definitely. And it kind of like

hits you like you don't even know until sometimes it's too late, unfortunately. So and it's just simple things like feeling super puffy all the time. Like I will, I literally lost, I think almost 10, 10 pounds of inflammation after we moved out of our house. That is crazy. I was like, Oh, I look back on videos and I see myself standing in that house and seeing how puffy I was and nasally. And just, I feel, I don't know. It's like trauma to me. I need to like work on that probably. But like, I get like the heebie jeebies looking at at photos of our old place because I'm just like it was so toxic to me wow yeah I'm so glad that you figured it out and you got out of there yeah yikes um so for people listening that are suspecting maybe they have Lyme or are struggling where would you recommend that they go I guess you kind of mentioned a website earlier but I

don't know if you have any other sort of resources for people to go, like where to get diagnosed, maybe what kind of doctor to look for. Yeah. That one website, the I-L-A-D-S.com, that is a great website to find a Lyme literate doctor. And then as far as resources, I mean, there's a lot of of lime facebook groups where you can just go in and have people that are kind of going through the same thing as you and talking about different things um there is a bee venom facebook group as well which has a lot of free resources and education around it and then my friend brooke who actually taught me she started the heel hive so she teaches everything online about how to sting safely all the tests you need to have done she has doctors on boards and on board

nutritionists and she has just so much knowledge and education around this so the heel hive their website and instagram and then her instagram is the everyday expert. And she has so many highlights about her experience with Lyme. And she's very, very educated in it. And all about like the science behind it and doing it safely, because I get messages from people that are just like, hey, I got some bees and I think I'm going to sting myself. I'm like, oh, my God, like, no, do not do that they're like can you help me I'm like no no I can't like I do not want that liability on me because I don't know who you are what your diet's like what your lifestyle is like like you need proper testing done take the bees as seriously as you take a medication because there are side effects to it so you you can't just think like, oh, it's natural. It's not going to do anything bad. It's like, you could, you know, you can't be safe. You definitely want to make sure you're under some sort of, um, what is the word? Like monitoring with a doctor or someone that knows what they're doing. And then also there was the Unwell on

Netflix. It was a docu-series and there, think episode six, maybe, was all about bee venom therapy. So it was awesome. They followed three different people, and one of them was, again, my friend Brooke on it. Oh, really? Yeah, she was on it. Yeah, I was like, I know her. She's why I feel better. That's amazing.

I'm so glad that they did a documentary on that or like an episode on it. Cause you know, I was going to say like, I, I'm happy to hear that the Lyme treatment has really come a long way because I remember as a kid, one of my mom's best friends had Lyme disease and she struggled, I mean, for like 20 years and she was just on antibiotics for years and then really like struggled after that because obviously we know that antibiotics kill all the good bacteria as well, which is not going to help you in the longterm. And so, yeah, she really, man, she went through it for a long time. So it sounds like there's a lot better options now. Yeah. It's just, it's hard because antibiotics are still heavily pushed, but the best thing to do if you get bit by a tick is save the tick, send it in to tick report. They will test the tick for you

to let you know if it's carrying any sort of diseases. You'll get the results within like two days. If it is is immediately go get on antibiotics because that is your best shot at not having to deal with Lyme long term um most people don't do that um or their doctors don't give them a long enough prescription of the antibiotics I think like minimum you should be doing like 30 days I think is what um um Brooke recommends and some doctors only recommend like two weeks of it um but the longer you don't do antibiotics in the beginning the harder it's going to be so if I would have tackled it in the beginning within the first two weeks with antibiotics I wouldn't be here right now I'd be fine probably yeah um but I didn't have

the education around it so um it took me four years to get diagnosed. So that happens to you save the tick. Don't just get rid of it. Like save it. That is so smart. I think that's such good advice. And that was going to be another one of my questions, which I don't even know if you know the answer to this, but can you get Lyme disease from anything other than a tick? So I think you can get it through birth. So if your mother has Lyme disease and it wasn't treated or, you know, she's symptomatic or not even just symptomatic. But, yeah, you can get it through birth. I think they said that you can get it through mosquitoes and fleas now as well.

Right. I know. So at least I have it right now. Just kidding. But the mosquitoes and fleas, it doesn't live as long in their saliva, I guess. So it's a little less common, I think, but it is still an option, I guess, as a way to get it. And then I think the jury's still out on if you can get it through sexual transmission, which would be really crappy. Oh, I've never heard that. That would suck.

Yeah. I'm like, oh no. YX gave me Lyme. Great. You're with me forever. Thank you. Yeah, exactly. thank you yeah exactly oh that sucks that's super unfortunate yeah yeah I hope that one's not true but um yeah there is a lot of conversation around that now that's so interesting I've never heard that oh well great another thing to be worried about yep yep no it's fine at least now we know we know the protocols yeah yeah just be smart educate yourself so is there anything else that we haven't covered about lime that you want people to know um it's not only on the east coast it's all over the world yeah they have been finding it i guess on the beaches now of the west coast so it's not just in heavily wooded areas anymore. It's expanding.

So I think it's just check yourself after you go hiking. Check your scalp. A girl sent me a photo of one of the ticks on her, and it was literally the size of a poppy seed. It was so small. I would have missed it. I would have been like, oh, what's what's this like piece of dirt on me or something like this fleck of something but um what else I mean just send the tick in just send it in like it's like 50 bucks but I'm like just send it in for a peace of mind yeah like I do with

our dogs if they have a tick I send it in because I'm just like, I don't know where that tick's been. We had a tick on our headboard the other week. You did? Yeah. Oh, God. In LA or Santa Barbara? Santa Barbara. There's a lot of ticks in Santa Barbara.

Oh, God. And they're so creepy. They're so gross. So gross. Literally, I was like, I hate you. I don't know your purpose here. Just go away. Get out. Get out. Yeah. That's so funny. I think that's it. Okay, cool. This has been really informative. I'm excited for people to

hear it. And then I want to ask you a question that I just ask everyone on my podcast. What are your health non-negotiables? So no matter how busy you are that day, these are things that you do. And it could be like for your mental health or for your physical health, you know, exercising, whatever it is, things that no matter how busy you are, you always make sure you do to take care of your health. I always have to get movement in, even if it's just a 10 minute walk or rebounding for 10 minutes, I have to do some sort of movement. It just changes my day. I have to do it in the morning too. Even if it means I have to get up earlier, it changes my day,

changes my mindset, it changes how focused I feel. And then I would say taking time to wind down at night and like putting things aside, putting my phone away, taking an epsom salt bath reading a book like allowing myself to chill because I don't feel like me personally I get into the like rest and relax mode like the parasympathetic mode much wait is that the right one sympathetic and parasympathetic right yes yeah yeah yeah I don't get into that like rest mode often. So I need that. And then I say having some alone time. Yeah.

I need it. I need to recharge. Yeah. I feel you on that. So for everyone listening, where can they find you? On Instagram. I'm at WealthyBelly. Yay.

Definitely give her a follow. And do you have some of your bee venom stuff on highlights? Yeah. So I have an wealthy belly. Yay. Definitely give her a follow. And do you have some of your B venom stuff on highlights? Yeah. So I have an IGTV. I have some reels. Um, I have a lot of highlights too. Awesome. Definitely go check those out guys. It's cool to see. It's literally from like when I got diagnosed to when I finished. So it's, it's all there. It's so cool that you have that whole journey. I know. I'm like, wow, I should make a little montage video or something. Yeah, you should. That's so cool. I love that. Well, thank you so much, girl. This has been so fun. I know. Nice to chat. Thanks for listening to today's episode of the real foodology podcast. If you liked this

episode, please leave a review in your podcast app to let me know. This is a resident media production produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Chris McCone. The theme song is called Heaven by the amazing singer Georgie spelled with a J. Love you guys so much. See you next week. Outro Music you