Live Like a Girl with Dr. Mindy Pelz - Daily Detox Strategies to Improve Your Health – With Dr. Christine Schaffner

Episode Date: February 21, 2022

For full show notes, resources mentioned, and transcripts go to: www.drmindypelz.com/ep109/ To enroll in Dr. Mindy's Fasting membership go to: resetacademy.drmindypelz.com This episode tackles the basics of detox from the modern world. Plus, we chat all about restructuring water, lymphatic drainage, and vagus nerve toxicity. Dr. Christine Schaffner is a board-certified Naturopathic Doctor who has helped thousands of people recover from chronic or complex illnesses. Through online summits, her Spectrum of Health podcast, network of Immanence Health clinics, and renowned online programs, Dr. Schaffner goes beyond biological medicine, pulling from all systems of medicine and healing modalities–helping patients reclaim their wellness and reveal their brightest light. Dr. Schaffner completed her undergraduate studies in Pre-medicine and Psychology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and her Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine at Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington. With her diverse skill set, Dr. Schaffner seeks to improve access, outcomes, and speed of recovery for patients struggling with chronic, complex, and mystery illnesses. Patients travel from all around the world to reclaim their wellness using her Ecosystem & Terrain, Energy Analysis, Clear Blocks, Optimize Flow (EECO) methodology. Please see our medical disclaimer. 

The body's resilient. We all really need to very much, you know, live a lifestyle of drainage and detoxification. We're only as healthy as our body is able to eliminate. Resetters, Dr. Mindy here. And I am on a mission to teach you just how powerful your body was built to be. This podcast is about giving you the power back and helping you believe in yourself again. Let's jump in. On this episode of the Resetter podcast, I bring you Dr. Christine Schaffner.

Now, a little bit about Christine before I dive into this incredible conversation. So she is, Christine is a naturopathic doctor. She is the founder of Eminence Health. And she has a podcast herself that you guys should all go check out called the Spectrum of Health podcast. And what I love about this conversation and why I wanted to bring Dr. Christine on is that she is doing some really innovative ancient healing strategies for health. Now, when you look at those two words, innovative and ancient healing, they tend to not match,

but this is the direction that health care is going that has me so excited. We know that this modern world has overcomplicated and overstressed the human body. everything from toxins in our water to toxins in our air to toxins in our environment to Wi-Fi to complication with with overdoing social media this modern world has really impacted in a negative way the human body and so as health care is emerging into a whole new place we are finding some ancient healing tools that are incredibly helpful and we've spoke of many of them here on this podcast. Obviously, fasting being one, but light and grounding in nature and sound and fresh air and something as simple as sleep. These are all now incredibly important

healing strategies that we may have overlooked prior to this moment in time and we're now coming back to it. So in this conversation with Dr. Christine, we go back to the. basics. And what I asked her was, tell me how somebody creates a life of detox for themselves. Detox from the modern world. So this conversation went in so many fun directions. So we're going to talk about water. You're going to hear water. It's not as simple as just drinking water. She talked about how you can restructure your water so that it's healthier for yourselves in a very free and efficient way. Then we went into lymphatic drainage. Love this idea that detox is really more than just giving yourself some supplements, but that you want to look at how you can help the organs drain,

your liver, your gut. How can you improve your lymph system? So she went down that path. Then we went into a concept that really has me thinking called vagus nerve toxicity. And this is our inability to go from parasympathetic to sympathetic. We are struggling to move in and out of these two states. So she talked about what vagus nerve toxicity is and what we can do to overcome the challenges that our vagus nerve is experiencing in this moment. And then we finished it up maybe on my most favorite concept, which is the idea behind frequency. So we know that frequency affects us. We can see frequency work in our cell phone. And we can use frequencies in our, and vibrations in our world for damaging our body. And we can use them to heal our body. And this is what I'm just loving so

many people talking about sound and vibration and how these are now healing tools. So wow, if you are looking for an elevation in your concepts around health, if you feel like you just do not heal the same way you used to heal before. If you're trying to unwind the damage physically, emotionally, chemically that the modern world has done to you, this is the conversation for you. And as always, if you love it, please leave me a review, share it out into the world. I read your reviews and it lets me know what conversations you want me to continue to have. So if you love this one, please send it out into the world, leave a review, and I'll make sure that I keep bringing amazing guests on like Dr. Christine Schaffner. Enjoy.

This is the way I look at every conversation that I have on my podcast is there is a solution to that people need to hear for some problem that's affecting, gosh, so many people. And when I look at detox, I feel like detox is one of those things where it's starting to bubble up to the surface. People are starting to understand that we live in this ridiculously toxic time, but they don't really know what to do from there as far as what symptoms are toxic related, how they can naturally detox, and other things that might toxins might be affecting. Like, I can't wait to talk to you about Vegas nerve toxicity and other things that we're seeing that toxins are dramatically changing in our health. So can you,

let's start the conversation with like what why are people so sick from toxins right now and what can we do without spending a dime to open up our detox pathways yeah yeah we can totally go there you know we are in this time in the of you know we're not starting at zero anymore right we know that even before we're born that we are born with this toxic bucket if you will and you modern life, unfortunately, we're in this grand experiment of, you know, a combination of, you know, things that I find are highly neurotoxic carcinogenic. And it's not just like one thing. So there's a lot of information maybe about mercury or lead or arsenic, cadmium, glyphosate, you know, you name it. And one of those alone, we could go through a whole mechanistic example of how

they affect our physiology. But we don't live in isolation with one toxin, right? We live in the synergistic soup. And then in my perspective, we lay on, you know, electrosmog and these electromagnetic fields that are increasing every year in our exposure. And that's also affecting neurophysiology. So we're painting the picture of we're not starting from zero. We're starting basically from preconception, you know, this toxic burden in the starting. And then we're in this ever-growing, ever-increasing toxic soup of synergistic chemicals that

were really in a grand experiment. So I think everybody. understand that. And then, you know, but the body's resilient, right? I know you and I both are very much believers in the body's inherent inability to heal. And I think that really, if we're on the planet today, we all really need to very much, you know, live a lifestyle of drainage and detoxification. You know, we're only as healthy as our body is able to eliminate. And many labels that were labeled in conventional medicine or alternative medicine or functional medicine, that label, I do believe, stems from this toxic burden. And I think that if we all didn't have this,

you know, what we're up against and overwhelming our system, that our bodies would be, you know, more resilient than they are. And how I frame this, though, too, is the body is resilient. And it is amazing that we are, you know, even thriving many of us in this toxic time, but many of us who are have adopted these principles and understanding of how do we live? Like it's not like a juice fast or a, you know, a week thing or once a month thing or once a year thing, which is great. I mean, I applaud any effort in this way. But it's like, how do you like incorporate these every day? And I'm happy to share like some really basic go-tos as we build on that. Yeah. And I think what I, what I just grasped from what you were saying, I never really thought to put it in these words is that it's

like exercise. Like, you know, most people, hopefully on this planet know that exercise is a health habit that they should be doing on a fairly regular basis. But what I'm hearing you say is detox and drainage and all the things we're about to dive into. There needs to be a protocol for your life on a daily basis that you are doing these things. Otherwise, toxins are building up leading you to chronic disease. Is that what, is that correct?

Perfectly stated. Absolutely. So yeah. So I'm, yeah, believe or not. So go into like if I wanted to get fit exercise wise, I know I can hire a personal trainer. I can go the gym. I could run. I mean, there's so many ways we can go about that.

But when we look at a daily life of detox, you know, we've got celery juice. We've got fasting. We've got, you know, a lot of really cool things. but what would a daily life of detox look like in your book and drainage? Because I think that's important to put that in there as well. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, the first principles of detoxification, even drainage, is, you know, we want to avoid exposure as much as possible.

So really being highly educated on what can you feel empowered to do on a daily basis to make the healthiest choices as possible. And, you know, we have to also, when I say that, I also think rigidity, can be a negative, have a negative health consequence. So we take this, we just have to accept, you know, we're on the planet. It's toxic. We all chose to be here right now. And we're going to do the best we can, you know.

And so with that premise, you know, just really simple principles, clean food, clean air, clean water, you know, do what you can within your home environment. I also, we can dive into this an hour later, but I also am a big believer in the power of sleep and having a healthy sleeping location to help just, our bodies detoxify at night and have a, you know, really, um, supportive, you know, hormones and your immune system and all of that. And so, you know, we can go through that checklist, but then, you know, how do we live this lifestyle? And so, um, I'm, I'm like a nerd about water. So water is something that I'm really, I'm interested in. And we are, you know, we all need to

drink water every day. And when we think about avoiding exposure, you know, I think a lot of your listeners know that the, you know, the water that we get out of the tap is not the healthiest. And so we need to filter it from fluoride, I mean chlorine, and then there's all sorts of other, you know, unfortunate chemicals and even pharmaceuticals and aluminum and all sorts of things that get into our water. So step one, get a water filter. And then you can go down the rabbit hole with water. So, but it's very important, I think, to remove those chemicals from the water. And then what we can do also, there's two things. We can structure the water. And I, the more I learn about structured water, I feel like this is a key principle to leading a lifestyle to toxification.

Because the more I learn about exclusion zone water, the fourth phase of water, structured water, this is the form of water that's called H302. It's in a plasma state. And this is the water that really is in our body and in our cells. And it maintains electrical charge. So charge is really important for the health of our cell. So when we are sick, our cells can have a lower resting membrane potential. So they can be harder to kind of communicate and stimulate an action potential and all of that.

But when we have a healthy electrical charge, that's when the magic happens. Everything flows. Things can communicate. So exclusions and water in the cell actually helps to build that charge. And then exclusions on water also, wherever we have exclusion zones, whether in the cell or on the cell membrane, in the interstitial fluid, in the lymphatics and the blood, that creates movement and that creates flow. So when I think about leading a lifestyle detoxification, we need exclusions on water that leads to, you know, more flow in the body. And really drainage

and detoxification is like, how do we get things flowing? How do we get bio flowing? How do we get our bowels flowing? How do we get our kidneys flowing? How do we get our lymph flowing? And so I feel like the water that we drink is part of that. And we can buy fancy filters or fancy devices to structure of water, which I'm a believer in. I think if you do have a chronic illness, that might be a step to really help you recover your health. But we know that exclusion zone water is also formed in the presence of especially two wavelengths of light. One is in the UV spectrum. Another is in the infrared. So we all have access to the sun. And so actually even having your water solar charged, you know, that actually has an impact. Or if you have an infrared light or, you know,

you can put the water in front of that and that can help build exclusion zone in the water. There's also natural spring water because of the, you know, the basically the movement and the flow of the water in that environment creates exclusion zones. So a lot of these devices that create exclusions on water create movement in the water. So they're like the funnel devices. And then we know I have Dr. Jerry Pollock is a friend and he wrote the book, Fourth Base of Water. he lives in Seattle where I live and he studied like, okay, what are some substances that have high amounts of exclusions on water? So as we ingest that, we can help increase that. So celery juice and green juices and cold milk juices, we're actually squeezing the exclusions on water

out of the structure of the plant material. And so that's pretty amazing. And then that's why that's why celery juice works. I mean, that has been like the most popular question for, I know, I think, that I've gotten, well, not this year, but a couple of years ago, it was like, celery juice. What do you think of celery juice? And can you explain just so the listeners know, exclusion zone? Tell me a little bit what that means. Yeah, so I'm using this word interchangeably kind of on purpose. And so Jerry Pollock wrote the book, The Fourth Face of Water.

The Fourth Face of Water is actually also called Structured Water, Exclusion Zone Water, crystalline water, and it's this water. Water is usually H2O. This is H302. And so it's basically water that forms, especially along the cell membrane and in these zones in the body, that actually has this different structure. It's more of a plasma state in this kind of flowing water state. And so it's more viscous and gel-like. And it has properties. And so when they study it, it's also in these patterns of these coherent crystalline structured water. So that's where the structured water comes. And then it has these different things that this water does versus H2O. So this water really works for us. It helps our electrical charge. It helps the propel movement in the body. It actually excludes

toxins out of that water. So that's so. So if you can't afford a filter, a whole house filter, you could leave your picture of water out at sunset. Yeah. Well, yeah. Sunrise? Yeah. Any part of the sun because we get that full spectrum, you know, in the sun, UV and infrared.

You can drink celery juice. Spices. So Jerry found in his lab, turmeric, coconut oil. You know, these things help to, you know, there's so much research that can be done, but he just kind of dabbled and looked. And then so we can do that. And then we can structure the water in our. body. So we can ingest, and then we can actually structure the water. And that's why I think a lot of

photobiomodulation and a lot of light therapy and also the infrared sauna. So remember, when we look at the electromagnetic spectrum, it's the different wavelengths and sunlight, and we have UVN1. So the sun amidst that and we can be in UV light, but you have to be careful not to get burned, but of course it is, it's going to help structure the water. Infrared, you also get exposed, but a lot of devices right these days in the biohacking community really harness the power of infrared frequency. Infrared has so many properties and it kind of penetrates a little bit deeper into the cell and into the body. And then it also creates more exclusion zone. So I think not only are you getting that heating and sweating and all the things that, you know, we know that to do, especially in the infrared sauna,

but I think a big part of why we see the health impacts is that we're increasing that H3O2 in our physiology. So interesting. So then are you saying if I just drink water, I'm not getting hydrated? You know, I'm saying that in some ways, but Jerry does remind me that because of our biochemical reactions, we do give off infrared in our body. Our metabolically, our, you know, our nature is brilliant, right? You know, so we need this. So we internally produce thermal energy, right, in the body, infrared in the body. And so we do, like the things that we ingest do, we can transform into exclusion zone. But remember, modern life. So you fill the modern bucket with all of these unfortunate toxicans. They can disrupt the exclusion zones in the body. Cherry also recently

did a study and put a Wi-Fi router in front of exclusion zones water and it does disrupt the, it breaks it down. So the toxic bucket of, you know, chemicals and neurotoxins, and then EMF, that really, we have like a lot, you know, a lot in modern life is, you know, undoing our exclusions of modern, if that makes sense. And so we want to be most mindful of that, you know, so we can just have a lifestyle that we're like, okay, you know, what am I drinking today? What am I eating today? How am I moving? How am I, you know, am I getting out in the sun. Can I be exposed to infrared technology? And these things will help us to build that, you know, energy, which is, I think, a big key to our vitality. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Agreed.

So you, so again, what I'm hearing from you is the water would be one of the very first things we would want to look at if we were creating a life of detox, looking at water in sunlight, looking at celery juice, looking at, I mean, we haven't even gone into EMFs, but, But it does seem like that would be a pretty simple step that people could take. And I don't think people think of water as a form of detox. Yeah, I don't think people, I mean, I think we, people think people think like, okay, I got to drink water, but I don't think they take it to the next step. So like water, you know, like we are mostly water, you know, and so water is such a key part of our physiology. And I don't know about you, Mindy, but a lot of my patients are chronically dehydrated.

You know, they have signs of dehydration. they also have things in their physiology because especially I deal with a lot of chronic illness. So a lot of patients have low anti-diuretic hormones. So they're always thirsty. They're peeing a lot. You know, we're drinking things that dehydrate us. You know, we're, you know, running around and not making time for ourselves. So it is that's, you know, I spend a little time on that first piece because it's foundational, you know.

Oh, super foundational. Really, I think if you take one thing away from our talk today, I think that will only give you momentum in your health. Okay. I love that. I love that. And again, like there's when the biohacking world, you know, you can get down rabbit holes of thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. And yet you can come back to some core principles. This is why I love fasting that are free. It's and is and sunlight. Those are biohacks as well. And that's what I heard you saying is that you can biohack your water so you're getting more hydrated using the power of the sun. I love that. So, okay, what else? What's next?

If I want to create a life of detox. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I want to bring to the forefront our lymphatic system. So our lymphatic system, I'm sure your listeners have heard about, but a lot of people still, like, don't know about the lymphatic system, right? And I think it's one of the most important systems, especially when we think about detoxification and still very much overlooked. You know, conventional medicine doesn't really talk about the lymphatics unless you, unfortunately, have a surgery and, you know, have edema or lymphedema or. you know, things like that. And so, but our lymph, um, lymphatic system is really like our lifeline in our body.

And it, um, it's okay with you. I'll just spend a moment to see. Yeah, no, please. We've, we've touched on it a little bit, but you're going to bring a new set of information. So go for it. Okay, great. So the lymphatic system is tied intimately to our circulatory system. So we have our heart, pumps blood throughout our body. The, the oxygen rich blood goes through our arteries. And then in the tissue space, there's something called a capillary bed. And that's where everything gets real small. And that basically oxygen rich blood leaves the capillaries. And a lot of fluid leaves the capillaries at that time too. And much of it goes back to the venous system and then returns to the heart. But a lot of fluid stays in that space. And that space in between the cells and the tissues and where all the action is in the body,

it becomes what we call interstitial fluid. So it's a space between the cells and it's bringing oxygen and nutrition and it's removing waste. And when you think about, you know, we have two cells. It's, you know, in this interstitial space that fluid then drains into what we call lymphatic capillaries that are kind of in this space. And so a big, like, I know that you're really into like cellular rejuvenation and cellular health. And a big part of keeping ourselves healthy is that fluid, first of all, is moving. And we have enough of this fluid and energy and nutrition and oxygen brought to the space. But also that it's just as important that this is leaving that space.

So things are draining and that there is not a backup or buildup of fluid. And then that's like where the trash isn't getting taken out. And when the trash piles up, the cells can basically remove waste. And so it's a really important piece of how our physical. physiology works. And I have a friend and a mentor, Dr. Rob Cass, he created a company called Fisiccone. He is like this big book where he trains people. And he always says that when you do lymphatic therapies and when you drain the lymphatics, you're actually draining this interstitial space of the extracellular matrix. And because everything's interconnected, that you're actually having a

huge impact on our epigenetic expression because the DNA cannot be optimized and expressed if this fluid space isn't draining. And so the health of the cell is very much dependent on our lymphatic therapies. And so the lymph basically drains in the capillaries. And then it's this bodywide network of capillaries and vessels and nodes. And part of its job is to remove waste. But it's also to support our immune system. So whatever we're exposed to, whatever viruses or bacteria or parasites or mold or mycotoxins that gets into this fluid engages in our lymph nodes or our lymphatic organs and then our body has the opportunity to mount immune response. So really two key pieces that many of my patients are challenged with are, you know, a build

up of toxicity and immune dysfunction. And so these two things are so important to improve. And so that's why we focus on the lymphatics. And, you know, the freebie treatment of, you know, how to move your lymph is hydration is part of it. And then also movement, just moving your body. Yeah. You know, moving your body is going to be important. They're the lymphatic. have a one-way valve system towards the heart. And so creating movement, you know, just even if you're not even, if you're sick and you don't have a lot of energy, just do what you can. But there's also, you know, a lot of just different technologies you can invite into

your home, like the rebounder and the vibration plates and the dry skin brushes and the glossaws and, you know, all of these things. But the more that you move, you basically move the lymph. And tying this all together with some of what I share. I have a good friend, Gina Brian, she has a company or an organization called the hydration foundation, and she's really big on educating people in structured water. But she really taught me that our fascia, which is our connective tissue, when we talk about connective tissue, it's often the fascia and the lymphatics.

And this fascial system full of collagen actually is a way that we deliver the structured water in our body. So the fascia is actually designed to move water. in the body. So you actually get hydrated by moving. So movement is key. You know, exercise is key. We got to get moving to move our limb to hydrate ourselves and to feel good, of course, you know, as well. So interesting on the fascia, because I always, you know, you start to see trends in your health the longer you live. And when I was 20 years old, I had chronic fatigue syndrome, was diagnosed with high levels of Epstein-Barr virus. And it came after I had,

had a fasciotomy. And I was a competitive tennis player and I had compartment syndrome and they went in and cut the fascia on my lower legs. I have four big scars on my legs. And, but then after that, it went into this immune deprived state that allowed Epstein Barr to emerge. Is it, do you feel like there's a connection? And then with those two situations. And then one other thought on that is, When you're talking about immune suppression, I mean, we're living in the time of immune suppression. Like, if there's anything COVID's taught us, it's not to be scared of a virus. It's that we should be powering up our own immune system. Do you think there's a connection between this lack of immune function and people not moving?

I know it's multifaceted, but that's the first time I've heard that connection between fascia and immunity. So you have to be fascinating. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. you know, I think it's all interconnected in your story. You know, I'm sorry you went through that and there's like definitely, you know, I'm a big believer like everything is interconnected in the body and every, you know, there's nothing's random. And so, you know, when you think about kind of, you know, tying into your story and kind of the larger question, when we think about the fascia, the connective tissue, you know, the lymphatics, this is a lot of where we have a lot of our immune system surveying, you know, our bodies, a lot of mass cells hang out. out in the connected tissue and in the, you know, this space. And I don't know about you, but I have a lot of patients who have this increased sensitivity and increased histamine issue. And it's because the mass

cells so bombarded by, you know, what it's exposed to. And so the threshold lowers and lowers and becomes more hyper-excitable and releases histamine, you know, and so that's, you know, part of it. You know, we have other immune cells, you know, surveying this area, you know, as well. And, you know, there are these, you know, when I, there are these pictures and textbooks of the extracellular matrix, and that's like, you know, it's all interconnected. So we start in that, like, visual. And it's this highway. We have, what we thought, you know, when I was in school, we thought, like, the fashion was just structural, right? You know, we just thought it was like the sarahen wrap around the muscle, you know, whatever. But the more we learned about it, it's not only, you know,

structural, but it actually is a communication network in the body. And it is a fiber optic, you know, essentially conductor of electrons, protons, biophotons. It's also surrounded, again, by the structured water. This is where glyphosate, when we talk about detox, glyphosate is a glycine analog. One of the key amino acids and collagen is glycine. So unfortunately, you know, one of my friends, Dr. Stephanie Senev, she talks about how glycine gets interrupted or glyphosate gets interrupted in the space that glycine gets, is supposed to get. And so then we have this, you know, this really toxic collagen that's disrupting our network and then creating our immune systems like, what's that? And so I actually had a patient with scleroderma and I put her in the flow preso and then measured her urine for glyphosate. and was like the highest glyphosate I've ever seen.

And so again, this is like an end of one in my office kind of put together. But it's like this autoimmune phenomenon that's happening. Is that an autoimmune phenomenon? Or is the body just like, hey, that's not me. That's glyphosate and where glycine should be. And there's an inflammatory process. So I know I gave you a couple angles to think about the immune system and our connected tissue right there. But I think it's we can't think of one without the other.

you know, right. It's all happening in the space. So you're saying that glyphosate gets stuck in collagen and in fascia. That's crazy. And then the body goes and attacks itself. I think that my people are so sick today because of our exposure to glyphosate. Yeah. I mean, I agree on glyphosate. And I've, I've, we had Stephanie Sneff on this podcast as well. And we talked about, you know, the way I've always looked at glyphosate is that it drives those those heavy metals into the brain tissue even deeper. But now you have me thinking a little bit

even expanded beyond that, that it's stuck in fascia, which is in our whole body and is in joints. And so if you create an autoimmune reaction to that, I mean, if your body's attacking your joints. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And there's like, it's like so sinister, like, life is sake. It's like, it affects so many systems in the body. And I, you know, driving aluminum in the brain and, you know, all of that, you know, which is really important to, you know, be aware of. But I think, you know, when I think about why it's so insidious, I mean, I think it, it affects membranes in the body, so leaky gut, leaky brain, but also I think that the future, you know, of a lot of where our learning is is in the fashion, you know, and how the fashion is this communication network. And

we can see it. Like, you know, I don't know if you've had your scars injected or if you've, you know, know, seeing that piece before, you know, but we see that sometimes we, you know, scars, a scar tissue can create these electrical disturbances in the body and all these different things, but you can do an injection on your chin and your, you know, shoulder can start moving, you know, again. So, you know, there's like distant connections, but it's all, you know, interconnected. And then in the world of bodywork, you know, people can really understand, like, the presence of manipulating fashion, moving fashion, creating more movement and flow and opening that it just has

this huge body-wide effect on the body. So I think, yeah, I think it's, like I say, disrupt so many things. But the fascia, I think, is something to noodle on for you just to digest because I think it will well. Yeah. Kelly and I go way back on fascia because the first time I got on the flow presso, she did a facial release and I got off and I was raging with anger. Yes. And I was like, and I'm not an angry person. It just totally shocked me. So it was the first time that I really saw what the emotional piece of fascia could be. And when I went back and I actually looked at it, I realized that I think the anger, a lot of it was the situation where the scar actually happened and the time period of that. So it ultimately was a gift. And Kelly and I joked about it. And then I got on a plane and flew to.

Pennsylvania to have her all fix me all up. They call it facial memory. You know, there are people who are studying this and calling it fascial memory. Like our tissues through the structured water in the fascia hold memory. That's where they're thinking. That's where scar injections, body work, the flow press. So, you know, and that's why, you know, it's important to do all the things that you

need to do to heal and address your emotions. But if you're, if you're stuck out there and if you're not seeing the movement in your health, you could have, you know, stuck. energy, emotions, trauma in your tissues that literally is blocking your body's ability to self-regulate, heal, detoxify, and all of it. It's crazy. A little bit because I definitely want to get hit on this topic, this idea behind vagus nerve toxicity.

And I think what's really interesting and what I'm seeing in the detox world is that we've gone from detox being just, just eat better to, you know, juice. cleanses. And now we're sort of moving into detox as it's not as simple as just mobilizing toxins. We have got to have things like flow preso, like the movement in general, water. I mean, everything you're talking about. But what is it that is damaging the vagus nerve? So what I'm thinking is it affecting our ability to go toxins are affecting our ability to go in and out of parasympathetic and sympathetic? Is that what vagus nerve toxicity is? Yeah, you know, I, what I, you know, I'm a naturopath, so we're always trained like, okay, you know, what's the root cause?

You know, like, I think it's really great awareness around Vegas nerve and, you know, people are like, okay, the Vegas nerve needs to be, you know, supportive, do these exercises, you know, that person stuck in fight or flight. and, you know, that's all really great information. But, you know, I take it kind of in lens deeper and being like, okay, why did the vagus nerve become imbalanced and begin with? And we know, like, emotions and trauma can affect that. But there can also be this, you know, known, what we call vagus nerve infection and vagus nerve toxicity. And so whenever we think about a toxicant, we think about it's, you know, how does it disruptor physiology?

And many toxicans, especially heavy metals and certain biotoxins also. from different infections can be neurotoxic. So they can have a propensity to their fat level. And so they can get settled into fat. And our neurons and our nerves are made up of fat and phospholipids and all of these, you know, all of this lipophilic material. And so when these toxicans get lodged in parts of our nervous system, they disrupt the flow of communication. And then that can be part of why the vagus nerve is not communicating while it's not producing enough acetylcholine or there's, you know, um, you know, dysregulation. And whenever we think about supporting the vagus nerve, I kind of have my checklist. I think, okay, do a dental history.

You make sure that there's no silver filling still or Malcolm filling still in the mouth. There's actually no root canals. Those can be dead teeth that also those biotoxins can affect the vagus nerve. And we also look at the jaw and um, see, if there's any cavitations. The cavitations can be necrotic bone that can also be producing biotoxins and affecting vagus nerves. So we think about like, okay, nothing because I remember the vagus nerve comes out from the brain stem and then there are branches and the neck. And so the mouth, because of the proximity, can be very much tied, you know, to like where the source is. So we think about that. And then we think about the lymphatics. And so, you know, a big highway in the neck.

You know, the neck is a big highway. We have like blood going into the brain, blood going out of the brain. We've got the vagus nerve. And then we have these groups of lymph nodes called the cervical lymph nodes. And they are often, if you've had, you know, a lifetime of, you know, dental toxicity that drains into them. If you have, you know, again, any dental infection that drains there. Even sinus infections can kind of drain into the cervical lymph nodes. Also, if you're struggling with a chronic virus or Lyme and cancer,

co-infections, that can, you know, keep these lymph nodes chronically kind of like swollen or inflamed or congested. And again, because of the proximity of these lymph nodes. So just think if you have lymph nodes that are congested with pathogens and toxicants, that can actually migrate and be a reservoir and those things can settle into the vagus nerve. And so we think about, you know, cleaning up the mouth and really opening up drainage pathways, you know, in the net. And also, you know, all the systemic support to support the immune system. But, you know, my work there and what I've seen to Mindy is the more that we get to that root cause of what, what's like slowly poisoning the vagus nerve, right?

So get that addressed. And then we do a lot of the, you know, Vegas nerve exercises and support. But a lot of, you know, how we recover the vagus nerve is really opening up the lymphatic channel, opening up the lymph in the neck. And then, you know, things get moving. the immune system can support the vagus nerve more and then toxins can clear out. I use a lot of phosphatidylcholine. I also use, there's a woman, Diana Driscoll, who's taught me a lot.

She has a clinic called Potscare, and she created a product called Parasin Plus, which helps with acetylcholine. So the communication in the vagus nerve, you know, so if you have a vagus nerve that's inflamed and cranky and toxic and infected, it's not producing enough for transmitter. So that can be really supportive. and then we have all sorts of topicals that we do and techniques. But yeah. What do you know if you had vagus nerve toxicity?

It's a good question. Many of my patients have symptoms that we can ascribe to the vagus nerves. So in my world, there's a lot of pots, which is when you stand up, your heart goes too fast. There's dysotidonamia. There's just not the ability really not to kind of be in a balanced state between your parismpathetic and your sympathetic nervous system. or even frozen, you know, like that fight, flight or freeze kind of, you know, stuck, you're kind of stuck in one gear or you can't get into parismpathetic. The vagus nerve innervates the heart, you know, so some people could have a fast heart rate or speeds, any, you know, lung issues, a lot of digestion.

So a lot of digestive issues. I also, you know, not only think of upstream in these big branches here, but a lot of the highway of the vagus nerve, you know, the communication from the brain to the body, but a lot of it is really body to brain. So if there's a lot of gut dysbiosis and a lot of biotoxins and the gut that can travel via the vagus nerve and perpetuate kind of this dysfunctional pattern. So it's layered. Yeah, it's complicated. Layered, you know, it's the biggest cranial nerve and it really touches like every

kind of body system that if a patient walks in their own. office has, you know, an imbalance. And so I kind of, I often assume, you know, that this is something to tackle. But again, I go through that checklist. Yeah. And so what can we do? Are there, you know, are there some things that we can do that on our own to help with our vagus nerve toxicity? Yeah. What are some of the easiest things to do? Yeah. Absolutely. So, you know, I'm, you know, again, you know, thinking about, you know, what could be at the source and at the root. And again, if you're pretty sick out there. I'd encourage you to work with a provider who could help you kind of unlayer that so that you have, you know, all the tools and can do that safely. You know, I use a lot of

different topical treatments in my office. And, you know, my friend Dr. Ruggiero formulated a cream for me that's called lymph flow. And it has a probiotic in it that produces a peptide called macrophage activating factor. And where we apply the cream, we actually really open up the lymph. And so macrophage activating factor also is an antiviral and an immune support. So we're kind of getting that through the skin. We're getting that, you know, absorption, that through the dermis, the interstitium, that we can actually affect the lymphatics and, you know, eventually get to the nerve to help heal the nerve.

So we've seen that. So anything that you can really do to open up this pathway has a positive effect. And, you know, you can sing and gargle and, you know, do all those other exercises to you. Yeah, I've heard that. Yeah, you know, yeah, Dr. Karazin talks a lot of time. And then there's, you know, Dr. Stephen Porges, he has, you know, the polyvagal theory. Polyvagal, yeah. He has a couple pieces of equipment.

I have friends at a company called Brain Harmony where you can rent his equipment. And he has different, like, vibration techniques that you can do to actually help to improve communication in the Vegas nerve. There's a lot of emerging kind of technologies too to help to rehabilitate the nerve as well. Yeah, before I left Kelly's clinic, she was rubbing all kinds of things on me. She's like, oh, you're getting on a flight. And she like pulled out all these jars and she started rubbing this stuff on me. I'm like, oh, my people. I found my people when they're like, care about my health when I get on a plane. But she put on Sophia flow. Is that one of your products as well. Yeah. So that was the first edition. And then we kind of evolved in Marco and I.

And we have, it's called lymph flow now. And it has a couple of probiotics. Yeah. So love that. Yeah. So that really helps to, you know, open things up. And we've had a lot of, you know, really wonderful clinical anecdotes over the years with that. Oh, well, we're going to have to try it. I love that. Okay. Talk about the other thing that I saw you talk about. And I love this because, you know, you and I definitely meet on the body heals itself and that the modern world is really throwing a lot at us. So our ability to heal has become more challenging. And just in this short conversation, I think people are probably getting a bigger idea of it's not as simple as you didn't eat the right meal that there's a lot more going on. But what about energetic blocks? I saw you talk a little

bit about that. And I've been, I've been trying to wrap my head around frequency a little bit more. I definitely come from more of a science base camp, but I also come from this, the body heals itself. And a lot of the things that we used to not be able to explain with science, we can now explain. And I think that energy frequency is one of those. So talk a little bit about where frequency and energy gets blocked in the body and are there things we can do to unblock those energies? Yeah, absolutely. And this is a, you know, topic I'm really passionate about and feel very much a student, you know, and a continual learner.

And my, again, my patients teach me, you know, every day. And, you know, I think always when I like to talk about this, I like to just remind people that even though these seem like maybe esoteric principles, they're actually, you know, grounded in science. We conventional medicine very much acknowledge. that we have electromagnetic fields in the body. So we have, our heart produces the strongest electromagnetic field in the body. And so we have a field that is measurable about six feet, you know,

from our bodies that our heart produces, that conventional technology, you know, reads and evaluates the heart. Our friends at Heart Math, Dr. Roland McCready has studied a lot about the heart and the field of the heart and the impact of the heart on our physiology. And it's very beautiful. I mean, it's so simple, but when we're in these states of gratitude, love, appreciation, our heartbeat, our heart rhythm becomes more coherent, more along. And that has a profound effect on our communication and our body.

And we can measure that. And the heart actually informs the brain. The field of the heart that's generated informs the brain waves. And so when we want to create, you know, healthy emotions and a healthy brain, you know, we can really spend a few moments in gratitude. So we know we have electromagnetic fields of energy and information that we produce and kind of bring it to like on a cellular level. We, you know, we know about electrolytes, right? So sodium and potassium, you know, all these, you know, minerals that are really important for us.

And they're important because they're electric lights. They're basically helping with electrical movement of energy in the body. And whenever we have electrical charge particles moving through conductors, we generate a magnetic field. And then on the other side, you know, when we have a magnetic field, so collagen produces a magnetic field because it's a, you know, three stranded structure, it's a helical structure. It produces an electric field. So why I just share that is like all of a sudden, okay, now you have this visual, aside from the esoteric stuff, okay, we have this field of energy that our heart is producing. Now we have brain waves. And then we have all this charged, all this charge matter moving in our body, creating all of these, you know, fields.

And so I really feel that this is the future of medicine, acknowledging this part of our physiology, because this is also where things can happen faster. So biochemistry is brilliant in functional medicine and naturopathic medicine. I love it. But it can take time. And what we're learning to through kind of this frontier science is that the biochemistry might actually be coming downstream. It's actually the organization of coherent fields of. electrical and magnetic information that organize or draw things to each other rather than

that's just block and key model. There's like a, there's a force that's gotten at all. You know, so it's amazing. And then when we think about energy, I also, we have to think about light because light is a form of energy. So we also know that our, you know, our cells communicate with bio photons. So essentially the smallest packet of light. So when we are, healthy. We have what we call coherent biofoton emissions in the cell. And when we're unhealthy or when we're sick or we have a cancer cell, there's incoherent basically photons of energy. And then that disrupts or the trickle effect of that is that our cells don't work. We don't make energy. Things break down, cellular communications. So when we think about, okay, all of this. And then, you know, we can

talk about, you know, chakras and meridians and subtle energy. I mean, there's a place for that, but just even staying on the topics I've talked about, we can have these areas of electrical disturbance in the body, right? We can have, you know, areas of, you know, blockages that affect our, are basically these highways of these fields of energy and information. And I think scars do that, you know, so when I think about scars. Back at the scars. Yeah, they basically, you know, circuiting or fashion, you know, the electrical flow.

So I think about, you know, definitely from that camp. And then, you know, there is, you know, when I think about energetic blockages, too, you know, I think about scars. I think about emotional trauma stuck in our tissues. And then I do, I mean, I very much acknowledge that we have this biofield. So we have, okay, it's electromagnetic energy. And then there's all sorts of other conversations. but I do believe that this field can actually hold information around our bodies. And when we've been through life experiences, traumatic events, we can actually hold these memories,

not only in our tissue, but in our field. And there's a woman named Eileen McEusick. If anyone wants to go down the rabbit hole and really try to understand what I'm saying, say her name again. Eileen McHusick. She created, you should have her at a podcast, so she's real, and she created a system called biofield tuning. So she uses sound and vibration to help move energetic blockages out of the field. And so, you know, what her work is shown is that we can have disturbances in the field.

And that it's kind of like you have like a black cloud in your field. That's just this kind of thing that's basically disturbing the information and energy that's, you know, coming to our physical body. So there's so many ways to look at this issue, but I kind of just break it down to when I think about energetic principles, I think about coherence. And I think about coherent electromagnetic fields of information of energy. I think about coherent light. There's a whole world of sound and how sound can actually not only that our cells communicate with sound, which is pretty fascinating. There's this UCLA researcher that listen to cells and healthy cells have this like, you know, beautiful note and then, you know, sick cells are like screeching. So it's just like this, you know,

whole other. That's interesting. The cells give off a sound. Yeah, it's called biophonons, you know, so there's a whole like, well, there's biophotons and then biophonons. So there's just, I'm trying to share these, a lot of information to share, like there's this whole other aspect of physiology. And sound can be very healing too. I think sound can, you know, we know that sound can have a huge effect on the body and the vagus nerve even. But, you know, we ultrasound, we use sound rates to measure, you know, like look at our body. And for anyone is listening, there's, there's something called semantics. It's the study of how vibration effects matter. And they have these beautiful visuals that you can Google where they put different vibrational frequencies into basically looking at

how it affects these kind of like squares of sand. And they create these coherent patterns. So every frequency has an effect on matter in a different way. And so it's just, I think it's a brilliant visual to like, how does frequency affect their body? And so it's, I think it's an emerging science. There are a lot of tools in the biohacking world, too, that work with frequencies and how, when we're out of balance, okay, how do we get back to balance? How do we restore kind of, you know, coherent aligned information so ourselves can, you know,

sing better and emit light better. and, you know, all of these wonderful things. And so, so yeah, I think that light and sound and frequency, there's a huge opportunity to amplify our health and make all the functional medicine even shine brighter, you know, incorporating and combining, you know, all of these things. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, one of the things that I've been sort of wondering about health care in general

is I feel like we're evolving into this really beautiful place, very much like, you know, the pandemic was a breakdown for so many things. People started to see that they could work from home. They'd be just fine. And we started to look at slowing life down. I mean, there were so many things that initially, I felt like were beautiful opportunities as humans to do life different. No doubt it got a little messy there in the middle of it. But what I see with health care is it's breaking apart. and there's something really beautiful and new that's emerging, and we don't know what that looks like yet. I have been in more conversations in the last month on sound healing and frequencies. I feel like I've stepped into a matrix from a lot of people saying this. And it makes perfect sense, and I don't, I know if you're hearing this for the first time,

it sounds like woo-woo. But if you actually break it down, you pick up your phone and you're able to talk to your friend, who lives, you know, on the other side of the world. And that is all done through frequency you cannot see. So if you can't see that frequency, what frequency is happening to your body that's destroying your body and what frequency can you put in that would be healing? So with that in mind, are there, what are some of your, like, how do, is it as simple as just putting on your favorite music? Like, how do we start to align our body up with the right frequencies. Yeah, I love that. And I'm very much aligned with you. I, you know, I have this kind of

thought and I have the future of medicine, I think, and whatever camp you're in, it's broken, right? So what is emerging through, you know, and I think this is your, the matrix is knocking on your door and you go down. You're down in it. You're not in it. You're going forward, you know, and so, you know, so when we talk about, you know, there, there's so many things we can do. But like the basics, I think where we can start are, you know, this is why grounding works, right? This is why getting in contact with the ground, Mother Earth, bare feet with the ground, where basically the earth gives off electrons. And the electrons basically flow through our feet.

And it's been studied, there's research on grounding and how it has all these effects on the body. And it helps inflammation and circulation and blood flow and creating exclusions of water. body. And in that also extracellular matrix and these structural proteins, there's a protein called a proteoglycan. And they are what we call electron reservoirs. And they can be depleted as we, you know, go through modern life. And so we got to kind of fill up our electron bucket. And so, you know, essentially going out and being in nature can really be very supportive for that. Barefoot? Yeah. You need to be barefoot. You have to make contact, you know. And then there are biohacks that, you know,

mimic grounding, you know, that can mimic, you know, grounding pads, grounding sheets, you know, these types of things can mimic that. And then, you know, I'm all about like, okay, with light and sound, I think if we can, you know, add in light, I mean, if you can just do the sun, that's great, you know, we're still very much outside of the, you know, not connected to the sun enough. And we know that the light from the sun affects our circadian biology and our hormones and, you know, our health in so many ways. But, you know, there are different tools and devices that you can have at home that can bring in different wavelengths of light. There's red light devices, infrared.

I have friends who have a company called the Weber, which is, you know, all of these other spectroupes of light. So red and blue and green and yellow, and they all have a different impact on the body. So cool. And then sound, you know, and again, when we think about it, you know, we all can make sound, you know, we might not be comfortable with that, but we can actually, you know, that's where a lot of, I think, in ancient cultures, mantras and chanting and all of that. So sound, you can play around with your own sound. And then if you want to be curious about sound, you know, check out

Eileen's work, biofield tuning. She sells a tuning fork that you can play around with. Our friend Kelly has a device called The Sound of Soul that I have. Oh, yeah. That's so cool. Yeah, it takes your heart rate variability. Yeah, I have my own personal heart rate variability soundtrack. It's so flipping cool. Totally. So we take your heart rate variability. It converts it to sound and then plays it back to you. So you're basically auto-tuning your own field to be in a small coherent state. You know, it's beautiful. I work with other devices that there's a device called A.O. scan where you can actually speak into it and it picks up where you have too high or too low tones coming from your vocal cords. And it's wild, but they've done a lot of research on this. And

they can correspond where you have missing tones to different subconscious thought patterns that you might be affected by and then gives you the missing tones back. And so I like listen to that all day long. You know, so I, you know, when I'm typing on my computer, you know, I, you know, do that, you know, for my own health. And so, you know, sound baths, you know, maybe your yoga studio or, you know, somewhere in your community, I think sound baths can be really, really healing. What's a sound bath? A sound bath is often used. these Tibetan singing bowls that are these balls that basically have a different frequency of sound that they emit. People who are trained to do this kind of know how to like dance with these

balls and create this like you're bathing in this frequency of sound. And my, my thought of what's happening in the body, I mean, it's deeply relaxing, but it's essentially giving more coherent sound waves to your, you know, your field. And then I also believe it's, has an impact on structuring the water in your body. And so a lot of people detox actually after being in the sound bath. They have to drink more water, take bonkers because like things are flowing. So there's a woman who I've gotten to know over the years, Nikki Gratrix. I think she called it sonic detox, like sound detox because you just move so much energy in the body when you do that.

So yeah, being curious, finding what resonates with you. I mean, there's so many paths to explore these things. but it's fun. I mean, it's fun and people feel good. It's, you know, I think it's definitely worth exploring, especially if you're looking for some breakthroughs in your health or you've been stuck for a while. Bringing these principles can, I think, really create movement for you.

Yeah. You know, one of the coolest things that I, experiences I've ever had was I had a yoga instructor that love to bring live music into our sessions. And one time she brought a guy in who was a master at the didgeridoo, which is really hard to do. And so when we were in Downward Dog, he came along with that didgeridoo and put it right at the base of like the sacrum going to like the L5 sacrum area, just beaming sound down your whole spine to your brain. And I thought, oh my gosh, I think I am in another reality right now. that was the most impressive thing I have felt in my brain and my body perhaps in my whole life. And it was an ancient didgeridoo on my spine going into my nervous system that way was mind blowing.

I love that. The sound was basically traveling in the cerebral spinal fluid. That's right. You know, movement and flow and electrical energy and you had that experience. I mean, it's beautiful. Yeah. So cool. Well, let's finish up with this.

And I think, you know, for those of you guys that are listening, I just want to point out that what I love about this conversation is that we went in so many different directions to hopefully get you tools because, and Christine, I don't know, you know, how you feel, but I have a sense that we're aligned on this, that we've got so many people stuck with their health. And they're doing the same thing over and over again. They are another medication, then another medication, then another trip to a doctor, and then another doctor.

and then maybe they step into the alternative world and they're like, well, let me try something more natural. But we're still coming at health from this one pill, one problem, one solution. And what I think you did for all of us listening today is really expand the thought that, gosh, there is so much more to our environment that we may not be addressing. And we really need to dive into the subtleties of everything that you talked about. That would be my summary. of what just happened.

Am I accurate? Thank you for allowing me to, you know, traverse all of these topics in one conversation. I'm really grateful. And it comes from, my heart comes from that place to Mindy. And, you know, our patients teaches if I,

you know, didn't, you know, I, of course, my heart believes in all of this. And I know this is truth from my own experience,

but my patients teach me, right? And if gluten-free diet was enough, I wouldn't have gone to grab it holes, you know? So, so it comes from, you know,

profound gratitude that my patients teach me. Yeah, I love it. Okay, well, you said the magic word with this season three of the Resetter podcast, and I decided to dedicate this whole season to gratitude. So give us an idea of what does your personal gratitude practice look like? Because a lot of people don't have a gratitude practice. And so I'm asking every guest, like, what is your practice look like so that we can all learn from it?

Yeah. Oh, I love that. I love that. What powerful, what a powerful word. So I've been down the Dr. Joe Dispensea rabbit hole in the last year, especially. And, you know, I mentioned heart math. And then Dispenza, he also talks a lot about heart and coherence. So my morning routine is that I wake up, I do the palaton, and then I make time to meditate for, it used to be about 20 minutes. And now I'm stretching out to 45 minutes to 50 minutes and start every meditation. with opening our heart and connecting with that. And, you know, it sounds so easy, but it is,

it's a process, right? And I have a three and a half year old daughter who, and my heart is outside my body, you know, with that. And so it's very easy to, when I think about her, you know, to get into that state. And so it's been fun for me to start kind of, she, she knows a lot now, but teaching her about her heart. But yeah, my morning routine is often, you know, I'm not perfect, but I try to most days of the week, you know, get into this space and the state of gratitude. And, you know, if you're, if you don't have time for that, I also have a gratitude journal. So, you know, if you just even, you know, you have five minutes, just write down the things that you're grateful for and really try to speak from that experience that you can feel them. And they're not just kind of words that you can really spend a moment to just sink in and feel them.

Yeah. What's the, what's the meditation? Is it a Joe dispens a one? Yeah. There's a couple. Yeah, I have like a little library of my. Yeah, which ones do you like? Because I end up down rabbit holes with his meditations. And then I'm like, I don't even know what he's saying. What am I focusing on? His experience in all honesty, I think, you know, there's so much you can do, of course. But when you're in, like, I've been to a couple retreats. And it all clicked when I was in his presence. Like, sometimes it's like, what is this guy saying? What's going on? But I like the tuning into new potentials, changing the boxes. I like the blessing of the energy centers. He has a morning. on the evening and the morning with like 25 minutes. And then he has a new series called generating and so it's only 15 minutes. So if you don't have that like there's generating gratitude, there's one.

So you just kind of like, you know, stop dropping, you know, like, okay. Stop drop and be grateful. Yeah. I love that. Like for the quick gratitude moment. We're just sit your butt down and let's be grateful. Yeah. I love it.

I love it. That's great. Well, this was such a delight. full conversation. And, you know, I feel if we go back to this idea around the Matrix, when I met Kelly, she's like, oh, my God, you got to know Christine. Like, she's in the Matrix with us. She like understands all this stuff. But I do feel like there's this moment in not just life, but in health care, where we're really emerging out of an old paradigm. And yet it's very difficult to see what that new paradigm is going to look like. And when I have conversations like this

with people like you, I get a little glimmer of where healthcare is going. And as obscure as it may sound, I just think it's so beautiful when we can come back to some ancient principles like sound, when we can look at light, when we can look at water, and we can see that there's a healing way to do all those things. And I just, I loved this conversation. So thank you, Christine, for being here. How do people find you? Where's your work at? And where do people go and talk to you? Mindy, and it's a pleasure as well to really connect with you in the space. And so I have a website, Dr. Christine Schaubner.com, and I have my podcast is there and just information about my clinic, which is another website called eminencehealth.com, and that's in Seattle. And we do a lot of telemedicine

as well. And I'm going to have you, Mindy on my podcast. So I love to share your work with my community as well. Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. I love bringing thoughts. thoughtful discussions about all things health to you. If you enjoyed it, we'd love to know about it, so please leave us a review, share it with your friends, and let me know what your biggest takeaway is.