The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka - 155. Taylor Dukes: How She Beat Cancer with Functional Medicine

Episode Date: April 8, 2025

Could your body shrink a brain tumor by half before surgery? Taylor Dukes is proof that it is possible. In this episode, Taylor shares her journey from medical mission trips in Africa to discovering a plum-sized brain tumor in her frontal lobe with no symptoms, which offers invaluable wisdom for anyone navigating their own health challenges. Rather than immediately rushing to surgery, she practiced an integrative approach — metabolic ketosis, methylene blue, red light therapy, and molecular hydrogen oxygen, and with the results being nothing short of remarkable, her tumor shrinking by half before surgery. Your body’s healing capacity is extraordinary when given the right tools. The question is: are you ready to discover what’s possible for your own health? Join the Ultimate Human VIP community and gain exclusive access to Gary Brecka's proven wellness protocols today!: https://bit.ly/4ai0Xwg Connect with Taylor Dukes: Website: https://bit.ly/4byxTS5  Instagram: https://bit.ly/3Rii1cS  TikTok: https://bit.ly/4hiQaEe  Facebook: https://bit.ly/4iUS5zL  LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4kW5hGq  Thank you to our partners: H2TABS - USE CODE “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4hMNdgg BODYHEALTH - USE CODE “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: http://bit.ly/4e5IjsV BAJA GOLD - USE CODE "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3WSBqUa EIGHT SLEEP - SAVE $350 ON THE POD 4 ULTRA WITH CODE “GARY”: https://bit.ly/3WkLd6E STRENGTH TRAINING EQUIPMENT - THE ULTIMATE HUMAN: https://bit.ly/3zYwtSl COLD LIFE - THE ULTIMATE HUMAN PLUNGE: https://bit.ly/4eULUKp WHOOP - GET 1 FREE MONTH WHEN YOU JOIN!: https://bit.ly/3VQ0nzW MASA CHIPS - GET 20% OFF YOUR FIRST $50+ ORDER: https://bit.ly/40LVY4y VANDY - USE CODE “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: https://bit.ly/49Qr7WE PARKER PASTURES - PREMIUM GRASS-FED MEATS: https://bit.ly/4hHcbhc AION - USE CODE “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4h6KHAD HAPBEE - FEEL BETTER & PERFORM AT YOUR BEST: https://bit.ly/4a6glfo CARAWAY - USE CODE “ULTIMATE” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3Q1VmkC HEALF - GET 10% OFF YOUR ORDER: https://bit.ly/41HJg6S BIOPTIMIZERS - USE CODE “ULTIMATE” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4inFfd7 Watch  the “Ultimate Human Podcast” every Tuesday & Thursday at 9AM EST: YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPQYX8 Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3RQftU0 Connect with Gary Brecka: Instagram: https://bit.ly/3RPpnFs TikTok: https://bit.ly/4coJ8fo X.com: https://bit.ly/3Opc8tf Facebook: https://bit.ly/464VA1H LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4hH7Ri2 Website: https://bit.ly/4eLDbdU Merch: https://bit.ly/4aBpOM1 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/47ejrws Ask Gary: https://bit.ly/3PEAJuG Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:49 Taylor Dukes’ Health Journey 1.0 10:28 Journey 2.0: Diagnosis and Healing from a Brain Tumor 19:28 Impact of Mindset and Healthy Diet 23:35 Undergoing through Different Treatments (Vitamin C, Methylene Blue Infusions, Red Light Therapy, Molecular Hydrogen Oxygen, and Metabolic Ketosis) 26:13 Elimination of Mold, Mycotoxin, Metals, and Virus 27:19 Link of Parasites and Cancer 30:52 Shrinkage of the Tumor in Half 34:55 Treating Lyme Disease 37:01 Stress-Reducing Techniques 41:05 Caring for Our Gut Health 44:48 Practical Steps Every Mom Should Know About 52:58 Taylor’s Online Community 54:50 Final Question: What does it mean to you to be an “Ultimate Human?” The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast is at the user’s own risk. The Content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Life was good. I have a thriving functional medicine practice of my own at this point. I've met the man of my dreams. We have two children and I got the curve ball of my life. So I did the scan and they found a massive brain tumor in my right frontal lobe. And I'm like, what? You've got to be kidding me because I have no symptoms. So now you're in for the journey of a lifetime. Yeah. So tell me about that journey. I knew that I probably needed to get it out, but I was also like, okay,

this has been growing for years. Same thing with functional medicine. The disease doesn't just happen overnight. It's drops in the bucket over time that lead to the full-blown manifestation of the disease and symptoms. All cancer is a healthy cell that became metabolically sick. Why do we believe that healthy cells can become metabolically sick,

but we don't believe that metabolically sick cells can become healthy? I knew enough about the body that I wasn't just gonna jump to surgery in fear, and I just felt led to take an integrative approach. I like saying integrative, because you take the best of the conventional, the best of the holistic, and you integrate the two for the best possible outcome. We need to

start thinking about being in service to the body and that everything that's gonna enter your body from now on has got to be in service to you. Before your surgery did the tumor actually shrink? It did. It was a miracle which is insane. So to give the people that are listening to this hope, can you give me a little more detail about what you did on this journey? I think mindset is so huge. And I think so many people hear the word cancer and it's a death sentence.

Getting into your question of what I did is. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!

Woo! Woo! Ultimate human. Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, Gary Brekka, human biologist where we go down the road of everything anti-aging, biohacking, longevity and everything in between.

And today's guest is gonna be really, really impactful for you because of the journey that she's had and now the mission that she's on. You know that I always say that I believe the most impactful people in the world and by far and large, the most impactful people I've ever had on my podcast are always those people that have solved a major problem in their life.

And when they solve this problem, it puts them on a path to God's purpose for them and they go fulfilling their purpose with passion and a level of commitment that is unmatched by anyone else in the industry. And sometimes they're practitioners, sometimes they're scientists, sometimes they're soccer moms and dads

that just solve the problem in their life and their level of passion and commitment goes beyond anything that you've ever seen. And today's guest is no stranger to that. So welcome to the podcast, Taylor Dukes. Thank you for having me. I'm so honored to be here. I really, I read about your story

and I've been watching you online. And of course, we just walked around the biohacking lab here for a while. Like all my guests, we start running the podcast before the podcast starts. It is next level. And my team's like, say that on the podcast, say that on the podcast.

But I would really love for my audience to get to know you for those that don't know you. And for you to talk a little bit about your journey, because I got to say, your journey is one of the most unique, sadly, that we've had on this podcast. But I think it's going to inspire people with a lot of hope.

Yeah, so I always say that people get into kind of the integrative functional medicine world because they're sick or they're smart. You know, you're sick. They're sick or they're smart. People like you are smart. But most people and a lot of my colleagues, you know, that are functional medicine providers,

they're sick. And then the conventional medical model feels them. And that's kind of how they go on their own and do research. And so I was sick. That was my story. I was, you know, nursing major straight own and do research. And so I was sick, that was my story. I was, you know, nursing major straight out of TCU and I had the opportunity- Texas Christian.

Yep, Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Let's go Christians, yep. Yes, let's go. Thank you Jesus. God's quiet. Been a lot of Jesus on the podcast lately. Yeah, well I think God's doing something. He's waking people up.

There's a lot coming to light. It's really cool to see. I think it's a spiritual shift in this country. I totally agree with you. So I went to TCU and I had the opportunity to go on medical mission trips abroad and it was an incredible experience, but I got really sick. So I spent time in Africa and Ecuador and I ended up getting flown back from Ecuador to the state sooner than I had planned because I had all these mysterious symptoms. And so here I am a nurse and my'm, my whole job is to advocate for patients

and I can't even advocate for myself. And so I was going from doctor to specialist, you know, they're like, try this medicine. What kind of symptoms were you having? So my hair was falling out, I had joint pain and let me just back up, I was never the sick kid. So to me, it seemed like everything happened overnight but then when I look back, it was drops in the bucket

that led to full blown manifestation symptoms. But I was having really bad joint pain, super inflamed. I had full body rashes, acne. I'd never had acne in my life. So tired, like I would just lay in bed and I was the go-go girl. I've always had energy and been super athletic, but I was really sick.

And so I was going to the rheumatologist for my joint pain, the gastro for my stomach. And they were all like, here, try this pill, try this prescription, we'll do a colonoscopy. And nobody really had answers. And so it wasn't until my mom, she kind of, I was raised in a very healthy home and we always kind of go back to our roots, you know? And so my mom was like, Taylor, this is not you.

You've never been the sick kid. And so she really encouraged me to go to kind of an integrative functional medicine doctor. And at the time I thought, this is woo woo. This is so out there. I didn't learn any of this in nursing school, doctor. And at the time I thought, this is woo woo. This is so out there. I didn't learn any of this in nursing school, but I was so desperate that I was willing to do anything.

And so she talked to me about my diet. She asked me if I was a C-section baby. She kind of traced the whole line. You know, when you went to Africa, were you given a lot of shots? And so she really took back, took me back to the whole timeline. And so that ended up changing my life, my health, which changed the trajectory of my career. So after I had healed and gotten off meds,

times and places. So what essentially, what did you do to heal? When you say after I healed, how did you go on that journey? So we looked at my diet, we completely turned around my diet and he or she was asking me like, do you eat gluten?

Do you eat this? And to me, I'm like, well, yeah, I always have. I partied in college. Yeah, yeah. But I had never- Yeah, gluten's the least in Do you eat this? And to me, I'm like, well, yeah, I always have. You know, I partied in college. Yeah, yeah. But I never- Yeah, gluten's the least in my concerns. I was going to Water Burger. So Jack Daniels, yeah.

Exactly. And so for me, I was like, I've always eaten this way and I've never been sick, so it can't be the food. But man, was I wrong. And so she, you know, I had a lot of parasites from living abroad. I had heavy metal toxicity. Wow, cause I was thinking mold, mycotoxin,

heavy metal parasite. Yeah, exactly. I'm actually doing a parapurge cleanse right now. Yes, and everyone should. It's something that other countries do it. We deworm our pets, but why aren't we talking about in humans? Cause parasites suppress our immune system.

Yeah, God forgive me, you talk about ivermectin. Yeah, why was it so taboo? Yeah, I did all that for treatment. And so anyway, she really helped support my immune system. I also had gone through a lot of stress and trauma personally in my personal life that affects our immune system. And so it was just the perfect storm,

but yeah, so she changed my diet. She started talking to me about what was in my environment, what chemicals I was using in and on my body. And so I just really cleaned up my entire lifestyle. And I was also doing a lot of high intensity interval training prior to getting sick. Cause that's just, you know, what you do. You go to cycling classes and orange theory.

Good for your VAT two max. I mean, high intensity interval training is great for you. Yes. Yes. But at that time, since I was sick and my adrenals were taint, you know, that was just adding to the fire. Another stress layer to the body. Exactly.

And I was gaining weight. So it was just like this never ending cortisol bomb. So anyway, so she basically, yeah, she just changed my life. And I was like, this helped me so much. How can I use my medical degree or my nursing degree to go help others? So that's when I went back to nurse practitioner school and I worked for Amy Myers as her nurse for years

and kind of got my feet on the ground in functional medicine, learning protocols and testing and treating all of those things. Wow, that's so awesome. But then you had a monumentous shift, right? I mean, people think that's the journey, that was not the journey. That was healing 1.0.

Yeah, that was healing 1.0, and this is what really maybe sparked you to really go more of a functional medicine route in your life. Because you know what's really interesting is, I love this term lifestyle medicine. It's becoming more in vogue. I still don't hear the term that much. You're functional medicine. And I think lifestyle medicine is the medicine where you modify the modifiable risk factors before you even intervene with any kind of even supplements or pharmaceuticals or synthetics or chemicals or modalities or anything, you change the lifestyle because,

you know, in my background in big data, we realized that the reason why the majority of people are not living longer, healthier, happier, more fulfilling lives were because of what we call the modifiable risk factors. And that's essentially what started your career, which is amazing because given the timeframe of that, you know, this practitioner was ahead of their time. I mean, that's outside the box to really start thinking about gluten, sleep, stress, relationships, stress, relationships, you know, all of these things

that are the basic foundational principles of optimal health. Before, like you said, I went to every doctor. Traditional doctor, yeah. Traditional doctor in the world, SSRIs, any inflammatory, whatever they suggested. HapBee is an award-winning digital wellness company, and we invite you to join us in transforming the way people

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So let's move on to the second part of your journey. You're a functional practitioner. You're licensed, you're a nurse, you're practicing. You're actually practicing under a renowned physician, that I'm very familiar with. I obviously think the world of Dr. Hyman, he's been here, he's actually one of my mentors and doesn't even know it.

Well, he knows it now, because I told him, but I think he's written what? His 15th New York Times bestselling book. And I probably wrote them all. So now you're in this world. And this is what is super fascinating to me. So pick up the story from there. Yeah, so life was good.

I've met the man of my dreams. He was an Air Force pilot. We have two children. I have a thriving functional medicine practice of my own at this point. I founded a wellness center with a partner. And I don't know if you're familiar with the Pernubo full body MRI company.

Very familiar. Yeah. I'm trying to actually bring them to the Middle East right now. Because I'm a huge fan. Yeah. So they reached out and they said, hey, we're getting a location in Texas near you.

And we would love to give you a full body preventative scan. And I'm like, all right, cool. I'm healthy. You know? This is 2020? This is 2022. 2022.

Yeah, so. Wow. Two and a half years ago. Yeah. Yeah, so not too long ago. And I got the curve ball of my life. And so I did the scan, you know, took the picture, put on the scrubs and I was called until that I, they found a massive brain tumor in my right frontal lobe.

And I'm like, what? You've got to be kidding. This is the wrong person because I have no symptoms. So it was a shock to say the least, but I did in fact have a huge brain tumor. Wow. You said it was the size of a plum. It was the size of a plum. How did it displace that much gray matter and you were having no symptoms? Truly? I can't even explain it because from a medical perspective, the brain is so symptoms like one millimeter shift, I can't even explain it because from a medical perspective, the brain is so symptoms like one millimeter shift, you can have symptoms in your brain. So literally, it's a God thing.

I don't have no explanation because it's truly beyond my comprehension. Did you see this image yourself? I mean, did your heart just drop? It did. I'll never forget we were headed to the museum with my children. And I remember opening the app and actually didn't get a phone call. I actually have to back it up. I opened opening the app and I actually didn't get a phone call. I actually have to back it up. I opened up the app because I'm the practitioner.

I'm the one who saw it first. No one had told me. So it said abnormal finding and I look and it said nervous system. And I'm like, that's weird. So I went to go look at it and it was a huge picture. And it does not take a radiologist or a trained medical professional.

I'll show you after. I mean, it is huge. It's this huge white mass. Wow. So yeah, and then I ended up it is huge, it's this huge white mass. Wow. So yeah, and then I ended up calling and they confirmed that it was in fact me. And yeah, the craziest thing was I had no symptoms. And so I was a little bit in disbelief,

like surely this is the wrong person and they messed up charts. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they swapped my chart. But after follow-up and meeting with a local neurosurgeon several days later, it was in fact me. It was there. Yeah. Okay, so now you're in for the journey of a lifetime.

Yeah. Right. So tell me about that journey. So when I first got diagnosed, I had a 10 month old at the time and a three year old. And so it was scary as I'll get out. And as much as I know about integrative and functional medicine at this point,

I know nothing about cancer. And now I feel like I have my PhD. Right, right, right. Just their experience. I do too, just because of all the people I've worked with. Yes, and it's only increasing. That's the hard thing. And so I slowed down and I prayed and I said,

okay, God, like this isn't a surprise to you. You know this, you know the number of my days, but like, what do I do? And I didn't freak out. I didn't make decisions in fear. I wasn't reactive. And I knew that I probably needed to get it out, but I was also like, okay, this has been growing for years.

Same thing with functional medicine. Symptoms, a disease doesn't just happen overnight. It's drops in the bucket over time that lead to the full blown manifestation of a disease and symptoms. And so I knew enough about the body that I wasn't just going to like jump to surgery and fear. And I just felt led to take an integrative approach. And so I started doing research and reading books and contacting integrative cancer clinics.

And you know, it was also hard. We had to execute a living will. I had to make a lot of decisions as a mom and a wife and a business owner. Like I had to get my husband access to all my business stuff because I'm like, what if something happens? Right. So there was the life part of me that was trying to figure things out. And I also am so blessed because most people that have a brain tumor, they have a seizure,

they wake up in the emergency room, they get the next on-call neurosurgeon. You don't have time to research, pray. I mean, it's like, you don't pack bags, you don't send out office email, it's go time. And so for me, I'm like, okay, God, thank you for giving me this information. I just want to like walk this journey well. So I ended up going to Hope for Cancer. It's a holistic cancer center in Mexico. I went to the Cancer Center for Healing in California in Irvine. And I did everything from hyperbaric oxygen, red light beds, methylene blue, curcumin IVs,

high dose of vitamin C. I mean, you name it, I've done it. And so I spent five months prior to surgery. I did end up getting brain surgery, doing research, getting second opinions. Now, did you go down and stay down there? I did for a couple of weeks. Now, a lot of these you can do here.

You can do hyperbarics, turmeric, methylene blue. You could do, I mean, I have all this stuff. I just need to come to your place, actually. Yeah, you just need to come to my house. I'm like, where were you when I went through all of this? And I actually want to go down this cancer bandwagon. I mean, obviously I'm not licensed to practice medicine. I'm a human biologist and I, I emphasize that all the time, but, um,

I have found myself in the middle of so many clients with cancer lately. It is mind numbing. This morning I was in the, in the sauna right before you got here on the phone with my CFO and my attorney and my attorney at the end of the call said, Hey, do you have an extra few minutes? I got something personal I want to talk to you about. And he says, listen, I have a very good friend just diagnosed with stage four metastatic colon cancer. It's in the, you know, the liver and the lymph and he's already got a colostomy bag, you

know, the day that he found out. Um, last night I flew in from, uh, Scottsdale because, um, my best friend of 35 years is in the Mayo Clinic oncology center. He's in the ICU now. 30, 35 years he's been my best friend. We were lifeguards when we were 19 years old. Stage four metastatic colon cancer. And it spread to all of the lethal three aisles, the lymph, the liver, and the lungs. And I was in the room and around his mom, my wife Sage was there when Mayo came in and said the hard things to him. And this is not even 24 hours old,

but basically 10 year survival is zero, five year survival, 2%. Right now we're we're talking about prolonging your life not saving your life. Massive chemotherapy, radiation, colonectomy, colostomy bag, you know, the whole nine yards. And so I went out to provide him an alternative. And I said, first of all, it's good that you're hearing this from Mayo.

And Mayo's done for the record, an excellent job of keeping him alive. He was septic, you know, that would have died if it was not. Times and places for conventional intervention. Yeah, exactly. But what was astounding, my wife did a post about this. She tagged the Mayo Clinic,

because when we walked in there, he's in the ICU for cancer treatment. And he had jello with red dye 40 in it like sugar free jello, seagram soda, which was you know, I spun the can around and like 54 grams of sugar and pureed applesauce. And that was poison. Choices of what to eat. And so I've now got him with a

naturopathic oncologist, interventional radiologist, a full blown medical oncologist. I'm surrounding him with an entire team. I have a cancer, a cancer chef, basically, a clean keto chef. Yeah, then we we're gonna migrate him to really nutrient-dense microgreens, I'm shipping him a red-life therapy bed. He's going into hyperbaric oxygen therapy. He's gonna do methylene blue. He's gonna do regular EB02 ozone.

Yeah, the EBOO ozone. And he's going to do high dose vitamin C, and I've got his permission to allow me to share his story in real time. And my intention is to be a part of the team that saves his life over the next six to 10 months. And we're just gonna bring everybody along on this story. And I have a community called the VIP Ultimate Humans.

And what I've decided that I'm gonna do is be really vulnerable and transparent with this community and take people from my own community that had mold, mycotoxins, metals, parasites, pathogens, viruses, and we're going to bring them up on stage, I'm going to match them with a functional practitioner, including, you know, and then I'll be a part of the case, not making medical decisions. And we are going to start telling the stories

of the miracle of the human body in real time to give people hope. And that's why I'm so interested in your story. And that's why I also love a lot of the practical information that you put out that goes viral, just what I call lateral shifts where you show food choices and things like that. So I don't mean to interrupt your

story with my own personal story, but it is just astounding to me how often, you know, this is happening. You know, very close relative to Dana White's, you know, I finished Dana White's journey and, you know, he called me and said they're diagnosed stage four colon cancer. It's metastatic. She is by the way, cancer free now, five months later with nonconventional therapies. And so to give the people that are listening to this hope, because everybody knows somebody with cancer. Oh, for sure. And it's only increasing. Sadly. It's one in five. It's one in five now. It's crazy. Right. It's, it's mind numbing to me.

50% of us are going to develop cancer at some point in our lifetime. And I think when you boil it down to its simplest form, right, and say, what is cancer? So first of all, it's not something that happens to us. It's something that happens within us. All cancer is a healthy cell that became metabolically sick.

So why do we believe that healthy cells can become metabolically sick, but we don't believe that metabolically sick cells can become healthy. Right? Yeah. Um, so can you give me a little more detail about what you did on this journey? And then I want to get to what you're doing right now. And if you're okay with that, yeah, everything's fair game. But I will also say, I love what you spoke to too, before I get into some of the practical, I think mindset is so huge. And I think so many people hear the word cancer and it's a death sentence, you know, and I see like I see it so clearly a doctor speaks this over you.

You look up on Google, you feel like your days are numbered. You start believing that you start doing treatment, you lose your hair, then you identify as a cancer patient, you know, and it's the spiral. And so I will also say mindset is everything. No man knows the number of your days. I mean, you're pretty good at statistics and prognosis, life expectancy, but who says you can't change those modifiable risk factors? Modifiable risk factors is the point. Yes. And so I also think mindset is so huge. Like, I am doing so many things to prevent cancer from

coming back because I am cancer-free, but my mindset, I live life like I'm healed too. I can't tell my body I'm sick all the time. And I don't say my cancer diagnosis because that comes apart of my identity. I say the cancer, something that affected me that God's used and it has a purpose, but I don't take it on as my identity. And so I think, but mindset is important. You know, I've had doctors speak over me how long I'm going to live. And quite frankly, I'm not a statistic and I'm not your average American that's eating your average American diet, doing the average American treatments. I am being proactive. When you mentioned ketosis, I think that is a way to go to get into a metabolic therapeutic state for ketosis because cancer think that is the way to go to get into a metabolic

therapeutic state for ketosis because cancer loves sugar. So we have to cut off its food source that first and foremost. And then we also have to look at and getting into your question of what I did is what could have stressed the immune system? Because at any given point in time, we all have circulating tumor cells, but the way God made our body is that our immune system, when it's working and strong, it will go take care of those circulating tumor cells. However, when your immune system is suppressed, that's when cancer cells proliferate, go rogue, and a full tumor forms.

And so people always kind of freak out when they hear- I would say like the circulating tumor cells is like stage zero. Yeah. You know, because, you know, even stage one right now is, you know, when we say we have stage one, two, three, four, you know, even stage one right now is, that's where it's say we have stage one, two, three, four, you know, even stage one right now is that's where it's already set up as a disease.

Right. Right. I mean, that's where the thief has already broken into your house and taken all your stuff, right? It'd be nice to, you know, arrest them before they've done any damage, right? Yeah, you gotta be proactive, not reactive. Oh shoot, it's here. It's like, so everything you're doing is proactive, right? Like, don't wait until you get a diagnosis.

And I think people always hear my story and they kind of freak out a little bit because they're like, wait, you're this health and wellness person that we follow and you have this whole brand and you got cancer. But what I always like to remind people, especially, you can't live in fear. You know, like we do have to be more proactive

with how toxic our society and environment is. So we can't just like be flippin' about how we live our life. We have to be super mindful and conscious of all the lifestyle choices and diet and things So we can't just like be flippant about how we live our life. We have to be super mindful and conscious of all the lifestyle choices and diet and things that we do. But I think for me, like I was really sick and people forget that. And so when I was sick and got into functional medicine,

that's when the tumor started growing. So when you look back on my timeline, all these oncologists and all these traditional doctors and neurosurgeons were saying, well, it's probably been growing eight to 10 years. And it dawned on me. I'm like, that's when I was sick. So it's crazy to look back on the timeline.

You probably saved your own life without realizing it. I mean, it's crazy. Right? It at least slowed its growth and progression. Yeah, yeah. So more specifically, when you said I did red light, you did full body red light therapy, multiple days a week.

Were you doing like high dose vitamin CIV? Did you put yourself into ketosis? I did, and I was like, I knew a lot about nutrition and that's the hard thing for me. I was already really healthy. So to feel like I had to take it up a notch was like, whoa, what does this look like? But I treated healing like a job for a period of time,

especially during those five months before brain surgery. And I was like, you know what? It'd be so cool if we could shrink this brain tumor. But if anything, I'm just preparing my body to be strong going into a brain surgery. And so for me, I did high dose vitamin C. I had to work my way up to like 75 grams. You started like 25 grams.

And then worked our way up. I did methylene blue infusions. I did methylene blue before doing a red light helmet, like 30 minutes before I activated. Yeah, I did methylene blue infusions. I did methylene blue before doing a red light helmet, like 30 minutes before it activated. Yeah, I did oral. So I do like my methylene blue drops. 30 minutes later, I'd put on my red light helmet. I did molecular height.

Was that a neuronic helmet? Do you remember that? It's Weber. Weber, Weber, it's from Germany. Okay, great. So I did that. So you and I were offline talking about therapy stacking because you got to to be efficient.

You can't just all day do everything. So I would sit at my desk, I'd check emails, I'd do my methylene blue, I'd put on my red light helmet, I'd do my molecular hydrogen oxygen, I have a hyperbaric chamber, sauna. You have a hyperbaric like a soft chamber. I do, I have a soft chamber. I've gotten so claustrophobic though,

so I haven't used it as much. But I had to use it. You have to get one of mine, yeah. Seriously, I sat in there earlier and I could do that. But yeah, I did everything that you can imagine. Got into ketosis, I was checking not just ketones, but GKI, glucose ketone index, pricking my finger. I mean, it was, I did everything.

I was taking so many supplements. The CGMs, right? I did CGMs, yeah. And then I, yeah, I'm just thinking like, what else did I do? I did, I mean, a lot of stuff for nervous system and stress. And diet wise, when you put yourself into ketosis, because I always remind people there's dirty keto diets,

there's clean keto diets, just like there's dirty vegetarian diets. Vegetarians can have, you know, beer, you know, Doritos, pasta, mac and cheese. So I mean, there's dirty vegetarian diets, like there's dirty keto diets, when you were putting yourself in ketosis, what kind of what kind of fats were you using? So really high quality fats. And that's when people and I

actually had a hard time in ketosis, because I was doing lower carb, but I was doing too much protein. Right. So I realized I had to do a lot more healthy fat. So I was doing olive oil shots, avocado, macadamia nuts. And I really had to up my fat. Like it was, I had to consciously make an effort. It's hard to get 75% of your caloric intake from fat, which is really a keto diet. Most people think that keto diet

is a high protein, low carb diet. That's not, it's more of an ad. They think it's like cottage cheese and T-bone steaks. Right, right, right. And I mean, you can have a ribeye steak on there, but fatty ribeye, but you also, you're right. You need to have- It's more moderate protein. It's very moderate. High quality protein. That was that's

another big thing like wild caught fish grass fed meat. And then I would do you know greens like really low carb vegetables. When it comes to snacking, masa is flipping the script on what real food should look like. masa chips are crafted with grass fed beef tallow one of the healthiest fats on the planet. These chips are packed with essential vitamins like vitamin A, D, E, and vitamin K2, all of which play a role in keeping your skin vibrant, your immune system strong, and your bones solid. But here's the real magic about masa. Masa's corn goes through an ancient process called nick-stimulization, which makes it way easier to

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Grab a bag and I promise you'll feel the difference. Now let's get back to the ultimate human podcast. Where do you fall on the cleansing bandwagon? Because I feel like you can just going back to the root of all cancer, which is a metabolic healthy cell becomes metabolic sick. Even though we rarely know exactly what caused it. I mean, if you had a massive poison exposure or a massive amount of radiation or something, we can usually pinpoint what caused it.

But that's very, very rare. Most people, they're with cancer diagnosis as, you know, idiopathic, it's of unknown origin. But the more I get down the rabbit hole of parasites, mold, mycotoxin, metals, and, and viruses. The more I realize a lot of these have a common origin, if that's that's like the hub of the wheel, if you could just eliminate those four things, or address

those four things, right mold, mycotoxin virus, metals, then, you know, you're you're probably getting to the root of what wore your immune system out in the first place and allowed that circulating tumor cell to slip by. So you said you did a parasitic cleanse as well. So how did you, first of all, did you test for parasites? It did. And for me, I was living abroad, so it made a lot of sense.

And another thing, and I will say drops in the bucket, it was the perfect storm for me. You know, the parasites was a huge contributing factor. I tested positive for parasites in stool. I actually, this is crazy. And for anyone listening that think parasites are woo woo, and they're like, yeah, but we don't live in a third world country. No, no, we do. We're more pets.

Like you can have exposure. And so one thing that I have to say specifically about parasites is so when I got diagnosed, I did all the lab testing you can ever imagine on myself, you know, because I had practitioners, but I'm like, I'm going to cast the net. What are we missing here? And I actually found I was blood positive serum positive for a parasite called toxoplasma Gandhi that the international journal of cancer and the American cancer society link to brain tumors and middle aged people.

No way. Yes. and so- Is this because of the outgassing of these? Or do you even know why? You know, it suppresses the immune system. So parasites, we wanna talk parasites, they suppress the immune system. And so again, with cancer,

we wanna do anything to boost our immune system and decrease inflammation, boost immunity. And so parasites suppress the immune system because they're a foreign invader. Yes. And so for me, I did ivermectin, I did all sorts of mabendazole, phabendazole, I even did a linea, I did all sorts of,

I actually did pharmaceuticals, I think there are times and places for it. Valsiclovir or something. Yeah, antivirals. But for me specifically, so I did that, but then I also have done a lot of herbs. And so you can just do quarterly, like my kids, I'm like, all right, kids, it's April, we're deworming.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and so it's April, we're deworming. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and so it's really, the idea is like not over cleansing because to be honest, even in the functional medicine world, I thought it was a little overkill because I would test people for parasites and they're really hard to detect on testing. But I've done frequency scans, I've done stool tests, blood tests,

and it is consistently positive. The frequency scans can pick it up. I find that those are actually very good, very good at picking those up, which is why I'm also a believer in frequency to address them. Like that HOCAP machine that we have is transformable ozone, but it also has a rife frequency in it.

I've done a lot of rife. Have you done a lot of rife too? A lot. It's so good because I think you can empower people as well because I sat and had the conversation with my friend this weekend with my wife, his mother and you know, he's he's in the bed in the ICU, we're hoping he's going to get discharged in the next few days. And I said, you know, we're going to commit this to, you know, very differently. We have a team that's going to address your cancer. There's an interventional radiologist, there's a naturopathic oncologist, and there's an oncologist. And these people are qualified to practice that medicine. But then we have another team that's just caring for the host, just caring for

you. Who's, who's making your meals? How you know, what are you eating? What are you laying in? We need to start thinking about being in service to the body and that everything that's going to enter your body from now on has thinking about being in service to the body and that everything that's gonna enter your body from now on has got to be in service to you. The water you drink has to be intentional. The air you breathe has to be intentional, meaning let's filter the air

and make sure that we're not getting mold spores or getting, you know, pet dander or things. You know, the bed you're sleeping in, the modalities that you're gonna use, you know, all of these things are caring for the host. Because I don't think there's any, you know, the bed you're sleeping in, the modalities that you're gonna use, you know, all of these things are caring for the host. Cause I don't think there's any, you know, law that says you have to be sick and emaciated and lose your hair and be, you know, sarcopenic

and all of these things when you're going through cancer treatment. You know, the majority of the clients of mine that have gone through that, the journey was not that horrific for them. Cause you can do a lot of things to support your journey along horrific for them. Because you can do a lot of things to support your journey along the way. Yeah, you can do a lot of things.

So were you doing anything to, I mean, obviously you're conscious of your diet and before your surgery, did the tumor actually shrink? It did. Yes, it was a miracle. That's so amazing. In half, which is insane. In half?

Yes, because when I got the radiology reports, I'm like- That is incredible. I mean, first of all, was your like neurologist, like what in the hell is going on here? So I actually have the coolest neurosurgeon. He's actually in, I flew to Arizona for my brain surgery. He's at Barrow's Neurological, Chris Smith, if anyone needs a recommendation. And he believes in ketosis. In Scottsdale?

Uh-huh. I was literally just there. Yeah. So he operates in Scottsdale and in Phoenix and we stayed in Scottsdale for me to recover, but he believes in metabolic ketosis. You know, he doesn't have the time to talk about all these things that stress the immune system because he's saving lives and doing brain surgery.

But yeah, I mean, he's all in. And he's like, he's the one that told me, I don't want you doing, because mine was stage three. So it was, stage four is the most aggressive. So it wasn't like this little tiny growing thing. It was a beast that we needed to get out of there. So I'm grateful. And that's what I also want people to hear me say.

I think it's easy to hear all the stuff that we talk about and think that it's all holistic. And I always say, I like saying integrative because you take the best of the conventional, the best of the holistic, and you integrate the two for the best possible outcome. Yeah, I agree. I mean, just changing your diet alone

is not gonna save your life. You know, you need to come at this. Right, and there are times and places for acute care. You know, let's get someone out of the acute flare of ulcerative colitis, and you sometimes have to get the steroids and get the iron infusion, but then you have to figure out what caused the inflammation

and caused the immune system to go rogue, not just with cancer, with anything, autoimmune disease. And so everyone was shocked and it was truly a miracle, but I'm so glad I still did surgery to get the remainder out. And so I have a huge hole in my brain. I'm still normal. You wouldn't know, right? I didn't even like when I first saw you, I'm like, dude, this chick's got a whole new brain, for sure. No, I'm just kidding. No, not at all. I'm just kidding a little.

One, even people that knew me, you know, they're like, you're still the same Taylor, even 24 hours. I mean, the whole thing's a miracle. Yeah. And I didn't have any deficits. And I was walking six hours after brain surgery. I was like giving them orders.

I'm like, get this catheter out. I'm ready to get up and get ambulating. You are, wow. And then I went home straight from ICU 24 hours after surgery. And so I really think everything I did to prepare my body. So they went in through the temporal side?

Right here. I have a huge scar right here. Well, yeah, beautiful hair, so nobody sees it. Yeah. And so he's the one that said, traditional oncology, and that's something else, when people are like, oh my gosh, but you did integrative stuff with cancer,

isn't cancer scary? And for me, I'm like, well, no, because traditional only offers chemo surgery and radiation and the integrative side offers all these other therapies and diet. And as a mom that wants to see her kids live a long life, like, why wouldn't I do anything and everything? And so for me, I didn't just do what traditional offered me. I did all the other things too. But instead of doing chemo and radiation, that's where I'm still doing things to prevent recurrence. And my neurosurgeon said, like, I want you to get into ketosis.

I want you to keep focusing on everything you're doing with your immune system. So no chemo, no radiation. And now post-surgery images are good. Yeah, I just had a scan three weeks ago. And he got, I mean, was it encapsulated? How did he get clean margins? So he just probably took a little bit more around.

And I love that you're asking that question. You're so educated because most people think that a brain tumor is sitting on top of your brain, but it really, it infiltrates the brain tissue. Yes, it was brain tissue. Yes, and so it was healthy brain tissue. And so it was the right side of my brain. I was spared any symptoms.

I definitely struggled with sensory overload after brain surgery. So that's where I like, I had my higher dose mat and you know, I'd have to take a brain. I saw that and that thing saved my life after brain surgery. I mean, I would like, I have my higher dose mat and you know, I'd have to take a brain. I saw that and that thing saved my life after brain surgery. I mean, I would just, I would need to go low sensory. I'd go lay in my closet and just lay on that. And it was so calming.

But yeah, I didn't have any deficits. You know what was crazy? I put it on the sleep setting the other day. They sent me one to evaluate and I was, I was watching the Super Bowl. And so I just was like, you know, I might as well give this thing a whirl right now. Set, I set like for the, for the sleep setting

and I woke up in the middle of the third quarter. It was a good game to miss anyway. Yeah, it was kind of a worry anyway. It wasn't really a big game. You didn't miss too much this year. Like the Eagles, and I won my bet cause I had the Eagles had the score 24 points. So, so thank you, higher dose

because I passed out and woke up and I was like. No, it's a game changer. And that's the one thing that like would help me if I'd have a restless night. I struggled with insomnia, that was really hard. And I did have Lyme disease. And so I'm working on that right now, but the Lyme was re-triggered and activated

with the brain surgery. And so like talk about nervous system dysregulation. So I didn't have any deficits after surgery. Like Lyme is another difficult one. And it's a beast. I am convinced that it has to be coming from potentially other sources than a tick for sure. And the reason why I believe that is I, I, I've also seen so many clients that have had chronic Lyme and then because of its capacity to

retreat into the dorsal root ganglion hide, not be not be active, you know, not have a viral load that's high enough for you to trigger an IgM response. So, excuse me, so when you do Lyme testing very often, it's like, oh, it's in remission. It's like, oh, you also had mono in eighth grade and that's in remission and you don't have that same bar. But Lyme is really sneaky. It can be reactivated.

Yeah, I think it almost doesn't behave like a typical virus. It's asparagite, so it burrows in tissues. And I honestly, I was hospitalized for a tick bite years and years ago, but the body's also amazing. We can keep these things at bay. And yeah, just cause you have chicken pox as a kid doesn't mean you're gonna get shingles.

There's a lot we can do to support our immune system. Oh yeah, mama doesn't always become EBV, but when you see people with repeated EBV flare-ups. There's something going on. Yeah, there's something going on. And also stress. That can trigger a lot of people don't give stress enough credit for the havoc that it can wreak on our body. You see people with repeated EBV flare-ups. There's something going on. Yeah, there's something going on. And also stress. Yeah. That can trigger a lot of people

don't give stress enough credit for the havoc that it can wreak on our body. I totally agree with you. And I think that, in my opinion, one of the greatest sort of theories or philosophical approaches to aging now that's emerging is this whole concept of immunofatigue. And when the immune system gets busy on too many fronts,

because most people think it's just protecting us from pathogens, which it is. I mean, you get influenza, it's kind of mounted immune response, but the majority of the immune system's role is to police ourself, the circulating tumor cells, like you're talking about, senescent cells, and all these things.

Yes, and protect us. And to protect us, and also police the parts of us that are not working, right? And so when it's fighting on too many fronts and you know, it gets run down and you know, stress is one of those things that, I love that bucket analogy of, you know, it just puts a few more things in the bucket

and pretty soon. It overflows. It overflows. But it's never just the one thing. No. Right, so when you say, I love it when, you know, you go to your doctor and they're like, well, you gotta reduce your stress.

And it's like, well, what does that look like? Get divorced, not talk to my kids and quit my job? Because those are the three things that stress me out. My marriage, my kids and my job. And I mean that tongue in cheek, guys. But so talk about some of the stress reducing techniques that you did. You did pulse electromagnetic field. Yeah.

Did you do any kind of like biofeedback or? I did, I did biofeedback. Again, I had had some trauma in my life, so I did some EMDR for that. That's really good. And yeah, some emotional release stuff. And I think the also the thing is, I think we've normalized stress or society, everybody's overcommitted and busy and stressed.

Normalize it. We've glorified it. Yes, like take the hill. Sleep is for losers. Yes, like do it. Be more hard. Otherwise, you fail. Yeah. And talk about the nervousness. Being in the parasympathetic state, which is the rest and digest and calm is like hardly ever. And so really practical stuff like deep breathing, my infrared sauna is super calming for me, for me prayer, having quiet time, journaling, grounding,

time outside, a lot of these things are free when it comes to stress relief and Epsom salt bath. But for me also practically, I was hustling. I was a mom of a 10 month old, a three year old, I owned a private practice, I was hustling. I was a mom of a 10 month old, a three year old. I owned a private practice. I had a wellness center. And so for me, I had to stop and reevaluate every commitment in my life.

What matters and what really mattered to me is being the mom that I've always wanted to be. And that meant not just for here and now, but longterm. I think we're so focused on here and now and what can I get done? But I'm like, I wanna be there for those milestones. So what do I need to step away from? And so I ended up closing down my private practice.

I had thousands of people on the wait list. It was thriving. I had multiple practitioners, but if I can't help myself and take care of myself, what's the point of helping everyone else? God bless you for that. That is amazing. It was hard. But then I also stepped away from the wellness center,

you know, and I just really had to just restructure my life. So practically I had to get stuff off my plate that, I don't want to say it no longer served me. I mean, it was amazing. It gave me so much purpose. I worked so hard to be in that place, but they were stressors at the end of the day that pulled me away from my healing and my family.

Yeah. And so you really just focused on your healing journey. Yeah. Yeah. And, but you know, the practical stuff, like getting my sunshine and fresh air, that's free. Grounding, putting my feet in the grass for 10 minutes a day. Every morning, same thing.

Taking up some salt bath. You know, it's the simple stuff that people forget about. I totally agree with you. You know, I, it you. You know, I got lots of fancy equipment in my unit, but I always tell people, listen, you don't have to spend 100 grand on a red light bed. Just take your shirt off, expose your skin to sunlight. You know, let something get into your eyes. Let it be your circadian rhythm. You know, you can force the reset of these things with tranquiletics, like sleep medication, but because we regulate our lighting and we regulate our temperature,

and we can make it the surface of the sun at one o'clock in the morning if we want. That's not ancestrally like how our body was designed. It wasn't designed to be in sync with fluorescent lighting. It was designed to be in sync with the rise and fall of the sun. Right. And very often, I have a client too,

that was suffering from very, very severe tinnitus. Tonight is so severe that he was really on a regular basis contemplating taking his own life. And one of the things that we did for him when he, I had him actually come here and move in with me for a short period of time was just the simple things, I forced him things go to

force them to go to bed at the same time each night and wake up at the same time each morning. My wife and daughter actually took shifts sleeping in his room here, the house because we're, you know, couldn't concern about him. And just that consistency of like sunlight in the morning, grounding in the morning, breath work, dimming the lights at night, red light in the room in the evenings, just over several weeks starts to tell the body this is when we wake up. This is when we go to bed. This is when we wake up some sense of normalcy. I think we're, we're such circadian creatures that we crave that routine. Right. Getting back to basics, we overcomplicate it.

Yeah. And so you also talk a lot about gut health. And I think when we talk about gut health, I mean, obviously I think the majority of us would agree, gut's important. But why is it important? And how do we care for it? And for people that have had lifelong gut disruption, like where's a place for them to start?

Yeah, so the gut really is the gateway to health and it does not get enough attention. It truly is. I have seen in practice over the years, once the gut is healed, so many other things fall into place. You know, we chase skin issues, we chase hormonal issues.

And it's like, if you really fix the gut, so many of these other things are secondary. And so I think obviously eating a clean diet, focusing on whole foods, getting away from all the process, the seed oils, the sugar, that's a very practical place to start, managing stress. That's huge. You know, the gut brain access is so important.

A lot of our neurotransmitters are made in our gut. It's the second brain. And so obviously the things, you know, managing stress, sleeping, eating healthy, drinking clean water. But if people have all of those things down, I usually find it's helpful to do stool testing because usually there's either- Gut microbiome.

Yes, yes. And good old poop test because it is. It's once you identify the bacteria, some people, you could guess and try certain gut healing supplements and digestive enzymes, but I find I'm a really big fan of test, don't guess, when you don't know what's going on.

I'm a huge fan of test, don't guess. Yes, and so is it dysbiosis? Is there imbalanced bacteria that needs to be treated? Is it a lack of a certain strain? Do you need pancreatic enzymes? Maybe it's parasites. So once you can address kind of those imbalances, I find that's really helpful.

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check out the ION weighted vest at iongear.com. That's A-I-O-N gear.com. And you can use code ULTIMATE for 10% off and start training smarter today. Now let's get back to the ULTIMATE Human Podcast. Yeah, we did this, I did a three day gut challenge was super, super simple. We just meals that were like heavy in fermentive vegetables.

And so we did three days of meals with all these folks. And we did, you know, clean water and some supplementation, basic supplementation, pre-pro and post-biotics and some gut supplements that were relatively basic of all the challenges I've ever had, like, you know, the water fasting challenges, 10,000 step, cold plunge of all the challenges I've ever had. We, we not only had the most number of participants,

but it was the most overwhelming amount of inbound communication from people about how it changed their life. Amazing. They're like, oh my God, my, my about how it changed their life. Amazing. They're like, oh my God, my, and it was relatively simple. I'm not talking about demonstrative changes in people's lives. Yeah.

But like people telling us about how their skin cleared up, how they started sleeping out, ringing went away in their ears, how they stopped bloating, they went in and their hormones were balanced on their next test. It is just astounding to me, the amount of gateways that leave the gut and lead to other chronic symptoms that are presenting themselves as disease,

pathology, dysfunction, you know, when we get back to the basics and start fixing the gut. So what are some things that people what do you I mean, I knew I knew you have a supplement line and you have your TW wellness. Yeah. Okay, yeah, so, or TD wellness. We have an online community, but then we also have supplements

and electrolytes and protein, yeah. Yeah, yeah, so I mean, I wanna talk about your online community and some of the supplements, like how did you derive them? I also love the fact that you're a mom and a lot, and you're very transparent about what you do with your kids when they're sick, what you do with your kids when they're stressed, what you do with your kids when they're

stressed when they can't sleep. And so for for really active moms that don't have a functional medicine background, where do they start with their kids? diet, supplementation, these sorts of things? What are some practical steps that every mom should be taken to just elevate the welfare? I think that's such a good question. And it really does. It starts with moms for our next generation.

And I feel like a lot of people trying to get into this world, there's so much information. You get inundated and overwhelmed. And so I just say, silence the noise, find a few good people that you trust, listen to them, learn from them, but also don't feel like, because you can't do this big radical change

that you're never gonna be able to do anything. So again, it's starting with the basics, you know, they're little people too, like get them out in sunshine and fresh air, you know, a lot of moms are so overwhelmed, they can't find time for themselves, little in their kids. And so I'm like, come on kids, we're going outside, we're grounding, my kids, they call it barefooting.

Yeah, yeah, barefooting. You know, so bring them along with you, have them drink a little. Which is so crazy is that's how I grew up. You know, I actually saw someone talking about it on Instagram this morning when I was in my red light bed and it freaked me out because I am the last generation

that's going to grow up knowing what it's not like to be connected. Right? Right. So we didn't have the iPhone, we didn't have the internet, we didn't have iPads. And when I think of like all this stuff, they're like, yeah, I got my kids to take the shoes off, touch the surface of the earth,

we went out and grounded this morning. I'm like, shoot, I grounded. I grounded like nine hours a day. I went to the creek and played, like I came home when the sun was going down. Yeah. I just started wearing clothes, so I was like nine, you know, like, because I grew up on a farm.

And so you actually bring the kids along on this journey. Yeah. So they call it. And I would say just like moms, like we have the power to feed our children. They don't know what things are and it's never too late to start. So clean up the snacks in the pantry,

get rid of inflammatory oils, get rid of the sugar, hard and fast rule in our family. We can budge when we go to birthday parties. Our kids, we're here enjoying Miami. We had a little sorbet at dinner last night. That's a true for them. Hard and fast rule, we do no food dice in our home and our kids were here enjoying Miami, we have a little, you know, sorbet dinner last night. That's a sure for them. Hard and fast rule. We do no food dice in our home and our kids know it. And it's, it's one of those things who dies. Yeah, okay. So

we don't do food. I've actually seen some I mean, by the way, I'm gonna I'm gonna give the whole audience to tell you how to get in touch with Taylor and find her on social media at the end of the podcast. But one of the things I love that she does and I do some of these two but not not as well as she does is she shows you these lateral shifts. The swaps. Yeah, the swaps. I call them lateral shifts with the swaps, you know, like Oreos for this, you know, crackers for this Doritos for this, and she

gives you practical brands. I actually did a little research and sleuthing around and the majority of her swaps are are dollar cost neutral, like or very slight increases in costs like it's not like you're going from a $2 option to a $15 option. Yeah, going from a $2 option to $2.50 option, which was really cool. And I was deeply appreciative of that because I think a lot of times, there's just not good practical information on Alright, listen, I'm a busy mom, I gotta walk

into the grocery store, just tell me what to do. And I love that. So I was actually even looking at the M&M swap and the one that I looked up the one that you swap. Probably unreal snacks. Yeah, yeah. And they're good too. Dang, they actually are really, they're actually colored with like beet juice and spirulina and blueberry and one was like grape seed peel.ulina and like blueberry and one was like grape seed peel. And I was like, this is amazing.

I didn't know candies could do this. But a lot of countries have outlawed it. And so it's like, this is the one thing and my kids know, like my sons play baseball and they're like, yeah, we don't drink Gatorade. We just drink mom's electrolytes and they're cool with it. Yeah. And by the way, they're great. And what are your electrolytes made from?

They're made from organic coconut water. And then we have, of course, sodium, potassium and magnesium. And what are your electrolytes made from? They're made from organic coconut water. And then we have, of course, sodium, potassium, and magnesium. So is it liquid or is it a powder? It's just a powder. You put into a water bottle, just like we would shake it up.

But one thing for me too is when we were formulating these, I was like, how do we wanna set ours apart? And so I love a lot of brands out there. There are a lot of great brands on the market. But for us personally, I didn't want a bunch of natural flavors, a bunch of chemicals. So we flavor ours with organic fruit juice powder.

So like for our strawberry lemonade, it's organic strawberry powder and then some lemon extract. And then you get the pretty red color, you know, no food dyes, not even beet juice to enhance it. It's just pretty. Like guava grapefruit is derived from, you know, the citrus of the grapefruit and the guava fruit. And so it's no sugar.

I think there might be one gram of sugar in the strawberry lemonade just because the strawberry. Yeah. But yeah, so we formulated it of just like we wanted to just be super clean, no chemicals, just flavors from, you know, the things that are here on earth. Right? That's so cool with it. They know, like, and we try to educate them, we don't try to shame, you know, they've had donuts, they've gone to birthday parties, they live their lives,

but they know that we make healthier decisions and we don't view it as a control thing. We really try to educate them. We don't have food diets because they're not good for us in our brains. And we wanna be strong and healthy. And so our kids from a young age, you could ask my kid, do you drink Gator?

And he's like, no, sir, they have food diets. Really? Yeah, I found a mom. That's so awesome. I should throw them on the podcast. I had my nieces on the podcast a few months ago. I saw that, I haven't listened, but I saw clips and I'm like, they found a mom. That's so awesome. A mom. I should throw them on the podcast. I had my nieces on the podcast a few months ago. I saw that, I haven't listened, but I saw clips and I'm like, they're so cute. And it went crazy viral.

For a while, my team was like, I don't know if this is on brand. I'm like, no, this is great. Let's just throw it out there. And Malia wanted to do it. I'll give Malia credit. I love it. And they were just so attentive and alert and engaged.

I mean, even I was sitting there interviewing them, And they were just so attentive and alert and engaged. I mean, even I was sitting there interviewing them, I'm like, you guys are really smart. And, but they talked about like from a kid's perspective. And if you're a mom or dad and you've got young kids and you want them to be educated like her kids or like my brother and sister-in-law's, watch that podcast because they feel super empowered. Yes.

And they were really happy about it. They're passionate about it. Yeah, they're passionate about it. And she's like, you know, they bring their, their grapes in their, you know, their own little snack bags and when the candies and cookies and pastries and pies and brownies and all are being passed around, they're having their own snacks and they're fine with it.

Yeah. And it's kind of like their individuality, you know, and it doesn't, they don't feel like they're fine with it. And it's kind of like their individuality, you know? And it doesn't, they don't feel like they're missing out and other kids don't tease them. They actually feel like, you know, I'm an individual. This is my thing that I do. And what's really interesting is they even talked about how their friends get really curious.

Well, why don't my parents have me do that? I wanna do that too. And so it has kind of the opposite effect of what I thought, you know? And there's a replacement for all of these things. You can take Doritos and have masa chips. Yeah, we do homemade pizza nights. Like my kids aren't deprived.

And that's where I think there's a power struggle. Like we can't protect our kids forever, but we can empower them to make healthy choices, especially why they're living with us and to understand why and to see how they feel. And I think sometimes, I have mom friends, I'm really blessed, I have a great healthy community of mom friends.

So when we have birthday parties, it's like, don't worry, I made the simple mills cake and I did the buttercream frosting homemade, and you're like, thank you. But it's also cool to let our kids live. And sometimes if they have something, they're like, that hurt my tummy. And it's like, yeah, this is why we make healthy choices.

But I think there's a movement happening too. And people wanna feel good and they wanna boost their kids' immune systems. And the amount of kids that are medicated with ADHD, and it's like, well, if I was having fruit loops for breakfast, I'd probably have brain fog too. And then kids are bouncing off the walls. And so we have to think about blood sugar for kids too

and setting them up for success. And kids don't know to say like, I have brain fog, but they'll be hyper, you know? And so empowering them to see like, this is why we do this. And so they don't feel like they're being controlled, but they feel empowered, like you said. Yeah, no, I think that's so important.

And I think the best thing that you can do is you can educate your kids so that they can be independent. You give them that independence and your kids could probably go into a grocery store and figure out what is that they can be independent. You give them that independence and like your kids could probably go into a grocery store and figure out what is that they wanna eat. So now in your, is your practice active? I mean, are you-

I'm retired. Okay, so you're retired. That's what I say, I'm retired. But that's why I started my online community because I have all these people asking and the same thing with the formulating of things, with the protein powder, it's like people are always asking me.

So I'm like, well, why don't we just go and kind of create our own? And what do I like on the market and what would I change? And so that's kind of the inspiration for a lot of the things that we're formulating. Like we have a healthy lemonade, no sugar. Remember Country Time lemonade? Yeah, yeah, I remember.

So we're just doing that healthy. I remember Tang. Yes, Tang. That's how bad my childhood was. Tang was like, that was awful. Yes, so we're just creating healthier products like a healthy hot chocolate, no sugar. We're speaking of with monk fruit, you know?

And so I want my kids to have these normal experiences. But anyway, I would be asked about these products and that was kind of where the cancer journey was a blessing. It pivoted me to kind of get creative with my career. Yeah. And then again, people are always asking, and I don't work with people anymore one-on-one,

but we have a community where they get access to functional medicine lab testing. I have nurse practitioners that do consults. So we can help people and equip them, but we don't prescribe or diagnose or anything. Right, no, that's so awesome. Well, so tell my community how they can find you. Well, on Instagram, I like educating.

That's like my mission. It's just equipping people with information, healthy swaps. I've shared my whole cancer journey, and that's just at Taylor Dukes Wellness. And then we have all of our products at shop. T-A-Y-L-O-R. T-A-Y-L-O-R. Yup.

Dukes. D-U-K-E-S. Wellness. Wellness on Instagram and your community, it's a paid community. Yeah, it's just $39 a month. It's like no strings attached, cancel if you want, but it creates and do live calls, you know, once a month with just them to answer questions. They get to pick my brain and And then it's really beautiful.

There's this community of people all over that have connected like minded moms. Usually most of them are moms answering, you know, what'd you do for your kid for this? And so it's really neat. We bring on guest experts and then yeah, my all my products are just at shop.tayloredukesmallness.com. That's amazing. So I, I, I wind down all my podcasts by asking my guests the same question, then we're going to go into my, I have a VIP community too. So when the podcast is over, we're going to go into the VIP room and just allow them to ask the direct

questions because I really believe in building this community because I don't think that we can make a real change in the world just by putting out information. I think you have to affect the habits of people's lives, right? I mean, if you if, if you want to lose weight, you have to adopt the habits of somebody who's interested in losing weight, right? Just it's not just enough to have a goal to lose weight. And, and I want to do something very similar to what you're

doing. And that is building community, hundreds of thousands of like minded, highly educated people that can go out and empower other people to make changes in their life. And that's how we do it. In fact, I think the day of the celebrity influencer and the online influencer are over, if not severely numbered. If you aren't building a community, I don't think you're really in service to-

And allowing a place where like-minded people, you can't go and do all these meetups, but you can foster a place, and I love that you do that. Yeah, yeah, we did the same thing place and I love that you do that. Yeah, yeah, we did the same thing. And I encourage all of my peers in my, in the industry to do the same thing because people are looking for guidance

and a like-minded community to spend time with and it's really empowering to do that. So here's the question, you ready? Okay, I'm ready, let's fire away. All right. What does it mean to you to be an ultimate human? I think it's a loaded question. And I think it's not a simple answer,

but I would say if I could break it down, there's the spiritual, the physical, and then kind of the mental emotional. So spiritually, for me, that's having a relationship with God. And I'm so thankful that I had that relationship with him and the hope beyond my circumstances going through what I've walked through. Like if I didn't have the hope of heaven and I'm facing a cancer diagnosis at 33, that's

hard, you know, and that's where my peace comes from and my joy and my hope. And so I think spiritually that's going to look different for everybody. But that's for me personally, I think that's so, so important to know your God given purpose and your gifts. Couldn't agree with you more. And then physically, of course, everything we've talked about, eating healthy food, sleeping, getting back to the basics.

People overcomplicate health. And I have all the fancy, not anything like Gary. Let's be clear, but I have a bunch of these modalities and people, what gadget should I buy? And I say, we have to get back to the basics when it comes to our physical health. We have to eat healthy. We have to move our body.

We have to get sleep, manage our stress. So there's a lot of things physically we can be doing. And then lastly, I would say just emotionally and mentally, you know, do you have purpose community? Do you have like minded people around you cheering you on and being with you in the heart, you know, and then are you managing your stress and are you doing and this kind of comes back to spiritually too, like are you doing something that fulfills you, especially if you're working because you're spending way too much time during your life working. And if

you're not doing something that gives you purpose that you're using your gifts, I feel like mentally and emotionally, you're going to be stressed and empty. I totally, totally agree with you. Wow. Taylor, it's been amazing. 1000% I'm going to have you back on the podcast. I love following your journey. My community is going to love you. You're sweet. You're ready to go into the ultimate human VIP community and take some questions for the VIP people. Let's go fire it up. And if you're interested in becoming an ultimate human VIP, just go to the ultimate human calm, you can sign up there. Join my VIP

community, you can cancel it anytime. This is where we pour ourselves in to you guys. We answer your questions. I open up live Q and A's. I always give them access to my guests. We're gonna bring in functional medicine practitioners that do cases. We do Q and A's, we do challenges. We do all kinds of things together. And we're even planning our first big experience together

as a community. So head over to theultimatehuman.com and sign up to join my ultimate human VIP community. Until next time, that's just science.