Well with Arielle Lorre - 32: CHRISTINA RICE, NTP - Getting to the Root Cause of Debilitating Health Issues

Episode Date: November 20, 2019

In this episode I talk to Christina Rice, Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, Primal Health Coach and Reiki Practitioner, about getting to the root cause of debilitating health issues and tips to heal various diagnoses including SIBO and candida. We also cover:    Stress and it's effect on our bodies Exercise intolerance Environmental toxicity  Invisible illness Trapped energy  and so much more! If you like this episode please rate, review and subscribe! ❤️   For more information on Christina, visit: www.christinaricewellness.com www.instagram.com/christinaricewellness   For more information on Arielle, visit: www.theblondefiles.com www.instagram.com/ariellelorre   Follow the pod! www.instagram.com/theblondefilespodcast See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, everybody. I am so glad you're here. I am just giving you a heads up that I'm a little bit under the weather, not like in the cool, sexy, raspy voice kind of way, but in like the really nasally obnoxious kind of way. So if you want to skip over this intro, I totally understand. But I'm really, really excited about the episode today. my guest is Christina Rice. Christina is a nutritional therapy practitioner, a primal health coach, and Reiki practitioner. She is the blogger behind Christina Rice Wellness.com, host of Wellness Realness Podcast, and creator of the Paleo Women Lifestyle Program. Christina uses a holistic approach to help clients from all over the world, live their

healthiest lives, and address different obstacles such as digestive issues, disordered eating, weight loss and weight gain, hormonal imbalances, amenorrhea, mindset around food and fitness, and more. She has a passion for healthy cooking, clean beauty, and fitness, and you can find all of her healthy recipes and e-books on her blog. Okay, so that's the official bio, but just real talk. She and I have met a few times. She came to an event that I did with, say, with hello wellness. I have sick brain. I'm sorry. Hello Wellness. Yes. And Rob Yang. We did an event in San Diego. I met Christina there.

I've gone on her podcast, which hasn't been released yet as of the release of this episode. But look out for that. She has a really amazing podcast and she's been doing it for years and she just tells it like it is. She also has had such a gnarly, harrowing health journey herself. So I really encourage you. It's a lengthy episode, but I encourage you to listen to the whole thing. The first half is kind of going through like what she went through. And I'm sure people who are maybe currently going through something right now and not feeling seen will be able to relate a lot to her story. And then in the second half of the interview or conversation, I don't like to call it an interview.

But we talk about specific things like SIBO, Candida, specific tips. We talk about energy and trapped trauma and all of the things. So I really hope you enjoy this episode. As always, please rate, review, and subscribe, share with your friends, share on social media. I will repost it. And I hope you enjoy. I'm Ariel Lorry and this is the Blonde Files podcast where I talk to experts, influencers, and inspirational people in the world of wellness.

and beyond. Okay. You ready? I was bored ready. You're the OG. You've been podcasting forever. You're like, this is nothing to you, right? I love it.

It's interesting being on the other side. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not as used to the other side. Which do you find more stressful if you find either of them stressful? I think I find interviewing more stressful. Yeah. Because you have to know.

what to ask people to, and you have to be able to read them. And I feel pressure, um, because I want to make sure they open up. Yeah. And not everyone opens up. And so people who are a little bit more closed off is a little more work to kind of dig it out of them. Yeah. For sure. Yeah, I've had people where I feel like I've had to like pull them along. Yeah. It's hard. Yeah, I agree with you. I think the interviewing side, like in the beginning, I was like, I would have like a panic attack. before excuse me um yeah because it's kind of intimidating yeah like okay this is like all up to me yeah yeah no and then you get the hang of it and people are people are nice so yeah i haven't really planned for this one but we kind of know each other and inner story so i don't really plan for mine

we'll see yeah i know you didn't have any like i still feel like i mean because i do have anxiety and because I was getting anxiety about doing this because it was new, the better prepared I was, the less anxiety I have. I mean, that's for anything, right? So I would make sure, like, I would have tons of questions just in case. And, like, I never really used them. But, like, just in case there's, like, a moment where, and plus, like, I don't know if you find this, but some days, I just, my brain just isn't functioning as well.

And so I'll have, like, a moment where I'm like, oh, what? Like, where do we go from here? And it's helpful to have those lists for guests who don't really go anywhere. Like I've had people come on and they give me a one sentence answer. Yeah. And I'm thinking, oh my God, do you know that you're on a podcast? I need you to elaborate. There have been a couple times and it actually wasn't the guest, but like where I was like,

oh my God, this is going to last 10 minutes. Like I know, you get really nervous. And then they go for like an hour. Yeah. It's always a way to figure it out. But yeah, it's definitely a learning experience. Yeah. So anyway, I'm sure that's fascinating for all.

the non-podcasters out there. I think people do find interesting, though, when we go to behind the scenes. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Let's hope so. Yeah. What are your favorite podcasts right now?

Oh, man. Well, right now I actually have gone, I'm going through this phase that I have been in for like the last six months where I don't really listen to that money podcast because the last four years, all I did all day every day was listen to podcasts. And I hit this point where I just felt like my brain was going to explain. blowed and my journey with I suppose my nutritional beliefs has changed so much and I was you know when I was really into keto I was listening to all the keto podcasts and then as I got more to spirituality I was like I don't want to listen to podcasts and everyone else telling me what to think

and what to do so it's kind of changed I mean my my favorite podcast ever was always balanced bites which is gone now but that's really how I learned everything about nutrition I feel like that podcast alone is a college course. Really? Is it still? Can you still listen to it? Yeah. It's still up.

Who was that? Diane Sanfilippo and Liz Wolfe. They're two nutritionists. Yeah, I learned like everything from them. So when I was going through all of my health stuff, I would just listen to that for hours and use that as part of my research. I've always loved Ben Greenfield. I love Mind Pump media.

I'm really close with the guys from Mind Pump. those are probably some of my top my top podcasts yeah it can be kind of overwhelming and I would imagine for like we'll get into your help issues because you've had a lot but for anybody like who doesn't have any of the knowledge or experience that maybe you have had and other people I mean it's just so overwhelming and you can find a podcast to reinforce whatever your beliefs are yeah And it's hard to know, like, especially when there are so many doctors and qualified professionals, but who all have different points of view over what is the best route to go in terms of, like, diet and exercise, nutrition and healing and various topics. So it's hard for anybody. It's very confusing. And I was doing that for so long, like, just, for example, let's use the keto example. You know, I was just only listening to the keto podcast. So it just kept being reinforced in my head, like low carb, keto.

this will heal you this will fix everything and that's just so limiting you know and then with having so much information it's confusing so I always tell people you know pick honestly pick like two or three four people you like and you connect with personally and just stick with those and get rid of all the extra noise because it's just too much you know and I find that all the time I mean being in the nutrition space right I'm learning about the different research and everyone's opinions and sometimes your brain just wants to explode because there's carnivore over here, there's vegan over here, you know, there's high carb, low carb, there's all these things and you just, you'll pull your hair out if you try and do all them at once, right?

Yeah, and and each side of the coin or each argument is very compelling, right? Yeah, it's all persuasion, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's hard. I feel like even for me, sometimes I'll get sucked into like, oh yeah, well, high fat, low carb, carb, that makes sense, and the blood sugar and the hormones and da-da-da-da. And then I'm like, but this person says that like vegan, like even though this person's telling me to eat all this animal meat and look. And it's like, don't what the fuck do I do?

It's very confusing. And I think the conclusion I've sort of reached that's going to be ever evolving is that everything works for different people at different times and just always going to change. And it's always going to depend on the person. And so I think that's where it's hard because we're all giving out mass information. but the mass information isn't going to apply to every single person listening, obviously. So, you know, it's helpful to be able to talk to so many people at once, but also unhelpful when someone's listening, trying to better themselves, and they're taking this general advice and it just isn't going to work for them when if they just went to someone one-on-one,

they would get, you know, a different opinion. So, I mean, bio-individuality is everything. And even just throughout our lives, you know, what worked for me two years ago isn't going to work for me right now and it's probably not going to work for me in three years. So it's about being able to adjust and change. So I think there's a lot of high quality information out there just might not all apply to you at this specific moment, but it might be relevant later, you know. That's such a good point. And that's something that I try to emphasize too is that like I feel like everybody wants the answer and I get it. Like I wish I knew exactly what was the perfect way for me to eat and feel my best

and be easy on my gut and help me thrive and all my systems go and then that's it you know but it's like what worked for me last year is not working for me now and like we're constantly changing and evolving and it's like I think finding how you can tune into that and be very aware of that is better it's it's it's going to be more beneficial than like figuring out the diet thing yeah figuring out you know because it's it's like constantly changing. No, that is what is so much more useful is like teaching someone how to tap into their intuition and listen to their bodies because we can figure out exactly what's going to help you right now, right?

But what are you going to do in a year when it stops working? This is why people get caught in these cycles, right? They just go back to what work for them before, before, and then they get worse and worse. You have to be able to adjust. So I think it also ties back to just how so many people now are really out of touch with their bodies. and what they need. Like we live in this go, go, go, fast-paced society. We are surrounded by toxins, chemicals, we're eating processed foods, you know, we're not moving in natural ways. We're just, there's such an environmental mismatch. You know, we have all this technology,

5G phones, everything. And so we don't want to tap into our bodies. You know, we were never taught that. And it's a lot easier to just get an answer. It's a lot easier to get a prescription of the supplements to take and the diet to eat and the exercise to do, then it is to calm down, you know, look at yourself and tune in and be like, what does my body need? Like, we have, we have lost that ability and I think that's the most useful thing anyone can learn. I had somebody on my podcast. Eric Abbassow, do you know her? She's a therapist. Excuse me, sorry. And she said, I think it was her who said like all of our problems, most of our problems today could be solved by just slowing down.

I totally agree. That's a very like bold statement, but if you actually break it down, I mean, it's kind of true. I think it's totally true. I think it's just we don't listen. Right. To ourselves. Yeah. And it's like distract, distract, distract, distract.

Yeah. Even like meditation, you know, people are so afraid of meditation. It's so hard for them to meditate. And that's okay. Like you can step there, but just this idea of why is it so hard for us to sit down and be silent and quiet and just be, you know? It's scary until you actually do it. So, like, I had that fear, and for so long I used the apps and this and that where they

would talk to me or I would focus on my breathing or do something else distracting. And when I started doing TM, like, before I ever tried it, I was like, I have to sit in silence for 20 minutes. I can't do that. Like, it's not, I can't do it for two minutes. Like, my thoughts are so crazy. And it's like, no, that's what our brain does. it thinks so like that's fine yeah and then once you actually do it it's like oh wow it's like like a just

a i don't even know so you can just breathe and relax and let your shoulders down yeah i think that for me introducing more silence into my life has been like the most healing thing i've done in the last year you know getting really comfortable with silence and i just feel like i can totally calm down and a lot of people are really uncomfortable with any kind of silence you know we wake up we turn on a podcast we turn on music, we get in the car, we call someone, that we're texting someone, you know, like a lot of people are so tied to their phones, they have to be texting someone, calling someone, emailing someone, I'm like, whoa, can you just be, like sit there and be? And I think that's a really important skill to develop, like be able to sit in silence and be.

And it will do a world of good. Yeah, I 1,000% agree with you. So let's kind of rewind because you've come a long way from, um, When you grew up, right, you didn't drink plain water until you were like 20 and didn't eat vegetables. And so can you kind of talk about like your earlier life? Yeah. And how you got to where you're on. Yeah.

So I grew up. I ate a classic standard American diet, but just awful. I mean, I didn't eat vegetables. I lived off of everything I don't eat now. So I lived off of gluten, dairy, sugar. And a lot of processed foods. And I dealt with really bad. anxiety for as long as I can remember.

It came on, like, I remember being three, four. I was just so anxious. It was very paranoid about everything. I mean, I thought that when I closed my eyes that night, to go to sleep, I would, someone would come murder me. The floor would fall out beneath me and I would die or the house would catch on fire. Like, it was debilitating. My parents did not know what to do with me.

I didn't sleep for a long time. Was it something environmental or something that happened to you? Or do you think it was a result of, like, I think. think that so I've also had gut issues for as long as I can remember you know that wasn't something that came on later it was just my whole life I always looked pregnant and I was always super constipated and I don't know exactly what it was I think part of it and here we come into the the woo-woo side but I think part of it was coming into this life with trauma and bringing you know mother wounds into this life. I think the C-section didn't help. I think, you know, just the food I was being fed,

and it's not my parents' fault. They didn't, you know, they didn't know. But I think all of that adding together and now looking back the environmental aspect with mold in our house, which I didn't know until a year ago. So I think all of that, you know, and if I'm just someone who's genetically predisposed to be more sensitive to those types of things, it's going to affect me differently. So yeah, the anxiety started really early on and the gut issues were really early on. And I just always thought it was normal to have such bad stomach pain and no bowel movements and be super bloated. I thought it was normal. So then I and then that kind of continued in middle school. I got really depressed. That was when my depression hit. And I also started dealing with acne.

and so high school was a series of being on so many different antibiotics for my skin and continuing to eat like crap and just not taking care of myself and the depression and anxiety and I was also kind of always the sick kid I was always on antibiotics when I was little and then I got mono when I was a senior in high school and I got a chronic case of mono so I had that for a year and a half and didn't find out till later that was up steam bar right and then I got really depressed at the beginning of college and fell into binge eating to cope with it. And I was like, I need to pull my stuff together one night after a really bad binge. And that's when I was like, okay, I'm going to be healthy tomorrow because I was, I'm just an all-or-known person with everything.

And so I wake up the next day. I stopped binging. I cleaned up my diet. I started trying to learn how to exercise. And I started feeling a lot better. I was following more of a bro, like, bodybuilder style kind of situation, but it was a big improvement. And, you know, I tried the cardio thing for a while. Then I found weights and I loved weights. And I was just feeling a lot better, but I was still having really bad gut issues. And at this point, after learning a bit more about health and nutrition, I was like, I think this is related. You know, I've been reading things about gluten, about dairy. So I start going to different doctors and different nutritionists in L.A. I met UCLA at the time and trying to figure out what's going

on. And no one's really being helpful. Everyone's just giving me a thousand calorie meal plan. And I'm like, I'm not in here for weight loss. I'm in here for my gut. I'm like, I really think it's a food sensitivity. I think there's something I'm eating. How long ago with this? I was a sophomore in college. So how old would that be? I mean, that was like 20. Yeah, four years ago. And I was just super frustrated. I'm like throwing away all my money, you know, and whatever. I started an acupuncterist who was super helpful at the time. And I was also trying to go to therapy and I got turned away from UCLA because I was too much.

They couldn't handle me, right? So they had to send me away. It was just like turned away from UCLA? What? Like the mental health center. Because I was trying to get therapy at school because it was like 20 bucks to see a therapist there. And they told me I was, they basically said I was too much and I needed to get outside help. So they referred me to people outside.

So it was kind of like bouncing from therapists to therapist. and I was very overwhelmed because, I mean, here I am. I am a sophomore in college. I'm like in a bunch of different clubs. I've always been a really good student. So I'm studying a lot and I don't have a car. So I'm like spending all my free time going to doctor's appointments, nutrition appointments, therapy, and just feel like I'm getting nothing.

And I'm so frustrated. But anyways, then I go. it's spring break and I had been feeling a lot better but I got really sick off some frogo in San Diego and after that it was like my digestion just stopped working I was violently ill for a week and I was very scared I couldn't keep anything down and after about five days I finally made it down to the health center and they told me they basically the doctor he literally laughed at me and told me that he could give me a pregnancy test but that's all he could do for me and I was just so upset I was like do you know how hard it was for me to get down?

here like what I was my body was exploding in every direction like and I and I had you know you have roommates like it was mortifying it was horrible and isn't that offensive I feel like any ailment yeah especially if it's like in the abdomen area yeah yeah I'm like are you're pregnant yeah I'm like are you kidding me and so I was pissed so I go back and then day later I go back down I see another doctor this one tells me that all she can do is test me for STDs and I'm just like I mean I'm like I have not had sex it And like, I don't even know how long at this point. I was just so upset.

And then I went down the third time and she was like, you just need metamusal. I'm just like, oh my God, I cannot. I cannot. So my parents came down that weekend. It was my birthday and they took me to urgent care. And at urgent care, the guy was actually helpful. He's like, you know, you should really just cut gluten and dairy out of your diet. And at that point, it was mostly cut out.

Anyways, and I was like, okay, no problem. So I did that. And at least I stopped. I was stopped being sick, but after that, my digestion was just like it broke. I had severe leaky gut and I didn't understand it at the time, but I couldn't digest food. And I just started losing a lot of weight very quickly. At the same time, my acupuncturist had given me a stool test. I found out I had candida overgrowth.

And so I thought, oh my God, this is the answer to my prayer. So she puts me on some antifungals and I go on this anti-candida diet. And so it was a lot of changes all at once. and all of that was just a huge recipe for disaster where basically I dropped about 50 pounds in three months and it was out of control and at the same time you know I was really into this healthy lifestyle quote it's like bodybuilder lifestyle so I was I had developed severe exercise addiction during this because it was like the only thing I could control during this time was my exercise and it was my only stress relief.

And I was definitely not eating enough, but it's interesting because people assume I just wasn't eating any food. I'm like, I ate the amount of food that most people probably do right now, but because my digestion was not working, it wasn't enough food. So there was definitely a period of like me not doing what I needed to do. And then as I realized how far it had gone, I mean, Louis weight of 73 pounds. And, you know, my nutritionist, it was, there was a day. when she basically told me, she was like, you know, you could have a heart attack at any second.

Your organs could shut down. Your body, like, you could literally die from being the sin. And when she said that to me, I just thought, oh, my God, I cannot believe myself, right? Like, why am I still at the gym? You know? Like, and I had such bad body dysmorphia for me looking back now at photos, it's crazy because what I looked like was not what I saw in the mirror at all. But after that, I was like, okay, I need to eat.

I need to go back, get to work on this. so I start eating and I'm eating like 8 to 10,000 calories a day and I'm not losing weight. I mean, I'm not gaining weight. I'm, I was losing weight still. So that was when I got down to 73 pounds and I'm getting really scared. I dropped out of school, which was the fight. I was forced at a school. I'm seeing all these different doctors and specialists and I'm just going to doctors like it's my job from 8 to 5. I was in all these weird studies and doing all these tests. I don't even remember. It was the whole thing is kind of a haze because my cognitive to function was so low and it was really hard emotionally for me. I lost most of my friends.

Yeah, I was going to ask like what your friends and family, how they were dealing with it. I felt extremely isolated. I lost a lot of my friends. A lot of people from high school, middle, like back home were spreading a lot of rumors about me and people were saying photos of me. And I just felt totally betrayed. And I felt like everyone was talking about me, but not to me. and I was really scared and I just thought can someone please just talk to me um because everyone was just saying I was anorexic you know and just like people someone had made a before like a picture of me from high school and then put up a picture of me then and was spreading it around and I'm just like are you kidding me like so I just felt very isolated and even when like my best friend she was

avoiding me so much and I finally got her to come see me and the whole day she's just like wasn't looking at me trying to change the subject and we sit down to lunch and I go stop avoiding this like we like I'm like look at me and she was just like she starts crying she's like what do you want to say and I'm like you're not even do you want to know what's going on like everyone was just avoiding it because they didn't know what to say um and you know people it was very confusing for me because like I said I had really bad body dysmorphia and and I didn't know how bad it how bad it looked and I was getting very conflicting messages because, you know, my bosses were asking me what I was doing. How am I eating? What's my workout routine? Like, that I looked so good. And I'm getting asked to model on the streets.

And, you know, I have some friends saying I looked great. And then I have other people saying, you look so sick. Like, you need help. I have people, I had food thrown at me on the streets. I would be at restaurants and people would send over food, you know, scream, eat a burger. You know, it was like from every direction and it was super confusing to me. How did you feel inside? I felt like so confused. Pulled in so many directions, frustrated, and I felt like I was crazy. Because I'm going to all these doctors and they're telling me you're just not eating.

And I'm like, and I remember I would come home and I would sit there and I would think, am I psychotic? Am I imagining I'm eating all this food? And had I not lived with roommates, I probably would have like checked myself into a mental hospital. because it's really hard when you're going, you see six doctors during the day and they all tell you you're lying and that you're anorexic and that you need to go to treatment, which they did try and send me to treatment. I had to interview and go through the whole process. And I just reached a point where I had to surrender. I was like, you guys, I will do anything to get better. Just tell me what to do. And I'm answering everything honestly. And they're just telling me I'm lying.

So it was it was very emotional I felt super isolated I felt like it was crazy I didn't know what to believe I became obsessed with asking anyone who I felt like I could trust I would ask my roommate like every day I'm like what do I look like I'd be like do I look anorexic because I didn't see it you know when you ask someone a question like that they don't want to they didn't even know how to respond you know so it was definitely it was definitely hard um I'm family, I was not really communicating with my family at all because it was too stressful of a relationship. And then, like, for part of it. And then later on, I talked to them a bit more. But, you know, I was out here by myself. And I felt like, I mean, my therapist, my nutritionist and a couple of my close friends, like, without them, I would not have made it through.

And, you know, I definitely, like, thought about committing suicide a few times in there. It was rough. And it's all kind of hazy. now and I think about all the tears like I could feel it in my body like every day like laying down a sleep hurt like feeling my knees knocked together and I didn't like to touch people because I honestly thought that if someone hugged me too tight I was going to snap um it was it was a disaster so yeah no one's helping me and I'm getting all these tests done and you know I go in there with my file and tell the doctors what to do and they're not listening to me and after the whole trying to send me to treatment situation. I was just like, screw this. Like, I want to just focus on my nutritionist. And I started doing my own research and finally convinced her to let me go paleo because I,

I was convinced I had intestinal permeability and SIBO. And she was like, okay, so she lets me go paleo. And I finally started putting on weight slowly. But it was literally getting rid of those inflammatory foods that were harming my gut that like allowed me to put on more weight so what foods did you get rid of so it wasn't even that much it was like I stopped eating rice quinoa and lentils that was it um and so much had gone into this beforehand like I was pre-diabetic and I have been low carb for so long and when I first started trying to add in carbs I would literally faint if I had a bite of a sweet potato like I remember the first time I like introduced a carb I had like the butt of a sweet potato and I fainted It was in I had severe reactions wow So that was tough to reintroduce my body was just super sensitive right

Um A doctor had also put me on thyroid medication during that I don't know why Total idiot and when I came off that I gained 10 pounds in a week Whatever so that helped but yeah so it was just like after that slowly and then I had read a lot about leaky gut and sebo and put myself on kind of this protocol I had developed through all my research and slowly got up to a weight where I was like stable, healthy and then went back to school and that's what just got me into the whole wellness space. And I started working for Jordan and she introduced me to her functional medicine doctor,

Dr. Likos. And so I started working with Dr. Likos and he was the first person who just validated everything I felt and thought I had. And he was like, no, you're totally right. He's like, you need to be eating paleo. You need to be like you're probably of CBO. So he gave me all the tests and found out I had Cibo and other bacterial overgrowth. And we started working on those and I started to get better.

It was better for a while. And then found out I had some more bacterial overgrowth, got better for a while, found out I had Candida. Then I had Candida again for over a year. And then after that, what happened after that? I found out I had heavy metals. Yeah. Okay. Let's go back to Cibone and Candida.

I mean, well, first of all, Dr. Lecos, he's in Santa Monica. Right. I know a lot of people that go to him. I was actually thinking about going to him. You should. I love him. Sebo and Candida, it seems like everybody and their mother, not their mother, because I feel like that generation doesn't acknowledge this stuff. Everybody and their best friend has Cbo and or Candida. And they can be so hard to deal with. And it seems like it's different for everybody. So I know you're taking into consideration bioindividuality, but are there? any tips, like we'll start with CBO, that you would recommend for somebody if they just don't know

like where to start. Obviously go see a practitioner, but like is there anything that they could eliminate or add that might help. Yeah. Okay. So with CBO, first of all, yeah, like you said, you need to see someone individually because you have to take the right supplements. And the right supplements for me are going to be different than what's right for you depending on your body, what you're going through, the type of SIBO as well as anything you've taken in the past, because you need to make sure you rotate into microbials. People who try and go on the same thing over and over again, it's not going to work. So definitely see someone so they can develop the protocol. But in terms of diet, one of the most important things is making sure you space out your meals.

So eating none of the snacking stuff, you've got to eat big meals and leave at least four to six hours in between your meals. And some level of intermittent fasting can be helpful. And by that, I don't mean a 16-8. I mean like 12 hours, which is easy. If you eat dinner, just don't eat until breakfast the next day. Like let your body have it 12 hours. And can you tell people why that's important?

Yeah. So basically our migrating motor complex is sort of the cleansing wave that goes, that goes through and pushes things through the digestive system. And that's only triggered if we've been fasting for long enough. So this is only going to start a few hours after you've eaten food. So let's say I eat food right now. I finish eating food and then eat again in an hour. Now my MMC can't be triggered.

And you can't get that paracetalces. You can't get those cleansing waves to push all the bacteria and debris through your system. And so it starts to build up. You know, the same reason why if you eat right before bed, calorically, it doesn't matter. Okay, but there's something to gravity where you eat right before bed and you lay down. it's just harder for it to go through your digestive tract and there's a correlation between people who have recurring sebo and people who eat late at night.

So really giving your body that time of rest so that the MMC can go through and push through that bacteria debris anything so you can just fully digest. It's super important. So I think that's the main thing. I think in order to be able to do that, you have to be eating enough protein and healthy fats to sustain you, right? So if you're eating meals that don't have enough protein healthy fats. fats you're not going to feel full um for most people they need to go lower on the carbohydrate intake

but with the diet this is it's so important to be eating a diet that doesn't make you stressed out so i'm not personally big into low fodmap because i think it's so stressful for people and also i mean i guess i'm biased because my personal experience low phobabreep did nothing for me because i was so stressed out and felt so limited and restricted and that wasn't going to work And then as soon as it opened things up, like for me, SED worked really well, which is specific carbohydrate diet, which is essentially taking out all the main starches and just kind of eating paleo. I think everybody needs to, I mean, I'm a believer in taking out the grains of legumes. Yeah, I just recently, I never fully went grain free.

Like I pretty much, I was pretty much grain free. The only thing that I would have would be like maybe some rice, like black rice. sometimes with dinner or like certain crackers that had and I recently in the last like month cut it out and I'm like oh. I feel better. I feel so much better. Yeah. I know.

I know. It can make a big difference for people. Like what I was saying before like I wasn't eating that many of them. Right. And I noticed a big difference even when I have when I have them now. So, you know, and people need to remember. I think people psych themselves out. They're like, I have to go on this diet.

You don't have to be on this for forever. Right. But you need to focus on what you need to do to heal. And then once you're healed, then we can figure out what else. else you can add it, right? So maybe you can't eat rice right now, but that doesn't mean you won't be able to in three months. So, do you have a question. Well, I was going to go back to the stress component too.

Like, can we talk about how stress can affect something like SIBO long term and like it's recurrence? Yeah. So stress is one of the most important. Sebo and Candida. This is one of the most important parts of healing protocol that most practitioners, I think, just overlook and don't touch on. And this is also where the exercise ties into it.

but all these mindfulness practices, life stress, and the exercise, all of that plays into it and what you're eating and your supplement protocol, all of that can add stress. And I mean, just going back to basics, when we are stressed and our cortisol is raised, when we are stuck in fight or flight, our digestion can't work. You know, our hormones are not functioning the way they should. Our digestion is not functioning the way they should. And your body's just like frozen in this state. And you can't heal in that frozen state, right? Think about, evolution. If we're running away from a tiger, that's not the time we're going to heal. Right. You know, like you're just focused on what you need to do right then.

Yeah. So that's definitely a main cause of recurring CBER. People who can't get rid of it. It's one of the most important things to tap into. And that's why, you know, focusing on the power of the mind and how your cortisol is is so important for both of those. So. And how to, and where does exercise come in? Yeah. So people who are over training for sure that will increase your cortisol and I mean over exercising itself can cause a key gut right yeah I was curious how when you were overexercising and you were losing all that weight and you had all the gut issues I was crazy how that was yeah clearly not well clearly not well so I had to stop working out um so I stopped working out obviously um and I didn't work out for a while and then kind of over the last

I mean I love to work out so over the last however long it's it's this dance with like I mean anyone who has autoimmune disease too your body just responds to it differently and whenever I work out too much, and that's like a lower tolerance in most people, right? I just, I get so inflamed. My gut doesn't work. I'm so bloated. I have so many clients who they always want to go to the diet. They always want to cut something out.

I want you to stop working out and just only walk, right, and get eight hours of sleep. And they drop like 10 pounds in a week. And I'm like, wow. I know. It's crazy. So I like I knew that about myself too with all these issues going on that I am just intolerant of like a certain kind of exercise like high intensity resistance the kind that you think like yields results really fast right. And I've been feeling better. So I was like well I can like start incorporating some of that kind of stuff again. And I did some like really high intensity kind of body weight and like lightweight resistance workouts like last week and beginning of this week. And I like could not fit. into any of my clothes. I was so bloated. Oh yeah. Like full term pregnant bloated and like tired and just I was like, oh my God. I know. And as soon as I stopped, like I did it over the weekend and then maybe on Monday. And now

I'm like back to normal. Yeah. Well, it's crazy. And it's there's this cognitive dissonance because it's the opposite of what we've been told. Right. Right. Yeah. But it goes back to like being able to tune into your body and like what your body needs right now to heal. And it's all contextual. Right. If you want your body to fight this bacterial overload in your gut, you need to put all of your resources into that and allow it to heal. And when you are just overtraining and fighting against your body, it's not going to work. And I think that's a really hard lesson for everyone to learn. You know, I still am learning that every day, right? So I think that's really important for CBO and Candida or any other illness, right?

Yeah. So just to touch on Candida quickly again, like bioindividually. and all of that, but are there any things that you would recommend anybody do? Because that one, I feel like that's even harder than Cbo sometimes to deal with. Okay, well, the thing with Cbo and Candida that I just really want to say is it's really important to get to the root cause, because that's often not the root cause. So with Candida, especially looking into heavy metals, is really important, especially if you're getting something recurring. If you have Candida I want sebo once, like maybe that's just it.

But if it's recurring, really getting into the root. So with sebo, really looking into low stomach acid and other, with sebo and candida, the heavy metals, the mold toxicity, the environmental side of things is really important. And going back to leaky gut and low stomach acid, like those basic digestive functions is really important. With candida, with diet, I mean, you want to cut out the, a lot of the carbs, but you don't want to go too low carb because ketone, if you get into ketosis, ketones can feed, Candida. So there's kind of this middle ground there. And it just comes, it comes back down to like

the root cause reducing stress, being on the right supplement protocol. And with both of these, I mean, really switching up the antimicrobials or antifungals you're using because you're on the same thing for six weeks, you're going to develop a resistance to it. So cycling is really helpful. So that's what I would say. So how long did it take you to heal? I mean, I know that you're going through something now with mold toxicity and I mean, that's life, right? There are things that are going to happen and it's like we can't, I think that this, that's like a goal of perfect health, pristine perfect health across the board. I think it's like, okay, it's aspirational, but I also think it's not like totally realistic. Like there are things that are going to come up.

and that's life. But from like the acute, the acute digestive issues and all of that, how did, how long did it take you? I mean, each one was different. So it would be like maybe like eight weeks for each thing. And then I would get rid of it and then I would come back. And it took me three, four years to figure out the root cause, which ended up being the heavy metals toxicity and the mold illness. And it just goes back to looking for that deeper root cause and looking back. I get frustrated with a lot of my practitioners who I tried to push and they just told me it's just the gut it's just the gut and I also had you know I had a menorrhea for four years during all this um like losing my period with my hormones being out of balance and they're just trying to go after

the hormones and it's all interconnected it's all tied in and I really think it wasn't until I started getting to the stress problem that anything was going to start fixing itself right so I think yeah with i guess with each of those individual gut issues it was like maybe eight weeks each except for when i had that can that one bad of candida it was over a year um and it wasn't until i figured out the heavy metals piece and started detoxing that that went away so but the molds is going to take i'm in the middle of it i mean that can take a couple years you know to to to work through and the metals took about a year to fully detox, I would say. So what kind of things did you do to support your body and detox? Did you do like sauna?

Yes. You do like push catch? What were you doing? So I really like really focusing on lymphatic drainage is really important. So like I rebound every morning. I dry brush, um, massage. I'll do cupping when I can. I sauna every day. The things they do every day. sauna. Do you have like an at-home? Yeah. I have a portable one. It's just easier than going in. But I found this low EMF1. They're my friend Taylor who also has mold illness and Lyme. And yeah, I do that every day. I rebond every day. I do a castor oil packs every day.

I really recommend castor oil packs for anyone who needs liver support. A lot of people who have hormonal issues, like you just need to support your liver. right so herbs that are going to support your liver anything bitter is really helpful i take bitters i take different herbs to support like liver support but those are the main things the castroopacs the sauna and then binders obviously you know you got to bind you got to sweat it out um so a lot of charcoal and those have been the main things i do to support detox but i also really believe in energetic detox so getting a lot of i do a lot of energy work i get a lot of energy clearing and all the Reiki and other types of energy work is really helpful. So I think that's an important part of detoxification too, the emotional side.

Yeah, that's a great. I was going to segue there right now. Same page. Energy. See. Yeah, so I want to talk about like kind of going back to you said that you were born with trauma and you think the C-section affected you. and how did you start to acknowledge that and heal that when you became aware of it?

And do you think that the issues that you were going through in college were related to the energy? You know, I think when I got super sick in college, I started realizing how much trauma affects our physical bodies and diving into that and starting to go back into all these different traumas that had built up over my life. And it wasn't until recently that I realized now I'm at this place where I spent so much time working on everything from when I was zero to 20. But when I got sick in college, that was a trauma for me. Everything that happened to me was traumatic. And so that's kind of what had been working on recently. But where this all started was learning more about the power of the brain and how people can heal themselves literally through their mindset. Are you familiar with Joe Dispenza?

Yeah. So, like, you know, a lot of what he talks about and just, my friend Rachel Barber, she has a whole program where she teaches people to heal from chronic illness through their mindset. And so I learned a lot from her and did, worked with her for a bit. And a lot of that just opened my eyes to go. I would think, what I ended up doing was I wrote down every single thing throughout my life that was like somewhat traumatic or I had any type of negative emotion towards. And I worked through every single one energetically emotionally.

and it took me a long time. But it was transformational. How do you work through that? So, I mean, the energy work itself. And so each situation, I would take each situation and physically, emotionally, put myself back there, energetically put myself back there and reframe it. And a lot of inner child work in the sense of like, what am I going to say to myself at that time? Like, what do I want to tell her and how can I reframe all those situations, basically?

anything energetically like we hold it in our bodies like my sacral chakra was just clogged like was like black tar like and pulling that out I felt physically lighter after that my digestion started working physically better after energetically pulling that out um and yeah did this with somebody or on your own like listening to I started meditation I started with people and then as they learned more about it. You know, I do a lot of this work with my clients. So, and then I did it myself. I mean, it was a lot to work through. I had written a list of like, I mean, it was like 20 pages long of things I need to go through. Yeah. And what's interesting is I went on a vacation by myself and kind of finished a lot of this work. It was very intense for me. And right after I did that,

I woke up the next day and my period came back. No. After I've been gone. After four years. Yeah. Wow. I mean, I believe it. Yeah, it was crazy. That's crazy. And so, I mean, I really used to not pay attention to all this emotional energy side of things, like, because I'm so logic, so science-based. But you hit a point where like, why the hell not? And I'm not getting the answers I need. And Dr. Likos started really incorporating it into his work. Yeah, I was going to ask you, doesn't he have a meditation that you can do? So I had stopped work. I only worked with him for like a year. And now we're just like, we've always been friends. So I kind of knew it was he. He was. He was. He was. was up to and his assistant um is one of my best friends so i like i stay up to date with them and she would she would tell me she's like you know he's sending everyone to all these energy healers and i was like okay well if he says so you know she's super sciencey he's a d um so that's when i started getting into it and just trying it out and i noticed a huge improvement and yeah it changed everything and i think it's a part of health that a lot of people want to avoid and it's the most powerful one. Yeah, I love that you're talking about that and that, I mean, even going back to what you were saying about

stress, like being the biggest thing, I feel like that's kind of where I am right now and I was kind of forced into this corner, right, to be like, okay, well, the diet and the exercise and the supplements and the, it's not helping. So like, what else is going on in my life? What am I holding on to? And I mean, it's always desperation is a good place to start, right? Because you're more open to trying different things. Yeah. And it's a stepping stone too. Like, how do you, do we, if we didn't change the nutrition and do the supplements and the

exercise, all of that, like, you don't, most people don't just hop straight into like, let me energetic, an emotional heal. Right. You need the mental clarity to know that that's best for you. I'm doing brain spotting with my therapist, like around trauma. And so I'll sit there like with my eyes closed and we'll kind of go back to this like really traumatic thing that happened in my life. And I'll start talking about it. And when I get really activated, she's like, okay, what are you, where are you feeling it? And I'm like, my fucking gut. Yeah. Oh my God. But I never made the connection before. Like I'm so sensitive. And it's like all in there. I mean, it's like it's crazy. My whole body goes numb. Yeah. when I'm like really activated remembering this trauma but I have this like like knotted kind of

butterfly feeling in my gut and I'm like well that's where it is yeah are you do you know your human design no I'd be so curious what you are because so this has been something I've been like working through recently I'm super in a human design and I'm a generator and oh I'm a manifesting generator Okay. Yeah. So like, I'm supposed to get my input through my sacro chakra. But, you know, about, I don't know how long it was ago, I was working with one of my healers. And I told him, I'm like, I'm just numb.

Like, I'm not feeling it in my body the way I should. Like, sensation, physical sensations, I don't feel like a normal person. And basically came to the conclusion. He was like, you're, you literally are just numb from everything that you went through your whole life. you just slowly built up this protective layer and that's why you're not feeling it in your body. And so I was getting so frustrated because I want my sacral to tell me. I want that gut instinct. Yes or no.

Yes or no. As a generator, I'm supposed to know this. But I feel nothing, you know? I just feel nothing. And so the last like six months or so I've been focusing on basically denumbing myself, which I think a lot of people who have trauma or autoimmune disease, like over time, you kind of build up this protective layer. and it makes it harder to tap into how your body feels and what you need. And so then in that instance, it's a lot easier to cling to, you know, what the piece of paper says in terms of like, okay, how do I eat? What several months do I take?

Because you don't even have the sensation. Right. So like figuring out how to feel again is definitely tricky, but like that's what I'm currently trying to work on. And as you work on denumbing, do you have like issues kind of bubbling up to the surface or? Does it not work like that? It's like, I'm slowly just like feeling more things. I think because I've worked through so many of the issues. I'm not really at that place anymore.

Like, I don't think there was any traumas at this point that I haven't really dug into. And that comes out in so many ways, like, you know, if you get triggered by things, you have a trauma to work through. Right? Our triggers are our biggest teachers. So something triggers you getting to the rid of what that is. And my whole demeanor has really changed. I don't get triggered that easily anymore. You know, it's hard for something to really make me mad, right?

There's the difference between getting annoyed in the moment and just, you know, feeling in your body like you're so triggered, it just doesn't happen to me anymore. And on some of why I thought, is this why I'm numb? Because it's just like, you can throw anything at me. I'm like, all right. But I don't know. It's this weird dance. So it's been more, I think sometimes as I quote, denum is what we call this process.

I get taken aback when I do start to feel things. And it's sometimes really overwhelming. You know, like I didn't cry for a long time. And then when I was able to cry again, it was just like, I freaked out because I'm like, I haven't felt this for so long. Or like breathwork really affects me. It's so good for me, but so hard for me because I feel it in my body and my whole body goes numb.

And like, then I'm feeling, you know, you want to crawl out of your skin. So have you done breathwork yet? No, not yet. Yeah, I really need to do it. Yeah, it's insane, but it's so good for me because it forces me to feel. So I think it's more of like I'm getting, I'm just taken aback by, whoa, this is like once, what sensation feels like again. Yeah, I need to do that. I haven't cried in like a year or two.

You should really do breathwork. Yeah, like you need to get something to trigger you to cry. You feel so much better. Yeah. Well, I did. I mean, I've had a few times, but it's been like a reaction to something. I don't know. I just,

I was doing a 73 questions podcast episode a while ago and Kennedy's like, when's the last time you cried? And I was like, I have no idea. Like I started tearing up at my wedding, but like that's it. Yeah. You don't cry in therapy. No.

No, I go numb. And it's like, I know. Like I'm very aware that like I'm in freeze mode, like fight, flight or freeze. And I'm in it, it's getting so much better now that I've been doing trauma work and like, I don't know, I just feel like I kind of like reached a breaking point where it couldn't get any worse than it was. Like just the sensation in my body. I was so anxious. And so it actually happened when I was in New York a couple weeks ago.

And I was like in the fetal position on my couch. And I was like dying. And like it just, it was so weird. Like the next day it just kind of like went away. And I did trauma work with my therapist on Tuesday. And we did the brain spotting thing. and like my activation it was like a two like I just wasn't I was like oh maybe it was like leaving my body yeah no no you haven't done any energy work have you no you need to do some I just wonder

what's in you need to I need to give your rakey session I'm if I can pull any shit out of your your sacral chakra oh my god I'm sure I would start crying sometimes you do and you don't even know why people all the time it happens to me all the time they're like be there and like I don't know why I'm crying. I'm like, it's fine. You're just releasing things you don't even know you're holding on to. You need to do it. So tell people, how do you do Reiki?

If you're going to explain it. Okay. So Reiki is a form of energy healing. It's like a hands-on form of energy healing. So Reiki means universal life force energy. So it's a healing energy. So a practitioner acts as a channel of the energy. So it's not like me as a practitioner.

I'm not giving you my energy. I'm acting as a channel of the Reiki energy. or of the rickie energy so there are different ways to do it you can do distance or in person so in person you'd be like lying down on the massage table you close your eyes that's all you have to do relax and then i start at the top of your head and just hold my hands on or above different parts of your body and act as a channel of that that energy um and then you flip over i do your back and that's essentially it and then you want to do it when i'm getting my makeup done i don't think that's a good time yeah Maybe. Yeah. And then I do anything intuitively that comes through. I usually talk about with people

after, but not everyone wants to do that. And that's not separate from Rankingi. So some people assume that every Rake practitioner also does intuitive work. And that's not true. So if you want intuitive work, make sure you find a practitioner who also does that. And then distance is it's, when you learn, you learn how to send distance Rakey. And I often find sometimes it can be more effective. because people aren't comfortable, they're at home, they can be their pajamas, no one's looking at them, and you just lay down and we've picked the time so you know you're ready to receive. And I just tell people, you know, just relax it during this time. I'll send the riki to you and then afterwards go over everything that came up and what chakras

we balanced and all of that, you know, but if you're energetically out of balance, that can cause physical disease, you know, so every chakra is connected to parts of our lives, emotions, things we're dealing with, but also physical parts of the body, right? So like throat chakra connected to your throat, obviously. But also connected to your sense of communication, how able are you to express yourself? It could be if you haven't spoken up about something, if you have trouble speaking out about something, or if someone's keeping something from you, there's something going on with the communication there. But that can also manifest as asthma, as thyroid issues, something weird.

with your voice, like sickness in that sense, you know? Or we see this a lot with the sacral chakra, which is connected to the reproductive system. So a lot of people who have issues with their periods in there are just any, you know, sex hormone imbalances that's connected with your sense of sexuality, your passion, your creativity. So we focus on that. Or solar plexus, gut issues, digestive issues, which is also related to our sense of autonomy, self-confidence, self-esteem.

So, first of all, energetically putting those chakras back into balance can really help with physical health issues. But we can also use that information to focus on the parts of our lives that need a little bit more support. So with the digestive issues, for instance, really focusing on like our feeling of autonomy, where in your life do not feel that or your self-confidence, your self-esteem, your self-esteem, and like focusing on that. And a lot of times when we do that, it can help to resolve the digestive issues.

And same with the other chakras. Does that make sense? Yeah. So it can be really helpful to figure out what part of someone's life they need more work on. Fascinating. Yeah. I want to keep going, but we're like, it's 220. I'll edit that part out.

Yeah, I feel like this should have been a two-parter. Okay. So to close out, even though there's so much more I want to talk about, what are like the non-negotiables in your life today when it comes to wellness? Sleep. If I don't get at least eight, honestly now it's nine or ten. Hours of sleep, I'm not functioning. I have to meditate every day. I absolutely have to.

I have to have meals where I will not eat if I'm on the go. absolutely not i have to have meals like sitting down chewing my food focused you know um i have to have silence in my day i need to do something social for my soul like talk to someone on the phone you know see someone something like that um journaling those are my non-negotiables i feel like just the simple act of calling somebody on the phone can make such a big difference in your day. Like, I mean, in my recovery world, I was kind of, like, trained to do that and, like, call other people and, like, just ask them about themselves and talk about them and don't talk about yourself.

Yeah. And it can completely change your day, but, like, especially now when we're all so disconnected, and it's, like, you can sit there and have communication with 50 people on Instagram, but, like, no real-life communication. And even if, like, you can't see someone in person, just calling. somebody can like yeah make your day so much better well you're not going to get the same like flood of neurotransmitters admitted when when you're talking to someone over social media or texting them as you do if you hear someone's voice or see them right so like calling someone's a step up face timings a step up

being with them in person is a step up so I think that's really important and related to that for me social media boundaries is so important um I I post and I leave. I cannot be on there. You know, and it's made a huge difference. And now that I'm used to it, I could never go back to when I used to scroll all day and try and look at what everyone was doing. But I think a lot of people think that they don't have issues or sometimes it translates into text messages or email addiction. But I notice this with almost everyone I hang out with, they're just like checking something all the time. And I'm like, can you just put it down, right? You need to create those boundaries. For emotionally and EMFs, I'm just going to say.

Yeah. I think people probably don't even notice, but like, I know for me, like, I can be on Instagram for five minutes. And within five minutes, I'm tense. Yes. My gut is, you know, there are butterflies in my gut. I'm anxious. So, yeah, it's hard. It's hard, especially when it's part of your business to have that kind of detachment. But that's why it's even more important. Yeah. And I agree. So I do social media detoxes every couple months or I did a technology detox once. which was totally amazing. But every time I do a social media detox, my skin is clear, my bloating goes down, like I lose a bunch of inflammation, I sleep better, and I'm just in such a good mood. And people always say it, they're like, you look like you're glowing. Yeah, I have not been on social media in a week. And I hate to say it because there are things I love about social media,

and I've met so many amazing people and everyone who supports me. It means so much to me. But there's something about, and I don't know if it's the EMFs or the emotional side or both, I think it's a combination of both, but feeling like everyone has access to you all the time and like you just need to do all these things for everyone else. And it's like all it takes is one, like the one wrong picture, just landing on one picture. Like I've noticed, I haven't taken a full week. I don't think, but I do like three days here and there. And then I'll go back on and like I'll see the wrong photo that just get, you know.

And it's like, oh my God. like I was so good just now and now it's crazy or like the wrong comment I'm like wow I was in a good mood and then I just opened my phone and the first thing I see I'm yeah oh my god I shouldn't have looked at this you know so I think that's that's really helpful but yeah amazing is there any resource um for somebody I mean we didn't really get to talk too much about like the the kind of dark side of having like an invisible illness right but for somebody who's listening who might be going through all these health issues and they're not getting answers and they're just feeling really lonely and frustrated. Is there a resource that you can recommend,

um, aside from like finding the right practitioner? Yeah. Well, I mean, I would recommend myself. Yeah. Yeah. Listen to my podcast, read my blog. Like I've written, I rate so many posts when I'm in it. I think are really helpful for people to go back and look and look at and realize they're not alone. And even for me, it's really humbling. I'll look back that some of the posts I wrote when I was just in it. I'm like, holy shit. Like, you know, it's just humbling. So I think it can be helpful just to hear from other people who have gone through the same thing and connecting with other people. And I mean, on your podcast, you shared so many people's health journeys listening to those. That helps you feel less alone, right? And like my

podcast, I have so many people's health journeys, including my own where people get really raw and emotional and all the crying, right? So I think just learning that you're not, not alone, but I really encourage people to look into different modalities of healing with other people because it's easy to isolate yourself, but it's really important to find a community. So finding like-minded people. But for me, you know, learning more about, and maybe it doesn't look like spirituality for you, but all this energy work just opened me up to understanding there are so many different ways to heal. So, you know, maybe it's Ricky. Maybe it's dance class. Maybe it's yoga class. Maybe it's Chinese medicine, maybe it's another type of herbalism.

Like looking into the different modalities of healing, I think, is really empowering. Maybe it's breathwork, right? Because there's always another option. So the more you can educate yourself about the different ways, different people heal, I think the better off you are because you realize, you know, I can keep trying things. I think it feels really hard when you're hopeless because you think I've done everything. You've never done everything, right? You've never done everything, right?

So that's, I think that's my best advice. That's what gives me whenever I feel like I hit a wall, I say, Christina, stop. Here's a list of 20 things you haven't done yet. Right. I don't know anyone has done everything. Yeah. You know. Yeah.

There's so much out there. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for driving all the way out here. Yeah. I'm happy too. Thanks for having me. Teaching me how to. I love chatting with you.

Me too.