Latest / The Rockyn YES Podcast - with Dr. Raquel Yarroch / You're Not Crazy: The Hidden Reasons Women Are Misdiagnosed interview with Dr. Deb Muth

Transcript

You're Not Crazy: The Hidden Reasons Women Are Misdiagnosed interview with Dr. Deb Muth · The Rockyn YES Podcast - with Dr. Raquel Yarroch

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: The Breakthrough Edge.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Dr.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Raquel and now Media Television.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Be the Breakthrough Edge.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Dr.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Raquel, and this is where we challenge outdated thinking, uncover deeper truths, and explore the and create transformations, health, and life.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Today's conversation is one that I believe so many women desperately need.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Because across the world, women are sitting in doctors' offices, emergency rooms, and specialist appointments, knowing deep down that something is wrong.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yet many leave feeling dismissed, minimized, misdiagnosed, or told that their symptoms are simply stress, hormones, anxiety, or just getting older.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: But what happens when the body has been trying to communicate something deeper all along?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Today I'm joined with Dr.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Deb Muth, naturopathic doctor, women's health expert, founder of Serenity Healthcare Center, and author of the powerful book, Seen at Last.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Deb's own health journey began after being diagnosed with MS, only to later discover that there were deeper root causes contributing to her symptoms, including a massive sinus infection, inflammation, mold exposure, and environmental stressors that had gone overlooked.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Her story became the catalyst for helping women stop chasing symptom suppression and start asking deeper questions about their health, their hormones, their immune system, and their lives.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Deb, welcome to Be The Breakthrough Edge.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having me, Raquel.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, Dr.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Deb, can you take us back to your own health journey and what first made you realize something deeper was being missed?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, my health attorney goes all the way back to when I was 28 years old, and I was first diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I was handed a prescription, two actually, one for narcotics, one for an antidepressant, and the doctor told me to go home and get ready to be disabled in four years.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: I sat in my car that day and like anybody, just kind of lost it.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: And 25-year journey of working with women so that they would never have to experience something like that again.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: Fast forward to 2022, I had a similar experience.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: Started having some symptoms post-COVID infection, um, numbness, tingling.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: I saw my orthopedic doctor who looked at me and said, Deb, you're a smart woman.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know what's going on.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I sat in the office with him and thought, I really don't have a clue what he's talking about.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: My neck is bad.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, that's what's going on.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: And he looked at me and he said, No, he said, I think you have MS.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: And my at first glance, I said, You're crazy.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: This is not MS.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: And we kind of joked a little bit.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: I agreed to do a brain MRI.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: And three days that year before Christmas, he called me and said, You have MS.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: You have lesions on your brain.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: And at the moment, I sat there in my office in between patients thinking, Oh my God, what is going on?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: My whole world was about to change, um, and not for the better.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I knew what that meant.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, You're young.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: I want you to see a neurologist, go get some immunotherapy, and you'll be fine.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: And after the shock wore off, I recognized that I needed to be there for everyone.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I was leading a team, I was taking care of 15,000 patients, taking care of my family, and I needed to figure this out.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I treated MS patients, and that is not how I treated them.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I did what I did and went to my rebel self and said, I'm not gonna accept this diagnosis.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: I am not gonna own it, um, not gonna need to label it.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna do what we do, which is to dig down deep and find the root cause for what's causing my symptoms.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: And that's when I embarked on that journey.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I can't but I can't imagine what you must have been feeling when you heard that diagnosis.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Can you tell us a little bit more?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, what about other people out there when they get these horrible diagnoses?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, it's gotta be life transforming and like a punch to the gut and punch to your life.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just like, what, what, what do you do?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's a total shock for sure.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I was afraid, um, afraid of what my life was gonna look like.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, MS doesn't typically come with a very good life expectancy.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, you think the worst, right?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: You think wheelchair, not being able to function, not being able to remember, a lot of fear around what is this gonna do to my career?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, how am I gonna take care of patients if I can't take care of myself?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: What are my patients going to think about me as an MS person?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of stigma around that.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: As a leader, as a businesswoman, you start to think, I need to change my whole lifestyle.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm never gonna play with my kids again, my grandkids, I'm not gonna run with them, I'm not gonna play with them.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: All of that fear goes through your head.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it's always worse than what we think it is in our head, right?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: But that's where we go.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because with social media kind of looking through everything and we start Google Doctor, and all of a sudden it's like all these worst case scenarios come up, and you're like, what?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: So why do you believe so many women today feel dismissed or unheard within the healthcare system?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, you kind of did that because I know you and I have talked so much.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: So, um, like when you got that diagnosis and you decided you didn't believe it, but they kept telling you that this is what you have and you have to accept it.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, no, I'm not accepting it.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: And you didn't feel heard by them.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I would love for you to share that with us.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what was that journey like and how and how that affects other women out there?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, our traditional medicine system is not built around finding the root cause of somebody's symptoms.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's based on 15-minute medicine.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: And this isn't the doctor's faults, it's the system fault.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we knew our bodies better than the doctors that we're seeing, especially when they only know us for maybe 30, 40 minutes total before they start seeing or labeling us with things.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's part of it.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: I think the other part of it is the whole entire healthcare system has been devised around men.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it wasn't even until 1993 that women were allowed to be in pharmaceutical studies.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: So most of the medications that women are taking today have never been studied in women.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: So now since 1993, they only studied men.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: Correct.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: Women were not allowed.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: We were restricted from being in the studies because of our hormones, because of our reproductive health, because we're more complicated.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: We're different than men are.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's only been recently that they've allowed women in studies for our medications.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: So many of the medications that women take today haven't been studied, and we're just smaller versions of men, is what we've been taught.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what's been taught in our medical schools as well.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: And it couldn't be farther from the truth.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: We are very different beings physically, emotionally.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, all of that is different.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it this is exactly what your book talks about is how women are kindly labeled as small men.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like, seriously, really?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, why is that distinction so important when it comes to women's health?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: Well, because women are complex, right?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, unfortunately, in our healthcare system, medical students only get 17 hours of women's healthcare training to begin with.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: So when we wonder why women are so dismissed, it's not because they necessarily do it on purpose.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's because they don't know.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: They have never been taught how to work with women, what our body is like, what our biology is like, how things can be different.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I think this is extremely important because when we're looking at a woman's system and a woman's symptoms, most of the time women are told it's anxiety, it's depression, it's stress.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: Go home, get a little rest, take a vacation, it'll be fine.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: It'll be better when your kids are grown.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: And in my parents' generation, when they were raising children, those moms were given value.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: They've been given a benzo to take care of their quote unquote stress simply because nobody knew what to do with them.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not much different today than it was 25, 30 years ago.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: So, based on talking about the stress and how it affects women, why are women disproportionately affected by autoimmune conditions, chronic inflammation and burnout?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: So the autoimmune condition is interesting, and it's simply because our biology is different, our immune systems are different.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: We can be under the same stressor as a man, but it's gonna stay with us longer.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: Our cortisol is gonna spike higher.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna take longer for that to go down.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so that is what predisposes us to having more autoimmune conditions.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: Layer on top of that, it takes roughly four to five doctors for a woman to see, and about four years longer for them to be diagnosed with an autoimmune condition compared to men.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's insane.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's and I even know like in your book, you talked a lot about some amazing different like stats of what happened with women, even how they're treated in the medical system.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, do you want to share any of some of those that you kind of talked about?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: I know like women wait longer in rooms.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: They do.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um they don't have the same treatment.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: They don't get they're told or dismissed all the time that it's just depression.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Here's a pill for depression.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: It is really sad.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: If a woman and a man go into the ER at the exact same time, they can complain of the exact same pain.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: And women will wait 65 minutes longer to get pain medication than a man would.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: Ugh.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I didn't realize it was like that.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm from a small community and you don't see that, but I'm sure that's more predominant in larger cities where you see that in larger hospitals, but I could be totally wrong.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not in the hospital a lot.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: So it is it happens all across the country.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter if it's a small town or a large city.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it is just the way that we look at women, the way we look at their symptoms, um, and it's how they're treated, unfortunately.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: I have women that have seen this is not exaggeration, 50 to 100 doctors before they get to me.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: And we're their last hope because nobody has listened to them and they've been dismissed and they've dug down and they've found the answers themselves, and they they come in pretty much knowing what's wrong with them because they've done the research, but they still can't get anybody to listen to them and order the appropriate tests and do what is necessary for them to be diagnosed appropriately.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: So when you haven't been heard by your doctor and you're constantly being dismissed, what actually happens to a woman emotionally and physically when they spend years disconnected from trusting her own body?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it definitely disrupts their immune system.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's something called the polyvagal system and it shuts down their neurotransmitters.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: So things like serotonin and GABA and norepinephrine, it is truly a chemical response.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's not an emotional response that happens.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: But these women completely get shut down.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: Their nervous system completely gets shut down.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: So they're in constant fight or flight because of their cortisol levels, but their immune system and their neurotransmitter system can't regulate itself.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: So it shuts down and then they can no longer manage the stress, they can't handle the stress.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: The day-to-day things are more problematic.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, oftentimes you'll see that their brain stops working.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: So when we talk about brain fog or forgetfulness or they can't problem solve the way they used to, that's all a physical reaction to what's happened to them.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's not an emotional reaction.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just, oh, I have brain fog because I'm getting older or I'm stressed.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, the stress is causing the brain fog, but on a physiological aspect, not a mental aspect.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and we're gonna talk about that more in one of the next segments.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: So stay tuned.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: So, what makes this conversation so powerful is that it reminds women they are not crazy, weak, or failing.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Their body may be actually trying to communicate something important.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: When we come back, I want to dive deeper into the root causes behind chronic symptoms and why so many women are searching for answers beyond traditional medicine.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be right back with more insights to help you break through barriers and move forward with confidence.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we're back.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Dr.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: Raquel, and this is Be the Breakthrough Edge on Now Media Television.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Let's continue.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Stay connected with Be the BreakthroughEd and every Now Media TV favorite, live or on demand, anytime you like.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or IAOS and unlock nonstop bilingual programming in English and Spanish.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: On the move, catch the podcast version at www.nowmedia.tv.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to Be the Breakthrough Edge.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm here with Dr.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: Deb Muth, author of Scene at Last.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: And we're talking about what happens when women stop suppressing symptoms and start looking deeper at what the body may actually be trying to communicate.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Because for many women, symptoms are not random.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: They're clues.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Fatigue, inflammation, anxiety, brain fog, autoimmune symptoms, digestive issues, hormone disruption, chronic pain?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: These are all symptoms that are connected.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yet so many women spend years chasing temporary fixes without ever uncovering the root causes.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Den, after your own experience, how did your perspective on chronic illness and health begin to change?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's a great question.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I've always done chronic illness in my practice.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it led me deeper down the rabbit hole, so to speak.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I started digging even deeper and deeper into my clients' own systems and their own symptoms, um, looking for deeper answers.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but what was most exciting for me, because we've all been taught that once you have brain lesions, they're not reversible, they will be there forever.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: And what I've learned is that couldn't be farther from the truth.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: We actually can regenerate brain tissue.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: And that was the most exciting part of things for me.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: So after my experience with MS and 18 months of treating aggressively, my second brain MRI actually showed that my white matter lesions were reversing, which is something that nobody ever tells you is possible.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, they tell us it's impossible to do.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: So being able to learn from other practitioners that this is truly happening, not just to me, but all across the world with technology that we have, with therapies that we have, that we can reverse that aging brain.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: We can change it, we can get rid of the spider webs, so to speak, in the brain that cause people to have brain fog and memory issues and things like dementia and Alzheimer's disease, that we can actually start reversing some of those things.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: It really made a significant difference.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: And it opened me up to a different way of looking at medicine for the first time in a very, very long time.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: Not that I thought I knew everything, because you never do, but to see that these kinds of things were actually possible, it brought me to a deeper level of bringing hope to my clients.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I never tell them that something is impossible anymore.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: Despite what I've been taught in conventional training or naturopathic training, I never tell them that anymore because I think there's always hope, there's always possibility.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: Every day we're learning something new and exciting.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: And so people need to hang on to that hope no matter what it is they've been told they have.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I totally agree.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, hope is a huge thing, and always constantly believing in that makes a huge difference.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: And there's so many times, even me seeing people like completely, completely changed, I didn't think was possible.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, you know what?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: The great creator, God, can take care of a lot of things, right?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you just gotta trust.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta trust that you're gonna get connected to the right person, that they're gonna have the right information for you.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: Or if they don't, they'll know somebody that does.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I think one of the biggest things that I learned about this whole journey um is having faith in other people.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't share my diagnosis with anyone.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't share that with my team.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't share it with my patients, um, didn't have much of a conversation with this, with my family, other than the first initial diagnosis to let them know what was going on.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: But along the way, everything that I did, I did in a vacuum by myself.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and when I finally recovered my brain, I decided to tell people.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I was shocked by how many people came to me and said, We wish you would have told us when you were going through this because we could have supported you.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like patient my patients said this to me, and they were all so surprised because I didn't skip a beat.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like I had an IV line in my arm for 18 months.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: I was doing daily IVs, I was doing so much treatment, and nobody knew what was going on in my office.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the hardest things was going through that without any support.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I would encourage women that if you're going through this, don't be afraid to tell people, don't be afraid to share what you're going through because there are a lot of wonderful people out there that are willing to share their knowledge and just give you support and guidance.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_02: And by doing that, that's how we make connections to people that have answers by keeping ourselves in a vacuum and not sharing it, is how we keep stuck.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then we don't find the answers that we're looking for.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: So if I had one thing to change about this whole journey, it would be that.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: It would be sharing my story earlier on.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's very powerful.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta share.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so many times women like to hold everything in because we're the basically the pillars of everything, right?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: We're the rock holding everything up in our families and our lives.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're afraid that if people see us as weak, that we're not gonna be able to keep going, right?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: So when you talked about you had the pick lines, and I'm assuming this is going back to the root causes, you were figuring some of that out.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: So, what are some of the most overlooked root causes contributing to chronic symptoms in women today?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: There are a lot of them.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: And in traditional medicine, I will say when they tell you they did a full panel of blood work, they didn't.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, their idea of a full panel of blood work is a complete blood count.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: They look at your liver function, your kidney function, your white blood cell count.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: They always look at your cholesterol.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: You may or may not get a vitamin D level.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: You may or may not get a thyroid looked at.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: They don't ever do hormones unless you ask for it.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: So this quote unquote complete blood panel that they do doesn't tell us anything.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: It just scratches the surface of things.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: So when we're looking at symptoms like brain fog and anxiety and muscle pain and joint pain, these are all messages your body are sending you.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: When you don't listen, they will speak louder.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: And the louder they speak, the more you want to pay attention.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: But unfortunately, if we're busy and we're running a business, we're running the household, we're not listening to those symptoms.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: We're writing them off, we're saying we're getting older.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's those kinds of things.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm gonna tell you the body's gonna keep talking louder until you listen.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: And at some point, it may completely flatten you and you will not get off the floor or out of the bed.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: And that's gonna be your wake-up call.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so when those calls come, and hopefully you get the messages before it gets to that point, you really need to reach out to somebody who is a functional or an integrative medicine practitioner because they're gonna dive deeper.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: They're gonna look at things like mold exposure, infection, viruses, bacterial infections that have been there for decades that nobody has found.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: They're gonna look at chemicals that we're exposed to, the plastics in the air, the heavy metals in the air.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: They're gonna look at our food.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: What are you eating that's contributing to your symptoms?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: Are you eating a lot of processed food?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Are you eating a lot of packaged foods?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: Are you eating a lot of fast foods?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: Because those are gonna contribute to inflammation.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: And we can actually measure that inflammation.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: So you may feel it, and your traditional doctor may say there's no way for us to measure it, but there is.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so these are the kind of tests that somebody needs to look at when you're being diagnosed with an aggressive or a problem instead of just giving you a pill.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you want to find the root cause, you have to dig deeper.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: You have to do these kinds of tests.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: And you need to be with somebody that can read them properly.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because reading a conventional thyroid test compared to reading it from an optimal level are two different things.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: Your TSH could be 0.5 to five, or some doctors will even let it go to 10 and they'll call it normal and it's not.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: And a functional doctor is gonna say, no, we don't want to see that TSH any higher than 2.0.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: And they're not gonna look deeper to see how much thyroid you have in your bloodstream, how much do you have for your cells to use?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: They're simply gonna look at how your brain's communicating with your organ, and that's it.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's not the true picture.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: They're not getting the whole picture.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: And we want that whole picture because I mean, we're a whole human being, right?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: We're not just a thyroid, we're not just an arm.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: We're a whole human being.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: So how can things like mold toxins, inflammation, infections, and chronic stress begin affecting the body over time?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, tremendously.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: So it affects something we call mitochondria.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's a big word for our cell structures and the energy that those cells produce.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so all of those toxins affect how your body's cells actually work, how they read messages from the brain, how they create inflammation, and what it allows us to do.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: And when that mitochondria gets burned out because you've been exposed to mold or you've been exposed to an infection like Lyme disease or long haul COVID or whatever it is these days, Epstein Barr virus, the virus that causes mono, these things start to deplete our mitochondria.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: And it's actually the mitochondria that needs to be repaired first before we can even start eliminating a lot of these things.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Mold is a really silent saboteur.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: We don't take mold for uh as much energy.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: We don't give it as much attention as we should, right?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: So you see this black or green or pink thing growing up the wall, and you think it's it's not a big deal.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's just mold.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna wash it off with some bleach.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the worst thing that we could do for it because it creates what we call mycotoxins.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: And these are the toxins that get released from the live mold that's growing.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: And when that happens, it makes it stronger and more potent.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what makes us sick.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: And we don't think about that, but every time we get exposed to something that's had water damage, whether we can see the visible mold or not, it is an insult on our body, on our immune system, on our mitochondria, on our hormones.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: And there's literally been women who've had premature ovarian failure where they've gone into early menopause simply because of the mold exposure that they've had in their lifetime.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, yeah.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: And in your book, you even call mold the silent killer kind of thing.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's hijacking your body.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: And that is just crazy that it can do that.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't even think about it.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: You see it and you just think that, you know, well, this is mold, it's no big deal.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: But what it does to your body is crazy.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: So, why do so many women feel frustrated after being told their labs are normal while they still feel terrible?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's the it's the genuine lie, right?
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: So we do these labs that we tell them is a complete workup, which really isn't anything, just scratches the surface, and they're told everything looks fine.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: This must all be in your head.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: How frustrating is that for a woman to hear that over and over and over again?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: And eventually, when they continue to hear that, they start to believe it and they start to think that maybe they're crazy.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm here to tell you, you're not crazy.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: This is not all in your head, this is real, and we just need to find the answer.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: And somebody just needs to listen long enough to your story to be able to put the pieces together to tell you exactly what's wrong.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_02: So if there's one thing I want women to hear more than anything else today, is that you are truly not crazy.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's huge.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: So going with that, what would you say to women who know something is wrong but are beginning to lose hope after years of searching for answers?
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: Don't give up.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you need to just keep looking, you need to keep finding the right person.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_02: You need to do your own research.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: And in the land of AI, it gives us an opportunity to find things that we never could find before.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you're not a researcher, you can't find the studies, you don't understand what's going on, you don't even know where to look.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: There are skills, there are tools that we can use to help put us in that direction.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: First and foremost, I would say don't take any advice that AI tells you of what to do with your health.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: Let's not go there.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: But they can help you put the pieces together.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: They can help you find the missing link that you don't understand.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: And with that, you can take to an appropriate practitioner, an integrative doctor, a functional medicine doctor, a naturopathic doctor, a functional chiropractor.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: You can take that information to somebody that does this kind of work, and they can be the person that puts it all together for you and helps you not only find the answers, but find the protocol that's gonna work with you and not just for you.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: And that person's gonna partner with you.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_02: And that's a big thing.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: You want a practitioner who's partnering with you, not just dictating to you.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I know we're gonna talk about that in another segment, like kind of how to dictate and take care of you and be in charge of your own health.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I think this was so powerful about this conversation is realizing that symptoms are not the enemy.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: They may actually be the body's attempt to get our attention.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: When we come back, I want to talk more specifically about women's bodies, hormones, autoimmune disease, and why women experience stress and illness differently than men.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be right back with more insights to help you break through barriers and move forward with confidence.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: And we're back.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Dr.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: Raquel, and this is Be the Breakthrough Edge on nonmedia television.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: Let's continue.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to Be the Breakthrough Edge.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: Today, Dr.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Deb Muth and I are having an important conversation around women's health, chronic stress, and why so many women are living in survival mode without fully understanding what stress is doing inside the body.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: One of our biggest themes in Seeing At Last, this amazing little book, is that women are not simply smaller versions of men.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Women's hormones, immune systems, stress responses, and emotionally wiring function differently.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yet for decades, much of healthcare has failed to fully recognize these differences.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Deb, why is it so important that women understand their bodies are biologically different than men?
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's important for us to understand that we're different, not just because of our hormones, but because of our entire biology.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: Our immune systems are different.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: How our cells regulate things are different, how our bodies handle stress is different.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: And probably the biggest thing is hormonal, right?
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like our bodies shift from our cycles day to day, month to month, week to week.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: And that is probably our biggest challenge is understanding that it's not a detriment like people think.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's actually a beautiful thing that changes us, that makes us different, that makes us unique, which makes us allow our bodies to fluctuate, handle the stress of pregnancy and a delivery, handle the stress of juggling 10 things at one time, raising children, running the household, running a business.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: All of those things can be done because of our human biology, not just because we're a different sex than a male.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: So why are women disproportionately affected by autoimmune conditions and chronic inflammatory illnesses?
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: Part of that comes from their endocrine system.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: It also comes from their immune system.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: So, like we talked about a little bit earlier, when a woman is exposed to stress and her cortisol level goes up, it stays up a lot longer than a man's does.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: And when it stays up longer, it creates more inflammation.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: It creates more damage inside the body.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: So a man will rise and come down.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: A woman will rise, stay up for a longer period of time, and then start to come down.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_02: And as a result of that, we'll see a lot more inflammation and we'll see a lot more uh burden on the immune system, which actually then decreases the immune system's function and its ability.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_02: And it's what makes us prone to becoming ill more frequently than men.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: Got it.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: So why do women's uh cortisol levels or stress response stay longer than men's?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's simply because of their immune system.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's how their immune system is functioning that creates that.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because I remember in your book you were talking a lot about like it's our immune system really is one of the catalysts and triggers for the autoimmune.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: Why women I have more likely to experience an autoimmune than a man.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: I don't remember you might want well, what are some of the stats on some of that?
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like women get, is it 95%?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: 80% more likely to develop an autoimmune disease than a man.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: And they'll wait four to five years longer than a man to be diagnosed.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: Which seems so weird because it always seems like men don't want to go into the hospital.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_02: But when they do, they have a a quicker response of getting that diagnosis than a woman.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: A woman will see four to five doctors compared to a man seeing one to get the same diagnosis.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that makes complete sense.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: So how do hormones and immune function and stress all begin interacting together inside the body?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_02: Hormones are a beautiful thing.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: They are definitely the orchestra that controls every single function in our bodies.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: They do over 400 different things in our body every single day, every single moment.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_02: So when we want to talk about how we're different, that is one of the biggest ways on how we're different.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: But that orchestra, when it's not functioning properly, it creates a lot of our symptoms.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and for a lot of women, we'll think about this and we'll think about okay, when I get my period, I feel headache and tired, and maybe I have some digestive issues and I have some cramping and I have some breast tenderness and I'm brain fogged.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: And yes, that happens, but if that happens throughout your whole cycle at different times, it could be different hormones that are triggering those things.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_02: And how those hormones affect the body's immune system is incredible because it truly affects the entire thing.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see a lot more women develop autoimmune diseases after they deliver a baby because of that shift of hormones.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: It'll trigger an underlying autoimmune disease that you maybe didn't know was even there, just simply from the shift of those hormones themselves.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's an aha moment.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: I can't imagine many women know that kind of fact that after you have a baby, that you really want to get your hormones really under control as soon as you can.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: And really be mindful and watch out for all of that.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: So what emotional or lifestyle patterns do you commonly see in women dealing with burnout and or chronic illness?
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's definitely burning that candle at both ends, right?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: As women, we're the caretakers, we're running the business, we're trying to keep our relationship alive with our partner.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: We are, you know, taking care of everything.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: And it's that burning at the candle at both ends that's going to trigger the cortisol into fight or flight.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're constantly running in fight or flight over years and years and years, you will burn out.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not just burning out the cortisol, but it's burning out the immune system because once that cortisol is gone, your immune system's not functioning properly as well.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: When it's too high, it's not functioning properly either.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: So we're seeing more and more of this shift happen simply because of our lifestyles.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: We can talk about diet and those things as well, but that is a huge component to us and us not feeding our bodies what it needs is part of that problem as well.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: And when you're talking about the candles, there was, I'm sure there's some women out there that feel like they got 10 candles lined up and they've got them burning at both ends all the way through.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: I can only imagine.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean, we're multitaskers.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: So we got a candle for this multitask, and one for this, one for this, and we got the candle being burnt at both ends.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: And yet we still think we need to keep going, right?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: We keep adding more onto our plate, right?
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: We're good enough and we need to keep adding more and more and more instead of slowing down and taking a breath and enjoying the life that we're creating.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: We just keep ourselves busy.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because it's about the journey, right?
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: Not just the destination.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: But for a lot of women, they keep feeling like they have to prove themselves to someone, either themselves or someone external.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so we keep taking on more and more and more.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: And the only person we're hurting is truly ourselves.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: We're not hurting anyone else.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's just us.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: And honestly, ladies, nobody recognizes all the things you do.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_02: So if you don't buy the flowers, you don't buy the birthday card, you don't buy a special cake, and you just pick up any old cake, nobody notices the difference but you.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: And yet we stress ourselves out about those little things that we need to do for everyone in the family or everyone we're taking care of.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that and also I've noticed with social media.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you take pictures and you share with everybody what you took for it.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you made this beautiful cake, and then everybody thinks, well my God, I gotta live up to that.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: Or when you take food in for your kids for school, I mean, like some of those people get really decked out on all the treats that come in.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: And remember, I just I think I just said something really simple.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: Here's some oranges, take a have fun.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I'm not putting in that time and effort, right?
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: But some women do, and then you feel like, oh, maybe, maybe I'm not such a good mom because I didn't do that.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: So you start putting this pressure on yourself.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: And and then we think, okay, well, you know what?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna stay up all night and just push through and get these beautiful little things out for my kids, or you know, pushing through your deadlines, pushing through your life's commands that you need to do.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: You just keep pushing, pushing, pushing.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, how does that affect your body when you just keep pushing?
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's the trauma theory, right?
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so many of us have been raised in trauma, some different than others.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: Some people explode their trauma.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: It was really nothing, like literally, somebody forgot to bring a birthday cake and that's traumatic for them, versus someone that was physically abused or emotionally abused.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: Trauma is trauma.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_02: The body doesn't see trauma differently, it's how we feel it and how we see it in our own brain.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so those types of things that hit trauma over and over and over again decrease the immune system, increase the ability for autoimmune disease to occur, decrease the mitochondrial function.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_02: So we have no energy reserve.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: We're not turning over good healthy cell structure, we're turning over bad cell structure, which leads us to be more susceptible to infection, more susceptible to hormonal imbalance, more susceptible to that cortisol shift.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: And all of that is what creates disease.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I totally agree.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so why do you think so many women have become disconnected from trusting their own intuition and body signals?
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: Because we've been dismissed.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_02: We've been told over and over and over again that it's not real.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_02: Your symptoms are just a figment of your stress level, your imagination.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, many women have been brought up to believe that if they complain, they're weak and you have to be powerful, you have to be strong, you have to compete in that man's world.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_02: And by doing that, they've learned to silence their own intuition because they've been told so many times that their intuition is wrong.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: And when you're told that over and over again, you just start to shut down.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: And if you don't hear the messages that your body is sending you, you're not gonna be able to fix the problem.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: And that is gonna be the bigger problem.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_02: So you have to learn to get back in tune with what your body is telling you, that body speak that you were talking about yesterday.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you have to speak to your body and let your body speak to you.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_02: And you have to be willing and open to hear what it's telling you because it will guide you as long as you're willing to listen.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's key.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's learning to just hear and listen and just acknowledge it.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't acknowledge what your body's trying to tell you or even what it's feeling, and then ask, how can I support your body?
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you have to be quiet.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's very easy for us to stay busy all the time so that we don't have to hear the symptoms.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_02: We don't have to feel them because if we're busy, we don't hear them, then they don't exist, right?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: And so if we sit quiet with that and we are listening to things in what's happening with our body, now we have to actually believe that it's true and it's real.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_02: And that's really hard for a lot of us to do.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: This conversation is such a powerful reminder that healing is not about perfection.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's about learning to listen before the body is forced to scream.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: When we return, I want to close with hope.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: What healing can look like, how women begin rebuilding trust with themselves, and what it truly means to feel seen.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be right back with more insights to help you break through barriers and move forward with confidence.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we're back.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Dr.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: Raquel, and this is Be the Breakthrough Edge on Now Media Television.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: Let's continue.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to Be the Breakthrough Edge.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Dr.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: Raquel, and today's conversation with Dr.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: Deb Muth has been such an important reminder that healing begins when women stop dismissing themselves and start recognizing that their symptoms, emotions, and exhaustion may be telling a deeper story.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: And perhaps the greatest message in Seen at Last is this you are not imagining it, your body is not betraying you, and you deserve to feel heard.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: So, Dr.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: Deb, we're back with your amazing book.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I can't wait for everybody to get their hands on this amazing book.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: You want to share us a little bit?
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us a little bit about your special journey as to why you chose to write this book.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: I would really love to learn a little bit more.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think the listeners would too.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what was so special about this?
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_02: So, Seen at Last was really a memoir for myself for healing as it started out.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_02: But what became more powerful about it was the stories that are in the book from the women that I've treated over the last 25 years.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_02: And hearing their stories and giving them some validity that what they went through was real, it gave all of us as women an opportunity to truly heal.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_02: I also wanted to introduce women to a different way of healing.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to introduce them to the root rise restore protocol that I've created and really let them understand that finding the true answers in root allows us to rise and fix those things and heal and then completely restore and have our lives back the way we wanted to.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_02: And there isn't another book that I'm aware of that explains all of this.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I really wish it it was something that I had when I was going through this when I was 28.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: And even again in my 50s, it would have been nice to have something that I could have gone to and heard other women's stories, their journeys, and understand that I wasn't alone.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's why I wrote Scene At Last.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's an amazing book.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: I listened to it on audio and I bought the book and I have it on Kindle version.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: And let's just say I have it highlighted all over the crazy place.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many golden nuggets.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk a little bit about what are some of the first small steps because you've mentioned several in the book.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's a lot of amazing steps.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're looking for what you should do, that book is full of tons of lab action steps you can take to start changing your health.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but what are some small steps women can take toward rebuilding their health and energy?
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think the first biggest step is to do an evaluation of our life.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: Look at where are we at?
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: Where are we burning energy that we don't need to?
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: Where are we giving our energy away to somebody else that doesn't deserve it?
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: And learning to say no.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_02: Those are the first places I think women really need to start looking at.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_02: From there, I would say the biggest thing, the biggest challenge you can make and the biggest change you can make that doesn't really cost you anything is looking at your diet.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_02: We talk about this a lot.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people just poo-poo it, but diet is so incredibly important.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_02: If there's two things I could tell women to do out of the gate to see if it would make any change at all, it would be give up gluten and give up dairy.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: And the reason I say that is because both gluten and dairy are toxic to the brain.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_02: There are um proteins inside of dairy that act like morphine in the brain.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_02: So literally act like you're taking morphine in.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're not a medication person, that's the last thing that we want to have happen.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_02: And it affects the brain the exact same way if you're sensitive to it.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_02: If you're not sensitive to it, it's not gonna perform that way.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_02: But many of us are, and if we can make those two big changes, gluten is huge, getting rid of all the things that contain gluten.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: So cookies, candies, cakes, breads, those kinds of things.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_02: There are even toothpaste that has gluten in it.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: So you really got to research this.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: Lotion, there's gluten in all of it.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's hidden in there, and it can make a huge difference, especially if you have arthritis, you're inflamed, you're in pain, you have energy issues, you can't lose weight.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_02: Just get rid of those two things that will make a huge, huge difference.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: And you don't need anybody to help you with it.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_02: You can research it online.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_02: There's apps that you can go to that you can scan a barcode on a food and it'll tell you if it contains gluten and dairy in it, and then you'll know.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_02: And it's a very simple step to do in theory.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: In reality, it's a lot harder than we think it is.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: But even if you could be 80% good 80% of the time, it's gonna make a big difference for you.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: And um, when you said dairy, just for clarity's sake, so people understand, you're talking about cow dairy.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_02: Correct.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_02: Not eggs, eggs are not dairy, right?
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: But anything that comes from cow's milk.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_02: So ice cream, regular milk, yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, cottage cheese, mayonnaise, those are all things that come from cow's milk.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_02: Now you could supplement and use a different form of dairy, like goat or coconut milk or almond milk.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_02: Those things are usually fine.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they take a little getting used to taste-wise from what you're used to, but they can be very beneficial and they can serve the same um source or same purpose, so to speak, as regular dairy dishes.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so you don't feel like you're giving up anything, you're just substituting for something else.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: So you can still feel like you're still doing the same thing, but you're doing a healthy version.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: So, how can women begin rebuilding trust with themselves after their bodies have or after years of being frustrated?
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great question.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: One thing I noticed too, when you were sit talking about the concept of saying no, I think that's huge about the boundaries.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: Boundaries are huge.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: We don't set them as women most of the time.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we want to help everyone, fix everyone, be there for everyone.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_02: So learning to say no is so important.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_02: That's one way that you can learn to trust your body again.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_02: I think the other way is for us to get back to our spirituality, whatever that is, whatever your higher power is.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: I had a friend one day, her higher power was her high heel shoes.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, whatever it is.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_02: The devil wears Prada, right?
• 43:24
  unknown: Yes, exactly.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_02: So whether it's God, whether it's universe, whether it's your shoes, whatever you want it to be, right?
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_02: You have to believe in something bigger than you, something stronger than you.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_02: When I went through this journey, I um realized for the longest time I had given up my spirituality.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_02: I was so busy working, so busy taking care of everyone else that I didn't have time to connect with my higher power.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_02: And being disconnected really made a big difference for me.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_02: I stopped listening to my body, I stopped listening to what I was supposed to actually be doing, and I started gravitating to anything and everything.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Everything, even though it wasn't serving me.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: And getting back to that spirituality and really learning about why you're here, what's your importance?
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so every day I start my day now with the mantra, how do you want me to serve?
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so powerful.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's powerful for me.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, how do you want me to serve?
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: I am here to serve my higher power.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: He has put me here so that I can serve other people.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_02: But if I don't ask that question every day and listen to it and trust that it's going to guide me to doing what I'm supposed to be doing that day, then I miss that day of being able to do good for someone else.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: And even like if you're starting to feel a little anxious, like some say you're at work and you're feeling anxious or you're just running around doing things, just think, just take a pause, a quick second, and just say, How can I be of service?
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_01: And you never know who might come across your path that you get to be of service to.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's just opening yourself up to what the universe or God or source wants you to do.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it just fulfills you as a person, as a woman, as a human being.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't mean that you're opening yourself up to everything that comes in.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_02: You're letting your higher power choose for you what you're going to do that day.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: You can still say no by saying, How do I serve?
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: Because one thing may come in and you're just like, no, it doesn't feel right today.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to do that thing.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_02: And you say no to it.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_02: You just served your higher power by doing that because there's something else that's coming behind that that needs your attention, that needs your gift, that needs your love, needs something from you more than the thing that just came in the first time.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: And that's huge for us.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_01: So going on this, um, what does the mindset in emotional healing and nervous system regulation play in recovery?
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: So, how does that play?
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's a big thing.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I think we know it most from the 12-step program of recovery, right?
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: And so we have to look at the foundation of that recovery.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_02: How do we serve?
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_02: What do we do?
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_02: What's my higher power?
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_02: That mindset of being in the negative versus being in the positive.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: You can have the same problem come in.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_02: And you can look at it from a, oh my God, here we go again.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_02: I just got screwed.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_02: Here we are.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's bad.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_02: My whole life is falling apart.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the world's caving in.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_02: Or you can look at it and say, okay, what's the learning lesson in this for me?
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_02: What am I supposed to learn?
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_02: Am I supposed to learn to slow down?
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_02: Am I supposed to learn to ask questions?
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: What is the learning opportunity?
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because there's always a learning opportunity in every single thing that happens to us.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_02: And you could be the person that's attracting every negative thing in the world.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: And you have to look at that too.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that's a mindset piece.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're creating the creator of your life, right?
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_01: So if you keep thinking the negative stuff because you're so focused on it, that's what you're going to get.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: You just need to reframe yourself so we you shift it so that you can start thinking the positive so you can attract more of that into your life.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes the thing we have to think of is we have to slow down because we're not thinking at all.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_02: We're just moving, we're doing, and we're just getting stuff done.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_02: And that requires us to be in our head.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_02: But what's helpful for us to heal is what requires us to be in our heart.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_02: And if we're never working from the center of our heart, that is where we have problems.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_02: And so you have to always be in that center.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't mean you can't be in your head.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_02: We have to be in our head sometimes, but your head and your heart need to be aligned.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, this doesn't work.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: So for the women watching right now who feels exhausted, unseen, and discouraged, what would you want her to hear the most today?
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: And how can they connect with you?
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_02: I would say the the biggest thing I want you to know is you are seen, you're real.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_02: And it's time for you to live your life the way you want to.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_02: Do not give up.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_02: There is somebody out there for you that can help you, that can connect you with the right person and that can guide you to the healing that you're looking for.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_02: Just be open to it because it may not exactly be the healing you thought you needed.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_02: And how can they connect with you?
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_02: And how can they get your book?
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_02: So you can get my book, Scene at Last.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's on Amazon right now.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_02: And if you want to connect with me, I'm on social media.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_02: We actually have the Scene at Last Women's Movement group.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's a private, free Facebook group.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: You can join it.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_02: I would love to hear your story inside of there.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and if you're looking for a practitioner, you can uh visit me at SerenityHealthcareCenter.com.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: Beautiful.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Dr.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_01: Deb, thank you for bringing both your story and your wisdom to this conversation.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_01: Today we talked about misdiagnosis, chronic stress, autoimmune illness, hormones, root cause healing, and what happens when women finally stop ignoring the signals their body has been trying to communicate all along.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_01: But more than anything, this conversation was about being seen.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because so many women are silently carrying exhaustion, pain, inflammation, overwhelm, and frustration while continuing to push through like life feeling unheard.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: What I hope viewers take away today is this your symptoms are not weakness.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_01: Your body is not working against you.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_01: And healing often begins the moment we stop dismissing ourselves and start asking deeper questions.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Dr.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_01: Raquel, and this is B the Breakthrough Edge.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_01: Don't wait for the breakthrough.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_01: Become the breakthrough.