Latest / Everyday Ancestral with James Barry / Modern Toxins vs. Ancestral Health: How Mold and Lyme Disease Disrupt Wellness with Dr. Brandy Cummings

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Modern Toxins vs. Ancestral Health: How Mold and Lyme Disease Disrupt Wellness with Dr. Brandy Cummings · Everyday Ancestral with James Barry

• 0:00
  Welcome back to every day in Sestral. I'm your host James Berry. This episode is for all of you,
• 0:07
  for all those people that have ever felt forgotten by conventional medicine. Sadly,
• 0:16
  sometimes the system is broken. And in the case of our guest, Dr. Brandy Cummings,
• 0:23
  well, she is not your typical nutritionist. Let's just put it that way. She is a former Black
• 0:28
  Jack dealer who routinely chooses stake over King Law, roasted veggies over kale chips,
• 0:33
  and most importantly, she understands her passion. Her root cause focused nutrition stems from
• 0:38
  her own struggles with illness, infertility, and feeling forgotten by conventional medicine.
• 0:46
  After overcoming severe mold exposure that triggered the loss of her first pregnancy,
• 0:52
  Dr. Brandy explored every corner of improving cellular health. She researched overlook
• 0:58
  causes of chronic illness such as mold parasites, reactivated viral infections,
• 1:04
  and a dysregulated nervous system and was alarmed at the lack of continuous care offered by
• 1:09
  the conventional model. Please enjoy our next guest, Dr. Brandy Cummings. Thank you. I'm so excited
• 1:17
  to be here. First, let's just talk about everyone in the health field. There's a why. What was the
• 1:24
  driver or the linchpin that made you kind of go? This is my mission. I need to do this in life.
• 1:30
  It started when I was a teenager and I was having a really severe chest pain that was interfering
• 1:35
  with my ability to get a full breath. And this really freaks my mom out, right? And she would take
• 1:40
  me to the ER and they would draw blood and they would do a chest X, right? And they would prescribe
• 1:45
  me a bottle of vicaridine. And even at age 15, I was like, um, are we sure that's the play?
• 1:52
  Like, that doesn't seem like the good, a good solution. And then my primary had no answers. And so
• 1:58
  that was just, that was our routine every time it would happen. That's exactly what I went through.
• 2:02
  They never said anything. You get the chest X, right? And they'd be like, everything's fine.
• 2:06
  Then why did they give you the vicaridine? Just because I guess because it hurt to take a breath.
• 2:11
  I have no idea. I never took them. I don't know why my mom filled the prescriptions, but she did.
• 2:18
  Was she taking it from the side? No, I'm, I don't think so because I have this memory of like
• 2:24
  opening up the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and just seeing like all of these bottles of vicaridine.
• 2:28
  And I was like, this is not. And I never took them because I was just like, I don't know,
• 2:33
  I was kind of averse too. Those types of things. But I was just like, this is kiss not the play.
• 2:38
  And I decided to go gluten freaks. I had a family member that went gluten free. And this was
• 2:42
  way before gluten free was a thing. And the chest pain stopped. And so that was my very first
• 2:48
  connection to what we eat can impact how we feel. And then, you know, fast forward, I had this
• 2:53
  mold story. So then I pivoted my practice to focus on that. And then fast forward, I fell for a
• 2:58
  lot of cracks in conventional medicine when I was having my babies. So I pivoted my practice to
• 3:03
  focus on mom. So it's just like every experience that I had in life where I'm just like, I don't
• 3:08
  stand for this. We're not doing this. I'm just like, keep pivoting so that other people don't have
• 3:14
  to go through what I went through. Yeah. Many ways your, your journey is like a story of someone
• 3:20
  who has been kind of like forgotten by conventional medicine or, or, or, or were conventional medicine
• 3:26
  just failed you. And that's so true because, you know, I went to so when I was having the mold
• 3:32
  symptoms, I had no idea it was mold. And I was going to so many doctors and I went to the ENT
• 3:37
  and I got screened from a nearest disease. And I did all the things and nobody had any answers.
• 3:43
  What actually got you to go down that nutritional path? Like, was it that experience or, you know,
• 3:50
  what made you go, oh, I want to, I want to, you know, be an expert in nutrition.
• 3:55
  What made me try going gluten free is that I had this family member who was pretty into health and
• 3:59
  she was, she was doing it just because she, I don't know, heard on some podcasts that it might
• 4:04
  be a good idea. Like, this was very much before we had gluten free menus like it was before all that.
• 4:11
  And so I just decided to try it. And once I had that experience of how much it impacted my health,
• 4:18
  I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. I went to undergrad in business management. And I was like,
• 4:25
  no, this ain't it because I thought I was going to get an MBA. And I was just like, oh my god,
• 4:29
  corporate, like you thought you were going to create like a gluten free product, food product.
• 4:33
  So I'm getting like, I don't know, I don't know, but I know good gluten free bread. I need to create
• 4:39
  a good gluten free bread product. Yeah, exactly. So I was just like, no, I don't like that. That's
• 4:45
  when I'm like, well, let me go back to focusing on nutrition. And I got a, just a certificate in
• 4:53
  nutrition at the time. And that just blew my whole world open once, because once you know,
• 4:57
  you can't unknow, right? And so it just kept going from there. And then I just went back and got
• 5:02
  my masters. And then I went back and got my doctorate like I just love learning and anything that I
• 5:07
  can do to just kind of up level the results of the people I work with. I just tend to gravitate
• 5:13
  towards that. And so here you are, you're kind of absorbing the nutritional feel that, you know,
• 5:19
  getting your doctorate, when did symptoms of the mold come up? So I was already practicing,
• 5:28
  but it was very general. Like I was doing a lot of grocery store tours and kitchen audits and like,
• 5:34
  basic gut health, it was very what I would call like application based, not so much clinical. Then
• 5:41
  I was working at a bank actually, thanks to my, my degree in business management. I was like,
• 5:47
  I hate this. So I started teaching nutrition in elementary schools. And the office that we were
• 5:52
  in, once I started working there, I got real sick real fast. Like I'm the type of person where I
• 5:58
  never went to the doctor. I have this memory of starting that job and you know, you have to choose
• 6:04
  your insurance benefits when you start. And I literally said to them, like, I don't need this. I
• 6:08
  don't you, I don't go to the doctorate like, this isn't, this isn't even on my radar. I was super
• 6:13
  healthy and strong and robust. And I got real sick real fast. How did the sickness show up? I
• 6:19
  gained so much weight so quickly just out of the blue. I had vertigo was probably my most debilitating
• 6:27
  symptom. I felt very out of my body kind of this like omnipresent kind of experience. Like I just
• 6:33
  wasn't present in my body. It felt like I was just a host. I was alive, but I wasn't living.
• 6:40
  And then I had what's called iritheminodosum on my shins, which is like these hot red, hard
• 6:50
  nodules that are very painful on your shins. And it wasn't the first time I had that symptom. I had
• 6:56
  that as a reaction much earlier to birth control before. So I knew something was up with my hormones
• 7:02
  because I'm like, oh, I have this again, but I'm not on birth control. So what's up? So I knew
• 7:06
  something was up with my hormones. And I was having vision issues and just high anxiety. And I had
• 7:14
  to miss so much work. And it just progressively got worse. I got to a point where I couldn't
• 7:18
  shower myself. And I was missing so much work. And I was just anxious all the time. I mean,
• 7:26
  it got to a point where I came to a crossroads. And I was like, okay, I need either have to get
• 7:31
  better or I need to like transition off of this earth because I cannot do this for one more second.
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  And I also suffered a miscarriage during that time.
• 7:42
  Did you make any connections at this point to what could have been the catalyst for these symptoms?
• 7:48
  I'm not even talking about connections of what, you know, what is the underlying issue behind
• 7:53
  all these symptoms? I'm just saying like, oh, this started happening when I started working
• 7:57
  or had you made that connection yet? I did. And I didn't know what it was. The only thing I
• 8:03
  thought was, you know, working at the bank was stressful. So maybe now that I'm not doing that,
• 8:08
  maybe my body is just like finally releasing and like revolting from what I just put it through
• 8:14
  from working at that awful job. But I didn't make an environmental connection until I found the
• 8:19
  right practitioner to help me identify what was going on. Can you walk us through kind of the
• 8:24
  peeling of the onion around around how you working with this practitioner, how you figured it out
• 8:32
  that it was mold? Because I think that the actual step by step play of this is really important
• 8:37
  because most people right now might have mold toxicity. They're going to a practitioner. Maybe
• 8:44
  they've gone to many and they still haven't figured out. Oh, they should have been tested for this
• 8:50
  and it would have shown up on the test, right? They're still not going down that path. So that's
• 8:55
  why I'm hoping the more granular we can be. It might educate someone on that they don't have to
• 9:03
  follow in your footsteps so they can go straight to the mold toxicity test. Yeah, man, if I could
• 9:08
  shortcut anybody like let's do that. So up until this point, of course I went to my regular doctor.
• 9:15
  I got the referral to ENT. I was screened from a nearest disease. Sometimes I had to go to
• 9:20
  urgent care because I was just so dizzy and they would prescribe me mechlessine, which is like
• 9:26
  drameamine. I did the Eppley maneuvers. It's sometimes like if the crystals in your neck are
• 9:33
  off, it can cause vertigo. So they prescribed me these Eppley maneuvers that I could do to kind of like
• 9:38
  readjust the essentially like a level, right? In your brain, making keeping your your equilibrium
• 9:44
  straight, that wasn't working. So then I went to a naturopath and I did see some progress with
• 9:51
  the naturopath, but not not enough. I was still so dizzy and I was just getting more and more
• 9:58
  my mental health was just declining more and more rapidly because I was just I couldn't stand it.
• 10:04
  What did they do? The naturopath do that you saw a slight increase like a feeling better. Was
• 10:12
  it more like maybe they were supporting nutritional deficiencies or what exactly did they do that
• 10:18
  helped a little bit? Because clearly they still hadn't diagnosed it as mold.
• 10:22
  Right. So I think for from her I got a lot of kind of repulsion-based supplements. You
• 10:28
  know just to give me kind of some good nutritional support and you know good omega-3s and just kind
• 10:35
  of like these baseline filling the gaps for any kind of insufficiencies that might have been
• 10:40
  there and that does help for sure. And she really tried like I mean I remember being in her
• 10:46
  office and we did like brain exercises and and just she was really trying but we just weren't
• 10:54
  landing there. So I ended up I actually ended up going to this conference. It was actually paleo
• 11:01
  effects back when paleo effects existed and I wasn't feeling well enough to be there and in fact
• 11:07
  I'm sitting there waiting for the keynote speaker which was Dr. Pearlmutter. I'm very excited to
• 11:12
  see him you know and he comes out and I was just like I was feeling so dizzy I was like I can't do
• 11:18
  this. I had to go outside I had to go find a tree I had to go take a nap under a tree like I just
• 11:23
  couldn't be present in my body like I just can't do it. But at that conference I met this practitioner
• 11:31
  that was just the biggest breath of fresh air because he he really saved me he really pulled me
• 11:38
  out of a dark spot and his angle of expertise is really around genomics. So we did a lot of genetic
• 11:44
  testing and identified where you know I needed more support in detoxification and in methylation
• 11:51
  so he was like okay this makes sense this is why you're feeling so much sicker than everybody
• 11:56
  else in your office. He's the one that told me about mold. He made those connections.
• 12:01
  And did Ed that point did you actually get tested? Yeah. In any words of myotoxin test correct?
• 12:08
  Micotoxins? Yep you're ignoring myotoxins yep. And so now you have that diagnosis now you're like okay
• 12:16
  so the repair work though is daunting around mold being extremely daunting right?
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  Can you walk us through even the first step? So obviously we already mentioned like detoxification pathways
• 12:30
  making sure that those are working properly. What is that other than taking specific supplements?
• 12:36
  What does that look like? Are you like doing sauna? Are you doing you know light therapies?
• 12:41
  What does that look like to kind of make sure that your your elimination pathways are open?
• 12:47
  Yeah so first I had to quit my job right? I mean thankfully it was at my job and not in my home
• 12:51
  so I still had a safe space at home and so I had to quit my job. At the time we were not in a
• 12:57
  financial situation for me to do that but I had no choice. I mean remember I felt like this was
• 13:01
  literally life or death and that was the first step and just reducing exposure. I'm sorry to
• 13:07
  interrupt you but how did you actually at that point know oh it's definitely coming from work?
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  So once I figured out that I had a myotoxin issue the building that we were in was actually
• 13:17
  registered as a historic building because it was over a hundred years old. So it was very old
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  and we had a lot of our supplies that we used to take to the elementary schools to teach nutrition
• 13:27
  stored in our basement. So I went down there one day to get the bin that I needed for that day's
• 13:31
  classes and now I'm just like more aware right before I just whatever walked right by things
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  and I just see like all of this black mold down in the basement and I was like oh my gosh
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  that's it that's why I got so sick when I started working here it's right there in front of me
• 13:49
  and I talked to them about it and I showed them my test results they did nothing about it so I
• 13:53
  had to leave. Were they like when I interested or did they just still not believe it?
• 14:00
  They didn't believe it they're like the whole building would be sick. Yeah and so now okay so now
• 14:04
  there's that that oh why isn't me why isn't everyone else showing you know showing symptoms
• 14:10
  and they're then mirroring that back to you like well you're crazy right because that is
• 14:14
  part of this you you're already feeling high anxiety from the toxicity and now you're being
• 14:21
  mirrored back like well it's you it's not us right so I think that's a really important part of
• 14:28
  this process of when you get you know assessed or diagnosed with this that you can't expect everyone
• 14:35
  just to fall in line right but you had to wear with all and obviously the confidence in the
• 14:41
  and we're at a place where you could just leave quit the job basically or was that actually a scary
• 14:46
  thing to do at that point oh it was so scary we couldn't afford for me to do that we had no
• 14:51
  backup plan but we couldn't afford for me not to do that I couldn't shower myself like you know
• 14:59
  so we just got to a point where our backs were against the wall and we were just we just went all
• 15:03
  in yeah that's intense yeah all right around the time I left is also when I have my miscarriage
• 15:09
  and so just talk about intense right just like adding another layer of intensity onto that it
• 15:16
  was a super dark time for many different angles and reasons yeah I mean talk about the ground
• 15:24
  being pulled from under you right physically emotionally from the miscarriage and then and then
• 15:30
  just financially what were your next steps I mean it sounds like though your your partner your
• 15:37
  husband was really like supportive and and and maybe that that union helped a lot he is relentlessly
• 15:45
  supportive of me then and now and always like I am always in awe of him just
• 15:52
  being in my corner no questions asked always and thank goodness because not just this situation
• 15:58
  just other thing you know just life things and to have that person in your corner is such a gift
• 16:04
  that I don't take for granted yeah I have to imagine that this is an important piece for people
• 16:09
  to be aware of is that a lot of times when we get diagnosed with anything there is a moment of
• 16:16
  feeling very alone with it right like this is my problem it's not anyone else's there's there's
• 16:22
  probably this whole stage of grief around it and and I imagine it's not only feeling alone but
• 16:28
  then also feeling like well I have to do this I have to muscle through this and make it work
• 16:34
  and that sometimes that's not even physically or emotionally possible because you're so sick
• 16:41
  but then too that that's not actually the best path forward that that if anything the more
• 16:47
  ancestral way you know sticking with the everyday and so so theme is to actually lean in
• 16:54
  to community lean into your tribe because that is more human than going alone the people that
• 17:02
  went alone in sisterly died that's right so so please please continue sharing now like
• 17:09
  then how did you guys kind of find your way out of this dark spot so once I found that practitioner
• 17:16
  him and I had a three hour initial consult and I was just like for the first time really in my
• 17:24
  whole life that was the first experience I had with a practitioner who was listening who was really
• 17:29
  listening and caring about what I said and who believed me you know not only was I constantly
• 17:36
  brushed off about all the mold symptoms but also when I I'll just share this story when I was
• 17:42
  experiencing the miscarriage I went to the urgent care because I didn't know what was going on right
• 17:47
  and I to this day the nurse is taking my vitals and to this day I can hear the sound of the palm
• 17:54
  of the doctor bursting through the door and I was like what are you doing here there's nothing
• 18:01
  we can do to help you you have to leave and I just sat and shut like I was just like I'm so confused
• 18:08
  all these motions like I don't know what's happening in my body not a single question not like
• 18:15
  digging deeper not a hey my name is doctor so and so you might be experiencing this here's
• 18:20
  what you can expect or nothing literally nothing just kicked me out I left I got in my car I'm
• 18:26
  bawling right because in my head at the time I was yes I was so sick but I felt like there's a
• 18:31
  part of me that felt like this baby is going to pull me out of this like I like it was a higher
• 18:36
  purpose you know and and now I lost that and now I haven't like medical system just literally
• 18:42
  kicked me out it was so much so when I had this initial appointment with this practitioner for three
• 18:48
  hours I left so emotional because I was just like felt heard for the first time in my life that was
• 18:56
  amazing we did the proper testing we did the genomic testing we did the mycotoxin testing and then
• 19:02
  from there it was very specific nutrition plan based on my genetics and based on what was going
• 19:08
  on and then very specific light optimization plan you know like without fail I did not miss my
• 19:16
  my morning sun I literally walked in like my bra and underwear because I was trying to have as much
• 19:23
  as like skin showing like around my block I didn't care I was at such a low point in my life I'm
• 19:28
  like I got nothing to lose I don't care you want me to have as much skin showing you got it so
• 19:33
  very specific light optimization yeah I was in the sauna every day and I just went all in I mean
• 19:39
  I wasn't working because I quit my job so that was my full-time job and it was just I just trusted
• 19:44
  the process I just did what he said I just followed his lead and it was like a light switch it was
• 19:51
  like all of a sudden it wasn't all of a sudden my symptoms went away but it was like all of a
• 19:55
  sudden I could feel myself coming back alive and I was like oh my gosh it's like I could literally
• 20:01
  feel my soul reintering into my body and I was like oh my gosh this is going to work this is
• 20:07
  going to work and so then you know that just gave me what I needed and I was off to the races just
• 20:12
  doing whatever he told me wow have you been tested and are you mold-free at this point
• 20:20
  it's so funny you say that because I just did a test and I'm not I still have one microtoxin
• 20:26
  that is problematic so what happened was I was feeling so much better weight was falling off
• 20:32
  energy was coming back I was like oh my gosh I am so back and then I got pregnant and so once
• 20:38
  I got pregnant you know the heavy duty detoxification work had to stop and I had that baby I nursed
• 20:46
  that baby for almost three years and then I think there was like a seven-month period were off
• 20:52
  then I got pregnant again then I had that baby then I nursed that baby so it ended up being like
• 20:57
  a seven-year-time period where honestly I'm just now coming out of where I can like go back
• 21:03
  to working on that so I had to take a big hiatus from that work such an important distinction
• 21:10
  because yeah you you can't be creating life and then detoxifying it's like they don't go hand
• 21:17
  and hand that's incredible kudos to you you know prior to being pregnant you were putting yourself
• 21:26
  first you were like I got to leave this job but the focus is like I'm not going to worry about
• 21:31
  people seeing my body I'm gonna just you know you you were already making all these choices that
• 21:36
  were very pro brandy you know very like brandy needs to get healthy clearly though brandy's body
• 21:43
  had gotten healthy enough where it was like oh no we can now be pregnant then you just had to
• 21:48
  honor that right because when the body is ready to be pregnant and it is pregnant you want to honor
• 21:54
  that particularly after you've come from having a miscarriage which is I'm sure could be its own
• 22:00
  topic of podcast we also experience the miscarriage as well you know what's fascinating about
• 22:07
  the miscarriage we had you used to live in Portland right in Oregon I love to vankuver which is
• 22:12
  right next to Portland okay right here okay so I knew you're in the northwest yet but basically
• 22:17
  there was this intuitive that we had been in our lives for a long time way before kids and everything
• 22:25
  like when when we first met I got introduced to her because Margaret newer so every year we
• 22:31
  would get these conversations like birthday conversation gifts for each other like oh well you get
• 22:35
  a call with this intuitive and she was so dialed in like she would say stuff that was really to
• 22:41
  this day I'm like I don't know how she knew all that stuff was she did and I mean I'm not even
• 22:46
  gonna go into it in this episode but like truly like when I tell people the story around how my
• 22:51
  daughter actually told us how my daughter would get named people get chills you know it's crazy
• 22:58
  but point being though that after the miscarriage we had a conversation with her many months later
• 23:04
  and she was very clear like very clear she said this child was not ready to come in but when you
• 23:13
  get pregnant you will get pregnant again and and and it will be the same spirit it was really
• 23:18
  fascinating yeah right like when I hear these kind of things I don't hold tightly of whether it's true
• 23:24
  or not but what I what I really take in is how does that make me feel and does that help me take
• 23:30
  the next step and it was really powerful for us to have that shared with us that's amazing that's
• 23:36
  incredible I do have chills you're going through this health process yourself but you're also
• 23:44
  you're helping other people during this time as well right so how did this journey with mold
• 23:49
  with childbirth yourself with multiple kids like how did that then start to shape your own practice
• 23:55
  and how you work with people yeah so when I got pregnant that second time with my first daughter
• 24:01
  I was in my master's program going through that process of being pregnant with her the gaps
• 24:10
  in support in the standard of care were so obvious to me I was just like oh my gosh I can't believe
• 24:19
  that we have all these gaps in support like for example like when I got pregnant
• 24:23
  I called my doctor to make my first appointment right and they're like okay great like
• 24:27
  we'll see you at week 11 and I was like no no no no you don't understand like I had a miscarriage
• 24:33
  all the neurodevelopment happens in this time like I don't know how to grow a brain like
• 24:36
  you have to teach me like I just felt so like I didn't know anything you know and I like you're
• 24:42
  fine we'll see you at week 11 but it was just like examples like that the entire pregnancy where I
• 24:48
  just felt like I was slipping through the cracks and like not being heard and just because of the
• 24:52
  education I was also getting in school at the time I was like man we're really missing the boat
• 24:58
  like this is a big disconnect here and I had a lot of negative experiences during her
• 25:05
  birth that you know looking back was really unacceptable wait you mean negative experiences like
• 25:11
  with the practitioners or the doctors you were that we're delivering is that what are you talking about
• 25:17
  exactly exactly yeah I had to I tried to get birth at a birth center I got too tired I had to
• 25:22
  transfer to the hospital I was able to have a vaginal birth there but the things that the nurses
• 25:28
  were saying to me I was told that breastfeeding was going to be very difficult on day two I was told
• 25:34
  that breastfeeding had failed and it was time to switch to formula even though your milk doesn't
• 25:39
  even come in till like you know day two or three I had fractured my tailbone during childbirth
• 25:44
  and I had like a henna tattoo on my belly you know how some women get those henna tattoos
• 25:49
  and because I had fractured my tailbone I couldn't get up and take myself to the bathroom so the
• 25:55
  nurses taking me to the bathroom and she looks at my arm and she's like oh you must have had a
• 26:00
  henna tattoo on your arm too and I was like no that's blood I've been sitting in blood and after
• 26:06
  birth for two days because nobody will help me take a shower you know it's just like such as an
• 26:12
  experience like that where it was just like constantly felt like I was just being dismissed and not
• 26:17
  well cared for and this is not a hurting center this is not this is not the hospital because I had
• 26:22
  to transfer to the hospital you didn't have a midwife or doula that then went with you did the
• 26:28
  people at the birthing center not bridge the gap or anything like that they went with me to check
• 26:32
  me in and then they left my doula stayed with me but the midwife left it was a bit rough I had the
• 26:38
  doctor that was like looking after me my baby had to have a eye mask on because she had jaundice so
• 26:45
  they had to put her on the belly blanket on the bright light so they had to have an eye mask
• 26:49
  and I remember trying to nurse her and just looking down at this baby with the eye mask on and I
• 26:54
  just started crying it just made me so sad that I couldn't look into her eyes and the doctor came in
• 27:00
  and she said to me if you're this emotional already you might as well just get on antidepressants now
• 27:06
  whoa what is going on yeah it was just like that like hit after hit after hit the whole time the
• 27:13
  whole like 48 hours over there please tell me your second birth was more supportive and loving
• 27:18
  I mean this sounds like really disappointing and actually aggressive you know like unemotional
• 27:24
  like just disconnected that's exactly what it was it was terrible and I had my second baby I had
• 27:31
  at home there's a home birth it went perfect just went off without a hitch and it was so interesting
• 27:37
  because the babies are two or four years apart and I spent those four years thinking and speaking
• 27:43
  really bad about myself like I was weak like I had failed like I if I had just stayed at the
• 27:48
  birth center longer you know I wouldn't have had to go through that experience like I was just
• 27:53
  a little bit stronger I could have done it and I was very hard on myself and then when baby
• 27:58
  number two came it was so interesting because at first I thought oh I did it like look how strong I
• 28:05
  am like this is my redemption like I did it but then as I was reflecting it was like no no no no no
• 28:12
  that birth that we just had that was a piece of cake I mean it was still birth but
• 28:16
  piece of cake look how strong you were four years ago look at what you did then look at what you
• 28:21
  were able to accomplish then and I was finally able to forgive myself and be proud of myself
• 28:27
  and close that loop so that was a very beautiful unexpected thing that came out of
• 28:31
  baby number two's birth that is something that I don't feel like is talked about enough the
• 28:37
  I guess for lack of better word the birth trauma like the trauma that we have post I mean in
• 28:43
  this sense you could say it's postpartum but I think they're different when you say like
• 28:47
  this postpartum can be chemical it can be hormonal I mean there's so many things but what I'm
• 28:54
  referring to and what I heard you saying is it's more of like our mindset and our emotions
• 29:00
  around not only what we expected the birth to be but also how we judged ourselves during that
• 29:07
  process we were similar we weren't in a birthing center for our first but we we tried to do it at
• 29:13
  home and it got to a situation where we had to go to the hospital and I just remember sitting
• 29:22
  out as Margaret was getting the epidural and I just remember going outside the room and just crying
• 29:28
  because I was so saddened that our birthing plan wasn't wasn't happening the way we thought
• 29:36
  art girls are four years apart and I know she also carried within those four years the trauma of
• 29:41
  feeling like she did something wrong I don't think I put that on her I'm saying that she had her own
• 29:47
  sense of feeling like she had failed it's so true you know I had a family member I was really
• 29:54
  struggling with some postpartum anxiety after after that first baby and I had a family member say
• 30:01
  you know this isn't any harder for you than it is for anybody else and just totally brush me off
• 30:05
  and so it was just like that whole expressed experience of like becoming a mother really took a
• 30:12
  sharp turn from how I thought it was going to and so because I was in my master's program and I had
• 30:18
  all that experience with baby number one once I kind of came out of that that is when I totally
• 30:24
  shifted my practice because I was like I don't stand for this I don't stand for women being treated
• 30:28
  like this I don't stand for women being gas lit I don't stand for women not being heard I can't
• 30:35
  just stay idle here and that's when I totally shifted my practice to help identify and fill these
• 30:41
  gaps for women because it's not okay to me just to articulate your practice now does focus a lot
• 30:50
  on postpartum acknowledgement and health right and I imagine you do focus a lot on listening to
• 30:57
  people through the process and hitting those touch points where the you know conventional health
• 31:05
  industry kind of overlooks you're you're if anything giving even more attention and detail
• 31:11
  is that correct 100% and as I you know as I went through the experience of having baby number two
• 31:17
  and that's when I was doing my doctorate degree I don't know there's something weird about like
• 31:20
  grad school and babies with me I don't know that's when I was working with these moms and the
• 31:27
  sentence that I kept hearing was things have never been the same since I gave birth I've never
• 31:32
  been the same sense like it was that sentence I could just hurt it over and over and over again
• 31:37
  and I couldn't ignore it right and so now in my practice what I really focus on is like yes a lot
• 31:44
  of like immediate postpartum things but also when kids are older and these moms are having chronic
• 31:50
  just unexplained symptoms and told that their labs are fine and everything looks good and it's just
• 31:56
  part of being motherhood or it's just in your head and and nobody's like zooming out and connecting
• 32:01
  those dots for them or looking back at the timeline to see like oh yeah birth was kind of the
• 32:06
  catalyst for all of these things to happen downstream and so I'm really helping to connect those dots
• 32:13
  for them and find those answers so that they don't have to just plan their days around how they
• 32:19
  feel and not be able to just be fully present with their kids while they're still kids because my
• 32:25
  gosh it flies by so fast that you said you were hearing from women in your practice similar comments
• 32:32
  over and over and so what is the wall I'm sure it's different for each one there must be an
• 32:38
  over lying kind of common ground and I'm just curious what what is it it's multifactorial for sure
• 32:46
  part of it is because we don't have a village and so we don't have the support that were meant to
• 32:53
  a lot of us are suffering in silence we're not being heard we don't have that sense of community
• 32:59
  and we're wearing a lot of hats we have we're expected to have the same responsibilities that we did
• 33:04
  before baby came as after and it's just a mismatch you know kind of ancestral and so that's a big
• 33:10
  part of it and then another part of it is you know a big shift in hormones obviously that are that
• 33:17
  affecting that happens after childbirth and you know something that I think that a lot of
• 33:22
  women aren't aware of so postpartum autoimmunity is pretty common it's a very common for women to have
• 33:30
  an autoimmune condition happen after giving birth one of the reasons for that
• 33:35
  or one of the contributors to that I should say is because of something called microchimerism
• 33:40
  which is like this mixing of blood between mom and baby that happens in more profoundly in a
• 33:47
  c-section birth sometimes that can launch an immune response in mom and can contribute to this
• 33:54
  our moms who have a c-section birth are they being told this are somebody looking out for this
• 33:59
  are they being giving an autoimmune screening panel no no and this is not even a conversation ever
• 34:06
  and so there's just things falling through the cracks all the time you know and so it's a combination
• 34:13
  of immune changes hormone changes lack of support and village your sleep schedule literally changes
• 34:20
  overnight so that's a part of it too all of these come together and cause problems and going
• 34:26
  back to like the mold and the lime issue that you brought up earlier you know we have bugs inside
• 34:31
  of us the bugs are already inside of us right the problem is when we have a trigger which could
• 34:38
  be childbirth right it could be a really stressful event it could be an infection it could be something
• 34:43
  when we have a big trigger those bugs can undergo something called pleomorphism where they're
• 34:49
  literally changing shape and now they are like causing problems because they're trying to
• 34:54
  degrade poison or deal with whatever we're being exposed to and so that's why a lot of women
• 35:00
  maybe they're still living in the same moldy house that they were before they had kids but now
• 35:04
  they had kids and now they have these mold symptoms because of all of these changes that happened
• 35:09
  around that time what are some ways for those listening or watching that without even them
• 35:16
  going and getting diagnosed okay so let's pretend that's not even an option what are like three
• 35:22
  things that people can do to support their elimination pathways to really just make sure that their
• 35:28
  body is as optimized as it can prior to any diagnosis you know through lifestyle and food choices
• 35:37
  what would you say are the top three out of five the number one thing is light exposure this is
• 35:42
  the number one thing that helped me and this is the number one thing that moves the needle the most
• 35:46
  in my clients our body always wants to know what time it is we have clock jeans we always want to
• 35:53
  know what time it is we have photo biomodulation happening and so when we are not outside when we're
• 36:02
  not getting the message about what time it is when we're exposed to constant blue light then our
• 36:08
  body gets confused about what time it is and every cell responds based on what time it is so our
• 36:14
  body has to know what time it is we have to get that message from the sun and have proper lighting
• 36:20
  you know even simple things like if the sun is not overhead outside your lights inside should not
• 36:25
  be on overhead we want to match that positioning of the sun so turn the overhead lights off and
• 36:30
  switch to lamps right keep that positioning the same the more you can do around this lighting
• 36:36
  just being outside as much as you can just in general so you're constantly getting the message
• 36:40
  about what time it is but protecting your eyes from blue light also thinking about digestion I see
• 36:46
  a lot of digestion issues constipation issues getting your sun your belly exposed to the sun
• 36:52
  activates that migrating motor complex and gets things moving thinking about things like mold
• 36:57
  and lime and parasites and viruses and these things when we're getting that lighting message when
• 37:03
  we're sinking up that message then we are increasing the amount of cellular water that our cells are
• 37:10
  actually making and that water that our cells make is very special it's it's a gel like substance
• 37:16
  and it builds resilience and you know me I'm all about building resilience and so it helps the bad
• 37:23
  guy stay out right because of that gel like structure it keeps them out and it increases resilience
• 37:29
  so I some people genetics are a part of it but also it's also why some people are more sensitive
• 37:35
  to chemicals to mold to things like that they're cellularly dehydrated their cells that are
• 37:41
  mitochondria are not making enough water we make more water when we think up our light exposure
• 37:47
  thinking about food going back to the light before you go to the food so for the light specifically
• 37:53
  getting in on your belly so you're you're thinking this is primarily during hotter days and you want
• 38:00
  to have exposure because obviously it's not going to go through your clothes right so this is where
• 38:05
  you're trying to expose as much of your body to the sun is that kind of the best practice yeah maybe
• 38:11
  don't do like me and like strut around your neighborhood and like you're broad underwear but if
• 38:15
  you can yeah 100% or like not wearing sunglasses right and so your eyes are getting that even if
• 38:21
  it's cold outside right we get light messages from the snow we get light messages from the leaves
• 38:26
  that are on the ground so taking those sunglasses off can be really helpful as well
• 38:31
  now a little side help I'm sure you can give people is because sometimes people put on the glasses
• 38:36
  because their eyes hurt when the sun hits them and that we know that that's a sign of what
• 38:41
  usually it's a adrenal fatigue right yeah it can be adrenal issues it can also just be because
• 38:47
  you're not outside enough your eyes are used to it right like our eyes adjust just like when you
• 38:52
  flip on the light you know when it's pitch black in your room and your eyes are like ah same thing
• 38:57
  happens in our in the sun it's just a good signal that you just need more of it and just build
• 39:02
  up slowly your eyes will just nice okay so food you are going to talk about food next okay so the
• 39:08
  food part actually ties into the lighting part and really around anything that you can do to eat
• 39:13
  seasonally and locally so I've always been told this right like eat seasonally eat locally
• 39:19
  and in my head I thought well that's because we want to lower emissions it's because we want to
• 39:27
  support our local economy right and that's true but what I didn't understand is that the food that's
• 39:34
  grown in our own backyard has the same light imprint that we do and so when we eat those foods
• 39:42
  it helps to sink up that light imprint and that light exposure and that circadian rhythm same
• 39:48
  thing with eating seasonally just like we have a daily circadian rhythm we have a seasonal circadian
• 39:53
  rhythm when we're eating foods that are grown in the same season that we're living in currently it
• 39:59
  syncs up that lighting message so all of this lighting thing that is the number one tip I can give
• 40:06
  and there's lots and lots of components to it but the more you can sync up that the faster your
• 40:12
  results will go because you'll increase your resilience you'll open up your drainage pathways
• 40:17
  you'll be pooping more right like lymph flows lymph doesn't have a pump so how do we move lymph
• 40:23
  either manually like dry brushing you know lymph massage vibration things like that or with
• 40:29
  voltage we get voltage from the sun all of my top three tips top probably top 20 tips all point
• 40:36
  to optimizing light it's always interesting to talk about local food and stuff and I particularly
• 40:43
  think about this because I used to live on the west coast I grew up most of my life was on the
• 40:47
  west coast and now I'm on the east coast for a very much shorter amount of time but I'm now here
• 40:52
  and the reality is is that most of the produce that we have on the east coast is coming from either
• 40:59
  the west coast or from somewhere outside the US so when we talk about what's in season you don't
• 41:06
  have an urban garden you're not growing it's like well what's in season you mean literally or like
• 41:13
  truly locally because what's in season locally here is different than what's in season locally
• 41:19
  in California yeah what's in season like truly and locally is the best now obviously perfection
• 41:26
  is a myth right like that's impossible so just let that go I think the first step is just like
• 41:31
  having an awareness about this like I remember when I first learned this I was like oh my gosh
• 41:36
  right and then you notice that you are going to the farmers market and you're like really you're
• 41:42
  a lot more interested in what they have because now you have this information is just like these
• 41:46
  baby steps just start to trickle and snowball in your life and the more you can do around that
• 41:53
  it just accelerates healing especially when we're talking about chronic illness environmental
• 41:59
  based illnesses then before we go I want to go back something that you talked about you talked about
• 42:05
  how you didn't feel heard when you were you know in that conventional medicine building you know
• 42:12
  that whether it was a hospital or somewhere working with within conventional must you didn't feel
• 42:16
  heard and I think that that's huge I mean I think that's a huge issue in general in life I'm
• 42:23
  even always talking to people when I talk about customer service because I've had a lot of experience
• 42:28
  in my career is supporting customer service and I'm always kind of educating people I'm like
• 42:36
  ultimately when you're dealing with any customer service issue it's that they want to be seen they
• 42:42
  want to be heard that is the true crux of what most people want need in this lifetime how are you
• 42:49
  seeing and hearing people in your practice or in general like what kind of practices are you
• 42:55
  kind of exhibiting and or instilling in people in ways that you think are different than how you
• 43:02
  were treated like what does it mean to be seen and heard so the very first thing I do when I first
• 43:06
  start working with somebody as I say I say this exact thing and if any of my faster current clients
• 43:11
  are listening you can corroborate that I say this I say this is your life in your body and your
• 43:16
  health you are the pilot and you are in charge and you're calling the shots I am just the cold pilot
• 43:23
  I am here to help you navigate and to make sure that you don't fly us into the side of the mountain
• 43:27
  but you are the pilot and so by doing that and setting that up right from the beginning that might
• 43:33
  be the first time they've ever felt like the pilot in their life right where they ever felt like
• 43:38
  they're calling the shots and it's just such an important mindset shift that this is your life
• 43:44
  and you are in charge of your life and you are responsible for your life and any practitioners
• 43:50
  doctors anybody that you invite into your team you're still the pilot right like they're working
• 43:56
  for you they are there to support you and so for some people they're like oh my gosh I don't know
• 44:02
  how to be well I'll be the pilot that's okay that's because you have a co-pilot that's why I'm
• 44:06
  here I'm here to help you but by the time you know we land this plane you're gonna feel really
• 44:10
  comfortable about it and then when you go fly your next plane it's just gonna get easier and easier
• 44:14
  the more you do it so that's first is just to have this mindset shift that this is a collaboration
• 44:20
  this is a dialogue I'm not here to talk at you I'm not here to cut you off because we only have
• 44:26
  seven minutes together right like I'm here to hear you secondly I believe my clients there's no
• 44:32
  gaslighting here I believe you you say something's off in your body I believe you right like let's
• 44:37
  dig deeper let's talk more about it you know lastly my appointments are are longer I think the
• 44:43
  average for a medical appointment is seven minutes of like actual doctor one-on-one doctor time
• 44:49
  my first appointments are 90 minutes we're working together for a long time you have access to
• 44:55
  me you can ask me questions see my team is there to support you like we don't ever want you to feel
• 45:00
  like you're flying without a copilot like we are here to help you navigate that and it's just
• 45:06
  such a biggest game changer yeah that's really wonderful I have to wonder do you do you ever think
• 45:12
  like this that you know you kind of went through hell as we talked about in this episode you you went
• 45:19
  through health crisis you went through career crisis maybe not career but financial crisis
• 45:28
  you went through emotional crisis with miscarriage do you ever look back at this journey and go like
• 45:35
  oh that all had to happen for me to be here for me to be showing up in this way for me to have the
• 45:44
  practice I have today do you kind of look back at it with that kind of mindset change and maybe
• 45:50
  even that healing a hundred percent I look back at it with extreme gratitude it was all happening for
• 45:56
  and not to me that's how I continue to view life and you know it's all happening for me
• 46:02
  and I'm just very clear on why I'm here what my purpose is the legacy that I want to leave
• 46:09
  lessons I want to teach my girls it's just such a gift to have that clarity because I know a lot
• 46:15
  of people don't and the only reason I have that clarity is because of all those things I went through
• 46:20
  that's wonderful and so moving forward you you said that you do still have some of the molds so
• 46:26
  what is the next step now look like what are you digging back into because you're not
• 46:30
  breastfeeding anymore right I don't know the age of your youngest no I am done she's two now as she
• 46:36
  decided she was done earlier than her sister which is fine now it's so nice being on this end of it
• 46:41
  because now I have all this knowledge and experience and it's like okay next step here we go
• 46:47
  you know focusing on detoxification and eating in the way that my genetics need and all of that
• 46:52
  light stuff we talked about all of those pieces are just coming in in a much more targeted
• 46:58
  meaningful way do you feel like you have more facilities to to do it and to follow it or less
• 47:07
  last time you did you didn't have kids and let's be honest when you have kids it's like
• 47:11
  things are a little bit more challenging particularly when they're younger kids because you're
• 47:15
  divided right so how are you feeling in terms of the confidence and just the time and you know
• 47:22
  the energy to dig back in because it does take a lot of energy to deal with mold right yeah that
• 47:29
  is such a good point also I don't feel I feel really good right now right so I don't have that
• 47:34
  motivation of like oh I have to do this you know and so it's such a good point but the motivating
• 47:40
  thing is like leading by example for my clients going through this journey so walking through this
• 47:46
  kind of like peer to peer like we're on this journey together mother to mother parent to parent
• 47:51
  like we're gonna do this together how can I be over here just brushing all of this off when I
• 47:57
  have the test I have this knowledge and also like ask my clients to prioritize this and so it's just
• 48:05
  a matter of holding myself to those same standards that I hold my clients to yeah I think that's
• 48:11
  really important like we're models to those around us but the importance of integrity putting
• 48:17
  value on that integrity is is sometimes one of the best things we can do to take that next step
• 48:24
  how can people kind of learn more about you and and maybe they're inspired to even work with you
• 48:31
  do you see people virtually or do you have to be in person can you talk about that I do see people
• 48:36
  virtually my website is resilient motherhood.health and that is also my Instagram handle resilient
• 48:42
  motherhood.health and that's the platform I'm most active on so I recommend finding me there
• 48:49
  wonderful well thank you again for taking time out of your busy schedule for this I thank you
• 48:55
  and I think everyone here that's listening and watching this thank you for joining us please
• 49:01
  spread the word we hope you're enjoying the content that we're putting out there and most of all just
• 49:07
  continue to stay curious that will lead us to our next step thank you thank you so much have a
• 49:14
  great day thank you so much for joining me on every day ancestral if you enjoyed this episode hit
• 49:22
  subscribe so you don't miss the next one you could find the show notes links and resources
• 49:28
  mentioned at eatpluck.com that's e-a-t-p-l-u-c-k dot com and hey if you know someone who'd get something out
• 49:39
  of this share it with them too stay curious live well and keep it ancestral