The Health Detective – Details, episodes & analysis

Dr. Aumatma is a double board-certified Naturopathic Doctor & Endocrinologist, in practice for close to 15 years. She specializes in fertility and is the best-selling author of two books: "Fertility Secrets: What Your Doctor Didn't Tell You About Baby-Making” and “(In)Fertility: Struggles, Secrets, & Successes.” In this episode, Dr. Aumatma and Dr. Lauryn talk about age, fertility, and helping patients live healthy lifestyles. Stay tuned!

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Highlights

0:28 - Dr. Aumatma talks about what got her started down her career path in fertility

2:58 - The myths around fertility

4:00 - Thoughts on “high risk” pregnancies

9:14 - Dr. Aumatma shares what it’s like working with her older patients

16:13 - The relationship between mindset and fertility

21:36 - Optimization tips for helping with wellness and fertility

27:48 - How dieting can affect your fertility

31:52 - Dr. Aumatma talks about optimizing unique plans for each of her patients

33:59 - Seed Cycling

40:58 - A lightbulb moment Dr. Aumatma has had in her own health journey

42:51 - A wellness hack!

44:59 - How to learn more about Dr. Aumatma

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About Dr. Aumatma

Dr. Aumatma is a double board-certified Naturopathic Doctor & Endocrinologist, in practice for close to 15 years. She specializes in fertility and is the best-selling author of two books: "Fertility Secrets: What Your Doctor Didn't Tell You About Baby-Making” and “(In)Fertility: Struggles, Secrets, & Successes” Dr. Aumatma was awarded the “Best Naturopathic Medicine Doctor″ award locally in 2015 & 2020 and recognized as a top “Women In Medicine” Doctor in 2020 & 2021. 

In addition to supporting couples through individualized care in person and long-distance, Dr. Aumatma also trains practitioners who want to specialize in fertility. She has been featured as the holistic fertility expert on ABC, FOX, CBS, KTLA, MindBodyGreen, The Bump, etc., along with being interviewed for countless podcasts on topics of fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum health.

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Connect with Dr. Aumatma

Facebook | Dr. Aumatma, ND: Holistic Fertility Specialist

Website | holisticfertilityinstitute.com

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Connect with Dr. Lauryn

Facebook | Dr. Lauryn Lax

Twitter | @drlaurynlax

Instagram | @drlaurynlax

Website | drlauryn.com 

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Transcript (Episode website contains full transcript)

Dr. Lauryn (00:02):

Well, Dr. Aumatma, I'm so happy to have you in the house, and I, you are absolutely one of my favorite people to talk to about the topics of hormones, but, and also really fertility, which is your specialty. And would love before we tackle the, the problem, so to speak, of age being a factor or maybe not being the only factor in fertility give us a little bit of overview of what got you into doing this work you're doing in the world.

Dr. Aumatma (00:28):

Yeah. that's a great question. I was in my very, very early thirties kind of married, woke up married to this man, realized that he was starting to talk about kids, and he was like, ready to get into it. And I, I, like everything in my body would just go, like, be screaming no. Every time he said that. And I was like, I married this person, I should really wanna have kids with him. And I tried and tried and I could not get myself to get on board with that. And simultaneously my hormones had gotten out of whack, which I think was like a direct reflection of my body, just screaming, no. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> like, you're not doing this with this person. But it took, it took me about nine months of research and kind of like diving into the deep end of hormones and fertility to come out with a very clear sense that a lot of the myths that we're often, that we often hear and are taught even in medical school, even in naturopathic medical school around like the fertility cliff at 35, they just weren't true.

(01:43):

And there's a lot of data around that, but we ignore the data for, for some of these myths that got created in the 1800s, not even through science. So I can, I'm happy to share more about that, but I just feel like that is one of the major things that had me, like, take a step back and say, whoa, if everything that I have been taught is founded on this myth that fertility drops off of a cliff, what else is possible? If that's not true, what else is not true? And then how can I approach this differently? And that's really where I started and why I got so passionate about fertility.

Dr. Lauryn (02:27):

Yeah. So personal experience, that experience is always the best teacher there, <laugh>. And I just love the onion layers of of health and functional health too. And just really exploring like, you know, the world is not flat. Huh. And that's something that we've been told. And so yeah. You talk about the myth of fertility dropping off a cliff. Like where, why is that? Or like what are some of the reasonings of that, perhaps conventional thought puts behind that?

Dr. Aumatma (02:58):

Yeah, so the, the myth actually traced all the way back to the 1800s in France where the Catholic church noted that women over 35 did not come to baptize their children. So their assumption was that because women over 35 were not baptizing their children, their fertility wasn't intact anymore. So then that myth got created and got adopted by science. There's actually no research to back this up. So that, that has been perpetuated for over 200 years and we still are like touting this thing that got created in the 1800s.

Dr. Lauryn (03:40):

Wow. I love history lessons and that's amazing. And how interesting how something like that can spread like wildfire. What about like the reality in quotes, or perhaps what we're told is high risk pregnancies happen for women that are, if it's 40, 35, whatever that age is, right?

Dr. Aumatma (04:00):

Yeah, yeah. So let's talk about the what's actually true. So some of the more recent studies, there are some countries that have picked up this myth and they're like, well, that's definitely a myth. So what can we do about it? And what are we doing to test it? And what they found is there's a 3% decline from age, comparing age groups 25 to 29, and 35 to 39, a 3% decline, which is really okay. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, yes, there is, there's some changes that are happening as we age, but it's so small compared to the overwhelming majority of everything else that's going on. So that's partly true. Then we have the idea that the longer the eggs have been, and not even eggs but follicles like primordial follicles are in our ovaries at birth, the longer that those follicles have been exposed to toxins, our stress, our lifestyle, our lack of good nutrition, all of the things, the longer those follicles are exposed to it, the lower the quality of those follicles.

(05:13):

Right. But that's not to say that's irreversible damage, that's just to say that yes, there is, if you're just walking off the street and get pregnant at 43, then sure there is a likelihood that that pregnancy may not last or that there are potential complications or there's a higher risk of genetic abnormalities, epigenetic abnormalities with the child because of the exposure to all the, the stress and lifestyle of present reality. However, most of those things are reversible. So when we look at what's actually true, like is it always the case that a 35 year old is considered geriatric in western medicine? So is it always that I'm a geriatric pregnancy if I'm over 35, I'm high risk if I'm over 35 or 40 and super high risk over 45. That's kind of what is accepted in, in our common world. But I think it really discredits and discounts women that are proactive about their health that are like, I don't drink, I don't smoke.

(06:33):

I try to manage my stress, I do yoga, I meditate. We know these women, right? Like we are some of those women. And I remember when I was pregnant at 38 and my OB-GYN was like, oh, you're a super high risk pregnancy, but you're healthier than my average 20 year old pregnancy. Right? And, and I was like, do you really tell people that they're geriatric high risk? And she's like, oh yeah, we're required to tell them we are required by, by insurance companies, by legal standards to inform the woman that she's geriatric because she's over 35 and she's high risk at certain points. So I think that it really, it doesn't account for individuality, it doesn't account for what's possible if you actually dedicate time and energy to reversing a lot of the damage that could have been caused by lifestyle. And, and that's not a, a blame or a finger pointing. It's more like, let's just be proactive. Let's plan for our babies as long as, at least for the amount of time that we planned for a wedding. So if you dedicated nine months, a year, a year and a half to planning your wedding, dedicate that amount of time to planning your pregnancy,

Dr. Lauryn (07:58):

I love that. That's such a great rule of thumb and so true. Like a big life event. That same thing, if that's kind of the runway that folks could be proactive, it makes me think of actually one of my clients who recently, she was actually trying for probably over a year with her husband to get pregnant and she's, she is in her early thirties. But like they were really, really struggling and just they were just consistent, they were about to go into IVF actually. But just dedication to her health meditation. Like she was stopped doing really intense workouts and doing more yoga, eating really well, feeling her body like it happened. And I think just like the release of stress for her, like kind of just really is what moved that needle forward is what she's told me. And it's just like so true how much our lifestyle and the daily things can really make a difference even if we don't really, and see the elephant in the room, like stress mm-hmm. <Affirmative> mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, so to speak. But I would love to know like what are some of the like geriatric patients that you worked with or like the oldest pregnancies that you've seen and perhaps like some hope there. And then we can talk about like what are the proactive steps for optimal fertility?

Dr. Aumatma (09:14):

Yeah. So we've had, we, like the oldest people that I have supported through pregnancy are 45 mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. So that's not super high. Like I wish I could say that we have 50 year olds and 55 year old, but we are...

(09:32):

<Laugh>. You're right. <Laugh>. but 45 I feel like is reasonable and a lot of tho those people were actually told a that they should use donor eggs b, that they'll never get pregnant. Probably one of my favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite patients is she was 43 when I started working with her. And most of the time in, when you're in your mid forties, like all of the world is go do IVF, go, go as quickly as you can. Do it now. Don't waste time. And this woman was like, I know that every other doctor that I have consulted with, natural included, have told me that I need to get into doing IVF as quickly as possible. However, my inner wisdom is saying that I should focus on balancing my hormones, figuring out my fibroids. She had a mass of fibroids as big as a basketball, like you could see it sticking out of her abdomen.

(10:38):

 Her, she was bleeding for 10 days out of every 20 days. So she basically like 10 day period, 10 days off, 10 day period, 10 days off. Oh wow. And that was her, she's like, this has been my life for years and no one has helped me with this. I'm at the point where I'd really like to have a child and I'm gonna be a solo mom by choice. Mm. but I wanna do it in a way that I know is like healthy and I wanna make sure that the child is healthy. Can you help me? And, and I'm looking at all of her hormones. Her estrogen was off the charts like nothing unexpected based on her symptoms that she had described. And I was like, absolutely, let's do this <laugh>. It took us eight months just to shrink her fibroids. And we got it down to like a patty, at which point I was like, okay, we've worked on this long enough, maybe go consult a surgeon about it.

(11:38):

And they like did the surgery, really speedy recovery. I'm glad we did the surgery cuz at that point we just needed to like move on to other things. But it was, it, it, and then it was another year before all of her hormones were rebalanced. We got her iron levels up because she had been bleeding so much for so long that wasn't working. Her thyroids, her adrenals, this woman, oh my god, like super rockstar, badass, but her adrenals were totally shot. So it took us a long time basically is what I'm saying, to like restore every piece of the puzzle till we got to the point of, okay, the hormones are great, your gut health is great, your adrenals are great, your thyroid is good. Like everything is check, check, check, check, check. Now go in for an IVF cycle. And the clinic like started yelling at her cuz at that this point she was like 44 and a half or like close to 45 and they were like, this is ridiculous.

(12:46):

We talked to you two years ago, you should have just done a cycle when we told you blah, blah blah. And they like railed in on her and she knew that she knew this going in. Right. I already had warned her that this was gonna be the story. So she was like, totally understand, I got it, don't worry about it. Just do the cycle <laugh>. And they ended up getting 23 eggs from her, which at her age is unheard of. They 17 fertilized to grade a embryos also unheard of. Wow. <laugh>. And then they, they, so this clinic doesn't test embryos even for older women. They believe in survival of the fittest. So they suggested to her to implant five or seven or something like a lot. Yeah. And she was like, I am a solo mom, I cannot have seven babies. Yeah. and they were like, don't worry, they're not all gonna take, even though that they're grade grade a embryos, we should just let nature do its thing. And sure enough, only one took and she ended up having that baby <laugh>.

Dr. Lauryn (14:05):

Wow. That's so awesome,

Dr. Aumatma (14:07):

Yeah. Yeah. So I feel like she is, she is a rockstar in so many ways, but I, I really believe that being able to modify our, to optimize all the different components of what can underlie fertility that goes a long ways in supporting, even if you are gonna do IVF, which for her was already a known choice since she's a solo mom. But it was like pre, even when it's pre-planned, there's this space to really like transform all of the underlying things to have the best IVF outcome. And she was like, Dr. A, like, I only have one. I have money for one cycle, this has to work <laugh>. And I was like, don't worry, we got this. Like, you are gonna be fine.

Dr. Lauryn (15:08):

Energy was there and her mindset was there too.

Dr. Aumatma (15:11):

And her mindset was there. Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Lauryn (15:13):

Yeah. I would love to know like, are there any themes that you see, like mindset wise? So I, I do a lot of study with German new medicine and like how our issues can show up in our tissues. And fibroids are interestingly, I mean, they're connected to like the inability or complications during pregnancies for some miscarriages history of them. For some it's having had an abortion or perhaps just not being able to get pregnant or not getting pregnant with a partner. And that's a generalization. And just like seeing that with like a variety, like constipation, I see a lot with like overwhelm mindset, constipation is what I call and just feeling heavy in our lives and like kinda like these whack-a-mole of symptoms and dis-ease in our lives can show up as disease in the body or I balance in the body. Right. And I, I didn't know if like is you've been doing this work for so long within fertility, are there anything in the mindset components that you see as being thematic for optimal fertility or the lack thereof?

Dr. Aumatma (16:13):

Yeah. Yeah. I do actually. So there the running joke that I have is the ovary is an overachiever.

Dr. Lauryn (16:24):

Oh, I love that.

Dr. Aumatma (16:26):

So the overachiever mindset type A control freak is self-identified, of course. <Laugh> mm-hmm. <Affirmative> is very much like a mindset that underlies the fertility struggle. Right. So I feel like so much of our work when we're working with people is to help them relax, but that relax is not a like, oh, just go and go on vacation and relax. Like, sure, that's good. But really like that internal relax that comes from, I trust my body, I have faith that it knows what to do if I let go. And that's a, that's the deeper transformation that I often am looking for. And when that happens, I just know for sure that they're gonna get pregnant because that level of transformation is backed up by, hey, my hormones are in check my, like, I've done all the physical work, but I've also worked on transforming my mindset. And like, yeah, it's just so beautiful when it happens. It's like one of the most powerful transformations that I get to see in my practice

Dr. Lauryn (17:54):

That's really cool. And something that, you know, is not really in a medical textbook, like to talk about that. And yet, and it kind of makes sense just from like even a stress perspective. Like I personally am a overachiever or like type A performed type A

(18:10):

Type B maybe B plus <laugh>. But just totally get how much like stress can be internally created from that. And so I imagine just like all the stress signals and inflammation coming from the brain to the body, to the ovaries, all that yeah. Play a big role.

Dr. Aumatma (18:26):

Absolutely. And I, and I think like fertility almost feeds that side of us, right? So women that are going through IVF cycle, for example, just as an example, or even if they're trying on their own, they're going through like checking their temperatures every day, checking for cervical mucus, what is it like? And like micromanaging every piece of that journey mm-hmm. <Affirmative> or they're going through an IVF cycle and oh, today I have to like do this dose and oh my God, am I like producing too many eggs? And there's this constant like monitoring and needing for perfection when in reality, like if we can perfect all of the underlying things and I'm, I'm saying perfect, almost as like there's no perfection mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, it's just like, is this the right thing for you? And finding those pivot points where we can focus on that ideal optimization in our own bodies and then relax the fertility stuff.

(19:29):

Like instead of trying to micromanage and, and like oversee that process. Just know and trust that your body knows what to do. Like when our hormones are in perfect harmony, I say this all the time, you'll, you see the temperature spike right after ovulation happens. So you'll see a spike in your basal body temperature. You'll see production of cervical mucus start two or three days before that spike that tells you to start having sex. And, and then usually if, if someone's being super observant, they'll see, oh, the cervical mucus thinned out on the day of ovulation and then it started to thicken again. So that's like a five or six day period. And the genius of our bodies sex drive goes way through the roof if all the hormones are in balance. So when all three of those things have clicked into place, you can relax, you can continue doing all of the things, but you don't have to micromanage it. You can just say like, Hey, I'm feeling super jazzed and sexy, let's go have some sex. Yeah. And trust that your body, when it's all aligned, is doing all of the things that it needs to do to ovulate and conceive and implant.

Dr. Lauryn (20:56):

Yeah. The body's like an olive branch I feel at peace now or like when Yeah. That energy is there and listening. It's intuitive, I guess. Yes. That's what it sounds like. Yeah. Yeah. Well talking or leaning into like what are some of those optimization pieces beyond just like, you know, eating well and sleeping like, I mean, even more granular than that because I think, I mean as you mentioned, a lot of folks are already doing all the things or perhaps like aiming to do all the things and stressing out about doing all the things. Yeah. But what are some of the like simple game changers that you see kind of thematically being helpful pieces in that puzzle of wellness?

Dr. Aumatma (21:36):

Yeah. yeah. So I guess the biggest themes I would say is there, we're in a culture of so many different diets, like there's just so many diets out there, right? And what I find is a couple of themes with diet one, you really have to customize it for your body. You could be eating the healthiest thing on the planet and your body doesn't like it. It's creating inflammation. That inflammation in your gut is going to impede implantation. So even if your egg and sperm meet, it's not working out because it's not implanting mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. so that inflammation will have a huge role to play in whether or not you're getting a positive pregnancy test and whether or not that embryo is sticking to turn into a healthy child. So that's the first thing. The second thing is there we're, I feel like we're in a culture of like anti-carbs.

(22:46):

There are so many diets that are like, no carbs. No carbs, no carbs. They're so bad for you. In reality, not eating carbs puts you in a place where your body is not producing progesterone, which is a major hormone for fertility. If you don't have progesterone, you can forget about having a baby. So when you cut out a major food group, like complex carbohydrates, and when I say carbs, I'm not talking about pasta and bread. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, I'm talking about starchy vegetables, like sweet potatoes and squash.

Dr. Lauryn (23:20):

Yeah. Hardier.

Dr. Aumatma (23:22):

Yeah, hardier vegetables we're talking about like unprocessed, brown rice, wild rice, black rice. We're talking about millet, quinoa and like you can be gluten free and still eat carbs, right? Like you can, you can do the varieties of diets that are out and still modify it to make sure that you're getting carbohydrates mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. and really realizing that cutting out that food group is gonna go nowhere for fertility. So that would be the second piece of dietary stuff. And then the third piece I find is people are really dehydrated, which sounds so basic, but good quality hydration will go a really long way in nourishing the sperm and the eggs. So if you don't have enough fluid, our bodies are 80% water, right? Like Yeah.

Dr. Lauryn (24:22):

70, 80,

Dr. Aumatma (24:23):

Yeah. Really high number is

Dr. Lauryn (24:26):

Majority. Yeah. All life is formed in water <laugh>,

Dr. Aumatma (24:30):

In water. So really having that the flow of blood is reliant on hydration, the flow of blood imports nutrients to the ovaries, which are then gonna feed the development of those follicles. And this is mirrored in men for sperm. So men are not that different. They need hydration too. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So really like getting the right nutrients to the organs that are gonna help support the growth of follicles, egg and sperm is gonna be vital. And then to make cervical fluid, you need hydration, right? Like, so that's important. And then I feel like a lot of people, what they're, what they're calling hydration is any fluid intake, your body doesn't process any fluid intake. It processes water, it needs pure water.

Dr. Lauryn (25:35):

Yeah.

Dr. Aumatma (25:37):

And then we can go to the level of is your water purified? Is, does it have a billion and one chemicals in it? Are you using a refrigerator filter or a Brita, which basically just takes out chlorine and sediment? Or are you, or you have a really high quality filter that is actually getting to remove all the crap that's in our water. And, and then making sure that there are minerals in your water. Cuz things like reverse osmosis though, it'll pull out everything will also pull out good healthy minerals. And minerals are vital to egg and sperms. So

Dr. Lauryn (26:20):

Spark plugs mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. Yeah.

Dr. Aumatma (26:22):

Yeah. So there's a lot to water and like hydration and making sure that you're getting the right amount and the right quality of water to support the healthy production of all of the fluids that are needed in your body to support fertility.

Dr. Lauryn (26:39):

Yeah. No, I mean, and those are, I mean, that's just baseline, you know, like as far as like diet and water and like there's like that, those are some great tips that are still, I think the little dial turners is what I call them. And I see a lot of the, those missing links as well and practice. Yeah. Would love to know, like, so I, I work a lot with women that have histories of disordered eating. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, call it an eating disorder. I would say 75% of women will have some sort of dieting in their history. Yeah. Or like body, like, you know, I just went to bootcamp every single day and ran myself into the ground for like X amount of years kind of thing. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> whatever it is. And so perhaps have some irregular cycles, maybe don't have a cycle. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, what have you seen from a fertility perspective, perhaps even in a hope perspective? Like I've heard hope stories of women that haven't cycled for many years actually getting pregnant and maybe they were ovulating but not bleeding. The, you see a lot more than I do on the, in the fertility space, but have definitely seen women recover their periods too, just by really like stressed being the elephant in the room again mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. but yeah, I was just like, what you're,

Dr. Aumatma (27:48):

I I think there's so many pieces there. One is like dieting will, dieting and over exercising is a stressor on the body. So a lot of these women are like, oh, I'm not stressed, but yet their body is like massively stressed, right? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, every time you're on a weird diet, you're limiting your body's sources of basic nutrition, carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Like, like the very, very basics. We're not even talking about the complex complicated stuff. Getting all three of the food groups is essential. Then we add, so that level of stress will over time, especially when it's done over years, that your, your adrenals took a toll from being on whatever those plans were or boot camps or whatever you were going through. That's gonna have some repair to do for your adrenals. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, if your adrenals were taxed enough, there might be an impact on your thyroid.

(28:59):

And, and then most diets, if they're not well rounded and well balanced, shot the microbiome in the gut. So then you have neurotransmitter dysfunction, which then goes back and affects hormonal dysfunction. So serotonin and dopamine have an impact on estrogen and progesterone. So the gut microbiome being super important, the gut lining we talked about reflecting the uterine lining and whether or not implantation can happen. So there are a lot of pieces to repair, not that it has to take forever, but it really like making sure that all of the underlying components have really been healed and repaired before even start trying. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> is important. And a lot of times under nutrient, under nutrition or not eating enough will shut off the period over exercising will shut off the period. So getting the getting those levels restored can sometimes be all that people need to start cycling again.

(30:16):

And once you're cycling, then we can say, okay, like now what do the hormones look like? Measure the cycle day three hormones and then see if, if it's like not enough estrogen, too much estrogen, not enough progesterone too, too much cortisol, whatever. So you get more information once your cycle restarts. But it really has to start with all of the foundational things being restored and rebuilt to, to get to that point where fertility can happen. Yeah. Yeah. And it, it's, it's not impossible. It doesn't take forever most of the time. But being able to restore all those underlying things will often go a long ways in helping

Dr. Lauryn (31:07):

Yeah. Kickstart. Do you have any strategies that you use with clients that are very hesitant to change lifestyle? Because I feel like with it's, we can know one thing we know like not exercising too much is good for us or for fertility. Yeah. and same thing with diets, like eating carbs is good for us, but like then there's kind of a fear component there. Like also the habit. Yeah. That of like, you know, well my community for example, I go to all these classes, fitness classes and I don't wanna give that up. So like, I always like to think of alternatives or like, what is the strategy to go, not necessarily cold turkey with it, but like how to ease into a new way of doing things. I don't know if there's anything that you suggest for women.

Dr. Aumatma (31:53):

Yeah. It, it depends on how much time we have <laugh>. So if it's a 39 year old that's wanted to be pregnant since she was 35, they have very little time. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> and her track is gonna potentially be more intense, but there might be a 30 year old that's like, Hey, I'm just like starting on this journey. I'm not super pressured to like have a baby today, but I know that I have all of these things that I wanna work on healing than absolutely the slow and steady path is better there. So figuring out where the person is is gonna make a huge difference in what their plan looks like. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> with someone who maybe has more luxury of time, I would say the focus is really gonna be slow and steady and making sure it's synced with the cycle. So for example, the high intensity exercises like boot camps and stuff like that, if you do that in your follicular phase, it's okay. But in your luteal phase you're really doing the restorative things. So really shifting how we think about the things that we're doing. It's not that it's bad always for anybody ever, it's more like what part of your cycle are you in? And then if you're not cycling, we can talk about how to phase it for them. Exactly. Yeah. When we don't know, then we just take the moon that's

Dr. Lauryn (33:36):

Cycles. And remind me, so days one through 14, it, how, where does that fall in with the moon?

Dr. Aumatma (33:42):

Yeah, so New moon to full Moon is the follicular or cycle day one through 14. Okay. And then full moon to the next new moon will be the, the luteal phase.

Dr. Lauryn (33:54):

Okay. Sweet. Do you ever do seed cycling in your practice and see Yeah. Yeah. Anything

Dr. Aumatma (34:01):

I, I like seed cycling. I think it's great just cuz it gives people a focal point of something that they can do for food.

Dr. Lauryn (34:10):

Yeah.

Dr. Aumatma (34:10):

I think that's great. Have I seen it like magically transform your hormones? Not really. Yeah. That would be my honest, honest to God. Like it's, I would love for it to work.

(34:24):

I would love for it to be as magical as like so many people purport, but at least in my practice, I feel like that is a good foundation. That it's, it's not a, oh, I don't need to do that anymore. It's more like, yes, let's do that as a foundation and then let's figure out what we build on top of it because that just may not be enough to get us to the goal that we want to get to.

Dr. Lauryn (34:49):

Yeah. And it's really, I guess about optimizing the essential fatty acids that are helpful during those phases too. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, so mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. Yeah. I very, I've done it with a few patients and they, I think that more than anything it's like about intuitive, like it really gets you more connected to your body Yeah. And just like nourishing it, caring for it in a really unique way. So Yeah. Yeah. That can be fun.

Dr. Aumatma (35:12):

Absolutely. And then I wanted to say about diet, cuz you said what to do when you're just like,

Dr. Lauryn (35:18):

Yeah, kind of hesitant to knowing its theory. Good for you, but it's like tough.

Dr. Aumatma (35:23):

Yeah. it's tough and it's tough to like break the patterns of mental training that you've had because whatever diet you put yourself on, you really bought into that diet. Right. You bought into like, like, oh, this is gonna be really good for me. That's why you did it. It wasn't like, oh, this is the, you know, latest and greatest and I just wanna do it for the heck of it. Yeah. If, if, if the food that you were eating was working for you, you probably wouldn't have gotten into it. So I think that it's important to remember that whatever diet you adopted, whatever philosophy you adopted was because you thought that it was gonna support your health in some way. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> when you're making a shift, it's important to understand why am I doing that shift? And we, we like call our, our diet, if it's a diet, it's more like a way of eating, I should say. There's no dietary restrictions, right. Outside of like, the

Dr. Lauryn (36:29):

Diet means a way of life anyways. That diet, the word means a way of life.

Dr. Aumatma (36:34):

I know. Yeah. But when, when we say, like, when you hear diet, like these days, it's just like, so cringy,

Dr. Lauryn (36:41):

Trina Felber is the Founder and Creator of Primal Life Organics, the original “Paleo Skincare” company. In this episode, Trina and Dr. Lauryn discuss the close relationship between oral and gut health. Trina shares the oral health products we should avoid and even recommends a few we should implement into our routine! Stay tuned!

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Highlights

5:45 - Trina talks about her background and what got her into the work she does

13:28 - Trina and Dr. Lauryn talk about ulterior motives that could influence the American Dental Association

15:29 - The relationship between our mouth and our gut health. They also discuss what bad breath really means…

19:05 - Trina shares her thoughts on “conventional” dental health products

29:49 - Dental health products that Trina recommends.

31:26 - How to learn more about Trina

31:44 - How to get a whiter smile

33:29 - A wellness hack Trina is excited about

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About Trina Felber

Founder and Creator of Primal Life Organics.  Life roles include: wife, mother of three, dental health and natural skincare expert, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, Yogi, Paleo advocate, and educator.  By nature, Trina loves creating products that heal, soothe, mend and repair the body and soul.

Trina is your Natural Health and Beauty Nurse, and she is improving the way you feed your skin.  She is a 34+ year nurse with a Masters in Nursing Anesthesia.  Trina is the international best-selling author of Beauty’s Dirty Secret, skincare and health related speaker/writer and her food-based skincare products have been featured on TV stations all over the country including ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. She is dedicated to helping others realize the dangers in everyday cosmetics and skincare, and spreading awareness for the importance of using plant-base, nutritional skincare products.

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Connect with Trina

Website | primallifeorganics.com

Instagram | primallifeorg

YouTube | Trina Felber

Facebook | Primal Life Organics, LLC

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Connect with Dr. Lauryn

Facebook | Dr. Lauryn Lax

Twitter | @drlaurynlax

Instagram | @drlaurynlax

Website | drlauryn.com 

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Transcript (Episode website contains full transcript)

Dr. Lauryn (00:04):

Well, hello, Health Detectives. Just another day here at the office, busy quieting the noise in the health, food, and fitness world and flipping both conventional health and holistic wisdom upside down. I'm your host, Dr. Lauryn, former TV news journalist gone health detective and functional medicine expert by way of my own 26-year-old long battle with different chronic illnesses spent seeing over 50 different doctors and trying countless diets, and Dr. Google searches under the sun that could not help until I figured out how to solve the underlying health mysteries from the inside out with an approach I now help hundreds of clients worldwide use today in my virtual functional medicine practice. Something I've been doing even before the pandemic made Zoom calls and yoga pants wearing a thing. And today, I also love helping you solve your greatest health mysteries and challenges on the show. Talking problems like dental health issues, so things like cavities or if you're like me in my former life, a lot of tartar and build up on your teeth or perhaps even bad breath.

(01:11):

So much of our own health is based in our mouth, and this is an insight I didn't really fully, quite grasp until my own dental issues improved. And that's when I improved a lot of my own lifestyle issues as well. So for years, as long as I can remember, I had a lot of tartar and buildup on my teeth. Every time I'd go to the dentist, it would just be like caked on there. And for whatever reason, I didn't eat a lot of sugar at all, especially during my adult life and my dieting days. And I thought I lived a pretty healthy lifestyle. Well, come to find out, a lot of our mouth health or oral health is a byproduct of our gut health and vice versa. A lot of our gut health is derived from our oral health. So suffice it to say, I had gut issues for most of my life, and I actually had a lot of recurrent SIBO, candida, and just overgrowth, bacterial overgrowth, and dysbiosis in my twenties adult life.

(02:13):

And I never really correlated that with my oral health until I began to address my gut help. As my gut improved, I cleared up SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. I even discovered I was living in mold at a time and got out of the mold and just cured some of the systemic fungal issues in my body. My oral health dramatically improved, and today I have very little tartar on my teeth and very rarely feel like, you know, I need to go to the dentist. Meaning like I used to feel like I needed a cleaning like three or four times a year just because it was so bad. And all that to say is like health is really an inside job. Your total body health is very much connected to your oral health, and your oral health is a big window to what's going on in your gut health.

(03:03):

Today I'm so excited to have Trina Felber in the house, who is a registered nurse by background, gone primal life organics skincare founder, and now she does body care as well. So all things care, including dental care products and the beginnings of her company, really began in her pregnancy when she discovered that her high-end skincare products were loaded with tons of toxic ingredients that could hurt her and her growing baby. Why didn't these products carry warning labels, she wondered? And worse off, why hadn't she ever read these labels before? All that led her to found the company Private Life Organics, which is the first paleo skincare branded company on the market for over 10 years. And since that time, she's also dove into the world of dental health, and on today's episode, we are nerding out on all things the mouth and giving you a mouth makeover, so to speak.

(04:06):

So I really think today's episode will bless you a ton if you have been using conventional products in your mouth for quite some time. So think about Colgate or whatever the other, I forget all the names of the products now because I really do use all-natural ingredients, but this episode will rock your world if you are looking to uplevel your health in an even mightier way. So without further ado, we'll get to the show. If you're liking the show, please don't hesitate to leave a review and click the five stars button in the iTunes app. I absolutely love and appreciate hearing from you, and it helps us cultivate more health detectives just like you in the world. And, of course, if you need any help in your own health journey, don't hesitate to reach out. I equally love hearing from you on my website, drlauryn.com, and helping you create your own healing in your life and helping you heal your root, too, and our amazing functional medicine-based programs over there, helping people worldwide change how they look, move, feel, and think. Okay, that's all. Let's get to the show.

Dr. Lauryn (05:20):

Well, Trina, so excited to have you in the house talking all about primal life dental health, really oral health, which is a topic I don't think is talked about enough and a health mystery out there as far as there's just a wild west. But before we dive in, I would love it if you could just give us a little bit of background about who you are and what got you doing this work that you are doing in the world.

Trina (05:45):

Oh, thanks, Lauryn. It's great to be here mouthing off with you. I love to say that.

Dr. Lauryn (05:49):

<Laugh>.

Trina (05:52):

I'm a registered nurse. I've been a nurse, oh gosh, since I think 1992. And then, I graduated in 2007 with a master's in anesthesia. So I really have a good grasp of internal health, and I've never been someone who's really loved western medicine and following like one pill treats a, you know, a symptom, and I've never been down that road. So to make a long story short, I've always been a very natural, very healthy person. And I started primal life organics mainly because I couldn't find healthy products. I couldn't find products that weren't loaded with toxins. I discovered that skincare, which I didn't realize, skin and dental care products are just loaded with cancer-causing ingredients. They cause allergies, they're neurological damage, they, they cause so many different kinds of problems. And when you talk about root causes, we have all these mystery things happening, mystery illnesses, and symptoms that we can't explain.

(06:58):

We feel like we should be healthy, but something's just not right. And sometimes it goes down to the products and the things that you're using on your body. And when you stop and realize that most products contain 10 to 20 toxins, you can really become toxic overload very, very easily. And even if those products themselves aren't directly causing injury, they're definitely causing an immune response, which then causes a cascade of other issues. Some of the problems with dental is the nitric oxide production. If you're using the wrong products, you're not gonna be producing nitric oxide because the nitric oxide has to be your balance inside your mouth of your microbiome has to be good as well as your gut in order for nitric oxide to be produced. However, to get to my dental story, my two-year-old daughter had a molar come in, and I had been making skincare products for probably two to three years at this point.

(07:54):

Hadn't dabbled in dental, just was working on skin care. And my daughter, at the age of two, had a molar popup. The molar, we were brushing it one night, and my husband's like, what is that? And I take a look at it, and it looked like it had a cavity. So we took her to the dentist. The dentist took one look at the tooth, and we said, yes, that's a natural cavity. It happened in utero during development. Most likely, I had a bacterial wash, I had a viral flood or some fever, or some stressor happened in my body the exact moment that tooth was being developed. And so a natural cavity happened. So he said it's a pretty significant defect. We'll treat it like a cavity, we'll just put a temporary filling in it because she's two. And the filling will probably last about two to three months, and every time the filling falls out, we'll just decide if we put another filling in or if we just pulled a tooth.

(08:43):

He suspected that the tooth would need to be pulled within a year. And my knowledge of tooth meridians, I knew that every tooth in the body is connected to an organ during development. And that connection goes both ways. Your tooth communicates to the organ, the organ communicates to the tooth. And when that is severed, such as in root canals and things like that, that can never be reestablished, that that connection's gone. So I didn't want to lose her tooth. So when I was leaving the dentist's office, I'll never forget he knew I was concerned. He said, don't worry, mom, we put a temporary filling in it now. We just hope for the best. And I thought, there is no way this mama is hoping for the best. So I started doing my research. I just thought you know what, I'm just gonna see what it would take if you can heal a cavity or make it more healthy or prevent it from getting worse.

(09:33):

And I was astounded to find out that if I kept using the products that I was using, which really was a natural toothpaste at the time, I was not gonna do any good for that tooth. That tooth would be pulled in a year. It didn't have any minerals in it. It wasn't alkaline to support the microbiome and remineralization process, and it wasn't doing anything to help her teeth stay healthy. So I found Dr. Weston A. Price, I discovered his research, and he's a dentist from the early 1900s. If anyone's not familiar with him, he was way before his time he discovered the link between sugar and cavities and really wanted the ADA to omit sugar in the diet. And there were two sides, of course. His side who said sugar causes cavities we need to get rid of it. And the other side that said, oh no, sugar's not bad, we need cavities cuz we need, we need fillings to fill otherwise, where's our business? And the ADA went with the side that said sugar's, okay, we need cavities. And Dr. Weston A. Price basically did his research, but it was very hush-hush. Nobody knew about it. So I was astounded. So I thought, you know what? I wanna go with this guy. I wanna figure out what he found. And so what I discovered through his research was there are three things that the mouth needs in dental products in order to stay healthy, support your microbiome and remineralize your teeth. Remineralization is a natural process. However, because of our diet and our dental products, we are destroying the body's natural capability to remineralize the teeth ending up with cavities. That then results in inflammation, not just inside the mouth but internally, then leads to all the other health issues like dysbiosis in the gut, and the microbiome in the gut.

(11:13):

You have to realize that you're swallowing everything inside your mouth. If it's bad bacteria, you're swallowing it into your gut, heart disease, diabetes, preterm labor, all those things. So to make a short, long story short, I created my dirty mouth tooth powder as my solution to dental issues. And my goal was to get her tooth to one year and one day. If I could get that tooth past that one-year point, I knew I was doing a good job. And I'll tell you that tooth, the end of the story, is amazing. We brushed with dirty mouth tooth powder, she brushed with it as soon as I made it. That tooth fell out naturally at the age of 12, and the original filling that was only supposed to last two months was in place, never needed another filling, never needed any dental work. And that the enamel, her enamel, grew over the filling to protect it so bacteria couldn't invade underneath the actual filling. So that's the story. That's how I got into dental health.

Dr. Lauryn (12:15):

Wow. And how old is she now?

Trina (12:18):

She is gonna be 14 this year

Dr. Lauryn (12:20):

And has a healthy mouth full of pretty teeth.

Trina (12:23):

Oh yeah. My kids have never had any cavities. They've, you know, and I grew up eating sugar, of course, you know, I'm in my fifties, grew up eating sugar, and I have a mouthful of metal, or I'm, you know, replace the metal now with the better stuff. But, so you know, they don't eat much sugar, but they definitely have brushed with the right things.

Dr. Lauryn (12:43):

Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. Yeah. That's amazing. And way to go, mom <laugh> too, and kind of started a new leg of your business too. Something that you said that really was very eye-opening is like, you know, Weston A. Price went one way, and then basically the dental industry, the ADA is that what American Dental Association? Goes another way. And that really they're in business, and they make a lot of money in products, off products that like, you know, are for cavities and for bad dental health. So it would make sense if, like, the diet's not really being talked about and or just like actually healing the mouth in that industry.

Trina (13:28):

What's interesting is, and I know quite a few biological dentists, and they all say the same thing, that you know that during dental school, they're basically taught that they need the cavities, they need, they need to do the procedures to able to sustain their business, which is totally false. That's totally false because if you have a healthy mouth, you don't need to spend your time doing procedures. You just have your dental hygienist doing all your cleanings, and you have more free time as a dentist, and your patients are happier, and they're healthier. It's interesting one of the biological dentists told me that really dentists should be the ones diagnosing your risk of heart disease related to the condition of your gums and the amount of plaque you have. And I was astounded. I don't know of any dentist that is telling their patient you're at risk of heart disease. We need to get this cleared up. So a biological dentist is usually what I recommend when I, you know, when customers ask me, you know, what do we do about our dentist? I usually recommend going to a biological dentist because they have a better understanding of the mouth, the healthy microbiome, and the products to avoid, and what to use inside the mouth to keep it healthy.

Dr. Lauryn (14:41):

Yeah, that's what I transitioned personally to over the past couple of years and never have had cavities but always had a lot of tartar in my mouth, and come to find out, a lot of times our gut, I mean our mouth reflects actually the small intestine, the bacteria, the same bacteria in the small intestine. And I had lived in mold unbeknownst to me for several years and also had recurrent SIBO candida problems because of it. And as I like healed from those things and got out of the mold healed the SIBO, like the tartar in my mouth is like really diminished. It's like normal again, not overly built up. And so I just love how the mouth is really a gateway to our internal.

Trina (15:28):

Yeah, it's that relationship between the microbiome, and it's, you know, what came first, the chicken or the egg, the bad bacteria inside the mouth, did that spark the SIBO? Because really the bad bacteria inside the mouth, if you think about it in utero, a baby doesn't really have any microbiome. They don't really have an immune system. It's not until they're delivered through the birth canal. And the birth canal is where they get the bacteria from the mom's vagina in their nose and their mouth. So with the first breath, they inhale good bacteria, it's supposed to be good, and they swallow with the first swallow microbiome as well. And that is what starts their immune system. This is why vaginal delivery babies have a stronger immune system, and this is why cesareans don't, and if they do sometimes they'll do a vaginal swab into the nose and the mouth of babies that are C-sections.

(16:21):

So they can't start the immune system. But I always say that like your mouth, what's inside your mouth, it's like honey, when you're eating local honey, you're getting the flavor of the environment, the things in that environment, same thing inside your mouth. Inside your mouth is where viruses and bacteria should stop because your saliva has properties in it that are antimicrobial, antibacterial, antiviral. And so, really, most bacteria and most viruses and fungus is supposed to be killed inside the mouth. The problem is, is our mouth is so acidic because the products that we're using and the foods that we're eating that we render our saliva ineffective. So then you swallow these live creatures, and then now you end up with a gut dysbiosis that's either started from inside your mouth or gets worse because now your bacteria since your gut can't protect you against that either.

(17:12):

So it's just really interesting, and the whole phenomenon of the nitric oxide, nitric oxide is, you know, it helps your immune, it's very immune supportive. It's vasodilatory, and the bacteria inside of the mouth and the bacteria and the gut have to be healthy for nitric oxide to be produced. If one of those is not right and not good, then nitric oxide production is greatly diminished and your higher risk of a lot of things, including impotence for both men and women, you know, sexual dysfunction and heart disease and not sleeping as well, immune compromised. Bad breath. When I talk to people, and even as I before I started this company and got into the dental health, I just thought bad breath was a factor of life. I thought that it was normal and waking up with bad breath and bad breath, midday chewing gum, I thought it was just normal.

(18:02):

And it's the very first sign that there's an imbalance in the bacteria inside your mouth. Bad breath is not normal, and you should not wake up with bad breath. The only time you really should have a stale taste in your mouth is when you're slightly dehydrated from either activities that you're doing or even talking. I know a lot of times when I do podcasts, or I speak on stage, my mouth will get a little foul, and it's just because I'm slightly dehydrated from talking so much. The bad breath is the very first sign that you have a problem, and if you don't fix it, that's when you're gonna end up with cavities, gum disease, and then the inflammation of both of those things causes internal inflammation.

Dr. Lauryn (18:45):

So thinking about products, there is a wild west of products. There are also a lot of like "natural" products and or perhaps some greenwashing that happens always in the holistic industry. But can you just kind of break down like what about conventional products is bad? Like fluoride gets a lot of talks, for example.

Trina (19:05):

Yeah, fluoride, I won't even go into mainly because most people understand to some point it's not healthy for you, it's not healthy for your teeth that your, you were not born with fluoride in your body unless your mother had excess fluoride in her body. So fluoride actually replaces your normal healthy minerals in your teeth and in your bones. So, unfortunately, an overdose or too much fluoride can cause problems with bone, not just teeth, and actually weakens the teeth. Then, the actual research on fluoride; the reason everyone thinks fluoride is so good is because the initial research that they did years and years ago, it might have been in the 1920s the initial research showed that it strengthened the enamel. What they didn't tell you, and they buried, is that that research, they continued it and that ultimately showed that the fluoride weakened the teeth in the enamel, and they buried that so no one would know.

(20:01):

But that is the final result was fluoride was not good for your teeth and your overall health. So what to avoid, I pretty much tell people, I'd rather you understand what to look for because, unfortunately, most products out there contain all the wrong things or they don't contain the three things that are essential for good dental health. So obviously, you wanna avoid things that are overkill for the bacteria, and that would be alcohol. So mouthwash, most mouthwashes, I'd probably say about 95% of the mouthwashes on the market, are out of the picture. You should just dump it down the toilet, dispose of it, don't use it. It's doing more harm than good because it's killing not just the bad bacteria but all of your good bacteria. Your good bacteria is what is gonna create the alkaline environment to remineralize your teeth. It's also going to help prevent viruses and bacteria from thriving because viruses and bacteria like an acidic environment.

(21:01):

So alcohol's out because it kills your good bacteria as well as the bad. Anything like sodium lauryl sulfate, triclosan. Triclosan is a bad one. They've studied triclosan, triclosan is in toothpaste, it's in mouthwashes. Triclosan, you will swallow regardless of what you believe. Mouthwash and toothpaste does get swallowed to some degree. No matter how careful you are, you will swallow, and they've discovered that triclosan because it's an antibiotic, it's like it's a very potent antibiotic. It destroys the gut bacteria. So you end up with a dysbiosis in the gut, which really started inside the mouth because you swallowed it. The problem is, what I like to say is if you're brushing with something that has triclosan or SLS or alcohol or peroxide in it, it's like taking an antibiotic twice a day for life. And if you know what antibiotics do to your gut microbiome, it does the exact same thing for your mouth, and let's just call a spade a spade.

(21:59):

Your gut starts inside your mouth. So I always like to tell people that there's no difference between that long tube. The whole tube that goes from your lips all the way to your tail is your gut, it's your digestive system, and it starts inside your mouth. We have to stop thinking that our gut starts inside our small intestine because if we don't stop that thinking, then we've totally missed the first 12 to 14 inches of our digestive system. And that is one of the most important parts because it's linked to internal health as well. So I guess going back, those are the key things I would say to avoid if you're buying one of the C products because most of the conventional products, believe it or not, start with a C I would say you just ditch them. I haven't seen one that is going to actually promote the health of your teeth.

(22:50):

Some of them may not do as much harm because they try to make them more natural. However, when you understand what the goal inside your mouth really is, you'll understand that those products aren't doing anything to promote health. They're just doing their job of cleaning your teeth, and that's really not the function of brushing your teeth. The point of brushing your teeth isn't to clean your teeth because your saliva really if your mouth is healthy, your saliva and your chewing motion and your food itself, the food that you're eating, if you're eating healthy food like carrots and the crunchy stuff at the end of your meal, the combination of all of those are supposed to actually help clean your teeth. So really, the reason to brush your teeth is threefold. And this is really where it links to what is important in your dental products.

(23:36):

So when I was doing my research with Dr. Weston A. Price, the three takeaways I had is that the product has to be alkaline, your mouth has to live primarily alkaline, the foods that you eat. Most of the foods are acidic by nature. So that's the meats that we eat. Coffee most of the drinks that we drink are acidic. Dental products are acidic as well. The more acidic those are, the more the bad bacteria can grow. The more acidic your mouth is, the less your saliva can protect you. And your saliva really is your lifeblood of your body. It's really the, I always say it's the secretion no one's talking about. Your saliva is very important in nitric oxide production. It's important in your immune system. Like I said, it, it has antimicrobial properties to it. It contains the minerals from your body. The only way to naturally remineralize your teeth is through your saliva, but your body, your saliva, and your mouth has to be alkaline.

(24:40):

Your saliva's neutral. It wasn't meant to neutralize a super acidic environment because our foods back in the day, our ancestors, they weren't eating sugar all the time. They weren't eating processed foods that were acidic. They were eating healthy vegetables and meats, and their saliva could function because their mouth wasn't super acidic. It was more of a neutral to slightly alkaline or acidic so that they're, their saliva could semi-neutralize it and then remineralize their teeth. So you really want something that's alkaline. What signifies that it's alkaline? The best ingredient is baking soda. Baking soda in your dental products will indicate that it is an alkaline product and that, therefore, will support the microbiome and remineralization. The second thing that it needs is it needs to have minerals. Without minerals, you will not necessarily remineralize your teeth enough to prevent sensitivities or cavities. Mainly because of all the gut issues.

(25:42):

Like you mentioned, you had SIBO. A lot of people have SIBO, candida, they don't even know it. That leads to malabsorption syndrome. So you're, you might be taking supplements, you might be eating healthy food, but you're not absorbing those minerals. Your saliva then becomes depleted. This is why pregnant women end up with a cavity after they deliver their baby. Because baby takes the minerals from mom to create their own teeth and bone, mom becomes mineral depleted even though she's taking supplements. And at nine months of being mineral depleted, your teeth suffer because your saliva is the weak point. Like your body is going to keep the minerals where they need them the most, and your saliva doesn't need them as much, it's not as imperative. So your saliva becomes mineral deficient, which means you end up not being able to remineralize the, the minerals that you're losing. Every time you eat or drink something that's acidic,

(26:40):

the possibility of losing a mineral from your enamel is high because, during an acidic environment is when minerals leave. It's during the alkaline environment and or an alkaline food or alkaline toothpaste or powder. That's when those minerals go back in. But the key is while it's alkaline, the mineral has to be present, and it's a lock and key. You can't replace a magnesium mineral with calcium. So many dental products contain calcium and phosphorus cuz that's the main, that's like your hydroxyapatite, that's the main minerals of your enamel. However, your enamel also contain silica, manganese, and other minerals. And if, if you lose a manganese, you can't replace it with a calcium. It's a locking key. So that's why one of the main things I love for mineralization in dental products is clay. Clay has a significant amount of minerals, not just calcium and phosphorus.

(27:36):

It contains all the minerals in your enamel. So I always tell people to look for hydroxyapatites very important. We just added it to our dirty mouth. Tooth powder makes a big difference. But also the clay, we blend three different clays because the blend of three different clays is anti-inflammatory but also contains all the minerals that hydroxyapatite doesn't contain. And then the last component that's really important for keeping your mouth healthy is that you have to have something that's gonna detox the tissues of your mouth, the tissues I'm talking about like your gum tissue, but also your tongue, your palate, your soft tissue of your inside, your mouth. Your mouth is dirty. That's why I love calling my toothpowder dirty mouth. Not because your mouth is so dirty, but also because we use dirt or clay to actually cleanse your dirty mouth and then actually make it cleaner and make your teeth stronger.

(28:28):

Clay binds to toxins. So heavy metals, a great portal of entry of heavy metals is through your gum tissue, believe it or not. Heavy metals are in a lot of things that we are not aware of, including water. And water is a component of most dental products. It's a component of a lot of foods that we eat, and a lot of times, it's just tap water, or I call it crap water, and heavy metal is found in crap water. So we are exposed to heavy metals. Even if you're brushing with a toothpaste that uses tap water and the heavy metals can get into your gum tissue, your soft tissue of your mouth, and then work its way into your vascular system because your gums and your mouth is highly vascular. By brushing with a clay-based toothpowder or toothpaste, the clay is gonna bind to those heavy metals very strongly and remove them very quickly. So that's why I say detoxing your tissues of your mouth is gonna reduce the inflammation, help reduce gum disease that's gonna help your gums actually heal or regenerate and help keep your teeth healthy.

Dr. Lauryn (29:35):

Wow, thank you for all of that. That's a lot of good little nuggets there that we can look for in our products and just helps cut through a lot of the weeds and seems like there's a lot of weeds out there, <laugh>,

Trina (29:48):

There's a lot of weeds out there. And what I did, Lauryn, just so you know and your readers know, your listeners know, I put together a dental detox kit, and it contains my dirty mouth tooth powder on morning formula and a nighttime formula. And I also included everything else you need. It's a 60-day supply of tooth powder, and you get a bamboo toothbrush that has activated charcoal bristles. Sustainability, eco-friendly is my mission. So everything that I create is very eco-friendly. It's sustainable. It also contains a copper tongue scraper. If you take care of your copper tongue scraper, you'll have it for life. You'll never need to replace it. You have a gum serum. So this replaces mouthwash. It actually does so much more than mouthwash and helps to keep your gums healthy and fresh in your breath, supporting the microbiome.

(30:37):

And you also get dental floss. The dental floss is a dental pick. It's made from corn starch, so it is completely biodegradable. The string is bamboo, so it's sustainable and eco-friendly, and then it's got charcoal infiltrated into it. So it will help with detoxing between your gums as you're brushing or as you're flossing. And all of these, I'll give you the link because special for you and your listeners. They can get it at a special price, and especially if you order more than one kit like if you have a husband or a wife or children or family members, you can order more in the more of the kits that you order, the bigger that you save.

Dr. Lauryn (31:17):

Amazing. Well, I'll definitely put links in the show notes, and Trina, just where can people find out more about you?

Trina (31:26):

Primallifeorganics.Com is our website, and then we do a lot on Instagram. I have tons of videos on YouTube about dental health and skincare and all sorts of things. Facebook as well. We're on Facebook as well.

Dr. Lauryn (31:38):

Amazing. Yes, I wanna actually the first right Paleo skincare,

Trina (31:44):

The very first paleo skincare. I just wanna mention I know we're short on time. I wanna mention, too, that I created, I know most people want a whiter smile. You will get a much whiter smile just by switching to a clay base that's gonna help erase the stains off your teeth and rebuild your enamel. But I developed a natural teeth winder that uses both red and blue LED lights to help reduce the bad bacteria inside the mouth and help increase blood flow for the gum tissue and reduce inflammation. And then, I created the gel that goes in it or comes with it is a peroxide-free gel that contains everything that I talked about. So it's kind of like on the toothpaste, on steroids, it's the gel has the, it's alkaline, it has the minerals in it, it's an olive oil base, so it's very soothing to the gum tissue and it has essential oils that help support the gums.

(32:37):

And using that with the LED lights will help not just whiten your smile, but help with your breath, help with reducing inflammation, but also it's gonna help build your confidence and do it in a natural way. So I just wanna let you know that because I also have an offer for anyone that is interested through a link that you give. So just make sure you click through the links that Dr. Lauryn has mm-hmm. <Affirmative> because you get a 60%, it's more than 60%, it's almost 70% off the LED kit, and then you get the special pricing on the detox kits as well.

Dr. Lauryn (33:10):

Amazing. I already know some folks that will benefit from that. So thank you so much, and yeah, thanks for helping us come to solve some health mysteries. One question for you would just be, what is like one wellness hack you've been into lately and for your own health?

Trina (33:29):

For my own health, gosh, I do a lot of things. So I guess I have to go with using the light therapy is the wellness hack. And I like to say it's the LED for my mouth because I like to like using red light therapy for your skin. A lot of people use that because they can see the difference in, in the red light. But the hack for me is putting it inside the mouth because I always say when you, when you have a dark, damp space, things always go wrong. Like until you turn the lights on, you never know what's really happening. And that's when the bacteria and the virus and all the bad stuff, the fungus, can grow. But putting the light on, turning the light on opens your eyes and cleans it out. And that's what LED light does inside the mouth. So I do my LED light, I do it probably four days a week, and my smile is, I mean, I always get compliments on how, how white my teeth are and how my smile is, and that really builds your confidence. It totally builds confidence.

Dr. Lauryn (34:25):

I love that. And I've never actually heard about it for your teeth, so I'm really intrigued and can't wait to try it out myself.

Trina (34:32):

Yeah, you know what, I'll send you one so that you can try it. So when we're done with this, just send me your address if I don't have it. And I'll send it to you so you can let your listeners know exactly what you think.

Dr. Lauryn (34:45):

Dr. Erika Gray is a UCSF trained pharmacist, educator, national speaker, and co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of ToolBox Genomics and MyToolBox Genomics. Today we’re talking all about epigenetics. Dr. Gray discusses ways in which understanding our epigenetics can help us more effectively fight signs of aging, fine-tune our diet, and lead happier and healthier lives. Dr. Gray also shares the immediate steps we can take to optimize our epigenetics!

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Highlights

5:32 Dr. Gray talks about how a phone call with her parents changed her career path.

7:22 What is epigenetics?

9:40 What is methylation? Dr. Gray also talks about the confusion around the terms “over-methylation” and “under-methylation”.

11:59 Common themes of under-methylation.

12:34 The parts of the body that are dependent on methyl groups.

13:52 How studying mice and astronauts gave us a better understanding of the factors that influence epigenetics.

15:40 The Pottenger Cat Study and how we know diet affects epigenetics.

18:30 The way in which our ancestor’s trauma impacts our epigenetics. Dr. Gray also discusses the mind-gut connection.

22:22 The huge role our microbiome plays in our genetic expression.

24:05 Obesity at the genetic level. Dr. Gray also talks about how knowing your genetics can help you fine-tune your diet.

30:22 How understanding the fermented foods of your ancestors can help your diet.

32:34 Do other toxins (besides the ones found in our diet) actually influence our epigenetics?

36:22 Steps you can take to optimize your epigenetics.

37:59 Ways to connect with Dr. Gray.

38:50 The chronic wellness optimizers that Dr. Gray is excited about!

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About Dr. Erika Gray

Dr. Erika Gray is a UCSF trained pharmacist, educator, national speaker and co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of ToolBox Genomics and MyToolBox Genomics, a digital platform that takes an individual’s genetic test results and offers a virtual toolbox of informative, user-friendly, lifestyle choices and action plans to live the healthiest possible life. With almost 2 decades of experience in the world of functional medicine and a decade of experience in genomics and pharmacy, Dr. Gray is dedicated to helping practitioners and individuals understand the intersection of their unique genetics with the environment, and how they can positively change their health trajectory.

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Connect with Dr. Gray

Website | My Toolbox Genomics

Company Instagram | @mytoolboxgenomics

Personal Instagram | @thegenewhisperer

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Connect with Dr. Lauryn

Facebook | Dr. Lauryn Lax

Twitter | @drlaurynlax

Instagram | @drlaurynlax

Website | drlauryn.com

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Transcript (Episode Website contains full transcript)

Dr. Lauryn (00:02):

Well, hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Chronic Wellness Podcast, a show dedicated to quieting the noise in the health, food, and fitness world. I'm your host, Dr. Lauryn, former TV news journalist and ex-chronic illness patient gone functional medicine practitioner, and health detective. When countless doctors, diets, and Dr. Google searches in my own health history really couldn't help me heal. And today, I'm on a mission to disrupt both conventional wisdom and diet dogmas as we know it and bring you root cause solutions instead and insights that actually work. So you can also optimize your utmost potential and do what it is you're really meant to do in this world. Today we're talking all about epigenetics, a really big fancy word for the factors in our diet and our lifestyles and our environments that really turn our genes on and off. So genetics have been a big buzzy thing since, I think, like 23andMe came out on the market.

(00:58):

If you're familiar with that test where you can test your own genetics, We also see things like ancestry.com where you can find out where your ancestors are from and give you some really cool fascinating info. Even gut tests like the viome test that's doing kind of like a genetic blueprint of your gut have got people really energized and nerding out on at the topic of genes. However, just remember that genes are only a piece of the puzzle. They're actually only about 5 to 10% of our health outcomes. The other 90 to 95% really relate back to the factors in our diet, our lifestyle, and our environment. And again, which would be our epigenetics. These are the things that influence our genetic coding and can even rewire perhaps some of that genetic coding that should be quote-unquote normal expressing our genes rather than the diet lifestyle in environmental factors that will help you express your genes.

(01:53):

And perhaps a lot of times in, in a negative light, we, we think about epigenetics, but we can also think about it in a positive light as what are the things that can also help bring out your, like healthy genetics, maybe your fitness performance and you're a really great runner, like if you're from or sprinter rather as we see a lot of athletes or those that are on the track and field kind of sports. Whereas for others, it may be something in their creative genius or just having really great genetics for aging and, again, in our diet left down environment that can influence our genes. A really great example of the fact that genes really aren't the end-all-be-all for our health outcomes is because people are not born with cancer. They're not born with diabetes or obesity or anorexia or autoimmune disease. You may have the genes for these things, but they do not come out of our lives and express themselves in our infancy.

(02:50):

It's really genes that load the gun. And then our environment, diet and lifestyle, and our gut health, as I love to talk about as well pull the trigger. So it's a big reason why I don't do a lot of genetic testing alone in clinical practice. And I do think tests such as 23andMe are a little sliver piece of the puzzle if that's what you're looking for, just to understand your health to date. Because other functional types of testing, as well as just straight-up lifestyle dietary assessment, can really help you and your clinician determine the root causes behind the expression of your genes. So the epigenetic factors are really what explain why we get diseases. So my mold journey is another really great example of this. So when I got really sick with mold, I ended up getting diagnosed with like ten different chronic illnesses and conditions I had never had before.

(03:41):

Things like asthma, all sorts of autoimmune diseases, chronic migraines, and methyl activation syndrome. And I didn't get those overnight. These again were things that perhaps were in my genetic makeup to have, but it really wasn't until I was exposed to a lot of toxicity in the home in my environment that these things express. So we have Dr. Erika Gray in the house today to chat all about epigenetics and genetics with us. She is a trained pharmacist educator, national speaker, and co-founder and chief medical officer of Toolbox Genomics and My Toolbox Genomics, which is a digital platform that takes an individual's genetic test results and offers a virtual toolbox of informative and user-friendly lifestyle choices and action plans to live the healthiest life became possible. So with almost two decades of experience in the world of functional medicine and a decade of experience in genomics and pharmacy, Dr. Gray is dedicated to helping practitioners, and individuals like you understand the intersection of their unique genetics with the environment and how we can positively change our health trajectory. So without further ado, let's get to the show and talking all about epigenetics with Dr. Gray.

(04:55):

Well, Dr. Erika, I'm so excited to have you in the house today to talk about a really, very buzzy topic out there. Say genetics, epigenetics. We hear those words thrown around. We've heard of 23andMe methylation, maybe dirty genes, like all the things. And yet like to really understand what all of these things mean in a layman's terms. And I, I could think of no one better than you as just an expert and leader in the field to come on the show today. So before we dive in today's topic of epigenetics, though, and would love to know a little bit more about you, what got you into doing the work you're doing in the world today.

Dr. Erika Gray (05:32):

Oh, thanks for that sweet intro, Lauryn. We, you know, they usually see the best ideas. You, you fall into them, or they come to you, and this was no different. So I'm a pharmacist by training. Was taught about pharmacogenomics, so how we break down our drugs, and how that can be really individual based on your gender or ethnicity. And so I already had some familiarity with it, but then when 23andMe came on the scene, and they had all of this information, my parents, of course, did it and said, Sweetie, what do you think is there, is there any scientific validity to it? And that's when I started looking into it and really looking, and I was amazed there is 20 to 30 years' worth of research on some of these genes, which you would never think talking to people because people say genetics is so new and it's just right on the forefront.

(06:25):

But they've been studying the stuff for a long time. And so really now it's that application that people are really interested in, and they realize the power of DNA, they realize that there's so much hidden information just to find out who you are. We all have a different story, we all have a different blueprint to what our health trajectory looks like, and DNA really gives us that insight. So, you know, helping people understand their 23andMe evolved to, we have a lab evolved to, we have our own array, and now we have an interpretation service. So that's been the genesis of, of Toolbox Genomics. And then we rolled out epigenetics, which I call next-level DNA testing cuz now we can actually start to look at and measure the expression of your DNA.

Dr. Lauryn (07:13):

So definitely define epigenetics. What is epigenetics? We've heard of that word in the health space, perhaps heard of that word. Some people may not have heard of that word.

Dr. Erika Gray (07:21):

<Laugh>. So epigenetics is essentially the layer above the DNA. So we know that DNA is bound together. They're hydrogen bonded with you, an A, C, T, or a G, right? And so those are bound to your phosphate backbone. And so, depending on how the A or the C or the T or the G line up, it's gonna code for different instruction sets, different what we call phenotypes. So it could be things that we can actually see, it can be things that we can measure. It's also things that we can't see or can't measure as well. But the thing that starts to govern it is something called methylation. There's three things that govern it. So methylation is one of them. It is essentially a methyl group for those of you who remember in chemistry or biochem, <laugh>.

(08:11):

but it's that carbon and three hydrogens that you're essentially just plopping onto parts of the DNA. And it is telling the enzymes that are gonna do the copying, skip it, keep it, and it's, it's like a signaling mechanism. But the other thing that it does is it turns genes on and off. And so this is where it starts to get very interesting from an aging perspective because, like our ANCA genes, we want those turned off, but we want our enzyme genes, or we want those turned on because we wanna make enough enzymes, we want our aging genes turned off. And so this is something that you are actively dynamically influencing all the time. The second thing is histones. So these are another little that goes around the DNA that depends on how tightly you wind up the DNA. So depending on how loose or how tight also is gonna play a role in what gets copied over. So, you know, we always want the best stuff to be copied, and we want anything that's bad or wonky. We want the body to ignore it. The body tries to do its best. But again, if it's not supported appropriately, it's a problem. And then microRNA. So those are the three epigenetic controllers or modulators that has been studied, the best information. The best thing that we can really measure right now is methylation and methylation status.

Dr. Lauryn (09:33):

Yeah, that is another buzzword as well. So methylation, what does that mean in layman's terms?

Dr. Erika Gray (09:39):

So the thought behind that and what we commonly hear is I'm an over methylator, or I'm an under methylator, and what they're essentially saying is in under methylator, I don't have enough methyl groups to then go and methylate these different processes. And then an over methylator would be somebody who has too many methyl groups. But it's a little bit of a misnomer because in a day, you may methylate certain genes, and you may want them under methylated, and then later at night, you want them over methylated because you need it turned off. So, you know, like circadian rhythm is a great example of being an epigenetic pregnancy. There's a lot of genes you need turned on in pregnancy, and if those are off, that's a big problem for the baby. So really, what I think, people, the way I encourage people to think about it, is do you have the machinery or the enzymes to make adequate methyl groups and put them on to these various supplements to make them active to get into the cell?

(10:51):

So ultimately you can make SAMe, S-Adenosyl-L-Methionine, which is a big methyl donor. You need a lot of methyl donors, especially as you get older that can go onto the DNA. It can be used in various biochemical processes. I don't see that many over methylators. I really think that because we've discussed under there has to be over. And I think the only way you can possibly be in quote over methylator is some if you take a product that has too many methyl groups, so you've taken too much methyl folate, methyl B12, even though methyl B12 is a little bit of a misnomer, it's not a methyl donor. But if you throw in choline and then SAMe, those are all methyl donors and then you can have, you can just feel really anxious, You don't feel well rested, very irritable.

Dr. Lauryn (11:41):

Is it safe to say as an under methylator, like you're a poor detoxifier for one, you're more sensitive to perhaps like environmental triggers, toxins in the environment maybe foods, things like that? Those are some themes that I see with folks including myself.

Dr. Erika Gray (11:59):

Yes, because you need meth donors for the liver to do its phase one and phase two processes. So when people say, Oh, I have the MTHFR variant, therefore I'm a poor detoxifier. It's not so much as the MTHFR, it's just that you may not have enough methyl folate for these various detox reactions to happen because they are dependent on the presence of a methyl donor. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Does that make sense?

Dr. Lauryn (12:26):

Definitely. Would there be anything else in the body that also, like aside from the liver is dependent on these methyl groups like that would show up in other ways?

Dr. Erika Gray (12:34):

So the brain heavily uses methyl groups. They also use phosphate groups. So ATP, a lot of mitochondrial processes. You know, anything that's dynamic and demanding, usually the body's going to use either a methyl group or a phosphate group to make it active. It's a, it's a controlling mechanism cause we don't need everything going into the cell at once. Yeah. Everything on the outside of it.

Dr. Lauryn (13:00):

So perhaps like power output from like a fast switch muscle fiber, for example, that would be like an under methylator would not have as much power output basically.

Dr. Erika Gray (13:10):

That I think is a little bit different because you really have the programming from the DNA perspective; whether you're fast twitch or slow twitch, you can train in more fast twitch if you're slow twitch and vice versa. But usually, it involves recruiting other muscle fibers that maybe you're not aware of. I haven't seen methylation per se play a role in that, but I could be wrong and I just haven't seen the research on that.

Dr. Lauryn (13:38):

Yeah. Perhaps some of the genetics, well, kind of circling back to also epigenetics, like on a granular level, like, I mean talk about how that impacts, how, what epigenetics like are, what are factors that influence that in our daily lives?

Dr. Erika Gray (13:52):

So I think two of the greatest examples is there's that Agouti mouse study that you know, if you just Google it Agouti, A g o u t i, you'll see that a mouse whose mother was given a diet devoid of methyl groups. So they didn't have the folate, they didn't have any choline etcetera. The mouse is born significantly bigger. It has lost the pigmentation from its fur, it's obese and it dies much younger. And then you contrast it with a mouse mother who actually receives the appropriate mouth groups and the mouse looks perfectly normal like the brown mouse you would expect to see. So it is just such a beautiful illustration of diet. That's all it is. It's just, you know, pure and simple. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And you had the astronauts who went into space, they were twins. One went into space and one stayed here and they said, Oh, the DNA changed.

(14:50):

It wasn't the DNA, it was the expression of it. And some of the immune genes got upregulated. So there was an epigenetic change there. And what was really interesting too was after a year, those epigenetic differences actually were indistinguishable to show you the power of gravity of space of, you know, there's a lot of EMFs out in space as well. And so that exerted pressure onto one of the twin's DNA and he physically changed. So it's absolutely fascinating here. Identical twins. So the point being that how we live our life, what we eat, what we cover our body with is constantly sending signals to our DNA and changing the expression of it.

Dr. Lauryn (15:39):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that reminds me of the Pottinger Cat Study. I don't know if you've ever seen that before.

Dr. Erika Gray (15:44):

That sounds vaguely familiar. Remind me of that.

Dr. Lauryn (15:47):

Basically, they took two cohorts of cats and one cat cohort was fed to like the standard American diet. The other cohort was fed like a traditional diet that cats like scraps to meat and raw milk. By the fourth generation, the cats that were fed the standard American diet like were arthritic and like their teeth were falling out and they couldn't jump up on counters. Whereas like the fourth generation of the ancestrally fed diet I mean they were just like robust felines. And so just to kind of show the, the passing down from generations as well how our diet and our predecessor's lifestyles can influence like their offspring.

Dr. Erika Gray (16:27):

Absolutely. And so when we talk about, you know, if your grandmother smoked, you're at a higher risk for asthma, specifically for women because, so when I was pregnant with my daughter, I was actively influencing the future of my grandchildren, which is such a mind warp to think about because my daughter's eggs developed in utero. So what type of environment I was putting her in was potentially giving my grandchildren a genetic advantage or disadvantage. And we don't think about that. We don't think about, you know, prepping our bodies prior to pregnancy. And this is both men and women, you know, it doesn't, men don't get a free pass on this one because having high-quality sperm, which needs to be methylated appropriately, is also going to ensure that you get high-quality babies and is in fact, infertility is linked to hypo, so low methylation of sperm. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> more prone to breakage. It's not as robust. They don't swim as well. So there's a lot that comes in with it. And from the ancestral perspective, processed food, there is more and more studies coming out showing that the processed food is really messing with our epigenetics. It's just accelerating the aging.

Dr. Lauryn (17:49):

And considering that, you know, 70% of food that Americans eat is processed, that's just like, I mean, not shocking I guess, but crazy to think. And also just thinking ancestrally like have you done any study in say like, I've heard the Holocaust survivors, for example, like offspring of Holocaust survivors, ie myself and, or like Audrey Hepburn I think was one where she like had a really hard time putting on weight. People thought she was really sick, where that was a generational I guess health issue that she carried. Like just kind of the physiology as well as trauma, like emotional, but like what have you found in your time and study?

Dr. Erika Gray (18:30):

Yeah, so absolutely famines, trauma, and the holocaust, those are kind of the three big ones where you will see that carry through. So especially triggers, you know, some people who are just hair, hair-trigger happy, a lot of times there was some traumatic event. Trauma in utero. I mean, you can't underestimate what's going on because we're constantly releasing hormones. If we're, you know, in a fight or flight, a constant sympathetic or cortisol-driven state, that baby is going to start to get conditioned because we're putting different signals or different metal groups onto the DNA, which is potentially going to prime them to be, you know, maybe they're gonna be quick to anger or they're going to have a shorter fuse and that starts there. But I do wanna say that you can change that. So like yeah. Yeah. Like I don't wanna go down the...

Dr. Lauryn (19:29):

Breaking the cycle

Dr. Erika Gray (19:29):

You absolutely can. And this is where when we talk about, you know, mindfulness or positivity or you know, just even taking the time and eating with the family, it seems so insignificant. It seems like no duh. Of course, you should do that, but most people don't. You know, and that's the thing that always blows my mind. And Kara Fitzgerald, who does a lot of work with functional medicine, published a study just this year which she took a cohort of men 50 to 70 and just measured their biological age and then put them on a diet and you ready for this? She did food swaps where there were more methyl donors. She gave them probiotics and made sure they had a multivitamin that had methylated B vitamins in it. They did moderate exercise; I think it was three times a week. So it was like walking and maybe some weight lifting were not running marathons or anything adequate sleep like seven to eight hours and then they had to practice mindfulness. Followed them for two months; on average they're aging slowed down by three years. And this is a group of, you know, that demographic is notoriously difficult to get them to do anything to move the needle, et cetera. It was nothing heroic.

Dr. Lauryn (20:48):

Wow, that's so amazing. And so just like powerful that the little things that we can do that really can make a difference. Anti-Aging without all the creams and the bot dogs needed there.

Dr. Erika Gray (21:00):

Yeah, the little things matter because they add up because they send signals. And you know, the other part of it too that I think is absolutely fascinating is the mind-gut connection. So we keep trying to figure out like how is it possible that serotonin is made in your gut but somehow gets into your brain. And yes, we know there's some in the brain, but like they can't cross the blood-brain barrier. And so how is this all work? And so there's a new theory that when we thi- so that when we have certain thoughts, it immediately sends a signal down our vagus nerve and our vagus nerve ends in our stomach and it changes our microbiome. And so then our microbiome is going to, cause there's gonna be a shift. And so maybe now we're gonna be shifting more towards obesity. Maybe we're not gonna make as much of our neurotransmitters, which are so important and they're utilized in the mitochondria, in our cells all over our body. So those gut feelings when you're like, Oh, I have a sinking feeling, there's actually something going on there. It's, it's not a joke. It's you're not making it up. And so I think being aware of that, this is where the power of the thoughts and the mindfulness comes in, it's just we're shifting our microbiome and our microbiome plays such a big role iIn our health as well.

Dr. Lauryn (22:19):

Yeah. I love the microbiome. I mean the microbiome has more genes than the actual human genome too.

Dr. Erika Gray (22:27):

That's right.

Dr. Lauryn (22:28):

Like we don't even know the number right. <Laugh>,

Dr. Erika Gray (22:30):

We don't, And you have three to five pounds. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> not, you know, it's not ounces, it's pounds of bacteria. So, you know, if you think about it and be like, Oh, I took some probiotics and didn't do anything. Well yeah, kind of a full scale... <Laugh>. Yeah.

Dr. Lauryn (22:46):

Quite a bit

Dr. Erika Gray (22:47):

... Inoculation and you've gotta feed them and take care of them and yeah,

Dr. Lauryn (22:52):

I will say, yeah when I got really sick with mold, like one of the biggest game changers in my healing was like a really high dose of probiotics. I have a lot of gut issues and then a lot of the stress components like de-stressing yoga daily, infrared sauna, some limbic system retraining. And those two things combined are really, I mean, kind of going back to that mind-gut connection, what really spearheaded and really I think also changed. I was about 20 pounds less than I am today. And without changing anything else in my diet or my exercise, it was really my microbiome and my stress levels that I needed to regain that healthy weight.

Dr. Erika Gray (23:27):

And our microbiome does impact our genetic expression. And so, you know, if you get someone who doesn't like the way they're aging, I mean the first place to look, I mean just easy, diet microbiome. You don't even need to go do a microbiome test if you don't want it. Cuz you know, sometimes those can be a little bit pricey or you, and even though, what was that?

Dr. Lauryn (23:48):

Just optimize. Yeah,

Dr. Erika Gray (23:50):

Optimize. Or you like fermented foods like some go keeper or some sauerkraut. All of those are great for introducing diversity and you know, just to constantly keep a steady flow of different probiotic strains in there.

Dr. Lauryn (24:04):

Well said. I know before the show too, we were talking, we about obesity being like an issue. Just like by and large we all know that in our society. So what do you say for the person that's like, you know, doing all the things to, to really try to change their genetics? They're like, this is in my family, I'm eating right, I'm exercising, Like I keep hitting ceilings, like what's going on? What's happening at a genetic level? Or perhaps this is where the epigenetics comes into play. And we talk a lot about that on the show as well.

Dr. Erika Gray (24:34):

So it's a little bit of both because there definitely are markers for an increased BMI. And so there's one called the FTO gene that some people call the fatso gene, but it was designed to get us through a famine. And so people who have that gene tend to be anywhere from three to five kilos higher from a weight perspective. So, you know, that's almost upwards of 12 pounds. Compared to people who don't, now most people seem to carry at least one variant on it, if not maybe two. Now here's where it gets interesting. Those people do better with a higher protein diet. So those are people, if you're going to do keto, it's gotta be protein heavy, not necessarily fat heavy because you may have that, you may have an 8082, which makes you more sensitive to saturated fat and you're going to gain weight easier.

(25:31):

Again, it's from an environmental perspective or an sorry, an evolutionary perspective; it makes perfect sense. I mean, you need to have adequate weight to get through the times of scarcity. So then you can come around and reproduce and, and stay alive. But there is no scarcity anymore. I mean, we can literally, you know, whatever we can't get from the grocery store, we order, we can order it from overseas. I mean, it's always amazing to me now growing up, like I remember like, Oh, I can't get that anymore. And that was it. But those days, <laugh>, those days are gone. So what's interesting is I'll get some people with the FTO gene who will say, I've never had a weight issue because FTO acts on another gene. And so it's the other gene. If that one gets turned on, that's where you start to gain the weight.

(26:20):

And so people, if you just really do pay attention, you have a great lifestyle, you may never turn that gene on and you never may never have a weight issue. However, it does seem like the lower protein potentially more of a plant-based diet or processed food does seem to turn that gene on. So this is where knowing your genetics can help you fine-tune those different nuances. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, I'll give you another example. I had a practitioner call me with a patient who was rather distraught because he didn't like the way he was aging. He's 77 and he was coming in at 88 on his biological age and his eye, he, his eye age, memory age, all of this not doing well. Well, for the past 12 years he's been eating a plant-based diet because he thought that's the best thing for him.

(27:11):

Now what's interesting is we then also looked at his lab work. His A1C was high, his homocysteine is still high. The only thing he was able to shift and it took a long time, was his cholesterol. He finally did give cholesterol numbers down. These inflammatory markers are still high. His mini mental exam didn't improve with a plant-based diet versus his wife also did it. And she wasn't aging as quickly. In fact, she was aging slower, he was so much faster. So my recommendation was actually he needs to scrap the plant-based diet because it's aging him. It's not working. And he needs to think about a heavier protein diet, which he wasn't a happy camper. But sometimes, you know, the data's the data and that's the power of getting that information because as you were saying, someone who thinks they're eating well or doing everything right may not be doing it right for their genetics or for themselves.

Dr. Lauryn (28:07):

Right. And perhaps the releasing, ultimately the dogmas that we all have about food or like what you just read on paper. And I mean, it sounds like had this person experimented maybe just like, you know, I'm doing animal-based versus plant-based versus like, there's so many out there, but to release, like just what our grip is on what we should eat. And more so like really tuning into the body and using that. Perhaps that data can guide as well if it's just kind of like, I don't even know where to start. But that's really powerful. And just goes back to the like, we're never gonna agree, like the one size fits all diet. There's just not one out there.

Dr. Erika Gray (28:45):

There really isn't. You know, and I think we've, we've moved, finally, we've moved away from being fatphobic, which is fabulous. But there's some people that if you eat a lot of saturated fat, you don't have the machinery to deal with it. And that's okay. You can still have, you know, maybe it's a monounsaturated fat diet versus you keep the saturated fat at a lower level. It's, it doesn't mean we're being fat phobic because we're not saying low fat. We're saying, I would say like smart fat, smart fat for your genetics.

Dr. Lauryn (29:18):

That makes me think of a client of mine. That man, she had done all the diets and then keto was really popular at the time and like started hitting a roadblock after about two or three weeks on it. And so then transitioned to carnivore, which was also very popular. And like felt fine, I think at least mentally fine. I think sometimes we can go on a diet and we just feel better because we're doing something with consistency. But her cholesterol ended up bumping up to 600 and I've never seen a total cholesterol that high. And for her, it was just like shocking. It was for shocking for me as well. But just to kind of go back to like, man, she needed some plants is what she needed and like peace with carbs. And as we integrated that back in and really addressed the microbiome, like her body was back in a happy, healthy place too for her. Whereas I mean I think for others I've seen like they feel great on a carnivore and less plant-based diet. I think a lot of it actually goes back to our gut too how we're digesting and absorbing, but also maybe ancestrally where we're from. You may know a little bit more insight on that.

Dr. Erika Gray (30:22):

Yes, yes. And every culture had their own version of fermented foods. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And so when you know, there's the Sonenberg's out of Stanford, they were studying the Masai Mara in Kenya. And what they found was that they ended up kind washing their hands in the, like the guts of the goat mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. and so then when they would eat the meat, they had the microbiome on their hands. And so then they were essentially inoculating themselves with some new bacteria. But they do fermented cow milk there with blood in it. So that, you know, that's

Dr. Lauryn (

“Healing is possible if you follow the right strategy in a clean diet.”

Dr. Lauryn Lax is a Doctor of Occupational Therapy, Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, Functional Medicine Practitioner, author, and speaker, with over 20 years of clinical and personal experience specializing in gut health, intuitive eating, disordered eating, anxiety, hormone balance, and women's health. 

Dr. Lauryn will remind you to rebuild your gut with probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics both found in the supplemental and food-like forms today. She will guide you on the best diet and supplement strategies for SIBO as well as the three common pitfalls when it comes to SIBO treatment.

Episode highlight

[00:01] Do you have SIBO and want to heal it? Stay tuned!

[01:24] Karen’s story on her resolved symptoms 

[03:15] SIBO diet strategy happens in three primary phases

[03:19] Phase one would be symptom relief

[05:02] What is an elemental diet?

[05:12] Phase two is the reintroduction of real food within food tolerances for your body and your gut

[05:57] Phase three is to rebuild the gut and introduce more variety as possible

[06:20] The prebiotic foods

[06:31] The probiotic foods

[07:51] The herbal strategies

[08:21] Herbals can be just as effective as antibiotics

[08:47] Number one supplement strategy for treating SIBO is biofilm disruptors

[09:42] Number two supplement strategy for treating SIBO is digestive support

[10:07] Number three supplement strategy for treating SIBO is making sure to rebuild the gut

[11:15] Three reasons why SIBO treatment fails

[11:32] Number one, we miss out on prepping the body to cleanse

[13:06] Number two, missing out on the complete picture

[13:47] Number three, missing out on rebuilding the gut microbiome

[14:13] Final remarks

Connect with Dr. Lauryn Lax:

Facebook | Dr. Lauryn Lax

Twitter | @drlaurynlax

Instagram | @drlaurynlax

Website | drlauryn.com

 “I do what I do because I see those changes so impactful in making a positive change in someone's.”

Dr. Farah Sultan earned her medical degree from Christian Medical College in Vellore, India. After graduation, she trained in Internal Medicine at the Royal London Hospital, and she completed six months of residency training in General Surgery at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She completed her Family Medicine residency at Baylor University in Houston, Texas, and then received her Board Certification in Family Medicine. Since that time she has practiced Internal Medicine at Brookwood Medical Group. She is especially interested in women’s health, diabetes care, and preventative medicine and is passionate about a holistic approach to a healthy lifestyle.

Dr. Lauryn and Dr. Farah will enlighten you on the reasons for having low energy and the things you can do to prevent this. Dr. Farah will make you aware that you can actually produce energy, which is reduced due to all the things that are interfering with the normal functioning of your body.

Press play to discover:

• What are the key drivers of low energy?

• Why do we end up hypoglycemic and end up having blood sugar imbalance?

• Where do we need to start understanding the root cause of having low energy?

• How is the gut connected to energy levels and hormone levels?

Episode highlight

[00:15] Introduction

[00:58] Low energy is epidemic

[01:35] Introduction to Dr. Farah Sultan

[03:11] Reasons for having a low energy

[03:38] Dr. Farah own journey of having low energy

[08:11] Low blood sugar affects hormonal balance

[10:55] What is the Mandela approach?

[12:15] The Goldilocks phenomena

[15:14] Helping gut health is to help you absorb those good foods that you are putting in your body

[15:28] With supplements with a lifestyle that can help restore the normal integrity of the gut

[19:09] What are the most common hormone imbalances?

[20:23] The reasons for a fatigue

[21:36] It is illegal to be constipated

[24:24] Dr. Farah's wellness hack that she has been using lately

[24:56] Final remarks

Connect with Dr. Lauryn Lax:

Facebook | Dr. Lauryn Lax

Twitter | @drlaurynlax

Instagram | @drlaurynlax

Website | drlauryn.com

Connect with Dr. Farah Sultan:

Website | vitalogywellnessandmedspa.com

Facebook | @Vitalogymedicalspa

YouTube | Vitalogy Wellness Center

Instagram | @vitalogymedicalspa

Instagram | @farahsultanmd

Twitter | @VitalogyMediSpa

“Bacterial overgrowth is just the simple overgrowth of bacteria up top in our small intestine.”

Dr. Lauryn Lax is a Doctor of Occupational Therapy, Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, Functional Medicine Practitioner, author, and speaker, with over 20 years of clinical and personal experience specializing in gut health, intuitive eating, disordered eating, anxiety, hormone balance, and women's health. Dr. Lauryn will enlighten you about what SIBO is, and its signs or symptoms of it. She will also teach you how to test if you have SIBO. 

Episode highlight

[00:12] Introduction

[00:36] Dr. Lauryn’s long-time experience with SIBO

[01:54] What is SIBO?

[03:15] What are FODMAPs food

[04:11] Signs of having SIBO

[04:57] How does SIBO happen?

[05:15] Stomach acid is what helps digest the food from the beginning

[05:38] Number one leading cause of SIBO is a low stomach acid

[06:22] Number two leading cause of SIBO is gallbladder congestion

[07:24] What causes a sluggish gallbladder?

[08:18] Number three leading cause of SIBO is the imbalance of eating and exercise life

[08:32] Number four leading cause of SIBO is medications

[09:12] Number five leading cause of SIBO is aging

[09:47] How do you know if you have SIBO?

[09:49] Three main types of SIBO

[11:18] First simple measure for SIBO is to ask about the signs and symptoms of a person

[12:15] Second simple measure for SIBO is gut microbiome stool analysis

[12:40] Third simple measure for SIBO is taking into consideration your lifestyle or environment

[13:35] Final remarks

Connect with Dr. Lauryn Lax:

Facebook | Dr. Lauryn Lax

Twitter | @drlaurynlax

Instagram | @drlaurynlax

Website | drlauryn.com

 “You don't know what you don't know until you know it, or you don't know how good you can feel until you feel it.”

Rachel is the COO of Annmarie Skin Care, a skincare line that creates clean and effective products utilizing organic and wildcrafted ingredients. Her favorite parts about her job include research on ingredients, formulation, sustainability efforts, and working to increase education on organics, chemicals, and the skincare industry as a whole. She believes we should all have a say in what goes into and on our bodies—pure food, clean water, non-toxic skincare & medicine alike. In her spare time, Rachel may be gardening, renovating & designing her house, blending essential oils, playing in the yard with her Akitas, or just mellowing out in her house with a cuppa tea, a good book, and some music with her cat, Koko.

Dr. Lauryn and Rachel will guide you to learn a little bit more about upping your skin health game from the inside out. They will enlighten you on choosing the right skincare products for your special needs and what to avoid in choosing your skincare product. Rachel will also enlighten you that it's possible to use products that help your skin age gracefully and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and help to revitalize your skin but you're not gonna change the way you look.

Press play to discover:

• What to look for in true skincare products?

• How skin health is an inside job?

• What are the toxin chemicals doing to our bodies?

• What are the common misconceptions within holistic health space and skincare?

Episode highlight

[00:35] Introduction to Rachel Pachivas

[01:06] What to avoid in choosing skincare products

[02:43] A lot of our skin health is related to what is going on in the gut microbiome

[04:08] What we put on our skin affects the inside and it makes a big difference

[04:16] Rachel's backstory

[06:12] More people are waking up to the fact that toxins are a thing

[06:48] Rising awareness of people wanting cleaner products and wanting something to change

[08:58] Companies are making their packaging unique to attract people

[10:35] Rachel's insights on what chemicals do in makeup to skincare products?

[14:58] Fully take your time to research what you're putting on your skin

[16:59] The common misapprehension within holistic skincare

[20:39] Rachel's customer success stories

[23:12] Ways for our skincare that can make a difference

[26:02] Annmarie skincare launched a new line of products

[27:29] Rachel's health mystery solved in her journey

[28:28] Rachel's wellness hack that's kind of like water for her soul and her health

[29:23] Final remarks

Connect with Dr. Lauryn Lax:

Facebook | Dr. Lauryn Lax

Twitter | @drlaurynlax

Instagram | @drlaurynlax

Website | drlauryn.com

Connect with Rachel Pachivas:

Website | annmariegianni.com

Website | annmariegianni.com/mosscreekfarm/

Facebook | Rachel Pachivas

Facebook | Annmarie Skin Care

LinkedIn | Rachel Pachivas

LinkedIn | Annmarie Skin Care

Instagram | @annmarieskincare

Twitter | @AnnmarieBeauty

 “My philosophy with food is a little dirt never hurt, I eat no perfection.”

Dr. Lauryn Lax is a Doctor of Occupational Therapy, Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, Functional Medicine Practitioner, author, and speaker, with over 20 years of clinical and personal experience specializing in gut health, intuitive eating, disordered eating, anxiety, hormone balance, and women's health. Dr. Lauryn will enlighten you on how she learned intuitive eating and will help you become the best version of yourself by feeling good on your skin, inside and out.

Episode highlight

[00:42] Dr. Lauryn’s 20 years of having an eating disorder

[01:22] The root causes behind Dr. Lauryn’s symptoms

[02:24] Number one hack for learning how to eat more intuitively and trust your body is to eat for your bug guts

[03:02] Healthy microbiome needs a variety of nutrients

[03:29] What is the hygiene hypothesis

[04:47] Number two hack for learning how to eat more intuitively and trust your body is to do the gut check method

[05:05] Three questions whenever you are trying to decide what to eat

[06:36] Number three hack for learning how to eat more intuitively and trust your body is to eat mindfully and more intuitively

[06:48] The milkshake study

[08:23] Total permission to 80% of the time eat real foods and 20% of the time let life happen

[08:38] Final remarks

Connect with Dr. Lauryn Lax:

Facebook | Dr. Lauryn Lax

Twitter | @drlaurynlax

Instagram | @drlaurynlax

Website | drlauryn.com

 “Health is an inside job, a lot of our society and diet culture, focus, fitness culture and has greatly been on fixing the outside.”

Dr. Bindiya Gandhi is double-boarded by the American Board of Family Medicine as well as the American Board of Integrative and Holistic Physicians. Her interests include integrative, holistic, and functional medicine, women’s health, preventative medicine, international medicine, and health care reform. She is also a certified yoga instructor and reiki master. She used to practice emergency medicine as well. Dr. Bindiya is a media expert and contributor to numerous sites including The Daily Mail, MindbodyGreen, PopSugar, Clean Plated, Well + Good, and more! When she is not working or writing you can find her in the kitchen cooking, doing yoga, or enjoying time with her family and pup.

Dr. Lauryn and Dr. Bindiya will introduce you to weight loss resistance and what are lectins. They will also enlighten you about doing diets and what are the harmful effects to you in the long term of doing it. It needs to be done with a practitioner that can help support you in making sure you're doing it appropriately.

Press play to discover:

• Why do some people lose weight effortlessly while others struggle for years?

• Why does weight loss resistance happen?

• How to fix weight loss resistance appropriately?

• Why do some people who don't experience a lot of cravings or hunger still have weight loss resistance?

Episode highlight

[00:04] Introduction to weight loss resistance

[03:33] Introduction to Dr. Bindiya Gandhi

[04.41] Dr. Binduya background

[07:00] Why do a lot of female patients gravitate towards Dr. Bindiya

[08:20] The wrong notion about weight loss

[09:01] What are lectins

[10:34] Basal metabolic rate is the number of calories you need that your body will burn in a day on the couch, not doing any activity

[11:34] What are the truths about calories

[14:40] The problem with the Intermittent diet

[15:50] What can women do in men to reverse leptin resistance and or weight loss resistance

[16:45] What are the most common questions that women ask?

[19:35] What is dysbiosis?

[21:19] A lot of women don't even know they have a thyroid issue

[21:59] You can't fix your lectin unless your thyroid is fixed

[23:00] What is one chronic wellness hack that Dr. Bindiya has been into lately?

[24:45] Final remarks

Connect with Dr. Lauryn Lax:

Facebook | drlaurynlax

Twitter | @drlaurynlax

Instagram | @drlaurynlax

Website | drlauryn.com

Connect with Dr. Bindiya Gandhi:

Website | drbindiyamd.com

Facebook | Dr. Bindiya MD

Instagram | @drbindiyamd

Twitter | @DrBindiyaMD

LinkedIn | Dr. Bindiya MD

Email | drbindiyamd@gmail.com

Linktree | https://linktr.ee/drbindiyamd

Contact Number | 706-255-1020