Wellness Radio Recap: September 26, 2020
On this two-hour special episode of Wellness Radio, we shared client stories from our chiropractic and functional wellness clinic as well as let you in on how we deal with our own health.
If you’ve ever wanted to know what we do to stay healthy, what supplements we take, and what treatments we believe in, then read on to find out more.
05:10 - Dr. Rebecca shares a client’s story of very big hormone issues
15:06 - The symptoms of too much and too little testosterone in the body
27:24 - What it means to heal
33:29 - Food isn’t medicine
40:58 - Food sensitivity tests
51:40 - Your mindset is a big part of your healing process
58:20 - What we do for our personal health on a daily basis
1:06:38 - Contrast showers and detoxification
1:14:58 - Acid reflux
1:21:39 - Iceberg symptoms
1:31:36 - Magnesium deficiency
1:32:29 - Radio caller questioning the doctors’ qualifications to speak on medicines
1:46:03 - Top 4 supplements Dr. Nathan takes
A young girl recently came into the clinic with big hormone issues. She didn’t feel horrible, but was not herself and had been dealing with some very embarrassing symptoms for over four years. She complained about being tired, having horrible acne, and hair loss issues.
As we started to discuss what could be the cause of her symptoms, I looked at her lab results which were, and we so often see this, incomplete and therefore not telling us the whole story of what's really going on inside her body.
When asked what her current doctor recommended, he advised her to go on birth control which blew my mind as that wouldn’t fix anything.
I had her draw more labs, which revealed an adrenal issue caused by too much testosterone in her body. This could have been revealed and addressed four years ago but she kept going to the same doctor who fixed the symptoms, not the root cause.
Why did she keep going to this doctor? Because that doctor was covered by insurance.
I share this story because we see this far too often at our clinic. At some point, you have to take responsibility for your own health and advocate for yourself. You can’t keep going to the same doctor who will give you pills for the symptoms, instead of healing your body and actually getting better.
You are losing health every year that you live with ongoing symptoms. Taking a blood pressure medication does not make you healthy. You are managing a symptom; you are not healthy.
For my client, she had low testosterone and experienced hair loss in the middle of her head similar to how a man may lose his hair. She also developed acne around her chin and hair growth in unusual places.
For men, too much testosterone might manifest as low libido and overall low motivation and drive.
If there’s no energy level pushing you to go through your day and you’re just feeling off, that may be due to testosterone issues for both men and women.
Hair growth in unusual places
I ordered a dutch test for the patient so we can really see what’s going on inside her body to isolate exactly what is causing the testosterone issues. This could be inflammation, cholesterol issues and so many factors that could be at play here so that is why we do not recommend simply slapping a pill on the symptoms but getting to the bottom of the issue so you can heal from the inside.
Long Term Health
As a society, we are very instantaneous and want everything to happen now. We think we need to see health on our timeline, always looking for instant results. In an instant society where we can take a pill and think we’re healed, this is your reminder that health is a process, every step is moving you forward.
If you don’t move your muscles consistently, you’ll lose the function of those muscles. The end result here isn’t just to feel better today but also to feel better tomorrow. The end result is being 80 years old and can tour Europe instead of ending up in a nursing home, that’s when lifelong health pays off.
Your body was made to heal itself. It will never attack itself and try to cause harm. If you support your body in the healing process, your health will continually improve and you will begin to reverse years of damage.
Food is Not Medicine, it is Nourishment
There’s a common thought that food is medicine that we’d like to offer a different perspective on. Medicine is something you take every now and then in an attempt to heal an ailment or a symptom. Food is nourishment. It is not a biohack. Food is daily nourishment. It is essential and we cannot function for long periods without food.
Nutrition is the answer to a healthy life. You must eat and your choice of food will either lead to good health or lifestyle diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. Eating real food, moving your body, and paying attention to your breath supports your body in its function of healing itself and preventing infection and disease.
Food Sensitivity Tests
Usually, when a patient does a food sensitivity test and finds foods that are triggering any kind of negative reaction in their body, they eliminate that food forever. We want to caution against that.
Food sensitivity tests are notorious for giving false negatives, which is why it’s best to do it under the care of a knowledgeable health professional who can read the test properly and advise you on the results.
You also want to only eliminate foods that trigger a reaction for a period of time while you heal your gut. There’s usually no need to eliminate the food forever. Instead, the test has revealed an issue inside your gut that needs attention. Feel free to reintroduce the food after a round of gut treatments slowly into your diet.
Two better tests to take outside of food sensitivity tests are stool testing and dutch testing, also known as hormone testing. These tests usually shine a brighter light on what’s really going on in the body.
Often, I see patients who know something is wrong but they’re not sure where to go next. This is where it becomes important to create a holistic approach to health. Include supplements, healthy food, exercise, cardiovascular treatments, lymphatic massages, and whatever other supplemental applications may help get you back to functional wellness.
The Role Mindset Plays In Health
Often a positive outlook has an impactful role in the success of a patient’s treatment. Recently, I had two patients of the same family come in with similar health issues. They ate the same food, had the same lifestyle, and were very similar in their symptoms but the one that was positive and believed they were going to heal and that the treatments would work, healed.
We recommend using affirmations to help your mindset. Write 3-5 affirmations down in a place where you can read it or see it every morning and every evening to start cultivating a more positive mindset around your health.
What Health Looks Like in Our House
My story started at 19 when I got my thyroid cut out, only to find out later that so many cancer diagnoses are totally treatable. It is totally possible to live with a cancer diagnosis and live well if you focus on your health. Health is a lifelong journey anyway, so managing thyroid cancer is totally possible without cutting out a necessary organ. I also got my gall bladder removed so I am living without two organs, which means I am constantly working on my health.
Some things that I am doing is intermittent fasting, cycling higher carb days, and doing the carnivore diet on occasion.
The Carnivore Diet
There are only two primary macronutrients that the body must have to survive, and those are amino acids and fatty acids and the best absorbable and utilized sources of these are from high-quality animal protein.
The carnivore diet is a tool to help you reduce inflammation quite efficiently. If you have a digestive issue where you cannot digest meat easily, then you should also be working on healing your gut because meat is much easier for the body to break down than plants.
On the carnivore diet, Dr. Rebecca recorded the lowest glucose reading ever even utilizing keto and other types of diets.
I don’t do it all the time but I vary my diet, I’m rarely ever doing one diet for long periods of time. The standard American diet is, unfortunately, the same foods day in and day out, but our ancestors ate depending on the seasons.
There’s no set way of eating and there is no perfect diet. Eat in a way that is nourishing your body. Food won’t heal you, your body will when you nourish your body.
I am personally mostly in ketosis, cycling out every now and then, and utilizing intermittent fasting often and the carnivore diet occasionally.
Detoxing the Body
I also do contrast showers to train my body to handle stress better. A contrast shower is a hot water then cold water shower that helps you to work on your mindset and your breathing. I do them after I sauna which is also a good health tool. With contrast showers, I am calming my mind, calming my breathing, and being mindful. This is exactly what is necessary when you’re in a stressful situation so you’re training your body to handle environmental stressors.
Chronic stress leads to chronic disease, so it's so important to train your body to better handle stress in today’s world.
I also do dry brushing which is using a wooden handle bristle brush to brush towards my heart and lymphatic to assist my body to eliminate toxins.
I love to do earthing or grounding which is simply going outside in the sun barefoot for the ion charges that helps the body to recharge and function.
Everything I’m doing is in support of my body performing its natural functions to detox and heal. Detoxification happens at a cellular level and it doesn’t happen in 30 days. Just something to think about next time you’re tempted to purchase a 30-day detox.
Acid Reflux
Ever took medication and still felt off, like this shouldn’t be happening or knowing you shouldn’t have to be taking a pill every single day? I had a patient who was in that boat. She went to the doctor, who found out she had ulcers, and they put her on medication. The problem here is that medication often makes things worse.
The side effects of the medication that is often prescribed for acid reflux are horrible. These lead to heart disease later in life.
So many of us take a pill daily for high blood pressure or heart issues without thinking about the side effects of the medications and the long-lasting effects these are having on your health.
The long-term side effect of blood pressure medication is damaging the kidneys.
Too often we see patients who have been suffering from what we call “iceberg symptoms” for far too long. Small symptoms like chronic pain, headaches, neck pain, and blood pressure are indications of bigger underlying issues. Your body is asking you to heal the bigger issue when it’s in pain and we are using pills and medication to make the symptoms go away while not healing the root cause and creating a bigger health issue by our constant use of medication.
Can Chiropractors Speak on Prescription Medications?
As chiropractors and practitioners of functional wellness, we see patients that are sick from prescription medications every day. We might not prescribe medicine, but that’s a choice. What we do is give people the lifestyle changes to take them off medicine.
We are not anti-medicine, we are anti-abuse of medicine. As a society, we are being overprescribed and made reliant on medicine instead of getting to the root cause of our symptoms and healing ourselves completely.
It is notable that a show that recommends getting to the root cause of an illness instead of being dependent on taking a medicine every day for the rest of your life would cause someone to be upset enough to call into our radio show and tell us we should have a medical doctor on who is qualified to speak on medications.
The fact is that 106,000 Americans die from prescription medications every year. That’s a fact. We believe in helping people change their lifestyles so they don’t have to rely on medicine for the rest of their life.
Dr. Nathan’s Favorite Supplements
The number one supplement I take every day, and I get upset if I run out, is molecular hydrogen. I know this sounds super weird and like a science experiment, but it reduces oxidative stress, reverses aging on cells, and brings down inflammation in the body. It also increases the function of your mitochondria as well as increase the number of mitochondria in your cells.
Could I live without it? Sure. But I love what it does so I choose to take it because it’s super powerful.
I also supplement with healthy fats such as Andrea's seed oils, PureForm omega, and Bulletproof MCT oil, but absolutely not fish oil.
I also take GCel by Systemic Formulas every day because it upregulates my glutathione which better equips my body to fight bacteria, viruses and cancer. Lastly, I take Multiminerals by Klaire Labs every day.
Disclaimer: This content is strictly the opinion of Drs. Warren and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to take the place of medical advice or treatment from a personal physician. All recipients of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding specific health questions. Drs. Warren do not take responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All recipients of this content, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, or lifestyle program.