The Autoimmune Doc Podcast w/ Dr. Taylor Krick

Genetic testing is fascinating, but I have a love-hate relationship with it as a practitioner. It is very trendy in the functional medicine/health world, and I think this makes sense - - so many people are trying to figure out WHY they feel a certain way or have certain symptoms, and testing can absolutely help answer some of the "why" questions. BUT - - genetics doesn't always answer these questions, and in many cases can muddy the waters even more. I have seen TONS of people come to me with genetic reports who aren't any better off than before they tested their genetics, and are perhaps even more confused. One gene might say you NEED methyl B vitamins, while another gene might say AVOID methyl B vitamins. I have seen TONS of people who are taking certain supplements like methyl-folate for their MTHFR mutation, but they don't respond well to it and it's actually making them worse. I have seen TONS of people who spent a lot of money on genetic reports, or on "customized" supplements based on their genes, and still haven't found the good results that they were hoping for. Does this mean it's worthless? Absolutely not, I have run TONS of genetic tests on myself and have found it very worth it, it's just not the whole story. In this podcast, I dive deeper into these opinions of mine, which aren't necessarily PRO or CON, they are just the PROS and the CONS from what I have seen working with chronic and complex clients over the past 10+ years. I talk about the books I've read, people I've followed online, the tests I've run, I talk about the most famous genes (MTHFR and gang), the most important genes for autoimmunity, mold toxicity, etc, and I talk about definitions of genomics, alleles, SNPs, and a little bit of everything "genetic", which hopefully can help YOU make some better sense of genetic testing and how you can use this tool while solving YOUR health puzzle!

We have A LOT of pregnant clients in our office right now, it's honestly crazy. Many of these women have diagnosed autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto's or Rheumatoid Arthritis. Some of them have "undiagnosed autoimmunity", like positive ANA tests, but they have no "diagnosis" - - yet. Some don't have any autoimmune diagnoses, but they have Lyme disease or mold toxicity.....and yet others with no diagnoses who just came in for management of specific symptoms like migraines, bloating, or anxiety.  There is no special "formula" for pregnant women with autoimmunity - - we want to make sure you aren't deficient on any vitamins, minerals, or nutrients, we want to avoid toxins, we want to eat anti-inflammatory, we want to exercise, we want to minimize stress.......good advice for any pregnant woman.The concern is that autoimmunity is known to flare around pregnancy., often presenting as an increase in inflammatory symptoms postpartum. We don't want that!! This episode is filled with my knowledge and opinions around pregnancy that I have developed over the years of working with pregnant patients as well as my own experiences as a parent. In this episode, I talk about my wife and I's experience(s) with miscarriages, with hospital births vs. home births, with twins vs. singletons, with V or no-V, and our personal decisions and how we made those decisions. I also talk about all the important stuff like prenatal vitamins, genetics, methylation, and more. As always I don't claim to have all the answers, but I hope my expertise, my opinions, and my thought processes help someone as they are trying to make these decisions for themselves, or I hope they help someone have a happier, healthier pregnancy!

Whether it's allergies, asthma, autism, ADHD, or autoimmunity - kids have a lot more health concerns these days - and those are just the A's!I see a lot of kids (parents) from all over the world asking me to help them with their health problems. Sometimes they are easy and see great progress from the right nutrients, killing yeast, or supporting detoxification. Sometimes they are really tricky cases. Many of the common childhood concerns of today have an immune component - recurrent infections, skin issues, allergies, autoimmune conditions, inflammation. Many of the childhood concerns have a neurologic component to them - inability to focus, hyperactivity, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, depression, anxiety, rage, inability to regulate. Why have we seen such a rise in the incidence of childhood symptoms, diseases, and developmental issues? While there are many theories regarding the exact causes, the overload of environmental toxins, immune imbalances, infections, and gut dysbiosis are ALWAYS at the top of the suspected mechanisms, which are basically my specialties and the focus of my entire podcast channel - the drivers of autoimmune disease progression. Autoimmunity is often involved as a mechanism in children's health issues, but often isn't necessarily a diagnosed autoimmune "disease". Throughout the years I have developed certain thought processes, opinions, and I have my favorite labs, supplements, and teaching tools - this podcast is basically an overview of all of it. I talk about everything from raising twins (mine are almost 10) and nature vs. nurture, Winnie the Pooh characters and neurotransmitters, I talk about some of my favorite supplements and their targeted mechanisms, and I talk about how each kid is just different and needs to be parented differently. I also talk about how I'm DEFINITELY not a perfect parent, and we all just try to raise the best kids we can!

SO - the title of this podcast pretty well summarizes what this episode is about - how I'm doing since suddenly losing my dad. 3 months ago, my dad died. He had been fine 4 weeks earlier. He had just turned 68, he was still working, he was an 8 handicap golfer, and he was perfectly fine. On December 19th he was told he had cancer, and he died exactly 3 weeks later. In this episode, I tell the whole story of what went down, but I also talk about my experience afterward handling this grief and heartbreak. It's still new, and I'm not an expert, and I think the highlight that I want people to take away is that "there is no right way", but I hope my experience and perspective is helpful and valuable to someone. This episode is just me rambling about my personal story, and then I'll be getting back to educational content :)

Ok so, I knew Dr. K was awesome, but I didn't know he was THIS AWESOME.....This is an interview with pediatrician Dr. Pejman Katiraei, DO from Santa Barbara, California. In this interview, Dr. K talks about how common it is to see mold involved in mental health issues for all ages, but especially in kids. We discuss how he evolved to where he is now regarding diagnosis and treatment and how mold and mycotoxins initially came onto his radar for these kiddos suffering from mental health issues - ADHD, OCD, anxiety, hyperactivity, etc - which I think is always interesting to hear how someone in the conventional medical field learned through experience and research how critical these mold (and other) airborne toxins can be to kids health. This interview is seriously FILLED WITH GEMS. Most of this entire conversation we are talking about the connections between mold and mental health - mycotoxins are known to disrupt dopamine, they inhibit glutamate clearance, they are neurotoxic, they activate innate immunity and neuroinflammation, they drive histamine responses, and ALL OF THIS leads to neurotransmitter, mood, and behavioral changes....so the whole time we are talking basically about the problem(s) and the solution(s), which are both varied and complex, but our conversation includes topics like:- Diagnosis or "suspicion" of mold in kids - in what kinds of cases are we (maybe) thinking mold? - How do you KNOW if you have mold in the home?- How do you KNOW if you (or your child) have mold in the body?- What are (both of our) favorite tests and treatments or supportive supplements?- How can we clean the air? HEPA filters, air purifiers, ionizers...I think my favorite part about Dr. K is that his integrity shines through in our conversation, he clearly wants what is best for the patient's outcome, he considers realistic options and cost, and he is open minded and not trying just to defend his biases. I'd like to think we are really similar in those regards, I hope so, but I just know I had a GREAT time talking with him and have a lot of respect for him, and I think a lot of people will enjoy this episode!Check out his website https://wholistickids.com/Follow him on Facebook under Wholistic Kids and on Instagram @wholistickids where he puts out GREAT CONTENT!!!!!And - send this to 3 friends with kids, and leave a rating and review if you enjoyed it!

I see a lot of neurological cases that experience symptoms like dizziness, vertigo,  lightheadedness, inability to tolerate motion, flashing lights, sounds, etc. Many of these people are not local to my area, and they are all wondering "What else can I do to help myself get better?" so I am always looking for new ways to help them.While I focus primarily on looking deeper into underlying mechanisms, root causes, neurotoxins, pathogens, gut health, autoimmunity, etc, one thing that anyone who is experiencing these symptoms can do is VESTIBULAR REHABILITATION, so we have recommended VizStim kits to many of our clients.My guest on today's episode is Dr. Ashley Contreras, the creator and founder of VizStim. She is a physical therapist who specializes in vestibular issues and vestibular rehab, and throughout her 15-year career has developed this amazing kit of exercises to help people retrain their vestibular system. It's an inexpensive, easy-to-use, at-home kit with a wide variety of different exercises, journals, and levels of difficulty designed to walk through your progress as you are retraining your vestibular system. I've used it with my kids, it's super easy to use, easy to teach, and as long as you are willing to do the exercises and put in a few minutes of rehab each day, it is AWESOME. The vestibular system is a complex system in the brain that detects how your head and body are existing in relation to their surroundings - are your eyes level with gravity, are you moving, what position are you in, etc. When those signals get disrupted, from concussions, infections, neurotoxins, spinal subluxations and other injuries, etc, even the slightest miscue in signaling can make your body feel uneasy, unstable, nauseous, like the room is moving, or can fire to the amygdala and create a lot of anxiety or fear. When this system is disrupted, it can be retrained and rewired. I discuss the vestibular system quite a bit more in podcast number 47 (Brain Regions), and we discuss this much more in this podcast episode, so listen to the episode to learn more, and check out VizStim , and follow VizStim Recovery on social media for some great tips and tricks!

So many people in the functional medicine world, whether it be from their past adverse  events, the pandemic, from Lyme disease, mold toxicity, from being gaslighted by doctors, or trying failed therapies, etc - - SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE SOME DEGREE OF PTSD, LIMBIC SYSTEM DYSFUNCTION, and now experience an IMBALANCED STRESS RESPONSE, DYSAUTONOMIA, and other debilitating symptoms. So, we all know about stress. There is the mental stress that we all know about, but also physical stress (too much water is a stressor, too little water is a stressor, leaky gut, injuries, etc) as well as toxic stress (mold, mercury, pesticides, etc) - - and your body responds to stress as potential DANGER - you prepare to "fight-or-flight". So, STRESS is your body's response to potential danger..... DANGER is either real or perceived - you can tell someone they should be scared and they will be, or tell them they should NOT be scared and they will NOT be......but abuse is a danger, toxins are a danger, viruses are a danger..... Your limbic system of your brain connects memories with experiences, and will "remember" these instances of danger and the stress response, and the limbic system includes regions like the amygdala (fear sensing), the hippocampus (memory), and the hypothalamus/pituitary (stress response).Repeated exposure to (or perception of) DANGER leads to limbic system dysfunction, PTSD, and an imbalanced stress response.....your body begins to treat EVERYTHING as a danger. All of this stress, true danger, and the perception of danger/stress triggers something called The Cell Danger Response, which is fascinating, I have a Youtube Video about it linked below, but your cells, your nervous system, your stress response system begins to respond to EVERYTHING AS A DANGER.HOW CAN YOU REWIRE THIS RESPONSE???This is gaining popularity in the healthcare world as an important piece to healing. It's increasingly being talked about at seminars and in practitioner circles as well as with patient stories, but there are a lot of different options, recommendations, programs, etc to choose from. In this podcast I go through 4 major "categories" you can work on for rewiring your nervous system, and within each of these categories I talk about many potential strategies, including:Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve to decrease sympathetic dominanceTENS DeviceGargling/Gagging/HummingCoffee EnemaChallenge Your AUTONOMIC INPUTSBreath workTemperature - cold plunges, contrast showersHR - HeartMath or other HRV trainingChallenge Your Visual and Sensory InputsVestibular exercises like VizStim (next podcast episode!)ChiropracticChallenge Your Psychological InputsLimbic System Retraining ProgramsNeurolinguistic programming - Gratitude/AffirmationsAll that, and more, are discussed in detail in the episode. Give it a listen, give a 5-star review, and subscribe for more content, including my next podcast interview with Dr. Ashley Contreras talking about dizziness and rewiring the vestibular syste Here are some of things worth linking to.....VizStimGupta Program How to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve with a TENS DeviceHow to Use Binaural Beats to Shift Gears in your BrainWhy You Become Hypersensitive - Cell Danger Response and Limbic System Dysfunction

Alright it's been WAY TOO LONG since I released a podcast, so I am starting to do some interviews to keep having good content come out on my channel :)This "interview" is a discussion with my friend and colleague Dr. Mark Su MD. Dr. Su is well-known in many practitioner forums because he chimes in often with really insightful and helpful replies to fellow practitioners' queries, questions, and concerns when trying to help complex health cases, which is why I thought he would be a great person to chat with. In clinical practice, Dr. Su blends together traditional primary care medicine with "functional", or root-cause medicine, and he has developed a broad knowledge base with expertise in traditional pharmacology, but also in nutraceuticals, lab testing, resonance/muscle testing, Lyme and tick-borne illnesses, mold toxicity and environmentally acquired illness -  - all the things I love to talk about on this podcast!There really isn't a "topic" or "theme" to this interview, but I have a lot of respect for Dr. Su when it comes to dealing with chronic and complex diseases, I share a lot of his viewpoints, and really just wanted to get him on here and pick his brain about some things, and this is what came from our conversation :) ENJOY!

Sinus problems are rampant. Americans spend over $1 Billion annually to treat sinus problems with over-the-counter medications, which is crazy. It's not just common in the chronic illness world and in the autoimmune world, and ESPECIALLY in the mold world, it's common in everyone. Sinus inflammation is interesting. I have had really great success healing my own sinuses. I'm not recommending that everyone (or anyone) do what I did, but what I REALLY DID was I spent several years intensely studying deep immunology and the Ear, Nose, and Throat and Allergy literature, read 100s of studies, and used things like high dose supplements and essential oils to have really good success with nasal polyps and chronic sinusitis. I haven't had sinus issues for over 3 years. Here is a video of what I did to get rid of nasal polyps, it's crazy.  When I talk about sinuses, I'm also talking about ENT areas - ear infections, tonsils, sore throats, pharyngitis, which includes things like Strep and PANDAS, but most of my success was with the nose. The whole ENT region is a hotbed of infections and pathogens, and is right across the wall from the brain, and things like antibodies, histamine, chemical toxins, inflammatory cytokines, and mycotoxins from mold can ride the "olfactory elevator" (as Dr. Jill Crista calls it) right up to the brain - right to deep, midline areas like the frontal cortex (brain fog, etc), pituitary (hormones), amygdala (anxiety, fear, etc), hypothalamus (temp, dysautonomia, etc), neurological dysfunctions and more.  Sinus inflammation drives many immune mechanisms, including Th2 and eosinophilic inflammation, mast cell activation and histamine, and Th17 inflammation, which is tissue-damaging autoimmune inflammation and will drive autoimmune progression. THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF THE PUZZLE!  One thing that can drive this immune activation are chronic biofilms including Strep, Staph (MARCoNS), and Mold/Yeast that are incredibly persistent and antibiotic resistant. Biofilm colonies, like in the gut, grow on sinuses, adenoids, tonsils (that's why they remove them!) and ENT surfaces - and when they adhere to a surface they are over 1000x harder to kill, and they are highly persistent and antibiotic resistant. THIS IS THE OTHER MOST IMPORTANT PIECE! In this episode I talk about 4 levels of supporting sinus inflammation naturally:1 - Breathe Clean Air!!!! Allergies are obviously an issue....You can't be living in mold....I talk about air purifiers, mold candles, HVAC filters, and more.2 - Fix your Gut and Balance your Immune System - I talk about using things like probiotics, herbal killers, SCFA, vitamins D and A, glutathione, perilla, quercetin, luteolin, etc to support barrier integrity, mast cell activation, Th2 dominance.3 - Break Biofilms and Kill Infections - Nasal Spray, Neti Pot, Nebulizer, Gargle - I talk about using essential oils, iodine, hydrogen peroxide, silver, propolis, aqualaurin, biocidin, etc to break up biofilms and help kill pathogens. 4 - Maintain - I talk about the importance of breathing clean air, doing regular nasal rinses, and more to maintain. This is not medical advice, but many people have seen their ENT with very little answer besides antihistamines, antibiotics, or steroids, so these are just some of the things that people are doing out there, and hopefully it can help you solve YOUR puzzle!I also mention this, my favorite newsletter and started by an amazing ENT surgeon:www.sinusitiswellness.com

Not everyone gets well in functional medicine. There are a lot of people sick and suffering in the world, and not everyone even becomes aware of the direct connection between diet, lifestyle, toxins, environment, stress, and other exposome factors as drivers of disease, but still sometimes even someone who seemingly does everything right still doesn't get great results. What separates those who DO HEAL from those who DON'T HEAL? One of, if not THE MOST IMPORTANT THING, is a HEALING MINDSET. There are many big picture things that I discuss in this podcast about a successful healing mindset, using some actual examples, and some personal rants, but talking about things such as:- Do they understand the big picture - that toxins, foods, infections, stress, other exposome factors cause dysfunctional  processes on a cellular level, that lead to disease processes expressing over time? - Are they connecting these mechanistic dots - this leads to this leads to this? You don't need to be an expert, but understanding the mechanisms helps understand the solutions.....- Do they have the discipline necessary to make dietary restrictions, lifestyle changes, and stay the course? It's not about perfection either, it's about progression.- Are they a "dabbler" and have they bounced around different practitioners, tried dozens of supplements? This is a red flag!!- Are they committed financially? Do they even care about their financial investment?These questions are important for practitioners to ask when attracting the right clientele, but also important for patients to ask about themselves, their motivation, determination, discipline, and mindset.HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART - - MINDSET CAN BE TRAINED!!! It's so important to train this growth mindset with your health and constantly remind yourself of your goals, targets, intentions, motivations to stay the course. It's ALSO really important to retrain your cells and your Limbic System, and in this podcast I talk about ways to do this, including constantly filling your brain with thoughts and words of Safety, Gratitude, Epigrams, Affirmations,  I talk about Limbic System retraining programs like DNRS and the Gupta Program, and this youtube video about Cell Danger Response and Limbic System Dysfunction.

OK SO - - I help people solve their health puzzles, and they are often complex puzzles. I love it, but it can be a little confusing to explain what I do, especially if you are just getting into the "chronic health problems" world.....but my expertise is in connecting the dots on symptoms, mechanisms, physical diagnosis and lab interpretation and using those clues to help people solve puzzles. So we start with a very detailed health history (90 mins), then this guides us towards certain lab testing, then based on the history, symptoms, and lab testing I give recommendations consisting of diet, lifestyle, and supplement protocols. This is similar to many health practitioners, but what SETS ME APART is my clinical experience, knowledge, and ability to explain these mechanisms to people so they make sense, give them goals, keep them on track, and put their puzzle pieces in the right order. Hopefully if you have heard the podcast you have realized that they way I put puzzle pieces together is different than most, so we are able to solve puzzles that most can't solve. At least that's always my goal :)Krystal was referred to my office, and initially she had A LOT OF SYMPTOMS - regular headaches, light sensitivity, vertigo, chemical sensitivities, hormone imbalances, she was taking 4 naps a day, she had a history of prednisone and other medication usage, she had to use her rescue inhaler all the time, she was sensitive to fragrances, foods, had gut inflammation with a severely restricted diet, you name it. I told her when she came in that she was one of my top 3 most sensitive patients, and that's a hard prize to win!! So then we ran labs, we took lots of supplements, we did parasite cleanses, coffee enemas, detox support, etc etc....and now she is doing great....That's the long story short. The details are in the podcast, but we talk about the MINDSET required for healing, we talk about her journey, we talk about how we EXPECTED roadblocks and setbacks, but we figured them out and we worked through them. This is a great podcast, but my favorite part is hearing Krystal's mindset and the way she thought about healing. My recommendations and protocols are NOT what separates who gets well and who doesn't get well, mindset does. This is YOUR health journey, not mine. It's YOUR responsibility. Krystal is a Life Coach, and we talk extensively about how her skills in that area helped her have the healing mindset necessary to get good results, and how she has helped other people change the way they THINK about their symptoms, illness, or healing journey. If you are in need a great life coach, look her up!!@krystal.stegmaier on instagramKystal Stegmaier - Life Coach on Facebookand her website:krystalstegmaierlifecoach.comIf you are interested in working with me, you can schedule a New Client Consultation with me here, or check out our Instagram, Youtube, check out our website www.autoimmunedocpodcast.com or listen to more podcast episodes to learn more about my approach to complex illnesses.

Autoimmune Doc Supplement Store Limbic System and Cell Danger Response Video Binaural Beats VideoHere is the final episode in my 4-part series on the brain - Brain Solutions. This episode ties together the previous 3 episodes: you have to understand some of the general targets you are aiming at - neuroinflammation, methylation, oxygenation, low omega 3s - that is episode one, Brain Overview. Next you have to understand the neurotransmitters - dopamine, serotonin, GABA, acetylcholine - this is episode two. Last, you have to understand the brain regions - the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hypothalamus, cerebellum - this is episode three, Brain Regions. NOW, you can choose your tools from the solutions tool box, and that is what this episode is all about. In this episode I focus on the tools that I personally use, which are typically inexpensive and non-invasive, but I also give my opinion on several other options that are out there available for people who can access them, such as hyperbaric oxygen therapy and neurofeedback. Many of these solutions are the specific supplements that I suggest to support neuroinflammation or neurotransmitters, when I might recommend using them, and how I would use them, but I also discuss other tools for vagus nerve stimulation, vestibular rehabilitation, and more.  There are a lot of options out there and a lot of opinions, I hope this helps you choose the right tools for you. Purchase TENS Devices, supplements, and more at our online supplement store!Schedule a New Client Consultation with me HERE.

Here is episode #3 in my series on brain health.....let's recap.The brain is complex. There are important mechanisms (neuroinflammation), functions (neuronal signaling), neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, GABA), and regions that are helpful to understand for those out there trying to support their brain or support a certain symptom such as brain fog or heightened anxiety. The first episode was about general brain health, the second was about neurotransmitters and their functions, and this episode is about specific brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the cerebellum. For example, the amygdala is part of the brain's Limbic System. The amygdala is the "fear center" and increased amygdala activity is associated with heightened anxiety....but the neurotransmitters involved may be epinephrine and GABA, and the mechanism may be microglial neuroinflammation, which may be triggered by mast cell activation, and the underlying cause(s) could be gut inflammation, it could be a traumatic childhood, or it could be mold toxins, or gluten, or it could be a combination, and it's always a combination of factors that need to be addressed. Understanding these brain regions and their functions can give you options (that aren't just supplements...) for training or rehabilitating a specific area, such as specific exercises you can easily do at home, or avoiding gluten and dairy to avoid cerebellar cross-reactivity. My next episode will tie all of these brain puzzle pieces together. It's all about brain solutions (which I give a lot of in this episode as well...), including all the supplements, brain exercise programs, and dietary strategies that I employ when trying to help someone support their brain health and function, and all of the options available and when or why you might consider using them. Enjoy! Leave a rating and review, and share this with a friend or family member with a brain!

One of the most important things a healthy brain needs is appropriate neurotransmitter activity. Neurotransmitters regulate our brain function, our energy, our focus, our mood, and our lives. Imbalances in neurotransmitters can come from many things, including past trauma, unhealthy relationships, bad habits, chronic stress, poor gut health, crappy diet, toxins, autoimmunity, neuroinflammation....the list goes on and on, but it can be helpful to know which neurotranmitters are imbalanced in the hopes of supporting your specific brain functions and symptoms. The most important neurotransmitters, which I discuss in this podcast, are:Serotonin - regulates some aspects of mood, appetite, happiness, enjoyment of activities, appreciation of art. Acetylcholine - regulates working memory, computation, muscle contractions, and parasympathetic nervous system (vagus nerve) activity to the gut.Dopamine - important for motivation, pleasure, focus, mood, addiction, thrill-seeking.Epinephrine/Norepinephrine - aka "adrenaline", stimulates "fight or flight" stress response centrally in the brain and also peripherally from the adrenal glands. GABA - the primary "calming" neurotransmitter, GABA is inhibitory and is often inadequate in symptoms of anxiety, depression, and neuroexcitation.These neurotransmitters can all be modulated with lifestyle strategies and targeted nutraceuticals, whether it be providing the building blocks for the neurotransmitters itself (tyrosine for dopamine for example), or impacting the receptor sensitivity (L-theanine for GABA), or using nutrients to support certain pathways like the Kynurenine Pathway, Dopamine Beta Hydroxylase, or other genetic pathways (COMT, MTHFR, MAO) of neurotransmitter metabolism. Supporting neurotransmitter metabolism can be a game changer when supporting brain function, and my goal is to teach people how to solve their own puzzles, so I hope this is helpful, next episode is part 3/4, brain regions!

Anxiety, Mast Cell Activation, and LPS (video)Cell Danger Response and Limbic System Dysfunction (video)Anxiety, Neuroinflammation, and Autoimmunity (podcast)Your brain is the most complex organ in an incredibly complex body, and it's running the show. I continue to see a massive uptick in brain-based symptoms coming into my clinic (and everyone else's), such as depression, anxiety, depersonalization, derealization, dizziness, vertigo, fatigue, brain fog, memory loss, panic attacks, bipolar episodes, nausea, pain syndromes, and so much more. I have a lot of brain-related content available, and I linked some at the top of the show notes for this episode. My goal with this series is to help people understand how all these puzzle pieces fit together - neurotransmitters, brain regions, how to use all of the different tools available. Today's episode is an overview of some of the more important concepts in the brain, and reviewing what a healthy brain needs:Neurotransmitter Activity - serotonin, dopamine, acetylcholine, epinephrine/norepinephrine, GABAAdequate Oxygen - good blood flow, no anemiaSteady Fuel - no hypoglycemia, and no insulin resistanceProper Lipid Morphology - omega 3s, DHA, phosphatidylcholineHealthy Stimulation - learning, fun, skills, memory, coordination, visual complexity, connecting with other humansHormone Balance - estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, cortisol (steroid hormones), thyroid Gut-Brain Connection - good micro biome, bacterial diversity and abundance, no infections/overgrowths, good vagus nerve activityHealthy Circadian Rhythms - good light exposure, good sleep....I also briefly talk through a patient's case history and some of her symptoms, lab findings, and how we have kept her brain healthy and kept her symptoms under control over the past several years. The next several episodes will be more of this, teaching you how to solve your own puzzle!

Long Haulers UPDATED (video)Long Haulers Mechanisms (video)SARS-CoV-2 and the gut-brain-lung axis (video review of a research paper)From the onset of the pandemic through the last (almost) 3 years, we have continued to find out new things about how people respond after coronavirus infection. Not surprisingly, there is more and more research coming out indicating that an increased autoimmune response may be responsible for many of the lingering symptoms. Early on in the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 was nicknamed "The Autoimmune Virus" because it appeared to be triggering more of an autoimmune response than other viral infections. As science has continued to evolve our understanding, it turns out that COVID infection is absolutely associated with increased autoimmunity - both exacerbation of existing autoimmunity as well as new autoimmunity. Autoimmunity is the process in which the body "loses self tolerance" for tissues of the body and begins to initiate an immune "attack" against self-tissue (thyroid, joints, brain, gut, etc) as if they were a foreign invader - which leads to chronic inflammation, tissue damage, and a gradual loss of function, and can eventually become a diagnosed autoimmune "disease" like Type 1 Diabetes or Rheumatoid Arthritis. One of the ways that viruses can trigger autoimmunity is by means of "molecular mimicry", or what can be described as a case of "mistaken identity". In this podcast I describe it like this - I have a blue F150 pickup truck, extended cab, long bed. There are many blue F150s on the road, so what if the police were looking for a blue F150 and they accidentally pull ME over instead of the bad guy they are looking for? That's a case of mistaken identity. Well COVID antibodies can also misdirect their immune attack, and they can accidentally attack many tissues, and in this episode I go through dozens of different autoantibodies that have now been associated with COVID - - thyroid autoantibodies, neurological autoantibodies, mitochondrial autoantibodies, and more. We now know that COVID infection can lead to a myriad of symptoms, and they can all be described as the "long-haul", but the mechanisms can be all quite different, so they are NOT all the same thing, and it's not fair to group everyone together as "long-haulers". You could have POTS, dysautonomia, clotting/coagulation, neurological (depression, brain fog, and TONS of anxiety...), digestive changes, fatigue, or you could develop post-COVID diabetes or arthritis.....as science continues to learn more are we going to find that it's ALL autoimmune in nature?? Only time will tell, but I believe that treating any condition as if it were an autoimmune case is never a bad approach - decrease inflammation, balance the immune system, and look for (and remove) any root cause triggers!

Your liver is seriously pretty amazing. I'm a 'mechanisms' kind of guy, and the liver is the king of mechanisms, including:- The liver is crucial for metabolism, regulating blood sugar, lipid, and protein metabolism.- The liver participates in immune surveillance and pathogen clearance, and is intimately connected with the gut. - The liver performs "hepatic biotransformation", or transforming toxins into things that can be excreted, aka DETOXIFICATION. The liver can be damaged by many things including lifestyle, alcohol, viruses, parasites, and especially toxins. As liver damage progresses, the liver becomes more congested, toxins begin to accumulate, and metabolic dysfunction can follow. Liver damage is generally a spectrum of worsening fibrosis, and often starts with "fatty liver" and then progresses toward cirrhosis, which is liver scarring. Liver damage can be detected by several labs, and I discuss these labs in detail. In the liver there are many functions, but this podcast focuses mostly on hepatic biotransformation, or detoxification. This includes Phase 1 and Phase 2 of liver detox, cytochrome P450, and includes processes like methylation, sulfation, conjugation, and more. These processes require many cofactors such as B vitamins and amino acids, and I discuss these all in detail. There are also many genetic mutations that can affect liver and detoxification, so I discuss these as well, along with the common and popular liver supplements and what their mechanisms are. All together this is a comprehensive overview of everything I know about the liver and how I use that information clinically in helping sick people get well!Youtube video about Liver, Carnitine, and Depression....

Parasites are interesting. That word means different things to different people, some people are terrified of the idea of worms living inside their body, but at the same time parasite cleanses are super trendy on Instagram and social media, and yet some people think that parasite cleansing is the solution to all health problems....which one is it?Parasites are paradoxical in the research world, many areas of the world that have endemic parasitic infections have virtually no autoimmunity, and helminth therapy is actually an incredibly promising treatment for certain autoimmune cases. The reason that parasites are so relevant in the population of people that I see is because of our junk food supply, the toxins everywhere, and the rampant metabolic and immune disruption -  - but they aren't always the ONLY culprit, they show up more often with the presence of heavy metals, Candida, SIBO, mold and other toxins. When they are recognized as bad, they elicit a strong and specific immune response that I talk about in detail in the podcast, triggering a Th2 immune response via IL-4 and activating mast cells and histamine, and often keeping someone stuck there (sound familiar??) as they become allergic to more foods, chemicals, and more sensitive to their world. They can also drive inflammatory bowel processes, cause liver and gallbladder issues, disrupt neurotransmitters, infect the brain, and much more. While I certainly do NOT believe that parasites are a piece of every person's health puzzle, I do think "parasite cleansing" can be incredibly helpful in the right situation. In this podcast I share my personal opinions and personal experiences that I have had with parasites (including when I passed one!) and many stories of helping people with them, and they are pretty drastic stories. I also talk about the testing available and what I personally look for, as well as the supplements and protocols I recommend for people and how those are given, and basically everything that I know and think about parasites! Leave a rating, review, share this episode with a friend!!

Ok so let's talk about gut health. Gut health and detox are pretty much the two most important topics, and toxins affect gut health....but good gut health is necessary for proper detoxification.....I think gut health wins. At least for this next podcast series :) Gut health is foundational to health, inflammation, and aging. It's so crucial, but so few people seem to have it mastered IF they are still experiencing symptoms, and I mean ANY symptoms - joint pain, fatigue, anxiety, depression, bipolar, metabolic, certainly autoimmune flares, not just digestive symptoms. I'm going to go deeper into some specific topics in the next few episodes, but this one is an overview, and I made a list of the 10 most important things for gut health. The first 3 are symptoms, the next 4 are mechanisms, and the last 3 are infections, and understanding these 10 things will give you a pretty good grasp on understanding gut health and digestion overall!Diarrhea - I talk about IBS, IBD, low microbiome and good bacteria/probiotics, glutamine, mast cells, and hydrogen SIBO....Constipation - I talk dysbiosis/methane, and a LOT about vagal motor outflow and vagus nerve activity that controls motility as well as HCL, bile, enzymes....Bloating - When I hear bloating I think small intestine and fermentation. Dysbiosis is often at the root, which includes proper digestion (HCL and bile), and I touch on SIBO/SIFO, avoiding FODMAPs foods....Digestion - This is critical!! Chewing your food, being in parasympathetic mode, then proper stomach acid - it can be too high (mast cells) or too low (more common), pancreatic digestive enzymes, bile from the gallbladder (steatocrit), and of course VAGUS BABY!Dysbiosis - The 10 lbs of bacteria in your gut can become imbalanced. Low good bacteria, general microbiome imbalances…..and LPS!!!!!Leaky Gut - Everyone can have some intestinal permeability, is yours pathological, and if so what kind is it - paracellular or transcellular? Food Sensitivities - IgG testing, and how food sensitivities can drive autoimmune reactivity, general inflammatory tone, and initiate T cell mediated tissue damageSIBO - Bloating! Fermentation of fibers, starches, sugars, FODMAPs ...why you need HCL, bile, vagus outflow……Why I think SIBO testing is dumb….Candida - OMG….the single biggest thing I see. Antibiotics, sugar, stress, birth control, mold exposure, can drive a Th17 inflammatory response (autoimmune), can also drive Th2 (and both will decrease Th1)......and why I love urinary organic acids testing for fungal issues.Parasites - this I am going to do a whole episode on because it's crazy, it's quite frankly pretty controversial in the autoimmune world, is it better to have or to not have them??? The answer is IT DEPENDS. But I do talk about someone who was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and it actually seemed to be a parasitic infection, pretty interesting story :)Share this with someone, subscribe, leave a rating and review, and follow me elsewhere!

Ok so the past several episodes have been about toxins, and this is the last and perhaps most important episode - how do you avoid toxins? Well, we don't sell plastic bubbles......Toxins are everywhere, and detoxifying and removing them from your body is often a really important piece of healing from any inflammatory or autoimmune condition, but what if you have never experienced many symptoms or chronic disease? It's just as important!!In this episode I drop a ton of recommendations and suggestions (as always) for areas of your life to focus on if your goal is a non-toxic lifestyle, including:Clean Air  - I think this is the most important/underlooked area in non-toxic living!! Indoor air quality matters more than outdoor air quality (where do you live? indoors.), but both matter. Particulate matter, dust, mold, mycotoxins, pollution, formaldehyde, VOCs, off-gassing - - I discuss all of these risks in this episode along with air purifiers, air scrubbers, special filters, formaldehyde meters, ozone, and more for CLEAN AIR!Clean Water - this one is pretty easy to understand and something that many people address - - filter your water! Water could have metals, medications, hormones, pesticides and other toxins toxins toxins - - and sometimes well water is worse than municipal - - and I talk about all these risks. The solution is to filter your water, but what is the best??? My answer may surprise you.....(listen to the episode!)Clean Food - another fairly well-understood and obvious one, but besides the problems with some "natural" foods (high sugar, vegetable oils, gluten, dairy, lectins), your food is TOXIC!!! Food has pesticides, aluminum, dyes, preservatives, and all sorts of toxins that need to be removed via your detoxification pathways. Eat organic, but I also talk about the value of knowing where your food comes from and some of the resources my family utilizes to get clean food. Clean Skin - I admit this is not my specialty, I don't really use anything on my skin, but the point is that the stuff is TOXIC, and these toxins accumulate and affect things like hormones and fertility. Aluminum in deodorant, sodium laurel sulfate in shampoo, parabens in lotion, coal tar in lipstick, VOCs in nail polish - - don't put anything on your skin you wouldn't eat!!Clean Brain - believe it or not, I'm not talking about neurotoxins in this section, I'm talking about what you put into your MIND - - is social media and video games or books and positive affirmations? Your brain can be neurotoxic with aluminum, pesticides, or mycotoxins, but a toxic MIND can sometimes be even worse. I also touch on a few other things - - exercise, sauna, and probably more :) As always, let me know what you think, leave a rating or review, and follow my social channels!!

Purchase these detoxification products HERE!Ok this series is a lot like the mitochondria series, it requires multiple episodes because order to understand the solutions you have to understand the mechanisms first. Last episode was all about the most important "big picture" concepts for detoxification such as understanding the old "toxic bucket" metaphor, my next episode will be about how to make sure you aren't filling the bucket....but this episode is all about how you empty the toxic bucket - aka how you DETOXIFY YOUR BODY. In this episode I go over MANY MANY tools that I use regularly to support detoxification, including lifestyle strategies like sauna, coffee enema, rebounding, etc and I give my opinion on various supplement companies, individual ingredients (different important vitamins, herbs, amino acids, etc), and also all the specific products that I like and use regularly, and why I like them, including support for: Bowel FunctionKidney FunctionLiver and Bile FlowLymph DrainageBINDERS!GlutathioneMethylationMitochondriaCell Membrane Supportand lots, lots more. ENJOY! Please leave a rating and review, follow me on Instagram and Youtube, and share with a friend!!

Detox Pathways and Protocols (Youtube)Free 15-min phone consult!Website and Supplement Store So - yup, toxins are a big problem. We are exposed to tons of them, and if our bodies aren't detoxifying properly, they can accumulate or cause damage to our cells, organs, and systems and wreak havoc on our lives. So how do you make sure you aren't overflowing your bucket? Here are 10 Important Concepts:Bucket Theory explains everything - keep this in mind if things are NOT getting better. SOMETHING is still filling the bucket from somewhere if you are actively trying to detoxify and leading a non-toxic life and you aren't improving. You have to empty the bucket faster than you are filling - you either aren't emptying it well, or you are still exposed somewhere.Breathing - There are only a few "exits" for things to get out of the body, breath is one of them. Think about a roadside alcohol test - you breathe out toxins to get rid of them.Peeing - this one is more obvious that you are "getting rid of waste", but the kidneys filter toxins and toxic metabolites, and you pee them out, so that system has to be working well too. Pooping - This one is the most obvious - - waste is bad so you want to get it out of you!! Your poop is how you get rid of MANY MANY toxins, and if your gut is not moving well, everything else backs up. Sweating - You are slightly limited on how much you can speed up your breathing, peeing, and pooping, but you can always open the other exit - sweat. Many toxins have been found excreted in the sweat - mycotoxins, BPA, parabens, metals, etc, so sweating is crucial for detoxification.Liver/Bile Flow - The liver filters toxins (through many processes - phase I and II, cytochrome P450 enzymes, glutathione, conjugation, glucuronidation, methylation, etc). These toxins are then put into bile, which is stored and released by the gallbladder. You have to have good liver function to filter the toxins, and then you have to have good gallbladder function and bile flow for the toxins to get into the gut, then you have to be pooping for them to get out.Lymph Drainage - The lymphatic system is one way that toxins and waste products are transported around the body to be excreted, and your lymphatic system has to be moving, it can't be stagnant. Cell Membranes - Toxins damage your cell membranes (including mitochondrial membrane), causing lipid peroxidation, stiffening, and poor membrane fluidity. Then toxins can also STORE in the cell membranes, so you need good healthy cell membrane support - this can be really important for detoxification.Mitochondria - THEY DO IT ALL!!!! Toxins store in the mitochondria, they damage the mitochondria, they affect fatty acid beta oxidation, Kreb's Cycle, Oxidative Phosphorylation, all the things - and mitochondria power detoxification in the liver, organs, cells, etc. It's all mitochondrial!Relevant Genes - There are a lot of relevant genes in detoxification, and it's super important. Many of them relate to "methylation", like MTHFR, COMT, PEMT, HNMT, but there are many others that regulate processes like glutathione recycling, cytochrome P450 activity, and many many more. 

www.autoimmunedocpodcast.comThe thyroid is a REALLY, REALLY important gland. Thyroid hormones regulate your metabolic rate and because of that, are important for basically every function in your body to work properly - all of your energy, healing, digestion, brain function, cellular functions, all of it. Every single cell in your body has receptors for thyroid hormones. It's also the target of the single most prevalent autoimmune disease in the U.S. - Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and millions of Americans have diagnosed thyroid conditions, while potentially 100s of millions have subclinical thyroid "problems". The thyroid is very susceptible to damage from toxins, so in this podcast I talk about those toxins, what they are, where they come from, and why you should be scared of them. The toxins are, in no particular order:- BPA - found in plastics, receipts, etc- Mercury - found in fish, dental fillings, some vaccines- Perchlorate - mostly found in fertilizers and drinking water- Fluoride - mostly found in drinking water and dentist's officesToxins cause problems. Sometimes they bind to tissue and cause adducts and autoimmunity. Sometimes they block receptors, sometimes they just deplete glutathione and drive oxidative damage causing cellular inflammation. But no matter their mechanism, they can wreak havoc on your health (hence the obvious name....they are TOXIC, duh!), and it's very important to know about them and how to avoid them - if you want to avoid problems like thyroid problems!!Youtube Video about BPA and Autoimmunity!Listen back to the last episode (TOXINS TOXINS TOXINS!) and my previous episode on Toxins and Autoimmunity (episode 25), and my previous episodes on the Thyroid Puzzle - episodes 14, 15, and 16!

www.autoimmunedocpodcast.comOMG where do I begin with toxins?!?This episode is just me talking about toxins and the problems associated with chronic toxin exposure. I share some opinions, I share some stories, I share some science, but the bottom line is that toxins are making us sicker quicker, and it's a TOTAL EXPOSURE thing, not simply this toxin or that toxin. It's your TOXIC BUCKET, and it fills drop by drop. In this episode I give a shout out to Dr. Jill Carnahan MD and her personal story with toxins (cancer, Crohn's, Mold...), I talk about toxins from fertilizers, golf courses, drinking water, hair and nail salons, glass work, even just my office tested high for formaldehyde from the carpet. I also talk a little bit about carnitine, the liver, genetics, and some of my interesting patients - mothers and sons, daughters, sisters, the similarity in their testing results and the genetics that they likely share, along with the environment. I don't think I talked about glutathione in this episode at all?!?! Don't worry, I will soon :)This podcast is just me talking about toxins and toxicity and not as much of a "lecture", but I think it's interesting and valuable content and I hope you do too. I also often think that if you heard some of the stories that I hear day in and day out, you would take toxins pretty seriously too!

How to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve with a TENS DeviceUPDATED Vagus Nerve Stimulation Video with new Ear ClipsResearch Studies on Vagus Nerve and Brain (video)Vagus Nerve Stimulation "has been life-changing!" (video)BUY a TENS and EAR CLIPS: www.autoimmunedocpodcast.comThe Vagus Nerve is the primary nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system, and it has gained wild popularity lately in the scientific and biohacking, alternative wellness, and autoimmune disease communities. As the primary nerve of the PNS, the vagus is largely responsible for "pushing the brakes" on the stress response, the sympathetic nervous system. The vagus innervates the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, gallbladder, diaphragm, entire digestive tract, and more. It's two way nerve 'superhighway system' acts as the modulator of the "gut-brain connection", sending sensory signals upward from all of your organs and sending signals downward regulating stomach acid, enzyme, and bile release, digestive motility, and more, and back up to your brain. Decreased vagal tone is associated with both inflammatory digestive diseases as well as psychiatric diseases like depression and PTSD. The vagus also sends nerves to the spleen, and its activation blocks the release of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha (TNFa), and in the liver blocks Interleukin 6 release from Kuppfer cells, all through something called the Cholinergic Anti-Inflammatory pathway. The only place on the outside of the body that the vagus nerve travels is part of the ear, oddly enough, but the vagus nerve can be stimulated by acupressure or my preferred method which I talk about in the podcast - using an inexpensive TENS Device with an ear clip. The vagus nerve can also be stimulated by yoga, mediation, acupuncture, chiropractic, deep breathing, contrast showers, humming, gargling, and gagging, and I speak on all of these things in this episode!

Anxiety was escalating at a rapid rate before 2020, and now it's just crazy. Long-haulers, mandates, lockdowns, wars, masks, headlines, our kids.....let's just say it isn't expected to  get any better anytime soon, hence counseling services are increasing, doctors visits and prescriptions are increasing, but so are people searching for information and trying to solve their anxiety puzzle without medications, on their own. There are tons of options for medications, supplements, and general advice out there - where do you turn and what do you do?? Understand the mechanisms of anxiety, neuroinflammation, and autoimmunity. UNDERSTANDING MECHANISMS PROVIDE SOLUTIONS!I have at least 20 things in my Vitamin Store that I have used in my clinic that have helped people tremendously with anxiety, including magnesium, CBD, L-theanine, B6 and other B vitamins, keto diet, avoiding gluten or dairy, binders, methyl donors, sauna,  herbs for pathogens, probiotics, adaptogens, vagus nerve stimulation. Some of these people were mold, Lyme, EBV, IBS, or autoimmune disease patients with a list of 10+ other symptoms, but some were kids, moms, dads, people who just dealt with a lot of anxiety but otherwise had few complaints. It can happen to anybody. What are the mechanisms for YOU?? Here is a list of 10 things you need to know about when searching for the next clue to solve your health puzzle:1. Mitochondria - the batteries behind it all!! Also the cause behind it all.....listen to episodes 30, 31, 32 for more info on mitochondria but you have a QUADRILLION of them in your brain, so they are kinda important.....2. Brain Cells - Neurons vs. Microglia vs. Mast Cells vs. Astrocytes.....you don't need to know everything, but a little bit about each one can help!3. Brain Regions - limbic regions - amygdala, insula, hippocampus, hypothalamus; cerebellar-vestibular regions4. Neurotransmitters - GABA/Glutamate, Serotonin, Dopamine, Acetycholine, Epinephrine, Norepipheprine5. Hormones - HPA Axis (adrenals), Thyroid, Androgens, Estrogens, and most importantly Cortisol 6. Blood-Brain-Barrier - protector of the brain - damaged by head traumas, glutathione depletion, histamine, gut inflammation and permeability (leaky gut)7. Dysfunctional Pathways - Reactive Oxygen/Nitrogen Species (ROS/RNS), LPS, Mast Cell Activation, Kynurenine Pathway, Methylation, NO/ONOO, iNOS, excitotoxins (MSG, red 40), EMF radiation8. Nervous System Balance - Sympathetic/Parasympathetic balance - "fight or flight" vs. "rest and digest"9. Mitophagy/Autophagy - the clearing of "junk" from the brain10. Autoimmunity! - Self-tissue antibodies against things like GAD-65, cerebellum, thyroid, Myelin Basic Protein, Synapsin, Asiologanglioside, etcThese are 10 heavy topics!! But they are all important. You don't need to know everything about them, but knowing a little bit about each topic can help you figure out a bit more what's going on in your brain!

Long Hauler WebinarHow To Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve with a TENS DeviceLong Haul, long COVID, Post Acute COVID Syndrome (PACS)....call it what you will - the bottom line is that a lot of people are experiencing new, lingering symptoms such as:FatigueBrain FogAnxiety/DepressionInsomniaHeadachesHair LossHeart PalpitationsMenstrual Changesand more!People are suffering with these new symptoms and don't know where to turn, there is a lot of opinion on the internet but WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON???That's the point of this podcast (and the Long Haulers Youtube webinar linked above!) - explain (some of) the mechanisms, explain why you may have gotten here, how you can know what YOU need to target, go over the labs that can help explain your personal symptoms, talk about the supplements that work, and the natural lifestyle strategies that make sense, and review the science and research behind all of it. Please share this!! A lot of people are experiencing these symptoms and don't know where to look for answers!!

This episode is the 3rd in our series on mitochondria, and they've all been leading up to this - - what can you do for your mitochondria?The good news is there is a lot you can do to support the different mitochondrial and metabolic processes, so that's what this whole episode is about. I discuss a wide variety of important strategies, some well-known and some becoming more popular, and I go over the mitochondrial mechanisms behind them, including:Exercise - nothing is better for your mitochondria!Targeted Supplements (including my Top 10 List!)Fasting - Intermittent and ExtendedKetogenic Diet - a "Mitochondrial Therapy"Red/Infrared Photobiomodulation (Low-Level Light Therapy, LLLT)Cold ThermogenesisGrounding/Earthing...and why you need to avoid things like EMF radiation, excessive blue light, toxins like pesticides, mycotoxins, heavy metals, and a high sugar diet. Many of these wellness strategies are well-known (like exercise or avoiding sugar) while others have become  downright trendy in recent years (like fasting, keto diets, cold plunges, and red light therapy), but it's because people are experiencing great results by doing these things, there is excellent science coming out about the mechanisms, and because IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MITOCHONDRIA.

If you missed the last episode, go back and listen to it, but the takeaway was that your MITOCHONDRIA ARE REALLY, REALLY,  IMPORTANT for autoimmunity, or anything else. Like - the most important thing for your health. These little cellular batteries power your brain, your heart, your muscles, everything. When they become dysfunctional, it leads to symptoms like fatigue, weight gain/inability to lose weight, brain fog, malaise, and eventually disease processes like autoimmunity, dementia, and metabolic diseases like heart disease and diabetes. HOW DO MITOCHONDRIA MALFUNCTION? To understand how mitochondria MALfunction, you have to understand some basics about how they are SUPPOSED TO FUNCTION PROPERLY (and how to test that!) so that you can support your mitochondria appropriately with strategies I will discuss in the next episode. In this podcast I describe 4 main aspects of mitochondrial function that you need to understand in order to understand your personal metabolism:1. Glycolysis - this is a sugar-fermenting pathway that actually occurs outside the mitochondria, but dysfunctional cells can get "stuck" in glycolysis, which ferments sugar to produce energy less efficiently than "respiration". YOU DON'T WANT THAT! Viruses induce a glycolytic shift, it helps them survive. Toxins induce a glycolytic shift. But most of all, a high sugar diet and a sedentary lifestyle will encourage your cells to get "stuck" in this glycolytic shift, which is a hallmark of many cancer and Alzheimer's cells. 2. Kreb's Cycle and Oxidative Phosphorylation - sounds fancy, don't get PTSD from high school bio, but this is the BIG MOTOR that we want our cells to use, and glycolysis is the TROLLING MOTOR (listen to episode 30 if that doesn't make sense!). We WANT the body to use the Kreb's Cycle and then the Electron Transport Chain to produce ATP (energy) because it produces the most energy with the least exhaust!3. Electron Transport Chain - your food gets broken down and goes through the Kreb's Cycle and those electrons get put into something called the Electron Transport Chain (ETC), which is a "chain" of 5 proteins that pass electrons from one to the other, this drives the pumping of protons and like quantum cellular magic, out spits ATP, or ENERGY. YOU WANT THAT!!!Poisons like cyanide and carbon monoxide shut this down immediately and you die. Popular supplements like CoQ10 help this. You want electrons passing through this chain at the highest rate possible!4. Beta-Oxidation - this process shuttles fat into the mitochondria to be burned for fuel, and many people have broken or "less-than-optimal" beta-oxidation function (think: "I can't burn this last 20 lbs even though I'm exercising!")If you have metabolic issues, it's really important to know what's wrong with YOUR mitochondria - you could have issues in #1, #2, #3, #4, or in ALL FOUR!!Many basic lab tests actually give you an idea of your mitochondrial function (iron, thyroid, blood sugar, inflammation....almost all labs because mitochondria power all functions). These labs are obviously very important for any case or condition, but my favorite testing for mitochondrial function is Urinary Organic Acids testing that actually shows specific markers for Glycolysis, markers of Kreb's Cycle dysfunction, Beta-Oxidation dysfunction, and much more, and gives us more detailed answers on how the mitochondria are malfunctioning so that we can support them properly!

It's impossible to overstate the importance of your mitochondria, whether for managing autoimmunity, avoiding chronic degenerative disease, aging gracefully, or just functioning at your highest level everyday. Mitochondria turn your food into energy in the same way that your motor turns your gasoline into energy. This cellular energy powers everything you do - not just getting out of bed in the morning, but thinking, healing, detoxifying, and forming memories and pathways in your brain. Simply put, if the motor doesn't work, nothing works. When your mitochondria don't function properly, your body will not function properly, and disease will ensue. Dysfunctional mitochondria are associated with autoimmunity, Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, autism, and just general fatigue, pain, inflammation, brain fog, and nearly every other disease or symptom under the sun. Excessive sugar, chemical additives, inflammatory fats, environmental toxins, artificial blue light, electromagnetic radiation, and a sedentary lifestyle can all damage mitochondria. Many supplements like B vitamins, magnesium, CoQ10, and antioxidants help support or protect the mitochondria. The benefits of red light therapy (low-level laser therapy, or LLLT)  come from effects on the mitochondria. Cold thermogenesis works on the mitochondria. Ketogenic diets work on the mitochondria and are often considered more of a "mitochondrial therapy" than a "diet". Sunlight helps the mitochondria function properly. Exercise is the best thing for the mitochondria!None of these things are that shocking, these are the lifestyle factors that make people sick and the healing strategies that can help people regain their health - but  the mitochondria is the HOW. In this episode, I discuss this in more detail, and I give an overview of the importance of mitochondria, from a 30,000 ft view of how they function and can become dysfunctional. In the next several episodes I'm going to dive deeper into the specific functions of the mitochondria (glycolysis, Krebs cycle, beta-oxidation, electron transport chain), expected symptoms or testing for each of these specific functions, how you can support these specific functions, and how it all works. When you begin to understand these mechanisms, your solutions for health become obvious!

Mold exposure is a big deal, I've covered it the past several episodes. Prolonged mold exposure can lead to a myriad of health concerns in adults as well as children, I've heard a ton of "sick kids stories" lately involving mold. While it would be nice to completely eliminate all mold exposures, it's important to keep in mind that the goal of mold mitigation is to make (and keep!) your indoor air environment as clean as possible.The #1 mistake that I personally see is that people have "remediation" done (and often it is inadequate!), but then they think the problem is gone and they forget about it. Indoor air quality is a constant battle. I didn't even talk about dusting in this episode! Dust is mold food, and mold can contribute to dust sensitivities and allergies. IT ALL MATTERS!In this episode I cover a lot of options, many of which are linked below. I also talk about several other good resources, like MoldFinders Radio Podcast ,  www.moldhelpforyou.com and www.sinusitiswellness.com.  Check them all out!I broke this episode down into 5 categories, and discuss several subtopics under each category. Here is an outline of what I discuss:#1 - Good Testing!!The highest level of testing is having a good inspector!ERMI and HERTSMI testingEMMA testingMold PlatesBad Inspectors#2 - Remediation - REMOVE moldy drywall, carpet, mold on wood, clean, sand, vacuum, etcHow do they know?? Pre- and post- testing!!Plastic Wrap, etc - protect your environment!"Negative Pressure"Air ScrubbersHEPA Vacuum #3 - Do-It-Yourself OptionsREMOVAL - protect yourself and your environment! Not recommended for DIY....FoggingHEPA VacuumAir ScrubberOzoneCLEAN UP AFTER!!!!#4 - Air Quality Control / Mold & Mycotoxin MaintenanceAir Purifier - I like Austin Air the best!Detergent Additive - clean your clothes from airborne toxinsSprays - for furniture, carpet, hard surfaces, cleaningCandles - could neutralize spores and mycotoxinsDehumidifier - keep humidity below 50%Duct cleaningDUSTING! I forgot to discuss this on the episode, but it's important to keep your house clean in general. Dust is mold food, and dust has all sorts of particles, proteins, and fungal and bacterial fragments that can be inflammatory. #5 - Equipment You Need to HaveAN AIR PURIFIER IS A MUST-HAVE!Good HEPA Vacuum Fogger (large fogger or a personal airspace fogger)Ozone (large machine or a personal space machine)EC3 CandlesEC3 SprayEC3 DetergentYoutube Video: Mold Toxicity and Mycotoxin IllnessYoutube Video: Research Review - Mycotoxins Induce Neurotoxicity

I have a LOT of mold stories. I even thought of a few good ones that I forgot to tell as soon as I finished recording this episode. I don't think that mold causes everything, or that mold "caused" all these cases, each person is very multifactorial and complex, but listen to the podcast and you will hear about the stories I hear day-in and day-out and you will understand why I think mold is an important factor in so many health conditions, especially complex cases, like those with multiple symptoms and of course - autoimmune diseases. Often times there are multiple exposures throughout life when a person really thinks back, and often those times coincide with symptom increases or flares. Sometimes the major exposure was a house a person lived in 5 years ago but they've just "never felt the same since". Sometimes it was from renovating the basement or kitchen. Sometimes it was just ripping out some carpet. Sometimes there are spores on a mattress. Sometimes it's under a cabinet. Sometimes it's in the HVAC and it's a bigggg problem. Sometimes there is active mold growth, sometimes there are high spore counts, sometimes there are mycotoxins, VOCs, etc - but prolonged exposure to high amounts of mold causes the body to do crazy things. Sometimes the person has fatigue. Sometimes it's anxiety, or brain fog, or heart palpitations. Sometimes they have gut issues like SIBO or leaky gut, hormonal issues like thyroid, adrenal, testosterone, or menstrual problems, maybe it's joint pain, hair loss, blood sugar drops, etc. Sometimes they have developed food sensitivities, or allergies to pet dander, or chemical sensitivity. Sometimes they have autoimmunity or a diagnosed autoimmune disease. SOMETIMES A MOLD TOXIC PERSON MAY HAVE ALL THESE THINGS!I would never say that mold caused all these things, and I certainly do not suggest that mold "detox" was or is the solution for each of these people, or even appropriate, or that they all even found their solution. These are just stories. Each case is incredibly unique and complex, and I support each case in a personalized way according to their history, lifestyle, lab results, and unique physiology!

Youtube Video: Mold Toxicity and Mycotoxin IllnessYoutube Video: Research Review - Neural Antibodies in Patients with Symptoms and Histories of Mold/Chemical ExposuresYoutube Video: Research Review - Mycotoxins Induce NeurotoxicityI say this all the time, but mold toxicity is crazy. Indoor molds such as Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Stachybotrys produce mycotoxins, which are also crazy. Mold and mycotoxins can both disrupt the immune system in a myriad of different ways, which is why they are associated with autoimmunity in many ways.In this podcast, I didn't want to just read stats or research, I wanted to talk about the mechanisms by which molds and mycotoxins can affect the immune system, which are varied and complex. The research is out there on mold, but it can be hard to find because mold toxicity goes by several names - Sick Building Syndrome, Dampness and Mold Hypersensitivity Syndrome, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, Mixed Mold Mycotoxicosis, Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis to name a few - and there are many different molds, and many mycotoxins. When you work with patients and you are aware of these mechanisms, mold is an incredibly common problem. It never ceases to amaze me how many people I see whose symptoms or disease timeline correlate with a prolonged exposure to water damage, a damp or moldy environment, or a history of repeated mold exposures!Mold is ubiquitous, so your body tries really hard immunologically to tolerate it, and sometimes it tolerates it for a looong time - until one day it stops tolerating it. Mycotoxins from mold can remain indefinitely in tissues, and many have an affinity for the brain, where they disrupt mitochondrial ATP production. Some molds and mycotoxins suppress the immune system, some activate the immune system, some suppress innate immune function and increase adaptive, some do the opposite. Some people have several mycotoxins present at once, doing several different things, along with other pathogens and toxins accumulating faster due to the effects of mold. You can see how mold exposure and toxicity can quickly become quite complex immunologically! Molds and mycotoxins can cause leaky gut, leaky sinus, leaky lung, leaky brain, they can deplete glutathione, impact the microbiome, increase pathogen burdens like EBV and CMV, disrupt Th1/Th2 balance, and turn on vicious cycles of inflammation (NFkB, iNOS, NO-ONOO, Th17) - - all of which are underlying mechanisms of autoimmunity. When you hear all these various mechanisms, you begin to understand why molds and mycotoxins can contribute to autoimmunity, cancer, chronic infection, and even death, not to mention the most common symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, depression, brain fog, ENT symptoms, pituitary/thryoid/adrenal/reproductive imbalances, headaches, insomnia. There are a lot of mechanisms, and there are a lot of other variables, including genetics, history, exposure, and everything else in your bucket, but MOLD AND MYCOTOXINS are one of the scariest things on the planet!

So, I haven't done an episode for a while now, I'm glad to be back. I got really sick, and it brought some things to the surface with my health that I'm working through. I'm not going to type all the details out in the show notes here, you have to listen to the episode, but long story short my "mold bucket" had been slowly filling up, and I didn't realize it. Mold is crazy. It's ubiquitous, every human on earth breathes several hundred spores per day, but it can also devastate health, cause crazy symptoms, is carcinogenic or can even be deadly. Mold (or mildew) was one of the plagues God would send on his people for disobeying his commands. There is really good mold remediation advice in the Old Testament of the Bible (Leviticus), and there is a TON of research pouring out about mold and mold toxins right now. I've heard it said that mold science is similar to cigarette science in the 60's but that it is progressing slower, but the research confirms that it causes a TON of chronic health issues, and I see it every single day in my practice. I believe it's the driver of my autoimmune process, my dad's, and many of my patients. Not all mold people have autoimmunity though, in fact many don't. Not all mold people have sinus issues. Not all mold people have profound fatigue, anxiety, depression, brain fog, hair loss, ADHD, OCD, PANDAS, joint pain, hormonal imbalances, chronic illness, EBV/viral re-activations, URI's, UTI's, Candida, food sensitivities, migraines, dysautonomia, heart palpitations, blood pressure swings, water retention issues, numbness, tingling, memory loss, balance issues, pain, stiffness, night sweats, weight loss, weight gain, SIBO, IBS, gallbladder/liver/kidney problems, cancer - - - - BUT MANY MOLD PEOPLE HAVE A FEW OF THOSE THINGS, and it's often REALLY HARD to realize or figure out. Many of my mold patients quite literally have been to the ER, a cardiologist, an endocrinologist, a neurologist, a gastroenterologist, a rheumatologist, and they all often point them to the psychiatrist. Good luck with conventional medicine if you have been exposed to mold. This episode is more about how I pieced my puzzle pieces together this time to realize that it was in fact mold, that some of it was coming from my house, some was coming from my office, some was from the outside environment and the wet dead leaves, but my bucket filled up and I got really sick, this episode is that story. The next few episodes are all about mold! Mold and Autoimmunity, then Mold Stories from My Clinic, then 2 episodes on Mold Solutions - environment and body solutions, so stay tuned,  and make sure to check out these videos from both of my Youtube Channel(s)!Mold Toxicity and Mycotoxin Illness: https://youtu.be/IjDWMPrra_INew Research Review  - Mycotoxins and Neurotoxicity: https://youtu.be/mZs2kPfcD7M

Forget pathogens, TOXINS are scary. They are increasingly everywhere, and they are associated with virtually every disease process known to man - cancer, Alzheimer's, infertility, diabetes, and certainly most autoimmune diseases. That's because TOXINS are not supposed to be in our body. They have no role. They have no place. They get in there and they wreak havoc, creating inflammation, immune disruption, cellular imbalances, and the downstream effects that we call "symptoms" and "disease". Toxins are all around us today, and in this episode I discuss the sources of toxins, including:Our Food - heavy metals, glyphosate, pesticides, nanoparticles, chemicals, additives, preservatives, dyes.....Our Air - industrial pollution, heavy metals, exhaust, smoke, farming pollution, indoor air quality.....Our Water - fluoride, drug residues, hormones, heavy metals.....Our Homes - "off-gassing" from electronics, furniture, formaldehyde, molds, VOCs, radonIT'S PRETTY HARD TO AVOID THOSE 4 THINGS IF YOU ASK ME!The body is pretty good at clearing toxins out, but what if these toxins accumulate faster than they are cleared? Toxins can suppress the immune system, which allows for "expansion" of pathogen burdenToxins deplete glutathione, which opens up the "barriers" that are supposed to keep bad things out, leading to leaky gut, leaky lung, leaky sinus, leaky brain - allowing more pathogens, toxins, undigested food particles to enter the body and sets the stage for autoimmune diseaseToxins disrupt cellular functions like cell membrane integrity and mitochondrial ATP production, which supplies the battery power to your entire organismToxins disrupt hormones and endocrine control, and are heavily linked to reproductive problems including infertilityToxins damage the BRAIN! Many toxins are neurotoxic. I honestly believe that the increase in toxicity is the single-best explanation for the rise in autoimmunity, infertility, and chronic inflammatory diseases in the past 50 years. Even in the context of other "causes" or "contributors" of autoimmune disease, toxins could still be to blame. Gluten might not be a problem without toxins inflaming the gut and poking holes in the lining. Gut health might not be as big of a problem if our digestive tract wasn't exposed to so many toxins in the food supply. Epstein-Barr Virus might not be a problem if you didn't live in a toxic soup that has affected your mitochondria and cellular energy production. Stress might not be your flare trigger if your HPA axis hadn't been messed up by toxic stress affecting pituitary function and hormone balance. IT IS ALL TOXICITY'S FAULT!!!!!I think that, especially in the era of post-2020, pathogens are famous right now (especially one), but we've always had pathogens around. We co-evolved together. They generally aren't new. Toxins are new. The actual toxins are new, the increase in exposure is new, and the total body burden is new to humanity. The toxins today literally did not exist a couple generations ago. Our bodies do not know what to do with them. For my kids and their future health, it's not about keeping them away from pathogens, in fact, it's quite the opposite for me, I encourage exposure to pathogens. But toxins are a different story. I'm not scared of viruses as much as I'm scared of toxins. And you should be too. 

Mast cells are important! Mast cells are implicated in autoimmune diseases and many other inflammatory processes - because mast cells RELEASE and TRIGGER inflammation. Like.... A LOT OF INFLAMMATION. We're talking vicious cycles of inflammation that can be hard to stop!Mast cells respond to stimuli in the environment like allergens, foods, viruses, bacteria, parasites, LPS, COVID-19, our "big 3" pathogens EBV, Lyme, mold/fungi/Candida, toxins like mercury, aluminum, glyphosate - but they also can be triggered by PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS! That's pretty important. These mast cells are called "sentinel cells", because they sound the alarm when there is danger - think of someone with a dog allergy who walks into a friend's house with dogs and immediately their symptoms go off - runny nose, itchy eyes, sneezing. This allergic reaction happens SOMETIMES with mast cell-related problems, but not all the time. The sinuses are the most famous place we find mast cells (think: antihistamines), but they line all tissues that interface with the outside world like the skin, lungs, digestive tract, bladder, uterus/vagina, and highly vascularized tissues like the BRAIN.  They are 5-24x more highly expressed in the synovial tissues of patients with RA compared to normal people, they are implicated in Multiple Sclerosis, IBS/IBD, Endometriosis, Alzheimer's disease...the list goes on and on. Their activation is associated with a mixed bag of weird symptoms like anxiety, brain fog, fatigue, heart palpitations, rapid heart rate, vertigo, flushing, itching, heavy limbs, nausea, stomach pain, blood pressure changes, chemical sensitivities, food reactions, etc etc.....so often this person has maybe been to the the ER thinking they were having a heart attack, the cardiologist, the gastroenterologist, the neurologist, the ENT, the endocrinologist....and nothing has helped. These cells are super cool. They literally look like a sack filled with little "balls", or vesicles, and these vesicles are filled with different chemical mediators that have ALL SORTS of different effects - histamine is the most famous, TNFalpha is one of many highly inflammatory cytokines, Platelet Aggregating Factor can cause hypercoagulation....the list is several hundred long. Picture a big bag filled with a bunch of helium balloons. Sometimes the body releases all of the "balloons" at once very quickly, which is called degranulation, but sometimes the body only releases certain balloons - like red ones. Some triggers, like Lyme disease for example, mast cells only release inflammatory cytokines. This is tricky, because this means that sometimes mast cells can be implicated even with there is not a histamine response.SOMETIMES mast cells are activated by allergens. Most people know it when they have allergies. SOMETIMES mast cells are activated by other things - - STRESS, toxins, pathogens, dysbiosis of the gut.....but more often than not it's a combination of things - foods, stress, a toxic exposure, and the inflammation builds more gradually.  You can't always find the "one thing" that caused the response, and looking for that "one thing" is futile. Mast cell "activation" and associated inflammation can lead to a wide spectrum of symptom severity - you could have an autoimmune disease like RA or MS that has mast cells as a component but is much more complex, you could have full-blown MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome - which most people do not have!), you could have bloating, brain fog, and anxiety (COMMON!!) or you could occasionally suffer from minor seasonal allergies or joint pain, common mast cell-mediated inflammatory symptoms. But knowing how mast cells work and how to stabilize them is an important piece of many people's health puzzle!

Pathogens and  infections are related to autoimmune disease, we've established that over the past couple episodes. THESE 3 ARE THE MOST WELL-STUDIED AND CLINICALLY RELEVANT PATHOGENS - one virus, one bacteria, and one fungus. Epstein-Barr Virus causes infectious mononucleosis, or mono. EBV a a virus that can lie dormant for the rest of your life in the B cells of your immune system. If it remains dormant - no big deal! If it re-activates, it can be like awakening a sleeping giant. EBV infection is associated with several autoimmune diseases, most notably autoimmune thyroid diseases, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Multiple Sclerosis. In this episode I talk about EBV, the relevant labs, and some of the prominent research connecting this virus to autoimmune diseases. Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi infection from a tick bite that disseminates into the blood stream and can get into the joints and the brain, causing a massive inflammatory response but at the same time suppressing the immune system in an attempt to evade it. Lyme can cause many chronic symptoms including joint pain, fatigue, and neurological complications. Lyme testing is controversial and sometimes hard to determine!Lyme and mold are both known as "biotoxins", meaning they are biological, living pathogens, but their effects are largely "toxic", as they affect the detox pathways such as the liver, bile ducts, lymph drainage, mitochondria, and more. Mold is the scariest of the 3 in my opinion for several reasons. For one it is very common in our indoor environments, most people I know have had some degree of water damage. Mold exposure can allow fungus to colonize our gut, sinuses, bladder, lungs, and then it can cause both an adaptive immune response (allergies and sensitivities) as well as an innate immune response and a chronic inflammatory response, which both have their own set of problems. This includes colonization of molds such as Aspergillus, Penicillium, Stachybotrys from indoor water damage, but also yeasts like Candida and even molds from outdoors like from decaying leaves. When molds "colonize" they often form biofilms that they can hide under and continue to grow, making it a hard to treat problem that often keeps getting worse. Molds also release toxins such as mycotoxins that damage mitochondria and cellular function and are highly neurotoxic. Because of all these reasons, I think mold is a HUGE problem with inflammatory conditions!!It's not impossible to have all 3 of these - a virus, a bacteria, and a fungus - all at the same time. Throw in a heavy metal and you can be having quite the symptom party!!!All of these things are really important, but it's also important to not put all of your eggs into any one basket. Just because you find Lyme, mold, or EBV doesn't mean there aren't other things that haven't been found. Keep the big picture in mind!

Last episode I discussed the importance of pathogens, infections, and their relationship with autoimmunity, including the 10 Principles of Infection and Autoimmunity. Nearly every autoimmune process is associated with at least one pathogen, and it makes sense because we all know our immune system gets rocked when we get an infection. The highlight of last episode however was that it is rarely ONE INFECTION, but rather the BURDEN OF INFECTIONS from childhood that can lead to autoimmune disease onset or progression. That's really important, but still begs the question - WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT??In this episode I cover action steps - what labs can you look at, what natural steps can you take, which nutraceutical herbs or vitamins have been shown to help and what is the mechanism of how they can help? To know which action steps are important, there are many questions you need to ask, such as:Do you have a chronic "infectious burden"? Do you have imbalanced white blood cells?What are you trying to fight? Virus? Bacteria? Fungus?Where are you trying to fight it?Then, do you need to:Boost NK and innate immune function?Boost Th1 and adaptive immune function?Stop viral replication?Resolve inflammation?Decrease fibrosis?Promote Tolerance?Then, you may choose to use natural substances such as:EchinaceaAstragalusZincVitamin CGlutathioneBaicalanBerberineBlack WalnutPau D'ArcoCoriolus ReishiThe key is that there are many many options, and many important questions to answer, so it's important to work through all the mechanisms and get as complete a picture as possible before you go trying to shift your immune system. Just because your symptoms may match up with an internet article about Epstein-Barr Virus, doesn't mean that the other 490 trillion viruses don't matter. And don't put all of your eggs into the "pathogens" basket - - everything matters!

Nearly every autoimmune disease has at least one pathogen or infection associated with it - Epstein-Barr Virus, Helicobacter pylori, Candida, SARS-CoV2, and many others are associated with autoimmunity. Does this mean that an infection "caused" your autoimmune disease or "contributed" to it?? MAYBE!In this episode I give an overview of pathogens, infections, and autoimmunity. Pathogens are well-known triggers of autoimmune disease, which makes sense because we KNOW that our immune system responds when it "catches" a flu, cold, or other illness, but our relationship with pathogens is complex and we have trillions of them at all times, so it's not as simple as something you "catch". What is important to understand is that it's not a SINGLE INFECTION, but rather the BURDEN OF INFECTIONS from childhood that is important, and even then - different pathogens do different things to different people based on their genetics and history. Sometimes pathogens will flare autoimmune onset or progression. Sometimes pathogens are actually protective against autoimmunity. IT'S. COMPLICATED. In this episode I review from the scientific literature the 10 Principles That Summarize The Relationship Between Infection and Autoimmunity, as well as discuss some of the very important concepts to understand when trying to manage your own personal autoimmune journey!

Gut health super important. Science (and the mainstream) now realize that it is an important part of any autoimmune process (it's an important piece of nearly any health process), but there is still a lot of confusion and a lot of misdirection when trying to navigate your own health journey. These days there are a lot of gut testing options, ranging from $79 on Facebook to at least 10x that much for a comprehensive functional panel. Which is the right test for YOU?!?Every lab company claims their test is the best. To me, that's like Chevy saying they are better than Ford and Ford saying they are better than Chevy, when in reality you may like or prefer one more than the other, but they are pretty equivalent. I HATE THAT! What really matters is that YOU DON'T BUY A CAR WHEN WHAT YOU REALLY NEED IS A TRUCK!This episode doesn't discuss the features and benefits of each company's panels, but rather discusses the logic and benefits of the different types of gut health testing, including:SIBO Breath TestFood Sensitivities (IgG vs. IgA)Mucosal Immune Triggers (IgA)Leaky Gut Testing (occludin, zonulin, actomyosin, cytoskeleton antibodies)Organic Acids Testingand Stool Testing, which I spend the most time discussing because it gives the most information about the gut, including.....Details of your "Microbiome" - too much bacteria, too little, which species?Infections or Pathogens - H. pylori, E. coli, parasites, Candida, etcDigestion - digestive enzymes, HCL, Secretory IgA, calprotectin, SCFA, etcSome panels offer more in-depth analysis than others, but again the important thing is to choose the right test for the right situation, and then choose the right value for your particular situation. In this episode I cover all of these factors - and hopefully it helps you navigate your own health journey better!

Celiac disease is a really big deal because of the mechanisms involved - gluten inflames the gut and opens up the tight junctions, creating a leaky gut, and eventually destroys the gut lining causing malabsorption, and this happens every. single. time. you eat it - which can and will lead to more autoimmunity down the road. NOT GOOD!What about those who have been tested for Celiac and told they don't have it? Are they fine to eat gluten? (go back and listen to episode 011!)Many people do not have true Celiac, but they have "almost Celiac" - they have a gluten sensitivity, they have GI inflammation, they have TTG2 antibodies, but they don't fit all the criteria so they technically do NOT have Celiac Disease, but that doesn't mean they are safe!Celiac is diagnosed by 3 criteria:Gliadin IgA (gluten sensitivity inflaming the inside of the gut lining)Tissue Transglutaminase 2 (TTG2) antibodies (autoimmunity is destroying the gut lining)Tissue biopsy showing "total villous atrophy"What if you have 2 of those 3? You don't have Celiac, but you may have "almost Celiac". What if you have a gluten sensitivity and TTG2 antibodies but have not had a biopsy? You don't have Celiac, but you have "almost Celiac". In this episode I give several examples, review a couple lab examples, and talk about this problem because it's a pretty big problem in the autoimmune world. Just because you "don't have Celiac" doesn't mean that you don't "almost" have it!

If you are following this podcast, you likely know that gut health is important for all autoimmune diseases, not just intestinal autoimmunity!In this episode I talk about 4 different autoimmune gut conditions, 3 of which are diagnosed autoimmune "diseases":- Leaky Gut- Celiac Disease- Crohn's Disease- Ulcerative Colitis I start by explaining the underlying mechanisms of leaky gut and intestinal permeability. I then expand into Celiac Disease and how gluten triggers "leaky gut" along with intestinal inflammation, which destroys the "villi" - the tiny little hairs on gut cells that absorb our vitamins and nutrients and leads to malabsorption and the possibility of other autoimmune processes. I then discuss two major inflammatory bowel diseases Crohn's disease and Ulcerative Colitis, their differences, symptoms, diagnoses, and more!

T cells are a part of your immune system, which has many many important parts of course. T cells are particularly important in autoimmunity because the T CELLS ARE WHAT DO THE DAMAGE!!!In my last episode about Hashimoto's I talked about antibody levels and described how will antibodies "flag" something as bad so that immune cells can come destroy it, but antibodies have no destructive properties. The progression and destruction of autoimmune disease is determined by the level of T cell activity! T cells destroy the gut in autoimmunity. T cells destroy the joints in autoimmunity. T cells destroy the thyroid. T cells destroy the myelin of your nerves. THEY ARE IMPORTANT!!What type(s) are there? What do they do? How do I know if mine are working properly?This episode goes through all of that information! I go through the 4 most important polarizations of T cells: Th1 (fights intracellular infections)Th2 (produces mucus and expels allergens and parasites)Th17 (causes tissue-damaging inflammation)Regulatory T cells (Tregs), which are the peacemakers that dampen inflammationAutoimmunity ALWAYS has an imbalance of too much Th17 activity and not enough Treg activity, but what about Th1/Th2? Eventually MOST autoimmune patients will present with decreased Th1 and increased Th2, and in this episode I go through some of the details of how this happens, how the patient presents and how this needs to be handled clinically to get it under control!

It's common in the alternative medicine world to hear people talk about "how high their antibody levels are/were". But in practice I see people with high antibodies who are doing fine, while someone with low antibodies might feel like they are dying. What's up with that?!? Do antibody levels matter??The answer is that they do matter and they don't matter. Antibodies can be used to monitor progression, but high levels don't necessarily correlate to disease symptoms or progression. In this episode I briefly explain thyroid antibodies seen in Hashimoto's - Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO, or microsomal) and Thyroglobulin (TG), and I go through several examples to explain the interplay of antibody levels, symptom severity, and disease progression.The goal of this episode (and this podcast) is to help you manage your own case, review your own labs, and take better control of your autoimmune journey!

Hashimoto's Autoimmune Thyroid Disease is the single-most prevalent autoimmune condition today, and it is estimated to be the root cause of 90% of hypothyroidism in America. One reason is that it's fairly easy to detect (there are 2 antibodies that are diagnostic), but it's also just really common in today's society filled with fast food, fast lives, and toxins. The immune system "attacks" the thyroid and gradually damages the gland until it eventually becomes truly "hypothyroid", but along that road the autoimmune process is also associated with many other symptoms, including:FatigueBrain FogWeight Gain or Inability to Lose WeightConstipationAnxiety/DepressionHair LossWeak NailsDry SkinObviously this is a thyroid disease, but so much matters beyond the thyroid! Thyroid hormone affects every function in the body, and many systems in the body affect the thyroid and are associated with Hashimoto's, and need to be adequately addressed, such as:Gut Health - Celiac, leaky gut, food sensitivities, infections, SIBO, etcBrain Function - Cerebellar and Demyelinating autoimmunity are not uncommon!Immune System - Th1/Th2 balance, chronic infections, immune toleranceToxins and Detoxification - mold, mercury, BPA, liver/gallbladder functionHormone Balance - estrogen, cortisol, insulin, etcIn this episode I discuss these topics and more, and it gets pretty clinical but the goal is to help a Hashimoto's patient navigate their own journey, or let people know how really complicated it can be. It's a puzzle!I review Dr. Kharrazian's Hashimoto's Clinical Checklist and go through some of the clinical questions that need to be answered to appropriately handle a Hashimoto's case. None of these questions include the conventional medical question "What is their TSH?"!! (Listen to last episode for more info on TSH, T3, T4, etc)

Hypothyroidism has been rampant for decades,  and it's estimated that 90% of hypothyroidism in the United States is caused by Hashimoto's Autoimmune Thyroiditis. Hashimoto's is the single most common autoimmune disease. This podcast discusses everything about the thyroid - not just Hashimoto's. It's importance within the body, it's metabolism, the labs, the ranges, the patterns - a little bit about everything thyroid. Every cell in the body has receptors for thyroid hormone, so low thyroid can impact everything - the neurological system, digestive system, immune, endocrine, and any other cell, tissue, organ, or system in the body. The thyroid is also sensitive to changes in each of these systems, and very sensitive to environmental triggers such as endocrine-disrupting toxins. It is also the #1 target for autoimmunity. I call the thyroid  a 'puzzle' because thyroid lab testing has at least 9 important puzzle pieces we can measure, and I don't know how most primary care doctors and endocrinologists expect to solve the puzzle with only 2 or 3 of the pieces? Their goal isn't to solve the puzzle though, it's to give you the proper medication, which is often necessary and appropriate, but often the puzzle remains unsolved. In this episode I go over the basic mechanisms of thyroid function (the pituitary tells the thyroid to produce T4, T4 gets converted to T3, etc). I also discuss the important lab tests (and their functional, or optimal ranges) that you need to know, which include:- TSH- T4- free T4- T3- free T3- reverse T3- T3 uptake- TG antibodies- TPO antibodiesLastly, I discuss 3 of the 24 different thyroid patterns that I commonly see on labs, and how to identify these patterns on your own labs:- True Hypothyroidism- Pituitary Pattern-  Under-Conversion PatternMy Youtube Channel!

My Youtube ChannelI get to be involved with a lot of people's health journeys, and I think they are all super cool. I love puzzles and I love educating people on their puzzles, some of the missing pieces, or how some pieces might fit together differently than they had expected. Talking about these stories on this podcast helps you understand exactly what I do and how I help people trying to solve their own health puzzles. This month I saw people:- With diagnosed autoimmunity  - Hashimoto's, RA, MS, etc etc- With undiagnosed autoimmunity - hypothyroidism, self-tissue antibodies, positive ANAs- With possible autoimmunity - Symptoms like Anxiety, Fatigue, Neuro symptoms....- With mycotoxins from mold exposure- With similar symptoms but WITHOUT mycotoxin exposure- With Post-COVID symptoms - some with known autoimmunity and some without - Eating AIP, Paleo, Keto- Sending me blood sugar and ketone measurements- Who had made great progress- Who were just beginning their journey- Who were trying to get around roadblocks- Who were really fed up with the progress they had made thus farThe point of telling these stories is that I join people on their health journeys, and we are all at different points of our health journey, and although we have "direction", there really is no final destination. The journey doesn't end, it just has different legs, different stretches, different scenery, different weather.

Get My 10 Steps of Autoimmune Eating Download HEREWatch my YouTube video on Autoimmune Paleo Protocol HEREThis is a REALLY popular topic - because most people with autoimmunity notice a change in their symptoms with foods - but they don't know exactly what they should or should NOT be eating!I did forget to mention in this episode - this episode does skip the basics. You should avoid processed foods, hydrogenated oils, sugars, colorings, candy, fried foods, soda, gas station food, etc. - DUH. Sorry. I think that PALEO is a good place for most autoimmune people to wind up remaining (grain-free, dairy-free, processed-free). I also discuss the concept of being "Paleo-ish", which is a very realistic expectation for most autoimmune people. In this episode I go through several different Elimination/Provocation Diets, including:- IFM's Elimination Diet- Whole30- Autoimmune Paleo ProtocolI also discuss my "10 Steps of Autoimmune Eating" concept, which is basically a framework for how you can move "up or down" the steps - you might try to live at step #6 all the time, which is gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free, but sometimes you might need to go up to step #9 and get stricter and eliminate all grains, eggs, and nightshades for a time being, and then you might come back down to step #6 again.My Youtube Channel

You may have heard the news, but gluten is not good, especially for autoimmune people. Gluten is obviously associated with Celiac Disease, which is relatively rare, but it's actually much more common to have NCGS, or Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity, and gluten sensitivity can impact far more than just the gut and digestion. I hear about it all the time - people notice that eating gluten flares their inflammation, their anxiety, their joint pain, brain fog, headaches, depression, fatigue, stomach aches.....MOST people who cut gluten out will notice an improvement in my opinion!In this podcast, I give 3 reasons why gluten is so bad:1 - the testing is not adequate, and it gives people false sense of security and doesn't accurately catch the problem when people are seeking help. Conventional testing only looks for "Gliadin", and sometimes only looks for IgA response against gliadin, which is inadequate. See #2 for reasons why it's inadequate. 2 - Wheat has many more proteins in it than just gluten, and they can induce an inflammatory immune response (in fact some might be worse than Gliadin) including Wheat Germ Agglutinins, Gliadin Toxic Proteins, Gluteomorphin, Non-Gluten Proteins, and more. Cyrex Array 3x tests many more components of the Wheat/Gluten Proteome, including the Transglutaminases, which can indicate gluten-mediated 'attack' against the gut (Celiac), the skin, or the brain. 3 - Gluten antibodies cross-reacts with many tissues and foods, including cerebellum, thyroid peroxidase (TPO, common in Hashimoto's), Myelin Basic Protein (demyelinating diseases like MS), 21-Hydroxylase (adrenal), osteocyte (bone), myocardial peptide (heart), ovary, and more, and gluten antibodies can also cross-react with dairy, corn, rice, oats, yeast and millet. These reasons, and more, are good reason why you should avoid eating gluten, and are discussed in detail in this episode!My Youtube Channel

Food sensitivities are a known trigger of autoimmunity, just ask most autoimmune sufferers! Gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, corn, other grains, food colorings, lectins, nightshades, gums....the list is long! Sometimes you feel it, sometimes you don't, but foods and additives in foods can lead to inflammation and autoimmune flares. Discovering and removing your triggers can lead to relief. In this podcast I cover a lot of info about food sensitivities in general, including:Some of the basics of food sensitivities and what that means with regards to "leaky gut"Some of the popular researchers and authors that are great resources on food sensitivitiesElimination/Provocation Diets like Autoimmune Paleo Protocol, Whole30, IFM's Elimination DietFood Sensitivity testing and why many labs aren't the most reliable, and my preferred lab(s)Youtube Video reviewing the Food Sensitivities Journal that I reference in this episode:https://youtu.be/4MeEH1Rx5VAShare with someone you know has a food sensitivity!My Youtube Channel

There are  a ton of "functional" labs out there today. In this podcast, I cover the most important labs for managing autoimmunity. If there is one takeaway from this episode, it is: FOCUS ON THE BASICS FIRST! So often someone brings me in a fancy methylation panel, hormone panel, or stool sample and they don't know their basics.  I divide these labs into 3 categories:1. Basics - Basic blood markers are the foundation, and often people have them from multiple practitioners and you can compare apples to apples. These include CBC and CMP (which I discuss how important these are!), iron/TIBC, ferritin, homocysteine, vitamin D, thyroid markers, LDH, HbA1C, inflammatory markers like CRP, TGFbeta, GlycA, TNFa, and more. 2. Autoimmune-Specific Tests - antibodies including ANA, thyroid, rheumatoid factor, gut tissue, neurological tissue; barrier integrity such as gut barrier and blood-brain-barrier; advanced immune tests such as T & B Lymphocytes.  In this section I give a special focus to Cyrex labs, who is in my opinion the leader in autoimmune reactivity testing. 3. Drivers - Foods, Toxins, Stress, Hormones, and Hidden Infections. This includes food sensitivities, stool testing, toxin testing, and more. I discuss some of my favorites, which include Cyrex again, Great Plains, GI Map, Dried Urine Hormones from Meridian Valley, and more.