Encore: Brain Fog or Your Brain Can't Poop?
Episode 272
In this eye-opening episode of Integrative You Radio , Dr. Nick and Dr. Nicole explore a concept most people have never considered: your brain needs to detox too—and when it can’t, your neurological system suffers. They break down how environmental toxins, chronic stress, and inflammation clog up your brain’s ability to "eliminate" waste—leading to brain fog, anxiety, mood swings, and more. This episode dives into how modern lifestyles create toxic overload and what you can do to support your brain’s natural detox pathways. From infrared saunas to craniosacral therapy, the duo shares integrative approaches that help clear the brain, restore clarity, and enhance overall neurological function. 💡 What You’ll Learn: Why your brain literally can’t detox on its own—and what that means for your health The surprising symptoms of brain toxicity most people ignore How modalities like craniosacral therapy and infrared sauna support neurological detox Simple daily shifts to start supporting your brain’s "poop cycle" (a.k.a. glymphatic system) 🔥 Quotes to Remember: "Your brain can’t poop the way your body does. If you don’t give it the tools to detox, it gets backed up—mentally and emotionally." – Dr. Nick "Detox isn’t just for the gut—it’s critical for your nervous system, mood, and mental clarity." – Dr. Nicole 📲 Listen & Subscribe: Available on Spotify | Apple | YouTube | Full Show Notes 📞 Want to detox with guidance? Book a free consult with our team: Click here Text us with your questions → (732) 810-1084 Follow us on IG → @dr.nicolerivera | @integrativeyou
Topics: brain, system, detox, unknown, integrative, neurological, stress, poop
Key takeaways from this episode
- ## Encore: Brain Fog or Your Brain Can't Poop?
- Your brain has its own unique waste removal system, the glymphatic system, which can become overwhelmed.
- Symptoms like brain fog, anxiety, and poor mood can be indicators of a brain struggling to detoxify.
- Environmental toxins, chronic stress, and inflammation are major contributors to impaired brain detoxification.
- Integrative therapies such as craniosacral therapy and infrared saunas can support the brain's natural cleansing processes.
Pull quotes
**Unknown:** The information provided is for educational purposes and is not intended to diagnose or treat any conditions.
The lifestyle interventions discussed should not be used as a substitute for conventional medical therapy.
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole, opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems. **Unknown:** Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr.
Transcript
**Unknown:** The information provided is for educational purposes and is not intended to diagnose or treat any conditions. The lifestyle interventions discussed should not be used as a substitute for conventional medical therapy. I've been up all night, no sleep. Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole, opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems.
**Unknown:** Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr. Nick and Dr. Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey. I've been up all night, no sleep.
**Unknown:** I've been up all night, no sleep. Sometimes I tend to lose myself. All right, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Integrative Wellness Radio.
**Unknown:** So we have been, uh, out on hiatus for a little while, but, uh, we are back in the podcast studio. We're super excited about it. Um, we have been doing a lot of different types of speaking engagements lately, and we actually just came back from a big conference that, uh, we attended, but then also a speaking engagement that we gave, um, about brain health. And, uh, today it's all about how your brain can't poop, in the words of our mentor, Dr.
**Unknown:** Klinghardt. Uh, really just thought that was a very interesting way to put it, but really at the end of the day, it's, uh, really shedding light on the fact that our neurological system needs to detox just as much as the rest of us. And we tend to, you know, hear about cleanses, juice cleanses, different types of detoxes, and they're always very v- uh, focused on the gastrointestinal system. And we don't always know how, or even the fact that our neurological system might need a little bit of support when it comes to detoxification.
**Unknown:** So we wanna kind of give you guys the laundry list of what does that even look like. If your neurological system is potentially stressed from toxicity of any sort, what does that look like? And I think for Dr. Nick and I, it looked different, um, in our own experience.
**Unknown:** So I know for me, I definitely was struggling with brain fog. Uh, definitely started to notice memory, especially short-term memory, wasn't at its best. But I think the biggest thing that I didn't necessarily correlate for a long time was the fact that I was waking up with low-grade headaches. And, uh, of course, the nature of what we do and who we are, I was like, "Is there mold in the house?" We have all these air purifiers.
**Unknown:** I was like, "Is it the pillow? Is it the bed?" And, um, many, uh, dollars later, it actually turned out that a lot of it had to do with some issues with how my brain and sinuses were detoxing, which we're gonna obviously dive into and elaborate further on. But for Nick, why don't you explain a little bit more about, you know, the things you noticed with yourself as well? I mean, short-term memory was a big, big thing as well.
**Unknown:** Mm-hmm. I would say underlying, it was more of just energy. Uh, a lot of times I just, I didn't have the potential of energy that I knew, um, kinda like that storage center. Uh, so I was always never pretty much going throughout the day, uh, with, you know, a full load.
**Unknown:** But on the other side of things, uh, I don't wanna contribute 100% to my, like, happiness and joy. Mm-hmm. Um, but it was, like, when your brain's on fire and inflamed, uh, it was definitely affecting, I guess, my level of joy as well. Uh, so- Oh, yes it was.
**Unknown:** I was a little moody. Uh, definitely. I was a little moody. Um, but I mean, honest to God, it's like when looking, especially at the clientele and the direction the world's going, uh, dementia's, is- Mm-hmm ...
**Unknown:** starting to be or will be 100% the biggest, uh, detriment and, and problem that we'll be facing, uh, if not already, into the near future. I was just gonna say, if not already. Yeah. And I think it's a lot of us- Mm ...
**Unknown:** live in fear of that as well, because when we have a friend or a family member who has dealt with neurological decline, if it was dementia or full-blown Alzheimer's, it is one of the most heart-wrenching things to go through. Oh, it's horrible. I remember watching my grandma go through it, and she started with dementia and, you know, it was just, you know, some brain fog, and we ended up moving her right across the street because- Mm-hmm ... she couldn't be trusted.
**Unknown:** You know, she'd walk around and- She couldn't be trusted. Well, y- she couldn't, 'cause eventually, uh, we had to take her keys away, and like- Yeah ... if anybody's gone through that, oh my God, like, that's a horrible process because that's pretty much like taking somebody's independence. Yeah.
**Unknown:** Uh, but I mean, she literally drove up five blocks to, uh, from Iowa to the local- Mm-hmm ... uh, little town store, and then she didn't know how to get back home. Yeah, and she went to that store how many times in her life? Oh, it's insane, so.
**Unknown:** Yeah. So, and I feel like, you know, every case is obviously very different, but in a lot of the patients that we've worked with that have family members that have dealt with, um, dementia and Alzheimer's, it happens fast. It's kind of like, there's a lot of s- uh, symptoms that go under the radar, which I wanna definitely elaborate further on, but I feel like it's, you start noticing, you know, getting lost or, you know, they're, they're not remembering things they nor- normally remember, and then the diagnosis happens, and I feel like really, really quickly they decline. Yeah.
**Unknown:** It's, I mean, I always talk about, it's just, the body's pretty resilient and adapts pretty well until it doesn't. Mm-hmm. Uh, and that's the problem with the brain, is that when you go through, you can really not really acknowledge a lot of the symptoms until you hit that threshold, and then the body's like, "No, I'm done with this." Mm-hmm. And that's when, you know, you go from brain fog to literally straight on memory loss- Mm-hmm ...
**Unknown:** uh, to go through having a lot of pain. Uh, and sometimes that's in joints as well. Mm-hmm. Uh, 'cause same time the brain's inflamed, uh, that, all those nerves controls every single organ, every single tissue in the body.
**Unknown:** Uh- Mm-hmm ... so sometimes it'll show up more musculoskeletal. Uh, but then other times it can show up, the, from the brain-gut connection, can create a lot of stress on the gastrointestinal system as well. Well, I wanna break this down for people because I think that, you know, we all can resonate with our own-Symptoms, but to give you the tools to kind of know where you fall in this category of is your neurological system stressed?
**Unknown:** Is your brain detoxing properly? Because I know for, especially myself and also all of the patients that I work with, it looks different across the board. When you're dealing with the low-grade issues, you could be struggling with the brain fog, the memory loss. Like, you can't remember where you put your keys pretty often.
**Unknown:** You keep losing your cellphone, Nick. Um, there's things like that that are happening. When you start to eventually lose your longterm memory, what you need to know is that's a progression because the way that the brain works is it takes short-term memories and transfers them to longterm memories. So your longterm memories, you know, that conversion has happened, and the way that the brain works is that you have to have pretty significant decline in that part of the brain to start losing those longterm memories.
**Unknown:** So that's definitely a progression for people to be aware of. But then even more in with that is waking up with bloodshot eyes or consistently having bloodshot eyes, consistently having headaches. And some people call it headaches. Some people say, "Oh, I have sinus pressure.
**Unknown:** I just have sinus pressure all the time." Um, chronically having, uh, a sore throat or swollen tonsils or swollen glands in the neck. These are other signs. And most people don't know they have swollen, you know, tonsils or swollen lymph nodes, but it's really- They call it- It's- ... postnasal drip.
**Unknown:** But I would say, honestly, the majority of most neck pain is from lymphatic- Mm-hmm ... uh, stress. It's really- Yep ... not a bad...
**Unknown:** I mean, sometimes posture and, you know, everybody's on their phone. Mm-hmm. Um, but honestly, it's this position- But it's the people that have the neck pain that do the physical therapy, they do the chiropractic, they do the massage even, and it keeps coming back. Correct.
**Unknown:** It's because it's not truly a musculoskeletal issue. It's truly a lymphatic issue. And, you know, even on that note of pain, so one of the things that I talk about in a lot, or a lot in my webinars is in relation to, like, neurological fatigue and neurological pain. Because when we have physical pain in our body, we obviously attribute that to physical pain.
**Unknown:** We say, "Oh, what did I do to my elbow? What did I do to my knee? Oh, it must be my old injury." But if you have pain that moves around, that you wake up and you're like, "What the heck did I do to my elbow? My elbow's killing me," and then the next day it's like, "What did I do to my knee?
**Unknown:** My knee's killing me," pain that moves around is not gonna be your arthritis moves around. It, it's not the way that it works. That is an indicator that it's coming from the top down, and it's more of a neurological pain pattern. So I think that that's a really important thing to classify because so many of us are struggling with pain and then we're trying to obviously fix the joint or deal with the arthritis or get injections, and we're not getting better.
**Unknown:** 100%. The last one that I think is really important too is if you're a person, um, that, you know, you have your daily routine. Say you commute to work, it's a half an hour there, half an hour back, then you go on a family trip and you're traveling, uh, you know, a longer distance. You're going two, three hours in the car, and you're the driver.
**Unknown:** So then you get to your destination, and you feel physically fatigued. You know, you get out of the car, and you're like, "Oh, my gosh, I, I need to take a nap." In reality, why would you have so much physical fatigue? All you were doing was, you know, holding the steering wheel and moving the pedals. So the important thing to understand with that is if you start dabbling outside of the pathways that are really strong that you do on a day-to-day basis, and you do that extended drive, that fatigue that you feel is actually a neurological fatigue.
**Unknown:** Yeah, 'cause I mean, your brain's processing a lot of things, moving very, very fast, uh, which is gonna use up a lot of energy. Exactly. And the, the example that I give to people a lot to understand this is when you have this neurological fatigue, it's actually classified as your neurons are very close to threshold. So the easiest way to explain this is that if I was to walk into a room and slam a book on the table, most people in that room are gonna jump.
**Unknown:** But it comes to the point that if I walk into the room and I drop a pencil on the table, everybody jumps. So it's like you're easily startled, or you're close to threshold. So that's, like, a good comparison to understand of, like, what could be happening with the neurons, and obviously this can be, uh, or be a big attribute to anxiety- Yeah ... as well.
**Unknown:** Yeah, 100%. And to add on, one of the things that most people... It's starting to get a little more acknowledgement, um, but are the, the concussions, um, but also the, the small head injuries that, you know, it's not a big deal, um, but this is, like, the compounding aspect of things. So it's like you may have a concussion, the body adapts, you didn't do anything for it, yada, yada, yada, go on.
**Unknown:** But then years later, there's still some inflammatory, um, reactions happening in the brain. Mm-hmm. Um, and if your brain's, quote-unquote, "Can't poop," can't detox- Yeah ... uh, that kinda just hinders there, and then you have all the other stresses of life that kind of just builds up above that.
**Unknown:** And then finally one day the body says, "Enough is enough." Well, I think it's important to understand w- what is causing the issues with how well the brain can detox, and definitely the brain injury or the head injury is, even if it's a full-blown concussion or if it's something more minor, which now like you said, they're actually acknowledging as being problematic, these things can create scar tissue. It can create adhesions in, like, the dura, which is a lining pretty much between your skull and your brain. It can also move cranial bones because your skull is not one piece. It's actually a bunch of small bones.
**Unknown:** It can move those cranial bones, which compromises how well the blood is flowing as well as how well the cerebral spinal fluid around the brain is flowing. So that is one of the contributing factors to why the brain becomes compromised with how well that it's detoxing, and then there's all of the other surrounding structures. So big one is sinuses. Like, how many people have sinus issues?
**Unknown:** Right now I'd say pretty much everybody And also- Comes in the door, it's crazy. But I feel, feel like for you too, you w- like, getting to know you back in the day, you didn't necessarily ever say anything about having sinus issues, but you had chronic nosebleeds. Mm-hmm. So for me, I've actually really never had a nosebleed, but I had a lot of congestion, but again, it came and went.
**Unknown:** So when things come and go, we tend to just, like, sweep it under the rug and be like, you know, "Oh, it's no big deal, I, I have allergies," or- Well, and I never had allergies, but if you look at pictures of me, my face used to be like... Your mom didn't even know it was me. That may have been all the milk corn- ... that you ate in Iowa.
**Unknown:** Just a little bit dairy, yeah. So but really at the end of the day, when you think about the anatomy of the brain is, or you think of about the anatomy of the head and neck, you know, the brain is up top, and what people don't always realize about sinuses is sinuses, we all think about breathing, so we think about the frontal sinuses. But you actually have sinuses that run throughout your brain and throughout the skull in order to act as a mechanism for the cerebral spinal fluid flow to move around the brain. And your cerebral spinal fluid, to keep it super simple, is it just brings nutrients to your brain.
**Unknown:** So and it also moves toxicity away from the brain, and all of that dumps into the veins, dumps into the veins that are in the neck. So if you're the person who's had tons of neck injuries, maybe you've had surgeries, fusions that have built up scar tissue, you also have a lot of swollen glands because maybe you've had chronic sinus infections, chronic sore throats, you're gonna have some issues with how well all of this can drain, and it's literally because it's almost like somebody put their foot on the hose. Yeah, 100%. And it's like, and now more than anything, I'd say walking through the doors, people have a thyroid issue, too.
**Unknown:** Mm-hmm. And there's, if somebody has a thyroid issue, there's inflammation with that. When there's inflammation, that creates more problem for the detoxing of the brain. But most, I would say most physicians aren't looking at the aspect, uh, even with a lot of thyroid issues, they're not looking at how well the brain's detoxing because all that stress is just gonna go and create more of an inflammatory stress- Mm-hmm ...
**Unknown:** onto the thyroid again. Well, even in my, uh, webinar that I did, I think it was two months ago, we were talking about the brain, and, uh, I was telling, talking about a case study that I had, and this woman came in with headaches. And she came in with brain fog and memory loss as well. The other thing that I noticed was that she had a lack of facial expression, and she was also walking with her legs pretty far apart as well, like, like she was unstable, which are all signs of Parkinson's.
**Unknown:** So I was started asking a lot of questions neurologically, but one of the things that I mentioned in the webinar was that when somebody comes to me with brain fog, migraines, I'm not necessarily thinking, like, "What's going on with your brain?" I'm thinking, "What's going on with your lymph nodes? What's going on with your sinuses? What's going on with your tonsils? What's going on with your, um, ears?
**Unknown:** Are those draining? What's going on with your mouth? Do you have a bunch of dental work? Do you have infections in your mouth?
**Unknown:** Have you had surgeries on your neck?" So, and people that are watching are like, "Oh my gosh, like, I didn't even think about it that way." But all of those things are extremely significant because they can all be playing a role or they, one or two of them could be playing a role. Yeah, so I mean, when you look at any condition, especially neurological, it's like great, it's awesome to figure out which parts aren't working, which may be not firing too high, too low, uh, but then end of the day, you wanna figure out the cause. So- Mm-hmm ... uh, A, if it was a past thing, making sure, you know, make better decisions, but if it's a current thing, then we can, uh, change, um, some of those lifestyle, lifestyle decisions.
**Unknown:** Well, one thing too is for those of you that are listening that are brand new to this topic, and then there's some of you that might be listening that are, um, you know, really been in this world for a while, and there might even be confusion for both parties because number one, you might be thinking if you're into this world, there's a barrier around the brain, so how are toxins getting into the brain? And then if you're brand new to this, you might be thinking, "What are toxins?" number one, or number two is, you know, what can possibly negatively impact my brain that would lead to brain fog, dementia, Alzheimer's, things like that. So this is the, you know, the most fascinating part is just nowadays there is so much that we are exposed to on a day-to-day basis that comes from air, water. But there is an increasingly large amount of chemicals being used in the farming industry, which is exposing us to tons of things that are probably completely off of the radar.
**Unknown:** I was gonna say, most of them aren't even tested yet, so that's, uh, the more scary component to it. Well, and I think statistically the, they say that there's over 262 pesticides, herbicides, um, that are on the crops nowadays, especially if you're leaning towards the conventional non-organic foods. So just food alone is one of the primary ways we get exposed to these things, and then on top of it, there are a lot of heavy metals, uh, mercury that's in fish, and then there's, um, you know, different types of chemicals that can show up in the water. Um, some of the, uh, additives in our pharmaceutical drugs like dyes, there is formaldehyde in some drugs.
**Unknown:** There is, uh, a lot of different compounds that you would be very surprised when you look at the ingredient label. But the point is, is that the toxicity is causing damage to the blood-brain barrier, which is allowing things to get into the brain that shouldn't normally get there. And with that being said is parasites are one of them. And for those of you that are like, "This is weird, there's no such thing as parasites," or, "That's not even possible," is literally you can go onto YouTube and, uh, I think it was UPenn- Yeah ...
**Unknown:** that did the study on Toxoplasma gondii, which is the reason why they tell you to not change the cat litter when you're pregnant, is because that parasite comes from cats, specifically in their fecal matter, and they do not want you to get exposed to the feces by changing the litter box at, because of the risk of getting exposed to this specific parasite, which ends up-In the capillaries of your brain and creates massive inflammation and even small hemorrhages. Yeah, it literally destructs pretty much- Blood vessels ... TNT blowing that- Yeah ... that up.
**Unknown:** So- But really quick, going back, I just wanted to give a, a little awesome website. So, uh, scorecard.org. Mm-hmm. Uh, check that out.
**Unknown:** It tells you your... Put in your zip code, tells you all your air quality, water quality, um, but for the toxins, it also gives the companies that are, um, pretty much polluting, uh, your area the most. So it's pretty, uh, pretty awesome. And it also- Go check that out ...
**Unknown:** it reveals the Superfund sites. So for those of you that don't know what that is- Jersey wins. Yeah. So Superfund sites are sites that there is nuclear waste that the government has actually set in place a cleanup.
**Unknown:** And most states that are v- a lot larger than New Jersey um, have anywhere between three, four, five Superfund sites. In small little New Jersey, we have 126 Superfund sites. So we are practically glowing from the inside out here. And, um, and it, part of it is nuclear waste, um, that is in most of the areas polluting the soil and the water.
**Unknown:** So if you live in Jersey, detox your brain- ... detox your body. We might be mutants here. Yeah.
**Unknown:** I don't really know. We might actually be resistant to all of it. But the point is, is that for those of you that are not necessarily in this world and thinking that toxins, you know, you are not affected by them, we're all affected by them. And the point is, is it's not about you being on a detox for the rest of your life, but you have to have tools to know how to create resiliency in your body again.
**Unknown:** Because in our practice especially, we used to be all about, you know, detox, kill the bad stuff, you know, get rid of the parasites, get rid of the bad organisms. And then what we realized is that if you're just constantly on this like killing spree, detox spree, you're only gonna get so far, but you're also gonna find that as soon as you derail from taking your supplements and being on your restrictive diet, that you go backwards. So we worked really hard to figure out, you know, how can we help the body to be more resilient, and it's really about using methods appropriate for the person so that their detox pathways actually work again. Yep.
**Unknown:** And when it comes to the brain, of course, you need your kidneys working, you definitely need your liver working and your gut working properly, AKA you need to urinate, you need to drink water, you need to poop- ... you need to eat, you know, foods that make sure that you're not constipated, but at the same time, you also need to consider how well your sinuses and your lymphatic system is actually working. I just wanna take a quick moment to thank you for listening and allow you to know that we work with clients from all over the world. You can check out more information at integrativewellnessgroup.com to learn a little bit more about how we work with our clients remotely.
**Unknown:** So you wanna talk about some ways to detox the brain? Of course. So one of the other big things, um, is that there's no cookie cutter one-size-fits-all protocol for this. This is all about what is necessary for the person.
**Unknown:** So if you're having, you know, an evaluation done, and we're able to decipher, well, a lot of the limitations with how well your brain is detoxing is because your tonsils are huge, or the fact that you don't have tonsils and all of your lymph nodes are really congested as well as they're really compromised in the head and neck, or you've had a boatload of head injuries because, and that's causing you to not have proper blood flow to the brain. So you have to consider all those pieces of the puzzle in order to set the person up on the right track. And then another big one too is, you know, kind of reverting back really quick to the toxicity, is that if you have a boatload of metal in your mouth, and it's really, really, really, really old, because the, the common pushback that I get is, "Oh, do you have silver fillings in your teeth, or do you have other types of metals in your, in your mouth?" And they're like, "Yeah, yeah, but they're b- they've been there forever." I'm like, "Well, that's, you know, more, uh, controversial, because the longer they're there, the more likely they are to crack, leach, detach from your te- uh, your tooth." So the longer those silver fillings are in there, the more likely they are to leach the mercury into the neurological system, and that's really just based off of the close proximity of the brain. Well, and mercury is one of the, the metals that are a weird metal.
**Unknown:** It's not usually solid, um, and especially in the body, 98.6 degrees, uh, it's gonna turn into more of a liquid or a gas. So it's, especially when detoxing, it's one of those probably harder, um- To get out ... to get out 'cause it's always moving around the body. I don't even know if I told you this.
**Unknown:** So just, uh, I think it was, I guess, three weeks ago now, I, um, we have a patient who moved to, to California, and, uh, she sought out seeing a dentist, and the dentist m- marketed themselves as being more like a natural holistic dentist. So as my patient went, she said, you know, "I can't do fluoride, and I can't do a lot of these different compounds." So, uh, the woman wasn't understanding why, so the dentist wanted to speak to me, uh, in regards to, you know, her allergies and whatnot. So as I spoke to this woman, I was just explaining this patient's case and why she needed to avoid some of those specific compounds, and she's like, "Well, I think at this point, it's gonna make sense for her to go to a different practice because I don't do the silver fillings. I only do the white fillings, but the fillings that I use in my practice, which are very common in most practices, are the white fillings that time release fluoride over their lifetime." I've never heard that before.
**Unknown:** And I was like, "Excuse me?" So I had no idea that the white fillings time release fluoride.Over literally the lifetime that they're in your mouth. Hmm. So- Did she say why? Because it helps your tooth.
**Unknown:** Don't... I know. That's a whole nother topic in itself. But, um, the, the thing about fluoride is, of course, you know, it, it serves its purpose in small doses, but the thing is, is when we're getting exposed- It does in- We're getting exposed through our cleanings, we're getting exposed through it being in the fillings, then getting exposed to it in vitamins and water, it's definitely something that can actually burden the body.
**Unknown:** It's a neurotoxin. Yes. So, uh, with that being said, you know, some of the major things that can be done in order to improve how your brain is detoxing. So number one, one of the easiest, best things that you can start doing literally tonight is you can actually lift your bed three inches at the headboard side.
**Unknown:** So all you have to do is if you go on Amazon and you look up, um, I think they're called bed raisers. They're literally used for, like, college kids that are raising their bed to put, you know, their stuff underneath the bed 'cause the dorm rooms are tiny. Um, you can get the three-inch one and literally put it on the headboard side. Your bed will be on the slightest bit of an incline, but that little bit of an incline will actually improve how your brain is draining, um, just based off of position.
**Unknown:** So you wanna do it actually underneath the legs of- Yes ... your bed, not, not the mattress. Yeah. Unless your mattress is on the floor, but that's still w- I don't know how well that would work.
**Unknown:** Yes. So that's, like, a really, really easy tip. What's funny about it is we knew about doing this. We didn't do it for so long.
**Unknown:** I don't really know why. I think we, we didn't... We were... We didn't have anything to put underneath the bed, so we're like, "You know what?
**Unknown:** Screw it. Let's go just grab some books from the library." And we did it, and we put it underneath the, um, the pegs of the headboard, and that morning- I think I had my best night's sleep ever. Well, yeah. Nick would move around so much.
**Unknown:** He didn't move around. He woke up actually refreshed. I woke up without a low-grade headache, and I was like, "Oh, no, our brains are toxic." So with that being said, you know, we both went through and figured out what the r- you know, the root cause was for ourselves. But for me, I had chronic sinus issues as a kid.
**Unknown:** Um, I haven't necessarily suffered with sinus issues as an adult, but one of the things that constantly comes up in my testing that we do at our office, Integrative Wellness Group, is that I have, um, enlarged tonsils. It's called quincy. It's when you actually have, um, abscesses that are built up in the tonsils. So it's interesting because as I started to work on my tonsils and also start to work on the lymph nodes of my neck, and everything started to work better and, and the inflammation started to go down, I was like, "Oh, this is what it's like to have normal-sized tonsils." So, like, that's an important thing is that you don't know what you don't know.
**Unknown:** I literally have had large tonsils, but they're so my normal, so I, they don't feel bad to me, but they're clearly creating a very big obstacle for how well my brain can actually detox when I sleep. Mine was the opposite. Yours is in the front. It's the balance.
**Unknown:** Mine was in the back. Uh, so you have lymph that goes pretty much down, uh, right underneath your occiput. Uh, a lot of times if you kinda, like, squeeze there, uh, one side will be kinda, like, boggy and mushy- Mm ... um, which is good.
**Unknown:** The other side could be really hard. Um, sometimes both sides are hard, then you're just screwed. Um- Oh, gosh ... just kidding.
**Unknown:** There's a lot you can do. But with me, um, a couple of my concussions, uh, were all on that left side. Uh, so when I was, like, doing this, I was like, "Oh, oh, crap." Like, this is crazy hard over here, and the right side was, like, you know, felt really good. Mm-hmm.
**Unknown:** Uh, so doing a lot of physical work to kinda break up, uh, those adhesions, get everything flowing. Um, we had sound wave at the office, so I was utilizing that, and then some, some creams to really help, and very nice. Well, some of the specifics, again, you can go so many different ways with this, but one of the best therapies for helping your brain detox is craniosacral therapy. Um, fortunately, we have an amazing craniosacral practitioner in our office that has done a lot of advanced trainings and also does something called glial cell.
**Unknown:** So the glymphatic system of the brain is actually the primary part that detoxes your brain. So it's important to know, too, is that, you know, your glial cells are a big part... They're the immune system of your brain. So when somebody has, um, a glioblastoma, which is a type of brain tumor in the glial cells, that is a sign that there is some type of infection or toxicity that is in the brain that is so abundant that it has allowed for a tumor to develop.
**Unknown:** So I think that's a very important thing to take away is that this glymphatic system, uh-Is working really, really hard in some people, which is what puts us at risk for those types of brain tumors but, um, the glial cell craniosacral therapy is something that is amazing for helping with that type of detoxification and at the same time it's also promoting more blood flow, more cerebral spinal fluid flow to the area. And- And it puts your nervous system into that, like, fight or flight to a parasympathetic state, so it's- To calm everything down ... really relaxed and allows the body to go into healing at the same time. Exactly.
**Unknown:** And like Dr. Nick said, is, like, sometimes you need to do some other types of physical work, so if you're the person who has a, a lot of neck injuries or you have a really abnormal curvature or maybe you have some type of, you know, low-grade scoliosis, you might need to do some type of chiropractic physical therapy, um, that's gonna work on fixing that structure. Secondary to that is if you have a lot of adhesions in your lymph, you can use something like a sound wave therapy or ultrasound which goes over those areas to kind of get things moving properly. Use gua sha.
**Unknown:** Gua sha or even, like, a lymph massage. I will make a disclaimer about that, is if you're listening and you've never done any type of lymphatic work in your life and you're like, "Oh my gosh, I listen to this podcast, I'm gonna go get a lymph massage," chances are you will get really sick. You, you just- So- ... need to make sure you're taking some- Yeah ...
**Unknown:** some supplements and binders. You have to, you definitely have to kind of know what you're doing because you can stir a lot up really fast, and you just have to make sure your body has the ability to get rid of it. So for us, when we were going through our own, like, brain detox, we were... You know, we lifted the bed.
**Unknown:** We were make sure, we made sure we were taking different types of supplements in the family of, like, chlorella and charcoal. Some green clay. Green clay. These are things that will purify your blood, bind the toxins that are being detoxed, and then also making sure that your sinuses are working and there's not inflammation there.
**Unknown:** And also make sure you're supporting your oral health, so something like oil pulling and a good quality nasal spray can all support these different areas. But again, you know, everybody's super, super different with what they need, and all of these things can be customized if you actually have the right testing to decipher what your body needs overall. One of my favorite things for detoxing the brain is infrared saunas. Uh, 'cause really infrared, it's completely different than the regular sauna.
**Unknown:** You walk into the regular sauna and just the air is so hot. So infrared, like the sun, doesn't heat up the air, it heats up objects. Mm. So with that, just like the typical, like, when you get an infection, your body raises the internal temperature, it does that to help kind of burn and fight off infections.
**Unknown:** At the same time, anytime something heats up, it expands, so that's the awesome part because literally the brain's one of the hardest things to affect. Mm-hmm. So while being in that infrared sauna, you mean, you have more blood flow 'cause all your blood vessels are expanding, but not just the arteries, the veins. Mm.
**Unknown:** We talked about, you know, trying to get everything out. That's one of the biggest problems. So as your venous system expands, then allows just, you know, that highway goes from two lanes to four lanes, and we can really get things moving. Yeah, for sure.
**Unknown:** So the biggest thing to take away is that- Ooh, can I do some more hacks? Oh, okay. You, you, you go for it, Carothers. So I would say before wrapping it up, s- I mean, some things that are just beneficial for everybody is, you know, we talked about raising the bed.
**Unknown:** Mm-hmm. There's some more things that you can do in that bedroom. 'Cause when it comes to detoxing the brain as well as healing, uh, sleep is the most important. Mm.
**Unknown:** And it doesn't matter if you get honestly, like, six hours, eight hours, uh, if your body and your brain can't use that sleep, then, you know, it was kind of pointless. Uh, you just wasted six to eight hours. Mm-hmm. Uh, so with that, um, the big thing when your body's detoxing at night is through the production of melatonin, uh, within the pineal gland.
**Unknown:** So you, right in the middle of your head, you have a small little, uh, gland. It's called your pineal gland. When you get into that deep sleep at night, uh, when your brain really slows down, it's gonna release melatonin. Melatonin is, like, the biggest, strongest detoxing agent in the world.
**Unknown:** Uh, so but there's a couple things that will stop your production of melatonin and the pineal gland from doing that. So the first and foremost is light. Mm. So if there's any light production in your room, pineal gland's not gonna do it 'cause it works through your circadian system.
**Unknown:** So sun up, sun down, uh, it's working with that. So any light that's affecting, uh, going through the eyes is going to pretty much tell your pineal gland, you know, "There's sunshine. We, we're not gonna sleep." Mm-hmm. "Uh, we're not gonna produce melatonin." Other things that will do that is TV, is computer work- Yeah ...
**Unknown:** all the- iPad. All, all- Kindle. Yep. That's all light.
**Unknown:** Uh, so if you're doing that up to you go to bed, uh, you're gonna not have good quality sleep, and the pineal gland's not gonna produce melatonin. And the big thing with melatonin production from the pineal gland is it will actually shrink your brain up to around, studies show different numbers, but anywhere from 40 to 60%, your brain's gonna shrink. And why that's so vital is because kind of talking about that highway going from two lanes to four lanes, the more production of that melatonin- Mm ... the more your brain's gonna shrink, so then we can go up to an eight-lane, uh, highway- Mm ...
**Unknown:** so we can really get the brain and all the detoxification processes working. Yeah, for sure. And then but the other thing is, like, your brain could be doing that, but then you're gonna fight gravity. So if your bed's not raised, so then great, everything's moving, but it's not moving very fast because you're laying flat.
**Unknown:** Mm-hmm. So then you can just kinda hack that a little more, raise your bed up, so then everything's just rolling down nice and fast. So those would be, like, you know, situational beneficial for everybody. Yeah, I think that that's a huge problem right now, is how many people are using these different devices, and we've also...
**Unknown:** I know how convenient it is as a Kindle, you know, opposed to having the physical book- Yeah ... because it's small and, you know, you have various books on it. But there is definitely a downside to this very, very techy world that we live in, and it's partly because of the use at night and affecting melatonin production.But then at the same time, you know, we're, we're kind of revving up our bodies in negative ways because of all of the constant, um, radiation that's coming off of the devices as well. So it's like, you know, we use our phones as alarm clocks, but just throw it on airplane mode.
**Unknown:** Yeah. And a lot of times, you know, our, uh, Wi-Fi router's in the next room, and so that's hitting us. So just before we go to bed, just unplug it. You know?
**Unknown:** Simple things you can do. Yeah. And it, it's interesting too, because we're usually, um, resistant to these ideas about radiation 'cause we can't see it. You know, we can't really see what it's doing to the system.
**Unknown:** But, um, just even a simple tidbit is that they did an exep- uh, or an experiment on a pe- or two different Petri dishes of mold. Um, and what they found is that the Petri dish, uh, in our regular environment, AKA Wi-Fi soup, is what I call it, it actually multiplied by 600% in one week in comparison to the Petri dish that was isolated from all of our Wi-Fi and cell phones, et cetera. Um, and they have a lot of things even on YouTube of the new smart meters- Mm-hmm ... which are all digital ways to measure the, the gas, uh, being used in our homes, and how, um, all the plants around that smart meter die.
**Unknown:** So it's important. Well, we know it's affecting our, you know, cognitive ability 'cause, not America, but France, every single school that's being built in France now, uh, it's landline. There's no- Dial-up ... yep.
**Unknown:** So it's all, it's all landline. Uh, so I mean, the, the information's out there, it's just that, you know, we like everything so easy, but easy isn't always beautiful. Yeah. And of course, we run our business on technology, so we get it more than anybody else, but it's definitely trying to give our bodies a break.
**Unknown:** And I think the perfect time to give our bodies a break is when we sleep. So, um, and you know, there are some people that say, "I have to fall asleep with background noise." Um, by the way, that's a neurological issue. That means there's massive imbalance going on neurologically. But, um, but I think overall, you know, the biggest thing for you to take away is that you don't have to live in fear of developing, you know, memory loss, uh, dementia, Alzheimer's, or anything even in between.
**Unknown:** You know, take the signs that, you know, if you're really foggy, you're having terrible word recollection, and you're really struggling with your memory, do something about it sooner so that you don't have to, you know, just allow your body to progress and deteriorate. Um, I have people that are, you know, in their late 20s and 30, or early 30s, and they're just like, "Ugh, my memory's shot." I'm like, "You're, you're too young to be saying that." So if it's like that now, you know, where's it gonna be in 20 years from now? And it's on in peace of mind, too. You know, it's like if you go through and you get the evaluation done, you know where you are, and you know what you can do, then it's just also, like, that fear in the limbic system, that drives inflammation, too.
**Unknown:** Yeah. So it's just being able to take that one step even further. Well, and I think it's, you know, the biggest thing is that your traditional doctors are not necessarily evaluating for these types of things. You go to a neurologist and you talk to them about your sinuses, your tonsils, your lymph nodes, they're gonna laugh at you.
**Unknown:** And that's what's sad about it, is they're not necessarily piecing the puzzle together. So your neurological issue as, you know, as severe as the diagnosis can be, you know, we're working with people with multiple sclerosis, we're working with people with, um, ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease, and these are people that their neurological system is compromised because of toxicity, because of poor circulation, because of the chronic sinus infections that they took tons and tons of antibiotics for, which then further, you know, created other problems in their gut. So it becomes a, a, a pretty significant snowball effect. But you do really need to know that there are integrative practitioners out there that are gonna look at the big picture and give you solutions, and it's not necessarily just about, you know, living in fear of, of developing that more serious neurological condition down the line.
**Unknown:** And if you have been diagnosed, knowing that there are options out there that are going to help you. Yeah. If there's an effect, there's a cause. You just gotta dig and figure it out.
**Unknown:** Of course. So thank you guys for being with us as we just get back into our podcast, um, moving forward. So we are actually gonna be talking more about melatonin and, um, how you can actually detox your neurological system very effectively with melatonin. So keep your eyes peeled for that next podcast, and I thank you guys for being with me.
**Unknown:** If you want to hop on a strategy call to learn a little bit more about what we do at Integrative Wellness Group, definitely check us out at integrativewellnessgroup.com. You would show me half your world. We thank you for being a listener and subscriber to Integrative Wellness Radio. If you're looking to learn more about Integrative Wellness Group, as well as Dr.
**Unknown:** Nick or Dr. Nicole, you can check out integrativewellnessgroup.com. All night, no sleep. 'Cause I feel like I'm always dreaming.
**Unknown:** Wide awake, that's okay. As you-
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About Integrative You Radio
Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
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