Encore Episode: Why Are You Not Getting Better?
Episode 136
On today’s episode of Integrative Wellness Radio, Dr. Nicole discusses why some of us have been failed by conventional medicine. She gives us a deep insight into why we hit plateaus with our health and how this failure causes us to question and doubt ourselves. Dr. Nicole takes us back to the time when she followed the “perfect” diet & supplement regime but still felt exhausted and continued to hit roadblocks. She breaks down the filtration systems of the human body and dissects why some of the most important organs in our body are overlooked in conventional medicine and even functional medicine. Listen in to learn more. Interested in working with IWG? Book a complimentary consult call to learn more using this link: https://bit.ly/IWRcall2021 Noteworthy Time Stamps: 00:30 Integrative medicine as the first step 03:06 You’re not aging, you’re missing a part of the puzzle 05:10 It’s not just diet and supplements 08:15 Focusing on the body’s “filters” (It’s not just your liver) 13:24 The real reason your body is more resilient when you’re young 15:00 Some tips to decipher if your body is taxed 20:29 Signs your liver is overwhelmed 25:00 “Don’t fix it until it’s broken” 26:30 Tips to detox 31:12 Slimming down your toxin intake 35:30 Testing at IWG
Topics: medicine, integrative, body, unknown, getting, better, learn, first
Key takeaways from this episode
- Nick and Dr. **Unknown:** 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.
- Uh, so many of the people that I work with and, and even people that I am friendly with, that they get to a point that because medicine cannot figure out what's going on with them, they start to think, "Maybe I am crazy. **Unknown:** Maybe it is in my head.
- And really one of my goals is to make integrative medicine the first route of care in order for people to not have to go through the wringer of seeing so many doctors, not getting any answers, feeling that nobody cares, and also just feeling crazy.
- So as time went on, and again, I kept on my journey, and I, I did more testing, and I learned more, and I truly moved from this concept of functional medicine, which is diet and supplements, into a world of integrative medicine.
- And even some of these other treatments are still in the world of functional and integrative medicine.
Pull quotes
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems.
Nick and Dr. **Unknown:** 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.
We're usually going to embark on something in the traditional medi-medicine system, and it's when that system fails us that we start to embark on other options.
Transcript
**Unknown:** 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. Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr. Nick and Dr.
**Unknown:** 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. Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here on my own. Hello, everyone. So today, I actually am talking more so about why other therapies that you've done have potentially not worked at all or only got you to a specific place that you feel like you hit a plateau.
**Unknown:** This is something that I am constantly coming across in my practice, and the reason being is unfortunately, integrative medicine is not the first route of care. We're usually going to embark on something in the traditional medi-medicine system, and it's when that system fails us that we start to embark on other options. And really one of my goals is to make integrative medicine the first route of care in order for people to not have to go through the wringer of seeing so many doctors, not getting any answers, feeling that nobody cares, and also just feeling crazy. Uh, so many of the people that I work with and, and even people that I am friendly with, that they get to a point that because medicine cannot figure out what's going on with them, they start to think, "Maybe I am crazy.
**Unknown:** Maybe it is in my head. Maybe, maybe I'm, I'm losing it." And I think that's such a terrible place to go because these people have very real symptoms, and they really are suffering. And it's when we do the outside-of-the-box testing that we find the things that have been plaguing them all along. And usually when they hear this, it involves tears because they're like, "Oh my gosh, I am so relieved to know, first of all, that I have specific things that are causing me to feel this way, and secondarily, there is actually hope for me to get better." And that's really one of the most moving aspects of, of what I do for a living is being able to give people that clarity, give people those answers, and then obviously most importantly, give them a solution.
**Unknown:** But getting back to really what we're talking about today is why do people hit those plateaus? Why are they not necessarily getting better with embarking on other treatments? And even some of these other treatments are still in the world of functional and integrative medicine. And it was like, why did those therapies not, not succeed and not get rid of their symptoms?
**Unknown:** And one of the biggest things that I see is that the major filtration systems of the body are not working optimally. And I'm gonna go way in depth of what this actually means, but most importantly that you need to, to kind of wrap your head around is I think a lot of us can relate to this concept of aging. You know, I'm not even very old. I'm in my thirties, but it's very easy for me to say at times, you know, when I'm feeling achy or I'm feeling, um, that I had a glass of wine and I can't function the next day, that I'm like, "You know, th-this is getting old.
**Unknown:** This is must be what it's like to get old." And as I've been doing this, you know, over the past few years and working in this industry of, of functional medicine and integrative medicine I should say, is I realized that what I was doing in the beginning of my practice, I was missing such a big part of the puzzle. And when you really define functional medicine versus integrative medicine, they are very, very different. And I want to just take a moment to have clarity around that because when I started practicing, I moved from acting as a comprehensive health coach to then moving into utilizing more testing. I always did testing, but I did very basic like blood analysis and heavy metal testing.
**Unknown:** And then I moved into, you know, doing more elaborate testing. But at the end of the day, my solution was diet and supplements, which is definitely a step up for people that don't want to use medication. But at the same time, I had certain people that got really great results, and then I had other people that didn't get great results. They maybe got some results and then hit a plateau, or some of them didn't get any results.
**Unknown:** And it just kept me, me learning and searching and, and wanting to understand why certain people got better and other people didn't. And also at the same time, I was on my own journey. I was definitely doing everything I advocated for my patients. And I'm a strong believer that, you know, you have to, you have to walk the talk.
**Unknown:** So I was kind of on my own journey dealing with some gastrointestinal issues that I had, and I was taking boatloads of supplements, and I was really sticking with this, you know, fantastic diet. And I was getting up, and I was juicing, and I was doing smoothies, and I was, you know, I was meal prepping for hours on a Sunday. You know, I was doing all the things you're supposed to do on paper. And-Honestly, I was exhausted.
**Unknown:** I got so burnt out with it. I- I'm a business owner. I'm always wanting to learn. Like, i- if I was to choose anything, this might sound crazy, I wanna work with my patients or I wanna learn, and that's like two of my top values, and I value my health, and I valued eating well, and I valued putting good things into my body.
**Unknown:** But it was so much work. It was literally a full-time job. So I just kind of got to a place that when I got tired of doing it all, and I, I tapered back, and maybe I took less supplements, or I took a break from supplements, or I, you know, incorporated more eating out in my diet or whatever the case may be, I felt like I backtracked. And it just got me to a place of like, "Am I gonna have to live this super regimented, strict lifestyle forever in order to feel good?" And that was very discouraging, and I know that that was very discouraging to my patients as well.
**Unknown:** So I wanted to really understand, like, what was I missing? What did I not know at that point? And there has to be a better way. I shouldn't say a better way.
**Unknown:** Eating healthy is obviously a fantastic way to maintain your health, but there had to be more to the picture, I guess is what I'm saying. So as I kept learning, learning, learning and also kept progressing along my own journey, I was struggling with a lot of gastrointestinal issues. But I was also struggling with massive toxicity issues because I was doing testing, and I kept having these extremely high mercury levels. And I was doing all of the things that you're supposed to do.
**Unknown:** I was taking the best supplements. I was eating clean. I was supporting my liver. I was cleaning up my gut, and I was taking, you know, these very, very expensive, uh, supplements that are supposed to bind mercury and get it out of your system.
**Unknown:** So when I was doing that and retesting myself and seeing that my mercury levels didn't budge, I was like, "I'm missing something. I am clearly-- I clearly need more than what I'm doing." And it got me to really understand the major detoxification organs and pathways of the body, and now at this point, I call them your filters. And I was always focused on my liver and my gut, my liver and my gut, my liver and my gut for myself, and I also found it a value for a lot of my patients. But one of the big things that I was missing was the fact that you have other filtration systems in your body.
**Unknown:** So one of them being your kidneys, another one being your spleen, and most importantly, the other one being your lymphatic system. So as time went on, and again, I kept on my journey, and I, I did more testing, and I learned more, and I truly moved from this concept of functional medicine, which is diet and supplements, into a world of integrative medicine. I realized that all along, one of my biggest problems was my lymphatic system. And what I mean by that, for those of you who are like, "What does that mean?
**Unknown:** What is a lymphatic system?" So when you get sick, and all the glands in your throat and your neck all swell up, so partly that's gonna be glands and tonsils, but another component of that is lymph nodes. So your lymph nodes are everywhere in your entire body. They are head to toe, and they are a major component of filtration for your system. So the interesting thing about lymph is lymph is not the way your liver, gut, kidneys work.
**Unknown:** So your liver dumps toxins into your gut, and then it's eliminated through your bowel movements. And then your kidneys pretty much gather toxins through the-- from the blood and eliminate it out through your urine. Your lymph, on the other hand, it actually moves around in the body, picks up on toxins, infections, organisms, anything bad, and it eradicates it through its own self mechanism, and it's, it acts like Pac-Man essentially. So it eats things and dissolves it and gets rid of it.
**Unknown:** So the way that the lymph works as a detoxification and filtration mechanism is actually quite different than the liver and the kidneys. So with that being said, one of the ways, um, that I later realized that I knew that my lymph was part of the puzzle is that I never sweat. I was never a sweater. I always found myself-- I, you know, I was going to the gym since I was young.
**Unknown:** I was always an athlete. And I would go to the gym, and I would work out, and I would do cardio, and I'd run, and I did all these great things. And only my face would get a little sweaty, but most of my body was really not breaking that good of a sweat, regardless of doing cardio or not. And I had no idea at the time.
**Unknown:** I just was like, "Oh, this is great. You know, I'm not even sweating. I can like look glamorous at the gym." And little did I know is that that was reflective of how congested my lymph nodes were at a young age. So there's a couple parts to this puzzle of like, okay, well, why does this happen?
**Unknown:** How does this happen? And I'm gonna go through all the filtration systems to explain like how they become compromised. But one thing about your lymphatic system, and this is a great analogy that I feel like a lot of people can relate to, isIf you have a brand new vacuum and you are utilizing it every day for a month, and you keep using it, using it, using it, but you never dump the filter, you just keep using it, the filter is getting, you know, more and more full with every use. Say at the end of that month it gets to the point that you either stop using the vacuum or you dump the filter to continue using it.
**Unknown:** The f- the, the vacuum is still brand new, but the filter is full, so it's not allowing you to use it. So this is a similar concept to what happens to the filtration systems in our bodies. So the longer it goes on, so over a lifetime, and we get exposed to more and more chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, maybe we live in mold, maybe we get a bunch of strep, maybe we've c- gotten a couple of upper respiratory infections, couple UTIs, yeast infections, stomach bugs, stomach flus, blah, blah, blah, you name it. All of these things, it's a snowball effect over time.
**Unknown:** We, by the way, are exposed to bacteria and even parasites every single time we eat. So if you're thinking, "I've been super healthy my whole life," you're still toxic, you still have infections. It's just real life. It's just the way that it works.
**Unknown:** But the thing is, is that most of the time our bodies will be able to filter this stuff out. It filters it out, and it's no problem. So obviously, our filtration systems work way, way better when we're young, hence those of you that have been to college like myself and you drink, uh, an obscene amount, and you still wake up and get stuff done and go to class. So I feel like, you know, you can find your body being so much more resilient in your younger years and then y- as you get older, you feel like, "I can't go out and do those things like I used to," or, "I can't, you know, do too hard of a hike," or, "I can't work out as long," or, "I can't lift heavy weights like I used to." And part of it is we-- well, we think that it's aging, but part of it is over time, w- so maybe the aging process, our filtration systems become more and more congested and more and more clogged, and we have a lot more trouble getting rid of toxins, alcohol, infections, et cetera.
**Unknown:** And usually this is happening over a period of time, and then it just gets to a peak, and the peak is usually set off by some type of catalyst, and that catalyst might be stress, it might be a loss of a loved one, it might be moving into a moldy apartment. It might even be a pregnancy that was really hard on your system. And it just takes this one last straw of stress on the body that pretty much just induces a massive amount of symptoms, and we're just like, "What the heck is going on? Why do I feel this way, and why is n- why does my blood work look normal, and why is nobody able to actually tell me what's going on?" So this concept is something that is affecting most of us, if not all of us, and it's something that you can definitely decipher based off of some of these tips that I'm going to give you.
**Unknown:** So the way that you can really know and understand if your filtration systems are taxed out is, one, so this is-- I'm gonna do it in relation to organ system. So one is if you know that your lymph is taxed out, a couple of things to look out for. You're either not sweating or you're sweating a ton. So there's phases with the lymph.
**Unknown:** If you're sweating a ton, your lymph is taxed, but it's still working. If you're not sweating, then everything is just gunked up in your lymph nodes, and nothing is actually eliminating out. So actually, I wanna say something about this, um, before I, I move on, but your lymph is supposed to move through your body like a river. It's supposed to move very fluid and nice and pick up on toxins and infections and get rid of them.
**Unknown:** So if your lymph becomes congested or overloaded with toxins and infections, that is when your lymph becomes inflamed, and it actually becomes almost like sludge. So instead of moving like this fluid river, it actually becomes this sticky, gunked substance. And because of that, it can create a lot of stress on the cardiovascular system, so then all of a sudden you, especially as females, you might notice varicose veins. You might notice spider veins.
**Unknown:** You might notice that you feel very foggy. You're getting headaches. You're getting swollen lymph nodes occasionally in your neck. Most people don't even know what that feels like, but you might just have neck pain that no matter what chiropractor or physical therapist you go to, nobody can fix it.
**Unknown:** Um, and then especially, I know that I can relate to this, and I never knew what it was. I, I remember, like, being a teen, like, Googling, "Do I have cancer?" But, um, you know, the bikini line, noticing bumps in the bikini line, and they were under the skin, you know, not like pimples. They were-- That was my lymph nodes. So those are all things to keep in mind is if your lymph is super congested, you might have brain fog.
**Unknown:** You might have bad memory. You might feel very swollen.Puffy, especially after a flight. Uh, you might have vein changes. You might be sweating too much, you might not be sweating at all, and you might actually have a lot of neck pain as well.
**Unknown:** So those are some key things to keep out, keep a lookout for if, uh, your lymph is not working. And one of the ways, um, which is part of my tips and strategies, which I will reiterate, but, uh, one of the ways that I, I tell my patients that they can gauge the improvement of their lymph is by, um, utilizing infrared sauna therapy, and this is something we offer in our office at Integrative Wellness Group. But I will, um, a lot of times after they go in the infrared sauna for the first time, the infrared by the way heats you up, uh, from the inside out, so it heats you up almost like a fever would. And they'll notice that it takes them forty-five minutes, even an hour before they start sweating.
**Unknown:** And as they continue to do the infrared therapy, they start to notice it takes less and less time to sweat, which is a very good thing 'cause that shows that their lymph is improving. So lymph is just one piece. The other one is liver. So some of the, uh, really important factors when it comes to the liver is, and first of all, most of the time when I bring up the liver to my clients, they start thinking like, "Oh gosh, it must have been the alcohol that I drank in college", or, "It must be because I have a glass of wine every weekend." Uh, just so you know, the liver is a filtration system for many, many, many, many things outside of just alcohol.
**Unknown:** It is a filtration for alcohol, it's a filtration for drugs, including your over the counter Tylenols, Benadryls, et cetera. It is obviously a filtration system for your pharmaceutical drugs. It's a filtration for mold, for pesticides, herbicides, uh, heavy metals. Like, any type of chemical or toxin, it has to get filtered through the liver.
**Unknown:** So with that being said, one of the things that is really, really important to take note of is if you find your right ribcage hurting at times or you find that every time you go for a run or workout there's cramping on your right ribcage, it could be that your liver, and also your gallbladder is, um, also connected to your liver. So there's, there's definitely possibility that your l- your gallbladder is also involved. But you might have cramping in the right ribcage area. The other thing with your liver is if you do go out and you have s- you know, a glass of wine or some drinks with friends and you're so hungover the next day or you feel like you can't even function for various days, that is usually another sign that your liver is extremely taxed out and overwhelmed.
**Unknown:** Um, the other thing too is that the longer the congestion of the liver goes on, you usually will start gravitating towards constipation as well. So those are some really key things to keep an eye out for when it comes to the liver. I know that there are other s- things with the liver that, manifestations in the eyes, manifestation in the nails, manifestation in the, in the skin. I just personally don't see those until way, way later in life.
**Unknown:** So if you're somebody in, you know, between the ages of 20 to 45 and you're listening to this, you m- are most likely not gonna have the skin, nail, and eye manifestations. So start to just keep an eye on, you know, the cramping and, you know, if you're just feeling really, really terrible even after having one cocktail essentially. So another filtration system is going to be your kidneys. So the kidneys are so vital to so many functionalities of the body, but just so those of you know, your kidneys filter your blood.
**Unknown:** So if your kidneys are not working optimally, you're in big trouble. So you need to really be conscious of taking care of your kidneys because I can't tell you how many people know that there are kidney stones in the family or they've been, um, they've had some imaging done, like an ultrasound or a CT scan, and they're like, "Oh yeah, we definitely see some build up in your kidneys," or, "We see some stones in your kidneys, but, you know, we'll just, just monitor it and then if you eventually get a stone, you know, then we'll, we'll go from there." So if you're, if you already know that you have stones, if you have congestion in your kidneys, you need to, you need to get further testing and you need to do something about it because your kidneys are so essential to the vital- vitality of your body. And literally the health of your blood, which is so, so important. But some of the other pieces of the puzzle when your kidneys are really stressed is you might be having back pain that is anywhere, um, it could be on the left or the right or it could be both because you have kidneys on both sides.
**Unknown:** But it could be just kind of the bottom of the ribcage on either the left or the right or both on your back. So there's many, many people that come to our practice 'cause we do have a part of the practice which is chiropractic, and they're like, "I have back pain. And it's always on this side, it's right about here." And we screen them, and it turns out it's their kidneys. So don't mistaken your back pain for potential kidney pain, especially if you're urinating a lot, if you have frequent urinary tract infections, bladder infections, or even a kidney infectionAnd for women, it gets a little tricky because sometimes you will have continuous like bacterial vaginosis, but you'll never know that you have actual low-grade UTIs.
**Unknown:** So regardless if you have UTIs or bacterial vaginosis, you still should get your kidneys checked because those organs are in such close proximity, number one, and number two, all of the lymph nodes in that area can carry those infections. So you definitely want to be conscious of your kidney health, even if you're having more vaginal issues than urinary tract issues. So outside of the frequent urination, the other thing that you want to keep an eye on is if your urine is altered in color or in even texture. So if your urine is cloudy, if it is bubbly, if it is discolored, maybe it's dark sometimes, maybe it's super yellow sometimes, maybe you even see little specks of blood in it sometimes.
**Unknown:** Those are all signs that you are having issues in your kidneys. And maybe it's not in your kidneys yet. Maybe it's in your bladder, but it will make its way to your kidneys if you do nothing about it. So these things are very, very important to take note of, number one.
**Unknown:** Number two, address them before they become a problem. We live in a model that you don't fix it until it's broke. And that is one of the biggest detriments to our health and also our quality of life. If you're just like sitting around waiting for something to become problematic, chances are you don't feel great on a day-to-day basis.
**Unknown:** So it's really trying to be proactive so that we don't have to live in the state of fear that something really bad is going to happen. Because I know that right now, most of the listeners can probably name at least one person they know with cancer. And we don't want to just sit around and keep our fingers crossed hoping that that doesn't happen to us. There are so many tools out there to be proactive in order to get the systems working and also just feel good on a day-to-day basis, which unfortunately, I feel like so many of us don't even know what it's like to feel good anymore.
**Unknown:** And I can relate to that even myself. So with that being said, I obviously want to provide some tips for you guys and to be able to give you some tools that you can utilize in order to get the filtration systems working again. So when it comes to liver and kidneys, you could probably go on Google and find like a million different types of supplements or vitamins that will help to support those organ systems. And I will go through a few that I really like.
**Unknown:** But one thing that's really, really important for you to know when it comes to your lymphatic system is there is no medication, there is no supplement, there is no dietary recommendation that is going to fix your lymph. Your lymph nodes strictly need to be supported through detoxification. Some of the most effective ways to detox your lymph is infrared sauna. Again, infrared heats you from the inside out like a fever would.
**Unknown:** So infrared and traditional saunas that heat the air are very, very, very different. So the infrared technology is extremely important. Please be cautious with the infrared because you can go on Amazon, go to Costco and find these infrared saunas that are like less than $1,000, but they are practically like sitting in a microwave. You really have to shoot for a company that is going to give you a sauna that is not going to be high in EMFs, which are electromagnetic frequencies.
**Unknown:** So one of the companies that we really love and trust is Sunlighten. So Sunlighten saunas are really fantastic. That's what we do have at Integrative Wellness Group. We see tremendous results with it.
**Unknown:** So please take a look at their company and compare and contrast your options. Another way that we specifically help to detox the lymph nodes is by ionized foot and hand baths. I know the ionization baths are very confusing to people because it's using a very specific ionization process, but the ions, depending on the setting that you put it on, they act as magnets to very specific toxins. So they could be magnets to heavy metals.
**Unknown:** They could be magnets to mold and mycotoxins. They could be magnets to pesticides and herbicides. So these foot baths I find to be tremendously beneficial for drainage. So it's almost like the sauna heats you up to burn things off, but then you use the baths in order to create an actual flushing of some of these toxins.
**Unknown:** And the specific company that we use is called Ion Cleanse. So that's a really fantastic company. They do have residential units that you can buy for your home, but they are really, really fantastic. Both of those companies, by the way, if you reference Integrative Wellness Group, they will give you a special price.
**Unknown:** So definitely make sure to mention us. So another really fantastic therapy that's actually quite new is a ozone steam sauna. It's called a HOCATT. So this is something that we're actually working on getting for our practice, but the HOCATT is, they've been testing it for quite a few years now, and they've just published all the research and put them on the market.
**Unknown:** But there has been tremendous, tremendous benefits from a detox standpoint. And this isn't even just lymph. This is all organs of the body. So this is something that you might be able to find in your area, but it is quite new.
**Unknown:** So definitely keep your eyes peeled for the HOCATT, H-O-C-A-T-T. But other than that, there are many practices that offer ozone as well. It's called autohemotherapy, and it delivers ozone into the blood via an IV bag. And this is also something that is extremely, extremely beneficial for eradicating microorganisms out of the body, toxins, and also just cleaning up the blood in general.
**Unknown:** So the ozone therapy doesn't just have benefit for your lymph. It also has massive benefit for your kidneys as well.Um, so some of the simpler options that you could do at home, one of them is getting yourself something called a dry brush. A dry brush is, uh, you can literally Google the video on how to do this. Uh, dry brushing is something that, uh, mobilizes the lymph.
**Unknown:** You could do this while you're in the shower a couple of times a week. Uh, you always make sure to brush up towards the heart. Uh, another fantastic option is rebounding. So rebounding is literally jumping on a mini trampoline.
**Unknown:** Uh, there are actually some areas, especially in some of the cities, that they have workout classes that are now utilizing these rebounders. Trust me, it is an amazing workout. Nonetheless, it is an amazing avenue for detoxification. So rebounding is another fantastic way to go, um, when you're really trying to get your lymph, uh, mobilized and moving.
**Unknown:** So when it comes to the liver as well as the kidneys, so some of the things to really keep in mind is cutting down on the additional toxins going into the body. So cutting down on caffeine, cutting down on over-the-counter medications, eliminating hardcore medications if n- if possible. Um, and all I really mean by that is, like, if you have been recommended a regimen of painkillers, is trying not to be on those long term and, and, you know, trying to keep those things short term. Obviously, there are many medications that people are required to stay on.
**Unknown:** Um, so it's trying to decrease some of the exposure in that way. And then from a dietary standpoint, some of the foods and, um, you know, compounds that are gonna stress out the liver and kidneys is definitely going to be pesticides and herbicides. So eating organic is so significant for taking away some of the toxic burden that can happen in, in the organ systems. Um, so when it comes to different supplements that are really beneficial for the liver, and I should say foods as well.
**Unknown:** So one of my favorite, uh, herbs is actually milk thistle. Milk thistle and goldenseal are really, really beneficial for your liver, uh, from a supplement standpoint. But also some of the foods that are absolutely amazing for liver detoxification are the cruciferous vegetable family. So this is quite an array of vegetables, but it's everything from broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Swiss chard, Brussels sprouts, um, kohlrabi, bok choy.
**Unknown:** So incorporating some of those foods in your diet is really, really important to get your liver working more optimally. And when it comes to the kidneys, uh, some of the herbs that are really amazing for the kidneys is actually cranberry. There are many versions of cranberry complex out there. I personally love Standard Process cranberry complex.
**Unknown:** Um, and Standard Process also uses-- I should say MediHerb 'cause they are an affiliated company. But, uh, uva ursi is another fantastic herb for the kidneys. And then from a dietary standpoint, uh, dark tart cherry juice. I know, uh, cranberry juice gets the big rave, but dark tart cherry juice, uh, getting an organic version with no added sugar, that is an amazing, amazing avenue to go to really support your, um, urinary system, kidneys being part of that.
**Unknown:** So I really, really hope that this was of value to listeners, um, because really the biggest thing that I wanna close with is if you have sought out other therapies, and you've changed your diet, and you've cut a million things out, and you're taking a boatload of supplements, and you feel like you are not getting anywhere, and you feel like there is a piece of the puzzle missing, more than likely, your filtration systems are completely maxed out, and you need to get those filtration systems working. And it's really a matter of moving away from just relying on diet and supplements and taking an integrative approach to really address all of the aspects of your body that are so important and vital to you getting better. Um, since I have transformed our practice and started to make sure that I am a hundred percent supporting these filtration systems, we've eradicated ninety-eight percent of the Herx reaction. And I'm going quote unquote with my fingers 'cause I honestly hate the term.
**Unknown:** But Herx reaction is when you have a bad, uh, or a, a negative effect to detoxification. And I always tell people, "If you are not doing it properly or you are not fully supporting all of the avenues of detoxification, that is when you're going to have a bad response to, uh, a detox regimen." So please just keep that in mind is you don't have to feel badly going through the process if you are doing the right thing. Uh, so check us out, Integrative Wellness Group. Uh, we-- Just so you know, too, when people come to our practice, we do test the body.
**Unknown:** We actually use something called autonomic response testing through Klinghardt, um, for those of you that are f- uh, familiar with Dr. Klinghardt. And it's actually an avenue of muscle testing that allows us to test for what supplements, herbs, remedies, and therapies are best for the person's body. Because I'm giving you a blanket statement by saying infrared is great for the lymph.
**Unknown:** Yeah, it's great for most people's lymph, but if I test you, I might find that you do better with the ionized foot baths or you do better with dry brushing. Every single person's body is very, very different. So just know that there are ways of testing to know what is best for your specific blueprint. We thank you for being a listener and subscriber to Integrative Wellness Radio.
**Unknown:** If you're looking to learn more about Integrative Wellness Group as well as Dr. Nick or Dr. Nicole, you can check out integrativewellnessgroup.com. All night, no sleep.
**Unknown:** 'Cause I feel like I'm always dreaming. Wide awake, that's okay.
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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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