Shift in Mood? Your Liver May Be Responsible.
Episode 103
Hear Dr. Nicole + Dr. Nick discuss the sneaky reason behind mood changes... and how it can be connected to your liver. This episode will also cover: Interested in working with IWG? Book a complimentary consult call to learn more using this link: https://bit.ly/IWRcall2021 A quick introduction to our sister company, Integrative Growth Institute What are elevated porphyrins and what this means for your mood? The importance of building a referral network vs. staying in your line The different avenues of elimination when detoxing Factors that stress the liver Dr. Nicole + Nutritionist Grace's Free Workshop debunking common myths in nutrition Checklist of symptoms that point to liver stress If you're interested in booking a free consultation call to start your health journey, please book here .
Topics: integrative, testing, mood, liver, nick, stress, nutrition, health
Key takeaways from this episode
- 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.
- So, you know, we have some really unique testing here at Integrative Wellness Group.
- Welcome back to another episode of Integrative Wellness Radio.
- We are actually in our brand new podcast studio that is now housed at Integrative Wellness Group.
- So, uh with that being said, we are definitely going to be delivering some awesome content on the front of the Growth Institute.
Pull quotes
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole as opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems.
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 are actually in our brand new podcast studio that is now housed at Integrative Wellness Group.
Transcript
Shift in Mood? Your Liver May Be Responsible. Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole as opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems. 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. Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Integrative Wellness Radio. So, we have been on a bit of a hiatus with the wildness of 2020. But I am joined here with my co-host Dr. Nick. What up? We are actually in our brand new podcast studio that is now housed at Integrative Wellness Group. So, we are very, very excited about being able to have a studio of our own and just keep delivering some awesome content to you guys, because we've definitely been itching to uh, to just get the word out there about all of the things that are trending in the world of integrative and functional medicine. And uh mental, emotional health is going to be a big series coming up for 2021 as well. Heck yeah. So Dr. Nick, uh we've actually been both very busy with uh our own personal endeavors. So Dr. Nick has been furthering his education in human behavior with Dr. D Martini. And for myself, I have gone down a rabbit hole of business and leadership development, uh which has been one of my biggest accomplishments for 2020. And really being able to completely reframe and evolve our clinical practice, which has now translated into how we're both showing up in our Growth Institute and really teaching individuals not only about integrative medicine, but how to create a business that they actually love, that is not slowly killing them. No, it all comes back down to your why, you know, it's like why are we waking up every single morning? And if it's not you know, serving yourself, serving others more than you, um it's it's going to be draining, that's for sure. Yeah, and you know, everybody has highs and lows in business, that is for sure. Everybody has highs and lows in their health, but you know, sometimes you really have to hit that rock bottom before you're able to really have enough motivation to to make a change. So, uh with that being said, we are definitely going to be delivering some awesome content on the front of the Growth Institute. But for today, we have been seeing a trend in our clinic. And this is something that we really wanted to bring to the forefront, because I don't really know of many practitioners that are doing testing uh for this specific marker that now that we've been doing the testing, what would you say, it is it 80% of the patients are coming up positive? I'd say it's pretty close to that. Yeah. So, you know, we have some really unique testing here at Integrative Wellness Group. One of the things that we do is DNA based testing. And this is one of the original or I would should say one of the first tests that we do upon working with a patient, because it usually uncovers things that conventional tests are not showcasing. So the testing definitely guides us in some of the unique blood markers that we're going to be running. But the test is not cut and dry, it's not black and white. You really have to have expertise and a critical mind to leverage this type of testing. And for myself, something that I started to notice is that and and Dr. Nick, too, but we we notice it in a different context. So, we have certain individuals that come in and they've been on this journey of of trying to get well. And they're pretty beaten down mentally and emotionally. And when we are asking better questions, we're trying to decipher is there PTSD? Is there something on the neurological front that is causing them to have highs and lows with their cognitive function or even their mood? Um you know, is there personal emotional adversities or is it truly physiological? And that is something that I love what we do, how we collaborate together, because my hat is the physiological origins and Dr. Nick's hat is really the mental emotional origin. Hence, we always disagree on everything. Hey, it's very collaborative, very constructive. But when it comes to the physiological aspects, something that I was noticing is that uh these individuals were coming up for elevated porphyrins. And porphyrins is something that is not tested for on a regular basis, because it is thought to be only happening in very extreme situations. So, textbook, and if you watch any of our webinars, you know that I always speak to the idea that barely anything matches the textbook. And when you get into real-life clinical situations, things can look very, very different and you can't dismiss that as a practitioner. So, the the elevated porphyrins in the textbook model pretty much states that you could have massive neurological issues to the point that you have uh such bad muscular issues that you could barely walk, uh that you lose motor control, uh and then from a cognitive standpoint is that it can push you into schizophrenia or a very serious mental condition. And what we have found in asking better questions is these individuals are just stating that they have a lot of unwarranted shifts. You know, I I always ask that question, I'm like, okay, how is your mood before you answer that question is do you have a stressful situation which triggers irritability, frustration, depression, or any, anything in that emotional realm? Or are you finding yourself feeling a certain way but saying like, you know, I am super frustrated right now and I am so ticked off, but I really don't know why. And Nick is just nodding. Because this is like the story of our lives of the things that we deal with on a day-to-day. And I would say honestly, we've, you know, we've probably felt this at some capacity or to some capacity in our own lives, but again, we were not always being tested to see what the origin was. It was usually thought, oh well, you're stressed out or oh well, you know, you might not be sleeping enough or that's just you. Uh especially for me growing up in a crazy Italian family. And don't get me wrong, like you know, we live in a society where we try to dumb everything down, you know, we tried to fit all of our problems and blaming on one system. But in reality, it's, you know, our entire being uh which for the most part, people aren't looking at the entire aspect of the body, you know, the physical body, the chemical body, the emotional body, the energetic body, as well as even the spiritual side of things. And it's it's all of those brought together and looking at, you know, the stressors in each one of those, understanding that one system can easily affect other systems. So, when, you know, we're looking at biochemistry and saying, if if these are off and that stress, it can actually create mental emotional stress. Or if your energetic system, looking at Eastern medicine of meridians, you know, depending on which meridians are being stressed and where those meridians uh travel throughout the body, that can also create a lot of mental emotional stressors. So it's really about just, you know, being able to look at the specifics, you know, to be able to really get down to the true causations, but not so much that we're we have blinders on that we don't see the big picture and can truly help someone. Well, and I think that it's huge that you just said that, because obviously as we go through this podcast and it's easy, if if you're a patient or a practitioner, it's easy to now say, oh, I had a patient that came in describing that they have these unwarranted mood shifts, well, it must be this excessive um porphyrin in their system. And this is a piece of the puzzle and it's a consideration. It's definitely something to consider when you're doing your testing. But don't assume that it's always that. And one of the things that we teach the practitioners that work for us is that enter the danger. And that might sound like a very odd thing. But a lot of us as practitioners are very uncomfortable with asking better questions around emotional adversities. And it doesn't mean, you might not be equipped to deal with that. That's okay. But having someone in your referral network to say, if the patient is saying, well, yeah, this all started after uh a car accident that I feel I have PTSD from, or this all happened after sexual assault, or this all happened after a loved one passed away is, you know, you can't dismiss that. You have to be able to ask those questions in a very loving, empathetic way and then say, hey, I just want to make sure that I have all the bases covered so that we're we're supporting you in the best way possible. You know, I'm going to do my due diligence as a functional and integrative practitioner and look at the physiological realm, but, you know, maybe we should have, you know, a therapist or or someone that is focused on human behavior that is also part of your care plan that I can collaborate with as a practitioner. And that's that's just the beauty of integrative medicine, you know, looking at it that the your head physician, your head doctor has, you know, that outlook of that integrativeness. You know, most people are going to a physician, um a nutritionist, a health coach and they're only asking questions based on the tools they have to help them. But a true integrative outlook is, you know, we're asking questions to look on all those different systems, those different bodies so that, you know, we're lucky and privileged that we have an office to pretty much take care of most of those things. But even a lot of integrative doctors that don't have all those tools or, you know, 25 employees to be able to help so many people is that we still need to be asking those in-depth quality questions to get the most amount of data, the most amount of truth of what's actually happening and then, you know, do your part to what you can help. But then if you don't have everything under one roof, you know, be able to connect and create those affiliate relationships. Yeah. And it's interesting, because I got into uh uh a bit of an interesting conversation with a practitioner where he was on social media stating that practitioner should stay in their lane. And uh I I think that that is uh a little bit oversimplified. But, uh depending on your credentials, it's still okay to ask better questions to again, be able to build out the best recommendations for your patient. It doesn't mean that you are necessarily working with the patient on all of those different avenues, because you should stay in your zone of genius and make sure that you are still looking at all of the elements that might be contributing to the patient. But, you know, getting back to to this idea of this physiological aspect that is contributing to, you know, people feeling mentally unwell and feeling so unbelievably frustrated, because they don't know what's wrong with them and they're sitting there having a lot of negative self-talk of like what's wrong with you? Like why do you feel this way? Like why can't you get over the grudge or or why can't you stop yelling at your husband or your kids? And not realizing that there could be something happening internally that is completely compromising this. So, what we were originally saying is that this all stemmed from the DNA testing that was presenting this elevation of porphyrins. So when you dig a bit deeper, this pathway that regulates um porphyrins, to make sure that if you have access that your body eradicates it. This is all done in the liver. And something that I explain to many patients is helping them to understand a foundation of how they got to where they are right now. Because very often when you go through and you're explaining that, you know, they have this autoimmune condition or they have this imbalance or they have X amount of infections or toxicity, you know, they're kind of like how the heck did this happen? And the simplest way that I explain it is I say, you know, you have three major avenues of elimination. You have your liver, you have your kidneys, and then you have your lymphatic system. And unfortunately, in this day and age, these systems are getting overburdened earlier and earlier. I, we have seen literally infants that already have a compromised lymphatic system. And by the way, if you're like that's crazy, that's what jaundice is an already burdened liver in an infant. So, when you look at the statistics on how many children or infants are born with jaundice, it's an astronomical number. So, understanding that these things are happening early on and it's like the idea that you have this vacuum. You buy the best on the market and you keep using it. And the filter gets more and more full. And you try to use the vacuum and it's not doing its job. There's nothing wrong with it, it's just the filter is at complete max capacity. So, if you go, you dump the filter, now your vacuum will go back to functioning normal. And it's a very similar idea that is happening with these detox organs and the liver being one of the primary. Because the liver has very, very intricate pathways that deal with the metabolism of coffee, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter medications. And the liver is getting hit so hard nowadays, partly just because of the American diet. And lifestyle. I mean, our air is toxic. We breathe in, that gets transferred and filtered through the liver. You know, Chinese medicine, anger is associated with the liver, that gets processed and metabolized through the liver. You know, all of our We're going to circle back to that for those of you that are like, what? He just dropped that bomb. Standard American diet, you know, processed boxed food that's not real, you know, things with more than one ingredient that has to be pretty much processed through the liver, you know, and even healthy foods. You know, it's just like meat, proteins, fats that takes more energy and stressed getting processed through the liver. Well, I'm glad that you said that, because yes, we have this, you know, this elephant in the room when it comes to toxicity. And just to keep it simple for all of you is there are pesticides on almost all produce that you consume. The animals that you're consuming are being fed a genetically modified diet that causes inflammation in their own bodies. Uh something that people don't often think about as well is, you know, there are certain individuals that are choosing not to vaccinate their children, but their whole family is eating animals that have been on a vaccine schedule. So, you're still potentially getting exposed to different adjuvants that are in those vaccines. On top of that is we have personal products that when you start using platforms like Think Dirty or the EWG site and you start evaluating your personal products, you start realizing that there's lead in chapstick, that there's propylene glycol, which is a derivative of antifreeze and most of your shampoos, conditioners, lotions. So, guys, we're just scratching the surface when it comes to toxicity. We live in New Jersey, where there are 128 Superfund sites. So, Superfund sites are sites that have a government ordinance to get cleaned up due to toxicity. By the way, most states that are a lot larger than New Jersey, like think of Montana, they have three Superfund sites or four Superfund sites. So, pretty much what we're saying is people that live in New York and New Jersey, we are glowing from the inside out. And it's not to be scared and create fear, it's just saying that, you know, these are facts. So we need to be preventative on how we live our life if we're going to be in an environment that may be more toxic than where other people live. You know, that's really what it comes down to, because, you know, more than ever, uh right now for some reason, I've been getting tons of cases of just skin reactions, skin issues. And most of the breakouts are not, you know, surprisingly, they're around areas of high lymphatics. Uh, so around the neck, the armpits, the groin, um areas of really dense lymph nodes. And really what that's showing is that the person's detox system is not working, because if you're not detoxing it out through urine, through stool, through the kidney and through the liver, then your next best, you know, organ system is going to be your skin, uh to try to get out. And that's, you know, the lymph has nowhere to go, it's instead of going down and out, it's going to go up and out, it's going to go out through your skin. It's the path of least resistance. So, you know, what we're what we're trying to say is that the liver is the strongest and most resilient organ in your in your entire body. For those of you that don't know, if you actually were to donate a part of your liver, um for someone who, you know, needed a liver transplant, that you your liver will grow back, the the remaining will allow it to have regenesis and grow back. That there's no other organ in the body that does that. So the liver is extremely resilient. But it is almost getting assaulted on a day-to-day basis due to all these things we're describing. So now if the liver becomes compromised, then the kidneys have to work harder and the lymph has to work harder. And then, again, so now if the lymph is the second runner-up to get clogged, now the kidneys are going to have to work really hard or vice-versa. So, your body is very intelligent and it is actually quite resilient. So, when you finally get sick, it's to the point that your body is literally throwing up its hands saying enough, like I need help at this point. So, what of the webinars that we're actually doing this uh this coming week is in relation to talking about the individuals that have uh tried to change their diet, have had success, but it was short-lived success. And it's because there's only so much that you can do with food nowadays. And it's not that having a healthy diet should be optional, we need to have a healthy diet. But when you've already reached a point of autoimmune conditions or chronic illness or chronic inflammation, you usually need to do some level of cleanup or clean out, I should say, before you're going to get the maximum benefit from the foods that you eat. And something you said before, which I think is a really great um it it's really great for people to think about, because this is a symptom you might be experiencing that's not intense or extreme, but if you're an individual, that you feel like you're having trouble digesting certain foods. But there's no there's no correlation, there's no rhyme or reason, there's no consistency. So you're like, oh, I feel like that I ate chicken the other day and I was fine and then chicken today I wasn't fine. Um, what's happening is that the more burdened your liver is, the more the connecting organs become burdened. So, your small intestine becomes burdened, your pancreas becomes burdened. So now you're not producing enzymes to break down your food adequately, you're not producing enzymes to keep your or hormones, I should say, to keep your sugar regulated. And you're also not producing bile properly. So, you're probably thinking that you're lactose intolerant. When really you just can't break down the fats in dairy, and that's because your liver is burdened, which has now burdened your gallbladder. So, a big thing that we teach with our patients is we're almost teaching them anatomy to understand that when the liver becomes compromised, it becomes a snowball effect. Now you're going to have altered digestion, you might have constipation. Now you can't break down fats. Now you have wacky blood sugar. Now you have heartburn indigestion, etc. And people are like, oh crap, I do have all of those things. One of the things that uh I talk about daily with people is poop. And I always ask the question first, you know, do your stools, well first, you know, do you go regularly? Do you go daily or is it spread out farther than that? And if you go daily, how many times a day? So, honestly, the most common answer is every other day. Which isn't normal or actually it's probably normal, but it's not healthy. It's their normal, but it is not healthy. So, really we should be going uh at least twice a day. Um, but getting into the stools, my next follow-up question is, you know, this might be graphic, but do you look and see if your stools sink or float? And that's because, you know, a healthy stool should actually be sinking. Uh, and that's a stool that has digested fat and protein in a in a well manner that the body can actually use it. If the liver is stressed, the gallbladder is stressed, the liver uses bile produced by the gallbladder to actually help it break down fats and protein. And if that's not happening, then it's going out through the stool instead of being used by your body. And every single cell, especially the membrane of every single cell, is really composed um of fat, of cholesterol. And the major portion of the brain is derived of cholesterol, which is fat. So we need this fat to be broken down and utilized by the body. But if that's not happening, then it's going out through our stool and fat floats. So, it's an easy simple way to see, you know, is your liver and gallbladder working in a good, properly way, or, you know, is it probably stressed? Yeah. So, one of the biggest correlations we've seen with uh, you know, with this conversation about the liver as well as this elevation in these porphyrins that are making people feel literally like they're on an emotional roller coaster is an autoimmune liver condition. And now since we've been evaluating for this, like we said before, is that 80% of our patients that are just getting started, you know, with their their journey. And don't get me wrong, we do work with individuals that unfortunately have been failed by conventional medicine. And that's why they're finally through our doors. Uh but these there's 80% of these people that are walking around with an autoimmune liver condition with completely normal liver enzymes. And I want to drive this home, because when most of you are going and getting your checkup, you're getting a physical, and you're getting your basic bloodwork, which is a CBC and CMP, is that they are running something called AST and ALT, which are liver enzymes. And these liver enzymes, you know, if they're elevated, you're going to have a conversation with your doctor or they might say, um, you know, let's retest it in a few weeks and see if it goes back down. It might be a fluke. And um if they're normal, then the conversation ends there. And we are finding that individuals have completely normal liver enzymes, but actually have an autoimmune liver condition, and then this is compromising so many pathways, like Dr. Nick was just saying. It's compromising everything from your digestion to your breakdown of fats, which means that's compromising your brain. So, you have this double whammy. You have inadequate cholesterol production and use. So, now your brain is being affected by that. And then secondary is now we also have this elevation in porphyrins due to the massive stress on the liver, which is now creating such a haywire reaction in the neurological system that it is completely altering neurotransmitters and and really uh causing an increase in stress hormones. And besides neurotransmitters, your liver is a big regulator of your reproductive hormones. So, it's like so many people will come in initially thinking that, you know, they need to balance their hormones out, but their hormones are just, you know, they're imbalanced, because the liver is so stressed. But they've been to so many conventional doctors and like, well, no, my liver is fine. But then you, you know, you run more accurate tests and like, so your your liver is functioning, quote unquote, normal, but your immune system is attacking it, which is also affecting its ability to produce, like you said, whether it's, you know, upregulating specific neurotransmitters or other hormones or, you know, other pathways. So, And it's interesting too, because when we work with people, you know, they are going through a process. If this is, say, their root cause and they have this autoimmune liver condition and then we find certain things that are burdening the liver. And sometimes that's bacteria. Sometimes it's toxicity from heavy metals or mold, um or other types of fungus. Sometimes it's going to be more chemical-based. Liver flukes are pretty pretty common. So that's falling in the parasitic family. And yes, guys, you don't have to go to Mexico to get parasites, you can get them just by swimming in the lovely waters of New Jersey. Um but definitely parasites are not as uncommon as people realize. But overall, like whatever it is that is burdening your liver, you know, that is what that's the reason why your immune system is attacking. It is not intentionally attacking the liver and the hepatocytes, it's actually attacking the toxicity or the infections that are burdening that tissue. And unfortunately, there is going to be an inflammatory reaction to that tissue. So, uh, very often individuals will get, you know, pain on their right rib cage or they'll get cramping when they work out, or they'll have a lot of gurgling, um, if they're if they ate too much or they haven't eaten. So, those are all signs that you might have inflammation in that area of the liver and gallbladder. And you got to think also like these people are usually pretty fatigued, you know, their immune system is using up so much more energy, because it's constantly fighting throughout the day, but it's not just fighting infections, it's it's fighting your own body. So, it will waste just tons of energy. So, one of the symptoms most people come in with is also a lot of uh fatigue. 100%, yeah. And I I want that to be refreshing to those of you listening, because I know how many people are fatigued, and I know going through even periods of my own fatigue, uh mainly due to burnout because I run myself ragged. Um, you know, it's it's so unbelievably overwhelming from a mental, emotional standpoint, too, especially if you're a person that, you know, you have a family to take care of or you are a business owner or an entrepreneur or you're, you know, you're just you have a 9 to 5 job to go to. You know, it's if you are so tired, it just takes away your quality of life. And it's just understanding that it's not that you're doomed to live with that forever, it really comes down to, you know, what is taking all of your energy? Is it because your immune system is working on overdrive? Is it because your detox pathways are working on overdrive? Or is it because you're getting zero nutrients because you don't have the proper mechanisms to break down and absorb your food? I can't tell you how common that is. And the biggest factor is actually going to be pesticide residues in the gut. And this is not something that's being looked at. A lot of functional doctors are running stool samples and they're saying, oh, you have candida. Oh, you have bacteria. And just an FYI for those of you that have had stool samples, if you've had elevated salmonella, Ecoli, or clostridium, chances are, um, I'm not saying that those are not relevant. I'm sure that those bacterias are causing problems, but those bacterias particularly coincide with pesticide residues, especially glyphosate, which is known as Roundup. So, you need to not only be treated for SIBO or um bacterial dysbiosis, but you also need to be treated for toxicity in the gut, because otherwise you're going to hit a plateau, you're going to be really frustrated and you're going to give up. And I wanted to just throw in a quick tidbit is that don't wait. Honestly, because so many people, you know, like, I just have a little fatigue. But it's because I'm working my ass off. And then I go home and I have to take care of my family and, you know, try to still have a personal life at the same time. And life shouldn't be really that tiring. Uh, so if we're overly fatigued, uh, don't wait till you bottom out, because then you're just burning out so many other pathways. The body's like, as you said, it's very resilient, it can adapt and, you know, in miraculous ways until it can't. And that's when the journey, you know, to reverse it, it becomes a long time as well as expensive before, you know, instead of saying, you know, I'm fatigued, this this isn't normal, uh, to be able to, you know, go through and get checked and get evaluated and nip it in the bud really quick, so that you don't break down so many other pathways. Yeah. But this is also going against all of our programming. And it's not, you know, it's not everyone listening, It was the way we grew up as well, It's, you know, the idea of don't fix it until it's broke. And unfortunately, that motto has, I think, gotten a lot of us into trouble when it comes to our health. Uh and we've also, you know, a lot a lot of us, like because there's such an epidemic of chronic illness, you know, for a long time, there were just individuals that were tired or just didn't feel right. And their lab work was just coming up normal. So, they were being deemed well, you know, you must be stressed or it must be in your head because everything looks good. And now more and more people are challenging that from their primary care or their conventional doctor because they're like, no, I feel horrible. And like this can't be it for me. I'm 23 and I can barely function. What, your blood work's normal, so. Yeah. It must be in your head. So, it's very frustrating on our end as well, because, you know, step number one as practitioners is to ask better questions and to never dismiss someone's symptoms, because, you know, individuals are they're crying out for help and they're not doing it just for fun. There is usually things that are happening that are just being missed because they're not doing better testing. Um but, you know, like Dr. Nick said is it's really important to not necessarily just brush it under the rug, because we brush it under the rug usually to say, well, ideally it'll get better. And very often it doesn't. And we start to have more and more of these pathways that are compromised. And it puts us in a place mentally that is really hard to then get motivated to to take charge of our our health. And I'm not saying that just on the front of stress, I'm saying that because of the physiological changes that are happening. And, um, you know, we have definitely seen individuals that have had these autoimmune liver conditions that have had this elevation in porphyrins that, you know, there is such strong shifts that are happening in their mental capabilities that, you know, they're super motivated one week and then they are bottomed out and just feeling so low that they want to give up on everything the next week. And I mean if your liver is stressed, your your liver, your gallbladder, the stomach, the pancreas, they all connect to the duodenum. So, most of those Oregon systems are being affected if one's being affected. So, you look at, you know, all what those other systems affect and they affect blood sugar like you were talking about that if your brain's not getting proper blood sugar, the regulation, it can't use the energy that it needs to actually go through and, you know, not only survive, but to thrive. And then you look at the stomach and how that's a big up-regulator for serotonin, your feel-good neurotransmitter, and like it affects dopamine. So, if your liver is messed up and the other systems are stressed, it's a massive, massive trickle-down effect. Massive. And and again, we say this because this should be refreshing to you. because instead of thinking, oh my gosh, I have all of these separate things wrong and I must be so complex and complicated is, chances are, it comes back to one or two major foundational problems that are creating an effect in a lot of other systems. And it is 100% true what you're saying is that the liver and the small intestine play a very big role on the neurological system, the digestive system, the hormonal system, etc. So, uh, with that being said is, you know, some of some of the tips to take away from today is, number one, if you are having pain or discomfort in your right rib cage area. If you are having it maybe just when you work out. If you are having a lot of gurgling in that area. If you're having lack of bowel movements, and that could be every other day. If you're having bowel movements that float, or if you're seeing undigested food in your bowel movements, like leafy greens, nuts, seeds, these are all signs that you potentially are having issues in your liver gallbladder. And secondary, if you had your gallbladder removed, I don't care if it was 20 years ago. There is no chance that your liver is in perfect health, because if you're your liver is the one that makes the bile, and then it stores it in the gallbladder. So, if your gallbladder was backed up because of blockages in your bile duct, that means that it was also backing up into your liver. So, you need to take that into consideration, because there is no possible way that your liver was left unaffected by a gallbladder that was so diseased that it had to be removed. Uh, same thing goes. If you've had different ulcers, those could have been small intestine ulcers, those could have been stomach ulcers, if you've had chronic reflux. These are all things that are directly connected to the liver gallbladder. And for those of you that are, you know, listen, I know this has been a crazy past year with all of the things that were happening with the pandemic. But take a step back and think about your emotional state right now. Is your emotional state always warranted. I had a stressful conversation, so I feel X. Or are you feeling completely out of control of your emotions? Are you feeling like you are on a high and low uh week to week, day to day, month to month even? Um are you just sitting there having anxiety attacks and you have no idea why? Are you, you know, crying and just feeling so low that you want to give up on life and you have no idea why? It's time to start thinking about what is being missed. Is there something that is going on physiological in your body that potentially is triggering this and causing you to have this roller coaster of emotions. And it's not to sit here and blame yourself and think, what is wrong with me? Why am I like this? Oh, I guess I'm just doomed to be like this forever. Because even the individuals that are like, I don't know, I get moody, but I'm I think I'm all right for the most part. When they go through their program and maybe they're coming in for their skin, maybe they're coming in for their digestive system, or maybe they're coming in for their thyroid. They always say after, you know, a couple of weeks or even, you know, two months, they're just like, I had no idea how bad I felt like mentally and emotionally. Like, I had literally no idea, because it was just my normal. And it just reminds us of how, reminds me of how I used to feel, to be honest. You know, I just I I didn't you don't know what you don't know. Let's put it that way. And we're here and doing this podcast, because we we want people to understand that there is hope. And it's not just about talking and talking and talking about your story or your trauma. Sometimes there is another layer to why you're having so much trouble coping with life events. No, that's I mean, I had a client that came in, we'll stay on the skin issue, uh and came up with a skin issue and some fatigue. And realized that she had the autoimmune liver and autoimmune thyroid. But when you looked at her regular blood work, she brought in regular bloodwork that had been run, her thyroid was in normal range. She had one liver marker out. The the ALT um was out of range. But when I did more testing, uh the thyroid was having an autoimmune reaction and the liver was having an autoimmune reaction. And the lymph was horrendous. Uh, hence, you know, the the thyroid is going to be a huge aspect of her fatigue issues, um with energy and the liver is not detoxing, so the everything was trying to detox through the skin. Uh, so as we start taking care and supporting those organ systems, you know, energy is already going up. Uh, and the skin takes a while, because we're, you know, going through that process of helping the lymph and everything to detox. Um, but yeah, it's it's pretty awesome to be able to see uh them progress so quick actually. Yeah. Well, guys, we hope this was super informative and please, please share it with loved ones or friends that you know are struggling with their health or even just mentally and emotionally. This could be very, very empowering to them to know that it's not necessarily just about, you know, them having to to be in control, that there might be another contributing factor. Uh, and for those of you that are like, holy crap, I need some testing, uh, definitely take advantage of hopping on a call with our team. Um, it's completely free. Uh, get some time to really learn more about, you know, what we do here. And of course, we want to learn more about you to make sure that our practice is a fit for you as you are a fit for us. And, uh, you know, we love what we do and we have your back every step of the way, and we do not guess, we always test. And that is really the most important thing is making sure that you are working on the true root cause uh so that you can get the best results in the shortest amount of time. Amen. Thank you, guys. We'll see you soon. 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. Nick or Dr. Nicole, you can check out IntegrativeWellnessGroup.com. no sleep because I feel like I'm always dreaming. I'm always dreaming. 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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