The Root Cause of Kidney Stones
Episode 187
On this week's episode of Integrative Wellness Radio, Dr. Nick & Dr. Nicole, cover the major root causes of kidney stones and how this can manifest as a top-down or a bottom-up issue. A Peak Inside: Kidneys filter toxins and fluids from the body, regulate electrolyte balance and blood pressure, and stimulate red blood cell production. Stones form in the kidney when minerals in urine are at high concentration. The incidence of kidney stones across the globe is rising. Kidney stones are most commonly seen in both males and females, usually in late adulthood. It is an increasing urological disorder of human health, affecting about 12% of the world population. Leading this episode, Dr. Nicole, alongside Dr. Nick, will shed more light on the seriousness of this issue and also discuss what measures one should take to avoid kidney stones and improve the function of the kidneys. Interested in learning more about Dr. Nick & Dr. Nicole’s courses, memberships, or private work? Learn more at Integrative You . Have a quick question, Would you like to schedule a call, or just want to say hi? Text us at 732.913.0009. Our mission to innovate humans & Healthcare does NOT start and stop with us! This is why we are also dedicated to helping other practitioners in evolving healthcare too! If you are a healthcare leader and are looking to up-level your clinical + business excellence Learn more about our course membership: Limitless Healthprenuer and start boldly disrupting this industry! What you'll learn: Your kidneys and liver are filters; if one isn't working correctly, the stress shifts to the other. What is the role of calcium in our kidneys, and how is it connected to kidney stones Importance of understanding where the problem is coming from What are the different kinds of antibiotics used for kidney issues, and how do they affect your kidneys? What different types of viruses and bacteria can manifest in your urinary tract, and how do they work their way up into the kidneys
Topics: kidney, stones, kidneys, root, unknown, bottom, cause, nick
Key takeaways from this episode
- ### The Root Cause of Kidney Stones
- Kidneys and the liver act as vital filters; dysfunction in one organ can place increased stress on the other.
- Understanding the root cause, whether top-down or bottom-up, is essential for effective kidney stone prevention and management.
- The concentration of minerals in urine is a primary factor in kidney stone formation.
- Various infections, including viruses and bacteria, can impact the urinary tract and potentially lead to kidney issues.
Pull quotes
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole, 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.
Nick and I, we're, we're getting back at it, I promise you. **Unknown:** But after having little baby Q and making many, many life transitions outside of becoming parents, you know, we, we took a little pause.
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. No sleep. Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr.
**Unknown:** 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. Sometimes I tend to lose myself. Yeah, I get on my own.
**Unknown:** Hello, everyone. Welcome back to a long long-awaited episode of Integrative Wellness Radio. So Dr. Nick and I, we're, we're getting back at it, I promise you.
**Unknown:** But after having little baby Q and making many, many life transitions outside of becoming parents, you know, we, we took a little pause. But we have been brewing up some amazing things in the background, and we are excited about continuing the amazingness of this podcast, but also just bringing you some additional wisdom based off of our own evolution in our lives and careers. Dr. Nick?
**Unknown:** Yes, I agree. Oh, gosh. Well, well, that hasn't changed, that, you know, the man of minimal words. But today we are talking all about kidney stones.
**Unknown:** Oh. So if you've been following us on social media, you, uh, probably get a kick out of my very quick word vomit on, uh, TikToks that always end up being three parts. But the podcast is here so we can dive a bit deeper into these topics, because it's not as high level as we talk about on social media, just because we obviously don't have the time to go in depth. So when it comes to kidney stones, we really want to cover some of the major root causes around it, but also how this can manifest as a top-down issue or a bottom-up issue.
**Unknown:** And really what I mean by that is we look at the kidneys, the kidneys are a major filter of our blood. So when we're looking at the health of the kidneys, we are looking essentially at the health of the blood and even the cardiovascular system. And because the kidneys are a filter and so is the liver, they tend to work together, or one tends to have to work harder when the other one isn't working properly. So sometimes the kidney stress is a result of the liver being totally taxed out, which is a separate topic for a separate podcast.
**Unknown:** And what I mean by the bottom-up issue is someone who has reoccurring urinary tract issues, or even it's manifesting as vaginal issues in a female. A lot of times the vaginal issues, the same bacteria, the same yeast is occurring in the urinary tract, and the longer that goes on, it can work its way up into the kidney. So I want you guys to be aware of nothing is black and white, as I always say. There's a lot of fucking gray.
**Unknown:** Lots of variables. And I was thinking like when you talk about bottom up, you know, it's like this kidney one meridian point's on the bottom of your feet. And so it's honestly, it's really speaking about bottom coming up of, on the energetic aspect of things. Well, that's a, a key thing.
**Unknown:** You know, the different spin we're really putting on our podcast now is not just covering the biochemical aspects, which is really the major focus of medicine and, and even functional medicine, but helping you guys understand the energetic, mental, and emotional components to why symptoms manifest, because that is equally as important, and sometimes they're w- happening in tandem with each other. But, you know, we actually ... It was just recently we were working with a client and they were saying that they constantly had issues in their pinky toe and the outside of their foot. And they were seeing a podiatrist, they were having issues with the toenail, then they were also concerned that they had a stress fracture in the bone on that side of the foot.
**Unknown:** And what it was connected to was their urinary bladder meridian. So when you talk about meridians, you're really just getting into the world of acupuncture. So if you ... You know, the high level of this is that there are different meridians that are connected to different organs.
**Unknown:** So sometimes an, an issue in a part of your body that seems like, "Oh, my finger hurts," or, "Oh, I have an ingrown toenail," can actually be correlated to an organ system. And the pinky toe and the outside of the foot specifically is connected to the urinary bladder and the kidneys. Yes, yes. All right.
**Unknown:** So first and foremost, we're gonna run through a couple of buckets as to what causes kidney stones. So we're gonna be talking about toxins, we're gonna be talking about acidity in your blood, we're gonna be talking about some very specific medications that are damaging to the kidneys, if you know it or you don't, we're gonna talk about scar tissue, and we are going to be talking about the parathyroid, and we're gonna be talking about your feelings. Nick's favorite. All of them.
**Unknown:** So I actually want to start with scar tissue. And the reason being is because so much of the time practitioners are not thinking about anatomy when we are talking about different diagnoses. So most practitioners are not necessarily trained that way. Because we have a background in chiropractic and physical therapy, we are always thinking about anatomical connections.
**Unknown:** But Nick, being a football player, I'm sure you can attest to this, but I feel like people that, that do impact based sports, you know, rugby, football, I guess even really basketball, I hear stories of like injuries in basketball. I'm like, man, what a brutal sport. Well, that's mainly 'cause I'm just, was not a good basketball player. But also even lacrosse.
**Unknown:** I was telling you the other day, because I had lacrosse at my college, that they just, like, beat each other with the sticks. And when you're talking about impact, and maybe the impact was you were a snowboarder and you took, like, a really hard fall on your, on your side, on your ribcage, on your shoulder. But these are, are different things that can affect your ribcage, twist your ribcage, break ribs, strain ribs, which then can create scar tissue, and that scar tissue can affect the organs that are anchored in those areas. Yeah, I mean, it's, it can come from sports.
**Unknown:** And most people think of scar tissue that, you know, scar tissue's coming from a major trauma like that. But, you know, scar tissue is, when we think about it, is it's just an adhesion, a contraction. So the same, quote-unquote, aspect of scar tissue blocking, whether that's blood flow, lymph flow, energy flow within the meridian system, it also could... An aspect of scar tissue could honestly just be created from, you know, the, the tension from, like, a lack of breathing properly- Yeah ...
**Unknown:** you know, from the ribcage. Because if we never ha- take a full breath because we're constantly in fight or flight, then the ribcage is just going to have that constant contraction, where it's not actually scar tissue, but it, it's actually resembling the same effects of what scar tissue would create. I think that's a huge point you said, too, about the blood flow, because that's something- Yeah ... that a lot of people are not even considering.
**Unknown:** But when you're talking lack of blood flow, you're, you're, you're talking a, a kidney that could be atrophying, so it's smaller, it's shrinking, it's, uh, breaking down, and it's because it's literally not getting oxygenation. So when we're talking about scar tissue or we're talking about inflammation or lymphatic congestion, like swollen lymph nodes, then very much so you can have a lack of blood flow going to a very specific organ. Yeah, and I mean, and I know we're not gonna jump right into this, but it's like blood flow is all connected to flow of life. You know, blood is the aspect of life, the energy of life, and that's, you know, coming back to the kidneys, that's the major filter of your blood.
**Unknown:** So it's really... Think about it. Kidneys are your, your major filter of filtering out your life. Filtering out your bullshit.
**Unknown:** Filtering out your fears. Mm. Filtering out your guilt, shame. And so that's really in that psychosomatic aspect of things, is that, you know, in the world of Chinese medicine, they talk a lot about kidneys being associated with fear and worry.
**Unknown:** But even some of the work that we've done with Dr. Demartini, he really talks about the, you know, kidney stones essentially being undissolved anger, or even criticism, shame, disappointment, failure playing a significant role on the kidneys. You... When we think about it, so we're, we're actually just interviewed, Demartini has a documentary coming out, and we had the pleasure of interviewing a facilitator from Canada.
**Unknown:** And, uh, one of the awesome things how he put it was children, especially the younger the child is, before they've been, you know, changed and programmed by, he said, all these giants, hence adults telling them what, what was wrong with them and all of these things, labels, that everything a child does is just perfect. There's no mistakes, you know, whether the chi- child's crying, whether the child's laughing. Like, the child just expresses what it's feeling, and then it just moves on. And we repress.
**Unknown:** And we repress that, and we hold onto this, and we give labels, and that we hold on to, like, that we did something bad, that we are bad, that all these things. And that's the tension that gets held within ourselves. And if we don't go back to these foundational, you know, causations and balance out that moment, balance the perception, change the belief system, then all that energy, all that tension is going to be built up. And in this case, when you think about the kidney, the ki- kidney's filtering your life.
**Unknown:** So it's just like it's looking at your life of those imbalances of where you're actually perceiving mistakes, because there's no mistakes. Everything is just a feedback mechanism guiding you through life to be able to increase the quality and allowing you to be your true, authentic self. And this is the reason why sometimes when people are going through a detoxification or starting a healing journey, sometimes they feel very hyper-emotional. They might be lashing out, having, like, episodes of crying, having episodes of rage, and this is your body actually releasing those emotions.
**Unknown:** But it's definitely different person to person, and I do wanna say that for people listening, because some people have... They will release the emotional things that they're harboring and holding in tissues through a detoxification. Maybe not all of them, but they kinda peel back that layer. But then there are other people that it's really about digging into working through the emotional work through, obviously, a seasoned facilitator, and then you actually induce a detox.
**Unknown:** So I've experienced both personally, and I wanna talk about this in a separate podcast, but I've done detoxifications with supplements and, you know, infrared saunas and, and doing all of these different therapies that really induced different emotions that were coming to the surface throughout the duration of that detox. But then later down the line, it was actually more recently, I decided to work on more of my behaviors and my programming, and I wanted to work through the shit that I felt like was holding me back. And I started a meditation practice while working with a Demartini facilitator, which is what Dr. Nick does, and that is something that actually induced a physical detox, because I was holding shit in my sinuses, in my throat, and it was so fucking eye-opening o- of, like, holy crap, like, I had chronic sinusitis as a kid.
**Unknown:** I had chronic sore throats as a kid. Like, this is just shit I've been holding onto for a really long time that supplements and saunas and all that didn't touch. Well, and that's the fun part about, you know, the human body, is that everybody's built differently, but the, the laws and principles that actually govern us are all the same. And when we understand that the toxicity that's hanging out in an area or the infections and the mental-emotional aspects that are hanging out in the area, it's all the same shit.It's just different forms of the same vibration.
**Unknown:** And when we can actually better understand that, we can understand that actually we're attracting the toxicity, we're attracting everything, because that's actually maintaining balance. And energy in the body is actually always in a state of balance. You know, it's like we can look at something like, you know, how is- how is cancer or how is all these things a bad thing? But it's really, when you look at the depths of how beautifully intelligent the body is, is that we're attracting these things that we put these labels on, but w- the only reason that's actually being expressed are those, you know, toxins, heavy metals, chemicals.
**Unknown:** The only reason that those things are hanging out in certain organs and certain systems is due to magnetism. Everything is actually polarity. Everything is an energy like a magnet. When you look down at every single cell, you know, it's just everything has a positive and negative charge to it.
**Unknown:** And when we carry an imbalanced emotion or we have toxicity inside of us, that changes the polarity of the cell, which chang- changes the actual magnetism of it, and that's going to attract specific toxins, infections, and/or also attract different emotional imbalances. Energy's bidirectional. It's not always that the emotion's attracting the toxicity or the infection. It's creating a vulnerability.
**Unknown:** Yep, 100%. Yeah. And that's a thing I think that's important because- Mm ... there are certain ...
**Unknown:** You know, you don't, you don't look at a human body, especially for us because of the nature of the work that we do, we don't look at the human body and like every single organ is diseased. It's usually certain organs. And, and maintaining that balance is like if you have, you know, your liver and your kidneys working together as two different filters, you know, you think about certain people that drink coffee and it doesn't affect them, or they can have, you know, three glasses of wine and they barely feel a buzz. Or, like they have to take five Tylenols to even feel a little bit of pain relief.
**Unknown:** And then you have that person has a really strong liver, they're just over-metabolizing everything, but then they also might be dealing with kidney stones because one organ is, you know, working very well or, or metabolizing very well, and then the other one is not. You have an over performer and an under performer. Exactly. Yep.
**Unknown:** Exactly. So speaking about the very specific toxins, because this is really important, because these are things that we're all getting exposed to. So when we're talking about some of the specifics that are harmful to the kidneys ... Well, first of all, I'm, there's no possible way we will cover all of them.
**Unknown:** But I'm gonna give you some broad buckets, and just recently we had a patient who was from the Northeast, moved down to Florida, and she had a horrendous urinary tract infection that actually turned out, uh, turned into a kidney infection. And I ran some blood work on her, I ran some urine samples on her, and her phosphorus level was through the roof. And then it turned out that where she was living in Florida, there was a very serious issue with org- organophosphate-based fertilizers getting into the water. And she was in transition, so she didn't have her water filter, water purification, uh, because she was in a temporary home as her house was finishing being built.
**Unknown:** And this is something that, you know, she obviously was drinking tap water and, you know, just was like, "Well, it's not the end of the world. I just will do this until my house is ready." It wa- there was such an abundance in the water that it literally damaged her kidneys within the one month that she was there. And so now how many people that live in that area just drink tap water on a regular basis because they don't know any better, and maybe are dealing with back pain, low back pain, and they're getting surgeries, infusions and, and, you know, herniation procedures, and it actually has nothing to do with their back. It actually has to do with a referred pain from their kidneys.
**Unknown:** Just to compound on that a little bit is that, that the toxicity, it tends to go to areas of weakness. So yeah, it can, like people in that area, they're gonna have an overabundant toxicity of that, but at the same time, it's gonna affect everybody different in that region. Yeah. So it's like with her, because of that move, you know, dealing with her children, you know, that weren't wanting to leave their friends back in Jersey, same thing with her, it's like there was fear and there was worry, and all of that, you know, it weakens the kidneys.
**Unknown:** So during that moment, her kidneys were most susceptible. Somebody else in that area that's living there, they may be dealing with something else that's causing a weakness in a certain area. And so the body's always going g- kind of like just the way energy flows, it's going to go to an area that's, that's easiest to, to create havoc. Yeah.
**Unknown:** And I think that's a really important point, because everybody wants everything to be very black and white, is, "Oh, well, I researched organophosphate fertilizers and some articles say that they cause kidney damage, some articles say they don't." But it is person to person, and it is- Mm-hmm ... you know, those vulnerabilities. And emotional vu- vulnerabilities are one, but the secondary part of that too is if, you know, this was an individual that had other things from their childhood that was damaging the kidneys, and now that's a weaker tissue, then that's another more physical or biochemical layer to it. So when it comes to the toxins that are leading for affecting the kidneys, it is 100% in the pesticide fertilizer family, and even like DDT.
**Unknown:** DDT is something that unfortunately is being used in places like Bali, Indonesia still, and it is, there's different versions. Like, when you look at, you know, what DDT stands for, it's this really long biochemical name. So they're changing just very small parts of that compound, and then it's called something else. So they're like, "Well, we technically don't use DDT, but we use DDE." And it's all the same shit.
**Unknown:** It's equally as harmful. And there's also very specific chemicals, uh, one's called phosmet that they use on grapes. I was just gonna say, it's like, well, it doesn't matter because we don't live there, and it's like the US primarily of all the nations gets the majority of its food from other countries. Other countries, but also, you know- And the majority of- You don't get grapes from- And the majority of the food that we grow, we send to other countries.
**Unknown:** We don't keep it for ourselves. Exactly. So the toxicity load that we're getting from food is very, very high. Yes, 100%.
**Unknown:** And, you know, one of our other recent clients, she was dealing with some kidney issues. And she didn't even tell me this in her consultation, but I was like, "You have this chemical that's coming up in your system in a really, really high amount. It's called phosmet." And phosmet is one of the ... They, I- I'm sure they spray it on a lot of different things, but they use it regularly with grapes.
**Unknown:** And I'm not talking about grapes for wine, I'm talking about, you know, actual grapes that people eat. And she was like, "You do know that I'm, like, addicted to grapes? And where I live, I, I can't..." 'Cause she lived on, uh, Barrier Island in North Carolina. She's like, "I can't get organic, so I just buy local thinking it's okay." And I was like, "Yeah, well, uh, we, we probably wanna pump the brakes on that one." So the other thing that's coming more from your personal products is benzenes.
**Unknown:** So if you download the app, because we could go through this for hours, but if you download the app Think Dirty, you can plug in the different products that you're using. And I'm talking, you know, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, dry shampoo, you know, lotions, oils, et cetera, and see if you're being exposed to benzenes. Because benzenes are very, very abundant in our personal products. And again, it could be in tap water and a variety of other things.
**Unknown:** But those buckets are two major buckets that are extremely damaging to the kidneys. So the thing that I want you guys to understand about kidney stones in particular is calcium is a protective mechanism. So if we are talking about you have reoccurring kidney issues versus reoccurring kidney stones, is the calcium comes to an area in order to encapsulate and create a little prison, essentially, around something that is harmful. So if these toxins are getting trapped in the different channels of your kidneys, you're gonna have calcium come to the scene in order to encapsulate that toxin to prevent it from creating further damage to your kidneys.
**Unknown:** And that is why kidney stones develop. So- You could think of kidney stones as honestly, like, a different form of a cyst. They're all just classified as different biofilms, which bio is life and film is just kinda a layer that's encapsulating something. And common sense just, you know, lets us think that the body's intelligent enough that we don't want something continuing to cause harm, so if we encapsulate it, well, then it can't create more harm.
**Unknown:** It can't increase the inflammatory process. So it's a very intelligent thing, but then it's very hard to get that encapsulation actually out of the kidney due to the size of it. Exactly. And when we're talking about calcium too is the, this is really why you need a practitioner who's able to consider all of these pu- buckets.
**Unknown:** Because if we're talking about the parathyroid, this is an endocrinologist. This isn't necessarily a urologist who understands the parathyroid function, and that's, you know, in my opinion, one of the biggest setbacks to conventional medicine and how everything is so segregated out. But your parathyroid regulates your calcium levels. And so if you have a diseased parathyroid, again, if you know it or you don't , then this is something that could easily create higher levels of circulating calcium which your kidneys would have to excrete- excrete.
**Unknown:** So, and if your calcium is imbalanced, you are going to have imbalances with your phosphorus levels as well as your oxalates. And you could easily have stones that are calcium, calcium oxalate, oxalate, so on and so forth. So it's really a matter of being able to understand, where is the problem coming from? Is it a set of toxins trapped in the kidneys that the calcium is enveloping to protect you?
**Unknown:** Or is this more of a metabolic issue, an endocrino- or endocrino- Struggle. Yep. We killed it there. Um, an endocrine problem which is due to the parathyroid.
**Unknown:** And, you know, parathyroid is located, they're four small glands on the corners of your thyroid. So we're talking about, you know, the neck area. Parathyroid is very close proximity to your tonsils. There's been a lot of people that have dealt with chronic tonsil issues in their life.
**Unknown:** Your sinuses drain into your tonsils. Dental work, bad dental work, dental infections, dental abscesses, root canals can affect your tonsils and the lymph nodes of your neck, which would then affect your parathyroid. So there is, like, a shit ton of opportunity for your parathyroid to become affected. Yeah, d- I mean, kinda wanna just blow some minds really quick.
**Unknown:** Get it, kid. An energetic aspect is that when we look at energy, energy's always in a state of balance. And when we look at that in an emotional aspect, the only true balance is love. You know, there's gratitude, there's thankfulness, there's grace, there's inspiration.
**Unknown:** They're all different, you know, labels of the same thing. They're all love. And any time that we get out of that love, then we have an imbalance which that creates a stress response. When we look at the body, love is, of course, expressed through the heart.
**Unknown:** And when we look at the heart, we have chakras. So we have the heart chakra, and that's the balance. That's the center. And then we have chakras above and chakras below.
**Unknown:** But those chakras, we could look at it as imbalance. You know, we have positive charge going up and we have negative charge more going down. The first chakra above the heart is- Throat ... the throat, which is where the thyroid and the parathyroid is.
**Unknown:** The first chakra below the heart is- Solar ... which is the identity. He's, like, testing me right now, by the way. Which is, which is the identity, which is where your kidneys are hanging out.
**Unknown:** So most people that have kidney issues, which is connected to the third chakra, also have a fifth chakra issue, which is connected to the throat. So they have a problem speaking up their truth because they don't know their truth because they aren't aligned with who they are. Fuck, man. Boom.
**Unknown:** Deep. Yeah, I was just trying to tell people that their tonsils and their mouth is gross. And that's what's causing their parathyroid issues. But hey, definitely can be way deeper-rooted.
**Unknown:** But this is probably because that was my problem as well. The funny thing was is I didn't actually have any problems speaking up in my life. M- most people knowing me would say the opposite, hence I've also had a podcast for eight years. But it c- But I- Balance, it could be over or under.
**Unknown:** Exactly. Over-speaking or under-speaking. But it's like a- as I was speaking up as a young child, I just felt like I wasn't being heard. So it was, like, an overcompensation.
**Unknown:** You're also Italian. Shut up.So getting back into, you know, some of these other layers here is, you know, what, what I find ironic about the use of antibiotics in the event that there is a urinary tract infection or something that becomes a kidney infection is there is a set of antibiotics that are used, and it could go one of two directions. It could go the direction of a cycline antibiotic, so u- tetracycline being most common. In events they have used doxycycline or minocycline, but tetracycline is very often used for a kidney infection.
**Unknown:** In addition is the other alternative, um, often used for kidney issues is Macrobid, which is also known as, uh, nitrofurantoin. And the irony is when you look up these antibiotics, they are known to create residual kidney damage. So if you are a person that has been on those antibiotics many times, and I know that the cycline antibiotics is very common in childhood or teenage years for skin issues. So there are some, you know, teens that I've worked with that were on tetracycline or, or minocycline for three years, four years, five years, and now are dealing with these, you know, different kidney issues.
**Unknown:** And those kidney issues, some of them, some of them it's manifesting as back pain. Some of them it's manifesting as full-blown kidney stones. Some of them it's manifesting as reoccurring urinary tract infections, et cetera. Um, it's just we have to be conscious of what we are taking, and obviously only using antibiotics in very extreme situations because it's not necessarily as benign as it's presented.
**Unknown:** And a lot of us have way, way, way overused antibiotics in our lives because that was the go-to answer for everything. I don't know about you, but I remember being a young kid going to the pediatrician, and I'm like, "You got anything else?" Like, uh, like, literally. I can come in with my toe hurts, my throat hurts, you know, a headache, and all you have in your arsenal is antibiotics. I'm just thinking of course you were telling a doctor as a child what they should be doing.
**Unknown:** Oh, he hated me. Nothing made sense. So I don't know, you know, why I just ... But I also just like to challenge everything in my life.
**Unknown:** So that's all it comes down to. So last but not least is talking about the bottom up issue. So, you know, there are so many different bacterias that can manifest in the urinary tract that can work their way up into the kidneys. But the thing that I want people to know is, one, if you are dealing with yeast infections, bacterial vaginosh- vaginosis as a female, the wall is shared with your urinary tract.
**Unknown:** So chances are the same dysbiosis, AKA abundance of bad bacteria or bad yeast that's happening in the vaginal tract, more than likely is happening in your urinary tract, which can be creating kidney issues. The secondary part of that is if you are using, you know, different things in the vaginal tract, let's say tampons, that are, when you look them up, have dioxins in them, have fiberglass in them, have bleach in them, they're toxic. And if you're using lubricants that are cover- or containing benzenes or containing other harmful chemicals, what you're doing is you're actually stripping away all of the beneficial bacteria that is in the vaginal tract that is literally there to block out bad bacteria. So, you know, women are going and getting Pap smears, and they're getting told they have abnormal cells, but it's okay 'cause they don't have HPV.
**Unknown:** Those abnormal cells are a representation of unhealthy tissue, which is more than likely due to toxins being absorbed from the different things that you're using in that area. And then number two is you don't have any beneficial flora, which is there to fight off the bad shit. And, you know, not to get too deep into that conversation, but viruses really only activate. We have viruses in every cell.
**Unknown:** Like, our DNA has 10 times more viral DNA than human DNA. So really when we look at the study of virology is that our cells will activate a virus when the environment around it is so toxic or there's so much inflammation that it needs extra help to clean up. You know, it's simplifying it a little bit, but if there's abnormal cells, that's showing you that there's an imbalance of, quote-unquote, "good and bad bacteria." There's more breakdown than build up. So if that goes on long enough or that degree becomes strong enough, well, then we're gonna have an activation of HPV or another type of virus.
**Unknown:** Or yeah, if you've had exposure to, like, herpes simplex. Yeah. And that, I really think that's an important thing for- ... people to take away as we wrap up here is viruses don't leave.
**Unknown:** They become part of your DNA, and they have the opportunity to stay dormant, AKA cause no problems, or they have the opportunity to become active. And that, that becoming active is due to a catalyst, and that catalyst could be a chronic stress state that you are in because you're burning the candle at both ends or you just have a lot of toxic relationships around you. That catalyst could be because there are toxins entering your body in some shape or form, and that catalyst could be really anything else in between. So it's not about living in fear of viruses or necessarily thinking that you need tons of immunizations in order to protect yourself against viruses.
**Unknown:** They're an inevitable part of our body, the ecosystem, but there are so many other factors that nobody's fucking talking about when it comes to toxicity that are the reason why viruses are becoming more virulent and negatively impacting the body. Well, it comes back to what you said. It all comes back to fear when it comes, connecting to the kidney. But fear is, you know, fear is ...
**Unknown:** When you look at the kidney, as I s- mentioned before, the very first meridian point's on the foot. So it's the fear that's stopping the person of taking that step forward in their life. You know, it's the fear that's creating the worry that's getting held within the kidneys. It's the fear that's having them hold onto.
**Unknown:** But when you look at holding onto something, that's affecting the bladder and the urinary tract. So it's, it's all tied together... together, both on a psychological, but also the expression is the feedback mechanism of what our body's representing. 100%.
**Unknown:** So I wanna give you guys some top tips before we head out here. So one, if you have the opportunity to invest in this, distilled water is going to be a great option for you to clean up your water and decrease the exposure to these fertilizers and these different chemicals that are getting into the water supply. If you are a bath taker, or you are putting your kids in the bath on a regular basis, is getting some type of filter to make sure that they're not sitting in water that is containing the same chemicals. Trying to buy organic as much as possible, especially with your produce.
**Unknown:** You know, starting a garden if it's something that you're interested in or into. Because unfortunately, I feel like nowadays, especially with big, big companies taking over everything, and even the recent sale of Whole Foods, I just personally have been observing a decline in the quality of our produce. Farmer's markets are always the way to go. Farmer's markets are great, local farms are great, or, you know, one of the things we're exploring is now getting one of those towers to grow some of our, some of our own produce.
**Unknown:** So those are some, like, key things that will radically change the situation for you. If you are someone who is working with a practitioner and you are going to explore, you know, supplementation, 'cause I highly recommend working with someone who can help you navigate the highs and lows of, you know, supplementation. Because if you do have chemicals in your body, which most of us do, is you can leverage different detoxification modalities. You can leverage binders.
**Unknown:** One of the companies we absolutely love for binders that bind chemicals, bind heavy metals, is CellCore. But it could definitely create some symptoms as you're clearing that stuff out. Detoxification foot baths. IonCleanse is a key company that we really, really like, that we find helps overall detox the body, but really helps the kidneys.
**Unknown:** So these are some key things to take away. And then dietary-wise, the biggest thing with diet is, yes, there are very high antioxidant beverages and foods. You know, you hear about cranberry juice. Ocean Spray ain't fucking cutting it, people.
**Unknown:** If you want to actually have something that is going to be cleansing to your kidneys, you should be getting dark tart cherry juice or cranberry juice with, that is just straight-up that. It's cold pressed, no sugar added, nothing else, no stabilizers. Lakewood Organics is one of the companies that we, uh, will buy for those two juices. But when you get it, it's bitter.
**Unknown:** It doesn't taste the way that you expect it because we're so used to the flavor profile of the crappy drinks out there. So those are things that can definitely be beneficial if you're just trying to maintain your kidney health. But if you are looking to take a deeper dive, reference those previous recommendations and get yourself working with a practitioner that understands the whole fucking body. Yep.
**Unknown:** All right, guys. So we hope you enjoyed. Drop a comment below, and we will be diving into more amazing topics on our next one. 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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