The Root Cause of Lactose Intolerance No One Talks About
Episode 276
This episode of Integrative You Radio dives deep into the real root causes of lactose intolerance, debunking the common myths about genetics and focusing on the body-mind connection. Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nikki Rizzo break down why gallbladder and liver health are at the core of lactose intolerance, and why it’s not just about what runs in your family. The conversation also explores how micro and macro life stressors, emotional expression, and daily choices all impact your physical health—and how true healing is possible when you address both the physical and emotional layers. #IntegrativeHealth #LactoseIntolerance #GallbladderHealth #LiverDetox #FunctionalMedicine #MindBodyConnection #EmotionalHealing #HolisticWellness #IntegrativeYouRadio #RootCauseHealing 3 Key Takeaways: Lactose intolerance is rarely “just genetics.” It’s often a sign of underlying gallbladder dysfunction and liver overload—usually from years of accumulated toxins, not just your DNA. Your emotional health is directly tied to your physical health.Micro-stresses (like tolerating a toxic boss or relationship) and macro traumas both affect your gallbladder and liver, impacting your body’s ability to process foods like dairy. Symptoms can be part of healing, not just a problem.Discomfort during detox or emotional breakthroughs is often your body’s way of resolving old wounds—so don’t panic, get curious, and seek support if you need it. Quotes: “Lactose intolerance stems from gallbladder dysfunction… If you can’t break down lactose, it’s because your gallbladder is not working properly. It’s not just your genes.” “Sometimes symptoms are the body’s cry for help, and sometimes they’re part of the resolution. The key is knowing the difference—and not giving up on yourself.” Find Integrative You Radio On: Website Youtube Apple Spotify 2 Doctors Committed to Innovating the Healthcare Experience. Integrative You Radio is hosted by husband-and-wife duo, Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers. With the
Topics: lactose, intolerance, gallbladder, liver, health, unknown, integrative, emotional
Key takeaways from this episode
- ## The Root Cause of Lactose Intolerance No One Talks About
- Lactose intolerance is frequently an indicator of gallbladder dysfunction or liver overload, often stemming from accumulated toxins rather than solely genetic predispositions.
- Your mental and emotional health are intrinsically linked to your physical health, with chronic stress and unresolved emotional issues negatively affecting your gallbladder and liver.
- Symptoms experienced during detoxification or emotional processing can be a sign of healing and resolution, rather than a cause for alarm.
- Prioritizing both physical and emotional well-being is essential for comprehensive healing and addressing conditions like lactose intolerance.
Pull quotes
This is the place where you become limitless. **Unknown:** We are covering the latest and greatest topics, of course, in a disruptive fashion, around integrative medicine, mental health, and human behavior.
We will be sprinkling in some truth bombs for our healthpreneurs so they can join us in our mission to evolve healthcare.
If you are health curious and growth focused, you are in the right place, but buckle up, because this is real, this is raw, and this is disruptive. **Unknown:** This is Integrative U Radio.
Transcript
**Unknown:** Welcome to Integrative U Radio, hosted by Dr. Nick Carruthers and yours truly, Dr. Nicole Rivera. This is the place where you become limitless.
**Unknown:** We are covering the latest and greatest topics, of course, in a disruptive fashion, around integrative medicine, mental health, and human behavior. We are also covering how those topics affect the human and family dynamics. We will be sprinkling in some truth bombs for our healthpreneurs so they can join us in our mission to evolve healthcare. If you are health curious and growth focused, you are in the right place, but buckle up, because this is real, this is raw, and this is disruptive.
**Unknown:** This is Integrative U Radio. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Integrative U Radio. We got Dr.
**Unknown:** Nick and, and myself. And Dr. Nikki Rizzo in the house. In the house.
**Unknown:** Um, guys, if someone tells me that they have lactose intolerance one more time, I might actually lose my mind, and they just say, "No, it's just because my mom had it and my grandma had it and my dad had it," and I'm just like, "That's not how this works." So here's the podcast where I get to tell you where it really comes from. But we have Dr. Nick here, of course, because there's, um, two different aspects here. One- Everything's always a half-truth.
**Unknown:** Half-truth, yes. And yes, maybe your grandma and your mom and your dad and your auntie and everybody had lactose intolerance, but lactose intolerance stems from gallbladder dysfunction. S- and they're like, "Yeah, no, my gallbladder's fine." I'm like, "For the love of Pete, that's because you haven't had gallstones yet? Is that why you're saying it's fine?" 'Cause that's not how it works.
**Unknown:** It takes a significant amount of years before you fully get gallstones or actual gallbladder inflammation, bile duct inflammation. That means that the issue has been brewing for a decade to decades. So if you have lactose intolerance, you cannot break down lactose, you cannot break down the fats that are in dairy, and this is because your gallbladder is not working properly. The thing about the gallbladder is it is attached to our liver, which is the primary organ that is in charge of filtering all the shit out of our bodies.
**Unknown:** That's literally and figuratively. But primarily, your liver is a giant filter. It filters out all the toxins you come in contact with, which is a lot nowadays. We'll get into that later.
**Unknown:** It is also what is going to filter out caffeine, which most of us are drinking on a regular basis. It's filtering out medications, everything from your prescriptions to your over-the-counter medications, which most people are taking on a regular basis as well. So if you wanna- But I don't, but I don't drink alcohol- Oh ... coffee, or do medications.
**Unknown:** Yeah, we... I don't, I don't even mention alcohol- My- ... because alcohol is- My liver should be fine. Yeah.
**Unknown:** My liver should be fine. I don't do any of those things. That's the primary thing we hear, is that, "Why would my liver be compromised? I don't drink," or, "I drink very minimally." And I'm like, alcohol is just one compound that is being filtered through the liver compared to all the other things.
**Unknown:** So for the person- I thought the liver was made just, just for alcohol only. Yeah. We have, we have a s- specific organ that's just made for alcohol. Yeah.
**Unknown:** But I, I find it funny, because I'm like, okay, you hear about people... We live in Italy. You hear about people that are in Italy and they drink a glass of wine every day. They actually...
**Unknown:** Many, many, many, um, of the older generation here in Italy, they think it's the key to their h- their health, was having a glass of red wine every day. And, um, but the, the funny thing is, is that if you're having a one glass of red wine that is not infused with pesticides and herbicides and everything else, it does actually have some benefit to it. And w- two aspects is that, one, if they, if they use a very specific process with wine-making, you can actually still maintain a lot of the antioxidants that come from the grape. And so you can actually have some health benefits w- with wine, again, if it's done properly.
**Unknown:** But the other thing that Nick and I have learned now living in Italy is that there are still a ton of wineries that they pick those grapes by hand. Like, there are literally people out for extended amounts of time through the, you know, the harvesting season, picking the grapes by hand. They don't do that in the US. It's all machine-based.
**Unknown:** And so when you think about the amount of TLC and love being put into the wine-making process, uh, that... If y- people, you... For those of you new to this podcast, you're gonna be like, "That sounds fucking crazy." I promise you, it is not crazy. You know, it's just human touch.
**Unknown:** Well, a, a study just also came out and, um, 100... I mean, they didn't test everything, 'cause it's impossible, but out of all the wines they tested, organic, non-organic, et cetera, in the States, every one had traces of glyphosate Oh, yeah. We used to live in California, and we would go to Napa. And, you know, we were young, and we were like, "Ooh, wine.
**Unknown:** We're so cool." And we... After probably our third trip to, to Napa and, you know, getting into the Napa wines, I don't know about you, but I was s- I couldn't drink wine anywhere. I didn't drink wine for years because I got so sick. Like, between my stomach and the headache that I would get from drinking, uh, minimal amounts of Napa wine.
**Unknown:** And at the time I, I didn't know why. I didn't understand. Um, but it's because of all of the different, um, fertilizers and pesticides and acaricides. Well, and we're friends with a gentleman whose family owns a large, uh, grape farm in California.
**Unknown:** And he goes, "It doesn't matter if it's organic or not, 'cause the field next to the organic- Yeah ... is not." And, you know, however they're spraying, et cetera, cross-contamination. Like, he's like, "Nothing's organic." Yeah. Yeah.
**Unknown:** No, it, it, it's true. Um, and don't get me wrong. When we get into the idea of lactose and we get into the idea of dairy products as well, milk and ice cream and everything else, there is a, a different processing that's happening in other countries as well. So this is sometimes why people that have lactose intolerance, they can go to places like Italy or France, and they can consume some level of dairy and not be irritated.
**Unknown:** But overall, it's because... It's a compounding factor, guys. If you have a liver that is overloaded with toxins... So I'll give my example that I've given a million times over, is if you have a vacuum, you have the best vacuum on the market.
**Unknown:** You dropped your, you know, 600 or, or more on your Dyson. You know that it's good mechanics, but you use the vacuum over and over, and the filter is now at max capacity. So you would go ahead, try to use your vacuum, and you would say, "My vacuum's not working." And it's not that there's anything mechanically wrong with the vacuum, it's just that the filter is full, and if you go and dump the filter, you'll be good to go. It's a very similar concept when it comes to the liver.
**Unknown:** If you are going to consume different toxins, knowingly or unknowingly, for a series of, you know, days, weeks, months, years, decades, then it's gonna get to a point where your liver is totally... The filter is full. It's maxed out, and now it's not processing properly. And if anything, the, the ducts that are inside of the liver where the bile is being made, there- the bile, instead of it, uh, moving through the duct system like water, like a river, it's m- it's becoming more like sludge.
**Unknown:** And so what happens is now you have this thickening of the bile, and now you're going to have the liver spit the bile into the gallbladder, and it's gonna sit there. It's gonna be too thick, too sticky to move out into the intestines, essentially for you to poop it out. So now you're having this backup of this bile that now looks like sludge, feels like sludge, that's has a ton of toxins trapped in it. But your liver is quite large.
**Unknown:** Your gallbladder is teeny-tiny. So the first place you're gonna feel symptoms is gonna be your gallbladder. But if you have had gallstones, gallbladder problems, gallbladder inflammation, anything, you have a compromised liver. I don't care what your blood work says, if your liver enzymes are fine, if your doctor says, "No, your liver's fine," there's no possible way, no possible way that if you have had gallbladder attacks or issues that you have a healthy liver.
**Unknown:** It started in the liver, guys. It started there. So the moral- Well, and we've had people show up... Not saying that, you know, blood work's the most reliable thing, but we've had people show up with normal liver, uh, levels and still have an autoimmune liver.
**Unknown:** W- oh. Well, that's like 98% of the people that we work with. It's, I think- Will have an autoimmune- M- meaning, meaning most people L- let's go with 95% of the people that we have tested have never had elevated AST or ALT, which are the liver enzymes that your conventional primary care doctor will r- will run. Those two enzymes, you have to have something acute, like in the moment happening with your liver, that you would probably feel pain or discomfort or, or have some specific issues.
**Unknown:** You might have jaundice, yellowing of your eyes, yellowing of your skin. Like, that's when those enzymes, AST and A- ALT, are gonna be elevated. Most people are dealing with these microtraumas to the liver that is the compounding of toxins, toxins, toxins, toxins. And guys, let's get clear really quick.
**Unknown:** I was gonna say this before, but your Dunkin' Donuts coffee, your Starbucks Frappuccino coffee latte caramel frappe shit every day, five days a week, four days a week, that's fucking up your liver. Because not only are you getting the sugar... Well, if it's even real sugar. If it's high fructose corn syrup or anything else.
**Unknown:** And then if you're getting your sugar-free chemicals, that's all chemicals going through the liver. Then you're getting all the pesticides that are used in the, with the coffee beans, so... And then you're getting mold on top of it because of the storage process of the coffee. So you're literally getting a super dose of toxins every time you drink those types of drinks, which is so many people.
**Unknown:** So again, going back to the idea that it's just about alcohol is a complete and utter facadeI don't wanna say half-truth, m- mistruth. Like, it... There, there is so many things that you're doing on a regular basis that are contributing to your liver being overloaded. I forgot the first part of what I was talking about.
**Unknown:** I was like, "So can we jump onto the really good stuff?" Okay. Yeah. Jump onto the really good stuff. Which, which is interesting is, you know, people talk about alcohol being so bad today.
**Unknown:** Um, you know, majority of people in the world and society are polarized so that something's all good or all bad. You know, we've seen this, that, you know, dairy is all bad. Fats are all bad. You know, then we go through the phase that eggs are bad.
**Unknown:** Oh, no, eggs are good. Like, we go through phases. Everything's all bad and everything's all good. Honestly, in our industry, I think it's, it's the worst.
**Unknown:** I... Like, think about how many things that were fed to us through different seminars and, and, and continued, continued education through our careers. It was like we went from... It was the paleo, it was the keto, it was, uh, the carnivore.
**Unknown:** You know, it wa- every few months it was the new thing that was gonna save everyone. This, this supplement is gonna save everything. This is the only all good. And then- For those of you on YouTube, you see my face and my rolling of my eyes.
**Unknown:** For those of you that are not on YouTube, you do not see that, but I am rolling my eyes because it was fucking mind-numbing, exhausting. And at least for us, we were always just like, "This doesn't make any sense." Like, what about, you know, people that live in other places in the world where they don't have the luxury to say, "I'm gonna go keto, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that"? They, they have limited resources, and they have to eat what's on their land. Why are they healthier than Americans that have access to everything?
**Unknown:** You know, we always thought about those aspects of these indigenous people just eating what their bodies were attuned to because it was literally always part of the land that they live on. So anyway, that's also there. Well, that's a whole different... Yeah, that's a whole different conversation 'cause that's- Yeah.
**Unknown:** Yeah. Yeah, whole different conversation. But what I was really getting at is, you know, we go from these aspects of, you know, from diets to supplements to everything. It's, you know, only do this, only do that.
**Unknown:** But really when it comes down to it, everything, even when you look at blood work, you're looking for something to be in a state of balance. You know, blood work that's too much, it's gonna be an issue in the body. Blood work that's too low, gonna be an issue in the body. Same thing with the nervous system.
**Unknown:** You know, too much sympathetic, too much stress, too much adrenaline, too much cortisol, an issue. Too much parasympathetic, well, you don't have any energy to go. We'll just be sleeping. Yep.
**Unknown:** It's a... It's like you... Just that constant fatigue and, you know, complete, complete burnout. So the goal is to be in that constant state of balance.
**Unknown:** And when you think about that on the mental aspect is that w- the body is, for the most part... You know, you talked about the microtraumas of consuming the shitty Dunkin' Donuts coffee, et cetera, Starbucks, yada, yada, yada, and those are the microtraumas. You know, it's like a lotta times people are like, "My life's not that bad," you know? "I haven't had these huge traumatic events." But it's the microtraumas.
**Unknown:** And for some people, they do have that macrotrauma. You know, it's... I always look at life as, if you're watching me on YouTube, it's, it's a wavelength, it's a sine wave. And you can have a huge macrotrauma, a huge intensity, a magnitude of something that creates an issue, and if, if the mind can't see the balance, the good and the bad of that event in that moment, well, the body's gonna experience a stress response.
**Unknown:** And if it can't deal with that stress response, if it's too much, then something's gonna break down. At the same time, there's the microtraumas. Like, oh, nothing really that bad happened to me, but, you know, I'm... Every single day I'm overly stressed about money.
**Unknown:** Uh, I've... Like, I, I love my life, but, you know, I love what I do. Like, I get to help people, I get to do this. M- I'm making a bunch of money, but then I have to go home to a relationship that I fucking hate every single day.
**Unknown:** Yeah. And that's a microstress. Even if you're saying, "Oh, it's not that bad," but in- internally, you're like, "This sucks." You know, every day you wake up like, "Oh, another day." And you know, and, and the same thing, microtraumas even with, you know... People will say, "It's just my job," but they have a boss who, like, treats them really poorly, and they're like, "Whatever, I don't...
**Unknown:** He doesn't bother me that much," or, "She doesn't bother me that much. I just do my job and I go home." Microtrauma every day. And when you, when you think about those traumas, that's the duration aspect of that sine wave, you know? And, and if that goes on long enough, it, it pretty much equals out what a macrotrauma would be.
**Unknown:** Mm-hmm. So when you think about the... And associating specifically with the gallbladder, you know, the, the gall is your assertiveness to, to be able to have the courage to make decisions to best serve yourself. And then when people are like, okay, the assertiveness, when that's connected to the bitterness, which bitters help break down gall- Bile.
**Unknown:** Yeah. ... anger, bile, um, which is a lotta times, you know, bitter is one of the, uh, things that'd be recommended for people with gall issues. And but it's like, well, I'm, I'm not expressing anger.
**Unknown:** I'm not expressing these things. Well, what's the counteropposite? It has to go somewhere. What's the counteropposite of that?
**Unknown:** Too much or too little, you know? It's an overexpression-Of that or it's an under-expression. So some people are overly assertive, you know? "I'm expressing myself.
**Unknown:** I'm fucking stuff bla bla bla." Like- Mm-hmm ... that's still an issue. But if you're also not expressing yourself, that's an issue. The goal is to have that balance of you're not overly or under- Intentional ...
**Unknown:** you're just intentionally, authentically expressing your needs. There's a balance of that challenge and support from yourself and to yourself, and that's when mentally we're actually stop putting stress on that system. And when we stop putting stress on that system above from the mental state, that's when we actually give that gallbladder and that liver a chance to heal. Yeah.
**Unknown:** Everything else we're doing is we're just trying to repair the damage that's been done to one's inability to actually serve the gallbladder. But w- I, what I kind of find fascinating and, and always just so amazing about, you know, the body-mind connection is that it's bi-directional. So we find that sometimes, um, especially before we did as much mental and emotional work that, that we do now, you know, some people would go ahead and, and we would do a certain protocol to help repair the gallbladder function or get the bile moving, help with the liver detoxification, and they would be in more of a mentally empowered place to, to work on these things that you're talking about, the expression, either over-expression, lack of expression, you know, working through why do they feel angry, bitter, frustrated in their lives, and why are they tolerating that? And then, you know, we find sometimes it's the opposite.
**Unknown:** Sometimes we're working with people, um, that, you know, they feel like at the forefront of their lives, like, "I- I'm struggling with this. I'm struggling with feeling very resentful, very bitter, you know, very frustrated with my life," and, you know, we lean into working with that more heavily and then they actually end up, you know, reaching out and they're like, "Oh my gosh, I'm having this weird right-sided pain. Like, what do I do?" And it's because now them working through the mental-emotional aspects of things, their gallbladder is starting to push out these toxins. And so what's great about it is we're able to step in and say, "Here's some, you know, um, adjunct support in order to get the gallbladder moving, get the bile moving." And so because your, your bod- or your m- mind becoming more balanced essentially stimulated now, um, an improv detox.
**Unknown:** Which is not comfortable, guys. And, and I say this to you too because for those of you that are not, you know, working with us or working with anyone in this arena, you might have had a resolution to something you feel really bitter about. You maybe were very bitter with a family member, and maybe something happened that you ended up having a really vulnerable conversation and maybe you... There was a somewhat of a resolution or, or you were able to come to peace with something, feel a level of closure, and then all of a sudden you have this weird symptom.
**Unknown:** You have this symptom of right-sided ribcage pain, or you have some gastro symptoms. That's actually part of the resolution because now the mental-emotional resolution is helping to resolve, or it could be uncomfortable, but helping to resolve and improve the organs that are associated with the part of the brain that was processing that emotion or that conflict we should say. Yeah. It can...
**Unknown:** Unfortunately it can get confusing for the common person because a symptom can, from the body, can be, um, a cry for help saying, "Hey, mentally you're, you're not serving me." You know? It's like with somatic, you know, all the stress that you're directing, all the energy, all the communication is, is really crushing and hurting me. Please change how you're processing- Yeah ... how you're thinking, how you're acting.
**Unknown:** But at the same time, if you're doing the changing of, you know, balancing out how you're thinking and you're seeing that there's good with the bad and there's benefits with drawbacks and you're balancing that out, getting to a place of what's known as equanimity, a balanced mind, then, like you said, then you're gonna allow the gallbladder to start living again, start actually working, and there's gonna be changes. And then those changes can be discomfort and we could think like, "Oh my God, this is bad. I have this issue." Yep. Mm-hmm.
**Unknown:** But it's just actually the opposite. It's that area healing. So it can... Symptoms c- can get confusing 'cause we always say there's a half truth, so you have to know the whole picture of what's going on and from that to be able to support the whole person, the body, mind, and the spirit.
**Unknown:** Well, I think it's a really important point what you just said because you're 100% right that sometimes symptoms are the body's cry for help to say, "Hey, there's something wrong. Do something." And then sometimes the symptoms are part of the resolution. And so there's kind of two major things, but one of the things that people always say to us, our clients specifically, is that, you know, the game changer of working with you guys is your level of accessibility. You know, the fact that I, I can ask questions in the moment through the, the digital portal that we have.
**Unknown:** Um, the reason why that's so significant is because if somebody embarks on a healing process and things are not happening the way that maybe they thought they were gonna happen in their brain, then they have the ability to say, "Hey, this is what I'm feeling. Can you help me either, one-know what's going on or to navigate it. And so we address things very, very quickly. And they also now have this peace of mind to understand, like, is this normal or is this not?
**Unknown:** And then what are we doing about it? And I think that that is a, is a really, really key factor of really understanding what's going on here. Because in the past when we had our old practice, um, in Belmar, New Jersey, and we were very, very busy, and we did not have this concierge level of contact with our clients, we did not have a digital portal, we did not have any of those things, you know, people would start a detox process that were brand new to the world of functional integrative medicine, and in their mind they had this image that, like, "Oh, I just start this and everything is an upward trajectory. I'm gonna be great.
**Unknown:** Everything's gonna get better." That's not how it works always. There is very often going to be-- there could be intense symptoms, there could be symptoms that you presume to be bad, uncomfortable, discomfort through that process. And if you don't understand what's going on, we've had people go put themselves in the emergency room, and then they're trying to say, "Oh, I just started these supplements and this and that with an integrated doctor." And then, and then they're like, "What are you doing? You shouldn't take these supplements.
**Unknown:** No, the FDA doesn't approve these. You need to be on medication." And then it's a mind fuck for the person because they didn't understand what was going on, they didn't understand how actually what they were experiencing was a benefit to them. And also, we don't ever want our patients to be uncomfortable. It's just, it's usually a matter of, like, one to two minor little tweaks.
**Unknown:** It could be a change in dosage of a supplement, it could be put some red light on your abdomen. Like, it could be the most simple little tweak, and they get through that discomfort very, very quickly. But it's like you don't know what you don't know, and this is one of the reasons why, especially if you've been trying to do this on your own and you keep getting stuck, it's not about giving up on yourself thinking like, "Well, this is what I need to settle for. I need to settle for these symptoms or this diagnosis." It's just a matter of there are aspects that you potentially don't know how to navigate, and it's having someone who's already surpassed that who could be the mentor to help you navigate that.
**Unknown:** Yeah. And, you know, it's, it's not a-- there's a lot we can do on our own, for sure. Um, especially one that's done a lot of studying, has the tools. Mm-hmm.
**Unknown:** But I always say it's... You know, we both have our own coaches, um, you know, and, and we have each other, which we get to use, which has drawbacks and benefits. But it's, it's understanding that you- ... A, you want somebody that's gone through it themselves, have helped teach it so they own it even more, um, themselves, so they can have a larger awareness.
**Unknown:** Because that's the whole thing about it is, you know, the only reason somebody can't make a change is due to limited awareness. And it's understanding that w- when we don't have awareness, that's when subjectivity, um, controls, and that's when we're emotional, and that's when we're making decisions based on, you know, the, the pleasure or pain cycle, you could easily say. But when we have the awareness, that's when we're more objective and we're like, "Okay, I'm experiencing this," or, "You're experiencing this. Is this, quote unquote, 'a good thing or a bad thing?' Is it good because there's changes happening 'cause we actually just brought something back into a state of balance?
**Unknown:** Okay. Awesome. How can we make this even better? Is it a bad thing?
**Unknown:** Is something out of balance? Okay. How can we bring that back into a state of balance?" So it's, it's about constantly taking everything as a feedback mechanism and using that to better serve oneself. Yeah.
**Unknown:** Well, high level recap, guys. Lactose intolerance is not that you are doomed to never eat any level of dairy or lactose again in your life. It's a matter of investigating what is physically going on with your gallbladder and your liver because, again, these are very highly connected. Symptomatically, you might have highs and lows with your gastrointestinal system, bloating, et cetera, because your liver, your gallbladder are directly connected through your bile ducts to your intestines.
**Unknown:** So you might not have any symptoms in your liver or gallbladder, but you might have symptoms in your digestive system, AKA, you get irritated when you consume lactose. Then in addition to that is getting to the root cause of what's going on. Yes, there might be toxic load or, um, stagnant bile that's going on in the liver and gallbladder, but in addition to that, there might be something when it comes to this level of expression and, you know, are you frustrated, overwhelmed, bitter, resentful about something? And as Dr.
**Unknown:** Nick mentioned, is it-- was it some type of macro event, um, high magnitude event that you experienced, or is it these little compounding, you know, micro factors that, you know, you really dislike your job, you're tolerating a friend who keeps treating you poorly. You know, you're, you're tolerating a partner that is also not treating you well. You have a colleague at work who's a huge pain in your ass and, you know, you keep brushing it under the rug. Like, you know, "Why does this-- This person shouldn't bother me this much." You know, the thing is, is we have a choice to keep ourselves in these situations, and we have a choice to surround ourself with people that piss us off and take energy from us or, or build us up.
**Unknown:** And those decisions are never easy decisions. They can be very uncomfortable, and they can obviously have, um-They have positives and then also they have negatives at times. You know, we have gains, we have losses. But it's just knowing, um, it's raising your level of tolerance is really what it comes down to.
**Unknown:** This is a question that Nick and I ask each other every single week. We do a Monday meeting where we get to essentially kind of express ourselves, but also align, um, with each other to make sure that we're showing up as best as we can for ourselves, but also for each other and the family. And, uh, one of the questions is, what did I tolerate last week, and how am I up-leveling my tolerance? And it's essentially, like, you know, did I tolerate something big?
**Unknown:** Did I tolerate something little? And how am I actually changing that this week and, and moving forward in general? Um- And s- and with that, you know, you hear that, take the time to go through it. Don't just hear this podcast and be like, "Oh, that was some cool ideas." And then, you know, go listen to another podcast.
**Unknown:** Like, if you picked up some ideas, like, after this or sometime, like- Mm-hmm ... dedicate some space to go through and say like, "Okay, what did I tolerate?" And make a list of those things. And then it's like, okay, to change something that... It's pretty easy, honestly.
**Unknown:** Like, people think change is so hard. Um, but it's our attachment to it that's hard. It's... Change is easy.
**Unknown:** It's, okay, is it serving you? Well, probably not if you tolerated it, so stop it. If you can't stop it, how can I delegate it? Yeah.
**Unknown:** If I have to do it, okay, well, let's change the mindset short-term. How can I use this to serve me? Hence, it's not always what you do, but how you do it. So how can I start doing this differently so that it actually serves me?
**Unknown:** And then as you're doing it, that's less stress, that's allowing the gallbladder to start working better, and you can create more time to give you more awareness to then figure out, okay, how can I delegate this now, or how can I stop doing it? Yeah. A phrase that I heard, um... I've been doing a lot of, uh, studying of some of the, um, top CEOs and, and, um, essentially, like, old money mindsets, um, people that have had generational wealth, like, dec- or, or century after century.
**Unknown:** I meant decade after decade. Century after century. And just, like, learning, like, how they think. And one thing that, um, they said was build clarity, not schedules, like, talking about from a weekly rhythm perspective.
**Unknown:** And, and I think that the average person needs a little bit of both. But essentially, like, as you took the deeper dive into what they were trying to say, they're essentially trying to say, you know, build... Don't build busyness. You know, a regimented schedule of all the shit you need to do, a big long to-do list.
**Unknown:** It's a matter of having enough time in your week that you can create massive clarity, and then the other portion of that is then taking action on that clarity. So the only schedule that you really build is around the, the clarity of what's gonna move the needle forward, what's going to give you more peace, what's going to give you more of that expression, what's going to build your family dynamics and not break them. And, you know, we lived it for many years. Most of us just have a lot of busyness on our schedules.
**Unknown:** And, you know, if we really took the time to think about, like, what's priority and what's not, most of it is not priority, and... But we feel like we have to because of the, the external influences. You know, your kids should be in extracurricular activities. Your kids should be doing this.
**Unknown:** You should be doing this. You need to go to work, but you also should be social, and you should be involved in your kids' school, and you should... So if you really wanna live that life, we're going to continue to feel overwhelmed, frustrated, bitter. All right, we're gonna leave you with that, guys.
**Unknown:** We thank you so much for being an avid listener of Integrative U Radio, formerly known as Integrative Wellness Radio. We appreciate all of your support. We love your comments. Please visit us on social media as well as our website to see all of the fun things happening behind the scenes, and the new amazing content and courses that is being rolled out on a monthly basis.
**Unknown:** We hope to see you there.
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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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