Understanding Autoimmune Neurological Conditions
Episode 178
Spinning off from the previous week’s episode. Today’s episode of Integrative Wellness Radio brings autoimmune neurological conditions, what are some of these conditions, and how they manifest in the first place. Dr. Nicole will be walking you through some of the common factors leading up to autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s Dementia, etc. She will debunk the myth of putting the blame on aging for neurological decline and why you should better understand the root cause in order to properly diagnose these autoimmune neurological conditions. 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! Noteworthy Time Stamps: 05:18 Treating the cause 11:53 The loss of Myelin Sheath 18:10 Neurological fatigue 25:21 Mold is the culprit and it's everywhere 31:37 Your brain shrinks when you sleep
Topics: neurological, autoimmune, conditions, root, unknown, cause, fatigue, many
Key takeaways from this episode
- ## Understanding Autoimmune Neurological Conditions
- Identify Triggers:** Learn about common factors that can initiate autoimmune responses affecting the nervous system.
- Myelin Sheath Importance:** Understand the critical role of the myelin sheath and what happens when it's compromised.
- Neurological Fatigue Explained:** Gain insight into the specific type of fatigue experienced with these conditions.
- Environmental Factors:** Discover the potential impact of environmental toxins, such as mold, on brain health.
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.
Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here on the- Hello. **Unknown:** Hello.
Transcript
**Unknown:** I 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. I feel like I'm always dreaming. Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here on the- Hello.
**Unknown:** Hello. Uh, welcome back, everyone. We are finishing off this month talking about autoimmune neurological condition. Uh, we have a lot to cover tonight, uh, when we're talking about neurological conditions.
**Unknown:** There are so many pieces to the puzzle. This is obviously a good thing and a bad thing. Good in the sense that it's not just that your neurological system starts to decline and degenerate and there's nothing you can do about it. There are many, many reasons why that can happen, which really opens the doors for many opportunities to, to heal.
**Unknown:** Most importantly is you have to figure out what is the root cause to why you have developed this autoimmune condition in the first place, if it is multiple sclerosis, if it's ALS, if it's dementia, Alzheimer's, whatever the case may be. These are all different conditions that have a root. They don't come on for no reason. They don't just come out of nowhere.
**Unknown:** They're not just based on your genetics, and they are definitely not just based on age. So as we talk tonight, we're going to understand the bigger picture here. But before we get into it, I wanna give you guys a little bit of a background. So tonight, again, we're diving into talking all about neurological disorders that are correlated back to autoimmunity.
**Unknown:** We're going to really uncover some of the limitations with the testing that is available to us, which is unfortunately why so many people get diagnosed once their condition has progressed. We are also going to talk about some of the major root causes that I see in my integrative practice. Uh, so we're gonna be talking about everything from blood sugar instability, to poor circulation, to toxicity, to infections, Lyme disease. There are so many components here.
**Unknown:** And again, this is not to overwhelm. This is so that you understand that there can be so many opportunities to understand the root cause as to why you have developed this specific condition in the first place. So first and foremost, for those of you that are here, and it's either you that have been diagnosed with some type of autoimmune neurological issue, or it's a loved one, I want you to know that it is not your fault that you got to where you are. It is not your fault that you weren't able to, you know, prevent your mom or dad from developing this autoimmune condition.
**Unknown:** It is not anyone's fault. There is a lot of things that are working against us in our, you know, in our every day that are completely off of our radar, number one. And number two is if you are the person that was like, "You know what? I'm gonna try to clean up my diet.
**Unknown:** I'm gonna try to take some supplements. I'm gonna try something," and you went on the internet, you went on Google University and WebMD and you got paralyzed because you're like, "I have no idea. I don't know. Should I be paleo?
**Unknown:** Should I be ket- keto? Should I be a vegan? You know, should I take this supplement? Should I take that supplement?" There is a lot of information.
**Unknown:** There's a lot of mixed information. There's a lot of bad information. So it is not your fault that you have not been able to get yourself on track. It is not your fault that you don't know which doctor to go to.
**Unknown:** That is really why I'm here, is to be able to give you information that allows you to feel empowered and knowledgeable enough to take that first step on your health journey. So a couple of foundational things about medicine, functional medicine, whatever you wanna call it, is our whole entire healthcare system is built on specialties, and it's built on specialists, and it's built on seeking out the expert. This is obviously going to provide benefit in some capacity, but in my opinion, I feel like the fact that we have segregated out all of the systems of the body, and there are specialists for each system, is what has gotten us, unfortunately, into trouble because we are assuming that all of our body systems are working independently. We are assuming that our gut has nothing to do with our brain, that our gut has nothing to do with our heart, that our heart has nothing to do with our thyroid.
**Unknown:** We are assuming that these systems completely work independently of each other. And this brings me to my second point, which is basic physiology. So 90 to 95% of your serotonin, not yours, everyone's serotonin, that is m- or, which is your primary feel-good hormone, 90 to 95% of that is made in your gut. So if you are dealing with irritable bowel syndrome but you also are struggling with depression, then you potentially could be treated for your depression, but nobody's necessarily addressing your irritable bowel.
**Unknown:** And then you're constantly running into roadblocks because your medication has to be, it has to be changed. It has to be higher, then it's lower. Then you add a medication, then you switch medications because the root cause is not your depression. The root cause is the fact that you have a dysfunctioning gut that is causing you to not produce serotonin, which is then affecting your mood.
**Unknown:** So I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that every case of depression is because of a gut issue, but the point is, is that you have to look at the bigger picture, and we need to know how to connect the dots so we're not treating the effect, and we're actually treati- treating the cause. 'Cause that is so much of what we do in healthcare now, is we're constantly treating the effect, which are the symptoms, and this is why we run into roadblocks or we get recommended medications that are forever medications. They are now lifestyle medications. And unfortunately, we're on these medications and we might feel better for a short amount of time, but then we hit a plateau and we get frustrated.
**Unknown:** Why am I not better? Why is this not resolved? Okay, so story number one is patient comes to me, diagnosis of vestibular migraines. She was managing these migraines by the, uh, by the use of-Six different prescriptions.
**Unknown:** And I asked her, I was like, "Are you taking six different prescriptions on a daily basis?" And she's like, "Well, kind of." And I was like, "Okay, tell me more." And primarily she had these migraines for so long that she was becoming her own pharmacist, essentially. She knew, like, how to combine her medications for what type of migraine it felt like that day. Some of her migraines induced vertigo. Some of her migraines induced, uh, neuropathy, numbness and tingling.
**Unknown:** Some of her migraines, like, made her have to crawl up in a ball and be in the dark. Like, her migraines actually changed on a day-to-day basis. Some of her migraines gave her facial paralysis and made her slur. So she learned how to mix these medications up so that she could function, and go to work, and live her life.
**Unknown:** So this is a pretty risky thing for someone who is not necessarily a physician or a pharmacist, but she just kind of knew her body at this point. So I was very, you know, interested to see what her testing was gonna reveal because of how severe these migraines were and how long they were going on. So this is the interesting thing. This is how, this is how and why we blow minds on a day-to-day basis because as soon as this patient gave me a very brief description of what she was dealing with from a migraine standpoint, I started to think about all the possibilities.
**Unknown:** Okay, does she have lymphatic ... Uh, and I'm gonna talk about these more in depth. But does she have lymphatic congestion? Does she have a circulatory issue?
**Unknown:** Is she not getting proper blood flow to her brain? Does she have toxicity? Maybe that toxicity's from a bunch of dental work. Does she have infections that are affecting her brain?
**Unknown:** Does she have issues with her sinuses that's also affecting the brain? Does she have problems with drainage from her ears? Does she have abnormally shaped or angled eustachian tubes, which is the drainage of the ear? Does she have tonsils?
**Unknown:** Does she not have tonsils? Does she have imbalanced blood sugar? Does she have Type 1 diabetes? Does she have gut issues?
**Unknown:** So the point of me telling you guys this is that those are all things that need to be evaluated in a person that has migraines. It's not just, "Oh, you have migraines, so, okay, well, what medication can we give you?" Or, "What supplements can y- can we give you?" Or, "What anti-inflammatory diet can I put you on?" There are so many factors to be considered, everything from blood flow to infections to dental to how is her palate shaped. So your doctor, if your doctor is not looking at every single one of these things with a neurological issue, like MS, Alzheimer's, dementia, Parkinson's, ALS, like, your doctor is not going to necessarily be able to fi- be able to ever find the root cause. So these are all things that need to be considered.
**Unknown:** So this patient was really interesting because we were able to leverage one of our technologies called the bioresonance scan, and the bioresonance revealed this photo. So sorry to those of you that are on the Instagram Live, so you can't see this photo. But, um, what it is, is it is a picture of the brain and the vascular supply to the brain, and it is the under portion of the brain, which is where, um, some of the areas of your brain. One of them is called the hippocampus.
**Unknown:** The hippocampus has a lot to do with your memory, and it also has a lot to do with the potential onset of Parkinson's because the hippocampus is what starts to become compromised and degenerated, which causes, excuse me, your dopamine to drop, which is then what causes the onset of Parkinson's. So this patient, I did a neurological exam on her, and it was very fascinating because she definitely had, um, a lack of facial expression. And I asked her if she had Botox because that's always a possibility when you're dealing with lack of facial expression. She said she actually did not have Botox.
**Unknown:** Um, but the other thing that I noticed is when I had her just simply walking, she had a loss of arm movement. Her arms didn't move, um, when she was walking, which is a very common, uh, manifestation when you're starting to have issues with your hippocampus. The other thing that I noticed is she walked with her legs very spread apart. It's called having a wide gait.
**Unknown:** So pretty much what was revealed is that a big part of the puzzle for this woman, uh, for her migraines was circulatory. So it turned out there were many, many circulatory issues in her family. There was ... Her grandmother passed away of a brain aneurysm, which is a tearing in a blood vessel of the brain.
**Unknown:** Her father had bypass surgery, so he had clogged coronary arteries of the heart. Her mom had a lot of varicose vein issues, um, also ended up having, uh, different vein surgeries. So these are all signs that there are susceptibilities in the vascular system. But unfortunately, for a very, very long time, nobody was necessarily correlating the cardiovascular system to neurological conditions.
**Unknown:** And now they actually are finally acknowledging that something called vascular dementia does exist. So the thing is, is that you don't have to have full-blown dementia to have vascular issues to the brain. It starts with headaches, then can become migraines, then can become dizziness, vertigo, um, what they call vestibular migraines, and then it also can become something like a Parkinson's or an Alzheimer's, dementia, et cetera. That is where she was having the most compromised circula- circulation in the brain.
**Unknown:** This is also another reason why people get headaches, and they drink caffeine, and it makes them feel better because the caffeine is a vasodilator. So it dilates those blood vessels, and it brings more blood flow to the brain. So it makes people feel better. Unfortunately, it's just a temporary fix.
**Unknown:** It's not ever going to fix the problem or fix the root cause. It's just going to palliate the symptoms, essentially. So the interesting thing about this is that when it comes to brain degeneration, especially in the event of multiple sclerosis, you have to have more, uh, more than a 70% loss of the myelin sheath before you will see anything on an MRI. So when you're s- having all of these really odd neurological symptoms, and you go get an MRI done, and they say, "No, no, we, we ruled out MS, you know, there's, there's no possibility because, you know, you don't have any lesions on your brain," that is not always necessarily the best information because it takes more than a 70%, uh, reduction or loss of myelin sheath before you will see anything that comes up on an MRI.
**Unknown:** So the point of me telling you this is don't sit around and think that your loss of memory is normal, or your massive brain fog is normal, or your inability to concentrate is normal. Those are all warning signs that you're having brain degeneration, which again, we're gonna talk more about why that happens in the first place. So foundationally, there are three major things that your brain needs. And of those three things, uh, one of them is stable blood sugar.
**Unknown:** I'm not talking about high blood sugar. I'm not talking about low blood sugar. I am talking about stable blood sugar. So if you are getting your blood work done and they're saying, "Oh, your, your blood sugar, um, your A1C and your glucose, they're so low.
**Unknown:** That's really good. Keep it up," that's not good either. That means you're hypoglycemic. So that means your brain is potentially not getting glucose, and glucose is the primary fuel for your brain.
**Unknown:** That doesn't mean go eat a bunch of candy bars because that's not how the body works. That's not how the brain metabolizes glucose or sugar. But it is very, very important for you to eat-Properly through the day so that your blood sugar stays stable, which we will talk more about. The other thing is, is that we've estab- we've established this through the case study that I just showed you is oxygen is necessary for your brain to function, and the proper or the, the way that your brain is going to get proper oxygenation is through proper blood flow.
**Unknown:** So circulation is extremely, extremely important for you to have your brain get the nutrients that it needs. Another thing is stimulation. So many of us get into a routine of just going to work, doing the same tasks every day. We don't necessarily, you know, drive a new route.
**Unknown:** We don't do anything new. We don't read a new book. We don't have time. And then we just kind of use the same pathways over and over again in, in the brain.
**Unknown:** So exercise and learning something new is two of the primary things that we need to do on a regular basis to provide stimulation to our brain as well. So it's not necessarily just about constantly exercising, it's also about learning something new, reading a book, et cetera. So blood sugar, let's go back to this. So number one is that if you are the person that wakes up in the morning and you're like, "Oh, I'm not hungry.
**Unknown:** Oh, if anything, I can't even look at food, but I have my coffee. That suppresses my appetite." Then, you know, I don't end up eating till 12, 1:00, 2:00. Then by that time I'm starving, so I grab for my sandwich or a rice bowl or sushi, AKA with rice. Then you crash.
**Unknown:** You need your midday coffee or some other type of caffeine. Then you get to dinner, you're starving again. You're eating cheese and crackers before you make your dinner, and then dinner's done, and you're like, "Ooh, I want something sweet. Can I...
**Unknown:** I, I wish I had a little chocolate in the house." So this story, I hear it constantly, and this is all the signs that you are hypoglycemic. That means you have low blood sugar. So again, having low blood sugar is not a good thing. It means that your brain is potentially not getting the fuel that it needs.
**Unknown:** And then if you have high blood sugar, then what happens is, is that your insulin doesn't work very well. Keep it very simple. Insulin allows your cells to use the sugar. So if your cells can't use the sugar, including your brain cells, then what's gonna happen is that you are going to have a bunch of sugar floating around, and if you have a bunch of sugar floating around that can't be used, then you start to have a ton of inflammation, including brain inflammation.
**Unknown:** And this is one of the reasons why we get foggy or we crash after we eat a high carb or a high sugar meal. This is all because your blood sugar is spiking and crashing, and your brain is becoming very, very sh- very stressed from that. So another thing here is oxygen. So if you have high blood pressure, that's a problem.
**Unknown:** If you have low blood pressure, that's also a problem. Every time you go to the doctor and your blood pressure is low, they're like, "Oh, that's good. Keep up the good work. Make sure that, you know, you, you definitely keep your blood pressure low.
**Unknown:** It's great." So the thing about low blood pressure is, think about it, if you have low blood pressure, that potentially can cause or make your heart work harder to pump blood out to your extremities, AKA your hands and feet. So if you constantly have cold hands and feet or you have what we call Raynaud's, these are all signs that you potentially have low blood pressure or abnormal circulation. So if you, if it, if it's difficult for your blood to get to your hands and feet, it is also difficult for your blood to get to your head. So your brain is potentially not getting the proper oxygenation that it needs.
**Unknown:** This is a huge culprit behind brain fog. So the other thing is, is that if you have high blood pressure, you could easily start to develop a lot of headaches or migraines, even visual issues, dizziness or vertigo. The funny thing is, is that I work with many, many people that have low blood pressure when they get their blood pressure taken on their arm, but when I look at their testing, they end up having high blood pressure in their head. And this happens sometimes because they have very swollen glands in their neck.
**Unknown:** They have a lot of spinal issues. Maybe they've had head injuries, neck injuries, scoliosis. Those are all parts of the puzzle. Or they've had surgeries like tonsils removed, laid down scar tissue.
**Unknown:** That can play a very significant role in blood gets in, but struggles to get out, so you get a bunch of backup in the head. So there are many, many possibilities when it comes to how blood flow is going to play a role in your brain. So like I said before, stimulation is equally as important. So one very interesting thing is that if you're a person that you maybe drive 20, 30 minutes, maybe like 45 minutes a day, and then you go for a long ride and you take a little bit of a trip, and you drive for two, three, four hours, and then you arrive to your destination and you feel physically fatigued.
**Unknown:** You're just like, "Oh my God, I need to take a nap. Like I- I- how am I so tired? I, all I did was drive." This is not a physical fatigue. This is a neurological fatigue.
**Unknown:** So what's happening is that you're, you're, you're activating pathways that are not very strong, and you're fatiguing out those neurons. So the way that I explain this to patients is, if I walk in the room and you don't see me, and I slam a book on the table, you're gonna get startled. But if I dropped a pen on the table, you're not gonna get startled. So when your, your neurons become very, what you call close to threshold, it's like that pin drop causes you to jump just as much as the loud noise.
**Unknown:** It's like everything's over firing too fast. So this is a very common thing. So if you're that person that you get a physical fatigue by doing some type of activity that you don't normally do or just from dri- driving a long distance, this is, uh, really representing that yourWe're having massive neurological fatigue 'cause of lack of stimulation. So I'm here to tell you, you don't know what you don't know, and if you think that your mind is blown yet, just wait.
**Unknown:** So as we kind of get into more of this, some of the biggest, biggest myths around these autoimmune neurological conditions. So number one is that your autoimmune brain condition or neurological condition cannot be caused by infections or toxins. That is definitely false, which I will elaborate more on. That you have the best testing for your neurological conditions.
**Unknown:** Also, there is no such thing as vascular brain issues, which if you've been listening the whole time, we already know that's not true. And then also that dental has nothing to do with neurology. All right. So number one is...
**Unknown:** Uh, oh, actually, I'm also gonna talk about the myths around healing your neurological conditions, 'cause I know that the most common things that people are talking about right now is they're talking about CBD. Everybody's talking about the NTHFR gene. If you guys don't know what that is, that's fine. I'll, I'll still elaborate on it.
**Unknown:** Detox has no benefit to neurological disorders because the neurological damage is already done. Melatonin is something that's for everyone because I know that's a big one that everybody's using 'cause nobody can sleep. And then when it comes to the medical recommendations is that these immunosuppressants are gonna solve your problem or get rid of your neurological condition. And also, one of the big myths is that your neurological damage is completely irreversible.
**Unknown:** So I'm gonna talk about kind of some of the, the causes and the myths around the causes, and then I'm gonna talk about the myths around healing and improving your neurological conditions. So number one is that when it comes to infections and toxins. So first of all, there is not a lot of good testing that is available to test for toxicity and infections. Number two is that the primary physician, again, because all of healthcare is segregated, the primary physician that looks at infections is infectious disease doctors.
**Unknown:** So infectious disease, m-most of the time you're never getting referred to an infectious disease doctor unless you have chronic diarrhea that nobody can figure out what's going on, or you actually have, you know, some type of reoccurring fever that nobody can figure out. The other, on the flip side of toxicity, that's a toxicologist, which most people are not going to see a toxicologist either. So that's kind of the beauty of the functional and integrative medicine world, is we actually evaluate for this because we know how relevant it is. So one of the most interesting tests that is available through just traditional run-of-the-mill testing, you could get it done through Quest, you could get it done through LabCorp, and it, it will go through your insurance, is a test called TGF beta 1.
**Unknown:** Very fancy, I know. So the interesting thing is that I learned from, uh, Richie Shoemaker all about mold toxicity, um, a long time ago, and he primarily said that TGF beta 1 is really elevated in the event that somebody has mold toxicity. So then you learn very quickly as a clinical physician that that's not always true. It's not always about mold, it's really about your body going into survival mode and you having such severe inflammation that you're having cell death.
**Unknown:** So the highest I've ever seen this marker through just, again, a traditional LabCorp test was... First of all, the TGF beta 1 should never be higher than twenty-three hundred. Twenty-three hundred. The highest I ever saw was sixty thousand.
**Unknown:** This person's immune system was in complete disarray, and this was because of a combination of different viruses and another specific type of virus called retrovirus. So when it comes to viruses, there are some viruses that we know about. We hear about the herpes virus that can cause cold sores. You know, we hear about the viruses that can cause chickenpox.
**Unknown:** We hear about shingles. There are so many different types of viruses, number one. Number two is these viruses almost never manifest like the textbook. I have seen people that have the shingles virus internally.
**Unknown:** I've seen the shingles virus in people's vaginal tracts. I have seen herpes virus that has caused Crohn's disease. I have seen the coxsackie virus, which is the hand, foot, and mouth, which, like, every kid gets. I have seen that in the brain of an autistic child.
**Unknown:** I have seen crazy things when it comes to these viruses. So it's not about just getting a simple blood test and saying, "Oh, you have a virus, but it looks like it's inactive. No big deal." These viruses can definitely play a significant role in autoimmune neurological issues. And I actually didn't put it in here, but there is a test that's called Neural Zoomer, and it's called Neural Zoo- Zoomer Plus specifically.
**Unknown:** And it's fascinating because this test is now readily being used by functional integrative doctors. That specific test, uh, it actually tests for over, I think, 30 different types of viruses that show up as affecting the neurological system for people. So it is fascinating when you're able to see that, you know, this is now being acknowledged as being a primary player in conditions like Parkinson's and r- or, I'm sorry, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's, et cetera. But another really big one too is Lyme disease.
**Unknown:** You know, we hear about Lyme, we hear about it affecting joints and causing people to, you know, have a lot of problems with their physical body. But there is a such thing as neurological Lyme, and neurological Lyme is very, very, very hard to diagnose, even through a spinal tap. So I can go into all of these topics and it can get very, very, you know, elaborate and we could be here for hours, but the point is, is that I have never worked with a patient that had no viruses. I have never worked with a patient that has never been exposed to mold.
**Unknown:** There is mold in peanut butter. There is mold in cheese. There is mold-... coffee.
**Unknown:** There's mold in wine, there is mold in a lot of the things that we eat, let alone most of our antibiotics like penicillin, amoxicillin, ampicillin are all made from mold. And then there's obviously the possibility of living in a water damaged building, working in a water damaged building. So when it comes to mold, it is a big player in a lot of neurological issues. And one of, uh, the seminars that I was actually just at, the owner and researcher for Fry Labs, F-R-Y, he actually found ...
**Unknown:** He did tons of studies on multiple sclerosis, and found that fungus was the primary player. Was finding fungal antibodies as the primary reason for the myelin sheath degeneration. And then the other interesting thing was with ALS patients, uh, Lou Gehrig's disease, it was algae. So algae, like think of like the crap that builds up in like a fish tank.
**Unknown:** So found very, very unique types of algae as the primary trigger to ALS. So these are things that we're getting exposed to by swimming in lakes and ponds and rivers. And it's not that we need to live in a bubble. It's more so understanding that if your immune system is compromised, maybe because of toxicity, maybe it's because you're exposed to a boatload of, uh, pesticides and herbicides because you don't know anything about eating organic.
**Unknown:** Like maybe you work as a mechanic, maybe you work in a hair salon and constantly breathing in hairsprays and dyes and formaldehyde. These are all things that we take for granted that we don't necessarily consider as being a player in why our immune systems are compromised. Because fungus, mold, parasites, Lyme disease, these things have been around for like thousands upon thousands of years. So why is everyone so affected now?
**Unknown:** Why are people debilitated from Lyme disease? It's because our immune systems can't fight this stuff off, and our bodies are not resilient anymore. We are, our immune systems are compromised. We are removing organs that are primary or vital for our immune system.
**Unknown:** So like as an example, your tonsils are a primary player in your immune system. So we're ... How many people get their tonsils removed? It's happening left and right.
**Unknown:** How many people get their appendix removed? Your appendix is part of your immune system. So how many people have their spleens rupture because of different viruses? That's another immune system organ.
**Unknown:** So when it comes to our immune systems, we need to start asking why are our bodies less resilient and why are our, uh, blah. Why are our immune systems so compromised? And one of those reasons is toxicity. And another part of this is just toxicity that we get from food.
**Unknown:** I'm sure a lot of you guys have heard all about this like GMO conversation. Not a lot of us always understand like what the heck does it all mean. But the primary chemical that's being used in most of our industrial farming is the same chemical that we use to kill our weeds. It's the same chemical that we use called Roundup.
**Unknown:** It's, uh, the technical term is glyphosate. But glyphosate, I have never worked with one person that didn't come up toxic with glyphosate. It is, it's horrible, but it's almost impossible to not have glyphosate in your system, and this is a huge player in why our immune systems are so compromised. So being able to do some type of supportive detox for your body is so, so important.
**Unknown:** If that means like just doing some type of cardio to break a sweat, we need to really help our bodies to get rid of some of this stuff. So another big thing too, and you've probably realized this at this point, is like, is testing. There's so many limitations with testing. Nobody's necessarily testing do you have different types of antibodies against viruses?
**Unknown:** Are they testing you for Lyme disease? Are they testing you for gluten sensitivities? Are they testing you for parasites? You know, one of the most common things that women hear is, "If you have a cat, don't change the litter when you're pregnant." So the primary reason why they say that is because there is a very, very specific parasite that comes from cats that's called toxoplasmosis.
**Unknown:** Toxoplasmosis has been studied many, many times, and it has been found to get into the neurological system, and it can actually cause your capillaries, which are little blood vessels in the brain, to rupture and explode. Yes, I know that's terrifying, but this is ... Like, um, the point of me saying this is that parasites are not like this weird, like hippy-dippy thing that like, you know, weird doctors are, are telling people about. Like this is a legitimate thing.
**Unknown:** Like if you actually go on YouTube and you type in UPenn, Univ- University of Pennsylvania, and you type in toxoplasmosis, there is a video of the researchers at that school showing you imaging of tho- that specific parasite exploding capillaries in a brain. Like it's wild. So again, I'm not trying to freak everybody out, but the point is, is that these things are real. They're not just speculation.
**Unknown:** They're not somebody's opinion. Like these are real things that need to be considered. And on top of it too is when you have these severe brain disorders, and maybe there's seizures in the mix, we're using, you know, such primitive testing. We're looking at, you know, we're looking at MRIs and we're looking at EEGs.
**Unknown:** But nowadays there are things called qEEGs, quantitative EEGs. These literally map out the hemispheres of the brain. It maps out the lobes. It tells you what's overactive, underactive.
**Unknown:** It tells you about your brain waves. It tells you everything. And these are technologies that people are completely unaware of. So for those of you that have been with me the whole time, we've talked a lot about how this vascular piece of the puzzle is so significant.
**Unknown:** So one of the most fascinating, easy things that you can do to improve the vascular drainage of your brain is change how you sleep. And what I mean by that is if you have a traditional, you know, bed frame, headboard, you can actually prop up the head of your bed. Literally, you could stack a few books underneath the top of your headboard or underneath the, you know, the post of your headboard. If you raise your bed up three to four inches, and yes, you're gonna be on a little bit of an incline, that will actually help your brain drain tremendously while you sleep.
**Unknown:** Because technically your brain shrinks by 40% when you sleep, and it shrinks so that it can improve the drainage to get anything bad out of the brain. And you have an entire immune system in your brain. It's called your glymphatic system. So the glymphatic system is literally designed to drain all bad stuff away from the brain.
**Unknown:** And that could be toxins, it could be infections, it could be viruses, it could be all of those things. So what's interesting is that, you know, if infections can't get in the brain and viruses can't cross the blood brain barrier, if toxins can't affect the brain, then why do we have such an intricate drainage system and immune system of the brain? But the funny thing is, is Dr. Klinghardt, um, for those of you that know him, he's one of my mentors, and he is legitimately hilarious.
**Unknown:** And, uh, pretty much what he said is when we sleep, our brain takes a poopAnd he pretty much continued on to say that our brains are not pooping, and I found it rather comical. But, um, as soon as I got home from the conference, this was literally a couple of weeks ago, and he was talking all about just simply raising the bed. I can't even tell you how much of a game changer this has been for myself and my husband, from waking up refreshed, to getting a better night's sleep, to feeling more clear. It is literally a game changer.
**Unknown:** If that's the one thing you take away from this is do that. But obviously some people have more intricate issues. They have a lot of spinal issues. They've had neck fusions.
**Unknown:** They've had neck surgeries. They have scoliosis. Like, those are things that need to be considered for how well your brain is draining. And also, when your brain is draining, guess where all that goes?
**Unknown:** It goes into your tonsils and these lymph nodes. So if you don't have tonsils, then that's all going into lymph nodes, and chances are you're getting a bunch of gunk in this area that is causing these lymph channels to get all clogged up. Guess what is, like, one of the biggest, uh, risk factors for developing breast cancer or even lymphoma is having massive congestion in the lymphatic system because these lymph chains in your neck are connected to your breast and armpits. So this is so significant, not just for, you know, neurological issues.
**Unknown:** This is so significant for decreasing the risk for different types of lymphomas and cancers. It's showing you how many organs are involved with the immune system. So your tonsils are part of your immune system. Your adenoids are part of your immune system.
**Unknown:** How many of us have had these removed? And again, this is not blame. Like, how are you supposed to know this? But now knowing, like, you can at least be more proactive with your kids.
**Unknown:** Our spleen, our lymph nodes, our appendix, you have various lymphatic pathways in your gut. All of these things are significant on keeping the immune system healthy and resilient so that we can get rid of these infections that potentially can play a role in our neurological system. So the other one is dental. I know that I'm not a dentist, but I work with a couple of holistic dentists because sometimes when we do our testing and we find that dental is a big part of the puzzle that we sometimes need to refer out, and simply the shape of your palate.
**Unknown:** So if you have a very small face and you've had to have teeth removed by your orthodontist because of allowing... or, um, because your teeth were crowding, chances are you have a small palate. It's not a very cheap procedure to expand your palate, but sometimes the shape of your palate and it being narrow can play a very significant role in the drainage of your brain. On top of that, this was an interesting scenario that I just had recently is that I had a patient, she came to me with, uh, sinus issues, like really, really severe reoccurring sinus issues.
**Unknown:** Antibiotics, nasal sprays, nothing has been able to help her. So when we did her analysis, we actually realized, or I realized that there was really nothing wrong with her sinuses, but she had something called a dental cavitation on her upper right wisdom tooth area. So let me just keep this simple. So when you get a tooth removed, they have to remove something called your periodontal ligament.
**Unknown:** If they don't remove that ligament, your brain does not know that the tooth is gone, so it does not lay down the proper scar tissue and healing modalities. So this becomes a gaping hole that bacteria can get into and pool. So if the bacteria gets into that, that bacteria can eventually move into the jawbone, which you have a bone up here, which can then penetrate into the sinus. So this specific woman had ended up having Lyme come up in her, in her blood work, and when I looked at the tooth through one of our technologies, it turned out she had something called periostitis.
**Unknown:** Periostitis is spirochetes, which are Lyme-based organisms, not always, but hers specifically. So she had Lyme spirochetes in the jaw penetrating up into the sinus. And she also said, "Oh, I get occasional headaches, pain behind the eye, my eye's blurry," et cetera. So this is really, really significant because if you've had a boatload of dental issues, there is a high probability that this could play a very, very significant role in your brain.
**Unknown:** And I've even had people that have gone and gotten their silver fillings removed. I've had one, uh, one patient, he came to me for... because he developed Parkinson's, and then when we put the piece- pieces of the puzzle together, it turned out the onset of his Parkinson's was two months after he had twelve silver fillings removed out of his teeth, but they were not removed safely. They were literally, a dentist went in, cracked them, popped them out, which released all this mercury vapor that went in and it started to affect the brain.
**Unknown:** So it-- you have to be really careful, and you have to know what you're doing when you're getting into this world of dental, but dental can play a huge role in neurological autoimmune conditions. Another thing too is oral gal- uh, galvanism. This is when you have, say, a crown, which is gold, next to a silver filling. So you have metal next to metal.
**Unknown:** This can actually create electrical current, which can compromise the electrical signaling to the brain. So again, biological dentists are the ones that deal with this kind of stuff. So it's not that we necessarily are dealing with it, but we are testing for it and then sending you out to a dentist that can help you. The other thing too is fluoride.
**Unknown:** I know that fluoride is, you know, have such mixed reviews in the research, but overuse of fluoride if you're getting it through water plus cleanings, plus fluoride treatments, plus you're taking it maybe, um, as a dropper through your vitamins, uh, fluoride can play a very significant role on the pineal gland, which will compromise your melatonin, which will then compromise your sleep and will then also cause brain degeneration. So getting into this whole concept of healing the brain is that everybody's all about the CBD kick. So the thing about CBD is it's good, but the CBD has to be in the form of oil, not vapor. If you are getting it in the form of oil, that actually can activate something called your cannabinoid two receptors, which can actually play a very big role in modulating your immune system.
**Unknown:** It is way more complicated than that, but I am trying to keep this as simple as possible. But again, if you are a CBD user, and you do feel that it is benefiting you, if you do it in an oil form, you will get better benefit. Another really interesting thing is that I have, uh, the, the MTHFR conversation on a day-to-day basis now, uh, nowadays 'cause a lot of people are doing genetic testing through these ancestry companies. One of them is called Twenty-Three-and-Me.
**Unknown:** So this has happened not only to me, but also to some of my colleagues, and what they have found is that a child has this MTHFR mutation, which has a lot to do with, like, how well they detox, and it has a lot to do with development of the neurological system. But-We've found that sometimes the child has this mutation but the parent don't, which wouldn't make much sense because most of your genetic mutations are supposed to come from mom, dad, and then they're passed down to you. So the point of me bringing this up is that your genes can express differently based off of, of environmental stressors. So if a child has been overly vaccinated in a short amount of time, or maybe the child has had a lot of antibiotics early on in life, or maybe the child was exposed to different infections going through the birth canal or because they were a hospital birth, these are all factors that can compromise, uh, genes and can cause genetic mutations which then can compromise the immune system of a child.
**Unknown:** So I want you to understand that these genetic markers that you're finding through these, uh, different platforms like 23andMe, they are not a definitive, they are not a make or break. They are not, you know, dictating the health of your- yourself and your child. These genetic mutations can easily be compromised because of different types of stressors. So another thing too is that when it comes to detox, if you have MS, if you have ALS, if you have PANDAS, if you have any type of autoimmune neurological condition, you need to detox.
**Unknown:** I don't care what they're sitting here telling you the origin of this, of this condition is, but your glymphatic system, again, the lym- the, the primary immune system of your brain is majorly, majorly compromised in any person that has these autoimmune neurological conditions. So you need to get that system working. And you can get that system working by lifting up your headboard and sleeping on an incline. You can get the system working by using something called craniosacral therapy.
**Unknown:** It can improve by using infrared sauna, sweating, cardiovascular activity, getting your sinuses to improve. There are so many factors that will improve your neurological health. So in addition to that, melatonin. Um, for those of you that have taken melatonin and it ha- gave you a really bad reaction, what that means is your brain is toxic.
**Unknown:** The melatonin can actually start to detox your pineal gland. So if your pineal gland is compromised because of, uh, toxicity from heavy metals, pesticides, fluoride, you can easily start to have really, really wacky dreams or actually start to develop migraines by taking melatonin. Not saying that melatonin's bad for you, but you need to actually support the whole system, and you need to piece the puzzle together because it's not just about taking the melatonin and having those bad reactions and powering through. It's about how can you make sure that you're detoxing the brain properly.
**Unknown:** And that kinda comes back to the previous thing about making sure that you're sweating, improving your sinuses, using things like craniosacral therapy, using things to improve the lymph of, of the body and the brain. So the other thing too is I know that we have high hopes when we get recommended these medications that are called biologics. Um, biologics are these immunosuppressants, you know, Tysabri, Metformin, Remicade. You know, there's honestly so many nowadays, I can barely even keep up.
**Unknown:** But the thing you have to understand is that if the root cause of your neurological issue has always been correlated back to an infection or a toxicity, then it's going to ... You might find that you're having some improvement with taking this immunosuppressant, but you'll find that you'll hit a plateau, and you might even go backwards, and then you'll be recommended a different biologic or an additional biologic. It's a, it's a very slippery slope, and most people end up on a merry-go-round. And unfortunately, they feel like crap the whole time too.
**Unknown:** It's not that they're, like, feeling amazing, and then they just sometimes have to switch their medication. It's most of the time they continue to feel pretty poorly even despite being on these medications. So one of the other ones is that neurological damage is irreversible. That has honestly been embedded in my brain going through school, is that, you know, once the neurons are dead or damaged, that there's no turning back.
**Unknown:** And they've actually proven something as simple as infrared sauna has now been connected to regenerating the brain. And the other thing too is that they have seen massive changes on qEEGs, again, quantitative EEGs and MRIs by improving people's circulatory system, by improving blood sugar stability, on giving the brain proper nourishment, by making sure that neurotransmitters are balanced, that there is proper mineral sufficiency, et cetera. So depending on what is your root cause and what your brain needs, they have seen over and over again that the brain has had massive improvement by helping to either reverse or eliminate the root cause, if that is toxicity or infections, but also to then help the brain rebuild. So I had a patient about fifty-three years old.
**Unknown:** Uh, by the time she came to, uh, to Integrative Wellness Group, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She was diagnosed in her early forties. She was diagnosed after she had an onset of chronic pain. I think they ended up telling her she had fibromyalgia.
**Unknown:** She started to have a lot of neuropathy, uh, a lot of numbness and tingling in different parts of her body. The neuropathy was not necessarily due to, um, like diabetes or anything like that. They honestly didn't know why because the neuropathy moved. Sometimes it would be her hands, sometimes it was her feet.
**Unknown:** Sometimes it would be random on her forearm. She was having, like, all of these very, very odd pain patterns and numbness patterns. Then she started having falling spells. Like, she was kind of losing control.
**Unknown:** She fell down the stairs a few times, which unfortunately, you know, ended up in injury or causing injury. So it was all of these things that happened over the course of a few years that eventually gave her the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.Um, fortunately the multiple sclerosis was diagnosed based on her symptoms. It was not necessarily based on her MRI showing up with a lot of lesions, which is actually a good thing. So it's always questionable, you know, is this really multiple sclerosis, or did she just kind of check off a lot of the boxes of the symptoms?
**Unknown:** So as we dug in and we started, you know, getting into her history, it turned out that going back, back, back, as a kid she had a ton of ear infections. She also had some throat issues. She ended up being on a lot of penicillin as a kid. For those of you that have been listening the whole time, penicillin is made from penicillium, which is mold.
**Unknown:** So just by being on tons of penicillin can easily cause the body to become toxic with mold and mycotoxins. The other thing too is she had a couple of concussions from skiing and sports. What's always so interesting is people only remember the concussions. They don't always remember all of the minor head injuries and, you know, bumps, especially when you're doing something like skiing, 'cause if you kinda like get up and keep powering through your day, you just assume that you're fine.
**Unknown:** So m- moral of the story is is that she definitely had some good head injuries, which will compromise circulation to the brain. The other interesting thing is she had growi- growing pains as a kid. I find this to be very significant because many of the people that I've worked with that have had growing pains, it is correlated back to stress on their joints and growth plates, which is caused by Lyme. And again, Lyme is not always severe.
**Unknown:** It is not necessarily always diagnosed. It could easily be something in the body that is causing stress, but at a low level. So other things that came up. She had something called Raynaud's phenomenon, which is when you have really, really poor circulation to the hands and feet.
**Unknown:** She also had heart palpitations and a- arrhythmia. So I started thinking, "Okay, is there a circulatory piece to the puzzle?" Then she also talked about mild headaches. Again, mild headaches can also be correlated back to circulatory issues to the brain, which means the brain is not getting oxygen. She also said she got occasional cold sores, so herpes simplex is the primary cause of cold sores, but her cold sores were on her face, in her nose, and in her mouth.
**Unknown:** All of the sinuses and lymph nodes, they all connect into the brain. So if you have cold sores or, or herpes simplex in your sinuses as well as in your mouth, I always start to question, is this something that's affecting your neurological system? The growing pains, again, was undiagnosed Lyme that we ended up finding in her system. More interesting is that after her third child she had preterm labor.
**Unknown:** She went into, uh, labor early. And she did not realize this, but as I dug and I asked more questions, she realized that her preterm labor was within three days of getting the pertussis vaccine while she was pregnant. So it really seemed that ... 'Cause this was all within the time period that she started to have a lot of these symptoms.
**Unknown:** So it was really after that third child is when she started to have a lot of these pain patterns. So the point is, that I want you to understand here, is that this woman had a lot of different things going on, and that, you know, the pregnancy and the, the vaccine at, during the pregnancy was a huge catalyst that kinda pushed her immune system to its limits, and that was what caused a lot of this neurological stress to come to the surface. So another side note is that she had a lot of skin cancer in her family, so she used tons and tons of sunblock through her life. So one of the, uh, toxicities she came up was for something called para-aminobenzoic acid, which I know is a very fancy term, but it is, uh, it's an ingredient that is in sunblock that can be toxic.
**Unknown:** So that was a toxicity piece that is usually not found. We just have some really, really unique technologies that allowed us to find this. And then she also was dealing with some blood sugar instability. She was not a breakfast eater.
**Unknown:** She kinda like went various hours without eating, and she usually suppressed her appetite with coffee. So this was just another added stressor. So the point is is that this person had a lot of different things going on. This was not just, "You have MS", end of story.
**Unknown:** This was a lot of moving pieces that all came to a head at a specific time period in her life, and it kinda hit her immune system like a ton of bricks, and that is really when, you know, she went down the road of having these pain patterns which then eventually ended up with this diagnosis of MS. So the point of me telling you that is that very rarely do things look like the textbook, and very rarely should your treatment be the textbook. Because this is a woman who would just be put on this immunosuppressant as the solution to MS when she in fact is dealing with blood sugar issues. She was dealing with toxicity issues.
**Unknown:** She was dealing with to- mold toxicity issues. She's dealing with all of these pieces of the puzzle which would keep her on a merry-go-round of feeling terrible and also potentially having her MS progress. The one thing I will say is that we, we forget that medicine and healthcare is supposed to be about answers. You know, we go to the doctor, and we will spend all this money on these co-pays and be on this merry-go-round of, "Oh, you're fine.
**Unknown:** Oh-Look healthy. Oh, blood work looks good. Oh, you must be depressed. Ooh, you must be anxious.
**Unknown:** Maybe try this Xanax. And it's just, you haven't had better testing. You haven't had somebody asking better questions. It's not for you to sit back and just take that as, "Maybe I am depressed," or, "Maybe this is all in my head," because there is always going to be a root cause.
**Unknown:** It's just about digging deeper and deciphering what that is, and better yet, having a solution. All of our solutions thus far have been medication, pharmacology. And it's like, well, what about meditation? What about de-stressing?
**Unknown:** What about, you know, what about acupuncture? What about detox? What about vitamins? What about minerals?
**Unknown:** What about all of those things? You know, there is more and more of a demand because people are over it. They're just like, "This isn't working. I'm tired of being on medications that don't necessarily make me feel better.
**Unknown:** I'm on my third, fourth, fifth surgery, and I feel worse than I did when I started." And people are starting to demand more out of their healthcare, which is really what's gonna push it forward. So in addition, for those of you that are listening, especially those of you that have been listening since we started, you know, you're here for a reason, and if I can do my testing and tell you why you have MS, or tell you how to get better, or tell you what you can or cannot eat, or tell you why your child is struggling devel- to develop neurologically, or why your children, child has autism, that is going to be invaluable to you. There is no price that you can put on that clarity and being able to know that you're in the driver's seat, that you can actually do something about this. So it's really, really important for people to know that, you know, if you have been looking and searching and just like, "I don't know what to do.
**Unknown:** I'm so lost, I'm so tired, and I'm so sad, and I feel so disempowered," being able to get answers is extremely priceless. But overall, I really thank you guys for being here with me. But for those of you that have been here tonight, I really appreciate you being with me, and I really love doing this because my biggest goal is to bring quality information to you so that you can understand the bigger picture, and then hopefully take that first step in your healthcare journey. Because at the end of the day, it's really about getting answers and getting better, and that's when this becomes a breakthrough experience.
**Unknown:** And then you can also share this with your friends and loved ones. I would really love to just spread the message and give people information that they've been looking for. All right, guys, I hope you enjoyed this tonight, and I will see you soon. 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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