Unveil Hidden Infections

Christine Schaffner, ND

Thank you so much, Laura. It is always so fun to be in conversation. You are a dear friend. I am glad we are doing this today.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Me, too. I think you have been to every one of my last six events, so thank you again. Let me introduce you to our audience, who might not know you yet. You are a board-certified naturopathic doctor. You have helped thousands of people recover from chronic and complex illnesses. You host the Spectrum of Health Podcast. You have online programs, and you have a clinic in Seattle where patients can see you in person. Today, we are going to talk about one of my very favorite topics, Chronic Hidden Infections. You are the perfect person to do this because we are going to be talking about places where you do not expect hidden infections to be. We are going beyond the gut. We are going beyond the lungs. People think about how they get respiratory infections in the lungs, gut infections, parasites, and bacteria. People think of infections as being isolated in these places but they really go everywhere, right, Christine?

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yes. Those are just two of many, many places that are hotspots for the body. As you mentioned, this is a silent and hidden infection, so it is not obvious.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yes. What we are going to do today is go over where they are. We are going to talk about signs that you have. We are going to go way beyond using prescriptions and supplements to remove infections. We are going to explore some other ways to help solve this. Before we get into where these infections are hidden, I think we need to explain and define one important concept, and that is pleomorphism. Let us start there.

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yes, I love to, and I am a naturopathy doctor, but I have had the opportunity to also study what we are calling now in the U.S. bio-regulatory medicine, which was also known as biological medicine and has roots in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, and they took ancient philosophies and principles and kind of a modern-day lens. Then they have these, I would say, two main topics that allow me to help so many people. The premise of this system and, again, any system that helps people is that the body is very intelligent, it has this self-regulating capacity, and it knows how to heal. When we are in our role as a practitioner or a doctor, our job is to identify those hidden or obvious roadblocks as obstacles to allow the body to have the energy to do what we do not even know the beginning of how or why they do it. Again, bio-regulatory medicine, we will talk a little bit, in this conversation, probably about interference fields. You already have Dr. Moldovan about the mouth, and there are also other focal infections, the tonsils, the sinuses, and how scars interact in the body. Then this idea of pleomorphism, these are the ideas I have heard. This is rather the idea that we are talking more about terrain theory and we are not talking germ theory.

We saw this kind of getting us up to speed there because my job is not to kill every bug and that person’s body that is coming to see me; my job is to make them adaptable and resilient so that they can encounter stressors. It does not become a long-term stressor or chronic illness, and they can adapt and move on. When we think about the terrain rather than the germ theory, it is our job. It is more of an empowering version of how to look at the body that we can strengthen and epigenetically optimize ourselves. We can train toxicity, and we can balance our immune system. There are many things we can do. Then when we encounter that stress, that toxicant, we do not have to have the same response as the standard American people’s diet would. There is a lot more that we can modulate in that; rather, we get a virus or bacteria, and we encounter it. We get the same textbook symptoms, and everybody is doomed to it. You only need a vaccine to clear it and move on. That is germ theory. Pleomorphism is the idea that we have microbiomes within us and then we have these different and stealth pathogens that we can encounter, and we can change the virulence of either commensal flora or stealth pathogens based on environmental conditions. This is maybe the most obvious kind of example I use. There is a clear relationship with mercury toxicity and Candida, this is pretty well known. There is a lot of snow and a lot of functional medicine now that people have persistent Candida overgrowth, they have got to change their diet. They have to be in a no-sugar forever. They got to be on the antifungals. Why is that person not getting better or even getting worse? 

Candida is known to sequester mercury on its cell wall. It might even have an adaptive quality to be allowed to thrive in the body when there is a high load of mercury. When people who have had amalgam fillings or people who have been in an occupation with mercury exposure. If you are just on planet Earth or live on the West Coast, you are inhaling mercury in some way from coal burning. If you do not tend to the environmental burden of mercury in the body, you will just be whacking a mole with Candida. But if you have this kind of idea, if I drain the mercury out of people and use chelation when appropriate, I can be more successful with my Candida protocols. There is also a caveat there when people get worse with Candida treatment, there can be neurotoxin exposure with a release of mercury when you are going through that. We know there is strep as well. There is a mercury-disrupted connection in the throat, especially. It is this dance, this dynamic conversation, and this dynamic aspect of how our body maintains homeostasis and the health of the ecosystem. We look at relationships, and I would say for our conversation, what could play a microcosm is this relationship between toxicity and how that impacts your immune system and how that impacts your ability to modulate your immune system, either clear or something and move on or let something just be resonant and stay, and parasites are pollutants as well. They will sequester toxicity as well. If you have a persistent parasitic infection, the same idea holds. I hope that makes sense.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yes. I want to unpack pleomorphism just a little bit. Can you talk about it in the context of H. pylori? I think that will help people wrap their minds around it. Sort it clear.

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yes. H. pylori, I would say the same. H. pylori is a commensal flora. We know that we have bacteria in our GIs that reside. I think of H. pylori, when you think about the environment or the terrain, why is it so persistent? It is multifactorial. What I know to be true is when people have low stomach acid. A lot of them are chronically stressed, and they are rushing when they are eating. Many things have slowed their digestive fire for a time. That lowers the esophageal sphincter and does not get the signal to close as tightly as it does between the stomach and the esophagus. Then there is ligament laxity in that lower esophageal sphincter, and then people can feel heartburn, which is related to H. pylori, or the conditions of the acidic environment. 

It is making people think they have high acid. But in fact, there is a lower acid environment, allowing that commensal flora to not have the brakes on it and to thrive and populate. That is one example. I also love that you have Dr. Moldovan on your summit, and just think that the oral microbiome is so interrelated to our GI tract. If you have upstream toxicity in your mouth, if you have periodontal disease, toxic mercury, amalgam fillings, cavitation, or root canals, you are swallowing toxicity and swallowing this biotic flora that can also affect not only the stomach and the upper GI, but also the GI tract, the intestine, and everything else as well. That would be my first thought there.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Okay. Thank you so much. Now that we have kind of laid the foundation for where we are going to go and talk here, looking for hidden infections or finding hidden infections in the body is such an important piece of the discovery process when we are looking for root causes of chronic inflammation, health conditions, diagnoses, etc. Even something we were talking about before we jumped on the camera together. Mast cells, for example. You have to look for the underlying root causes of this. It is just not a matter of treating mast cells. Other things need to happen. Can you explain why it is so important for us to do this piece where we look for hidden infections?

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yes, absolutely. You are doing a great job in this summit, educating people. When come to see me, I have this idea. Again, I removed interference fields and understanding about pleomorphism. But I also look at buckets of why people are sick, and it is exactly what your segment is about toxicants, pathogens, and trauma. When we go into that pathogen bucket, there is also a relationship, as I mentioned, between toxicity and the immune system and also trauma and the immune system. That, again, is this play-and-market idea, and there is this ecosystem. Where we are made of microbiomes. We have a virome, we have 370 trillion viruses that epigenetically dance with us and are part of our milieu. We are not meant to be sterile. that has never been, as nature intended. Then we have microbiomes in our brains. We have microbiomes in our lungs and our sinuses, in our tonsils, on our skin. In our gut, our pelvic floor, and our bladder. There are all these places where those microbiomes can become imbalanced.

Again, great people are going to be talking about toxicity and trauma. Within those microbiomes and in the stance of the immune system, why do we allow things like Lyme and co-infections to thrive, or viruses and retroviruses, parasitic infections, fungi, and mold? What I have found is that, usually, when people come to us, they do not get sick overnight. They are, from preconceptions about how they were delivered, to their family’s choice of breastfeeding and vaccination, to the stresses that they encounter too. Then you live in a moldy house, you get a divorce, and then you are sick. It is this happens over time. What I want to share about that is that there is a slow weakening with all of this stress. It is very stressful to be a human. On Mother Earth these days, there are so many things coming at us. 

They suddenly weaken us. I was talking to a patient. We have to spend a lot of money not to be poisoned in America these days. That kind of slow poisoning also affects our immune system. Let us say somebody had a strep throat and had a bunch of strep throats. Over time, their buckets are filling in the other departments with toxicants and trauma. Over time, the body becomes, cannot even respond anymore in that tissue. That tissue has been overcome. It becomes this silent reservoir of these microbes that hides out. This is, again, this idea of these focal infections, these silent infections that are in key targeted areas and tissues that have a profound effect on the body. I would say nine out of 10 of my patients have a tonsil interference field. When you think about the tonsils, we are going to spend another on the tonsils.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yes. Please do.

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yes. Just think about it. If you have chronic strep. If you have mono or EBV, if you have amalgams that are draining into the tonsils, or any root canals or oral microbiome, the tonsils sit at the base of the lymphatic system and then at the top of the gut-associated lymphoid tissue. The connection between the gut and the brain is in the tonsils. If you have this kind of unhealthy reservoir of tissue that is silent, again, your body’s not telling me you have a sore throat anymore or that you are not getting all those acute inflammatory signals anymore. It is just there; there is an entry point into the brain from the tonsils. The tonsils can have these highways for microbes to find themselves on into the brain, through the nerves, highways, and the cribriform plate in the olfactory system, which can enter the brain and be a source of microglia activation and all sorts of neurological symptoms. Again, the tonsils can also be at the base of the lymphatic drainage. There are a couple of routes for the lymphatic system to drain. It is in the front of the neck, around the jugular veins alongside that. Then if you did a cross-section of your head through the cribriform plate it shared and then the drainage around the tonsils. It is also, when you think about the tonsils, think about there are five lymphatic tissues. The Waldeyer’s ring; there are the adenoids, the Palatine tonsils, the tubal tonsils, and the lingual tonsils and that whole ring can become a reservoir.

All of a sudden, you have poor drainage through that route and also migration upstream as well, which can keep things inflamed. Then when you think about swallowing, the tonsils become weaker and do not defend you as well. The things you are encountering through your food and breathing. Then more and more things travel down the lymphatic network in the gut, and that can also perpetuate and keep your GI symptoms in a chronic state because you have this. I think that the interference field still does not only have these infections, but you also have the biotoxins that they release that can chronically poison the nerves, the length, and the circulatory system as well. The tonsils are kind of a big deal for us because who does not have a problem with all of those things when they come to somebody ourselves to treat? That would be a big hit, and I would say focal infection, the big hidden source of infection that we can treat. There are different herbs that we can use. Ozone, different tools to regain support there. The best idea, the clinical presentation around what I am saying, is the whole world of Pandas and Pans, which is a technical name for upregulated gut and brain inflammation when there is a reservoir of infection in the tonsil ring.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Okay, so one more. As we are doing this first part of our interview here, I would love to touch on some of those other places that could be reservoirs for infection. There are a few other hidden places. Let us unpack that before we go into the big solutions for this. What are the other places?

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yes. Since we are talking about the tonsils, we will just go to the sinuses. I know that in the world of mold, there is a lot of conversation around sinus dysbiosis. We have a whole microbiota in our nasal passages. If that becomes out of balance, just if it was in our gut, that can be a source of biotoxin activity as well. The sinuses are very close to the brain, not only through the entryway for the cribriform plate, but this sinus is near the pituitary. When we think about chronic inflammatory response syndrome, that is a pattern that we see with mold illness, Lyme, and bio carcinomas. Why it was mentioned here because they came in when Dr. Shoemaker came up with the idea that the biotoxins from sinus dysbiosis affect the pituitary. That is why we see a lot of antidiuretic hormones that are dysregulated. People who have this can be chronically thirsty or get up to pee. I know these patients because they come to my office every so often to go, and pee, throughout their hour, two-hour visit. There is a direct connection to the brain. When people come to help me on a lot of levels. We talk about helping the lymphatics and the drainage and improving cognitive health. If we have an infection in the sinuses or the tonsils, that is going to be, again, an area of stagnation and a source of biotoxins that can keep the brain inflamed. You have already covered cavitation, but cavitation is big, that can also poison the vagus nerve. I think about vagus nerve toxicity and infection. We know a lot of Lyme co-infections hang out in the vagus nerve. People are talking about this side of ganglia. We are just talking about gargling and singing and all that stuff, which is awesome. But why is the vagus nerve disrupted in the beginning? I always look upstream and make sure my past patients and these other NAMI patients do not have cavitation. Just think about you.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

We do talk here with Dr. Moldovan, who often talks about cavitation, which are little pockets in the jawbones, just in case somebody is wondering what that is. It is a little infected pocket in the jawbone. You should catch that interview with Dr. Moldovan because we talked about what to do about that. Go ahead and keep going, Christine.

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yes. It is just this area of necrotic tissue that never heals when you get your tooth extracted, and that can be due to proximity. Some of these microbes can settle into the vagus nerve again within the circulatory system. Then, when you think about it, what do vagus nerve toxicity and infection mean? If we have these toxicants and these pathogens starting to accumulate in these neurons, that is, make up this long nerve that has all these beautiful functions that engage in our parasympathetic activity and our heart and lungs, and our GI, and have that communication highway between the gut and the brain, the brain, and gut are starting to be full of microbes and toxicants. There can be a slowing down of communication, or even changes that can even lead to cell death over time. That can be a big area, of hidden infection, especially if people have any autonomic issues, which most people with a chronic illness do. We covered the tonsils, we covered the sinuses, and we covered the vagus nerve. I will just say it goes without saying, but the brain has a microbiome. We know that a lot of the pathogens that you are talking about can affect the central nervous system, and they can affect electrical activity, signaling, and neurotransmitter release and affect people in a variety of ways, from insomnia to brain fog to depression and anxiety. The list goes on. A big part of our work is to try to clean up the entry flow to the brain so that we can get some deeper treatments for the brain to heal it.

Then I would say the next place, the appendix, the ileocecal valve. We talk about SIBO all the time, and this is something that needs to be addressed and treated. But when you think about why, what is happening is that the feedback to you from the large intestine is entering into the small intestine, from the large intestine, into the ilium, through this valve where there is kind of a juncture, where one is in one part of the intestines. During the different parts, there is a valve that kind of is an entryway or can, or it can close off an entryway. Sometimes that can get stuck open, it can get stuck open or closed. That is in the same area as the appendix. In the appendix, you said the thought is vestigial tissue and that it never matters. We just evolved out of our use, and there are lots of thoughts that it can be a reservoir for probiotics. When the body’s gone through different periods of stress or antibiotic use, that reservoir can be released, but it can also be a pocket where, if that area is not, again, that environment becomes pretty and the waters get muddy. The SIBO’s happening, and of course, that open, parasites can migrate there, and fungi can migrate there. There could be this low-grade chronic appendicitis that is not acute but is kind of weakening and poisoning that area. That is another one. Then, I guess.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Christine, I have to say quickly that I am going to say this moment is the most delightful moment of this entire project. I am so delighted now that the appendix could be a reservoir for probiotics, which just makes my heart so happy. I have never heard that before. But this is what I am going to think of every time I think of the appendix now: that I still have my little reservoir. I do not know any more about it at 21, but I have my appendix, my little reservoir. Okay, go ahead. 

Christine Schaffner, ND

I know, the body is wise, right?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yes. Give us a couple more spots here. Chronic infection.

Christine Schaffner, ND

I would say. Let us talk about the bladder. There are microbiomes in the bladder. I see a lot of patients with chronic UTIs and interstitial cystitis. Interstitial cystitis can be a mast cell issue. But again, why are the mast cells so irritated? We always have to ask that question, and then chronic UTIs can occur when some bacteria make a home. When you treat Lyme and co-infections, it is often known that they have spirochaetes in the bladder, and so they can create biofilm communities. Biofilm is a big, I would say, source of infection because these microbes are intelligent and they can find ways to thrive within us. Biofilm creation can be a way for these stealth pathogens to block the entryway of the white blood cells getting through to help clear that. The chronic UTI idea is that there could be a home base, as not only bacteria, but I have seen parasites in the bladder. Then there is a cold test called MicroGen for people who have chronic UTIs, or interstitial cystitis. You can take a capture of your urine and do a PCR test, and then Ruth Kriz is a wonderful nurse practitioner who has done a lot of work for this community. She is retired, but she consults with MicroGen, and she will talk to you about your patient and help you do targeted antibiotic therapy again when it is appropriate or herbal therapy to help resolve a chronic UTI issue. Just a plug for that, because that has helped a lot of my patients, and I could keep going.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I know.

Christine Schaffner, ND

I know it is not for you.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Okay. We are coming to the end of the first part of this talk, but we are going to keep going. Dr. Schaffner, thank you so much for joining us today. This has been extraordinary already, what we have learned about chronic infections in the body where they are hiding. In the next part of the talk, we are going to get into, When is it proper or when is it appropriate to kill? When do we start the killing process? Do we want to kill everything and find ways to do this beyond pills and supplements? What are some of the strategies? To our audience, I hope you found our conversation thus far insightful and helpful. I know I certainly have. If you are a summit purchaser stay here because we are about to dive even deeper into this discussion with Dr. Schaffner.

If you are not, just click the button on this page to get access to a continuation of this conversation and all the others and get the tools you need to reclaim your health.  If you are watching a continuation of my talk with Dr. Schaffner, thank you for being a valuable member of our community, and we are going to dive right back in. Okay, Dr. Schaffner. We ended with this whole talk about all the places where hidden infections are. Then you said, Well, do you want me to keep going? Do you have a few more things that we should unpack before we get into the kind of thing we should do about this? Do we kill them straight away that some stuff needs to happen first? What are the modalities to kill?

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yes. I will say two more things, maybe. I do not know; I could go on; I will; I will lump them together. I will do two more. The joints, or joint capsule, can be an area where Lyme and co-infections thrive. Spirochaetes and other co-infections can degrade collagen and also upregulate our MMP-9 to go deeper into tissues. They can traverse into joints, throughout the fascia, into the cerebrospinal fluid, and other collagen-rich tissues, like the heart, the eyes, and so forth. The joints are, whether you have osteoarthritis or any type of arthritis. I highly encourage you to look into Ozone therapy and to consider getting your joints the Ozonated. They may follow that up with regenerative medicine from PRP to exosomes to stem cells to save your joints. That could be an area. 

The other area, I guess, would go hand in hand, I would say. When we think about the blood vessels, there is the endothelial, and then there is the endothelium. In the blood vessels, it is well known that some infections—chlamydia, pneumonia, or even Bartonella, I believe—can live in the endothelium. They create biofilm communities within the lining of our blood vessels and live and thrive in this nutrient- and oxygen-rich environment. If you have any circulatory or cardiovascular issues, this could be a hidden infection. The circulatory system is very much tied to it. I will leave here. 

A lot of the action that is happening in the body is kind of in the space between the cells. The space between the cells is the beginning of our lymphatics. A lot of that fluid is strained in the lymphatics. Then the lymphatics job is to drain and detoxify that lymph and what is getting removed in the waste, and also all the things that the body encounters, and return it to the circulatory system. On the way there, it encounters lymph nodes and lymph organs to mount a proper immune response to hidden invaders. When we think about chronically swollen lymph nodes, the spleen, or the thymus, the tonsils are part of that lymphatic tissue as well. I would say your lymph nodes and lymphatics are areas where chronic infections can thrive.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

This is such a good talk. Okay, so many questions, and I only have so much time. My question; Now everyone’s thinking that, I think I want to kill these things. I want these out of my body, and so a lot of functional medicine just goes straight for killing, and that creates a problem. Let us talk first about when it is appropriate to kill. When we start a killing plan, what needs to happen first before we can safely help our immune system? When I say we are killing stuff, we are also boosting the immune system to solve this. Then we can get into some of the modalities that you can use beyond just pills, supplements, and antibiotics.

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yes. When a patient comes to me and we approach, okay, where do we begin? I just want to say that you want to work with a provider that can help you prioritize. There are so many things to think about, yet we cannot solve them all at once. How do we prioritize treatment? I employ not only my regular diagnostics and specialty labs, but I am also a big believer in bio-resonance, bioenergetics, and muscle testing, which guides me a lot with my patients, but also their principles, and there is quite a roadmap. 

I want to identify first these areas of hidden infection. I do that with these tools that I am sharing. There is also a clinical picture that you can often learn, and it is a clinical diagnosis of where these hidden infections might be. It is a hidden infection if there is a dental problem or if there are scars in the body. That is why I want to know that. Do I go after all that at once? Maybe not, but I definitely will inject scars with protein. That is the neural therapy technique to open up the fascial network, the lymphatics, support the energy meridians, and the nervous system so the body can regulate and heal. 

I often will not do much for the patient if they still have mercury and amalgams. If they still have mercury amalgams. That will be the first thing I will try to get their body in a way to work with a great biological dentist to get their amalgams out. I find that when people have amalgams, they are very hard to treat. They can be quite reactive. Your hands are tied with detox agents, and I have a kind of tenant there that I want to buy because I know I have tried to, and patients have taught me if I ignore that, we just run into problems. Knowing where we are there, and then I am a big believer in draining the lymphatics and having lymphatic drainage on board. That is a huge piece of that. If the swamp is not moving, it is going to be hard to add anything to that system to make it work. We are just going to get into more stagnation, more congestion, and more flaring. 

I think about that. I am a big proponent of binders. We use a lot of software binders, chlorella and charcoal at times, zeolites, modified citrus pectin, and all that kind of stuff. Binders are very foundational because they are there to lay in the intestines when the bile is released, not only in the bile that helps to digest your food but also where bile is out of elimination. 

This is where a lot of our endogenous metabolic waste and toxicants are coming out, but also a lot of these mycotoxins, or biotoxins, and their toxicity. We need the binders on board. I am also a big proponent of supporting the organs of elimination. You want to support everybody. Most have a kind of weak link. We are thinking about the liver, gallbladder, colon, kidney, skin, and lungs. In this day and age, patients are becoming more and more sensitive. we mentioned already the mast cells. In the mast cells, there are some underlying causes, but some people are so sensitive that you want a stable rise in your mast cells and a good mast cell stabilizer protocol so you can reach these root causes and that your patient is having rashes and reactions, and you cannot go deeper. 

I am a big believer in restoring blood flow and getting above that endothelium and also the endothelial. A lot of people have very thick blood. It is full of spike protein, fiber, and all sorts of other things. I use enzymes, Boluoke, Serrapeptase, Nanshin, and Narcharosol to keep the blood moving, and then we also have to have a good sleeping environment. Sleep is important. It is kind of like the chicken or the egg, but sleep is critical for healing and repair in that lymphatic activity. I just try to create a safe sleeping location on that alone an electric smog. Turn off your wifi. I do not bring in your electronics; try to minimize blue light, and then, that is foundational. Those are the foundations, and then, as this can happen, it is not linear; it is dynamic. Those are important parts of my protocol. 

Then, I use clinical signs, symptoms, and muscle testing to help prioritize. What is the infection that we need to go after first? I know everybody wants a cookie-cutter way, but there is an interrelationship. Often, let us say parasites are coming up. I will use my parasite remedies. But within parasites, it is often Lyme and viruses, and they can be released through parasite treatment. We want to make sure we have support for the downfall of the after-fall or after-fallout. Yes, the fallout of that. If we are going to be going after Candida, I mentioned that we want to make sure we have some neurotoxicity mopping up so people do not get mercury toxins. 

I often layer, and I do have pretty balanced protocols. But I often layer is a parasite mode where we are going after and then some type of herbal strategy to support the body with viral and co-infections at the same time. That is very typical of my protocols. That is kind of how I think about things. Then again, we are not going to kill every bug, but can we get the body down to the threshold, the microbial burden down, so that the immune system can take over? Sometimes that is easier than others for individuals, depending on what is going on with them.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

It is good information. Okay. I know I am just shooting questions at you. I want to squeeze as much out of you as I can. What I love most is the 5 minutes we spent here. Christina said, how I had this to go, are you game? This is Christine just does flow, and so okay, you are just pouring your brain out with no preparation whatsoever. Whatever you want to ask me, Laura, I love it. Here is what I want to know. I want to go beyond the supplements and the prescriptions. Beyond this, many modalities can help support your immune system and your body to fight infections. Yes, the supplements are important. Yes, sometimes prescriptions are important, but there is a lot left on the table by Western medicine, for sure. Also, I am going to say it is the most functional medicine. What are the extra things you can do? 

Christine Schaffner, ND

I will just start with some foundations. I know you probably have people talking about this, but I am a big proponent of clean, filtered water. I love structured water. I know there is a time for distilled water, but I am a structured water person. It just makes a lot of sense with how we are wired to generate electricity and energy in the body. Filtered, structured, highly mineralized water is foundational. Then I would say that kind of circadian biology. Make sure that you do not have light, that you are not surrounded by LEDs in your home environment, and that you are using more full-spectrum lighting. There is a light, and incandescence is going away. There is a light called Chroma Lux, which is a health light that combines incandescent and halogen and gives off a soft, warm glow. My friend, Julie Conway, told me about this. She is a glassblower. We were asking, What are we going to do with that without incandescence? We found those lights.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

We are going to go back to burning candles. Christine, I know; I do now. We are going to do this, and we are going to go to bed when the sun goes down, and we are going to get this uncovered.

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yes, I know. Yes. You are onto something, because, especially after sunset, if we overpollute our bodies with blue light, that can be very confusing for our melatonin production and circadian rhythm. You can get blue blockers at night, or you can get those kinds of red amber lights at night that can help you kind of support your body in that way. What you mentioned with the circadian biology, too. the circadian biology. People tell you to go out in the morning, get the sunlight on your eyes, and see the sunset on your eyes at night. That is meaningful. I would say that those are going to be foundational. 

I am a big proponent of teaching people to have a meditation or gratitude practice. I think that is important when the heart is the strongest electromagnetic field generator in the body, and if your heart is not aligned, your brain is not aligned, and your field is not aligned. That is a whole other conversation. But I will plant a seed for you there. Then I have a clinic here, and we do lots of exciting things, but I encourage people to have their home healing circuit, and it is way more affordable than when I started doing this. Having some type of how are you going to eliminate regularly because this is a marathon, not a sprint? Is it good? Do you tolerate saunas? It could be the climate. Is it going to be the ionic foot bath? Is it going to be coffee enemas? Is that going to be all three? Those are great tools to have. How are you going to move your lymph? Are you going to have a power plate or a vibration plate, or are you going to have a stone body wash or the flow vibrate to drain your lymph regularly? Then I love ozone. I use a ton of ozone. I am going to stand at the time with the support. Ozone is great. I use those three VBI masts; Impasses and EBOO at my clinic. However, you can get a home ozone generator, and you can ozone your sinuses. You can put it in your ears; you can listen to your water. You can do rectal, vaginal, or even bladder ozone, and ozone is three oxygens strung together, and it creates an oxidative burst to not only kill pathogens but also create a traumatic effect and upregulate your antioxidant pathway. It is this very long Chaturvedi tool. 

I love the sound, the light, the frequency, and stuff. Sound, you can interact with that in a variety of ways, from mantras to humming to toning to listening to sound bass on YouTube now to using tuning forks—all of that. The Weber technology for photodynamics and photobiomodulation. I also use red and infrared light. I am the solar space photon. Those are cool things. The frequency, and I love the Harry Massey NES and the AO scan. I am a user of that, and there are just so many emerging tools in that space. What we are learning, and I will just kind of end on this, is that your functional medicine will work better if you combine mind and body. all of what we are saying with those tools in the realm of sound, light, frequency, meditation, gratitude, and intention. That is kind of a beautiful blending of the worlds that goes to the root causes that are deeper than what we have shared. It is amazing. We learn so much about the body. I am always evolving my thought process, and my patients teach me every day. I hope this was helpful.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

It was so good. I cannot even wait to go back and listen to it again. Notes. I have pages of notes, and I love it, Professor Christine. Yes. Okay. Tell our audience where they can find you because they can come to see you, but you better get your amalgams out before you help.

Christine Schaffner, ND

I will help you with that if you need help. I am in Seattle, Washington, and my clinic is called ImmanenceHealth.com. Imminence means the divine within, so that was a name that came to me, and then we do telemedicine. Depending on where you live, we have lots of ways to get in touch with you about your resume. Then I have a podcast, and I do all sorts of things. I appreciate you having me on.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You also have your Ipothecary, and you formulated beautiful

Christine Schaffner, ND

Thank you.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Supplements, creams, and topicals that you can use to support lymph flow. I want to shout that out. How do they find those products?

Christine Schaffner, ND

Thank you. Yes, we created a line for that, and that exists more or less, and so that has been a passion of mine. I have a website called Ipothecarystore.com. Ipothecary with an I, Ipothecarystore.com, and you can find out more information.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

What you have created is so lovely. Dr. Schaffner, thank you so much for pouring your love and light into this talk in this community. I know they can feel it even though they were not here with us in person. They can feel how much you love humanity and the big and heartfelt work that you are doing in the world. You are a mentor of mine. I appreciate you always being open and pouring your knowledge into me. I have learned so much over the years, so thank you.

Christine Schaffner, ND

That was very kind. Thank you very much.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Thank you for the delightful comment about the appendix.

Christine Schaffner, ND

I am, and I will send you a paper on it. I will go find one.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I would love that. For everyone watching, I hope you have loved this as much as I have. Until next time, everyone. Take good care. Bye, now.