Improve Your Brain Health By Understanding The Complexity Of Your Fascia (Connective Tissue)

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

Hey everybody Dr. Diane Mueller, host of microbes and mental health here. Again, I’m so excited to welcome our next guest to the summit Dr. Christine Schaffner, welcome Dr. Schaffner to the summit.

Christine Schaffner, ND

Thank you so much for having me, it’s always an honor to do these talks and I love connecting with you, Diane, so thank you so much.

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

Same here, Christine, it’s really good to see you and let’s just start by talking about your history, how you got into this world of medicine. We’re going to talk a lot about fashion and the nervous system and some really cool therapies today, so just give us the lay of the land, how do you get excited about all of this?

Christine Schaffner, ND

Oh thank you. So I you know, I have one of those stories where I grew up around medicine in my father’s an oncologist and my mom has a nursing background and so I just really grew up around this and you know, I kind of always thought I’d be a doctor in the back of my mind, but I there was something quite like, not quite right about just looking at the traditional path and um my path kind of led me like all of our paths, you know, lead us, you know, in retrospect to all these, you know, experiences and so I learned about best year university from the family member and you know, after kind of much decision, you know, I ended up going there and I really felt, you know, I had a lot of life experience that really solidified my decision to go, you know the naturopathic route because again in the early years my mother was like just become a medical doctor and then do natural things, you know because this was like in the early two thousands, right? And so we’ve come a long way, right? And then you know, just my life path just showed me that this was really the most impactful way for me to you know, do the work that I was called. And so I graduated, I ended up graduating in 2010 and I had a lot of mentors and experiences that really deepened my understanding of naturopathic medicine. So not just you know our naturopathic philosophy that we learned in school, but what I would call more bio regulatory medicine. 

So that is you know, we used to call it biological medicine but we’ve decided and the states were called by a regulatory medicine to differentiate against you know just the pharmaceutical industry and biologics and it’s this really deeper understanding of root cause of the body is profoundly intelligent and it innately knows how to heal and we just need to facilitate and get the obstacles out of the way so the body can really heal and regenerate itself. So it comes from that premise so we can go more than that if we we choose to and then diane, I don’t know if you know this, but I actually was diagnosed last year, I had a benign brain tumor and so I actually went through surgery and had that whole experience and so you know, I am not anti conventional medicine anyway. It really saved my life in so many ways. But what I did to enhance and amplify my experience through that process, I just wish everybody had that knowledge base and those tools and I think we really need to, you know, look at our conventional colleagues, you know, for the, you know, the amazing surgeries they can perform when that’s appropriate and the  you know, trauma work that they know how to do and then when we look at chronic illness, we need to have this whole other lens and you know.

I kind of have been, you know, brainstorming or kind of you know, daydreaming I guess more about what this future of medicine looks like and I think you know, we we need to really forge ahead and creating a system that really is going to meet the patient with all that we know and I think it’s really bringing in what we know plus all these tools in the realm of energy, frequency and vibration which we may, you know, talk about so that that was really profound impact on my own journey, you know, having that experience and then being so supported by this other realm of healing. It really strengthened my insight and I don’t know if you’ve heard that saying Diane, but it’s like you teach what you want to learn, right? You know, when we’re in front of patients, right? You know, we we have this like knowing and we have this inner guidance and we have this trust, pattern recognition and seeing so many people, but like, until, you know, it’s like a really close family member or yourself, like, that’s when, you know, really, you know, faith becomes into turns into knowing, you know, and so I’ve developed and a student of this knowing and I very much want it to be in my, you know, career, that this is more and more mainstream and not just like you go there when all else is, you know, you know, not worked and you finally, you know, kind of succumb to like looking at these tools is maybe your last hope, you know, like what if we just brought that into the forefront of the conversation? I think our struggles with lesson. 

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

You bring up so many good points there and I did not know about the brain tumor, I can really imagine how that would have just brought back, like, a different level of attunement to why we do what we do in this work and openness to different philosophies and, you know, I really think this word we keep using in medicine for holistic health of alternative is like, unfortunate because it really makes it sound like it’s either or instead of both and and like you’re talking about. So it’s a very great introduction to our talk. Thank you. So let’s jump right in then. So we’re gonna talk we’re gonna start with fashion and so can you just kind of lay the land of what is fashion and just help everybody get on the same page with what this actually is.

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yeah. Yeah. This is like a really fun topic and I think the more we learn about it, the more that we know we know to learn more and it’s just this rabbit hole of you know this bridging right of the biochemical and the bio energetic and biophysical world. And you know when we do cadaver lab in school, you know we just cut through the fascia and we just think oh structural, it’s like the saran wrap, it’s just there to support you know, we don’t think deeper. And then I don’t know if you’ve seen those videos, Diana Dr. Jean Claude Gumberto but he is that French hand surgeon that wrote the book architecture of the human living fashion. And also he has some youtube’s like strolling under the skin I think is one of them.

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

And I literally just watched it today.

Christine Schaffner, ND

No way, no way, I love that, I love that. So there are these beautiful pictures, you know this, I think he started this in the early 2010 where he did the surgery and he you know looked we had the instrumentation and the you know the cameras that could look on this level that he could basically record and video tape at that point the time. You know the visualizations of living tissue. What we see in living tissue is a whole different story than dead tissue. And it really opened, you know, the world up to looking that fascia as this rich, you know, living, you know, fabric that connects us from our skin to our D. N. A. and there’s a through line that I can walk us through that. But he came up with this idea like he called it the tissue continuum. So this idea that you know, we’re all interconnected. And then James Ashman who wrote the book Energy Medicine. Dr. James Ashman, he’s been saying living matrix. and it’s this idea that you know, as I mentioned, the skin, we have the layers of the dermis and then underneath we have the interstitial that was newly he discovered as well. But it’s like the shock absorber layer that’s filled with fluid. You know, there is a communication network in the body and then as we keep on going down and you know further and further into the tissue space this this connective tissue or fascia. There’s lots of different words from at changes form and density or shape. But it’s a through line of connection. And when you get to that space, when we’re at the microscopic cellular level that with what we call the extra cellular matrix, there’s this you know, space between the cells but you know, it’s full of collagen and elastin and you know, all of these, you know, fossil proteins. And then those are connected from the outer environment of the cell to the inner environment of the cell, through over the cell membrane through these integrity proteins that lock into the psycho skeleton of the cell which locked into the side of skeleton of the nucleus. 

So there you have from one way or another communication network. You know, it’s almost like this fiber optic, you know, system, you know within the body and I’ll just take a moment not to lose people. But you know, I just want to open your mind that we stop at the skin, you know, But maybe we have a time to touch on that. You know, we have bio field. We have a you know, a field of information and energy that surrounds us six ft, you know, on either end and two ft top and bottom field of this rich plasma. You know, energy that holds a lot of information for us. So I think, okay, well it doesn’t stop at the skin. So the fashion must be connected to that. And then, you know, we’re not just the use isolated bio fields, you know, knocking into each other. were, you know, swimming in this, you know, there’s a lot of different words for this these days, like the unified field, the quantum field, the electric universe, but just this idea that space is not a vacuum but a holy rich electrical, you know, energy space full of so much potential and energy. So then you start thinking okay, wow, you know, that’s really amazing and I’ve got to learn more about that. Um but you know, I again we can go deeper. 

But the idea I just want to flush out as the thought, I keep thinking is okay, the fascia is the fabric within us that connects us to the fields around us. So it’s a emitter and a receiver on an energetic level as well, which is kind of wild to think about. And that could be like a whole conversation but you know, coming back to the, you know, the inside the body you know, I mentioned you know, structure, but there’s this idea of communication. So this idea that fascia is actually structured water and delivers this easy form of electrical, kind of potent energetic water within the body. So movement and movement or fascia hydrates us, right? And then this, you know, for social network actually helps us to communicate through the land of electrons and protons, but also light and sound and frequency. So like bio photons, bio phone ins and you know electrical fields. So then it becomes this whole other story, right of not just like, okay, you know, I heard myself, you know, I need to do some, you know, fossil adhesion work. It’s like, wow, we’re like these really amazing, you know, divine beings in my world. And this network is a place to really land on because when we think about microbes and toxicants and trauma and all the things we talk about, they have an impact on the social network.

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yeah. That’s such a beautiful landscape of linking everything in the body to the quantum and the field all around us. And I think it’s a really important topic because so many times I think people are more are aware of the neural network. Right? So it’s like this the neural network is like the communication throughout the body. But we forget about the fascia. So take us a step further with this. And like let’s start combining the neurology and the neural network in the brain. Since we’re talking about mental health and the fascia, can you help make us some of those connections and links?

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yeah. And those are, you know, I think we’re increasingly, you know, gaining knowledge. But when you just come from that idea, like the fash is this fabric within us that there are no empty spaces. You know, even in the cells, you know, there’s no cells, there’s not an empty space there, these fossil fabrics, you know, it just changes form. Or you know maybe name in different parts of the body. So when we’re going into the brain you know we think about that connection, you know one thing I guess I need to say first is that we talk a lot about the lymphatic system, right? And the lymphatic system is like a passion of mine. I love learning about it and talking about it but the lymph is within the fossil fabric, right? So you can’t talk about one without the other. And the fashion needs rather the limp needs the fascia to contract and move and have that tensing gritty kind of you know movement within it to pump the limp for learning. So when I think about the brain, you know we have this beautiful brain that is you know we’re learning more and more every day, right? 

When we went to school, you know it was sterile. I’m sure like you know there was like no system, no lymphatic system. It was just like this blood brain barrier that nothing goes through and you know that’s you know like that’s it and that’s like so not the truth, right? And so I just think about when we think about the fascia and the brain, I think it’s you know we we have you know we have layers of the brain, you know with the dura and the dura mater and you know all these extensions of the fascia So there’s just different layers of the fascia that protect and surround the brain structurally. And then when we think about it kind of like within the brain, you know, there’s fossil networks just holding structure together. And of course we have extra siler matrices within, you know, the neuronal landscape. But we also have this beautiful glam vanik system that I know you’ve touched on and talked about and this great summit that you’re producing. And so, you know, for me, when I think about these, you know, connections, you know, it’s like we think about this brain like oh it’s up there, it doesn’t get anything until it’s all the way up there. But it’s it’s just you know, we can communicate it with it so much more than we realize there’s a product that I created with Dr. Marco Ruggiero and we actually use topical principles to get into the brain through the skin. You know making you know these ideas around, you know, going through these layers that I’ve just described and these these things work. And so we know there’s that connection and maybe this is premature to touch them, but I think it’s important because when we think about the brain and mental health, you know, we think about like these all these biochemical reactions and I think we’re at the precipice of maybe you know the biochemical model of mental health is really not, you know anything to write home about you know that we need to look deeper. 

That you know, the neurons as we mentioned, just like in the body they’re responding, you know, the neurotransmitters like a downstream interaction, you know, based on all this other information, you know, upstream, right? And I love the work of Dr. Roland McCready and he’s educated me a lot about this heart. Brain connect and guess what, like the heart communicates more to the brain than the brain to the heart. And so that then you start thinking and then the field is stronger the heart than the brain. So then you start thinking of weight like you know my neurotransmitters in a microcosm one, you know, it’s like we’re complex. I’m never going to say it’s one thing, you know, one aspect to regulation with the brain is through the energy and the rate and the rhythm of the heart that we can impact through our conscious mind. So I’m digressing a little bit but I just I’m just trying to open, you know, continually open myself as well as anyone who’s listening to yeah, these brains are so amazing and I think there’s just so much more that we can do to interact and shift and optimize you know there yeah the the way that they regulate the rest of the body.

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

I really hope that one of the concepts that people are getting out of what you’re sharing is the wide connectivity of the body through the fascia through this heart brain connection and that like in my mind when you know when we talk about the quantum and the fashion like that connection right? It’s almost like almost picture these like finger like projections, you know like right that are just like out in the world like sensing everything and communicating with our environment and on this very, very subtle level, bringing that information in right to the heart and the brain and our consciousness and then allowing us to have that information to respond. So let’s go a step further and can you help us tie this now into some of the mental health conditions like where does this come in with say you know for social tightening or fossil rigidity and mental health for example.

Christine Schaffner, ND

That’s a great question. You know one of my new patient questions is often like have you ever had a head injury, concussion, a traumatic brain injury, you know, anything like that And people often forget especially in early childhood but then you get them talking and they were horseback rider and fell off their horse like you know lots of times or you know so forth and you know these you know either micro traumas or pretty significant traumas you know can have huge you know impact on you know the you know for social connections and the kind of the brain body connection, let’s just call it that, you know, in especially the regulation of fluids and blood in and out of the brain. And there’s a whole, you know, I I don’t pretend to be an expert of this, but what I’m learning, there’s this whole side step to take for a minute, especially for brain health. In our patient population, like the more unstable the neck is right. You know, that has a huge impact on our you know, brain health, right? 

So that’s cranial, cervical instability or, you know, TMJ like in job restriction and tightness, how that has a huge impact on lymphatic drainage and you know, potentially, you know, you know, our airway sleep at me and so on and so forth. So we what my point there is is just like we know that when there is a, you know, kind of an injury, right? Or area of more rigidity and increased tension, it has profound effects on the regulation of fluids in and out of the brain. And I’m gonna stay in broad here because sometimes we make things really complex because they are, there’s a profound in everything we treat. But there’s also a simplicity and the complex and that, you know, let’s just talk about, you know, basics like health is flow and diseases stagnation, right? So you find out where like that’s bio regulatory medicine like where do you find scar tissue or areas of injury or areas of increased tension and how do we create more mobility healing to those areas and then there’s profound, you know, shifts in the body that are often surprising and, you know, we’re in all of, you know, so I hope I answered your question before going. Yeah.

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yeah. I mean, I think some of what I’m hearing, what you’re saying is just like even by the nature right of the fashion monitoring, like cellular fluid and that sort of thing. There’s an element of keeping the brain hydrated, keeping the brain like the right chemical balance, right? So there’s an element where it’s just the regulatory system and the downstream effect is when the brain is not regulated. Of course we’re going to have a wide variety of symptoms and some of which can be mental health, you know, dis dysfunction and disorder is, am I missing something that you feel like would help clarify this?

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yeah, I think that’s awesome. And you know, what’s most common in my practice is when we look at a patient who has pants the pandas and the neuropsychiatric symptoms that come alongside that. And often with that, you know,, you know, diagnosis, there is an infection or a chronic infection in the tonsils, right? So the tonsils are part of the lymphatic system and there are really close proximity to the brain and can be like an entryway to the brain for not only the infections, but also those. You know, I think there th 17 cells that are hyper inflammatory, that just kind of keep on bombarding the brain and creating this neuro inflammatory response. So here we are having like a lymphatic tissue, right? And then this highway of connection through, I haven’t gone so deep into that, but there’s, I’m sure a fossil highway, you know, into you know, into the brain through that, you know, proximity and that, you know, that is a microbe kind of underpinning a root cause of our mental health condition. 

So I see that a lot of diane and then, you know, anyone who treats the patients we do from mold illness to Lyme disease, two pans and pandas, you know, the humbling kind of observation that we see is how much you know, the mental emotional state can be affected as people go through treatment and how people can shift their mental emotional state so quickly when they’re on the right treatment, you know, the root causes. So it gives this whole, I mean, I just hope in our career which you’re obviously pioneering and helping to get out there is like that we can have this whole other understanding of mental health because it isn’t just there’s a defect in your brain and you just got to take this medication and maybe one day it will resolve and there’s so much more that we can do and and heal. So I’m really happy you’re doing this because it’s an epidemic given the last years people are struggling you know and and and need this information.

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yeah. Yeah. It seems like health in some ways is just more of an epidemic than ever before as far as chronic disease and finding root causes and all of that. And so you mentioned pans and pandas and obviously lime. So we’re you know we’re bringing in some microbes here. What else can you tell us about the connection between microbes and fashion? Is there anything else you’d like to adhere to that connection? 

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yeah. When you kind of distill to the extra cellular matrix and kind of think about what’s hanging out there. So there’s and that extra cellular matrix space which is part, you know it’s the micro of the fashion, right? You know what the fluid that is, you know basically bathing that area is prelim for interstitial fluid. And so that usually just comes out of the circulatory system. So that’s often full of antigens that the you know the body has been exposed to. Right? So viruses you know retroviral kind of activation parasitic infection, mold and fungi you know all of these things that you know bacteria that we talked about of course and then that that interplay you know I feel like broken record in my life low but it’s that interplay right between how our immune system responds to those pathogens we keep on being exposed to in modern life plus are toxic and and our trauma burden, right? And the more that we tend to our toxic and and trauma burden the more immune systems able to handle these chronic infections because you know, we’re not in utopia and we are many microbes that were living amongst and we need our microbiome and our firearms and our microbiome says, and you know, what have you. And so it’s really we get out of sorts when there’s an imbalance in the immune system can’t respond as readily and as beautifully as it was designed to because the body is burdened.

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yeah. Yeah. You bring up one of the things I’ve been talking a lot about lately, which is the germ theory versus the terrain theory, you know, and one of the places I’m landing is why are we fighting about these two different theories and why are we not just saying they’re both right? Because germs have a role, terrain has a role. And so it’s like this war right? Of like, you know, it’s not either or in some ways and we could, you know, we can make arguments for both camps of course. But I you know, where I want to lead us now is as you’re talking about basically in some ways like the terrain of like where is the body, how is the body able to be at a point where we can handle these biotoxins and handle these infections and you know lowering that total body burden. So when we’re talking more around like okay we have these microbes, we have this special issue but we want our terrain to be able to handle more of our environment. What are you doing? What are you recommending? And I think we can get into you know some of your bio energetic is here of what you’re doing to really support people to build up their terrain and help them handle the environment better.

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yeah. No I think that’s such a great point and it’s at the end of the day Brazilians right? And adaptability and how we approach that and you know like I’m I’m an optimist but when we are in this world we could easily sound like pessimists or get pessimistic because it’s like okay like you know nobody, you know all you know, babies are born not at ground zero at fresh slate. We’re all kind of full of You know, probably 300 more toxicants that we can actually measure, right? And you know that that is an ever increasing body burden as we go through life, right? And you know there’s not only assaults and the physical level but in the you know the quantum or you know biophysical level when we think about fields like enough obviously is the you know the point there. And so you know we’re up against a lot, you know, but humans are amazingly adaptable and amazingly resilient you know and if you forgot that please just embrace that again, you know we we are and you know I think we just have to like acknowledge and embrace you know that we need to live a lot of lifestyle self care that is very much training in detoxification. And then if you’re like in a weakened state right, like how can we support be genetically, how can we support you know you with all the wonderful detox and drainage tools we you know all know how to do to kind of skip a step. Like I’ve been you know really looking at  the impact on Eboo and kind of blood filtration right now. I think that’s probably one of the most elegant ways to help reduce body burning when people are sick. That’s not like an everyday kind of like treatment, but like if you’re really sick out there and looking for kind of something to support you do this at the right time with the right support all of that good stuff but it’s a blood filtration. So what I’m getting at is like I think modern day, you know there might be like just like we do all of our drainage things maybe some blood filtration you know once or twice a year until we get a find a way to get on top of it. 

But I think there are gonna be these like really interesting tools that get innovated and then I think on the other hand if we can allow our microbiome to adapt you know to our toxic burden. Can it help to help us digest the onslaught of toxicants rather than right now we’re kind of in that space where toxicants you know create fungal overgrowth and dysbiosis and our you know parasites or pollutant sinks and you know we’re full of all these you know dis biotic bugs because you know we have so many toxicants but I’m just saying like okay can the body adapt? Can we get resilient because unless we completely change you know this isn’t gonna go away overnight you know? So we we have to just I think upgrade you know our ability to adapt while we’re striving for a better way. So I don’t know if I answered your question but I just I’m with you like it’s a lot to think about right? 

And you know then you learn every day were like learning about a new thing like microplastics are like how are we going to get those out of the body? You know what I mean? Like oh my God you know so I just come from that place. Well you know while resilient we’re adaptable, we have to do better when we know better and we have to not be resigned but like how do we you know just enhance our ability to you know like survive and thrive in this and and that is also the land of bio energetic, you know I think there’s you know through sound and light and frequency we can speed up and also allow the letting go of toxicants more and then we can also strengthen are like quantum terrain or bio field and things. So we are stronger in the face of these things. So I’m very much evolving my understanding continually as we’re what we’re in practice trying to you know, navigate all of this.

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yeah. And it sounds like some of the message that I’m hearing what you’re saying is don’t make yourself crazy, right? Like we are all subjected to so many of these toxins and we want to choose good things and we want to have good lifestyle choices and do what we can and but we also want to make sure we’re not driving ourselves crazy too right?

Christine Schaffner, ND

That’s I’m so glad you’re such a great distiller Diane of all this information. But Yeah absolutely. Because I mean you see the negative consequences or negative effects when people get hyper vigilant right? And they get to aware and then all of a sudden they’re like creating rips in their family and they’re not enjoying their life and their you know like feeling so deprived and they’re like how are they ever going to like survive all of this and you know becomes really scary right? When you’re in that state and I believe like even when we’re faced with a lot, the more that we can keep our mental energy, you know, and our thoughts, you know aligned with health and healing that that serves us.

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yeah, yeah. It’s still under talked about thing. More of us are talking about it you know these days but still probably not enough. I want to talk a little bit about the vagus vagus nerve and the vagus nerve is something that’s come up throughout the summit and a lot of people have talked about for example, the the connection between the gut and the brain and the microbiome and the microbiome influence on that vagal nerve activity. So there’s that micro blink right there. But can you bring in so we have the microbiome with the vagus nerve, we have the gut brain, all this access, right? Can you tie in the fashion to this access for us and kind of complete the web with this conversation.

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yeah, that’s a great question. So I think about it, you know when the vagus nerve comes up which I’m so glad there’s so much information about it and it’s really a really important place to focus for patients, right? For obvious reasons. But when you think about, you know, the vagus nerve especially, you know, obviously it’s the 10th cranial nerve, it comes out of the brain stem, there are these beautiful branches that go through the neck right? And then it kind of does different there’s different branches as it’s in different parts of the body right? And so you know my focus a lot for patients as in the neck. Because this is such a fossil highway right? And this can be an area of tension and restriction and you know compromise fluid flow in and out of the brain. And you know I don’t know about you diane but a lot of our patients when we look at the cervical lymph nodes right? They can be inflamed they can be chronically enlarge they can be all the things because of Epstein, Barr and Bartonella And all the blah blah blah blah blah. Pick an infection. They you can blame the cervical lymph nodes right? And your body is really trying to mount a response. And these are resident kind of areas for those microbes. And so what we learned you know Dr. Marco Ruggiero and also Dr., I think, Michael Vanelszacher. He has this idea of the vagus nerve infection in toxicity. And so it’s this idea that the bugs in the cervical lymph nodes through proximity can migrate from the nodes via the fascia to the vagus nerve. And set up house there. So they a lot of them are either lipo filic or they have neurotoxins that can be accumulated in Libya filic tissues. So then all of a sudden, you know, these microbes that are in the pathogenic virulent form are using this highway right to go into the brain as well as create disruption and the firing of you know, the, the vagus nerve communication system. So that’s kind of how I see it. And then one other area that can be like a source of reservoir can be the wisdom decapitations. So that can be often a reservoir of Barton, L. A. And HPV and Candida blah blah blah. You know every, every bug you name it and you know, especially our pots patients or our patients would this autonomy a they often have these infections and they often have a capitation area that is chronically poisoning their vagus nerve creating, you know, a lot of these symptoms. So you know, singing and humming isn’t going to just do it. You know, you got to go deeper. And really get to the source of the infection. And then things improve.

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yeah, thank you so much. I think that’s a really important perspective of like, I don’t think that’s something that I’ve heard people talk about before is the infections here, we talk about them going like, you know in the brain and the sinuses like going through, you know, even getting into the olfactory bulb sometimes through smell and getting into the brain that way. But getting to the vagus nerve that’s a very, I haven’t heard that thought before. So I think that’s a really important thing. And so if we’re saying that these infections then get to the vagus nerve and with everything that the vagus nerve runs, you know, like digestion, so much of our subconscious type of autonomic system. Do you feel then that like infections here via the vagus nerve could then be leading to say gut dysfunction for example. Yeah.

Christine Schaffner, ND

When we see you know vagus nerve symptoms, we have to look at, you know like the body unless there’s a huge structural issue, right? The body there’s always a reason right there. The body isn’t randomly doing anything, right? So if it’s not profoundly just structural, there’s often infection and or toxicity, right? And the toxicity can be also picked up in the lymph nodes, but also especially if you still have amalgam fillings or used to have amalgam fillings. The mercury can get into the vagus nerve and affect function from that perspective as well.

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

This is so helpful. What else we’re getting about time to wrap things up. So I want to ask you is openly like what have we not talked about in this topic that you think is just a super important thing we cover in our remaining time together.

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yeah. You know, I think when people have mental health kind of labels, right? They’re profoundly sensitive. Right? So they’re profoundly there are empath there are mast cell patients, there are, you know, profoundly sensitive patients and you know, people like, you know here that often they can start to think that that’s to their detriment, but I think they’re honestly the canaries in the coal mine and they’re just, you know, the more that you can surrender to this is your experience, that there’s a gift in this and that you can start tuning into this sensitivity being like this amazing sentence that you can use to guide you in treatment. It becomes kind of this other energy around it. And I’ve had patients who have shifted into that kind of knowing and then just found ways to like, okay, embrace and kind of, you know, do that and it’s wild what they teach me, you know, they can teach me what they’re feeling, what, you know, where they’re feeling in their body. I do a lot of muscle testing. 

So when remedies are around them, they can say that that remedy is better for me than that, or just, you know, like, like in embracing that peace or you know, through meditation and learning how to shift energy within themselves or really learning how connected they are to the cycles of you know, nature and knowing that knowns affect them and solar flares affect them and you know, like all these things and I think you know, I think there’s ways to look at it, which can feel very defeating, but it’s also this amazing gift that you have this ability to experience life on this like micro profound level and just find a practitioner who will listen to you and and not dismiss it, but actually like help you, you know, help you like find the right treatment through this knowing that you’re really working hard on you know, embracing and cultivating on your journey to getting better.

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

I love it, I love the message and it’s such a beautiful reframe of how we can, you know, start working with these complicated things and complicated conditions. So thank you so much for that.

Christine Schaffner, ND

Absolutely, my patients taught me that, you know, no doubt right?

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yeah, they teach us the best things they really do. So I want to make sure we tell people about your opt in, you have the lymphatic drainage for mental health that you are giving out. So can you tell us a little bit about that?

Christine Schaffner, ND

Yeah, absolutely. So the lymphatic system is kind of a like no brainer, like literally that I didn’t even mean to make the pun there, just like basic hygiene right to keep our brains, you know, self cleaning on a regular basis, you know, we have to be you know, constantly like eliminating more than we’re taking in if we can get our lymphatic system draining well through sleep and you know, some hygiene things that I teach you and that handout, you know, that’s a really great foundation for any protocol that you’re embarking on to. You know, really create a healthy brain.

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

And for everybody who’s listening just to kind of tie this all together. It’s like Christine was telling us earlier about like, okay, well there’s these lifestyle things that we can do to support the fashion and support mental health and all of this and this lymphatic program that she’s giving away this this guide is really one of these lifestyle pieces that can help you from the terrain theory. So thank you so much for that. And also you guys heard all of the hurt of Christine’s contact information will be in your speaker bio. But is there anything else you want us to make sure we name and voice about how people get ahold of you.

Christine Schaffner, ND

Oh, thank you. Well, thank you for including that and just yeah, you can find me that way. Have a podcast called the spectrum of health and I also have a clinic in Seattle called imminent health and we do in person and telehealth. So you can check us out there as well.

Diane Mueller​, ND, DAOM, LAc

Beautiful. Well thank you so much for your time. It’s always such a pleasure to spend time with you. I really appreciate it.

Christine Schaffner, ND

Thank you. The feeling is mutual. Thank you so much