How to Detox Your Home and Body for Fertility and Family Health with Deidre Bloomquist

Introduction to Toxic Exposure and Ancestral Health 0:00

I'm sure you've probably heard me talk about the toxic soup we live in in this modern society, but we haven't actually dive that deep into solutions. So I am very excited to be introducing you to my next guest, Deidre Blomquist. She's a functional nutritionist who founded Always Growing Wellness, a virtual practice that serves clients across the U.S. She is a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and a Master Restorative Wellness Practioner, who leads a team of practitioners that work with women to resolve a wide range of digestive issues and hormone imbalances, as well as a dedicated pediatric practice.

through reducing toxicity. She authored the book, Toxic and Fertility, detoxification solutions to improve natural fertility. So we are talking about getting pregnant and your children. Please enjoy my next guest, Deidre Bloomquist. I am your host, James Berry, and welcome to Everyday Ancestral. perfect book out and you are a specialist in a perfect topic for this podcast, because we're talking about everyday ancestral, so taking the best from the past, but bringing it into our current modern society.

One of the biggest elephants in the room is that we live in toxic soup. We live it in society and an environment that is so much more toxic than it was ancestrally. So you could kind of question, well, would do the ancestral concepts even apply to modern society because of how toxic it is? How would you answer that question? I think it does still apply. I Think one of the big things that we're always talking with clients about is like, how do we actually get back to nature and what nature really intended for us and the way that our bodies are inherently designed to work and protect us.

And so even knowing that there are so many toxins that all of us are exposed to on a daily basis. Some of those are within our control and some of them aren't within out control. There's so much that we can do when we understand truly how the human body works and how it's trying to keep us safe so that can support those mechanisms over time. The thing though I get caught up on is you hear about people are focusing on the science or they isolate their perspective. Like, I only want to focus on sleep and light or something like that, right?

But isn't it impossible to truly factor one modality that applies within every situation because no one can test for all the toxic elements that each person is dealing with collectively. Usually you hear people like, okay, I just want to focus on lead, or I want focus just on glyphosate. It's like who's focusing on both because they're all happening at the same time. Yeah, absolutely. And there's no way to truly know all the things we're being exposed to. There's over 80,000 different chemicals that are man-made that we are being expose to and that doesn't even begin to touch the heavy metals or mold or the thing that's we just don't realize are harming us yet and are toxic in our bodies.

They're so many factors for this. So how does someone navigate that though? Because I sometimes just, I mean, in the industry 20 years and yet I still get kind of like stifled. I'm just like, i don't know what to do because they're saying one thing, but I know that that's not true. And you have to factor in, it's such a grayer area than, than in. The industry or even, um, influencers want to really admit. Yeah, absolutely. The way that I think about it is we have to control the controllables. There's some things that we can control and there's somethings that can't.

And so even if you were to live in a bubble and be thinking about everything in your home, there are still going to be things you are going be exposed to from a toxin burden perspective. So if there are things you can do, I'd be thinking about the big things. What are we drinking? What type of water are consuming on a regular basis? How are you bathing in water? And what type toxins are primarily going to be found in the water sources, knowing that water is actually one of the primary sources where we're getting

Water Contamination and Filtration Solutions 4:17

exposed to toxins on our regular bases. But then also things like air quality in our homes and our offices, wherever we are spending a majority of our time, and then the quality of food that we eat. And if you take a look at just those three pillars of water, air, and food, that's gonna take down toxin burden in a very significant way. And then from there, of course, if do have health issues or things that are lingering or symptoms that you feel like, maybe these are normal for the general public, but I don't want them to be normal.

For me, That's when it really makes sense to look specific tox in burden, in those categories of like metals and mold and chemicals and how they might be impacting your body. and how honestly your unique body is really able to detox those things because everybody's different even if we're all exposed to the exact same things. That's such a good point because there's one element of, okay, what are the toxins in our environment? But the other is what is our body processing of those toxins? Yeah, that's a such good points.

So let's dive into those three points and let provide some solutions for people focusing. Let's start with water. Filtration, it's so interesting, because I'm old enough to remember when bottled water came out. Like I distinctly remember. I remember growing up drinking from the faucet, you know, when we were traveling and we just stopped anywhere. And if you saw a faucette you drank, It could have been the most rusty, like caked over faucets. We didn't know to think about it. Oh, I am thirsty. Water is water.

Let me drink this. But clearly that is not the world we live in now. So let's dive into water. Yeah. Water in the fertility side of my practice, I often refer to as infertility water because there are so many different things that are in our water sources when I'm thinking about tap water in particular that's are impacting our overall health. So we know that there are heavy metals that come in our water sources. A lot of this has to do with the way that water is purified, where metals are ultimately not removed in the purification process.

But we also know there's a lot industrial chemicals as far as agricultural runoff that comes into tap water, that essentially seeps into the ground, goes into water and it's just not being removed. But we also know that there's a lot of pharmaceutical drugs that are found in tap water. So things like antidepressants and NSAIDs. But in my space, we're really thinking about the fact that There's hormonal birth control in water in top water, but there are also medications like Plan B in in Tapwater where women are taking this.

It gets excreted through the urinary tract and then put down the toilet and purification isn't taking these things out of the water. And so we're consuming these on a regular basis, which means that we might have these impacts to our overall health that are completely unintended just by drinking tap water." Wow. So you could be drinking Tap water and actually be getting the pharmaceutical that's trying to support you in aborting a child, basically. Exactly. Oh my gosh, that is crazy. That's insanity.

Yeah. And most people just don't realize this because we don' think about the fact of how we excrete this as humans and then it goes into the water source. I think there's this misconception that when we're thinking about how water is purified by our local municipalities, that they're taking everything out of the Water. But that's truly not the case when you look at what they actually do to the Yeah, well, I was just reading about fluoride as well which I had known about it for a long time but this article is specifically focusing on how when they go to add it, they say they're only adding so much but it's really hard to control.

So they are most likely adding too much. And so even when we're adding things to the water, it is uncontrollable let alone the things that are in there that we are not filtering out. So is the solution to not even use filtered tap water or what does someone do? Yeah. Well, and you know, I think a lot of us do understand that we don't want to be drinking tapwater maybe directly out of the tap. And so most of have it going through some type of carbon filtration system, whether that's a pitcher that were using and putting water into like the old Brita filters that are really popular for a long time, or even it's going though the filtration in a refrigerator where we have like at the top.

And carbon filtration is going to be removing some things, but it might not be moving enough, especially depending on where you live in the country. So we know that if you go to the EWG and you look at your tap water score, you can see what's actually in your water. That can be an incredibly helpful resource to determine what level of purification you need to do in you home. A lot of us do have things like chemicals and metals. When I looked at mine, there was huge levels, I think it was like 100 times the legal limit of chloroform in tap water.

But then also, a lot us have a lots of radioactive substances depending where we live. So, lot research shows that at least 70% of the tapwater in states like Texas are contaminated with things radium and uranium due to drilling in those states. The same is true in places like Wisconsin. We're basically getting radioactive basically. Exactly. Which of course is not going to help fertility at all. Not at at and then we're thinking about bone health and osteoporosis and all of these big scary diseases like cancer that we are seeing on the rise as well and a lot of this can come from tap water.

So I love that we're highlighting these things, but the reality is most people won't even know how to read their local municipalities water. So have you found in your practice, like just your experience, okay, this filter works really well and I recommend this one, or maybe you recommend a few, have found something that really does work? Yeah, so we're looking for reverse osmosis for most people. So that's going to be things like Aquatrue or Greenfield. Those are the two main brands that we often recommend.

They're great water filtration systems if reverse Osmos is enough. The key differentiator there is if you do live somewhere where there are radioactive substances. We know that drilling and fracking can basically release these radioactive substances. They come up to the surface in a lot of these states. So if you live in the state where that is an active practice, or even in past, so thinking about states like California as one of them, a lotta those substances are in water. And if that's the case, then the only way to actually remove radioactive substance from tap water is through distillation.

There's a company called My Pure Water that I use. We have a distillation system in our home where we distill about five gallons of water at a time. we put it in a glass container and then we bring it up until we drink it and we refill it with the machine. But we're actually distilling water in own home to make sure that we are removing that. I live in Colorado and when I moved into the house that i'm currently in we got a notification from the water company saying that there was high levels of radium in the and to be aware of it.

So I was immediately like we have to distil our water here. Oh my gosh. Um, but okay, there's so many questions coming up, But before I go backwards, um, when we reverse osmosis or distill, we're removing all the good stuff as well. So what do we, what, is someone who's being that conscientious, What do they do? Yep. We need to be putting minerals back into the water when that's the case, because when we are doing reverse osmosis or distillation, we're basically stripping it of all minerals and electrolytes.

And if we were to drink those type of water, were going to become dehydrated. So even if we're using things like fulvic acid or trace minerals, there's a lot of different brands on the market. There's one called Trace Minerals, Utah Sea Mineral, Biofulic is another brand I love. Socor has one that's okay as well. there are so many ways that we can be putting minerals back into our water, but then also thinking about a mineral dense. diet as well, making sure that we're getting minerals somewhere, even if it's not directly in our water, is going to help offset the effects of those type of water purifications.

Okay, and we are definitely going get to food. But now to step back a little bit, because I made it sound like, well no one is gonna look at their municipalities water report. However, you've just mentioned how it is kind of challenging to actually filter it out. then it really is important that we look at that because we need to know what's in it to what filter to use, what process to uses you just pointed out. So is there any tip that you have to reading that? Like what would you say are like the kind of like top five toxins that if you see this and you it at this number or higher, you'd have filter this out?

So I would say if you see any level of uranium or radium indicated in your water, those are radioactive and we need to be addressing those. The same would be true of cesium as well. Cesium, what is that? So cesia often gets kind of labeled as a heavy metal, but cesiam is also used in a lot of radioactive explosions, for lack of better words. So a lotta people will have elevated cesiums levels when they live in areas where they're being exposed to byproducts of World War II, for instance. Oh my goodness.

Okay, so like in Europe or something, you're gonna see that a lot, wow. Yep. So those would be like the top ones you look for. It's so interesting because no one's talking about this. People are all talking like lead and microplastics, but no is talking radioactivity that's in our water, oh my gosh. Hey YouTube fam, 80% of you watching aren't subscribed. If you're digging these episodes and haven't hit that button yet, now's the time. Every sub helps us grow, land bigger guests, and keep the good stuff coming.

So hit subscribe and stay curious. Water is a huge focus. You said then the next focus you would do is is air purification in your home. Yes. Yep. So we know that the air in our homes is often more polluted and toxic than the outside of our home, even if we live in a city setting where there is pollute air. And part of this has to do with all the things that are in our furniture, our carpet, the paint, cleaning products we use, personal care products, and then of course if there is any danger of some type of water damage or mold growing in your home, all of that gets put into the air.

If there's not proper air purification in the home it means that our lungs become the filter and we start to absorb a lot of those things. And a lot of these chemicals and even the the mycotoxins that come from mold are so small that they can go directly through the alveoli in the lungs and directly into the bloodstream. Which means that our lungs are no longer really filtering them in a huge way and they're directly going to the budstream where they cannot immune response, cause oxidative stress and really cause a lotta damage very quickly because we don't have that barrier for selectively preventing what's coming in.

which is probably why mold and even I would say mold, and Lyme disease are the two fastest growing ailments that surfacing throughout the US. Yep, absolutely. And so we have to be doing some type of air purification in our home, and I think a lot of us think, well, my HVAC unit has a filter on it, right? But a lotta these don't have small enough particle filtration to make sure that these things aren't actually coming into the air that we're breathing. So we really wanna be thinking about using HEPA filters, in particular, so that were getting down to the correct micron size so these are coming through our homes and they are being caught by a filtration system at least to some capacity.

Okay, this is really good. Is there specific brands that you're just like, oh, these are the top three or what would you share around that? Yeah, we have both air doctors in our home as well as Jasper air filtrations. They are very comparable depending on the size of the unit that they are using. Those are top two that I often recommend. they can be expensive too, right? So the budget on this can really keep a lot of people from doing air purification.

Air Quality, Mold, and Home Filtration 16:50

So in those situations, there's still a lots that you can do. For instance, you could buy a HEPA filter at Home Depot and you put it on something like a box fan. Now, this might be a little bit janky to do, but you can essentially tape a HEPA filter to a box fan, run it so that you have air filtration system that is electrically powered. Pumping air through it is still going to be catching things on that Hepa filter so it's not going through the air. You have some level of filtration. Or we can even just think about, let's open our windows.

So many of us live in very airtight homes where we're highly reliant on our HVAC systems to heat and cool our homes, where back in the day, We just opened up the windows if it was too hot in the house or if was cold, right? And so nature has a really great way of making sure that our air is safe. We have airflow, the sunshine kills mold. If we can just open up our windows in our home, even if is a little bit cooler or hot outside, it makes a huge difference with air quality in your homes. Yeah. It's such a great tip.

I mean, it's one of the most natural things we could do yet. People have moved away from that. II even recommend people doing that in their car. Once, once, you know, your, Your rainy season is done. You want to roll down the windows all the way and just let the air seep in and let all that dust. And if you have a pet, like the pet hair, just, let it all exit your car because keep in mind when your windows are up and you're just doing air conditioning, You're inhaling that stuff too. Right. Yep, absolutely.

And a lot of people don't realize that mold can even grow in the interior of your car. So sometimes we'll see that people have mold in their homes and that's what's making them sick, but sometimes it's also their cars. We need to be airing these things out. Right, yes. And of course, the filters themselves can start to grow mold if you don't change them. Now, and that's something I want everyone to consider because we have the air doctor as well. Yes, they are costly, but it's kind of a one-time major cost because the filter lasts freaking all year, I think.

Yeah. They have a carbon filter and then a HEPA filter in there. I believe the carbon filters have to be changed every six months, Right. So it's minimal and, and I want us to all really start to reframe like what is. the true cost of our health. Because we think like, oh, I'm gonna buy cheap food here. I am not gonna use this there and I gonna just skate through life and it's not a big deal because I, you know, being cheap and or like I thrifting, right? But then you get to 60, 70 and suddenly your hospital bills are just astronomical.

And you're like oh I guess it caught up with me, so it is like we forget. We have this illusion that we're going to escape by and not have to pay the price, but the reality is you're either paying it now or you pay it later. There is no escape. Absolutely. And to that point too, I see a lot of people who really want to jump to like the functional medicine side of things where they're like, let's do all of this testing and let us figure out what's going on, But we are missing a while these foundational pieces.

So these are the things that I really people to be starting to think about before you jump into those more expensive costs. You know, get an air filtration. Think about the water source that you're drinking. A lot of times that's going to make a huge difference so that, you don't need a lot those other things. Foundations are huge and because they are some of like the easier things, people often skip that step and then they have to come back and like come to the basics at some point. Yes. And what brings us to our next principle, which is food, because I always am saying like, that should be the first thing people look at because it's the thing we do the most.

Absolutely. So let's talk about food. Yep. We know that our produce is sprayed with a ton of different pesticides and herbicides, things like glyphosate and atrazine. These can impact a lot of things in the body, the whole way that we're able to detoxify everything. So we know that glyphosate impacts phase one detoxification in the liver, which means that everything you come in contact with that has to go through phase 1, but spoiler is everything, has go to that. And if that level is impaired, it just means there's a stumbling block that the livers not going to be able to effectively metabolize and eliminate everything that we're coming in contract with.

So if we can reduce glyphasate exposure, we now that liver won't be impacted. But a lot of people also don't realize that glyphosate was originally patented as an antibiotic, which means that it's harming beneficial bacteria in the gut and lowering our overall immune function, mucosal health, and causing things like leaky gut long term. So if we can remove these type of things that are being sprayed on our foods, even if you're just thinking about produce to start with, or reduce the amount that we're eating, it's gonna make a huge difference in gut health, which we know is so foundational for so many different systems in the body, the way that our brains and our neurological system can function, that way we are able to detox everything.

And so this is again one of those things where there is an investment in eating organic produce. And it can feel like a high cost, especially I think in our day and age where inflation is happening and groceries are insanely expensive. But in the grand scheme of everything, if we're not doing this, even if were doing all the right things to detox our bodies, we are going to be coming back to the same spot. So this is really foundational for me as well. Now the thing that's frustrating to me is that A lot of, so depending on where you live, first of all, locality and season is determined really, right?

So for example, I'm on the East Coast now, most of the produce is coming from the West Coast. And even more so in the U.S. nowadays during the winter months, it's all coming form outside of U S. And you'll see it come in as certified organic, but it's completely different organic standards, and it is not as actually measured as we would think. So how do you recommend we navigate organic when even that's of question? Yeah, it is hard because I think there's a lot of things as consumers that we just aren't being informed on when we're buying produce, unfortunately.

So I thinks as best as possible, if you can be buying organic, that can go a long ways. If you couldn't be working in a local setting where there are You know, some limitations in terms of the produce in particular that you're getting, that can make a huge difference in like being in your community, knowing exactly where your food comes from, getting to know your farmers and their practices. And they may also have other resources as well in term of, you know if we are bringing things from the West Coast, then great.

Here are the people who I trust in that area aswell. And then in terms of eating things outside of the country, it is kind of a wild west, unfortunately. So as much as we can to be thinking and being mindful of those things, knowing that it might not be perfect, right? So for instance, one of things that we will often test people for is for glyphosate and atrazine. And it's not uncommon that will see people come in and they say, I eat 100% organic and will still see elevated levels of these toxins.

So, you know, produce is one way that we get exposed to this, but it's not the only way you get expose to things like glyphosate and atrazine. It's also sprayed in cartilage and on lawns and in parks, and so it is in the air as well at the end of the day. So there's a lot of exposures, we really just want to be thinking about reducing that. I know a lots of people get really hung up on like everything needs to organic and of course, please by all means get as close as possible. But we just really want be reducing it so that aren't increasing the accumulation and the total load that you have.

So it's almost like if we had to tier it like, okay, first choice is buy locally from an organic farmer that you know is doing very specific practices because you can go to the farm and you could talk to them and really look them in the eye and find out what they're actually doing. So that would probably be tier one, like first-choice. And then I guess the rest would really just be okay certified organic and then maybe ideally grow on your own is maybe a second tier or first tier too, if you can manage that.

I know that you made a mention of this earlier of how we can use food to offset that maybe the nutrients that we're not getting, the minerals we are not in our water. And I have to say it's one of the reasons why I love organ meats. For example, in areas where they don't have a grow season, like for example, in Alaska, organ meats are considered a fruit and vegetable because they're

Food Quality, Organic Produce, and Organ Meats 25:18

so nutrient dense and you can't get the vegetables and fruit for such a large amount of time during this season. How do you recommend organ meat to your clients? Because as a fertility person, I have to imagine you do recommend them, right? Yep, absolutely. And we recommend them for kids a lot as well. It's not just people who are trying to conceive. We recommend for children often times because one time parents are like, I'm worried that they're not getting the nutrition that the need. So the way that I usually think about this is we have a conversation with clients about heavy metals and heavy metal toxicity, which is something that we see a But I think the way that a lot of people think about heavy metals is we just need to pull them out of the body.

And that might be one strategy involved in removing heavy metal, but heavy medals are also going to be more dangerous in the bodies when there are inadequate mineral levels. And we know that organ meats in particular are very dense in a lot of important minerals that we need as humans. And so when we bring those things in from a food-first perspective, it's going to offset the impacts of heavy metals, but it can also help to displace those heavy metal to actually eliminate them. So it's not just an either or situation.

We really want to be focusing on those in the diet long term so that we, if and when, we do come in contact with heavy metals, whether it is you go out to a restaurant and you're drinking tap water or you have something happen where you are going to exposed to heavy metal in terms of like medical procedures or anything like that, your body's going to have the capacity and the nutrients that it needs to offset any damage there. So it's a huge part of our practice and something that we are often recommending as we're doing some detoxification work, but then also in that immediate preconception phase all the way through pregnancy with the hope that women will then just be introducing them with their children so that they start when they start solids on day one essentially with nutrient dense foods as part of their palate.

I love it. I, I loved that concept that really what you're talking about is creating robust humans, right? Whether it's women who are trying to get pregnant or the kids that they conceive that we want people to be robust, that it is not about being perfect, but it was about robust enough that so that as we come into contact with these toxins, our body knows what to do with them and can quickly, hopefully get rid of them. Right. That is fantastic. I feel like we've been talking, everything we pointed out is going to support that person who's trying to get pregnant, but really you're about so much more than just helping people get pregnancy.

Talk a bit about the pediatric side. Yeah, so when I think about couples who are coming in and they're having trouble getting pregnant, I'm always thinking that there's a reason that this is occurring. Our body is designed to keep us safe, and so if there is something that is harming us internally in our terrain, our body's gonna basically sequester resources so that we are in a good spot. So yes, we help a lot of couples get pregnant, and that's a huge part of what we do. But a of this has actually, the way that we work has come from my personal story.

So I did a a work around gut health and I knew how important gut heath was for children from conception on. When I got pregnant with my little boy, I had a plan. I hadn't taken antibiotics in years. He was born at home. I breastfed him. We did a lot of skin to skin with both me and his dad. So we were thinking about gut health. And so I was very shocked around nine months, he started getting this really intense full body eczema. It was like, I've done all the right things, right? All of the things that we in the holistic space think of like this would promote good gut house for him and so what I figured out was I had actually passed on my toxin burden to him in utero.

And so he got everything that I had accumulated over 30 years of life passed on to him on day one. And it impacted him in a very unique way. What we do on the preconception side is, yes, we want to be thinking about toxin burden and getting people back to nature as much as humanly possible, supporting their inherent ability to detox. But this also tends to mean improvements in hormone health, which is the main reason that couples come to us. There's something going on with my hormones. How do we fix this?

But when we impact hormones in that preconception phase, it also means that we're going to impact hormone all the way throughout pregnancy. So we can prevent things like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes. We can improve birth outcomes. Here in the US, the rate of C-sections is over 30% and growing all of the time. A lot of that has to do with the fact that birth is a hormonal process. If hormones aren't able to facilitate that process because they already started preconceptions in a bad spot, It just means that we're going to see increasing rates of C-section and therefore impaired gut health with kids.

But then we can also really work on the child side of things too, knowing that if children don't have that huge transfer that happens, if mother's gut is in a much better spot, children are going have less chronic health issues when they come into the world. So what we see now in our pediatric practice is we work with a lot of kids who do have digestive health and skin health, maybe behavioral issues or they're on autism spectrum somewhere. And so, we see children with significant toxin burdens.

So, what we compared to the fertility side of our practice is kids have three times as much toxins burden as adults do. They have a huge burden. And kids are great eliminators, so we a lot more of what they're becoming in contact with on a regular basis, but we know that a a of that is actually coming from mom. The work that we're doing in the Fertility space is directly impacting kids. I'm thinking about the fact, you know, that fertility is declining and a Sperm health going down to zero in the next couple of decades I want my little boy to be able to get married and have kids someday if he wants to do that So I'm really thinking about how this is impacting Adults long term, but also their children My gosh, you know, I just connected a dot Based on what you said.

I feel like so many parents I am thinking specifically like conversations I've had with my brother, but I, I heard it with so many other people of like, they're always talking about like how, well, my kid is not going to be able to afford the house I currently live in. So they are constantly looking at the future from a financial perspective. But what you're talking about is what about whether our kids are going to be able to fertile or not? What about the basics? Will they be to have those basics and I think that's kind of going over people's heads because we're so almost used to having the facilities of these basics.

So that's kind of a scary future when your children don't even have access to these very human things like conceiving. Absolutely, and that's the way that we think about these. We want children, we want adults right now to have a birthright to be able to conceive if they want to, right? And we also want our kids to able have that birth right. It used to that had to really, really careful to prevent conception, but that is no longer the case in our modern society for a lot of reasons and it's only going to get worse for our kid if we don't do something about it now for them.

So you mentioned though that you passed on the toxic burden to your child. You're clearly not unique though. I mean, everyone must be passing on that toxic. Or passing the loss. Like I know sometimes if you have kids too close to each other, that second child does not, you haven't had enough time to replenish your nutrients. to conceive a second time. And so you might conceive, but that next child is not getting the exchange of minerals and nutrients they need. So how, I guess, how can people kind of better prepare to not pass on as much toxic burden?

Yeah, I think it is, you know, the way I usually think about this is there has to be some level of radical responsibility where I Think a lot of people are starting to Be more health conscious as they start to think About growing their families, especially if they do have health issues, but even if They don't have Health issues. So even If you have no problem Conceiving you get pregnant on the first try or that's what you expect because there's no hormonal issues You know The thing I will say too is like both me and my husband have a very long history of being healthy people, exercising well, eating well taking care of our bodies.

So this is something that came really out of left field for us. And so if people can go into it with the knowledge that they have probably accumulated some level of toxin burden, even if it's not impacting them in any way and to get really familiar with that. and take care of some of these basic things like water, air, and food quality before they start conceiving, not on the day that they actually get pregnant, which is super common in our society. That makes it a whole lot easier to make sure that we're actually detoxing things.

One of the things that work on with a lot of women is let's take a look at your toxin burden. even if you are perfectly healthy, let's just make sure that everything is in a good spot so that you don't have to do what I did. Because I don' wish that on anybody what had to go through to make that my little boy's health got restored. And I didn't ever think that it would be that way. So I think a lot of times we just need to have a really honest conversation about the state of the world, all the toxins we're being exposed to, and assess our health with a fine-tooth comb, even we feel good.

Do you think it's important for people prior to conceiving to get a genetics test just so that they, cause with a genetic test, it is going to reveal how you, how do you process toxins, right? And how will you detoxify? Or do think, you know what, let's just assume we all don't process them very well and just do the work. Yeah, I think the majority of people, they just don't process toxins very well. Genetic tests can be really helpful. So one of the things that we had realized in retrospect after everything had gotten resolved with my little boy is I had actually done genetic testing

Preconception Health and Passing on Toxin Burden 35:40

on both me and my husband. I have bad detoxification genes and no inflammation markers, and I don t have any signs of poor detoxication. But my husband has more genetics that create a susceptibility towards inflammation. Well, when you put those two things together and our little boy, it presents very differently than it does for us. So it can be very helpful. The biggest thing is we just don't know how our kids are going to present ultimately. siblings who have very different health presentations, even though they have been exposed to the same things, whether that be in utero from mom or in their own home from like a current exposure, because, you know, some kids can be exposed as something like mold, let's say, and one child will have eczema, but the other one won't have any skin issues or digestive issues, they just have asthma sort of thing.

So it really has to do with how their unique genetics allow for things to present. Yeah, so I'm curious too, since you deal with a lot of parents trying to conceive, you probably are supporting them in conceiving, but then let's just say their pregnancy does not go as naturally as they would hope. How do you support that parent? How those parents, not only with protocol, like if they, let say had a C-section and they got the antibiotics, how are you supporting then there? But what about also emotionally?

Yeah, that's a great question. So when we're thinking about something like a C-section, great, we know that there's going to be antibiotics administered and that we may not have had that transfer of the microbiome via the vaginal canal. There's lot of things that you can do if you have the tools prepared. So there is something called vaginal swabbing where you can basically prep kids with that same microbiome if you know that that's going to happen in the operating room. If you don't have that, there's things you could do after the fact too.

And what we typically recommend is for mom who is being administered antibiotics, utilizing something like a probiotic can be really helpful in that short term and then for baby really just watching what happens. What we do know to be true is that oftentimes when there is a transfer of the microbiome, sometimes there's an overgrowth of bacteria. So even if there isn't an antibiotic that's being administered to the baby, it's not always going to negatively impact their health. Sometimes nothing happens because of how they are able to actually process that and what their microbiomes start off with on day one.

But then also from an emotional perspective, I think you know, all parents are just doing the best that they possibly can. And a lot of times when I'm talking about toxin burden and things like that, I know it's very easy for parents to feel like, ''I wish I would have known this, but I already have kids. They're like seven and 10 and the damage might have already been done.'' And the reason I am talking this is not to make anybody feel bad because I actually am in that spot too. I learned this after the fact just like everyone else.

And I want to be able to get ahead of some of the people who maybe aren't there yet. But when we're thinking about things on the back end of things, the way that I always refer to this is I don't think that there's anything that isn't reversible. If there is a gut health imbalance, it can be reversed. It might take some time. it might not be a very quick fix. So it may not a month or six months. That could be years. but we can always see these things restore balance. And i truly believe in the body's ability to heal itself if we give it the resources to do so.

Yeah, that's such a great sentiment. Thank you for sharing that. I have to ask, let's talk about stress because we just briefly touched on it, but stress is huge. Let alone the expectations we have around birth. around parenting. Let's start maybe just with, like you mentioned, you and your husband, we did everything right and yet our son was still burdened. How did this process? I have to imagine that was a stressful time for you, right? Absolutely, very stressful. I think for me, like I really felt like a failure as a mom because I was like, I tried to prepare for this.

And it was very hard for I thing both of us because we tried do everything we could. Then we also ended up like kind of going the conventional route as first time parents of like going to the pediatrician, what do we do here? And the answers that they had weren't really helpful either. They wanted to do something like atopical steroid long-term, which has its own side effects. So we were like well, that doesn't make sense. So, it can be really stressful, I think, when those things do come up, and being able to just put one foot in front of the other can really be helpful.

And knowing that our kids do mirror our nervous systems, so this is one of things that, you know, that I do talk with a lot of parents about when we're really dealing with some type of toxin burden or health concern with kids, or if they know or discover, usually, there's something like mold in their home. That's really stressful to be thinking about the fact that there's mold in your home and there is something in this place that is supposed to safe for you that's now harming your family. And it's easy to get worked up about these things.

But if we can kind of take a step back and really focus on nervous system regulation and managing our stress response to these situations is going to mean that our kids are going be able to mirror that. So we tend to see, particularly with moms, where moms are very stressed and they're high strung and kind on edge and we see kids flare in symptoms in response even when they're outside of the womb. And so we know that there's this huge connection between parents and their children and the way that their health responds.

So we have to be thinking about this and ultimately like reparenting ourselves every day as our children grow because we're just growing with them. Yeah. No, it's so important, you know, managing this. I think that's really a good point, You know, we can, well, first of all, let's first honor the women because you mentioned how usually it's the mothers or sisters. And it really is true. Women are the absolute driver of health within a family. I don't believe anyone that doesn't attest to that because my experience as an entrepreneur, it's always women who are the largest audience.

They're always the ones that are coming and they're curious. I think there's something going wrong and there are other ones the bring in this new idea around, hey, maybe we should look at this, right? So first of all, props to all the women out there listening that need some reaffirming of how they're contributing and doing better for their family. But secondly, that idea that we are, like we think about this a lot in our family as well. It's like, you know, there is a timing to things, sometimes you can find out information that's not glaringly, it's just not a glarring issue, right?

You might not be feeling huge effects of having mold, but then suddenly you learn you have mold. And so it's very easy to increase the stress and feel like, oh my gosh, we have to deal with this right now. But maybe the timing is not right because you're in the process of moving or you are in a process doing something that's taking up a lot of your energy. And, so, how do you recommend people kind of manage the circumventing, the time and awareness around these things? You know, I feel like the culture that we live in is very keen to say that once you have information, you need to do something about it.

And that's not always the case, or we are always expected to be moving forward in some way. Sometimes that is helpful, and sometimes it's absolutely necessary in families, but I don't think that it is always So for instance, I was talking with a family who ended up finding mold in their home and now they are living in an Airbnb short term while their house is being remediated. But they're in that Airbnb now and they were saying, there's definitely mold here, so what do we do now? And this is just the timing of it.

Everything is going to be okay, but it's hard to feel that way when you're that moment.

Stress, Parenting, and Family Alignment 43:58

And so just trusting that, you know, we're thinking long-term about things. It doesn't mean that we need to make a change right now, even if there is a current concern or an issue. it can be something that can addressed in the future. And I think that having less urgency and having the capacity to slow down and look at the full picture of everything allows us to better decisions, especially for our families where we are not feeling rushed to do something in an urgent manner. Yeah, and maybe prioritizing like what's the most important thing to focus on right now.

And I would offer to like, the more that, that the whole family can get on the same page and like that in many ways that should be the focus is, is never let the situation dis, like never, let this situation separate y'all. Like, you know, separate your unit, your unification separate the teamworkness of it. like to really like. make sure that the core is the family. Yep, absolutely. You're stronger together than you are separate. Yeah, and just like you said, I think a lot of times mom can be like the driver of health concerns in the families.

But there's this equally as important role for husbands and dads where they are often trusting mom or their wife to make those decisions because they're more connected. And those two really do have to work together. Because if they're not working together, I can tell you, clinically what I see in practice, if mom is on board with doing things holistically and dad is like, i think we should just go to the doctor and like whatever they say goes, it never ends well for the children in particular. So it really has to be a team approach.

Whether that's a blend of things, whether that is going one way or the other, It really have has be coming to that decision together determining what the priority is for that family even if that is getting some short-term relief in one area, knowing that they're going to have to back up at some point in time and really address more root cause approaches. Excellent. Well, this has been fantastic. Before I let you go, I want to check in around one thing. Am I right that you are an advocate of using castor oil?

I am. Okay. I would love to just touch base on that because you know, castor oil packs, they've been used for generations. Um, but it seems like you've taken that knowledge to a whole new level. So what makes cast or oil such a powerful tool and how is it that you recommend it be used? Yeah, I think castor oil can be used a lot more ways than people often realize. So, cast or oil supports natural detoxification efforts in multiple different organs. We can think about cast oil primarily for the liver, which is what most people are using it for in a liver pack directly over their abdomen.

But you can also be using it over the uterus. So for women who have more like painful cramping or heavy bleeding or just general like uterine detoxification issues, it can be really helpful there. But, you could also use it for organs like the thyroid and endocrine glands. So there's a lot of research that shows that using castor oil directly over the thyroid can help with detoxification of things like heavy metals as well as halogens like fluoride and other type of toxins that impact the ability of this gland to function appropriately and produce adequate thyroid hormones.

So it can reduce things like antibodies, you can use it on the skin, on your face. So really thinking about anywhere where there might be a detoxification issue, use castor oil in those areas. Now the thing I will say about cast oil is you want to go slow with it. I don't recommend slathering yourself in cast or oil by any means because you might have a pretty nasty reaction where your body's like, we did a little too much too quickly. What is the reaction? What happens if you go too fast? I feel like it can use to be a lot of different things.

I usually see a lotta people get themselves diarrhea, honestly, if they go too fast. That's usually when you put it over your liver a little bit too long, you can just move things a lil' too quickly and increase bile flow a lil' to fast You know that was in the movie Stand By Me, I don't know if you know the that movie, but back in that day they had the dream sequence and that's what they're drinking is cacti oil to make everyone throw up. Yep, absolutely. Same thing as using it in the birth process where women drink castor oil to induce labor.

The same concept there is that it can move the bowels relatively quickly. But generally, you just wouldn't feel good. So if you have something like diarrhea or you generally feel like you like flu-like symptoms, that's what I would consider a die-off or a detox reaction. Your body's just trying to detox, and it's detoxing faster than you had the capacity to handle safely. And so it just means you want to back off a little bit and not push too fast. All right, so before we end the castor oil conversation though, for those that don't know, what is a cast or oil pack?

Like how would they use it on these different organs? Yeah, a Castor Oil Pack you can basically make on your own if you would like to.

Castor Oil Packs and Closing Resources 48:48

Some people use cotton or a flannel. You can also purchase a Caster Oil pack. There's a ton of them on Amazon, but you're looking for something that has an organic, natural material to use primarily. There's a brand called Queen of Thrones that we often use and recommend with our clients who have more of like a tie so you can wrap it around your body. But essentially what you do is you're going to put castor oil over the organ system that you would like. So if you are putting it over your liver, your livers on the right side of your bodies just below your ribs, essentially a little bit over ribs and underneath.

Put the cast oil there and then put the pack on. Usually we recommend leaving it there for about 20 to 30 minutes to start. You can work up in time to wearing it overnight. It can help with sleep. But essentially what happens is the castor oil actually absorbs through the skin. We often forget that our skin is our largest organ, and so it can actually dermally absorb these nutrients, And it will promote detoxification in that organ system below the, essentially. So just work your way into it more than anything.

Don't go too fast, but you can do that over your thyroid. You can use the same type of pack over you thyroid, over uterus. People will put it over their abdomen if they have more GI issues. There's a lot of different ways you could use it. Yeah, it's one of those kind of, I'll say, ancestral practices, even though it has been used for the last 200 years maybe, so I'm not talking that old, you know, old enough. that is kind of lost its way a little bit, but it's a really cheap and easy solution for a lot of things.

So I'm so happy you talked about that. And safer for kids too. They make kids cast oil packs. My little boy is four. He wears cast-oil packs, he thinks it's super fun. No adverse reactions to it. It's a really safe way to support kind of this lifestyle of detoxification. So even if you aren't doing like a therapeutic detoxication protocol, knowing that we're all exposed to things all the time, we want to make sure that our livers are functioning optimally. Yeah, that's fantastic. Well, thank you so much for your time.

I feel like this was a information packed episode and I'm so grateful for the work you're doing. You know, I am always saying our kids are the canaries in the coal mine. We have to support kid health because it's our future. And of course the way to sport kids is to also support their mothers and the family units that support them. So we have be looking Collectively at every at all of our health really and so I really appreciate the work you're doing Before or as people are trying to get pregnant all the way through to pediatric care Where can people can't people that don't live near you work with you?

Yeah, we have a fully virtual practice. So we work with people all over the U.S. and Canada. We're on Instagram. You can find us on the Instagram for the fertility side of things at ReversingInFertility. And then our pediatric page is Always Growing Littles. All of our pediatrics are littles, but our website is always-growing.com and you can all of information regardless of what type of program you're interested in there. And then your book, please share that title and where people can find that.

Yeah, my book is Toxic and Fertility. It's Detoxification Solutions to Improve Natural Furtility, you can it on Amazon. Perfect. Well, thank you again for your time, keep it up. And thank you all for either listening or watching. I just hope that you're getting as much out of these episodes as I am. and I hope you are as well. So stay curious and keep it ancestral. Thank you so much for joining me on Everyday Ancestral. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one. You can find the show notes, links and resources mentioned at eatpluck.com.

That's E-A-T-P-L-U-C-K dot com. And hey, if you know someone who gets something out of this, share it with them too. Stay curious, live well, and keep it ancestral.