Inspire Your Journey With These Transformative Stories

Introduction to Mary Ruddick and Her Work 0:00

Welcome to the new Immune Summit. I'm here with, Mary Ruddick. And Mary Ruddick is a really interesting individual. She has her own remarkable, health challenge. And she recovered, herself using again, dietary approaches and then went on this mission to understand and research, diet, the microbiome in, indigenous, individuals. And she has some amazing insights, as to what we can learn from our indigenous cultures. Mary, did I miss anything? Oh. That's great. Thank you so much. That was lovely. Okay.

So you are one of my favorite speakers whenever I am running a conference. And so I, have a deep respect for, indigenous individuals. What we've learned from, the ancestral, peoples and looking at more peel eating patterns. But we just had a really interesting conversation about the microbiome, and that's impact on health. And since this is a, M.S. in neuro immune summit, can we sort of dive in to what you've learned about the microbiome as it relates to all of us who have a neurological problem?

Yes, I'd love to. I, I found it so fascinating when I recovered

Microbiome, Ketosis, and Recovery from Neurological Illness 1:32

from my own neurological condition, through food, through changing my groceries and through time. And for me, like many of you, your listeners. And really, I have to give you, like, a huge hat tip because you actually made the ketogenic diet famous in a good way. And that was a huge part of my recovery. I did really need to be in true deep blood ketosis, along with the microbiome shifting and and the traditional foods. And that that was actually what brought me in, to this world of studying the microbiome and looking into indigenous cultures around the globe and, and specifically regions that hadn't been touched or changed by any kind of modernization, even something as simple as, food, transport and change.

Right? Bringing corn from Latin America to Africa, it's a very different food there with the different processing techniques and, and naturalization and those kind of things. So, so all of that came into it. But what was so astounding to me, when I started out, especially started out in the travels post illness, I never expected to find healthy individuals. I had assumed that the 1800s were the last cases, and that we wouldn't find any of this anymore. And so when I did, it was like, for me, it was like entering into a secret garden of this universe that I couldn't even have fathomed.

And once I went in, I just haven't been able to fully get out because it's been so interesting and beautiful. But one of the things that's so interesting is that there's no, neurological damage of any type, not even the mild forms of attention issues or a stammer or a tremor or a sleep issue, or a bit of lactic acid build up or anxiety. We don't see any of these things. And, let's stop there for a moment. That is such an interesting observation. So we have indigenous cultures, in many different parts of the world that you've been with, and you don't see any evidence of, anxiety, depression, learning problems, no tremors, no cognitive decline.

And, are the teeth crooked? Not at all. No, they don't get capped. And so the. No cavities. Straight teeth? Yes. And, how about arthritis? You know, okay. So people may have trauma, and broken bones and lacerations. I assume that that happens. Absolutely. Yes. And when that happens, is that the end of the person or do they bounce back from that pretty well?

Indigenous Health, Resilience, and Mental Wellbeing 4:17

Do you know, that's what's been so shocking. So for the first few years I was doing this, I, I had met some people who had been trampled by elephants and survived that horrific scarring, of course, but, but I had always assumed, especially in my, you know, in my trips through the Amazon and Latin America and these places, lots of Africa, actually, and Asia, there's very deadly snakes, deadly to us. If we were literally right outside a hospital, they are very deadly, right? But yet these folks survive and they survive.

Some of my favorite plants that I never realized could be used in this way. My favorite is the mimosa. It looks like a Doctor Seuss tree. It's just beautiful. And it's useful for so many things. The flowers boost feelgood chemicals. The bark is a good antiparasitic, but, there's a way to use it that's actually very well studied, for reversing very specific kinds of deadly snakebites in humans. So I've, I've really seen people come back from incredible things. And it's not that they won't have scars.

Like when I'm staying with the Ambari tribe who live, all the way through from Columbia up through Panama. They're wonderful, community. Very joyful. There's many deadly snakes there. And the snake bites, if you survive it, it leaves a scar that goes all the way up your leg. But they do survive it. And that, to me, was so incredible that their emergency medicine was so good. Because circling back to what you said, I haven't seen an ounce or even a hint or a shadow of mental health disease. The level of contentment and joy and the bonding, the, what I can only assume is oxytocin and suppressant bonding is it's a beautiful thing.

Okay, so now we're really back in to everyone who's listening to this, summit. They're like, okay, well, I'm not gonna be able to go to Africa to take some of this wisdom or probably South America. But I would like to take advantage of this wisdom because I do have a neurologic problem, because I have, Ms.. And maybe I have bad anxiety and depression as part of my Ms.. Or brain fog. Yes. Do you have some insights from from your travels that could help our listeners? So many. I have so many. I think the beautiful thing that I, I'm continuously learning in new ways is that as hard as it as brutal as it is to heal, really, it many of the things that bring us there are very simple, brought together with consistency.

One of the things that we see in these communities is the incredible amount of ritual, along with light use and avoidance and, community actually, which sounds like a catch 22 when you're chronically ill and very often very isolated. So let me explain that further as to how we can apply it, many of our feelgood chemicals. And in fact, I'm going to be speaking about this soon, our sex hormones and our feel good chemicals. Although, of course, we can force them through different ways of eating and different ways of, of things that we take, herbs and things like that.

They actually respond the best to how we act and how we interact with each other.

Light, Ritual, and Social Connection for Healing 7:34

So one of the very best things we can do, aside from being awake and being outside at least half an hour before sunrise. So, you know, for many years I couldn't leave the house. So you can open the window. There's ways around it. You can get a circadian light until you're well enough to go outside. There's so many ways around this, so please always look for the ways to get there. But the and know that it is possible. But aside from that, the very ritualistic eating which was part of human habit until really about 30 years ago, you know, at 5 p.m.

dinner would be on the table. It was very regimented. And when we have that, I think if you're on the table with your family, I mean with your family and your eye contact and your posture is good, so you're producing your serotonin and your dole for me. Yeah, it's it's incredibly important. Okay, so we talked about light. Eating with family. Yeah. Anything else? Any other tips you have for us? Touch, eye contact and posture. So you all are anything like me? I wasn't strong enough to hold myself upright for a minute.

You know what? Yes, exactly. But work on what you can do, right? So you can get pillows to prop yourself up in the proper position, even if it's flat on the ground, right. Or on your bed or on the couch, so that you're not this way or this way, where your hormones, they have a much harder time getting up to where they need to go, getting as much. I talked about, getting your head, up clearly over your shoulders. That's right. And that can be done in a horizontal position, which is what that was the hack that I did when I was sick.

I actually had a pillow with the head position cut out so that my head, which because I wasn't strong enough to hold my head even up in the bed, as many, I'm sure your listeners are as well. And so you can you can get things made. And I bet these things are things you can buy. Now, there wasn't as much of a market when I was sick, but, but yes, you can do that. And then when you're well enough to or when you can convince people to come to you. Because I know how isolating and lonely being ill is, and how much we want to retreat when we don't feel well.

But we need to be outside as much as possible, and we need to be with others as much as possible. In the 1800s, really, until very recently, even through mid 1900s, it was common to have a room in the house that was screened in. And if you became ill with tuberculosis or something else, you slept in that screened in porch. We are now learning so much about light and sound. I really think it's the future of medicine that's being the little bit that's missed that needs to be incorporated into the other things, because our hormones really respond to that and, and are okay in the morning.

Right. If we're up with the sunrise like I was this morning, you don't want to miss one after you learn this stuff. The, when you when you watch the sunrise or when you're outside before it comes up. That helps to promote the serotonin and the dopamine and the cortisol, which cortisol gets such a bad name for a good reason, but we do need it in the morning. It's it gives us our pet. So we get that and then that provokes melatonin at night, which is the master of the nervous system, especially the enteric, the migratory motor complex.

So we want to get that and we want to get that so we can sleep. And so that our stool moves right. There's so much just frozen colon to say it in layman's speak. Right. Just it just stops working. And so many nervous system disorders. And really if we get that melatonin going or perhaps the glutathione through the MP3 or any of the other little bugs, and then it does so on its own. So I think as much as we can bring in to speak the language of the body, of what it feels is safe, which is so different than our emotional safety.

Right. The light, the consistency of the meal time. Right. So it doesn't think we're at war, that we're hungry, that we're unsafe. And lots and lots of time outside. I was looking I can't tell you, doctor. I was looking at these studies that were just blowing me away about, how one of the most stressful things to humans is being inside to the nervous system. Right. And what do we do? I, I lived for years inside when I was sick.

Food, Breathing, and Nervous System Regulation 11:54

So, so if that's hopefully that's the motivation. That's something you can do right away. And then lots of hugs, lots of touch, lots of eye contact as you get well and skin to skin contact. Very. Oh yeah. Definitely. Yes. You know, and so I think we we've really touched on some very simple things. Go sit outside, sit outside, get out there, preferably in the morning. Eat with friends and family. Get your head over your shoulders and, do you have any comments about food? Oh, we have a few more minutes.

We haven't talked about food at all. I never I'll say that to me all the time. And that's my specialty is the food. But it's so true because the, the other things are almost more important first and then and then to the food. But, share your food, eat while not watching TV or anything else. Right. You want to calm state so you can listen to music at four 32Hz? That's how music used to be tuned. And that helps to get the parasympathetic going. There's other tricks, too. You can breathe through the left nostril.

You can tap it. If you can't hold your hand up there, to activate the parasympathetic before you eat. But you want to eat calmly and, and not distracted because you want your stomach acid produced. If we're watching a sitcom or something, we may not have the stomach acid produced or the blood to the belly where we need it and, help a lot while we eat, is that okay? Laughing is great. It's the best. The best medicine? Yes. That that bring in laughter. Definitely. Which can be the tallest? Ask when you're so alone and painful and scared.

But there is no better way out of illness and laughing. And then as far as food goes, nothing that was invented now, right? So we want those old traditional fats. We want, really good traditional proteins. And I would think of anything else is extra there. So that's what's traditional protein. That's going to be any meat or fish really. Fish cakes. Eggs. Absolutely. Dairy rich back in the day. I know, I know, a lot of people don't do it now. And that's fine either way. Some cultures have it, some cultures don't.

But that is a very traditional food as well. Okay. Meat, fish. Eggs dairy. Some cultures do dairy, some do not. Yes. Definitely. Yeah. And then vegetable matter is always optional. So the cultures some cultures do more, some cultures do less. We can take advantage of some of the benefits. Right. We have that, luck of having so much variety. These days that we can choose, but traditional cultures really don't have variety. That's not a thing. So that's something that we can use now, especially if we are having a problem with face to face three detox channels in the liver.

That's something we should talk about, actually. So one thing you all can really bring in from the traditions is the ability to breathe properly. When we don't breathe properly, we rely on our other detox organs. But if our breath is correct, which I almost never see anyone with anymore, if our breath is correct, we are supposed to remove about 70% of the fat soluble toxins through the lungs. Actually. Wow. So yes. Okay, so can you give us a quick breath lesson? Sure. Yep. It requires perfect posture.

Okay. So perfect for school. Yes. Sit up. Right. Or lay down on your back. Right. If you can get it that way that's a great trick. And then you want to get your tongue in the position of an end almost. If you want to look up something called mewing, e w it is a technique you can learn at about five minutes so that you can start practicing at home. And with that, and any habit like this, I highly recommend you really hold yourself to doing it every day, even if it's for 10s to start to develop the habit, because it is the continuous ness that usually gets us there.

So you put an end shape there, and then you breathe through the nasal passages, not through the mouth, ever. You'll note, and I know many of you may not be able to use your neck muscles properly, but the, we see a lot of head forward. Now, when this happens, the entire microbiome of the head comes off. It's why we're often very tender here. Right? So many people have TMJ and other things, too. The head becomes very heavy as soon as we go forward. But if we get the head back and we retrain these muscles, the breathing comes with ease and the right microbes come back.

You can even repopulate the nasal passages with the right microbes from, from kimchi, Korean kimchi that LCI belongs there. And it'll start to clean things up and help things for you. Yeah, I love my kimchi. So we too. I mean, it's really good. Yes. Yeah. So once you do that, you can actually just breathe normally. A lot of what we're doing now is taking these shallow breaths from up here. These really big, deep belly breaths from down here. But what we should be doing is having quite a strong diaphragm, which the opera singers get.

So if you want to get. Yeah, if you want to practice, just watch, or take lessons from an opera singer on YouTube. They're free and you can get a very strong diaphragm that starts to regulate your stomach acid. And, your whole symphony of digestion will trickle down from there in a very eloquent way that you may not be experiencing it present. Sounds very cool. Yes. Yeah. Works really well. So can you, the mute. So this is moving and. Yeah.

Where to Find Mary Ruddick 17:28

You and you train it, and you can do this when you, lay on your, your back at night, and eventually you actually start doing it automatically without trying. And so it's something kind of like riding a bike, and it's a position of the tongue that allows the rest of the basically the, you know, the trips, all the trips. Right? This part of the nervous system, it seems really complicated, but honestly, it's very, very effective. If we can retrain those to calm down, the rest of the nervous system starts to calm down.

And that has a lot to do with breathing once those are activated. So there's a little tricks you can do, like the the kimchi. Part of what works with that is the cayenne at least from the studies I've seen, the cayenne going into the nose just gently can re, retrain one of the traps, but, yeah. So that will start to retrain and you'll start to breathe properly, naturally in the tribes. The mothers do it with the children. If they see any child who starts to mouth breathe, they they just hold their mouths shut.

It's adorable. And so, you know, a number will push the, mandible up. That's right. Yes. Well, this, is just so wonderful. You are such a wealth of information. Mary, where do people find you? Oh, thank you so much. It's always such a pleasure to be here. I can't tell you. Mary Reddit.com is just my name. And you'll have links to Instagram and YouTube and anything else. Whenever I can get an article out, I will, and I'll post it there.