Mold & Chronic Illness: Safeguarding Your Relationships

Introduction to Mold, Illness, and Libido 0:00

Welcome to the Mold, Mycotoxin and Chronic Illness Summit. I'm your host, Dr. Ann Shippy. And today we get to speak with Dr. Diane Mueller. She's a naturopath. She's also trained in acupuncture and oriental medicine. So quite a broad background there. She's a survivor of mold, illness, Lyme disease and irritable bowel syndrome. And today we get to explore the effects of mold and chronic illness on our libido and relationships. So this is a great topic because it's such an important part of life.

Thank you so much for joining us. I thank you so much for having me. Dr. Shippy It's a really important topics. I'm so, so pleased to be talking about this today. I know it's a real interest and passion for you because it definitely and for most people is an important part of how they feel about themselves and their partners and partner and and really, it's such a big problem when people are dealing with mold and chronic illness. So you want to dig right in and talk about some of the things, the impacts that you see on relationships.

Sure. Yeah. Let's go there. So some of this, I think the impacts of mold and and infections and toxins on relationship, there's there's two different ways we can go with this conversation. One is, as I know from some of the other speakers you've had on this summit, there is that underlying thing that happens when one person in a house is reacting to mold and another person is not. And one of the things I see in my more than chronic infection clinic is there's this huge disparity that can happen when a spouse or partner may not believe the other person is actually sick,

How Mold and Toxins Affect Relationships 1:56

because how could the house be doing it when one person is sick and another person's not? And and I'm sure you cover that on some of the other interviews here, so I won't go deep into that. But it does create this level of rift. I think that can happen between, you know, two people around not being believed, maybe not feeling safe to talk about the emotions that go with this. So I think that's one really important topic that just there's so much confusion on. Right. Why is one person sick? Somebody is not when a house is sick itself.

And then there's the more safe physiological thing that's happening. There's a thing that's happening inside people's body when mold actually comes in and we see so many things get dysregulated, right? from a hormone, from a neurotransmitter or a brain health perspective that really impact our drive. So we can say like there's there's a one of the hormones that impacts a sexual drive the most is dopamine and dopamine as motivation, as motivation for all, you know, so many things in life. But our sexuality is one of those things that get motivated.

This is why oftentimes, too, there is that novelty thing, right, with a new partner, right? Where people get so excited about their sex life with a new partner. Some of that is also driven by that dopamine response. But of course, in longer term relationships, we have a we have a safe space, right where that dopamine may naturally already dwindle because that novelty has gone away. So we already, in the longer term relationship, tend to have to overcome that, say, change in dopamine by trying different things, by exploring, you know, our sexuality in different ways.

But then we have mold and toxins. Here's where it gets really messy is because mold and the mycotoxins that are associated with mold can actually land on the receptors for the neurotransmitter. So the neurotransmitters we're talking about things like adrenaline, noradrenaline, dopamine, for example. And when the mycotoxins land on these types of receptors, one of two things actually will happen depending upon the uniqueness of how that mycotoxins affecting it. Either it can stimulate the receptor and somebody can get so anxious because now they're have all this dopamine, all this adrenaline running through their system, right? So that can happen.

And when that happens and we're super anxious, which we see a lot in Mycotoxins. That's right. One of the most common symptoms. Right. And that's like we're not really driven oftentimes to sacks and to connecting with our partner when we're just in this state. Right? It's so common. And then we can also see another problem where we can actually see changes in like the dopamine levels in the opposite ways where we can actually lose our motivation and we can lose our drive. So I'll stop because I said a lot right there.

But there's there's more mechanisms even beyond what I'm talking about here that are really the core thing that's, you know, say behind why somebody is not driven to partner to relationship to sexuality, to libido when they're dealing with these chronic situations. So when you see a patient that's let's take the high anxiety first, what's your approach? What are you thinking? These are the first steps that you like to do. Yeah. I mean, I think like any of us that are practicing in this profession, the first step is finding the cause, right?

So is it mycotoxins? Is it another environmental toxin? It is a chronic infection with bio toxins. Is it just due to a dysfunction in the adrenal system where the adrenals are pumping out a ton of cortisol or a lack of cortisol? So, you know, really doing the diagnostic tasks. But one of the things that I think is super important when we are in that position of saying looking for the task and looking for the root causes and there's this lag time, right? We like order the test and everybody gets so excited because maybe there's finally answers, but there's a lag time between we know, you know, when we're running the tests and we get the results.

And so one of the things I really like doing during this time is starting to work on the mine, starting to say, support the hormone system by breathwork

Breathwork to Calm the Nervous System 6:22

and there's a lot of different breathwork techniques out there. I really like things like box breathing or something called a four, seven eight breath that is really designed to calm the system. There are certain techniques that are very like hyperventilating that sometimes can increase adrenaline. And while those work for some people and there's definitely reason to do those types of breathwork techniques in certain situations, I really find that things that are really calming to the nervous system are important.

And then, you know, in talking about relationships in. Bars for just a second, people that aren't familiar with Breathwork and why just changing your breath would work. Let's spend a minute on that, because it's such a tool that that you can take away with right now that can really start to change your physiology. So thank you for mentioning that. And let's dig a little deeper and then we'll come back to the next Segway. Sure. Absolutely. Happy to. So breath work like the box breathing. I really like box breathing because it's an easy thing, I think, for people to get a sense of the power of it.

And the reason I think it's easy for people to get a sense of power of it is techniques like this have been used by organizations like the Navy SEALs, right? And so it's like, wow, those guys are doing these sorts of things that help repair their nervous system for the, you know, the intensity that comes with their work. Like in my mind, that alone is a lot of proof about the power of this claim. And so it's really it's really pretty easy to get into with the box breathing we can do. It's kind of like making your your breath into a box.

So you start with it. Inhale a four. So it's a very slow count of four. You hold your breath for that equal amount for four counts. You exhale for four, and then you hold after the exhale for four. And typically with box breathing, we want to increase our neuronal relaxation with that, our neuronal response by then. So doing a round of five and so of five, five, five, five to make it, you know, square essentially is it's a square box and so then we're doing six, seven, etc., etc.. Now the thing I would like to add for this community is most of the time I see with those who have mycotoxin illness for maybe a long time for a hold.

And so you might find in the beginning that you can't even do a five sided box or six sided box, and maybe you find that you need to make your box even three sided, right? So it really is a start where you're at. And what I see, though, is that when people practice this, there is a level of, say, getting the brain retrain. And what another thing that happens that I think leads into a lot of the relaxation and really even lead back into some of the other things we're going to talk about today, which is like your circulatory system, which is also related to mold and your sexuality is when you are in those holes, when you are depressed, especially that cold after the exhale, when you're depriving your body of that oxygen, one of the things that your body is stimulated to do is to increase a molecule called veg.

F This is the particular molecule that allows that sends a signal for your body to generate and grow new blood vessels. And so one of the things we see with mycotoxin illness, some of the symptoms and some of the symptoms we see with low sex drive actually are both related to not having enough blood flow. So when we do something like box breathing, we do these breath hold. We're increasing the signal to grow new blood vessels, which is further, then allowing your body, allowing your whole body or cells, but also your genitalia to become more oxygenated.

And that's going to help with so many symptoms, just getting blood flow to, you know, to the cells. Yes, that's great. So so you were on the path that we got somebody with either really low motivation or high anxiety. You send up the test to find the root cause so that you can quote what's are originating factor. But in the meantime, you're starting to work on the mind. And some of the support systems by doing recommended things like box pre breathing and what else. Yeah great. So from there also you know since we're tying this into sexuality,

Creating Safe Space for Difficult Conversations 10:49

this is a really good time to, you know, think about like relationships and where the sexuality component comes into this. And sometimes I find it can be difficult. You know, when we're talking about getting a spouse or partner really oriented to why they're not sick in a house. And you are you know, sometimes there's an opportunity to educate, to watch videos, to do these sorts of things. But another thing that's really helpful, especially if you're feeling because I know a lot of people I work with, when they see their libido fall, they feel there's a sense of like guilt.

There's a sense of like wanting to show up for a partner in a certain way, but feeling like, how can I do that when I can barely even get myself out of bed in the morning? And so this is an opportunity to to talk about like when to have a discussion with a partner on sexuality, but also on any of this kind of stuff. So I do a lot of coaching for my clients on talking to their partner and some of the basic things with this, when we're talking about, you know, the sexual side of things is if you're having a hard discussion with your partner on something that you want to do different or something that you need, or maybe maybe you're trying to keep your relationship alive during this, maybe it's like, okay, when is there maybe even one time a week when you have the most energy?

Where have you engaged in this time a week? You could actually, you know, have sex with your partner, have an intimate moment with your partner. So it's looking at those kind of things to say, okay, well, where is that? Where is that time where it's like, okay, 3:00, 3:00, for whatever reason, I have a little more energy. Is it possible that one day a week you guys can rearrange your schedule where you can be available? Maybe you can, maybe you can't. But starting to have these conversations outside of the bedroom when you're in a relaxed place, asking your partner questions, asking if they're open to talking about this, making it a safe space so we can go down some of those roads.

We can also do like relaxing things for the body that people haven't tried things. A lot of people have tried things like GABA and these sorts of things. But another thing I do a lot in the beginning is I use a lot of peptides that are really also designed to calm the system, to really lower any sort of m-class macho activation or histamine response for people that are very reactive. So there's also a level of priming we're doing right here to get people ready for the next part. Okay, you've just touched on two really great areas.

I want to get back to creating a safe space. Yes, I think so many people never have the conversations that they really want to have because they don't feel safe. So let's explore that. And then I want to come back and dive into peptides because that is magical sometimes. Yes. Yeah. You know, the safe space. I one of the things I really love about libido and it's a it's a funny thing because I have a libido practice and a more than line practice and people are like, how are these things are related?

Why do you ever practices? But they're very, they're very, very related. And I say that because when we're talking about safe space and we're talking about, you know, sexuality in these kind of conversations, I really think what we do when we're talking about libido and sexuality is almost like a practice for so many other areas of life, right. Where they're not not speaking up and having that conversation. Yeah. Right, exactly. Exactly. So, you know, when we're talking about these sort of difficult conversations.

Right. One of the things that I think is important to remember, especially we're talking about sexuality, is these conversations can really hurt the ego because as humans, especially in relationship, most of us have a desire to show up and provide certain things for our partner. Right? So if if these kind of conversations are done in a way where the person that's listening feels like, oh my gosh, like, whoa, I am not providing for my partner in this way, it can really lead to shut down. It can lead to defensiveness, it can lead to a sense where people are just not being heard in the relationship and the conversation kind of flounders because they go out and say that again.

And the relationship unravels even more. It's like, Yeah, it's that we're holding it together. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. So one of the things I really recommend is like when you're in intimacy now this is again, apply to to life and not just the bedroom, but think about oftentimes the things that are like going really well for her. So if you're, you know, you're right now having sex, intimacy once a week, once a month, once a quarter, wherever it is, next time you engage that way, think about what parts are going really well.

And same with conversation, same with like what your partner's providing you, you know, for you outside the bedroom. And when we're approaching them, I usually tell people like, Hey, you're going to have an intense conversation. Do not have it in the bedroom. You want to keep that association away from sexy place. A Do not have it. If you have engaged with your partner in an intimate way, it's a and you're like, Oh, I want this thing to be different. Usually right after that act is not the best time.

We want us to separate. We want to make sure we're not putting anything that is a negative, that could produce a negative result. We want to make sure we're being very careful about where we are having those conversations, because when it comes to sexuality, we want our bedroom right to be that place where it's like it's not going to have that charge, it's not going to have that that memory of that other type of event. Right? And so then approaching a partner in a way by asking questions and saying, hey, if we're talking about sex, like, hey, I'm so interested in getting, you know, deeper and, you know, with this and connecting more with you.

And I would love to have a conversation, is now a good time, you know, in asking that and then starting first with what's going really well, I love it when you do this. I love it when you do that. I mean it. You know, we want to basically program and help our partners understand what to do more of. But starting oftentimes with the good is a good way to really soften and get more of the good without focusing on what you don't like. Now, we can also talk about that, and that's important to talk to your partner about.

But when we're doing it in a way, we're we're softening it. We're talking about what they are providing, about how, you know, the parts that are so wonderful and we're doing it with permission. Oftentimes those conversations go a lot better. So you got really focusing on what's going well first thing in a part of your house that's not associated with sex, not after sex. And because that's that's such a tender time. And yeah, I can ask. Questions like getting curious. Yeah. The question thing I think we should touch on a little bit more because the biggest thing too is we want to make sure that we are also in a receptive mode, meaning these conversations go a lot better if we're not just say, telling our partner what we want, but we're actually holding space for what they want.

And maybe they know, maybe they don't. But an invitation and a, you know, encouragement to, hey, I want to, you know, provide more in our sex relationship. I want this to bring us closer to help us connect more, to just feel more love with each other and these kind of things. So when we say that we can have an open invitation, even if they don't have a suggestion right then to maybe circle back around in a couple of weeks and a month and say, Hey, when you think about this, because I really want to connect in a more deeper way, you know, with you.

Using Peptides and Hormone Support 18:38

And that can also, I find soften these types of conversations because it's really not it creates this like we space. What I think is really important here is like it's focusing on that that space right in between the two because an in a partnership between two people in some ways there's three relationships. There's relationship that each one each person has with themselves and their own needs and their own desires. And there of course, is almost like a separate entity, the entity of the we and it's really in these conversations, like the entity of the we when we're talking about sexuality that is so important and that we need to actually, in that scenario, come in to, okay, how do we make the we better holding space for everybody to contribute.

And it's interesting, as a as a Chinese medicine doc, one of the things we talk about is in relationships, there's this this kind of esoteric idea that there's literally a shared circulatory system between two individuals. And so when people go through breakups, kind of one of the ways it's talked about esoteric in Chinese medicine is you're actually bleeding because you're cutting that like circulatory system and there's like this bleed. So we're talking about this, this, you know, kind of energetic space that really gets created between two people and allowing these, you know, both people to contribute to this conversation.

That's beautiful. So, you know, I just find that a lot of times with going through these kind of illnesses, that there ends up being some called platinum diamond linings. And the way that you're describing this stuff, really finding some ways to strengthen the we in the relationship is could really be one of those those gifts that we receive from having to go through. These are things. Yeah. You know one of the silver I'm glad you bring up silver linings because it's such an important and delicate topic and I feel and I say what I'm about to say, having gone through mold illness myself, if I had crazy dementia, I thought I was going to move to a deserted island and die.

So please know when I say this, I say this from a huge glazed. Over, very scary. Yeah, it was crazy. It was crazy. I did not like most people. No, I did not know what this was before. I knew what I know now and didn't know what was happening. And it was is so crazy scary. It was so crazy scary. Like forgetting where you live is a really intense thing. It was pretty severe. Yeah, it was. It was quite severe. And and one of the silver linings so I say this delicately, right, because I know that it's very difficult in these moments to say like, get me out of this.

This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me. How could there be any silver lining? But I do think there is something that happens when we go through something this crazy and severe where it can shed light on, say, thinking processes or belief processes that are maybe getting in our way of healing and our way of not just of healing, but of living a, you know, even more happy purpose, passionate life. And so sometimes these things that may shed lights in this conversation on on relationships around like, oh yeah, this was really hard on relationships.

What I've also seen is that sometimes when we do this in a very eloquent way, it can actually wind up bringing couples closer together because now we're having these conversations that maybe we weren't even having prior to this horrible thing happening. You know, as dutiful. Yeah. So anything else on creating safe space or how to really like if you're afraid to have the conversations just even getting them started that will help people to get to that end point of the possibility of deepening and strengthening the relationship.

I think it's important to realize that there are studies that show that sexuality and libido and sex life improve just by talking about it, Right? So talking about it we see is directly related to the improvement. And even if the behavior doesn't change, just by having those conversations. So another thing that I would encourage you, if you're scared to have these conversations with a partner, another thing is do you have a safe, safe friend? You have a friend that you can start having, if you will, because I know so many people, they don't even talk to their friends about these sorts of things and they hold it all inside.

So sometimes even if you have a friend, you can start just like practicing with and even just like opening up to about this and saying, hey, you know, can I just like, talk to you about a conversation that I want to have? The idea of this is not to throw a partner on the bus. You don't even have to give a lot of details. You know, if you want to, you know, protect your partner and all of that. But just to say, how would you have a conversation about sex with your partner? And to starting the idea with this is to really normalize talking about these things that are taboo.

Because I really feel like just like we talk about like clean food and clean air and clean water and good sleep and not sitting too much. And all these foundations of health, we see so much what happens with a healthy sex life like weight, you know, regulation and neurotransmitter regulation and stress hormone regulation and on and on and on and on that. I do feel that that a healthy sex life is actually part of the foundation of a healthy human life. And so because it's so taboo, we can just find ways of normalizing this.

Maybe this is even reading erotic literature. You know, it could be so many different things. But what we're trying to do here is help normalize the conversation in your mind and in your psyche so that when you go into a conversation with a partner, it's a little bit less scary because you've started to normalize it a little bit more internally. And even be able to have the inner conversations to know what you want to say or what you'd like the outcome to be. Yes, I think a lot of times we don't even want to have the inner conversation.

And I think he said something that's really important to to just focus on a second is like the outcome, you know, like what you said there about the outcome. I think going into these conversations and having a sense of, yeah, what is what is your goal? Is your goal just to open up a dialog? Is your goal to get some sort of resolution and to realize that the outcome might not happen, that you want might not happen after that first conversation, but to really, you know, have a sense of like what would be you know, what would be a win, A win can sometimes be as much as like taking that step over your fear to have that conversation right.

So just kind of looking at what would be a where are you trying to go? So you stay on focus with this conversation. I think that orientation to that outcome is a really good point. That's beautiful and I'm ready to move on to peptides. Sarah. Sarah I love peptides. You do? Yeah. Where are your favorites? Where how do you approach this? My my favorite right now is CP V and CP V is an analog to my age. A lot of people in the old world know of of MSH melanocytes stimulating hormone. That's one of the serum tests that sometimes used by people to just track progress with mold.

But essentially what I've seen with CP is CP the has been able to really slow down a histamine response.

GABA, Neurotransmitters, and Anxiety Relief 26:18

And I say that based upon what I've seen clinically, because what I've seen is when people are super reactive to so many different things and either it's histamine, intolerance, m-class or just hypersensitivity, one of the things right that is so common for us practitioners that that work with this population is how do we get things into people that they need that they're not going to react to. And so what I've seen with CFPB in my most reactive people, you know, the people that take a shower and break out into a rash, right, You know, this crazy level reactivity that can happen is that small amounts of CP I've been able to get this into people and where they can start tolerating this more and more and then we can start moving on to other types of therapies that are more directly related to, say, detox and healing and these sorts of things.

So CFPB is my current favorite. I use a bunch of different peptides and the other one that I do think is really indicated hugely in more besides like VIP, which has obviously been used for quite some time. The other big one is BPC when 57 and I think what's happening there, there's there's even research that showing that mold will sometimes cause ulcers in people. We can get damaged to the the Integra site, the cells of the small intestine can happen like a box of Sprite. And what's data coming out about that now.

So yeah. Yeah. So, so, so interesting. So with some of those like studies that are showing that then like that's part of the downstream impacts of mold, right? Is that we have this downstream impact where the gut gets damaged, the gut gets damaged, the immune system freaks out, we get autoimmune reactivity sometimes because of the damage in the intestinal lining and subsequent leaky gut and those sorts of things. So I think BPC, because of what we see too, the damage of the gastrointestinal tract, I really think BPC 157 is a super important peptide and it's another one that I do sometimes have to go slow with my patient population in the mold world with BPC, but it's another one that I frequently see that highly reactive people can actually get into their system.

And you're talking about orally so that it's touching the gut. Correct? Yeah, exactly. Which is way nice and doing injections, we see it is then highly accessible and available to people. So it's an easy one to obtain as well. Yes. What else do you like? Those are the main ones I use. I use like TB for before. I've used some of the growth hormone stimulating ones, but I haven't used those in quite some time now. I really like the bulk of what I'm doing at this point has really been down to those two.

Now, there's not like efficacy for other ones, but those really are the ones that I've seen with my patient population get the best results. So what about using hormones and using oxytocin, or do are you finding a role as far as how important they are? I've used a little bit of like intranasal oxytocin before. I haven't seen a huge clinical result with that. So I'd be curious to know if anybody else has, but I haven't seen this use. In a while. It's yeah. And then other times that I think is just not the pathway that's being affected.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so for the audience, oxytocin is a hormone that we make in her body. It's the binding, you know, that we make a lot of all right, after having a baby, after having sex. And that really connects us that this one thing with the baby, with our partner. Yeah. And the thing that I think to add about oxytocin, we're all talking about like what it does is like oxytocin also does not like stuff, like it regulates our cortisol and our stress hormones, right? So it does make sense to increase and improve oxytocin from the standpoint of getting your stress hormones regulated.

Because of that. It's also thought that oxytocin, when I said, you know, weight and that being related to sexuality because of the regulation of oxytocin and stress hormones, there's also some sort of studies and papers that are theorizing that because of that, it can be used for weight regulation. So it's really the impacts of oxytocin are pretty widespread, can help with sleep, can help with mood, can help with serotonin. There's so many different things that we know that can be derived from a good oxytocin dose of the body.

So I don't know, you know, from the standpoint of the community that's probably listening to these interviews, Oxytocin, I think, is, you know, certainly something to try. I you know, but besides, like the actually taking it from a standpoint of intranasal or another way of ingesting it from a pharmaceutical standpoint, you know, the other thing for people to remember is like we get a huge dose of oxytocin just by hugging, you know, So it's like daily dose of hugging as much as possible.

Dr. Muelleru2019s Recovery Story 31:28

And, you know, I really encourage people it's so easy when we don't feel well to just be like, just like I want to get in bed. But the more you can, like, sink in to like that, in depth of that hug and just let yourself be truly held, the more this yummy regulating hormone your body is going to get. Hmm, that's great advice. You mentioned GABA a little bit about how do you use GABA and then any of the other neurotransmitters support. GAB is so interesting when I look at studies because I look at studies that have shown that Mycotoxins will actually negatively impact GABA and Mycotoxins will also.

I've seen some studies that also show the opposite. And just to let people know that most of these studies that I'm talking about when we're talking about neurotransmitter unfortunately have been done on animals. We're still lacking really good studies on humans. So there needs to be more studies really from a standpoint of mycotoxins neurotransmitters in humans. But what we see in the animal studies with GABA, what I see is that in in some studies it's like, oh, GABA and gallops everybody knows is that that chemical in the body that is very calming.

So when we take like Xanax for example, when we take the benzodiazepine family of medication that is working on our GABA, it's it's it's increasing the way the body is responding to that. That hormone is the easiest way to say it. And so essentially what Gabby is doing is it's calming, it's relaxing too much GABA, though, and we become overly lethargic, we lose our motivation, we lose our drive. Right. So it's about that sweet spot where you want to have enough so you're not anxious, but you don't want to have too much where it's like, Wow, I'm so unmotivated.

And so one of the curiosities right now with where I see in research that I have is, is it possible that Gabby, in some areas of the brain is being stimulated, in other areas of the brain is being inhibited? Ed And perhaps that's why we have a sense of anxiety that often comes on, you know, like we mentioned earlier with more. But perhaps it's also maybe connected to why there's sometimes this huge lack of drive where it's like, I can't do anything that and obviously there's a lot of reasons pain and headaches and so many different things.

But perhaps the Gabba, you know, changes could also be contributing to that as well. And that's the nice thing about GABA is that it can show a response pretty quickly if that's the pathway that's being so affected. So you can try a little bit and, and it's so much safer than taking the benzodiazepines which are addicting and, and can really lead to some long term brain changes that we don't want. So I think it's a really good option for helping people to recover from their anxiety. So thank you so much for bringing that up.

Yeah, that's and the other thing I add there real fast places is just that when we're taking GABA, I want everybody to know that not all GABA is the same. So the ones that I think are most effective for people are far more GABA or a liposomal form of GABA. So those types of GABA seem to get into the brain and the neuro neurological system a little better that I've seen them than other forms of GABA on the market. Would you mind sharing a little bit about your story? I'm sure people that are listening that don't know you like chicken.

Her dementia was so bad she couldn't find your house. Just a little bit about your recovery to give hope to those listening that are deaf and borrowers. Amazing Of. Course. Of course. So my story, I usually start my story in, you know, like as a child because I had crazy chronic chronic constipation, which ended up being severe. But that went on for a couple decades. And I think that in some ways might have destroyed my gut. That set me up for why my illness or the illness I had was as bad as it was.

But basically I started getting really sick in my mid twenties when I was a natural Pathak medical school and that was when I started having all these crazy symptoms, such as I was, I was feeling so fatigued, which when I was seeing the docs at school, it was very easy to just be like everybody in medical school is fatigue. This is medical school syndrome. So I ran some basic tasks and then I was just like, Well, this has just got to be, you know, medical school syndrome. And everybody's tired and everybody's body hurts.

But it started getting really crazy when there is one of the first instances of pain that was excruciating, the way I would describe my pain was that somebody was sawing my leg off. Oh, actually, embarrassingly enough, was on the toilet. I had a roommate and I got stuck on the toilet. My pain was so bad that I actually could not get off the toilet. And amazingly, my roommate actually was an M.D., a friend of mine who was an M.D. and so she actually got me. She called in an order of muscle relaxers, and I was stuck on the toilet until the muscle relaxer kicked in enough to actually allow me to stand.

So I was very grateful that I had a MD roommate who could take care of me at that point in time. But incidences like that wound up continuing where these it would just like come on in these episodes where this pain was just so, so, so crazy severe. The fatigue got worse. And then the thing I was really trying to do, just knowing medicine was I was trying to take a five minute walk every day and 5 minutes because that was really hard to do. 5 minutes. But at least I was trying to get my lymphatic system moving.

So I would go on these walks, these these just walks. It was just like a wrap around my neighborhood, around the block. And that that's when I would typically, for whatever reason, have these episodes, as I would call them. And I remember these times of leaving and being like one block from my house and all of a sudden this episode, it was almost like it was almost like I was hallucinating, like the world would get very distorted and things would change. And I just I would get so confused and I could just tell something was going on with my brain, but I wasn't sure what it was.

And but then it would totally go away, you know, it wasn't like like it was just tiny little episodes that would feel like they lasted forever. But honestly, Dr. Shippy, I think I think they were probably just a matter of like ten, maybe 30 seconds, but maybe not even that long. It was just like they would come on and then I would be normal. Very disappointing. Very disorienting, very scary. And somehow I just threw like a matter of sheer will. I got through school. I did. Well, I can't even believe I, you know, sometimes survived.

All the houses are so smart. Yeah, because I'm very smart and because I think I didn't have another choice. And I think the only other choice was like moving to a deserted island, like I was considering. And I just kept, you know, I was just crying to my parents on almost a daily basis. They were such a support for me and just like, okay, I can make it through one more day. I can make it through one more day and. I did. And once I got out and my friends, you know, a couple of months after school ended, were telling me that they were feeling like medical school syndrome was disappearing and they were having energy again.

And and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm worse than ever. And that's when I knew something was actually truly wrong. So I didn't go down a route of searching too far because I thought I had a reason. I thought it was just medical school and it was when I got out and realized I wasn't normal and my friends were that I started doing a lot of tasks and that's when I found like huge levels of Mycotoxins Lyme disease. A lot of the other chronic infections we talk about parasites and on and on. And so as my journey of recovery and in the hopes and as the focus here is now, I'm amazing.

I've had some really stressful stuff go on with my business over the past month. And the cool thing about going through a lot of stress and this is what I told my patients, the cool thing about going through a lot of stress after a history like that is being like, I'm still getting up in the morning and working out. I'm still like, things have been like super busy. I've been working a ton of hours, but I'm still happy. I'm still have energy to hang out with my boyfriend. At the end of the day, like all of these things where it's like, what have completely rocked me and, you know, and destroyed me before and my body is holding up and I'm really the healthiest and I mid-forties that I've been at any point in my entire life.

So we really, you know, the power of the body to heal is it impresses me every day, you know. Now it really and our bodies a lot of times are our best teachers ready to tell you and said a lot of the puzzle pieces together and what it took you to get well. Yeah yeah, yeah exactly exactly. I'm kinesthetic learner. So for better or worse, like I learned a lot by my own list.

Finding the Root Cause and Getting Help 40:38

Yeah. Any other words of wisdom for our audience that are and you know, on this healing journey that you'd like to share. I think the other big thing I just always like to remind people is the body doesn't manifest symptoms for no reason. You know I almost I when I was young, I used to want to be an FBI agent. And I really thought, like, detective work would be really cool. And and now I look back, I'm like, let's say, yeah, right. It's like an FBI agent or a detective of the body, Right? But your body doesn't make symptoms for no reason.

So whatever your label is, wherever you're dying doses, there's whether it's chronic regional pain syndrome or fibromyalgia or, you know, CFS or whatever it is, it's it's that diagnosis is oftentimes a beginning point and not an end point. Right. It's your body. When your body has these symptoms, there's a reason. So if you haven't found the reason yet, just, you know, keep looking because it's your body does not do these things for for no reason. And there are answers out there. And I really believe in, you know, in people being able to find that person, that clinician that can help them get the answers that their body is truly trying to to tell them. Awesome.

Thank you. Let's let people know how to find you, because I know you have so much great information available. Yeah. So my two different practices, the one is My Lyme Doc, so that's super easy. It's mylymedoc.com. That's where we do things for all sorts of mold, lyme, chronic illnesses of all sorts. And then I also do have a book. So my book is called It's Not In Your Mind. You can find that on Amazon. I also do have a free plus shipping deal on my website where you can get the book for free and just pay shipping and handling.

So you can find that at mylymedoc.com/heal. And then for anybody that's interested in my libido work, that's also super easy. It's just mylibidodoc.com. So My Lyme Doc, My Libido Doc are great. URLs, very easy to remember. Thank you. I was very excited when they were available. Yeah. Well, I so appreciate the grace that you bring to these topics that are really challenging and the wisdom and the brilliance to put it all together to really find great solutions for people. You know? Thank you and thank you for having me.

I so appreciate all the work you're doing to get this summit out to people. And it's so needed. So thank you so much. And thanks for having me. Thank you.