The Gut-Energy Connection: Solve Your Mystery Health Symptoms

Daniela Jean-Georges

Thank you, Laura. It is always so amazing to do these partnerships with you. And I love being here and reaching out to people and sharing our stories and how we have really changed lives with people. It’s just, it is an incredible journey and it is amazing to be here with all of you.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

It is. It is. We have quite a fun time together working with our clients.

Daniela Jean-Georges

We really do.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah.

Daniela Jean-Georges

So, Laura, you know, you have been a nurse practitioner for over 20 years and you specialize in preventative medicine. Even in the earliest part of your career when you worked in that Western allopathic medicine model, you have worked super close with and studied with a long list of the most respected, functional, natural health-oriented doctors and experts. And you have hosted across at least five online health summits like the one that our viewers are watching here right now.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Sorry. It is crazy. I can not believe that five, five.

Daniela Jean-Georges

I know. It is crazy. I agree. Yeah. But you have also built your online virtual clinic which has just been incredible. I mean, people’s lives have absolutely changed and you are helping all these people, these high performers, reclaim their energy, their brain stamina and their productivity is just shooting off the roof. So you have really become a trusted resource for people who want to build back their health so that their bodies can really keep up with their level of ambition. And you have become this I would say I could go to a source for gut health, for energy, for brain health. And you know, Laura, I would say you could have taken so many different paths and your stories really interesting. So I would love to ask you how did you end up becoming this leading voice and helping shift the conversation about health and wellness?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Well, there is always a story there, right? So, you know, I spent 21 years working for one of the largest health maintenance organizations, HMOs in the United States. I actually officially retired from that job last year. And partway through my career in medicine, I learned about functional medicine and so I started this deep-dive study into the integrative functional medicine space. And I spent years and years learning this before I felt like it was time to leave the Western allopathic medicine model. And It is interesting because in my earliest job as a nurse practitioner I worked in preventive medicine and one day I woke up and really realized that I was not really practicing prevention at all. I was practicing early detection medicine and that is a distinction between functional medicine and Western medicine. In the Western world, we do a lot of screenings to look for early signs of disease so that we can give you a treatment plan that typically is a medication to kind of patch up and solve that before it gets worse. But what we do not do is we do not go and find the root cause and truly solve it at that level. And what we also do not do is we do not truly prevent disease so I think it is a really important distinction; prevention versus early detection. 

It is masked as prevention in the Western world but it truly is not. In the true reality is that all the tests and exams that we do in the Western world is we are looking for something wrong. And if we find something wrong then we have various pharmacologic treatments with minimal lifestyle recommendations to help solve that and that just is not working for people, people are getting sicker. We are seeing a lot more chronic diseases and it was during the functional medicine studies that I really learned about gut health and then later on mitochondrial health. And those two things together are so critical for solving any other health problem that you are trying to correct. Whether you already have a chronic condition like a neurodegenerative condition, like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, or a chronic inflammatory condition like heart disease or something like cancer or autoimmune diseases, anything along those lines functional medicine is where it really is where is at to help solve that. 

There was really this patient in my, I worked in an osteoporosis clinic for years, and there was a patient who declined the treatment plan from me. I wanted to prescribe her a medication for her osteoporosis, and she declined it and came back a couple of years later, her bone density had improved without medication and that really was an eye-opener for me. I was asking her, “What are you doing?” And she said, “Well, you know, I’m working on my gut health and I’m, you know, changing my lifestyle. I’m getting toxins out of my cleaning products, in my body products, and I’m eating organic.” And I was scratching my head, I mean, this was years and years ago. I remember thinking, what is a gut microbiome? Because we did not learn that in Western medicine. Now, fortunately, the gut microbiome is infiltrating all aspects of medicine even Western medicine now cannot ignore the importance of the gut. So if you go to medical conferences nowadays there is always a lecture about how the gut microbiota may be impacting. Whether you are at a dermatology conference or a cardiology conference or an endocrinol conference or a urology conference, the microbiome is always going to come up. Even in women’s health in obstetrics and gynecology, the microbiome is going to come up. But we know a lot about it in integrative and functional medicine and it really is the foundation of what we do so that is kind of how I ended up here. I saw what was not working in the Western world and I really wanted to study what did work in the functional world. And once you learn it, you can not unlearn it, Daniela. Once you learn the root cause medicine and once you learn how to really help people solve their problems, you feel out of integrity just prescribing drugs. I mean, I had to get out of that system. It came to the point where I could not do it anymore. And I’m not, one thing I do want to say is Western medicine is amazing for acute problems, injuries. I use Western medicine all the time. I always say that I use a combination of Western and functional medicine. 

But when it comes to the irritating symptoms that people come to us for, the mystery symptoms of why is my energy low? Why is my brain foggy? Why are my hormones imbalanced? Why am I moody? Why is my skin keep flaring and getting irritated? Why is my digestive system so difficult? How come every time I eat I feel bloated and uncomfortable? That is what Western medicine is not good at handling but it is really good at handling acute problems. So I am a fan of both. I’m not going to knock. I just know the limitations of both models. And so once I learned that I really had to focus my time here, this is where I want to be in the functional space.

Daniela Jean-Georges

That is amazing. And I mean, I will have to say just that is one of the things that is always made me trust you more, Laura, is that you have the wherewithal even within the training, and I will just say the box of that model to say something’s missing, there is something amiss, I get to learn more, and you allowed, and I bet you so many people wish this, you allowed your patient to be your teacher. And I think that is oftentimes missed by, not I’m not going to say one type of medicine or not another, but just practitioners to be that listener, to be that voice that trusts that patient and to say, this is where my source or their health comes, it comes from them. So I, that just gives you, in my opinion, so much integrity. And I always really appreciate you for that and I wish other other practitioners had that.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Hold. I have to honestly say I did not always listen to my patients, so I was really high and mighty that this was the way, writing this prescription, there is only one way to solve this. I did not always listen. I listened when I was ready. Finally, I had learned enough to see something was missing here. People are not getting better and it is that whole concept of when you are ready, the teacher will appear and you will hear them. And sometimes my patients are my greatest teachers. It is absolutely true.

Daniela Jean-Georges

I love that. And I love you like this just now like the level of transparency you have had with this, it is just, it is incredible. I love that about you. So let me, you know, just going digging deeper into this a little bit, tell me, why is gut health so related and so important to mitochondrial functioning?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah, this is the crux of it. Right? So where do we begin? Where do we start to solve your energy issues to get your mitochondria in line? Now, mitochondria, the whole mitochondria discussion is rather new, I would say in the functional space gut health showed up on the scene, you know, over ten years ago. It became really popular. Now, mitochondria ten years ago, people who were talking about mitochondria were kind of pooh-poohed. And I will tell you that I never learned once about mitochondria in we learn about it in physiology class and anatomy class but we do not learn about it beyond that in terms of treatment in the Western world, we do not support mitochondria when we are treating people. And so the mitochondria conversation in the last couple of years has become really mainstream, kind of like gut health. Well, the thing is, they are so tied closely together, gut health and mitochondria. When I very first started working in my functional practice the virtual clinic that I have had for all these years. I focused right away on supporting people with gut health but there was this missing piece to getting people well and solving problems, and it was mitochondria. 

We were not adding mitochondria support in the beginning when I was working with our patients. And so now that I know how critical those two pieces are, it is like peanut butter and jelly, right? Like you can not one without the other. So in terms of mitochondria functioning, I mean, on this summit, we have some of the world’s greatest thinkers and minds on mitochondria functions. So I’m going to encourage everyone to watch those talks. I’m not going to break down mitochondria functioning here because that is why I brought all these experts together to teach you that. So in terms of gut health, at the most basic level, your gut processes, the food, and food is fuel so this is really critical. If our digestive system breaks down food into smaller parts vitamins, minerals, macronutrients being fat, protein, and carbs, and then all cells, including mitochondria inside of us, need these nutrients to survive. It makes sense how this is connected because you can not fix cellular health, mitochondria heath if you are not at the most basic level absorbing the food that you bring into your body. And you know, Daniela, we talk to patients all the time when we run their gut tests and we look at what is going on inside of them, we see major digestive problems. They see that they are not even absorbing their food.

Daniela Jean-Georges

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So also remember this. If you take something away from this talk, remember that all cells, including the mitochondria inside your cells. So mitochondria are these little tiny organisms inside the cells. They need nutrients to survive. And when we have got dysfunction in leaky gut, we are more likely to have deficiencies. And what it looks like to us is maybe food intolerances or what it looks like to you, the viewer. So when you have these deficiencies, it might feel like food intolerances or even to healthy foods. And then you might end up getting in a situation where you avoid foods or entire food groups that make you feel bloated or achy or brain foggy or tired, and you will have reduced absorption of nutrients from your inflamed gut lining. So you just feel like you do not have the energy at a basic level to get through your day. And you also end up having a higher need for certain nutrients due to constantly needing to repair your intestinal walls. 

So when you experiencing this have gut inflammation and leaky gut and gut imbalance, it is a lot of extra nutrients that, are needed just to solve and repair that on a daily basis, not to mention getting nutrients out to the rest of your body. So when you are experiencing this gut dysbiosis in the beginning the changes are small. So you might feel like my immune system is not great. I get sick all the time and when I get sick like everybody in my family recovers fast. But it takes me a long time to recover. So this may be a sign of what’s going on in your gut with a leaky gut, and then you might feel like you have got inflammation. I talk to people all the time who say I feel inflamed. I just know there is inflammation in my body. Well, how do you know that? Well, you know, my joints ache and I feel sluggish, and my brain just does not feel like it fires very well. Or I just feel off, my hormones feel off, or I just I do not feel great. I do not feel like I used to, you know, 20 years ago. So this may be the first minor changes and the minor changes lead to major changes. So we get this overload in our bodies of toxins. And this is one of the things we specialize in helping people reduce toxic load and remove toxins but our gut actually secretes the bacteria in our gut can secrete toxins as well. We call them endotoxins and so you get this overload and you get this what we would call a leaky brain. Where you get the blood-brain barrier dysregulation and dysfunction, where you just can not seem to put thoughts together as you did or stay focused like you used to, or be able to be as productive throughout your day as you used to. 

You get to end up with brain neurotransmitter imbalance, and that equates to moodiness or anxiety or depression or feeling like just on edge or quick to anger or feeling like you do not get joy or pleasure out of the things that you used to be happy doing. And then over those minor changes leading to major changes you might end up with some diagnoses, right? So you could end up with some autoimmune conditions. I mean, the autoimmune conditions that we are faced with every day are growing and growing and growing. I mean, you know, 40 years ago there was a handful of autoimmune conditions and now we have just overwhelming amounts of new ones cropping up all the time. But some of the ones that you may be familiar with are things like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis or celiac disease or Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. But now there are all kinds of autoimmune conditions that relate to skin and bone and muscle and all areas of the body. So this moodiness, anxiety, depression, inability to sleep, fatigue, brain fog, all of this becomes very apparent and you realize the things that I’m doing are not working anymore. And I would say you have got to go back to gut health foundationally to support this and solve it.

Daniela Jean-Georges

100%, Laura. And I will just say, I mean, you helped me. And you know if some of our experienced viewers who know you and myself know this but you helped me and that was my experience my gut had such great dysbiosis and I was having anxiety, frustration, anger, and depression and it was so uncharacteristic of me. And you called it and you helped me with this connection. So are there, is there, you have we talked about the gut and the mitochondria and you are kind of bringing the brain in. Can you share a little bit more about this connection between the gut, the brain, and the mitochondria? Because I will tell you, for me, you changed my life. I had a miserable year and my life completely shifted. And I, I wanted just to get on the rooftops and yell to the world.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah, it was. I’m glad you are bringing this up and sharing this. I mean, it is one of the reasons that you work with me now is because once we solved your issue rather quickly and pretty simply. Once we knew what was going on, your whole entire year of being in this place it shifted for you and it shifted permanently. This was years ago now that we solved this for you. So you are a perfect example of the connection between the gut, brain, and mitochondria. Now your gut microbiome, I want you to think of it as made up of three things. So there is a community of bacteria that lives inside of us. There is the immune system. So we know that about 80 to 90% of our immune system is actually housed in our gut microbiome and then there is this neurological brain system that regulates everything that helps your microbiome communicate with your body. So that neurological system, the nerve system is also there are nerves all over our body. There is a neurological system inside of our gut as well. Now, in terms of mitochondria, they are the stimulators of the same immune and neurological systems that interact with the gut. So you need this connection and communication in order for the immune system to fire off. And the mitochondria are stimulating that kind of firing of the immune system. 

So for example, an example we can use is food poisoning. So pretty much everybody viewing has had food poisoning at some point from childhood through adulthood. It is almost impossible not to happen. And that is where you eat something and then you have like terrible diarrhea and three days of pain, abdominal diarrhea and sweats and you clear it and then you are okay. And usually, that is food poisoning. So there is this communication back and forth between the mitochondria and the gut microbiome or the microbiota that regulates the body’s immune system response. And what is happening here is that two different sets of organisms, bacteria, and mitochondria are communicating back and forth to keep everything going and smoothly moving and healthy. So mitochondria, and you are going to hear this on all the talks on this summit. Mitochondria are derived from bacteria. So if you think of pre historically what these are, you know anciently what ancient times what mitochondria are from the beginning of humanity, they came from bacteria. So let us talk about what goes wrong. So first off, you have this gut imbalance and that drives inflammation and then you have an overgrowth of disease-causing pathogenic bacteria, parasites, and yeast. And this inflammation increases in the gut and eventually moves through the gut and throughout your whole body. And inflammation is seriously damaging to mitochondria. And there are a lot of talks on this summit explaining the cascade in the process of inflammation in the body. So be sure to tune into all of that. 

But the most up-to-date research shows us that the thing that affects mitochondria the most is uncontrolled inflammation and this is that long-term chronic type of inflammation, not just a short-term acute response to an injury. Like when you twist your ankle or burn your hand but this long term inflammation sets in and the mitochondria can no longer regulate energy production which is one of the reasons that people with inflammation feel low energy fatigue and slow brain function. So the second thing here is that you have an overgrowing and overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria from your gut that releases something called endotoxins. Now, this is a really important thing to understand. These endotoxins end up in your bloodstream and they float around to everywhere and anywhere blood flows. And this affects your mitochondria systemically because we have mitochondria in every cell of our body and we have the highest concentrations of mitochondria in our organs like our heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys. And think of endotoxins as poison the mitochondria and it slows them down and decreases the population. 

So chances are that our viewers right now have heard of LPs or Lipopolysaccharide sites. This is an endotoxin and it is found in all kinds of diseases. And we know it is and we know it derives from the gut and goes throughout the body. And we know it is the main driver of fatty liver disease, for example. We know it is a main driver of mitochondrial inflammation and studies have even shown us when we do autopsies on the brains of people with Alzheimer’s, their brains are full of LPs, lipopolysaccharide and so this is deriving from the gut. So when we are working with our clients in our programs and we are telling them we want to start with supporting your gut, we have to work on decreasing the production of LPs. We need to work on getting the immune system online. We need to work on organic because remember that the immune system is in the gut. We need to work on getting that communication between mitochondria and the gut going so that we can solve the energy problems. So that we can solve the brain fog problem. So that we can solve the moodiness and the neurotransmitter brain problem. So that we can solve the skin eruptions and irritations, the joint pain, the migraine headaches. It is all critical that we start with the gut.

Daniela Jean-Georges

It is so funny. It almost sounds too good to be true. And I always, when I first heard about connection and connection to everything, I almost did not believe it. And it is so true. It is just Grand Central Station and I’m always just so floored by everything it can do. And I mean, a lot of people my age have elderly parents. And so when you talk about all that going on in the brain and the gut as a source, it is just right.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So, Daniela, in your case, you opened up to me. I mean, I know you so well before you worked for me. You were a close friend, and you one day opened up to me and told me like I am suffering from deep depression and I’m getting ready to go on an antidepressant and I do not know what to do.

Daniela Jean-Georges

I was.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah. And so what we did was one of the very first things we did was we did a gut test and we did a few different tests on you. And we found some nutrient deficiencies and we worked on giving your body the support of nutrients it needed and simultaneously solving gut problems so that your body could make the neurotransmitters it needed to solve the brain inflammation in the brain problem that was manifesting, as I feel, no interest or joy in anything with my children, my hobbies, my husband. Will you talk a little bit about that?

Daniela Jean-Georges

Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, I got to the point. Well, let me first start by saying that my norm was I know this about myself. I’m a very patient, loving, supportive, joyful person. My year was anything but that I had very high standards of what my children needed to behave like every complaint I had of them was justified but their children for crying out loud. They are supposed to test your boundaries. They are not supposed to be perfect. And anything that was not perfect, I had no tolerance for it. I was exhausted by my own company. I do not know if that resonates with people. I did not recognize who I was in the mirror anymore, and I think what pained me the most, it was I did not feel like my children had their mom and literally for me it was such a quick turnaround and everyone is different. And I think I was abnormally quick but it was a two-week turnaround. 

Everything on the paper in the mirror was the same. I had the same children, that kind of the same husband as I had, the same house, I had at the same job. All the things that my experience of all the same things was a polar opposite. I joke, and joke that I felt like I could have put my finger out the window and like had a little bird land and the bird and I would be chirping. I mean, I know that is a little bit like very Cinderella. Yeah, it is like such a joke. Cinderella. No way. No way.

That is that sort of. I mean, I remember texting you going, Oh, my gosh, I’m so happy. This is so great. Like, my teeth felt clean. I do not know. It was so different. It felt kind of too good to be true, but it was real, you know? You gave me the recipe. The gut tests gave us the clues. My body was the boss, and I executed it. And it was. Yeah, I looked back and like you said, it was sustainable. I’m still.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

And we never put you on an antidepressant. We never put kind of pharmaceuticals of.

Daniela Jean-Georges

Yeah, I visited the doctor and I do not like medications. And I visited the doctor.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah. And I’m glad that you said for every single person we work with it is different. Right. So at this, this is your journey. We work with a lot of people who have different varying degrees of symptoms and different timelines because everybody has it. And I just want to say this, everybody has a different genetics and be different toxic exposures. So between those two things, your outcome of what we do to support you is going to be unique to you. So for some of our clients, they feel better in two, or three weeks, and for others, they hit their stride at three months. It depends on what we are dealing with. And we do a lot of evaluation and testing in our programs to not just look for gut health but to also look and see what toxins is their mold mycotoxins are they are heavy metals. Are there environmental toxins and like glyphosate, for example, we have a wonderful lecture about glyphosate on this summit. And is there, are you getting your body products full of phthalates and parabens that are getting in your body? 

Do you have a high level of volatile organic compounds which are off-gassing from our environment, our furniture, our walls, our flooring, and our cars. We inhale these and they make us sick. And then you pair that with your genetics, and everybody’s going to have a different, you know, experience of solving this. So it is not cookie cutter, it is not one size fits all. Everybody’s going to have a unique journey. But what we have done with our process is we have figured out a way to get people better, faster, right, to get people feeling better. So I’m glad that you talk and, you know, everybody’s different. Some people come with depression. Some people come with anxiety. I mean, anxiety is the big one, right? How many clients do we have that come to us? Just a ball of anxiety. And within four weeks or so, they are just they are not levitating anymore. They are coming down. You know what I’m thinking of particular clients right now. And then and then after two months, it is even calmer. And after three months, they are smiling and showing up. And now they want to share with everybody like this.

Daniela Jean-Georges

Is it, this is how are you?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

And their families are noticing a difference. I mean, so if that does not illustrate the connection between brain and gut and I’m not doing, you know, special brain training treatments to people, we are working on gut health and brain is changing. Yeah.

Daniela Jean-Georges

Yeah. It is that ripple effect. Right. So, you know, you are bringing up this I loved how you take the conversation and really just kind of brought it to ten different journeys and how unique this is for different people. And so in the new guidance, Laura, like when people work with you what is the first thing that you do to support their health journey?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah. So before we can do any kind of detoxification of metals and toxins and pesticides and mold we have to get the gut and immune system restored. And I think that is becoming apparent through this talk. The first thing we do is take you through a gut-restoring journey because it is so foundational. I talk about restoring the gut, like creating a runway. So it is like you can not, you can not put an airplane into the air unless it has a good runway, to begin with. And then once you get that runway, once it is on the runway and it is moving, then it can take off. And so that is literally how I think of the process of restoring the human body is we have to start on the runway. We would like to do some of the fun, exciting stuff, like people want it like, but I want to know what toxins are inside of me and I want to start clearing those out right away. If the runway is not ready, it is going to be a longer, more expensive, and annoying process to solve that. So why not shortcut it and make it easier on people by starting at the foundation?

The other analogy that we can use excuse me. It is like getting your house in order before you can remodel the kitchen so you can not have the cupboards and the countertops full of clutter and simultaneously have your contractor come over and install new cupboards and countertops. You actually have to clean them up first, take all that stuff, pack it away, put it in another room. So the contractor can come in and remodel your kitchen and your healing journey is the same way. You cannot restore your mitochondrial energy production, and your brain stamina, or get rid of irritating chronic symptoms like pain and eczema and bloat, and headaches until you repair your gut health, which also restores your immune function and allows your mitochondria to do their job. So once you do that, then you have created the foundation to all healing and then you can take off from there.

Daniela Jean-Georges

You know, Laura, I do not think I have ever two years, but that is one of my favorite things about how you work with our clients is you have an order of operation. And not only do you have that order because it is the most productive, but you are also very aware of people’s investments. And you do not, there are certain things you do. And when you do them so that they do not have to spend money twice, you are going to do it once and you are going to be efficient and so effective. And I love that about your methodologies. I just want to put that out there.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Thank you. I appreciate that. This is really because a lot of functional medicine is not covered by insurance. We do not take insurance. It is we are not playing in that insurance plan. And this allows me to do a lot more for people. And we take it very seriously when people say, I’m coming to you for help. We want them to get the most bang for their buck. We want them to get the most out of their time with us. And so it is really important that we aren’t willy-nilly throwing a bunch of lab tests at people before it makes sense. So I’m a huge fan of tests. Don’t guess. I’m a huge fan of using labs to help guide us. I mean, it was labs that helped me figure out this is what you need in terms of nutrients to help your brain. So that helped me immensely. And the power of doing labs at the right time is something that we have crafted here. This is something that we take very seriously. And there is a right time to do labs.

And so and I also just want to say before we keep going, that if you do not do the lifestyle pieces, there is no lab test and no supplement plan that will help you. You must be committed to prioritizing sleep. You must be committed to prioritizing the food that goes into your body as being unprocessed, whole, and clean clear of pesticides and herbicides. You must be committed to moving your body, whatever that looks like for you. And we have clients. I mean, we work with people with multiple sclerosis and people who use walkers and you know who I’m thinking of right now? She is extraordinary and she moves her body to her own ability. So we do not compare her to the athletes that work with me. She is on her own body movement journey, and she does what she can do. But she is committed to moving her body, which has helped her immensely in her process. You must be committed, and I can not say this enough. You must be committed to taking a look at your home environment and the things inside your home that are making you sick, whether it be the water you are drinking, the air, your breathing, the cleaners you are using, the body products you are using, the bed, sleeping in the where you are getting your clothes dry cleaned. I mean, all of this is important to solving this.

And the people who work with us, I would say that they are not passive in their journey. So people who work with us are active in their journey. They are hungry to know how to solve this and they understand that it is all these pieces together that are going to solve it. So I can not say this loud enough if you are looking for a supplement protocol to solve your problem without changing anything else, we cannot help you. That is just trading one medicine cabinet for another. So in the Western world, we write a prescription and we give you a drug that you fill at the pharmacy. We do not want to get in the business of trading that prescription pad for a supplement prescription pad. We have to bring in all these other aspects. Now we can move the dial and can support you immensely with supplement protocols we did with you, Daniela, and then we got to pull back so they are not forever, right? The other thing we do not want is that you are relying on supplements forever. We want to use them when it makes sense, and get you feeling better, and then eventually we are going to pull back on them.

Daniela Jean-Georges

Yeah, yeah. I mean, my experience of our journeys with our client is a partnership where we are shoulder to shoulder and we are both walking forward in action and supporting and guiding, but they are taking huge amounts of action and commitment. It really takes a lot of commitment.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

It does. It does. And if you are not committed, we are not the, I’m not your girl partnership. I’m going to be there for you and you have got to be there for yourself. And Daniela is going to be there for you.

Daniela Jean-Georges

That is beautiful. Yeah. Okay. So, you know, speaking of what to do when so you have this signature process called the open clear rebuild. And this is another one of those timing how-to is how long things that you just mastered and it is extremely effective. Can you tell us how this helps our clients have permanent success with their healing plan? So yeah. Open, clear, rebuild.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah. So in the early days when I first started dabbling in functional medicine, I did not understand the concept of opening the internal drainage pathways and that is because it really was not taught when I was taking classes at the AFM and studying with some of the most respected functional medicine doctors in the world, this piece was not taught and that is because it is more of a by-regulatory medicine, a new German functional medicine type concept. And if you go back to the runway concept, if we do not open your internal drainage pathways, which are your drainage organs and that would be your liver, your kidneys, your bowels, your lymphatic system, all of this is where we funnel toxins out of the body. And for many people, it is clogged up like a clogged pipe or clogged garbage. And if you are going to be pulling toxins and killing fungus and bacteria and parasites, you are going to be dumping a lot of toxins into that already strained system. It is going to overflow and you are going to feel horrible. We call it a Turkheimer reaction where you start killing infections and you start moving toxins and people feel like they get hit with a bus. 

They feel like they are coming down with the flu, they are nauseous, and they are achy. And I did that to a lot of people in the beginning before I realized this is missing. This is a huge missing piece. So that is what Open is about, is creating the internal environment so that we can successfully remove infections and toxins without dropping your energy, without making you achy, without making you moody, without making you have a fever and nausea and diarrhea and all that terrible stuff that happens when you are unloading and getting clearing out the body. And then we, yeah, it makes so much sense. And in this phase of open, people generally have like huge, like just this phase alone. People feel so much better. They feel like they are becoming present with their families again. They are not using weekends for recovery. They are getting through their day without needing a nap or an extra cup of coffee. They feel like they can finally go out and move their body like they wanted to because the recovery time is so much less so much happens in this open phase. And then during the clear phase, this is when we bring in the herbals and botanicals to start clearing parasites. Clear bacteria, clear toxins. We use specific herbs and binders that will clear out toxins safely and efficiently without dropping people’s energy. And then that phase goes on for a couple of months, depending on your gut test findings and your symptoms, and how you are feeling. 

And then what we do is this beautiful rebuild. So rebuild is actually not intended to be after the clear process, rebuild can be layered on top of open and clear. That is your basic gut rebuilding and supporting and strengthening protocol that we use herbs and food and lifestyle to support the rebuild and the strengthening of the gut wall, the immune system within the gut, and the microbiome. And that piece can occur at any time during your healing process. It is distinctly made to layer in at any time. It took me a long time to figure this out, Daniela. It took me working with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people to realize, oh, this is the magic. And I would say this is my process. I do not know anybody else who does this process. We figured out what worked by trial and error, by listening and by allowing my patients to be my teachers, and by being willing to be wrong. That was also like I had to be willing to realize the way I was doing things was not always helping people in the best way. And to be willing to go back to the drawing board and say how can we do this in a way that can cut time, that can cut the cost, that can get people results so they can go off. I mean just, you share, would you share in this moment some of the things you have seen in our group classes and with our private clients and what they say like how they feel because it is the most amazing experience for us?

Daniela Jean-Georges

It really is. Is that I could just share this ad nauseam with people. I mean, just the other day, I think it was just last week, there was a woman who was I could not go to church anymore. I could not do my chores around the house. I had to lay down shoes. And now I can now I’m going to church. Now I can actually be productive in my own home. I mean, just that. And to see that joy and the expression in her voice, I mean, it is just like I have a tail and it wags. It is so sweet. I mean, I think there are other people that also, like, I can play with my children now. You know, that was one of my experiences. And I want to play with my children now instead of like at the end of the night. I know a lot of parents will relate when they are reading the book and they just kind of do the CliffsNotes version. They read it quickly because they are so tired. They just want to go to bed versus reading the book and acting it out and having fun with your kid.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Or grandkids.

Daniela Jean-Georges

Or grandkids, exactly like there is the stuff on paper and like all our symptoms. And then there is the reality, the trickle-down effect. I mean, joy, freedom, energy, and brain clarity. People are more effective at work. I remember one client, she started having more sales in her job and she could take on more responsibilities. I mean, these are the ripple effects that come into our lives and we see it all the time.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I love it. I know every week, there is a new week, every week. So I would say somebody pops every week. So we run, you know, we have different ways that you can work with us. We have a wonderful group program where we meet once a week for 12 weeks and just answer questions. And it is a fantastic community and everybody’s just prospering and healing and rejuvenating. And they are somebody’s pops every week with, finally I had my breakthrough. I’m feeling so much better. And then and then we also work with people on a private level for people who want more of a 1 to 1, you know, kind of a VIP. I want access to Lauren, and Daniela whenever I want it. I have experience. We have that, too. But it is just, it is so much fun what we do. So thank you so much, Daniela, for helping me at this talk real quick.

Daniela Jean-Georges

Laura, sorry. Can you, so I know a lot of people, a lot of viewers out there are going, oh, my gosh, she is talking to me. I have that same brain thing or I have that same, you know, whatever they are relating to. Can you give our viewers information on how to find us online?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yes. Okay. So clearly, I’m the producer of this summit. So my link to my website is on every page of the summit. So you should be able to click and go to LauraFrontiero.com. And that is exactly where we are at Frontiero is spelled like the great frontier with O on the end. LauraFrontiero.Com we are also on Instagram. Laura.Frontiero. And you can, you can find our services and what we offer on the website. And you know, after we are done with the summit, I will have some masterclasses coming out where we will do some more teaching and guiding through different health topics related to gut and toxins and mitochondria and energy. And so stay tuned for that because it is coming a few weeks after this summit wraps up and then it is done viewing. We will have some more classes for you to attend. So thank you so much, Daniela, for being here, and thanks for being such a loving, guiding, nourishing part of our client experience. Oftentimes, Daniela may be the first person you encounter and she is like having a big warm hug over Zoom. So thank you so much for the love that you pour into our community. Could not do this without you.

Daniela Jean-Georges

I would do this over and over again. I just love what I do. I love it.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I love you. Alright. Until next time, everyone take good care. Bye now.