The Right Way to Detox: First, Fix Your Drainage

Introduction and Detox Overview 0:00

Is there a situation where you'd be like, this person is not healthy enough to actually start a detox and you have to go back and be, like let's kind of get you ready to start pulling all this bad stuff out of your system? Yeah. I mean, I've worked with some really sick people, you know, with mold toxicity or people who have long COVID or... You know, because I don't just deal with gut issues, but a lot, obviously, most of my people, you know have gut issue. That's how they found me. But yeah, I mean, a big, big piece of the puzzle is for those people who just aren't ready for detoxing.

I, mean you've really got to focus on down regulating the nervous system. So I love like breathing, grounding, the importance of sunlight in the eyes, focusing on sleep, It's really like the basic stuff that is free people take for granted, right? Like that's the stuff where they get the most profound impact and you've really got to calm that nervous system down. Maybe put them on some gut healing herbs to begin with just to start healing up leaky gut before putting them onto detox protocol. So yeah, there are some people who are just incredibly sensitive and we just really gotta, you know, down regulate the nervous and get them out of that fight or flight and back into the rest and digest, state that parasympathetic state for them to fully heal and be able to handle something like a detox.

You're listening to the Lifestyle Medicine podcast with Dr. Ivan Rusilko, brought to you by Access Lab, where we explore new perspectives at the forefront of personalized health care. Welcome back to the Lifestyle Medicine Podcast. I'm Dr. Ivan Rosilko, and we have got a special treat for you today. We have Dr Kate Davis, who is a chiropractor, a longevity expert. She does everything from gut health to cellular health, so I can't wait to get into it. And don't forget, we're powered by Access Medical Labs.

If your doctor's not checking labs, they're not a doctor. Dr, Kate, how are you, today? Thanks for stopping by. Oh, I'm doing so great. Thanks so much for having me, Dr. Ivan. My goodness. So where at in the country are you currently? I am curious. I was in South Beach. It's always beautiful. Always paradise. Oh yeah. Well, the other part of the county is the same. In San Diego, Southern California. Best of both worlds here, right? Yeah, but I grew up in Florida, so I do love Florida. Whereabouts in florida?

North Florida, it was like Northwest in the Panhandle Destin area. Oh, super cool. All right. Yeah. Small town called Niceville. It does exist. That's a real place. So that's where I'm from. I know it does. People don't think it's real and I have sweatshirts to prove it, okay? If it is on a sweats shirt, its got to be real. Good, good, so what I love about that, you know, what we're gonna discuss today, it's all about detoxification and how to do it right. So there's a lot of things out there that says I'm going to juice cleanse, I am detoxing from parasites, but nobody really kind of goes into science behind it.

They just think they're doing stuff that's fun and fancy and you they like to feel good about themselves. I really like the dig in today and talk about when to detox, why to detox and actually how we detox. Is that something that you think you're ready to rock and roll? Yeah, yeah. I talk about it all the time. It's a very important topic, especially in today's day and age with all of the hype around detoxing. So yeah, I'm excited to chat about that.

Kate Davis' Parasite Journey 2:53

Let's just get right into it. Define detox, because detox can be many different things. Can be through sweating in a sauna, can through defecation, it can mean through urination. What's your favorite method of detoxification and why? Yeah, well, I think the biggest thing when I talk about detoxification is that we're really trying to remove stressors in the body that are causing damage to your organs and messing up your body's ability for your immune system to function, for you to go to the bathroom properly, to digest your food, absorb nutrients.

And so the big thing is really removing infections and toxins from the bodies, and that's with binders, with herbs that really heal up the Those organs, they remove things like mold toxicity, heavy metals, parasites. That's the biggest thing I talk about because of my journey with massive parasite infection. But yeah, that's really what detoxing is, is just using herbs and binders to help your body get the stuff out that has been building for years or decades and has causing a lot of health issues.

No, and again, the reason I like speaking to practitioners such as yourself is that you come from personal experience. A lot of people get in this industry for various things. Obviously the wellness industry is too big to fail. There's so much money to be made. It's kind of a fun and easy way to do it, but it's always good to see practitioners who actually have a reason for getting into it. So can you touch on your whole parasite journey and what really excites you now about detoxification? Yeah, it's just such a great way to heal.

For me, my journey started in my early 20s. I was very healthy. It was a former D1 athlete.I didn't look like someone who would have severe gut issues, but I ended up with really severe constipation for 13 days. Couldn't have a single bowel movement. couldn't eat more than a small amount of food. Otherwise, I felt super bloated. Had acid reflux, all sorts of bad stuff going on. Luckily, went to the medical route, right? You go to medical doctor, the GI doc, and all they gave me were two terrible options.

They said, number one, we can give you a drug, but it does have a very common side effect of permanent facial twitches. And I was like, well, I am in my early 20s and single, so I'm going to say no on that one. What else you got, doctor? And I was like, no, I'm good. What else you got? And he's like or we can remove your intestines. And i was, like I want to go find someone else. So I did that when asked around. I know. Isn't that crazy? Those are the only two options they gave me was well, you have gastroparesis.

That's what they diagnosed me with where it just means stomach paralysis. Your food can't move into your intestine, which is really, really bad. Luckily, I asked around my school. I was in chiropractic school at the time. It just started and had all these crazy health issues. But I found someone who was a chiopractor who had a background in myofascial release and massage therapy and things like that. So he did some organ myfascia release on my abdomen, did organ manipulation. Stuff I didn't even know was a thing.

I'd never heard of someone who did something like that. And I swear I lost like 10 pounds that night. Had like four to five bowel movements that day. After almost two weeks of not being able to go, I was on Miralax for 11 of those days. Hallelujah. You know what I mean? And oh my God, like I've never felt better in my entire life. Thank you God that I got all this waste out of my system. It was so bad. From there I just overhauled my diet. went completely paleo, dairy-free, gluten- free, felt completely fine unless I strayed from my diet and then everything would come back.

And so I went that way for about a decade, had a really stressful life event, all the symptoms came back worse than they were before and I realized it's because I had underlying infections that had never been addressed. And what's crazy is that that chiropractor who fixed me the first time told me I'm very, very sure you have a parasite infection. You need to get tested. I did a stool test. It was negative because they usually show false negatives for those ones. And I didn't know that at the time.

So I was like, no, I don't have parasites. He's like no you need go see a naturopath. Didn't listen to him. You know, luckily about 10 years later, I was like, maybe I should take his advice. And so functional medicine doctor did some testing, found a massive parasite infection, lots of other issues going on as well. But that was the biggest thing for me because, you know two months in I passed a three foot long parasite. It was gigantic. I didn't even know they could grow that big in such a short period of time.

Or did I? But now I do. It was crazy and after that I had hundreds of different ones come out all different shapes and sizes like I was honestly baffled that i could have that

Testing for Parasites and Toxins 6:54

many parasites in my body you know because we're taught you were probably taught this in med school right is like oh parasites don't exist in first world countries you It's only if you go to Asia or South America or Africa and then, you know, here we are. Here I am in America, passing hundreds of parasites and all my gut issues went away. All the fatigue went, away all the swelling in my joints. You know I was on the verge of an autoimmune disease at that time. And, and so I just really grateful that, my friend was in town.

She was a functional medicine doctor and she figured out what was going on. So it was just life changing for me. Let's touch on the diagnosis of this. So there's many different ways to go through and look at it. There's fecal testing. Even blood testing can show hints of it in your practice. When you're talking to patients and you suggest this stuff, what kind of testing do you go to actually diagnose that there might be this issue? And what additional tests might affected by it? Yeah, and so a lot of people will do a stool test, right?

They'll come in with like a GI map, a gut zoomer, you know, those kinds of tests. And they sometimes pick up on, parasites. I like the gut Zoomer a little better because it will show you if you have eosinophils like in the actual fecal matter, which on blood work is typically what you look for for parasite infection. But again, it doesn't always show up, Right? It's not gonna always shop on Bloodwork. A lot times you've to go based on symptoms plus testing and kind of put your best judgment together to be like, we're gonna go after them because I believe they're there.

And usually people will see, you know, tons of them come out. But actually for me, because I'd done stool testing, I've had dozens of patients who have done multiple stool tests, never showed parasites. And the one test that my friend did on me that actually picked up on them was actually a hair follicle test from a company called Cell Wellbeing. the only test that I ever picked up on parasites, and it's picked-up on parasites in a lot of my patients who have had negative stool results before they saw me.

And those were the ones who saw dozens of them come out. I post them on Instagram all the time, you can go look at those pictures of all my patient who had crazy stuff coming out, but yeah, it was really a hair follicle test. There's lots of newer tests nowadays that are just really cool and really fascinating that they can pick up this stuff just from pieces of hair. Um, but that was really the best test that I found for parasites specifically, But I also really love the gut zoomer and then, you know, for toxins, like trying to find heavy metals and things like that in the body.

I love that, You know total tox burden test and like urine testing. That's really good for sure. A lot of people don't know when it comes to toxins. You have urine, blood, provoked urine. Saliva, even if you have mercury and hair testing, so it's kind of a gamut. the patient. You know, you want to see recent exposure, check blood or unprovoked urine, yada yad, and you go through all these kind of different things. Do you have a formula or a way that you'd go thru and say, okay, I'm talking to this patient, they have certain, certain amount of symptoms, i can kindof guess it's this, or you can go, ah, let's do blood,or let us do stool or let s do urine testing.

Is there a specific way you do that? Or is it just kind you give your set formula and just say hey, lets just do the regular batch of testing? Yeah. I mean, I'd say the stuff I change up is probably blood work, depending on their testing. Cause obviously you don't want to just look at gut, right? Like you also want see what their metabolic health like. And you love talking about that. So important, yeah. You know, looking at blood sugar and fasting insulin and you know even inflammatory markers like CRP is so important for people who are have really severe health issues.

And so I'd say the blood work I change up depending on symptoms and kind of what they're going through. Like I might order a full thyroid panel if I think there's some thyroid stuff going on. But in terms of like general testing, I love the hair follicle test is like my number one go-to because it's really affordable for most people too.

When Not to Detox Yet 10:20

It's going to show you organ dysfunction, like gallbladder issues, liver issues leaky gut, nutrient deficiencies, infections, toxins, all in one test, which I really like. And then sometimes I'll just, you know, go with, especially people who live out of the country. I do, gut zoomer, total tox burden from vibrant wellness. They've got great tests there. And there's just a, that's really where I start because that usually the missing link for gut issues is infections and toxins because most Doctors, they don't check for that stuff, right?

It's like unless you go to a naturopath or functional medicine doctor or an integrative doctor like yourself, like they're not really gonna pick up on that kind of stuff. So I like doing that because most people already have, you know, They've already probably done a stool test. They have done an SIBO breath test or, You know some gallbladder testing they already know if they have fatty liver and you that kinda stuff So by the time they get to me, it's usually the infections and toxins piece that they are just missing.

Yeah, so it really depends on the person. So, so let's say they get to and you've identified it. Do you have cases to where you're looking at this person? They're obviously not well. Okay. You can tell many different ways, just the color of their skin, the way they look, where they present themselves, but you know, they have a toxin or they a parasite or something in their system that's causing all this discord and whatnot. Is there a situation where, you'd be like, this, person is not healthy enough to actually start a detox.

And you, have to go back and be, like let, kind of get you ready to start pulling all those bad stuff out of your system. Yeah. I mean, I've worked with some really sick people, you know, with mold toxicity or people who have long COVID or, because I don't just deal with gut issues, but a lot, obviously, most of my people have gut issue. That's how they found me. But yeah, a big, big piece of the puzzle is for those people. Who just aren't ready for detoxing. You've really got to focus on down regulating the nervous system.

So I love like breathing, grounding, the importance of sunlight in the eyes, focusing on sleep, it's really like the basic stuff that is free people take for granted right like that's the stuff where they get the most profound impact and you've really got to calm that nervous system down maybe put them on some gut healing herbs to begin with just to start healing up leaky gut before putting them onto detox protocol so yeah there are some people who are just incredibly sensitive and we just really gotta you know down regulate the nervous System get them out of that fight or flight and back into the rest and digest you Know state that parasympathetic state for them to fully heal and be able to handle something like a detox No, for sure.

Well, what are some of the most important lifestyle modalities for somebody who's getting ready to go into a detox program? Sleep, fitness, all that kind of stuff. What do you suggest? Honestly, like my big two payoffs for people are grounding every day, you know, 15, 20 minutes, stick your feet in the earth, grass, sand, gravel, whatever it is, just make sure it's connected to the Earth. And there's a lot of research. Hold on, I'm serious. Did you think pavers work as well? So the stones that they put down, and I've had so many people go back and forth saying, well, theoretically it was a stone, but maybe.

I don't know. Some people say concrete like sidewalks are technically still grounding because there's no synthetic in it.

Lifestyle Foundations for Detox 13:10

But I just say go find grass or sand. It's usually your best bet. We live in beach areas so it's easy for us to get grounding and just go for a walk on the beach. Grounding is great. There's lots of research on that around reducing inflammation in the body and making your blood less sticky. That's number one. Sunlight, so incredibly important, you know, like not wearing sunglasses all the time, getting sunlight at sunrise and sunset. So you should tell people, just stack it. Go to the beach at sunrises or sunset, do some grounding, get the sunlight, and then also do something breathing.

Breathing is like the fastest way to physiologically kind of reset your nervous system and get your body down into a more relaxed state where your immune system functions, where things are working the way they're supposed to. Those are probably my top three. is grounding at sunset, sunrise, and then doing some breathing. Box breathing is a great way to start. But if you do an exhalation focus, it actually has better benefits on getting you into that rest and digest state where you four seconds in, hold for four second, breathe out for eight seconds, then hold four for seconds.

If you that for two to three minutes, multiple times a day, its really going to help reset your nervous system. So more of like trapezoid breathing. I always find it fascinating too. And again, like, you know, everybody comes to my clinic here and again it's always all this high tech stuff, stem cells, ectoderms, hyperbarics, and then all these reports that we generate lifestyle minutes is probably one of the most important things of it. Fitness, food, stress reduction, sleep and hydration. And every one of my patients gets this report on how to stress-reduce.

And it's always a specific type of breathing that's matched to either their cortisol levels, their lifestyle, whatever it could be. The science behind breathing is just fascinating. You know how the vagus nose attaches to the diaphragm, you stretch it out, and you relax, it dumps all these different types of neurohormones onto the actual heart. I just think it doesn't get a lot of promotion or publicity because unfortunately back in the day it was probably promoted by the wrong people. You know, I mean, like, if you're like that person's, you know a hippie or this, that or the other.

Ah, no, the science is amazing. Listen to them. So I'm very glad that you that that's something that your your, your really, yeah, it's a huge deal. Also, when it comes to breathing alone, how much we detox through our breath, right? Yeah, it's kind of crazy. People just don't realize how much is connected to breathing. And there's so many books written on it. The Oxygen Advantage was one of the first books I ever read on breathing, fascinating book. Then there was Breath by James Nestor where he basically experimented on himself to see how bad it was to mouth breathe for 30 days and the results were insane.

If you haven't read that book, you've got to read it, It's amazing. Oh, it's funny again, like, you know, your nose has been for breathing. Your mouth has meant for eating. So you start changing that around. You're breathing the wrong things in and putting the right things into your lungs. Yeah. It's the way I always like to equate it is all of your autonomous systems in your body, Your heart rate, how your kidneys function, even your breathing, You have no control over it. The only one that you do have control of is obviously your breath.

And it kind of like going from an automatic to like a manual stick shift. And being able to go between both of those, I mean, the amount of detox, amount energy, recouping, it's fascinating. So I think breathing is a whole other conversation, whole another podcast. But I'm very happy that you tie that in with your patients, because a lot of physicians don't. A lot lifestyle medicine is really lost on it, and detox is one of the biggest things as well. When it comes to those kind of things, what kind treatments, so say you find somebody with a heavy metal.

Let's start with heavy metals and we'll work our way to parasites. What's the best way go about a detox in a smart way? Yeah, and that's a great question because I think it's probably the most important thing to answer for detoxing because so many people do it wrong. I've had people reach out to me on Instagram because they talk about parasites so much because of my own journey. They'll ask me, what parasite cleanse did you use? Or on the other spectrum, I'll get people who are like, yeah, and I feel worse than I did before I started it or I ended up in the ER or,

Drainage Pathways and Safe Detox Order 16:58

you know, all these horrible symptoms. And it's because if you don't detox in a certain order, if don t understand that, there's certain organs that remove toxic waste from your body. If you d n't fix those organs first before you start, systemically detoxing, and you could really have a terrible reaction, that's where people kind of get stuck. So you've got three organs, your gut, gallbladder and your liver. Those are the main ways that toxins are supposed to get out. It's the main way that waste products that your cells produce on a daily basis are suppose to go out and if you don't clear those pathways, if don t heal those, don' t do any testing to see if there's anything wrong with them before you start a protocol, you're really gonna get sick and really get messed up.

And so I've seen that with so many people where They jump on, you know, one product they saw on Instagram and it's like, oh, this is a systemic detox for heavy metals and they try it. And then they realize like their drainage pathways in their body are essentially like a clogged toilet. Then they just started dumping more in it and wondering why everything overflowed and created a mess in the body. So that's really what you have to focus on first is you to open up drainage. That's a really, really important.

maximizing the system and especially so my father was a chiropractor growing up. And again, I never had a headache my entire life. So I love the profession. That's why I went into osteopathy as well. I think it's fascinating the way it works. A lot of people understand your lymph system is built on basically the structure of your entire body. If you're tired, you sleep wrong, and you've twisted back here or there, that lymph can't move properly. And if you can move it properly, you aren't moving your your immune system around anywhere because what 80 to 90% of your system is housed around your gut.

The whole concept is that the part that's actually throughout your entire body needs to get to the gut so you as a profession with with chiropractics and all the different types of manipulation, do you find that The more somebody comes to visit you, the better that actual detoxification gets? Yeah. I mean, I closed my chiropractic practice a couple of years ago. Just do functional medicine full-time. But when I was treating my Chiropractic patients, and I had so many people, inflammation went down drastically.

They didn't have to see me as much anymore just from the detox. Then on the other end of the spectrum, just adjusting them while they were going through the Detox, they handled it so much better than people I work with now who maybe don't do a chiopractor regularly. Because you're right, the lymphatic system is like the fourth drainage pathway. You've got gut, gallbladder, liver, lymph. It's kind of like the sewage system in your body. If you can't get toxins and waste out of your brain, out your kidneys, and out from your lungs and get it sent to the liver, if your liver is struggling to detox naturally, you're going to get a backed up lymphatic system.

Like you said, that's when your own body starts sitting in its own waste. You can get headaches, migraines, brain fog, all those weird symptoms people get. in your hands and your feet. And it's really because of a drainage issue, but that's a huge part of that system is lymphatic drainage. So I teach people that as well is like, once we open up drainage, let's also start manually draining our lymphatics system and getting that functioning again, because that is a big part your immune system aswell.

It's not just for detoxing and drainage By far, by far. But when it comes to parasites, that's a whole different ballgame. How do you go about like what's your first, what your big first attack followed by the follow up bombings of it? How, how do figure out how to get a parasite cleanse properly? Yeah. So number one is if you're going to detox parasites, you've got to start with the gut first. Because again, that's your number-one drainage organ. And most people I see have gut issues, right? So we've gotta really focus on healing up the guts first before going after any sort of systemic parasites.

What I'll do is I usually target ropeworms, roundworm in the intestines with herbs and binders. The best binder I've found for that is called mimosa pudica seed. You'd be shocked at some of this. Some people, I'm like, almost stay away from mimosas regardless. I mean, orders from the herd with a drink, my God. Yeah, exactly. Um, but yeah, so it's, uh, it a great, you know, a, great thing to use to really get out those gut and intestinal parasites. And a lot of times you have to do that first before you can go after any systemic ones, because people like myself might have multiple things going on.

They might. Intestinal flukes, they might, have intestina ropeworms and liver flux and systemic parasites in their body. And you've got to just go in that slow safe order. Whereas what I see with a lot of people is they start with those systemic herbs, you know, like black walnut and wormwood and all that stuff. And they just start killing off parasites and there's nowhere for those toxins to go because what people don't realize is when you kill off Parasites in the body, they release a bunch of toxic waste into your system.

And so if you don't have anywhere for that to go, if your drainage pathways are looking like a clogged toilet, it's just going to everywhere and go systemic. And then you'll start seeing your blood work get really weird or you get migraines and headaches or flu-like symptoms or end up in the ER. I've heard that from so many people. Probably 10% of people I see are people who have to fix who detoxing properly because they didn't understand that if you just start killing off something in the body and you don't make a way for it to get out, especially if have leaky gut, that all those toxins are just recirculating back to your liver, creating more stress, more damage, and eventually you're going to create some really nasty symptoms.

What about things like ivermectin, albendazole, those kind of like the more medical route?

Parasite Cleansing Strategies 22:00

Did you see merit in those or do you think using things, like, the herbs and the binders in a more naturalistic way is actually good enough? Yeah. I mean, I've heard amazing things about it, especially from cancer patients. So I'm sure that it's definitely more in your realm of knowledge around whether or not it works. But I have had a lot of people tell me that they saw some crazy stuff come out, but I also tested people who still have parasites showing up on testing. And so even though they used ivermectin, orphanbendazole, or one of those one of those medications.

So I think it just really depends. I love using herbs and binders because they're gentle, gentle on the system. You know, like any, any... I know ivermectin is like one the safest drugs. And this is super controversial, you know? You came to the right place, my dear. It shouldn't be, but like it's one these safest drug ever invented. That's why it won, didn't it win a Nobel Peace Prize for being like, one cheapest drugs ever invented. I'm pretty sure it did, but you have to check me on that. But yeah, it's a really safe drug.

For the most part, like a lot of prescription medications, they tend to put a lotta stress on the kidneys or the liver. There's some sort of side effect that goes with it. That's why I love using herbs and binders. It's natural, straight from the earth, that's not gonna have as bad of a side effects as prescription meds. Um, and so I really liked the urban binder approach. People tend to do really well on it. They can still work, they can sell, you know, take care of their family. And they're not, You know laid up on the couch for, months at a time, detoxing, which is not how it should be if you're doing it properly, So, um, so yeah, I think there's a lot of benefit and value in those.

I just don't know a whole lot about them because I don' use them. It makes total sense. If you have one choice for urban Binder out of all of them, that's what I cover the most. What is your go-to? Yeah, well, for binders, anything with humic and fulvic acid has really, really good benefits to it. And so a lot of the more medical grade ones, you're going to need a doctor to actually order it for you. Let me just repeat that. For the more medical-grade binders, you're definitely going to need a doctor to order it for you.

But you can get stuff over-the-counter like Shilajit, I've heard is a really good one. There's a lot of companies now coming out with humic, fulvic acid bindings. And those ones are just really amazing because they can actually cross, there's some companies that make them to where they actually can cross the blood-brain barrier. Because if you're just on the old school ones like activated charcoal, clay, I mean, they really only target the gut. They're not really going to do more of a systemic detox for you.

And so that's where kind of the limitations are with those ones. But yeah, there's a lot of companies out now that can really use specific binders to go after certain organs. So what I love is you can use certain bindings to just target that gut and then to get a little more systemic to the liver and gallbladder and more systematic you know, for the whole body and really cross that blood-brain barrier and get toxins like heavy metals and pesticides and all that stuff out of your system. No, great.

Very true. Do you do anything like with antioxidants or things like that to kind of like, once you create this massive influx of dead parasites, is there anything you like and that's naturalistic that you can add to help the clearance of it or help boost the mitochondria to get the cleaning crew come in there? Um, not necessarily because I'm really trying to focus on let's heal the gut first so you can actually absorb nutrients. And then once we get some of those infections out, then I am really more focused on food as medicine.

I think that's honestly the best place to start for people is, okay, let us get rid of the processed crap you've been eating for the last 20 years. First and foremost, yes. Right? Yeah, let's get rid of the inflammatory stuff. Let's add in more seasonal fruits and veggies, especially high in antioxidants. But in terms of supplements, really the binders and the herbs do such a good job of supporting the body. And then I'll have people do things like maybe a castor oil pack to really support liver and just help dump those toxins out a little more efficiently.

Or do lymphatic drainage or really just doubling down on the lifestyle stuff during that detox process. A lot of liver support is definitely really important for that. No, for sure, I think parasites and heavy metals, it's one of the lost legs of longevity aspect. Everybody is so focused on what they see. Talking about three foot things coming out of you is not really a glamorous Instagram thing, but it is probably one the most important. You know what I mean? Like any type of parasite heavy metal or anything like that, a toxin is an environmental stressor.

Finding the Right Practitioner 26:18

And again, our job as healthcare practitioners is to identify all the stresses in the system and clear as many out as we can. So I definitely love the whole parasite angle along with the actual heavy metals, right? I think it's lost on a lot of people. So I do have a question. I have two questions for you since we're coming near our end here. Number one, for anybody who has any type of symptoms like this, like whether it's migraines, muscle pains, joint pains malaise, fatigue, weakness, whatever it could be that they might think that, they have an actual parasite.

How should these patients kind of look for a practitioner that actually knows what they're doing, not going to give them some juice cleanse or whatever they found on Instagram at the time. What's your best advice for patients to really find somebody who knows, what their doing and actually get this taken care of? Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, number one, and I know you love to talk about this on your podcast, is definitely work with someone who's going to do testing. If you're not assessing, you are guessing.

You're just throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping it sticks. And that's the problem too with generic detoxes is, oh, just buy this parasite cleanse. It's like, well, what if you don't have parasites? What if have mold toxicity or heavy metals or just a really crappy liver? Because maybe you drank too much in college and are eating terrible processed foods now. There's so many different things. You've got to look at organ function. If you just test for one, if you test from old, you go after mold, but there's also parasites, there are also heavy metals in the body, your immune system is still not going to be able to fight off stuff naturally.

And all that stuff is just going slowly build up over time and come back. I've seen that with a lot of people. So number one find someone who's more integrative. If your going a medical doctor, find a doctor who is integrator like you, who does this kind of testing, and is going order some functional medicine testing to really check for all this stuff. Generally, MDs don't typically test this stuff. They don�t order functional medicine tests. It's not their fault. There's no taught it in med school.

A lot of them might think that, �Oh, it's kind of woo-woo and kind out there, very Californian hippie.� It�s not because it� s so common. Most people I see for gut issues have parasites. Granted, I do work with the gut. It's not just a third world country issue, it's in America too. I've seen people who never left the country who have parasites. Number one, find someone who's integrative who can order functional tests. Call the office and ask, hey, do they order tests for things like infections and toxins?

Do they get full blood work or is it just standard bloodwork every year? Because standard work misses so many markers that are super important. Yeah, yeah. And so that's number one is find someone. Typically, the best people to do that are going to be naturopaths, functional medicine doctors, integrative doctors. That's the titles you want to look for when you're looking for someone and just know, like if you live in an area that is more rural and you don't have anyone there, there are so many doctors who work virtually now who can order labs, get it.

Yeah. They can just get ordered sent straight to you, you know get your labs done. You don' have to physically in that location. So that would be like the best place to start is just ask those questions and look for those kind of practitioners. I think you hit the nail on the top of the head there. The second one would so for practitioners, whether chiropractors, naturopaths, physicians, whatever it could be, if you're going to get into this industry and you want to focus on something like detoxification, parasites and all that kind stuff, what's your best advice for these future experts to kind really start to build their practice out to where they can actually start treat things like this?

Uh, yeah, I'm going to give you the best advice that my mentor gave me, the one who fixed my gut. He said, he said don't let school get in the way of your education. Oh, nice. Did you learn from Yoda? I mean, well done. Seriously, he was like Miyagi. Like he would always answer you in riddles and we're like, Dr. Ellis, can you just tell me what he's like? No, you'll get it one day. And like three years into school, I was, like oh, go to seminars, shadow other doctors, learn, from other practitioners, do not rely on your education to teach you how to be a good doctor.

Otherwise you won't. You won't be one. And so that's the best advice is like find mentors, tell people, hey, I'd love to learn what you know. Can I work for you for free? And in your spare time, you can teach me anything. Literally start there. Like any doctor is going to be like, yes, i need help with social media. can you do that? and I'll teach you what I know, like there's so many ways to do it. A lot of people think they don't have access to doctors because, oh, they're busy. They probably wouldn't talk to me.

Most doctors who really care about people and want to help people are going want you. Like I have so many people I take free calls with who message me on Instagram. I'm like, yeah, let's jump on a call. And they're like oh, are you sure? Do I need to pay you? And I am like no, just jump a on call, I'll help you out. Good karma there, very good karma. Well, if so, many help me out, it's like what am I, why would I not do this? Yeah, exactly. Well, Dr. Davis, this has been a really, really good educational too, which is what I like.

Having a good conversation, good banter, but the most important factor that this is very, very educationally sound.

Advice for Future Detox Practitioners 31:08

So definitely, please tell everybody where they can find you, get a hold of you and actually learn more about what you do. Yeah, absolutely. Well, the best place to find me, and I have a ton of content on there, is Instagram. So it's at Dr. Kate Davis, so D-R-K-A-T-E, D A V I S. If you're someone who's just like, I don't even know where to start with gut health, getting my gut help back on track, go to my Instagram, i've got hundreds of posts on their that can help you out. And I've gotten these little series called Trash or Treasure, where you can see if the food that you are buying in the grocery store is actually good for you.

That's a good one to watch too, if you aren't really sure where But yeah, so start there. And then if you're someone who's just like, you know, You've been struggling with gut issues for a long time, like bloating, constipation, if You're somebody who is like man, I wish I could go to the bathroom every day, or, just know that there is hope. I've seen hundreds of people heal from this stuff and there IS a reason why you're like that and you just gotta find someone who can really, you know, figure out the answers.

So don't give up on that, number one. But number two, if you are someone that is just like, hey I really need someone to help me, there's no one in my area, I do work remotely with people. If you go on my Instagram, DM me the number 100, and I'll actually offer you $100 off an initial consult plus labs package. We can basically, you know, jump on a Zoom call, dive into your health history. I can walk you through my process on how I help people heal. And then we can get some labs done to really see, how are your organs functioning?

Do you have good drainage? Are your nutrients depleted? and really get a good understanding of what's going on in your body before starting any sort of treatment. So you can really do an individualized detox plan and actually make it geared towards you and feel better faster.

Where to Find Dr. Kate Davis 32:48

That's where you find me. I've also got a YouTube channel and a podcast called Unconventional Medicine if you want to learn more about gut health and detoxing and all things parasites. Well, I love it. All kinds of places to find you. Yeah. Well again, thank you so much. And again this has been the Lifestyle Medicine Podcast. I'm Dr. Ivan Rusilka. We're powered by Access Medical Labs. You can find us on YouTube, Spotify, pretty much anywhere, Apple. Um, and again it's all about bringing practitioners such as yourself who are going to give you good information, a lot of information but the right information.

So Dr Kate, Thank you for today. Thank You for having me on here Dr Ivan. Alright guys, have a good one. Thanks for joining us today on the Lifestyle Medicine Podcast. At Access Labs, every innovation we pursue is driven by one bold purpose, making personalized medicine more practical and accessible for patients and providers. If this episode sparked new ideas or challenged how you think about patient care, awesome. Follow the show and share it with a colleague who's ready to level up their practice.

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