Healing Gut & Oral Infections With Herbs with Dr. Rachel Fresco

Dr. Rachel Fresco is a doctor of Chinese Medicine out of California. She's also the founder and President of Bio-Botanical Research. In this episode we talk about her formulations, biofilms, gut infections, essential oils, oral health, and eating healthy.

Here's what you'll hear:

Min 02:00 Introducing Dr. Rachel Fresco
Min 03:58 Dr. Fresco's Biocidin® formula
Min 09:40 Biofilms
Min 14:55 Microbial blends
Min 20:30 Olive leaf extract & essential oils
Min 25:00 Using Biocidin
Min 29:00 Binders
Min 32:15 Biocidin Throat Spray
Min 38:20 Marcons
Min 40:15 Dentalcidin & oral health
Min 46:53 Amalgam filling & detoxifying
Min 52:45 Eating healthy
Min 64:40 Dr. Fresco's resources

To learn more about Rachel Fresco and her company Bio-Botanical Research, visit her website here and on Facebook 
 

Resources:

Bridgit’s shop
Leaky Gut Solutions Webinar
Dentalcidin toothpaste
MegaSporeBiotic
Cyrex Labs

Here's a video version of the interview with Dr. Rachel Fresco:

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The Five-Day DIY Detox Guide

Do you wake up groggy and tired, turning to coffee or pastries to get you going?     

Add in a simple 5 minute routine to have more energy for the day!    

Grab our Five-Day DIY Detox Guide and get some spring back in your step, naturally.  

Case Study: A Functional Approach to Hormones and Gut

How Functional Health Coaching Treats Mood, Gut and Hormones in an Integrated Way

The Symptoms

When Emily joined our coaching program, she was struggling with depression, anxiety, fatigue, and brain fog. She said that she did not have the energy to improve her diet or exercise regimen to support her health. She feared that trying to make major changes could have the potential to elicit panic attacks that would prevent her from moving forward.

Photo by Jason Briscoe

Emily felt “tired almost all of the time.” Up until a few years before joining our functional coaching program, she had lived an active life. She had spent years gaining her education and working as a public health professional. And, at 38-years-old, she found herself barely making it through the day.

Emily had resorted to some of the most common coping mechanisms available: coffee in the morning to give her enough energy to get going, and alcohol at night to help her sleep.

Emily had resorted to some of the most common coping mechanisms available: coffee in the morning to give her enough energy to get going, and alcohol at night to help her sleep.

She suffered from symptoms of gas, bloating and indigestion. Her symptoms eased when she was strict about her diet but returned whenever she wavered slightly. 

The First Steps

The first thing we advised Emily to do was to take the huge step of removing coffee and alcohol from her diet. Within a matter of a couple of weeks, she was amazed at how much better she felt, just from those small changes. While this is not always as impactful for everybody as it was for Emily, it does show that sometimes a couple of small tweaks can have big effects.

The Labs

As Emily made those early changes to diet, we ran a handful of functional labs, including:

• DUTCH Complete hormone panel

• Comprehensive thyroid panel

• GI-Map stool pathogen test

• Micronutrient (vitamin and mineral) test.

The Test Results

The test results showed that Emily was quite deficient in the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol is the primary stress hormone but it is also responsible for providing a sense of energy and plays an important role in regulating the circadian rhythms controlling sleep/wake cycles.

Emily was also very low in all of her female sex hormones (the estrogens and progesterone) and she was also very low in melatonin, a hormone that helps promote restful sleep.

Emily's thyroid appeared to be slightly sluggish and she was deficient in seven different important micronutrients.

Her stool test detected two different parasites, an overgrowth of two different opportunistic yeast species, suppressed immune response in the small intestines, and a very strong sensitivity to gluten-containing foods.

Part of the Hormone Report

Stool Test Results

The Protocol

Emily remained free from coffee and alcohol and began to adopt a gluten-free diet.

She started doing moderate exercise, managing her stress levels, eradicating gut pathogens through an herbal protocol, and supporting her healthy hormone balance through diet, herbs, and lifestyle changes.

She introduced some herbal tinctures such as black cohosh, red clover, vitex, and motherwort to support her female hormone levels. She used a product called Adrenotone from Designs for Health to support the adrenal glands and the balance of stress hormone production through the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.

Emily supported her micronutrient balance through the introduction of a complete mineral support formula and used the Designs for Health GI Microb-X product as one of the antimicrobial blends for eradicating infectious microorganisms. She also introduced Megaspore probiotic to rebuild beneficial gut flora and to support the immune system. 

For dietary support, Emily began seed cycling and introduced more healthy fats into her diet. She also incorporated detoxification strategies such as dry brushing and rebounding into her daily routine to help her move toxins out of the body in a natural way.

The Transformation

Photo by Patrick Hendry

As Emily gained energy, she was able to reintegrate exercise into her life and she enjoys mountain biking and outdoor sports of many kinds.

After six months on the coaching program, Emily reported feeling better than she had in years despite experiencing some extreme stress, including the sudden death of her partner’s mother.

Over the course of her six months on the program, Emily gained enough energy and mental clarity to make big decisions about her life, including the purchase of a new home and a desire to have a baby.

Emily is now thriving, pregnant, happy in her life, and excited about her future.

Are You Ready for Your Transformation?

Work With Us!

We would be honored to work with you as a private client. We provide testing and coaching options to women in most every state and country. Come check out our coaching options to see if it’s a fit.

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Bridgit Danner, LAc, FDNP, is trained in functional health coaching and has worked with thousands of women over her career since 2004. She is the founder of Women’s Wellness Collaborative llc and HormoneDetoxShop.com.

Best Protocols for Gut Infections with Ann Melin

Ann Melin is our lead health coach at Women's Wellness Radio and a certified Holistic Health Practitioner, Clinical Nutritionist, a Clinical Master Herbalist, and a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Practitioner. In this episode we talk about gut health, gut infections, and the best treatment protocols.

Here's what you'll hear:

Min 01:35 The connection between gut health & hormone health
Min 05:20 Symptoms of gut infections
Min 11:00 Why you need to address gut parasites
Min 14:35 Gut healing protocols & lab testing
Min 22:50 SIBO & GI map tests
Min 27:10 Links between gut parasites & other diseases
Min 30:10 Getting treatment for chronic conditions
Min 38:00 Treating gut parasites (candida, SIBO)
Min 41:35 Herbs & supplements for gut health
Min 45:20 Steps to WWC coaching

Resources:

Check out our coaching program to see if it is a fit for you.

Visit our shop here.

Beautycounter products - non-toxic line of beauty products

Learn about our protocols for toxins testing here.

Here are more resources, outlining our testing protocols for other nasty gut issues, including SIBO, parasitic infections and Candida.

Join Our Community!

If these talks resonated with you and your case, we’d love to get to know you better!

If you have not yet joined our community, be sure to get our Top-Down Digestion Guide here, and come on board!

We have lots of valuable, free resources for women's health we share weekly.

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Bridgit is trained in functional health coaching and has worked with thousands of women over her career since 2004. She is the founder of Women’s Wellness Collaborative llc and HormoneDetoxShop.com.

Be Aware of Waterborne Pathogens with Dr. Darin Ingels

Welcome to Day 2 of Mold Week. Dr. Darin Ingels is a naturopathic physician but was a clinical microbiologist and immunologist before going back to medical school. So he has a pretty broad background in infectious diseases and microbiology. He understands both the causation side and the healing side of mold illness.

In this interview, we focus on:

• Which bacteria and parasites may be present in flood waters

• How to dress to protect yourself while remediating a water-damaged home

• What you’ll need to throw away when and if it’s been touched by water

• Simple supplements that protect your immune system

• Why you need to be careful with drinking & bathing water after a flood

• How insects descend on an area, after a flood, and what to do

You can listen to this and all other episodes on the podcast or watch directly on our YouTube channel here.

You can also subscribe and listen on our podcast.

Download notes from this interview HERE.

To learn more about Dr. Ingels, visit his website here and follow him on social media:

Facebook

Twitter

Audio-Only Version

If you are on the go or have a poor internet connection, it will be more reliable to play the following audio-only version.

Free Guide: Healing from Toxic Mold

You want help for your mold symptoms ASAP! Cut to the chase with this straight-forward guide, outlining my favorite supplements for detoxing mold. As a person who has been healing from mold toxicity, I can personally say these supplements support my daily self-care effectively.

Let me help you start healing!

Bridgit Danner, LAc, FDNP
Founder of Hormone Detox Shop

The Parasite Hormone Connection

 

Do you think parasites have nothing to do with hormones? Or that parasites are very rare and only found in places like rural Africa?

You would be wrong on both counts. In this article, I'll explain:

• What is the connection between hormones and parasites

• What are the symptoms of a parasitic infection

• Why are parasites so common

• What you can do about it

The Link Between Parasites and Hormones

A parasite is dictionary defined as “an organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense.” 

You might be thinking, “well shouldn't my body prevent parasites?” You are right; it should but it doesn't always succeed. Parasites can enter through the skin or the vagina but the most common area of entry is the mouth.

When you eat something or put your hands in your mouth you expose yourself to potential parasites and their larvae.  Parasites are found in soil and feces and do a great job of spreading themselves around.

When you swallow a parasite, your stomach acid should burn off the pathogen. However many of us have low stomach acid production from a thyroid condition, because of aging, or because we were eating on in a rush and we didn't get our bodies into “rest and digest” mode.

If a parasite survives the stomach it can live in the intestines or move to other areas of the body. Parasites can remain for decades. You may also be wondering, “isn't it somewhat normal to have parasites?”

According to Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman in her book Guess What Came to Dinner?, some amount of parasites could make for no noticeable symptoms. It really depends on the type and quantity of parasites and the strength or weakness of the host.

You are the host and the environment you create in your body helps determine if a parasite finds a good home or not. If your intestines are out of balance because of eating inflammatory foods, leaky gut, antibiotic use, other infections, or eating a high-sugar, high-refined flour diet you are providing a welcoming home for a parasite.

So now you understand how having a parasite is indeed possible. But why would this affect your hormones?

Having a parasite will cause inflammation in the gut and a potential loss of nutrients going to you, the host.

Hormones stay in balance through:

• Production

• Clearance

• Communication

Parasites will contribute to the overall poor environment in the gut. And your gut is an important location for hormone production and clearance.

The nutrients you absorb in the gut are the ingredients to make hormones: B vitamins, amino acids, fats, etc. That's why I consider it not only very important to eat nourishing foods, but also to take high-quality supplements to 'mind your gut'.

Parasites can contribute to an imbalanced bacterial environment in your gut. (Other contributors are sugar, alcohol, white flour, genetically-modified foods, and antibiotics.) That imbalance can lead to a re-activation of used estrogens getting back into circulation in your body, possibly increasing your risk of breast cancer. (source)

In a healthy gut, used hormones that have been rendered inactive in the liver will be expelled in the intestines through the bile. In an unhealthy gut, an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase will be produced, making estrogen active again. This happens within a set of gut bacteria called the estrobolome.  

Dr. Izabella Wentz, in her book Hashimoto's Protocol: A 90-Day Plan for Reversing Thyroid Symptoms and Getting Your Life Back, connects many parasites to the "triggering and exacerbating" of the autoimmune thyroid condition Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. These include: Giardia lamblia, Dientamoeba fragilis, Toxoplasma gondii, Entamoeba histolytica, Blastocystis hominis, Bartonella henselae and Cyrptosporidium.

Hormones are made in response to the needs of your body. If your body is chronically fighting an infection in your gut and dealing with the inflammation there, hormones will be made to combat that stress, namely stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol.

As a woman, you want a balance of stress hormones and more restorative hormones in the Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) family like estrogen and testosterone. If your body is making a lot of cortisol in comparison to DHEA, you could have symptoms like overwhelm, low sex drive, infertility and loss of muscle mass. Menopause and peri-menopause can be more difficult.

The above are just a few ways that parasites and an unhealthy gut can lead to hormonal problems.

Symptoms

The symptoms of a parasitic infection are numerous. This list is by no means a way of diagnosis but rather examples of the diverse ways that a parasite could manifest:

• Constipation

• Diarrhea

• Gas and bloating

• Muscle pain

• Anemia

• Autoimmune diseases

• Skin rashes

• Insomnia / Waking up too early

• Anxiety

• Fatigue

• Teeth grinding

• Frequent colds and flu

In this article, I am focusing on parasites but we often see parasites in our clients like Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) and candida. Parasites can also help house and protect things like Epstein-Barr virus, mold mycotoxins, and Lyme infection. So in complex cases is often important to clear the gut of these pathogens.

But sometimes our clients are fairly healthy have lots of good habits, they are just stuck in one area of their health. They can't get pregnant or they're chronically bloated. These are cases where we've been able to address the gut and get good results overall.

According to the Center for Disease Control, millions of people in the United States are affected by parasites every year. How much of a problem parasites depend on who you ask. The colleagues of mine who treat complex cases are quite convinced of the efficacy of parasite treatment. You can hear my interview with parasite expert, Dr. Todd Watts here, and you can register for the Parasite Summit here (and more information is below).

Parasitic infections do seem to be on the rise because of these factors:

• International travel

• Contaminated public water supply

• Household pets

• Daycare centers

• Eating at restaurants

• Food imported from other countries

• The use of antibiotics

• Factory farming (including farmed fish)

A Personal Story

When I was in my early twenties I lived in a village in South America. All the pathogens there were new to my body and even though I tried to drink clean water I got very sick a few times. After that, I lived in Mexico and while there I was chronically constipated. I didn't know much about parasites back then but I suspected them I looked into getting a test run but opted for a kit I could buy at the store to clean parasites in my colon. Later my boyfriend at the time, who also lived in South America, passed a long worm out of his stool.

I forgot about parasites for a while but during a stressful time in Chinese medicine school, I developed IBS that would not go away. I attributed it to stress. If my diet is “really perfect” with all fresh, clean foods my digestion can be pretty stable. But cheating at all on corn chips or a beer would make me have loose stool again. This pattern went on for many years and I even had to stool test and treated H pylori infection with still no improvement.

One of my parasites that came out in my stool.Trust me, I was really grossed out when I first saw this too. Toothbrush somehow makes this picture grosser. I did not touch it to my toothbrush, just put it on top of bag for size comparison.

This past summer I interviewed Dr. Todd Watts office about parasites. Perhaps with that awareness in the back of my mind, I noticed a parasite in my stool the next day. I quickly ordered a stool test from a leading company we use and the test came back positive for a type of parasite.

I have been treating my parasite and, though I'm just beginning, I have passed another worm and some larvae which, while gross, is also pretty exciting to know that I am getting something out of my body that was likely stressing it for a long time. I know that my white blood cell count has been low for years and no one was able to explain it but I think this helps explain it.  

Besides coming back from South America with a probable parasite I also came back with a lackadaisical attitude about sanitation. I thought that here in the US we were too paranoid about cleanliness. We have also learned in the last decade a lot about the microbiome and we are often encouraged to 'eat dirt and go barefoot.’

After reading Guess What Came to Dinner? by Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman, I have quite a different perspective. We DO want to be clean and careful to prevent parasites. It is much easier to prevent parasites then test and treat for them later.

Prevention Tips

Luckily there is a lot we can do to prevent parasites:

• Always wash hands prior to eating

• Keep your fingernails short and scrub under them with a brush

• When you use a public toilet seat squat over it rather than sitting on it

• At home, keep your bathrooms clean and sanitize toilet seats and bowls*

• Keep the interior or your car clean*

• Avoid kissing your pets or letting your children do so

• All family members should wash their hands after petting the family pet

• Pick up pet waste and don't let your kids play in areas where they can be exposing themselves to residual pet waste

• Get a report on your local water quality and drink only filtered water (Filters need to be very fine a size of 3 microns or under to filter microorganism cysts.)

• While hiking, never drink out of streams and carry a fine pore filter of 3 microns or under while camping

• Wash raw fruits and vegetables before eating

• Be very careful with cooking meats and fish to ensure that any larvae in them are killed

• Cook beef to an internal temperature of 160° f

• Cook chicken, lamb and pork to 170° f

• Cook fish until flaky and do not cook in a microwave

• Avoid eating raw Pacific salmon and rockfish (Flash frozen fish are safer.)

• Eat fiber such as raw nuts, beans, greens berries; these sweep your colon

• Avoiding sugars and simple starches that parasites thrive on

• Avoid swimming in freshwater lakes

• Always sit on a towel in a sauna

• Be aware that public mud baths and spas can carry the parasite Trichomonas vaginalis (This happened to me the only time I used a mud bath!)

• If you are pregnant or immunocompromised, avoid changing your cat's litter box and have someone else and household do it

* Please note that you don't need to use potent chemicals for cleaning.  You can use potent essential oils instead!  Dr. Mariza Snyder is my to-go resource on essential oils, and her book, Smart Mom's Guide to Essential Oils: Natural Solutions for a Healthy Family, Toxin-Free Home and Happier You has many great cleaning recipes.

If you would like to learn more about parasites, I encourage you to attend the Parasite Summit hosted by Dr. Jay Davidson. This event is an eye-opening journey into parasites and their effects on health, hormones, detox and more!

Learn more here.

Accurate testing for parasites cannot be conducted at your local doctor's office. The technology is just available in this setting and paradigm. We do conduct these tests with our private clients and develop protocols to help them eradicate gut pathogens. If you are interested in talking to us more about it you can check out our coaching options here.

To Your Health! 

Bridgit

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Bridgit Danner, LAc, FDNP, is trained in functional health coaching and has worked with thousands of women over her career since 2004. She is the founder of Women’s Wellness Collaborative llc and HormoneDetoxShop.com.

Why Your Probiotic Supplement Isn't Working With Kiran Krishnan

Kiran Krishnan is a Microbiologist and has over 20 years experience in the probiotics industry. He is trained in Microbiology and Biochemistry and worked in several companies developing health products. He left academic research and opened his own clinical research organization and now focuses on carrying out clinical research on the various nutritional products produced by different companies.

Kiran's journey on probiotics started about 12 years ago when he was hired by a large company to research on the probiotics market. He found out that most probiotic products in the market had been created based on presumptions from decades ago on what the microbiome was like.

In this episode we will talk about the microbiome and Kirian will introduce us to the term holobiome. We will talk about good and bad bacteria in the gut, how the body gets out of microbiome balance, diet as well as supplements. We will discuss in detail about a probiotic product he developed in his lab and talk about its possible side effects for patients with certain disorders like candida/yeast infection.

PRODUCT

Megaspore is only sold through licensed providers, and we feel very fortunate to be one of the few online carriers!  Please visit this link to access our store.

HAND-OUT

We put all Kiran's information together in a handy sheet, printable for you. You can get a copy by using the button below:

Click Here to Get the Guide

Before you order, please carefully read through the FAQs listed lower on this page. You'll learn more about the product, when to use it, and how to order it from our store whether you're in the US or internationally.

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If you have not yet joined our community, be sure to grab our hidden Hormone stressors quiz here, and come on board!

Thanks for listening!

Bridgit Danner, Founder of Women's Wellness Collaborative

How to Honor Your Baby's Microbiome

A Little Story about Healthy Babies...

When I was practicing acupuncture more, I saw a lot of ladies at the end of their pregnancy, who wanted support in preparing for labor.  These ladies were brand new to me, and I'd always ask what supplements they were taking, and what foods they were eating.

I would often cringe to hear that they weren't consuming probiotics, and recommend that these moms-to-be consume probiotics foods and supplements. We know now that baby is exposed to bacteria from the birth canal/anus or the bacteria floating around in the surgery room, if C section delivery (link).  

But also the bacterial environment of the mother affects baby's health in utero (link).  Taking it a step further, your microbiome health will affect your ability to conceive and carry to term. 

Even if you never plan to have kids, our microbiome supports so much of hormone regulation, it's important to every woman.

So what can you do to honor your microbiome, and your baby's microbiome?  

You can consume kombucha, raw sauerkraut or kimchi, or coconut yogurt.  You can eat a wide variety of vegetables to provide pre-biotic food to your microbiome. You can avoid foods that can irritate your gut such as processed grain, caffeine and sugar.  You can take a high-quality, broad-spectrum probiotic.  (Tip: the shelf stable ones are sometimes better than the dairy-based refridgerated ones.)

You can also attend this week's free Microbiome Summit, with over 30 free, expert interviews about our microbiome.  

I don't attend every summit out there, but I'm very curious about this area that we are just starting to grasp.  Very exciting stuff!

I want women to really get the importance of this area, and how we can nourish it, for our sake, and the sake of our healthy babies.  Join the free Microbiome Summit here.

Hugs and Health, Bridgit