Dr. Jade Dandy is an Idaho native and fell in love with Naturopathic medicine at a young age. She graduated from National University of Natural Medicine (NUMN) in 2015. Focusing on chronic illness, she earned her Doctorates in Natural Medicine as well as Masters of Science in Integrative Medicine Research. Dr. Dandy is an advocate for her patients’ health journey, integrating western medicine with time-tested natural medicine to bring patients back to optimal health. It is her strong belief that it is everyone’s birthright to live a happy and healthy life. Dr. Dandy is also an avid gardener and a hot springs hunter.
The Healing Hut
Make sure to check out all of our links below!
We’d love to answer your questions on the podcast! Fill out this form -> https://harkla.typeform.com/to/ItWxQNP3
Brought To You By Harkla
This podcast is brought to you by Harkla. Our mission at Harkla is to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives. We accomplish this through high-quality sensory products, & child development courses.
Podcast listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla with the discount code "sensory". Head to Harkla.co/sensory to start shopping now.
Links
All Things Sensory Podcast Instagram
Harkla YouTube Channel
Harkla Website - Shop Sensory Products!
Harkla Instagram
Book: ADHD 2.0
Book: The Myth of Normal
Book: Dirty Genes
Book: Hunt, Gather, Parent
Polyvagal Theory
Dr. Jade Dandy is an Idaho native and fell in love with Naturopathic medicine at a young age. She graduated from National University of Natural Medicine (NUMN) in 2015. Focusing on chronic illness, she earned her Doctorates in Natural Medicine as well as Masters of Science in Integrative Medicine Research. Dr. Dandy is an advocate for her patients’ health journey, integrating western medicine with time-tested natural medicine to bring patients back to optimal health. It is her strong belief that it is everyone’s birthright to live a happy and healthy life. Dr. Dandy is also an avid gardener and a hot springs hunter.
The Healing Hut
Make sure to check out all of our links below!
We’d love to answer your questions on the podcast! Fill out this form -> https://harkla.typeform.com/to/ItWxQNP3
Brought To You By Harkla
This podcast is brought to you by Harkla. Our mission at Harkla is to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives. We accomplish this through high-quality sensory products, & child development courses.
Podcast listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla with the discount code "sensory". Head to Harkla.co/sensory to start shopping now.
Links
All Things Sensory Podcast Instagram
Harkla YouTube Channel
Harkla Website - Shop Sensory Products!
Harkla Instagram
Book: ADHD 2.0
Book: The Myth of Normal
Book: Dirty Genes
Book: Hunt, Gather, Parent
Polyvagal Theory
I think we have such an opportunity as parents and health care providers to actually dig in and give kids, children, teenagers, the tools to teach themselves. Wow, I'm a little out of control. I'm going to go put myself in a timeout, or I need space to feel what I'm feeling versus stop crying. I mean, I'm a mom, I get it. There are times I'm like, Ah, so crying about this, right. But with my daughter, I know what's going on with her now because I've read her SNPs and so she floods too much adrenaline and epinephrine and norepinephrine in the brain. Norepinephrine and epinephrine are adrenaline. So as adults, we know, when we get startled, it's like, whoa, handle that and you can't calm down, right? The child doesn't have the language to communicate that to you and so it's gonna come in a lot of different ways of behaviors and stuff you're gonna see through that.
Rachel:I'm Rachel.
Jessica:And I'm Jessica. And this is All Things Sensory by Harkla.
Rachel:We are both certified occupational therapy assistants and together with Harkla, we are on a mission to empower parents, therapists and educators to help raise confident and strong children of all abilities.
Jessica:On this podcast, we chat about all things sensory, diving into special needs occupational therapy, parenting, self care, overall health and wellness and so much more.
Rachel:We're here to provide raw, honest and fun strategies, ideas and information for parents, therapists and educators as well as other professionals to implement into daily life.
Jessica:Thank you so much for joining us.
Rachel:Hey, there, welcome back to All Things Sensory by Harkla. You're listening to your good friends, Rachel and Jessica.
Jessica:Today we're talking with Dr. Dandy. She is actually a local practitioner in our area. Rachel knows her personally, and we have been trying to get her on the podcast for a while, but she's just so dang busy. So, finally got her on. A little bit about Dr. Dandy. She's an Idaho native and fell in love with naturopathic medicine at a young age. She graduated from National University of natural medicine in 2015. Focusing on chronic illness, she earned her doctorate in natural medicine as well as her Masters of Science in Integrative Medicine Research. Dr. Dandy is an advocate for her patient's health journey, integrating western medicine with time tested natural medicine to bring patients back to optimal health. It's her strong belief that it's everyone's birthright to live a happy and healthy life. Dr. Dandy is also an avid gardener and a hot springs hunter.
Rachel:Oh, sounds familiar.
Jessica:Yeah.
Rachel:So we wanted to have Dr. Dandy on to talk specifically about gene SNPs and kind of the roadmap of recognizing your genes and how they'll impact just your lifelong health and wellness. And she gives a lot of helpful comparisons and examples of things that our kiddos might struggle with in certain areas. So we really cover a wide variety of topics. In this episode, I always learn something, which is really exciting, but we hope you enjoy it. Hello, Dr. Dandy. Welcome to the podcast.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Thank you for having me.
Jessica:We're excited to chat with you today. But we start all of our interviews with five secret questions. So the first question, Who do you consider to be your role model?
Dr. Jade Dandy:Who do I consider my role model? I have a lot of role models in my life. I love history. Probably some of my great, great grandmother's would be some of my role models. I also love American history. I'm a big lover of Abraham Lincoln. I have a statue of him in my room. I love Patch Adams. He's a doctor and I've met him many times. People who are just living their truth.
Rachel:I love that.
Jessica:Wasn't Patch Adams a movie?
Dr. Jade Dandy:It was a movie actually. Robin Williams was Patch Adams in the movie. But Patch Adams is actually a doctor. He died last year though. He's an older man. He was wonderful. So.
Jessica:Okay.
Dr. Jade Dandy:So it was like health related?
Jessica:I don't remember though.
Dr. Jade Dandy:It was based on Patch Adams and him going through medical school and his issues with the healthcare system. It was vaguely based on the truth.
Rachel:Interesting.
Jessica:They had to embellish to make it entertaining of course.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Very! Patch Adams did not like the movie, just you know. He was like oh, wow, that was weird. But such as Hollywood.
Rachel:Well, next question. Would you rather your food always be too cold or too hot?
Dr. Jade Dandy:Too cold.
Rachel:Okay, like cold leftovers? That doesn't bother you?
Dr. Jade Dandy:Hmm I don't like my food scorching hot.
Rachel:Okay.
Dr. Jade Dandy:And I don't like spicy foods. So I'd probably rather it be cold and I'm thinking of like cold pizza.
Rachel:Okay, yeah, or lasagna?
Dr. Jade Dandy:Sure. Yeah.
Rachel:Okay. Great. Love that.
Dr. Jade Dandy:You look like you do , Rachel.
Rachel:I'm not passing any sensory judgment at all.
Jessica:What is your favorite season?
Dr. Jade Dandy:Fall. For sure.
Rachel:Next one is would you rather rollerblade or waterski?
Dr. Jade Dandy:Rollerblade. For sure.
Rachel:Great.
Dr. Jade Dandy:I love the water. But I have an 11 year old daughter and we are avid rollerbladers at the roller rink.
Jessica:Oh, okay.
Dr. Jade Dandy:So it's a family affair.
Jessica:Yes. So fun.
Rachel:Last one. what is your sensory quirk?
Dr. Jade Dandy:I have two actually. I have a sensory issue with foods, for sure, and I have never ever owned a pair jeans.
Rachel:Yes.
Jessica:In our office, we call jeans hard pants.
Dr. Jade Dandy:That's exactly what I say. My mom used to try to get them on me and I never ever I think I had like one pair of really baggy jeans in the 90s that were cool. But even then I hated wearing them and I still do. So that's definitely one of my sensory quirks.
Rachel:It is.
Jessica:And you said you don't like spicy foods, so?
Dr. Jade Dandy:Not at all. My next one would be definitely textures of food.
Rachel:Yep. Okay.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Yeah.
Jessica:Getting a picture of who you are.
Rachel:All right. Well, now that everyone knows your deepest, truly your darkest secrets. Tell everyone who you are, what you do, why you do it, all the beautiful things. And how did you get into this field of work?
Dr. Jade Dandy:Okay, so I am Dr. J. Dandy and I own the So I actually was planning on going to school Healing Hut. Formerly an eagle as of Monday in Boise, Idaho. I to be a psychiatrist. I always wanted to help people with am from Idaho. I'm like nine generations Idaho, and I specialize in chronic illness. I like the tough cases. I like the people who haven't been able to get answers. I like the people who want to dive as deep as we can get together. So I think mental health. And my husband ended up getting sick in our it's different working with a naturopathic doctor because it's a journey. It's not just like a primer. I mean, I technically am primary care in Idaho. But it's definitely a longer journey. We go through lots and lots of pieces of health. So early 20s and we went to a lot of doctors. I mean, lots of doctors and we finally had decided to go sort of a more holistic route and we saw a naturopathic doctor. We drove up to Seattle to see and she sent us in to see a cardiologist, which my husband was only like 26 at the time. So he was fairly young to go see cardiologist, but I was like, Good, we're gonna get to the bottom what's going on with his health care. And we went into the doctor, and he looked at my husband and said, nothing is wrong with you. You are a hypochondriac, come back when you have a heart attack and we got the car and I started crying. And I looked at my husband, like, I'm going to medical school. There has to be better doctors and that he was like, you hate science. I'm like, I will figure it out. So I was just getting ready to apply to do psychiatry and I also was like, I can't help people with their mental health if I can't talk about other aspects of their life and diet and all of that. So, that is like a five year old story summed up in a couple sentences.
Rachel:But I just had to say really quick. You said, your husband said you don't like science, but now you're like the science queen.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Oh, it was hard. I remember being like, I'm not going to cry over chemistry anymore and I did it and I love it. I think also with some of my sensory stuff, I have a really hard time in classrooms. But once I get the material, on my own, I can dissect it like crazy. So I think once it became tangible for me, I really fell in love with it.
Jessica:Well, and you had a very strong why?
Dr. Jade Dandy:Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Jessica:So follow up question. What happened with your husband?
Dr. Jade Dandy:He's all great and dandy now. He's really the best.
Rachel:So is he actually a hypochondriac then. Was the doctor, right?
Dr. Jade Dandy:I swear if I write a book, it's gonna be
Rachel:Wow. called the myth of the hypochondriac. Why can people
Dr. Jade Dandy:That's one of the things I really specialize not be chronically sick in America? It's like, that's why I tell people, nobody is trying to act sick. Most chronically sick people are trying to act well and function in life. So it's just really heartbreaking. But my husband ended up having Lyme disease and that was a whole nother long journey. in. That's why I'm excited to talk about gene SNPs. But yeah, so he's all better and well, and it's really incredible that I have a story and a journey that I watched somebody go from being bedridden to being well. So that was really incredible.
Rachel:Yes.
Jessica:Okay, you threw a little phrase out there, gene SNPs.
Rachel:Let's break it down. Let's keep it layman's terms to start. Why are they important? Yes.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Oh, genetic SNPs stands for single nucleotide polymorphism. Okay? And the only part I want you to think about when you hear that word is morphism. And a morphism is something that can change. So when we talk about genetics, let me explain it like this. If you and I were given a box of ingredients to make cookies, and we did not have any ingredients, we didn't know we have the ingredients, but we didn't have a recipe that we would probably make a little bit of a different cookie, right? Those are your genes. The ingredients are your genes. But once you get the recipe, you're going to make good cookies. You're gonna make correct cookies and your genetic SNPs are the recipe for how the genetics work in the human body. Does that make sense? So it's important because a lot of times, in the realm of sensory stuff, which everybody in my family has suffered from one thing or another. There's a really popular gene SNP right now. That's the methyl-tetrahydrate gene. It's MTHFR and basically what that means is you cannot methylate B vitamins. So B vitamins are used in every biological breakdown in the system. So with kids, it tends to be a lot of ,it can be a lot of things. But it can be if they are overstimulated, they'll have kind of afternoon meltdowns. If they are eating the wrong foods, and they can have stomach aches. It has a lot to do with the way that their body is detoxing things and we live in a super, super toxic world. So even for me personally, I'm like gosh. This wasn't a thing when I was a kid, right? Nobody talked about this. There was none of this. Where's this all coming from? Why is there so much issues? But what ended up happening in 1993, they started putting folic acid on all of our foods. So if you don't process folic acid, let's say you have a little boy and he has a really hard time in the morning focusing and getting ready and he has meltdowns in the car to get to school. And you give him pop tarts or something that is fortified with folic acid. And you expect him to be able to self regulate, self calm down, to be able to have a conversation with you, to be able to sit still in school, you just completely set this kid up for no success. Then you throw in red food dyes and all of that and it's just like, it's going to be a terrible day for mom and kiddo. I think so often nowadays, kids are being labeled, I just read a research article that said Gen Z. 42% of them have some sort of mental health diagnosis. I think there's something beautiful to that. But I also think there's something like, Okay, we really need to figure out what's going on here, right? And so in my mind, instead of labeling a child of like you have ADHD or you have whatever it's like, well, you actually really have to change the lifestyle that you're giving your child based on their sleep, how much downtime they have when they come home from school, what food you're feeding them. So that's why it matters. Does that make sense?
Jessica:Yeah, it does and it vibes with what I've been doing a lot of work with my clients. I work part time in the clinic right now. But I'm always asking my families, what is your child eating? Are they drink enough water?
Rachel:They're drinking filtered water.
Jessica:Well, for some of them. For some of them, it's just a matter of are they drinking water at all or are they just totally dehydrated? How's their sleep? What are they doing when they get home from school? Are we talking to them? And I think it's so important to have this conversation that we need to be looking at this from a holistic aspect. Because everything is we say this, everything is connected, and everything has an impact.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Mm hmm. Well, there's also genetics and upon that pathway that's MTRR or MTHFR. But I have all of it here for you guys.
Rachel:Yay.
Dr. Jade Dandy:But it's really interesting because it's the MTRR pathway and basically what that means is if you think about the way that you eat food, right? And it breaks down amino acids, and you have go through this whole cycle where there's glutamine in the body, which brings them to glutamate, which makes an excitatory it makes the brain excited. Well, then that goes through the full cycle, and it gets shut down through GABA and glycine. And if you have this specific gene SNP, you can't calm yourself down. These are the meltdown kids. These are the kids that at the end of the day, or every little thing triggers them or they can't sleep or just you know. And your parents are just going like what is going on? And so I love what you're saying about what you're talking to your clients about, because the truth is, I personally was raised in a generation of your fine, right? Your coughing, stop coughing. What's wrong with you? And I think we have such an opportunity as parents and health care providers to actually dig in and give kids children teenagers, the tools to teach themselves Wow, I'm a little out of control. I'm gonna go put myself in a timeout or I need space to feel what I'm feeling versus suck cry and you're fine. And I mean, I'm a mom, I get it. There are times I'm like, Ha, so crying about this, right? But with my daughter, I know what's going on with her now because I've read her SNPs. And so she floods too much adrenaline and epinephrine and norepinephrine in the brain. Norepinephrine and epinephrine are adrenaline. So as adults, we know, when we get startled. It's like, Whoa, that woah, you can't calm down, right? The child doesn't have the language to communicate that to you and so it's gonna come in a lot of different ways of behaviors and stuff you're gonna see through that. So.
Rachel:So going back to your example of the kiddo,who is the meltdown kiddo and struggling, and they can't get through their day without regulating, you find out that they have, I don't even know what the proper term is, their gene SNP isn't working properly, or whatever the term is for that. What then do you do? Do you help them through supplementation? Through therapy? What's like the next protocol?
Dr. Jade Dandy:I think all the above, like, I think, personally, I just had an exact patient like this yesterday, and they had already seen another practitioner. So luckily, at all of our stuff, and I just went through all of her stuff, her gene tests, her GI map test, everything, and she sat down and I said, we're having sleep issues, aren't we? She said yeah and they said, We're having self regulation issues aren't we? She started crying. The mom starts crying, right? Because like, oh, my gosh, you know, when you have kids, and you're just like, I'm so out of my mind. I don't know how to help. I don't know what to do and then somebody comes in calmly, and they're like, let's help you out. Let's see what's going on. And so what to answer your question, Rachel, its diet, its lifestyle, and supplementation. And as a naturopathic doctor, I have a midlife crisis every week about the amount of supplements I prescribe. But the truth is our food, it doesn't have much nourishment in it anymore. I mean, it just doesn't. If you do any of this research on soil studies, it's just not very good anymore and kids, the American diet, I can never. When you asked me, What's the hardest part about my job? It's the standard American diet.
Jessica:We're gonna ask you that later.
Dr. Jade Dandy:I cannot fight against it and people look at me like you feed your daughter how? I'm like, remember, 200 years ago, I always pick up a food and I go, could I find this 200 years ago? No. I'm probably not going to eat it and so it really has to do with diet and making sure your children are being nourished. And yes, adding in B vitamins and glycine, if your kids need to be calmed down, it's an amino acid. It's in food, you get it from your food, and epinephrine and norepinephrine, giving your kids space or time to kind of go through these emotions and what they're feeling.
Jessica:Yeah, well, and that brings up I had so many thoughts on everything you just said. But this last part of letting your kids feel their feelings. I think so many parents, I blame social media for this. So many parents want their kids to just be happy all the time. That's not what the human experience is about. We're not supposed to feel happy all the time. So when your child is sad, or mad or frustrated, let them feel that. Give them the words to say how they're feeling and then give them space to feel it and know that it's okay to feel those feelings. And we're not supposed to be perfect and happy all the Well, so it's called your genetic genome. It's your time. personal genome, basically. And there's a couple snips on there that have to do with dopamine receptors. And I run neurotransmitters on kids often, and I cannot believe how low some little boy's dopamine levels already are. It's, I could cry telling you this. So in my own home, I was blessed to get to medical school, and then have a daughter later. We don't even have the internet in our house and people think we're crazy. But I'm like, I was raised the 80s and I was fine. Go play and I tell her all the time, I'm like Lucy, you're For sure. And what I've heard is that video games and these quick gonna have more technology in your life than anybody's ever had in history forever. So please just enjoy your childhood. Let's let your brain develop as best as we possibly five to ten second videos that we as adults, but also our can. So you're right, the social media part that some of you know, no screen time, limits. All of that is really, really causing problems for our kids. Especially the ones that have children are watching on a regular basis, gives us that some of these gene SNPs. rush. But it doesn't require work on our part, so it's not lasting. So we're just constantly seeking it out over and over and over again, but not putting any work into getting it. So it's not even like a real dopamine rush. It's almost. Your right. There's two really good books that have come out in the last few years. One of them is called ADHD 2.0,, and one of them is called the myth of normal. Gabe Montay wrote the myth of normal. It's so thick, but he talks about if you want your dopamine receptors to work correctly, you have to work for your dopamine. You can't just get it so quickly. And so the cool thing about the genetic SNPs, particularly, is it tells you how well your body tolerates dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, epinephrine, and that's what your brain is ran on, right? It's like, in America, if you have mental health, you go over there and I'm trying to bring mental health back over here is if it's diabetes. Like it's actually something structurally, and a chemical imbalance that needs to be treated. And that's what this kind of leads people to being able to walk through and figure out.
Rachel:Yeah, so let's talk a little bit about like, what information is included in the tests. If someone was to go in and say, hey, I want my genomes run, or my gene SNPs run. Like, let's talk about what information they would get from that and why that information will be helpful for them.
Dr. Jade Dandy:And I'm gonna tell you that the cool thing is. Well, I'll tell you, if you do it on 23andme or ancestry.com, it's not HIPAA compliant. So people are like, why do my gene SNPs because I don't want it to be faked. If you do it with a practitioner, it's HIPAA protected. So we do this. So now, when we first heard of MTHFR it was like, I think, it was like 11 years ago, and that's the only SNP you could run. Now, this is what you get, you get this whole packet or, and basically, it tells you everything as far as diet, lifestyle, and all of that. But the fun part about working with the doctor that knows that's trained in this right? Some naturopathic doctors, who want to talk to them like ooh, Jade, I don't want to have anything to do with that. But for me, I treat chronically sick people, so I have to know the person precisely exactly what I'm doing with them. So I'm gonna kind of cruise through this because there's a lot to it, but I'm gonna tell you what's included. Okay, so the first thing is your lipid metabolism. Lipid metabolism right now, if you're following the medical research biohackers, there's a big thing about PUFAs, which is polyunsaturated fats, and they're saying that polypunsaturated fats are more harmful to the human body than like eating tablespoons of sugar every day. So that includes anything you're cooking with or eating that is not coconut oil, butter, or avocado oil. You can use olive oil, but you can't cook with it. It doesn't have a very high heat so it saturates. So it talks a lot about that. In this SNP, also, it gets broken down into categories. This is a category. This is your lipid metabolism. But this one is huge because your brain is so much fat. Your brain is made out of fat and it has an APOE gene on there and APOE, a lot of times these kids are overachievers, but highly ADHD. I have the APOE gene and it also gives you a 50% likelier chance of developing Alzheimer's or dementia, which you would want to know. Because dementia and Alzheimer's is actually preventable, if you find out in your 30s or 40s it's something that you might deal with, right? So for me, I know that something. So I quit drinking alcohol completely. I tried to work out three to four times a week. I try to eat no processed foods, because this is who I am specifically. So that's a good piece to know. Then, it goes through all the insulin receptors in kids. This is such a big deal because so often, we're irritated with the way our kids are acting and actually it's happening as their blood glucose is all over the place because they haven't eat or they were stressed out or whatever. So there's seven SNPs just on this. I have patients that come in and see me they're very thin, they're working out they're pre-diabetic, and I'm like how am I pre-diabetic, I'm not eating any sugar. Well, if they have these gene SNPs, we have to monitor them. So strap on a 24 hour glucose monitor, we monitored their glucose 24 hours for four weeks, we can kind of figure that out for them. So that's helpful. Then there's one so the MTHFR gene SNP. In that snip, there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Six different snips now that they found. One of them is COMPT. COMPT is a huge proponent for people, especially kids, because this is going to be like sensory issues. This is going to be sleep issues. This is going to be irritability. Those kinds of things and this one has a lot to do with the ability for the neurotransmitters to shut down. So some kids have way too many neurotransmitters in their brain and they can't shut them down. So this is where we use magnesium, calcium, glycine, and those kinds of things. Then it goes through all four phases of detoxification. The liver has four phases of detoxification. It tells you which ones get stuck. Now this is incredible for me, because if I found out somebody doesn't have a glutathione SNP, and they can't detox and they're using dryer sheets and wearing perfume, has a diesel fuel truck, I'm like, oh, that's gotta go. You're going to a higher risk of developing cancer and those kinds of things. So and then also goes to antioxidants. That's like, antioxidants are sort of like free radicals in the body. So it's like rust. This is a big deal for people who are also chronically sick. Then it goes to interleukins. So in the COVID that happen, the street term that I thought was so funny, it was ever been him saying cytokine storm, cytokine storm, and cytokine storm. I was like, Oh, look at all these people learning about this. But that basically tells you the best way I can explain this a cytokine is an interleukin. It's a communicator from your immune system. It's telling your body something that's happening, right? So when you first get sick, I'll give you perfect example. When you first get sick, you get achy, right? That's one of your interleukins, then you get crabby. People get crabby. So that's IL-6 makes people crabby, and then TNF Alpha gives you fever and makes you tired. Some kids, and some adults, these interleukins run all the time. So in medical school, we always used to joke that IL-6, makes you really anxious. So be like, Oh, that person's IL-6'er. Sorry, nerd nerd jokes. But it's good to know if your kids an IL-6 kid, every little thing is gonna make them anxious. They're gonna get paranoid. They're gonna get annoyed. They're gonna afraid of weather. They're gonna get stomach aches. These are also the kids that get a toothache and it becomes just like the most inflammatory thing in the world or these are the kids that get a cut and they are these are the pans and pandas kids, right? Kids get a sinus infection or staph or strep infection and now all of a sudden, they're having all of these problems. Pans and pandas is one of my favorite things to treat, because these parents are like, my kid was totally normal, and then they got sick And now we're like, in this huge flare of tics and twitches and crying and screaming and making animal noises. And that has a lot to do with this panel here. So that's good to know. Then it's cool because it goes through vitamin D, vitamin A, if you're more likely to be lactose intolerant, if you're likely to develop celiac disease, if you're gluten intolerant, how will you metabolize alcohol, if you have hemochromatosis, which is iron overload, it goes through how well you're absorbing fats, and then there's just a fun stuff like: Are you a snacker or you're not a stacker. Should you eat through the day, should you not eat to the day? It goes through collagen production. So these are the Ehlers-Danlos people that have connective tissue issues, and they end up with chronic illness because their connective tissue should be really tight and it's not tight. It goes through exercise and learns how you should exercise. What kind of exercise you should be doing. Yeah, so there's a lot to it. But it's, I could go into it. But it's very technical. But it's so interesting in the fact that like, this you do once in your life, this is the roadmap forever. I mean, this has to go through every single gene SNP. So as a doctor, I can nerd out for hours on each of my patients on these.
Jessica:So I think that's helpful. But what about the people who maybe can't afford it?
Dr. Jade Dandy:Yeah, that's, that's a really good question. It's really challenging, you know. I always encourage, I always let my patients I try to be try to be really transparent about cost. Because I'm a cash based practice. I don't want to deal with insurance. I want people to know when they come what they're dealing with, and what they're paying for and why. And so I tell people all the time, like this is worth something saving up for because the truth is, you're only going to go once in your whole life, right? So in my clinic, I don't actually do a lot of these, for me personally, because I'm so busy. But we have Dr. Rainey here and we trained her specifically for being a genetic coach. So, when you do them at the Healing Hut, I think it's$545 and that includes your hour with a genetic coach and all of your genetic SNPs. I know there's other places you can do them online for more affordable, for sure. The blood test, like if you just want to know if you have like a hetero or homozygous genetic SNP on your methylation pathways for the single MTHFR. That one, I think, is $200 to run. So when people want to run that, and like it might be worth you doing your whole genetic profile, because there's four more pages of genetic SNPs that we need to know to put together for you. And so when you say like, what if people can't afford it? This is like the one thing I tell people to stretch for and I'm like, so I tried to be so careful with my patients with costs like this is how much this is gonna cost when you're ready, you can do this way. I think that you can order specific gene panels, but like I said, anything you're ordering online isn't going to be HIPAA compliant and people are really nervous about having their genetics banked and that's fair.
Rachel:I was thinking too like you could buy a stroller for the
Jessica:Yeah. No, that's a good point. I think it's important to remember that when we invest in something like this, it's gonna same price, right? Like, we just have to think too about like, help us in the long run and potentially reduce the amount of what are we actually spending our money on too. There's so money we have to spend if we do get sick.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Yeah. many products like for like younger kiddos like swings and
Rachel:You could do some of these things later. So it's just exercise saucers, and just like all the baby products. You think about all the baby products if you just buy all the electronic kind of like a, I don't want to sound insensitive, because I baby products that's new for $1,200. know that a lot of people don't do that. But I just feel like, for me personally, I have to really be like, Okay, well, if I can spend my money on that, then I should definitely be able to save up and spend my money on my health.
Dr. Jade Dandy:And also, if you think of it as a preventative tool, I mean, there's I'm gonna get involved things that this is showing you that could happen down the line because it's a very long conversation. But for me, you know, I had a friend who had an asthma attack a couple months ago and she ended up in the ER and she got like, I think her bill was like $17,000 for being there overnight with an asthma attack. So it's like, for me, prevention is so much more powerful and I feel like if there was anything anybody was going to invest in, because I know that holistic medicine can be incredibly expensive. I always tell them, this is the place to start. And even with my patients, I'll be like, Okay, we will do this eventually. But you have acute things going on here, here and here. So we need to check this, this and this first and but this, once we do it, we'll have it we'll have it forever. So we don't have to do it now. So there's a lot of times it will compartmentalize when a patient needs based on what they're coming to see me for.
Rachel:Because that's not going to change. Once you do that. It's never going to change.
Jessica:Because it's infinite.
Dr. Jade Dandy:It doesn't really change. You can switch genes on and off. Ben Lynch wrote a really good book called Dirty Genes, but he talks about are you born with dirty genes or do you have dirty genes? Do they switch on and off? But if you know that you have a propensity for this gene to be switched on or off, then yeah. It could go back on it could go up, or it's more of a diet and lifestyle thing. So truthfully, I tell people, once you get this test, you're not going to run it again. I've had a couple of people that see me for a long time, and they had MTHFR at the beginning and then we ran this whole panel and they don't have it anymore. So yeah, it is possible to switch your genetics. Not your genetics, your SNPs, the way that they're being kind of turned on and off.
Jessica:Interesting.
Rachel:Yeah, I do want to say that it was helpful as you were kind of going through the list of things that's included that it talks about connecting it to a function or connecting it to a symptom. Like, Okay, this is what this means and this is how you could see it like with a kiddo with certain behavior. They're struggling to sleep or eat or emotions and so I think that's really helpful for parents to hear. Like, yes, this information is great. It's slightly overwhelming. But like so many things i just immediately were thinking with my own kids like, oh, yeah, I wonder if that's connected? Because you can connect it and personally feel it and see it. I just feel like it means so much more.
Jessica:Yeah.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Yeah. I think that also gives grace for people that's like, wow, you have this specific thing and this happens to you when this happens and so I understand that or that. I'll give you a good example. So like kids that have stomach aches, a lot of times they have H Pylori, okay? H. Pylori is a bacterial infection that lives in the fundus of the stomach. It lives in the bottom part of the stomach. The bottom part of the stomach is where you make intrinsic factor, which is where you're absorbing your B vitamins. If you have MTHFR, and you have H Pylori, your kid is going to have failure to thrive. They're going to have problems with stomach aches, food allergies, and foods that like they can't eat, that they can't tolerate. They're gonna have headaches or from growing pains or absorption issues and so when you're working with a practitioner that really is taking all the pieces and putting them togethe, it's not like a quick, long conversation. I think my patients have done this test, I probably refer back to it every single time they come in. I'm like, oh, yeah, you have VST. Oh, yeah, you have an ACE inhibitor. Oh, yeah, you have, okay, we have to treat it this way. That makes sense why you're feeling this way when you get sick, because you're IL-1 goes crazy. So it's complex, but it's also lifelong.
Rachel:Yeah, so interesting.
Jessica:Magnesium and sleep and I was just thinking of my own kid. He's 10 and he doesn't necessarily have sleep issues. But he definitely, his brain is constantly going and he even will tell me that it took me a while to fall asleep, because my brain wouldn't stop going. And so I was just thinking, I was like, maybe he needs a little bit more magnesium. Like, what is a really good way to get magnesium?
Dr. Jade Dandy:Oh, magnesium and I tell people if I would ever stranded on an Island, I would take vitamins and enzymes. Like I'm telling you I live on magnesium. Magnesium is tough because there's multiple magnesium. So there's magnesium oxide that helps you poop. That's the best one if there is oxygen in your stomach. There's magnesium citrate that calms the system. Now I'm simplifying this. So if there's anybody else on here, this is scientists just know we're making that really, magnesium citrate makes you poop but it calms you down also. So lots of times the kids are having diarrhea or like an upset gut, I leave those ones out. Magnesium theonate is the only magnesium that crosses the blood brain barrier. So that's a really good one to use for headaches or mood or ADHD. And then there's magnesium glycine, which is for the muscles. There's magnesium malate, which is in the Krebs cycle. So it just sort of depends on most of the times as long as kids are getting diarrhea, I usually always start with magnesium complex, because it's you're gonna use it for different pathways. The other thing to know is magnesium is the highest mineral in the body. You use it in a million other places and so you're, it's not fat soluble, so you can't get like magnesium toxic. They'll just poop it all out if you're getting too much in.
Rachel:Love that.
Jessica:Perfect.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Yeah. My favorite subject.
Jessica:I think that's helpful for sure.
Rachel:Yeah. So one thing that I found was a little bit interesting was talking about the gene SNPs and maybe wasn't the gene SNPs, it was the secretory IgA.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Yeah, yep.
Rachel:That was something that you had mentioned was low. An interesting thing that you brought up to me was that low secretory, IGA can potentially give us an idea if a kiddo is going to be injured by things like vaccines or like toxins and stuff like that. They'll be a little bit more sensitive to that. Can you share a little bit more about that?
Dr. Jade Dandy:Yeah, so your immune system has five different things that it uses. That's what you're referring to in secretary IGA. So we have IgE, which is an allergy. That's a classic allergy. You get stung by a bug and you blow up or you going anaphylactic, your lips swell up, that's IgE. You also use IgE for parasites. That's why some kids have parasites. They are dealing with mast cell activation, which is a whole nother topic because you're using it for allergies, and you're using it to kill parasites. So those are really the only things that IGE gets used for. Then you have IgG, okay? This is the immune response. You think about these as like soldiers. Your immune system making these soldiers for specific things. IgG is more virus and bacteria. That's when you get sick. It's creating memory in your lymph nodes and that's why you get like achy cuz your lymph nodes are swelling and that's that. Then we have IgA is what's in your mucous membrane. So it's from your nose, all the way down your throat, all the way through your stomach to the toilet. Your tube from the mouth down to the toilet, and the secretory IgA is sort of all the soldiers in your nose, when you bring something in, all the way to the toilet. Then there's more, but we won't get into those. So the thing that is really interesting is there's research about kids that have low secretory IgA and vaccines. Because what you're trying to do is you're trying to get an immune response, right? You give the child a vaccine and the idea is you want to give them an IgG response. But truthfully, a child does not develop an IgG response until they're almost six months old. So you're giving them an allergy. That's why kids start to develop issue. And then also secretory IgA, if you have low secretory IgA and you give a vaccine, there's not a high enough immune system. So then the immune system goes crazy and it can create a lot of problems or injury.
Rachel:I just find that so fascinating to have, like, if you were to, I don't know, you can run this test with a GI map. Is there other ways you can run it? But I just I find it so fascinating that you could potentially see like, Okay, I've got low secretory, IgA or IgM and so I'm going to hold off on these certain things, or I'm going to reduce toxins or I'm going to do certain things based on that test. Because feel like that's so fascinating to be able to have that roadmap.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Yeah, yeah. And it's funny to me too, about the vaccine conversation because like Parenting is hard. Like a parent should be able to decide what they want to do. But truthfully, I'll just share this with you. I have a master's in integrative medical research. and our dean had her doctors of immunology from Stanford and she studied childhood vaccines. That's what she did. She's like, I don't even know people had a problem with childhood vaccines, right? And she said, we used to have to wait. We would give vaccines to mice. So we would wait for the mouse to become two months old. Because if we gave it a vaccine, before that we were creating an allergy, not an immune response. She said then after two years, we kill the mice. Sorry, science is depressing. And so then just like if you think about that, we're giving newborn babies these things, asking an immune system that's not even developed yet to do something completely different. So her thing was like at least wait six months, nurture babies, wait six months, wait a year, slow it down, and so yeah, there are things you could check to be like, is this going to be safe for my child or not. And when people don't get a stop and ask questions, that's what I get whether I'm not really pro or anti about anything, I'm about pro knowledge. And if you want to sit back and ask questions, and you could ostracized for that, it puts a red flag up for me.
Rachel:Yeah, it's a tough conversation to have, you know, it is and that's not why we're here today. But I just found that so eye opening to me and to know that my own child had that, you know, and has the low IgA. I do too and I just thought that fascinating to be able to have that information. Then decide what we're gonna do, you know.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Well, even with these genetic SNPs, now you can to some of my patients that come and see me and they're like, I really need an antidepressant. I'm like, okay, I can prescribe antidepressants. So we do a genetic test to see which one's going to match them better and then I'm not guessing. Because what happens is, by the time people get to see me, they've tried everything there. I mean, if you see something, they put you on an antidepressant, and it doesn't work. Then they just try another one. They try another one. They try another one and then your dopamine, serotonin reuptake inhibitors are so trashed by the time that you actually get on something and it might help. So there's now genetic testing for medications that you can use. There's genetic testing for, I mean, there's so many things. That's why like precision medicine is where it's at. There's not a one size fits all for anybody.
Rachel:I love that precision medicine.
Jessica:Absolutely.
Rachel:Not even prevention medicine.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Yeah.
Jessica:It would be wonderful if a kid gets diagnosed with ADHD and they get a genetic test before they get prescribed medication.
Dr. Jade Dandy:You know what ADHD is my favorite thing to work with. Because I had really bad ADHD as a child, they wanted to put me on medication. But my mom was like, I'm not gonna put her on medication and so she it was really funny. My mom always gave me a pill and she call it my chill pill. And it was just a calcium magnesium, which is so funny because I have the COMT gene so I needed anyways to calm the hell down. And so my mom always would be like, Jade, go take your chill pill, and I'd go take it. Well, by the time I was in the fourth grade, I'm like, Mom, I can calm myself down, I can self regulate, I don't need to take something. And I'm so grateful for her because it would have been so easy for her to put me on Ritalin or Adderall or whatever. And the truth is, I think that ADHD is my superpower. I really, really feel that way. And so there's a lot of these SNPs that are propensity for your dopamine. Because kids are dopamine seeking when they have ADHD and so if you have these genetic SNPs, that aren't turned on, and you're not getting the dopamine you need, then you're going to be a city squirrel, ping ponging all over the place. Right? So then it's like, once I got my genetic SNPs, I'm like, Oh, that makes sense. That makes sense. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Oh, everybody in my family dies of a stroke. That makes sense. Everyone in my family has familial high blood pressure. Okay, I'll have my relatives develop dementia, Alzheimer's. Okay. So it's just a really cool tool to have.
Jessica:Yeah, for sure.
Rachel:Okay, I mean, I could nerd out all day. I love this. Well, I believe that maybe in my next life, I should do this and learn about it too, because it's so fascinating. We talked a little bit about your biggest challenge, let's just kind of revert back their biggest challenge with your job and what you do day in and day out. Go.
Dr. Jade Dandy:My most challenging job first off is I think that people expect doctors to know everything and I tell people, it's going to take me three to four visits to really get to know what we're dealing with. And I think that if doctors were just honest about that, and not prescribing a pill for every ill, then it becomes a relationship. So that's one of the first things when people see naturopathic medical doctor is sometimes they're like, wait, I have to come back how often or I have to do what? The second thing is, supplementation. Supplements are hard. I agree. They're expensive, and they're hard and I hate them. And my husband is so sweet, because I'm like, Oh, my gosh, all I do is pill push. He's like, Jade, that's what you're trained in. So we run vitamin levels. We run thyroid. We run in depth testing to see what the body needs in order to try to get it back in homeostasis. So supplementation. And then the last thing is the standard American diet. I mean, it just amazes me my daughter has never eaten McDonald's and it was so funny. We drove identidade like, Mom, I feel bad for those people. I was like, Honey, you felt bad for that. But it was just like this moment where I was like, you feel bad for them. Like, that's their choice. It's okay. It's just how we are in our family and I grew up on a standard American diet. I mean, Pop Tarts were the best breakfast my mom thought she could get any. It's funny. I did not eat a vegetable until I met my husband and secondary to canned corn, which I reminded my mother is actually a grain and white Iceberg lettuce. I'm not even kidding you. I didn't eat a beet. I had no cabbage, kale, nothing. I me and my husband's first date he took me to his mom's garden and I pulled a carrot out of the ground and I thought it was the coolest thing that ever happened to me and I ate a carrot. I was like, this is so cool. Now, I grow a huge garden. I love vegetables. But my parents, and that's funny because my mom was a stay at home. Mom, I love you, Mom. You're fabulous. But I know. Yeah. That's so funny to me. I mean, I think that every single thing I ate was processed food growing up. Minute rice, you know. It blew my mind the minute I realized that rice took 20 minutes to cook. It's it's so and it's funny, because now I can
Rachel:Yeah, really. and I do a lot of my genealogy. Lots of genealogy and so it's like, my great, great grandmother's life was hard. They work hard. They were in Idaho growing potatoes during the Depression. I mean, I was hard. So I'm grateful for the modern world and many times I'm like, I'm so grateful for this light switch. Very grateful. But I just think our diets so ruined. I think it's so hard parents are like, the kids come back gluten sensitive or celiac and it's just like I ruined their life and I'm like, I'm so sorry. It's all genetically modified in America and so it's really hard for parents to grasp how to keep feed, feed their kids a whole food based diet. It's challenging.
Jessica:What would be a tip that you could give parents listening to this podcast, if they are struggling to implement whole foods into their family diet?
Dr. Jade Dandy:I always tell my patients, it is not what you take out. It's what you add in. I don't want you to be overwhelmed by the things you have to take out of the diet. I want you to think about the things you need to add in. So I always tell them that. Try to add in more vegetables at lunch. Try to add in a smoothie with more protein and some extra fruit in the morning. Like I don't want you to get overwhelmed. I always think energy replaces energy right? So instead of coming out of here being like Oh my gosh, I'm so overwhelmed. My kids has to be dairy free and gluten free and organic and non GMO and I tell them, I don't want you to leave overwhelmed. I want you to think about what you can add in so it's more of a positive thought and a challenge for you than not. The other thing that I did with my daughter is we cook together. So we meal prep on Sundays and so she gets to pick a couple of recipes. There's some really cool cooking classes downtown too and we've done a couple of those. Last weekend, we just learned how to make tamales, which is basically all whole foods, it was so delicious. And so engaged your kids, bring them along with you. There's a really good parenting book. It's called Hunt, Gather, Parent.
Rachel:I love that looks so much.
Dr. Jade Dandy:I read that book. I was like, how many times do we show our kids away? Right? So after that book, I was like, Lucy, come here. This is how you load the dishwasher. This is how you start the dishwasher. She's like, why are you showing me this? I was like, because it's a life skill, kiddo. So now I think all the time, how can I bring her into this? How can I bring her in? For me, I think that's such a more positive way of parenting than being like, I have all these restrictions now. I have all of this now. It's like, no, let your kid be a kid and just involve them.
Rachel:Yeah.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Yeah.
Jessica:I think that's good advice for that.
Rachel:We have so many books, we're going to link in the show notes.
Jessica:Which is my favorite thing, because I love to read. So I'm like, oh, I need to read dirty genes.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Yeah, my anxiety in life is I'm not gonna be able to read all the books I want to read.
Jessica:I'm like, What if I die before I finish all the books in my bookshelf? That would make me really sad.
Dr. Jade Dandy:So I felt when we rebuild our home. I'm like, and this is my library and I have a whole library down there. And it's so amazing.
Rachel:Oh, my goodness.
Jessica:I feel like we've asked you for a lot of tips and advice throughout our conversation.
Rachel:Thank you.
Jessica:What's one of the biggest things that your listeners to take away is like, Okay, this is great information. But what do I do with it? You know. What steps do I need to take now that I have this new information? So what is like one last piece of advice that you could leave our listeners with?
Dr. Jade Dandy:I think my last piece of advice is that doctors don't know everything. I mean, I remember graduating and like being like, I'm a doctor, now. My gosh, I have so much power. Like so part of me is like if you are working with somebody, or you're seeking help for a child or for yourself, and you're just not getting there, don't give up, keep going, keep looking, keep searching. There's somebody out there that really does want to help you. There's somebody out there who's passionate about what they're doing. It's like these kids that come and see me there are teenagers. I mean, the teenage pandemic of depression, anxiety, I lay in bed and worry about it and that's a whole nother conversation I can have with people. But it breaks my heart. I've never seen it like this and I want to take every single one of those teenage kids and just to help them in every way and that's the thing. Like, it's nobody ever needs to feel bad about getting on medication ever. That's the one thing I would always take out of that. But at the same time, like you're putting people on medications, you're not talking about diet, lifestyle, coping skills, nothing and so my biggest piece of advice for people is just keep searching. There's so much information coming out. I can't keep up with all of it. I mean, there's a new book out called the polyvagal syndrome and I can't wait to read that now about the vagal nerve.
Rachel:That's on my bookshelf right now.
Dr. Jade Dandy:There's so much. So if you're seeing somebody that's old school, or you're seeing something that's not resonating with you just keep seeking out, really. Even if it's just a podcast, even if it's just something resonates with you, and you're like, oh, how do I find somebody help me with that? So that's the thing I would say don't if something your doctor tells you does not resonate with you, keep looking. It's okay. We don't know everything.
Jessica:Yeah.
Rachel:Love that.
Jessica:Great.
Rachel:I feel like every time I talk to you, I always learn something new. So thank you for enlightening me. We should probably have you back on to talk a little bit more about pans and pandas. That's a topic that we have had requests for and we just haven't found the right practitioner to talk to. So, that could be another topic. That's another field that's just emerging and it's just every
Dr. Jade Dandy:That'd be great. single thing that comes out. I just tried to devour because it's so heart wrenching for these families and then should the doctor actually believe them? It's like, gosh, so.
Rachel:Well, thank you. Thank you so much.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Hey, I'm so glad it's worked out.
Jessica:Thank you.
Dr. Jade Dandy:Absolutely.
Jessica:That was a great conversation. She has so much knowledge and I do think we will need to schedule a follow up interview on a couple of different topics with her. Hopefully this was interesting to you our listener as well. Hopefully you learned something. Hopefully, you have some tangible things that you can take away from this episode.
Rachel:And I know we talked about some like hot topics and controversial topics as well and just know that it's not our intention to like, be one way or another. We're just here sharing information and if it's helpful for you, great. If it's not then leave it and that's okay. But sometimes those messages can come off the wrong way and just know that's not our intention at all.
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Rachel:We will plan on seeing you next Wednesday. Thank you so much for listening to All Things Sensory by Harkla.
Jessica:If you want more information on anything mentioned in the show, head over to Harkla.co/podcast to get the show notes.
Rachel:If you have any follow up questions, the best place to ask those is in the comments on the show notes or message us on our Instagram account which is at Harkla_family or at all things sensory podcast. If you just search Harkla, you'll find us there.
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Jessica:We are so excited to work together to help create competent kids all over the world. While we make every effort to share correct information, we're still learning.
Rachel:We will double check all of our facts but realize that medicine is a constantly changing science and art.
Jessica:One doctor or therapist may have a different way of doing things from another.
Rachel:We are simply presenting our views and opinions on how to address common sensory challenges, health related difficulties, and what we have found to be beneficial that will be as evidence based as possible.
Jessica:By listening to this podcast you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or your child.
Rachel:Consult your child's pediatrician or therapist for any medical issues that he or she may be having.
Jessica:This entire disclaimer also applies to any guests or contributors to the podcast.
Rachel:Thanks so much for listening.