NBS #129: Her Home Had Flooding… Then Her Health Declined

Alex Marie Freed was a healthy mom of three when she suddenly began experiencing daily migraines, vomiting spells, panic attacks, dizziness, severe anxiety, food reactions, and debilitating fatigue.

Doctors blamed pregnancy, stress, and anxiety. But what no one connected was that her symptoms began shortly after moving into a fixer-upper home with a history of flooding.

In this episode of Never Been Sicker, Michael Rubino sits down with integrative health practitioner Alex Marie Freed to discuss her journey through mold illness, Lyme, MCAS, miscarriage, medical dismissal, and the long road back to health.

Alex shares how her family was impacted, what finally helped her connect the dots, why remediation mistakes can make things worse, and how she now helps women and children dealing with complex chronic illness.

This conversation is a powerful reminder that healing is possible, but the root cause has to be addressed.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:28 Symptoms begin
01:21 Moving into the fixer-upper
01:55 Mold wasn’t on her radar
03:08 Migraines, panic attacks & anxiety
04:27 Connecting the dots
05:29 The call that changed everything
06:41 Turning pain into purpose
06:54 Miscarriage, mold & infertility
08:20 Fertility and toxic load
10:45 Severe illness and survival mode
12:16 Flooding and worsening symptoms
12:57 Why the remediation failed
14:20 Why kids are more vulnerable
16:16 Why we’ve never been sicker
17:18 The biggest lie in chronic illness
18:33 Quick fixes vs root causes
21:03 Shifting the healing mindset
22:27 Being dismissed by doctors
24:18 Mold, Lyme & MCAS connection
26:08 Terrain-based healing explained
27:39 Lyme disease controversies
29:48 Life after healing
32:40 The turning point in recovery
36:00 Daily healing rituals
38:06 Her healing program
40:52 Message for those struggling
42:05 Where to find Alex

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Follow Alex:
🔵 Instagram: alexmariefreed
🔵 Website: alexmariefreed.com or elliottrayholistic.com
🔵 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alexmariefreed

Alex Marie Freed is the Founder and Lead Practitioner of Elliott Ray Holistic Wellness. Alex’s health journey began with migraines, nausea, vomiting, chronic fatigue, extreme food aversions, anxiety, insomnia, and air hunger, which eventually led to a diagnosis of Hyperemesis Gravidarum, Placenta Previa, Mold Toxicity, Lyme Disease, and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. Throughout her journey, she learned these labels could be traced to a single root cause- inflammation. Alex discovered that by increasing the body's resiliency and creating a stronger terrain, we decrease our susceptibilities. After overcoming these diagnoses and finding full healing, she created Elliott Ray Holistic Wellness, a virtual practice supporting families walking through chronic illness. Alex is a Certified Integrative Health Practitioner, Bioenergetic Practitioner, and educator. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

My name is Michael Rubino. I'm on a personal mission to make sure you don't get sick inside your own home.

SPEAKER_02 0:05

I knew there was something wrong. I just told me there's something that we can do about it.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Never Been Sicker. I'm your host, indoor air quality expert, Michael Rubino. And today's very special guest, integrative health practitioner, Alex Marie Freed. Alex, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to be here with us and share your story.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Absolutely. I'm honored to be here. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

So, did you get sick? Tell me a little bit about what happened that kind of led you down this path.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Absolutely. So my story kind of starts at the end of 2019. I was perfectly fine. And then I started getting these daily migraines that would let lead to vomiting spells that were so bad. And it happened every single day, like nonstop, went from like healthy to those symptoms. So I started doing what people do, going doctor after doctor after doctor. They gave me pills and I took them, but I still wasn't feeling better. What happened is I got pregnant in 2020. So people just kept blaming the pregnancy, saying it's because I'm pregnant, there's nothing we can do about it. But I thought that was weird because I had already been pregnant two times before, and none of the symptoms were there. But what I wasn't putting together is that we had just moved into a fixer upper and we were renovating at the same time. So my symptoms showed up. But it took me like two years to kind of connect the dots.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

And so when you were in that when you were in that fixer upper, did you see any signs of like water damage or anything like that?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Or yeah, we knew like when the house that was sold to us, it was from out of state because the whole family got sick. So they had to go live with family. They had disclosed like flooding in the basement, but I don't think I noticed anything like too bad I've been around construction sites my whole life. So the smell I I didn't know that it was like building up in my system.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

What about like in 2020? Did you was mold like on your radar back then?

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Or not at all. I was very like into conventional medicine and I had no idea that the environment would ever play a role. You know, I my dad worked in construction. I grew up in a renovated home. It wasn't anything people talked about. And I remember like bringing mold up to my doctor, just like seeing mold on one of my daughter's bottles when she was a baby. And he was like, Don't worry about mold, it won't make you sick. So I think that's why I never considered it.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Yeah. You know, it's interesting because I obviously grew up um, well, I I say obviously as if you might know my story, but I I I grew up around construction my entire life too. Uh my dad's been a restoration contractor since I'm five years old. And, you know, back back in the day, I mean, you nobody talked about mold illness, nobody talked about, you know, mold really at all. It was just this unsightly thing you poured bleach on or painted over, and that was just what happened, right? And so it wasn't until for me, Hurricane Sandy hit the northeast and I started seeing a pattern of people getting sick, complaining of all these symptoms, that I started to really dive down this rabbit hole and and and understand it. And so that's why I figured I'd ask. Because, you know, if you don't know, you don't know. Like what what were some of the symptoms you were dealing with?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

So uh me, I was so tired. I was getting like panic attacks in the middle of the night. Like I just like wake up and feel like I couldn't breathe. Or I was wired, like I wanted to vacuum and run the dishes in the middle of the night. Um, as we said, migraines, nausea, feeling really dizzy. It was like lots of weight loss and then lots of weight gain. And just like heavy, heavy anxiety. Like there was always something like the pit in my stomach walking into the house. And I thought it was like, well, renovating a house, I don't want to live in like a mess. I thought it was the stress of it, but I didn't know it was actually like the environment was physically hurting me. And at the same time, I had kids that were having food issues, like attention issues, sleeping issues, bladder issues. And so, like, I was going to specialists, but you were going to specialists.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

And I wasn't putting it together, but all of us were kind of feeling like GI and brain inflammation.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

It's so interesting because you know, obviously, I think some of the newer studies that have come out really focused on the mental health aspects, anxiety, depression, things of that nature. But you you don't hear people talk about it so much. Um, you you said at first you kind of associated it with just the overall stress of the renovation, et cetera. Yeah. You weren't kind of when did you realize that it was actually mold?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Um, I I was really sick. I was like dying, you know, after two years, just like exhausting all my efforts. And I kept asking everybody, you know, what should I do? Like, what should I look into? And I was laying in bed, you know, I was like crying, like wondering what to do. And I heard I heard a voice, which sounds insane. But it like came to me and then said, like, call Kelly. I was like, What? Like Kelly, I haven't talked to Kelly in so many years. Like, why would I call her? And I realized that she was really, really sick the last time I saw her and the doctors at Stanford were treating her. And I was like, maybe, maybe she can help me. So I called her, told her what was happening, and she's the one who led me into the world. She was like, You're toxic. Like, look into environmental medicine. And so once I did, we got the mold test done, found that so much mold, we did lime tests, found Lyme, and then I started to, you know, move away from conventional medicine and pursue like healing that way through environmental medicine. But it took a while.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Who is Kelly? Now I now I have to know.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Kelly, um, she is now glyphosate girl, which she's talking about that in the White House, but she I was her babysitter. And it's kind of interesting because I took care of her kids. I picked them up from school and I was seeing her. And then through my year with her, she I started not seeing her. She started like being in debt, she started like giving me more tasks. Um, and I realized that she was actually she was getting sicker as I was taking care of her kids and to the point where I wasn't even seeing her anymore and I was only communicating with the husband. And it's interesting because I, you know, I recognized that look in her husband's face. And it was the love on my husband's face when I was sick. So she she ended up saving me, telling me, you know, like what to do, who who to go to, like the questions to ask, and it really changed the trajectory of my life.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Wow, that's incredible. Well, thanks to Kelly, obviously, you were able to get the help you needed and all of that. And so at what point did you decide like I'm going to take this pain and turn it into a passion?

SPEAKER_01 6:53

I think the whole time, the whole time I was like laying there, you know, feeling all this, it was like, if I ever got better, I even wrote it in my journal, like I want to help women and children going through this. That's the whole time, the whole time I was holding on to hope that like this was not happening to me, but it was happening for me. And if my goal was to help other people going through this, then I have to walk through it too. And a lot of my pain and my suffering, my symptoms actually compounded when we lost a we had a miscarriage in the home. And the same strings of mold that was tested against my body actually causes miscarriage. So that was when I found out that happens to 25% of women and that also 25% of people have a genetic predisposition to, you know, not be able to clear mold as effectively. I knew that if I ever got better and found cancers, that's what I wanted to do with my second chance at life.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Wow. Yeah, so I'm really sorry to hear what you've gone through. And this is something that's been emerging uh more and more that I've been learning about is really the miscarriage rate and how this poor indoor air quality inside of homes and buildings, you know, really contributes to that. And of course, uh infertility in general, you know, where we're starting to see more and more signs come out. And it's um it's I I I can't imagine what that's like to go through, you know, and and and so it's it's really important, obviously, that we do know this so that we can prevent it. Because I think that's the biggest thing is it's one of those things that if we're not if we're not aware of it, we don't we really can't control it. I know how much do you help people in your practice now, specifically on that side? Do you see a lot of people coming to you with dealing with infertility issues and dealing with miscarriages, etc.?

SPEAKER_01 8:45

I do a lot, um about half. And I see I see a lot of like women and I see their kids, and it's like one they want to have kids or one they want to have more kids and they can't. And I had a client, you know, she she doesn't even know how she got pregnant the first time, she says. But the second time we were working together, and she's like, I haven't had a period in four months. Like, I'm working with a doctor, I have PCOS. Like, I would like to kind of get your eyes on my case. And then so we worked together, we optimized her body, specifically her liver. And then eight weeks later, she called me, she goes, I'm pregnant. I was like, That's amazing that the body is like ability to heal. And same thing with me. I never thought that after everything I was like through being fed written, you know, like needing IVs to survive, I actually can't eat anything and for a while. And I thought that that was like the best it was gonna be, you know, just like managing and surviving. But after healing and really working on my body, I was able to get pregnant again and have a fourth baby, have a healthy pregnancy was a feedback. So I really believe that even if we are struggling with this, it's just a sign. It's just the body needs help, but it doesn't mean that you can't have kids just right now. Because imagine, you know, imagine having a baby go through that. Umbilical cord studies now say that like there's over 200 toxins in the umbilical cord stuff that was banned before. So I feel like as we work on our toxic load, we're really supporting our future disease, you know, in pregnancy.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

That's crazy. I didn't know that statistic. That's that's alarming. Over 200 toxic cancer in the umbilical cord.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yeah. And then it's like stuff that we've banned in the past. So I feel like if they did that study now, like I don't know what it would show.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Wow. And I'm I bet it's been increasing over time, you know, especially with the tighter buildings we live in, right? We're regurgitating more particles than ever before. Less air exchange.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Absolutely. Yeah. And you know, people aren't eliminating it, we're just soaking it all in.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Now you had you you actually went through some pretty dark times yourself, obviously, that you just shared. And uh yeah, I think there was a time you were in a wheelchair as well. What ended up happening there? What was life like back then?

SPEAKER_01 11:13

It felt like I was living like moment by moment. It felt like every breath could be my last. And it was very scary living that way because I was only 27 and I was involved to three. Like I was like, what? I want to leave you, you know. Um, so my husband actually had to quit his job to take care of us. We had to sell our house and he had to carry me sometimes. I feel like I feel like I wanted him to sometimes drive onto the sidewalk in front of the doctor's office because even if I had an appointment, it's like, how was I gonna make it to that chair? How was I gonna speak? And so it required a massive life changes for all of us. I mean, we sold the house, we got rid of our things, we moved to a live with family, started traveling to see doctors. And I was very reactive at the time. So while I could live with my in-laws, like the house was making me sick. Um so I had to find like other places to live. Sometimes we were camping and it really, really changed everything. I feel like it's a different life that I'm living now, and what we were living in was like a living nightmare.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

And this is all basically from that house that it flooded.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Yeah, it had flooding before and a year into living there. So at the end of 2020, when I was pregnant, it actually flooded again. Um, the basement flooded, the toilet overflowed, and it took us like now I know better, right? But I think it took a couple weeks for the crew to come dry out, and then like weeks or months later again for them to clear out the drywall. So it things definitely now that I look back, like my symptoms definitely escalated at that time. And I was postpartum and I was actually getting worse instead of getting better. So that really added a lot more.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

I think most people, when they get sick, they they almost like have to become experts in mold and remediation and you know, doing it properly. Um, you know, looking back, do you think the remediation was done properly at the time?

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Or oh, absolutely not. Even I was like it wasn't sealed properly, you know, like that was a big thing I could see. I don't think they were masked properly. Again, like I said, they didn't come soon enough. And then they just let it sit and they did that two-foot cut, but even though that, you know, everything's been exposed, we were still breathing in the air, right? It was um, it was downstairs and the stairs just led right through and they didn't have any covering. And even the whole time we were, we didn't mean to renovate the house, but the whole time we had that house, we were like living in a construction zone.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Yeah, so breathing in a lot of that dust and stuff like that. Yeah, you know, usually usually when these like water mitigation companies come in and they do that two-foot flood cut, they usually put fans in and then blow that stuff around too. Did they do that with your place?

SPEAKER_01 14:18

You know, I can't quite remember because of everything happening. Maybe they did. I think so. Like the industrial fans, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Like the industrial fans or like things that you know kind of blow the air around.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Yeah.

unknown 14:33

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

And like the kids, the kids were little, right? So they're like closer to the ground. They like breathe in more than we do. So they were definitely like very susceptible as their lungs were developing, as their ducks were developing, as their immune system was developing. Like that was not the right environment to have them in.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Right. No, and I I tell people that all the time, you know, kids obviously, especially if they're crawlers and uh our furry loved ones, you know, they have low center of gravity, they're gonna be closer to the floor where these particles typically settle. And so obviously, being very close to their breathing zone, they're typically more exposed than even adults who are obviously uh higher up. And so, you know, it's something to think about, obviously, because yeah, you want to make sure that the dust is clean, doesn't have an abundance of microbes, and ultimately that means that the air you're breathing will be clean because our dust is, of course, everywhere. If you ever sat near a window on a sunny day, you know exactly what I mean when you saw the ray of light refract off the dust.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Absolutely. And it and it's hard because like we might know this, right? But like women are the ones to typically, they're the ones on, they're the ones that are in charge of like cleaning and taking care of the kids. So who is gonna dust and who's gonna clean when she's sick and vomiting. I feel like that was our issue too. Like I knew what needed to be done, but I physically couldn't do it. And that's really hard.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

That's true. You know, I think a lot of people don't realize when you're sick and tired, right? It's very difficult to get normal things done. You know, the normal chores that we're all supposed to be doing, it's very difficult to do that when we're all sick and tired. And uh unfortunately, especially when it comes indoor air quality, that means those things compound, right? Now we have more dust accumulating, more dust. And if we've got an issue, then we have more microbes accumulating within that dust, more dust, more microbes. Obviously, that's impacting the air we breathe.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

So you see a lot of people, you know, just in what you do. Uh, why do you think we've never been sicker than we are today?

SPEAKER_01 16:38

I think it's because of the world we created and the lifestyle that we created. We're so far from how humans used to live. We're so far from what we were created to be. We were supposed to be outside with the land, with the animals, with the sun. Now, as you're saying, right, like we're in these airtight homes, we're bombarded 24-7. We are always go, go, go. We never slow down. And that wasn't what life was like for thousands of years. And it's only recently that now we have like cars we sit in and we have computers in front of us, and we have Wi-Fi through the air, we have ultra-processed foods, we're spraying our soil, you know, and we're not taking care of ourselves. That knowledge isn't passed down. And when I feel like that's what did we expect would happen when we're doing that, we're so far from how humans used to live.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Totally. You know, being being through chronic illness yourself, and obviously now being this integrative health practitioner, you know, what do you look at in terms of uh the biggest lie that you've encountered in chronic illness that you've debunked?

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Oh, I love that. That you have to stay sick, that like symptoms can only be managed and they can't be fully reversed. I think that's a lie that you have to live with it. And also that a pill is going to be your answer. Like, if we didn't get sick overnight, why do we think we're gonna heal overnight? And I feel like we've really been conditioned into these quick fixes, you know, a seven-minute appointment, one pill, one surgery. And so when you're chronically ill, it's different than being when you're when you have an acute illness. Like it compounded over time, so it has layers.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Where do you think that lie comes from? What lie that we can't heal or yeah, just like the lie that we you know can't heal and we can only manage our symptoms. Like, where do you think that all came from, that whole idea?

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Yeah, well, um, you're I love it. Because a healed patient, you know, is no longer a lifelong customer. And I feel like that's that's the gist of it. When you think about when you see the pattern, it's really hard to unsee. So you have big aggro, right? They spray our food, they have their own seeds, the foods or dochemicals, then you have big food, ultra-processed food, really not whole foods, and everything is from boxes and plastic. And then that feeds into the hospital system where there is no cure, and they'll definitely tell you it's not related to food or environment, and that the answer is a pill. And that's a really lucrative business. Having someone come in there and get better and not ever walk through your door again is not, you know, lucrative and it's not profitable. So I feel like this cycle, this loop is what we've been fed, is what we've been inundated. I mean, if you watch like a show on Hulu, I don't know how many pharma commercials are there in between the episodes, but it's kind of insane like what we're seeing, what we're getting, and we're not encouraging people to go outside. We're not encouraging people to cook and be out in the sun. We say the sun is bad, we're sunglasses, you know. Um so it's kind of from everywhere, it's built in.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Yeah. Yeah. I also think from a societal standpoint, uh, we're not helping with the matter because of instant gratification, you know.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

We get stuff delivered in in our front doorstep in two days these days. And, you know, it's like uh the one thing about pain, obviously. If you're dealing with pain, um the allure of the pill is that you take the pill and you don't experience pain anymore, right? And so, you know, it's it's it's a bit tricky of a situation where certainly that lifestyle has sort of fed into uh the whole trap, if you will. Um, and then of course, as you pointed out, you know, um sick people, they need medication, especially if the idea is we're just gonna manage the symptoms, well then that medication is something that somebody could potentially buy forever, right? With no end in sight, um, which I think, you know, really um doesn't help with what we're trying to accomplish, which is better health. And I think better health comes with being more proactive, not reactive. And uh, you know, I'm I'm curious in your practice, is that something that uh you feel you have to work a lot on in terms of mindset shift with people?

SPEAKER_01 21:13

A little bit. It depends. It depends like at what point in their journey they can see me. So they if they've exhausted, you know, all the options, then they're more open-minded, I feel, you know, because they know that it's a process, it takes time, and they're willing to. And then there's some people who haven't yet and they're more curious. So we have to talk about how yes, a supplement and a protocol is great, but it's only a piece of the puzzle because what happens when we stop taking that supplement? Like, is your body able to do it on its own? So I really like to explain that that it's just one part of the whole process and that we use them as tools, but we're not going to be reliant on them forever. And if you don't agree with that, then you might not be the right client for me. But a lot of Clients have been through it for years that they're just they're ready for something different, they're ready for change. So if they've tried the this pill here and this element here and that hasn't worked, then they're more open to trying things.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Yeah, it makes total sense. You know, um, we talked earlier about kind of the dismissiveness, you know, touch on it briefly, just in terms of like, you know, the average person goes from doctor to doctor, you know, looking for answers. Um, when you were sick, did did you get dismissed by doctors? Did you have a similar issue? And and is that typically what you're seeing? Are people getting dismissed by doctors before finally, you know, landing in your lap?

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Sadly, yeah. You know, I was such a believer in conventional medicine. You know, I didn't see a reason not to. And so I went in with high hopes every single time. Like, okay, maybe not that doctor, but this doctor, maybe you'll listen to me, maybe you'll be able to help me. And after doing that for years, you are dismissed. You're told it's all in your head and that it's anxiety, or that it's just part of growing up, it's aging, or you're overthinking it, or that mold can't make you sick, or that line doesn't exist. And it's so, it's so maddening. It's so crazy-making. And I remember even a doctor telling me that the reason I was having symptoms is because I wasn't taking the pills fast enough. Like it must have been a pharmaceutical deficiency, it was like my root cause. And then I remember another doctor, I was, I think I was like two years in. I waited so long to see him. And I told him what was happening, and I told him what I thought it was. I was like, I think I suffered from NASA, like and three symptom points to it. Can you like help me confirm it? Can you help it? Can you work with me? And then he sat back and he took a deep breath and then he crossed his arms like this. And then he was like, How do you know about that? Like I wasn't supposed to. It was so weird. And I think after having that experience over and over, and then hearing the same story from my clients, like it's sad what's happening. It's sad that we go to the people that we were taught are supposed to help and we're getting dismissed. And, you know, for someone like me or my clients, we're willing to get up again and try and get up again and try and get up again and try. But for people that don't have that same resiliency or that ability, if you hear that enough, you're gonna start to believe it. And that to me is really sad.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Totally. You you sort of connected the dots here on MCAS, Lyme, mold illness. Uh you know, it it I see this triage, if you want to call it that, almost all all the time, you know, where people are developing a sensitivity to light and sound through the the MCAST, they have the Lyme disease, and they also seem to be more sensitive to mold. Um, what's the connection been like for you? Um, have you seen other people you know struggle with the three of those as well?

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Sadly, yeah. And we're seeing that like when you go to someone just for mold, or you go to someone just for lime and no one's putting it together, that lion's face stuff. So I feel like in my thinking and what I've seen over the years, that yeah, mold is really big and lime is really big, but it's not just one thing that gets us sick. It's like a toxic bucket. I feel like we've all been exposed to Lyme or ticks at this point, right? You've all been exposed to mold, but not everyone falls sick. And it really falls down to like how is your internal terrain when it happens, like what's going on physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally when you fall into chronic illness. But something we really talk about with playing together, just like I'm sick and this happened, and it's like, why? What was happening in your life that your body was, you know, it's so intelligent that for some reason it was having a hard time doing it on its own. And I realized that like I've got a history of mold. Like I and we renovated our house, we lived in the Bay Area, it was always foggy. My dad's like, yep, there was mold in the house. I I've lived in like tickandemic areas, but it was only, you know, when I was stressed, when I was depleted, when I was like energetically low that those things were able to thrive.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

Yeah. So you mentioned the word terrain. So can you talk about terrain-based healing?

SPEAKER_01 26:22

Yeah. So, you know, if you have two fish bowls and you have a fish in each one and the water is dirty, do you vaccinate the fish or do you clean out the water? And uh like this this whole time that I've been in practice, I've always been curious as to like how how do some people heal and how do some people stay sick? How do some people keep going and why do some people relapse? And it's just the conditions that the body is in. Is it fed well? Is it sleeping well? And are you eating well? Do you have the right gut bacteria to withstand those stressors? So I really, again, we like talk about supplements and protocols are great, but what kind of body is receiving them? How is your cell-to-cell communication? What is your toxic globe like? What are your relationships like? Because all of that plays into healing and how strong your body is. So that's part of the work we do. I don't just like give you, you know, supplements and a protocol and say bye, but like we talk about your life, we talk about your relationships, we talk about your past history, maybe trauma, maybe generational trauma, we talk about your spirituality, and then we talk about your physical health and how you can work on yourself to make yourself stronger and more resilient so that if it comes at you again, you don't fall back down. If for some reason you have to be in mold that like everything's okay, you know, that your body knows that it can handle it, it knows what it is, it knows to get rid of it.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

No, well said, I appreciate that uh very much though. And of course, I think the analogies you gave were really powerful. You know, when it comes to uh one of the biggest lies that we talked about earlier, I think one of the other things that I'm always interested in is controversies, you know, mainly because look, sometimes controversies are true. And sometimes it takes us like 10, 15, 20 years to find out that what we thought was a controversy 20 years ago is actually true. Right. And so, you know, I I'd love to know from your perspective what what's one of those controversies that you think is either gonna be true or something that you were exposed to earlier on that found out to be true that really stuck with you.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

I uh once I found out it was Lyme, I had to learn everything about Lyme. And it kind of led me into finding out that, you know, we were using them or we were testing them, specifically on Plum Islands who bring it to Lyme, Connecticut. And what's also interesting is because like Borelia and Tiggs has been around for forever, they found it in a mummy that was preserved in ice, right? But like my question is, why are we just getting sick now when everyone's been exposed to it? So I totally dove into the documentaries. I read the book Vin. And I feel like that one, that one will get debugged that you know, we bioengineered these ticks, and Lyme now is not what Lyme used to be before. And it doesn't just have a reliable, it has so many different streams, and there's so many different viruses, and that is a product of our toxic world. Right? Same thing with mold, like mold is from the Bible, you know, but we created this new toxic mold because of our airtight homes, because of our new product, because of our chemicals, because of our Wi-Fi. So I feel like, you know, what what do they say? Is it 17 years for medical literature to catch up?

unknown 29:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

So we think we'll be talking about that here in the future.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

Yeah, I don't disagree. Obviously, we know Lyme disease is a real thing. Uh, we see more and more come out every day. There's a bunch of very legitimate organizations that have been tons of research. So I think that's, you know, uh, I think that's something that I would agree with for sure. Absolutely. Um, I want to talk a little bit about the comeback story because um, you know, as you sit here today, you are on the other side of this. Are you how how much recovered are you?

SPEAKER_01 30:27

I don't have the symptoms that I talked to you about, which is amazing to see. You know, I um I tell my husband, I was like, when I look at an intake, whether mine or pulling out home with the kids or like my um my clients, I'm like, there was a time in my life where I would have checked off every single one of these boxes and then some. And then now, you know, like I'm like, oh, nothing's wrong. I'm just here to get even better, like even healthier. And I know better now. I think before as a mom and as a young mom and growing up the way I did, like stress was very normalized, and putting yourself last was normalized. Like if you took up time for yourself, if you did self-care, then that's bad. So I feel like I've learned so much and I parent differently, I take care of myself differently. I even speak to myself differently because you know, that negative self-talk kind of builds up. So no migraines. Um, I went from zero safe foods to like eating all foods, probably some that I'm not even supposed to, you know, just for fun. Um went from being veteran to having another baby. Wow. Um, yeah, it was amazing. She's she's she's the thing, the biggest lesson really healed me in ways that I didn't know I needed.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

I know kids have a way about doing that. It's it's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yeah. Um, and just no more symptoms. I don't know, and I don't even want to like say it out loud like that, but absolutely, you know, I can run with my kids. I could be in a fragrance store and like not like it, but you know, I won't go down for weeks. I can be around like sick people and maybe not get it or just have it for a day. So my resiliency is way high. Um my mother-in-law actually had to live with us for a month because I was so sick, and then we ended up moving in with my in-laws and then my own parents for years. And now we we're going on two years where we've been working from home whole time, we've been homeschooling the four kids, and it's just me and my husband. We don't have any help. Yeah. And I feel like that really speaks to like healing my terrain and building up my resilience and my energy, right? Because a lot comes at me, especially seeing clients, it sometimes brings me back to where I was and I'm okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

What was the key turning point in that?

SPEAKER_01 32:52

It was finally looking at my body as a whole. So I was, you know, I did the testing, I did the protocols, I traveled for specialists, and I was still like in bed really sick, like low quality life. Maybe I went from zero foods to eating 10. Maybe what for being bedridden to I I can go out for like 15 minutes before I needed a nap. But it was really, I did this energy scan and it completely like changed my life because it put everything together that I was feeling. We were no longer like doing a gut test here and a parasite test here, and then a heart test here and a brain test and a mold test. It actually scanned my body as a whole and found everything all together. So I was able to address it, but also in the right order. So I found that like mold protocols are making me sicker and I couldn't tolerate the line birds, not because it was wrong, but it was at the wrong time. And what I really needed to do was like work on my foundations first, make sure that my drainage pathways were open, make sure that my space and my environment was calm, but I was really working on my mindset so that when it came time to address the mold or when it came time to address the line, that my body had energy and capacity to deal with it. So a lot of these people, it's not like it was wrong, but it could have been wrong timing because we've talked about reframing chronic illness and acute illness. And healing from chronic illness is like a marathon. You don't just like go rent it, you have to go train. So when we opt for these like really expensive, really cutting-edge, heavy-hitting therapies, and then we hurse or we say it doesn't work. It's because the terrain that it fell on still needed to be healed. It's because you don't have your foundations and place. Like if you're building a house, you have to work on foundation plumbing and electricity. Then you get to work on the kitchen, the bath, and you get to decorate it, you get to paint it. But I feel like people skip those steps and go into like, I'm just gonna buy a new roof, like I'm just gonna paint the kitchen and it should be great. But like, no, so same thing with our with our things, like the plumbing, so to speak, has to be working. The electricity has to be working. Your cells have to be able to process what's happening in order to help you, or else you're going in circles. So it was truly like, again, like finding it all in one was really amazing, and then understanding I needed to go in order and give myself a lot of grace and really pace myself. And when I took that approach, it was like so much of my symptoms went away. My husband called it, he was like, the day we finally woke up from that nightmare, like he he physically saw that I was actually gonna get better before it was just like a hope that she's gonna get better. And and then so this whole time I was sick, I was actually active on Instagram. I was on my stories, like whining all the time, like sharing all the time, just upset, but also finding other people who were doing the same things in my community. So when I went from bedridden to like Alex is back, you know, like she's going on again, she's doing listing all these things. I was like, Well, what did you do? Like, how could I have been like going in circles? And what did you do to get better? And that's actually how my practice was born. I really wanted to show people that there was a way to heal.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

That's amazing. Did you have any daily rituals that you felt were really important that really helped you you move the needle?

SPEAKER_01 36:16

Yeah, I mean, I think like lymphatic work and fascia work was really, really profound, right? The tensile strength of fascia it has like four 4,700. So then if your fascia is like tight or stuck, that really pulls on all your organ systems. If you're not, you know, we talk about pinched pathways, and if you're not eliminating two to three times a day, all that stuff is building up and being toxic. So making sure that every day I was moving my lump, I was drinking warm water, I was going to the bathroom and I was eating food that was nourishing to me and getting sunshine, not just like, I see it, but like actually having morning sun and evening light really built up my mitochondria, really helped my cells, like really reset my terrain because we receive signals like from the light, right? That's how our body knows what to do and which processes to carry out. So if I wake up and I start to scroll my phone, the information I'm receiving is like blue light, stress, news. But if I wake up and I step outside and I hear birds and I see the sun and I have clouds, like seeing clouds and out in nature, then what signals are your is your body receiving? You know, what are you setting yourself up for today? So really like lymphatic work, drainage work, and you know, the not fun thing. Really much.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

No, that's important. I think you know, rituals are important, habits are important. I think that, you know, it's important to build positive habits. And you know, I I think for anybody going through illness, right? It's like, oh, how do we start to build some of these positive habits? You know, because obviously, you know, there's a lot of negative thoughts that occur and a lot of negative things that happen. And um, you know, it's it's it's how do we start to just move the needle in that direction? So I I I get it, you know, that's why I wanted to ask because I bet you that people out there, you know, are looking for some habits to build. Um the sanctuary healing program you've developed, can can you share about that?

SPEAKER_01 38:13

Yeah, it's my six-month one-on-one program. And I created it because it's what I needed when I was sick. I not only needed someone to explain to me what was happening, but I needed someone to walk through it with me. So the way I work with clients isn't just like one and done, like good luck, but I really do a full intake. I take in your whole health history, everything you've ever done so that we know what works, we know what doesn't work, and I see your starting point. And then I run energy scans and we're able to see what the body's prioritizing. Like someone might come to me saying, like, I was told it's mold, like I have mold in my urine test, like I'm dealing with mold, but what we're actually seeing here could be lime, could be lime is what's primary and mold is secondary, or it could be like a structural misalignment, it could be something in the spine, could be related to teeth, it could be related to environment. And so we start to work through the layers and then I provide that like one-on-one consult, but then I provide like education. So if we're trying to heal your gut, then I teach you how to heal your gut. If we're having a hard time going to the bathroom, then I teach you how to do that. If you know you're getting dizzy and you're having headaches, and we work through those things like really intimately together. So I do consults, my clients can like chat support me, and then we run through about three scans and consults together for six months. And you know, whether you sign up again or not, like I've had clients tell me, you know, I noticed I was doing stuff before that I couldn't do before our other call. I had another client, she was actually diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Um, she was forgetting where she was, who was around her like every 20, 30 minutes, like asking what was going on. And um, her mom actually, sorry, her daughter brought her to me because I was treating her granddaughter. And so now they're like, Can you help her? And I was like, Why are you here? And she's like, Oh, like I don't have Alzheimer's. Like, I know I don't. I know the doctor said I did. And it actually ended up being like mold and the toxins and her basement that she was working with. So I I do it all. I provide the level of care. Yeah, it's amazing, but I wish I needed I hated like not having access to my practitioner or like not understanding the testing, or if I had a question or a symptom come up, do I have to like wait a few weeks and book again? Like, no, I'm in constant communication with my clients because I feel like that's what we really need to heal. We talk about how it's so in-depth, it has been chronic, it's going on for so long. So that deep personalization and someone who puts the whole picture together and is willing to walk with you through start to finish is what really gets my client success.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

Yeah, totally important. Um, what do you what what message do you hope that someone stuck dealing with chronic illness hears today?

SPEAKER_01 41:09

That you can heal. I feel like sometimes we get stuck in this, in this mindset of like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard it. Like we can heal, but I can't. Like you can, but I can't. And I want you to know that's not true. Like someone from someone who was dying who thought like there was no way out, and to be like completely better and to see it happen in my practice over and over again that healing is meant for you, but it's not reserved for someone else. And it's totally okay like to have those negative thoughts, negative days, because what you're going through is really hard. But after you have your little pity party, right? It's okay to process those feelings. I want you to get up again and keep trying because your second chapter, you know, your next, your next life is just waiting and you you get to write your story.

SPEAKER_00 42:00

Yeah, it's incredible. Thank you so much for that. It's such an important mission. You know, uh for people that want to connect with you, want to know where to find you, uh, can you give them some information?

SPEAKER_01 42:12

Absolutely. So I'm very active on Instagram. You can find me at Alex Marie Free. My website is alexmariefree.com. And then I also have a link where you could book a call with me and we can get to your root cause together and see if working together would be a great bit.

SPEAKER_00 42:27

That's awesome. Well, I really appreciate all that you do. I want to thank you so much again for taking time out of your busy day to be here with us and share your story and your wisdom. Um, it was a very insightful conversation, and I really appreciated that.

SPEAKER_01 42:43

Thank you. Thank you for your time. I appreciate what you asked me. You know, you made me say things that maybe I only say to my family or to my clients, but it's really nice for everyone else to like know and hear that what's possible too.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

Yeah, I think it's important, you know, to share stories because of course, if we're gonna get through this, I think we need some societal shift. And so it's important that we're all in this together, we're not alone, and we're having these, you know, really tough conversations so that we can get to the answers faster.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 43:17

Well, thank you so much again, and until next time, we'll see you soon.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

Thank you. Bye.