EPI 95 - Why Your Body Isn’t Responding (And What Your Genes Have to Do With It)

Episode 95: Why Your Body Isn’t Responding (And What Your Genes Have to Do With It)

Hi friend — welcome back to The Habit Within! I’m Camille Kinzler, and this episode feels like a bit of a reset… or maybe even a return.

I took a step back from the podcast for a while — not because anything was wrong, but because it simply didn’t feel aligned. And I think there’s something really powerful in honoring that. Not forcing, not pushing, not creating a problem where there isn’t one.

And now? It feels right again. So here I am — and we’re diving into something that I know so many of you have been quietly wondering:

Why is my body not responding… even when I’m doing everything right?

If you’ve been eating well, exercising, taking the supplements, managing your stress — and still feeling exhausted, stuck in your weight, or off in your hormones… this episode is for you.

In this episode, I walk you through:

•  Why this isn’t a willpower issue — and why I know you’re already trying hard enough 
•  What your DNA actually is (and how it functions as your body’s instruction manual) 
•  The difference between your genes and your gene expression — and why that changes everything 
•  A simple way to understand epigenetics (hint: think dimmer switches, not on/off buttons) 
•  Why two people can take the exact same supplement and have completely different results 
•  What detoxification really is (and why it’s happening in your body every single day) 
•  A simplified breakdown of phase one and phase two detox pathways — and why balance between them matters 
•  How sluggish detox pathways can show up as fatigue, weight resistance, bloating, mood swings, and hormone imbalances 
•  Why “just take more supplements” often makes things more confusing — not better 
•  How understanding your genes helps you stop guessing and start aligning with your body 

This episode is really about shifting the narrative.
From “What am I doing wrong?”
To “What does my body uniquely need?”

Because when you understand your blueprint, everything changes.

I’d love to hear from you

Have you ever felt like you were doing everything right… and still not seeing results?

Send me a message or share this episode — I’d love to hear what this brought up for you.

If you’re tired of feeling exhausted, irritable, moody, and just not like yourself,  schedule a free 30-minute consultation so I can help you feel like YOU again
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Transcript

(0:00 - 0:40)
And we're going to talk about detoxification and why, you know, what detoxing is and, and a little bit about knowing your genes and how that can be really helpful. Welcome to the habit within this podcast is for high achieving women, 35 and older who seem to have it all together, but feel like they're constantly running on fumes, struggling to balance it all and losing sight of the woman they used to be. I'm Camille Kinzler, a former physician assistant turned transformational coach, blending science, positive psychology, and a metaphysical approach to habits, health, and vitality.

(0:40 - 1:05)
If you've ever asked yourself, why am I so exhausted? Even after a full night's sleep, or I feel like I'm juggling so much, but I'm just barely keeping my head above water. You are in the right place. Each week we'll explore the real reasons behind feeling overwhelmed, trapped in the cycle of overworking and constantly running low on energy and how to break free from the patterns, keeping you stuck in survival mode.

(1:05 - 1:36)
It's time to stop living on autopilot and to start feeling like yourself again. Let's dive in. I am back. 

I told myself I wasn't going to record a podcast episode. Um, unless I felt like I had something to say. And I guess I didn't have anything to say for quite a few months. 

Um, and you know, what's so interesting is I rarely thought about the podcast. So I knew that it wasn't something that I needed to be doing at that moment. And I really want you to also consider that in your life.

(1:37 - 1:54)
When something doesn't feel urgent, then we don't need to make an issue where there's no issue at all. If I wasn't thinking about the podcast or let's say when it did pop into my mind, which was infrequently, I didn't create a story around it. I didn't create this, this idea that that's what I should be doing.

(1:55 - 2:18)
Because I was going to lose listeners or the consistency wasn't going to be there to get new listeners and all of the stuff that marketing people say instead, it just didn't feel right. And now it feels right again. So here I am and I'm going to share with you why your body isn't responding and what your genes have to do with it.

(2:18 - 3:05)
I've been doing a lot of training videos for, uh, for clients for my profile to really help them learn a little bit more about their genes because so often in the visits I have with them, it's overwhelming. It's a lot of information. And so as much as they say that they are absorbing it, I just doubt it. 

It's just too much. So I've been creating training modules and this particular podcast episode is out of one of those training modules. And we're going to talk about detoxification and why, you know, what detoxing is and, and a little bit about knowing your genes and how that can be really helpful because often I see that there's this moment I see over and over and over again with women that they're doing all of the things.

(3:05 - 3:19)
And this was so me as well, eating well and exercising and taking the supplements and trying to manage their stress like they've been told. And yet something still feels very off. Their energy is low.

(3:19 - 3:49)
Their weight isn't shifting and hormones just feel very unpredictable that they're all over the map. And underneath there is this question of what am I missing? Like what am I not getting here? I am doing all the things that the influence are telling me and I'm just still stuck. And I felt that way for probably about probably six months to a year in like the really low points of it.

(3:50 - 4:11)
So today I just want to walk you through something that might change how you see your body because it's isn't an issue of you not trying hard enough love. I know that you're trying hard and I know that you want to feel better, more energetic, more alive, more present with your family, better in your clothes, looking hot. Like I get it.

(4:11 - 4:25)
I know that's you. Um, and I think oftentimes things just aren't personalized the way that they should. I mean, I know that they're not personalized in medicine the way that they should and really understanding how your body works.

(4:25 - 4:59)
And that's why I've been geeking out so much with the D with your DNA, with my own genetics and knowing my own genetics and the people around me. So let's go ahead and just start at the beginning since I kind of feel like I'm starting over with this podcast. Let's just go ahead and call this season two. 

I've never had seasons, so I'm just going to go ahead and just let's go ahead and claim this as season two. So we're going to go back to the foundations and really talk about your DNA as being really essential. It is really your body's instruction manual.

(4:59 - 5:21)
It lives inside every single cell. It holds the information of how your body functions and repairs and responds to the world around you and actually even the internal world. Now some parts of that manuals are really fixed, right? So you have like your eye color, your hair color and other physical traits.

(5:21 - 5:48)
And then there are other parts that are more dynamic. They influence how your body uses energy or detoxes or how hormones and neurotransmitters are processed or how you respond to stress. I've gotten really good at being able to pick out like, Ooh, I bet that you're a comped this allele just based on how people respond to stress.

(5:49 - 6:33)
And this is where I think it really gets super interesting because when we get to know our own genes and we get to like really put the blinders on and say, okay, now that I know these things, how can I use this knowledge to really understand my body more to be able to listen to my body more? Let's go back to the instruction manual. So within that instruction manual, um, inside that are your genes. So think of your genes as the individual instructions that are within that manual. 

So each gene tells your body how to do something, how to detox, how to balance your hormones, how to create energy, how to process nutrients, et cetera. This is where your body becomes truly uniquely yours. Nobody's is the same.

(6:33 - 6:42)
And here's something that most people do not realize. Not all of these instruction manuals carried are carried out the same way. Some of them don't do anything and they don't really matter.

(6:43 - 7:04)
I'm sure they do something right, but they don't do enough for us to see something on the outside, right? Something that affects our lives to where we notice a change. And then some of these instructions within our manual, they run super efficiently and some of them need a little bit of our support. And that's where epigenetics comes in.

(7:04 - 7:39)
And that is where the power is in knowing this. All of the genes that I look at, um, for the most part are all of the genes that can be changed or turned on and off so that switch can be turned up or down, um, depending on the, your lifestyle, what you consume, um, the, how you support, um, certain areas of your body supplements that you take. And so you can think about that, your epigenetics or lifestyle as the dimming or brightening of the switch.

(7:40 - 8:02)
So now I'm probably going to start mixing metaphors, but here we go now. Um, yes. So when you're looking at epigenetics, this is really where the power is because while your genes don't change, like if you, when you get your report, these are your genes for the rest of your life, how your genes are expressed actually do change.

(8:02 - 8:14)
And this right here again is the epigenetics and it's how your body actually uses and reads the instructions. Right. So, um, let's see a simple way.

(8:14 - 8:29)
So I'm going to go back to our, our house analogy or the switch is the switch in the house analogy. Um, your DNA is like the wiring in the house and then your genes are the switches. So they're, they're the light switches.

(8:30 - 8:49)
And then the epigenetics is how those, how those switches are used, right? So if they're turned up or down or dimmed or turn or barely used at all, um, that is what the epigenetics portion is. So now we really need to see like what controls those switches. Right.

(8:49 - 9:21)
And that's the lifestyle, your daily life. So it's why you eat and how you sleep and your stress levels and your environment and even your thoughts and your emotions, which in season one we're going to call it was a lot about how your thoughts and your emotional state really affect your health. So now since you can't change your genes and then we know that you absolutely have influence on how you behave, then that is why I say, that is where the power lives.

(9:22 - 9:57)
So what's really happening in your body. Now let's bring this down to detoxification detox. I'm sure everyone has heard this because detox isn't something that you do for a few days. 

Actually it's happening every single day. It's happening constantly within your bodies or detoxing, um, hormones even, you know, are like estrogen is, um, is activated into metabolites and the metabolites are then become water or soluble and then they are excreted. Right.

(9:57 - 10:36)
So very simplistic way of saying that alcohol is converted by an enzyme to acetaldehyde, which then is converted to water soluble and then excreted. Medications go through a similar, very overly simplified process. Environmental toxins do the same. 

They go into your liver, they go through a phase one and phase two detox and then they are eliminated. So phase one is where the substances are broken down and this is largely driven by an enzyme called cytochrome P450 system. Please don't turn this off.

(10:36 - 11:12)
I promise I won't get too much into the biochemistry right now, but I just want to give you an overview of this. Um, but here's the thing about phase one. Often phase one creates a compound that becomes more reactive than when it started. 

And y'all probably heard of this term before called free radical. So free radical is generated and if that isn't neutralized properly, then it creates something called oxidative stress, which can cause influence aging or something like that. It's a process of just inflammation.

(11:12 - 11:52)
Our body makes us look really old fast and creates chronic disease. So then we have step two, which basically takes those intermediate compounds or those things that happened in phase one and it neutralizes them and prepares them for elimination. And this is where detox happens. 

Um, both of these phases they need to work together because if you have one that's too fast, like for instance, phase one is too fast and phase two, um, then can't keep up or vice versa. Then you end up building up these reactive compounds and, um, symptoms. This is where the symptoms really start showing up.

(11:53 - 12:24)
So another really important phase two pathway is called methylation. And, um, methylation is how your body takes substances and makes them safer to remove. Um, basically by adding a methyl group to this compound and this, um, this helps with detoxification and hormone balance because if we don't, or if we're not able to eliminate these substances and then we have buildup neurotransmitter protection, DNA repair on and on and on.

(12:25 - 12:41)
Um, so yeah, this is really, it's not just like just detox. This is like looking at your entire system and health functions. Now, after all of that promise, we're going to move ahead on like what really matters and it's the way that you are experiencing things.

(12:41 - 13:28)
So if your detox pathways aren't working effectively and your body is not able to clear these hormones effectively and estrogen isn't cleared effectively, then it can recirculate. And what that looks like is weight resistance. It looks like bloating, mood swings, fatigue, sore breasts, feeling like your body is just like holding onto something that you really, really want it to release. 

Um, because in many ways it is and it has nothing to do with your willpower or how hard you're trying because you're, again, I see you, you're trying so hard, but this is truly your physiology. So sometimes people are like, well, I'm just going to take more supplements. And this is why that becomes so confusing because you hear, we'll take this and take that.

(13:28 - 13:42)
And then that's how you're going to feel like so much better. Take your B vitamins, right? And they can have like a completely opposite effect depending on what your genetics show. So let's take the vitamin B vitamin example.

(13:42 - 14:01)
So for one person, they can take what's called methylated B vitamins and feel amazing, more energy and a better mood. But then for somebody else, it can actually make them feel overstimulated and anxious and just too much. And so they're like, Oh, I, you know, what's happening? Like this isn't making me feel good, but I'm told I'm supposed to take it.

(14:01 - 14:17)
So it must be something else. It must not be these, you know, these healthy B vitamins I'm taking. And that's just to demonstrate that you have the same exact supplement and you have a completely different body, which equals a completely different response.

(14:17 - 14:39)
And this is where so many women start to feel so frustrated because they assume that again, that they are doing something wrong and reality. It's just their body needs a different approach. So if you take anything away from today, let it be this, that again, I say this quite often, that your body is not broken.

(14:39 - 15:14)
It's responding exactly how it's signaled to go. And when we better understand how our body works. So when you understand how your body actually works at the level of your genes, at the level of your pathways and your lived experience, everything starts to shift because you can stop guessing and you can stop forcing it. 

And you can start working with your body instead of against it. And that's really where we start to begin to feel differently. We feel more aligned and more sustained, sustainable.

(15:14 - 15:31)
And when you really start to feel like yourself again. So if this resonates with you at all, this is exactly the kind of woman that I work with and helping you understand your body at a deeper level. And so you can love it and you can cherish it and you can feel so sacred.

(15:32 - 15:47)
Like it is a sacred space. When you can finally get the results that you've been working really hard for the results that you've been looking for. And as always take what serves you leave what doesn't contact me.

(15:47 - 16:15)
If you want to go deeper into your own DNA, and as always, I hope that you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it for you until next time. The world needs the vibrance and wisdom of a woman's intuition to help heal the world. When we learn to trust ourselves through leaning into and through discomfort, we learn to trust ourselves and in that space is our power and clarity.