The Real America Project

NATURAL MEDICINE Q&A with Dr. Tracey Ward

• Eldon Palmer • Season 2 • Episode 9

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We explore how a damaged gut microbiome, ultra-processed foods, seed oils, and glyphosate undermine cellular health—and how to rebuild with real food, better fats, and sunlight. We also unpack funding bias in research and why natural compounds still inform modern medicine.

• gut microbiome as immune and nutrient hub
• damage to brush border and absorption limits
• rebuild plan with cleanse, prebiotics, probiotics, epithelial support
• glyphosate as chelator and mineral depletion in crops
• how to read produce labels and prefer organic and heirloom
• real food versus ultra-processed convenience foods
• seed oils driving inflammation and better fat choices
• sunlight, vitamin D, blue light balance and solar callus
• asking who funds the science and why it matters
• nature derived drugs and pharmacognosy examples

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You can find her at drwardsblends.com
Check out her full episode from the first time around. That link is in the description


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Eldon Palmer:

Welcome back to this very special episode. It's actually a bonus episode with Dr. Tracy Ward. We're going to talk about the gut microbiome, seed oil, sun exposure, pesticides, and natural matters and more. So stick around to the end. Lots of great QA. She was our most popular episode the first time around. And so you had a lot of questions. We brought her back to answer some of those questions. If you like this video, like this audio episode, leave a link, leave a comment below. Hit the like button. And then go to the link in the description and check out her first episode. If you have watched it or just caught part of it, I think there's a lot of great information in there as well. You can also find her at Dr. Ward's Blends. She has uh some great products on kidney support, kidney stone support, uh, bladder support, and immune health. So enjoy the episode, stick around to the end, and we'll see you there. Thanks. So, why is your gut microbiome so important?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

Why is the microbiome so important? Your micro gut microbiome pretty much is probably the second most important thing in your body. And a lot of people don't realize that everything almost stems from that. There's a huge gut-brain connection, most of your immune systems in your microbiome. And unfortunately, so much of the foods are contaminated, you know, with chemicals and pesticides and materials that actually destroy the gut microbiome. Even, for example, modern wheat, you know, that's why non-GMO or heritage brand wheat is so important. Because if you destroy your brush border, which include like these microvilli and vali that comprise the gut lining, well, then you don't have now the ability to absorb some of the basic building blocks that your body needs for normal growth and development and immune defense, if you will. And so the if those get zapped along the way, you have to rebuild your microbiome. And a lot of the products on the market don't have everything in it. So for example, there's a myriad of collection of products that you need. If you give probiotics without prebiotics, then the probiotics will die and then you're wasting your money. So if you don't have products in it that improve your epithelium lining, then you know that those uh epithelium cells are gonna stay weak and you're not gonna be able to repair the full gut microbiome. So the gut microbiome is like an ecosystem, and you have to plant the right type of seeds, if you will, um, to actually cause it to regrow and rebuild it. And it doesn't happen overnight. So, similar to a garden, if you plant it in the spring, well, you don't harvest it the next day either. With the gut microbiome, when you start taking a product that has everything that needs to be in it, it needs the minerals and the vitamins, the prebiotics, the probiotics, and the materials to improve that epithelial lining, it takes some time, which it's hard to find products that have that in it. But secondly, we're talking like two and a half, three months to rebuild your gut microbiome. A lot of people will say, Well, what do you mean? Isn't this a one and done deal? Nope, it's not. It literally takes time. And you will notice significant health improvements when you repair your gut microbiome.

Eldon Palmer:

So, how can you improve your gut microbiome?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

Well, because so many of the food and drink contaminants have destroyed the gut microbiome, you don't want to keep continually exposing your microbiome to those contaminants. So, usually, like if you're talking to naturopathic uh physicians, functional doctors, uh herbalists, or anything of that nature that know about the gut microbiome, what they will recommend usually is a cleanse, a gut cleanse first, cleanse the gut first, and then start rebuilding the gut microbiome. And of course, you're gonna have to watch some of the products that you consume in the process of rebuilding your gut microbiome. But after, you know, two and a half, three months of rebuilding your gut microbiome, most everyone will notice quite significant improvements in their overall health.

Eldon Palmer:

Auto chemicals we use on crops like Roundup affect our bodies.

Dr. Tracey Ward:

So you talked about Roundup, which is very commonly used in the farming fields. A lot of people don't understand that that's a really big chelator. So a chelator is it hugs to the minerals. So for example, not only is Roundup associated with cancers, but it hugs minerals in the soil. And so it will kind of, you know, grab onto them. So when you're growing, like if you're growing carrots, it might look like a carrot, but it might not have the nutrition of a carrot because of the overuse of these chemicals, like Roundup or commonly known as glyphosate. And so your body's not taking in the minerals and vitamins as a consequence of that chelation effects of Roundup. Um, as far as the seeds and stuff, look for heirloom seeds, the ones that are non-genetically engineered, or look for organic seeds. That's really what people should be consuming because so many of the seeds have been bought out by big pharma chemical companies, Bill Gates. Um, a lot of actually these seeds are genetically modified to be almost chemical producing factories in the seeds so that all the cells will produce these chemicals and no amount of washing of your food is going to get that off. So learn how to read a label in the store, the number, the stickers that are on that fruit or vegetable to know whether that's genetically modified or not. I don't consume genetically modified foods and uh because they're so toxic to your body and correlated with a lot of chemicals and they will uh destroy your gut microbiome.

Eldon Palmer:

Are most of our foods that we find in stores genetically modified?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

So a lot of people walk into a store thinking everything's safe. And so you don't walk into a store thinking everything's safe. That's where coming into the label, like there's a sticker on everything and there's a number. So for example, does it start with a nine? Is it organic? Is it start with an eight? Does it it genetically modify? Does it have three or four as the number? So learn what that means because you need to understand that, oh, if it's a large strawberry, oh, it looks so great, but the taste may be terrible. If you actually taste, go to the farmer's market, for example, pick up an organic strawberry and taste it. It'll taste amazing. And then go taste the strawberry that you think should taste great at the supermarket and is so large, and you're like, it has no taste. So you just be need to be mindful that, you know, you know, sometimes they make false claims. They claim that you're gonna have more yields or you're gonna you're gonna have larger strawberries or the crop yields and the product will be a lot better, but that's not always the case. And so, you know, just go back to the taste. Um, your bodies can only be as healthy as the building blocks that you provide it, if that makes sense to you.

Eldon Palmer:

Can you test food for nutritional density?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

Yeah, I mean, there are, you know, tests that you can run on food science. I mean, food scientists do this all the time, but they can actually run tests to test for things of that nature. But, you know, most people that are shopping at the grocery store aren't gonna know that. And then they go home and they don't have these kinds of machines to test for that. But the best thing I can tell people is a lot of times you get what you pay for. You know, don't just buy the cheapest thing because again, you're gonna get what you pay for. Um if organic foods cost a bit more, however, they're so much more healthy for your body, they are gonna taste amazing and they're not gonna have those chemicals on it. You should still wash your fruits and vegetables appropriately because there's other items that can get on these types of products. But that's gonna be far greater for your overall health than just going into a store and buying food just based on price. There's lots of people that go through fast food chains and eat fake foods uh every day and their health is terrible, but they maybe do it based on convenience and cost. Um, and so I think that's where the United States needs to get back into, you know, making visitation, family visitation centered around food preparation, because it does take a little bit more time, but everybody will be healthier at the end of the day.

Eldon Palmer:

So, what are some effects of chemical fertilizers on consumers?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

Yeah, a lot of people don't, they don't even know how dangerous uh glyphosate is. And I'm like, besides the cancer, you know, glyphosate was uh chelates galvanized pipes. So you know how water goes through these galvanized pipes? It cleans out the minerals because it hugs minerals. And then they start the chemistry, it doesn't change, they spray it on the fields. What do you think it does? It hugs the minerals, and then the foods, the fruits and vegetables, don't have the minerals. But you know, you go to the store thinking you're buying a carrot or potato. Oh, well, it should have plenty of nutrition, but does it? You know, it won't if it was grown in fields. And how many people, even the store owners won't know, oh, what fields were these grown in? And what where did it come from and how much fertilizer and what fertilizer was given? People won't know that. And so that's another reason why I'm like, hey, you go spend all this fancy money on fancy coffee. You can go and instead of doing that, go buy a little spend a little bit more money buying organic foods, and then your body will thank you for it because it's gonna have more minerals and vitamins. That's why so many people are mineral and vitamin deficient because, well, their gut microbiome is destroyed, and then secondly, they're buying really junky foods.

Eldon Palmer:

Why don't people have more health issues today compared to the past?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

Yeah, so the food we have today, and even the water and the soil, everything's different than it was 20 or 30 or 40 years ago. And so again, your body can only be as healthy as the building blocks that you give it. So, cellular health, I mean, all the cells in your body will turn over at different rates. And so you have to understand that if you remove poisons and toxins and chemicals and you give your body the basic building blocks, like what's building blocks, like vitamins and minerals and amino acids that are the basic, you know, core materials that are needed for cellular turnover, then your cells can heal itself. I mean, your body actually has an amazing ability to heal itself, but you have to remove the poisons. And so, you know, people are eating terrible. I mean, how many people 30, 40 years ago ate fast food or processed foods? It was very, very low, if any. Now today, most people are consuming all these fake foods and toxic foods. So you when when it seems too good to be true, it is. You can't eat this stuff and think that your body's gonna be healthy. And yeah, I mean, it takes a lot more time to cook and think ahead and eat healthy. But a lot of the chemicals that are put in these foods are causing you to actually crave them. It's destroying your gut microbiome, which is super important because without it, you can't absorb those basic building blocks, and then you're gonna have damaged cellular function, and then you're gonna manifest, you know, you know, liver issues or kidney issues or various ailments all around your body. So you need to kind of get back to the basics and start working and focusing on cellular health and repair, if that makes sense to you.

Eldon Palmer:

What is real food?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

What do you mean about real food? So, um, you know, for example, you go into the grocery store. Are potato chips real food? No, they're not real food. Can you go grow them in the ground? So beets and carrots and broccoli and you know, uh tomatoes, those are real food. You can actually physically grow them in the ground. They you don't go up to it expecting a label. Um, but you know, if you go into the store and I don't know, you get some, you know, goldfish crackers, really. I mean, do you go plant seeds in the garden to make grow, you know, goldfish crackers? I mean, that's what I mean about fake foods. There's so many fake foods in the store, and then start looking at the labels, and you see all these chemicals and toxins, and people are consuming these products and then they get addicted to them and it destroys your body, especially over time. I mean, look at what seed oils are doing to people. No one should touch a seed oil, but so many food products have it in it.

Eldon Palmer:

What are your thoughts on seed oils?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

Well, you should only cook with like tallow, real butter, or coconut oil. You know, a lot of like, for example, olive oil, it's mostly tainted with seed oils. Um, and except like if if it's 100% from Italy, then I trust it because they that's a country that has high food standards. They don't even allow genetically modified uh meats and foods in their country. So I have faith um in their olive oil. But so many of the uh, you know, oils in the store, like you go to the supermarket and you go down the oil section and you know, you're gonna see vegetable oils and canola oils and everything under the sun and sunflower oil, those are all seed oils. There's nothing that's gonna damage your body faster than consuming those oils. And sadly, like if you go to a restaurant and let's say you order something that was deep fried, most of them use seed oils, and that causes extreme inflammation in your body, which also accompanies uh cellular destruction and pain.

Eldon Palmer:

So what what I guess what is a seed oil? Like does it come from a seed? Is it pressed? Is it processed some way?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

What so like yeah, it can come from uh if you actually look at how seed oils are made, you'd never touch them because it's almost like motor oil, if you will. But um, it's a it's really toxic to your body, and some of them are just cause tremendous destruction. Um, but yeah, I mean, that's could be a whole nother discussion, if you will.

Eldon Palmer:

So, what is beef tallow and why is it better for us?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

So it's uh tallow is basically a lard, um, so animal fats, and um, it is actually very healthy, and your body actually needs fat. A lot of people think, you know, they want to villainize fat, and fat's very healthy, it's required by all the cells in your body, so it's not bad. Uh, but tallow or lard, uh, butter, coconut oil, those are all healthy for your body. And so those can also be used with cooking and temperature increases. So olive oil, there's so much olive oil that's contaminated with other toxic seed oils. I don't have a problem if it's 100% olive oil, but the problem is most of the olive oils at the store are not 100% olive oil. If you get it from Italy, 100%, then I you can probably uh trust it because their food quality standards are you know top-notch. They don't allow um, you know, GMOs uh in their country and they don't allow the fake meats and stuff. So they really care about the quality of their foods, but as a consequence, their populace is a lot healthier as well.

Eldon Palmer:

Is sun exposure good, bad, or both?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

So, in a nutshell, the sun's very healthy for you, and everybody is vitamin D deficient. Tremendous amounts of people are vitamin D deficient. You have to build up a solar callus. You can't just stay away from the sun all the time and then go out, and then of course you'll be like a tomato. Um, but that's what I mean by building up a solar callus. Uh, a lot of these sunscreens, people just don't understand. They're they're hurting their bodies because if you even go back to the 1970s, they didn't do this. They were very healthy, they were very, you know, happy, and um, and the quality of life was a lot better. But when you look at the ingredients on a lot of these sunscreens, these are chemicals that are even carcinogenic and toxic. Um, I don't want that stuff absorbing into my skin. If you are mindful of the fact that you slowly build up the solar callus, and then we all are surrounded by non-native EMF. So blue light and screens and smart TVs and anything that emits electromagnetic frequencies, which we're all surrounded by. Um, and you got to understand that you have to kind of uh, you know, address that blue light. And sunlight does that really well. It kind of counters the blue light that we're exposed to.

Eldon Palmer:

So, where has all this health information been coming from?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

Well, you have to look at who does the study. So, you know, it's like when you have soda companies funding a study that says sugar's healthy. I mean, that's laughable, you know. So always like go look at who does the study and is somebody, you know, does do they have a conflict of interest? And if you actually, I mean, a lot of people, for lack of a better way of saying it, don't know how to do that, you know, search to see who the studies were funded by, or it's so easy to believe somebody that you're maybe talking with and saying, oh, this is bad for you. And so a lot of people will be like, oh, it's bad for me, without asking, well, what's you know, what's the evidence or what data helped you come to that conclusion that that's bad for you. Now, I don't know everything about everything. Who does? But, you know, when I want to know something about like accounting, I go to accounting experts and ask them, you know, I I wouldn't go to somebody that's, you know, studying, you know, something completely different and that's not their forte. So go to the experts or ask the people that actually have that knowledge before just accepting. I think people just accept that, oh, this is healthy, this is not healthy. Look to see who's to gain, you know, is big pharma pushing something? Are they trying to sell something? Are they trying to they have an underlying reason? But start, I I think overall people just need to start talking again. You know, this is something that I think as a society, we uh took a step back after COVID and, you know, we don't talk as much. And people just need to start understanding and asking questions. And I think that will help them in the long run.

Eldon Palmer:

Should we always trust the science?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

Trust the science. Let's talk about that phrase. Okay. Yes, science is always meant to be questioned. That's the whole foundation of science. So I'm all about trusting science as long as it's reproducible and it shows that evidence. So, building upon what you were saying, if you know what you're being told is not backed up by real science, there's a difference. Um, then we have a problem. And, you know, uh, you should be able to ask questions. Science should never be afraid of questions and being able to be reproducible. You can't even get published in some journals without um being able to have your work reproduced. And so you should not you only have something to hide if you don't want people asking questions. And so, you know, unfortunately, the average person may not know that because if something is said enough times and enough uh different avenues, they just kind of believe it. And then, you know, there will be significant pushback if you ask questions. Um I'm somebody that always asks questions. I'm somebody that doesn't just believe what somebody tells me. And so I'm probably not the best person to ask about that because I always question everything and I always do my research and I always go look at the real evidence. And so I guess I'm not a good compliant person, if you will.

Eldon Palmer:

How can consumers protect themselves?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

Unfortunately, a lot of things are profit-driven. And so, as a consumer, you need to kind of be able to maneuver the landscape to understand um, you know, does this person really mean what they say? You know, I try to always mean what I say and say what I mean because, you know, the only thing you have in life is integrity. And it takes a lifetime to build and a second to lose. That's my dad taught me that early on. Um, and not everybody espouses kind of that kind of mentality. And I think that education's key. And this stuff's not complicated, science is not complicated. Think of a different way to communicate the information and explain it to people. Don't just tell them what to buy, don't just tell them what's good. We are smart people, we can figure things out. Um, and unfortunately, you know, in the marketing field, like you just talked about, they just want to tell us what to buy and say it's good. And you're just supposed to shut up, sit there, and spend your money and buy it. That doesn't mean it's good. That doesn't mean that's where you should be spending your money. And that's where I'm saying do your research, make sure that that's what you want or that's what's good for your body, because you know, marketers can say anything they want, medical professionals can say anything they want. That doesn't necessarily mean it's true.

Eldon Palmer:

What are active alkaloids?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

So, okay, so from a medicinal chemist standpoint, you have plants or seeds or, you know, barks and lots of natural products. And there may be a lot of different substances that comprise that, but there's some substances that have the medicinal properties to it and some substances that don't. So, for example, chemists sometimes will isolate some of those active substances and research that and identify that, figure out their structures, modify the structures because then you can get around patent laws and just and you know actually uh develop drugs.

Eldon Palmer:

I was on a trip not too long ago um actually in in uh Rowan, Honduras, not too long after COVID, and and my guide for the day uh was a native of the island, and he said that you know everything was shut down. They didn't have access to um tourism, to income, and they kind of had to take care of themselves. He said that wasn't all that unusual because over the years uh they had really developed an affinity for the local uh natural products. He wandered around and was pointing out different flowers and different plants that they use for a lot of their uh you know, upset stomach. When they're sick, they would make teas out of them. Uh what can you tell me about that type of medicine and how that compares a little bit to you know the current pharmaceuticals?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

So, what you just described is what happens all across the world. Um, I mean, that's actually very common. And a lot of these people know how to use their local plants and seeds and products to actually help to heal their body and treat themselves from various conditions. You know, in the United States, Western medicine, um, you know, whether right or wrong, you know, has, if you will, been ingrained in people's DNA to the point that they think that that's the only way they can care for themselves. And so when I try and educate people on how to care for themselves naturally and nutritionally to essentially take back their life and, you know, optimize their life, you're not going to garner accolades from traditional medicine. Because in the United States, um, big pharma really pushes the pharmaceuticals and medical procedures because, you know, sadly, medicine's about money. And, you know, maybe their number one priority is not necessarily getting people's bodies back healthy and functioning. So they're non-reliant on pharmaceuticals, if that answers your question.

Eldon Palmer:

All right. So we talked about pharmacognosy here. So give us a few examples of what's occurred in nature that has been converted into pharmaceuticals, or what's an alternative to a pharmaceutical that might be found in nature?

Dr. Tracey Ward:

So a few drugs that people may recognize that have come from nature or natural medicine is aspirin, for example, from the willow bark, or even penicillin. You know, everybody knows the word penicillin. It's a household name. It came from the mold that grows on a cantaloupe, and Alexander Fleming in what 1928 recognized that. Or pain. Anyone who struggles from pain, what about morphine? Morphine comes from a poppy plant.

Eldon Palmer:

Thank you for watching this episode with Dr. Tracy Ward. If you like the episode, give us a thumbs up. If you want more content like this, give us a subscribe. Uh hit that notification bell if you want to see when we upload the next video. We got lots of great content coming out. And if you have any questions for Dr. Ward, drop them in the link in the comments below. And uh we'll have um we'll be happy to answer some of those questions for you. Uh in the meantime, if you want to see more on Dr. Tracy Ward, you can find her at dr wardsblends.com. She has some great products there that are really helpful. Uh, give the gift of health this this Christmas um or actually any time of the year. Uh, I think that's a great place to start for somebody that already has everything. Uh in addition, check out her full episode from the first time around. And that link is in the description. Uh great episode. It was our most popular ever. And until next time, be healthy. Thank you.

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