Finding Lasting Wellness Through Functional Medicine with Dr. Nancy Beliveau

What if feeling exhausted, foggy, or dismissed isn't "just part of getting older"?

 In this episode, Jeanne Collins sits down with Dr. Nancy Beliveau to explore how functional medicine helps women uncover the root causes behind hormone imbalances, gut health challenges, chronic fatigue, and brain fog. 

Dr. Beliveau shares her own powerful health journey, explains the difference between conventional and functional medicine, and offers practical strategies for reducing toxic load, improving sleep, and becoming the CEO of your own health. 

This conversation reminds every woman that she deserves answers, support, and the opportunity to truly thrive—not just survive.

Dr. Beliveau's Book Recommendation: The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer

More about Dr. Nancy Beliveau:

Dr Nancy Beliveau, ranked Top Doctor of Functional Medicine, explains why your labs say you're normal but you don't feel normal. She uncovers why conventional doctors aren't trained in hormone, gut or toxin testing and how this explains a lot of issues women face when they are gaslighted. She's helped thousands of people live their best life now that she has overcome unexplained multiple sclerosis and cancer completely naturally.

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Transcript

Introducing Dr. Nancy Beliveau

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Building the Best You, a destination for you to reimagine what is possible in your life and then create it. Welcome to the show, everybody. I'm your host, Gene Collins, and today we're going to be talking about health, everybody, functional medicine, one of my favorite topics. We have Dr. Nancy Bellivo on the show, and I am so excited to talk to her. Her practice is so cool. She does everything I absolutely love about finding out about root causes to help women heal. And she has an incredible social media presence. Her content is fantastic. I'm going to link it all in the show notes. So make sure you go and follow her and check her out. But Dr. Nancy Belavo, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Awesome. Thanks so much for having me. I think what you do is amazing as well because so many people that come to both of us are looking for guidance or answers where they don't like where they are, but they don't know how to get to where they want to be. And we always say that the person's the most intuitive healer and doctor, but I love what you do because you help just take away all the stuff so they can find the way. I think that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Ah, thank you. Yes, I am blessed to get to do this as part of my job. It is really wonderful. And I am so passionate about all the things that you do. So I love having guests on like you because I think there is so much out there to help women outside of conventional medicine. And exposing women to what exists is the first step, is awareness of what exists. And so I've had a lot of people just say stuff like this just resonates with them and makes them think about their own health. And do they really feel as good as they want to? And maybe it's time to do something about that. And once you can feel better in your body, I know personally, it can change everything in your life. Like it is not just one thing. Once your gut feels better, it is life-changing, folks.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Life-changing how much it controls. It really controls our brain health, our hormones, our motivation drive, focus. So it's amazing when we can connect those dots and see how everything's connected, even our emotions, right? We think a lot of times that it's just physical, but we don't realize that everything's actually interconnected between our gut hormones, toxins, so many things.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

So many things. And sleep. Okay. So before we dig like deep in, you have a pretty cool personal story

Dr. Beliveau's Personal Health Journey and Why She Chose Functional Medicine

SPEAKER_00 2:32

about how you found your way to this type of medicine. Would you mind sharing that? Because I think that also helps people relate to you as a person.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Yeah, I agree. It's not easy to share a personal story. And it took me, I think about a decade to actually start talking about it. But I'm so glad I did because it created such a sense of connection for other women to feel safe to open up and that they're not alone, that they're not crazy. It's not in their head. So, like a lot of women, I had hormone things happening, but didn't know they were hormone things. And I'd go to the OB because I would get missed periods and heavy periods. I remember passing out from a period. I remember vomiting and sorry to be TMI, but diarrhea all day with migraines from my cycles every month. And guess what the doctor said? That's normal. You're fine. You're fine. I'm like, You're fine. And it's like that gaslighting. My mom is the only person that heard me, but she didn't know what to do. And she would listen and be like, yeah, that's normal. I also feel that way every month. So I just thought that was it. Talk to my girlfriends, they had the same problems. And so that happened. But then I was also getting bloated. I was always thin and active. And then in my teens, I started to look pregnant. People would actually walk up to me. People would walk up to me and say, Oh, congratulations. Like, what do you do? They thought it was a teen pregnancy, yet I was celibate. So there's no way I could have been pregnant at that age. And I just was gaslighted until it turned into a type of hormonal cancer. And that's when they paid attention to me. And sadly, it's when you wake up and can't walk, like happened to me, and I'm rushed to the ER. When you're diagnosed with a life-threatening cancer, that's when they listen. That's when it's not normal. That's when they can step in. And I was just so tired of the gaslighting and the firefighter is when they come in. You wouldn't call the firefighter when you burn the toast.

unknown 4:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Right. So I was burning toast, if you want to say, for years with hormone issues. I mean, it was a little more than burning toast, but and it's just ignored and like, why did you call us? What do you want me to do? Right. Until there's a life-saving procedure or medication, there's nothing they can do sometimes, traditional doctors. And so that's why we have insurance, right? It's for if something crazy extreme happens with our car or house. But apparently that's how our health is for the most part. So I discovered it because I'm thankful to my mom. She got on her knees and prayed. And she had a life coach and a writing coach that said to her, who was also faith-based, and said, like, pray about it. Your inner guide knows. God will reveal it to you. And it was when she went to church, someone directed her to a functional, homeopathic, and naturopathic type doctor. And when it changed my life, I said, I have to do this. And my mom was the only one in my corner. Everyone was like, oh, do regular medicine, like, do regular doctor. This is witchcraft. This is not a real doctor. They made fun of me. Guess what? They're all my top referral sources now. They're all people that have worked with me and seen things that other doctors couldn't do. So we're not against doctors or medicine, just to be clear. But when you can all be on the team, like kumbaya, like the coexist bumper sticker for like we all could just work together. I think that's really the key. So most women, when they hear that, they're like, oh my gosh, I'm not alone. That's my fear. And they just tell me it's anxiety. You're not crazy. You're not alone.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Right. Yeah. No, you're not. And the reality is, so many doctors, I've met so many women. I'm 55 years old. I'm in menopause. And it's amazing once you start talking about perimenopause and menopause and hormone health. It is amazing to me. And I live in a very affluent part of the country, right outside of New York City, highly educated, lots of money, lots of resources. And even here, I am blown away by how few women have doctors that support them, how few women know about functional medicine.

Understanding Functional and Integrative Medicine

SPEAKER_00 6:31

I was like, oh my goodness, if we don't know about it here, what about the rest of the country? It's my it's mind-blowing to me. Can you explain? Just if someone's watching and they have no idea they're like, what is functional medicine? I don't know what this woman's talking about. Can you explain what functional medicine is? And then also integrative medicine too.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. I love that you asked that because we get asked that a lot. So functional medicine is being obsessed with the root cause instead of modern medicine that is taught by big pharma to just mask symptoms with medication. So, for example, if you're anxious and have brain fog and you're tired and can't lose weight and you can't sleep, which is most of the people we work with, and you have an autoimmune condition, instead of just saying, oh, here's some prednisone for the autoimmune condition to suppress it. We don't know why your immune system's doing this. It must be genetic because you can't control genetics. Let's figure out why. We look at your gut, but your hormones play a role, and we could fix that naturally. Integrative medicine is where we're not against doctors. We had someone with chest pain call us. We're like, what are you doing? Like, please call 911. Found out they already went to the ER, had reflux. We're like, okay, we can help with that. But like, come on, people, like, stop. We had one woman who clearly had a very aggressive type of breast cancer. And we did not have her over Zoom because we do work online now with virtual appointments, show her breasts, but you could see from her shirt, one was out to here and one was here. I was like, you need to probably get surgery. You know, like let's be real, people, but integrative is like, let's work together because a lot of oncologists refer to us, a lot of physicians refer to us because they want us to work together. Like, hey, we cut out the cancer, but like, let's figure out what caused it. Or, and that's that's what you guys can do and help her, right? The the terrain approach to health, which is that you're not your genes. Epigenetic studies reveal that's just a small portion. And let's actually empower people through what you guys do to help them understand what's caused this and how they can do what they can to mitigate or reduce or get rid of it, not just mask it with symptoms. Because most physicians that actually come to us to work with us will not go on the medications that they prescribe every day. So it's like, okay, they're starting to wake up, but it's still not mainstream yet, especially in the middle of the country. You were talking about your area. Well, we find more so in the northeast, like New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, tri-state area, maybe a little Florida, maybe a little California. That's about it. It's like so the middle of the country, so not as adept. And we work with people all over, especially in the pandemic when we transition to that. And it's it's unfortunate. And really, I feel for them. I really do.

unknown 9:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Well, and the beauty of you being able, I think telehealth is becoming more and more popular, which I think is really important because a lot of people don't have access to these resources right where they live. And it's so important that that's not a limiting factor. And there is a lot of what you do. And I would think honestly, probably all of what you do, especially if you're partnering with other doctors, can be done online. That's right. That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

That's the part. Like, we're not gonna do a pap or a mamo on Zoom. Okay, my mom said don't show your lady parts on webcams. Okay. So, like, please don't. Okay, don't try. I know it's like, oh, it's, you know, encrypted. No, no, no, don't do that. You should still see an in-person doctor for in-person procedures or exams. But at the same time, is that in-person doctor trained in root cause approaches and holistic ways to fix it? Or are they the expert in masking symptoms with medications and life-saving meds and procedures, which some people need sometimes? We're not against that. But let's just like all work together. That's the integrative part.

Becoming the CEO of Your Own Health

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Right, exactly. And I'll just use myself as an example because I'd never met you until just recently. But my OB, he prescribes my hormone replacement and he prescribes my progesterone. But then my functional medicine doctor, who I see online, prescribes anything else medication-wise, in addition to, you know, supplements and diet. And she does all, she manages all the testing and she looks at it from a much more holistic perspective. But I do see my OB, you know, once a year, and he does prescribe some of the stuff. And I just saw him. And the whole reason why I expanded outside of him is I went to him and I said, and he's like, How you doing? He calls, he's like, How you doing? And I told him the symptoms I was having. And he was like, huh, that's normal. You're fine. And I was like, I'm not just fine. I can't be fine. I need to go to sleep every day at three o'clock. And I have gained 10 pounds that I cannot lose around my midsection. And I am exhausted when I wake up. This cannot be fine. I'm not okay. And I have zero sex drive. Like, I am not okay accepting that this is fine. It's not fine. It's not fine. It's really not. But women have to advocate for themselves. And there are resources and people out there like you that are there to be their champions in their corner, educating them, helping them. But you have to take that first step of being curious.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

I think that's in line with what I was saying when I was growing up, right? You're fine, everything's normal. Well, who determines normal?

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

To a degree, big pharma, because Rockefeller's tried to scientific, like make medicine more scientific. And we're not against this. I'm all about studies. At the same time, we're taking P equals 0.05 normative curves, which is just averaging everyone in your area. And like the average person going to that OB might be in worse shape than you, most likely. And he's like, oh my gosh, you're so good. It's like, well, my dad said you're the average of the five people you hang around. So if you're fine compared to everyone in his office, you're like an A. I would want to be around the people that are optimal, not normal. So I remember when I was in high school, I said, everyone's drinking, doing drugs, you know, having sex. It's normal, Dad. What do you think my father said? Not normal in my household. Thank you. So you go get some new friends, or you go get a new household because that's not normal here. So that's the same with you. We're not against the OB, but you want to remember that the same way we preach to our children, like pick who you date, who you choose to marry, who you spend your life with, your friends, who you're around. That is just like the doctor. We're not against the regular doctor. But compared to most people walking in there, a lot of women are the best that doctors seen all day. And that's not what we want. In our practice, we have people that are 70, they feel like they're 50. When they first come to us, they feel like they're 90. But when we can realize that we're not against the HRT, it's that optimizing it. Because, for example, if you're just looking at a blood test and the doctor's like, yeah, no, your level's good, the OB, it's like, well, how it's being metabolized, used, removed, recycled is just as important. It's almost like money. I tell women hormones are like money. If you're like, yeah, I make 100 grand a year, well, that's good. But if you're spending 200 gambling a year, you're not in a good place. So we have to look at not just the blood level of the hormones, which is what standard OBs will do if they even do HRT, but also things like tissue uptake through saliva, reusing, recycling through the stool, the urine metabolism, because it's asking, like, okay, where's the money coming from? Are you stealing, doing drugs, or are you actually having a valid source of income? Are you also, how are you using it? Right? Okay, so you make this, but how are you using it? And then where is it going, right? My dad was like that on all our stuff growing up. He knew if I spent a dollar on his credit card, I was for emergencies, that wasn't an emergency. He didn't know where that, where that dollar came from, where's it going? And you'd earned $100. What'd you spend it on? Right? So it's the same thing with the hormones. It's not the full picture, which is why you didn't feel optimal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Yeah. No, and it's so true. And I also think what's so fascinating, and I want to make sure I touch on this because I know I personally had this, you know, you get some of this blood work back from Quest, and it's like we all know there's the red, there's the yellow, there's the green, and it's like wherever you are, it's like you're normal on all of these Quest, you know, labs that come back. But yet what I found was so fascinating about how a functional medicine doctor will look at it is like you might be like 0.01 above the deficit number. So, you know, the number is normal, but yet it's super low. And then when you take that number plus one other number that's also super low, it's like, wait a second, your body actually isn't functioning. Like you're not triggering it because it's saying the numbers are low, but those two things together are low. And then that means that maybe your body isn't processing things like iron, for example, as well as it could be or should be.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

It's exactly right. And it's interesting that you say that because that's I always use my parenting examples because my practice members love those. That's like when my best friend started smoking at 11. I wasn't smoking, but my dad's like, ooh, yeah, no, you're not hanging out with her ever again.

unknown 15:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Your lab is okay, right? I was okay. But when you're kind of heading in a direction, like you just mentioned, that might not be good, it's like, let's nip that in the bud. Let's be proactive. Let's look at the whole picture, not reactive. I also remember when my brother was talking to a girl on the phone. My brother was like, straight A student, like valedictorian. And he was like taking naps. My dad's like, is he okay? Like, is he like getting into a bad crowd or something? He's asking me. I'm like, no, no, he's just talking to a girl on the phone because my room was next door. So I heard. He's like, oh, okay. Yeah. Meaning, we got to look at every little thing our kids were doing, especially at teenage age. And that's how we look at our bodies now. But so many women don't put themselves on the list. And it's

Why Women Must Prioritize Their Well-Being

SPEAKER_01 16:03

like, oh, I'm selfish, I can't, I'm guilty. It's like, well, are you irritable then around your kids and around your partner, those you love and snappy? It's like because your hormones are off and you won't put yourself on the list, but you have to suffer. But guess what? Most women initially, when they won't put themselves on the list, they'll take action because of how people around them are also suffering. Because I remember at my my wedding, my aunt said to my husband, if mom ain't happy, no one else is gonna be happy. You make sure, not just do whatever she wants, but like you're there for her. You guys talk, you communicate. You know, she you give her her time. Make sure she goes for her walk so she doesn't lose her mind.

unknown 16:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Let her go. Right. It's not just for physical health to exercise, it's for your mental health because we can take a breath instead of breaking. And that's part of healing as well. Remember, it's not just the physical, it's making that time for you so you can then be there for them as well, which I think is really huge.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Yeah, it's the whole mind, body, spirit part of it, also. And you're right. So many women, I coach so many people that when you ask why do they not do things for themselves? It's like, well, because all these other things are a priority. And it's like, what if everything else is a priority and you're last on the list? Like, what's gonna happen? Eventually you will break. Eventually you're gonna break. And do you want to break? Does it do you have to wait until you break in order to do something? Is it because you have so much stress and anxiety, something physical happens? Is it because you have a mental breakdown? Like, what is it that's going to break? Something will break. We're just not meant to function that way. And we're also not meant to function with the high levels of stress and low lack, low level of sleep that most women have. And people don't realize the impact that stress and lack of sleep can have on their whole mind-body connection and also, quite frankly, their happiness, because they don't even know what it's like to physically feel better or to mentally be clear. They don't even know because they've never had it.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

You know what's interesting is I don't know if you've ever seen this, but when I ask a woman, if this was your daughter experiencing these things, or if this was your best friend or sister, what would you tell her to do? She's like, oh my gosh. I would tell her to like put herself on the list. I go, well, why can't you tell yourself that? And it's like maybe you can do that a little bit. And it's it's hard. You know, I'm not gonna say I've not been there, totally been there, and break we break, right? I've totally broken down. The thing to remember too is that I don't know about your daughter. I know you have a daughter, but my child, my son, he can he can know if I'm it's like there's still an umbilical cord connected, but it's not. It's like an energetic cord. He can know if I'm anxious or irritable or tired. He'll just give me a hug. And that means I love it because I feel for him that he feels that, but it's like reminding you, mommy, take a breath. I love you. And I'm just like, oh my gosh, thank you for just helping me reset my energy, or I'll stub my toe. He won't be there. And I'll be like, oh, thank you, universe, for reminding me to just like reset myself right now. Yeah, because we need that sleep. Talking about libido, that pain, brain fog, weight in the middle, all that won't be fixed if we're not sleeping. We're too tired. That's the common phrase women have when it comes to libido. I'm just too tired. I'm not in the mood. But you put them on a vacation where they're not doing dishes and working and running it all, the household, the class mom, the work, the entrepreneur, the everything, right? They just have to prove they can do everything to everyone. And then they all of a sudden feel better. They're sleeping more on vacation, they're having a better libido, they don't have the brain fog. It's like, well, we don't need to do that. That's not real life. But could we get a little of that? Because one of my naturopath friends, she said to me, I remember in my 20s, I knew her. We were both in school, and she was like, Oh, you don't have any time to charge your battery. And I was like, What do you mean? She's like, you know how your phone has to do a reset to like update once a week. You have to just not use it. Yeah. You don't have a day like that. You don't have any time like that, actually, even in part of a day. I was like, oh my gosh, you're right. My life is just like nonstop. And it's like, where do we learn that? Being that from the tri-state area as well, high performing women. And it's like, where does that come from? And it's like, we have to be okay just being because we're recharging and then updating ourselves and our body so we can pour from a cup that's not empty. So I love that it's empowering what you're doing by educating women and helping them to realize that.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

It's important. It's important. And it's also important to realize that most women need help in that process because we aren't naturally going to know how to do that. So we need help and we need resources and we need tools. And sometimes it's a support group. Sometimes it's just, you know, tools of, oh, let me make a suggestion or an accountability buddy, or, you know, or you

Reducing Toxins and Building Sustainable Healthy Habits

SPEAKER_00 20:43

need to be, by the way, like when's the last time you actually checked how you're doing on vitamin B and vitamin D and like some of these really basic things that a lot of times as women, we don't have. And as you get older, you need more protein, you need more fiber. What type of toxins are in your environment? And I know you love to talk about toxins in the environment. And I think bringing that conversation to light for women is really eye-opening. People don't understand how many toxins are in their environment. And even how easy it is to make a couple simple changes to improve your environment for you. You don't have to do everything. You don't have to go like off the charts wacko with it. And blessings to everyone who can do that. You know, it's like put the field out there for your electricity that comes into the house and all that stuff, which is like really a lot.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

You yeah, you could move under a tree and eat coconuts, I tell them. Like, but you could also live in modern day society if you'd like. And this is like a realistic middle ground that works enough, right? Because it's like the house. It's never perfectly clean. And then once it is, it gets dirty again. It's like that's not living in your house. My grandma was the O C D Italian with the plastic furniture, and you couldn't even should have raked the rug, the shag rug, right? And you couldn't even step in it. Like she was like, Oh, I love my grandma so much. She's watching over me in heaven. She's my Guardian angel. And she just is laughing now because it's a disease. It's a way of having control, right? It's like this addiction and stuff. But that's not living. Right. So we can't do that with our diets because then we lose connection. Think about the blue zones. Those people don't eat perfectly. They don't exercise perfectly. They have human connection. They have societies of people that have each other's backs and are there for each other and are in this really tight-knit group. That's actually more important connection than just what you're eating and drinking. I'm not saying I eat junk food, but I tell people look at, for example, my family. I know I have this French last name from my husband, but my family, they're from Italy. And some of the blue zones in Italy, they just have their elderly 98 years old in the house with them, walking to church, making pasta from scratch, seeing the grandkids versus, you know, like being in a home. And I'm not saying you can't go to a home. These sometimes it could be hard, you know, taking care of someone and you need that help. But it's just so interesting how they don't have dementia or as many of the diseases or medications we have. It's just so incredible to see the importance of making it real and livable, but also connection. It's not always what you think with just, you know, eating perfectly. That's not really the answer.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

It's not. And perfect is not attainable. It's just like any diet or any exercise, you know, that's why most people never stick to a diet. They never stick to an exercise routine. That's why they join the gym in January. And by March, they're not going to the gym. It is a lifestyle of small changes. So before we move off the environment, really quickly, what's the like if someone's watching this and they're like, okay, what are one or two things I can do to reduce my toxic load in my environment? What are the most common things you tell your clients to do?

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Yeah. I would say there's two top things. One is if you can't pronounce it, you don't know what it is, I would recommend as a safety rule, you don't eat it or put it on your skin because people think, oh my gosh, I'm not eating this lotion. It's just going on my skin. It doesn't go in. Well, the birth control patch, the nicotine patch, pain patches go in. So it goes in. Sweat comes out. We know that. Sweat comes out. So things go in. It's a sponge. So that's the first thing. The next thing is to make sure you're prioritizing yourself because when we're stressed, not sleeping, anxious, angry, fearful, our immune system suppressed. And it's one of those things that actually is the army that defends us against toxins and removes them or fights those cancers or metabolizes those hormones so that they don't build up and then we feel crappy yet. Our good on blood work. So I'd say the two things are one, if you can't pronounce it in your food, or you're going to put it on your skin, or you're going to spray it on your sweater. We had someone the other day, it's like, she came up so high in her test for volatile organic compounds. And you think, oh, it has the word organic in it. No, that means organic chemistry. It means it's a chemical. And it's like, oh my gosh, you say you don't use any fragrance. She's like, oh, I spray it on my sweater. I was like, oh my gosh, that's why you're getting headaches and your lungs are showing these issues. This is something like inhaling cigarette smoke. It sounds crazy, but it's up there. And then really just like I said, prioritizing new time because I used to think, like a lot of entrepreneurs, I was taught sleep is for suckers. I was raised, and I love actually, I love my parents. They're from the Manhattan area. So, you know, very fast-paced. So Jersey's like super slow for them. And I love them so much as achievers, but that is not serving us. Women especially need nine to 10 hours of sleep or rest. My child woke me up at 4:30 a.m. I was supposed to wake up at seven without an alarm. I couldn't go back to sleep. I'm going to be real with you guys. But I rested, I meditated, I just breathed, I laid on my PEMF mat because we just do, do, do, do, do. And then we're running on empty and the car won't start. So I think those are my top two things that I think are not too hard. And it doesn't mean I never eat something that I can't pronounce. And I'm on a vacation and I ask at the restaurant, what is in this? I don't do that. I think you got to remember to have fun. But I think the view as a rule of thumb, I say the 80-20 rule, 80% of the time you strive to do that. Those two things right there are really huge.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Yes, I agree. Those are game changers. Yes. And I'm sure there are people who are listening who are like, nine hours of sleep? Is she crazy?

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Our relatives got 12 before electricity. We had 12. And then I just read a quote this morning from Edison. He got 10 hours of sleep and then he took a nap. And I'm not saying you need to take a nap. I don't, I'm not saying take a nap or not take a nap. I think if you need one, okay, you know, maybe 20 minutes. I'm not saying you need to take one per se. But I think the key is like, once again, looking at our Italian relatives, 2 to 4 p.m., sometimes 12 to 6, they're not working. They're like having lunch with their families, resting, cooking, chilling out, even if you don't sleep. And I think the key is we just go, go, go. And that's part of why we have the worst health. It's not just the food system and the chemicals and all those things, which is a huge part. It's also the toxicity of negative emotions and energies and not clearing that out and just not having that rest is also toxic and inflammatory. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Not having the pause. It's so you have to be able to pause. I tell my clients all the time. I'm like, find 15 minutes four times a day. Just 15 minutes four times a day. Oh, that's it. Whether it's whether you sit in a chair and you breathe, you sit in a chair, you look at nature, you go for a walk outside. Something remove yourself from your computer, your device, your phone, your stuff. Just 15 minutes to just breathe. Eyes open, eyes closed. It doesn't matter. Standing, sitting, lying down does not matter. If you can do that 15 minutes four times a day, it is life-changing.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

I'm gonna do that. I tell my staff like five minutes per hour because you know, we've grown and expanded in this pandemic. And as we've grown, remember you grow through what you go through and you're taking to new heights, new challenges, all this stuff. And one thing I've told them is take a breath before you break. Guys, don't just plow through at your computer. Every hour, stand up, take a walk, 15 minutes, like five minutes. And I started meditating three times a day. I was doing it morning and night, even for just five or 10 minutes, just listening to something because I can't always shut my mind easily by myself. And I started adding in the third, even it was a minute, but I'm gonna go for 15. I like that. I have getting tips today, too. You thought I was here to give tips. You're giving me tips. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

It is 15 is good. Well, and people don't even think about it. It's like, okay, if you have to go, and this is so happens to so many people, right? You're you're a mom. You have to go pick up your kid at it at something, right? You're there 10 minutes early. What do most of us do? Most of us grab our phone and we get on our phone. It's like, no, instead of that, how about you just sit in silence? Just sit in silence, meditate, or get out, walk around the parking lot. My nutritionist does this all the time. She'll sit, she records videos of her walking around the parking lot while she's waiting to pick up her daughter at dance. And it she'll be like, it's just 10 or 15 minutes, but you know what? Just move. Leave your phone in the car and just move for 10 minutes while you're waiting for your kid. But most of us, our natural instinct is I got here 10 or 15 minutes. I'm gonna sit here on my phone the entire time. And that's how you sneak it in.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

You sneak it in because how many times we're like, oh, I didn't have time or I didn't have energy to work out. But we could easily just get in 10 minutes. I know a nutritionist told me when I was in high school to park far away and then walk. I actually do that. Now that you said that with my son's school, I forgot the beginning of the school year, the pickup line is like from here to China. It's just like the longest line for the first week. I don't know any moms that know what I'm talking about. And I purposely park a couple blocks away where there's no cars, traffic, and then I just walk. And it's such a peaceful experience for him as well. Because then you just get in a car right after you're sitting in a line and it gives him the opportunity to decompress. So I think it's great that you said that because I think if we could just squeeze in those little pockets. Also, I like sipping tea. This may sound weird or crazy to people because I used to drink so much coffee to just push through. And I don't drink coffee anymore, but the tea helps because it's slow. You just have to take little sips. And my husband's like, Oh my gosh, your tea is so hot. I'm like, Well, that's on purpose. Good. I know. Tears. Because my tea. Here we are. I love that. I love that because you just take sips and it just slows you down. You take a breath. We're not just like inhaling. We're pausing.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

So that's beautiful. We're pausing. It's finding the rituals in that. I love that. All right. So I'm curious, what is, if there is, a number one or number two reason why

The Biggest Health Concerns Women Face Today

SPEAKER_00 31:21

people come to you? Is there some like a repeated pattern, health pattern that you see that gets people on your calendar?

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Yeah. The top symptom, actually, we track all these metrics in our practice members, the outcomes as well. The top reason someone will actually move forward to work with us is brain fog and fatigue, not the belly fat. The husband, I'm just gonna be real, wants better libido. I'm just being real. The woman, the woman does too, but it's like a need for them. It's like every day they want to go, you know, a normal husband, if you will. Right. Um, but for the women, like for the they want their wife to be better libido if they come onto the call to be there for support. But the fatigue and brain fog are so big. While there's hormone, gut, autoimmune issues, toxins, a lot of that. Um, the biggest thing I'd say is hormone and gut issues contributing to the brain fog and fatigue. The thyroid being off, your TSH could be the only thing tested by Quest because that's often the only thing they'll cover. That is supposed to be between 1.8 and 2.2 in the TSH. And it's usually like 0.5 to 4.5. I say, imagine you had 50 cents or $4.50. That is a big range to go to a store. You can actually get somewhere, right, with $4.50. So I tell women that's a huge range for your thyroid. So the optimal range is important. And looking at all the thyroid, but also the other hormones, like the gut controls the brain and the fatigue, but also controls development of autoimmunity. And then hormones like testosterone play a role in brain clarity. And all of these things we see are usually really off and overlooked. Brain fog and fatigue, other than looking for anemia, for example, and maybe a couple other things, they're usually overlooked. You talked about vitamin D, you talked about B. I really want to just comment on D because this is kind of funny. We had someone that actually saw my friend who's a nurse practitioner, and she sends us a lot of people because she knows what she does, but doesn't do what we do. And she sent us someone that we both grew up with, which is so funny because we all grew up together. And he was saying to me, Do you believe she tested me for D and my insurance won't cover it? I was like, Stop. She's like, he's like, no, I had to pay like hundreds of dollars. They don't think vitamin D is vital. I go, oh my gosh. And his D was off. It was like 23, which according to them is not that bad. To me, that's deadly. I like it to be 60 to 80. Some people are even a little higher. And so it's just crazy how we're letting insurance companies that are often manipulated by sometimes big pharma and profits over people. It's like they're determining my health. It's almost like my house. When it was leaking, my insurance company's like, no, we won't cover that because raccoons laying a nest isn't covered, but a storm is. And I'm like, oh, so I'm just not going to fix my roof and let like it collapse. So it's just like, why are we letting insurance dictate what our health is? Do they really know? Or do they really want to make the most money? Because that's kind of where we're going, is that's more and more premiums and co-pays, and it keeps going up, but our health's going down. So it's like, are they really the best determinants of our health? Or we are just like at school, oh, it's normal to do drugs, have sex, and the teachers turn their shoulder to stuff. That doesn't mean it's okay, right? It's like we have to parent, but we have to also parent ourselves that we know, you know, this isn't right when we look at that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

No, it and it is mind-blowing. And I will say personally, from having done a bunch of testing with my functional medicine doctor, it's two things to tell people this. One, it is incredibly empowering and eye-opening to do a deeper dive into how your body is working and functioning. And Chat GPT can also be helpful because there's a lot of terms on there. There's a lot of things that don't make sense. And a functional medicine doctor can help you understand what it all means and how it all works together. You don't have to become an expert, but it's really good to understand. So it's incredibly eye-opening. It's also a little scary. And I'm curious if some of your clients get a little freaked out because as you start to peel back the onion, you're like, oh, this is going on with my body.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

Yeah, I always open the lab review, and the practitioners we have say the same thing. Okay, now there's nothing life-threatening right now. We open with that because they freak out because there's this anxiety and white coat syndrome around the labs. Like, oh my gosh, what are they gonna find? The other thing we see is the skepticism. Oh my gosh, all these doctors and specialists looked at me and can't find anything. Are you gonna be able to? I say, we look like my mom looked when I couldn't find something as a child. Because guess what? Now that I'm a mom, I can find everything. This morning my son couldn't find his Pokemon card. And I looked and I found it in two seconds because I know where to look and I don't stop looking till I find it. So a lot of functional medicine practitioners will know where to look. They don't stop looking till they find it, and they're gonna look more thoroughly. The way a mom looks is what I tell our practice members because she thinks outside the box, she knows where to look, and she's not gonna stop looking. So my son had nine pairs of the same shoe, one shoe, though, just one, because he was the kid that lost one sock or one shoe growing up. You know, those babies that just like don't ever have the other sock. He was that kid, but I could always find it. And so could my mom. When she would watch him, she'd tear apart the car, look underneath. So yeah, they, they, they think it's funny when I give that example. But I think if you could remember that, that really helps, whether it's skepticism or if you're concerned, that yeah, it's not like threatening today. We were able to find actually something in someone's microbiome that was linked to the development of Parkinson's. And they're like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad you found this 10 years before I would see it in a symptom. Yes. That's my parents. Like, let's just not hang out with the smoker kid. Let's not wait till you're a smoker and in drug rehab pregnant. Let's go ahead. They'd say these things. I thought they were crazy, but they're at 21, I thanked them. Like, hey, you're never gonna believe it was in drug rehab pregnant. I don't know why I was 11. You were right. So it's like we could actually be proactive and not reactive. And that's what we tell our practice members. Yes, you're dealing with symptoms because you've been taught, brainwashed, to take action once it's bad enough, which is symptoms. But let's do it now when there's symptoms, then let's stay on track before there's symptoms, right? Before there's a problem. So I think that's really important to remember when we're looking at the more in-depth analysis as well.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

Definitely, for sure. And I will also say from personal experience, the world, the internet and chat GPT and the world has so much information, but sometimes that's a bad thing because it's like, okay, I'm gonna go take this latest vitamin cocktail, or I'm, oh, I got served this ad on Instagram and there's this new vitamin that I can buy online and it's gonna totally help my libido and my hormone health. And but yet you have no idea how that thing is actually interacting with other things. And so I know I personally found having someone who's a professional to go to who can tell me, okay, this is actually when you take your vitamin D in the daytime. Like, not only how much do you take, but how do you take it? And then how do you take the other vitamins? Because everything has to interact together. And there is a more perfect way for all those supplements and things to interact and like when you should take your vitamins, when you should take your males, when if you're on prescriptions, when you should take those prescriptions, if you're going to fast, where how do you fill your medications within that or your vitamins or your nutrients? And I just found it super empowering just to even have someone to ask who is aware of how all of those things work.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

I have a fun example, Gene. I know that you're you're getting these parenting ones, but I'm just gonna give one more because I think it's

Why Personalized Care Matters More Than Internet Advice

SPEAKER_01 39:04

really relevant to what you just said. I tell our practice members, you know how when a baby's crying and uh love my husband dearly, he's such a great dad. But when the baby cried, he thought that he needed to just have something put in his mouth to make him stop crying, right? It's coming from here. Let's just like shove something in there, whether it's I was breastfeeding, whether it's you or the spinky or something. And then you just start crying again or spit up. And that breast milk's like gold. I mean, I took 45 minutes to pump that. If I'm not feeding him directly because I'm, you know, working, I've oh my gosh, that would just wasted that gold. I'd rather not, I'd rather waste my gold than that. And I said, you can't just shove another thing down your throat. When you see the ad for this, ad for that, and you think it's harmless. We had a woman that you have to find the root cause, is what it's gonna say, actually, of why the baby's crying. Why is your body crying out, right? Not just, oh, this helps nausea, let me just take it. It's like, but this helps brain fog, let me take that, let me try this. It's like, that's my husband. Just love him. He's he's now he doesn't do this kind of stuff. This is his first time dad, right? Never held a baby before. Just like shove something down his throat. I'm like, we gotta actually find why he's crying. He's tired. He just ate, right? Or or he has to burp, or this time he has to let out a little baby fart, you know, like it's not, it doesn't come out that way. But the other piece that's important, you say the the ingredients and when we had a woman that she woke up in a pool of blood. And that I got the chills because I'll never forget it. And her name was Joan, and she doesn't mind I say that because she's done all these testimonials for us. Joan, we called her the prettier Joan Rivers. And Joan was 91 when she came to me. She walked in. I thought she was not a day over 68. And and this is when we were, we were in person. Now we're we're all virtual. And she she just was one of those people that I didn't even believe her is. She's like, Yeah, I date men that are 20 years younger than me. And I'm thinking she's 70, dating 50. She's 90. And so I'm like, oh, so why are you here? You're doing pretty good, Gene. You're above the 85 average life expectancy. She goes, Well, I want to keep up with the men I date. But she bought something online that was not what it said it was. She woke in a pull of blood. Joan never missed an appointment, Gene. She missed an appointment. You know, when you have that gut instinct, something's wrong. I was like, something is wrong. And she lived by herself. We sent the police to her house. They said she's at the hospital. And I said, You guys got to be careful with what you just buy online because you don't want to just buy like some cheap thing. You want to have, like you said, a professional and make sure it's safe. Just like I compare it to parenting and drugs. You know, don't just take something someone hands you. You need to know, right a little more about it. So I think that's helpful what you said to have that professional. Because I need to be effective. You don't think, oh, it won't hurt me, but it won't help you if you don't get better. Like what are we doing now?

SPEAKER_00 41:38

And how is it going to interact with everything else? And also, a lot of the supplement industry is not regulated either. Correct. And it's like, and not all brands are created equal. Like, no offense to those brands, because there are good ones, but there are also terrible ones that have lots of other things in them and lots of other toxic things, metals and all kinds of stuff, and cellulose, and I have celiac disease. Like they put gluten in freaking everything. You wouldn't even think. Why? Why is there gluten in Twizzlers? There is. You know, it's like you just don't even know some of the stuff that's in the things in our society. So, all right, before we run out of time, I have two quick questions for you because I I know you have to go and you have a meeting. So, two quick questions. One, is there anything that I didn't ask you that you think is important that we have to cover that we didn't get out?

SPEAKER_01 42:23

I would just say that I believe that knowledge is power and that every woman deserves to have the knowledge, which is empowering of what's going on in your body, how it works. And so we do, you mentioned this, a lot of free content to make sure you know we see you, you're not crazy, you're not alone. And then we do a weekly masterclass where I spend an hour with women live for free from the public. We usually get a couple hundred people a week, sometimes a thousand, that come on and I just answer your questions. I teach you some basics of what you need to know for free because I didn't know. And I was hopeless and helpless. And if you feel like that, even if it's not me, ask for help. Even if it's not us, there are resources out there and we see you, we hear you, we care about you, and I want you to know you're not alone. So I hope people can feel my heart that you're not having this in your head and it's very real. And you are the best doctor. So when people are telling you it's anxiety or it's normal, it's not optimal, it's not normal, and it's not okay. So just feel like you're not alone and I want you to know we see you.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

Yeah, that's beautiful. It's true. You're definitely not alone and there are resources. And I will make sure we put the links to your website in the show notes so people can

Book Recommendation Featuring The Surrender Experiment

SPEAKER_00 43:37

go. And I've seen that you do have your free seminars, which is a beautiful gift that you give of your time and your wisdom. So thank you for that. Okay, before we go, one quick book recommendation. I love to ask my guests to recommend a book that has impacted them personally or professionally. What book would you like to recommend people read?

SPEAKER_01 43:52

I'm gonna recommend the surrender experiment by Michael Singer. Yeah. I just love that as a type A achiever and control freak, I have learned to just do, do, do, control, do it yourself. And I've realized that the more I could surrender, the more I can approach life with open hands instead of gripping things so tight that they're suffocated. And a lot of times, if you close yourself off to having it be your way, you can't be in tune with higher power, higher intelligence, and source and creator's infinite intelligence, which is so much greater than where you can ask or imagine. So that would be my best recommendation. Even though I wasn't raised to meditate or Buddhist or whatever he is, I was raised Christian. But I still believe that that book is so amazing that it's a short, quick, easy read if you're not a reader. It's like a page per chapter. And it just really shows you how you can just surrender and trust and everything works out. And that's the thing that I think is good to remember.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

It is good to remember, especially when women are struggling and they don't feel good. It is good to have a little peace of mind that it will work out. You might have to work to get it to work out, and you might have to really become the CEO of your own health. I think that is so, so, so important. We have to be the CEOs of our own health, but there is help out there. So I thank you so much,

Closing Thoughts on Empowerment and Women's Health

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Dr. Bellebo, for coming on the show, sharing your wisdom. We're gonna link everything. I'm excited to share you on Instagram and to collaborate with you to bring some awareness. I appreciate your time and just your passion for helping women. So thank you. And I hope you have a beautiful day.

SPEAKER_01 45:26

Thank you. I hope you do too. And you've been such a blessing. I'm so glad that we've connected and that we can together help be the change and inspire the change that women deserve. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 45:37

Exactly. All right, great. Have a beautiful day. Thanks, you too. Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of Building the Best You. If you are ready to take a deeper dive into transforming your life, check out my Empowerment Fundamentals course on my website, houseofgermar.com. Thank you, and I will see you next week with another inspiring guest.