It Takes Heart
It Takes Heart is an unmissable podcast where healthcare workers share their honest and unique experiences from Australia’s frontline.
Discover real-life stories of passion and purpose, insight and inspiration from people on the inside and tales that are equal parts heart-warming, heart-wrenching and hilarious. It Takes Heart is co-hosted by cmr | Cornerstone Medical Recruitment CEO Samantha Miklos and Head of Talent and Employer Branding Kate Coomber.
It Takes Heart
28. What Your Body’s Been Trying to Tell You with Dr Anthea Todd – Part 2
What if the way you walk, rest, or hydrate could shift your entire nervous system? In Part 2 of our chat with Dr Anthea Todd, we explore how to apply the Fundamentals Framework, offering practical, everyday ways to reconnect with your body’s wisdom.
We dive into what hair testing can reveal (including Sam and Kate’s own results), how minerals mirror stress, and why beliefs like 'resting is lazy' may be doing more harm than you think. You’ll also hear why morning sunlight matters, how hydration plays a bigger role than we realise, and why pleasure isn’t a reward, it’s essential.
If you’ve ever felt stuck between burnout and confusion, this episode is your permission to slow down, listen in, and support your body in a whole new way.
Special offers from Dr Anthea Todd:
• Get 10% off your own hair test with code CMR at femalefundamentals.com.au/test-your-female-fundamentals
• Receive 50% off Anthea's Practitioner Training Program (discount already applied at checkout): Training Program
More about Anthea's Organisation of Choice, RizeUp.
RizeUp provides life-changing practical support for families affect by domestic and family violence.
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It Takes Heart is hosted by cmr CEO Sam Miklos, alongside Head of Talent and Employer Branding, Kate Coomber.
We Care; Music by Waveney Yasso
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In this part two of the episode, we're about to take a deep dive into the results of a hair test so that you can understand whether this is right for you, and I have to say our results were a little bit shocking.
Anthea Todd:Because the whole reason why your copper's high is because your nervous system is burnt out and your body holds onto copper Right, so you're not sucking on copper pipes? I'm guessing no.
Sam Miklos:Yeah, so what are the four fundamentals? How does a hair test fit in and why is walking like a lioness going to be better for us? Stay tuned to find out more.
Kate Coomber:Don't forget to hit follow and subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you want to see more of behind the scenes with this particular episode, definitely hop over to it Takes Heart on Instagram.
Anthea Todd:You may even see Sam riding a skateboard.
Sam Miklos:So we did the hair test? Yes, you did, and I've got to tell you when I got my results. I've got off the charts copper, zinc, magnesium, calcium, iron, titanium, nickel. Is that normal for the first one? And also, what hope do I have to get those back like?
Kate Coomber:I feel like I need to be wheeled into an emergency room and laid down like it was a lot, and because it also then talked to a little bit about, um, the where I had the little box about what you might see that manifest as the tendencies graph. Yeah, yeah, and I was like are you okay? I mean, am I okay too?
Sam Miklos:I certainly had, you know, calcium off the chart and all yeah and I was like are you okay?
Kate Coomber:I mean, am I okay too? I certainly had, you know, calcium off the chart and all these things. I was like, why?
Sam Miklos:and again from someone who wants to do well, yeah, yeah it didn't feel great and I didn't, and I wouldn't have said. I was like if you'd said what were the little whispers, I probably would have been like to know so then I was like, am I so off.
Anthea Todd:So what made you want to do the test? Was it just because we were having this?
Sam Miklos:no, I'm particularly interested in this sort of medicine so I was like I've never done anything like that yeah, I do agree that your body's giving you the messages.
Kate Coomber:I've always thought that and you've always seen a naturopath yeah, I've always seen that, always and all that. So yeah, like we're trying to really understand if we were going to speak to you yeah, to understand what this is about.
Sam Miklos:Yeah, because definitely.
Kate Coomber:When I read your book, I was like oh my gosh. Yeah, I ran out. I had to tell all the women in my life, all of us in our 40s, you know To say don't go straight for the clitoris. Oh my gosh.
Anthea Todd:Mind blown. You don't even have to read the whole book, just read the first page.
Kate Coomber:That's the first bit right book you'll ever read. Maybe have it to your husband.
Sam Miklos:We're a bit of a certain age and we're all every time we catch up Perimenopause, we're all talking about the same stuff.
Kate Coomber:I was like ladies, just shut the front door. I've got a new concept. It felt really validating.
Anthea Todd:It felt Because you know, we all know that our body actually isn't working against us. We know that it's helping us, but we just we're fed, like the advertising industry, all the things like there's something wrong with you.
Kate Coomber:buy this car and you'll be amazing. But even I think you said what your body needs at 40 isn't going to be what it needed at 20.
Sam Miklos:But also the other thing that prompted me too was at the beginning of the year. I was like I took a full health test and I went and did like a blood test, did all the things, and then she said I think you have, is it? Your white blood cells are a bit low. We'll just monitor it. It could be an autoimmune thing.
Anthea Todd:Come back in a couple of months and we'll to be more going on, and there's so many that's lost in the space between, and let's not wait for it to get worse.
Sam Miklos:Yeah, fine.
Anthea Todd:There's so many people that have that and you've got the little whisper of like that doesn't seem right.
Sam Miklos:That doesn't seem right.
Kate Coomber:But also like what do I do?
Sam Miklos:Yeah, and then do I wait and get leuke straight for the glitter, it's got to go straight for the leukemia, okay.
Anthea Todd:But, yeah, that is why. But then we got it A new function needs a little bit of support.
Sam Miklos:That's it, maybe don't go straight for leukemia. Yes, but then we got this back and then we were like, are we going to be like, how do we get out of this? Is this normal when?
Kate Coomber:do you?
Sam Miklos:start when you get these hair tests.
Anthea Todd:Yeah, so this is where we just go one fundamental at a time. So like, for instance, what I was saying before, how it's like, well, we don't get. It's not like on the test result, you get a this is your estrogen level, this is your testosterone level. And there are definitely places for that, like if you're going through that perimenopausal, menopausal phase and you're experiencing different symptoms. Yet we want to also test them.
Anthea Todd:That's why the framework isn't just it's just medical or it's just functional or it's just energetic. We have to look at all of it and go like, okay, for me right now, with my symptoms, if I put them through that framework, what's the thing that I need? Because, ultimately, when you do get that trust and connection with your body and you hear it more and more and it becomes stronger and stronger, you'll know what your body needs in the moment and those little changes that you're doing with your behaviour actually have knock-on effects for your functional health. So, for instance, like on the second page straight away, your nervous system fundamental needs support. Sam, I don't know whether I want to out you on the podcast?
Sam Miklos:That is not. I don't think there is a single person that will listen to this that would disagree with you. That is not. I don't think there is a single person that will listen to this that would disagree, considering we're like type a personality.
Anthea Todd:We've got all these like your mind's constantly going going, going yeah which, like, if you're able to do that and you don't have any knock-on effects with any of your health, absolutely go wild like what's what's the problem, right? So this is where that common and normal. I see lots of people go like, oh, but like is it actually normal or what's common? And like what do I, how do I know? Like, should I? And then you can become so pedantic with going like I have a little bit of dry skin in my eyebrow and then I've got this little thing. Like that means this that means this.
Anthea Todd:So it's going coming back to and that's the energetic layer, which can get into a second where you have ultimate trust that your body is looking out for you and it's helping you, and to listen to the even smaller whispers, which is the energetics.
Kate Coomber:But yeah, we can see here. It's like some days you're vibrating.
Sam Miklos:Sometimes I'm like this I mean both of us Like two coffees will just throw me over the edge. I'm just like meh yeah your adrenals, which does suffocate some of you. Ad and energy yeah, they just need to calm down.
Anthea Todd:Your body is literally saying to you slow down from this. That's like the overall picture, Right.
Sam Miklos:And can you recover your?
Anthea Todd:nervous system, absolutely so. I'm saying this also because I can out myself, too, my results. My first results were very much similar to yours as well.
Anthea Todd:And I was like and I'm not stressed, I don't know what you're talking about Like, yeah, I tried to move overseas and live in London, which I found out you both did too, yeah, we did and COVID hit, and then I had to come back and then there was this whole personal life change and career change and I was moving and I was like, oh no, it's fine, I'll study two masters, that's okay, easy. And it's the same, like with writing my book. I was like no, I'm not stressed. My body was screaming at me, I had blood-filled cystic acne, I had all these different. I was exhausted, but I was like no, but I love what I'm doing. The body was literally screaming at me. And now, if you ask me now, like, oh, yeah, I was really stressed, but I didn't think it at the time. Yeah, so that's the hard thing.
Sam Miklos:Like when you're in the weeds, and also to what you just said resonated because I was like I love what. I do, that's what I was gonna say so, it's great like yeah, but I and this is where it's almost what do you do?
Kate Coomber:because sometimes people just say, well, you need to cut back, you know. Because I feel that, like I love the work that we do, I love my family it's super busy love all the activities. Kids are thriving. Sounds like we'll just do less.
Anthea Todd:It's like that's not maybe it's not doing less, it's doing it different yeah, because you can't if you and doing it different, maybe that there is some things where you're like I was giving time and attention and thought to that and I'm not going to anymore. But one of the big things for me, like my nervous system fundamental was like screaming on my first test and I just saw the copper and I saw lots of other things. I'm like, okay, I'm going to support all these other things, I'm going to take all the supplements, do all the things, retest three months later, oh, okay, oh, my copper's come way down. That's amazing because it was really high. That was the main thing. But my liver function got worse because I was doing it way too fast. I wasn't caring for my body At the same time.
Sam Miklos:I was like let's get rid of this. Let's get it out. This is really bad. This is the problem. You're just like a whack-a-mole then.
Anthea Todd:This, this with your body. It's trying to help you. And then, after the third test, I go oh right, it was my nervous system the whole time because the whole reason why your copper's high is because your nervous system is burnt out and your body holds on to copper right so that you're not sucking on copper pipes?
Sam Miklos:I'm guessing no yeah, I was like I need to check her pipes or something at her house. Someone's probably got taps.
Anthea Todd:What you can actually look at is if you get like the, you know the colour of the Statue of Liberty if you get that around your pipes, then it can be that there's more copper because that's oxidised copper yeah. So that is something that you can look at, but the the vast majority of time, particularly with this combination of what your nervous system fundamental ratios are doing, that's driving it. And I can personally attest.
Sam Miklos:Yes, that's the pattern, that's it. That happens no matter what I do. What about stress? Yeah, mine definitely. Yours is uncontrolled stress, I literally said prolonged, uncontrolled stress. Can you recover from?
Anthea Todd:Yeah, but this is where we need to bring in. Okay, what do we actually do for that? And like what do you do for stress, right? Oh, people said yoga, or people say meditation, or maybe I need antidepressants, maybe I need to go get diagnosed for ADHD, maybe I need to like. What do you do Right, and particularly when you feel?
Kate Coomber:good.
Anthea Todd:Yeah. So this is where one of the things that I have been doing because I'm in a similar boat to you guys and if anyone's listening and they're like, yeah, yeah, I feel great. But my nervous system is like this I play around with the pace of things and also my physical body, because that actually rewires what part of your brain is driving things. So what I mean by that is holding, I tell my patients is pretend like you're a lioness. So what? How does a lioness move? She's not darting around, talking really fast like we're quite excited that is so funny.
Kate Coomber:He's like, oh, like tell me right.
Sam Miklos:and she walked in, which is like at cub, yeah right, that's not a lioness. I was like that's not normal.
Anthea Todd:No, it is, I'm pretty excitable. Right, we're like the Chihuahua, we are like Chihuahua yeah.
Anthea Todd:So this is where you actually just play around with the pace and it's the same thing and this is what to be amazing. But it's like, okay, if I'm running around the house trying to cram everything in doing an email, because I'm also really excited about that, and like doing all these things, that's my body is noticing you don't have enough time, so. So there's not spaciousness which is a threat to your body, which triggers your nervous system. So if we were to go, okay, I'm going to walk to lunch today, but I'm going to walk like a lioness would probably not on all fours, but you get what I mean, right, and then you're also going to talk like a lioness does. So you're not over explaining things, you're just like no, I know what I want and this is. I'm just saying that. You're not like, oh, yeah, but maybe we could do this and we'll figure out some things and oh, what?
Kate Coomber:right, I think we're gonna need to break up but even you think about you know, yeah, we're dragging our kids around. It's like get out the door, hurry. Yeah, you know, like.
Anthea Todd:So this is where the common and normal thing, right, everyone's the same, everyone's like oh, we've got to cram all the things in. It's so exciting, we live all this. We have our life filled with all these amazing things that we're doing. We are very excitable.
Sam Miklos:We also have like five different chats going. I was just thinking about even that Like we chat on Instagram.
Anthea Todd:We chat volume of all of the way we just, which is what our nervous system isn't used to. So I just, that's the easiest thing and it's very I feel like I can feel it. So I'm like, okay, lioness, how would she actually walk? Like sometimes, okay, I'm gonna go for a walk on the beach and I'm thinking I gotta be back by this time and I'm gonna do this and I'm walking really fast. It's like, actually, how would a lioness be walking? And, oh my gosh, she's feeling the feeling of the sun on her skin and she's looking around, like at the horizon. She's not like, oh, okay, I'm doing this and I'm checking my phone and I'm taking a photo and I'm doing all this stuff. It's like, oh no, I'm actually just walking, feeling being like oh whoa. And walking feeling being like oh whoa and like what a lioness does she? Like she'll scan the environment like the horizon.
Anthea Todd:So if someone is listening to this and you're not necessarily feeling like you are, like you might actually be feeling like you're stressed, you can actually get into your body to help your body out of that rumination part of your brain. So, literally just standing there like a lioness and slowly scanning the horizon with your eyes and turning your head. That actually goes into that part of your brain to calm it down and go. You're in a big posture, You're scanning the environment. You're obviously not prey, Like that part of your brain goes. You must be the predator, so there's nothing out here that's going to harm you.
Anthea Todd:So it's giving signals to your physiology that you're safe, and sometimes we have to. We can do mantras, we can be like you're safe, everything's fine, be where your feet are all the different things and they all can help. But I found that this can be really beneficial and a lot of people love it.
Sam Miklos:They're like yeah, I'm a lioness I like message me, and it's great oh, there you go.
Kate Coomber:I was just gonna say is that a society thing too? Because I guess when we're in these busy lives now, and if you're in business and all the things, you might see someone a little bit slower and you know we've got to move quicker, and almost slow equals lazy, or so you know there might be those external and this is where the energetics layer comes in.
Anthea Todd:So the energetics is often I think about. Say, for instance, you have a symptom of fatigue when you're listening with the energetics, it's going. What is this symptom telling me about my life? So functional is. What is the symptom telling me about my body and what it needs? And then it's like, okay, what's it telling me about my body and what it needs? And then it's like, okay, what's it telling me about my life and all of that, so it can come with your identity.
Anthea Todd:Like oh, I have this identity, that I'm not a lazy person.
Kate Coomber:Yeah.
Anthea Todd:What are you talking about? I'm not lazy, I'll prove it to you. It's like no one was calling you lazy, stop looking at me.
Anthea Todd:No one was calling you lazy, right, and you can go into past traumas and how you were grown up and all those things which can be helpful in the right space. But also we can go, oh whoa. Okay, I had this story, because these are stories that drive everything. I have this story that if I sit down I'm lazy. For instance, and you can put it, byron Katie is a.
Anthea Todd:She's an author, the Four Truths I actually don't know whether that's the title of her book, but the Four Truths is a process she does and you just say is that true? And you go okay, I have this belief that if I sit down, I'm lazy, is that true? And you might be in your mind being like, absolutely, it is Like, look at that person and your brain just goes and reinforces that and you go am I absolutely sure that that is true? And you go, actually, maybe I do know other people that like sit and rest and I don't think they're lazy, oh, okay. And then so you might go, oh, great. And then you say how do I feel when I believe that thought, when I rest I'm lazy, how do you feel? It doesn't make me feel that good, okay, but it mustn't be true then. And then you go okay, what would I feel if I flipped it? So when I rest, I feel amazing. Or when I rest, that actually moves me forward faster, or whatever the change of belief that you want. And then you go oh okay, that feels so much better.
Anthea Todd:And then, all of a sudden, all your patterns and behaviors and actions start to change. And then it's like, oh whoa, my levels on my functional test changed, and it wasn't because I was taking supplements, it was because I actually addressed the underlying thing. That was there. And it's not that you're having to necessarily give up big things, yeah, it's that you're doing it in a different way. It's like when you are actually resting, you are resting instead of going oh okay, I've finished everything. I'm going to sit down on the couch and watch this new series with my hubby. I'm going to do whatever we've got. This time the kids are in bed and then you're sitting there and you're watching it and you're thinking, okay, I got that, didn't make the school I got.
Sam Miklos:No, I'm like when you said that example I'm like. I literally my husband says to me you cannot sit and put your feet up and I'm like no because I sit there and I'm like, could we do that? Could we do that?
Anthea Todd:And this is like wicked. I love this stuff.
Sam Miklos:We could be here for days. We could turn this into a whole thing. You got my hair as well. I was like but this is where, and this is.
Anthea Todd:I'm saying this because I know this, I have been there and I do still sort of go into that. But I'm so much more aware now and I know like my whole thing is like what actually is success or what is health to you, because a lot of people like you need to sort of like know where that guidepost is, and that's with the energetics. You need to know where is your intention set, like where's your GPSps, because everything else in your life is going to filter to get you there. So we need to know what is that? So for me it's like well, yes, you can be successful and calm and healthy and have fulfillment in all other areas of your life.
Anthea Todd:You don't have to get to success by rushing and always be doing things. So it's like okay, how can I actually so? Okay, now I'm going to change all my behaviours. And now, like a little thing, if you're someone that does sit on the couch and your mind's like school lunches, emails, whatever, I literally imagine a picture of a phone charger plugged in at the wall and it's turned off at the wall, you know like if you've ever gone to bed and you plug your phone in, you plug your phone in and you wake up in the morning and you go oh it wasn't turned on at the walls it didn't actually charge, like that's.
Anthea Todd:I always think to myself. I'm like that's what's happening right now.
Kate Coomber:Yeah.
Anthea Todd:So then I go okay, well, how do I get out of that part of my brain which is the story part, the switch? I haven't explained this fully, but basically there's a part of your brain that's responsible for everything that's going on in your body what's your body temperature, what's your insulin levels, what's your iron levels, how does your body feel, all the things. So what I do is I go okay, how can I get into my body right now and how can I love pleasure? Because a lot of the times when we're I have to do all these things, we have this, not aversion to pleasure, but it's almost like we have to earn it yes instead of going, the pleasure could be.
Anthea Todd:Oh my gosh, I just love laying on this couch how comfortable, is it? I'm so glad we got this couch and you just like allow your body to sink into it. Then, all of a sudden, you're out of it. You've forgotten that, all these emails and different things you need to do, you're just like huh, and then you're out of it. You've forgotten that all these emails and different things you need to do.
Kate Coomber:You're just like huh, and then you're in your body. We were talking about the joy, weren't we?
Sam Miklos:Moments of joy.
Anthea Todd:Yeah, yeah, so that's with nervous system. It's like you have the different I talk about in the book with the traffic lights. So green light, orange light, red light With the hair test. You're both slow ones, so that's more of like a red light and it's not that you're stuck in it all the time and by all means you guys are not like catatonic freeze, like you're not like that at all. Um, so it's moving into it, but your body's like okay, we just need to slow you down to bring you back into the green. So a green light is like play, pleasure, curiosity, calm, joy, spaciousness. It's lioness, yeah, so we want to be in that most of the time. But we also want red and orange lights like driving on the road. Yeah, we need all of them.
Kate Coomber:We need those as well, that's what's helped us survive.
Anthea Todd:We just don't want to stay stuck in the other ones?
Sam Miklos:You know across all the tests that you do. Is there one of the four fundamentals that you see is consistently the one that's the problem, and is it different for women and men?
Anthea Todd:I would say probably the nervous system and metabolism one are the most common, I think, because of how society is Society. Now we're just on the busyness, the rushing, and also with metabolism. The main thing we look at is your light environment. So sunlight, yes, but also artificial light you can sort of think of it as light is actually energy is how we get energy. Because what do we think? What gives you energy, like as a baseline? Food? Right, we need food to give us energy, but how does a plant grow Out?
Sam Miklos:in baseline food. Right, we need food to give us energy. But how does a plant grow out in the sun, from sunlight.
Anthea Todd:So it's stored energy that we're eating and consuming to give us energy. So we actually I want you to think of your skin literally like a solar panel, so you're actually getting your cells are getting energy and charge from the sun. Does that mean that everyone should be in the sun all day, every day, day? Absolutely not.
Kate Coomber:And this is the contradiction, then, of everyone going no, but I've got to avoid the sun because I'm going to get skin cancer and it's you know, and you suck it on the sunscreen, but then that blocks out the vitamin D Chemicals. And then, if you think about countries, where they don't get a lot of sun, and then they do have, you know, seasonal affective disorder, I guess because they're not getting well.
Anthea Todd:I think it's a bit like the sun's been around a bit longer than all of us have. It's probably a reason for it and it like we can see that it grows, all of these things that nourish us. Yeah, right, so just even just thinking about it on a basic level, like that, you're like, okay, well, I know the sun is good and you know when you've been sick or you've been inside all day like what feels amazing, going outside, just being like, oh, I'm in the sun they say that when people are at the end of life.
Anthea Todd:They often say that they just want to sit out in the sun well, there's so much research about people I actually was reading I'm reading a book at the moment and he talks about. There was this boy that was they couldn't do anything, he I can't remember. He had a rare cancer of some kind and they were like he's, he was 17, like sorry, we can't do anything about it, he's just gonna die.
Anthea Todd:We're gonna have to allow him to slowly die of these next couple of days in hospital and he's like I just want to go outside, like he's, and they figured out everything. And then now it's been like 10 years so and I'm not saying that, just put everyone who's in critical care out in the sun, but there are there's hospitals now that are doing that because they know the impacts of that and you know the impacts of nature, like what happens when you might go on a camping trip with your family, yeah and there's no reception, there's no non-native emfs and all these other electrical impulses that are coming in and you just hear the sound of the birds.
Kate Coomber:You get the negative ions you get the sun feet in the ground, we, so it is, it's like we know this stuff.
Anthea Todd:Yeah, we know that nature is good for us, like I don't know anyone that's going to be. Like nature is bad for you yeah, unless you're American and you think everything in Australia is going to kill you, but I'm guessing you don't have many American listeners, no, Not, not yet.
Kate Coomber:Howdy y'all. Yeah, but you were talking then about sunscreens.
Sam Miklos:Yes, and toxins, toxins and chemicals.
Kate Coomber:And what are you seeing in a world of more toxins? You know you think about cosmetics, processed foods, botox fillers, like all of that.
Sam Miklos:But you also said in the book don't even get me started on vaping. I want to start you on vaping. Because that, like, if I look around our office now, everyone, everyone vapes, and even what would you say to those don't vape you, why tell us? Why tell us about it? Oh my gosh, it's so. I mean, don't tell us, it's just like it's.
Anthea Todd:It's it's so interesting because I think societally it's smoking is bad. Vaping is like the healthy alternative, like as a conceptual like oh, it's perceived.
Sam Miklos:Like, oh, it's okay.
Kate Coomber:I'm only vaping yeah.
Anthea Todd:And I can sort of do it inside Like people.
Kate Coomber:I know I can smoke inside, but I can vape Vape in the bathroom.
Anthea Todd:I just came back from overseas in Europe and I would say every second person was vaping, really.
Kate Coomber:So restaurants, I'll be like sneakily taking a vape and it's like we've gone back in time where we is that like vaping. You could go to a restaurant you go like do you want smoking or?
Anthea Todd:non-smoking. Was it like that? Or was it just everyone in together vaping? No, everyone. Well, in europe they don't have the whole.
Anthea Todd:Like you can't smoke and eat in the same areas, which I'm so glad we have that in australia. Um, but yeah, you can think about it like okay, well, why do you want to vape? What's it giving you? What's the behavioral thing that it's doing? Often it's soothing or it can become habitual, like it's that dopamine hit. You could take it way back to now.
Anthea Todd:I don't know the research of this, but we were talking about it in my family of healthcare practitioners. We're like it's interesting, because what do you give a baby when it wants to be soothed? A dummy. So it's a sucking reflex, right, sucking right. So that sucking reflex is going into that part of your brainstem that soothes. So it's going back to again what is going on with people Like how can we help people on a deeper level? But from a functional standpoint, what vaping does? It's chemicals, like. If it, okay, it's a grape-flavored thing. It's amazing, it tastes delicious. Is a grape-flavoredoured thing? It's amazing, it tastes delicious. Is a grape-flavoured Fanta? Good for you, yeah, what's the thing that's giving it grape flavour? What is that chemical Like? It's a chemical. If it was mortine-flavoured, like fly spray, you'd be like absolutely not, I'm not inhaling that. It's a different taste, but it's still made of these chemicals that are artificial and our body doesn't know how to recognise. Not to mention it has a heated element that is made of metal. What are we seeing on these tests?
Anthea Todd:of a lot of people A lot of heavy metals. Like where are you getting these heavy metals? You don't work in mines, you're not working with asphalt, you're not on farms with sprays and all these different areas.
Sam Miklos:It's like oh, do you vape? To be clear, I do not vape too from my no, but that's true. That's what made us, based on your levels that's why we ask so yeah, all these toxins?
Anthea Todd:then exactly right, sorry, keep going yeah, so this is where, and if we think about heavy metals and toxins, that's one of the things that you're going to be getting from the vaping, which I don't think is like that's not revolutionary, like revolutionary, like surely well, I think in my mind, like you're inhaling something that's artificial. Surely you know that there's chemicals in that.
Sam Miklos:What do you think the long-term effects are going to end up with vaping? Because we're kind of at this, it's almost like you know when smoking.
Anthea Todd:Well, there's a specialised lung class diagnosis of like people that have vaping damaged lungs. And then we can think about with, for instance, if you are getting heavy metals, if you're a woman and you want to fall pregnant, but also in men too, because heavy metals do damage your sperm quality and the DNA in them. When you get pregnant as a woman, your placenta sort of acts like a detox pathway. So if you have heavy metals in your body and this is not, to fear among anyone.
Anthea Todd:But if you have heavy metals in your body and this is not to fear among anyone but if you have heavy metals in your body you will detox them into the placenta and into the baby, so you'll be benefited, but the baby will then get this high dose of whatever the heavy metals are. So this is where you might be someone that's vaping and eating processed foods having high insulin levels. Your nervous system's not looked after and you're like I don't know why I can't fall pregnant. It's like, yes, maybe there are causes medically, maybe you've had pelvic inflammatory disease and you have scarring and you need to create the pathway for the egg and the sperm to meet. There's lots of different reasons for that, but often it's just come back to your fundamentals, like a hair test is a great place to start.
Anthea Todd:You don't have to start with that by any means. You could just go okay, what's happening with my nervous system? Fundamental, like how much spaciousness in time do I really feel and how much pleasure and play do I feel in the day? That's a really great question to ask yourself and to ask yourself. And then you go metabolism. Okay, how much sunlight am I actually getting in the day and what's my blue light environment like? You can think of blue light like processed food, sunlight like nutritious food. Right, because light is. Think of it like a nutrient for your body, think of it like food. I always say to people it's the first food in or on your body for the day. So people like what time should I have coffee and is it past this and past this? Just to make it really simple and easy, you want sunlight on your body first and then go about your day and do the rest.
Anthea Todd:Yeah, and then you can look at your blood sugars as well. If you're someone that gets skin tacks or you feel tired after you eat, those things are very common for people that have blood sugar issues. If you have polycystic ovarian syndrome any sort of chronic disease blood sugars are often playing a part with that. And then the nutrient part, and this is where you can be like oh, your hair's falling out or you've got stretch marks, you've got white spots on your fingernails, because there's lots of different types of nutrients. There's magnesium, sodium, potassium, calcium, zinc, lots of them and your nutrients are actually how your cells work. If anyone's listening to this and they're a healthcare practitioner you would have heard of the sodium potassium pump. It's literally how your body, your cells, create energy. So we need to support all of them to balance better, because you'll see here, like, for instance, your, when our nervous system is stressed, our body goes. We want to slow you down because you've been going, going, going, so we're going to help you yeah, and we're going to dump this sodium out of your body yeah
Anthea Todd:because that's going to slow you down, because sodium speeds you up, so we want to slow you down, so we're going to dump that. But then you go oh, why am I all? Why am I feeling so fatigued and tired? And this goes back to listening to your body. Why am I so fatigued and tired, even though my doctors told me that there's nothing wrong with my blood tests, which is great because it means I don't have an infection, I don't have cancers, my iron level is okay, I'm not bleeding internally or losing too much blood, my thyroid is okay Awesome.
Anthea Todd:So what do I do now? So this is where we look and go oh, okay, this trend and this hair test tells us what's going on, but really, what it's doing is mirroring back the patterns, how your body's wanted to adapt to your life. That's what it's doing. It's like this is how your body's been adapting. Okay, we can take supplements targeted to you, and this is one of the things it gives you, which is great. But supplements are supplemental. If you just take supplements and then stop taking them, what's going to happen?
Kate Coomber:Your body's going to adapt in the same way. Yeah, it's actually looking at long-term sustainable change.
Sam Miklos:What about the role of emotions.
Kate Coomber:Yes, you talked about sort of stress and joy.
Sam Miklos:Yes, but then, what does the role that emotions play in manifesting Physically, physically, physically?
Anthea Todd:Yeah. So this is where there's this thing called the triple brain network if I could like draw it for you. But basically your brain has all these complex components we would have heard of, like the medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, brainstem, all these different things. Just think of them as three hubs, three sections. So we have the part that's responsible for the body, the part that's responsible for the story that we have about ourselves, other people and our life, and the part that is responsible for action, taking action.
Anthea Todd:So we could think, for instance, of someone that procrastinates. It's like, well, they just can't take action. It's like why aren't I taking action in this thing? Because you're probably in the story part of your brain. You're probably going oh, it's because I'm lazy, oh, it's because it's going to be too hard, it's because I don't know how to figure it out, it's because whatever the belief is, and it's like and then you just don't take the action right.
Anthea Todd:So this is where, when emotions come into it, they all interact with each other, but the body is the switch. So if you have really high levels of lead in your body, for instance, or you are noticing that you have a really high calcium to potassium ratio, so your thyroid slowed down, you are going to have more tendency towards slower thought processes. So brain depression, those things can happen because your body doesn't have what it needs to actually be able to have those other emotions, like it's not to say that you're not going to have the other emotions but it's like your physiology can actually affect what the core emotions are that you have.
Anthea Todd:When I went to one of the trainings with this lab that does the tests, they were talking about this guy who'd been diagnosed with schizophrenia after the floods in Lismore and he had gone to the floods in Lismore to help. He was stripping wood. I can't remember the reason why it's like because of the floods and mold, I can't remember, but he was stripping wood and there was something in the wood that had caused it to basically aerate the heavy metals and his whole personality had changed. At that time it was like everyone's like oh well, he's just got stress induced schizophrenia because of the floods and everything that happened and he was suicidal, terrible situation. He did this test and he's like, oh my gosh, he's. He had all of these different toxic elements coming out. They supported his body, his fundamentals, his body secreted them or excreted them, sorry. And then his moods balance, his emotions came back to how he was, his personality went back to how it was, back to how it was. So it's looking at, okay, well, what's going on with the body and how that affects emotions. Placebo effect. We know if we focus on something or we believe something. Our belief changes our body, yeah, so it goes both ways. So it's important to.
Anthea Todd:If you're someone that's like I'm just trying all these things, I'm doing all the positive stuff and I'm looking at that, it's like, okay, yes, the mindset work and reframing, doing the four truths instance there's lots of different things you can do is helpful. But if you're also noticing physical symptoms, looking at your body, looking at do my cells have what they need? Do they have those four fundamental things, okay, let me do that. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, my gosh, my blood sugar's a balance. I have so much energy, I don't have brain fog. All of a sudden, and like my, my weight has changed. I'm just, this weight is dropping off me, I'm not having to diet and I don't have all these different things. And now it's all of a sudden like, yeah, I can go out, I could go out on dates. I feel different about myself. My whole body feels different, like because what we've done is we've helped care for your fundamentals and now the other emotions can come out, but also vice versa, the emotion of okay, well, I feel really bad about myself because I've got this story of whatever that came from my childhood and then that can keep your body locked in that posture like we have.
Anthea Todd:I went to a training with Bessel van der Kolk, who's the guy who wrote Body Keeps the Score Amazing 80-year-old trauma psychologist, I love him and he showed at the start videos of shell-shocked soldiers, so back in the Vietnam War and actually how their physical body would walk and it was almost like a Parkinsonian light gate, which is sort of like shuffling and you're not really swinging, really swinging your arms. Your face is quite still and you're just like and you could be like shaking and like like a trauma shake. So it's like, okay, well, what happened, what that scenario did and the emotions affected the physical body. So we also know that in chinese medicine it's okay, well, we hold on to resentment or anger. You can have liver and gallbladder issues. So it's looking at it from both sides, it impacts it from both sides.
Kate Coomber:So if you, you know you can do blood work, hair testing, but I guess, just looking at the fundamental framework that you've spoken about today, if people just want to start leaning in to the idea and the concept, maybe I guess, unless you have testing, it's hard to understand exactly where your body's at. Are there things you talked about, the sunlight and various things but where do people start? Like what's the few things that people could do? If there's no big problem, that's sending them to get hair testing or to the doctors but they really want to embrace this concept maybe and just learn more and more aligned.
Kate Coomber:Obviously, read the book. That'll get you started yes, but what do? Um, yeah, what do they do?
Anthea Todd:so? If I were to give you one thing for each of the fundamentals so for the nervous system, it's's spaciousness I would say Spaciousness, and I'm going to give you two Spaciousness and having that like, okay, I'm going to give myself pleasure of some kind pleasure or play today. That's my top priority. Taking notes. So, and that could be, you're doing the same thing, but you're going about it in a pleasurable or playful way.
Kate Coomber:Yeah, so Can you give an example of that. Practically so are you talking about? I've still got to make dinner, but you know, I'm gonna have fun making dinner. Yeah, is that what you're playing? Music and dancing?
Anthea Todd:yeah, so it's the same like I often say to my patients and I've said it online I, I make a dance in the mornings. I love it, it's so good and it's interesting, because I would do it and I'd like put up the morning song. And then it became a job for me because I was like, oh, I need to put this up for all the people and all these things. I'm like stopping it, stopping doing that.
Sam Miklos:Where are you putting this up? Where are you putting the naked dance? Oh, no, no, no, I'll be earning heaps of money. I don't know, I was just putting up the song, I wasn't putting a video up of me. Okay, just clarifying. Everyone will be like where is she? Where is she?
Anthea Todd:Yes, but it was just paying attention to oh, now this is all of a sudden being like I need to put this up. It's not, it's a job, yeah, so going. Oh no, actually not everything in your I have to do this, then that's not play.
Anthea Todd:That's not pleasure, so it's like, oh, okay, what would feel really good. Yesterday I was walking on the beach and I normally would listen to a podcast or something. I'm like, no, I'm going to listen to this other playlist, it's like a sensual playlist and I'm going to feel the sun on my skin. I was like, oh whoa, on a walk, right. So that's where we're doing those things, because we're actually enjoying living our life, not thinking like our life is a job that we have to get everything done. It's like because then what? Then our life will be how it needs to be, but then what happens?
Anthea Todd:Particularly, if you're goal orientated, you get the thing, and then you're like now what, instead of going, oh, I get to get the thing, but also it's not about get the thing. And then you're like now what, instead of going, oh, I get to get the thing, but also it's not about even the thing, it's about me enjoying it as I go. Yeah, which is a switch to have and that's a really powerful switch for the nervous system I can personally attest to that that's not a new concept, right like it's no it's value driven or goal.
Kate Coomber:It's actually hard to put into practice, but it's so simple right that we maybe underestimate it.
Sam Miklos:Yeah, and it's actually hard to put into practice, but it's so simple right that we maybe underestimate it.
Anthea Todd:Yeah, and it's literally it can be tiny things. It is going oh, I'm doing this and I'm doing it in a more playful or pleasurable way. I'm driving to work, but I'm going to blast the music and I'm just going to sing. There's something that I it's my screensaver, my phone and people always say like live every day like it's your last, but it's like live every day like it's your first, because if it's your last, you might be like well, I'm going to blow all my money and go through the red lights cheat on my husband like whatever you decide to do, it's like oh, no, live every day like it's your first.
Anthea Todd:You're like oh, what would I do?
Sam Miklos:Yeah, that's interesting, yeah, so what's? It's the next fundamental, then. So then, if we think about metabolism, that's sunlight would be the main thing.
Anthea Todd:So morning, the first thing that's in your eyes is sunlight, so avoiding blue light. Blue light is you want to minimize it, but you just want to get the spectrum of the sun in the right order. Like, if you think about sunrise, it's more of that yellowy hue, it's bringing out different wavelengths, and then it's like more at the peak, it's brighter, it's bluer, it's more of that yellowy hue, it's bringing out different wavelengths, and then it's like more at the peak, it's more, it's brighter, it's bluer, it's doing that and then it goes down again. It's the same thing. We want to try and mimic that. Uh, blood sugars, proteins and fats we want to be prioritizing them. Carbohydrates aren't the devil, but it's looking at. Okay for me. I just go. Does this meal have protein and fat in it? Great, because that's also going to fill me up longer and I'm not going to be like, oh my gosh, like why am I so ravished? Or I'm so stressed that I completely forgot to eat, and that happens to. All right, but you know what I?
Kate Coomber:don't worry, it happened to me the other day. I woke up at five and didn't eat till 3 pm it's like when you do that and then you start this protein, fats and I've tried to do that. It's so filling and I'm struggling to eat. Yeah, More often making sure they're like.
Anthea Todd:So, ideally and this is it changes hormones like leptin and all these things which we won't get into. But this is where it's like okay, having the sunlight rhythm set up in your day, but then also going. Okay, having breakfast, having lunch, having dinner, and if you have meals that are well balanced, you often aren't like, oh, I need that chocolate bar at 3 pm or I need that like coffee to keep me going. I need those things because one we've satiated that. And then if we go into the last fundamental, which is nutrients, the one thing that I would say is proper hydration, because a lot of the times, if you are getting that 3pm slump or you're like, oh, wow, I really need the coffee to wake me up in the morning, it's often because we don't have enough hydration with electrolytes and our sunlight is off.
Anthea Todd:So because, if you think about your cells like a bathtub full of water, if you think about your cell, your cells like a bathtub full of water if you put a hair dryer in that, right, but that's actually like I want you to think of that as actually a good thing. I don't want people to go do that, but it's sort of like if your cells are hydrated, so you've got good water in there and then the electrical current is like that sun coming in. It's like whoa, that's like a supercharge of energy. Right, right, that's actually how our cells generate the energy. So, proper hydration. Often if you're someone that's like, oh, I get really tired or hungry at like 10 pm, in between breakfast and lunch or in between lunch and dinner, it's often okay, have a look, did you get enough fat and protein in the meal that you ate? And also have you hydrated Like have and protein in the meal that you ate, and also have you hydrated, like have an electrolyte of some kind, and wait 20 minutes and see how you feel.
Anthea Todd:you're like oh, that craving for that chocolate bar, that coffee's gone away yeah okay, because then you're not getting the cheap energy that you'll need and need and need and need and need. You're getting driven, or possibly cheap energy from your to-do list. You're like I'll keep going because I got everything done on my to-do list, but that means I could have done more okay, I'll add more things on. It's like you just create this whole cycle.
Sam Miklos:What would you say? Um, I mean, kate and I've got young children, like we're bringing up the next generation with all of the things that you know. Now, how should we be parenting or talking to our children so that these things are instilled and they don't get to their 40s and start doing hair tests? And I'm sure it'll be different there. But you know, when you talk about periods, oh, it's a heavy period. There's so many of those mantras. I think that we all grew up with?
Sam Miklos:What can we shift to make it better for that next generation?
Anthea Todd:I think it's getting curious about the body and having the connection and trust with it. That's what I often think it's interesting with technology and AI and how this is transforming, say, the education system. Like what are they even teaching in schools now? Like the whole school system of, well, get good grades, do this and then you can go to university. It's like a lot of jobs now. You don't even need to go to university Some, obviously, you do. If you're a doctor, I don't want you to be trained by chachapati, but it's, it's going okay. There's a lot of jobs that actually this system doesn't need, like it doesn't support that. So then I thought, well, how are they actually going to change the schooling system? What would you teach? And it's like how amazing and incredible would it be to teach body autonomy, connecting to your body and trusting that, because the way society is going so much information, as you said, it's like you have at the click of a finger.
Kate Coomber:You can get as much information as you want and misinformation, exactly.
Anthea Todd:So this is the thing. It's having discernment. So it's going okay. Yes, amazing, you've given me all this information, what feels right for me, and it's that that's what I'd be teaching every child, person, adult now, and even like now, that's what I work on every single day. It's boundaries, yeah, with your life. It's like, oh, I did these things. Like, why did I even do that? I knew I shouldn't have done that. How many times have we said that, like I knew that was going to be a bad idea, but I did it anyway? So it's having. It's that it's helping our kids connect to and trust their body and then taking the action that's in alignment with their body, not necessarily what they should do, because it's interesting even in your question like what should we be teaching our kids?
Anthea Todd:What should we do? It's like a should is based on a societal perception giving us the pressure to do it.
Sam Miklos:Yeah, what will we? Yes, yeah, what can we? Yeah, I was going to say how can we?
Anthea Todd:Yeah, so I think ultimately it always comes back to the body. The yeah, so I think ultimately it always comes back to the body. The body's going to tell you whether you like it or not. It'll tell you in little whispers, like gut instincts. Oh, that just feels like this. I don't really know why. That's often the energetics. It's like I don't know why, but it's like it keeps coming at me and it has to be this, like it's just. I don't know why, it doesn't make any sense, but that's what it is. And then sometimes it can be the little bit louder whispers of oh, my hair's falling out a bit in the shower, but like, oh, that happens to everyone, or I'm getting white spots on my fingernails or dry skin or heavy periods or irregular periods, and oh, everyone just goes about, everyone just does the same thing in the system. I'll take the pill or have this thing, but I know deep down that it's not actually, why do I?
Anthea Todd:even have that like no one's actually telling me why. But when we listen to our body and we understand it using this framework, it becomes much easier to go okay, I'm just going to forget about the label, or forget chasing, it's a hormonal thing, or I need to do a detox. I need to do this, just go. Okay. How can I care for the fundamentals? Just come back to spaciousness, pleasure, play, get your sunlight, balance your protein and fat, have some hydration and literally just try that that, that really simplifies, doesn't it?
Anthea Todd:like that's um just literally try that that's really helpful I think it seems like, oh yeah, but also it's often that stuff that works, it's the fundamentals.
Kate Coomber:For a reason, yeah but it's stuff everyone can. Yeah, you watch me just sliding through. I can't wait to see you and I like. So yeah, I'll just be like lioness lioness that's gonna be our word. They're gonna think oh, thank you so much. Honestly, that has been so great. Today, cmr are going to be donating to a charity of your choice with this episode Amazing, where can we be donating to?
Anthea Todd:I'm going to donate to Rise Up. So it's for family violence and I wanted to donate there because it's one of the main things. It's family violence. So it's how we can bring up our children in safe environments, but also helping people have those better boundaries, be able to have better communication, get into a safe environment as well. So I think that's always good for everyone's health and body and life.
Sam Miklos:I love what they do. What a great choice, anthea. It's been incredible today. I just literally am just like a sponge listening to you. Also, like you feel, seen, is there anything before we wrap that we haven't covered today?
Anthea Todd:Yeah. So when I developed this framework, I developed it because I was like, how do I help these people that are lost in the space between? And I have so many other friends that are practitioners and colleagues that are like, how do I help doing this? So, if you're a practitioner listening and you're a nurse, a midwife, a chiropractor, osteopath, OT, I have GPs, psychiatrists that want to understand the body through this framework, I have practitioner training, so we have live events coming next year.
Anthea Todd:But there's an online component now that you can start, called Core Fundamentals, so you can find that on the website. But I really feel like that is an important thing to do, because what's happening and what we see like we spoke with ChatGPT is that a lot of people that come to me now they're like, oh yeah, I put my results through ChatGPT or I put my symptoms through and it's telling me this, which it's an amazing tool, right. But we also need to be able to have practitioners and people that can view context and view history and the person right in front of them and understand it from this 360 view, using that fundamental framework. So that's what I'd love to share as well.
Sam Miklos:Yeah, absolutely. We've got such a huge community, I think so many people would be so interested to hear that, and particularly that a nurse like you just mentioned all of our practitioners that we work with too. Like that'll be fascinating.
Anthea Todd:I have so many nurses interested in in doing this because, yeah, you'd see you, you develop that relationship with patients. I know I didn't even touch on it, but I had heart surgery when I was a teenager and I still distinctly remember the nurses that I had. Like they, they are the people that I remember yeah, because they.
Anthea Todd:I was a young teenager in a room by myself. My parents couldn't stay with me. It was like a scary thing. It was like they made you feel safe and seen, and that's what they're doing to every patient, so it's it's helping educate you as well. So then you can be like, oh, they're getting discharged and maybe like they could help themselves in these ways.
Sam Miklos:So, yeah, it's really cool and you've got a special gift for our community. What is that?
Anthea Todd:yes, so we are offering a discount on the hair test. So, if anyone is interested, it's called test your fundamentals, obviously because you get to know what your fundamentals are doing. And, yeah, it's on our website. You'll be able to see the discount code in the show notes.
Sam Miklos:And, to be clear, the hair test. You have to cut a piece of hair.
Kate Coomber:It was an interesting day. It was an interesting day.
Sam Miklos:We have a girl that works for us, who used to be a hairdresser, and we gave her a pair of kitchen scissors and said rip in right at the back if you could Did you watch the video. I didn't.
Kate Coomber:I trusted her and as she went to do, it.
Sam Miklos:I said this could go really bad if you really hate me, and she laughed and said it wasn't something I thought I'd be doing at work today, but let's have a go.
Anthea Todd:Well, it's perfect that you had a hairdresser. I got my mum to do my first one and she kitchen scissors shanked it.
Kate Coomber:Well, yes, because I think we just assumed we'd be doing a bit of this.
Sam Miklos:And then, when we saw the pictures in the diagram, it's like, oh, it's actually from the root. It's from the root, it's from the scalp. Yeah, because that's the three months you cut the whole piece out.
Anthea Todd:Yes, and then you keep the three centimetres and it covers the size of a 20-cent piece. So if you put the hair across it it's like oh, you can, I've done over five and I still have. I was going to say you've got luscious hair. What about guys, though?
Sam Miklos:My husband. I want to get him done, but it's too short.
Anthea Todd:Yeah, so this is what you can collect it over time. Right, so you can be like okay, well, if it's, if he gets like really like number one at the back down here you can be like okay, we're going to get that and then we're going to collect more because it's the weight. You have to have enough weight to test it, because they test it three times for quality control and all the different things.
Anthea Todd:So you can do that. I used to have male housemates and they did it, so I got some from the underneath, which was closer, and then I took some from the top. So it was sort of like a three centimetre average without like cutting whole three centimetres from the top, obviously shaving it Underarms.
Kate Coomber:You can use underarms. I did giggle, it didn't have to be from the head no, yeah.
Anthea Todd:So basically best is scalp right. Next is chest. Yeah, women obviously don't have much chest hair but men sometimes do armpit, then pubic right if you are using other forms of hair, you need to really thoroughly wash it yeah because often, like for instance with pubic hair, like soap residue builds up on it and it can throw off different levels that are showing up. So it's always but like we'll be able to see what type of hair sample it is on the test.
Sam Miklos:But, yeah, scalp is best Fantastic. No, it's been. We've found it insightful. We now got a lot of work to do with you, slowly, slowly chipping away Just slowly, slowly, slowly. You slowly slowly chipping away, slowly, slowly. But thank you, it has been an absolute pleasure to have you here today and what a great conversation.
Kate Coomber:Thank you so much for having me girls we acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which we meet who, for centuries, have shared ancient methods of healing and cared for their communities. We pay our respects to elders, past and present.
