Design Your Well Life
Intentionally design a lifestyle that promotes healthy and clean choices.
Learn what it means to truly design a well life - a life that nurtures your Body, Environment, Mind, Spirit, and Relationships.
Whether you're curious about reducing your toxic burden, creating a home that heals, or finding balance in your everyday routines, this podcast is for you. I'll share design recommendations, personal insights, and inspiring interviews with experts and real people on their own healing journeys.
Design Your Well Life
Living Well With Dr. Michelle: Transformative Health Talks
In this podcast episode of Design Your Well Life, Dr. Michelle Jorgensen discusses her journey from debilitating mercury poisoning to developing the Cell Well model. She shares insights on holistic health, seasonal body assessments, and practical tips for enhancing overall wellness through integrative approaches.
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Welcome back to Design Your Well Life. I'm so excited for today's episode because we have a truly special guest, someone whose work is becoming transformational in the world of holistic health, dentistry, and wellness. You may already be familiar with her through her integrative approach to healing her educational work or her upcoming book, Living Well with Dr. Michelle, which is set to launch on May 20th. Today, I have the honor of sitting down with Dr. Michelle Jorgensen, a functional integrative dentist, board certified traditional naturopath and passionate educator who helps individuals and families reclaim their health. Her personal healing journey began with mercury poisoning from her dental practice, which led her to search for answers in both modern and traditional medicine. That search eventually led her to develop her cell well model. A nature inspired framework that teaches people how to heal from the cellular level up. In this conversation, we're going to dive into her personal story, the moment she realized something was wrong, how she healed, and the practical takeaways that we can all apply to improve our wellbeing.
Natalie:Dr. Michelle, we're so excited to have you on the podcast. Welcome.
Michelle:Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to come and share a few things today.
Natalie:So let's start from the beginning a little bit. Before your health crisis, what was your lifestyle like?
Michelle:I think probably like a lot of people, you know, I just was a busy mom, four young kids and, a, busy dental practice, barely keeping my head above water, you know, just like, I think a lot of us do. Wondering how every single day, you know, would work out. But then it did, and just enjoying life, being a mom and spending time with my kiddos. I love to garden. I love to cook. Just kind of doing all the things that I love to do. So I wasn't really anything, anybody, any different than anybody else, I don't think.
Natalie:So being a dentist, did you have that deep relationship with health or was that something that you added as you learned through your whole journey?
Michelle:You know, I've always been interested in gardening. That's been something that's been with me since I was literally in school, undergraduate school even. I worked in a, in a greenhouse and I so I've always grown my own food, and you might think that as something that I was doing for health reasons, but honestly I think it was mostly because I just love to garden and I love vegetables. Vegetables are my favorite food. So I've always just loved that people think, oh, it's just because you know, you're, you know how healthy they are. And I say, well, no, actually, it's just because I like them. So it's, that was an easy thing for me. So. I was always gardening. You know, we considered ourselves healthy eaters, but as I look back now, it was more of a, what was I raised eating and what was I comfortable cooking? What was I familiar with? I certainly wasn't doing things necessarily for health reasons. We were just cooking and eating the way that we had done growing up, both my husband and I, and we were raising our family very similarly to that as well. I've always had, I think, a little bit of a bent towards, you know, keeping up with the latest trends or the latest thoughts about health and wellness, but it certainly was not the prime focus of what I was doing.
Natalie:So as you were going through your life and you love gardening, you said you, were eating pretty healthy When did. Did you start realizing that there was something wrong and that you needed to start digging a little deeper? What, what were those first symptoms and what was that like for you?
Michelle:I actually started having gut issues even in my teenage years. I remember very clearly, um, a time when I was on a date and my date actually brought me home. I. And my mom offered him ice cream. He took a big bowl of ice cream. And I knew I would feel terrible if I ate that bowl of ice cream, so I ate a carrot instead. And that's really my first memory of me choosing something different because of my health challenges. And looking back now, it's interesting. I actually pinpoint a few things that perhaps contributed at that at that time, but it wasn't until I was about in my mid thirties that my gut health problems were really accelerating, and I've always had challenges with fertility and a lot of endometriosis issues. And my gut problems were really tied to those. So they were very cyclical, very hormone related and based, and I was pretty miserable. So those are some of my first symptoms that I was experiencing were just these really debilitating gut problems that would come along a lot of the time, but particularly monthly. And that was the big one that I thought, well, there's gotta be an answer for. So I had been to doctor after doctor lots of fertility, treatments and things and thinking it was all just that. So that was a big one. Um, but the next one that was really, really kind of made me sit up and pay attention was memory problems. I've always had a very good memory, but I stopped being able to remember a patient's name from room to room. I stopped being able to almost even complete sentences and that's not me. So we knew something was really drastically wrong when those changes started. But again, you start, you know, just blaming it on life. Well, I'm just busy and I'm not getting as much sleep'cause I have little kids and you know, you always can explain it away. But the one that really changed even the trajectory of my life and career was numbness. I had really painful, numb hands when I would sleep, and first thing people always aim at, AIM for is they say, well, you have carpal tunnel. I. Well, I didn't have time to have carpal tunnel surgery, so I had to find an answer outside of that, and I couldn't sleep. It would wake me up all night long. I couldn't blow dry my hair. I couldn't brush my teeth. And the big one is, is I couldn't hold my dental instruments very well. I was losing dexterity. So these were, you know, from small, or what I maybe consider small now, gut issues to memory problems, to numbness that literally was making it impossible to practice dentistry. These were all the things that we're tracking over probably about a five year period of time.
Natalie:Wow. So it sounds like you had a couple of different things going on and, and I know we're gonna kind of go into what you discovered, but it's so interesting that you bring up your gut at such an early age because I think for a long time no one really had pieced together how important of a role and how vital of a role the gut played and how it's connected to absolutely everything in our bodies. If you don't have a healthy gut, then you really start having systems in your body start adjusting and shutting down and, and, and changing. And too many times we're trying to solve the problem and, and cover those things up with medications and band-aids instead of really getting to what the root of the problem is.
Michelle:Yeah, gut health is so crucial for all health, you know, just overall. And I, like I said, I felt like everybody has gut issues, you know? That's what my really, my, my excuse or my place that I was at at that point was, oh, this is what everybody struggles with. Everybody has a little indigestion, everybody has some food sensitivities. Everybody just does this. So I started quietly taking foods out of my diet. I started, you know, avoiding things and I ran into some interesting challenges at that point early on. I didn't wanna be a bother and this was, this was really a challenge. I think people really probably struggle a lot with this when they're, when they're trying to make some changes with the things they're eating, but yet everyone around them doesn't necessarily know why they're doing what they're doing or even understand it. And it was, it was, it was hard for me because I don't wanna put people out. I don't want them to have to make special food for me. I know that you've been right down the same pathway.
Natalie:E Exactly. I, I-B-Y-O-M. Bring your own meal.
Michelle:Exactly right. And you don't wanna have those, you know, I would get the eye rolls, like, oh, here she goes again. You know? And they don't really understand. That you just feel terrible. And people would say things like, oh, you have such willpower. Like it has nothing to do with willpower. It has everything to do with not wanting to feel terrible for the next, you know, 24 hours or not. So that was certainly a challenge. I think the world's become a little more accepting of that now. But even now, I think sometimes it's challenging with family and friends who are well-meaning, but really don't understand. And oftentimes when you're in this struggle place. I like to think of it, you're, you're kinda like throwing darts, you know, just hoping something sticks. You're not sure if removing this from the diet will help, or removing this from the diet will help. And so you just kinda start trying a whole bunch of things. And it's fatiguing. It's fatiguing for you, but it's also fatiguing for family and those that are trying to cook for you, you know, everything else because who knows what's gonna work and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. And it's just really a frustrating cycle.
Natalie:It's so true. Let's talk about your experience of actually getting a diagnosis. You said you were going through these symptoms for about five years, really trying to figure this out. How did you actually land on, or, or find out someone who could help you and really decide what it is that was going wrong and, um, what was that diagnosis? What did you start learning about what you needed to do or change?
Michelle:Well, I didn't have a diagnosis for a long time, and you know, honestly for me, I. Sometimes diagnoses are challenging. You know, as a healthcare provider myself, um, I get frustrated at times when people have a diagnosis and then they use that as an excuse to just never get better. So I was really challenged in that I didn't want that. I didn't want to just put a tag on it or a label on it and say, oh, this is why I'm, I'm not well. So I was, I
Natalie:like that.
Michelle:Yeah. You know, I mean, the diagnosis sometimes can be almost more damaging than the disease because then it gives you a reason to stop. And I didn't want a reason to stop. I wanted to get better, so I was trying all of these things along with trying to find answers and I wasn't getting answers. I, you know, had gone all the traditional medical route with blood tests and x-rays and exams and, you know, was given prescriptions that didn't do a thing. And it was a really frustrating journey until finally things got so bad. I, I literally put my practice for sale. And I was looking into what else could I do for, for my career to support our family? And that's when a holistic dentist, at the, the time, I had never even heard of this thing, holistic dentist said, have you heard of or have considered, you know, mercury poisoning as a problem? I. And he mentioned that he'd had a similar experience and had had similar symptoms. And I said, well, I know that silver fillings have mercury in them. I've been taught that in dental school. Every dentist knows that. But we'd been taught that, or I'd been taught that they were completely safe, that they're inert that, that it can't, can't cause a problem. And if I told someone that it could cause a problem, I would actually lose my license. So I said, no, I, I, you know, I know there's mercury in fillings, but I don't have any fillings. I know it's completely safe. And he said, you know, regardless of what you've been told and taught, does it hurt to get a test? So I got tested for mercury levels, and that's what it was from Mercury off the charts. So for me, that diagnosis was an interesting point because I was relieved. Now, I wouldn't necessarily have a tag that I could put on it to, you know, tell me, okay, you can stop now. This is the reason you're sick. But it gave me a direction to pursue in trying to get better. But I was also a little mad, you know, a little mad that I hadn't heard about this inside history before. Why was I allowed to get sick? And I had never even been told that this was a possibility. So that was a really interesting place for me.
Natalie:That's so interesting because, when you found out that it was mercury that was actually causing these problems for your body and significant problems with the numbness and, and everything that you were going through. Was there a specific moment or conversation or someone that you met? What made you decide that you were going to personally take control of your health and, and figure out how to resolve this?
Michelle:I don't even know that it was a decision point. It was more of a, nobody is going to do this for me. And when I figured out it was Mercury, it was a challenging, really crossroads to come to for me, because the mercury wasn't from my mouth, it wasn't from my dentistry, it was from the dentistry or the fillings that I was drilling out on patient's teeth. So I had to decide was I going to go you know, completely into the, I'm going to get better and I'm going to have to leave this entire world behind my job, my profession, removing fillings from people's teeth. Was I going to go that route or could I do both? And I think that that's a crossroads that a lot of people come to in a health journey also, is what do I have to give up to gain? And thankfully for me. I found an organization that taught me how to remove fillings in a safe way where I was not going to be continually getting more mercury into my body. Now, was it completely safe? No. And was I getting a little bit? Yes. So this was a bit of a compromise on my part, but it felt like a smaller compromise than completely giving up my career and starting over. So. I knew I had to do something. I couldn't continue the way I was, and the best route seemed to be one where I continued in my profession. However, I had to figure out how to do it in a different way. And like I said, thankfully I did find a way to do that.
Natalie:That's amazing and I'm excited, to talk a little bit more about Living Well with Dr. Michelle and what you've ended up taking from what you've learned and transforming for other people. As you are going through healing journey and trying to find what was working and what wasn't. What were the first steps that you decided to take? I know you know, previously you said you were doing different elimination diets but what did you find that made the biggest difference for you, and of you trajectory for what you're doing now?
Michelle:I think at this point for people, you really need to find something that's going to move the needle far enough to see a change. Because this is a challenging place to be and if you who are listening are in this situation, you know what I'm talking about. And some days are low days and dark days, and it's hard to continually feel motivated to make changes and changes that are often against societal norms or family things that you know you've always done. So for me, it's important to find something that's going to make a big enough change quickly. Which will continually motivate. So for us it was food and I think that food can make a difference quickly for people. So we had done elimination diets, we had done a lot of different things, but interestingly enough, um, I found an answer in an odd way or an unexpected way. My daughter had been struggling with some digestive problems as well. And she was five, so she was young and we found out that she did have a gluten sensitivity. And it's interesting because this was years ago. I mean, it would've been 13 years ago. She's 18 now, so, uh, years and years ago, right when this whole idea of gluten and sensitivity and things was starting, and I thought it was just a trend. I said, oh, this is like the tonsillectomy of the, of the early two thousands. Everybody had to have their tonsils out when you were, you know, a certain age and now everybody just has to stop eating gluten. And I think part of it is that a lot of people did stop eating gluten and started eating gluten-free foods, which weren't any better because they were full of other things. They were gluten-free, but full of, you know, fats and sugars and all sorts of things that weren't necessarily great for the body. So this was a trend that was trending, but I was a little dismissive of it. I thought, oh, certainly this is not a real thing. But we found out my daughter was sensitive, so for her sake, I just started cooking without it because it's too difficult to do that for a 5-year-old, not for the rest of the family. So I started doing it for everybody, and I was dismayed to find that my gut felt better than it had in 15 years. So I was so, I was so offended. I thought, oh no, I'm gonna be one of these people now. And I didn't want to be one of these people, you know, these gluten-free people. But we started eliminating that from the diet. That was a big one. And honestly, when you start to, when you take gluten out of the diet, you take a lot of other things out of the diet because it's so everywhere. It's just ubiquitous everywhere. And I noticed a significant change very quickly. And it was interesting because again, I grew up in a bit of a culture that almost guilts you or shames you into eating something. In fact, there's a funny story. When my mom was, when I was a baby, an infant, she tells a story. She thinks this story is hilarious. Uh, when I was an infant, you know how a lot of times with babies, you'll put something more desirable on the front of the spoon and put something less desirable on the back of the spoon so that you can get them to eat it. Well, I wouldn't need ice cream. I now think that I probably had a dairy issue, so that would, that would make sense. But I wouldn't eat ice cream, so she would put a green bean because an infant, I still, I loved green beans. I would prefer them over anything. It was one of my very favorite foods. So she would put a green bean on the front of the spoon and ice cream on the back so that she could get me to eat ice cream. And she laughs about this, and I think, okay, something was wrong way back then. Something was wrong. But I feel like there's this really kind of a push inside of our culture that, oh, you're too good for sweet, so you're too good for sugar, or you're too good, good for gluten, or, oh, you're not gonna eat my dessert that I made you, but I made it because I love you, and it creates a real difficult to navigate situation where food is almost equated with love and they love you, so they're feeding you these foods, but they don't, these foods don't love you. And that was really hard for me. So as much as it might just sound like, oh, she just changed her food. No, I changed my food and I had to change my attitude and my environment and really the way I thought about it and the way I thought about, okay, no, my body really doesn't want this, so it's okay to say no. It really is. That made a big difference for me just to change my thinking and say, this isn't a sacrifice. I'm not sacrificing, I'm healing my body by choosing to eat things that do good things for me rather than the opposite.
Natalie:It is so true, and I found that as well. I've had to come to the point where you become un apologetic for what you choose to eat. Everyone has a choice of what they're gonna put in their body and, and you know what parameters they give themselves. And you do, you have to change your mindset. And when you really start understanding what certain foods are doing to you, whether it's something like sugar and seed oils or whether it's something you know, that your body personally is intolerant to, you've gotta make those healthy decisions for yourself. There's no sense in being miserable or shortening your lifespan or having chronic health issues for the rest of your life. If you can make a simple choice as, as what's gonna bring you that health.
Michelle:I really think it's important that you don't push your individual situation on someone else as well. And I learned this the hard way as I began. I started feeling changes in my body and even things my husband, you know, obviously if I'm cooking for the family, then everybody's gonna eat this way and, and I like to cook. I like to explore new foods. So it wasn't a sacrifice for our family. We were eating plenty of delicious things. You know, we weren't leaving out things that we were so sad to be leaving behind, you know, those frozen burritos? Oh, I'm so sad to not eat those ever again. No, you know, there were really, there were better foods that we were eating, so it really wasn't a sacrifice. We started drinking green smoothies in the morning and, and doing things like that. I, I have since learned my children, some of them dumped them down the toilet instead of drinking them in the morning, but, you know, whatever, whatever it takes. But, uh, as we made these changes, things started changing in all of us. My husband's, uh, he, he was carrying around a bottle of ibuprofen and decongestant in his pocket all the time. He just had this little teeny little holder that was in his pocket all the time because he was taking them all the time, and he stopped needing them. He stopped needing a decongestant. He stopped needing ibuprofen for headaches as the day went on. And it just was an interesting thing to watch our bodies be healthier just overall. So as those changes started to occur, it made it easier and I wanted to share that, you know, I wanted to share, I wanted everybody to feel better. And so I started buying everybody cookbooks and buying everybody blenders and you know, sharing with everybody. And I learned. That not everybody is going to change at the same pace you are, and everybody's journey is a little individual. They may not want to change, they may not have a need to right now. And so I was taught a rule that I think is so important, and I share this with a lot of people, that as you are going through your journey, if someone asks you a question about what you're doing, answer the question. If they ask you another question, answer that question. If they ask you another answer that question, but what I was doing is if they asked me a question like, why are you eating that? And then I would go off for, you know, 5, 10, 15 minutes about all these things I was learning. And I was so excited about it. Oh, it'll help you too. And you see that look in the eye of, oh my gosh, when is she gonna stop talking? I don't have any interest in this whatsoever. And I had to learn that this was my journey, not theirs. And like you said, I didn't have to apologize for it, but I also didn't need to convert them. I. I didn't need them to know everything I was knowing or do everything I was doing. This was my journey. So if they asked me another question, I answered it. And some people have started their own journey because of things that I've shared, but others have not. And it's okay.
Natalie:I love that you mentioned that and and I think that's a really big foundation for me too. And why I decided to start this podcast is as I went through my own healing journey and trying to figure out what worked and what didn't, everyone's bodies are a little bit different and the things that work for one person are not gonna work the same way for someone else. And so putting exactly what you said, putting your own agenda and what's worked specifically for you and trying to push it to others may not be their best answer either. And so I think you have to get to a place where you're personally searching and wanting those things and, and in the discovery mode of really what's working and what you're finding for yourself. And I love the opportunity. I, I had a really, uh, I was traveling last week and sitting next to someone on a bus ride and she shared with me that she's going through some just debilitating chronic illnesses and was so excited to hear and wanted to understand what worked for me too. And, and that's really why I want to do this podcast is, is. Speak with guests like you, Dr. Michelle, to understand what worked for you. What was the aha moment? What were those things that you gained from it? And being able to share things, you know, that I've learned along the way too. And if there's just a bit one episode, something here and there that can really help someone else on their own journey, then that's amazing and I'm sure you feel the same way about the work that you're doing as well. So I, I wanna hear about it. If you would share Living Well with Dr. Michelle, and then talk about, your book that's coming out and what made you decide to write this and, and what are we gonna find in it?
Michelle:You know, I shared a lot about how I got sick. That's, you know, a thing that I've been sharing for years on podcasts and with patients and speaking, and everybody's always quite fascinated with the story of getting sick, right? Everybody has their, their story, but I've not often shared the story of how I got well, and that is, the book. That is what the book came from. As I was working to get well. Um. I'm a researcher, so I started looking into all different kinds of medicine because I was jaded. I was really questioning modern medicine, which is what I had been trained in. And also my father's a dentist. My grandfather was an internist. This is, this is what we were steeped in, you know, it was modern medicine and it hadn't kept me well, and it hadn't helped me return to wellness. So. I was questioning everything and thought, well, I'm gonna start studying other things. And I actually started studying to become a naturopath to a traditional naturopath. And during that course, during that program, um, multi-year program, I studied all sorts of alternative or what I would call traditional medical traditions. So things like Chinese traditional it's called TCM, or traditional Chinese medicine, and, inside of traditional Chinese medicine, I'm what's called a fire type. That's my personality, and not even personality, just my body type as a fire. And I thought, well, this is interesting, but I, I don't have enough time to go and study Chinese traditional medicine in depth to find out exactly how I should eat and you know what I should do because of this. And then I started studying Ayurveda from India and I learned that I'm something called a pitta dosha again, interesting, but not that useful when it comes to what do I eat tomorrow and how do I move tomorrow and what do I do? And so I started studying all of these different traditions and noticed that there was a commonality amongst all of them. They all referenced the seasons and the elements of the earth in some way. So for example, I was a fire, uh, and another tradition fire is also equated with summer, which makes sense, right? And I studied a whole host of things and started just making these big, long lists of everything that I could learn about those elements and those seasons, and realized we needed to come up with a common language and classification system and direction, honestly, that can help people move the right way in a way that makes sense to them. Because again, if I tell you you're a Pitta in Ayurveda, what are you gonna do about it? You know, that's just, it would require too much information for you to learn, to be able to actually make that actionable. So I created, I used all of these different things and I cataloged them all and created something that I like to call a seasons assessment. And what this seasons assessment does is it uses the symptoms, and I'm wanna talk about symptoms for a minute here. So symptoms are often thought of as the thing we're trying to fix, right? If I have gut health issues, then my gut is the problem. I've gotta try to fix my gut health problem. So let's say I have constipation. So constipation is my problem. Or let's say that my joints hurt. My knees are so sore when I walk, they crack when I bend down. So my knees are the problem, or man, I got a headache. Like, I just don't know why. But at the end of every day, it seems like I have a headache right behind my eyes. So the headache's, the problem, and modern medicine, that's really the approach that it takes is let's fix the headache. So we go take an ibuprofen, right? We take a, you know, Tylenol, we take something, a pain reliever to take away the headache. But the problem is, is it's not fixing anything. It's not fixing that problem, it's just doing a, I liken this to putting duct tape over the warning light, the check engine light on your car dashboard. You put duct tape over it, you know, the ibuprofen or the, uh, the pain reliever is covering over the pain, but the warning light's still on. Whatever led to that warning light popping onto that symptom, it's still there and it's not being, it's not been addressed. So, as I looked really deeply into this, I realized that, all medicines regardless of where they come from. So regardless if it's a, you know, modern medicine, we're talking ibuprofen, uh, or it's traditional medicine and we're talking about, you know, some herb that you're gonna go source and have in a tea, all of those things are there for one reason, and let me back up and give you an analogy that I think help ex explain this. If you get a cut finger, you might put a bandaid on your finger, right. But does the bandaid actually heal your finger? It doesn't heal your finger. The bandaid is there to simply support your body in doing the healing. Right? So what I realized is that all medicine as a bandaid. It doesn't matter where it comes from. So I was getting all confused saying, well, should I use modern medicine or traditional medicine, or where should I find the answers? Well, they're all just bandaids. Every single one of them is a bandaid that supports your cells in doing the work because your body and cells does the work, your body and cells will help you get to that place of healing. The question is, what do they need to do it? And that's what the symptoms assessment helps to clarify and clear up for you. So instead of putting duct tape over the dashboard on that check engine light, on that headache, or that creaky knee, or that, you know, issue with your digestion, or the high blood pressure, or the diabetes, or any of these things, these are all just warning signs. These are all just symptoms your body is sending, saying, Hey, hey, pay attention. Something's going on here and I need some help. But the challenge is how did we interpret it? How do we understand what that symptom is telling us? And I know that that's where a lot of people get stuck. I'm thinking that that's probably where you got stuck, right? You know, you have the symptom, but what is it telling you? So that was the first question that I really had to address is, what did these symptoms mean?
Natalie:You're absolutely right. When you get a diagnosis or you have a a symptom, that's what you need to figure out is what is the underlying cause, what does it mean and how do you start addressing that? So thats so exciting. So it sounds like in your new book, you've got all of this mapped out. You can take your assessment, you can understand where you are, and then I'm assuming you start giving some direction. Of what the next steps are when you start diving into what season you are.
Michelle:Exactly. So let's talk about that. There are five seasons in this assessment, so you can take this assessment and there are five seasons that it basically tells you your body is in. Now these seasons don't line up with the seasons of the earth because all of our bodies cycle through different needs in different times. In fact, bodies are so amazing. Every single cell in our body remakes it self within a year's time. Some of them we remake themselves every single day. So what
Natalie:Thats incredible.
Michelle:it is so incredible, and the, the power behind that is that you have the ability to remake yourself. I mean, isn't that cool? I just love that.
Natalie:that
Michelle:Yeah. You have the power to remake yourself. So you might say, oh, my, my knees or my heart or my whatever, you know, are, are, are so, you know, they're, they're just not healthy. Well today. But that doesn't mean by the next time they're remaking themselves that they have to be unhealthy. We have the ability to provide ourselves with what they need. So what do they need? Well, if we can make one cell well, we can make every cell well. And what do cells require? They need four things. I. They need supplies. So that's a lot of what we've already been talking about, right? That's food, that's herbs, that's medicine. That's the things that they actually use to make energy. That's oxygen, it's water. All of those things are the supplies. That one makes a lot of sense to people. They go, oh yeah, yeah, that makes sense. You know, I, I'm changing my diet and that makes a change. The next one is support. Supports a little harder to figure out. So when I explain this, I liken ourselves and our body to a city. And in a city we have every, you know, every utility service that needs to happen to keep that city going, right? We have a police force, we have a fire department, we have a garbage removal system. We have, you know, people that come along and check our energy meters. We have all of these things. We have a mayor that helps with, you know, the laws and the direction of the city. We have all of these things that allow that city to operate properly. Well, the same goes for your body. You have also all of those systems and all of those utilities happening. And for example, one of them that we don't often think about is the garbage removal. If you have, let's say, those achy joints, achy knees, achy fingers, whatever it might be, what that tells us is there is inflammation happening in that joint. Well, inflammation is your body's own response to something that doesn't make it happy. So it's sending those inflammatory cells there and saying, go clean up the mess. There's a mess. There's something to go deal with. Go to that area and do it. And that's what that swelling is from, and that soreness is from, it's your body's own response. Now, in some people, this turns on hyperdrive, and we call this autoimmune diseases, right? Where the body's own immune system is causing more havoc than it's supposed to. So in this situation, you have to think about the garbage removal. If you had Christmas and you have all the wrapping paper and the boxes and everything, and then we have a huge snow storm the next day, and no garbage removal is able to come for an entire week. Can you imagine all the garbage that would've built up on the side of the curb? And everybody's curb, right? And your in your garbage can. Maybe inside your house even you have all this garbage where with nowhere for it to go. The same thing happens inside of our bodies if we don't help move the garbage out. Some of us, we literally have clogged toilets. We have garbage cans that are overflowing because we've not intentionally moved the garbage out. And this is one thing that I talk about a lot because. A lot of people don't understand that the garbage removal systems in the body don't move themselves. You actually have to help them. So there's something called the lymphatic system, which is the garbage system in the body, and it doesn't have a pump. It doesn't have a way to actually pump itself out. You have to help it. So you help it by moving your body. The muscles help to move it, but also you can physically move the the garbage away from those joints. So there's two garbage disposals of the body. One is the armpits. One. The other is the groin. Now this is why I love to put, I love to put two and two together. You know, I love to put pieces that people have heard elsewhere together and explain why. So this is one of those you've probably heard not to use aluminum containing antiperspirants. But maybe you don't know exactly why, right? So this is why, because what an aluminum containing antiperspirant does is it actually plugs the sweat gland. That's why it stops the perspiring. That's an antiperspirant. It stops you from sweating. Well, guess what the sweat is? It's the garbage. It's the, the dumping of the garbage. That's how the body gets rid of it. If you block it, you in essence clogged your toilet. And it's gonna back up everywhere. So we cannot use a sweat blocking antiperspirant if we want our body to dump the things that it's supposed to dump, because that's the garbage disposal. So what do you do? You literally use your, your other hand or your, where your hands and you move tissue. You move fluid all the way up from your fingers, from your elbows, from your knees, from your ankles, wherever it might go to the garbage disposals, which are underneath your armpit. And in the groin. If it's in the bottom of the body that you're having issues and soreness and inflammation, you're gonna with your hands just massage all the way up to the groin. If it's in the top of the body, you're gonna use your hands and massage all the way to the armpit. This is support, and we don't know about things like this, but it backs all the way up to things like Native American sweat lodges. Why do you think they did that? They were dumping their garbage. So when we look back at these traditional medical societies and medical traditions, we go, oh, that's what they were doing. Okay, so I need to dump my garbage too. Otherwise I'm gonna have inflammation I'm not gonna fill. Well, that's the support component. The third component is security. Protecting our cells, keeping them well. Now part of this goes to things like water filters and air filters, because our world today is full of a lot of junk, and it also goes to some of our food choices. You know, we're hearing so much about this in the news now where things are being banned that hopefully we're gonna be able to move forward and ban them because they help. They really don't lend security to your system. They inflame your body as well. So we have to. Protect our body from bugs, from toxins, from chemicals, and all the things that we hear a lot about. So that one's actually pretty familiar to all of us as well, is that security piece. And then the fourth is what's called signals. This is literally your body talks to each other in a certain way. It uses electrons to do that. So you have to provide your body with those electrons for it to be able to talk to each other. So the cell signaling is a really important thing, and this one is also goes back to some of these native traditions. Before about 50 years ago, people just lived and worked on the earth all the time. We don't today. We live in insulated houses. We wear insulated shoes. We don't even see the sunshine half the time. But they were living with the earth and on the earth and the earth, and the sun is actually an enormous provider of electrons. So when we're sitting inside of our homes with all of our, you know, rubber sold shoes, and we never open the door and we never get any sunlight, we never touch the earth. We are starving our bodies of the electrons that. Bodies were born to use because they were on the earth for centuries before just the last one. So, electrons from the earth is a huge thing you need to acquire as well to be healthy. And that's literally take your shoes off, walk on the walk on the dirt, walk on the grass, and go stick your face in the sunshine for a little while. Get recharged. So those are the four things that every cell needs.
Natalie:I, I love that, and I've found so many benefits in every single one of those. I, I actually just want to mention, my husband had really high blood pressure and I've been doing a lot of research into the Earth's electrons and how it helps balance your body and, it helps body know how to heal things. And I challenged him, I said, every day I want you to take your blood pressure and for 30 days you're gonna do at least an hour of outside barefoot in the sunshine. We got some grounding sheets as well, so we're sleeping on those. And his blood pressure has dropped probably 10 or 20 points on both systolic and diastolic, and it's only been 20 days. It's incredible.
Michelle:That's huge. And really that's a huge, just testament to the power of cell signals, and nobody's talking about cell signals, nobody's talking about this. We talk about, oh, I'm so drained, I have no energy. But what we don't realize is we're talking about literal energy, litteral electrons, but nobody's talking about that. Nobody's talking about where to get more from. So I love that you're doing that.
Natalie:Okay, so tell me, do you have grounding shoes?
Michelle:I do. In fact, I'm wearing them right now.
Natalie:Okay, so tell me, if there's a certain kind that you like or what you look for, I don't have any yet, but that's something I've been interested in.
Michelle:The key is you don't want a rubber sole, so these are leather soled and then they also have a little copper disc in the sole. That is a conductor. So when you're walking on the ground, the leather is not going to impede that electron flow, but the copper is going to increase it even more. The only issue is I found this out once. Um, I was wearing them all the time everywhere I went, and it was starting to get cold. I remember walking out on the grass one evening and my feet were freezing because that copper little disc was conducting all the cold from the grass right up into my feet, and I was like literally hopping around. So it will conduct, believe me, it will conduct everything. It'll conduct temperature, it will conduct electrons. Um, you can just do it without wearing shoes at all. That's a real cheap and easy way to do it. Just walk on the grass, but, uh, find, uh, an earthing shoe that has a leather sole and to even ramp it up. That has a little copper disc or some, some have little copper wires also that will conduct.
Natalie:So I wanna ask you, about your book. I had a chance to take your survey and I am a spring. So when someone finds out what they are in the moment, what are they gonna find in your book? What am I gonna find about spring?
Michelle:Yes, so there are five seasons, the one, the four ones that you're familiar with, but then an an additional harvest season. So they're spring, summer, harvest, fall and winter. So if you are in a spring season, really the reason that a lot of these traditional medical societies named them. In reference to the seasons is because the earth is already doing something during that season. So in a spring season, which we're in currently, as we're recording this, what's happening outside? Everything's coming back to life, right? So I have a lot of green things coming up in my yard right now, and they're intermingling with a lot of brown dead things from the fall. So. What we are doing is we're cleaning out all the brown, brown, dead stuff to give room for the green stuff to sprout. So we use that model that the earth has shown us and say, okay, so when the body is in need of a new start and renewal, but along with that, a detox, get rid of all the dead brown stuff that's not working and not serving the body anymore. That is a spring season because that's what the earth does in spring. And the organ systems that are connected with that are the detox organs, so that is the liver and the gallbladder largely. There's a few other secondary organs as well, but liver and gallbladder are largely, largely related to spring season. So if you test that you are in a spring season, what that is is your body's symptoms remember, we're paying attention to symptoms, not cover them, covering them up. Your body's symptoms are saying you are ready to regrow renewal here, but you gotta get rid of some of the dead stuff that's not serving you right now. So you are gonna ramp up your liver and your gallbladder health. Now here's the cool thing. The earth also provides what you need. To do that. So dandelions, which are, you know, everybody's friend in the spring and everybody's killing them. But guess what? Dandelions are amazing at doing. Supporting liver and gallbladder health. People don't realize this. Arugula, milk thistle, these are all things that grow in the spring, and those are all, they're all classified as bitter greens and bitter greens help the gallbladder to dump and to cleanse and clean. So if you are in a spring season, I need you focusing on greens, bitter greens for food. So you're gonna beri eating a lot of salads. Adding some arugula. You're gonna be drinking green smoothies right now. You are going to be working to detox things as well. So nothing very heavy in the springtime. You're not gonna be eating carnivore diet right now. And people will tell me a lot of, they'll, they'll ask me things like, well, what diet do you prescribe to? And I say, well, you have to tell me what your cells need first. I can't tell you anything until you tell me what your cells need. And this is just a change in the way of thinking. Often we say, well, what diet is best? Or What supplement is best? Or Should I take this or should I take that? I can't answer that for you until we find out what do your cells need. So for you, Natalie, what do your your cells need? You need to be doing a lot of greens and a lot of things that are gonna detox you. And you are not gonna do anything heavy right now. So this is when you may do more of a meat free or meat light type of diet. No dairy right now. You're gonna just do really light foods that your body is working to cleanse with. You're not gonna weigh yourself down. And from a movement standpoint, you're gonna get outside a lot because in the springtime, we need that fresh, you know, sunshine, that fresh air. So you're gonna be walking around the block three times a day if possible. Getting out, breathing a lot of air, getting your body moving, and you are really going to be focusing on what does your body need to recharge. So that means you're not gonna be asking too terrible much of it right now. You need to be able to give your body enough energy leftover. To do this cleaning, this spring cleaning. I mean, we, we use these words, right? We say spring cleaning, but we've never actually applied it to our bodies and gone, oh, okay. That means my body needs to be spring cleaned. So does that help give you some ideas on what to do for your own self?
Natalie:Yeah, this is fantastic and, and I can't wait to, to read the book. I love arugula and so you're
Michelle:Um.
Natalie:my language. I will get so much of that, um, and, and start all of those bitter greens. I. I, I love those. So how often do you recommend people taking the assessment? How often does your body kind of change through these seasons and cycles?
Michelle:That's a great question and it's really gonna be very personal. So interestingly enough, I tested it in a harvest season, and the harvest season correlates with spleen, with large intestine. And in the harvest season, we're really focusing on how to fuel your gut the right way so that you can have better digestion, but also better immune function. So I tested in a harvest season. Probably a month and a half ago, maybe even two months ago. Well, I just came home from a trip and I brought home some friends, some very unwelcome friends, and my gut and my gut's been having some struggles. So just yesterday I said exactly. I was not, I'm not happy about this, but, um, I just, yesterday I thought, I need to go test again. I need to go see. So it's when symptoms change. So I went and tested again, and guess what? I'm still in a harvest season. I was fascinated with that. I went, oh, okay. I'm still here. Maybe I've cycled through all the seasons between then and now. I don't know. But I'm still in a harvest season, so I'm still focusing in on gut health. So what am I doing? I am doing mineral rich broths. I'm doing grains that are easier to digest. I am doing fermented foods because that's adding natural probiotics. I'm doing a lot of fiber. Apples and apples are my favorite food right now. That's what my body needs. Apples and applesauce, lots of it two, three times a day. So I'm really leaning into this gut health piece, but. If your symptoms change, if you feel like, oh, that's going away, or I haven't noticed that lately, or whatever it might be, retest again and say, okay, where am I now? Oh great. I just moved into a fall season. Perfect. Alright. In the fall, what are we focusing on? That's lungs. Let's get some breathing exercises going in the evening. Let's you know, so the, this is how you, it's really a personalized plan for health. And that's what I push back on so much is when somebody, because I get all the people saying, you really need to try this supplement. You really need to try this thing. You really need to change this or do this differently. And I say, you know what, that's not true for everyone. I don't believe there's anything that's good for everyone except water, air, you know, I mean there, there's a few things that we all need, but I believe everybody is cycling through these seasons as their cells need different things and does it line up with the seasons of the earth? Yes. Sometimes, you know, sometimes everybody needs some spring cleaning because in winter time our bodies slow down. Our digestion's a little sluggish. We're eating things like potatoes. Well, we need to get our bodies cleaned out after that. So yes, they can align with the seasons of the earth, but also your cells may need something very specific, but the seasons, your personal season will show you. So test when you fill a change.
Natalie:Thank you so much for, for sharing all of that. I want to touch just briefly on, some other products that you've made. So you have, partnered with Karalynne Call, the founder of Just Ingredients and you've created a tooth powder. Is that correct?
Michelle:Yes. And that was actually my very first product because I knew Karalynne personally and I said, Karalynne, you don't have a mouth care product. Are you interested in doing it? And she said, I'll market it if you make it. She said formulating is the hardest part of all of this. I said, great. I actually am a cook and I formulated this tooth powder in my kitchen. And so that's where we started It, didn't know where it was gonna go, and have since found that that is a very, very popular product. So I then formulated in my kitchen a mouthwash that I do along with her, but now. She has so many other products that are independent of mine and I have a lot of products that are independent of hers. We now have a new toothpaste coming out. We have a whole gum health line coming out. All sorts of things because I'm finding that it really is so important what you put in and on your body and it, it really is. And it's just hard sometimes to know where to get where, where to get those things. So I've just started making'em so that they are available for people.
Natalie:And I'm so grateful you are. I actually use the tooth powder. I love the mint flavor. I remember we had a chance to, to speak briefly and I saw that you were doing floss and one of the things that you mentioned to me that I had no idea, but just made me so upset is that on a lot of these commercial flosses out there, they actually used Teflon, which I did a whole episode about how, how toxic that is and you know, keeping these forever chemicals out of our bodies and to learn that it's on this floss that I'm sticking in my mouth every day. And now you have a new product for that as well.
Michelle:Yes. And you know, it's interesting because just yesterday I was telling somebody, I said, I'm that the fear culture is sometimes tiring, right? Every single thing is gonna kill us. And so I really don't want to ever focus in that direction. I usually just say, what did we used to use? What do we used to use? You know, we used to use plant fibers. So this floss is bamboo charcoal, it's a plant fiber. We used to use plant fibers before we even invented things like Teflon. Well, our bodies actually don't love the Teflon. Let's go back to the plant fibers. So if you're really struggling with what should I eat and what should I take and what products should I use? And go back to what somebody was doing 50 to a hundred years ago, and you're probably gonna get some really great clues.
Natalie:I love that there's a quote, uh, by Dr. Mark Hyman that I absolutely just love. And he says, if God made it, eat it, if man made it, leave it. And it kind of goes back along those same things is, is look what we actually have on this earth to use. And exactly what you said, what have people been using for such a long time before we have, you know, gotten into all of these chemicals? So I appreciate that. Um, final question that I wanna ask you as we close, I always end my, my podcast with guests this way. What was the most profound lesson that you've learned during your healing journey?
Michelle:My most profound lesson is definitely that anything I take, anything I use is simply there to support my body in doing its divine work. And I really believe that our bodies have everything within them to stay well and that our job is to give them that and they are there to help us and they will heal and they can stay well even. That was really a realization I had as well, is that we don't have to get sick before we change and do things that our bodies want. We can keep them well, and there's ways to do it today, thankfully.
Natalie:I love that. Thank you so much for sharing your story and your wisdom. This has been such an inspiring conversation and I feel like I could talk to you forever, but if someone wants to actually work with you or they're interested in getting your book, or they're interested in the products that you have available, tell'em how they can reach out to you and connect with you and, and find these resources.
Michelle:So everything is gonna be at Living Well with Dr Michelle.com. It rhymes nicely so you can remember it. Living Well with Dr Michelle.com. That's where products are going to be. That's where you can find out about the book, but also specifically the book. You can go to living well book.com and if you go there. Pre-order the book or order it. Depending on when you're listening to this, if you go put your information back in there, I'm gonna send you that digital Seasons Assessment for free as well as a first steps guide and everything to just get you started to find out what your season is, what your body needs right now, and then also what to do about it.
Natalie:Fantastic. Well, I will link to all of this in the podcast, in the show notes so that everyone has the resource available. And I can't wait to get my copy in the mail on May 20th, and we'll be sure to check that out. Thank you so much, Michelle.
Michelle:Thank you.
To everyone tuning in, if you found this conversation helpful, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. Thank you again, Dr. Michelle, and thank you to all who are listening. I'll see you next time on Design Your Well Life. The information provided on Design Your Well Life is for educational and informational purposes only, and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or health concerns. The views and opinions expressed by the host or guests on this podcast are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organizations they are affiliated with. While we strive to provide accurate and up to date information, we make no warranties about the completeness, reliability, or accuracy of the content shared. By listening to this podcast, you acknowledge and agree that neither the host nor any guests or contributors are responsible for your health decisions or outcomes. Always make choices that are right for you in consultation with trusted professionals.