Facilitated

7| Health Questions + Confessions: Parasites, Eye Floaters, Little Debbies and All

• The Facility Denver • Episode 7

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Dr. Mitchell Rasmussen and Kate Daugherty dive into a candid Q&A session addressing common health questions while sharing personal insights about their own wellness approaches. They tackle everything from parasite cleanses to blood pressure management, emphasizing looking deeper than diagnoses to understand individual biology.

• Parasite cleanses are generally unnecessary without proper testing, as finding actual parasites occurs in less than 1% of cases
• The complete blood count (CBC) differential provides valuable information about chronic inflammation and immune function that many conventional doctors overlook
• Supplements have their place but can be overdone – diet, stress management and movement should always be prioritized first
• "Essential hypertension" diagnosis code actually means doctors don't know why blood pressure is elevated – addressing root causes like insulin resistance is critical
• Food sensitivities differ from true allergies – elimination diets with careful reintroduction remain the gold standard for identifying problematic foods
• Wearable devices and fasting aren't beneficial for everyone, despite their popularity in wellness circles
• Both practitioners share their personal nutrition approaches, with Mitchell aiming for 200+ grams of protein while Kate follows a more intuitive pattern
• Even health practitioners struggle with balance – Mitchell admits to occasional indulgence in Little Debbie snack cakes despite knowing they trigger inflammation


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Mitchell:

Welcome to Facilitated, where we bring you real stories, strategies and science from the world of functional medicine. I'm Dr Mitchell Rasmussen, a functional medicine practitioner.

Kate:

And I'm Kate Daugherty, a certified nutritionist. We are the owners of the Facility, a functional medicine clinic here in Denver, Colorado.

Mitchell:

We help people improve their biology and get out of their own way. In my view, our work is about getting to know the person with the condition much more than it's about understanding which condition the person has. As I always say, diagnose the biology, not the disease.

Kate:

On this podcast we break down complex health topics, share real patient cases anonymized, of course and explore cutting-edge wellness strategies so you can make informed decisions about your health. Quick heads up before we dive in this podcast is for education and general information only. We're here to share insights, not to diagnose or treat. So if you're dealing with a health issue, chat with a qualified healthcare provider before making any changes. All right, let's get into it. I wasn't ready. All right, q&a week.

Mitchell:

I'm kind of open questions from an audience yeah, I do not know what's going to be asked, and that's how I wanted it, because my justification was well, number one if I sound stupid, we'll just not post it right. And number two most of my life is a Q&A. It's kind of what we do all day, every day. I have no idea half the time what I'm going to get asked, and it's kind of living on the edge. It feels fun. So I wanted that to be my one rule, that I would just be able to shoot from the hip. And then I think I told you before we started if I sound dumb, I'll probably fact check everything I say before we post this, just to make sure.

Kate:

Okay, that's fine. Okay, the first question came from Instagram, and it's something we get asked frequently. Came from Instagram and it's something we get asked frequently.

Mitchell:

So I want to definitely get into this one. What do you think about parasite cleanses? Like what? Do you like someone that just takes like sea moss and oregano, just because I mean generally? I mean it's this idea that we all have parasites or whatever. I mean we have white blood cells. We have an immune system that is constantly working with and against innumerable organisms within our body. We actually are very well suited to house all sorts of non-human dna within us and it actually keeps us healthy. So I'm not I'm not a fan of the idea of doing a parasite cleanse just because you have symptoms of, you know, skin issues or gut issues. I think you need to work with somebody, really dial in your diet and your stress first, and that's what I always say see where the gut is after that and then we could consider some sort of stool test. But I don't think that we should just be doing no parasite cleanses generally. What do you think?

Kate:

Well, how often do we actually find parasites?

Mitchell:

maybe one percent of the time yeah it's so rare and we're using pcr, we're using microscopic analysis, looking for eggs, looking for live parasitic organisms, doing multiple catches in a week, because they tend to not always be in a sample, and rarely do we find that in a patient's case when they have all sorts of the air quotes symptoms of a parasite. So I mean, but generally when you think about air quote parasite cleanses, you're what you're drinking more, you're sweating, you're living a healthy life. But I just don't like the idea of like taking oregano forever or berberine forever, especially berberine because it's hypoglycemic, you know. You see, even the way I use it oftentimes is you need to be probably a little bit insulin resistant and have gut issues and have some sort of dysbiosis for me to even consider something like berberine because it can absolutely lower your blood sugar pretty significantly. So that's the thing. It's so case-by-case dependent and we do get asked that a lot.

Kate:

It's an Instagram thing. We do get asked that a lot. It's an Instagram thing If a patient brings in labs from another doctor.

Mitchell:

What is the first thing you look at?

Kate:

Probably a CBC. What's that?

Mitchell:

The complete blood count. I want to see what's the white blood cell number and where are the white blood cells going. We get a lot of information just from that. You know we see a lot of chronic infections, pretty suppressed white blood cell production and we know when your white blood cells are below probably 4.2 or so you're probably not getting good autophagy, not good clearance of debris and recycling of cellular machinery in order to create clearance of dead tissue as well as regenerate. I also really like to look at the lymphocytes and the monocytes because we know chronic neutrophilic inflammation, chronic white blood cell inflammation, tends to lead to an elevated monocyte percentage. And the eosinophils are quite helpful because when we have hot eosinophils there's something allergic or parasitic. There's back to the parasite, something allergic going on. We might call it like a Th2 dominant type state, which is a chronically inflamed, chronically infected state that can lend itself to potential for autoimmunity. So wouldn't you say that's the first place I look?

Kate:

That's the first place you look, and what's interesting with the differential is it's usually something that no one else says anything about, and the patient brings it to us and they're surprised that we're reading so much into it.

Mitchell:

We hear that all the time and a lot of times, even general CBCs, they won't even do a differential. And it just blows my mind because again, you're right. Okay, you're not dying, but you're not well. That's why you're here, that's why you're asking somebody for help. The extra $3 to look at each type of white blood cell is so worth it because you get an idea of what's irritating the system, what's the system thinking about, what's it trying to respond to. Is there a chronic viral infection? Is there an acute bacterial infection? I mean, those are so clear on a CBC, you know, we recently had a gal really high white blood cells, high neutrophils, ran a urinalysis. We saw that she was getting over a UTI and then, working through that CBC, white blood cells came down, neutrophils calmed back down and we saw the exact picture of a an acute bacterial infection. Once it started to go away, levels started to come back. That was so valuable. She was asymptomatic, you know. That's why it's so valuable to me.

Kate:

That's why it's so valuable to me. Next up can you overdo supplements?

Mitchell:

Asking for a cabinet full of bottles. Yeah, 100%, you can overdo supplements. Medications are not typically ever tested with multiple on board, but we talk about polypharmacy with medications all the time. When there's more than two medications on board, we kind of have no idea how they interact. Absolutely, supplements can be overdone. If you're not prioritizing your diet and your stress and your physical movement, no amount of supplements is going to get you out of the woods. I love supplements. I think they absolutely have a place, especially looking at the deficiencies that are so common even with a healthy diet, a lot of minerals and fat-soluble vitamins and even essential fatty acids. Those are pretty hard to get, even when you're diligent. I think supplements have their place. You need to be testing, you need to be working with somebody who understands at least enough about potential interactions, and then you need to be aware of side effects like are you having nausea or bloating or dizziness? Even are you getting hypoglycemic type symptoms? That's a really common occurrence when you're overdoing supplements, for sure. What are eye?

Kate:

floaters.

Mitchell:

Like visual disturbances.

Kate:

This wasn't a question for me. This was a listener question.

Mitchell:

Yeah, my sister-in-law asked that I bet't know yeah, she she has good questions. I'm assuming she asked the earlier one about tonsil stones, that it grosses me out, so I didn't want to answer. Well, eye floaters I find them interesting. I have a certainly not a an eye expert, but the eyes are kind of the well they are, the start of the brain.

Kate:

It's crazy. Look at a brain MRI and you'll see that connection.

Mitchell:

We see visual changes with mold exposure. We know that the mold can affect the optic nerve and you know so eye changes are actually relevant. A lot like vitamin a deficiency you might struggle to see at night. Mold exposure you might struggle with discernment of different colors, contrast sensitivity, with eye floaters. The best I understand it is it's congealed proteins, collagen as it breaks down.

Mitchell:

I think the most common cause is age, aging, and you know it seems like the eye floater is on the front of your eye but it's actually there's a between the lens and the retina in the back, the lens behind the iris, in the front, there's this jelly substance. That was a vitreous humor and the vitreous it's called a vitreous floater typically and you can actually get that that. That protein can actually come detached from the eye, from the back of the eye, the retina, and that's a common cause of it. But I think age is the most common. But the interesting thing is we'll actually see what is it like.

Mitchell:

Histoplasmosis can be a cause of that. I think I know for a fact that cytomegalovirus can cause that. It's actually called cytomegalovirus retinitis and that can be a cause of floaters. We know some common things I see would be high blood pressure from coughing or even diabetes can lead to that. But yeah, I think the actual anatomy that's changing is it's the collagen within that jelly-like substance that's actually breaking down and kind of congealing and then it appears like it's in the front of your eye but it's actually in the inside middle of your eye.

Kate:

I want my eye doctor friends to I know I'm like is Dr Alex listening?

Mitchell:

I know I hope so, but yeah, I mean that's CMV, cytomegalovirus, that's a common viral infection that people have, and I know that that can be a cause of that congealing, that breakdown of the collagen, and then I'm sure there's other viral infections as well.

Kate:

What is the difference between a food sensitivity and a food allergy?

Mitchell:

I mean a true allergy is typically thought of as the anaphylactic response. It will drive IgE responses which essentially you'll, as far as we know it now, you're never going to get over that most likely. And there are some allergists that will do low dose exposure therapies for years with different antigens under the tongue and you might slowly sensitize yourself or desensitize yourself to those antigens to be able to tolerate them. But an allergy is a stereotypical hyper reaction to a food antigen where we'll typically see the allergic response runny nose, maybe a scratchy throat, maybe even a little bit of tightness in the throat essentially leading to something like anaphylaxis, food sensitivities. That's what everyone's telling you.

Mitchell:

You have on a blood test typically and we cringe at that because oftentimes on a an IgG, a food sensitivity panel, you're kind of just looking at your diet, right, you're getting a diet readout. We'll hear that from people. I ran this test and essentially this is showing me all the foods I eat. Well, if you have intestinal permeability and you're chronically eating certain foods, it's kind of normal to develop some sort of low level IgG response to that food. So I don't put a ton of stock in that. What we really focus on is pull a bunch of obvious potential offenders out, let the system come back down to balance and then add things in one protein at a time. And that's where you're the expert at that. Really, what do you always say? It's the gold standard.

Kate:

The elimination diet, yeah, but it's not just the elimination, it's the provocation phase. So the reintroduction phase, very systematic in how you're reintroducing foods, not all at once, not in combination, so that you can really isolate where your personal tolerance lies.

Mitchell:

Yeah, like if you do a whole 30 and you felt great and then three months later you feel exactly how you did. Well, you didn't provoke properly.

Kate:

You had pizza on day 31,. Now you got your gluten and your dairy.

Mitchell:

And your nightshades. So we have to take. And we had someone recently who was like can I have mozzarella? It's like that'll probably be the last dairy we'll try because it's so soft, soft cheese. Yeah, we typically start with harder things.

Kate:

Are there alternatives to medications for blood pressure control?

Mitchell:

Absolutely. We need to figure out why. You know, the number one diagnosis for blood pressure is essential hypertension, which, look at the diagnosis code, it means essentially idiopathic, or we're not even sure of why it's occurring, All right. So when you think about what the heart needs to do, it needs to pump blood all over the body. We have miles of blood vessels going to and from the heart, to and from every organ, and peripheral constriction in vessels can be because of chronic stress, it can be because of lack of venous return, because we don't move enough or we sit too much.

Mitchell:

A big one that I see is insulin resistance or poor nitric oxide function. You know, nitric oxide is one of my favorite compounds. We have different enzymes that induce the creation of nitric oxide and we see this with chronic inflammation. We tend to have a lot more of something called INOS, which is inducible nitric oxide synthase, where we don't get a nice pulsatile release of nitric oxide through the system, whereas the type of nitric oxide we want, which is the endothelial nitric oxide synthase, creates a pulsatile release which helps normalize blood pressure. Do we have, like I said, hyperglycemia? Do we have insulin resistance in the kidneys, retaining sodium because of that, and water follows salt. So if we're retaining sodium, again don't blame sodium for the problem that sugar caused. But if we're retaining sodium at the kidney we'll naturally have more blood volume. And it's a vessel, it's a tube. So more volume within a tube is going to lead to more pressure within that tube.

Mitchell:

So when it comes to medications, they're working at the kidney or the lung typically, or you know some combination of those often. But because of all the side effects like headaches and flushing and dizziness and lightheadedness and a dry cough which is a really common one with certain class of medications, which is a really common one with certain class of medications the patients end up not being super diligent on those. So I would contend that lifestyle intervention should be the first line for blood pressure. High blood pressure is bad, right. It needs to be controlled. The hypertension is a serious thing. So it's not about ignoring the hypertension, but it's about figuring out what within the system is leading to this. Either it's increased fluid volume or constriction of peripheral vessels and things like that. And can we work to manage that? First Create healthy nitric oxide flow, healthy insulin levels, blood glucose levels and then kind of see where that gets us first, magnesium.

Kate:

We know magnesium deficiency can cause high blood pressure. I could keep going.

Mitchell:

I know, I knew that one was going to send you off. Yeah, look up essential hypertension.

Kate:

I'm going to have to rub my left earlobe a little bit after that discussion.

Mitchell:

Yeah, A little vagal nerve activation. Yeah, yeah, do that too. You know it's funny when you go to the doctor. You walk in, you sit for a couple minutes, they bring you back, they're asking you questions, You're talking, you just walked, You're not sitting down with your arm relaxed, and then they'll hold your arm in the air so you have to help them again while they're asking you questions. And that's when they take your blood pressure. You're supposed to take a blood pressure after you've been seated for five minutes with your feet flat on the ground, not talking. So whenever I get my blood pressure tested, I'll do some vagal nerve activation, not to cheat the test but to try to maintain some sort of homeostasis so I get more of an accurate response. They call it white coat hypertension.

Kate:

It's like well it's just the fact that you just exercised and you're talking. Okay, here's a fun one. What's one wellness trend that drives you nuts? And if?

Mitchell:

you can't think of it, I can think of it for you. Well, it's not about thinking of it, it's about isolating just one. I think it's telling everybody to cold plunge. That irritates me. I think it's telling everybody that they have parasites and that they need to cleanse them. I think it's everybody saying the word autophagy with fasting, but they don't even know what that word means. I mean, that's probably my most irritating one is this idea that everyone should fast, or that fasting is the panacea of health. If you have thyroid issues, you're low body fat, hypoglycemic, I probably wouldn't recommend fasting, but the internet makes you think it's going to heal you, no matter what. What about you?

Kate:

The one that I hear you complain about a lot is trackables wear, yeah.

Mitchell:

Wearable devices. I call them osteosarcoma fertilizer devices. Let's just hold a Bluetooth Wi-Fi device on our wrist 24 hours a day for years at a time and just assume that it's not going to impact cellular communication. Yeah, those do bother me. Yeah, if you need a whoop to tell you to move, you probably know you don't move enough. I'm looking at you.

Kate:

Is there one wellness trend, wellness thing that you'll never do, no matter how beneficial?

Mitchell:

Wear a wearable? I will not. I ask people you know, especially a lot of the women that we work with struggling with conception. I think it's very valuable to see temperature changes around ovulation and I really like the HRV information. I think that can be helpful. I really like the HRV information. I think that can be helpful.

Kate:

But I will you know I can confidently say, I will never use a wearable fitness device and you know that's a fact. Yeah, what about you?

Mitchell:

I will probably never put coffee up my butt. Yeah me, neither I guess, but I'm not like, like, vehemently against it. You know really good, you think about people that get radiation to their pelvis. They've had some sort of, you know, spine or pelvic cancer. You know that can be a really nice way of starting to get some activation of those lower cholinergic fibers within the colon to get things moving. So I remain open to that as needed. But there will never be a time where I need an Oura rain.

Kate:

What do you tell your own family when they ask for health advice?

Mitchell:

health advice. It's hard, right, we, like I, didn't get into this from a money perspective, but when you run a practice you only have so many resources, so it's hard, especially for me as someone who really wants to give. It's hard for me to draw that line. It really is. So I typically will still have them book time with me and then I don't charge them, but I at least want you to. What I've learned, to kind of say, is I want to pay as much importance to this as you're telling me right now. So to do that, let's book time. I don't want to ignore your needs, but right now at a wedding, while I'm having some whiskey, is not the time to be talking about your 37 different symptoms. So let's book some time. Let's have you fill out an intake, we'll run some labs and we'll figure it out.

Mitchell:

I mean, you probably struggle with the same and it's an honor, right, like I have family members that are twice my age that are coming to me for advice. But it's an honor on one hand, but it's also it's stressful and it can change the relationship. You know, I want to enjoy my family members and have well, I say that, but then it's also like what I do is who I am truly Like. I don't become somebody different. Ask my girlfriend. You know I don't become somebody different when I'm not doing this, like I believe that I found a cheat code, that I found what I absolutely love, what just lights me up, and I created a way to make a living doing that, asking questions, connecting, you know, studying biology and being so interested, and so that's the hard part, like it naturally kind of comes out in conversations. That's why you're looking at me like that. Oh, you draw the line. I'm like, well, I'm learning to, because the energy thing you just don't have enough energy to go around.

Kate:

Okay, I want to ask a question that helps listeners kind of get to know us a little bit.

Mitchell:

Tell me about your daily eating patterns or nutrition goals. Daily eating pattern I try to get. The two things I try to be aware of are my protein and my fiber. I eat pretty similar foods in the first part of the day, so I always, when I wake up in the morning, will we'll take some B vitamins as well as some acetyl L-carnitine really good for the nervous system and I will be up for about 10 minutes and then I tend to have a protein shake that has a grass fed whey with some some sort of fiber, whether it be a hydrolyzed guar gum.

Mitchell:

Currently I'm doing a tablespoon of organic psyllium husk and I will take that probably within 20 minutes of waking. I've even been putting immunolin in it lately, some immunoglobulins to help with gut function, and I feel healthy when I add it. So that's why and then I'll go for a walk with the dogs, come home and that's when I make my biggest meal of the day, which has currently been sprouted glyphosate-free organic oats. I feel great on oats. I avoided them for years because so many people that sound great online told me they were peasant food. But I don't know.

Kate:

I mean, it's so individual so I was recently doing a lot of cgm tracking and specifically found that oats in any form, whether it was oat, milk, oatmeal or granola.

Mitchell:

My body did not respond well from a glucose perspective yeah, it is so individual, but I will put that in a stainless steel rice cooker. About a cup of those glyphosate-free oats. Yes, if you get oats, I don't think organic is enough. I think you need to actually buy a company, buy a brand, that tests each batch for Roundup, because of cross-contamination potentially, and then I'll stir a cup of organic frozen blueberries into that.

Mitchell:

I've been doing these organic chicken sausages lately with three whole eggs and then a pretty good amount of egg whites that I'll cook up and then a bunch of root vegetables that I bake in the oven. That's a pretty substantial breakfast and between the shake and the breakfast I'll get around 90 grams of protein before I start my day. And then my lunch is typically the dinner from the night before, whatever that was if I didn't have any leftovers. That's when I'll use my sardines or a can of salmon and make a salad here with some sauerkraut, some black beans, things like that, and then dinner pretty simple. You know I do a lot of elk that I bring back from Wisconsin with me.

Mitchell:

We have a really good place back there North Star Bison shout out to Wisconsin and they do really good bison, elk and grass-fed beef, and then I use the grass-fed beef from here in Denver, the Prosper Meats, and I typically will do like a half pound of that or a half pound of organic ground turkey or a half pound of organic chicken breasts, and then some sort of carbohydrate, whether it be a bowl of fruit, or even some rinsed, very well rinsed, white rice Make sure you rinse your white rice if you're gonna eat it and some vegetables then, and that's typically a day, and I'll try to get around like 200 to 220 grams of protein. That seems to work for me, and I'll also have like pineapple or cherries, like after a workout with a little bit of creatine. I love that.

Kate:

I'm in a unique phase of life right now where I am not interested in super strict tracking of macronutrients. Mitchell just gave you down to the gram of what he's eating.

Mitchell:

Not for carbs. I don't have any clue how many carbs I eat.

Kate:

You gave us down to the gram of how many oats you were eating.

Mitchell:

Oh yeah, I want a cup.

Kate:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. My philosophy is way looser right now and it's working for me. I do generally try to hit around 130 grams of protein and the way I do that is just aiming for about 30 grams at each main meal and then every day at some point I have a scoop of the equip prime protein as well. So it gets me pretty close to where I want to be between my main meals and snacking, and I've also developed some pretty unique patterns that again just kind of work for me. Right now.

Kate:

I usually eat 200 to 300 calories right when I wake up. Sometimes that's a bar, sometimes that is a cup of yogurt with some seeds and berries in it Just kind of depends on the day. And then I'll eat a bigger breakfast about two hours later, so it's like my second breakfast. And then my midday meal is hit or miss, and again, it's something that's working for me right now. I've been tracking a lot my blood sugar. Usually it will be a protein shake if I hadn't already had a bar, another bar in the midday or something like sardines. It's kind of like a snack plate meal. Again, it's working for me. And then my dinner is protein, carb, vegetable, usually prepped on the weekend I like to do a lot of batch prepping. Where I have my proteins ready, I have my carbohydrates ready, vegetables at least chopped, and so then dinner is more of assembly, of putting those things together on a plate, and then I always end the night with something sweet-ish. Lately it's been a cottage cheese ice cream bowl.

Mitchell:

I thought you were going to say a little, debbie.

Kate:

No, no. So I have two breakfasts and basically two dinners and my midday is snacks, snacks.

Mitchell:

But again, it's working for me right now and I like it yeah, I mean, performance is good, brain function is good, we're healthy, it's, it appears, that's if we're healthy. Yeah, and, and I, I do weigh out a lot of things and that's so that I know that I'm hitting minimums. I don't count calories. I recently used an app that you showed me and I think it was funny, because I count on my notes app on my phone. You put it into an app and I was right on, but then I was a little bit surprised at how little carbs I eat. For a 210 pound man who exercises six to seven days a week, I was probably only hitting like 120 to 140 grams of carbs. So I don't know, maybe I'm going to increase that a little bit and see if I get a little stronger in the gym. It was kind of alarming to me how naturally low carb I eat.

Kate:

It's fun, once you have those detailed metrics, to play with it and manipulate it and see what happens.

Mitchell:

And I'm partly basing my supplements and my eating strategy right now on my labs, my last blood work. I'm trying to see what I can do with my LDL, insulin A1C inflammatory markers. Everything looked, as I would say, superb, but I am trying to see what playing with saturated fats and moving them down a little bit than I was before will do for my LDL, to see if it has an effect, because everyone's different.

Kate:

I heard you say Little Debbie's. So true confession. What is your go-to comfort food? That makes me cringe.

Mitchell:

Oh, I mean so many things. You know I try to be dairy-free because my eczema flares, but I know I can have two days in a row until the outside of my body breaks down and I just ignore whatever damages. You know how they say you break down on the inside before the outside, but the health of the host matters the most. So I believe that I take in a lot of healthy nutrients so that my body can deal with the occasional poison that I put in it. You know you got to retox to detox, baby. That's what I always tell people. They're like oh, I binged on. You know I had a weekend in Vegas. It's like, hey, retox to detox, baby. It kind of gives you perspective.

Mitchell:

I mean, I'm ashamed to admit it but I will occasionally have a little Debbie, yeah, I really liked baked goods and pastries. You know, ice cream take it or leave it, it's the, it's cookies and donuts and things like that. And I just I really have to pay attention to that because I think I do have a bit of a an issue with binging on them once I expose myself to them. So something I try to do is just not keep it around and then say and I actually think this developed a little bit in college in sports, when I was always told I was too skinny and I would have to eat. I tracked it once in human nutrition and I'm not making this up. I was eating 9,000 to 11,000 calories a day. It was miserable, and I would eat two tuna fish sandwiches, so four slices of whole wheat bread with a bunch of Miracle Whip in like a big can of tuna not the regular ones, think about that mercury and then I would have that. And then this shake from GNC called Mass Triple X, I would stir.

Kate:

That sounds healthy.

Mitchell:

It was like three scoops. I would stir it into whole milk, like two or three cups of whole milk, and I think that meal alone was like 2000 calories and I would go to bed I would even wake up three hours before my alarm went off and I would have a protein shake with ground up oatmeal in it and I would sometimes wake up lighter and I would have you know coaches would be disappointed in me because I wasn't heavy enough and it really, I think, started this trend of kind of overeating and I've had, I've had to actually work on that. You know you might look at me and think, whatever, he doesn't have an issue with it. But it's like when you're six, four, I think you can kind of hide weight changes much easier. And poor me, when I don't exercise I lose weight, you know.

Mitchell:

But it's like we all have our own problems, right. But when I eat like this, my anxiety gets worse, my joint pain gets worse, my eczema gets worse, so I might not look like more inflamed, I guess, or have like a gut or anything like that, but that's. You know, we all fight our own struggles and mine is really. My mental health suffers a lot when I do that too much.

Kate:

And I think I've heard you say this to patients who are more immediately sensitive to foods that sometimes you wish you had that response because the anxiety it doesn't come in for a couple of days so you don't get that immediate feedback of. I shouldn't be doing this to myself.

Mitchell:

And I remember I worked in the oil field between undergrad and grad school. You can ask my friend derek one night, I think I ate three boxes of little debbie's. Wow, after working like 16 hours, you know, losing all this weight. But I had zero bloating, zero gifx. That's the problem. Like I don't have immediate responses, you laugh at me. Like I have an iron stomach, like I can eat. I can eat a crazy amount of really bad food and not feel anything physically. But, like you said, a couple of days later slowly starting to be more reactive and more emotional and more health focused anxiety, and that's like a terrible place to be. So that really is my why and that's why I exercise. The side benefit is physical fitness, but the true reason for me is maintaining a balanced, stable state of proper vigilance, without hyper vigilance we got into some true confessions right there got deep and, in case you're wondering, it's the zebra rolls.

Kate:

Okay, if you weren't here, if you weren't a functional medicine doctor at the facility what would you be doing so like if I wasn't in health care at all? Sure, what's your, what's your backup career?

Mitchell:

I know I say things like I fantasize about being a short order cook. I would love to go work like Saturday nights at Perkins or what, the Waffle House or something, because I really like tossing things on the griddle and making meals. I really enjoy cooking actually. But I mean that goes down to purpose. My purpose would not be fulfilled there. I, I, I don't know, I don't, I don't see an existence without, like I said, this isn't like a job, it's like who I am. So like I, I, I'm, I'm speechless in a way.

Kate:

I don't know it's really hard to picture us not yeah here.

Mitchell:

I mean, just think about how we met. You know you came in and like had your neuroscience degree. We kind of hit it off from we were both in nutrition. You came to actually see me.

Kate:

I was a patient.

Mitchell:

You know, and I saw how diligent and smart and organized you was and I would also say how unfulfilled you were in your, you know, doing a really cool, fascinating job, but it wasn't giving you a chance to share all your gifts. And I kind of nudged you to get that master's degree in human nutrition and it slowly kind of turned into this. I mean, we created this. This isn't a job that we have, I mean, says the guy who doesn't do any of the business stuff. But no, I mean I'm so lucky, I'm so lucky, oh my God. But I mean I'm living my, I'm truly living my purpose. So an existence without living my purpose, you know it's most men lead lives of quiet desperation. I think that would be me. I would be in despair if I didn't have something like this to be able to share with my community. I like that would be me. I would be in despair if I didn't have something like this to be able to share with my community.

Kate:

I like that. We have a corporate contract with my dad's company in Virginia, interspan Resources, and yes, I love what I do, I love being here. I wouldn't change it. But what I notice about those employees is they are objectively some of the most satisfied, happy patients we have and they all mention how great their work culture is.

Mitchell:

Your dad.

Kate:

It's my dad. I would be so proud to work for my dad if I wasn't here doing this. So that's my answer. What's one strength that Kate has that balances out one of your weaknesses?

Mitchell:

you have the bandwidth like I've never seen before, the ability to get shit done, the ability to stay on a task. I mean, we all know that I'm a dreamer and that I will study immunology or random stuff like we. I thought about when I was in florida. I was supposed to draft one monthly patient email and I all I could get stuck in my head was how this fertility clinic was scaring this woman that her vitamin D was too high because it was 55. And we were telling her you know, you're looking good. And I remember I sat down to write an email and I spent that entire afternoon on PubMed re-understanding vitamin D physiology. And then I get home and you were just like you don't have the email done. And it was like, not because I wasn't doing anything, but because I became so distracted.

Mitchell:

So I think the grounding you really ground me. That's such a cheesy thing to say, but it's so true. And I think you keep. I've told you this, this without you I wouldn't be able to live my dream. So I'm forever indebted to you for that. Like you, allow me to do this every day. I want to throw that question back to you.

Kate:

Yeah, because patients recognize that a lot. But I have the same answer I wouldn't be able to do this without you and one of our former associates, dr Matt Weaver. He describes you. He describes you perfectly. He says Mitchell is a walking textbook, and it's so true. I've never met someone with such an ability to retain information. But it is not just rote memorization. Yes, he's great at that. He can pull up patients' lab results from years back and just know the exact numbers, like okay, that is impressive. But that's not what I'm impressed by. What I'm impressed by is you can grasp and you can internalize concepts to a degree that is mind-blowing to me. Wow, I appreciate that.

Mitchell:

Thank you.

Kate:

It is a weakness of mine, too that I think you balance out very well. I'm really good at. I consider my intelligence very resourceful. I can find the information that I need, but I don't pull it the way that you do.

Mitchell:

Thank you for that. I've never heard you say that we should do Q&A more often. I'm feeling good about myself.

Kate:

Okay, here's a fun one Rapid fire. Hopefully you can answer this quickly. Okay, desert Island, you can only take three supplements. What are you taking?

Mitchell:

Well, I would first have a compounded supplement. No, I mean Desert Island. Do we have access to water?

Kate:

You know the rules of Desert Island.

Mitchell:

I mean, I guess I would have to take an essential mineral. You know, I would want to cover my mineral bases so my enzymes have proper function. I'm probably going to get plenty of sun there, so I wouldn't really be concerned so much about fat solubles. I'd probably be able to catch fish, because I'm so good at fishing in this scenario, of course, so I wouldn't need to worry about omegas. I'd probably want to take something antimicrobial, broad spectrum, so maybe something like cryptolepis, I think okay, I'm changing the rules.

Kate:

Okay, you can only take three supplements for the rest of your life. What are you choosing?

Mitchell:

oh, a multi-mineral and a protein supplement and creatine good job okay, what about you?

Kate:

uh, a can of oysters.

Mitchell:

That's not a supplement. I'm pretty good at taking vitamin D, fish oil, d3 with K2, of course.

Kate:

Yep, that one. And occasionally a B vitamin Just one A B vitamin.

Mitchell:

I love when people say I'm taking vitamin B. Yeah, you're right. A B complex might be helpful, but I'm just really considering the fact that I would probably be running into microbes, so I do think you want something antimicrobial.

Kate:

You made that question so much more cerebral than I wanted it to be sorry. Okay, we both love the office. It's one of our favorite tv shows of all time. Which character on the office do you most identify with? Meaning like when you're hearing their talking heads and you're like, yes, I feel that one do you?

Mitchell:

I mean, do you think you identify with?

Kate:

yes, you do yes, angela, yeah, that's funny um, I mean, it's not.

Mitchell:

It's not at all a compliment, I think. I mean how many times have I just said something cringe and awkward? Not because he's the lead, but like kind of Michael Scott Because of how he it's the foot in the mouth. Yes exactly that's exactly what I was going to say, but I think I have more. Well, no, in later seasons he shows more empathy and thoughtfulness. So I guess him, but I was going to say Phyllis for you.

Mitchell:

No, it's 100%, Angela, but when you said you know who it was. I knew who it had to be, but you don't like cats.

Kate:

Exactly. The only thing that doesn't fit is I don't really like cats, but she does have one quote where she says if you pray enough, you can become a cat person. That's funny. So maybe I need to embrace that one. Okay, thank you to my siblings, mitchell's siblings, mitchell's siblings-in-laws and two other people for submitting questions.

Mitchell:

I guess it was kind of last minute but as what happens with most of our Q&As submitting questions, I guess it was kind of last minute.

Kate:

But, as what happens with most of our Q&As, if you were listening and it sparked something new. I do want to find a way where I can continually collect questions so that we can come back to this format, this style of podcast, because, again, we enjoy this so much.

Mitchell:

Yeah, absolutely.

Kate:

Here's my ending line this so much?

Mitchell:

Yeah, absolutely. Here's my ending line. Test don't guess.

Kate:

And podcast don't stress Do you want me to say something in return, or do you just want to end it there and that's a wrap for this episode of Facilitated. If you enjoyed it, hit subscribe because, let's be honest, you'll forget otherwise. And if you really loved it, please leave us a review. Not only does it make Mitchell feel warm and fuzzy inside, but it also helps more people find functional medicine without falling into a Google rabbit hole. For more about what we do at the facility, check out our website, wwwthefacilitydenvercom. You can also follow us on Instagram at the facility Denver for extra tips behind the scenes, fun and updates on new episodes. Thanks for listening. Now go facilitate your own health and we'll see you next time.