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Momtalk Maryland
Healing Hashimoto's: My Thyroid Journey with Rebalance
We dive deep into the often misunderstood world of thyroid health, autoimmune conditions, and the powerful connection between hormones and whole-body wellness with functional medicine expert Laura from Rebalance Health and Wellness.
Have you ever wondered why traditional approaches to thyroid issues often fall short? Laura explains why simply prescribing Synthroid doesn't address the root causes of conditions like Hashimoto's thyroiditis. As she guides us through Claire's personal health journey, we uncover how early detection of autoimmune markers can prevent progression to full hypothyroidism through targeted lifestyle modifications rather than immediate medication.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Laura dispels common myths about women's hormones. Far from being solely about reproduction, our hormones influence everything from cardiovascular health to brain function. Did you know estrogen keeps blood vessels elastic and helps prevent Alzheimer's? Or that progesterone acts as "nature's Valium" for anxiety and sleep? These critical connections are rarely discussed in traditional medical settings, leaving many women suffering unnecessarily as their hormones fluctuate.
Perhaps most surprising is the discussion about children's health. Laura shares remarkable improvements in her five-year-old son's ADHD symptoms after addressing gut health issues, removing food dyes, and correcting nutrient deficiencies. This powerful gut-brain connection explains why so many children struggle with focus, sleep, and mood regulation—and how functional approaches can help without immediately turning to medication.
Whether you're dealing with unexplained fatigue, mood swings, weight issues, or simply want to optimize your health proactively, this episode offers practical wisdom from both clinical expertise and personal experience. Listen in for actionable steps to support your thyroid, balance your hormones naturally, and create healthier patterns for your entire family.
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Hey friends and welcome to MomTalk Maryland. I'm your host, claire Duarte, founder of the Columbia Mom, and this is your spot for real conversations, local love and a whole lot of community. Whether you're folding laundry, running errands or hiding in your car for some peace and quiet, let's dive in, all right. Well, I'm so excited that today I have with us Laura, owner of Rebalance Health and Wellness, and if you've been following along my journey, you know that I've been talking all about my thyroid journey, how I've gotten to know Laura, your business, but I'm so excited to have you here with us today.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. I just love you.
Speaker 1:I know we're just already having too much fun, I think. But actually this is so funny because it's actually a great time, because yesterday was my follow-up with you and so to kind of like go forwards and backwards.
Speaker 1:Right, if you're tuning in and this is your first time hearing Laura and hearing Rebalance, to kind of give you a little bit of backstory, well, I'll share my side and then you, and then I want you to kind of tell us a little bit more in depth about your business too Totally.
Speaker 1:But, um, I met you when you first reached out to us to kind of do some marketing and then, um, that was kind of my first introduction to getting to know your company and it was talking all about.
Speaker 1:And first my first thought was when I didn't know anything about hormone therapy and things like that, and my first thought was like, oh, is this going to be right for my audience? Blah, blah, blah, cause again my brain went like, um, menopause, right, you know. And so I was like, oh, I don't know, like you know, um, but then as I got to know the business, more I was like wait, and then the more that I was filming with you, it was like, oh, my God, I need to be a client, I want to be a client. And then when that ended, like we jumped right into essentially assessment, testing, um, and the recent months of like me doing the elimination diet to finding out my going through the full panel test results. So that fast forwards to yesterday's followup meeting was essentially one month from the test results, from my test results where, long story short, found out that I have Hashimoto's hypothyroidism.
Speaker 2:Is that correct? So your thyroid numbers are still normal, but you have antibodies to your own thyroid, so it's an autoimmune thyroid condition called Hashimoto's. But really we're catching it early and so you're able to do the lifestyle modifications that you need to do in order to kind of hopefully keep it at bay and keep you off medication. So your thyroid markers and your numbers are normal. So your thyroid stimulating hormone, your free T4 and your free T3 are all still normal, but you are having autoimmunity to your thyroid by the thyroid peroxidase antibodies.
Speaker 1:And again, this is where, like, I have no medical background and like, but the thyroid, remind me, cause again, you're the professional, you know this stuff like a second language. Wasn't the thyroid still like high or elevated?
Speaker 2:So your thyroid numbers were still within normal range. Okay, your TPO, or thyroid peroxidase, was 150. And that is the marker of Hashimoto's and autoimmunity.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, okay, Does that make sense? Sure, you know that makes sense, like, I suppose, when you're putting things more like on a scale or something.
Speaker 2:Exactly, yeah, and so what can happen, though, is when you have these autoimmune markers, if you don't catch it early, then it starts to impact the other things, so the brain signaling to your thyroid to make the thyroid hormone and so any of those like your brain hormone it's called thyroid stimulating hormone. It comes from your pituitary, but that can increase, and then you may have decreased levels of your t4 and t3, and t3 is your active thyroid hormone really impacts your metabolism and so many other body functions yeah um.
Speaker 2:So, yes, there is opportunity for it to move that way, but that's why it's really important, especially in the autoimmune conditions, to kind of catch it early and then work on the lifestyle modifications diet, exercise, stress management making sure that you're getting the nutrients you need. Um, there's specific nutrients that are really beneficial for your thyroid. Um, really like selenium is a big one. So you're taking a multivitamin that has a hundred micrograms of selenium in it, which is really important for your thyroid.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, and to catch um people up too, so to kind of give you again another layer of my personal story, um, you know, I think what's interesting with people that you know, now that I've been kind of like in the starting to kind of get into this world, do a little bit of my own research and everything that you've told me, I feel like a lot of people that have some thyroid conditions sounds like for the majority of them, they feel like crap when they kind of get to this point and they're seeking medical attention, things like that. And that wasn't exactly my story. And because I think I whether it was just my own health, the situation, the certain markers that I had, because when I came to you I actually I actually was feeling pretty good, yeah, and I do think some of the medications that I was taking were definitely masking some things to a degree.
Speaker 1:But when I look back, what approximately two years ago, prior to you know, taking semaglutide, and because I lost like not in a short period of time, like over like a year and a half, like I said, I lost like 30, 40 pounds, yeah, so I think the weight loss definitely impacted many areas of my health. For sure, absolutely, even if I started taking it for initially just vanity reasons. But I, when I think back to that summer, prior to starting to take it, I'm like, and I'm remembering how I felt, I'm like those are definitely the trademark thyroid symptoms, for sure. Um, again, I didn't really know any different and I'm like putting all this weight and, um, I just I just wanted to lose weight. I didn't think about anything Cause you know, again the brain fog, I'm putting all this weight and I just I just wanted to lose weight. I didn't think about anything, cause you know, again the brain fog. I'm just like, well, I have a two year old or a three year old, so I was just like that's just life.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean, and it's like life is stressful and you're tired and we're tired and you know, um, and hashtag women's health I'm laughing but I'm not but um, so, so, anyway, so fast, yeah, so fast forward to now, so, as I'm getting to know you what that's what made me be like oh, I should really be a client, because I was like the reality is like I feel pretty decent, but I was kind of thinking back to how I had been feeling at one point and I was like I also have like no idea, like what's under the hood, and I was like I should probably have a really better idea of what that looks like for me, cause now that I'm, like, you know, mid thirties and um, and I have had some of those similar markers, I'd be really interested to know what what a blood panel for me right now looks like, and um, so, anyway, so, so, yeah, about a month ago we got the test results back and you kind of walked me through you know all the different levels, all the different markers, and you know that's like a two hour appointment, which, because she's so thorough and so helpful. So we're not going to go through all that today, though I could probably use the refresher course Totally. But one question that I feel like that comes up to me sometimes when I've been telling people you know, and as I've been sharing my journey and talking about, obviously you know my new diagnosis, but then the supplements things are taking, people are often asking me like, oh, are you on thyroid medication, are you on Synthroid? And when I tell them no, and I'm like my explanation is like, well, again, this is kind of coming from the education that you've given me is like, well, the goal right now is to heal my gut.
Speaker 1:You know it's like, yes, I think like the, the thyroid medication will can help the thyroid levels, but you know we still need to heal the gut and that acts as the body's fighting response and with an autoimmune issue, like it's even more compromised right now. So you know, we're kind of trying to rebuild from repair or ruins maybe, um, and so you know. So that's why I like that you're, you're integrative, not like strictly one side or the other, meaning that, like you believe in the holistic principles and will integrate the medical interventions when necessary and when it needs to complement one another. Right, so, um, so yes, I am on, I'm on a whole host of wonderful supplement. This is there's at least three things in here, at minimum.
Speaker 2:Um, but it's all personalized for you.
Speaker 1:That's right. Well, this isn't like an Instagram. No, this is not um, no, but um, but so anyway. So so I wanted you to answer that question about like you know, as people ask me like, well, why aren't you on like? You need to be on Synthroid, you need to like, be on like you know. Can you help provide some kind of like, more education.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think a big piece of this is every person is an individual, so every plan that we create is individualized for you. Um, so for you, your thyroid numbers are still fine, and so we need to do the other things to work on your thyroid. We need to fix your gut, we need to reduce inflammation, we need to make sure that your diet is in check, because, I mean, I firmly believe that food is medicine, so, like dairy and gluten tend to be very inflammatory, especially in the autoimmune condition group, and um, and so changing those things and taking the nutrients that are really beneficial for your thyroid, for you, is where we're going right now. Now I have plenty of other patients that I'll start with the lifestyle things, and, depending on their levels and how they're feeling and what their symptoms are like, we prescribe thyroid medication.
Speaker 2:The thing about Synthroid, though and I hear Synthroid all the time we do use Synthroid in our practice, but Synthroid only gives you T4 and just a little bit of physiology. T4 is not even your active thyroid hormone, it's actually T3. So when you give T4, it still has to convert into T3, your active thyroid hormone. So it depends on what your problem is. Synthroid can help fix some of the problems. But we also utilize T3, so we might use something called Cytomel or we might compound T3 and T4 together. But again, it's all based on each individual's lab results, what they're experiencing symptom-wise and kind of a whole host of factors.
Speaker 1:Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. Well, and here's the reality too is like we'll have these conversations and I'm like, yes, that makes sense, but again, I'm coming from a place of I don't have the medical background. A million percent, so for me to then regurgitate it alone for myself. Yeah, and for other people and then for other people and I'm like what she said. Now we have this on video so I can actually refer back to this. That was a real reason why I had you on, exactly.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to know that one specific thing. And now we can be on and now you can turn the camera off. But I think it's important to know that, like, especially, our practice Rebalance Health and Wellness, like we are not so strict in either direction, like we meet people where they are, which is really like what I love about our practice, like your life matters, where you are in your life matters, and so we kind of have to come up with a plan that works for you, your lifestyle and what your beliefs are. I mean, dr Zimmerman and I still practice traditional medicine as well. I mean I do anesthesia two days a week and he's a critical care physician, so like he does that half time. And then we do functional medicine, hormone replacement therapy, gut health, thyroid health the other 50% of the time, and so we have a different breadth like knowledge base and experience base where like, yes, like we believe in the natural things but we also believe in medicine, and so we kind of mold that together and I think that's really unique and really important.
Speaker 2:And, again, personalized medicine is is not what's being done everywhere, right, and so you know, like we want people to feel good in their lives and so that's why everything is based on what you are experiencing and what your lab results show. Are experiencing and what your lab results show, um, and kind of like. We believe what people say. Like women's health is so important to me. I mean, the entire reason we created this practice is because I was suffering and I could not get help and I'm in the medical system, right, right, and so, um, when I talk to people, they're like you have such conviction about what you're doing and I'm like, well, because I believe it, because it literally changed my life and I practice what I preach.
Speaker 2:So like something else you'll find is Darren and I do everything that we have our patients do. Like I'm not just like do this, this and this, but like I'm not going to do that, like that's too hard, like we live this lifestyle and like we have seen the benefits in ourselves and in our family. And I mean I shared with you that like and like we have seen the benefits in ourselves and in our family, and I mean I shared with you that like I'm doing a lot of the functional medicine pieces on my five year old, yeah, right. So like there's benefits for everyone in living right, this way.
Speaker 1:I know, and that's definitely what I'm excited for us to talk about a little bit today too, what I'm excited for us to talk about a little bit today too. But I also wanted to add, like, what I think has been really interesting for me too about being this journey is that cause. Again, we were, we obviously were talking about this yesterday during our followup, which I also could have just recorded, might as well should have. But you know, I, I for me, what I'm realizing it, and I'm sure this is the case for a lot of people it's like I feel like, as of right now again, kind of one month in from test results, right, I feel like I'm feeling worse before I'm going to feel better. Sure, kind of Like in a good way, right, like because, you know once and I would have started the elimination diet, say, earlier, but it was around spring break time, so I could have started it probably right when you gave me the initial test, but again, timing, so anyway, so I started the elimination diet. It was like a little bit of like okay, now my body is just detoxing off of inflammatory triggers and things like that, and, as you know, my elimination wasn't 100% squeaky, clean, perfect. So obviously, when you there's still elements of a little bit of dairy here or there, you know I know that that doesn't make the playing field super even at that point. And then you add in when I started the introduction of the supplements and then and the new items, um, so my body's trying to adjusting to now taking those to now being approximately like four, five-ish weeks into the supplements. Now the elimination is now technically over, but I, you know, I've been trying to still kind of, you know, uh, live dairy free and mostly gluten free, kind of moving in that direction.
Speaker 1:And one of the things I was telling you you're like, how are you feeling? I was like mostly good, you know, I mean, ironically, I look back, I'm like man, I feel like I definitely felt better prior to like, starting all of this, like ironically, you know like, but that's not, I know that's not a reason to go back based on like what I know, like what I know now. You know like, but that's not, I know that's not a reason to go back based on like what I know, like what I know now. You know now that I know like what actually I was working with. But I'm, you know, like.
Speaker 1:So I was telling you today like, oh, I feel like you know, kind of tired and a little sluggish, but I know that, like you know, but that, but that's the perfect reason. So we're, we're tweaking a little bit of things right, like, instead of taking the magnesium in the morning, I take that at night. You know what I mean and I hope like that starts to help. And I have been pretty good about keeping the dairy, like you know, out of my diet. I had like a little like a few bites like Sunday night. Oh my God, I felt so bloated. Yesterday afternoon I think I again took the pancreatic enzyme I don't think it was dramatically later after my lunch because I was, I think I was still biting, but then again I felt like so bloated, take it before like take it before you take your first bite of food.
Speaker 2:Okay I think sorry yeah this is my medical advice, only for claire disclaimer yeah, um, yeah, because the bloating was like and this is just again.
Speaker 1:It's kind of just like the little troubleshooting that I'm trying to figure out Because I'm like I'm bloating so bad. Again. Dairy was you know a little bit still in my system from you know even a few bites, and things like that. So it's, you know, it's interesting because I was like, oh, like I'm frustrated, feeling like I feel like I am like I'm doing all these supplements and I am like making all these really healthy choices and like, admittedly, I was feeling like you know, frustrated, I feel like tired and bloated and while I'm walking the walk and trying to do the right things, but I guess that's kind of, that's kind of life, that's kind of health when we're navigating these pieces.
Speaker 2:It's a little sticky. I actually very rarely hear like your experience. To be honest, like most of the time when people are doing their elimination diet, pretty much after day seven, like I get messages like what is this magic? Like why do I feel so energized? Like why do I feel so much?
Speaker 1:well, and I did feel pretty good, yeah, yeah, like when, when all of those things are kind of eliminated, like yeah, like I felt pretty, pretty darn good Right, you know what I?
Speaker 2:mean. So I think some of it is. It takes time. So this is why we honestly work with most of our patients in a program situation is because there's a lot going on, so we don't want to just throw every single thing at you at once. We kind of want to like work on one thing at a time. Your gut takes several months to heal. Think about how long it took you to get out of balance, um, and so, I think, also having realistic expectations too.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying for you, I just mean in general like like knowing that, like what you've been doing to your body and all the things that you've been exposed to, this has been happening forever, right. And so then it's like OK, we're one month in and I remind patients to like let's think about the things that are better and that are different. And I think because it's easy to be like, well, I don't feel immediately better.
Speaker 2:I have never claimed that this is going to be a thing that like tomorrow and I tell people that all the time like tomorrow you're not going to feel like you're on top of the world, like this takes some time and it takes effort on your part, and that's the thing like I can give you the information but and educate you, because I think knowledge is power, I think knowing what's going on inside of your body is amazing, yeah, but then what you do with it is ultimately up to you too, right, and so we are still working.
Speaker 2:We have things to tweak, um, we're changing things all the time, right, so it's finding what works for you, which, again, is like that personalized piece, like there's not a plan that's for every single person. Yeah, the plan is like, okay, the initial plan like is working with X, y and Z, but it's, you know, you're still suffering with some low energy and some bloating, and so now we need to address what's going on there and then we'll change and pivot to what you need. Does that make sense? Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And and I mean you already know this, but I was like by my frustration is more with myself, not like, oh, why isn't this working right now? And it's also I mean, you get this to like being a mom and a business owner like we. Just I just want my energy.
Speaker 1:I just want the energy to focus and do do all the things. Only yesterday afternoon I was like oh so sluggish and I I hate that feeling and it's not that I'm chasing that I and I know and that's why I'm doing all of this and I'm committing to all of this, because I don't just want the overnight success and it's not going to be an overnight success. I know it's going to take time and things like that, but again the reality is like. Again, being moms and business owners is like well, I need the focus right now, but I need that energy like yesterday and.
Speaker 2:I need it in this one hour window, and so why isn't it here?
Speaker 1:Right, why isn't it here? I was like I ordered this and I don't. I don't, I don't see it here.
Speaker 2:It didn't show up on my menu today, it did not.
Speaker 1:It did not. Um, the yeah that my Amazon uh delivery was laid off for that one. So, um, but I mean, that's just been an interesting part of the journey for me. But I know that that healing takes time, but that's kind of what. Now I'm like starting to like nerd out a little bit. I'm like, oh, so now we're going to do another round of tests in like a week, and so now I'm kind of curious. I'm like, oh, some markers have got to be a little bit better, Hopefully.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we kind of like we check certain things at certain points and we're getting ready to check your hormones again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, which will be good, and then we'll address from there yeah what the next step is, and so we're always changing and always modifying, for, like, what you need and what patients need, and right, it's great, I know, and um, I mean, like I shared with my audience that you know, I recently had like my IED removed and um, you know, in an effort to kind of be more natural and again address kind of the hormone issues at play, and I finally did get my first period last week, which was brutal which I knew.
Speaker 1:I kind of knew it would be. You know everyone, again, everyone's different, and you would kind of warn me about that. I mean, I kind of knew that to be expected, but I was like getting it removed and getting your fur from back anyways would be challenging, just let alone everything else we were doing. So I'm not surprised, glad that we're through that. But I know now the next piece that you had mentioned is like um, eventually, you know, introducing progesterone, right, but that's where we're going to test those markers first, to kind of see where we're at, because I was having an interesting conversation with some of the other day too. They were like well, I know that like progesterone, estrogen and testosterone are all, like you know, linked to like fertility, but like why do we kind of still need that now?
Speaker 2:So I want to know if you could speak to that as well. Yes, oh my gosh, I feel like I could talk about this for seven hours but I'll keep it as brief as possible.
Speaker 1:I know Right.
Speaker 2:Okay, guys, this is an all day podcast.
Speaker 2:Live streaming yes, Um, yeah, so I feel like people think of these, their sex hormones. So for women, they're made in the ovaries testosterone, estrogen and progesterone and everyone thinks they're kind of just like they stay here in your sex organs. They're there for fertility, and this is kind of the problem with medicine too is like a lot of like like women's health is really focused on getting pregnant and being pregnant, and then after that, like there's no, there's been like such limited amount of money that has gone into research for perimenopause, menopause research, all these things. Okay, so I digress. But, um, but they don't just stay in your sex organs.
Speaker 2:There are hormone receptors literally all over your entire body. So, for example, like I have patients ask me all the time like, if I start hormone replacement therapy, is this like, do I have to be on it forever? And I'm like, well, I would like to like change people's perspective because you should want to be on it when you hear what I have to say about it. Like I will be on hormones forever, and the reason for that is in perimenopause, your hormones kind of go haywire. Your estrogen fluctuates a ton. Your progesterone, once you hit your mid thirties, starts to steadily decline. Your ovaries tend to not produce as much testosterone, so that starts to steadily decline and then, once you reach menopause, it's pretty much your ovaries are petering out and you're not producing any of those hormones. Yeah, and what happens is estrogen is so important for so many things. The number one killer in our country is cardiovascular disease. Still, when you lose your estrogen, it basically makes your blood vessels super stiff. It increases your risk for cardiovascular disease.
Speaker 1:Oh, I didn't know that your estrogen helps to maintain bone density.
Speaker 2:So once you lose your estrogen, your bone density starts to decrease and if you think about hip fractures, there's a 30% mortality in patients that have a hip fracture that you can help prevent by just replacing estrogen.
Speaker 1:Well, it's so funny because like yeah, you hear, especially for women, like oh, you need bone density, but like never really has it talked about that connection there.
Speaker 2:It's huge and it's well-studied. This isn't just like made-up science. This is like data that has been proven. We talked about the risk of Alzheimer's disease and cognitive dysfunction. It's huge, and women are at greater risk of these things. We talked about brain fog. That's a loss of estrogen. A lot of times like so. Long term, there's a reduction in different kinds of cancers, for example, colon cancer, if you maintain your hormones. Um, progesterone. Progesterone is amazing. It's gabinergic, which means it's kind of like your anti-anxiety hormone.
Speaker 2:It's like nature's volume um and so it helps you sleep and it helps with mood stability. Estrogen also helps with mood stability. Um, estrogen helps with your metabolism. Like hormones are amazing. Testosterone I mean I could. Testosterone is like my personal favorite hormone. Um, it's not FDA approved in women, which is like a total crock of crap. Women need testosterone as well. We make 10 times more testosterone than we do estrogen, but no one talks about it.
Speaker 2:It is not just a male hormone. Testosterone is important for so many things. It's important for cardiovascular function, it's also important for bone health, it's important for mood stability. Um, I think about it as like our CEO, hormones. So it's like, yeah, get up and go. It's your drive, it's your motivation, it helps with muscle mass, like metabolism.
Speaker 2:Again, these are just like things I can spout off in one second, like there are so many reasons that women should make sure that their hormones are one balanced and two, that they don't just lose their hormones, because the long-term implications of these things are really catastrophic. Yeah, you lose your brain. I mean I was just I posted a video about, um how divorce rates tend to really like increase in women's forties and sixties and like there's gotta be a correlation with hormone imbalance. Like I mean I know when I'm imbalanced, like anxiety, depression.
Speaker 2:Like you have women that come to me and they're like gosh, I just have this like new onset anxiety, this new onset depression that I've never had before. Like have these weird palpitations. I like wake myself up in the middle of the night. So hormones are great for symptom management as well, like the hot flashes, the night sweats and all the other symptoms that you think about with it. But honestly, the benefits of the long-term use of hormones and making sure that you don't just decline hormonally are really important and they're not talked about enough. And I also was talking the other day about, like we talk a lot about the risks of hormone replacement therapy.
Speaker 2:There's still a lot of fear from this one study in 2002 from the Women's Health Initiative, that one. The study was designed poorly and the results were translated incredibly poorly, and so women and physicians alike were terrified of hormones. So they stopped teaching in medical schools and advanced practice schools, and that's why people have such a hard time finding providers that are actually able to one understand the hormones, because they are complicated, take the time to do it and also to know what to prescribe and how to prescribe hormones. So, um, there's a lot of nuance to it, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:Well, and I feel like maybe also in this, this, maybe this is my, my bias, or like my assumption or malassumption, you know, like when I probably, well, I think, when I heard, maybe in younger years, when I heard we hear hormone replacement theory, I think probably initially I think of, like you know, gender reassignment or as it relates to, like, those populations, or, like I said, now that I've gotten older, like thinking about, like you know, menopause you know, so, yeah, I think there is a lot of misinformation, uh mal, again mal assumptions and things like that and, again, clearly nowhere near enough education, um uh, for women's health, just in general a million percent, it's yeah it's horrible, okay random.
Speaker 1:where's your pellet? Am I allowed to ask? Yeah, it's in my glute. Is it right here, mm-hmm?
Speaker 2:On that side or the other side. Well, I switch, you switch sides. Oh yeah so we're both like, yeah, oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:So she put a testosterone pellet in me, yeah, which is funny, because, you're right, it is like it does feel like a little grain of rice. Yeah, right, yeah. And because someone asked me about that too and I was like, yeah, I have a testosterone pill. Have you ever heard of it? I like show and I was like I'll show it to you. It's like a little, yeah, I hike my short up and show it. It's not sexual at all, but anyway, it's just like right there, yeah, but as, as opposed to like the orals or the creams or anything like that, um, and it's one of the things like have I noticed a difference? I mean, it's hard cause. You can't notice one impact when I'm also taking all the you're doing a bunch of it, right, but, um, but yeah.
Speaker 1:So I mean, that's another kind of factor in the equation, um. But I wanted to jump back to a little bit of the conversation that we had started when we were talking about our kids and again, we should probably do a whole other podcast on that specifically, which I think you know, because we both talked about our fair little children. Yeah, they're so sweet and so crazy.
Speaker 2:They're fair little babies.
Speaker 1:I know, and I really do think we should do like a whole thing on just that. But you know, starting this journey for it keeps me thinking more along the lines of like you know, we've been starting to buy more like organic foods and more gluten-free things and I'm wondering I'm like huh, I wonder how this will affect my children. You know, because I haven't yet run full panels on them, or particularly like my son, but you recently did and you've already been seeing some results.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Amazing results, Not just like I could say, oh my gosh, what I'm doing is working, you know whatever. But I mean I was telling you we had a parent teacher conference yesterday and my little guy is five and he has like severe ADHD, like major impulsivity problems. Um, he is like sweet as pie. Actually, his teacher um referred to him as a golden retriever because he's like got so much energy, Um, and he's so sweet, but he like really struggles, like keeping his body to himself and like not interrupting, and like at home he literally like cannot sit down and he's up at 6 AM and he's ready to go until he literally passes out. Um, and things had kind of been getting a lot worse and so, um, we sent some of our functional testing on him and he ended up having a bunch of overgrowth in his gut. And you know me, I'm like very passionate about gut health.
Speaker 2:Um, because I think it's kind of root cause for a lot of different things. If you have poor gut health, you're not able to make your neurotransmitters, so your mood stability suffers. Um, if you don't have good health, you're not able to make your neurotransmitters, so your mood stability suffers. If you don't have good health, you're not able to have the immune function that you should, because 70% of your immune system is housed in your gut. When we're talking about neurotransmitters, serotonin and dopamine are made in your gut, and the data says anywhere from 70 to 90%. It's significant. So if you're not even able to make those neurotransmitters, you're not able to get them up to your brain and your brain's not able to utilize them. And so he had significant overgrowth there. And then he had some nutrient deficiencies. He had low vitamin.
Speaker 2:D, he had low ferritin which is your iron stores, probably from poor gut health. So we actually are doing a lot of supplementation with him and it's been about six weeks and he's like showing major improvements. We took out food dyes, which, you know, some people really like are like do food dyes actually matter? And in some kids it does. Some kids don't have the ability to break them down and so they accumulate and it kind of makes them go nuts. Yeah, um, we took out a lot of like. We added a lot of organic food. We're trying to make sure that, you know, stabilizing blood sugar with protein added to his snacks. We're doing all sorts of stuff for the little guy and he's doing really well.
Speaker 1:So awesome yeah. Um, I know, and again, we could, we can and we will do a whole podcast probably on that specifically, cause I was like.
Speaker 1:you know, I feel like there's so many challenges when it comes to food and kids and like, because they like what they like. I mean, we do too, you know. But you know as a parent that can be hard to navigate, not only just getting them to eat balanced, but obviously when you're trying to introduce different things that we know are like, quote unquote, good for them. Yeah, especially when it's very needs based at that time. But and have you guys been noticing the effect, sort of at home in addition to school?
Speaker 2:I would say, yes, probably a little bit less so, because I mean he's a normal kid, so he like saves all of his like good behaviors where he's at school and then you know, he feels secure at home, so he kind of lets loose a little bit. But yes, I definitely see a difference for sure, um, on the soccer field, like in the mornings, yeah, when he goes to sleep, like he's. He's just a kind, sweet little boy and I just want to support him the best way I know.
Speaker 1:I know and it will, and it just well, these conversations are always so interesting to me because they kind of like they get my wheels turning when I think about, like my own son, like my daughter is, you know, very different, you know very independent, and I've obviously talked about my son on here too and, you know, definitely think, you know, a peek at his GI system could be really beneficial for us, along with the other zillion hosts of things. But I mean again, like, while I'm making these shifts for myself, I'm like, well, again might as well start, like you know, buying organic for the house and kind of slowly you know, not that I'm mandating everybody my house be gluten-free, kind of thing but kind of slowly going that way with some different products and things like that. Um, and I think that's kind of like the point that you make too, it's you don't need to like necessarily have to clean house overnight and make the product, switch on everything and I've really cause.
Speaker 1:Even that for me is like overwhelming, but I'm like, okay, as I move along. Like you know, slowly making some sort of certain swaps can be helpful. You know not, you know it's like, uh, even things like you know, some laundry detergents, deodorant I was telling you about, but I was like I have, all you know, a bunch of product. I'm not going to waste what I currently have, but I'll slowly kind of maybe move in that direction and just see, and that's I advocate for that too.
Speaker 2:I'm like look like, I don't want you to waste your money, but here are some options that like are cleaner, that have less endocrine disruption and that you can switch to and they're not even any more money. That's the thing. But it's hard to find what's actually like safe and a good alternative versus like. I mean, for example, like people go to tell me all the time they're like yeah, I use like Tide, free and clear. I'm like it's not really free and clear, literally what I said to you verbatim. That's funny, because like people say it all the time though it's like yeah.
Speaker 2:Cause you don't know, like you don't know what you don't know, right, and so, um, and then to kind of like go back to what you were saying about, like making changes for the family Cause we were talking about this too Like I think, when you're making changes for yourself, it can only benefit your kids, even if you don't have the fancy testing to know what's going on with them. Like adding in more fruits and vegetables and fiber and whole foods is literally only going to benefit them. There will be no downside to it, right, um? And yes, it's so difficult when you have picky kids. Some of it, for me, is just keeping the stuff out of the house if it's not there they don't ask for it, right?
Speaker 2:do you know what I mean? Yeah, um, and I've seen a lot of tricks that I've used, like while you're cooking dinner, like I just put, we actually we hold this like huge container of veggies. We like have peeled whole carrots. My kids love the rainbow carrots yeah carrots and peppers and cucumbers and I just put it on the table and they're allowed to like go eat yeah, as many veggies as they want and like they're usually hungry enough that they want to eat it yes um, but it's just like a good idea to like little things like that it makes.
Speaker 2:It makes a difference, because I was actually reading something the other day. It was like less than 50 of children have one fruit or vegetable a day not surprised right, but like that's it's sad. It's sad and like the benefits of the, the fruits and veggies, the micronutrients, the phytonutrients, the fiber, the different vitamins, like they're amazing. I know your body needs it. It's, I mean, like I. You know my opinion on food is medicine. Yeah, did I? Did you know? I think food is, did you know?
Speaker 1:by the way, your your sign off forever.
Speaker 2:I think food is medicine Did you know, by the way, your sign off forever. Food is medicine. Yeah, do you have a tattoo of that, of that? Yeah, yeah, on my inner lip.
Speaker 1:No, I don't, it can be your next one, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Right or like, have it like in between your fingers or something like that, or your knuckles, yes.
Speaker 1:Wait, food is medicine, fim, yeah, I'd have to explain that to a lot of people, though that'd be great. You have like two alternate meetings meetings maybe. Well, thank you so much, laura, for coming on here today. Um, it's, you've been so helpful, and not only just continuing to educate me, but, as you're guiding me along this path, and I know that we are continuing to shed so much light to so many other moms and women, because I get questions all the time and I know that you continue to too, and I'm just so glad that we're kind of get to like do this together, to kind of keep like showcasing what you do and then like like kind of me walking through it right now.
Speaker 1:So, thank you and thank you for being on here today.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:Thanks for tuning into this episode of mom talk, Maryland. If you loved it, leave a review, share it with a friend or tag me at the doc Columbia mom on Instagram. I'd love to hear what you think and don't forget to follow the show so you never miss an episode. Until next time, Keep showing up, keep supporting local and keep being the incredible mom, woman, human that you are.