S4. E8. Toxins & Trauma: Why your body can't detox in survival mode

Detox isn’t a trend—it’s a capacity. And if your nervous system is stuck in survival mode, your body often can’t detox the way you want it to.

In this episode, Dr. Raquel breaks down how toxin burden (like mold, chemicals, and heavy metals) can contribute to fatigue, brain fog, inflammation, hormone issues, and feeling reactive—and why many people actually feel worse when they “try to detox.” We also talk about how chronic stress patterns and stored emotional stress impact digestion, elimination, sleep, and the body’s ability to repair.

You’ll leave with a clear, grounded way to think about sequencing: regulation first, elimination support, lowering inflammation, and then targeted detox—so you can stop guessing and start getting traction.

✅ Next step: rockynhealth.com/start-here
Take the quiz for clarity or book a call for personalized support.

✅Join the 30-Day Metabolic Reset here. Inside you will be able to order labs and supplements, plus talk with Dr. Raquel

And remember: you’re not broken, you’re patterned.

What You’ll Learn 

• Why detox is a capacity—not a product
• How toxin burden can show up as fatigue, brain fog, inflammation, and sensitivity
• Why survival-mode stress can block digestion, repair, and detox pathways
• Signs your system is overloaded or “too reactive”
• A simple sequence to build capacity before deeper detox support
• What to do next if you’re tired of guessing

Chapters

00:00 Understanding Detox: The Biological Process
02:53 The Role of the Nervous System in Detox
05:57 Building Capacity for Effective Detox
09:02 Practical Steps for Detox Support
11:52 The Importance of a Structured Detox Plan
14:50 Listening to Your Body During Detox
17:52 Creating Boundaries for Successful Detox
20:59 Final Thoughts and Next Steps

Resources

Rockyn Health Website - https://rockynhealth.com
30-Day Metabolic Reset Program - link here
Functional Blood Work Testing - call or Email DrRaquel@RockynHealth.com or join the 30-Day Metabolic Reset and order your labs here
Colon X Supplement - https://www.wholescripts.com/register/ROCKYNHEALTH-YARROCH  create your account. Then use this for Referral Code: ROCKYNHEALTH and last name YARROCH  once in you can search for Colon X and order.

Smooth Move Tea - you can find at your local grocery or health foods store.

Ready to Go Deeper?

If this hit home and you’re ready to get unstuck and become unstoppable (mind + body), check the links in the show notes for what’s currently open through Rockyn Health—including options like Reset, Rise, BE (Breakthrough Experience) and upcoming Retreats. Not sure what you need? Message “YES” and we’ll help you choose your best next step.

Connect With Dr. Raquel

Instagram: @dr.raquel_rockyn.health
Website: RockynHealth.com
Podcast: Rockyn YES: Your Empowered Self

Quick Note

This podcast is for education and inspiration and is not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider for personal medical decisions.

© 2026 Rockyn Health. All Rights Reserved.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Rock and Yes Podcast, Your Empowered Self. I'm Dr. Raquel Yarrow. If you're successful on the outside, but your body is waving red flags, fatigue, brain fog, gut issues, inflammation, and stress, you're in the right place. And let me remind you right now, you're not broken, you're pattern. Here we get to the root causes and we rewire what's been keeping you stuck so you can heal, lead, and live like you mean it. Let's go. Today we're going to talk about detox, but not the detox like a trend. Detox is a real biological process and why a lot of people feel worse when they try to do all the right things. If you've ever tried to clean up your diet, do a cleanse, take supplements, start supporting your liver, and then you felt more tired, more foggy, more anxious, more inflamed, this episode will make that make sense. Because your body's ability to detox isn't just about what you take, it's also about what your nervous system can handle. And if your system is stuck in survival mode, the body doesn't detox the way you want it to. It protects. Here's the truth. Detox is something your body is doing all day long. Your liver, your gut, your kidneys, your lymph, your skin. Your body is always trying to clear, filter, and eliminate. But detox works best when elimination pathways are open. Poop, bioflow, sweating, hydration. Inflammation is lower, your nervous system isn't constantly spiking stress hormones. Your sleep isn't wrecked, your gut isn't irritated. Because if those things are off, detox can feel like you're stirring things up without cleaning them well. And that's when people feel worse. Now let's talk nervous system. If your body isn't living in fight or flight, it prioritizes survival. That means it prioritizes immediate energy, quick stress response, tight control, alertness, and it downshifts digestion repair, deep detox capacity, hormone balance, immune regulation. So if you're constantly wired, constantly pushing, constantly responsible, the body doesn't feel safe enough to do the deep, appealing work.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Again, not your fault. That's a pattern. When people hear the word trauma, they think of one major thing.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

The trauma can also be chronic stress over years. Never feeling like you can rest, constantly being a strong one, living in pressure, emotional buildup that never gets processed. And the body key score. Not in a dramatic way, just in a real way. If you're always bracing, always tight, always alert, the body adapts to that as normal. Then you try to detox and the system says, No thanks. Too much. Here are common signs. You're tired but you can't relax. You wake up at night, you get anxious or irritable easily, you feel inflamed or puffy. Supplements make you feel worse. You feel sensitive to everything, you're constipated, or elimination is sluggish, you crave sugar or caffeine to function. And here's the point.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

It doesn't mean you're failing. It means we have to build capacity first.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

So let's take a quick pause. If you're listening and thinking, this is me and I need a clear next step. You can go to therockinhealth.com slash start dash here. You can take the quiz to get clarity on what may be driving your symptoms, or book a call with me if you want a personalized plan. Alright, back to it. What to do instead? Here's a better sequence for most people. Regulation first. Breath work, walking, longer exhales, nervous system downshifts. The thing is, is when you're in overdrive, when your body is in that sympathetic state of go, go, go, your cortisol is revving up, your adrenals are getting tanked. And in order to detect, we have to calm that sympathetic nervous system down so that your adrenals know it's okay, that you're safe. So here are some ways you can do that. Again, breath work, walking, longer exhales, nervous system downshifts. You can do gratitude.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Say I am give yourself grace. You just you're okay, you're safe, you're going to heal.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

And then we want to make sure that we have elimination support. Because if we're constipated, detoxing isn't going to work very well for your body. So we gotta get things moving. And honestly, sometimes it's during the detox when the bowels start to actually move how they're supposed to move. So it's kind of like a give and take there. I would start relaxing the body because once you get your body into that parasympathetic state, your body will be able to rest and digest, which means it will relax and it will allow itself to allow a bowel movement. So things that you can help with elimination support is making sure that you're hydrated. So we want to drink on average, I try to aim for 80 to 100 ounces of water a day. I'm much better at getting my 80, but some people are really good at getting 100, some people are good at getting 64. Try and aim for at least a minimum of 64. Aim for a little bit higher, which will help your detox because you've got to add a little bit extra water in there for that detox. 64 is just kind of a base. You need some minerals because your body is made of minerals. So putting minerals in your body gives it support, makes it feel safe. Minerals also help with moving the bowels. Consistent meals so that your body knows it's safe because you're consistent. It knows what things are gonna happen. Consistency is key. Fiber protein balance. So making sure that at each meal you're eating some fat, protein, and fiber. I call it the PFF protein, fat, fiber. Make sure there's always something on your plate with that. Support your bioflow. So you might need an enzyme with oxbile. And make sure you're actually having regular bowel movements. Again, it helps if your bowels are moving because if you do a detox and you're constipated, then we're just gonna, again, when you're constipated, we're recycling those toxins back up all over the body. So what we want to do is make sure that we got the bowels moving. But sometimes, again, it's during the detox that the bowels start moving. But otherwise, if you have issues, what I usually do with the detox is I make sure that I give you a certain ingredient. I like colon X, and I give that to you so that we can start getting things moving. You can also drink teas like smooth move tea. That's an excellent one to start working on too. Teas are great for a lot of things. And then we're gonna work on lowering inflammation, and that's generally gonna happen during the detox. And what happens is it'll allow your body to kind of do again some calming. And that just kind of naturally happens as you detox. So a targeted detox support, this is where testing and protocols matter because random detoxing isn't a plan. So what I do when it comes to detoxing, I have uh an initial 30-day metabolic reset. And what this does is we order your functional blood work so that we can actually see major organs, what's going on in that. And we do that in the beginning. Then when I see that, you and I get together, we meet. I may decide that you have to do something different for your detox, but we start to put a plan together to how your next 30 days are gonna go with that detox. And then at the end of that detox, we do another blood work and functional blood work, and it's amazing within 30 days. What you can see happens on your functional blood work. You're gonna see your glucose coming down, you'll see A1C start to shift, you'll see your kidney markers getting better, you will see your gut markers getting better, you'll see the liver ones, you're gonna see the inflammation, your cardiovascular, your thyroid, and your immune system. So when I order that functional blood work, there is, I'm getting all of those major systems that I can see what's going on. You do the detox, the 30-day metabolic reset. And 30 days later, we get to see where you're at and then what your next step of action is. It's a great first step. And it gives you so that you know exactly what you're working on, and you actually get to see the results in your blood work each time. And I have before and afters. Um, and I'll be doing another webinar so that I can show the before and afters here soon. So if you're not on my email list, make sure you go into my website and um make sure that you do the quiz, and then that'll get you into my um email system. But in that quiz, there's a possibility that quiz might point you that it's time for you to do the 30-day metabolic reset, or it might say that you need to do something else, like a clarity call, or go into a little bit more deeper program or more one-on-one with me. So that clear that quiz really will help you understand what you need to do with yourself. So detoxing is something I love. And you have to get those toxins out of you. Um, because they just wreak havoc. They punch little holes in your gut, they destroy your organs, they get into every little crevice. It's like a lot of times, a lot of the resistance to healing is because of toxins. So if you have resistant weight loss, if you have resistance to insulin, if you have resistance to pretty much anything in your body, or things are really slow to heal, or you're getting a lot of rashes or anything else, most likely you've got toxin exposure. Again, that's mold, environmental toxins, heavy metals. It's also can be the parasites, like from the week before that we talked. We got different parasites and different bacteria and viruses that can get into your system. All of that makes your body toxic. So we need to help your body by getting rid of those. And sometimes your body needs a little extra support to get rid of it. So naturally, yes, a healthy body that's not overloaded can naturally detox itself. But when you become overloaded, which is kind of what's happening in our world nowadays, because we have constant exposure to toxins. We've got it in the air, it's in our water, it's in our food, and it's being constantly recycled through us. It is, we are one of the most toxic countries in the United States. And I talk about this in my webinars. So sometime you're gonna want to get in on my call and watch that and get to see that. And maybe I'll do one of those here in the podcast, just so you can start learning a little bit more, just kind of really getting nitty-gritty and like what happens to the body when the toxins enter it and what the body does, and then why when you try to lose weight, you just gain it right back. There is a reason why, and this is all about why it's these toxins. So I want you to ask yourself when I try to get healthy, do I tend to go all in and overwhelm my system? Or do you take it gently, one baby step at a time? So I've seen people do this both ways. Some do it full board in. And honestly, sometimes I really think that's a better idea, as long as you've got the consistency and the follow-up to finish through. Especially when you're doing a 30-day, most people can do 30 days. It's not that hard. I've had so many people going through that, and there's been so many others that have gone through it from the creators of the company that I use. It is not hard to go through, it's just a matter of doing it. Um so, yes, going all in is huge. And you kind of learn along the way. You just trust that you know you're gonna learn along the way. Sometimes when you tiptoe in, you get frustrated because you're not seeing results fast enough, because you're still allowing the toxins into your body and it's just barely tiptoeing in, and maybe you'll try it, maybe you'll do a little bit here, a little bit there. But you never see results and you get frustrated. So, to be honest, when it comes to detoxing, you kind of have to go all in for at least a good 30 days. And then after that, when you retest, you get to find out what you can add back in if you can. Again, it's always gonna be keeping an eye on your body and your labs and how you're feeling. So, here's another question: where am I pushing through when my body is asking for support? So, when you're detoxing, you've got to have support. Whether if it's just that you're supporting yourself, because when you're detoxing, you've got to slow down. And you might not be able to run your marathons at that time. You might not be able to go full blessed in the gym. You might not need to make sure that you're not like going full blessed in your work and career. Doesn't mean you can't. It's just that just realize that when you're detoxing, you have to give grace to your body for at least the first seven days. That it's doing a huge shift, a huge change. And you got to give it the grace to process through that. So just for seven days, you kind of have to just slow down, maybe walk instead of run, lightweight instead of heavy. Give yourself extra time that if it needs a nap, you can maybe tell work that, hey, I'm not working 20 hours a day. Because I'm sure some of you feel like you are, like you barely get any sleep, you just live at work, right? So you might actually have to put boundaries around your work hours so that you protect yourself. Boundaries are huge. When you put boundaries around yourself, you're it allows you to say yes to you. When you have no boundaries, you're saying yes to everybody else and no to you. And that makes you start to feel burnt out and makes you feel lonely and frustrated and mad and like you don't matter. But when you create boundaries, nice safe boundaries, it allows you to determine what you're willing to say yes to and what you're not going to say yes to, what's in alignment with you. And that's huge when you're detoxing, because when you're detexting and your friends want you to go party or go out to eat, you have to have that boundary set up so that you can say, no. Right now I'm not doing that. Right now, I'm giving my body the support it needs. I'm choosing to not do that today. And that is huge. You want to do that when you're detoxing it, and you really need to do that any other time. Because I mean, no matter what, you've got to pay attention to listen to your body. Get in tune with your body and listen. You want to pay attention to what it has to say. So sometimes it's little nudges, and get really good at starting to listen to your body and the nudges, and they'll get louder and they'll help you, and you're gonna start to feel better when you start listening. So, this is you might even be getting the nudge, and your body might wake me up now, be saying, We need some help. We need it, we need something to help us detox because we really want to work better for you. And if that's the case and you're feeling that nudge, like, you know, I'm kind of curious about this, this 30-day metabolic reset. Reach out to me. Just give me a call, send me an email, let me know. I'd be happy to help you and support you. So here's another question: what would it look like to build capacity instead of forcing change? So that's kind of more along the lines of that consistency, right? Staying consistent, staying inside your boundaries. When you do that, you build a capacity, you build a stronger you. And that you creates a whole entire different system around yourself.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

You get to level up.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

All right. So here what we want to do, um, and one thing is I do a lot of breath work in my podcast. So usually every other episode is a pod is a breath work. There are breath work Sundays, stuff like that. And when you're gonna go through a detox, I would definitely suggest that you make sure that you listen to those breath works, maybe even one a day, and give yourself grace and do a lot of breathing. Because breath and breathing is huge for detoxing. So doing some nice deep breathing would be huge for your detox. And when you start breathing, you start doing that deep breathing, it allows your body to calm down. It allows it to just sit and heal. And that's what you want. You want to heal. You want yourself back, you want your life back. That's why you're here. This is yes, your empowered self. And this is one of the first steps is you gotta start detoxing the toxins that are hurting you. And the first step is doing 30 days. Depending on what you have in your system, some have to do longer. And sometimes that longer can be months, weeks, years. But all that matters is, and technically in reality, you're always going to be detoxing. It's like it's an everyday thing, like we talked about earlier. I mean, no matter what, your system, your entire body is detoxing every single second. But if you're overloading it with toxins, it can't clean itself at all. It's like pouring dirty water over clean water constantly. The clean water can't stay clean because the dirty water is overflowing. So you have to clean the dirty water so you can keep clean water. So, a simple next step is just honestly go to my website, rockinhealth.com, is R-O-C-K-Y-N, Rockin' Health. Because my nickname's Rocky, and my last, my last name, my maiden last name is Need. So rockin'. Um, so it's rockin' health. And uh just go there, hit the start here button. It takes you right to the quiz. You can take that quiz. It also gives you access if you want to make a call, um, schedule a complimentary call with me. If you want to talk to me, uh I'd love to talk to you. But before we close, I want to end with a breath. So I want you to inhale for four through your nose and exhale for six through your mouth. Good. Let's practice that one again. Inhale for four through your nose and exhale for six and soften your shoulders. Beautiful. And if you want, I'm gonna do a couple of sayings here and feel free to take a couple more nice deep breaths as I say these. These are things that you can use as part of your I ams. So I return to safety, I choose awareness.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

I can change the pattern. Beautiful. That's right. Alright.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

So one more nice deep breath in. And out. Beautiful. If this episode helped you connect some dots, your next step is obviously just to go to my website, rockethealth.com, hit the start here button. From there, you can take the quiz to figure out what may be driving your symptoms, or you can book a call with me. And then we can set up a nice clear plan of personalized support for you. And remember, you're not broken, you're patterned, and patterns can change. This is your yes. I'll see you next week.