Adventures in Environmental Medicine with Dr Erica Elliott

In this episode I talk with one of my beloved mentors, Dr. Erica Elliott. Dr Elliott is a nationally celebrated medical doctor, specializing in environmental medicine and family practice. Affectionately known as “the Medical Detective” she diagnoses and treats chronic illness by uncovering and addressing underlying causes. 

Dr. Elliott has led a fascinating life including time spent teaching on the Navajo Reservation, serving in the Peace Corp in Ecuador, mountaineering for Outward Bound, and climbing peaks such as Aconcagua in Argentina- the highest mountain in the western hemisphere and Denali in Alaska.

 Dr. Elliott is a public speaker, educator, and author. She has spoken at Esalen, Omega Institute, and TedX. She is the co-author of "Prescriptions for a Healthy House and the author of a trilogy of memoirs including Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert: My Life among the Navajo People, From Mountains to Medicine: Scaling the Heights in Search of My Calling, and “From Doctor to Healer: The Mountain Lion's Gift. 

In this episode we talk about what led her to environmental medicine and the off the beaten path pursuits that informed her approach to life and healing.

You can find Dr Elliott's blog here: https://www.musingsmemoirandmedicine.com/blog

You can reach Dr Elliott here:

https://www.ericaelliottmd.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Centered the Podcast. I'm your host, Leslie Braverman, and I'm sharing holistic health content that reconnects you to your most centered self, that place within you that is energized, knowing, and uplifted despite the chaos and demands of life. It's that place within you where you can become a portal of possibility. Today we're welcoming Erica Elliott, the amazing friend, mentor, and I consider family. I'm so excited to introduce Erica. She's a medical doctor specializing in both family practice and environmental medicine. She has a busy private practice here in Santa Fe, treating patients from all across the country. Affectionately known as the medical detective, she diagnoses and treats chronic illnesses by uncovering and addressing underlying causes. Dr. Elliot came to medicine later than most medical students. She spent a decade pursuing other careers and interests such as teaching on the Navajo Reservation, serving in the Peace Corps in Ecuador, mountaineering for outward bound, climbing peaks such as Aconcagua in Argentina, which is the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere, and Denali in Alaska. She's a public speaker, an educator, and an author. She's spoken at Esalon, Omega Institute, and TEDx. She's the co-author of her first book, The Prescriptions for a Healthy House. And she's the author of a trilogy of memoirs, including Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert, From Mountains to Medicine, and From Doctor to Healer. Welcome, Dr. Erica.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Hi, I'm glad to be here. I'm always glad to share my information. I think I'm a natural-born educator, but I only like to educate with things that make people have a better life. I'm not interested in anything else in terms of education.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

We are so glad you're on this podcast because that is what my pursuit is and has always been. And I know so much more. My life is so enriched having you and your education, having been a part of it. And I know as a health coach, I share so much of what you've taught me with my clients as well.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Oh, that makes me feel so happy because this is actually the meaning of my life is to be of service in ways that I'm good at and ways that I love. And so that's what I tell my patients too. It's really important to find out what your what your gifts are and what you love doing, and then give them to in service. And that is so powerful. And and it makes the person doing it feel fulfilled.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. Feeling purpose, you know, it's one of those blue zone tenants. And if we can bring it into our life here, we're just living the dream.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Yeah, right. And I wrote the books, the three books in the trilogy. Actually, it had nothing to do with making money. I mean, not anything to do. It had two purposes. One, so my son would know about my life. And the main purpose was to be of service to people because the books are informative, they're inspiring, and they they really help people who are lost on their path. And so that's how I hope people will find my books. And then one of the books is about what we're talking about today. It's one of my first books, and and you have the first book in the I'm gonna show this.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

So if you're watching on YouTube, I have the first, one of the older editions.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

And I'm in the house. The newer edition. This is the fourth edition. And in this one, I did not co-author, I did the foreword to this. And this is a huge opus magnum. I mean, anything you want to know about a healthy house, whether building a healthy house, what you put in the healthy house, and so it's really a gym. And so so we're gonna talk about what to put in a healthy home. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 4:31

We yeah, we could talk about so many things, because as you heard in the bio, I mean, that was only part of the bio. The bio could have been 10 minutes long. Eric has had such an amazing life, and actually, one of my personal favorite stories is her climb in Argentina. But today we're gonna get into living in a healthy house. I built a house, completely green certified house back in Bellingham before I moved here. And so much of what went into it was based on knowledge I had, both being an environmental scientist and from Dr. Erica and from this book. So, yeah, how did you what led you to support this book and what this type of work?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Okay, so what happened was I was in mainstream medicine and I didn't really enjoy it at all. But I I made a deal with the devil, so to speak, and joined corporate medicine so I'd have time to spend with my little son, who was like two years old then. And otherwise I'd be delivering babies all night, I'd be working on the weekends, I'd be on call all night. And how can I be a single mother and do all that? So so I did corporate medicine, and I I was so shocked because for me it didn't have anything to do with healing. It was all about giving pills for each symptom. And I felt so rotten because I love people and I love helping them feel better, and I couldn't do it because if I spent too much time, there's pound, pound, pound on the door. And how too much time was 15 minutes for follow-up visit and a half an hour for a new patient visit. So if they had anything other than a cold or something, I there's no way doctors could have the time to address it properly. It was, but then the universe did something to me that first seemed terrible, and then I realized it was a real gift. I I got, quote, poisoned by this toxic building. It was a new building, outgassing lots of nasty chemicals. They used air fresheners, which are petroleum products. They used had windows that didn't open. The the pesticides they used were known to cause brain damage, chlorpyrophose. The EPA received thousands of reports about children being damaged from chlorpyrophose that was sprayed in the house, DERSBAN. And now it's banned for indoor use. And so every month I when they did it, I didn't even know what they're doing. I didn't know any of this stuff then. I was a beginner. I had no idea why I was getting sicker and sicker and sicker. And my brain was starting to act like I was demented and I was tired all the time. And I'm a world-class athlete and I was exhausted all the time. But again, like most people, they never associate it with the building. I kept trying to, do I need a psychiatrist? No. And you know, they gave me pills for depression, and then I realized this isn't the problem. And I thought, is it because I hate this kind of medicine? Maybe that's why I'm falling apart. And then I said, no, when you hate something, it doesn't cause you brain damage and give you rashes. And so finally a building inspector came, and because there were complaints about the uh HVAC, that the heat and ventilation system, the wind, when the wind blows, it blows all the polluted uh discharge back into the building. So he came and I started talking to him, and he said, This is a toxic building. And and then I finally, it's too long to relate the whole story, but I realized it was the building and that I had to get out of there. Then then I thought my life was over, my being a doctor because I was so damaged. But then it was like some miracle. All these people from the old clinic, the corporate clinic, found me and came to my house and knocked on the door and said they want an appointment in my house. And I was so confused because my brain wasn't working right. I thought, why are I said, why are you coming to me? And they all said the same thing. We want it, we we're looking for a doctor who really listens to what we have to say and hears us and sees us and has compassion. And so, and they would pay me for doing nothing, just listening. And finally, I in order to get well, I had to study environmental medicine. And I was desperate to get well. I I I needed to keep being a doctor, I wanted to keep being a doctor, and I I needed it to support my son and pay the mortgage and food and stuff. And so over over a three-year period, I got board certified in environmental medicine. The whole time I was learning about environmental medicine. By the way, it's all stuff you don't learn in in medical school. It's all the important stuff. What you eat, what you breathe, what you put on your body, what you put in your house, what you wash your clothes with, uh what you wash your dishes with, all that stuff is never addressed. And my nutrition course was two hours in the med school. That's a joke.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

And we learned especially because we know at least 80% of our life, the way it expresses, is going to be through what we eat.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

That's so true. That's the foundation. So I my patients, I was so transparent with them. They they knew I was damaged and brain damaged, and they hung in there with me. And and actually they were telling all their friends, and pretty soon I had more patients than I can handle. And I never advertised, not once in my whole uh the 33 years of practicing this kind of medicine, never advertised once. But the people came from all over because they were so desperate to find a doctor who believed them. And so, so uh everything I learned I shared with them. So they grew as I grew, and they all became experts. All in those all those early days, they all became experts in their own condition, and which is great because what I'm about is not do as I say I'm the doctor. It's here. This is how it'll help you, this is what it does, and and so forth. I educate because that's part of helping a person get well instead of just robotically taking a pill because the doctor said so, and you have no idea why you're taking that pill or what it does or what it doesn't do, if it harms you or doesn't harm you, and stuff. And so then I started getting more and more and more well. And so Paula Baker Laporte, the co-author of that book, and now she's the full author of the fourth edition, she she was my neighbor, and she came to me saying she she was so tired all the time, she could hardly stand up straight. She looked like an old woman, she was only in her 30s, she was an architect, and she built these very uh elaborate homes in towards the mountains for the wealthy people. And she she was always having bronchitis and pneumonia over and over, and looked like she was 80 years old. And she came to me with yet another case of pneumonia, and and I said, Paula, you know, uh we we need some education here. You you have a reason for having these. They don't just come out of nowhere. This is not your genetics, this is what you're exposed to. And she looked really puzzled. I said, You're you're building these gorgeous homes and they're all toxic because you nobody's been trained in this kind of stuff to use non-toxic wood and stuff like that. And she said, I said, you have what I have. And she said, No, I don't want to have what you have. I don't want it. I said, I'm awfully sorry, but that's what you have. And if you want to get well and stay well, you you need to do what I'm doing. You need to learn about this, and I can share it with you. Anyway, she started to get better, and then she was so excited about not feeling bad that she she said, you know, I think we're supposed to do something important together. I said, What's that, Paula? She said, We're supposed to write a book about this. People need to know about this. People are poisoning themselves all across the country, and and we're we're really backward as a country in terms of acknowledging Europeans are way more sophisticated about this stuff than us. And and part of it is the corporations don't want us to know all this stuff. And so, and so so we wrote the book, and then her career took off, and and her health took off, and she she was so excited, and people came from all over the country to have her and her partner build non-toxic homes. And by the way, she's very artistic, so her homes are not only exquisitely healthy, you feel like you're sitting in a forest, but also they're beautiful. Often beautiful homes are toxic, by the way. But her homes are beautiful and healthy, and and you feel great. And so my house was her very first non-toxic house. So she's gone a long way since there. I mean, I love my house, I just love it, but she she's gone way beyond my house, and and patients love coming here too. They they smell the soup on the stove, and I don't have a white coat, and I'm very relaxed, and they walk through this beautiful community that I was one of the founders of the co-housing community, has big trees. You think you're in an oasis or a sanctuary, and so my patients come and they feel really calm when they come to see me. They're not scared, and I've heard over and over patients say, You're the only doctor I actually look forward to seeing. And so the best part of their regime, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so I'm gonna talk to your listeners about the home. So that was just a prelude. And also, if you want to hear my read about my journey, which is kind of mesmerizing, I think. I mean, when I wrote it, I thought, oh my God, did that really happen? How did I survive that? Oh my god. But but it's very educational. Would you agree with that? Absolutely. Yes, it's called From Doctor to Healer, and it's the whole trajectory from doing mainstream medicine and being I idealistic medical student and and then gradually realizing something was really wrong about what we were learning. And it was it wasn't only the fact that we only had two hours of nutrition, it was all pill-oriented. We became experts in pills, and they know. Yeah, it was it was uh very disappointing to me. And I thought, geez, this is the path I took. This isn't really helping people, and so so it was a god godsend that these bad things happened to me. So I want your listeners to know never waste a bad experience.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

That is one of my favorite takeaways that you've told me before, and the other one is be your own detective. Those are my two favorite Dr.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Erica isms, yeah, because when you're stripped and everything's wrong, you can rebuild your life according to your soul's desire. It's a chance to be the person you you dreamed about being. And so these bad things can be a portal to transformation. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Yeah, absolutely. And so many people are going through that right now, having things stripped away from them, whether it's their health or changes in family structure, moving somewhere they hadn't intended. And it all comes down to that sensation of being able to rebuild and being adaptable and knowing that you are that portal of possibility.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Yeah, and and one of my patients, which I adopted this phrase, she said, You're composting disaster.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Yes, that's great. Yes, composting disaster. And then the book that Dr. Erica referred to is actually the third in her trilogy. And while that one really does chronicle a lot of what led her to this path, the other two are so rich and fantastic and have so many experiences that are so delicious to read. So don't miss the others just to get it.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

I think you'd really like the others. Um I mean, some of the people who read the one about my life with the Navo people, they just rave about it. And you know what?

SPEAKER_01 17:46

If we could just touch on Uncle Ernst for a minute, that's that's always one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Okay, that's in book two. Book two is from Mountains to Medicine. It was my 10-year trajectory looking for what I was meant to be doing, but each thing I did wasn't wasted. I used every single thing I learned on this 10-year projectory to be a better doctor. Like, for example, when I when I was with the Navos, I I arrived there not knowing their culture. I was so ignorant and nobody taught me, and all the white teachers didn't really like the Navajo children and said they weren't very smart and stuff like that. Well, when I my teacher A taught me how to speak Navajo, I mean the beginning of it, and then I the students helped me, and then and because it wasn't written language back then, and and they have sounds that many sounds that don't exist in English. So it was it was really hard, but I'm linguistically oriented from traveling all around. So even with me, who learns languages easily, this was like the heart, this was harder than Chinese. I have a sister who's fluent in Chinese. She said, This is way beyond Chinese, all the weird sounds. And when I started speaking Navajo, oh my God, the children just opened up to me and and they they talked to me instead of looking down all the time and not talking, and they learned English so fast. These white teachers really didn't really know what's going on because the students didn't open up to them because they felt the teachers didn't like them and they knew that I love them and they they flowered. And here's the most amazing fact, and I have a newspaper article to prove it that three people in that fourth grade class who didn't really speak English, to tell you the truth, but and now they they just were talking in English all the time, and this three little girls they won regional speech contests after a year of learning. Amazing just a year, because why? Because they were so excited that somebody cared about them and they wanted to be able to talk to me in English. I mean, I they were teaching me Navajo, but of course, you know, I was talking like a two-year-old in the beginning. And and so they anyway, it was a total love affair, and they took me to to the I checked out a different student each week to take them in my four-wheel drive to their very remote homes in the Canyon de Che. And I they invited me to their ceremonies that white people never see, and peyote ceremonies. I mean, I saw things that are really hard to believe. And and I wrote about some of them. And I wrote about them, yeah. And so so then the second book. So everything I did helped me be a better doctor and climbing big mountains. Like I was the first American woman to climb Aconkawa, which is, like you said, the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere. What I learned, it's not the same thing that the guys were doing. I was in an all-male climbing club, by the way. They somehow didn't think I was a woman, meaning they allowed me in because I was so different. And I wasn't like Billy. You were superhuman. No, because men are very shy back then, and and you always have to be with a man no matter what you do. And they wear skirts. And so I don't they didn't know what to do with me. So they accepted me and taught me everything they know. So I was the only woman there, and pretty soon I was as good as they were. But what I learned that's different me from my my other fellow climbers, well, maybe it's the same, I don't know. But I learned it's it's not about, yay, I made it to the summit. I'm so great. It wasn't that wasn't what I'm all about. I I'm all about overcoming my limitations, my self induced limitations. imitation. It was all symbolic. All that all that I did was symbolic for like my fear to overcome my fear and and just thinking that I'll never make it and this and that. And so this helped prepare me for medical school. So everything I did. So one of the things I did to that began this whole journey, I went to after college I went to see my uncle Ernst and he was a genius. And I don't use that word lightly. I'm not a genius. He's a genius and I know how to figure out problems but I'm not a genius. I use common sense and critical thinking. That's my forte. He's a real genius. And so I went to visit him because my father said he was a quack and my mother said he was a genius. And so I went like I was going to be a reporter and talk to my uncle, interview him and stuff like that. He was a very shy man. He had had a brutal upbringing his father was a doctor but but the father was really nice but he was always gone. And the mother died in childbirth so he was raised by these really mean stepmothers who didn't want to be mothers and it with cruelty with great cruelty and how it manifested in him is he was terribly shy terribly shy but but total genius. And I I was trying to figure out well how how do you know he's a genius I thought to myself what makes him a genius so I talked to his patients and and they all said he's a genius because he was able to help these people get well who had been written off as hopeless cases from their cancer, from schizophrenia, all sorts of conditions that were deemed untreatable and and he he he got almost everybody well from and it's very simple what he did. He it was all like fasting and eating impeccable diet and and and so forth and sauna and sunshine exposure and blah blah blah. It's just what we're learning in the last couple decades. But he this was in the 50s and 60s and I visited him in 1970 and I came away saying oh my God he really is a true genius and what happened with that I so was so impressed with him I I said could could I could could you mentor me? So he he said you're not ready. I I thought what does that mean I'm not ready I I don't know but he he he had a lot of intuition and foresight and so but I I kept thinking I interpret his meaning in in a way that was harmful to me I when you're not ready I I thought you're not good enough to be a doctor. So I had that idea for those whole 10 years that I wasn't good enough even though it was in my DNA third generation doctor it was in my DNA but I kept overriding it saying I can't do that because I'm not ready and I'm not good enough and I'm not a genius. I know I'm not a genius. You could say you're smart but that's but genius is a total nother level and so how I discovered that you don't have to be a genius to be a doctor is when I was in Colorado to get my master's degree in experiential education because I wanted I wanted to do more like what Outward Bound did. I I taught for Outward Bound and saw that it was life changing for some of these students totally life changing and in in a mere three weeks it that's hard to believe but it's true because the parents would write me letters what did you do to my son or what did you do to my daughter? You're so nice and they say thank you and they offer to wash the dishes and stuff like that. And so it was very very rewarding. So I thought oh maybe this is what I'm supposed to be doing I'm supposed to be having you know that kind of organization to help help people. And so while I was getting my master's degree I was kind of bored because it was so easy. So I became an EMT and with my spare time and I also just because I wanted to do mountaineering stuff and help people are in trouble in the mountains and at the same time with my excess free time I I took advanced placement biology and stuff like because when I went to Antioch college they were trying to be real progressive and if you took tests and scored out of them you didn't have to take the course which was really too bad. Because that was that I don't think you can do that anymore. No you can't that that was a big failure that was Antioch was very experimental and they didn't all work. So a lot didn't work and so I felt deprived that you know I that I scored out of it and didn't so I thought this is my chance and plus I'll get updated information. So I went to this class in Boulder and they were all 10 years younger than me and I found out that every one of them except me was pre-med they were all planning on being doctors if they got in and I thought to myself oh my God these people are not geniuses. They are good at memorizing and spinning things back but there's no evidence of critical thinking saying why is this so and how does that happen and I I so I I had an epiphany you don't have to be a genius to be a doctor and so and so you broke through that block.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

That's fantastic. Yeah but I mean really you upleveled your capacity so much with all the years of outdoor ed and mountaineering and then experiential learning that you did with the Navajo I mean so much led you to that moment and there it was all you needed to do was look around and see who your cohort would have been and known you'd you'd be okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Oh my God. I thought I've been living with a misconception all this time. But then I thought oh wait it's really good I had this misconception because look at all that stuff I learned while I was on this 10 year search. I learned so much and I wouldn't have traded that for anything. So you know if I went in there as a you know to medical school as a 22 year old I'd probably be like my classmates just believe everything they're told and not question anything. You know we were told some stuff that's obviously not true. You know and so anyway so then back to environmental medicine I learned so much valuable stuff and I I learned why I was hit the worst at that clinic. Everybody felt bad but why was I hit so hard? So part of my training was to learn about genetics and there it was and I don't clear toxins very well I have a gene mutation that that doesn't create glutathione and glutathione is the king of or queen of detoxification in the liver. So I I have to be sure I take glutathione but that's not enough. I have to avoid these things and why did this happen in the clinic and not before because I never was in toxic places before I was outside doing stuff and this was a new experience for my body to be around disgusting pollutants all the time. And it was a new building so it's outgassing all these petrochemicals these building products it was really horrible. I I thank God I had a you know fell apart and thank god I got out of there because I don't know I would have gotten more and more demented and it was here here's something hilarious. Because I wasn't they they chastised me a little bit because they wanted me to see like about 15 patients a day or something. And I I just had such a hard time turning them away after 15 minutes. It was so hard and them banging on the door and so the supervisor who was actually a doctor he'd actually served in the Peace Corps he really liked me and you could tell he had he was having he was going to have trouble with what he was about to say. And so he said Erica I have good news and I have bad news for you. This was after the first year and I said well can we start with the good news so I can handle the bad news and he said yeah he said out of all the I can't say the name I'll get sued out of all these this chain of of corporate medicine clinics it's all the same name there's an Albuquerque Santa Fe and stuff in all the all those organizations all those clinics the you are the only person the only doctor who's never had a complaint filed against them I I said really what's the bad news and he said we can't give you a bonus because you you need to see more patients in in an hour I thought oh brother and I thought to myself I don't care about the bonus I I it's just horrible turning away patients say your time's up and I haven't even done anything to help them I'm not willing to give a pill for each symptom a pill for the headache a pill for the stomach pain a pill for anxiety I'm it's just it just this horrible form of medicine just horrible I wanna I want to throw in a little question here and this is you know a little bit outside of what I introduced you as but I'm curious what do you think or how how do you think your time at Plum Village with Tik Not Han influenced your your work as a doctor oh he helped me so much but you know he would I say me but it was all the people you know I was just one of many people and I brought my son too he he said things that really rang a bell but I had no idea how important what he was saying would be when I was in such severe suffering which we haven't gotten to we we I bet you thought the building was the worst thing I mean the listeners but no it got much worse than that what happened to me and it wasn't related to a building it it was related to doctor negligence and I had to be my own doctor but so I during this time of utter despair and misery TikN's words came back to me all the time like he talked about putting your demons in the living room and serving them tea and so and total acceptance here's your tea oh god I'd like to kill you but oh but here's your tea so and he he said something else at the time I just didn't believe it but I found out it was true he said to everybody not just he wasn't just talking to me he said when you smile the brain thinks you're happy I thought oh oh sure so but I tried it out it's really true so when I was in this horrible situation where I I just wanted to commit suicide it was un I didn't sleep for a year it it was I don't know how I managed I pretended like I was normal so people thought I was normal they they had no idea what was really going on with me but I used what TikNothan says so people thought I was a really happy person because I smiled because it made me feel less miserable.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Yeah and we can talk a little bit about the the neuropathways that are created because the brain doesn't know the difference between reality and what we program into it. So we can program the reality we want to live and then those neuropathways will be created and that's part of the work that you did.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

And of course the HeartMath Institute has proven this since then but you were really one of the people who used that tool before it was proven yeah yeah exactly yeah and then I remembered something in medical school we part of our training was to sit in on AA meetings and you know they're the the things they go by and one of the things they go by is fake it until you make it and I I thought when at the time I thought that is so phony and but then that's what saved me that I I acted like I was a normal person where I wasn't normal at all but it was very helpful to me to take the focus off my extreme misery. So I've faked it and people when they read the book they said I had no idea you were suffering so much. I said that's good because it it means I did a really good job. I did a really good job and and and it helped okay so I'm going to tell you a a patient came back to Santa Fe after 20 years of being away and she didn't know know anything about what happened to me nothing about this snowboarding accident.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

I do want to just do a very short recap on the accident and then the the medical negligence just so people understand what we're talking about. This is of course detailed in Dr.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Erica's book but just since we're talking about it please yeah so I was doing really well after I recovered it took five years to totally get my brain back but all the time I was going up the graph it wasn't like I'm miserable now I'm fine it was all the time I was improving all the time but but after five years I could say gee I I feel better than I have in in my life I I was doing so well and I was writing in journals you know give giving information to everybody and going to being workshop leaders in different venues and because I was committed to help the world understand these things and and so I was doing a public service all the time and and then this was so for about 15 years I I had a reprieve or 14 or something like that. I had a total reprieve and I guess it was time to have another disaster because so I took my son to learn snowboarding and he was 11 and I was like 55 or something like that. And I I I went to a place called Wolf Creek Pass where they have a lot of snow and I didn't want to just wait in the car for him I got antsy and so I went inside the station and I asked if there's an instruction instructor to teach me snowboarding. And so this guy came and he said you know you're my mom's age she would never do something like this you sure you want to do this and I said yeah I'm an athlete so it comes natural to me. Well I fell down constantly natural or not I mean it's so it's so such a different way to put your feet and everything. By the second day I started catching on the third day I was high as a kite. I was sailing like an eagle down the slope I and I just was madly in love with snowboarding and I gave up the backcountry skiing for it I gave up cross country skiing for it. I just love the like feeling like an eagle and so one day I was in line to go up to the top of the mountain where there's lots of moguls and stuff and I was just standing in line and a young man was bombing down the slope and I looked up saw him I thought wow well he's he's gonna turn any minute and he didn't know how to turn and he smashed me up and my my left leg was very smashed up and I looked like a rag doll with the leg the bottom leg uh lower leg pointing outwards laterally like like a broken doll. And yeah I was in shock so initially no pain at all but then when the shock wore off it it was intensely painful. But anyway so I had surgery and they rebuilt my knee with cadaver bone chips and a plate and screws and everything and I healed very fast because I I was extremely healthy. I healed he said I'd never seen anybody heal this fast well fast meant I was only in bed for three months that was terrible but but some people are in bed for six months because you're you're rebuilding the whole thing and and so then everything seemed fine and after six months I started developing one autoimmune disease after another and I think the people should read the book to because it's so horrible describing it.

SPEAKER_01 40:24

Yeah we're not gonna go into detail just wanted them to understand that there was another experience other than the sick building syndrome.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

Yeah and and it ended up causing real brain damage I had had to have brain surgery and I have metal in my head. So but anyway so that last part of the book is really uplifting it's because how I learned to live with this stuff and I had to have since suicide was out it would have ruined my son's life I had to number one I had to accept this is who I am and that was really hard for me to do I you know to be impaired was really hard visually impaired and and then only seeing out of one eye at a time so no peripheral vision no depth perception everything blurry migraines no sleep so I had to accept this new me number two I had to learn how to live with it. So that took quite a while learning how to live with all these problems and three I learned this is the biggest achievement of all I learned how to be happy in spite of it all I learned joy which is independent is happy the way it's used is like something right happens you're happy something bad happens you're not happy joy is independent and I learned that and so the ending is really uplifting and inspiring.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

I mean did you find that absolutely absolutely and and to know you and know how joyful you are and joy again this is an energy that comes from the inside it is a soul expression of energy that has nothing to do with the material world right this joy is about this personal triumph this experience and moving away from having such a strong you know expression of ego and orientation that way in the material world and into a greater expression from that portal of possibility. I just love that.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

Yeah so I actually this is shocking that I wouldn't trade this I don't want to be the old Erica because that old Erica was only happy when things were going right and not when things and I that I I I have joy even when things are really horrible really horrible I still and so this patient who came to me she said wow did you win the lottery or something I said no and she said well you must be madly in love no what why do you why do you think that she said why are you so joyful and I I thought I for no reason she was really stumped by that.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

In spite of it all yes so fantastic before we wrap up can I just steer you back to a couple of things a couple of takeaways people can have to help make their home their what they put on their personal like their body temple what they can do to keep clean that way environmentally clean.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

Yeah so the first thing the most important thing and this takes place in your house is what you eat but we're that's a big topic so we're not going to go deep into it but you the people have to know that the food that most Americans eat is extremely Unhealthy and toxic, and this ultra-processed foods, all the packaging and all that stuff. We have to wean ourselves off that. It's it's created specifically to cause addiction. That's part of the agenda of manufacturing this stuff. So they'll have buyers over and over again. And and the seed oils have to go and so forth. That's a big subject, but that's the foundation. And when I see a patient who's terribly chronically ill, we start with the diet unless there's something really pressing, like mold in the house or something like that, or they've sprayed pesticides or something. So then the food thing has to be delayed a little bit till it's like a house that's burning down. You you can't give Chinese herbs for burns when somebody's still in a house that's burning down. You have to get out and then you take the Chinese herbs. Well, so whatever is really that has to be fixed, and then you you do the diet, and you spend a lot of time figuring out the diet and and anything you're allergic to, and where you can buy affordable, healthy, organic food and stuff like that. And what kind of animals are you eating? Have the animals had a hundred percent good life, or have they been tortured, or have they been stuffed with grains and vaccines and hormones and antibiotics? You need to know where your chickens come from. Most of them are tortured in factory farms. It's absolutely horrendously cruel, and the chickens are unhealthy. And when you do the egg yolks, if it's light yellow, it's probably they've had a horrible life. Never outside digging in the dirt for worms and insects, which make the yolk beautiful orange color. Anyway, so you have to get really knowledgeable about food. And then you need to look around and see if you can get rid of all the all possible petroleum-based products, like your dishwashing solution, your fabric softener, your air freshener. They're all disgusting because they're all petroleum products and petroleum-based. And that's cancer causing, among other things, that can cause autoimmune disease and stuff. When you're taking, you're loading your body up with all these nasty things. And so you need to think for yourself and say, is this good for me? And if it's not, you need to go find a substitute. And and it's important you don't buy like synthetic carpeting, for example, that outgasses all these nasty. When I studied environmental medicine, there was one carpet that released 300 toxic chemicals. 300. And so, and you have to, if you're going to paint your house, you have to investigate the paints that don't give off horrible VOCs because it'll wreck your lungs, among other things, and your brain. And you you have to not use plywood that outgases formaldehyde. You have to think through what you're doing and what you bring into the house and what you bathe with, what you brush your teeth with. Everything needs to be scrutinized. If you use cream for your skin, you have to analyze it. If you don't know what a word means, you need to look it up. Some of the words look nasty, but they're not. They're they're the Latin name for some substance or something, but many of them are petroleum-based toxic substances that are are in your product. And the less of those, the better. You know, you want to go natural as much as possible. And I'll leave your readers, listeners with something very shocking. They probably all heard it by now. But we we have the highest, most expensive healthcare system in the entire world. And nobody's even near us. We're up here, and Germany's down here, and then the other ones are down. So that no one's even close to us in the cost of health care. That's fact number one. Fact number two: 53% of our population has one or more chronic conditions treated with medication. That's horrific. Number three, shocker. We are now I'm talking about chronic conditions, not infections and so forth. We are the sickest nation in the entire world. The sickest nation in the entire world. And we're the wealthiest nation in the entire world. Something is so wrong. We can't let the corporations ruin our lives.

SPEAKER_01 49:07

I'm just gonna put a little plug-in for what I do. So I'm a holistic health coach. I focus on ancient remedies and meet how it meets up with modern science. And everything I do is an herbal remedy from the kitchen, and I have never been healthier. Okay. So I'm just saying, and I I learn from Dr. Erica, I learned from books, I've always been my own detective. As you know, I do research on everything. So if you have questions, put them in here. We'll get back to you. Otherwise, you can find Dr. Erica. Would you like to share where we can find you? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:41

I have two websites. One is my book platform, but you'll learn a lot more than just my books. You'll you'll see little videos that you might really enjoy and lots of photos and stuff. It's called Erica Elliot. Yeah, Erica Elliot M D. E-R-I-C-A-E-L-L-I-O-T-T-M-D.com. And then the other blog site is called Musings with an S, musings, memoirandmedicine.com. And it's all one word, musings, memoir, and medicine.com. And there you'll find different categories. You'll find things about that are personal, like memoir type things. You'll find recipes, you'll you'll find travel logs, but what you'll really benefit from is the medical blog post. So you click on the category medicine, and then only the medical posts. And that's what will be very helpful to you. And yeah, so I think I think you'll really enjoy that. And and you'll learn things that your doctor doesn't even know. Or of course.

SPEAKER_01 50:58

You're talking to a master here, everybody, listening to a master. So I'll put those sites in the show notes, and you can follow up with Dr. Erica in either of those two places and keep being that portal of possibility. Just remember the key thing is, you know, you have this is the age of information, and we have all this information in our fingertips. It used to be so buried that we couldn't access it, and it's so accessible now. And just having that sense of mindfulness and awareness and that idea of being your own detective, you can make great leaps in your health just in your own kitchen. All right. Thanks, and we'll see you soon.