The Functional Nurse Academy Podcast

Specializing in Terrain-Focused Oncology Support as a Functional Nurse: Amber’s Story

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The Functional Nurse Academy Podcast

 Melissa is joined by functional nurse Amber Andrasek, founder of Redeeming Hope Wellness, to share her remarkable journey from stage 3C inflammatory breast cancer to nearly three years with no evidence of disease. Amber discusses how she combined conventional cancer treatment with personalized metabolic and terrain-focused strategies to support her healing. Her experience ultimately transformed the direction of her nursing career and inspired her to help others uncover underlying imbalances, strengthen the body’s terrain, and build a foundation for long-term health. 

Amber’s website: https://www.redeeminghopeandwellness.com/

Book a free discovery call with Amber

Melissa's prior interview with Amber on The Nurses Report

https://www.americaoutloud.news/integrative-cancer-care-building-resilience-with-10-terrains/


This episode is brought to you by The Functional Nurse Academy


Interested in functional medicine training and business mentorship?

Functional medicine training for all other healthcare specialties and health and wellness coaches:

This show is also syndicated every Tuesday at 10am EST on The Nurses Report on America Out Loud Talk Radio 

SPEAKER_01

Hello and welcome to the Functional Nurse Academy podcast. This is your host, Melissa Schreibetter, owner and founder of the Functional Nurse Academy. Today we are going to be covering a really important topic. We know that cancer rates across the country have skyrocketed. And there really is so, there's so many additional things that we can do to help with immune system dysregulation. And there's so many ways that we can support individuals who may be struggling with a cancer diagnosis. I am joined by one of my functional nurse academy graduates, Amber Andresat, who has just such an inspiring story because she is actually a survivor of cancer and she has used this situation to turn something that involved quite a bit of suffering to be able to help individuals across the country. Amber is the founder of Redeeming Hope Wellness. She is a registered nurse, board certified functional medicine practitioner, and metabolic terrain health consultant who helps women uncover the root causes of chronic illness through a terrain-focused approach to health. Drawing from her clinical nursing experience and advanced training in functional medicine, metabolic approaches to cancer, bioenergetics, and trauma-informed practice, she guides clients in restoring foundational aspects of health, including mitochondrial function, blood sugar balance, nervous system regulation, toxic burden, and emotional well-being. Anber's work is deeply personal, shaped by her own recovery from chronic fatigue, Lyme disease, mold toxicity, and inflammatory breast cancer. She empowers clients to better understand their bodies, address underlying imbalances, and create the conditions for resilience, healing, and long-term wellness through education, coaching, and collaborative support alongside their healthcare team. Welcome, Amber. It's great to have you.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, thank you, Melissa. It's really good to be here today.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I have shared your story with so many people because I think it really is incredibly inspiring that you went through this nightmare with your health. And then on the other side of it, you have recovered and you're helping so many people. And for our listeners, Amber came on my show on the America Out Loud platform. I think it was like well over a year ago. So if you guys want to go back and listen to that, I'll put that in the show notes. But I would love for you to tell our listeners about your health story. Um, so you know, when did you get diagnosed with breast cancer? And then how did you go about um remission from that condition?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, that's quite the story. Um, it has a lot of twists and turns. Um, but I was 42 years old. This was in 2022, and I had noticed a lump in my right breast. However, I had about a son that was, he was closing in on two years old that I had finished breastfeeding four months or so before. And I was still producing a little bit of breast milk, and this is actually pretty common. Um, I now know this is pretty common in breast cancer um uh stories, but so I was still producing a little bit of breast milk, and I just kind of, you know, blew it off to a clogged milk that, or, you know, that something was just going on with lactation or whatnot. And um, so I dismissed it, you know, for a short period. Um and it wasn't very much longer later that I started to see some changes in my breast that just put me on the alert. So inflammatory breast cancer is a subset, um, a rare subset of breast cancer. Um, and we say rare, yet I'm just amazed at all the young women that I am meeting with this disease. Um, it tends to hit younger women. Uh, it tends to um it can show up in pregnancy and it can show up during breastfeeding. Um, that's a fairly common um factor across the board. Not always, but it is common. Um and you know, I'd never heard of inflammatory breast cancer, but um it doesn't usually show up as a lump. I was one of the 10% of inflammatory breast cancer uh patients where I actually did have a lump. But what really got my attention and what it is known for is I started to see what they call pot d'orange in my breast. And so that pot d'orange looks like an orange peel. And what it is is it's edema. It is um, you know, hair follicles that are becoming swollen, swollen, excuse me. So, you know, I noticed that and got myself into the doctor's and um that was that took a while, and finally got in to do the screening that I needed to do and um got the diagnosis at that time of just regular breast cancer. It actually took us almost a year to get to inflammatory breast cancer diagnosis. So at that point, this is the summer of 2022, I didn't know what I was dealing with full on. And so I had decided to go out to a clinic in Arizona, holistic clinic. And um, we did, I was out there for three, three and a half months and sat in a chair and did IV six to eight hours a day, and noticed that the breast was becoming worse and learned that I was actually progressing. And um at that point in time, I came back to Nashville. This is where all the twists and turns are. Um, I met with, I flew out to Dallas, met with a world-renowned breast oncologist. She formulated my chemo plan, and I came back to Nashville, and my local oncologist implemented that plan for me here. Meanwhile, I had been reading the book The Metabolic Approach to Cancer by Dr. Nisha Winters, and was already starting to incorporate some of these um principles that she teaches, and hired myself a doctor trained under Dr. Naisha Winters in the metabolic approach to cancer. And so I did do standard of care. I did everything available in standard of care, but I also married the metabolic approach to cancer and everything that my doctor felt was reasonable, you know, to integrate into my plan. And so it was a very integrative approach to dealing with this cancer. And I really, really believe in the metabolic approach and believe that that is why I did so well. Um, because I did have one of the harshest chemo regimens that my oncologist had ever seen. I went through twice a day radiation. Um, it took three surgeries to get to clear margins. Um, it was quite the ordeal. And um, it wasn't until the second surgery that we learned it was inflammatory breast cancer. Um, and you know, that the prognosis with that is not really great. Um, but I am currently closing in on three years of no evidence of disease. And um I am still utilizing the metabolic approach uh to cancer in my own um life, my own personal life. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Well, that's so wonderful. I'm so glad that you're doing well. And I cannot, because I also I I have a two-year-old right now. I cannot imagine. I'm so sorry that you went through this with also while having a baby. I mean, I cannot imagine how scary this must have been for you. And I also think it's interesting because, you know, I do, of course, with functional medicine support these, you know, integrative and alternative cancer therapies because I do think that there is a place. However, I also support the integration of alternative therapies with conventional therapies because there are individuals that will travel to an integrative cancer clinic and it works. There are individuals that travel to an do the same thing and it doesn't work. And so again, something that may work for an individual may not work for another person. So I think it's important that even when we go into functional medicine, a lot of times when we go to go into functional medicine, we go down a lot of rabbit holes about conventional medicine. And I think it's important that we're never so like anti-one thing and that we keep an open mind. And I am curious, the IV therapies that you were utilizing in the integrative cancer clinic in Arizona, what kind of IV therapies were you using as part of your treatment?

SPEAKER_00

Um, well, let's see. Uh, we were doing things like we did do um methylene blue, uh curcuminoids, resveratrol. Um I was not doing mistletoe at that point. That came later. Um, and then boy, that's trying to go back a ways. Um, but we did do things like um aphoresis, and aphoresis is kind of like dialysis for um the blood. They pull your blood through this machine, the plasma. And really what they're doing is they're pulling toxins out of your system. Um, so I did a couple rounds of that, and actually, that was so interesting because the nurses said that was some of the worst um, you know, bags of plasma they'd ever seen. It looked like jellyfish floating in there, and the jellyfish were toxins. Um so I will say, you know, we really prayed about um God, you know, just asking God, where where should we go? What how do you what's our next steps? And at times I've beat myself up for going out there because I progressed. However, we felt strongly that the Lord was leading us out there. And I think in retrospect, what that did for me, even though the cancer progressed, I really think it prepared my terrain to get ready for um the very harsh treatment I was getting ready to go through. So um I actually came out of there feeling very good, um, some of the best that I had felt in years. Um, probably because they, you know, unburdened so many toxins and um yeah, I was nutrient depleted and and they replenished a lot of that.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah. And I think that that is so incredibly powerful. And I I always recommend for individuals that have a faith base, individuals that have a connection with God to incorporate that and then incorporate prayer because I have heard this repeatedly. I hear it over and over and over, and I don't think that it is just some coincidence that when people integrate God into their healing plan, we tend to see better results. And I have heard this as well of other individuals that had complicated health issues, and they were praying for guidance, and they say that God led them to the therapy that was effective. And now, so you have this very aggressive form of breast cancer. And and do you uh do you happen to know what the prognosis is for the type of breast cancer that you had? And what stage were you in?

SPEAKER_00

So uh at the time, I haven't looked up the prognosis, you know, in the recently. At the time when I had looked it up, um, I was stage 3C, initially diagnosed stage 3B. By the time we got through surgery, they were saying 3C. So right there on the edge into stage four. And inflammatory breast cancer is always, always, always diagnosed at least stage three. Um, because it's just already that's how rapidly it spreads. Um, there are some women that couldn't, you know, their lives can be taken within three months. Um, it's a very aggressive cancer. At the time, I remember reading statistics that like a 25% chance. Um now there are some things from standard of care that, you know, came on the table right at about the time I was finishing up radiation. It was an oral, it's an oral drug. It's a CDK4-6 inhibitor. And the trials are showing really good things in um cutting down recurrence rates in general breast cancer. Um, so I was placed on that drug. I have been doing that drug along with all my integrative uh metabolic approach um tools that I utilize and still working with that doctor. Um, but in inflammatory breast cancer, because we're such a rare, it's like one to three percent of women that have this breast cancer, they think. Um, but it is hard to diagnose. One in three women um actually start out as stage four with inflammatory breast cancer. Um and I was talking about the drug that I was placed on, and we have really good studies in regular, you know, um, I say regular, that's not the best word, but other breast cancer settings that the recurrence rates are really being cut down. But because inflammatory breast cancer is so rare, it does not get the adequate studies that really it deserves. So we don't know for sure. Um, but the oncologists down at MD Anderson who really lead the way, um, there are only uh three or four inflammatory breast cancer centers in our nation, and MD Anderson is one of them, and they were the original. And so uh when I did learn at my second surgery that I did indeed have inflammatory breast cancer, I did go down there and they still oversee things, and they are beginning to feel like it this drug, this CDK46 inhibitor, is really helping in the inflammatory breast cancer settings as well.

SPEAKER_01

So that's wonderful. And again, it's always it's always important to have those just a variety of tools when we are dealing with these types of complex health conditions. I'm also very interested to hear about the integrative therapies that you use, especially while going through such intensive chemotherapy. So, could you speak to um what were some of your key integrative therapies that were uh incorporated into your treatment plan?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um so in the metabolic approach to cancer, everything is very customized to the data of that individual. So my my doctor, um, who was trained under Dr. Nasha Winters, her name is Dr. Kirsten West. She's amazing. Um, she's looking at all of my data to see specifically what the needs of my terrain are. And so some of the things that we did um back uh when I was going through chemo, um, we were doing mistletoe. Uh I actually drove from Nashville down to Atlanta every day prior to chemo day and got an infusion of mistletoe, a very specific type of mistletoe that fit for my terrain and my cancering process. Um we did, I was prescribed uh from Dr. West three days of fasting during my chemo days. So I would start my fasting um the day before and I would end it the day after chemo. Um in between um I was using a very therapeutic uh level ketogenic, clean ketogenic with whole foods, not dirty keto to lose weight, but a very clean um therapeutic ketogenic diet. We tracked ketones, blood glucose. Um and we were doing other um, I have quite a laundry list of supplements that we were doing, nutraceuticals, um, but they were all based on things like my epigenetics. So it wasn't just, you know, get on the internet, read what's good for a cancering process. They were very custom tailored to what my terrain and my genetics needed. So um, and then we did IVs too, like um polyMBA and curcuminoids and um oh, what else did we do? We even did some hyperthermia right at the um breast site. Um yeah, man, this feels like trying to go back a few years, which is good.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I you know, and I I really think it's so interesting because we really do have evidence that these alternative therapies can be a wonderful tool to integrate and potentially increase that rate of someone being able to go into remission. And then we also do know that there are alternative cancer clinics throughout the world that are getting people into remission just using integrative therapies. But again, we also know that many people can benefit from the chemotherapy and the radiations and the surgery. But again, that is very, very hard on the body. And something that is very frustrating to me with conventional cancer care is, and across the board we see that conventional medicine tends to just lack in informed consent. And what they're not telling people is yes, this chemotherapy can be beneficial for you in this moment, but it also in itself is carcinogenic. And then something else that they are not addressing is the terrain of the body. You know, we know that cancer is caused, one of the causes of one of the root causes is a dysregulated immune system. What happened to dysregulate your immune system? Because again, cancer is basically cells gone wild. Okay, when cells are becoming dysfunctional, it is the immune system that comes by and is like, hey, you need to stop that. But what is occurring when we see cancer cells continuing to grow and the immune system is not taking care of it? What is going on there? So um I really am very interested in the mistletoe therapy. So um IV mistletoe for our listeners, this is actually a treatment that is much more commonly used in Europe. I myself have um, you know, researched sources for individuals that I have worked with. And I'm glad that mistletoe therapy is available in the US. But again, where we live, that's like a three to four hour drive, and there are so many individuals with cancer that can benefit from it. Can you explain how the mistletoe therapy works?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, so by and large, it's it's an immunomodulator. And I mean, you were right, my immune system uh had been very dregulated for years. Uh Um, I had dealt with chronic fatigue, didn't know, nobody could figure out what was going on, that you know, my immune system was so preoccupied trying to deal with Lyme disease and mold toxicity and you know, all these coinfections that it had become very dysregulated. And um, so mistletoe, it's it's actually part of standard of care in Europe. Um it's so funny because my oncologist, when I told her I was utilizing mistletoe, she says, Well, we really don't have studies on that. And it's like, well, no, there's a lot of studies in Europe where they do use it. Um, but it it really uh helps just beef up the immune system, modulate the immune system. Um, there is some evidence, I believe, uh in the literature that it can kill cancer on its own as well. So when we were not getting clear margins, one of the things that we did, excuse me, one of the things that we did was, I believe two weeks leading up to my second or third, third surgery, I believe, we did daily miss Ivy mistletoe. Um, and I'm sure you're familiar with Dr. Bernoui here in the Nashville area, um, that he worked with our leading mistletoe doctor in the nation, who is Dr. Um Mark Hancock, um down in Atlanta, and they coordinated to get the uh for me to be able to stay close to home those two weeks, and I went in daily and had mistletoe. And we did get clear margins at the third surgery. I, you know, that could be attributed to the amazing Dr. Lucia MD Anderson. Um, but I do believe the mistletoe is what kept me buoyed up along with the fasting during my very harsh chemo regimen, um, because they were very, very shocked at how well I handled chemo. And I just attribute it to all these additional things we were doing to support my terrain through that process.

SPEAKER_01

And I think that's also interesting. And again, um I do believe that many of the oncologists in our country do care about their patients and they want their patients to get better. But what they are familiar with are the US treatment guidelines. And I see the same thing again and again and again that we have these large organizations that influence the guidelines for how we treat certain diseases. But then when you look at those associations, they do tend to be accepting money from the companies that are creating the drugs. So then we tend to have this very heavy bias towards using the pharmaceuticals. And uh, and again, even well-meaning providers, like I hear this a lot where, you know, I think that they spend so much time in med school, and especially if they are specialized, like an oncologist, that's even in more training. And I think it's very difficult sometimes for them to realize that they don't know all of the research, you know. So sometimes they may kind of throw out an answer because they want to appear confident and then they're also confident in their training, and they may throw out an answer saying there's no research in that, but they may be wrong, you know? And yes, their intentions may be good, but they may be mistaken. And I always encourage individuals, um, it is okay to politely question your provider. It is okay to politely provide them with some additional information. But I do think it's very telling how widely that this is used in Europe. And also, you know, some of the um research um does suggest that it is helping with individuals' tolerance to chemo because going through chemotherapy is a nightmare. People lose their hair, they get sick to their stomach. There are so many complications from chemo. Sometimes people sometimes individuals pass away from complications from chemotherapy. And um, we're about halfway through the show. So I do want to pause for break for just a moment. I do want to remind our listeners if you are a fed up nurse, I can absolutely help you. Functional Nurse Academy is the most comprehensive functional training on the market for nurses, and it also includes business mentorship. Our graduates receive 90 nursing CEs as well as multiple pathways to board certification titles in functional medicine and as a holistic nurse. So if you would like to learn more about Functional Nurse Academy, feel free to join me live for our next informational webinar, which I will drop that in the show notes. You can also visit functional nurseacademy.com. And I will see you on the other side of the break. This show is also syndicated on America Out Loud Talk Radio on the Nurses Report Radio Show and Podcast. So you can also find me there on any major app. Hello, and welcome back. This is Melissa Schreibwetter, and I am joined today by Amber Andersak, who is a registered nurse, functional medicine practitioner, metabolic terrain focused health consultant. And we are discussing how she was able to recover from a very aggressive form of breast cancer using conventional modalities in addition to integrative modalities. And now she truly is doing God's work because she has founded her own functional nurse business in the Middle Tennessee area, and she is helping individuals to recover their health naturally, and she is helping them to identify and address root causes of disease. Welcome back, Amber. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So it's so great to cover this topic. And um, and again, we were talking about how there are individuals that are very, very well-meaning that work within oncology. However, it is just, I will say I can't be shocked. Okay. So I had a friend who think of a good lord is in remission now from stage three breast cancer. However, when she went through, because she did conventional therapies, the nutritionist uh at the center where she was treated told her, it doesn't matter what you eat as long as you eat low fat. And I hear these, and I also remember I used to be a nursing instructor. And when I would do pre- and post-conference in the cafeteria with my students, we were at a hospital that also had a cancer center. It had a pediatric oncology center. And we would see these children that work from the cancer unit that would be down having breakfast at McDonald's and Dairy Queen. And it's just so sad. And you look at the hospital system and you look at the garbage they're feeding these individuals, and then they have fast food and food court. They are not promoting, they're not promoting health. And we also know that chemotherapy, yes, it can be carcinogenic in nature. We know that it significantly disrupts the microbiome. People may be successfully treated this way, but then they're not provided any information or resources on things like restoring the gut microbiome. And they're certainly not provided any information on how this happened in the first place. So I would love to hear about more about the metabolic terrain. And, you know, if you could even touch on, you know, what are some potential root causes of cancer that tend to be overlooked in the conventional model.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Okay. Well, so in our approach, you know, we're looking at everything through the lens of the terrain, as you said, the terrain being like the body's internal ecosystem, right? And I like to throw that analogy out there that it's like, it's like a beautiful flower garden. Our terrain is like this beautiful flower garden. And when the soil is balanced and nutrient-rich and we're immune-regulated, you know, we have these beautiful blossoms and this, you know, this immaculate flower garden. But when we have depleted soil or nutrient-poor soil or weakened immunity, uh, or corrupted soil where there's toxins, um, this allows for weeds to grow, right? Metabolic health, I think, is is misunderstood. And so when we're looking at the terrain and considering metabolic health, um, what we are looking at is the whole energy management system and how efficiently the body produces and uses energy overall.

SPEAKER_01

I love that you are addressing environmental considerations. And something I hear, because I know we're both nurses at the registered nurse level. And I get questions from nurses all the time, and they're like, Well, I don't think I can do functional medicine if I'm not a nurse practitioner. And I'm like, no, uh, functional medicine does not mean that you are engaged in the practice of medicine. This is a modality where we are looking to help individuals with lifestyle, nutrition, investigate underlying factors. And we talked in the beginning about how cancer is basically a, it can be a precursor to developing cancer, is a dysregulated immune system. Well, what dysregulated the immune system in the first place, and I think something that we have in common is we both struggled with chronic Lyme disease, which caused chronic fatigue. And then we also struggled with mold. And both of those factors can disrupt the immune system. And I would love if you could speak to a little bit about that, because say that someone has cancer, immune dysregulation, autoimmune activation. Um, just if you could touch on the importance of working with that individual to properly assess their environment.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um, you know, so when I'm doing the intake, we're definitely asking questions about have you had your house tested for mold? Have you been tested for mold? Um, our docs that we partner with are looking for heavy metals in the system. Um, we're looking at uh the gut um, you know, through GI maps and seeing do we have do we have um yeast overgrowth and all these things that are burdening our surveillance system, uh which is our immune system. And, you know, we are just living in a day and age where we are we're so heavily bombarded by toxins, even when we are trying to be cognizant of them and aware, they are just really everywhere. They're in our air, glyphosates have just infiltrated our rainwater, it's in our soil of our organic food. So, you know, we're running around, uh, even when we're being aware of these things, being exposed to EMFs. Um, we have nutrient-deficient um food. Most of Americans are eating the standard American diet, which is full of um toxins. Um, it's also dysregulating blood sugar, which causes inflammation and oxidative stress and all of these things, you know, put together are a real strain on the terrain and the immune system. Um, some people don't know that we're all making cancer cells every day, but it's it's how optimal is our immune system functioning and our terrain functioning in order to handle those cancer cells? And we have we're just you know reaching such a tipping point, I think, in our modern day lifestyles, um, the lack of movement, um, you know, these toxins we're exposed to, the medications that we've been on, um, the trauma that people are experiencing, um, the emotional problems that people have, even emotional problems we know through Dr. Candace Purt, she was the one who discovered that we do have molecules of emotions and they attach, these molecules attach themselves to our immune systems. And, you know, virtually they're programming the immune system to upregulate or downregulate, kind of depending on how that molecule of emotion was coded. So we are even digging into all of that in this work to get to root causes. It's usually not one thing. Um it's usually a combination of all of these things. And, you know, another thing that we really look at in our approach, and and something that I do in my practice, uh, all of these things we just discussed, all these toxins, these um inputs we'll call them, um, inputs of how active we are, inputs of relationships, inputs of our thoughts, inputs of our food, these inputs are changing our uh epigen, what we call epigenetics, our epigenetic potential. And so that is another thing that we really look at in our approach is what um what genetic variants do you have that are predisposing you to vulnerability? Um so for instance, yes, I came into contact with mold, and I came into contact with Lyme disease. My husband lived in the same house with mold and he was fine. Um I have multiple genetic SNPs where I do not detoxify well. Well, I didn't know that running around in my 30s. I didn't know that I needed to be doing extra things to help my body, you know, um get the toxins out and that I needed to be more diligent than the next person at making sure they're not coming in. And so these are the things that I help my clients with. I teach them their epigenetic, you know, give them an epigenetic roadmap that's customized and personalized to them. Um, you know, we look at everything from well, how do they detoxify? Um, how do they manage estrogen? Uh, do they have genetic variants that make them vulnerable to um estrogen dominance and going down poor pathways that can uh harm DNA? Um, we look at nutrient handling. There's people out there who don't even have, you know, um enough receptors on their cells to absorb vitamin D. And vitamin D we know is really important in immune health. Um, we're looking at fatty acid utilization. Um, how do they process fats? Are they able to convert, you know, plant-based uh omega-3s into EPA and DHA, or do we need to make some modifications there to the way you know this client eats? Um, some of my other epigenetics were the uh or SNPs, um, or that I'm vulnerable to insulin resistance. So, you know, genetically I'm wired that way and need to work a little harder at keeping blood sugar down so that I don't have that inflammatory cascade. Um, so it just becomes this great big web that you know we're weaving together. And and when I get a client, I'm just looking to, you know, looking through all of this data, their labs, which we we utilize functional ranges, but we actually even go tighter than many functional ranges. Um, and I'm putting all these patterns and all this data together and coming up with a customized blueprint to that person, that individual, and that individual's terrain, if that makes sense. And that's what we did for myself.

SPEAKER_01

I I absolutely love that because God did all create us differently. So, and exactly that that's why we will see um one intervention that may be effective for someone may not be effective for the other person. And something else that, you know, really does bother me about standard guidelines are things like the vaccination schedule. I was stunned. I was absolutely stunned after I had my first baby and he was getting his vaccines. I just assumed that this was the same schedule I got in the 80s.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But back in the 80s, it was 24 doses over around 18 years, and now it is 72 doses. And the ignorance within the medical community for them to say, oh, well, this child had all the vaccines and they're fine. Do we just not understand that we all have a different genetic makeup? And again, you know, we do have different genetics. People do have certain genetic variants that can make detoxification more difficult. And those genetic variants are usually not a problem if you are not being bombarded with heavy metals and all kinds of other chemicals in the environment. And it is a myth. It is an absolute myth that we should not be focusing on detox because we've got, you know, liver and kidneys. And yes, God made us a liver and kidneys, but he did not design us to be injected with things like heavy metals, such as aluminum. You know, there's so many controversial things that not only things that are in the food supply and not even just vaccines, because we do have controversial ingredients in the vaccines. There's also controversial ingredients in other medications. If you must take a medication, please be sure that you look at the list of inactive ingredients because there may even be aluminum in, you know, over-the-counter medications. And again, I do understand that yes, elemental aluminum may be part of the earth's crust. So there may be very, very, very tiny amounts of elemental aluminum that could get into the crops, but we need to understand that the naturally derived aluminum is bound to things like silica that prevent the absorption. So when we are doing things like consuming medications, especially injecting medications that contain heavy metals. And then also when you were eating processed packaged foods, it's also a myth that the heavy metals in processed packaged food, oh, it's just fine because there's just a little bit, you know. No, um, there are many, many cases, especially with baby food, where these products have been tested at labs and they exceed the recognized safe limit of heavy metals. There's so many examples of this. And uh yeah, I think it's important that education is really important here because again, like, say we're helping someone with their health. A lot of people are not aware of you know these exposures that may be something that's really burdening their health. So um I love that you are doing this work. I think it's absolutely amazing. And I also like that you mentioned the emotional. Component too. Because again, you know, when we have like high stress, that can alter the that can really alter the immune system. And um I also did want to ask you. So um I know it's been a little while since you graduated from the Functional Nurse Academy, but I would love to hear from you about how the Functional Nurse Academy helped you to be prepared to start your own business.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um, well, I loved the Functional Nurse Academy. And I still, um, when I have a client, um, I find myself going back into modules that pertain to that client's uh issues. Um, you know, some of the things that I learned there that we obviously do not learn in nursing school to help me understand root cause uh issues. You know, we're learning how to use the GI map and we're learning how to use these more advanced functional tests that help us to uncover what some of these root issues are that are disrupting the train. Um, and so um that's when I find myself going back to that module. Um, and and as well as like the Dutch testing, the Dutch testing can give us a lot of information. Um, even in the, you know, cancer setting, you know, it helps us to see are we metabolizing down um a toxic pathway? How are we, you know, metabolizing our estrogen? Um, everybody's on bioidentical hormones, and that's a very controversial topic. I just encourage all women to know how do you metabolize your estrogen before you are grabbing for these um bioidentical hormones. Um, but you also I just love, I'm not always able to get on um to your live mentoring, but I love being able to go through that library of your live mentorship. And, you know, when I'm stuck with a on a topic with a client, I can go back through there and learn more. Um, so even though I went through this program, I think maybe a couple years ago, the education is still happening because I'm still a member and I can get in there and go through the library and refresh my memory through um going through the different modules. And um, yes, it's it's really helped me to understand autoimmunity is a big one because you do a lot of teaching on that. Um, that's a you know, so prevalent too, uh a lot like cancer is. Um, and you have so many tools in there that have helped me be able to understand when we're seeing autoimmune patterns and how to approach that. So yeah, I tell everybody that I meet um about the Functional Nurse Academy because I think it's an incredible program. I really do.

SPEAKER_01

So much. I'm I'm so glad that you're benefiting from it. And again, uh I always say this, I'm like, we're always, we are always learning. And I think some of the worst practitioners out there are the ones that just think that they know everything. So that's why I was very, I was very adamant about creating new content each month because there is so, there is so much out there. And again, everyone is so unique. So I think it's important that you guys have a trusted resource and we can all support each other because you know, I mean, being part of a community like this, you're not just out there on your own. And I'm yeah, I'm so glad that you're using this to really um, you know, support individuals that are struggling. Because again, I mean, you and I have both, you, you and I have both been there where you know, being a mom and you've got kids to take care of. You've got a husband, you've got a house, you've got work, like everything else you have going on in your life. And then you also have unexplained chronic fatigue. So I would also love to hear. Um, do you have a success story of a client in your practice that you were able to help?

SPEAKER_00

Um, well, yeah. Um I have several. Um I have walked through um some cancer journeys with several women with breast cancer. Um, they've all been kind of at different stages. One that really comes to mind, um, actually, she'd already reached no evidence of disease by the time she came to me. Um, but she had not really worked on any of the root cause issues. And we also needed to work to rebuild her terrain. Um, and so that's what we did. We, you know, um did everything I just discussed, uh, got all her data, looked at her epigenetics, created a blueprint for her. Um, I taught her principles. We we by and large use of a um, you know, a clean ketogenic diet. There's, you know, that's a controversial topic too. Um, but there's a lot of really great things about running off of ketones. And so I taught her all of this and um a lot of her root cause, um, I believe, uh things that contributed to her cancer, she had had quite a trauma background. Um, she was just a precious, precious woman, um, but had been in an abusive marriage and just had some really horrific things happen to her. And um we really did a lot of work in that area. There was a lot of um guilt she needed to release. And um, I just think it's really important to remember uh that that really is playing into our physiology. You know, when we have that kind of stress burdening our system or we have unconscious, uh subconscious thought patterns going on, you know, that in and of itself is creating leaky gut. Um that is um suppressing the immune system, um, keeping stress hormones uh uh, you know, floating around. So um that would be a success story. I had another gal here recently who had, you know, in her 50s, just struggling with inner, she was not a cancer case. Um, she was a functional, very, you know, straightforward, pretty straightforward functional medicine case. But um, so we did Dutch testing on her and GI map testing and uncovered, you know, some H. pylori going on. So um we were able to do a lot of foundational lifestyle changes, um, implement some um, you know, nutraceuticals, um, work on some stress response stuff with her. And by the time we were done, she's like, I haven't felt this good since I was in my 30s. So um I consider that a success. Um, so yeah, those are some of my ones that come to mind.

SPEAKER_01

It is just the best feeling when you are working with your functional medicine clients and then they come to you with that type of news because and and again, you know, we became nurses because we wanted to help people, and it was so just sad. It was so sad to me working in the conventional system, and you are almost always understaffed. The system is just not set up to focus on addressing these underlying issues, and I was surprised, just like even when I started just having a functional nurse business, not being able to write prescriptions, just working on the natural interventions, how much improvement I could get with people, you know, I mean it really is it's just so tremendous. And I also had a question because we live in the same area. Um, are you uncovering mold frequently?

SPEAKER_00

Uh yes, I am. And um, and even in, you know, just on a personal note, we, you know, we have thought about moving. We've looked at a few various houses, and like I keep walking away from them because we're finding like mold in the girls' spaces. So I just think we do have a lot of mold in Middle Tennessee because we are so, you know, humid and hot and damp here. Um, and you know, uh I don't pretend to understand and and know all of this, but there are some doctors who believe that that COVID uh actually set off an even worse mold epidemic. Um and so I don't know if that's you know has to do with um you know mold being sort of, you know, before COVID we were able to manage it. And now with spike protein um exposure, even even through being around other people. Um, if that is why, you know, molds become more prevalent, um, I don't know. Uh tell me what your thoughts are on that.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I well, okay, so I am definitely, definitely not COVID vaccinated, but yes, neither am I. I got COVID when I also had active Lyme disease. And I ended up with long COVID and immune system dysregulation. And I also know with the COVID vaccines, they suppress the tole like receptor. So why in earth would we think that that's a good idea? So, but but yeah, no, I think that both the vaccines and the natural, why don't we want to call it natural, but the vaccines and the infection, I do think cause quite a bit of immune dysregulation. And again, if your immune system is dysregulated, you're not going to be able to properly address just common mold exposures. So I did want to touch a little bit more about your business. So I love that you're in Middle Tennessee because with my business, I am full. I am not accepting new clients. I can't. And I love that I have someone I can refer to that is in the area. And I wanted to ask, are you seeing, do you see clients virtually in person? And do you have multi-state access?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so I do have um a compact license. So um, yes, I do have uh multi-state access. And I am, I would say 99% virtual. Um, I have met with a client or so um who because they were so local and that worked better for them. Um, but I even meet with a lot of locals just virtually. So yeah. Um, yeah, and I've met with people all over the nation.

SPEAKER_01

So that's that's wonderful because we do have these pockets uh within the country where individuals just don't have much access to functional services. And I love that you are able to order testing for them. And I talk about this a lot that RNs can order testing through a physician service. So many of the functional nurses that I have on here have that capability. And uh yeah, so if someone wants to work with you, what would be the next steps to get in contact with you?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, they can reach me um through my website. Um that is uh www.redeeminghopeandwellness.com. And uh they can schedule like a discovery call. I do those for free. Um, and I feel like I'm pretty generous. We can chit chat for 30 minutes or so and and just see if we're a fit. Um, I do, you know, I work with cancer, but I also work outside of cancer. And and I mean, my heart is really can we beat a cancer diagnosis to the punch, right? So women who are dealing with autoimmune um or just um fatigue issues that they can't figure out, you know. Um, I my heart is really to get in there and help people get their trains optimized before they come into some kind of a catastrophic um uh disease process.

SPEAKER_01

So wonderful, wonderful. So I will be dropping Amber's website in the uh show notes, but also I'm at her website now and I'm just like reading as we're talking. She has a really great educational page about the 12 terrain elements. So I think that this is excellent that you just are offering. And I can tell that you're invested in that you care because you are just offering so much good information on your website to the public. So good job. This is amazing. Um, and for anyone that wants to work with Amber, um, I will also I will put like a link to a discovery call because I also think that that is great. I mean, I've been through, I've worked with functional providers before, where I can't get the functional provider on the phone before I sign up with them, or maybe I get like a salesperson or the receptionist, and I'm like, oh, I want to talk to the provider before I give you my nurses are doing this. So, all right. Well, it was so great to have you on the show. Thank you for sharing your story. And I I love hearing about how you're helping individuals all over the country. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00

Uh, thank you so much for having me. It's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01

Anytime. That is all the time that we have today. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you want to learn more about the Functional Nurse Academy, please feel free to register for our next live webinar, and you will see that link in the show notes. You can also check out Functional Nurse Academy on our social media platforms or on our website at functional nurseacademy.com. Until next time, be safe, be well, and God bless.