Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: What'S worthwhile healing Mind, body and spirit. I'm Ramsey Zimmerman. I choose peace of mind, vitality of body, and joy of spirit over stress, exhaustion, or overwhelm. Together, let's explore and pursue the many ways to build holistic health and wellness.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Honestly, I kind of came into all of this in my mid-40s. I think that was about the time that I feel like my health hit kind of the wall. For about 30 years, I was in the semiconductor world, so the world of electronics, Silicon Valley, very high pressure, high stress jobs. I was having all kinds of health issues. I had high cholesterol, high blood pressure, plantar fasciitis. So just walking up and down the stairs was hard. I found out that I had insulin resistance, I had hypothyroidism, you know, and all of these things kind of added on. And that and the fact that I was eating all the wrong foods for me, you know, particularly for me, it did not work well. And the next thing you know, I ended up with rheumatoid arthritis. And that's what led me to the mta, where you also graduated from.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Hey there.
[00:01:26] Speaker C: It's Ramsay here.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: That was Jeanette Tucaro. As I'm a recent grad of the Nutritional Therapy Association, I've been reaching out to more experienced and established ntps, and I found Jeanette. She is board certified in holistic nutrition, a functional nutritional therapy practitioner, and a master restorative health practitioner. Jeanette focuses on helping clients to uncover the root causes of their health challenges using personalized lab testing, nutrition and lifestyle strategies.
We spoke about a bunch of ailments like autoimmune disorders, but also spoke about the pros and cons of many holistic health strategies, especially for women and especially for athletes. I hope you get as much out of this conversation as I did. Let's begin.
[00:02:12] Speaker C: Hey, Jeanette, how are you doing today?
[00:02:14] Speaker A: I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:02:17] Speaker C: Yeah, totally. I'm glad that you're able to come.
[00:02:19] Speaker B: On, you know.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: So I'm a recent grad of the Nutritional Therapy Associations NTP program, and I found you kind of through the. The grad resources, and you took that program a while back, and you've done amazing things since then. You've continued your education and you've built a company, a successful business called Elation Health.
And.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Yeah, what is Elation Health?
[00:02:46] Speaker C: And, you know, I stumbled over the pronunciation, but maybe. Maybe I pronounced it right.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:02:52] Speaker C: What. What is Elation? What is Elation Health?
[00:02:55] Speaker A: Yeah, you did you pronounced it perfectly?
[00:02:58] Speaker C: Well, you know, I did have coaching, so.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, honestly, I kind of came into all of this in my mid-40s, and I think that was about the time that I feel like my health hit kind of the wall. And I was having all kinds of health issues. I had high cholesterol, high blood pressure, plantar fasciitis. So just walking up and down the stairs was hard.
I had an extra 20 pounds on me, and I didn't just have low energy, I had no energy whatsoever. So I had been to countless doctors and done all the things, and honestly, they just kept on giving me another pill. And I felt like it was the give a pill for your ill kind of mentality instead of trying to get down to the root cause of what was happening.
And, you know, because of that, I kind of found the world of functional medicine and functional health. And I don't know, I did a lot of reading, saw some doctors, you know, some functional medicine doctors, and then really changed my health around completely. I found out that I had insulin resistance, I had hypothyroidism, you know, and all of these things kind of added on. And that and the fact that I was eating all the wrong foods for me, you know, particularly for me, it did not work well.
And, and so, you know, all of those things combined kind of led me down a place where my health was great and I was working out and I was doing all the right things.
And then more time went by and I kind of slipped down the rabbit hole again of that bad, you know, habits right. As they catch up to us. And the next thing you know, I ended up with rheumatoid arthritis. And that's what led me to the mta where you also graduated from.
[00:04:47] Speaker C: So what is rheumatoid arthritis? And like, how does that sort of exhibit itself?
[00:04:52] Speaker A: Oof. That is such a great question.
Yeah.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease. And there are to date, over 100 different types of autoimmune diseases that they have come to find.
And Alessio Fasano was the original one who came up with. He was a. He's a very famous gastroenterologist, but he came up with the three legged stool. And that's a great analogy for autoimmune disease. So in order to get an autoimmune disease, you have to have three legs of the stool. First is a genetic predisposition to getting that.
Second, you have to have a leaky gut. So intestinal permeability and that makes it so that things you eat end up going through the cell walls of the small intestine and into the bloodstream. And your immune system mounts a response to those things.
And then you need a trigger, some type of trigger. And be that, it could be environmental, it could be emotional, you know, mental, it could be trauma, it could be toxins, environmental. Heavy metals, mold, mycotoxins, lime, you name it, There's a myriad of them, but that was kind of it. And whichever autoimmune disease you end up coming, and Dr. Tom O' Brien is the one who states this is that that's where your missing link is, right? That's where your weak link is. Your weak link is where you'll end up having that. And for me, rheumatoid arthritis attacks the synovial joints of every joint in your body.
So it comes across as pain, swelling, and then you have all the other autoimmune things. Fatigue, extreme fatigue, you know, just feeling like you've been run over by a truck. Yeah.
[00:06:37] Speaker C: And what were you, what were you doing professionally before you went into health and wellness kind of full time?
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Yeah, for about 30 years I was in the semiconductor world, so the world of electronics, Silicon Valley, very high pressure, high stress jobs. I'm sure that had a lot to do with, you know, the medical conditions that I ended up with.
And I was in everything from product management, quality to contracts to, you know, operations, a myriad of different areas. But it was a long time of constant stress. And as you know, coming from, you know, the corporate kind of background, a 40 hour a week job is not a 40 hour a week job when you do those kinds, right?
[00:07:28] Speaker C: Yeah, 40 hours a week is when you're like officially clocked in. And then the other hours of the day you're thinking about what you just did or what you're gonna do or what the next one is.
So yeah, no, I was in, I sort of nonprofit program development management, specifically in the sustainable energy world realm for almost three decades.
Great, great people, great field, tons of interesting things to do.
But eventually I sort of.
Oh yeah, I kind of hit a wall. I mean, stress was one of the big. It was one of the things. It wasn't the only factor, but there were lots of other factors. But you know, stress definitely was. And I just, my, my book just came out on Amazon, Stress Response.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: And my response to stress was kind.
[00:08:27] Speaker C: Of walking away from a career, which I really don't recommend.
You know, there's gotta be better ways to respond to stress. And that's kind of the point of the book, is that there are. There are in fact, much better ways because the stress that we deal with today is not the same as it was in the past when, you know, our physical, hardwired stress response, I think, is more geared towards physical challenges.
But what we have now, for the most part, it seems like, and especially people who work in sort of an office, corporate setting like you and I used to, you know, we're dealing with mental, emotional, virtual kinds of challenges.
So it requires a different stress response. That, that's basically what. What I would contend. Would you. Would you agree. Do you think that's a. A good.
A good conclusion, a good analysis?
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I absolutely agree with that. And, you know, I tell clients this all the time. You know, your body, we haven't changed physiologically, you know, in thousands of years. So our body, you know, reacts the same way. We don't know the difference between running from a saber tooth tiger or running from an urgent emo. You know, our bodies don't know the same. And that whole fight or flight sympathetic nervous system versus trying to get into a parasympathetic nervous system is really what kind of will switch that stress response. You know, there are certain things that you can only do when you're in a parasympathetic state, and the main ones are digestion and procreation. So, you know, you cannot. You cannot do either one of those things, and you can certainly can't do them well unless you're in a parasympathetic state. So when we're constantly in this sympathetic, you know, fight or flight freezer Fawn, you know, kind of thing at all times, which we are now, we just. We can't switch that off. And when you can't switch it off, problems arise. Yeah, yeah. And I loved the parts of your book where you talked about these micro changes because I think that's what people need in their daily lives is to be able to make those micro changes.
[00:10:42] Speaker C: Yeah. Do you have some favorite micro changes?
[00:10:45] Speaker A: Oh, gosh. Well, box breathing is a huge one for me. I use that a lot.
I think that's really important. And it's something that you can do. I do it in the car, you know, in between clients, you know, just going for a walk. You know, it's a great way to do it. And I visualize a box in my head. It's that method of, you know, you inhale for four, you hold for four, exhale for four, and then hold for four. You also mentioned it in your book, and it's a big one for me. I think that that's one of the big ones that I can do and remember to do. Right. Because I think that's the other issue is that clients have a hard time, and myself included, all of us, I think, have a hard time remembering all of the little tips and tricks. And so we need that constant, you know, regurgitation of what's another way to do it? You know, how do you do it? You know, that kind of thing. So.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: Do you feel exhausted before your day even starts, or do you struggle to balance demanding work and family with everything else? Do you wonder how to say no without guilt or set boundaries when everyone needs things from you? Does burnout feel inevitable no matter how hard you try to push through? Then check out my new book on Amazon, Stress response. Manage your response to stress in order to reduce anxiety, avoid burnout, and find calm and steady focus. Now available on Amazon.com yeah, totally.
[00:12:08] Speaker C: I agree.
And, you know, another part about stress and stress response and being just generally effective and not completely stressed out is that when we're sort of going along during the day and doing our work, what we really need, I think, is basically like an even keel. We need to be not too fired up and not too draggy. And, you know, we need to have a good sort of base of energy and be able to.
To tap into that as needed and not, like, burn it out all in, you know, short bursts, but instead to be able to sort of carry on and, you know, from an FNTP perspective and, you know, kind of specific to eating.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: What.
[00:13:03] Speaker C: What do you think? What are some things, some keys that you recommend to clients to be energetic throughout the day?
[00:13:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a great question. So, you know, energy, you know, as we know, our body is made of cells. Right. We're made of about 30 trillion cells in our body, and each of those cells.
Yeah, right. Give or take.
And each of those cells has a phospholipid bilayer, a fat bilayer, and then inside of that are mitochondria. And the mitochondria are what produce ATP, which is energy.
The biggest thing that you can do is take care of your mitochondria.
The older we get, as we age, a lot of those don't function as well. We're not taking care of them the way that we need to. And there's a lot of ways that you can do that. Right.
Balancing your blood sugar is a big one. Right. Ensuring you have protein, fat, fiber in each meal Kind of avoiding those blood sugar spikes and crashes, you know, all the time throughout the day. That's a huge one. And that kind of leads me to a campfire analogy that I use with clients a lot.
And it's just talking about what the foods you eat, you know, how the foods you eat help that energy. Campfire.
If you think of like a campfire, the large logs on the campfire are like fats that you're eating. Right. It's slow, long, burning energy that sustains throughout the day. So things like avocado and olive oil and olives and, you know, nuts and seeds and all of these things. These are long, burning energy things on your campfire.
Then there's like kind of smaller sticks that you'll have on there to help. Those are more like, I think of as non starchy carbohydrates. So, you know, a lot of times people think of carbs and they just think of bread, pasta, cookies, donuts, you know, that kind of thing. Right. Carbohydrates are in vegetables and fruit. Yeah. So you need them, Definitely need them. But when you get into the non starchy types, you know, that's where you're going to have longer standing energy. Also more of the tiny little twigs are more of those fast burning carbs, you know, potatoes, rice, you know, stuff like that.
And then I kind of consider sweets and sugar and the junk food to be kind of like gasoline that you're just throwing on the fire.
So, you know, it, it burns up quick, but it'll also burn you. And so the next thing you know, it's dying off and then you want more of it. So.
And then protein, obviously is very, very important. It doesn't directly deal with energy, you know, at a cellular.
It is the structure that, you know, you need the structure around that. So it's kind of like the frame or the, you know, circle of stones around your campfire. And that's kind of the easiest way for me to explain that. Yeah.
So those kind of things are the most important things that you can do, you know. You know, you need a balanced plate, and that's one of the best things that you can do to make sure that you can spread out your energy throughout the day.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:25] Speaker C: And it's important to eat sort of the right things at the right times and in the right order and at the exclusion of certain other things.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: I mean.
[00:16:39] Speaker C: But, but it seems like, it seems like such an easy thing. I, I don't actually mean that, but it's like you, you would think that it Would be easy to just eat, right. Like there's.
Why do we have so much trouble eating the right foods?
You know, it's like our.
And it.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: What throws us off?
[00:17:05] Speaker A: Oh gosh, so many things. I mean, nowadays we're surrounded by these hyper palatable foods, right? These highly processed food. Not just processed foods, but highly processed foods. Yeah. And they are incredibly addictive to our body and our chemistry and we just want more and more of it and we crave it, you know, so that has to do a lot with it.
Oh, incredibly, they're engineered for sugar, fat reward. Right. That's the way that they're actually created.
They overstimulate dopamine, they increase craving cycles overall, you know, that type of thing.
There's also hidden toxins and obesogens. Obesogens are huge in the body now. It's chemicals in packaging, plastics, even some produce.
[00:17:56] Speaker C: That's a scary word. What's an obesity?
[00:17:58] Speaker A: An obesogen can be like a certain type of chemical that's involved in packaging or plastics or, you know, things like that. And it will literally affect the body at a cellular level so that you will gain weight. It's exactly as it sounds. Right. So a lot of times clients will come and they'll be like, well, my doctor just told me, you know, I just need to eat less and exercise, exercise more. And I'm like, that is such a terrible. Like we've moved so far past that, you know, it's just not, it's not fair to people to just say, oh, it's calories in and calories out. There's so much more to it. And toxins and plastics, microplastics, you know, all of these things have a lot to do with it. And I find that I know that when I work with clients, you know, and I run testing on them, you know, for like I run a total talks panel on a lot of clients that looks at mycotoxins, environmental toxins and heavy metals. And when we address a lot of those things, weight just will tend to fall off because you're reducing your overall toxic load.
[00:19:06] Speaker C: And is that the kind of thing, the microplastics and metals and toxins.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Is.
[00:19:15] Speaker C: That the kind of thing that they can be actively removed or is that something that you just need to be hyper vigilant to avoid?
[00:19:25] Speaker A: Both really. I mean, being vigilant to try to avoid everything that you can. Right. Removing plastics from your home, avoiding plastic water bottles, you know, doing regular inspections in the home for any type of water damage or leaks, you know, I Mean, once a month, people should be going through their home and checking all the usual places underneath sinks, by the dishwasher, wash machines, you know, those kind of places, just to ensure that you don't have water damage.
[00:19:57] Speaker C: You know, what's the point of water damage? Or what's the deal with water damage?
[00:20:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:02] Speaker C: So besides having to hire a contractor and pay a ridiculous amount of money to get fixed again.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
Well, nowadays, building materials are a great place for mold and mycotoxins to grow.
And mold can grow within 24 to 48 hours.
We have a new construction home and we ended up. When the house was built, they didn't do the greatest job. You know how California building is sometimes. But they didn't do the greatest job with putting together some of this. So we ended up having a leak at the front windows when we had a massive storm in the winter. And within 48 hours we had mold growing.
So the next thing you know, they had to come in and remediate completely. And in the meantime, you don't want to be around anything like that. There's about 25% of the population that have a certain genetic variant, a certain snp, what they call a SNP, that makes it so that you cannot detoxify mold and mycotoxins the same way as other people can.
And I call those people the canary in the coal mine.
So a lot of the. And honestly, a lot of those people end up being women. I do have some men, but a lot of them end up being women.
And those people are the ones that know. Right. You'll walk into a building, it'll be like, I smell smells musty. I know that smell. It's just not good. Next thing you know, they're having all of these different symptoms. Headaches and fatigue and, you know, migraines. I mean, just everything. It can be sinus related, it can be fatigue, it can be joint pain, it can be anything. How it just, you know, it's kind of like Lyme. Mycotoxin illness reminds me of Lyme because it's kind of like the great imitator. You know, you don't know exactly what it is until you really test for it and you see it. Yeah. And that's the problem is that sheetrock and you know, all of these wood things are the breeding ground for mold and mycotoxins.
[00:22:03] Speaker C: Yeah, well. And so in terms of getting rid of that, actively getting rid of that. So if you like in.
You mentioned that some people have SNPs and they can't do that. Are there then solutions to that, like by using supplements or things like that to make up for that and to, you know, give your body the, the raw materials that it needs to do its regular detoxification functions?
[00:22:36] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. There are, there are, it's a very long process only because, you know, you never want to charge straight into detoxifying anybody in any way because you have to make sure that their body is set up and prepared for it. Because just like you said, if you have a person with those genetic SNPs, and then you also have somebody who's eating a standard American diet and not getting all the nutrients and phytonutrients that they need, or a lot of times these people are on an incredibly restrictive diet where they can only eat one or two things because they keep on thinking that it's one sensitivity after another and they keep removing foods from their diet.
You would be setting those people up for worse, you know, than what they started with. So you need to make sure that your detox pathways are open, right.
Drainage is being supported first, that they're eating a lot of very highly, you know, bio individualized, you know, foods that help support their body and give them the phytonutrients that they need. Right. Be that colorful fruits and vegetables and you know, grass fed meats and you know, all these really good for you things or you know, be it additional supplements that give your body those vitamins and minerals that it has to have that kind of thing.
[00:23:59] Speaker C: And does our body, are our bodies smart enough to know what it needs? I mean, don't we just crave the things that we need?
You know, like if I'm walking down the grocery aisle and, you know, I spot that bag of Doritos and I'm craving it, like, doesn't my body tell me the truth about what it needs?
[00:24:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I'd love to think that way. I think I'd be craving Oreos on a daily basis if that was a.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: I mean, there's so much yeah to that.
Yeah.
[00:24:36] Speaker C: Well, in, in, you know, I think if our body is functioning well and it's not confused, it probably does tell us what it needs, right?
[00:24:45] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:24:46] Speaker C: It's thrown off balance.
What are some of the ways that our bodies get thrown off balance so that our cravings are, you know, really not giving us the best advice? And sometimes it's not even, it's not even our bodies that are giving us the cravings. It's maybe the critters that have taken up residence inside of our bodies. Giving us those cravings.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. That's why one of the reasons I use a GI map, I use a stool test, you know, and there are different ones out there on the market, but it kind of tells you where there's an overgrowth of, you know, beneficial versus dysbiotic bacteria, right?
Because there are certain things in your body. Your body is made of bacteria. We have a ton of bacteria, you know, everywhere. So.
And there are certain ones that will crave certain things, you know, yeast, candida, you know, those kind of things in the body.
And then other things, you know, certain bacteria will suppress, you know, certain things. And H. Pylori comes to mind because so many people end up having that. That's a bacteria that actually ends up thriving in a very low acidic environment.
So when you don't have enough hcl in the body, that's a bacteria that will thrive in there. And that can cause all kinds of problems.
But to know what your body needs or what it doesn't need, or to know, you know, how those cravings work, you have to understand, of course, blood sugar, right? And insulin and how those work together, those kind of constant blood sugar rises and dips and crashes. And if you're up and down on that roller coaster all day long, those will drive sugar cravings. So it isn't you necessarily, you know, it's your body because it's dysregulated blood sugar.
Cortisol is another huge one, right? Cortisol, the whole stress thing, the more that elevates it also craves, you know, comfort foods and things like that. So when your cortisol increases, it should have, like, a nice diurnal rhythm throughout the day. It goes up in the morning and kind of goes down throughout the evening time. And that's when melatonin kind of increases. And when you're dysregulated on your cortisol, then that too, you know, will cause cravings that aren't necessarily what your body really needs. It's just dysregulation.
Neurotransmitters are another one, right? Low dopamine means your reward seeking, which leads to more cravings. You know, low serotonin, which is produced in the gut, has a lot to do with carb cravings. So that's where a lot of these, like, functional tests come in to play. But the foundations, as you and I both learned right through the nutritional therapy association, is huge.
[00:27:42] Speaker C: Yeah, well, and it's also driving just more than the desire to eat, right? It's driving our emotions. And whether or not we feel well or whether we're stressed out and anxious or whether we feel like we can be clear headed and accomplish things.
You know, how does the, how does our eating and what we eat, you know, tie into directly into how we feel?
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
I mean the biggest thing to know is that anxiety and how we feel isn't just in our heads.
Right. It's literally a biochemical conversation happening between your gut, your brain and your hormones. And it all has to do with what you eat and when you eat.
So again, blood sugar neurotransmitters are another one. Right. GABA is very calming. Serotonin has to do with the mood, you know, and 90% of serotonin is produced in the gut.
So dysbiosis in the gut or inflammation in the gut will worsen mood or anxiety issues, that type of thing. So, you know, it's all. We're all so connected and most of.
[00:29:04] Speaker C: Those connections are going from the gut to the brain, right?
[00:29:08] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:29:09] Speaker C: Like a 4 to 1 ratio or something like that in terms of like which direction those signals are going.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Yep. And. And there's still so much, you know, studies going out about that and so much more knowledge coming out all the time about these different axis, you know, the gut brain axis.
That's a huge one.
[00:29:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
I just love how it's always been this saying, you know, trust your gut or I can feel it in my gut.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yes.
[00:29:40] Speaker C: That's actually a thing. That's actually true ancient wisdom. Some of this ancient wisdom that is actually real and actually true.
[00:29:49] Speaker A: Totally, totally. Just think about the whole thing about your grandmother telling you to choose your food 30 times. Right. I mean, that's one of the easiest and most simplest things that we can do to help our digestion and our body overall. But you know, again, going back to stress and your book, I mean, we're on the move all the time 24 7. And you know, most people probably chew their food three or four times and then swallow. Right? Yeah.
[00:30:16] Speaker C: Or that idea of washing it down, like if you have to swig water to literally wash it down, then you haven't done your job yet.
[00:30:24] Speaker A: Absolutely. Masticate.
Chew your food.
[00:30:31] Speaker C: And what about, what about skipping meals?
[00:30:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:35] Speaker C: I mean, people skip meals because they're too busy or they didn't think about it or because, you know, they, their boss walks in the door when they were about to go skip out and you know, take 10 minutes to themselves to have a lunch break. What effect does skipping meals have?
[00:30:53] Speaker A: Yeah, well, the way that, you know, if you're again eating a standard American diet. You're very carb, heavy on food, you know, all of those kind of things. And you're not eating a nutrient dense, whole foods, you know, diet that's heavy on protein and fat. If you're eating like a standard American diet, fasting can be a little, you know, not great. Right. It could be a little frightening in some ways only because it won't necessarily help metabolic flexibility. Right? You, if you're skipping meals like that, your blood sugar is going to drop, your cortisol is going to rise, you're going to get more cravings and nine out of 10, when you do eat again, you know, it's going to affect anxiety, mood, you know, energy levels. And then when you eat again, you're going to end up binging.
So that's not the best way to do that. Right. Is to skip a meal. Now, of course, intermittent fasting is different and even longer fasts are different, but those also have to be done in a really conscious way. You have to be very important about what you do.
If you are able to really build up your diet with high quality proteins and good fats and then those kind of low glycemic carbohydrates that we talked about and then you want to do intermittent fasting, you know, that's fantastic. That's great for you. Men do really well with fasting, you know, across the board, regardless of age and, you know, how you are and metabolically and that type of thing. Right. They do well with that. Even with more extended fasts.
Cycling women, you have to be very careful of that because there are certain times that it doesn't work well for them. During the luteal phase, it might be more difficult, you know, to do a fast. So you really have to be conscious of the time of the month that it is for a cycling woman. You know, once you get into those menopausal ages and stuff, fasting also can be a really effective tool. You just have to make sure that you're setting yourself up for success by, you know, preparing for it versus just oops, I skipped a meal, you know.
[00:32:59] Speaker C: Right, yeah, well, yeah, no, that's a big and significant difference whether we're talking about missing meals sort of randomly and not on purpose versus planning it out ahead of time and doing intermittent fasting. What are some of the benefits of doing intermittent fasting when it's done under sort of the right conditions?
[00:33:22] Speaker A: Oh, gosh, so many. I mean, it's, it can improve your insulin sensitivity. I mean, that's Huge, right? Because so many people, I don't even remember what the statistic anymore is it. But I want to say maybe 30% or less of people overall in the United States are considered metabolically flexible, meaning that they can switch between kind of sugar burning and fat burning. And they're not insulin resistant. You know, most Americans are insulin resistant all the way on that spectrum through pre diabetic and diabetic. And, you know, it can improve that insulin sensitivity. You know, you eat food, your glucose levels go up, Insulin is released from the pancreas, and, you know, it's kind of like the key that's letting the glucose into the cells that we talked about earlier in the conversation.
And, you know, unfortunately, if you're eating all the time, your insulin never has a chance to go back down.
And the next thing you know, you end up being insulin resistant, meaning your body just needs to produce more and more and more in order to help the glucose get shuttled into the cells.
So that's huge.
Autophagy is another one. You know, if you can fast during a certain amount of time period, autophagy will happen. And that is the, you know, specific die off of certain cells. And, you know, not in a bad way, but in a good way. It's kind of a cleanup crew that happens with your body, and that'll happen overnight. A lot of times, you know, that's why I always recommend that people stop eating at least three hours before they go to bed at night so that your body has time during those evening hours that you're sleeping to go through autophagy and your body isn't just sitting there digesting food instead.
And, you know, there's mental clarity that comes along with fasting, you know, that type of thing. So there's a lot. There are just certain people that need to be careful, you know, fasting women athletes, mostly women athletes. You know, there are just certain times that you need to be very careful and very thoughtful about how you go about it.
[00:35:27] Speaker C: And why is it specific to women, specifically of reproductive age and specifically athletes? What do they need to be concerned about, specifically in terms of fasting?
[00:35:38] Speaker A: Well, yeah, like I mentioned earlier, the luteal phase for women, for cycling women. That's usually not the best time to do any kind of fasting. Dr. Mindy Peltz wrote a fantastic book. Well, she's written quite a few great books, but one of them is called Fast Like a Girl.
And she goes into detail there about why during certain times of the month, it's better to do fasting. For cycling women. And other times it isn't. But primarily it kind of works around those different phases. So during the follicular phase, it's a better time to work on fasting. During your luteal phase, it's really not.
So that's for that. But for athletes, the most important thing, honestly, is that all three of my kids did high school sports and then one went on to do college also. And I know that you have a daughter who's an athlete as well, right?
[00:36:30] Speaker C: Yes.
She put me up to asking you this question. So shout out to her.
[00:36:36] Speaker A: Yeah, so this is like a really important thing because, you know, again, there's another very famous doctor that I follow. Her name is Dr. Stacy Sims, and she coined a fantastic phrase that says women are not small men.
Right. Our physiology is different than it is for men. And most all of the studies that were done around sports and, you know, athletes and things like that is always done with men. It's not done with women. And so it's really important to, you know, mostly as an athlete, like not skip breakfast. You know, that's an important part of your day. You know, it should be. Even if you, a lot of times will wake up without an appetite, even something, you know, a protein shake or something in there before you get to the gym and you have to start working out and training and things like that. We need that. Women need that in order to be able to train effectively versus men could probably, you know, they can train fasted and they do well. So.
[00:37:35] Speaker C: Yeah, well, it's just one more way in which points out that people are different, you know, yeah, men and women are different, but people, you know, different. Women are different than other women. And, you know, the same with men. We all need to kind of figure out how and what works the best for us.
[00:38:01] Speaker A: Bio individualization, right? Everybody's bio individual.
[00:38:05] Speaker C: Yes, exactly.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: Bio individual.
[00:38:08] Speaker C: We are all bio individuals.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:11] Speaker C: And how do you go about sort of determining what works well for your individual clients?
[00:38:19] Speaker A: Well, I use testing a lot in my practice, so it really depends on what people need. You know, that's the whole thing. Even when it comes down to the tests that people need, I usually don't do a one size fits all. There are certain things that I do like to start with typically.
So, you know, a stool test is a great one just to see how their gut is functioning. Because again, we're understanding more and more about the importance of the microbiome, you know, and that ratio between dysbiotic and commensal bacteria, you know, what Other things could be going on in there. The whole thing about leaky gut, you know, and intestinal permeability, the importance of all that. So, you know, that's really important. A lot of people will also will do a food sensitivities test along with that, because the idea is that when you do have leaky gut, you know, whatever you're eating is going through those cell walls, you know, because your small intestine is basically like a piece of cheesecloth. It's very thin. It's only one cell deep. And when you have leaky gut, then, you know, it's very easy for things to pass through that and go straight into the bloodstream. And then that mounts that immune reaction. And there are certain foods that will cause an immune reaction, and those are food sensitivities, which are different than food intolerances or food allergies. It's a completely different thing. So, you know, and you'll get different symptoms based on that. But usually what we do is we'll go through and remove those foods that are causing inflammation in the gut now and go through and a protocol to improve the overall gut microbiome, you know, with whatever we found out on that test. And then we reintroduce those foods and see which ones. We do it very systematically and see which ones, you know, you end up having a reaction to and which ones you don't.
So there's that. There's hormone testing, of course, because stress, as we know, is huge. So I use for men and women usually a Dutch complete, which also does, you know, cortisol testing and some organic acid testing as well, to take a look at certain things. For women, it's imperative because you can see how estrogen is detoxifying, you know, how your progesterone metabolites are, you know, all of these things which are incredibly important. And then I use toxin screenings a lot as well. So. But I have a myriad. Like, I could probably talk a whole podcast on testing. So.
[00:40:50] Speaker C: Well, if people wanted to get in touch with you and learn more and maybe figure out what testing they need and among other. All kinds of other things that you might be able to speak with them, how can they get a hold of you? Where can they learn more about elation health?
[00:41:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, and we never even covered that. So the name elation actually came from my husband and I when I decided to do this and leave my corporate job and, you know, come up with something else that just lit me up. Doing this and helping people is just the best thing that I ever I wish I would have found this 20 years ago. You know, it's just something that brings me so much joy. But when we were trying to come up with names, that's kind of what we're thinking about is, you know, what kind of brought me joy, and it's my kids. So the name Elation actually comes from the combination of my three children's names. So it's Alyssa, Katrina, and Christian. And when you put those together, it comes up with Elation, and then it's kind of a play on the word elation, too. So, yeah, that's where it came from.
Yeah. So My website is www.elationhealth.com, and that's the best way to get a hold of me. I'm also on Instagram under the same name, and, yeah, that's about it.
[00:42:12] Speaker B: Well, thanks for bringing it full circle.
[00:42:14] Speaker C: And not forgetting to help us understand the names within the name.
[00:42:20] Speaker B: Very cool.
[00:42:22] Speaker C: So great to talk to you. I'm so glad that we're in touch and we're connected and hope that we get lots of opportunities to work together in the.
And yeah, thanks for coming out and talking to us about all of these things, because they are lots. You know, it starts with that whole kind of stress response. And in my mind, in terms of, you know, we're dealing with things out in the world and we need to deal with them sort of that are in there in our face and in the moment. But there's a whole lot more to just, you know, deep breathing. There's a whole lot more to just being mindful. There's, you know, all of the foundations of health and all of the things and the ways in which we can be energetic throughout the day and get new, good nutrition and support our bodies to be able to function and function well so that we can achieve everything we want to achieve in this life. So, Jeanette, thank you so much.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:43:21] Speaker B: Looking for more? Visit whatsworthwhile.net to listen to podcast episodes, learn from books and articles, and live better by choosing healthy products and practices. I'm now offering services through Worthwhile Advisors for personal coaching, professional advising, speaking, and group facilitation. If you or your team are ready to reduce stress and anxiety, build vitality and momentum, and accomplish your goals without burning out, then please contact me, Ramsey Zimmerman, through the website or on social media like Instagram X or LinkedIn. Thanks.
