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Lyme Disease Symptoms and Treatment with Chloe Porter - E44
21 Plays2 months ago
In this powerful episode, we dive into the harrowing medical journey of a woman whose mysterious symptoms eventually led to her being diagnosed with Lyme disease. Her story highlights the challenges of complex medical diagnoses, the emotional toll of such uncertainty, and the persistence required when conventional treatment fails to help. Join us as we look into a years-long search for answers, the turning point in our guest's diagnosis, and the integrative approach that finally put her on the path to recovery.
Chloe Porter is a resilient health researcher and biohacker who has bravely navigated her own battle with a brain tumor, Lyme disease and mold toxicity. Her journey of self-discovery and recovery has turned her into an advocate for wellness and a trusted voice in the health space, through her platform, The Synthesis of Wellness. A former competitive horseback rider and triathlete, Chloe combines her engineering background with her profound personal insights to educate others through her media presence, including her podcast and public lectures. She is an author of the groundbreaking book, "75 Gut-Healing Strategies & Biohacks, and a podcast host of The Synthesis of Wellness show. She engages a dedicated community with her teachings on neuroinflammation and gut health, offering a unique blend of scientific rigor and personal experience.
“I am a very logical person at heart, wanting to know the why behind everything.” - Chloe Porter
In this episode you will learn:
- How Chloe's personal health journey, featuring Lyme disease and mold toxicity, led her to take control of her own health and dive into biohacking.
- The potential neurological impact of chronic Lyme disease and the unexpected discovery of a brain tumor during Chloe's medical journey.
- Practices and lifestyle adjustments Chloe adopted to manage symptoms and support recovery, including dietary interventions and supplements.
- The importance of community and connection in overcoming health challenges, as illustrated by Chloe's experiences and her work with a supportive biohacking community.
- Insights into neuroinflammation and the gut-brain connection, a current area of focus and passion for Chloe in her ongoing research.
- The role of mindset, meditation, and self-talk in fostering resilience and maintaining mental well-being through health challenges.
Resources
- Connect with Chloe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/synthesisofwellness
- Learn more about The Synthesis of Wellness: https://www.synthesisofwellness.com/
- Shop all the products Chloe mentions in this episode: https://alively.com/products/chloe-porter
This podcast was produced by the team at Zapods Podcast Agency:
https://www.zapods.com
Find the products, practices, and routines discussed on the Alively website:
https://alively.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Neurological Symptoms and Brain Tumor Discovery
00:00:00
Speaker
One of my doctors that I was working with wanted to get a brain scan because of a lot of my neurological symptoms and Lyme attacks the nervous system in so many different ways.
00:00:11
Speaker
And so we got the brain scan and coincidentally, I also had a little brain tumor. So at that time, you know, I was just thinking to myself, oh, wow. Okay. So all of my symptoms are due to this brain tumor. Once we get the surgery, get it out, life will be great.
Introduction to Chloe and Her Background
00:00:30
Speaker
This is the Home of Healthspan podcast, where we profile health and wellness role models, sharing their stories and the tools, practices, and routines they use to live a lively life.
00:00:43
Speaker
Chloe, it is wonderful to see you. we're recording this on the Monday after Thanksgiving. So very thankful to have you on the show today and speak with you. Before we jump into of how we got connected, everything you do in the space, how would you describe yourself?
00:01:01
Speaker
And first of all, Andrew, thank you so much for having me on. I'm i'm thankful to be here as well. It's going to be a lot of fun. And I would describe myself as I'm a lively researcher at heart.
00:01:13
Speaker
actively researching, yeah. And I'm excited to to delve into what that means to you because you can go so many different directions on it. And so I think we initially got connected via one of our earliest LSPAN role models, Lauren Sabataro, who think you had on your show as well.
Chloe's Health Journey and Biohacking
00:01:34
Speaker
And what what was your interest in, Lauren, like and in this space in general, you know the biohacker babe herself? Man, they are icons. I love Lauren and renee you know First getting into the biohacking space itself, I think they were probably the individuals who introduced me to even the term biohacking, just being a fan of their podcast several years ago now.
00:02:01
Speaker
And, you know, starting the synthesis of wellness, there was no better first guest or first or second guest than the biohacker babes. So I love them. they They have such a great message and such a great way of describing biohacking. They really do. And I mean, what I love, as you started with researcher and as they think about biohacking, it's not...
00:02:30
Speaker
A one and done. It's not a, I have the answer. it's It's scientific. It's constant testing, checking the results, challenging your assumptions. And so for you, what attracted you in the first place to the space?
00:02:45
Speaker
ah For so long, most people didn't think much about it. Kind of just went through your day to day, did what everybody else around you is doing. lot of times there is a trigger that says, whoa, okay, I don't think I want to just do what I've been doing. Something's not working here.
00:02:59
Speaker
What was that for you? Yep. No, that's a great question. and And think like a lot of us, we get into the space because of our own health journeys. And that was definitely where I fell into things.
Living with Chronic Lyme and Mold Toxicity
00:03:10
Speaker
So, you know, backing up several years, I, you know, I've always had this analytical research engineering. I worked in a research lab for several years. um you know publishing literature.
00:03:23
Speaker
But it really wasn't until I got sick that you know no diagnoses, no no direction going forward that I really had to take my health in my own hands and figure some stuff out. So you know not to get too much into the weeds of things, but just going back into my story to give some context, you know I had chronic Lyme and mold toxicity.
00:03:45
Speaker
And i had no idea. um i had all these different symptoms, low blood pressure passing out all the time, um hormones were off, um and night sweats, swollen lymph nodes, every typical sign of an infection i had um since Lyme is an infection.
00:04:05
Speaker
And it got so debilitating that you know I passed out home alone in my apartment. ah was driven to the emergency room. um left the ER without a diagnosis. um you know they They did
POTS Diagnosis and Self-Directed Research
00:04:20
Speaker
label um some of my symptoms as POTS, which is absolutely correct. um But it was just that. It was a a label of a collection of symptoms where my blood pressure would fall.
00:04:35
Speaker
Sorry, just on that, the label they gave it, is that similar to... ah IBS or idiopathic where it's basically saying we don't have a clue like, hey, here's all the things wrong, but we don't know why they're wrong. Is that what they're effectively saying? Yeah.
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah. Effectively. Yes, for sure. It very much is a collection of symptoms that they kind of stick a label on. And, you know, a lot of people manage that diagnosis with something like increased salt or certain IVs, um certain nutritional regimens for sure.
00:05:10
Speaker
But you know i i am a very logical person at heart wanting to know the why behind everything. And so immediately, even before getting into the biohacking space, I was like, well, you know why? why would I have these collection of symptoms just suddenly come on for no reason?
00:05:28
Speaker
At that time, i kind of went back to normal life it's as best I could until one of my doctors that I was working with wanted to get a brain scan because of a lot of my neurological symptoms and Lyme attacks the nervous system in so many different ways.
00:05:47
Speaker
And so we got the brain scan and coincidentally, I also had a little brain tumor. So at that time, you know, I was just thinking to myself, oh, wow. Okay. So all of my symptoms are due to this brain tumor. Once we get the surgery, get it out, life will be great.
00:06:03
Speaker
So, and this was during a time when it wasn't the easiest to get in for surgery either. And so they, they got us in within a few weeks, got the tumor out, you know, i was in the ICU for, for quite a while, um, several months of recovery um,
00:06:23
Speaker
I did not feel better at all. In fact, i I felt worse just because of where the disease had progressed, um Lyme disease. And so after you know months of just being at home recovering, I was like, it's time to to do some more research.
Understanding Lyme and Mold Effects
00:06:40
Speaker
um That's when I found certain blood markers that I wanted tested. And I found some doctors that worked with me who were so great. So great. um They ordered the lab work that I had asked for.
00:06:54
Speaker
And lo and behold, they found chronic Lyme and some mold toxicity issues. And then ever since then, it's been ah journey of recovery and, you know,
00:07:08
Speaker
All of this is so much in the past now that I look back and just think how much you know I've grown, how much has changed, how much has changed for the better, and how much recovery has really happened. And so thankful for the journey and so thankful for finding you know the doctors that would order the lab work that I needed to to get the right diagnosis.
00:07:28
Speaker
And are those common symptoms with Lyme? Yeah. So, you know, Lyme mold, these biotoxin illnesses, they can affect so many different body systems because it's this chronic inflammatory response that is the hallmark of it.
00:07:44
Speaker
So we've got a mismatch or the communication between the innate and adaptive immune system just isn't firing like it should be. So we've got a lack of antigen presentation.
00:07:56
Speaker
We've got all these biotoxins floating around in the body, which can also be exacerbated if, say, somebody has like an HLA gene variant. if they have that and they've got, you know, biotoxin, maybe they were exposed to mold or maybe they were bit by tick in my case, the body's gonna have a difficult time removing some of those toxins by itself.
00:08:20
Speaker
And so of it really does attack a variety of different systems, whether it's the nervous system, whether it's um digestive function, of course, because i mean, just about any chronic inflammatory condition is gonna do that.
00:08:35
Speaker
to So yeah, symptom-wise, it's so varied and it's so varied based on the body system. So you're going to get neurological, you're going to digestion, you're going to get all of these things.
00:08:50
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I ask because it seems like the prevalence of Lyme disease has been climbing, and they've talked about it as we encroach more on land than deer would normally be on, and and we end up in spaces. So having friends, including my roommate from college who had chronic Lyme, it just surprised me that they took so long to just test for and say, hey,
00:09:11
Speaker
why wouldn't they have tested for that sooner? But you know maybe that was your own journey because that helped to lead to discovering the brain tumor, which maybe otherwise would have treated Lyme and never known until it was problem. So maybe it all worked out exactly for the best.
00:09:26
Speaker
I'm curious, since you like to dive into the why, and someone who also has his own mold toxicity issues and trying to get to the bottom of that, I can get Lyme. I got bitten by a tank and it could be any time.
00:09:39
Speaker
But where did the mold toxicity come from? Like, do you know that so that you're not going back and recreating the things that caused in the first place? Right. So, you know, I'm not... it's hard to narrow down when and where I was exposed.
00:09:55
Speaker
um I had seen mold certain areas that I had been in um several years ago around the same time that I had gotten bitten.
00:10:09
Speaker
So it's a bit of... you know a chicken and the egg situation. Whereas when you get Lyme disease or chronic Lyme, there's a lot of immune dysfunction going on.
00:10:20
Speaker
And when your immune system is already suppressed, If you're exposed to mold, you know maybe somebody that didn't have that chronic Lyme could handle that exposure.
00:10:32
Speaker
But when you're already suppressed, even maybe somebody has like candida overgrowth, their immune system is already suppressed. And now you put them in a couple of exposures of mold, Now you you're you're just adding it on.
Exploring Lyme Treatment and Nutrition
00:10:45
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense. So, I mean, you talked about a number of kind of downstream issues. And with Lyme, it's something you manage, right? Like you can't ever just get rid of it.
00:10:56
Speaker
Is that correct? There are definitely varying opinions on that. So i You know, we'll just take it here.
00:11:07
Speaker
There's a treatment, hyperthermia, um where, you know, supposedly it can it can totally wipe out Lyme. Hyperthermia. So like a sauna? or like Hyperthermia. Not not a sauna. This is like under anesthesia.
00:11:23
Speaker
um yeah surgeon is performing it. It's like $30,000 of a treatment. um It's a big deal, but it's huge in the Lyme community for patients.
00:11:34
Speaker
being almost, you know for lack of a better term, as close you can get to a cure as possible. no i Now, I'm hesitant to even bring that up because it's out there. you know It's $30,000. Who's going to do that?
00:11:49
Speaker
And, you know, for the few people who have done that, is it a million percent proven where it gets rid of every single spirochete in the body? You know, that's questionable. But as far as I'm concerned with my own health journey of like, how far can you get rid of these Yeah.
00:12:10
Speaker
I am pretty sold on the fact that you can do 90% to 95%. to ninety five percent you can You can get to where you're living a perfectly normal life. Maybe every now and then you're not taking care of your health like you should be. Your immune systems may be suppressed.
00:12:26
Speaker
You could get you know some symptoms on again. um But there are so many great tools to to keep that at bay too. And so what are some of those? like Let's start with nutrition. So you said you kind of digestive issues initially with it. Are there things food-wise, nutrition-wise, supplement-wise that you steer towards or steer away from that are helping you?
00:12:47
Speaker
I can definitely speak to my personal journey through this because I know everybody is so different. um A lot of people in the community do initially go to like something like carnivore just because it's very...
00:13:03
Speaker
There's not a lot of roughage, obviously. There's not a lot of difficulty digesting some of those fibrous foods. Now, for me, I had to go carnivore for some time due to the digestive issues. like It was very difficult for me to digest certain foods.
00:13:22
Speaker
um But... In my opinion, that's not sustainable long term. It's detrimental to the gut microbiome. um And a lot of downstream effects can can certainly happen.
00:13:35
Speaker
But it can work as a great tool for for so many different people. Now, I used it as a tool. I also used digestive enzymes. um Those were great. A lot of activated enzymes, even things like ox bile to help digest dietary fats.
00:13:52
Speaker
There are also so many other great supplements that I could go on and on, um like colostrum with immunoglobulin G. um So great for the gut.
00:14:03
Speaker
Nutrition wise, food wise, it was just about getting as much diversity as my gut would handle. ah Because that's what builds the gut microbiome. As many polyphenols, as many um different vegetables, herbs, protein, sources of protein as I could handle.
00:14:26
Speaker
I never really did ah strict all meat outside of that initial carnivore to get my inflammatory response to where it needed be. Never did a strict vegan ever, nothing like that. So just as many different nutrients as possible was kind of my approach.
00:14:45
Speaker
And then now as you're able to do that, it's probably kind of the building thing of, i hey, I see my body doesn't react well to this versus this and kind of finding things you enjoy eating as well.
00:14:56
Speaker
Are you able to get everything you need nutrition-wise from the foods you eat or do you continue to use any supplements on top? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Now is like night and day. And I'm so thankful. I mean, you know, you even look, you mentioned Thanksgiving at the beginning of the episode, you know, being able to sit down and enjoy a meal like that again.
00:15:16
Speaker
It's, it's joy filled, you know, because that's what builds community. yeah, Yeah, I definitely still... you know If I went out and had like ah some huge gluten and dairy filled meal, i am sure I'm going to feel it. But there are so many great tools that we can utilize, like those digestive enzymes or ox bile and a lot of other great ones too.
00:15:44
Speaker
But you know I pull from the tools when necessary and I certainly enjoy... ah No food is off limits in my opinion, but it's all about eating the food that does make me feel good.
00:15:56
Speaker
If it's energizing for me, yeah that that's a good food for me. Yeah. And so, I mean, you have the digestive enzymes. Are there others that you do continue to supplement with? Are there anything else that you use?
00:16:08
Speaker
Sometimes i will like rotate different things in and out, just depending on what I'm feeling. did... you know if i did um a gut microbiome test and I'm like, hey, you know i think I've got a little bit of dysbiosis going on.
00:16:23
Speaker
but Let's address this. you know Maybe I'll implement a bacteriophage. I'm a big fan of those. Maybe if there's some like candida issues, which you know i haven't had, but say there were some garlic or Maybe I'm addressing some biofilm issues. Maybe I'll implement oil of oregano. So kind of implementing different herbs or even even spices, different foods, like different supplements like that, that can indirectly support the digestive process rather than just always doing like something like a digestive enzyme.
00:16:57
Speaker
That makes sense. I mean, as I understand it too Lyme can impact energy levels, right?
Impact of Lyme on Lifestyle and Fitness
00:17:04
Speaker
So, I mean, we're there's like a brain fog and and energy. And now being on the other side of it, you know, movement's such an important part of living and the human body.
00:17:15
Speaker
What does your movement, mobility kind of fitness practice look like on a week-to-week basis now? And you know I can even back up to when I first got bit, you know i was a competitive horseback rider in college.
00:17:29
Speaker
And that's kind of what i that's where I believe I got bit. um So i movement has always been a huge part of my life. I've i've loved horseback riding. I've loved running. um you know I did triathlons growing up with my family. It was a huge part of part of my life.
00:17:49
Speaker
And yeah, Lyme can... it can wipe you out for sure energy wise. um With that being said,
00:18:00
Speaker
you know, as cheesy as it sounds and everybody says it, it's about listening to your body and being like, you know, do I need to rest today? Or am I feeling good? Let's go, let's go do something that kind of gives back to me because muscle can energize you, you know, a quick workout can energize you.
00:18:20
Speaker
So for me personally, now I've got so much more energy than I did back then. So I'm pretty much, you know, ah good workout regimen, like during the week. I've, you know, I love running. i love weight training. i love horse riding when I can do it.
00:18:43
Speaker
um and And just staying active too. And on the weight training, do you have... Any equipment, anything you're able to use at home if you're not able to get into a gym to be able to get that in?
00:18:55
Speaker
Yeah. So at home, you know, I've got some free weight, some stuff like that, um some bands. And, you know, I'll just kind of put on ah floor workout, you know, ah roll the mat out. So maybe not so much um super weight bearing, but more like body weight if I'm at home. Yeah.
00:19:16
Speaker
But yeah, yeah, I love going to the gym too. And he's not a nice machinery and all the good stuff there. Yeah, it's, it's funny. And I mean, there's certainly a social aspect of it too. Like you talked about with the the eating, unlocking being able to eat more, it makes it a more joyful experience. You're able to share it with others. Same with fitness. Yeah. Sometimes it may be more efficient.
00:19:42
Speaker
to just kind of get our headphones on, going where everybody else and knock something out. But there is a social aspect of it. And know you were talked about being in the ICU um for a period of time after the surgery.
Community Building and Support
00:19:56
Speaker
And if it did, how how has your thinking around social connection and proactively investing in that changed or not given that kind of isolationary period or that lack of energy before and now more energy to to go interact with others.
00:20:15
Speaker
You know, my heart goes out to anybody who has had a similar experience, um which unfortunately is a lot of us these days. It's a very isolating thing to have any kind of chronic illness or any surgery or any real detrimental health issue in life. It's it's very isolating because you immediately think when you're going into things that um Not only are you physically, socially isolated, but you're mentally isolating yourself like nobody else must have this. Nobody else knows what this is like.
00:20:46
Speaker
And so, you know, I could even go back to to the beginning of our conversation talking about biohacking when, you know, being introduced to the term biohacking and hearing all of these amazing individuals who are speaking on subjects like Lyme and mold,
00:21:02
Speaker
it felt like, oh, wow, this is a community that I need to become more involved in because these people really truly understand what I'm going through. Even with family members, you can explain things, you can explain your symptoms, they can sit with you through it all, but they aren't going through that journey with you.
00:21:23
Speaker
So community is huge. It's about finding maybe who's gone through that and connecting with them. and also being patient with those individuals around you who are really there for you. They just may not know how to help you in that time and just holding the space for them as best you can.
00:21:42
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, do you have any like structured practices around that, that you followed to help to find that community or to help support others, like having been through it and felt that, that you're doing for others with your show, with ah the work you do to to help on that front.
00:22:02
Speaker
Yeah. So, you know, now compared to then it's night and day and now it's, it's such a great thing to have a community. My podcast audiences is wonderful.
00:22:14
Speaker
You know, I i don't even, i'm not even at a place where we're really talking about, lime and mold much anymore. We're talking about all these other subjects that I was truly passionate about as a health researcher and with my background in in engineering.
00:22:28
Speaker
and so bringing all of that the community that i have you know on the socials and the podcast and the website, are our blog and everything, it it really is lovely. And to be able to talk to all these people and help them and answer questions, it's it's amazing. And, you know, speaking of it, we're doing an event this Friday at a ah social wellness club that they do like all these amazing biohacking modalities. They got red light, hyperbaric, um,
00:23:01
Speaker
a really cool 3D scan system. It's amazing. And i'm I'm going there to give a lecture on the connection between the gut and the brain, um focusing a lot on neuroinflammation because that's one of my big research passions.
00:23:17
Speaker
And the community there is amazing. So these in-person interactions are are what it's all about after after building the virtual community as well. And where are you based that has this wellness club?
00:23:29
Speaker
Yeah. So I'm based in Orlando, Florida, and this will be down in West Palm Beach. Oh, okay. Nice. Yeah. Were you at, did you go to Eudaimonia?
00:23:40
Speaker
Yep. Yep. I did. Okay. right. Did you see Lauren there? Did we already talk about this? I saw Lauren for a brief moment and we were both in line, like waving at each other. It it was amazing. Yeah.
00:23:51
Speaker
Starstruck moment. Yeah. Ran into so many podcast guests there. It was fantastic conference. So it does not surprise me that there's a great wellness club down there, given how many people were in the area that showed up for that incredible event.
00:24:06
Speaker
And yeah, the community aspect of it, I just, for me, is the most underappreciated. And the more I think how important it is, the more I would learn it's even more important than I thought. It just keeps kind of compounding and compounding.
00:24:22
Speaker
and So some other side effects of Lyme, like there's an energy level. Does it impact your sleep or quality of sleep or how you're able to sleep or how does it play into that?
Managing Sleep Disruptions
00:24:34
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. so I'm sure that can manifest very differently for everybody. For me, i have always been a very early to bed, early to rise, like you know fourth of July, I was the kid who was like, Nah, I don't don't need to see the fireworks. I'll go to bed and wake up at 5am. And that was just me throughout my entire life.
00:24:56
Speaker
With Lyme, it was weird because you know all of a sudden, i was getting like this huge energy burst at 11pm. So I was totally fatigued the entire day. But then 11pm, it's like suddenly I have energy.
00:25:09
Speaker
So it definitely disrupted my circadian rhythm. And I attribute a lot of that to um just the chronic inflammation in general. And the disruption of like cortisol, my adrenal glands, and yeah, waking up, very difficult as well. Because after all of that HPA axis dysfunction, my my cortisol awakening response was definitely not where it should have been. So energy upon waking, not there, um but weird energy spikes. so So yeah, some sleep disruption for sure.
00:25:42
Speaker
Knowing how crucial that is and what a bedrock of health, how do you manage your sleep now? Like over the course of the entire day, the things you do or don't do over the course of the day to try to really make the most of your your time in bed?
00:25:56
Speaker
prioritizing different activities during certain times during the day is definitely crucial. um Eating, you know, at certain times can be a really great tool to tell your body, okay, you know, I'm, I'm eating these set times,
00:26:13
Speaker
the circadian rhythm response. I mean, our gut, our microbes have a diurnal oscillation. So like they have their own little circadian rhythm looking out at the sunrise. It's so popular these days, but it really is effective.
00:26:27
Speaker
Even exercising ah at certain times for me, that's right. First thing in the morning, exercising really helps, um, wake me up some more. I think it assists with my cortisol awakening response and kind of balances that cortisol melatonin cycle.
00:26:45
Speaker
um I also like to sometimes look at metrics. you know The Oura Ring is a great little tool to utilize um for... you know, sleep quality itself and maybe try different things throughout the day and then see how they impact your sleep.
00:27:02
Speaker
I'm not an alcohol drinker. I know that can impact a lot of people. So a lot of the adding in is great, but sometimes it's also about what you don't do. So like not doing alcohol or not not eating and then going to bed within five minutes.
00:27:20
Speaker
um So different habits like that, for sure. On that, with the the sleep, so there are certain things to do or not do, and with the tracking, have you found specific, because it's not drinking for you, but have you found specific things that do impact, hey, if I eat later, if I eat these kinds of foods later in the day, if have caffeine after this time, or if I don't do X,
00:27:42
Speaker
like There are certainly behavioral things in there you talked about of an early workout kind of helps get that boost in the day, which I imagine helps with unwinding later in the day. But what are some maybe specific insights for you that you've seen have impacted, for better or worse, that quality of sleep?
00:28:00
Speaker
one thing I have to hold myself back from is kind of chronically working um later. So that can be a big fault of mine when it comes to like screen time and light exposure late at night.
00:28:13
Speaker
If I'm working, I'm just you know i'm on a roll, I'm typing whatever it is I'm i'm working on. And it's like, you know the clock's getting late and I'm still at my laptop.
00:28:25
Speaker
that can definitely impact you know even something as as simple as my HRV, which isn't simple. It's a very legitimate metric. And when I can notice those little things that are impacting you know my health internally...
00:28:40
Speaker
it does give me a reason to, okay, shut the laptop off. Let's kind of wind down. Let's maybe meditate a little bit. And maybe if I need light, let's put a candle on something like that. you know um Just implementing these other strategies to replace some of the maybe not so beneficial strategies for my circadian rhythm.
Inflammation Treatments and Mindset
00:29:03
Speaker
And are there any tools or products you use to help with sleep quality, like anything around your sleep environment, any products you take or or use to help? Yeah. Yeah. I've, oh my gosh, I've probably used so many different ones at ah different times.
00:29:18
Speaker
and The Oura Ring is more of like, you know, a measuring device. So I've definitely that. There are different grounding products. There's some amazing like grounding sheets these days, grounding pads. Those are really amazing.
00:29:34
Speaker
Um, I think a lot of it too can be free. Like, you know, getting that thermostat where it needs to be is huge. um Light exposure, like we already talked about is huge.
00:29:46
Speaker
um Maybe red light bulbs if if you want to go that far. So a lot of free things, but a lot of fun gadgets too. and then, you know, I kind of on maybe just for my body, but a cryo session during the day, i always sleep better ah night.
00:30:05
Speaker
um And a lot of that, I think, does have to go back with some of my inflammation from chronic Lyme. i think there's a bit of a connection there with the cryo just kind of getting my immune system where it needs to be during the day. And so those have been like little tools I've used.
00:30:22
Speaker
On the chronic inflammation, it's a newer thing I've come across and I started taking myself, but did you ever do the low-dose naltrexone? that something you looked at? I have not.
00:30:33
Speaker
done it, but I actually have it. so I was about to try it, but I was at a place where i was kind of trying different things, peptides as well.
00:30:45
Speaker
And the peptides were helping. I didn't, you know, when you feel good and you're like, one thing's working, you don't want to to implement another thing to possibly screw it up. So I was like, you know what?
00:30:57
Speaker
Stick with what you got. Like you keep that as a tool in your toolbox, but yep. What peptides were you taking or are you taking and and why? Yeah. Yeah. So now I'm not really, um I'm in a really great spot, but back then, um you know, BPC-157, pretty great one for the gut, as we all know.
00:31:17
Speaker
um But there were also some really great immune peptides. So like thymosin alpha-1 was was a really great one. It can definitely activate that immune system.
00:31:30
Speaker
So I would caution anybody. Well, caution just peptides in general, but Thymusin Alpha-1, BPC-157, that one nasal spray that's vip so that one is a nasal spray that's Well, it's not necessarily always a nasal spray, but for the context of the Lyme and Mold community, they would know it as a nasal spray um to help get that hormone back where it needs to be in the brain.
00:31:57
Speaker
And the BBC 157, how were you taking that? were it Was it shots or how were you getting it? yep Yeah. So sub-Q. Yeah. Okay. And that's something you you found at Compounding Pharmacy in Florida. How how are you able? Okay.
00:32:13
Speaker
Yeah, well, so the naturopath that I had worked with to get the Lyme diagnosis also had peptides that... Yeah, so I kind of worked with him to get those.
00:32:25
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, it's been, I want to say, two or three times a week, people are like, oh yeah, you really should try a BPZ-157. And I just can't find it in in Atlanta. So I got to keep looking harder.
00:32:38
Speaker
I found some clinics and they don't have the sub-Q. Yeah. Yeah, no. And I mean, it's the it's the wild west with with the peptides. um you Definitely some crazy retailers out there you got to be careful with.
00:32:51
Speaker
Yeah, because i obviously something you're going to put into your body. i want to be very, very confident in the origin, the quality, everything before I touch that. Interesting. but But like I said, there are some great naturopaths who um can provide it, which is amazing. Always, you know, working with a doctor first. Yeah.
00:33:10
Speaker
Yeah, just need to find somebody close to home that I can do it with. You brought up doing some meditation at times. And yeah we I can imagine
00:33:24
Speaker
going for so long where you know there's something not right. And you're going to these people that are supposed to be the experts, supposed to be the professionals, and they're basically saying, eh, it's just what it is. Like, sorry.
00:33:37
Speaker
ah It can feel like, wait, am I the crazy one? right how What's going on? Like you said, am I the only one going through this? It's a very isolating experience.
00:33:48
Speaker
It can be really difficult mentally, emotionally, psychologically. How through that and then to now have you developed a mindset practice? Like youve you talked about meditation or other things you do to to find that equanimity um as all this stuff is going on.
00:34:09
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That's such a great question. And it changes every day. um you know, there is a lot of gaslighting in the medical community, as we all unfortunately know.
00:34:23
Speaker
And unfortunately, many of us have been subject to that. With that said, you know, early on, there was a lot of, you know, prayer involved for me personally. a lot of that, you Could be, you know, prayer, talking um with my faith or or even just self-reflection, self-meditation by myself.
00:34:46
Speaker
And, you know, a lot of that has grown into a huge practice of changing just the way I speak to myself every day and allowing the interactions on the outside to i like to imagine myself kind of like the gut barrier. like you know I'm a semi-permeable membrane.
00:35:04
Speaker
I don't want to be hyperpermeable. you know like I don't want to allow every little interaction to just come in uninvited. I have the choice of what I allow in and what I allow to affect me.
00:35:18
Speaker
So you know when I look at it that way, it almost allows me to handle any interaction with, okay, I understand why this person is saying this.
00:35:30
Speaker
I don't have control if they have a bad day. you know i i just have control over how I can respond. So i take that, take my self-practice, self-talk, meditation, and really just do the best but with all of that that I can.
00:35:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you're talking to a guy i wrote a book, Get Out of My Head, that's all on this. So, you know, it very much it resonates with how I look at life and approach it. are Are there any, so in my book, I have a bunch of tools that I use in it that are likely specific practices, depending on the issue.
00:36:04
Speaker
Are there any specific tools you use or exercises you work through, whether it's in the meditation or in journaling or or whatever it is that you find helpful in those situations?
00:36:15
Speaker
grounding myself for sure. Like, um, mentally coming back to, and maybe it's not so much of like a, an exercise cause you know, I don't always have access to a journal or or something like that though. I do love journaling.
00:36:29
Speaker
Um, I do a lot of, affirmations, um grounding affirmations, coming back to you know who I am, what my purpose is what my message is.
00:36:43
Speaker
And a lot of those are very personalized. I love using generic affirmations as well, but a lot of them are very personalized to who I am and my individual message.
00:36:54
Speaker
um And then just talking to myself, ah you know, outside of the the daily affirmations and sitting with myself in meditation, just kind of talking to myself.
Transition from Research to Media
00:37:06
Speaker
It's one of those things that I know intellectually, just like Rusty is, I know intellectually and I have a much harder time practicing because there's always another podcast to listen to. Right. And so...
00:37:18
Speaker
I am proactively deciding what I allow into my head. That's the whole thing of I can decide I'm going to let in here. But I decided to let in a lot of stuff. like I proactively find a lot of things that I want to go learn about.
00:37:31
Speaker
And yeah, I think I need to filter it down and just do a little less consumption and more reflection. Yeah, actually, i love I love the way you just said that. like Less consumption, more reflection for sure.
00:37:46
Speaker
Yeah, I'd love to circle back on where we started this um and as a researcher. And can you talk some about the the recent research you're doing and what drew you to that area and what you're learning?
00:38:04
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So kind of my my professional background in engineering and lab research was was where I did a lot of the publishing of like scientific literature and stuff like that.
00:38:16
Speaker
Moving from that into more of like the media space of things is less on the publishing side and and more on the front-facing, how can I bring some of this to such an amazing community of individuals who want this type of information.
00:38:35
Speaker
um And so now it's more, you know, what am I passionate about, which is the brain and the gut and bridging the gap between those. um A lot now has been focused on you know, neuroinflammation because I see such a huge gap with addressing, you know, we talk about chronic inflammation a lot, but I think neuroinflammation gets kind of shoved to the side sometimes, especially in the younger community when, you know, Alzheimer's isn't talked about quite as much, you know, and in 30 year olds, they may not be thinking about Alzheimer's, but
00:39:14
Speaker
you know Maybe you're looking at a 70-year-old who is very interested in knowing more about that. But neuroinflammation, you know that can that can get you at any age and that can definitely affect mental health as well.
00:39:28
Speaker
And something as simple as gut dysbiosis, where you've got an elevation of certain gram-negative bacteria that hosts this lipopolysaccharide endotoxin,
00:39:40
Speaker
that can then escape the gut barrier, travel systemically and and create this chronic inflammation, also breach the blood-brain barrier and create neuroinflammation, you know something as simple as that can disrupt your
Gut Health's Role in Overall Well-being
00:39:53
Speaker
mood.
00:39:53
Speaker
And making those connections is is so rewarding for me. Yeah. I mean, you talk about disrupting mood and how it all ties and and how much we're learning here. I may be misremembering this and you're probably much more steeped in it, but I've heard like...
00:40:08
Speaker
fecal transplants can cure schizophrenia and stuff like that. They they found actually a lot of schizophrenia could be issues with gut microbiome and imbalances there. Is that true or am I making that up?
00:40:20
Speaker
You know, I i don't know the 100% fact on that, but I would definitely reason with that. It's very logical because the gut impacts the mood so, so very much. And, you know, I've looked at um the FMT or I think that's what it's called, like the fecal microbiota transplant.
00:40:42
Speaker
it's It's definitely a tool in the toolbox for sure. i mean, I would not sleep on it. I mean, yeah, theres there's some interesting ways to facilitate it for sure. I've seen like little capsules and like suppository type things.
00:40:58
Speaker
It's an interesting one. Well, yeah, i mean, as ah as a specific tool to use. But I guess for me, the more interesting thing, whether it's that process, was that we think this is a problem in the brain. Like, hey, it's schizophrenia. We need to all treat it here.
00:41:15
Speaker
But what they're showing is like, no, how it works with the gut microbiome is actually you need to treat in this total separate place. and And for me, it gets back to the your why question of, okay, why am I feeling like that? there There was a first answer of mold. And right. So why are you behaving like this? Okay. Well, I have this schizophrenia.
00:41:37
Speaker
Okay. But why do you have the schizophrenia? Oh, it's the same as why did I get this mold in my body in the first place? Is it where I'm living? Is it my commute? Like where am I getting exposed to this?
00:41:48
Speaker
The same with maybe a mental issue of, hey, why this is happening is actually not because of anything up here. It's because of something down here and treating it here and going to that source of the problem.
00:42:02
Speaker
The amount of scientific literature out there connecting something like depression or something like anxiety um or schizophrenia to gut dysbiosis or some other disease pathogen or infection the amount of literature it's expensive yeah and so for someone listening to this that may be struggling with something that they're having a hard time putting a a finger on that their physicians or professionals aren't able to put a finger on what is the way to test that is it doing a microbiome test like where could you what would be a starting point for them
00:42:43
Speaker
Yeah. So, you know, if you're just wanting to address the gut, if that was kind of your your next step, you know, a stool test is great. um There's Genova.
00:42:57
Speaker
That's one that I've used a lot. They've got a really, really great comprehensive stool panel. You know, even looking at like a Dutch test, not necessarily um the microbiome, but that can also give a lot of insight into different hormonal profiles as well and help just complete the picture when you're looking at a stool test.
00:43:18
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, that makes sense because it's it's just one tool. na so It's not saying, hey, all problems are going to be here. But if you're having a hard time, here's another place that you can look beyond just looking at your blood work, beyond just looking at saliva or other things. It's another place it's worth looking at.
Foundational Health Advice
00:43:35
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. that That certainly could be a starting point. For you, this has been an ongoing journey and things layering on that you do and and kind of... and it's that It continues to be an ongoing journey as you learn more, as you you're a constant researcher and sharing that research.
00:43:51
Speaker
For someone who may be earlier, maybe it is the tool test, but where would you suggest... someone on their own journey gets started to just take that first step knowing like ah maybe a 10,000 mile journey, but it has to start with that first step.
00:44:06
Speaker
So getting that first step and building that momentum is so important. First step, if they have a bunch of symptoms or first step, maybe just trying to improve their health in general. Yeah. i mean, it could say, say their baseline and they just want to improve their health span, right? Like there may not be a identifiable issue but they're probably not living with the full level of vitality and vibrancy that is available to them if they put some certain steps into place.
00:44:35
Speaker
For sure. you know I think we definitely overlook the basics um these days, you know sleep, hydration, nutrition, exercise, all the basics. If those are all where they need to be, all the fundamentals are where they need to be,
00:44:51
Speaker
then you know maybe it maybe it's time to go do some testing. you know Maybe we want to look at the the microbiome. Can we improve that? Or maybe it's like, okay, I think I've got every other pillar pretty well set. you know I'm eating pretty well.
00:45:07
Speaker
i'm you know I'm exercising you know five times a week or or whatever feels right for them. But my sleep is disrupted. you know Maybe it's like, okay, well...
00:45:18
Speaker
do we want to to get like an aura ring or do we want to maybe look into why your sleep's disrupted? And maybe that means you know hormone tests of some sort.
00:45:29
Speaker
some Maybe it's saliva for cortisol or or maybe it's um the Dutch test, something like that. It's hard to answer that question. It's such a great question. It's hard to answer because there are just so many different routes for depending on like the unique situation.
00:45:46
Speaker
But I think one thing that we all have in common that seems to be affected in pretty much every case of symptoms is a gut disturbance at some point, um digestion at some point.
00:46:00
Speaker
And so when we can get that tested or we can take care of that in some way, it seems to help all those other facets outside of you know the fundamentals of like sleep, exercise, nutrition.
Conclusion and Engagement Encouragement
00:46:13
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. I think that makes a lot of sense. and it is it is this new frontier. Like, you know, it's got the genome genome, then the epigenome, and then the microbiome, the microbiome. I we're just learning so much.
00:46:28
Speaker
The more we discover, the more we realize we don't know. And so a lot of it, getting that baseline testing, just understanding what's going on and addressing, it's a great place to start. Yep, for sure.
00:46:40
Speaker
Chloe, thank you so much, not just for today, but all you do to continue to research and share what you're learning with the broader community. i know I'm a beneficiary and I'm sure our listeners are appreciative as well. So thank you.
00:46:53
Speaker
No, thank you so much for having me on. This was so much fun. And i mean, what you're doing is amazing. i'm I'm so glad to be a part of it. Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Home of Healthspan podcast.
00:47:05
Speaker
Remember, you can always find the products, practices, and routines mentioned by today's guests, as well as many other healthspan role models on Alively.com. Enjoy a lively day.