Are you tired of being tired?
I know tiredness seems like part of the package when you’re a mom, but if you live a healthy lifestyle and still suffer from chronic fatigue, brain fog, irritability, headaches, and other unpleasant symptoms, toxic metals could be the hidden culprit. Detox specialist Wendy Myers is here today to help us take a deeper look.
Unfortunately, toxic metals are all around us (especially in our modern environment) but there are smart ways to detox and limit their impact on our bodies.
If you pump gas, breathe air, drink water, eat food, or live in a house … you might want to check out this episode!
Wendy Myers, Toxic Metals Specialist
Wendy Myers is a functional diagnostic nutritionist and founder of Liveto110.com and MineralPower.com. She diagnosed her own health issues through hair mineral analysis and now brings her method for success to others through her Mineral Power detox program.
Wendy is also the #1 bestselling author of Limitless Energy: How to Detox Toxic Metals to End Exhaustion and Chronic Fatigue (2017). Through her book and her Live to 110 podcast Wendy explains how to safely reverse damage from toxic metals and reclaim energy once again.
In This Episode You’ll Learn
- which toxic metals pose the highest threat to our health (and how they got into our bodies in the first place)
- why detoxing is more than just a fad, and how to do it safely
- the one metal that causes more cancer than all the other metals combined (and it’s not lead or mercury!)
- which tests can show if you are overloaded with toxic metals
- the additive in gasoline that is 10x more toxic than mercury (and connected to chronic fatigue)
- how sauna therapy mobilizes metals (and the right kind of sauna to use)
- when to add iodine to a detox
- the big problem hiding in conventional chicken and eggs
- how we are all being exposed to arsenic daily (and why it can keep you from losing weight)
- the most toxic thing in vaccines these days (hint: it’s not mercury)
- how to know if seafood is really safe to eat
- how aluminum toxicity happens and why it is a problem
- the heavy metal hiding in herbal teas (especially mint and peppermint)
- toxic metals in rice and grains, and how to avoid them
- everything you ever wanted to know (or maybe didn’t want to know!) about coffee enemas
- and more!
Resources We Mention
Learn more about Wendy and the Mineral Power program at Liveto110.com
Book: Wendy Myers, Limitless Energy: How to Detox Toxic Metals to End Exhaustion and Chronic Fatigue (2017)
Wendy’s Guide to Sources and Symptoms of Toxic Metals
More From Wellness Mama
- 672: How to Do an Emotional Detox & Achieve Limitless Energy With Dr. Wendy Myers
- What Is Bioenergetic Power with NES Health?
- Consumer Reports: Arsenic in Rice
- 10 Signs You Need a Detox
- How to Do a Coffee Enema
- How to Reduce Plastic in Your Home
- Homemade Natural Deodorant
- Why I Always Use a Shower Filter
- The Best Water Filter for Home Use
- 3 Healing Detox Bath Recipes
- DIY Detox Foot Soak
Detox Supplements
Take together:
BioSil (Mobilizes toxic metals)
PectaSol-C (Binds toxic metals for elimination)
Other supplements:
Activation Products Coriander Seed Oil
Detoxadine (Iodine)
Tri-Fortify lipsomal glutathione
There are several companies that offer at-home infrared saunas:
- Clearlight: Offers full-spectrum, low-EMF saunas. They have various models from a 1-person up to custom whole room saunas. (Call them and let you know I referred you and you should get a discount).
- Sunlighten: Another trusted name in infrared saunas with a variety of options. They have a portable one-person sauna (The Solo) that is much less expensive than wooden models and easier to store. If I feel myself getting sick I immediately spend an hour in there to induce fever.
- Healthmate: I’ve tried their sauna at a friend’s house and it seemed comparable and reached about 160 degrees. Mention “Wellness Mama” when you call to order and they will offer you the best pricing available!
- Creatrix: An affordable, non-toxic tent sauna and lamp you can move with. This is a great option if you are renting or are considering moving soon.
[toggle title=”Read Transcript”]
Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.
This episode is sponsored by Four Sigmatic. You’ve heard me talk about Four Sigmatic before because I love their coffees, teas and hot chocolates. Now you can get 15% off any order with the code “wellnessmama”. But these are not ordinary drinks. They’re delicious combinations of coffee, cocoa and adaptogen herbs, now with the benefits of Chaga, Cordyceps, and Lions Mane for an extra brain boost and clean energy. My long time favorite is their instant coffee with the benefits of these mushrooms but lately I’ve also really been enjoying their caffeine free blends. Try out all of these delicious drinks at foursigmatic.com/wellnessmama and make sure to use the code wellnessmama to get 15% off of your order.
This episode is also brought to you by Primal Kitchen, all the good kitchens today. It’s founded by my friend, Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple. The Primal Kitchen is now my source for some of my favorite kitchen staples. So if you haven’t tried their delicious avocado oil mayo, including their chipotle mayo, you are seriously missing out. I have made my own mayo for years and years because there were never any good options to buy that didn’t have vegetable oils in them and now there are. Primal Kitchen has completely changed that with their products. They also have some delicious pre-made salad dressings and we use their products all the time. You can check them out at primalblueprint.com and if you use the code wellnessmama you get 10% off any order.
Katie: Hello, and welcome to The Healthy Moms Podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com. And I’m here today with a much requested guest. Wendy Myers is the founder of liveto110.com, as well as mineralpower.com. And she’s a detox specialist and functional diagnostic nutritionist, as well as the bestselling author of “Limitless Energy: How To Detox Toxic Metals and Exhaustion and “Chronic Fatigue.” And she specializes in using hair mineral analysis and other functional medicine tests to design custom detox programs for people dealing with heavy metals. And she also has a podcast as well, if you guys want to listen to it, it’s the liveto110 podcast. But welcome Wendy, thanks for being here.
Wendy: Thank you so much for having me.
Katie: I’m excited to jump in, because I get a lot of questions from people about heavy metals, and I don’t hopefully have any firsthand experience with it. After reading your info, I think I’m gonna get hair minerals test as well. But I can’t wait to jump in and talk about it, because I feel like detox is kind of a controversial word in the health world, in that there’s a lot of different meanings, and you have people on one side saying that the body naturally detoxes and you shouldn’t ever do a detox. And then you have others doing some kind of cleanse every other week. And I think you have a very balanced and valuable perspective. So when it comes to detox, what are some of the specific toxicities that you’re seeing in your work?
Wendy: Well, statistically everyone has mercury, lead, and aluminum, and many other people also have other toxicities like thallium, that’s a gasoline additive. A lot of people are not really aware of it, even a lot of detox experts. And we also see a lot of things like bismuth from makeup, by keeping natural makeups, and a lot of other different metals, like cadmium is really common in fish and shellfish, in coffees, and it’s in… All these metals are in the air that we breathe, and the food, and in the water. And so it’s one of those things where they’re impossible to avoid, and I think they really do enter our bodies at a much faster rate than our bodies are capable of removing them.
So I’m definitely not a believer at all that our bodies detox just fine on their own. There are certainly people that have those Olympic livers that they can drink and smoke until they’re 100 years old and be relatively healthy I guess. And those are the people that maybe don’t need to do a detox, but chances are that’s not you, and that people do have compromised liver function, the compromised ability genetically to detox, and have a lot of other mitigating factors that cause them to accumulate toxic metals and chemicals that require them to take a more aggressive approach to detoxification.
Katie: Yeah, that makes sense. And we’re definitely from what I understand, exposed to these things at higher levels than we would of been in the past as well. But before we get too deep into it, I wanna come back to that. But I want to hear your story first, because I think that’s always helpful to people to understand where someone’s coming from, and your experience with this. So let’s go back to the beginning and tell us how you got into health to begin with. And I’d also love to hear the background behind the Live to 110, and if you plan to live to live to live to be 110 yourself.
Wendy: Yes I do, I’m trying. I’m gonna do that or die trying. But basically I got into health and detoxification when I was planning my pregnancy. And I started reading all the baby books, and Super Baby, and things like that, and they talked about how you’ve gotta clean up your environment. And I had never really thought about the toxic chemicals I was using to clean my home, I hadn’t really thought about the chemicals and the shampoos I was using that you don’t want to put on baby’s skin, and just all the things that…the ways you wanna detox your home when you’re preparing to have a baby come into your home. And so that really lit a fire inside me to just clean up my entire home and my eating habits and making organic food for my baby and all that stuff.
But after my child was born, my father was diagnosed with esophageal cancer just a few months after my daughter was born. And then I started really delving into the research about the underlying causes of cancer, and I kept coming upon metals and chemicals or toxic environment. And I was really trying to help my father, but unfortunately he passed away from the effects of his cancer treatments, and that just really angered me. And it really lit a fire in me, and I decided to take my hobby, which was learning about health and trying to help my health all day long and reading about it, and turn it into a profession. And I immediately went to nutrition school, and I started my website liveto110.com to help other…you know, educate other people about detoxing their body and preventing cancer, and preventing kind of what I went through with my own family.
Katie: I’m sorry to hear about your dad. But I feel like that kind of is a common theme, that those of us who get into health, we get into it for a reasons related that’s closer to the heart. Whether it’s something of our own or someone in the family. But I’m sorry you had to go through that. So to go back to the detox,. So are we seeing these problems more than we ever have, or are we just diagnosing them better? Or, like, especially when it comes to heavy metals, are we being exposed in larger amounts these days then perhaps our grandparents were?
Wendy: Absolutely. Every year there are thousands or more chemicals being unleashed into the environment without any kind of safety testing whatsoever. And because of industry, and you see all these mining operations all over the world, while they’re digging up metals to put into our microphone we’re using for this podcast and in our computers, in our cell phones, all these things have metals in them. So all these metals are being dredged up by industry, or chemicals and metals are being released into the environment from coal burning, fossil fuels in the smokestacks, in all different types of industry, and then released into our waters and that water is now watering our foods. So we absolutely are being exposed to far more toxins than we were,or our grandparents were, 50 years ago. And definitely I believe that toxic metals are a primary driver of disease today. We’re seeing health issues and diseases we didn’t see 30 years ago, and it’s because of the increasing introduction of these toxins into our environment.
Katie: Yeah. And so what do you feel like are the kind of the worst offenders when it comes to heavy metals? I feel like most people have an understanding, at least a passing understanding about mercury and lead. And those get a decent amount of press time, but there’s a whole lot more that you’ve written about. Are those two the more serious ones? And is that why we hear more about them? Or are there others that are just not as well-known that are equally problematic?
Wendy: Yeah. Well, mercury is the most common metal toxicity, which is why we hear about it so much. But cadmium is really one of the worst offenders, because cadmium causes more cancers than all of the other metals combined. So that one is really problematic, and one of the reasons why we see higher cancer rates today, and that’s why you know smokers get cancer, it’s because of the cadmium that they’re getting in the cigarettes. And they’re getting lots of other metals and chemicals, there’s about 4,000 of them that have been documented, but it’s really the cadmium.
And so cadmium is found in our fish, our migratory fish, it’s found in shellfish, it’s released into the air from fossil fuel burning. So it’s not just mercury that’s released into the air, it’s the cadmium. And then when all of that fossil fuel burning is released into the air, that settles into our oceans, and that’s how the mercury and cadmium are getting into our fish, into our tuna, and into those large migratory fish, and into our shellfish. So it’s not just mercury that’s in fish, it’s cadmium also.
And we can also get it from coffee. Depending on the cadmium levels in which the soil or in which the coffee was grown, so that could be a problem. And cadmium is found in a lot of different things. I have a toxic metals sources and symptoms guide in my sight that I’ve been compiling in years of research, so you can get all the sources and some of the symptoms of all the metals.
And another problematic metal is thallium that I mentioned earlier, it’s a gasoline additive. So why are we adding thallium to gasoline? Well it’s the exact same reason we used to add lead to the gasoline and now we have unleaded gasoline. There is one guy that singlehandedly got lead removed out of gas because it causes so many neurological symptoms and neurological damage. And it’s added because it makes the car engines last longer. It prevents knocking in car engines which is great for the car manufacturers, not so good for us. So in the absence of lead, the car manufacturers had to add something in to continue to help the car engines run smoother, so now they add thallium. It’s kind of like that BPA, BPS conundrum where they remove BPA from products and they say, “Oh, they’re BPA free.” But then they add BPS which can be 20 times more toxic than BPA. So they have to add something that is a plastic hardener, and so now they add something different that’s more toxic.
And so the same thing happens with lead at thallium, so this thallium is out of the gasoline, and it’s 10 times more toxic than mercury. And it’s actually used in assassination attempts in Russia, because it actually successfully kills people and can go undetected. And it basically prevents parts of our brain from communicating with each other, prevents nutrient absorption in our gut, and it’s definitely a huge factor in chronic fatigue today. Because of poison enzymes that transport nutrients into our mitochondria, which make our body’s energy. So it really dramatically reduces our body’s ability to make energy, and it’s why Starbucks makes billions and billions of dollars, because we’re breathing all this stuff in and getting in the air and water, and a lot of these different metals are making us really tired.
Katie: Yeah, that was the first thing that came to mind when you said that about the additives in the gasoline. I was thinking it’s just like the BPA, And I feel like that’s a good rule of thumb in most aspects of health, like when fat was the demon, they replaced the fat, but now fat free they replaced it with things that are so much worse, and they replaced the BPA with the BPS which is so much worse. So those are like important things to be aware of when you see that in marketing for sure.
And let’s talk a little bit more about the energy side, because you mentioned that, and of course your book addresses how metals deplete your energy, and you mentioned the mitochondria, but can we go a little bit deeper with that to help people understand, because I don’t think that maybe is the first of mind. If someone’s having product fatigue or just is exhausted, they don’t often, at least I wouldn’t think to think that maybe I have heavy metal toxicity. So what is that connection, and how can a person know if they have heavy metal toxicity?
Wendy: Yes, well you basically assume that you have metal toxicity. I mean it’s completely unavoidable on our environment. And one thing that I really ask of people is to, you know just think about it for a second. It’s like if you are, like myself, I looked at… When I was about 37-years-old, I was eating really healthy, I was taking amazing supplements, I was exercising regularly, I was trying to sleep, I was just having trouble, and I was doing all these things to take care of my health. I was eating organic food, shopping the farmer’s market, making all my own food, and I still didn’t feel good. And I thought, what exactly is it that I have to do to feel good? I thought I was working really, really hard.
And what I finally realized in my research was that toxins really were what were weighing me down, and what were preventing me from weight loss, they were causing my brain fog that I was having, they were causing my reduced energy levels, and really some other problems that I was having, low thyroid function, etc. And for me, I realized that that detox aspect was that last piece of the puzzle that I was missing. And so unfortunately today everyone does have metals, and you really have to think about adding detoxification to your health regimen. Or just gun it as a lifestyle.
It’s not something that you’re gonna do for maybe like a year and be in the clear. We spent decades breathing in these metals and chemicals, and showering in water that might have metals in it, and eating foods that can have metals. And so it’s really unavoidable. But…it sounds really depressing, but I don’t wanna be a Debbie Downer and be depressing everyone. It’s just a fact of modern life, and there are a lot of different things that you can do, supplements you can take, and protocols you can do to add to your health regimen so that you can remove these metals slowly and safely from your body.
Katie: Okay, so let’s…can we delve in to some of those methods? I know you have posted these on your website, and I’ll link to those, but I think there is a perception that it’s somewhat dangerous to detox heavy metals, because in a sense you have to mobilize them in the body to get them to get them out, at least from my understanding. So, if a person wants to start detoxing heavy metals, where do they start? And how do they make sure they’re doing it safely?
Wendy: Yes. Well, it’s always good to start with testing to find out what exact metals that you have. And when I’m working with clients, I start with a hair mineral analysis. That’s a great way to get a basic understanding of what metals you have. It doesn’t tell us the whole picture, so I usually want clients to do a urine and or a stool metals analysis. Different metals come out in different ways in the body. Some come out in the hair, some in the urine, some in the stool, and that will give us a baseline of what metals you have, and then give you supplements that are customized to what metals you have. Because different supplements, natural and synthetic ones, remove different substances from the body, and so each person needs to be kind of evaluated individually for their sensitivities to supplements, for their health conditions, their food sensitivities, and any kind of contra-indications that we need to look at when recommending supplements to people, so it can get kind of in-depth.
But there are certainly things that people can do on their own without having to work with a practitioner. You don’t have to work with someone to start detoxing your body. There’s a couple supplements I really like to recommend to everyone, which are BioSil and PectaSol-C. I’m not affiliated with those companies in anyway, they just have spectacular products that I like to use with my clients. And the BioSil is something I talk in my book on limitless energy, it really helps to grab onto metals that cause fatigue, like arsenic, aluminum, tin and thallium, and even cesium that we get from tuna and fish. And they remove those metals, it kind of mobilize the silicon, the BioSil mobilizes those metals, and then you take something like PectaSol-C which is a modified sittrspecta, and that will absorb and bind to all the metals that we’re mobilizing. You don’t wanna take one without the other. One’s a mobilizer, one’s a binder.
And the biosil, people take about you know 5 to 10 drops of that depending on what they tolerate. And with the PectaSol-C, usually you wanna start with about at five grams or one scoop or six capsules of it. You can double or even triple that if you like, if that…if you find that you tolerate it really well. And that’s a wonderful product for dramatically reducing detox symptoms or even completely eliminating them. I never recommend anyone do any kind of detox or even infrared sauna without taking some sort of binder like the PectaSol-C
Katie: That’s an important point. How do you spell that for anyone listening? And I’ll make sure I link to you. I know you’ve written about it as well, and I’ll link to your book, but how do you spell that?
Wendy: Yeah, it’s P-E-C-T-A-S-O-L-C. It doesn’t have any vitamin C in it, it just does have PectaSol-C in it. And maybe for citrus, I don’t know.
Katie: Okay, and I think that’s an important distinction. Because like I mentioned earlier, there seems to be a perception when people hear word detox, that it’s like a 14-day juice fast, or they’re doing the whole ultimate detox thing where they drink only lemon water and cyan pepper. And I think that that’s an important distinction with the work you do, in that this is an ongoing process, but it’s also gentle and you’re working with the body. You’re not doing any kind of extreme anything for long amounts of time. And that’s an important thing to keep in mind. And that’s interesting what you said that about the saunas. So are saunas on their own helpful to the body in detoxing heavy metals, and is that why you would make sure to take a product like that while you are using a sauna?
Wendy: Absolutely. Saunas are so helpful for detoxification, I recommend them to all of my clients. But you know they do mobilize metals and chemicals from storage sites, they really facilitate the body’s ability to detox. And it’s one of those things where when you’re mobilizing all these metals and chemicals, you need to take something to bind to them and to absorb them. A lot of people get sick from doing infrared saunas, or they’re really, really exhausted after doing saunas, which is completely normal, because when you’re detoxing it takes a lot of energy. And so one thing that I work with clients is actually building up their energy levels, so they have the energy to detox, which ironically you have to have energy to detox. So if you are getting tired after an infrared sauna, totally normal, because your body has to process all of these toxins.
But taking the PectaSol-C which is blood cleanser, it gets…it’s not just a gut binder, a lot of binders just work in the gut. The PectaSol-C actually gets into your bloodstream and cleans metals and chemicals out of your bloodstream, and then you just urinate them out. But I love infrared saunas, I typically recommend a far infrared sauna like a sun lighten. And with mine I also put in a near infrared LED panel, and that’s very concentrated near infrared, and that also facilitates a different kind of detox. You get this full spectrum of near and far infrared rays, and I really believe that that’s the best way to detox. So that that’s the best method of using an infrared sauna to detox, it’s the best combo.
Katie: Okay. And what do you recommend as far as people if their new to saunas, how should they start? Because I know it’s tempting to wanna stay in for a longtime, but I had that experience. I was like, “Great I have a sauna, I’m gonna stay in for an hour,” that was not good plan. So how do you recommend that people start slowly, and what’s a good process there?
Wendy: Yeah, I did the exact same thing. When you pay for a sauna session, when you first start going, you wanna maximize the amount of money you’re spending, and spend as much time in the sauna as possible. But if you are…you wanna listen to your body. If you’re feeling nauseated or lightheaded, or you just don’t feel well, probably you wanna get out of the sauna. And listen to your body, you’ll know when enough is enough. Generally it should feel good. But some people can only… if they’re really, really sick they can only tolerate maybe even 5 or 10 minutes in the sauna, and that’s totally okay. You just wanna slowly, very slowly work your way up, maybe adding a couple minutes every couple weeks to your sauna sessions, and build up over time. I usually don’t stay in over 45 minutes, but I’ve been using saunas for about five, six years, so I’ve graduated to doing the 45 minutes, but overall you just wanna listen to your body because everyone’s different.
Katie: Okay, so you mentioned the supplements that you always recommend when someone is detoxing heavy metals. Can you give us a couple of simple detox tips, other things people can start doing at home if maybe they do plan to detox more in depth eventually with someone like you, or if they just wanna slowly start to make sure they’re not accumulating heavy metals. What are some things that people can do at home to help with energy especially?
Wendy: Yeah, so what I mentioned before, its like the BioSil is amazing, you guys can start taking that today. The Modified Citrus Pectin, the PectaSol-C is fantastic to also start at home. There’s another one I really like called coriander seed oil. It’s one of Ian Clarks’ products from activation products that I think is a wonderful way to detox metals like mercury, cadmium, lead, and nickel. And it’s very gentle, it’s all natural, it’s a really nice, fresh-pressed seed oil that’s… you can take about one to two dropper fulls, two dropper fulls is about one milliliter of that. That you can take at home, it’s perfectly safe to take. I put some underneath my tongue and let it absorb that way for a minute or two and then I swallow it. And some other really great things for detoxification are iodine. I really feel that most people need to take iodine. It’s the second most common nutrient deficiency on the planet. And I’d like Detoxadine by Global Healing Center, but Lugol’s is also fine. A lot of people are taking that or they can get it locally. And that iodine’s really important to detox mercury, and lead, and fluoride, chlorine and bromine.
A lot of people in the US are showering in water that has added fluoride and chlorine, and iodine’s one of the best ways to push those chemicals out of the body because they interfere in thyroid function. They compete with iodine uptake in the thyroid, and because your thyroid hormones are made of iodine, it interferes. Those chemicals they interfere in your body’s ability to produce thyroid hormones, which is my thyroid hormones are one of the number one prescribed medications today. So ion’s fantastic for that, and glutathione, liposomal glutathione is fantastic. I really like a product by resource nutritionals. It’s they have a watermelon flavored glutathione, which is one of the best tasting and most stable. Some of the glutathione that are liposomal don’t last but 30 days or so after you open them, so the resource nutritionals is really nice.
Katie: That’s a good tip I haven’t tried that one. And I think one of the points you just brought up also highlights why it is so important to work with someone, and to take like an individualized approach and test. Because like you said, iodine is usually awesome and then there are like the random cases like me who, I do terrible with iodine with my thyroid condition, but I have a weird thyroid condition that most people don’t have. So it’s like that’s when the personalization comes in so much. But I know that people listening…I’m gonna get the question over and over, what about if someone is pregnant or nursing, because a lot of the audience are moms, and a lot of them are probably in those phases of life. And typically at least from doctors we hear, don’t detox, don’t try to detox anything when you’re pregnant or nursing. Is that the rule of thumb or are there safe ways to support the body during times as well?
Wendy: Yes. There’s two schools of thought. I mean your body is detoxing even when you’re pregnant. You know, detoxing no matter what. Your liver is working and trying to process chemicals and things like that. But general rule of thumb, I recommend people wait until after they’re done breastfeeding to start any kind of detoxification.
I do recommend PectaSol-C when pregnant because the research does show that the metals the women chemicals that women have in their body do cross the placenta and get into the fetus. And our bodies are born of our bodies tissues and our bones. And our bones have a lot of toxins in them like lead and things of that nature, and so children today are being born quite toxic as a result because of our toxic environment. And so taking PectaSol-C is a completely anine substance. It’s made from citrus peels, it’s totally natural, and all it does is bind onto metals and chemicals and remove them from the body. I think that is a perfectly safe thing to take while pregnant or breastfeeding to remove these chemicals so they don’t get into your fetus or into your breast milk, and then it serves the protective mechanism for our child. In an ideal world, I’d love for women to spend a year or two detoxing prior to getting pregnant. I wish I had known now. We don’t all have the forethought or learn about this type of important information prior to getting pregnant, but that’s life. And, you know, awareness is great. If you have that awareness, it’d be great to do some pre-pregnancy planning and detox prior to getting pregnant.
Katie: Yeah, I wish that I had known that as well before mine, and I know a lot of women in hindsight do. But I think that’s a good point about the detoxing because like you said, the body is a process that is happening naturally. It’s kind of like how women are not advised to try to lose weight when their pregnant because when you mobilize fat tissue, there are things that are stored there, but at the same time you wanna eat healthy when you’re pregnant, and you don’t wanna purposely eat junk food to not lose weight. So it’s like that double-edged sword. And the right answer like you said, is probably in the middle of supporting the body and making sure its functioning well, so things aren’t crossing the placenta. But not doing anything really severe while you’re pregnant or nursing.
Wendy: Yeah, you definitely wanna play it safe and not do any major detox while you’re pregnant, there’s plenty of time for that. You can do that after you’re done breastfeeding and after you’re pregnant. And it’s interesting, when I was trying to lose my baby weight after I had my baby, that’s where…that was kind of like a warning sign to me when I wasn’t able to lose the baby weight, I was just doing everything. I was working out 6-8 hours a week. I was eating this amazing and the weight just wasn’t budging. And in hindsight I realize that because the amount of toxins I had in my body, the fat serves as a protective mechanism, and your body won’t let certain… it won’t let you release fat. It won’t let you lose that fat because the body needs that, because it storing all those toxins and chemicals in your fat. And so a big part of helping to lose weight is detoxing your body and removing all these metals and chemicals from your body.
Katie: Yeah, exactly. A previous podcast guest I had on, Robb Wolf, he had a book called “Wired To Eat” and one of his big points is that when people hold on to weight, there’s always a biological reason, and it doesn’t mean that something’s wrong with your body because your body’s doing it to protect itself. It means actually that your body’s doing what its supposed to do, and you have to work backwards to figure out what that is, and to help take that pressure off of your body rather than just trying to fight your body with more exercise and less food if there’s like you said, heavy metals or an underlying issues that exercise alone is not gonna fix.
Wendy: Yeah, and arsenic is a big one. I realize for myself, I was very, very arsenic toxic, and arsenic actually poisons enzymes that transport fat out of your fat cells. It prevents the release of triglycerides from your fat cells. And I got arsenic from eating conventional chickens and conventional eggs. I used to think that El Pollo Loco was this big, you know, was really, really healthy, and I was doing myself a favor by eating that. And over many, many meals of this conventional chicken, I made myself quite arsenic toxic, and arsenic is routinely fed the chickens around the world. It’s actually an antibiotic that the arsenic is in, so the chickens are fed this antibiotic and it makes them grow about 50% faster. It makes the meat look really healthy and pink, and it’s pretty much in most conventional chickens and eggs, so definitely wanna avoid those, to avoid arsenic.
Katie: Yeah, good tip.
This episode is sponsored by Four Sigmatic. You’ve heard me talk about Four Sigmatic before because I love their coffees, teas and hot chocolates. Now you can get 15% off any order with the code “wellnessmama”. But these are not ordinary drinks. They’re delicious combinations of coffee, cocoa and adaptogen herbs, now with the benefits of Chaga, Cordyceps, and Lions Mane for an extra brain boost and clean energy. My long time favorite is their instant coffee with the benefits of these mushrooms but lately I’ve also really been enjoying their caffeine free blends. Try out all of these delicious drinks at foursigmatic.com/wellnessmama and make sure to use the code wellnessmama to get 15% off of your order.
This episode is also brought to you by Primal Kitchen, all the good kitchens today. It’s founded by my friend, Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple. The Primal Kitchen is now my source for some of my favorite kitchen staples. So if you haven’t tried their delicious avocado oil mayo, including their chipotle mayo, you are seriously missing out. I have made my own mayo for years and years because there were never any good options to buy that didn’t have vegetable oils in them and now there are. Primal Kitchen has completely changed that with their products. They also have some delicious pre-made salad dressings and we use their products all the time. You can check them out at primalblueprint.com and if you use the code wellnessmama you get 10% off any order.
Katie: So, I’m curious. What are…when people come to you, you’re doing a hair mineral analysis, and you mentioned also that urine analysis, but what are the most common metals that you’re seeing in people right now, and where do you think the exposures are happening? I ask specifically to be able to kind of avoid those, especially with our children. Like what should people be on the lookout for?
Wendy: Yeah. So Mercury is the most common one. It’s one of those things, it’s found in the air because of coal burning. We definitely get that in the air. We also get it in fish, so that’s why you when you’re pregnant you definitely wanna avoid the large migratory fish. But the little fish are okay, like anchovies and sardines and kinda little gross fish people don’t wanna eat typically. I love them, some people they have to develop a taste for it. But mercury doesn’t have a chance to accumulate in those fish. They don’t live long enough to accumulate much mercury there.
And mercury is also found in mercury amalgam fillings. So definitely wanna have those removed if you have a mouthful of mercury fillings, those are not doing you any favors for your health. They also typically have nickel aluminum and other metals and silver which kills got bacteria in them. Mercury is found in fish and shellfish. In some vaccines, it’s not as prevalent now in vaccines, but it certainly was in the fat in the past. In the flu vaccine that you get at hospitals, the large community vials, those will still have mercury and thimerosal in them. Today the bigger of the vaccines is aluminum, very, very toxic forms of aluminum in vaccines. My daughter was incredibly aluminum toxic because I wasn’t very aware at the time but I did give her about 10 vaccinations before I stopped, and she detoxed more aluminum than any client I’ve ever seen. So they do have very high in aluminum.And mercury you’re also wanna get that in cosmetics, and just can be in the air, food and water.
And another very common toxicity is aluminum. Aluminum can be found in underarm deodorant, so a lot of people listening and they’re slathering their underarms with antiperspirant that contains aluminums or any deodorant you get at the grocery store or department store or what have you is going to have aluminum in it. So you want a natural one or a homemade one that doesn’t have aluminum. And tea is actually, mint and peppermint teas can be quite high in aluminum as well. For anyone listening to this, maybe you’re having two or three cups of tea every day, may not wanna be doing that if its mint and peppermint. Aluminum foil, aluminum cookware can be really problematic, and aluminum is also used as an anti-caking agent in flour, baking powders, and table salt, so that could be a problem. Of course, aluminum tin cans if you’re drinking sodas from aluminum cans or beer or things like that. Probably your listener’s not doing much of that hopefully, but we all have our little things, we all pick our poison of things that…or little toxins that we like. So aluminum cans definitely a big problem.
Arsenic like I mentioned, is very, very common toxicity. We get arsenic in water. People can if they’re drinking filtered water, they can get arsenic in their shower water, and you also get it in the conventional chickens and eggs, but also rice. Rice, especially the brown rice. The husk or the germ, the wheat germ, or not the wheat germ, but just the germ of the rice contains…that’s where the toxins are, so I never recommend the brown rice, typically I’ll recommend white rice. And the amount of arsenic or toxins in any rice or grain depends upon the soil in which it’s grown. So rice grown in the south United States will typically have more arsenic than say a rice grown in California, so just kind of know your source. Lots of articles on the internet about arsenic in rice. Consumers Report did a great study that you can look at. I think the basmati rice is typically the safest, the white basmati. And there’s many, many other metals that we can go into, but those are really the most common. Lead is one as well, that’s just from the leaded gasoline and fumes that we breathe in for many, many years.
Katie: So if someone comes to you and they have maybe say like, let’s just tackle a couple of the big ones like mercury and arsenic, what kind of a protocol is required to detox something like this? Of course obviously to preface, anyone should work with someone qualified to do this, but I’m curious as far as the process, because I wanna get the testing myself, and I’m curious what that kind of process looks like if you do have heavy metals.
Wendy: Yeah, I’d be happy to do all of your tests if you would like. It’s really interesting. I think people can be very surprised by the results just like I was when I first started my test. It was like this big “Ah-ha” moment where I’m, “Okay, this where that sentiment’s coming from.” And it was a big piece of the puzzle for me that I’ve been searching for for a while, but when it comes to developing a supplement protocol, there are general supplements that I give to almost all my clients because they’re shown in the research to detox people really well. And so I definitely will give everyone Bio Sil, everyone PectaSol-C, I give everyone coriander seed oil, which is just the seed of the cilantro plant, that’s all it is. The detox magic is in the seed.
And there’s other things I give to all clients, but what happens if you don’t tolerate those supplements? That’s where a qualified professional comes in, to give you a substitute for any products that you may have a sensitivity or a food sensitivity to, or just don’t tolerate for various reasons. And there’s also another amazing supplement called CytoDetox, really love that product as well. I think you have to work with a health professional to get that. Only a licensed medical professional can purchase cider detox and use it with their clients. That’s another great supplement as well, but it’s very complex. I mean there’s dozens of toxic metals, and you need to test for them and find out what you have, because some metals only have a very specific supplement that will remove it. And so when clients you might program mineral power, it’s very, very customized to the individual.
Katie: Are there things that are just general good practice to do on a daily basis? Assuming that we all have heavy metals, they just support the natural detox process? I’m assuming most people can’t sauna on a daily basis, but since sauna increases sweat, does something like exercise on a daily basis if it increases your sweating, does that help detox, or drinking enough water? Or are there things we should be doing anyway that help our body process these?
Wendy: Absolutely. So dehydration’s a big problem. So drinking adequate amounts of clean water, I really like spring water, properly filtered water is ideal. And so definitely, I drink at least six glasses, but everyone’s a little bit different based on body weight and their weather where they are, whether it’s dry or humid. So you wanna make sure you keep on top ahead of when you feel thirsty, that helps to flush out toxins.
I love coffee enemas, everyone can do that, they’re inexpensive to do. Not really popular, not everyone’s like chomping at the bit to do a coffee enema, but I personally, I feel like a million bucks after I do a coffee enema. I have a lot of information on my site about how to do those and why you might wanna do such a crazy thing on my website, and I have a podcast about everything you never wanted to know about coffee enemas, the benefits of them but those are a great…they’re a great way to mechanically detox a liver. They’re great if you have fatty liver, and you really have compromised liver function as a result. Because they just kinda shock the liver, that caffeine in the coffee helps to shock the liver into dilating all of its blood vessels and then excreting all of its toxins and into the intestines for elimination. So a fantastic way to detox. And the infrared saunas are great, not everybody can do them.
I also really love IonCleanse foot baths. I think those are fantastic for, like say if you don’t tolerate an infrared sauna or you don’t have room for one in your home, or you have a child that has developmental issues or autism, an ionic foot cleanse is an amazing way to detox the body. And a lot of people mistakenly think that the toxins are coming out in the water. That’s actually not what’s happening. You increase urinary excretion of toxic metals with regular use of an IonCleanse foot bath. And just… the IonCleanse Company, they’re called a major difference. They have really interesting research, really profound research with autism populations, and dramatic improvement in their symptoms. Sometimes even 50% improvement in their symptoms following regular use of a IonCleanse foot-bath.
Katie: That is fascinating, and I love that you said coffee enemas, because that’s one of those topics that I have not ever tackled in a blog-post just because, as you said it’s a controversial one, and it attracts some interesting questions and comments for sure. But I’m guessing anybody listening may have some of those questions. So I’m gonna ask, if that’s okay, just a few. One question I’ve gotten from people is, “if you do a coffee enema, are you getting the caffeine in the same way as if you ingest it?” Because people are sensitive to caffeine or don’t like drinking coffee because it makes them jittery. Is that a concern with enema?
Wendy: It depends. So when you drink a cup of coffee, it’s a much different caffeine buzz than if you do a coffee enema, in that with the coffee enema it’s much more muted, and coffee enemas are not for everyone. There are some people that are so sensitive to caffeine, the coffee enemas out of the question, but if you are really, really sensitive to caffeine, you can still do a coffee enema by using a very, very small amount. I mean even like a quarter a teaspoon of coffee for a large bucket of coffee might be enough for you. You only have to use enough coffee to elicit a response by your body, and that’s all you need.
So for me, I use two big heaping tablespoons, but for another person, that would be way too stimulating for them. So you only get enough caffeine that’s going to kind of shock your liver into dilating the blood vessels, and that varies very dramatically from one person to the next. There’s also a lot of false information on the internet, big surprise, about coffee enemas that they cause death and whatnot. Wikipedia has a grossly false post about coffee enemas that they can cause death and this and that. I think it’s ridiculous. I’ve recommended coffee enemas to thousands of clients. I’ve only had one person have a problem with like the thinning of their intestinal lining, and it caused them some problems, but everyone is different. There’s some people, they just are not going to tolerate them, and that’s with any kind of protocol, any kind of detox protocol, any supplement, there’s not one thing that works for everyone. But I have found that coffee enemas worked for majority the people and they work really, really well to facilitate detoxification. Our livers are so overloaded, they have to deal with so many toxins in our environment and break down all those chemicals, and they’re not doing very well as a result.
Katie: Yeah, for sure. So like I said, I think there’s a lot of curiosity about this topic. So in a perfect scenario, if someone was gonna do a coffee enema, what proportion of coffee to water? And just basic questions. Can you walk us through the process? Like how long do you actually try to keep the enema in, how often should you do it? I know people are curious.
Wendy: Yes. For what I like to do is, I like to fill up a bucket of water, it’s about two quarts of water, and I’ll use two heaping tablespoons in that amount of water. And you can use a coffee enema bucket or a bag. The bag holds much less water and it’s harder to clean, so I like using a coffee enema bucket, it’s open, it’s very easy to clean. And in that bucket I’ll put the two heaping tablespoons. But another person when you’re first starting out especially, just use a half a teaspoon, or even maybe a whole teaspoon just to see how you do, you can always add more the next coffee enema that you do. And I’ll just boil that on the stove, and then I’ll throw the water and the coffee and the grounds, the freshly ground coffee, enema coffee. I like the Pure Effects Coffee enema coffee, but you can just use an organic coffee, that’s perfectly fine, and throw that all on the stove. Let it cook for maybe 5, 10 minutes and steep and then I’ll filter, you know, strain it to get out the grain…the strains, or the grounds rather, and put that in the coffee enema bucket. And you usually want to empty out your bowels with the first round of the coffee enema that you do, empty out your bowels, then you can fill up again, and you try to hold that for as long as you can.
When you first start, you’re not gonna be like a pro where you could be able to hold it for 15 minutes, you know? You hold it for as long as you can, and then evacuate. And then you have all the coffee in a coffee enema bucket, you’ve got plenty of room to make mistakes.And then if you evacuate and then fill back up again, hold it for as long as you can. Don’t torture yourself trying to hold it in too long. Everyone’s a little bit different. Some people can hold it for 30 minutes, some people can only hold up for a couple minutes. But if you hold it for a couple minutes five times in a row with filling up and evacuating, filling up and evacuating, that’s perfectly fine. Everyone’s just a little bit different. You’re still gonna have just as good of a detox effect as someone that held it for 15 minutes total, but the general rule of thumb is you wanna hold the coffee in your colon for about 15 minutes total.
Katie: Okay. And like you said, I know you have articles about these and podcasts. I’ll make sure those are linked to the show notes as well. But I also wanna make sure we talk about before we get close to the end, your mineral power detox programs and also your upcoming book. Because anybody who has questions, those are both great resources for those. So can you share about those, and also where people can find you online?
Wendy: Yeah. So if anyone wants to detox and work with a professional that’s a specialist in detoxification, I have about seven mineral power practitioners, and you just start out… just starts with a hair mineral analysis, and you get about an hour consult to go over your hair mineral analysis, and get a customized supplement protocol design for you, and your metals. Clients also get a one hour consult to also go over a bio energetic scan. I really get into bio energetics. I’m actually starting a podcast only on bio energetics, because I’ve been personally blown away with my results with a bio energetic protocol that I do. It’s called NES Health, N-E-S Health, and that’s included in someone’s mineral power program. And we give a lot of support. You need support when you’re doing a detox program.
You know, things have come up, and people have questions, and questions about diet or their supplements, or detox reactions what have you. So we give a lot of support, unlimited email support and we…monthly webinars, and people get a 25-part video series. Just a lot of education and support because I really believe that detox is more of a lifestyle, it’s not a program you just do for a year or six months or 30 days. You really need to be thinking about detoxification as a lifestyle, adding it into your health regime long-term. And that’s what my aim is with Mineral Power is teaching you all the tools, and protocols, and supplements that you need so that you know what to do on your own without being tethered to us or tethered to a practitioner. And like I said, I had to liveto110 podcast. I have over 200 podcasts. I’ve been doing it for a while, and lots of free information, articles, and resources on my site, liveto110.com.
Katie: Awesome. And of course, all those links will be in the show notes. And a question… I feel like we’ve covered quite a few topics. So, to end, I would love for you to give people a starting place. If someone thinks they maybe have some of these problems based on what we’ve talked about, where should they start? I would recommend your book personally or your blog. You have a ton of amazing blog posts, but where would you send someone to start or if they are worried they have one of these problems and are a little bit overwhelmed?
Wendy: Well, people who go to mineralpower.com, and that will give people a lot of different information about our program. But if you’re looking for, say you know you have a heavy metal toxicity, you can go on to liveto110.com, and search for that metal. We have articles about almost every single metal toxicity that you can have. And in also going on the podcasts, we have lots of podcasts about detoxification as well.
Katie: Awesome, Wendy. Well, you are a wealth of knowledge, and I’m excited to do the testing myself. And I’m sure there will be questions, so maybe we could do a round two after I get my testing and I can speak to my experience as well.
Wendy: Yesah absolutely. I would love that.
Katie: Awesome. Well, thanks so much for being here. This has been so much fun, and I am gonna go read a bunch of these posts. I was taking notes while you were talking, so I can’t wait.
Wendy: Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for having me on the show, I really admire your work, and I was just really honored you wanted to have me on the show.
Katie: Thank you so much for being here, and thanks to all of you for listening. I’ll see you next time on The Healthy Moms Podcast.
If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.
[/toggle]
I’d love to hear from you! Do you suspect toxic metals could be making you tired? What would you ask Wendy?
Leave a Reply