Environmental Toxins - Enhanced Wellness Living

The Unseen Link: Hormonal Imbalance, Lifestyle, & Disease

Lori Esarey: Wellness is a practice, not just a word.

Kelly Engelmann: Welcome to the Synergy Podcast, where myself, Kelly Engelmann and Lori Esarey shed light on powerful tools and topics that nourish your body,

Lori Esarey: and most importantly, feed your soul.

Kelly Engelmann: Welcome back, synergy listeners, we are so excited to be back in studio producing today. I have a very special guest and co host today, Lori Essary, that’s going to be joining us. Thanks, Lori, for being here. We’re focusing our conversation today on breast cancer awareness. And I wanted Lori to share her story about her diagnosis with breast cancer a few years ago. She walked through that diagnosis and I just think there’s some richness and some healing potential in her sharing her story, number one. And I think there are some key insights that you guys would really, really appreciate. So Lori, thank you for being here and being my friend and being the voice of functional medicine and the voice of healing.

Lori Esarey: Yeah. I appreciate you asking in. And when we originally started talking about this, it’s not easy to share your story. And I’m used to being a co host with you, right, and asking other people their questions. And yeah, so today a conversation about, where does it begin though, right? Breast cancer. I think we all know that cancer doesn’t just show up. And I think what we may or may not know is that none of us are immune, to disease.

Kelly Engelmann: Absolutely.

Lori Esarey: But I thought. I’ve been doing all these great things for years, right? Like, I’m a functional medicine expert, I’ve been practicing for, 17 years. I’ve been in the field for a long time and here I was in 2019, faced with a diagnosis of breast cancer and so the story began. Now, in hindsight, I realize many, many years ago in my twenties, being diagnosed with, at the time, a lack of blood sugar control, and essentially, my body was in a state of dysfunction for many, many years before the disease state, cancer arrived but back in those early years of my life in my 20’s when blood sugar was not good. I didn’t realize the connection to disease and I think hindsight is always 2020, we know so much more today than we knew then but going back that is where the story began, it’s a story that when faced with the diagnosis in 2019, I think the questions that anyone would ask were no different that I asked myself that probably anyone else asks is why and how, how does that happen and why?

Kelly Engelmann: Yes. So let’s go back to the story because you were obviously, in the middle of your practice, stress was a little bit higher than typical for that period of time. And you were considering doing some reconstruction surgery with breast implants. So tell us about like that whole, how the realization of breast cancer even came about because I think that’s pretty miraculous too. And intuition for you was a big part of that, right?

Lori Esarey: It absolutely was, so I had been really struggling with exposure to mold in my home and had gotten quite sick and as you know, had nearly died from chronic inflammatory response syndrome in hindsight, didn’t even know, right? My body was just completely taxed and burdened and, I was running the beach one day, which is just a profound time for me, I was particularly on the beach, where I can look at the ocean and the waves. It’s a time of reflection for me, it’s a meditation, it’s a prayer time and as I was running the beach. It was, you need a mammogram. And I’m like, what? You need a mammogram. I’m like, where does that even come from? Like where, I just had a thermography three months ago everything’s fine, I don’t feel bad. You need a mammogram and I think that that part of that, the backside to that story was I was, considering prior to that having my breast implants out because I had had multiple surgeries in my 20’s for cysts in both of my breasts that resulted in having such a lack of breast tissue that my breast became very deformed. And I had the surgery back then, right? So that’s the backstory to, I think, where my thought process was going but that intuition of you need to have a mammogram and then as I got back to, after my four mile run back to the tent, I remember saying to my mom who was there, mom, I think I need to have a mammogram. And she goes, what are you talking about? And I said, well, I think I need to have my breast implants out. And she’s like, what are you talking about? And at that moment, I was like, I just think I do. So yes, intuition was a big start to getting the diagnostic testing that led to my diagnosis. And then returning home to get the testing that led to the diagnosis.

Kelly Engelmann: Yeah, so I’m just thinking about you had had a thermography three months prior to that kind of knowing that you needed a mammogram. Right? And that thermography looked normal. There was nothing suspicious on that thermography is my point. And I think there’s a lot of fear, there’s been a lot of fear in the functional space in people seeking out functional medicine. A lot of times they have this fear of doing a mammogram routinely is that exposure to radiation going to increase risk for breast cancer that’s been brought up in the community for quite some time now. Leaning on thermography as a way of screening has been kind of the thought process in, well, if I get my thermography, if it’s not suspicious, then maybe I don’t need a mammogram kind of thinking, right? We’ve all had this conversation, so what would you say to that now?

Lori Esarey: I’ve been asked that a lot and, my answer has been, first of all, I hadn’t had a thermography for approximately two years. And I think one of the things we have to realize is when you initially have your baseline thermography, you’re advised to go back in six months, right? And then you’re there after, unless there’s an abnormality doing it sooner. To fully disclose, first of all, I had a delay in getting my thermography, but when I had my thermography, absolutely it was, it was normal. And so, I would say now that I do believe that there are a multitude of different diagnostic tests that we can do, as well as our own self breast exams, and we all need to be completely proactive. We need to be doing all of those. Absolutely. But I don’t believe that there is one way, like one size fits all. I do believe that we have to work with our provider of care, ask really good questions and determine what’s right for us, whether that be thermography alternating with mammography, maybe it’s ultrasound. But I would recommend just choosing one way. I would have a discussion, right? And that’s what we say about everything that we recommend is have a discussion with your qualified healthcare professional, discuss your history. There are different reasons to have different types of diagnostic tests, sometimes it’s more appropriate to have an MRI. I had had multiple surgeries. I had implants. It was not easy to palpate at all. It was tiny, right? So. Yes, it’s not a one size fits all, diagnostically speaking.

Kelly Engelmann: So let’s dig into the whole topic with your story about, this concept of dysfunction versus disease, because it sounds like in your 20’s, you had some dysfunction of blood shear going on. And that dysfunction over time could have made you predispositioned. There is a connection between dysregulation and blood sugar and cancer risk, right? Central obesity sometimes is a risk factor for patients with cancer, especially breast cancer. You know, breast cancer is the number one cancer for females. So it’s a big deal. It’s something that we should be paying attention to. What would you say about that cascade for you? with blood sugar dysregulation and cancer diagnosis.

Lori Esarey: Yeah. So I think first of all, when I discovered during pregnancy, actually that my blood sugar was dysregulated and then post pregnancy, it maintained a level that was elevated, but not beyond a disease threshold. I was told that there, it was okay, right? Just exercise, change up your food, and it’ll be better. But during that time, there wasn’t an exploration, of what were the drivers of that condition, right? So now functional medicine root cause approach is instead of just looking at the symptom of the blood sugar dysregulation, it’s really looking at that root cause. So if we back up the story even further, in high school, there was a lot of hormone as a whole dysregulation. Hormone as a whole. Not having regular periods, having excessive menstruation, to the point of even talking about birth control use, right? And then I was on birth control pills. And I was on them for an extended period of time, and then came off of them, and then was not able to get pregnant, then had endometriosis. I mean, you hear this, right? Dysfunction, dysfunction, dysfunction. And then had a laparoscopy and had surgery for endometriosis. Then was able to get pregnant, and then after being able to get pregnant had very difficult pregnancies, let’s say, having gestational diabetes ending up having elevated blood pressure, preeclampsia, C sections, early deliveries, let’s go on. So yes, I think that there was an ongoing amount of dysfunction and hormonal dysregulation for a longtime sex hormones, blood sugar hormones, likely adrenal hormones, but not past the disease threshold to which someone would say, doctors would say, you have this, let’s treat with this. And therefore, to me, pre and prior to my education. I did not put that connection together, and so now, in hindsight, there is no doubt in my mind that, and we know this, that a lack of blood sugar control is the primary driver, of inflammation, or, as we say, it’s the primary driver of inflammation, and inflammation, then, is a primary driver of blood sugar dysregulation, and it becomes a sloop, right? So, that state of dysfunction, then, if we stay in that chronicity of that state, we will end up with a disease state, and it could be just about anything, hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, osteoporosis, Parkinson’s disease, neurological disease, must we go on, but for me? My cards were Breast cancer. So in spite of everything that was done from the standpoint of good nutrition and those things, I think that what I didn’t understand was the relationship between adrenal health and other hormones.

Kelly Engelmann: I think your story, is a very familiar story. In the world that we live in today. There’s oftentimes dysregulation in blood sugar, polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, dysregulation in menstrual cycles early in life, and we are oftentimes as clinicians not making the connection to those adrenal hormones and the stress response and dysregulation in blood sugar, that if we made that connection early, what could we be preventing when that person hits their forties and fifties where their increased risk for cancer or other chronic disease states go up? So I think my message to get out there is not to produce an element of fear, in any way in patients, but an element of awareness that the things that we do early in our teens and our twenties and our thirties set us up for what we experience later. And having said that, it’s never too late to make those changes, right? It’s never too late to start working on the disruptors of metabolic dysfunction and inflammation.

Lori Esarey: Absolutely. And I’m super glad that you said that because, kind of going back to the patients that we get the privilege of treating every day. We say the four pillars or now we say five, right? Nutrition, detoxification, exercise or movement of the body, hormone balance, and then mindset. Mindsets if we’re if we’re talking about a chair, it’s those four legs of the chair and mindsets the cushion, if we couldn’t sit in that chair, it wouldn’t be a useful chair without mindset, but that leg of hormones I think is so powerful, because there’s such interconnection that I agree that unfortunately in medicine historically we’ve done a very poor job at connecting the dots. And when we are young walking through that and I’m speaking right now to girls who are in their teens and 20’s with already having hormone dysregulation and going on the pill for excessive periods and whatever other symptomatology and I too don’t want to create fear. But I want to challenge you, ask questions. Ask the question why, and really poke at your providers of care. In a way that, be curious and ask, because those signs are a symptom of an underlying dysregulation that if you don’t understand, if you just put patchwork on it right now, at that time, which may alleviate symptoms. But that patchwork, unfortunately, can actually create a delay in you understanding, what needs to be done and then a disease state ensues that you had the ability much earlier to change and I think that’s the message more than anything is that I want to get out there is that I’m not regretful, or sad. I’m not. It’s hard, having walked through it, it’s hard, but it’s a story that’s powerful, and our stories change lives, and our ability to share that story, it has the power to get other people aware, and maybe, just maybe, prevent, and even if it’s one. It’s prevention. So asking those questions, those hard questions, connecting those dots, if you don’t have a provider of care that is willing to hear you and listen and connect those dots for you, have those dots connected and the how is? How do you do it? Is blood work, it’s more advanced testing. It’s not just looking at a simple CBC and a chemistry. It’s looking at hormone labs, now it’s looking at Metabolism, urinary metabolism of hormones. It’s working with a qualified health care provider of care that can take you beyond and really digging deeper into that and investigating, to find out what those connections are. And then sitting down with you and laying out a customized, individualized plan, that can help you create, if you will, an executable plan. I mean, at the end of the day, we’re all busy. We are, our lifestyles are crazy. Our bandwidths are limited. We all know we need to be eating good. We just don’t always know what that looks like or more importantly, like how to do it. But if you sit with someone after you understand and you need to make those changes, then invest in what needs to be done to get a plan that you can execute. That is something that you can do and it’s doing it in steps. I mean, there’s ladders to go up for a reason and there’s rungs in those ladders and you got to take every step, right? Every step up is another step in the right direction. And it takes each and every one of those steps to make that change. It’s a critical element is don’t just connect the dots in here, but take actionable steps early, to reverse the risk of disease again, not to make you immune, because let’s be honest, let’s go back to what I said initially, there is no such thing as being immune to disease,

Kelly Engelmann: Right. I think we’re so blessed today in the way that we are able to evaluate patients for a functional medicine stance. Historically we’ve only been able to look at blood labs for hormones or maybe salivary labs for hormones, but now we can actually see how those hormones are being metabolized. Are you at risk based on the way you metabolize your hormones at developing some of these hormone related cancers. And that’s part of the good news that we can see it, and the other good news is that we can help you fix it. So, if you’re not metabolizing well, it doesn’t mean you always have to not metabolize well. We can optimize hormone metabolism through what you eat, how you move your body, staying hydrated, keeping your stress level under control, protecting the adrenal glands. I mean, all of those are very powerful ways of us helping you navigate that hormone imbalance, regardless of where you sit in your life cycle.

Lori Esarey: I remember, very early in this walk of hormone dysregulation and I remember I love my gynecologist. He birthed my two biological children and I felt like I had a really great relationship with him and I still definitely respect him, no doubt. But I remember when I was offered, and this was early when ablations were an option, and I remember sitting with him and, due to the irregular bleeding him mentioning, that I should have an ablation. At the time, again, hindsight’s 2020. Let’s keep saying that right hindsight’s 2020, but I remember saying, okay, I’m going to go forward with this is there anything else I can do? Right? And he said, no, you’ve done what we could do and now this is really the next best step unless you want to have a hysterectomy. Okay. I’m quite young, don’t want to have a hysterectomy, so I had an ablation. And I remember going back to my visit afterwards after the ablation and we won’t go into the story of what the recovery of the ablation was but I just remember just a foul smell for days and just how it made my body feel right? And I went into him and I go, I know you’re a man, right? And you’re a gynecologist and a man, but I gotta have an honest conversation with you. As anyone mentioned, what this procedure not only feels like, right? But what it smells like for days, I felt like I was dying. Like my body was just dying. And I said, are you sure there’s just nothing else that could have been done? And he’s like, Lori, this is it. I really feel like this is going to help you and granted, I have not had a period since, but once again, in hindsight, testing that we now have available, to your point, today, that we did not have available to us then, not only serum testing of hormones, they had that, they had that. Which is one point in time, right? Then salivary was available, then the urinary metabolites. What we have available to us today and the magnitude of that would have likely changed, that scenario. And would have really given insight to the fact that my levels and my hormones were so imbalanced for so long that set the stage, to the bad soil I like to say right hormonal dysregulation is it leads a bad soil, right? So when there’s bad soil, unfortunately weeds grow in the garden. Weeds grow in the garden. So yeah, we do have a great amount of testing available to us now and there’s no reason, but again It’s just not offered typically in the traditional realm of care, so you you do have to seek out. You have to seek out, you have to be brave, you have to be curious, you have to read and you know some of my favorite books now that I would recommend is, Dr Lindsey Berkson does a great job and talking about safe hormones smart women. Safe Hormones, Smart Women, right? I think that’s a fantastic book just about hormonal dysregulation as a whole and which voices we do have as ladies and what symptoms, right? What are those symptoms and what kind of symptoms are we having and what do they relate to? And then she’s got a second book that I think is incredible called Hormone Deception. And that’s about environmental, right? Environmental influences that affect our hormones like you were talking about earlier.

Kelly Engelmann: Yeah, and there’s so much we can do to help. navigate that how to harness those hormones in a way to decrease inflammation to allow for proper offloading of those hormones, there’s just so much from a lifestyle perspective that we can do to navigate that piece. So yes, I do believe the testing and thank you for mentioning those books, those would be great resources for patients who are interested in hormone balance and are interested in really keeping their hormones balanced as they go through their different life cycles.

Lori Esarey: And I think that remembering that prevention is the key, right? Prevention’s the key. And how do we prevent? Not only by eating differently, sugar is poison to our bodies. I mean, I think that message is pretty loud and clear, but maybe not to the degree, but sugar is absolutely poison to the body.

Kelly Engelmann: It is.

Lori Esarey: So if there were.

Kelly Engelmann: But I want to say something about sugar. Because I think that we beat ourselves up about sugar, right? We are genetically primed to crave sugar. Back in the hunter gatherer days, you only found a beehive maybe once a year. And you got into some honey, you did not have sugar sitting around all the time, but we’re still have the same genes. We still have the same genetic prime to crave that sugar, right? So to your point, it is a killer, it is inflammatory, but be gracious with yourself and don’t have it in your environment. Right? Don’t think that if it’s in the pantry that you’re going to be able to say no for a long period of time. Trust a friend on that one, right?

Lori Esarey: That’s right.

Kelly Engelmann: Setting your environment up in a way where it’s just not part of your day to day environment.

Lori Esarey: Definitely.

Kelly Engelmann: You have to go find it, to consume it. It’s not just sitting there in your pantry or in your freezer, right?

Lori Esarey: You definitely have to be intentional about that. So, definitely getting sugar out of the diet would be one of the first ways that I believe that you can take an active role in preventing all disease states, not just breast cancer. But we know that cancer as a whole, sugar, feeds cancer. It’s like adding a growth element to your abnormal cells. We all have cancer cells, I think I started out by saying that we all have cancer cells, right? So it’s a matter of are we doing things in our lifestyle and making choices to cause that to duplicate, replicate, or are we doing things and do we have countermeasures? And things like antioxidants and our other lifestyle countermeasures to decrease that risk, so that’s number one. I think number two, something we don’t talk about enough and it’s a work in progress for me, that’s part of the hard part of sharing a story is that there has to be a vulnerability, right? Sleep is a big deal, right? And I was recently listening to a podcast, it’s called sleep is a skill. And I was like, It is. It’s a skill. It has to be worked on. It doesn’t just happen. Maybe it happened easy in your twenties, maybe, but I’m going to tell you right now, it doesn’t happen easy. The older we get you have children, right? And those children have children and then life, lives and hormones become dysregulated and all of those things so sleep is a skill. And at the end of the day, I have to say that one of the pivotal areas that I don’t think gets enough attention, is the role that sleep has in prevention of disease.

Kelly Engelmann: Yep. And I’ll say one of the biggest tools that we have today that we haven’t had for very long. One is the Oura Ring, there are many devices that track sleep. But I do think if you can see, objectively measure your sleep, then you’re more willing and able to make the changes that you need to make. Because we can fool ourselves into thinking we’re getting away with six hours of sleep and we’re functioning fine. But at what price? Sleep is your time to restore and repair offload cellular debri, cancer cells. Offload while we’re sleeping, our immune system upregulates, sequesters those things and gets them out. If we’re not getting good quality sleep and we’re not protecting especially that deep sleep, we may not be doing that efficiently. So don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re getting away with, it is costing you something, so I would encourage you to use a device to track, the Whoop is a good device. It does a great job of tracking sleep Oura Ring, does a great job of tracking sleep, and there are several others out there that I haven’t tried out, but those are tools we have sitting right in our toolbox that we could grab and use.

Lori Esarey: And the third thing I would say is that, I think there is some fear, historically, maybe not so much now, about understanding your predispositions. And we have to remember that genes do not predestine us for a disease state, they predispose us. And I do feel like there’s a lot of power in understanding your genetics. Genetics affect the way you methylate, the way that you detox. Genes affect your predisposition to blood sugar dysregulation. Genes set the stage for a higher risk for inflammatory conditions. And there’s a lot of access now to quality, quality genetic testing that you can get and gain an understanding. And again, through a qualified healthcare practitioner and doing some testing, pairing that information with other information is powerful, very powerful.

Kelly Engelmann: So we’ve got sugar, we’ve got sleep, we’ve got genetic testing, we’ve got hormone testing that we’ve talked about.

Lori Esarey: Detox as a lifestyle, I think. I mean, there’s so much we could talk about, but detoxification as a lifestyle, I think we often talk about detoxification as an event. I’m going to detox, right? I’m going to detox for 7 or 14 days and although those things can be very powerful, and very helpful, liver cleanses, very helpful. What we do know is that, we need to be intentionally focused on limiting our toxic exposure, on a daily basis, and not just waiting for the event of Liberty Talks and so, what can we do to really increase our awareness of environmental exposures and toxins from the cookware that we cook with to, used to be a runner on and living here where I live right on the golf cart paths and the the gasoline smells in my house, the plugins historically that and the candles yes

Kelly Engelmann: I can’t tell you how many times I would visit and I would unplug all the plugins. Finally, she got the hint that we need to change out the plugins, but yeah, all those things are bio, they bio accumulate in the body and they do, they are hormone disruptors. They’re nice. They do smell nice, but again, at what price?

Lori Esarey: Yeah, they do. So, when you put all those things together again, it’s not, a prescription for elimination of a risk of disease, but it is truly, it’s the intentional efforts on a daily basis that reduce risk over time. And so just recognizing there is a very significant difference between disease and dysfunction, and I just urge everybody not to wait until you are then the proud owner, or not so proud, let’s say, of a disease state, that you are actively pursuing or in pursuit of health and looking for and preventing disease through what you eat, changing what you eat, what you drink, how you sleep, how you move, and how you think. And that way, I tell everyone now not only am I thankful, that God allowed that to happen in my life so that I could learn so much. I also say that period of time has really intensified the urgency for me of the need to work on things that, maybe we all can do this to say, we’ll wait on that one. That one’s too hard. I’m not going to. I can’t do that one just yet, it’s really, we have to understand that it is a process. It is something we have to work through, and it is something that we’re not going to be perfect at. We’re gonna have speed bumps in the road, we’re gonna have detours, we’re gonna have challenges, but it works. It pays. And so, I really encourage, everyone to take an active ownership of their health, I work hard every day to prevent get in the hands of or in the office of a qualified functional medicine provider and don’t wait until you have a disease, and get it checked out.

Kelly Engelmann: Well, Lori, thank you so much for sharing your story, again I know it’s not easy. I mean, it puts you in a very vulnerable position, but it’s so powerful. Like we heal when we tell our story. We help others heal when we tell our story. And so thank you for doing that today.

Lori Esarey: You’re very welcome, Kelly.

Thanks so much for listening to today’s episode. You can find more information about Synergee at Synergee for Life. That’s S Y N E R G E E the number for life. com.

Kelly Engelmann: And then Synergy Connect is our Facebook. And then please make sure to follow us on your favorite podcast app so that you make sure you get future notifications of episodes.

Lori Esarey: The purpose of our Synergy podcast is to educate. It does not constitute medical advice, by listening to this podcast you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others, including, but not limited to patients that you are treating. Please consult your own physician for any medical issues you may be having.

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The Self Healing Diet with Brian Clement

Kelly Engelmann: Wellness is a practice, not just a word. Welcome to the Synergee Podcast, where myself, Kelly Engelmann and Lori Essary shed light on powerful tools and topics that nourish your body.

Lori Essary: And most importantly, feed your soul.

Kelly Engelmann: Welcome to the Synergee Podcast. We are so excited you’re back with us today where we believe we’re stronger together, and today we are super blessed to have the co-director of Hippocrates Wellness Institute with us, sharing his wealth of knowledge.

Lori Essary: So a little bit about Brian. Brian is the director of the internationally renowned Hippocrates Wellness Center located in West Palm Beach, Florida. It’s the world’s leading center for working with affliction and reversing premature aging, and is frequented by the likes of Sir Anthony Hopkins, Elliot Page, Mick Fleetwood, and Elle McPherson for over 50 years, Brian’s limitless love and passion to mentor and guide hundreds of thousands of lives into semblance of balance and well-being have led to countless hours of practical and clinical experience positioning him as one of the world’s leading progressive thinkers and teachers. We are so excited to have him today.

Let’s get started with today’s episode.

Kelly Engelmann: Hi Synergee listeners, we are so excited to be back together with you today in production. We are delighted to have Hippocrates Wellness Institute on with us today where we’re gonna talk to Brian Clement, the director, co-director of Hippocrates. We are gonna pick his brain all kind of ways about food. Food is medicine we believe that, and we wanna dig in and kind of teach you guys some new or exciting or intriguing ways to boost your nutrition status. So, Brian, tell us your story. How did you get Hippocrates?

Brian Clement: Way back in the 1960’s, I was a pioneer in American obesity. I was one of the few very fat people you saw running around, and thank goodness, an older woman in her seventies at that point who had reversed cancer naturally smacked me in the back of the head. She was bold and said, you’re gonna die. You can’t even walk upstairs without stopping. Now the three packs of cigarettes and the joints I was putting on both sides of my mouth didn’t help either. And in one fell swoop, she said something I never heard from my loving, wonderful parents, I had great parents and grandparents and family. She said, you’ve got to eat correctly. You’ve got to eat vegetables. Now, the only vegetables I saw in my house, on rare occasions, we’d have like butter with green stuff floating in it. That was rare. And usually it was, white potatoes since we’re Irish. And so that had much butter on, every single meal. My two brothers and I would get a quarter of a pound of, you remember the square quarter of a pound butter, they’d put it in the spuds and it would melt, and then you’d put the white bread and dip the gravy and that was the best thing I ate, by the way. Everything else.

Kelly Engelmann: Oh goodness.

Lori Essary: Wow.

Brian Clement: God knows what, so I obviously need it. So in one fell swoop, I became a plant-based eater before people knew what a vegan was or a vegetarian was, or the organic was and this woman guided me, thank God, and I lost in 18 months, 120 pounds.

She then said to me, Brian you’ve gotta do this work now I was already at university in biochemistry and science, and I said, where do you learn this? She said, you have to learn it, we’re gonna go to the experts. So there, even today, sadly 53 years later, there’s still not a formal school in North America now, Harvard, Yale Loma Linda, we’ve created one in Europe and we can speak about that later. We can get masters in doctorate degrees in lifestyle medicine. And so once I fully engaged in this, in 1970, it was I was just new at it and very young. I did my first lecture, thank God you weren’t in the audience cuz I didn’t know much, I knew more than the people in the audience thank God. I was out lecturing all over America. And by 1975 I asked an important question, who has the most experience? Who has the most success? And everyone said it was Hippocrates, which started in 1956, so we were the founders of the alternative health movement. We were the founders of self-care. We were the founders of lifestyle medicine. These are the words that came out of Hippocrates because our founder, I wasn’t there obviously, but our founder was told in 1952, Ann Wigmore by the Harvard doctors in Boston, she had 90 days to live. So she went home, and ate the way peasants did in Europe, which were plants. Healed it. And in 1956 recognized that what was lacking in healthcare was self-care and opened the doors at the very first center like this on the planet. And so we’ve been going consecutively now, soon, three years, it will be our 70th anniversary.

We’ve had hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people come through. Our reputation comes from people healing, catastrophic disease, and those of us that live this way, I’m well in the my seventies now. We just don’t age the way the rest of the population does.

Kelly Engelmann: Brian you said, healthcare, what was lacking in healthcare was self-care. And that was back in the fifties, right? And so as I’ve experienced medicine for the last 30 years as a provider, I’ve seen that like it is so blaringly in my face on a daily basis, like our culture has lost the art of self-care. I had no idea that it went back to the fifties. Right? I thought that was something we invented in the eighties and nineties, but you’re telling me even from the fifties, that it was recognized.

Brian Clement: There was more humanity. Let’s be honest. When I was young, the doctor was a respected human being. They came to your house, we really loved them. I know they cared for us, they were part of our family. And I was interviewing a doctor who’s my age about two years ago. He really summed it up in a way nobody had ever done so for me at least, he said we had freedom. We went to school years, 12 years, we were educated. They gave us the freedom to help people the way we wanted. And then before you know it, they created rules and standard of practice and insurance clerks told us what we could. Give a patient or not. And the heart and soul in the seventies and eighties, as you pointed out, rightly happened and it was a switch. But I still think that women like you and men who get into healthcare and become doctors and nurse practitioners and PA’s do it for the right reason. When I was young, I used to be angry at the doctor in improperly. I don’t know any that I’ve met I know 2000 by name, that did it for the wrong reason or just make money or to be greedy. But when you’re educated by a broken system that has one objective to sell pills to you, then you lose your heart and soul sometimes if that’s the participation you’re involved in. And today, thank God for people like you and doctors all over the world that are moving rapidly into this area, integrative. Healthcare and alternative healthcare and holistic healthcare, that they understand that it’s not just about pills and it’s not just about genetics, it’s about epigenetics. And everywhere in the world they know that and they do research on it, except here where they keep having the old broken record and that’s why the healthcare system’s broken.

Lori Essary: And I definitely agree and we can all agree today, is that our healthcare system is broken. And I love what you just said about. Believing that we got into it because we genuinely care for people. I too don’t know anybody who would sacrifice years and years and years of education and finances to get that education to not care, but unfortunately, the fee for service. Care model, in addition to who drives our algorithms and our decisions. Basically they say, take care of the patient, but we’re gonna hold your hands behind your back and blindfold you and see how you do it. So it does take a lot of I would say not only energy, audacity broad shoulders, courage. Yes. Courage to swim upstream and to do things differently. But Kelly and I, as you had said, and we’re so grateful for the last several years, I would say 30 years cumulatively, 17 years for me, and actually a little bit more than 30 years cumulatively, but doing things differently and truly loving, we call it, Fun medicine, right? Because it’s definitely medicine that makes a difference, and it’s using tools in our toolbox that are food, like you said. And I also love what you said is it’s not just food. It’s nourishing your heart, nourishing your soul, nourishing your body through lifestyle, exercise, movement, breath work, all of those things. So, love it, love doing it.

Brian Clement: But I mean, the reality quite simply is the data is in. The number three killer in the United States, Canada, and most of Western Europe is pharmaceutical medicine. Now, how can we allow this system to keep working? And I’ll give a story back in 1978, the most blessed day of my life came April the 17th when I was in Stockholm, Sweden, and met my future wife. And she was running Europe, the world’s most famous center on inflammatory disease. She was the director there. And,

Kelly Engelmann: So time-out Brian. You said, what year was that?

Brian Clement: 1978.

Kelly Engelmann: So 1978. So we didn’t have headlines for inflammation in the US, until the nineties.

Brian Clement: No, not at all.

Kelly Engelmann: Right. We didn’t even think, we didn’t connect the dot of inflammation as the primary driver for disease until,

Brian Clement: And this is the difference between systems that have to do the right thing because they’re giving it to everyone and systems that have to profit. No matter if it’s the right thing or not. So when I found out that the center people were flying from the United States to go there all over the world, Asia, that it for Swedish citizens. In Sweden, it was free to go there. And that was stunning to me because we were battling at that point, not against only the allopathic field, but the government which supported in the pharmaceuticals.

And I wasn’t the battle there. I’m loving when it comes to that, but they were battling with us. There they went in, and they said let’s do some research, and they found out they were getting a 93% reversal rate on inflammatory diseases they worked with. So the next day, not the next month or year, they started to pay for Swedish citizens to go.

In 1982, I talked to one of the government officials and said, why do you do that? He said, yes, we’re nice people in Sweden and we do care for fellow suite, but it’s purely economic. So that’s what really doesn’t make sense. So what the work you’re doing, the work we’ve done here for nearly 70 years where we reverse diseases, we don’t reverse it, but we give tools and people reverse diseases. Do you know how many trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars globally that would save a year? The gross national product of the United States. Very soon, 25% will be healthcare. That doesn’t work, in practically any case. How does that work? It doesn’t work.

Lori Essary: No, it doesn’t.

Kelly Engelmann: So let’s talk about what does work, right? Nutrition. Food is medicine.

Brian Clement: Yes.

Kelly Engelmann: So I’m fascinated. Lori and I had the opportunity to come on site at Hippocrates, and I’ll have to tell you, it’s been a dream of ours for, we’ve been talking about it for over 10 years. And we just never, carved out the time, and the space, to experience that for ourselves. So we’ve had the opportunity to be on property twice recently, walking into the lunchroom, smells like Chlorophyl.

Lori Essary: What?

Kelly Engelmann: You can’t just breathe in the air and get well, you don’t even have to eat it. Just stand there and breathe the chlorophyll.

So help us understand that. Like, tell us about it.

Brian Clement: Well, this is an interesting thing. So when I was just a youngster, of course, I was working off the biochemistry and the physics and the biology I learned, and then I started to realize probably my early thirties. I have gotta study natural history, quantum biology, quantum physics. And when I did that, it was overwhelmingly simple for me and everyone else, if you do this to figure out what we should eat.

So right now as we’re sitting here talking, in the very center of the sun and zillions, and that’s not an embellishment and zillions of protons are born. And they immediately start banging back and forth on neutrons. And so when you walk out. Where you’re living and I’m living, you can feel that, friction coming down in the form of sun waves.

But now listen to this part of the story. It’s amazing. This happens for a hundred thousand years on in this star we call the sun. It’s a star and bouncing back and forth the a hundred thousand, it works its way very, very slowly towards the surface of this gastric sun. Remember, the sun is 98% gastric, 2% particle.

And then it shoots off so rapidly. Listen to this one. It goes from matter and turns into light, goes from a proton to a photon. Now, here’s the interesting part of the story. What evolved on the planet earth to capture the energy from the sun, which is all energy. You, me, plants, where you’re sitting, the house you’re in, everything is the electric light came from photons, green leafy plants.

That’s what evolved here. And the very first animal didn’t show up until 550 million years ago. That was a trilobyte, that looks like a horseshoe crab. And we didn’t show up in this form till a few thousand years ago. Homo sapiens in this form. So what is the original lifeform, green leafy plants, what have we been giving clinically observing with hundreds of thousands of people green leafy plants, their diseases go away. We fight aging. And by the way, finally, mainstream science is getting to this conclusion. So it’s not brain science, it’s common sense. And that’s what sprouts give you. So in the middle of a snowstorm in Alaska, in January, you can grow green leafy plants in the kitchen window in a snowstorm, and in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida. New North Carolina in the middle of summer, we can grow green leafy plants inside of our kitchen. So I mean, the other wonderful thing I’ve had the opportunity to work in countries around the world with the United Nations years ago in India and Egypt, I was in villages with starving people. They were giving them condensed milk and they were dying, surplus butter. What did that do for the people? We were sprouting. We took a hundred pound bags. This is biblical, but factual. And produced a thousand pounds of highly nutritious food that their bodies could digest and utilize complete proteins, complete vitamins, complete minerals, essential fats, and what we’ve discovered over the last 50 years.

Hope, hormones, oxygen, phytonutrients, and enzymes. That’s the medicine in these raw plants, and once you cook them, finito gone.

Kelly Engelmann: So I’ve been juicing for many, many years. I grew up, preferring brownies over broccoli, I’m just gonna say,

Brian Clement: Of course,

Kelly Engelmann: And, realized that was not helping my body. And needed to really be aggressive with changing my pallet. And so I used juicing as a way to change my pallet. However,

Brian Clement: That was smart.

Kelly Engelmann: I have not, Ever juice a sprout.

Brian Clement: Oh, that’s got to be your new thing.

Kelly Engelmann: That’s got to change, right? I sprout and I eat sprouts, but I’ve never juiced a sprout, so I wanna know about that. Like what happens when you juice a sprout?

Brian Clement: Juice a okay. When you were here, I saw you drink a green juice. And so, that one green juice you had. Had the protein, the average American absorbs in three days. So the two most obvious things we see here are overeaters, are satiated, so they’re not hungry, and blood sugar conditions where we have the numbers to prove it. They’re getting well so quick with type two diabetes and hypoglycemia your head spins, we’ve gotta watch if they’re taking insulin, they don’t go into shock. And so that our medical team has to be on top of that. And the fact of the matter is when you can have that much nutrition. Now remember, when you take a seed it’s nourishing an organic seed, but when you germinate it, it’s eight times more on average nutrients, eight times more A, B, C, D, E. Eight times more, that digestibility radically goes up as I’m as healthy like you are as can be. But when we chew seeds and nuts, we don’t chew them well enough and we don’t digest them. When you germinate them. They become 17 to 57 times, not percent more digestible. So you start juicing that stuffs. Before you know it, you’d be flying.

Kelly Engelmann: Okay. I hope my husband’s listened to this podcast because he is my juicer. He keeps me fortified with juice on a daily basis, and I so appreciate that. And so I, unfortunately, I get up at 5:00 AM. And two days ago, he’s just waking up at six 30 and I’m in his ear about juicing sprouts.

He’s like, what are you talking about? What are you reading? Like, help me understand. I’m trying to wake up and I’m like, but we’ve gotta be juicing sprouts. We need the protein.

Brian Clement: Well, most women are gonna envy you, they can’t even get their husbands to say, sprout or vegetables. And your husband’s up at five in the morning juicing for you, six in the morning. God bless. He must really love you, honey.

Kelly Engelmann: He’s a keeper. He’s absolutely 100% a keeper, for sure.

Brian Clement: Yeah, that’s it.

Kelly Engelmann: So, tell us the difference between microgreens and sprouting.

Brian Clement: Okay, so we differentiate that in a simple way. So what you can grow in a jar, it’s so easy. It’s like you can put alfalfa seeds and clover seeds and radish seed, and if you were a farmer, you throw them on the field and hope for rain or sprinkle it.

That’s all you need to do in a jar. Now, others need roots to get larger, stronger, and have more nutrient density to it. So a sunflower, which grows so rapidly. Now, this is an amazing story. You put a little black seed in the ground in seven weeks. It’s 15 feet tall, has hundreds and thousands, not hundreds, about two to 3000 of seeds, and it moves. In the morning, it’s facing the east and at night it faces the west. So you want to put that on soil. So microgreen is that, all of the seeds any seed can be made in the microgreen. So now it has roots and of course the soil you would choose is organic soil. Sure you can buy that in a container but it’s sterilized, better to go out to the woods near your house with a shovel and a big bucket, a 50 gallon garbage bin and put it in there and then you recycle it. When you’re done with the mats, cuz once you cut things these put together mats, throw them like here where we live in the south, you throw them in your backyard. In six weeks you have richer and richer and richer soil. Here in the morning, back at our gardens, in our compost pile, every single animal from South Florida is here knowing this is the best diner in the whole state.

Lori Essary: We just talked about composting a few podcasts back, Kelly, didn’t we? About the importance of composting. Yeah, definitely.

Brian Clement: I thought if you haven’t had em on, you’ve gotta have Dr. Zach Bush on. He just did the forward. This guy’s amazing. He’s a medical doctor that left recognizing if we don’t work with farmers and get the soil back, we’re all gone.

Lori Essary: Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. So I wanna understand. When people begin to change their diet, obviously their GI tracts, in many cases, they’re not used to it. Yes. So, Kelly talked about changing her palate with juicing, but I wanna hear like, what are the things that you guys see on property when you begin making those changes with adding more vegetables.

Brian Clement: So we were the people that sort of popularized the term detoxification. And boy you are, a better word for it now, 53 years later is exorcism.

I mean, when you’ve been sitting and I was a sinner, you were a sinner too. I mean, you’ve gotta be exhumed and I mean all of that stuff you’ve been eating over decades. Literally, is stuck in your intestinal tract, the ventricles of your body it’s created plaque. Your cardiovascular system is clogged with this stuff comes out. Now the good news is Dr. Arthur. Out in San Diego did a study, it ended up costing her 2 million over time. She found out in the first seven days, most of us eliminate about 60% of the waste in our body.

That’s why you feel like you’re hit by a truck, getting on this pristine clean diet. So people are moaning and groaning and saying, this isn’t working cause I feel sick, it is working. You gotta clean the pathway. So now the organs start functioning the way they should. Now, the second week, people start to say, wow, I feel a lot better by the third. They get it, and it’s 21 days to change habits, to change mindsets, and we’ve learned through our medical team here, the biochemistry of the body radically shifts by 50% between the 14th day and the 21st day.

So a lot comes out, but the real work is done 14 to 21 days. Two weeks to three weeks. And so you can go through that, but it’s a needed process. And if you’re a woos or a sissy, you’re not gonna like it. But if you want to be forgiven for your sin, nature will do it.

Lori Essary: It sure will. You are so right. And I think there’s a lot of mental shifts that have to happen during that time too that I can imagine that you really have to support your guests with, to let them know, listen, it’s, you’re not gonna feel great, this doesn’t feel good, but honestly, your body wasn’t doing well before. This is a part of the healing process that you have to walk through.

Brian Clement: If you put a cork in a cesspool, you don’t know there’s a cesspool. So when you pull the cork, all of that waste has to, and our doctors support them but more so, everyone gets psychotherapy here. With gifted psychotherapists, because it’s when I joke, but I didn’t really mean it as a joke, even though it sounds funny. You are going through an emotional and spiritual exorcism. Because, Cellular memory is not a new age philosophy. It’s a biological fact. And so you’re holding on pain and suffering, unresolved issues, and a lot of that eating. When I was obese, even though I had a great life and was loved, I didn’t like myself much. So I was not taking drugs. I wasn’t an alcoholic. But I did it with food. And most of us use food as a weapon against ourself, because we’re not willing to deal with change, and that’s what we do here. It’s, as you know the base program’s called the Life Transformation, we have comprehensive cancer and Mindfulness Program, Immune Boosting Program, Fitness Program. Next year we’re gonna have a longevity program. My book will be out the end of this year, called How to Live 220 not cuz we think so we know you can do that. And so I’m doing that with a doctor whose wife came here 20 years ago and reversed stage four melanoma. Which in modern medicine is incurable. How many people I’ve worked with that did that?

And the good news is, you just have to support nature. We don’t have to do the work. Nature lets it happen. And so those of you listening out there that this sounds so new and maybe even frightening to you, a lot of you say you have faith, but you don’t really have faith. A lot of you say you wanna live naturally, but you’re really not living naturally. You’ve gotta let go. You’ve gotta just embrace, if you believe that there’s a creator and there’s a universe, you’ve gotta really now engage in that and let go of all of our preconceived notion. And before you know it, you’re gonna heal and you’re gonna become a human being like you’ve never been before.

Lori Essary: Achieving your best. Yes. Reaching your optimal health. And you’re right, it really is a grieving process of sorts, don’t you think? People go through denial and they, anger and likely resentment and they’re moving towards the acceptance of these are the things I need to do to achieve the life I wanna have, and you either decide to do it or you decide not to do it, but it’s, the ball is in. Everyone’s court individually to do that. You give them, as I understand it, the tools and the resources. You don’t treat them, you give them the tools and resources to heal themselves, as I understand it.

Brian Clement: Everything, we we’re mono focused. We have several departments, energy medicine department, our partners, which you’re involved with. Boost the Immune system with IV’s. Are you a psychotherapy department, we have a kitchen, we have nutritional department but, it’s all about boosting the immune system. Cuz at the end of the day, the universe figured this out. The immune system is, and you know this, but the listener may not, is a gathering of brilliant cells. And those cells, each and every one of them have a unique job. Some go after bacteria, some viruses, some molds, some yeast, some fungus, some parasites, some amoeba’s and some cancer.

And, when you can encourage the immune system to do the job that nature in the universe meant it to do, there’s nothing you cannot reverse. Some of the people I’ve had the privilege to work with over the half century or more that I’ve been doing this have been written off multiple sclerosis, early stage Parkinson’s disease, every form of cancer you can imagine. And every one of these people by the way. Have the capacity to heal themselves if they have the self-respect, the self-love, and the correct tools to do it.

Lori Essary: And I noticed you just got a delivery of juice. If I’m not, so you better drink it because I understand that it oxidizes in how many minutes or seconds? Tell me.

Brian Clement: 15 minutes

Lori Essary: There you go.

Brian Clement: Yes. Made now. About half sprouts, sunflower sprouts, pea sprouts, complete proteins, and the rest cucumbers, organic, of course, cucumbers, celery, parsley, these type of things. And I’m gonna tell you that is where, you remember the word photosynthesis. Where all energy comes from.

Lori Essary: Yes.

Kelly Engelmann: Yes. Making me thirsty to see you. Cheers to you.

Brian Clement: Thank you.

Kelly Engelmann: Drink on.

Brian Clement: Eventually we’ll have something we can sip through the internet.

Kelly Engelmann: Right, right there. Absolutely.

Lori Essary: Absolutely. Yes.

Kelly Engelmann: So what’s coming up for Hippocrates? Are there any events that we should know about? Is there anything that you wanna highlight for our listener?

Brian Clement: Well surely, I mean my newest book just came out. You can get it on Amazon. It’s called Self-Healing Diet. And it not only talks about what we’ve talked about, nutrition, this is one that is weight regulation under and overweight. But for instance, one of the studies in there show that people who are chronically using cell phone, which is 67% of us that do, by the way, 67% of the people are have an addiction to cell phone use. Weigh 30% more than the rest of the population.

Now we know because of micro toxins including plastics and other study came out yesterday that this is something that contributes to weight gain and in some kinds emaciation, with it. And cancers obviously. There was studied on at Oxford not long ago. The top bush oceanographic scientist said, if you consumed only three fish meals a week, I used to do three in a day. At the end of a year, 365 days. You have two ounces of plastic in your organ systems. Now you and I know as physicians that kills people. And forget just the cancer, how about neurological problems. In do that too? So, we’re in a world of septic poison at this point, no government anywhere in the world, including the United States, is serious about changing it. And corporations control governments and people who run governments and your life. And we’ve gotta just, divorce ourself from that poison and live as clean and as pure, both mentally and physically as we can. And you will see the reality, what humans were meant to be, because we are good people. We’re not killers, we’re not fighters, we’re not racist and sexist. We are people who want to love and be loved, but you’ve gotta have a clean, pure lifestyle to do that, you’ve gotta have the integrity. So when you go to bed at night, you’ve done your best. We’re not perfect, there’s no such thing as perfection, but the fact is, that is what creates your human spirit.

Kelly Engelmann: True, that is true.

Lori Essary: I also wanna ask the question about modalities too. You guys offer quite a few modalities too, between cold water plunges, you have energy work. What are some of the other modalities that Hippocrates offers to pair alongside of the food side?

Brian Clement: Well, about 29 years ago one of my close friends, he’s an American that went through Germany and helped him create magnetic resonant imagery. Decades ago, he let me know that hyperthermia killed microbes and cancers. And from the day after he said this to me he has five expertise as an MD, I’ve been doing my wife’s been doing an infrared sauna, and when I travel often not an infrared every day. This is not a joke. I just got back from a European lecture tour. If they didn’t have a place I could go to the sauna. I say no no. That’s how important it’s. This is what takes out the micro poisons, the microtoxins, the plastics we’re talking about. We also have steam bass, everyone gets body work, but it’s not rub dovey, feelgood stuff. It’s neuromuscular, sometimes. And it doesn’t feel good, but boy does it do a lot of work. We have acupuncture here at Hippocrates, but these are common things. I think the most important thing is we use psycho neuroimmunology that deals on a brain level with your immune system and your neurological system. And we also now know in the last 12 months to 14 months, that your body was built, homo sapiens to consume raw green plant foods. Because you have three literal families of bacteria that are the pillars of 80% of your immune system and 90% of your brain function. So when people have psychological disorders or biological disorders, it’s that these three families of bacteria in your gut are not functioning. One is called prevotella, one is called bacteria, and the other is called ruminococcus. We now know that they are fed by raw green, plant-based food. And what did I used to eat Chicken. God knows what, ice cream every day practically, butter. And what that was doing is provoking bad bacteria. So my brain, and my immune system didn’t work. So we can no longer hide behind philosophy, theology, or whatever we want to make up in our own silly minds. We now have the science, we have the data, and we’ve been clinically proving that here. When you can reverse stage four cancers and 20 years of multiple sclerosis. I mean, all I did here is type two diabetes, I quit it so easy. Cardiovascular disease, it’s not a disease. Only 3% is a a mechanical. The rest is lifestyle created. All you have to do is get on the internet. And look up the diseases and the amount of disease we had in year 1900 and compare it to today when we’re speaking. Some diseases didn’t even exist. Cancer with 3% of the population. Now it’s over 50% of us will get it. 20 years ago I’d be yelling at medical conferences, about 12% of our children in North America being chronically ill. So let me explain to your listeners what that means. They’re permanently sick. So 16 year old children and below were permanently sick. And I was yelling, do you know what the number is today? 57%. What is it gonna look like? You know this, how sick we are. What’s it gonna look like in 25 or 30 years? Well,

Lori Essary: It breaks my heart, honestly. And you know Brian, that’s my story. Having been diagnosed with diabetes type two at 25 and taking a hard look in the mirror. At what I had to do differently. I was already a marathon runner and I didn’t eat too many Snickers bars. Recognizing that, yes it is a lot of food, but it’s also what’s in our food. So we can be eating good stuff, but it could be. Not organic. So you’re so right that these metabolic disorders and cancer and all of that, they’re on the rise. And by taking a lifestyle approach, eating the right food for you and the right amount for you at the right time for you getting quality things, putting people around you that love you and support you, and a mindset that I believe I can, if I think I can, I can. If I think I can’t, I can’t. Moving the body. All of those things are powerful medicine. I am so thankful just to have had the opportunity to not only meet you, but talk to you and have you definitely here on this podcast today, and just kind of digging deeper into what you do. Thank you so much for being a pioneer. Being out there,

Brian Clement: It’s a lot of fun. As you know, this is not work. The day becomes work, I’ll quick that means I’m not good at it anymore. And welcome all of the listeners out there to look us up. Hippocrates Wellness, and come down and visit us. This is a transformative experience that’s sadly out in the world with your friends and family. It’s hard to do on your own. God bless both of you. Keep up your work. Good to be with you.

Lori Essary: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Brian. Have a fantastic rest of your day.

Brian Clement: You too. Now.

Lori Essary: Thanks so much for listening to today’s episode. You can find more information about Synergee at Synergee for Life. That’s S Y N E R G E E, the number four life.com.

Kelly Engelmann: And then Synergee Connect is our Facebook. And then please make sure to follow us on your favorite podcast app so that you make sure you get future notifications of episodes.

Lori Essary: The purpose of our Synergee podcast is to educate. It does not constitute medical advice, by listening to this podcast you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others, including, but not limited to patients that you are treating. Please consult your own physician for any medical issues you may be having.

Understanding Estrogen Dominance and the Role of Detoxification in Hormone Balance

Women’s Regenerative Health Treatments

Enhanced Wellness Living, Ridgeland, Mississippi, Functional Medicine Clinic

Kelly Engelmann, Founder, Family Nurse Practitioner, Lead Functional Medicine Nurse Practitioner

Estrogen dominance is a hormonal imbalance that can significantly impact overall health. This condition occurs when the level of estrogen in the body is disproportionately high compared to other hormones, particularly progesterone. Understanding the nuances of estrogen dominance and its relationship with detoxification is crucial for achieving hormonal balance and optimal wellness.

The Foundations of Estrogen Dominance

Hormonal Imbalance: A Closer Look

Estrogen, a key hormone in both female and male bodies, plays a vital role in numerous bodily functions. However, when its levels become too high relative to other hormones like progesterone, it leads to a state known as estrogen dominance. This imbalance can trigger a range of symptoms, including mood swings, weight gain, fatigue, and menstrual irregularities in women.

Contributing Factors to Estrogen Dominance

Several factors contribute to estrogen dominance, such as environmental toxins, stress, diet, and lifestyle choices. Particularly, exposure to xenoestrogens—synthetic compounds that mimic estrogen in the body—can exacerbate this condition.

The Detoxification Connection

Understanding Detoxification

Detoxification is a natural process where the body eliminates toxins and unwanted substances. The liver plays a central role in this process, breaking down excess hormones, including estrogen, for elimination.

The Liver and Estrogen Metabolism

A well-functioning liver is essential for maintaining hormonal balance. It metabolizes estrogen into water-soluble forms, making it easier for the body to excrete. However, factors like poor diet, alcohol consumption, and exposure to toxins can impair liver function, leading to inefficient estrogen metabolism and exacerbating estrogen dominance.

Strategies for Supporting Detoxification

1. Nutritional Approaches

A diet rich in vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, and healthy fats supports liver health and detoxification. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and Brussels sprouts are particularly beneficial due to their high content of diindolylmethane (DIM), which aids in estrogen metabolism.

2. Avoidance of Environmental Toxins

Limiting exposure to xenoestrogens found in plastics, pesticides, and certain beauty products can reduce the burden on the liver and help maintain hormonal balance.

3. Lifestyle Modifications

Regular exercise, stress management techniques, and adequate sleep are crucial for supporting the body’s natural detox processes and promoting hormonal equilibrium.

Conclusion: A Holistic Approach to Hormone Balance

Understanding the interplay between estrogen dominance and detoxification is a vital step in restoring hormonal balance. By adopting a holistic approach that includes dietary changes, lifestyle modifications, and minimizing exposure to environmental toxins, individuals can support their body’s natural detoxification processes and achieve improved health and well-being.

Enhanced Wellness Living is Mississippi’s premier Functional Medicine Wellness Clinic! We are proud to serve all of Mississippi including Ridgeland, Jackson, Madison, Rankin, Byram, Hernando, Starkville, Flowood, Bolton, Hinds, Brandon, Oxford, Canton, Olive Branch, Clinton, Vicksburg, Gulfport, Cleveland. Hattiesburg, and more! Not in Mississippi? We have patients who travel from Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas, and more for these life-changing procedures!

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