EPI 239: PARASITES - Foods To Avoid So You Don't Get Them. Best Ways To Detox & Eliminate Heavy Metals & Toxins. With Dr. Jess Peatross

Welcome back to another episode of the Peak Performance Life podcast. Today, I am very excited to have a very special guest. Her name is Dr. Jess Petros. She is a previous board certified internal medicine hospitalist turned functional medicine leader. She's an expert in the areas of stealth infections, environmental toxicity, mold, regenerative medicine, ozone. Her passion lies in uncovering the mystery behind the chronic illness, whether that be different infections, heavy metals, stress, trauma, or other environmental toxicities, that the real root cause answers. That's what she's looking for. Dr. Jess, thank you so much for joining us here today. Thanks for having me, Talora. I really appreciate it. I'm honored. Yes, we're honored to have you as well. You do great work. I've heard you on a bunch of other podcasts as well and thought, hey, we got to get her on here and talk about everything from mold, parasites, environmental toxicities. But maybe we'll start with a brief kind of background of kind of how you got into the work you're doing today. Absolutely. So it's been a wild ride, I will say. I started out in conventional medicine. As you mentioned, I was previously board certified in internal medicine and really believed everything they taught me. I got my flu shots and I ate out of the hospital cafeteria and I didn't think anything rose wrong with discharging people on 30 medications. And then one day, the cracks started to form in the system for me. I started, it was really social media that woke me up. I started seeing these outlandish claims on social media and I go research it and be humbled. And then, you know, I would start complaining in the hospital. I would say, you know, do you guys know, why do we have Cheetos and Coca Cola in the hospital? Why is it even an option for sick patients? And they would say, well, we have to follow the food pyramid guidelines. And I would be discharging people on 30 or 40 medications. And deep down, I knew that wasn't real health. And so I started complaining, I started being a little more disruptive, I started asking questions. And I really was kind of stonewalled. They said, you know, this is medicine is really messed up. We all know that you just need to be quiet and work. and I really couldn't. I really tried. It pulled up my heartstrings for months. I was really scared to leave just like all of us other MDs are, I'm sure. Didn't know how I was going to support myself. And I jumped and I started getting trained in functional medicine. I walked away from the system and really got trained by another medical doctor in California, another naturopathic doctor. I made a fourth of the money I used to make. I was really barely able to make ends meet. But in the end, it was a wonderful journey that led me here. And now I'm so fulfilled in my career because I get people off of medication rather than put them on medication. Yes. Yes. That's what I'm talking about. That's amazing. Real quick, for maybe some of the newer listeners, we've had a bunch of episodes with some amazing functional health practitioners on. But for those that don't really know the difference, you've been in traditional medicine and now you do functional medicine. How would you describe the difference between the two? So traditional medicine is more reactive in nature. I would say functional or root cause medicine is more proactive in nature. And conventional medicine really looks at symptomatology and tries to fit you in a box with a label so that they can prescribe a pharmaceutical. And you see this with insurance companies in the hospital or even in the outpatient setting. They have ICD-10, ICD-11 codes that help bill for a certain diagnosis that then provides medication. And a lot of these medications are lifesaving. If you're in an emergency situation, you'd want to go to the ER or to urgent care. But for chronic health conditions, they really miss the mark. And unfortunately, I think that a lot of the medications and pharmaceuticals are band-aids and it's just not a pill for every ill. I would love it if a pill could fix every problem. That would make my job so easy, but it's really not that. It's about trauma. It's about lifestyle. It's about decisions and choices we make that change our genes. And until conventional medicine gets on board with that, they will continue to be reactive and not solve recalls problems. Love that. Love that. You mentioned decisions, choices that we make that change our genes. Talk a little bit more about that. Yeah, absolutely. So our genes are, for a long time, we thought they were static. We have, you know, millions of genes. We don't know what any of them code for. we used to say 99% of our genes were junk DNA, which we now know isn't true. There are a number of different potentials out there that your genes can turn on, off, or there are gradients of that. And basically they decide to turn on and off or change based on the environment. So the environment actually signals what genes are pressed, almost like the keys on a piano. And you can change them positive or negatively based on your environment, your thoughts, your choices, your consciousness. And so I think we've all been taught that it's just in our genes. There's nothing you can do. And we believe that you can negatively change genes in the epigenetic fashion, but we don't believe you could change them by positive. And that's the message that I hope a lot of people out there hear today. Yes, yes, absolutely. Yeah. Oh man, there's so much to say about that. But But people think like, and I also wonder, this is an interesting thought, like when people say like, oh, someone in my family has had this or whatever. It's in my family. So they think it's in their genes or something like that. Well, I often wonder, well, is it the genes or is it because you were raised in a household with them and maybe took on a lot of their habits and choices and decisions, thought processes, foods they eat, everything else? Or, you know, which one really is it? And we know there obviously is some factor of genetics. You know, you look like your parents sometimes from a genetic perspective there. But the idea that just because you are, you know, get your genes tested and see that you may have this, the APOB one or what's it called? The one for Alzheimer's one, for example? Yeah, you're right. APO, the APO gene. Yeah, the APO gene doesn't mean you're destined to have Alzheimer's. You can make different choices and change that. Exactly. And there are four different alleles or genes that can be changed to give you a higher or lower percentage based on how many there are of Alzheimer's. And, you know, what determines how many of those are turned on or not? You know, when you get your genes, let's say you do like a genetic genie or some sort of, you know, hopefully not 23andMe, something more private. But, you know, you may have a set of genes or genes that are not maybe as advantageous as you'd like. But that test doesn't tell us whether the genes are turned on or off or they're active or not. It just says you have this potential. Right. Yeah. So people need to know that, too. The genes are not a death sentence. Yes. Yes. So you have a lot of people that come to you with problems that they just can't figure out what it is. And, you know, so we talk about I know you talk a lot about mold, environmental toxins, parasites. Why don't we start with parasites? And it's actually been a huge kind of trend or fad or craze recently is parasite cleanses are going crazy online. Tell us a little bit about parasite, like who would need to do a parasite cleanse? How do you know if you have parasites? Don't we all have parasites to some extent? Like, tell us a little bit more about that. Yeah, great question. I do believe at some point in everyone's life, they will at least be exposed to a parasite. Most of us do end up having one, a larva or eggs or something. I know it's gross, but at some point in our life. And in fact, you know, I've got a really good parasite test where it's kind of old school. Not only do they use PCR, but they actually look with their eye under a microscope at the slide. And that's like a forgotten art. So and everyone that I give that test to just about has something come up. So, you know, I know no one wants to think they have any sort of worms or parasites, but it is a thing. And parasites don't understand about borders. So when people tell me it doesn't happen in the USA, I'm like, hmm, I don't think they understand that. And plus, we don't have the greatest food supply in the world anymore. We don't have the cleanest nation. We have a lot of industrial man-made toxins now, which attract parasites. And there are different types, right? There are different categories. There are thousands of them. 30% of them are microscopic. and they're still they have been around as long as we have they are not bad at their job which is hiding and evading our old school tests so and yeah what would be I I know I actually many years ago I spoke to someone who did a lot of parasite cleansing and was into the stuff kind of like you are an expert in it and I have to admit I stopped eating sushi after that is that yeah what do you think are there is sushi kind of around and you know i hate to i almost hate to say this on this podcast because i know probably so many people like sushi but i think it's important to discuss what are some of the foods that if we want to be cautious like myself i really don't like i don't like sushi that much to to risk getting parasites over it honestly but yeah yeah i have friends who love sushi and they'll be like i'll just take parasite herbs tonight like i literally like they can't stay away so but yeah sushi is a great place to get parasites unfortunately it's raw fish i mean if you guys have seen god forbid the videos that some people put on online of like the salmon that has little worm like actively crawling in it while it's packaged in whole foods like i've definitely seen this video it's definitely wild caught salmon because parasites are anywhere and parasites are there in the environment too they steal your nutrients they steal your food they also digest organic waste. In a lot of the animal studies, they eat heavy metals. And some of the fish studies show that the cess toads in the fish contain six times the heavy metals that we would assume the fish alone would have. And that's because they are good at digesting organic waste. And so there is a purpose for them. They also digest scar tissue in some of the studies. So if there's an injury to an area that has scar tissue, if there's some of those heavy metals in the body, you may have a problem with parasites and or candida because that's what its job is out in the environment, right? So it's really important to match up symptomatology with a decently reputable test. None of them are perfect. And yeah, and I would say other foods you can get sushi from. Sushi is a great one. Pork is another one. Pork is sushi-ridden. What if it's cooked well? You know, what if, for example, a salmon is cooked, you're going to decrease the chances of getting parasites from it, I assume, right? Possibly, yes. And I'll tell you, though, some of them, like the salmon roe or the salmon in general, they have to be frozen for almost a week to get rid of any parasitic eggs or parasites. Yes. So these things are very, they're very adaptable and they're very hard to get rid of depending on what kind of parasite you're dealing with. And so, you know, freezing them is a great way to get, you know, I like to buy my fish frozen at least for a week. So I know that I've taken care of that. So that's kind of a hack is make sure you're ordering fish that's been frozen for a while, not just caught. And although everyone looks live fish. Yeah. So that's a good way. um another pork is another one like you said if it's cooked all the way there are less chances um but if you're going out to a restaurant to eat pork you're really kind of taking a risk you're taking your chances right um bacon that's not all the way cooked that's still kind of rubbery is a great way unfortunately um and then you know you can get parasites from the environment out in bodies of water out um you know in the soil sometimes hookworms live in the soil it has to be someone who is immunocompromised probably, and it's more of a sitting duck for these opportunistic pathogens to really take hold out in the environment that way sometimes Yeah uh we were at the dog park at the beach uh last summer and then I walking barefoot and then I looking around and I seeing all the dogs peeing and going to the bathroom all over the end of the sand. And I'm like, maybe I shouldn't be barefoot, uh, over here. Seriously, stuff like that, you know, so letting your dogs look you in the face, letting your animals look you in the face is an, is another great way. Letting your animals sleep been bed with you. I've been guilty of this before, right? I mean, you have to think about the people that you're sharing a household with, even your animals and your pets. You're basically kind of sharing a microbiome with them. Yeah, I'm guilty too. And I don't think that's going to change that dog with my wife and I ain't leaving the bed at this point. So I get it. I get it. You know, I had a pup and I slept with her too. So yeah, it's hard. It's just like, you know, make sure you're cleansing maybe like every four to six months yeah there you go uh so you mentioned some of your friends just take herbs if they are going to eat so let's say someone's like hey you know what i'm at least having sushi once every two or three months and when they do is there are there herbs they could take that night or that day that would help yes is that like the wormwood black walnut and those kind of things yeah you got it that's exactly it yeah and that's a great way just to kind of anything that took hold or you ingested that maybe you didn't intend on ingesting that can kill it right at the get go. So you don't have a problem later on when it's really reproduced within the body. You know, I will tell you, I have a friend I'm thinking of right now. He loves sushi and I'm never going to get him to quit eating sushi. It's just a thing. He's going to take herbs the rest of his life. Every time he eats sushi, he loves it. And I mean, who am I to take something like that away when you really adore something? Like there are ways to get around things. You have to live, you know? Another thing with parasitic herbs are cravings. If you're having sugar cravings at night, you can go take a dropper full of some parasitic herbs and take cravings away. Nice. Nice. That's a good hack. Love that. Yeah. Other environmental toxins that you see are a big problem for people. Yes. So everyone who comes into my clinic, my virtual clinic gets this test I love. It's by Vibrant Wellness. It's called a total tox test. It is so cool to learn. It actually looks at mold mycotoxins, heavy metals, and environmental toxins like Roundup, organophosphate pesticides, atrazine, plastics, phthalates, pesticides, all that stuff. So I can really tell where a person is and their toxic load every single time they come to me, because I look at these every day. I know what the average is. So many people on this test have BPA. Almost every person I see has BPA in the red because it's not just heating up, eating and drinking out of plastic. It's also like touching sales receipts have BPA, BPS, BPF on them. So, so many people have those plastics, microplastics on that test. So many people have organophosphate pesticides because they're an aerosol. So if someone in your neighborhood is spraying and you breathe that in, it's impossible, you know? So I see that a lot. Anyone who doesn't have a good water or shower filter. I'll see things like atrazine and pesticides in the runoff water, you know, that they're getting on their skin, even in the shower. I also see a lot of perchlorate, which is a byproduct made in the water because the water supplies are cleaned by chlorine. They're disinfected with chlorine and ozone. And chlorine mixes with other toxins within the water supply to make perchlorate, which actually gets in the way of iodine and thyroid synthesis. And so people start to have Hashimoto's, hypothyroidism, things like that from things like mercury or perchlorate and stuff that's in the, it's in the water and other places. So you mentioned you highly, it sounds like you would highly recommend having a filtered showerhead, one that's specifically meant to filter out kind of chlorine and heavy metals and stuff like that, not just a regular shower head. Absolutely. I, when I got mine, it was, I was kind of late to the train. People were going to be surprised about this. I didn't actually get a shower filter in like two, until like two or three years ago, but I distinctly remembering, okay, good. So we're on the same wavelength here. So I distinctly remembering my hair felt less like hay and dry. I, my skin, like on my legs, wasn't rough. It was so super soft. And I realized it was from all the byproducts and toxicities in our tap water. I call it infertility water, but for obvious reasons. Do you have a brand you like for the filtered showerhead? I have a few. I like Jolie. Aqua Sauna is pretty good too. I also, my very favorite water filter is Spring Aqua. And they just started making a shower filter. It's basically an ecosystem in a box for your for your water your drinking water it goes under the sink it filters it structures it adds dissolved hydrogen which pushes it pushes out radiation um so it does everything and then they just made a shower filter so i actually have that on my shower filter right now because it's filtering and structuring oh so they also have a um is it like a reverse osmosis system yes it's reverse osmosis filters and then structures they have like three different little bottles that go under your sink. So one's for filter, one's for structure, one's for dissolved hydrogen. So it's amazing. So it'll basically reverse osmosis, filter out all the bad stuff, then kind of bring it back to life by structuring it and then add the hydrogen in there as well at the end. What's the name of that one? I'm going to get that one. It's so good. Spring Aqua. And it's called ecosystem in a box. Spring Aqua. I'm taking notes. I'm taking notes. I love it. I love it. It is so good. You're going to be happy. Yeah. Yes, yes. So and then I know we must obviously touch on mold as well. I live in I live in Vegas, so it's pretty dry here, although I did actually have it rained for like a week straight, which is rare here. And all of a sudden I see some some I started smelling something and I see something kind of leak through here there as well. But luckily, I think we're pretty dry for the most part. but a lot of people in other places. And could it still be a problem in a lot of dry places? Or is it mostly in kind of different climates? It definitely can. Even if it's dry, I've still seen a problem. Like I've had one of the worst mold situations I've ever seen. There's a mold or mycotoxin called mycophenolic acid that comes from a couple different species of mold. And I saw it probably like a level of 5,000, which is off the charts. I've never seen it so high. um in one person who was in omen and that's a very dry climate and she lived in a concrete house but there was a little bit of a leak that was on the concrete all the time and so people it's like even though that was a dry environment if there's still a leak it still can really populate gotcha so okay so and how would obviously you know people have probably heard by now i hope that If you have a leak, you got to make sure the mold doesn't build up and stuff like that. But are there any kind of like hidden things or like, and how would people even know? I guess a lot of times people just come to you and they're like, I don't know what's wrong with me. Right. Like, how do they even know? Like, there's no, you know, you, how would you know you have mold or parasites or anything? You know, they normally don't. They're looking everywhere and seeing every practitioner to try and figure out this, these mystery symptoms that no one can get to the root of for them. So and oftentimes, you know, if I keep asking why it does go back to something like mold or parasites and mold is tough, right? Because a lot of people don't want to be told there's something wrong with their home that they love. They also don't want to believe that it's that easy. They also don't want to pay sometimes thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for remediation. It is really a racket. And so I understand why that was the last ditch effort for a lot of people. but mold in general um what do these like what do these things cause what symptoms so with mold a lot of people can have a myriad of symptoms depending on where they're colonized in their body from breathing mold spores in but it really sticks in mucous membranes and mold loves fat so think the brain think the bile so a lot of people start being um puffy they'll start gaining weight have some weight resistance they'll start feeling like they have alzheimer's they can't recall names or think clearly almost a brain fog picture. They'll have these waxing waning or continuous fatigue and lack of motivation. Oftentimes if people have sensitive genes, they can't even get out of bed in a really moldy house or water damaged home. People have these pins and needles sensations on their skin. They may have histamine reactions, things like bloating, palpitations, eczema um you know brain fog fatigue all of that comes with mold um and a really striking feature is that it inhibits anti-diuretic hormone in the brain because it's like a cytokine storm in the brain kind of like covid so those two together are real humdinger but um it inhibits anti-diuretic hormone which makes people pee they can't hold their urine so they'll start peeing all night long and children who've been potty trained will start bedwetting again wow wow a lot yeah yeah i mean i guess what what can people you know should people be testing their home kind of on their own should they hire someone to test it what's the what's a good protocol there yeah you know if you have symptoms that no one can seem to figure out um some there can be some clues some people feel better when they go on vacation they think just because they're on vacation you know that some people in the home will be sick other people won't because they may have sensitive genes. You know, if you can't figure out your health condition, it's not a bad idea to do an air analysis test on your home. I like an ARMY test, Environmental Relative Moldy Index is what ARMY stands for. And it's developed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Even though they don't recommend it, they developed it. And so you can get one of these online. It's a do-it-yourself test you do at home. They tell you how to vacuum and sweep certain areas of the house, you know, the dust collect before you do it. And then I look at these so much, I've kind of like standardized them, kind of like I have the total tox. So if someone's sensitive or not, I can tell the level of the moisture they should or shouldn't have in their home. And oftentimes it's not an overt leak. It's not an overt, you know, like there's mold everywhere behind the walls that you can't see sometimes, but not all the time. Sometimes it's just, there's a moisture problem. You need a dehumidifier to keep it below, you know, 60, 50%. Sometimes it's that there's a lack of airflow because we're building these energy efficient homes where there's no airflow whatsoever. That's what keeps mold in check in the environment. And right, great for energy efficient, not so good for how nature intended. Then we use like these particle boards, these paints, these toxic adhesives. And we wonder why people get sick when they get wet. We wonder why mold shows up to digest organic waste that's not even supposed to be around because we made it up. Gypsum or drywall ironically never dries when it gets wet and toxic black mold loves it, eats it. So the way we're building homes is not how nature intended. It's against nature. It's not working with nature. So we're seeing the repercussions of our decisions on the home industry now. And these homes don't even last nearly as long as what they built back in ancient days. So there's something to be learned about how we're building these toxic boxes for sensitive genes. Yeah, yeah, I've been a lot more aware of like trying to open the door, especially if like, you know, we're cooking a steak or something in the whole and that the whole house smells like steak. That's a cue to like, hey, let's open the door and the windows because we're breathing in burnt, you know, smoke here. Hopefully we're not you're not cooking on super high heat and burning it either. That would be even worse. and then breathing that in on top of it. And then eating it. Yeah, eating the charred burnt steak and breathing in the smoke from it all. And you took something that could have been healthy and you made it toxic yeah Right so it things like that a good awareness though You see how quickly when you cooking something that burning smell comes up and you breathing it That the that the recirculated air we breathing every day within our homes It 80 percent of the air we breathe is indoors And so how can we make that cleaner crisper You know, sometimes that means designing houses different with airflow different with humidity different. Sometimes that means really quality air filters, because maybe you spend a thousand fifteen hundred dollars on an air filter keeps you from spending fifty thousand on remediation. You know what I mean? Yeah. Do you have any favorite brands or brands that you like for air filters? Yes. Yes. Great question. So, you know, I have two different tiers and I love both these air filters. But I'll tell you my experience. OK, so most people have heard of Air Doctor. that's a great one it's around 300 400 dollars it's hepa plus filter so it has hepa hepa plus a carbon or charcoal filter which helps you use a charcoal as a binder so it pulls things and sucks them up and binds them up out of the air but if you can afford it and you really have a mold problem and you're sensitive the air doctor is great but it can't compete with the asiat the asiat a-s-i-e-t it's the website it's just good clean air i don't get a kickback from them at all. I do not get paid for this advertisement. I have two of them in my house and they're about fifteen, sixteen hundred dollars, but they use photocatalytic oxidation and it destroys mold spores in the air. And so I've tested this out on a couple of my friends who when they were little, they probably should have been in a bubble because they're so allergic. I mean, both of them can wheeze at night, sometimes need an inhaler. And when I don't have the filters on, they can't be in my home in Florida. When I have the filters on, they sleep through the night. No one needs an inhaler at all. So that is a testament for me. I call them the Rolls Royce of air filters, because they use it in NASA, they use it in universities. And I've never seen anything quite as good as this at keeping the mold and mycotoxin problem away. So for anybody, anyone out there listening that's sensitive, and you cannot absolutely leave your home, which is number one rule of environmental medicine avoidance. If you can't do that, look at me into the SC at air filters. Nice. Okay, I'm gonna have to check that out. I have air doctor running behind me right now, but I may have to step up my game here as well. So that's cool. You know, you brought up eczema before, and I know a lot of people that I've heard of that have had eczema, it's, man, it's rough on them. And it seems like it's not normal to have eczema. People might just say, oh, it's dry skin, it's this, oh, maybe I wash my hands too much or whatever they think, you know, like, what causes eczema do you think, from what you've seen, obviously there can be many different causes, but what is kind of some of the main causes that you've seen and ways that people have been able to remediate it? For sure. So first and foremost, one of the main reasons is over sterilization of everything having to do with the flora on our skin or the microbiome in our gut. Constantly cleaning bleach and toxic cleaning products. If you are doing dishes every day with regular dishwasher, you know, soap, the nothing that's green, it's going to kill off your skin flora. And then eczema and other conditions show up because you don't have a flora to protect you. Another reason is, and maybe the main reason is a histamine problem. If your eczema showed up after you got COVID or you got the COVID vaccine, that is a histamine problem. This biprotein absolutely activates histamine in every single person I've seen. That is what long COVID is, is histamine. And so histamine, depending on where it's being released, because there are four different histamine receptors in the body, H1 through H4, anywhere from in the gut, the brain, you know, and the blood vessels, all that. So anywhere histamine is being released, it can cause a myriad of symptoms. In the brain is brain fog, anxiety, fatigue. In the gut, it's bloating, loose stools. In the bladder, it's interstitial cystitis. In the heart, vagus nerve, it's palpitations on the skin. It's hives, itchiness, eczema. Okay. So that's the main reason. So I've seen all this kicked up, um, with self pathogens or COVID. The other reason, and I have it right here. This is the 1940s Merck manual. If you look this up and you look in this book and you look up eczema, it says to you, parasites movement under the skin causes mechanical irritation that leads to eczema. Wow. So the movement of parasites in the factual tissues, according to the 1440s Merck manual, can cause eczema. Now, another way parasites do that is by setting off histamine, which is the body's natural defense system. So if it knows it's infected, it's going to be setting off histamine. So these are the reasons for eczema. It goes back to histamine, goes back to over-sterilization of skin flora, and it goes back to parasites. yeah yeah i've never i was never a fan of the uh hand sanitizer craze uh where everyone was right yeah i don't know i it's even to this day like when the person next to me on the plane pulls out the hand sanitizer and it just stinks so bad i'm like no please like i thought we were past this um but uh look um and so you mentioned some good things i want to make sure people heard and kind of understood some things there you mentioned um like the soap that you use to clean your dishes or even I guess the soap that you use to clean your hand should be maybe more of a, they should look for like these natural cleaning products, natural dish soap, things like that, right? Antibacterial is not good. Pathogenic bacteria, okay, but guess what protects you from pathogenic bacteria? Your microbiome, your skin flora, you have a bacterial barrier everywhere that helps protect you. So you should be eradicating everything or over-sterilizing everything because then things grow that shouldn't be there. So, right, right. Yeah. And then obviously different fragrances, perfumes and air fresheners, like you said, bleach and other toxic kind of cleaning supplies when you could be just using some natural cleaning solution. Those kind of things are what can cause different reactions, different toxicities, different things like that, right? Yes, a thousand percent. And, you know, it's just something in our environment. We can't control a lot of things out there. These toxins are ubiquitous in the environment. No one can avoid them. No one gets out alive. But in your local environment, when you can control things, you don't have to be over sterilizing and antibacterial, antiseptic, everything. It's We're we've learned differently over the last few years. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. So another one you you mentioned earlier was BPA. You said almost everyone you test has very high BPA levels. Now, I'm sure hopefully the listeners by now know about, you know, drinking, not drinking plastic out of plastic water bottles. Listen, every once in a while, if you have to underrun, it is what it is. But every, you know, not drinking every day out of plastic water bottles, especially ones that have been sitting in a hot garage or in the sun or something like that. Hopefully they know that. But what else should we know about how to lower BPA? So, you know, when your clients come to you, they have high BPA. What are you saying to them typically? Sweating. Sweating, yes. So you can absolutely sweat out some of these pesticides, PCBs, plastics. you absolutely can so like this is why i stress sweating so much because people come to me and say they just listen they get really hot they feel awful afterwards but they never break a sweat and i say okay we have to spend some time here um you know maybe you get into the sauna and you push it to your limits next week you add on a minute or two and eventually they'll start sweating again and people are surprised that you can sweat out so many things but i think it was brian johnson just did a whole thing on this, a whole program about how in the infrared sauna, he measured his sweat and they found so many metals and so many environmental chemicals and toxins coming out. And so BPA, absolutely the best way to get rid of it, the best way is through an infrared sauna. Yes, I love it. Yeah, I have a little infrared sauna here as well. And I remember there was one time where I wasn't feeling too good and I took a long sauna and I sweat and literally the towel that I had wiped myself with after like, like, not to be too much information here, but I just smelled like metal almost or smelled like kind of, wow, like I could almost like smell it. And I just felt so much better after it was it was actually incredible. I've seen people get like, like brown come out of their body on the towel, like a discoloration. Actually, you just wonder, I just one day want to take that to a lab and get it tested. What is coming out of these people? yeah yeah exactly so sauna so you're a big fan of sauna and sweating in general but sauna is going to be the best way to really sweat it out okay for bpa yes for bpa specifically not everything but people would be surprised even about how many heavy metals you can get out and and i have a small study it's not anything huge but in this small study you know it showed you could sweat out things like cadmium mercury even lead which people think it does it stores in the bones but this study showed you could potentially sweat it out, which is wild. Yes. Yes. Okay, good. So that's good. So there is hope. And yeah, I think not enough people are doing saunas, honestly, you know, I mean, look, I'm fortunate enough to be able to purchase a tiny one for my house. But for many people out there, I don't think it's something, you know, I know they say in Finland and whatever, all these Denmark, these kind of countries, they're the normal is like two to three times a week or sauna or whatever it is, or at least once a week, they're kind of doing its normal practice. But here, yeah, unless you're doing it at the gym or have one at home or something, there's not too much. A lot of people are probably missing out big time on that, I would say. Yeah, I wish that it was part of the culture like it is in Finland and some of the Norwegian countries. They've got it right. You know, another thing that saunas do besides sweating out chemicals is they activate these things called heat shock proteins and heat shock proteins help us come back to hormesis. Or, you know, if there's a stressor, they help you acclimate, there's a little chaos, and then you find order in the stressor, right? It's a good stressor, the sauna. And so it really, these heat shock proteins, when they're activated through heat, they actually let misfolded proteins take a second chance to refold properly again. And this calls for certain genes. So when you think about Alzheimer's patients who have all these misfolded proteins in their brains, it helps those proteins a second chance refold. And that's a big deal when you've got misfolded proteins that are causing disease like a neurodegenerative condition. So it's like sauna is so accessible to many people and it's simple, it's practical. We should really be teaching people about this because we have such a problem with mental health disorders and neurodegenerative conditions in this country. yeah i think i think so much of that could be cure i mean imagine if someone was you know doing sauna three times a week you know removing the environmental toxins uh breathing fresh air drinking clean water uh not eating processed foods and sugar and alcohol and and uh and raw fish uh and and just that i mean if they did those things right there it's like pretty sure that would get better results than, than most met than I don't want to say any medication. I'm not a doctor, not giving medical advice, but seems like a lot better. I say all the time to people, you know, before you go spend thousands of dollars on a doctor or, you know, something like a last ditch effort, just make sure that your tenants and pillars of health are already, you've already done that. So you don't waste your money. You know, you're sleeping good. You have, you've got toxic people and situations out of your life. You know, the community, which is so important. you're moving your body, you're getting sunlight, you're drinking fresh water, eating clean food. All these tenets need to be met. You're sleeping well and feel rested in the morning. If you're not doing all these, these are the best doctors. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, this is, you're the expert on like environmental toxins and all the things we've been talking about today. But I've also heard you mentioned a few times, and I know you have expertise as well in like this, getting, like you said getting rid of toxic people emotional stress and things like that that cause issues for people Talk a little bit more about that because it like almost everyone will say at some point some points that they I stressed or this there different levels of stress it kind of means different things to different people what's stressful for me, maybe not stressful for someone else and vice versa. So how does even someone even begin to know that that kind of thing? Or what have you seen around this kind of field? Absolutely. So I'm actually glad you asked this because the way I practice has changed in the last few years. I didn't, I think most doctors just like me don't understand the complexity and the gravity of flight or fight or freeze and how the body, everything is released differently. Everything is on tilt. Everything is skewed if you're not balanced in the autonomic nervous system. And part of that is why would your autonomic nervous system be skewed or off balance? because you've been overworked. You've had too much trauma or hurt or pain in your life. You know, you've eaten the wrong foods for so long. You have a stealth pathogen. There's so many things that can happen to make people stressed, but most people have their system stuck in the on button. And what I've learned, possibly the hard way over through the years, is that you have to get that balanced. That's the first step of my program when people come see me is how do I calm down inflammation, calm down their doomsday thinking, Calm down worst case scenario. Calm down their nervous system. Because if their body and mind don't feel safe, it's lost. That's it. We're not going to heal them. You have to feel safe in your body and your mind. And so that's really the most difficult part of my job. And the first thing I address the first month. Now, I have supplements like B vitamins, high dose minerals, maybe some GABA to really help people with that edge. But they're not like the bullets that get everyone better. It's really the person who I'm treating and getting them to sit down and learn how to be a human being instead of a human doing. And feel their feelings because they're so used to dissociation and distraction that that is really stuck in their brain and their nerves. It's stuck in their nervous system. Let's say someone's listening now. is there any book or practice maybe meditation or a breathing practice or or a book or a seminar or something that could help people kind of who may may feel like they have some trauma or stress for sure i'm trying to see if i have a book back here because all my friends have written books about about stuff like this but the one that comes to my mind right through oh yeah the one that comes to my mind right now is the body keeps the score body keeps is amazing also the nervous System Reset by Dr. Jessica McGuire is great too. So the nervous system is really what I've come to learn is almost every chronic illness, even autoimmunity starts from anxiety and a spun out nervous system, almost all of them. And, you know, we now look at the vagus nerve, which is the heralding nerve of the nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system. And we see upper vagal conditions as neurodegenerative conditions and anxiety, mental health disorders, and lower vagal nerve problems as ulcerative colitis, Crohn's. And so the GI disturbances, especially people think they have all these chronic health issues and it's their nervous system. Wow. Wow. Great. Those are some great recommendations here. I wanted to also ask you, I know you've spoken a little bit about root canals. Yes. It's a very interesting thing because there's so many people I hear talk about it. And then you hear about real big problems that some people have. Should people, if they can, be avoiding root canals completely? Maybe just pull the tooth out and get a dental implant if you can afford it? Or what do you think about root canals? I'm cautious in saying blanket statements with that because there's so much that goes into that. like someone's pocketbook and their finances and who's near them, maybe if there's a dentist near them or not. But, you know, if I had to have a root canal, I definitely would pull the tooth and put in a zirconia implant. That would be my game plan because I know so much. But that's not to say that's right for every single person, maybe. So, you know, if you already have a root canal, they don't last as long as the human body. I do think there are genetically sensitive people who might, theirs might fail easier depending on nutritional status and other things. But, um, in general, they last about eight to 10 years, just like breast implants, because nothing man made outlast the body. And it's the only place in the body. We leave a dead necrotic, we leave dead necrotic tissue and think it's okay. Um, and save the tooth, but we actually ruin people's health in the longterm. And it dentist, they kill me because they make all my patients sick. So I'm sorry if I get kind of passionate about this, but, um, you know, I love biological dentists, even though it's very expensive, they can return people's health. Now, the tricky thing about root canals is they leave the periodontal ligament, which tells the body there's nothing, not a problem here, but there's thousands of porous channels when it's within the tooth. So whenever you cut, you leave that periodontal ligament, you tell the body there's not a problem. Lots of bacteria stuck in the porous channels of the tooth that can then confess her. And what I've seen is people will have holes in their mandible where eventually it will be eating away at the mandible. There will be zero symptoms right here locally. It will be systemic symptoms. So you got to think when you go to a cardiologist and he says, oh, you have heart valve problems. You may be on a blood thinner and then you have to go to the dentist. He puts you on antibiotic before you go see a dentist. Why is that? Because when they're messing with your teeth, you spray embolic bacteria down into the bloodstream and it seeds the heart valves and cause endocarditis. Now you're telling me that those, those same teeth, they don't, they have meridians that attach to organs. So when you put a root canal and say, let's say the meridian that's the breast, I've seen so many women end up with breast cancer from that meridian tooth. The tooth is a human homunculus, just like the foot. Every tooth represents an organ system. So when you mess with those teeth, you're absolutely messing with the organ systems and the symptoms we see are not locally, they are in the body. And it is the tooth. These teeth have been, depending on my teeth, but teeth in general are connected to infertility, cardiac issues, autoimmunity, brain fog, fatigue. Your thyroid is right here right here so people have head and neck pain they'll thyroid issues it'll be an infected root canal wow we'll pull it out it'll be it'll be black with cysts on it it'll smell like death and they'll be like i felt like a one of my patients said i felt like a nail was being pulled from my brain and i started crying i started crying and the dentist got worried about me and it wasn't pain it was an emotional release wow i hear this stuff all the time yeah wow that's crazy. So, I mean, it seems like you also think oral health is pretty important. Any tips there? I know if people are still using old traditional toothpastes like Colgate and Crest that have fluoride in them, is that bad? Any other kind of best practices? Yeah. There's different types of fluoride, right? So the fluoride they put in the water supply, it doesn't even work unless it's physically put on the teeth, but the fluoride they put in the water supply is Chinese industrial waste. So you have to figure out what the source of the fluoride is that does matter. But you know, I don't use fluoride every day. I prefer like hydroxyapatite, which does the same thing as strengthening the teeth without being a neurotoxin. Yeah, yeah. I started using hydroxyapatite. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, a year ago, probably a year or two ago, when I first started hearing more about this, I switched. First, I switched to a fluoride-free, like Dr. Bronner's toothpaste. But then a year or two ago, I started hearing a lot about hydroxyapatite toothpaste. And apparently, that seems to be the way to go these days for us that want to be more on the holistic side of things. Yeah, I think it's good. I avoid nano hydroxyapatite. I could be being overzealous or very conservative with this, but it crosses the blood-brain barrier and we don't really want hydroxyapatite there, right? We want it on our teeth. So I've avoided nano for that reason, just because we're not sure about it yet. The studies are pretty much inconclusive so far. That's a good distinction because I have seen some toothpaste advertising nano hydroxyapatite and regular one, I thought, oh, probably nano is better because it's, you know, whatever, smaller nano. So you don't really know. That's a really good distinction. That's great. Dr. Jess, this has been amazing. And I know we only scratched the surface and I know you work virtually with people all over the country, maybe all over the world who have problems that they can't solve. Where can people contact you, follow you on social media maybe? yeah there's um yeah you guys can find me a number of ways so i am really active on social media especially instagram it's dr period just period md i also have an account called wellness plus so w plus by dr jess and we give a lot of free education information stuff like if you guys like what you heard today it continues on those platforms and then um i have my do-it-yourself platform wellness plus which helps you become your own best doctor and learn how to heal from some of these chronic complex issues if you can't afford a practitioner. If you can, I do see people virtually in clinic. I have doctors under me too. They've learned my protocols and that's at drjess.health. If you like my supplements, Aegis Formulas, methylated B vitamins, glutathione, high dose minerals, hormonal supplements, that's Aegis Formulas, A-E-G-I-S, formulas.com. Amazing. Amazing. Dr. Jess, this has been so great and I hope we can do it again sometime. Same. Thank you for having me, Talor. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, it would really mean a lot to me if you would forward this episode along to any friends, family members, anyone that you think that would get value out of it and learn something important. The mission at Peak Performance is to help people prioritize and transform their health. And so if you think someone will get value, please, please, please do forward this episode along to them. Also, if you could please rate and review and subscribe on whatever podcast player you are listening to this on, we would greatly appreciate that as well. It means a lot. And I want to tell you about a couple of new products that we just released. You can get 20% off your first order at buypeakperformance.com. That's B-U-Y peakperformance.com. We just released a brand new grass-fed beef protein isolate. This is my favorite new protein powder because it's great for muscle building and recovering and all that kind of stuff, but it doesn't give the stomach discomfort and gas that a lot of people get from, you know, different types of proteins like whey protein, some types of plant proteins can do the same as well. It seems to be really, really easy on the stomach while still giving all the great benefits of muscle building and everything else that you want from taking in adequate protein. So check out our new beef protein isolate. We have it in unflavored, which I actually mix and blend with my morning coffee every morning. We have a vanilla and we have a chocolate. You can buy it on Amazon. But again, you also do get 20% off your first order at buypeakperformance.com, B-U-I peakperformance.com. We've also recently released organic mushroom coffee. We have these in Keurig compatible K-cup coffee pods. We have organic mushroom that also organic mushroom coffee with lion's mane, reishi, cordyceps, turkey tail and shaga mushrooms blended with the high altitude organic coffee that we've been using and that we've been famous for for years. So that's been a big hit that one as well. You can get on our website or Amazon any of our products. And of course, we're always famous for our organic green superfood powder that has almost 5000 reviews on Amazon with a very high star rating. We're known as the best tasting USDA certified organic green superfood powder with over 25 plus organic ingredients. Again, we also have the organic red superfood powder. We still, of course, have the organic plant protein for those who do prefer the plant protein. But I'm really excited about this new beef protein isolate and all of our other products. We do have over 100 products. So just check us out if you type in peak performance supplements on Amazon or if you go to buypeakperformance.com. Thank you so much and we'll talk to you again soon.