Your Body Detoxes Every Day And Here’s How To Support It | Ep. 157

I'm Bridget Walton, a functional nutritionist helping ambitious women ages 25-45 naturally restore hormone balance, fix irregular periods, feel confident in their fertility, and resolve gut health issues without restrictive dieting.

If you struggle with missing periods, PMOS/PCOS symptoms, bloating, or unpredictable cycles, this women's health podcast will teach you how to support your hormones through strategic nutrition and lifestyle changes that actually fit your busy life.

On I'm Hormonal, you'll discover natural solutions for period problems, learn how gut health impacts your hormones, and get practical hormone balance tips from a functional nutrition perspective - no more guessing what your body needs.

Today we sit down with Dr. Kate Davis to explain detoxification as your body’s everyday drainage system and why supporting it can change everything from bloating and constipation to PMS, estrogen buildup, and unpredictable periods. We also zoom out to the daily inputs that quietly overwhelm detox pathways: poor sleep, chronic stress and high cortisol, microplastics (especially heat plus plastic), unfiltered water, indoor air quality, and the chemical load from skincare and personal care products. 

1️⃣ Book a discovery call with Dr. Kate Davis
2️⃣ Dr. Kate Davis on Instagram @drkatedavis

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👉 DM us on Instagram @im_hormonal - we want to hear your biggest takeaway

Transcript

Welcome And Why Detox Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Hello, hello, and welcome to I'm Hormonal. I'm your host, Bridget Walton, and I'm so happy that you are here hanging out and listening today. I'm a functional nutritionist, and what that means is in my one-on-one work with clients, when I'm not hosting the podcast here, I support women who have fertility goals, gut health goals, energy goals, right? You want to get your hormones back in balance. Usually we're working on gut health too, because if one is out of whack, then a lot of times the other is out of whack too. And so what we're doing on the podcast today, what you're going to be hearing about is detoxification. I had uh Dr. Kate Davis on the podcast for a conversation about detox, and we really get into the many different facets of detoxification. I think when we hear this, like you tell me if this is what comes to mind for you. But at least when I see information about detoxing online, it makes it seem like there's just one way that our body detoxes. And it's like, you have to do this thing to help support detox. But in reality, our bodies are detoxing all the time, all day, every day. And that happens in many different forms. So I'm excited for you to hear about this, learn about it a little bit more. I think this conversation will be particularly relevant and interesting for you if you're somebody who experiences PMS, right? If that week before your period is a chaos and you're like, why do I feel why do I feel this way before my period? Well, that that could be a signal that your estrogen levels are are building up during that time. They're a little bit higher than what we would want to see them. And so understanding detoxification could be helpful for you. Also, if you are just, if you're somebody who has unpredictable periods, you're never sure when she's gonna pop up, there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason, then you know, supporting your detox pathways could be a helpful area for you to focus on for a month or two if you're looking for what's the next thing that you want to incorporate. You're gonna learn a lot about um about our guest today and like what her health journey was and how she got to where she's at. I will let her introduce herself in just a minute here. But that's what I've got for you today. Thank you so much for listening. If you are listening today for the first time, then welcome. If you are back, then thank you again. I I mentioned this in a recent episode, but the pod has been on a hiatus for most of 2026. So I'm really happy to be back and happy to be listening. We're gonna be coming out with episodes um more in clusters. So kind of like take a mini-series. This will be well, my hope, my intention is that this will be really helpful for you because you're probably listening to this podcast because you have a specific something that you want to resolve, you want to understand better. And so we'll be doing like uh, you know, a handful of episodes about PMOS, a handful of episodes about preparing to conceive, a handful of episodes about X, Y, or Z. And so it'll just make it a little bit easier for you to navigate and get the information that you are here for. So that's what we've got for you today. Enjoy this conversation with uh Dr. Kate Davis.

Dr. Kate Davis’ Gut Healing Story

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Welcome to I'm Hormonal. I'm excited to like finally jump into this conversation because we've been catching up for like 20 minutes now. And we're ready to go. We're ready to talk about detoxing. Um, before we get into what is detoxing, what are we even talking about? Um, would you go ahead and introduce yourself for the gang who might not know you yet?

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for having me, Bridget. I'm definitely, you know, excited to be here, excited to chat with you, especially since we already had like a lot of chatting beforehand. Um but yeah, we were just laughing about the fact that we both have cats and they're very disruptive during calls. So you might hear some yows in the background, but hopefully. Um but yeah, so I actually got into functional medicine just from my own journey of um, you know, dealing with really severe chronic gut issues. Like I had very chronic, severe constipation when I was 24, went 13 days without a single bowel movement, which was horrible for anyone who's ever dealt with constipation. Like it's one of the worst things ever. I mean, you just feel so uncomfortable, so bloated, so you know, like you can't really eat anything because you're just so backed up. And and it was just really scary because I was 24, you know, I looked healthy. I was a former D1 athlete, like nothing made sense on why I was feeling so bad. And and that's kind of what got me down this journey. So I totally understand, like anyone who's listening to this who's dealt with, you know, chronic gut issues. I've been there, I totally understand where you are, but just know like there is hope. And, you know, I'd done what you're supposed to do, right? I went to the medical doctor, GI doc, and I was like, hey, here's what's going on. And they just gave me two terrible options. You know, they said, number one, we can give you a drug because they they diagnosed me with gastroparesis, which basically means your food just sits in your stomach and it doesn't move into the small intestine, which is why I was so bloated and I couldn't even sit up straight in class. You know, I was in chiropractic school at the time and I had to like lean back because I was so bloated and uncomfortable. And um, they said we can give you a drug that has a very common side effect of permanent facial twitches. And I was like, Well, I'm 24 and single, so no thank you. What else you got? Um the next one he said was, Well, we can always remove your intestines. And I was just like, Well, what's wrong with them? Oh, we don't know. And that was their that those were the two options. And so luckily I never went back there. I was like, these people are crazy. I'm not, you know, removing a giant organ that is so important for your health or going on a drug that's gonna, you know, be a lifelong thing that has, you know, really severe side effects. And luckily I was able to find, you know, a chiropractor who actually had a huge background in massage and myofascial release. And I went to him because everyone at school was like, oh, you gotta go see Dr. Ellis. He was also a functional neurologist. I don't know if you know much about that, but he had actually done some myofascial release on my abdomen. And I remember leaving the office and I was like, what the heck did I just pay for? Because it feels, if you've ever had myofascial release done, it's so gentle. Yeah, explain it a little bit. Yeah, it's basically like the fascia is um that thin covering that covers, you know, it separates your muscles so they don't rub against each other and cause damage and inflammation. It holds your organs in place so that when you roll over at night, your liver doesn't just plop to the other side of your body. Love that. So yeah. So it's basically like this interconnected web throughout your body that allows you to move better, that keeps things in place, that separates, um, that prevents infections from spreading throughout your body. It's a huge part of your immune system. And so he basically just put his hands on my abdomen and was just doing some light, you know, work, like just releasing the tissues. And I remember I went home and I had like five bowel movements that night. Like I swear I lost like 10 pounds. I was just, what the heck did he just do? And I was so blown away. Like I went back to him. He was like, hey, you've got a ton of neurology stuff going on because I'd had a previous head injury, you know, like five years prior to all the gut stuff popping up. And he fixed all that. And I just felt like a new person. And I was just so grateful that I found him and, you know, completely overhauled my diet, like, you know, everyone does start with paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free. I was very strict with that diet for, you know, about a decade. But every time I strayed from it, my symptoms would come back. And so I didn't really fix the problem. I was just kind of holding it at bay. And then I had a really stressful life event happen, and everything came back, and it was worse than it was when I was 24. Um, and for those of you who don't know, you know, stress is a huge trigger for leaky gut and all sorts of other health. And so, yeah, nothing was really working. I was, you know, on the verge of an autoimmune disease. I was getting random joint swelling up. Um, you know, my energy was tanking, my sleep was terrible. And luckily, my friend was in town. She's like, Hey, you either have parasites or Lyme disease or both. And so she did some testing, found out I had a massive parasite infection. And, you know, two months into working with her, um, I passed a three-foot-long parasite. It was gigantic. It was super thick. It looked like a small snake living in my body. It was disgusting. Yeah. Because I inspected it, I had like gloves on, and like was just like, what the heck is this? Like, no wonder I felt terrible for you know the last like 10 to 15 years. And because I'd had gut issues in high school that I just ignored in college. I was like, oh, whatever, it's fine to have normal, you know, stomach pain, you know. Yeah. Once you have it for a while, you're like, doesn't everybody have stomach pain? Isn't this normal to go to the bathroom every other day? And it's like, no. Um, and so yeah, it was it was just crazy because she got me on this detox plan um that really just healed up my gut. I passed hundreds of parasites, but after that three-footer came out, I started going to the bathroom like two, three times a day. And it was just life-changing because I dealt with this issue for so long. And so, you know, since then I've used that experience to help, you know, hundreds of women heal from very similar issues like bloating, constipation, you know, acid reflux, food sensitivities. So I can now eat dairy and gluten every day, zero issues, which is awesome because I avoided it for almost 10 years, which is horrible in your 20s to not be able to go out and get pizza with your friends. Yeah, so that was my crazy story. And yeah, ever since then, I've just been kind of using that experience to really help people, you know, detox safely and figure out what is actually creating the gut issues in the first

Detox Myths And Common Mistakes

SPEAKER_00 9:26

place.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Yeah, interesting. What are some of the uh, and then we'll talk about like what do we actually mean when we say detoxing, because it can mean a lot of things. But um, real quick, what are a couple of common misconceptions that your clients come to you with that like we should just we should just clear clear these up. Is there anything that sticks out to you? About gut issues or detoxing? Like detoxing, things that people or maybe a listener thinks, oh, I know this thing about detoxing and I can do this or I can't do this. Um but it's actually it's false. It's like working against them, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Well, number one is you'll get, you know, there's always trolls online who are just like, I have a liver and a kidney. I don't need to detox. And I'm like, yeah, but is your liver and are your kidneys actually functioning at 100%? Because they're probably not, you know, if you have some issues going on, especially because, you know, we live in such a toxic environment nowadays. Like there's what, over 10,000 unregulated chemicals in the food and you know, you know, um self self-care industry, like, you know, skincare and hair and makeup and all that stuff. And, you know, we're just exposed to this stuff constantly. If you're not filtering your water, you're just drinking toxins every single day. And so over time, it's not like it happens overnight, but over time you just put so much stress on your liver, your kidneys through decades to where eventually you get to the point where your body just can't really handle the toxic load that's coming in. And so you kind of just get this spillover where everything just kind of, you know, reaches its threshold and your body's like, okay, I'm done. I can't, you know, I gotta start shutting stuff down because your body is all about preservation and survival. It doesn't care if you can't sleep or you don't have enough energy if there's something else going on that's more important. And so you'll see all these other systems kind of shut down. So that's number one. And then number two is people who think that they can just jump on, oh, I just found this parasite and heavy metal detox online, which is so common nowadays. Like it's such a fad that people are just like, no, everyone has parasites and heavy metals, you got to detox them. And I'm just like, did you do any testing? Do you know that you have that stuff in your body? Yeah. And also, can your body actually handle it? Because I had some really severe organ issues. Like I had leaky gut, I had gallbladder dysfunction. We had to address that first before even going after the gut parasites. And it took me like four months before we even went after systemic parasites. Like that was in month five for me. And so it's just really the order that you detox in is so incredibly important and not just buying something online that's like, oh, here's this two-week or four-week um parasite cleanse. I'm just gonna jump on that because I've seen people, I've talked to people who are like, I ended up in the ER doing that because they didn't realize, you know, if you're constipated and you just kill off a bunch of parasites, they release a ton of toxins into your body. And if you don't have a way for it to get out, then it's just gonna go systemic and create all sorts of other issues. So those are probably too.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

I was gonna just reiterate, uh, I guess really the example you just said too, for somebody listening who's like, why is that such a problem to jump into it? Well, like, what's gonna happen? But yeah, if you are, whether it's dietary changes or maybe specific supplements, whatever it is that somebody's taking on one of these like fad cleanses, you know, yeah, if you're not having regular bowel movements or a myriad of other, you know, maybe deficiencies or sluggish performance of certain organs, then all of those toxins get built up and then you start feeling like butt because your body is like, okay, we really just have a lot of stuff to address now. So I just wanted to add that for a little context for somebody listening who doesn't know what that kind of consists

Gut Liver Gallbladder Detox Basics

SPEAKER_01 12:56

of. Let's talk about detoxing and define it. You know, how would we explain detoxing to to somebody who's never been introduced to it? And what is this? What like what are some examples of how that actually looks in the body?

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Yeah, absolutely. So detoxing is basically figuring out, you know, what organ. So you've got let me start with the three major detox organs that'll probably make it make more sense for people. But your gut is number one. If you're not pooping at least twice a day, you're constipated. Unless you're on the carnivore diet, then once a day is totally fine. Yeah, twice a day is otherwise you're constipated. Yeah. Yeah. It's uh I know everyone likes to argue about it, but I would yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Okay. Well, okay, no, let's actually dig into this more. Like, why twice? Like, if why is it twice, not once, not yeah, any other number.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Every doctor I've ever learned from and talked to, that's that's just what they talk about. I don't know the exact reasoning behind it, but I think it's just because the amount of food you're putting in your body, you should be eliminating, you know, about maybe not the same amount, but close to it. You know, like your body should be getting rid of some of that, you know, that waste. But yeah, I don't know the exact reasoning behind it, but that's just what every every gut doctor I've ever worked with or talked to is always like, yeah, two to three times a day is normal. Anything below that means you're constipated and you're not eliminating waste as efficiently as your body should be able to. Okay. Um, yeah, unless you're on carnivore because your fiber's so low and you it's usually like pure food that your body can absorb most of it, you don't really have that much waste to kind of get rid of. But if you're on like a high fiber, like vegetables, fruits, you know, all that stuff, you should be going to the bathroom twice a day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

So I interrupted you there because you were talking about how the gut is the most important detox organ. So I'll get you back to track.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Yeah, go ahead with somebody else when you look at it there. Next step. Um but yeah, and so we want to be eliminating waste, right? And the number one way to do it is out the toilet and your bowel movements. And so that's the safest way to do it. Now, when people, I know like um a lot of people will do like kind of the older school things for like heavy metals and stuff. They'll do like chelation, which is detoxing through the kidneys, which isn't as safe. That's why you have to do it under direct supervision of a doctor. So I really like using, you know, herbs and binders and actually opening up drainage um in the gut, you know, supporting like flushing out the liver and the gallbladder, because sometimes your gallbladder becomes very um sluggish where you start to get this, you know, the bile salts start to congeal and that can lead to gallstones, and then people get their gallbladder removed, which is I would highly recommend never letting anyone take your gallbladder out unless you're just in such a severe gallbladder attack that there's no other option because it has so many functions besides just digesting fats. You know, it helps stimulate bowel movements, it helps kill off infections in your small intestine, helps digest your food, you know, further once it goes from the stomach into your intestines, you know, it actually communicates with thyroid, so it actually can help with thyroid um hormones as well. And so there's so many different functions. So don't ever get that organ removed, but there's it's hard because there's no test for it unless you want to pay for, I think it's called a hydoscan, which is like insurance usually doesn't cover it. It's like three or four hundred dollars. But you can get like testing um on blood work, like GGT levels can show you if there's like a bile duct issue or gallbladder issue. Um, but yeah, so you've got gut, gallbladder, and then liver. And so I know you work with hormones. Yeah. The biggest organ that's gonna wreck your hormones is your liver. Because if you're not, you know, you know, um recycling your hormones on a daily basis properly, and your your liver has over 500 functions. So if it's only working at 60%, a couple hundred of those are not gonna be doing what they're supposed to do. And so, so that's where I, you know, when people say like, oh, I have a liver, I detox fine, I'm like, well, okay, cool. Do you have fatty liver? Do you have elevated liver enzymes? Do you have, you know, um issues with digestion? Because that's where digestive enzymes are produced. Because if you have any of those issues, if you have skin issues, if you have hormone dysfunction, your liver is not functioning at 100%. And so that's a big thing to look at too, is if you have hormone issues, your liver is probably involved, um, most likely. And you're not going to see that a lot on blood work with those liver enzymes because your liver has to be like, what, 60% damaged for those enzymes to even elevate in the first place. You could have normal enzymes and still have fatty liver. They found that a lot in research. And so there's all these, all these things you have to look at first of like, okay, which organs do I need to support? So for me, um, I had leaky gut and really bad gallbladder issues. And so we had to really fix the leaky gut in the first month, really heal that up. Um, and then we went after just gut parasites. We didn't go after liver flukes, we didn't go after systemic parasites. And we did it in a very stepwise order because if you just start releasing a bunch of toxins, you because when you kill off parasites, they have what's called die-off symptoms. It's like their last dying breath of like, here's all these toxins, if you're gonna kill me off. And and um, and you use herbs and binders to do that. But a lot of people will jump on, you know, those parasite cleanses and just start releasing systemic parasites. And it's almost like if you walk into a bathroom and you see a toilet that's clogged. So if your gut isn't functioning, if you're not pooping every day, or if you have food sensitivities that indicates leaky gut, or if you have loose stool, you've got a lot of toxicity in the gut lining, and you just start dumping a bunch of systemic toxins into that system, you're gonna feel worse. You might get flu-like symptoms, you might get stomach pain or migraines or um, you know, loose stool or constipation. I've heard this from so many people who, you know, like 10% of the people I work with, I have to fix because they tried a parasite cleanse and didn't know what they were doing. They didn't know they had the, you know, support gallbladder and liver function and heal the gut before going after systemic parasites. And there's a certain way to do that. You know, there's there's certain binders that can go just target the gut, really go after the liver, and then go systemic. And you don't want to just start on the systemic ones, but a lot of people do because they don't understand, you know, that pathway. So if you go into a bathroom and you see a clogged toilet and you're like, oh, I'm just gonna use it anyways, that's kind of like what people are doing when they jump on a detox and they don't understand how their drainage organs are functioning. And then they wonder why things overflow and their body is worse off than it was before. And so that's what I have to have people focus on is let's really heal the leaky gut, let's get you pooping again, or if you have a lot of loose stool, let's get it more solidified and healthy. Um, and then let's, you know, clean out the liver and gallbladder. And there's lots of different ways to do that. And then we can go after systemic stuff. And you also get coinfections, you know, that's another huge thing as well.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Um, that makes me kind of think too of this decision point that I know you and I seems like have both been at, that probably a lot of listeners have been at, maybe are at, where you're like, okay, well, I hear this good thing that I can do that will help. It makes it worse. And you're like, gosh, I just want to like move past this. Like, I don't want to have to think about my bloating. Like, how do I just get past this as fast as possible? But in a lot of cases, as fast as possible is taking the slow route. So you can do it once and intentionally. And then you're good. Um, so I just kind of wanted to call out the like juxtaposition of the fastest way to get things done all the time is by doing it the slow way. And do it like once and intentionally. I also wanted to just take a second to um, because we're talking about leaky gut, which I think a lot of listeners will be familiar with, but just to break that down, leaky gut is essentially when you know your intestines are not in uh tip top shape. And so that allows some food particles to get through and it it causes an immune response. So it's like a source of inflammation. But when we're talking about healing it, and then I'll let you add anything that I'm talking about, because sometimes we say, well, you have to uh balance cortisol, and then you have to heal leaky gut, and you have to, and it's like, what does that mean? So yeah, as my last, and I'll turn it back over to you. Um, when we're talking about healing leaky gut, for example, or addressing leaky gut, that's a matter of removing foods that are irritating your body or inflammatory, adding in some good nourishing nutrients to help those tissues repair, so that then you can move on to that next phase of um of the cleanse. Did I miss anything that you want to add to that kind of picture?

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I really love what you said about like the fastest way forward is to do things slowly because we live in such a society that's like, you know, one pill for every issue, one pill for every ill, right? That's the saying that people say. And it's like everyone has this thought in medicine because we've grown up with that with Western medicine that, you know, if I have an issue, I just go to the doctor and get a quick fix. But that's not how true healing works in the body. You know, it took decades for you to get to this point. It's gonna take more than two weeks for you to get out of it. And so that's what I really have to enforce on people is like, hey, look, there is no easy solution. You know, I get so many people online who are just like, how do I fix leaky gut? The question mark. And I'm like, I know nothing about your health history. I have you done any testing? Like, I can't, it's different for everyone. Like, if you line up 10 of the patients I've worked with who had constipation, they all had completely different care plans because they all had different infections, different toxins, different organ function, and different stress levels. And so, yeah, you're right. Like reducing cortisol, which is your stress hormone, that is hugely important because there's research showing that high amounts of stress for a long period of time will actually is one of the biggest triggers for that leaky gut. And if you're looking at research, cause you know. I've had so many people say, Oh, I went to my doctor and they said leaky gut's not real. And I'm like, okay, well, did they say intestinal permeability? Increased intestinal permeability is real? And they're like, Yeah. And I'm like, it's the same thing. We just say leaky gut because we don't want to say a 10-syllable three-word statement every time we're talking about something that's like super simple. It just means your gut is inflamed, it's got bigger holes in it now. And now toxic waste and infections and large food particles can slip into your bloodstream, create inflammation because they're going to go systemic and you know, trigger food sensitivities and all that stuff that you talked about. And that is just, you know, it's so, it's so important to just know that if you're not seeing someone who does individualized care, you're probably not going to get the results that you want. So when people ask me, like, what's the fastest way to do a parasite cleanse or uh to heal leaky gut or to heal constipation or to heal, you know, loose stool, I can't give them a specific answer because it really depends on them. And that's really the importance of working with someone like you or like myself, where we can really get like testing done, really see what's going on in your body. Because another thing that triggers leaky gut, you know, back to that second question you asked me is um infections and toxins, you know, things like mold toxicity, parasites, fungal overgrowth in the gut is a huge trigger for leaky gut. And then if you get fungus plus leaky gut, you're gonna get huge energy issues because the fungus, when it leaks into the bloodstream, it actually clumps red blood cells together and prevents them from delivering oxygen to your brain and body. So I've seen that a lot with chronic fatigue. Um, people who have chronic fatigue syndrome, which is, you know, a useless diagnosis, but you know, there's the medical system for you. Um they just describe your symptoms into a syndrome and you know, we don't know the the how it happens, it just does. And it's like, well, we know. There's, you know, it's a complex, you know, puzzle of what else is going on in their body. And a lot of times people have these huge stressful life events, and that's when things start breaking down and they don't really put pieces together until you go through a full health history and really say, like, hey, remember when this happened? This is when all your symptoms started. And they're like, oh, and I'm like, yeah, so maybe we should start by calming your nervous system down, teaching you ways to really regulate and get that cortisol, that stress hormone down. Because another big thing is stress in your immune system function like a seesaw. So if your stress is high for a long period of time, your immune system can't fight off parasites and bacteria and viruses and mold and all that stuff the way that it's supposed to. So you really have to down-regulate the nervous system to get that immune system back online to be able to do it naturally, because you shouldn't be reliant on a detox your whole life. Like a lot of people ask me, oh, am I gonna have to do this again in two or three years? And I'm like, no, because we just healed your organs. We removed the stuff that was damaging them. We healed up the gut lining. I taught you all these ways of how to keep yourself healthy on a daily, weekly, monthly basis and how to naturally detox your liver, how to get your lymphatic system moving, how to restore that brain-gut connection. And it's all that combination of detox and lifestyle changes that really make the biggest effect. Like you said, with diet, it's getting cleaner quality food, not necessarily a specific diet, but what kind of food are you buying?

SPEAKER_01 24:57

Yeah, you know, too. I want to dig into this more of you know, while just like you said, and like we talked about before we started recording, everybody is different. The exact plan for every single person that we work with one-on-one or who's listening, like it's gonna be different. Now that said, you already mentioned nervous system regulation. So that's one that probably the majority of of folks can uh incorporate some of those good practices. Is there anything else that you're um what do you work on with you know the majority of your clients and that even though it's not bioindividual, it it still can move the needle for them. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Yeah, like the basic things. Yeah.

Sleep Water Air And Microplastics

SPEAKER_00 25:40

Yeah. Number number one, and also super important for hormone issues, is prioritizing sleep. Because so many people are like, no, it's okay, Dr. Davis. I function on four hours of sleep. And I'm like, no, you don't. Like your body is literally breaking down. You do not function on four hours of sleep. And what people don't know is sleep isn't just for rest and energy. There's so many things that happen at night. You know, between, I think it's between like 10 p.m. and 3 a.m., your liver detoxes, your brain detoxes at night. So if you're dealing with migraines, headaches, brain fog, and you're not prioritizing sleep, good luck healing that. Yeah. You know, it's it's really, really important.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

Question on this, because I know, well, tell me if it's if it's like all parasites or just some of them, but I know at least some parasites, they're kind of more active at night. So it can be common for folks with parasitic infections to have trouble sleeping. So it's like the chicken or the egg. How do we get there? What do you? I know that's kind of niche, but what do you consider in situations like that? How do you get ahead?

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Yeah, I mean, again, before you go after parasites, you've really got to do some deep gut healing. And so a lot of times I focus on really just the basics of like, hey, I need you to, we need to downregulate your nervous system, get that gut lining a little more healed. Um, and then we're going after gut parasites first. So you want to use specific binders that only go after the gut, not systemic. And usually I do that in probably around month two or three for people, depending on the person, obviously. Um and yeah, a lot of people will notice a huge change in their sleep just in month one, just from really opening up drainage. That's really all we're doing is like focusing on getting the kidneys and the liver and the gut to function better so you can eliminate waste because then you'll get less of those nighttime symptoms. Like a lot of people get extreme itching at night, or they might get rectal itching, or they have insomnia. And yeah, parasites can definitely cause that, but there's so many other things that can cause it as well. It's not just that. Um, so I think again, it's it's just really dependent on the person. But I always start with the basics of first of all, do you filter your water? Because if you're drinking tap water and you live in a big city, you're just poisoning yourself every single day. If you're showering in tap water, you're not doing a great, you know, a great service to your body because your skin absorbs everything that touches it. So really just getting people to start filtering their water, you know, reverse osmosis is my number one recommendation for that. If you can't afford that, at least get something. You know, like Brita, it's not the best, but it's better than nothing, you know. So, you know, you always want to work with people and where they're at and just like getting them to start cleaning up these basic things. Like, what about air quality? Like, do you have a good air filter in your home? Um, do you change out the air filter in your air conditioner? Do you have you left it there for the last five years? You know, simple things like that that people don't think about. Do you just go put your feet in the earth? Grounding is like the easiest way to calm down your nervous system, reset your circadian rhythm so you get better quality sleep, especially if you do it at sunrise or sunset. And that really helps just balance out hormones too. And when you lower cortisol, cortisol is one of those master hormones in the body. Like if you think of a puppeteer controlling all the other ones, cortisol and insulin are the two that control estrogen and progesterone and testosterone. And so anything you can do to just lower stress is going to have a systemic effect on all of your hormones, not just one. It's not just healing the gut, it's not just, you know, making you calmer, it's doing so many other things in your body.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

One other thing that's top of mind for me, because I happened to watch this Netflix documentary about microplastics yesterday. Um, but yeah, obviously those types of toxins, those types of chemicals, that's gonna really be a burden on your drainage pathways, on uh, you know, detoxing all that ish from your body. So um, what are some good rules of thumb that you have that you like to recommend as it relates to avoiding some of those icky chemicals and plastics?

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Yeah, I mean, a lot of people don't know this, but most canned drinks actually have a plastic lining on the inside. Like aluminum cans, yeah. Yeah, like aluminum cans, even soup cans have, you know, plastic lining on the inside. So there's all this hidden plastic that people just don't realize. But storing your food, especially hot food, don't ever store that in plastic. Like it's gonna release, you know, millions, probably even billions of little micro plastic particles into your food. If you're storing cold food, I don't think it's as big of an issue to just put it in a plastic Ziploc bag because you can't really use glass for everything, right? Like sometimes you need something to go in the freezer and you can't really do that with glass because it'll expand and kind of break it. But to the best of your ability, just you know, use, you know, I drink out of glass water bottles when I drink water. Like I don't, I don't use um, or I'll do like stainless steel or something like that. So I don't use plastic uh to the best of my abilities, but just know you're not gonna be perfect, you're not gonna get it 100%. It's just slowly starting to remove that stuff, you know, replacing all plastic tupperware with glass. Um, and it's actually really affordable if you go to Costco or if you have a Sam's nearby, you know, they've got those big packages for like 25 bucks where you can get a lot of glass tupperware. Yeah. Um, so you don't, it doesn't, there's all these little, you know, tricks that you can give your patients of like, hey, here's where to go to find it to save yourself some money, make it more affordable. And, you know, not using straws, um, not getting, if you're going to a coffee shop, bring your own coffee thermos because if they just pour hot liquid into one of those cups, it's lined with plastic, it's gonna release tons of micro uh microplastics into your your coffee and you're just drinking that into your system. And they've even found, you know, microplastics in the plaques in the brain that people get um, you know, with neurological issues. They found it in, you know, um, plaquing in the arteries. They found little microplastic particles in there. So it really does affect your body significantly. And so that is a huge thing to remove. But for women, I think the biggest toxin exposure is the self-care products they use every day. Like there was an article years ago that showed the average amount of chemicals a woman puts on her skin every day is 160. It was like over 160 chemicals, which is crazy. And then they wonder why their liver's not functioning, their hormones are out of whack, their gut is messed up. And it's like, well, what's your skincare routine? What do you put in your hair? What do you put, like what lotions do you use? Do you use perfumes, air fresheners, car fresheners? Because all of that stuff is so toxic to your body. There's so many bad toxins that are banned in other countries, but they're allowed in the US. And so we're really more exposed than anyone else in the world, which is unfortunate. But so you've really got just got to be really diligent about finding good companies that have cleaner products and not sleeping on polyester, not working out, and polyester clothing, which I know is it's almost impossible because there's no cotton leggings that actually are comfortable when you're working out.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Yeah. I think it's definitely um a kind of what should I say? Maybe like a pick your pick your battles, maybe pick your wins kind of thing. Because yeah, you're I mean, I'm probably I don't know. I might be w wearing everything. Everything I'm wearing is plastic, a plastic diamond right now. But I do my best where I can. You know, maybe someday I'll I'll, you know, start wearing linen and cotton. Yeah. But I have a bunch of linen. You only can do what you can do.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

Um, and I'm like, that stuff is expensive. So it's like, it's not about doing everything perfectly. It's just about slowly starting to change some of those habits over time. And that's what I tell people is, you know, I always emphasize with my patients, I'm like, look, I do not expect you to change your whole life overnight. Habit research shows that that's impossible. Cold chirkying everything is not realistic for long-term success. So if you look at a book like Atomic Habits by James Clear, he talks about how the only way to make sustainable long-term changes is to make small goals that are so ridiculously small that you laugh when you think of them. And that, and it does something neurologically because every day you're winning because you're doing this really small goal, and it just gives you so much more confidence to do the bigger things, like, you know, purchasing a reverse osmosis filter, maybe cutting back on, you know, buying coffee outside of your home and just making it at home and saving up for stuff like that. And it's it's so easy to create long-lasting changes when you just tell people like you don't have to be perfect. It's okay. Like you, I really live by, you know, the 80-20 rule. Um, I'm healed now. So I was really strict when I was, you know, trying to heal my body and get things back on track. But then I tell my patients, like, look, if your 20% is your hair care because you don't want to, your hair looks so nice with the shampoo that you're using, even though it's really toxic, that's okay. Just clean up the other, you know, 80% of your life. That's all right. Yeah. Um, and if you're someone who wears plastic clothes, I mean, everything has like polyester in it, it's impossible to get like fully cotton clothes unless you want to spend a ton of money because it's really expensive to do that.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

I'll just mention too, for um any folks listening who are like, oh shoot. Like, how do I know if my stuff is, you know, is is good, bad in between, where does it lie? Um, there are apps like Yucca, Think Dirty, EWG. Maybe you can scan barcodes on your shampoo, your bascari or whatever it is. So that can be a good way to get get a little bit of intel. And like, again, you don't need to maybe that's not realistic for you and your budget to like throw everything in the garbage on day one. But next time you go to replace your shampoo, you know, investigate one that can be a better option. I want to try to reel this back into because we've touched a lot of different topics, which is necessary because when we talk about detox, it is a lot of different there are all of these different pathways. Um it means a lot of different things, but yeah, the common, you know, the common denominator is allowing your body to efficiently and effectively eliminate the stuff that it needs to eliminate. And so I can't believe I said that so concisely. That felt good.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Um Yeah, and what I really tell people too, because it it shouldn't be something you have to do like every year, is as you're going through and removing these stressors, like the toxins, the infections that are in your body that are damaging the liver and the gallbladder and the gut, now your body is able to heal. Your body has an incredible capacity to heal itself. We just live in such a toxic environment, it's really hard to do that anymore. Unless you want to just go live in the woods for like three years, you'll probably heal yourself. But nobody, that's not realistic for most people, right? So it's really just about, like you said, supporting those detox pathways, really helping to heal those organs so that they can naturally do their job at 100% instead of 20 or 30%, which is where a lot of people are at when I see them, is they can't eat anything. They have such a restricted diet, they have so many food sensitivities, they look six months pregnant after they eat because they're so bloated. And, you know, once you heal those organs, all of a sudden they're like, oh my God, I could eat Thanksgiving dinner and I didn't have to have any restrictions and I didn't feel terrible for five days after. And, you know, it's so cool just to see that that once you really support the body and get everything out, because it's really important too, back to the parasite cleanses, the trendy stuff. Well, what if you have mold toxicity and fungal overgrowth? Like I didn't just have parasites, I had multiple infections that I had to go after. Because if you just pull out one, if you don't do any testing and you're just going after parasites, but you also have mold toxicity or heavy metals or, you know, a lot of chemicals in your system, the you're just creating the environment for the parasites to grow is still there because you're not eliminating everything and taking all the stress off the immune system. But once we can take all that stress off, now your immune system can come back online. Now your digestion is back up, you're producing enough stomach acid, you're killing off those infections before they even reach the intestines. And your body is actually able to do what it's supposed to do. And then it's about really focusing on good quality food and diet, and maybe you can go on a few supplements. But if you're just starting with supplements and you have leaky gut, you're not absorbing anything. It's just creating really expensive pea and really expensive poop. And so that's what I always tell people is let's fix the organs, you know, first, get them functioning so you can actually absorb like 80% of what you're putting in your body instead of, you know, 30%.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

Perfect. And I want to um tell me if I'm missing something here, but I want to kind of reiterate or try to illustrate what does that mean when we say, like, okay, we're going to fix the gut or get rid of it, you know, that could be, it's different for everybody, but it could be six months of eliminating inflammatory foods and incorporating these good nutrients that will help it to repair, or including, you know, these herbs that will help to take care of and like bring down these colonies of whatever overgrowth that that occurs. Um, so I just like to add that for context of like, what are we actually talking about when we say we're gonna heal the gut? Like, how does that, how does that look? That's just one example. Is there anything you want to add to that, or just overall providing context for some of these examples?

SPEAKER_00 38:02

I mean, it's kind of kind of everything we talked about. And again, it depends on the person, right? Like some people might have really high toxicity and no infections, or they might just have really terrible liver and gallbladder function, and that's why their gut is so messed up. Um, and so it really depends on the person. You know, it's healing the gut is different for everyone, but typically the commonalities that I use with people is downregulating the nervous system to heal up leaky gut because we got to get our cortisol down so our gut can actually go back to normal and get the immune system back online. Um, and then it's just using a bunch of herbs that are known to really heal up the gut and you know, maybe some herbs that are, you know, taking out that biofilm and just getting rid of some of the junk in your gut and hoping to replenish and rebalance the microbiome, you know, those good bacteria in your gut that help naturally do all this stuff. And and so it's really, it's really different for everyone. But sometimes I'll have people do a lot of lymphatic drainage in the abdomen, or I'll have them do the myofascia release stuff that I learned from that doctor who fixed me. Like I teach that to my patients of like, hey, do this and let me know how your gut feels. And they're like, oh my God, I'm so much less bloated because it's not just releasing the fascia, it's also activating the vagus nerve, which can stimulate bowel movements and help people who are constipated, which can get rid of bloating, because you're now you're loosening up that tissue so there's space for that fluid to kind of drain out. And so there's all sorts of different things you can do. It really just kind of depends on the person. So hopefully that answers that question.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

Yeah, no, that's perfect. And also as like um a little reminder for all of us that uh bodies are complex, you know. This just in health is complex. Um, there are a lot of different moving pieces. Um, but I like to say that too because we don't have to be overwhelmed by those many options or many areas of the body to focus on. It it could give us more options of right places to start. Um I think as we get ready to wrap up, I wanna come back to something we touched on briefly is the nervous system.

Vagus Nerve Stress And Gut Brain Links

SPEAKER_01 39:58

And how does the nervous system impact detox pathways, drainage pathways? I'm kind of hypothesizing it is because when your nervous system is dysregulated, that's gonna ramp up cortisol, which then can negatively impact your gut health and all these things. Is that is that what you're thinking, or like what are we missing and what's the thing to know about the connection between stress and sluggish detox pathways?

SPEAKER_00 40:27

Well, there's so many ways to go on that because like there's so many way. I know there's so many different like brain pathways that do influence your midline structures, like your internal organs and things like that. The biggest one is just thinking about the vagus nerve. You know, it lives at the bottom of your brainstem. And this is why head injuries and whiplash injuries can really trigger a lot of these gut issues I see in people. And that's why I do a full health history to see like, did you have a head injury at one point? Because that could have been what triggered it. Maybe we just need to do more neurological rehabilitation, which is what I used to do in my chiropractic practice. I would use that for concussion rehab and for chronic pain and sports injuries and things like that. And now, and I would also see people's gut issues get better when I was doing that. I was like, oh, that's interesting. But it's really that connection between the bottom of the brainstem, you have the vagus nerve. It lives in the medulla. Um, and then it goes down and innervates or controls all of your internal organs, especially the gut. And it helps stimulate that peristalsis, you know, that that muscular contraction that moves your stool out of your gut. So a lot of people that I used to see in practice with concussions, they had constipation because they had that disconnect between the brainstem and the gut, where the vagus nerve wasn't firing very well. And so there's all sorts of things you can do to kind of activate the vagus nerve. Like I know a lot of people do breath work where they, you know, hum at the end of it and do like the ohms and stuff like that. It actually activates your vagus nerve. You can do that myofascial release in the gut that I was talking about. You can just give people simple exercises to stimulate brainstem function, um, which is what I used to do in my practice before like chiropractic adjustments and going to your chiropractor is a great way to stimulate the brain and get it functioning better. It's a huge stimulus to your nervous system, especially if you can find someone who does, you know, functional neurology. They really know their stuff and they can really kind of identify which part of the brain isn't functioning and it really affects your whole body. And then there's the whole neuroimmune endocrine axis, which basically just means that your brain, your immune system, and your hormones, they all communicate with each other. So if you have brain issues, it's gonna affect your hormones, it's gonna affect your immune system, make you more susceptible to infections that you have to detox. And so it's it's like I always tell people the human body is like a symphony. You can't just dissect it into cardiology and GI issues and endocrinology, they all function together. Totally. And the gut is so involved in so many different systems. Like, I don't know if you know this, but um, in your gut, your gut bacteria actually produce most of your serotonin and it's stored in the gut. Yeah. It also produces most of your dopamine, which is stored in the gut. Those are your happy, feel-good chemicals that help prevent depression and anxiety. So I've seen a lot of people with mental health issues completely disappear after detoxing because we healed their gut and now their bacteria are producing those at normal levels. They don't need to go on SSRIs or you know, other meds for that. I have so many people with anxiety and panic attacks who don't have it anymore just because it was a gut issue. Yeah. And then you go back to the infection piece of you know, parasites can actually create mental health issues. They've shown this in research where it was like a 400% increase in bipolar schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, all these mental health issues for people who had parasites versus those who did not. Um, and it was it's just wild when you think about how everything is so interconnected. There's not just really one thing.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

It's wild and such a good reminder that when these different symptoms, whether it's mental health or otherwise, pop up in our life, like our body is just trying to get our attention. It's trying to say, Hey girl, something is up here. We need a little bit more focus and and intention to to correct some imbalance. Um it's all connected. Um well, thanks so much for talking, uh for hanging out with me and like talking through detox and giving a lot of good different nuggets for listeners to think through. I think this has been great. So go ahead. Um let us know like where can folks connect with you, um, plug what you got.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

Yeah, absolutely. Um, well, the easiest place to find me. Well, first of all, I want to say, you know, thank you, Bridget, for having me on here. It was uh super fun, always good chatting with you. Yeah. And um, yeah, it's been it's just so cool, like getting hosts who actually ask good questions and just having a real conversation. It just makes it more fun. Toss my hair, toss my hair. Yeah. No, I love when people just ask like all sorts of different stuff because then you get a different perspective on it and it's just more fun. So I I love sitting down and just like talking about this stuff and nerding out about it. Um, because that's like my favorite thing to do. So same. Um yeah, the human body is so fascinating.

How To Connect And Get Labs

SPEAKER_00 44:51

But yeah, if you're if you're someone listening to this episode and you're thinking, you know, I can't even imagine what it would be like to be able to go to the bathroom every day or to not be bloated all the time or to be able to go out to eat and not be suffering later on. Or, you know, maybe you've thought to yourself, you know, I've already tried so many things. What if it, you know, what if nothing works, or maybe I'm too far gone. I'm gonna encourage you to do one of two things. And number one is go follow me on Instagram. Um, it's at Dr. Kate Davis. So D-R-K-A-T-E-D-A-V-I-S. You can also find it in the show notes. Um, but go on there. I have so much free information on there, you guys, about how to just start moving the needle forward. You know, I dive into all these topics we talked about today on the podcast in more detail in shorter videos, but it's a great place to start because I do give you guys some of the breathing exercises I was talking about and talk about grounding quite a bit. And, you know, just where can you start to just start cleaning up, you know, all this stuff that we talked about. Um, and you know, if you're someone who's just like, hey, I just really need to work with someone to really get my health back on track and kind of shortcut the process, um, which I'm sure both of us would recommend. But, you know, I'm offering an exclusive discount to work with me that's only available to those of you listening to this podcast. So again, if you go to my Instagram, it's at drkate davis and DM me at the number 100. I'll give you $100 off an initial consult plus labs package. So you'll basically get the initial consult for free. And then we'll do labs to see exactly what's going on in your body. Because again, you don't want to detox without knowing what you're actually going after, because that would just be like throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping it sticks. But yeah, we'll get a full picture of, you know, what's creating the chronic gut issues that you're dealing with, which drainage pathways aren't functioning well, what infections and toxins are lurking in your body. And then I'll put together an individualized, you know, detox and lifestyle care plan specifically suited to you so that you can finally heal and not end up in the ER in the process. So um, one last thing I want to leave with you guys too, because I know it's hard when, you know, you've been dealing with health issues for a really long time is just don't lose hope. You know, I've seen so many people heal who'd been dealing with issues for 30, 40 years and they just didn't think it was possible because it'd been going on for so long. But I've seen, you know, so many crazy things happen that I didn't even know was possible. Like people who'd had depression their whole life completely gone. Um, and you know, so many other random things like kidney stones disappearing, cavities in the mouth disappearing, gum recession stopping, just from starting with gut health and really removing the toxicity in the body. So just, you know, if you haven't found someone to help you, just know that they are out there and you will find them and don't give up on, you know, finding someone who can really help you heal at the root level.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

Well, I think that is the perfect note to wrap up today's episode on. Thank you so much for listening. Take a look at the show notes if you want the quick links to connect with Dr. Kate Davis from here. And as a reminder, as always, the information that we shared with you today is for educational purposes only, not meant to be used as a replacement for medical advice or diagnosis. So thank you again for listening, and I will see you on the next one.