#251 Meet Dr. Brandy Cummings, The HEALTH HERO Every Mom Needs!

The information provided in this podcast is educational and not intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions.

Dr. Donnie Wilson struggled for decades to solve her numerous health issues and heal her body. But with focused determination, she healed herself, and in doing so, she discovered the Dr. Donnie stress recovery Protocol. On this show, you're going to hear from doctors, nutritionists, and Experts along with Dr. Donnie, who will give practical advice and wisdom to help heal your body. This is how humans heal.

Hi and welcome to how humans heal. I'm Dr. Donnie Wilson, and today I'm really looking forward to introducing you to Dr. Brandy Cummings. She is a doctorate in clinical nutrition, and she is the host of the Resilient Motherhood Summit, which I'm very excited about because she's created this opportunity for women who've been through pregnancy or going through pregnancy and dealing with chronic health issues during and after pregnancy, oftentimes feeling like their health issues are not being addressed by the standard medical system. She's created this opportunity for everyone to learn more about all the possibilities for healing. Thank you so much, Brandy, for joining me here today.

Thank you so much for having me, Dr. Donnie. I'm happy to be here.

Oh, my gosh. What. I mean, amazingness that you're creating, and we're going to be talking about that today. What does that mean? Resilient motherhood? And. And what are you going to be covering in Summit so everyone can learn more about that? But maybe just share with us a little bit first about you and your story. How did you. How did you come to decide you wanted to study nutrition? And. And I know your personal journey led you to really feel compassion for what women go through in motherhood.

Yeah, totally. So I started this journey. I first made the connection around what we eat impacts what we feel when I was a teenager and I was having really terrible chest pain where, you know, periodically and I wasn't able to, like, get a full breath. And my mom would take me to the doctor and they would draw blood and do a chest X ray and they would actually, like, prescribe me Vicodin. And I was like a teenager, which I just thought that was just that even at that, this is not the end. Like, this can't be the answer. And so I went gluten free. And that was, you know, this is way before gluten free was a thing. And I, like, stopped having chest pain. And it was just the first aha. Moment that, like, there could be a connection between our food and how we feel. And then I. I went on to study business, actually, My undergrad is in business management. And then I wanted to grow my family. I was interested in nutrition, so I started studying nutrition. And then I got really, really sick. And I had about a two year stint of my life of really, really debilitating what I would learn to be like mold and mycotoxin illness that I was exposed to at the building that I was working in. And so through that two years, I was feeling very anxious, feeling very out of body, had a lot of vertigo. I had what's called, like, erythema nodosum on my shins.

And I was just getting more and more unwell. Really, really rapid weight gain. And just I was so dizzy all the time. Like, I couldn't even shower. I had to quit my job. It was terrible. And I got to the point where I was like, okay, something has to get better. Or like, I'm like, I'm done on this earth, in this body, like, I cannot do this anymore. And I had also suffered a miscarriage at that time. And so I, you know, found the right practitioners. I went back to school, I was studying, I was trying to figure this out, and I was able to like, uncover this whole other piece that wasn't really taught to be in, like, my very first nutrition school. And so then I was able to kind of recover, get pregnant, had my first baby, went back to school. That's when I worked on my doctorate degree, had my second baby. And through that process of having babies and working with clients, the message I kept hearing was things were never the same since I gave birth. You know, like, that's just such a catalyst and triggering event. And I really leaned into that. And I just. Now that's all I do is support moms and in that situation, because for me, our kids are little for what feels like five seconds, and I don't want you to miss it and so have to write. We just need to find the answers. So that's what landed me here.

Oh, my gosh. It's so interesting to me because we were connecting how we both have spent a lot of time in Oregon. I spent a lot of my childhood and even in college in Oregon. And that's where you did your doctorate degree as well. And I also had that moment when I was at Oregon State University where I was like, I was getting heartburn and I'm studying nutrition. And so it's when I'm studying nutrition and experiencing heartburn that I realized, oh, my gosh, yes, I was also drinking coffee like most college students, but I was also eating a Lot of gluten with my coffee. And I had that moment too, where I'm like, I'm just gonna try not eating gluten. And because I'm reading this in the books about how that could be having an influence. And I'm reading it. We're studying gluten. You learn about gluten as a nutrition student. And so I just decided I'm going to take gluten out of my diet and coffee, too. But the combination, then the heartburn completely went away because I had been being prescribed medications too for the heartburn. And I was like, wait a minute, maybe there's another way. And now it's so cool to connect with someone else who had that also that aha moment of like, wait a minute. Our food can be our medicine. I mean, our food can also be our cause of illness. But if we eliminate the foods that are an issue and we eat the foods that are going to help us heal, then our bodies can heal naturally and not need medications in many cases. And so that's what also inspired me to then say, I'm going to go study this some more. And that's when how I ended up at Bastyr University studying naturopathic medicine and more nutrition. Because you're right, in the standard nutrition training, we didn't get what you get in a more holistic nutrition training. Maybe you can, you know, go into that a little bit. Like, what's the difference between, like, what, what? I mean, believe me, I went to the same classes, so I know, like the. The basic nutrition, standard nutrition, or even dietetics program versus a more holistic approach to nutrition.

Yeah. I mean, I did my master's degree at the University of Western States in human nutrition and functional medicine. And amazing. That was really my first introduction to functional medicine. And like, the principles of functional medicine of looking at the body as a whole and looking upstream for root causes and understanding that there's web like interconnections happening and to approach our clients and our patients with the hope to really prolong organ reserve and organ life and vitality. And we're not just here to, you know, band aid solution people. And that's also where I really learned that, you know, what we experienced when our mom was pregnant with us, even before she got pregnant with us, all of these past experiences can have a really physical manifestation in our. In our symptoms. And so really tracking that. And that's where, you know, that piece of where women were telling me things were never the same since I gave birth. Like, I cannot ignore that sentence, you know, I have to track it back to that point and then figure out what are the pieces that are all coming into play here in this multifactorial situation and how do we put those puzzle pieces together? Because if we're just trying to focus on the food or nutrient nutrients in our nutrients out or calories in calories out or whatever it is, that isn't going to cut it. That's, that is not the play.

That's such a good point. That is the difference, I think is. Yeah. Being able to see the whole system and how everything is interconnecting and being that detective. I, I have so many patients say that to me too. Yeah. Like, so calm. And I'm sure listeners can relate to this. How often for you, some of you listening, where you're like, ever since I was pregnant or ever since I went through pregnancies, I haven't felt the same. And it's, it's tricky because I think as parents, we, of course, we love our children and we wouldn't want a day without them. And at the same time, we need to be able to acknowledge that going through pregnancy can be stressful on our bodies. And it can, and it can not only cause symptoms during pregnancy, but it can also cause issues after pregnancy. And it's not well addressed in the standard medical system. It's, it's not something that, like the, once the baby comes, then pretty much the OB GYN is going to say, you just come back for your pap smear. They're not going to pay attention to the symptoms. They're supposed to do blood work at six weeks after. But a lot of times I find they are not doing blood work six weeks after, six weeks postpartum. And then, you know, then, you know, sometimes then you go to the primary doctor and they might do regular blood work, but they're probably not going to pick up on something. So let's talk through what are some of the common health issues and symptoms you, you see women having at that time in their life. What like, gosh, it's such a good.

Point that you bring up and I'm so glad that you said that because I remember my, my six week appointment with my first daughter. It was just like, what do you want to do for birth control and you're cleared to have sex again? Well, I know, like, no, that's not what I, you know, that's not what's on my mind right now. You know, what's on my mind right now is like how my anxiety has gone up and how.

I feel, a lot of sense of worry, you know, and just all of these symptoms that we feel. And so I think when I'm thinking about this, I'm like, all right, let's talk about how your immediate postpartum phase was. And when I say immediate postpartum, I'm talking like, the first 12 to 18 months, which for a lot of people doesn't feel very immediate. But to me, it is. To me, that's still like, you're in that postpartum healing recovery phase. So let's talk about the symptoms that you're. That you are either dealing with or dealt with during that time and how you were supported or not during that time, because that matters too. And then if you're. If you're kind of past that point, you know, then other symptoms that a lot of women are experiencing. Anxiety is a big one. Resistant weight loss, constipation, GI distress, skin issues. You know, for me, that erythema dosum on my shins, which, for those that don't know what that is, it's kind of like hard, hot, red nodules and bumps on your shin.

Yeah.

So painful. And I knew I. That wasn't the first time I had that. The first time I had that was actually in a reaction to a birth control that I had in my teenage years. So when that popped up again, I knew something was up with my hormones. I knew immediately. Yeah, but skin issues, kind of like that, or rashes, all of these things, hair loss, all of these things are just broad, sweeping symptoms. And I think that's why they often get dismissed. You know, And a lot of the stories that the women I work with, a lot of the things that they've been told is like, that's just how motherhood is. Like, now you're a mom, you know, it's just the way it is. Your laps look fine, and I do not stand for that. You know, that just really gets me going the most. Is. Or in the more immediate postpartum phase is how providers are not looking out for postpartum autoimmunity, which is a real thing. And it's a. You know, it's very common. And it can happen because, number one, we're having a big rebound of hormones. Number two, increased prolactin could contribute to this. And then, number three.

Microchimerism, which is, you know, like a mixing of blood between mom and baby can contribute to launching an immune response. And there's more of that that happens in a cesarean birth and a vaginal birth. But like, are any of our moms being told this or like, are we, are we looking out for this? Are we being proactive? Are we screening our moms for autoantibodies on their blood panel? And no, we're not. Moms are complaining that their, their hair is falling out, they're super tired, they're super anxious.

Nobody's even running a complete thyroid panel and that. I just can't.

Yeah, thyroid issues. It's well known that thyroid autoimmunity is often triggered by after pregnancy. And, and because sometimes autoimmunity is less during pregnancy, then women come out of pregnancy and the autoimmunity of different types flares. And for all of those reasons you just mentioned, and what I see too is some of what you just said too, is that, you know, when we have newborns, we're not going to get as much sleep and we're going to be more stressed because we're trying to do our usual life and take care of a baby or two babies or three babies. And a lot of times women come through that 12 to 18 months of recovery and then go right into another pregnancy and then right into another pregnancy. And so in and in between likely breastfeeding, which is an important, beautiful way to feed our babies. But we also need to be looking at how do we help keep moms healthy through that phase? Right. How do we. Because nutrient deficiencies happen so often and adrenal deficiencies happen because of this, this combination of, of, of everything that we need to do as moms to get through that time period. Right?

Yeah, totally. And another thing that I see a lot is, you know, maybe baby number one came totally easy and fine and now baby number two is just not coming or the pregnancy is not, not sticking. Something, something's happening and they're like, what's so easy the first time? What is happening in a lot of A component of that, that I think a lot of women are not considering is the toxicity piece. You know, if we have microbes in our body, we, we do. I mean, we do already, we have, we have trillions of them of microbes in, in our body. And they could be not causing a problem before when we got pregnant the first time, but now that we've had a baby, now that we've had all this shift in our, in our day to day life, in our stress levels, in our hormones, all of these big shifts, what can happen is.

They cannot, these microbes can undergo something called polymorphism where they're changing shape and now causing problems and now causing Symptoms and now irritating the immune system. Right. And so now people can be, maybe they were exposed to mold, like, all the time, but now they're presenting with, like, symptoms of mycotoxin illness where their bodies are really being impacted and they've lost some of the resilience that they used to have. And so that's a big piece of it too, is like digging into that, like, how do we increase your resilience so that you can interact with your environment in a robust way but not, you know, be so symptomatic from it?

Oh, my gosh, it's so true. And this reminds me of something that you and I spoke about in the Resilient Motherhood Summit, which is the risk of hpv. Because some of these same things we're talking about is what can put women at higher likelihood of testing positive race HPV and having an abnormal Pap smear. And I do see that so often, you know, like you probably do to women who are either trying to get pregnant or are pregnant or postpartum. And then they go in for the Pap smear and HPV test and it comes back positive. And they're like, why now? Right? Why right When I'm either trying to get pregnant or I'm trying to take care of my children, now I got to deal with this hpv. And it's. It's that all of those things we just mentioned, including mold toxicity and the microbiome changes and the hormone changes and the nutrient deficiencies and the adrenal deficiencies, then all of a sudden HPV is like, okay, this is my chance. I'm going to come in and cause trouble because our immune system is down.

That's right.

I've done a lot of detoxes over the years, and many of them made me feel a lot worse. And not only that, but I've had a lot of patients come in and tell me how after doing a detox, they have a stomachache and headache and they can't sleep and they're feeling anxious. And I'm like, I can't just recommend that my patients do a program that's gonna make them feel worse. So I finally decided to design my own detox program. It's a 14 day detox program that's not like other detox programs out there in several ways. One is that I'm focused on helping you to get the toxins out in a safe and effective way, using nutrients, antioxidants, and supporting our natural detoxification pathways in the body. Also, I'm Helping you to decrease your exposure to toxins by learning the ways that you you've been exposed to toxins and how to change your day to day lifestyle to decrease your toxins over time. And I'm helping you to look not just at chemical environmental toxins but also emotional and energetic toxicity. And yes, it's possible to accomplish all of this in 14 days. I have so many patients who have done the 14 day detox and re report back to me how much better they feel. And I think it's also because I help you to know what to eat. You are getting adequate food that tastes good plus protein shakes that I developed that are good for your body, that your body knows how to use these nutrients and take them in and use them to help you safely detoxify without feeling worse. Also I help you to balance your blood sugar levels, get better sleep and introduce things like meditation, biofeedback and other types of stress recovery into your day to day routine. So I just am so excited about it. I want to make sure you know about this 14 day detox. I'm going to put the link you can find it at drdani.com forward/detox detox-program but I'll also put the link below so you can find the 14 day detox program@drdani.com I look forward to guiding you through this detox so that you can actually feel better on your way to better health.

So thank you. So I'm so glad that we got, I got to, I'm grateful to be part of the summit. Maybe tell us a little bit like so about the resilient motherhood summit. How did you come up with this idea and what are some of because now everybody knows there's going to be part where we talk about hpv. But tell us more about what other speakers you have coming to to support them in this experience.

So I wanted to do this event because like I said earlier, like I don't want moms to miss their kids childhood. I don't want them to have to plan their days around how they feel. I don't want them to have to be on the sidelines and then have to deal with the guilt of like man, this isn't how I thought motherhood was going to go. I thought it was going to be different. You know the picture I had in my head was and I want to just empower moms and let them know that they don't have to settle. You know, if something's not right, there are answers. Something I tell My clients all the time. Just because you haven't found answers doesn't mean there aren't any. We just need to dig and we just need to find them because they are there. And you know, and I just want to empower moms to step into that and, and believe that for themselves and be able to figure out what the very next best step for them is in their health journey. And so, and that next step looks different for everybody. And so what I did is I brought together.

About 40 speakers, I think it's like 42 and experts in their fields around all types of different topics. And my goal was I was very strategic when I was picking speakers because I wanted people that could either offer like a stone unturned, right, like maybe some ideas that mom has, moms haven't thought of. And then speakers that could offer like quick wins and things that will really kind of get you going and increase your bandwidth for other things and then also conversation around like longer term strategies. So we have speakers talking about the microbiome and hormones like you mentioned. We also have speakers talking about environmental toxicity that we mentioned. We have.

Speaker talking about EMFs and their impact on your health, quantum biology and the impact of, of those quantum recommendations that can really make such a huge impact on your health, mitochondrial function, you know, really looking upstream, like how do we just get some of these biochemical pathways to come back online, you know, because that makes everything else easier. And then we, and we also have a kids day, which I'm very excited. Kids day is day four and all the speakers on that day work with kids because, you know, a part of being a resilient, like if your kids are good, you're good, you know, to a certain extent when you're a mom. So we have kids day. There's just so much goodness packed in those seven days. And I'm so excited. And the more I was kind of editing videos and putting things together, I was just getting so overwhelmed with emotion because I just really poured my, my heart and my soul in it. And it's just like thinking about like that one mom, right? Like, I just want to talk to that one mom. I just want her to get the answer she needs and move on to the next step in her health. And you know, maybe her kids next birthday now looks totally different. They go do an activity as a family, you know, instead of being on the sidelines. So very excited about it, as you can tell.

Yeah, you're giving me goosebumps. It is really, it's like a dream come true. And I'm sure you're gonna help so many women who've been, you know, really trying to figure this out. But oftentimes, as my. You know, especially if you have young children and even when you have teenagers, it's like we have very little time for ourselves. You know, like, we might be thinking in the back of our minds, oh, I would like to figure out why I have fatigue, or maybe I could do something about this rash or digestive issue or, you know, what autoimmune condition, But I'm gonna have to do it after I take care of everybody else or. And then we were too tired and we fall asleep, and the next day happens, and it happens over and over again. And we. We so often as women and especially as moms, we. We're taking care of everybody else and putting ourselves last. And. And it takes time. Honestly, it's, you know, to make it, to find a good practitioner who can help and to do the research to find that person and then to make the appointment and then to. It takes time. And so sometimes it's too overwhelming. And so that's the beautiful thing about this summit, is that you can. You can listen online. You can be driving your kids back and forth where you have to drive them and listening, right? It's like this. Can. You can get access from within your daily life, and they can give you, like you said, start to give you some. Some sparks of inspiration and clarity. So you know what the next steps for you could be.

Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah.

So it's very cool. Like, I'm hoping that so many moms are going to be listening from all the places that moms are, right? They got their headsets in, and they're like, I'm listening to the resilient motherhood summit. Because even listening. Listening is going to be so healing, you know, just being able to take in the tips and things that they can implement right away. What do you find? Like, when you're. You know that when you're helping moms who are in that state of overwhelm, because what can happen is when we're in overwhelm, it's hard to make decisions. We end up feeling like we get paralyzed, right. And then we do nothing, and then five more years goes by. So what do you recommend for someone who's feeling that sort of, like, paralysis, this decision paralysis?

Yeah, so I. A couple things about this. I recommend picking the thing that feels exciting and doable, you know, and for some people, I talk about this all the time with my clients. Of like, this idea of like, what's your ceiling and what's your floor? What are all the things you would be doing if your day was just, like, on point and you were on fire? That's your ceiling and what's your floor? What is the thing that you could do if, like, literally no matter what is happening, usually the floor is something that takes like two minutes or less. You know, maybe that's like, okay, before I eat, I'm gonna take three deep breaths, and that's it. That's my floor. You know, but by identifying a floor, it gets us forward momentum, and we're able to Then, you know, it's. It's amazing how it happens, because that little super tiny action that you think couldn't possibly impact your overall health a hundred percent does. Because then you find yourself doing another little tiny action, and you're like, refilling your water bottle at work, and you're like, man, I'm like, so hydrated today. This is so great. And it just keeps going from there. And the other thing is, when I work with clients one on one, I have my Resilient Mother protocol and program that I walk women through. And the resilient part is an acronym, and the R stands for reconnection. And that is such a key component because reconnection stands for reconnection to yourself, to your purpose, reconnection to your community, reconnection to nature and to earth, reconnection to where our food comes from. We live in such a disconnected world, and just that piece alone can just be such a complete game changer for people. When we have that reconnection piece, when we start to remember who we were before kids, what we want to accomplish on this Earth, what legacy we want to live, who we want to invite in our circle and what do life with all of this is like. It's like the accelerant on the flame, right? It just makes it go so much faster and easier.

That's so true. Tell us more about the acronym Resilient.

So R is reconnection, and then E is your environment. I'm a firm believer, like, nothing heals the body better than the body heals itself, given the right input and environment. And so how do we make our environment that we're living in.

Supportive of our healing journey. S. Sleep and stress very important. I Is inflammation. You know, we. It's funny, on the summit, I was talking to Dr. Tom O', Brien, and he was like, I wish practitioners would stop talking about root cause. It's not root cause. It's like, root mechanism. And he went into, like, inflammation as that mechanism is. Fascinating, fascinating talk, but he's right. And we have to make sure that we're addressing that. And then l lab testing, making sure we're. We're being strategic about this, getting the answers that we need in the right order and in the right way. And then the other I improved digestion. So we're focusing on gut health, intestinal permeability. And then the other E is energy and mitochondria, really focusing on making sure you have enough energy to do all the things you want and make those memories with your kids. And this looks like, you know, looking upstream and making sure our mitochondria, like I was talking about earlier, those biochemical pathways are back online. Then we have N, which is nervous system support. You have to feel calm and safe in your body in order for your body to close that healing loop. If we're missing that, you're going to stay stuck. It's called the cell danger response. You stay stuck and you don't close that loop. So we have to focus on that nervous system piece and then t toxins, really focusing on supporting the body's drainage and detoxification pathways.

Oh, my gosh. I love it. How amazing that. That it makes. It's, like, so thorough, and it completely fits with the word resilient. I love it. And that's a word I use a lot too. Like, it's always the goal is getting to resilience, right? It's like, like, it's. How can we. Because we're. We're gonna need to keep going. It's not like we're gonna, like, stop. You know what we're doing. We're gonna need to still work and help our kids and help our parents oftentimes. And, you know, we. We have things we're gonna need to keep doing. So it's. It's how to do that and stay healthy in the process.

Oh, 100. It's, you know, I work a lot. I look a lot at, like, toxins in my. In my practice. You know, that's the tea. And sometimes people can just be like, oh, my gosh, like, the world is so toxic. I have to live in a bubble. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That is not the goal. The goal is to increase your resilience so that you can interact with your world in a really robust way and have it not impact you negatively. And that is my approach that I take with. With everything because, you know, getting to a sterilized environment, number one, is never going to happen. And number two, that is not the play either. We. We need. We don't want that problems.

Exactly.

We end, think it through and realize, like, okay, yeah, like that's Living on an island by myself is not an option. You know, like, okay, so how do I do what I'm doing? And like, you were sharing. It's about how do we identify this little steps we can take each day so that we can gain momentum and we have to set aside the perfectionist. Right. It's not about being perfect or doing it just the way everybody else is doing it. It's how can I make even diet changes little by little that matches for my body so that you can actually start making momentum. But we're so used to. Right. We're so used to looking at out the outside to try to tell us what we're supposed to be doing, you know, like, whether it's on the TV or on social media or, you know, what someone else said. The diet I'm supposed to follow.

Yeah. Yep, you're exactly right.

But how do we.

How do you help women to kind of. I guess that's the r in resilient. Reconnect with yourself. Right?

Yeah. We lose so much of ourselves after becoming moms. I remember at one point, I. I had one daughter at the time, my second daughter wasn't born, and I was really struggling with postpartum anxiety with her. And I just remember, like, a couple years when she was a couple years old, like, looking down at her and just being like. Like, everything about my life was different. Everything that was important to me is different, like. And I just felt kind of like I had lost such a big portion of myself and. And what I want to do. And I was so hyper focused on. On her and just being attentive to her, which. Which of course, like, that's what we do as moms. There's nothing wrong with that. But in the process, I really kind of lost connection to myself, and I had to do a lot of work to kind of find her again, you know, and invite that old Brandy back into the picture because she's still there and she still deserves to be honored and, you know, given attention. Just because we become a mom doesn't mean that we have to lose sight of what's important to us or. Or who we were before becoming a mom.

Yeah, it's such a good point. It's such an important. And I think we can, through this process and through your summit, be redefining mot motherhood really also, like, I really hear that there's this opportunity to, you know, of course we can look to prior generations and see what was helpful that they were doing, but it also gives us a chance to say, hey, what could we learn from the past and do differently now so that we can be helping our children and help helpfully, even helping them more and help ourselves and our health at the same time. We don't have to get. Go to the end of motherhood. And. And. And here our kids are 18 or 21 or whatever the year they decide to go do their thing. Now we're depleted and exhausted and have health issues, right? So it's like, wait a minute, let's rethink this. How can we shift the mindset, even shift the culture of motherhood and parenthood so that it doesn't have to be so depleting that it can be like, be. It's okay to connect with ourselves and be ourselves and connect with our passion and our purpose while also being a parent.

I love that we're really putting yourself first. You know, it's. Everybody benefits from that, which I think is just a reframe we have to really employ and really, really kind of take on. Everybody benefits from putting yourself first. And if you just look at it that way, well, it's like, well, shoot, of course I need to put myself first then. Because as moms, we just. We want to nurture. We want to take care of everybody, and. And everybody is better taken care of if you take care of yourself first. And we are. Nobody's guaranteed, you know, anytime on this. On this planet, and your health is. Is paramount. It's number one. It has to be there. And sometimes when you. When we feel like.

Like the goal is just so far away, like, oh, my gosh, I've been sick for so long, and, you know, I've just been. I feel so depleted. Like, you just. It's like you can't even see it. That's where we get into trouble, because that's where it feels like there's no way I'm gonna get on the other side of this. And I am here to tell you that you will. You just need to know what that next best step is. That's why I did the summit. That's why, you know, I do what I do because I just can't stand the thought of a mom getting to that point, like you said, where their kids are out of the house, and the mom looking back and going, damn, I. I kind of missed it. You know, I can't handle that.

Oh my gosh. It's so powerful and it's so important. And, and it is. There's so much that can be done. Especially because, what. Like sometimes then, then, you know, women are turning to substances, right? We, the way we get to our stress is I'm going to drink more alcohol or drink more coffee or take this sleep medication because I'm not sleeping, or I'm going to take this, you know, pain medication because I'm in pain or, you know, so we're turning to these different substances to try to help us get through. And yet those substances often have side effects that end up causing more health issues. So it's not really helping us.

Us.

Right. That's not the resiliency you're talking about.

Right?

It's not about, okay, how can you take your, your caffeine and your sleep medications to get through? It's, it's. No, it's a completely different perspective on it.

Totally. Yes.

You know, it's like, how do we listen to our bodies and give our bodies the nutrition they need, the sleep they need, the nutrients they need even herbs and detoxification so that our bodies can actually be functioning in a healthy way? And that's when. Yeah, you're right. These things that are considered impossible, like I work with women who have, who have abnormal pap smears and they're being told, you can never go. This will never go away, there's nothing else you can do. And yet every day I have patients and program participants completely going to negative and reversing it and going on with their life or. You mentioned autoimmunity earlier, right. Is it so amazing when we see patients where the autoimmunity goes to negative and it's completely gone? Right. It's like that was. They accomplished the impossible and it wasn't through taking more medications. It was by learning this. These what you talked about in your resilient acronym, how we walk through these steps of figuring out what your body actually needs, what it's actually trying to tell us. Yeah.

Because it's trying to tell us anyway. Right. Is all these symptoms are really the body trying to tell us what needs attention.

Oh, yeah. The body is so much smarter than we will ever understand. It has infinite wisdom and it doesn't make mistakes. And it's always sending messages and trying to, you know, give us signals and clues and just having the right people on, on your team to kind of help navigate that, listen to those messages and then just take a step, just identify what's your floor. Just do something it doesn't matter what it is. What's your floor? It could literally take five seconds. Just do something. And you will be shocked at how that just. It does. It just snowballs from there. Even though you think in the moment, this is so stupid. And this is not going to, like, make any kind of measurable difference. Oh, yes, friend. Yes, it will.

You just have to start. Oh, my gosh. Well, thank you so much for joining me here at How Humans Heal. I. I'm so excited to share about this and to share the Resilient Motherhood summit. I'll make sure to put a link with the. With the notes so that everyone can find it and come learn more from you. Is there anything else you want to share about how people can find you or to inspire them on this path of getting through motherhood with resiliency?

Right. Oh, gosh. Thanks, Dr. Donnie. This was so fun. My website is ResilientMotherhood Health, and that is also my Instagram handle, Resilient Motherhood Health. That's where I'm most active, so you can find me there. Reach out to me. Send me a dm. I love to. You know, it's one thing, like, when we're kind of talking to the ether, right? But I love to. I love to hear from you. I love to talk to you and learn about you and engage with you and where you're at in your motherhood journey. So don't feel afraid to kind of send me a DM and reach out to me that way. And parting words. You know, I mentioned it earlier. You don't have to settle. You don't have to settle. You don't. And no matter where you're at in your situation, in your life, in your finances, no matter where you're at, it doesn't matter. There's always something we can do. So don't tell yourself, like, oh, I can't do that program because it's too expensive, or, you know, so I'm just going to keep living in this. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It doesn't matter where you're at, that there's always something we can do and the next best step for you. Always love it.

Absolutely. And I'm so glad everyone who is listening in and joined us today. Please reach out to Brandi or me if you're feeling like, okay, yes, I'm ready for help. We're here to help you. Such a breath of fresh air. Thank you so much. Brandy, you know, and that relief of, like, okay, yes, I can get through another day and I have help. You don't have to do it on your own. And thanks everyone for joining us. If you would like to make sure to not miss the next episode of How Humans Heal, just make sure you subscribe down below and join me here again. I look forward to connecting with all of you and I'll talk to you soon.

Thank you. Bye Bye. All right.

Thank you, Randy.

Thanks for listening to How Humans Heal. If you liked this episode, leave a rating and a review. And for more resources, visit drdani.com.