74: Breaking the Anxiety Cycle: Gut Health, Diet Culture, and True Healing with Kerri Axelrod

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I would say that there is an underlying tone of anxiety kind of everywhere. Right now, probably now more than ever, we, we just live in an environment that is very anxiety provoking. And I think it's an important conversation to have and to have out there and to understand both the root cause of anxiety, but then understanding what this feed forward cycle is like, because both anxiety can be both a root cause and it can be the result of. And so, so many people, especially now, are caught in this loop of anxiety where they have disease that's driven by anxiety and then their disease drives more anxiety. So I thought that Kerry Axelrod was an amazing person to have come and talk about this. So, Kerry, welcome. I would, I would love for you to first share your story with everyone because you did not start in the healthcare space, at least not directly in the healthcare space. You started off your career as a political strategist and then had what many of us who have arrived in this space. You had a personal experience that kind of drove you to new purpose. So I would love to just first welcome you. Thank you so much for being here. And then share with us that story, I mean, take us back to, to where you. Where and when you had this enlightenment. Yeah.

So, and I, I think it's a, a kind of interesting story and, and, and certainly sheds light and is the nexus for the work that I do in, in my private practice. And that, like you mentioned, um, I did not grow up thinking that I wanted to become a functional medicine dietitian. And in fact, health was really the furthest thing from anything that I thought I wanted to do with my life, if I'm being really honest with you. So my career actually started in politics, like you mentioned, and I went to undergrad in D.C. and like many in D.C. you kind of run in the right circles and you meet the right people and your career can kind of take off from. From a very young age. And so I ended up working on presidential political campaigns and then moving into working at the presidential level and in the political realm in that way and working on different campaigns. And I was working in what I thought was my dream job at that time. I really thought that here's something that I had wanted to do since the age of 12 and now in my late 20s, I'm really doing this. And I thought that I had really sort of made it. And the kind of further along I progressed in my career, the further decline I had with my health, and there was a real kind of correlation there between the more that I was working and the more stress that I was under, the more my health really started to decline. And sort of towards the end of my. My kind of political career, there I was having almost daily panic attacks to the point where I couldn't get on public transportation to go to work because my panic attacks were so bad. I was bloated, I was beyond exhausted. I was dizzy. And I think my distortion of reality and I think we all, you know, have gone. Who don't feel well, kind of become accustomed to not feeling well. And, you know, there were points that I remember just thinking, I was like, oh, this is kind of how everyone feels. Like everyone kind of goes. Goes.

Well, we have, we have normalized feeling bad, right? And we've mostly normalized feeling bad because I don't think most health care providers know, first of all, they probably don't know themselves what it is to feel good because they don't live a life that's conducive to that. And then beyond that, I think that they're not taught how to optimize health. So it's not that they not only don't understand the state, but they don't understand that it should even be an aspiration and how to get there.

Right.

They're not. They're not health guides. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

I mean, when I. When I kind of first started to realize that, you know, I couldn't survive with daily panic attacks that most people can't, I went to the doctors, like anyone would.

Right.

I didn't know anything about functional medicine at this time. I didn't know anything about health. You know, I went to the doctors and I just felt like I was going to doctor after doctor after doctor, and they were like, you know, try a benzo, try a beta blocker. And I was just given one medication after the other.

Yeah. Symptom suppression.

Yeah. And eventually, after about a year of this, I just had this gut feeling, and I don't even know where it came from, because I was not really educated in health at this time, that the answers that I was getting were not right. I would say there has to be something else that's contributing to my symptoms. There has to be something in my body that. That's driving my symptoms. And I just had this feeling I couldn't shake, and I actually ended up calling my mom at that time, and I said, I'm just not going to get better unless I leave this environment. And certainly not everyone needs to quit their job, uproot their life to get well. But that was sort of my story. And needing to really leave my career, needing to leave the political environment.

How old were you at this time? That.

That time I was 28.

So, so young. Right. So, I mean, just leaving your job, was that enough to do it? I mean, where did you go from there?

No, no. So this was back in 2012, 2013. Ish. And so, you know, there wasn't podcasts like yours available. Right. So sort of I say functional medicine wasn't as readily available as it is now. Right. There was.

It also wasn't known. I mean, when I got sick in 2016, I had no idea what functional medicine was. And in fact, I've told this story many, many times that I. When I got sick, I went on this journey to try to heal myself. And I. I enrolled in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which is like a certificate, certificate program. And my total, total snooty, booty self. Like, I've been a doctor for 20 years. What am I possibly going to learn here? And I walk into this lecture hall and this tall, lanky guy walks on stage with this big, toothy grin, and he introduces himself as a functional medicine physician. And all I Can think of in my head is like, I've been a doctor for 20 years. There's no such thing as a functional medicine physician. Yeah. And then it turns out that was Dr. Mark Hyman. Only in 2016, I had no idea who he was and. And most people had no idea who he was. Like, you really had to be in it to know who he was at that time.

Yeah.

And there are still people I meet today that have no idea who he is. Like, yeah, never heard of him. I'm like, really? What rock are you living under?

I was very lucky that I did some of my dietetics training at the Ultra Wellness Center.

Oh, amazing.

Yeah, it was amazing.

So you know him and Liz Belham and. Yeah, yeah. Such a great group.

Yeah. So kind of for 2012, 2013, it's like, I don't know what I'm doing. I just have this feeling that, like, these medications are like, are not the answer. And I, you know, I'm not anti medication. It just wasn't right for me. I felt worse on them. I wasn't getting better. Maybe I was having less panic attacks, but I was still bloated, I was still dizzy, I was still exhausted, I was still severely anxious. And so by, you know, a stroke of luck, I get connected to an acupuncture acupuncturist at that time, and she sort of helps me navigate the medical system. And so I, at that time was able to get my thyroid levels tested, was diagnosed with Hashimoto's, which explained some of my symptoms for sure. And then from there was able to find back in Boston a physician that sort of worked in functional medicine, but was really more an integrative physician. And from there I sort of got the gut testing, sort of started to understand the connection between gut health and autoimmunity. But, you know, along the way, and this was really kind of a pivotal moment for me. No one asked me what I was eating, even in the integrative space. Right. And at that time when I, you know, was never home and working in politics, it was takeout. No one asked me how my, what my sleep looked like, which at that time was. It's embarrassing to say, but, you know, my phone clutched to my, you know, in my hand underneath my pillow, my laptop on my bed when I was falling asleep. No one asked me, you know, how much time I was spending outside, which was absolutely zero at that point. And so, you know, I started to feel better. And, you know, when I was kind of doing more integrative work, I also had sort of swung in this direction of almost extreme exercise where I was running. Cause I was like, this is health, right. So I was running six to seven miles a day. And I remember going to my doctor being like, I'm exhausted in the afternoon. I can't function. And he was like, well, you're healthy. You're running six to seven miles and a day. And, you know, no one talked to me about the fact that I had never repaired my adrenals from the intense stress that I was, that I was really under. And that, you know, my adrenals could be in part driving my thyroid disorder and my thyroid autoimmunity and my anxiety. And so, you know, sort of from there, I always say that I'm a stubborn person and that if someone else isn't going to figure it out for me, I'm going to figure it out. And so I, like you, enrolled in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which was the only kind of nutrition training around at that time. And I, you know, it was really with the mentality of I'm just going to heal myself so I can go back to my life. I just wanted to get back to politics at that time. And then from there, things kind of slowly unraveled and I, of course, never went back into politics.

So as things unraveled for you. Yeah. Did you feel, did you ever have like an awakening, like, oh, this is why I got sick, because I was on the wrong path and, and didn't. Not finding my purpose?

Yeah, for sure. And there's also this grieving time that no one really talks about, the grieving of, like, your old self as you're becoming your new self. And there was certainly that, that time, but I would say for me, it was really, really gradual. And then, you know, the, the point where I decided to then go back to school as a, to become a dietitian is, is that I started seeing clients in a health coaching capacity. And I started to be really appalled by what they were saying and. But by what they were being told. And it really mirrored my own journey of, you know, being told that diet and lifestyle don't have anything to do with anxiety or autoimmunity, that diet and lifestyle don't have anything to do with gut health. And so I actually went back to school to be a dietitian to better understand for my clients what they were being told. So I went back to school to be a dietitian.

I mean, it's interesting. Do you miss your political life?

Yes and no. I would say the, the Part about my political life that I miss is that I felt like at different points in that career, I was able to make a difference on a large scale. So, for example, I, you know, was able to work for the trial lawyers organization and their communications shop when I was, you know, in my kind of early part of my career. And from there I really saw how pharmaceutical companies, toy companies, were able to kind of use loopholes in our regulatory process to sign, to skirt the law and how that really harmed consumers and, and, and, and I say consumers, but it's people harmed people. And from there, just working in the communication shop and being. Bringing to light these lawsuits that showed that these different drugs were really hurting people was. Was something that kind of changed me and shaped me. So I miss it from kind of that perspective. But there's a lot to living in D.C. being in that, you know, what I say is like a rat race that I certainly don't necessarily.

Yep. That you have to re up every four years. Right. Yeah. Yeah, It's. It's a, It's a very tough life. I mean, I think a lot of us in the healthcare space who are being tapped on the shoulder right now for, you know, do you want. Do you want to come help us change policy? And, you know, it's. It's a daunting task because it is things that. I actually don't think that health care should ever be a partisan issue, and yet somehow it has become a partisan issue. And it really surprises me. I did a podcast before this most recent election just because I really struggle with why certain things like what we are allowed to put in our water and what we are allowed to put in our food and, and these things that to me are so crystal clear and should have nothing to do with party lines have become partisan issues. It's really astounding to me, and I'm actually very hopeful because I see more movement now than ever. And, you know, people like Casey Means and people like Mark Hyman, they actually have a seat at the table right now and they're having a moment, and I'm delighted for that, because I do think that if there ever was a time where, where health can have an impact and the promotion of health can have an impact on our. Our governmental policy, I think that time is now. I think that for the first time, maybe ever, we're kind of pulling back the curtain and saying, hey, like, this is what's happening behind the scenes. Are you guys okay with it? Because I know that I'm not. Yeah, I know that I'M not. And I mean, in the cancer world, the, the pay to play politics is despicable. Despicable. And the whole reason we get to the cancer world is because all the stuff that comes before it. So let's start to talk about your wheelhouse because you talk about that gut connection all the time. So why is gut health so important and what role does it play in overall health?

Yeah, so I think about, you know, certainly some of the root causes of anxiety. And so I, I work with a lot of women who are on antidepressant medications but still feel awful. Right. Are still really struggling with anxiety, are still really struggling with brain fog. You know, are still really struggling with fatigue and exhaustion, still really struggling with digestive issues. You know, maybe there's some hormonal stuff going on, whether it's painful periods or irregular periods. And so, you know, that I'm just a questioner by nature, and I'm always like, what's the issue? If, you know, our theory is at least in the depression, that depression is a serotonin deficiency, then wouldn't we be seeing people getting better when they're put on an ssi? And certainly for the clients that I work with are not. That's just not necessarily the case. So. So kind of thinking about the gut brain.

Well, I think most people don't get better when they go on an ssri. And I think, in fact, that there was a big paper released in this last year that said that, you know, they only have a positive impact on like 8% of people. And 90 some percent or 80 some percent of people get no benefit from going on an SSRI. Some, like, insanely high number. Yeah, don't quote me, but. Because I don't remember, but that it was some insanely high number which, you know, for those of us that work in health care, we are not at all surprised by this.

Right.

And this is just another example of another drug which is completely overprescribed and, you know, joining the ranks of the statins and, you know, the proton pump inhibitors, nonsteroidal anti inflammatories. Like there are just a whole bunch of drugs that are over, over, over, over prescribed. Yeah, hypertensives. All over prescribed. Yeah.

I mean, I looked at some of the research in the pediatrics journal, and during the, they, they pulled prescribing numbers. And during the pandemic, SSRI increased by 64% for children when, when we could.

Have just sent them back to school.

Or like, had them go outside, monitored, you know, like introduced healthy food.

And.

So, and, and I have looked at some of the research that you're saying, and it's about 50 to 60% of people even respond, respond to an SSRI. And then of that population, about 25% have a resolution of their, of their symptoms. So it's pretty low in terms of people having a resolution of their symptoms. Absolutely. And so, you know, I started looking at some of that data being like, what else could there be, you know, what else is going on? And so certainly the gut brain connection that you mentioned is one of them. And I think about the gut brain connection and, and three different ways and how the gut brain connection can affect us, can affect the gut in three different ways. So, you know, certainly the physical connection, which, the biggest physical connection being the vagus nerve, which can help not only regulate digestion, but helps regulate the parasympathetic nervous system, so our rest and digest. And certainly there's a lot of kind of growing body of research to show that people that have low toning of the vagus nerve, you know, have also been diagnosed with things like ibs, anxiety, depression, kind of those cluster of symptoms that, that travel together. And then I also think, really think about the chemical connection between the gut and the brain and the role that the gut plays on neurotransmitters.

And so I think it's just interesting to, to note that, so when you're talking about the vagus nerve, you're talking about the 10th cranial nerve. So that is a nerve that runs from the brain to the, to the stomach. And so it runs all the way down. And most people think that the signaling is from the brain to the stomach. And in fact, what we're learning is most of the signaling is from the stomach to the brain. And that is one of the reasons, not the only reason, but one of the reasons why what you put in your mouth, what you eat and what you drink matters so much. And that is how that stomach is considered the second brain. That's why. That's why. Because it is receiving a tremendous amount of input from our environment and translating it for our brain. So if we're putting things in our stomach that are inflammatory, we are going to get an inflammatory response in the brain. Yeah. Do you think that that was a major part of your story?

Yes, 100%. 100%. I mean, I was eating takeout every single day take. So I was getting, you know, additional sugar, I was getting additional low quality oils, I was, you know, I'm certainly not a demonizer of fat in any way. But I was getting really poor quality fat. And not to mention that, you know, my protein intake was horrible. I didn't even know how much protein intake I was, I was supposed to be having kind of at that time. So, absolutely, the poor quality of my Diet, I believe 100% contributed to my symptoms. And then changing my diet also help reverse my symptoms.

Yeah. And I think that this is a dilemma that, I mean, you don't have to be a busy political strategist to. To have this dilemma. I was talking to one of my best friends last night, and we were talking about decision fatigue and high level executives with decision fatigue. And the hardest question that I get every single day, can you guess what it is?

How do I do this?

What's for dinner? Oh, this is my hardest question that I get every single day, Right? Yeah. Because I'm making a million decisions every single day. And then at the end of said day, when I am exhausted, my family wants to know what's for dinner. Right. And I think for most working Americans, and let's face it, these days, most Americans have to be working because there's no way to survive if you're not. This is a hard, hard dilemma. And at the end of whatever long day you're having, it is so much easier and so much more affordable for most people to go grab junk. Right. To stop at McDonald's, to stop at whatever fast food place is on the way home and. Or if you're not going to do that, but you're going to make a bowl of pasta and an iceberg salad. You know, this is not nourishing you. No. It's just not nourishing you.

No.

And we have a huge problem. And I think a lot of it is our, what we prioritize and this culture that of convenience that we've created, which is literally killing us. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, there's so many layers to what you were saying too, in terms of, you know, access to healthy food. And then, you know, the access that a lot of people have is of really poor quality. And, you know, do we need, I would argue, yes. More stringent guidelines in terms of, you know, what. What's allowed in our, in our food supply. And then I think, you know, the client population that I deal with that wants to make healthy choices, but has actually never been taught what it is to eat healthy.

Right.

A lot of the, especially women that I work with have certainly grown up as part of, like the early 2000, late 90s diet culture. And it's really hard to kind of Unsubscribe from that mentality, I would certainly.

Apply products hard to unring a bit. Right, Hard to unring a bell.

Yeah.

So I would love you to start to unpack some of that for people. So in what, what is it that you teach your people that helps them to break free from these ties that bind them? Right, this, the ideology of, I don't know, did they grow up during fat is bad. Right. And they have to unlearn fat is bad. And, and how do you get people into that habit of making healthy convenient?

Yeah, so there's a, you know, a couple of different approaches that I have, but the first one before we even get to food is the nervous system. Because I believe, and you know, there's certainly science to kind of support this is that you can't heal when you're in a state flight. You can't heal when your body is in a, in a very, very stressed out state. And the majority of people that I work with are either know that they're in fight or flight constantly or you know, haven't yet made that awareness. And so before we even get to the nutrition part, we're actually working on the, on the nervous system part. And so, so the body can actually receive and get the benefit of the nutrients that we're about to, to kind of flood it with when we're, when we're kind of changing diet, dietary patterns. So that's, that's sort of the first thing that I do. The second thing that I do is then working on what I call circadian rhythm alignment. And then, because certainly I think it's really hard.

Can you say more about that?

Because I don't know that everyone knows what that means.

So I think about circadian rhythm misalignment in terms of making the biggest impact on what a lot of us are experiencing right now, which is kind of commonly known as adrenal fatigue, adrenal dysfunction. And although adrenal fatigue isn't necessarily a medical term, I think, you know, that that's a term where people hear about, but it's this kind of place that we get to after we've been under long term stress. And one of the best and, and kind of some of the symptoms that I really think about in terms of adrenal fatigue is that, you know, exhaustion, brain fog, inability to lose weight, just like really having a hard time getting it together in the morning, can't really wake up. And I think most people don't realize also that our digestive process is under circadian rhythm control. And that our digestive process runs on a 24 hour clock that actually mirrors the sun. And so a lot of times we need to kind of start living more in alignment with, for lack of better terminology, nature. And when the sun, sun is out, making sure that we're getting outside to see the sun and making sure we're turning off our electronics, you know, before bed and, and starting to rewrite the, the hijacking of our body's sort of natural 24 hour clock.

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Back to our show. Yeah. So you're helping people to get into that healing state, that parasympathetic state, because there is no healing. You're absolutely right if your body thinks you're in danger. Right, because we only know two states, we only know safety or danger and the our understanding of danger is quite primitive. So if we are in danger, our body thinks that we are running away from a saber toothed tiger. So if you're running away from a saber toothed tiger, you do not need to digest your meal, you're about to be someone else's meal. You do not need to absorb nutrients because your body is not sure that you're going to be alive. In 15 seconds. Right. So all of that gets bypassed for the, for the purposes of run, run, run. Right. Like that's all your body can think to do in that state is run, run, run. Right. So it, it's just people don't understand why stress inhibits healing, inhibits digestion. It's because those systems are shut off so that you can run away from a tiger. The only thing that's on in that stressful state is your blood sugar is up so that it can feed your muscles so you can run away. And the primitive part of your brain is working, not the frontal cortex, not the thinking part. Right. Not the, should I run that way or that way? Do I have to pick up my laundry? It's the run, run, run, run, run, monkey brain. Right, right.

Or should I have an apple? Or this, you know, Snickers bar. We can't make a distinction between no and that.

We cannot. We cannot. And unfortunately, so many people are walking around in this state for 50% of their day, maybe even more. Right. Like their whole day is a series of saber toothed tigers.

Yep. 100. Which is why I work with so many clients who, you know, really struggle with ib, IBS, or ibd. And even, you know, they've been in kind of a merry go around a little bit of functional medicine. And they, you know, they're, they're trying to do the right things. They're trying supplements and different things, and they're like, this isn't working. And I'm like, you have to get out of fight or flight first for the majority of your day, for your digestive process to, to even on a biological level start to function. So no wonder why the supplements that you're, that you're taking, like, great job, I love supplements, but they're not gonna be effective if you're stuck in that fight or flight for the exact reasons that you just kind of talked about. And then from an anxiety perspective, the flood of stress hormones that happen when we're stuck in fight or flight, you know, all the time, is certainly kind of contributing to the feelings of anxiety that we're also experiencing. Experiencing for most of the day.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that adrenaline make will alone will make you feel anxious, right?

Yeah.

Okay. So you help people get into that parasympathetic state. You talk to them about being in circadian rhythm alignment where you are awake during the day getting exposure to sunlight. Yeah, right. Because we need exposure to natural light. That's how we understand. I usually tell people to try to get exposure to Light at multiple times during the day within minutes of waking up midday so that the sun is in different positions because it's our perception of the position of the sun that allows us to come into circadian alignment. And then watching the sun set at the end of the day. Yeah. That is what is really going to trigger that switch from cortisol, which is our day awake hormone, to melatonin, which is our anti inflammatory repair hormone. Yeah, yeah.

And what you were just saying is to the, when we, when we have our phones in our bed or you know, as I was mentioning during, you know, when I was really in the thick of it with my, with my health, just having this blue light in my face right up until I was going to bed, was keeping that cortisol looping constantly and shutting off my body's own melatonin, which as you mentioned, is anti inflammatory.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, so what's next? So then once you get those pieces in place, what do you, what do you do next?

Yeah, so then it's time to really focus on nutrition changes. And for um, the women that I work with specifically, there are kind of three components that I think about that are really predominant in most of most of the clients that I work with. It's not eating enough, unintentionally under eating calories as a whole. And of course we can talk about that. You know, the quality of calories really matter. It's under eating protein, not actually understanding how much protein we need to eat and then not understanding how we actually balance our blood sugar and why balancing our blood sugar is so important for a resolution of anxiety for digestive issues. You know, we, we haven't talked about this, but even, you know, if there's imbalances with female sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone, I think about balancing blood sugar. And I know you talk about this too, as is sort of the, one of the most missed fundamentals of health, kind of regardless of the disease you're talking about.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean we know that metabolic derangement is responsible for the vast majority of chronic disease.

Right.

So unless we correct that there is no hope to get away from this, this wave of, of chronic disease. And for my part of it, you know, it is, I, I would say nearly 100%, not everyone. Every now and again I will have an exception. But nearly 100% of the women that I work with have significant metabolic dysfunction when I meet them.

Yeah.

And that's the thing that has to, has to, has to be corrected.

Yes.

Because there is no hope for, for recovery or repair without fixing the metabolism.

Yeah, I agree. I think the, the, the statistics are like staggering almost. I, I haven't pulled these in a while, so I might misquote it, but it's almost like like 50% of the population is pre diabetic without even knowing it.

So only less than 10% of Americans are metabolically ideal. Less than 10%, which means that 90% of us have some degree of metabolic dysfunction. And I'll tell you that some of it is genetic. I don't want, I'm not blaming genes for obesity or anything like that, but I'm telling you that if you don't know or understand your own genetics, for some people, not everyone, for some people it's going to be hard. I'll give you a, a perfect example. When we're in this like kind of sympathetic driven state. High cortisol levels, that kind of thing, it's impossible to be metabolically healthy when you have high cortisol levels because that is automatically going to send up your blood sugar. Now, for some people who don't have good detox genes, if they are over exercisers, if they are people that they're endurance runners or they love hiit exercise or they're doing a lot of high intensity exercise, if you don't have good detox genes, those people are going to have metabolic derangement and not understand why. Because like you, they were running five miles a day. Yeah. They don't understand why they're not healthy. Yeah. And so that, that is something that, if you knew that about yourself, like it took me, I learned the hard way. I would get up and go to spin class with my husband at 5:45 and then go shower and go to work afterwards. And by 10 o' clock I would be asleep at my desk, like literally asleep at my desk. Couldn't drag my eyes open to go see people. And it wasn't until I learned that like I can't do that high intensity exercise because we all make exhaust as we burn fuel. Right. And some people are really good at clearing that exhaust and some people are terrible at clearing that exhaust. I'm terrible at clearing that exhaust. So for me, I was hurting myself every day when I was doing this high intensity exercise. And it probably has something to do with what was going on with you. Yeah. Yeah. People don't realize this. Yeah. So there are so many things that we perceive as good for us that are not so good for us.

Right.

Yeah. And then people get into trouble with it. Yeah.

And so I think Too, you know, just, you know, oftentimes I'm the first person to, to look at someone's fasting glucose level or the first time to look at someone's, you know, fasting insulin levels and say like, this is not a good trajectory and this could absolutely be contributing to the anxiety that you're feeling because your blood sugar is completely dysregulated. And so they were like, well, you know, my PCP just ran it and said everything, everything looks normal. And so I think, you know, it is back to your point of kind of like this, this awakening with health and kind of this time where you know that there's, there's sort of shifts. I think it is time for those of us who can to really take us, you know, the steps beyond just getting our basic labs from our pcp, being told everything is normal and then kind of, you know, going, going about our way that really to either correct disease right now or prevent it in the future. We need to be taking, you know, what is perceived as a radical look at our health, but it's actually not really that radical.

Yeah. And to your point, I think that those are three of the five or six labs that I think everyone should know about themselves. Right. Like you need to know what your fasting blood sugar is and it should be below 90.

Yes.

You need to know what your fasting insulin is and it should be between 2 and 5. Yeah. You need to know what your hemoglobin A1C is, which is your average glucose over a three month period period of time and that should be below 5. I also think that everyone needs to know their vitamin D level and that should be between 60 and 100. And that varies according to your vitamin D genes. And not everyone knows. So I think that that is a safe window to keep everyone in. I think that everyone should know what their white blood cell count is because you need to know where your immune system stands and that should be greater than 5.5. And lastly, I think everyone should know with their high sensitivity CRP as C reactive protein, because that gives you an idea of how inflamed you are. And it also tells us like what your risk factors are for developing diseases like cardiac disease, which is the number one threat to everyone's life, eclipsing breast cancer. Despite the fact that everyone, most women think that breast cancer is their biggest threat to life. It's not. It's exponentially cardiac disease. Yeah. And so, you know, your CRP should be below one. And everyone should know these labs about themselves and everyone's doctor should be running these labs every year. Yeah. And if you are not ideal, you need to work to get it ideal, whatever that means for you. Yeah. And maybe work with someone that's knowledgeable in that field.

Yeah.

You know, balancing your blood sugar is so important. Metabolic health is so important for all disease states. Yeah. Because there's so much dysfunction when you don't have metabolic health. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think it's just maddening that, you know, I'm just thinking about one client in particular. Her CRP was over 10, her fasting insulin was over 16, and her fasting glucose was way over 100. And she was struggling with weight loss, resistance, anxiety, and she was just given an ssri. And not a single person looked at her blood sugar levels and that fasting insulin and that CRP and was like, let's start here before we put you on a pharmaceutical medication that I'm not anti medication, but there's no medications that don't have additional side effects. And there's very few side effects of balancing your blood sugar. I can't really think of, think of any when it's done, you know, appropriately. And so, you know, that's sort of kind of the nexus of my work. And sometimes it is really maddening.

Yeah, it for sure is. And so I know that you have a particular focus on gut health. So how do you work with people to first of all identify issues that they may be having with their gut and then help them to work through it?

Yeah, so I really focus on the, the. Those with gut issues and anxiety because those, those really do sort of travel together. And so, you know, first, I think it is about. I think sometimes there can be an overemphasis on lab testing, but I do think the right lab testing can really help us understand what's going on in, in the GI tract. So, you know, I do work with a lot of clients you've got who have the normal endoscopies, normal colonoscopies, normal abdominal X rays. And so at that point, if you're still struggling with things like loose stools, constipation, bloating, reflux, and you've got all of the normal kind of standard GI conventional labs, and it's certainly time to kind of dig a little bit deeper in terms of the lab that you may need for your gut. And that's really where I think functional medicine shines with the right stool testing. And so with someone struggling with GI issues, we're working on the foundations, like I talked about, nervous system circadian Rhythm support, sleep, nutrition. And then the lab testing really allows us to see another. Another layer. You know, we talk about dysbiosis, but is it that you have an overgrowth of. Of inflammatory bacteria or are you not producing enough good bacteria? You know, is your immune system in your gut really suppressed? And so all of those things, you know, do you have an infection that's driving your symptoms? And I think that that's really where the functional medicine, stool testing shines and allows us to dig a little bit deeper beyond some of the conventional labs and really understand what's contributing to symptoms.

Yeah. And this is something that I use frequently in my practice because as you said, when you have the. Those, when you, when you create the foundation for healing, then you also have to look a little deeper and find out what people need for healing. Because at the end of the day, our bodies do know how to heal, but sometimes it doesn't have what it needs, or sometimes it has what it doesn't need. Right. And so just helping people through that, and it also gives them a purpose and something that's measurable. And I feel like most people heal better with data. When you can measure their progress somehow they. They heal better with data. Yeah. And this is, this is a way to give them data and to measure. And to measure progress. Definitely. Yeah. Talk to me about some of your. Your favorite foods, your go to things, things that, that you feel like incorporating, make a huge difference for people.

Yeah. So, I mean, it's going to slightly vary based on, you know, especially when we're talking about digestive health, it's going to slightly vary depending on, you know, what those lab tests that we're running reveal. Because, you know, I do think things like, for example, fiber and fermented foods are, you know, really the top of the list when it comes to not only populating the beneficial bacteria in the gut and allowing the gut to thrive, but those, you know, especially fiber is really crucial for balancing blood sugar, which is then going to have a positive effect on mental health. But there is, you know, we have to recognize that there is a subset of the population that cannot handle a lot of fiber right away or can't handle, you know, a lot of fermented foods right away. So I think back to our question. Your discussion about lab testing, that's really what the lab testing also has, helps us determine is the right dietary approaches, too. But I think kind of universally, what people do really well on, and I might get some pushback for this animal protein, especially women, you know, really high quality Animal protein, you know, certainly fish with omega 3 fatty acids, you know, when it's available, pasture raised poultry, grass fed organic meats. And I really see that kind of bring a lot of people back to life. Certainly the kind of amino acids are really crucial for the gut lining, et cetera. But from a mineral and nutrient perspective, I think animal protein is. And a protein perspective, you know, it's kind of a slam slam dunk for me. When it's, when it's, when it's done. Right.

Yeah. I mean, my biggest problem is that so much of what is available to most people is toxic. And unless we change how we raise and treat our animals. Yeah, I really, really struggle with it. Yeah. And, and you know, how many people really have the opportunity to, to eat grass fed, grass finished animals and pasture raised poultry? I just, I don't think it's happening with great frequency. And I've just seen too many people can't get well and they, you know, they show me their diet and they look really clean. And then we end up realizing that whatever animals that they're eating, they're, they're not eating what they think they're eating. Yeah. So, you know, this is a place that I struggle. I mean, I also struggle from the standpoint that I don't believe that animals were put on this earth solely for the purposes of our consumption. So I struggle with that. But then at the same time, like, I am a deeply religious woman and I know that the Torah says that animals are there and should be consumed. So you know, like I, I have the religious foundation there, but it just doesn't translate to today for me. Yeah. And what, and unless we improve this area of our food chain, I have a huge problem.

I think it goes back to like, kind of the regulation topics that, that we were talking about and the need to really radically change the way in which our food is produced in the US 100%.

And, and that, that does go back to this, this topic that we started with, which is that this should not be a partisan issue. And one of the things that I struggle with so much is why are we subsidizing commodity crops that are only driving illness instead of subsidizing the things that we know will improve health. Yeah, right. Like, I mean, you know, all the, all the GMO wheat and corn and soy that is driving so much of our illness because they are the basis for animal lot feeds and the farmed fish and they are the basis for all of these processed foods that line our shelves and they're being Subsidized, so they're able to be purchased very inexpensively. And yet the things that actually drive health, the things that actually make us poor better, the whole foods, the. The fiber that you were talking about, that allows for blood sugar, that allows for hormone balance, that allows for weight control, all of that. That's very expensive. Yep, it's very expensive. And there are so many food deserts around this country that even if people wanted them, they can't get them because they don't have access to them. Yeah. And so I really resent what. What has come to be our norm, which is that the garbage is inexpensive. The things that are good for you are very expensive. The garbage is inexpensive because it's being subsidized. And, you know, at the risk of me putting my conspiracy theory out there, I believe that it's being subsidized for the purposes of having people consume more of it so that people can get sicker, so that they can utilize the pharmaceuticals. And the pharmaceutical companies are, in turn, you know, supporting all of our government agencies so that they're. So that their drugs can be approved. They're supporting the food industry so that we don't regulate them. And everyone. The only people that are getting hurt are the consumers.

Yeah.

Which is where we started. Yeah. Right. So even though I. I know that you're glad that you left politics, I think we need you more than ever. Yeah.

You know, I do think, too, just kind of being on the inside of it for so long, it's like, I don't even know that individuals who are on the inside realize the impact that's being had on millions of people that are. That are kind of the decisions. Because this has been going on for so long in government.

It's for sure you're right.

Long that. And I'm not saying it's right. I'm not defending it in any way. But, you know, just like when, you know, certainly when I was sick, I began. I began to normalize how I was feeling. Right. Oh, it's not that bad. Everyone must be feeling that way. And I think it's the same thing in government that, oh, it can't be that bad. We've had these subsidized for, you know, subsidies for years. This has always been part of the farm bill, et cetera. And. And so the place that I get to with empowerment is like, let's bring more awareness. Let's bring more. More awareness around what is actually a healthy diet. And right now, those of us that can. Let's try and drive Change by making the purchasing decision, decisions that actually support health while also using that access to, you know, just like you're doing, speaking out and trying to drive change at a, at a policy level. Because deeply I do not believe at a policy level the answer is deregulation. I think companies need more regulation. I think they need more rules around the food that they're able to produce and the food that they're able to sell.

And you know, at the very least, we should have the quality. Like I remember I got into the. When Hani went to Nabisco with the. Wait, was it Nabisco? No, it was Kellogg's. It was kellogg's with her 50,000 or 400,000. I have to look at how many signatures she had and they wouldn't let her in. And I remember responding like, wait, why are we even eating cereal? And then someone came back to me and said, you know, that's the reality for most people. They don't, they don't have any other choice. So at least let's make their choice a little better. So ideally I would love for cereal to not even be a choice. Right. Like no one needs cereal. No one ever got healthier with cereal. And ps, there's no such thing as healthy cereal. Sorry. Right, like, yeah, sorry. No such thing. Yeah.

However, carbohydrate load.

What? It's just not good.

However.

We for sure shouldn't have chemicals in our cereal that aren't allowed in other countries. And they're making it for other countries. Yeah, they're manufacturing a better product for other people and they're manufacturing for us. And this is despicable. It has to end.

It does. One of my rotations in my training was in pediatric GI at Mass General Hospital. And you know, Mass General Hospital is sort of billed as like, you know, a gold standard in the mass.

As if medicine was provided by four walls. Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't get me started.

Exactly. I hear you. And you know, I was just like, okay. I just. It's astonishing to have that training to, to realize how sick our kids and how scary it is. The number of food allergies, immune related disorders, GI related disorders. It is in a really, really scary place. And I don't think people realize it because, you know, on the day to day level we're just dealing with our own family. But to kind of see it on that, on that mass scale in just one hospital that certainly the guidelines around.

Food for kids needs to change without question. I mean, there is nothing more disturbing for me than seeing a kid Hooked up to an IV for her cancer treatment with a lollipop in the other hand. And I'm like, who, who thinks that this picture makes sense? Like, what will it take for us to learn? What will it take for us to change? What will it take for us to implement health into our system? Because right now all we're doing is promoting sickness more and more and more sickness. So with that said, I am so delighted that, I mean, I know that you had a lot of pain which drove you to your purpose, but I'm so delighted that you are making such a beautiful contribution now and helping people to see connections that they didn't see before. Because sometimes that is the most meaningful part of someone's journey and it, sometimes it's hard to heal unless you understand why you were hurting in the first place. So making those connections for people, shedding light onto the. The importance of gut health and how that connects to your brain health. And again, with so many people suffering from anxiety and just the knowledge that when you make this connection, you can eliminate the anxiety without drugs and so much more. Have your thought, have restful sleep, have energy, have weight control, have positive mood and a positive outlook and be productive. Right. All of these things are possible once you understand and you make these connections that you talk about.

Yeah.

Being in a healing state, getting in touch with circadian rhythm, understanding what, what your body needs in order to foster health. All of this is so very important. So I'm so grateful. Yeah. How can people find you?

So there's a couple of ways. I am on Instagram and it's my name, Kerry K E R R I Axelrod A X E L R O D. My website is my first name, last name.com and I do have a group coming up that is re enrolling in January. I'm not sure when this will air, but it is open for early bird enrollment right now and that helps women eliminate constipation, fatigue and bloating and better manage their anxiety. And I really take them through a step by step approach to eliminating their symptoms.

Amazing. Amazing. So we'll make sure to put all that in the show notes and if you're interested in joining the group, we'll have a link to do that. And I just want to thank you for spending this hour with me. If you enjoyed this podcast, please like it, share it with someone who you think would benefit from hearing it and know that I will be back next week, same time, same place. It's Dr. Jen. Bye for.

Thank you for joining me on this episode. Of the Keeping a breast podcast with Dr. Jen. I hope you found the discussion informative and empowering. Remember, breast health is health so by staying informed and taking proactive steps you have the power to optimize your well being. My team and I encourage you to apply the knowledge gained from today's episode to make positive changes in your life and share what you've learned with others. If you enjoyed this episode episode, please subscribe to our podcast and leave us a review. Your feedback and support mean the world to us and help us to reach more people who can benefit from these conversations. Stay connected with me on social media where I share additional resources, advice, updates and announcements related to breast health. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Dr. Jenn Simmons and remember MyGen has two N's so until next time, remember to stay proactive, informed and confident in your breast health journey. The key to your health is you.