Episode 97: Ditch the Toxins, Look Great, and Feel Freaking Amazing, with Dr. Wendie Trubow

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Hi, I'm Dr. Tabatha, the Functional Gynecologist. I'm a board-certified OB-GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist, so welcome. Hi ladies, welcome back. So I'm really excited for this week's episode because we're talking about toxins. I am interviewing the author of Dirty Girl: Ditch the Toxins, Look Great, and Feel Freaking Amazing. I love her title, it's so good. And I feel really connected with my guest today, Dr. Wendy Trubow, because she is a fellow OB-GYN. She is a trained MD. She went to Tufts University. But she has been practicing functional medicine since 2009. And so, you know, that's just amazing to me that she's been doing it for so long when it's such a new world to me and how I practice. So I really loved connecting with her. And we're, you know, we're talking about something really important. I think that women don't necessarily realize how toxic our environment really has become. It is so different than it was 100 years ago or even 50 years ago. And she's going to talk about like, what are the different types of toxins? What does that word even mean? How are we being exposed to them? And then more importantly, how is it affecting our health and what can we do about it? Like, what can— what kind of changes can we make in our lives that are You know, easy and manageable. And for some of you, I know that you're struggling with bigger health issues, and this might be, you know, the answer to your problems. So we're going to talk about trying to figure out: Is toxic burden really compounding or causing a lot of your symptoms and your issues? So her book is amazing, Dirty Girl. Check it out. The links are in the show notes, and she's also got a. Freebie for you if you stay tuned. That link is in the show notes. But let me just sing her praises really quick. And I hope that you'll listen to this whole episode and share it with someone you know, share it with all the women in your life. But if you're finding value in this, I would be so honored if you would take 30 seconds to leave me a review because that really lets iTunes know that this stuff is important to you, you want to hear more of this, and it keeps us in the momentum of making progress and moving forward with, like, changing the system, because that is what I'm passionate about. I really want you guys to have better options. I want to change the system. And so I need your help. We need to, like, band together as women and support each other. So if you could leave me a 5-star review, And really share this message with other women. I know that it's possible that we can shift the system. So thank you so much. Okay, Dr. Wendy Trubow. She's a functional medicine gynecologist. Like I said, she received her MD from Tufts University, has been practicing functional medicine since 2009. After all these years, she's still passionate about helping women optimize their health and their lives. There's so many different challenges in a woman's life. We're going to talk about this today. You know, we work, we have to take care of the home, we have to manage our relationships, and hopefully your spirituality and your health— they all matter. So Dr. Troubeau has a solid medical backdrop to help women achieve vitality. Her own health journey helped inspire and supported her methods of care. So that's really awesome that she's kind of lived through what has worked and what hasn't worked and has really created her methods of care through her struggles with mold disease, metal toxicity, and having celiac disease. So Wendy has developed a deep sense of compassion for what her patients are facing. When she's not helping patients in her practice at Five Journeys, you can find Dr. Wendy alongside her husband and their 4 children creating a beautiful ecosystem in their yard Which provides nourishment to both the body and soul. That's very cool that she's teaching her kids how to, you know, fend for themselves, grow their own food, live sustainable lives. Like, that's one of the best things you could give your children. So that's very awesome. So please stay tuned, listen to this. I think you're gonna get something out of it. So here we go. Well, welcome, Dr. Wendy Trubot, to the Functional Gynecologist Podcast. Thank you.

It's great to be here.

This is an exciting conversation and it's much needed. And I'm just really looking forward to you unpacking all of this because what I hear from women is it feels overwhelming and scary. Do you hear that?

I do. I do. And I think it's really hard being a woman today because we have to look good. We have to make sure our families eat perfect meals. We have to have a quote-unquote perfect house. We often work outside the home. And then we also have to be available for our significant other for intimacy and be available. It's a lot of requirements.

Yeah, it really is. And we're trying to be amazing in all of those areas. And meanwhile, we're being bombarded with all of these toxins that we're going to talk about, and it really can impact your health. I've shared my story on the podcast multiple times, and Figuring out my toxic burden and taking care of that was a huge part of my story. So I would love for you to share your story because I find that women just, we learn from each other and there's always some value in that, right? So what happened to you?

I would say my story has 2 parts. The first part includes terrible genetics. I have 2 genes for MTHFR. I have 2 genes for celiac. I have 2 genes for vitamin D deficiency. So, and I was born to parents who were born to parents who were immigrants and went through really tough times. So the epigenetics of my birth were not the best. So I think, and for the listeners, in case they're going, what's epigenetics?

Mm-hmm.

It's what causes genes to turn on or not. And so usually the genes that turn on aren't in your favor typically, although there's, uh, there's a really fascinating study that was done on a tiny, tiny community in, I think it's Sweden, they kept great records and they found that if your grandparents went through a feast when you were hitting— when they were hitting puberty, that 2 generations down you were significantly more likely to get diabetes and be obese and hypertension and high cholesterol. And the flip is if your grandparent went through a famine when they were in puberty, you were significantly more likely to live longer, like 30 years longer.

Wow.

not get diabetes, not have hypertension. So that's, that's the beautiful expression of epigenetics, how things get turned on or off depending on what happened to your ancestors. So part one of my story includes epigenetics, the poor— my poor genetics, being born in the '70s where we ate a good amount of— I mean, my mom cooked every night, but it was, you know, sloppy joes. And, uh, then the '80s where we developed microwaves and we had microwave food that was microwaved in plastic. And I had had signs of celiac even in my teens. I was a very poor absorber and I had terrible iron levels and I was fatigued. But, you know, it's the '80s and nobody really complained about anything. And then fast forward to the— when I was in my 20s, I just thought everyone had a better quirk than I did. I had really bad gas and bloating and diarrhea, irritable bowel, you know, all the symptoms.

Yeah.

And brain fog. And then I decided to go to med school and had to do OB-GYN because I fell in love with it. But of course, I also did it because it was hard and I liked do hard things. And then from a mental standpoint, I really should be an OB-GYN because I love women. But from a constitution standpoint, that is the worst specialty I could have ever chosen because of the stress and the being up all night. And that's not a good— not a good— really not a good match. So I remember sort of clicking into full-blown celiac in my early 30s and then being diagnosed at 35. So that's part one, getting diagnosed. by a functional medicine doctor, going gluten-free, starting to work on my gut, addressing the yeast that I had in my gut, addressing my adrenals. And I spent 13 years doing that.

Wow.

And that's part 1. And then part 2 starts after we went— sort of starts a little earlier, but our neighbor took his house down, and it was a post-war construction house. And those houses Almost always have lead. So he took his house down and I'm freaking out. I'm like, shut the windows, don't let the lead in. And I think I got an exposure because my I started to have a little bit of hair loss after that happened. But I kind of was my my hairdresser was like, I think you're fine. Don't worry about it. Then we went to France in April of 2019, and I said to my husband, it is so dusty here. We're gonna have to like wash all of our shoes and all of our clothes. It's ridiculous. And it was ten days after Notre Dame burned. And I came back from France and gained about 10 pounds—not in France, but after France—I gained about 10 pounds, and my hair started coming out in droves, and I had a rash on my face. I I describe it: I wanted to rip my face off because it was like here and here and here and here, and I was like, I was just crazy. And at the end of the summer, I was kind of like, "What's going on?" You know, functional medicine doctor. Let's do all the work, and nothing came up. And at the end of the summer, I'm listening to an NPR report that says 500 tons of lead was released into the atmosphere when Notre Dame burned. And the closer you were, the more lead you're getting exposed to, and the farther you are, the less, you know, sort of concentric. And I looked at my husband, I said, I think I got a lead exposure. I mean, we all got it, but I'm, I'm not myself.

No.

And so I tested, and my lead was 25% higher than it had been The— in previous testing and noticeably out of range. And I was like, okay. So I started to test that and I tested the mycotoxins, which are the mold toxins, and I tested the environmental toxins and everything was positive. And I said to my husband, I am such a dirty girl. And then I said, and that's the book we're gonna write. Because if I have it and I'm the poster child for healthy living, then a lot of women have this. And how do we raise the awareness and get it out? So I've spent the last 2 years really working on my toxins and getting them out. And that's part 2 of the story.

Well, I think that is so important. And I'm so excited that you are sharing this message with women because it's not always obvious. And like you said, you were living healthy, quote unquote. And so how could something possibly happen to you? But you hit on so many good things, so many key points like your epigenetics. I had to say Same issue. You know, I felt like you were describing me for a little bit, you know. And then we go into professions that absolutely destroy us and turn on all of our bad genes. And, you know, you were blessed to find a functional doctor and be healed by them. That's amazing. So, um, good for you. But for a lot of women, I think they don't realize because it's not an acute issue necessarily.

Right.

You started developing the rash and you knew you didn't feel well, but it was nothing obvious like getting cut or breaking a leg where you can say, this is what caused that. So for a lot of people, I feel like it's just this path they go down and they get so confused. So I would love to talk about where to even begin for women because—

Yeah.

A lot of my listeners don't— haven't gone through the functional medicine and figured out they have celiac. But if you have and you're having recurrences, how do you know you're a dirty girl?

Yeah. So I think we— I think you have to sort of start with the thought process of, no, it's not just aging.

Yes.

The whole platform that we stand on is that you're meant to just get more and more decrepit, lose your mind, Get fat, not feel good. That's the expectation, right? So if that's your expectation, then nothing within that is gonna change because it all matches. But if you say, I really believe that something more is possible for my body and my health, and I would like to treat myself like a bottle of wine in that I'm going to age beautifully, and the older I get, the better I'm going to get on every level— your physical body, your emotional state, your relationships with others, your effectiveness at your job. But sometimes you have to start with changing the view.

Yes. Oh, I love that so much.

Right? Flip your view and stop accepting sort of— so I always, I say to people, we reject that conventional wisdom that you're meant to get more decrepit, and instead that you're meant to be vital, vibrant, healthy, alive, able to be intimate and interested in intimacy until you're at least 100. You know, my husband always says able to be. He's my business partner. And I'm like, you are pissing off all the audience by saying able to be, because women are able to be, but we're just not interested. And so let's talk about the ability to be interested in too. So we added that in. So first for women is stop accepting that this is okay.

Yeah.

Right? Being fatigued is not normal. Having constipation is not normal.

Yeah.

Acne's not normal. Hair loss is not normal. Gaining weight that you can't get rid of is not normal. It's harder to lose weight the older you get, but it's definitely possible. So there's a lot of things that you first have to go, oh, I'm no longer going to put up with that because it's not— it's not supposed to be that way, right? And then you have to— I always say detox is a higher level order behavior because if you're in the midst of survival, you're not going to do detox. And survival is if your adrenals are jacked up, your gut's out of whack, your diet's not good, you sleep enough, you're a stress ball, you're super anxious. You know, you have to treat the system and then you can start detoxing because you really do need the body not to think it's in fight, flight, or freeze in order for it to detox. So there's a lot of sort of nuanced steps there, but I would even— I really would just go back to start with the idea that more is possible.

I love that. Yeah. Yeah. So we really do need to heal the gut. Make sure our adrenals are supported, make sure our thyroid is functioning, get every— all that stuff working again, essentially, like you said, so that your, your body's not in survival mode, and then it can do the work of detoxing that you're going to ask it to do, right?

Yeah. And you, you really bring up this great point when you mention the thyroid. There's a lot of autoimmune disease out there, and it's— I call it circling the drain. So If you have autoimmune disease, you definitely have to fix the gut and fix the food, fix, fix what you're eating, fix your lifestyle, all that. But then there is a component of toxins that will make your autoimmune disease worse.

Mm-hmm.

But they sort of go hand in hand, right? Do the full functional medicine approach on the autoimmune part. But for certain autoimmune diseases, I would go right to toxins, like MS. I would go right to multiple sclerosis. I would go right to toxins. But for Hashimoto's, I would go more for food and lifestyle. So it sort of depends which one you've got. Celiac, go for food because just stop eating gluten, right? That'll cure it.

Yeah, I think that's an important point. And what do you, what do you see the most often associated with autoimmune conditions? Is it that it— we just need to heal the gut and then look into the toxins?

Right, it goes, it goes hand in hand. So Hashimoto's seems like it's gotten much more common, and so that responds beautifully to the autoimmune paleo program style of eating, but also making sure that you're sleeping enough and de-stressing and moving your body. And and but there are certainly toxins that track back into immunity, so it kind of goes both ways. I I would say anyone who doesn't who does all the I'll call them the platform behaviors. You know, eat right, sleep, exercise, and have great relationships with people and yourself. You can't leave yourself out. Do that. And then if you're not getting better, that implies toxins. You know that woman who says to you, I'm doing everything right and I am not losing weight?

Yeah.

In fact, I look at food and I gain weight. I'm like, oh, you have a toxins issue. So that's, that's, that's the kind of person who, if they don't respond, there's— that's a toxins issue.

Okay, so break down toxins for us. I think for some of my listeners, they might think of mercury or lead, but I think they're missing a lot of things. So explain to my listeners what that is.

Sure. So let me back up one step, Tabatha, and say anything can be a toxin. So too much of something. So I don't mean So alcohol, too much alcohol can be a toxin. Too much sugar can be a toxin. Too much processed food can occur for your body like a toxin. Not that it's intrinsically a toxin, but it becomes toxic for you. So too much of a lot of things we love can be toxins, but then there's also straight-up toxins. So the heavy— there's— I, I, in my brain, I put it into metals, and the ones we care about are mercury and lead. Yeah. Lead can be from living in old homes. Everyone says to me, I don't lick the windowsills. And I'm like, I know you don't lick the windowsills. Of course you don't lick the windowsills. But as your house settles, the joists grind that connection of the wall and the floor. It grinds and the lead dust gets into the air and you breathe it, you touch it, you eat it, you walk on it, you absorb it. So lead. And then there are places in the United States that still have Pipes, which is crazy, but that's happening. And then mercury is fish, the heavy metal, heavy mercury fish, which is, uh, tuna, the ahi tuna that we love for sushi, mahi-mahi, swordfish, Chilean sea bass. My husband bought me some sable this weekend. He's like, have some sable. I said, oh, it's high mercury. He said, it's moderate. I said, I've spent 2 years getting my mercury out. I'll have a bite But that's it. So to really be mindful about the mercury and also fillings. So dental fillings, if they're mercury, the amalgams contained mercury when they were put in and they'll off-gas for years.

Yeah.

And that's one category. The next is mold, mycotoxins. That is the 2 major places you get that is exposure to some kind of moldy building. So if you had a water-damaged building, if you have a moldy basement, I mean, in 2015, I live in Massachusetts and we had The winter from— to end all storms. And we had like 15 feet of snow or something ridiculous. And a lot of people had water damage from the ice dams. And so a lot of people got mold exposures because the ice dams weren't properly addressed. So any water-damaged building, if you work in one— dorms are notoriously moldy. I'm not sure why. So a lot of college students get exposed to mold at college. And then food. A lot of grains are moldy. Coffee is moldy. So there's foods that can expose you to, to mycotoxins. And then the third category is kind of lumped in with environmental toxins, which is plastics, styrenes, resins, stains, paints, construction materials, gasoline fumes, whiteout fumes. Pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, the things we spray on our yard, the things that we— so glyphosate is the most common herbicide used in the world, and it's associated with microbiome disruption, and it's a pro-cancer-causing agent for a number of tumors. So that's not in anyone's favor. So there's— I think of it like those 3 categories. But, and then it's what are you eating? What are you putting on you? And what's in your environment for people to think about?

I think that's great. I think women can totally understand that. And then you can start to think like, how am I being exposed? Like you said, how am I getting that into my body? I could be ingesting it on my skin, breathing it so many ways. Yeah. My water. So there's ways to test for this stuff, right?

So, okay, that's the message I forgot to tell you. It's all fixable. Yay! There's hope. There's hope in this. It's not just a, okay, too bad, you're, you're, you're doomed. Yeah. So all of these are testable and all of them are treatable. So that's the message of hope that I'll say. And I'll also say Every woman I speak with— I don't, you know, because we're gynecologists, I only see women, I don't see men, so I always talk about women. I don't mean to exclude the men who are listening. This applies to you too, except I only see women. So every woman says to me, I'm gonna go hardcore into this. I'm like, great. And then about 3 months later, they're like, okay, that was too much. Because it's really tempting to want to fix everything overnight, because it's horrifying when you get the data. When I got my data, I was Oh, wow. And so what you want to look for are, one, what are the things you can do to take away your exposure? So one of my high toxins was a gasoline fuel additive. And I sort of thought about it and I said, okay, I have crappy genetics and I pump my own gas and I have high levels of this additive. So I stopped pumping my own gas, which just sounds like something really silly. But I said to my husband, I don't want to stand next to the pump and breathe the fumes And he was like, but it costs more. I said, but we're spending all this money to detox, right? We might as well just not fill it up, not, not make a reason to detox. And he was like, oh, that makes sense. So start to look for ways that you can level up and avoid the exposures in the first place, because your body really does want to be in balance. It just doesn't always have the capacity to deal with what it's being exposed to and what it already has.

Mm-hmm.

So stop exposing it first of all.

Yeah, I think that's a great point. Does it matter in which, um, order you detox? Say you have heavy metals, mycotoxins, and tons of plastic pesticides. Does it matter how you tackle that?

Um, does it matter? Yes and no. So the mycotoxins take a really long time to move, and everyone gets impatient and wants to retest. And so we retest and the levels are always higher, and then they freak out because the levels are higher. So I always say to people, mycotoxins is a marathon, not a sprint. So let's aim for some slow and steady treatment, and maybe you can do that concurrently. But don't— you know, ideally you would do treatment 3 times a day, except what nobody talks about is it's 3 times a day for like a year and a half, and that gets really tiring. So I would say do it once a day and don't think too much about it, you know. And so when you go for order, you try to look at what's the thing that's messing people up the most. So if you've got autoimmune disease, I'm looking more for metals and environmental toxins. And if you've got things like seasonal allergies, asthma, rashes, difficulty losing weight, I'm looking more at the mycotoxins and the metals. But they all interweave, so it's not like you can just separate one and say that's the cause. It's really the whole impact it's having on your body. So it kind of doesn't matter because the body loves it when you do detox. And as you start to get cleaner, it, it, it feeds, it feeds forward. Yeah.

Oh, I love that. Yeah. That's a great way to look at it. You know, you can make progress, but as you're cleaning things up, I think that you can make more leaps and bounds as opposed to baby steps. Yes. What I notice is when women actually start to feel better, they don't accept feeling crappy anymore. They're like, I'm not going back there. I'm not doing that. It's like giving up gluten. It's a choice. I feel better. I feel amazing. Why would I eat gluten as opposed to feeling deprived or whatever?

Oh, I'd love to talk about that, Tabatha, for a second, because I will say I'm gonna have to do a rant on Instagram about this, or Facebook, because this burns my butt.

Yeah.

When people say, I cheated, I always say to them, how could you cheat? This is not a test.

Right.

And you— and, and there's no dieting. First of all, you're never on a diet because a diet implies temporary. And really what we're looking for is what can you do that's going to be sustainable and manageable and work for you. And within any eating plan, There are excursions, and the goal is to plan for and manage them. So there's no cheating. You're not a cheater. You're not a bad person.

Right.

And that the language we use makes a huge difference. So I always encourage people to say, I feel better when I eat this way, as opposed to, I can't eat that. Well, you could eat that. You just don't want to take the consequence of what eating it does, right?

Exactly.

And so I always encourage women to look at how they're eating as a program And then you know you're going to go to a family event. So a bring along food that is for you a treat, or plan to have what they're having, and then the next morning get back on your program. But often what happens is people are on a diet and they cheat, and then they say, "Oh well, I already cheated and I'm bad, so I'm just going to stay off it because I know I can't maintain it." Yeah, and and it feeds forward in a way that doesn't empower. women. So the language really matters. And, and being like, having some grace for yourself. We're so hard on ourselves. So, oh my God, be nice to yourself because you're working really hard.

Yeah, exactly. And it really does matter what you're saying to yourself. It is all psychology because you will give in if you're telling yourself you're failing. You'll just, you'll become a failure, right?

Yes, yes, 100%. And so you have to speak kindly to yourself. Say the things to yourself you would wanna say to your children or your bestie. Yeah. Because you wouldn't be mean to them. Exactly. Or you hopefully don't wanna be mean to them.

Yeah. You're speaking my language. I couldn't agree more. Yeah. So it's all about self-love, having grace, being kind to yourself and listening to yourself. I would love for you to talk about that a little bit because I really think that our society Society has trained us to think symptoms are just a nuisance to cover up and get rid of. That's like the whole entirety of conventional medicine, like get rid of the symptom, when in reality it's a message from your body and your body's trying to tell you something, right?

Yep, 100%. So that's where it circles back to. Well, I really do think that this approach is a philosophy. It's a philosophical approach to healing as opposed to— it really is looking at or not accepting the status quo.

Yeah.

And so the first step is to say, oh, this isn't normal. And the next step is to recognize my headache's not a deficiency of Tylenol.

Yes.

My headache's an indicator that my body needs something or has too much of One of those two. Let's figure it out.

Yeah. And you talked a little bit about the symptoms specifically associated with the different toxins. Can you talk about that a little more?

I kind of can and I kind of can't because there's— because no one ever just has one thing. Yes. Yes. The environmental toxins test is— that's the one that includes the plastics, the styrenes, the VOCs, herbicides, insecticides. It's 17 pages long. And so I have yet to see one where it was 100% negative. There's always— you always find something. And then typically, it's really interesting. I was debating this with my partner, who's my husband and my business partner, and, you know, he's, he's my mentor too, actually. And he was saying to me, I, I don't go so— get so worried about kids in their 20s having metals. I said, I totally disagree, because those kids in their 20s 20s were breastfed by their mothers in their 50s and 60s. And those mothers in their 50s and 60s grew up in times when it wasn't as regulated. And so we all give to the next generation. We all donate through breastfeeding. And I highly recommend nursing and breastfeeding. And it is a detox event for moms. So it's really hard to track back to what is one one toxin do specifically because there's so many. I can say to you, oh, you know, the glyphosate is a microbiome disruptor and puts you at higher risk for these tumors. You can do that type of thing. There's a whole list of them that are pro-cancer causing, but it's very difficult to suss out your one thing. I will say my hair loss tracked to the metals. And when I started treating the metals, my hair loss slowed. And then as I started to really get the metals out, my hair loss— hair started to grow back. But it's not always that clear.

Yeah, yeah. And I like how you mentioned the sinuses. The allergy issues are often associated with mycotoxins, molds, things like that. Um, I see A lot of neurological issues associated with heavy metals. Do you see this?

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah. Whenever someone has any neurological issue, my— I'm really looking at overall body burden and toxins because it's so impactful to deal with and get that, get that addressed.

Okay. Yeah. And do you typically recommend women have their silver amalgams removed when they're going through a heavy metal detox process?

You know, it's so funny. I have 3 left that I have been debating. I— they're huge. Um, they take up the whole tooth. And so I've been debating this. So if they're new— so they haven't been putting in amalgams for a number of years. So the good news is if you have an amalgam, it's probably pretty old, like 15, 20 years old.

Right.

And so certainly they off-gas for a long period of time. If you— if it's a small filling and it's not going to destroy the tooth, then yeah, I would recommend getting it out in the midst of the treatment protocol so that you boost or boost your removal before, during, and after so that you're not loading the pump up even more. If it's been in— I mean, my fillings have been in for over 40 years at this point, so I feel like they've done the majority of their off-gassing. But what I'm going to do is test it. So So I'm actually still in the process of getting rid of my metals. It has been— I'm loyal to them. They take a long time. So once my mercury is quote unquote gone, I'm going to give it 6 to 12 months, probably 6 months because I'm neurotic and I want to keep a heavy, like a pretty tight rein on this. But give it 6 months and retest. And if my mercury goes up after I've gotten rid of it all, then yeah, it's time to get my mercury amalgams out because they're still off gas. But if my mercury stays low at 6 months, I'm going to retest it 6 months later because this is a passion project for me to make sure it doesn't come back. And if it's still low, then I would say, okay, they— it's not off-gassing in a meaningful way. So you— I would say get the data, get it out if it's safe, it won't destroy the tooth. If you're not sure, get the data.

I like that. I like that approach. I think, you know, a lot of women And just they feel overwhelmed and panicked and they all of a sudden want to do it all. Like you said, they want to get the amalgams removed. They want to switch out every household product they have. And I find that baby steps are so much more sustainable and just for your mental health, because I know I went through it. I just felt overwhelmed and I was like, okay, I need to take a step back. What's one thing I can do? You know, as I run out of something, switch it out.

Exactly.

Are there resources that you love, or is this all in your book?

It's both. So, so our book is really a roadmap for how to do it, how to detox your life. And we also use Environmental Working Group, ewg.org, and Think Dirty, the app. So I, I mean, you know, when I first started this, the first thing I'll say is I, I've— I'm still screwing it up. There are things that I'm like so proud of that are clean, and then I'm like, oh, that's not really that clean. So I was all proud. I had these dishwashing pods. I was so proud. They're good for the environment. They are good for the environment, but they're not that good for us. So I just leveled up on that one because I had the brain space to go, wait, I never, I never like really looked at the ingredients, and I didn't ask ewg.org what they thought about it. And it turns out it wasn't terrible. But it wasn't where I want to be. So it's—

That's an important point. I just want to interrupt you because, yeah, what's good for the environment might not necessarily be good for us. So I think that was a really important point that I wanted to just—

Yeah, and I'm committed to both.

Yeah, right, exactly. If we can do both, please.

Yeah. So my recommendation is level up as you go. You already languaged it that as you run out, level And that was my level up from previous one that was really not good. And now I leveled up to yet another one. Aspen Clean is a company that is Environmental Working Group certified. So we use it for cleaning products. We're now using it for our laundry detergent. So it's— you're gonna screw it up. And the thing is to have some grace. You know, I was talking to my coach. I said, I can't believe I screwed that up. I'm the poster child. She goes, Okay, Wendy, this is a beautiful teaching moment for your listeners because you're gonna screw it up. And the more you can have grace about it and find the laughter in it, the better you're going to be able to guide people along and give them the grace and laughter. Because I was like, oh, I mean, nobody died, it just wasn't ideal. Okay. Oh wait, nobody died, it just wasn't ideal. So okay, leveling up now, getting rid of the old stuff.

Yeah.

And you're gonna find— do that.

That's all it is about, is constantly Yeah, I think that we're made to grow as individuals and just leave the planet better than we found it and try to be our best versions. But it's a, it's a journey. It's a daily effort, right? So it is. Yeah, it is. Oh my goodness. So if my listeners want to work with you, because I know they're listening going, oh my gosh, I need to see her, I need to do all the testing, how can they work with you?

It's great. So we do take insurance. We're a membership-based practice. So there's a membership, monthly membership, like belonging to a gym, and we take your insurance, most of them. And so they could call our office or go to the website at fivejourneys.com. 5 is spelled out and journeys is plural.

Oh, awesome. I will have those links in my show notes, and they can definitely work with you and get on the journey. You cover everything. Like, you just want women to be able to reclaim their health, no matter what's going on. You're not specializing in molds or something specific. Like, you cover the gamut, right?

Yeah, it's big picture. It's really— and, and I don't only do toxins. I do your gut, your adrenals. I do who's emptying the dishwasher, because if it's always you, we need to talk about getting your community involved. And how is your relationship with your spouse? Are you safe? Are you healthy? Is it making you a better person? Yeah. Because We're doing everything. I love that. That's—

that is how I help women. I find like you have to do the comprehensive approach. You really have to address everything, especially when it comes to stress.

Yeah.

I feel like we as women are trying to do it all, have it all, be it all, and take on all those roles, as you mentioned. And we oftentimes don't ask for help because it's, oh, it's just easier if I do it right. And It might be easier, but it's so much more taxing on you. And I just, I wish women wouldn't wait until their adrenals, you know, stopped producing cortisol and they were like, I don't want to do this anymore, and then they find us, right?

Yeah, but I think that we are products of 2 or 3 generations back because as women, what our, our mothers and grandmothers were modeled was that women did take care of everything. Now, times were very different, so most of them weren't working outside the home, so they didn't have 2 full-time jobs, they had one full-time job. And so, as women transitioned into working outside the home, unfortunately, that didn't translate into men working inside the home or their significant other. It just translated into women doing more. And so, the goal for our generation is to teach our children—

Yeah.

about how to effectively balance it, delegate, prioritize, outsource. Yeah. Because we don't have to do everything. There's a whole world out there.

Exactly. I love that so much. So good. I hope everybody gets your book, Dirty Girl, and they can see like, how can I detoxify myself and my life so that I can reclaim my health? And don't hesitate to, you know, reach out to Dr. Wendy and work with her cuz You deserve to feel amazing, vibrant, have, you know, a rich, beautiful life, age gracefully, and not become decrepit. I couldn't agree with you more.

Yeah. And we have a free gift for your listeners, Tabatha, if they're interested in the guide, because this can be overwhelming. Yeah. How do you level up your life? We put together a guide that we've spent a lot of hours on to give the best options for clean products and clean furniture and clean beauty. So that would be 5journeys.com/promo. So it's a free guide for leveling up, basically.

That is awesome. Good. I'll have that in my show notes. Thank you so much. That's wonderful. I know that my listeners got a lot out of this episode, so thank you so much for being here.

My pleasure. Great to be here, Tabatha.

All right, ladies, I hope you got something good out of that episode. I know I did. I really loved the point that Dr. Wende made about, you know, she had done all the work, she had figured out she had celiac disease, she revamped her diet and lifestyle and was living an amazing, vibrant life, but then something happened and she realized that she had some new exposures and those needed to be addressed. And I just think that's a really important point. Like, this is a journey, you know? Our lives are not stagnant. We don't live in silos. We're constantly being exposed to everything in the environment, in our relationships, you know, in our food. Like, things are always changing and we have to have bodies that are resilient enough to handle it. But we also have to have the wherewithal to know when to ask for help and to look into some new issues that we potentially have coming up. So for her, you know, she realized like, man, I did this traveling. I went to France. There seemed to be a lot of dust from this fire. And put the pieces of the puzzle together and realized she needed to have testing done for her lead levels. So I would— I don't want women to be discouraged. I don't want you to be discouraged when you are on this health journey and you're making progress and then you have a backslide because the more that we get in tune with our body and figure things out and listen to our symptoms, the quicker it's going to be to figure out what's going on and tackle it and get ahead of it and get back to feeling amazing. You know, the struggle comes in when we have the mentality of, I did all the work, I fixed myself, what's— you know, why don't I feel well now? And, you know, feeling down and out about it instead of feeling empowered, like, hey, now I actually— can listen to my body because I'm in tune with it, and I know that I need to go investigate this, or I know that I have someone I can reach out to to help me with this. And that's what I love about the podcast, is just being able to bring you all of these amazing experts that you can potentially reach out to and work with if you need to. Or say you have a girlfriend that you know is struggling And you listen to this episode and you're like, that's who she needs to see. So all I can do is keep bringing the awareness, keep bringing the experts, and help you guys on your path to wellness and reclaiming your health. Like, that is my mission. I'm very passionate about it, and I would love to hear what else you guys want me to talk about. Um, you know, I feel Like, nothing's off limits when it comes to our health because really everything affects us. We're trying to do it all, have it all, be it all, and we need all the tools in the toolbox. We need to support each other. We need to lift each other up. So please don't hesitate to let me know what you want to hear about. That is why I'm here for you. I love doing what I do. So thank you so much. I feel so blessed and honored that you trust me to bring you this information and that you spend time with me and you listen to me every week. So I just thank you so much. You're awesome. So go out, have a kick-ass week, and I will see you again soon. Bye, ladies.