Madison Brecka: On Mold Illness, POTS, Endocrine Disruptors, & The Toxic Load Crisis | TUH #264

I am probably the CoverGirl of caregiver syndrome. I was so driven to not say no to people and patients that I actually wasn't even consciously aware of how much pain that I was in.

As these symptoms started to grow, you just leaned in and just with your own stubborn willpower just pushed through these days.

I need to be there for everyone and feeling that caregiver guilt, but at the same time, to be a caregiver, you have to take care of yourself. I was also living in mold. And then finally one day I woke up and I'm like, I'm fed up. I'm gonna take the line that self-care is not selfish, and I'm going to figure out what's going on.

Now it all made sense. The inflammation, why even some of the physicians in our circle didn't catch it. We finally had the villain.

You didn't realize how much of a bath you are in, in toxins, until you start to go down the rabbit hole.

They call this the toxic load. It sounds like fear-mongering, but basically what you're trying to do is just get around the system. Back to the basics.

And we're being naive by applying so many products and kind of turning a blind eye to fragrance, parabens, and phthalates.

I'm really proud of you because maybe my message inspired you, but you really went on this journey by yourself. What's next for Madison Brecka?

I am working on something that has taken over a year. I have a lot of great minds behind it and—

Hey guys, welcome back to The Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brecka, where we go down the road of everything anti-aging, longevity, biohacking, and everything in between. Today may be the most special podcast that I've ever done in my career, maybe in my lifetime, because this is not only a special guest for you, it's a special guest for me, um, my firstborn child, Madison Brecka. Is on the podcast today. And we have had such an amazing journey, um, not just as father and daughter, but recently, uh, on her health journey, her own health journey, the problems that she solved in her life, which we're going to talk about. We're going to get into everything— POTS, Ehlers-Danlos, mold— and we're going to talk about how a career that she fostered from a very, very young age has now manifested into something very, very impactful. So I am so excited to have you on the podcast.

I'm so excited. I'm a little nervous.

Oh, you've talked to your dad for years.

I know, but I'm always behind the camera, so I've sat in on millions of these, and to be front-facing makes me a little nervous. So please be nice to me in the comments.

Okay.

Um, but I figured I'd give a little background on myself and then we could dive in on this amazing journey that we've had. So ever since I can remember, I have like photos of me at 6 years old with a stethoscope Yep. I was always that super nerdy kid. And even in high school, I became president of something called HOSA, which if you don't know, it stands for Health Occupation Students of America. You don't get more nerdy than that.

Yeah.

And we would go and compete in different sort of public speaking competitions. There was like a bioengineering department. And I remember just being so intrigued by medicine back then. But no one was talking about preventative. Regenerative was kind of not really even on the horizon. So I went into school for biomedical sciences, and I ended up pivoting and switching and getting a degree in health science on the preclinical track. And I got a minor in health service administration because I figured I'd eventually open up a clinic. And I still was a little naive in college over the education that they were providing us. You had just started your wellness clinic, so I remember I was part-time working as, um, a waitress to keep the lights on, and then full-time student driving the tin can. Driving the tin can, by the way.

So, which was a beat up—

horrible—

which was a beat up old Toyota truck that, uh, it's like a 2003. It was the hand-me-down of hand-me-downs. Called the tin can.

I was taking it to classes and then taking it to go waitress. And then in my little minor spare free time I had, I was checking your invoices for $10 an hour.

Yeah.

And I was so excited 'cause that would, it was like amazing back then. And I was going through the invoices. So from doing that, I was learning, okay, this patient got testosterone. And when they took testosterone, they took this. And I noticed how you were prescribing just based off with the physicians by checking the invoices. And then COVID hit.

Mm-hmm.

And my whole plan was to go be a physician assistant, maybe get into derm, PA, cardiology. And then we moved back home and I started really getting immersed in the regenerative medicine space. We started doing genetic testing and blood work.

You worked in the clinic full-time. Yeah.

Full-time in the clinic. More like 18-hour days in the clinic.

Yeah, yeah. Those were dark days, man. We were doing COVID testing. Lots of red eyes on Frontier Airlines.

Oh my God, it was crazy. We were doing, like, I remember we were taking red eyes there, red eyes home, opening up the clinic, working, invoicing, making sure you were getting on the Zooms, making sure that they had their orders. And then a lot of our patients, as they got more well-known, they'd have like 15 staff members. So I'd know the patient, the assistant, the house manager, where the packages were going, what they were taking, when they needed to cycle it, as well as learning everything is like at the same time. And being immersed in it was so much more educational than the 4 years of undergrad that I had. And then I went to nursing school so I could practice medicine, so I could touch patients, do IVs, do blood work. And I remember being in nursing school and feeling such a morality pull. So I would watch you and the physicians pull people out of Alzheimer's, pull people out of arthritic pain, help someone that doesn't have any sort of light at the end of the tunnel with depression and anxiety. And then I'm going and sitting in the lectures where they're just overprescribing SSRIs, over pharmaceutical souping these poor patients. And it was such a tug and pull because I'm learning this new way of life and I just wanted to scream at these, not at these professors, but I wanted to scream and be like, there is another way to handle these patients, to handle their kind of path that they're putting them on. And I started to really realize that a lot of these physicians aren't spending time with the patients. They're coming in, they're seeing 60 people a day. You've got 15 minutes. They're looking at your chart as they're walking in. And it was really disheartening. And then we got into— I'll never forget it. I would send you my quiz questions all the time and be like, look what they're teaching us.

Yeah.

And then I—

Oh, she would, she screenshot 'em all the time and be like, dad, they, they wanna prescribe folic acid.

Like, what are they doing? Cyanocobalamin. Like, and I remember, I don't know why this one question stood out to me so much is I was in my OB/GYN rotation. So like mother, baby, labor. and one of the questions was, when you have a failure to thrive infant, so an infant that isn't thriving, they're not gaining weight, they're, they're weak, what do you prescribe them? What do you tell the mom to do? And the answer was add vegetable oil and rice, like seed oil, rice powder to their bottles. And I about flipped my desk. Yeah. I said, there is no way you are telling a failure to thrive infant to drink seed oils. And the thing that was so disheartening is I was like, I was like, well, now we're screwed from the beginning because now it's hitting the next generation.

Mm-hmm.

And I remember just having a massive wake up. And I mean, at the same time we were working full-time, I was in school full-time. Yeah. We were traveling full-time. And I was like, this really has to change. And I've been in the business now at this point for some time. So I was very educated in the regenerative space, but it really was a step back for me to realize that what we're doing and the platform that you have is really going to change lives because what they're offering the normal American is, pardon my French, but a little bit of horseshit. It was so irritating.

Yeah, and you've never seen somebody hate anything in their entire life more than COVID testing. I just have to throw that out there because we had this clinic and it was called Streamline Medical Group and we got it open, got it started, and it was just starting to thrive and patients were coming through the door. We'd just become profitable. We made $79,000 total our first year in business. And Madison and, uh, her two brothers and, and Sage's daughter, uh, Lena— so we have a mixed family of four. We were all living in this beautiful house, and there came a time where we, we actually faced, uh, not making payroll. So the kids got pulled out of private school, put into public school. Um, we sold the house, we moved into a single-story rancher, we went from four cars down to one car. Um, and then when COVID hit, uh, it was such a nightmare because I remember we were all in the clinic and it was so busy, and then all of a sudden it just evaporated and no one was walking through the door, the phone wasn't ringing, it was a ghost town. And it was that eerie time where the writing was on the wall but nobody wanted to say it, and we're just kind of looking around the room and like, we, we all knew that the ship was kind of sinking. And then we pivoted and turned it into a COVID testing center. Madison, Madison was our main goat. She was the one responsible for taking the swab all the way down the back of your throat.

Fingers.

I hate it.

If I have to see another rapid antibody test, I'm gonna throw up.

I've never seen, I've never seen fits of crying in anger like that.

The worst part was the insurance and taking their photos and filling out these papers and you spent hours doing it. And then all of a sudden they wouldn't get reimbursed and some would. And then you're on the phone fighting for like a $69 test. Yeah, just so we could keep the lights on. But COVID for me, I remember, was the first time where I was like, oh, this is the real world and you have to be an adult. Because I remember you called me and you were like, you need to come home and you're not going back to school. School shut down. Me and Cole, which is my brother, moved in together and we just immediately got thrown into what felt like a career. Like, yeah, we were running clinics, we were helping, we were 12, 18-hour days, 6 days a week. We recruited some of our friends to come in and help us pack stuff up on the weekends. And when I look back, I remember you, you told me one time and I was like, I am exhausted. All my friends are getting their stimulus checks and having fun and we're working. And you looked at me and I'll never forget it. And you're like, you're gonna remember being in the hunt and you're gonna miss the hunt. And I'm gonna be like, there's no way.

Yeah. We talk about it now.

I could miss being in the hunt. And I look back at it now with such like an endearing point of view. Mm-hmm. Um, I'd miss— it was such a fun time because the family was like, okay, well we gotta put food on the table, so how are we gonna do it? And we had such, I wouldn't say like an overnight success, but that year from 2020 to 2021, we then, you know, we're half Naples. I moved to Miami full-time. We just got connected with some of our most amazing patients. Yeah. And all of a sudden it was like what we were doing was working and the word was getting out. And then Dana was obviously a massive pivotal point for us, selling the company, growing, scaling to almost all 50 states was such a remarkable accomplishment in such a short period of time.

Yeah.

Um, and then what happened was, is we had this skyrocket to success. Obviously we were overworking, and I am probably the COVID girl of caregiver syndrome.

Oh my gosh.

I am.

Yes, you are.

I'm working on it now. I'm glad you're going to throw this out there, cuz I was telling everyone else what to do. I was obviously under the guidance of a physician, but What supplements to take, what peptides to take. You need to get 8 hours of sleep. You need to track it on your Oura. You need to track it on your Whoop. You need to prioritize yourself. Self-care isn't selfish. And then I was coming home crippled in pain, exhausted. I was getting up at 6:00 AM 'cause that's when a patient wanted to see me, staying up till 2:00 AM 'cause that's when another patient wanted to see me. I couldn't say no. And I had a breaking point. It was almost like weirdly a perfect storm. So I had moved into a new apartment in Miami. And it was a relatively new building, so I didn't assume anything could be wrong with it. There was no writing on the walls. And I started having extreme fatigue, joint pain, uh, POTS episodes, which is where my heart rate would get extremely high. I mean, it was getting to like 140s, 180s while I was sitting. Yeah, there were times when we would be having meetings in my dad's living room and I'd have to go excuse myself and I would pass out on the bathroom floor so many times that we would have an oxygen cannula there just so I could back to. And I remember meeting— we were obviously going down the rabbit hole. I met another amazing physician in California who diagnosed me with something called EDS, which is Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

And there's much more common and undiagnosed than you think.

Yeah. And when I got that diagnosis, um, it affects the collagen. So I have— I'm very hypermobile, and all these little things that had happened when I was younger, my little injuries and stuff, all kind of made sense. Now that I got that diagnosis. And then we also figured out that I had POTS, but we couldn't find the root cause of the POTS.

So it seemed to come out of nowhere, and it seemed to come on fast, and it was like you got hit by a truck. Like, you— every day you were just complaining about your joints like you were 90 years old and arthritic. I remember you had swelling around some of your joints. It was driving me crazy that I couldn't get to this root cause. Um, headaches, POTS, I mean, Maddie would actually faint, you know, and POTS is positional orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, but she didn't need to change position in order, which is why I'm such a resident expert in it now. You didn't need to change position to start feeling faint.

No, and then it wouldn't be anxiety-driven either because we're having a conversation, we're talking about work. That's my whole life is work. We work with the family, so Christmas is work, Thanksgiving is work, all of our dinners revolve around work, but we love it. It's amazing, it's the best thing ever. And it would just happen out of nowhere. And it was so frustrating because I was helping so many people and I wasn't— I almost didn't accept it. It was like I compartmentalized the pain by being busy, and I compartmentalized the fatigue by being wanted. So I mean, to be in my early 20s in some of these celebrity homes that I watched growing up, it felt like so surreal. How could I let them down by not being able to show up? So I was just driving myself into a wall.

Yeah.

And then we found out that the apartment I was living in had a leak above before I moved in, and the water had gone behind the walls. So I was also living in mold. And then finally one day I woke up and I'm like, I'm fed up. I'm gonna take the line that self-care is not selfish, and I'm gonna figure out what's going on. We did the Vibrant Wellness urine test, a bunch of blood work, and immediately we found— as soon as we found out the mold, we canceled my lease, moved out. Unfortunately, I had to throw everything away, all my furniture. I got an amazing new place. We are so blessed and be able to leave that environment. Um, and I started a detox protocol, and I started being hypervigilant about my entire environment, so mentally and physically. I went through and I audited my circle, my friend group, what I was consuming on social media. Um, I don't even have a working TV at my house because I I was just mindlessly listening to things and stupid YouTube videos and stuff to fill the void. And so I audited my circle, what I was consuming, and then I extremely audited my environment.

Your environment. I, I really remember this. You really went down the rabbit hole. You were super intentional. But we finally had the villain when we got that mold and mycotoxin back. I mean, the, the fungi, the mold, the mycotoxin, the ochratoxins, the aflatoxins. Now it all made sense. The inflammation, the diffuse joint pain, why why even some of the physicians in our circle didn't catch it. And I've been such a believer and been so deep down this rabbit hole because of what you went through, because some of these diagnoses like POTS, okay, so this is positional orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, but it doesn't, that's a thing, but now what do you do, right? And you had all of this joint pain and we realize, you know, you had joint pain and water retention swelling, but now what do we do? So we finally had the villain And I, I do remember, obviously, because I was part of it, but, uh, you were so intentional. Like, when that light switch went on, it went all the way on. And you— I remember some of your circle that you dissociated yourself with, and I remember that you started putting yourself first and being very intentional about your water, about your air, about your environment. Uh, you became like this little resident expert nerd in your environment.

I got obsessed.

I was so proud of you. I was like, the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Yeah. And it was And I took a step back and I took a break for a second and I was realizing that it was naive of me to think that burning myself to the ground is the best version of me for the patients that I was servicing, for my partners in a business I was starting, for my family, for my friends, because I wasn't the best version of myself. And being that fatigued and in that much pain, you're also not absorbing the information that you can absorb. I feel like I've gotten so much smarter now from having you know, not as much inflammation in my brain. My joints have gotten better. My— I would say I'm like the happiest I've ever been right now. Like, it's— my emotions are stable, my periods are regular. I feel like I'm now really practicing what I preach. So there was a little bit of an internal struggle as well of I need to be there for everyone and feeling that caregiver guilt. But at the same time, to be a caregiver, you have to take care of yourself.

Yeah.

And I remember you said something to me once about the airplanes, and you said if an airplane is going down, they always tell you put the oxygen on you first and then on your kids. And I'm like, that's a great way to look at it because you're not not saving the child, but you need to save yourself to protect them. And so that's how I kind of started looking at my life. And when I got my new place and I got all new furniture, I was so intentional about anything that walked through that front door. I can't really control the environment when I'm out and about, but I can control the environment I live in. I have a clean mattress, I sleep on organic sheets, I have a showerhead and it filters. That filters. Yeah, I have a filter showerhead. I have a red light bed. I put my cats in the red light bed because they're now going to live forever.

She sends me pictures of her and the cats, like, on her, on her stomach.

Yeah, they're being biohacked too. I put them on peptides. The food I eat—

actually.

Yeah, it's called Pet Tides. Amazing. And I sauna and take the charcoal binders. I did everything, clean cleaning supplies. I got all Caraway pans. I went, there's not a microplastic in my house that you can find. I got rid of all the candles that were toxic. And it was, you didn't realize how much of a bath you are in, in toxins until you start to go down the rabbit hole. And I remember reading and being like, the toothpaste, and then I need a bamboo toothbrush. And it's like, there's so many little things. But I think as a regular person, person, just start small. Start where you put something on every day. Start with your skincare, start with your deodorant, start with the shampoos and conditioners, 'cause that's an everyday thing. Mm-hmm. Then you can move on to, to the more expensive things, unfortunately, which is like the sheets and the mattresses and stuff. But I think that that's a better investment than even a vacation. Yeah. For me it was, you spend one-third of your life on the mattress. I know you've talked about this a lot.

Mm-hmm.

That I should really invest in what I'm sleeping in.

Yeah.

And what I'm putting on my skin and what I'm putting in my mouth and also what you're listening to. I now only really do podcasts. My boyfriend jokes I've never seen any movie or any TV shows. I'm like, so out of date on that.

You used to be so current.

I used to be so current. I used to be up to date on every drama of people I didn't even know, and it was just filling a void in my head for no reason. So now I'm very intentional on the content I consume and obviously like everything else in my environment. And making that switch has really, I think, benefited everyone else around me as well. Not to sound like arrogant or egotistical, but I now show up as the best version of myself. I think I take the best care of the patients that I have. I think I show up as a better friend, a better girlfriend, a better family member.

This is, by the way, so true. And I think, you know, Ehlers-Danlos is not— it's a connective tissue disorder. And Ehlers-Danlos— and there's probably quite a few people that are listening to this that, that have this strange myriad of symptoms, and they're being treated for migraines, which used to have, um, diffuse joint pain, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, um, irritable bowel syndrome. You know, all these catch-all phrases and diagnoses which are really just terms for groups of symptoms. Okay, if you have gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, irritability, cramping, you have irritable bowel syndrome, but it doesn't get you any further to fixing it. And You know, as, as you went through this, um, and I think this problem that you solved, which was so personal and you had to hit the wall before we really solved it, um, has made you so passionate and purpose-driven now. It's like I've seen a whole new side of my daughter, um, come out and serve the world. And so for those of you that are listening to this and, you know, you, you, you're suffering from any number of these conditions, you know, very often you can't get rid of the underlying condition. So you still have Ehlers-Danlos.

Yes.

But you don't suffer from it because your toxic bucket has been emptied. And I think that's really the overarching theme of what you did, is that we actually have more control over ourselves and our environment. And if we have a condition that we are suffering from, we can control its manifestation. You're never going to outlive or out-biohack Ehlers-Danlos, but you can make it inconsequential, which is essentially what you did. And you, I gotta tell you, Madison, I mean, you're a completely different human being. I mean, she's always been so bright and so driven, and I think that worked against you as these symptoms started to grow. You just leaned in and just with your own stubborn willpower just pushed through these days.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they were long days.

Yeah, no, no, they were long days.

There were long days.

We would see clients and then you would lay down in the back seat and just cry all your way to the next client's house. I'm like, this is awful.

I remember being in school and there's this one and we'd go to LA and we'd have meetings. And I remember there was an American Airlines flight. It took off at 10:36. I landed at like 7:04, and I would go straight to my 9:00 AM lecture that was from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. I don't know how I did that. I remember I would sleep in my car during lunch break because I was just so driven to get this education. I was so driven to not say no to people and patients and invoices and the family company that I actually wasn't even consciously aware of how much pain that I was in and how much my joints hurt because I was just keeping my mind so busy that at the end of the day I'd be in so much pain I would just go to sleep.

Yeah.

And so really taking the time to be more self-aware, self-aware of how I was feeling, what I was intaking, again, my environment, not to keep beating a dead horse, but making that subtle change was such a drastic thing for me. And obviously getting the diagnosis. I tell everyone, just be your own patient advocate. Go out there. There's so many more tests on the market than there even was when I was searching for answers. And next year there'll be a million more. You can just get data.

That Vibrant Wellness Total Toxicity Test— I have no affiliation with my life. I love her life because, yeah, big shout out to Vibrant. But, um, it, it— when those things were pegged all the way over in the red, you know, you have this sort of green, yellow, red line and these normal ranges, and it was pegged all the way over in the red and it was all the way down this list of mycotoxins, you know. Then our clinic director, uh, Dr. Sarda at the time, who was actually skilled in this but was, was disconnected because she was working more with the clinic and remote patients and wasn't really seeing Maddie. When she saw that, I mean, it all made, all made sense. And, and, and again, I think you— we have more control over how we manifest symptoms for certain chronic conditions than, than we think. So for somebody listening to this, um, that's looking for the place to start, I mean, this, this started for you in your early 20s. You're 27 now, um, and it's really shaped your passion now and your, and your purpose. Like, you're a huge advocate. What, what's really exciting you right now?

What's really exciting me is how accessible being clean and toxin-free is becoming. Um, there's a lot of companies now on the market that offer clean mattresses, clean sheets. There's a lot more education on removing plastics. You can drink out of glass. Even the airports I'm seeing are having filtration glass bottles now, which is so great. And then I'm really passionate about the toxic load on actually the average woman. We put on 180 chemicals a day between our perfumes, our makeups, our shampoos, conditioners, our lotions.

Wow.

Deodorants. So I'm really passionate in that space. I think there's a big hole in the market, um, through the education that I was, you know, self-educating myself on removing things out of my everyday. I found that there's a big greenwashing going on in the cosmetic space. They're allowing a lot of things like titanium dioxide into clean products. There's even a massive lip serum out there that's colored with lake dyes. Most of them actually are, but this one is labeled clean and had Yellow Lake 6 and— wow— silicones in it. And we're watching what we eat and watching putting microplastics and microwaving our food, yet we're putting silicones and dyes on our lips constantly. So there is such a room for growth. I think there's such a hunger for clean stuff that the market's finally listening.

Yeah.

And I think it's going to be a little bit easier. I was talking to someone who was gluten-free, just funny enough, the other day. We were talking about how many more options there are to be gluten-free now because there's so much education behind it. And I feel like as we evolve, we're going to finally be able to truly go back to living as little of a toxic load as we can in such a toxic environment. So I'm really excited to see what the forefront is for for clean living.

What are some of the consequences of things like phthalates and parabens and fragrances, um, you know, especially for women that are applying these things to their skin, they're spraying them? I mean, let's not forget that your thyroid is right here in the middle of your neck. Um, you're spraying them on your neck, you're washing in them. Um, what are some of the consequences that either, you know, that you have actually suffered from?

Well, I think people hear the word fragrance, phthalates, parabens, and it's just a buzzword. Mm-hmm. They're not really aware of what they are, but they're endocrine disruptors, which again, people don't really understand that. But the endocrine system is your thyroid. It controls your hormones. And a lot of these synthetics mimic estrogen. They mimic different hormones in your body. So it's really actually starting to affect infertility. It's affecting your cycle. It's affecting your ovulation. And mixing it with birth control— don't even get me started on that.

Yeah, yeah.

Is a disaster. And we're wondering why we're having such an infertility epidemic. Mm-hmm. And Personally, I think a lot of these autism rates and things like that are from parabens, phthalates, and fragrances being introduced to a baby. So if you think about spraying a hormone, an endocrine disruptor on your neck and your hands, and you are breastfeeding or you're putting a lotion on, it's obviously not conscious of the mother or the friend, right? Or the aunt that's holding the child. Um, go on, you wanna smell good, you're meeting your friend's baby, they're hanging out with it.

Mm-hmm.

It is now constantly being introduced, this tiny little baby. To endocrine disruptors. That long-term effect has never really been studied. These are fairly new chemicals, right? And so we have all these kids with thyroid issues. We have these kids with getting early menstrual cycles, which is crazy. Yeah, little as like 7, 8, 9, which is unheard of. And I think a lot of it stems from the beauty and the wellness industry. And we're being naive by applying so many products and kind of turning a blind eye to fragrance, parabens, and phthalates. I think that is one of the best things that you can do for your health, but also your partner's health and for your children's health. And if you're trying to conceive, remove all of that out of your cabinet. And I'm hoping that with Maha and through a lot more podcasts— I mean, I love the Skinny Confidential. Lauren talks about endocrine disruptors and fragrance all the time.

Yes, she does.

That people are really going to take a movement towards it.

Yeah. You know, just a peek behind the scenes. I mean, this girl, when she goes down the rabbit hole, I mean, she studies so intentionally. Like, I go over to her house and her laptop is sitting in the middle of this sea of like research articles and different products. And, and, uh, she's, you know, she, she goes down the rabbit hole of phthalates and then parabens and then fragrances and, and then tries to find products that don't have any of those things and intentionally import those into her life, get the other ones out of, out of her life. And I just I'm, I'm really proud of you because you solved an issue really on your own. I was so busy building the platform and getting the message out there. Maybe my message inspired you, but you really went on this journey by yourself because I couldn't control what you were putting on your skin or what you were bathing in. And it just shows people that when we take agency over our lives— and it's not like you need to do this tomorrow, right? I understand water filtration is expensive, mattresses are expensive, um, things like you know, the showerhead in your, in your, in your shower. And I think one of the comments that you made to me made a lot of sense. And you said, you know, Dad, now that I've gotten these things out of my life and I've replaced them with, with different products, my budget's actually gone down.

It has.

And so I think that's the polar opposite of what people think.

People think it's this crazy expense. But I'm telling you, you can find clean products. You can actually make your own perfumes using essential oils and jojoba oil. You can get on Amazon if you want to try there. I tell my friends who are like always texting me on what I should wear and not wear and eat and whatever.

Damn, she's become the authority now for all of her friends.

All of my girlfriends send me links. Can I take this? What's this? What's your opinion on this supplement? But I have a trick called the empties. So you're eventually going to run out of your toothpaste. When it becomes empty, replace it. You're going to buy a new one anyways. So just go to a clean brand. So instead of going into your bathroom and into your pantry and throwing everything away and spending thousands of dollars on replace it, just do the empties. So when your toothpaste is done, okay, let's switch it. When your shampoo and conditioner is done, you're gonna have to buy a new one. Let's just switch to a clean brand. Mm-hmm. Um, when your deodorant's done, okay, let's go buy a new one. And I have found that, um, these clean brands are also becoming more readily accessible instead of just having to order it from some mundane website.

Yeah.

Amazon, Target, Sprouts, Walmart even I've seen has starting to get some clean brands in there. Mm-hmm. Um, You know, I've— I even saw at Walmart the other day when I was in Tennessee grabbing something that they had a plant-based, um, dry shampoo powder. So it was an aerosol, it was clean, it had no parabens, phthalates. The brand started with an O, I wish I remembered the name. And I was like smiling to myself, here's a $7 dry shampoo, amazing. Yeah, you're gonna buy it anyway. So kind of doing the empties trick allows you to digest making the small changes. And I'm telling you, once you get through all your empties and you make the change, you'll never go back. I'm so sensitive to fragrance now, it's so crazy. When I get into an and I see those Christmas trees hanging up, I get sick. Yeah. Oh, the worst thing ever. So I think just auditing slowly as you run out is the most, you know, budget-friendly. But honestly, my budget has gone down.

Yeah.

There's different companies that have just one concentrate for cleaning supplies, like Branch Basics, which I think is at Target. And that one concentrate does my floors, does my bathroom, does my dish soap, does my hand soap, like everything.

Right.

And so I've gotten really intentional about, again, everything in my apartment, and it's gotten cheaper, actually, which is crazy.

They call this the toxic load, you know, and, and it's not like, uh, you know, it sounds like fearmongering, but basically what you're trying to do is just get around the system, you know, back to the basics. And I love the, uh, I love the plan of just waiting until something is emptied and replacing it then so you don't get overwhelmed by saying, I've just got to go in and basically throw everything in my house out. You know, you can do it, you can do it slowly. And I don't know anyone that's gone through this, because you've inspired so many people to go through it, and there's so many of your friends in your circle that are doing the same things. Um, not a single one of them has had any kind of negative result. I mean, they're all talking about how their skin has been cleared up and how their menstrual cramps have eased, and, um, you know, their bleeding cycle is, is different. I mean, so many benefits that you wouldn't link back to all these things that we're applying to our skin and our, and our environment. It's back to the old adage that when a fish gets sick, the first thing we do is clean the tank. I use that analogy all the time because it really visualizes for people that, yeah, it makes sense. You look in there, it's dirty water, it's murky, it's, uh, it's cloudy, and makes sense why the fish is sick. And, and this is exactly what led to the exacerbation of, of all of your symptoms. So, um, what's, what's on the horizon for Madison Brecka? You're, you're, you're You have so much knowledge about this space. You solved the problem in your life, which I think makes people— it drives people and makes them passionate and purpose-driven. And I've seen that in you. I'm very proud of you for that. Thanks. There's nothing— there's nothing— I'm going to get emotional, but there's nothing better for a father than to watch their children grow up to be better humans than they are. But so what's next for Madison Brecka?

Well, I guess you're just going to have to wait and see.

I'm trying to draw it out of her. She's refusing.

I am working on something that has taken over a year.

Okay.

I have a lot of great minds behind it.

Yeah.

And I'm really excited to, I think, fill a hole in the market. Yeah. And when I bring this baby to the world, it has been a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. And a lot of research papers all over the place and a lot of late nights and early mornings. But it is such a passion project that I can't wait to share it with the world. And I'm excited because I think it's going to be a product that truly makes a difference in the market. And I get so inspired by even just my younger brother doing H2 Tabs is he really found a gap in the market, but he made a product that is helping. Yeah. And that was important for me too. I didn't want to just do another I don't know, pump and dump for random supplement or something that was just going to be a get-rich-quick scheme. This for me is going to be a legacy brand. It's going to be a credible brand. It's going to be a lifelong brand. It's going to be a generational brand. It's going to be a unisex brand. And I'm excited to give a little piece of it to the world soon and for you to meet this world I'm building.

Yeah, you have been a psychopath about developing this. So I mean, it's, you know, you have been so intentional. And so focused, you know, almost, almost to the point of extreme that I, I'm, I'm excited.

I'll give a little hint. So the body knows what it needs. It just needs the essentials. So, okay, there's something coming.

That's all. That's all she would leak out. So where can my audience find you if they want to know more about you, if they want to follow you? Where can they find you?

Right now I'm on Instagram @mbrecka. And then while I'm building this world, we have a lot of content behind the scenes because again, I want to take you along on the journey.

So if they follow you to Brecka, though.

They'll see it all. Yeah, the world is coming out there, and I eventually want to start posting on YouTube and getting the messaging out there and getting myself out there, maybe not being so nervous in front of the camera and behind the camera.

You're doing so good, Maddie.

You're so nice. Me again in the comments, this is the first time.

You know, he's gonna be mean to you in my comments. My, my team will, my team will bully them. Yeah, Malia goes, I will delete them. We'll bully them. Um, you know, I am— this is one of the proudest moments in my entire life, you know, watching you and your brothers kind of follow in the footsteps, grow up in the business, but then really catch the bug on your own. Because I feel like you can, you can teach your kids just about anything, but you can't give them a passion.

Yeah.

And you've gotten so passionate about this. It's, it's, it's, it's very strange even sitting across from you as a, as a grown woman. You know, we've been doing date nights since you were 4 years old, and now you're 27 years old, and I'm just watching you grow into this amazing flower that is really just pollinating the world with positivity. Um, you know that I wind down on my podcast by asking my guests the same question. So what does it mean to you to be an ultimate human?

So I'm going to take a token out of your book. Um, if you don't know this, he starts all of his team meetings and Q1 reviews, and we just had one like 3 days ago, and you always say to give without the expectation of receipt. And I think that makes you an ultimate human. I think learning and educating and giving out. I mean, I've seen you work hundreds of hours for no gain back just to educate. So don't start crying. I'm gonna start crying. You're tearing up. I'm gonna tear up.

You're literally—

so don't look at me. Um, but giving without the expectation of receiving is something I live by. When my friends text me late night and they have a question, I'm gonna give them the answer. When patients text me, I don't need to charge you a consult fee. Like, just give without the expectation of receiving, and it will open doors for you. It will build relationships for you. And that's the true way to change the world and be an ultimate human. Okay, now we're both crying, so we got to go. And I need to call you.

Oh, that was great. I just lost my total train of thought.

All right, the end.

All right, the end. Maddie, thank you so much for coming on The Ultimate Human.

Be nice. Oh, guys.

And until next time, that's just science.