The Detox That Healed My Gut and Saved My Life w/ Dr. Kate Davis

Do you have good gut function? Because if you have leaky gut, if you've got inflammation in the gut lining, if you've had a history of constipation or ibs, like loose stool, things like that, there's something going on in your gut that's preventing it from getting waste out properly. That's the number one way that we get waste out of our system. Our cells, our organs, our tissues produce waste every second of every day, and it has to go somewhere, and we want it to go out of the gut. Two to three bowel movements a day, and then the gallbladder is the second drainage organ, and then your liver. So those three organs, first of all, before you even go after infections, you've got to make sure, okay, is there damage to one of these? And how can we heal it and fix it before releasing all these toxins from the rest of the body?

So one of the key things is to make sure these detox organs are functioning.

Yeah, exactly.

Hello. Welcome Back to the Dr. Joy Kong podcast. You know, I'm here to be your guide to help you live a better, healthier, and happier life. Today I have Dr. Kate Davis with me, which I'm super excited about, because we're going to talk about something that I think everyone is interested in, but people don't know what to do about it, which is detoxing. So that's something I think it's really important in every doctor's office. So Dr. Kate has an expertise in this area, and I. I just. I can't wait to dig into. Into her brain. So, Dr. Kate, welcome to the show.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Dr. Joy. It's definitely an honor to be on your podcast.

Oh, thank you. Yeah. So I want to introduce you just a little bit. So Dr. Kay Davis is a functional medicine doctor, and she actually personally battled chronic gut issues for nearly a decade, and she ended up finding out that she had a massive parasite infection. So now, after going through her healing journey, she has helped hundreds of women to overcome chronic gut conditions, from constipation and bloating to IBS and acid reflux. So, Dr. Kate, welcome to the show, and let's first talk about your journey. You all of a sudden, at one point, started not feeling well. What. What. What's your story?

Yeah, no, and I. I got into this realm just because of, you know, obviously, like you said, like my own. I had really bad chronic constipation and bloating issues when I was 24, and it did come out of nowhere. You Know, I. I had. Had. You know, I. Everyone kind of just assumes, like, through college and teenage years, like, oh, it's kind of normal to get a stomach ache here and there. So I never really paid attention to it. But, yeah, I mean, I went 13 days without a single bowel movement when all this stuff first started. And I had, you know, severe pain in my upper abdomen, and it was just really, really uncomfortable. You know, I was on Miralax for 11 of those days, and I just. I couldn't eat large amounts of food. I felt kind of nauseous. I couldn't even sit up straight in class. You know, I just started chiropractic school at that time, and. And I was just a mess. And, you know, I went to the doctor. They gave me two terrible options, so I went to a GI doc, and they said, hey, we can either give you a drug that has a permanent side effect of, you know, facial twitches for the rest of your life, or you. Yeah, right. Or we can remove your intestines. And I was like, how about neither of those? I'm gonna go find someone else.

And that sounds pretty bad.

Yeah. So luckily, my mom was always, like, pretty crunchy, you know, growing up. So I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna ask around and see if anyone knows, you know, a doctor who can actually fix gut issues a little more naturally than just, you know, giving me a drug or removing all my intestines. And, you know, I was blessed to be able to find, actually, a chiropractor who fixed me. And he. A huge background. Yeah, he had a huge background in massage therapy before he went to chiropractic school. And he was a functional neurologist. I don't know if you've. If you talk to anyone who does that, but basically, like, fixing brain injuries and neurology problems just, you know, from a more natural approach. And that first time he worked on me, he just did this light, gentle. Myofascial release in my abdomen. And I swear I lost, like, ten pounds that night. And I remember leaving the office. Yeah, it was such a relief to be able to go to the bathroom. I was like, thank God, because it.

Was giving you a massage A little.

Yeah, he just told me. Yeah, just right in the abdomen. Myofascial release explain it to you?

He.

Honestly, he's just, like, one of the weirdest, but also, like, most awesome guys I've ever met. So he's kind of. He kind of reminds me of Miyagi and, like, the old Karate Kid movie where you Know, you'd ask him a question and he would answer it with a riddle. And so you're just like, okay, great, I guess I'll just figure it out and see what happens. And. But no, he was a great, he was a great doctor. He does amazing work and he's in Georgia now. But, but yeah, he, he did the myofascial release. I remember walking out of there wondering to myself, what the heck did I just pay for? Because it felt like nothing. Because anyone who's ever had myofascial work done, it's very gentle, you know, like very little pressure. And needed some organ manipulation as well because he had some background in that. And yeah, I, you know, I remember going to the bathroom like four or five times that night and I felt like a new person. And so that's why I'm so passionate about, you know, gut health and helping people heal from it because I remember being in that place of just being really scared and, and wondering, okay, I'm 24, I'm young, I'm healthy, I'm fit. I was a former D1 athlete. Like, I didn't look like a vision of, you know, unwellness. And so, so it was just very bizarre that I was experiencing all those issues. And I remember like looking at. Oh yeah, go ahead.

Uh huh. Looking back, do. What do you think the mechanism was that he was going to give you such relief?

Oh yeah. I mean, well, when you work on the, the fascia in the abdomen, you're actually, you know, activating the vagus nerve, which is that nerve that runs from the bottom of your brain stem. And you know, it innervates all your internal organs and allow function. Well, and so when you do myofascial release, you're not only unsticking the tissues because we've got all these layers of fascia, you know, that basically prevent our organs from moving every time we roll over in bed at night. That our liver doesn't just plop to the other side of our, of our abdomen. It holds our organs in place, it holds our, it separates our muscles from each other so they don't rub against each other and create inflammation. And it also is a huge part of the immune system because you want to wall off certain areas of the body so that infection doesn't spread. So, so your fascia has all these different, you know, functions in the body and there's multiple layers in the abdomen and when you release those layers, it just allows things to flow better. You get, can, you know, drain some lymphatic fluid you can get more blood flow to the area to allow it to heal. A lot of times those adhesions around the intestines can actually prevent that fecal matter from getting out. And so chronic constipation can be a lot of times from, you know, an actual physical issue. But I think a lot of it is more from his neurological perspective of just really activating the vagus nerve and other parts of the brain that just kind of allow, you know, gut function to take place.

I think that was fascinating. Of course, they didn't teach me that in medical school about the fascial layers and what they do. They were covering. That's what we knew.

Yeah, you're just taught like, oh, if you have to do surgery, you just cut through the fascia, it'll heal. And it's like, well, sometimes it doesn't, you know, and you have to kind of fix that stuff.

Yeah, you have to really watch out for the fascia layers is once you cut it, you know, it's like a, you cut a piece of perfect cloth, how do you bring it back to the perfect condition? It was pretty hard.

Yeah, it's pretty difficult. And so, so yeah, he did that and, and I, you know, completely overhauled my diet after that. And you know, I went paleo, gluten free, dairy free, like just doing everything I could, everything I thought was going to help me, you know, get rid of the gut issues. And, you know, I was about 90% better just sticking to a really strict diet for about a decade. But then I had a really, you know, stressful life event happen. And for those of you who don't know, you know, stress can really wreck your gut, it can wreck your immune system, it can cause so many different issues in your body. And, you know, I had all the symptoms come back and they were worse than they were, you know, like nine years prior to that. And so, yeah, luckily my friend was in town, she's a functional medicine doctor and she did some testing and she's like, Kate, you have massive parasites and a bunch of other stuff going on. And so she, she put me on this deto after I passed a three foot long parasite and hundreds of other ones. I was really shocked. But also it was kind of satisfying because I was like, this makes sense why I was feeling so terrible for so long. You know, if you see like a giant.

So did she do like an antigen testing or does she actually do imaging? Like, how did she discover it?

Yeah, so the problem with parasites is they're really tough to pick up on. In testing. So most doctors will do stool tests, right? And most of the time you're going to miss parasites in those because they can lodge anywhere in the body. So she actually did a hair follicle test that showed parasites. And it's kind of cool because, you know, technology has come a long way and in terms of like, frequency medicine and being able to use hair to kind of pick up on all this stuff. And that was the only test that ever showed I had parasites. You know, that doctor that fixed me nine years before doing the myofascial stuff and, and he also ended up fixing my brain because I had a really severe head injury. And that's probably what created the gut issues, you know, like six years later. But he, he did a lot of neuro work and really just kind of healed that. But yeah, that testing was really what, the only thing that showed paras parasites because he made me do a stool test when I first saw him and he was like, I swear you have parasites, you need to go see a naturopath. And I was like, no, the stool test was negative. I'm good. I had hundreds of them come out. Like, it was, it was unbelievable. I was like, was I half worm, half human for most of my life? Like, this is ridiculous. But all my gut issues went away completely after I passed the parasite. She put me on a really, you know, individualized, safe detox plan, which I know we're going to talk about a lot on this episode because I feel like it's such a trendy thing now to just jump on anything, but, you know, you know, like, I did it in a really safe, like, gradual buildup way to where it fully healed. All my issues I lost. I mean, I lost like 25 pounds. I think most of it was inflammation. My energy was better than it had ever been. I never need. I didn't really need coffee for energy anymore. My sleep was great. All my gut issues went away. My brain fog went away. I mean, I felt like a new person. And so ever since then, I've just been able to help, you know, hundreds of other, you know, women heal from things like constipation and bloating and IBS and all those.

Right. That's must be incredible. You probably, you probably were so excited that you could fix something pretty fast, right? How long did it take you?

Yeah, I mean, honestly, after four months of working with her, I felt a hundred percent better. You know, like the, the testing showed that I still had the leaky gut and the fungal, I had a fungal infection as well. Those took over a year to fully resolve. But all my symptoms went away after four months. And so for me, it was that quick. It was just four months. And I was like a brand new person. And I've seen that with so many people I've worked with where even after a month or two, they're like, Yeah, I feel 100% better. And it's just. It's crazy, you know, just to see people who've been struggling for decades just have that quick relief with just something as simple as healing the organs, you know, removing the stressors in the body and allowing the body to do what it does best, which is to heal itself. Which I know, you know, because with your story with your mom of just, you know, doing Chinese medicine and just, you know, herbs and maybe some acupuncture, and all of a sudden her body's completely healed. And so it's really a lot of times about just letting the body do what it's designed to do. And your body is incredibly intelligent. It just needs a little bit of help in removing the stuff that's, you know, causing the dysfunction in the first place.

Yeah. You know, our health is so multifaceted there. There's so many layers of problems. Right. It could be a nutritional layer that we just don't have enough of the, the ingredients to, to make new tissue, new cells, or allow the cells to function optimally. We could have a layer of, you know, of microbiome issues and not just microbiome. Now we go above, you know, parasites, infections, various infections. And then of course, there are other layers, oxidative damages and chromosome damages. So, you know, when I do stem cell therapy, and again, I've always said it's not a cure all. You don't just, whatever you have, you come to do stem cells and you're, you're, you're healed. I mean, we hope and we have about 90% of people respond. But if a person did not respond, do we miss layers of problems? Could this person be having an infection that's just sitting there, that's sabotaging everything that you're doing? Yeah, I mean, that could very well be. So I tell people, you know, if a stem cell treatment did not work for you, it doesn't mean that stem cells don't work. It means that you have something else going on. This is an indication that, because it should work. So now there's something in you that's blocking it. It could be infection, it could be toxicity, it could be all kinds of, you know, could be heavy metal poisoning. Right. There are things in your body that's preventing it from preventing the healing. Yeah. So I'm really curious about just what this doctor did initially to get the parasites out, because that itself is not easy.

No.

What does she do?

Yeah, well, and so I always talk to people and you made such a great point there about the fact that there are so many good modalities out there, but when they're used in the right time, that's when they make profound impact on people. And so I love that you brought that up because it's such an important point of. Yeah, stem cells are amazing. But you're right, like you could have something deeper going on that's causing the consistent inflammation and the consistent damage to those tissues. And I've even seen that in my patients where they, they come to me for gut issues. But as you said, the whole body functions together. Right. So people who come to see me with chronic gut issues, they have a slew of other conditions, you know, like chronic inflammation, sciatica, migraines, headaches. I've seen so many of that, those things completely disappear. You know, chronic pain, which is what people probably come to see you for, stem cells for primarily is just getting rid of like chronic old injuries and, you know, things like that.

And it, well, everything we got from brain diseases, you know. Yeah, the autoimmune issues, heart, lung, liver, kidney. Really everything.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, but there could be all kinds of causes. Unless people always say, oh, how long is the benefit going to last? It's going to be, am I going to be cured? My question is, why did you get sick in the first place? What were the reasons that you got sick? How come your friend didn't get sick? Like, what's the difference? So if we, there's something that's triggering you to be sick and we did not address those causes like parasites, you got infections that's lingering temporarily. I can fix some of the tissue damages, but the parasites are still there and they're going to come raise this ugly head and bring you back to where you were. So you have to address the root causes.

Yeah, exactly. And that's what she did. She just, she looked at the whole picture. You know, I always tell people, you have to, before you go after any infection in the body, you've got to make sure your body can actually has the, the right detox abilities to get all the toxins out once they're released. Because people don't know this, but when you kill off parasites, specifically, they have what's called die off symptoms. Where they release a bunch of toxic waste into your body. It's kind of like their last dying breath of just like, well, forget you. If you're going to kill me off, I'm going to leave all this behind, you know. And so, yeah, they're. They're, you know, little turds, those little critters in your body that just. And so. So you really have to make sure, you know, number one, do you have good gut function? Because if you have leaky gut, if you've got inflammation in the gut lining, if you've had a history of constipation or, or ibs, like loose stool, things like that, there's something going on in your gut that's preventing it from getting waste out properly. That's the number one way that we get waste out of our system. It's not just toxins we're exposed to. It's also, you know, our cells, our organs, our tissues produce waste every second of every day. And it has to go somewhere, right? And we want it to go out of the gut. You know, two to three bowel movements a day, and then the gallbladder is the second drainage organ, and then your liver. And so how many people, you know, have you worked with where they're like, yeah, my gallbladder removed. The doctor said it was no big deal, but it is so incredibly important for so many different functions in your body, not just digestion. And so those three organs, first of all, before you even go after infections, you've got to make sure, okay, is there damage to one of these? And how can we heal it and fix it before releasing all these toxins from the rest of the body? And so that's really what she focused on, was, I had really bad leaky gut. I had really bad gallbladder issues. My liver was doing great, but those two organs, we really had to heal for the first couple months and go after gut parasites only before going after any liver parasites or systemic parasites. So that's where, you know, specificity kind of comes into the detox plan is you don't want to just go on a systemic binder that's going to start removing parasites from everywhere in your body if there's nowhere for those toxins to go once they're released. Because otherwise you get really severe reactions where, you know, I've even had people message me on Instagram because I talk about parasites the most, because that was my story. But they messaged me and said, hey, I tried a parasite cleanse. I actually ended up in the ER or I Have migraines now or my gut symptoms are worse now. And I've heard that from so many people. But, and that's why it's so important that you don't just jump on something blindly like thinking that it's going to fix all your problems.

So that's a danger of going on these, some of these journeys by yourself because your friend did it and. Yeah. Or you read on the Internet.

Yeah. And there's so many people who are like, this fixed all my problems. And they try to sell it to everyone. And I'm like, that's amazing that it helped you. But there's so many people who it could completely have the opposite reaction for. And you know, it's really just like, what does this specific person need? How is their specific body functioning? Can they even handle this before jumping on something?

So one of the key things is to make sure these detox organs are functioning correctly.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay, and what, what do you usually do? You usually use herbs?

Yeah. So a combination of herbs and binders. And then I focus heavily on, you know, nervous system regulation because we know that stress and our immune system kind of function like a seesaw. So if you're in that chronic fight or flight, you know, stressful state for a long period of time, your immune system is going to be tanked. And so we've got to get the stress down, get that nervous system into that rest and digest, you know, that parasympathetic state so that you can actually start functioning again. And so I do, you know, obviously herbs, binders, but also the lifestyle stuff is a huge piece of the puzzle too. You know, just teaching people simple things about grounding and getting enough sunlight and going to bed at a proper time and how to improve sleep quality. All these things that we know that are just so simple, but they have, you know, a profound impact on overall health in the body. So yeah, it's primarily depending on testing. It's really just combination of herbs to really heal up those organs so they can actually start detoxing and doing their job at a hundred percent. And then binders that will go in and you know, grab like the mold or the fungus or you know, the parasites and get them out of your system.

Hmm. Is it complex? The, the protocol? Because that's one thing. I think some of the detox programs are, are, you know, are really cumbersome because requires you to take these things multiple times a day, different times away from food and with food. Yeah, it just, it becomes a full time job and it's not Difficult to miss these doses?

No, that's a great question. And I, I've. I've heard that from a lot of people, too, where they're just like, well, I tried it in the past, but I just couldn't stick with it. It was so much. And I always, you know, I'm always on the side of, let's try to make it as simple as humanly possible. So when I work, you know, they're taking supplements, you know, twice a day. There might be one month where we're really cleaning out the gut lining. And we might need to take stuff four times a day, but it's only for a month. I'm like, you guys, it's one month, you'll be fine. And then we'll go back to twice a day. But. And then I give them just one to two lifestyle things to focus on. It really depends on, you know, what's popping up on their tests. Like, if they have massive liver issues, you know, once we start cleaning out the liver, then I'll teach them, like, how to detox the liver naturally. You know, like casserole packs, coffee enemas, things like that. Or how to drain your lymphatic system. Because your lymphatic system is so incredibly important for, you know, getting waste out of your organs. It's basically the sewage system.

Great. Okay. Well, you. You're. You're touching about all the things I'm excited about that I'm doing. So I actually just interviewed, first time ever, the lymph. Lymphatic. Lymphatic massage therapist yesterday. So people are seeing incredible results by just moving the lymph system and, and get the toxin to be on its way out. Right. Otherwise you're just stagnating. Do you think exercise can accomplish the same thing as the lymphatic. Lymphatic massage?

I mean, for some people, it might. It really kind of depends on what kind of exercise you're doing. But I think exercise definitely helps. You know, you're improving circulation, but there's something about just, like, getting into the tissues and manually just, you know, moving your lymphatic system that just really has huge effects on people. And I teach people how to do that in their abdomen to help with the gut issues. Like, hey, let's, you know, let's unblock all that lymphatic, that stagnant waste in your abdomen and see if that helps. And so I teach people all this stuff. You know, I learned a lot of it from Perry Nicholson. He's the lymph Mojo guy. I don't know if you've seen his stuff, but. But yeah, he teaches a lot of amazing, you know, lymphatic release. And so I teach that to my patients because it's such an important piece, like back to the drain, you know, those. Those organs that detox for us. Right. I call them, you know, the drainage pathways. If you ever heard, like, oh, you've got to do drainage before detoxing. Yes, you're on the right track. Definitely always do drainage before that. But we've got our gut, our gallbladder, and our liver, and then right above that is your lymphatic system. So that's another huge, important piece of. Once we open up those channels, once you start pooping two to three times a day, once your gallbladder's functioning, your liver's doing better, now we can really just start releasing all that lymphatic buildup that's been in the body in a safe way. But again, it depends on the person. Sometimes they need that lymphatic release in the gut to actually get the gut moving again and to get the gut functioning well enough to do a deeper systemic detox. And so it's really just. It's very nuanced for the person. It really just depends on, you know, their symptoms, you know, what health issues they've gone through, their medical history, what shows up on testing. Because there's all sorts of things that really just play a role. And like, you know, I know you talk about this a lot on your podcast, but every organ system in the body functions together. And so we can't just look at the gut for gut issues. We've also got to look at the liver and the gallbladder and the brain, that huge brain gut connection. You know, that doctor who fixed me, he was a functional neurologist. He fixed my head injury. I shadowed him for, you know, like, two years during school. And I started doing a lot of the functional neurology in my practice when I was treating chiropractic patients with concussions and chronic pain and sports injuries and things like that. And it's just all these systems function together. And it's just so cool when you can look at the whole body instead of just this, you know, like in. In Western medicine, it's all divided, right? Cardiologist, you go for heart issues. You know, neurologist, you go for brain issues. GI doc, you go for gut issues. But a lot of those systems are interconnected. And so I feel like that's the biggest thing with, you know, Western medicine is they, they've segmented the body and just look at one organ instead of realizing that all of it functions together. And so I think that's a really important piece of the, the puzzle too.

Yeah, I mean there's great satisfaction in dissecting everything down to the very detail to the cellular and molecular level. It's, it's really fun. It's. But then you start to lose forest for the trees. So then you forgot that they actually come together and form new properties and new systems and new way of communications. So then you're missing all that. So now we have to come back. Right? It's great. It was a nice journey into the, the infinitely small and the, the, the, the nitty gritty. Now is time to come back and, and look at how everything work as a, as a whole and how what new things are emerging by different organs working together. So, and, and I mean we know there's over 300,000 different peptides. I mean, how are they all swimming around the body and doing everything all at the same time? So it's a soup is. And there are a lot of things that happen when they all come together. So got to respect how complex the body is.

Oh, it's amazing. And like, the more I learn about it, the more I realize we don't really know much about it because it's just so incredibly complex. Like the fact that we're not all walking around with crazy deformities and diseases is pretty wild to me because of all the reactions going on at any one time in the body. It's pretty.

Something made us very. Well.

Yeah, exactly.

So, and then I want to ask you. So you mentioned before, you mentioned the lymphatic. You mentioned coffee enema, which is one of my favorites. I actually talked about it in when there's a little. Yeah, I mentioned that in social media. So a lot of people don't know much about coffee enema, but I think has become more popular. But I want to hear from you, since you are the detox expert, what do you think it does for the body and just how significant this, this particular method is?

Yeah, I mean every single patient I put it on, with the exception of one who is sensitive to caffeine, but every single other one, they love coffee enemas because you just feel it. Basically what it does is if you look at, you know, like natural ways to detox your liver, you've got castor oil packs, which is kind of like gently massaging the liver to get it to dump toxins and Again, you want to do this in the right time, right? Like, you don't want to start with liver detoxing when you've got gut issues, because then you're just going to dump a bunch of waste into an already broken system. So it's really about, let's heal the gut for maybe like, two to three months, depending on the person. And then we'll go into, you know, natural ways to detox the liver. But casserole packs are very gentle. And then you get into, you know, a coffee enema, which is, you know, exactly what it sounds like. You're basically just putting coffee in an enema bag and doing that for a couple minutes. But I know it sounds crazy, but the caffeine and the coffee really stimulates the liver to just dump a bunch of toxins. So it helps just support the liver during the detox and process, because your body's going to be unloading, you know, toxins that have been stored in your fat cells and your tissues for decades. And so we want to just support that process and kind of just help that stuff get out a little bit quicker. And so coffee enemas are really amazing with that because they're going to stimulate the liver to just dump all this toxins into your gut to go out in the toilet. And the caffeine really stimulates that in the coffee. So obviously, you can't really do it with decaf coffee and get the same effect. And then even people who I've already done, like, you know, parasite cleansing with, and they saw a bunch of parasites come out. This is like, month six that we're starting to do, like, coffee enemas. Then they still see more parasites come out, and they're like, what the heck? I thought we already got all these out. And I'm like, well, I guess you need a little more support in the. In the parasite realm. So it really helps just get old caked fecal matter off of your intestinal wall as well. It really, really just helps. It basically kind of takes the liver and just squeezes it out, like, you know, like a wet rag versus a castor oil pack, which is, like, gently massaging it. It's like a very gentle liver cleanse versus coffee enema is, like, pretty aggressive. So again, you want to kind of do it at the right time in the detox process.

Yeah, I know there are people who are doing it, like, several times a day, right?

Yeah. I mean, cancer patient. Every cancer patient I've, I've worked with who had it in the past healed it Naturally, never did chemo, never did radiation, and then maybe it came back, like 20 years later. They all still do coffee enemas every morning, every night. For me, I don't recommend that for my patients. I usually just recommend every two to three days while we're doing systemic detoxing, just to support the liver. And then you can kind of back off and just kind of understand how your body functions and when you need to do it. And I teach people a lot about how to figure out what are the lifestyle changes that we've implemented that really help you. Those are your daily, weekly habits, and the ones that are, you know, are good for you and you kind of know the right timing to do them. That's more like monthly or maybe every other month. So again, it really depends on the person. But generally when I start people on them, if they really like them and they feel a difference, and you get a ton of energy from it, because you're basically just unloading a bunch of toxic waste from your body. So, you know, it just really gives you a lot of energy. So mornings are always the best time to kind of do those. Not at night. But, yeah, they're so beneficial for so many people. And everyone I put them on, you know, who's not caffeine sensitive, they love them, and they're like, oh, my God, I can't wait to do my coffee enema today. And I'm like, good. Because it just, it really helps, especially in our environment today in America. Like, we're exposed to so many toxins that were not here 100 years ago. And so it really just kind of helps support, you know, that process of continuously, you know, helping our detox organs out in that detox process. Because, yes, like, you know, there's always people on Instagram who are like, I have a liver and kidneys. I don't need to do a detox. I'm like, great. But are they functioning at 100%? Like, it's like, yeah, a lot of people can say that, but until you really know how your organs are functioning, you might be detoxing at 50%, and you're not going to see symptoms pop up until something breaks. Just like me, you know, Like, I didn't see any symptoms pop up until all of a sudden I couldn't eat food, couldn't sit up straight in class, had severe stomach pain and really terrible constipation. And it just came up out of nowhere. But that stuff was building for years, maybe even decades before it got to that point. And so the last Thing you want is to get to that point where you're just completely a wreck, which is a lot of people I see, because they just don't really. They're not really in tune with their body. They don't really know that, oh, these minor symptoms like bloating are something I should take seriously, not just ignore it and say, oh, I guess it's just the food I ate, you know. So I think all that is, yeah, really important.

It's interesting that when you mentioned about the cancer patients and how coffee enema was such a prominent part of their. Their journey and how they were able to recover without chemotherapy. So how. How do you think the coffee enema helped in. In their battle against cancer?

Well, I think it's just again, like, you build up toxins in the body. Like the root. You know, a lot of people say the root cause of all disease is inflammation. Right. That's like the common, common theme. I know it changes probably every three years, but in general, it's really inflammation. Right. Like any, any issue you're talking about in the body that breaks down the cellular level. And now all of a sudden, cells start replicating in ways that they shouldn't, like cancer. You know, the root of it is inflammation. And so the more you can remove toxins from your body, the more you can support the liver in getting those toxins out of your system, the less inflammation you're going to have in your body, the less breakdown at the cellular level, the less breakdown at the genetic level, and you're going to be much less likely to, you know, have things like cancer or heart disease or, you know, metabolic syndrome or all these.

Probably the stronger your immune system will be.

Exactly. Yeah. And then your immune system can actually do its job of naturally, you know, getting parasites out of your body and naturally getting mold out of your body without needing all this extra stuff. But it's when.

And naturally pull off cancer cells.

Yeah. And when we have all these resources split between all these different issues going on in the body, it's going to be really hard to actually fight off cancer kind of naturally. And obviously these were, you know, very specific cases. Usually I co manage with an MD when I work with cancer patients, but there are a couple people who are like, hey, I've done this. You know, I did this 20 years ago. I'm going to go on the same protocol I was on for the same cancer. And I just want someone to help me detox during this process. And I'm like, okay, great, as long as you're getting Lab work, you know, regularly, and we can make sure that, you know, your white blood cells are getting better and that you're in the right ranges, then, absolutely, let's do it. So really depends on the person. Yeah.

As far as, you know, so. So that's cancer, but something as common as constipation, which plagues a lot of people. And it's strange because some may eat plenty of vegetables, Right. Plenty of fiber, but they're still constipated. And how much do you think that is? Because microbiome issues. And how much is hidden toxicity, from your experience, what do you see as causes?

Yeah, and that's a great question, because I always tell people, if you were to line up 10 of my constipated patients, they all had completely different care plans, because, again, it depends on the person. Right? It really depends on. A lot of times, what I see for constipation is gallbladder dysfunction. That's a huge thing, because your gallbladder is one of the organs that, you know, allows that peristalsis motion that pushes your stool through your intestines to go out the toilet to actually happen. And then also, any previous history of head injuries, you know, whiplash injuries, they're actually finding in research, are more damaging to your brainstem than actual impacts to the head, and you actually have a lot more concussion symptoms from them. So if you've ever been in a car accident where you had, you know, whiplash injury, especially at a weird angle where your head maybe went to the right or to the left or kind of backwards, and you just got a really bad whiplash injury that can really affect that signaling of that vagus nerve to your intestines to create that peristalsis that allows, you know, the. The bowel movement to actually happen. And so it's different for everyone. But what I see for most people I work with, because this is what I talk about the most on, on my Instagram page, is that if you haven't been healed with diet or supplements, it's infections and toxins. And so I see that with 90, probably 90% of people I work with, because they've already tried every diet. They've already tried all these supplements like collagen supplements or drinking bone broth every day or colostrum or beef organs, and all this other stuff that people see online, which are great supplements when used in the right context. But if you're not healing from food, and especially if your gut lining is so damaged that you can't even absorb the nutrients in the first place, that's a big piece of it too, is people are like, I eat so healthy, I don't know why my gut is still so messed up. Well, if you've killed off all the bacteria, you know, in your gut that's supposed to help produce and absorb those nutrients and regulate your hormones and regulate, you know, serotonin and dopamine levels, you get all these other issues like indigestion and bloating and constipation and mental health issues. You know, I've seen so many people, I know we were chatting about this before the recording, but so many people who have anxiety and panic attacks and depression, a lot of that is from gut health, because your serotonin, 90, what, 95% of it is produced and stored in the gut by the gut bacteria. About 70% of dopamine, same thing produced and stored in the gut. And so those are your feel good, happy chemicals in your body that prevent depression, prevent anxiety. And what I've seen in a lot of people is as we heal their gut, their mental health improves dramatically. And so there's all these different things that you really have to consider. But again, it's like looking at every system in the body. That's why I think it's so important to look at the whole picture. You know, do you have a history of head injuries? Do we need to do some neuro rehab? You know, because I teach people a lot of, a lot of things about how to improve brain function, to improve gut function. Is it just, you know, a liver issue where you're not producing enough digestive enzymes? So now we've got undigested food going into the intestines and creating inflammation, creating that constipation. Is it a gallbladder issue? Is it infections, toxins, or. Usually it's a mixture of all of those. And so there's so many different layers that you kind of have to unpack with any particular gut issue. It's not just, oh, this one thing creates constipation. Although parasites are probably the number one infection for constipation because they release toxins that paralyze those muscles around your intestines that allow that, that peristalsis, that motion to take place. You can actually go to the bathroom.

Yeah. First of all, I just want to comment on your mentioning of depression and anxiety and how the gut is. When you repair the gut, so much of that can go away. Yeah. So as a psychiatrist, you know that this is why one reason I left psychiatry is because none of these were addressed. So that's not part of the education. So then we're really missing an incredible opportunity to actually help people heal. So we just throw, you know, these medications hitting on receptors. You know, I remember we just delighted on talking about these receptors all day long, four years of residency, that's all we talked about. We talk about, you know, all the receptors. And that's what the drug dinners, you know, the far is the pharmaceutical companies. Right? Right. Psychiatric medication, huge moneymaker. So they would take us out to dinner and they would just bombard the receptors. Nobody is looking at anything else. So that, what a missed opportunity. You know, it's, it's, it's really unfortunate for the patients.

It is because I've seen people who had debilitating panic attacks who no longer have them anymore. And it was literally just like two months into healing their gut. And you know, obviously there's layers to mental health. Right? Like we're not talking about trauma or PTSD or things like that. But you know, like it, it's such a big thing that is so overlooked in the mental health space. And I've seen it time and time again. Panic attacks, anxiety, depression, you know, 70, 80, 90, 100% better after healing the gut, healing the other organs, you know, contributing to the gut issues, removing the toxins and infections. And now these people are just completely different people. And it's so cool to see that. Like, you know, I jump on zoom calls with them like month one versus month six and they're just so calm and so, you know, you can tell like the anxiety has left them. It's just the coolest thing ever. And it doesn't matter how old you are or how long you've had the mental health issues, you can absolutely improve them just by looking at the gut.

When it comes to detoxing and getting rid of parasites, I'm sure a lot of people want to know, how do you get the worms out? Like, how do you get them out? Right. Like, do you have a trick?

Yeah.

I mean again, what's the best way? I mean there are different ways. Holding around, you know, I even try something. I don't know if what I saw were parasites. They just, they seem like strains of, I don't know, is it intestine lining? And some look a little weird, but I don't want to talk myself into that. They're actually parasites. So, so I don't even know like did it work and not work? But you saw, oh, three foot long worm. So you, it's no, you know, uncertain terms. All right, that's a worm.

Oh, yeah. Like, it wasn't a mucoid plaque. Like, a lot of people are like, oh, that could be mucus. And I'm like, no, I had, like gloves on. I had like a long Q tip. I was inspecting it because I was like, okay, let me just make sure that this is actually a worm. Because, like, it was so big and thick that I was like, there's no, there's no way. Like, there's no way this. Did you look at. Yeah, I mean, I'm like a huge, like, sciency person. I was like, let me just see if this is. It was hollow on the inside. It was a worm. Like, it wasn't a mucoid plaque. Like, was disgusting, but also it was so satisfying because I was like, this explains why I had so many gut issues since I was like 17 years old. And, like, all these things just started adding up. And then when I started like diving into detoxing and parasites and, you know, I had a microbio degree because I was pre med in undergrad, and so I studied parasites and bacteria and gut health and all this stuff in undergrad. But it was on a whole nother level now where, you know, I had these functional medicine doctors talking about the main symptoms for parasite infection. Sharp pain around the belly button. Check. Had that large cyst removed from your abdomen. Fluid filled cyst, Check. I had that when I was 18. You know, people who, when they're younger, they wet the bed for a long period of time, like past the age of like three or four. People who grind their teeth when they're kids. And I had like 90% of these symptoms. And so after this detox, I'm learning about all this stuff and I'm like, oh, my God, why did none of my doctors say, hey, I think you might have a parasite infection? We should probably get that checked out. Because I had this giant cyst that was the size of a grapefruit removed from my abdomen when I was 18. It was this fluid filled cyst. No, none of the doctors knew what the heck it was. They were like, well, we sent it to the pathology lab, the fluid that came out of it, and they don't know what it is. So I guess we just won't know. That's the number one sign of parasites is if you ever have large fluid filled cysts removed from your abdomen because they form those. You know, mine was like growing off my intestines, which made sense with all the gut issues I had. And then I saw hundreds of parasites come out all different Shapes and sizes like liver flukes, intestinal fluke, strongyloides, rope worms, round worms. Like, it was, I think the only one I didn't have was a tapeworm. But like every other parasite you could imagine, it was just, it was bizarre.

Would you go? I mean, other countries quite a bit like, what?

I've been to like 14 countries and I was born in Europe and you know, like, who knows? But everyone, you know, they teach you this in med school, right? Like, oh, parasites don't exist in America. I've tested people and they've seen them come out during the detox process who have never left the country and have parasites pop up on their tests. You guys, they don't just stop at the border and say, oh, we've reached the US Mexico border. I guess we got to turn around. It's like, they do exist in the U.S. now, granted, they're not as common as, you know, if you go to Africa or South America or Central America because we have better, you know, practices for hygiene with our water and our food. But they do still exist here. And it's really just a reflection of your internal environment. Like, is your immune system actually functioning well? Are your detox organs actually doing their job? Because you should be able to eat sushi, get like, maybe, you know, a couple parasites in your body, and your immune system should be able to kill them off and get all that toxic waste out of your body. But it's when those organs break down and your immune system stops functioning as well. That's when they start taking over and reproducing in your body and you just get this insane amount of parasites in your system like I had. And also you can actually pass parasites from mother to fetus while you're pregnant. There's five that can cross the placenta as well. So if you're infected when you have kids, that could be where your kids get those parasites from as well.

So how did you get them out? Like, what did you do?

Yeah, so the combination of herbs and binders, you'll hear like the common ones are, you know, like black walnut hole, wormwood, you know, like all those ones. But the, the big one that removed the three footer from my intestines was called mimosa pudica seed. And that's the one where people really see them come out in their stool. Because I've, I've talked to a ton of people, are like, oh, I've done a parasite cleanse before. And I'm like, you haven't done the one I'm going to give you. And then they see these giant worms come out and they're like, I never saw that with any other parasite cleanse.

I did.

So that was the one. Like, the functional medicine doctors I learned from, they're like, this is the one that will get them out of your gut. But again, before I went after the parasites, I really had to heal the leaky gut. So I was on a bunch of herbs. I was doing, you know, grounding and breathing and vagus nerve exercises, like, every day just to calm my immune system, because that's a huge stressor for the gut. You know, chronic stress also creates leaky gut. It also dampens your immune system. You know, about 80% of your immune system lives in the gut. So if you damage that gut lining, you're not going to have the immune system to be able to fight off this stuff. And that's when it overgrows and just creates this cycle of constant damage to that gut lining. So no matter how many good foods you eat, no matter how much bone broth you drink, it's not going to heal because you're not removing that trigger that's damaging it in the first place. And so that was the big thing for me was mimosa pudica seed. And then I went on a. You know, after I healed my gut and my liver, then I went on a systemic parasite cleanse where I had a lot more of those traditional herbs that people talk about, but those are the ones people start with, and they get really messed up and they end up in the ER or they end up with severe gut issues or, you know, like eye floaters or migraines or. And all these things I've heard from people who reach out to me on Instagram because they're like, yeah, I thought it was going to help me, and it ended up making me worse.

Right, right. Yeah. Work with somebody that has experience, knows the ramifications of all these different things for. For different people. I mean, approaches are. Are, I'm sure, you know, just like Chinese medicine from the Western medicine perspective, a person has one condition. When you go to a Chinese medicine doctor, there could be six different diagnoses for six different people, because there are different conditions in Chinese medicine's eyes. So you may think you had, you know, gallbladder problem, but to them, it becomes whole different systems. You know, everyone has different, you know, imbalances, deficiencies, manifesting as something similar but completely different causes. So you have to address them.

And another thing about parasites is you can't. This is what I always tell people you can't just go after one infection because what if you also have fungus and mold toxicity like I did? If I were to just go after the parasites, but I never addressed the mold and I never addressed the fungal overgrowth in my gut, the parasites would come right back because you're not healing the full issue. And so you have to look at every piece of the puzzle. It's not just parasites. Parasites usually come with viral infections like EBV or with heavy metals. You know, heavy metal toxicity is really common with parasites. That's why oftentimes you'll see, you know, those generic detoxes online have, you know, they're for parasites and heavy metals because they do go, they do coincide together. And so you have to really have to look at the whole picture. What else is damaging your immune system and allowing the parasites to overgrow in your body in the first place? And you've got to remove all of it. And so I see a lot of people, again, like you said, six people with bloating, completely different issues. One might have mold toxicity, one might have parasites, one might have heavy metals and mold and parasites. One might have just really terrible organ function where we've really just got to heal up the gut, get the liver functioning, and that's all they really need because they don't really have any chronic infections or toxins. And. And it really just depends on the person. But almost every single one of them needs some sort of, you know, nervous system regulation and just calming their body down, breathing, grounding, sunlight in the eyes, you know, all this simple stuff that we take for granted that's just so powerful. And then I'm sure, you know, growing up in China, I bet people did that all the time because it's just like you're way more natural minded with the healing process.

Yeah. Well, at least the food we ate was not as toxic, so. Thank God. But. Yeah, but now it's everywhere.

I know. Yeah.

It takes more vigilance. Yeah. This has been such a wonderful conversation. Thank you so much for bringing your wealth of knowledge and really fun discussion. So I'm sure a lot of people will want to come to you and really help them turn their health around. So how do they find you?

Yeah, well, the best place to find me is on Instagram, so it's RKate Davis. So pretty easy. D R K A T E D A V I S But yeah, I'd say number one, go follow me on Instagram. I have so much free information on there for you guys. To really just start to see the full picture of detoxing and why it's so incredibly important to not just jump on a trendy detox that you see on Instagram that's like, hey, this fixed my problem. It'll fix everyone else's. It's like, well, you might have just hit the jackpot with that one thing you tried, but it doesn't mean it's going to work for everyone. And so it's just so important not to just. Not only to just get to the root cause and do it safely, but work with someone who can help you get there faster. Because if I had known, you know, all what I know now, I could have saved myself a decade of pain and struggle with all these gut issues I had. And, you know, I can eat dairy and gluten again. Forgot to mention that earlier. I wasn't able to do that for about a decade. And now I drink milk almost every day and I have zero issues. And so when you really. Yeah, when you really look at the whole picture, you guys, you can fully heal from things that aren't even related to the gut, because the gut is kind of the hub of every system in your body, like mental health, brain health, not having brain fog. Even people's dental health has improved as they've been working with me, where cavities go away or kidney stones go away, blood pressure regulates, insulin drops. I've seen so many peripheral issues heal just from focusing on the gut, because the gut is really kind of the center of your whole body. It communicates with almost every organ in your body. And so that's number one. Follow me on Instagram. But if you're someone who's been listening to this and you've tried all these things we talked about, like so many diets, you've tried supplements, you're still not getting answers, you're still struggling. Or maybe you're wondering, will anything ever work? Because I've had these issues for so long. Again, I've worked with people who've had issues for decades, and they've completely healed. And so I just want to give you guys some hope that healing is out there. You're not stuck this way. It's just because you haven't found the answer yet doesn't mean it's not out there. And I want to offer you guys, you know, a discount. So if you DM me the number 100, I'll give you $100 off an initial consult and labs package so that we can really, you know, meet up, see what everything all your health history, what you've been going through, look at the lab, see every system that's messed up in your body, what infections you have, what toxins, where is there a breakdown in your drainage organs like we talked about on this episode? And really just get you an individualized, unique care plan to get your health back on track. And so if you DM me 100, I'll give you that $100 off just to get you on the right track. But just know, you know, healing is possible. I've seen so many people completely heal from constipation, bloating, ibs, you know, acid reflux, all these issues. And just, you know, I don't care what your doctors have said, it is absolutely possible to heal. And so if I can heal, so can you, and so have so many people I've seen.

Beautiful. Wow. Thank you so much. I thank you for all your great work and for all the people that you will be healing.

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast, Dr. Joy.

It's such a pleasure. Thank you, Dr. Kate.