Functional Blood Chemistry Analysis, Inflammation and Autoimmunity with Kristin Grayce McGary, LAc., CFMP

Welcome to The Perfect Stool: Understanding and Healing the Gut Microbiome. This is your host, Lindsey Parsons, and today I'll be speaking with Kristen Grace McGarry, LAC, MAC, CFMP, an internationally recognized health and lifestyle alchemist, author, and speaker with 28 years of experience in functional and integrative medicine. She's an authority on autoimmunity, thyroid and gut health, functional blood chemistry analysis, and mind-body-spirit integration. Her individualized approach blends many modalities including acupuncture and Asian medicine, advanced craniosacral and somatoemotional release, neural and paraneural therapy, medical qigong, psychosomatics, and more to promote deep healing. Kristen Grace is the author of Holistic Keto for Gut Health and Know Your Blood, Know Your Health, with an upcoming book on removing blocks to healing. But before our conversation, if you haven't followed or subscribed to the show, be sure to do so. If you want to get transcripts of the podcast, pop over to my website, HighDesertHealthCoaching.com, and sign up for my newsletter. You'll also get my recently updated free ebooklet, Finding Your Root Cause Through Stool and Organic Acids Testing, when you sign up. And if you haven't yet done my quiz on which stool or functional medicine test would help you get to your root cause, you can find a link in the show notes and take that. Now on to the show. Welcome to the podcast, Kristen Grace. Hi, Lindsey.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, it's my pleasure. So one of the things that caught my eye and led me to bring you on was your book on functional blood chemistry analysis. So I know most of my listeners are probably aware of the fact that there are the regular reference ranges on labs and then there's the optimal reference ranges because as our population has gotten sicker and, you know, reference ranges haven't changed. So I'm just wondering how functional blood chemistry analysis goes beyond just using optimal reference ranges.

That is one really important point. They're optimal, but they're based on people that are healthy, whereas the other reference ranges aren't just outdated, they're actually based on people who are mostly sick. So when your doctor is comparing you to people who are mostly sick and saying you're within normal range, there's clearly a problem. And it's not, it's not at all accurate in assessing where you really are. So that's one huge difference. Another huge difference are the number of reference ranges that we wanna look at. The number of lab markers that I wanna see far exceeds what a regular Western medical physician or a naturopathic physician, or sometimes even a functional doctor would want to see. So the number makes a difference, and I liken it to our health being similar to a 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. And those markers represent all those different jigsaw pieces. And if they're turned upside down and we can't see 'em, then we can't put the picture of your health together. So we need to order a lot more markers to get the full picture of your health and put your puzzle together.

Okay. So Next.

Yeah, go ahead.

Oh no, I was just gonna ask what, what, what an example of some of those markers that would go beyond what are typically ordered in any given disease state or whatever.

Yeah, I think one would be a full thyroid panel, which is a minimum of 10 markers. And even endocrinologists that I've worked with with other patients will order, some only order a TSH and they say that's the standard of care. Which is thyroid stimulating hormone, which is made in your pituitary gland. And, and doctors will say that's all we need. Well, there are 9 other markers, but in Western medical school, they're not taught to look for the underlying root issue so that what they're taught and, and what they're trying to do is to resolve symptoms. And they do that often with Band-Aids without understanding what's actually going on in the thyroid or in the metabolism. Or with the immune system. So that full panel gives me so much more information.

Okay.

That's one good example.

Yeah. So I sent you my blood work in advance to look at, so I wanted to demo the kinds of things that you can see in blood work as you look over mine. So I'm gonna post my blood work to the show notes page so people can pull it up, but I'll also just at the moment pull it up on screen here. What should I start with? I've got the most recent one that has the full thyroid panel. That's probably a good one to start with, huh?

Whatever you like. I can't see it yet, so I, I don't have, I don't have it in front of me.

Yeah, no, I'm, I, I'll, I'll get it up.

I also would say a lot of inflammatory markers are not checked. Some people look for vitamin D3, but they're not looking at calcitriol, and calcitriol is the active form of vitamin D3. So your vitamin D3 levels may or may not be off, but your calcitriol is really also what I wanna see and compare them. So there are many, yeah, many pieces. Let's see.

So this is starting with the thyroid stuff.

Great. And so is this all of your thyroid panel?

This is all that was done. Yes. Yeah.

So there's 5 out of 10 markers. So already I'm thinking pretty incomplete and there's 5 other puzzle pieces that I really want to see to better understand what's going on. So I can see that your free T3 is a bit low, not according to the Western medical sick ranges, but according to functional ranges. And when I see that low, I want a little more information with those other ranges. So it could be low. I mean, with those other markers, it could be low because of high cortisol levels. So I'd be looking at a full lab and a full thyroid panel to assess cortisol, which I can see part of in a full thyroid panel. It could be low because you're not converting T4 to T3. That's common. And that conversion— so your, your thyroid gland makes T4 hormone, but it does not make T3. That needs to be converted, and you need certain nutrients to convert it. And you also need a healthy liver, kidneys, and it gets converted in your peripheral tissues. So that's really important information that I would need more markers to discern. Ah, is this more of a conversion issue? And is it because she's not getting enough L-tyrosine? Is it cuz she has high cortisol? Is it because there's something going on with her liver? So I might be looking at other metabolic markers and markers of liver function to see, is there something going on there? Is there something going on with your digestive system? Which is interesting with thyroid cuz that's part of metabolic health. So some people have digestive issues, low HCL, hydrochloric acid, hypochloridia it's called. And that could be because of thyroid imbalance or people have leaky gut issues. And that can be partially because of thyroid and then they kind of feed off each other. It's like, ooh, thyroid's off. So I'm having digestive issues, which makes thyroid worse. So they can feed off of each other. So I see that right away. I also see that you have TPO antibodies at 16, and you'll notice in Western medicine we wanna keep that below 34, and I wanna keep it at zero. But in Western medicine, they have this 34 marker. So if you have TPO antibodies at 33, they'll say you're fine, but you still have an active autoimmune issue. So TPO antibodies and thyroglobulin antibodies are a sign. Of an autoimmune issue. Now, Western medicine will not tell you about that until enough tissue damage has occurred that you now have a diagnosed disease. But that's too late for a lot of people. That was too late for me. That happened for years for me, almost 10 years. I went undiagnosed and misdiagnosed with celiac Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and my thyroid gland got destroyed by my own immune system. Had I caught it earlier, I could have modulated my immune system, slowed down that attack, and even halted it before all the damage happened, which is one of my passions. I like to help people prevent that level of suffering. So I see you have an autoimmune issue.

Yeah, I have Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Just, just to make sure that everybody knows that.

Yeah. Just to say, okay, great. So you brought your, you brought your antibodies way down. So you have this diagnosed disease, and now if, if no one knew that and they just looked at your lab now, I would say you have an autoimmune issue, but not a diagnosed disease right now. If Western medicine saw your lab, they couldn't diagnose you with a disease, which is great, and still have autoimmunity. And what I am very excited to share with people, and it can feel scary at first, but I think of information and being able to, as empowerment, because we can then take appropriate action. So when someone has one autoimmune issue, I know they have more.

We can scroll down and find out.

We could scroll down and find out.

Yep.

There it is. So we could scroll down and find out. And I would also be looking at Cyrex. Uh, it's another lab and they have a predictive antibody test that tests low-level antibodies before you have a full-blown diagnosed disease. And this is an incredibly valuable test because we can now target, we can see which organs or glands or joints, tissues are having an autoimmune attack. Before it's destroyed, so we can target the immune system. We can protect that organ. We can bring down the inflammation and modulate the immune system through many different ways so that that person doesn't have to get a full-blown disease.

Actually, let me go back up to the thyroid stuff because I've always sort of wondered about this question. You were talking about the conversion question, so you can see my free T4. And my free T3, so that's not enough information to see about conversion between those two.

No, I like to see the total T3 and T4. Mm-hmm. As well.

Okay.

I also wanna see your reverse T3.

Yeah. I think it's possible that may be further down. Let me double check. Yeah, there it is. There's reverse T3.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Sometimes these are separated. Okay, let's see that. Yeah. Okay. So that's good information for me. It's not too high, so you are clearing it. So when reverse T3 is high, it can be for a couple reasons. It, it really means your body isn't clearing the reverse T3 well from the system. Mm-hmm. And that can often happen because of high cortisol. So yours looks okay at 12.08, so that's a good sign.

Yeah. Incidentally, I also, at the same time I did this, I did an entire hormone zoomer, so I have the cortisol, but I don't wanna I don't wanna dig too deep into this stuff cuz we're looking at, oh, here's cortisol. Sorry. Here's cortisol right here. Okay.

There we go. And that's your AM cortisol. Good. So let's go up to, to homocysteine cuz this is another marker that not many people test for. And I like this homocysteine. It's a toxic amino acid. All humans have it and yours looks great. So it can be a sign of inflammation and it can be the beginning sign of disease. So we need to keep. This below 7, and I really like yours at 5.8. So this is something for people to consider asking your doctor to test if they're not testing it. We wanna look at these markers of inflammation. Homocysteine's one of 'em. I like to see a full iron panel. I might be looking at CRP as well. I wanna, I wanna really see like what's going on. I'm gonna look at a CBC differently than a regular doc or a naturopath because a CBC can tell me if there are other inflammatory markers going on, what's going on with the immune system. Is there a latent virus or bacteria? What's happening? It can give us some more clues.

Yeah. Well, why don't we pull up the CBC and, and, uh, I'll stop this one for a minute and pull up that one.

Sure. Let's look. Something else I'll share as you're looking for that is in my, in my book, Know Your Blood, Know Your Health, this book on functional blood chemistry analysis that I wrote, I wrote a chapter on how to interview your doctor, how to do it with respect. Expect, but also advocate for yourself. And I'm, I'm really excited about that chapter because to me it felt, it felt really empowering to write it for, for others because I needed to be empowered. Because at one point I was giving a lot of my power away to the doctor cuz I didn't know anything about labs. And once I started to learn, I could ask better questions and I could invite them to work as a team with me. And this is how I started to choose my doctors. And choose how to create a team for myself back in the day when I was very ill was by discerning, you know, who really wants to work with me or who's just gonna play it by the book and not act as a team and pretend they know everything. Cuz we don't all know everything. And I wanted other eyes on my labs and I wanted to, I wanted it to be collaborative so that I didn't fall through the cracks of the Western medical model, which so many patients do. And you may have had that experience. Experience?

You know, I've come to the point where I'm just happy to have a doctor who's willing to order lab tests for me and, and is not gonna ask questions if I wanna order like zinc or an iron panel or more extensive thyroid testing. Like she will order that stuff. And for me that's just, that's great cuz it's covered by insurance. Then I don't expect her to have the functional medicine mindset. See a naturopath for that.

So, okay, good. Yeah, that's great that it's covered by insurance. My insurance doesn't cover a full thyroid panel. And a full thyroid panel, depending on the state that you're in, could be a couple thousand dollars. It could be upward from $800 to $2,000 for a thyroid panel. Now, I think things are coming down in price now.

Yeah, there's a lot of self-ordering labs where you can get a lot cheaper than that, and I know I can, I can order on Fullscript for my clients for a lot less.

Yeah, super, super. But some people don't know about that and, and you wanna make sure it's a good lab and you wanna work with someone who knows how to interpret it, but So good. Okay, let's look at this. So your white blood cell count at 5.0 looks really good. I'm really happy with that, Lindsey, because a lot of people that have autoimmune issues, you may have noticed in previous labs you had, that white blood cell count may be low. It'll be below 5.0. And what happens is when someone has a chronic infection or they have autoimmune issues, I'll see a low white blood cell count. All right, let's look here. The, the, the next thing that's really sticking out for me when I glance at this is your MCVs at 96.5. So you have something called megaloblastic anemia. This is a B12 and methylated folate deficiency. So your MCVs are like your baby red blood cells that are giant, and as they mature to adult red blood cells, they shrink a little bit, and that maturation process requires B12 and methylated folate. So when that number's high, I don't need to see a urine B12 test to know you need it. And a lot of people will have a B12 serum lab blood test and it means nothing. It's one of the most inaccurate tests for B12 that you can do. So if a doc does that and say, no, your B12's through the roof, I can say, no, it's not. Your MCVs are high. And when MCVs are high, then I wanna be giving. Hydroxocobalamin or methylcobalamin. I like to do injections or teach patients how to do injections in their thigh. And I also will be giving oral a methylated B complex of some kind to see if we can move the dial on this. Now, this can happen for several reasons. Yours isn't too high. If I'm looking in the hundreds, I might be more suspicious of an autoimmune issue. Or a genetic issue. This is potentially an age issue for you. So as we're aging, the part of our body, the part of our colon that absorbs B12, it, it shrinks. This is why a lot of elderly people benefit from B12. I know my mom has, uh, type 3 diabetes, which is Alzheimer's, and when I give her a B12 shot, her memory is. At least 50% better. Wow. Now it's getting someone to actually do it to her regularly cuz they don't believe it's necessary, but I see the results in real time. Mm-hmm. So having B12 on board and methylated folate, let's talk about 5-methyltetrahydrofolate. This is a methylated form of folate. It is not folic acid. Folic acid is not good for the human body. Folate is all right, but 60% of the population can't use it because most of us have a genetic SNP that doesn't allow us to absorb it properly. So we have to get the methylated folate into our system. So I might give a pill for that and people are, if there's gonna be a B complex in it, your pee's gonna be yellow because we don't absorb it so well. Mm-hmm. But you're gonna absorb a little bit. Over time, and then I'm gonna be giving you injections or some IVs to boost this. And this is good for your nervous system, your brain, your muscles. It's a very, very important nutrient. So that's standing out.

Yeah. Well, so I, I have been on B12 for many, many years, so I don't, uh, I don't absorb it. And, and it was at, in the hundreds when I, when I first, when the doctor first found out I got an injection, but I've used sublingual since then. So currently. Keeping it in, in pretty good range.

Uh, it's still high to me. So to me it's high, but this is high.

What would be an optimal number on, on this then? So I, the range is here, 78 to 100.

I would like to see 90, you know, 90, 90, 92, not above 92.

Okay. So I would've stopped taking it for probably a week before I took the test just to sort of get a base level.

Well, no, I don't think that's necessary. I think it's important. Well, it depends because you're not absorbing a ton. So if it was in the hundreds, I would then question, have you been tested for the genetic disorder, a genetic SNP that prevents you from absorbing your people?

Oh yeah. I've got, I've got all the MTHFRs and the MTRRs. I got 'em all.

That's different. That's different.

Oh, I'm sorry.

So that could be a factor. But there's a specific genetic SNP for B12.

Yes. Oh.

And then there's also an autoimmune disease, pernicious anemia, that is B12 related, that is autoimmune related. So have you been tested for either of those? Cuz that would be important. Good.

Yes. Originally, yes, that was positive originally. And then after the B12 shot, it went negative.

What was positive? Which one was positive?

Parietal cell antibodies.

Parietal cell. Okay, great. All right, so you still have 'em, but the levels came down because you modulated your immune system. That's great. So just be aware that that's an immune issue. So that's an— so you have low B12 because of an autoimmune issue. So that's good to know. So we wanna— I would still be giving you a shot twice a month. And then keep taking it orally. Okay, let's keep looking on these. Oh, this is good. Segmented neutrophils. Do you see that? It's even, mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

At 40 there. Mm-hmm. So these are, this is part of your white blood cells, part of your immune system, and that little dot, I'm wondering, they don't show reference ranges for that here, which is interesting, but for me, this is on the low end. And, and your lymphocytes are high. So when I see lymphocytes high and neutrophils low, I'm thinking she may have a viral infection. So then I'm asking questions about viruses like herpes or Epstein-Barr. A lot of people with thyroid autoimmune have Epstein-Barr. Have you been tested for those?

Yeah. Negative Epstein-Barr. Yes, I do have the herpes simplex 1. I get cold sores for sure. Yeah.

Other viral issues. Yes, exactly. So then I'm also looking at your monocytes at 9.2, and this is functionally high. I wanna see that number below 7. So it shows me, so monocytes are the precursors to macrophages, and macrophages are those big, you may remember from biology class, those big beautiful white blood cells that go around and they engulf the bad guys. And when you have a lot of monocytes, the precursors, it shows me that your body is trying to make more of the macrophages to go eat the bad guys. This can be because of inflammation, immune dysfunction, or an infection.

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So I'm looking at that. I'm tracking that. I see eosinophils as well. 5.8. That's high. I want that number below 3. Now you're on the brink. 5.8 is on the brink for me of either you've got allergies that really need to be addressed and/or you have parasites. Now, not all parasites show up with the eosinophils, but a lot do. And when I see kind of over 4, over 5, definitely over 7, I'm looking at parasitic infection. Below that, I'm like, mm, they probably have a lot of allergies and it's not being addressed. That could be hidden food sensitivities, environmental allergies. It shows me your diet isn't maybe as great as you think it is. That you may be, cuz a lot of people are like, well, I eat really well and I have an autoimmune.

Yeah. I didn't think it was that great at the time I took these tests. I was still eating gluten at that point because I was under the impression that if I got my antibodies down low enough that I could allow myself that luxury, but clearly I cannot. Okay.

No, never again. So this is great for people to hear because gluten is a silent killer. It is like pouring gasoline on an autoimmune disease and it will make you have more. And I'm not making this up. It's not woo woo. It's actually in the Western medical literature. I went to a wonderful conference on gluten years and years ago with a dear friend of mine, Dr. Tom O'Brien. He's kind of the gluten guru. I tease him. And, and, and Tom was there teaching. I think in 3 days we covered 370 slides, all different Western medical journals, most of them quite prestigious, linking gluten or non-gluten celiac, celiac or non-gluten celiac disease and gluten to almost every major disease in the Western medical literature. So it's not woo-woo, it's not fluff. It's not like you can eat the gluten in Europe but not here. No, there's just less glyphosates. Great. But It's still not for human consumption. And when people say, oh my gosh, I'm not gonna be able— what am I gonna eat? You know, people get stressed out. They're very connected to their bread. I call it goo food cuz it's so sticky gooey, but I, I liken it to bleach and it, it really wakes patients up. I, I say to them, would you ever have a sip of bleach and think that, well, just a little's fine. Absolutely not. It's a corrosive, right? It's gonna injure you. Gluten's the same way. You cannot ever have a bite again. You and I say have a pity party, right? Uh, spend an hour or two crying and grieving, celebrate, say goodbye to your friend gluten, and, and then be diligent. And it's an act of self-love to never eat that food again.

Yeah. So since I got these, or not these results, but I, I did a stool test that showed positive for the antibodies to CDG or IgG. No, no, it was no, not the deaminated gluten protein. I think gliadin, gliadin protein. I believe that's the one. Yeah. Not the TTG, the other one. It's like CDG though. Anyway.

Okay, good. Good. Yeah, that's, that's it.

Yeah. So I, so I know for sure I'm sensitive. I, I didn't know for sure before. I mean, I knew. Of course I knew, like when I eat it, I bloat. It's miserable. Like I knew.

You knew, right? But this is the thing. A lot of people know, but they, they're in denial.

Yeah. Well, you're, you know, darn good food's made with gluten.

Well, so Lindsey, I wrote a blog on this, so I'll, I'll send people over to my website to look at my blogs. I'll write a blog on this about why avoiding gluten isn't enough. And I'd like to speak to this because it will save some of your listeners extraordinary suffering. It did me. So I went gluten-free after I worked with Tom and I learned all this stuff. I was like, that's it. You know, this is, I don't know, 15 years ago, maybe, you know, more than 15 years ago. And I said, okay, I'm not doing gluten ever again, but I wasn't great yet. I still had issues. My stomach would hurt. I would bloat. I was I was still like getting a headache here and there. I'm like, something's not right. I got constipated. I was just like, mm, something's going on. I'm still inflamed. Well, then someone introduced me to a test that's called a cross-reactivity test that Cyrex offers. And this test tests for foods that their protein structure is similar enough to the gluten protein or gliadins. There's more other, there are other proteins other than gliadin and gluten, but it's similar enough that someone's body that has autoimmune or immune dysfunction will misidentify this non-glutenous food as glutenous. And it will cause inflammation as if they had gluten, but they didn't. So people think, no, I'm gluten-free and I'm fine, but I still have all these problems. Yeah, because you're eating millet and quinoa and egg and coffee and potatoes and white rice and. Sesame and da da, all these non-glutinous foods that they may be cross-reacting to. So when we do that test and we discover those cross-reactive foods, those go in the same category as gluten, never haves again. And I have some of those. Sesame, I'm like a no sesame gal. Potatoes, millet, quinoa, to me in my body. Because of the immune dysfunction that my body has expressed. It's like gluten to me and I get very ill. Now, maybe I have one bite and I don't notice, and I have two bites and I'm in bed. So sometimes it's kind of like dental decay. We don't notice that we have bacteria in our, on our teeth all the time. That's why we're supposed to brush twice a day, cuz it takes about that amount of time to bat down the bacteria before it grows again. But we don't feel it. If we skip brushing our teeth one night and go to bed, we're not like, oh my gosh, the bacteria in my mouth are eating my dental enamel. We don't feel that until there's enough damage that we now have a cavity, and then we may start to notice it. The same can be true with these cross-reactivity foods, with hidden food sensitivities. You can't just do an elimination diet for 4 days or a week to find them because it can take 2 to 4 weeks to have a symptom after you've consumed it. They're hidden. They're not obvious. So this is really important to know that being gluten-free isn't necessarily enough for some people.

Anything else on this page that calls out to you?

Let's see. Let's see, your absolutes look okay considering what your regular ones are like. Yeah. Platelet count is okay. Your, so your MPVs are almost high. So that's interesting. I mean, not super interesting, but I'm just making a mental note. Let's see what else is going on. Sometimes I can see some dehydration. Let's go up a little bit more. What are your red blood cells like? Let's see. RBCs are 4.05. You might be slightly dehydrated. Your hemoglobin is on the low end. Do you see that? I'd be curious.

This, that's a really good one for me. I mean, I spent a lifetime of anemia, but once I went into menopause, my iron's high.

Is it? I was gonna say, I'd like to see a full iron panel. Can we look at your full iron panel? What's your iron panel like?

Yeah. So my last ferritin was, was higher than was optimal and I gave blood and then I took it again. So let me see.

Do you have any genetic hemochromatosis? Has anyone—

I do. Yes. So I have to be careful.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's an inflammatory marker. If you have genetic, do you have children?

Yes.

Have they been tested for genetic hemochromatosis?

They should be. I've— I've done DNA test, yes, on my son and I can't recall whether he's got it, but I, my oldest iron panel, I don't know if I, let me just dig that out cuz ferritin and iron, there it is. I have one from, well, this, okay, let's see. Iron 112, total iron binding capacity 2.

So we wanna, yeah. What's your TIBC?

256.

So that's fine. And what's your serum iron?

Serum iron was, was 112.

And iron saturation?

I don't have that one. I've got ferritin at 105.

So these are all fine. Yeah, those are fine. I'd wanna see your saturation and your UIBC. Is that there also?

No, those are the only 3 I have. Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah. So those actually don't, those aren't scary markers. I've had people come to me and their iron. Is at 9, their serum iron is at 9.

Oh yeah. Yeah. No, that was, that was most of my life. I took iron most of my life and then once I hit menopause, all of a sudden I was still taking iron and I didn't think, oh wait, you need to stop taking iron cuz you're not losing iron anymore.

You're not. Did, were you a heavy bleeder?

I have endo, I had endometriosis, but I was, I, I'm not sure if I was a heavy bleeder or not. I don't think so. Not like, not like the kind of people who say they, you know, required 3 super tampons in an hour. Nothing like that. No.

Okay. Cuz it's interesting to have hemochromatosis and iron anemia. That's an interesting thing to have together. And I'd be curious, why do you have iron anemia? Where are you losing the blood? And hemochromatosis would be high iron, high ferritin, high hemoglobin, high hematocrit, right? And so yours is low. Your, your hemoglobin is lower, hematocrit, hemoglobin. Was low, so I'm, I'd have some more detective questions for you.

Yeah.

Back then.

Yeah. Okay. Let me go back to this one here cuz I think this has the more interesting stuff.

I, you, did you have your apolipoprotein B done?

I did. It was a little bit high.

Let's look at that. I like apolipoprotein B if you have that. Your uric acid looks good.

ApoB. Okay. Let me tell you that one cuz I only marked out some of the identifying information on some of these, so I'll. I'll just tell you that one when I find it. Let's see. Apolipoprotein B 107.

So that's really high. So I want that number way below 80. If we can get that in the 70s or 60s, that's better. So apolipoprotein B can be— it is a marker of atherosclerosis. So you have that right now. We want that to change. We wanna take really good care of the inside of the, your endothelium of your cardiovascular system. So what that is, is hardening of the arteries, and you have it right now and you're young. So we need to, to look at that. And I would, I would prioritize that. And I would also be looking at the Cyrex test to see if you had any other cardiovascular autoimmune antibodies. Do you remember if you did?

I didn't do that test.

Okay. So I would be doing that test tomorrow. We could talk about it cuz that's gonna be really important to see if other organs tissues, glands are targeted by your immune system. It's really, we wanna empower you with that information. For example, I had myocardial peptides as a marker of a predictive antibody for my heart. So I know I gotta take good care of my heart.

Mm-hmm.

So you are having some hardening of the arteries. So a couple of things that can help with that, vitamin K can help with that. I like Mary Ruth's brand. She doesn't pay me to say that, but I just love the liquid and that it doesn't taste bad and it's easy to take. Squirt, give yourself a dropper full every day. Take it away from your vitamin D3. I know a lot of people say combine it, but don't. Take it a different time of the day. Far infrared saunas can help with Apolipoprotein B. Oh, okay. The Western medical literature says that exercise and diet doesn't help. I don't buy that yet. I think we just haven't researched it properly. Like maybe we're not asking the right questions. Maybe we're not testing the right groups in the right time at the right age. There's something off. I just don't buy that exercise and nutrition doesn't impact it. But so far the Western medical literature is saying, no, no, no, you exercise doesn't impact Apolipoprotein B. I feel like it has to. Because you're exercising.

Yeah. Well, I do exercise regularly and I of course eat a healthy diet and all the things.

But you may not be exercising properly for you.

I do have familial hypercholester— or is it hypercholesterolemia?

Yeah. So you might have hyperlipidemia, so you might have high cholesterol. Um, but that's often an insulin issue.

Yeah. No, my insulin is 3.

It rarely, but it, it, it can be a genetic actual cholesterol issue, but often it's an insulin resistance issue first. So I'd be looking more at, at that and seeing all of those components of full cholesterol panel. Hemoglobin A1C, insulin, blood fasting, blood sugar. And then I'd be, I want to see what you're eating, when you're eating, and how you're eating it. I want to see what exercise you're doing on what days, at what hour of the day, because you're not doing something right. If your Apolipoprotein B is that high, we need to address it. So something's going on. And if it's genetic, then we need to turn that gene off and turn healthier genes on. And then we have a conversation about epigenetics. What's in your environment? Where are your stresses? What are your toxic loads, your body burden? Do you have any fascial restrictions and scars? Do you have any interference fields? Do you have heavy metals? You have, you have a virus that can be an interference field. So I'd be looking at treating that virus. I'd be doing IV ozone regularly. I do rectal insufflations of ozone. I'd wanna identify, okay, is this really herpes? I'd be doing lorosidin regularly as preventative to keep that batted down. I may consider oil of oregano, which has some interesting research on batting down herpes virus. I'd be looking at L-lysine. I'd be looking at immune system and stress. I'd really wanna modulate your immune system. So then I'm also adding, so ozone can do this. There's a technique where we draw your blood, we mix it with ozone, and we inject it in your butt. Have you ever had that done? No, that's extraordinary for immune modulation, for allergies, and for autoimmune issues. And I'd be doing a series of 6 to 8 of those over the next few months. I would be doing high-dose vitamin C through IV. I would be looking at, I see your vitamin D3 is 50s, but we, I didn't see your calcitriol. So maybe your calcitriol is okay, but the K2 can help. So I'd be looking at a lot of immune stuff cuz a lot of people say, oh no, my diet's really good. And then I look at it and I'm like, ooh, no, berries for breakfast is not good. That's an insulin spike. That's a major stress on your whole body. Cuz as soon as your insulin spikes, it drops. What goes up must come down. And this signals your body to go into survival. So now you got high cortisol and you're just like, oh no, I just had berries for breakfast. I feel fine. Yeah, until you're diabetic. So I'm looking at all those precursors of insulin resistance and nutrition and lifestyle. Oh no, I work out at, at 7:00 PM after work. Oh my God, that's the worst time for you to work out based on your metabolism, based on your biochemistry. You already have high cortisol. Now you're jacking it up at 7 o'clock at night. This is horrible for your hormones and your brain, right? So I'm looking at all of these pieces to help individualize care. So that people would say, well, no, I'm exercising. Well, it's not working for you. We gotta shift it. You know, what kind of exercise and when are you doing it and how often and da da da da da, and how's your recovery and how's this? And it makes a difference. So I, you know, I think people, especially women, as we age, we need to be front-loading our protein. We need like 50 to 60 grams of protein in the morning. This is super important for us to get that protein in the morning. So for most women, especially as we're aging, fasting in the morning is not good for us. And a lot of people are promoting fasting and it, it food restriction for a certain number of hours, 18 hours or whatever. And I actually think for some people it's very good, but for most women, it's better for them to restrict at night, which is when they want a snack, right? Then in the morning. Now, if women start eating higher protein in the morning, they're not gonna wanna snack as much at night. So we have to flip some of these habits for certain women based on their health goals, what their labs are showing us, what their symptoms are, their history, their genetics. How's this sounding, Lindsey? Have you heard this all before? Is this relatively new?

Well, I mean, the stuff, the, the ozone and what all the stuff that requires you to be physically in person. Obviously you have to find a practitioner who lives near you. So, so I mean, I don't, I don't dabble in those things so much, but, but yeah, exercise timing, of course I know that, yeah, you shouldn't be spiking your cortisol at 7 at night. I, I do exercise at 4 though, because I literally cannot exercise in the morning. I do not have enough anything in me to do it. I will feel completely exhausted and weak and just can't do it. It's always been that way. Hey, this is Lindsey here, just letting you know that if you're tired of dealing with digestive issues like bloating, indigestion, soft stool, diarrhea, constipation, reflux, IBS, IBD, or the numerous health conditions that come about when your gut is off, like brain fog, weight gain, UTIs, fatigue, mental health issues, or complex conditions like fibromyalgia and ME/CFS, that's my specialty. With my 3 or 5 session gut health coaching packages, We'll discuss different stool and functional medicine tests to find out the root cause of your symptoms. I'll interpret the results and provide clear explanations, empowering you to make informed choices for your gut and overall health. And together we'll develop a customized action plan based on your test results so you can find relief and regain your health and vitality. I come from a functional medicine perspective, trying to incorporate the latest peer-reviewed research and educating you on protocols used by functional medicine practitioners, but devoting lots of time and support to my clients the way a doctor simply can't. If you're interested in a 3 or 5 session coaching package, you can sign up for complimentary 30-minute breakthrough session. Or if you can only afford one appointment at a time, you can book an initial 60-minute consultation. Links for those are in the show notes. Now back to the show.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I'd be looking at that. I'd be looking at that and addressing that with nutrition and also starting you more slowly to build resiliency. I'd probably be giving you a shot or teaching you how to give yourself a shot of NAD+. Cause that's gonna give you energy and help you help build resilience in the morning. I'd be looking at that. You may have that because your, your Bs are low. You may have that because of other autoimmune issues. You may have that because of blood sugar. I'd like to know your fasting blood sugar, and if it's too low, then it's signaling to me like, ooh, yeah, it's not a good time to work out.

It's like 100. Fasting blood sugar is like 100. A1C was 5.3 and insulin was 3.

Okay. So fasting blood sugar at 100 is too high.

It is. But if everything else is good, if I don't have insulin resistance, what does that—

No, you do have insulin resistance.

Well, I mean, my insulin was 3, so.

Doesn't matter. I didn't, I'm not saying you have low or high insulin. I'm saying you have insulin resistance. That's different. And over time. We will see the impact on your insulin levels, your hemoglobin A1C, and your blood sugar. High blood sugar is toxic to your body. You cannot have high blood sugar without an insulin issue. It's not possible. You have high blood sugar, you have an insulin issue. I don't really care what they say your insulin is because they're not testing you all day long.

Mm-hmm.

They're testing one tiny snapshot, probably when you were fasting. Interesting.

So do you recommend the, what are they called? The continuous glucose monitors to see what's going on?

You could do it. That doesn't, that doesn't test insulin, but that tests blood sugar. And I love a continuous glucose monitor because you'll start to see your patterns. Like for me, if I eat after 7, I'm in trouble. I can have only protein after 7 and my blood sugar will spike. Right. Cause I'm 52. Yeah.

No, I've contemplated getting one of those multiple times.

And my body's like, oop, insulin resistance. So you've got to get your blood sugar down to protect your brain. So sugar in your blood is toxic. This is why people have diabetes. My mom, for example, just got a couple of toes amputated cuz she had chronic infections into the bone because she's not getting circulation. So what blood sugar does is it also damages. Your nerves. This is why diabetics get neuropathy. My mom can't feel her feet, so she didn't know she had chronic sores because she can't feel them. This is from high blood sugar over time damaging the nerves. So even if they say your insulin's fine, your hemoglobin A1C is fine, you're fine, you're not. Your blood sugar is high and it is currently damaging your organs, including your brain. You must get that down. You must get it down. So high-intensity interval exercise helps sensitize your red blood cells to insulin again. So what happens with insulin resistance is the insulin's going fine. Oh, you'll measure it fine. But I think of it as insulin has a key to open a cell door, the door in your cell to usher in blood sugar. Sugar that's in your blood so that the cell can use it for energy. Is that the most efficient use of blood sugar? No, it's not. Actually, the best use of energy are ketones, not, not sugar. Okay. So what happens when you're insulin resistant, it's as if they change the lock. Your cells change the lock on the door. Insulin comes along because it's like, oh, your blood sugar is 100. Uh-oh. I better, I better move this blood sugar into the cells right away. And it puts the key in the hole and it doesn't work. And your insulin's like, uh-oh, pump out more insulin, pump out more insulin. We've got high blood sugar. And your pancreas, the insulin cells are pumping out more insulin and it's not helping. So you've got to sensitize— over time, that will be diabetes. I see it all the time. So we need to sensitize your cells to insulin, which means make sure the lock and the key fit. So that insulin can continue ushering in blood sugar from the blood. Ketones are much more efficient. You are a candidate for working with ketones. There is one company that I like for exogenous ketones, Medical Health Solutions, because a lot of the ketones are made on this butyrate molecule and it's not good. They make it on a glycerin molecule. So it's really good for you. And I have a, on my website under products, I have an affiliate link for them. I love their products and you don't have to eat keto. I have a history of gallbladder stuff in my family. I'm the only person in my family that still has her gallbladder. I can't do, I wrote a book on keto. I wrote a book on keto. I can't do keto anymore.

No, I can't either. I did it and had had Gallbladder pain too, within a month.

So, right, can't do it, but I can do my ketones and I can do them at night and be in ketosis all night long, burning fat for fuel. So what the research says on this product, not on general products, on this product, what the research shows is that you go into ketosis within 45 minutes.

So you're taking it in order to go into ketosis and bring your blood sugar down essentially over the night.

Or no, you're not just bringing your blood sugar down, which bringing your blood sugar down can be a side effect. What you're doing is you're training your cells to use ketones for fuel, which is much more efficient for your metabolism than blood sugar. Like waking up in the morning tired, unable to work out. I'm looking at insulin, blood sugar, insulin resistance. I'm looking at a lot of things. But that's one of them. So what happens if now all night you're burning ketones for fuel? Guess what? Your brain works better. You wake up with more energy. You feel fresh. You're able to tackle your day. You're not groggy. It's a miracle. I feel this. I noticed an instant difference with my brain.

How much do you take?

I take 2 ounces, 1 to 2 times a day.

Wow. 2 ounces is a lot.

2 ounces is the dose. Well, it comes in a, well, it comes in a big bottle. I, it's cheaper if you buy it in a big bottle. You can get shots, but it's like twice the price because it's a lot more packaging. So I take 2 ounces, 1 to 2 times a day, no food, empty stomach. And then you wait at least an hour. So if I take it in the morning, like this morning I took it. And this morning I waited an hour and a half before I ate so that I'm in ketosis. And then the first thing in my mouth is protein. It's not fruit, it's not carbohydrates, it's vegetables or protein. First thing in my mouth. So now I'm training my body to burn fuel more efficiently. Makes a massive difference. So high-intensity interval exercise, considering taking an exogenous Ketone to help your metabolism, to help your whole body, your brain, and looking at how and when you eat and exercise, how and when can make a big difference.

Okay. I wanted to make sure I asked this question related to hypochlorhydria and lack of pancreatic enzymes. So what markers on basic blood tests like a CBC or a CMP can tell us about those things?

Look at my book. There's probably 15. Yeah.

Oh, okay.

There's a lot of different markers that I will look at and depending on if it's low or high, I then tag it as that's a hypochloridia, but there's a bunch and I list them in my book.

Okay.

There's a bunch. Yeah. Because this is, this is, cuz I wanted people to be empowered to be able to look at their lab and find the basics. And so I put that one in, in my book cuz it's, I think it's important cuz people think, no, I'm digesting fine. But if I can tell you have low hypochloridium, low HCl stomach acid, I know you're not. Mm-hmm. And then I'm, I'm looking at why. Is it age? Is it because you're eating in the car because you're dropping your kids off at school in the morning and you're fast eating or you're not eating well, or you're eating packaged stuff or you're not chewing, or there's so many factors. The time of day, if you're eating really late at night, you're not going to digest it as well. There are so many factors.

So in our, uh, intro call, you said you could see old emotional or ancestral patterns in a lab, and I'm wondering if you could give me any examples, either from my blood work or from a past client that you've had that where you saw something like that and what you, what clued you in.

Thanks for asking. It's an unusual thing with labs that most people don't address, so I use the labs and I use my connection to the person. I also do face reading, body reading. I'm certified at a master's level in something called psychosomatics, which out of the country of Australia is a modality of face, hand, body reading. We put people on a plumb line and we, it like the soul expresses itself through the body. So I'm looking at that. I'm also trained in Asian medicine, so I'm also looking at someone's constitution. And I work in a, in a lot of other kind of spiritual shamanic-y ways. And for example, let's just talk autoimmunity and looking at a lab that has autoimmune and immune dysfunction. And I'm, I'm looking at how that person is in the world. Are they super open? Do, are they more reserved? And, and I'm looking at their lab. How are their boundaries in their relationships with me, with others? I'm asking them about their, their relationship to their significant other or their children or their parents or their friends. And then I'm looking at their labs. And when someone has autoimmunity, there's a part of them that doesn't want to be here. Autoimmunity is your body attacking and killing itself, and it's unconscious. Sometimes people might be suicidal and they don't wanna be here. That's not necessarily what I'm talking about. This is sneakier. It's unconscious, and it's usually attributed to unresolved trauma that is locked in the nervous system from when we were little. And this often shows up in various autoimmune patterns, and depending on what organ is being attacked. For example, us, it was our thyroid. And then I'm looking at, well, this is the avenue of our expression. How were we able or unable to express ourselves when we were little? Were feelings okay? Or was it dangerous? Was my voice valued? Or was it hushed? Or screamed at? Or beaten? So I now am assessing, okay, avenue of expression, throat, throat chakra, speaking our truth. Did we have an opportunity to speak our truth? Did we learn how to? How are we doing it now, if at all? So I start asking a lot more questions. I get really curious and, and there's something that happens in those conversations for me, it's like I'm listening to the ecosystem of that person's being, but with, with like Rudolf Steiner teaches to the 12 senses, right? But it's with senses that you can't all see. It's not just my eyes. And so when I'm looking at a lab and I have the lab and I have the person's intake forms and how they filled it out. And what they wrote, what they skipped. And then I have a consult with a person and I'm feeling into that. I take all of that together and I start to get information and I start to hear, I literally hear it in my head, or I have a vision or I have a dream. And then I get curious about that and I bring it up to the person. And depending on that person's constitution, I might bring it up really softly or like I work with some people in corporate and I'm just like direct. I'm like, hey, this, and they want it. They're like, I just don't sugarcoat it. Give it. And I give it and that's what they want. I just call them forward. It's like rapid coaching. It's like, wait, you just did this and I saw that and then you did this and then, and they're like, boom, boom, boom. And they can catch all those balls and process it more quickly. And then other people have a lot more unresolved trauma and I have to introduce it more softly because there's so much pain that's been unresolved or so much lack of tools to move through and process the pain through their system, that then I'm teaching them more tools and how to do that. And the more I teach the tools and the more they implement, the more that comes to surface and then is processed out. So I have to say it, there's not just a one way I do it. It's very individual. It's, it's a way I teach other practitioners to feel into the other person and their being and how they are in the world. Does that sort of answer your question? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I know, especially as it relates to autoimmunity, that makes a lot of sense.

Yeah. Yeah. I love doing parts work and I kind of integrate, you know, internal family systems and non-dual Buddhism and kind of zooming in, zooming out and working with Sedona Method and Byron Katie's work, The Work, and I kind of combine a bunch of different stuff into my own secret sauce and, and help people unravel what's been locked in their unconscious. So a lot of therapy can be very beneficial because we need to hear ourselves name things and talk about things and be validated by someone. But I can't say standard therapy helps people change the behaviors, the patterns, and the unconscious blocks. Sometimes it points it out, but usually it doesn't offer a tool that can actually change it in a short period of time. And we have those tools. We actually do. They're just not used enough. I think, I think a lot of psychotherapists and therapists, counselors are just aren't trained in how to actually unravel the unconscious with someone and really help them move beyond. I have a couple of, of people I refer other people to because I've found some really good practitioners, but I, I've had to go through a lot of pretty bad ones and I think they're doing their best, but their training is still within a Western medical model in a way that invites talking about, and the more we talk about it, the doesn't equate processing and getting rid of it or shifting it or upgrading it or unraveling it. We can just keep talking about it. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, unfortunately we are running out of time. So let me just ask, number one, where you're based out of and then where people can find you.

Yes. So I'm based out of several places. I live in Costa Rica and then I also work in Colorado. I'm licensed in Colorado and Arizona. And then I also travel and teach people around the country and, and have people come to me for retreats. I also do online work. I work with people online in various programs, and I do functional blood chemistry analysis online. So there are different ways that people can find me to, to work with me. And I have a website that we'll, we'll put in the show notes, kristingracemcgary.com. My name is spelled differently. K-R-I-S-T-I-N-G-R-A-Y-C-E-M-C-G-A-R-Y.com.

Great. We'll put that in the show notes. Thank you so much for sharing generously with us.

Thank you, Lindsey, for having me. I really appreciate it.

Well, I thought I was in pretty good health, but it would appear I'm on death's door, so that was great. No, not really, but I guess I, along with everyone else, am a work in progress and can always do better for my health. Anyway, you can support the podcast by buying supplements at a discount from my Fullscript dispensary, ordering tests at a discount from my Rupa Health Lab Store, or using my affiliate links to iHerb. Which is available worldwide on Amazon. And just a note that you can use my Amazon link to buy anything, so I'd appreciate it if you'd bookmark my link and use it not just for supplements but for gifts and everyday items to support the podcast. If you'd like to connect with me online, you can follow my High Desert Health Facebook page, join my Gut Healing Facebook group, or join my newsletter list at highdeserthealthcoaching.com, as well as follow me on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and X. Links for those are in the show notes. Thanks for joining me today, and here's wishing you all the perfect stool.