439: Critical Connection Between Parasites, Toxins, and Aging No One Mentions with Laura Frontiero

And the remarkable thing is when you actually start solving gut issues, the mental pieces start to dissipate.

Welcome to Midlife Conversations. I'm your host, Natalie Jill, and I'm passionate about having amazing conversations that matter to us midlife women. On this podcast, I do what I do best, taking complicated health topics and breaking them down simply so that we can optimize aging together. I share actionable steps to help you thrive in what I believe are our best years to come. Join me as I interview the most inspiring people living their best midlife years and dive into essential topics like hormone changes, health optimization, weight management, blood sugar, emotional well being, relationships, beauty, and so much more. Are parasites really something we should be concerned about? How important is gut health, or is it really just a trending topic right now? How concerned do we actually need to be about environmental toxins and food toxins, or are they just in everything? And what's the connection between mold and heavy metal exposure and stubborn weight gain that many experience in midlife? These and a lot more questions I have are what we're going to be talking about today on Midlife Conversations with the Gut Genie, Laura Frontero, one of my favorite guests. How to bring her back. Thank you so much for being here today, Laura.

Oh, it's always a pleasure, Natalie. This is going to be a fun talk. I cannot wait to answer all these questions and share this. There's so many myths and misconceptions and just plain wrong information out there about how to solve it so much.

And I just want to start with just some kind of shocking stats I just pulled and I ran them by you right before we hit record. I want to go, is this really true? This is kind of nuts. So I read that 78% of Americans report digestive issues, but never connect them to chronic fatigue or brain fog. I read that average person is exposed to over 200, 200 environmental toxins and chemicals daily that directly damage cellular function and how we age. I also read that mold, mold is present in nearly 50% of homes and can trigger over 30 different symptoms that doctors often misdiagnose as other things. And then this one was. Was crazy. That even supposedly healthy people can harbor parasites that silently drain their energy and compromise immunity. And that over 50% of people this can apply to. Is that. Are these stats? These are crazy.

Well, all of those are accurate and I would argue conservative. I think those numbers are actually worse. And I'm basing this on what I see anecdotally in our community. So we have thousands of people in my community with symptoms caused by these things. And I think that those statistics are actually missing a huge amount of people. I think it's worse than that.

Yes, Natalie, I believe that every single one of those statistics is true. And I would argue that those are conservative statistics. That means that they're actually worse than that. And I base this on what I see in the community at large and what people come to me for, for their symptoms and their conditions. We definitely see more than 78% of people with gut problems and brain concentration, you know, productivity problems. This is an epidemic, and the reports are underwhelming.

Wow. Okay. I got. I got a million questions for you today, but for those of you that have are new to my podcast, you haven't listened before. I've had Laura on, I don't know, 5 million times. I've lost count at this time. I've had her on so many times before. And the reason is she's a personal friend of mine. And I don't have to rehash the entire story, but the short version of the story is she's a personal friend of mine. We've been friends for years. Our daughters grew up together. Uh, she's like family to me. And when I was having my own health setbacks about two years ago now, like, really confused because to me it was just always nutrition and workout harder and, you know, what's going on here, and we just have to have the right mindset. And things started to really go haywire. And even though I was, you know, then over 50, I'm now 53. A lot of doctors just chalking it up to age, perimenopause, menopause. And it was a blood sugar dysregulation that started really getting my attention, and I couldn't control it. And Laura and I were just probably riffing on something, and I mentioned it, and she interrupted and said, you know, Natalie, blood sugar dysregulations could. Could be parasite related. And I literally looked at her like she was from outer space. I'm like, what? Take your woo woo parasite stuff and shove it. You're crazy.

Whatever. I was like, you're crazy.

So I didn't want to listen to her.

But, hey, that's a good friend who's willing to look crazy to help. True.

It's true. But I was like, that's Laura's business. But it's kind of like a surgeon that fixes, you know, bones. You're like, well, everything's a broken bone. Or, you know, it's like, whatever. I was just like, whatever. She thinks everything's a flipping parasite. So I thought she was crazy. However, she turned out to be right. We did this test, which we'll get into more about that. But we did this test and she was nervous during this test because she told me that most parasites don't actually show up on a test. And I promise I'll shut up in a minute and let Laura talk the backstory here, but my parasite showed up on a test, which is wild, so. So I kind of pushed.

Thank goodness. Thank goodness. Because it really got you motivated. I was. It did. It did. I was so grateful for that parasite.

So then I was like, well, get them the heck out of me. And she's like, no, you're not doing some crazy, ridiculous five day cleanse situation. Like, we're gonna go deeper here. So I followed her instructions. I didn't do antibiotics. I did, like, what she told me to do. And I started instantly feeling better. And she said, nat, we're not done yet. Something created this. Something caused it. And again, I didn't want to hear her. And she started planting little seeds like, hey, your breast implants. Hey, mold.

Hey. I was like, what?

Now you're really crazy. But you know what? As it turns out, she's not crazy. So fast forward. She's the expert. This is her stuff.

She.

Laura, tell us just a little bit about your background, like your Kaiser background and who you are.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, your story's remarkable because you had all those things. Right. I'll tell you about me, but I'm just thinking back, and I remember you found mold in your house. All the things. But, yeah, I'm a. I'm a nurse practitioner by training. I worked for 21 years for the largest HMO in America. That's Kaiser Permanente. Prescribed a lot of drugs, treated a lot of conventional medicine problems, and people didn't really get better. And about 15 years into my career, I found out about functional medicine. I found out about the gut microbiome, and I just started studying that. And once you know it, you can't unknow it. You can't look back. And I just knew that that wasn't for me anymore. Working in conventional medicine. I really wanted to work on the other side of the fence, really helping people solve the root causes of their issues. And, you know, I left Kaiser Ret, age 50 and never looked back. It's been incredible to just stay in this space. And I did overlap. I worked conventional medicine and practice functional medicine simultaneously for years.

I know. I remember that you're. I thought you were crazy then. I thought you were crazy a number of times, but you always turn out to be right.

I'm gonna remember you said that. Like, I'm gonna remind you of that next time.

She's typically always right, you guys, Laura is the one. So I give Laura so much credit for how I've transitioned, like, how I age and me, like, taking over in this whole idea of age optimizing and really wanting to help midlife women. I give Laura so much credit. I give you so much credit, Laura, that. That I've, like, literally, I bring her into my communities and programs a lot because I think if we don't address what she does, we miss a whole piece. And it's a disservice to not address this. So once again, I came prepared with lots of questions. And, Laura, I'm going to kind of rattle off some questions in an order. And these questions are coming in because of the number of episodes we've done before, the number of YouTube videos. These are questions that people keep asking. So I thought, let's just get them all in one place. So I'm going to rattle them off and you tell me if it's a dumb question or you want to answer it. But we're going to. We're going to go, okay, so first of all, let's start with parasites.

Yeah.

What parasitic infections are actually most in common, Most common but overlooked? Or is that, like, too general of a question?

But what are.

How much do we actually need to be looking at parasites?

Yeah, that's a really good question. So it's more common than we. Than people think. You know, statistically, World Health organization suggests that 50% of the population on the planet has a parasite. Again, I think that's an underwhelming statistic. And I say that because a lot of times we can't see parasites in testing because they don't just live in the gut. So we can do a gut test, which is a poop sample. Right. We look at it and see what DNA is in there. Is there parasite DNA in there? But the parasites can actually move right through the gut barrier. We've all heard of leaky gut, and those. Those tight junctions open up and parasites can move right through there into the bloodstream. They're very sneaky. They move around the body and they can set up shop other places. They like to live in your liver. They like to live in your joints.

Pancreas, in my case.

Yeah, pancreas. They like to live in the brain, even. We've always, we've all heard the crazy stories of like, I had a brain parasite.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I mean parasites can go everywhere. So I think that 50 is a low statistic. I think it's much greater. And, and the reason I think it's greater than who gives credit for is because toxins and parasite live together. And we are in a very toxic era of humanity right now. More toxic than ever in the history of humanity. And parasites act like a sponge to soak up toxins in the body. So they're actually helpers.

Yeah.

Soak up the toxins that would otherwise be collecting in your cells, in your organs, creating dysfunction in the body. And so in that sense, in that regard, parasites are a benefit. However, they come at a very high cost. I want you to think of it like, like your annoying friend that came homeless all of a sudden and moves in on your sofa. They become super like you love them.

To like, maybe they'll clean up your trash. But now, now they like, they take your trash.

But right, right now you're like, just get out of my space. I'm done with you. So, yes, you love this person. Yes, this person is fun to go on a, you know, out to dinner with and out to see a movie. But every day in your, in your house gets pretty over overwhelming. And that's what parasites do. They become very overwhelming to your body. They, they secrete toxins themselves, they steal your nutrients from you. So it's a big problem.

Okay, so before I ask the next question, I got my own question here. So this is a little controversial. So some people are going to send me like a hate message and. Please don't. I'm just asking the question. With RFK being in the Maha movement and everything, there was the whole thing going around about he said he had a brain worm. And so what's interesting is people thought he was cuckoo with that. But people like you were like, well, no, he probably did. Can you just speak into that for a minute?

Well, RFK had a brain worm. Like I haven't even heard that story.

Well, that was like a thing going around that something that people that he blamed some stuff on brainworm or brain. But I was like, when I heard, I don't, I don't know the whole story, but when I heard that, I was like, oh, Laura probably go, of course he had a brain worm.

Yeah, I mean I, I can't quote a scientific statistic for you on this one without doing a little research first. It's not in my archive of, of mem.

Brain parasites are not uncommon. Parasites anywhere in the body are not uncommon. You know, we do get these crazy sensational stories where, you know, somebody had a weird tumor in their brain or something and a brain surgeon went in there to solve it and opened it up and all of a sudden it's oh my gosh, there's parasites in there. I mean it's, it's wild, right?

Yeah.

And you know, we know parasites are very common, so. So you've heard of crazy cat lady syndrome? So yeah, that's probably caused by a parasite from ca. This is why we don't scoop the cat litter when we're pregnant, because there's parasites in the cat litter. Well, this exact same parasite that is in cat feces actually has an affinity for brain tissue and it goes straight to the brain. So it starts out probably ingesting it, breathing it, you know, you get it into your body, it goes into the brain and it's associated with neuro disorders, like, like mental disorders, including schizophrenia. So I would argue that the crazy cat lady is just a little off her rocker because she's got so much cat is in her house and the, and the parasites are going to her brain. I mean, very common.

So now that everybody listening is probably like, okay, well they're either think we're crazy or they're like okay, maybe I parasite. So then they go scroll social media and because their phones listen to them now all of a sudden they see a parasite cleanse and they're like, oh, so and so Influencer is selling a parasite cleanse. Do I need that? Can you speak into the Instagram or TikTok?

Parasite cleanses isn't one of my biggest soapboxes. So I mean, true story, like yesterday I was just teaching a class and like 500 people were just jumping in to listen. And one of the common questions that I got in the chat was, what's your parasite cleanse? How can I parasite cleanse? And here's what I want to say. You have to prepare your body to parasite cleanse. If you just jump straight into a cleanse without prepping your body first, that is going to make you feel lousy and quite frankly could be a little bit dangerous, it could be a little bit overwhelming. So once you start killing microbes, they've got to get out. Microbes being bacteria, viruses, fungus, parasites, they have to get out of the body. And so people get a die off reaction, a Herxheimer reaction, which is really uncomfortable. And I've had people that went to the ER because they had Such a bad herxheimer. They thought they were dying and they went to the ER just to be pumped with IV fluids and given something to help them poop and get their digestion going and sent home.

So it's not the cleanse itself making them sick, it's that yanking things out too quickly, too dangerously and your body's not prepared. So now whatever the parasites were cleaning up in your body, now that stuff is just exposed and making you sick. Is that the.

So you're killing parasites. They're releasing their toxins that are getting recirculated. Also the parasites themselves secrete toxins as they die and it's all just kind of being stuck and recirculating. So you have to open the body's plumbing first. Now I think of visual. For people, when they think of plumbing, they think of the outhole. Right? The plumbing is you poop out the bad stuff, you pee out the bad stuff. Yeah, but it's more to that. There's more to that. Your whole entire drainage pathways include a lot more than just the GI and urinary tract. So you want to support that. And the other piece, Natalie, is it requires a lot of cellular energy for your immune system to handle a die off reaction. And so you need to support mitochondrial energy production as well. And if you don't do that first and you all of a sudden go to cleansing and you're going to have no energy, you're just going to drop and just want to sleep all day. And most people I know have busy lives, children, jobs, responsibilities. And to be out for the count for a week because you parasite cleanse without prepping is not what people want to experience.

So is this the same thing? Okay, aside from a cleanse and you know, Mary the influencer selling you the five day cleanse, there's also machines out there now like the, the hockey. And there is, there's, there's all these like advanced biohacking machines that say if you go in this it clears out parasites. Is that the same kind of thing? Like it's just energy.

So it's using frequency to, to kill. So. Interesting you asked that. I had a friend of mine call me in an emergency a month ago saying I did a frequency parasite cleansing and my whole body has a full body rash and I am miserable and I literally am ready to go to the hospital. What do you want me to do? Like, okay, do like. So you still have to prep the body whether you're doing a frequency treatment. Yeah, herbal treatment, an antibiotic treatment, any treatment you still have to get the drainage pathways open in the mitochondrial energy supported. That's a great question. Yeah.

Because, like, I know, like, my gym has that, but I've wanted to go in it, but I'm like, no, I keep thinking like, well, I don't want to do that without being, like, fully prepped.

You know what to do, though, to open your drain?

Yeah, now I do. Yes, now I do. Because of you. Okay, I'm going to come back to parasites, but. Oh, actually, one more parasite parasite question, and then we'll kind of go into it. I have a lot of questions to ask you, but can you give us kind of a general idea of symptoms if you've got parasites? Because we already know, like, more than 50% people probably do. What are some of the things that it's affecting in our health? Like the noticeable symptoms that people are saying are probably aging.

Yeah. Okay. So this we see all the time. And I think that a lot of women can really relate to this. Your energy isn't what it used to be. Your brain function, cognition, it's just not as reliable. So maybe you find yourself kind of backing away from responsibilities if somebody asks you to help on a project or to be the lead on some kind of organizing something, and you're kind of like, I don't know. I don't think my. Internally, you're thinking, my brain can't keep up with that. You may have joint pain. You may have migraine headaches. Yeah. You may have disrupted sleep out of nowhere. Like, maybe you're taking bioidentical hormones and your thyroid is, like, dialed in and you still can't sleep. Or maybe you've done adrenal work. Could be parasites waking you up in the middle of the night. It's things like teeth grinding. It has to do with the parasite effect on the nervous system that creates that symptom of teeth grinding. I mean, there's some bizarre things with parasites. And then the obvious things, like if parasites are really active and coming out. Anal itching, things like that.

Oh, yeah. Talk about the anal itching.

Let's talk about that. Okay. Like, itching, like you feel like I scratch your butt.

Yeah. It's not okay, but is it? Wait, she told me this. Like, totally grossed me out, but I'm just gonna share it. She said that it's because they kind of come out there to lay eggs.

Yeah. And it's irritating to the skin. Right. It's. It's irritating to the.

If you see someone scratching their butt, they probably have.

Don't touch don't touch what?

They scratch their butt.

The eggs get under their fingernails and in there, and they touch things and spread, spread, spread. Right. The big one is kids in sandboxes and playgrounds.

Like, oh, yeah, because they're touching their butt and then touching the sandbox and touching them.

Kids, like, touch their butt, they touch their mouth, they put their finger up their nose, and then they touch another kid. I mean, yeah, kids are vectors.

Yeah. I've kind of learned if you have kids or animals, you probably have parasites. Okay.

My daughter had a parasite when I first tested her as a child. Wow. I don't think I've ever told you that story.

No, I'm sure Penelope does, but she refuses to, like, listen, about the.

Bella probably gave it to Penelope.

They have to figure this out on their own. Right. Like, we can't tell people like, you have a parasite. Although that's not true. I did tell Brooks he had to do a cleanse, and he did. So. And then he was like, pictures.

And Brooks didn't show his test. Gut test didn't show parasites. And then one day he's sending me crazy pictures of his parasites coming.

Yeah. He was, like, scooping them out and sending you pictures of them. I didn't want to see the pictures, but, yes, he did that. Okay, let me. I'm going to. I'm going to talk. Connect us a little bit to Gut Health here. And we're going to. We'll come back to parasites. Don't worry, y'.

All.

But talk to us about. Because we hear a lot about gut health. Like, gut is your next brain. Gut's important. Like, can you explain that? What do people mean by gut is your second brain?

Yeah. Well, because there's a direct line of communication. So just think of it like high speed Internet between your brain and your gut. It's that high speed Internet connection is called the vagus nerve. And what happens in the gut happens in the brain. And signals go back and forth between both organs. Think of your gut like an organ, that whole biome and everything. And so you automatically, if something. If something inflammatory and destructive to the gut occurs, you get an inflammation in the brain. So if you've ever heard of neuroinflammation, yes, it can be caused by a traumatic brain injury when you hit your head, but it can also be caused by gut dysfunction. So that's one of the reasons that people have all these cognitive symptoms now. Cognitive symptoms. Symptoms can be anything from brain fog. I can't rely on my brain anymore, to anxiety, to quick Quick shifts in mood where you, you're fine and then you're angry or maybe you're suffering from depression. All of this can be related to what's happening in the gut. And the remarkable thing is when you actually start solving gut issues, the mental pieces start to dissipate. You know, we've run thousands of people through our programs, Natalie, and we've actually asked them entrance and exit questionnaires and we've compiled all and ran statistics on it. And it's crazy. Like, our improvement in brain function alone from like a three month gut restoring protocol is like 85% improvement.

Wow.

And mood, 75% improvement in anxiety. Never taking an anxiety drug, a depression drug, talk therapy, neurofeedback, not doing any of those things. They had a 75% improvement in mood.

That's wild. Okay, I know I'm scratching the surface on things. I'm going to share with everyone how to go a lot deeper. Don't worry. But I want to cover as much as we can in this, in this short session. Fermented foods. People say, I don't have gut problems because I eat fermented foods. Do fermented foods really help? How much do they help? And tell us about that.

They might actually hurt you. So really, why? Well, if you have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth sibo, those fermented foods just make things worse. If you have mast cell histamine intoler tolerance, fermented foods just make things feel worse because you're feeding the bacteria that are creating the problem. So I actually, in my programs, I don't push fermented foods in the beginning. It's not even a part. But if your gut is restored and healthy, fermented foods are amazing. So. So I don't want people to misconstrue.

Yeah, you're not going to heal it.

From Laura said, don't eat fermented foods. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying some of you may actually feel worse if you have fermented Candida. It's going to feel worse if you have fermented food. So this is the problem, Natalie. So the gut microbiome was discovered, Right. I should say acknowledged by Western medicine in like the year 2001, something like that. So that's only 24 years ago. And 24 years ago, these experts who had started investigating the microbiome came out with all these protocols of like, do this, do this, do this to restore your gut. The problem was it's just kind of one size fits all and based on old knowledge, it's 24 years later, some things, and the old school protocols that used to work or that people used to do and say, I feel bad when I do this. We know why now we know why these protocols don't work. And so you've got to take an updated approach. And that's what we did with you, was an updated approach to gut restoration. And a lot of practitioners don't know how to do it, sadly.

So a lot of people will say, I don't have like stomach pain or I don't have bloating, or I don't have gut. But you would still, I would imagine you're still saying, we still have to look at this.

Oh, gosh, I'm so glad you said that. So I would argue that over 50% of people, probably more like 75% of people with gut microbiome dysregulation don't have gut symptoms. So what do I mean, like, by that? You might not have abdominal pain, bloating, digestive issues, constipation, diarrhea. You may say, n. Really? That's not me. I don't have digestive problems. But you might have brain fog, anxiety, joint pain, migraine headaches, dermatitis, eczema, an autoimmune disorder. Yeah, that's a sign of leaky gut. All of those things are. You don't, you don't have to have bloating and indigestion and constipation or diarrhea to have leaky gut. You might not. Yes, that might not be your symptom profile. It could be completely different.

So this is where it gets a little bit confusing because it's my understanding that menopause can also impact gut function. But then a lot of these gut function symptoms also can be mistaken for menopause.

Yeah.

So how do we know?

Well, because the gut is centrally important to hormone production. And so there is a connection between menopause, gut dysregulation and symptoms that are hormone type symptoms. So it's an interesting phenomenon. So giving somebody hormones is not actually the solution for most menopause symptoms. It's a little bit bigger than that. So what we find in our community is when we fix the gut, people need less hormones. So their hormone prescriptions go down. When they go to test their hormones, you know, every six to 12 weeks after healing, gut will find, oh, your progesterone, estrogen, testosterone levels. It's all better than it was.

Totally.

Like, you don't actually need to take as much same with thyroid. Same with, you know, if you're dia. If you have diabetes. Same with finding your blood sugar is going down, down, down, and maybe you need less medication. We see this all the time. I mean, this is a common report in our community is my thyroid medication went down, my hormones went down. Like, I'm feeling so good. Yeah, yeah. There's a direct connection there, and people think it's manifest menopause, and it's good.

Okay, this is going to be a weird question. I didn't even have this listed. It just kind of didn't come from anyone else. But it's. I'm going to ask it because I'm guilty of confusing people because I'm. I bring on so many different topics because I think they're all important. Like, we have to be our own health detective. So no matter who I bring in, you know, depending on the. What their field is, they kind of say that's the most important order of operation. So, for example, we just did a whole series around thyroid. And like Dr. Amy will say, like thyroid is. If the thyroid's not optimal, nothing works. If I were to interview Dr. Anna, she would say, if the hormones aren't optimal, nothing works. And then I know with you and your train of thought and what I learned from you is if your gut's not optimal, nothing else works. So I know you're friends with all these people, too, and these are all my friends and my experts, but help us figure this out. And how do you steer somebody to what to look at first?

Yeah, absolutely. So all of it's important and they aren't wrong. Right. So if your thyroid isn't working, you're not going to feel good. If your hormones are off, you're not going to feel good. My job is to be the detective of what's underneath these things. So in my community, I 100% tell them, work with Amy, work with Anna. You need to have these things dialed in. And as we repair your gut and as we remove your toxins and as we get your mitochondria online, your prescriptions for these things are going to shift and adjust. It's not wrong to work on these things. You know, it's interesting. People start their healing process where they feel drawn to. And some people start with thyroid. People might start with hormones and they may add gut last. That's not wrong. If you've already started somewhere else in the chain of health, you can always return to gut and support that. But just be prepared that your labs are probably going to change.

That makes Sense in a good way.

But it's all important. You really can't. You really can't function well without hormones.

And I will say, and I know all of you agree with this, and I'm going to say it again, but what's most important before even any of that is dialing in your nutrition and your movement and your hydration and your mindset. Like, you have to get those, like a lot of you that have come through thrive. That is an important first step because you have to clean that up first or we're not really getting a clear vision of any of it.

And also, you know, Amy and Anna, Dr. Amy, Dr. Anna, they are both functional medicine doctors, and they will also agree that, that you can't ignore your gut to solve that. They just end up referring out to people like me, like, go do Laura's gut program and, and do your hormones at the same time. Like, that's very common.

But for those of you listening, if you're like, well, I get confused, where do I start?

I think it's that the, the, the.

Problem and the solution is that it's all important. It's really.

In an ideal world, you would start with gut. Yeah.

And I have that in the order of my. If you look at, like, my thrive sequence, I put gut first. I mean, it's like as I do the nutrition and gut and I. Because that's kind of where my brain goes and then thyroid and then. So I think. But everyone, anyone, when you're looking at your own health, you have to figure out, like, what feels right to you.

Let's.

Let's move into. I want to. There's still like, I want to talk about mitochondrial and then environmental toxins. I want to ask you a little bit about mitochondria, because mitochondria to me seems to be the new trending topic. That's. Now it was. It was God health. Now it's mitochondria. And everyone's talking about senescent cells and mitochondria. And then we get confused like, like urolithin A. And do I just do polyphenols? And my red light helps help us here.

Okay, okay.

What is. What the frick is micro mitochondria? Why is everyone say, talk about this now?

Well, it's so funny because, you know, mitochondria have always been important. It's just now there's a spotlight shining on mitochondria. There's always something, right? It's either gut or it's this or it's that. That's the new trend. So you're not wrong there. But the thing is, mitochondria aren't new. Mitochondria are actually ancient. They've been with us since the beginning of time. So mitochondria actually make our energy inside of our cells. Now, I just want to preface this.

Now I just want to preface this as the types of energy in the body. So there's the cellular energy that I call invisible energy that you don't notice is happening, right? So when you're sleeping, your body is repairing tissues, you're making hor, you're digesting, you're doing all kinds of really amazing things, but you don't know what's happening. You're asleep. Every breath you take, every heartbeat, every, everything your body's doing, functioning, humming along. That's what I call invisible energy. It's cellular energy. Then there's the energy you feel every day to get you through your day. And many people here listening have either they wake up with no energy or they have a midday slump or they're just exhausted all day long. That's kind of the energy we notice. It's all the same energy. And your body will rob Peter to pay Paul. So your body will steal from your physical energy stores to allow the cellular energy to happen. Because that's the most important thing, right? If your heart doesn't beat and your lungs don't breathe like you, you're not going to live. So that's the most in your brain. Your brain has a lot, uses a lot of energy. So mitochondria have always been here. And I said it. In 2022, I did my first mitochondria summit and I'm like, this is going to be the new thing, this.

Yeah.

And you're right, going, and now it's 2025 and it's everywhere, online everywhere, everywhere. And so it's very important and actually I'm very glad that it' because you can't heal if you don't support mitochondria. So all those things you just listed, urolithin, a red light therapy, like getting rid of senescent cells, growing new mitochondria, mitogenesis, all of it's important. There's a lot of strategies to do it. You know, you can cold plunge, you can sauna, you can take certain supplements.

You can even being out in the sun and just that's helping with it too.

All of it is important. I like to give people quick, easy wins. Like for example, if I had to cold plunge every day I'd be a no go. I think it's hell. I hate doing it. I'm full disclos. I don't cold plunge. I like more of a heat seeker.

I don't want to be cold.

I hate it.

So like you honestly be cold and wet.

What? Why? Yeah, so every day I take a mitochondria supplement. It's really simple. It's CoQ10 and PQQ stuff. Your energy levels, it's amazing. And so, you know, this is something that we incorporate into our protocols. While we're healing gut, while we're detoxing, just take a little mitochondria support as we go. If you feel up to it, do some cold plunging, do some, some sauna, do all these other things that totally mitochondria, but support your mitochondria.

That makes sense. And I, I have definitely featured and I do believe in things like, like mito pure, which is URL as an A and I and I and all. And I love red light, so they've all heard me talking about that. And I love my infrared sauna, which I know you have too. So all of that stuff I believe helps. This is one, just one more thing on mitochondria because this is, this is an interesting connection here. I had in my mind created this analogy. Maybe it's completely off, but like if you were to eat a bunch of junk food and then try to put a healthy salad on top, the healthy salad is not going to undo all the junk food.

Is that like putting lipstick on a pig?

Yeah, kind of. I guess that it would be, but I would. I think that with mitochondrial, it's kind of like that. Am I wrong? Like you kind of have to clean up the other stuff first before you could just start adding all the, like cold, plunging and everything else.

Well, okay, that's a great question. So you. It's funny, I was having a conversation with somebody about this earlier today. You can actually get some benefit of if you support mitochondria, even if you haven't dialed everything else in. And here's what I've noticed, Natalie. It's critical that you eat well, that you move your body, that you sleep, that you hydrate, that you get your mindset dialed in. All of that is critical to your healing process. If you can get a quick little win on energy and brain function, it makes you more motivated to do the other things. So I like to layer it together. And we're never going to discount the importance of these things, but I find that people are more motivated if they feel a little better.

That makes sense. I agree with that. Okay, how do maybe you kind of answered this, but I'm going to ask it very direct. How do gut problems, like undiagnosed gut problems, parasites, leaky gut, affect our mitochondria?

Oh, they just destroy them.

So your poor mitochondria, they need a healthy, clean, nutritious environment. Environment to thrive. And your gut is responsible for the, the very first phase of nutrient assimilation and utilization by the body is digestion. And you put the food in, you digest it. The gut does that. The gut also puts together and makes nutrients out of the raw ingredients that you're putting into your body. So you make B vitamins in there, for example. And so that needs to get into the cell. So that's the first thing is the gut needs to be able to do that to get the nutrients. Yes. To the mitochondria, so they can make energy. The other piece that's critical is toxins. So I want you to think of all of your cells have receptor sites like doors and windows opening and closing. Well, what toxins do is they, they board up the doors and windows. They block them so they can't open. Those doors and windows in the cells need to open for nutrients to get in. If nutrients can't get in, mitochondria can't build energy. So it's all related. You cannot fit fix the problem without actually addressing gut and toxins. It's absolutely critical.

Okay, one more question on mitochondria and then I'm gonna get into toxins with mitochondria. Give us in like, like you're talking to a five year old. Help us, because this is. I've asked everyone I've interviewed about mitochondria this, but I'm gonna see if you can be the winner here. Okay? Pretend like you're talking to a five year old.

What?

What? Why do we have to fix our mitochondria? What does it do? What it what? What the frick is it doing? Is it making us look younger, feel younger, making us smarter, harder? I want to hear it like you.

Would tell a five year old, okay?

Because nobody answers this clearly. Sorry, Laura, putting you on the spot here.

Oh my gosh. I'm not. I wasn't prepared for this.

Okay, so, okay, a 10 year old maybe.

I think I kind of already started answering this when I explained invisible and physical energy. So. And we've also talked about earlier in this discussion how people are pulling back in their lives and they're not doing the things that Light them up. Because they don't trust their bodies, their energy, their brain. They don't trust they can actually, actually follow through. So then they end up letting people down. So I think the most simplistic way to answer this is all the things you desire in your life. Strong relationships, excelling at work, being the best parent ever. Being able to spend time with your friends and build community. Being just excellent in every area of your life.

Your five year old being the strongest on the playground.

Yes. And it requires just the parenting skills. Right. To make that child the best on the playground. It requires cellular energy at the absolute root and the core of everything you want to achieve in your life. If you don't have that energy source to make all those things happen in your life, we're going to be a dim version of yourself. You are not going to get everything you desire out of life. I hope that helps.

I think that helps. So, so let me try. I'm going to try say it back again because I think this gets confusing people. So if so, when we do things, things like energy drinks or take caffeine or do all these other things, we are borrowing fake energy. That's not creating energy.

No.

If you've got strong mitochondrial health, it's coming from your cells, it's from within.

It'S intrinsic, it's coming.

Okay, yes, so that's true. So, and I think that's why, and I've been trying to connect the dots lately, I think that's why like you go out and you're spending outside all day, you're in the sun, you're in nature without. You are stimulating mitochondria. So you are, that's why you feel more energy. Is that accurate?

Absolutely. I want you to think back to when all the people here listening, I want you to think back to when your children or grandchildren had so much energy and they exhausted you. You're like, where is this coming from? How does this child have so much energy? I remember my daughter like that. She. People come up to me and say, your daughter has more energy than any child and it's not hyperactivity. She had really healthy mitochondria. She had really. So I want you to think back in your life. When did you feel the strongest? When was the peak in your life? Was it in your teens? Was it in your 20s? In your 30s? And I want you to think going back to that, what it's going to take is building back mitochondria energy. There's nothing like the natural high of real intrinsic energy makes Sense. It feels so good. And I know you know this. You're literally addicted to health. You're literally addicted. There's. It feels so good. And we hear this all the time from our clients. Right? Right. Like, I didn't remember that life could feel this good and my body could feel this good. I had normalized all those terrible symptoms. Like, that was just the normal part of aging.

I, I noticed like, like just even sitting here interviewing you. I've got all kinds of blue lights staring at me. Right. I've got three monitors right now.

Blue light.

I've got big LED lights in front of me. I'm sitting. I'm doing all the things wrong right now while I'm talking to you.

So.

And I feel it. Like, I'll get off. And I feel, Feel great. And then the first thing I want to do is go walk outside or get outside. And it kind of like to undo it so you can start really feeling that stuff. I think the more healthy you get or the more in touch you get with your. With cleaning things up.

I want to say one more thing, Natalie, and I don't think people realize it. Mitochondrial decline is the reason for cancer. It is the reason for heart disease. It is the reason for Alzheimer's. It is the reason for neurodegenerative disorders. It's the reason for chronic disease. When your mitochondria are healthy, then chronic disease is almost impossible in the human body. So just as a. That alone should motivate people to get this fixed.

That's really key. I love that.

That's my motivation. Like, I want to. I want to live. I want to be this strong when I'm 80.

Okay. I want to talk about. I know we're. I'm taking up a lot of time here, but I want to talk about environmental toxins. And then we're going to kind of put all this back together. So let's talk about toxins. Because another trendy topic is everything's toxic. And the thing is, is everything is freaking toxic. So how. What do we do about it? We just live in a bubble.

Like, what do we do? No, it's impossible. And I have full disclosure. Like, I color my hair. I'd be fully gray if I didn't. I don't. I have my toxins that are non negotiable. I'm human. And so you need to get really good at the things that are negotiable in your life and the things that you have control over. So you have control over what you brush your teeth with. You have control over what you wash your hair with. You have control over, over your lotions and your deodorant. You have control over what food you buy at the store. You have control over the cleaning products that you're using in your home. So all of these things make a big difference when you switch to healthy products from all the whole spectrum food, body products, cleaning products, all of it, what you cook your food in. And it doesn't need to happen overnight. Natalie, you can, you can change, you know, one thing a month, right. Or just as you run out out. When you run out of your body wash, choose a cleaner one. When you run out of your toilet bowl cleaner, choose a cleaner one. When you run out of your soap or your toothpaste, choose a cleaner one and just keep. You don't have to do it all at once. And honestly people say, but it's more expensive. You know, I've actually sat down and like spreadsheeted this out and done the math. At the end of the year, the cleaning products, the body products, those things might cost me in a 12 month, month period of time, $200 more. I mean people throw that away all the time on, on eating out coffee, you know. Yeah, your cell phone, like whatever. I mean there's a lot of places we waste money.

Are there like if you were just to give us kind of a cliff note on like some common household toxins that we should be concerned about. You have like a top like these two or these three or whatever it is?

Yeah, yeah, I would say say top. Top is look at what you're cooking in. So those forever chemicals are a problem. The pfos, PFAS chemicals. So don't cook in non stick. You can go get better cookware at TJ Maxx or home.

Yeah, we use iron now you cast.

Iron, stainless steel, ceramic. So get rid of the bad cookware, the nonstick, the aluminum, you know, store your food in glass, get rid of the plastics. That's a really important place to start. And then I would say the things that stay on your body all the time, like so when you wash your hair, for example, you wash it and you rinse it off and it's gone. But when you put on deodorant, it's with you day long. So the things that stay on your body are the things to focus on first. And also this is a doorway into your lymphatic system under your armpits. So get one of the first hygiene products you should shift is, is deodorant.

And get a little yeah.

Not use aluminum phylate free. Right. All the freeze and so. And things that you clean your genitals with your. That's another thing. Like this is. These are really like sensitive, important parts of the body. So get those things dialed in first and then slowly work on all the other pieces. That's. That's. And are a problem. Like men are being feminized. Men's testosterone is going down. You know, ladies, the men in your life are affected by this too, is what I want to say.

So it's affecting your hormones. These toxins are affecting your hormones.

Oh, yes. And infertility is crazy. Crazy on the rise.

I mean, this is.

These are endocrine disrupting.

Wow.

Chemicals that are in cleaning products, body products for the most part.

Okay, what now? Just quick on mold and metal, because that's another part that's. You know, everyone all of a sudden has mold in their house. And I was reading that stat that, you know, 50 of houses have mold.

Yeah.

Everyone's exposed to heavy metal. Some of us still had amalgam fillings from years ago. Like, what are what? Like, are there symptoms that are commonly misdiagnosed that come from this? Like, how concerned do we need to be?

Well, I think the to unpack here is why is mold such a big problem these days? It's not that mold hasn't always been here. It's always been here with us. But we're in a perfect storm. So the perfect storm is this. We're exposed to more toxins than ever. Our immune system is not handling mold very well like it used to be able to. Also. I mean, we haven't even touched on this, but we are in the 5G EMF era. And oh, yeah, the electronics, the EMFs, the dirty electricity, it makes our immune system less equipment equip at handling mold, and it helps. Mold thrives in that electric environment, so it is more powerful in our bodies with the exposure to all of these things. So that's a long discussion. That would be a whole nother podcast. But we're in the perfect storm. And so people are being more sensitive to mold than ever before. It's not that mold is the new buzzword or mold is the new thing, or that all of a sudden it's the perfect storm. Compromised immune system, toxic overload, EMF overload, all of these things are creating. And then it has to do with our genetics as well. It's interesting because you could have two. You and Brooks are a great example of this. Two people in the exact same household could Be exposed to mold. You did terribly with the mold exposure. He was just like bopping along like nothing. Because your genetics are different. He has different detox pathways. Better detox pathways than you. You. And you have slower detox. Well, no.

What's weird is, okay, so he had his. Presented as like a cold. So he just had like, like his body was almost like getting rid of it. So he had. I didn't have the cold, but I had other health issues going on that I didn't know was connected to that. So. And that was black mold for both of us.

And it can present differently. And very much with a black mold exposure. A lot of sinus and respiratory stuff is very, you know, which is what he had.

I didn't have any of that. I had like the. More the week and the puffy and all the other stuff.

Wow. And it has to do with your genetics. Right. So everyone differently. And some people are really good mold clearers genetically and they just kind of aren't affected by it. And others are like the canary in the coal mine where they just, they. They walk into a hotel that's had water damage and they're. And they're immediately feeling bad.

Which is interesting because before this podcast aired, I had one recently about DNA, about just how like that even to look in your genetic markers, your DNA that some people do fine with it. Some people are super affected by it. So it's all part of the equipment equation.

And I'm super affected. Like, I literally was on academic probation in college. Couldn't. All I could do was sleep. I was so sick. And it was full mode exposure. Like now I know and I know I pinpointed. I know exactly what happened to my health.

So I know you guys probably are like, okay, that was a lot of information. Now just want all this stuff out of me. And so I know that's how when I first hear stuff like that that I know. So all of us process different, right? Some of us are like, just get it all out of me. What's the test? What's the thing? So I'm going to tell you all. You all know I love doing these deep dive classes.

So.

And I've been doing a series of them lately. But. But the next one we've got lined up, I have done with Laura before and it's. I've done that. How many times have we done this class? Like five, six times now. It's always like this class fills up so fast. It's free you all. But if you go to gutcheck class.com gutcheck class.com Laura and I are doing one together right now. This is probably the only one we're doing honestly this year. So you don't want to miss this. This is so good. Because what she's going to do is she's going to deep dive gut and how it's all connected. You're going to learn so much on this and she's going to really go into the symptoms and then she's going to share with you like the steps you can take to start clearing this stuff out.

So you're.

Because we're not going to not be exposed to stuff. That's what I've learned from her. Like you're, you're going to always be exposed to stuff. So you've got to get your body really good at getting rid of stuff without making you sick, without making you go crazy or the hur timer thing you said like how do you really figure this out and get it cleared so you can be healthy and really optimal. So if you go to gut check class.com the class is free. Sign up, save your spot. There's only room for 500 people on this and that sounds like a big number but usually we have like 3,000 people Sign up and so then it's first come, first show up, you get in. So sign up, make sure you show up. And not only is she going to teach and I'll be on there with her, but we're going to answer every single question you have about these topics. So that's what she wanted do and then she'll share on that also how you can even work with her and go deeper if you want to work with her and her team. That's gutcheck class.com thank you so much, Laura. I'm sure we'll be doing part 28 and 29 and 30. 30 million because I, I always love talking to you.

It's so good. I mean, every time it's, it's always a fun time. So thank you so much, Natalie. This has been a pleasure.

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