484: Bali Broke My Gut (and what I learned) with the Gut Genie Laura Frontiero

I always thought in my imagination, Bali was going to be this amazing, exotic, you know, perfect paradise of a place. But after seeing some of the videos and pictures that you sent and kind of the stuff that isn't actually advertised.

Yeah.

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 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. So Bali was not what I expected. I had had it on my bucket list my whole life. I could not wait to go, and it gave me a lot more than I was expecting. And what it didn't give me was beautiful beaches and this big relaxing trip. It gave me a bunch of things wrong with my gut. So today we're going to be talking all about that, about the gut. I had to have the gut genie come back on for this one because I'm going to share what happened. Those of you that were following me on social media, you have seen, seen some of this real time, but let's dive into it. So, Laura, Laura, what you may or may not know is, as I was sharing from Bali, this is pretty funny. I was sharing a lot of things from there. I was sharing, you know, just what I was dealing with and walking through. And I wasn't sick right when I got there, but I even shared this. Me walking in a rice paddy with some cows with. With Anna Kabeca. And in the video that I shared, Anna said, come. I didn't want to go in. And she said, come on in. It's good for our gut biome.

And.

And I had a bunch of people message me on social media and say, what would the gut genie say about that? So I thought that was funny. They knew.

Yeah. So I knew everything that was happening while you were in Bali because I follow your stories too. When my friend is abroad and I want to know, are you doing okay? Of course. I would, at the end of the day, go jump on Instagram and watch your stories to see how's my girl doing. So I saw you walking in that rice paddy, and I believe I was laying in my bed looking at this right before I went to bed one And I went, no, she's in a rice daddy. What is she thinking? Of course, I immediately thought, okay, Natalie, we've taught so many times about parasites, and I've taught to your audience before, that we get parasites through the skin. They can actually enter our body through the skin when we're walking on ground that has parasites. But also they live in bodies of water. And we know that parasites like Strongyloides, for example, which you've had before, live in rice packs, patties. This is well documented by. By. By World Health Organization and other scientific bodies that. That it's well known that people who own and operate rice patties struggle with parasites.

So I'm. Sometimes I'm a slow learner, apparently. So.

So let's.

I want to back up a minute. So when we hear, like, it's kind of this thing we hear that when people like parasites aren't real, you don't really get those. But then people say, unless you go to an underdeveloped country. Well, first of all, parasites are very real. And if you. If you. If you haven't learned from me and they got Jenny about this yet, there's. There's a lot there. But when you. I really was in an underdeveloped country. When you go to Bali, it's not just. First of all, there's some very beautiful places. They're not denying that, but it is a very, very, very underdeveloped place. And I was very surprised, actually. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was surprised to have landed there. First of all, it takes about 36 hours, at least from where I am, to get there. Multiple flights. You fl. Like Taiwan or Hong Kong, then to get there. So I had about 36 hours of travel, which already wreaks a lot of havoc on your immune system for a lot of reasons. But I was excited to be there. What I didn't expect was the amount of. I mean, I've been to underdeveloped countries, but this was another level. Like people burning rubbish in the streets. You could smell it. Just the mold level, the stray dogs and cats and pigs and chickens, the crazy amount of traffic and mopeds. Just very different environment. You're told not to drink the water, which we've been told that before, just to focus on doing it at a resort or whatever. I want to share that. Before I even went, I was well equipped with enzymes and probiotics and knew a lot of this about drinking filtered water and things like that. So I was very determined that I'm not Getting sick. And literally what happened to me was I got very sick. They call it Bali belly. And I want to talk about that because we have to live our lives. So, Laura, like, what is. And first of all, why do some people get sick and others don't get sick? And like, some people are like, well, I went. I never got sick. Like, what is that? How come some of us get it and some do not?

Well, what it comes down to is many factors that can influence whether you get sick and your friend doesn't or your family member doesn't. So we all have different detox clearing pathways in the body. We have different genetics for that. We all have different levels of inflammation in the body. We have different levels of toxic exposures, and we have different levels of chronic conditions that we're dealing with now. You already have autoimmune conditions, right? We know you have celiac disease. We know that you have the. Your gut genetics are not optimal. We know that somebody just made the way you are may have a harder time clearing a bacteria or a parasite than somebody else who may have a stronger set of gut genetics, a lower toxic load may not already be dealing with an autoimmune condition. So the factors that. That you're coming to Bali with, that you already came to Bali with your set of unique situation. Also, you just had major surgery as well. It wasn't that long ago. And your immune system is probably still recovering from that as well. So I'm not surprised that some people in your group got sick and some people didn't. Also, the other people in your group may have done some other travels around the world and been exposed to some of these bacteria. And at this point, we're still trying to figure out what was it that you had? Is it a bacteria, is a parasite? You know, I had a gut test waiting for you and you.

I know she did. She gifted me with a. With a poop test. I came home and there was a poop test from Laura, and she said, this is my gift from you. She was excited. She's like, I can't wait to find out what we find in there. Like, she's literally excited about this test. You were so funny. Okay, I want to. I want to unpack this for a minute because this is a really interesting. Like, Brooks has an iron freaking stomach. My husband, he's got this great gut biome. If you genetically don't have a strong gut biome and you don't have the right detox pathways, which I think a lot of people have, that situation are we like doomed with that. Like, how do what happens here?

Well, good question. And so the thing, the thing about working on gut health is it's for most people, not a one and done thing. It's not a, oh, I did a gut protocol and reset my gut. I'm good for the rest of my life. Right. So most of us have to do some ongoing support of our gut, especially because we're living in a modern world where there are a lot of toxins. And you went to a place where toxins are even worse than they are in the United States. Right. You commented on burning garbage. And, and you know, we know that the sanitation there is not as, is not as clean as the United States. We know that there's issues with the water, with food, so you were bombarded. And so if you're going to be going and traveling to a, to a foreign country where you could get exposed, there are some things that you can bring with you to help you along the way. But also, you know, know that I want you to live your life. I want you to have the experiences, I want you to go on the vacations, I want you to have the fun. I want.

You don't want us to walk on rice patties though, by the way.

I just, I wouldn't walk in rice patties. I mean, if I was with you, I would have been hard passed.

I knew, I knew I shouldn't have an Anna convince me, but that's another story. I was easily persuaded.

I mean, I just went swimming in the agnc, which is one of the cleanest oceans. And I still, as I got into that water, I was like, oh gosh, what am I getting exposed to right now? I just know too much, right? Yeah.

So, okay, so we, so explain just how this, like if you have a really healthy gut biome, like just take. Somebody has like peak perfect healthy gut biome. Like they, we know the freak of nature that has the great healthy biome. What happens when they're exposed to pathogens.

So when they're exposed, their immune system does what it's supposed to do, launches inflammatory response, isolates these pathogens and kills them and moves them out of the body. But if you don't have that kind of ideal environment in your gut, and if the, if the terrain, if the environment is already dealing with toxins or, or maybe a dysbiosis, maybe you have an undergrowth of good bacteria or an overgrowth of bad bacteria. When you're exposed to something and the immune system starts to go after it, it's Like a. It's like a disjointed, not smooth, and oftentimes.

Requires a lot of extra energy from the body. And you're not going to clear those bacteria like somebody who's got iron gut. Right there are those people. Now, the interesting thing with Brooks is when we do his gut testing, we see things, but he doesn't seem to experience symptoms. Right. He seems to be okay. And then when we started doing parasite clearing with him, he saw parasites, even though we didn't see them on his gut test. So things were happening inside of him. But like you mentioned, he just handles it. His body handles it different. And that is the thing that is so frustrating that your spouse or your kids or your parents may not have the same life experience as you, even though you're walking through life doing the same thing. You could.

Okay, that makes sense.

Yeah. You could totally have a different experience based on your internal load, terrain, and genetics makes total sense.

Okay. So that's why, like, when Anna didn't get. Anna and I were eating the same things, doing the same thing. She didn't necessarily get sick, but I right away did.

No, but we. But we both know now that Anna found out you're sick, she's like, oh, yeah, she's gonna do some preventive stuff anyway.

Right? Okay, so let's talk. So somebody that doesn't know because a lot of people listening, they maybe never done a gut testing, and they. They don't know, but they're gonna go travel. They want. You said there's things that we could do, there's things we can bring. I brought enzymes and probiotics. I thought I was being super smart, but what was I missing? What should people be doing?

I always bring antimicrobial herbs with me. So I always have, you know. You know that I love cell core. It's one of my favorite products. They have a. They have a product called mimosa pudica para 1. That's something that I always travel with. One of the reasons why is because if you get traveler's diarrhea, which is typically caused by a bacteria or a.

Parasite, which I did, and it wasn't pleasant, the pair one will help.

And then you don't need to use emotion.

I didn't have it with me. I did not have para one.

Yeah, I know. And I always travel with binders, and I always take binders when I travel because I know that I'm going to be exposed to different toxins and new toxins when I'm in different countries, especially in A place like Bali where they're burning garbage. I would be on on binders every day. So I took binders.

Laura, so what is that? How many binders would somebody. And what can you tell people what binders mean? Like some people don't know what that means.

And not all binders are created equal. Right. So you took a binder that is specifically good at binding ammonia and byproducts of microbe metabolism. So ammonia is one of the things that when bacteria overgrow in the gut they expel ammonia and that can make us foggy, achy, low energy. And so you were taking a binder that would help specifically with microbes, but there's other binders. So a binder is a substance that grabs onto toxins that are either from the environment or toxins that are made and created during.

A microbes life life cycle. So a microbe being a bacteria, a parasite, a fungus, they have a life cycle inside of you and they are spewing out toxins during their life cycle. So you are taking a binder that helps with that. But when garbage is burning and you're breathing that in, believe it or not, you will bring in all those toxins through your lungs and from your lungs it will go directly into your bloodstream. Because think about what is the purpose of your, of your lungs. Your lungs bring in oxygen so that your bloodstream can be oxygenated. So anything that come that you breathe in goes right into the bloodstream right with the oxygen. There are other types of binders that are good at binding the heavy metals that are being that you're breathing in from burning garbage that help you trap the environmental toxins like herbicides and pesticides and parabens and phthalates and phenols and forever chemicals and all of the things that you're being exposed to, radioactive elements, especially when you're traveling air travel, radiation. So different binders do different things. So I always travel with a well rounded binder that is going to bind metals, it's going to bind volatile organic compounds, it's going to bind biotoxins from living organisms, it's going to kind of do a little bit of all of it. And I always bring the binder that you took extra in case I get sick.

I took biotoxin binder but you said you're talking about. Hm, you're talking about that other one now or.

Yeah. So I typically travel with birad chem because it's a well rounded binder and I travel with biotoxin binder. Now when I Get home. If I've been exposed to mold, toxins, heavy metals, then I'm going to high dose some other binders like HMET and carboxy. And these are all cell core binders that we're talking about. The reason I love them is because they can be taken with food. And a lot of times people are non compliant and not consistent with binders because most binders out there, like charcoal for example, or some of the clays that are out there, you have to take them on an empty stomach and away from supplements. And so I mean, that is such a pain in the butt for people to handle, like managing a whole schedule of taking binders two or three times a day away from food, away from supplements, away from medications. So the nice thing about cellcore is you can take them with natural supplements and food. So anything that's beneficial, bioavailable to the body will absorb and will not be removed from the body.

Can you take multiple at one time? Like could you take like different kinds.

If you're super advanced? So I would not recommend the average person start taking all of those binders without doing some proper support of the body first. You want to support your liver, you want to support your kidneys, you want to support your lymphatics, you want open drainage pathways, you want to make sure you're pooping every day. I do have people in my community who have been working with me for a long time who will ask, hey, can I layer my binders? Yes. Once we've been working together and opening up your drainage pathways. If you've never taken a binder I, and you've never done any of this work, I would not recommend that you just start layering.

So Laura, if you were in place like Bali or you're in, you're in a underdeveloped country and someone makes you go on a rice patty, they make you go on a water thing and you don't have any of your supplements with you. I'm just saying, I'm just making, I'm playing up a game right now because they, they don't, they. There's no access to cell core. There's no access to like you're just. But you're forced, you go in there. So somebody's listening to this right now. They're like, I just from a situation like that, they go to the store in another country and they need to fix something. Would you tell them to go get charcoal or clay or like what would.

Be absolutely any binder you can get? So I would have got Myself on a binder. I would have gotten myself on some sort of antimicrobial herbs. Like maybe you can find some oil of oregano or some berberine or some walnut hole, something, some kind of herb to help that's antimicrobial. I would have, I would have definitely started taking that. You know, if all else fails and I can't get that, I would have asked for an antibiotic. Right.

Okay. Okay, so let's talk. So I have questions here. I'm going to ask you about antibiotics and I'm going to ask you about things like Imodium for a minute because I think there's a big misunderstanding here. So are all antibiotics bad? When do we actually really need them? And talk to us about. And can you repair your gut from them?

Yeah. Okay. So yes, yes, you can repair your gut. And no, all antibiotics are not bad. You know, one of the reasons that we have such long lifespans now is because of the invention of antibiotics, because we can actually kill pathogenic diseases. So pathogenic microbes in the body are microbes that should never live there. These are microbes like Salmonella, certain strains of E. Coli, Giardia. They should never be in the.

All the things I probably picked up.

So this is when the use of an antibiotic is appropriate to actually.

Kill and eradicate an acute infection like Giardia or E. Coli, salmonella, any of these. When it's not appropriate to use antibiotics is when you get a runny nose because most likely it's. It's a virus and it's not even a bacteria or a parasite or a fungus that's causing the problem. So, you know, we all know that there's been overuse of antibiotics over the last, you know, 50, 50 years or so. It's just been a problem. But I have no problem personally taking an antibiotic if I have a pathogenic microbe in my body that is going to be very difficult to. Or long term to get rid of with herbs now, if you have acute diarrhea, you are more at risk of dehydration and problems from that. You've got to kill the microbe that's.

Yeah, that's creating that. Okay. So my people freaked out when I shared that I had taken Flagyl for two days and had a massive allergic reaction to it. Like you all. I broke out in hives. I couldn't stop itching. My throat started feeling like it was going to close. I had like a full from two doses of Flagyl. So I stopped. I was like, cannot take it. And I shared that I stopped and people were. I had all kinds of messages like, you should never stop an antibiotic, which I think is dated. Can you, can you share about that?

A reason to stop an antibiotic is an allergic reaction. So if you continued to take that, it could have caused anaphylaxis. I mean, we don't need you to stop breathing. This is very dangerous. Yeah. So if you're having an allergic reaction to an antibiotic, absolutely stop it. If I were you in the same situation where I came back from Bali, a week of diarrhea, it wasn't getting better. Absolutely. An antibiotic makes good sense. That is absolutely next logical.

A next logical strategy to support you and then deal with the fallout of the antibiotic afterwards. Right. Support your gut. Support rebuilding. Support fixing the terrain and bringing back the nutrients that your bacteria need to thrive. I mean, that can be remedied. I think the problem is people will take antibiotics and then do nothing to support their gut until years down the road when they have autoimmunity and they have chronic fatigue and they have brain fog and now they're thinking, maybe I should do something about my gut. But if you take an antibiotic and you support the gut immediately while you're taking the antibiotic and thereafter, that's the best case scenario.

Can you take probiotics and prebiotics while you're taking an antibiotic?

Totally. And I just recommend that you take them a few hours apart. So you want to give the antibiotic a head start through your GI system, let it move through the stomach. About two hours later, you can start taking your gut supporting herbs and probiotics and prebiotics. That is a great idea. In fact, whenever any, anyone in our community is on antibiotics, I do recommend that they take a high dose probiotic to support them during and after.

There's one ingredient I was researching on Dr. J, Dr. Chatgpt. Laura kept asking, Are you looking at Chatgpt and messaging me things? I'm like, yes, I am. Because. Because chat. Because I was Texting Laura like 10,000 times. But Chat GP doesn't chat. Chat GPT never got annoyed with me. So I could like all day long ask it 20 million questions and it just wouldn't get annoyed. Laura was getting annoyed with me, I'm sure.

But okay, so one of the things that chat told me was something about and well, it started with an S. It was a specific type of probiotic that starts with an S. Saccharomyces boulardi. Can you explain that?

Yeah. Saccharomyces boulardi is actually a beneficial fungus. So it's a beneficial yeast. And so not all yeast is bad. I know people hear the word fungus and yeast and they think candida. Oh my gosh, that's terrible. So Saccharomyces boulardi is actually very supportive with travelers. Diarrhea, it's one of the things that you can travel with to support you if you get diarrhea when you're on the road. Diarrhea is typically caused by a bacteria or a parasite or a fungus. But we know that Saccharomyces boulardii is going to support that microbiome and help. So it was actually good advice by chat GPT. Did you find it? Did you find it?

Yeah, well, no, I. When I got back, it said, it said with an antibiotic. It's the one strain that an antibiotic does not kill off. So you should take that with an antibiotic. That's what I.

That's what I would still take it a couple hours away.

Yeah. Okay. Still take it a few hours away. Okay. Let's talk about Imodium for a minute because obviously people need that for emergency, but what are you doing? You don't. Why do you not want to take Imodium if you could help explain that to people? Unless it's an emergency?

Yeah, yeah. Okay. So when you have diarrhea, this is your body's natural response to purge the infection out of you. It's kind of the same thing like a fever. Your body's natural response of an infection is a fever to burn it out of you. So there's a lot of debate on should we be suppressing a fever? So the same debate, should we be suppressing diarrhea when it you're purging, your body's literally releasing so that you can get this out of you. Now, there is such a thing as dangerous fever, too high for too long. And there is such a thing as dangerous diarrhea too much for too long because dehydration is very real and people end up hospitalized with dehydration. And if you're the elderly or the very young, you can die from dehydration. I mean, it's unlikely for someone your age who is going to. But I wouldn't want a 90 year old to be dehydrated like that. So it is a good idea to stop, you know, diarrhea when it's been ongoing for days and days and to make sure that you're hydrating, taking electrolytes. But Imodium is meant for emergencies. It's not meant long term. And you don't want to stop up your bowels. You want to be eliminating every day. But too much diarrhea can be harmful.

Is that the same thing? I know that the same thing with suppressing a fever. What about things like histamine responses, like hives, like something that I've definitely been dealing with since I've never had hives other than my 20s.

And your immune response? Right, yeah. So this is because you are having an allergic reaction to Flagyl. And so this makes you very uncomfortable. Right? It makes you.

Which, by the way, I haven't had as we're recording this. I haven't taken that. It's been 48 hours and I still have the stupid hives.

Yeah. It takes a long time for your system to simmer down. So there's some things you can do to support hives, like, like quercetin, for example, or just taking an antihistamine like a Benadryl or.

But is taking an antihistamine suppressing the same way a fever or ammonium would?

I mean, I would say a histamine response is a chemical, chemical mediator reaction to something in the body that shouldn't be there. And I personally think it's okay to suppress that histamine response. It's not helping you, like a fever or a, or a diarrhea. And at the, you know, diarrhea is only a little bit of diarrhea is okay. Too much diarrhea, problematic because of dehydration. Very serious thing. But I'm okay with you suppressing this histamine response. This is miserable.

Okay, talk to me about, because now that I'm. Talk to me about what types of things we pick up and why do we need to be aware of this? And like, like, so let's say somebody comes back, they're. They don't maybe have diarrhea, they don't have stomach, obvious GI issues, but they start feeling off. Now maybe they're more sensitive to things like. Is it important for people to be looking at this when they travel outside to underdevelop places?

Yeah. After you come back, if you're noticing sleep disruption, energy decline, brain fogginess, joint pain, your is not looking good. You're getting rashes, you're, you know, you're just feeling off. Then it could be that you've had a disruption in the immune system or the gut microbiome. Remember, the immune system and the gut are very deeply connected. About 80 to 90% of your immune system actually originates in your gut. And so it's not a bad idea to do a gut test and see what's going on when you come back so that you can solve it sooner than later. Because if it's left simmering, it just becomes like a snowball, you know, running downhill. It just gets bigger and bigger. And so it's interesting, Natalie. So when I talk to people and I ask them to pinpoint the moment that something changed for them, so maybe they've been feeling lousy for 10 years, five years, and I say, can you pinpoint the moment that you've. That this started? I can't tell you how many times people will say, I traveled to X, Y, and Z country. I. I came back and I didn't feel good. And I've never been well since. All the time. All the time. So I think it's important. I mean, it's just so easy to get supported here. Find a functional practitioner in your area. Find an integrative practitioner in your area. Your Western medicine doctor is not going to order the type of blood test that Natalie and I are talking about. They'll do a. They'll just check a stool sample for ova and parasites, and it'll look for, you know, five different parasites. But it's not gonna look for all of the things that could be going wrong in your gut. And it's definitely not gonna look at your good bacteria to see if they need help. And it's not gonna look at overgrowth of opportunistic bacteria either. So, I mean, it's such a simple thing to look for and solve.

So, you know what you're actually dealing with. You know, it's. I really. I've heard this before. I just didn't really think it would happen to me. Cause I've been outside of the country so many times, but, like, literally since I've gotten back, my body is just completely, completely flipped out. It's like, there's so many things. I can't wait to get that to actually, like, really know what's going on. I mean, obviously we know I got a bunch of things, but I don't. It'll be interesting to see exactly what comes up on the test that we do together versus what I'm being told.

I can't wait to see what's there.

I know you're excited.

So we can solve it. So we can solve it. Because our goal here, Natalie, is to prevent what could happen six months from now, a year, totally, if something is left unchecked.

So when people say things like, well, parasites are good for you, they help help your body. Can you speak into that? What does that mean?

Yeah, so I mean, we all have parasites inside of us there. We all have bacteria, we all have parasites, we all have fungus inside of us. And when, when everything's going right, it's a mutual relationship in your body where the parasites can be there to kind of. They're kind of like toxin sponges. They can soak up some of the toxins that we're exposed to. Your immune system can then help rid itself of the parasites. When needed, it can pull back and allow the parasites to thrive. When you get a toxic exposure like heavy metals or molds, or all the environmental herbicides and pesticides and phthalates and parabens and forever chemicals and phenols and volatile organic compounds, all the things we're exposed to, the problem is that now we're in an overwhelm of toxins and we're in an overwhelm of stress and we're in an underwhelm of good nutrition. Right. So food has changed. People are eating ultra processed food even when they think they're eating healthy because the label looks good. Maybe it has seed oils or pesticides or something in it that you're not aware of. And so now we're in a situation where parasites are thriving in our bodies. We have created the perfect environment in the human body for them to thrive. And when they are thriving, driving this way, they steal your energy, they steal your brain function, they create joint pain, they disrupt your sleep, they create anxiety. It just is miserable. And so there's a fine dance between what's okay in your body. Yeah. And what should be removed and the, the load lowered. Right. The pathogen load and the toxic load lowered. And so when we're working with people, it is like a, like a dance where we're supporting the gut and building it up and moving out pathogens and moving out toxins and supporting some more. And back and forth we go between parasite cleansing and moving toxins and parasite cleansing and moving toxins. And it's a process for some people. For some people, they're doing this for a year straight, 18 months, 24 months to get back to high energy, predictable brain function, great looking skin, a body that doesn't ache, restful sleep. These are the things people report when we solve this, that they feel good again, they feel like themselves again.

Why do so many western medicine doctors kind of poo poo this and just be like, it's not a thing. Like I Mean, they even have western medicine. I mean in like for instance when I was in Bali, it's a thing they, they automatically tell you, you, when you get sick there, they tell you you likely have and they list them out. You likely have either A. Gerardia salmonello, H. Pylori. Like they literally, it's there, they say it's likely these five things. Like flagil is common there. Like this is a, it's a thing. So why do we have so many western medicines in den.

Right. And in Africa. In Africa it's very common as well. And people take their ivermectin every week. Right. To protect themselves and clear out parasites. Natalie, this is, this dumbfounds me. As you know, I spent two decades plus in western medicine in my training. We didn't learn about parasites here in the United States. We didn't learn about how to protect people from it. We didn't learn about toxins. We didn't learn about toxins underlying chronic disease and being the reason, you know, that we have cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease. And so it really just baffles me when there's this wealth of information around the rest of the world and other countries are being proactive to, to, to help people against parasites and, and infections. Why don't we do it here? I mean, are we so naive to think that, that these parasites actually know borders?

Yeah.

You came back with something.

Oh, we clearly did. Yeah.

And you could have given it to somebody in your direct, immediate, you know, circle. It's possible.

This conversation is going to definitely be continued once we get my, my actual gut test back. But I will tell you all what I did right away. Took ivermectin as soon as I got back. Very glad I did. And I had a Herxheimer response to it right away which told me I had something. I've, I've taken Ivermectin before for infections, but I, this was like I had never had this response and what happened was I got super dizzy and not like all this stuff and I know it's because it killed something right away. So that was.

You had a die off reaction?

Yes, I had that. So I did that right away. I. And I, my body was just in complete fight. And what I was told in Bali was that these things are very likely. H. Pylori Girardia like all these things. It's very common there. So my doctor was actually with me. She prescribed me Flagyl. Right. Like we knew, like So I had a reaction to that. So I had to stop. In the meantime I've sent a gut test off with. With Laura and I'm doing everything that she said. So I'm following a very. An herbal protocol right now with. With cell core and a few other things. And I'm doing it pretty religiously right now. Like I'm. I'm following it by the book because I. And I do. My stomach feels. Feels amazing right now. My stomach has cleared. It's the other stuff happening right now. So going through that. So when for people listening, I don't want you to think you can't travel, that you can't go. Even though I'll be. I will be not traveling outside of this country for a little while after this. But so I want just people to know in their toolkit. Just kind of like a quick reminder. 1. I'm gonna. I'm gonna highly. And I'm gonna ask Laura what to add. Please make sure you bring with you probiotics, enzymes and binders. Like really important. Please make sure you bring with you also a modium for emergencies on the airplane. What else do you want them to know?

Yeah, so it's not a bad idea to travel with Saccharomyces boulardi. To travel with mimosa pudica, because those are going to help you if you get a diarrhea. You know you've got some kind of microbe. I always travel with binders, like I mentioned. I always want to have those on hand. I always travel with immune support. So there's a lot of really good blends of antioxidants, medicinal mushrooms, and different supports that can help you just boost your immune system. A lot of different companies have blends out there. Just look for immune supports. I always take those when I'm traveling because I know I'm going to get exposed to something. I always travel with a little mini ozone machine.

Oh, okay.

Yes. Okay. Yeah. So there's a couple companies that make little travel. They clean the air. So when I would. Was recently in Europe, I was in a Airbnb that had quite a bit of mold. And I ran it every single day.

Smart.

Yeah, I ran it every day, a couple times a day. Because it's antimicrobial. It kills mycotoxins. It also is a great thing to throw into the bathroom when you get to a hotel or an Airbnb. Just shut the bathroom door, run it for 30 minutes and it will purify and clean the surfaces. Right. So the toilet handle, the toilets, the shower floor where you're standing with your bare feet, all of this. It Will help clean this. So this is just a practice that I have. Like I'm not running around with, with wipes, you know, cleaning everything. I just throw my ozone machine into the room, shut the door, okay. And let it go. And then I'll do the main hotel space or the, or the bedroom space. And this is a very low amount of ozone. So it's totally safe to breathe around it. I also run it on an airplane when I'm flying. It'll clean around 10ft around me. So it kills microbes in the air. So if people are sick, sneezing, coughing, it's going to kill what microbes are in the air. It's going to kill microbes on surfaces. So the trays, the seat belt, that's everything you touch in a, in an airplane. So there's a couple companies that, that make these little ozone machines and you just travel with them. It's great. So I always have that. What else do I always have with me? I always have ivermectin with me.

Okay.

Yeah, I know people.

Why does ivermectin get such a bad rap? Well, I guess during COVID it got really distorted.

But what. Well, I mean, do we really want to talk about this?

Well, I just want to know like what is ivermectin actually really for? Like what's the. I mean, I know, I don't want to, I don't want to talk about the COVID thing with it because I thought it'll be a whole.

I mean this is why it was demonized.

Okay, so why though? But help me. Like, I don't understand like what, what was ivermectin actually really for? Like what's it made for?

Yeah, Ivermectin is an anti parasitic. So it is, it is antimicrobial. It doesn't kill every microbe out there. It's not great at bacteria, but it does kill certain strains of parasites. As you know. It's not great at giardia. Right. Like an antibiotics better for giardia, but it is good for many, many parasites. And so it also was showing during the whole pandemic that it helped people recover from COVID And of course we all know.

So then it got the bad the name. But it's not. You guys don't write it off because it's like, you know, it's funny when I mentioned it, some people were like, I can't believe you're. I'm like, why? Like I don't think they understood.

It's actually really safest drugs it is one of the safest drugs in the world. It is, basically has zero side effects. It is very inexpensive to make. So it's crazy a bunch of money on it because it's like, it's pennies per. Per capsule or less. Right? It is per tablet. It is very inexpensive and very commonly taken by millions.

Give it another country all the time. It's like natural to do.

Because it was. I mean, just because we need to wrap, we need to wrap this conversation. I mean, we need to help have people understand this. When it was identified to be supportive for Covid, you couldn't get emergency authorization for a vaccine if there was a, if there was an effective treatment. So that was where the demonization came from. We think. I mean, this is our best speculation of why, because we know it worked. Great, great. And I was prescribing it up until the day I couldn't. Right. I can still remember. I got Covid myself. I prescribed myself Ivermectin and like three days later it was, it was demonized in the country. And you weren't allowed to prescribe it anymore. It was wild. Wow, that's.

That is wild. Okay, so I. So travel with that. If you can, you can get a preventative prescription if you've got a doctor that knows what's up. I will be doing that in the future. And then one, one more question about this whole body of water thing, because you just, you mentioned. And I. That's one thing I'm. I'm pretty sure now that you're saying all this, I probably got sick not just from the rice patty that I'm sure that contributed. Yeah, but I went in a lot of different bodies of water there. We were in like the rainforest. You were in these different pockets where they do all these little bodies of gross water. I'm sure. So, so I'm sure that's probably where I got sick because I, I was really rigorous about my food and what I was eating. So how. So what do we have to do for our skin and all of that?

Well, so any body of water, you know, rice paddies, lakes, canals, streams, anything can have parasites. Right. We can even pick up parasites from walking barefoot on dirt where parasites live. And they can penetrate the skin, and then once they penetrate the skin, they can go right into the bloodstream and move around the body. Very common, well known, well known information around the world. You can support yourself, you know, by putting a using barrier on your body. Get a, get a nice, nice oil or lotion, something that's clean and Use a barrier to keep your skin intact and as clean as possible or as protected as possible. But I would say, you know, you're not going to avoid it, Natalie. It's either you go in the water or you don't. And if you go in the water, you be prepared to actually be exposed and then have what you need on hand to support yourself. Like I said, I was recently, you know, traveling and I wasn't not gonna get in the. In the agnc. It was stunning and beautiful, and it was an experience. I wanted all the positive because when you're in the ocean like that, you're also grounding and you're getting negative ion charge on your body, and it's so good for you. Right. So. So you definitely want to be in nature and exposed, but just be prepared. You might need to make fans support. Yeah, we're not avoiding them. Right.

Well, I will tell you that I'm on a thread of a lot of my good friends that are also in health and that are. Many of them are doctors. And pretty much all of them across the board were like, I'm never going to Bali.

Now after this experience, I mean, I always thought in my imagination Bali was going to be this amazing, exotic, you know, perfect paradise of a place. But after seeing some of the videos and pictures that you sent and kind of the stuff that isn't actually advertised.

Yeah. You know, I. And in fairness, for those listening, because I don't. I'm gonna have people really mad, like, well, I love Bali. That's great if you love it. I. First of all, I was not in the coastal area, Ali. Bali is not a huge island, but it's an island. And it. The traffic, they're not set up for the infrastructure of tourists right now at all. Like, the traffic is worse than almost any place in the world. It's unbelievable. It's like one and a half lane roads, people flying by each side. You'll see a moped with a family of four holding a baby. Like, no rules, no regulation. It's just, just. It's crazy lot. You cannot walk there. You will get hit by a car or a moped. It's like you cannot walk the streets in Bali. And so I was staying in an area called Ubud, which is dead center in the middle of the. It's like the rainforest and it's pretty and all that. So I didn't see these any pretty beaches at all. Now I've heard you can go to them. Obviously, it would have taken me almost four hours, even though it looks close on a map because of the traffic being so bad. And then there's many beaches there that are completely trashed. You'll. You can, can find this easily on Google. Like lines up of trash and just not taking care of. They don't have the infrastructure yet. They do not have a managed waste system like we have. People are literally burning their trash. Think about that. We haven't done that here since the early 70s. Like, this is like, it is not the same. So if you found your pocket and had it amazing there, I'm going to tell you I'm not going back. I will not be going back there. I'm sure it is beautiful for some people. Where I was was we found beautiful areas, but. But no, I won't. And I was with an amazing group that really planned out the best of the best for this. So I did many of the best things you could do on that island. And I'm going to tell you right now, I'm not going back. There's that. There's that as I'm itching my skin and waiting for exactly what the heck I picked up there.

I know, I know. But you're going to be fine. We're going to get. We're going to get you back to normal. You're going to be back to high functioning.

To be continued on this conversation, y', all. I just wanted to give you the quick update on that and had to have the gut genie because everyone was tagging you, Laura. Everyone's like, you have to ask the gut genie, what would she do? What would the gut genie do? So I thought, let's record it live.

And truth be told, she was messaging me from Bali and she was going to pharmacies and drugstores and trying to find things and we were trying to, like, get everything she could. And I'm like, do you have this? Do you have that? Can you find this? Can you find that? Oh, my God. When are you coming home?

I know. And then she gifted me that poop dust. So to be continued. We will come back on and share what we find and what we're going to do about it. Thanks ever. Thank you, Laura. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to midlife Conversations today. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it and tag me. Natalie, Jill Fitz and our guests on social media. The best way to support the show is by leaving a review. Send a screenshot of your review to support NatalieJill fitness.com for a free digital DSR journal download. And just a friendly reminder, I'm here with a microphone, not a medical degree. Half the time I'm sharing things that I read on the Internet or learned just as you were learning it while I'm interviewing the guest. I'm not an MD or your therapist or your mom, though I do give excellent mom style pep talks. This podcast is purely for entertainment, curiosity and educational purpose services. When in doubt, please ask your own doctor. For advertising inquiries, contact sales adminategory3ca and this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek advice from your physician. Some episodes of midlife conversation may be sponsored by products or services, and I may receive compensation for advertisement of your purchases through affiliate links.