How I Trusted My Intuition and Found the Right Health Solution for My Child

Today I'm joined by Ray Doctor, who shares the powerful story of his son Max, a bright, emotionally aware child facing chronic fatigue and a range of complex health symptoms. Ray's story highlights the need for parental intuition and the courage it takes to challenge sometimes dismissive they'll be fine mindset. He uncovered through detox, genetic testing, and natural therapies the critical gaps in how we Approach health, and most importantly, how far a parent will go to seek real answers. So Ray, tell me. You know what I love about your story is it's so much about that advocacy and actually going the extra mile to make sure that your child got the best help possible, not just accepting the status quo or whatever other people's opinions were. So tell us to start us off, what were some of the early signs that something wasn't quite right with Max?

So honestly, a lot of the things that when it was happening, I was not aware of it, but when I started doing the tests, it started to reveal why this is happening. So as an example, um, he still doesn't really break down proteins— proteins as well. He, um, he's not absorbing iron, so his ferritin levels are lower. And so I remember like taking him to Disneyland 3, 4 years old and him being able to only last a couple hours. Like, he really— and I remember him, I'm thinking at this time, oh, this is just what babies do till they sleep, till they get tired easy. And then as he got older, it started becoming more noticeable because he had lower energy than other children. And I remember kind of bragging, going, well, I can put him down pretty easy. I don't have those issues.

Yeah.

But it's because he was just wiped out. Early on, different things showed up in our relationship as far as like, first off, you know, I'll just be open that his mother and I, um, basically Max was a love child. And, um, she had him without me. I'm not going to go into all the details, but had him without me knowing about it until he was 5 and a half months old.

Wow.

And so I didn't really know her very well. And I didn't know how he's being nourished.

Yeah.

I wasn't part of the early vaccines, so that was some of it. And at the time, I was also gathering, learning how to just be a father, connecting with him when he came into my life when he's 5 and a half months old. But early on— I'm sharing this because it's very important. I know you wanted to talk about the vaccines, but I want to share more stuff. Let's hope parents who are listening to this will actually You know, go beyond what they're told. And so, so early on, he had speech delays, and he wasn't breastfed. And so I learned a lot about, like, how important that is. And that's one of the questions they ask when you see a speech therapist. So—

Mm-hmm.

And so even his enunciation wasn't that clear as well. So that's been ongoing and where it was simply him, believe it or not, where because he didn't have awareness of his body— it's interesting what happens with breastfeeding to the neurobiology of us human beings. They're pretty amazing.

Yeah.

There were other challenges showing up too where When he was at school, he was restless. And of course, many parents might be told that their kids have ADD or ADHD, and he wasn't like off the charts, but that was also due to him being tired. And most parents know more often when their kids are tired, they have a hard time focusing.

Mm-hmm.

They cross more boundaries. That's when they see, say, the worst come out of their kids. So I would say We see this at school also. So was it him being tired? Was it something going on? And it was when he was 6 years old, they started seeing that he had difficulty retaining information to where he maybe needed more support. And I hired a psychologist to observe him. And for 2, 3 hours in the The psychologist shared with me interesting things and said, yes, he even has issues with spatial awareness. He can see like maybe why other kids could be bothered by him. And sure enough, I had a caregiver. She saw kids on the spectrum. She says, I don't know where Max is, but I see some of these symptoms with kids who are on the spectrum. So many parents will just use that label now, right? He's on the spectrum. He's on the spectrum. Doctor told me he's on the spectrum, and it's just used a lot now.

It is.

I went to a place called Brain Balance where they, um, did some tests and they discovered that he did not have— he had primitive— he had retained primitive reflexes. Retained primitive reflexes. And parents listening to this, look it up. And so because he wasn't breastfed Because of his environment and other things unknown that he didn't integrate. And so he literally started doing exercises that were like getting the left and right hemisphere of the brain to start communicating. He also used to suck on his shirt a lot. Well, where do you think that came from? What do you think he was doing to self-soothe? So there's that. He wasn't breastfed. But also It was all that we need to do is— it was called— they named it Whiskers. All he did at night, we would do this on his face.

So you— for our listeners, you're stroking your cheeks.

Yeah, like slowly I was doing it, and within about 3 months it went away. He stops biting his shirts. But I also saw when he would start getting anxiety, he might bite his shirts also. So this is with no drugs. This is from literal like exercises that almost look like yoga or something that all kids can do. So we did that and sure enough, what was interesting is that in 6th grade, he was like at a kindergarten-level reading. What happened was this course, the school was trying to get him to read but the brain— the people at Brain Balance were saying, you know, it's like a bucket that has holes in it, it's just gonna leak out if you try to fill it with water. And they said, just do these exercises. And we continue to do these exercises, and I didn't put him in a regular school. I just had him like have a tutor, and within just 3, 4 months, he surpassed second grade level.

It's incredible.

Yeah, so that is just one part I want to share with like how if we you know, go out beyond like these, these, um, the diagnosis, beyond the diagnosis.

Yeah.

That you might discover that integration has to happen. And sometimes that integration may have— might have not happened also due to— I'm just going to say it, you know, the, the chemicals, the things that are put in, you know, a body, uh, the body of a child. And so there's that part. He still had the tired symptoms. He still had issues. And oh, and this is where you probably read the post, you got really interested. And that was when he was— in addition to this, when he was, um, 2 to 4 years old, or 2, like it's around 2 to 4, 2 to 5. I just know we started doing his detox around 2019. He could not get healthy. He was always— he always had a cold. He always had something going on. And of course, people say he's just acclimating to his environment. This is what kids go through. And this is when I saw an alternative doctor. He was actually an MD, and he saw that his lymphatic system was sluggish, his liver was sluggish, and they found ingredients that you would see like in vaccines.

Hmm.

And his liver was working a little harder. His body wasn't flowing. And so therefore He could not get rid of a virus. That was it. He just couldn't get rid of it. His body couldn't do it. And so people start thinking— they might think that, oh, my kid is always sick, my kid doesn't have a, you know, a healthy immune system. They might even like give the kids supplements. But if you go to a Western doctor and they do the blood work, a lot of that— those, those tests are going to say that it's normal.

That's exactly right.

Yeah, they're gonna say it's normal. But I, I went beyond that because I trust my intuition, and plus I live my life this way. And we worked with a gentleman named Dr. Gallacher in Santa Monica, California. And within like, I think, 7 to 11 months of that, Max built a robust immune system. Robust immune system. And Yeah, and that was one part of it. That was one piece of the puzzle.

When I read your post, I just went, oh my God, you could be talking about my son exactly the same. And this is how my whole business has started, by going that extra mile, you know. And that's what I love about you, is that you didn't just look at your son and accept the norm that, oh, this is the way kids are, you know, they just get sick. You actually looked at your son intuitively and went, no, I actually feel that there's something different. And you actually went outside of the mainstream to find answers you weren't getting before. That I just love. You know, you have to advocate for your kids because they can't do it for themselves.

Mm-hmm.

So what sort of— for our listeners and, and the people watching who may be resonating With what you're saying about Max, what were the detoxes or the specific type of therapies that you went and saw?

One of the greatest, like, I guess, say, prognosis I got about my son when I hired the specialist— and yeah, I was blessed to be able to find someone and afford someone. You know, a lot of people cannot afford this.

That's right.

He said he displays some— like a learning disorder, but he said, I don't know what it is. What's the root cause? That's a key thing to remember here. It's more— Max used to say, bump into me. Literally would walk into me. Even when I first met my girlfriend, she saw it. He didn't have spatial awareness. He was kind of clumsy. How many adults out there we know who say, I'm just clumsy?

Exactly.

I'm just clumsy. Is that crazy?

It's crazy.

Yeah, yeah. And, and so what's funny— what's interesting about the revelations of the discovery of Max is, is how many of my friends, including myself, thought about our childhood and went, Wow, maybe that happened to me. Maybe that's what was going on as well. And I'm not talking about vaccines. I'm talking about that there was another cause to that.

Yes.

Parents listening to this or watching this, you know, if you— the whole thing with Western medicine, and it has its benefits, is that it might be just treating a symptom. It might be treat— it's like a Band-Aid. And so when you get kind of more Yeah. If you're interested in alternative methods, the view on that is the body has all the pharmaceuticals it needs to heal itself. That might be a perspective. To that, all the systems have to work together. To that, emotions play a big part in wellness as well. And so you won't really have— and especially the big one. Diet. Diet is a big one.

Yeah.

And so, of course, any kid who has ADD or ADHD, if it's a health practitioner who knows what he or she is talking about, they will ask how much sugar the kid has. Do they have caffeine? Like there's— they're going to see environmental issues as well that can drive the neurobiology of the kid to behave that way. So you want to look at the root cause. And that's kind of always been my go-to with, with the help of Max and myself. Now, to answer your question, unfortunately, it's hard for me to explain, but basically he would put this device in Max's hand and he had vials that he would test to see if it was weak or high. And then if it was weak, he would grab another file—

uh, vial.

Vial. That would be a vibration of whatever supplement that he was going to give Max. If it showed high, that was the one he would give Max. And this is drops under the tongue typically, and sometimes supplements. I'm just going to get a little bit out there as well. This is what's really interesting, is that, you know, during COVID he was able to also see how the body might respond To the different vaccines, to where people came to him and to, to figure which one to choose, what would be better for their body, but also what supplements could better support them. And from what I understand, at least what he told me, he said that those, you know, he saw people who didn't, didn't want to take Western meds, but during typically, like, especially in the Propaganda that was in Los Angeles, which is still there, that a lot of people went into fear even though they were like more on that path of being natural.

Yeah.

And, and so, but they didn't have side effects because they had something to supplement them, such as their— it affected the person's liver, it affected the person's hypothalamus. And Dr. Galaxer learned this, so he created a protocol to help them kind of not, you know, have those bad symptoms. But he had to keep that on the down low at the time, you know. And so, so that's how Max was tested with this gentleman. And then of course, you know, we saw a Chinese medicine practitioner where, you know, they would check his pulse, they would look at his tongue, and there's usually a correlation to the vibrational methods in medicine that Dr. Gallacher was using as well. I've used so many different people to kind of Figure out what, what to do. You know, there's not just one thing that might work, but I try to stick with one. And that's what really got him on that path. But this is the interesting thing too. I mean, Max has been a lot— he's had— he's been through a lot. When we moved to— because this is going to be a miracle story too. I want everyone to hear it because something has changed. So when we moved to Ashland, um, the big thing there is And I saw a doctor, he wrote a book, and, you know, he definitely has a good perspective about this, but it seems as though that everyone there is, is, is always talking about my— it might be mold, everything's mold. And, you know, we have to learn how to exist with mold also because mold spores are everywhere.

Yeah.

Yeah. And he got tested and he had a high level of some stuff. But at the same time, he was having issues with allergies I did not know, and the doctor was blaming it on the mold. And the— we went to a Western doctor, and they're saying he needs asthma medication like albuterol and other things. And I— you can see what that does to the body, meaning that, that he He had once had like the inhaler when he was younger because he had a reaction and I remember seeing his body shake.

Yeah.

You know, it's obviously not doing something good for him as well. But I want people to hear this as well. You might go— the doctor might say he has asthma, but step back for a moment and the actual diagnosis might be that he has a restricted airway. A restricted airway and why? Why does he? Is it gluten? Is it because of dairy? Um, is there other possible reasons? So even I had Western doctors say my son had asthma. I said, why is he fine sometimes and then goes long periods without an issue? And they could not answer that.

Yeah. They cannot.

And so, so I said, would it be more accurate he has a reaction to something Then if he doesn't clear his lungs or that he's not able to breathe for a long period of time, that it ends up becoming— he has asthmatic symptoms. They said, yes. Then I said, well, why don't we just say your son has restricted airway for whatever reason and it shows up as asthmatic symptoms, not that he has asthma. It shows up as asthmatic symptoms. Big difference. I want to share that difference.

I love that point, right? I love that point.

So what happened was interesting is that I gave him the Western meds at the same time he was taking stuff for the mycotoxins. Mycotoxins definitely could kick your ass.

Have—

however, the symptoms he was having, I don't think it was the mycotoxins. So that's another detox. That's— yeah, there's different— chelera. There's things that you take to get rid of— it basically binds to the mold and he would take a lot of them at night, you know, even charcoal, black charcoal, you know, like that.

Yeah.

To get that rid of his body. So even though his mycotoxins level went down, it would be this yearly thing of these asthmatic symptoms because I wouldn't catch it. And he would actually start wheezing a little bit. And then of course we'd go back to give him the albuterol a couple times to, you know, whatever else he needed. I don't— I won't refuse that if my son is suffering, but I still want to find the root cause. And so we started doing food sensitivities. We started to just see what he's putting in his body. We did an Allergy testing to see what's going on. And I noticed that during times that it shouldn't be like high season for allergies, he might have had issues still. So I'm like, is there other things going on? And I really went down that path, that deep path. And that's when you— that's kind of what you asked me also. And that is, there are food— Uh, there's, there's allergic Like you— where you get yourself tested for allergies, where you might have a reaction, like your eyes get watery, you swell up, or you can't breathe or whatever. Well, there's that test, and then there's a food sensitivity test. And that is where it doesn't show up as an allergy, but it shows up as a sensitivity which creates inflammation in the body.

Okay. Yeah.

Which can show up as bad symptoms, bloating, to other things.

Yeah.

And the body having a hard time breaking down foods. And so I did that test as well too. Um, I did a genetic test, and that's one where people can purchase that. You know, there's companies out there charging on average, because you're not going to get it from a doctor, from $250 to $500, okay? Where we got the report and it showed how— I, I can't read all the genes, I don't have it memorized, um, but it showed all— we all have genes that might have some challenges.

Yeah.

It showed basically how he should be eating a low histamine diet, that him For someone himself has a hard time getting rid of histamines, it started basically showing all— like basically how his body works with pollens and everything else, and it works a lot harder, which also brings down his— will basically impact his energy level. So here he can't break down proteins, here he can't absorb— cannot absorb iron and other things, plus his body's working really hard to get rid of histamines.

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah. Well, we're just causing inflammation, which makes everything harder. Yeah. Yeah.

We, we lived in Ashland, Oregon, where there's a lot, you know, it rains and there's— it's a beautiful place, but it's in a valley. And people started telling me about the poor air inversion. They said everything gets trapped in valley and It really started to become more on my radar when, such as when my girlfriend went to Costa Rica, she said her everything cleared up. When she came back, it started up right away. Max's mother, who lives in the same area also, she said, I never had allergies this bad before. Everyone's telling me this. And then before we left and we moved, the doctor, you know, said that it's, it's It's really bad here. It's really bad here. And we moved to Asheville that has also a lot of green and it's humid and it's raining. And, um, we've been here for a little over a week. His symptoms have subsided.

Mm.

Because we got better air quality for him. So he was still taking some Western stuff to just for me to to figure out things, and he's off of all Western meds right now.

That's incredible. That's incredible.

We stopped that just 3 days ago. So you are one of the first people hearing this report. This is moving to a better area for— so he can breathe. You know, I don't know if you want to get into it, but, you know, in that other area, supposedly they spray, you know, like people talk about chemtrails, all these other things.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

No.

You have to look at everything, every area, and question everything. Like, I love it that you— it's an exploration, right? We have to question everything, even our own beliefs around things. Like, I was— and I'm— I started with my son at the same age as you. My son is now 24, and we're still on the path, you know. It's always a fine-tuning. It doesn't stop. It's It's always a fine-tuning. Just recently, I had a functional doctor and I was absolutely convinced that his stuffiness and that was mold-related. Here in Sydney, it's very wet. It gets moldy. I was convinced it was mold-related. Now, he did all the tests. There was no mold.

You have to rule out stuff. It's ruling out— you have to have the patience. Would you— but the question for parents is, would you rather rule out stuff over giving them something they don't need?

That's exactly right. You have to go beyond. Don't just accept. When I was— when my son was very young like yours, he did a test with a psychologist as well because, you know, we thought, you know, he had ADHD. Now, he did the test and it was like When you see the ball on the computer hit the middle of the screen, press the spacebar. Now, he pressed the spacebar literally like 1 or 2 seconds before the marker hit the ball. And so he came back and goes, oh, he's got ADHD, uh, if it's not better in 6 months, I'm putting him on Ritalin, etc. And I went—

Hmm.

Could that be that the kid was so anxious To make sure he hit the marker, hit the ball at the right time, that 1 or 2 seconds he hit the spacebar before. And he's like, oh, it could be that. Oh my God, if I was accepting, if I was just accepting, he would have been on Ritalin.

Yeah, you know what's interesting? This one, when you go to doctors office and they check your blood, they typically don't wait. You're kind of rushed, and there's never that perspective. Maybe you're anxious to be test— to be tested, and that's why it's high. I mean, yes, people have high blood pressure, but I'm saying that there's not that maybe consideration. It could be situational.

It can be situational, exactly. Like, your cortisol could show really high on a test because you have such a fear of needles.

Yes.

It's all the questioning. But as a parent, if you have a young one, or even as an adult, the whole premise to this story— like, what I love about what you're doing is you're not prepared to just accept. You know, you, you do take the Western medicine to give your son relief, you— so it's not— he's not in pain. But in the interim Let's find out why that's happening. We don't want just a Band-Aid. We don't want symptom stroking. We want root cause answers. Why is this happening? Unless you do that kind of functional testing or complementary medicine, doctors just don't have time to go that deep and they're not insured for it and they don't get taught to do it that way.

Yeah, it's unfortunate.

It's unfortunate.

I just got his, um, test back 2 days ago and I ordered the supplements that are specific for his gut. So basically, it's called the Genova Gut Test.

Yeah, I know that one.

Yeah, 3 days of capturing his poop.

Yes.

We're dedicated parents. And so you heard me share that he's not breaking down— see, even here, listen to this. I said he's not breaking down iron. I said that. I said he's not absorbing his proteins.

But why? That's—

But why? So I still— so the test I got was to show what actually is in his gut. So last year, September, we did a test. He had E. coli. We didn't know that. And we got rid of it with, um, oil, um, oil of oregano. But still, even after that, he still was having gut issues. So that was frustrating. I'm like, oh, I thought that would be it. But it— what came back, obviously he's clear from that, is that, that he's not— it said specifically, it was a very thorough test, you know that.

Yes.

What he needs for his gut. And so we're on that protocol, and I hope that he will start to be able to break down foods. I mean, he gets gas a lot, but it's not like— it doesn't smell. It's like it's just creating gas. And interesting thing about The Western approach— this is not totally Western because what I'm allowing him to put in his body, but because, yeah, I said he has low ferritin— that I think it's called Benifar, Benifer, but he's going to get it done intravenously. So in it, and while I'm fixing his gut, I don't want him to have this low energy. So he's going to literally get what he's not getting from foods in his body. And we're hoping that he'll have energy. So while I repair his gut, we're going to take that approach. So he could get that anyway. We've tried everything. I've tried different things, different types of, uh, ways to get iron in his body, and it hasn't worked. But now I have a protocol to heal his gut, and we're on that path. In the meantime, I'm supplementing it with— he has a an appointment with a hematologist July 9th, and they're going to see that his ferritin levels are low. And, um, yeah, it's, it's not at the level of someone who has anemia, but he does have those symptoms, like he's tired, he has low energy because he's not as—

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, Ray, as we've pointed out, it doesn't matter whether it is a pharmaceutical or whether it is a natural supplement, unless you go and find the root cause and what suits the person, because everyone is individual. What suits the person next to you isn't necessarily going to work for you. You know, you're just throwing money away just thinking, oh, I'm just going to take this iron supplement, I'm going to take this multi-B. But how do you know? You have to go that extra mile. and test. Like they say, test, don't guess. But also it's the mindset, and it's having that mindset of advocacy either for yourself or for your children to go and seek out the answers. It is, as you know, it takes up a lot of time, it's expensive, but you know, without knowing the root cause, if your children or yourself are suffering What are you gonna do?

Yeah, what also reveals how our health systems work— I don't know how it's like for you there, but over here it's shit, and most people can't really afford it or know anything about it. You know, they promote— well, I think it's—

I have—

I don't watch secular TV, but I think supposedly, um, Rfk Jr. is banning pharmaceutical companies to keep promoting these drugs on TV. Like it's you'll see like almost every commercial here. You'll see hey take this and then it's the quick da da da da side effects might include you you have a heart attack blah blah blah blah blah blah you know that whole thing and yeah and people are willing to do that rather than someone like. Like during— like just to say during supposedly the flu season. During flu season, there's less sun. Load up a little more vitamin D, blah, blah, blah. Rest a little bit more. There's not that push for like wholeness and what we might need to supplement in our body because of the changes of the seasons.

Exactly.

We need to be one with nature and that's just my approach.

I, I love that because I was about to say to you, we've got to get back to the rhythm of our bodies, to the rhythm in, in sync with nature. You know, everything would— not everything would be better, but if we can get back to that natural rhythm and also eating fruits and vegetables in season. And there's a— there's— that's another whole podcast, but episode just there. But it is Let's get back to understanding it. Stop looking for quick fixes. And as we said, it is a bit secular in the fact that these tests are expensive. But if I could just put out there, if someone is listening to this and they think, I want a functional doctor or someone, but I can't quite afford it, look for a functional doctor who has also been a GP. Because here in Australia, for example, If you go to a functional doctor who's also been a GP, they can, you know, you can claim some of that cost on Medicare, whereas a straight functional doctor who has not been a GP, you can't. So there's ways, like, even in that, investigate how you can get some of these treatments from professionals. You know, it's all a discovery. Yeah.

Well, I wanted to share one thing before we get off this call here, is that one of the greatest gifts of AI, particularly ChatGPT, is that you, like, you can get lab work and you can put it into it and it'll actually read it to you. You can ask questions such as, is there something I should be concerned with, to what is a natural way Oh, okay. To maybe help me with this. It doesn't act as— yes, it's not your doctor, and yes, it can make mistakes. But when I was working with the last functional doctor, he enjoyed that collaboration of me looking up things. Like, I got— for example, he's the one who ordered the, the gut test, but I directly got the lab work and I inputted it, and it coincides with his Like his, say, gene mutations to other things. And we're on the right path, such as giving him L-glutamine to— he needs to take always enzymes when he eats food. So it's, it's helped me support that. And yes, it'd be probably better to have a practitioner who can like oversee this, but those who maybe can't afford one, you know, you have— if you have access to AI and you don't know how to read lab work, That it can assist you with that as well, and that's free.

Yeah, that's amazing.

Except the lab work, and of course you have to pay for it. But some people might say, like, you know, I can afford like a $175 test, or I can afford a $400, whatever it is. That's all. Like, that gene, that gene test was so helpful, and just from that alone I got so much information for me to get healthy things that exist. And you can ask it, like, if I were to take a Western medication, what might be suggested? And it'll tell you that. It'll tell you what they typically use. And I remember having a conversation with ChatGPT and I said, because something in my intuition realized that I had reached the limit of what I was looking to rule out. And I said, for myself, I was like, I asked, So at this point, it seems like we ruled out something with my prostate that the urologist would only suggest this or that. And it just— it said, yes, you've actually— you've ruled this out. Therefore, it's probably not this issue with your prostate. It's more your cortisol— you have dysregulated cortisol levels and it's waking you up and blah, blah, blah. It was correct.

That's amazing. I love that point. That is so good to use ChatGPT. Obviously you have to be careful and you have to then have it, you know, looked at by a professional. But as a starting point, I mean, it's brilliant. You know, you've got information that you can take to a professional and say, look, I've got this and I've put this through ChatGPT and my symptoms I feel correlate with that, and then you can go from there. You've done a lot of the groundwork, you know. So that, that's the whole advocating for yourself. So, Ray, to finish off today, you know, what's one kind of mindset shift that you would love to see in people in regards to their health, whether it's their own or whether they're advocating for their children?

Well, I shared it already, and that is this: look at the cause.

Hmm.

Look at what's being shared with you as probably a symptom of something. If you start changing the way you think about health in just that way alone, you'll discover alternative methods. I mean, as an example, someone who drinks every day after work and he seems angry, Well, you can't just say he's an angry person. You can't say that, sure, he just drinks his problems away. That might be the symptom of it, might be the story you create about Hank who drinks after work, but the cause might be he's troubled with his relationship with his wife. The cause might be that his boss is hard on him and he hasn't been promoted for a while. The cause might be that he doesn't really address his emotions.

Yes, yes, there's always a reason.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's amazing. Thank you for that. And I'd also add, like, always question everything. Question what someone's giving you. Even question yourself and your own beliefs. And always feel that you have the right to advocate for yourself regardless who you're speaking to.

Absolutely.

Thanks, Ray. It's been such a pleasure. And thank you for coming on and sharing your story about your son.

Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.