140: Become Your Own Best Doctor with Dr. Jessica Peatross

Namaste. It's Sahara Rose. And welcome back to the Highest Self podcast, a place where we discuss what makes you your soul's highest evolvement. This episode is brought to you by you. Veda Yuveda is a modernized ayurvedic supplement company that takes certain issues that we have, such as mood joints, immunity, digestion, and creates these custom little packets exactly for us, infusing ancient Ayurvedic herbs with modern vitamins and minerals. I take the mood formula daily. It is great if you work a stressful job, had adrenal fatigue, ever suffer from anxiety or even depression, and it really heals you from a fundamental and holistic level. So if you want to try it out, head over to Uveda. Y-O u v e d a dot com, use the code Sahara and you'll receive 35% off your first order. And they now ship to almost every country globally. So check it out. If you live internationally, they may be shipping to your country too. And they just added India, guys. This episode is also brought to you by four Sigmatic. Four Sigmatic is an incredible mushroom elixir company. I proudly drink their elixirs every single day. My favorite is their chai mix. It is insanely delicious. I quit chocolate cold turkey and what helped me was drinking this chai mix every day. And best of all, they use stevia to sweeten it. And there's no sugars like the chai lattes you'll find at Starbucks or wherever else. And the mushrooms are really good for balancing your hormones, helping heal adrenal fatigue, healing your body on an adaptogenic level. So Adaptogens really kind of relate to what your body needs. So if you are high stress, it will bring you down. If you need more energy, it will bring you up. And that's what's so amazing about Adaptogen is they adapt to your body. And mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms, have a lot of adaptogenic properties. So you can head over to their website, 4sigmatic.com F O-U-R S I G M A T I C.com Sahara. I have a little shop up there with my favorite four Sigmatic products, so you can try it out. And you can also get 15% off any four sigmatic product using the code Sahara. I am so excited to bring my dear friend, Dr. Jessica Petross to the podcast because she has been my friend for four and a half years, one of my longest friends in this kind of social media world. And that is because four and a half years ago, I messaged her on Instagram. I Was following her on Instagram. She's a western trained doctor who has now totally shifted into a more holistic lifestyle and really spreads the truth about what's going on in the pharmaceutical world with her platform, which is so inspiring. So I started following her, was inspired by her work. I was leading my first retreat ever in India, so I slid up in her DMs and I was like, hey, want to come to India and meet me there? And she's like, okay. She had never gone come to India before. And she came on my retreat, we met up in Goa, South India, and super, super connected. And we knew right then that we needed to create work together. So we decided to create the East Meets West Holistic Healing Retreat, which is a retreat that we ran now for four years ago, a little over four years ago in Joshua Tree, where she brought her western trained science and I brought the Ayurvedic and we talked about how you can have both hand in hand. It's not one or the other, but really how you can have both hand in hand. Because, you know, Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, herbology, these are the ultimate forms of sciences for preventative medication. But if you have a broken leg or you have a heart attack or something, there are a lot of incredible technologies that Western medicine has created. So you don't need to only do one, you can have both. And that's where the real magic comes. So she is a dear, dear soul sister of mine. She has an incredible story which she's gonna share with you on this episode. But really what I love and appreciate about her so much is that she shares nothing but the truth. She dives into so many health problems that so many of us have from liver issues, Candida, Epstein Barr virus, Lyme disease, so many ment. Mental, physical, digestive issues, and gets to the root of it. She talks about things that most doctors are not even aware of because she's so multifaceted. And I'm so excited to bring her on the podcast because she is my go to person for all things like honestly medicine. There is no one that I trust more than her. And we also have together created this offering, the Path to Freedom program, which trains people how to use essential oils, which are truly plant medicines, to create this incredible revolution where we're going to essential oils for our healing instead of pills and shots and all of these things that are not natural to the body. So we're so excited to offer you guys the Path to Freedom program. You can learn more about that by heading over to iamsaharose.com freedom every month I will be doing an Ayurveda workshop, how to use Ayurveda, which is with the oils. She will be doing one about how to use the oils to heal many, many different issues. She helps solve her boyfriends molds toxicity with the oils. So many incredible benefits to them. So check that out. And I am so honored to have this beautiful gem of a woman here, Dr. Jessica Petro. So let's please welcome her to the Highest Self podcast. Welcome, Jessica, to the Highest Self podcast. It's so great to have you here.

It's lovely to be here. Thanks for having me.

So the first question I would love to ask you is, what makes you your highest self?

Oh, wow. Being authentic makes me my highest self. Anytime I stray from what is authentic to my heart, I do a disservice to myself and anyone else I'm trying to teach.

Beautiful and so true. So for people listening, don't know. Well, I said this in the intro, but me and Jessica have quite a history together. She's one of my really longest friends in this sphere. Like, I met you four years ago and I messaged you on Instagram. We never met in person. I was like, hey, girl, I'm doing a retreat in India. Do you want to come? You're like, okay, how do I get my ticket? You came to India.

It was awesome.

And it was awesome. And then in India, we both just totally had the download that we need to do work together. And we planned the east meets west holistic healing retreat. And then we ran that in Joshua Tree, which was amazing. I think it was like 50 people showed up and people are still talking about it. It's amazing. And I love just watching you grow and your journey and you start your supplement lines and all of the wisdom and truth that you share. And I'm just so proud of you and so happy to be your friend.

Same ditto. I just give the love right back to you because you've grown as well. And look at you on the Highest Self podcast. I love it. So it's an honor to be here and to be on the podcast with you. Kind of come full circle with everything. I feel like looking back, we were like babies learning to crawl then, so. And it was just three years ago.

I know. It's incredible, like, how much growth happens and where all of us will be in three years from now.

Totally.

You have an amazing story and I think your story is actually really what drew me to you because I had never heard especially a western medical trained doctor with a story like yours. So can you please share with us your background and the awakening that really happened?

Sure. And the juicy details. Right. So, you know, I was born and raised in West Virginia and went to school and residency in Kentucky. So I love that part of the country and all my friends are still there. But it's not, I would say, a very enlightened or, you know, place where people search out a lot of spirituality. It's in their own self and own right and me included. And so when this happened, I didn't really know what was happening to me. Thought I was kind of losing my mind a little bit. So I want to explain this to people who may have similar questions and not know exactly what's happening with them either. And so, you know, honestly, this was back in. I was a hospitalist, which is a doc who works in the hospital, admits patients from the emergency department. And I did that for years. I did that for six years. And then I started to see that the patients in the hospital, there was kind of a rotating door of admissions in the hospital, and the prescriptions that I gave to the patients seem to heal them all the time. In fact, it seemed to confuse them more and cause more side effects. And I used to get frustrated. And towards the end of my hospital's career, I actually got on social media. I would see things that holistic practitioners or naturopaths would post, and I would sort of go down the rabbit hole and do my own research and look up the studies and see that there was a lot of merit to some things that people were saying. So at the end of my hospitalist career, I was pretty disgruntled. I got kind of disillusioned with the system. I saw that people really didn't heal, and pills seemed to be a band aid, and the pharmaceutical system seemed to be what was driving this quote, unquote, healing in the system. So I kind of, you know, really was. It was pulling my heartstrings to be a part of that. So, you know, honestly, in Kentucky, what drove this awakening was pain. And, you know, it was pain being in the system, and it was pain through divorce that coincided at the same time. So I really hit rock bottom. And I was in Kentucky, where I didn't have a lot of resources about what a Kundalini awakening or any sort of spiritual awakening was. You know, at this time, I had a lot of adrenal fatigue. I was overworked, my hormones were probably a hot mess, and I was super angry at a lot of personal things. In my life. And I had only been married for six months, so it was sort of like a Kim Kardashian wedding. And I'll own that. And, you know, I was the instigator in a lot of it. I had a lot of unresolved issues and ang and personal things and accountability that I needed to own that I hadn't. And so when I hit rock bottom, I love this saying that Rumi has, that where the cracks are, the light enters. And that saying was so very true for me. I had to really do some self evaluation and dig deep into my shadow self and say, you know, what went wrong here? How was I to blame? And then I moved out west and I started getting. I jumped out of the system. I started getting trained in naturopathic medicine. I met some really great mentors along way and did some traveling along the way. That really turned out to be sort of a Mecca for me. I remember at that time when I hit rock bottom, I mean, I was having like tingles and chills up my spine and posturing and restless leg syndrome and lots of headaches and certain things that can be explained medically by hormonal imbalances, but also seem to be almost coinciding with ascension symptoms or awakening symptoms. And so I now, looking back in hindsight, can only say that I think I had divine intervention in a lot of what path I was being led down. And because I'm so stubborn, they had to do it through some painful circumstances.

So what did those symptoms look like?

Well, they looked like a nervous breakdown. A lot like not being able to sleep at night or having insomnia, some difficulty with restlessness and anger, agitation, a lot of fear, even some bowel disturbances. So a lot of for me and my personality type, let's just put it out there. It's your podcast. I'm pitta. So when that anger and fire builds in a pitta, it burns people. Unfortunately, that's what happened with my relationship. A lot of my healing was going back and apologizing to people after I gained my sense back. Because when you have so many of those physical symptoms, it really is hard to gain your grounding and footing again for a while.

Totally. So you had this nervous breakdown. You realized you don't want to be working in this hospital, you don't want to be in this marriage. Basically everything you were living was this massive illusion. And what did you do from there?

Well, you know, he left. It was sort of a really public, humiliating divorce. And it was very much intertwined in the hospital with my career. And so I was so ashamed. You know, I was almost suicidal back then. You know, I really didn't think about continuing. That's how much my ego was running the show back then. And so, you know, I really thought that was my ego. And so it felt like a death. When you think you're your ego and the universe shows you your ego must die or at least be contained. Right. So I moved out west and I moved to Oregon, actually, Portland, Oregon, and I started actually working in alternative medicine. I did a lot of actually working on cannabis, working as a cannabis doctor to help people. I started working at naturopathic clinics and meeting some really kind docs who taught me they didn't have to teach me a whole lot, but teach me a little bit about tricks to the trade. I went and got extra training in functional medicine and ozone and Gerson therapy, really dove in and started to see a different perspective than what I had been indoctrinated with previously.

I love that so much and, and I loved watching, like, I mean, so many different trainings you've done and modalities you learn about and that you also teach on your social media and you talk a lot about hormones and particularly how your hormonal imbalances will affect your personality. So can you share with us some common hormonal imbalances and the personality traits that it creates?

Of course. So, you know, I beat up estrogen a lot in my social media and blogs, but estrogen, we as ladies definitely need it. Even men need it in certain ratios, but we don't need too much of it or we don't need xenoestrogens. And estrogen gives us our glowing skin, supple skin, and curvy hips and curves in general. Right? And it keeps us regular and makes us women. And so but in too much quantities, it really causes a problem. So one of my specialties I treat is an estrogen dominance. And that phrase was coined by Dr. Lee years ago. I don't remember the exact year, but I actually have a ratio I can figure out. A lot of the problems that doctors now see is that they look at hormones in the regular reference range and they say, oh, you're normal. When really what matters is the ratio of the hormones to each other. So in excess estrogen, people will have painful breasts before their cycle, Fibrocystic breast tissue, ovarian cyst and fibroids. Even breast cancer is an estrogen dominant related condition in many people. Even migraines, right before your cycle. Frustration, impatience, reactivity, all of that is definitely an estrogen dominance and PMS included. I tell women all the time, PMS is common. It is not normal. We've been led to think it is. That's an estrogen dominance. Also, people wake up with night sweats. This is also commonly misunderstood. People think, oh, I'm in menopause, my hormones are all low. That's true. However, in menopause, estrogen falls by 30%, while progesterone falls by 70%. So by the ratio, you still have a relative estrogen dominance. So that's the most problem I see in many, many people, men included, because we have xenoestrogens out in the water and birth control pills in the water and, you know, additives in the food and things that add to this. So, you know, the other thing you see a lot of is high testosterone in women, which is polycystic ovarian syndrome. When there's other criteria involved, like cystic on the ovaries and things. I see a lot of low testosterone in men, which is no libido, no stamina, and the kind of zest for life is gone. And when you see hormonal imbalances in women in general, they will just have lost their joy for life. Hormones are the scaffolding of your personality, and if they're askew, you really won't recognize yourself, and you'll start to lash out at people close to you and then have a lot of shame because you don't like who you turned into.

Mm, totally. So and what about if first talk about progesterone?

Yes. So progesterone. So progesterone. You know, normally I don't see that elevated in reference to a lot of people. If I do, though, these people sometimes will have a lot of depression. They will have trouble losing weight. And so progesterone is extremely important. It stands for progestation. So it's important in actually helping people to carry and sustain a pregnancy is extremely important. It shoots up the second half of our cycle and helps us to trigger. To start a cycle and start our period every month. So progesterone is extremely important, too. I normally don't see it elevated. I see either too low most of the time in women and even men. And when it is, people will definitely have trouble sleeping. They'll have a bunch of other hormonal issues that go along with that.

Mmm. So important to talk about, guys. And what about if someone is low in all three? They're just low in hormones.

Yeah. So this can happen a lot if that happens. Usually it's for some reason they're perimenopause or around menopause or the change or andropause if it's men, actually men can go through a change as well. Or it can be some things. Like sometimes people will do the Dutch test, which is my favorite test. It's a dried urine test for hormones. It's extremely accurate and I'm super impressed with it. But this test actually shows if people sometimes if people are on things like tamoxifen for breast cancer, which is an estrogen blocker, we will see a lot of the hormones extremely low. Sometimes if there are pituitary tumors, we can also see hormones that are extremely low that way.

Yes. Because when I was going through my very severe voughts imbalance and I didn't have my period for two years, I had basically none of any of them. It's not even imbalanced. I just wasn't creating hormones. And it was because my body was basically saying you're not in a safe enough place to reproduce. So we're going to take away your ability to.

Yeah, the body's intelligent. You know, if you're already stressed out, there's no reason it's going to add a child to stress you out even more. Regardless of how much you want it, it doesn't matter. Your body's intelligent. So yeah, I see people, young women like that all the time actually. Sahara and it's a shame. Birth control pills can do that. Stress and anxiety can do that. There are lots and lots of female nourishment can do that. And stress is a big one for people. It really, really screws up hormones imbalance and makes imbalances for everyone.

So true. And can you talk a little bit about because infertility is such a big issue today, what do you think are some of the causes of infertility and how can we address them?

It's a great question. It's a complicated question and it sort of doesn't have a black and white answer. It has a lot of gray answers and a lot of testing to reveal that. But usually the most common one I see honestly are things like an estrogen dominance. I also see genetic mutations which cause problems a lot too. For example, I had a recent woman who wanted to get pregnant and she had a hypercoagulable state which means that she had a clotting disorder. And on top of that she had mthfr, which sounds like a cuss word, but it's actually a very common genetic mutation that 40% of the population has where they can't activate B vitamins, methylate or activate B vitamins. She had that as well. She had a clotting problem like I said, and then she had an estrogen dominance. So she felt flighty and crazy every day. Her cycles were irregular, horrible pms, horrible cramping, super stressed out all the time. And then she had a genetic mutation and a clotting problem. So every time she got pregnant she would miscarry. So a lot of people, it's really just hormonal problems. And women are taught that birth control pills fix this problem for them. And that is the answer. If you have hormonal issues or pms, here's some birth control pills. They don't fix it, they just mask it. So these women come off these pills, their body's not used to making their own hormones, which by the way come from cholesterol. So if your cholesterol is messed up, you also need to look at that. So then they can't form their own hormones. This is a problem that doesn't have a black and white answer for most people. There's a number of different things you have to look at. I encourage people to look at their genetics. Do 23andMe or one of those other Great Plains lab does a great genetic test for people. Make sure you look for mthfr. This is a simple blood test. Look for clotting disorders. It's all in the genesis.

Can you like regular doctor test for this or do you have to go to a specialty lab?

Great question. So your regular doctor can test for this and they absolutely will test for things like a clotting disorder or you know, thyroid problems can also cause this. Estrogen elements, all this can cause miscarriages. However, they may have trouble with the genetic testing or mthfr. Unfortunately, conventional medicine has not embraced this genetic mutation like the functional medicine world has. And so I think that they don't know how important that is to test for because inflammation in the body is going to cause problems all the time. And a lot of these genetic SNPs or mutations, that's what they lead to is inflammation in the body, stress in the body, and again, the body won't carry pregnancy that way.

So ask for an MTHFR test.

Absolutely. And that's the only one they should give you flack on. Honestly, 40% of the population, like I said, it's a simple blood test. And you know, you may or may not have your insurance cover it depending on where they stand.

Okay, got it. And on this topic, I'D love to speak to you about Epstein Barr. It's something that I know I have heard 80% of the population has it. Something medical medium has kind of brought to surface. And I would love to have, for most of listeners who haven't heard about this, just explain about this a little bit more.

Absolutely. This is a great topic too, one of my favorites. So I consider myself specialists in chronic kidney infections like Epstein Barr and Lyme. And I know that the conventional medicine world hasn't necessarily embraced this theory as much. However, a lot of the new tests and research are alluding to the fact that Epstein Barr is a problem. Epstein Barr is a virus. It's a very old virus. And like you said, 80 to 90% of the population is seropositive for it by the age of 20, whether they remember having mononucleosis or not. Epstein Barr is the virus that causes mono, the kissing disease. A lot of us can remember being super sick with sweep swollen lymph nodes, a super high fever, sore throat, and really, really severe malaise and fatigue. And sometimes this lasts for a month for people. And regular science has said, okay, this is just a virus, just like any and all viruses, it passes and there's no sequela from it. And you can actually get your blood work done and you can ask your doctor for it. However, I will say this blood test costs $450 without insurance, which is interesting. And so what they test for are antibodies. And when you have an inf, you form antibodies, you form acute antibodies that fight the infection. When it is occurring, you form long term antibodies. So next time the infection shows up, your body says, hey, I recognize you, you're not getting away with this. So they test both these antibodies in the blood. The IgM antibody shows if you have an infection, right? Then the IgG antibody shows if there's been a past infection. So regular science and medicine say, oh, no big deal. Look, you had it in the past, it's no big deal. I think that's not true. Because if you have, let's say the reference range is 0 to 30 if your number is 40. Okay, look, you've had a past Epstein Barr infection. Your body has it under control. However, my patients, when they're sick as dogs, I check it, they have levels in the 500-600-600. This is an uncontrolled, chronic, ongoing infection. This is what our body is telling us. This Epstein Barr virus is not under control. And in a recent research study out of Cincinnati in April this year showed that Epstein Barr is now linked to seven different autoimmune conditions. These are things like rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile diabetes, all these different disorders. And what it does is it hijacks our B lymphocytes or soldier cells or white blood cells, and it reverses the transcription to its own. So it hijacks these cells permanently and releases toxic byproducts that lower our collective immunity over time.

So if 80% of the population has it, that means we've been exposed to it, but only if you have experienced mono at some point in your life, then it's active in your body.

Exactly. And it's the same thing. Viruses are strange things. You know, they're not living. They're empty capsids that just kind of hijack us. And so, you know, it's sort of, if you think of like HIV or herpes, all those viruses, they hijack your system and lay dormant, right? So even people, you know, 90, 80 to 90% of the population is also seropositive for or herpes 1, which causes cold sores in most people. Some of these people say, I've never had a cold sore. But when they get tested, they're still positive. So some people's immune systems can control it.

So if you've had a cold sore, then you have Epstein Barr also?

Well, more than likely. And I'll say that. I won't say that definitively. I'll say that I'll suggest probably because everyone has things they're sensitive to. But if Epstein Barr is definitely the problem that I suspect that it is, then once it's on board and it lowers your immunity, then things like the herpes virus that does cause cold sores can kind of jump on as its little friendly co. Partner in crime. And so they can kind of release. They move in sticky biofilms in the body that your defenses don't recognize, and they can move in pairs and jump on board as little friends that really work your immune system over time. They prevent you from sleeping, they prevent you from feeling well and fighting. And so the better it is for Epstein Barr if more people jump on board and are opportunistic with your system.

Okay, so it's like, I think, what percentage of the population gets cold sores, Right? Is that also around 80%?

No, it's not. You know, that's a great question. I don't actually know that specific number off the top of my head. However, it is true that 80 to 90% are positive for it in their blood. I would say probably 40 to 50% of the population. I mean, who knows? How many people admit it, get a cold sore?

Right. Well, I think. Yeah, I think most people do or have had one at some point in their life. And then I totally. I've had cold sores before. And I notice if it's only when my immune system gets low.

When you're stressed, right? And you're so stressed. That's exactly true. So things that triggered are sunlight and being stressed out, all that.

For me, it's. If my lips get too dry, that too.

Any sort of like chronic friction or irritation can kind of irritate that area. Because what happens is the virus lays dormant in a nerve root. And so you'll notice when you get those cold sores, they usually pop up in the same dermatome or area that no breed innervates every single time because that's where it lies dormant. So it waits opportunistically for your system to falter. And stress that triggers it in so many people. It just goes to show you how much stress matters in our health. It really does.

So do you recommend that we go and get a test to see if we have Epstein Barr or. It's something that you can just kind of assume you have it, but as long as you're not seeing any bad symptoms, you don't need to get a test for it.

Yeah, I probably say the latter. I mean, you know, I haven't been tested for it. I'm honestly relatively healthy and don't have many problems. I suggest people, if they're healthy, don't worry about it so much. But if your health starts to falter or you notice recurrent infections, anything like that, it probably is worth your while to see where your body lives with that, because I can almost guarantee that most people are going to find it, you know?

Totally. So what does Epstein Barr look like when it begins to escalate?

Oh, man. Okay, so mono in general is pretty bad for most people. Like I said, it's usually a month long for some people or even longer. And that can be the highest fever, this most swollen lymph nodes. And actually, medicine tells patients do not play contact sports. Six to eight weeks, you know, after mono, because it enlarges your. It invades your lymph nodes and your spleen and liver. And so if you play contact sports, these have a chance to rupture. That's how swollen they get. That's how bad this virus is. So mono looks like that and Epstein Barr definitely can lie dormant and reactivate over and over and over. And sometimes that looks less painful for the patient. Because the body recognizes it sooner. Sometimes it's worse each time because the virus is gaining momentum on the immune system. Example, I have one patient who had an episode at work about a year ago where she was kind of drinking in the evenings and caught Epstein Barr at the same time, and it hospitalized her. And she was almost in a state of delirium and now is still kind of reaping the sequela from her thyroid and inflammation that's kind of migrating all over her body. And this is flares of Epstein Barr. You can see the IgG antibodies in her blood panel go up with each kind of flare that she has. Has.

Yes, totally. I see this happen so much with women. I had a friend of mine who just suddenly, out of nowhere, she got really, really sick. And it lasted for months. And she went to so many doctors, so many tests, no one could figure out what was wrong with her. And then she started reading Medical medium, found out it was Epstein Barr, and, like, got the test, and saw it was that. But it's insane how, like, most doctors are not even. They don't even recognize that this is a real virus, even though they're all are tests for it.

Oh, it's the same thing with Lyme patients. I feel so terrible for any of these Epstein Barr and Lyme patients because the doctors just literally just don't admit that it exists half the time. Chronic Lyme. And so these patients really are kind of their own best doctors, which obviously be your own best doctor is my slogan for a reason. I don't mean to hinder the safety of any sort of patient care, but these people are out on their own and out on a limb because doctors don't recognize the symptoms and signs of these viruses and bacteria, sometimes 100%.

And can you talk a little bit about Lyme disease? And I've heard that it comes from a tick, but I've also heard perspectives that it can come from Epstein Barr. So can you share about this as well?

Sure. So that's a great question. So I love my Lyme patients. They've been coming to me in droves lately, and I've really learned so much from their perspective. Just to say one quick thing about Lyme warriors, one of my patients is 34, a multimillionaire, runs his own company, and had been put on 19 different antidepressants. But he has Lyme, and he was told he was crazy. These patients really fight. The thing about Lyme is I think that people are more susceptible to it if they have genetic mutations that make Epstein Barr able to overtake their immune system easier. If Epstein Barr already has a hold on their immune system, it's going to be easier for you to get the Borrelia bacteria and not be able to fight it off off like you want to. The more opportunistic infections you have in you, that's just going to be the case. Now, it doesn't necessarily come from Epstein Barr, but Epstein Barr can make it worse. And it does come from, I will typically say a deer tick, the Zeotis deer tick. And it's usually worse. In Northeast America, however, the incidence and prevalence of Lyme disease has been increasing in recent years at drastic rates. It's actually more prevalent than breast cancer. And the infectious Disease Society of America, which is one of the groups that looks at Lyme disease. Right. Let me say this. They cite their own papers as guidelines about how to treat the disease. So I don't like to listen to the Infectious Disease Society of America. I'd rather listen to Ilads I L A D s and they have a more greater perspective view on what Lyme is and they believe in chronic Lyme and how to treat it. I don't think antibiotics are worth using unless it's acute and we know it and you can give them for two weeks and get rid of it. If it's chronic Lyme, it needs much more attention. It's going to be. I actually will say that the reason I think the incidence is increasing, there have been studies that allude to the fact that it could definitely be sexually transmitted. The reason I say that is because it's a spirochete which is a corkscrew shaped bacterium. And that is the same bacteria shape and type of bacteria that causes syphilis. They both borne the tissues and bone and get into the brain and central nervous system because of their corkscrew shape. And so it very much mirrors central nervous systems symptoms like syphilis. So they're now considering the hypothesis that it may be sexually transmitted and it is passed through childbirth.

Oh wow. So if you have Lyme, your child would get Lyme also if you do.

Not have it treated and controlled in the body. Absolutely.

Okay. And also it could be sexually transmitted to your partner.

Possibly. Now that hasn't been proven. That's a hypothesis that has been alluded to in some studies. But it is interesting to note that you do see in couples a lot and you do. It is the same shape and type of bacterium as syphilis. It's very interesting.

That's so fascinating. And when you say it is controlled in the body. What does that mean?

You know, chronic Lyme, you can always see that you've had a chronic past infection. But you know, you cansome people say chronic Lyme can't be cured once it's in the central nervous system. There can be long term sequelae that take years to fix. But I do believe the immune system can heal chronic Lyme. And so some patients, like for example, I have a patient who had it when he was young, he had two weeks of antibiotics, it was caught in time and he has not suffered any sequela at all. However, lately he has been kind of having some adrenal fatigue, overworked and it's sort of reactivating in his body again. So I don't put anything past line. It's caused by a number of different species of ticks and it can behave a number of different ways and patients kind of looks like lupus that way. And it's sort of a mystery disease and it's hard, hard, hard to diagnose and catch nearly imp. So I really listen to these patients and understand that sometimes this bacteria, even though it seems like it's been treated and contained in the body, if there's a stress, I do see patients relapse with it. I do.

Wow, that's super fascinating. I had no idea about that. And can you share with us a little bit about lupus, just briefly since you mentioned that?

Yeah. So lupus is an interesting autoimmune disease. It presents a number of different ways and people will say it's the body attacking itself. I will say that I believe the body has an intelligence and that's conventional medicine's viewpoint, is that the body is attacking itself. However, I think that if there's some sort of inflammation or stressor there, the body is confused about where to attack. And that is actually what's probably going on. I think that most of the autoimmune diseases, lupus included, are triggered by something like Epstein Barr or Lyme or some other chronic hidden infection that we haven't pinpointed quite yet. I do believe, if I'm not mistaken, a study of out of Cincinnati did say that lupus was one of the ones alluded to be triggered by Epstein Barr. Lupus can come on with a myriad of symptoms. A butterfly type rash on your face, swollen joint pains, even like tingling, numbness. It can be very mood swings, instability that way. It's diagnosed by blood tests looking for autoimmune markers. It can be controlled and contained. There are some tools I have in my Toolbox cheap use for patients with autoimmune diseases. They are traditionally really hard to treat and so low dose naltrexone is something I use really addressing the gut is something I look at because auto, autoimmune conditions stem from a gut barrier problem, in my opinion, lupus included.

So what type of diet do you recommend for autoimmune disease?

Yeah, so the diet is a hot button, especially on social media. As you know, I don't adhere to any certain diet for anyone. I think that bio individuality of diet should be really respected for people. Everyone has their own belief system. For autoimmune patients specifically, I like an autoimmune paleo diet. I like fodmaps a lot. I really look and make sure people have the right gut bacteria. Their tests we can do. There's sort of the fingerprint of their gut. So I need to address any negative bacterial colonies or ratios, any sort of parasites, viruses or bacteria we don't want there. And then we can kind of work on reviving their guts through healing. Organic fruits and vegetables, plants and food that your ancestors would recognize. Eating for the season, eating for your body type. Really what makes people feel good is removing processed carbs and sugar from all and dairy for that matter, from many people's diets, especially autoimmune patients. And they need to understand that even though it doesn't make make intuitive sense, it really is true that some of your dairy is causing brain fog, I promise.

Oh, for sure. I think definitely sugar, dairy, gluten should just not be any in anyone's side. Like we just don't need it and there's so many other alternatives. And yeah, I mean I wish there was just one diet like this is exactly what to eat and that's it. And that's what gets tricky, that we're all so different and we all just want like the blueprint of this is the solution and that doesn't exist.

It does not. I wish I had cookbook medicine for everyone too. This is the reason that people are so fed up with conventional medicine, is that's what they've done. They've separated it into specialists and systems and then everyone gets cookbook medicine. And that's just not the way people work. They need tailored plans with their diet, which is medicine, and they need tailored plans with their lifestyle. That's what makes us all beautiful, is we're all unique. It also makes it tricky from a healing standpoint too.

So true. How amazing is Jessica's knowledge? Well, if you want to be mentored by her me Melissa annbrosini, Nick Broadhurst, Allison Charles, Cassandra Bodzak, Ali Michelle, Krista from almost 30 from so many amazing souls. Then come join us on the Path to Freedom program. This is a business mentorship program that teaches you how to have a thriving business with Doterra Essential oils, the only certified therapeutic grade oils out there. Jessica has been using these oils for healing many people, and it is such an incredible opportunity to be able to share these oils and the business side of it with you guys. So if you are interested, head over to iamsahararose.com freedom. You'll find all the information there and we look forward to welcoming you. Now back to this episode. I would love to talk about cancer because, you know, I connect you with my dear friend Liana, who wrote the Cancer Diet, and you're a major contributor in that. And you really, you're trained in ozone therapy, Garston therapy, and you know a lot about the subject. So can you please tell us the lifestyle and cancer connection? Because in the media, it makes it seem like cancer can just happen to anyone. It's just gonna, like, hit you like lightning one day. And I love how you posted. I think it was today or one of these days that 90 of cancers have lifestyle causes.

Yeah. It's so true. And by the way, we love you, Leanna. Thank you. Yes. Back to cancer. It's something that has really pulled up my heartstrings with my patients over the years. I wanted to take a vested interest and get extra training in that. Even though I am not an oncologist, I work with a lot of cancer patients to make lifestyle changes, to make things like chemotherapy smoother for them so they have a life. You're right. It's unfortunate. One out of three people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. And there's a lot.

One in three.

One in three. And there's a lot of scare tactics about that with people. I do feel like the media and a lot of the powers that be do want to take the power away from the people and say this is your only hope is this system and this chemotherapy and this radiation. They don't even address nutrition. We get three hours of training in medical school. It's not even addressed. They tell patients, eat oil and sugar and lots of calories so you can gain weight. That's what they tell people. Unfortunately, chemotherapy wipes out our immune system, which is in our gut. That's why it causes nausea and wipes out the most rapidly dividing cells, which include cancer cells, hair cells and GI cells. So it causes you to lose your hair, be nauseous all the time, and 80% of your immune system is in the gut. So they're helping to wipe out the bad cancer cells, but also wiping out your immune system so that you have little ability to fight innately. So what I want to let people know is you can do holistic measures with conventional measures. Gerson Therapy works with people who do chemotherapy or not. However, what I think is unfair for people is that they are only given one option in mainstream medicine. And I want to let them know there are other options. You know, Gerson Therapy, juicing, coffee, enemas, supplements to treat cancer, ozone, you know, O3. It's what protects the mantle of the earth. It actually is very healing when introduced into the blood or in rectal or vaginal insufflations for cancer, it's a pro oxidant. It turns the hydrogen peroxide into reactive oxygen species in the body and scrubs the disease cells clean things like different nutritional IVs to bypass the gut barrier. If people have malabsorption problems, you get nutrition right in the vein. These are the basic building blocks that help our immune system run. Every reaction in our body, if we don't have those, either from our food or from IVs, or from lifestyle changes we're making, we really are shooting ourselves in the foot because. Because our bodies want to run perfectly. And you're just not born with genetic mutations. The environment causes them, our choices cause them. The food and water we put in our body causes them. So I don't want that to scare people. I want that to empower people. Mm.

So. So true. So genetic mutations. So it's not something you're born with, it's something that happens over the course of your life.

Of course, most of the time, I will say. Let me retract that. I will say that some people can be born with genetic mutations. However, there's been a study that shows that there are over 200 toxins that babies are exposed to in utero. So just from the blood from the mother. And so, you know, it just begs the question of how much of these genetic mutations would exist if we didn't have that type of exposure before the baby's even born.

And that's from, like, the foods she eats and, like, the air she breathes and that sort of stuff.

100%. The stuff we put on our skin, the stuff we put in our body. I mean, everything we're exposed to, the vaccines, the, you know, whatever it is we all are exposed to adequate fillers, toxins and, you know, our detoxification organs, like our skin, our liver, our kidneys, just like you, Sahara, they can get overwhelmed.

Yes, absolutely. So what can people do for cancer prevention? Or maybe they've had it in the past and they want to prevent it from coming back.

Correct. So I tell people all the time, if you're stuck in a pickle with, you know, or you're in between a rock and a hard place with your cancer, you know, I don't discourage people from doing chemotherapy. If it's an urgent time and they need to buy time, go for it. Because if you're not alive, I can't help you. Chemotherapy and radiation will sometimes keep people alive for the time being. So we can heal them and detox them. But what keeps you cancer free and surviving is the measures I'm going to do with you with holistic medicine on changing your life. That's what I tell patients, what you can do. You can really start reading into things like different diet books. Look into the different holistic functional medicine. Doctors like Dr. Hyman, myself, Dr. Gottfried, she's a hormone expert. These people are wonderful resources. You can even look at documentaries on Netflix like cowspiracy Food Inc. This lets you know, gives you the power and knowledge to know what's being done to the food that you put in your body. I also want people to know that whatever toxin load you have, whether it be physical or emotional, because emotional detox is part of this, then you can heal. We just need your specific recipe and we need time. And that often includes changing your diet, diet revamping what you're putting in your body, detoxing out with coffee enemas to stimulate your liver to produce glutathione and master antioxidant. Really doing the self work that you need to do, forgiving people, getting rid of repressed emotions and anger. I mean, this is mind, body, spirit healing. When you come to heal cancer, looking into cannabis, opening your mind about alternative therapies that really, at the very least can make your journey with chemotherapy very.

So can you detoxify while you're undergoing chemotherapy?

Great question. You can, I will say, not hardcore though. Chemotherapy is so hard in the body and it depends on people's performance, status, where they start. You know, if people are weak to begin with, I wouldn't detox anymore with chemotherapy, if they're young and strong without a lot of other problems, we could do something passively, possibly. Like for instance, I have a patient on oral chemotherapy. She's doing coffee enemas, one a day. She's taking CBD every day. And guess what? Last time she had this cancer. She's very young, she has a genetic mutation. By the way, last time she was awfully sick. She couldn't get out of bed, she was dizzy, She's a toddler, she really couldn't live her life. This time she opened her mind to cbd which is the non psychoactive part of marijuana plant. She opened her mind to changing her diet and doing one coffee enema a day. She's living her life. She's driving, she's eating, she's up walk. And so that's a testament to what this natural medicine can do. You can do all this on your own, but you know, I encourage patients not to just listen to the only viewpoint that their conventional medicine doctor gives them.

Absolutely, yes. And I'd love to know. So is the CBD actually helping heal the cancer or is it just alleviating the pain related symptoms?

Great question again. So CBD stands for cannabinoid. It's again the non psychoactive part of the marijuana plant. It's safe enough to give the little kids that have seizures. And actually Charlotte's Web is named after a little girl, eight year old girl who had a bunch of seizures and stopped with most of them after she started CBD without thc. So cbd, it actually is helping with a lot of the inflammation which is a problem with the cancer and fighting cancer. It is anti cancer somewhat. However, it's actually the ratio you want is more of a 3.1cbd to THC. THC is really important in fighting cancer and a lot of patients don't want to hear that because they don't want the psycho effective effects. But it really is important. CBD still has great benefits and it still helps, but it's not the creme de la creme if you have cancer. It's more of a Rick Simpson oil if you can get a clean extraction or a 3 to 1. CBD to THC is more along the lines for cancer therapy.

Okay, and do you recommend just the oil or do you recommend for a cancer patient to smoke marijuana?

No, I wouldn't recommend to smoke marijuana because especially with cancer because there is still carbon monoxide combustion that you're exposed to some of those toxins. I tell people Rick Simpson oil is named after Rick Simpson who's a gentleman who extracted the plant a novel way and gave it to himself to cure his skin cancer and started giving it to his friends for their cancer. The FDA came and raided his lab and put him in prison. This oil is named after him and it contains high thc, high CBD and high cannabinoids. So these are the healing terpenes and things that really fight inflammation and cancer and have shown to halt cancer in petri dishes with prostate and breast cancer cells. So you know, this is hard to get unless it's in legal states because it is high in thc, which is psychoactive. Another thing you can do if you can't get your hands on Rick Simpson oil is get a CBD oil that's organic and full spectrum. Get a THC oil that's organic and you can do a three to one measurement. Your, you know, with three drops of CBD to one drop of THC and that also will suffice. We just want to make sure that the medicine is clean and organic.

Okay, got it. And in terms of cancer prevention, what else would you recommend? Diet, lifestyle, anything to look out for. And I also want to ask you what specific tests do you recommend for other genetic mutations?

Right, great question. So there is a lot that people can do on their own as far as cancer goes. You know, I really want people to have references. The foresight clinic to look on there. They have an 80% cure rate. There's things like GCMAF, insulin potentiation therapy, CBD, all that stuff as references for people as far as cancer goes and the outlook that they can have so other genetic mutations. Great Plains labs has a great test that tests all the genetic profile. I think it's called the genepl. I can't remember the name of the test right now, but Great Plains Lab has one.23andMe can suffice for a lot of people. Great Plains tests way more genetic mutations than just 23andMe. There are a lot of options to do this and I do want to tell people that sometimes you'll get these reports and you'll be like, okay, I have, you know, MTHFR and a comt mutation, but what the heck does that mean? So there are websites that you can go and plug this information in and it'll give you kind of a layperson's printout of what these, what the relevance of this is, you know, so people know what they're dealing with.

So does everyone have some sort of genetic mutation?

You know, most people, I'll tell you what, it's usually people who come from maybe parents who are unhealthy or a line of family who's kind of eaten unhealthy and lived unhealthy. Or people, parents that have smoked. You think about it. When whatever genes change while you're smoking, those remain changed and are passed down to your children. Right? That's epigenetics in a nutshell. And so a lot of things can happen while you're alive too. Most people, not everyone has a genetic mutation. If you have healthy parents, you're breastfed, you weren't given antibiotics, you really ate healthy food, you may not have a lot of those epigenetic single nucleotide changes or mutations. However. However, if you come from family that's sick and you have some autoimmune diseases and some other things in your family, you probably do have some genetic mutations. And the answer is always in the genes. I encourage people to look this up. If you're sick and you don't know why, it's in your genes.

So good. And it's so important for all of us to really take that initiative and become our own best doctors. And the last question I want to ask you about is when do you recommend taking antibiotics? And when do you recommend just trying to cure naturally, taking probiotics, doing colloidal silver or something else?

That's a great question too. So in life threatening circumstances, I'm always going to encourage a patient to take antibiotics. It's kind of like chemotherapy. If it's a do or die situation that we're in, that's when allopathic medicine, conventional medicine shines. If I broke a leg or I was septic with an infection, the first place I go is the emergency department. You know, so if people are sick, you know, their blood pressure is compromised, they have a dangerously high fever, they're delirious, you have to have antibiotics. If you have, you know, a terrible skin infection or let's say a cellulitis or an infection or swelling of the skin near the eye, you know, that's something you don't want to mess with. So there are certain things that you have to look at and weigh the risk and benefit. I won't be able to give all those examples here, but you know, definitely I've encouraged people to take antibiotics in situations like that. There are other patients who come to me and they say, I was just diagnosed with H. Pylori, which is a bacteria that can affect the gut and cause acid reflux and even a risk for cancer. And they'll, you know, I've been given two antibiotics and a proton pump inhibitor. What do I do? And I say, you know, my gut cleanse microbiome master can help clear a Lot of H. Pylori infections. If you want to try that first and you're not too sick, we can try it, you know, so I give them the option and, you know, they'll reach out to me if their vital signs are stable, they feel okay, they're young most of the time. I, you know, will always kind of evaluate whether someone could do it with antibiotics or not. But please, people, if you are really sick and you're. Or there's something grown out of your leg or you're about to pass out and you're sick as a dog, then you might need antibiotics, unfortunately.

And what natural antibiotic remedies do you recommend?

So you mentioned one of them or a couple of them. You said colloidal silver. That's a great one. They actually put silver. They line it in IV catheters and Foley catheters in the hospital. So they know how antibacterial this stuff is. So silver is a great option if you get a good source. I also really like oil of rain oregano or garlic cloves, better known as Allison. These are great options for natural antibiotics. You can actually do plant poultices on wounds or even sugar packs to osmotically pull the bacteria or, excuse me, the water out to dehydrate the bacteria and wounds. So there are things you can do topically, there are things you can do internally. There are even homeopathic eye drops and different sacs. So there are lots of different options for holistic antibiotics. You know, even Podiarco has been shown to be a pretty alternative way to treat H. Pylori, for example, and that's a South American tea leaf.

And Candida.

Yes, that's right. Candida, too. And wormwood, black walnut hull for Candida and garlic. Again, it's funny.

Yeah. Because all of the Candida kind of killing stuff is also anti. Parasidal is also antibacterial.

That's right. 100%. You got to think, you know, think about how trees protected themselves from parasites. They're so vulnerable. So anything from a tree is really, you know, wormwood, stuff like that is really advantageous to treat parasites.

And Candida, so good and so true. Well, so much information. People are probably like, oh, my God, I want to get all these tests and take all these notes. So where can listeners continue to learn from you, connect with you, and get your herbs that. Can you tell us a little bit about your community company?

Sure, absolutely. So it was launched in August 2016. It's still in its newborn stages, I should say, but we're doing very well. I have a number of different products. Anything, they're all the master line. So my flagship product was microbiomester, which is 11 different herbs to treat candida negative bacterial colonies or gut. It's actually gut cleanse. So that's why I know about Padiarco and Wormwood black walnut hull and their amazing qualities. We also have things. One of my biggest sellers is Hormone Master for the ladies and men. It actually increases libid in men and treats PMS and menopausal symptoms in women. I have everything from stress to thyroid to a nootropic, which is a smart drug. And they're all natural, no fillers. Most of them are vegan. We just launched a multivitamin master and digestive enzyme too. The multivitamin master is not vegan, but most of them are. I have a whole line you can go on drjess.com, there's some blogs on there if you like to read. I even have some videos. There's a lot of information on there for people who want to be their own best doctor. I want people to know that if, if you have certain autoimmune conditions, certain pain, you can't sleep at night, hormonal issues, that you can treat these naturally. And I want to be a conduit and a messenger for natural medicine and herbs in general with lifestyle changes and diet changes. You absolutely can change your life with herbs. And I don't even want anyone to be on my products forever because no one should take a pill forever. With lifestyle changes in diet, that's where you can really get off medicines and change your life. Your life. And that's my goal, is to just educate people and help them learn how to heal.

I love that so much. And you truly do walk your talk and provide. You know, like a lot of times we hear about these things. We're like, what do we do? And it's like, I don't know, like, go find some cool herbs to take. And it's like, you know, can be really hard to like, go cultivate herbs and can take a lot of time. So thank you for just making the option available for us and then for all the information you put out there, like, like, guys, if you've not seen Jessica's Instagram, you need to follow her right now. It's Dr. Jess J E S S dot MD and it is so good. Like, I love looking at it every single day because she talks about everything from hormones to brain fog to digestion everything and like just gives so much information, but also with the spiritual and the psychological and really sees health like holistically. So thank you so much for like being this, that western doctor that is really changing the game.

I'm trying. You know, the real health is healing mind, body and spirit. And you know, you guys can heal. We just have to find your recipe. I really want to encourage patients and I appreciate the opportunity to again speak to you as a friend and on your awesome podcast. It's just been amazing.

Well, thank you again and we're so looking forward to having you back soon.

Thank you so much, Zahara. Appreciate it.

Guys, how amazing was that episode with Dr. Jess? She is such a powerhouse. Be sure to follow her on Instagram Dr. Jess MD she is a person you need on your newsfeed. And if you want to join both of us and be mentored by us, Melissa Ambrosini, Alison Charles, Tar Mackey, so many other light workers who have been in on this podcast. Please be sure to join us on the Path to Freedom program. This program is going to teach you how to be a real leader in using essential oils, this beautiful little jewels that Mother Earth has given us and how to use it to really heal society. I mean, imagine from now on if you walked into a hospital and there's like orange blossom diffusing and the doctors are instead giving giving you different oils that are related to your dosha and healing your illnesses with them. Like imagine what this world could look like. I truly believe essential oils are medicine of the future and also medicine of our past. So they're really what we're coming back to because the earth naturally provides us with everything that we need for our own healing. So if you are ready to be one of the leaders, sharing essential oils with your friends, with your family, with society, creating a business with these oils, then we invite you to join us. It includes mentorship by US app absolutely free, no charge, simply for enrolling with us. So head over to iamsaharrose.com freedom where you will receive more info on how to join our incredible team. And if you loved this episode, I would love for you to leave a review in the podcast store. So all you do is head to itunes, scroll to the bottom click, write a review, take a screenshot that you've left right review and email it over to me and I will send you the first half of my unreleased book, Eat Right for your Mind Body Type absolutely free. This book is not available for sale anywhere. It is now part of my Eat Right for your Mind Body Type program. So the only way to get it free is to just simply leave a beautiful review for this podcast. So email that review or a screenshot that just that you've left a Review over to SaharaetFeelFresh.com and I will send you back that book. I look forward to joining forces with you guys. To becoming a leader with you guys guys. To helping you guys walk this path to freedom while empowering the planet, helping put plants in the hands of the people where they belong, and allowing our society to move back to Earth as our form of healing. I honor you. I love you. Namaste.

Sam.