You're Only Absorbing 10% of Your Vitamins (Here's Why)

We hear a lot about the words root cause, but what does that actually mean? And are we truly addressing the root cause in midlife with all the things we're doing, the things we're eating, how we're moving, the tests we're taking, the supplements we're adding in, or are we really missing the mark? And most importantly, are we wasting time, energy, money on supplements that are not actually doing the job? And how important is root cause? Do we really need to be looking at this? And is there an answer when we know the root cause? And how do we even begin to figure it out? There's so many tests we can do. It can get overwhelming and confusing. I'll also share. I'm partially responsible for this confusion because I am a detective and I interview lots of people on different topics about gut, about heavy metals, about toxins, about all these things. And I understand how that can get in all of our heads, mine included. On what are we actually chasing here today? I'm so excited about this conversation with Lindsey Burrell. We are going to have a really deep dive conversation about root cause. She is an integrative health practitioner. She did that for years and years and years. She did something called bio analytics, and she worked with a lot of women, especially midlife women, on figuring out what is actually going on with root cause. And most importantly, she mentioned to me that she found a lot of women doing what they think they're supposed to be doing with supplements and all the things they were actually malnourished on, the vitamins and minerals they really, truly thought they were taking and need. So we're gonna have a big conversation about that. Lindsay did create something called the patch method. We're going to get into that as well as a solution for this. Thank you so much for being here today, Lindsay.

Yeah, I'm so pumped to be here. Everything you were just saying, I'm like, yes, preach all of that. That is my bread and butter. It's what I'm talking about every day. And you're right, it is so confusing, especially if you're on Instagram and you see all these ads of these supplements that are like, if you have this problem, take this. You have this problem, take this. And I meet with so many women that are literally taking hundreds of dollars worth of supplements, and they're like, I don't know if it's working, like crap. And so I think it's important to really take individuality and do that root cause testing, which we can go into all the details of the different ones. But get your data, right? Get your data, see what is going on beneath the surface. What's causing those symptoms? I always say symptoms are your body's way of like whispering to you, right? It's saying, hey, Natalie, something is off, something's imbalanced here. I need you to like pause and get deep, clean some things out, move some things out of the way, support me in a different way. And then your body, it knows how to heal. It's a self healing machine. It wants to thrive, it wants to feel great. So I always challenge women, like, if you start getting symptoms, it's just your body whispering like, help, I'm your friend, I'm here to heal. But let's get deep, deeper. Let's get into the root cause. Let's do some testing and let's curate your lifestyle, your diet, your supplementation to what your body actually needs. Right?

You know, I saw a meme recently on Instagram and it was, it had a picture of a car engine malfunctioning and it had like the little electronic screen and it said, check engine. It said like engine malfunction. And in the meme, the. Or it was like one of those video memes and he was putting a piece of tape over the check engine malfunctioning sign. And the, it was really trying to prove the point that we can cover up warning signs, but it doesn't actually fix the problem. Like your engine's not fixed when you, when you do that. When I think of root cause, that's how I'm defining it. How do you define root cause? What does that mean to you?

Root cause to me is you take a symptom. Like, I have migraines, I can't lose weight, I have anxiety, I have, you know, like you, you had hives and you went deep dive, you went detective style on like, what the heck is causing this? Instead of just putting ointment on it, you're like, no, what's causing it? How can I support my body so it can actually heal? What modalities can I bring in to help it heal? You weren't just ignoring it, right? So root cause is taking your symptoms and it's looking into the weeds, the data, the labs, the, you know, the whether that's. We do urine analysis, saliva, you can do, you know, obviously serum, so blood work. I also love hair follicle analysis because that shows a good comprehensive view. But we can see, like, what are the drivers of inflammation? Why is this body so pissed off? And specifically what can we do to support that? And I got into this work because I myself, like in my 20s, had debilitating health problems. Like, I was the. I was a textbook healthy girl. I exercise, I ate healthy, whatever, the fruits, the vegetables, what have you. But I like, could not go to the bathroom. I was always bloated, always constipated, tightness, heaviness. I also had a lot of anxiety because, of course, our gut is connected to our brain. We've got that, you know, and when that's disconnected, we're going to be all over the place. My periods were all over the place because, again, like, the gut was not regulated. And I'd go to the doctors and they would draw their labs, right? And they would say, okay, let's look at everything. And they're like, yeah, you're fine, your labs are normal, you're good to go. And I'm like, and I'm like, you, Natalie. I'm like a detective. I'm like the annoying, like, two year old that's like, but why? But why? But why? I want to know why. Like, why am I constipated? Why are my hormones off? My labs look fine. Okay, but why is this happening? And so I was relentless and I just didn't stop until I figured it out. And that really required me to become my own, you know, best healing champion. I went to school then to learn about biology and the body and health and hormones and, you know, really looking at the body from the cellular level. And that's where I realized, oh, my gosh, like, root cause is looking at, like, what is the root? Think of your body like a tree. Like, what is the root of, like, those leaves dying at the top? Let's dig out that tree. Find, like that root that's maybe being infested or, like, doesn't have nutrients, doesn't have water. Like, let's dig into the bottom where this tree was, like, created. Give it what it needs. So then the trees, the leaves can grow and they can turn colors and, you know, live its best life, if you will.

It sounds simple when you explain it and it sounds obvious, but what goes wrong? Like, why are we not getting that answer?

Okay, a couple of things. I think that one, so many women, and this is just easy to do because life is so busy, we just go on autopilot, right? We are so busy, we're just going through the motions of life that we aren't slowing down enough to, like, be intentional on healing the root cause, like, finding it out and then healing it. And the problem with this is that that might have worked 10 years ago that might have worked 20 years ago when our world was not as toxic and we didn't have as much we were fighting up against. But I am a firm, like I am so firm about this. You can't live in today's world with the climate, with the food, with the environment, with the toxins, with all the things we have going on, the stress. You can't live in today's world and not start digging and becoming an active participant in your health. Like if you just go on autopilot and see whatever happens, happens, you're going to be that person that is like, I don't feel great and I'm not living up to my fullest. I can't think clearly. Like I'm not fully showing up for life because my health is getting in the way. I don't fully feel alive and part of this world because my body is just, you know, not, not feeling great. It's, it's really like we're at this, this breaking point. I'm sure you see this too, Natalie. Like you've, you've been in this world so long, like so many women could just do whatever they wanted and like they were healthy, right? Like they didn't have all these crazy symptoms. And now it's like we actually have to put some muscle into this. Like we have to put some thought and some energy and time because our world is just different. We live in a different canvas. It's not a clean canvas. So we have to be more engaged.

So I feel like sometimes it really can be as simple as this is a symptom. Here's the thing and let me just give you a few examples because I want to get help here. So let's just say someone listening, they're dealing with headaches. Like headache is, and it's debilitating when it comes out and they're trying to figure out the root cause. They're like, well maybe it's my hormones, maybe it's this, maybe it's that. But in the meantime they need to take a frickin aspirin or maybe they need a prescription, something stronger for the headache to function. Is that ever okay? Or what are we, are we masking things like that? When, when do we say like okay, here's the symptom, here's the solution? Right now?

Yeah. No, I love that because sometimes we do need help and thank God we have options to help us in the moment. I say if you are debilitated and you need some TLC to make it through the day, Take the ibuprofen. Okay. Like, no shame, no guilt. Like, but in the meantime, let's be empowered with like, but what's causing this? So let's let me, like, do a little bit of, like, let me reach out to someone who could help me. Let me do some research. Let me start removing some things out of my diet. Right. Like getting some data too. But, like, get what you need in the meantime to have like a quality of life. But really couple that with like the long term work. Right. So that's my, that's my recommendation. And sometimes, yeah, we need a little bit of TLC just to get us through that moment.

Yeah. When you were in practice because you worked with a lot of midlife women, what were you and what, what does bioanalytics mean? Let's. I want to get into that. And then what were you seeing? Like, what was the common thread you started to see?

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So I work with women primarily. Like, they would come to me because they felt inflamed and they, their metabolism was not working in the sense of, I'm working out, I'm doing all these things, but, like, I am not losing weight and I don't feel great. And so we would do bioanalytics and I just group this basically as like, different labs to look more root cause. So we would do like, we could do an oats test, we could do a Dutch test, which is more hormone focused. I also love a hair follicle analysis because that could show us what are the top things stressing out this body from like a 90 day period. We can also couple that with blood work. My only caveat with blood work is that it's not full picture. It can be really great when we're looking at glucose and insulin and maybe liver enzymes. But the thing with hormones, you get this, like, those are fluctuating all day, every day. Cortisol is fluctuating all, all day, every day. And like, even with thyroid, a lot of women will come to me like, oh, I why I can't lose weight is because my thyroid's not working. So I'm on a thyroid medication and I say, clearly thyroid is low. Like, we see that on the blood work. But let's take a step back and see, like, what's actually causing that thyroid to be low. And that's where I would do more like hair follicle analysis with maybe some oats testing to see is there liver congestion happening? Because that is where the thyroid hormones are packaged. Like, how can we support the liver so the thyroid can actually start working. And then maybe we can get off that thyroid medication or other nutrients that you're low on that actually, like, feed the thyroid, like selenium and molybendin, right? Maybe we're deficient on those. And we just need to kind of nourish the thyroid with those key nutrients so it starts working on its own. And then we can also titrate off that thyroid medication. So that's typically what we would do, is we would start there and then as far as, like, a trend. So in doing all this work, I started noticing, like, truly in the last, like, year, year and a half, something shift. Women were coming to me with the same problem. You know, working out, eating healthy, literally doing everything. But I can't lose weight. I don't feel great. I've got all the problems, right? And I'm like, okay. You know, what's interesting is, like, we look at their vitamins. What are you taking? What are you eating? What's your exercise look like? We get all the information, right? They're taking every supplement in the world. Everyone that's been sold to them online, you know, from. They'll go to Sprouts and just like, oh, this will help with that. This will help with that. And they're like a mortgage payment of supplements. And then we're looking at their labs and we're seeing, well, wait, like, you're low on vitamin D, you're low on these antioxidants, you're low on, you know, iron. You're low on all these different key nutrients. But, like, you're taking them. And I, like, personally was like, what is going on here? Like, you. You're literally. And they would be confused like, but I'm taking this. But I'm taking this vitamin. And so I'm again, the detective like you. I'm a YYY person. And so I'm like, why is this happening? This is like a screaming shift. So started doing some research on, like, how does one absorb a vitamin? Let's say it's a high quality, great vitamin. What is the process to absorb? So this is what, like, is really fascinating. When you go to take a vitamin, there are very specific enzymatic processes that have to happen in order for that vitamin to be fully absorbed. So we're swallowing that vitamin, and if you have high acid levels, number one, that can downregulate, that can break down the supplement. If you have liver congestion, meaning, let's say your liver is working so hard on removing toxins, it's been Exposed to. It's working hard on stress and trauma. It might have stored. It's working hard because you wear perfume and fragrances or you're eating foods that have a lot of, you know, toxins in it or chemicals, processed foods, things like that. Your liver actually it, its job is to clean that out, right? And so what happens is the liver is so focused on that it's not going to prioritize a vitamin because delivery's job is to keep you alive. It's like my job is to keep Natalie Jill here. And so in order to do that I need to be a self cleaning machine and I have a lot of things to clean up right now. And so that's really kind of the first pass effect. So we're taking these vitamins, but our liver is very busy, it does not want to absorb that vitamin. But then we keep taking the vitamin. And the next step is also very important is our gut has to absorb that vitamin. So if you have, you know, inflammation in your gut, if you get bloated, if you're constipated like I was, if you have diarrhea, you know, three times a day, if you're not having regular bowel movements, if you have parasites, candida, all the things, you know, leaky gut, microbial imbalance, like, then your gut is not in an optimal position to fully receive all the goodness that supplement is supposed to give your body. So science is showing now, like you're maybe absorbing 10% of those vitamins that you're taking. And here's an interesting part to this. Two things. One, that is why sometimes you'll buy a vitamin and It'll say like 1000 times worth your daily dose, right? It's because the vitamin companies are like, we just need to dose this person up because we know probably most of it's not going to get absorbed. And there's actually some harm in that because when you go take a vitamin again and you're just taking a, swallowing a bunch of pills, you're slamming that system right in the moment, like, like fire hose, like here, absorb a hundred things right now and your body's like, ah, that's a lot, right? And so really we want to be able to look at the body and treat it and support it so it can start absorbing. But I truly just believe like that shift has been happening because our world is rapidly changing. Like we live so far away from the world we were kind of designed to live in. And the further away we get from that, the more our liver has to work up against all these environmental challenges. So it's not prioritizing, ultimately, your supplements. And so that's where a different delivery model, really, I was noticing, like, we need something different here.

All right, I've got a lot of questions here. I want to kind of back up for a minute. Let's start kind of with the liver. When you say the lip, Our liver's designed to basically process and clean things and keep us alive. What does it mean when you've got high liver enzymes? Because a lot of people see those on their blood work.

What does that.

That mean? And where are things going if your liver can't process them?

Yes, Such a good question. So many women I work with also have high liver enzymes. And they get very confused because a lot of them don't drink or smoke. And they're like, why is my liver enzymes high? I don't drink. I don't smoke. And this is again, another indication of like, it's not about smoking and drinking anymore. Our liver used to. That was kind of the biggest problem before. Like, that used to be the biggest deal was like, if she's a smoker and a drinker, the liver is going to be overburdened. In today's world, it's more than that. So things that can elevate your liver enzymes, I'll kind of go through, like, high level some things. It could be stress, poor quality sleep. It could be toxins. So let's say your personal care products that might be like a little more filled with fragrances and chemicals. Your liver is literally having to clean that out. Its number one job is to. To clean out the things that are not supposed to be in the body and not natural to the body. Right. So it's like cleaning out whatever you're using for personal care products. Maybe it's cleaning supplies. It could be processed food, artificial ingredients. So our liver is like, really trying hard to clean that out. Let's say you have parasites, which is pretty common. It's working through that. Heavy metals. Like, this is a silent killer. But like emf, WI fi, Bluetooth, our liver has to break that down too. It's. It's coming into our cells. It's penetrating and it's also, you know, really bringing damage onto our cell membranes. And our liver is having to filter that as well. Also, trauma and stress is packaged through the liver. So think of all those micro exposures you might be having. And let's say you don't have good liver flow, which I'll kind of explain things we can do for that too. But if you're just getting chronically exposed to this stuff and we're not supporting our liver, we're not detoxing, we're not clearing this stuff out, then that is what can cause those high liver enzymes. And here's what's most important. Everyone needs to know this. Why it matters, like why it matters if your liver is working or not, or have high liver enzymes or not, is that our liver is responsible for over 500 functions in our body. It's responsible for micronutrient storage, hormone packaging, metabolism. Like there's so many processes our liver is responsible for. So we want a clean, healthy liver. We don't want high liver enzymes. That's what's so important about that.

If your body has high liver enzymes or it's not processing, it's overloaded, it's toxic, it's stagnant, whatever it is, where does everything go? So if like you're like, where does that excess mold or vitamins that you're not processing, where does it all go?

This gets stuck, right? And that's why it's so important to detox. Like, again, something I'm really passionate about as well is helping people understand like, really how to detox. Not like a juice cleanse, not like a self deprivation. I ate bad over the weekend, now I'm not gonna eat or I'm gonna again drink juice all day. Detoxing is really the mechanism of getting into your cells and cleaning them out, getting into the liver, cleaning that out. And there's so many modalities you can do to do this. It could be sauna. Sauna is an incredible tool. I see you love your sauna. I'm the same way. Although side note, I have had to break up with my my like clear, light sauna because of the heat in my hair. My hair was like getting so dry and I was using like the, you know, a heat protectant, all the things. So now I use the portable head out sauna. I don't know if you've ever tried that one. My kids laugh at me because they're like, what are you doing? Like, my head's like this, you know, but it's half actually has saved my hair. So side story and all that. But yes, detoxing the sauna is incredible. Dry brushing, you see those lymphatic plates, that could be a tool. Rebranding actually activates your lymphatic system. And then utilizing things like we have a detox patch which we can go into. It activates all three pathways of liver Detox. So really supporting your liver, even different foods like bitters and cilantro are incredible for cleansing the liver. And so really, you know, using nature to help your body with that too is so important just to start opening those pathways ways.

So if you don't detox, and I'm sorry I keep going back to this but if you don't like, if you're, if you have a clogged liver, I don't know if that's called a clogged liver but a stagnant or not working properly or it's backed up liver and you're adding in hormones or all these nutrients.

Is it.

And you said it's just you can't process it. Is it getting stored in our fat? Is it making us more tired? Like what is it? What does it cause in us when before we clean it?

Oh, totally. I mean the symptoms can be so wide spread. It could be totally. It could be fatigue, it could be the headaches, the migraines, it could be the inflammation. It could be also from like a metabolism perspective. So excess glucose in the body gets stored as glycogen and that's where some people can get stuck metabolically is their liver has too much glycogen. Their liver is not cleansing out the, the glucose. And so yeah, it gets stuck like literally. And that's why it's important think you think of your liver as like a faucet. We want things it's going to get exposed. We can't live under a rock, we can't live in a forest and avoid it all. But how can we open up the pathways so when we are getting those exposures we it can be more effectively eliminated.

I'll share. I had one year where my liver enzymes were off the charts high and I couldn't get it to calm down. And I was doing, you know, kind of a liver cleanse and I was it all in things. And the reason my liver was so clogged and I didn't know this till later is I had a ruptured breast implant and I was living in black mold. So it ended up being those two things. And until those two things were removed out of my environment, it didn't matter how many cleanses I was doing or whatever. So where is there this line of okay, let's support our liver or we haven't gone deep enough, like help us. Do you know what I'm asking here?

Yeah, 100%. And that's like going back to your question too. I'm like, well, what is root Cause. So you ultimately found the root cause. Right. You were supporting your body and whatnot. But then you were like, the needle is not moving. I'm taking the supplements that all the doctors are telling me to do and following all the advice, but, like, the needles are moving. So now. So then you went to that detective root cause, and you were like, oh, my gosh. Mold. Oh, my gosh. Breast implant rupture. Right there's your root cause. And that's why we go back to the beginning of the conversation of it is important to know the root cause. If you have those glaring symptoms, you can definitely do it. What, Natalie, what you did. And like, like, let's support the body. Let's, you know, remove some things, let's add some things. Like, that's a beautiful place to start. And you're doing all that, and then you're like, but I'm still hitting a wall. Like, I still have these symptoms. Totally. Get the labs done, get the data, get to know, like, what the freak is causing this problem, and then you can attack it even more strong.

What's. Why this is an important thing here. I'll tell you if you're listening. You have liver enzymes, and you've gone to a regular doctor just like mine. What had happened is they're like, stop drinking. I'm like, I don't drink. So it's like, okay, stop using. It's your toxic load. Stop using perfumes. I don't use perfume. Okay, let's add milk thistle. I'm adding milk thistle. So it's like, it's this. So just be aware that if you're getting those kind of responses, but you're like, these numbers. Something's definitely wrong here. It's not just about stopping alcohol or, like, we have to figure out what's actually going on there. And if you don't figure out what's going on, kind of like what you said, we've got this blocked drain. So now you add hormones, you add all these other things. They're not going to do anything for you.

Yeah. And. And I want everyone to know, too, sometimes it's not about adding more like we want to, because that is actually easier. Right. It's actually easier to just, like, add a bunch of things to the. To our routine and be like, okay, solve my problem. What's harder is sometimes doing some of the work, like, you know, like, getting in the sauna or getting the labs done, or, like, doing a heavy mold detox, which I'm sure you did, changing your food, changing your lifestyle. Changing your environment, like that's hard to do, but it's like at the cost of what? Like what's, what's the cost here? Do you want to keep living and feeling this way? And also again, just going back to like really empowering women listening to this. Like, if you have symptoms and doctors are telling you everything's fine, keep being relentless, keep pursuing, keep asking questions. Find someone who will go deep dive. Like, don't take, okay, I'm fine, but I don't feel fine as an appropriate answer. Yeah, just keep going deeper. And that's exactly what you did. And I love that.

Can we keep going deeper without a million tests? Because I know, like you just even said we do the organic oats test. Like we do all these. A lot of people listening, they're like, when does the test frickin end? There's so many tests, like, what do you do there?

So I. And there's also like, I've actually full transparency. I was at a place where I was like addicted to tests.

Oh, me too.

Like, I've been there. Yeah. Like, I was like, give me the test. And then I was like, like almost seeking perfection, which is probably a whole nother report card.

It becomes a report.

Yeah. I'm like, what? I'm what? This is wrong. And like what did I do wrong? Then there was like shame and then it was like a perfectionist issue. So here's where I'm at with, with labs and vitamins. My approach is, look, if you have symptoms, then start supporting your body. Remove the inflammatory things. Let's start with the foundations, which are the hardest. Sleep, stress, what are you eating? What are you consuming, what are you touching, what are your products? Foundation. Let's start there. We don't need to do any tests. We don't even need to go buy new vitamins. Okay. Let's just start with the foundations and really get intentional on nailing those. Okay. If the symptoms are still there, then you can decide you have two pathways. You can get some data done and start with just one. You don't need 5,000 tests done. Start with one. Start with. I like the hair follicle analysis personally because it is all comprehensive. It is more root cause. It's giving about 90 days worth of data. So I like to try personally. Start there.

The test, it shows your mineral depletion. What else does the hair test show?

Like it will show if you have parasites, it'll show mold, it will show all your vitamin deficiencies and minerals, antioxidants. It will. There's A gut indicator test. So it shows what's all going on in the gut. There's a metabolic. So liver report. So it's showing what is impacting the liver. So it's not the. Hm. It's not like the, there's like a high level mineral hair analysis one. It's not that one. It's like a metabolic hair hair follicle analysis. So more data and it's pretty like low cost. I think it's under, you can get them on done under $500 which like a lot of the tests are 500 plus. So I would give two pathways. You can either get the data or you can start maybe just trying some milk thistle. You can try, you know, the detox patch. You can try some things, you know, for about three months. Give it some time to clean out and then, you know, then you can go to the test. But I say one test at a time. And what you need to really most important, take the data, implement the changes, give it some time. The body takes time to heal. Minimum like every, you know, I would say like three months. Give it 90 days of a true routine. Just like I'm sure you're seeing in like, you know, your journey right now. You need some time for things to compound and really, you know, make some momentum. But your body will start picking that up. And then after three months, if you're like, I still need answers, then maybe do another test. But you don't need to go and run and do 5,000 tests. No, like, don't, don't be like me 20 years ago.

Lindsay has a detox patch which I'm going to ask about. I'm going to get a lot into the patch science in a bit. But before I do that, I want to get, I have, I have more questions here because I want it. This is important, especially if people are watching on video. So I'm looking at both of us and we're talking about toxic load and what's changed and how this has become a thing in our, in our world. But I'm watching like we both have nail polish on. We both have our, like I have my hair colored. What's your kind of thought process around that? Because every time I talk about detox pathways or lessening load or somebody will go, but you have nail polish on. But you have this. And I have this like thought of it's our bucket and you kind of pick and choose your, your things. But can you, I would love to hear as you as a practitioner, like what's your answer to that? Because I, I don't think we can chase perfection.

We can't. This is so good. I'm so happy you, you asked this. Okay, number one, you can't. You can't chase perfection. And if you do, you will live. You'll feel so heavy. It's. I've been there. I have tried to chase perfection. When I was trying to really, like, try to get pregnant, I couldn't get pregnant on my own. And I was doing everything outside of living in the woods, like, truly eliminating it all. But guess what? I lived with a level of like, fear that robbed me from my quality of life, from the joy in my life. And so there's a balance here. I like to think of things as good, better, best. And like you said, we all have a bucket. So I want you to think of your body as this glass jar, this beautiful glass jar that is a self cleaning machine. It's made for vitality no matter what age. Like, it wants to heal. It's literally on your side, your body. Let me just paint this visual really quick for you. If your body hated you the moment you got a paper clip, paper cut, you would bleed out and die. Like, your body would be like, perfect. This is my exit strategy. We are done here. Like, perfect, but instead you get a paper cut. Within seconds, your body is clotting that blood. Seconds, like it doesn't even have to think about it. It doesn't even matter if you have parasites or not. Your body is saving your life. So I want you to always remember who's ever listening. Your body is saving you every moment of the day. But number two, your body is like this perfect glass. I want you to visualize this beautiful glass and every little tiny exposure that we have, because we all have them. We don't live under a rock. Is a little drop of, let's call it just some black paint in that glass. And we're just getting these little drops every day. We're getting these drops every day as we go through life. And what happens is if you are not detoxing, if you are not removing some of those exposures, or maybe slowing down the exposure or maybe, you know, eliminating half of them. What happens is your cup is filling up real fast every day. It's filling up, filling up. And once your cup gets here, symptoms start. The symptoms start coming out. Your body's yelling, it's screaming, I need help. Clean me out. Clean me out right in everyone's glass jar. Our thresholds are all different because we're all exposed at different rates. We all are doing different things. We're detoxing. We're not, we're taking certain. You know, all of our bodies are so different. And so I want you to think of that. I have this glass jar. What can I do to reduce the black paint? How can I clean out some of this black paint? And you know, if maybe I just still want to keep getting my hair done.

Yeah.

But maybe I'm gonna, I'm going to do some sauna and detoxing and then maybe not you, maybe I'm gonna make sure though like everything else is dialed in or something like that. Right. Life is a balance. Like choose the things that just bring you joy. Don't live in fear, but be smart about all the other choices and know like it's, it's all about accumulation of those microbes, exposures, that's what's important. But good. Going back to good, better, best too. So for me like my nails are luminary. I don't use acrylic. Right. There's some really good non toxic options out there. I don't do like the fake lashes. There's some things I do and don't do. I kind of choose. I, I, I get to make that decision for myself and then I'm supporting myself in every other way that I can. But yeah, perfection is not the goal. It's just really being about honoring it.

That it's funny because ever since I removed my implants, I was never claiming to be the all natural granola girl. Like that was never my, I just, I shared my journey on why I removed them. But it's like all of a sudden I became this magnet of you're cooking with this. I thought like, like I was actually, I don't even use Teflon pans. I was using an, it's not even a non stick. It's like a special type of pan that there's not, there is no toxic. But I had all kinds of judgment on a video I posted because they're like you're using a Teflon. And it's like first of all I'm not. But second of all, who cares? Like it's, it's not about perfection. And I think that the judgment from people has gotten really extreme. Like it, you know, it makes me question what I share sometimes because I might share something about like I shared about a nail polish that was all natural. But then you're still going to get the comments. But my nail, whatever. It's like you can't win with that. So I agree with You. And to all the women listening, whether you choose, you know, Botox or coloring your hair or you still have your implants, and that's up to you. It's not about perfection. It is about that toxic load and making sure we are detoxing properly. I mean, I think that's, that's important. I also want to make sure if we are using toxins, that we're also aware of what detox stuff can do. So, for example, when I had, I didn't know I had a ruptured implant for many years and I was doing my sauna, I don't know if that sauna could have been hurting the implant more or helping, you know? You know, I don't know. So sometimes we have to be careful about what we're stacking without understanding things like, yeah, you can detox all you want, but you could be creating a bigger problem too.

Yeah, I know. That's where again, it's, it's a good, it's always good to get the data, you know, and, and just, we truly, you guys, we have a. So much inner knowing inside of us. Our intuition is there to guide us. True. And so if you have this inner knowing, like, about something in your health that may be working or not working, lean into that. Like, you know your body best. Like, don't forget that. Like, I know what works for my body, and it may not work for somebody else, but I lean into that inner knowing. So never, never dismiss that.

You talked about liver. I wanted to move over to gut for a minute. So it's my understanding from what you're saying, we eat things, take things on, we're exposed to things, and then you're kind of processing two ways, your liver and your gut. We talked about why we need the liver not to be stagnant, why we need to support that. But what about the gut there? Can you go a little deeper there?

Yes. Okay, so our gut is what is absorbing nutrients, it's absorbing food. It's, it's really the, the hub of, like, are we getting these nutrients that we're eating? Are we getting the supplements that we're taking? Right. And our gut has so much interconnectedness to our hormones as well to our mental clarity. I mean, there's just, everything is really. Our body is so connected. And the problem in today's world is a lot of us have gut inflammation. I bet you 9 out of 10 people will report I get bloated easily. I don't feel like I'm digesting my food. What have you and there's so many reasons why we could totally dive into, like, the way of the world and what we're eating now, what we shouldn't be eating now, and, you know, all the things. But ultimately, if you don't have the right, you know, gut microbiome, if you have leaky gut, tears in your gut from eating a lot of processed food, right. If you have mold, that has not been addressed, if you have parasites infiltrating your gut, it is going to down regulate that supplement's ability to be fat, be fully absorbed. And that's where you know it's going to be important to support not just your liver, but also your gut.

I also want to point out you might not have bloating or bathroom issues or constipation or bloating or any of that. And you still could have leaky gut and not know it. And now that was exactly me. I had no. I was like, I don't have leaky gut. What are you talking about? I have no, but I still, I really did have it. If you are listening and you have an autoimmune, you definitely had or have leaky gut. And I also want to point out that the answer to fixing leaky gut is not just adding fermented foods, despite what a lot of marketing wants you to believe.

So and that could be actually more intense, like, because fermented foods could cause even more gas, like, if your gut is not ready for it. If, you know, and so that could be a thing. I know. That's where again, it's like listening to all the advice, like, take a second, get some. Sometimes that's where the data can be helpful if you feel advice overload and like, you're not. Not quite sure, like the approach to go, figure out what the gap is and then support it from there.

One more. Well, actually, I hope it's not. It might be more than one more, but one more that's coming to mind. Let's do it. You mentioned something earlier about stress and cortisol. How is that affecting what's going on in our liver and our gut?

So our liver does process stress. And so that's again, like why we want to support our liver. But cortisol can be something that is impacted so many people are impacted by. Right. And it's truly, there's so many reasons. And so supporting cortisol appropriately, like, and you can. This can be done really foundationally. So getting good, high quality sleep, really honoring circadian rhythm. So eating, you know, within the sunlight hours, getting to bed early the light, you know, artificial lighting has an impact on melatonin, which impacts our cortisol levels as well. But cortisol is really important. So many people have low cortisol in the morning, which is actually where we want to have more, like, a higher cortisol level. And cortisol can definitely impact, you know, hormones if we're metabolizing food correctly and just so many processes. So it's an important part, definitely to be looked at and addressed.

So, Lindsey, I did a whole deep dive on my own person, my own self around cortisol, because when I was dealing with the hives, I always heard about, you know, stress cortisol, and I actually had the higher in the morning. So mine always looked right on a saliva test or the blood work. Okay, higher in the morning, faded at night. However, what I noticed when I was getting hives is this new relationship with. I would eat, and within 30 minutes of eating, I would get this extreme anxiety. Like, my heart was racing over, like, a lot of overwhelm stress. Like, it felt like I had had caffeine, but I hadn't, like, a lot of caffeine. And then right after that, the hives would come out. And I thought that was so interesting and so strange. And I. The more I learned about histamine and reaction, I realized how closely those work together. Cortisol, histamine, your gut. Cortisol, histamine, your gut. And I don't know how much you've dove into that, but I really started to see that connection there. And what I learned also was, like, you know how if you're gonna. Getting ready to speak on stage or you're. Anyone listening, you're getting ready for a big presentation or something you're nervous about, you'll say you feel it in your stomach.

Like, you.

It's a. Or even when we have, like, an intuition, we'll say we have a gut feeling. So I don't even know if subconsciously people realize how interconnected the gut and stress are. What I learned from that is not only does stress cortisol, mindset drive gut, it also works the other way. Your gut can drive how you feel there. So one of the things I had to address with curing and fixing the hives was how do I. It wasn't just about fixing my gut or changing my diet. It was all that. But it wasn't just about that. How do I calm down my nervous system and my cortisol? Because fighting it the other way was not fixing the problem. I wanted to bring that up and when you're talking about cortisol here. And if you ever saw more of that in your practice.

Yeah, totally. I mean, actually, so with a metabolic scan, something I saw a lot were people's adrenals pulling and emotions. So emotions would typically more be on the anxiety side and the adrenals would be more like the stress hormone.

Okay.

And. And so that's really where like the energy went into creating the cortisol fix patch to help regulate that system. Because here's the thing, sometimes we think being healthy is about our food and our exercise. We're like, I've got to eat healthier and then I gotta move my body. But we are actually so much more than our physical body. We are very emotional beings. Right. And if we're not supporting that stress, that emotion, that anxiety, like, you know, especially if we're high functioning people, we have a lot of ambitions and dreams and we're trying to do it all in one day, like in that area of our internal bodies not being supported, then that can absolutely wreck havoc inside of our body, even if we are, quote, doing all the right things. So that's where, like, I'm obsessed with the cortisol patch. And personally, me, because I am a high functioning person. Yeah. Like, I literally want to do everything in a day times 10 and then run a marathon and then travel the world just in one day. Like, and it's annoying to me when I can't. And so something I'm really leaning into, like, I'm like, I. I know I can't run at this pace forever. Like, I already, my body's already telling me that. I already know that. And so I, I'm like, I need to do some more sympathetic, like, parasympathetic things like breath work. I did breath work for the first time. I actually, by the way, listen to your breath. The gal you had on with breath work the other day, I was like, yes, I did breath work for the first time. Oh my God. Totally blew my mind. Made me realize how much I need to be doing more of that work. I did like a sound bath. I'm like 2026. I am totally going to like, prioritize some of these more modalities to help regulate like, the cortisol, which we may not think we have. What's funny is, I'll tell you, I'm not stressed. I'm just living life. I'm feeling great.

Right.

I feel fine, but my insides, like, it's too much. Right. And so that's where, like, I'll look at my aura ring. Here's what's interesting, actually. My aura is like, stressed all day, you know, I don't know if you wear one, but like. Yeah, the little grass.

I stopped wearing it because it's a report card. So I have it off temporarily right now because I was like, yeah. I'm like, I don't want a report card. I know.

I. No, I know, I know. Yeah. So it's like stress. Okay. Since I have been really being good about like, like once a day. Breathing. Breathing at least once a day. No, but like once a week, really dedicating, like a good release internally. My str. It's insane, Natalie. My stress on my aura ring. I'm getting restore. I'll just be like standing, working. I'm hitting restore, like. So what's happening? I was talking with my friend about it. What's happening is with some of this work that you can do to support, like, cortisol and whatnot, like breathwork, sound bath, whatever, acupuncture, yoga, whatever it might be, meditation, it can help reroute blood flow in your brain. So instead of it rushing to your amygdala, that fight or flight response, it's going to promote it to go to your prefrontal cortex, which is where you can think more clearly, be more, you know, logical thinking and more calm. So it's wild. I'm not changing anything. I do wear my cortisol patch now just to kind of help. But, like, I'm noticing I'm getting more into that restore, which I used to never be able to do, and I would be like, I'm not stressed, but my aura ring is telling me I'm the most stressed out person.

Yeah, I wish I knew about your cortisol patch when I was dealing with the histamine stuff, because I. I'll tell you what, for me, like, saying, I'm gonna go do breath work or I'm gonna meditate, it was worse because I had so much anxiety. So I. Actually, that was an example of when I did use it for prescription. I use something called hydroxyzine. It's an old school prescription. It's like a kind of a better than a Benadryl and safer than a Xanax, but it's still prescription. But that small dose of that was what got me over the hump to calm myself down and to be able to do some of those things. So. So sometimes I do feel like that western medicine, it's like, that's an exact example where if I just kept slapping cortisone cream on that wasn't going to fix anything.

Right. And what helped is, what I love about that is that, like, it helped you get to a point where then your body felt, felt safe enough to start healing with all these other beautiful modalities you were using. Yeah. You know, the cortisol patch has been a huge favorite, one of so many people because I think a lot of us have, you know, high stress, especially right now, holidays. But it's got the gaba, it's got the L theanine, it has magnesium in it, ashwagandha passion flower coq 10. It's like this powerhouse of ingredients that really can regulate the nervous system, really bring that nourishment to get into that parasynthetic. And the best part is with transdermal, which you haven't even gotten into, but like, that gets right into the bloodstream, so it's bypassing that gut in the liver. So you're not, you know, taking these supplements that you're like, is this working? Is it not?

So, yeah, let's talk about that for a minute. You mentioned earlier that vitamins, you take these supplements and you're getting 10 to 15. You're, you're not actually processing the rest of the rest. You're just either peeing it out or it's getting stored in your fat. It's going somewhere. It's not. Which, by the way, this is when you, when something says fat soluble. I don't know if you all know this, but this is important. If you are not processing and using it and it's going to your fat stores, that also can wreak havoc on your health. So, for instance, vitamin D is a really popular one. Fat soluble people take vitamin D. You could be overdosing on that. Like, because you're taking. People take like 5,000 IU. I think it is. I, I learned that the hard way. If you're not using it, it's getting stored and it will take forever to clear from your body. It could take a month. Because if it's, it's fat soluble, which is wild. Yeah. So when you, you came out with this whole idea of transdermal. Transdermal has been around for other things. I know. Like I wear an estrogen transdermal patch. Can you talk to us about what that actually means? Transdermal and why you decided to do that?

Go that route 100%. Yeah. So transdermal, actually, the transdermal delivery is not new. Like, I didn't recreate transdermal delivery like you said. It's really been one of the, like the most studied pharmacological delivery methods. Like you're wearing the estrogen patch, right? There's nicotine patches, there's progesterone creams. Like, so it's, it's really utilizing our largest organ of our body, which is the skin, to allow it to absorb these nutrients to get into the bloodstream and basically bypass that first pass effect where that's the liver metabolism, that's like the digestive tract that we talked about. And so it's basically just helping your body absorb it more optimally. And you can even think of it like, I feel like a lot of people are realizing, right, we're all aware, like, okay, let's not use personal care products that have fragrance and toxins in it. Why is that? It's because if you're using that product on your hand, you're washing your clothes with it, it's touching your skin. This is the problem. It's touching your skin, it's getting into your bloodstream, and that's why we want to remove that away. So we're taking that approach, that transdermal dermal delivery and we're doing it with vitamins. So that way we can start applying, absorbing these very important vital nutrients that our body needs to support and actually get absorbed versus taking a bunch of pills. And here's what's really cool also about transdermal is it's slow, steady release. So instead of slamming your pills in the morning with breakfast, you wear the patch and it's just going to deliver into your body throughout the day with what it needs. So it's not just getting a dump, dump, you know, fired dumpster fire right in the beginning. It's like slow, steady release, release. And that's why two, a lot of doctors prescribe the estrogen over like estrogen pills is because they can control the dosing better, right? They're like, we want this to be transdermal, slow, steady release. Not get broken down by the gut, not get broken down by liver. Because we need this person supported. You know what I mean?

Wait, okay, I'm having an aha moment here. Maybe I'm really slow to the party here and other listeners already know this, but it's starting to make sense as you're talking why people talk about making sure your clothes don't have BPA in it or the detergent. I never really understood that. Like I hear don't wear clothes with your that were washed and tied or whatever. I was like, okay, I thought it was the so you're. So it's because your skin's the largest organ, it's absorbing that stuff.

Yep.

So you're saying you're already going to be absorbing stuff anyway, so why not use our delivery method for our nutrients and our vitamins to be that way? Is that what I'm hearing correctly?

100. Like, let's say you're using Tide for your laundry detergent. Right. And you're washing your sheets. Sheets. Those sheets you're sleeping in all night long. Your skin is literally just absorbing those chemicals all night long. Let's say you're washing your clothes in that. Then you're wearing. So all day long, your skin. It's just all of this in. That's why the sauna can be so incredible at detoxing, because it's utilizing, again, that largest organ to get things out of the body. So your skin is so powerful, it's bringing things in, it's taking things out. So we're utilizing that transdermal delivery that has been around forever. It's just literally biology. And we're doing it not with hormones, we're doing it with vitamins, because this is. It's so much more effective. And again, going back to, like, today's world, like, our liver, our body's not absorbing the way it used to orally. So we are needing new mechanisms to really get the benefit of what we are doing.

Okay, you, you mentioned. So it's not avoiding the liver, it's avoiding that first pass. What does that mean?

First pass effect is literally the process of absorption. And first pass would be like. Like it's going to first pass through the liver and then go through the gut. Right. And so that's where it's like, if you have liver congestion, it's not going to pass through that process and get to the gut. Or maybe your liver is fine, but then you have gut inflammation. So it's just kind of that, like the process of absorption.

Okay. You have a lot of different patches. I want to. I want to. And I actually want to. If you guys are watching on YouTube, I'm going to show you. I, I have not. I tried them one day with her, but I was waiting to do this interview to, to, like, start really taking these on and trying them. I want to. You have a lot of them. Like, I'm sitting here looking. She's got one that's an immunity patch, the menopause patch, detox patch, and the cortisol patch. There's a lot of them here. But I want to. I'm going to ask you about these two specific ones because we were, we were really diving into this today. Let's start with kind of the, the detox patch. Like how does this actually work? When do you use it? Like, what's in it and can it be too much for someone?

Yes. So the detox patch is one of our most popular patches. It activates all, all three pathways of liver detox. So it has the sulforaphane, it's got the milk thistle, it has the glutathione, it's got the B6, it has all these different ingredients that support your liver. And what most clients like to use it at night over their liver or just like on their arm. And it's going to support that natural detox cycle that happens in the middle of the night, which can be part of the reason why some people wake up in the middle of night right from that 12 to 3am time frame. That could be your liver just going through a natural detox cycle. So I have had clients actually send me their OURA ring, their sleep data to show, look, I am getting deeper sleep, I'm getting longer sleep cycles, more REM because I'm supporting my liver. So that one is a very, very popular one.

And you wear it at night, you're saying? So you just put this one on at night.

I personally think it's best utilized at night because our liver is going through a detox in the middle of night. And I'm all about maximizing. Although I will say I also wear it if I'm traveling because for me, when I travel, I can feel inflamed from like the radiation, the air, the altitude, what have you, and you're just exposed to more. And so I will wear it, you know, when I'm traveling on the airplane. And that's really helpful. But primarily I'll use that one every night. Yes, it's a good daily. It's a good daily detox.

So when you get them like. So I have the detox packs here I'm gonna try tonight. It looks like there's. Is there six in here, six in the bag?

There is actually 24 patches in each patch.

Oh, 24. Okay, got it.

Yeah. And it's an eight to 12 hour patch. So it's that transdermal, slow, steady release for eight to 12 hours. So my routine is at night when I'm like brushing my teeth, doing my thing, I'll put my patch on, go to bed, wake up in the morning and then I love our metabolism patch. This one, the Reason why is it's supporting a lot of metabolic pathways. It's got the berberine in it, it's got the glutamine, which supports that gut lining. That's, that's where also like our GLP receptors are. It's also also has some fat burners in it which I love especially for like a workout. So that one's really popular. I'll wear that during the day. And then the immunity one I sent you because it's like everyone I know is sick, right? And we all our immune system always needs support. So that one has vitamin C, vitamin D, it has zinc, elderberry, CoQ10, like a powerhouse of nutrients to support your immune system. I say wear that one if you're ever run down or you been exposed to all the crummy crap going around. And then we just launched the menopause patch. So I actually like think that anyone really could wear this one because it is so powerful in just one regulating cortisol. It's going to help with also, you know, specifically if you're having like night sweats, nervous system, it's going to be supporting. So the valerian extract really does support like gaba, which like we were talking about how important GABA is for stress. The skull cap extract, that one's going to help with like the nervous system regulation. And that one, yeah, again it's really just basically supporting hormone emotional balance, nervous system and stress regulation with the menopause pad.

So I'm going to put the cortisol patch on right now. So I'm going to show people if they're watching on the video. But I want to ask you. So one of the questions that came to my mind and I'm sure listener you, you said earlier that a lot of times supplements, they'll create these super high doses because we're not going to absorb it all. So you're getting this 10 to 15%. The question that goes to my head is, are we going to be getting too much on this? If you're getting the full delivery, you.

Are not and your body will absorb what it needs. So if you look on the back, like there's really not a lot of milligrams because you don't, you really don't need that much. And your body's going to absorb it differently than you know when it's like macro dosed with it with a pill.

So I'm going to put one on right now. Oh, I see how there's a lot of it. So they come like this and I can Stick it anywhere on my body, right?

Yep. I love it. Like you can hide it, you know, under your clothes. But sometimes I'll just wear it on my arm. I find on the arm it's just easier to put on. Take off this.

I just can't turn. So I have it on. Yeah.

Okay.

So I've got a blue to match. It's even blue. So you just wear it all day. So I'll just take it off before I go to bed. That's all you do?

Yeah, yeah. And actually, you might find it's going to help you get into a deep sleep. Right. Because that cortisol, that gaba, it's like helping regulate the nervous system. System to help sometimes, like getting to sleep. I don't know if sleep is like a thing for you, but it's like the nervous system's been like too high all day and we have to regulate and down, you know, get down into more of that deep, calming, parasympathetic to get into a deep sleep.

So this is pretty cool. I feel like this is one of those habit things, like people just. They assume I'll take my, my vitamins, you know, from these pill forms. And then it kind of became a powder trend. Like everything was powder. Then it became liposomal. Like, let's take them in within fat. So patches, sort. When I saw this, I was like, this is so intriguing. I actually hadn't thought about this because you're right, we do hormone patches. We do. There's nicotine patches. I hadn't really thought about vitamins and nutrients being transdermal. Is this like. So this is wild. So if you go to the patch method.com thepatchmethod.com you can read all about this and try them. The ones I have here to try are the immunity, the cortisol, the, the detox, the menopause. So I have cortisol on right now. I'm gonna use the detox tonight. I wanna. And I'll have to report back on what these are. Like, she did do something cool for us. I asked her for a discount for listeners if you want to try them. So if you use my name, Natalie Jill, I believe you get 20 off now, depending on when you're listening to this, whether you heard this early or you heard it on wherever you listen to it. She did say that if you go to her Instagram and it's at the dot patch method, right. And you send her a message and you just have to mention my name, just say Natalie Jill, that's all you have to do. She said the first 20 messages she gets, I think we're gonna go through those fast, Lindsay. But she's. The first 20 messages, you're gonna get to try a free patch, so you get to run to her Instagram and try that. If you're here listening to that. Well, this is pretty cool. Lindsay. I'm gonna have to have you back on and after I. And report back after I use these, because I'm sure I'll have more questions. But. But I love this technology. I love what you're doing here. Anything we didn't cover that. You wish I had asked you that. You want listeners to know.

Oh, my gosh. You know, one, thanks for having me. I'm so passionate about this work because I just fully believe, like, when our body is working optimally, we experience life more fuller. Right. And I share this from my own personal experience. Like, I had. I had been in a place, and maybe, you know, there's listeners here that have been in this place or you are in this place where you just don't feel your best.

Yeah.

Maybe you're feeling rundown. Whatever the case might be, the symptoms might be. It's so hard because it's hard to show up for other people when you can't even show up for yourself and you're not feeling your best. And it's. You have a different quality of life. And so my passion is to help women really optimize their health and to feel their best. Step into their highest self, if you will, so you can experience the fullness of what each day really has to offer. And the other thing I just. Just like to end with is, like, there's no dress rehearsal for life. This is literally it. Like, I have almost died multiple times, and I know I'm here on borrowed time. And every day, I just know, like, this is not dress rehearsal. This truly could be it. And so that is why I am relentless and so passionate about, let's show up fully. Let's not live on autopilot. Let's not just take symptoms as. This is life. This is aging. This is what it needs to be like. Take control. Surround yourself with people that lift you up, you know, and that spew life into you, support your body, because life is so bright, and people are waiting for you to be that version of yourself. So that's all I want to say. So good.

Thank you so much, Lindsay, for being here today.

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.