5 Keys To Detox, with Rachel Varga

Some of the best ways to detox are through the skin. So for example, regular sweating, whether that's through exercise, through sauna use, sweating is really key for detoxing.

If you want to live like you matter, ditch the pills, look great and feel freaking amazing. You're in the right place. I'm Dr. Wendy Trubo. And I'm Dr. Ed Levitan. Welcome to the Feel Freaking Amazing podcast where we empower you to live a vibrant and healthy life by optimizing your structural, chemical, emotional, social and spiritual lives. Hold on to your hats. Hello and welcome to the Feel Freaking Amazing five Journeys podcast. I'm Wendy Trubo. My co host can't be here today. I'm flying solo. But guess what? I have the coolest guest. Her name is Rachel Varga. She is a double board certified aesthetic nurse specialist. She's done over 20,000 procedures on people to make them radiant, Improvement, improve their skin, detox their health. And we're going to dive into that today. So Rachel, welcome to the show. Thank you for being here.

Thank you for having me, Wendy. It's a pleasure to be here and I'm thrilled to share some insights with everyone tuning into the show here on how to achieve the best skin of your life through non toxic means. And we'll also talk about talk about detoxing and this very important aspect of slowing cellular aging for the ultimate radiant.

You're preaching to the choir for me and I think a lot of our listeners are really into how do we decrease our toxins. I'm a huge proponent of get rid of the crap that you're putting on your body because it's harmful for you and it's not helping you. But are you allowed to talk about your paper before you present it? Because I know you're presenting shortly at a conference, but are you allowed to talk about the things that you found, the high points for the listeners and if there's any take home messages like do this and don't do this.

Oh, absolutely, yes. It's actually in the publication process now and it will be open source. And I did that intentionally so that everyone could read it because it's great information for the general public to pick up on. What I focused on were air, water, lighting, electromagnetics and detox, detoxing methods and strategies, as well as some of the things that are coming down the pipeline, including exosomes and stem cells, which is still a little bit controversial, especially in the aesthetic space. However, our colleagues who do things like functional longevity clinics, they've been doing some of these things for years. So it's my job to get the aesthetics industry sort of up to speed with what some of these top practitioners are doing. So, yes, we can go through these five key aspects which I know you like to work a lot with fives as well. Air, water, lighting, electromagnetics, and regular detoxing. And then another paper will be talking about food and, and all of that as well and the gut connection to the skin.

So yeah, and it's not just a one shot deal, it's a lifestyle as opposed to, you know, you're not going to, you know. And I do really want to talk about detox and what you mean by that, because when I say detox and when you say detox and when other people say detox, they can mean a lot of different things. So can you talk to me what, what you mean by detox when you say detoxification?

Excellent. Now when it comes to detoxing, the skin is actually our largest organ. So when I'm working with the skin, it's not as superficial as you might think. And some of the best ways to detox are through the skin. So for example, regular sweating, whether that's through exercise, through sauna use, love sauna use. And I recommend you do get your own sauna, whether it's, you know, the big sauna that you have in your home or a sauna blanket, is a little bit more of an affordable and compact option that you can store away with an inner lining that you can launder. Sweating is really key forward detoxing as well as ionic foot baths. So these ionic foot baths are really interesting. They're using a specific amplitude with a Tesla coil. So we use Tesla technologies for, you know, every type of modern electronic that we have. It completely change humanity and civilization and the way that we work. And this can also be very healing for us. And when you do an ionic foot bath for the first time, you look down at the water at the end of your 30 to 45 minute session and you're thinking, wow, good heavens, that was in my body. What this coil does, and you're adding salt to maintain a specific amplitude. Amplitude during your session is it's pulling out heavy metals, it's pulling out cellular fragments, and we accumulate these senescent cells in our bodies, almost like the leaves on the tree that need to be pruned off. And they, they basically just pull nutrients and energy from the body. So that's why long fasts actually are excellent autophagy. And then doing detoxing as well to get Those cellular fragments out of the body. And then there's also the concept of detoxing the elephant in the room, which are yeast, fungi, parasites, and mold and especially heavy metals. And in my research for my paper, sometimes people think they have adult acne, and it can actually be something called Morgellon's disease, which is a parasitic infection. And in my research, looking at parasitologists with over 40 years of experience, a huge link with parasites and cancer, Lyme's disease, Right? If any of you listening have a dog, and you've dewormed your dog, but you forgot to deworm yourself, well, this might be the nudge you need to actually do something to cleanse out yeast, fungi, mold, parasites. We, especially women, we're great hosts. And with our physiology, we receive and we're loyal, right?

Loyal recipients, Yes.

I mean, these are all beautiful feminine qualities, right? Being receptive, however, this can also make us excellent hosts. And through the research, 80% of North Americans actually have an active parasitic infection. You just might not know it. I started a detox, the highly alkaline diet with a specific protocol. And within about a week or two, I started passing parasites. And I'm an outdoor enthusiast. I love the woods. For a while there, I was drinking river water, which was terrible. Little did I know, it took me from March to December to actually clear these things. A lot of times people do a detox and think, oh, it's a week, it's 10 days, it's two weeks. No, these organisms can take months to clear out from the body. Simply putting your body in an alkaline state allows things to be flushed out. Different herbs can be helpful. And what I started to notice, well, I had no skin signs of having any type of these infections, but clearly I started passing them. And a lot of times when people have overgrowths of yeast, candida, mold, parasites, they'll have skin issues like eczema or psoriasis, itchy scalp, hair loss, brain fog, you know, the list goes on. Right. Basically, these organisms are pulling your nutrients from you being radiant. They're feeding themselves well. They gotta go. This whole thing about boundaries as well, don't even get me started on relationship. Boundaries is very important. We gotta have boundaries with organisms, too. And these are bad organisms. So don't be. Don't feel bad about getting rid of them. And then in the first week or two, I started to, you know, the first couple days, I didn't feel so good. However, then I came out on the other end of it. And the amount of mental clarity that I received was incredible. I was having difficulties with forming coherent sentences and brain fog, pain, nervous system dysregulation. I had all of those symptoms, but I didn't have the skin symptoms and I didn't pin it to that. And then after doing the detoxing, I started to notice that my skin wasn't breaking out as much. I could actually be out in the sun much longer and not go red and burn as easily as well as my hairline. All my hair started just coming back full force. I do recommend hair growth stimulating products that are non toxic. I can recommend some. I started to notice these beautiful hair skin, nail impacts and brain impacts and nervous system regulation impacts and I was actually even watching a show and the periphery of the TV screen I was seeing flashes. And what this was, because I've been researching this was actually central nervous system organism die off releasing toxins that were causing visual disturbances. So these things can impact our psychological wellness in a big way. They can disrupt your sleep, they can wake you up in the middle of the night. And if you have any type of gut disturbance, this is actually potential indicator that there are some organisms living in you that you just need to tell them to go away.

So to recap, so women or men who are experiencing and is, are, are there certain types of skin disturbances that you feel are particularly associated with parasites? You mentioned the eczema and the psoriasis or anything?

Yeah, Morgellon's disease can present as acne and then people will often go on acne medications and all that. And of course this isn't medical advice, this is educational. Think you have a medical condition, you must seek the guidance of a licensed physician. Breakouts, hyperpigmentation, seemingly aging overnight. The psychological disturbances are big. The central nervous system dysregulation, feeling anxious all the time. But the skin stuff, it's usually rashes, it's like patchiness, eczema, psoriasis, these are all linked to overgrowth. Is basically a sign that of your oxidative stress status or your toxic bucket being full. When we become very in tune and intuitive with what our hair, skin, nails and our cognitive function and our gut is trying to tell us, then we can ensure that we are relying on our purification, maybe stepping up the sauna, use the on a foot bath, you know, doing that cleanse that's in your cabinet that you haven't done yet.

Air and water, which is 40% of what you've referenced is responsible. This is back in 1989 in Massachusetts which has all of these universities did a study and showed that one in six deaths were due to air or water quality. Now when you back that up, it makes sense that skin quality is going to relate to air and water because you can't get away from it. It's what we do all day. Talk to me about how do we know that we have air or water issues by what's reflected on our skin. Like how do you draw that, how do you know as a consumer that something's not right?

Well, if you're not purifying your air or your water, you can just assume that through your, you're getting exposure to heavy metals. And in the home and office we have particulates resting on the skin like dirt, debris, pollution, mold, and also the heavy metals in the air. And what that does to the skin is it actually results in oxidative stress and free radical formation. That's why cleansing your skin in the AM and the pm, actually doing a double cleanse in the PM is critical to remove that debris off. I started to notice after a number of years working with clients that had red inflamed skin, itchy, red puffy darkness around their eyes. They would often relate to me that they were washing their face with water once a day or they were using heavily oil based skincare products. And a lot of skincare products that are heavily oil based are now switching out to use hydrogenated vegetable oil. And I'm seeing this in some of the biggest, you know, touted as non toxic beauty brands. This happens when a company gets bought and then they want to increase their margins and then they start using not so good oils. So hydrogenated vegetable oil is basically a mixture of often canola oil, which is highly inflammatory when it comes to the air. You want to just have the knowledge that you need to purify it. So there are some strategies to doing so. Having your windows open, really good for movement and circulation, especially of energy. However, you do want to be sleeping with an air purifier. You want to have an air purifier in your kitchen and main living space for when you're cooking. It's going to help to take away those volatile organic compounds or VOCs that can be damaging to the skin and the eyes. Air purification is absolutely critical. If you've ever walked into a big box store and you smell the packaging, your nose is giving you a signal into your brain that hey, there's some toxins in here. Or, you know, this is the kicker. This is the funny part. A lot of women use perfumes to, in an effort to be more beautiful. But little did they know that they're often spraying phthalates, which are hormone disrupting chemicals, which is also in the water supply through the PVC piping, which I discovered in my research. And so we're spraying this perfume on our delicate neck area right next to our thyroid. And when I do consultations with clients and they have hormone issues, they have thyroid disease, I'm taking a look at what they're using skincare wise. And everything they're using are hormone disruptors from parabens, phthalates, sulfates, artificial dyes, and fragrances.

I have a question, Rachel, because I get this question a lot, which is how does one pick an air purifier for Are there certain criteria? And I'm always saying, okay, pick the one that filters to the highest level possible and is a HEPA grade. But are there other tips that you have for women or men who want to filter the air, especially where you're sleeping and where you're cooking? How do you pick one? It's overwhelming.

It can be. And the price point can also be dissuading those from, you know, pulling the trigger on it. Now, there's some really affordable options out there that are really small units. I actually just unplugged one of mine that I have in my office here. It's about $150 unit, and it uses a carbon filter with a UV bulb. And the UV bulb can actually kill viruses and bacteria. And then the carbon filter traps large particulates. And then I have another air filter in air purifier in my main living space that, yes, uses a carbon filter, a HEPA filter, and then it also ionizes the air. So there are two brands that I like the most, and I actually have a favorites and biohacking page where I list out all the favorite tools that I've trialed myself. A lot of times I bought them myself and they've stood the test of time. So I do make things easy in that regard with that resource. And there are so many different air purifiers out there. You can get at, again, some of these big box stores, and they're just not adequate enough because they're not trapping things like mold, for example, or if people have central air or air purifiers in their ducts, a lot of times those filters themselves can accumulate biological matter and become a breeding ground. So you don't always want to rely on the central air circulation in your home or your office. You do want to have some standalone air purifiers. There's about seven to eight different air purification methods which I reference in my paper, depending on how small or large of the particle you want to go. If you're in a commercial industrial setting, if you're in an or, there are different methods used for that. But for the home carbon filter, HEPA filter, ionization, UV catalytic converters work really well.

Are there any things people should avoid when they're looking at filters? Like, there's the do's, but are there do nots? Like do not what? Fill in the blank. Is there anything.

Yeah, there are some filters out there that are simply just a carbon filter and they're not quite adequate enough or they don't do a large enough living space. One of the air purifiers that I really like in the kitchen living area that I have is it actually can auto detect when there's more volatile organic compounds in the air. So there's three different settings. So it'll be on this, you know, cruise blue setting. And then if it notices something, it'll kind of go to orange. And if you're, you know, really cooking or frying something up, then it goes to red. So there are different types of products out there that are just on all the time or that can kick on into higher gear and they're going to be a little bit louder for shorter period of time.

I mean, that makes sense, right? Because we have smart homes, we have smartphones, we have smart cars at this point. So the filter should really come along and understand when we're doing more, which makes a lot of sense.

However, they're not Bluetooth. And when it comes to smart. This is where we can definitely dive into EMFs shortly here because reducing exposure to EMFs is absolutely critical for getting blood flow to your organs. There's up. There's actually different types of photography on the market that can measure the blood flow to the skin. And when an individual is outside, they're barefoot. I had an entire late afternoon evening at the beach yesterday with eagles and deer and sea lions and seals and oh my goodness, it was just nothing, nothing short of magical. And when we're slowing down, we're in nature, we're actually getting better blood flow to all of our organs. Now more and more people are discussing electromagnetic frequencies and radiation. So when you mentioned smart homes and smart cars, little do people know they're literally just blasting themselves with a form of radiation. This is not a form of radiation that humans can evolve through. And in fact, on this call, I'm business on top in this beautiful Blush pink satin shirt with my silver pants down below. I'm always wearing and sleeping in EMF protective clothing. I'll wear things underneath my outfits. Basically, it's silver threads to help shield you. Because we can't really get away from using this type of technology in our lives. However, what it does to the blood is really important for you to know. And there's a ton of research that's come out on this. When you're on your phone for five minutes, what happens to your blood is your red blood cells start to stick together and they should be like inner tubes nicely bouncing from healthy balance electromagnetic interactions. These blood cells start to clump together and form chains called rouleaux. And then we get clotting factors that we have an impairment with blood flow to our skin, to our brain, to our organs, to our gut. And then we also have a reduction in detoxification, the carrying away of CO2 and metabolic waste products. So starting to employ EMF protective shielding. Clothing, I think, is really important. I do see this being the smoking of our generation. So all this smart stuff, you know, convenience is killing us these days. So if you're listening to this episode on those Bluetooth air pods, I highly recommend you switch to a wired air tube set. It's really, really, really important because at the end of the day, we simply need our blood to flow. We need movement in our body, and EMFs impair this. They also result in skin disturbances. EMFS is actually a free radical precipitator in the skin. So we can actually see more signs of skin redness, skin sensitivity, and also for the eyes. We're seeing people in younger ages now. My girlfriend's 43 and she has to have cataract surgery. This is something that usually happens in the, you know, when we hit 70s and 80s. Right. Blue light as well. So this is also where lighting comes into play. You might think, oh, the light outside, I love sunshine. When you take the right antioxidants, your toxic bucket is empty. You can be outside for longer and receive the beautiful benefits of that and circadian rhythm balancing. However, indoors, the blue lighting is just as disruptive. The LED lights in your overhead lights, your computer lighting, your device lighting, they're just as disruptive on the skin as uv, but we're getting more of it. So I got these blue light blocking glasses on that I wear all the time to protect my eyes, but also the skin around my eyes. However, I do recommend we jump to water. Yes. Yeah. So with. With water, there are a number of different agents that are Used to kill microbes in water treatment plants. And then we also have pharmaceuticals in the water supply and then the piping that transports the water from the plant to your home or office space. Those pipes never get cleaned. And in fact, a lot of those pipes can be PVC piping, which release phthalates, which are in some skincare products, primarily in fragrances that are known hormone disruptors. And then the biological film, the biofilm buildup in the pipes. When you're bathing, what you can do that's really simple and affordable is use an appropriate shower head filter. And I actually have one on my favorites page as well. And this is important for bathing in so that you're not washing yourself in chemicals and phthalates and all sorts of things which is actually going to make your hair also not feel very good. If you can do whole home filtration, that is the dream. That's really expensive. Then with your water that you're drinking and cooking with distilled water. There's a few different types of purification methods for water. Distilled water is what we've used in lab, gen chem, organic chem, biochem days where we're doing reactions and we're doing it in glass with distilled water. And there's some excellent, affordable, even countertop reverse osmosis options that uses a membrane to help filter out particulates and drinking purified water. Bathing in purified water is essential. Bonus tip if you even decide to wash your face with excellent alkaline spring water that can actually really help the skin as well. And bathing with purified water and consuming purified water is everything. And not using plastics.

Yeah, I we got a whole house water filter a couple of years ago and we're still doing point of use in the kitchen. And we changed our filters a couple of months ago and it was just a couple of weeks past when it came like should have been done. They were black. Like, they started out lily white and they were muddy, brownish black. And I was like, oh my God. And we have pretty good water where we live, but we filtered it anyway because. Because of my struggles with mold and metal. And I went nuts. I was like, we're filtering everything. That's it. So we filtered our water and we got this, this filter. It's amazing what you don't get exposed to when you filter your water, even when you have good water. I think the hardest part about it is perchlorate is only removed by the reverse osmosis. And you can't get a whole house reverse Osmosis. So at least when we bought it, we couldn't. So that was the biggest challenge.

Yeah, definitely. Your shower head filter, which is relatively affordable and again, a couple hundred dollars for an excellent countertop. Reverse osmosis is definitely doable for most people. The other thing I want to talk about are using these coffee makers or kettles that are plastic because as soon as that water boils, it's going to be releasing the BPAs, which again, are known hormone disruptors linked to cancer, especially breast cancer, and endocrine disruptor. When you're making your tea or your coffee, boil it in a glass kettle and make sure that kettle also doesn't have a plastic spout. And then for your coffee, go for a good old glass and stainless steel French press. Forget the filters, forget the plastic coffee makers and the pods. All of these layers in your lifestyle. This took me since, I don't know, 2017 when I first learned about this word biohacking. The art and science of modulating our environment to support our body. It takes a while to employ these things, but when you know these things, you can't unknow them. And I'm particularly interested in the skin and slowing aging component through reducing our levels of toxic exposure to things day in and day out. And then of course, looking at our personal care products, what we're brushing our teeth with, what we're using as deodorant, what we're washing with for ourselves and our family. The shampoos, conditioners, the skincare products, the makeup that we're using, all need to be free of parabens, phthalates, sulfates, artificial dyes, fragrances. None of this hydrogenated vegetable oil. So that's where I come in to make this process much easier and streamlined. It's really important to avoid that.

Well, let's talk about that. Where can people find you? I know that you have a special gift for the listeners and like, I'm assuming you're all on all on social. So how can people find you, follow you and interact with you?

Yes, absolutely. Well, you can look me up. Rachel Varga. My last name will be changing at some point.

Oh, congratulations.

Thank you. I recently rebranded the Rachel Varga podcast to the always radiant skin podcast. And you can learn everything that I offer, how I work, how you can work with me over at rachel varga.ca use promo code 5J15 or 15% off site wide. Your one on one at home and in clinic skin rejuvenation consultation for skin care recommendations based on your customized needs as well as I showcase tutorials on how to use these products and different seasonal skin updates is my in my seasonal skin camps. And then I also offer the school of Radiance for those of you who have maybe already doing this work. And then they're wanting to add that additional layer to being a radiant human which comes into practice. Positive emotional mindset, speaking in a more beautiful, radiant way. Gestures, boundaries, all the deep stuff to being truly beautiful, radiant and magnetic. So everything is at Rachel Varga CA and use promo code 5J15. And then I also have my free skincare Checklist over@skincarechecklist.com so whatever products you're using now, this will just give you insights as to maybe how to use them a little bit better and what they do.

This is fantastic. Rachel, everyone should go to your website, get the products that are favorite, look into air filters and I'm assuming you, I mean you have recommendations for everything. So go to that site and follow you. What are you on all of social. What's your favorite social?

Yes, you can find me on Instagram Rachel Varga official everything from the main page. Rachelvarga ca. I make a huge transformative time in my life which has its challenges, but also has its beautiful transformation. So if you go to rachelbarga Ca, you'll find everything. I have so many resources.

Everyone should go follow you, find you and interact with you and join the movement. Right? This is all about being the best, who you can be. Vital, vibrant, healthy, able and interested in intimacy till you're at least 100 and that every decade gets better than the one before. So. So Rachel, thank you for being here and sharing with the listeners and your generosity.

My pleasure.

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