Dirty Girl: Detox Your World from Forever Chemicals with Dr. Wendie Trubow and Linda Kreter
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Welcome to Wise Health for Women Radio with Linda Prater. Women are pressed daily to give more, learn more, and be more, often at the expense of mind, body, or spirit. Each week with intriguing guests and topics, we'll bring you fresh ways to view your limited time, encouraging a shift to new, healthier perspectives. Wise Health for Women Radio, helping women thrive. And now here's your host, Linda Prater.

Good morning and welcome to Wise Health for Women Radio. I'm Linda Crater and we have a fascinating topic and guest this morning. We're going to be talking to Dr. Wendy Trubow, who is a functional medicine physician and wrote the most practical but hilarious book.

And we'll go into some of the parts that I really want to emphasize that I found to be interesting because I can't be all that unusual. There must be some people who relate to some of the things that caught my eye. But Wendy has written this book and it's called Dirty Girl. And that brings to mind something totally, completely different. So I'm at the auto repair shop.

And I had to pay my bill. And I placed the book on the counter while I paid the bill. And the man who I was writing my credit card to raises an eyebrow. I'm like, it's not what you think.

Dirty Girl is written about ditching the toxins that are all around us and feel and look better. So feeling good and getting there and detoxing from the things that can harm us and really change our health. Wendy has her own personal journey to talk about. And I just wanted to add that the title of the book is a real eye catcher. Mm hmm.

So welcome, Wendy. Happy to have you on. Thank you for having me here. It is. I will tell you that the team that published our book, they line up all the books that they publish every year. Yes. And the CEO of the company, they were having an all-staff meeting. The CEO was talking to the company, and then he out of nowhere said, wait, we published a book called Dirty Girl? And the team said just that. It's not what you think.

But it was so funny because we are in such a funny society where we say certain phrases and things come to mind. But frankly, it's eye-catching. And then when you talk about it, everybody nods and like, yes, what about all the toxins? What about the, you know, the Roundup, the EMF? I mean, you name it, it's there. But it's even in our clothing now.

and our mattresses and everywhere. So please talk about how this came to pass for you. First of all, you're a physician. Your husband is a physician. And then you all became, what did you say? You were problematic in medical school because you constantly asked why? I was like a maverick. You know, they were like, why are you asking that? Stop.

Stop asking. At one point in biochem, I said, can we just kind of slow down and say, like, where are we in the body? Because I don't understand what's going on. I need some context. Like, I've always needed context and understand why and how and where. And, you know, in med school, it's like...

you know, a different culture. And I didn't fit into that culture, shall we say. Thank goodness. Thank goodness, because we need thinking physicians and problem resolution and practical plans. Yeah. Without them, there's not a pill for everything.

No, in fact, most things should not be healed with a pill. Most things should be healed with food and lifestyle and sleep and thoughts and movement and then cleaning up around you. So, okay, so I was literally...

I thought I was doing everything right, Linda. Okay. So my story has, I'm like a camel, right? The first hump is the first 35 years of my life where I have terrible genes, multiple ear infections, strep throat, pneumonia, irritable bowel, nutritional deficiencies, iron deficiency, anemia, blah, blah, blah. Fast forward, I'm 35 and I get diagnosed with celiac. Yeah. Well, it's genetic and my dad had it, but I was never tested when he got diagnosed. Okay.

And I fell through the medical cracks. So that was my introduction into functional medicine because it was my husband's mentor who diagnosed me. And so I spent the next years working on my gut health, my adrenals. And then ultimately I was like, you know, I was a classically trained OBGYN. And I said, there's tons of people who can do surgery. And there's tons of people, you know, if you really leave women alone, babies deliver themselves. Like, let's just leave them alone. Right.

And so there's a higher calling or a higher power from the use of me, which is to be in functional medicine and making the difference for people in a different way because there's a lot of people with good surgical hands.

So about four years after my diagnosis, three and a half years actually, I went into functional medicine and it was the practice that my husband has started. He was not even drawing a salary at the point I left my other job and went with him and we kind of worked it out. But for the next 13 years after my celiac diagnosis, I worked on my health. I worked on my gut. I worked on my stress. I worked on my adrenals. I worked on everything. I replaced all those minerals and nutrients.

And then I'm at this point now, 48, and we go on this amazing vacation to France. And I came back from France and the month after I left, I, I'm sorry, a month after I came back, I gained nine pounds. Never, ever have I ever said, give me nine pounds in a month. Okay.

Let's play that little game. Never, ever have I ever asked again almost ten times. No, not a request that comes along very often. Nope. And then I also lost about half the hair on my head. Never, ever have I ever said that either. Let me lose lots of hair. And then I gained, I also had this rash on my face, Linda. It was like on my eyelids, right around my nares of my nose, underneath my lip, on my chin. Ouch. I was exhausted. I had brain fog. Okay.

And now I'm like really perplexed. But as a functional medicine doctor, I have access. I mean, I'm a physician. I have access to ordering tests on myself. So I ordered, okay, if I say to you, you just gained a bunch of weight, your hair fell out and you're tired, what do you say to me? Menopause. That or thyroid. Yes. So the first thought I had was my thyroid's off. Literally 80% of people who sit in the chair across from me say my thyroid's off. I'm like, okay, well, let's check it. So I checked my thyroid. It looks great.

Then my second thought was menopause because I was 48, right? My hormones look great. And then I'm like, okay, well, all disease starts in the gut. So I'm going to do a stool test. And it looks really good, which is surprising because remember, I have celiac and my gut is a hot flipping mess from 20 years of undiagnosed celiac. But it looks really good. Now I'm really like stumped. Okay.

Because my adrenals could make me fatigued, but they shouldn't make my hair fall out. No. They shouldn't give me the rash. That suggests hormones. Right. Yeah, like something's not right. So I'm kind of muddling my way through. And then I hear the report that when Notre Dame burned, it released 500 tons of lead dust into the air. Yes. And the closer you were to Notre Dame, the more exposure you got. The farther away, the less you got. That makes sense. Well, I spent a week...

Right at Notre Dame the week after it burned. Oh no. Ding, ding, ding. I was like, oh my God. I said to my husband, I got a lead. Wait, we all got a lead exposure, but I'm the one who's really sick. And so I tested my lead. I actually did all the heavy metals. It comes in a kit and I tested my metals and they, the lead was 25% higher than it had been in the past.

And just as a sort of disclaimer, doctors are terrible patients, right? That's a rumor we've heard. Oh, my God, they're the worst. So I had previously done a test and it was mildly positive. And looking back, what I wish I had known that I didn't know was that it's always the tip of the iceberg and it's actually worse than what you see. So if you're positive on testing, it's really much higher.

So take it seriously. So I blew off my first test result. I apologize. But, you know, I wouldn't be here if I had blown it off. I would not have gone on the trajectory. So my lead's 25% higher. I start treatment. Before I left for France, I had actually done testing for mycotoxins. This is the toxins that mold puts out when it's in your body. Super creepy.

I get this test a month after I come back from France and I have five strains of mycotoxins in me. Oh, super. Right? Like never, ever have I ever been like, let me make a hospitable home for mycotoxins. Never, ever have I ever. We're playing that game today, apparently. So, okay. So I have heavy metals, I have mycotoxins. And then I'm like, well, in for a penny, in for a pound, which is such an antiquated statement. I'm the only one who ever says that anymore. No, I say it as well. You're okay. Okay.

You and I, I think, are the same genre, right? So I do the testing for environmental toxins and the other ones, not the metals, not the molds, but the things like flame retardants, gasoline fumes, plastic phthalates, styrene, forever chemicals, blah, blah, blah. And I have a whole bunch of those positive. And I'm like sitting with this paper in front of me, multi-paper, multiple papers. And by the way, the environmental toxins report is 17 pages long. And I'm like,

I got all these toxins. And I said to my husband, I'm such a dirty girl. Is that where the title came from? Yep. And that minute I said to him, and that's the book we're writing.

Because I'm the poster child for healthy living. I don't eat, you know, as soon as my third child was born, I went on a candida protocol, which means I didn't eat any cake, candy, cookie, bread, pasta, cereal, beer, wine, sugar, honey. I eliminated alcohol 17 years ago. I mean, I'm like, I exercise, I sleep. I'm kind of a stress ball because I'm just high strung, but I love what I do.

But I walk the talk, Linda. Like, I really do what I tell people to do. And I'm like, I don't get it. I'm the poster child for healthy living, and I'm such a hot flipping mess. And it was the toxins. You know...

I don't think my physician has ever done a tox test or tox screen. And I have a funny feeling that insurance wouldn't cover it. But it's interesting because more and more people, and you see supplements, and I'm sure we'll have time to get to that or we'll have you back. There are supplements about heavy metals and toxins. Those with Lyme disease, some of these conditions are,

are super susceptible to having multiple issues going on that are related but not caused by. Right. Actually, great point. So anyone who has...

If you're listening and you're like that weird one where you've all the weird disease and they can't figure out what's going on with you, you have toxins and you may have Lyme. And the toxins make the Lyme worse and harder to get a handle on. So whenever we have a Lyme, we have a lot of Lyme patients in our bricks and mortar practice. And we always say to them, you know, we can get you started on your Lyme treatment, but we also really need to look at particularly mycotoxins and then heavy metals. I mean, sometimes we uncover this because they're just...

You know, they're just, they're just really messy. And we're like, we got to do broad testing here to figure out what's going on with you. But if you're listening and you're the one, they can't figure out what's wrong with you and, or you've been told it's in your head, that's just nails on a chalkboard.

But that happens a lot. I mean, especially since if you don't fit, oh, I can prescribe you this or I could prescribe you that. There isn't even a lot of lifestyle suggestions in allopathic medicine. There really are not. I mean, my son-in-law is a surgeon and I asked him once, you know, how many nutrition courses, how many wellness courses did you take in medical school? He goes, zero. Zero?

We had one. We had like three classes, but not courses. No, courses is what I asked him. Zero courses. Yeah. A couple of classes. That's it. But again, the focus was on quick fixes as opposed to root causes. And unless you're like me and you're given a drug that has an $800 copay and doesn't address the problem, it's

You don't do the research, but with my weird clinical background, I...

did the research and found out, oh, look, I could solve this with magnesium. But think about it. Let's take a step back. I'm serious. I mean, that's insane, right? But doctors have seven to 12 minutes to fix you. I know. And they can't bill if they don't prescribe. Okay. Just to be cynical. I don't mean to be cynical, but you can't bill if you don't prescribe unless you're documenting like four separate issues. You can't deal with four separate issues in seven minutes. You deal with one and prescribe and then you're on. So the system isn't set up

to take care of your needs. The system is set up, you know, it's evolved over time, unfortunately, to satisfy the insurance requirements. And a number of other things. And it's so interesting because I did not know that you could not bill if you could not prescribe. That's interesting. You can't bill as high of a level. You can certainly bill, right? If I see you for a headache. Your time. Okay. Yeah, you can bill for time, but you have to document it properly. And if you don't have the time...

You know, if you're seeing six patients an hour, there's no time. I want to make sure you're not dying. I want to make sure that the major high point is answered. And then if you have another issue, you're coming back for another visit because I can't, I don't have time to do justice to it in a traditional model. Correct. So those of us who garden a lot and I'm bringing up glyphosate because it scares me, um,

You know, Roundup has been used for years and years and years. It's in our water. I know it's in our Maryland water. I'm here in Maryland, and we have the PFAS and the PUFAs and all sorts of things in the water. I have bought myself a filtration system to make it, you know, take out the arsenic, the lead, the fluoride. Most people don't know that fluoride is a toxin. Mm-hmm.

My dentist said, do you want a fluoride treatment? I said, no, it's toxic. She said, no, it's not. You say, no, I'd prefer a glass of alcohol, thanks. A glass of toxins as opposed to a mask full of toxins. Well, but you understand what I'm saying. Yes, I do. Unless you fit into the mold or unless you've done your own research to know these things, you...

You really are at the mercy. So I'm no longer at the mercy, but there's so much more I want to learn. So I read your book with just, you know, awe. I was just enjoying it because it's not just about staying away from Roundup, staying a new mattress needs to air new clothes. You better wash them before you wear them. Now, I always knew that, but I didn't know why.

I thought it was to get the sizing out. There's a number of other things. But what are some of the most common things that you – I'll tell you what our audience often talks about. They talk about how they're sensitive to –

cleaning products. And so we want things that are unscented these days or natural like tea tree oil or something like that. I'm just throwing out some examples. So when you're, you've been brought up to do things a certain way or your household is just different. What do you talk to people about? Is it mostly their fatigue? Because fatigue is such a common complaint these days, bad sleep, screen time, etc.

The EMF signals are worrisome and we can't do much about it. The new iPhone 15, they banned it in France because of too much radiation. I mean, I'm sorry. I just threw a million things at you. It's a lot. So let's take a step back. Let's say, okay, how are we getting exposed to the toxins? And then...

It's a fallacy to think you're going to live in a zero-tox life, right? That's a fallacy. But what we want to do is decrease what's filling up your pump and then work on how do you make sure you get it out of you, okay? So there's three major ways you get exposed to environmental toxicants. And by the way, well...

I'll come back to that. Okay. So one, you put it in your body. I know it's like I got a mental note. So one, you put it in your body by eating it or drinking it. This is our food, our alcohol, our tea, our water in plastic bottles. That was a shocker. Tell them that if you drink out of bottled water, you are.

Uh, I'm, I'm missing. I'll fill it in from your book. Fill it in. You're ingesting the equivalent of a credit card a week. Yes. Okay. Sorry. I'm like, I'm, I was, I wasn't sure where you're going. I didn't mean to put you on the spot, but that one I have told 50 people since I read your book. Yeah. I mean, you, we get a ridiculous amount of plastic. Think about it too. The fish we eat has microplastic particles in it. Right. Huh?

Great. And then layer on the plastic drinking and all of the things that we're using that are essentially plastic that we're putting into our body. Okay, so your food, your drink, your alcohol, your sugar, that's going in you. If you're eating food that's not organic, is highly processed, these all act like toxins in your body. That's one category.

Then as humans, as female humans, we put on products to look beautiful because we prize beauty. Oh, that was another big chapter. Okay. Yes, ma'am. So head to toe toxic beauty. So our hair products, our shampoo, conditioner, toners, colors, hair coloring is extremely toxic. Makeup, before we even get to makeup, the toners, the moisturizers, the lotions, the

Then the makeup, the lipstick, all the things we put on our body. I'll include the clothing that we're wearing, especially if you just brought it to the dry cleaner. They use formaldehyde to dry clean it. And even the ones that are clean. I was so excited. I found a clean dryer, clean dry cleaner in our neighborhood. So I called them.

I had the brain space. I was pretty proud of this. I called them and I said, what are you using to clean the clothes that makes it clean? And he rattles off this name and I'm like, okay, can you dummy that down and spell it for me? And he's like, sure. It's really clean. I'm like, great. Thanks for letting me know. I go look it up. It's formaldehyde by another name and just another form of it. Aren't there some organic dry cleaners these days? Cause I thought there were huge restrictions on the toxic chemicals in the dry cleaning industry. No, I haven't met them.

Now, my life is quite small, right? And I don't dry clean my clothes any longer because I'm like, you know what? This is going to the wash. I throw everything in the wash. Right. Same here. So, okay. So then the things you put on your body and then the things that are around you. And this is where we get to the EMFs, the chemicals from a farm, an industrial plant, a golf course, a highway, or...

or the bed you bought, the vegan leather you're sitting on, all the things, the plastics, the EMF, like it's everywhere, the water quality, the air quality. It's really extensive, the things we get exposed to. And what I wanted to come back to was also that stress can be either good or toxic. And so-

When it clicks into toxic, it's important to recognize it. But some hormetic stress, right? You know, that's saying no pain, no gain. There is benefit to pushing your body. But if you push your body, I had a patient who said to me, yes, I'm determined to lose these seven pounds. So I'm exercising until I puke. I'm like, right, that's going to backfire. What?

Like I don't, I highly don't recommend that. And so for the humans and the women and the men who are listening and say, Oh, right. I do everything right. And I can't lose weight. It's because all of these toxins, the majority of them are fat soluble. And in order to be, remember when you make your salad dressing fat and, and water oil and water don't mix, right? They don't mix. And so when your body gets a fat soluble toxin presented to it,

The only ways you can get rid of it are water-based. Pee, poop, and sweat are the big ones. Breath is behind it. But all of those require being water-soluble. So to take it from water-soluble to fat-soluble to water-soluble, you need the liver. And you need the liver to take it from fat-soluble into a free radical,

into its bound final inert water-soluble form. But if you can't process it fast enough, those free radicals build up. And you store them in your fat. Now, is it true that LA, linoleic, I hope I'm saying that right, acids, last, the bad stuff, their half-life is over 650 days. So you're not going to detox fast from some of these toxins, correct? Right. So...

Do you remember Lucy on I Love Lucy? Of course. Who got the job wrapping chocolates? Oh, my gosh, I do. Of course I do. She and Ethel. Yes. Yes. And how she just couldn't keep up with the volume of chocolates that were coming down that conveyor belt. Yes, I remember that episode.

that's us being exposed to toxins. So it's sort of a, it's, it's sort of like when you talk about how long it takes for something to be processed and metabolized, that's horrifying. But my bigger concern is that it's not the only thing. There's so many things that we're getting exposed to and the system's getting clogged up. And, and so, um,

And the nice thing is, by the way, glyphosate is pretty water-soluble. Glyphosate is not fat-soluble. It still needs to be processed and moved, but it's water-soluble. So if you stop filling your body up with it, it will go away. So back to the fat-soluble things, it's really, for me, more about the volume and the rapidity and the fact that – and stress will shut the system down. That's why stress can be good or bad. Stress can cause you to grow, but it will – if your adrenals are stressed, they will say to the liver –

You know, we're very primitive, Linda. So the adrenals will say to the liver, guys, a lion's about to chase us. I really don't think it's a high priority to do detox right now. And similarly to the gut, it's not a high priority to do detox right now. You really need to shut down because we need to conserve our energy in order to run from the lion. And then your liver, instead of doing detox, puts out glycogen stores so that you have a ready source of sugar. Mm-hmm.

And, and yet you're not doing detox. So now what happens when you're stressed, you crave carb and sugar and processed food because your body thinks you need to run from a lion. So then you eat food that's harder to deal with. You spike your blood sugar, you have resulting then hypoglycemia from the, from the crash. The cycle starts all over again. So there's, so,

So it's important not only to minimize what you're being exposed to, but maximize your ability to get rid of it. And one thing that's so critical because I call it foundational is aside from food, get enough sleep and move your body and manage your stress. And that includes get rid of toxic people.

Well, that's a big one because boundaries, people have an uninformed view of what a boundary is. If they think it's telling someone else not to do something, that's not a boundary. If you say, I'm really not able to accept the way you're speaking to me right now, so we'll talk another time when we are more even.

That's my boundary. I can only control myself. I can't control others around me. Good luck with that. Many people try, but it just doesn't work. And I think stress is probably the largest complaint of everyone. I mean, it's normal to hear people say, my cortisol levels are so high. And you're thinking, and you know this, how?

Well, I think we all know the feeling of adrenaline pushing through us or the feeling of stress as your backbone straightens and your shoulders go up to your ears. Whatever signs are in your body, you know, at least be aware of when stress is rising and what is causing it. A lot of people don't actually analyze what is causing the stress. And sometimes you have to take a good hard look at yourself. Are you doing it? Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think I would say that dysfunctional relationships are a learned pattern. And you have to learn a new skill, right? So I would also say a lot of us live most days potentially in survival mode. And it's very difficult to have any perspective when you're in survival mode because you're just focused on survival, like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right? If you're in the...

bottom tiers of that hierarchy, you can't focus on self-actualization and making a difference for the world and having a purpose because you're just trying to get through your day. Those things sound very highfalutin right now. Right? Yeah. You're like, I just need to pay off my mortgage and my rent this month. Right. And so financial stress can be tremendously dis-

I would say harmful. Yeah, I was going to say like dysfunctional, but it's not quite that. It's really dysregulating, harmful, not in your favor. No, it will keep you up at night or wake you up at night. I think that's another big complaint that people have. First of all, they're tired all the time. Their hair may be falling out. They feel like their stress levels are high. And then you look for a reason for that. And oftentimes you don't want to look within. You want to point a finger somewhere else. And that's

they're really sometimes we just need to take a look at who are we surrounded by the five people were around the most affect us um i always love talking about ants automatic negative thinking well because it's easier to say to well i have i have several friends who went through periods of time where their default was negative no matter what you say and i'm more of the optimist um

And it was easier for me to say once I explained what automatic negative thinking is, well, if you're automatically going to think it's bad. Later, I was able to say, uh-oh, the answer back. And that was a more gentle way to approach it.

Why are you back in that negative spiral again? Because we do spiral and our minds are made to go spiral and look for what the bad thing is. I have a tip for that, Linda. Good, please. That's why I'm bringing this up because I think that these are common problems for most people. So what's your tip? So first, let me back up a step and say we on average have about 60,000 thoughts a day.

And that's 60,000 opportunities to either be empowered or disempowered. And a lot of those times your thoughts happen to you, but then sometimes you cause those thoughts to happen. So the thoughts that you have that start with what if...

Or, you know, so as an example, so to me, any question that starts with what if makes me a victim. Okay. Unless we're talking to like hash it out. So I'm like, I'm in conversation with someone and she says to me,

So she was going away for the weekend. She has four kids. The youngest two are on the autism spectrum and they were 20. And she said to me, what if the boys burned down the house while I'm away? Well, there's something that's likely. I was like, okay. All right, Michelle, hold on.

There's a lot to unpack there. So what we started to talk about is like, how do you train your brain to ask a question that your brain can answer? So when you ask a what if question, you have no answer for that question. And it's often a question that makes you feel victimized. What if the boys burn the house down? Now you're worried your kids are going to die. Your house is going to burn down. You're totally not at power or cause here. I said, I don't think you're asking the right question. Yeah.

I think the question you need to ask is, what do you need to do to make sure your boys are safe while you're gone? What do you need to train them in in case they do start a fire while you're gone? And how can you...

No, they're a good kid. But like, how do you, how do you empower yourself? Right. What do you, what steps do you need to take to make sure that your weekend away is a great weekend with your husband and your kids are safe? That's the question to ask yourself because you can actually answer that question. What if the boys burned down the house has no answer? There's literally no answer. So, so, so start to train your brain whenever you find yourself thinking, okay,

What if blah, blah, blah? What if, you know, I have kids, right? My oldest got their license and I was like, what if they get a car accident? I'm like, nope. What do I need to do to train them to stay safe on the road? So convert your what if questions into what do I need to do or how will I approach this or give it an action as opposed to a possibility that's disempowering.

I agree with all of that. I once did a video. I work with veterans and I do a lot of videos because I work with the caregivers. And I once did a video that I researched that we worry approximately three hours a week about things that never happen. So one of the questions that came up, I think I put it in the video, I can't recall at this point, was really what is the likelihood of this happening? And are you worrying about something that is

way out there? Or is this realistic? I mean, because a lot of the times if you add up those three hours a week that you wasted worrying, the waste of worry is a huge time suck. And why do you want to give it that? Well, let's talk more about this, Linda. Not only is it a time suck, but the worry, you can have a, okay, gosh, this was like

Seven or eight years ago, we went on vacation in California and my husband and I had a business event. We were in Palm Springs and we had a business event in LA. So we left our kids with my mom and drove to LA for like a day. And on the ride, there were these massive,

barriers on the left-hand lane. Like you couldn't, you were stuck. Like you couldn't go anywhere except the left-hand lane. You could go right, but there were these huge barriers and we're in the left-hand lane. And I see out of the corner of my eye, there's a car in front of us to the right, but like kind of next to us in front of us. And then there's a car next to them kind of, we were in like a diagonal row. And out of the corner of my eye, I see the car two lanes over start swerving. And

And all of these things go through my brain at once. Oh my God, we're going to get in a car accident. Oh my God, we have nowhere to go. Oh my God, my mom's with my kids and we're going to leave them orphans. Like, you know, in a split second, I have all these thoughts and I start screaming, break, break, break, break, break, break, break to my husband. And he slams on the brakes. Thankfully there was no one behind us. The car in the middle lane swerved right where we had just been in front of us. And we would have nowhere to go except into the barrier.

Except because we slammed on the brakes, we weren't hit.

So nothing happened. Okay. Nothing happened. We were safe. No car accident happened in any group of, of this like diagonal cars. But for two days I had, I was jittery and heart palpitations and anxious and brain fog. And I was like, oh man, I guess they don't have the level of resiliency I've been working on. Right. Because you can have a stressful thought and it signals to the adrenals danger and adrenals respond, right?

So you can tank your body just from how you think. Oh, I think that's one of the worst ones. Yes, because it happens all day long too, right? So it's really important to make your thoughts feel good because otherwise they're just setting you off into fight, flight, or freeze, which shuts down digestion and detox, makes you fat, makes you unhappy, and makes you tired. Who wants that?

Well, no one wants that, obviously. And I mean, we have enough material that we could talk for about three or four shows. I'd love to have you back to talk about some of these other things. If you're looking at a new patient who comes into you with what I'm going to just call, um,

overwhelm. You know, they're a working mother outside the home. They have three children. There are obviously stressors financially for everyone these days or almost everyone. And the foods we buy, I mean, everything around us is under strain.

whether it's a hangover from the pandemic, because that definitely affected everyone, but not in the same way for everyone. And so there are carryovers from all of the stress and strain that the entire world went through in varying degrees. And so some face it more than others or feel it more than others. What do you say to start them off? I imagine you do a number of screens sometimes.

And a huge questionnaire, I imagine. I don't do a huge questionnaire because it's not automated. And I don't like data that I then have to scroll through because I just don't find that particularly empowering for me. It's not how my brain works. Or that, right? It's like make work. So I talk to people, actually. Who does that, right? It's a miracle. Right. So we talk and...

We have a, I am, my mom teases me. I have to go through the stores in a methodical fashion. Like I, I'm very, I'm very linear A to B to C. So what we have a pretty standardized approach for people where the round one of evaluation deals with what I'll call the foundations of your health, your food, your food sensitivities, your minerals, nutrients, your gut function, your adrenal health.

And because you can't do what the toxins work until the foundations are, are well managed. You cannot detox someone who has leaky gut. They will be sick. They will be sicker. They'll hate you. So you have to deal with the gut, the adrenals and the general nutrient status, have them 50 to 80% better. And then you deal with the stuff that tortures them like, Hey, my hair is falling out or I can't lose weight because you can't, you just can't

get to it until you've dealt with it. So then round one is foundations. Round two is heavy metals, mycotoxins, environmental toxins, Lyme. Sometimes we'll move the Lyme up if I'm really concerned about their health. But generally we're doing that in round two because you have to get people healthier so they can tolerate the interventions. That makes sense. And so I imagine it takes...

Part of what you do is set expectations of how long this will take because people are wanting, of course, by the time they get to you, they've probably been to several physicians and been told it's all in their head or there's nothing wrong with you or you just need more sleep. I mean, I could fill in the blank with, you know, 10 things that I've heard.

So I imagine you also spend a great deal of time communicating expectations and what to expect so that no one is surprised or less times being surprised. Am I right? I only like sparkly surprises. I don't like financial. No, no, no. Those are called shocks. Right? No, I do say to people, you know, here's what you can expect. And typically, you know, you didn't get where you are overnight. And so you're not going to get back to where you were overnight. Right.

And so what I say to people is typically within the first six to 12 months, you'll be 50 to 80% better. And then that last 20%, you know, if you got 80% better, that last 20% is what you work on for the rest of your life because it's, you're never going to be toxin free. It's constant, right? I went to look at a house to see if I wanted it. I get three steps in. I'm like, oh, there's mold here. This house has mold.

And I got a mold exposure. So, you know, you live your life and you get more exposures. And so, yeah, I do think it's an ongoing game to decrease exposure, improve your mitochondrial health and continue to have your gut work well, guard your sleep, guard your energy, guard your emotional health, like really be safe in every way. So, yeah, it's an ongoing game. Yeah.

And it's the game of life. Yes. Not the board game, the real game of life. And you only get one. You get a one and only glorious life. So it's very important to know what to do. I want to make sure people know where to go to get more information about you. And I'll let you give that URL. But I also want them to know that your book is available and is free.

A very good read. I mean, it's fun. You see how sassy she is here. You should see it in the book. It's like talking to me, right? It is exactly like talking to you. That's why I was really looking forward to this show. And I'm going to pick up my car soon.

It was in the shop again yesterday, but I didn't dare bring the book back again. I was going to do it to be a joke, but I did not. But I'm going to give it to the service manager's wife because he said, that sounds amazing. So I think that's good. But-

Where do people go to find out more information about you and your process and what you do? Is there a website you want to send them to? Sure. So there's really two branches. We have a bricks and mortar for people who say, oh, I really want to be a patient. We have a membership insurance-based practice. It's bricks and mortar in Massachusetts. And that's fivejourneys.com.

And that's if you want to work with one of the physicians. And then, you know, maybe what? 1% of people listening might be like, yeah, I'm going to go to Boston and get a new doctor. But the majority of people listening are like, well, that's not really convenient for me. So we also have an online brand that's at drwendy.com. And that's where we have...

We have education. We have programs. We have recipes. We have testing for a limited number of toxins. And that's a way to be involved in more of a wellness journey. Right. You know, actually, our first program starts tonight.

We're our new pro not new. We're relaunching a program and it starts tonight. It's an eight week program. So we do that periodically. And so that's drwendy.com. And then I do, I think I mentioned to you, I do have a gift for the listeners because anyone listening, you know, my belief is that you're meant to get better every decade and that you should be vital, vibrant, full of life, able and interested in intimacy till you're at least a hundred. So we provide at drwendy.com forward slash gift.com.

We provide a quiz. We provide knowledge. We provide action items. We have chapter one of the book.

And so you can go to see like, do I, do I want to buy this thing? Right? Like kick the tires before you buy it. You can go, uh, drwendy.com forward slash gift and get chapter one, a quiz to see how toxic you are. Um, the non-toxic guide to healthy living. And then you can get the book off Amazon because most people have prime. So that's pretty easy. I love that. Now I want to emphasize that Wendy is spelled.

I-E. Dr. Wendy, W-E-N-D-I-E.com. And it's not Dr. D-O-C-T-O-R. It's just drwendy.com. drwendy.com and then forward slash gift to receive the quiz, the first chapter, et cetera. And I highly recommend this book. You will find it enjoyable to read as well as

eye-opening and it's it's not that hard to make some of these initial changes but you need to start somewhere and that's what we designed overnight well then it worked on me good job glad thank you

You're very welcome. Thank you so much for sharing time with us this morning. I have a couple of other questions I'll email you about because I think we could do another show on some of these other things that we've just glanced on because this is a huge topic.

And people really want to know more about functional medicine and why. The questions you asked in medical school, we are asking our physicians. So many thanks for your time today. Thank you, Linda. It's been a pleasure to be here. Thank you. Everyone have a wonderful week ahead. We'll talk with you next time. Thank you for tuning in today. You can find more shows at wisehealthforwomenradio.com.