 Hey everyone, this is Dr. Ruscio. Today I'll speak with Anna, who has read Healthy Good Health to You and is a choice example of exactly what I hope, reading Healthy Good Health to You can do for an individual. She resolved her bloating fatigue, body odor, and hair loss. But while doing so, she also felt empowered and encouraged, meaning she learned what worked for her system, what didn't work for her system. She did not fall into a dependency upon supplements, psychologically, meaning learned or suspected dependency upon supplements, nor a fear around food. In fact, again, she is coming through the Healthy Good Health to You protocol, not only healthier physically, but also seemingly healthier psychologically, which is the other part of the healing process that I'm growing increasingly concerned about, which is sure there are all these things that can go wrong, but when the discussion of all the things that can go wrong is framed incorrectly, it leads one into unnecessary and unhelpful fear, worry, and this can be very much so hypothetical to healing. So she was a great example of how not only did she discover what worked for her fatigue, bloating, hair loss, and body odor, but she felt empowered in, there are some simple solutions to this, and these are things that I can change and I can fix and I can heal, and oh, by the way, I'll also be looking forward to broadening my diet and having a healthy perspective on food. So just a really constructive, and I think the moderate example of what my intent and goal was in writing Healthy Good Health To You. So now we'll go to the conversation with Anna. Hey, everyone, that's Dr. Ruscio. I'm here with Anna who has read Healthy Good Health To You and had some good results and she was kind enough to share her story. Hi, Anna, welcome. Thank you. So tell us what was going on, what was the backstory leading up to finding Healthy Good Health To You? So starting at the end of last year, I noticed that I was feeling bloated, I think in part with just all of the stresses this year with the pandemic and all of that, my health was just getting worse. I noticed, and this was something new for me, that the bloating never went away. I would wake up still bloated. I had diarrhea, it got so bad to the point where the food just wasn't being digested at all and my symptoms started to get worse and worse and that I noticed that I was losing a lot of hair, a lot more than normal. I was extremely tired, like it didn't matter how much I slept, I would wake up exhausted and also my body odor changed. I don't know if that has something to do with it, but I'm like, why do I stink? Like all I'm doing is sitting at my desk and I smell. And so intuitively my body told me, like I was starting to crave soups and broths and my body said to me, I need some bone broth. And so I Googled, like, is this a thing? Like doing a bone broth cleanse and it obviously is. And so I did it for, I was gonna do it for three days. And then someone told me, actually I had already been gifted your book, Healthy Get Healthy You. And I just hadn't, I wasn't ready for it. And so during the third day of the cleanse, I read it and I was blown away by all the information. And in the book, you suggested to do four days for the cleanse. And so I did an additional day. And I'm so glad I did because on the fourth day, I started to have die-off symptoms. And I had no idea what that was. I was just shocked that I woke up feeling terrible. Like I felt like I was dying. I didn't know why. And after some Google search and then also through your book, I'm like, oh, wow, this is what I'm experiencing. So having such a intense experience on just doing a bone broth cleanse. And also when I was on that cleanse, I was still bloated. Like, so it was telling me, I'm like, there's something more, like this is a lot bigger than what I was thinking. And so I immediately after the cleanse started your eight step protocol. And so I've been eating paleo for about two months now. And that has helped a lot, but I still get bloated. And I kind of combined step one and two. I didn't wait for the full like two, three weeks to see if I needed to adjust my diet because I felt that. And I ended up going to my general doctor. Got referred to endocrinologist. And she was like, yeah, sounds like you have IBS and SIBO. I wanted to do a breath test just to verify. She just wanted me to do treatment, which was antibiotics. And that I didn't feel ready for that. So I'm currently in step three of your protocol, which is the removal. And I'm in month one. I'm actually a little bit over month one because your month two supplement, one of them is sold out. So I'm just continuing month one. Let's go to just a part of a little bit because it's all fantastic stuff. So the paleo diet, I'm curious, what changes did you notice from that? And then I'm assuming you layered probiotics on top of that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So after one week of eating paleo and taking your probiotics, I'm doing like basically all of your supplements, I started to have solid stool. That was such a huge celebration for me. I was like, oh my god, it's back. And I also I've been taking the adrenal support. And I have energy again. Like I don't wake up tired. And so that happened in one week. So for me to feel like I'm alive again was such a blessing. And that's what encouraged me to just keep on going. It was my birthday this week. And so I cheated on my diet. I just ate whatever. And I did notice a different where I was bloated and I just didn't feel great. I had loose stool again. So I'm like, all right, I'm not there yet. Good to know. Stay away from the cheese and just like the good stuff. You say you're not there yet. That really indicates you're framing this the right way. When some people have a reaction, they will assume that they're not going to be able to be there ever. But the way you're framing, I think is exactly correct, which is you may not have healed enough yet to be able to tolerate those foods. So that's really the key. Yeah, and I mean, I didn't have this problem before. And so I'm like, I mean, there has to be, I have to be able to get to the point where I am able to just eat whatever. But at the same time, eating this way, I've also noticed. So in the past, I've also suffered from skin issues where I have eczema and dermatitis. And that has also helped to clear up. It's been interesting kind of like being on this diet, like I've noticed it clear. And then sometimes I get my little, I call them flowers, where they start to like the dry spots start to open up. My eyes are really clear now as well. They're not as red. So it's helping so much of my well-being. I feel so much clear mentally. I feel like I'm a lot more productive. And all of that is because I've been eating a lot cleaner and also taking your supplements and following your regimen. Yeah, it really is amazing how there can be one domino. In this case, it sounds like the gut was probably the most core domino of all the dominoes. And that can cause things like thinning hair. It can cause problems, outward manifestations like body odor and also problems with the skin. So yeah, all these things can kind of roll together. And why I'm so passionate as you now know about bringing this work to people is because if you look at the symptoms, it can be intimidating. It's like, well, what's going on with my system? But if we can trace this down to the root cause, not in every case, but in many a case, it will come down to the gut. And it also doesn't have to be this, well, let me go into an office and get a bunch of testing run and now there's 13 things wrong with me. And now I feel like, oh my God, how am I gonna fix all this? In a lot of cases, there are simple things. Paleo diet, probiotics, antimicrobials and you've responded really, really nicely. Not everyone's road is that easy. Some people hit a few tripwires along the way but you're a great example of how when we get the right support to the right person, boom, everything just opens up. And what I like about your book is that, I mean, I'm not working with a practitioner so I don't know if that's right or wrong but I feel like you do such a great job at explaining it. Like I have all these Post-it notes to reference back and like if you just follow step by step, I feel safe doing it. Like it's not like it's something hard to do. It's just cleaning up your diet. It's like this week you do this, then next month check in with yourself. What are your symptoms? Do you still have some? Now go to this. So I really like the simplicity and how easy it is for someone who maybe doesn't have the extra income to work with a natural path or integrative medicine where it's not with your insurance. So it makes it really accessible. And the fact that you also have the supplements through your own shop removes that added stress of like, where am I gonna get these supplements? Can I trust the quality? So, good job, I'm just having like an easy, here you go, try this. And I mean, it really has had incredible effects for me. That was one of the main evidences behind the book which was to give someone essentially what they would get with me which would be very much like you said, okay, let's simplify the process, take one step, we're asking about a question, we wanna listen to the answer, then check back in. So the check in in the book is kind of your follow up visit if you're working with a provider. So yeah, there's a lot of gain when we simplify the process because now you as the user can say, well, I only changed this and now I'm noticing that. So I'm really confident that those changes led to this improvement. And it's also important to check back in because one of the things we don't wanna do is say, well, it's all about probiotics, just probiotics, probiotics, probiotics and the book's all about probiotics and then the probiotics don't work for you, you feel kind of like you're stuck. So there's that escalation of one change, one step, give it some time, check back in if you're feeling well, go here, if you're not feeling well, escalate there, exactly as you kind of alluded to. And then with the supplement chat, that was the other thing I wanted to do for people. Even though I did get some criticism from some early critics of the book having supplements in the store, and I understand where that comes from, you don't want there to be a conflict of interest per se, but saying take 500 milligrams of oregano oil, it kind of just throws you out to the internet to parse out, well, who can I trust, who has quality and who doesn't. So thank you, I do appreciate that and it's to make your life as easy as we can. Yeah. The other thing that I really like about the book is that I feel empowered. I feel like I know more about my body, like it's kind of a textbook at the beginning. And so when I did go to my general doctor because I already had an appointment scheduled, I felt like I was able to communicate, like these are my symptoms and I know doctors don't like this, but I'm like, this is what I have. And it was fascinating that she had no idea what die-off was when I said that word, like she looked at me with a huge question mark and then kind of got annoyed and said, don't be diagnosing yourself. In the end, that's what they told me I had. And to your point of the blood work, like for me personally, everything came back normal. So I was like, but things are not normal. And also I just felt like just because I'm in the range doesn't mean that that's right for me. I'm like, I'm telling you, I'm losing my hair, I smell, I feel terrible. There's something definitely wrong with me. And the book made me... Yeah, and this is why I always recommend people, they have one doctor on each side of the fence, because if it was something more conventionally, pathologically wrong, you wanna make sure you check that off and get that taken care of. But in many cases, as I was way back in college, same sort of thing. All the blood work was normal, but I had insomnia, brain fog, fatigue, are you listening to me there? I'm really not the person I was like six months ago, but there was no major disease present. So I mean, in one way, a sigh of relief, but also at the same time, what do you do? And so that's why it's good to have these two different schools of thought, conventional medicine, innovative alternative medicine, to make sure that you get the answers that you need. Yeah, I love it. Awesome. Is there anything else you wanna share with people before we wrap up? I mean, it's a lot there already, but... No, I would just really recommend that if you have been struggling with digestive issues or if you just haven't been feeling well, that the book is a really great place to start. It gives you so much information. And again, just by starting to implement small changes, it can create such a big difference in how you feel. And it does give you hope because I was starting to feel hopeless. And also for me, not just hopeless, but I was just kind of starting to accept that that's the way it is. You kinda get to the point where having diarrhea every day is normal and you don't really think about it. And that's not normal. And so kind of like retraining my brain or shining light on, like, no, there's a different way that you can feel. And starting to experience those changes just by modifying my diet and starting to incorporate some of the supplements, just it really did give me hope. And I'm like, I can see the end. Like, I know I'm gonna be completely healthy soon and start to incorporate more of the foods that I miss and that I like. And also it was a reminder to really listen to my body. It had been giving me signs along the way and I just kind of ignored it or again, had build the threshold of like how much pain or discomfort I can tolerate. And so for me personally, I'm going to be listening to it like at the beginning. And what's been curious as well, and you mentioned it in the book is regarding the fasting. My body has been craving more of that. So I did really well. I've actually have done, so I did the initial bone broth and then a month later, I did the lemonade fast and I loved it. I felt so good on it and energized. And it was interesting that the first day back of eating food, I felt not great. So for me, I feel like doing like a reset with the fast feels very healing for my body. So I'm going to just continue listening to it and see if it needs it and continue doing that, including the supplements and just eating cleaner. You are a rock star. I mean, everything that I hope would be imparted by the book, it seems like you've captured this empowerment, not only to listen to your body, but also to realize that there's hope and to be able to navigate these things and listen to your body and realize a lot of this stuff, you don't necessarily need a practitioner for. Again, I'm never dissuading anyone from taking them to your doctor if you think something wrong is wrong. Definitely do that. But beyond that, we're in the driver's seat of a lot of our own healthcare. And if we just learn to be confident in listening to our body, there's a lot there that we can tap into, which you've done. So just it's a fantastic job. I'm so glad that you're feeling good. Thank you. And thank you so, so much for sharing your story with us. You're so welcome. Thank you.