#101 How to find out if you have parasites, what it means when your poop is green, and the best magnesium supplement to take. With Dr. Marisol Teijeiro

Welcome to episode 101! We’re so excited about this podcast because Dr. Marisol is back with us! She’s a naturopathic doctor and because of her passion for gut health and cleansing, she is known as the “Queen of Thrones”. She’s a world leader in natural medicine and we’re so excited to have her on the podcast again! Enjoy!

Video version: https://youtu.be/z66Ov2ApIls

Dr. Marisol’s website: https://www.drmarisol.com/

 

Chantel Ray:                 Hey, guys. Welcome to this week’s episode. Today’s guest is a return guest, and she was one of your absolute favorites. We said we’ve got to have Dr. Marisol. Marisol’s last name … Pronounce it for me real quick.

Dr. Marisol:                  Dr. Marisol Teijeiro.

Chantel Ray:                 Teijeiro. Okay. Perfect. She’s just a world leader in natural medicine. I’m so passionate about gut health because I truly believe if your gut is healthy, you are healthy, period. The end. I mean, it all begins and ends with your gut. She’s known as the Queen of Thrones. Her first book is about to drop, pun intended, and it’s called Oh S-H-I-T … I don’t want to curse on this show, and I don’t curse in general, but I love the title. She promises to change your life royally by reducing the anxiety and stress that irritates your bowels, so you can get those natural rhythms going, improve your digestion. We are thrilled to have you back. Welcome!

Dr. Marisol:                  Oh, thank you so much, Chantel. I’m just so excited. This is great. I love doing your show last time, and you know me. I’m just about talking about my movements, so everyone can have an improvement.

Chantel Ray:                 Talk about your movements, so you can have improvement. That’s a good one.

Dr. Marisol:                  Well, I love what you said, “It all begins and ends,” and it’s so true. I often say, “It’s all about what’s happening between your gums and your bums. It truly is reality that your gut is really the center, the hub of health. Really, truly.

Chantel Ray:                 That is awesome. So, what’s new with you? Are you doing anything new online? Tell us, like if listeners want to find you, where are some places they could connect with you at?

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah. So, we’re highly, highly active right now and really getting our message out there. We have a big goal of eventually changing the World Health Organization’s standard of stool. What that requires is for us to really create a movement. And so, what I’m asking everyone out there to do is come and join us online. What we’ve been doing is we’re really creating an education hub, in terms of the gut. So, no matter what your question is, whether it has to do with parasites, or pooping after your period, or whatever the case may be, whatever’s important to you, I’m really here to answer it because I really want people to truly understand what’s going on in their gut.

Dr. Marisol:                  So, because of that, we have a bunch of stuff happening. Number one, on our website, weekly, we’re launching a blog. If you haven’t signed up for our newsletter, go onto my website at www.DrMarisol.com and sign up for our newsletter. The other thing that we have … So, this blog, we’re coordinating it with a weekly Facebook and Instagram and YouTube Live, so that drops on Friday. Every Friday at noon. For the lunch hour, let’s talk about poop, right? Why not? It’s important.

Chantel Ray:                 Yes.

Dr. Marisol:                  That’s super important because we really want to create a live interactive clinic, so that’s a place for you guys to get your questions answered. And then, besides that, all of our products now are full-on throttle in the USA. That includes our amazing Queen of the Throne Castor Oil Packs, our organic castor oil in the glass bottle. Our beautiful, incredible cosmetic beauty kits have just dropped, which, they’re selling like hotcakes. We can’t even keep them, really, on the shelf. We’re already shipping down more product from Canada. We’ve also launched our Eau de Throne, which is our After you Poo Parfum, the only medicinal adult potty-training tool that also disinfects the air, so you keep the bathroom clean.

Chantel Ray:                 So, it’s kind of like Poo-Pourri, right?

Dr. Marisol:                  Similar. So, that’s a question I get all the time. “Oh, it’s kind of like Poo-Pourri?” It is, but it isn’t. Ours is very different. Where Poo-Pourri is a spray to make things smell good, ours … And, Poo-Pourri is sprayed before you go. Ours is sprayed after you go, and ours is actually medicinal for the gut. The herbs that I’ve placed in the formula … Actually, when you smell them and intake them in, they actually have a calming effect on the gut, but also help with digestion. And, ours has a really cool thing, is that it’s a disinfecting spray.

Dr. Marisol:                  The reason why we wanted disinfecting spray … I don’t think people understand the true reason … is that our stools are made up of 50% bacteria … somewhere between 30 to 50% bacteria. So, when you drop a log in the throne, you flush the toilet, but when you flush, bacteria and particulate matter goes up into the air. This is one of the reasons why it’s a good thing to put the lid down, number one, but number two, not to have your toothbrush exposed or right next to your toilet because what can happen is you’re going to get spray and particulate matter on your toothbrush, on your countertop, in all places of your bathroom. And, the worst thing is this: when the next unsuspecting victim walks into the bathroom, they actually get exposed to all your microbes with this. This is what people don’t realize. So, when you walk in after someone, and you smell the intensity of their smell, you are basically being exposed to their bacteria, and that actually starts to affect your bacteria.

Chantel Ray:                 Oh, wow. That’s amazing. So now, I have bought your castor oil packs, and they’re amazing. I’m not doing it as much as I need to. One thing that I do do is I get … The one thing I do do is … We have all these puns coming on this show.

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah.

Chantel Ray:                 I do get a massage twice a week. I’m obsessed. That’s my one thing. You know how everyone’s like … One person’s into shoes. Another person’s into this. My thing is massage because I don’t know how to relax that well. So, I literally get a massage. What I have her do is I take your castor oil pack, and I do put it on my stomach and put tons of oil. If someone is really constipated all the time, would you suggest they do it twice a week, every day? What would your suggestion be for them?

Dr. Marisol:                  For people that are constipated, absolutely every single day. That is the ideal with the castor oil pack. I travel with it. It’s the first thing that I do, and that’s one of the big reasons why we put the castor oil packs in the handy little convenient containers, because I wanted to make it easy for people to take it anywhere.

Dr. Marisol:                  If you’ve been dealing with something for a long time, nothing is going to work as a quick and easy fix. The only thing would be like a strong, stimulating laxative. However, longterm, that’s not a really good solution because you start to get dependent, and then you always have to take this laxative. It’s just not good for your body. So, castor oil packs, if you’ve had a longterm constipation, whoever that may be, you really do want to be doing your pack daily because you’re really trying to create an environment where you can naturally have a stool.

Dr. Marisol:                  And, we’re actually talking about this on our Facebook Live in the next little bit, that, truly, constipation isn’t just about your food, but it has to do with a variety of different regulatory systems, like your hormonal system, your immune system, and your nervous system. We have to work at balancing those systems in order for you to actually have a good bowel movement. So, if you want to have an effect on those systems that are working to constantly regulate the body, then you have to constantly … Right? Because you have to give the same energy in order to treat it. You want to be constantly doing your pack so that those systems can get trained.

Chantel Ray:                 Do you have something that you can show the listeners? If you’re listening on our podcast, definitely go watch the show. You sometimes can get extra things. Do you have a castor oil pack handy that you can show people? And, explain to people … What do they need to do? So, they order this pack. What does it look like, and explain it really in detail.

Dr. Marisol:                  So, go online, www.drmarisol.com. D-R-M-A-R-I-S-O-L. And, go into our shop. Of course, take advantage of all the things that we are gifting, like information … We have an amazing 50 Shades of Poo if people want to start to learn the journey.

Chantel Ray:                 Ooh. I like that.

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah. 50 Shades of Poo … The reason we start there is because, well, number, one, it’s a really cool name … 50 Shades of Poo. I’d like to find out what’s going on there. It’s a first step of the journey, learning and understanding your poo, because color is pretty much the fastest thing that you can learn and understand about it. And so, if you sign up for that gift, what we’ll do is actually take you through the journey of understanding and learning your poo. So, I encourage everyone to go do that.

Chantel Ray:                 Do you really talk about 50 Shades?

Dr. Marisol:                  Well, I mean … It’s obviously a pun on words, but truly, there are so many colors that poo can be. I obviously highlight the most important ones, but poo really can be any of the shades of brown. There are a lot of shades of brown. We actually use our Grateful Dung bracelet, which is another one of our amazing products, which is another adult potty-training tool. It’s made up of tiger’s eye. I don’t know if you can see that, but tiger’s eye is actually the perfect colors and ranges of poo. So, you’ve got anything from a darker brown to a lighter brown, to a little bit of a yellowing color. We don’t want too yellow, but a little yellow sometimes is okay.

Dr. Marisol:                  This gives you an idea and a quick reference guide as to, “Oh, okay. My poo’s the right color.” Because a lot of people out there have … Green stool’s a big epidemic. Green stools is a bad problem because it can signify issues with your stomach and not being able to digest properly, especially things like protein, which, for people eating a high-protein diet, this is very important. And, people will say, “Oh, well, it’s just because I’m consuming a green smoothie every day. That’s why my stools are green.” But, no, it has nothing to do with that. It actually has to do with how you’re digesting your food. So, it’s an important tool to go use.

Dr. Marisol:                  So, when you do the castor oil pack-

Chantel Ray:                 So, hold on. I want you to expand on that real quick, about the green poop. You said if your poop is green, that means … Oh, I like your coffee cup.

Dr. Marisol:                  Oh, thank you. Yeah.

Chantel Ray:                 So, the green poop … Let’s just expand on that. If your poop is green, that means that you’re having trouble digesting protein. What could you do to help that? Would it be digestive enzymes?

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah. What it would actually be is that you want to also see the other clues in your stools. But, often times with green-colored stools, you’re missing stomach acid in your stomach. Because when you eat green substances, the chlorophyll is what gives them the green color. That chlorophyll, once it hits the stomach, it actually oxidizes, and when things oxidize, they become brown. They rust, basically.

Dr. Marisol:                  So, any green vegetable that comes out of your body should turn brown at the end of the day. Once it’s in the bum, it’s got to be turning brown. And, if it’s green, you’re lacking stomach acid to actually create that oxidation aspect. Without stomach acid, you don’t break down protein. What you could do is take something like an HCl, Betaine … People are really familiar with that. A digestive enzyme that contains HCl … Those are the first-step strategies, and then you can go deeper because often times, according to what other clues in your poo, low stomach acid is correlated to low zinc levels, low B12 levels, and you can see those types of things in your stools as well.

Chantel Ray:                 And so, as far as the low zinc and the low B12, would you say the majority you’re seeing about that, the reason why it’s low … Is it because of parasites in your body, or is it because you’re not eating the right digestion, or is it a combination of both?

Dr. Marisol:                  That’s such a great question. Truly, it has to do with both of those factors. First of all, we always have some type of an infection in our body and in our gut. We have good bacteria. I call them symbiotic bacteria. They’re symbiotic with us. They give us great B vitamins, give us a whole bunch of awesome stuff. And then, we have the conbiotics, which are bad bacteria. They’re like con artists. They deplete our nutrients, et cetera. But then, we also have yeasts. So, we’ve got yeasts growing in there. We could also have parasites, which, you know is a common question that I always get in the clinic, could I have parasites?

Dr. Marisol:                  But, so many of the symptoms of parasites, overgrowth of yeast, dysbiosis … They all really look the same. So, to say to yourself, “Oh, I have a parasite infection” … You have to be careful with that. Really, you have to go get tested and go do … The gold standard, actually, is a series of three stool samples in a row, to really see what is happening in your digestive tract, and to really find out if you do have them because if you have a parasite, you actually have to treat it medically. In my opinion, there’s no bad drugs. There’s an inappropriate time and place for different drugs. But, if you actually have a full-blown parasite infection, you want to be taking antiparasitical drugs, and then supporting that with natural health. So, that’s one of the things with that. But, the thing is, is this, is that your digestion is directed by your state of emotional health and how you’re feeling, and also stress in your body. So, if you are excessively stressed, you actually don’t create stomach acid either. And, stomach acid, ironically, is required to digest minerals, so your zinc won’t digest unless you have stomach acid. So, we have a whole situation of is it the chicken or the egg? Which came first?

Dr. Marisol:                  And then, B12 has an entire compounding factor with it, is that you require something called intrinsic … intrinsic factor, not acid. I’m like, “Wait, I’m talking about acid here.” Intrinsic factor, and intrinsic factor is what’s required to digest and break down B12. Some people are lacking that just because of their genetics. So, it’s multi-bacterial, always. And, I’m always thinking, is it the chicken or the egg? So, what I do in order to just avoid that question is I just treat it in a multi-bacterial perspective.

Chantel Ray:                 Hmm. So, let’s talk about celery juice for a second because the big buzz going around is that having celery juice on an empty stomach really helps with stomach acid. I’ve had different guests on this show, and some people say, “Absolutely. It really, really helps.” I have other people who say, “No, it doesn’t help as much as you think.” What’s your opinion on it?

Dr. Marisol:                  I mean, it’s a vegetable. Celery’s wonderful. I love it for so many different reasons. Clinically, how I use it, though, is more as something that gives us a lot of fluid to our bodies. It gives us excellent fiber. It does have incredible electrolyte components to it, so in that way, it can be hydrating to the body. So far to say that it’ll help to increase stomach acid … Things that dictate stomach acid are protein. The signal to the body is when there’s protein in the stomach, to launch out its stomach acid. So, I think it’s a far stretch, actually, to say that celery will actually increase your stomach acid. Unless you’re consuming it with protein, maybe then, but I think it’s a far stretch.

Dr. Marisol:                  What celery will do is it will have antioxidants, and it’s not different than things like any other green vegetable … broccoli or cabbage … Whenever you consume them, they have antioxidants for our body, and that’s going to be having a healing effect on the gut lining when you eat them. Celery juice is just probably more concentrated … It is more concentrated, so it’ll have more of an antioxidant effect. So, it could have a benefit, but it wouldn’t be my first line of-

Chantel Ray:                 It’s not the end-all, be-all.

Dr. Marisol:                  No, it’s not the end-all, be-all. It’s funny. What I do often times … Celery’s really good at helping people to lower their blood pressure. What I often do is I recommend people to have a virgin Bloody Mary. Tomato juice has really good antioxidants. And then, throw in celery into it because celery will help with reducing the blood pressure. That is because of its magnesium levels, its high electrolyte, and high mineral content.

Chantel Ray:                 Awesome. Well, let’s jump right into the listener questions. A lot of times, when we have listener questions, they’re from anonymous, and they do not want their name disclosed, which I understand, which is fine. So, this one’s from anonymous. She says, “I know this sounds gross, but I’ve been really dissecting my poop lately. One of the things I’ve noticed is that I’ve eaten some corn, and it didn’t break down. It was a completely whole piece of corn. What causes corn not to break down, and should I avoid it for that reason? Why can I see certain items in my poop, but I can’t see others? For example, I’ve noticed that beets and watermelon dye my poop red, while other foods have absolutely no effect.” Anonymous.

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah. That’s good. Comes down to things like color and such. I love it, and I love that this listener is dissecting.

Chantel Ray:                 Me, too.

Dr. Marisol:                  I will say, you’ve got to. It’s an important factor, to look into the toilet bowl. So, there’s a lot of questions in there, and I’ll sum it up in a nice little story. There are certain foods that are indigestible to us. Corn is one of them. Sometimes people will often see pieces of red pepper, the skin of red pepper, in their stools as well. Those are just foods, because of the outer shell and the components of the shell, like the fiber that they have … That fiber is just indigestible to our bodies.

Dr. Marisol:                  Should you not consume it because it’s indigestible? Not necessarily. What you should do, though, is … In my opinion, with corn … If you chew your corn better … What happened there is it wasn’t chewed. What this listener is probably experiencing is that they are a fast chewer, and they basically take their food into their mouth and swallow it whole. Because most of the corn kernels will actually break down, and you should actually not see the whole kernel. You would see just pieces of the kernel, and that would be an example that she’s chewing her food a lot better. So, to this listener, one of the first things I would say is if you’re seeing a lot of undigested food in your stool, make sure you’re chewing. It’s the very first principle, very first thing that is super, super important.

Dr. Marisol:                  Corn, on its own, tends to be a high allergen and something that’s highly sensitive to people. It’s also highly genetically modified, so a lot of people like to stay away from corn for that reason, because genetically modified foods aren’t always the best for us. They don’t always digest the easiest for our bodies because our body doesn’t recognize it as native, ancient foods. So, that might make it a little bit more indigestible. That could be an issue for you. And, really, I would say corn is okay as long as you don’t find that you’re sensitive to it, or if you’ve done the food sensitivity test, and you’ve been fine with it. That’s what I would say with corn. Avoid it … I’d say enjoy it. Don’t have it all the time. Just make sure that you chew your food, truly.

Dr. Marisol:                  And, when it comes to beets and watermelon coloring your stools … Beets just has a strong, red dye component that’s used in natural cosmetics, a variety of different things, and that red coloring does not get corrupted by stomach acid or by any of the chemical breakdown components in digestion. We actually use beets as a way to actually find out a little bit more about our stools and about ourselves in doing a transit time test. So, if people want to find out how long it takes them, for their-

Chantel Ray:                 Ooh, cool.

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah, this is really cool. This is super cool because you can actually use this to your advantage. Actually, beets, they’re actually my number one favorite superfood for stools, because beets, number one, they have an amazing amount of soluble fiber. Soluble fiber is, honestly, gel that will take your stools and move them out of your body. It’s just an amazing, amazing food for that.

Dr. Marisol:                  Beets are high in nitric oxide, and nitric oxide is the number one anti-ager. Nitric oxide improves circulation to the area. It brings all the nourishment to the area, so it’s uber, uber healing, so I love beets for that. And, the red coloring of beets, actually, is said to help heal the blood, to heal the liver, make circulation work a lot better. So, I say eat those beets. They’re so important.

Dr. Marisol:                  So, you basically have a meal. You’re doing what’s called a transit time test. Transit time is the amount of time that it takes from your food to go from your gum down to your bum, because it’s super, super important. The normal and the ideal … Or, actually, not the normal … I’ll say the ideal, in my opinion, is about a 24-hour period. So, you ate the food, and you digested, absorbed it, and within a 24-hour period, you are now eliminating it.

Dr. Marisol:                  Now, what the actual stats say what the normal out there is, which is like a normal that is not a healthy normal, women take about 2.7 days to eliminate their food, which is too long. It’s probably one of the contributing factors to why we have so much hormonal dysregulation, hypothyroid … All these different problems that are happening in our body, because we’re just recirculating back the things that need to come out of our systems. That’s just causing us damage.

Dr. Marisol:                  Men are lucky, and they’re at 1.7 days. So, they, in general … They’re less complicated than women are …

Chantel Ray:                 In a lot of ways.

Dr. Marisol:                  In a lot of ways. Exactly. So, they have a simpler digestion, and a simpler hormonal sphere. They don’t have all the estrogen, the progesterone, all that crazy jazz, making a soup of stuff in women’s bodies. So, they tend to go faster.

Dr. Marisol:                  So, all you do is this. You consume a meal in the evening, and your side dish should be basically all beets. And then, you don’t eat beets for a day or two, and then you wait and see how long it takes those beets to come out of your body. And, that, my friends, is a nice way, without having to do an invasive way, to figure out an idea of what your transit time is. So, it’s super cool.

Chantel Ray:                 That is amazing. That is such a great idea. I’m going to do that. I’m going to have beets today, and I’m literally going to see the time of when it is.

Dr. Marisol:                  It’s so cool because then you can see what’s coming out of your body. I do want to let listeners know, and yourself as well, for when you do it tonight, is that beets become that coloring … You also will urinate out red within a couple of hours. So, you’re not bleeding from your urinary tract. You’re simply just eliminating out that beet color.

Dr. Marisol:                  And, for the listener that had the question about the watermelon, why the watermelon is coloring the stools … That could be an issue with improper digestion as well because watermelon really isn’t one of those foods that should not be digesting properly. It should come back out brown at the end of the day.

Dr. Marisol:                  If people are concerned about red coloring the stools, there’s certain things that are medical emergencies, like red coloring, if it’s blood, especially. If it’s bright red, you want to go see your doctor. Black can be a problem, too. Black can be bleeding from the upper digestive tract. And then, if it’s a white stool or a very gray stool, be very careful and run to your doctors because there could be a mass or something blocking your gallbladder and not allowing your body to get the bilirubin, which is what colors your stools.

Chantel Ray:                 That’s awesome. Now, with the urine … So, after you … Let’s say you had a beet juice, and then you started. When should you notice your urine change color?

Dr. Marisol:                  It can be within two to three hours, and some people are even more rapidly … It depends, really, on their metabolism and their bodies. But, typically, it’s pretty fast.

Chantel Ray:                 Got you. Okay. This next question, I’ve personally never had happen, but this is, again, from anonymous. She said … or, he … I don’t know if it’s a he or a she … “What is the deal with …” Well, no, it’s a she. Nevermind.

Chantel Ray:                 She says, “What is the deal with period poops? I’ve noticed that I can’t stop pooping in the days leading up to my period and the first couple days of it. Not only am I pooping a ton, but the poop is completely different than my normal period. It’s extra foul. I thought it was just me, but then, I was talking to a friend recently and realized she deals with the same thing, so it’s not a coincidence. What causes these period poops?” I’ve never had that happen. Have you?

Dr. Marisol:                  Oh, yeah. This is such a good question. This is super common. This happens to about 80 to 85% of the female population.

Chantel Ray:                 Wow. Okay.

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah, and it depends on your hormonal balance, actually … Big stunner on this one. Because what happens is that our guts and our pooing is also hormonally regulated. So, if we have high estrogen, which is a big epidemic these days … So many women are estrogen dominant. They could be either a real estrogen dominant, could be caused by menopausal drugs, or it could be a relative dominance, which could because of environmental factors of estrogen coming in from the environment. Either way, estrogen dominance causes a whole bunch of issues, including low thyroid function, which is super common out there, and a variety of dysregulations, like being constipated. So, when you have high estrogen, you actually become more constipated, and what we require to have good bowel movements is high levels of progesterone.

Dr. Marisol:                  And so, what happens with the female cycle is this. When you bleed, from the first day of your bleeding, you actually have estrogen, which starts to now increase … in the flow to get your eggs … basically, to create and then, to release. Towards the end of your period, you then have elevated levels of progesterone because progesterone is what basically will maintain a pregnancy. So, if you were to get pregnant, then what would happen is that your progesterone levels will keep on increasing. And, why women have that beautiful pregnancy glow is everything having to do with your progesterone levels because progesterone, really, is like the plumping up. Everything stays tight, plump, beautiful, glowy … And so, towards the end of that period, you start to get more bowel movements because you start to have increasing amounts of progesterone.

Dr. Marisol:                  The foul smell, interestingly, is a really good sign for this listener that, potentially, they might not be eliminating everything every day, and they are really backing up, and they’re just having incomplete evacuations. Because for them to be having this majorly foul smell when they’re having these looser stools and eliminating a lot more … There’s a lot that is backed up in their system. Yeah. So, that’s a really good sign because I have some patients and myself … Mine don’t smell foul. The only difference is that I’ll go to the bathroom much more or could be a little looser, depending on how my hormones are that month. It’ll be a lot looser before my period. But, for me, I actually use it as a … “Oh, my period’s about to come because my stool” … I have quite a few patients who have that same situation.

Chantel Ray:                 You know, we got sidetracked. I started to asking you another question. We didn’t finish about … Before I go to the next question, I want you to show everyone that castor oil packets.

Dr. Marisol:                  Oh, that’s right. Oh, my gosh.

Chantel Ray:                 Show them how to do it. We got diverted.

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah, we’re going to talk about it. Absolutely. So, castor oil packs. So, here we go. This is our castor oil pack. You can go online and purchase it. What you do … You open it up, and then you get … Now, where did I put it? It’s on my lap. We have the Queen of the Thrones Castor Oil Pack. So, what’s great about this pack is that it is impermeable to the oil on the outside shell, and the inside actually is beautiful, soft, organic cotton sherpa. It’s so simple. The castor oil pack is eclectic, legendary treatment … used to be like 12, 15 satchels … such a hassle to do.

Dr. Marisol:                  It’s truly the very best treatment because it really supports our Five Pillars of Feeling Great. To remember the Five Pillars, I use the acronym FAITH, actually. So, F-A-I-T-H. F is the function of the digestive tract. You want to have good digestion, good absorption, good elimination. You want to have high levels of antioxidants. You want to have balanced inflammation. You want to have tension that is in good balance between stress. And, you want be the hostess with the mostest, so you want to have good bacterial balance.

Dr. Marisol:                  When you do these packs, you help to support all of those functions that help you have ultimate health. All you do, take your pack out. You want the soft side up, of the compress. You then take your organic castor oil in the glass bottle. Always organic, and always in a glass bottle, and you pour it on the middle of the pack. You just do about two tablespoons. Then, you blot it, so it stays in the center of the pack, and you keep it in the center of the pack. You don’t have to wash the pack very much, only when the oil gets out into the seams. So, that way … no hassle … very, very simple.

Dr. Marisol:                  And then, you simply put it underneath your right ribcage because that’s where the liver is. You place it underneath the right ribcage … and this will stand up … underneath the right ribcage, and you just tie it onto your body. And, that is a super easy, easy way to do the castor oil packs. And then, you wear it overnight, ideally, in bed. I’ll throw on an old T-shirt, just in case I move around, and the pack will move, because that’s a way that things can get a bit messy. But, if you wear an old T-shirt, you’re good to go.

Chantel Ray:                 So, talk about why-

Dr. Marisol:                  Thank you for bringing us back to that.

Chantel Ray:                 Yes. So, why do you need it on the right ribcage?

Dr. Marisol:                  Underneath the right ribcage, your liver is there. And, it’s also the place where you’re going to be targeting the most amount of organs. When you do a castor oil pack, you’re not only getting the liver and the gallbladder to function better, but you’re also targeting the stomach, the pancreas, the adrenal glands, the kidneys, the colon, and the small intestine. How these organs get targeted is the main reason why you actually need to use a castor oil pack, and you just can’t put oil on the body. We have, in our bodies, certain areas that are connected to internal organs. So, over the liver, the nervous system receptors and cells that are there actually connect internally to the organs. So, they’ll send messages.

Dr. Marisol:                  If you are putting your pack over your liver, it’s called a dermatome, and this is actually scientific … very scientific. It is connected to the internal organs and sends messages to and fro. So, it’s one of the ways that you can elicit a response. When you put the pack on your body, it elicits, actually, a relaxed response, and in the relaxed state, that’s when all the organs of the digestive system actually work at their maximum capacity. So, that’s the reason. Cool.

Chantel Ray:                 That’s awesome.

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah.

Chantel Ray:                 Okay. This is from [Tracy 00:30:48] in North Carolina: “I have researched all the different ways to know if I have parasites or not. All of the signs and symptoms, and I am 100% convinced that I have them. The tests are so expensive, like $300 for a stool test. This is so much money when I already know I have it. So, my question is, what is the cure for parasites? Is there an herbal medicine I should take, or something stronger, like an antibiotic? The main issue I have is chronic brain fog, memory issues, crawling sensation under my skin … I also have iron deficiencies, low vitamin B and D, and my butt itches. Are there any parasite cleanses that you recommend?”

Dr. Marisol:                  Okay. Great. That’s good. So, I’ll caution this listener. I love Doctor Google. I’m sure you love Doctor Google as well. As I said earlier on in the podcast, there’s so many crossovers with symptoms of parasites and overgrowth of bad bacteria, or overgrowth of yeast in the gut. Brain fog is super common in both of these conditions. If you’ve got a tingling, itchy skin, like crawling sensation, that can be high levels of histamine in the body. Histamine comes from food sensitivities, food allergies, and even environmental allergies as well. There’s so much crossover, so it’s really difficult to say, just from the symptoms alone, without having the signs.

Dr. Marisol:                  So, when we’re treating in medicine, symptoms is basically what the patient tells us. The signs, however, is what the doctor will see and observe. So, we’ll see how the patient is looking. Maybe we’ll look into the eyes. Oh, they’re anemic, right, because this person mentioned that she’s anemic. So, if you look into the bottom of the eyes, if it’s very pale, you can-

Chantel Ray:                 Ooh, I want to check that.

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah, you just do … so you have an iron-

Chantel Ray:                 Say that again.

Dr. Marisol:                  You pull your eye down. Yep. And, you can actually, if you look at the blood under … the lid … If it’s really pale, you could be indicating anemia. So, your blood isn’t sufficiently fed.

Chantel Ray:                 Can you look at my eye?

Dr. Marisol:                  Oh, I wish I could see, but unfortunately, through the computer, it’s too hard. This is actually a really good point. This is the value of having … I’m online. I love being online, but this is the value of having a doctor nearby because you do want to be seen. In my clinic, we do an initial intake where we just do talk. And then, on our second visit, for an hour, we sit down, and I actually physically examine them top to bottom because there’s so many signs that I’ll see.

Dr. Marisol:                  Another aspect of the sign component is the lab testing. So, I understand so much that the lab testings are expensive. However, you really do want to be getting tested with at least a stool sample for parasites because what’s happening is that if you don’t have a parasite, you don’t want to have to treat a parasite. Treating a parasite’s pretty intense, and in my opinion, you do need get pharmaceutical drugs and an antiparasitical treatment, in terms of a conventional medicine drug to treat a parasite properly.

Dr. Marisol:                  What you can do, of course, is support it with natural treatments, making sure that your body’s going to the bathroom properly so that if you are taking an antimicrobial or antiparasitical, what you can do is eliminate when things are dying off in the body so that you don’t feel ill. So, that’s its best place. Another area where it’s very good, is, say, castor oil packs as an example. Any patient in my clinic who’s treating for parasite … When I was treating for a parasite in Nicaragua, I had my castor oil pack with me, thank God. Castor oil packs, one of their mechanisms of action is that they break down biofilm.

Dr. Marisol:                  Biofilm is made by bacteria, yeasts, parasites in the gut. It’s basically like a spiderweb and a protective mechanism that these invaders make into our body in order for them not to be noticed or not to be killed off and eliminated out of the body. So, they’re protecting themselves, and they’re protecting their survival. Castor oil is one of the only natural things that is really effective at breaking down biofilm. It breaks down biofilm not rapidly because biofilm takes a slow amount of time to grow. It only is broken down over time, the biofilm.

Dr. Marisol:                  Whereas antiparasitical drugs, antimicrobials, antibiotics … They aren’t very effective at breaking down biofilm because biofilm, again, is slow growing and slow breaking down, and antibiotics are fast. They work fast, and they work at fast-multiplying bacteria. So, if you need a specific, different treatment … Castor oil packs … Someone who’s asking a question like this in my clinic … Of course, I’m not their doctor, so I can’t give them specific recommendations, but someone in my clinical practice who would come in with this, I would say, “Let’s start doing the most basics of therapies. Let’s get you tested. In the meantime, let’s do the basics, which is castor oil packs, always things like probiotics for the digestive system.”

Dr. Marisol:                  And, the very least … I always combine my probiotics, in clinical practice, with alkalinizing agents because good bacteria like to be in the proper environment of the gut. Things like parasites … In an acidic environment, they tend to thrive. So, you want to make sure that you get the right kind of mix. That’s a start. And then, get tested because you do need to get tested. The actual gold standard, as I said earlier, for parasite testing, and it’s rarely, rarely done, is actually three consecutive stool tests. It’s rarely done. Typically, people will do one stool test. And, it makes so much sense why you need to do three. You need to do three because you want to see not only what’s at the bottom of the intestine, you want to see what is coming up later on in the intestine as well. And, you want to confirm.

Chantel Ray:                 So, do you do … We have listeners everywhere. Actually, our number one listenership, we can actually see who listens and where they are. But, California is actually our number one state for listenership. I think Texas might be number two. And, you’re in Canada, correct? What part of Canada are you in?

Dr. Marisol:                  Toronto.

Chantel Ray:                 Okay. So, let’s just say somebody wanted to do something with you over the phone. Do you do consults over the phone and then have them do their stool samples and send it to you?

Dr. Marisol:                  I can’t, just because of my licensing. I need to actually see them physically, at least for one visit. That’s the ideal there. Typically, then I can manage their case outside, over the internet, but I do need to at least … They need to have a physical presence with me, for that same important reason that I do need to examine them. Because you’d be surprised, in that physical exam, what I actually see of patients. It’s just incredible.

Dr. Marisol:                  But, there’s a lot of great naturopaths out there as well, who do work on the gut and who can do those things for people as well. What my area is, where I want people to become aware of, and empowered, is that if you understand your stools, then you can now go to whichever healthcare practitioner you have, your medical doctor, your naturopath, and you can now start being more active and more directing in your care. Because when you understand what’s coming out of you every single day, when you know the key signs, you can say, “Well, what about me getting this testing? What about me getting thyroid testing? What about me getting these testing?”

Dr. Marisol:                  We really do want to become an active participant in our healthcare because healthcare practitioners out there are busy. And, of course, that’s no excuse, but you don’t want anything to be missed. And, everyone is human. So, of course, and we all know this, two pairs of eyes are much better than only one set of eyes. You want to be working with your doctor and helping and guiding, and also giving them the best information you possibly can. The only way that you can do that is if you’re aware of your stools, and you understand it.

Dr. Marisol:                  That’s why I want to encourage everyone to go online with me, and, really, let’s get on this journey to understanding all the 11 golden nuggets about our stools. There’s 11 things that will tell you about hormonal issues, nervous system problems, vitamin deficiencies, mineral deficiencies. That’s a huge amount, a wealth of information.

Chantel Ray:                 Wow. All right. This next question is from anonymous. It says, “Recently, I went to the doctor, and I had my stool sample checked, and I was shocked because they took the most microscopic amount of stool. When the test came back, they said that I didn’t have a parasite or anything. My sample looked totally normal. When I read online, I literally have every single symptom for parasites. Why would the doctor say that I don’t? Is it possible that they didn’t take enough of a sample? I check my own poop at home, which I know sounds weird, and I can’t see any worms. I even bought a microscope to check myself. As I’m checking, what should I be checking for? Is this all in my head?” Anonymous.

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah. That’s a really good question. Often times, when you see symptoms, and you really think that you have it, right? You convince yourself that you have it. But, you really, again, need to be testing. You need to be doing it with your doctor. With this doctor, did they take enough stool? I’m not sure what test they actually ran because there’s parasite tests, but there’s also a complete digestive stool analysis test, too, which don’t require as much matter. It really depends. It could’ve been the doctor could’ve been using this just as a simple screen instead of actually investing, gaining it completely to the end.

Dr. Marisol:                  If this person is concerned, and they really feel that they have it, what I would say is to go back and keep on testing, and to do what I recommended, which is three consecutive stool samples, if they’re concerned, to really get down to the nitty-gritty of what could be truly happening in this person’s case. Symptoms … Like I said, there’s so much crossover when it comes to the gut. I really have to go and check and see what is happening.

Dr. Marisol:                  There is one really cool lab test, though, that people can do from blood and maybe get an indication, and this often times can be an indication for me that I would want to go further and check about parasites. This is something that this person can ask their doctor for, is to test something called eosinophils, because eosinophils is part of the complete blood count, and it’s part of the family of white blood cells, and eosinophils also … They’re a marker of two things. They’re a marker of allergies and food sensitivities, and they are marker of parasites.

Dr. Marisol:                  The reason why they’re a marker of these two things is because, as I said earlier … Remember, there was another question from one of the viewers about having a tingling, crawling sensation on their skin? It’s correlated to histamine levels in the body. So, when you have seasonal allergies, you get a histamine rush. You get a runny nose, you have runny eyes, you have congestion. All that happens within your gut, but it can also happen within your skin. So, eosinophils can be a super cool marker of looking deeper into finding if you have parasites.

Dr. Marisol:                  Your doctor also could’ve maybe been looking at that with a stool sample together, and then come to the conclusion, as a good detective does, that it’s highly likely that you wouldn’t have parasites. But again, if you still feel that, it’s important to honor your feelings and to go back to your doctor.

Chantel Ray:                 So, first of all, what stool test do you recommend? What’s your favorite ones? And, how much stool sample do you actually use when you’re doing it?

Dr. Marisol:                  I actually get the patients to collect the stool sample. It’s requested to be about an amount … I don’t know about the exact measurements, but it’s labeled on the container which the stool is taken. In all honesty, how I work with the body and the gut, the stool sample that I would do, if it was indicated, would be a parasite test, a simple ova and parasitology test.

Dr. Marisol:                  The complete digestive stool analysis … I used to do that in the beginning of my practice, but what I found was that it didn’t give me enough information that would actually change how I would treat the person. I don’t often do that anymore. There are rare occasions where I do recommend it because just the digestion is just so off. So, when those patients or people have severely deranged digestion, then I do do it because I just want to see how are they digesting their fiber? What are their levels of immunoglobulin A, which is an immunoglobulin, a protective immune system cell that is only … just in the gut. So then, I would absolutely do a complete digestive stool analysis.

Dr. Marisol:                  There’s a really great lab company online called YourLabsOnline.com, which listeners can, without having a doctor go and request these types of labs. I can actually give you a link to that, that you can link this up.

Chantel Ray:                 Okay.

Dr. Marisol:                  And, people can go online and actually get their lab tests and then have them. It’s ran by a community of doctors, and they’ll actually be analyzed for them, and then people can get information from that and then bring it to their doctor and get the proper treatment protocol from that. So, it puts power into people’s hands so that if they do want to test … If they feel that they haven’t got the validation that they actually want because they still feel they have it, this would be one of the best things to do, is to go there and get the testing that you want.

Dr. Marisol:                  But, on top of that, when I’m testing the gut, I actually go a lot deeper. Because you might recall, I just spoke about how, initially, the beginning … Women were complicated. Hormones matter in our gut, the period poos we spoke about, the nervous system impacts that your levels of stress, your immune system impacts it as well. So, I actually go into testing. I was actually testing the hormonal system, so I’ll do the complete DUTCH test, which is an incredible lab that gives us our whole hormone balance and how we’re actually processing and metabolizing and working with our hormones. So, I love that test.

Dr. Marisol:                  And, I love doing, of course, food sensitivity. You have to do food sensitivity because if there’s a gut problem, we need to remove the inflammation. And, in the cases of parasites, when you want to see if that high level of eosinophils, that histamine marker, is due to that perhaps you’re just eating way too many food sensitivities, and then, your levels of histamine are high and hence, you’re getting that tingling sensation in your skin, that creepy crawly feeling.

Dr. Marisol:                  And then, there’s also test called the Oats Test, Organic Acid Test, which I just love. That test I also do because that one shows me a great marker of bacteria, if you have yeast overgrowth, or if you could be potentially having things, like bacterias like clostridium and some really obnoxious bacteria that we don’t want in our guts. So, I actually go outside of just only testing the stools. I really test the body to see how your hormones are dictating your stools, how your yeast overgrowth is dictating your stools, and how your nervous system and immune system are detailing your stools.

Chantel Ray:                 Wow. I feel like everyone just needs to hop on a plane and go to Toronto.

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah, that would be awesome.

Chantel Ray:                 Just make it a vacation with your family, and be like, “I’m going to go see Dr. Marisol.” I’m just going to tell my husband, “I want to go up there and have all these tests done. That would be so awesome.”

Dr. Marisol:                  And, we do an amazing cleanse. I have patients all over the world, like Brazil … all over the place. And, they’ll get their testing done, they’ll come … Many times, these things, we can get people to do the testing before they even come, so all that is done, and then the visits are rapid and excellent. We specialize in gut cleansing, so what we do is we often put people on gut cleanses, whether it’s a seven-day period, if they’re from out of town, or if they’re more local, and they can stay, or stay in a hotel for a month-long cleanse. It depends on their health, too.

Dr. Marisol:                  So yeah, we’re really specialized in this, and so, when people have gut problems … As you said, gut health is the greatest wealth. It truly is. It’s the number one determinant of our health, of our hormonal health. There’s such epidemics out there of Hashimoto’s, hypothyroid, low thyroids. Everyone I speak to is like, “I had a low thyroid.” It’s coming from their gut, so we have to get that gut balance so that everything else can just fall into place.

Chantel Ray:                 Wow. I love that. So, we’ve got two questions about this, but I’ll read one of them. It says, anonymous, “I’ve always struggled with constipation, but lately, my stool has been more pebbly than normal. What do small and large pebbles usually indicate?” And then, we have another question that’s very similar, that just says, “My poop is all in one piece, but it goes small pebbles, then into large pebbles. What does that mean?”

Dr. Marisol:                  That’s great. Those are great questions. So, these are the things that they’ll learn by following us, by starting the journey at 50 Shades of Poo on my website. But, balls of poo are part of what we called consistency of your stool. So, is it liquid consistency, like diarrhea? Or, is it hard, pebbly, ball-y stools? I often correlate these pebbles and balls, obviously, to you having constipation. So, that’s a form of constipation. Likely, these people aren’t going to the bathroom daily within a 24-hour period. They’re probably not eliminating their food that they’ve eaten the day before.

Dr. Marisol:                  It’s also highly linked to two things: magnesium deficiency, ironically, because magnesium helps to plump up the stools and actually bring electrolytes and water into the stool so that they can hydrate. The reason why you have those long, big, Oktoberfest sausages is because that stool is well hydrated. And, in the gut, what that requires is good levels of magnesium to act as osmotic pull on the water. So, it basically takes the water … I love how you’re drinking water right now.

Chantel Ray:                 I know. You’re like, “Oh, you’re not hydrated enough.” I’m like, “What? Okay. Let me go …”

Dr. Marisol:                  Hydrate. Hydrate.

Chantel Ray:                 It was instinctive.

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah. And then, magnesium pulls the water from the tissues and pulls it into the stools, and then that gives it … You’ll have a good, gerthy stool that way. So, that’s a really key sign of a magnesium deficiency.

Dr. Marisol:                  As a side note, for women, magnesium actually … The most deficient nutrient for women is magnesium because we utilize magnesium in so many of our hormonal conversions, in our bowels, with our thyroid gland, with our estrogen. So, we really are depleted, often times, in magnesium. So, it’s a great first step.

Dr. Marisol:                  The other sign of pebbles and balls and broken up poop is stress, too, because stress can sometimes compact and tighten up your bowel and doesn’t allow you to have a nice, loose, solid, smooth elimination out of your body. So, those are the two reasons. Those are such great questions. I love it when I get the ball question.

Chantel Ray:                 So, as far as I’ve seen … Have you seen that … it’s called Calm? C-A-L-M?

Dr. Marisol:                  Yes. Yeah.

Chantel Ray:                 So, would be that be something that you would take a little bit of that every day? Or, if you’re saying magnesium is the number one deficiency, what would you suggest for people to take? Is it a supplement that doesn’t have too many things in it? What’s your go-to that you say, “This is the best magnesium supplement that you can take to help you go?”

Dr. Marisol:                  That’s so awesome. If they want to go online on my website, I actually have a whole downloadable PDF called Magnesium Moves, like Royal Magnesium Moves. People can find that in my Royal Library. That is an area where we have a lot of gifts, in terms of education, and this is one of the PDFs that does that.

Dr. Marisol:                  Magnesium, I often recommend to people. I love Magnesium Calm. I think that’s a great product. It’s a magnesium citrate. So, magnesium citrate … It can be a little bit harsh for certain people. For myself, I don’t like magnesium citrate because I’ve suffered with IBS my entire life. I tend to be a little bit more sensitive in my gut, and with magnesium citrate as an osmotic laxative, it can create a little bit more gas and a little more gurgling, a little bit more … And, for me, that really upsets my bowels. I know for quite a few patients, they don’t like that as well because they’re so hypersensitive in their gut. So, it really depends on you. But, that, for many people, if they don’t have a hypersensitive gut, can really work well.

Dr. Marisol:                  My other alternative is magnesium glycinate. Magnesium glycinate, I love so much, because it doesn’t have that effect. You won’t be gurgling. You won’t have all those uncomfortable sensations. And, it calms the nervous system down because of the glycine component. Glycine calms the nervous system down, and then, it also, on top of it, has the laxating effect. So, my go-to is magnesium glycinate and not citrate, because, as I said, those ball-y poos are correlated to two problems: magnesium deficiency and a nervous system that is stressed out. So, the magnesium glycinate will help with both of those things.

Dr. Marisol:                  So will castor oil packs because castor oil packs … Guess what? They’re going to help you to absorb your magnesium better, and they’re going to help to calm your nervous system down. So, you’ve got options there. Castor oil packs … If the people are taking anything orally, castor oil packs … I can’t urge people enough to take it because our absorbability is so deficient in our bodies. It’s at an all-time low. So, you could be taking a supplement, and this is one of the reasons why my online platform, I don’t talk too much about supplements because I want people to understand that if they’re not doing something to actually help the function of their gut, like the castor oil pack, which really is the gold standard for this, you’re going to be not absorbing your supplements that you’re spending a lot of good money on, to their maximum.

Dr. Marisol:                  Absorbability of supplements can be somewhere between 20 to 50% because it depends on two factors. Number one: is it a good, high-quality supplement, in the right format? And, number two: are you absorbing it? Because you are what you absorb, and if you’re not absorbing it, well then, you’re just having expensive poo. It’s going in one way, and it’s coming out the other. So, I really want to encourage people to make sure that they’re actually absorbing it, and to do those castor oil packs. Naturopathic doctors, functional doctors … Those that prescribe the packs to their patients, the one comment I get from them all the time is this: when do a castor oil pack, every single thing that you’re doing just simply works that much better.

Dr. Marisol:                  And so, we want to maximize it. Do you really want to be on a supplement for 10 years because you’re not getting the absorbability? So, what could’ve worked in less than a year, it’ll take you 10 years to even get that effect, and that’s if you even ever get it. One of my claims to fame, and the reason why I was so successful in clinical practice was because I started with those basics. I really emphasized every patient doing a castor oil pack, and because of that, all that I did for my patients is I saved them time, and I helped them to live optimally, faster. And so, for them, that’s huge. That’s like money in the bank. You’re willing to invest if you can do those two things. If you can save time in your life … What is time worth to you, Chantel?

Chantel Ray:                 Oh, yeah. For sure.

Dr. Marisol:                  Everything. And then, if you can live optimally faster? It’s huge. So, that’s the thing. That’s why I’m always recommending … Supplements are great, but do the things that are going to set the base up right in your body so that not only are you better absorbing your supplements, but that beautiful organic food from Whole Foods and from Natural Grocers, Trader Joe’s, Sprouts, that we’re buying and loving and knowing that it’s so good for us? Why don’t we absorb that to its maximum, too? Because we’re also not absorbing our food that well if we’re not absorbing our supplements that well.

Chantel Ray:                 Yeah. That’s awesome. So, let me ask you about how much oil would you say that you are putting on that daily … And, you’re saying, “Look, sleep with this every single night.” Just make it a routine, do it every night. When you’re doing that, how long are you keeping that same pack? So, when I buy that pack from you, would you say I use it for 30 days, and then after that, I’m like, “Okay, it’s time to buy a new one?” What would you say?

Dr. Marisol:                  Perfect. So, we use two tablespoons of oil on the pack every night. Pretty simple. I mean, at first, you can measure it out. I go by eye. I just make sure I keep the oil in the center of the pack. So, that’s number one. The lifespan of the castor oil pack … Ideally, it’s done every single night. So, I’d love for people to get encouraged and to really commit to doing that on a regular practice because when you commit to it, number one, it actually just becomes part of your routine, and it is so easy to do. Like now, my nighttime routine is wash my face, put my castor oil on my castor oil pack, put my caster oil all over my eyes for anti-aging purposes. I put my eye mask on my head. Sometimes I put a little of the oil that’s left over in my hair, to make it nice and luscious, if I’m washing my hair the next day, that is. And then, I put my pack on underneath my right ribcage, over my liver, and then, I go pee, and I go to bed.

Dr. Marisol:                  So, for me, it’s just a practice. And, in fact, if I don’t do that, I’m almost like, “Oh, my god. Something’s missing. What’s wrong? I need to do that.” So, just commit to it. Do it. Do it every single day. Typically, what will happen … It’ll depend on how you care for your caster oil pack. It has about a lifespan, about a three-month period. So, in terms, that’s very inexpensive for a treatment, much less expensive than your supplements, and if you’re doing it, and it’s helping you absorb all your supplements a lot better, you’re going to be gangbusters back for that. You’re just really investing in something that’s going to give you a lot back.

Dr. Marisol:                  So, ideally, in about a three-month period, then you want to dispose of it. Some people will dispose of it earlier, depending on how they feel about it. I actually have two packs simultaneously going on at a time, so I highly recommend for people to buy two castor oil packs for them. So then, that way, when you’re washing the pack, you can keep on doing your nightly practice, and you just use one when you’re not washing it. And then, that way, you always have a pack ready to go.

Dr. Marisol:                  The easiest way we’ve found out to wash it is to, which we’ve recently just done … My loving, wonderful husband’s such a genius. He’s always a hack, trying to find the easiest way to do things. He actually put it in the dishwasher because you can’t put the castor oil pack in with your clothing because castor oil can stain. But, in a dishwasher, it’s ideal, and you actually just tie the straps up to the rack, so they don’t get caught in any of the mechanisms, wash in the dishwasher, and then, when it’s ready to go, you take it out, put it on a cloth and just roll and squeeze out any of the excess oil that might be still there, or any of the water that it picked up in the dishwasher, just because the pack is meant to pick up things. Because the factor of putting the oil on every time adds more weight to the pack, and that is actually beneficial, also, to the treatment. So, you don’t want to wash it too much, either.

Chantel Ray:                 So, let’s say you’re doing it every single night. How often would you say you’re washing it?

Dr. Marisol:                  Right now, I have a pack that I’ve been using for about 15 to 16 days. I’m really not even close to washing it. It really just depends on how much oil you put. And, I literally only put two tablespoons, so I just want to encourage people to not oversaturate it because you don’t have to. Less is more. This oil is going to be absorbing into your skin. You don’t need uber amounts of this oil to have the effect that you’re looking for because a lot of it is not just only the oil. It’s also the pack on your skin.

Chantel Ray:                 So, I do put a lot of … Like I was telling you with the massage, I will put it … But, I don’t put … The castor oil’s a little sticky, and it doesn’t smell that good. Do you put any essential oils in it or anything?

Dr. Marisol:                  Like, if I’m putting it on my hair, kind of thing?

Chantel Ray:                 Yeah.

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah. Also, you can do this for hair growth as well, with your hair. You mix castor oil with rosemary essential oil because rosemary’s excellent to feed the hair follicle, and often times, if women, especially those women who are having thyroid disease … As we age, our metabolism slows down. So, we just naturally go into a slow thyroid. And, that’s one of the reasons why we lose our hair. Using castor oil mixed with rosemary essential oils will help to feed, nourish the hair follicle, and it’ll also help bring the circulation. Nitric oxide will bring circulation to the area, and that’ll make sure that everything is nourished and that you keep the hair follicles that you have.

Dr. Marisol:                  So, it’s not the best to help regrow a hair follicle that is already dead, but what I’ve noticed is that it significantly slows down hair loss. So, if people are in that phase in their life, I encourage them to do castor oil into the scalp. We’re actually working on a prototype. I’ll show you my little prototype. I need to make it a little bit better, but this is for my dream hair castor oil kit. So, you can do, actually-

Chantel Ray:                 Ooh.

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah. It’s coming soon.

Chantel Ray:                 Oh, my god.

Dr. Marisol:                  This is the prototype. So, it’s not done yet, so it’s not perfect.

Chantel Ray:                 I love it.

Dr. Marisol:                  I know. What we’re doing is we actually have hair picks that are made of metal, not plastic … again, so that you can put the castor oil into the roots, and you can feed and nourish the hair follicle. It’s treatment that you would do, like a self-care treatment, like once or twice a week for your hair, more if you’re losing it pretty significantly. But, it’s a great treatment to nourish. Nothing works like castor oil to really have amazing, thick hair. It’s great.

Chantel Ray:                 All right. This next question is from [Andrea 01:00:27] in Chesterfield: “I struggle with thyroid function, and I’m constantly asking myself the question of the chicken and the egg. Which comes first? Do you think that thyroid issues cause massive constipation, or does constipation cause my thyroid to perform poorly?” It’s funny. All this talk about poop, I’m like, “I feel like I need to poop.” But, I think it’s psychological, like when you were talking about the water, I’m like …

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Chantel Ray:                 Which is good.

Dr. Marisol:                  I always say this to patients, too. This is what I say, “Really watch your words and really watch your thoughts because where the mind goes, energy flows, so you will really create in your world what you’re thinking about.”

Dr. Marisol:                  So, this is such a great question because, Chantel, I feel like this is what we started the conversation about. Because you were asking about is it that we’re deficient in the nutrients, or is that we can’t absorb the nutrients? Which comes first? Which we talked about in the beginning.

Dr. Marisol:                  With thyroid disease, as I said earlier, the gut is the hub of the hormonal, the immune, and the nervous system. It absolutely is. So, it’s a combination of both. You’ve had elevated estrogen, so then, your thyroid went down, and then, you’re not able to have a bowel movement. And, having constipation actually increases your levels of estrogen in your body naturally because excess estrogen that we have in our body actually is eliminated through our stools. So, the common clinical pattern is when women have elevated estrogen, they have a low thyroid. It truly is chicken, egg, chicken, egg, chicken, egg. And, that’s why you want to treat your constipation and get your bowels moving better as fast as you can, and start with that. Even if you haven’t had a chance to get to your doctor. But, do go to your doctor, but if you haven’t had a chance, you can do things to get your bowels moving that will start to reduce your estrogen naturally because you’re going to be just eliminating it out better. And, you can do that via castor oil packs, with magnesium, probiotics, or combine those three together.

Dr. Marisol:                  And then, you can start working on your thyroid as well. And then, you have a happy home where you can get everything set and regulated. But, it truly is … Everything in health is multifactorial because our bodies are these divine temples, this divine ecosystem. And, this ecosystem is a balance of ebb and flow, ebb and flow, and balancing of all the systems, just like a beautiful concerto. There’s harmonies. There’s melodies. Everything needs to be fully in the right direction. So, we have to just start somewhere to treat it and to fix it. And, there is no better way to start than to making sure you’re going poo every day.

Chantel Ray:                 That’s good. [Margaret 01:03:06] in Oklahoma: “My friend told me about something called diatomaceous earth. She said it’s a bug killer that you eat to help kill parasites. I’ve been trying to read up online and can’t find any specific information of how often I should take it, how long I should take it. I ended up buying a huge food-grade bag of diatomaceous earth on Amazon, and I really don’t know where to begin. Do you know anything about it, and is this effective and safe?” Margaret in Oklahoma.

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah, sure. I’ve heard a lot about it. Honestly, for me, there’s a couple things that I need. I need my colleagues to have had professional experience with tools. I also need there to be research. I also need there to be experimentation on myself. Because honestly, every single treatment, everything that I’ve done or that I recommend outside of things that would be dangerous to my health, I have tried on my system before I tested patients. And, frankly, I just haven’t seen enough good research in terms of this product, to really warrant me using it to help with those things in the gut because I have so many other better tools, like castor oil packs, that I know work. They’re legendary. They’ve been working since the beginning of time, so I know that these work, so those would be the tools that I’d be using.

Dr. Marisol:                  I’d have to say, though, a really good sign is if you can’t find the information on dosages, what it’s about … That’s a good red flag that you might not want to be doing this treatment because you might not be … There isn’t enough validity to it at this point to say yea or nay, or it’s the end-all, be-all for this.

Chantel Ray:                 Okay. Perfect. [Sherry 01:04:45] in Virginia Beach: “You’ve talked a lot about probiotics on this show and the importance of finding the right one, but haven’t gone into detail as far as specifics. Is there a specific brand that you recommend, and how often should I take it?”

Dr. Marisol:                  So, this is thing … Probiotics is an entire study on its own, an entire world of science. And, there’s so many different strains of bacteria out there. Each strain does different things. This is one of the reasons why certain people have problems with certain probiotic products, because they just don’t feel good for them. So, to say that there’s only one probiotic supplement that I recommend … I can’t really do that because it really depends on the person’s case. And, honestly, they’d probably have to go see their doctor so that they can get a really good idea of what’s happening. But, I can recommend a certain amount of guidelines. So, that’s what I will do.

Dr. Marisol:                  One of the most important things that I like to consider in a probiotic is this. I don’t want to there to be any FOSs in it, or fructooligosaccharides in my probiotic formula. And, the reason for this is that fructooligosaccharides … They’re actually fermentable, a short-chain carbohydrates, and they … Or, sorry. Fermentable short-chain sugars. And, the problem with this … They’re put in the formulas because they’re prebiotics. And, as prebiotics, they feed bacteria. But, unfortunately, they feed aggressively the aggressive conbiotic bacteria. So, those bad bacteria.

Dr. Marisol:                  So, people with an irritable bowel or SIBO, small intestine bacterial overgrowth, can really be affected negatively and really get a lot of sensation and pain and gas and bloating with FOS in a probiotic formula. Just look at the back of the label, and you’ll be able to see whether or not it has fructooligosaccharides, and if it does, it probably, in my opinion, isn’t the best probiotic, more than likely in most cases. So, that’s one thing.

Dr. Marisol:                  Number two, I want to have a sufficient amount of bacteria in my probiotic. I’m looking for billions. I want it to be in the billions. I’m looking for it to be anywhere from 12 to 50 billion, depending on what’s going on in my system. A good regular maintenance dosage is about 12 to 15. If you’re in severe crisis, then you’re going up into the 50 billions of bacteria. So, it’s what you want to look for.

Dr. Marisol:                  The other thing is I don’t want my probiotic to have too many strains of bacteria because if you get into over 10 or 12 bacterial strains, unfortunately, you’re having a bunch of things happening. You could likely have competition of the different bacterial strains, and you can have competition of function, meaning that certain bacteria do certain things. Like, certain bacteria will actually increase inflammation in the gut. Other bacteria will reduce inflammation in the gut, and if you have all these strains, you’re basically going to have a negated effect at the end of the day because they’re going to cancel each other out.

Chantel Ray:                 Do you take a probiotic every day?

Dr. Marisol:                  Every day. Every day.

Chantel Ray:                 Which one do you take?

Dr. Marisol:                  So, I actually formulate and compound my own. It’s the one that we use within our clinic. But, good companies out there that have great probiotics are companies like DFH, Designs for Health. They have some really great, high quality probiotics. I really enjoy, in Canada, there’s a company named Flora. They have an FOS-free formula that I really like, and that’s available, often, at health food stores. There’s some really great probiotic formulas out there, but if people take those guidelines that I just explained, you can at least get started on something that could be the most beneficial for you.

Chantel Ray:                 And, how come you don’t sell it yourself?

Dr. Marisol:                  Well, mostly because of licensing purposes.

Chantel Ray:                 Okay.

Dr. Marisol:                  Supplements to me and my license is just a little bit tougher to do. I sell them in our clinic, and people are welcome to call our clinic, and we can ship it out to them. But, just online is a little bit of a gray area for me. That’s all.

Chantel Ray:                 Got you. Well, this is the last question we have, and this is from anonymous. “I’ve always been trying to figure out what’s wrong with me, and parasites seem plausible. I was reading about symptoms online, and one was that your butthole will itch if you have parasites. When I read this, I feel like my butthole itches. Is this in my head, and can an itchy butt indicate something more?”

Dr. Marisol:                  I love that because we just spoke about how you had to poo because we’re talking about poo, and we’re thinking about poo, right? And, now, this comes in, too, and you think about itchy bum. Again, you don’t know if it’s parasites, or if it’s food sensitivities because it’s that same mechanism of action. That itchy sensation on the skin, that’s histamine response in your body. So, it could come from a variety of places, not only parasites, but overgrowth of yeast can cause itchiness. Think about vaginal infections. Those are itchy. Jock itch … Those things are all based on yeast and not a parasite. You really want to differentiate and find out, and in order to do that, you really do need to test, so you want to go get tested and do those stool samples and find out if you have a parasite, or you just have yeast overgrowth, which is a much easier treatment.

Chantel Ray:                 Do you have any food sensitivity tests that you say, “This is a really good one”?

Dr. Marisol:                  Yeah. The one at the company that I spoke about earlier, Your Labs Online, they have the very best IgG testing that I use in my clinic. It truly gives an amazing array of, I think it’s close … 152, over 250 foods … I mean, herbs, spices … And, if people just work on reducing the foods that come in the high levels, people can get an amazing amount of benefit just from that. I’ve even seen people reducing their common allergens, losing 20 pounds in 10 days.

Chantel Ray:                 Wow.

Dr. Marisol:                  And, these are people who have tried to lose weight forever, and are unable to do so. So, I could provide a link to that, to those specific tests that I find is my favorite.

Chantel Ray:                 That would be awesome. Well, her website is DrMarisol.com, and when is your new book, Oh S-H-I-T, coming out? When is that day?

Dr. Marisol:                  It’s launching November 11th, on Remembrance Day. So, remember that.

Chantel Ray:                 Okay. That’s awesome.

Dr. Marisol:                  So, in Canada, November 11th is Remembrance Day. That is the day that it is launching, right before Christmas. I think it’s going to make great, great gifts for everybody. You want to put it under the Christmas tree. People are going to laugh when they open it up and have a good giggle on the Christmas morning.

Dr. Marisol:                  And, the book truly goes in … In my perception, it’s like the Bible in terms of IBS. It goes into the whole aspect of the stress component. But also, people who deal with IBS and digestive disturbances … Stress is such a big component because you’re so uncomfortable in your body. It’s no different than if you have chronic constipation. You’re so uncomfortable in your body. So, you get a little bit stressed from that. We really delve deep into supplements, treatments, the best health hacks that you can do, diet, of course, and education about your stools throughout the entire book. So, it’s just an awesome read.

Chantel Ray:                 That’s awesome. I am going to go online right now, and I’m going to go get that poo perfume that you have, Eau de Throne. I can’t wait to try it, and I love that it’s a blend of all essential oils, lavender, rosemary, clove, citrus … I can’t wait to try it, and definitely go and download that free download, the 50 Shades of Poo. I can’t wait to read that, and if you guys watch this episode, you will see just how drop dead gorgeous Dr. Marisol is, and her skin is flawless.

Dr. Marisol:                  Right?

Chantel Ray:                 It’s absolutely flawless. It’s unbelievable, and I truly believe that your skin is that flawless from the fact that you’re eliminating. Let me ask you one final personal question. Can you share with us how often do you poop? Well, number one, do you eat twice a day, three times a day, and then, how often do you eliminate?

Dr. Marisol:                  That’s awesome. So, I eat, usually, twice a day. I do intermittent fasting. So, I wait 16 hours between my meals. And, I typically poo one to two times per day. Often times, when I’m on my good health practice, because like I say to all my patients, I am not perfect, either. I also do jump off the wagon, but what I always do is I jump back on. So, I do jump off, but I jump back on all the time.

Dr. Marisol:                  So, when I’m not well regulated, then I can actually alternate between not going for three days or having diarrhea all day long. It can sometimes be so severe that I’m … six to seven times. And, that’s just part of having a predisposition to having irritable bowel syndrome. What I’ve learned over time is that it’s about managing it and being on practice. You’ve got to be on practice if you want to poo properly. You got to put the time in.

Dr. Marisol:                  I have a lot of patients who are farmers, and I always say this to them. I go, “What you reap, you sow.” So, if you want to have great stools, you want to be eating well. You don’t want to be eating too much throughout the day because if you snack all the time, what ends up happening is that you actually slow down movement in your bowels. The old recommendations of eating throughout the day constantly really aren’t excellent for your good gut health. If you want to have good gut health, you want less or fewer meals, and just eat more at those meals. That is so much better for your digestion.

Chantel Ray:                 Yeah. Intermittent fasting has truly changed my health and changed how I live. So, I love it, hence, why we’re the intermittent fasting show.

Dr. Marisol:                  That’s right.

Chantel Ray:                 But, you are just absolutely beautiful on the inside and out, and it’s just been a pleasure. I just feel like the second I met you online, I was like, “We just became fast friends.” I literally want to come to Toronto and just hang out. I just love you so much. Thank you so much. You’re just making such a big impact on so many people, so thank you so much.

Dr. Marisol:                  Thank you so much. I love, love, love Virginia Beach. It’s one of the places that has my heart.

Chantel Ray:                 Yes. You’ll just come down to visit me, too.

Dr. Marisol:                  I’m going to come down and visit you. You got it, girl.

Chantel Ray:                 Yes. Please do.

Dr. Marisol:                  It’s a little warmer.

Chantel Ray:                 Stay at my house. We have plenty of room.

Dr. Marisol:                  Love it.

Chantel Ray:                 Well, if you have a question that you want answered, go to Questions@ChantelRayWay.com, and we’ll see you next time. Bye bye.