Hey, guys, welcome to this week's episode, and I'm so excited for today's guest, Dr. Elena Villanueva. She is a holistic doctor who practices in Austin, Texas. She specializes in balancing female hormones, supporting autoimmune disorders, Type two diabetes and a host of other things. So tell us a little bit about your own health journey and how did you get to where you are now? Like, what helped you influence what you wanted to practice in holistic health care?
Well, that's a great question. I I ended up having a host of different physical ailments, as well as mental health issues that all kind of came crumbling down on me at the same time. And the big problem was that when I went from doctor to doctor to doctor to doctor, right. When I went to all these specialists, nobody seemed to understand what was going on or rather why why the stuff was going on with me. So I was getting diagnosed with panic disorder and anxiety issues. I was diagnosed with depression. I was diagnosed with bipolar. I was diagnosed with this really severe form of vertigo. But they had no idea what was causing all of this stuff. And it started making me really frustrated. And then at some point I started feeling like maybe I was just broken. The doctors would try putting me on a combination of different medications. Here, take this antiviral. Well, why do I need to take the antiviral? Well, because that might help you with your vertigo. Take the Xanax. Why do I need the Xanax? Well, because that might help you with your vertigo and your anxiety. And so that while I did try some of that for a little while, I knew that benzodiazepines was not going to be the answer for me. And I really wanted to find the underlying cause. And so my journey really took a big turn when I ended up becoming so severely ill for such a long period of time that I ended up losing everything that I had. I lost three practices. I lost my house. I ended up homeless, and I was too embarrassed and too ashamed to to tell anyone. Even my mother didn't know my son was already off in college. I didn't tell him what was going on because everyone saw me and everyone in the community saw me as a leader and I was their doctor and I was the one taking care of everyone. So when that happened to me, I really felt broken and I was too embarrassed and too ashamed to tell anyone about it because of the stigma of mental health issues. But that is when I really, really took a turn. I had two choices at that time. Just end it or see if I could be my own advocate and take charge of my own health. And so that's what started my journey of looking for underlying causes. And I did find underlying causes. There were a handful of them that that had ultimately led to the demise of me becoming so ill physically and mentally. And fast forward now, I am a leader in the field of of of holistic mental health, and I am able to help people around the country and around the world. And I feel so humbled and grateful for that.
Well, that's that's awesome that you're now able to help people with that. And I figured since September is actually Suicide Prevention Month, we could focus a little bit on that topic today. Do you think that that people can cut out certain foods from their diet for multiple reasons like weight loss, health conditions and so on? But do you think that there are certain foods that would actually help someone from avoiding like like helping them with the possibility of like helping with anxiety or depression and stuff like that?
Oh, absolutely. There's no doubt that there are foods that can contribute to people having some really big mental health issues, even as severe as schizophrenia and bipolar episodes. There are there are there is science to back it up. Now that shows that two major offenders are gluten and dairy and the testing can be done to actually show if that individual is having a really big inflammatory response to those two types of foods. So, yes, while dairy and gluten are not the only foods that can be really big offenders, those are certainly the biggest ones. And finding a doctor who can do the specialized testing to see what foods are going to be better for that individual can definitely make a huge life change in these individuals. But I would say that. Generally, stay away from processed and fast foods and stay away from gluten, dairy and sugar, that's going to be the the the easiest route for for those who are listening today because they just want to start taking things into their own hands and start moving in the right direction. If they remove dairy and sugar, stay away from processed and fast foods and shop around the edges of the grocery store and stay mostly organic when they can. That is going to be a really good head start for people. I can't tell you how many hundreds of people we've help them change their lives. And it all started with making some big changes.
Now, is there any foods that you have in your diet? In my newest edition of my book, I talk about how people don't have to deprive themselves to when it comes to food, but everyone needs to decide for themselves, like what are their red light foods, yellow light foods and green foods that they just say, look, these are my red light.
I absolutely these are off limits. I feel terrible when I eat these and here's my yellow light foods, like I don't feel great when I eat them. What are those for you or do you have any. Oh, I sure do.
Gluten is a really big one for me. And while some people can eat gluten and notice it right away, I, I tend to notice it over the course of time. It's more of a slow response action for me that it's a very brain fog and memory loss. So those are the those are the first two symptoms that end up happening with me. I don't end up with a severe allergic response like where where I noticed that I have got pain and got bloating. And then the next day I feel constipated or I have diarrhea a few hours later for me and it ends up happening like three days later. And the same thing goes for dairy. But the the things that end up that end up happening to me with the dairy is not only the brain fog, but I end up with cogitation and then I always end up with a big zit on my face. And so that's just a really big clue for me. But those are really big offenders for me.
Awesome, and then can you just walk us through like a day in the life of what you eat? So, like, what did you eat yesterday? Breakfast, lunch and dinner. When did you eat it and what did you eat?
Oh, well. So in the morning I started out with a coconut yogurt and I talked with some organic blueberries and raspberries and a little tip and drink. Organic berries is the only type of berries that you should eat, because, as we all know, if they're not organic, they are just heavily tainted with pesticides, which can really affect brain chemistry. We'll be talking about that in the first part of my five part series on mental health that launches tonight. But go to Costco for your berries. Even if you have to take a trip, it's worth putting a cooler in your car. Go there and you can grab. It's such a great price. You can grab organic produce there. And so I've got that in my refrigerator. And I topped my coconut yogurt with some organic berries and a grain free paleo type granola. So it's made mostly wood like is just like seeds and nuts. And then I topped it off with a little bit of local honey, and that's what I had for breakfast. For lunch, we ended up having some organic super greens topped with some salmon, and then we chopped up some yellow, green and red bell peppers. I find that whenever we do food prep at the beginning of the week, especially for lunch and dinner, it makes it so much easier to just grab and go.
And one of the things that my husband and I love to do is get a smorgasbord of colorful vegetables and it just looks so pretty out on the kitchen counter whenever we're chopping everything up and we'll put all of the different like all the peppers and the and the chopped tomatoes and the purple onion and whatever vegetables, the avocado will put all of that in containers for the week. And then this way we can just grab and go for our salads and we'll top it with some protein. And for dinner last night. My husband had picked up a magazine on clean eating soups and stews as we go into the fall and winter. And we we did a a soup or rather it was more like a stew and we substituted the chicken for some lamb. And and so it had lamb, it had the butternut squash and we added some cauliflower to it. And then it had like a girl masala type bass for the spices. And it was just really, really good, really nice and warm for the area that we're in because the lights are starting to get cooler.
Awesome. Well, let's jump right into the listener questions. And this first one is from Nicholas in Newark. I've been on an anti anxiety medicine for about five years. I'm not really happy with it and not a fan of the side effects I get from it. I've actually been wanting to get off of it for a while, but I don't want to completely stop taking it, though. What can I do to start weaning myself off of it? And is there a more natural supplement I can take in place in my current prescription?
That's such a great question. So I always tell our clients when they come to us and they're wanting to get off of their medications. Look, let's figure out what the underlying causes of the brain chemistry imbalance really is and let's figure out which brain chemicals that is actually really affecting. And let's start supporting and addressing and correcting those so that you can win off of your medications, because if you try to wean off your medications before you are, before you start addressing the underlying problem, most of the time, that ends up in a failed attempt. And we've seen that many, many times. That would be like trying to put the crutches away before your life has fully healed. Let's allow the leg to heal first so that then you can successfully get off your crutches. And so that's the same thing when it comes to brain chemistry. And so if you're wanting to get off of your medications, we find that over 90 percent of the time. And that's a really high number. People are successfully able to wean off their medications, but they first need to find out what the underlying cause of the brain chemistry imbalance is and which combination of brain chemicals is actually out of balance. Most of the medications that are prescribed to people are designed specifically to address serotonin levels. And oftentimes when we start digging deeper, we find that it's not just a serotonin issue that's the problem. And that's why every time people try to get off their medications, they're unsuccessful at it.
Awesome. All right. This next question is from Patricia in Portland. I gave birth to my son back in July, the entire pregnancy. I was so excited and happy and just couldn't wait to hold my baby. Recently, I just started to feel sad and depressed all the time. I love my son, but I don't feel as happy as I was before. Am I experiencing postpartum depression? Is there anything I can do to help it? And I feel like. And will I feel like this forever?
Oh, I'm so sorry you're struggling with that. You know, women's bodies go through some massive, massive changes when you're pregnant. And many of us, we're we're not optimizing our bodies before we got pregnant. And so our bodies can really get depleted during the pregnancy. There are many different underlying causes that can make you feel the way that you're feeling with the postpartum depression. And whenever we see that, you know, we oftentimes see that while brain chemistry can be a little bit of a factor, there are usually other things that are going on, too, like the development of a of of a struggling thyroid or that the hormones are not in balance and or that the adrenals are a little bit stressed. And so we oftentimes want to look deeper so that we can look at all of the different organ. Systems that contribute to to to how we're feeling and our mood and our sleep patterns. And so taking a really deep look at your thyroid, your hormones, your adrenal function, your gut function and your nutrient status is probably going to be the best bet for you in helping you to feel better. There's probably something going on that your doctors just haven't discovered yet. And the difference between when you go to your regular family doctor and when you go to a functional coach or a functional nutritionist or holistic doctor, is that if your doctor checks your thyroid, he he may only he or she may only check just one or two markers on the thyroid like t for and maybe I mean, I'm sorry to say maybe three to three. That's very, very common. And they may take a look at it and go, well, everything looks fine. But the problem is that No. One, their values or ranges of what's normal doesn't really fit what might be optimal for you. So you may indeed be, you know, hypothyroid or have a sluggish thyroid. But it's not showing, you know, because of their ranges of what they see as normal, which is a huge range.
And then secondly, you know, you may have a thyroid hormone that actually has become out of balance, but because the traditional medical system doesn't doesn't deem checking an entire thyroid panel is medically necessary, your doctor is only just a couple of different items on your thyroid. But when you go to see a holistic doctor, they're going to look much deeper and they're going to check a whole bunch of your different thyroid hormones. In fact, they're going to look at all of them and they're going to look at a at a more optimized range, which is a smaller range. And so you might want to go and find a holistic doctor if you don't already have one, get a functional blood chemistry panel, get some hormone testing with your adrenals included, and just have them also take a little sneak peek at your brain chemistry as well. And so it's totally fixable. The things that I told you were the most common things that we see when women start struggling after they have their babies.
OK, this next one is from Stephanie in Little Rock, Arkansas. I'm pretty convinced that I have parasites, but all the tests for naturopaths are hundreds and hundreds of dollars. To see if I have parasites, I don't mind paying it, but why should I if I already know I have them? I went in the bath and after I got out, I found two little worms and my butt itches at night. So I know I do. But does it matter which parasites I have and which supplements I need to get rid of that parasite? I read something that my dermatitis is caused by parasites and I also read that dairy and sugar causes more parasites. I made a goat milk bath and put it in my bath and I think the milk bath is what took the two worms that I saw in my bath. Can you get a guest to talk about parasites and give us as many details and the cures that will help Stephanie in Little Rock?
Yes. So. Let's talk about parasites for a minute. So many people actually do have parasites, and it sounds like not only do you have many of the classic symptoms of parasites, but you've actually visually seen them as well. So the thing about testing with Paris testing for parasites is that testing for parasites can be very elusive. That's one of the types of infections that can be very, very difficult to identify on testing. Sometimes you can find it on testing and sometimes you can't. And so, you know, if you've already seen them and you know that you have them, I would recommend that you go ahead and start on Chantel specific protocol. And there are a combination of of of different of different products that you can use. One of my favorite are the products from Selker Biosciences. Dr. Jay Davidson is a good friend of mine and he's developed those products. But there are so many on the market that you can't use. And and so you can certainly do this without the testing. This is this is what you want to know about about parasite elimination. It can take a little bit of time. It's not going to necessarily happen in a month. So I would plan on doing an anti parasitic protocol for probably three to four months. And if you are seeing any more parasite release towards the end of that third or fourth month, then just plan on continuing it for another month. We've seen people go anywhere from three months, up to seven months releasing parasites. I had one patient who came to me with Type two diabetes last year and he was about one hundred pounds overweight. And one of the things that we had to do with him is to do an anti parasitic and he was dumping parasites. So he didn't start dumping parasites till the end of his third month. And when he dumped them, he literally filled up the toilet. He said it was the grossest thing he's ever seen. Oh, my God. He was dumping parasites until the end of one seven fastforward. This guy is no longer on any of his diabetes meds. He's lost almost 100 pounds and he had a ton of symptoms. Right. But but I just wanted to to talk to you about that because it can take some time. He had so many parasites and they were they were buried into the biofilm that the that they had created. And so it just took months and months and months to to get rid of the layers that he that had been built up inside of his gut. And so I would say just take your time with it. If you go and check out. I'm just giving you this this one resource of of of Dr. Jay Davidson that you can look them up and Chantel you might want to do you might want to do an interview with him. Yes, absolutely amazing. He and his partner and they could talk parasites all day long.
And they've got some amazing, amazing, amazing stories. But they've got some really wonderful products. They do what's called a full moon challenge because during the full moon, you can really eliminate a ton of parasites. You're right. You do want to stay off of things like dairies and sugar because that does feed the parasites. And so and so, yeah, definitely. You don't need to worry about the testing, but I would just plan on a minimum of three to four months of Pacific Protocol if you're going to go ahead and go down that route on your own.
So explain what does the the full moon why? Why when is a full moon that you can get rid of the parasites? That's very interesting.
So parasites are obviously they are an animal and they tend to be cyclical and their reproduction stages. So not only do they tend to be a little bit a little bit more on the nocturnal side when our hormones are shifting from like, for example, when our melatonin shifts from high to low on a 24 hour cycle and but but also around the full moon, they become very, very active. And since they become very active around the week of the full moon, that's a really great time to throw in a bunch of the anti Precedex so that you can catch them when they're in their most active state and get them to be exposed to the anti parasitic so that then you can eliminate them.
Wow, awesome. OK, next one is from Lucy in St. Louis. I'm a thirty eight year old woman and I've always had slightly low iron, but recently I've been getting really lightheaded. When I stand up, I get dizzy throughout the day and I've been getting muscle cramps, especially in my legs. Could it all be related to the low iron or could it be anemia? If so, what foods should I be eating to raise my.
Iron levels, that's a great question, too. So anemia can be caused from different things, you can have an iron anemia or you can have a B vitamin like A A B, 12 anemia, for example.
So anemia can mean different things. And we want to figure out what type of anemia that you might really be having. Also, iron levels can change from month to month. And so we want we we would want to know it's it would be difficult to really know. Is it an iron issue right now at this very moment? And and also, you know, when you say that your iron is low, what does that really mean? Because let's go back to the allopathic model and their ranges of normal and then the holistic model or functional model and their ranges of normal, the optimal ranges. You could be on the low end of what's considered normal, the normal range by your doctor, and that could be really insufficient for you. You know, iron is needed in your body to produce red blood cells and for proper thyroid function and so and so that you can make your your brain chemistry. It's needed for so many different functions in your body. And so you might be on the low end of the traditional medical model range. But that but that's leaving you depleted where you're feeling horrible. No, you're not in an emergency situation where you're dying or you run into some critical condition. But you may but you may be at that very, very low end. You also may be very, very low in your vitamin D. Most people we find in this country are. Ninety five percent of people are extremely low on their vitamin D and the allopathic or Western medicine range for vitamin D is like anywhere between 30 and one hundred. Well, if you're at 30, you could have your hair falling out and you could be extremely exhausted and feeling sick every day. But your doctor can look at your blood and say, oh, everything's fine because you're like thirty two. Well, you want to get your your vitamin D levels up between 60 and one hundred, which is the optimal or functional range. So there could be several things going on that are making you feel tired and feel dizzy. It could be low vitamin D, it could be low iron, it could be that you are really, really low in your folate and your V12 of vitamins. You know, all of those three things your body uses every day, all day long. And so you want to check that out. You also want to check your hydration levels because you could be really, really dehydrated, which could be giving you an electrolyte imbalance. And so there are several things that you're going to want to look at. And if you really want to give it a data driven approach, you find yourself a holistic practitioner who can do a few labs on you and check that. But at the minimum, if you're going to do it alone, make sure you're drinking around 80 to 100 ounces of purified water a day. Go to the store, buy yourself some quality electrolytes. Viðga Bran is found like over at Whole Foods and all of your basic grocery stores and put a scoop of electrolytes in your water a couple of times a day. Go and find yourself online like a good quality methylated V12 and methylated folate vitamin and take that every day. And as far as vitamin D, you know, maybe I would say five thousand IU Vitamin D with the vitamin K combined in the same capsule would probably be a really good bet for you because most people, like I said, are depleted and one thousand IU a day, which is what's typically found, you know, over the counter typically is not enough to bring someone who is deficient back up to normal levels. And then as far as the iron, I would just take iron without really just having that checked in your labs and the safe that goes with the vitamin D, and that's why I mentioned a little bit of a lower level, around four, five thousand.
Our next question is really awesome.
It is a girl who gave us her thyroid lab work and she said that her doctor had said that all of our numbers are normal and she'd like an opinion from a somebody who's a naturopath. Should I read this to you or do you feel comfortable saying what your opinion is?
She gives us her Tsuge, her tea for her tea three uptake.
Would you want to talk about that at all?
Sure. OK. All right. So her age is two point seven.
Her T four is six point to her T three uptake is twenty nine point for her free T four is point nine eight. Her free T four is one point eight. Her T three is one nineteen thirty three. Total T three. OK, thirty three free is two point eight per anti TPO is less than 10. Her p t h three is fifty five point six and her reverse T three is seventeen point three.
OK, so it looks like somebody did do a really full panel for you. Looking at some of the the end product thyroid hormones, your test is two point seven, so I'm going to touch on a couple of these. I'm going to touch on your age, your total four total T-3 and your TPO. We're just going to kind of just dial down on those total T.S.A., just two point seven.
A functional range typically goes between like one point eight and three. So that is actually looking OK. But we want to look at other numbers as well. Your two for a six point two that actually looks OK inside of the functional range. I'll take that. Your total T three. We want to see that between like one hundred and one hundred and eighty optimally. So it looks like you're having a good thyroid hormone conversion from from T for two to three and and your boss has less than 10. I don't know. I'm I'm kind of curious, you know what that number is. You know, you might be showing a slight little tiny antibody response, but it doesn't look like it's overall affecting your end. Fibroid numbers total to four, total to three. It doesn't look like it's it's ultimately affecting that.
My question to you would be, are you having thyroid symptoms? And, you know, tell me what those are. Are you feeling tired? Is your hair falling out?
I'm really I'm Alan Jefferson and Houston, Texas.
Yeah, I'm really, really wondering about that, because if you're having, like, those types of symptoms, you know, you're really, really tired. Your hair's falling out. You know, Lessel, don't let's take a look at your vitamin D levels because your vitamin D levels might be bottomed out, even if you're getting some even if you live down in the southern latitudes states, we are still seeing a lot of people that are super, super deficient in their vitamin D. Let's also take a look at your B twelve and your folate levels and your B six levels. Genetically, some people will have snips or mutations in their insert genes that don't allow them to synthesize their vitamin D properly. So even if they are out in the sun, they're still going to be deficient. And the workaround is to take a vitamin D day. And then there are other people who can have issues where they may be showing really nice normal levels of B twelve and folate in their blood, for example, but it's not getting up into the cell. And that's a genetic issue that is also easily remedied by giving a methylated folate and methylated B twelve. So it looks like your thyroid is actually looking OK. I'm wondering if there are some other factors that are giving you those same type of symptoms as this is a pretty full panel.
Is there anything that wasn't tested on here that you feel like this was, you know, do you feel like this was a full panel or would there be anything else besides what was tested here that you would actually test as well?
Well, you did mentioned the antibody, but I don't think you mentioned the antibody. Yeah, so but the other thyroid hormones, that's pretty. That's pretty. That's a great panel on the just the TGA antibody was was missing. And since the TPA was less than ten, what does that mean? Was it eight or nine? Because in the functional world we might kind of raise our eyebrow. What let's kind of like let's dig a little bit deeper and you might want to look at your TGA because the antibody could be normal, but the TGA is off or vice versa. And so we definitely want to take a look at that, because if, in fact, your antibodies are swinging high, then that could make your thyroid swing also. And maybe at that snapshot in time, your siren actually looks good, but maybe the month before it didn't look so good. And that can give a person even like bipolar symptoms where their mood is just swinging back and forth. You know, that's what that's what's called Hashimoto's. It's considered an autoimmune issue. Again, in allopathic world. They say that a lot of doctors don't even like to test for it because there's not a pharmaceutical to address that. But in the in the holistic world, we love working with that because we know how to address autoimmune issues and so we can very successfully get the antibodies back down.
And do you think that some of the thyroid issues might be caused by people having parasites that people don't know about, that the parasites are attacking the thyroid gland? And that's maybe part of what it is, is they keep going to the doctor. They can't figure out what's going on and that they could just be parasites that is attacking it as well.
It totally, totally could be. You could have parasites, viral patterns that are that are taking residence in the thyroid. You could have bacterial patterns that are taking residence in the thyroid. There could be a lot of different factors that can affect the thyroid, this is the thing if the thyroid is out of balance, the answer isn't, oh, you have hyperthyroid, take this or you have hyperthyroid, take this. Now, the answer is, well, let's find out what the answer is. Let's look deeper and let's understand why your thyroid is out of balance. Is it some sort of underlying infection? Is it that you've got some sort of a nutrient deficiency because you've got to have a lot of different nutrients for you to have proper thyroid conversion. You need V12, you need B6, you need Igher, you need you need to selenium. I'm sorry, not selenium. You need different nutrients in order to have proper thyroid hormone conversion. And so if we're having if, if, if we're having destroyed hormone conversion issues, it's just really important to go in and actually start looking at what the underlying causes are.
Well, I do have to that's all of our listener questions I do have to ask you what you do to your skin because your skin is absolutely gorgeous. Is there any products you use or do you think it's just that you eat really clean that kind of through your gut just has it where you're not eating dairy or not? Do you ever eat dairy or do you ever eat gluten?
Well, honestly, yeah, sometimes I do. And it's very, very rare, though, that I do it and I know that I'm going to struggle after I do it. We were we were moving recently and on the last day of our move when we had nothing in the house. But we we ended up we ended up eating a gluten free pizza and it had cheese on it. I ended up with the biggest like cyst right here, right here above my right eyebrow. And it stayed for like five days. And I knew that was going to happen, like, I knew it was going to happen. But I was tired. I was exhausted. I was cranky because there were boxes everywhere. And I mean, that's real life, right? I mean, that's that's just real life. It just does happen. But thanks for the compliment on my skin, because I am not always my skin is not always look like this when I was really, really sick. My skin looks horrible. I had cystic acne all over the bottom part of my face here and then on either side of my nose, I would get these really, really big cyst and they would never come fully out, but they would just hang out there and they were super painful. It would take them a month to go away. And as soon as it would start going away, another one would come out and it ended up leaving a bunch of hyper pigmented scars all over my skin. And changing my diet has changed my life in more ways than just helping me feel better and helping me recover from what the doctors told me was giving me all these diagnosis of all these mental health issues that was just so bogus. It's really helped my skin as well. And there are there are a combination of different products that I love to use. The Chantel Harper is really, really awesome. She is out of, I think, the Vermont area. And she has a wonderful story behind her products. The Dauterive products are really, really nice to those are natural. And my skin just eat it up. And, you know, those those essential oils are really, really nice for your skin and to Harper stuff that has a sexual oil basis in it do. And then there's evidence products. So I like to use the evidence products. And so I use a combination of those different products. And the really cool thing is that they really work those products really, really do work. Now, you've got to start from the inside out, though. And if you've got toxins in your body or you've got parasites or some sort of underlying infection in your body and combined with your eating, eating foods that are causing inflammation in your body, you're never going to be able to have the beautiful skin. I'm almost 50 and my skin is better than it's ever, ever looked. Yeah, yeah.
You look amazing. If you're you're listening to this episode, you've got to go on to our YouTube channel and watch it so you can see how beautiful our skin is and how incredible she looks for her age. Now, tell us exactly where can listeners follow you and find out more about you.
Our listeners can go to a modern holistic health dot com and they can find us there. And I'm really excited about about our upcoming five part series on redefining mental health that launches tonight. And we will be launching a new episode for the next five Tuesdays and is, as any of your listeners are interested in learning about evidence based, data driven solutions for figuring out what the underlying causes are of not just mental health issues like anxiety and depression and bipolar and schizophrenia, but some of the issues that are affecting some of our older population. And when I say, oh, what's actually happening with people my age is well in their fifties, like Alzheimer's and dementia and Parkinson's, they can go to fix mental health now and they can register. And that series starts tonight at 7:00 p.m. Central.
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. And if you have a question that you want answered, go to questions at Chantel Ray dot com. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.
Bye. Thanks.