I am Seeing a Trend

Trends come and go.  Every year there is a new diet that promises to be the best thing since being a caveman/woman.  The holidays are sure to “release” a new weight loss gadget that “guarantees to help you lose 125 lbs while sipping your Starbuck’s pumpkin spice latte”!

I say, GO AWAY you horrible trends…I can see through you!

Although, there is one trend that I see picking up steam…you may have heard of it due to great marketing from companies like 23andme.com and Ancestry.com…genetic testing.

However, I am speaking of a little different genetic testing.  While knowing your ancestral history and chances of having a baby with blues is really cool, I am referring to learning about your genetic mutations.

Your genetic mutations, in my opinion, are going to dictate how you respond to LIFE!

Are you more predisposed to developing an autoimmune condition, such as Celiac Disease?  Should you eat that piece of genetically modified sliced bread?  Is developing a thyroid disease in your future?  Can you detox the junk your body is exposed to every single day?  If you are on birth control, can your body clear the excess hormones being released into your blood stream?

These are all questions you can find answers to by looking at genetic mutations.

What does having a genetic mutation mean?

The layman’s definition of a gene is: a unit of heredity which is transferred from a parent to offspring and is held to determine some characteristic of the offspring.

This means that our parents pass down genes that determine who we are.  The color of our hair, how tall we may be, and even our personalities.

Many times, and in all of us, these genes are not perfect.  They can be broken, or mutated.

If I know what those mutated genes are and understand the role the genes play in your body, I can figure out why you may have an autoimmune condition, or why you have ovarian cysts, or why you have low testosterone.

Back to this trend…

More and more patients are reaching out to me to run their genetic markers to get to the root cause of their health condition.

Quick story…I have a patient that I helped many years ago.  Back in those days, I didn’t utilize or understand genetic testing because not many people were discussing it.

I was able to help this patient reach her goals!  She was a hairstylist at the time.  Hairstylists tend to be some of the sickest patients I encounter.  Why you ask?  Think about what you smell when walking into most salons.  Think about what the stylists are putting on their clients’ hair/scalps.  Heavy duty chemicals are routinely used.  Although, more and more salons are beginning to switch to more natural products.  Awesome!!!

Even though I was able to help this patient years ago, she slowly began battling symptoms that were taking their toll on her health as years went by.

She knew I have been running genetic testing on patients and reached out a few months ago requesting to test her mutations.  Specifically, I ran mutations looking at detoxification pathways, how she clears hormones, and her neurotransmitters (how she feels emotionally).

Today, she requested I order the same genetic tests for her daughter and son (albeit, male hormone mutations).  Why?  Because after seeing her mutations, I was able to put together a healing plan addressing what we learned about her genes.

Guess what?  Her hot flashes have gone away.  The “sludge” she had on the layer of her stomach has disappeared and she is seeing results.  Wooohoooo!!!  Genetic testing saves the day, again!

How Do You Test Genetic Mutations?

Super simple!  You collect saliva and send the sample to the lab.  I use a lab called GX Sciences (www.gxsciences.com).  Not all labs are created equal, and for this reason I put my trust in these fellas.

The lab sends your results to me and I began playing detective, combining the genetic results with blood testing, and other specialized lab tests.

Gathering many pieces of the puzzle will help me help you!  The more I see and understand about you, the better game plan I can create to help you reach your goals.

This Trend Will Change Healthcare!

I firmly believe the more we can get to the root cause of people’s health conditions, the healthier they can become. 

More and more people are realizing the medical model’s Band-Aid approach to chronic disease is not working for them.  They are not healing and living life as they did in the past.  It is for this reason more patients are reaching out to me asking for more in-depth testing to get to the bottom of their issues.

Are you still having a difficult time reaching your health goals?  If so, consider running some genetic tests to figure out why.  Getting a sample of saliva is a heck of a lot easier than struggling with health symptoms for 10 or 15 years.  Plus, there is no needle!!!

When Mold Strikes

Having a chronic health condition or an autoimmune condition is frustrating.  Finding out that the environment you are living in could be contributing to how you feel is infuriating, especially considering what you are going to go through next.

Background Story

4 years ago, Natasha and I were exposed to black mold while living in Laguna Beach, CA.  This triggered Epstein Barr Virus to turn on in Natasha, which caused Hashimoto’s Disease to develop.

Fast forward to the summer of 2019…

Colorado had an incredibly warm summer (we live in Boulder).  During this time, Natasha and I thought we were having allergies.  Unfortunately, the allergies didn’t improve, and Natasha’s health took a nosedive.

Natasha travels a lot for work.  When she was away from the home, she felt great.  When she came back home, immediately the next day she would feel crummy. 

This was very reminisce of what happened while living in CA.

We decided to test the home with a mold test called the ERMI (read more here: https://www.survivingmold.com/diagnosis/ermi-testing)

Side note: Prior to moving in we had a company come and test, twice, using ambient air testing (I do not recommend this form of testing due to the variables at play).  We were “told” that everything was ok, and the mold spore counts were not high. 

The ERMI scores came back very, very high.  The ERMI’s HERTSMI score was 24, anything above 15 you are advised to NOT re-enter the property until full remediation has been performed for those with Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS).

What Do You Do Once You Have Mold?

Natasha and I did a ton of research, combined with the knowledge we already have from 4-years ago, and decided to remediate our personal items ourselves.  Keep in mind, Natasha are very skeptical regarding mold remediation, and VERY OCD about our health. 

Luckily, Natasha and I don’t own the home we were living in.  We decided not to buy when we moved to CO, because we didn’t know where we wanted to live yet.  If this was our personal home that we own back in Texas, we would certainly hire a company to remediate the home. 

The steps I am about to explain have been very time consuming and frustrating.  I would not wish this on anyone.  With that being said, what did we do?

After we found mold in the home, Natasha and I moved out.  Hotel life is fun for a couple days.  Not a couple of weeks.  This was our first step…getting out of the environment that was making us sick.

Personal items…what to keep and what to throw away???

This is difficult.  Natasha and I try and live a simple life, and we dont have too many personal items that we don’t use.  But we have lots of toys/equipment (bikes, snowboards, backcountry gear, rock climbing gear, camping gear, etc.). 

When we learned about the mold, the couch and rugs were tossed, along with our mattresses.  Companies will say they can remediate them, but we didn’t want to take the chance.  This was tough because Natasha loved her West Elm couch, and I loved our mattress.  But this is our health. 

We began (with masks on), going through all of our personal belongings, deciding what we would keep, and what we would donate.

Clothing

Clothes that we could wash, we kept.  Dry cleaning clothes were tossed.  Why did we throw away clothing instead of donating?  We didn’t feel right about donating clothes that could potentially make someone else sick.  Dry cleaning does not kill the mold spores/toxins, from the research we did.  There are Hepa filters mold remediation companies use to vacuum your items…again, we didn’t want to risk it.  We have read too many horror stories.

One thing we learned with this mold exposure is you need Rubbermaid containers for putting your personal belongings in.  U-haul boxes are porous, and spores can pass through the cardboard.  After several trips to Target, we have close to 60ish Rubbermaid bins (the big ones). 

Remediating clothing

We purchased EC3 laundry additive products from Micro Balance, along with a ton of Borax.  All the clothing went into the Rubbermaid containers and we have spent hours at our local laundry mat, washing and drying our items. 

We purchased EC3 spray to use on hard items, as well.  The containers were sprayed down after the contaminated clothing was washed.  Don’t put clean clothes into containers that were exposed to mold/toxins. 

Drying your clothes in the sun (UV light) and high temperature dryers helps kill any spores/toxins, as well.

This process has taken days to finish.

Kitchen Items

All food was thrown away, even food in containers in the pantry (it gets exposed). 

Anything with a motor (blenders, convection ovens, etc.) was fogged and ozinated (more about this in a moment).

Glasses, plates and bowls and cutlery were sprayed with the EC3 product and dipped in a solution of borax and vinegar and stored in the containers.

Big items

This includes our bikes, camping gear, rock climbing gear, pelican cases, luggage…anything we felt we could remediate, we kept.

Mico Balance EC3 Sanitizer Cold Fogger: we bought this machine to fog our items (most mold remediation companies will do the same thing).  Even though the price tag was a bit steep ($349), we plan on fogging our next home periodically to keep any environmental spore counts low.

All items were fogged and left to dry in the sunlight. 

MaxBlaster Ozone Generator: we bought his machine because we wanted extra peace of mind knowing we did everything in our power to remediate the issue.  This machine was pricey (retails for $795).  After items were fogged, we sealed them in a garage and ran the ozone generator as the “back-up”. 

The ozone generator is also used for vehicles to kill any spores/toxins. 

Since I use ozone therapy in my office for patients exposed to mold, I thought we would do the same with our personal items, cars and next home. 

EC3 spray was purchased to wipe down any items that are non-porous as well.

Remediation Experts

We could have hired a company to do this for us, and many may want to.  We could have saved time, lots of it.  Financially, we may have saved a little as well.  However, we weighed the pros/cons and decided to tackle it ourselves. 

Plus, we have some technology that we can use over and over again.

This is not an exhaustive list of what we have done, just an overview to show you that mold is serious.  You can’t skimp on remediating items, or not throwing them away.  This is your health and you can’t heal if you are still breathing in mold toxins. 

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!

5-Tips on Preventing Hormone Imbalance

Are you struggling with PMS, hot flashes, night sweats, brain fog (foggy thinking), depression, chronic fatigue, weight gain, hair loss, and/or decreased libido?

Did you know that those symptoms may be due to a hormone imbalance? 

Hormones are produced and released each day from several different organs.  When the body is in a “stressed” out state, hormones begin to shift from being produced and released properly, to being converted to other hormones, produced in excess, or not produced at all. 

Several organs make and release hormones: ovaries, testes, hypothalamus, pituitary gland, thyroid gland, and the adrenal glands…to name a few.

What Can Go Wrong?

Many triggers can throw off your hormones: starting with stress. 

Stress, emotional and physical, will impact your adrenal glands.  Think of your adrenal glands as the gas pedal in your car: if you smash the gas pedal down you know what happens.  When you over stress (smash the gas pedal) the adrenal glands, they will release more cortisol, among other hormones.

High amounts of cortisol make you retain weight, cause brain fog, make your muscles more fatigued, and destroys your gastro-intestinal lining.

Not only that, but high cortisol tends to suppress your appetite, leaving you craving sugary foods.  Have you ever pigged out on sugary foods when you are stressed out?  High levels of sugar can contribute to Candida, which affects hormones as well.

The biggest issues with high cortisol levels is thyroid gland dysfunction.  Specializing in thyroid dysfunction, I have seen hundreds of thyroid patients have decreased levels of thyroid hormones due to adrenal gland dysfunction.

Your thyroid DIRECTLY impacts female and male hormones.  When working with thyroid patients that are struggling with hormone dysfunction, I focus on fixing the problem (the thyroid) before addressing the hormones. 

Go after the problem, not the side effect!

Eating Too Much

High levels of insulin will cause the ovaries to produce more androgen hormones, such as testosterone.  High levels of testosterone will cause PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) in women.  PCOS happens to be one of the leading causes of infertility in women.

As testosterone rises in women, the female hormones get pushed to lower levels and women may start to grow body hair, have more acne and irregular/ fewer periods.

Plus, high levels of testosterone can increase a woman’s risk of cardiovascular disease.

To prevent large spikes of insulin, focus on eating smaller meals throughout the day.

Focus on Your Liver

Your liver plays a crucial role in your hormones.  We discussed how the thyroid directly impacts female/male hormones, and the liver will do the same.  If the liver is not working optimally, your thyroid hormone conversion will be decreased.  Essentially, your metabolism will slow and losing weight may become difficulty, acne begins, the body may feel cold, and hair loss may occur.

Your liver helps to “clear” off exogenous (too many) hormones.  If you were on birth control, the liver had to filter all those hormones.  Many years of filtering, and collecting, those hormones will impact your liver’s ability to do its job: detoxify the blood, converting thyroid hormone, making cholesterol, etc.

If your liver can’t clear (detoxify) the hormones, then more hormones build up in the body, throwing off your normal levels of female and male hormones.

Some patients, especially thyroid patients, have gene mutations that impact the liver’s ability to do its job.  You can test for this by running the genetic test www.23andme.com.  You will need a knowledgeable doctor to explain the genetic results to you.

5-Tips to Help Balance Your Hormones

• Manage your stress levels: This is KEY to stabilizing your hormones. Too much stress and not enough recovery will force your adrenals to work overtime, taking your hormones on a roller coaster ride!

Meditation and yoga are fantastic to help keep the body in balance and manage your stress levels. 

• Stabilize your blood sugar: Keep in mind, when your blood sugar drops, cortisol rises. Cortisol equals weight gain, brain fog, and thyroid dysfunction.

Eating too large of meals will spike your insulin levels.  Insulin triggers the ovaries to make more testosterone, pushing a woman’s estrogen levels down and triggering PCOS to begin.

• Perform a liver flush: There are many ways to perform liver flushing. I teach three of my favorite liver flushes in my online course: thefundamentalsforhealing.com

• Check your genes: Science is always improving and through the use of genetic testing, we now have more pieces to the health puzzle. If you have genetic mutations (specifically, the MTHFR gene), your liver will not function optimally, affecting thyroid and female/male hormones.

• Work on your sleep patterns: Nothing throws off hormones more than lack of sleep or irregular sleep patterns. Sleep is controlled by the adrenal glands and your body’s circadian rhythm (fancy terms for your sleep cycle). 

If you voluntarily throw off your sleep patterns, your body’s hormones will begin to suffer as the adrenal glands are impacted.

Don’t Settle for Less Than You Deserve

If you are struggling with any of the symptoms we have discussed, find a doctor that can help you.  I am a little biased, as I am an Integrative/Functional Medicine doctor, and I have seen thousands of patients thrown through the medical merry-go-round.  I recommend more of an integrative approach vs. seeing a “hormone specialist” that only looks at your hormones.

Remember, there are many pieces to your health puzzle!  Don’t work on the side effects, fix the problem.

Dr. Corey King, D.C., B.C.I.M. utilizes Integrative/Functional Medicine to help his patients heal.  Dr. King has been specializing in autoimmune diseases, thyroid gland dysfunction, diabetes and gastro-intestinal dysfunction for the past 12-years.  You can learn more atwww.askdrking.com, his many social media channels, and his online course,www.thefundamentalsforhealing.com