Circadian Rhythms, Lyme Disease, and Parasites with Dr. Motley

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Thank you. I appreciate Dr. Axe. Yeah, I am. Very much considering this like a highlight of my year because I love when we get into conversations. We have really good conversations. Not only one of my closest friends, I consider it one of the biggest privileges to come on here and to talk with you. Thank you, brother.

So, well, thanks. And I didn't— you didn't send me a memo about the orange sunglasses, so I might have, you know, we could have worn those together.

We could have.

Why do you wear, um, the BlueBlockers?

For me, um, not to get too, uh, nerdville, but I did— when I had Lyme disease, I— my right eye, they called it central serous retinopathy. I had holes in my retina, and they did like laser, you know, laser therapy and check, and they said I had these small air pockets filled. And so I'd be looking at the camera and the glare would hit me so bad. And so, uh, the people from Aria Optics, they sent me a pair of glasses, and they said it actually helps with increasing your parasympathetics. And so I first glare, and then I turned them on, you know, like I really did feel the difference in the day when I started working on patients. I was like I'm actually feeling pretty calm. So yeah, I started wearing them, but I don't wear them every single day, but I try to train my eyes to get stronger.

But yeah, they've helped me out with my parasympathetics because I think people might have questions about— okay, because I personally, once, once after dinner, I put on my BlueBlocker and, and I notice a difference with my sleep.

Yeah.

But I've also seen a lot of people, yourself included, and more of the thought leaders and experts wearing them during the day. Uh, but it makes sense, you know, and that's one of the things I want to talk to you today about is the circadian rhythms because this is such an important thing. You know, I'm actually working on writing a new book. I'm super excited. I haven't— you know, you and I haven't talked— we're going to talk for, for a few weeks, but started writing a new book on cellular health and longevity and some things I'm really excited about. But I started, um, doing prompts with ChatGPT and doing research, really trying to look at the sort of combining the sort of Western thought and Eastern thought around medicine. And one of the things that they, as I was looking and studying more of this Chinese medicine, is they believe that one of the primary things that causes disease is the spirit, and they'll call it Shen. And that's tied to— very tied to circadian rhythms. But that was one of the biggest things that came up in Chinese medicine in terms of, well, how do you heal Shen? How do you heal the spirit? How do you really um, optimize— and this is going to be connected especially to sleep, to heart health, or neurological function, to parasympathetics. And if you are, um, not getting sunlight first thing in the morning, if you are not seeing it in the evening, and basically if you have the wrong light, if you're not getting enough good light and you're getting too much bad light the wrong times of day, it's very, very disruptive. So talk to me about sort of your wisdom around that, what you've recommended for patients, but talk to me about that sort of the importance of these, you know, circadian rhythms for, for, for our health?

I, I think it's one of the most important, uh, aspects when a patient comes in to get certain organs healed that they may have like a chronic infection or a chronic instability in an organ. Uh, for instance, we like to use— I like to use the liver and the gallbladder as an example. And they've done some research about mitochondrial activity, and the mitochondria, they say at certain stages of the year will actually emit different colors of light depending on the season. And what they were showing was the lights were correlating to what they would show in Chinese medicine, like green being the color of the liver and the gallbladder, blue being kidney and bladder, and so forth. And so whenever we were— whenever I check any individual about an organ where it's chronically basically sick, I've done some color therapy where you can take a colored lens, place it on an area of— even on the skin, any skin port, you can flash a light through it, and the wavelength of the color will actually stimulate and create more mitochondrial energy. So what I have found was that when I was doing the pulse points, doing all the checking we do with like kinesiology and acupuncture, that it was actually calming the body down. In fact, whenever the gallbladder liver was sick and we were testing those type of light therapies, we were trying to find, um, the herbs that also had a green tint to it, had that same wavelength, and feeding into the body. So knowing what person— what organ is sick or unbalanced gives me the indication of which type of circadian rhythm they are in. Like, we talk about getting up in the middle of the night. They say, oh, I get up at, you know, 1 o'clock in the morning. You and I would both say, well, you probably have a gallbladder issue because all that energy or the chi or the electrical energy is going into the gallbladder and liver at night to actually rebuild the organ and get it prepared for the next day. Yeah. So when that circadian rhythm is disrupted, we know that that's when a person can get parasites in that organ. They wake up,. And then if we know that, we can go ahead and do our best to clean up the organs of the green— the gallbladder and the liver. So knowing circadian rhythms tells us when their body is basically weak. They're weak during the middle of the night. But it also tells us what, what they have. Because if I have a patient that says, 'I'm getting up at 1 in the morning,' I already know that they have a gallbladder issue. I already know what I need to treat. I already know what their chronic infection is at. So knowing that circadian rhythm, the pathway of Qi, the pathway of energy around the body at what times of day is so important. I know it's a long way around, but that's the first thing I ask is, when is your symptoms coming up? They'll say, oh yeah, rash, like when does it itch? And that's how I proceed though, brother.

Yes. Yeah, yeah. You know, there's this body clock you and I know have both talked about quite often. And as you're talking about, you've got the gallbladder and the liver from around that 11:00 PM to around 3:00 AM. And then we've got the lungs and colon, and then we've got, uh, you know, we've got the stomach and GI and some other areas. And so it's so interesting, and we really should be nourishing those organs, uh, at those different times of day as well. You know, the heart's in the evening for everybody listening. And so, you know, you should be doing things to connect and create intimacy with loved ones in the evening before bed. And so there's really these rhythms that we are supposed to be living in tune with that, that really optimize our overall health. And one of the things I think that I find so interesting, um, and one of the things that I love about your work is you've really become a specialist in co-infections and infections. And I think a lot of times people think of viruses and some of these different bugs as maybe being unintelligent. And one of the things I think that we found is, is that, uh, when you have an organ system that's weaker— you just mentioned that with the liver, gallbladder— if that organ system is weak or not functioning like it should, well, that tends to get parasites or hold viruses. And some of those other, other pathogens. And it just makes sense for, you know, if you have a virus that has some level of intelligence, it's going to go to the weakest area of the body where it can thrive. It's trying to survive. And so, um, you know, I know that's one of the things that you've done in your practice is being able to go and detect, okay, here's where this area of the body is deficient. And just for everybody listening as well, Dr. Chris practices kinesiology, and he's got a background in chiropractic, he's got a background in acupuncture. And so what Dr. Chris will do is he will go to some of the different meridians of your body. And this is a very, you know, same principles that acupuncture has revolved around for over 3,000 years, and really go to those points in the body and be able to detect, okay, where your weak point is. And so it's a pretty amazing way. How would you describe and explain, you know, kinesiology and then also acupuncture for everybody?

I think kinesiology has quite a bit of connection with acupuncture. Kinesiology is the study of motion. And when we talk going to college or undergrad, kinesiology is studying muscle movement and the motion that a joint performs. Using like applied kinesiology is just assessing the strength of the muscle or the flexibility of the muscle and then correlating or connecting that muscle with a particular organ internally because they share the same nerve roots. They share the same—

well, and here's an example just for everybody listening, because I've had people say, well, how could you do that? How can you test a muscle and be able to tell how an organ's doing? Well, think about this. If somebody's having a heart attack, they're having pain in their left shoulder and arm. Somebody has a gallbladder attack, it's in their— if it's right shoulder. If somebody— I mean, there are, there are other areas we could go to, but my point there is, is, well, there's proof right there that these organs are connected to muscles, to joints, to other areas of the body.

Yes. And when they have those small signs and signals, they'll say like, you know, I have a heart attack, it's going down my ulnar area, down into like the pinky. But that also correlates to the nerve that's connected to the heart underneath the arm.

Or sciatica, you know, going down from, from L5-S1.

And I think that there— the separation that we think that if it's an organ problem, there's no way it could present into a structural part of the body. There's so much evidence we've seen, and you and I have talked about it, that you know that there are muscles associated with organs. So if in kinesiology, if you can find the organ because the muscle is weakened, that never strengthens up, there's something going on in the muscle. It usually tells me that the nerve connected to it is weak, and that nerve also is connected to, like you say, the heart. So then I go in with acupuncture and I'll do a muscle strength test to just to see if the muscle is viable, if it's actually going to hold up to resistance. Then I go in, I'll check the acupuncture points for the heart, like the pinky. I love grabbing the pinky, brother, right here. And you press it on somebody and they're like, oh my goodness, that's the sorest point. What's the last point of the heart? When you press on the inside of the arm near, like they call it, where you get a funny bone feeling, that's near the heart points. So I do that. And then I'll use frequency scanning to see if that blockage in the meridian, the block in the acupuncture system, is actually caused by, like, let's say, a virus or bacteria or any type of mold or fungus. I never can actually confirm it until I do blood work or do any type of extra testing. But kinesiology allows me to find out what's going on internally by using the external muscles so I can get an idea which, which organ systems are not functioning at 100%. And I just verify it with acupuncture. Yeah.

And you do a great job of this, again, blending this Eastern medicine, Western medicine, as you said. Oftentimes you're not 100% certain, and so you then go and do blood work. But also you're saving patients money because sometimes their doctor is absolutely guessing in the first place, so they may not run the test at all. Or at least now you have a good indicator of this is the best test of what you should run. And a lot of times when you've practiced as long as you have, sometimes you just know, hey, this is likely the area based on maybe some other symptomatology of a mold patient versus Lyme versus, you know, CMV or some, some some more other chronic infection. Now let me ask you this. So you've been in practice now for about 20 years, and what have you seen in terms of growing conditions over the past 20 years? Like, like you might— I'm curious, is it mold? Is it long COVID? Is it Lyme? Like, what are some of the conditions that you've seen over the past 20 years, or even the past 5 years alone, you know, um, you know, growing, growing growing the most rapidly.

I think you hit the nail on the head, brother. They— mold is probably one of the highest growths that I've seen in the last 5 years. I've seen Lyme grow very much in the last 5 years, and strep— I've like bacterial strep, um, and now it's in the forms of PANS/PANDAS. And those 5 have been shown, like, as technology has increased and we have more 5G, and now even some countries are doing 6G, that they say the electromagnetic fields plus our toxins are making these organisms get into defense mode in our bodies and they're creating more toxins. They're creating problems in the body and they're growing because they're in defense mode right now. So over the last 5 years, I found that individuals have grown more in mold. And I have seen people like Valley Fever, which is a different type of fungus. And here in Nashville, I mean, we're building all the time and there's mold flying up in the air.

Yeah, but a lot of remodels, a lot of remodels where it's happening.

Yeah. And I, and I'm surprised. Well, I'm not surprised now, but the amount of digestive imbalances. Yes, past 5 years ago, I would say people did have problems with small intestinal bacterial issues or they've had leaky gut. But the last 5 years, you're correct. Like, there are some things that have just expanded and exploded. I do not say I just blame technology and wavelengths and electromagnetic fields, but there is a considerable growth in mold. That to say, there is this argument that some individuals will say, well, we should clear mold first, then you'll get rid of Lyme. And then they'll say, no, get rid of Lyme first. And I'm not getting into that crowd either. I just like, fix what you find. And but I found that spirochetes are so prevalent that now we have people that can travel all over the world. And I hate to say, you can pass from human to human. There's mosquitoes that can transfer it, and ticks. There are so many reported cases of Lyme disease in the, in the country. I mean, even here in Nashville, I've had some doctors even tell me like, oh, there's not Lyme disease here. And I'm like, their reported cases. But I'd say, all I say, brother, strep is one of the biggest that I've seen, especially in kids. Kids will come to, come to the office and they'll say, okay, the parent goes, they've had strep 3 times when they're a kid. They had their tonsils taken out, they have the little bumps on their neck. And those kids, when they get the antibiotic, they feel like they've gotten better. But those kids will have those small, minute symptoms with strep, and we find that the whole family will be hidden carriers. And I have actually had patients, when you clean them out, they'll actually have signs of scarlet fever all over them in their joints because strep will eat the joint. They'll eat the ligaments because that's what they feed on, is sugars. So those three probably are my top. Um, parasites have always been around. I think it's kind of weird when we get parasites. Like, I have— yeah, and they'll have like— I'm like, where did you get this parasite? I'll have to ask them all these questions.

It's almost always via traveling. No, not always, but yeah. I just, I had somebody, uh, who I was talking to just came back from a trip to Mexico and he's like, I've got parasites. 20 pounds.

Oh no.

Oh yeah, feeling really, really, you know, very loose stool, just feeling terrible. So he's doing some good stuff now.

Yeah, yeah.

And I want to get into some specific recommendations. Before we do that though, I know that you and I have a philosophy that's very similar in terms of we can't just treat the virus or treat the Lyme or the We've got to strengthen up the body. And part of this comes into this sort of circadian rhythm conversation. What are some things that you encourage your patients to do in order to start, uh, syncing, you know, with, with, with, with nature, circadian rhythms, in order to optimize their health?

Um, I do go back to like TCM philosophies. Like when we're getting up into the morning, just remember the things probably your grandmother told you. Or what you've heard Dr. Axe show in his book, the Ancient Remedies book, the clock should give you some direction of what you should do to strengthen up the organ that's most energetic or getting the most attention at certain times of the day. So I encourage my patients, oh, at 7 to 9 AM is the stomach time. Your stomach's ready to eat. You should eat your meal. I understand there's intermittent fasting. I believe in it. I love it. You know, you and I will talk about it all day, but I always also say encourage the organ to do the function it's supposed to do at that particular time. And so when you're talking about the heart time, being around your family, and I love when we get off work, what do we do here in Franklin, Tennessee? Is, you know, I get up and I'll say, oh, it's 4:00, I can work more. But in Chinese medicine, they say don't do that. Your kidney time is supposed to be respite. It's supposed to do something you love, have a cup of tea, go to your friends, do something with your family. But we don't do that. So I just encourage strengthen the organ with the the action. Like when we first get up, 5 to 7 AM, bowel movement, large intestine. You should have a bowel movement in the morning. If you're not, your organ's weak. So that's the first step. I do love, like you talked about, blue light blockers, is to practice the correct amount of light or the type of light. I think that's something you probably are more expert at than I am, about the special type of light that's outside, blue light, even yellow light that you should have on your skin at certain times of day to encourage the strength of your particular organs. And, um, I always say I encourage certain herbals, but we can get into that, certain seasons to actually strengthen the organ. Yeah, that's associated with the season. So if it's going to be springtime and that's liver and gallbladder, I say take the, um, the herbs that actually help with clean up the liver and gallbladder. So there's different ways, but always the cycle that you have in your book, follow those organs and do what they're supposed to do and feed them. So that's my first thing.

Yeah, and, and this is such a good point. I was talking to Mindy Peltz recently. Oh yeah, you got a great book and. And her and I were connecting on this because she was talking about this around, around a woman's cycle and how even more than men, of course, much to a much greater degree, she recommends eating really at the beginning of the cycle lower carbohydrate and then more carbs at the end.

Wow.

And, and just in terms of, because of estrogen and progesterone and these, these hormonal changes. But it's very in line with TCM, it's very in line with Ayurveda, it's very in line with all ancient forms of, of medicine in terms of, uh, you know, you know, we live in a world today where it's like most people do something like this: I'm carnivore, I'm paleo, I'm keto, I'm vegan. And the reality is TCM is so— and you and I both practice— it's— medicine is supposed to be very personalized. Everybody is such a unique individual. And so because it worked for your friend doesn't mean it's going to work for you. In fact, a lot of cases It probably won't. Yeah. And so it's really important to be able to get to the point where you understand this is what's best for my body. And here's the other thing, it's not the same every day. It can change even seasonally. So in TCM, you know, let's go through a few of these. So if you are going through spring both— and let's talk about how we eat, okay? And in reflection of how everybody probably should at least consider eating, what are some things, foods you might eat in the spring? Give me a couple foods, a couple herbs, and then I'll share a couple as well. As we move into that season?

I, in the springtime, yes, I will do some foods that I will do deeper green juices. I know it sounds very, very, you know, basic, but it's the truth. I'll do green juices because it's the green, it's the springtime. I actually will put a little schisandra berry powder in my, my smoothies because schisandra is very good for the liver. I will try to incorporate some milk thistle and dandelion in some ways to sort of flush the gallbladder out. And those are some of my mainstays food-wise as well. You always need to make sure that the, the gallbladder is basically liquefying the bile. So I always try to resist like the rich creamy foods. I say don't eat a heavy dairy and don't, don't eat— when you go to the Mexican restaurant, skip the queso, you know, just maybe have a little salsa or something, but don't go to those deep, uh, rich creamy foods. Those are my mainstays.

And I think most of you will recognize these are foods you'll start to crave at the right time of year. So really the spring season is really March, April, half of May, And as Dr. Chris, he hit the nail right on the head with everything he shared. In addition, you know, it's again, it's green foods, it's sour foods, it's Granny Smith apples, it's spirulina, it's more steamed green vegetables, it's vegetable juices. It's a lot of greens, a lot of vegetables, a lot of things that are cleansing and nourishing. He mentioned dandelion and, and milk thistle. You know, also things like burdock are great, chlorophyll. But doing some things to sort help energize and cleanse your liver. Gallbladder is great through that time of year. And then we move into summer right after spring, and the color of those foods— where spring was green, these foods are more red and brown. And so what are some of those foods and supplements? And, and let me— let's also do this. I do want to mention the spring is also the time of rebirth. Yeah. So what you should have done the winter before, which we'll hit on this, is set goals. Well, now in the spring, you're birthing those goals. You're taking action in order to turn those dreams into a reality. And so, it should be very, very future-oriented and taking action towards a future vision you have for you, for your family. Let's dive into though to summer and do what we call the fire element.

I try to keep it very simple in even my diet. If it's going to be red and it's red colors, I try to use things that actually encourage the strength of the heat. So, I'm thinking cayenne pepper. And, it's the heart, right? It's the heart. The heart's really about joy. You need to practice emotionally things that will make you joyful, like make sure in the summer you're taking a vacation that you're joyful. That's— I can be very adamant about it, but do like good spices. I love red spices, crushed red pepper, jalapeño, jalapeños that are almost like red in color. I think when you encourage the heat, people think, well, why would you do that? It's the summer. It's like, no, you're encouraging the strength of the organ and you actually will help your metabolism even better within your heart if you take those types of foods. So I'm always about the peppers. In, in the summertime. I think that with different types of herbals, the one that I love the most is called red sage. It's— we talk dānshēng. Dānshēng is like one of my favorites. You cannot go wrong. It's Chinese medicine, big heart remedy. Another one for the redness of the summer is hawthorn berry. Hawthorn is one of the best berries you guys can get. It cleans the heart. It's one of them, one of the biggest heart cardiovascular herbs in Chinese medicine. So if you guys go with those two, dānshēng and And hawthorn. And one of the coolest things too now is that hawthorn cleans and cleans up so much infection. So you're going to find out that these foods for those seasons are going to kill off infections too. Like cayenne helps your heart, but it'll kill off viruses and bacteria. So those are like my recommendations. Like, people think it's weird to eat soups during the summer. I get it. But some soups with some pepper in it, it's not too bad. Yeah.

And what's so, what's so interesting too is all of these different— and this is called the Five Elements of Chinese Medicine. Think about Enneagram or Myers-Briggs or DISC profile the Big Five. Again, it's the Big Five. This is the Big Five before we called it the Big Five. This is not only though looking at your personality profile, but it's also looking at seasons, it's looking at the foods you should be eating. And so think of it in that way in terms of sort of Western thought. And, um, you know, there are different nationalities that tend to gravitate towards just living this way more. For instance, Japan, yeah, is very, very wood element, and they're a little water— they're a lot of water too. They're a mixture of wood and water. Which basically means you're going to see a lot of green. I mean, I, I'm watching Cobra Kai, is one of my favorite TV shows right now. You know, it's this picture of this tree, you know, it's a bonsai. Yeah. You know, tree. So it's, it's, it's— you're going to look at those sort of foods and flavors of doing things that are, you know, rice noodles and broth and, and cooked and steamed vegetables and steamed rice. It's that sort of cuisine you want to be doing in the spring. And then we think of a country like Spain or Mexico where you're doing more you're more spicy food. Yes. You know, you're doing that in that season. As you mentioned, some great herbs I'd throw in there, especially for women. Dong Quai is a really good blood builder for women. Beetroot juice would be wonderful for everybody. So getting those reds, even coffee, you know, and so, and chocolate. And so that summer is a time for— so where spring is growth, you want to focus on growing yourself, personal growth, as much as possible. Not that you don't want to do it all year, but you want to prioritize it in the spring Whereas in the summer, it's, as you mentioned, it's fun. You want to take more vacations, you want to read novels, you want to watch comedies, you want to spend time with family laughing a lot. That's really the season for doing that in the summer, and it's really connected to the heart. And so you want to, you want to focus on that. And, and then the next season we're moving into is around the fall. Yes. And that's when the leaves are, you know, we start to see even before the leaves change, color, it's really probably mid-August through maybe mid-October to end of October, at least in Nashville, Tennessee. It's gonna be a little different for, for different areas of the country, but that's connected to what we'd call the earth element and the digestive system. And what are some things you recommend there, Dr. Chris, for, for people?

Yeah, when we get into the earth, is for the stomach and the spleen. So you always go towards like those— when it's starting to eke into that way, you always look at sort of the yellow type foods. And I think that you and I are really big proponents of like, you know, for earth elements are going to be like ginger, and we're going to think about certain types of maybe shallots or onions. And when it starts to go into the fall season, when that earth element is really, really taking effect, you have to remember that all the fun and all the things that were growing and that you performed in the summer with the fire, like, I got it done, now you're going into this, what they call the, the result of your work. You're supposed to be singing, like, you're supposed to make sure that you're at a time where you're feeling very comforted from the work you did. But all that to say is, remember that the healing of your stomach at that time is preparing you for the fall time because you're going into hibernation. So you better strengthen up your stomach to have its juices ready to go so you can you can eat and put on some weight and get ready for the winter.

Well, and you're also preparing it— they'd encourage a lot of— we'd encourage a lot of warming foods because you're getting ready for the cool of the winter. So this is where in the fall you start eating more soups, you do shepherd's pie, and you do, um, a pot pie, and you do, you know, and it's Thanksgiving, and it's a lot of orange foods and sort of yellow bridges that gap of the next season. And but you do want to start getting in the fall. And so, it's a great thing. This is also the time where you want to focus on really strengthening, again, they call it the earth element, but it's really your pancreas, it's your stomach, and you want to get cozied up. You want to wrap yourself in a warm blanket, have a cup of warm tea, start doing that this time of year, grounding in, nesting is one of the terms they would use as well. And then from— and so what are some of your favorite herbs and things for that season?

For the late season or for the earth time, I really love— my favorite is chrysanthemum. It's got that yellowish tinge. I love ginseng and ginger. Those are my favorite. Like with the healing aspect of the stomach, I always say get the chrysanthemum in there because it'll bring— it will clean up, guys, viruses, yeast, mold, bacteria. It will clean up so much, but it gives a strength to the stomach and to the pancreas and the spleen. And so what they call it is you don't want to have rebellious stomach chi or pancreas chi where you're going to feel nausea. So that builds that area up. And ginseng and ginger, both of those have been shown clinically they will basically clean you up of salmonella or H. pylori, all the fun you had in the summer, all the food you ate. Those are the herbs I really, really like. There's a few that I could go deeper into, but they're, they're combinations. But what are your— some of your favorites in that season?

You know, I love pumpkin pie spice, you know, and some of the ingredients there. So that's going to be cinnamon It's gonna be clove, it's gonna be ginger, as you mentioned. And so it's gonna be those warming orange, red, yellowish foods that you're gonna see in the fall that I think are really, really good for most people. But I'd say just use a lot of pumpkin pie spice. I put about an 1/8 to 1/4 of a teaspoon. That's a clinical dosage. An 1/8 of a teaspoon, I wanna say, is around 1,000 milligrams. Oh, wow. And so, you know, of pumpkin pie spice. And we typically don't think of that as medicine.

No, we don't.

But it is. It really is. I had a patient one time who had diabetes, which of course is pancreas related. And I had her, um, just start changing her breakfast to where she was doing a smoothie with basically collagen protein, coconut milk, and then just— and now she went overboard. I'm like, do an eighth of a teaspoon. She was doing like a full teaspoon of, of pumpkin pie spice in her morning smoothie. Yeah, but we reversed her diabetes in about 40 days. Wow. Yeah, reversed it. And, um, and we— I've, you know, you and I both— I think that's a common thing we'll go see. But my point there is, I mean, it was a form of medicine for her, really, really powerful.

Yeah. Uh, in order to do that, that's funny because like I was reading, uh, when you say pumpkin spice, like I didn't know like the qualities. I mean, I always think of it as food, but I remember seeing this, uh, this article that I— because, you know, at the office I'm— I, you know, I still look at things when I'm working on somebody. I'm like, what, what would help their pancreas? And one of the things was pumpkin spice, and I didn't realize that. And then other ones, like if you look at cleansing cleansing ground-up spices or foods. Pumpkin seeds are good too. I didn't know that. Like, you know, like, it clears up parasites and stuff.

Hey, we're gonna get there. Okay, okay, not gonna get too far. So, and then we move into— we got— you got two more here, and then we're gonna dive into some really specific protocols for Lyme, for parasites, for viral infections, Long COVID. Um, so going back to this, Chris, now we have winter. Okay, this is— the leaves have fallen. Okay, when the leaves start falling that's moving into what we call the metal element time, and that's the really part of winter, and it's late fall. Yeah. And during that time of year, it's a lot of white foods. It's the very light yellow and white. And so, um, and so we're gonna see, uh, this is a time of year where you need to let go of everything from the past. If you have not forgiven someone If you had some form of abuse as a child, if you wanted something to happen, it didn't happen, or you lost a loved one, something happened. This is the time of mourning, grieving in a healthy way, forgiving people, and getting ready to move on towards the future. And I think about this, you know, we've had a, we've had a hard year in our house because we lost my father-in-law, Joel. I know you loved him. And, and, uh, Dr. Chris was close with my father-in-law. And so we've been sort of supporting my mother-in-law through that. But that's been hard for our whole family because he was, you know, like for me, he was one of my best friends. I mean, he lived with us. He was a father figure for me and probably, you know, outside of my wife, probably the person I was closest to in the world. So I've been going through that in this season right now and even thinking about as we go into Thanksgiving and Christmas. And it's tough, you know, it's tough when you go through whether it's It could be a divorce, it could be losing someone close to you, something like that. But it's really important to not gloss over it. It's important not to shove it under the rug. It's important to grieve. It's important to also be thankful for that person being in your life. Yes. And even reflecting on who they were, because I think a lot of times it's easier to kind of numb out and just try and not put yourself in those situations where you have grieve and you have to cry and you have to mourn. But I think that knowing what I know and, you know, it's actually very important to— it's very healing. It's important to spend time with family. It's important to keep the pictures up. It's important to remember. Yes. You know, I know, like, him and I used to always sort of like both literally together cut the turkey every year, you know. And so I know that's going to come up and that's going to be a time of like I'll be remembering him when that's happening. But my point there is it's very important that this is a time of year where before you move into the new year, where you reflect, where you grieve. If you haven't grieved, you know, you— again, those things that you have swept under the rug the whole year because kids are in school and you had summer and just you were busy, busy, busy. That's good. Well, now's the time you really need to focus on forgiveness and healing and preparing yourself to move forward into the next year.

That is good.

That is good, brother. Yeah. And then with that comes, as we've talked about— and feel, I mean, and feel free to share after this— but I would say just, you know, this is also an important time to consume certain foods for this. And that's— it's chicken bone broth. It's, it's ginger as well. Ginger kind of crosses over into both immune and gut, even as an herb. And it does it with both seasons. It's going to be miso, uh, as another food. It's going to it's going to be cauliflower, but foods that are white and light yellow and spicy— horseradish, you know, those sort of foods. You really want to support the lung qi this time of year. And so, exactly, yeah. So anything you can do like echinacea, horseradish, those sort of things to get the blood moving, get the lungs moving, doing a little bit of extra cardiovascular. Yes. Um, it's going to be really cleansing and healing this time of year as well.

That's— I, I love the way you put it because those— the horseradish, echinacea— is to build the strength of the organs you're just talking about, like the, the lungs. And the large intestine. And it's very important, as Dr. Axe talked about, like when you need to let go, that the biggest organs— most people think it's your bladder and your colon, which it is. You know, your sweat gets rid of toxins, toxins or things that you process. But in Chinese medicine, even the books I read, they'll say you process the things that you've forgotten about. You're living a busy life. And two of the biggest ways is through your breath getting rid of toxicities or things you need to let go of, like a cry of grief. That's right. And also letting stuff out of the colon, which is, did I process everything I needed to from what I pulled in during the summer and in the fall? Did I let go of it? So, it's really amazing that in the Chinese medicine world, they'll say, "Take the herbs, take the foods that cause those organs to naturally want to let go," because it's trying to preserve you. It's like, "You ate the horseradish." you're going to eat those, you know, the ginger, you're going to have, uh, like, I love astragalus, I love Andrographis. Um, there are some, like, um, even I throw, even though it's a green color, like sometimes olive leaf, but it's not as white. But those two are some of my top choices with the food you just mentioned to actually help encourage the strength of those organs to push those things out. And it's not like I'm saying you had to hurt, you know, forget it. No, I'm just saying you need to process it. Like you just said, just keep grieving because what people will find is if they don't do the horseradish or the echinacea or they don't prepare their body to fight off the viruses and fight off the colds, they'll actually get constipated emotionally and physically.

Yeah, this is important. You know, this is a good time of year to do higher dose probiotics, to do the echinacea, ginger, all this. You do a lot of herbal teas, you know, you want to start doing those a lot in this winter. And this is really going to be end of October, November, December is going to be this metal element time. And remember, this is the time of year to let go, to let go of those things, forgive, move on, prepare for what's ahead. And then we move into the last phase here, and this is what it's called, the water element in Chinese medicine. This is one of these 5 types as we've talked about, and this is really about the time to go deep, go deep spiritually, go deep mentally, spend time meditating, spend time praying, spend time going deeper in your life, building, and start to get those roots deeper and deeper. Yes. So then you can grow taller in the spring, in the summer, and this time of year. And this is really connected with the water. It's connected with colors that are blue and purple and black. So think about foods like blueberries and blackberries and mulberries, these sort of foods that are very dark and rich in color. And those are gonna be very nourishing as well. Mm-hmm. And then there's a lot of great herbs. I'll let Dr. Chris talk about these first. But this is where, again, you need to be still. You need to, you need to really create time in order to goal set, to plan, to prepare, which for those things that you're going to birth in the spring.

Oh man, I can't add anything to that. That's, that's amazing because like when you look at the blue colors like and you encourage the strength of the kidneys, um, me and Dr. Axe, we nerd out sometimes. We talk about like when he talked about growth —because kidneys are all about the water element and they feed the wood element and the wood element grows. And we have to think about in our physiology too, he's giving you the recommendations to actually strengthen the kidneys and the bladder, which allows you to hold on to more fluid, be able to proper moisture, feed it up into the liver, and the Gualbertzi actually will increase your metabolism getting ready for the spring. I do love— one of my favorites, I know it sounds pretty— everybody takes elderberry, I get it, but elderberry is one of the best things you can do during this. That season, like when you have kidney and bladder. I do like another one called phyllanthus. It's called the stone breaker. A lot in South America, they use it for like stones in the gallbladder, the kidneys, and the liver. But the kidney is like one of the best ones that I like. So I always say this, you don't have to go get phyllanthus, but I'd say try elderberry. Try something that's very basic, simple. I love the blueberries and the blackberries because they're so high in antioxidants. Yeah. And your body is preparing your liver for the growth. So remember You got to make sure you get the blackberry and blueberry in. Look into elderberry. And I do like kidney healers like good mushrooms like reishi, even though they're kind of— there are certain mushrooms that you and I talk about that are very healing to the kidneys, and they're supposed to, in Chinese medicine, increase like the grounding effect of the kidneys because the kidneys pull a lot of electricity in for your liver. And I, during even the winter months, guys, everybody out there, I'm not supporting any product. I'm just saying look into some good medicinal mushrooms, like, look, look at it like reishi, shiitake, sometimes maitake. Look into those, and those can actually help the kidneys too during this time of year too. But always, always tell my patients, I go back, and when you said you want to go deep, I say, remember back in your personality, like, did you ever have a kidney or bladder infection? And a lot of times those individuals will go back, go, oh yeah, I got a kidney infection infection when I was yah yah, when I was younger. I go, okay, were you going through some fearful times? Were you going through some times where you were afraid or you could not move ahead? So in kidneys and the bladder, the emotions can be, I'm afraid. I'm afraid that somebody's going to be what? Better than me. I can't get ahead. I'm stuck. I can't move forward. If you remember that time with your bladder and kidney infection, there's a huge correlation. So you want to use what you just said to help pull out those infections because your brain will remember. Like after I have people that man, brother, and they'll go, yeah, I started getting rid of that infection. I remember when I was like 7, this kid beat me in a race. This guy, I was like, okay. And I looked back in our, in our Chinese medicine books and I was like, fear of not getting ahead. Somebody else is better than me. Yeah. I went, I've been missing that this whole time. But anyway, guys, look back into your past and look into the fear because you have to go deep. You have to get rid of those fears.

What is making you afraid in Yeah, if you've been doing everything right, eating clean, exercising, but somehow you're still not feeling your best, your energy's dragging, your memory is slipping, and it's frustrating because you know there's more to your potential. Well, what if the issue isn't just in your routine, but it's deep down inside your cells? You know, you're investing in the best supplements, working out regularly, and sticking to a clean clean diet, but if your cells are stuck in what's called cell danger response, all the hard work might not be paying off as it should. Think of your cells like a house under renovation. You can bring in the highest quality materials like the best supplements and clean foods, but if the workers inside the house are on lockdown because of a storm, nothing gets done. The materials just pile up unused. That's what happens when your your cells are in CDR. They can't fully use the good stuff you're giving them. Getting out of CDR, the cell danger response, is the key to unlocking your body's full potential. When your cells are no longer in protective mode, they can finally use the nutrients, hormones, and energy you're working so hard to provide. That's when everything starts to click. Your energy improves, your workouts become more efficient, and you start to feel like yourself again. Go to beyondbloodwork.com to learn how to break free from cell danger response and make the effort pay off. You know, fear is that a negative emotion that's really tied with this water element, you know. And if you've got a lot of fear in your life, it's important that you start preparing to face those fears, you know, writing down what are those things I'm afraid of of facing those fears. And part of the way you do that is going deep. Part of you doing that is building a deeper connection with God, because if you start building a bit deeper relationship with God and knowing who he is, those fears that you have are easier to overcome knowing God is for you, not against you. And so if you can really meditate and embrace those truths, it's, it's powerful. And I want to say, we're not saying that this is the only time of year to meditate and pray. No, You should be doing that all the time, especially spending time in prayer. But this is a time to spend more time doing it compared to other times of year and to go deeper because it's very nourishing to those adrenal glands. Think about it. This is the time of year where it's almost like you've got a battery, like, like you're plugging in certain organs. Like this is the time of year where your adrenals, your kidneys, your bones, some of these areas of your body are more plugged in. You're supposed to be giving them more juice. Mm-hmm. More battery life. And that's how you do it. That's how you do it with those adrenals and kidneys is getting way less— and you want way more parasympathetic. Yeah. And going very deep, you know, reading those spiritual growth books, those sort of things is going to be, be very important for nourishing these organs. And I love, as Dr. Chris mentioned, the medicinal mushrooms like reishi, cordyceps, chaga are all fantastic. Then you've got, you know, a lot of these just, it's the adaptogens, it's the rhodiola rosea, it's the ashwagandha, it's the, you know, a lot of those herbals that are gonna be more adaptogenic and adrenal building in nature are gonna be really great this time of year as well. And again, the foods are gonna be against water element. So it's seafood, it's doing a lot of, you know, what foods like salmon would be great, berries, you know, and those dark black, blue, and purple foods. Are going to be really good. Black rice, that sort of thing is going to be really nourishing this time of year. So, so, so remember, you want to nurture your body. Yeah. Depending on your own, you know, your own constitution, whatever is going on within you, because you might be a person that has IBS with diarrhea and you're in the middle of summer. Well, you may still need to, you know, or spring or fall, and you may still need to be warming your body all year because that's a deficiency you have. Yes. But as we talked about this, there's definitely an element of leaning into some of these truths based on the season that you have going on within your life and, and, and those sort of things. And so that's going to be very, very, very helpful in healing. Yeah. Well, I want to, I want to switch gears here a little bit and talk about Lyme. I want to talk about parasites. I want to talk about viral infections. How do we overcome these viral infections? And I'd love for you to talk about in terms of principles that you operate under that might be different compared to, you know, someone maybe in conventional medicine?

With— yes, with viral infections, um, there is the techniques that many people employ, but one of the things that I find with viral infections and many infections is that the body gets used to the infection. So the body body adapts to a virus. And so you could have Epstein-Barr virus or cytomegalovirus, and you basically are a carrier. And some people can live their lives and they feel okay.

But what are the biggest symptoms that people become okay with? Like Epstein-Barr and CMV, you know?

Yes, they will get internal fevers, like they get random heat, and they'll almost have like, I almost have a hot flash, but I'm not getting a hot flash. I I get these sweats that come out of the blue. I basically have— I get random joint pain, and that's what they'll say. Or I just feel like my muscles hurt all over randomly. I mean, throughout their week.

Can I tell you, my dad has Epstein-Barr, and that's what he's had. Again, so like sometimes I'll just get hot at night or just a little bit warm of body. Again, joint and different muscle pain at different times, just out of the blue. It's, again, it's exactly what you're sharing here.

And when they have that, they could possibly live with that the rest of life, really. But I tell the individual, do you, do you really want to live with that for the rest of your life? So the aspect of some, you know, medical doctors or any practitioner are like, well, you can live with it because you're just a carrier, you're not actually in active phase. But in my opinion, whenever you do have something that, that profound, whether your levels are above 300 or 400, if it's very high, I always say I would say start off with the herbals just to start to nourish and cleanse the body. Give the body the energy so that it can do what it wants to do with the virus. That's my philosophy. I love when you talk about cellular energy and going through that. Why? Because you have to build energy. That's the whole key. You're not gonna have energy, you're gonna have horrible joints. So, like, for putting viruses into that, into just as an example, I would say, okay, let's just do higher amounts of astragalus and higher amounts of andrographis and do that as a steady diet for at least a month or 2 months and see if your body will see as it— it's not you. Like, okay, I'm recognizing this is not me. Some individuals love homeopathics. I do, um, but I think that's—

I want to stop you here because I want you to mention the principle of homeopathics because it's very different compared to supplementation, where my view about supplementation is— and let me, let me actually go through a few here. I think medications are forcing your body to do something it doesn't want to do. Yes, it's the opposite. Your cholesterol is trying to go up to protect itself. No, we're trying to drive it down. We're— vitamins and minerals are going to be more, um, giving your body the building blocks and the things it needs in order to fight the virus on its own, whereas herbals are going to tend to go and strengthen organ systems, tonify them so they can better, you know, do their job, okay, at fighting, you know, a virus infection, that sort of thing. How do homeopathics work principally?

Instead of trying to, like, you know, stop cholesterol from being built, it's basically answering the question, what have I forgotten? What am I forgetting? So you and I could have a virus in our bodies that's producing an internal fever, and we think, well, we need to take something like a Tylenol or something to bring the fever down, whereas homeopathics is a liquid that has the energetic substance because they've literally put like flower essences within them and they've basically put like almost like frequency in a bottle. And what it's doing is telling your body, hey, this is what a fever is. Hey, it's a fever. And you go, oh, what's a fever? And your body forgot to recognize what it was. And so then it initiates things in your body to go, what is causing the fever? See, that's why homeopathy says like treats like. So if a person has a migraine, you give them the homeopathic that creates a migraine, because if they'd forgotten what a migraine is, they can't treat it. They don't know what to do. So I'm like, here's what a migraine is, initiate this to go for the migraine.

Because there's an element of homeopathics to where it's almost like a micro poison. It's this sort of thing where you are helping, uh, an organ adapt to the future. And this goes back to something we were talking about earlier. When you look at Chinese medicine and this idea around Shen, which is really tied to how do you nourish your spirit, um, with food and with your lifestyle and with, with what you're doing on a regular basis. And, and, and there's a way— there are ways to do that, um, to a degree. Um, and so, but, but homeopathics are interesting because they sort of challenge your organs to do something. And part of this— we talked about circadian rhythms— well, another big component of this element of Shen in Chinese medicine is cellular communication. And that's one of the things that's getting thrown off that you're talking about here. And this is where actually medicinal mushrooms contain a compound called beta-glucans. And beta-glucans are one of those primary compounds that really support this cellular communication. And as we age over time, it's one of the biggest signs of longevity to these cells are no longer communicating. This is why somebody will also start to have senescent cells, is because the, the cells stop communicating. Oh, we've got to clean up and get rid of these zombie cells, these dead cells that are now creating these poisons. Well, you know, they're not getting the messaging. And so part of what you're talking, talking about there, that's an issue. And another one that's, I think, interesting around Shen is the other— well, there's a couple others that are kind of in these categories One would be the gut microbiome and how that connects to epigenetics and even methylation. Yeah. And so epigenetics, if you think about it, it's a very— it's a, it's a, it's a spiritual component, a soul component in a way, in terms of— I mean, what— it's crazy to look at the latest medical research on how what a mom eats when she's pregnant affects, you know, the kids. I mean, if the mother has a healthy gut microbiome, she's passing that on to the children. But there's another study that came out recently on men, on the health of their sperm, on their passing along, um, different emotional tendencies and different physical health traits based on their own physical health and the health of their sperm. And so anyways, we know in, in the Bible talks about this impacting to the third and fourth generation. Wow. And I think that's true. I mean, I, I believe wholeheartedly it's true, is that what you do even before you have kids or you're really getting up to the time very close to when you're having kids, that affects your kids and their kids and their kids. So, so those are some interesting things. And then how that ties to methylation— we know some people have a gene variant to where they may not methylate as well, but that, that, that's very connected to epigenetics in a way as well, in terms of, you know, these genes you carry. And of course, there's ways to, um, uh, care for that, you know, that variation. But any thoughts on, on, on epigenetics and some of, some of those things we've just discussed? I think it's really—

I love reading about how they thought that a lot of the gene structure in our bodies was junk genes, and now we have these brilliant, you know, scientists coming along saying that your environment, your toxicities, uh, EMF, the emotions of other people around you could literally change the expression of what your gene code was set to do. So you have a gene like the MTHFR in I have a double homozygous on a couple of them. So that would tell my liver, like, you are not going to metabolize vitamin B very well. Yeah, like you are B12. You're just not, Chris, and you're going to have problems with your immune system. So I get Lyme disease quicker than my brother and sister because I have an MTHFR gene expression. And the epigenetics portion of it is now if I have that gene and an emotion or some kind of toxic environment in my life triggers it, it. Like, I record it. Yeah. And if I was going to have kids, their genes could be triggered by the same emotion I experienced, because that's how the field— they told an energetic blueprint. They're saying that you get past these types of small blueprints into your DNA because it is fiber optics, basically.

Yeah. You know, when you think about this, I mean, anybody who is— if somebody is actually aware of these things, you have to be operating out of the spiritual because is if you're walking around thinking, what I do today doesn't only impact me, it impacts my future generations and kids. I mean, you're walking around with a sort of a higher level of awareness and spiritual awareness than other people if you are being that thoughtful about what you're doing. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a higher level of thinking. And I think that really ties into that component what we talked about with these. They're actually called the Three in Chinese medicine for everybody who wants to read up on it. It's really interesting. And that's tied to Shen, Qi, and Jing, where Shen is tied to your spiritual health, Qi is tied to your mental health, but also very tied to the cellular mitochondria in certain instances. And then Jing is more tied to material, physi— like what's going on physically, naturally. And so it's, um, those are some of those things that play. And, uh, when you— what I've studied a lot of longevity recently, as I had my back issue and, and some of those issues, I, I really I think mortality, uh, I became more aware. Yeah, because, oh, I almost, you know, I could have died, almost died, um, last year. And with that, I started thinking, I want to live a long time. I already wanted to live a long time, but I wanted to, I wanted to do everything I can to study and optimize that. Yeah, brother. And in Chinese medicine, they will say, if you want to live a long time, uh, cherish the three treasures. And so, you know, build them up, store them, in terms of that's how you live a long time. And so focusing on the spiritual aspect of your health, the mental aspect, and the physical, and you have to look at all three. And I think that's one of the greatest deficiencies of Western medicine today. And this is one of the things I respect so much, you, so much about you as a practitioner, is, is that when 99% of the time when somebody goes into a practitioner, they're dealing with their physical health. And we've separated in the world today. So we do have psychologists and, and maybe pastors pastors, life coaches, I mean, different priests. We have people that do deal with, let's say, mental and spiritual, right? And sometimes it's fine and it makes sense to separate them. You have experts in each field. But I do think there's a component of, as a physician, to where we should be able to recognize and at least be able to tell somebody, listen, this depression you're experiencing right now, I think there's a spiritual issue going on here, or I think there's a mental issue going on here. We need to build identity and purpose, right? We need to focus more on, you know, taking care of childhood trauma, being able to help people with that because those things are just so important. And so the thing is, you can't, you can't fix a purpose and identity and trauma issue from childhood with reishi mushroom. Yeah, you're not going to want to. Or omega-3 fatty acids. Now, can it help? It can help a little bit, but it's still not getting to the very root of the issue. And that's one of the things I've noticed as you've practiced, and I know you've got a great practice where you work with people, but being able to recognize, hey, there's, there's a spiritual component here, there's a childhood component, and being able to kind of help people navigate all three of those, those treasures, those, those, those, those aspects of health.

And it is, I guess, as we get older in our practices and we talk to people, I think that, uh, it helped me realize like you can't be everything to all people, like as a practitioner. That's And as I got older, I was thanking the Lord that I didn't expect myself to know all the answers to something. So if somebody come to me and I knew it was from a trauma, or if they had a childhood experience or something, and I do some different types of therapies that help with emotional trauma, but to recognize and say, hey, yeah, I can't give you enough herbs to get rid of this. You need to go to this person. You need to get your, you know, your brain therapies. You need to go do some therapy, you know, counseling. And, um, when we talk about the mental-emotional aspect of it, I think that now it's even more prevalent as I get older because I'm getting older and I recognize like how I think of life. Like, and I go— like, we're talking about epigenetics. And I think that patients that come in, they are just operating how they perceive life. And, and I say that they perceive life from a sick way, like as in they're sick. And when they're not feeling good, or a person comes in and they have a horrible UTI, and they do. I've had patients that come in and they'll go, their family's like, they are going mental. Like, what? And I mean, you need to take them to the hospital, but they— we went to the hospital and they're saying they're crazy, but they had a UTI. And you think they're sick in their kidneys and it's creating toxicities, but after all you do, you think they're fearful of something like that? I can get Anabox all they want, but they got an emotional trauma. Yeah. Here.

Yeah. And I want to clarify, and, and I will, and I'm I'm not saying that, you know, your doctor should be, you know, your, your spiritual guide, okay? Well, you know, your pastor, your priest, your rabbi. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is, and I think you, you did confirm this, but it is, we— most doctors should be able to help you take the next step and direct you where to go from here in the areas where they can't help you themselves. And I think it's important to be able to recognize that. Um, let's talk about mold. Okay, what are some of the biggest symptoms? Um, and let's talk about mold, Lyme, parasites. We'll start with mold and then viruses. Um, what are the biggest warning signs that somebody has mold issues, and what are some of your top things to treat mold?

Okay, number one would be serious, serious brain fog, not being able to have a thought. Like head's in the clouds. You almost feel like you're disconnected from your body. Uh, second thing would be severe anxiety that has come up all of a sudden, and you, you— things that were small are amplified very big because of the toxicities of the mold. Another one is severe muscle pain, severe fibromyalgia-type symptomatology. When people have those three top, those are probably my indications I'm dealing with mold.

Now, And let's do it like this. Let's do your top 3 symptoms and your top 3 herbs for, for, for each.

And let me just say, like, with that, with the fibromyalgia, I'll say this, is that when they get also get triggered, triggered by, uh, scents or what they smell, if they smell something and they're very sensitive to like asphalt or pesticides, like they were never sensitive before, probably mold in their lungs.

And I want to mention one other symptom people will have is if they get around mold again once they get away from it, or then boom, the symptoms. Like, you walk into a moldy hotel or a moldy home, you— the symptoms can come on pretty quickly. Definitely.

And like, instantaneously, they'll walk in, they're like— and I had kids that are 12 years old and they had bad mold. They'll walk in their house and they go, I couldn't go to their play, uh, party or whatever because I smelled it in my friend's house. I, I remember.

And you, you were practicing then too. I remember when we had— you remember we had the big flood in Nashville? Yep. And I remember months after that so many people coming in with brain fog and a lot of these symptoms we're talking about. It was just—

yeah, I remember that. That was a bad time. Like, they get brain fog to the extent where they just can't— they can't remember why they went to the room to go get something. They go, I came in here for something. So if you have that, I say mold. Top 3 things I would recommend— I love one's called Smilax. Smilax, and it's basically a big endotoxin and mycotoxin cleanser.

It's also amazing for psoriasis, which, which is related. I mean, you think about what's going on there anyway, you know, with, within the gut and within the skin. There, there's a, there is a mild relationship there, but it's oftentimes prescribed for that as well.

Oh, completely. I, I think that some of the— I love things that are very antimicrobial. I like neem. Neem will kill a lot of mold. They actually spray it on plants because it kills all the mold. So, yeah, internal malaria neem would be good. Um, one of the South American plants I've seen work well, in my opinion, with mold is— could be cat's claw. I've seen cat's claw do really well, and it will— it'll kill off Lyme as well. Yeah. So I'd say cat's claw, neem, and a sarsaparilla or Smilax. Yeah, it's so good.

Um, and I recommend, you know, Dr. Chris has some great recommendations. Oftentimes it's great to also work with a practitioner if you need some additional help. Um, but again, these are some great things if you are struggling with mold, you may consider and think about— you know, one of my favorite treatments is ozone. I think doing, doing blood ozone as an EBOO or 10-pass, it's where they're basically taking your blood, oxygenating it, and helping put ozone in your blood— sorry, ozone in your blood to help, help get rid of the mold. So the, the herbs you're talking about with doing ozone— now here's the biggest thing with mold, everybody: you got to get out of the mold-infested environment. I mean, that's, that's the single biggest thing you have to do. So no, So if you're in a moldy home, you can do all these things. It's not going to fix it until you get away from the source. So that's right, you have to have somebody come inspect. Also check the ventilation, which is oftentimes— yeah, please, you know, but, but behind, um, you know, drywall. And so you've got to really make sure. And if that's the case, you got to do a full cleansing of the home, get out. I mean, the Bible actually talks about in Leviticus, essentially, if you get mold in your tent and if you cleanse it once and if it comes pack, burn it. Wow. I mean, so, so, so really, it's, it's, it's— this is, this has been an issue since the beginning of time, mold, and it's, it's very serious as you're talking about. And so you want to make sure that you do everything you can to cleanse it out. Let's talk about Lyme disease now.

All right, biggest symptoms, biggest, uh, the biggest symptoms I always say for Lyme, always look for, uh, severe neurological symptomatology. I know that brain fog can be one, but I would say anytime you have an impaired movement, like you have ataxia, or what we call like, uh, you actually have jerking motions, or let's say you have any type of spasms, spasms, difficulty moving, MS-like symptoms, or Parkinson's, but you don't have MS or Parkinson's, that's Lyme disease. If you have any time where your head feels like it's on fire, like you think, I can't think, my head feel like it's going to implode, that's what they call the encephalitis of Lyme. So automatically think about Lyme. And also too, if you get recurring bladder infections— I know most people don't think about this with Lyme disease, but if you have a hard time with incontinence or you have to pee very quickly, like, you're like, oh, Lyme disease will get in the bladder and in the kidneys because your body's trying to filter it. So those are the 3 things. Anything neurological, anything neurological, movement, muscle pain, but especially the jerkiness, but like even any type of— we call them seizures. I mean, there's people that have mini seizures and they don't even know they have it. I go for Lyme. And then when we go for treating, there are tinctures— I'm not trying to promote— there are a few tinctures I promote, but there are really good Lyme-based tinctures. But the top herbs would be cat's claw, Japanese knotweed, and there's a— there's wormwood, sweet Annie, or wormwood, yeah, it's like so good with Borrelia. And another one though, those are my 3, Japanese knotweed, cat's claw, and Sweet Annie or Artemisia. I do like Hutania. Hutania is like, I can't say it very well, but it's very good for Bartonella. And what people will come— oh man, I should say this one, brother. One of the last ones. If you get up in the morning and you stand up and your feet always hurt, like they're like, my feet hurt, my calves hurt, Bartonella. They will give you cat scratch fever. And that's always Planner fasciitis pain, heel pain. Whenever they come there, I get them checked for Bartonella. 9 times out of 10, Bartonella. So Houtani is really good for cleaning it out. But if you can find a great tincture that has a lot of those in there, you may flush quicker. That's why it's good to have a good doc that's Lyme literate. Don't go and just, you know, just start taking a ton because I've had patients do that. Um, find somebody that knows Lyme disease and take them. But those are my top symptoms. I mean, I forgot about the plantar fasciitis. Brother. It's, it's, it is so prevalent. Like, sometimes I used to just mark it off. I'm like, uh-huh, ankle pain. Yeah, yeah.

Another thing I see with Lyme typically accompanies it with a lot of people is this unexplained fatigue. Yeah, you know, now, now, and now again, it could also be hypothyroidism or chronic fatigue syndrome or certain viral infections. I mean, fatigue tends to accompany a lot of conditions, but there's a specific type of fatigue I think people experience oftentimes with Lyme disease as well. Yes, like especially keeping them from being able to be active, really physically active, I think is one of the things I've—

yeah, they get kind of withdrawn. Like, I've noticed that. Yeah, right, they'll get so tired and they're like, I don't want to be around anybody. I think their nerves are so fried. That's a good point, brother.

Yeah, and I think when we're thinking about Lyme and these other infections, one of the things you and I have talked about before is that is you, you don't want to just treat the infection, you want to strengthen your body, and you can't over-obsess and think about what you're dealing with. You got to take care of yourself, but then you need to go on and live your life and do things to build up positive emotions. I think building up positive emotions is really, really important, uh, in healing Lyme, probably even more than these other conditions. I think for a lot, a lot of people, you, you've got to— I, I, I see that people with Lyme, they ruminate, they think about themselves over and over and over and over again, and they, they get to the point where it's the only thing they think about is Lyme sometimes. Where, where that's actually going to send you backwards. And so you need to not think about yourself. You need to go to praise and worship night at church. You need to go and do lunch with best friends, watch comedies. You need to do things to really nourish your soul and mind as well, along with these treatments that Dr. Chris shared. And then let's talk about parasites.

Parasites, um, anytime that, uh, you bloat right after you eat, um, if you eat and you bloat right all of a sudden, you drink water and you bloat suspect parasites. If you eat a good consistent diet but you're always finding yourself to be hungry, like you're always hungry, and you get the shakes, like you get the sugar shake— parasites. Uh, third top one is— I mean, there's so many. I mean, I can mix this in there, but like skin rashes or unexplained, like skin rashes at times can be parasites. But also, if you can't lose weight, if you have weight and you're like, I've done everything, and you're thinking, I cannot move the needle I always say there is probably hidden forms of parasites in the deep digestive tract because once you clean that mucus out where they're at, you usually have patients that will clean about 10 pounds off. Now, I'm not guaranteeing that, but the thing is, this is what's amazing to me, is that parasites are so smart. That's what you talked about earlier, about how these microorganisms, they know they're so smart. So you have to stay on top of parasites at times, and that's why they have parasite cleanses. Top 3 parasite, I say black walnut. I love black walnut. Yeah, it's really good. Oh my goodness gracious. Black walnut, artemisia, I like vidanga. Vidanga is a berry out of Ayurvedic and it will kill roundworms. It'll flush them out. So those are probably my top 3. But there are reports now that they've shown, like, I mean, one of the former presidential candidates had a worm in his head and they thought it was funny. And I was like, oh, That's, that's a real thing that they have.

It is. So yeah, it's like, you know, I think a lot of people think that maybe some of the stuff is made up or woo-woo or out there. But listen, if anyone's ever had a parasite, they will tell you. I remember coming back from a trip to China. Yeah. And I don't know if it was a parasite exactly, but it was, it was a lot of those symptoms. You know, I had somebody recently who asked me, uh, they had a parasite. Yeah. And, um, and he had come back from Mexico and he had lost, you know, quite a bit of weight actually, but he was also dealing with um, it's what you talked about, a lot of bloating, really major bloating. And typically when you first get a parasite, you'll typically have loose stool, and then sometimes then it can be normal. Yeah, but it just, it depends. But he was having those issues, and so I put him on a lot of the top things you talked about. He's on wormwood, uh, or black walnut. Yeah, also put him on wormwood. Yeah. And, um, and then outside of that, I actually have him doing a little bit of clay. Yes. Water, high-dose soil-based probiotics, and then a lot of pumpkin seeds. About a fourth a cup of pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin seeds are amazing. Papaya seeds and pumpkin seeds have really, really strong anti-parasitic properties, and so do a lot of the proteolytic enzymes found in certain fruit like, uh, pineapple and kiwis are going to be, uh, you know, are gonna— are gonna have some of those properties as well. So those are some things for parasites. I think sometimes people get— some people can get over-aggressive. I wouldn't be too over-aggressive. I do think I think, um, taking some of the things Dr. Chris talked about while kind of, you know, following a full protocol as we're talking about is the way to go in terms of wanting to kill, uh, wanting to convert. And not just— you can take black walnut, but also just, um, eating walnuts. Yeah, actually have some good, good properties there as well. And then I want to talk about viral infections. Okay, the people with Epstein-Barr, CMV, Long COVID, and maybe there's some variations there. What is the biggest symptomatology there? And then what are some of the prescriptions you have? And you feel free to— you can add a few for maybe across the board something's good, or individual, uh, viruses, certain things are better than others.

I would say, um, any type of fatigue that you talked about, that would be cross-linked with thyroid issues. So I always find that CMV and Epstein-Barr virus usually go after the thyroid. So people are going to have severe fatigue when you wake up, and not get your body moving. Yeah, your metabolism severely slows down. Also, you'll have extreme— and this is all wrapped in one— but you'll have extreme neck pain around your thyroid. So when you can't have that, you're going to equivocate up to brain fog. So I'm just saying, remember that if you can't have any energy, like you get up in the morning, you go, I can't get up, that's a big case for Epstein-Barr or a viral infection. The other ones, remember, it's just like Grandma told you, it is literally like internal fevers. If you have a spike in a fever and you do not know what happened, you're like, I just had a fever, like I sweat, you know, they get the sweats. That's a viral— that's a viral infection. The next thing I'd always tell people is that whenever you get viruses, there are going to be small bumps or rashes in unexplained places. I always tell people, like, I don't know where it'd be, but usually you'll have viruses in the second layer of the skin. So those are my top 3. So remember, So guys, don't freak out when there's a little rash on your chest. It's probably a viral in there. If you have the long-haul COVID, 3 of the top things that I've really found work well. Number 1 is hawthorn. I have seen hawthorn berry very good, so well with long-haul COVID. I'm so surprised.

And I want to just point out one thing here. When we're talking about— when we've talked about long COVID in COVID, it's, it's, it was a virus that most affects your blood, okay? And so things that are cleansing, strengthening, healing of the blood are some of the best things. And Hawthorn has been used for thousands of years in TCM for treating and healing the blood. So I just wanted to—

it's, it's so good. I mean, that, um, I think the other one would be one of our favorites is, is called Chinese isatis. Please don't let the word scare you. It's insane. It's I-S-A-T-I-S. It's woad. Woad is really good for Epstein-Barr, any type of viral. So, um, I got my little combo coming up, but I'd say we have the woad, we have Hawthorn, But you and I, I think these are equal, guys. So you guys write down like, um, astragalus, andrographis. Oh man, it's 4. Olive leaf, because olive leaf helps Epstein-Barr from replicating, or any virus from replicating. And elderberry. I know it's a lot, guys, but I'm saying those 3 are like some of my favorites. I put someone on olive leaf, astragalus, and some elderberry. I mean, they, they will actually clean all that viral stuff out pretty quick. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, those are my favorites.

And we know again from clinical testing that there are some really potent antiviral herbs, as Dr. Chris talked about. Thyme is another one we know. And then, you know, another compound I love for Long COVID specifically is nattokinase. You know, a lot of benefits there. So again, these are things that are really supportive of the blood when we're talking about Long COVID and these other viruses that can hide in, you know, multiple areas of the body. But I think it's, it's, uh, uh, it's really good advice. I don't even want to encourage people if you've got a condition, go at it with a full-on protocol, you know, really focus on some of the herbs Dr. Chris talked about, focus on following the right diet for that very specific thing that you have, and focus on the lifestyle as well. That's also going to help you heal. And so you want to look at all of those things there, uh, in combination in some holistic treatments to help you heal. And I want to mention both Dr. Chris and I, um, because we're going to get questions, I all the time, hey, I need to see a practitioner, I need help. Both Dr. Chris and I, we do see people on a regular basis. He's got an amazing practice. I'm part of the Health Institute where we have practitioners who customize plans for people, and Dr. Chris has his as well. And there's some other great practitioners. I want to encourage you, if you know somebody who does this sort of root cause cellular medicine like Dr. Chris and I do, you know, see them as well. I know there's a lot of great practitioners throughout the world here, but I always— after whenever I do episodes this on specific conditions. I get so many messages from people, which I'm so grateful for, because that's why we do what we do. Like, we want to help people. People want that individual guidance and direction. But I wanted to mention that because I know on Instagram and YouTube, like, we'll get a lot of private messages of people asking, hey, who do you recommend as a practitioner? And, um, and so, um, this has been great.

This has been a great, uh, episode. I just love— I mean, I'm serious, everybody, I, I Josh is one of my best friends. We don't get to see each other all the time, and now, like, we, we try to see each other, you know, with our other buddies. We all have this—

Chelsea was like, tell, tell Dr. Chris he's got to get, you know, get over to the house. I will, I will. And so, uh, yeah, because, you know, Arwen, we, you got to see the baby now. Yeah, yeah. And so it's, um, we're, uh— this is so good. Well, listen, um, your dear friend, you're an amazing practitioner. Thanks for coming on and sharing your wisdom today about how to, you know, heal heal, you know, heal at the cellular level and heal all of these different pathogens that we're, we're exposed to. And we have so many other things we, we could talk about. By the way, I'm gonna have you on again and talk about 5G and EMF. I want to talk about, uh, yeah, anyways, about a lot of different herbals and things like that. So we'll do that in the future. But I want to say thanks again for coming on. I want to encourage you, uh, everybody, um, thanks so much for listening and watching another episode of the Dr. Act Show. Remember, each and every week we're going to dive deep into science and principles of how to heal your body physically, mentally, spiritually, and take your health and your life to the next level. Again, thanks to Dr. Christopher Motley. By the way, he has got, uh, an amazing social media channel, especially on Instagram. You can follow him at, uh, Dr. Motley. It's spelled out all the way, Dr. D-O-C-T-O-R. And you can check out Dr. Motley's show The Ancient Health Podcast. Hey everybody, thanks so much for watching. And by the way, there are so many people struggling with viral infections, with mold, and who don't know how to get to the root of their issue. Hey, if you know somebody, hey, share this episode. Uh, also don't forget to subscribe. Thank all of you for being on mission with us, helping heal people body, mind, and spirit. I can't wait to see you on the next episode.