E242: Mineral Imbalances, Parasites, And Rest: The Real Reasons Your Hormones Are Out Of Sync, With Dr. Heather Rhodes

Lately, every time I talk to a client (or honestly, a friend), the same thing comes up: “I’m so tired. I’m taking electrolytes, eating clean, supplementing magnesium… doing everything right, but I still feel off.”

And I get it because I’ve been feeling that too.

So, I sat down with my friend Dr. Heather Rhodes, and we started comparing notes - our clients’ labs, our own tests, and all the little things women are saying right now.

What we discovered finally made a lot of sense when we truly took the time to understand it.

Here’s what we got into:

• How your minerals might be running on empty, even if you’re taking electrolytes every day
• Why low potassium, sodium, and magnesium might mean your body is begging for rest, not another supplement 
• And yes, parasites - the weird, uncomfortable topic that’s showing up in way more women than you’d think

This one’s a mix of science, real-life stories, and the kind of honest chat you’d have with a friend who gets it. So, grab your drink, get comfy, and let’s talk through this together.

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Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast is to be taken as medical advice, please take informed accountability and speak to your provider before making changes to your health routine.

This podcast is for women and moms to learn how to balance hormones naturally in motherhood, to have pain-free periods, increased fertility, to decrease PMS mood swings, and to increase energy without restrictive diet plans. You'll learn how to balance blood sugar, increase progesterone naturally, understand the root cause of estrogen dominance, irregular periods, PCOS, insulin resistance, hormonal acne, post birth-control syndrome, and conceive naturally. We use a pro-metabolic, whole food, root cause approach to functional women's health and focus on truly holistic health and mind-body connection.

If you listen to any of the following shows, we're sure you'll like ours too!
Pursuit of Wellness with Mari Llewellyn, Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark, Found My Fitness with Rhonda Patrick, Just Ingredients Podcast, Wellness Mama, The Dr Josh Axe Show, Are You Menstrual Podcast, The Model Health Show, Grounded Wellness By Primally Pure, Be Well By Kelly Leveque, The Freely Rooted Podcast with Kori Meloy, Simple Farmhouse Life with Lisa Bass

Transcript

[00:00:00] Today I have my friend, Dr. Heather Rhodes back with me, and we are talking about some of the things we see the most often right now that are causing a lot of hormone upset. And we are gonna go into those two big things and how you can know if they are an issue for you.

Leisha: [00:00:00] Hey friends, we are back and it feels so good to be back together on a podcast. Dr. Heather and I today are gonna talk about some of the biggest things that we are seeing in the moment in fall 2025 with our clients and their hormones and some of the biggest root causes that we're seeing that are causing symptoms like. Bad periods, PMS, low energy moods all over the place. All those things that we talk about here all the time. So let's get into it.

Heather: Yeah, we felt like it would be helpful for you guys to hear what are some of the trends that are happening right now, because sometimes when you look at trends online, I can see how people are applying the trends of what's happening online with like, oh, protein's really big right now, or Creatine's really big right now.

And then I can see how that's actually showing up in clients when we dig into their labs or dig into what they're doing and how sometimes those like one size fits all information trends aren't really getting [00:01:00] them where they need to be. And then what that looks like and what is gonna get them where they need to be.

So that's why we thought this episode would be fun to go through. what we'll do, we each kinda have like slightly different trends, but we're gonna talk about them. For you guys, but also with each other so that you can get a little, like behind the curtain, look at how we're thinking about it, how we're talking about it, what type of things, our clients are learning as we go through these topics.

Leisha, do you wanna start with the mineral trends you're seeing right now from hair mineral testing and if you guys aren't familiar with hair mineral testing, that's something that I know my listeners like, we have multiple episodes, but definitely go back and listen to the one on the hair mineral test and what it can tell you.

And then I know Leisha has someone, her podcast about hair mineral testing too.

Leisha: Yeah, definitely. So when I look at, it's so interesting. I feel like when I'm working with clients, I feel like I do see these trends of tests, looking the same. And [00:02:00] maybe , I don't know honestly what it is. Like maybe it's the people that I'm speaking to because I'm in the same season and our tests look the same.

Maybe that's what it is. Maybe it's, 

Heather: I would think it's the symptoms, right. 

So like when you're talking to people and saying if you feel this way, then it's like people that feel that way that come to you, you're probably gonna see the real root of that in their tests looking very similar because we know that certain mineral imbalances will create.

Certain symptoms.

Leisha: Absolutely. But I also think that what I'm

talking more about in a season, then those are gonna be the people who are coming to me who are resonating with that. I think that's what you're saying too, and like, why am I talking about it in that season? Is it because I'm seeing it with clients?

Is it because I'm seeing it with friends myself?

It's just interesting to see that I do see these different trends for a few months and then I'll see, something else for a few months. And

it's honestly so good because it gives me the perspective where I can really dig into that one thing.

We can see lots of improvement and then we move on to the next [00:03:00] thing that we need to work on together. especially in

group coaching, I see that 

Heather: that, makes me think of, have you ever heard about,bees in a hive? How the bees communicate with each other through chemical messengers. That's how a hive knows to move or to go over here and it just makes me think of if all the women collectively.

All of us, because we know our bodies have chemical messengers. That's how our periods syn up. I mean, partly because of the moon, but it makes me think of like we're all just this little beehive and all of our little bodies are talking to each other going one way versus another. 

Leisha: It absolutely could be. So I talked about this a little bit. In my left episode, really just like these mineral patterns that I'm seeing a lot, and the two that I'm really seeing that I think tie into the other things that we're gonna talk about today are low magnesium and low potassium on a hair

mineral test. Now, I just always give this caveat, especially for anyone who's never had a hair mineral test. It is not the same as blood [00:04:00] testing. So when I'm talking about low potassium, low magnesium, if you have, if you had, these things that I'm talking about on an actual blood test, this gets into emergency status pretty quick.

That's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about patterns that your body is, it's how your body is moving, minerals. It's how your body is responding to stress. And we can get a lot of information about how your organs are functioning and where we need to replenish, where we need to focus, and where we need to balance.

And I just wanna, throw that out there really quick. 

Heather: Mineral is like the cellular level. I think that's the most helpful for people. Like what happens? Cellular has to happen a thousand, 10,000 times. Before you're gonna see it in the blood.

Leisha: Which is why I think that this is such a great root cause test

where we're seeing things before they show up in blood work, and we're seeing things when you're having the symptoms and you're going to the doctor and they're like, everything looks fine. You're still fine. And it's absolutely, you're fine because your body. Is so smart and protecting you in such an amazing way that it is going to keep those minerals in your blood stable [00:05:00] until its last dying breath.

Heather: Even though it's like literally cracking at.

Leisha: It literally has to keep you alive. So when I'm talking about low potassium and low magnesium on a mineral test, it looks different actually often for potassium, magnesium.

What I usually say for low potassium is it actually looks really low and looks really depleted and is in the low numbers like

Heather: Tell me a low number for potassium. 2, 3, 4. Yeah,

Leisha: Yeah. yeah, pretty low.

Heather: I'm seeing a lot of ones, , I'm looking at a one, A two, another one, I have a few that are like less than showing up 

Leisha: Yes. Yeah. I had a five yesterday and I was like, this is low, but I've seen worse this week. I'm like, you need to work on this, but you're not quite as low as some others that I've seen this

Heather: You're not drowning like the rest of us.

Leisha: exactly. Yeah.

Heather: What was your potassium on your test?

I can't remember, but it wasn't great. I need to go back to it. I was two.

Leisha: It's something that I've been working on, but even what I talked about last week with, from the emotional standpoint, it really hit home for me like what this [00:06:00] emotional piece is with potassium.

And I think that focusing on replenishing potassium is really important, but we have to understand that there's other minerals that play a role as well. So you can't just be like, oh, it's just potassium. I just need to take a million. milligrams of potassium a day, and that will fix all my problems.

It's always very nuanced with other minerals too. And so when you are low in potassium, you have to be replenishing both sodium and potassium. In a balanced way to be able to start seeing those numbers come up. And the reason that I also brought up magnesium is I think that's honestly the most popular mineral for people to be like, oh, I'm low in magnesium because I'm stressed.

I'm not sleeping. I'm low in magnesium. everyone just knows they're low in magnesium. And to be honest, probably true, but if you are not able to get your sodium potassium to a stable level and you're replenishing magnesium, you can actually be driving that sodium potassium down further. I really like to focus on the sodium and potassium and things like adrenal cocktails are where I start, and [00:07:00] sometimes we need more than that and we have to look at, all of the factors of why you are not absorbing it, keeping it in your body, holding it, all of those things.

But if you're taking a lot of magnesium on the side, you could be making that problem worse. And then. You You need the sodium potassium to be balanced, to be able to use your magnesium well too. So sometimes I'll see, or usually what I see when magnesium is also low is magnesium doesn't necessarily look low like sodium, potassium do.

Sometimes it's like off the charts because you're using it so much. Sometimes it looks in range. Because you are using so much and you don't really have very much, and so you're using all you've got and it looks like it's okay. but with the other minerals on the test, we can tell that it actually is low.

Heather: That hit close to home for me because my magnesium looked like fairly good, but my sodium potassium were Low, but when I actually looked at other markers for low magnesium, my magnesium is bottomed out and I take a lot of it. So I knew, okay, wait a second.

I'm burning through that. [00:08:00] My body's not actually using it. And so one thing I talked about on a recent episode that I think you and I have talked a little bit about too was Like when I was praying through like, Lord, why are mineral tests looking this way? Why does nobody have any potassium?

Anytime I see a big trend like that, I'm like, okay, there's something here. and I really felt like you revealed to me that the biggest piece of that is rest. And you mentioned replenishment and I talked about on this podcast how like potassium in the body in your actual cells is potential energy.

So in order to have potential energy, you have to rest because if you're using energy, you're not building any up as that potential, which is the same thing as replenishment. And I really felt like it was not just our culture, but even Christians, we don't know how to rest. We don't feel safe resting.

We don't practice resting. Rest is something that I think is so close to the father's heart, but also a skill that has to be practiced. I think that's the other thing too, [00:09:00] is like, yeah, you can do all the things to build your potassium. You can do the adrenal cocktails, you can do, like sometimes there's certain B vitamins that will help you hold onto potassium.

Obviously you've gotta have that sodium there, but if you. Aren't taking these patterns and looking at your lifestyle of like, wait, how did I get here with this pattern? Then I think you're missing, what could really bring some healing that's gonna actually last and stay, because the goal of mineral testing isn't necessarily to just know what minerals you need to take the rest of your life.

Like it very much should be. You go through seasons. And so when I see that, I'm like, Hey, the Lord might be calling you into a season of rest. what does that look like? and just even what you've said, something to mention, when we look at the ratios and the patterns on a hair mineral test, sodium, potassium is gonna be your adrenal ratio.

It's gonna show us how much are your adrenals being stimulated or are they burnt out? And I think a lot of us are accidentally burnt out. 

So do you have [00:10:00] anything else for that one?

Leisha: Yeah, no, I love what you said. For those of you listening who don't know this, Heather's my actual friend. So we talk about these, like our tests and all our things all the time. And one thing that she said to me and then once I've started thinking about my potassium, she was like, you're resisting rest.

And this has been such a season. it felt like a really long season where my brain has been so much more stressed than I've ever been. And I'm honestly doing the basic things to keep myself afloat, but this is a season where I have to pour in more. And it hasn't felt like the capacity is there to do that.

And so that was something that was really convicting to me. It's like, where am I resisting rest, and where am I afraid to rest and I feel unsafe to rest? And that is one of the patterns. Or one of the emotional patterns that I talked about with both high calcium, which we're, we can go into another time, but, and low potassium is this, like I have to hold on so tight to keep everything going and to hold onto control. And this is something that I am just constantly, when I say [00:11:00] constantly, I mean like every single day working through right now because the Lord is really teaching me. A lot about how much control I think I have. And I don't know if I'm learning the lesson very well, but I'm trying. 

so this is where you could be listening and be like, she's a hormone coach.

Why would her potassium still be low? because I'm living. Life like you are. And I'm doing my best. And that's why I do testing on myself because I wanna know what's going on. I wanna know where do I need to pour in a little bit more. or where do I just need to know something needs to be poured into when I can. Maybe there's still seasons where it's not happening as well as it should be right now, but I know what my goals are and I know what to focus on in the future. So I just wanna

have you sit with that. If you have, if you're listening to this and you're like, okay, I know those stress patterns are there for me. this can show up as, adrenal symptoms, like adrenal burnout, those energy crashes, and not sleeping well, feeling anxious, not being able to, Regulate your blood sugar. that's a huge one with potassium and [00:12:00] magnesium. but I would say stress, anxiety, those are big ones too. So just knowing those things.

, Those might be reasons for you to want to do some testing and see what's really happening under the surface and see if you know what you're doing is managing it well. And if you're seeing all those symptoms, then very likely not, but we could see for you specifically what's going on so that we can. pour into that in a more specific way.

Heather: . And anytime I see sodium, potassium, I know you've been talking about magnesium, potassium, I would say like my. Mirror twin to that, you're seeing a lot of low magnesium, low potassium. I'm seeing a lot of low sodium, low potassium. But usually if sodium and potassium are off, you're gonna have a hard time maintaining your pH.

and so sometimes while we're rebuilding, I'm like, Hey, you might not have a lot of gut symptoms, but because these are so low, it might be helpful for us to bring some digestive support on like Bitters or Enzymes or HCL or something like that. So that's another one that we're like working on there.

Leisha: I'm seeing a lot of low sodium too. I just wanted to talk about the [00:13:00] magnesium and potassium more. but I think having that insight and just mentioning that it does affect the gut when your sodium's low, it's harder to have enough stomach acid, which can slow down digestion and cause all kinds of other symptoms.

So I think that's a good segue into our next thing that we're seeing a lot of, especially with this, can be with people who are having gut symptoms. Or it can be with people who are not necessarily having crazy gut symptoms, and that is parasites. 

Heather: The way I've been looking for parasites, okay, this will. Is interesting, so okay. Side note, I do just have to mention the things we just talked about with the trends on the hair mineral test. These are in people that are taking electrolytes. The element, the just hydration, Our clients are using those things before they get these hair mineral tests. And I just had to say that because I know I've been a victim of, not a victim, but I've done this too and been like, but I take my element every day. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no. We have to look at the pattern as a whole, okay, let's go into parasites.

Couple different ways you can look for parasites or tell paras if parasites are like [00:14:00] happening. So yes, you can have a lot of gut issues or you can have no gut issues at all. and so my girls know that I have a whole episode on parasites. I have a whole episode on how God led us to a very specific parasite cleanse.

We are actually wrapping that up right now. I'm gonna do an update, of that in our newsletter, but a couple ways I'm looking for parasites. What's like pointing me to start thinking about parasites? Number one on a hair mineral test. If manganese, iron and copper are off. Mainly because manganese is low, manganese is typically gonna be a sign of iron stuck in the liver.

And if iron is stuck in your liver, guess what else is hanging out in your liver? It is the little gross. I wanna call 'em worms, but they're not even worms. It's just gross little bugs. and then I've seen where GI maps lately I kind of pulled back from doing GI maps. I think you're still doing them Leisha, but nobody's showing up with parasites on GI maps, and I think everybody has [00:15:00] them.

So there's a couple you can do. Rogers Hood has a very specific parasite test. I have been doing the Quest Bioenergetic scans. I have a podcast episode on that as well. because they tell us so much more than just parasites, but they will pick up parasites and they'll tell us what type of parasites.

We can see,is it a liver fluke? Is it a blood fluke? Is it, some, pancreatic? Parasite, like what actually is there? And that can help us determine what type of specific cleanse we're gonna do. And we can also see like parasitic bacteria, parasitic yeast, and it's just helpful to be just the tiniest, like 10% more specific in the parasite cleanse or like regimen that you do.

But there's a couple things that I am pretty. I like to, I will not pull somebody through a parasite cleanse if they're minerals or we have signs that they're like crashed out. You know what I mean? Like we've talked about this, Leisha, that you really have to go through [00:16:00] that rebuild and replenishment first, and then we need to get into some intentional closing.

And I've honestly been really feeling, and this is something I talked about in mind, that I think a parasite cleanse can work either way, but I really feel like to cleanse from parasites, God wants you to do some deliverance with it, like breaking agreements with thoughts, breaking agreements with open doors and there's spiritual and emotional parasites and I'm like, you've gotta get those out.

And then the physical ones will leave too. Like it's really hard to separate those two I think.

Leisha: I definitely can see that. And just going back to your point on the GI map, honestly, I still love GI Maps. I think that they give us so much good info into the gut and I tell every single client when I'm going over it, I'm like, if they show up with no parasites, they say, I'm not sold, that there's no

parasites.

I think there's probably parasites. It tests for 11 parasites. There's a lot more than 11 parasites in the body, or like that could be in the body.

Heather: And parasites aren't just in the gut. That's [00:17:00] very, very, very important. 

The most parasites I'm seeing lately are not on the gut. They're in the liver, they're in the pancreas, they're in the gallbladder. Those are the ones on the Quest scan that I'm seeing. And the blood flukes are crazy, especially with my girls that have histamine, endo, iron, copper stuff.

Leisha: Yeah. And again, I try to keep as simple of an approach as

possible to go through. And we do start with replenishing. By the time we would get to parasites, if we get to that point and it's something that we decide to address at that point, because we still need to address something, then we've had that time to not only build up minerals, but to build up the gut in other ways so that your body is able to move those parasites out more effectively.

Not because they're just in the gut, but because most of them have to go through the gut to leave the body. . I see this so much with my clients where it's like the gut is the piece of the puzzle for them that is just not functioning well enough to move anything out. [00:18:00] Anything and everything that needs to move out of the body, and That goes for estrogen detox, that goes for, any other toxins that they're trying to detox outta their liver, moving iron, moving copper, so much of the time, maybe they can , do it through their liver or we're working on their liver. We're working on getting that balance, getting the iron out, the parasites out, all the things, and then it can get stuck in the gut.

So I just think that there is still so much value to really working on. Making sure the gut is eliminating effectively and is not incredibly inflamed during the process, because that's where symptoms can really come down. If the gut is doing its job. It's one of our, of course we have so many detox organs, thankfully, but it's one of the places that , if it's stuck, , you're just gonna have, a clogged funnel at the bottom because you can't get things out as effectively as needed. If your gut is stuck. And so of course, the lymphatic system is really important. The skin is really important. And the kidneys, but the gut, I don't know, I just see the gut being the sticking point so much of the time. [00:19:00] and so that's where I still focus.

Heather: And the hard part with the gut too, is that whatever's there, whatever's stuck, whatever's not getting out is getting reabsorbed. So when the liver and the gallbladder and the spleen aren't working very well, they're definitely gonna become less effective at what they do. But when the gut's not working very well,

it is not only becoming less effective, but it's also the site for reabsorption. And so that's where you get a body that's filled with a lot of toxins and a lot of heavy metals and chemicals that the body's already tried to get rid of. And that's something that I see just pulls on the adrenals and it pulls on.

The, nervous system. So this is where if you are like, I'm doing the emotional things, I'm doing the spiritual things, but I still feel this nervous system activation. I feel like I can't just rest or chill. Then I'm like, yeah, there is probably some physical things like some stuckness in [00:20:00] your body that we wanna just get moving again.

And so we never wanna just throw a pair of cyclone at anybody. because you wanna make sure that those things are moving. It's very much, I think of it like cleaning my house. I wouldn't just go mop my floors if I didn't do other things first, right? I would wanna pick things up and maybe vacuum, so that you can just do a quick little cleanse.

It can be like three days, it can be four days, it can be five days. You don't have to do a full month. You don't have to do a full six month regimen. It can be very easy and very simple, but it is something I feel like most people avoid and wanna fix all these other things and just not really think about that.

But I'm seeing, I think just, that's just a sign too of like culturally, parasite cleansing just isn't. Talked about a lot. It's not a thing, but in other cultures it's so normal and they do it with such consistency and patterns and we just don't. So like I'm what, doing my first para cyclones at 36 years old, that's [00:21:00] wild to me.

and so I think it's something to me, I'm like, this needs to be like a rhythm. That's just a part of living a life where you steward your body, it's not even about being crunchy or granola, but if you're already crunchy or granola, then parasite cleansing should probably be a piece of the puzzle.

But it's really just like, Hey, if you're stewarding your body well then we don't wanna forget that this is a part of what that looks like.

Leisha: I think one of the biggest things that I get asked about parasite cleanses is like, first of all, do I need to do one? Clearly the answer could. I would say for most of us, the answer is yes. It's just like, how often, how do I

do? 

it? That kind of thing. But if you are experiencing a lot of symptoms, your detox pathways are probably not even, I feel like optimized is even like a stretch, but they're not working well.

You're not having super regular bowel movements, you're not sweating regularly. your skin might have some. Blemishes, you have brain fog, [00:22:00] moodiness, like all of these things that we see really commonly, but if these symptoms are showing up for you consistently, it's probably not only a sign that your detox pathways are not super open, but also that your minerals are depleted.

 really any of the symptoms that we talk about here, it may. Work for you to jump straight into a parasite cleanse on your own. It also may cause you a lot of detox symptoms. And so I prefer at least for a first cleanse that you're able to at least, have a baseline and know where you are with those things,

especially minerals so that you can effectively detox.

'cause a lot of people think, oh, if I do a detox, like I'm probably gonna feel bad for a while. And they just think it's normal to feel bad. And I actually don't think that. It means your body is effectively cleansing. If you feel really bad on the cleanse, I think it means that you are not, whatever is dying off and causing, a cytokine reaction or histamine reaction, like those kind of things.

I think it means that something is not working well [00:23:00] in that detox process. Now, not to say it could just be always completely, symptom free, but if you're having a lot of symptoms, I personally don't think that means. It's working as effectively as it could be and that you're probably still reabsorbing some toxins and like recirculating some things versus if your drainage pathways are open.

If your minerals are supported, you should be able to detox in a much more just like peaceful way.

Heather: Yeah. I think I have an episode on this too. I talk about the pyramid I like to follow, which is. We want your minerals replenished. But before I replenish somebody's minerals, I look at their metabolism drain. So what is happening in your rhythms and your schedule and your pattern and your nutrition, and it's like draining your metabolism.

That's keeping things turned down so that everything is staying stuck. So the way we do it, inside of our programs, I walk people through like, let's turn your metabolism on. That kind of gives you this nice bucket where there's not leaks coming out, and then we replenish your minerals and then we replenish your detox factors and open up those drainage pathways with lymphatic support.

[00:24:00] Then you can step into some gentle cleansing, and sometimes it's parasites, sometimes it is like gut bacteria rebalancing. there can be different things that are top layer of the pyramid, but you gotta get that good base in there first. And kind of the last thing I wanted to say about this was just some of those signs or symptoms of parasites.

So we have the obvious ones, which can be a lot of,the gut stuff like Leisha was just mentioning, the skin stuff. And then I feel like there's some less obvious ones. because I think that parasites just go so closely with a body that's dysregulated with iron and copper. Oh, iron and copper is the third part of that pyramid.

So I do metabolism, minerals, detox factors, iron and copper, then parasites. But because, I usually see that kind of all link up together. There's also some other signs. So like I see a lot of sun spots, melasma. definitely the recurrent acne, hormone problems. The other thing is your period is a reflection of lymphatic [00:25:00] flow and of recycling and of iron and copper.

And so when you have a lot of period problems, especially, well, let's, let me start there. That also is assigned to me of like, huh, it's something going on here. And then, Because parasites aren't just in the blood, liver in the gut. Sometimes even like chronic sinus issues can be a sign, of some parasitic stuff happening.

And then. Endometriosis. I have yet to see a client with endo that I do not think also has a parasite problem. So I just wanted to hit on some of those like less common ones because I know for me personally, I have very minimal gut symptoms, but doing this most recent parasite cleans, I had a lot of parasites, but what clued me off to that?

Was my iron and copper lab work and my mineral testing. Both things that symptomatically, I wouldn't really think were parasite problems, but like I said, I had a lot of them. And so I think that sometimes it's [00:26:00] like a little bit of those less common signs that can be helpful just to be aware of.

Leisha: 

Yeah. And I had that same experience. My gut honestly is great. It's great. I don't have any symptoms with my gut. , I've done a couple of cleanses now. I've done one like more long, one in the spring, and then, I've done a couple, like shorter, just a few days over the full moon and there's always something.

And so I'm still working on that

as well. 

Heather: there was another thing that both of us that clued both of us off was those floaters. So I've been taking morning walks without my contacts and that's been my marker of what's happening because I will get floaters in my eyes sometimes and that is a direct reflection.

Of basically like the nervous system as a whole, but after doing a parasite cleanse, they like all went away except for this one tiny one. And then I did the second parasite cleanse and it finally went away and I was like, oh, okay, good. They're gone for now.

Leisha: Okay. That's interesting because I have heard that correlation and I still have quite a lot of floaters in my eyes and I did not see a change in [00:27:00] that with para cyclones. So

I think there's other factors too, 

Heather: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. But also I think, I was actually gonna say this to you is you have more experience with more like CNS involved parasites, whereas I think I have more experience or personal, what I'm seeing is more like. Liver metabolic parasites. So there's definitely different kinds, some that can cross blood brain, some that can be associated with like Lyme and mold exposures and all that stuff.

And then some that I think just kind of really love your iron and copper dysregulation in the digestive tract. And it is interesting too, 'cause I think we're almost like two opposite mineral pictures. Even looking at what our minerals have done. So it's like same thing but different patterns, which looks like different protocols.

Which is why we both have support from people outside of us because, and that's why even for you guys listening, it's like, yeah, you need to look at your stuff instead of just going generic because [00:28:00] same things can look different in different people. And having that support like really allows you to target specifically.

Leisha: Yeah. And even when we talk about these general pictures, I would say a really big portion of the time when someone comes to me, I'm like, I think I know what your tests are gonna say. And most of the time I do know what their tests are gonna say. With that being said, sometimes it comes outta the blue and it's like, wow, I really did not know this is here.

And I'm so glad that we had this testing. whether that's just one test or like multiple tests for someone . Even for someone like me, my symptoms are pretty stable. I don't really have a lot of symptoms, but because I am looking at long-term health and because I know that my nervous system has not been as regulated as I would like it to be, that's an understatement. then I know that there's going to be things here that are showing up and that I need to be supporting and replenishing and working on so that it doesn't become a problem long term.

Again, I think it's just that step back to see how everything is working together. When we get so focused on a symptom that's [00:29:00] happening and. There are just so many pieces to the puzzle, right? And so if we see that there are symptoms with our hormones, this is clearly something we both just preach all the time.

It's not just your hormones, it's not just your estrogen. there's so much more to the puzzle at all times. And we can have these conversations and peel back the layers. But that's always how we're thinking when we're looking at things. We're not just looking at the bad period or just the pmms.

Like we know that there are so many layers beneath it and that it can be so complicated. But I also just wanna encourage you that that doesn't mean that the solution is always complicated. The solution isn't all that complicated a lot of the time because it comes back to those foundations. Of the metabolism and blood sugar and supporting detox pathways and replenishing. And so there are steps, but they don't have to be overwhelming necessarily. So I just wanna, end with that. Do you have anything else, Heather?

Heather: No, I feel like that was really great. [00:30:00] That's the trends we're seeing, and definitely the same thing. My goal is always to take this and make it as simple as possible for you guys. And so we have very specific starting points. y'all know that I'm always gonna bring it back to progesterone because I'm like, if you have that on board, it is going to help.

Moving through these steps, your body starts moving itself through a lot of the steps that we talked about on its own, and so if you can get that on board and focus on that one thing and the body starts doing its own work because your body's designed to detox para size, it's designed to regulate iron and copper, then we're just coming in and watching that process turn on, and then you're just like plugging a couple things in.

Along the way to help it go more smoothly, and then just to evaluate and see how it's moving in that way. So I feel like this was a really great summary. I feel like a lot of you guys are probably gonna be able to relate to some of these things. and as always, from both of us, if you have questions.

Leisha, if people have questions, what's the best way to contact you for this?

Leisha: So all my contact info is just in the show notes.

Heather: [00:31:00] Perfect. and mine's the same way. I love chatting with you guys over on Instagram. I love when you guys respond to my newsletter, so , because we put out a podcast every week and I'm like, but wait, what do you wanna say about it? And we don't have great ways to hear back from everybody.

you have questions about that stuff or you're like, Hey, this is a trend I'm seeing. You're like, Hey, can you expand on this? I love when you guys pop over in dms. 

Leisha: Same. you can send me a text, you can send me an email. You can send a dm. I may not see that, but every once in a while I do. All right.

. See you guys next time.