241: The Gut-Mood Connection: Understanding Stress Effects and Healing Foods

Dr. Tracy: 0:00

We don't actually detoxify. When we're in that fight or flight state, we don't digest. When we're in that fight or flight state, we don't repair organs, like we're in just a crisis mode and it's not a time for rebuilding.

Camille: 0:20

So you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business, sharing your voice. How do women do it that handle motherhood, family and still chase after those dreams? We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know this is Call Me CEO. Welcome back everyone to Call Me CEO.

Camille: 0:46

This is your host, camille Walker, and here we celebrate women building businesses that are helping everyone to live healthier, longer lives, and not just longer, but ones we can actually enjoy. And that's why functional medicine is key to finding what it is that you need right now to feel better. And the mind-body connection also connects with our digestion. And so today we are going to be speaking with an expert, Dr Tracy McCarthy, who is the owner of the Dr Tracy McCarthy Functional Medicine Center, and I love that it's named after her. That's powerful and wonderful. She does have a team that works with her, but her focus is to really help people to understand how what we eat can be medicinal for preventative medicine, that we can actually be healthy with the choices that we're making with our food. So, Dr Tracy, thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here Now. What do you like to be called? Dr McCarthy, Dr Tracy, Dr Tracy McCarthy, what is your preference?

Dr. Tracy: 1:50

I'm usually Dr McCarthy to my patients. That's coming from the allopathic medical world. That's what we usually go by Awesome.

Camille: 1:57

So you've been doing this for nearly 20 years and I feel like, especially in America, where our food is not packaged the best because it is so packaged and preserved, what is the number one pitfall that you've seen people slip into understanding this world of nutrition all the way back actually to people not realizing that what they're putting in their body multiple times a day has a tremendous impact on not just their body but their brain.

Dr. Tracy: 2:30

There's just a real disconnect there of not realizing that these are huge, powerful levers that we can actually use to our advantage, and if we're not aware of it, they can really be hurting us.

Camille: 2:40

Yeah, I mean, that's foundational and I would love to hear, before we get into the nuts and bolts of it all how did you get into this side of medicine? What was it that attracted you to this and made this your life's journey?

Dr. Tracy: 2:56

Yeah, cause I didn't start off where I am now, that's for sure. So when I went to medical school I was very excited to learn what's going on in people's bodies, what goes wrong when they're sick, how do we help them. And I really love the science of all of that. And it was pretty satisfying at first learning physiology and the pathophysiology, but as my training progressed it became more and more focused on matching the sort of the pattern of symptoms to a diagnosis, of course, and then matching that to a pharmaceutical treatment. And I was always left asking well, why, why did they get this illness or why did they have these symptoms? And often there weren't answers and that was sort of unsatisfying.

Dr. Tracy: 3:36

And then fast forward in my psychiatry residency. You know treating people with medications and also therapy. Therapy's great, but medication often left people with side effects or partially treated symptoms. Often they were on multiple medications and still not feeling great. And you know they'd be asking, geez, do I need to take this medication for the rest of my life? And just you know you could see the limitations.

Dr. Tracy: 4:01

And at the same time as I was getting frustrated with my limited toolbox, I was fortunate to see the research on chronic inflammation and all the things it's connected to, and I found all kinds of research that I hadn't actually learned in medical school and it was really eyeopening to me and actually kind of enraging at first to me because I had really naively thought I was going to learn everything I needed to know in medical school to help people. Now I laugh at that but I mean I learned wonderful things but it's not the whole story. So I began to experiment with my own nutrition and lifestyle changes because in the research you could see that these are the things that really impact inflammation. So I started to feel really good and, you know, different little nagging symptoms are going away. And then I began to hear more and more stories about people with, for example, autoimmune conditions that were putting symptoms into remission, and you know really dramatic stories. And so I really began to wonder does this work in psychiatry?

Dr. Tracy: 4:59

At first I didn't see any examples of this, but eventually I did and I you know now I understand after years of doing this that we really recognize that kind of anything can cause anything and that it's it's artificial these different silos we have of, like psychiatry versus gastroenterology versus cardiology. When you're looking at a root cause, systems-based approach. You know, different people have different vulnerabilities and they, their symptoms, are going to show up differently, even with the same triggers from person to person. So I was able to go discover the Institute for Functional Medicine that actually trains physicians in this approach and, did my training, realized I needed to open a private practice if I was actually going to do this kind of work, because I was at that time working in an inpatient psychiatry hospital where I couldn't affect you know what they were eating or influence the kinds of things I wanted to influence.

Dr. Tracy: 5:56

So so I began my practice, which is a whole nother journey because I was not, I didn't know how to do that, how to be in business and started to work with people, first on their nutrition and then on their digestion, and then work on reducing toxins and then adding in balancing hormones, and at every step of the way just saw better and better results. And the best part is just how empowered people feel and how they can then be in the driver's seat and really affect their health. So that's brought me to where I am now, where I just I'm so fortunate I get to work with great patients and really partner with them and see these wonderful outcomes that I didn't get to experience before.

Camille: 6:37

I have so many questions and first off, I want to say thank you for taking that ambitious leap of doing your own thing, because I feel like, the more I learn from people who have been in medical school, there's so much to learn and you all work so hard and yet there is gaps of hormone education or functional wellness like this, and so thank you for doing that. It's gosh. It's must've been a really long, long journey to get here. I would love to hear opening your own private practice. What were some of the biggest hurdles for you to make that a reality?

Dr. Tracy: 7:16

Well, you know, it's probably a good thing. I didn't know what I didn't know I wouldn't go back and change anything. I'm really, really glad for every step of the journey, but I think I would have been overwhelmed if I'd realized all the pieces I was going to need to learn. But yeah, I think you know part of it is this kind of medicine is very different. It are everyone is used to the model of my insurance pays and if it doesn't come, not going to buy insurance, I don't do it.

Dr. Tracy: 7:41

And but, chris, that's all built on this pharmaceutical system with like 10 minute doctor visits and that's not how you do the detective work of finding root causes. You have to take time with people and you're doing things that insurance isn't covering. So you know I had to realize that for a business where people are going to have to invest their funds funds that actually involves like marketing and patient education and helping people know what's possible. But that that's all been. You know I've been figuring it out the whole time and and that involves a lot of education and public talks. And you know there's just that was probably the biggest first part of the hurdles. There's been many, many learning lessons along the way, but it's all been worth it, that's for sure.

Camille: 8:27

Okay, well, I have, selfishly, questions that come to mind for my own family and for many people that I talk to, but I know that there's a lot of relation to the mind body connection. The book, the body keeps the score. If you're having a chronic illness or symptoms creeping up, what is the first thing that you suggest someone does to start to unravel the knot that they're in? What do we do and what are some steps that we can do to figure out what's going on?

Dr. Tracy: 9:00

Yeah, great question. Well, you referenced the Body Keeps the Score and I think that piece of it is really important, that my gut connection, my body connection I'm thinking specifically about the gut. Right now, the state of your nervous system has an enormous impact on all your physical health. We don't actually detoxify when we're in that fight or flight state, we don't digest. When we're in that fight or flight state, we don't repair organs, like we're in just a crisis mode and it's not a time for rebuilding. So if we're just living in that state due to trauma or stress, that has to be addressed. Otherwise you, you know you can take all the supplements in the world and take eat really great food, but your results are going to be limited. So I think you know, just becoming aware of stress, becoming aware of past issues that maybe are still alive for you, that would benefit from working with someone on that. That's very worthwhile.

Camille: 9:54

So that's that first, and you mean therapy when you're saying working with someone. Yeah, there's all kinds of ways that can look some some form of emotional regulation.

Dr. Tracy: 10:04

Exactly, whether it's psychotherapy, of which there are many types, whether it's like a somatic experiencing therapy or trauma-informed yoga or there's a lot of ways.

Dr. Tracy: 10:14

And I think you have to find the things that work for you and experiment some, and that's fine. And then there's all these tools for regulating your nervous system right, starting with simply slow, deep breaths. That's huge, you know. Taking time to take a walk, you know outside and getting the sunlight and being exposed to nature these things are actually really big. But getting aware of the role of the nervous system and attending to that is really important.

Camille: 10:41

I amen. I think that medicine right there, fresh air, nature, breathing those are all things we have access to and I think we forget how powerful they are, that it really can make such a difference.

Dr. Tracy: 10:53

Yeah, they're actually very, very important. I mean, I think I didn't understand. You know, when people say take a deep breath and it'll help you relax, it never felt real to me until I understood. Oh, when you take a deep breath, you're actually turning on your parasympathetic nervous system and that's that rest and digest state. That's the opposite of the sympathetic nervous system, which is the fight or flight. It's an actual physiologic switch you're turning on, and after that it started to really make sense. Okay, we can manipulate our nervous system state and we want to. We want to not be living in fight or flight.

Camille: 11:27

Amen, yeah, let's talk about that a little bit. So let's, let's assume that we are now in a place where we're taking care of the parasympathetic things we can control, whether that's through yoga, therapy, nature, whatever the thing is now turning the dial over to our nutrition. What is a good place to start there?

Dr. Tracy: 11:49

Well, first of all, it's all about baby steps. So again, it's about seeing where are you at right now. It's big things that people are consuming on a you know, everyday basis that are really driving a lot of our health issues are just processed foods with bad oils and lots of sugar and refined carbohydrates. I mean, it really just boils down to that they are. That's the biggest lever we've got. So you know, for example, if you're a big soda consumer, you might want to start with replacing the soda. Just don't worry about the food yet, Just work on getting the soda out and putting in some like sparkling water, so maybe with lemon or something to make it a little more interesting for you.

Dr. Tracy: 12:29

Um, if it's, you know, you're eating fast food all the time. Starting to find some healthier substitutions that are still easy enough to do, but starting with one thing at a time and not overwhelming yourself, not trying to overhaul your whole diet at once. That's not going to work and it's not going to stick and it's going to be too much, but one step at a time and then, when that's an easy habit, you do the next thing, but focusing on removing that, that, um, those processed carbs and those processed foods. The thing is they're just really inflammatory triggers in everybody's body, and that's because those, those processed oils and I'm talking about, like corn oil and peanut oil and soybean oil and these oils that are um, from generally from grains or, like I said, soybeans they contain a lot of omega-6 fats that are very fragile and they get oxidized, and omega-6 fats, even when they're not oxidized, are pro-inflammatory. They're actually a trigger to turn on our immune system and rev up our reactions to things, and that's that's how they're supposed to be. There's also omega-3s you've probably heard of that's in fish oil and in things like salmon. That's the anti-inflammatory signal, so these are supposed to be in balance in the body.

Dr. Tracy: 13:41

I describe it as like the brakes and the accelerator on the car. The accelerator on the inflammation is is the are the omega three, I'm sorry, the omega sixes and then the brakes are the omega threes and you need them in balance, and most Americans are driving around like pedal to the metal full of them at six, and they don't even have brakes. There's no omega threes on board at all, and so you're never going to feel good if that's going on. So you'd need to get this, these garbage oils, out, and they're in every packaged food when you read the label, like you know, chips and cookies and and they're in most cheap salad dressings I actually most salad dressing so you've got to look for these and then replace them with healthier alternatives like avocado oil or olive oil, um, coconut oil, and that makes a huge difference. That can really affect your mood, Just making that kind of oil change. Hmm.

Camille: 14:31

Now you mentioned that you went through your own journey of functional medicine.

Dr. Tracy: 14:35

Is this something that you were finding you needed help with as well going through and replacing yeah, I mean I, I did make all these changes as I learned about them, that is for sure. Some, a lot of people in functional medicine got to it because they or a family member were quite sick, and in my case I was not sick. I was really fortunate. But you know, what's funny is, as I started to learn functional medicine, I realized that I had these different symptoms and I did have some problems that you know we just sort of dismissed because we're like that's common, it's normal. Well, so many things are really not normal.

Dr. Tracy: 15:13

So then I really, by learning functional medicine, I recognize that I did have some issues and it's enabled me to get to the root of those and really change just my health. And then, you know, the health of my kids. I was having babies around the time I was learning all of this, so that's been a total, totally important aspect for me that changed the health of my family. But, yeah, absolutely, this is these are the changes we make at home and the fats we use and really try to minimize those processed carbs as much as possible, because those are also inflammatory and just feed the wrong gut microbiome or bacteria. They have a lot of effects.

Camille: 15:47

Yeah, I'm curious what if you had an easy swap that I'm just thinking of all these different examples, especially for our kids, they can be a little trickier to make swaps with. What are some good tips for us helping our children to do the same?

Dr. Tracy: 16:08

Well, I would say that they really take their cue from us. So I think what we're doing most of the time at home is what really matters, not obsessing about every single thing they do when they go to a birthday party or a friend's house or any of that. But you know what, how are you eating? And not not cooking separately for them.

Camille: 16:25

That, I feel like, is a real slippery slope to stress and despair.

Dr. Tracy: 16:31

I'm like don't do that please, cause you'll be so miserable and you have a kid that only eats like chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese. Like, from the beginning, just cooking, showing them cooking, having them involved and then eating together, that's been the biggest factor for me to get them to have a broad diet and be really open to things. You know, obviously if they're not on that now, then that's going to take time, but you're going to, they're watching you. So you know, by example, getting them to try things and running out of some of the things that aren't healthy, like, oh they're out of them now, we don't have that, you know they will start to eat other foods. Um, so you know that's, in general, what I would recommend. You know, anybody's particular swap there's lots of different ways to to. You know this. There's all kinds of things you can do for any particular thing that someone really wants to keep eating. You know.

Camille: 17:23

Okay, I'm going to rapid fire ask you some questions for swaps. You ready for this? Okay, I'm just curious, like what? I'm not going to make it hard, okay. So opinions on milk are you doing whole organic or do you do something else?

Dr. Tracy: 17:39

No, I do have feelings about milk that, first of all, whole, is critical. You do not want to do low fat dairy products at all and you know there's still a lot of people that have fat phobia.

Dr. Tracy: 17:49

This is sort of from honestly like from the eighties, and that has all been debunked in the research. But people are still fearful about that and definitely no child should be on anything that's not whole milk. So that I feel really strongly about. I also want it to be grass fed if possible. They should be cows eating grass, because that changes the fats in the milk, so that's really important. So organic, yes, we do not want to be giving them pesticides, like there's already a big toxic burden in our environment. We can't control all of it, but the food we can influence, so when possible, is well worth it.

Camille: 18:23

Costco has whole organic in cartons that we love and we've switched to that and we're really happy with that one. Okay, next one yogurt. What do you? What do you choose?

Dr. Tracy: 18:34

Well, I have a son who's a real yogurt addict, and so we use he eats what locally for us is Strauss organic yogurt that's grass fed and, um always whole fat and and it's also no sugar. It's just plain yogurt and he's always loved that tangy sort of sour plain yogurt, and sometimes he puts blueberries in it or or sometimes like a gluten-free granola or something, but it's pretty much a staple for him.

Camille: 19:03

Okay, at our house we like Tillamook and we also love Storybrook. Or is it Stonybrook, stonybrook?

Dr. Tracy: 19:11

Yeah.

Camille: 19:11

So we had the girls of Stonybrook on this podcast and they're amazing. You can't find their yogurt everywhere, but it's more typically in like your whole foods and it tastes like ice cream. It is so good. Okay, my next one is bread.

Dr. Tracy: 19:28

Well, I don't think bread's really good for people in general. That doesn't mean we don't have bread in our house. We do have a gluten-free bread that I use sometimes for sandwiches for the kids to mix it up, but the bottom line is that it's processed carbohydrates that are really not good for our blood sugar. Even you know gluten aside it, and, um, you know, a lot of people's symptoms of anxiety are coming from the blood sugar going up and down in the body, and so these high carb things without enough protein or fat to balance that out can be bad news.

Dr. Tracy: 20:01

So I you know bread for us is like a sometimes food. It's not like everyday staple.

Camille: 20:07

Okay, so no, you're not saying like, do whole wheat sourdough, jack Sprat, like if people are in the store, please definitely a lot of people are sensitive to different things.

Dr. Tracy: 20:22

In wheat gluten it's one of those things A lot of people react to, different um lectins in there or something called FODMAPs, which are like little fermentable sugars. So um, it's easy when you're eating some every day to think it's not causing trouble. But if you take it out for a month and then you reintroduce it, you might realize you have been reacting to it. That's not everybody, but it's it's so. Um, you know you have to. That's a personal thing. You have to figure out if you're personally reacting. But I think organic is good and again, you know, limiting the quantity I think is important.

Camille: 20:54

Okay, um, how about chips? I know you're going to say no chips, but is there any that you're like siete? Is that what?

Dr. Tracy: 21:03

you're. I love those cassava chipsava chips and you know partly why they're so good is also they use avocado oil. So this is an example of reading the labels and seeing like oh, this is actually a high quality product, like that's all right we can have corners decent or not.

Camille: 21:17

So much do you know brand corners.

Dr. Tracy: 21:20

It's like made from corn I mean, I don't, I'm not familiar with that product. I will say corn is another one where you know that's usually GMO, like maybe not, so you know if you can get an organic corn and then you don't react. I mean, here's what we do with popcorn. It's not something we have all the time, but I just actually get the bulk organic popcorn, like unpopped, from our co-op. It's really easy to make your own popcorn and it's fun. Do you have a popcorn machine? Or do you put in a pan and we put the avocado oil in and so I can control like what oils and what corn and then, um, and then you put like grass fed butter on it, melt it, it's delicious and it's a fun treat, you know.

Camille: 22:09

Okay, so you do. You said avocado oil for that, for the popcorn? Yeah, okay, I wouldn't use olive oil for high heat. Yeah, that's when I was like that would be a situation. Okay, what about deli meats? Have you ever felt like you're going through the motions and not really sure what's driving you forward? It's time to rediscover your purpose with my free five-day Discover your why. This is a video workshop that, in just five days, you'll gain clarity on what motivates you and how to align your life and your business with your bigger vision, because when you know your why, you make better decisions, you build momentum and you create a life you actually love. Join the free challenge now at camillewalkerco. That's camillewalkerco, and let's uncover your why together.

Dr. Tracy: 23:02

There's high quality deli meats out there. In fact you mentioned Costco earlier. They use that. What is it true story is that the brand I'm thinking of that is at costco a lot that's organic and um, usually, um, pastured meats, um, like grass-fed beef. I may I think so, if I'm remembering correctly. But you know, it's about reading, reading the label and kind of where did this come from and how was it raised? That's that's important because it really affects the quality. You know, the thing about the grain fed cows and animals is that they're like a cow is supposed to eat grass and when a cow is eating grain it's inflammatory for the cow. So now you're eating it's like named cow. That that's not healthy. It wasn't healthy. It's not good for you either, actually, and it's not good for the environment as well. So a lot of reasons to try to focus on the quality of the meat.

Camille: 23:53

I like that. So here's a question If you obviously are a busy mom and you have to get dinner on the table too, what do you go to for easy dinners and or what's your go-to for eating out If you're like, oh, we got to stop somewhere?

Dr. Tracy: 24:11

Great questions. Well, again I'm going to say Costco. Our Costco is amazing with tons of organic things, tons of grass-fed things and really, um, they even have prepared things that meet these requirements. Um, so there's things that are really easy to heat up that they have. So we kind of will use those as like we'll have them in the fridge as a backup for a night that we're in a hurry or something.

Dr. Tracy: 24:33

But the other thing that we do is cook on the weekends. We'll cook a larger quantity, like, you know, double batch, of something, and have that a few times that week and then, whatever else we do, the other nights are usually something pretty quick to throw together. But I'm a huge fan of the week. Weekend cookup, so to speak, kind of make big mess in the kitchen. I might make multiple things.

Dr. Tracy: 24:54

I've got two of these, like 10 quart Instapots, you know, and those are my, my favorite Cause I can just make all kinds of things. I'll make like soup for kids' lunches, or my husband makes a lot of like chili verde or, you know, roasts in them. So I think those are wonderful tools and I think that that approach to cooking has really worked well for us, because we're both working all day. Yeah, so that's, those are kind of the strategies. A really fast meal at our house is sometimes like some some high quality sausage and a salad, and maybe we quickly like dice up some sweet potatoes and roast them. We have some different things we can throw together pretty quick if need be.

Camille: 25:37

Yeah, and do you ever eat out?

Dr. Tracy: 25:39

Oh yeah, we definitely do.

Camille: 25:41

So where do you go?

Dr. Tracy: 25:43

Well, we have a. We certainly do like our local taqueria, and that's not going to be healthy per se. There's no control over the quality of the food in the meat and it's not organic and there's concerns about microplastics and fryer. So you know, these are the kinds of things it's like we live in the real world and we don't. We don't, we're not purists, but that's not what we're doing every day, like that's the main thing. I think that's important is like what are you doing most of the time? Like the 80, 20 rule, yeah, and there there are some options too that are going to be more healthy. Like Thai food is often a really great choice, you know, that's where I can. Certainly I avoid gluten and I can do that there very easily, and they've got good fats with the coconut milk and veggies and meat, you know. But but that's not like for us, a everyday kind of kind of place.

Camille: 26:29

So I like it. I like asking these real life questions because I'm sure people are listening and going oh, it's so hard, like we stop at McDonald's and my 16 year old really likes McDonald's and I'm like, okay, we need to work on this digestion situation. So I want to talk a little bit more about how we can naturally boost our energy, our mood, through our food. What are some key components that we want to be looking for?

Dr. Tracy: 26:58

Yeah, so we just talked about the things to try to minimize right. Again, you don't have to be perfect, but if you really avoid the processed foods more and the sugars it reduced, that that's going to help a lot. The things then to think about adding in I mentioned the omega-3 fats, so that's going to be from the certain seafood and you want to be careful with the seafood because you don't want to get a lot of mercury at the same time because that's toxic to your brain. So, like wild caught, salmon is the most popular, easy form to get omega-3s in. You do need to eat a lot of it to get enough, and probably four servings a week at least. Yeah, so most people do better to add in some high quality fish oil that contains a lot of omega-3. So omega-3s are the ones you're looking for, are EPA and DHA, so that's what you want to see on the back there. Those are the bulk of it and that is a huge mood booster. There's lots and lots of studies on omega-3s for depression, so that's really important and, again, it's through its anti-inflammatory signaling effects, the other things that are critical for our brain to function right, so that we can feel good, so that the neurons are working right are B vitamins.

Dr. Tracy: 28:12

There's tons of B vitamins. Most of them are found in animal products, but folate is a B vitamin and that's in dark leafy greens, so getting enough of that is important. And then I would also say a couple of minerals are very important, like magnesium and zinc. Often people are low in both of those, and you know, a multivitamin that contains all those bees and some zinc would be really great. And then often supplementing with magnesium is very helpful as well. It can help anxiety, can help sleep, and then it's involved in just hundreds of reactions in the body. Is it's needed for and it's just not. You can. You can certainly focus on magnesium rich foods, but it's hard to get enough through food. So that's when I definitely recommend supplementing with.

Camille: 28:57

I have a magnesium powder form that I love by bio optimizers. I don't have a discount code, but I'm a big fan of Chalene Johnson and if you go to bio optimizers and use Chalene that will give you a discount. And it's a really yummy mix in. I just put it in my water in the mornings and it has helped so much. I love it. It's not something I drink at night, I like drink it in the morning, in the day, and it's fine and I sleep great, so that's been a really good help for me. And then zinc is. We're a big fan of zinc. I think it was when we were going through the years with COVID where we learned that zinc was really good for helping your immune system and fighting off illness, and so we always have chewable zinc on hand and have that for ourselves and our kids. So that's that's been really helpful.

Dr. Tracy: 29:45

Yeah, that's that. Bio-optimizers. Magnesium is good and for if people are having sleep issues it's a good time is to take it at bedtime, but it won't sit like you're experiencing. It's fine to take it, yeah.

Camille: 29:56

Yeah, and then when I drink is like a mixture of magnesium, so I don't it's more than one and I'll link to it below. So yeah, yeah, it's a blend. I'll I'll link to it so you know what I'm talking about, but it's been really, really helpful. What are some of your favorite vitamins or supplements to take?

Dr. Tracy: 30:15

Well, um when, on the magnesium topic, you know you. You mentioned there are a lot of forms of magnesium in what you're taking, and that's right. Some are going to be more laxative, so they're helpful If you're not having bowel movements every day. People will say this is a little pet peeve of mine and, well, a concern of mine. I should say that when people will say, oh, I'm regular, I go every three days, like no, you need to go every day, easily, that otherwise you're not detoxifying properly. So if you're somebody who doesn't go to the bathroom every day, doesn't have bowel movement every day, then magnesium citrate is a really great option. It's gentle but it is helpful. But when people don't have that problem, I like to use magnesium glycinate a lot, and that's largely because of my psychiatry perspective. The glycine in there is very helpful for anxiety, as is the magnesium, so that combo is lovely for helping people feel calmer, more relaxed, less anxious.

Camille: 31:13

I have a question about that because I have a child who is coming off of a prescription of sertraline and I was talking with a friend yesterday and she said, well, what is the doctor's protocol for the weaning Like, what are you supplementing with? And I was like, oh my gosh, I should have asked that she's like you need to talk to a functional doctor. So this is really kismet, because I would love to hear what your opinion is on that.

Dr. Tracy: 31:41

If you are weaning off of something you know like a Prozac or a yeah or a Sertraline or something like that, yeah, I think it's really important and unfortunately, I think when you ask most psychiatrists, they won't have a protocol out Cause they just aren't taught that they don't even know. Yeah, really, some basic things can make a big difference, and they're the things I've already mentioned. Um, and I would say like being on some of these for several um months before weaning makes the going to ups the chances that it's going to be a smooth process.

Camille: 32:13

So, magnesium, for sure, the B vitamins we just talked about so the sorry to interrupt you, the glycinate one or the yeah I mean just about any form except for magnesium oxide.

Dr. Tracy: 32:25

That doesn't get absorbed. But magnesium glycinate is wonderful, and that would you know, especially in the case where someone was on an ssri that then it's probably depression or anxiety. So magnesium glycinate is going to be helpful. And then the B vitamins, making sure it has the active form of folate in it. Um, so don't not one that says folic acid, but one that says L dash, mthf. That's the kind of folate you want in there, cause a lot of people with depression or anxiety are struggling with difficulty making that active form, and so getting that in the vitamins is going to be helpful.

Camille: 32:59

Now does that mean that it's methylated, or okay?

Dr. Tracy: 33:03

Okay, yes, that's the if you've heard about methylated B vitamins and that's the form of folate, yeah, okay, perfect, which means the active form in the body, cause some people's genetics make it a little bit harder to do that to methylate. And then zinc. Yes, you know, making sure that the zinc is, is on board. Now you gotta be careful with these things. You can't do high dose zinc for a long time with. You can deplete your copper that way. But zinc in a multivitamin is fine. And then the omega-3s. That's really, really important. So you know I would be on. I mean, I can't give any specific medical advice, but an average amount for people that can be helpful is probably two grams of omega-3s. So getting a high quality one, that's usually two large soft gels.

Camille: 33:46

Yeah, okay, yeah, that's helpful because I oh sorry, there's more.

Dr. Tracy: 33:51

That's the main. Those are the ones that come to mind right off the bat. I would say also sometimes nutritional lithium, so lithium orotate, like five milligrams, this is just a mineral. This is not prescription lithium for bipolar disorder. This is like a teeny, tiny dose that people. Lithium is found naturally in water supplies, but the amount varies, and that's one other thing that's been helpful for lots of people coming off is just making sure that that amount that minerals present as well.

Camille: 34:20

And is that something you get over the counter, or is that something?

Dr. Tracy: 34:22

you need.

Camille: 34:25

That's interesting. I haven't heard of that one. And something with that too is for someone who is taking a lot of, let's say, they're having digestion issues, and there is almost that battle because if you are doing, let's say, like a Prilosec or something like that, and it can cause so that people aren't as regular, but then it reduces the acid reflux, it kind of becomes this yo-yo of like pulling back and forth. What would you suggest for people who are in that state?

Dr. Tracy: 34:56

A couple of things. First of all, if you're in that state and you're having any issue with mood or fatigue or like nerve pain, if you've been on Prilosec for a long time, you may have really depleted your vitamin B12. So taking a B12 lozenge under the tongue, that's what I would be doing right away. If you're on a proton pump inhibitor, that's that kind of medication. But to get more at the root cause of this reflux, there's a number of reasons people can have it, but often things can improve quite a bit If they do that step I talked about earlier, which is reducing the process.

Dr. Tracy: 35:30

Carbohydrates that can be a game changer for reflux. I mean, what? What you've got going on? There is poor digestion, then kind of forcing acid up the esophagus. There's this pressure. You want the stomach acid, you need that for digestion and that's why you deplete the B12, because you don't absorb B12 without enough stomach acid. So, um, you know, shutting down the acid is sort of like an emergency thing to help with the pain from the that that acid's causing in the esophagus, where it shouldn't even be right. So you do that temporarily, but if you can get the root cause, you want that acid again in the stomach so that you can be killing bacteria and activating enzymes and doing all the things it's supposed to do for digestion.

Camille: 36:11

Okay, really good advice. I w. Those are just the top two things that come to my mind, and I know that with functional medicine, there's so many other symptoms that people have with like rashing, like breaking out in. Is it psoriasis or?

Dr. Tracy: 36:27

skin condition yeah.

Camille: 36:31

Which I know that that can be affected a lot by your food and there's a lot of different questions that people have. What is a good, let's say, and I'm not sure if your practice treats people virtually.

Dr. Tracy: 36:42

Do you offer that or yes, we do, but they have to be California residents.

Camille: 36:48

Okay, so for someone who maybe isn't in California, what would be a good way to find resources for this type of medical help?

Dr. Tracy: 36:59

Yeah. So if you're looking for education like you're early to these ideas, you you want to learn more. That's why I created my online course, which is the natural mood solution, where you can really learn about all these things we're talking about today and the steps you can take on your own. Then, if you're looking for a provider practitioner like maybe you've you've done a bunch of work on your own Then, if you're looking for a provider practitioner like maybe you've done a bunch of work on your own now and lots of things are better, but certain things still aren't better you need to dive deeper and get testing Then I would utilize the Institute for functional medicines website. They have a find a practitioner tool there and that's a great way to find somebody in your area who you can see that they're certified by them and properly trained.

Camille: 37:38

Okay, well, cool. So you have this course. We'll make sure to link to that below. I would love to check that out. I love to ask very real questions. As you can tell, I've been like grilling you, but I'm curious. This last set is what is a typical day for you Of what you're eating, or, and also exercise and also vitamins? I would just love to hear, like, what works for you, let's of what you're eating or, and also exercise and also vitamins. I would just love to hear, like, what works for you and I know that this is not medical advice, it's just your opinion but what are some go-to like? Ooh, this is a great breakfast I love to have, or lunch or dinner.

Dr. Tracy: 38:13

Yeah, let's see. Well, I've I've done different things at different times and actually the supplements that I'm taking, that's pretty highly personalized to me right now, like I, I revisit that plan every few months with a colleague of mine who is my doctor, and we do a certain kind of testing to do that, so that it's like always a different regimen.

Camille: 38:31

That's amazing. So are you doing like your? What kind of tests? Like blood saliva, all of the things every few months, okay, yeah.

Dr. Tracy: 38:41

Or also, yes, that's essentially right, and there's also a. We utilize an autonomic response testing which is like a um, a muscle testing based approach, which also tells you what the body actually wants right now, which is really that's amazing or like a hair test, Do you have?

Camille: 38:57

have you done those too, to see what is?

Dr. Tracy: 39:00

often for minerals, and this kind of limited it can tell you certain things for sure but yeah, I've done that before with the liver detox and it was fascinating.

Dr. Tracy: 39:09

Yeah, so, um. So my supplements change like regularly, but I will tell you themes are supporting detoxification I have some had some mold in my system. I'm working on getting out mold toxins. That's really important to get rid of, if you've got that, um, supporting hormone balance, you know, and reducing inflammation, just different things that are targeted toward that. And uh, food wise, why, for a long time I've had a.

Dr. Tracy: 39:35

I like to start my day with the, what is called, based on the creator of it, a rocket fuel latte.

Dr. Tracy: 39:41

It's actually it's kind of based on the idea of a bulletproof coffee Okay, that would or a butter coffee, but this is actually, and I drink, like a water process decaf coffee and then I put in cacao, and I put in um, cacao butter and a little few drops of Stevia and um, a little bit of collagen powder and just begin my day with the sort of high fat drink, and then I might have some eggs if I'm hungrier and um, and I'm always making eggs for my kids and other, sometimes other breakfast and then lunch, um, I did a salad delivery for quite a while, but now I've been um, doing a trial of ketogenic diet, so I'm back making my own food for that, and I usually will cook something that I can have for a number of days. So, like last week, it was this um Indian butter chicken recipe with like a rice cauliflower, and that was really delicious. Now it's just like chicken mole, so I'll have to be hungry.

Dr. Tracy: 40:44

I know it's almost lunchtime. That sounds good, so I will usually make something that I can reheat and enjoy. The salad thing was fun to have delivered. I am bad about making my own because I don't have like all the different ingredients that they'll put in, but I used this little, which is really a great um service. If it's in your area they do wonderful um salad delivery options. I know they're in. They're all over California and they're in Washington DC now and I think maybe New York. I'm not sure anyhow, but that's a great service If you're busy. You know working mom, and you want something really healthy delivered. It just was too high carb for my keto plan that I'm trying. And then dinners are all kinds of things but, um, you know some kind of. So you know some kind of clean protein. It's either a fish or or meat of some sort with lots of veggies and tasty sauces, and you know it's all about enjoying the food. Yeah, in our house.

Camille: 41:42

So no, that sounds amazing. I also was wondering do you? What is your opinion on bioidentical hormone? Is that something that's a part of your practice as well? What? Is your opinion on this, and when do you think people should start it?

Dr. Tracy: 41:57

I mean that's when they should start it as pretty individual, but I do. I'm a big fan of bioidentical hormones and see the huge benefits all the time in my practice and you know I'm even you see it in the I'm part of a mastermind right now about reversing cognitive decline from Dr For anybody interested, dr Dale Bredesen's research on on reversing Alzheimer's. It's really amazing and it's a functional medicine approach and the hormones are a key part of that. Like, for some people that's the, that nerve sort of growth signal that they need, and there's I've worked with of growth signal that they need and there's I've worked with lots of women that when menopause hit there, they just felt like their brain wasn't working right anymore and I mean they need the hormones.

Dr. Tracy: 42:46

Hormones are very, very helpful for a number of things bone health, you know, skin health, I mean. It goes on and on. So yeah, I find them very helpful. I do think it's important to do all the other parts besides hormones to make sure that you're the the other hormones in the body are balanced right, because they all interact like insulin, thyroid and cortisol, and then the metabolism of the hormones that you're. You know when, if you're taking estrogen, you got to make sure you're metabolizing it properly down the healthy pathway and on unhealthy pathway. So those are things we monitor but I'm a failure.

Camille: 43:23

Yeah, yeah, okay. What is your opinion on testosterone bioidentical hormone? There's so much controversy in my world with is the pellet good or is it bad, or is the shot better or the creams Like? I know it's different in its preference, but for your opinion I'm curious.

Dr. Tracy: 43:36

Preface this by saying I don't use a lot of testosterone on my practice. It's not my focus. That's another one where I feel like I work a lot more upstream. You know why is the testosterone low? I want to work on why that is. For a lot of people that's inflammation and so, um, that's really important to address. Like you, like men with low testosterone, usually that's the cause and if you just give more testosterone, they just convert that to estrogen.

Camille: 44:00

And interesting. So that's where it would be linked to less inflammatory foods.

Dr. Tracy: 44:06

Yeah, that would be important. That would be one piece of the puzzle for improving their testosterone Um. But I will say when I do prescribe testosterone um for well, for men or women, it's a cream, I mean for men sometimes a gel.

Camille: 44:20

Okay, all right. Well, I think I have used up so much of your time. This has just been a well of knowledge. Thank you so much for taking the time and sharing this with us, and please let our audience know where they can connect with you, your practice, your course and everything online.

Dr. Tracy: 44:37

Yeah, um, you can find me on Instagram at Dr Tracy McCarthy. That's D R T R A C Y M C C A R T H Y, and my website is drtracymccarthycom, and where you can find information on the practice for California residents and the. I have also a free guide that is a great way to to learn more about what you can be doing now, today, to start feeling better, and that's called the top 10 overlooked causes of depression, anxiety and brain fog.

Dr. Tracy: 45:07

You can find that at drtracymccarthycom backslash top 10, which is T O P one zero.

Camille: 45:13

Perfect, we'll make sure to link to that as well. Thank you so much for coming on the show. This was so much fun, and thank you for taking all my questions. There's two questions I ask all my guests, and it's what are you reading, watching or listening to? And the second is a motherhood moment you'd like to share okay.

Dr. Tracy: 45:31

Well, I'm usually reading several things at a time and listening to a few things at a time. Just this morning I was listening again to Mel Robbins. Let them really enjoying that, finding that very helpful. I think a lot of us have been conditioned lifelong to be people pleasers in some way and that's that's, I think, a helpful book on letting go of some of that so that we can have less stress and be happier and healthier Amazing. I would recommend that.

Dr. Tracy: 45:59

Um gosh motherhood moment. There's just um so many, but I'm just thinking about my boys, who are both wrestlers and learning that. What really watching this season, learning a lot more about what, what's going on when I'm watching it to understand it, and then around at home, like trying to do these moves with them, which is pretty funny, cause I feel like that's the thing usually dads are doing, like you know, physically playing with the kids in a way where I might be doing, you know, a different kind of interaction, but it just gets great, like, just like trying to play wrestle with myself. I mean he could pick my butt any day, so he's going extremely gentle on me because you know he's taller than me now, but it's, it's a lot of fun, so that's been funny lately.

Camille: 46:44

Oh, that's so cool. I love that you wrestle with your boys my two younger boys, that's their love language. They're like tickle me, mom, wrestle me. They just love it. So that's amazing. All right, Well, thank you everyone for tuning in today. I hope you enjoyed all of those questions and answers. I know I did. I was taking notes. I'm going to go back and make some changes and know that it's one step at a time. If you're feeling overwhelmed because Dr McCarthy is killing it, that's okay. We can do it one step at a time and it's worth the investment of your time. So I'm wishing you a happy, healthy day and I can't wait to see you next time. Hey CEOs, thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you found this episode inspiring or helpful, please let me know in a comment. In a five star review, you could have the chance of being a featured review on an upcoming episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram at callmeCEOPodcast and remember you are the boss.