If you’re feeling like you need to take something long-term “a forever supplement”, there’s definitely something wrong with your environment. You’re accumulating toxicity from places you probably aren’t even aware of. Remember, there’s a reason I call them tricky toxins and you need to track them down and mitigate them in whatever way is possible.
Welcome to the Let’s Talk Toxin show. Imagine feeling your best every day, no matter what life throws at you. In today’s episode, we’re chatting about why women should rotate their supplements and how to do it easily for better health.
Have you noticed that supplement maybe seem to work great initially, but doesn’t seem to do much now? Or maybe you feel more tired some days, even though you’re taking your vitamins? Switching up your supplements can make a big difference.
And if you’re new here, I’m Dr. Gala Gorman, a licensed acupuncturist, naturopath and author of What’s Your Kryptonite? I wrote the book to help women understand the effects of chronic stress that’s turned toxic. In the book I share the MOLT Method™ I developed to make it easy to shed stress along with the accumulated toxicity. Just like any other creature in nature that’s outgrown its trappings. So that you can cruise through midlife and beyond symptom-free. So that you can put an end to health issues like chronic fatigue, insomnia, mood swings, or even weight gain.
MOLT in this case is an acronym. The T stands for Toxins. And I can say with confidence that every symptom is caused by accumulated toxicity. I evaluate 12 categories of toxicity when I’m working with someone to unravel a health mystery. Our world is full of man-made substances that our bodies were not designed to deal with. Couple this toxicity with an overwhelming amount of toxic stressors the body was designed to manage. And it’s no wonder women find themselves playing whack-a-mole with symptoms.
In this segment, I share information from research studies related to toxicity. You can think of it as a toxin trend. Here’s a report that’s a great example of a toxin trend.
In this case, scientists have found an unexpected helper in the battle against diabetes. They found that they can use a toxin from the venom of a dangerous cone snail. Now, this toxin is called, “Consomatin”. And it mimics a human hormone, somatostatin, that controls blood sugar levels. This study shows that cconsomatin is more stable and targets the specific proteins better than many current medications.
Now, this is an exciting discovery because it is an alternative to synthetic chemical medications, and it could lead to new and improved treatments for diabetes and even hormone disorders. So using nature’s own designs can help us stay healthy. All medications start with herbs or natural ingredients. But they tend to add a lot of chemicals that increase their toxicity. For a number of reasons, they’re excuses that they’re trying to make them more effective. But I will say that often, there’s kind of an side motive and that is that they need to be able to patent chemical components.
And so, you know, you can’t patent something that grows naturally in nature. You’ve got to create something essentially synthetic and of a chemical nature to be able to patent it. That’s just one of the reasons why medication tends to be something we want to look at as a last resort.
We definitely want to try lifestyle adjustments first. So, before I would even consider something like this somatostatin, I would definitely want to be working to improve my lifestyle. And, even using what I refer to as my Human Energy System Reboot. And, you know, you can learn to practice this regularly in just ten days. And it’s really a quick and easy way, not just to reboot your human energy system. It definitely does that, but it also helps to educate you on the types of things that you need to be paying attention to that are adding stress in your life. And that escalates to toxic stress.
So, as I mentioned, these snails are providing really interesting options that may potentially be used down the road for balancing hormones and treating diabetes. But these are not garden snails, these are deep sea cone snails and they’re venomous. So don’t think that eating escargo is going to help you in this particular situation.
Chapter 12 in my book, “What’s your Kryptonite?” is dedicated to helping readers manage what I refer to as Tricky Toxins. Our bodies are bombarded with toxicity so we have to learn to manage it. Just comment, “tricky toxins,” and we’ll send you a link where you can download the chapter for free. And if commenting isn’t convenient, go to DrGala.com/Links and sign up for my Wellness Weekly Newsletter. You can respond to any email you receive from me with “tricky toxins,” and we’ll send you a link.
So, every suggestion you’ll hear from me has been tested in the trenches that includes saying no to symptom suppression. Over the past four decades, I’ve developed processes that work sustainably. Typically, it requires a combination of approaches that I’ve synthesized to address the health issues that show up repeatedly for many women.
In this segment. I’m opening the kimono to share how I was challenged to apply my suggestions. I’m Walking My Talk and here’s an example. So lately, we’ve had a lot of gray days. In fact, the day I’m recording this, it’s gray again outside, and it’s just really pointing to the fact that winter is right around the corner. And I need to make a plan to offset that kind of dreary, down feeling that accompanies a lack of sunshine.
So, I have been caught in the past where it just kind of accumulated. And then I find that I just feel like I need to escape and I don’t want to end up there again this winter. So now’s the time to start thinking about how I’m going to offset this. And one of the ways I do that is by using daylight bulbs and light fixtures. And so you can tell here where I’m recording this video.
I have a lot of daylight bulbs around myself and it really helps to brighten the mood, not to mention brighten in the environment. It’s way healthier to work under the daylight bulbs rather than the fluorescent bulbs.
And then I want to make sure that when it is sunny outside, I’m taking the opportunity to walk.
And so I check outdoors and I see what the weather conditions are like. And, you know, I can walk on my treadmill any time, but if it’s sunny outside, I’m going to get out there and take advantage of it.
And then the last thing I will recommend here, that I use myself is red light. And red light is really awesome therapy that doesn’t directly produce Vitamin D. Like vitamin D production in the skin is primarily triggered by ultraviolet not red light. But red light therapy can enhance skin’s thickness. So I find that using a red light mask really helps improving the appearance of my skin, but I’m also getting that red light in my eyes. Even through my closed eyes on my eyelids and it really helps to improve just my overall mood and appearance.
And again, red light therapy enhances skin thickness. So, it makes it more efficient at producing vitamin D when exposed to UV light. So, red light therapy offers a lot of health benefits. It improves skin health, reduces inflammation, but it’s not to be relied on a hundred percent for vitamin D production.
If you really have a challenge getting out in the sunshine enough, then you are going to have to supplement with vitamin D. But you need to manage that carefully because vitamin D is a hormone and it is essentially hormone replacement therapy.
Now, let’s talk about how women should rotate supplements for optimal wellness. And when I’m done drop a comment and let me know if you rotate your supplements and what your strategy is.
So, I was at a conference a few months ago and the conference was hosted by a supplement manufacturer. So, imagine how refreshing it was to hear the supplement manufacturer talk about how toxicity can impede a simulation of the supplements and that we don’t need to be taking the supplements forever. We need to be addressing the toxicity.
It’s just really important to remember that if you’re feeling like you need to take something long-term “a forever supplement”, there’s definitely something wrong with your environment.
You’re accumulating toxicity from places you probably aren’t even aware of. Remember, there’s a reason I call them tricky toxins and you need to track them down mitigate them in whatever way is possible.
The other thing I wanted to just share here is that. There is a German doctor, she was up actually, she’s no longer around, Her name is Hannah Kroger. And I had the pleasure of training a bit with Hannah Kroger. You know, Gosh, probably at least 35 years ago. And Hannah back then was talking about the energetic disturbance with electromagnetic frequencies. She talked about even using a microwave to cook your food and how damaging that was or using something that we just consider something natura and that is using a heated blanket and electric blanket.
And so just know that all of these frequencies are interfering with your body’s own signals. So you want to be minimizing the effects of that as much as possible. And when we need to detox, we need to use a targeted detox protocol, so that we’re addressing what the real problem is. Because detoxing is stressful on your body and you don’t want to be applying a detox strategy that isn’t even really going to address the problem. You don’t want to put your body under additional stress. That’s not being done for a really good reason.
The strategy that I use for rotating supplements started with a visit to a doctor. The city that I lived in many years ago, this was again, probably almost 30 years ago now. He’s a chiropractor, no longer practicing, he’s been retired for a long time. But it was fascinating, it was the first time I had ever seen anyone use supplements therapeutically. And so what does it mean by therapeutic?
Well, therapeutic means that you’re using potentially even a stronger dose of the natural substance. It’s some kind of natural supplement. And you’re using it only for a period of time, just to essentially to reboot your system and reminded of what it was designed to do naturally.
I went to this doctor after I had a car accident, a severe car accident. And fortunately, I had walked away with nothing more than a bruise on my shin. Within a few months, I had developed what they refer to as delayed whiplash.
And so I went to him for quite a few months to reverse the effects of this car accident. And in the process I learned so much about how to use supplements in a way that really essentially equates to all natural medication. He used muscle testing or, you know, a form of kinesiology for the supplement and the dose and the time period. It was always one to three weeks. I have evolved this strategy over the years and I use my scanning system to test these same things.
I find it more accurate and reliable than muscle testing. But if your doctor uses muscle testing, that’s a great way to go too. It’s certainly proven the test of time.
The other thing too, is really important component of this doctor strategy was ingesting protein. And in my Human Energy System Reboot using protein is one of the seven ways that we use to reboot the human energy system. But he would not adjust you if you had not consumed any protein since you woke up. I will also add that you need to be consuming water as well, especially, if you’re going to be treated by me. I use microcurrent and your energy production simply does not work if you’re dehydrated.
So protein is really important, it doesn’t have to be a ton of protein. Probably even 10 grams would be enough, but you really want more like 20 to 30 grams in every meal. So if you’re getting up and you’re eating a meal in the morning, make sure that meal is not super,ou know, carb heavy with hardly any protein. You need to make sure that you’re consuming protein, that protein is feeding your body’s energy system, supporting your bones and your muscles and all your connective tissue.
So, you might recall a moment ago that I talked about vitamin D being a hormone essentially. And so vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble vitamins. What this means is that your liver has to essentially digest those. They’re not just flushed through the intestinal tract, the digestive normal digestive tract. They require more work. And if you are consuming more fat than you can burn off, then they’re going to accumulate and create toxicity.
In this case, liver toxicity, which, you know, most of us already have a liver that’s struggling due to all the inflammatory oils we consume and that sort of thing. So you definitely do not want to be consuming any more of these vitamins. Then absolute best way to megadose vitamin D is to use the sun. And if you can get out in the sun, in the morning for about 30 minutes, the best way to do this is to sunbathe nude.
But if that’s really not a possibility for you, then just throw on your walking clothes and get out there and walk in the morning sun. And you’re going to tick a lot of things off of that to do list if you do that.
So I have a couple of things I still want to share with you so that rotating supplements will lead you towards optimal wellness. But remember you can get the Tricky Toxins chapter of my book in “What’s Your Kryptonite?” for free. Just comment, tricky toxins and we’ll send you a link where you can download the chapter. If commenting isn’t convenient, go to DrGala.com/Links and sign up for my Wellness Weekly Newsletter. You can respond to any email you received from me with “tricky toxins,” and we’ll send you a link.
Now let’s continue with a couple of additional things I want you to know about rotating supplements to improve their effectiveness. And, don’t forget when I’m done drop a comment and let me know if you rotate your supplements and how you do that.
So, we talked a moment ago about fat-soluble vitamins as a form of, toxicity. And so I’ll also caution you that herbs can lead to toxicity as well. So, a medication is all based on some sort of herbal treatment, but they have added chemicals that make it more toxic. They would say that they make it more effective. It is indisputable that it also makes it more toxic and creates more side effects.
Herbs are often a medication alternative and you may need to take what would be referred to as like a therapeutic dose, as I mentioned previously, which means you might need to take it. Take more of the herbs or more often. And that can lead to toxicity if you’re not managing that well. So, we want to make sure that we’re promoting any sort of detox that needs to happen on an ongoing basis.
Some of the ways that we do that just generally, that will work regardless of the toxicity is with fasting. Even something as simple as using 18-6 fasting. Again, this is another way we use in the human energy system. But 18-6 fasting, meaning you’ve got a six-hour eating window, allowing for 18 hours of digestive breasts that can allow your body to at least do a little bit of cleanup using the process known as autophagy.
But if you can go a little longer 24, 25, 26 hours, it will reboot your intestinal tract and promote gut health. So that’s really great to do one or two days. The other thing too, that you want to make sure with herbs, just like food or any other supplement you want to rotate them. And so if you’re using some herbs that are calm and lean used as seasoning. For example, let’s just say parsley or something like that. You want to make sure that you’re rotating that, and you’re not just putting parsley or cilantro or something like that on everything you want you want to rotate and not condition your body to get the same thing repeatedly.
So, what do I do? Well, I use a protocol every three months and this I find helps me manage toxicity over the long haul. So, if I introduce a new protocol every three months, that gives my body plenty of time to rest and to essentially practice what I’ve educated it with. And then if I’m moderating toxicity between that month or so that I’m on the protocol. And the three months that I start the next protocol, then when I re-evaluate myself at three months I can see what’s still kind of lingering.
And and then I know that there are things that I’ve got to kind of up my game and do a better job of targeting. Again, all need to be moderating toxicity and we need to be looking at our environment and evaluating where that toxicity is coming from. I use bioenergetic scan to identify what types of toxicity are creating energetic disturbance in the body and to a great degree. And so this helps us really narrow down what we need to focus on.
The other thing I will say is that if I see signs of a problem, I act quickly. And so if I really notice some change, and it lasts for more than a few days. I’m going to evaluate myself quickly and probably even put myself on a new protocol.
In some cases, when there’s an acute situation, let’s just say that you’re on a protocol and then you get, catch a cold or flu. You need to pause what you’re doing and apply a different protocol that addresses a different situation. And you don’t want to continue doing both because that protocol that is addressing a chronic situation may actually be making matters worse. It’s pushing your body to do things that it doesn’t have the energy to do when it’s also fighting some form of infection. So really important to watch for the warning signs and act accordingly.
The answers I give to questions I receive quite often apply to and would be helpful for most women. I’ve accumulated a few related questions and I’ll answer them in this segment, Ask away! If you’d like to ask a question, I created a form so that it’s sure to get answered. And your question could be shared in a future episode, helping many other women. So, comment “QUESTION” and we’ll get you a link to the form.
If commenting isn’t convenient, go to DrGala.com/Links and sign up for my Wellness Weekly Newsletter. You can respond to any email you received from me with “QUESTION” and we’ll send you a link.
Can rotating supplements help prevent my body from becoming “immune” to their effects?
Well, I will say that we’ve probably all heard the story of The Boy that Cried Wolf, right. So if we are supplementing with the same thing trying to use it in a preventative way. Then when we really have a problem, that supplement’s not going to do anything. We’re not gonna have sort of anywhere to go with it. And we’ve actually weakened our body’s internal systems.
So, I’ll use zinc as an example. A few years ago, when all the craziness started happening, it was recommended that we increase our zinc. And that makes sense because zinc is what’s known as an ionophore. What’s happening sometimes with these crazy diseases is that they found a way into the cell and the cell is struggling to be able to fight back. And so, zinc allows other things that we want to get into the cell.
And so it could be really helpful when you’re fighting something off to increase your zinc. Our body naturally produces zinc from the things that we consume, but we want to increase our zinc when it’s really necessary. But if you’re taking zinc all the time, then when you need to increase zinc, you really can’t do that. Because your body’s just been conditioned to think that it’s only going to get zinc from essentially outside of natural sources.
So, and you don’t want to take zinc in a megadose, if you will, because that will throw off your mineral balance and can create other issues. Zinc is tightly correlated with copper. And so how the zinc and copper ratio is managed in your body is really important. So it’s just really critical that we not just take these supplements especially anything that is not just a water-soluble vitamin, long-term.
And minerals are an example of this fat-soluble vitamins, you may have heard me speak about fat-soluble vitamins, A D E and K. So, all of these supplements that we take are potentially creating an imbalance in our neuro-transmitters and our internal cellular signaling and processing. And it’s not that different from what would be happening if we were taking a chemical medication.
So, we think we’re doing ourselves a favor by using these natural supplements rather than medication. And we may really not be accomplishing anything and they’re costly, you know, there’s absolutely no reason to be taking things that you don’t need spending the money on them and adding toxicity in the process.
Are there specific supplements that work better for women in their 50s compared to younger women?
Well, I will say that many women that I talk to have turned to hormone replacement therapy. I, for many reasons, do not recommend that you “jack” with your hormones. If your hormones are fluctuating more than what would be considered normal for a post-menopausal woman. Then there is something, some toxicity, that’s interfering with the process.
If you’re cycling still and you’re not menopausal. Then, you know, if your cycle is abnormal and that means that you’re pretty right on with 28 days. And your cycle’s really regular, then you’ve got a hormone disruption even prior to menopause. And you definitely do not want to be turning to hormone replacement therapy before you even get to that point. It can create all sorts of side effects.
And so one of the things that’s really important for women of any age to consider is that their adrenals are what is actually managing hormone balance. And so, you know, we have reproductive organs that are highly involved in this when we’re cycling. But as we age and that system starts shutting down. It becomes even more of a burden on the adrenals to kind of pick up the slack in the hormone production.
And so if you are going into menopause with adrenal fatigue, then you can expect a pretty bumpy ride hormone wise. And supplementing with hormones is not the answer. The answer is to deal with the stress and the toxicity that is creating the adrenal fatigue in the first place.
And this typically cannot be solved by just supplementing with things that are known to help the adrenals. You will most likely need to take additional action. And that includes a targeted detox that addresses whatever toxicity has built up in your body. And that is causing the additional stress.
Many of us find that, you know, we know we’re leading a pretty stressful life, but even when we practice stress reduction techniques and we, you know, feel kind of relaxed that feeling of being stressed and anxious returns fairly quickly. And that’s a clear sign that you’ve got a toxic buildup because if you practice stress relief and you feel like it’s working and you’ve accomplished something. And then without stepping back into a super stressful situation, you feel like you’ve got some stress building again. Just know that stress isn’t coming from too many things on your to-do list, most likely.
How do I balance supplement rotation with medications I’m already taking?
The most important thing I will say here is that medication must be taken as directed. This is really powerful chemical being introduced into your system, it’s interrupting your internal signaling. And if you just remove that disruptor, that signal disruptor, it will take a while for your body to restore its natural signaling process.
And there could be some significant problems created in that process. So, any medication if you have taken it for a while that needs to be managed by your prescribing physician. So, very careful with medications. And I will also say that there are some supplements that will complement or, you know, enhance the medication’s effect.
And so, you have to be cautious with that as well, because if the supplements are complementing the medication, then you may need a smaller dose. And so again, any supplementation, if you are taking medication, I would really look to the advice of the prescribing physician.
The other thing I will say is that, any time you are prescribed a medication, honestly before agreeing to take it, I would check the side effects. You can go to a site called epocrates or, you know, even just webMD. And it’ll make it really clear what the side effects are. And the prescribing doctor may say, Oh, those side effects are rare” or “let’s just try it and see, you may not have the side effects”
And just know that if the side effects were common enough for them to report these side effects, though that medication is causing disruption to those systems that are essentially controlled by whatever that symptom is that’s showing up. And so even if your body is able to manage it and you’re not having an extreme side effect from the medication. It is putting more stress on your system.
So, really any medication should be taken as a last resort and only with real careful consideration.
How do I adjust my supplement rotation if I’m trying to address a specific health concern, like bone density or heart health?
So, I will say that this is the same thing I would always recommend. And that, if you are taking medications for these things, the medication has to be considered first before you consider any other supplementation. Sometimes, the physician will recommend supplementation along with the medication. And so that would indicate that they have considered what the medication and the supplement does and that they’re good with combining them.
But remember here that anything can build up toxicity, especially if your body really doesn’t need it to that degree. And, the other thing I will say is that your body was designed to repair itself, to do repair and maintenance naturally.
So, if that’s not happening, something is going on to create a problem. I was meeting with a woman this week. My husband had a hip surgery recently, and so I typically share that with people. And she said, “I had a hip replacement too,” and she showed me her x-rays where her hip had degenerated to the point where literally there was no ball, no head on her bone.
And she said she had degenerated to the point of being in a wheelchair and now she was able to do everything, play pickleball. You know, do Pilates. So, you know, certainly if the degeneration gets to the point where you are not mobile, then surgery is definitely your only option at that point.
But let’s not let it get to that point at the first signs when you start seeing joint aching and you know, signs that there’s toxicity building up in your joints. Let’s deal with that so that you don’t end up needing surgery. I can tell you that my husband now is taking a different approach so that his other hip doesn’t ultimately need surgery.
There’s lots of people that end up having one joint done, and then they need the other side done within a few years. So, let’s not even get it started with the first side.
If you are not taking medication. Then your goal is really just to restore homeostasis with any of these supplements or otherwise. And so all we’re really trying to do is reboot our system. To remind it what it’s designed to do naturally. Again, it’s supposed to do all the repair and maintenance necessary all by itself with just our raw building blocks that we consume food, air, water, that sort of.
We want to make sure that we’re not interfering with that, and we’re not creating more toxicity by trying to artificially solve a problem. Rather, we want to make sure that we are focusing on the root cause, a root cause resolution focus.
Is it true that I can get enough vitamin D from sunlight? How much sun exposure do I actually need?
Well, I’ll share that this summer, we spent a few months in Florida and everybody escapes Florida in the summertime because they don’t like that much sun. I live someplace where it’s cloudy a lot and we don’t get as much sun. It’s beautiful and lush. But I miss the sun and so this condo had a porch. And every morning, I sat out on the porch for about an hour and did my meditation and, and just really soaked up the sun.
And I just felt so much better. It makes all the difference in the world. And in this particular case, I could easily sit out there for an hour because it was in the morning. I was typically done by 9 or 10 o’clock in the morning. But you know, if you’re going out later in the day, you might need to limit your exposure maybe to only like a half an hour.
Keep in mind though that in order to actually have your melanin get triggered. And actually produce a tan in your skin, which is actually a good sign. You need that daily exposure, no sunscreen. And really just enough to gently tan incrementally, not like burn and peel, that is causing significant damage in a lot of different ways.
So, vitamin D, you absolutely can get enough vitamin D from the sun, but it does require that you have enough sun exposure. And for many people they just don’t get nearly enough sun exposure. And so now, they’re trying to supplement with vitamin D and that creates all kinds of other issues.
Vitamin D is a hormone, it’s fat-soluble. And so it’s easy to have it create toxicity. And if you’ve already got kind of a sluggish liver, then it’s not assimilating anyway. So, no wonder your vitamin D levels aren’t coming up. That’s why best to get your vitamin D through your skin. I have a whole post about this, which you can find on my website at DrGala.com.
And remember if you’d like me to answer your specific question, make sure to comment “QUESTION”, and we’ll send you a link to the submission form. You’ll want to subscribe to the channel notifications to get regular updates.
And that’s a wrap for this episode. This has been the Let’s Talk Toxin show. Make sure you subscribe to my channel on YouTube and activate the notifications. You’ll get a reminder when I’m going live next until then. Be well.
