Episode 16
Episode 16
Monica Hershaft:
When Your Labs are Normal But You Know You're Sick
Monica Hershaft specializes in chronic mystery illness and autoimmunity. In this episode she shares with us the 5 layers to illness that are universal and her three-pillar approach to reclaiming health.
First Aired on: Jan 3, 2022
Table of Contents:
In this episode:
Today we are joined by Monica Hershaft, a true trailblazer in the wellness space. With her area of specialty being chronic mystery illness and autoimmune, this is a must listen to episode. We discuss the all-too-common occurrence of the search for answers when labs are normal and doctors tell you that you are fine, even though you feel sick. Monica shares with us the 5 layers to illness that are universal, and her three-pillar approach to reclaiming health.
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Episode Transcript
Julie Michelson: Welcome back to the inspired living with auto-immunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Michelson. And today we're joined by Monica Hershaft, a true trailblazer in the wellness space with our area of specialty being chronic mystery illness. And auto-immune, this is a must listen to episode. We'll discuss the all too common occurrence of the search for answers.
[Page//00:00:55] When your labs are normal and doctors tell you that you are fine even though you [Page//00:01:00] feel sick. Monica shares with us, the five layers to illness that are universal and her three pillar approach to reclaiming health.
[Page//00:01:09] Monica welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you with us today.
[Page//00:01:13] Monica Hershaft: Thank you. I'm so happy to be here.
[Page//00:01:16] Julie Michelson: I am very familiar with your story and I find it powerful. And most of the guests that come on have their own personal journey, whether it's themselves or a loved one that got them into. Healing world. So if you would share with listeners, you know, tell us a little bit about you and how you got to be this chronic mystery illness guru.
[Page//00:01:44] Monica Hershaft: Thank you. I mean, it's, you know, it's a story that so many people have in different versions and basically in my situation And just to give you a little background, I was raised completely vegan because my father is a cheat day animal rights activist, and he was [Page//00:02:00] one of the big animal rights leaders that was responsible for starting that movement back in the seventies, started in our living room.
[Page//00:02:06] And so I had always been a vegan and didn't think anything of it never had. And she's at all. And then when I was in my early thirties, I did a detox program because all my friends were doing it and it was like a camp and trendy. And then everyone was like, oh, I feel amazing. And I'm like, I want to do that.
[Page//00:02:24] So I did this detox program. And when you detox, your liver has two different phases. So phase one is where it bags up the trash and phase two is where it throws the trash. Imagine what happens just based to doesn't work and it bags up the trash, but it can't throw it. It goes right back into your body.
[Page//00:02:44] And so when I was doing that detox program, I didn't know I had this issue and I got really, really sick on the detox programming. Nobody could figure out what was going on with me. So I kept feeling like, okay, I guess I'm just detoxing because the doctors kept telling me [Page//00:03:00] nothing was wrong with me. And I kept getting sicker and sicker and to the point.
[Page//00:03:06] I was sleeping about two hours a night, heart palpitations all the time. The skin on my face was coming off in chunks and bleeding. For no reason, I was crying at the drop of a hat. It felt like a crazy person. And I knew definitively that the detox had triggered best, but no one believed me, which made me feel crazy.
[Page//00:03:28] And I started writing about what I was going through on my space. I don't know if any of you remember my space. It was before Facebook, it was pre-Facebook pre-Instagram pre social media. It was like the first social media. So basically other people were saying, oh my God, I have a weird thing happening to cause this my space.
[Page//00:03:46] You used to be able to write blogs. You can just break feelings out. And so I was like, I'm going to write my feelings out to the universe. Wanting to it. And I was like, oh boy, this is a thing. Because for the longest time I was made to feel [Page//00:04:00] like I was a weirdo when it was just me, that was going through that.
[Page//00:04:02] And I think everybody who goes through some sort of a thing where your labs are normal, but you feel really sick. You're kind of made to feel like you're being dramatic or you're making it up or it's not real. And then you get shamed and you don't want to tell people because you feel embarrassed, you don't have a real illness and it, nothing could be further from the truth.
[Page//00:04:22] It is real. And we'll talk about that later as well, but
[Page//00:04:25] Julie Michelson: we will.
[Page//00:04:26] Monica Hershaft: Yeah, just to finish off on that story. Basically, as things progressed, it kept getting worse and worse to the point where I couldn't eat solid food without feeling like I was getting stabbed when the food was going in, it was so painful. And I just, I literally a size zero was big on me cause I just couldn't eat food.
[Page//00:04:46] And you know, it's heartbreaking cause everyone's like, oh my God, you look amazing. Oh, you look so good. So sick, it's the most invalidating thing. And you know, there's a whole group of people, there's a website and a whole group under you don't look sick that Palm [Page//00:05:00] because it's really disheartening.
[Page//00:05:02] And you know, and I just kept searching for answers. And I went from doctor to doctor and really being kind of made fun of, and, and. You know, dismissed and treated like a hysterical female and you know, I roles and things like that. And it was really, really difficult emotionally because not only was I so sick and suffering, but nobody believed me, nobody, even my own family didn't believe me.
[Page//00:05:26] And and I hear this from countless patients all the time
[Page//00:05:31] is that one of my patients. Got put on a psychiatric hold for 72 hours against her. Will she went to the doctor and I guess at a hospital, cause her symptoms were so bad and they couldn't find anything. And she refused to take that as an answer and they committed her
[Page//00:05:47] Julie Michelson: wow.
[Page//00:05:49] Monica Hershaft: evaluation.
[Page//00:05:50] Julie Michelson: Because they couldn't help her.
[Page//00:05:52] Monica Hershaft: Yeah, and she was insisting something was wrong. So anyway you know, the, the moral to the story is there was something wrong [Page//00:06:00] with me and I did legitimately have a real problem. And so, because I had been raised vegan for most of my life, I had a Coleen deficiency. Nobody checks for that. And FYI, medical doctors don't have any kitchen training and their degree.
[Page//00:06:14] They, I believe some of them, they have training some, get a half day of training, some get none. It just depends. And basically. This Coleen deficiency affected my body space to liver function, which involves the gallbladder. And so I couldn't find this fat, I couldn't break down my food and I couldn't do my face deliver function of eliminating toxins.
[Page//00:06:33] So all the toxins are going right back in and knocked out my immune system. So anything I got exposed to, I just took it on. I couldn't fight anything off. So it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. And what happened on the detox program is they were giving me all these supplements to take. I mean, you'd go running.
[Page//00:06:49] And one of the supplements they were giving me was niacin because it helps flush out toxins, but nice and, and Coleen balance each other. So if you're already pulling deficient and you're taking niacin, it makes you more clean [Page//00:07:00] deficient. So it created it's really severe Coleen deficiency. That's why that triggered it so badly.
[Page//00:07:06] So there was a real scientific, logical explanation that no. And countless, like double-digit doctors, hundreds of thousands of dollars, not one person to run any kind of inefficiency panel on me. I didn't even know such a thing could exist. So just to show you, you got to believe yourself when you feel something's wrong.
[Page//00:07:27] You're right.
[Page//00:07:29] Julie Michelson: Absolutely. And as you said, it's almost everybody's story in, in this. I just decided two days ago. I really don't even like the word chronic illness anymore. Cause I'm like, no, it's not chronic. We're going to change it. But you know, in this room, Let's not identify with that, but, but for the people that are on that journey of trying to find their answers, it is so common, you know, to be [Page//00:08:00] either made, to feel like you're just not tough enough, suck it up.
[Page//00:08:04] Or eventually, like you said, you're made to feel like you're crazy. It's in your head and your labs are fine. So I'm
[Page//00:08:10] Monica Hershaft: Suck it up buttercup.
[Page//00:08:12] Julie Michelson: exactly, exactly. And, you know what you said about your family is, is breaks my heart, but is so common as well, because well, the doctors say you're fine, so you must be
[Page//00:08:24] Monica Hershaft: Yeah. I mean, eventually my dad did believe me because he actually came out to see me. And once he saw me in person and saw like how I was living and how hard it was for me, I couldn't stand up long enough to take a shower. I had, I kept having to lay down. I had heat on, I was freezing all the time and he, he was like, okay, something's wrong with.
[Page//00:08:46] Julie Michelson: this is not, this is actually in your body, but yeah, it's, it's just, unfortunately, and I know w you know, you work to try to change this. I work to try to change this, that, you know, if it, we know our. [Page//00:09:00] And we know when something is wrong. So I'm so grateful. You're healed because I know how many people you help and you know, you are bringing the message out there because everybody needs to hear it.
[Page//00:09:12] They just need to look in the right places for the right support and the right answers.
[Page//00:09:20] Unfortunately right now is Wordly not in the mess, the Western medicine world, like you said, they don't get the training. It's not that they don't help you. They just don't get the training.
[Page//00:09:32] Monica Hershaft: well, they're not taught to do that. So like you said, so the basic thing is, is that Most normal everyday people don't know where to find people that can help them. I didn't know. And I lived in Los Angeles. It's supposed to be the holistic Mecca of the universe. Like I didn't even really know what holistic was, but it definitely. It's important to get those resources out there to people so that they do know how many different options they have, where they live, because you wouldn't be surprised how many people, exactly where you [Page//00:10:00] live can actually help you figure out what's going on throughout the source of the problem to really help you get your health and your life.
[Page//00:10:07] Julie Michelson: Absolutely. And today you don't even necessarily need to be local. You can find a provider to help you, you know,
[Page//00:10:15] Monica Hershaft: But most people want to be local. I have, I have found very few people that want to do telemedicine when it comes to this type of illness. And it's really not the best way to do it, you know? Because people need that, that in person satisfaction of feeling like they're really getting checked properly.
[Page//00:10:34] You know what I
[Page//00:10:35] Julie Michelson: Yeah, that's true. That's true. I see that. I know you, I'm hoping you'll share with us today. I know you have your five layers to illness. Can you walk us through, you know, how do we get sick? Why do we get sick? Why do we feel crummy? How do you know? What's that process like?
[Page//00:10:56] Monica Hershaft: So basically every, so here's the thing. Each person's [Page//00:11:00] body is a unique snowflake, but each person's body goes to being exact same five layers to illness where you finally get up life. Every human body goes through those same layers in the same order to get there. There's not one single human body with symptoms that does not go through those exact five layers.
[Page//00:11:20] I don't care who you are or how you feel. You went through the layers and how it starts initially, even if you're born with it and you can be born with it. Is through toxicity, toxins suppress the immune function. That's the initial form of overwhelm on the body. So the way to think of it visually is let's say you have a colander and you're pouring water into that colander.
[Page//00:11:45] If you're draining pasta or whatever, and you pour it in.
[Page//00:11:51] Julie Michelson: I said them teasing
[Page//00:11:54] Monica Hershaft: Lots of brown rice pasta out there, baby. That's perfectly fine. And other, other [Page//00:12:00] healthy positives, but anyway, so when you're putting any sort of liquid into a colander, and if you're putting it in faster than it can drain out what happens.
[Page//00:12:11] Julie Michelson: overflow.
[Page//00:12:12] Monica Hershaft: Yes, it overflows. And so what happens when it overflows is now you have drainage organs that act as a colander or kidney gallbladder, spleen, and eventually your skin.
[Page//00:12:25] And so all of these are drainage. And so if you are, have more toxicity than the body can grain out, where does. It gets stuck there and your tissues and it interrupts function. So now it's suppressing your immune function and over time as those toxins cumulatively build up because they can't drain out fast enough because you're continuing to be exposed unknowingly in your daily life to these toxins.
[Page//00:12:47] Then it starts to interrupt your digestion because now it's interrupting your body's ability to make the enzymes and HCL that you need to absorb your nutrients properly. So layer one is toxicity. Well, now that those have built up more than. [Page//00:13:00] And they interrupt your digestion. That's the next layer invested, right?
[Page//00:13:05] So now you're not absorbing your nutrients properly and you can't digest properly and you're not using those nutrients right. To do your normal repair and everything. So now your next layer it moves into at that point is what we call allergies because what's an allergy is an inflamed immune response.
[Page//00:13:21] So you have enough text density that's built up, it's now interrupting your digestion and you're not using your food properly. Now you're in a state of allergy. You may not even know. It could present as environmental allergies, presenters, food sensitivities. There's a lot of different. At this time. Now a lot of people start to develop leaky gut because when your food isn't being adjusted properly, you start to develop fungal overgrowth and other things like that.
[Page//00:13:46] And that causes a little perforations in the intestinal tract that food fits into the bloodstream causing an autoimmune response, AKA allergy. So that's the third layers allergies, whether or not you think you're in an [Page//00:14:00] allergic. You are, it can even present as being sleepy after you eat. That's an allergic response.
[Page//00:14:05] It doesn't have to be terrible sneezing or, oh, I'm breaking out in hives or whatever. There's a lot of different ways. Oh, at this point, when you get into the fourth layer, this is where your body's immune system is so impacted that it can't fight off pathogens. It's built to fight off pathogens and keep itself balanced, because guess what?
[Page//00:14:26] You're a mammal. And as a mammal, you get exposed to bacteria, parasites, Iris, your body's ability to fight that is innate, but if it's compromised and interrupted by this buildup, we talked about with these words. Then your body's going to start to your bouncers on a break. Your bouncer is on a break. He's having coffee or a cigarette or whatever over there.
[Page//00:14:48] So these pathogens are out the door and nobody stopping them. So they just come in and set up house and have a party. And so you still can have normal. A hundred percent normal labs, but [Page//00:15:00] you're feeling those symptoms sooner in these layers of illness, then it'll show up in labs. Eventually you get to the fifth layer of illness, which is where you get up normal labs and they actually can diagnose you with something, but you have all of this stuff that happens before you even get to that point where you can have symptoms.
[Page//00:15:16] And it doesn't mean nothing's wrong with you
[Page//00:15:23] Julie Michelson: I love it. And, and as you, now, I know, and most of our listeners at this point now, you know, by that we don't want to have normal labs. I mean, by the time you get it, so it's this complete opposite of like, oh, you know, until we see it in the blood test that we know what medication to throw at, you
[Page//00:15:43] Monica Hershaft: It's funny. You say that because on one hand, that totally made sense. You don't want to have normal labs, but I got to be totally honest when I was going through it myself.
[Page//00:15:52] I want the formal labs. I wanted somebody to say, here's, what's wrong with you and here's what we're going to do to fix it. And they can't find anything [Page//00:16:00] in your.
[Page//00:16:01] And you feel crazy and there's no answers, but what w Julie and I are talking about here is that there are answers and it's okay for you to not have abnormal labs, because it doesn't mean nothing's wrong with you. And there are ways to fix it.
[Page//00:16:14] Julie Michelson: And there are ways to find it that, you know, the classic labs that you can think of. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, it, it
[Page//00:16:23] Monica Hershaft: Yeah.
[Page//00:16:24] Julie Michelson: I
[Page//00:16:25] Monica Hershaft: That's
[Page//00:16:25] one thing
[Page//00:16:26] Julie Michelson: have to find it to fix it because,
[Page//00:16:29] Monica Hershaft: you can make the changes and then that will fix it and you don't have to necessarily, it doesn't even really matter.
[Page//00:16:36] Julie Michelson: and I say that all the time, it w you know, I have people that come in and they're like, I don't have a diagnosis. And I'm like, great. I know we don't need the diagnosis.
[Page//00:16:46] Monica Hershaft: It's never any one thing I can't tell you how many times a patient comes in. They're like my arm is causing this. I'm like, it's not any one thing. All of these cumulative things and the five layers to illness is why you're having you not, I [Page//00:17:00] know that this person has to, she had a restaurant and now they have parasites and that's what positive was the sushi?
[Page//00:17:05] Nope. It's all the stuff that led up the sushi was the tipping point. Every person has a tipping point and they can go back to the. I was when I started birth control and everything changed out. But if you haven't had all these things that led
[Page//00:17:17] up to that that was your tipping point. So it's, you have to think again about college or if you're filling it, filling it brilliant it's brain and slowly, slowly, slowly, it overflows the tipping point.
[Page//00:17:28] Julie Michelson: Well, and I love that explanation because one of the questions I wanted to explore with you is why. Sometimes people are eating a really great diet, right? They've made the changes. They want to eat a good diet, but they're not feeling any better than you just hit on. You know, tell us more about why, why that one thing you are doing something good.
[Page//00:17:49] Monica Hershaft: There's three different reasons. One, if you're full of toxins, you can eat great till the cows come home. But if you don't make changes in your toxicity in your everyday life, and they're not going to drain out and that's going to be [Page//00:18:00] a problem too, if you haven't tried eating properly long enough, then it's not going to help because it takes a minimum of 90 days for tissue change to happen.
[Page//00:18:07] And most people try new food or diet for two weeks and give up and last but not least. Another reason that happens is because if your nervous system is blocked for sweater, And also do it. That means it could be blockers switched to bacteria or fungus or parasites. Then it's not going to respond to just food.
[Page//00:18:25] Because at that point, the body's in a state of overwhelm where it's not going to respond properly, unless you address what's causing them blocking or switching. And if it's pathogenic in nature and you do need support from outside supplements in that case,
[Page//00:18:38] Julie Michelson: And tell us a little more about what you mean by that. If your nervous system is blocked or sweat.
[Page//00:18:43] Monica Hershaft: Sure. So what happens? Let's go back to the colander. So what happens is, is if you're pouring the toxins into the colander and they're gaining out too slow, and now it overwhelms you go through those five. When you get to that point in five layers where it's so overwhelming on the nervous system [Page//00:19:00] and the nervous system becomes what we call switch, which means that the parasympathetic and sympathetic, which is breast and divest versus, you know running from a bear then that's basically the easiest way to think of it.
[Page//00:19:11] As I tell people to the brakes in gas, in your car, you have your brakes and your gas, they'll be pushed on the ass and you want the. Not good and vice versa. That's what happens when your nervous system switches. So how that feels to you is like roller coaster better or worse, better, worse, better, worse, better, worse.
[Page//00:19:29] It's just like, ah, but I just felt better. Why am I feeling worse? Unaddressed for longer? The switching turns into what we call blocking the blocking is again, using the brakes and gas. As an example, imagine pushing your brakes in your gas and the same. Yeah, nothing, nothing. It's like having a car stuck in the snow and the wheels are doing this.
[Page//00:19:49] And what that feels like to you is stuck. I think works no matter what you do, you just, nothing works or you keep getting worse. [Page//00:20:00] So and when that happens nothing that you try is going to work, unless you are able to determine what's causing the blocking or the switching and address that first. So if it's being, if you're at the point where your body cannot respond properly to those pathogens, then you usually in that case would need supplemental support, which requires an outside practitioner.
[Page//00:20:23] It's not something I recommend doing on your own. Now, can you address. I just making changes in the patterns and food. Yes. It just takes longer. So but can we dress it with just food? No. Can you address it with just toxins? No. It has to be toxins and food. So you have to learn what is interrupting your daily life.
[Page//00:20:46] People don't realize how much toxicities in the tap water. They don't realize they're cookware. They don't realize night guards they're wearing. They don't realize all the EMF, radiation from all the other sleeping with and everything. And and[Page//00:21:00] there are fixes and solutions for all these things in substitution.
[Page//00:21:03] I promised you, you have no idea. Also a lot of times people think that they're eating right, and it's not their fault. You don't know what hidden really is to look for. They don't realize that it has to be organic and that does make a big difference. And you can't get away without that because of the pesticides being used in this country.
[Page//00:21:19] And they don't realize about the DMO. They don't realize about foreign or canola oil, or how many hidden sugars or different names they use in the ingredients that the word natural flavors. The scary word to avoid and the ingredients and that, if it says my favorite is the, I always use this example, the olive oil Mayo, I'd be like, oh, well, great.
[Page//00:21:39] And not seeing the one single olive oil Mayo that's made with olive oil. They have this much olive oil, like the last ingredient,
[Page//00:21:45] Julie Michelson: And then it's NOLA. I know it's, it's horrifying.
[Page//00:21:50] Monica Hershaft: so really it's about knowing how to look for those things and being smart and savvy about it. And thinking about how many places you're getting that tap water.
[Page//00:21:58] Are you showering it? Are you cooking with [Page//00:22:00] it? Is it in your rice or keenwah is it in your coffee or tea and all of those things?
[Page//00:22:06] Julie Michelson: Th that's that's a lot, I think for, I mean, it's, you hit on so many good points and I have to throw in, as people are like, okay, you know, toxins and food, I can have. I, I want to throw on it that there, the toxin umbrella can be a really big umbrella. And so to me, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this chronic stress to me is talking to me, the body feels that as a toxic.
[Page//00:22:39] Monica Hershaft: But it's a mindset issue. So mindset. So I have three pillars to wellness. And what you just touched on is the third pillar. So your emotional state, your mindset, your stress, a hundred percent. I agree with you because what happens in those cases? Your, your cortisol levels are often that there's off your hormone balance.
[Page//00:22:56] And then a hundred percent impacts that, and most women don't realize [Page//00:23:00] that their ovaries impact their digestion. So they think you're having your digestive issue. And it's actually inflammation in the ovaries from hormone imbalance, from, it could even be from stress, from cortisol or from, you know, if you're taking birth control or whatever, or if you have a lot of people don't know this, but silicone breast implants.
[Page//00:23:16] So there's a lot of stuff to know. That's why it's good. You know, I have my program. Do you have your programs? Other people have their programs. It's good to have a professional to guide you in a way that won't be overwhelming so that everything is done in digestible pun intended steps for you to pay so that you don't feel like, oh my God, Yes then it's like, okay, this can be done this week.
[Page//00:23:42] I'm just going to focus on this next week. I'm just going to focus on this and then it becomes manageable.
[Page//00:23:47] Julie Michelson: And it becomes lifestyle. I'm talking about just the amount of toxin exposure. And you mentioned, which I love, like you could be born with it. My daughter was born with mercury toxicity. [Page//00:24:00] You know, I tell her you're welcome. I mean, she got it from living in me. Where else could she have gotten it? So, you know, luckily I knew, I already knew I was already managing that.
[Page//00:24:12] And when I found out that that's what she had going on, so I didn't have to like rack my brain for like, how did this kid get that? But with, so we don't realize the amount of exposure we're, we're just bombarded with. You know, and I know we can manage. So like, that could be scary once somebody does realize, then they're like, whoa, oh my gosh.
[Page//00:24:36] Like, you know, the air, the water, the food, the, you know, my mom's womb, like all of it. Yeah. Yeah. And so you do what you do. And I do what I do because it is manageable and there are things that we do and it does work. It does work. So. Say somebody, you know, listening, hopefully everybody listening kind of went through like, [Page//00:25:00] oh, which layer am I in right now?
[Page//00:25:03] Right. Like where am I? But somebody who maybe is really still in that point of, you know, my labs are normal. They're saying I'm crazy. I know I'm not where, where do they start? What's a, what's a first.
[Page//00:25:17] Monica Hershaft: Well, nutrition and food is the first step. And you know, toxins is. They're all equally important. You can't get there. All three of these, these three pillars make a triangle. So you can't, it's not going to work. As we mentioned before, you can't do one or two of them. You have to do all three. So.
[Page//00:25:38] My program covers all three pillars and and give you step-by-step what to do and the resource side and, and gives you action steps to take every week. And we also have upgrades if you want personalized coaching as well. But we do, I have food lists for free at my website. But yeah, I would say.
[Page//00:25:56] Yeah, I'd say the first step is, is food, but, [Page//00:26:00] but and people, I think people see the most results, the fastest with food when they do it. Right. And but but yeah, you really have to do all three, so there's no way around it.
[Page//00:26:11] Julie Michelson: Well, and then I know in my, with my one-on-one clients, I, I take my, my structure. It's here's the thing, guys. Find yourself that PRI practitioner you resonate with because we all, we all know if we don't cover all of it. So we all, we, you know, at least those of us that are doing good work, cover all of it.
[Page//00:26:34] What I love about when I work with my one-on-one clients is we, I can start these days funny for the past 18 months or so we're working on mindset first. I used to always start with food, but like sometimes people are so topped out with stress right now that it's like, okay, we need to work on that first.
[Page//00:26:53] And so. Th I say, figure out which, which one, you can take that little bite out of first, maybe [Page//00:27:00] because, but you do have to do all of them, for sure. sure.
[Page//00:27:04] Monica Hershaft: Yeah, here's the thing is if somebody is blocked or switched and. They're just working on mindset. It's not going to work.
[Page//00:27:11] Julie Michelson: oh no. Well, none of it
[Page//00:27:12] is just.
[Page//00:27:13] Monica Hershaft: people, for sure. But it's, it is the blocking switching is a problem. And so but you can also be blocked and switched emotionally too. It's not just physical. So that's, that's a real thing.
[Page//00:27:25] So I feel, I definitely, you know, I think it's just about, you
[Page//00:27:29] Julie Michelson: It's like, whichever one you feel like you can start to, to work on because.
[Page//00:27:35] Monica Hershaft: Yeah, it's very personal and individual for sure. I agree.
[Page//00:27:39] Julie Michelson: Absolutely. So I, food is your, I usually ask, like, what's one. I want you to get more specific. I'd love for you to give listeners like literally one, one thing they can do starting today themselves,
[Page//00:27:54] Monica Hershaft: organic organic because every food you eat has [Page//00:28:00] pesticides that are not only suppressing immune function, but causing endocrine disruption of hormone imbalance. And when I say organic, I also mean if you're, if you're doing animal protein, you've got to be doing pasture raised, free range, humane kills.
[Page//00:28:14] And so it says pasture raised grass fed. That's good because the other ones, the conventional ones are being shot up with antibiotics and hormones and they're being abused and they're being tortured. And. Staying in their own filth and have open sores and they're miserable and terrified and all of those hormones and all of that goes into your body.
[Page//00:28:34] So it literally does the opposite thing to your body. It'll actually make you sick. So I'm certainly organic, no pesticides and animal protein being free range raised or organic. I mean, that is a deal breaker. That right there is huge.
[Page//00:28:49] Julie Michelson: Absolutely. If I'm traveling or I'm out. Well I'm that person who brings my own protein sources in my bag. Yeah. Well, I know we, you know, [Page//00:29:00] that's not odd in our circles. But some people don't like really but if I'm say out to dinner and you know, there's not something on the menu that is, is to my standards as far as pastured or wild caught, or I just go without the protein not meal.
[Page//00:29:17] I mean, it's not worth
[Page//00:29:18] Monica Hershaft: Yeah.
[Page//00:29:19] Julie Michelson: bombarding.
[Page//00:29:20] Monica Hershaft: why I like to try to plan ahead, but I will not under any circumstances eat a conventional factory farmed animal. I don't care. I will not do it.
[Page//00:29:29] Julie Michelson: Yeah, well, and nor should you. And I think the more and more progress remain, the more and more of us that are refusing to do that. Hopefully we will make that impact to get those, those changes made in our food system. For sure.
[Page//00:29:45] Monica Hershaft: And I'll talk to you more about. Another time as
[Page//00:29:48] Julie Michelson: Yes. I know we could have, we're going to have a whole nother conversation. So I love this was amazing. And it was bold before we wrap [Page//00:30:00] up, where can listeners find you?
[Page//00:30:03] Monica Hershaft: So it's and I think you'll have it
[Page//00:30:05] Julie Michelson: It's all going to be in the show notes, but like, where's that one? Like
[Page//00:30:09] Monica Hershaft: Yeah. So I'm on Instagram as well under monica_hershaft_health. The website is Monica, her chap it's Mon O I see a like Santa Monica and then H E R S H a F T. And if you'd go to monicahershaft.com/food, she's going to give you that link, but there's tons of resources on the website because we're starting a membership that's only $29 a month.
[Page//00:30:34] The first month is only a dollar where you can hear these talks. I'll be interviewing people there every month and I'll be doing talks and talking about how to be your food and how to do the toxins and membership. All included. I'll have people like Julie that I'll be interviewing by the way, Julie, you're going to be in that.
[Page//00:30:50] Julie Michelson: Right. Sign me up.
[Page//00:30:53] Monica Hershaft: And then in addition to that, I'll be producing wellness events, starting in the Scottsdale and Phoenix area, but we'll be taking [Page//00:31:00] them to other cities as well. So you'll want to stay on the mail list to that because we're going to be showing you all the different practitioners and resources in your local area, through those events.
[Page//00:31:09] And then in addition to that, there's an online program that the 12 modules that walk you through on a more detailed level about how to address all these things we talked about today as well.
[Page//00:31:19] Julie Michelson: Guys take advantage of this. It is amazing. And honestly, just listen to this interview over and over, like, you know, because there's, there's so much gold in here, Monica. Thank you so much. This has been amazing for everyone listening.
[Page//00:31:39] Remember, you can get the show notes and transcripts by visiting inspired living Dutch show. I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I will see you next week.
[Page//00:00:55] When your labs are normal and doctors tell you that you are fine even though you [Page//00:01:00] feel sick. Monica shares with us, the five layers to illness that are universal and her three pillar approach to reclaiming health.
[Page//00:01:09] Monica welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you with us today.
[Page//00:01:13] Monica Hershaft: Thank you. I'm so happy to be here.
[Page//00:01:16] Julie Michelson: I am very familiar with your story and I find it powerful. And most of the guests that come on have their own personal journey, whether it's themselves or a loved one that got them into. Healing world. So if you would share with listeners, you know, tell us a little bit about you and how you got to be this chronic mystery illness guru.
[Page//00:01:44] Monica Hershaft: Thank you. I mean, it's, you know, it's a story that so many people have in different versions and basically in my situation And just to give you a little background, I was raised completely vegan because my father is a cheat day animal rights activist, and he was [Page//00:02:00] one of the big animal rights leaders that was responsible for starting that movement back in the seventies, started in our living room.
[Page//00:02:06] And so I had always been a vegan and didn't think anything of it never had. And she's at all. And then when I was in my early thirties, I did a detox program because all my friends were doing it and it was like a camp and trendy. And then everyone was like, oh, I feel amazing. And I'm like, I want to do that.
[Page//00:02:24] So I did this detox program. And when you detox, your liver has two different phases. So phase one is where it bags up the trash and phase two is where it throws the trash. Imagine what happens just based to doesn't work and it bags up the trash, but it can't throw it. It goes right back into your body.
[Page//00:02:44] And so when I was doing that detox program, I didn't know I had this issue and I got really, really sick on the detox programming. Nobody could figure out what was going on with me. So I kept feeling like, okay, I guess I'm just detoxing because the doctors kept telling me [Page//00:03:00] nothing was wrong with me. And I kept getting sicker and sicker and to the point.
[Page//00:03:06] I was sleeping about two hours a night, heart palpitations all the time. The skin on my face was coming off in chunks and bleeding. For no reason, I was crying at the drop of a hat. It felt like a crazy person. And I knew definitively that the detox had triggered best, but no one believed me, which made me feel crazy.
[Page//00:03:28] And I started writing about what I was going through on my space. I don't know if any of you remember my space. It was before Facebook, it was pre-Facebook pre-Instagram pre social media. It was like the first social media. So basically other people were saying, oh my God, I have a weird thing happening to cause this my space.
[Page//00:03:46] You used to be able to write blogs. You can just break feelings out. And so I was like, I'm going to write my feelings out to the universe. Wanting to it. And I was like, oh boy, this is a thing. Because for the longest time I was made to feel [Page//00:04:00] like I was a weirdo when it was just me, that was going through that.
[Page//00:04:02] And I think everybody who goes through some sort of a thing where your labs are normal, but you feel really sick. You're kind of made to feel like you're being dramatic or you're making it up or it's not real. And then you get shamed and you don't want to tell people because you feel embarrassed, you don't have a real illness and it, nothing could be further from the truth.
[Page//00:04:22] It is real. And we'll talk about that later as well, but
[Page//00:04:25] Julie Michelson: we will.
[Page//00:04:26] Monica Hershaft: Yeah, just to finish off on that story. Basically, as things progressed, it kept getting worse and worse to the point where I couldn't eat solid food without feeling like I was getting stabbed when the food was going in, it was so painful. And I just, I literally a size zero was big on me cause I just couldn't eat food.
[Page//00:04:46] And you know, it's heartbreaking cause everyone's like, oh my God, you look amazing. Oh, you look so good. So sick, it's the most invalidating thing. And you know, there's a whole group of people, there's a website and a whole group under you don't look sick that Palm [Page//00:05:00] because it's really disheartening.
[Page//00:05:02] And you know, and I just kept searching for answers. And I went from doctor to doctor and really being kind of made fun of, and, and. You know, dismissed and treated like a hysterical female and you know, I roles and things like that. And it was really, really difficult emotionally because not only was I so sick and suffering, but nobody believed me, nobody, even my own family didn't believe me.
[Page//00:05:26] And and I hear this from countless patients all the time
[Page//00:05:31] is that one of my patients. Got put on a psychiatric hold for 72 hours against her. Will she went to the doctor and I guess at a hospital, cause her symptoms were so bad and they couldn't find anything. And she refused to take that as an answer and they committed her
[Page//00:05:47] Julie Michelson: wow.
[Page//00:05:49] Monica Hershaft: evaluation.
[Page//00:05:50] Julie Michelson: Because they couldn't help her.
[Page//00:05:52] Monica Hershaft: Yeah, and she was insisting something was wrong. So anyway you know, the, the moral to the story is there was something wrong [Page//00:06:00] with me and I did legitimately have a real problem. And so, because I had been raised vegan for most of my life, I had a Coleen deficiency. Nobody checks for that. And FYI, medical doctors don't have any kitchen training and their degree.
[Page//00:06:14] They, I believe some of them, they have training some, get a half day of training, some get none. It just depends. And basically. This Coleen deficiency affected my body space to liver function, which involves the gallbladder. And so I couldn't find this fat, I couldn't break down my food and I couldn't do my face deliver function of eliminating toxins.
[Page//00:06:33] So all the toxins are going right back in and knocked out my immune system. So anything I got exposed to, I just took it on. I couldn't fight anything off. So it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. And what happened on the detox program is they were giving me all these supplements to take. I mean, you'd go running.
[Page//00:06:49] And one of the supplements they were giving me was niacin because it helps flush out toxins, but nice and, and Coleen balance each other. So if you're already pulling deficient and you're taking niacin, it makes you more clean [Page//00:07:00] deficient. So it created it's really severe Coleen deficiency. That's why that triggered it so badly.
[Page//00:07:06] So there was a real scientific, logical explanation that no. And countless, like double-digit doctors, hundreds of thousands of dollars, not one person to run any kind of inefficiency panel on me. I didn't even know such a thing could exist. So just to show you, you got to believe yourself when you feel something's wrong.
[Page//00:07:27] You're right.
[Page//00:07:29] Julie Michelson: Absolutely. And as you said, it's almost everybody's story in, in this. I just decided two days ago. I really don't even like the word chronic illness anymore. Cause I'm like, no, it's not chronic. We're going to change it. But you know, in this room, Let's not identify with that, but, but for the people that are on that journey of trying to find their answers, it is so common, you know, to be [Page//00:08:00] either made, to feel like you're just not tough enough, suck it up.
[Page//00:08:04] Or eventually, like you said, you're made to feel like you're crazy. It's in your head and your labs are fine. So I'm
[Page//00:08:10] Monica Hershaft: Suck it up buttercup.
[Page//00:08:12] Julie Michelson: exactly, exactly. And, you know what you said about your family is, is breaks my heart, but is so common as well, because well, the doctors say you're fine, so you must be
[Page//00:08:24] Monica Hershaft: Yeah. I mean, eventually my dad did believe me because he actually came out to see me. And once he saw me in person and saw like how I was living and how hard it was for me, I couldn't stand up long enough to take a shower. I had, I kept having to lay down. I had heat on, I was freezing all the time and he, he was like, okay, something's wrong with.
[Page//00:08:46] Julie Michelson: this is not, this is actually in your body, but yeah, it's, it's just, unfortunately, and I know w you know, you work to try to change this. I work to try to change this, that, you know, if it, we know our. [Page//00:09:00] And we know when something is wrong. So I'm so grateful. You're healed because I know how many people you help and you know, you are bringing the message out there because everybody needs to hear it.
[Page//00:09:12] They just need to look in the right places for the right support and the right answers.
[Page//00:09:20] Unfortunately right now is Wordly not in the mess, the Western medicine world, like you said, they don't get the training. It's not that they don't help you. They just don't get the training.
[Page//00:09:32] Monica Hershaft: well, they're not taught to do that. So like you said, so the basic thing is, is that Most normal everyday people don't know where to find people that can help them. I didn't know. And I lived in Los Angeles. It's supposed to be the holistic Mecca of the universe. Like I didn't even really know what holistic was, but it definitely. It's important to get those resources out there to people so that they do know how many different options they have, where they live, because you wouldn't be surprised how many people, exactly where you [Page//00:10:00] live can actually help you figure out what's going on throughout the source of the problem to really help you get your health and your life.
[Page//00:10:07] Julie Michelson: Absolutely. And today you don't even necessarily need to be local. You can find a provider to help you, you know,
[Page//00:10:15] Monica Hershaft: But most people want to be local. I have, I have found very few people that want to do telemedicine when it comes to this type of illness. And it's really not the best way to do it, you know? Because people need that, that in person satisfaction of feeling like they're really getting checked properly.
[Page//00:10:34] You know what I
[Page//00:10:35] Julie Michelson: Yeah, that's true. That's true. I see that. I know you, I'm hoping you'll share with us today. I know you have your five layers to illness. Can you walk us through, you know, how do we get sick? Why do we get sick? Why do we feel crummy? How do you know? What's that process like?
[Page//00:10:56] Monica Hershaft: So basically every, so here's the thing. Each person's [Page//00:11:00] body is a unique snowflake, but each person's body goes to being exact same five layers to illness where you finally get up life. Every human body goes through those same layers in the same order to get there. There's not one single human body with symptoms that does not go through those exact five layers.
[Page//00:11:20] I don't care who you are or how you feel. You went through the layers and how it starts initially, even if you're born with it and you can be born with it. Is through toxicity, toxins suppress the immune function. That's the initial form of overwhelm on the body. So the way to think of it visually is let's say you have a colander and you're pouring water into that colander.
[Page//00:11:45] If you're draining pasta or whatever, and you pour it in.
[Page//00:11:51] Julie Michelson: I said them teasing
[Page//00:11:54] Monica Hershaft: Lots of brown rice pasta out there, baby. That's perfectly fine. And other, other [Page//00:12:00] healthy positives, but anyway, so when you're putting any sort of liquid into a colander, and if you're putting it in faster than it can drain out what happens.
[Page//00:12:11] Julie Michelson: overflow.
[Page//00:12:12] Monica Hershaft: Yes, it overflows. And so what happens when it overflows is now you have drainage organs that act as a colander or kidney gallbladder, spleen, and eventually your skin.
[Page//00:12:25] And so all of these are drainage. And so if you are, have more toxicity than the body can grain out, where does. It gets stuck there and your tissues and it interrupts function. So now it's suppressing your immune function and over time as those toxins cumulatively build up because they can't drain out fast enough because you're continuing to be exposed unknowingly in your daily life to these toxins.
[Page//00:12:47] Then it starts to interrupt your digestion because now it's interrupting your body's ability to make the enzymes and HCL that you need to absorb your nutrients properly. So layer one is toxicity. Well, now that those have built up more than. [Page//00:13:00] And they interrupt your digestion. That's the next layer invested, right?
[Page//00:13:05] So now you're not absorbing your nutrients properly and you can't digest properly and you're not using those nutrients right. To do your normal repair and everything. So now your next layer it moves into at that point is what we call allergies because what's an allergy is an inflamed immune response.
[Page//00:13:21] So you have enough text density that's built up, it's now interrupting your digestion and you're not using your food properly. Now you're in a state of allergy. You may not even know. It could present as environmental allergies, presenters, food sensitivities. There's a lot of different. At this time. Now a lot of people start to develop leaky gut because when your food isn't being adjusted properly, you start to develop fungal overgrowth and other things like that.
[Page//00:13:46] And that causes a little perforations in the intestinal tract that food fits into the bloodstream causing an autoimmune response, AKA allergy. So that's the third layers allergies, whether or not you think you're in an [Page//00:14:00] allergic. You are, it can even present as being sleepy after you eat. That's an allergic response.
[Page//00:14:05] It doesn't have to be terrible sneezing or, oh, I'm breaking out in hives or whatever. There's a lot of different ways. Oh, at this point, when you get into the fourth layer, this is where your body's immune system is so impacted that it can't fight off pathogens. It's built to fight off pathogens and keep itself balanced, because guess what?
[Page//00:14:26] You're a mammal. And as a mammal, you get exposed to bacteria, parasites, Iris, your body's ability to fight that is innate, but if it's compromised and interrupted by this buildup, we talked about with these words. Then your body's going to start to your bouncers on a break. Your bouncer is on a break. He's having coffee or a cigarette or whatever over there.
[Page//00:14:48] So these pathogens are out the door and nobody stopping them. So they just come in and set up house and have a party. And so you still can have normal. A hundred percent normal labs, but [Page//00:15:00] you're feeling those symptoms sooner in these layers of illness, then it'll show up in labs. Eventually you get to the fifth layer of illness, which is where you get up normal labs and they actually can diagnose you with something, but you have all of this stuff that happens before you even get to that point where you can have symptoms.
[Page//00:15:16] And it doesn't mean nothing's wrong with you
[Page//00:15:23] Julie Michelson: I love it. And, and as you, now, I know, and most of our listeners at this point now, you know, by that we don't want to have normal labs. I mean, by the time you get it, so it's this complete opposite of like, oh, you know, until we see it in the blood test that we know what medication to throw at, you
[Page//00:15:43] Monica Hershaft: It's funny. You say that because on one hand, that totally made sense. You don't want to have normal labs, but I got to be totally honest when I was going through it myself.
[Page//00:15:52] I want the formal labs. I wanted somebody to say, here's, what's wrong with you and here's what we're going to do to fix it. And they can't find anything [Page//00:16:00] in your.
[Page//00:16:01] And you feel crazy and there's no answers, but what w Julie and I are talking about here is that there are answers and it's okay for you to not have abnormal labs, because it doesn't mean nothing's wrong with you. And there are ways to fix it.
[Page//00:16:14] Julie Michelson: And there are ways to find it that, you know, the classic labs that you can think of. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, it, it
[Page//00:16:23] Monica Hershaft: Yeah.
[Page//00:16:24] Julie Michelson: I
[Page//00:16:25] Monica Hershaft: That's
[Page//00:16:25] one thing
[Page//00:16:26] Julie Michelson: have to find it to fix it because,
[Page//00:16:29] Monica Hershaft: you can make the changes and then that will fix it and you don't have to necessarily, it doesn't even really matter.
[Page//00:16:36] Julie Michelson: and I say that all the time, it w you know, I have people that come in and they're like, I don't have a diagnosis. And I'm like, great. I know we don't need the diagnosis.
[Page//00:16:46] Monica Hershaft: It's never any one thing I can't tell you how many times a patient comes in. They're like my arm is causing this. I'm like, it's not any one thing. All of these cumulative things and the five layers to illness is why you're having you not, I [Page//00:17:00] know that this person has to, she had a restaurant and now they have parasites and that's what positive was the sushi?
[Page//00:17:05] Nope. It's all the stuff that led up the sushi was the tipping point. Every person has a tipping point and they can go back to the. I was when I started birth control and everything changed out. But if you haven't had all these things that led
[Page//00:17:17] up to that that was your tipping point. So it's, you have to think again about college or if you're filling it, filling it brilliant it's brain and slowly, slowly, slowly, it overflows the tipping point.
[Page//00:17:28] Julie Michelson: Well, and I love that explanation because one of the questions I wanted to explore with you is why. Sometimes people are eating a really great diet, right? They've made the changes. They want to eat a good diet, but they're not feeling any better than you just hit on. You know, tell us more about why, why that one thing you are doing something good.
[Page//00:17:49] Monica Hershaft: There's three different reasons. One, if you're full of toxins, you can eat great till the cows come home. But if you don't make changes in your toxicity in your everyday life, and they're not going to drain out and that's going to be [Page//00:18:00] a problem too, if you haven't tried eating properly long enough, then it's not going to help because it takes a minimum of 90 days for tissue change to happen.
[Page//00:18:07] And most people try new food or diet for two weeks and give up and last but not least. Another reason that happens is because if your nervous system is blocked for sweater, And also do it. That means it could be blockers switched to bacteria or fungus or parasites. Then it's not going to respond to just food.
[Page//00:18:25] Because at that point, the body's in a state of overwhelm where it's not going to respond properly, unless you address what's causing them blocking or switching. And if it's pathogenic in nature and you do need support from outside supplements in that case,
[Page//00:18:38] Julie Michelson: And tell us a little more about what you mean by that. If your nervous system is blocked or sweat.
[Page//00:18:43] Monica Hershaft: Sure. So what happens? Let's go back to the colander. So what happens is, is if you're pouring the toxins into the colander and they're gaining out too slow, and now it overwhelms you go through those five. When you get to that point in five layers where it's so overwhelming on the nervous system [Page//00:19:00] and the nervous system becomes what we call switch, which means that the parasympathetic and sympathetic, which is breast and divest versus, you know running from a bear then that's basically the easiest way to think of it.
[Page//00:19:11] As I tell people to the brakes in gas, in your car, you have your brakes and your gas, they'll be pushed on the ass and you want the. Not good and vice versa. That's what happens when your nervous system switches. So how that feels to you is like roller coaster better or worse, better, worse, better, worse, better, worse.
[Page//00:19:29] It's just like, ah, but I just felt better. Why am I feeling worse? Unaddressed for longer? The switching turns into what we call blocking the blocking is again, using the brakes and gas. As an example, imagine pushing your brakes in your gas and the same. Yeah, nothing, nothing. It's like having a car stuck in the snow and the wheels are doing this.
[Page//00:19:49] And what that feels like to you is stuck. I think works no matter what you do, you just, nothing works or you keep getting worse. [Page//00:20:00] So and when that happens nothing that you try is going to work, unless you are able to determine what's causing the blocking or the switching and address that first. So if it's being, if you're at the point where your body cannot respond properly to those pathogens, then you usually in that case would need supplemental support, which requires an outside practitioner.
[Page//00:20:23] It's not something I recommend doing on your own. Now, can you address. I just making changes in the patterns and food. Yes. It just takes longer. So but can we dress it with just food? No. Can you address it with just toxins? No. It has to be toxins and food. So you have to learn what is interrupting your daily life.
[Page//00:20:46] People don't realize how much toxicities in the tap water. They don't realize they're cookware. They don't realize night guards they're wearing. They don't realize all the EMF, radiation from all the other sleeping with and everything. And and[Page//00:21:00] there are fixes and solutions for all these things in substitution.
[Page//00:21:03] I promised you, you have no idea. Also a lot of times people think that they're eating right, and it's not their fault. You don't know what hidden really is to look for. They don't realize that it has to be organic and that does make a big difference. And you can't get away without that because of the pesticides being used in this country.
[Page//00:21:19] And they don't realize about the DMO. They don't realize about foreign or canola oil, or how many hidden sugars or different names they use in the ingredients that the word natural flavors. The scary word to avoid and the ingredients and that, if it says my favorite is the, I always use this example, the olive oil Mayo, I'd be like, oh, well, great.
[Page//00:21:39] And not seeing the one single olive oil Mayo that's made with olive oil. They have this much olive oil, like the last ingredient,
[Page//00:21:45] Julie Michelson: And then it's NOLA. I know it's, it's horrifying.
[Page//00:21:50] Monica Hershaft: so really it's about knowing how to look for those things and being smart and savvy about it. And thinking about how many places you're getting that tap water.
[Page//00:21:58] Are you showering it? Are you cooking with [Page//00:22:00] it? Is it in your rice or keenwah is it in your coffee or tea and all of those things?
[Page//00:22:06] Julie Michelson: Th that's that's a lot, I think for, I mean, it's, you hit on so many good points and I have to throw in, as people are like, okay, you know, toxins and food, I can have. I, I want to throw on it that there, the toxin umbrella can be a really big umbrella. And so to me, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this chronic stress to me is talking to me, the body feels that as a toxic.
[Page//00:22:39] Monica Hershaft: But it's a mindset issue. So mindset. So I have three pillars to wellness. And what you just touched on is the third pillar. So your emotional state, your mindset, your stress, a hundred percent. I agree with you because what happens in those cases? Your, your cortisol levels are often that there's off your hormone balance.
[Page//00:22:56] And then a hundred percent impacts that, and most women don't realize [Page//00:23:00] that their ovaries impact their digestion. So they think you're having your digestive issue. And it's actually inflammation in the ovaries from hormone imbalance, from, it could even be from stress, from cortisol or from, you know, if you're taking birth control or whatever, or if you have a lot of people don't know this, but silicone breast implants.
[Page//00:23:16] So there's a lot of stuff to know. That's why it's good. You know, I have my program. Do you have your programs? Other people have their programs. It's good to have a professional to guide you in a way that won't be overwhelming so that everything is done in digestible pun intended steps for you to pay so that you don't feel like, oh my God, Yes then it's like, okay, this can be done this week.
[Page//00:23:42] I'm just going to focus on this next week. I'm just going to focus on this and then it becomes manageable.
[Page//00:23:47] Julie Michelson: And it becomes lifestyle. I'm talking about just the amount of toxin exposure. And you mentioned, which I love, like you could be born with it. My daughter was born with mercury toxicity. [Page//00:24:00] You know, I tell her you're welcome. I mean, she got it from living in me. Where else could she have gotten it? So, you know, luckily I knew, I already knew I was already managing that.
[Page//00:24:12] And when I found out that that's what she had going on, so I didn't have to like rack my brain for like, how did this kid get that? But with, so we don't realize the amount of exposure we're, we're just bombarded with. You know, and I know we can manage. So like, that could be scary once somebody does realize, then they're like, whoa, oh my gosh.
[Page//00:24:36] Like, you know, the air, the water, the food, the, you know, my mom's womb, like all of it. Yeah. Yeah. And so you do what you do. And I do what I do because it is manageable and there are things that we do and it does work. It does work. So. Say somebody, you know, listening, hopefully everybody listening kind of went through like, [Page//00:25:00] oh, which layer am I in right now?
[Page//00:25:03] Right. Like where am I? But somebody who maybe is really still in that point of, you know, my labs are normal. They're saying I'm crazy. I know I'm not where, where do they start? What's a, what's a first.
[Page//00:25:17] Monica Hershaft: Well, nutrition and food is the first step. And you know, toxins is. They're all equally important. You can't get there. All three of these, these three pillars make a triangle. So you can't, it's not going to work. As we mentioned before, you can't do one or two of them. You have to do all three. So.
[Page//00:25:38] My program covers all three pillars and and give you step-by-step what to do and the resource side and, and gives you action steps to take every week. And we also have upgrades if you want personalized coaching as well. But we do, I have food lists for free at my website. But yeah, I would say.
[Page//00:25:56] Yeah, I'd say the first step is, is food, but, [Page//00:26:00] but and people, I think people see the most results, the fastest with food when they do it. Right. And but but yeah, you really have to do all three, so there's no way around it.
[Page//00:26:11] Julie Michelson: Well, and then I know in my, with my one-on-one clients, I, I take my, my structure. It's here's the thing, guys. Find yourself that PRI practitioner you resonate with because we all, we all know if we don't cover all of it. So we all, we, you know, at least those of us that are doing good work, cover all of it.
[Page//00:26:34] What I love about when I work with my one-on-one clients is we, I can start these days funny for the past 18 months or so we're working on mindset first. I used to always start with food, but like sometimes people are so topped out with stress right now that it's like, okay, we need to work on that first.
[Page//00:26:53] And so. Th I say, figure out which, which one, you can take that little bite out of first, maybe [Page//00:27:00] because, but you do have to do all of them, for sure. sure.
[Page//00:27:04] Monica Hershaft: Yeah, here's the thing is if somebody is blocked or switched and. They're just working on mindset. It's not going to work.
[Page//00:27:11] Julie Michelson: oh no. Well, none of it
[Page//00:27:12] is just.
[Page//00:27:13] Monica Hershaft: people, for sure. But it's, it is the blocking switching is a problem. And so but you can also be blocked and switched emotionally too. It's not just physical. So that's, that's a real thing.
[Page//00:27:25] So I feel, I definitely, you know, I think it's just about, you
[Page//00:27:29] Julie Michelson: It's like, whichever one you feel like you can start to, to work on because.
[Page//00:27:35] Monica Hershaft: Yeah, it's very personal and individual for sure. I agree.
[Page//00:27:39] Julie Michelson: Absolutely. So I, food is your, I usually ask, like, what's one. I want you to get more specific. I'd love for you to give listeners like literally one, one thing they can do starting today themselves,
[Page//00:27:54] Monica Hershaft: organic organic because every food you eat has [Page//00:28:00] pesticides that are not only suppressing immune function, but causing endocrine disruption of hormone imbalance. And when I say organic, I also mean if you're, if you're doing animal protein, you've got to be doing pasture raised, free range, humane kills.
[Page//00:28:14] And so it says pasture raised grass fed. That's good because the other ones, the conventional ones are being shot up with antibiotics and hormones and they're being abused and they're being tortured. And. Staying in their own filth and have open sores and they're miserable and terrified and all of those hormones and all of that goes into your body.
[Page//00:28:34] So it literally does the opposite thing to your body. It'll actually make you sick. So I'm certainly organic, no pesticides and animal protein being free range raised or organic. I mean, that is a deal breaker. That right there is huge.
[Page//00:28:49] Julie Michelson: Absolutely. If I'm traveling or I'm out. Well I'm that person who brings my own protein sources in my bag. Yeah. Well, I know we, you know, [Page//00:29:00] that's not odd in our circles. But some people don't like really but if I'm say out to dinner and you know, there's not something on the menu that is, is to my standards as far as pastured or wild caught, or I just go without the protein not meal.
[Page//00:29:17] I mean, it's not worth
[Page//00:29:18] Monica Hershaft: Yeah.
[Page//00:29:19] Julie Michelson: bombarding.
[Page//00:29:20] Monica Hershaft: why I like to try to plan ahead, but I will not under any circumstances eat a conventional factory farmed animal. I don't care. I will not do it.
[Page//00:29:29] Julie Michelson: Yeah, well, and nor should you. And I think the more and more progress remain, the more and more of us that are refusing to do that. Hopefully we will make that impact to get those, those changes made in our food system. For sure.
[Page//00:29:45] Monica Hershaft: And I'll talk to you more about. Another time as
[Page//00:29:48] Julie Michelson: Yes. I know we could have, we're going to have a whole nother conversation. So I love this was amazing. And it was bold before we wrap [Page//00:30:00] up, where can listeners find you?
[Page//00:30:03] Monica Hershaft: So it's and I think you'll have it
[Page//00:30:05] Julie Michelson: It's all going to be in the show notes, but like, where's that one? Like
[Page//00:30:09] Monica Hershaft: Yeah. So I'm on Instagram as well under monica_hershaft_health. The website is Monica, her chap it's Mon O I see a like Santa Monica and then H E R S H a F T. And if you'd go to monicahershaft.com/food, she's going to give you that link, but there's tons of resources on the website because we're starting a membership that's only $29 a month.
[Page//00:30:34] The first month is only a dollar where you can hear these talks. I'll be interviewing people there every month and I'll be doing talks and talking about how to be your food and how to do the toxins and membership. All included. I'll have people like Julie that I'll be interviewing by the way, Julie, you're going to be in that.
[Page//00:30:50] Julie Michelson: Right. Sign me up.
[Page//00:30:53] Monica Hershaft: And then in addition to that, I'll be producing wellness events, starting in the Scottsdale and Phoenix area, but we'll be taking [Page//00:31:00] them to other cities as well. So you'll want to stay on the mail list to that because we're going to be showing you all the different practitioners and resources in your local area, through those events.
[Page//00:31:09] And then in addition to that, there's an online program that the 12 modules that walk you through on a more detailed level about how to address all these things we talked about today as well.
[Page//00:31:19] Julie Michelson: Guys take advantage of this. It is amazing. And honestly, just listen to this interview over and over, like, you know, because there's, there's so much gold in here, Monica. Thank you so much. This has been amazing for everyone listening.
[Page//00:31:39] Remember, you can get the show notes and transcripts by visiting inspired living Dutch show. I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I will see you next week.
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My Guest For This Episode
Connect with Monica Hershaft
Monica Hershaft
Naturopathic Practitioner
Responsible for healing thousands of people struggling with chronic illness, Monica Hershaft has established herself as a true trailblazer in the wellness space.
Now based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Monica is a holistic health naturopathic practitioner and nutritional consultant with Advanced Clinical Training Certification in NRT. She specializes in chronic mystery illness and autoimmune. She is also a bestselling author and motivational wellness speaker.
Now based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Monica is a holistic health naturopathic practitioner and nutritional consultant with Advanced Clinical Training Certification in NRT. She specializes in chronic mystery illness and autoimmune. She is also a bestselling author and motivational wellness speaker.
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