Episode 211
Heather Cooan:The Metabolic Approach to Cancer That Standard Oncology Ignores
Heather Cooan:
The Metabolic Approach to Cancer That Standard Oncology Ignores
In this episode, Heather shares her powerful healing story from corporate burnout to cancer recovery.
She declined surgery and radiation, choosing the metabolic approach including therapeutic ketogenic diet, detox protocols, and lifestyle changes.
Now she guides others through similar journeys using functional testing and personalized nutrition.
She declined surgery and radiation, choosing the metabolic approach including therapeutic ketogenic diet, detox protocols, and lifestyle changes.
Now she guides others through similar journeys using functional testing and personalized nutrition.
First Aired on: Sep 29, 2025
Episode 211
Heather Cooan:The Metabolic Approach to Cancer That Standard Oncology Ignores
Heather Cooan:
The Metabolic Approach to Cancer That Standard Oncology Ignores
In this episode, Heather shares her powerful healing story from corporate burnout to cancer recovery.
She declined surgery and radiation, choosing the metabolic approach including therapeutic ketogenic diet, detox protocols, and lifestyle changes.
Now she guides others through similar journeys using functional testing and personalized nutrition.
She declined surgery and radiation, choosing the metabolic approach including therapeutic ketogenic diet, detox protocols, and lifestyle changes.
Now she guides others through similar journeys using functional testing and personalized nutrition.
First Aired on: Sep 29, 2025
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents:
In this episode:
In this episode:
Introduction
Heather Cooan is a double board-certified functional oncology nutrition consultant who overcame Hashimoto's, lichen sclerosus, and vulvar cancer. She left her corporate marketing career to make healing her full-time job and now specializes in the metabolic approach to cancer using personalized lab data and genetics. In this episode, she shares her journey and discusses the connection between autoimmunity and cancer.
Episode Highlights
From Corporate Burnout to Cancer Diagnosis
Heather's health journey began with decades of symptoms that nobody could explain, culminating in cancer at age 37.
- Diagnosed with Hashimoto's in 2005 after routine blood work
- Experienced lichen sclerosus symptoms from childhood that went undiagnosed
- Developed vulvar cancer in 2017 while living in chronic stress and burnout
- Made the difficult decision to refuse radical surgery and seek alternatives
The Metabolic Approach to Cancer
Instead of conventional treatment, Heather chose a comprehensive alternative approach guided by trained physicians.
- Implemented therapeutic ketogenic diet as the foundation
- Used high-dose IVs, HBOT, and targeted supplements
- Quit her high-powered job to make healing her full-time priority
- Addressed mental and emotional aspects alongside physical treatment
- Worked with practitioners trained by Dr. Naisha Winters
Your Biography Influences Your Biology
Understanding the connection between life experiences and disease patterns is crucial for healing.
- Chronic stress and maladaptive coping mechanisms contribute to illness
- Most people are disconnected from their body due to chronic symptoms
- Emotional experiences act like contaminated water feeding diseased soil
- Taking a detailed chronology helps identify root causes and patterns
The Role of Blood Sugar in Chronic Disease
Metabolic dysfunction affects up to 94% of the population and drives both autoimmunity and cancer.
- Only 6% of people are metabolically healthy according to recent studies
- Blood sugar dysregulation cascades through all hormone systems
- Stress, poor sleep, and inflammation all impact glucose metabolism
- HbA1c and fasting insulin are critical baseline markers to track
Food as Medicine and Mineral Support
Nutrient-dense foods and proper sourcing are more important than supplements for most people.
- Focus on regenerative agriculture and local sourcing when possible
- Bone broth, seafood, and egg yolks provide bioavailable minerals
- Address barriers to nutrient absorption before adding supplements
- Remove depleting factors like fluoride, excess sugar, and chronic stress
The Mind-Body Connection in Healing
Reconnecting with physical sensations and emotions is essential for sustainable recovery.
- Many people cannot identify what emotions feel like in their body
- Trauma and chronic illness often create disconnection as a protective mechanism
- Learning to feel emotions physically is part of healing the nervous system
- Small changes in self-awareness can create capacity for bigger lifestyle shifts
Notable Quotes from this Episode
Your biography influences your biology. We start to see how all of these things led to maybe picking up some stress coping mechanisms that were not the healthiest.
Heather Cooan
I think about the body or the terrain as your soil, and our emotional experiences and how we cope with things are the water that feeds those roots. If the water becomes acidic, it doesn't matter what you do to the soil.
Heather Cooan
When I sat down with the oncologist, I asked him, is there anything that I can do for myself? And he looked me dead in the eye and he said, no. You didn't do this to yourself. You're just unlucky.
Heather Cooan
Other Resources:
Other Resources:
Connect with Heather Cooan
Connect with Heather Cooan
Watch this interview:
Watch this interview:
Episode Transcript
Heather Cooan: I learned a ton about the business of cancer. I learned a ton about how much control over it we actually have. Mm-hmm. I learned about the connection between autoimmunity and cancer and how the immune system works.
And when I sat down with the oncologist before the surgery, I asked him, is there anything that I can do for myself? And he looked me dead in the eye and he said, no
and I decided people need to know about this.
Julie Howton: Welcome back to the Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Houghton, and today we're joined by Heather Cohen, a double board certified functional oncology nutrition consultant, lived experience, mentor, and transformational coach with her unique expertise and personal journey overcoming Hashimoto's Lichen Sclerosis and vulva cancer.
Heather possesses a wealth of knowledge that resonates deeply with those facing chronic illness. Her approach is centered around bioindividuality, empowering her clients through personalized lab and genetic testing. Heather's one-on-one, evidence-based support and nutritional care. Lifestyle interventions and environmental design equips individuals with the tools they need to thrive, especially in the face of cancer and autoimmune diseases.
In today's conversation, we are discussing that connection between autoimmunity and cancer and how important it is to identify and address the drivers of either illness in order to truly heal. I.
Julie Howton: Heather, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. I am so excited for our conversation because you focus, you, you just have such a unique, I don't even wanna say niche purpose, really. Um, and so I, I can't wait for, and you also have an amazing healing journey Yeah. And very inspiring, which is what we're all about.
So I would love for you to share with listeners a bit of, you know, what got you into this space. I believe you were in marketing. Mm-hmm. Back when. Yeah. Um, and so share, share a bit of your journey with us and, and then we can dig into all the good stuff you're doing now.
Heather Cooan: Sounds good. Yeah. So I, I've had several lives as far as careers uhhuh, um, but.
I was in marketing executive, not, not C-suite, but almost actually I think I did end up in the C-suite at the end. But, um, in the process of giving too much of myself away and living for my career and climbing that corporate ladder and, you know, chasing the dollar, if you will, and the prestige or whatever comes with getting the title, my body totally gave out and I was, hit myself with a cancer diagnosis and all the check engine lights were turning on and staying on for like 10, 15 years prior.
So I always get my chronology messed up. I'm pretty sure 20 2005 I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's. Um, because I was on a work or like a friend trip and I got the flu and they did blood work, and it turned out my thyroid was low and I, so I started driving down that path. Um, and then when I was diagnosed with cancer in 2017, uh, I also at the exact same moment was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune condition called lichen sclerosis, a rough one.
And it's pretty awful. Um, those who have experienced it know what I'm talking about. Mm-hmm. But it's when your immune system attacks the skin of your genitalia. Yeah. And so, um, putting it in not so gross terms, permanent jockish is what you deal with and architectural changes and sexual dysfunction and, uh, all kinds of emotional stuff that comes with that.
Sure. Because it's and private part of the body, um, and nobody knows what it is. So we're definitely doing better with awareness now and doctors are getting. More educated, but I've had symptoms of lichen sclerosis since I was like eight or 12, like as long as I can remember. That's, um, my mom actually would embarrass me because she thought it was funny telling her girlfriends at like, hanging around the lunch table that in the grocery store line, I would announce Mom my vagina itches.
Yeah.
Julie Howton: Well, I mean,
Heather Cooan: and she thought it was, you know, cute and because, but it was embarrassing to her and me and she just kind of like looking around. But, so it just, so it is,
Julie Howton: that's a whole nother, we could do a whole podcast on. It, you know, it's a body part. And you were a kid who was trying to communicate some discomfort.
Yes, absolutely. But I get it. Absolutely. You know, polite society and all. Yeah. Yep.
Heather Cooan: And now I know it wasn't my vagina, it was my vulva. Right. The extra genitalia, which nobody knows about. So we're trying to make that aware. Yeah. Um, but nobody could figure out what it was. I was like in and out of doctors and all of like, what's, what's going on?
Nobody could figure it out. It was blamed on poor hygiene. It was blamed on, uh, being overweight. I've always been a little bit chubby. Um, it's was blamed on this detergent and maybe it's an allergy and maybe it's your underwear. Maybe it's yeast, maybe it's bv, maybe it's, maybe it's, maybe it's, but nobody ever thought anything of it.
And throughout my whole like gynecological adventure, I would go in and have like regular annual paps and they would just go in and, and do the swab and not pay attention to the fact that my vulva was white, like paper. Rough skin. Right. And so I finally just gave up going to the doctor and trying to figure it out.
Went on with my life. And as autoimmunes do, it would wax and wane in severity. Mm-hmm. And it would fla calm down. And so it was always just, it was what it was. And I just accepted it as part of my lot in life and moved forward in my career. I totally lost my identity in, in the corporate world. And at the height of my disease progression, I was eating fast food or DoorDash or delivery like everywhere.
Sure. It was like whatever I could stuff in my face. I was self-medicating with tobacco. I was actually a big cigar smoker, which is unusual for ladies. And I was drinking wine by the bottle. So it's like a glimpse of what was happening. I was not sleeping, I was not slowing down. I was certainly not exercising.
I wasn't doing any of the things that we know we should be doing. And so it got to the worst it's ever been. And then I developed a, like a tear that would not heal for months and out of that tear grew what we now know was a tumor. And so I went in finally, but not before I scoured the internet because of my poor experience with the medical.
Sure, yeah. And I self-diagnosed, I came across lichens sclerosis and vulva cancer, and I was like, oh yeah, this is probably what I've got. So I sought out a specialist, a vulva specialist, same as Dr. Joseph Brooks here in Phoenix. And he's wonderful for anybody who's dealing with these things. And I went in and basically sought out confirmation of my self diagnosis.
And so he did a biopsy and said, oh yeah, it, it, it's probably, you're probably correct. Sent it in, came back positive for vulva carcinoma. And so that was when I was like, huh, well, okay, then we gotta change some stuff. Uhhuh, this isn't working right. This is not working. I'm not, I'm not taking care of myself.
And I will never, ever forget when I was talking with my oncologist about what to do. I was like, he is like, okay, so we're gonna go through surgery, we'll remove the cancerous tissue and you'll be fine. These things are fine. Um, it turns out that the, the size and location of the lesion was very close to my clitoris, and they wanted to remove the entire clitoris in order to get all of the cancerous tissue removed.
And I pushed back because I was only 37 at the time.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: And I had no idea what kind of a like feminine identity, sexual identity, like typical function of my body changing. Like that's an organ you're losing. It's not a vital organ, obviously, but it's an organ.
Julie Howton: Yeah. I didn't,
Heather Cooan: I didn't wanna go down that emotional path.
Yeah. And so I negotiated. I said, how about you just remove as much of the cancerous tissue as you can, but leave me intact. Yeah. And he said, okay. He's like, you may need additional treatment, which would be radiation, chemotherapy if we did that. Just so you know. And he tried. Gently but persistently to persuade me.
And I said, no, please just leave me intact. And so he went ahead and he did that. And the sample came back when they removed cancerous tissue from the body. They wanna get what's called clear margins. And it, I kind of liken it to cutting the mold off of the cheese. Sure.
Julie Howton: Oh yeah.
Heather Cooan: For those of us that grew up where mom was like, it's fine, just cut that part off.
Mm-hmm. You don't just cut through the mold, you cut through the good cheese outside of the mold. Right. Get that clear margin. Yeah. And my sample came back where there was still cancerous tissue on three outta four sides of the tissue that was removed. So they did not get at all. And so the next step was going to be either in a second surgery to remove whatever they needed to, or pretty intense radiation with low dose chemotherapy to address the rest.
And when I sat down with the oncologist before the surgery, I asked him, is there anything that I can do for myself? And he looked me dead in the eye and he said, no
Julie Howton: you didn't
Heather Cooan: yourself. You're just unlucky. We'll cut it out and you'll be fine. Don't worry, we've, we've got you covered. And I was like, okay, well I don't wanna remove the clitoris.
I don't wanna go through radiation. When I sat down with a radiation oncologist and learned about the short and long-term side effects of radiation to that part of my body. That was pretty intense. Yeah. Like I could have lost my bladder, my colon, I could have burned my intestines together. Definitely would've lost elasticity and maybe sensation and all of, I wouldn't be able to self lubricate.
Um, early menopause medically induced was probably going to happen. Uh, lots and lots of things. Not to mention third degree sunburns and like fiery diarrhea and it's, it's nasty, right?
Julie Howton: Just the
Heather Cooan: regular
Julie Howton: terrible
Heather Cooan: side. Yeah. It's terrible. Yeah. And so I didn't like any of those answers and I had been seeing a naturopathic doctor for my Hashimoto's for a while and I sat down with her in my investigations and was like, this is what's happened.
And she said, you know, I've actually worked with clients in an alternative capacity to deal with cancer. And the type of cancer I had is called it's squamous cell, which is a type of cell, like a type of of tissue. She's like, it's actually kind of a weak cancer. And we can knock it out with alternative means.
And I had never even thought about that. Right? And so I went down that road and I ended up doing the metabolic approach to cancer, which is now what I specialize in. I'm trained by Dr. Naisha Winters, and I work very closely with her trained physicians on a lot of our cases. So I did a therapeutic ketogenic diet, and I overhauled my entire life.
I quit my high powered job. I made my job healing and taking care of myself.
Julie Howton: Yes,
Heather Cooan: I, and I, I looked at every element of my life. The mental and emotional aspects. The nutritional aspects, making sure I was sleeping. I actually was like, well, I've got cancer now. I can get cannabis, so I might as well. So I went the first time I, um, took cannabis, I slept, like, actually slept for the first time in like five years.
And wow, the clarity. The calmness when I woke up after that first dose was like, oh, life changing. I did not realize how far I had gotten away from me. Yeah. And so that kind of birthed everything. I learned a lot through that process. Um, I didn't just do those things. I also treated the rest of the cancer, but through alternative means.
Gotcha. High dose IBCs and hbos and lots and lots of supplements and all of that. Yeah. And I learned a ton about the business of cancer. I learned a ton about how much control over it we actually have. Mm-hmm. I learned about the connection between autoimmunity and cancer and how the immune system works.
And I decided people need to know about this. People need to understand and be empowered with tools that they can use to help them through their journey. And this is whether they choose alternative therapies or standard of care therapies or come or come. Yes. Yes. In my experience, the best approach is any tool that's appropriate for your case based on your data at that time.
Yeah. Yeah. So that's how I ended up here. I decided to make it my career.
Julie Howton: Amazing. And I, I love, you know, parts of, uh, all of us have parts of our journey that's, that's very personal. Um, and I just, I lo I love your candid approach because that is how you reach people and help people. Um, not enough people talk about lichens.
Definitely Nobody's talking about vulva cancer, like Right. It's rare. So, um, it, but, but people need to know, and I, I love that you were just having a conversation with a, a, a client, um, a couple days ago. Most women, I'm in my fifties, most women my age, you're right. Don't, like, they call their whole genitalia Yes.
Vagina like you did when you were eight. Yeah. And, and they don't. And I, we were having a conversation with a, with a gal who, you know, she, she even like realized, she's like, I, I think. I need to, to like look, look at some pictures and, and you know, you on my anatomy. Yeah. Yeah. She's like, I have no, nobody if they taught me in this anatomy in health class decades ago.
And I'm like, well, no. I mean, I, I don't think they, they really did. Um, right. So it, it is so I love that you're allowing you, you know, a normalizing the fact that that thing, you know, that this is an a, it's an area of the body we need to keep healthy. Um, and, and I just love that you, wherever it came from in that moment knew that, that, you know, the, the risk of the treatment they were recommending, you know, was, was not in your best interest at that time.
Heather Cooan: Yeah. And I, I get a lot of questions about that. The biggest question I get is, how the heck did you decide to, because I refused chemotherapy and radiation's. Yeah. But that's a, and people always ask like how, like, how it was the most terrifying decision I've ever made. Sure. It's really scary to choose something that doesn't have like all of the studies and the data and all of the, you know, intense research behind it Yeah.
That we would accept in the medical world. Yeah. And it's also really scary to accept what standard in medical procedure that comes with so much damage. Yeah. And the risk of secondary cancers down the line and all of this like turmoil. But at the end of the day, that is a personal decision and each of us has to decide what's right for them.
Yeah. For me, I knew that if I didn't. Invest in myself in making change and just let it be in someone else's hand, I would not actually change. And vulvar cancer has an up to 40% recurrence rate. So if I was only gonna do this. So even if
Julie Howton: you had done all of that
Heather Cooan: Right. I had to change my life. I had to change that I way I was treating myself mind, body, and soul in order to actually get longevity.
Julie Howton: Well, and and you know, when people ask me like, oh, what do we do at the clinic? Or how is it different? Or, um, you know, what is functional medicine and a root cause is so overused now I'm like, we ask why. Right. Right. Why, why did you have autoimmunity since you were a kid, even though you didn't know it?
Mm-hmm. You know, I mean, I, with you, my, my actual first autoimmune condition was diagnosed. That, you know, after all after my RA and I was like, oh, I'm, I have Celiac. And yeah, in hindsight that explains, you know, the IBSI, you know, like all the things. And that's
Heather Cooan: not uncommon. I see that with my clients. And that was my story.
I, Hashimoto's discovery in 20 2005. Yeah. LS 2017. Like
Julie Howton: Yeah. Yeah. Even though the symptoms for the, for the LS were from childhood, right? Yeah. Um, so anyway, I, I applaud you and, and I'm grateful for the work that you're doing. I wanna talk about, so I want, I brought up the, the why because like you, you know, whatever treatment approach, and for those listening on audio, I'm using air quotes here, but whatever treatment approach one chooses or combo of, you still have to get to the why.
So you don't have a recurrence or it doesn't show up in another way. Right. IEI have autoimmunity and I'm just, you know, doing the things that my rheumatologist told me to do two decades ago. Um, we could be sitting here 'cause I could say, well now I have cancer. Sure. Right. So, so let's talk a little bit about the, the individual drivers.
Mm-hmm. Not there, I know there are too many possibilities. I can't talk about all of the, but you know, how do you, how does one even begin to unravel? Mm, how did I get here? Because that's what you did. You just mm-hmm. Whether it was intuition, I'm, I'm guessing intuition. Yes. Finally, like, jumped up and protected you of like, oh, don't go that route.
And, you know. Yes. So, and you needed a, like, a whole revamp of, of life and lifestyle. Um, which sounds daunting. It is. Uh, it, it, it can be. Yeah. Um, but you had really, obviously significant motivation, you know, so I want, I know I just threw like 20 things I wanna talk about. No,
Heather Cooan: this is good. This is really good.
Um. I guess let's start with the motivation or like the Yeah. The, the chutzpah, if you will. Like, at a girl, we gotta find a little bit of, of energy to get started. And I work primarily with cancer, but I also work with autoimmunity and complex chronic illness.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Heather Cooan: And I find that my cancer clients have like, literally life threatening motivation to make change.
Right. That's different from someone who comes in with autoimmunity, who just feels like crap and doesn't have enough energy to like, make sure that their socks match, let alone Yeah. Right. And make life change. I was there, yeah. Across the board. Yeah. So was I. And it wasn't until cancer kicked me in the face that I was like, oh, I gotta make these treatments.
Yeah.
Julie Howton: Well, and, and sometimes it can be, it's, it's not even, I mean, yours was like a glaring thing for me. It, it was listening to my youngest. Tell me that she was afraid I was gonna die. Ah. And knowing I had already had the fear, I wasn't gonna live to see 50, you know? But then when you hear that your kids can't fall asleep at night because they're afraid you're gonna be gone.
Heather Cooan: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Which seemed like the only option for where I was headed. Right. And so that was that, you know, there, there's, whether it's a dig deep and, and figure out what your driver is or if there is a moment, um, you know, there was no new information other than for me in that moment. I had this realization that especially for people in what, no matter the diagnosis, you know, you man, you'd mentioned complex chronic illness.
Right. So any of those things, um. For the longest time I thought I was doing everything. Yes. Because I tried all of the medications my, my doctors told me to take. Mm-hmm. And so I really true, I would, if anybody had told me sooner that there were other things I could have done, I would've
Heather Cooan: Yeah.
Julie Howton: But nobody told me that,
Heather Cooan: you know, but, and that's such a common experience, right?
Yeah. So many people get to the point where they just can't, before they realize that there's other
Julie Howton: things. Right. This is why we're having these conversations. Right. So that hopefully over time that changes. Yeah, exactly. And so, yeah, so I, I agree with you. I think, um, cancer tends to be. Uh, in and of itself can be a, a motivator.
I mean, we're all wired differently anyway, but, you know, growing up as a, as a mini Jewish mama, even as a kid, you know, like our, our tendency even as a kid, or not as a kid, but, but even as a young adult, you know, if something really weird was wrong
Heather Cooan: mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: My first thought would be like, oh my God, it's cancer.
You know,
Heather Cooan: that happens a lot. Yeah.
Julie Howton: Yeah. 'cause that would, and then I, I luckily do have the ability to quickly back myself down, like, oh, you know, um, but, but especially for the people with the big question mark. Right. So they have, they're fatigued. They're ha So how do you, 'cause I love that you said that we, we have to have some energy to dig in to make change.
Heather Cooan: Yes. Yes. And it's different for everyone in terms of what thread we pull, um, because we're, like you said, we're dealing with people who have experienced a very slow but consistent erosion in how they are feeling. Yeah. And that is comp like parallel to a slow erosion of how they're able to show up not just for themselves, but in life in general.
Yeah. And so it's definitely a matter of really understanding the person when I'm working with the client, really understanding the person and their story. Because what I find is the what Naisha says this all the time. She says, your biography influences your biology. It does indeed. Yep. And so I actually have my clients or someone close to them write out their chronology.
And this can take a little bit of energy in and of itself. Sure. But if you write down your life story in one. One sentence or one page or whatever. Mm-hmm. Sometimes they're just dictating and the technology is doing it for us. Sure. They're just telling me their story. Yeah. Then you start to see, oh, all of these things led to, maybe I picked up some stress coping mechanisms that were not healthiest.
Yeah. Because everything always equates down to daily habits and daily habits usually equate down to, I have made like conclusions in my mind about things, or I've picked up certain coping tools that served me at one point, but no longer served me now, or actually creating harm,
Julie Howton: which means we don't have to judge ourselves for that.
Yes. Because all of those things did come up to serve us and, and we can acknowledge and thank them and let go and learn new
Heather Cooan: tricks. They were protective. They were how we survived, they were how we got through whatever it was that was difficult.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: And so that's usually where I start. Like, tell me your story.
And I've done enough work on myself, and I'm still going through the trauma chapter myself. It turns out that's the core of my onion that disrupted my terrain in place. So I'm terrain based, as are you. So this is kind of how functional medicine works, but I think about the body or the terrain as your soil.
I'm a big gardener. Yeah. And so I think about the soil and then we think about like what's below the soil and all the microbes and the like matter that gets chewed up the dead tritus of the bacteria feed on. And then we have the roots of the plants.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Heather Cooan: And a lot of people talk about root causes and so something is disturbed in that soil that is impacting those roots.
And I would actually argue that our emotional experiences and how we cope with things are the water that feeds those. Yes. And so if the water becomes acidic or becomes like, you know, like radiated rain or whatever, then it doesn't matter what you do to the soil, you have to change the water source in order for those plants to thrive.
And that is what I think of when I think of the emotional things that happen to us that cause us to pick up things like stress eating, emotional eating, reaching for potato chips or cake or cigarettes or alcohol or scrolling or staying up late to watch movies or. Not addressing things that are bothering us or giving too much of ourselves away, or chronically people pleasing or not setting boundaries or taking on too much or all of that.
And a lot of this
Julie Howton: is, or, or, and so all of you know what I mean? Yes. It's not just one, it's, it's like this hierarchy. Um, so I I I love that you said we use a lot of the same language, you know, and, and finding which, which thread you pull. Yes. Because it does, it's a, it's never one thing. Correct. And, and b you know, where we need to start.
Sometimes it is, often it is not like even the big thing. Right. Um, and, and so I love that and thank you for that visual that I, it, I just love the. I'm a gardener too though, so I get it. But any, but anybody, I mean, you know, that has any appreciation of nature.
Heather Cooan: Yeah. Yeah. You can understand it.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: Um, and that's my big thing, is trying to take complicated stuff and translate it into plain English for folks so they can, it makes it tangible.
They can grasp onto it. Yeah. And then it becomes something that they can buy into and start to implement.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: So it's always different in terms of what thread, but I'm always looking for what's the smallest thread that we can pull. Mm-hmm. That can give you either a little bit of awareness of how you're traveling through life or a little bit of energy.
Yeah. And energy can come in a little bit of self-confidence because Oh, you're right, I made that little change.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: Or it can come in trying to reconnect cellular energy, which is usually mitochondria. Yeah. And so for my non-cancer clients, we dig into a lot of mine. Because minerals are the spark plugs of energy.
Like yeah, they what move hydration and nutrients in and out of the cell membrane. They are, what are the co-factors for our entire endocrine system? And I don't know about you, but I have yet to come across an autoimmune situation where there's not an endocrine component of some kind.
Julie Howton: Oh my gosh. Yeah.
Heather Cooan: Yes. And for those who don't know, endocrine, it's hormones. Right? It's really what we're talking about.
Julie Howton: And it can be chicken, egg, it doesn't matter, like Yes,
Heather Cooan: that's right. Yeah. So blood sugar is a big piece of the hormonal picture. When insulin is too high for too long, it cascades down and disrupts all of your hormones.
Then there's also the sex hormones themselves. So women are gonna be in a very different place if they are menstruating or the week before menstruation or perimenopause or menopause or pre menstruation. The little guys, I do work with children sometimes in my, my, uh, practice. And then there's also the thyroid.
That's a big piece to the endocrine system. The adrenal glands a big piece of the end. Like this is all of like the whole Yeah. Endocrine system.
Julie Howton: Well, and, and like you said, there is nobody that, that has autoimmunity and unless they've already addressed and, and done the healing work. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, where when people will be like, oh, well I have HPA, you know, back when, I don't think they even say that anymore, but HPA access disorder or Right.
It's like, yeah. Before that it was
Heather Cooan: adrenal fatigue. Yeah. Right.
Julie Howton: And, and how, yes. And it's just semantics, but like, it goes hand in hand and it's just a matter of, of tipping point, you know? Right, right. Um, and, and so, and I wanna highlight you, you said, um, I, I'm using different words, but, but for all of us.
These things that don't just pop up overnight. Even if you think, if your awareness, you know, tells you like, oh, you know, I was fine yesterday and today I have these symptoms. Um, this stuff bruised for a long time.
Heather Cooan: Yes.
Julie Howton: Um, and, and it's one of the reasons I say it all. It's like, probably too much on the podcast is one of my biggest pet peeves because I, I feel like for many of these things, fatigue becomes eventually a, a, a big factor.
Mm-hmm. Um, and it's so frustrating to me that that, and especially women are still told, well, of course you're tired. Fill in the blank. Yeah. Um, because nobody's gonna go to the doctor because they're tired when they know they're not getting enough sleep or Yes. You know, like we un we know the difference.
And, and especially as women, what it takes for us to even speak up. Yeah. And acknowledge like something is off. Um, so I just wanted to highlight like that, that, you know, you had a a, I mean, your whole life. So talk about, I always say like the kind of disconnecting from our, our body uhhuh can it again, it can lead to, or it can, it, it can come from I lived in chronic pain and so, you know, um, it, it's a coping mechanism.
Yes. And it's something that needs addressing for healing. Um, I can only imagine as somebody who had physical symptoms from childhood that nobody Yes. Like that, that had to be part of your like, well, I have to just ignore it and carry on. Yep. It just is what it is. It's,
Heather Cooan: it's my lot in life. Uh, I love that you're bringing this up because I will say that, um.
More often than not, I do find a disconnection in my clients and I'm still trying to reconnect myself between mind and body.
Julie Howton: It's a process. I think if we're not constantly working on it, that like we, I think we all have to, just, like you said, you're still working on your trauma. Well, I, I, I don't, this is just my belief, like you can't be ready to, to like, we are like onions.
And so as you heal then you become ready to go down to that next layer and other stuff is gonna come up, other opportunities, other mirrors are gonna be held up in front of us. Um, and it's the same as I'm still, if you did a toxin panel on me today Sure. You would be like, oh my gosh, how do you function?
Right. And I feel great, you know? Uh, to me tr the trauma and the toxins. Yes. It's, it's an ongoing, lifelong process and it, it is the same, you know, I, I think, at least for me, with working with the mind body connection and Yes. And really realizing that there's more growth to happen.
Heather Cooan: 100%. And that's why I like to use, I use so many analogies, but the onion analogy is very helpful for people to understand that it all doesn't have to happen right now.
Yes. And it's so, so important for people to understand that this stuff does brew for years and years or decades. In my case, two decades almost before I figured out what it was. Um, or I guess a little over two decades. That's like 25 years. Goodness. I know. Time flies. But when you start to understand that, like when you have like.
If you have like a little like irritation on your, your hand, like maybe you get a splinter.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Heather Cooan: And maybe you don't notice that splinter, but over time it starts to get inflamed and red and probably infected and starts to create pus. And now if it, it goes long enough, you could lose that finger.
Mm-hmm. And so when you think about things in a progression like that, something is interrupting your soil or contaminating your water, and then it's just left to kind of fester. Sure. And then it starts to branch out and affect other systems in the body because we're all connected where one big spider web of connection.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: And that's why it's so hard with the conventional medical system. They all intend good, but everything is siloed. And they don't understand how to identify things before they become a problem that need a prescription, a surgery, subclinical
Julie Howton: my favorite word.
Heather Cooan: Yeah, exactly. They're just not built that way.
Right. And so it, that's why a lot of people end up. Going down that entire road and exhausting everything before they're fed up and they start taking matters into their own hands. Yeah. And that's how they end up with folks like you and me trying to understand what led to this in the first place. And now we're trying to unwind 30 years, 40 years.
I have clients that are in their eighties and nineties. Yeah. 90 years of riding life with like wheels that are duct taped and like, you know, everything's fallen apart. And then when we start to unwind, like, oh, they get it. But it also is why a lot of people can't do things on their own, like an autoimmune protocol and just start chucking out foods.
Yeah. And don't feel any better. Well, it's probably not just the food. Thank you. Other
Julie Howton: things I was like, wait,
Heather Cooan: there's lots of other things. Yeah. And that's,
Julie Howton: that's why if it was as simple as an I and I am an a IP certified coach, like I, it's a great protocol. It's also not just, it's not a diet, it's a protocol.
Right. That it does include all of these things. Um, people don't realize like reintroductions Well, yes, but also the stress management, the movement. Yes. All like full lifestyle, but everybody focuses on, on the diet and, and um, if it were that simple, we could all read a book and heal. Right? Yep. And I think you said something early on that I really do think.
Leads to us waiting until we feel like we've exhausted all of the conventional routes. And also, I don't even like that word con. I'm gonna say allopathic. 'cause to me, what you do and what I do is it shouldn't. We're the og
Heather Cooan: unconventional,
Julie Howton: we're the
Heather Cooan: OGs. This is original
Julie Howton: medicine. Yeah. This is actual medicine.
Mm-hmm. Um, and I just lost my train of thought. I'm so sorry. Oh, no, no, no. It was the, it's the, this idea of like the doc, you know, the doctoral fix it, right? Like the, the both of us focus on empowering our clients. It's all, it's all about empowering
Heather Cooan: agency.
Julie Howton: Yes. But it, it's not like I, I just feel like the.
Western medical system and just society in, in general. I mean, it used to be like, oh, doctors knew it all and if the doctor said, so it must be true. Um, you know, and again, everybody, I'm married to a doctor, I love them. I love that you said 'cause I say it all the time, like they all get into medicine to help.
Yeah. You know, it, it's, it's, and western medicine is amazing at acute care, by need surgery place, I'm not going for acupuncture or you know, like Yes. Um, but when it comes to actual, but it's sick care. Right. And we're talking about how do we get well. Right. Um, and I really think so with agency comes responsibility.
Heather Cooan: Yes.
Julie Howton: And that's a huge mindset shift.
Heather Cooan: Yes.
Julie Howton: Right.
Heather Cooan: When I say, when I say things like I gave myself cancer, people are like taken aback, like. And I, I say that in a little bit of a gist and a little bit of trying to make a strong point. Right. But I didn't know what I didn't know. Right. And once I knew now I can do better because I know.
Right. And so there is also, I don't know if you experienced this when you realized about how all of the, the, the way you were living was contributing to your illness. Mm-hmm. There's a little bit of self blame and guilt and like, it's all shame that comes with that.
Julie Howton: It's all part of, you know, it, it's the process, like the stages of grief and the Yeah.
I went through anger. I, I mentioned before we started recording, you know, that, that, um, yeah. Diet, meditation, stress. There's so many. Literally like you, my entire lifestyle changed. Mm-hmm. But um, I went through, I definitely went through anger. Once I learned and knew and started to feel better and heal, I got angry.
I didn't hold onto it, I just, it was of one of the phases right after the, you know, we were, my family was in the dairy business when I was growing up and we ate margarine because we were afraid of fat. Yeah. You know? Um, and so I was so fat deprived, but, and I You mentioned minerals and, and so I, and I wanna mention, you know, the, we tend to focus on what do I need to avoid, what do I need to give up?
What do I, you know, and, and often we first need to build the good or, or, you know, support what we may be lacking. Correct. To allow the body to do what it needs to do, like make energy.
Heather Cooan: Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. People don't realize, like when I say minerals or when I say fatty acids, right, Uhhuh, because omega threes are a big thing.
People think supplements. And I am so stingy with supplements, so stingy. I have to be on the cancer side because we can drive cancer accidentally. Right. And we can also interrupt therapies and treatments Right. Accidentally with supplementation. So we have to be very cautious there. And so that, I've just embraced that in my entire practice and in my personal life as few supplements as possible to get us going because there's so much we can do with diet and so much we can do if we take stress off the system.
So you can actually digest and assimilate the nutrients you're taking in from your food. And people don't realize that stress means all stress, not just mental and emotional. Yeah. Just taxes, not just traffic. It's like the pressure you put on yourself.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Heather Cooan: It's the microbiome that is mismatched and kind of, you know, effed up.
Yeah. It's the night of sleep that you didn't get because you were worried about whatever you were worried about. Or that your nervous system was stuck in fight or flight because you're a coffee junkie and you're not supporting rest in some cases, right. Like, whatever that habit is or whatever that thing is that's interrupting you.
Uh, chronic pain, huge element there. Yeah. All of those things, they all put the nervous system in a state of activation. When the nervous system is activated, it pulls resources from every other system. Digestion being a really big one. Yeah. And so we gotta calm all that down first so you can digest and then maybe if you need supplements Sure.
Yeah. But I don't jump to supplements first,
Julie Howton: which is, is amazing. I hear people say all the time, um, you know, our, our food is mineral depleted.
Heather Cooan: Mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: So how are you helping people assimilate? Good question. Minerals from diet.
Heather Cooan: Yeah. So it's all in the food, food sourcing. So if you have the means and access and budget now it's about learning how your food is handled, how it's grown, where it comes from, and how it's farmed.
So I'm a big proponent of regenerative agriculture. Yes. And that is replenishing the soil in the process. And so if you're able to find a local farmer that takes good care of his soil for her soil and they're putting things back in, then your, you can count on those greens actually being high in magnesium and all the minerals that we're looking for.
So it's in the sourcing. Yeah. And if you are stuck in a place where you're not able to source good food, or you still feel like you're not getting what you need, we can absolutely add and supplement there. Sure. But we also find minerals in places where people don't realize, right. Like seafood is very high in minerals.
We have to be careful about the type of seafood in the oceans that it's, you read my mind. I was like, tos. Yeah.
Julie Howton: And I,
Heather Cooan: I eat good. But this is, this is the process of learning where our food comes from and how it's handled and how it's impacted. And so that's, that's typically where I start. And it's, this stuff is sprinkled throughout many conversations with folks.
It's not about go find all of these new places to get your food. Sure. Start with one staple.
Julie Howton: Yeah. No, I, I I love that, that you, it just like any other change, right. One, one thing at a time. Yeah. Um, I two, I mean, I'm blessed to live in a place where I can know where, I mean, you know, one of, one of our longtime clinic patients.
Is it raises grass fed grass, finished cattle. Um, and that's who fills our freezer, you know, when we've been to the ranch. So not, I do understand not everybody has that available. Um, and it, it's, but just learning about the, the quality, um, of the food, you know, I, I was gonna say, especially your proteins, but I don't know all of it.
It's really everything. Yes, it is.
Heather Cooan: But you're mentioning grass fed, grass finished beef, bone broth is a really wonderful Yes. Mineral rich food. Yeah. Um, if you can handle it, not everybody can. Bone marrow is actually pretty mineral rich. Like, yes. People don't realize that minerals live. It's not just in the soil, in the plants.
There's lots of different places where we can get minerals, like egg yolks very high in iodine, which is in mineral. Like there's lots of places where we can get this stuff. And yes, I love that you are basically utilizing your local community,
Julie Howton: but, but I, I do understand that, that, you know, not everybody we're very blessed to be able to do that, you know, and we have enough land to have, you know, a, a chicken coop on a trailer bed and pasture chickens following behind our horses and try to contribute a little bit to that regenerative, you know, um, I, I'm not saying farming 'cause we're not farming those pastures, but, but even still, I mean, you know, just enriching the soil and, uh, giving our chickens a happy life.
And I, somebody had one of our eggs for the first time recently, and they were like. Holy cow. You know? Yeah. I raised chicken. The same was bright orange. And I'm like, that's what color of yolk is supposed to be. Yep. And
Heather Cooan: they taste different. Sure. Yeah.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: And the other piece to this is that people always think about, well, my food doesn't have what I need, but what about the other things that are putting stress on your body that are causing you to use more of what you're depleted in or causing depletions in the first place.
Julie Howton: Yes.
Heather Cooan: So for a good example, just on the egg note with iodine. Yeah. Are you brushing your teeth with fluoride toothpaste? Uh, is your water filtered because we've got tons of fluoride in our water. Yep. So those halogen connect to the thyroid and block iodine binding. Right. So it doesn't matter how many egg oaks you eat or where they come from, if you still have those fluorides in the way.
Right. So it's those kinds of things. Same with bromides and breads, like commercial breads and things. So it's unraveling not just. Good source nutrient dense food. Right. Also, let's take stress off the body so that you don't need as much in the first place. And another big example is blood sugar regulation.
Julie Howton: Mm. So if
Heather Cooan: you're including a lot of sugar in your diet or you are constantly stressed, so your body's making a lot of sugar, it takes um, um, this is McBride, the GAPS diet. I think it is 28 molecules of magnesium to process one molecule of glucose. And it's like 58 molecules of magnesium to process one molecule of fructose.
So if you're just really a sugar person, then you're running through magnesium like crazy. Yeah. And then magnesium needs to be balanced with calcium. It affects your vitamin D. Like these things are all connected to each other. Right. And so if we remove, like the naturopaths always talk about, remove the barrier to cure.
So if we take the sugar out, we get blood sugar balanced. You don't need as much magnesium. And so now we can replenish with food and we don't have to be so serious about the sourcing if that's not within your reach. Right.
Julie Howton: You're did I think of it almost as like stealing, you know? Yes. Um, and I love that, that you said that where I, what popped into my mind is I am a big fan.
I know you're a data geek too. Oh yeah. So I'm a big fan of data. I love continuous glucose monitors for learning. Again, empowering and, and, um, it's always, for me, the most fun. Yes. It's important also for people to, to understand because we are bio individual, what spikes your blood sugar might not be the same thing as what spikes mine.
Even if we're both eating a, a whole foods real. Food diet. Right. Um, but my favorite part of having people wear A-A-C-G-M is the impact that stress has on blood sugar.
Heather Cooan: Yeah.
Julie Howton: That's when
Heather Cooan: the eyes open.
Julie Howton: Yeah. You know, uh, um, years ago, uh, several years ago, I had a client who, he was, he was already doing, you know, keto and, and I wanted him to wear A-A-C-G-M and he was like, okay.
I mean, he was a I'll do anything kind of guy. And it was, so I, and now if you had asked him, I mean, this is a high level entrepreneur with multiple companies, you know, the stress was not a question. Um, but for him to see the impact that it was having on his blood sugar as somebody who didn't ever eat anything in, in that time, that would spike his sugar.
Mm-hmm. It was really, really. Eyeopening. Um, and I think that, that we have to understand, like you're saying, all of the inputs and, and what's depleting what or blocking. Um, and that's where I, I think, you know, when we really do understand it, and again, I'm not saying it isn't, that means we have to do everything perfectly to heal
Heather Cooan: or all at once.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Like you can't, because imagine the stress, like the additional stress of trying to do it all at once.
Heather Cooan: And I see this all the time. I see this with like these crazy six hour, like morning routines or like, like, I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna have my lemon water and then I'm gonna do my meditation, and then I'm gonna do my yoga.
And then uhhuh and then, and then, and you've got this like long checklist of things.
Julie Howton: Do you have a family? Do you have a job? Do you have anything else to do? What, like you said, now it's different if you're in that. You know, my, my healing is my job and I need to learn these things and, and my gosh, if somebody can, has the opportunity.
And, um, but that's not a it we're talking about sustainable lifestyle changes.
Heather Cooan: Yes. Um,
Julie Howton: and, and that I, that brings up what I think we were chatting about before we hit record of, you know, what my routine is now is not what my routine is, was five years ago and probably is different than it's gonna be next year.
You know, so we're, we're constantly shifting. Yes. And,
Heather Cooan: and we have to give ourselves grace Yeah. When we enter a new chapter. Yes. So a lot of my clients. Come to see me and they're like, how did you do all of this? You changed everything. I changed everything over the last eight years. Right. And I'm still not done.
And so when we talk about things like you gotta build a skill, it's a muscle like anything else, like you're not just gonna like be a huge bodybuilder overnight. You're not gonna be like a wonderful piano player overnight. You have to practice and learn. And as you learn, you can take on a little bit more because what you learn becomes just part of Yeah.
How you roll in. And when I, when we talk about this, people are like, oh, I get it. And then this is where I can be really vulnerable about, about sometimes you have to let go of the tools that you just learned in order to learn the next set of tools. Yeah. And I'm experiencing this personally right now where I was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder last year.
It's a brand new chapter for me. It's a very intense chapter, trying to understand and wake up out of trauma and figure out who I am all over again. So my nutrition has slipped, some weight has come back, and I was really embarrassed about that at first, but I had to give myself grace. I don't have capacity to do everything perfectly right now.
And that is okay. Yeah. And it's worth it because if I can heal through this trauma piece, I have improved the quality of my water. So everything improve as we continue to move forward. Amazing. But it's not until we get that mindset around, like stopping to blame ourselves or hold ourselves accountable when maybe that wasn't our job or maybe we didn't have the tools or know better in the first place.
Yeah.
Julie Howton: Well, and I think that that blaming piece is part of how somebody ends up working. You know, it's how we got here and it's how it's just. There are definitely common threads.
Heather Cooan: Absolutely.
Julie Howton: Um, and, and you know, uh, it, I love that, that you shared. Yeah. We, we can't, you can't always add on. I was thinking as you were talking about like, sometimes we have to let go of maybe something we just mastered to, to move on to the next step or not let go as and throw out Right.
But like, loosen our grip on relax a little. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and it made me think of, well, that's how we're wired babies do that. Right. Like, I remember, you know, when my oldest was little and he had been a great sleeper, and then like right before he started to, to crawl, you know, he, he would not sleep well or it, it just seemed like every time the the next developmental milestone mm-hmm.
Milestone would come up. One of the previous ones would fall off a little bit and then it would come back, you know? Um, and so I, I just think that it, that goes to healing's, not a straight line. It's not a linear
Heather Cooan: process.
Julie Howton: Um, and I, I think that, that, you know, especially I, I can only imagine with the work that you do, because I know from personal experience when I feel like I am not being the best example.
Yeah. Um, after, you know, living so rigidly for so long and now I get to enjoy life and actually heal. Um, but, but there are times I remember the first. At first, my first bout with COVID, which was like nothing. But after I had this postviral inflammation mm-hmm. Tanked all my hormones, including thyroid. Um, and I woke up and felt like, I felt when I, you know, was full on in RA flare.
And I, that was my, literally, I think my first thought, well first was fear panic, PTSD for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And second was, I'm a fraud. Sure. What would I do for a living? Sure. Yeah. Right. And so, luckily what I do for a living also then gives me the, you know, I grace is a, is a huge part of healing. Um, and I always, it's like, okay, you know.
This is learning what, what's the takeaway here? How can I better support my clients? Because I just got this reminder of what it feels like to backslide. Yeah. Um, you know, and that wasn't like, 'cause I was running on empty again or doing, you know, that was, that was a viral hit. Um, and it's important to, to learn that this too shall pass.
Yeah. We have to allow
Heather Cooan: for, we have to allow for getting flattened. 'cause life happens. Yeah. And capacity is really what we're talking about. What, what is your capacity? And I talk about this with my clients all the time. So on the cancer side of my practice and on the autoimmune in some capacity, well, across the board I'm talking about blood sugar regulation and Sure.
Glycemic load across the board. But on the cancer side, we use the ketogenic diet quite often. Mm-hmm. We use fasting quite often. We use these things that are hormetic stressors. Yeah. And all stress, good or bad goes in the same bucket. Yep. And if you don't have capacity to withstand, you may not be able to use the tools all the time in the same capacity or in the same way that maybe you would before or you will be able to later.
And so this is, it's an ongoing kind of moving target in terms of healing. 'cause you're always gonna have a different capacity. So if someone's going through cancer treatments and they're kind of getting their butt kicked by chemotherapy, sometimes they can fast to mitigate side effects and sometimes fasting.
Increases the side effects. It makes them less resilient. Same thing with ketosis. Same things with sometimes we use methionine restriction, sometimes we use like whatever the therapeutic diet is. Same thing with autoimmune paleo protocols on the autoimmune side. Yes. Or histamine restricted diets or oxalate restricted diets, or whatever it is that we think may be irritating or God
Julie Howton: forbid, some comboo
Heather Cooan: of all of those I know.
Goodness gracious. Right. Or dairy free ketogenic, which we use a lot on the cancer side. Yeah. Like all of these things. Like how much capacity do you have? And if it turns out there's other big, big stressors, sometimes those are actually more important or gonna be a lower hanging fruit in terms of widening your capacity so that you can do these things.
But everybody's different and this is where the data is really, really helpful. Um, I use a lot of blood work in my practice and then I do use a lot of functional testing as well, but I also use a lot of genetics. So I look at Nutrigenomics on everybody who will let me, it is required on the cancer side, but on anybody who will let me.
And this is helping us understand where our vulnerabilities are because there are genes that will kinda leave you low on vitamin D and vitamin A, which are critical for the immune system, especially D when we're talking about autoimmunity and cancer. Yes. There are genes that will make you a little bit more prone to being locked in, fight or flight in that nervous system in response to stress.
There are genes that can leave you not being able to detoxify very well. Everybody knows about M-T-H-F-R, but there's a bunch more, right? So if, if, if we know where your vulnerabilities are, that can help us prioritize. And then if we cross reference with the actual what's happening right now, data, the blood work, the functional labs, we can kind of start to get a, a picture.
And this is how I did it for myself. I don't know that I would've been able to like unwind my onion and prioritize and get going without help. Yeah. So I needed a practitioner to guide me through all of this stuff. Yeah. And if you have the resources, I highly recommend it. I think you can do it on your own.
It's possible. Anything is possible. Yeah. But it's gonna be a slower journey and there's gonna be a lot more ups and downs on that non-linear path that, that's so true. But data is to our advantage here in a big way.
Julie Howton: Yeah, absolutely. I, I say, uh, I, it's funny now with the information, knowledge and data that I have now about myself mm-hmm.
There's really not a great explanation for why I was able to really move the needle before I knew what I was doing. And before I found somebody to work with and guide me, I say I had the throw spaghetti at the wall approach. Mm-hmm. Um, and so luckily for me, I found a piece and a resource that was enough to, to give me this idea of wow, you know, I think there, there are some food triggers going on here that I am completely unaware of and asy, you know, seemingly asymptomatic from people have to understand what, when we have chronic inflammation mm-hmm.
It just like my people that are so maxed out with chronic stress that tell me, no, I don't have stress. And I'm like, oh, you know, you've just adapted and accepted. Yeah. And so, you know, uh, yeah, I have, you know, I was eating, I get this all the time too. Well, I've been eating gluten my whole life and it's not been a problem.
And I'm like, well, why are we talking? You know, you haven't connected the dots yet 'cause your body hasn't been able to tell you. But so, so I, I really truly feel like I am doing what I'm supposed to be doing because there's no reason ju with the, just with my toxic burden alone, there's no reason that diet and meditation should have been enough to get me feeling well enough to go back to school to learn more about this, to, you know what I mean?
And so, um, I always say, you know, and it took me years. It did. Yes. Yeah, it took years. Um, and, and so I, you know, working with a practitioner when one can afford to is definite and the right practitioner for you. Yes. Um, it is definitely not only, you know, the expertise and the knowledge and the guidance, but but also to tailor, because we're, we're talking about these generalizations, but it's all with individualization.
Like you said, you know, you are, you're using a lot of testing and data and most important listening to story. Yes. And I'm would imagine using a bit of knowledge mixed with intuition as well when you listen to story as to, you know, I get goosebumps when. Somebody, you know, says something that they don't give any weight to, but I am like, Ooh, we need to, that's it.
That's where we're starting. Yes,
Heather Cooan: absolutely.
Julie Howton: Yeah,
Heather Cooan: absolutely. That biography I with a chronology is what we call it. Mm-hmm. And it is literally like a detailed accounting of your whole life. Yeah. Like all the good, bad, ugly, everything. Yep. And that is probably the most helpful tool, um, in all of the data that I collect.
Yes. Is that chronology. So when people are able to take the time to, um, either voice record it or write it down or whatever, it's invaluable because it always comes back to the water is contaminated in some way. Mm-hmm. And we gotta get that cleaned up in order for the changes that you're making to stick.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: Yeah. It really is. Because if you're running, if you're dealing with life with maladaptive stress, coping mechanisms long enough, yeah. You end up in a broken down, diseased state. Yeah. You just, you just do. That's how the cycle works. And for some of us it's like big traumas and little traumas and too much stress and all of that.
And for some people it's just pushing past capacity for too long. Right. But that's all. Or just maybe they picked up a way to numb their feelings. Right? Yeah. But back to the mind body connection, I see a lot of people that are disconnected, mind, body 'cause their body hasn't been safe to be in. Right. And so when I ask questions like, do you know what your emotions feel like in your body?
I couldn't, I didn't know that feelings were um, A physical thing. Physical, yeah. Thought. Yeah. When I ask that question, 'cause I couldn't feel them. Right. I think I've got like two or three that I can identify now. So we're making progress. Yay. Good job. A lot of people, they look at me like a deer and like, what do you, and then they start thinking about it and they're like, give me an example.
Like what do emotions feel like? And the first one that I identified was guilt. Because sometimes you have to slow down and take some time off when you are chronically ill and so you don't get to everything that you're supposed to get to.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: And I was having one of those days and I was feeling anxious and I couldn't figure out why.
I was like antsy and I felt like I needed to do something. And so I actually had to chat with chat GPT, and I was like, what does I, I said, what does guilt feel like? What does shame feel like? What does it turns out guilt can actually feel like anxiety because you feel like you've done something wrong.
Yeah. That you need to fix, that you need to change, you need to take action. And I was like, okay, okay, I got it. So guilt for me feels like anxiety.
Julie Howton: Got it. I love, I love that. Like I, I remember and sometimes just, it's like that light bulb moment. It is like just a leap. You know what, seemingly just something presented in a way that you didn't think about before.
Um, I. Um, I was so happy when I, I, I found out that I'm like, oh, I, I have genetic predisposition to procrastinate. Mm. And I am a procrastinator. I have always been a procrastinator. I also always get my stuff done right. Like, I always meet deadlines. I always, um, and it was when I, when I saw that, I kind of laughed like, ha ha there's my, you know, okay.
There's, because to me, being a procrastinator was a ne was a negative attribute. Sure. Right. And, and as soon as I realized, like just something clicked where I realized those things, I just said, you know what, I never don't get a project done on time. I don't ever let anybody down except for me. Mm-hmm. Um, I, I realized that that.
I carried, like while I was procrastinating it, it would create guilt that I experienced as anxiety. Yeah. And now I let go of all of that and I still procrastinate, but it serves me way better now.
Heather Cooan: Sure. Because you're not, you don't have to, you know, you're a gremlin person in the back of your head is not judging you.
Oh my gosh. You
Julie Howton: know,
Heather Cooan: and let it
Julie Howton: go. Yeah. And it was like, holy cow, I might as well enjoy my procrastinating. Yes. And I, you know, and I, and I always do, I don't know, I, I credit my daughter. 'cause in my life, that's who, who uses the term the most, almost always. I, I practice productive procrastination. Hmm. So, you know, if there's like a big thing that I'm, you know, I, I'll, the house will be cleaner, the laundry will be like whatever o other projects will get done.
Heather Cooan: I do that too
Julie Howton: actually.
Heather Cooan: If I'm procrast something big, I go find something else productive. That's interesting. I never connected those dots.
Julie Howton: And I, I think I, I, I had a friend who like came over one time when I was in undergrad, so, you know, a few years ago, um, and my, my apartment was spotless and she was like, holy cow, you know?
And I was like, oh yeah, I have a paper due. Uh, you know, and it's like, oh. And I look back and I'm like, oh, you know, it, uh, did I turn the paper in on time? Yes, I did. Yeah. Um, and so it, it is an interesting, so I love that you, you shared that this is all part of our evolution with, with. Wellness or wherever we are on that journey of like we're never done.
Heather Cooan: No, no. It's an ongoing iteration.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: And it little stuff. Little stuff helps like you taking pressure off of yourself and not beating yourself up for procrastinating. Yeah. Might just be the thing that clears enough capacity so you can eat better. So you can make sure you get to bed on time. You can shut down your phone when the sun goes down or whatever it is.
Yeah. It's just finding that little thread to get started. Where can you take some pressure off in some capacity? And sometimes we need labs to find like microbiome issues and hormone issues and blood sugar issues and these kinds of things. But a lot of it can like just evaluate how are you receiving the world?
How are you approaching life? Like are you really upset that your husband left his socks on the floor in the bedroom? Or are you upset because you don't feel heard about that thing you brought up last week that he brushed off? Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's the awareness of where we just need to like, take a step back and breathe and look objectively at things.
Ah,
Julie Howton: amazing. So we're, I kept you already way over time, but listeners are waiting for me to ask you, what is one step that they can take starting today to improve their health? Oh man. There's so many. I know. It's
Heather Cooan: a tough question. One step. Yep. This one that popped up, I will say, um, according to a Chapel Hill study, I don't remember the year it was, I, the last 10 years, um, we discovered that only about 6% of people are metabolically healthy.
Um, the rest of us have some sort of metabolic dysfunction.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm. So the
Heather Cooan: very first thing I would say is getting their blood sugar balanced. And that might be addressing stress and pressure emotionally. That might be getting pain managed. If they're dealing with chronic pain, that might be getting rid of sugar, getting rid of potatoes, bread, starch, whatever it is, something, um, like maybe even adding more protein or adding more fat, but figuring out where their blood sugar situation is now.
And if it is not, um, optimized, starting to kind of uncover and discover why and find a thread in in there that feels like they can make it a little bit of a change.
Julie Howton: I love that. That's brilliant. Really, I mean, and it's a, it's, you can't change what you don't know either. So I love that you backed it up to like, okay, let's figure out what's going on.
Um, and, and it's one of the things that, that we've seen post COVID mm-hmm. Are more metabolic changes, even without people changing diet and lifestyle. Um, a one Cs are creeping up and insulin resistance is becoming more prominent. And, um, so don't think that just because you are eating the right way, you know, um, that between the foods, the stressors, the interesting.
Post viral things. Um, I love that. Yeah. And if
Heather Cooan: you can get, if you can get your PCP to order an HBA one C mm-hmm. That'll give you kind of a three month snapshot. It's a proxy. It's not actually measuring blood sugar, but it's a proxy of what your blood sugar is doing.
Julie Howton: I like it because you can't cheat it.
Heather Cooan: Right. It is what it is. Like the, you know, you can't just like eat really clean once you, for metabolic you're healthy. There's some weirdness. But like at first, if your, if your number comes back in the United States, in our units, if it is above five. And you have chronic illness or cancer, there's some work to do there.
We actually want it to be pretty low if we're dealing with these things. And then they typically are not a fan of testing fasting insulin, but if you can also get a fasting insulin, that'll also help you understand. So for cancer, we actually like fasting insulin to be below three, which is very low with, with it without cancer and chronic illness, definitely below, below 10 for sure, but as low as you can get it would be excellent.
Love that. And again, and that can give you just a little bit of a starting point. And if you can't get anybody to do that, you can always jump on Amazon and grab a glucometer, like a keto mojo or a precision extra and poke your finger and look at your blood sugar when you are not fasting. So like maybe before your last meal of the day, where is it?
If it's below 85, you're in good shape. If it's above 85, you get some work to do.
Julie Howton: Yeah. And that is one of, one of the challenges with, and now there are other. Um, CGMs that, that, you know, are not made for diabetics on insulin. That was something that used to drive me crazy. Um, as I am a huge CGM fan and I have been for a long time, yes, but I will alarm a Dexcom all day long.
Mm-hmm. Oh yeah, for sure. I, I to drop low to low for like my blood sugar to be low and I'm not on insulin, so, you know, I'm safe for me. But, um, so yeah, it, it is the having the right tools for where you are is important. Yes, yes. And love that s
Heather Cooan: are excellent, but if you're the type that's going to stress yourself out by watching your blood sugar too closely, maybe a CGM isn't right for you.
Maybe poke your finger every now and then.
Julie Howton: Yeah. I, I say it is funny, I did years ago, um, I've been, I've had an aura ring since I think like 2016 and mm-hmm. Um. But I was working with a client once who, it, it, it was her data was stressing her out and, and she was like, I don't know what to, and I'm like, take the ring off.
Yeah. For right now, ban
Heather Cooan: people from data.
Julie Howton: Sometimes it's not. Yeah. So know yourself and, and
Heather Cooan: yeah. If it's gonna be one more thing that causes you stress, then maybe go on your symptoms. Yeah. Go to Google and, and ask like, what are, what are symptoms of dysregulated blood sugar? It's gonna be like tired after meals or can't go very long between meals, get hangry or, um, getting up to the middle of the night to pee all the time.
Or like these things.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: Go off your
Julie Howton: Heather. For people listening on the go that aren't gonna check the show notes, where is the best place to find you?
Heather Cooan: All routes? Lead back to my, my website, which is just heather cohen.com and that's C-O-O-A-N. So you can find me there. It's like coen. Yes, it does look like Coen.
Yes. Um, soil to Soul Nutrition is the name of my practice. We are virtual and global. We work with everybody all over the place. There's two other ladies that work with me on my team, but yeah, everything can be found@heathercohen.com. I'm not the greatest on social media. I'm trying to get more consistent and better at that.
Julie Howton: Yeah. And the website is, is so packed with resources we didn't even touch on it. And I, I would love to have you back and we can, we can do another episode. Um, but check out, Heather loves to cook and she has amazing recipes that are healthy and, and delicious. And I, I really can be just such a great place even to start because it's so overwhelming if you're not already living this lifestyle.
Um, and so even just that is, is, is an amazing resource. So yes, yes.
Heather Cooan: I have so many more recipes I need to get posted and I'm getting ready to, um, add an AI capability to the website that actually will allow you to customize the recipes based on your food sensitivities and amazing.
Julie Howton: So getting there. Wow.
Well, hopefully you'll come back and join us again. I thank you so much for the wisdom and, and positivity you share and the, and the just, um, the sunshine that you are. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. For everyone listening, remember, you can get the show notes and transcripts by visiting Inspired Living Show.
I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.
And when I sat down with the oncologist before the surgery, I asked him, is there anything that I can do for myself? And he looked me dead in the eye and he said, no
and I decided people need to know about this.
Julie Howton: Welcome back to the Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Houghton, and today we're joined by Heather Cohen, a double board certified functional oncology nutrition consultant, lived experience, mentor, and transformational coach with her unique expertise and personal journey overcoming Hashimoto's Lichen Sclerosis and vulva cancer.
Heather possesses a wealth of knowledge that resonates deeply with those facing chronic illness. Her approach is centered around bioindividuality, empowering her clients through personalized lab and genetic testing. Heather's one-on-one, evidence-based support and nutritional care. Lifestyle interventions and environmental design equips individuals with the tools they need to thrive, especially in the face of cancer and autoimmune diseases.
In today's conversation, we are discussing that connection between autoimmunity and cancer and how important it is to identify and address the drivers of either illness in order to truly heal. I.
Julie Howton: Heather, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. I am so excited for our conversation because you focus, you, you just have such a unique, I don't even wanna say niche purpose, really. Um, and so I, I can't wait for, and you also have an amazing healing journey Yeah. And very inspiring, which is what we're all about.
So I would love for you to share with listeners a bit of, you know, what got you into this space. I believe you were in marketing. Mm-hmm. Back when. Yeah. Um, and so share, share a bit of your journey with us and, and then we can dig into all the good stuff you're doing now.
Heather Cooan: Sounds good. Yeah. So I, I've had several lives as far as careers uhhuh, um, but.
I was in marketing executive, not, not C-suite, but almost actually I think I did end up in the C-suite at the end. But, um, in the process of giving too much of myself away and living for my career and climbing that corporate ladder and, you know, chasing the dollar, if you will, and the prestige or whatever comes with getting the title, my body totally gave out and I was, hit myself with a cancer diagnosis and all the check engine lights were turning on and staying on for like 10, 15 years prior.
So I always get my chronology messed up. I'm pretty sure 20 2005 I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's. Um, because I was on a work or like a friend trip and I got the flu and they did blood work, and it turned out my thyroid was low and I, so I started driving down that path. Um, and then when I was diagnosed with cancer in 2017, uh, I also at the exact same moment was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune condition called lichen sclerosis, a rough one.
And it's pretty awful. Um, those who have experienced it know what I'm talking about. Mm-hmm. But it's when your immune system attacks the skin of your genitalia. Yeah. And so, um, putting it in not so gross terms, permanent jockish is what you deal with and architectural changes and sexual dysfunction and, uh, all kinds of emotional stuff that comes with that.
Sure. Because it's and private part of the body, um, and nobody knows what it is. So we're definitely doing better with awareness now and doctors are getting. More educated, but I've had symptoms of lichen sclerosis since I was like eight or 12, like as long as I can remember. That's, um, my mom actually would embarrass me because she thought it was funny telling her girlfriends at like, hanging around the lunch table that in the grocery store line, I would announce Mom my vagina itches.
Yeah.
Julie Howton: Well, I mean,
Heather Cooan: and she thought it was, you know, cute and because, but it was embarrassing to her and me and she just kind of like looking around. But, so it just, so it is,
Julie Howton: that's a whole nother, we could do a whole podcast on. It, you know, it's a body part. And you were a kid who was trying to communicate some discomfort.
Yes, absolutely. But I get it. Absolutely. You know, polite society and all. Yeah. Yep.
Heather Cooan: And now I know it wasn't my vagina, it was my vulva. Right. The extra genitalia, which nobody knows about. So we're trying to make that aware. Yeah. Um, but nobody could figure out what it was. I was like in and out of doctors and all of like, what's, what's going on?
Nobody could figure it out. It was blamed on poor hygiene. It was blamed on, uh, being overweight. I've always been a little bit chubby. Um, it's was blamed on this detergent and maybe it's an allergy and maybe it's your underwear. Maybe it's yeast, maybe it's bv, maybe it's, maybe it's, maybe it's, but nobody ever thought anything of it.
And throughout my whole like gynecological adventure, I would go in and have like regular annual paps and they would just go in and, and do the swab and not pay attention to the fact that my vulva was white, like paper. Rough skin. Right. And so I finally just gave up going to the doctor and trying to figure it out.
Went on with my life. And as autoimmunes do, it would wax and wane in severity. Mm-hmm. And it would fla calm down. And so it was always just, it was what it was. And I just accepted it as part of my lot in life and moved forward in my career. I totally lost my identity in, in the corporate world. And at the height of my disease progression, I was eating fast food or DoorDash or delivery like everywhere.
Sure. It was like whatever I could stuff in my face. I was self-medicating with tobacco. I was actually a big cigar smoker, which is unusual for ladies. And I was drinking wine by the bottle. So it's like a glimpse of what was happening. I was not sleeping, I was not slowing down. I was certainly not exercising.
I wasn't doing any of the things that we know we should be doing. And so it got to the worst it's ever been. And then I developed a, like a tear that would not heal for months and out of that tear grew what we now know was a tumor. And so I went in finally, but not before I scoured the internet because of my poor experience with the medical.
Sure, yeah. And I self-diagnosed, I came across lichens sclerosis and vulva cancer, and I was like, oh yeah, this is probably what I've got. So I sought out a specialist, a vulva specialist, same as Dr. Joseph Brooks here in Phoenix. And he's wonderful for anybody who's dealing with these things. And I went in and basically sought out confirmation of my self diagnosis.
And so he did a biopsy and said, oh yeah, it, it, it's probably, you're probably correct. Sent it in, came back positive for vulva carcinoma. And so that was when I was like, huh, well, okay, then we gotta change some stuff. Uhhuh, this isn't working right. This is not working. I'm not, I'm not taking care of myself.
And I will never, ever forget when I was talking with my oncologist about what to do. I was like, he is like, okay, so we're gonna go through surgery, we'll remove the cancerous tissue and you'll be fine. These things are fine. Um, it turns out that the, the size and location of the lesion was very close to my clitoris, and they wanted to remove the entire clitoris in order to get all of the cancerous tissue removed.
And I pushed back because I was only 37 at the time.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: And I had no idea what kind of a like feminine identity, sexual identity, like typical function of my body changing. Like that's an organ you're losing. It's not a vital organ, obviously, but it's an organ.
Julie Howton: Yeah. I didn't,
Heather Cooan: I didn't wanna go down that emotional path.
Yeah. And so I negotiated. I said, how about you just remove as much of the cancerous tissue as you can, but leave me intact. Yeah. And he said, okay. He's like, you may need additional treatment, which would be radiation, chemotherapy if we did that. Just so you know. And he tried. Gently but persistently to persuade me.
And I said, no, please just leave me intact. And so he went ahead and he did that. And the sample came back when they removed cancerous tissue from the body. They wanna get what's called clear margins. And it, I kind of liken it to cutting the mold off of the cheese. Sure.
Julie Howton: Oh yeah.
Heather Cooan: For those of us that grew up where mom was like, it's fine, just cut that part off.
Mm-hmm. You don't just cut through the mold, you cut through the good cheese outside of the mold. Right. Get that clear margin. Yeah. And my sample came back where there was still cancerous tissue on three outta four sides of the tissue that was removed. So they did not get at all. And so the next step was going to be either in a second surgery to remove whatever they needed to, or pretty intense radiation with low dose chemotherapy to address the rest.
And when I sat down with the oncologist before the surgery, I asked him, is there anything that I can do for myself? And he looked me dead in the eye and he said, no
Julie Howton: you didn't
Heather Cooan: yourself. You're just unlucky. We'll cut it out and you'll be fine. Don't worry, we've, we've got you covered. And I was like, okay, well I don't wanna remove the clitoris.
I don't wanna go through radiation. When I sat down with a radiation oncologist and learned about the short and long-term side effects of radiation to that part of my body. That was pretty intense. Yeah. Like I could have lost my bladder, my colon, I could have burned my intestines together. Definitely would've lost elasticity and maybe sensation and all of, I wouldn't be able to self lubricate.
Um, early menopause medically induced was probably going to happen. Uh, lots and lots of things. Not to mention third degree sunburns and like fiery diarrhea and it's, it's nasty, right?
Julie Howton: Just the
Heather Cooan: regular
Julie Howton: terrible
Heather Cooan: side. Yeah. It's terrible. Yeah. And so I didn't like any of those answers and I had been seeing a naturopathic doctor for my Hashimoto's for a while and I sat down with her in my investigations and was like, this is what's happened.
And she said, you know, I've actually worked with clients in an alternative capacity to deal with cancer. And the type of cancer I had is called it's squamous cell, which is a type of cell, like a type of of tissue. She's like, it's actually kind of a weak cancer. And we can knock it out with alternative means.
And I had never even thought about that. Right? And so I went down that road and I ended up doing the metabolic approach to cancer, which is now what I specialize in. I'm trained by Dr. Naisha Winters, and I work very closely with her trained physicians on a lot of our cases. So I did a therapeutic ketogenic diet, and I overhauled my entire life.
I quit my high powered job. I made my job healing and taking care of myself.
Julie Howton: Yes,
Heather Cooan: I, and I, I looked at every element of my life. The mental and emotional aspects. The nutritional aspects, making sure I was sleeping. I actually was like, well, I've got cancer now. I can get cannabis, so I might as well. So I went the first time I, um, took cannabis, I slept, like, actually slept for the first time in like five years.
And wow, the clarity. The calmness when I woke up after that first dose was like, oh, life changing. I did not realize how far I had gotten away from me. Yeah. And so that kind of birthed everything. I learned a lot through that process. Um, I didn't just do those things. I also treated the rest of the cancer, but through alternative means.
Gotcha. High dose IBCs and hbos and lots and lots of supplements and all of that. Yeah. And I learned a ton about the business of cancer. I learned a ton about how much control over it we actually have. Mm-hmm. I learned about the connection between autoimmunity and cancer and how the immune system works.
And I decided people need to know about this. People need to understand and be empowered with tools that they can use to help them through their journey. And this is whether they choose alternative therapies or standard of care therapies or come or come. Yes. Yes. In my experience, the best approach is any tool that's appropriate for your case based on your data at that time.
Yeah. Yeah. So that's how I ended up here. I decided to make it my career.
Julie Howton: Amazing. And I, I love, you know, parts of, uh, all of us have parts of our journey that's, that's very personal. Um, and I just, I lo I love your candid approach because that is how you reach people and help people. Um, not enough people talk about lichens.
Definitely Nobody's talking about vulva cancer, like Right. It's rare. So, um, it, but, but people need to know, and I, I love that you were just having a conversation with a, a, a client, um, a couple days ago. Most women, I'm in my fifties, most women my age, you're right. Don't, like, they call their whole genitalia Yes.
Vagina like you did when you were eight. Yeah. And, and they don't. And I, we were having a conversation with a, with a gal who, you know, she, she even like realized, she's like, I, I think. I need to, to like look, look at some pictures and, and you know, you on my anatomy. Yeah. Yeah. She's like, I have no, nobody if they taught me in this anatomy in health class decades ago.
And I'm like, well, no. I mean, I, I don't think they, they really did. Um, right. So it, it is so I love that you're allowing you, you know, a normalizing the fact that that thing, you know, that this is an a, it's an area of the body we need to keep healthy. Um, and, and I just love that you, wherever it came from in that moment knew that, that, you know, the, the risk of the treatment they were recommending, you know, was, was not in your best interest at that time.
Heather Cooan: Yeah. And I, I get a lot of questions about that. The biggest question I get is, how the heck did you decide to, because I refused chemotherapy and radiation's. Yeah. But that's a, and people always ask like how, like, how it was the most terrifying decision I've ever made. Sure. It's really scary to choose something that doesn't have like all of the studies and the data and all of the, you know, intense research behind it Yeah.
That we would accept in the medical world. Yeah. And it's also really scary to accept what standard in medical procedure that comes with so much damage. Yeah. And the risk of secondary cancers down the line and all of this like turmoil. But at the end of the day, that is a personal decision and each of us has to decide what's right for them.
Yeah. For me, I knew that if I didn't. Invest in myself in making change and just let it be in someone else's hand, I would not actually change. And vulvar cancer has an up to 40% recurrence rate. So if I was only gonna do this. So even if
Julie Howton: you had done all of that
Heather Cooan: Right. I had to change my life. I had to change that I way I was treating myself mind, body, and soul in order to actually get longevity.
Julie Howton: Well, and and you know, when people ask me like, oh, what do we do at the clinic? Or how is it different? Or, um, you know, what is functional medicine and a root cause is so overused now I'm like, we ask why. Right. Right. Why, why did you have autoimmunity since you were a kid, even though you didn't know it?
Mm-hmm. You know, I mean, I, with you, my, my actual first autoimmune condition was diagnosed. That, you know, after all after my RA and I was like, oh, I'm, I have Celiac. And yeah, in hindsight that explains, you know, the IBSI, you know, like all the things. And that's
Heather Cooan: not uncommon. I see that with my clients. And that was my story.
I, Hashimoto's discovery in 20 2005. Yeah. LS 2017. Like
Julie Howton: Yeah. Yeah. Even though the symptoms for the, for the LS were from childhood, right? Yeah. Um, so anyway, I, I applaud you and, and I'm grateful for the work that you're doing. I wanna talk about, so I want, I brought up the, the why because like you, you know, whatever treatment approach, and for those listening on audio, I'm using air quotes here, but whatever treatment approach one chooses or combo of, you still have to get to the why.
So you don't have a recurrence or it doesn't show up in another way. Right. IEI have autoimmunity and I'm just, you know, doing the things that my rheumatologist told me to do two decades ago. Um, we could be sitting here 'cause I could say, well now I have cancer. Sure. Right. So, so let's talk a little bit about the, the individual drivers.
Mm-hmm. Not there, I know there are too many possibilities. I can't talk about all of the, but you know, how do you, how does one even begin to unravel? Mm, how did I get here? Because that's what you did. You just mm-hmm. Whether it was intuition, I'm, I'm guessing intuition. Yes. Finally, like, jumped up and protected you of like, oh, don't go that route.
And, you know. Yes. So, and you needed a, like, a whole revamp of, of life and lifestyle. Um, which sounds daunting. It is. Uh, it, it, it can be. Yeah. Um, but you had really, obviously significant motivation, you know, so I want, I know I just threw like 20 things I wanna talk about. No,
Heather Cooan: this is good. This is really good.
Um. I guess let's start with the motivation or like the Yeah. The, the chutzpah, if you will. Like, at a girl, we gotta find a little bit of, of energy to get started. And I work primarily with cancer, but I also work with autoimmunity and complex chronic illness.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Heather Cooan: And I find that my cancer clients have like, literally life threatening motivation to make change.
Right. That's different from someone who comes in with autoimmunity, who just feels like crap and doesn't have enough energy to like, make sure that their socks match, let alone Yeah. Right. And make life change. I was there, yeah. Across the board. Yeah. So was I. And it wasn't until cancer kicked me in the face that I was like, oh, I gotta make these treatments.
Yeah.
Julie Howton: Well, and, and sometimes it can be, it's, it's not even, I mean, yours was like a glaring thing for me. It, it was listening to my youngest. Tell me that she was afraid I was gonna die. Ah. And knowing I had already had the fear, I wasn't gonna live to see 50, you know? But then when you hear that your kids can't fall asleep at night because they're afraid you're gonna be gone.
Heather Cooan: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Which seemed like the only option for where I was headed. Right. And so that was that, you know, there, there's, whether it's a dig deep and, and figure out what your driver is or if there is a moment, um, you know, there was no new information other than for me in that moment. I had this realization that especially for people in what, no matter the diagnosis, you know, you man, you'd mentioned complex chronic illness.
Right. So any of those things, um. For the longest time I thought I was doing everything. Yes. Because I tried all of the medications my, my doctors told me to take. Mm-hmm. And so I really true, I would, if anybody had told me sooner that there were other things I could have done, I would've
Heather Cooan: Yeah.
Julie Howton: But nobody told me that,
Heather Cooan: you know, but, and that's such a common experience, right?
Yeah. So many people get to the point where they just can't, before they realize that there's other
Julie Howton: things. Right. This is why we're having these conversations. Right. So that hopefully over time that changes. Yeah, exactly. And so, yeah, so I, I agree with you. I think, um, cancer tends to be. Uh, in and of itself can be a, a motivator.
I mean, we're all wired differently anyway, but, you know, growing up as a, as a mini Jewish mama, even as a kid, you know, like our, our tendency even as a kid, or not as a kid, but, but even as a young adult, you know, if something really weird was wrong
Heather Cooan: mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: My first thought would be like, oh my God, it's cancer.
You know,
Heather Cooan: that happens a lot. Yeah.
Julie Howton: Yeah. 'cause that would, and then I, I luckily do have the ability to quickly back myself down, like, oh, you know, um, but, but especially for the people with the big question mark. Right. So they have, they're fatigued. They're ha So how do you, 'cause I love that you said that we, we have to have some energy to dig in to make change.
Heather Cooan: Yes. Yes. And it's different for everyone in terms of what thread we pull, um, because we're, like you said, we're dealing with people who have experienced a very slow but consistent erosion in how they are feeling. Yeah. And that is comp like parallel to a slow erosion of how they're able to show up not just for themselves, but in life in general.
Yeah. And so it's definitely a matter of really understanding the person when I'm working with the client, really understanding the person and their story. Because what I find is the what Naisha says this all the time. She says, your biography influences your biology. It does indeed. Yep. And so I actually have my clients or someone close to them write out their chronology.
And this can take a little bit of energy in and of itself. Sure. But if you write down your life story in one. One sentence or one page or whatever. Mm-hmm. Sometimes they're just dictating and the technology is doing it for us. Sure. They're just telling me their story. Yeah. Then you start to see, oh, all of these things led to, maybe I picked up some stress coping mechanisms that were not healthiest.
Yeah. Because everything always equates down to daily habits and daily habits usually equate down to, I have made like conclusions in my mind about things, or I've picked up certain coping tools that served me at one point, but no longer served me now, or actually creating harm,
Julie Howton: which means we don't have to judge ourselves for that.
Yes. Because all of those things did come up to serve us and, and we can acknowledge and thank them and let go and learn new
Heather Cooan: tricks. They were protective. They were how we survived, they were how we got through whatever it was that was difficult.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: And so that's usually where I start. Like, tell me your story.
And I've done enough work on myself, and I'm still going through the trauma chapter myself. It turns out that's the core of my onion that disrupted my terrain in place. So I'm terrain based, as are you. So this is kind of how functional medicine works, but I think about the body or the terrain as your soil.
I'm a big gardener. Yeah. And so I think about the soil and then we think about like what's below the soil and all the microbes and the like matter that gets chewed up the dead tritus of the bacteria feed on. And then we have the roots of the plants.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Heather Cooan: And a lot of people talk about root causes and so something is disturbed in that soil that is impacting those roots.
And I would actually argue that our emotional experiences and how we cope with things are the water that feeds those. Yes. And so if the water becomes acidic or becomes like, you know, like radiated rain or whatever, then it doesn't matter what you do to the soil, you have to change the water source in order for those plants to thrive.
And that is what I think of when I think of the emotional things that happen to us that cause us to pick up things like stress eating, emotional eating, reaching for potato chips or cake or cigarettes or alcohol or scrolling or staying up late to watch movies or. Not addressing things that are bothering us or giving too much of ourselves away, or chronically people pleasing or not setting boundaries or taking on too much or all of that.
And a lot of this
Julie Howton: is, or, or, and so all of you know what I mean? Yes. It's not just one, it's, it's like this hierarchy. Um, so I I I love that you said we use a lot of the same language, you know, and, and finding which, which thread you pull. Yes. Because it does, it's a, it's never one thing. Correct. And, and b you know, where we need to start.
Sometimes it is, often it is not like even the big thing. Right. Um, and, and so I love that and thank you for that visual that I, it, I just love the. I'm a gardener too though, so I get it. But any, but anybody, I mean, you know, that has any appreciation of nature.
Heather Cooan: Yeah. Yeah. You can understand it.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: Um, and that's my big thing, is trying to take complicated stuff and translate it into plain English for folks so they can, it makes it tangible.
They can grasp onto it. Yeah. And then it becomes something that they can buy into and start to implement.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: So it's always different in terms of what thread, but I'm always looking for what's the smallest thread that we can pull. Mm-hmm. That can give you either a little bit of awareness of how you're traveling through life or a little bit of energy.
Yeah. And energy can come in a little bit of self-confidence because Oh, you're right, I made that little change.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: Or it can come in trying to reconnect cellular energy, which is usually mitochondria. Yeah. And so for my non-cancer clients, we dig into a lot of mine. Because minerals are the spark plugs of energy.
Like yeah, they what move hydration and nutrients in and out of the cell membrane. They are, what are the co-factors for our entire endocrine system? And I don't know about you, but I have yet to come across an autoimmune situation where there's not an endocrine component of some kind.
Julie Howton: Oh my gosh. Yeah.
Heather Cooan: Yes. And for those who don't know, endocrine, it's hormones. Right? It's really what we're talking about.
Julie Howton: And it can be chicken, egg, it doesn't matter, like Yes,
Heather Cooan: that's right. Yeah. So blood sugar is a big piece of the hormonal picture. When insulin is too high for too long, it cascades down and disrupts all of your hormones.
Then there's also the sex hormones themselves. So women are gonna be in a very different place if they are menstruating or the week before menstruation or perimenopause or menopause or pre menstruation. The little guys, I do work with children sometimes in my, my, uh, practice. And then there's also the thyroid.
That's a big piece to the endocrine system. The adrenal glands a big piece of the end. Like this is all of like the whole Yeah. Endocrine system.
Julie Howton: Well, and, and like you said, there is nobody that, that has autoimmunity and unless they've already addressed and, and done the healing work. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, where when people will be like, oh, well I have HPA, you know, back when, I don't think they even say that anymore, but HPA access disorder or Right.
It's like, yeah. Before that it was
Heather Cooan: adrenal fatigue. Yeah. Right.
Julie Howton: And, and how, yes. And it's just semantics, but like, it goes hand in hand and it's just a matter of, of tipping point, you know? Right, right. Um, and, and so, and I wanna highlight you, you said, um, I, I'm using different words, but, but for all of us.
These things that don't just pop up overnight. Even if you think, if your awareness, you know, tells you like, oh, you know, I was fine yesterday and today I have these symptoms. Um, this stuff bruised for a long time.
Heather Cooan: Yes.
Julie Howton: Um, and, and it's one of the reasons I say it all. It's like, probably too much on the podcast is one of my biggest pet peeves because I, I feel like for many of these things, fatigue becomes eventually a, a, a big factor.
Mm-hmm. Um, and it's so frustrating to me that that, and especially women are still told, well, of course you're tired. Fill in the blank. Yeah. Um, because nobody's gonna go to the doctor because they're tired when they know they're not getting enough sleep or Yes. You know, like we un we know the difference.
And, and especially as women, what it takes for us to even speak up. Yeah. And acknowledge like something is off. Um, so I just wanted to highlight like that, that, you know, you had a a, I mean, your whole life. So talk about, I always say like the kind of disconnecting from our, our body uhhuh can it again, it can lead to, or it can, it, it can come from I lived in chronic pain and so, you know, um, it, it's a coping mechanism.
Yes. And it's something that needs addressing for healing. Um, I can only imagine as somebody who had physical symptoms from childhood that nobody Yes. Like that, that had to be part of your like, well, I have to just ignore it and carry on. Yep. It just is what it is. It's,
Heather Cooan: it's my lot in life. Uh, I love that you're bringing this up because I will say that, um.
More often than not, I do find a disconnection in my clients and I'm still trying to reconnect myself between mind and body.
Julie Howton: It's a process. I think if we're not constantly working on it, that like we, I think we all have to, just, like you said, you're still working on your trauma. Well, I, I, I don't, this is just my belief, like you can't be ready to, to like, we are like onions.
And so as you heal then you become ready to go down to that next layer and other stuff is gonna come up, other opportunities, other mirrors are gonna be held up in front of us. Um, and it's the same as I'm still, if you did a toxin panel on me today Sure. You would be like, oh my gosh, how do you function?
Right. And I feel great, you know? Uh, to me tr the trauma and the toxins. Yes. It's, it's an ongoing, lifelong process and it, it is the same, you know, I, I think, at least for me, with working with the mind body connection and Yes. And really realizing that there's more growth to happen.
Heather Cooan: 100%. And that's why I like to use, I use so many analogies, but the onion analogy is very helpful for people to understand that it all doesn't have to happen right now.
Yes. And it's so, so important for people to understand that this stuff does brew for years and years or decades. In my case, two decades almost before I figured out what it was. Um, or I guess a little over two decades. That's like 25 years. Goodness. I know. Time flies. But when you start to understand that, like when you have like.
If you have like a little like irritation on your, your hand, like maybe you get a splinter.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Heather Cooan: And maybe you don't notice that splinter, but over time it starts to get inflamed and red and probably infected and starts to create pus. And now if it, it goes long enough, you could lose that finger.
Mm-hmm. And so when you think about things in a progression like that, something is interrupting your soil or contaminating your water, and then it's just left to kind of fester. Sure. And then it starts to branch out and affect other systems in the body because we're all connected where one big spider web of connection.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: And that's why it's so hard with the conventional medical system. They all intend good, but everything is siloed. And they don't understand how to identify things before they become a problem that need a prescription, a surgery, subclinical
Julie Howton: my favorite word.
Heather Cooan: Yeah, exactly. They're just not built that way.
Right. And so it, that's why a lot of people end up. Going down that entire road and exhausting everything before they're fed up and they start taking matters into their own hands. Yeah. And that's how they end up with folks like you and me trying to understand what led to this in the first place. And now we're trying to unwind 30 years, 40 years.
I have clients that are in their eighties and nineties. Yeah. 90 years of riding life with like wheels that are duct taped and like, you know, everything's fallen apart. And then when we start to unwind, like, oh, they get it. But it also is why a lot of people can't do things on their own, like an autoimmune protocol and just start chucking out foods.
Yeah. And don't feel any better. Well, it's probably not just the food. Thank you. Other
Julie Howton: things I was like, wait,
Heather Cooan: there's lots of other things. Yeah. And that's,
Julie Howton: that's why if it was as simple as an I and I am an a IP certified coach, like I, it's a great protocol. It's also not just, it's not a diet, it's a protocol.
Right. That it does include all of these things. Um, people don't realize like reintroductions Well, yes, but also the stress management, the movement. Yes. All like full lifestyle, but everybody focuses on, on the diet and, and um, if it were that simple, we could all read a book and heal. Right? Yep. And I think you said something early on that I really do think.
Leads to us waiting until we feel like we've exhausted all of the conventional routes. And also, I don't even like that word con. I'm gonna say allopathic. 'cause to me, what you do and what I do is it shouldn't. We're the og
Heather Cooan: unconventional,
Julie Howton: we're the
Heather Cooan: OGs. This is original
Julie Howton: medicine. Yeah. This is actual medicine.
Mm-hmm. Um, and I just lost my train of thought. I'm so sorry. Oh, no, no, no. It was the, it's the, this idea of like the doc, you know, the doctoral fix it, right? Like the, the both of us focus on empowering our clients. It's all, it's all about empowering
Heather Cooan: agency.
Julie Howton: Yes. But it, it's not like I, I just feel like the.
Western medical system and just society in, in general. I mean, it used to be like, oh, doctors knew it all and if the doctor said, so it must be true. Um, you know, and again, everybody, I'm married to a doctor, I love them. I love that you said 'cause I say it all the time, like they all get into medicine to help.
Yeah. You know, it, it's, it's, and western medicine is amazing at acute care, by need surgery place, I'm not going for acupuncture or you know, like Yes. Um, but when it comes to actual, but it's sick care. Right. And we're talking about how do we get well. Right. Um, and I really think so with agency comes responsibility.
Heather Cooan: Yes.
Julie Howton: And that's a huge mindset shift.
Heather Cooan: Yes.
Julie Howton: Right.
Heather Cooan: When I say, when I say things like I gave myself cancer, people are like taken aback, like. And I, I say that in a little bit of a gist and a little bit of trying to make a strong point. Right. But I didn't know what I didn't know. Right. And once I knew now I can do better because I know.
Right. And so there is also, I don't know if you experienced this when you realized about how all of the, the, the way you were living was contributing to your illness. Mm-hmm. There's a little bit of self blame and guilt and like, it's all shame that comes with that.
Julie Howton: It's all part of, you know, it, it's the process, like the stages of grief and the Yeah.
I went through anger. I, I mentioned before we started recording, you know, that, that, um, yeah. Diet, meditation, stress. There's so many. Literally like you, my entire lifestyle changed. Mm-hmm. But um, I went through, I definitely went through anger. Once I learned and knew and started to feel better and heal, I got angry.
I didn't hold onto it, I just, it was of one of the phases right after the, you know, we were, my family was in the dairy business when I was growing up and we ate margarine because we were afraid of fat. Yeah. You know? Um, and so I was so fat deprived, but, and I You mentioned minerals and, and so I, and I wanna mention, you know, the, we tend to focus on what do I need to avoid, what do I need to give up?
What do I, you know, and, and often we first need to build the good or, or, you know, support what we may be lacking. Correct. To allow the body to do what it needs to do, like make energy.
Heather Cooan: Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. People don't realize, like when I say minerals or when I say fatty acids, right, Uhhuh, because omega threes are a big thing.
People think supplements. And I am so stingy with supplements, so stingy. I have to be on the cancer side because we can drive cancer accidentally. Right. And we can also interrupt therapies and treatments Right. Accidentally with supplementation. So we have to be very cautious there. And so that, I've just embraced that in my entire practice and in my personal life as few supplements as possible to get us going because there's so much we can do with diet and so much we can do if we take stress off the system.
So you can actually digest and assimilate the nutrients you're taking in from your food. And people don't realize that stress means all stress, not just mental and emotional. Yeah. Just taxes, not just traffic. It's like the pressure you put on yourself.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Heather Cooan: It's the microbiome that is mismatched and kind of, you know, effed up.
Yeah. It's the night of sleep that you didn't get because you were worried about whatever you were worried about. Or that your nervous system was stuck in fight or flight because you're a coffee junkie and you're not supporting rest in some cases, right. Like, whatever that habit is or whatever that thing is that's interrupting you.
Uh, chronic pain, huge element there. Yeah. All of those things, they all put the nervous system in a state of activation. When the nervous system is activated, it pulls resources from every other system. Digestion being a really big one. Yeah. And so we gotta calm all that down first so you can digest and then maybe if you need supplements Sure.
Yeah. But I don't jump to supplements first,
Julie Howton: which is, is amazing. I hear people say all the time, um, you know, our, our food is mineral depleted.
Heather Cooan: Mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: So how are you helping people assimilate? Good question. Minerals from diet.
Heather Cooan: Yeah. So it's all in the food, food sourcing. So if you have the means and access and budget now it's about learning how your food is handled, how it's grown, where it comes from, and how it's farmed.
So I'm a big proponent of regenerative agriculture. Yes. And that is replenishing the soil in the process. And so if you're able to find a local farmer that takes good care of his soil for her soil and they're putting things back in, then your, you can count on those greens actually being high in magnesium and all the minerals that we're looking for.
So it's in the sourcing. Yeah. And if you are stuck in a place where you're not able to source good food, or you still feel like you're not getting what you need, we can absolutely add and supplement there. Sure. But we also find minerals in places where people don't realize, right. Like seafood is very high in minerals.
We have to be careful about the type of seafood in the oceans that it's, you read my mind. I was like, tos. Yeah.
Julie Howton: And I,
Heather Cooan: I eat good. But this is, this is the process of learning where our food comes from and how it's handled and how it's impacted. And so that's, that's typically where I start. And it's, this stuff is sprinkled throughout many conversations with folks.
It's not about go find all of these new places to get your food. Sure. Start with one staple.
Julie Howton: Yeah. No, I, I I love that, that you, it just like any other change, right. One, one thing at a time. Yeah. Um, I two, I mean, I'm blessed to live in a place where I can know where, I mean, you know, one of, one of our longtime clinic patients.
Is it raises grass fed grass, finished cattle. Um, and that's who fills our freezer, you know, when we've been to the ranch. So not, I do understand not everybody has that available. Um, and it, it's, but just learning about the, the quality, um, of the food, you know, I, I was gonna say, especially your proteins, but I don't know all of it.
It's really everything. Yes, it is.
Heather Cooan: But you're mentioning grass fed, grass finished beef, bone broth is a really wonderful Yes. Mineral rich food. Yeah. Um, if you can handle it, not everybody can. Bone marrow is actually pretty mineral rich. Like, yes. People don't realize that minerals live. It's not just in the soil, in the plants.
There's lots of different places where we can get minerals, like egg yolks very high in iodine, which is in mineral. Like there's lots of places where we can get this stuff. And yes, I love that you are basically utilizing your local community,
Julie Howton: but, but I, I do understand that, that, you know, not everybody we're very blessed to be able to do that, you know, and we have enough land to have, you know, a, a chicken coop on a trailer bed and pasture chickens following behind our horses and try to contribute a little bit to that regenerative, you know, um, I, I'm not saying farming 'cause we're not farming those pastures, but, but even still, I mean, you know, just enriching the soil and, uh, giving our chickens a happy life.
And I, somebody had one of our eggs for the first time recently, and they were like. Holy cow. You know? Yeah. I raised chicken. The same was bright orange. And I'm like, that's what color of yolk is supposed to be. Yep. And
Heather Cooan: they taste different. Sure. Yeah.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: And the other piece to this is that people always think about, well, my food doesn't have what I need, but what about the other things that are putting stress on your body that are causing you to use more of what you're depleted in or causing depletions in the first place.
Julie Howton: Yes.
Heather Cooan: So for a good example, just on the egg note with iodine. Yeah. Are you brushing your teeth with fluoride toothpaste? Uh, is your water filtered because we've got tons of fluoride in our water. Yep. So those halogen connect to the thyroid and block iodine binding. Right. So it doesn't matter how many egg oaks you eat or where they come from, if you still have those fluorides in the way.
Right. So it's those kinds of things. Same with bromides and breads, like commercial breads and things. So it's unraveling not just. Good source nutrient dense food. Right. Also, let's take stress off the body so that you don't need as much in the first place. And another big example is blood sugar regulation.
Julie Howton: Mm. So if
Heather Cooan: you're including a lot of sugar in your diet or you are constantly stressed, so your body's making a lot of sugar, it takes um, um, this is McBride, the GAPS diet. I think it is 28 molecules of magnesium to process one molecule of glucose. And it's like 58 molecules of magnesium to process one molecule of fructose.
So if you're just really a sugar person, then you're running through magnesium like crazy. Yeah. And then magnesium needs to be balanced with calcium. It affects your vitamin D. Like these things are all connected to each other. Right. And so if we remove, like the naturopaths always talk about, remove the barrier to cure.
So if we take the sugar out, we get blood sugar balanced. You don't need as much magnesium. And so now we can replenish with food and we don't have to be so serious about the sourcing if that's not within your reach. Right.
Julie Howton: You're did I think of it almost as like stealing, you know? Yes. Um, and I love that, that you said that where I, what popped into my mind is I am a big fan.
I know you're a data geek too. Oh yeah. So I'm a big fan of data. I love continuous glucose monitors for learning. Again, empowering and, and, um, it's always, for me, the most fun. Yes. It's important also for people to, to understand because we are bio individual, what spikes your blood sugar might not be the same thing as what spikes mine.
Even if we're both eating a, a whole foods real. Food diet. Right. Um, but my favorite part of having people wear A-A-C-G-M is the impact that stress has on blood sugar.
Heather Cooan: Yeah.
Julie Howton: That's when
Heather Cooan: the eyes open.
Julie Howton: Yeah. You know, uh, um, years ago, uh, several years ago, I had a client who, he was, he was already doing, you know, keto and, and I wanted him to wear A-A-C-G-M and he was like, okay.
I mean, he was a I'll do anything kind of guy. And it was, so I, and now if you had asked him, I mean, this is a high level entrepreneur with multiple companies, you know, the stress was not a question. Um, but for him to see the impact that it was having on his blood sugar as somebody who didn't ever eat anything in, in that time, that would spike his sugar.
Mm-hmm. It was really, really. Eyeopening. Um, and I think that, that we have to understand, like you're saying, all of the inputs and, and what's depleting what or blocking. Um, and that's where I, I think, you know, when we really do understand it, and again, I'm not saying it isn't, that means we have to do everything perfectly to heal
Heather Cooan: or all at once.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Like you can't, because imagine the stress, like the additional stress of trying to do it all at once.
Heather Cooan: And I see this all the time. I see this with like these crazy six hour, like morning routines or like, like, I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna have my lemon water and then I'm gonna do my meditation, and then I'm gonna do my yoga.
And then uhhuh and then, and then, and you've got this like long checklist of things.
Julie Howton: Do you have a family? Do you have a job? Do you have anything else to do? What, like you said, now it's different if you're in that. You know, my, my healing is my job and I need to learn these things and, and my gosh, if somebody can, has the opportunity.
And, um, but that's not a it we're talking about sustainable lifestyle changes.
Heather Cooan: Yes. Um,
Julie Howton: and, and that I, that brings up what I think we were chatting about before we hit record of, you know, what my routine is now is not what my routine is, was five years ago and probably is different than it's gonna be next year.
You know, so we're, we're constantly shifting. Yes. And,
Heather Cooan: and we have to give ourselves grace Yeah. When we enter a new chapter. Yes. So a lot of my clients. Come to see me and they're like, how did you do all of this? You changed everything. I changed everything over the last eight years. Right. And I'm still not done.
And so when we talk about things like you gotta build a skill, it's a muscle like anything else, like you're not just gonna like be a huge bodybuilder overnight. You're not gonna be like a wonderful piano player overnight. You have to practice and learn. And as you learn, you can take on a little bit more because what you learn becomes just part of Yeah.
How you roll in. And when I, when we talk about this, people are like, oh, I get it. And then this is where I can be really vulnerable about, about sometimes you have to let go of the tools that you just learned in order to learn the next set of tools. Yeah. And I'm experiencing this personally right now where I was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder last year.
It's a brand new chapter for me. It's a very intense chapter, trying to understand and wake up out of trauma and figure out who I am all over again. So my nutrition has slipped, some weight has come back, and I was really embarrassed about that at first, but I had to give myself grace. I don't have capacity to do everything perfectly right now.
And that is okay. Yeah. And it's worth it because if I can heal through this trauma piece, I have improved the quality of my water. So everything improve as we continue to move forward. Amazing. But it's not until we get that mindset around, like stopping to blame ourselves or hold ourselves accountable when maybe that wasn't our job or maybe we didn't have the tools or know better in the first place.
Yeah.
Julie Howton: Well, and I think that that blaming piece is part of how somebody ends up working. You know, it's how we got here and it's how it's just. There are definitely common threads.
Heather Cooan: Absolutely.
Julie Howton: Um, and, and you know, uh, it, I love that, that you shared. Yeah. We, we can't, you can't always add on. I was thinking as you were talking about like, sometimes we have to let go of maybe something we just mastered to, to move on to the next step or not let go as and throw out Right.
But like, loosen our grip on relax a little. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and it made me think of, well, that's how we're wired babies do that. Right. Like, I remember, you know, when my oldest was little and he had been a great sleeper, and then like right before he started to, to crawl, you know, he, he would not sleep well or it, it just seemed like every time the the next developmental milestone mm-hmm.
Milestone would come up. One of the previous ones would fall off a little bit and then it would come back, you know? Um, and so I, I just think that it, that goes to healing's, not a straight line. It's not a linear
Heather Cooan: process.
Julie Howton: Um, and I, I think that, that, you know, especially I, I can only imagine with the work that you do, because I know from personal experience when I feel like I am not being the best example.
Yeah. Um, after, you know, living so rigidly for so long and now I get to enjoy life and actually heal. Um, but, but there are times I remember the first. At first, my first bout with COVID, which was like nothing. But after I had this postviral inflammation mm-hmm. Tanked all my hormones, including thyroid. Um, and I woke up and felt like, I felt when I, you know, was full on in RA flare.
And I, that was my, literally, I think my first thought, well first was fear panic, PTSD for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And second was, I'm a fraud. Sure. What would I do for a living? Sure. Yeah. Right. And so, luckily what I do for a living also then gives me the, you know, I grace is a, is a huge part of healing. Um, and I always, it's like, okay, you know.
This is learning what, what's the takeaway here? How can I better support my clients? Because I just got this reminder of what it feels like to backslide. Yeah. Um, you know, and that wasn't like, 'cause I was running on empty again or doing, you know, that was, that was a viral hit. Um, and it's important to, to learn that this too shall pass.
Yeah. We have to allow
Heather Cooan: for, we have to allow for getting flattened. 'cause life happens. Yeah. And capacity is really what we're talking about. What, what is your capacity? And I talk about this with my clients all the time. So on the cancer side of my practice and on the autoimmune in some capacity, well, across the board I'm talking about blood sugar regulation and Sure.
Glycemic load across the board. But on the cancer side, we use the ketogenic diet quite often. Mm-hmm. We use fasting quite often. We use these things that are hormetic stressors. Yeah. And all stress, good or bad goes in the same bucket. Yep. And if you don't have capacity to withstand, you may not be able to use the tools all the time in the same capacity or in the same way that maybe you would before or you will be able to later.
And so this is, it's an ongoing kind of moving target in terms of healing. 'cause you're always gonna have a different capacity. So if someone's going through cancer treatments and they're kind of getting their butt kicked by chemotherapy, sometimes they can fast to mitigate side effects and sometimes fasting.
Increases the side effects. It makes them less resilient. Same thing with ketosis. Same things with sometimes we use methionine restriction, sometimes we use like whatever the therapeutic diet is. Same thing with autoimmune paleo protocols on the autoimmune side. Yes. Or histamine restricted diets or oxalate restricted diets, or whatever it is that we think may be irritating or God
Julie Howton: forbid, some comboo
Heather Cooan: of all of those I know.
Goodness gracious. Right. Or dairy free ketogenic, which we use a lot on the cancer side. Yeah. Like all of these things. Like how much capacity do you have? And if it turns out there's other big, big stressors, sometimes those are actually more important or gonna be a lower hanging fruit in terms of widening your capacity so that you can do these things.
But everybody's different and this is where the data is really, really helpful. Um, I use a lot of blood work in my practice and then I do use a lot of functional testing as well, but I also use a lot of genetics. So I look at Nutrigenomics on everybody who will let me, it is required on the cancer side, but on anybody who will let me.
And this is helping us understand where our vulnerabilities are because there are genes that will kinda leave you low on vitamin D and vitamin A, which are critical for the immune system, especially D when we're talking about autoimmunity and cancer. Yes. There are genes that will make you a little bit more prone to being locked in, fight or flight in that nervous system in response to stress.
There are genes that can leave you not being able to detoxify very well. Everybody knows about M-T-H-F-R, but there's a bunch more, right? So if, if, if we know where your vulnerabilities are, that can help us prioritize. And then if we cross reference with the actual what's happening right now, data, the blood work, the functional labs, we can kind of start to get a, a picture.
And this is how I did it for myself. I don't know that I would've been able to like unwind my onion and prioritize and get going without help. Yeah. So I needed a practitioner to guide me through all of this stuff. Yeah. And if you have the resources, I highly recommend it. I think you can do it on your own.
It's possible. Anything is possible. Yeah. But it's gonna be a slower journey and there's gonna be a lot more ups and downs on that non-linear path that, that's so true. But data is to our advantage here in a big way.
Julie Howton: Yeah, absolutely. I, I say, uh, I, it's funny now with the information, knowledge and data that I have now about myself mm-hmm.
There's really not a great explanation for why I was able to really move the needle before I knew what I was doing. And before I found somebody to work with and guide me, I say I had the throw spaghetti at the wall approach. Mm-hmm. Um, and so luckily for me, I found a piece and a resource that was enough to, to give me this idea of wow, you know, I think there, there are some food triggers going on here that I am completely unaware of and asy, you know, seemingly asymptomatic from people have to understand what, when we have chronic inflammation mm-hmm.
It just like my people that are so maxed out with chronic stress that tell me, no, I don't have stress. And I'm like, oh, you know, you've just adapted and accepted. Yeah. And so, you know, uh, yeah, I have, you know, I was eating, I get this all the time too. Well, I've been eating gluten my whole life and it's not been a problem.
And I'm like, well, why are we talking? You know, you haven't connected the dots yet 'cause your body hasn't been able to tell you. But so, so I, I really truly feel like I am doing what I'm supposed to be doing because there's no reason ju with the, just with my toxic burden alone, there's no reason that diet and meditation should have been enough to get me feeling well enough to go back to school to learn more about this, to, you know what I mean?
And so, um, I always say, you know, and it took me years. It did. Yes. Yeah, it took years. Um, and, and so I, you know, working with a practitioner when one can afford to is definite and the right practitioner for you. Yes. Um, it is definitely not only, you know, the expertise and the knowledge and the guidance, but but also to tailor, because we're, we're talking about these generalizations, but it's all with individualization.
Like you said, you know, you are, you're using a lot of testing and data and most important listening to story. Yes. And I'm would imagine using a bit of knowledge mixed with intuition as well when you listen to story as to, you know, I get goosebumps when. Somebody, you know, says something that they don't give any weight to, but I am like, Ooh, we need to, that's it.
That's where we're starting. Yes,
Heather Cooan: absolutely.
Julie Howton: Yeah,
Heather Cooan: absolutely. That biography I with a chronology is what we call it. Mm-hmm. And it is literally like a detailed accounting of your whole life. Yeah. Like all the good, bad, ugly, everything. Yep. And that is probably the most helpful tool, um, in all of the data that I collect.
Yes. Is that chronology. So when people are able to take the time to, um, either voice record it or write it down or whatever, it's invaluable because it always comes back to the water is contaminated in some way. Mm-hmm. And we gotta get that cleaned up in order for the changes that you're making to stick.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: Yeah. It really is. Because if you're running, if you're dealing with life with maladaptive stress, coping mechanisms long enough, yeah. You end up in a broken down, diseased state. Yeah. You just, you just do. That's how the cycle works. And for some of us it's like big traumas and little traumas and too much stress and all of that.
And for some people it's just pushing past capacity for too long. Right. But that's all. Or just maybe they picked up a way to numb their feelings. Right? Yeah. But back to the mind body connection, I see a lot of people that are disconnected, mind, body 'cause their body hasn't been safe to be in. Right. And so when I ask questions like, do you know what your emotions feel like in your body?
I couldn't, I didn't know that feelings were um, A physical thing. Physical, yeah. Thought. Yeah. When I ask that question, 'cause I couldn't feel them. Right. I think I've got like two or three that I can identify now. So we're making progress. Yay. Good job. A lot of people, they look at me like a deer and like, what do you, and then they start thinking about it and they're like, give me an example.
Like what do emotions feel like? And the first one that I identified was guilt. Because sometimes you have to slow down and take some time off when you are chronically ill and so you don't get to everything that you're supposed to get to.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: And I was having one of those days and I was feeling anxious and I couldn't figure out why.
I was like antsy and I felt like I needed to do something. And so I actually had to chat with chat GPT, and I was like, what does I, I said, what does guilt feel like? What does shame feel like? What does it turns out guilt can actually feel like anxiety because you feel like you've done something wrong.
Yeah. That you need to fix, that you need to change, you need to take action. And I was like, okay, okay, I got it. So guilt for me feels like anxiety.
Julie Howton: Got it. I love, I love that. Like I, I remember and sometimes just, it's like that light bulb moment. It is like just a leap. You know what, seemingly just something presented in a way that you didn't think about before.
Um, I. Um, I was so happy when I, I, I found out that I'm like, oh, I, I have genetic predisposition to procrastinate. Mm. And I am a procrastinator. I have always been a procrastinator. I also always get my stuff done right. Like, I always meet deadlines. I always, um, and it was when I, when I saw that, I kind of laughed like, ha ha there's my, you know, okay.
There's, because to me, being a procrastinator was a ne was a negative attribute. Sure. Right. And, and as soon as I realized, like just something clicked where I realized those things, I just said, you know what, I never don't get a project done on time. I don't ever let anybody down except for me. Mm-hmm. Um, I, I realized that that.
I carried, like while I was procrastinating it, it would create guilt that I experienced as anxiety. Yeah. And now I let go of all of that and I still procrastinate, but it serves me way better now.
Heather Cooan: Sure. Because you're not, you don't have to, you know, you're a gremlin person in the back of your head is not judging you.
Oh my gosh. You
Julie Howton: know,
Heather Cooan: and let it
Julie Howton: go. Yeah. And it was like, holy cow, I might as well enjoy my procrastinating. Yes. And I, you know, and I, and I always do, I don't know, I, I credit my daughter. 'cause in my life, that's who, who uses the term the most, almost always. I, I practice productive procrastination. Hmm. So, you know, if there's like a big thing that I'm, you know, I, I'll, the house will be cleaner, the laundry will be like whatever o other projects will get done.
Heather Cooan: I do that too
Julie Howton: actually.
Heather Cooan: If I'm procrast something big, I go find something else productive. That's interesting. I never connected those dots.
Julie Howton: And I, I think I, I, I had a friend who like came over one time when I was in undergrad, so, you know, a few years ago, um, and my, my apartment was spotless and she was like, holy cow, you know?
And I was like, oh yeah, I have a paper due. Uh, you know, and it's like, oh. And I look back and I'm like, oh, you know, it, uh, did I turn the paper in on time? Yes, I did. Yeah. Um, and so it, it is an interesting, so I love that you, you shared that this is all part of our evolution with, with. Wellness or wherever we are on that journey of like we're never done.
Heather Cooan: No, no. It's an ongoing iteration.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: And it little stuff. Little stuff helps like you taking pressure off of yourself and not beating yourself up for procrastinating. Yeah. Might just be the thing that clears enough capacity so you can eat better. So you can make sure you get to bed on time. You can shut down your phone when the sun goes down or whatever it is.
Yeah. It's just finding that little thread to get started. Where can you take some pressure off in some capacity? And sometimes we need labs to find like microbiome issues and hormone issues and blood sugar issues and these kinds of things. But a lot of it can like just evaluate how are you receiving the world?
How are you approaching life? Like are you really upset that your husband left his socks on the floor in the bedroom? Or are you upset because you don't feel heard about that thing you brought up last week that he brushed off? Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's the awareness of where we just need to like, take a step back and breathe and look objectively at things.
Ah,
Julie Howton: amazing. So we're, I kept you already way over time, but listeners are waiting for me to ask you, what is one step that they can take starting today to improve their health? Oh man. There's so many. I know. It's
Heather Cooan: a tough question. One step. Yep. This one that popped up, I will say, um, according to a Chapel Hill study, I don't remember the year it was, I, the last 10 years, um, we discovered that only about 6% of people are metabolically healthy.
Um, the rest of us have some sort of metabolic dysfunction.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm. So the
Heather Cooan: very first thing I would say is getting their blood sugar balanced. And that might be addressing stress and pressure emotionally. That might be getting pain managed. If they're dealing with chronic pain, that might be getting rid of sugar, getting rid of potatoes, bread, starch, whatever it is, something, um, like maybe even adding more protein or adding more fat, but figuring out where their blood sugar situation is now.
And if it is not, um, optimized, starting to kind of uncover and discover why and find a thread in in there that feels like they can make it a little bit of a change.
Julie Howton: I love that. That's brilliant. Really, I mean, and it's a, it's, you can't change what you don't know either. So I love that you backed it up to like, okay, let's figure out what's going on.
Um, and, and it's one of the things that, that we've seen post COVID mm-hmm. Are more metabolic changes, even without people changing diet and lifestyle. Um, a one Cs are creeping up and insulin resistance is becoming more prominent. And, um, so don't think that just because you are eating the right way, you know, um, that between the foods, the stressors, the interesting.
Post viral things. Um, I love that. Yeah. And if
Heather Cooan: you can get, if you can get your PCP to order an HBA one C mm-hmm. That'll give you kind of a three month snapshot. It's a proxy. It's not actually measuring blood sugar, but it's a proxy of what your blood sugar is doing.
Julie Howton: I like it because you can't cheat it.
Heather Cooan: Right. It is what it is. Like the, you know, you can't just like eat really clean once you, for metabolic you're healthy. There's some weirdness. But like at first, if your, if your number comes back in the United States, in our units, if it is above five. And you have chronic illness or cancer, there's some work to do there.
We actually want it to be pretty low if we're dealing with these things. And then they typically are not a fan of testing fasting insulin, but if you can also get a fasting insulin, that'll also help you understand. So for cancer, we actually like fasting insulin to be below three, which is very low with, with it without cancer and chronic illness, definitely below, below 10 for sure, but as low as you can get it would be excellent.
Love that. And again, and that can give you just a little bit of a starting point. And if you can't get anybody to do that, you can always jump on Amazon and grab a glucometer, like a keto mojo or a precision extra and poke your finger and look at your blood sugar when you are not fasting. So like maybe before your last meal of the day, where is it?
If it's below 85, you're in good shape. If it's above 85, you get some work to do.
Julie Howton: Yeah. And that is one of, one of the challenges with, and now there are other. Um, CGMs that, that, you know, are not made for diabetics on insulin. That was something that used to drive me crazy. Um, as I am a huge CGM fan and I have been for a long time, yes, but I will alarm a Dexcom all day long.
Mm-hmm. Oh yeah, for sure. I, I to drop low to low for like my blood sugar to be low and I'm not on insulin, so, you know, I'm safe for me. But, um, so yeah, it, it is the having the right tools for where you are is important. Yes, yes. And love that s
Heather Cooan: are excellent, but if you're the type that's going to stress yourself out by watching your blood sugar too closely, maybe a CGM isn't right for you.
Maybe poke your finger every now and then.
Julie Howton: Yeah. I, I say it is funny, I did years ago, um, I've been, I've had an aura ring since I think like 2016 and mm-hmm. Um. But I was working with a client once who, it, it, it was her data was stressing her out and, and she was like, I don't know what to, and I'm like, take the ring off.
Yeah. For right now, ban
Heather Cooan: people from data.
Julie Howton: Sometimes it's not. Yeah. So know yourself and, and
Heather Cooan: yeah. If it's gonna be one more thing that causes you stress, then maybe go on your symptoms. Yeah. Go to Google and, and ask like, what are, what are symptoms of dysregulated blood sugar? It's gonna be like tired after meals or can't go very long between meals, get hangry or, um, getting up to the middle of the night to pee all the time.
Or like these things.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Heather Cooan: Go off your
Julie Howton: Heather. For people listening on the go that aren't gonna check the show notes, where is the best place to find you?
Heather Cooan: All routes? Lead back to my, my website, which is just heather cohen.com and that's C-O-O-A-N. So you can find me there. It's like coen. Yes, it does look like Coen.
Yes. Um, soil to Soul Nutrition is the name of my practice. We are virtual and global. We work with everybody all over the place. There's two other ladies that work with me on my team, but yeah, everything can be found@heathercohen.com. I'm not the greatest on social media. I'm trying to get more consistent and better at that.
Julie Howton: Yeah. And the website is, is so packed with resources we didn't even touch on it. And I, I would love to have you back and we can, we can do another episode. Um, but check out, Heather loves to cook and she has amazing recipes that are healthy and, and delicious. And I, I really can be just such a great place even to start because it's so overwhelming if you're not already living this lifestyle.
Um, and so even just that is, is, is an amazing resource. So yes, yes.
Heather Cooan: I have so many more recipes I need to get posted and I'm getting ready to, um, add an AI capability to the website that actually will allow you to customize the recipes based on your food sensitivities and amazing.
Julie Howton: So getting there. Wow.
Well, hopefully you'll come back and join us again. I thank you so much for the wisdom and, and positivity you share and the, and the just, um, the sunshine that you are. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. For everyone listening, remember, you can get the show notes and transcripts by visiting Inspired Living Show.
I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.
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Connect with Heather Cooan
Heather Cooan
Heather is a double board-certified functional oncology nutrition consultant, lived experience mentor, and transformational coach. With her unique expertise and personal journey overcoming Hashimoto’s, Lichen Sclerosus, and Vulvar Cancer, she possesses a wealth of knowledge that resonates deeply with those facing chronic illnesses. Her approach is centered around bio-individuality, empowering her clients through personalized lab and genetic data. Heather’s one-on-one, evidence-based support in nutritional care, lifestyle interventions, and environmental design equips individuals with the tools they need to thrive, especially in the face of cancer and autoimmune diseases. Imagine the powerful conversation that could unfold as Heather shares her story and insights on your podcast! Her passion for helping others navigate their health challenges could inspire your listeners and spark meaningful discussions about wellness, resilience, and the importance of personalized care.
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