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Melissa Wiggins, or as her pals like to call her, "Coach Mummabear," is a Scottish lassie living in America. She's a lawyer turned award-winning speaker, author and master certified coach; the founder of a nonprofit Cannonball Kid's Cancer, and a Mummabear of five. From moving across the world and starting over, her firstborn's battle with cancer, starting businesses and adopting a child, to finding her real voice and writing a bestseller, Melissa's journey in learning to Question Everything saved her son, changed her marriage and transformed her life.

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Season 8 Episode 3: Gut Health with Rachel Scheer

November 27, 2022 • Melissa Wiggins • Season 8 • Episode 3

“We can’t shame ourselves to health and we can’t heal a body we don’t love.”

What is our gut health and why does it matter? Certified Functional Medicine Nutritionist Rachel Scheer says everything about our mental and physical health is connected to our gut. In this episode Rachel joins Master Certified Coach Melissa Wiggins for a deep dive in how aligning our gut health enables us to have the physical and mental energy to show up for our family, friends and businesses. Learn what throws our gut health off and where to start to get it back on track. Grab a cuppa and listen in.

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Melissa Wiggins 00:51

Hello, lassies and lads. Welcome to Coaching and a Cup of Tea with Mummabear. I have a very special guest here today. I've never had anybody on the podcast, who is an expert in the way she is about gut health. She is the queen of it. And I'm completely obsessed with her and so excited. She's here. Rachel, would you introduce yourself to the amazing listeners on the podcast?

Rachel Scheer 01:15

FIND the Full Transcript Here: Season 8 Episode 3: Gut Health with Rachel Scheer

Melissa Wiggins 00:51

Rachel Scheer 01:15

Yeah, and Coach Mummaear, it is an honor to be on your podcast here today. You're just a ball of joy. And I'm excited to talk all things gut health, because I truly believe you know, our health really is the foundation for our success. Whether we're a mama, whether we're an entrepreneur, and a mama, which is I know a lot of you ladies who are listening to this podcast, but a little background about myself, I am a functional medicine, dietitian, not a lot of people know what that is. But functional medicine essentially means root cause. So I help people get to the root cause of their chronic health issues, whether that's hormonal imbalances, thyroid issues, gut issues, and heal instead of just deal and reach their optimal level of health, essentially. But instead of using medication, when you hear medicine, you tend to think medicine. It's more of a lifestyle-based approach. So holistic mind and body, I always ask the question, why do we have this problem in the first place? And what do we need to do to restore function. And when we really dive into it very often, it's our diet. It's our chronic stress. It's, you know, the way we show up for ourselves and our own self care and the belief systems that we carry. And sometimes there's environmental things we get sick, there's, you know, gut bugs and things we can pick up. But for most of the time, it's it really comes down to the way we've been taking care of ourselves. And when we can get the mind and the body right, the rest does follow. So functional medicines that baby gut health is really the core of health, I believe, because everything is connected to our gut. And I know we'll dive into that a little bit more extensively here in a little bit. On top of that, I run a functional medicine nutrition practice, with a team of dietitians. I'm an entrepreneur myself, I'm a woman on the go running a business, speaking podcasting, doing all the all the good stuff, and actually in the process of starting up two other businesses here. So like I said, we got on today, we're like, we can go in any direction. And you know, what we want to talk about?

Melissa Wiggins 03:33

What we're very lucky to have you and that's really, I'm so excited that we managed to sort that out. And that's exactly right. i Come on, she's like, I was just recording for my new business. And I'm like, once an entrepreneur or was an entrepreneur, and most of our listeners are entrepreneurs. So I just feel like this is so important because you know, some things when we get really busy and we are it's very easy for this sauce to always feel sick and, and your opinion as no, like, let's flip it around. Right? Has it always been like that for you? Or was this something that happened? Because of something in your life?

Rachel Scheer 04:10

Yeah, that's a great question. In our entrepreneurs, I really believe our business will never outgrow our own level of personal development. And what is the greatest form of personal development that we truly have? That is our health. Our fitness. Fitness is the gateway drug to personal development like at its core, and no, I will say for me, you know, I haven't always put that piece first and I'll explain why. I actually got more on the extreme side of fitness. So I had fitness for me is a lot of my therapy in my life. Like I grew up they're all in a very messed up home. I'm not sure if we're allowed to swear on this podcast, but

Melissa Wiggins 04:58

We are allowed to swear on this podcast, or anywhere you want to.

Rachel Scheer 05:03

I grew up in a really fucked up environment as a kid, you know, a lot of neglect, a lot of uncertainty. And that really plays a role in someone's personal development. So I had to learn to really take care of myself at an early age, that fitness athletics for me was really at the core of my escape. I was a gymnast, and I was a dancer. And it's where I felt like I had some kind of control ultimately, in my life. And I was able to develop this level of discipline that gives me a sense of, of work, ultimately, in my life, but I ate like shit, I grew up on McDonald's stored Halloween candy, fast, good food. But fitness was really that starting point for me. So when I went off to college at Baylor University, I decided I wanted to study nutrition and dietetics. I was like, Well, you know, maybe there's something to this, if I combined the nutrition component with the fitness component, you know, maybe I could actually perform a lot better, I could have more confidence, because that was something that I really, really suffered quite a bit with was that confidence piece. So I went off to college and started studying nutrition and dietetics got on a gymnastics and dance. And this is when I actually picked up weightlifting. And that is where the fitness freak that most people see today. Like really life I became known as Rachel…

Melissa Wiggins 06:28

I love it, by the way. By the way, I love it – I showed my boys and my kids, you lifting the big weights, and I'm like ‘that will be mumma one day and they're like, relax, mum, but I'm like, Look at her, she's doing it!

Rachel Scheer 06:42

Oh, girl…you have no idea like this is a tamed down version of what it was when I was in college, my personality type, I'm very type A I do things to the extreme, almost to a fault with kind of having some more of that perfectionism. And I'll talk a little bit about this here in a little bit, because that's been my blessing, and business and building things. But ultimately, it's been a double-edged sword very often in my life, but anywhoo, I got into weightlifting, fell in love with it. Because it really helped me cultivate that confidence in myself that I felt like that and never really had and I was really good at it too. And that's where I got into bodybuilding and competing, I got on the cover of different magazines because I just wanted to become like an influence for other people. I wanted to become a fitness influencer. So I made up my mind that that was something I wanted to do when I was in college. And I really did it and it was beautiful. And it was awesome. And it was to a point where it eventually began to grow into something that was no longer really honestly good for me anymore. What started off as a very healthy venture for just confidence and wanting to feel good about myself and you know, female empowerment and strength and all of that stuff that I still am a big believer in today became to grew into this like unworthiness of like pushing myself further and further feeling like I had to look a certain way in order to honestly feel like I had worth by. And I don't even know who but at the core, it was really myself at the time looking back. And it was about three years into competing in bodybuilding. I ended up with a ton of health issues. You know, I ended up with gut issues chronically bloated to the point where I looked six months pregnant. Every single day, I had my hair falling out my skin was a wreck. I went to the doctor, you know, they did every standard blood test, scans all of that. And I was just given medications every single time I was given birth control for my hormones, because I had no cycle anymore. I was given thyroid medication, laxatives because I could no longer use the restroom. And I just continued to get worse and worse. Now, at the time, I hadn't really looked at that lifestyle component. I just was like what is going on medicine, figure it out for me get to the root cause of it, right? And I was like blown away why no one could figure out what was really going on. Like they're like, Hey, you have constipation. Hey, you have no hormones, and here's all these band aids addressing what was going on. And now I'm at the point where I'm severely depressed, I can barely get out of bed bed anymore. And of course, you know, my business, my life, my relationships and everything is affected as a byproduct of this. And I'm just at my rock bottom. At least I thought I was at my rock bottom because shortly thereafter, I was actually sent to a colorectal surgeon who wanted to then cut out my entire large intestine. Because of how severe my gut issues were. or where the motility in my gut literally came to a halt, where I didn't use the restroom anymore at all without an enema. Not sure if you guys know what that is, but it's like this saline water you inject into your booty. It's funny how I will say ask that that was the only way like, literally, I could use the restroom anymore more. So I became sick and fed up with Western medicine. And I wanted a different approach. And that's what really catapulted me into learning so much about functional medicine. And really honestly about gut health, right, because all my issues were stemming from my guts. As I dove into doing microbiome testing. And looking at the bacteria, I found out I had intestinal permeability, which is where our gut lining becomes weakened and broken down with food, bacteria and toxins leaking into your bloodstream, stimulating immune inflammatory responses affecting your mental health. I had, you know, from a metabolic standpoint, you know, hypothyroidism, but due to the training and the low calorie diet that I was falling following at the time, I had no menstrual cycle, because of that, on top of it, you know, and I had a ton of bacterial overgrowth in my gut, and because of my dietary choices, and just the lifestyle that I was living, so I started to put all of these puzzle pieces together, and really dive into doing the work. And I can dive into a little bit here, what that consisted of, but at the core, I had to really get clear on where all of these issues were coming from, in the first place. And a big part of that was really stemming from, you know, this core unworthiness that I had, you know, with myself at the time, like I was trying to, at the core, shame myself to health and fit, which is so backward. And the reality is this, you know, we can't shame ourselves to health and we can't heal…

Melissa Wiggins 12:04

That really stuck out to me when you said that. So for our listeners, I met Rachel in Texas a couple months ago and got to hear her speak. And you actually said that, and I wrote it down, and I put it on a post-it because it's just so common, and the women I work with, right, like the shaming to health, and I love that you talk about it, and that we like, that's not the way you lassies we're gonna do it somewhere, we're going to do it differently, and Rachel has a way to do it differently.

Rachel Scheer 12:36

Yeah, we can't shame ourselves to health and we can't heal a body we don't love. And that's really that core place of where we're coming from. And I see this on both ends of the spectrum, you know, entrepreneurs, I feel like they can very much fall into that type a perfectionist, you know, coming from a very similar place, like where I was, it doesn't matter if it was fitness or their business, you know, we can change the avenue, but very often causes of the same and it manifests in what health issues exhaustion, burnout. And I see this all the time, or we see the other end of the spectrum to where this could be the person who's overweight, unhealthy, depressed, constantly making excuses for why they should eat, you know, a lot of the shitty standard American food that is wreaking havoc on their body, and have the mindset of like, Hey, this is self love, you know, I'm just choosing to enjoy life. But really, at the core, it's still coming from a place of I don't believe I'm I'm worthy of having not only like the health, the fitness in the body, but the life that I truly say I want for myself. So when we really dive into the root cause I see with a lot of people that comes from either end of the spectrum, you know, maybe the extreme side, or maybe the side where it's like, we're not doing the things we know we should be doing. Because there's this underlying core belief of I don't really believe that I'm worthy of it. And if we think about you know, you know, America and all of the health issues like chronically obese metabolic issues like those are the number one leading causes of death, you know, and it's because we are really choosing these these addictions of running away from something at the core like food is the number one most imbued

Melissa Wiggins 14:25

with alcohol and wonder why the next day feel I believe we all hold the praise the world was going to end. And you know, by the time it's metabolized by the end of the night. Oh, let me just do it again. Right. And it's the cycle

Rachel Scheer 14:42

and yeah, so I really believe when we can get down to the root which is how we really feel about herself and Where's that coming from, but also looking at the lifestyle like for me, I was training way too hard, but it was coming from that core place. I would is choosing to eat foods that didn't love my body back, even though I was lean and healthy. Internally, I was empty. And I was eating eating foods that were wreaking havoc on my gut microbiome in my mental health at the time. So I had these physical, emotional dietary stress, and that's where really dis ease you know, an imbalance in the body really starts to become so, you know, to answer your question, I really believe one that, you know, our health is the greatest form of personal development, and health goes beyond just eat less workout more being at healthy body composition, all of that is an extension of it, it is so much more than just that it is the way that we truly feel about ourselves. It's how we show up for ourselves how we take care of ourselves, you know, self love is choosing eat foods that love me back, it's choosing to move my body because I love my body, because I feel like a frickin badass every time I'm in that gym, not because I'm punishing myself, you know, it is choosing to show up as the best version of ourselves. Because when we're able to do that, we were able to then grow our business short for our family is short for the people around us, and the way that we want to.

Melissa Wiggins 16:16

So in the energetic way, right. The other thing, I get up and I work out like five in the morning, because I have four little kids and you know, roundabout, six 630 It is mom mode until they get to school, and then it's work mode. And what I found was I was getting off the beam when I wasn't able to do the workout first thing in the morning because then like it's crazy and busy. But it's like no, that's like a treat for me. And it doesn't feel like a punishment anymore. It used to. But it doesn't anymore. And I think that's the other part of this work. Like if you're sitting here thinking, Oh, I'm never going to be like Rachel and love going to the gym and love working out or love eating healthy. I think I just want to say to those people that can shift that can change. That's what having a coach like you is all about, like it is not about shaming you to help. It's about empowering you to help.

Rachel Scheer 17:16

100%. That's exactly, you know, what I love the fact that you see like, that is my me time. And mamas, you know, especially are notorious for putting everybody right. And they're, they're like, first, I'm gonna put my family and my kids I'm gonna put, you know, even work, you know. And as a byproduct, they're overweight, unhealthy, depressed, and yet wondering why they're struggling so much with building a business and feeling good and having the energy that they want to, but they're trying to do it from an empty cup. And you know, that's no, that's the saying we hear all the time. But we can't pour from an empty cup, we truly can. And I believe the most important relationship we have outside of you know, the relationship we have with God. I think that's number one. Number two, really is the relationship that we have with ourself. You know, that relationship we have with ourselves, if you think about it, you know, that is really time not only connecting and getting to know ourself, but it is also that health side, like our body's a temple and taking care of that, that is really that core formula that's going to allow us to do everything we ultimately want in life with ease, that's the goal, right? So we can try to force our way right, like I did fitness and look at what the root causes were, and like what it manifests, and we can try to force their way in our business and relationships or whatever it may be. But every time we force there's an opposite reaction. The goal is really to be able to come at these things with ease where it flows naturally not think it's ever not going to be hard and render difficulties. But it's really a byproduct of who we are and how we're showing up on a day to day basis. And I truly believe we cannot do that. If we are not mentally and physically where we ultimately need to be.

Melissa Wiggins 18:56

I love it. I was at church with my kids last night they're you know, preparing for First Holy Communion, my twin and I was just thinking of how you said you know, the most important relationship with for you is yours with gold and then to sail. But you know, the other side of that coin is if I don't have a decent relationship with myself, Rachel guess your relationship also suffers my relationship with God suffers because then guess what, I don't have the energy, quote unquote, to go to church on Sunday, I don't have the energy, quote unquote, to take my kids till 830 At night, all four of them to you know, a family feed dinner and all these other things, right? It's like, whenever I think about what I'm doing with the hills thesis, like it allows me the energy I need to do the things I want to do otherwise, you know, listen, I love being in my pajamas at eight o'clock. I also write my book on the sofa. But a lot of the time that's not available, and the biggest thing that has come from me from doing the type of work you're talking about is the energy to do the things I want to do. Exactly. I'm 100% and not squaring up,

Rachel Scheer 20:08

I use the word fitness. No fitness is the gateway drug to personal development. But I'm not just talking about going to gym and throwing around a bunch of weights, it's having a fit, mine body and heart. Ultimately, not only fitness is at the core, and we need to spend time with ourselves. If you want to have a great relationship right with your husband, you can't like not ever spend time with him the same thing with your kids. So we wonder why we struggle so much with ourself and how we feel about herself and her confidence. But at the core, we really actually spending time for ourselves and investing time into us through, you know, getting to know who we are through fitness through health through all of those different avenues, because there's so many different avenues available. And that's why you know, fitness for me isn't just black and late, it's those three areas fit heart, mind and body ultimately at the core. And you know, you're you're completely right, when you say that, hey,

Melissa Wiggins 21:05

I know that if this isn't right, nothing else is gonna be right, ultimately, in my life, right. And like you say, it just makes everything feel harder, right? Like what you're trying to get across to your client says we can do this. And it will, it will be a struggle, perhaps in the in the beginning, but it will come with ease as you go. And then the other things will be easier.

Rachel Scheer 21:29

Yeah. So anytime we make a change, ultimately, in a life, you know, it feels difficult at first, because we do something for some kind of a benefit. You can even look at somebody who smokes cigarettes, right. And there's a benefit they're getting, they're getting an immediate benefit, they get to relax, they kind of get that anxiety lifted from them. And they may know at the core, like, hey, cigarettes are not good for me, but they're getting some kind of a benefit. So as humans, we follow pleasure, and we run away from pain. So when we view something like working out as a pain point, it's going to be really hard to get ourselves to want to go and work out because we can have the viewpoint of when I go to the gym, I'm sore, I have to wake up earlier loss of time spent in my own morning routine, you know, loss of sleep, you know, sometimes there's that self judgment piece we get when we're just getting started. And we're looking at ourselves in the mirror at the gym. So we can like find all those pain points, right? And the pleasure point can seem far away, how change really actually occurs is when we have a massive, immediate pleasure. And by not doing it, there's actually a massive immediate pain point. And what I mean by that is why I go work out every single day is because it's my therapy. It's not because I'm trying to get to a certain body composition or a goal weight. That's what a lot of people's goals are, and perfectly fine. And that can be there. But that can't be the reason why you're getting up every single day and getting your ass in the gym. There has to be an immediate reason now as to why we're doing it. And if I don't the immediate reason as to what it's going to take away for me like I feel anxious, I feel depressed constantly throughout the day. So when I don't work out, there's an immediate pain point. And there's an immediate pleasure point that against and also I see the more I knew it, right. I'm like, Oh, hey, you know what, I am feeling more confident, I am feeling better, like right before I did this podcast, and I was like, I want to come on and have the best energy. What did I do? I threw around some weights in the gym, I got some sunlight I was outside, you know, and I'm able to then step into this podcast in a completely different state. State is really our breath, body, posture, all of that. And that's going to carry a very different energy. And when you do that, you're going to carry a different energy throughout the day. But for anybody who's struggled to make the change, I'd ask yourself, like, hey, what benefit are you currently getting right now because we stay stuck and not making the change, because we're usually still getting some kind of benefit, right? even think about like someone who's addicted to sugar or pizza or alcohol, there's an immediate benefit. Even though there is some kind of a pain, they're involved. So change happens when we start to associate the change with a positive and the lack of change with a massive immediate pain. And that's what really it has to become that can take time. Now a lot of the clients I've worked with starts off a little bit harder at first, right? It's my gosh, I haven't seen the change and and getting up earlier and it's like all of those kinds of thoughts come up. But I believe when we can stick to it for a period of time we start to reap those rewards. And we start to then notice those benefits while I'm feeling better have more energy, my productivity is better. I'm more confident in myself. And I've had so many clients have been like, holy shit, I didn't know what it felt like to feel this good. I didn't even realize it felt so bad before. But how know is there any way than ever going back to again? immediate pleasure,

Melissa Wiggins 25:01

Is that not that feeling ever? That that feel that for your clients is amazing. Yeah.

Rachel Scheer 25:08

And it's so possible for everybody. And that's exactly what we want for everybody to get to that point of, I can never go back, you know, I can never go back to where I was in what I was doing there before. Because it feels so good to feel good.

Melissa Wiggins 25:22

So good to feel good. Yeah. How does it work as a client, but one of the things I love to do on the podcast as I will, and the show notes have every leg of every offer of everything that you do. So let's just say someone's listening. And they're like, oh, my gosh, like, I felt so bad for so long. And I would love to have Rachel's help, they're gonna follow a link, but what would it look like to become a client of yours? Yeah, so

Rachel Scheer 25:48

We actually offer a free 30 minute call to everybody. And the intention of that call is to really get to know the person, their goals, their background, their history, and just make sure it's a good fit. We're very hands on with our approach. So it's coaching, it's accountability. It's all of the functional medicine lab testing to look at what could be off in the body because that is important to interpret information. We need to see hey, are there things off with your gut, your gut microbiome? Are there hormone imbalances? Mamas are very core, especially post pregnancy, you know, postpartum to have those hormone imbalances? Is the thyroid off. Women are also very prone to having thyroid disorders, you know, a lot more than men. Are we deficient in anything? Is there inflammation? Is there insulin resistance? You know, those are all questions we want to answer. Because, you know, I can prescribe a perfect workout plan and diet. But if there's some things that are off, we need to have the roadmap in order to get you back to overall health.

Melissa Wiggins 26:49

So what are those days look like? I'm not familiar with that type of tasting. What does that look like? Is it blood? Is it pee? Like, what do we do?

Rachel Scheer 27:02

blood, urine, stool, and even saliva. So it's this functional medicine testing, it's very different. You know, you can't go to your normal Western medicine doctor and say, Hey, order me got microbiome test, they're gonna go, Oh, we don't do that. So we're looking at how your body's metabolizing your hormones, we're looking at, you know, the bacteria in your gut. And you know, really at the core, we start with getting you going with some different healing protocols. Addressing the gut first and foremost, because kind of like I spoke about earlier, you know, all disease begins and ends in the gut. Now, there are so many things that can cause the gut to be come up. I've already mentioned a few, right? So stress, whether it's physical or emotional, our gut in our brain are very interconnected. Actually, 90% of our body's serotonin or feel good hormone is produced from that bacteria are residing in our gut. Also, the bacteria in our gut play a role in how we're metabolizing, our hormones, and our thyroid, and our body's immune system, inflammation metabolism. So that's why very often when we get the gut, right, we start to see a lot of other things fall into place, we start to see you know, better cholesterol levels, weight loss, skin improve, we start to see depression, anxiety get better. So better mood, we literally start to see all of these symptoms improve just by working on the gut, but also identifying what causes the gut to be off in the first place diet.

Melissa Wiggins 28:42

Okay, so if we fix it, then we're going to keep happening again.

Rachel Scheer 28:46

Right, exactly. So we need to know what is off, but we need to know why we came off in the first place, the gut can come off from you know, history of antibiotics, medications, stress, for most people is a combination. So it's more so identifying the root causes plural, because there's usually a multiple, multiple root causes that cause not dis ease in the body.

Melissa Wiggins 29:12

So after you do that, and you've done the tasting, then you work with them to sort of heal those things. Yeah, so

Rachel Scheer 29:20

all of my coaches, as well as myself, of course, are certified in functional medicine. So we create a customized plan and protocol, through supplements, lifestyle changes, dietary protocols to help restore and heal the body, but also that coaching piece where that coaching is really helping work with the person making some of these changes. And also sometimes identifying even some of those emotional and stress pieces that could be playing

Melissa Wiggins 29:49

a role. And is that all one on one is that group how does that work?

Rachel Scheer 29:53

So we have as the functional medicine option with the testing all of that will be one on one just because it is It's very customized in person. However, we do have a group based option, I'm actually about to launch my second round and my gut health repair program, which doesn't include all of the testing, but it's a fraction of the cost because one on one, testing is a bit more of investment always, because you're getting that super customized approach. But within gut health repair program, as I kind of mentioned earlier, we get to really work on healing, and optimizer and gut health, which very often improves all these other different systems in the body. And it also really dive into the fitness component, I dive into muscle mass and why that's important. So when we can heal our gut, optimize our muscle through nutrition, and training, that's where I think we can really get to a good place of health. Some people do great with group based, some people need the one on one and all the testing.

Melissa Wiggins 30:58

So tell me about the role of stress and trauma on the gut and overall health and essentially success, because that's why what we're talking about, right? Like, I believe, like you that this is like where we start, right? We can't be successful and our businesses, or I don't want new businesses when we're tired and exhausted and depressed, right? Like it just it doesn't work like that. And this is where we start. So if someone's listening, and they're like, you know, I really would love to be able to start here, do some of this work? I can't afford coaching. I don't want to do coaching. I'm going to tell them to do what go to your podcast. Yeah, there's so much good information on there.

Rachel Scheer 31:45

Yeah. So podcast ton of free information on my blog has a ton of free information. And I can definitely give everybody some different kinds of tips on things to get started with. And a lot of it has to do with working on our gut health ultimately, because our gut and our brain are in bi directional communication through something called the vagus nerve, which the vagus nerve is our largest nerve in the body, it extends from our gut, all the way up through our heart all the way to our brain, and then intersects to all of these other different you know, organs and areas in the body. And really, our brain communicates with their gut. So when we have chronic stress or unaddressed trauma, that's where that can be part of the root cause and developing gut imbalances, IBS, irritable bowel syndrome, people, even with autoimmune conditions, ultimately, there's that brain connection there, that if our gut is also off, let's just say from poor diet, this could be from foodborne illness, food sensitivities, you know, past medications, all of these can actually just more so directly affect the gut, that's going to also affect our mental health to through that bidirectional communication in the gut in the brain. So I'll start a bit first on the stress side, and how stress and trauma can really impact our gut. And one of the ways is really through that shutdown of the vagus nerve. So when we're in a state of chronic stress, or trauma, essentially, our digestion shuts down, and that vagus nerve almost becomes what I call inactive. And when that happens, we're essentially preparing for like that fight or flight type of reaction. So let's just say someone cuts you off in traffic or something like that, like your body goes into fight or flight response. However, that's an acute stressor. That's not bad. We can say like workouts Right? Like your body goes into a stress response. during that phase, acute stress is good, not a problem. We all experience it. We all have days where our children piss us off. Someone cuts us off in traffic, you know, you have something come up. And that's not really what I'm talking about. Because we can never avoid stress, when I'm talking about is chronic chronic stress is the person who's in a toxic relationship, no work life balance, or right that trauma piece because the mind doesn't really know the difference between stress currently, and stress previously, and when we have trauma that's unaddressed. We have what I call a hyper vigilant nervous system, where our stress threshold is actually a lot smaller. Meaning where small things right that maybe wouldn't normally stress out the average person really sends that person over into that chronic stress type response. So it could be perceived stress from the brain. Or it can be actual stress, you know, in our current life with work or relationships, but really what at the core is happening, our digestive system completely shuts down and this causes an increase in inflammation in our gut. And to go along with that, you know, our body releases a lot of hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Now, cortisol is a hormone that is very catabolic is a fancy word, meaning it breaks things down. So when in bodybuilding, like we avoid cortisol, like the hot because we don't want cortisol to break our muscles down. But our gut lining is also the muscle tissue. So this chronically high cortisol or digestion shutting down, what this can actually lead to is one constipation, because right, we're not digesting our food, bacteria can begin to overwhelm the gut. But that cortisol that breaks muscle tissue down can over time begin to break down that gut lining will leading to what we call intestinal permeability, or leaky gut. And that's where we get that bacteria, foods and toxins getting into our bloodstream, triggering a massive inflammatory and immune response systemically throughout the body. But they've also shown in studies that a leaky gut contributes to a leaky brain, where now we also get a breach in our blood brain barrier, where we're getting now also toxins and the things leaking into our brain causing inflammation of the brain, all of that due to chronic stress and unaddressed trauma in the body. And that's where we can actually start on pause

Melissa Wiggins 36:33

for a second because I feel like what you said, it's so important, and everybody needs to just pause for a second and listen, because isn't that just the reason why I love how you share a lot about like the sick diet, the way start, like what the way that we eat and the way that we are and what you just say they're the chronic strays that a lot of people are under right now. Right? Like they're as the as the hypervigilant, a smaller, you know, the traffic, whatever, like small things, but a lot of Americans are under a lot of stress right now, whether it's finance, whether it's COVID, whether whatever it is, there's just been a lot. And so it's easy to understand why everybody seems, or a lot of people seem pestle or the breaks.

Rachel Scheer 37:21

Yeah, when the numbers and when they have all these health issues to go along with it. Because that's where our gut actually starts to become imbalanced, autoimmune conditions can develop but also when people are stressed, what do they typically turn to, to know? Yeah, food, alcohol, you know, everything else that then further causes the disruption in our gut health ultimately. So that can be a big way of leading to disease in the body, but also our gut can cause mental health issues, anxiety, depression, and brain fog. And even neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's and dementia have been associated also with poor gut health. And how this really happens is that bacteria in our gut are playing such a big role in the communication and all of the other systems in our body, but ultimately, and the bacteria produce, as I mentioned earlier, serotonin, and that serotonin essentially stimulates that vagus nerve that's produced from good bacteria and or guns. And that vagus nerve connects all the way to our brain ultimately. So when we have inflammation in our gut from poor diet, we have a toxic gut, we have intestinal permeability, we were talked about how that can lead to like neuro inflammation. But we also didn't get to produce things like serotonin, which is the main thing that a lot of SSRIs or antidepressants really aim to act on. They act on that reuptake of serotonin into the brain. And that's where actually psycho biotics it's a new form of therapy that's been introduced recently, which is a type of good bacteria being introduced into the gut has been shown to work as good if not better, and a lot of the traditional antidepressants overall. I remember when my son was really sick. And you know, he had stage four cancer, it was a very stressful time I gave birth to twins at the same time as he was diagnosed on, they were like, Okay, everyone, and their brother was like, alright, you have to go see a doctor Melissa, because you're gonna have to get some sort of anti depressed and, you know, to help you through this. And it just sort of reminds me about what you talked about in the beginning that if you don't get to the root cause a little bit right and figure out what's going on or why you're there like that was just going to mask it. And so for me, personally,

Melissa Wiggins 39:56

I choose not to go on any formula because I knew like it was either I was going to deal with it then when he was diagnosed and deal with the stress or but, or I was going to deal with it in five years time, whichever one I wanted to choose. And so it's like learning to deal with that. And I was not eating healthy at the time. So I was the one that was like eating the McDonald's and drinking the Diet Cokes. I wasn't on SSRIs, but I was eating horribly. And I ultimately ended up having to deal with all that later, which thankfully, no, you know, I don't drink soda, and I don't eat McDonald's. And you know, I moved away from those things. But a massive part of when people are going through stress, I feel like it is it is so commonly suggested or used. And I will tell you, Rachel, I grew up in Scotland. And it's like, not a thing there. I don't know anybody that's on antidepressants in Scotland. Like, if I never knew my mom, my mom lost a child, my aunt lost a child, my grandma, it's just not a thing. But here in America, I think, what is it the number like 95% of the world's like prescriptions or something like that are all used in the States? Yeah, like it's like a crazy number.

Rachel Scheer 41:20

It is an insane number. And you know, the United States is also one of the only few countries that also has medications as like, on commercials. Like that's not allowed, actually, in a lot of countries, you don't see like, hey, go ask your doctor about getting on Cymbalta, or whatever. It may be like, where are they one of the few countries, but it's a business. And we have a food industry that pays no attention to health. And we have a health industry that pays no attention to food ultimately. And then we diagnose based off of symptom clusters. And what that means is you go to the doctor and you're like, oh my gosh, and sad all the time. I just feel so down in LA, they're like, it seems like based off your symptoms, you have depression, and they're like, Yes, I have depression. Well, here's the medication. Well, there are, you know, hundreds of different reasons why you could be depressed. And they're actually, you know, the forms of depression where it makes sense, right? Like there's a death. Yeah, absolutely. My dog died like a week ago. And I went through like a mini little depression. And that was a normal human response, you know, but then there also are things that can be off like you can have low progesterone for women, and especially mamas postpartum who deal with depression, their progesterone drops. And that progesterone actually acts on GABA pathways in the brain, which is essential for overall mood and sleep, there can be inflammation, and when there's inflammation in the body, there's neural inflammation. And that can be coming from diet, that can be coming from stress, there can be bacteria imbalances, and poor gut health, there can be toxins in the body that are crossing through our blood brain barrier causing neuro inflammation. I mean, I could go on and on and on about some of the functional root causes for depression, anxiety, that it's not good enough to go to the doctor and just say, I have depression, here's a medication, you know, to treat that. And I hope everybody hears my heart. When I say this, I'm not against taking the pill and totally not against taking the pill, there are some instances where I'm like, take the pill, do what you got to do to get back on your feet. So then we can search a little bit further. But what I am saying is I'm against taking the pill is the sole fix is the sole fix, we can sometimes utilize medication in ways to bring ourselves to a certain point so we can do the work that we need to do totally fine with them. Medicine serves us in so many ways. But what we can't do is say this medication is doing all the work for me, I'm going to fix everything. Because what caused the body to be off in the first place. Diet. No, but the hormones are off chronic stress, those are still there and going to cause other issues in the body. It's not just about the brain. It's not just about that area. It's that stressor that is going to cause other things to be off along with it.

Melissa Wiggins 44:09

Yeah, I mean, I've seen you know, antidepressants be lifesavers for people 100%. I just, it's just interesting in America who it's offered as just always like the first solution, right? Like it's just and what you're saying is, it can be a part of it. Sometimes it doesn't always have to be and also it should never be the sole solution.

Rachel Scheer 44:36

The sole solution is exactly correct. Yes. So I think a couple of things people can start doing and I hope this is okay, but working on gut health since I am I the gut health expert, that's the best place we can always start with because you got right. The mind will follow everything else will follow heal your gut heal your life ultimately, the first thing is of course, you what we're putting into our body, which is the food we eat, along with stress, we talked a little bit about that. But food is something I feel like a lot of us can do immediately and now and take action on, or sometimes stress and things like we need to kind of get something sorted out ultimately. So the food we put into our body, that type of protein, the type of fats and the type of carbohydrates, I'd love to dive into those three. So protein is super essential, because protein is the building blocks to muscles. Protein has amino acids that help produce neurotransmitters in the brain, like serotonin, dopamine, that it's also essential for supporting our gut lining and overall health. So the type of protein matters, it's not just getting protein, we want to aim for real whole foods as much as possible. So this is grasping, what is Whole Foods

Melissa Wiggins 45:58

actually mean? I feel like it's an American term. And I use and I feel like I understand it. And I think all the as in just like the food in its simplest, cleanest form. Is that correct?

Rachel Scheer 46:08

Yes. So Whole Foods is one ingredient. So in Orange is in orange. And look at his chicken. Okay, right. But what are chips, right, you could go through the whole like list of all the

Melissa Wiggins 46:22

it's quite a few ingredients a

Rachel Scheer 46:26

whole food is just unprocessed on on. And ideally, organic. Yep, to go along with it. So for animals, it's animals that are fed their natural diet. So grass fed and finished, not fed a bunch of grains, fish that is wild caught. And that's going to be the highest quality protein in terms of not only amino acids, but the fact that are in that type of protein. And then, you know, with fats too, right? There's the processed fats, which fats like we know, when we tried to make all of these manmade fats, the trans fats, that was like the worst thing ever for health. But the fats we really want to aim for are going to be the anti inflammatory fats. So they call us the module in the Pali and saturates. So the monos, these are going to be like an avocado. So getting in those good healthy fats like avocado,

Melissa Wiggins 47:18

I just want to eat them all day long, but I know that they're just love them.

Rachel Scheer 47:25

This could be always olive oils, nuts and seeds, but again, non processed like whole and raw ultimately. And then pulling saturated fats are the facts that are full of those omega three fatty acids typically found in like fatty cuts of fish. And most Americans are very deficient in omega threes. And omega threes are one of the very few thoughts that actually can cross the blood brain barrier. And I mentioned the blood brain barrier a couple couple times. But it's Think of it kind of like this high security system, like it would be like the bouncers at the club, essentially, and the bouncers are like, Hey, you can't come in and only listen, you know, certain things into the brain. Well, omega threes are like that, that VIP who gets to go to the front of the line, right into the green there. So our brain loves omega threes. And there's actually a lot of studies that show that deficiencies in omega three fatty acids, lead to depression, mental health issues, but also a shrinkage of our hippocampus. Wow, which our hippocampus plays the biggest role in memory and cognitive function. So this is where omega threes ultimately, if they're low, can over time lead to dementia and Alzheimer's quite a bit too. So gotta get in your Omega three is the brains, the brain loves it.

Melissa Wiggins 48:52

Document or just eat the whole foods and you'll get them. So

Rachel Scheer 48:56

with Omega three is you can get it from food, but I think most people aren't getting enough food. So typically fatty cuts and fish, salmon, mackerel, this can be caviar, if you want to be fancy, a little baby shrimp shrimps can be great too as a source of Omega threes, but most people just aren't eating a whole lot of seafood. So they're not getting a lot of omega threes. So that's where an omega three fatty acid supplement is beneficial. I run Omega three index, which is testing Omega three levels on all my clients and I'd say nine out of 10 people are deficient and and it's actually the levels of omega threes in their brain. So most people need to be on an Omega three supplement and working on getting it in through food sources. Now you can get it in through vegan sources like chia seeds, and walnuts, however, sigh No, you'd literally have to be beerbongs in chia seeds and walnuts in order to get enough of those omega three fatty yeah Since they're a source, they're just not a very dense source and you'd be getting a ton of calories and probably gain weight because they're very calorie dense in order to get enough that your body needs, okay, so good proteins, good fats. And then the next is the type of carbohydrates and the bacteria in our gut, live carbohydrates. I always give the analogy if you can think how bread is made with yeast, and we give sugar. What does that use dude eat such sugar and the bread arises through a fermentation process. That's actually what happens in our gut. One when our guts really off and we have too much bacteria, we call that bacteria dysbiosis. That's the person who's looking six months pregnant every day because of how much gas is being produced and fermented on the bacteria. But there's also a good fermentation process from our notebooks. And there's two types of carbohydrates that are really really good for promoting overall good health. One is insoluble fiber. So insoluble fiber is an indigestible carbohydrate, meaning that we don't break it down. There's no calories with it, but the bacteria in our gut will love it, the bacteria break it down. So some sources of insoluble fiber are all the leafy greens. You know, you may have heard the statement before like eat the Remo but I say like be like hermit crab, eat as much as possible. All the leafy greens, arugula, spinach, all of those are great cruciferous vegetables. So cruciferous vegetables are also great for female hormones, but great for gut health. Broccoli, Brussel, sprouts, cabbage, bok choy, yum, artichokes, so all of those insoluble fibers are great feeling the good gut bugs and their inner body. And then the second is something called a resistance starch. Now a resistance starch resists digestion, so very similar to insoluble fiber, it's not broken down and utilized as calories. Instead, it's broken down by our good gut bugs. So this is actually green bananas. So if you've ever eaten a green banana, and you're like, Oh, this is not as sweet it's a bit more starchy. So in green bananas have resistant starch cooked in cooled rice or potatoes. So this is sort of interesting, there's less calories, and rice and potatoes that have been cooked and then put in the refrigerator and cooled because some of the bonds in the starch change into a resistant starch which become a prebiotic fiber for the bacteria enter that for an easy thing to like me and batch on a Sunday put away and then you have a for the week. Yeah, you can make like an avocado potato salad, you could make some different stuff there. I love many lot of my food cool. Not saying that there's like always benefits to all foods cold, but I ate a lot of salads and gold and yeah, green banana flour, raw potato starch, I have a lot of my clients just take a teaspoon of each and just throw it in like a protein shake or something to get some of that resistant starch. In when we're eating these resistant starches, essentially what is happening is we're producing a type of a fat in our body called short chain fatty acids. Now, short chain fatty acids are actually super protective for our gut, but also great for our mental health too. So they actually help maintain the integrity of our gut lining. And they've been shown to play a positive impact in the brain function and, and having good vagal nerve activity or high vagal tone. So when we eat a lot of these prebiotics, insoluble fiber or resistant starches, we feed are good gut bugs. We haven't good bacteria in the gut that you know is great for mental health, because that produces serotonin and they produce these short chain fatty acids that further help protect our gut, and of course, our mental health there too. So getting in our prebiotics. Number two can be pro biotics. So probiotics are actually the bacteria that we of course want to take in either through supplementation or food. So food sources can be sauerkraut. I love sauerkraut. If you actually follow me on social media, I eat a beat sauerkraut every single day for either breakfast or lunch. It's a great with eggs actually, it's like it's bright colored like purple. Or I have it on my salad with all my greens and arugula artichokes and all my fats like avocado and olive oil, my proteins on there. So sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, some people do okay, the Thai dairy with like a fermented yogurt, but you can always do like a coconut yogurt too if you don't tolerate dairy very well. And then the other option is supplementation just as well. So there's the probiotic foods that we can get. But there's also the probiotic supplements. And there's really kind of three different types of probiotics we can take. There's the normal lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains. That's what I think most people take great for overall gut health. And then there's soil based probiotics, and then there's yeast based probiotics. So ultimately, getting on a good probiotic is also key for gut health.

Melissa Wiggins 55:28

My gosh, you've given us like so much good stuff. I've taken so many notes, I'm gonna make so many characters. Because they're all amazing, like, so many tidbits and so much good information for everyone to get started. And you're on social media. Well, where can everybody follow you? I'm going to put all the tags but give us a couple little pieces where people can follow you.

Rachel Scheer 55:51

Yeah, I have two Instagrams I have at Rachel share, which is my personal page. And then I have my practice, which is at Rachel shared nutrition. That's where I like really nerd out on the functional medicine and gut stuff there.

Melissa Wiggins 56:03

It's amazing. So you can follow me on either. Yeah, follow both of them. They're both wonderful. And your podcast.

Rachel Scheer 56:10

Yes. And my podcast is sheer madness podcast,

Melissa Wiggins 56:14

this name. I love it. So thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. And I will make sure that everybody gets all of the good information to follow your when does your group program start?

Rachel Scheer 56:27

So I'm actually doing a Black Friday sale. So last Friday, and it's opening it up. It's opening up for signups. I think it'll be available for one to two weeks kind of depends on how people jump in there because of capping it at around 50 people to sign up for the good health repair program, which will start the first Wednesday in December.

Melissa Wiggins 56:49

All right, well, thank you so much for your time. You're incredible and your brain is amazing. And I could just sit and talk to you all day. Wonderful.

Rachel Scheer

Thank you so much. Thank you. It's been an honor.