Mold & Mindfulness: Transforming Your Home to Heal Your Body with Christy Hutchison

Dive into the world of health and home environment with "Restore the Real," hosted by Dr. Randy Michaux. In this enlightening podcast, listeners embark on a journey to discover the profound impact their living spaces have on their health. From discussions on mold toxicity to the revolutionary field of building biology, Dr. Michaux and his guests, including the inspiring Christy Hutchison, unravel the hidden dangers and untapped potentials of our everyday environments. Christy, a realtor turned building biologist, shares her personal battle with mold-induced illness and her transformative path towards creating a healthy home.

Listeners will gain invaluable insights into identifying and mitigating environmental toxins that lurk within walls, the critical importance of choosing the right building materials, and practical tips for crafting a living space that promotes wellness. This podcast is a must-listen for anyone interested in enhancing their health through mindful living and environmental awareness. Join Dr. Michaux and Christy as they explore innovative strategies for detoxifying our homes and lives, emphasizing the powerful connection between our environments and our well-being.

Invitation to Listen and Subscribe:

Tune in to "Restore the Real" for a captivating exploration of how our homes influence our health, from mold's hidden dangers to the electromagnetic fields surrounding us. Whether you're battling chronic health issues or simply seeking a healthier lifestyle, this podcast offers the knowledge and inspiration you need to transform your living space into a sanctuary of health. Subscribe today and take the first step towards a healthier, more aware you.

Connect With Christy Hutchison:

Instagram: ChristyHutchison_

Hi! Dr. Randy, here. Thank you for being here! I'd like to invite you, my podcast listeners, to our thriving private health community, Empower Act Heal, on Facebook. It centers around YOU claiming your personal power and gaining momentum on your path to vibrant health! We're a supportive, judgement-free community where you can show up as you are and find greater success. I do weekly LIVES and bring in experts, just like on my podcast, but in a more personalized setting. Just follow this link into our Community, we can't wait to see on the inside!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/empower.act.heal

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

It's time for real discussions about health. Hi, I'm Dr Randy Michaud of Total Body Wellness Clinic and each week on Restore the Real, I'll sit down with the guests to discuss how developing or overcoming health challenges has shaped the way that they live their lives, what they've learned, what they've changed and how they're moving forward. Restore the Real is a podcast that is unafraid and unapologetic when it comes to getting honest about the nuances of health and wellness Mind, body and spirit. Hello and welcome back to Restore the Real. This is Dr Randy Michaud and I am excited to be with you today. I've got a wonderful guest today that I've gotten to know over the past couple years. She's worked with us through the clinic. She is a realtor, a mom, wife she is becoming a building biologist because of necessity and just a wonderful person that has a great heart. Christy Hutchison, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 1:10

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to chat for a little bit.

Speaker 1: 1:14

Absolutely. I think this will be fantastic. It's something that we have not talked about on the podcast and I know for a lot of people that work with mold and other toxicity that the home environment is one of those things that it's. As you said before we started talking. You can go so many directions with this and it can be so expansive and kind of daunting. We're going to wade through that and I'm just excited to hit this topic of our home environment and the importance of that and how it can be toxic and how it can be really healthy as well.

Speaker 2: 1:53

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 1:55

Before we get into that, can you share with our listeners? What's your experience? How come it's gotten to the point where you are now. You're working on a home and you are having to wade through what things in the home, what building materials to use, what materials to use that are not going to be as impactful, as harmful to you as a normal construction. If you can share with us, why has it gotten to this point? What happened? What was?

Speaker 2: 2:30

the beginning Really how it got to. What we've decided to do now is being in the real estate industry. I've seen too many sellers selling homes where they've cut corners. They just want to lipstick something they're not really actually renovating, they're just covering up a water stain or painting over it. I've seen so much of that I really started to realize our homes really make us sick and we have no idea what's behind that wall when we purchase a home, what somebody did, if they've renovated, what they've covered up. All that. It started about four years ago. We moved to Newport Beach which, of course, by the coast, is mold central. It's humid. We lived five minutes from the beach. I thought it was going to be great.

Speaker 2: 3:16

Within two months I was so sick I could barely walk. I could barely take a step off a curb. My whole body would shake. I slept. I was insomnia for four nights straight, had no idea why, did not sleep for four days, ended up in urgent care on medication to actually put me to sleep. It just spiraled really fast. At that point I knew enough I'd been doing holistic care. I had some other symptoms that were low grade, but nothing full blown to really diagnose me. I knew enough that something wasn't right.

Speaker 2: 3:52

I started researching, found a few people on Instagram talking about mold and it really clicked. I was like this house has tons of mold. This has got to be. My nervous system was just on fire. That was my turning point. We recognized that, did some tests, found out yes, absolutely mold everywhere.

Speaker 2: 4:10

We moved within three or four months after that to another home, which again ended up having mold. We didn't move out of the town, we just moved a few blocks away to a newer home. It did matter New or old. That's one thing I've learned. It's going to have mold. It does not matter if your home is brand new or 50 years old. Then we moved six months after that again to another home, even farther away from the coast now, but then there's power lines. That's when I learned okay, emfs and mold do not mix.

Speaker 2: 4:47

Then I just continued to spiral. I just was not getting any better. Within about six months of that, we decided we're moving back Northern California, our old home that we lived in. We decided to move back there. I had to get better. I did improve, but not as much. We had a raised foundation there. Now, as I'm learning and researching, I'm realizing this raised foundation is probably not helping me either. We had tests done and nothing major, but we didn't have quite the right test. I learned more within the last year of having even better testing done. That's where it started. Then I just dove into what is actually making us sick in our homes and have done just a 180 on getting rid of everything toxic.

Speaker 1: 5:36

You moved four times in the space of a year and a half.

Speaker 2: 5:41

A year and a half.

Speaker 1: 5:43

Yes, what was that like? Because people hear that and they're like I could never do that, I couldn't even imagine. For some people, the thought of even testing their home for mold is paralyzing. What was that like going through that?

Speaker 2: 5:59

It was difficult. Honestly, the biggest thing the support of my family. If you don't have that support and then backing you, my husband would say you're doing the research, you're the one that knows I'm not doing it. He's trusting me. He's like if we need to move, we need to move. That support was huge Because I know I have friends that don't have that and they're like I'm stuck, I can't do this, I can't rip this wall out. My husband doesn't get it. That's huge. He's willing to pack up. All right, let's go If that's what we need to do. My kids as well, my girls they amazing as well.

Speaker 2: 6:33

That was a big part of knowing we had to do what we had to do. You get to the point where you're sick enough and I tell people, if you can't do it, maybe you're not sick enough yet. You will get to that point when you feel like you don't have a choice. But you got to move. That was it. We just decided, all right. Luckily we had moved into a much smaller home from what we lived in Northern California, so we didn't have nearly as much stuff. It was not as challenging, but it still was hard. It's hard on the body because then now I had to adapt to a new space, my nervous system all over again like, oh wait, you're living somewhere else, you've got to try to sleep here. I just couldn't recover.

Speaker 1: 7:15

Then you also have the hope of, okay, new home, this is going to be better, and then it's not.

Speaker 1: 7:22

It's not how did you work through? And even as a family, and maybe just as a family yourself, how did you work through? Okay, oh man, we're going to move again. We just moved and now I'm no better here, maybe worse. What does that look like? Because again, people can be listening to that and they're like, well, I can't imagine that. But the way that you share it now is like, oh, it was hard, but yeah, we just moved From that side of things that hope and then crushed okay, we're going to move again. What does that do to the psyche? Is there a what if? Factor? What if it doesn't work?

Speaker 2: 8:00

What if- oh, absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 8:04

I guess you have the support of your family, which is huge. I know a lot of people that don't, and what a gift that is. What did that look like, that support and knowing that Matt was there to sorry, Greg was there to help, support you guys. But Again, I'm really curious to dive into how did you just up and go? You said, if you get sick enough, you can. Is there something that just turned? And it's like no matter what, I'm getting better or we just have to do this. What was that discussion like in your mind?

Speaker 2: 8:37

Yeah. So I think, being as I was learning and doing the research, just learning so much about if I don't get out of this environment, things aren't going to change. I mean, it was not a fun time in our lives for my family at all, like being so sick, like we weren't going anywhere. We were canceling vacations. We would have day trips even, like we went to Disneyland one day, I think 10 minutes I was there and we had to leave. Like I started having all kinds of symptoms arise and I think part of that's the EMF, like human, like amount, like my body just could not handle it. A vacuum, my brain would start to kind of shake, you know things. It was just a point where we just did what we had to do because nobody was functioning and surviving in this mode. You know, I couldn't drive, I couldn't cook dinner, like my husband was doing everything because of it. So you get to that point. You're so just leading, just help of some sort, so you're willing to move and do whatever you have to do to get better. And I'm kind of my personality, I don't, I'm a decision maker. So if there's a decision I'm going to make it. I'm not like, oh, what if this? What if that? Oh, what's the risk? Or I could you know this could happen. I really don't think like that.

Speaker 2: 9:51

Even our transition moving to Arizona, it was one day okay, let's move. You know, I didn't. I just don't. I don't think that I'm like, okay, I'm doing it. So I think that helps. I don't have a lot of fear. I'm just like, oh, it'll work out, I gotta work it out this way or that way, the direction. You know. I don't have a lot of fear, which you know doesn't always serve me well, but the most part it works out. So I think that helps. I wasn't worried about it. I'm just like, oh, let's move, I gotta get better. That's really what it came down to.

Speaker 1: 10:20

And I think, ultimately, that's what people have to do Just make a decision. You stop thinking about the decision and make a decision, because people can fret about that for weeks, months, years, right. And then finally the decisions made and it's like, oh man, I should have done that years ago, it would have been so much easier, you know. So I love that that. Just make a decision, stop thinking about it and make it and then whatever happens, right, as you said, you have that kind of mindset of it'll work out and if it doesn't, well, you make another decision, right, it's like just keep making decisions. And I wonder, have you found just throughout your life in general, the more decisions that you make, the better you get at making decisions?

Speaker 2: 11:03

Yeah, I would say. I would definitely say that. Yeah, I mean, I even had a family member. They're like I can't believe you would just sell everything and move to Arizona. That's a huge decision. And we didn't just move into a rental, because that's another part of the whole piece, the psychological. I'm not moving into another rental because they're not taking care of well, there's hidden things everywhere. There's just no way to know what's going on in a rental. So I wanted a home that I could purchase and now completely make clean and live in a clean space to be. I wasn't going to go backwards Now that I had started to heal. So that was. It was an interesting conversation. It's like you're crazy, like how can you even just up and move? Like that's a huge decision? What if you didn't like it? And I'm like, well then we would move again.

Speaker 1: 11:46

It's making another decision Right.

Speaker 2: 11:49

I'm just not, it's just my personality. A lot of people like cannot kind of wrap their head around that. But it's just stuff, like it's just. I mean, in some ways it's not just money, but it is just money. Like you know, we weren't losing our jobs, we weren't. You know, we'll secure it out.

Speaker 1: 12:06

Again, I love that mentality of one. Okay, this is stuff. It's not who we are, it's not it's like where our family is. That's what's important, right, love between each other. It's not the stuff that makes the family, it's the relationship and the communication, and so that's awesome. And I hope that people gather that. As you say that it's like, what about my stuff? Well, you can get more stuff, yeah, right, and I think if you talk about, like, moving to Arizona and all, you brought up this connection between EMF and mold, right, and for those of you, I think most people listening might know what EMF is, but for those that don't, emf or electromagnetic frequencies and they're everywhere our body produces EMF. There's EMF coming from this earth. This is a different kind of EMF that you're referring to, right, it's not like what our body produces are from the earth or the sun they're referring to when you talk about its connection with our health and mold.

Speaker 2: 13:04

So cell towers and power lines, those were the two that impacted me. I mean, living in Newport Beach, power lines you're in, you know small homes, they're all throughout. You know the front and the back of your houses and cell towers just everywhere. There's too many people way too close together. So that really impacted me and I think the mold in the home and then the EMFs, the combination, just it is knocked me out.

Speaker 1: 13:33

You know, and what they've found, which is fascinating and I think you know this is that EMF can accelerate the growth of mold by 600 times. Right, and then that's not just in the home but that's also then in the body that the varulence of that mold, the mycotoxin, is increased because of exposure to EMF. And I know that. I've had a patient in the past that I've worked with that they moved into a smart home and didn't know that they had been in mold prior but had been for years, moved into a smart home and within months their child developed seizures. And I remember talking with them when they came into the clinic and we made that connection of mold and smart home and in both the parents were just like you've got to be kidding, we had no idea. This was like very new to them.

Speaker 1: 14:28

And and that is a huge challenge because it's everywhere now, right, you have towers, cell towers everywhere, especially in California where they put them in the middle of a school up in a palm tree. And now all of a sudden, kids are getting sick, teachers are getting sick, different, you know, different diseases are being in. It's like what's happening. Yeah, it's that combination.

Speaker 2: 14:50

Yeah, no, it's bad, it's really affecting. I could feel it, like I physically could feel it when I was too close to like a tower or, like I said, like I turned a vacuum on, just the EMF coming off of that was impacting me. So I know that it is a huge piece of healing that you've got to get out of. I mean, I think, like we've told you, the wife, we don't have Wi-Fi in our home. It's not, it does not exist. We don't even shut it off at night because we don't even have it. We use ethernet cables. My husband wired our whole helmet and we just got rid of it. So it's you take these steps. Once you learn, you can't unlearn like what it's the damage is doing in your body, and so we've taken the steps that we have to heal and or prevent as well.

Speaker 1: 15:36

What was it for those? That, because some people experience symptoms and they don't want to share what those symptoms are, because they're like people are going to think I'm crazy. Like I pick up a cell phone and who am I going to? I feel this buzzing, who am I going to share that with? Or they walk. You know they're walking through a park and there's cell towers. What was that experience in your body that you were feel?

Speaker 2: 16:01

mostly I would feel like I was on a boat, like rocking, like I never had like full vertigo but I would have just enough to where I would walk and like sideways or like have to kind of lean, or like I could hardly drive for probably almost four years or so, once I started really developing and then when we moved to Newport for that like three years span of healing I didn't drive at all but it would be very difficult. The motion going by, the visual, the brain connection, it really affected my brain. Even standing I couldn't stand and have a conversation with someone if I didn't lean against a wall or I would need to sit down. And I don't know scientifically or medically what the connection is exactly with that, but it's just. I just was very off balance.

Speaker 2: 16:48

The brain was not people, lymbrium, I don't know what you know. So that was my main symptom heart palpitations, constantly tired and yeah, I didn't get like headaches that you know a lot of people. I didn't get the congestion, so I didn't have like the typical mold, like, oh, the sinus. You know I didn't have any of that. So it took me. You know it's a little bit harder to diagnose because I'm like, well, there's nothing in the lung. There's nothing in the sinus.

Speaker 1: 17:14

It was really the brain, with a nervous system being attacked and to go into that science a little bit, so for people that that here is not mold, right, mycotoxin is produced by mold and it goes out to kill everything in the environment so that mold can continue to grow and thrive and live, and then these are like microscopic particles they can be that can then filter through the home and really remember mold is everywhere. But because of the way that our homes are built now, it is a magnet to create this environment of mold and so mycotoxin gets into the body and what this does is accelerates inflammation. It causes our body to release what are called cytokines, which are inflammatory mediators, and then, when this is constantly buzzing meaning constantly being produced, it can create a host of different symptoms that dysregulate the nervous system, that challenge the heart, that challenge the brain, and then, as you're talking about these symptoms of the equilibrium is off and heart palpitations, whereas other people may have headaches, they may have massive congestion in the sinuses, they may have major pains in the gut and bloating because of the impact it's having on their digestive system. So it can be a host of different stuff and then just fatigue, right, and in common, and for some people also chronic infection where, because of the mold. Mycotoxin suppress the immune system, these opportunistic infections can take hold and then it's just repeat, cold, one after another, or a cold that should only last a few days is now lasting two weeks, three weeks, and I'll commonly hear people say, man, if I get a cold it goes straight to my lungs and now I have bronchitis or pneumonia, and that's not normal unless there's something that is suppressing our body's ability to handle these pathogens.

Speaker 1: 19:12

So it's good to hear what your experience was, because I know some people just think I can't share that. They'll think I'm crazy. But it's important to share that because these are all connections that they're not, they happen right and into your experience. And for someone to say, maybe you had people say this like well, that doesn't happen, or mold doesn't do that, and you're like, well, this is my experience, this is what I'm feeling.

Speaker 2: 19:36

So oh, and my anxiety was through the roof like we would try to get out, because you know, I wanted sunlight as much as we could, and so we would try to go out on walks and I couldn't even go around the block like past that, because I had such high anxiety to get far away from the house, like. And that was like almost probably one of the tipping points where I'm like this is not okay, like I know in my head, I'm fine, I can do it, you know, for me to just be stuck like that and it's like that was really one of the extreme probably years that I had.

Speaker 1: 20:11

So because I mean, in all that, what you're, it's altering life, right, it's altering relationships, it's altering your experience, joy, love, you know, all those things that we want out of life yeah, absolutely so then you, so you move four times. You're up in northern california and things still aren't right there and it's like, all right, we're moving. And now you're in arizona and, as you said, we're not going to rent. You also didn't buy a new home. Right, new home should be healthy, not so much. What did you buy there in arizona?

Speaker 2: 20:48

so we had a nineteen what eighty something home that was full of mold.

Speaker 1: 20:55

So getting that environment.

Speaker 2: 20:58

I know it's like what. So we found a property that we absolutely just fell in love with the neighborhood no cell towers, we cannot even. I mean, we have to use ethernet. Well, I guess we can get a satellite, um, but, and have Wi-Fi, but we can't make phone calls, like our cell phone services does not work unless we're hooked up to the internet or we have to go down the road to closer to a tower. So that was it.

Speaker 2: 21:23

We, you know, and our relatives that helped us. They're like you know, they know that I'm sick and they're like we. You're buying a home that I'm like it's the property, it's. I can't move a cell tower, I you can't change that. I can't move power lines, but I can redo this whole home. And so the price was good because we knew we were gonna get it. We're like we don't care, don't repair anything, um, we'll take it as is. So the mold was a little worse than we thought. Um, we initially thought it was in a few spots. We ended up having it tested and it's I mean it's throughout the whole home. So we were like we thought maybe we could move into half of it. You know, plastic it off totally clean, one section not even happening, so we ended up just buying a trailer and again researching trailers.

Speaker 2: 22:10

They are notorious for mold yes, they are so now I had to have a decision where I'm like, well, the VOC is in a new one, you know, because all the glues, the laminates, plastics, the cabinets, everything they use in a trailer, is, you know, the worst of the worst really. So it's either be in a high VOC living space or one that's, you know, been a used trailer. That's off, gas is gone, but I don't know what someone's done with it. I don't know what leaks are back there. I don't know, you know, anything about it. So we chose to buy a new one, and so what we did was we had four air filters going in there for, I mean, gosh weeks. I mean we still have one that we use constantly, just no matter what. But we had heavy duty air scrubbers, and so my first three weeks were tough in the trailer and then, as that off scassing, you know, went away, it's now fine, but yeah really quick just to make people, let people wear.

Speaker 1: 23:06

Vocs are volatile organic compounds and these are things that are found in building materials, wood caulking, glues, adhesives. They're found in cosmetics, they're found in plastics. So I mean, really, they are essentially part of western culture, right? I mean they are part of everything that we consume, essentially. And VOCs can have. They are In many places, almost everywhere, but the levels of VOCs can have a dramatic effect on someone, especially if there's already chronic illness, and so VOC is again.

Speaker 1: 23:50

They can affect the nervous system, they can affect our drainage pathways or liver, kidneys, the ability that they have to function, and then symptoms can be, oh a host, headaches, dizziness, digestive Balances where you just feel nauseous, and I've had a lot of people that again. One person that I'm working with that they did a spray foam in there there was like mold free, mold, mold free, mold resistant spray foam, but wasn't told about the VOC, and so, like the first three weeks back in the home it was like what's happening? Should I have done this? And you know again, running your filters to help the off-gassing? It's getting better, but all of these things can have an impact, and so to know that and then to be able to ask questions of Builders and of where you're getting materials from. This becomes like huge and challenging if you are going down this pathway.

Speaker 2: 24:49

That's a whole nother job. I mean the amount of research that has gone into what we're now you know. So we're now getting this home completely. I mean we're removing drywall wood, everything because the wood alone. This is why.

Speaker 2: 25:05

So you know, I have people say, well, why don't you just buy a new home? Well, the lumber that comes in a Lot of it is full of mold, so it's not if it's not kiln dried. You need to inspect every piece of wood that's going in your home, because you put it behind your wall, it gets air, gets moisture. If it's in the bathroom, whatever it can be, and there's mold it's now just gonna start growing. So new homes, I almost think, can be worse, because they'll put them up and it'll be raining, nothing's covered, no one's going in and checking it. You know the framing's wide open and then they go and cover it up and it's still down.

Speaker 2: 25:40

So I Wanted something that we could control and I knew we could just get rid of everything. So that's the plan we've done. We have a guest home and we're almost done with that. But the research that has gone into the lumber, the paint, the drywall, the flooring, the cabinets, I mean to limit toxic exposure. Because, like you said, like it adds up, like, if you already have an illness, it just adds up in your liver. You just can't, you can't keep up.

Speaker 1: 26:07

Where did you start? Like? So you're down here in skin in Arizona, you're living in the trailer, you're gonna be redoing the guest home. What do you start for those that are like well, I don't even know what to do, like I don't even know where I would go, aside from Home Depot or the contractor. So what did you start with?

Speaker 2: 26:28

So I bought it's a healthy home book and it's the Bible of healthy homes like it Literally will go through step by step. It gives you a list of products that are approved. They've done all the research for you. So that was huge. And it rates things.

Speaker 2: 26:43

You know, if you can't find this, you could do this instead. It's a little bit better. You know kind of good, better, best as well. So that's where he started. And then it was researching the products.

Speaker 2: 26:53

So, like our insulation, we wanted no formaldehyde, we wanted, you know, mineral based. We didn't want dyes, all that stuff. So home Depot doesn't carry that. You just, you can't just walk in the start. So then it's finding Okay, who in the area carries that? And the same with Pete, the paints at Home Depot, even if they say zero VOC or low VOC, what they add like, if so, if you're getting black paint, that thing is full of VOCs because the color that they add at the store is not VOC free. So even though your paint may say it on the can, it's no longer so. Finding what company has DOC free additive color as well, you know. So that's where it took, you know a little more work. And finding cabinets, you know you can't just walk in and buy this stuff, so the process is a little bit more, but that book was the biggest help, for sure.

Speaker 1: 27:48

And what's it called again.

Speaker 2: 27:49

Healthy home. I should have grabbed it, shoot. I think it's just healthy home.

Speaker 1: 27:53

What is we'll have to put, what has to have to put in the notes so people can use that as a resource.

Speaker 2: 27:57

Yeah, yeah, it's great, it's excellent, yeah, and he even tells you, like, how to build your walls, how to frame different ways, how to, you know, create less, you know air and what cockings to use. You know just lots of different. It's an amazing book.

Speaker 1: 28:12

That's so cool and we know what's. What's needed is that, again, it's. I'm gonna go back to decisions, right, where you make decisions and sometimes it's like I'm a terrible decision maker. Well, they need to make more decisions and you'll learn to make better decisions. But I want to go back to that because, with what you're doing, you know I want, you've decided, this is how our home is going to be.

Speaker 1: 28:35

Right now, people could say, wow, no internet, how do you possibly live? Like what do you mean? You have to have your phone hooked up, but it's, this is what you've chosen, and others might not choose that, but it's still. You have the ability to make a decision On what you want your home and your environment to be. So you know. But and then be intentional about that, something that we've done we're not going to move. I think that would traumatize our kids.

Speaker 1: 29:01

But something that I'm changing in my own home is the lighting, and I'm doing that a little bit by little bit, whereas instead of this, these, what I'm right now surrounded by is fluorescent lights and that kind of stuff and the screen. Here I'm changing out the light bulbs to go back to a full spectrum light and, in Candice, a light bulb amazing. Those have been like outlawed and banned but yet that full spectrum is so beneficial to the body. And Then for nighttime I'm changing out some of the lights where I read, so it's more of a red light to where I'm not getting that blue light so that my body can actually stimulate the production of melatonin and Reduce cortisol and they have all these different effects. So it's decisions. It's not all the warrants. It doesn't mean you're gonna go move and Got a moldy home and you can do steps in your own home to minimize your Exposure absolutely.

Speaker 2: 29:59

We have boxes of incandescent lights because they were banning them in the week before that. Was it going into effects? I stocked up. There could have boxes of a mist in the garage. Because I'm with you, I'm like I'm not doing the LEDs, especially with the nervous system, because I know the impact that the flicker and those lights have on the nervous system and I already. That's a weak spot for me. So yeah, yeah, we.

Speaker 2: 30:24

You know the internet was kind of the first thing. We in our home in Northern California there was a small cell tower. I mean I could see it like from our window. It was I don't even know a couple hundred feet, but we would use our meter and we could read probably four or five and everybody's readers different and so on. Mine it basically needed to be one or less to be healthy in the home. I know it'd be four or five. So we had a net, you know an emf net that we would sleep inside of. You know people would come, they're like, oh, you have like a mosquito net. I'm like, well, why would I have?

Speaker 1: 30:59

Like no in your own.

Speaker 2: 31:02

I'm like no, so it actually would block. And you go inside of it with your meter and it's zero. I mean, this thing was it's pure silver, it totally blocked everything. So again, another decision Okay, if we can't move, what do we need to do to survive in this home until we can move? And I, you know, I had a emf shirt. I would wear it, like on days where I wasn't feeling great, I would wear it in the home because I didn't want anything else impacting me. But those are just, you know, some small things that that you can do to protect yourself.

Speaker 1: 31:34

Yeah, and I think it's really important to focus on what am I doing to protect me. Who cares what other people think? Absolutely, you know what it's about my health. It's not about theirs. So this is what I need to do and, yeah, for some people it may sound like, well, that's kind of weird, but who cares? This is how I'm surviving, this is how I'm I'm living, and I think what you said just about the, the home up in Northern California, where, if people are like I can't move and I do live close to a cell tower you can get netting right that does block that and, as you said, the reading was zero. It's almost like living in a Faraday cage, right, and these are bags that you can put phones in so that there's no emission of EMF to the body.

Speaker 2: 32:17

Yeah, no, I mean we didn't have a microwave. I mean Just things that we just started to eliminate, whatever it was cleaning supplies, you know, everything just toxic. We just started to eliminate it and, you know, I slowly began to heal, you know, and learning from you like detoxing the body, like I had been in holistic care for six, seven, maybe even more years. Not one of my doctors had talked to me about detoxing the body. First it was just so supplement, supplement, and then, once I started working with you was like we got a detox body I Drive now, like you know, it's like that. It's just like things like that are happening that weren't happening once you really just clean it all out.

Speaker 1: 33:04

And I think you know there's. So if we go down that road for a second, talk about drainage. But I want to hit like drainage in the home first. I don't mean flushing toilets and sinks, but what are things that people may never think of in their home that would be easy to replace like trade of this for that. What are some simple things they could do to make their environment better?

Speaker 2: 33:29

I would say paint is a big one and then, like I said, like microwaves, get rid of that, like you don't use a microwave. No, you can put a pot on the stove to heat your water up or your coffee up or whatever. It takes two minutes instead of 30 seconds.

Speaker 1: 33:44

That's a big way I can't tell you how many kids will come over to the house and we have a toaster oven. They're like just put in the microwave. I'm like we don't do that. We don't do that, just use a toaster. Well, why Just use a toaster?

Speaker 2: 33:56

I know people it is. It's interesting, but that's OK. No shoes in the house. Eliminating bacteria that was getting brought in, just, you know, compounding upon everything else in the body. That was another one I would say. The ethernet cables are extremely easy. They sound overwhelming. It sounds like getting rid of your Wi-Fi with seems like, oh, that would be so. It is not difficult, it is so easy. Everybody has a cord, a little adapter, it's, and it's fast, it's actually faster, it never goes out. Yeah, those are pretty much, you know. I can't really think what else somebody could do if they're not having an issue.

Speaker 1: 34:35

You know something I'll share with it. We've been in our home is my wife has traded out all of our cleaning supplies. Yes, right, and I think that's a big one as well, and that's not necessarily a VOC and those are other chemicals. Um, but even training out, trading out those dishwashing detergents, laundry detergents, the soap that you're using on your body, the shampoo that you're using, right, those are things that can be traded. This for that, in order to figure out, and there's a what's the app?

Speaker 2: 35:04

Oh, I know what you're talking about Dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty dirty.

Speaker 1: 35:09

I'll have to post that as well, where you can actually look up products to see what the rating is from a health standpoint and what their potential dangers are. And some people were like, oh, those are organic, those things don't. They don't clean. Very well, I can tell you what my wife has switched to has been great Right For the dishwashing stuff hand soaps, other soaps I have no complaints yeah, yeah. It works great.

Speaker 2: 35:34

Another thing, though, just the washing machine. You say that so we had a front loader and that thing would get gunky and moldy. Those are terrible. Those are terrible All the time, and we got rid of that. So you know, that was something like okay, I got to spend you know a couple hundred dollars more now. So what? Like get rid of it, cause that mold is going all into your clothes every time you wash them.

Speaker 1: 35:56

Uh, I remember that in Virginia we had we moved into a home that had the front loader washing machine and at first we thought, oh, this is going to be awesome. And then it was like, no, this is terrible, it's terrible. You got to get rid of this thing. It always smelled and once we got, once we went back to the top loader, it was like so much better.

Speaker 2: 36:12

I can't believe they even allow them anymore. Actually, I was walking, we were in Home Depot and a lady was looking at him about to buy one and I so I wanted to go over there and be like, don't do it, I get really. And Greg's looking at me like no, I'm like no, I would need to help these Just saying no.

Speaker 1: 36:28

Do you ever look back and be like I can't believe we've done all this stuff, like from the beginning to now? Did you ever imagine and how could you? But did you ever imagine of where things would go and what you needed to do in order to reclaim your health?

Speaker 2: 36:47

Yeah, we actually talk about it all the time because the diet again, like we were pure organic, raw milks, raw butters, cheese, you know, grass fed meats Like our diet probably is one of the most significant things that we changed. And we look back and we kind of will laugh sometimes about where we used to go eat and remember when we used to do this everyone and we're like, yeah, remember how unhealthy we were, you know, and we just didn't even know it because that's just what everybody did, that's what we did growing up, like we just didn't even know it until we stopped these habits and really that's kind of what it came down to. It's like same with the microwave, like it's just a habit, like instead of putting it in here, you put it on the stove top. It's just changing habits. Instead of buying this or eating there, you know, and we put in a huge garden that you know, and we're going to get some chickens, like so that's the progress.

Speaker 2: 37:35

Like that I never thought I would have chickens, like I never thought I would love the outdoors like I do now, like the sunshine and being in the earth and grounding my feet, like I love it, like crave it now, and that just those. Things just change as you learn and grow and educate yourself, and how important God gave us everything. We need, everything to heal and we've taken so much of that away. We've just stopped doing it. It's crazy.

Speaker 1: 38:09

There really is a simplicity to that. I mean, there's complexity in it. From someone maybe thinking, oh my gosh, here I am, you know 2024, and I've got to do all this. No, you don't have to do everything. I was on a coaching call yesterday with my coach and he said you know, you can have everything in your life that you want.

Speaker 1: 38:29

You may not just get it all at once, though. It's going to come bit by bit and it goes back to that decisions. What am I going to decide to do? What am I intentionally going to decide to do to change? And it may start with you know what? I'm going to trade out my soaps today, and tomorrow it could be I'm going to stop using the microwave and I'm going to go to using the oven. Maybe it takes a little bit longer, but there's a benefit to that. Maybe I'm not going to wear this clothing, but I'm going to wear this, and it's just. Again. The power of our decisions is immense, and that's I mean, really, what your story has been. It's been one decision after another and there's trial and error and we learned from things, but without that, you may still be in that place in Southern California and not driving and not living.

Speaker 2: 39:18

Exactly, and I know so many people that are stuck and will reach out. How do you know I need help, but you know they only want to do so much. They. You know I don't really want to change this. You know my diet that much. I still want to have this or that. And you know it's really difficult. Once you kind of have that knowledge, it's really you just can't go back. It's not that easy and you want that for your family, you want that for your kids to be better, to be healthier and to teach them as well. So it's difficult. You have to get to a point where your health is first and we need to make those decisions. Otherwise you just miserable or you're you know, you just don't feel as good. You're not living life to the fullest, for sure.

Speaker 1: 39:59

What happened when you brought up drainage and detox? What changed for you when you started to do instead of just, you know, taking supplements or killing stuff what? What changed when you begin to Do things that would help Drain the body and when I say drain the body, I mean help to support your liver and your kidneys and their abilities to actually Detox. Normally and people hear detox and they think it's like something that we're taking in, but detox is really a process that our liver and kidneys, lymphatic system, lungs do Every minute of every day. They're processing toxicity. You mentioned no one had really ever gone there with you. What changed when you began to do that?

Speaker 2: 40:45

So the first thing that I would say changed was my energy. That increased. I just felt overall just Better, like, just okay, I have more energy, I'm more alert. The brain issues changed a lot. I was able, and now stable, like I can have a conversation with someone for half an hour, I don't have to lean on anything. So the balance all came back. I'm driving. The anxiety that went away as well. So the nervous system really regulated and Calm down like I will have about here and there, like if we have to fly. That day is usually not the best because I'm around so many EMS, but those were probably the top three and was just the brain likes like inflammation is what I would say Started coming down.

Speaker 1: 41:32

And I think what that is such a missing piece for people that it's let's just go in there and just, you know, get rid of everything, or you know, open up this, just start to detox or make the cells, you know, stronger so they can. But if those pathways aren't open, then our body just can't clear it right and we just we recycle and it retoxifies the body, creates more inflammation. And when I say inflammation, some people are like well, everyone says inflammation. Inflammation is driving disease process and the more toxicity that is circulating the body, the more that is going to be expressed until Diseases show up and then you have a diagnosis. But the diagnosis is not the the thing. It's everything that's happened years, whoops, years before that that really triggered yeah, yeah, and looking back, like we we had lived.

Speaker 2: 42:28

I mean, a lot of my symptoms I've had for 15 to 18 years, just very low grade and didn't know what it was. And I with you know Western medical, you know I seen x-rays, mris, blood work. They could find nothing. You know ended up saying, no, I think it's in your head. That was a fun time. I'm like no, it's not my head.

Speaker 2: 42:48

So, looking back, now that I know about the mold, we had lived, I mean we had lived in the very first home we lived in for a couple years, definitely. I mean old windows, lead-based paint, shipping Carpet that was old, that who knows what you know was in that. And then we moved to a new house, which I was okay there, and then it moved again to a home with a basement that was had water damage and had mold, but I didn't know anything about it. Then we didn't have this Education, we didn't have all this social media, these you know amazing people out there spreading the word. That's when everything kind of started was, you know, 15, 18 years ago.

Speaker 2: 43:27

So, looking back, I know I've been exposed to mold this whole time until Moving into just a giant ball of mold that any emf. You know, three years ago, that's when I so it took a long process for me to get to where I am now, suffering and living with these things and really figuring out. It's not overnight. You can't just be like, oh, this is what I have, I'm gonna change everything. It's not that easy.

Speaker 1: 43:52

No, it's not, and I think that's how some people look at it with any change, right, you look at at the optimal, or the pinnacle of where you want to get to, and it's like that is insurmountable, like how can I get the top of Everest? Yeah, and but the thing is that they've never even climbed, you know, a hill. And so, well, no, you can't get there right away. It is literally a step at a time. It's training, it's practice, it's decision-making. Right, I'm gonna trade this for this. And then now, 15 years later, it's like you're sharing things on Instagram with people about what you're doing, about your experience. That is so valuable and there's no way that could have all happened immediately. There was a lot of trial, a lot of air, a lot of work that went into it and, again, what you said in the beginning, it's the power of a decision. Yeah, make a decision, learn from it. If it was the right one, awesome.

Speaker 1: 44:50

If it set you back, learn from it, grow from it, make another decision.

Speaker 2: 44:54

Very. Had we not decided to move to Newport Beach, I still would probably be in Northern California living with low-grade symptoms, not really knowing what it was from, and just kind of Surviving, you know, not really thriving in life. So I have to say, like that decision, as horrible as it was, I wouldn't change it for the world. I'm so grateful because it that brought me closer to God, it brought me closer to my family, it brought me closer to health and be know the help people now you know. So I'm very grateful to have that time and I'm wearing that now. I didn't even know this is where I want it to be. You know, 15 years ago I, you know, I was just making decision as I went along that took me to a place that I had no clue. This is where I wanted to even be, you know, until I'm here.

Speaker 1: 45:40

So it's so amazing. You say that because in in the moment you know it's like what can I do to get out of the environment? But then, as you just said, looking back, you wouldn't trade it, you wouldn't want to go through it again, but you wouldn't trade it because of what it's brought you. And I think that's where, if we can change our mind and Heartset, to life isn't happening to you, but it's happening for you. We just have to look for the gift and sometimes it can take years to find that gift right, but there is a gift in it and If we're open enough to, I think, even allow that possibility, then we see possibility and we see, you know, things that we may not have. We make decisions differently when we're living in that space of All. These things are happening for me, even though it sucks, like it is no who wants to go through that right? But now on the other side, it's like, oh my gosh, I have this awareness and insight and again you get to help other people and it's just, it's amazing.

Speaker 2: 46:45

Yeah, and that's one thing, I didn't go through like I didn't go through a depression at all because even though my situation, you know, could should have really driven me straight to that, but I never looked at it in that way. It was okay I'm. This is for a reason. I'm gonna learn something from this. I, you know I will heal. I never was thinking this was never gonna change. You know, that was never my mindset and I knew, you know, there's power in healing and there's powered family and support, and I knew I would get through it. So, yeah, it's just, it is a mindset. If you don't have that, you're gonna struggle, healing for sure.

Speaker 1: 47:25

And if you don't have that, you can develop it right. That's the thing. If people are like, why don't I have that mindset, I don't have that decision-making ability, well, maybe you don't have it now, but it doesn't mean that you can't have it tomorrow, the next day, just it's Again make decisions.

Speaker 1: 47:42

Yeah change your mind, work with people that can help you to develop that mindset and and it's wonderful that through I believe, grace and mercy of Our Lord that we can we're put in a path where we can meet people, find people that are going to help us, and then we in turn get to help them and others.

Speaker 2: 48:02

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 48:03

Any, any final thoughts on things. I mean this has been really good. I think it provides a lot of insight for people and hope that, hey, just because my circumstance right now Maybe really cruddy, it doesn't have to change that way, it doesn't have to stay that way. I mean, what any Any Final thoughts for people Going through these experiences like you have, like you are currently. What's your message to them? What do you say to them?

Speaker 2: 48:30

I would say Don't have fear. Fear can cripple you. If you're in a situation that you need to change it. You know, don't have the what-ifs, don't have the fear and it's all stuff like we're saying like a home is, change a bathroom. Say you have mold in your bathroom, remove it. You know, don't have fear and don't let I don't know how to say it right, but some people have certain things. That what's the word.

Speaker 2: 48:57

I'm looking for Priorities, I guess it is. So if your priority is, you know, I want to spend my money on this and this, that's not serving you in any way in a healthy form whatsoever, you've got to shift that. Okay. Now I need to see that my health and my family is more important, so maybe the money has to go here instead of here, you know. So I would say Take care of your health first and do what you need to do for that and let the other stuff go. Don't worry about whatever beauty thinks. Don't worry if your kids are going to be mad because now you have to eat at home or to have healthier meals. That's would be what I would say.

Speaker 1: 49:37

And it works out. When you focus on your own health and your stuff, then you find that, oh my gosh, I'm able to do things for others. I'm able to give more love, express more love, feel more love. I think that's the beautiful thing. Well, thank you for coming on and in sharing your experience and what you're going through and different ways that people can change and adapt in their homes. It's really been Fantastic just to to hear and listen to that, so thank you very much.

Speaker 2: 50:06

Yeah, yeah, hopefully I can help and inspire someone to Just make that jump if they're Not sure yet.

Speaker 1: 50:12

If people want to follow what you're doing, where can they find you?

Speaker 2: 50:16

So my instagram would be the best. It's just christy hatcheson underscore, that would be the best. I post constantly of what materials we're using in the home and why and what other options there might be and local ones or things that you can find, like at home Depot that are healthier choices. So I try to make it to where it's affordable. It sounds you know a healthy home. Oh, it's going to be so much more expensive. It's actually not. You can find these products for the same price. It would just crazy to me that they're not just in the store already.

Speaker 1: 50:47

That's awesome. So do follow her, because you do post some great stuff on what to find, what to, what's better, what's good. It really there's a lot of insight that you put into that. So thanks for what you do, thanks for coming on and blessings.

Speaker 2: 51:01

Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1: 51:02

Okay, we'll talk again soon. Thanks for joining me on this episode of restore the real podcast. This show is supported and informed by not only my own deep personal work but also the deep healing work that we offer our patients here at Total Body Wellness Clinic. In the show next below, you'll find all the links that you'll need to hop on a discovery call with our team for some One-to-one support, follow along on social media or even learn about some of our favorite recommendations and products. Until next time, keep it real.