Let's Talk Wellness Now

Dr. Deb and Isabel talk about how insomnia leads to depression and anxiety. How sleep deprivation can lead to suicide. Learn how to reverse anxiety and depression without medication. Life can be good and you can be free from these symptoms once and for all with a little work and the right coach at your side. 

Do not miss these highlights:

03:23 How Dr. Isabel got into functional medicine.

12:23  Bredesen Program – There is hope for Alzheimer’s, you can take control of it. 

17:16 These past traumas are affecting us – it’s affecting our Limbic System. Trauma stored in ourselves comes up and shows up in different ways

20:19 Women have a bad rap in medicine in their 40s, 50s or 60s, 

22:23 How Progesterone was very helpful with sleep, and how Estrogen helps with anxiety.

23:44 How to get back on track when you’re feeling low.

25:49 Where to start or what to look at to get health back.

27:55 You don’t have to live your life in a place where you’re not happy – Paint the life you want and go chase it down.

30:06 You are the doctor, you’ve got an inner doctor.

32:34 Hold on to hope – the happy anticipation that something good is going to happen.

35:46 The younger we can start, the better it is – have a nice foundation and good terrain.

39:02  The importance of showing people a visual of what happens when their blood sugars go up.

Resources Mentioned

Whether you are recovering from an illness or just looking to maintain your current overall health, schedule a consult with us at Serenity Health Care by calling  (262)522-8640 or visit https://www.serenityhealthcarecenter.com 

About our Guest:

I’m a Cuban/American born, in 1959, in Washington DC. I have been a medical doctor since 1991. The only reason I went into the medical field was that I wanted to help people. I wanted to get to the root of the dis-ease, not just throw a covering on it. My patients weren’t getting any better, they were just existing. My goal is to see people healed. The decision to become a doctor was planted in my mind when I was five years old. My uncle Dr. Julio Perez, an anaesthesiologist, has this amazing way about him. When he walked into the room his smile, and his positive attitude would light up the room. He would just make you feel happy, and you would start smiling. At five years of age, I decided, and said to my mom, “I want to be a doctor just like Tio Julito” (Uncle Julio in Spanish). In 2000, my husband, and our two young daughters moved to New Zealand to see what it’s like to experience a different culture of the world. Yes, we had never been there, or even knew where it was. What a crazy, and life-changing decision for our family! I have been studying Functional Medicine, which focuses on the root cause of disease and its treatments. As a result of my training, I can offer a blend of conventional and functional medicine for your best outcome. My husband, Certified Culinary Nutrition Expert, Chef Michael, and I created the brand of Doctoronamission, where we prevent and reverse disease and give hope. Our expertise is in preventing and reversing early Alzheimers, Dementia, Cognitive Decline, Anxiety, and Depression. We have been doing Tele-Medicine since 2015 with our online business of Doctoronamission.com which offers online courses, group coaching, and 1×1 coaching. Let’s start walking together, and I’ll share with you what worked for me and can also work for you. I want to give you hope. 

Dr. Isabel MD Qualifications: 

> University of Colorado, Boulder, USA (pre-med) MCDB – September 1982 – May – 1986

> University of Colorado Medical School, Denver,USA – September 1987 – May 1991 

> Southern Colorado Family Practice Residency, Pueblo, September 1992 – May 1995 

> Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practice – 2005- Current 

> Dr. Dale Bredesen Certified 2.0 Recode Protocol Practitioner – January 2018 – present

> Member of the Institute of Functional Medicine, USA – March 2018 – present 

https://doctoronamission.com/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/womensbrainhealth

https://www.instagram.com/doctoronamission/

Transcript of Episode 194

Debra Muth 0:02
Welcome to Let’s Talk Wellness Now I’m your host, Dr. Deb. This is where we talk about everything wellness, and learn to defy aging, and live our lives on our own terms. Welcome back to Let’s Talk wellness. Now I’m your host, Dr. Deb and I have with me today Dr. Isabel Hunsinger. And she and I were just chatting for about an hour on her show and you guys are going to absolutely love her. She is specializing in brain health and is a life coach and has Doctor on a mission. And she is going to talk about her journey into the functional medicine world. And we’re going to talk about brain health and all the things that can cause us to lose our function and our capability of focus and concentration or even memory dementia, all of that. And more importantly, we’re going to talk about how you can partner with somebody to get your focus and concentration in your memory back. And I just absolutely love this conversation we are going to have with Dr. Isabella Hunsinger. So hold tight right after this message. We are going to bring her on and we’re going to have the most amazing conversation. Have you seen 20 Plus medical doctors only to be told your symptoms are in your head or you need an antidepressant? We understand your frustrations? Are you tired of feeling sick and tired? Tired of not getting the answers you need to regain your health. Tired of not feeling listened to by your doctor at Serenity Health Care Center, we understand and we will help you find the cause of your symptoms. Together we will create a path to health. We specialize in combining the best of conventional and natural medicine to get you back to doing what you love. We have worked with the most complex chronic diseases such as chronic Lyme COVID, long haulers, autoimmune disease, mold toxicity, and hormonal imbalances. But if you’re not sick, that’s fantastic. We will work with you to maintain your health so that you can prevent illness. give our office a call to see how we can help you regain your health and vitality at 262-522-8640. Or check us out at our website at Serenity health care. center.com So welcome back. I am so excited to be here with Dr. Isabel Han singer, and we are gonna have a great conversation. You people are just gonna love her. She’s so easy to talk to and she’s got a great story to share. So without any further ado, Dr. Isabel, welcome to the show.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 3:02
Hello, Dr. Deb, are we going to call each other Dr. Deb. Dr. Isabel, are we just gonna go dive in and go y’all go?

Debra Muth 3:10
Let’s do the latter out. I like that.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 3:13
All right. Hi, Deb. Thank you so much. I am so happy to be here on your podcast.

Debra Muth 3:20
Yes! It’s a pleasure to be here with you too. I can’t wait to dive into your story and hear about how you got where you did and what have you learned from it? And what do you want people to walk away with? How did you get into functional medicine and get on this journey?

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 3:39
Great question. Um, well, I I’ve always wanted to be a doctor. Even since I was five years old. I used to play that game operation. Yes. You remember that game too?

Debra Muth 3:51
I bought it for my grandkids. You have grandchildren? I have four grandchildren? Yes.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 3:57
No way. Wow, you don’t look like your grandmother. So keep it up whatever you do. And so then I became a doctor, you know, from five years of age to boom, you’re a doctor, right? I wish and then in nine so I graduated from medical school in Colorado and became and went into family practice residency to help heal the world. And in 19 No, in 2000 I just came to the realization that we did not have a health care system. We have disease management. Yeah, I was just so tired of these every three month visits, people coming in and not getting any better. I was just giving them more drugs, you know, and okay, here’s a replacement of your drugs. See in three months, you know, revolving door and one. wintry night in Colorado, my husband, February 1990. When I said to my husband, babe, let’s go prep. Let me let let let’s move my Google practice medicine somewhere else in the world. Let’s go. And he goes, Well, where do you want to go? And I go, I don’t know. So we spun the globe. And we ended up coming to New Zealand, which is where we are right now. Oh my gosh. So at the age of 40, I had two kids, and my husband and I, we just moved to New Zealand. And I thought, that’s where it’s gonna be, we’re gonna go to a place where they have healthcare. And at the time, it was pretty free, and somebody had health care at the time. You can see a doctor and go to the hospital and not be charged. And in 2000, and but here’s the key. When I moved to New Zealand, that’s where I got introduced to functional medicine. So I had to come all the way to become all the way to New Zealand to learn about functional medicine because the practice I went into one of the doctors was into it, he was and I was like, What’s this? What’s this functional medicine? So I got excited, because like it got to the root to the reason of why we’re unwell. So I started dabbling in it in 2000, in New Zealand, and then in 2013. Again, I hit the wall, I became a frustrated doctor. I was like, man, people are not getting any better. This is we don’t have a health care system here in New Zealand. We’ve got disease management. Yeah. So my husband and I and Mark, Dr. Mark Hyman came into our lives right about that time. And I saw what he was doing on social media, I was like, Yeah, I’m not going to reach all the people and teach all the people and empower all the people with hope that they can prevent and reverse disease in one room. Let’s go out. So my husband and I decided in 2013, to start Dr. On a mission. So we started that. And at the time, I was 53. And a year later, Deb, I became so anxious. You know, I was listening to that inner critic, and my voice in my head going is about what do you think you’re doing? You don’t know what you’re doing? You can’t do this. You’re not going to help heal the world. Know, back into your little room and to see one on one patients. Yeah. And when I get anxious, um, I don’t sleep. And I didn’t realize I was in menopause. I know. That’s how dis jointed disconnected. I was with my own personal story. And after. For 17 straight nights, I only slept two hours every night. Oh, my gosh, night. Yeah. And by the end of that you can imagine, you know, how I felt. By the end of that I was just I was suicidal. And I tried to take my life twice in three days. Huh? Yeah. And by the grace of God, that plan was stopped. And my husband took me to the doctor. And the doctor said, Isabel, you got to see the psychiatrist. And my heart dropped when he said, when she said that to me, because I was like, Oh my gosh, I’m gonna lose my license, I’ll never be able to practice medicine. I’ve got to see a psychiatrist. Oh, my God. But I went to the psychotic that didn’t happen that never even the the medical board in this country was so supportive of me to get help, which I am so grateful. Because that, you know, for a doctor to have to go see a psychiatrist. Will Will it Yeah, bad. Yeah, it’s not good. And so the I saw the psychiatrist, and the psychiatrist said is about, here’s an antidepressant, and here’s a sleeping pill. And this antidepressant you’re going to be on for the rest of your life. And looked up deep down inside. I knew that wasn’t wrong, but I just was going to do whatever I needed to do to get to sleep because I wanted, I wanted to be better. Like, totally surrendered, and did what he told me to do. But deep down inside because of functional medicine, I knew that I knew that I knew that there was more to this. And so I said, Hmm, we’ll see about that. I didn’t verbalize it myself. So we’ll see about that to see if I’m going to be on this on for the rest of my life. I can laugh and smile about this now because I’m way over on the other end. But yeah, it was ugly and messy and very painful. But my husband and I went on this journey together which a lot of marriages dissolve when there’s when there’s health issues like this. And but we actually got glued, even closer together, and we learned all the different things that are causing anxiety and depression. And now I’m off the antidepressant safely. And I know what I need to do to stay away from that. But I also learned all the contributors to anxiety and depression. And I also had a real realization of what it’s like for a client to be in the healthcare system with anxiety and depression and how awful and how terrible. One feels. Yes. And in that journey, I learned that we don’t, we it’s not. Now this, again, is going to cause people’s brains to tell it. But this is the bottom line. The bottom line is it’s not a mental illness issue. It’s a brain health issue. And when you learn how to take care of all the precise contributors that are affecting your brain health, then when you’ve got good brain health, then you can have excellent mental well being and you can learn to deal with whatever life throws and kicks and punches you in the gut with. Yeah, that is very true. And that’s what I learned on my journey. And that’s what I help people with, you know, to become free from anxiety and depression.

Debra Muth 11:26
I love that story. And I’m so glad you’re still here with us. But I think too, you know, people don’t realize that insomnia is used as a military torture tool for a reason. You know, when they talk about not sleeping, we forget that we deprive people of sleep for days or weeks in the military prisons, to break them, right. And when women go through that, they don’t realize how bad it is for their body. And unfortunately, as conventional practitioners, they don’t teach us to do anything different, either. sleeping pill, anti anxiety, antidepressant, here you go. It’s only on our functional medicine side that they teach us how to look at the brain and look at neurotransmitters and look at hormones and look at diet and lifestyle, and sleep habits and all of those kinds of things to help us sleep better and be healthier. Yes, yeah. Let’s talk a little bit about the Bredesen program. So you’ve learned about the Bredesen program. And for people who don’t understand that, can you tell our listeners a little bit about what that is?

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 12:35
You know that that statement when the student is ready, the teacher will appear? Yeah. Well, I, I didn’t know that this teacher even existed. But apparently he was placed in my path to teach me that I was heading towards Alzheimer’s. Oh, gosh, I was heading towards Alzheimer’s if I stayed on this antidepressant, and the sleeping pill for my anxiety and depression if I didn’t learn all the different things. So here’s what happened is Dr. Bredesen has written this book called The End of Alzheimer’s. And look, I am standing on the shoulders of this giant. Yeah, when I’m, when I’m saying this. I’m having Alzheimer’s as an option now. But the training starts in our 40s and 50s and early 60s. It’s not well known and conventional medicine. It’s starting to be known in the functional medicine world. But here’s what I learned from Dr. Bredesen and I continue to learn from Dr. Bredesen and all of my colleagues because this is a constant learning curve. There are six contributors that cause Alzheimer’s. Now, not everybody has all six contributors. But one of the contributors is hormones. And when we talk about hormones, is we’re talking about estrogen progesterone, testosterone, pregnenolone, DHEA, thyroid, cortisol, vitamin D. Those hormones are placed in a type two we call it the he calls it the a trophic, your hormones and your nutrients. And if those are low, then you’re deficient and that contributor which if it’s not, if it’s not, if it’s not fed will lead you to cognitive decline. So I had by my doctor had checked my hormones, and I was zero I was flat. My cortisol was even flat and that was scary because at first I thought it was cancer, but it wasn’t cancer. It was because I had been so stressed out so long, that my adrenals were like I can die. And I’m done. Bye bye. Yeah. So, so we learned that we needed to replace that. And slowly I was able to come off my antidepressant. Then I started getting clients that wanted me to help them with their cognitive decline, and most of them were women. And what I learned was, their hormones were really low. So, by my journey, what my mess became the message, like, we got to look at this, you know, and of course, you got to look at hormones. But then the other categories are in the inflammatory markers. The other is diabetes, what’s your sugar? What’s your fasting insulin levels? The next is toxins. And in the form of toxins, we’re talking about metals, mercury, lead, arsenic, then you’ve got the environmental toxins, like all the pollution, the glyphosate, and then you’ve got the bio toxins which you’re an expert in with the mold, the lime the herpes. Yeah. The EBV you know, so and then you’ve got your, your vascular, you know, are you what’s your sleep apnea? Like, do you have sleep apnea? What’s your oxygen levels, like at nighttime? What’s your blood pressure, like? And then the other one is trauma. Have you had any trauma? So I, Dr. Bredesen has just opened my eyes like, yeah, as a doctor, we’re taught, there’s no hope for, right. There’s no hope for Alzheimer’s. And there is hope there is hope. And I want people to know that you can take control of this. And but the training starts in our 40s 50s and early 60s.

Debra Muth 16:55
Yeah, we want to start that as early as we can. And and when you when you talk about trauma, are you talking about emotional trauma or head trauma or both?

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 17:05
Good point. Both. Both. Yeah. Both both. Um, one of the things in the trauma is your trauma, emotional trauma will affect your limbic system, as you’re aware of, and for a lot of my clients that I’m helping detoxify mold from their body and the chemicals, a lot of them just don’t budge. And it’s because they’re stuck their limbic system is stuck. So I always recommend for the for Olympic retraining for the retraining your brain type of protocol. And I love dogs. I love Annie hoppers. DNR DNR s DNRs.

Debra Muth 17:47
Yep. Yeah. Yeah, I love that one too.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 17:51
And also for anxiety. And for anything for brain health, it’s just a good thing to get your to retrain your brain. I did. It helped me it was, it was a process. I mean, it was a year long process, and there’s work to be done. Don’t think that it’s easy. But you can retrain your brain, from past traumas. And you know, so that you’re responding to life differently. Well, and

Debra Muth 18:17
I think so many times, we don’t think that these past traumas are affecting us. But we also don’t realize that that trauma is stored in ourselves, and it comes up and shows up in different ways. And we’re just not paying attention to it. And so it can come up in how we deal with a co worker, or how we deal with our kids, or how we manage the stress in the world around us. Or it doesn’t come up at all, and it just stays stagnant in those cells and creates more problems without us even realizing it. Because we’ve disconnected ourselves so much from the trauma that we try to pretend it never happened.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 18:53
I know. Yeah. It’s so true. In our brains, I mean, our bodies have a good memory. Oh, yes. And our limbic system, just It blows my mind, it actually just blows my mind. The more I learned, the more I realized the little I know, you know, that is so true. There’s so much to learn right now. It’s going so quickly,

Debra Muth 19:18
Like the the world of functional medicine has grown so much in the last 10 years. But I’d say even in the last three to five years, I can hardly keep up with all the new things that are coming out that we’re learning about the body and cellular memory and all of that, that we didn’t know five years ago, and it all makes a difference but gosh, it’s hard. It’s It’s It’s amazing and it’s exciting and fun, but it’s a lot that we’re learning about the body quickly.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 19:47
It is and I just stay in one lane the brain. It’s the top of the body body let’s yes this right and then the rest will go well. That is true. Yeah, that’s so that the eye Just stay in one lane. Yeah. And that lanes got like 14 different aspects.

Debra Muth 20:07
Yes, exactly. One lane but 14 Different on and off ramps, right.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 20:12
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I share this story, Deb, you know, because women women just have a bad rap in medicine in our 40s and 50s. In our 60s, and, and I, I know this because I was that kind of a doctor, you know, like, the pay the lab woman would come in, and I’m not this doctor anymore. Okay, I want everybody to know this that I’ve course corrected. You know, I’ve circled back and said, No, that was the old is about this is the new Isabel. I was the kind of doctor that patients, you know, women would come in anxious and not sleeping, and I didn’t know to check the hormones. So I just, they, they said, I gotta get to sleep. And I thought, Oh, you’re looking for sleeping tablets. Oh, you’re going to be addicted? Oh, I can’t, I can only give you two weeks worth of this medication. And I didn’t have anything else in my toolkit. And if there’s any doctor out there, or if there’s anybody out there going through insomnia, or having problems with anxiety and depression, take this podcast and have your doctor listened to it. Because that doctor can learn how to help you get better without giving you what we’re taught to give, you know, the antidepressant. We’re all taught as doctors, people need and SSRIs, SSRI either they’re low in serotonin. Okay, if that’s the if that’s a truth, which is not, then most of the world is on an SSRI? Yeah. And most of the world is still anxious and depressed.

Debra Muth 22:04
And still not sleeping.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 22:05
Yeah, so that theory doesn’t work. You’ve we’ve got to like get out of our heads and go and sit back and go and question this and look back and go, Wait a minute. This is not right. You know? So there’s more to it. And for me, progesterone was very helpful. Oh my gosh, progesterone helped me fall asleep. Estrogen helped me with my with my anxiety.

Debra Muth 22:35
They’re so beautiful. I always tell people progesterone is like, it’s the drug that just makes you go. cares.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 22:46
I called progesterone, I progesterone, the Prozac of functional. I love it. And also getting your vitamin D levels, right, my vitamin D levels, were getting my gut health, right? Mm hmm. Making sure I was laughing every day making sure I was having relationships that helps me making sure I was having productive thought management. I was listening to the inner cheerleader instead of listening to the inner critic. Yeah. What else by exercise, I was over exercising, that’s why my cortisol was flat. So get with a doctor that will work with you. Because you can get yourself right. And once you’ve gotten yourself, right, have hope that you’ll know how to keep yourself there. And when you go off track, you’ll know. Gotta get back on track.

Debra Muth 23:44
Absolutely. I think it’s so important that what you just said there is knowing how you’re when you’re not feeling right understanding where the body is going off once you know like, what’s a normal person supposed to feel like because they always people always feel I don’t know if what if this is what everybody feels. We don’t know what other people feel. But once you know what you’re supposed to feel like, then you will know when you’re sliding back and you won’t let yourself go far. Because you’ll get yourself back on track again pretty quickly and easily because you don’t want to feel that way again.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 24:18
Exactly. Like I want to ask you this question girl to girl. So you know when we fall off track with our eating and we eat junk, not junk food, but you know for us it’s Yeah, food, but and we do it. How many days does it take you to get back on board? For me? It takes up to three to four days to not feel foggy and inflamed. How about you?

Debra Muth 24:40
Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing about three to four days before I’m not like my joints are hurting. I’m getting up like an old lady. And then I’m like, Oh, was that really worth it? Because the older I get the less it’s worth it for me to feel bad for three days over one thing or two things you know,

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 24:59
Absolutely not one If it absolutely were, I used to be able to drink red wine like, no problem. Not anymore.

Debra Muth 25:08
Either. I get the flushing right away from it. And my husband laughs He’s like, you’re really going to drink that. Because you know, you’re going to be in bed in like an hour. And I’m like, I know what it’s so good. And so I just have a couple of sips, because he’s right, I’ll be ready for bed. I’ll be like, I just need to go to sleep somewhere.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 25:29
I know, I know. Cool, great. Some relate,

Debra Muth 25:35
I can relate. So it’s about if women are listening to us, and they can totally resonate with what we’re talking about. I’m sure there’s people that can understand this feeling. What kind of advice would you give them of where to start or what to look at, to get their health back?

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 25:55
First, get a piece of paper, and a pen. And I want you to consider that piece of paper and a pen, as your blank canvas of your life with the paintbrush, and you got the paintbrush in your hand and decide what you want. Who do you want to be? What do you want to look? What do you want your life your health to look like? Because Deb, you and I know how to get people there. Yeah, but people have to know, what do they want to be? Who do they want to be? How do they want to feel? You know, have that image and be honest with yourself as to where you are right now. You’re here right now? How does it feel? Do you want to stay here? Or do you want to make the choice of this is who I want to be. So that’s number one is be brutally honest of where you want to go. Because we our brains, we’ve got this thing in the back of our brain called the reticular activating system. Don’t worry, I won’t test you on that. But the thing is that the reticular activating system is like your GPS, it will get you to where you want to go. And if you don’t know where you want to go, then you’ll get there because you’ll be like a paper cup in the wind in a parking lot. And you’ll end up wherever. But if you know exactly where you want to go, then your GPS will get you there, it will bring in the this is what’s so beautiful. It will bring in the right doctors, it will bring in the right podcasts, it’ll bring in the right teachings, the right books, the right mentors to get you there. But you have to do the hard work and the honest work of figuring out what does your life what’s your life gonna be like? It’s your choice.

Debra Muth 27:55
It’s so powerful. And you’re so right. Like, we have to be able to know what we want our life to be like, I remember when I started out in this business, I was really young, and I was working with postmenopausal women. And I could see them all and they’d get to this certain age and they were just like, I’m done, and telling people what I think I don’t care anymore. I’m not holding back anything. And I’m not living the next 40 years of my life like this anymore. I’m changing it now. And I remember thinking, Gosh, that that’s what happens when you go through menopause like you just don’t care anymore. You’re just like, I’m done. I kept thinking, why I can’t wait to be able to get to that place where I could just tell people what I think. And then they would get scared about it. So I’m like, oh my god, am I gonna turn my whole life upside down when I get into menopause. But it taught me a lot early on. Like, you don’t have to live your life in a place that you’re not happy. And wait till you get to menopause to say, I’m done. I’m starting over again. We have that ability every day that we wake up to say, I don’t want my life to be like this. I want it to be like that and focus on what you do want it to be like instead of what it is or what you don’t want it to be. And it was such a big blessing for me and a learning experience to be able to see women go through that transitional time at a at a young age.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 29:17
Yeah. Wow, that is a blessing. I do have children.

Debra Muth 29:21
I have three. Yeah,

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 29:23
I’ve got two daughters, my husband and I it’s they’re not just mine. It’s my husband and I we all work together to get this. My daughter’s are our daughters are in their 20s and they’re once once frustrated, the other ones doing great and I’m like, remember you got I remember she took off when she was 18 years old to Costa Rica to help with the with the turtles. And I go honey, I’m so proud of you. You’ve got the blank canvas. I start teaching this early and you got the paintbrush and you’re painting the life you want. So I just keep on saying to people paint the life you want and Go chase it down. Number two that I would say is you are the doctor. You are, you’ve got an inner Dr. Albert Schweitzer taught me this. You have an inner Doctor inside of you that knows exactly what you’re supposed to do. When you go to another doctor, they are your second opinion, they help draw that out of you, that that inner wisdom, you know, I just, I just onboarded a client for the, for the Recode protocol to reverse cognitive decline. And she sent me an email, she goes some quotes, something is just not right. I love those. That’s her inner doctor, talking to me saying something’s not just right. And I said, Great. Let’s get on a discovery call and, and on the Discovery call, I saw her inner doctor telling me what’s going on. I’m like, great. My ears. I gotcha. I hear what you’re saying. And we did the same thing. Where do you want to be a year from now? Where do you want to be five years? Where do you want to be? 40 years from now? Okay. Then this is what we got it. This is the bridge. This is what we got to do. Are you ready? She said yes. And I go, let’s go. That’s awesome.

Debra Muth 31:36
Well, you know, sometimes just having somebody acknowledge that what you are feeling inside is normal for you, or abnormal for you that there’s something going on. I think it’s so powerful for people. Because so many times they’re discounted. But I love that story. Because I’m the same way. Like I listen to people’s stories, and I’m an auditory person. So I listen to the story. And I’m pulling things out as they’re telling me stuff and my brains working and putting all the connections together. And they’re like, I don’t know how this fits. And I’m like, Oh, that’s okay, girl. I gotcha. I know how this. Just keep bringing it. We’re putting it all together in the right places. And, and really, that’s all you need is you need somebody that can help put it all together for you. And then create the plan to help you get where you want to be.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 32:24
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. For sure. I love Yeah, you and I are so much alike. And then the third thing, and I love that you get this because not everybody gets us. But the third thing is hold on to hope. Yeah. Hope is the happy anticipation that something good is going to happen. And that something good is that picture that you and I are both heading, helping you get to, and your reticular activating system.

Debra Muth 32:57
I love that. And you know, this is where the what do you call it that vision boards come in, right? If you want to go certain places, and you can’t keep it in your head, just create a vision board, cut out pictures, put it on the wall, you know, put things in your phone to remind you if you need those triggers to remind you like this is a good day, this is positive. This is what I’m working towards. Having a phone is so amazing for that these days, because it can remind you I have reminders that pop up all the time to tell me why I’m doing what it is I’m doing so I don’t ever forget or lose sight of why I’m on the mission that I am to help people. And so it just comes up every day and I go oh yeah. And I see it at the time that I need it. Where I’m like, why am I doing this? I’m exhausted. People are driving me nuts in my office and not my patients. It’s usually my office staff. And it’s like, okay, and then I get reactivated again. And then the positive part can come up and the negative part can go back down again.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 33:55
Right? Yeah, absolutely. I know you just kind of sit back and go okay. Yeah. Okay, let’s take a look at this. Because we’re always in the go. Mode rice always. But even a car has to park. Yeah, or, or be neutral for a moment. Just go okay. Yeah. All right, here’s, that’s where we’re going.

Debra Muth 34:17
And we got to fill it with gas. And so we’ve got to fill our cup up again. And everybody has a different way of doing that. But it’s good to stop and take a breath and fill ourselves back up again and then move on and then keep going in life.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 34:32
Right? And don’t ever stop now. Like I’ve I’ve got a vision board in my mind of what I want to look like at 100. Seriously, you know, like what do I want, but the training starts right now. You know, I’m not gonna get there if I started 98. Exactly. Exactly. And my mom is 97 years young living independently in her fifth floor apartment in Washington, DC and She’s living independently and she does her laundry. And she’s like, I’m like, Mom, oh my gosh, I kind of start working on this. Because if that’s my genetics, which which it is on her side, like, Okay, I’m gonna end I’m not going to end up like everybody else we’re seeing out there. What is the dead? What was the latest statistics about? That 94% of Americans are metabolically unwell. And it’s only like 6% that are metabolically flexible.

Debra Muth 35:38
Yeah, I would agree those numbers are probably pretty close.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 35:42
And that’s sad. We got a lot of work to do.

Debra Muth 35:46
We do and the younger we can start, the better it is because you won’t have to reverse a lot of disease if we can start young enough, because we’ll just have a nice foundation and a good terrain.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 35:57
Right. Yeah. And the the kids, kids are the kids that are on antidepressants at such an early age. I’m like, nobody’s looking at their the foods, they’re eating the gut health.

Debra Muth 36:14
And yeah, it’s the artificial dyes and sweeteners, and all of those things that if we just took those out of the diet, many of the kids wouldn’t need the medications they have. And what’s with the statins being prescribed at nine and 10 years old.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 36:29
I mean, I don’t we’re not doing that here. What’s Oh, because because the kids are starting to get a high cholesterol.

Debra Muth 36:35
Yeah. And heart disease early on already,

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 36:39
Right? Bypass Surgery in when they’re 18 or 19. I’m like, Oh, well, you know, look at what they’re eating.

Debra Muth 36:48
Yeah, exactly. It’s bad. I mean, I’ve sown bad, some fizzy. On McDonald’s three times a day, they go breakfast, lunch and dinner. And I’m just like, Oh my gosh. I’m not good. Not at all.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 37:06
Like, that’s normal, then people’s normals, which I’m like, Oh, my God. So yeah, it’s a choice.

Debra Muth 37:16
It is a choice. And we can either be healthy from the get go, or you can spend a lot of time money and energy being unhealthy on the backside and trying to reverse the damage that’s happened, instead of laying a good foundation from the beginning.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 37:32
Yeah, and I’m all for being healthy.

Debra Muth 37:36
Me too and it’s good that we have the tools to review reverse things, you know, but the sooner the better. You know, I tell people to at the beginning of the symptoms, don’t wait until it’s three years out to do something, do something when it’s three months out, because it’s way easier for us to reverse stuff when it’s only three to six months, or even a year or two versus it’s been 15 years like this. And now we’re trying to reverse it.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 38:00
So go got a lot. Don’t you think that’s got a lot to do with just denial that it’s just easier to push it down? Push it down? Oh, it’s not bothering. It’s not that bad. Yeah, it’s not bad. Or I don’t have time or Yeah, I don’t have diabetes yet. Like yet. Don’t even put it in. Don’t you dare put that on your picture board.

Debra Muth 38:22
Exactly. Exactly. We’re going to reverse that. So it never comes. Right. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we’ve done a disservice to a lot of people even speaking about diabeetus because the, you know, I have patients that are diabetic, and they’re just like, well, you know, the diabetic nurse educator just told me to take more insulin if I have that dessert. And it’s like,

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 38:44
Oh, they they, I know. Yeah,

Debra Muth 38:47
And yet here we go, you know, amputating parts and not having cognitive function and having a heart attack, because we’re adjusting that insulin, you know, to just lower the blood sugar because that’s all it is, is lowering the blood sugar, it’s not doing any other damage to us.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 39:02
Instead of instead of now get this instead of teaching people how to have their good macronutrients carbohydrate, protein and fat, good ones with their food may be putting on a continuous glucose monitor. Yeah, teaching them showing them doing a visual of what happens to your blood sugar. What happens to your blood sugar when you eat these foods, and then teach them when your blood sugars go up? insulin goes up. And once insulin has put the sugar into the cells and the cells go, I can’t take any more sugar than insulin will say I got to put it somewhere so it stores it as fat so that people can see okay, you’re storing these many grams or these many ounces of fat now might make people aware of what they’re putting in their mouth. There is As affecting their body, instead of this one pill magic stuff, or titrating, up the insulin, I came to that realization in 2012 with the increase of diabetes, and one of the doctors was like, hey, I need you to learn how to start increasing insulin in the clients. And I was like, No, I want to teach people how to decrease income off there. And they’re depressed. And they’re, they’re diabetic medication because they can, yes, they can back then they were like, No, once you’ve got diabetes, you can’t. And I was like, Have you read any books lately about diabetes and how you can reverse it? So now, people know that they can reverse diabetes, right? Yeah. But still, they have to make the choice, right?

Debra Muth 40:48
It’s Yes, it’s not easy. You’ve got to be committed. And you’ve got to be willing to do the hard work. And that means you have to learn how to cook at home and not eat junk food and not manipulate your your insulin, but manipulate your food and your lifestyle and those kinds of things. And if you’re willing to do that, it can happen.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 41:09
You know, it can happen. And that’s what I love about functional medicine. It can happen. Yeah, but you’re you’re the missing ingredient.

Debra Muth 41:17
You are. Oh my gosh, Isabel, this has been fantastic. We could talk all day. I love this. Yes. How can people find you? And if they want to work with you heard it? What does that look like?

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 41:33
It’ll be in the show notes. Right? Yes. So we do have a free Facebook group for women. Sorry, guys. But for women only called optimizing women’s brain health. Just search on Facebook for optimizing women’s brain health. And that’s where my husband, who’s the chef, and the nutritional coach here at Dr. On a mission and myself and we just coach and help people. And then also you can go to Dr on a mission.com. That’s D o c t o r on a mission.com. And there’s lots of freebies there. And let me see if if you are in America, or New Zealand or Australia, I work to help reverse and prevent cognitive decline through the pre Code Protocol and the Recode protocol. So you can just contact us there. I love that on our website.

Debra Muth 42:28
Yeah, thank you. So for those of you who are driving or working out, don’t worry about writing down but she said it will be in the show notes. You can check that out there. You can check that out on social. We will have it in all of those wonderful places for you to find. So yeah, thank you so much for being with us today.

Dr. Isabel Hunsinger 42:45
Thank you, Debbie. Have a super fantastic evening.

Debra Muth 42:48
Thank you. You too. Hey, it has been really great sharing this time with you guys on the let’s talk wellness now podcast. If this episode has helped you or you feel as though this episode would help someone else we’d love for you to leave us a review. Share this podcast. And if you don’t want to miss the most exciting episodes we have coming. We’d love for you to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or Google Play. Until next time, live every day to the fullest