Do you know how powerful minerals really are? Do you know how they affect the body? Did you know they act as spark plugs for your hormones? In today's episode, Leah Brueggemann, functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, helps us get a better understanding of all!

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Show Notes:

This insightful podcast episode delves into the art of maintaining health, focusing on the importance of understanding the interconnectedness of various health factors and the role individual differences play in this process. The conversation explores the impacts of environmental toxins, stress, and other factors on our bodies, the significance of lifestyle changes, and the need to be discerning consumers of health information. Our guest, Leah, a holistic health expert, shares her wealth of knowledge on these topics and much more.

Key Discussions:

1. The Complex Nature of Health: Health is viewed as an intricate web of interconnected factors rather than isolated issues. Health problems often arise from a combination of factors rather than a singular culprit.

2. Importance of Lifestyle Changes: Everyday choices, from the quality of our water to our sleeping patterns, can make a significant impact on our overall health.

3. The Need to Limit Toxins: Awareness of potentially harmful substances in our daily life, such as artificial fragrances and endocrine disruptors, is critical.

4. Handling Health Information: Encourages listeners to trust their intuition, avoid fear mongering, and to not become overwhelmed by health information.

Key Takeaways:

Interconnected Health Factors: Understanding the complex, interconnected nature of health is crucial. It's not always about isolating and addressing one health issue, but rather looking at the bigger picture of how multiple factors interact.

1. Individual Differences in Health: Everyone's body responds differently to various health interventions, emphasizing that health is more of an art than a science.

2. Lifestyle Changes: Simple lifestyle changes like regular movement, adequate hydration, quality sleep, and meal regularity can significantly improve overall health.

3. Reducing Toxin Exposure: Being proactive in reducing exposure to toxins found in everyday items can make a substantial difference in health outcomes.

4. Measured Approach to Health Information: Avoid extremes, trust your intuition, and take a measured approach when consuming health information to avoid becoming overwhelmed.

Transcript:

Hello everyone and welcome back to Better Than A Pill Today I am so excited to have Leah Brueggeman on as a guest, and Leah is a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner who specializes in helping women with their hormones. And I'm so excited because we have some interesting topics today. We're gonna be talking about minerals and how they are actually the spark plugs for your hormones.

So welcome, Leah, thanks so much for having me on. Thank you for being here. Like I said, I'm so excited to have you share all your knowledge today with our listeners. And I just wanna tell everybody that Leah is getting over a cold, so her voice is not hundred percent, it's very low, but she is here and she can use it, so she does sound different.

For those of you who may know her, that is why. Um, and for those of you who don't, This is not her normal voice. Yeah. Typically a couple actives up, but that's okay. We're, we're, we're doing good. No worries. So, um, tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, um, your story and how you got involved with the work you do involving hormones.

Yeah, so I feel like my hormone journey kind of had two stages. So it started when I got diagnosed with fibroadenomas. Um, I actually had just graduated college at this point, and, you know, I was your typical. College person who lived off of coffee and, um, bagels. I don't know why they had those vending machines and bagels always in the buildings.

And that's what you survive off of. Um, I went to college for music actually, so I had my bachelor's in piano and voice. And so it was constantly just go, go, go, go, go. And I graduated and I was very tired, like all the time. All the time, and I just thought it was because, you know, I stayed up till 2:00 AM in the morning and I had to wake up at, you know, five  or six to go to school and.

All the homework and the practicing and all that, and I just thought it caught up with me. You know, give it, give me like six weeks post-college. I just need to get a lot of sleep, and I'll be better. And I wasn't, I was just tired. I would sleep 10 hours at night and just be exhausted. And I was like, oh, this is my new normal.

I'm getting old. Granted I was 21.

I. I discovered a lump, I was doing a self breast exam, and I found a lump that was like the size of a golf ball. It wasn't like, oh, like a little tiny bump that you can, you know, kind of like mentally wish away and be like, oh, it's just a change with my cycle. It was massive. Um, so I went to the doctor and I got diagnosed with Fibroadenomas.

Um, Their recommendation was to have them removed and I decided not to do that. Um, simply my mom is a little bit more in the holistic, um, into holistic health growing up. You know, I fought that growing up. I was like eating, you know, vegetables is disgusting. Like homeopathy is weird. Like, you know, growing up it was just complete opposite until, you know, you're faced with the reality of, wow, something's wrong with me.

Um, And so I thought maybe there's something in the holistic field. You know, it was on my radar because of my mom and I found out that most women actually get fibroadenomas returning after they have them removed. And so I'm like, why are you gonna spend all this money. On a surgery, you know, go through a surgery just to have them come back like, you know, that seems dumb.

So that's when I personally decided not to have them removed and I started going to naturopaths and to different, um, natural doctors. And I, I'm telling you, I tried everything. They would put me on very strict protocols. They were very, Um, focused on my fibroadenomas, you know, like it's an estrogen issue.

You need to go on dim and you need to go on progesterone cream or whatever protocol. They would go on a very strict diet, like it's your nutrition. This is the issue. Um, and I was doing this for three years. Um, I went to a bunch of different places. Um, specialists and nothing worked except for I had a really disordered eating at this point because they would put you on super restrictive diets.

Like you can have only a half a potato a day or a couple berries, you know, um, you could never look at chocolate because that causes issues with your breasts and all sorts of things. Um, so that's when I, I just like threw it out the window. I was like, whatever. Um, what was interesting though is during this entire time, Nobody asked me about my periods.

That's weird, like, yeah. Yeah, so odd because I came in with fibroadenomas, like I came in with a diagnosis. So it was immediately like, oh, let's run this test and that test. But like, we don't actually need to have this discussion about your cycles. And my periods were horrible. They were all over the place.

They'd be 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. I would be, um, throwing up for my period cramps. Like I would have acne all along my jawline. Um, I would get really bloated. Um, It was just so bad. And so when I finally just threw everything out the window, I was like, all this has given me is disordered eating. I started tracking my cycle.

Um, and this was just the blessing that, you know, just came into my life because I realized that my luteal phase, which is ovulation to period, was eight. Days. So if you have no idea what that is, that's when, um, after you've ovulated to the first day of your period, that's when progesterone is your dominant hormone and you need it to be about 12 days to support a pregnancy.

And mine was eight. And I'm like, well, um, I was getting married, I wanted to have kids. I'm like, well, this is not looking very hopeful for my future. So, That is when I, I don't even know, this was just, you know, a gift. I  started just not caring about good and bad foods and I was just like, we're just gonna eat.

We're just gonna eat food. We're just gonna nourish food. And I actually started eliminating endocrine disruptors in my life. You know, of course nobody, nobody had told me this, right? Like, nobody had told me to change all my deodorant and my shampoo and all of that stuff. So I went a different route for a little bit.

I stopped the supplements, I stopped the food. I just went nourishing, eating good food, and balancing my blood sugar. Okay? Long story. We're gonna fast forward all of the parts of trying to figure it out. Um, and I was able to get rid of my fibr. Nomas, they're gone. And I was able to regulate my cycles. Um, I have completely painless periods and I lengthened my luteal phase, raised my progesterone for two 12 days.

So I've had two healthy baby boys. Um, and I went on to become a functional practitioner because I had Google Fibroadenomas when I got diagnosed. I didn't know what they were. I didn't know that your cycle has four phases. I just thought my menstrual cycle was my period, and that was it. And so as I had learned all of these things that helped support my body and I kept learning, I was like, everybody needs to know about this.

And so I just started talking about them. And then as I continued learning, My next journey was into minerals and being like, whoa. There's this whole other layer of, um, hormones, which are your spark plugs, the things that feed the hormones. So instead of just trying to control things, you know, at a food level, you know, like you have high estrogen, let's try and, you know, nourish your body in a way that supports those pathways.

Let's go deeper. Let's figure out what's going on that's driving hormones off in the first place. And that's when I dove into minerals. Um, that was a really long answer. Sorry. I love your story. That is great. I mean, so, so much power there. You actually were able to be proactive and heal your own body Yeah.

And have children. I think that's beautiful. Yeah. It's been, it's been a blessing. That's awesome. And just because I think there are probably some listeners today that may not understand your diagnosis, can you explain a little bit what that means? Yeah. Uh, fibroid anoma are benign breast tumors. Um, so.

There are simple and complex fibroadenoma, so you could only know which is which by doing a biopsy so complex, can put you at a slightly greater risk. For breast cancer, I think it's about 5%. So it's not very big, um, and then simple it isn't at all. And so you definitely, you know, you do need to monitor them.

Um, I had gotten gene tested and I was negative for both the BRCA genes and so. That's all. My doctor was also comfortable letting me try and figure it out myself. It wasn't like, oh, you need to, you know, get on this right away. Even though their recommendation is always let's get them removed, you know, but they come back, so why would I do that?

Great. And, and, and it's a good thing. Yeah. You know, and so, so you have found power in not only nutrition, but it sounds like exploring this avenue of minerals. And I'm so curious, so curious to learn more. Like what, um, if you could explain a little bit of the roles of the minerals of the, what they play in our body Yeah.

And how they actually are acting, like you say, as these spark plugs for the hormone production and regulation. Yeah, so minerals are spark plugs for life, literally. Um, I think one that you might know right off the top of your head is sodium, and sodium is your battery. So you know, that is regulated by your adrenal glands, and I think sodium gets a really bad rap.

You know, because we only think of sodium in terms of packaged foods. You know, to lower your sodium content, don't eat packaged foods, but sodium is needed for your adrenal glands. You know, it's your battery, it's your energy. Um, you know, good old real salt is a great form of sodium and can make a massive difference in your digestion, um, and your energy.

So when you're thinking of minerals, I actually use a hair mineral analysis test with my uh, clients. And the reason why I do this over a blood test is because in a hair mineral analysis, you can see things before you see them in blood a lot of times. So blood is always trying to stay at homeostasis, so it will pull or push minerals into the tissue to stay at homeostasis.

So you will see minerals at a loss or at high levels depending on which mineral you're looking at. And a hair mineral analysis. And this can give us a lot of insight, um, and be proactive before you would see it in a blood test. So if you're seeing deficiencies, if you're seeing issues at a cellular level, you can get on that before it ends up, you know, being at a glandular level or at a blood level.

So, I find this really helpful. Um, especially, you know, when I see women struggling to lose weight, um, you know, in menopause they have a lot of menopause symptoms or they have a lot of estrogen dominance symptoms. They have a lot of period cramps and their hormones are normal. Like even if you look at functional ranges, hormone levels are normal and it's like, what is going on?

With the metabolization of our hormones, like how are our hormones detoxing? How are our hormones metabolizing? What pathways are they going down? How is your body using them? And that is where minerals are super insightful, you know, because if you have, um, Too much copper and you, you are looking at that in a hair test that makes estrogen more estrogenic like it's going to enhance those symptoms.

So if you have normal estrogen levels, but you aren't metabolizing it well, and we're dealing with some copper, you know you're gonna have all those pms symptoms. You're gonna probably be dealing with acne, you're probably gonna be dealing with painful periods, you're probably gonna be irritable and you think it's estrogen, you're like, But my levels are normal.

That's why we have to, you have to put all the puzzle pieces together and I love, you know, going those layered deep, going another layer deep while grammar. Um, To see what's going on there. So that's why I use a hair mineral analysis test. And we do correlate it with blood tests as well, cuz one that doesn't show very well and a hair mineral analysis would be like iron that's better shown in a blood test.

So kind of knowing which one, which levels you wanna look at. But when you're looking at minerals and you're thinking about minerals, you always start with your four main mo four main ones. So calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium. Now the reason why we start with this is that you have so many other ones.

You know, you have cobalt, you have zinc, you have pho, phosphorus. But your four main are your pyramid, right? So, as you stabilize and balance those out, it shifts everything else on top of it. So if you try to get nitpicky and try to do a little like minerals first and you don't focus on the four main things, you're just going to be like playing Jenga for the rest of your life, right?

It's never going to get anywhere. And that's what I see a lot of times with women who randomly supplement. Or they take minerals by themself. Zinc is a big one, you know, especially with the immune system. We're like, oh, let's take zinc. Let's take zinc. Zinc can just place copper, you know? So, You really need to be looking at your minerals as a whole and not randomly supplementing.

I am such a big proponent of that. Um, I'm just so iffy for anybody to like, take supplements, um, without testing because you could just be having expensive poops or expensive urine, you know, or. In the worst case scenario, you're actually displacing things and causing issues further upstream, which we don't want.

Right. Um, So you always start with that base. And calcium is such a big one that I actually see, um, as a loss. So I'll see a lot of high tissue calcium. You aren't absorbing it and. The symptoms of high tissue calcium and a loss of calcium are so ironically similar to low calcium symptoms. So if you're just going off of a symptom base here and you supplement with calcium, it's gonna make the issue worse.

So again, this is where, um, testing can be really just a game changer for you. Because if you're struggling with weight loss, you're struggling with thyroid issues and your thyroid panels are coming back, even in optimal ranges, not even just normal, optimal ranges. Calcium really is important for your thyroid, and that goes hand in hand with potassium.

Which sensitizes your cell to your thyroid hormone, so your hormone, your thyroid can be doing everything it's supposed to, all the right things, right, but you don't have enough potassium, and your cells are just like, I don't know what to do with that. What do we do with thyroid hormone? Very similar to insulin resistance.

You know where your body is producing insulin. It's not a production issue, but it's a cell sensitivity issue. And we see that with calcium and potassium, that is your thyroid ratio. And I see this a lot of times because stress depletes potassium and who's not stressed, right? So low potassium is just like an epidemic, like it's everywhere.

And. As we are having high tissue calcium, which I see a lot of times hand in hand with low potassium, um, it actually, the higher calcium gets. The more socially numb you get, you know, like you kind of just numb out to emotions because you just can't handle it. Right? Calcium's very numbing. So as we have this loss of calcium, it's protecting you.

Your body's always protecting you, right? You're super stressed, so what's your body doing? It's like, let's, let's take a step back. Let's distance ourselves emotionally. Let's try and not, you know, figure out what's going on. And now our thyroid issues are getting worse. Our symptoms are getting worse because of this ratio being off.

It's, I mean, next to impossible to try and lose weight when those ratios are off. So this is where I just really love to look at those minerals because whenever I send out a hair mineral analysis test to my clients, I get so many tears and happy tears. They're like, it makes sense. You know, because most of my clients have run a lot of labs at this point, right.

They're not new to the lab world and a lot of times their labs are coming back normal. And we all know, you know, I'm sure you have learned this, um, by listening to your podcast already, that. Normal doesn't mean anything. You know, you're looking for that optimal range, but a lot of times you'll still be sitting there and so it's like, what is going on?

And you are not bad enough yet for it to be showing up in the blood. It's not bad enough for things to be showing up there yet. And that's where we go a step back and we look for minerals. And minerals are your spark plugs. And so then when we see these ratios off, we don't just supplement, we dig a little bit deeper.

What's causing your ratios to be off? Is it a digestion issue? Are you literally just not digesting your food well? Right. Is our stomach acid so low that we're not pulling nutrients from our food? Is it a stress issue that your body literally can't even utilize minerals? Um, are you not eating the right amounts of food?

Are you not eating the correct amounts of food? Um, you know, do you have a toxicity issue? Is it a heavy metal issue? Is it a mycotoxin issue? Um, so I feel like minerals are the guidance that I need to know where to go next with clients. It's like my staple test. Like if you're gonna run one test, start with minerals.

Because it guides you into your next test, you know, instead of just running all of these labs at one time and you're just like, okay. Well, now I have a ton of information, right? If you feel bad, I can promise you something weird is gonna come back to your labs. Right? Right. Because like it's, your symptoms are there.

If your blood sugar balance isn't there, if your stress management isn't there, if your nutrition isn't there, of course your labs are gonna come back wonky. You know, your foundations aren't there. So I find that you can save so much money by starting with the hair mineral analysis. And building those foundations and knowing where to go next instead of just trying to randomly run labs to be like, what's going on?

I have got issues. Let's run a gut test. Right? Which is not a bad idea, you know? But sometimes a lot of these things are simply fixed by your foundations and minerals. Wow, that's powerful. And the four main minerals again are, let me just see if I can get these right. Calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium.

Yep. Okay. So we're looking at those key minerals. So when you're doing the test, you're gonna get back information on those four that are gonna give you, um, information about what's going on and it sounds like what, what the next step is to take and so forth. Yeah, yeah. And you'll get a ton of minerals back on your test, and you'll see heavy metals and things like that.

And sometimes those can give you clues as to why your four main minerals are off. Um, but you don't just like, I wouldn't start like supplementing, you know, for example, like with zinc, if your zinc is really low, like you wanna start with your four main, um, because then you can utilize the rest and a lot of times the rest of 'em fall into place when you, you know, balance your four.

I see. So basically if there is a deficiency, um, from one of the four main ones, you wanna start there and. Are you, are you finding that a lot? I mean, do you have to go further? It doesn't sound like you have to go further right away into other minerals. You, you basically are utilizing those four primary minerals that you mentioned.

That's what I typically do. I do the four primary and I do, um, their cofactors. So, um, When you're looking at a hair mineral analysis, just because a mineral level looks high doesn't mean it's high. Sometimes it's a loss. So you have to look at the cofactors and be like, okay, if magnesium looks really high on a test, let's look at the cofactors.

If the cofactors are really low, you know, we're going, okay, magnesium is a loss. Here you are just pushing out magnesium, you're not utilizing it. So when I, um, work with. Bringing you back into balance. It is, we do focus a lot on food, like the foods that you are needing for those minerals. Um, we do some supplementation.

We work on your foundations, you know, but then we also have to figure out why those minerals are off in the first place. Like if you have that stress mineral off, you can take all the potassium in the world. But if you don't learn how to manage your stress and regulate your nervous system, you will never take enough potassium.

To budget because you'll just keep depleting it. Okay, that makes sense.  So the information you get, it goes deeper than obviously, like you're saying just, okay, if I'm low in potassium, you just don't give somebody a potassium supplement and say, all right, take this. Right. Okay. Yeah. And when you say, just to clarify what you mean by co-factors.

Yeah. So co-factors are, um, other minerals or vitamins that help you absorb. So like, um, magnesium needs potassium. To absorb it. Magnesium also needs boron. It also needs B vitamins, right? So if you have, um, issues with magnesium utilization, just pumping up more, magnesium isn't going to do that, isn't going to fix it right there.

We have to look into the other minerals that help support it and be like, okay, where can you get these in either through your food or, um, Specific supplementation or maybe topically, um, things like that. Does that make sense? Yes. Yeah, that does make sense. So there's, there's these cofactors that are involved that actually help with the absorption of the primary minerals.

Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And so, uh, with the minerals that are, let's see, are there any minerals that are commonly overlooked or that are under consumed in our average diet? Um, I will say, Not overlooked. I feel like magnesium's starting to get a spotlight. Um, but most women are deficient. Magnesium, actually, 78% of women in the US are deficient in magnesium.

Magnesium is one of those supplements that I like, I think it's one of the only ones that I'm comfortable saying you should probably take magnesium or at least consider it, or at least up your magnesium rich foods without testing. Um, Because most women are deficient in it and it's used in over 500 different enzyme reactions in your body, including blood sugar management, including energy production.

So I definitely think that magnesium is getting its spotlight. You know, people are starting to really, you know, love magnesium, which is great. Um, I, I don't think any of them are necessarily getting overlooked. Um, I think sodium has gotten demonized, um, depending on which era you grew up in.

Um, I still see that today. People are like, oh, like lower your sodium rich foods. I'm like, well, You're packaged, you know, processed sodium, but your real salt, your real salt, we need, that's the battery, that's your electrical conductor. Um, so I also see that being very, very helpful for women. With hydration.

So you've been taking a little bit and sprinkling that into your water is a great way to utilize your water, get better hydration. It's very useful for energy. Um, so I definitely think maybe seeing it on the flip side, you know, stop seeing the bad side effects of sodium, like where can the benefits come from?

Yeah, so, so just taking a step back with the magnesium, I think you're right. I mean I'm even on a magnesium supplement and just picking your brain a little bit is that Yeah. That is even I have learned that can go deeper. So for example, I was on magnesium carbonate Yep. And got off of that cuz it was causing digestive issues.

Yes. And recently was put on a magnesium glycinate. Yes. So we have breakdowns even within one mineral. Okay. Yeah. I would say if you have no idea and you're not working with someone, I always generally recommend like, uh, glycinate like you said, or bi glycinate or moate. Those are your more absorbable forms.

Um, don't cause digestive issues, you know, that can be really, really helpful. Um, and. I also like to get it in through multiple forms so I don't just get it in internally because you can also absorb it through your skin. So I will do magnesium cream, um, I'll do a magnesium bath and I will take it internally as well.

Just so then you aren't having to. Because you need to be getting anywhere from three to five times your body weight in milligrams of magnesium. That's a lot. Most people aren't taking enough magnesium. Um, again, always consult with your provider before changing your supplements. Um, but I like getting it internally and topically.

Um, I find that that works really, really well. Um, And then I, when I do like magnesium bass, I'll do, um, some baking soda that helps with absorption. And I'll even put some potassium powder in there, which helps with absorption, you know, so then you're kind of killing multiple birds with one stone. Um, so those are some really great ways to just kind of support it without, you know, diving deeper.

I, I mean, I think testing hair mineral analysis, testing, um, which I do with my 1 0 1 clients is very, I. Useful. It's very useful, but I understand not everybody wants to step into that. So, um, knowing you know what to look for in your magnesium I think can be really helpful. I know a lot of people immediately jump to citrate, which just, you know, makes you poop a lot and it causes more gi de-stress long term.

So not really one I ever recommend. Sure. And then if we're just talking on the subject of magnesium, what, um, other foods can somebody get into their diet that may assist with the magnesium? Yeah, leafy greens are great. Um, leafy greens are, um, also. Kind of double with potassium as well. You know, nature is, um, food is awesome.

It has the factors, all the cofactors, you know, so that's really nice. Um, raw cacao is another great form, so if you wanna eat some dark chocolate, knock yourself out. Um, The only tricky thing with, in terms of food is just that, um, our soil just is getting more and more depleted with people not doing regenerative farming and rotating crops and, you know, things like that.

And I'm not a farmer, but, um, it has been shown to be a thing, especially with magnesium. So, um, I have not to this day found somebody that didn't need some type of supplementation if they were low outside of food. Some can get away with just topical and food. Um, it really just kind of depends on what your levels were at.

Oh, thank you for that. And you know, you mentioned earlier about the sodium, which I know mys you know, that's a great, great point with yes, we are inundated, especially in mainstream western medicine, uh, work with a lot of clients that are, you know, have high blood pressure and they're, they're put on a, yeah.

A low sodium diet. And so, you know, understanding maybe the difference in, you know, bad sodium versus where we can we get the good sodium from and, you know, and what amount, because you know, we have this guideline that's been thrown around like, don't go past, what is it, 2,500 or, or, or what, what, what have you.

Um, so I think, you know, when you get that. Um, diagnosis. I always look at your nutrition, your diet, your diet. And I'm not saying diet isn't cutting calories, I'm just saying diet isn't what you're eating. Um, because. Another example of this is cholesterol. For example, if you get diagnosed with high cholesterol, what is the first thing they tell you to like, don't eat eggs.

Like, don't eat red meat. Nobody wants to look at your thyroid, which is one of the big drivers of high cholesterol. Right. You know, so it's always, always look, look deeper, you know? So if you are told like, let's eat a low sodium diet, then you're going through the store. And let's say you have a salad dressing, you're like, I'm trying to eat healthier.

Okay, the salad dressing says low sodium. Well, you have to turn it around and look at the ingredients like is it low sodium because they just chalked it full of sugar or high fructose corn syrup or whatever to make it taste good. You know, I find that when we are getting these diagnoses and we're told to like, you know, eat less of this and eat more of this, it's like, are we eating real food?

Like, let's just start there. You know, is your primary diet real food? Because I will tell you, if your primary diet is real food, it doesn't have any sodium in it outside of like coconut water, you know, that has some electrolytes in it. Um, but outside of that, like if you're making, um, you know, you're using.

Um, grass fed butter with, you know, greens and you're eating some eggs and meat and your veggies and, you know, sweet potatoes and potatoes that don't have any sodium unless you are adding it to it. There's no sodium in there, so you don't really, uh, have to be counting that like you would on the back of a package.

Um, And so I find that just, you know, getting pr, getting away from packaged and eating primarily real food is a massive step in the right direction for you. And then you probably are still going to need, you know, get some real salt, like Redmond's real Salt or Celtics sea salt or some of my favorites, and just sprinkle a little bit of that on your food.

Um, and you're gonna be staying well within your. Um, your guidelines from your doctor while also probably like you're gonna be coming back and.

Yeah, so, so that's great. I mean, just what you said, I think it boils down to having people steer away from the processed mm-hmm. Processed, processed foods, right. Yeah. And you know, even myself, I'm having to retrain myself with the sodium, um, yeah. Because of what I learned. So I'm actually doing the sea salt and intentionally putting it on my food and not, not having to worry, knowing is not bad.

Mm-hmm. You know? Yes. You know, you feel so puffy. You know, if you go to McDonald's or whatever and you're like, oh, it's the sodium, you know? So it is, it is a mental game changer. But if you are eating that real food, Um, and that real salt also brings so much flavor to your food as well, which is incredible.

Um, and your adrenals do need it, you know, so it's just, if you can get away from the sodium that has no nutritional content and bring in this sea salt that has nutritional content, you're gonna be doing awesome. Yeah. No, that's great. And when it comes to calcium, what would you recommend? Give, you know, just some examples of how people can get good calcium from their food, possibly into their diet.

Yeah, so calcium, I, I don't ever recommend supplementing with calcium. That's one. But I'm like, unless you've tested no, no calcium supplementation, don't do that. Um, Food. Another, like here we go. Leafy greens are high in calcium. It's higher in calcium. You're gonna get more calcium from things like leafy greens than you are from dairy.

So, um, I know everybody's like, oh, dairy ho so high in calcium. But I mean, it has some, but you know, you're gonna be doing great if you just get a wide variety of leafy greens in. Um, and I know a lot of people don't digest leafy greens really well. And here I have mentioned them many times as a great source of minerals.

I salute them. Like, you know, that's a great way like saute 'em up. You can make like how many leafy greens and you can bring it into this tiny little ball. You saute them. But I will saute them up with some grass-fed butter and put a little bit of Celtic sea salt and you can. Make that your bed of whatever you're eating, like your meat and your um, potatoes or maybe you sauteed up with some peppers and mushrooms and eggs or you know, and it's really actually quite simple to get them in when you do that.

Um, cause I find that if you have digestive issues most of the time a big salad is gonna make your tummy feel so great. So sauteing them up is a great step to get them in. Um, and also not cause further digestive discomfort. Yeah, that's a great point. And or maybe even putting them in a smoothie. Yep, yep.

Or, okay. Excellent. And I love sauteing the greens too. I'm with you. Yeah. It makes them so much, much smaller. Hundred percent. Okay, now let's just look at the potassium for a second. I know most people are like, okay, I'm gonna eat a banana. We know the banana. Yeah. Um, banana. It has some potassium in it. Um, avocado is actually really high.

Um, coconut water. Um, Coconut milk, um, spinach. So I love doing a potassium smoothie for clients that are low in potassium, where they'll have things like bananas, avocados, and spinach. Coconut water and then add some protein, um, to it. And whether that's you do Greek yogurt or you do a protein powder, um, something like that would be a great way.

That's a pack of pretty punch, about 1400 milligrams of potassium. Which is about a quarter of what you need to get in for the day. So I just try and get potassium everywhere. Like every meal I'm like, did I get potassium in? Did I get potassium in? Um, so I always try and just as I build my plate, like I get potassium or food in a few of my favorite ways actually to get potassium in its nettles.

Um, stinging nettle T and parsley T are very high in potassium. Parsley is very high in potassium. Um, one of the low, one of the symptoms of low potassium. Thyroid issues typically go hand in hand. Um, or thyroid symptoms. I guess I shouldn't say thyroid issues cause your thyroid is doing what it's supposed to, but thyroid symptoms, um, acne is another one.

And bringing up potassium is just so wonderful for skin issues. Um, I like parsley tea, nettle tea, um, and parsley. Tea tastes disgusting, but it's really good for you. Coconut water. Um, I always, I actually have some right here, like I always have coconut water with me. That's great. Thank you so much.

And you know, I, this always resonates with me. I remember once I did have a client, um, was working with, um, of course I do movement based stuff, but he had shared with me that he had put himself on a potassium supplement because mm-hmm. His potassium was though, the downside was he became, Toxic. It became toxic.

It was too much. So I think that, like what you're saying, if you are having any specific issues, you know, just giving general recommendations right now about food, it is important to get tested or to work with somebody. Yeah. Yeah. And that's where it's like if you aren't testing, just stick with food. Just stick with food, you know?

Yeah. Um, I just had someone the other day. Talk about iodine actually, which, um, iodine is awesome for a lot of things. And she had had breast tenderness, which is often a sign of either estrogen, not metabolizing well or low iodine. She went, started taking an iodine supplement and I started feeling a lot better.

And it's like, that's great, but you need to make sure that you stay on top of what's going on because iodine. You can very easily go overboard. You know? So it's like iodine needs co-factors, you know? You also need to make sure that your thyroid is doing okay with iodine, you know? And so it's, that's why I'm just so wary of recommending supplements where people are like, yes, because they take it and they feel good, and then you're like, this is my supplement and I will never let go.

And it's like, Well, you actually maybe only needed that for two months, you know, and then you can focus on food after that. So it's, when it comes to supplements and balancing your health is definitely a dance. And so when you can have guidance to know, um, it's so much easier and less frustrating. Um, I heard someone say this and I thought it was very, Beautifully said.

Um, he said that when you come to labs and you come to your health, there is a science to it, like a hard fact. You have low potassium, you need potassium, but there's also an art to it, you know, and putting that puzzle piece together and balancing it with your lifestyle and what's going on, that's an art, you know?

And so you can't just take numbers and go two plus two equals four. You have to make sure that you're painting the whole picture. Yes. No, that a hundred percent makes sense to me. And even in my world of movement, that's how I feel. It's an art. There's no one thing that fits everybody here, right? Yes, exactly.

So for nutrition, for minerals, that totally would make sense. I love that. Yeah. It's so important. So, so, you know, in what ways can lifestyle factors such as stress, I know you mentioned toxins, environmental toxins affect the mineral absorption and their, you know, utilization in the body. Um, so, So when we have our toxicity overload, I'm gonna use my coffee cup right here.

So when you have your body right, and you have environmental toxins, you know, endocrine disruptors, you know, stress, we're overloading this, and then it starts overflowing with all of these symptoms. But it's like, was it the heavy metals? Was it the stress? You know, was it the blood sugar imbalance? Was it your antibiotics?

What was it? You know,  and it's really just the perfect storm of all of these things coming together and bringing down your vitality. Um, so I don't like to name one as the massive culprit. You know, when I'm looking at these labs, I'm like, okay, heavy metals keep popping up for you. They keep popping up for you.

And so, That's probably one of your driving forces. But we couldn't just go after heavy metals without making sure we're supporting the gut. Right? And I think a lot of times, parasites, I think are the perfect example. People think that they can just kill off parasites and then go on their merry way.

And it's like, well, you were the perfect host for parasites, you know, because of all these other factors. So if you just try and take away one thing, It's going to start, it's gonna either come back or gonna manifest somewhere else unless you bring that body back into healing. So metals can really drive imbalances, um, in your minerals, like copper drives down potassium.

So a lot of times, like if you can't seem to get your potassium up, You know, is Copper one of the forces that's driving it down? Mercury is one of those that likes to deposit itself in like your thyroid gland. So thyroid issues, you're looking at Mercury. So it kind of is a little bit of a full picture there.

Right, and so it just boils down to it's more individualized is what it sounds like. It is. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And then also just being aware of, you know, overall trying to cut down on toxins every day and protect yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I think, honestly, there's so many things you can do before you even step into a practitioner's office.

Um, can you move? You know, can you get outside and just move every day? Walk? Yeah. Can you get enough water in? Can you check your water quality? Can you make sure you have a, you know, a filter versus like tap, um, can you just make sure eating three meals? Can you sleep? You know, can you like to go and start looking at your products and looking, you know, for artificial fragrance and, you know, endocrine disruptors, you know, these are things that.

Don't require testing, right? These are things that don't even require much guidance. It's just you making that conscious effort to start elevating, um, your health. Yeah. And I think the more people hear that, that the toxins are real, that they are causing problems, yeah. That they are disrupting our hormones, our thyroid causing cancer.

The more that information gets out there, the more people can make decisions, you know? Um, yes. Myself, I was at an event in an organization and I walked in and knowing what I know now, I knew, oh my goodness, they're it. It was just this awful smell. They were burning scented candles, and they had the GLADE plugins everywhere, and I literally just felt like I sat there, but I was getting sick inside.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And yes, af. Afterwards I left the event and you know, I had a headache and everything and I thought to myself, I need to let this organization know because I know this information now and like we're on here today talking about it and just to share this is that, you know, and, and I made a phone call and it was taken well because they didn't have any idea.

Mm-hmm. They just didn't know. A lot of people just know. Yeah. So, you know. I agree. And it's, it's so crazy too when you think about it like, There's so much health, um, misinformation and fear-mongering out there. You know, I don't even, I don't remember what it is off the top of my head. Oh, it was something to do with salt and somebody was talking, um, the whole lead thing that's going out about like chocolate and lead and lead and salt and yes, you do have to be conscious of your heavy metals, um, in all of these things.

I agree. Um, But even talking to toxicologists and chemists that like to deal with this, I think, um, As soon as you start stepping into the health world, people all of a sudden become these massive researchers and maybe without all of the information, right? Yeah. Like, does anyone eat chocolate? Like they would use a supplement, you know, to get that amount of lead or is it even being measured correctly?

Cuz lead in water versus solids is very, very different, you know? Um, and so, I think, you know, people are like, well, if I'm going to start taking a supplement, if I'm going to start eating healthier, I need to know everything about it. You know, they're like, elderberries have all of these side effects. So if you have an autoimmune disease and blankety, blankety blank, and I'm like, well, you're still eating Pop-Tarts for breakfast.

So like, you know, it's, I think sometimes we just need to start. You don't need to know everything about it. You don't need to. Um, You know, enter that fear mongering, you know, I think maybe, which is ironic because I, I do create content around this, but maybe don't consume so much content. You know, where.

Everybody is telling you something different every single day. Um, your intuition and your gut is very, very smart. You know, you know when something is off and if you find somebody that resonates with you and what they're saying and they make sense, um, you know, then like start implementing it. Don't try to do like a million things at one time.

Um, And get very concerned, like, well, I would love to take elderberry, but what if I have this secret autoimmune disease that's going to cause issues? It's like, well, you haven't been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, like you're probably okay taking the elderberry. So like I said, it's an art, and I think sometimes we're, the health is the unknown, you know, and so it's too scary to step into the unknown, so we'll just keep doing what we're doing because that's comfortable and that's safe, even though we don't feel well.

Yeah, no, that's well said. And there's always gonna be extremes. There's gonna be extremes on, on either end, and we can be extreme about our health and that is not healthy. Correct? Yeah. So, this has been wonderful. I am so glad you're able to come on here today and share what you, what, you know. Um, so thank you so much.

Such valuable information, um, learned a lot about the minerals and I know everybody here has today about, you know, everything. So if you guys want to learn more about Leah's work, you can find her on Instagram at Leah. That's it. A H underscore, B R U E G. She also has her website, leah brueggeman.com, and she has a podcast herself called Balancing Hormones Naturally.

So all of these links are gonna be included in the description of this episode. And also, I just wanna say that Leah has kindly gifted everyone here that's listening today, her dos and don'ts of Supplementing Guide, and that link will be included. In the description of this episode, and thank you for that, Leah.

You're very welcome. So thank you once again and remember everyone, we do new episodes every Wednesday, and I look forward to having you join me then.