Are you navigating the ups and downs of midlife, dealing with unexplained symptoms, hormonal changes, or feeling dismissed by traditional medicine? This podcast episode is your essential guide to understanding and overcoming midlife health struggles. Join naturopath Joanne Kennedy as she shares empowering insights into menopause, gut health, and personalized wellness strategies tailored specifically for women in their 40s and beyond.
Discover how overlooked factors like the MTHFR gene and hidden issues like histamine intolerance could be affecting your health. Learn practical, holistic approaches to:
- Decode your body’s signals and what they may mean
- Understand the crucial connection between your gut and hormones
- Know which tests to ask for when seeking help from your doctor
- Get to the root of stubborn symptoms that seem to have no explanation
Joanne simplifies complex health topics into easy-to-follow advice, drawing from her expertise in Histamine Intolerance. Whether you're dealing with fatigue, mood swings, digestive discomfort, or other mysterious issues, this episode offers real solutions and hope to help you reclaim your energy and vitality.
Take charge of your health in midlife – your body deserves not just treatment, but understanding and care.
You can find Joanne Kennedy at:
Website
Instagram
YouTube
Her Offerings
Direct Labs Website
_________________________________________
Are you ready to reclaim your midlife body and health? I went through my own personal journey through menopause, the struggle with midsection weight gain, and feeling run-down. Faster Way, a transformative six-week group program, set me on the path to sustainable change. I'd love to work with you! Let me help you reach your health and fitness goals.
https://www.fasterwaycoach.com/?aid=MicheleFolan
Have questions about Faster Way? Please email me at:
mfolanfasterway@gmail.com
After trying countless products that overpromised and underdelivered, RIMAN skincare finally gave me real, visible results—restoring my glow, firmness, and confidence in my skin at 61. RIMAN Korea's #1 Skincare Line - https://michelefolan.riman.com
*Transcripts are done with AI and may not be perfectly accurate.
**This podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advice. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michele Folan (00:04):
Health, wellness, fitness and everything in
between.
We're removing the taboo fromwhat really matters in midlife.
I'm your host, Michele Folan,and this is Asking for a Friend.
Welcome to the show.
Everyone On Asking for a Friend.
(00:25):
We explore all things healthand wellness and the mysteries
of our bodies.
For many women, the symptoms ofmenopause can feel like an
unpredictable roller coaster,but what's even more challenging
is that we may have symptomsthat masquerade as menopause,
and it's something totallyunrelated.
How do we know?
(00:45):
From fatigue, mood swings,joint pain and even digestive
issues?
Menopause can mimic a widerange of other health concerns,
leaving women confused,frustrated and searching for
answers.
Joanne Kennedy is a naturopathand specialist in histamine
intolerance, mthfr andmethylation.
(01:07):
Joanne runs a successfulpractice in Sydney, Australia,
and sees patients onlineglobally.
Joanne's approach is toidentify the root cause of
illness.
As a histamine and methylationspecialist, joanne is
well-versed in the areas of guthealth, oscillate toxicity and
women's hormonal health.
Joanne is also the creator ofthe Histamine Intolerance
(01:30):
Masterclass, an onlineeducational course that empowers
those with histamine issueswith the knowledge they need to
heal.
She also leads an online groupcoaching program educating
fellow practitioners onhistamine and methylation.
Joanne Kennedy, welcome toAsking for a Friend.
Joanne Kennedy (01:48):
Hi Michele.
Thank you so much for having meon your show.
Michele Folan (01:51):
It's just delightful to have you here and
your accent's beautiful.
It's always enchantingAmericans, love it Americans
love Australia.
Joanne Kennedy (02:01):
It's so funny Americans love Australians.
You don't have to do anythingexcept talk.
Michele Folan (02:08):
Oh, if life were that easy, right?
Yeah, yeah, and I was sharingwith Joanne before we hit record
that I know very, very littleabout her specialty and that is
why I wanted her on the show,because we've touched on
histamine intolerance and MTHFRon occasion, but we've never dug
(02:32):
into it as a separate topic.
So I'm going to back up.
I would love for you to justtell the audience a little bit
about you, where you're from,any kind of family details,
where you went to school.
Joanne Kennedy (02:44):
So I'm born and bred in Sydney, Australia, and I
still currently live in Sydneyand I didn't start studying
naturopathy until I was 32,which seems so young now that
I'm 49.
But at the time I thought I wasvery old, a two-year-old
student, and I sort of you knowI got into naturopathy out of
(03:07):
necessity, of hating corporateand needing to do something
different.
That's the truth of how it wasat the time.
Yes, I was interested in it,but it was the fact that I
wanted to move out of corporateand find something more
meaningful that led me to that.
And so I started studyingnutritional medicine and then I
became really interested inherbal medicine.
(03:27):
So I swapped to the naturopathydegree, which also includes
herbal medicine, and I loved mystudy.
I did a five-year degree.
It was a very long time, andduring that time I was exposed
to the world of methylation justfrom working at a health food
store where the practitionersthere would be talking about
(03:47):
under-methylation,over-methylation.
I'm like, what are you talkingabout?
And they sort of explained tome what it was.
And at that same time, benLynch, who a lot of your
listeners would know, in theMTHFR methylation space in the
US he owns Seeking Health thoseproducts.
He was doing online trainingregarding on methylation.
So I did all of that trainingwhen I was studying on the side,
(04:09):
which was the best thing I did,because when I graduated, a
lady in Sydney opened a clinicspecializing in methylation.
So I was very fortunate thatstraight out of college I had a
job, because as a naturopath,often you graduate and there's
no job.
You have to create your ownwork and it's very hard because,
well, it's hard to create abusiness and it's hard to learn
because you don't have mentors.
(04:31):
I was fortunate enough to goand work there and that's where
I was also exposed to the wholeworld of histamine.
So that was sort of my journey.
Is that?
I was.
It was kind of a combination ofhard work, right time and luck
that led me into a reallyspecialized niche area.
(04:51):
That I believe, and I willstand up in front of a room full
of practitioners and say youneed to understand methylation,
histamine, to be a goodpractitioner, to really
understand what's going on withyour patient's health.
Okay, because it's foundational, it's understanding the
biochemistry and it's the waythat I look at it offers
(05:13):
histamine and methylation offersa really unique framework
regarding how you see patientsand it's getting to the deep,
deep root causes of illness inthe patient base that we see.
Michele Folan (05:26):
Okay, so I have to.
Just all right, let's back up.
So histamine intolerance andMTHFR are they related at all in
this realm of medicine?
Joanne Kennedy (05:41):
Yeah, what we need to understand first of all
is that MTHFR is just one gene,one enzyme in the body.
So I think Michelle will talkabout MTHFR now.
I think we need to sort ofexplain what it is, because
there's a lot of hype andmisunderstanding around it.
The MTHFR gene it provides thecode for the MTHFR enzyme in the
(06:02):
body to work and what thatenzyme does.
It takes folate from your foodand it converts it into
methylfolate, and methylfolateis the type of folate that's
used in a really big biochemicalpathway called methylation.
There are many other genes andenzymes and nutrients that are
(06:24):
involved in that pathway.
So you might have a mutation onMTHFR, whereby you can have a
reduction in how your body makesmethylfolate, but it's only one
part of the picture.
Okay, so you might have amutation on MTHFR, but it might
not be expressing, it might notbe causing any problems, okay,
but in combination with thingslike B12 deficiency and protein
(06:47):
deficiency and oxalates candisrupt methylation.
A lot of things disruptmethylation, which is good to
know, because these are thethings we can fix, and what we
need to know about methylationas a whole is that methylation
breaks down histamine.
It's one of the ways the bodygets rid of histamine.
So that's how it's related.
So MTHFR on its own isn't justrelated to.
(07:11):
Just because you've got anMTHFR gene mutation doesn't mean
you've got histamineintolerance.
But if you have methylationissues whereby the whole
pathways are out of whack, a lotof the causes of why that
pathway is not working are thethings that drive up histamine.
That's just interesting sidenote.
(07:31):
Right, they do.
A lot of the things thatdisrupt methylation increase
histamine in the body and thenat the same time, if your
methylation is not workingproperly, you will have issues
breaking down histamine.
Okay, does that make sense?
Michele Folan (07:46):
Yes, it does.
It does.
What would make me go to mydoctor if I have a histamine
intolerance?
Joanne Kennedy (07:56):
Yeah, so I'm going to go through all the
symptoms, because there's many.
It will be all the allergy, therhinitis, sinusitis, hay fever
kind of symptoms, respiratorysymptoms like wheezing,
shortness of breath, asthma.
In the gut it actually causesreflux and heartburn.
That's not a very well-knownsymptom but it does.
(08:16):
It will cause loose stools,diarrhea.
It can cause abdominal bloatingpain.
It definitely causes skin issues, so itchy skin, red skin, hives
, eczema, acne.
It gets into the brain andcauses headaches, migraines,
dizziness, vertigo, anxiety,depression, insomnia and an
(08:39):
inability to regulate your bodytemperature.
And it also plays havoc withestrogen.
So histamine can increase thebody's estrogen and at the same
time estrogen stimulates mastcells to release histamine and
it also stimulates the nervecells.
They're called histaminergicneurons in the brain.
(09:00):
They have estrogen receptorsand estrogen can increase the
firing of histamine in the brain.
They have estrogen receptorsand estrogen can increase the
firing of histamine in the brain, causing those neurological
issues.
So they're the symptoms of highhistamine.
Okay, so often, unfortunately,you go to your GP and, unless
it's a simple allergy kind ofsymptom, where they might give
(09:21):
you an antihistamine, is thatthey don't actually know that
that is a histamine symptom.
Unfortunately, okay, they won'tknow If you went to the doctor
and had reflux and heartburn,they're going to put you on a
proton pump inhibitor medication.
Yeah, and not look at histamine.
If you have migraines, they'renot even going to consider
histamine.
If you have anxiety, they'renot going to consider histamine.
(09:43):
They won't know about it.
Michele Folan (09:45):
So and I'm thinking of someone that is in
my family who has eczema, getsmigraines and you know then like
my mind starts going a hundredmiles an hour, right, yeah, so
if I suspect that this issomething that's going on with
me, how would I go about gettingtested for this?
Joanne Kennedy (10:11):
Okay.
So what we have to understandabout histamine, it's a symptom
of an underlying cause.
Okay, so the main causes ofhigh histamine are SIBO small
intestinal bacterial overgrowthit's a major cause of irritable
bowel syndrome.
So any sort of gut issue canpoint to SIBO.
(10:33):
Simply having digestive enzymeinsufficiency, because there are
a lot of.
So if you don't break down yourfood properly, it can sit
rotten, ferment in the gut.
That will release histamine.
So that's a big cause.
Now, gluten can cause a lot ofhavoc in the gut and that will
release histamine.
So that's a big cause.
Now, gluten can cause a lot ofhavoc in the gut and release a
lot of histamine.
We've also got oxalates andI'll talk more about those later
.
But having high oxalate cancause histamine.
(10:55):
Mold is a major major cause ofhigh histamine.
Mold's everywhere.
I see a lot of Americanpatients with mold illness.
Estrogen increases histamine.
Michele Folan (11:06):
Are you saying estrogen?
Yeah, estrogen, Okay.
When you said it, you said itbefore and I'm like I think she
said estrogen.
Joanne Kennedy (11:14):
Yeah, yeah, we even spell it differently, I
know, yeah, estrogen.
So they're some of the maincauses of high histamine.
So look, there is a blood test.
You can do whole bloodhistamine.
It can show what your histaminelevels are like in your blood,
but it doesn't necessarily meanif your histamine levels come
(11:35):
back normal in your blood.
It basically means that you'remethylating and you're breaking
it down in the blood, but youcan have histamine in the gut
that's not being broken downproperly because you don't have
the dow enzyme, which is theother enzyme that breaks down
histamine.
So even if you do a blood testfor histamine, I've seen people
with low histamine in theirblood and they've cut, they've
(11:56):
got hives and migraines, and soit's not.
It's not a definitive test.
So we need to understand thatit's symptoms that say, wow, I
think I have a histamine issue,and so your listeners can just
go back and write down all thesymptoms that I just mentioned
and even if you've got one ofthose symptoms, it's likely
(12:19):
histamine.
If you've got two or three orfour, then it's very yeah, and
understanding this can helppinpoint what testing needs to
be done and what.
So if we think it's SIBO, we doa SIBO test.
If we think it's oxalates, wedo an organic acids test that
picks up oxalates.
Mold.
We need to investigate for mold.
Is there mold in the house?
(12:41):
Is there dampness in the house?
Things like that, right?
Are my hormones out of balance?
Perimenopause, for sure.
That rollercoaster can cause alot of histamine symptoms in
women, exacerbate pre-existinghistamine symptoms or they can
arise for the first time.
Okay, so yeah, that's the broadsort of range of symptoms and
(13:02):
then underlying the root causes.
But shall I just say, if yourpatients are interested, my
website's got lots ofinformation on like the causes
and the different things thatcause histamine.
My e-book's got all the causes,how you test all the symptoms,
so you can go to your generalpractitioner and say, hey, like,
look, I think I've got this.
(13:22):
Will you help me get thetesting done and hopefully
covered by your insurance,things like that.
But you will not.
This is the fact.
You will not find the answersin allopathic medicine.
Michele Folan (13:33):
Yeah, Does this sound familiar?
When menopause hit, I didn'tfully comprehend what was
happening to my body.
Even though I was eating 1,200calories a day, doing the
elliptical at the gym and goingto multiple cycling classes
during the week, the scale wasnot budging and my genes were
(13:54):
getting tighter.
I was frustrated and wanted todo better for my long-term
health and, with my 26 years inthe health industry, I knew this
was not the path I wanted tofollow.
So I started doing research onseveral online programs, but
most were either fitness ornutrition-based, but not both.
What I needed was a platformthat understood the needs and
(14:17):
challenges of women my age andhad the data to prove it.
While scrolling throughInstagram one day, I stumbled
upon Faster Way.
Their science-backed strategyspoke to me and I decided to
give it a go and invest inmyself and my future health.
I was 59 years old and full ofhope, and I did go into it,
(14:37):
knowing that I had to be patient, and the improved mindset did
pay off.
My results got me reallyexcited to share Faster Way with
other women who were strugglinglike I was, so I decided to get
trained and certified as acoach.
Call it self-care, call itprioritizing your health.
When are you going to tellyourself enough is enough and
(14:59):
that you matter?
Don't allow your past failureswith other diets and programs to
keep you from making one of themost important decisions for
your future.
I'd love to work with you.
Reach out by DMing me on socialmedia or at the email address
in the show notes of thisepisode.
And that's the thing.
(15:20):
Here in the US, allopathicmedicine is covered on our
insurance, but when we go theroute of functional medicine,
integrative health, many timesthose visits are not covered by
insurance.
The testing often is, but it'sthe actual visits.
(15:40):
And I know a lot of people whohave given up on allopathic
medicine and are now paying outof pocket going to functional
medicine practitioners becausethey are so frustrated with hey,
we'll just give you Nexium orsomething for your gut, we'll
(16:03):
give you cream for your eczema.
Nexium or you know somethingfor your gut will give you cream
for your eczema and no one'sreally finding out why you're
having these symptoms.
I want to back up Joanne,because you brought up SIBO and
I have had a couple gut expertson the show, not speaking of
SIBO as it relates to histamineintolerance, but when they test
(16:24):
for SIBO, how does that testusually work?
Joanne Kennedy (16:27):
Yeah, SIBO is a breath test.
Okay.
So you use a substrate it'susually lactulose, lactulose.
You have the lactulose.
It sort of feeds, mobilizes thebacteria that's overgrown in
the small intestine and thenthose bacteria release gases.
(16:47):
So the gases get picked up inthe breath test.
So the gases are going to bemethane or hydrogen and this is
how you get histamine problems.
Is, the gases cause inflammation?
Well, the gases cause thebloating that's a classic sign
of SIBO, and flatulence andbelching is bloating the gas.
The gas causes inflammation andit releases histamine.
(17:09):
Histamine just gets releasedwhen there's inflammation,
Michele.
This is why it's so widespread.
Chronic illness is inflammationand inflammation releases
histamine.
So it's just, it's so common,it's crazy common and it's so
baffling to me that I could be astudent at naturopathic college
, come out of study, learned fortwo years with a specialist in
(17:34):
this field, and go out and havea, grow a business within a year
where I'm fully booked out andhave patients all online all
over the world.
That's insane.
Yeah, like that's just.
That's not because I'm a goodbusiness person, it's just not.
That's just because there issuch a need for this, it's so
common and no one reallyunderstands it.
It's it's baffling to me yeah,it should it, should it should.
(17:57):
It's like how can I?
I feel lucky, I'm like, wow,like I actually can specialize
in something that's so needed.
And why isn't this market notflooded with at least allopathic
doctors understanding thatthey're not treating the root
cause?
Michele Folan (18:10):
They're just simply not so no, they just want
to put a bandaid on things andand not and not really dig in
because they don't have time.
They don't have time.
They book their patients, youknow, every 10, 15 minutes and
they're not able to really havethat kind of relationship or
(18:34):
interaction with patients.
And I should mention SIBO issmall intestine bacterial
overgrowth, just so listenersrealize.
You mentioned gluten as apossible cause, and so that goes
beyond just having a glutensensitivity.
(18:55):
It actually can cause some ofthese issues as well.
Joanne Kennedy (19:01):
Huh, so there's three main ways that gluten can
cause high histamine.
One, simply if you are a celiac.
Because when you're a celiacespecially if you're late
diagnosed celiac and you've beenexposed to gluten for a long
time it blunts the microvilli,the tiny little hairs in the gut
(19:21):
.
Those hairs excrete, they storeand release the Dow enzyme and
the Dow enzyme breaks downhistamine that is being made in
the gut.
So you will just have notenough Dow enzyme period.
Like it's gone, your microvilliare gone and so that is a big
problem for celiacs.
Then you can have justnon-celiac gluten sensitivity,
(19:44):
which is in Australia andAmerica in most instances,
because our wheat is justmodified, tampered with crap.
I was in crap, crap.
I was in France for two monthsand I ate baguettes.
I ate bread, three baguettesall day, every day, and nothing
happened to me.
I was not bloated, didn't feeltired, nothing.
(20:06):
Come back here.
There's just no way.
So basically, humans lack theenzymes to break down gluten.
It's highly inflammatory to thegut in all humans, I think when
we're young and stuff, we getaway with it.
Classic sign of not toleratinggluten.
It's not just gut issues, it'sheadaches, migraines, eczema,
anxiety, depression, fatigue,low iron.
(20:28):
People will say to me I'm fineon it.
I'm like I can see that you'renot, yeah, yeah, so it.
What happens with gluten isthat it's the cells of the gut
are held together, what's calledthe tight junctions, and then I
think of them like a shoelace.
They open and close to allowfood and electrolytes and your
(20:50):
minerals to move into the bloodwhere they're meant to.
It's held together by somethingcalled zonulin, and gluten
dissembles zonulin, it damagesit and you release zonulin.
You can test this in a stooltest.
You can say, wow, you've got alot of zonulin in your poop.
You have a leaky gut,hyperpermeable.
Michele Folan (21:09):
Okay, so that's leaky gut.
Joanne Kennedy (21:10):
Okay, yeah, okay , that's leaky gut, right, and
it is a real thing, and peoplewill say it's not, but it really
is a real thing.
And then what can happen isgluten will get into the
bloodstream.
Now, when it's bad, when youhave the celiac gene, that's
what causes celiac disease.
But if you don't have celiacdisease, well, it's just the
immune system is reactive togluten and it can release a lot
(21:33):
of histamine.
Okay, and then we've got alsowheat allergies.
So wheat allergy is interestingbecause the gluten so bread you
know, this is what we're reallytalking about the gluten
dissembles the tight junctionsand then the wheat gets through
into where when it shouldn'tinto the bloodstream, and you
can create a hypersensititivity,an immunoglobulin antibody
(21:56):
reaction to wheat.
Oh, so you can become.
That's when people are almostanaphylactic to eat.
It causes it like people, willpeople get wheezing and and
their throat will close over.
It will be like a peanutallergy, like a severe allergy.
I don't see this a lot inclinic because allopathy will
pick that up, because it's amedical emergency.
So there's celiac, there's justgluten.
(22:19):
How it dissembles tightjunctions gluten, how it damages
the gut, releases inflammation.
That will cause inflammation,release histamine, and then
there's the weight component aswell.
Michele Folan (22:30):
So yeah, okay.
Wow, and I've heard otherpeople say the same thing that
you mentioned about going toanother country eating bread and
also having wine and otherthings too, because our wine is
crap.
Sorry, they put so much addedstuff.
(22:52):
You know we don't have the foodpurity laws like they do in
other countries, but I've heardthe same thing that they were
able to eat and drink a lot ofthe things that they normally
would not be able to have orenjoy here, so I thought that
was interesting.
Joanne Kennedy (23:06):
No, it's very true.
So, people, it's the firstthing you need to think about
how much gluten you're consumingand if it's causing health
issues, because it most likelyis contributing yeah, okay, I
have really.
Michele Folan (23:18):
Since I started doing health coaching, I had
really cut down on my gluten.
I eat very, very little, unlessI'm like at a restaurant, and
yeah, yeah, same really.
They have a really yummy bread,yeah yeah, I will do that.
Joanne Kennedy (23:35):
I save it for those occasions.
Michele Folan (23:38):
Right.
Okay, I want to ask aboutoxalates.
So my knowledge of oxalates isspinach and I've been told,
because I have osteoporosis,that I should stay away from
oscillates because it caninhibit easy for me to say,
(24:01):
inhibit the bone formation ofbone, yeah, yeah.
Joanne Kennedy (24:05):
So tell me how oxalates impact histamine
intolerance okay, should I firsttalk about what oxalates are
and how the body makes them andwhy we've got a problem with
them.
Okay, so oxalates, first of all, they are in all plant foods at
some level.
Okay, so plants make oxalate.
(24:26):
Some are very low and then wego right through to very high,
spinach being a very highoxalate food, for instance.
So foods have a.
Plant foods contain oxalates andthe human body does make
oxalate.
It's part of the breakdown ofcollagen.
It, the amino acids glycine andhydroxyproline will get
(24:47):
converted into oxalate in theliver and then they get excreted
in the urine.
It's, it's part of ourbiochemistry.
So humans make it now when itcomes to the gut and the get
excreted in the urine.
And the dietary component ofoxalate is that humans lack the
enzymes to break down oxalate inthe food.
So we rely on our microbiome todo that.
(25:10):
So if our microbiome isdysbiotic and disrupted which is
just every human in the Westernworld stress, herbicides,
pesticides all of that disruptthe gut microbiome.
What can happen is you'reconsuming a lot of oxalate foods
, or even not a lot, just anormal amount nuts and seeds,
sweet potatoes, spinaches andhealthy foods, and your gut
(25:33):
microbiome can't break it downproperly and oxalates form.
Well, they are sharp, tinylittle crystals and they deposit
in the gut, they get throughinto the bloodstream, they'll
get into the joints and they doreally get a lot into the
bladder and the urinary system,because that's how, once in the
blood urinary system, becausethat's how, once in the blood,
(25:56):
they go into the liver and thekidneys for excretion rather
than the bowels.
And this is why classic oxalatesymptoms are bladder pain,
interstitial cystitis,vulvodynia, and it causes
inflammation because they'resharp and they cause pain and
that will release a lot ofhistamine.
Michele Folan (26:13):
Okay, this makes sense.
Yeah, yeah, okay, and theycause a lot.
Joanne Kennedy (26:18):
They cause havoc in the body.
They also this is important tounderstand they actually can
deplete the body of sulfur, andsulfur is the second most
abundant element in our body.
It's so important for so manythings, but so many things okay,
everything really, includingone big thing is that they make
(26:40):
glutathione, and glutathione isyour body's major antioxidant,
so it helps get on top ofinflammation.
So oxalates are really badbecause they not only cause so
much inflammation, they not onlycause so much inflammation,
they inhibit your ability todeal with inflammation and they
also disrupt methylation.
(27:01):
Okay, so they are something thatwhen I see a lot of, when
people come to me they might'vedone a gene test, hormone
testing, sibo testing, stooltest and they've done an organic
acids test.
The first thing I'll look foris oxalates, stool tests and
I've done an organic acids test.
The first thing I look for isoxalates.
That's most likely the majorcause of your problem.
And one more thing we need toknow about oxalates is a lot of
mold species contain oxalate aswell.
(27:23):
Ah, okay, okay, so that thatand I have can't tell you how
many times I've seen physicianswhatever, whoever they are tell
their patients to do an organicacids test and they have high
oxalate and it's ignored andit's always something that has
to be dealt with as an absolutepriority.
Michele Folan (27:44):
All right, so the oxalates and you're saying
oxalates, I'm saying oxalatesAgain.
It's how we say thingsdifferently.
It's again it's how we saythings differently.
It's funny, isn't it?
That's okay, yeah, I'm just.
I'm just laughing, just how wesay things differently.
But all right, how do you test?
(28:05):
Is it a blood test for oxalates?
It's a urine test yeah okay,you're in your it's a urine test
.
Joanne Kennedy (28:13):
So organic houses test is um.
You know the mosaic labs in theus is the leading it's the best
lab in the world for organicacids test, so americans can
definitely get that done.
So that's, it's an.
It's an.
It's a.
It's an a.
There's a lot of other markersin that test.
It's a really great test to getdone to see.
But oxalates are the hiddencause of chronic.
(28:35):
You know they're a major causeof fibromyalgia and chronic
fatigue.
Oh my gosh, this stuff's just.
Michele, you wouldn't believe.
If you sat with me for a weekin clinic, you just wouldn't
believe this is fascinating.
It's actually just.
It's just like the wholemedical industry is just so
corrupt from the top down andI'm not one of these like
(28:58):
conspiracy theory naturopaths,it's just.
I've just seen it like it'sjust so bad, and you know this
is another thing I have to sayit.
This happens in America a lot.
You wait like two months to getan appointment with a
functional medicine doctor.
They make you do like twothousand dollars worth of
testing before they see you,like they don't even know what's
wrong with you first, so theyget you to do all this testing
(29:21):
and then they're like if they'dsat with you for 10 minutes and
ask you questions around yoursymptoms, maybe you just do one
test, but people I see Americanswhere they're doing spent
$2,000 on functional medicinetesting whereby there's no case
taken before they do it.
It's bad, it's really bad.
Michele Folan (29:40):
So anyway, do you ever have patients come to you
that have had DNA testing first?
Joanne Kennedy (29:46):
I do it's an absolute waste of time and money
.
It's not your genes, it's theenvironment.
It is just this is a bugbear ofmine and I know I do MTHFR and
all of that, but I'm really.
You know, I set people straightwith it.
It's not a gene, it's theenvironment that is disrupting
your enzyme functioning in yourbody.
(30:06):
So you do a gene test and it'slike everyone has mutations on
all of these different genesthat we're looking at.
You wouldn't leave the house Ifyou went and sat down and looked
at it all and what it all meant.
It's like oh, I can't gooutside, I can't be exposed to
sunlight, I can't be exposed toany toxins.
It's clinically useless wasteof money.
(30:28):
It's just because what are wegoing to do about it?
It's like wow, we actually need.
People will say oh like.
People's argument to me is youmight have SNPs on your
glutathione genes and thereforeyou shouldn't be exposed to mold
and you shouldn't be exposed tomercury.
I'm like no one should and itdoesn't.
It's like well, you can have nogene mutation on those genes
(30:51):
and you are eating tuna all day.
You'll have big problems withmercury and big problems with
detoxification or you simply arein mold and that will be a big
problem for you, or you'reeating glyphosate all day long,
so it's the environment.
So where you need to spend yourmoney is with the testing that
shows us the root causes of yourproblems.
Michele Folan (31:12):
All right, if I come to you and I've got, I've
had diarrhea, I have eczema,bloating.
What tests would you probablysay?
Let's do this first.
Joanne Kennedy (31:25):
Yeah, I definitely do SIBO testing.
So SIBO absolutely causes a lotof bloating and it can cause
loose stools, diarrhea.
Okay, I would also.
First of all, I'd just be likelooking at your diet how much
gluten are you eating?
Because absolutely gluten cando that.
Okay, if you're gettingdiarrhea and bloating,
(31:48):
definitely SIBO would be and theeczema SIBO would be the first
test that I would do for that.
Michele Folan (31:54):
All right, and then what?
So say, my test comes back andit is positive for SIBO I do.
The breath test is what youwere suggesting.
Then what would the treatmentbe for that?
Joanne Kennedy (32:08):
So the really interesting thing about SIBO is
that it takes healthy plantfoods.
This is why it gets veryconfusing for people.
They're called FODMAPs, fodmapfoods.
Fodmap foods are healthy plantfoods and they are the foods
that the SIBO bacteria convertinto the gases.
So you actually need to removethese FODMAP foods from your
(32:29):
diet.
Now whilst and then we doherbal medicine to help.
You know, it's very simple.
If you have methane, siboallicin, which is an active
constituent of garlic, is verygood for methane.
If you have hydrogen, sibo,berberine is very good for that.
Very simple, like the herbalmedicine.
(32:49):
Choices are quite simple.
Okay, we definitely needdigestive enzymes.
When you have SIBO, it causesan acidic environment in the
small intestine.
That means you need somepancreatic enzymes and probably
some hydrochloric acid in yourdigestive enzymes.
And you do that At the sametime to get your symptoms down
(33:10):
quickly, you do a SIBO lowhistamine diet.
So you it's SIBO and lowhistamine.
That often helps with yoursymptoms, really, really quickly
getting your symptoms down.
And then you treat SIBO forabout three months and then we
watch the signs.
You know, basically, if it'sjust SIBO, you will feel so much
(33:33):
better in a week, two weeks,okay, okay, and then it's just
SIBO.
It is, then it's just.
I always say to my patientsthen it's just boring for three
months of boring, boring diet.
Michele Folan (33:44):
But it's not that bad.
It's just.
That's what I was afraid youwere going to say.
Yeah.
Joanne Kennedy (33:50):
It's just hard, look, it's just.
It's just just, you can't haveonion and garlic, which is hard
for eating out at restaurantsand things like that.
But you know, you can get ontop of SIBO, naturally, in most
instances.
Sometimes there's somehindrances around it, but yeah,
so SIBO is prettystraightforward.
Michele Folan (34:09):
GI test specialist person, gut health
person, and she was telling meabout onion and garlic and I was
like whoa, whoa, whoa.
Yeah, do you know what I cookwith every single night?
Joanne Kennedy (34:32):
I say to my look , I you know, Michele, it's
funny I have patients that wouldgive their right arm to eat
their way out of their healthissues because they're on
methotrexate and corticosteroidsand they're so sick.
So I kind of do say that to mypatients and I also say look,
you can eat carrots, you can eatsome broccoli, you can have
fresh animal protein, you canhave all your fresh herbs and
(34:53):
spices.
Some people have no food.
Through.
To tell you what, when gutissues get that bad, if you
don't, if you, if you ignore it,so if you've got SIBO and an
oxalate problem, you can causesuch havoc in your gut that your
immune system just goes berserkand it's very hard to calm down
in a pissed off immune system.
I'm sorry if I say that thatway.
Michele Folan (35:15):
Oh, we've said much worse on this show, don't
you worry Sorry.
Joanne Kennedy (35:19):
And it will just cause havoc.
And then what happens is youhave end up with multiple food
intolerances.
These people eat chicken andrice.
You should see, some peoplecan't eat anything but chicken
and rice because they've ignoredthese things and haven't done
the thing.
I know it's hard and boring andI love food.
(35:40):
I love food.
But it's just, if you reallytake it seriously and do it for
three months, you just turn yourhealth around and then and you
know the thing with SIBO itcauses iron deficiency, it
causes B12 deficiency, folateiodine deficiency.
So that affects yourmethylation, it affects your
energy, your mood, your thyroid,everything.
Michele Folan (36:02):
Does it affect like proper absorption of
nutrition too?
Yeah, because I think women inmidlife worry about the fact
that they're not absorbingnutrients and it affecting their
bone health.
Yes, you know, gettingosteoporosis, that type of thing
too.
I know that's a huge fear.
Joanne Kennedy (36:21):
Yes, absolutely, that's right.
The really interesting thingabout these chronic health
issues like oxalates oxalatesdeplete the body of electrolytes
, okay, so when you become moreacidic than alkaline to get to
alkalize your blood, you pullcalcium and magnesium from your
bones.
So that's a big problem.
Yeah, and when it comes tooxalates, um, oxalates, I bet
(36:45):
you oxalates are so bad, I betyou've actually damaged bone and
they also use up a lot ofcalcium.
So oxalates deplete the body ofcalcium and magnesium.
They will cause a more acidicenvironment in your blood.
You can test that at the aniongap on a blood test.
When you do your electrolytessodium, potassium, etc.
(37:06):
You they'll often do anion gap.
It shouldn't be over 10 or 12.
When it's heading up to 15, 16,17, if you you have, you are,
your blood is tending to be moreacidic.
It's not acidosis, which is amedical emergency, which more is
like kidney malfunction, butit's telling us you are
depleting your calcium andmagnesium.
(37:28):
Calcium runs your heart, right.
So your body's like needcalcium, bones, bones, bones.
Classic symptom there's asymptom of electrolyte imbalance
is actually muscle cramps andpeople will say to me I get
muscle cramps, I have magnesium,I like you need calcium as well
.
Okay, right, you need.
You need sort of a goodelectrolyte, calcium and
magnesium.
(37:48):
So that's sort of how thatworks is whereby it's the
acidity which is leachingcalcium magnesium from bone.
All right, I bet you oxalatesdamage bone.
They get into the brain, theyget into the thyroid.
They're really bad.
Michele Folan (38:01):
This is so fascinating.
Again.
I mean, my mind is going amillion miles an hour and I
wanted you to be here because Ireally think that my mission is.
I want women to be advocatesfor themselves, that they know
what questions to ask.
They know what blood tests toask for.
(38:24):
I had a friend text me theother day and she said I asked
for all these different bloodtests that I've heard experts on
your show and you talk about.
You know different thyroidtests and that sort of thing.
And she said I got so muchpushback from my doctor and I
even had to sign a waiver sayingthat I would pay for these if
(38:46):
the insurance didn't pay forthem.
But she said I stood my ground,I went toe to toe with them and
they let her get all that bloodwork.
Yes, but you know what?
That doesn't happen all thetime, joanne, you know, and it's
sad.
Joanne Kennedy (39:02):
No, I know it's the same here.
You know we as taxpayers weshould be able to get a lot of
bloods just done, standardbloods, but to try and get a
full thyroid panel done it'simpossible.
The doctors refuse.
I had a friend.
She's actually got thyroidcancer right and the doctors
(39:25):
would not run a full thyroidpanel for her and she just my
friend was at the.
She's also going throughmenopause, right, so she just
breaks down crying.
She was either I was going toscream and yell or was going to
cry.
She goes I think I better cry,so she just starts crying.
You say you're, you're meant tobe here to help me.
You, you make you're nothelping me.
Yeah, I'm like wow, like reallythey're, they're not helping.
(39:46):
So it's bloods are so bloodtests are so useful, they're so
useful at helping identify rootcauses of illness.
You know and um, yeah, I mean,look, it's a, I get it.
It's a disaster in the us.
I know, with the testing andstuff it's really really hard
and it's expensive.
You know the direct labs,directlabscom.
(40:07):
You can go and order all yourlabs direct from them, bypass
the doctor, directlabscom okay,they're great, I'm writing that
one down.
Yeah, I was looking at that fora patient yesterday and she
needs to do all her.
She's in late perimenopause.
I'm like I don't know what FSHand LH like.
Is it just because you can justnot ovulate in late 48, 49
(40:30):
because of stress and she's verystressed?
I want to see what FSH and LHare.
But they did a full femalemetabolic panel with hormones,
so insulin and vitamin D and allthese things.
You could get that test done.
And I said to her maybe yourinsurance company will just
cover some of the testing from alab directly without going to
(40:50):
the doctor.
I'm not sure.
Yeah, you can in America, ofcourse you guys, you can do, you
can get that stuff doneyourself.
Michele Folan (40:59):
I'm going to put that in the show notes.
Yeah, so I do have a question.
So how do you work with clients?
Because you said you work with,obviously, clients there,
patients there in Australia buthow do you work with them
globally?
Joanne Kennedy (41:15):
Yeah, so I'll just talk about the US Canada.
It's via Zoom, very simple, andthe good thing about the US and
Canada is that the testing Ineed to get done, be it the
organic acids testing and moldmycotoxins testing, I can order
that direct from Australia.
So the labs are in the UnitedStates Mosaic Labs and I've got
(41:40):
an account with them so I canjust get that testing done.
That's really easy.
Sibo testing you can orderthrough direct labs and if you
need to get some like some well,a bit obscure bloods done that
your doctor won't run, or if youknow people I don't want to go
to my doctor, I don't like them,it's pain you can just get
these done.
Bloods done direct.
(42:02):
Okay, so that's all simple.
I've sorted that all outbecause I've had I've got so
many north, I've got so manyAmericans, Michele, like they're
desperate for help, beinghonest, and like they can see me
for consoles, and I'll just letthem know I get like you pay
Australian dollars.
It's like half American dollars.
Do you know what I mean Really?
Yeah, well, our dollar is soweak Like we get like 60 cents
to the US dollar, wow, all right.
Michele Folan (42:23):
Yeah, so it's much cheaper.
Joanne Kennedy (42:25):
Yeah, okay.
So that's just so that theyknow.
And regarding supplements issimple, because you guys can
just order supplements fromThorne or Pure Encapsulations,
Research Nutritionals.
I've got an account with them.
You, you need an account,someone to have an account.
I've got an account with them.
So it's very, very simple,right?
So north America is supersimple.
(42:46):
Gets a bit harder in sort ofother countries because of, like
, the lack of functionalmedicine testing, but all the,
all the labs are coming out ofthe us.
And this is the thing thingwith America is like, because I
can say this Do you know howmuch I love America?
It's like my favorite thing.
I love it.
I love Americans, but you allhave the best and worst of
everything.
Do you know what I mean?
Michele Folan (43:05):
No shit.
Joanne Kennedy (43:10):
It's like the worst, like the whole medical
system is really bad, but youhave the best doctors and you
have the best functionalmedicine testing and you have
the best supplement companies.
You have it all there, but it'sjust not because it's such.
There's 350, what millionpeople.
It's just it's like it'sactually a small component, but
it's all there.
Yeah, so we, when we need, whenI've got the chronically ill
(43:34):
patients in australia, I'm likewe need to send your testing to
America.
You need to get the supplementsfrom America.
It's all there for you guys,yeah.
Michele Folan (43:43):
Okay, well, and that gives me hope, right, that
people can start to get someanswers to these nagging things
that are.
It's perplexing, you know, whenyou've been to the doctor four
or five times and no one isgiving you answers.
This is just so much moreproactive.
Yeah, but just addressing thecore problem, addressing the
(44:09):
issue, rather than just coveringit up with a pharmaceutical.
I mean and I everybody knowsthis, but I came from the
pharmaceutical industry.
I spent 26 plus years in in thepharmaceutical and med device
world and enjoyed my time therevery much.
But now I'm seeing it through adifferent lens, having been
(44:30):
doing this podcast, and it'sit's really opened my eyes.
I have a personal question foryou, Joanne.
Yeah, sure, what is one of yourpillars of self-care?
What do you do for yourself, doyou?
Joanne Kennedy (44:42):
Know what?
Lately it's been journaling.
So in the morning I do somelittle meditation.
I love that, but I do thisjournaling, so it's just getting
my journal out and just writingdown thoughts Apparently.
Look, I do it for like five, 10minutes, but if you are really
having some hard times, 20minutes of journaling and then
(45:05):
apparently you just rip it up,burn it every day.
So I find it really reallytherapeutic, just like getting
brain dump on the page and thenon with my day and I find myself
craving it.
I even bought like reallypretty little journals and like
little, just making it a realritual for myself.
Michele Folan (45:27):
Yeah, I think that's nice, and I hear people
journaling.
I don't do that, but the more Ihear, I think it's very
valuable.
Joanne Kennedy (45:38):
Yeah, it's very valuable.
Look, I've got friends of minewho go through so hard times
seeing psychologists and stuffand that's part of their actual
treatment.
Okay, speaking to a patientyesterday, she's a naturopath
too.
Actually she was talking aboutthere's a doctor, he's American,
I can't remember his name, buthe specialises in pain and part
(45:59):
of his treatment is 20 minutesof journalling every morning
because the pain is emotionaland I believe in all this stuff.
Michelle, the more I work withpractitioners and like I know
what I'm I've done it for 12years now like that's all I do,
right, the functional medicineand all that.
When I'm listening to mypatients, I'm like where's the
stress and trauma coming from?
Because it causes ill health.
(46:19):
It really does.
I believe that it does.
So much of what I do now islike I will refer some people
just need to like do somemeditation.
Some people need to like go fora walk every day.
Some people need therapy.
Some people need emotionalfreedom technique.
(46:45):
They need work, they needsomatic work.
They need to see a traumatherapist.
It just where's it coming from?
So, um, but I believejournaling is just something
that is actually being used withpsychotherapists and staff as
part of a treatment forsomeone's uh problem.
So it's, it's um, it's justsomething that's come into my
awareness.
I just started doing it a fewmonths ago as just a bit of fun,
and I was just sitting in themorning with my coffee looking
out at the water.
I'm like I just want to writedown some thoughts.
(47:06):
And then it started, and then Iwas like, oh, I'm addicted to
this, and now it's just become anice routine.
Michele Folan (47:12):
Yeah, that's really great.
Thank you for mentioning that.
I think you may influence somefolks listening to the podcast
to really kind of explore thatas a means to just really gather
your thoughts and sometimeswriting it out, you can kind of
sort things in your head, Ibelieve.
(47:33):
Yeah, and it's also like abrain dump.
It's just like a brain dump,yeah, yeah, I love that.
Yeah, I love that.
That's so great.
Joanne Kennedy (47:38):
And you can give it up.
You know I, you can just giveit all up to God as well.
Just say here you go, just giveit up to the divine.
Whoever you want, it's likebrain dump give it up and then
just get on with your day.
Michele Folan (47:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's perfect, Joanne Kennedy
where can the listeners find you?
Joanne Kennedy (48:00):
Yeah, so simply on my website, which is
joannkennedynaturopathy.
com.
I've also got an Instagram pagewhich is just
joannkennedynaturopath, and I'vealso got YouTube channel with
lots of videos on methylationand histamine.
It's justjoannkennedynaturopath, so just
all my name naturopath.
Michele Folan (48:13):
Yeah, Got it Again.
That will all go in the shownotes.
Joanne Kennedy, thank you somuch for being a guest today.
Joanne Kennedy (48:20):
Thank you so much for having me, Michele.
Thank you.
Michele Folan (48:24):
Hey, thanks for tuning in.
Please rate and review the showwhere you listen to the podcast
.
And did you know that Askingfor a Friend is available now to
listen on YouTube?
You can subscribe to thepodcast there as well.
Your support is appreciated andit helps others find the show.
Thank you.
Health, wellness, fitness and everything in
between.
We're removing the taboo fromwhat really matters in midlife.
I'm your host, Michele Folan,and this is Asking for a Friend.
Welcome to the show.
Everyone On Asking for a Friend.
(00:25):
We explore all things healthand wellness and the mysteries
of our bodies.
For many women, the symptoms ofmenopause can feel like an
unpredictable roller coaster,but what's even more challenging
is that we may have symptomsthat masquerade as menopause,
and it's something totallyunrelated.
How do we know?
(00:45):
From fatigue, mood swings,joint pain and even digestive
issues?
Menopause can mimic a widerange of other health concerns,
leaving women confused,frustrated and searching for
answers.
Joanne Kennedy is a naturopathand specialist in histamine
intolerance, mthfr andmethylation.
(01:07):
Joanne runs a successfulpractice in Sydney, Australia,
and sees patients onlineglobally.
Joanne's approach is toidentify the root cause of
illness.
As a histamine and methylationspecialist, joanne is
well-versed in the areas of guthealth, oscillate toxicity and
women's hormonal health.
Joanne is also the creator ofthe Histamine Intolerance
(01:30):
Masterclass, an onlineeducational course that empowers
those with histamine issueswith the knowledge they need to
heal.
She also leads an online groupcoaching program educating
fellow practitioners onhistamine and methylation.
Joanne Kennedy, welcome toAsking for a Friend.
Joanne Kennedy (01:48):
Hi Michele.
Thank you so much for having meon your show.
Michele Folan (01:51):
It's just delightful to have you here and
your accent's beautiful.
It's always enchantingAmericans, love it Americans
love Australia.
Joanne Kennedy (02:01):
It's so funny Americans love Australians.
You don't have to do anythingexcept talk.
Michele Folan (02:08):
Oh, if life were that easy, right?
Yeah, yeah, and I was sharingwith Joanne before we hit record
that I know very, very littleabout her specialty and that is
why I wanted her on the show,because we've touched on
histamine intolerance and MTHFRon occasion, but we've never dug
(02:32):
into it as a separate topic.
So I'm going to back up.
I would love for you to justtell the audience a little bit
about you, where you're from,any kind of family details,
where you went to school.
Joanne Kennedy (02:44):
So I'm born and bred in Sydney, Australia, and I
still currently live in Sydneyand I didn't start studying
naturopathy until I was 32,which seems so young now that
I'm 49.
But at the time I thought I wasvery old, a two-year-old
student, and I sort of you knowI got into naturopathy out of
(03:07):
necessity, of hating corporateand needing to do something
different.
That's the truth of how it wasat the time.
Yes, I was interested in it,but it was the fact that I
wanted to move out of corporateand find something more
meaningful that led me to that.
And so I started studyingnutritional medicine and then I
became really interested inherbal medicine.
(03:27):
So I swapped to the naturopathydegree, which also includes
herbal medicine, and I loved mystudy.
I did a five-year degree.
It was a very long time, andduring that time I was exposed
to the world of methylation justfrom working at a health food
store where the practitionersthere would be talking about
(03:47):
under-methylation,over-methylation.
I'm like, what are you talkingabout?
And they sort of explained tome what it was.
And at that same time, benLynch, who a lot of your
listeners would know, in theMTHFR methylation space in the
US he owns Seeking Health thoseproducts.
He was doing online trainingregarding on methylation.
So I did all of that trainingwhen I was studying on the side,
(04:09):
which was the best thing I did,because when I graduated, a
lady in Sydney opened a clinicspecializing in methylation.
So I was very fortunate thatstraight out of college I had a
job, because as a naturopath,often you graduate and there's
no job.
You have to create your ownwork and it's very hard because,
well, it's hard to create abusiness and it's hard to learn
because you don't have mentors.
(04:31):
I was fortunate enough to goand work there and that's where
I was also exposed to the wholeworld of histamine.
So that was sort of my journey.
Is that?
I was.
It was kind of a combination ofhard work, right time and luck
that led me into a reallyspecialized niche area.
(04:51):
That I believe, and I willstand up in front of a room full
of practitioners and say youneed to understand methylation,
histamine, to be a goodpractitioner, to really
understand what's going on withyour patient's health.
Okay, because it's foundational, it's understanding the
biochemistry and it's the waythat I look at it offers
(05:13):
histamine and methylation offersa really unique framework
regarding how you see patientsand it's getting to the deep,
deep root causes of illness inthe patient base that we see.
Michele Folan (05:26):
Okay, so I have to.
Just all right, let's back up.
So histamine intolerance andMTHFR are they related at all in
this realm of medicine?
Joanne Kennedy (05:41):
Yeah, what we need to understand first of all
is that MTHFR is just one gene,one enzyme in the body.
So I think Michelle will talkabout MTHFR now.
I think we need to sort ofexplain what it is, because
there's a lot of hype andmisunderstanding around it.
The MTHFR gene it provides thecode for the MTHFR enzyme in the
(06:02):
body to work and what thatenzyme does.
It takes folate from your foodand it converts it into
methylfolate, and methylfolateis the type of folate that's
used in a really big biochemicalpathway called methylation.
There are many other genes andenzymes and nutrients that are
(06:24):
involved in that pathway.
So you might have a mutation onMTHFR, whereby you can have a
reduction in how your body makesmethylfolate, but it's only one
part of the picture.
Okay, so you might have amutation on MTHFR, but it might
not be expressing, it might notbe causing any problems, okay,
but in combination with thingslike B12 deficiency and protein
(06:47):
deficiency and oxalates candisrupt methylation.
A lot of things disruptmethylation, which is good to
know, because these are thethings we can fix, and what we
need to know about methylationas a whole is that methylation
breaks down histamine.
It's one of the ways the bodygets rid of histamine.
So that's how it's related.
So MTHFR on its own isn't justrelated to.
(07:11):
Just because you've got anMTHFR gene mutation doesn't mean
you've got histamineintolerance.
But if you have methylationissues whereby the whole
pathways are out of whack, a lotof the causes of why that
pathway is not working are thethings that drive up histamine.
That's just interesting sidenote.
(07:31):
Right, they do.
A lot of the things thatdisrupt methylation increase
histamine in the body and thenat the same time, if your
methylation is not workingproperly, you will have issues
breaking down histamine.
Okay, does that make sense?
Michele Folan (07:46):
Yes, it does.
It does.
What would make me go to mydoctor if I have a histamine
intolerance?
Joanne Kennedy (07:56):
Yeah, so I'm going to go through all the
symptoms, because there's many.
It will be all the allergy, therhinitis, sinusitis, hay fever
kind of symptoms, respiratorysymptoms like wheezing,
shortness of breath, asthma.
In the gut it actually causesreflux and heartburn.
That's not a very well-knownsymptom but it does.
(08:16):
It will cause loose stools,diarrhea.
It can cause abdominal bloatingpain.
It definitely causes skin issues, so itchy skin, red skin, hives
, eczema, acne.
It gets into the brain andcauses headaches, migraines,
dizziness, vertigo, anxiety,depression, insomnia and an
(08:39):
inability to regulate your bodytemperature.
And it also plays havoc withestrogen.
So histamine can increase thebody's estrogen and at the same
time estrogen stimulates mastcells to release histamine and
it also stimulates the nervecells.
They're called histaminergicneurons in the brain.
(09:00):
They have estrogen receptorsand estrogen can increase the
firing of histamine in the brain.
They have estrogen receptorsand estrogen can increase the
firing of histamine in the brain, causing those neurological
issues.
So they're the symptoms of highhistamine.
Okay, so often, unfortunately,you go to your GP and, unless
it's a simple allergy kind ofsymptom, where they might give
(09:21):
you an antihistamine, is thatthey don't actually know that
that is a histamine symptom.
Unfortunately, okay, they won'tknow If you went to the doctor
and had reflux and heartburn,they're going to put you on a
proton pump inhibitor medication.
Yeah, and not look at histamine.
If you have migraines, they'renot even going to consider
histamine.
If you have anxiety, they'renot going to consider histamine.
(09:43):
They won't know about it.
Michele Folan (09:45):
So and I'm thinking of someone that is in
my family who has eczema, getsmigraines and you know then like
my mind starts going a hundredmiles an hour, right, yeah, so
if I suspect that this issomething that's going on with
me, how would I go about gettingtested for this?
Joanne Kennedy (10:11):
Okay.
So what we have to understandabout histamine, it's a symptom
of an underlying cause.
Okay, so the main causes ofhigh histamine are SIBO small
intestinal bacterial overgrowthit's a major cause of irritable
bowel syndrome.
So any sort of gut issue canpoint to SIBO.
(10:33):
Simply having digestive enzymeinsufficiency, because there are
a lot of.
So if you don't break down yourfood properly, it can sit
rotten, ferment in the gut.
That will release histamine.
So that's a big cause.
Now, gluten can cause a lot ofhavoc in the gut and that will
release histamine.
So that's a big cause.
Now, gluten can cause a lot ofhavoc in the gut and release a
lot of histamine.
We've also got oxalates andI'll talk more about those later
.
But having high oxalate cancause histamine.
(10:55):
Mold is a major major cause ofhigh histamine.
Mold's everywhere.
I see a lot of Americanpatients with mold illness.
Estrogen increases histamine.
Michele Folan (11:06):
Are you saying estrogen?
Yeah, estrogen, Okay.
When you said it, you said itbefore and I'm like I think she
said estrogen.
Joanne Kennedy (11:14):
Yeah, yeah, we even spell it differently, I
know, yeah, estrogen.
So they're some of the maincauses of high histamine.
So look, there is a blood test.
You can do whole bloodhistamine.
It can show what your histaminelevels are like in your blood,
but it doesn't necessarily meanif your histamine levels come
(11:35):
back normal in your blood.
It basically means that you'remethylating and you're breaking
it down in the blood, but youcan have histamine in the gut
that's not being broken downproperly because you don't have
the dow enzyme, which is theother enzyme that breaks down
histamine.
So even if you do a blood testfor histamine, I've seen people
with low histamine in theirblood and they've cut, they've
(11:56):
got hives and migraines, and soit's not.
It's not a definitive test.
So we need to understand thatit's symptoms that say, wow, I
think I have a histamine issue,and so your listeners can just
go back and write down all thesymptoms that I just mentioned
and even if you've got one ofthose symptoms, it's likely
(12:19):
histamine.
If you've got two or three orfour, then it's very yeah, and
understanding this can helppinpoint what testing needs to
be done and what.
So if we think it's SIBO, we doa SIBO test.
If we think it's oxalates, wedo an organic acids test that
picks up oxalates.
Mold.
We need to investigate for mold.
Is there mold in the house?
(12:41):
Is there dampness in the house?
Things like that, right?
Are my hormones out of balance?
Perimenopause, for sure.
That rollercoaster can cause alot of histamine symptoms in
women, exacerbate pre-existinghistamine symptoms or they can
arise for the first time.
Okay, so yeah, that's the broadsort of range of symptoms and
(13:02):
then underlying the root causes.
But shall I just say, if yourpatients are interested, my
website's got lots ofinformation on like the causes
and the different things thatcause histamine.
My e-book's got all the causes,how you test all the symptoms,
so you can go to your generalpractitioner and say, hey, like,
look, I think I've got this.
(13:22):
Will you help me get thetesting done and hopefully
covered by your insurance,things like that.
But you will not.
This is the fact.
You will not find the answersin allopathic medicine.
Michele Folan (13:33):
Yeah, Does this sound familiar?
When menopause hit, I didn'tfully comprehend what was
happening to my body.
Even though I was eating 1,200calories a day, doing the
elliptical at the gym and goingto multiple cycling classes
during the week, the scale wasnot budging and my genes were
(13:54):
getting tighter.
I was frustrated and wanted todo better for my long-term
health and, with my 26 years inthe health industry, I knew this
was not the path I wanted tofollow.
So I started doing research onseveral online programs, but
most were either fitness ornutrition-based, but not both.
What I needed was a platformthat understood the needs and
(14:17):
challenges of women my age andhad the data to prove it.
While scrolling throughInstagram one day, I stumbled
upon Faster Way.
Their science-backed strategyspoke to me and I decided to
give it a go and invest inmyself and my future health.
I was 59 years old and full ofhope, and I did go into it,
(14:37):
knowing that I had to be patient, and the improved mindset did
pay off.
My results got me reallyexcited to share Faster Way with
other women who were strugglinglike I was, so I decided to get
trained and certified as acoach.
Call it self-care, call itprioritizing your health.
When are you going to tellyourself enough is enough and
(14:59):
that you matter?
Don't allow your past failureswith other diets and programs to
keep you from making one of themost important decisions for
your future.
I'd love to work with you.
Reach out by DMing me on socialmedia or at the email address
in the show notes of thisepisode.
And that's the thing.
(15:20):
Here in the US, allopathicmedicine is covered on our
insurance, but when we go theroute of functional medicine,
integrative health, many timesthose visits are not covered by
insurance.
The testing often is, but it'sthe actual visits.
(15:40):
And I know a lot of people whohave given up on allopathic
medicine and are now paying outof pocket going to functional
medicine practitioners becausethey are so frustrated with hey,
we'll just give you Nexium orsomething for your gut, we'll
(16:03):
give you cream for your eczema.
Nexium or you know somethingfor your gut will give you cream
for your eczema and no one'sreally finding out why you're
having these symptoms.
I want to back up Joanne,because you brought up SIBO and
I have had a couple gut expertson the show, not speaking of
SIBO as it relates to histamineintolerance, but when they test
(16:24):
for SIBO, how does that testusually work?
Joanne Kennedy (16:27):
Yeah, SIBO is a breath test.
Okay.
So you use a substrate it'susually lactulose, lactulose.
You have the lactulose.
It sort of feeds, mobilizes thebacteria that's overgrown in
the small intestine and thenthose bacteria release gases.
(16:47):
So the gases get picked up inthe breath test.
So the gases are going to bemethane or hydrogen and this is
how you get histamine problems.
Is, the gases cause inflammation?
Well, the gases cause thebloating that's a classic sign
of SIBO, and flatulence andbelching is bloating the gas.
The gas causes inflammation andit releases histamine.
(17:09):
Histamine just gets releasedwhen there's inflammation,
Michele.
This is why it's so widespread.
Chronic illness is inflammationand inflammation releases
histamine.
So it's just, it's so common,it's crazy common and it's so
baffling to me that I could be astudent at naturopathic college
, come out of study, learned fortwo years with a specialist in
(17:34):
this field, and go out and havea, grow a business within a year
where I'm fully booked out andhave patients all online all
over the world.
That's insane.
Yeah, like that's just.
That's not because I'm a goodbusiness person, it's just not.
That's just because there issuch a need for this, it's so
common and no one reallyunderstands it.
It's it's baffling to me yeah,it should it, should it should.
(17:57):
It's like how can I?
I feel lucky, I'm like, wow,like I actually can specialize
in something that's so needed.
And why isn't this market notflooded with at least allopathic
doctors understanding thatthey're not treating the root
cause?
Michele Folan (18:10):
They're just simply not so no, they just want
to put a bandaid on things andand not and not really dig in
because they don't have time.
They don't have time.
They book their patients, youknow, every 10, 15 minutes and
they're not able to really havethat kind of relationship or
(18:34):
interaction with patients.
And I should mention SIBO issmall intestine bacterial
overgrowth, just so listenersrealize.
You mentioned gluten as apossible cause, and so that goes
beyond just having a glutensensitivity.
(18:55):
It actually can cause some ofthese issues as well.
Joanne Kennedy (19:01):
Huh, so there's three main ways that gluten can
cause high histamine.
One, simply if you are a celiac.
Because when you're a celiacespecially if you're late
diagnosed celiac and you've beenexposed to gluten for a long
time it blunts the microvilli,the tiny little hairs in the gut
(19:21):
.
Those hairs excrete, they storeand release the Dow enzyme and
the Dow enzyme breaks downhistamine that is being made in
the gut.
So you will just have notenough Dow enzyme period.
Like it's gone, your microvilliare gone and so that is a big
problem for celiacs.
Then you can have justnon-celiac gluten sensitivity,
(19:44):
which is in Australia andAmerica in most instances,
because our wheat is justmodified, tampered with crap.
I was in crap, crap.
I was in France for two monthsand I ate baguettes.
I ate bread, three baguettesall day, every day, and nothing
happened to me.
I was not bloated, didn't feeltired, nothing.
(20:06):
Come back here.
There's just no way.
So basically, humans lack theenzymes to break down gluten.
It's highly inflammatory to thegut in all humans, I think when
we're young and stuff, we getaway with it.
Classic sign of not toleratinggluten.
It's not just gut issues, it'sheadaches, migraines, eczema,
anxiety, depression, fatigue,low iron.
(20:28):
People will say to me I'm fineon it.
I'm like I can see that you'renot, yeah, yeah, so it.
What happens with gluten isthat it's the cells of the gut
are held together, what's calledthe tight junctions, and then I
think of them like a shoelace.
They open and close to allowfood and electrolytes and your
(20:50):
minerals to move into the bloodwhere they're meant to.
It's held together by somethingcalled zonulin, and gluten
dissembles zonulin, it damagesit and you release zonulin.
You can test this in a stooltest.
You can say, wow, you've got alot of zonulin in your poop.
You have a leaky gut,hyperpermeable.
Michele Folan (21:09):
Okay, so that's leaky gut.
Joanne Kennedy (21:10):
Okay, yeah, okay , that's leaky gut, right, and
it is a real thing, and peoplewill say it's not, but it really
is a real thing.
And then what can happen isgluten will get into the
bloodstream.
Now, when it's bad, when youhave the celiac gene, that's
what causes celiac disease.
But if you don't have celiacdisease, well, it's just the
immune system is reactive togluten and it can release a lot
(21:33):
of histamine.
Okay, and then we've got alsowheat allergies.
So wheat allergy is interestingbecause the gluten so bread you
know, this is what we're reallytalking about the gluten
dissembles the tight junctionsand then the wheat gets through
into where when it shouldn'tinto the bloodstream, and you
can create a hypersensititivity,an immunoglobulin antibody
(21:56):
reaction to wheat.
Oh, so you can become.
That's when people are almostanaphylactic to eat.
It causes it like people, willpeople get wheezing and and
their throat will close over.
It will be like a peanutallergy, like a severe allergy.
I don't see this a lot inclinic because allopathy will
pick that up, because it's amedical emergency.
So there's celiac, there's justgluten.
(22:19):
How it dissembles tightjunctions gluten, how it damages
the gut, releases inflammation.
That will cause inflammation,release histamine, and then
there's the weight component aswell.
Michele Folan (22:30):
So yeah, okay.
Wow, and I've heard otherpeople say the same thing that
you mentioned about going toanother country eating bread and
also having wine and otherthings too, because our wine is
crap.
Sorry, they put so much addedstuff.
(22:52):
You know we don't have the foodpurity laws like they do in
other countries, but I've heardthe same thing that they were
able to eat and drink a lot ofthe things that they normally
would not be able to have orenjoy here, so I thought that
was interesting.
Joanne Kennedy (23:06):
No, it's very true.
So, people, it's the firstthing you need to think about
how much gluten you're consumingand if it's causing health
issues, because it most likelyis contributing yeah, okay, I
have really.
Michele Folan (23:18):
Since I started doing health coaching, I had
really cut down on my gluten.
I eat very, very little, unlessI'm like at a restaurant, and
yeah, yeah, same really.
They have a really yummy bread,yeah yeah, I will do that.
Joanne Kennedy (23:35):
I save it for those occasions.
Michele Folan (23:38):
Right.
Okay, I want to ask aboutoxalates.
So my knowledge of oxalates isspinach and I've been told,
because I have osteoporosis,that I should stay away from
oscillates because it caninhibit easy for me to say,
(24:01):
inhibit the bone formation ofbone, yeah, yeah.
Joanne Kennedy (24:05):
So tell me how oxalates impact histamine
intolerance okay, should I firsttalk about what oxalates are
and how the body makes them andwhy we've got a problem with
them.
Okay, so oxalates, first of all, they are in all plant foods at
some level.
Okay, so plants make oxalate.
(24:26):
Some are very low and then wego right through to very high,
spinach being a very highoxalate food, for instance.
So foods have a.
Plant foods contain oxalates andthe human body does make
oxalate.
It's part of the breakdown ofcollagen.
It, the amino acids glycine andhydroxyproline will get
(24:47):
converted into oxalate in theliver and then they get excreted
in the urine.
It's, it's part of ourbiochemistry.
So humans make it now when itcomes to the gut and the get
excreted in the urine.
And the dietary component ofoxalate is that humans lack the
enzymes to break down oxalate inthe food.
So we rely on our microbiome todo that.
(25:10):
So if our microbiome isdysbiotic and disrupted which is
just every human in the Westernworld stress, herbicides,
pesticides all of that disruptthe gut microbiome.
What can happen is you'reconsuming a lot of oxalate foods
, or even not a lot, just anormal amount nuts and seeds,
sweet potatoes, spinaches andhealthy foods, and your gut
(25:33):
microbiome can't break it downproperly and oxalates form.
Well, they are sharp, tinylittle crystals and they deposit
in the gut, they get throughinto the bloodstream, they'll
get into the joints and they doreally get a lot into the
bladder and the urinary system,because that's how, once in the
blood urinary system, becausethat's how, once in the blood,
(25:56):
they go into the liver and thekidneys for excretion rather
than the bowels.
And this is why classic oxalatesymptoms are bladder pain,
interstitial cystitis,vulvodynia, and it causes
inflammation because they'resharp and they cause pain and
that will release a lot ofhistamine.
Michele Folan (26:13):
Okay, this makes sense.
Yeah, yeah, okay, and theycause a lot.
Joanne Kennedy (26:18):
They cause havoc in the body.
They also this is important tounderstand they actually can
deplete the body of sulfur, andsulfur is the second most
abundant element in our body.
It's so important for so manythings, but so many things okay,
everything really, includingone big thing is that they make
(26:40):
glutathione, and glutathione isyour body's major antioxidant,
so it helps get on top ofinflammation.
So oxalates are really badbecause they not only cause so
much inflammation, they not onlycause so much inflammation,
they inhibit your ability todeal with inflammation and they
also disrupt methylation.
(27:01):
Okay, so they are something thatwhen I see a lot of, when
people come to me they might'vedone a gene test, hormone
testing, sibo testing, stooltest and they've done an organic
acids test.
The first thing I'll look foris oxalates, stool tests and
I've done an organic acids test.
The first thing I look for isoxalates.
That's most likely the majorcause of your problem.
And one more thing we need toknow about oxalates is a lot of
mold species contain oxalate aswell.
(27:23):
Ah, okay, okay, so that thatand I have can't tell you how
many times I've seen physicianswhatever, whoever they are tell
their patients to do an organicacids test and they have high
oxalate and it's ignored andit's always something that has
to be dealt with as an absolutepriority.
Michele Folan (27:44):
All right, so the oxalates and you're saying
oxalates, I'm saying oxalatesAgain.
It's how we say thingsdifferently.
It's again it's how we saythings differently.
It's funny, isn't it?
That's okay, yeah, I'm just.
I'm just laughing, just how wesay things differently.
But all right, how do you test?
(28:05):
Is it a blood test for oxalates?
It's a urine test yeah okay,you're in your it's a urine test
.
Joanne Kennedy (28:13):
So organic houses test is um.
You know the mosaic labs in theus is the leading it's the best
lab in the world for organicacids test, so americans can
definitely get that done.
So that's, it's an.
It's an.
It's a.
It's an a.
There's a lot of other markersin that test.
It's a really great test to getdone to see.
But oxalates are the hiddencause of chronic.
(28:35):
You know they're a major causeof fibromyalgia and chronic
fatigue.
Oh my gosh, this stuff's just.
Michele, you wouldn't believe.
If you sat with me for a weekin clinic, you just wouldn't
believe this is fascinating.
It's actually just.
It's just like the wholemedical industry is just so
corrupt from the top down andI'm not one of these like
(28:58):
conspiracy theory naturopaths,it's just.
I've just seen it like it'sjust so bad, and you know this
is another thing I have to sayit.
This happens in America a lot.
You wait like two months to getan appointment with a
functional medicine doctor.
They make you do like twothousand dollars worth of
testing before they see you,like they don't even know what's
wrong with you first, so theyget you to do all this testing
(29:21):
and then they're like if they'dsat with you for 10 minutes and
ask you questions around yoursymptoms, maybe you just do one
test, but people I see Americanswhere they're doing spent
$2,000 on functional medicinetesting whereby there's no case
taken before they do it.
It's bad, it's really bad.
Michele Folan (29:40):
So anyway, do you ever have patients come to you
that have had DNA testing first?
Joanne Kennedy (29:46):
I do it's an absolute waste of time and money
.
It's not your genes, it's theenvironment.
It is just this is a bugbear ofmine and I know I do MTHFR and
all of that, but I'm really.
You know, I set people straightwith it.
It's not a gene, it's theenvironment that is disrupting
your enzyme functioning in yourbody.
(30:06):
So you do a gene test and it'slike everyone has mutations on
all of these different genesthat we're looking at.
You wouldn't leave the house Ifyou went and sat down and looked
at it all and what it all meant.
It's like oh, I can't gooutside, I can't be exposed to
sunlight, I can't be exposed toany toxins.
It's clinically useless wasteof money.
(30:28):
It's just because what are wegoing to do about it?
It's like wow, we actually need.
People will say oh like.
People's argument to me is youmight have SNPs on your
glutathione genes and thereforeyou shouldn't be exposed to mold
and you shouldn't be exposed tomercury.
I'm like no one should and itdoesn't.
It's like well, you can have nogene mutation on those genes
(30:51):
and you are eating tuna all day.
You'll have big problems withmercury and big problems with
detoxification or you simply arein mold and that will be a big
problem for you, or you'reeating glyphosate all day long,
so it's the environment.
So where you need to spend yourmoney is with the testing that
shows us the root causes of yourproblems.
Michele Folan (31:12):
All right, if I come to you and I've got, I've
had diarrhea, I have eczema,bloating.
What tests would you probablysay?
Let's do this first.
Joanne Kennedy (31:25):
Yeah, I definitely do SIBO testing.
So SIBO absolutely causes a lotof bloating and it can cause
loose stools, diarrhea.
Okay, I would also.
First of all, I'd just be likelooking at your diet how much
gluten are you eating?
Because absolutely gluten cando that.
Okay, if you're gettingdiarrhea and bloating,
(31:48):
definitely SIBO would be and theeczema SIBO would be the first
test that I would do for that.
Michele Folan (31:54):
All right, and then what?
So say, my test comes back andit is positive for SIBO I do.
The breath test is what youwere suggesting.
Then what would the treatmentbe for that?
Joanne Kennedy (32:08):
So the really interesting thing about SIBO is
that it takes healthy plantfoods.
This is why it gets veryconfusing for people.
They're called FODMAPs, fodmapfoods.
Fodmap foods are healthy plantfoods and they are the foods
that the SIBO bacteria convertinto the gases.
So you actually need to removethese FODMAP foods from your
(32:29):
diet.
Now whilst and then we doherbal medicine to help.
You know, it's very simple.
If you have methane, siboallicin, which is an active
constituent of garlic, is verygood for methane.
If you have hydrogen, sibo,berberine is very good for that.
Very simple, like the herbalmedicine.
(32:49):
Choices are quite simple.
Okay, we definitely needdigestive enzymes.
When you have SIBO, it causesan acidic environment in the
small intestine.
That means you need somepancreatic enzymes and probably
some hydrochloric acid in yourdigestive enzymes.
And you do that At the sametime to get your symptoms down
(33:10):
quickly, you do a SIBO lowhistamine diet.
So you it's SIBO and lowhistamine.
That often helps with yoursymptoms, really, really quickly
getting your symptoms down.
And then you treat SIBO forabout three months and then we
watch the signs.
You know, basically, if it'sjust SIBO, you will feel so much
(33:33):
better in a week, two weeks,okay, okay, and then it's just
SIBO.
It is, then it's just.
I always say to my patientsthen it's just boring for three
months of boring, boring diet.
Michele Folan (33:44):
But it's not that bad.
It's just.
That's what I was afraid youwere going to say.
Yeah.
Joanne Kennedy (33:50):
It's just hard, look, it's just.
It's just just, you can't haveonion and garlic, which is hard
for eating out at restaurantsand things like that.
But you know, you can get ontop of SIBO, naturally, in most
instances.
Sometimes there's somehindrances around it, but yeah,
so SIBO is prettystraightforward.
Michele Folan (34:09):
GI test specialist person, gut health
person, and she was telling meabout onion and garlic and I was
like whoa, whoa, whoa.
Yeah, do you know what I cookwith every single night?
Joanne Kennedy (34:32):
I say to my look , I you know, Michele, it's
funny I have patients that wouldgive their right arm to eat
their way out of their healthissues because they're on
methotrexate and corticosteroidsand they're so sick.
So I kind of do say that to mypatients and I also say look,
you can eat carrots, you can eatsome broccoli, you can have
fresh animal protein, you canhave all your fresh herbs and
(34:53):
spices.
Some people have no food.
Through.
To tell you what, when gutissues get that bad, if you
don't, if you, if you ignore it,so if you've got SIBO and an
oxalate problem, you can causesuch havoc in your gut that your
immune system just goes berserkand it's very hard to calm down
in a pissed off immune system.
I'm sorry if I say that thatway.
Michele Folan (35:15):
Oh, we've said much worse on this show, don't
you worry Sorry.
Joanne Kennedy (35:19):
And it will just cause havoc.
And then what happens is youhave end up with multiple food
intolerances.
These people eat chicken andrice.
You should see, some peoplecan't eat anything but chicken
and rice because they've ignoredthese things and haven't done
the thing.
I know it's hard and boring andI love food.
(35:40):
I love food.
But it's just, if you reallytake it seriously and do it for
three months, you just turn yourhealth around and then and you
know the thing with SIBO itcauses iron deficiency, it
causes B12 deficiency, folateiodine deficiency.
So that affects yourmethylation, it affects your
energy, your mood, your thyroid,everything.
Michele Folan (36:02):
Does it affect like proper absorption of
nutrition too?
Yeah, because I think women inmidlife worry about the fact
that they're not absorbingnutrients and it affecting their
bone health.
Yes, you know, gettingosteoporosis, that type of thing
too.
I know that's a huge fear.
Joanne Kennedy (36:21):
Yes, absolutely, that's right.
The really interesting thingabout these chronic health
issues like oxalates oxalatesdeplete the body of electrolytes
, okay, so when you become moreacidic than alkaline to get to
alkalize your blood, you pullcalcium and magnesium from your
bones.
So that's a big problem.
Yeah, and when it comes tooxalates, um, oxalates, I bet
(36:45):
you oxalates are so bad, I betyou've actually damaged bone and
they also use up a lot ofcalcium.
So oxalates deplete the body ofcalcium and magnesium.
They will cause a more acidicenvironment in your blood.
You can test that at the aniongap on a blood test.
When you do your electrolytessodium, potassium, etc.
(37:06):
You they'll often do anion gap.
It shouldn't be over 10 or 12.
When it's heading up to 15, 16,17, if you you have, you are,
your blood is tending to be moreacidic.
It's not acidosis, which is amedical emergency, which more is
like kidney malfunction, butit's telling us you are
depleting your calcium andmagnesium.
(37:28):
Calcium runs your heart, right.
So your body's like needcalcium, bones, bones, bones.
Classic symptom there's asymptom of electrolyte imbalance
is actually muscle cramps andpeople will say to me I get
muscle cramps, I have magnesium,I like you need calcium as well
.
Okay, right, you need.
You need sort of a goodelectrolyte, calcium and
magnesium.
(37:48):
So that's sort of how thatworks is whereby it's the
acidity which is leachingcalcium magnesium from bone.
All right, I bet you oxalatesdamage bone.
They get into the brain, theyget into the thyroid.
They're really bad.
Michele Folan (38:01):
This is so fascinating.
Again.
I mean, my mind is going amillion miles an hour and I
wanted you to be here because Ireally think that my mission is.
I want women to be advocatesfor themselves, that they know
what questions to ask.
They know what blood tests toask for.
(38:24):
I had a friend text me theother day and she said I asked
for all these different bloodtests that I've heard experts on
your show and you talk about.
You know different thyroidtests and that sort of thing.
And she said I got so muchpushback from my doctor and I
even had to sign a waiver sayingthat I would pay for these if
(38:46):
the insurance didn't pay forthem.
But she said I stood my ground,I went toe to toe with them and
they let her get all that bloodwork.
Yes, but you know what?
That doesn't happen all thetime, joanne, you know, and it's
sad.
Joanne Kennedy (39:02):
No, I know it's the same here.
You know we as taxpayers weshould be able to get a lot of
bloods just done, standardbloods, but to try and get a
full thyroid panel done it'simpossible.
The doctors refuse.
I had a friend.
She's actually got thyroidcancer right and the doctors
(39:25):
would not run a full thyroidpanel for her and she just my
friend was at the.
She's also going throughmenopause, right, so she just
breaks down crying.
She was either I was going toscream and yell or was going to
cry.
She goes I think I better cry,so she just starts crying.
You say you're, you're meant tobe here to help me.
You, you make you're nothelping me.
Yeah, I'm like wow, like reallythey're, they're not helping.
(39:46):
So it's bloods are so bloodtests are so useful, they're so
useful at helping identify rootcauses of illness.
You know and um, yeah, I mean,look, it's a, I get it.
It's a disaster in the us.
I know, with the testing andstuff it's really really hard
and it's expensive.
You know the direct labs,directlabscom.
(40:07):
You can go and order all yourlabs direct from them, bypass
the doctor, directlabscom okay,they're great, I'm writing that
one down.
Yeah, I was looking at that fora patient yesterday and she
needs to do all her.
She's in late perimenopause.
I'm like I don't know what FSHand LH like.
Is it just because you can justnot ovulate in late 48, 49
(40:30):
because of stress and she's verystressed?
I want to see what FSH and LHare.
But they did a full femalemetabolic panel with hormones,
so insulin and vitamin D and allthese things.
You could get that test done.
And I said to her maybe yourinsurance company will just
cover some of the testing from alab directly without going to
(40:50):
the doctor.
I'm not sure.
Yeah, you can in America, ofcourse you guys, you can do, you
can get that stuff doneyourself.
Michele Folan (40:59):
I'm going to put that in the show notes.
Yeah, so I do have a question.
So how do you work with clients?
Because you said you work with,obviously, clients there,
patients there in Australia buthow do you work with them
globally?
Joanne Kennedy (41:15):
Yeah, so I'll just talk about the US Canada.
It's via Zoom, very simple, andthe good thing about the US and
Canada is that the testing Ineed to get done, be it the
organic acids testing and moldmycotoxins testing, I can order
that direct from Australia.
So the labs are in the UnitedStates Mosaic Labs and I've got
(41:40):
an account with them so I canjust get that testing done.
That's really easy.
Sibo testing you can orderthrough direct labs and if you
need to get some like some well,a bit obscure bloods done that
your doctor won't run, or if youknow people I don't want to go
to my doctor, I don't like them,it's pain you can just get
these done.
Bloods done direct.
(42:02):
Okay, so that's all simple.
I've sorted that all outbecause I've had I've got so
many north, I've got so manyAmericans, Michele, like they're
desperate for help, beinghonest, and like they can see me
for consoles, and I'll just letthem know I get like you pay
Australian dollars.
It's like half American dollars.
Do you know what I mean Really?
Yeah, well, our dollar is soweak Like we get like 60 cents
to the US dollar, wow, all right.
Michele Folan (42:23):
Yeah, so it's much cheaper.
Joanne Kennedy (42:25):
Yeah, okay.
So that's just so that theyknow.
And regarding supplements issimple, because you guys can
just order supplements fromThorne or Pure Encapsulations,
Research Nutritionals.
I've got an account with them.
You, you need an account,someone to have an account.
I've got an account with them.
So it's very, very simple,right?
So north America is supersimple.
(42:46):
Gets a bit harder in sort ofother countries because of, like
, the lack of functionalmedicine testing, but all the,
all the labs are coming out ofthe us.
And this is the thing thingwith America is like, because I
can say this Do you know howmuch I love America?
It's like my favorite thing.
I love it.
I love Americans, but you allhave the best and worst of
everything.
Do you know what I mean?
Michele Folan (43:05):
No shit.
Joanne Kennedy (43:10):
It's like the worst, like the whole medical
system is really bad, but youhave the best doctors and you
have the best functionalmedicine testing and you have
the best supplement companies.
You have it all there, but it'sjust not because it's such.
There's 350, what millionpeople.
It's just it's like it'sactually a small component, but
it's all there.
Yeah, so we, when we need, whenI've got the chronically ill
(43:34):
patients in australia, I'm likewe need to send your testing to
America.
You need to get the supplementsfrom America.
It's all there for you guys,yeah.
Michele Folan (43:43):
Okay, well, and that gives me hope, right, that
people can start to get someanswers to these nagging things
that are.
It's perplexing, you know, whenyou've been to the doctor four
or five times and no one isgiving you answers.
This is just so much moreproactive.
Yeah, but just addressing thecore problem, addressing the
(44:09):
issue, rather than just coveringit up with a pharmaceutical.
I mean and I everybody knowsthis, but I came from the
pharmaceutical industry.
I spent 26 plus years in in thepharmaceutical and med device
world and enjoyed my time therevery much.
But now I'm seeing it through adifferent lens, having been
(44:30):
doing this podcast, and it'sit's really opened my eyes.
I have a personal question foryou, Joanne.
Yeah, sure, what is one of yourpillars of self-care?
What do you do for yourself, doyou?
Joanne Kennedy (44:42):
Know what?
Lately it's been journaling.
So in the morning I do somelittle meditation.
I love that, but I do thisjournaling, so it's just getting
my journal out and just writingdown thoughts Apparently.
Look, I do it for like five, 10minutes, but if you are really
having some hard times, 20minutes of journaling and then
(45:05):
apparently you just rip it up,burn it every day.
So I find it really reallytherapeutic, just like getting
brain dump on the page and thenon with my day and I find myself
craving it.
I even bought like reallypretty little journals and like
little, just making it a realritual for myself.
Michele Folan (45:27):
Yeah, I think that's nice, and I hear people
journaling.
I don't do that, but the more Ihear, I think it's very
valuable.
Joanne Kennedy (45:38):
Yeah, it's very valuable.
Look, I've got friends of minewho go through so hard times
seeing psychologists and stuffand that's part of their actual
treatment.
Okay, speaking to a patientyesterday, she's a naturopath
too.
Actually she was talking aboutthere's a doctor, he's American,
I can't remember his name, buthe specialises in pain and part
(45:59):
of his treatment is 20 minutesof journalling every morning
because the pain is emotionaland I believe in all this stuff.
Michelle, the more I work withpractitioners and like I know
what I'm I've done it for 12years now like that's all I do,
right, the functional medicineand all that.
When I'm listening to mypatients, I'm like where's the
stress and trauma coming from?
Because it causes ill health.
(46:19):
It really does.
I believe that it does.
So much of what I do now islike I will refer some people
just need to like do somemeditation.
Some people need to like go fora walk every day.
Some people need therapy.
Some people need emotionalfreedom technique.
(46:45):
They need work, they needsomatic work.
They need to see a traumatherapist.
It just where's it coming from?
So, um, but I believejournaling is just something
that is actually being used withpsychotherapists and staff as
part of a treatment forsomeone's uh problem.
So it's, it's um, it's justsomething that's come into my
awareness.
I just started doing it a fewmonths ago as just a bit of fun,
and I was just sitting in themorning with my coffee looking
out at the water.
I'm like I just want to writedown some thoughts.
(47:06):
And then it started, and then Iwas like, oh, I'm addicted to
this, and now it's just become anice routine.
Michele Folan (47:12):
Yeah, that's really great.
Thank you for mentioning that.
I think you may influence somefolks listening to the podcast
to really kind of explore thatas a means to just really gather
your thoughts and sometimeswriting it out, you can kind of
sort things in your head, Ibelieve.
(47:33):
Yeah, and it's also like abrain dump.
It's just like a brain dump,yeah, yeah, I love that.
Yeah, I love that.
That's so great.
Joanne Kennedy (47:38):
And you can give it up.
You know I, you can just giveit all up to God as well.
Just say here you go, just giveit up to the divine.
Whoever you want, it's likebrain dump give it up and then
just get on with your day.
Michele Folan (47:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's perfect, Joanne Kennedy
where can the listeners find you?
Joanne Kennedy (48:00):
Yeah, so simply on my website, which is
joannkennedynaturopathy.
com.
I've also got an Instagram pagewhich is just
joannkennedynaturopath, and I'vealso got YouTube channel with
lots of videos on methylationand histamine.
It's justjoannkennedynaturopath, so just
all my name naturopath.
Michele Folan (48:13):
Yeah, Got it Again.
That will all go in the shownotes.
Joanne Kennedy, thank you somuch for being a guest today.
Joanne Kennedy (48:20):
Thank you so much for having me, Michele.
Thank you.
Michele Folan (48:24):
Hey, thanks for tuning in.
Please rate and review the showwhere you listen to the podcast
.
And did you know that Askingfor a Friend is available now to
listen on YouTube?
You can subscribe to thepodcast there as well.
Your support is appreciated andit helps others find the show.
Thank you.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!