Building Your Immune System Naturally: Fighting Colds and Flu Without Medicine

Are you tired of reaching for the medicine cabinet every time cold and flu season hits? In this episode, Katie and Chrissy explore how to build a robust immune system naturally—the way God designed it to work.

We dive into the science behind immunity, why our obsession with hand sanitizer might be doing more harm than good, and how gut health is the foundation of a strong immune system. Plus, we share practical natural remedies you can use when illness strikes, from bone broth to eucalyptus oil.

In This Episode:

• Why microplastic exposure from contact lenses matters (and Katie's experiment with reversing poor eyesight!)
• How leaky gut syndrome weakens your immune response
• The power of bone broth, raw honey, and organ meats
• Natural remedies: mullein tinctures, eucalyptus oil, and more
• Why sunshine, sleep, and stress management are non-negotiables for immunity

Helpful Resources & Links:

Bone Broth Brands:

• Kettle & Fire: https://www.kettleandfire.com
• Pacific Foods: https://www.pacificfoods.com

Essential Oils & Herbal Remedies:

• Mountain Rose Herbs (quality dried mullein, eucalyptus): https://www.mountainroseherbs.com
• Plant Therapy (quality essential oils): https://www.planttherapy.com

Local & Healthy Food Sources:

• Local Harvest (find farmers markets & local suppliers): https://www.localharvest.org
• Eat Wild (pasture-raised meat directory): https://www.eatwild.com

Further Reading:

• Children's Health Defense measels article: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/latest-measles-outbreaks-result-failed-vaccines-not-failure-to-vaccinate/
• Weston A. Price Foundation (traditional foods & health): https://www.westonaprice.org

Remember: These natural approaches aren't about instantly stopping illness—they're about giving your body the tools it needs to fight effectively and build lasting immunity.

Connect with us: Subscribe for weekly newsletters and leave us a five-star review to help others discover natural stewardship!

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult with your healthcare provider before making changes to your health routine.

Connect With Us:

Join Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crunchychristianmama

Follow us on Instagram @crunchystewardship

FREE How to Afford Non-Toxic Living Workbook: https://crunchystewardship.com/how-to-afford-non-toxic-living

Episode Transcript

Katie (00:00):
Hey, and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.

(00:01):
My name is Katie Fiola Jones.

Chrissy (00:04):
And my name is Chrissy Roach.
We are two cousins who arepassionate about learning and
sharing knowledge to equipothers to steward their
spiritual, mental, emotional,financial, physical health in
order to honor God in everyaspect of their lives.

Katie (00:18):
In our podcast, we take deep dives into what it means to
steward our lives as Godoriginally intended for us with
the resources that he has givenus.
We look at topics such as food,medicine, finances, mental
health, and tons more through anatural lens and with a biblical
foundation.

Chrissy (00:37):
Before we get started in today's episode, if you have
been enjoying our podcast,please be sure to subscribe and
leave us a five star rating.
This helps other people find ourshow in the future.
And if you haven't alreadysigned up, go ahead and sign up
for our weekly newsletters soyou can keep up to date with all
things crunchy that we aresharing now.

(01:00):
To start off our episode forthis week, we are going to share
our random revelation.
So Katie, kick it off.

Katie (01:07):
Yeah, this week's random revelation is kind of brought to
you by some of my crunchygirlfriends.
Um, I've mentioned that before.
We have a text group where weliterally talk all things
crunchy every day, all day, likeliterally all the time.
I've learned that people whowear contacts have a higher

(01:30):
level of microplastics in liketheir blood system.
And I, I, I read that factsomewhere and I literally, it
made me very upset because Iwear contacts and I was like, no
way.
And in my mind I'm like, okay, Iguess that kind of makes sense

(01:51):
because they're like a plastic.
And I, I totally brushed thefact off.
This was like maybe a month agothat I had learned this, but I
was like, okay, whatever.
Well, one of my girlfriendsbrought up something about eyes
and contacts and reversing yourpoor eyesight with.

(02:12):
A lot of like natural lightexposure and some like eye
exercises and not usingprescription either con like
glasses or contact lenses of thestrength that they give you,
like what your actualprescription is.
So using like a weakerprescription, then what they say
you need so that way your eyesdon't get lazy and you know,

(02:35):
they're, they're a muscle.
Your eyes are made up of a bunchof muscles and so if you allow
your eyes to be lazy and justuse the lenses that you're given
as your prescription, then theyjust continue to degrade more
and more and more over time,which makes sense if you are

(02:55):
someone who wears contacts orglasses, you know that every
time you go to the eye doctor.
They like knock down or knockup, I guess your prescription a
little bit more.
And so you're always needinglike new lenses and contacts,
all these things.
And it's like every year theyget worse and worse and worse.
And so my friend has actuallybeen like reversing her eyesight

(03:19):
to be better.
And I had no idea she had, shehad never mentioned this to me
and, and it's, she's been doingit for about a year and her
prescription has slightlyadjusted a little bit better.
And so, Chrissy, you may havenoticed the last few times we've
recorded that I have beenwearing glasses and a lot of
people have been like, oh,you're wearing your glasses a
lot more.

(03:40):
Well, my glasses prescription islike much weaker than my contact
lenses because I got theseglasses many, many years ago and
I don't update them every yearbecause I don't have.
eye insurance.
And so it's expensive to getthem upgraded every time that my
prescription changes, And Iusually don't wear glasses at

(04:05):
all unless I'm at home and it'sthe evening and I'm like, oh, my
contacts are just kind ofbothering me.
But even then, contacts don'tbother my eyes, so I don't wear
my glasses a lot.
So anyway, I've been wearingthem and people are like, what
is this?
Like you are wearing glasses.
And so anyway, I'm slightly inthe camp of like, I really want

(04:25):
this to be true.
I want to try it out.
But I, I don't know, I don'tknow if I believe it, but my
friend, it's working for her, soI'm like, well, she wouldn't lie
to me.
Oh, and so back to the wholeplastics in your blood system.
So I learned that contacts likepeople who wear contacts have
more plastic in their system,microplastics in their system,

(04:51):
and now I learned that if youdon't wear contacts and allow
the natural light to hit youreyes and all the stuff.
That it could help reverse yourpoor eyesight.
So these two facts together haveconvinced me to not wear
contacts as often.
So that is my whole randomrevelation in not quite a

(05:14):
nutshell, but that is it.
And so, I don't know.
Well, I, the, I'm still figuringit out myself.
This is pretty new, but it'sbeen going on for maybe two or
three weeks.
Um, yeah.
So crazy.

Chrissy (05:31):
That's kind of funny that you mentioned that like.
You can improve your eyesightand the issues with contact
lenses.
There's another issue I'veactually learned about contact
lenses is that it can decreasethe blood flow to your eyeball,
inevitably making your eyesightworse also, and leading to eye

(05:53):
diseases and things like that.
And so,

Katie (05:57):
And so.

Chrissy (05:59):
was it maybe four or five months ago, I decided to
wear my, my glasses to workinstead of my contacts because I
didn't have blue light glassesand I didn't feel like buying
them.
And so I decided to just wear myglasses instead as like a, a
barrier somewhat for thecomputer since I got headaches

(06:23):
looking at the computer for solong on specific days, and I
realized that my eyeballs couldtolerate touching the air.

Katie (06:33):
That's so weird,

Chrissy (06:34):
yeah, just the day of my eyes touching the air.
They couldn't tolerate.
They got red, they got inflamed,they were watery all day long.
I had multiple people ask melike, Chrissy, are you okay?
Why are you cry?
I'm not crying guys.
It's just my eyes are touchingthe air and

Katie (06:50):
you know?

Chrissy (06:51):
handle it.
And so from that point on, I'vebeen trying to wear glasses once
a week merely just to get myeyes used to touching the air.
And let me tell you, five monthsin, I still have a hard time
making it through the whole daywearing glasses because my eyes
just get so tired and irritated.

(07:12):
'cause they don't have thatbarrier that they're used to.
So they have to work harder tokeep the moisture in.
They don't have that moisturebarrier.
And I mentioned that to the myeye doctor and she.
Kind of congratulated me.
She's like, maybe bump it up totwo days a week wearing your
glasses.
So even that kind of told methat like even from an eye

(07:34):
doctor's perspective, first off,glasses are better than contacts
in terms of eye health overall.
Um, second off, if we can makeour eyesight better, by all
means let's do it.
Although I would have toquestion like how far that goes
because I'm straight up halfwayto being legally blind and for

(07:56):
me to go back to 2020 naturallyseems impossible, but I would

Katie (08:03):
Yeah,

Chrissy (08:04):
wrong.
That would be fantastic.

Katie (08:08):
me too.
I, I have a lot of hope in itbecause, I am also very pretty
blind, like without wearingcontacts or glasses, like I have
a very hard time seeing

Chrissy (08:19):
what's your

Katie (08:19):
and so I, uh, negative one eye is like negative three
point something and one is likealmost negative three.
It's like two point, I don'tremember, but

Chrissy (08:30):
I'm like

Katie (08:31):
what's yours?

Chrissy (08:33):
and 4.5.

Katie (08:36):
Yeah.
I You're a little bit worse.
So it'll be interesting becauseone of the ways or one of the
things that helps your eyes getback to a healthy state and to
be able to start reversing thispoor eyesight is exposure to
natural sunlight.
So going outside without contactlenses, without your glasses on,

(08:58):
and just getting straight thenatural light on your eyes,
especially, um, at sunrise.
Um, and so I have been waking upearlier and like trying to get
that sunrise light onto my eyes,but I asked her like, are you,
what are you doing throughoutthe day?
Are you just like walkingaround?

(09:19):
Not being able to see and likethings are fuzzy.
And she's like, yeah, honestly Ikeep my glasses with me.
I use them for driving and Ijust kind of walk around like
not seeing things fully as longas I don't need to.
You know, as long as I'm notlike actively doing something
where I need to be able to see.
Obviously driving is one ofthose.
So I've kind of been doing thatand every time I go outside now

(09:39):
I take my glasses off becauseit's hard to see inside without
natural light.
And so I view, I wear them a lotinside and even sometimes if
it's just Malachi and I playing,I take'em off.
But then when I go outside andwe're playing or whatever at the
park, I just kind of park themon my t-shirt in front of me and
I just go fuzzy.

(10:00):
And it is, it's a really weirdfeeling.
But like you said, my eyes haveneeded to take time to like
adjusting to not wearing lensesall the time.
My eyes are more sensitive tothings.
Um, like cutting onions Theother day I used to never tear
up cutting onions.
And Oh my gosh.
But West did say there are theseorganic ones that we've gotten

(10:21):
locally.
He did say that these ones arereally, really strong.
So it could just be the onionstoo, but like, I used to never
tear up cutting onions and, andlike a couple days ago I was
like literally bawling from theonions and I'm like, I, my eyes
feel so exposed to this.

Chrissy (10:37):
That's so funny.
Well stay tuned to see how

Katie (10:40):
Yeah.

Chrissy (10:40):
eyesight and glasses journey commences.
Um, it might be a years longjourney, honestly, judging by
the fact that your friend hasbeen doing this for a year now
and her prescription changed atiny bit.

Katie (10:54):
Mm-hmm.

Chrissy (10:55):
maybe we can do it for 10 years and then we'll look
back and see how it's beengoing.

Katie (11:01):
Deal.

Chrissy (11:02):
That's okay.
Baby steps.
Baby steps.
But anyways, let's transitioninto the actual topic for
today's episode.
We are talking about the immunesystem specifically when it
comes to fighting off ourshort-term illnesses, like a
cold or the flu or littlerespiratory infections, sinus
infections, kind of things thatyou just happen to get, you

(11:25):
know, winter's

Katie (11:26):
You know.

Chrissy (11:26):
So gotta be prepared.
And, um, Katie and I will alsobe sharing little, um,
homeopathic tips and tricks thatyou can use during cold and flu
season to help you get overthese illnesses, um, when they
do decide to attack you because.
As winter comes, it is not anif, it is a when you get a
stuffy nose, unfortunately.

(11:48):
But we have methods.
God has given us methods that wecan use to combat that naturally
and we don't have to usemedicine.
So first things first, we'regonna get a little bit of an
understanding of the immunesystem.
Now, bear with me, it has beenmany years since I took my
college anatomy class, and so Idid break out the anatomy

(12:08):
textbook a few minutes ago totry to revamp my memory, but
it's just not revamping verywell.
So we're gonna give a quicklittle spiel on the immune
system.
Here we go.
Are you ready?
Ready, set, go.
things first, you got whiteblood cells.
And that's like the main part ofthe immune system, and there's a
bunch of different kinds ofwhite blood cells.

(12:29):
But essentially when there is apathogen, which is a virus or a
bad bacteria or a fungus of somesort that your body doesn't
like, it kicks into gear.
All the white blood cells, thewhite blood cells, find this
pathogen within your body andattack it and eat it.

(12:52):
Essentially in a process calledphagocytosis, it quite literally
means eating cells.
The white blood cells eat theviruses or the bacteria or the
whatever, pretty much break itapart and then disperse the
parts of the virus or the.

(13:13):
into the body to then be usedbecause all made of natural
things.
Even the bad stuff is made ofnatural things.
So your body uses the, kills thebad stuff and then uses the
parts of the bad stuff to makegood stuff.
Anyways, so that's one part ofit is, uh, the phagocytosis
white blood cells eating the,um, pathogens.

(13:37):
Another version that it mighthappen is pinocytosis, which is
essentially when the white bloodcells kind of attach and
dissolve the membrane and thenlike through osmosis, absorb the
pathogen, so to say.
Um, that's another way that itworks.
There's also.
Immunoglobulins.

(13:57):
Do I remember whatimmunoglobulins are?
No, but I know that there isI-G-A-I-G-D, IgE, IgG, and IGM
and all of them have differentjobs to protect you from
pathogens, essentially.
And oh, and one more thing.

Katie (14:18):
One more thing.

Chrissy (14:19):
has a

Katie (14:19):
system.

Chrissy (14:20):
And so that is one of the things

Katie (14:24):
of the,

Chrissy (14:25):
scientists have used in towards their benefit,
especially with, um, are wegoing there, are we okay to go
there?

Katie (14:35):
yeah.
Well, I think, um, one thingthat we should talk about is the
difference between beingimmunized versus vaccinated,
because I think that there is.
A distinct difference betweenthe idea of like, you catch
something and your systemremembers it versus having a

(15:01):
vaccination.
Do you know what I mean?
Because it is slightly differenteven though people like using
the words interchangeably.
But it's technically a littledifferent because if you get
COVID naturally, like you justcatch it from someone, your
immune system builds morerobust, um, antibodies to that

(15:28):
illness versus gettingvaccinated.
You know what I mean?

Chrissy (15:34):
Yeah, but they, the vaccine is based off of the same
sort of science that it givesyou like a low dose
concentration so that your bodyattacks it and then remembers it
so that it can attack strongerwhen the actual pathogen comes
in.
At least that's pre mRNA stuff.

Katie (15:55):
Yeah.
Well that's, yeah, that's,that's a good point because I
mean, I think what's interestingnow is that what coming out with
a lot of the COVID vaccine stuffis that they, it, it's been
shown that the vaccine actuallymakes it worse for you when you
get COVID, you know?

(16:16):
Yeah.

Chrissy (16:16):
but I think that's more mRNA and.
Less of like, because this bookwas written pre mRNA vaccines.
Um,

Katie (16:28):
Well, and even if you think about like the chickenpox
shot, so if you get vaccinatedagainst chickenpox versus if you
actually catch chickenpox, the,if you catch chickenpox and you
actually.
Chickenpox yourself.
Your body is now also immunizedagainst shingles when you are

(16:51):
older.

Chrissy (16:53):
Aunt Julie

Katie (16:54):
That's what I've heard.

Chrissy (16:55):
Julie got shingles.

Katie (16:57):
But did she ever have chickenpox as a kid?

Chrissy (17:00):
Pretty sure all four of them got, three of them had
chickenpox at the same time.

Katie (17:05):
Hmm.
That's what I've heard, but I, Iguess, I don't know for sure.

Chrissy (17:10):
chickenpox when she was 30.
That's that's totally a lie.

Katie (17:16):
Yeah.
I don't know.

Chrissy (17:18):
don't know.

Katie (17:18):
Um,

Chrissy (17:18):
gonna go based off of what I know from this, and you
can add whatever you want to it.

Katie (17:27):
cool.

Chrissy (17:28):
Okay.
Back backing up.
So think of it this way, whensomebody gets the flu, get the
flu multiple times in a year.
Right?
That's because they get the fluonce their body fights off that
flu pathogen and then is able tocombat the flu virus when it

(17:51):
comes into their body again andthey don't get sick.
Um, the getting sick part isjust the body's reaction to it.
It's kind of the body waging warand putting all of its.
Coins into one bag to try toattack this pathogen that's
coming in.
That's why we feel all of thesesymptoms, um, with it.

(18:14):
It's just how our body responds.
and that is also the idea thatvaccines actually are based off
of, is the idea that if we give,if we introduce somebody to a
very small dose of a certainpathogen or a va, a virus, then
their body will attack it andcreate a memory of what this

(18:41):
virus is like.
And then so that way when aperson is then naturally exposed
to.
This virus in nature, um, thebody will then be able to attack
it more smoothly and wouldn't,won't have all of the effects of
the illness in and of itself.
Essentially, it has a memory, itjust the back, the infection in

(19:04):
the bud rather than the bodyhaving to go through the full
infection, like the chicken poxor the flu or something like
that.
Um, nonetheless though, the bestway to be immune to an illness
or something like that is to getyour immunity from said illness.
So that's why.

(19:24):
in the fifties, sixties,seventies, you know, people
would have chickenpox partiesbecause if one kid gets
chickenpox, let's get all thekids having chickenpox.
They're never gonna getchickenpox again, kind of thing.
Um, so that's the idea.
They're playing off of that.
Our, our immune systems havememory that they can attack more
smoothly without problems asthey start remembering.

(19:46):
That's another reason why adultstend to get less colds than
children.
Children, especially daycare,kids get a lot of like sinus
stuff going on, and adults justtend to not get it as
frequently, mostly because ourbodies have had the time to
create that memory and to createa stronger immune system against

(20:08):
it.

Katie (20:09):
Yeah.
I, I mean, speaking of like allthe memory stuff, um, oftentimes
people.
Want to get a vaccine in orderto build that memory system up.
What's interesting is thatsomething that I've been
learning, and we don't have toget into the debate too much

(20:30):
here, but I just wanna givepeople a little dose.
A little dose of just someresearch that you can start
doing too, uh, when it comes tovaccines.
But there was that measlesoutbreak, um, not too long ago,
and I came across an article on,um, the children's health

(20:51):
defense website.
That the, there was that bigmeasles outbreak, I think it was
in Texas, um, that it actuallywas not a result of a failure to
vaccinate.
It was actually a failure of theactual vaccine, which then
people were exposed to theillness and the, it kind of

(21:15):
caught throughout the community.
And so it, it's one of thosethings that there's a lot of
debates on whether or not thevaccines are actually helpful.
Um, and the idea that beingimmunized is actually kind of
different from the phrase likebeing vaccinated.
Um, Wes actually just shared astory with me.
He's, he's watching this show onAaron Rogers right now, and

(21:38):
Aaron Rogers is known for likebeing very anti-vax.
And there was this whole thing,I had no idea this was going on
because I don't pay attention tosports at all.
And so I, I didn't know, butapparently there was like a big
deal.
During COVID and especially whenthe, the COVID vaccine came out
that, um, in the NFL you had tobe vaccinated in order to play.

(22:02):
And he very clearly, like when,when he was asked if he was
vaccinated, he c very clearlydid not say in interviews and
stuff that he was vaccinated.
He said, I have been immunizedagainst COVID and so, and.
I think what Wes learned in thatinterview or the show that he's

(22:24):
watching is that Aaron Rogerslike did get exposed to COVID
and now has immunity against itbecause he got it naturally and
his system now has thoseantibodies to fight it.
Um, and so there was apparentlya lot of like uproar about it.
Uh, I don't know, I, becauseagain, I don't really pay
attention to the sports worldthat often, but he was just

(22:44):
telling me about that and howit's just different there.
Like there's a slight differencebetween the idea of being
immunized versus vaccinated, andit seems as though when you are
immunized naturally.
Not with like an intervention,then your immune system responds
and it, it, it is strongeragainst it because now what

(23:06):
they're saying with the COVIDvaccine is that, oh, the first
vaccination you took isn't,isn't doing the job.
You have to get several otherboosters now in order for it to
do its job.
Versus a lot of people who nevertook the vaccine, maybe caught
COVID along the lines and nowhave no issues with anything

(23:28):
like getting COVID really badly.
And, and what they're startingto find, um, is that a lot of
people who have gotten the COVIDvaccine, um, and a lot of the
boosters actually are now havinga weakened system against COVI.
And so they're the ones whounfortunately are getting things
like long COVID VI and stuffbecause it's, it, it's not

(23:49):
working as well as it.
Was intended to.
And so, yeah, there's a lot ofinteresting stuff with the idea
of immunization and vaccinationand they're just, they're
slightly different.
Um, but yeah.

Chrissy (24:04):
I feel like the COVID vaccine in general is kind of
just in a completely differentcategory though than

Katie (24:10):
Yeah.

Chrissy (24:10):
of the vaccines since the COVID vaccine is made up of
mRNA.
Technology.
The rest of the vaccines areeither a dead virus or a live
attenuated virus, which prettymuch just means a weakened
virus.
And so they're, they're reallyexposing you to the virus
itself.
They're not giving you any sortof DNA changing or DNA altering

(24:34):
technology, anything like thatwith a traditional vaccine.
With that being said, though, itis important to be aware if your
body is sensitive to liveattenuated vaccines because it
is still possible to catch theillness from those, um, you get
them, if your body is justsusceptible to it.

(24:56):
If your immune system is notbuilt up, that's one of the
reasons they recommend.
Don't get vaccines while you'realready sick because your body's
already fighting something.
You don't need to give itanother thing to fight,
essentially.
It's funny, I actually have afriend who got yellow fever from
the yellow fever vaccine, whichis very,

Katie (25:17):
my gosh, that's

Chrissy (25:18):
yeah,

Katie (25:19):
crazy you say that.
I was just talking to someone.
Well, the conversation actuallycome was going on today too, but
yesterday I think it was, andtalking about whether or not
something like the yellow fevervaccine is worth it for certain
people because certainindividuals and, and, and all of

(25:39):
us really anyone who takes it.
Same thing with like therotavirus, isn't that one a live
virus like, um, vaccine?

Chrissy (25:46):
maybe.

Katie (25:47):
Like there are certain populations that are slightly
more susceptible to havingreally bad, reactions to getting
these live vaccinations.
And so we were talking aboutwhether or not.
The yellow fever vaccinespecifically is, is worth it,
um, if they are in thatpopulation.

(26:08):
And so anyway, that is, that'sso interesting that you bring
that up because I think theydecided that they're not going
to take that vaccine because ofthe risks of

Chrissy (26:21):
Interesting.

Katie (26:22):
sick.
So

Chrissy (26:23):
Interesting.

Katie (26:24):
anyway.

Chrissy (26:25):
Well,

Katie (26:25):
Yeah.
Yeah.

Chrissy (26:26):
is not meant to be an episode about vaccines, but
nonetheless,

Katie (26:30):
No.

Chrissy (26:30):
immunity, we kind of just have to touch on it.
Um, we know vaccines can be avery touchy subject right now,
but the focus of today's episodeis truly on how do we boost our
immune systems in general tomake them as strong and as
aggressive as possible toprevent us from getting sick.

(26:52):
Frequently, the, the mostirritating thing in the world is
just having a stuffy nose andyou can't breathe out of your
nose and you just want,

Katie (26:59):
Mm.

Chrissy (27:00):
isn't working and the sinex isn't working, and NyQuil
can't do the job, and you justneed something.
So the point of today's episodeis really to.
Um, give information to ourlisteners about how can you
prepare your body to fightagainst these things before they
even really take root and takehold in your body.

(27:22):
And if you do end up getting illfrom a cold virus or flu virus
or whatever, how can you thenbounce back from it?
And what can you use that gotthe resources that God has given
us that have not been humanlymanufactured?
Um, what can you use from theearth to help yourself fight

(27:45):
these illnesses?
And so, Katie, you wanna kickthat one off?

Katie (27:48):
Yeah, I think a great place to start is actually.
From those germs and microbesand bacteria that a lot of
people think are the enemy.
You know, we've been taught todeeply sanitize and, um,

(28:09):
disinfect everything around usto to kill all the germs and
that they're the enemy and wehave to get rid of them.
But what is so fascinating isthat we were actually designed
to coexist with a lot of thesemicrobes and organisms that are
around us.
Um, you know, way back when,like in Jesus' time they did not

(28:32):
go around hand sanitizingeverything and spraying Lysol
everywhere and killing all thegerms.
Like they had robust immunesystems because their bodies
learned how to coexist withthese, you know, quote unquote
germs everywhere.
So I think the first step isactually seeing these germs and

(28:54):
these microbes and theseorganisms as beneficial because
again, if we're talking abouthaving a memory, we want small
exposures, like little microdoses of these bacterias and,
and microbes and stuff into oursystem.
So that way our, our bodyrecognizes them as a foreign

(29:16):
thing that it just kind of needsto zap really quick and then we
can kind of keep going on ourday.
So I think the first step isreally to put the hand sanitizer
down, stop disinfectingeverything to its death and
learning to like, instead ofusing the disinfectant, hand

(29:38):
soaps and hand sanitizers.
Try just rinsing your hands offof, of the dirt and not
necessarily killing all of thegerms on your hands and allowing
yourselves to get it into yoursystems just a little bit.
It's not like, don't go likelicking something that somebody
sneezed on.
I mean, there are definitelymoms out there who are like,
yeah, go eat that like toy thatthey, this kid has slobbered on

(29:59):
and they're clearly sick.
Some moms are totally in thatcamp of like, just get them sick
and, and really learn to fightit off.
But I'm, I'm more just on thecamp of like, you know, we're
around it.
If you happen to put somethingin your mouth that a kid sneeze
on whatever, Malachi But I'm notlike, I'm not gonna go
encourage, like, getting sick.
It's more just allowing thosemicro exposures so that way your

(30:23):
system builds that up and, andit doesn't, you know, then that
way if it does get in yoursystem, it's not like, oh my
gosh, I've never seen thisbefore and it's crazy and now we
have to freak out.
It's like, no, your body knowswhat to do when it has.
These little bad guys.
And, and again, I don't evenwanna use the word bad guys
because I really think that theycan benefit our systems in, in

(30:46):
the sense that it helps to buildour immune system stronger.
So honestly, I think that's afirst stop is just like, stop
being afraid of all the germsaround you and, and get friendly
with them.
You know, put your hands indirt, like there's lots of good
bacteria and stuff in the dirt.
Um, and in your house, maybestop using all the really
intense disinfectants, like justuse mild soaps and even at

(31:11):
times, like, just use water,just rinse yourself versus like
getting rid of all the goodstuff.
So.

Chrissy (31:20):
I think a really great rule of thumb, especially for
like indoor cleanliness, islike, does it look clean?
Yes.
Great.
It's clean, know, it doesn'thave to pass the, um, the auger
plate test to see whether or notit's clean, because auger plates
will grow good bacteria and badbacteria.

(31:42):
Like we need bacteria in ourenvironments in order to
survive.
We interact with it on a dailybasis.
It's necessary, and so.
I think, yeah, just what youwere saying of like cleaning
with water and if you reallyneed a little bit of extra to
get a stain out or get in thereand get that dirt, the visible

(32:05):
dirt out of your grout or thefloors or something like that,
that's when baking soda andvinegar come into play and
hydrogen peroxide, those arevery powerful cleaning agents
that do not kill every singleliving thing in sight.
Um, I actually think it's kindof ironic that we spray many

(32:26):
things around us that aredesigned to kill living things
and then we wonder why ourliving bodies are
malfunctioning.
I just think that's kind ofironic to me and inevitably
exposing yourself to.
A bunch of little germsfrequently, like the germs in

(32:46):
soil.
If you're gardening, trygardening without gloves on.
Just garden with your hands.
Get the dirt stuck under yournails, and then maybe use your
tooth to get it out.
And you know what?
That's just how it goes.
Sometimes you just have to,'cause the other fingernail
isn't working, it's too short orwhatever.
Um, but you know, get the dirtunder your nails.

(33:07):
Get exposed to it.
That's another thing that I sawthis a lot in when I was working
in the hospital of like superbugs that have become chronic
infections.
We've got MRA, we've got MSSA,we've got EBSL, like these are
all resistant bacterias thathave developed from a society

(33:31):
that has Antibiotic themselves.
I don't know how to say thatproperly, but we have been
programmed to use antibiotics inevery single area of life to
clean our countertops,antibacterial, soap, um, hand
sanitizer, all these things.
And that's just not necessary.

(33:52):
Those are the culprits that aretruly responsible for these
superbugs forming,

Katie (33:57):
yeah, I.
Listen to a podcast too wherethis girl talked about how she
had been on lots of antibioticsand growing up she just
disinfected everything.
It was just, you know, her momcarried hand sanitizer and
they'd always be cleaning andshe's like, I, my body was so
depleted of all the goodbacterias that she ended up

(34:20):
getting.
I can't actually remember whatillness it was, but she was like
hospitalized because she hadthis massive super bug but
that's, I think that's the firststep.
But then as far as just like ourgeneral immune system and what
we can actively be doing besideslike.
Getting in the dirt and allowingourselves to be friends with

(34:41):
germ.
Um, there's a lot of ways thatwe can actually build up our
internal systems to be strong,to, to fight, uh, when they,
when it does need to fight.
Yeah, I think.

Chrissy (34:54):
many, many years ago Hippocrates said that all
disease stems from the gut.
And I think that statement is soincredibly true, especially the
more that we learn about thehuman body.
And we learn about how the bodyinteracts with our environments.
I mean, the enough, the part ofour body that ex is exposed the

(35:17):
most to the outside world is ourintestines.
Our intestines are 40 feet long,right?
Like they have more surface areathan our skin, than our face.
Our hair, like intestines, arethe most exposed to the outside
world because of what we put init.
And.
There's these junctions inbetween the cells in our

(35:39):
digestive systems, essentiallywhere the cells are kind of
stuck together and as we eat,um, foods that are not natural,
foods that have a lot of seedoils in them, or a lot of
preservatives or manmadeartificial flavorings and
colorings and this, that, andthe other thing, those junctions
in our small intestine start toloosen and we start to develop

(36:03):
this, syndrome.
It's called leaky gut syndrome.
Essentially, it means that yourgut, which is designed to
protect you from all thepathogens that you might eat
when you eat your dirt coveredfood, it opens up.
And all of a sudden, all thosepathogens that you've been
eating that you don't knowabout, have free reign in your

(36:26):
body because those junctions inbetween those cells are not
tight and they're not allowingonly specific things to come in.
They're allowing everything tocome in.
That includes microplastics,that includes toxins, that
includes pharmaceuticals thatare in our water systems, that
includes, MSG, maltodextrin, allthese things that are in our

(36:49):
food Teflon that have beenproven to cause harm in our
bodies.
If our body is constantlyfighting against these pathogens
that accidentally make itthrough these loose junctions in
our digestive system, it's notgonna have the manpower to go

(37:09):
around and then fight off a coldvirus and then fight off a flu
virus and then fight off RSV.
Let's fortify our gut.
Let's tighten up those junctionsin our gut by giving our bodies
good, healthy foods, lots ofgood nutrients, organic fruits
and vegetables, lots of highvitamins and minerals foods.

(37:30):
We're talking.
Meats with fat on them.
Um, organic vegetables, lots offruit is very good.
Staying away from like lots ofsugar, sugar is a huge irritant
inside the digestive system.
Whether you recognize it or not.
It just causes inflammationeverywhere and inflammation is

(37:55):
part of the natural immuneresponse.
If sugar is causinginflammation, that means our
bodies are responding negativelytowards that sugar or towards
any food that might causeinflammation, and so that's
something to keep in mind iseating.
Low inflammatory foods that arevery high in nutrients.

(38:17):
So one thing that's very, veryhelpful in healing the gut is
actually bone broth.
Um, I recommend this to a lot ofmy patients, especially ones who
just need to get a lot ofprotein in and they have very
little appetite.
Bone broth is the way to go.
They sell it at grocery stores.
Organic, no bad ingredients.
Um, specifically I think Kettleand Fire and Pacific are very

(38:40):
good brands that you can use.
But also another way to makegreat bone broth is buy a whole
chicken, cut the meat parts offof it, cut off the two boobs,
cut off the two wings, cut offthe two legs.
You have six pieces of reallygreat meat, and then you soak
the rest of it, the entire bonecarcass with some carrots, some

(39:01):
onions, some celery, some thejji stuff, you know, good
vegetables and you can make yourown bone broth.
Those are very good healingthings to your digestive system.

Katie (39:13):
actually as we speak, I have some, uh, beef bone broth
cooking in my kitchen.
Um, for this exact purpose,actually bone broth is also
really, really helpful inhealing your body like
postpartum.
And I very much experiencedthat.

(39:34):
Uh, when after Malachi was born,one of my best friends brought
me some homemade bone broth thatI was sipping in my hospital
bed.
Um, I had a lot of other thingsgoing on besides just being
postpartum.
Um, and so just having somesipping broth not only does it
just feel good in your systemwhen it's like going through and
warming everything up, but, um,I really do think it helped a

(39:57):
lot with healing and, andgetting me out of the hospital
quicker and just restoring allof my body, um, much faster.
But yeah, I've.
Actually been getting bones froma local supplier here in town
that I found.
And so this is, this is my firsttime using the beef bones that,

(40:21):
that I got from them.
But I, uh, did make some likechicken bone broth a little bit
ago, um, from a, a whole chickenthat we got from a local farmer
as well.
That's another thing, like findsomeone who is local because
then, the products that youpurchase, whether it is like a
meat product, so an animal, orif, if it's like a veggie or a

(40:43):
fruit, it will be the mostnutrient dense because it had a
lot less travel time.
Like once something is picked,once something is even
butchered, like once somethingis basically cut off from its
life source, it's nutrient uh,nutrient density, it, it starts.

(41:05):
It starts getting depleted, um,as soon as it dies.
And so the sooner you can eat itfrom the time that it was
killed, um, the better.
So trying to do that.
So getting local stuff is thebest.

Chrissy (41:22):
It's actually something really cool that I was just
thinking about bones.
I was thinking why is it thatbone broth in particular, not
just like chicken broth or beefbroth where you like cook off
the juice from the meat, butlike the bones in particular,
what is it about the bones thatare much better for you and so
much bigger of an immune boostbooster than just the chicken

(41:44):
broth or beef broth?
And then I got to thinking, Iwas like, well, bones are much
more than just the hard stuffthat we see.
Like thinking of the marrow,bone marrow actually has fat.
It's where blood cells arecreated and it's where the body
stores a lot of stem cells.
so people have

Katie (42:05):
So

Chrissy (42:05):
stem cells for many, many years for healing in term
to create

Katie (42:11):
like

Chrissy (42:11):
body parts to

Katie (42:13):
body parts replace.

Chrissy (42:15):
body parts and also to.
Like they've been injecting stemcells somehow to like encourage
the body to create better cells.
And so I

Katie (42:26):
So

Chrissy (42:26):
much,

Katie (42:27):
I wonder how much

Chrissy (42:28):
I'm confident

Katie (42:30):
pretty confident

Chrissy (42:31):
that that has a

Katie (42:33):
that as

Chrissy (42:34):
that is a big

Katie (42:35):
that is a

Chrissy (42:36):
how effective

Katie (42:37):
how effective

Chrissy (42:38):
broth is in helping our immune system is the stem cells
that are in that, those bones.
And they might be dormant, you

Katie (42:45):
They might be

Chrissy (42:46):
they've been

Katie (42:47):
like

Chrissy (42:47):
off from their

Katie (42:47):
they been kind of fucking life.

Chrissy (42:49):
still alive, but

Katie (42:50):
not through alive.

Chrissy (42:50):
the

Katie (42:51):
People have

Chrissy (42:52):
them.
And so, um, yeah, being able toextract that by just simmering
for 10 hours in a crockpot is,um, quite fascinating.
And if you're one who

Katie (43:04):
you're one, two really

Chrissy (43:06):
is really good about

Katie (43:06):
better.

Chrissy (43:07):
great way to use every single part of the animal that
you're

Katie (43:10):
Yeah,

Chrissy (43:11):
we don't want anything to go to waste, like.
Everything

Katie (43:15):
everything.

Chrissy (43:16):
been created and we have been give given dominion
over the land and over theanimals.
And so we as humans are expectedto use that dominion wisely.
And to use it wisely is to useevery single part.
um,

Katie (43:35):
um

Chrissy (43:36):
part that I guess, um, that is really, really good for

Katie (43:40):
mm-hmm.

Chrissy (43:41):
is, um, organ meats.
like eating heart or liver orkidneys or lungs.
Actually, fun fact, cow lungillegal in the United States.
You wanna know why?

Katie (43:56):
Really?
Why?

Chrissy (43:57):
Because scientists found mold spores in the lungs,
but.
That kind of makes sense becauselike mold is in the air all the
time, and so if the

Katie (44:07):
All the time

Chrissy (44:08):
then there would be mold spores in the lungs, the
scientists were kind of

Katie (44:12):
scientists kind of,

Chrissy (44:13):
they made it

Katie (44:14):
so

Chrissy (44:14):
America.

Katie (44:15):
I wonder though if that is from like a conventionally
grown and raised cow that's likemore indoors versus like a
pasture raised cow that's likegetting all of the fresh air and
sunshine and good, uh, grass tofeed on.
That's what's interesting aboutraw milk is that raw milk is

(44:39):
actually less dangerous thanpasteurized milk if this is a
big, if the cows are raised likein a pasture and have a very
healthy lifestyle.
So if the cow itself is superhealthy, then that milk that has
not been pasteurized is muchsafer than pasteurized milk from

(45:05):
a cow in a conventional farmbecause what happened was.
They started conventionallygrowing cows and they were,
they, I mean, everybody kind ofknows of these like giant
feedlot kind of farms that arejust really terrible and that's
why there's like the whole likegoing vegetarian because the
cows are sick.
Well, when you grow them thatway, yeah, of course there's

(45:28):
going, they're going to getmastitis, which is an infection
in their s and so then of coursethat mastitis is going to get
into the milk, and so that isreally why they've had to
pasteurize milk is to kill theinfection that they already have
because of the way that theyare.
Being raised, and it's likeliterally you think about us.

(45:49):
So when we're thinking about theimmune system, our immune system
is the same way.
We need to be outside.
We need to get sunlight, we needfresh air, we need exercise and
good foods.
We need to not be in a stressfulenvironment.
Cows are the same way.
They need all the same stuff.
Most animals need the exact samestuff we do for a good immune
system.
And if we raise them in thesereally poor environments, of

(46:11):
course they're gonna be sick.
And then hence their meat, likethe actual meat that they
produce, their bodies are goingto be sick.
And then we're eating that sickmeat, and then we're drinking
the sick milk.
So of course that milk needs tobe pasteurized because it would
be disgusting to drink otherwisebecause the milk is so infected,

(46:31):
basically.
And so that is why it'sactually.
Safer to drink the milk that is,that comes from like the raw
milk that comes from a veryhealthy cow.
Um, and they, they didn't needto pasteurize it because they're
like, why would we, we'd betaking out all the good stuff,
the, all the, the minerals thatyou'd get from the cows.

(46:53):
So anyway, I had to get on mysoapbox.
It's like, it, it's just like,yeah, but we need to be eating
healthy cows.

Chrissy (46:59):
Eat the healthy cows.
Don't want the sick cows.

Katie (47:03):
They all, they also taste better.
Like now that we have been likejumping over to this like grass
fed organic stuff, it all justtastes better.
And the next time I have like,we had like hamburgers from
POSCO or something and they justare not.
They're not good.
They're, you're really missingout by just getting the cheapy

(47:25):
stuff, and that's why you alsoneed to eat like multiple
burgers to feel full versuseating like a really good, solid
grass fed organic meat, likeburger from these happy cows
that are healthy.

Chrissy (47:40):
Yes.

Katie (47:41):
Do it.

Chrissy (47:41):
Eat the

Katie (47:42):
You'll feel different.
You need to eat less.
Eat the happy cows.

Chrissy (47:47):
So now let's talk about what do you do if you do get
sick?
How do you make it through acold or a flu without taking
Mucinex or Sinex or Advil orTylenol or whatever you would
take.
That inevitably does help, butalso wreaks havoc on your gut

(48:10):
and then creates an environmentfor more, um, illness to thrive.
So one herb that I have learnedlately that is very, very
helpful in assisting with likecongestion in your nose is
called mullen.
Mullen is like nature's Mucinex,and you can create a tincture

(48:31):
with mullen.
You essentially just get freshmullen, put it in a jar, fill it
with.
A high proof alcohol like, vodkaor something like that, and let
it sit for How long is it, doyou know?

Katie (48:47):
Because it's like making vanilla extract where you put
the vanilla beans into

Chrissy (48:52):
Pretty

Katie (48:52):
alcohol and I think you have to let vanilla sit for like
months maybe.
I don't even know.

Chrissy (48:57):
four

Katie (48:58):
Is it that long?

Chrissy (48:59):
Four to six weeks.
let it.
You pretty much put the Mullinwith the alcohol and you can add
other things like, um, lung wartor thyme and peppermint into
that Also, those also have a lotof immune boosting things in
them.
Peppermint especially is likereally great for clearing those
sinuses, as Katie and Imentioned in our previous

(49:20):
episode with the peppermintsoap.
but yeah, essentially you

Katie (49:24):
But yeah, essentially.

Chrissy (49:25):
and you take like one dropper of it a day, maybe two
droppers a day.
If you're really feeling thesickness and it works like
Mucinex, it clears thosesinuses.
It, um.
It doesn't destroy yourdigestive system, which is
really, really great.
thing that is super helpful whenyou are sick is honey.

(49:51):
Now honey is great.
Pre sickness during sickness,post sickness.
It's just great all the wayaround.
It has a lot of immune boostingstuff, especially if you're
getting organic, all natural.
Um, local honey is really,really important to get the
local stuff.
Huh?
I don't know what you're saying,huh?
Oh,

Katie (50:11):
Saying, rah rah, honey.

Chrissy (50:13):
raw honey.
I was like, fa,

Katie (50:17):
And then I was trying to say, rah rah, because I didn't
have my hand near the mouse toclick it fast enough.

Chrissy (50:23):
that's funny.
yes, it's very important to getlocal raw honey because when you
are getting the honey straightfrom the bees, it has not been
processed at all whatsoever.
It has a lot of immune boostingthings that are particularly
specific for the area thatyou're in.
It has a lot of allergyprevention parts to it.

(50:43):
I don't, allergen boosters, antiallergen boosters, I guess you'd
call it.
I don't know.
The bees fly around, they touchall the flowers and they make
the honey from all theseflowers, and then that's how

Katie (50:56):
Yeah.
Then it gets in your system.

Chrissy (50:58):
it's kind of like how anti-venom is made with venom.
Same idea.

Katie (51:04):
Yeah.

Chrissy (51:05):
allergens are made with the allergens.
Okay.
That's just how God

Katie (51:09):
Mm-hmm.

Chrissy (51:09):
be.
But so

Katie (51:11):
Which is why you should let your kids eat peanut butter.

Chrissy (51:14):
yes, that

Katie (51:17):
Oh my gosh.
That is another soapbox I couldget on.
People were like, don't bringpeanut butter into the schools,
and I'm like, you're making itworse.
Sorry.
Okay.

Chrissy (51:25):
That's

Katie (51:26):
it.

Chrissy (51:27):
Um, yeah, so honey, one thing to keep in mind with honey
though is you don't want to heatit above like 180 degrees or so
because once it gets hot, a lotof those immune boosting parts
of the honey really do start tofalter and they fall apart.

(51:48):
Just like any, most things, um,once they get to a certain
temperature, they start todenature.
And so all of these really goodthings in the honey do denature
once they get hot.
So you wanna make sure if you'reusing honey, don't make it any
hotter than warm.
Essentially you should be able,if you're putting honey in your

(52:09):
tea or something, you should beable to hold your finger in your
tea.
And not have to pull it outbecause it's too hot that if you
can hold your finger in or holdyour finger on whatever you're
touching, it's a good enoughtemperature that you can put the
honey in, um, just so it doesn'tget denatured when you put it
in.
Um, another thing that's really,really great for congestion and

(52:33):
things is eucalyptus oil.
And I'm not talking theeucalyptus oil that you get on
the grocery store, that's like$6for ounce.
I'm talking the really goodquality eucalyptus oil.
That's probably more like$30 foran ounce, unfortunately.
It's one of those things yougotta pay the bang get your

(52:54):
buck's worth.
You gotta pay the buck to getthe bang.
You need high quality eucalyptusoil, but with that you can
honestly just put, put a littlebit into boiling water and let
that steam kind of come overyour face is very helpful.
Or even just put it in thecorner of your shower where the
water doesn't really touch allthat much and the steam from

(53:16):
your shower can help.
Um, another thing that's superhelpful is if you have access to
organic eucalyptus leaves, youcan get like a branch of
eucalyptus and just hang it overyour shower, um, out over your
shower head.
And that is also very helpfulfor clearing those in sinus

(53:36):
infections and, um, clearingyour passageway so you can
actually breathe.
Um, now mind you remember, justlike cold medicine, you know,
you don't take one.
Mucinex and all of a sudden yourcold is gone.
Similarly with these things,you're not just gonna take it
one time and your cold is gonnabe gone.

(53:58):
It's one of those things, you dohave to take it multiple times
while your cold runs its course.
The idea of these things is togive your body the ability to,
to be less irritated by whateverinfection or illness that you
have going and to decrease thelength of time that you have
this illness or infection.

(54:20):
And so the goal with these.
immune boosters or herbalremedies, things like that.
It is not to end the illnessright then and there it is to
make the symptoms not sohorrible and to decrease the
amount of time you have.
The sim the illness, it's not anantibiotic.
It's more similar to Mucinex,where like you take the Mucinex,

(54:43):
your cold's not gone.
might just make the cold alittle bit more tolerable.
idea here we are trying to makethese illnesses more tolerable.
Not necessarily to kill'em smackin the bud, but if you have a
really fortified gut and you'regiving your body really great
nutrients, nutrient dense foods,the leafy greens, the bone

(55:03):
broth, the really high fatmeats, things like that, then
your body's gonna have thenutrients to build up that, um,
the manpower to attack theseillnesses more quickly and more
effectively.
And ultimately, they were notgonna last nearly as long as
they would otherwise.

Katie (55:23):
Yeah, I actually, I really like what you talked
about there is that we're notnecessarily trying to stop the
illness immediately becauseagain, if you think about like
an antibiotic goes and it justwipes out everything in your
system, the good and the bad.
But when we kind of allow theillness to.

(55:45):
Sit in our system, we, we makeit easier on ourselves.
We kind of let our bodies learnthat illness.
So that way, again, yeah, likeChrissy said, it fights things
off better in the future.
And so it's kind of like, Ithink we talked about fevers a
while ago, that when you get afever, you don't necessarily

(56:07):
want to just stop the fever fromhappening.
Your fever is actually fightingfor you.
Like it's, it's trying to kindof like create a fire so that
way all the bad stuff doesn'twanna keep living inside of you.
So it kind of scares it away.
It kills it off.
And so you don't necessarilywant to go and just stop things

(56:29):
from happening.
You don't wanna kill it allbecause you want it, your, your
body to become slightlyaccustomed to it.
So that way in the future itfights it even quicker.
Um, I actually wanted to shareone of my favorite ways to.
Uh, build my immune system, butalso fight off when fight off
illness when we get it, is justa lot of sunshine.

(56:51):
There are so many benefits tonatural sunlight and the UV
rays.
You think about plants, likeplants, like, like literally
need the sunlight to grow.
Well, so do we and.
It is a really great way thatyour body builds vitamin D,
which also is needed in order tohave a nice, robust immune
system.

(57:12):
Um, and, and it just like allthese systems inside of you
really kick on and get into highgear when they are exposed to
natural sunlight.
And so you actually need tophysically get outside, sit in
the sun, especially in themorning.
Like the, like we talked aboutin the very beginning of this
podcast, the natural light atthe sunrise is really good.

(57:34):
There's like a lot of good redlight that happens, um, right
when the sun is rising.
But then also in the middle ofthe day, that's when your body
will produce the highest amountsof vitamin D.
Um, and so you really wanna getsunlight at those two different
times.
Um, but I what's interestingtoo, with waking up early to get

(57:55):
the sunrise, you also do needgood sleep.
'cause during.
Uh, during sleep when you aresleeping, that is your body's
chance to rest and shuteverything off in order to go
and heal.
I mean, who hast experiencedthat phenomenon?
When you go to bed pretty sick,you have a really good night's

(58:16):
sleep and you wake up and you'relike, oh my gosh, it's kind of
gone like, maybe you have astuffy nose left, but you, your
sore throat is gone or yourheadache is gone, or your
whatever.
It's, your body needs that restin order to rejuvenate.
And so that for me is thebiggest indicator of when I'm
gonna get sick is when I am notsleeping well several nights in

(58:38):
a row.
Or if I stay up really late onenight and get really bad sleep
and all this stuff, I almostknow my immune system is much
weaker than, throughout my wholelife, that is almost always when
I get sick is when I am notsleeping well, I'm not getting
outside, not getting enough,enough movement, and then in the
next few days I'm boom, I'msick.

(58:58):
And that's actually whathappened recently when I got
sick was I just had someterrible sleep patterns and was
just staying up really latedoing stuff.
And, and I knew, I knew it wasgonna happen.
Like I just always know, butsometimes I'm just not smart in
those moments.
So get really good sleep, um,and get outside, get the
sunshine.
We didn't really talk about thethis a lot, this episode, but I

(59:22):
know Christie and I want to talkmore about it, but stress
allows.
All sorts of bad stuff to happenin your system because your body
is in like a fight or flightmode when it feels stressed.
And so it's almost looking atit, your body's focused more on
external factors versus likeyour internal systems working
properly.

(59:43):
Um, and so reducing your stressreally allows your immune system
to stay strong as well.

Chrissy (59:49):
Yeah, you were talking about the fact that you always
get sick after you haven't sleptvery long or very much.
It reminded me every single yearduring high school and college
fail, I always got sick the dayafter finals.
Every single semester because Iwas so stressed, my body was so

(01:00:14):
jam packed.
I was.
Studying and I was trying to besocial and trying to get those
last few minutes with friendsand then studying some more and
then trying to remember this,and then studying some more, and
so stressed about these finalexams coming up, that during all
of that, I wasn't getting verygood sleep, and so my body was
exposed to all of theseillnesses, these pathogens, I

(01:00:40):
didn't actually start feelingthem until the adrenaline crash.
When after finals, my adrenalinelevels went down and my rest and
digest processes, myparasympathetic nervous system
was able to start coming in andcleaning things up.
That's when I started feelingall the illnesses because my

(01:01:03):
body didn't even have the energyto tell me that it was sick
because I was burning

Katie (01:01:11):
I was

Chrissy (01:01:12):
bad at both ends and so.
And that's

Katie (01:01:17):
and that's another thing, there's like a little

Chrissy (01:01:20):
like cancer patients whose immune systems have been
completely depleted.
They might have a raginginfection in their body, like a
cold or a flu that has gone wayout of

Katie (01:01:33):
on.

Chrissy (01:01:33):
but they have no symptoms at all whatsoever
because it's our immune systemthat gives us these symptoms.
And so if we don't have animmune system, we're not gonna
have symptoms.
But those diseases are just thatmuch more dangerous for us and
wreak even more havoc on ourbodies because we can't protect
ourselves.
It's like the enemy is invadingfrom the inside and there's

(01:01:56):
nothing that you can do about ituntil all of a sudden you've
been overtaken.
You know, that's pretty muchwhat happens when your immune
system is not built up toprotect you from your enemies.

Katie (01:02:07):
Think about that.
That's kind.
Freaky thinking.
I guess that makes sense.
I, uh, so after our wedding,right when we were on our
honeymoon, it was like the, theday we got to Hawaii, I got sick
and it was kind of the samething as you go leading up to
all of your, um, finals andstuff.

(01:02:28):
It's like your body's just like,go, go, go.
You're not getting a lot ofsleep.
And I just remember like,there's, there's stress, but
it's good stress, but it's alsoyou're anxious and you're
staying up late because you'relike, oh my gosh, I'm getting
married and all these things.
And the day we got to ourhoneymoon and finally relaxed
and yeah, the adrenaline goesaway.

(01:02:48):
I got really sick on ourhoneymoon and it was rather
unfortunate.
Thankfully we had almost a twoweek honeymoon, which was great.
So the first like few days I waslike very sick.
Um, but then after that it waslike, okay, we can actually go
and enjoy ourselves and stuff.
But I, I definitely like stillwent out and actually, you know,
now that I think about it, Ididn't, I was not crunchy back

(01:03:09):
then, but we, I did still go andlay out at the pool every day,
even though I was sick.
And I think that really helped.
Uh, just obviously the sunlight.
'cause we, I was just mentioningthat and I'm like, oh, look at
me.
I didn't even know I was doingsomething for myself then.
But that probably helped.

Chrissy (01:03:25):
Look at that.
I love it.
we are nearing the end of ourtime.
So, um, just to close this out,we wanna let, let each and every
one of you know that we do prayover you guys.
And we are hoping these episodesare helpful for you in your
journey to becoming a bettersteward of your body, your mind,

Katie (01:03:48):
body.

Chrissy (01:03:49):
your spirit, your finances, and your families.
And we pray over all theseepisodes that,

Katie (01:03:56):
shows that

Chrissy (01:03:57):
learn something

Katie (01:03:58):
you learn something and

Chrissy (01:03:59):
you would learn

Katie (01:04:00):
not

Chrissy (01:04:00):
to better yourself and better your own

Katie (01:04:03):
yourself that know.

Chrissy (01:04:04):
your

Katie (01:04:04):
But also,

Chrissy (01:04:05):
Lord and how you strive to serve him.
Um, so yeah, and hope to see younext time.
Until our next episode, this isChrissy.

Katie (01:04:16):
and this is.

Chrissy (01:04:17):
And thanks for listening to Crunchy
Stewardship.