August 28, 2025 • 41 mins
What if the secret to feeling amazing was found in the most unexpected place: your poop?
It's a real question, and in this week's episode of Thrive After 45™, I sat down with gut health specialist Melissa Hall Klepacki to talk about something a lot of us are too embarrassed to mention....constipation.
Melissa has been helping people heal for nearly 30 years, and she gets to the root of the problem because, as she says, constipation isn’t the problem, it’s a symptom.
Melissa has a master’s in acupuncture and is a true gut health expert, but her passion for this work was born from her own health journey, which included battling Lyme disease, parasites, and mold.
We talk about how she went from feeling "devastated" by her gut issues to finding liberation, and how she now helps others do the same.
We get into the eight root causes behind gut issues, with some mind-blowing insights you’ve probably never heard before. Melissa shares actionable steps for better health, from the surprising reason you might be constipated to the simple tests you can do to uncover your own health hurdles.
This is a must-listen if you're ready to stop feeling like your gut health is a mystery and start feeling like your best self.
Find out more about Melissa and her work:
- Website: melissahallklepacki.com/everything
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissahallklepacki
- Book: The Constipation Code
Thank you for spending time with me today on the Thrive After 45™ podcast! If this episode spoke to you, be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss one.
And if you loved it, I’d be so grateful if you left a review - it helps more amazing women like you find this show!
Your journey doesn’t stop here - let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with me at denisedrinkwalter.com, and follow @thethriveafter45podcast for daily insp, tips, and support.
Remember, midlife isn’t the end - it’s just the beginning of a new, exciting chapter! Keep thriving, keep shining, and I’ll see you next time!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker (00:00):
What if the key to your freedom, energy, and confidence
(00:04):
was hidden in your gut?
Today's guest knows exactly howto unlock it.
Welcome to Thrive after 45, thepodcast where you remember the
woman you were never meant toforget.
I'm Denise Drink, heartWhisperer, midlife mirror, and
mentor for the women Awakeningto.
Her powers.
(00:25):
This is your space to shedexpectations, collapse timelines
in return to yourself, for youby you because of you.
It is such an honor and aprivilege to welcome and
introduce Melissa Hall Kki tothe show today.
Melissa is a gut healthspecialist with a master's in
(00:45):
acupuncture, and she's beenhelping people heal.
Since 1996, for nearly 30 years,she's impacted thousands of
lives through her one-to-onework workshops, speaking
engagements, her free ebook.
Start pooping better.
And now her new book, theConstipation Code.
(01:06):
Melissa's passion and expertiseguide men and women around the
world from constipation toliberation by uncovering and
addressing the eight root causesbehind the struggle.
Her work is about so much morethan gut health.
It's about giving people backtheir vitality.
Freedom and trust in their ownbodies.
(01:29):
Melissa, it is such anincredible joy to have you here
with me today, and I reallycan't wait to begin to learn
more with you and share yourincredible wisdom with our
listeners.
So.
Welcome to our show.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Thank you, Denise.
I'm so happy to be here.
And it's so nice to be on apodcast where I'm speaking to my
peers.
Um, you know, usually when yourecord a podcast, you don't
really know who the broadaudience is, but I will be 55
proudly next month, and so I'mreally happy to be speaking with
you and your audience.
Today.
I
Speaker (02:04):
love that.
I love that.
Well, welcome.
Listen, you've been helpingpeople, people heal for like
over 30 years.
What first drew you to this workand why has gut health become
such a central mission for you?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
So I always wanted to be somewhere in medicine.
Since I was little.
I was that little kid with theAce bandages and the band-aids
and always the first on thescene.
Um, but I got a littledistracted in college.
I was an athlete and focusedmore on athletics.
Um, but as a result of being anathlete, my junior year of
college, I slipped and fell in aboat bay.
(02:45):
I was in the rowing team and Ifractured a vertebrae in my back
and I had a lot of problems for.
A little over a year.
It happened to also coincidewith the death of my father who
had cancer.
He died my junior year ofcollege, never putting two and
two together that I wasn'thealing from a back injury and I
wasn't really healing from maybethe grief, the loss of my
(03:07):
father.
Um, it wasn't until a year and ahalf of pretty significant pain
that I found an acupuncturist,and he was the one who reminded
me that the heart chakra.
Lies directly in front of thevertebrae that I broke, and it's
not a vertebrae that would breaknormally it was T seven, so
that's in the middle of yourback in a pretty stable spot.
(03:30):
Mm-hmm.
Um, and he was able to make somuch sense for me of other
symptoms that were going on andjust things that had unfolded
since the death of my father,um, that I dropped what I was
doing and went to acupunctureschool.
Um, and that was back in 1993when acupuncture was not right.
(03:52):
A thing.
Mm-hmm.
But it helped me so much that Ijust, it was a calling.
I had to figure out how itworked and I had to be able to
help other people with it.
And I did.
And it was amazing.
And I practiced sportsacupuncture for a while that,
because that was my passion.
I was around athletes, etcetera.
Sure.
Yeah.
Um, and then, um, I got awayfrom it a little bit.
(04:15):
I got married, I had some kids,and I got really sick.
Hmm.
In 2009, I woke up in themorning and my left arm was numb
and I thought, Hmm, I slept onmy neck wrong.
You know, sometimes your fingersare a little numb when you wake
up.
Um, and then by the afternoon Istarted feeling foolish.
Um, went to lay down, said to myhusband, watch the boys.
(04:38):
And as I laid there, I thought,is my left leg going numb?
So I called my doctor.
It was a Saturday and theyhappened to have office hours.
And by the time I got into theoffice, I was numb on my left
side.
Speaker (04:50):
Oh, Melissa.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So it was really scary and I had little kids.
Um, so I went to the hospital.
I was there for three days.
They ran every test.
The only thing that came backwas that my white blood cell
count was low.
That was it.
Um, I had numbness for a coupleof days, then I had headaches
for a week.
Then I was really, really tiredand then I was better.
(05:15):
It was the weirdest thing.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Mm.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Two months later I started with GI issues.
I had a lot of stomach problems.
Um, I had an endoscopy, acolonoscopy.
Yeah.
I swallowed a camera.
A camera that takes pictures asit goes through your system.
And I was told that I was fine.
Okay.
Um, so all of my symptoms.
Never had an answer.
I was always told that, oh, youmight have this pain or this
(05:40):
symptom or this rash, butthere's nothing wrong with you.
Long story short, I had Lymedisease.
I had Tickborne disease ofBartonella, Rocky Mountain
spotted fever, complicated byparasites and mold.
I was a very sick chicken.
Speaker (05:55):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
One of the fallouts from being so sick and having so
many different infections andtaking so many different
antibiotics is that I ruined mygut and I felt Lyme disease was
devastating and the, and the allthat came with that.
But when I was somewhatrecovered from that and then
(06:18):
dealing with the gut issues, Ialmost felt like it was worse.
Oh, you know, I, I, I couldn't,I couldn't do half of the things
in my life I love to do becauseI didn't, I needed a bathroom.
Oh, I probably wouldn't need abathroom, but if I needed it, I
needed it.
Right, right.
So it life, you can't really goout to dinner because you know
that half those things on themenu are gonna make you feel
(06:40):
sick, and you don't wanna be theone saying like, could you boil
my chicken and could I have justa baked potato plain?
Right.
It's devastating.
It's devastating.
So I did.
I worked for a while.
Once I was able to help myself,and actually both of my children
have had Lyme disease.
Um, and I helped us all throughthat.
What I realized and people werecoming to me left and right, and
(07:03):
the, the core denominator was noone was pooping.
And so if you are not poopingdaily, okay, you are not getting
toxins out of your body daily.
So if someone tries to killsomething with an herb or an
antibiotic, you've got deadbacteria that has its own set of
chemical properties that makeyou sick, make you a lot sicker.
(07:25):
So I really can't help peopleuntil they're pooping well.
So that became my focus.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Interesting.
And why?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And why?
Because I went to the doctor andI was told, drink more water,
eat more fiber.
Right?
And yeah, you know, go get abottle of MiraLax and if you
don't poop for a couple of days,take a dose.
That was it.
That was what I was given.
It didn't work.
That doesn't work for mostpeople.
In fact, fiber and water andusing a motility agent are all
(07:53):
really important.
Okay?
But that's not it.
But that's not it.
And it has to be done in theright order, and it has to be
done with consistency.
And the problem with us, theconstipated people who are
Googling at two in the morning,we're trying it all.
Right.
For three days we eat a Kiwi inthe morning and we are pooping
(08:14):
and we're like, that's theanswer.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
There it is.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
And then it stops working.
Yeah.
Then we switch to Dragon fruitor we fast.
Mm-hmm.
Or we have a bigger meal or wetry it all.
So I wanted to, um, in my work,I wanted to give people a
roadmap.
Speaker (08:31):
Yep.
Okay.
Wanted to
Speaker 2 (08:32):
say, here are the eight root causes of constant.
Right.
Which ones, and it's not justone.
Most people have a few.
Okay.
But which ones are affectingyou?
And here's how to get out ofthat little changes you can make
on each of those factors.
Add up,
Speaker (08:50):
right?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Sure.
And make big difference.
Speaker (08:53):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
So that's
Speaker (08:54):
why I, I do, I love, I mean, I absolutely love talking
to guests like yourself who notonly have.
The scientific knowledge behindeverything, but also have had
the experiences, unfortunately,but fortunately for the rest of
the world because now you get tomarry not only your personal
(09:15):
experience, but your knowledgeand really create something that
will impact those who are ableto listen to your, your gifts of
knowledge, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So.
Eight root causes.
How, where on earth do you comeup with eight root causes?
(09:37):
How does that come to happen?
Where did you get that?
Well, some
Speaker 2 (09:41):
of them.
Some of them are pretty obvious.
Right?
Okay.
So we can start with number one.
I mean, we can get into it.
You wanna get into'em?
Why not?
All right, here we go.
Yep.
Number one, his daughter.
What?
Yep.
And it's not what people think.
Yeah.
Okay.
Because there are people outthere that are constipated, that
are drinking eight, eight ounceglasses of water a day as
(10:02):
recommended, and they're stillnot pooping Well,
Speaker (10:04):
gotcha.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
A couple of things I like to remind people, um, when
we're drinking water, we don'tdrink all at once.
So you don't wanna sit down andflood your body with a big glass
of water because you'veforgotten it's noon and you're
like, oh my God, I had threecups of coffee and no water
chunk.
Chug, chug, ch ch.
Right, right.
That's not the way to do it.
That'cause you're gonna pee thatright out.
(10:28):
The way that I like to tellpeople to start is the first
thing in the morning when youwake up on your nightstand
should be a large glass of roomtemperature water.
Before you even get outta bed, Iwant you to drink that water
nice.
That stimulates the gastrocolicreflex, and that's what starts
the process of the morning poop.
(10:49):
Okay?
Your body, your body is built toevacuate in the morning to make
way for the rest of what'scoming today.
Right.
Perfect.
Yep.
So by stimulating that, a lot ofpeople think, oh, I need coffee
to poop, and coffee does help.
It is a stimulant.
However, it is also that actionof stimulating the stomach with
(11:09):
fluid.
Mm-hmm.
Water is preferable.
You're not gonna, you're coffeefurther dehydrates you.
Right.
So we start with eight ounces ofwater, the, the second glass of
water of the day.
I'd like you to put someelectrolytes in there.
Okay.
Now, on the cheap, that's asqueeze of lemon and a pinch of
salt.
Anybody can do that.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
For people who are picky and like things that are
flavored, I have a lot ofclients that say, I hate the
taste of water.
Yeah.
Um, there is everything fromchocolate mint to pineapple,
mango electrolytes out there.
Now it is, uh, it is hot, right.
I, I, you know, there is aspectrum from, I, I prefer to
use a pure electrolyte powderthat contains no color, no
(11:51):
flavor, no artificial anything.
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And then there are, uh, electrolytes that contain
all of that colors and flavorsand aspartame or you get to
choose.
Yeah.
I prefer you use one over notusing one.
I'd prefer you use the cleanerone.
Right.
But I always start with whereyou are.
So if you're new toelectrolytes, you do, you do you
and do your flavor
Speaker 3 (12:16):
perfect.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Um, the other thing I remind people is I don't want
people drinking around mealtime.
Oh, okay.
So the idea of sitting down atat dinner with a giant glass of
water, you're actually dilutingyour hydrochloric acid.
So we need our stomachs to besuper acidic, and people often
think that their reflux iscaused by too much stomach acid,
(12:38):
when most likely it's notenough.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Hmm.
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
When we don't have enough stomach acid, there's not
enough.
I want you to think of yourstomach as sort of like a
cauldron and that fiery, right?
Yep.
If there's pressure in therewhen there's food in there
because there's actionhappening.
Sure.
And when there's that pressurein that stomach, the flap
closes.
Right, right to the esophagus.
Right.
So that, so that nothing cancome up as all of that action is
(13:06):
happening.
But when that action is mild andkind of weak, there's nothing to
keep that flap closed.
There's no pressure there.
So we get reflux.
Right.
Okay.
Um, so I, most of my clients aretaking digestive enzymes, but
we'll get to that when we talkabout food.
But, um.
But we want to make sure that wehave strong stomach acid, and
(13:28):
the way to do that is not todilute it.
No.
So that is a no-no.
Right.
So the idea is we start with aglass of water in the morning,
then the next glass of water hassome electrolytes, and then we
make sure we're balancedthroughout the day.
Sure.
I have clients that use a timeron their phone.
Yeah.
Every two hours.
I have a client that has one ofthose water bottles that has
8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM worksfor her.
(13:50):
Right.
Sure.
I offer my clients all of thosepossibilities.
Mm-hmm.
And solutions becauseeverybody's different.
Right.
Of course.
What works for one.
Yeah.
So that's the basic I, you know,it's all in chapter, of course,
chapter three, all the details.
Of course.
Um, and the cool thing that Ilike about this book, being a
girl of the seventies andeighties, is that I grew up
reading Cosmo Magazine.
(14:11):
Right.
Cosmopolitan Magazine was ourBible.
We laid in the sun on thedriveway.
We, we took those quizzes thatsaid like, are you, oh yeah.
Could you be?
And so I wrote my book withquizzes in every chapter.
Nice.
Could, could dehydration be afactor for you?
Right.
Speaker (14:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
And it really asks you to look at your behaviors
and practices and say like, Hmm,how much water do I really
drink?
Right.
For sure.
Speaker (14:37):
Love that.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Um, so that's number one.
Number two is dietary foodtriggers.
And I think it, you know, bymidlife for women Yeah.
We all have a list of thingsthat we know don't sit so well
with us.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Um, and so there are foods that drive inflammation.
Right,
Speaker 3 (14:53):
right.
And
Speaker 2 (14:54):
so, and those are unknown.
Those are, um.
Those are food mediated.
We, they're different than foodallergies.
We call them food sensitivities.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Sure.
Mm-hmm.
Um,
Speaker 2 (15:05):
and in my book I talk about a test, A finger stick
test that you can do gets sentto your house and it tests for
the 22 most common foods.
Why I like this test is becauseI have so many people come and
say, I'm so healthy.
I sleep well.
I drink my water.
I work out three days a week.
I have my almond buttersmoothies in the morning.
(15:25):
I drink my green juice.
Yep.
And when their foodsensitivities come back, like
they can't, almond is off thecharts a lot of times.
Avocado, they're sensitive to,so all of these healthy foods
that they're getting, that theythink they're doing this great
thing are actually contributingto leaky gut and causing more
damage and inflammation.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yeah.
So
Speaker 2 (15:46):
that, and that test is$199, which mm-hmm.
Is a lot of information.
For$199 and you can actually,all you do is avoid those foods
for 90 days and work on some guthealing.
There's some gut healingprinciples, um, some supplements
you can take to soothe and healthe gut lining because
everything that we're doingtoday is damaging our gut.
Denise, like ibuprofen.
(16:08):
Gluten, right?
The glyphosate and gluten, allthe chemicals that we're taking
in any kind of aspartame or fakesugar, right?
It all damages the gut lining.
And when the gut lining isdamaged, food particles get in
to the bloodstream and the bodyreacts.
Speaker (16:21):
Yep.
Right?
Makes sense.
So that's
Speaker 2 (16:22):
why it's important.
Speaker (16:23):
Yeah.
Minimal
Speaker 2 (16:24):
deficiency is another big one.
I don't know.
We, you know, we did such a goodjob in this country talking
about multivitamins.
Did you take your multivitamin?
But nobody ever talked aboutminerals.
And if you look at the studies.
The soil level of minerals isdramatically depleted year over
year.
We just don't have the sameminerals.
So they'll say like an apple,you'd have to, you know, eat
(16:46):
whatever it is, like a pound ofkale today to get the same as
you got from one leaf
Speaker (16:51):
40 years ago.
Right, right.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah.
Um, and so we don't get enoughminerals.
And so one of the things that'sreally important is complete
mineral.
Um, uh.
I just lost the word, makingsure you have all of your
minerals.
Right, right.
So a mineral supplement thatcontains all of them.
However, one mineral that weknow is specifically, um,
(17:14):
contributing mineral depletionof magnesium is.
Is really significantlyaffecting, um, constipation.
Yeah.
And we find that when we useeither magnesium citrate or
magnesium glycinate, both ofthose can really help people
move their bowels.
Um, and sometimes it takeshigher doses because we are so.
(17:35):
Depleted.
Speaker (17:36):
Right, exactly.
It takes time
Speaker 2 (17:37):
to build up.
So I find that people will startwith higher doses and then be
able to, to save to lower dosesonce they build up the reserve.
Right?
So that's another big one.
Um, number four is medicationside effects.
People forget,
Speaker (17:51):
you know,
Speaker 2 (17:52):
people come to me on four and five medications.
And two or three of them arevery constipating.
Speaker (17:58):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
No one ever told them.
Speaker (18:00):
No, of course.
Yeah.
It really,
Speaker 2 (18:01):
it's a matter of doing your research.
If you are listening to this andyou are constipated and you are
on pharmaceutical drugs, pleaseGoogle it.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Constipation and the name of your medication.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Go to your doctor and say, I'm suffering.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yeah, I
Speaker 2 (18:16):
need, I need an alternative solution.
And Nice.
A lot of times there is, yeah,there's a different type of
medication that can, you know,get you the same sort of results
without the side effect ofconstipation.
Right.
So that's a big one.
Um, liver dysfunction.
People don't talk about theliver when it talk, they talk
about constipation.
They just think usuallyintestines.
Right?
Um, but your liver, um, and thesecretion of bile, all of that
(18:41):
and um, has to, has an impact onconstipation.
And when we think about thelevels of fatty acid or fatty
liver disease, non-alcoholicfatty liver disease, I think
they're rebranding thatactually, I forget there's a new
name for it, but, um, is a bigproblem and it really is because
of all of our processed foods.
Mm-hmm.
It's non-alcoholic, right.
(19:01):
We know alcohol impacts theliver and most of us are
probably drinking alcohol, so wehave some liver, liver impact to
start with.
Sure.
But when we are eating highlyprocessed foods and inflammatory
oils, we're either for, we'reeven further impacting the
liver.
Right.
So it's taking a look at thepractices that wreak havoc on
your liver.
Mm-hmm.
You'll take the quiz andunderstand maybe that's
(19:22):
affecting me as well.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, gut dysbiosis is anotherone.
When we say gut dysbiosis,dysbiosis means like a, um, uh,
what's supposed to be there isout of whack.
Right?
Okay.
So we know there, we've heardabout probiotics.
Yes.
That's the, that's the good pro,pro-life, the good bacteria that
(19:43):
lives in our gut.
And really important becausethere are.
We know of probably a couplehundred strains and their
purposes.
Um, when I run a gut dysbiosistest, there's 10 hallmark
strains that we look at.
We know we need those strains tobe robust.
Okay?
If those strains are robust,digestion happens, fibers get
(20:05):
broken down, mucus layer getsreplaced, et cetera.
Um, however, when we have badbugs, so we get them all the
time from things that we eatfrom traveling, a lot of people
will say like, I went to Mexicoin February and I got traveler's
diarrhea and I never reallyrecovered.
(20:25):
When we run the gut dysbiosistest, we pick up the bacteria
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Interesting.
And then we
Speaker 2 (20:30):
can treat it.
Yeah.
But, and that goes, you know,the gut dysbiosis test is for
people.
In general, not just forconstipation, because I do have
a lot of people that will have,that are moving their bowels
five and six times a day, whichis
Speaker (20:43):
okay.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Just as much of a problem.
I was gonna ask, is that,
Speaker (20:47):
yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Okay.
Yeah.
If you're listening to this andyou're like, I'm not
constipated, I poop six times aday.
Not good either.
Right.
I want you to think about yourbody needs to absorb all of
those minerals and good fats asit makes, as your food makes its
way through your intestines,right?
Yeah.
Your small intestinesspecifically.
And so when your transit time istoo fast mm-hmm.
(21:09):
You are not absorbing nutrients.
Speaker (21:11):
Makes sense?
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
So your bones are at jeopardy, your brain is at
jeopardy.
Mm.
So they should, everything theyshould take, they should take a
gut dysbiosis test andunderstand what's going on.
And then there's a protocol tofix it.
Right?
Respond to kill.
Yeah.
To kill the bad stuff.
Usually we do, we kill the badguys and we beef up the good
guys.
And that levels out themicrobiome.
Speaker (21:33):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
So that's a big one.
Parasites and mold is one thatno one talks about.
No, never in mainstreammedicine, right?
Never.
Your, your general physician,however, it's a big problem.
Yeah.
Um, I, all of my private clientsthat I have worked with through
parasite cleanses, 100% havepassed visible parasites
Speaker 4 (21:54):
in their stool.
Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
100%.
I mean, they're there andthey're causing problems.
When we are compromised, when wehave mold, when we have gut
dysbiosis, when our immunesystem is taken down, when we
have inflammation, um, theygrow.
They thrive.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Um, and so they get overgrown and they cause
problems and they can causeconstipation problems.
Um, so parasite cleanses, Irecommend twice a year or the
Native Americans did it andit's, we should be doing them
too.
I, it's the same.
I was talking to somebody theother day about how, I think it
was in the 18 hundreds when theyrealized that surgeries were
(22:33):
really compromised becausedoctors weren't washing their
hands.
Speaker (22:37):
Right.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Right.
And then they started wearinggloves and the incidence of
death and surgery decreaseddramatically.
However, at the time to thinkthat a doctor was dirty, doctors
were revered as God.
So how could a doctor be causingthis problem?
Right.
And I feel like it's the samething in this country when it
comes to parasites.
We think, not me, I, right.
(22:58):
I eat organic, right?
It's on vegetables.
It's on meat.
If you eat sushi, if yourcheeseburger wasn't cooked until
it was dry and lifeless, there'sants.
The fact of life and we, and wedeworm our dogs monthly, right?
Speaker (23:14):
Yes.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Yeah.
So I don't know how, how theworld hasn't caught up here,
right?
However, know that it could bean issue for you.
Okay?
And the same thing with mold.
Mold exposure is.
Unbelievable.
Um, they say over 50% ofbuildings are.
You know, have many issues.
Um, I had a mold, I, we had ahouse fire.
(23:35):
My house burned down in 2016.
Oh my gosh.
I kind of thank God because Ifound black mold when they tore
down one of the bathrooms behindthe toilet and the wall, like it
lived there insidiously and.
It can affect you.
It makes people sick.
Some people sicker than others.
Mm-hmm.
Mold is an interesting onebecause for the most part, our
body should be able to detox it.
(23:57):
But if you have a genetic issue,an HLD, an H-L-A-D-R snip, your
body takes mold in and goes, Idon't know what to do with that
and sequesters it, and then itgrows in your body.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Mm.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Do a little research.
If you think if you live in ahouse where you think there's
mold and you have symptoms,brain fog, joint pain, general
fatigue, migraines are somecommon ones.
Um, there's actually a mold, Ihave a mold quiz, um, on my
website that people can take.
Um, but it's a big problem forpeople.
If you go into the bathroom, thetwo second mold test, go into
(24:32):
your bathroom and lift the backplate of the toilet.
Oh, yes.
Speaker (24:35):
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah,
Speaker 2 (24:36):
yeah.
Take a look.
Take a sniff.
Take a look because mold growswhere water sits.
Sure makes sense.
So best to do in your least usedtoilet.
If you happen to have a toiletthat's like in a weird spot you
don't use, check that one first.
That can be a big issue.
And the last one, here we are atnumber eight, is nervous system
dysregulation.
(24:57):
Mm.
Stress slash circadian rhythm.
Speaker (25:01):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Um, all of that, right?
So if you are going to bed at2:00 AM on some days and waking
up at 10:00 AM some days, butthen some nights going to bed at
10 and waking up at six, yourbody doesn't know what it's
supposed to be doing.
Our bodies love a rhythm.
Mm.
And that's what we work on whenwe are working on, I, I run a 21
(25:22):
day gut reset program and we areworking on rhythm, getting your
body into the process, right?
Right.
And so we set up all of theselittle cues along the way, um,
so that your body understandsthat.
But if you are stressed and youare, like many of my clients who
work outside the home and youneed to leave the house at.
6 48 so you can make it to workand you're up at six 15 and you
(25:43):
take a shower and you brush yourteeth and you feed the dog and
you grab your coffee and you getout the door.
There's no time to poop.
Yeah.
So things need to change, right?
So we need to rearrange ourschedules, calm our nervous.
Wake up, right?
And have that glass of water ina relaxed state at six, maybe
instead of six 15.
(26:04):
Um, part of my program offers amedi meditation that I co-wrote
that helps you to get yournervous system into a relaxed
state.
Love it.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
It's
Speaker 2 (26:12):
really, really important.
You can't poop if you're alwayscharged.
Speaker (26:16):
Yeah, makes perfect sense.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
And then there are other causes, not to say, you
know, as we go through menopauseand our hormones start to shift,
the decrease in estrogen andprogesterone definitely doesn't
number on your digestive system.
I'm a big fan of hormonereplacement therapy.
It has to be done very carefullyby a professional.
Mm-hmm.
But I think that can really helpother things like structural
(26:40):
issues.
Right.
I'm not covering that.
I'm talking about the thingsthat we have control over.
Um, though I do recommend pelvicfloor therapy for people out
there that have, um, somestructural issues, that can be
very helpful.
Sure,
Speaker (26:55):
sure.
Why do you think that's beenamazing?
I'm sitting here going Yep.
Check, check, check.
Oh, better do.
Better be in touch with, betterget the book.
I've got some homework to do.
So thank you for all of this.
Such a wealth of information.
Why do you think so many peoplewho, you've mentioned
probiotics, maybe do eliminationdiets, gut protocols, they still
(27:19):
struggle.
What's the missing piece thatyou find that many, if not most
practitioners do overlook?
Speaker 2 (27:29):
That's a good question.
Um.
I think, well, that's what I doin my 21 day program.
Right.
Okay.
So we do it the, we do it theright way.
If you are constipated and youtry to take more fiber mm-hmm.
You're, you're like stuffing agarbage disposal.
That's not working.
That's not gonna work.
(27:50):
We've gotta open up that pipefirst.
We need to figure out how, withwhat we usually use, what, um,
we call a motility agent.
A lot of times for people it'smagnesium citrate.
So in the pro in the, andthere's a couple of different
options which I present in theprogram, and you choose what you
feel is right for you.
We tighter it so we figure outour right dose.
(28:13):
Sure.
Too much magnesium citrate foranyone is gonna call What is
gonna cause what we calldisaster paths.
You don't want that.
You don't want that too little.
We don't want that.
And too little, you won't reallysee the result that you're
desiring.
So the first bit of of theprogram is really finding our
proper dose.
Um, the other things are we needto understand how much fiber
(28:35):
we're actually getting.
Mm.
Denise, most people thinkthey're doing a great job, and
most people.
Yeah, so I recommend this foreveryone listening.
If you think you're doing agreat job, I want you to write
down what you eat today.
And at the end of the day, Iwant you to go to chat gpt.com
and I want you to say, here iseverything I ate today.
(28:56):
Can you tell me how many gramsof fiber I got?
Okay, so be specific.
If you ate 10 grapes, put 10grapes.
Right.
Yeah.
If you ate a, a medium sweetpotato, put a medium sweet
potato.
Try to give it as muchinformation as you can, and I
think you'll be surprised peoplewho have constipation in order
to overcome that and regulateyour bowels.
(29:19):
I like people to be between 40and 50 grams of fiber a day.
Most people come in around 12.
Speaker (29:25):
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
And so if you want to have that morning epic poop
where you're like, I can seizethe day, my stomach's flat, I
feel great, right?
Yeah.
You need that fiber and you willhave, you want your poop to fill
that toilet bowl, right?
Little tiny poops.
Yeah.
That's not what we're lookingfor.
Right.
There's something called theBristol stool chart.
(29:49):
People can Google that.
It's B-R-I-S-T-O-L.
Mm-hmm.
And it's what we use in in guthealth to, to take a look at our
bowels and decide what'shealthy.
There's number one to numberseven.
Number one is what we call goatpellet poops.
I'm sure we've all had those attimes.
And number seven is liquiddiarrhea.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
No one wants either of those, soright in the middle is a number
(30:12):
four, which looks like asausage, right?
Yep.
It's not super bumpy or dry.
It comes out kind of like asnake.
You don't have to, what we callhyper wipe, right?
Yep.
It's not messy.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
Yeah.
That's
Speaker 2 (30:23):
ideal.
And when you are moving yourbowels daily, getting the right
motility agent, eating enoughfiber, your nervous system is
regulated.
Speaker (30:32):
Mm-hmm.
Right?
Speaker 2 (30:33):
That's what happens.
It's,
Speaker (30:35):
it happens.
Right?
Yeah.
Makes sense.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
That's what your body wants to do.
Speaker (30:39):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
And so we make sure in the program that we're doing
all of those things, we'restarting with water.
We're, we're looking at food andfood sensitivities.
We're knowing what we're, youknow, some people will, some
people come in Denise, andthey're eating six foods.
That's it.
Hmm.
They're eating chicken andthey're eating.
(31:00):
Um, yeah.
You know, and some, and it's sodifferent for people.
Like some people of course wouldthink that, I'm like, how can
you even digest that?
And they're like, that works forme.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
So we try to, once we start moving bowels, um, and
increasing fiber, peoplegeneral.
Find that they can eat morevariety, more.
Yeah, because things are movingthrough, things aren't
fermenting.
You know, there's a lot of talkabout something called SIBO
right now.
It's kind of a hot topic in guthealth, and SIBO is spelled
SIBO, and it stands for smallintestinal bacterial overgrowth.
(31:34):
And what that really means iswhen your transit time is slow,
when food moves really slowlythrough the intestines, and it's
not fully digested because yourstomach acid is weak,
Speaker (31:45):
right?
Speaker 2 (31:45):
It ferments, mm-hmm.
Causes lots of gas.
So if you are someone who gets aton of bloating, you gotta back
it up.
You gotta make sure you'rechewing your food first, and
number two, that you're actuallydigesting it in the stomach.
Speaker (31:58):
Right.
Um, we use a lot of
Speaker 2 (31:59):
digestive enzymes.
Hydrochloric acid we can add togive a little bit more power
there.
Speaker (32:06):
Beautiful.
So much.
So much and it's so.
Individualized, yet there aredefinite things that need to
happen in order to make thingsflow the way they sh they are
meant to based on our humanbodies, right?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Yeah.
And even like, and, and in thisprogram, like when people start
using high, higher doses ofmagnesium citrate, we find over
time.
That they go less and less andless as they bring up their
fiber.
Sure.
And they're introducing newprobiotics.
I love eating things likesauerkraut and kimchi, which put
them back into your systemnaturally.
(32:45):
Right, right.
Things that we never thoughtabout eating.
Speaker (32:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Um, we start eating for our gut, I tell my clients
that we should be eating 30different fruits and vegetables
a week.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Hmm.
That's
Speaker 2 (32:55):
another great test for yourself.
Get out a piece of paper, leaveit on your counter.
It's a great thing to do if youhave a family or kids.
Sure.
Yeah.
You're trying to get them torealize how important it is to
kind of eat the rainbow.
Right?
Yes.
We write down every food, every,we had Brussels sprouts tonight,
you know, in the morning we hadstrawberries with our breakfast.
Yep.
And you'd be surprised, and it'sfun to kind of shoot for 30,
(33:18):
take the kids to the grocerystore and let them pick out
something they've never triedbefore.
Right.
All of those things areimportant for our gut
microbiome.
Eating the same thing every day.
Speaker (33:27):
Yeah.
Yeah,
Speaker 2 (33:29):
and I have an, an, an anecdotal story.
I have a dog, um, that had anautoimmune disease.
He's eight years old.
He's a cockapoo, and he starteddeveloping scabs on his skin.
Oh.
And, and they smelled extremelybad.
I took him to three vets andwound up at a dermatologist who
(33:50):
put him on an autoimmune drugand a high dose of steroids, and
he had a stroke and almost died.
So I took him off knowing what Iknow about and I don't write,
I'm not a vet and I don't like,of course, I don't like trying
to self-treat, et cetera.
But knowing what I know aboutgut health, I weaned him off all
of his medication and I changedhis diet.
(34:13):
He no longer eats any standardcommercial dog food.
Yep.
I make his own food with coconutoil and ground beef and whatever
vegetables I get from the farm.
Always rotating.
Sometimes he has rutabaga,sometimes he, they have turn
turnips and I have three dogs,so of course I have to make food
for all of it.
You can't just do it for one.
Speaker (34:33):
No,
Speaker 2 (34:34):
he's healed.
His skin is perfect.
You can, you can't even tellthat he had a stroke.
He used to kind of walksideways.
He's healed.
Wow.
We healed his gut usingprobiotics and digestive enzymes
and good food.
And it's the same for humanbeings, right?
Mm-hmm.
We are.
Food is, we've been sold a billof goods when they've said it
(34:54):
doesn't matter.
Yeah.
Cancer patients are told everyday.
It doesn't matter what you eat.
Speaker (34:58):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yeah.
It matters.
It matters so much.
Mm-hmm.
The variety, right?
The quality.
Yeah.
Not eating chemicals.
Speaker (35:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Um, that, that's the best place to
Speaker (35:08):
start, right?
Absolutely.
And those are things you canimplement immediately.
You can do ground to table.
Just focus on that.
The other thing I've learnedover the years is, um, as you're
in the supermarket, at leasthere where we are in Canada, I
don't know if it's the samewhere you are in the States, but
um, outside is where you shopinside is processed outside is
(35:33):
the Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
We
Speaker 2 (35:35):
call, um, packaged, like in packaged food.
Bags and boxes are body bags
Speaker (35:39):
for food.
Yeah.
There you go.
Yeah.
There's
Speaker 2 (35:42):
nothing alive there.
There's nothing nutritionalthere.
Speaker (35:45):
Love that.
Love that
Speaker 2 (35:47):
real food.
Speaker (35:48):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
'cause you're a real person andyou deserve it.
And you need to do it for you byyou because of you.
'cause nobody else can do it foryou.
It's about you, right?
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yes.
And one of the, I was listeningto your podcast a couple
episodes, and one of the thingsI love that you say, Denise, is
we can't step boldly into thelife we are meant to be living.
And I answer if we areconstipated.
Speaker (36:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yeah.
Speaker (36:15):
Can't,
Speaker 2 (36:16):
yeah.
I can't be my best self.
No.
If I wake up in the morning andfeel bloated and miserable, of
course we owe it to ourselves
Speaker (36:23):
to fix this.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And people like Melissa and inthe show notes will have all of
the ways to contact her and findout more about her book and all
of the things you can start todo.
And this doesn't have to be, ohmy gosh, I have to change my
whole life tomorrow.
No, it's a journey.
It's a process, and it's aboutyour learning for your health.
(36:47):
And it's in your hands, right,Melissa?
Oh my gosh.
Is there anything that you wouldlove to share with our audience
before we wrap up today?
Anything that you just reallywanna drop in and say, this is
my final nugget for todayanyway.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, I just think that we, once we learn, we do
better, right?
Yeah.
And so if you are dealing withconstipation and you read the
book.
And it works for you.
And you get to share that withsomebody.
Right.
Someone once told me knowledgeis only powerful when it's
shared.
Speaker (37:24):
Yes.
Which is
Speaker 2 (37:24):
why I wrote the book.
Right.
It's all my knowledge prettymuch free.
I mean, I've been studying for30 years.
The book's 7 95.
Right.
And it will help you.
It's cheaper than a copay atyour doctor's office.
Right.
Um, and then once you healyourself, you help others.
Speaker (37:40):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
That's, that's the way the world works.
And I like to say that, um.
When we poop better, we'renicer.
And when we're nicer, theworld's a little bit better.
And that's really what we needis the world to be everyone, to
be a little nicer in the world,to be a little better.
And if we're feeling good, it'sa lot easier.
Speaker (38:02):
Totally.
You're not battling what you aretrying to just do internally and
you don't even understand.
So I totally 1000% agree withyou.
So Melissa, thank you so muchfor being with us today.
It has been eyeopening to saythe least for me, who used to be
as.
Girl growing up I used to be alittle mis constipated and the
(38:25):
doctor said, well, if you'reregular every two to three days,
that's fine.
You don't have to do it everyday.
That's just your system.
Now we know better.
Now we know more.
And with all of your expertise.
I did have a question.
You had mentioned a couple oftests that can be done.
Is that just for um, US citizensor can those tests also be done
(38:48):
in other parts of the world likeCanada, et It's so
Speaker 2 (38:51):
US and I actually called the lab and asked them
specifically about Canada, andthey can be done to Canada.
The shipping charges are higher.
Sure.
But yes, they will ship toCanada.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
Okay.
So
Speaker 2 (39:02):
the two tests that I love are the food sensitivity
test and the gut microbiometest.
And it depends.
When you read the book, you'llsee like, which one makes sense
for you.
Speaker (39:12):
Okay.
Perfect.
Perfect.
If people have questions around,say they look, is there a a good
way to contact you?
If they've done the book andthey're like, I'm just not sure
about blah, blah, blah, is theresomething they can do or is
there a spot where they q and aor anything like that, that they
can help?
Or your 21 day.
Cleanse parasite.
Yeah.
Like
Speaker 2 (39:30):
yes, I do, I do parasite cleanses twice a year.
I'll do the gut reset.
1, 2, 3 program twice a year.
Um, one open is open forregistration.
Now it starts September 8th.
I don't know when this will air,but Okay.
And then there'll be one in2026.
Okay.
Um, and I had a, I, I'm on a lotof podcasts where I share Yeah.
(39:51):
What I do, I actually had my ownpodcast for three years.
I did a three minute healthminute.
Oh, cool.
I have about a thousandepisodes.
That was really fun.
So, um, people, I'm reallyaccessible.
I'm on social media.
You can find me there.
You'll leave that in show notes.
Hit me in the dms.
Email me, Melissa.
Melissa Koki.
I'm here to help.
Speaker (40:10):
Perfect.
Thank you so much.
If the conversation hasresonated and something has
triggered inside of you to startto make a move and a change and
start to look at yourconstipation codes, make sure
that you reach out.
Follow.
Check the show notes, get allthe information.
(40:30):
Become an advocate for yourselfby learning about your body,
your needs, and understand whatis best for you by you because
of you.
Please let us know whatresonates with this podcast that
you have just listened to.
Share.
Follow review.
We love all of it.
(40:51):
Melissa, what a joy to spendthis time with you if you are
wanting to explore this and morein terms of how do you start to
look after yourself and youalways seem to, I'll do it
tomorrow.
I'll do it.
I've got time for that rightnow.
I've got this on my.
Burner and you are tired ofdoing that, but you can't get
(41:13):
out.
Come and join us in my mentormembership called Becoming Her,
where we will touch base everymonth.
We will connect, we will createa space for you to be heard
judgment free.
Figure out where it is you areright now and where you want to
(41:33):
go in your life, no matter whatit is that you're dealing with,
and we're there behind thescenes.
I wish everyone an incredibleday.
Make sure you drink your wateras Melissa has shared so
beautifully and so detailed.
Take care of yourselves and wewill see you on the next
episode.
What if the key to your freedom, energy, and confidence
(00:04):
was hidden in your gut?
Today's guest knows exactly howto unlock it.
Welcome to Thrive after 45, thepodcast where you remember the
woman you were never meant toforget.
I'm Denise Drink, heartWhisperer, midlife mirror, and
mentor for the women Awakeningto.
Her powers.
(00:25):
This is your space to shedexpectations, collapse timelines
in return to yourself, for youby you because of you.
It is such an honor and aprivilege to welcome and
introduce Melissa Hall Kki tothe show today.
Melissa is a gut healthspecialist with a master's in
(00:45):
acupuncture, and she's beenhelping people heal.
Since 1996, for nearly 30 years,she's impacted thousands of
lives through her one-to-onework workshops, speaking
engagements, her free ebook.
Start pooping better.
And now her new book, theConstipation Code.
(01:06):
Melissa's passion and expertiseguide men and women around the
world from constipation toliberation by uncovering and
addressing the eight root causesbehind the struggle.
Her work is about so much morethan gut health.
It's about giving people backtheir vitality.
Freedom and trust in their ownbodies.
(01:29):
Melissa, it is such anincredible joy to have you here
with me today, and I reallycan't wait to begin to learn
more with you and share yourincredible wisdom with our
listeners.
So.
Welcome to our show.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Thank you, Denise.
I'm so happy to be here.
And it's so nice to be on apodcast where I'm speaking to my
peers.
Um, you know, usually when yourecord a podcast, you don't
really know who the broadaudience is, but I will be 55
proudly next month, and so I'mreally happy to be speaking with
you and your audience.
Today.
I
Speaker (02:04):
love that.
I love that.
Well, welcome.
Listen, you've been helpingpeople, people heal for like
over 30 years.
What first drew you to this workand why has gut health become
such a central mission for you?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
So I always wanted to be somewhere in medicine.
Since I was little.
I was that little kid with theAce bandages and the band-aids
and always the first on thescene.
Um, but I got a littledistracted in college.
I was an athlete and focusedmore on athletics.
Um, but as a result of being anathlete, my junior year of
college, I slipped and fell in aboat bay.
(02:45):
I was in the rowing team and Ifractured a vertebrae in my back
and I had a lot of problems for.
A little over a year.
It happened to also coincidewith the death of my father who
had cancer.
He died my junior year ofcollege, never putting two and
two together that I wasn'thealing from a back injury and I
wasn't really healing from maybethe grief, the loss of my
(03:07):
father.
Um, it wasn't until a year and ahalf of pretty significant pain
that I found an acupuncturist,and he was the one who reminded
me that the heart chakra.
Lies directly in front of thevertebrae that I broke, and it's
not a vertebrae that would breaknormally it was T seven, so
that's in the middle of yourback in a pretty stable spot.
(03:30):
Mm-hmm.
Um, and he was able to make somuch sense for me of other
symptoms that were going on andjust things that had unfolded
since the death of my father,um, that I dropped what I was
doing and went to acupunctureschool.
Um, and that was back in 1993when acupuncture was not right.
(03:52):
A thing.
Mm-hmm.
But it helped me so much that Ijust, it was a calling.
I had to figure out how itworked and I had to be able to
help other people with it.
And I did.
And it was amazing.
And I practiced sportsacupuncture for a while that,
because that was my passion.
I was around athletes, etcetera.
Sure.
Yeah.
Um, and then, um, I got awayfrom it a little bit.
(04:15):
I got married, I had some kids,and I got really sick.
Hmm.
In 2009, I woke up in themorning and my left arm was numb
and I thought, Hmm, I slept onmy neck wrong.
You know, sometimes your fingersare a little numb when you wake
up.
Um, and then by the afternoon Istarted feeling foolish.
Um, went to lay down, said to myhusband, watch the boys.
(04:38):
And as I laid there, I thought,is my left leg going numb?
So I called my doctor.
It was a Saturday and theyhappened to have office hours.
And by the time I got into theoffice, I was numb on my left
side.
Speaker (04:50):
Oh, Melissa.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So it was really scary and I had little kids.
Um, so I went to the hospital.
I was there for three days.
They ran every test.
The only thing that came backwas that my white blood cell
count was low.
That was it.
Um, I had numbness for a coupleof days, then I had headaches
for a week.
Then I was really, really tiredand then I was better.
(05:15):
It was the weirdest thing.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Mm.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Two months later I started with GI issues.
I had a lot of stomach problems.
Um, I had an endoscopy, acolonoscopy.
Yeah.
I swallowed a camera.
A camera that takes pictures asit goes through your system.
And I was told that I was fine.
Okay.
Um, so all of my symptoms.
Never had an answer.
I was always told that, oh, youmight have this pain or this
(05:40):
symptom or this rash, butthere's nothing wrong with you.
Long story short, I had Lymedisease.
I had Tickborne disease ofBartonella, Rocky Mountain
spotted fever, complicated byparasites and mold.
I was a very sick chicken.
Speaker (05:55):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
One of the fallouts from being so sick and having so
many different infections andtaking so many different
antibiotics is that I ruined mygut and I felt Lyme disease was
devastating and the, and the allthat came with that.
But when I was somewhatrecovered from that and then
(06:18):
dealing with the gut issues, Ialmost felt like it was worse.
Oh, you know, I, I, I couldn't,I couldn't do half of the things
in my life I love to do becauseI didn't, I needed a bathroom.
Oh, I probably wouldn't need abathroom, but if I needed it, I
needed it.
Right, right.
So it life, you can't really goout to dinner because you know
that half those things on themenu are gonna make you feel
(06:40):
sick, and you don't wanna be theone saying like, could you boil
my chicken and could I have justa baked potato plain?
Right.
It's devastating.
It's devastating.
So I did.
I worked for a while.
Once I was able to help myself,and actually both of my children
have had Lyme disease.
Um, and I helped us all throughthat.
What I realized and people werecoming to me left and right, and
(07:03):
the, the core denominator was noone was pooping.
And so if you are not poopingdaily, okay, you are not getting
toxins out of your body daily.
So if someone tries to killsomething with an herb or an
antibiotic, you've got deadbacteria that has its own set of
chemical properties that makeyou sick, make you a lot sicker.
(07:25):
So I really can't help peopleuntil they're pooping well.
So that became my focus.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Interesting.
And why?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And why?
Because I went to the doctor andI was told, drink more water,
eat more fiber.
Right?
And yeah, you know, go get abottle of MiraLax and if you
don't poop for a couple of days,take a dose.
That was it.
That was what I was given.
It didn't work.
That doesn't work for mostpeople.
In fact, fiber and water andusing a motility agent are all
(07:53):
really important.
Okay?
But that's not it.
But that's not it.
And it has to be done in theright order, and it has to be
done with consistency.
And the problem with us, theconstipated people who are
Googling at two in the morning,we're trying it all.
Right.
For three days we eat a Kiwi inthe morning and we are pooping
(08:14):
and we're like, that's theanswer.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
There it is.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
And then it stops working.
Yeah.
Then we switch to Dragon fruitor we fast.
Mm-hmm.
Or we have a bigger meal or wetry it all.
So I wanted to, um, in my work,I wanted to give people a
roadmap.
Speaker (08:31):
Yep.
Okay.
Wanted to
Speaker 2 (08:32):
say, here are the eight root causes of constant.
Right.
Which ones, and it's not justone.
Most people have a few.
Okay.
But which ones are affectingyou?
And here's how to get out ofthat little changes you can make
on each of those factors.
Add up,
Speaker (08:50):
right?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Sure.
And make big difference.
Speaker (08:53):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
So that's
Speaker (08:54):
why I, I do, I love, I mean, I absolutely love talking
to guests like yourself who notonly have.
The scientific knowledge behindeverything, but also have had
the experiences, unfortunately,but fortunately for the rest of
the world because now you get tomarry not only your personal
(09:15):
experience, but your knowledgeand really create something that
will impact those who are ableto listen to your, your gifts of
knowledge, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So.
Eight root causes.
How, where on earth do you comeup with eight root causes?
(09:37):
How does that come to happen?
Where did you get that?
Well, some
Speaker 2 (09:41):
of them.
Some of them are pretty obvious.
Right?
Okay.
So we can start with number one.
I mean, we can get into it.
You wanna get into'em?
Why not?
All right, here we go.
Yep.
Number one, his daughter.
What?
Yep.
And it's not what people think.
Yeah.
Okay.
Because there are people outthere that are constipated, that
are drinking eight, eight ounceglasses of water a day as
(10:02):
recommended, and they're stillnot pooping Well,
Speaker (10:04):
gotcha.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
A couple of things I like to remind people, um, when
we're drinking water, we don'tdrink all at once.
So you don't wanna sit down andflood your body with a big glass
of water because you'veforgotten it's noon and you're
like, oh my God, I had threecups of coffee and no water
chunk.
Chug, chug, ch ch.
Right, right.
That's not the way to do it.
That'cause you're gonna pee thatright out.
(10:28):
The way that I like to tellpeople to start is the first
thing in the morning when youwake up on your nightstand
should be a large glass of roomtemperature water.
Before you even get outta bed, Iwant you to drink that water
nice.
That stimulates the gastrocolicreflex, and that's what starts
the process of the morning poop.
(10:49):
Okay?
Your body, your body is built toevacuate in the morning to make
way for the rest of what'scoming today.
Right.
Perfect.
Yep.
So by stimulating that, a lot ofpeople think, oh, I need coffee
to poop, and coffee does help.
It is a stimulant.
However, it is also that actionof stimulating the stomach with
(11:09):
fluid.
Mm-hmm.
Water is preferable.
You're not gonna, you're coffeefurther dehydrates you.
Right.
So we start with eight ounces ofwater, the, the second glass of
water of the day.
I'd like you to put someelectrolytes in there.
Okay.
Now, on the cheap, that's asqueeze of lemon and a pinch of
salt.
Anybody can do that.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
For people who are picky and like things that are
flavored, I have a lot ofclients that say, I hate the
taste of water.
Yeah.
Um, there is everything fromchocolate mint to pineapple,
mango electrolytes out there.
Now it is, uh, it is hot, right.
I, I, you know, there is aspectrum from, I, I prefer to
use a pure electrolyte powderthat contains no color, no
(11:51):
flavor, no artificial anything.
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And then there are, uh, electrolytes that contain
all of that colors and flavorsand aspartame or you get to
choose.
Yeah.
I prefer you use one over notusing one.
I'd prefer you use the cleanerone.
Right.
But I always start with whereyou are.
So if you're new toelectrolytes, you do, you do you
and do your flavor
Speaker 3 (12:16):
perfect.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Um, the other thing I remind people is I don't want
people drinking around mealtime.
Oh, okay.
So the idea of sitting down atat dinner with a giant glass of
water, you're actually dilutingyour hydrochloric acid.
So we need our stomachs to besuper acidic, and people often
think that their reflux iscaused by too much stomach acid,
(12:38):
when most likely it's notenough.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Hmm.
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
When we don't have enough stomach acid, there's not
enough.
I want you to think of yourstomach as sort of like a
cauldron and that fiery, right?
Yep.
If there's pressure in therewhen there's food in there
because there's actionhappening.
Sure.
And when there's that pressurein that stomach, the flap
closes.
Right, right to the esophagus.
Right.
So that, so that nothing cancome up as all of that action is
(13:06):
happening.
But when that action is mild andkind of weak, there's nothing to
keep that flap closed.
There's no pressure there.
So we get reflux.
Right.
Okay.
Um, so I, most of my clients aretaking digestive enzymes, but
we'll get to that when we talkabout food.
But, um.
But we want to make sure that wehave strong stomach acid, and
(13:28):
the way to do that is not todilute it.
No.
So that is a no-no.
Right.
So the idea is we start with aglass of water in the morning,
then the next glass of water hassome electrolytes, and then we
make sure we're balancedthroughout the day.
Sure.
I have clients that use a timeron their phone.
Yeah.
Every two hours.
I have a client that has one ofthose water bottles that has
8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM worksfor her.
(13:50):
Right.
Sure.
I offer my clients all of thosepossibilities.
Mm-hmm.
And solutions becauseeverybody's different.
Right.
Of course.
What works for one.
Yeah.
So that's the basic I, you know,it's all in chapter, of course,
chapter three, all the details.
Of course.
Um, and the cool thing that Ilike about this book, being a
girl of the seventies andeighties, is that I grew up
reading Cosmo Magazine.
(14:11):
Right.
Cosmopolitan Magazine was ourBible.
We laid in the sun on thedriveway.
We, we took those quizzes thatsaid like, are you, oh yeah.
Could you be?
And so I wrote my book withquizzes in every chapter.
Nice.
Could, could dehydration be afactor for you?
Right.
Speaker (14:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
And it really asks you to look at your behaviors
and practices and say like, Hmm,how much water do I really
drink?
Right.
For sure.
Speaker (14:37):
Love that.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Um, so that's number one.
Number two is dietary foodtriggers.
And I think it, you know, bymidlife for women Yeah.
We all have a list of thingsthat we know don't sit so well
with us.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Um, and so there are foods that drive inflammation.
Right,
Speaker 3 (14:53):
right.
And
Speaker 2 (14:54):
so, and those are unknown.
Those are, um.
Those are food mediated.
We, they're different than foodallergies.
We call them food sensitivities.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Sure.
Mm-hmm.
Um,
Speaker 2 (15:05):
and in my book I talk about a test, A finger stick
test that you can do gets sentto your house and it tests for
the 22 most common foods.
Why I like this test is becauseI have so many people come and
say, I'm so healthy.
I sleep well.
I drink my water.
I work out three days a week.
I have my almond buttersmoothies in the morning.
(15:25):
I drink my green juice.
Yep.
And when their foodsensitivities come back, like
they can't, almond is off thecharts a lot of times.
Avocado, they're sensitive to,so all of these healthy foods
that they're getting, that theythink they're doing this great
thing are actually contributingto leaky gut and causing more
damage and inflammation.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yeah.
So
Speaker 2 (15:46):
that, and that test is$199, which mm-hmm.
Is a lot of information.
For$199 and you can actually,all you do is avoid those foods
for 90 days and work on some guthealing.
There's some gut healingprinciples, um, some supplements
you can take to soothe and healthe gut lining because
everything that we're doingtoday is damaging our gut.
Denise, like ibuprofen.
(16:08):
Gluten, right?
The glyphosate and gluten, allthe chemicals that we're taking
in any kind of aspartame or fakesugar, right?
It all damages the gut lining.
And when the gut lining isdamaged, food particles get in
to the bloodstream and the bodyreacts.
Speaker (16:21):
Yep.
Right?
Makes sense.
So that's
Speaker 2 (16:22):
why it's important.
Speaker (16:23):
Yeah.
Minimal
Speaker 2 (16:24):
deficiency is another big one.
I don't know.
We, you know, we did such a goodjob in this country talking
about multivitamins.
Did you take your multivitamin?
But nobody ever talked aboutminerals.
And if you look at the studies.
The soil level of minerals isdramatically depleted year over
year.
We just don't have the sameminerals.
So they'll say like an apple,you'd have to, you know, eat
(16:46):
whatever it is, like a pound ofkale today to get the same as
you got from one leaf
Speaker (16:51):
40 years ago.
Right, right.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah.
Um, and so we don't get enoughminerals.
And so one of the things that'sreally important is complete
mineral.
Um, uh.
I just lost the word, makingsure you have all of your
minerals.
Right, right.
So a mineral supplement thatcontains all of them.
However, one mineral that weknow is specifically, um,
(17:14):
contributing mineral depletionof magnesium is.
Is really significantlyaffecting, um, constipation.
Yeah.
And we find that when we useeither magnesium citrate or
magnesium glycinate, both ofthose can really help people
move their bowels.
Um, and sometimes it takeshigher doses because we are so.
(17:35):
Depleted.
Speaker (17:36):
Right, exactly.
It takes time
Speaker 2 (17:37):
to build up.
So I find that people will startwith higher doses and then be
able to, to save to lower dosesonce they build up the reserve.
Right?
So that's another big one.
Um, number four is medicationside effects.
People forget,
Speaker (17:51):
you know,
Speaker 2 (17:52):
people come to me on four and five medications.
And two or three of them arevery constipating.
Speaker (17:58):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
No one ever told them.
Speaker (18:00):
No, of course.
Yeah.
It really,
Speaker 2 (18:01):
it's a matter of doing your research.
If you are listening to this andyou are constipated and you are
on pharmaceutical drugs, pleaseGoogle it.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Constipation and the name of your medication.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Go to your doctor and say, I'm suffering.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yeah, I
Speaker 2 (18:16):
need, I need an alternative solution.
And Nice.
A lot of times there is, yeah,there's a different type of
medication that can, you know,get you the same sort of results
without the side effect ofconstipation.
Right.
So that's a big one.
Um, liver dysfunction.
People don't talk about theliver when it talk, they talk
about constipation.
They just think usuallyintestines.
Right?
Um, but your liver, um, and thesecretion of bile, all of that
(18:41):
and um, has to, has an impact onconstipation.
And when we think about thelevels of fatty acid or fatty
liver disease, non-alcoholicfatty liver disease, I think
they're rebranding thatactually, I forget there's a new
name for it, but, um, is a bigproblem and it really is because
of all of our processed foods.
Mm-hmm.
It's non-alcoholic, right.
(19:01):
We know alcohol impacts theliver and most of us are
probably drinking alcohol, so wehave some liver, liver impact to
start with.
Sure.
But when we are eating highlyprocessed foods and inflammatory
oils, we're either for, we'reeven further impacting the
liver.
Right.
So it's taking a look at thepractices that wreak havoc on
your liver.
Mm-hmm.
You'll take the quiz andunderstand maybe that's
(19:22):
affecting me as well.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, gut dysbiosis is anotherone.
When we say gut dysbiosis,dysbiosis means like a, um, uh,
what's supposed to be there isout of whack.
Right?
Okay.
So we know there, we've heardabout probiotics.
Yes.
That's the, that's the good pro,pro-life, the good bacteria that
(19:43):
lives in our gut.
And really important becausethere are.
We know of probably a couplehundred strains and their
purposes.
Um, when I run a gut dysbiosistest, there's 10 hallmark
strains that we look at.
We know we need those strains tobe robust.
Okay?
If those strains are robust,digestion happens, fibers get
(20:05):
broken down, mucus layer getsreplaced, et cetera.
Um, however, when we have badbugs, so we get them all the
time from things that we eatfrom traveling, a lot of people
will say like, I went to Mexicoin February and I got traveler's
diarrhea and I never reallyrecovered.
(20:25):
When we run the gut dysbiosistest, we pick up the bacteria
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Interesting.
And then we
Speaker 2 (20:30):
can treat it.
Yeah.
But, and that goes, you know,the gut dysbiosis test is for
people.
In general, not just forconstipation, because I do have
a lot of people that will have,that are moving their bowels
five and six times a day, whichis
Speaker (20:43):
okay.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Just as much of a problem.
I was gonna ask, is that,
Speaker (20:47):
yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Okay.
Yeah.
If you're listening to this andyou're like, I'm not
constipated, I poop six times aday.
Not good either.
Right.
I want you to think about yourbody needs to absorb all of
those minerals and good fats asit makes, as your food makes its
way through your intestines,right?
Yeah.
Your small intestinesspecifically.
And so when your transit time istoo fast mm-hmm.
(21:09):
You are not absorbing nutrients.
Speaker (21:11):
Makes sense?
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
So your bones are at jeopardy, your brain is at
jeopardy.
Mm.
So they should, everything theyshould take, they should take a
gut dysbiosis test andunderstand what's going on.
And then there's a protocol tofix it.
Right?
Respond to kill.
Yeah.
To kill the bad stuff.
Usually we do, we kill the badguys and we beef up the good
guys.
And that levels out themicrobiome.
Speaker (21:33):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
So that's a big one.
Parasites and mold is one thatno one talks about.
No, never in mainstreammedicine, right?
Never.
Your, your general physician,however, it's a big problem.
Yeah.
Um, I, all of my private clientsthat I have worked with through
parasite cleanses, 100% havepassed visible parasites
Speaker 4 (21:54):
in their stool.
Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
100%.
I mean, they're there andthey're causing problems.
When we are compromised, when wehave mold, when we have gut
dysbiosis, when our immunesystem is taken down, when we
have inflammation, um, theygrow.
They thrive.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Um, and so they get overgrown and they cause
problems and they can causeconstipation problems.
Um, so parasite cleanses, Irecommend twice a year or the
Native Americans did it andit's, we should be doing them
too.
I, it's the same.
I was talking to somebody theother day about how, I think it
was in the 18 hundreds when theyrealized that surgeries were
(22:33):
really compromised becausedoctors weren't washing their
hands.
Speaker (22:37):
Right.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Right.
And then they started wearinggloves and the incidence of
death and surgery decreaseddramatically.
However, at the time to thinkthat a doctor was dirty, doctors
were revered as God.
So how could a doctor be causingthis problem?
Right.
And I feel like it's the samething in this country when it
comes to parasites.
We think, not me, I, right.
(22:58):
I eat organic, right?
It's on vegetables.
It's on meat.
If you eat sushi, if yourcheeseburger wasn't cooked until
it was dry and lifeless, there'sants.
The fact of life and we, and wedeworm our dogs monthly, right?
Speaker (23:14):
Yes.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Yeah.
So I don't know how, how theworld hasn't caught up here,
right?
However, know that it could bean issue for you.
Okay?
And the same thing with mold.
Mold exposure is.
Unbelievable.
Um, they say over 50% ofbuildings are.
You know, have many issues.
Um, I had a mold, I, we had ahouse fire.
(23:35):
My house burned down in 2016.
Oh my gosh.
I kind of thank God because Ifound black mold when they tore
down one of the bathrooms behindthe toilet and the wall, like it
lived there insidiously and.
It can affect you.
It makes people sick.
Some people sicker than others.
Mm-hmm.
Mold is an interesting onebecause for the most part, our
body should be able to detox it.
(23:57):
But if you have a genetic issue,an HLD, an H-L-A-D-R snip, your
body takes mold in and goes, Idon't know what to do with that
and sequesters it, and then itgrows in your body.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Mm.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Do a little research.
If you think if you live in ahouse where you think there's
mold and you have symptoms,brain fog, joint pain, general
fatigue, migraines are somecommon ones.
Um, there's actually a mold, Ihave a mold quiz, um, on my
website that people can take.
Um, but it's a big problem forpeople.
If you go into the bathroom, thetwo second mold test, go into
(24:32):
your bathroom and lift the backplate of the toilet.
Oh, yes.
Speaker (24:35):
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah,
Speaker 2 (24:36):
yeah.
Take a look.
Take a sniff.
Take a look because mold growswhere water sits.
Sure makes sense.
So best to do in your least usedtoilet.
If you happen to have a toiletthat's like in a weird spot you
don't use, check that one first.
That can be a big issue.
And the last one, here we are atnumber eight, is nervous system
dysregulation.
(24:57):
Mm.
Stress slash circadian rhythm.
Speaker (25:01):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Um, all of that, right?
So if you are going to bed at2:00 AM on some days and waking
up at 10:00 AM some days, butthen some nights going to bed at
10 and waking up at six, yourbody doesn't know what it's
supposed to be doing.
Our bodies love a rhythm.
Mm.
And that's what we work on whenwe are working on, I, I run a 21
(25:22):
day gut reset program and we areworking on rhythm, getting your
body into the process, right?
Right.
And so we set up all of theselittle cues along the way, um,
so that your body understandsthat.
But if you are stressed and youare, like many of my clients who
work outside the home and youneed to leave the house at.
6 48 so you can make it to workand you're up at six 15 and you
(25:43):
take a shower and you brush yourteeth and you feed the dog and
you grab your coffee and you getout the door.
There's no time to poop.
Yeah.
So things need to change, right?
So we need to rearrange ourschedules, calm our nervous.
Wake up, right?
And have that glass of water ina relaxed state at six, maybe
instead of six 15.
(26:04):
Um, part of my program offers amedi meditation that I co-wrote
that helps you to get yournervous system into a relaxed
state.
Love it.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
It's
Speaker 2 (26:12):
really, really important.
You can't poop if you're alwayscharged.
Speaker (26:16):
Yeah, makes perfect sense.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
And then there are other causes, not to say, you
know, as we go through menopauseand our hormones start to shift,
the decrease in estrogen andprogesterone definitely doesn't
number on your digestive system.
I'm a big fan of hormonereplacement therapy.
It has to be done very carefullyby a professional.
Mm-hmm.
But I think that can really helpother things like structural
(26:40):
issues.
Right.
I'm not covering that.
I'm talking about the thingsthat we have control over.
Um, though I do recommend pelvicfloor therapy for people out
there that have, um, somestructural issues, that can be
very helpful.
Sure,
Speaker (26:55):
sure.
Why do you think that's beenamazing?
I'm sitting here going Yep.
Check, check, check.
Oh, better do.
Better be in touch with, betterget the book.
I've got some homework to do.
So thank you for all of this.
Such a wealth of information.
Why do you think so many peoplewho, you've mentioned
probiotics, maybe do eliminationdiets, gut protocols, they still
(27:19):
struggle.
What's the missing piece thatyou find that many, if not most
practitioners do overlook?
Speaker 2 (27:29):
That's a good question.
Um.
I think, well, that's what I doin my 21 day program.
Right.
Okay.
So we do it the, we do it theright way.
If you are constipated and youtry to take more fiber mm-hmm.
You're, you're like stuffing agarbage disposal.
That's not working.
That's not gonna work.
(27:50):
We've gotta open up that pipefirst.
We need to figure out how, withwhat we usually use, what, um,
we call a motility agent.
A lot of times for people it'smagnesium citrate.
So in the pro in the, andthere's a couple of different
options which I present in theprogram, and you choose what you
feel is right for you.
We tighter it so we figure outour right dose.
(28:13):
Sure.
Too much magnesium citrate foranyone is gonna call What is
gonna cause what we calldisaster paths.
You don't want that.
You don't want that too little.
We don't want that.
And too little, you won't reallysee the result that you're
desiring.
So the first bit of of theprogram is really finding our
proper dose.
Um, the other things are we needto understand how much fiber
(28:35):
we're actually getting.
Mm.
Denise, most people thinkthey're doing a great job, and
most people.
Yeah, so I recommend this foreveryone listening.
If you think you're doing agreat job, I want you to write
down what you eat today.
And at the end of the day, Iwant you to go to chat gpt.com
and I want you to say, here iseverything I ate today.
(28:56):
Can you tell me how many gramsof fiber I got?
Okay, so be specific.
If you ate 10 grapes, put 10grapes.
Right.
Yeah.
If you ate a, a medium sweetpotato, put a medium sweet
potato.
Try to give it as muchinformation as you can, and I
think you'll be surprised peoplewho have constipation in order
to overcome that and regulateyour bowels.
(29:19):
I like people to be between 40and 50 grams of fiber a day.
Most people come in around 12.
Speaker (29:25):
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
And so if you want to have that morning epic poop
where you're like, I can seizethe day, my stomach's flat, I
feel great, right?
Yeah.
You need that fiber and you willhave, you want your poop to fill
that toilet bowl, right?
Little tiny poops.
Yeah.
That's not what we're lookingfor.
Right.
There's something called theBristol stool chart.
(29:49):
People can Google that.
It's B-R-I-S-T-O-L.
Mm-hmm.
And it's what we use in in guthealth to, to take a look at our
bowels and decide what'shealthy.
There's number one to numberseven.
Number one is what we call goatpellet poops.
I'm sure we've all had those attimes.
And number seven is liquiddiarrhea.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
No one wants either of those, soright in the middle is a number
(30:12):
four, which looks like asausage, right?
Yep.
It's not super bumpy or dry.
It comes out kind of like asnake.
You don't have to, what we callhyper wipe, right?
Yep.
It's not messy.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
Yeah.
That's
Speaker 2 (30:23):
ideal.
And when you are moving yourbowels daily, getting the right
motility agent, eating enoughfiber, your nervous system is
regulated.
Speaker (30:32):
Mm-hmm.
Right?
Speaker 2 (30:33):
That's what happens.
It's,
Speaker (30:35):
it happens.
Right?
Yeah.
Makes sense.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
That's what your body wants to do.
Speaker (30:39):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
And so we make sure in the program that we're doing
all of those things, we'restarting with water.
We're, we're looking at food andfood sensitivities.
We're knowing what we're, youknow, some people will, some
people come in Denise, andthey're eating six foods.
That's it.
Hmm.
They're eating chicken andthey're eating.
(31:00):
Um, yeah.
You know, and some, and it's sodifferent for people.
Like some people of course wouldthink that, I'm like, how can
you even digest that?
And they're like, that works forme.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
So we try to, once we start moving bowels, um, and
increasing fiber, peoplegeneral.
Find that they can eat morevariety, more.
Yeah, because things are movingthrough, things aren't
fermenting.
You know, there's a lot of talkabout something called SIBO
right now.
It's kind of a hot topic in guthealth, and SIBO is spelled
SIBO, and it stands for smallintestinal bacterial overgrowth.
(31:34):
And what that really means iswhen your transit time is slow,
when food moves really slowlythrough the intestines, and it's
not fully digested because yourstomach acid is weak,
Speaker (31:45):
right?
Speaker 2 (31:45):
It ferments, mm-hmm.
Causes lots of gas.
So if you are someone who gets aton of bloating, you gotta back
it up.
You gotta make sure you'rechewing your food first, and
number two, that you're actuallydigesting it in the stomach.
Speaker (31:58):
Right.
Um, we use a lot of
Speaker 2 (31:59):
digestive enzymes.
Hydrochloric acid we can add togive a little bit more power
there.
Speaker (32:06):
Beautiful.
So much.
So much and it's so.
Individualized, yet there aredefinite things that need to
happen in order to make thingsflow the way they sh they are
meant to based on our humanbodies, right?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Yeah.
And even like, and, and in thisprogram, like when people start
using high, higher doses ofmagnesium citrate, we find over
time.
That they go less and less andless as they bring up their
fiber.
Sure.
And they're introducing newprobiotics.
I love eating things likesauerkraut and kimchi, which put
them back into your systemnaturally.
(32:45):
Right, right.
Things that we never thoughtabout eating.
Speaker (32:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Um, we start eating for our gut, I tell my clients
that we should be eating 30different fruits and vegetables
a week.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Hmm.
That's
Speaker 2 (32:55):
another great test for yourself.
Get out a piece of paper, leaveit on your counter.
It's a great thing to do if youhave a family or kids.
Sure.
Yeah.
You're trying to get them torealize how important it is to
kind of eat the rainbow.
Right?
Yes.
We write down every food, every,we had Brussels sprouts tonight,
you know, in the morning we hadstrawberries with our breakfast.
Yep.
And you'd be surprised, and it'sfun to kind of shoot for 30,
(33:18):
take the kids to the grocerystore and let them pick out
something they've never triedbefore.
Right.
All of those things areimportant for our gut
microbiome.
Eating the same thing every day.
Speaker (33:27):
Yeah.
Yeah,
Speaker 2 (33:29):
and I have an, an, an anecdotal story.
I have a dog, um, that had anautoimmune disease.
He's eight years old.
He's a cockapoo, and he starteddeveloping scabs on his skin.
Oh.
And, and they smelled extremelybad.
I took him to three vets andwound up at a dermatologist who
(33:50):
put him on an autoimmune drugand a high dose of steroids, and
he had a stroke and almost died.
So I took him off knowing what Iknow about and I don't write,
I'm not a vet and I don't like,of course, I don't like trying
to self-treat, et cetera.
But knowing what I know aboutgut health, I weaned him off all
of his medication and I changedhis diet.
(34:13):
He no longer eats any standardcommercial dog food.
Yep.
I make his own food with coconutoil and ground beef and whatever
vegetables I get from the farm.
Always rotating.
Sometimes he has rutabaga,sometimes he, they have turn
turnips and I have three dogs,so of course I have to make food
for all of it.
You can't just do it for one.
Speaker (34:33):
No,
Speaker 2 (34:34):
he's healed.
His skin is perfect.
You can, you can't even tellthat he had a stroke.
He used to kind of walksideways.
He's healed.
Wow.
We healed his gut usingprobiotics and digestive enzymes
and good food.
And it's the same for humanbeings, right?
Mm-hmm.
We are.
Food is, we've been sold a billof goods when they've said it
(34:54):
doesn't matter.
Yeah.
Cancer patients are told everyday.
It doesn't matter what you eat.
Speaker (34:58):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yeah.
It matters.
It matters so much.
Mm-hmm.
The variety, right?
The quality.
Yeah.
Not eating chemicals.
Speaker (35:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Um, that, that's the best place to
Speaker (35:08):
start, right?
Absolutely.
And those are things you canimplement immediately.
You can do ground to table.
Just focus on that.
The other thing I've learnedover the years is, um, as you're
in the supermarket, at leasthere where we are in Canada, I
don't know if it's the samewhere you are in the States, but
um, outside is where you shopinside is processed outside is
(35:33):
the Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
We
Speaker 2 (35:35):
call, um, packaged, like in packaged food.
Bags and boxes are body bags
Speaker (35:39):
for food.
Yeah.
There you go.
Yeah.
There's
Speaker 2 (35:42):
nothing alive there.
There's nothing nutritionalthere.
Speaker (35:45):
Love that.
Love that
Speaker 2 (35:47):
real food.
Speaker (35:48):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
'cause you're a real person andyou deserve it.
And you need to do it for you byyou because of you.
'cause nobody else can do it foryou.
It's about you, right?
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yes.
And one of the, I was listeningto your podcast a couple
episodes, and one of the thingsI love that you say, Denise, is
we can't step boldly into thelife we are meant to be living.
And I answer if we areconstipated.
Speaker (36:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yeah.
Speaker (36:15):
Can't,
Speaker 2 (36:16):
yeah.
I can't be my best self.
No.
If I wake up in the morning andfeel bloated and miserable, of
course we owe it to ourselves
Speaker (36:23):
to fix this.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And people like Melissa and inthe show notes will have all of
the ways to contact her and findout more about her book and all
of the things you can start todo.
And this doesn't have to be, ohmy gosh, I have to change my
whole life tomorrow.
No, it's a journey.
It's a process, and it's aboutyour learning for your health.
(36:47):
And it's in your hands, right,Melissa?
Oh my gosh.
Is there anything that you wouldlove to share with our audience
before we wrap up today?
Anything that you just reallywanna drop in and say, this is
my final nugget for todayanyway.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, I just think that we, once we learn, we do
better, right?
Yeah.
And so if you are dealing withconstipation and you read the
book.
And it works for you.
And you get to share that withsomebody.
Right.
Someone once told me knowledgeis only powerful when it's
shared.
Speaker (37:24):
Yes.
Which is
Speaker 2 (37:24):
why I wrote the book.
Right.
It's all my knowledge prettymuch free.
I mean, I've been studying for30 years.
The book's 7 95.
Right.
And it will help you.
It's cheaper than a copay atyour doctor's office.
Right.
Um, and then once you healyourself, you help others.
Speaker (37:40):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
That's, that's the way the world works.
And I like to say that, um.
When we poop better, we'renicer.
And when we're nicer, theworld's a little bit better.
And that's really what we needis the world to be everyone, to
be a little nicer in the world,to be a little better.
And if we're feeling good, it'sa lot easier.
Speaker (38:02):
Totally.
You're not battling what you aretrying to just do internally and
you don't even understand.
So I totally 1000% agree withyou.
So Melissa, thank you so muchfor being with us today.
It has been eyeopening to saythe least for me, who used to be
as.
Girl growing up I used to be alittle mis constipated and the
(38:25):
doctor said, well, if you'reregular every two to three days,
that's fine.
You don't have to do it everyday.
That's just your system.
Now we know better.
Now we know more.
And with all of your expertise.
I did have a question.
You had mentioned a couple oftests that can be done.
Is that just for um, US citizensor can those tests also be done
(38:48):
in other parts of the world likeCanada, et It's so
Speaker 2 (38:51):
US and I actually called the lab and asked them
specifically about Canada, andthey can be done to Canada.
The shipping charges are higher.
Sure.
But yes, they will ship toCanada.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
Okay.
So
Speaker 2 (39:02):
the two tests that I love are the food sensitivity
test and the gut microbiometest.
And it depends.
When you read the book, you'llsee like, which one makes sense
for you.
Speaker (39:12):
Okay.
Perfect.
Perfect.
If people have questions around,say they look, is there a a good
way to contact you?
If they've done the book andthey're like, I'm just not sure
about blah, blah, blah, is theresomething they can do or is
there a spot where they q and aor anything like that, that they
can help?
Or your 21 day.
Cleanse parasite.
Yeah.
Like
Speaker 2 (39:30):
yes, I do, I do parasite cleanses twice a year.
I'll do the gut reset.
1, 2, 3 program twice a year.
Um, one open is open forregistration.
Now it starts September 8th.
I don't know when this will air,but Okay.
And then there'll be one in2026.
Okay.
Um, and I had a, I, I'm on a lotof podcasts where I share Yeah.
(39:51):
What I do, I actually had my ownpodcast for three years.
I did a three minute healthminute.
Oh, cool.
I have about a thousandepisodes.
That was really fun.
So, um, people, I'm reallyaccessible.
I'm on social media.
You can find me there.
You'll leave that in show notes.
Hit me in the dms.
Email me, Melissa.
Melissa Koki.
I'm here to help.
Speaker (40:10):
Perfect.
Thank you so much.
If the conversation hasresonated and something has
triggered inside of you to startto make a move and a change and
start to look at yourconstipation codes, make sure
that you reach out.
Follow.
Check the show notes, get allthe information.
(40:30):
Become an advocate for yourselfby learning about your body,
your needs, and understand whatis best for you by you because
of you.
Please let us know whatresonates with this podcast that
you have just listened to.
Share.
Follow review.
We love all of it.
(40:51):
Melissa, what a joy to spendthis time with you if you are
wanting to explore this and morein terms of how do you start to
look after yourself and youalways seem to, I'll do it
tomorrow.
I'll do it.
I've got time for that rightnow.
I've got this on my.
Burner and you are tired ofdoing that, but you can't get
(41:13):
out.
Come and join us in my mentormembership called Becoming Her,
where we will touch base everymonth.
We will connect, we will createa space for you to be heard
judgment free.
Figure out where it is you areright now and where you want to
(41:33):
go in your life, no matter whatit is that you're dealing with,
and we're there behind thescenes.
I wish everyone an incredibleday.
Make sure you drink your wateras Melissa has shared so
beautifully and so detailed.
Take care of yourselves and wewill see you on the next
episode.
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