Are You Just Tired, or is it Something More? A Functional Medicine Approach to Energy with Brandy Cummings

Welcome to the Real Life Momz podcast. It is time to take a break from all our to-dos and carve out this time to focus on ourselves. I'm Lisa Foster, your host, and today I'm here with fellow mom and functional medicine practitioner Brandy Cummings, and today we are discussing why we are so tired and how we can increase our energy on a cellular level.

So hi Brandy. Welcome to the show. Hey, Lisa, great to be here. So great to have you. I'm really excited to dive in because I have to say, when I hear the word mom, I get tired. I'm exhausted. It just like triggers the response in me, which I'm sure we'll go deeper too in a little bit. But like the first question I really have for you,

because motherhood is tiring. How do we even know if we're exhausted and that's like normal or we should be worrying about this? That's a good question. So one of the [00:01:00] things I hear a lot from clients in my practice is that they go to the doctor 'cause they feel tired or they just feel something's off and then they're told that either their labs look normal or it's just part of motherhood.

Like, and we're just kind of given that messaging that that's just how it is. And I know I personally was given that messaging. You know, I remember going to my six week appointment after my first daughter was born, and I walked out of there feeling like, wow, that was essentially just like a permission slip to have sex again.

Like that was it. Like I feel like I, we weren't really. Fully assessing how I was doing, , and I was feeling really tired and I was like, I felt like my moods were really off. And I did bring that up, but it was just like, yep, that's just part of being a mom. And as I have continued to work with almost exclusively moms in my practice,

I just don't think we need to settle for that. [00:02:00] Yes, there are things about motherhood that are demanding of our attention and also our career and our ambition and our hobbies. Like all of these things take energy. And so at the end of the day, , we may be feeling tired, but I hold firm that.

Ideally we have enough energy in ourselves to carry us through the day without feeling like we just, we hit that afternoon wall, or just there's a certain hour and we're just kind of toast. Like, that's it. And I think that that is a signal that there's room for improvement.

In our cellular energy, which I'm sure we're gonna dive into, , whether or not it's something, you mentioned should this be something we worry about? I never wanna install any worry in anybody either. , But I think that if we are not feeling like we can get through the day, it does warrant a deeper conversation because I believe that.

You get to have the life that you love. [00:03:00] You get to do the things that you love. You get to have energy to keep up with your ambition. You get to do that even while being a mom. Okay, well I love that. we all think, oh, this is it. Like I'm just burnt out. I'm tired. Yeah, I'm exhausted.

But maybe there's more going on. So you mentioned cellular energy and maybe tell us what a that is. A lot of people are probably like, huh? What is that? What is a cell? Um, and why does it have energy? Right? Like, tell us a little bit about what that is and why it's so important to have, I guess, good cellular health.

Yeah, let me transport you back to like ninth grade biology for just a minute. Um, so in around that time, we probably all learned that the mitochondria in our cell are the powerhouses of the cell, right? That's a term that we've, we've probably heard. And the reason it gets that name is because inside of the mitochondria, which is inside.

Our cells. There is a biochemical [00:04:00] process, and we don't need to get too deep in the, in the weeds of the science here, but there's all you need to know is that there's a biochemical process. It's called the electron transport chain, and at the very end of the chain. The mitochondria makes something called a TP, and that is our cellular energy.

So when I'm talking about increasing energy, yes, I'm talking about feeling energetic in our body, feeling like we are, we are robust and strong and vibrant and resilient enough to go do the things that we wanna do or that we need to do. But I'm also talking about on a cellular level, do our cells

have the energy that they need to carry out their daily cellular functions as well. And so that's what I'm really talking about when I'm talking about cellular energy. And the reason why this is so important is because, like I said, if we don't have enough cellular energy than all of the, actions that our cells are supposed to [00:05:00] carry out throughout the day.

It can be, impaired or not running as efficiently. So it's really important that we look upstream. And so it's a big difference between like, oh my gosh, I'm hitting this like two o'clock wall. I'm gonna have a cup of coffee and try to get through this, and then I gotta think about dinner. And there's a football game and there's homework and all these things.

There's a big difference between trying to like. You know, mask our symptoms or do something to, to perk us up in the afternoon versus looking way upstream at a cellular and subcellular level and figuring out what can I do so that I'm catching this way upstream so that I can reap the downstream benefits of feeling robust and energetic throughout my life.

Wow. Okay. Because this is so, it's so important because we get like thrown out with like things like sleep and nutrition and like stress and all the drainers of our energy and Yes, the like, I think this all [00:06:00] plays a part, right? However, looking at what actually makes us up that's making who we are. And actually looking at their health so how do we take care of this magical layer that we just, take for granted so I think it's really important to, um, try to identify what are the energy vampires I call them, that are, that are bringing down your cellular energy, really impairing that biochemical process that I was talking about. And when we think about this, the top ones that I see in my practice are, chronic stress.

Is a big one. And the reason, it's very easy to say oh, you're stressed out. Stress is so dangerous, reduce your stress. But the reality is , especially if you're a mom and if you're working or you're a business owner or whatever you're doing. It's like sometimes our life is just stressful and, and for somebody to tell you to reduce your stress is like, that's not helpful.

What are you even saying to me [00:07:00] right now? Like, this is the nature of my life. Especially if there's other things like maybe you're caring for elder parents, or whatever it is, we, you know, there's stressful things that come up and so when I'm talking about stress, I'm talking about. Where can we reduce our stress?

What can we cut out? What can we delegate? What can we systematize that? So we are no longer experiencing that stress, but I'm also talking about things in our environment that cause stress. On our cells. And so what I see a lot in practice is, really heavy toxic burden, that people are carrying. So I see a lot of, mold and mycotoxins, a lot of heavy metals, a lot of environmental toxicants, herbicides and pesticides and plasticizers.

And when our total body burden is really elevated, it can cause us. To kind of slow down because our body's working [00:08:00] really hard to try to deal with that total toxic load. And so things, systems, detoxification. Our digestion hormone production can kind of be down regulated, which impacts our cellular energy and also the amount of energy that we're feeling and how energetic we're feeling.

And so really when I'm thinking about energy vampires, I'm thinking about, stress, I'm thinking about toxins, and I'm also thinking about, what are the things that are irritating the cells? So this could be, it could be toxins, it could be past traumas, it could be our thoughts and beliefs.

So many people go through their day, day in and day out, and they. Are not consciously aware of how negative their language is all throughout the day, especially we're feeling burnt out, especially if we feel like we're just kind of surviving through the day to day [00:09:00] and how this shows up is.

Let's say for example, somebody says like, Hey Lisa, how you doing? And your knee jerk reaction is to say, oh, doing okay hanging in there, you know? And it's like, if that's the language we keep using, those are the results we're gonna keep experiencing. We're gonna keep being okay and we're gonna keep hanging in there.

Let's say for another example. Oh this, this project or this season or whatever is just killing me. That language or subconscious hears everything. So I'm looking at what is causing stress or irritation to the cells. Thoughts and language are a huge piece that I think a lot of really well-meaning functional medicine practitioners are missing.

I'm looking at toxins, I'm looking at patch traumas, and then, and then from there, looking , at our labs as well, which we can go into if you want, but I think the first step is really kind of identifying [00:10:00] where am I leaking energy? , Where's the opportunity to really upregulate this biochemical process happening in my cells?

First, I think let's start with some of this language stuff, because that's an easy one for us to all recognize, right? Yeah. Like the negative talk, the beliefs, the things that are just coming outta our mouth. I love how you say that irritates ourselves. Yeah. So maybe what are some things that working with your clients that you do to start this process of changing that behavior first?

Recognizing it, I guess, because we probably don't even know we're doing it, like hanging in there, you know? Yeah. Might not feel like that seems kind of mild, right? Like instead of saying This day really sucked today. However. . It can really put a barrier to us in all sorts of levels. So what are some steps that you take with your clients of just starting to work with this, negative self-talk. [00:11:00] Yeah, so I think you really hit the nail on the head about first getting aware and curious.

So just really noticing what you're noticing throughout the day. And what I notice with a lot of my clients is that they have what I call, . Away from language. So for example, I'll say like, Hey, what are your goals in working together? And they'll say like, oh, I don't wanna be in pain anymore, or I don't wanna be bloated, or, I don't want to be constipated, or I don't wanna be so fatigued or what it is they're trying to get away from that thing they're having away from language.

And the thing about the subconscious mind. Is that it doesn't register a negative. It's just like if I ask you to not think of a purple elephant, you're immediately thinking of a purple elephant. 'cause your brain isn't registering that, don't do it. And so I think that that's a really great first shift is to just be aware.

So when clients tell me that, I say, amazing. [00:12:00] What do you want instead? What do you want? Instead of being bloated and sometimes. This is actually really hard for people. Like sometimes let's say somebody's in pain and they'll be like, well, and I'll say, what do you want instead? And they say, well, I want to wake up and.

Not be in pain. Like it's, it's, it's so ingrained. They're not consciously aware of it. They're not doing it on purpose, but it's just so ingrained and so it's like, okay, what do you wanna experience instead of pain? And it can be, and so this first step, although it might seem so little and trivial, can actually be huge.

And so we're shifting from that away from language shifting over. To toward language. Where are we heading? What do you want your life to look like? Who do you wanna be? What do you wanna have? What does that feel like? And really stepping into that version of yourself versus being so [00:13:00] hyper-focused on what we don't want, what we wanna get away from.

That's a great first step. Yeah, it is hard. I mean, especially moms, right? What do you want is like the scariest question ever, you know, because you're like me, like I have to, I can want something. Like what? And so you freak out just alone at the question. Yeah. So, yes, so hard.

But it's a good practice. Once you calm your body down, yes, then you can really think about what those are. And I, I think that's great. Now I'm gonna flip to these toxins in the environment. 'cause I also feel like moms are worried about that, especially for their kids, right? Mm-hmm. But yet, so hard. I mean, plastic is everywhere, people, right?

Like, I mean, you're, you go to the supermarket, you buy some meat. It's wrapped in plastic. How do we get away from some of these toxins that are just in our day-to-day that might be irritating ourselves?

Oh, this is such a good question. So I talk about toxins a lot because when I'm [00:14:00] running testing, I'm seeing it interfere with people on such a really big, profound way and. So when I'm talking about toxins, I always like to preface this conversation by saying that the goal here is for you to be able to interact with your environment in a strong, robust, resilient way.

The goal here is not to install fear. It's not for you to feel like you have to recoil, that you have to hide from the world, or that the world is dangerous or that. You know, everything, everything is out to get you or that you would need to sanitize everything. That is not what I want people to walk away from the conversation with.

And so with that in mind, the question is, well, what can we do and how important is it? How much efforts do we need to put into this? And we are living in a time where there are, um. More toxins and toxicants in the environment than ever before. And just to give the listeners a little bit of a. [00:15:00] Of a difference in definition here, a toxin is something that is naturally occurring.

So like mycotoxins from mold, those are toxins. Snake venom is a toxin. A toxicant is something that is manmade. So glyphosate is a toxicant. So we are living in a world with higher levels of toxins and toxicants than ever before. Tens of thousands of them, and those are only the ones that have been named.

And so, and when we test for this, and we work with somebody on a protocol to remove these things from their body, and then we notice how much better they feel, or now they're able to get pregnant, or now they're autoimmune. Symptoms have gone away and we retest and their toxins are,, much lower.

It is something that we do need to be aware of and we do need to be empowered of. I, I think that it's disingenuous to. Just write it off, you know, and think [00:16:00] like, oh, well I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna worry about that. And especially for moms, because we can have bioaccumulation, these toxins can accumulate in our bodies.

And so thinking about our young children. They can accumulate in their bodies, they could impact, you know, future generations. 'cause we have, uh, toxins are passed down through, we've tested cord blood and it's came back with hundreds of toxins in cord blood that didn't use to be there. And so this is something that needs to be on our radar.

And so what do we do? How do we address that in a way that doesn't feel like. Oh my gosh, this mountain is too big and I cannot, I cannot scale this mountain. It's too big. So what we do is we first accept the reality that perfection is a myth and it doesn't exist. So you can just let that go. 'cause it doesn't exist.

It's like a unicorn. It doesn't exist. Um, and then from there. Start with the heavy hitters first. That's [00:17:00] air and water. If you are filtering your air, and if you can't get an air filter, a quality air filter, even just making conscious effort to open up your windows on a daily basis, everybody thinks the air outside is so polluted.

And is so, so dangerous. But really the air inside can be more toxic than the air outside. And our houses now are built to be so airtight that we're not getting that good circulation. And so opening up the windows as much as possible and getting that good circulation can put you so many miles ahead. And if you can get an air filter, even better, put one in your bedroom.

If you can get more than one, put one in your living room.. And then from there, water and water is a big one. Some of the top toxicants that I see in water is something called atrazine, which there's a lot of research that can show interference with fertility, mitochondrial health, which is where we make our [00:18:00] energy.

It's really important that we are drinking. Clean water. And so there's a whole spectrum of efficacy of filters, um, and it's just about doing the best you can and feeling really good about that. And then maybe the next step you get a better filter, or maybe then you put a filter on your tub so your kids are bathing, you know, and filtered water and you just take it step by step.

But my, I would start with water and air. Okay. Questions. Yes. Those filters that you just like, like Brita or the ones that you put in your, like you have a fridge that has like a filter, is, are those good? I would not label them as good. Better than Nothing. Better than nothing.

Okay. Um, so I'm a big fan of using distilled water or reverse osmosis water. And a lot of, um, more natural or health food stores actually have water dispensers that [00:19:00] dispense. Reverse osmosis water. Mm-hmm. And so that's a really great option. If you don't wanna put in like a whole house filter or like, you know, invest thousands of dollars right now on your, on your water situation.

Not all water dispensers at grocery stores dispense reverse osmosis water. Most of it is like spring water or purified water. That's okay. Um, but the reverse osmosis is better on kind of the good, better, best scale. And, um, it's usually very affordable. So you can go, you can just make it a habit to go take your jugs refill, get your water, and it's, it's like, I mean, the prices vary, but it's, you know, probably between 30 and 50 cents a gallon.

Now, when you are refilling these jugs, um, a lot of those are plastic. Yeah. What do you think about that? So again, it's like picking our battles, right? And so I would rather somebody be drinking [00:20:00] clean water, poison free water out of plastic than be drinking water that is laden with. Atrazine and other herbicides.

You know, there's, there's so many things in our water. You can actually go to the EWG website. They have a water database and you can put in your zip code and it'll show you what is there in your water, in your municipality. I dunno if I wanna do that, but I do drink a lot of water., So, oh goodness.

Yeah. Okay. So air and water. I do have to go back to the air 'cause I'm wondering if other people have this question is you have an air filter say in your room and maybe even in your living room, but you work in an office and you're out and about. Like how does that work? Is it, you know, I'm saying like having it in one room.

Is it really helping your health? Yes. So this is such a good point, is thinking like, you know, it's [00:21:00] like we make the decision, we invest in this, we we do this thing, and then for it to feel like, God, am I even making a dent? Like, is this even worth it? And the answer is yes. The answer is that it is worth it, especially if you have one in your bedroom.

You're spending so much time in your bedroom and. It is worth it. So I just wanna like send that message that like every little step you make, you should congratulate yourself. Anchor in that feeling of. Success because you made a decision that benefits you and your family and your kids, your future grandkids.

And so that is deserving of, of being celebrated. And then, um, if you work in an office or something, I mean, if you're able to get one for your office, you know or not, or just know that we're filtering our, our air at home and let that be good enough. Yeah. Yeah, do what you can. That's all gonna help out.

Yeah. Okay. So you did, mention some labs. 'cause [00:22:00] how do I even know, like, what's happening in myself, right. So, right. So yeah. So , tell us a little bit about the labs. If people are feeling like, gosh, I really want to, improve my cell health, what and my energy, what, what labs do I really need to be testing?

Great question. So a lot of functional medicine practitioners will run a lot of functional lab testing. And so this is things like comprehensive stool analysis, urinary hormones, toxin testing, organic acid, and these tests are all really great. But what I find is that a lot of people. Jump to these tasks first.

They're exciting. They're colorful. They're pretty, they're sexy. They're something different. They're kind of edgy, and people get excited about these tests. These tests are also never covered by insurance. They're always cash pay and they are exponentially more [00:23:00] expensive than traditional blood work.

And so there's huge amount of value that we can get from them, and there's a huge amount of information we can get from blood work, and I encourage people, if you are working. If you're working with a doctor that's told you like, eh, your labs all look fine, I would, I would perhaps maybe look at working with a functional practitioner of some kind who can really dig deeper and understand the physiology and the patterns of what's going on.

Because if all you're doing is looking down the lab, you know, looking for something to be flagged and then calling it good. That's not really looking and analyzing the blood as it should be, and really noticing patterns and understanding the physiology of what's happening in your body. And actually I can give you the link, but I have like a lab toolkit where.

People can, it's free to download and you [00:24:00] can take your labs with my toolkit, and it helps you dive deeper into truly analyzing these labs because. , The conventional lab is gonna use conventional lab ranges, which are not optimal ranges. So the toolkit is gonna tell you, , how to analyze them through different ranges.

It's gonna go into what additional markers to order and why. And I think that, so often the answers to why we're failing. Really fatigued or, or brain fog or constipated or feeling like something's off. So often the answers are hidden in plain sight. Mm-hmm. They're hidden in that blood work that you were told was fine.

Um, and when we look at it and analyze it accurately, we can actually find a huge amount of information before we ever go decide to like spend thousands of dollars on other more advanced testing. Like, let's just start with the low hanging fruit. , So markers that I'm really [00:25:00] interested in knowing, of course A CBC and A CMP it's a metabolic panel and also a blood count.

So it's telling me about your white and red blood cells, and it's telling me about your electrolytes, your liver markers. From there, I think it's really important to make sure that you are running a complete thyroid panel. Not just TSH. Some doctors are also running TSH and T four. Um, but usually that's it.

The problem with that is that we cannot identify where the dysfunction is when that's all the markers that we have. It's really important we have a complete thyroid panel because what I find happens a lot. Somebody's TSH, maybe their T four can be normal, but their T three can be really low, and your T three is the thyroid hormone that your body can actually use.

It can't even use T four. It has to have T three. So your [00:26:00] thyroid makes mostly T four, and it makes a little bit of T three. And so then we have to convert the T four into T three so our body can actually use it. So if T four is normal and you're told that everything's fine, but then we look and your T three is actually really low, what does that tell us?

The defect, the dysfunction is not in the thyroid. The dysfunction is actually in the liver where most of your conversion of T four to T three takes place. We would never know that if we don't have a complete panel. Yeah, so complete thyroid panel and then complete iron panel as well, and there's some additional markers, but if you download that guide inside that guide, it also has a checklist, A PDF checklist as a separate download and it has all my recommended markers on it.

Wow. Amazing. And it makes so much sense. One of, my functional medicine friends, once said to me that the numbers that you get from those panels that the doctor gives you, there are like [00:27:00] ranges in between that would show that there might be even a problem later on.

So they're not catching it, you know, so it's like, yeah, you're within normal range. But it's like, but there are markers in there that , we could be sick in a few years from now, but we could have caught it so much earlier. A hundred percent. So the markers that the lab, or the ranges that the labs are using are, are determined based on.

Population and so it'd be really great if we were living in a population of super healthy, strong, robust people, but we're not. We're living in a population where over 50% of people are overweight. We're children are having. Childhood chronic illnesses that we never saw before, where people are having 1, 2, 3, 4 plus autoimmune diseases at a time where 20 year olds can't get pregnant.

Like that's, that's not the the standard I [00:28:00] wanna be measuring myself against. No, that's such a good point. Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about some things, lifestyle changes. What can mom start doing? Today, that's a nice lifestyle change that they can start implementing. The number one thing that you can do is to start thinking about your circadian biology, and usually when people think about circadian rhythm, they think.

Maybe they think their sleep cycle, maybe they think their cortisol, maybe they think about melatonin. But when I'm talking about circadian biology, I'm talking about we have genes in our head. They're called clock genes. They're literally called clock genes. Our brain wants to know what time it is at all times.

And so the way that we sync up that circadian biology, well, there's lots of ways, but talking about just fast action steps that moms can take now that will make a difference [00:29:00] is to, get outside in the sunrise. When we get outside in the sunrise, that's when we have the highest concentration of infrared light.

That infrared light provides voltage to your mitochondria. Remember that electron transport chain that I talked about earlier, and that infrared light gives voltage for that biochemical process to happen. And what happens at the end of that process, we make more a TP and so. Gazing in the direction of the sun.

Disclaimer, do not stare directly at the sun, please. Um, but when we're out there, we have photoreceptors in our eyes and also photoreceptors on our skin. So at the time of this recording, it's in the middle of summer. You know, the more skin you have showing the better during this time. And it only has to take five to 15 minutes.

I mean, if you, even if you got out there for three minutes. It'll have a net [00:30:00] benefit on, on your cells and giving them voltage that they need to make more energy. And thinking about circadian biology, I like people to think about light in terms of three things, type, timing and position of light. And so you go outside during the sunrise, you get that lovely, beautiful infrared light.

This is a great time to habit stack. You can focus on some gratitude, you can focus on some breath work. You can go outside barefoot and get some beautiful electrons from the earth. 'cause guess what? The electron transport chain needs. Electrons so we can get some from the earth. , So I love a habit stack.

Like the more things I can squeeze into every minute the better. So we go outside, we do that, and then throughout the day, think about. Type of light. So if we have a desk job where we're staring at com, blue light, or if we're on our phone, or, , if we're around screens or a lot of overhead [00:31:00] lighting, we can help to mitigate that.

There's, you know, there's different screens and filters we can put on our devices. There's different glasses that we can wear so that we're not getting, getting an overdose of this. Very blue light throughout the day. So that's the type of lighting and then position of lighting if you have control over this.

Again, perfection is a myth, just let it go. Uh, but if you have control over position of your lighting, ideally our position of our lighting is matching what the sun is doing outside. So if we're inside and we have all of our overhead lights on. But the sun outside is not overhead. That's a circadian mismatch, and it's gonna send mismatched signals to your clock gene about what time it is.

And so if you can turn off those overhead lights and use more peripheral lighting like lamps later in the day, or yeah, later in the day when the sun is starting to set, or earlier in the [00:32:00] day before the sun is overhead, that helps as well. That is so cool and something I probably never would've thought of.

So amazing and easy. I'm like, I go outside to have my coffee. I'm stacking that way. Yeah. Well you are so much great information. Where can the listeners find you? , My Instagram is Resilient Motherhood Health. That's also my website, resilient Motherhood Health.

And then we will, , we'll have the link to the lab toolkit as well. , And tell the listeners what you actually offer too. So, I work with people in a couple of different ways. I offer one, I work with people one-on-one on. Kind of what I consider their, their roadmap to health, all of the big pillars that impact health.

So I'm foc, you know, focusing on making sure we're regulating our nervous system. Make, making sure that our body feels safe, doing the proper testing, [00:33:00] nutrition, lifestyle, addressing any pathogens, any detox that we may need to do. And so really walking people through that roadmap in a way that, um, makes sense for their.

Individual situation in their body. So that's one way I work with people. I also work with people. On the emotional piece, you know we were talking about earlier about the power of language, and I think that our thoughts, our language, our belief systems, past traumas that we've experienced, our behaviors, all of that stuff can really hinder.

Are results on what I call the physical plane. And so if somebody feels like they've done all the things or all the protocols or done all the tests and they're just like stuck on a hamster wheel, they're stuck in a loop, usually it's because of this, this other, this emotional piece. Something is happening on the [00:34:00] subcellular, the subconscious mind that we need to address.

And so because I believe that that is so foundational to healing. I work with people in that space as a standalone service as well. Oh, I love that. And yes, we, I see that all the time. Just that emotional piece, the trauma, just, you know, creating blocks to, you know, why isn't this better? Yeah. So addressing us on all levels as a whole human is so important.

So thank you. Yeah. And thank you so much for sharing so much with us today. This was like, I mean, it was better than my ninth grade biology class. Well, okay then it's a success for me. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for sharing with us and it was such a pleasure to have you.

Thank you so much, Lisa. Appreciate it.

Thank you for listening to this episode. If you wanna learn more about Brandy [00:35:00] or grab that lab toolkit, just click on the link in the show notes. And until next week, keep carving out time for yourself and keep putting yourself on top of your to-do list.