Functional Nutritionist Carrie Bailey and I discuss the relationship between nutrition and anxiety and depression, food combining, and actionable tips to improve liver health.
With anxiety and depression at an all-time high, adapting our lifestyle to better deal with these symptoms has never been more important. Carrie Bailey joins me on Vitally You® to investigate the root causes of anxiety and depression, what she’s learned through healing her own, and how making small shifts in food choices can leave a huge impact.
Carrie shares practical insights on food combining, such as the importance of eating fruits and vegetables away from fats. This simple adjustment can significantly improve digestion and energy levels, particularly in the liver. She also explains why fresh produce is superior in nourishing the body, the connection between oxalates and fatigue, and the body’s affinity for food-based cleanses. Carrie concludes with her transformative morning routine and two actionable lifestyle tips for those battling anxiety and depression.
If you’re finding these conversations insightful, we’d love for you to be part of our community. Please consider subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing this podcast with your friends. Your engagement is what keeps us going!
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Dana Frost 00:07
Welcome to Vitally You, a podcast created to introduce you to the tools that will be your roadmap for feeling younger while growing older. I'm your host Dana Frost, a wellness expert, life coach and energy medicine practitioner. Here's what you can expect conversations about vitality from the inside out with guest experts in the field of health, culture and spirituality and solo episodes along the way from me where I do deep dives into the topics of aging, heart intelligence, energy, medicine, and your innate capacity to heal. If you want to feel younger, while growing older, this is the place for you.
Dana Frost 00:53
Hi, everyone, welcome to the Vitally You podcast. I'm Dana Frost your host and I am so excited that we are together again. But before we get started, I want to thank DITA for this review and you know that your reviews truly make my heart smile Vitally You as a part of dot dot dot I think that Apple cut off her full subject line. The April episode was what I needed to hear. Of course, I know how sleep is important, but understanding the whys really drives the message home. My health has been dwindling and 2020 for lack of self care, pre menopausal. Continuous depletion as a result of deep trauma keeps me stuck in unhealthy cycle. Many other wonderful episodes relevant topics and kind authentic delivery deserves 10 stars. Thank you Dana frost, exclamation point. DDL. Well thank you dita. If you are enjoying the podcast, please leave a review and help me reach 100 reviews in honor of my 100th episode.
Dana Frost 01:59
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Dana Frost 03:19
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Dana Frost 04:38
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Dana Frost 05:36
First, let's get into today's episode with our guests. Carrie Bailey Carrie is a functional nutrition and lifestyle practitioner colleague of mine, she has taken a deep dive into all aspects of anxiety and depression where nutrition and lifestyle are concerned. She took a deep dive into the genetic component and discovered that it wasn't as significant as nutrition and lifestyle. And I have to tell you, I was surprised by that revelation. Carrie is a skilled and compassionate certified functional nutritionist. With more than a decade of experience helping hundreds of people overcome anxiety, depression and other weird mystery symptoms. Carrie has a unique understanding of the intricate connection between nutrition and emotional well being. And she is dedicated to helping clients healing xiety and depression through a personalized dietary and supplement approach that breaks conventional wisdom and provides clients with an extraordinary ability to get rid of their symptoms.
Dana Frost 06:39
Carrie is a go to resource for cutting edge evidence based nutrition information and inspiration. Now join us as we uncover the powerful connection between nutrition and mental well being and discover actionable steps to cultivate a healthier mind and body. Carrie, it is so lovely to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for being a guest this week.
Carrie Bailey 07:02
Thank you, Dana. I'm really excited to be here.
Dana Frost 07:05
Yeah, Carrie, I am really curious. I know you've taken this deep dive into looking at anxiety and depression and what are the root causes? And what are the symptoms? And you know, what are the ways that we can adapt our lifestyle so that we can deal with anxiety and depression that seemed to be at all time record high? So tell me Carrie, what was the inspiration for you looking into anxiety and depression? Ah, yeah,
Carrie Bailey 07:32
well, for me, it was personal. Kind of growing up, I was always shy, I think back then they call it shy. And that was really anxiety, right? That's another word for it. Right?
Dana Frost 07:44
You're gonna carry. I was very shy as a child. And I always consider it my introversion. Like I really am a true introvert at heart. And so I've never thought about it that way. But say more. I want to hear more.
Carrie Bailey 07:59
Yeah. So I was a super shy kid. And as I got older, the anxiety probably turned more into anger and teenage angst and just getting into as I got older, just depression with you. And it's so weird to have anxiety and depression because I always think of it one is like, one is sort of sad. And then the other is more like, I don't know, they're just different. And I also had my dad had was diagnosed with bipolar and ADHD and anxiety and depression. So and then, you know, I just knew that my grandmother on the other side was depressed. My mom was depressed. I mean, some of those were circumstantial, right? And you know, most people think of depression as the underlying is traumatic stress or traumatic loss. And yes, those things do lead to anxiety and depression.
Carrie Bailey 08:50
But then there's also this like physiological anxiety and depression that comes right. So if you're stuck struggling with a long term chronic health issue, then it's easy for you to physically be depressed, right, which of course, we're all one unit behind. It is not disconnected. We know that now. And so it's easy to feel depressed. And the same thing. Now I see anxiety is is at an all time high. I completely agree with you. And I'm noticing it's more physiological because I've had people say, Never been anxious my whole life, I had this event. And suddenly I have this anxiety, right? If you've got heart palpitations, just that alone can give you anxiety, but our nervous systems are under attack. And there's this growing, especially since the pandemic, this growing viral attack, if you will, right, like everybody's got a lot of viral stuff going on. Whether it's COVID, shingles, you know, the things that you had in childhood, and all these viruses and these viruses are attacking our nervous system.
Carrie Bailey 09:51
And so therefore, it's affecting our brain our neurotransmitters, right? The analogy I like to use is that you're going down a Road. And that road is sort of bumpy or dirty or PA holy or whatever. And if the neurotransmitter is a car, it's just going to fall off the road, right. And so that's how your nerve runs and then you lose neurotransmitters, you lose your serotonin and dopamine, which are feel good neurotransmitters, and they're off the road. So I digressed a little bit about how I got started, I jumped right back into what's happening here. But yeah, so it was really personal. It was just about a personal desire to, to help people and knowing that, that there's something that we can do. It's nutrition.
Dana Frost 10:34
Yeah. Well, I, I've always admired your curiosity in terms of like digging deeper, and not just accepting a symptom that, you know, you have to live with a symptom. So what I hear you saying is that you saw the symptoms in your own life. And then you recognized, oh, I'm see a pattern in family members. And let me look a little bit deeper. Let me look at the physiology behind anxiety and depression. Would you say that that's kind of ugly?
Carrie Bailey 11:01
Yeah. What happened is, I believe, yeah, I mean, there was always that, you know, you have that inner knowing in your life, you're just like, why is this happening? And that was the question from early on in my childhood. I mean, I even remember when my mom had a book called The vitamin Bible. And I was about 12 years old, I was so curious, I opened it up, and it was talking about vitamin C and how vitamin C cured colds. I mean, they use the word cured back then, right? Shared colds and all these other things. And it was it was fascinating to me. So that was probably the, the little bug that got installed. But you know, and again, I knew that when I started eating better, I started feeling better. And so just making those connections for myself, and then I was like, Okay, this is something I can do to really help people. I think it's, you know, you eat three times a day. So clearly, it's very important. What you can Adi, yeah.
Dana Frost 11:53
And so tell me, Carrie, what did you discover? I mean, I know you've taken a deep dive into understanding genetics. And I know you, you've got the understanding of nutrition. So what did you discover where nutrition is concerned? Or even genetics, whatever you want to share with us regarding anxiety and depression? Yeah,
Carrie Bailey 12:12
well, yeah, I worked for a naturopath who was very big into MTHFR. And that kind of thing. And I studied all that kind of stuff. And to be honest, at the end of the day, what I realized and working with clients, and their genetics is the genetics is just the wallpaper, it doesn't what's what their true true, true issue is your EPA genetics, right? Which is all the environmental factors. So genetics isn't root cause, right? We know, there's two root causes, we know in functional medicine wanna, like totally, like, take it to kindergarten here, but it's allergens and toxins, right? And so pathogens and toxins are the root cause. And then those stressful events are triggers, right?
Carrie Bailey 12:57
Your genetics is really, again, just more about how your body works. But again, I've seen people as an example, I don't have MTHFR, but I've had a lot of health issues. I know other people that have MTHFR, that are really healthy. So, you know, it just didn't add up to me, right? I mean, again, MTHFR is one gene out of 1000s of genes. But for us to assume that we can look at someone's genes and orchestrate things, and it just never died. Right? I would try to like supplement or beat or something, and to a gene. But there's so many genes, it's almost impossible.
Dana Frost 13:32
Each person has also the things that have happened in their life, the exposures, as you said, toxins, emotional experiences, traumas, and all of those things play into how the genes are being expressed. So when you say epigenetics, let's just for the listeners, that's how the genes are expressing everything that's happening above the genes. Exactly. And so tell me what you discovered in terms of some of the nutrition and lifestyle factors that impact anxiety and depression.
Carrie Bailey 14:05
Oh, such a great question, because it's a tricky one because people are eating gluten and dairy and like it just makes me feel good, right? A gluten and dairy is like comfort food, and it does make you feel good in that moment. And what you're really doing is feeding pathogens. And so what we really need to do is have more fruits and vegetables in it and it's so hard because it's so intertwined. There's so much social stigma, social pressure around food, so it gets really muddy the waters get really muddy and complicated. And our taste buds are hijacked. I've got a client now that I can't get him off protein shakes and bars, protein bars, and his tastebuds are hijacked. Right and so it's about taking those transitioning into eating more fruits and vegetables. I break it down to a couple things. It's like fruits and vegetables are The most nutrient dense foods that we have. And so we want to eat be eating, those should be most of our diet. And I guess I break it into two things, right. And this is very against what you eat a lot of the information you hear out there, and one is glucose and the other is minerals, right? So minerals are your leafy greens and your vegetables or cruciferous vegetables, things like that.
Carrie Bailey 15:21
And then glucose are your good fruit, right, starchy carbs and things like that, then, and having enough of those in the system to feed your liver, because the livers really where a lot of this stuff is happening. And to feed your brain, I know there's this, there's a lot of misconceptions out there about the physiology of fat, and people are thinking and even in the program that you and I studied in, there's this combination of protein, fat and fiber, and have to be honest, like, what I've discovered is that really messed me up. If I put like Apple like peanut butter or almond butter on my apple, I didn't do nearly as well as when I just had Apple by itself, right? I mean, again, it took some training to learn it.
Carrie Bailey 16:07
But it goes back to some principles that I learned a while ago, which was the body ecology diet by Donna gates, she talks about a few things that really make a lot of sense. One is C, vegetables, C vegetables are a nutrient that we don't get enough of in our diet. And then the other one is food combining. And so it's actually they talked about food, combining ayerveda, she talked about it, I'm sure there's other people that have talked about it. But the idea is that you want to eat your fruits, away from your fats. And that it's really the combination of the two is actually the problem is causing things like blood sugar dysregulation. And so I have a client, for instance, thin girl, you know, she's sick, she's got Hashimoto, she's got some other things. But she couldn't she reason that she was seeing me was because she couldn't get her blood sugar under control. And it was like 6.9.
Carrie Bailey 17:01
And she's like, she'd been to the doctor, she's had all the hormones, she'd had all the things and she couldn't fix it. And so I said, Okay, well, I'm gonna come at this with a different approach, which is, take the fat, take the fat down completely, because I think the issue is really with your liver, right, because the liver is like the orchestrator of the whole digestive system it orchestrates and controls your pancreas, right? If you're not releasing stomach acid, your livers not going to release bile and your pancreas isn't going to let you know that they're all watching. And they're all working together. And so you got to really look out for your liver. So anyway, I was able to we were able to get her hemoglobin a one C from 6.9 to 5.7, by reducing fat overall, but then also doing food combining, which is eating fruits, starchy vegetables, beans, grains, etc, away from fat.
Carrie Bailey 17:56
What's tricky about this is the timing, because it takes fat when you eat a fat. So if you add a steak for lunch, a steak salad for lunch, for instance, that's going to take you three or four hours to digest. And so if you decide to have an apple for dessert, then you've already sort of put that fat sugar combination in there, right. Whereas if you wait the three or four hours after eat the apple, you're good. And that's why I work with my clients so much too, because I want that glucose, and I want those nutrient rich foods in and so I'm like, let's put them in in the morning, your livers had 16 hours of no fat. That's the optimal time for fruit. So let's put that in. And then again, what I tried to do is sort of wean people down on that and get to the point even, we're having some fat free dishes, so that you can get that glucose in so that you can get those minerals in because the fat is making our blood really thick.
Carrie Bailey 18:50
And so that's reducing our ability to get the minerals in right, which is causing osteoporosis and all those downstream things. And then it's also reducing our ability to have oxygen in our blood and minerals, oxygen glucose, but what happens if there's too much fat in there, it's thick, and then also your liver. Because your liver has to process all your nutrients. It's bogged down by toxins and pathogens and fat, you know, so your livers really slow and it's not working very well. And if you make it and liver doesn't want a bunch of fat, right, and if you ever did a food based cleanse, there's never fat in the system. They always reduce the fads, you always reduce the nuts and seeds you don't put any eggs you don't put in all those things. And so if you come at it from that same kind of philosophy and approach Lee really healing and it's like well, maybe that's how we should really be eating on a more regular basis to heal. But also to because they always say right, oh, your liver can can cleanse it already detoxifies. It does everything for you. Yeah, if you put the right things in, and if you don't have the wrong things in okay,
Dana Frost 19:58
I'm super fascinated by this because it I do know about food combining. I've never practiced it I read about it years ago. But the principles, I think are really interesting carry because first and foremost, we need the liver to be efficient and effective. Like that is like base level. We need to have a live we talk so much about digestion, yes. Well, the liver is a big part of digestion, right?
Carrie Bailey 20:24
It's like the brain is to your nervous system. Right? It controls your thing. Yeah.
Dana Frost 20:28
And so if we look at fatty liver disease, it's at an all time high people who aren't don't drink alcohol, fatty liver diseases really high. So it makes total sense that we need to back up and support the liver. Yes. What I'm fascinated about is the fad right now for the keto diet that is super high in fat. Yeah. And I know for me, it doesn't really work. I did a little experimenting, spin more than a year ago. And I'm like, oh, that does not work for me. Yes, at all. I think that, okay, this is what I want to say, because diabetes is such a strong gene for me and I was pre diabetic. And diabetes is also skyrocketing right now, even among young people among children. So for me, I was working from the standpoint of reversing that pre diabetic state, and I was able to do that.
Dana Frost 21:30
But what I know about my own liver, it needs regular support. I don't really know the reason why I've never looked at why does my liver need what I think is more support than the average liver, but I'm able to give it that support. I'm thinking of like people who do keto for diabetic reasons, like you know, and it seems to be very effective for people who need to bring glucose levels down and need to get out of that. The loop. Do you have any idea? And I'm not? You know, I don't want to assume that you know this, but you have any idea of people who are on keto struggle with anxiety and depression. Yes.
Carrie Bailey 22:04
Well, I'm so glad that you brought this up because I did a YouTube video. And I love when I do these controversial it takes it takes strength and power when you come up with a controversial video, but I did a video on how carnivore could actually be harming you instead of helping you. But I was you know, I was pretty honest about you know, here's why carnivore works. And carnivore and keto are really almost identical. They're both very high fat diets, right? If you're only eating meat, meat is high in fat, even if you know, when you're eating, boiled skinned. boneless chicken breast or fork and lamb obviously are much higher in fat but carnivore people anyway. So carnivore, the reason I think it's so successful is because they aren't food combining.
Carrie Bailey 22:51
They don't have sugar in the system, right. That's why it works. So if you are doing carnivore and keto and you want something sweet, then yeah, do a stevia or Lecanto or monkfruit or whatever, then you're still not food combining, you're still getting that sweetness. But I believe over time now how much time that takes will depend on every person and the condition of their liver. But I believe over time, a carnivore keto diet are worse for you, because that's too much fat, you're depleting all those nutrients that you get. Imagine you don't get any vitamin C, you might get more zinc, but you're not getting vitamin C or any of the minerals that you're getting. And you do need glucose, your liver needs glucose, your brain needs glucose even though there's this conception out there that you need fat right and your brain needs fat but your nervous system, your nervous system is an electrical system and so it needs the minerals and needs the electrolytes and it needs glucose. That's how it runs right? It's like the battery. It's got that little electrolyte thing when it's out of water it dies right? And so that's
Dana Frost 23:58
why I think a lot of them supplement with well what I've observed is there's a lot of supplementation with like element Yeah.
Carrie Bailey 24:05
Electrolyte Yeah, yeah and that's and I don't like element because the sodium in it is very drawing for the liver right you might be getting salt but and sodium but you're missing some of the key minerals that you should be getting from your fruits and vegetables so and the nutrients right like resveratrol course attend those are curcumin, those all come from food. So let's start with the food. That's my money. Go to so I believe that the reason that carnivore and keto are successful is exactly what you said is they're not combining sugar and fat, right? Just like when people come off processed foods, right? It's imagined Dana right if you're craving sugar, or you literally going to sit down with a spoon full of sugar, no, you want a cookie, a cake, etc. And when you look at the ingredients of all those things, it's the combination of fat and sugar that you want and when you are hungry and you want to, you know why do people reach for nuts and seeds versus, versus apples.
Carrie Bailey 25:04
Because it's gonna. It's got fat and fat is satiating, right. If people think that it's protein that satiating, but it's actually fat that satiating, but fat has more calories, it's going to let you go longer without food. But again, you could be dehydrating. I talk to people all the time, that are super constipated and are like pooping pellets, rabbit pellets, they're drinking, you know, what looks like they tell me they're drinking 320 ounce 24 ounce glasses or bottles. That should be plenty of water. Right? But if they're not eating enough fruits and vegetables, which are rich and water, right, and we're you know, there must be something else going on either their livers not working well, there's too much fat in the system, but they're not hydrating at the cellular level. missing something. And so again, the same one that depression and anxiety they just don't, they don't work without minerals. And there's this
Dana Frost 26:01
connection between supplying your neurotransmitters with nutrients that come from plants. And fruits. Yes. Is that what yeah. Okay, now I'm gonna go over here for a second. What about all of the amino acids we need that we can only get from? Animal protein? Yeah,
Carrie Bailey 26:25
let's talk about that. Because if you were to look up like right now, if you were to journal all the food you ate this week, and then you went on to Google, and you pulled up in Google, and you said, Okay, how much protein is in an apple? How much protein is in a banana? How much protein is in leafy greens? How much protein isn't spinach, et cetera? You would find there's plenty of protein. So this is some kind of like, propaganda thing that's happened since the 30s. Actually, I just did a videotape or a YouTube video about protein and how much protein we need. And there's a misconception out there like Peter TSS, oh, you need 150 grams of protein a day. But I don't know about you know, you and I are both pretty tiny people.
Carrie Bailey 27:05
So if I were to have 150 grams of protein, I wouldn't eat anything else. I'd be literally eating three slabs of meat all day, and I couldn't eat any vegetables. And so anyway, I think there's a misconception about protein. And if you look at fruits and vegetables, the actual it actually will tell you and a fruit and vegetable, how many carbohydrates, how much fat and how much protein? And you can get enough protein right? There are people that live vegan, really well? Yeah.
Dana Frost 27:30
Yeah, no, I've always been confounded. Because I know really strong people like physically strong and healthy. Vegans. And I personally don't feel I feel weak. If I don't have animal protein. Yes,
Carrie Bailey 27:47
I used to think so thing. You're okay to eating meat. I will say I mean, I still do eat me. I just eat less meat. But I always said I would have told you five years ago, I would have said I could never survive without animal protein. But then again, that was a different environment where I thought I had an oxalate problem, right. That's a whole nother thing. But again, I think it really is the fat in it. But again, it it's about learning to eat in a different way. And it's taken me some time to figure this out myself. Like, how can I eat? Like what I'm learning is that things like potatoes and sweet potatoes are really satiating. I always thought, how can I eat a potato without fat? Right? I grew up with mashed potatoes, like mashed potatoes and fat, right? And so I tried it. And I tried different ways of using potatoes and sweet potatoes without fat. And it works like I'll make like, oh,
Dana Frost 28:37
okay, I want to know that secret. That's a juicy to me. Because, yeah, I want I want to do that.
Carrie Bailey 28:44
So like there's like back bean chili recipes. And so there's just a lot of ways to add flavor. I've learned to saute with water, but like and even just roasting things in the oven that I used to put in fat and to do is really easy to dry roast or air fry potatoes. Right? steamed potatoes are yummy, too. But you can take potatoes and make like a tortilla like a wrap. You can make like a pizza. So I've been experimenting with potatoes and potato starches to try to use it and where you might use read, write and it's just it's just fun. In fact, yeah.
Dana Frost 29:17
I love that. So let's back up to your personal journey. I'm really fascinated by this conversation and I know it's gonna lead me down some experimentation for myself. Okay, wait, let me just say this for the listeners because the listeners most of the listeners are women, ages 40 and onward. And many women who never at least in our generation never had anxiety until they started hitting midlife and it happened for me. I'm like, I've never experienced anxiety. You alluded you mentioned this earlier in our conversation. And in hindsight, for my health journey I can see My liver. At that point when the anxiety came in was way overloaded. That's when I, you know what I had my health crisis I was pre diabetic, blah, blah, blah, all the thing was, I know that we have listeners who actually really are struggling with anxiety and depression. And why don't we just go back to your journey and carry? Yeah. And tell me within your own experience with anxiety and depression and what you've discovered, because I remember conversations with you about the oxalate issue and fatigue. And so can you just like talk a little bit about that? Yeah, I want to know,
Carrie Bailey 30:36
I would love to, you know, on my journey of healing, I had tried different things. And one of the things that I stumbled on some friends were studying oxalates, because at first I thought, I don't ever see oxalate issues in my clients, right. But then there was just a combination of things that like, connected the dots to oxalates. And so I thought when this is gonna make you laugh, when I tell you the story is they were telling me about the oxalates thing, right? And then I said, oh, and I was testing my blood sugar. And I took my blood sugar, and it said, for dinner, I had chicken now it was a high fat chicken, it's skin on by etc. And I had brussel sprouts. And I had a sweet potato, right? When I went to bed that night, probably two or three hours later, my blood glucose was 154. So it had spiked high and hadn't come back down. The next morning, it was still 129 Which, again, in hindsight, I can tell you that that fat and the combination of the sweet potato was the issue. Right? And so but I was blaming it on, isn't it funny how we do these things. I was blaming you on a sweet potato, because because I'd heard that oxalates could be sleep issue could be a pain issue could be a fatigue issue. And I was feeling all of those.
Carrie Bailey 31:56
And so I thought, Oh, that's it, I have an oxalate issue. So I went down the ultraviolet, rabbit hole. And for seven years, I was trying to eat a low oxalate diet, but you know, I'd sneak things and I still felt fine. But you know, what, I was still sort of sticking to it. But I was also doing kind of primarily the food combining that I'd learned from Donna gates, man, again, you sort of add all these things together. And then I ended up reading the Medical Medium, and he was talking about food combining and it was like, the electricity went off in my head. And he was saying how I don't remember in the book initially, if he said that there was no oxalate issue, but I was like, Okay, I'm gonna try this, right. So he's pushes celery juice. And so that's like, Okay, I'm gonna try the celery juice. And if I try so reducing, my pain doesn't get worse, and my sleep doesn't get worse. And my energy doesn't get worse than I know.
Carrie Bailey 32:44
That's the answer, just like you and I want to do some experimentation. After this. I love how we can experiment on ourselves, right? That's how we learn things. That next day, I started juicing two cups of celery juice, drank it every day. And within a week, I had this like immense energy. And I was like, and of course, I didn't die. I didn't feel worse. I only felt better. And I was like, wow, there's something to this. Right. So continued reading his book. Everything he said makes sense. He talks about viruses. He talks about food combining. And again, luckily, I knew about it, because I think not everybody gets it when they read his material. But because I read Donna gates, I kind of got it. So then again, I just started doing everything. But he was recommending, right. And I was like, Okay, this is working. This is it. I was eating a lot of eggs. He's not a big fan of eggs, right. And so again, I just kind of put those two get pieces together. And I was like, this is something really it really is something it's it's solving the missing pieces that I couldn't solve with myself and clients.
Dana Frost 33:43
What were some of the other recommendations. So he is
Carrie Bailey 33:47
very much again about primarily fruits and vegetables. He is a big cleanser, right? So he likes the cleanses which again, aligns with what I used to do the food based cleanses, I used to lead them and do them. And I always matter and I always made but again, I sort of gone down. You know, I'd gone down the low histamine with the genetics. And I was like it was making people worse. And I'm it just this just made sense. So again, you're taking out primarily fats, right? Or going to low fat, no fat diet, but he has a lot of cleanses that are raw vegan, which again, doesn't mean it's forever. He's not against animal protein. It's just a different way of eating, but he has ways of using food and herbs to decrease pathogens, which are viruses, unproductive bacteria, like as an example for myself. He does a I knew I've had heavy metals and rubber since before I went to school. I knew it. I had an amalgam fillings for 35 years. I knew they were a contributing factor.
Carrie Bailey 34:51
And so he has a detox smoothie that he recommends a heavy metal detox smoothie. And so I was drinking those again. It's clearing up Just watching the symptoms clear up. So having those two things in either trying as cleanses or trying to eat fat, sorry, glucose without fat. So, in effect, what you're doing is you're clearing out your liver, right? So if you've got a stagnant, sluggish liver, you need to clear that out, right? So that there's room for glucose so that you're like sugar cravings, like, I don't crave sugar anymore. But you know, again, he doesn't. He says, take out caffeine, caffeine drives adrenaline caffine, especially in anxiety, you got to take it out, right, even chocolate. And that's hard. Because I'm a chocolate, I was a chocolate addict. So, so you just got to take those things out.
Carrie Bailey 35:36
There's a lot of other things. It's interesting because a lot of the things he recommends are similar to low histamine diet. So like vinegars and fermented foods, and those are kind of what are low histamine. So the key is with low histamine. So some of the things I agree with on low histamine diet is taking out the vinegar. It's pretty much every condiment out there. vinegars citric acid, fermented foods, because those drive the pathogens that it stimulates the histamines and the whole, it's, it's, I guess, the ultimate this would be like mast cell, there's almost always anxiety, with mast cell activation, or mast cell activation is just like the perfect storm of a lot of things. It's affecting your nervous system, your vagus nerve, especially.
Carrie Bailey 36:22
So think about your vagus nerve, right? runs from your head, it runs all the way it's the longest nerve in your body. It runs to your stomach, your small intestines, your heart, or lungs. So when long COVID So that's the new thing that I'm in addition to anxiety and depression that what I've been working with as long COVID And it's like people are having heart palpitations, well, that's inflammation of that vagus nerve in that area, right? Same thing in your stomach, you got all the stomach SIBO is on the charts. When I started in school SIBO wasn't a thing. And over whatever 12 years is become a thing is kind of amazing. And again, it's and it's really ramped up since COVID. Now, the key there is because so it might be ramping up in your audience because they're older. But also where were they in COVID?
Carrie Bailey 37:12
It's like, did you get COVID? Yes, okay, you got a virus? And how did your body deal with that virus and all the other viruses that are underneath were resurrected. And then the other thing is, viruses resurrected, but also even the vaccine. So it's so interesting, because there's this little anti Vax thing that was happening on my videos, but you can have long COVID Whether you are vaccinated or not. If you got COVID, you can get long COVID. And if you were vaccinated, you might and never got COVID, it could be the vaccine that's triggering it, right. So those I've seen both camps, right, and it's always this fight. And I'm like, No, it's, it's let's just say it's viruses, right? Because it is viruses.
Carrie Bailey 37:54
So imagine a virus is just like any other pathogen in your body. It's like carrying 100 pound backpack, right, your body has to work so much harder, you have to have so much more nutrients, so much more muscle, everything. And if your liver isn't working well and it's sluggish, right, you can see how this like piles up, then. So outlet experiences and in the hormones too, because as you get older, your hormones start shifting from your ovaries into your adrenal glands. And your adrenal glands are already on fire from all the stress, mental emotional stress, physical stress, right? I think I call physical stress. If you've got a bunch of viruses in your body, and your immune system is trying to fight them, there's going to be an adrenal issue in your body and st put fat actually, this is really interesting about fat, all that fat in your body to thin your blood, your body has to release adrenaline, then that blood so that the it can get that fat into your brain.
Carrie Bailey 38:51
And so now you've got if you're eating chocolate, and coffee, and you have too much fat, all of that is triggering those viruses. And the viruses are really what's causing this attack on the nervous system. That's really that's where they attack. Wow,
Dana Frost 39:09
yeah. Okay. There's so much here, Carrie. And I want to, I think, if we, you know, in my own mind, I'm just distilling this down to, if you're struggling with anxiety, and or depression, it's really important to consider what are your exposures to viruses and toxins? Yes. And what kind of support does your liver need? So in essence, it could be, you know, a ground zero. What can I do to support my liver? And I'm Epstein Barr was like, what was that virus that you know, for years, it was, you know, a load on people's system and then all of a sudden, we now know that Epstein Barr can continue to cause issues for people And if physiologically and emotionally so what I want to encourage the listeners if you're struggling with anxiety and depression, take a look at potential triggers like toxicities and viruses.
Dana Frost 40:15
Okay, so that's just one. Now, where would someone start? Yes. Like, where would you say, just, here's a baby step you could take because I think that if we take a baby step, we just feel better. Like if we can do one thing. It's not. As you can see, this is so complicated. Yeah, in essence, I mean, we can go all over the map on this, but we can take baby steps. So what's a baby step that you would recommend? Yeah,
Carrie Bailey 40:39
I like lemon water first thing in the morning. Now, this is something I probably learned about 12 years ago, and like you probably learned to write it is a game changer. And like 16 ounces again, on an empty stomach. If you have constipation or digestive issues, it should trigger a bowel movement, right? Like you should have a bowel movement. And if not, that's it. Like I think it's huge. After that, like my process in the morning after that is I will have some green juice, whether it's cucumber juice, or celery juice. It's a game changer. It really just gives you that like really just sort of daily rents of flush of your liver. That's you I
Dana Frost 41:20
love that Yeah, okay. Give it like 15 minutes to absorb, right?
Carrie Bailey 41:23
But just those two things can be a great way to start your day.
Dana Frost 41:30
One other maybe two lifestyle things besides food for somebody struggling with anxiety or depression.
Carrie Bailey 41:38
Oh, okay, I got a good one. It's my favorite thing to do, especially this time of year. It's called my son meditation. Like we did in the 80s you put on your bikini and you go lie in the sun all night you lay down a blanket on the grass or something you want to ground at the same time. Put on your bikini no sunscreen, lay in the sun, it can be five minutes aside, but your grounding and just let your mind go like i That's why I call it my meditation. I just I let go of all the thoughts. This is my time for me to get an it just feels good. It makes you really does help your dopamine your serotonin feels good and you're on the ground which is just earthing. I
Dana Frost 42:21
love that you're on the ground and you're also receiving I think that we are Sun phobic. A rat hops on phobic when we actually the liver needs the sun. You know what this episode is so much about the liver. But the vitamin D is synthesized in the liver and it's best synthesized on the skin from sun hitting the skin. Yes. So I love that I'm not I will be honest, I really don't like sunscreen. And I do. I mean I live I'm In Miami a lot of the time. And if everything that I've read this is interesting, and I wish I could reference where I read it. But you if you start your day, with sun on your skin early in the day, you like early morning anywhere from like Sunrise until like 10 in the morning. I mean it depends where you are, right? How close to the sun you are where you are geographically, but you're priming your skin to not be sensitive to UV rays. And I have not burned in years. I have not burned my skin in years and I really not even on my face. I rarely use sunscreen.
Carrie Bailey 43:27
Yeah, me too. I'm the same. I'll wear a hat on my head just to protect my my hair from getting too light and my men wearing on my face. But um, yeah, yeah, I'm the same. Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah, yeah. Although we can buy some meditation. I just want to add one more thing for the sun. But yeah, ideally, you want to be close to solar noon, right? Because imagine physics right like your horizontal, and the sun's here, you're getting the most surface covered hitting your skin. So that's why solar noon is ideal. But again, you don't want to burn, right? You want to just be out to your pink but you know, whatever your time is, it could be five minutes aside or it could be 20 minutes aside.
Dana Frost 44:06
That's so important. Carrie, thank you for that tip. I love that tip. We have gone all around the map of anxiety and depression. Carrie, thank you. I know you have so much that you could share with us and maybe we'll have to have you back. As we're wrapping up Carrie, can you tell me tell the audience what does feeling younger while growing older mean to you?
Carrie Bailey 44:30
I think it's mindset it's more love in your heart. That's what I'm learning for myself. I'm like really getting into spirituality and and loving the more I love myself the more I attract positive things in my life.
Dana Frost 44:44
That's so true. Carrie, thank you so much. I love that. I will be sure to include in the show notes how people can reach you and I love the free digital gift that you have. Listeners please go and download is free gift from Carrie? Is it called anxiety, depression recovery, and
Carrie Bailey 45:04
they can go to anxiety, depression recovery.com. And yeah, they'll get it. The guy that tells them there's really to kickstart your healing and it's got some videos, it's got tips, tricks, recipes, everything you need to get going.
Dana Frost 45:18
Awesome, Carrie. Well, thank you so much for sharing with us on the vital EU podcast.
Carrie Bailey 45:23
Thank you. Thanks, Dana.
Dana Frost 45:28
Thank you for joining us this week everybody. Don't forget to download Karis free gift a step by step plan to help you ditch anxiety, panic attacks and depression symptoms for good at www anxiety depression recovery.com. If you are new to this podcast, please hit subscribe. If you haven't subscribed yet, please subscribe and hit the download button. And please leave a review. You know that makes my heart sing and as always, I am streaming love from my heart to yours