Have you felt off or ill and visited your doctor’s office only to be told that everything looks normal? From my personal and professional experience I know how common and upsetting this type of treatment can be. When you know your body isn’t okay, it can be incredibly stressful to not get the proper care you deserve and need. And if you’re already feeling exhausted or deflated by poor or insufficient medical care, it can be tough to fight for change. Yet when we learn to pause and then reach beyond what standard medical protocol might provide, we can find the hope and real life solutions we need. Dr. Diana Stafford, a physician and functional medicine practitioner known as the Detox Doc, joins Dr. Carla Marie Manly to unravel some of the hidden causes of common medical and mental health issues as she paves the way to finding true wellness!

Topics discussed include gut-brain-immune axis, gut-brain axis, trauma, PTSD, functional medicine, mold toxicity, root-cause medicine, eastern medicine, healing, wellness, fungal infections, candida, environmental medicine, environmental issues, BPA, PFAS, forever chemicals, pesticides, medical care, illness, nervous system support, breathwork, low-toxicity living, nervous system regulation, fight or flight response, freeze response, appease response, fawn response, and healthy solutions.

Please note that this episode contains sensitive material; listener discretion is advised.

Emergency Assistance Details: If you or someone you know needs immediate support, please call your emergency services. In the US, 24/7 help is available by calling “911,” “988” (Suicide and Crisis Hotline), or SAMSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). As applicable, additional resources may be provided in the show notes.

Non-Emergency Online Mental Health Information: https://www.nami.org/support-education/nami-helpline/ and https://odphp.health.gov/myhealthfinder/healthy-living/mental-health-and-relationships

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: No expert is offering medical or psychological direction or advice; the content is purely informational in nature. Please consult your physician or healthcare provider before undertaking any new regimen or procedure.

Connect with Dr. Carla Manly:

Website: https://www.drcarlamanly.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drcarlamanly/

Twitter/X: https://www.twitter.com/drcarlamanly/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drcarlamanly

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carla-marie-manly-8682362b/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr_carlamanly_imperfect_love

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dr_carla_manly

Books by Dr. Carla Manly:

Joy From Fear: Create the Life of Your Dreams by Making Fear Your Friend 

Date Smart: Transform Your Relationships and Love Fearlessly

Aging Joyfully: A Woman’s Guide to Optimal Health, Relationships, and Fulfillment for Her 50s and Beyond

The Joy of Imperfect Love: The Art of Creating Healthy, Securely Attached Relationships

Imperfect Love Relationship & Oracle Card Deck by Dr. Carla Manly:

Etsy

Amazon

Connect with Dr. Diana Stafford:

Website: https://www.doctorstafford.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedetoxdoc_/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedetoxdocmd/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedetoxdoc/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedetoxdoc

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedetoxdoc

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Listen to the podcast here

Detox Your BODY, Detox Your MIND: The Path to TRUE Wellness

Finding and Fixing the ROOT Causes of Illness

Have you felt off or ill and visited your doctor’s office only to be told that everything looks normal? From my personal and professional experience, I know how common and upsetting this type of treatment can be. When you know your body isn’t okay, it can be incredibly stressful to not get the proper care you deserve and need. If you’re already feeling exhausted or deflated by poor or insufficient medical care, it can be tough to fight for change.

Yet, when we learn to pause and then reach beyond what standard medical protocol might provide, we can find the hope and real-life solutions we need. In this episode, we’ll focus on this list reader’s real-life question. “I’ve had a lot of traumas in my life and this contributes to me chronically feeling unwell. I get every flu bug and cold out there. My partner and friends just breeze right through it. I’ve seen my doctor a few times and she tells me my blood work looks fine.”

“The way she blows me off makes me feel dismissed and judged like she thinks it’s all in my head. I just want to feel better. What do you think about this?” With that question as the focus of this episode. I’m Dr. Carla Marie Manly and this is Imperfect Love. Please note as this episode may contain sensitive information. Reader discretion is advised.

I’m very excited to introduce a wonderful special guest, Dr. Diana Stafford. Dr. Diana is a physician and functional medicine practitioner. She’s known as the Detox Doc. Welcome to the show, Dr. Diana. It’s such a pleasure to have you with us.

Thanks so much, Dr. Carla. Thanks for having me.

Before we begin our episode’s meat of it, could you tell our readers a tiny bit about what makes you, you?

I am a conventionally trained MD, but I saw the light and went functional. I’m now a functional doctor. I have my own video visit practice fully online. I get to help people around the country and around the world, which I love. I do a lot of social media. I love showing up online for people and spreading awareness about mold illness, gut health, and toxins. When I’m not doing that, I like to play music. I live pretty close to the beach, so I also like to go to the beach.

Thank you for sharing that background with us. A quick question. When you said you saw the light, could you just say a little bit more because it’s a perfect lead-in to the reader’s question.

Transitioning From Conventional To Functional Medicine

I love being a regular doctor. I was helping people but in the regular medical system, as many of the readers will attest to. You get a very short amount of time with your doctor. Many times, it can feel very cookie cutter like, “You’re coming in for strep throat. Here’s your antibiotic. You have bronchitis. Here’s this for that. You get a pill for an ill.” That’s what I was doing. I was a primary care doctor. It was very cognitively dissonant for me because I’m helping people but I’m not healing people. That’s what I went into medicine to do.

In becoming a primary care doctor, I thought, “Perfect. I’m on the front lines. I’m going to be healing people,” but that wasn’t what the medical system allowed. It’s run by insurance companies and administration. Doctors don’t have a whole lot of power. Through that and through some personal experiences, which we may reference but mold related illnesses and environmental illnesses in my family. With my husband specifically, needing a functional health workup because all his regular labs were normal. When we saw these functional medicine results that were not normal at all and when he had been told that everything was normal.

They’d done all the testing. Everything was fine. There wasn’t anything else that was needed. There was nothing else that could be done. I said to myself, “Why am I not doing this for my patients? Why is this not part of my practice?” I tried to reconcile the two and combine them, but that didn’t work because insurance doesn’t cover functional med or functional med testing. I got out of the system and started my own practice. That’s how that evolution came about.

Thank you. For readers who don’t know what you’re talking about when you say functional medicine, would you give a quick background on that? Also, before I forget it. It sounds like you’re able to practice in all 50 states. Is that accurate?

Defining Functional Medicine And Its Root Cause Approach

I’ll take the second part of the question first. As far as practicing in all 50 States, I am medically licensed in Virginia. I am applying to other states for my MD license. Out of State, it falls under wellness coaching. I’m a wellness coach in other states. That is supplements. Normally, I stick to supplements as much as possible anyway. Functional med is a lot of natural supplements, vitamins, and things like that. Dietary lifestyle interventions and not as many prescriptions.

It’s a very big mindset shift. That is a lot of what functional medicine is. It is evaluating your body as a fully connected system and not just bits and pieces like you will go to a specialist for each organ or organ system basically. Which is important but it’s also important to pull it all together. That is ideally what primer care would do but it’s not what it does. Functional med does that in looking at a root cause approach and just root causes. Which is not as much done in the regular medical systems. Root cause, systems medicine and a lot of natural supplements whenever possible.

It sounds like a lot of Eastern based medicine, ayurvedic medicine kind of flavor, which I’m a big fan of, by the way. As you said, instead of a pill for an illness. You’re talking about creating, healing and wellness. Not just sick care. You’re talking about creating wellness care, which is what our system so desperately needs. Thank you. Now, I know you’re in a time crunch and I appreciate that. I want to honor it. Let’s dive straight into the reader’s question of the day.

The Nervous System’s Fight Or Flight Response To Trauma

That is such an insightful question. I want to say thank you to that person who submitted the question. The fact that you’re realizing that your trauma is like, “Maybe all of this trauma is playing a role in my illness.” It’s very intuitive and you’re absolutely right. I see this all the time. There is a saying called your body keeps a score. There’s a book with that title and it’s very true. Trauma can be of all kinds. You’ve got your emotional traumas or it can be physical trauma. In my case, I see a lot of environmental exposure trauma.

Mold exposure can be a trauma because it’s stressful and no one believes you and things like that. I know that the question didn’t say you’re dealing with that and hopefully, you’re not. Only in case anyone is or maybe. Environmental exposure to toxins can also be interpreted by the body as a trauma. What happens whenever you have all these traumas? What is going on in the body? Your nervous system gets into what we call a state of fight or flight. Basically, your nervous system, there’s either the sympathetic state, which is a fight or flight state. The parasympathetic state, which is the rest and digest and the healing state.

If you’re always on edge, wired but tired then what happens is, it has downstream effects because your gut, your brain and your immune system are all connected. Which the reader mentioned always getting sick or feeling like they get sick more easily than others. They’re in constant conversation with each other. Your gut is helping to regulate your mood, your stress response and how your body reacts to the world in pathogens and viruses that you get exposed to or things like that.

If one part is already overwhelmed, then it has ripple effects and that’s very real physiologically. The good thing is, it can also heal. You can also heal from that. I just gave a talk on this at a conference and I’m already having people message me. That they tried the techniques that we talked about and they felt as shift and they’re feeling better. The nervous system can be modulated. If you’re in that fight or flight state, then you can do some simple things. You may need further evaluation for what else may be going on. For immune suppression or maybe anything that might be contributing.

As far as a nervous system goes, something as simple as breath work. Whenever you do an extra exhale or increase the duration of your exhale when you’re breathing, it activates that parasympathetic state. An exercise that I will do with people is 4/7/8 breathing. That’s in for 4 and then you hold for 7 and then you breathe out slowly for 8 counts. The longest is breathing out. That can not only help you just relax but it can also help your nervous system on a physiological level. I can share more exercises if you want but that’s just one breathing exercise that’s an example for that.

Techniques For Nervous System Modulation Like Breath Work

Thank you. I’d like to pause for readers who may hear a lot about the fight or flight part of your nervous system. Often, this comes from patterns learned in childhood. It can also come from current significant life stressors. Where you’re on one hand ready to fight. Ready to prepare yourself for the next argument or conflict or scary thing around the corner or can be politically, environmentally a war. Whatever it might be. That puts you in that desire to put your fists up and get ready to fight.

You can also go to the opposite end where you’re constantly hyper vigilant. That’s the fight or flight. In either case, you’re often constantly hyper vigilant. The fleeing part is that sense of, I want to run. I want to go and hide in my room. I want to run and have a glass of wine. Not that it’s always wine or whatever but you might be running from whatever the issues are. There’s the freeze response, where you stopped or the fawn response where you’re trying to appease. This is what Dr. Diana is talking about.

This natural tendency when we feel stressed, when there’s trauma at work, when the world doesn’t feel safe or when our lives don’t feel safe in the home or outside the home. As Dr. Diana is talking. You might want to do a scan of your life later. Your internal world and your external world. I know, for me, it’s watching the news. My husband loves watching the news. I don’t like watching the news. I find that I feel stressed by watching it. I feel stressed just by hearing it. Depending upon how sensitive you are. What you’re being exposed to can feel very traumatizing or very unsettling.

When you do this chronically, whether it’s doom scrolling or whatever you’re doing. One more thing and I’m giving it back to you. Dr. Diana, please correct me on anything that I don’t get right. When we’re looking at things in the environment that might be stressing our system. It could be that you live in an area where a lot of weed killers are being used. It could be that you’re close to crop spraying. It could be that somebody around you is doing a lot of smoking.

What affects one person as we see with long-term cigarette studies. Some people who smoke all their lives never get cancer. I know, for me, I had a precious aunt whose husband was a chain smoker. She died from cancer and he didn’t. She was getting the secondary smoke. I’m asking readers to pause once we’re done to do an evaluation and compassionate evaluation on your own life to see what obvious and sometimes not very obvious stressors. Back to you, Dr. Diana. Please take it away.

That’s so true because those toxins that we breathe in are directly neurotoxic. Which means that they cause inflammation of your nerves. When you’re inflamed, you’re not able to relax and be fully present. You’re not able to enjoy life. You’re not able to have fun and enjoy your relationships and be yourself. Whenever I work with people, some people say they just don’t feel like themselves anymore. That’s all connected. It’s important to realize that it’s not just like a mental thing. It’s a physiological response.

Thank you. I’m sure that feels validating to so many readers. Can we pivot a minute to the part of the mold? I see two of your books, The Conquering Mold and then the Candida. I know that it’s pretty common in our role for people to discount the impact of molds and yeasts on our systems. We tend to think, “They’re naturally occurring, so why should it be problematic?” Bestows is naturally occurring and it’s problematic. Let’s take a look at why and how you’re very big. I appreciate talking about gut brain access and if you could also talk about that.

Impact Of Environmental Toxins And Mold On Health

It’s all related. As far as mold goes, people think about mold and a lot of people are told it causes allergies, which it does. It can cause an allergy. You can be allergic to mold but it also does so much more than that. Mold is ubiquitous in the environment but clinically significant levels of mold are not everywhere. There are studies showing that approximately 50% of buildings have had some water damage event. It ranges from like 30% to 80%, so around 50%.

It doesn’t have to be a flood. It can be like a leak in the bathroom or in the kitchen or under the sink. When it happens, mold can grow within 24 to 48 hours. The variables that we have to consider when we think about it, is mold making you sick? It will be how sensitive you are to mold because some people are more sensitive to mold than others. If you’ve had stacked exposure, you can become sensitized. You then react to mold even if you’re not allergic to it, technically.

The other variables are, what types of mold are there present and how much mold is there? They say, if you’re sensitive to mold, you may be the only one in the family who’s sick. If there’s a lot of mold and that mold keeps growing. It’s a slab behind the wall that you might not even see, but it’s like black mold all behind your drywall. Mold loves drywall. That level is going to be significant enough that everyone may start to get symptoms.

The other thing about mold is that it affects different people differently. Mold is what I like to call the great exacerbator. It worsens what you’re already prone to like in my personal case. We had mold exposure for many years, my husband already had gut issues. He had worsening gut issues. I had a little bit of insomnia and things like that. It just worsened that. It can also make you not act the way that you would normally act. I’m generally a very positive person but I got anxiety and depression. I didn’t know what was going on with my mental health.

It was attributed to postpartum at the time. As an example, you don’t have to just have respiratory symptoms for it to be mold. Sometimes, you don’t have any respiratory symptoms or any of those allergy symptoms. It could still be mold illness. That’s what we call mold toxicity whenever there’s toxins more affecting you than like the spore-bass illness symptoms like your respiratory symptoms from breathing in the spores. These toxins can go throughout the body. They can go across the blood-brain barrier. They can go throughout all of your organs.

Ideally, it processed them out. If there’s too much that you’ve been exposed to, then it can back up. It can tox the liver. It can affect the gut. We’re talking about gut brain access and toxins. Mold strongly affects the gut. Some of the toxins that are produced by different molds that are commonly found in indoor environments affect the gut. They’re directly toxic to the gut lining in the way. Your gut lining is where you’re digesting your nutrients and absorbing your nutrients.

If it’s inflamed, then you can get a leaky gut. All of that is contributed to by mold toxins. You have decreased serotonin or you can have dopamine imbalances. Around 80% or so of your serotonin and dopamine is made in the gut. We have all of these imbalances going on and then you’ve got mental health issues and things like mold rage. There’s an actual term called mold rage because it’s so common that people will rage and have these episodes of intense rage that is not in character for them. It’s very scary. That is a very real phenomenon that can happen with mold.

Gut-Brain Axis Disruption And Mental Health

That is fascinating. For many readers, you may recognize serotonin, dopamine, reward, feel-good neurochemicals when you think that 80% of these are made in the gut. If your gut is chronically upset, then those two key wellness and neurochemicals are reward ones. They are feel-good ones. Those are going to be disrupted. If these signs are being missed, you’ll likely be given anti-depressant or anti-anxiety meds. That may mask what’s going on underneath but it’s not healing what’s going on underneath. Did I get that right, Dr. Diana?

Yes. You can treat the symptoms all you want but then the symptoms may never fully go away if you don’t address the root causes. I work with people on mold healing. A big part of that is figuring out if there’s an active exposure, getting out of the exposure, healing the gut, healing the nervous system, and detoxing or getting the toxins out. Decreasing the inflammation that they have potentially caused and decreasing your toxin load.

We all have a toxin bucket. It’s an analogy that’s frequently used but we’re exposed to a lot of different toxins. As you said, the glyphosate from roundup or various different toxins were exposed daily like microplastics, BPA and all of these things. There’s a certain point at which it’s too much for us to process. Our systems were not made to handle the amount of toxins that are in our world. A lot of them are invisible.

We have to keep in mind that even conventional medicine doesn’t regularly ask about them. It’s very real. A section of the history in physics should be environmental history. With your social history, your past medical history, and what medications you are taking. Any environmental exposures that are relevant just to get people thinking as you said. Take a little sock off, do I live next to a call tower or gas station or all these sources of potential toxins or even EMS can aggravate.

A lot to take in. When you think about your statistic that 50% of homes have had some mold issue in them. Think about any apartments you’ve lived in or mobile homes or houses. Maybe a long-term motel. Anything like that where you may have had something that you just passed off as, “That’s a little leak. That’s not a big deal.” We are all different. I want to emphasize what you said that some people have a high tolerance for exposure to certain things and other people naturally have that lower set point.

Going back to your mention of Bessel van der Kolk work, The Body Keeps the Score. It was based on a very old research paper of his that I loved then it came out as an entire book. When we think about the body from childhood forward. It is what we mean by keeping the score. If you haven’t seen can der Kolk’s work, it’s about this accumulation of what the body, mind and spirit perceive as threats. It can be trauma and childhood. It could be a highly critical parent.

It could be lots of moves that felt discombobulating for you. It could be relationships that were difficult. It could be environmental exposure or social exposure. All of these things. All the while, our poor little bodies are keeping track of all of this. That’s what we mean when we say the body keeps the score. Back to you, Dr. Diana. If we can pivot, if you don’t mind the candida piece.

Candida is mold’s cousin. It is a yeast. It colonizes the gut of 2 out of 3 adults. Sometimes. it doesn’t cause a problem. Sometimes, it’s commensal. It’s just their part of the microbiome. If you take a lot of antibiotics or you have a high in simple sugars diet or you’ve had mold exposure, for example. A lot of times, a candida can overgrow. Candida can contribute to more symptoms than we give it credit for usually.

Usually, we associate it with yeast infections. You’re given maybe a one tablet prescription and being told that’s just fine for candida. It’s going to be controlled now. Usually, that’s not the case. With candida, a lot of times, it can contribute to anything from brain fog. Where you feel like you’re just in a fog all day and you can’t carry on a good conversation properly or things like that. To things like that White plaque on the tongue.

If you have a White plaque on your tongue, then it may be all the way down the gut. Also, things like UTI-like symptoms. There’s a whole wide range of things that candida can contribute to. It’s so common because of the widespread use of antibiotics. What I do to help with candida because a lot of times, it comes with the mold, is to do a candida cleanse. I use a variety of different supplements to go ahead and get that into balance. With candida, it’s all about the balance. As I said, it can be part of your microbiome. If it’s controlled, then it can be fine. If it is overgrowing big, then it can only contribute to your symptoms.

What other symptoms might someone see if the candida is out of balance? Aside from the brain fog. What else are common things for people to look for?

Despite sleeping, you can have a sense of fatigue and just not be able to get any energy no matter how much you sleep. You can have gut issues. Again, if you have the gut issues, then that creates that cascading effect because then you get the mental health issues. It can affect pretty much everybody’s system. I would say the biggest ones I see are the entirety of the guts starting at the mouth with the white tongue and the UTI-like symptoms. People keep getting antibiotics for the UTI when it’s not a UTI.

It was fungal and then the antibiotics just make your fungal overgrowth worse. That is a terrible vicious cycle I’ve seen many times. They’re like, “The doctor just called this in.” Maybe a culture wasn’t done or even if a culture was and it was borderline like, “We saw a little bit of bacteria. We went ahead and treated it.” It’s like, “Were you really treating that? Was that the cause of the symptoms?” You can progress to getting things like interstitial cystitis where you have pain in the bladder and irritation inflammation in the bladder. It’s very uncomfortable. Not just for a week or so, but for a much longer period of time.

A lot of different symptoms. I would encourage people to check out the book or check out my content on candida to see. I do have a candida symptoms quiz for that and I have a symptoms quiz for mold. There are some symptoms that are more common than others. Although, as you might be getting the idea if you’re reading this. A lot of these can cause a variety of symptoms, but some symptoms are more common than others.

One test that people might be able to do on their own if they have a mirror is the tongue test. If somebody’s trying to figure out if they’re tongue has the white plaque on it or not, obviously there’s going to be a white filmy to it but they might not know what to look for. Maybe this is something that the person who wrote in could do. What would you say? How do you evaluate your own tongue?

To see if white plaque on your tongue is candida or if it’s just some residual like food film or something like that. I would brush the tongue. That’s the biggest thing because if the plaque keeps coming back, it’s not just yogurt or whatever. It can be candida. There are other things and bacteria that can cause white plaque on the tongue.

Candida is one of the most common causes of a white plaque on the tongue that keeps coming back or does not brush off. I would first see if it easily brushed off, then maybe it was that food you ate or that cheese or whatever. If not or if it keeps coming back, then I would get in touch with a functional doctor and start maybe doing some oil pulling, for example. Swishing coconut oil is helpful for the localized treatment of that.

If somebody took the tongue issued to their Western medicine doctor, the regular GP in a managed healthcare. What would the doctor say if you said, “Dr., can you look at my tongue and tell me if there’s plaque or not? Is my tongue showing symptoms of imbalance?” What do you think they might say in general?

They might nose thrush if they might be diagnosed with a white plaque on the tongue. They may or may not. They might say, “Brush your tongue and see if it comes back or not.” In primary care, we would diagnose thrush but we wouldn’t look too much further than that. We would say, “You just took antibiotics so that’s why. It needs to be rebalanced.” Sometimes I would give an antifungal if I saw that as when I was a regular primary care doctor. I don’t know if people would do that in general, but I used to.

The issue with only doing that is, a lot of times, it doesn’t get to the root causes. It may just come back if you only do up to a week or ten days of an antifungal. After you kill off the candida or you try to rebalance it, then a lot of times you’re going to want to do things like probiotics and also binders in order to bind up the byproducts. Candida can produce toxins as well. It can produce mycotoxins because it’s a fungus like mold.

It’s not just one thing that should be taken for a full candida balance regimen. These are cyclical things. Women will be having or anyone, but especially women because it is related to estrogen balance as well as how much candida will easily overgrow. They can have these cyclical symptoms and candida comes back so easily if you don’t manage.

From what I’m hearing you say what is the cure on one level. Taking an antibiotic if it’s necessary, that helps in one way but it’s upsetting all of the gut microbiome and the rest of your body. You need to rebalance it with probiotics and attentive care post-antibiotic. For anybody out there who’s ever been given a yeast medication, you think it’s solving the entire problem. It might be solving one part yet creating an imbalance elsewhere.

As you’re saying, you get into this vicious cycle if you don’t know what treatment you’re getting and how to counterbalance it. We live in this quick fix society. When one of the doctors throws out a pill, we’re like, “Thank you, Doc. That takes care of it.” Doctors in some areas are less likely to do that now. They’re trying to hold back a bit in many cases and be not throughout as many pills. What would you recommend other than probiotics for someone to make sure they’re getting that system rebalancing? I don’t know if this fits into some of the things you said that you told people at the conference and they’re writing to and saying, “Thank you this was so helpful.”

Utilizing Postbiotics Like Butyrate For Gut Healing

Those were nervous systems and I’ll go back to that quickly. As far as just so people can visualize your microbiome briefly. There are bacteria, which is the largest component of the microbiome viruses. There’s fungi. The molding yeast which are much smaller components but still there and then parasites. When one of these is taken out by antibiotics, for example. The other will quickly fill that void. That’s a good way to think about the balance in your microbiome if you’re thinking about, “Why did I have these symptoms and start after I took antibiotics?”

Maybe the fungus took over that space and now you’re having candida related symptoms. As far as candida cleanse goes. Antifungals use a lot of butyrate, which is a postbiotic. This feeds your gut lining and it sucks oxygen out of your intestines. Which is useful because we don’t want oxygen down there that causes bloating and other pain and other symptoms. It’s not supposed to be a high oxygen environment all the way down in the large intestines. The fact that butyrate is one of the few molecules that can suck oxygen out of your gut is very cool. It’s such a useful supplement. Probably my favorite supplement out of all the hundreds or thousands that I use and have tried.

I use probiotics. There’s probiotics that compete with candida. I use some other supplements too, depending on the case. As I said, with candida, a lot of times we have to go except further and say, “Why was the candida out of balance.” Was it lots of antibiotic use? Is there mold exposure? What is going on? We have to make sure we know that so it doesn’t keep coming back. Back to the other nervous system exercise that I teach people and I use with all my clients.

This is an exercise called the basic nervous system exercise. You can do it sitting up or laying down. you keep your head straight so you can do it wherever you are. Not if you’re driving. With your eyes, you can look as far to one side as you can and hold that. Hold it until you feel some physiological response. Whether it be a sigh or a yawn or just a relaxing of your body and do the same on the other side. I personally do this daily if I remember it. I teach my clients to do it. That was the most popular exercise I tell people to conference as far as people saying that they try to immediately and felt like it was helping their body get out of that fight or flight status into the rest and digest and healing state.

Thank you. I love that exercise. You did a fabulous job of giving our readers and the person who wrote in a body, mind and spirit approach to how to look at resetting your health, getting your nervous system up and functioning again. People often don’t realize how much that’s tied to issues like chronic inflammation or a susceptibility to getting that cold or flu. Thank you, Dr. Diana. Any other pieces before we wrap up?

I would just say keep toxins and mold in mind. It’s not something that you regular doctor may ask about. Keep it in mind and go and take stock of your toxin load.

Thank you. Where can our readers find you and all of these wonderful resources you offer?

I am the Detox Doc on all platforms and I have four books on Amazon. There’s The Inner Journey, which is a gut health handbook. There’s the Candida Detox and Conquering Mold. We just put out a book on how to be Crohn’s, which is eBook ahead of print. Whatever gut or toxin issue you may be dealing with, check those out. I also have online courses on molds for adults and also for kids to help with healing if any kid in your life has unexplained symptoms as well. I work with clients one-on-one, too.

Thank you, Dr. Diana. I so appreciated your wisdom, your genuineness and your desire to help people heal literally from the inside out. Thank you for the work you do. It’s so refreshing. I’m so grateful. I’m sure my readers are as well. To our readers, as always, thank you for tuning in, your time, your energy, and your interest in making your body and mental health a priority. Last but not least, Dr. Diana, other than the Detox Doc, do you have a website or do you want someone to type in the Detox Doc and they’ll find you automatically?

DrStafford.com is my website.

Again, my thanks to you, Dr. Diana, and my thanks to you, our readers. This is Imperfect Love.

Important Links

• Dr. Diana Stafford’s Website
• Dr. Diana Stafford on LinkedIn
• Dr. Diana Stafford on Facebook
• Dr. Diana Stafford on TikTok
• Dr. Diana Stafford on Instagram
• Dr. Diana Stafford on YouTube
• Conquering Mold
• Candida Detox: A Doctor’s Guide to Cleansing Candida and Restoring Your Health
• The Body Keeps the Score
• The Inner Journey: An Overview of Human Digestion, Diagnosing Abnormal Function, and Restoring Balance
• I Beat Crohn’s and So Can You: Knowledge and Tools to Live a Life Free of Crohn’s Disease
• NAMI HelpLine
• Mental Health and Relationships
• Dr. Carla Manly’s Website
• Dr. Carla Manly on Instagram
• Dr. Carla Manly on X
• Dr. Carla Manly on Facebook
• Dr. Carla Manly on LinkedIn
• Dr. Carla Manly on YouTube
• Dr. Carla Manly on TikTok

About Dr. Diana Stafford

Dr. Diana Stafford is a board-certified physician and functional medicine practitioner specializing in the gut–brain–immune axis, mold toxicity, and root-cause detoxification. Known online as The Detox Doc, she blends science, environmental medicine, and a trauma-informed approach to help people finally understand why they’re sick and how to heal safely. Dr. Diana is the author of Conquering Mold and Candida Detox, and the creator of several educational programs focused on gut health and mold recovery. Her mission is this: healing is possible—especially for those who’ve been dismissed or overlooked by the conventional medical system.