Charis & Dr. Kacey Wallace Raw Video
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[00:00:00] You are not fine. Maybe you're exhausted in a way that sleep doesn't fix. Maybe your brain doesn't feel as sharp as it used to, or maybe you're doing everything right, but your body just isn't responding, and yet you've been told that everything looks normal. Today I'm joined by kacey Wallace, a board certified physician and author of You Are Not Fine, and we're having a conversation that I think so many women need to hear.
We talk about why so many people feel stuck in their health despite doing all the right things, and how her own experience inside conventional medicine led her to start asking deeper questions, and what she's found on the other side of that. What really stood out to me and what aligns so closely with my work is the idea that the body needs the right support in the right order.
We get into why nervous system and rhythm have to come first, why jumping straight into a gut work or protocols can actually backfire, and how small [00:01:00] foundational shifts are often what allow the body to finally respond. If you've felt like you were missing something in your healing, this conversation will help you start to see what that might be.
Let's dive in.
Welcome back to the Harness Your Health podcast. I am thrilled to introduce you to Dr. kacey Wallace. She is here to talk about her new book, You Are Not Fine, and her practice. So welcome, kacey. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here. Yeah, I can't wait to dive in. So I'm just gonna read your bio so that we set the stage and everybody knows who you are, and then we'll just get into it.
Dr. kacey Wallace is a board-certified physician, functional medicine practitioner, Amazon best-selling author, and founder of Anchored 2 Wellness. She specializes in metabolic hormone and brain health, helping women struggle with fatigue, brain fog, stubborn weight, and burnout uncover the roots, causes behind their symptoms through her reset, repair, and rebuild [00:02:00] approach.
After leaving conventional medicine to pursue deeper root cause healing, she expanded her work online to make functional medicine more accessible to women everywhere. Her best-selling book was written to help people stop pretending that they are fine and finally reclaim the real version of themselves.
Thank you. So I will just say, and I'm pretty open about this, like I have definitely had points in my life where I'm not fine, and I don't feel fine. Mm-hmm. And in the beginning, I definitely just pushed through. And as I started to learn more and got into the holistic space myself as a practitioner, I really started to realize how important that is.
And so if you don't take away anything else from this episode, just take away that those nagging feelings, those nagging symptoms, those things you're dealing with that you just know intuitively aren't right, that you can do something about that, right? For sure, yes. Too many of us are walking around saying we're fine when we are not fine.
Yeah. [00:03:00] Yes. So I just wanna read a box. So first of all, this book is very I don't wanna say short, but it's concise and but full of information, full of actionable things that you can do. And there's a box on the top of pretty much every chapter, and I love this because when you're reading and you get distracted...
my kids were asking me questions and things, and I come back, and then I read the box at the top of the next chapter, and I'm just... It regrounds you back into what you're trying to think about, right? Because this isn't a new concept for me, but it might be a new concept for other people.
So I'm just gonna read this one. "You are not fine if you are exhausted in a way that sleep does not fix. You are not fine if your brain used to be sharp and now you cannot trust it. You are not fine if you're holding everything together on the outside while quietly falling apart on the inside." And this chapter is about finally saying that out loud.
Why is this so important, do you [00:04:00] think, for people to acknowledge this? Yeah, I think it's so important because as women especially, we tend to just continue to push through and push through. And yeah, we have a lot of responsibilities as wives and daughters and all the life role things, our work, everything we do in life.
But I also think there's a component of we've just been conditioned to think that, oh, it's just, that's just how you're going to feel. I struggled a lot with the title, to be really honest, but then whenever I came up with the You're Not Fine, it was just like, yes, this is perfect, because this is so much of what I see every day is so many women pushing through, saying they're fine when they're not.
And then honestly, we reach in our 40s, 50s, that perimenopausal, menopausal years, and we're just... we've completely lost ourselves. So that is why I say, "You're not fine," but you will be," that's where the title comes from. Yeah, and you talk about that a lot, is you're very honest throughout the [00:05:00] book, but then you also add those tips in.
Like maybe you're not fine now, but you will be fine. Mm-hmm. With confidence. Yeah. And so- Yeah ... I love that, that it's reminds me of the big sister, being like, "No, no, no," and then also, "But I love you." Yes. " I promise I love you." Yeah, exactly. So- Yes ... let's just paint the picture of your journey here quickly.
So you went to DO school. Mm-hmm. You have had some of your own personal experience with not feeling fine. Yes. Can you just talk about that? Yeah, so I was the classic, go to med school, have the kids, I'm married, all those things, the life. And I was going through conventional medicine just, that was my practice. My whole practice was, just going in every day, seeing my patients honestly doing the whole diagnose the illness here's your medication. I actually, truly when I think back to it, I truly think that I thought people were healthy when their diabetes was controlled, their hypertension, [00:06:00] their hyperlipidemia, all their diagnoses when they were controlled, I actually thought that in my mind that they were healthy.
And now I look back and I'm like, oh, my gosh, no. They had disease control, but if you took away their medications, then they're not. I just started getting very burnt out, I'm not going to lie. I honestly was looking for ways to exit medicine. I was so done. no one was getting better. No one was improving.
And then I started recognizing that- The biggest gap was in women, maybe even 30s, but s- especially 40s and 50s, with more of the kind of vague symptoms that don't fit in a conglomeration the, to be able to get a diagnosis and then what medication. So they did end up falling into the box of, "Oh, you're probably just depressed," or, "It's just anxiety."
I used to say it's just busy mom syndrome. And it took honestly me having my own issues to [00:07:00] start going, "Okay, there's something else going on here." And so my issues came after a very short period of time, about six months, that a lot of things happened in my life.
My son was in a pretty significant accident, we had all these deaths in our family. There was just a lot going on in this short period of time. And then I had a personal crisis that happened and that just completely wiped me out. So I had always had chronic gut issues just didn't ever feel right always felt down and depressed and just didn't understand why because I had a great life and great kids and great husband and all the things, that we classically think of as a great life and, but I just always had kinda struggled with that, and especially the gut.
I always had gut issues. It was always, get on the probiotic, have the scopes, get your gallbladder out, went through that whole thing and try this med, do this med, nothing's working. [00:08:00] So I actually credit one of my close colleagues with finding functional medicine because he finally said, "You know what?
I don't really know what else to do for you. Why don't you just try to go find a functional health doctor or something?" And I was like, I don't even know what that is, but I will research that," right? And so I researched it and my eyes were opened and that's how I found functional medicine.
It saved my life, and then through that it's just saved so many of my patients in such a better way. So that's where I'm at. It's our own experiences that are such a big part of our life, and the kind of that organic unfolding that we can't predict of how it's gonna happen.
So I love that you leaned into that and weren't like I'm not gonna do that 'cause I don't know what that is," right? Mm-hmm. You're really desperate in that point. Yeah. I know that I've definitely been there myself. So in the book and just in general, functional medicine refers to root cause a lot, and so we talk about root cause.
And then there's [00:09:00] a point in the book where you talked about running functional labs and looking at things like an imbalanced microbiome, inadequate stomach acid, inadequate fat digestion, a compromised gut barrier. These are really things that we focus on in holistic health. Mm-hmm.
And so would you just describe, how you view those things now? Is that really the first thing you look at, or what are you looking for when you're meeting with a patient or a client? Yeah, so the first thing on myself was just to do some basic labs, and I really remember saying, " Why would I even repeat my labs?
They're always normal." You know? And now I want to go, man, I want to go back and look at those labs because through all my training in functional medicine, I have done a functional blood chemistry certification, and that allows me to look at labs through the lens of optimal instead of just normal because the reference ranges are so skewed.
They're based off [00:10:00] our population. I don't want to be compared I don't want to be compared to a 60-year-old male that's had three heart attacks, and is diabetic. That, and that's not a slight to them, but I don't want to be compared to that. And so how these reference ranges are just based off the statistics are just crazy to me.
Mm-hmm. So I explain to my patients now, we are looking at physiology. Where do we want you optimally, with your thyroid, with your blood sugar, those things that can really shift the needle of our health and wellness? And so for me that wasn't even the first thing. For me, it was seeing through my functional health training, we did our own labs.
And so I did two things. I did the cortisol curve, looking at cortisol throughout the day, not just that one point cortisol, but cortisol and DHEA. And then I looked at a gut test, a stool, comprehensive stool analysis. And I was really shocked when I got my- First of all, cortisol curve back, 'cause what do we always [00:11:00] hear?
"Oh, it's high. Your cortisol's probably high." And mine was completely flat, down and out, no cortisol was happening. And then when my- I got my gut test back I can remember almost crying, just being so relieved that, oh, my gosh, there is something wrong, and I had that severe dysbiosis, I- which is that microbiome issue.
I had the pancreatic enzyme deficiency issue, the leaky gut, all those things. So now that is my approach. In my practice, we look at functional blood chemistries. I look at through the lens of optimal instead of normal. That's a first step I usually do with my patients. And then I do usually cortisol curves, DHEA, we look at that.
We look at the gut microbiome. So that's what I do in my practice. I will say in my practice, I have two arms, and one is I still do primary care, and those are people that yes, we're applying [00:12:00] functional medicine principles to them, but they're staying more in the conventional let's treat your diabetes, let's treat your blood pressure let's get you under control and get some disease control.
Let's apply these functional medicine principles. And then I have those people that are willing to invest time, energy, effort into functional medicine and functional medicine lab analysis because I explain it in the sense of, I- you've probably seen those memes where there's two windows and one is the medication window, and one is the lifestyle window and there's a line of people in the medication window, and there's n-no line in the window for lifestyle.
So I'm pretty vocal with my people that if you wanna do functional medicine, this is not as easy as what medication am I going to take or what supplement am I going to take? It is, are you willing to make the changes that need to be made? And we [00:13:00] talk about those foundational things. And if they're not willing to make those changes, I don't really talk to them about doing more in-depth functional medicine testing.
So as harsh as that can sound they have to be willing... You know, functional medicine is not as easy as, like I said, "Just take the med, take the supplement." It is, they have to be willing to make those changes, and if they're not I don't usually just offer the testing because- It does require more work.
That makes sense. People have to be ready. I always tell the story of the first time I was having terrible digestive issues. I hadn't gone to nur- nutrition school yet. I was still a nur- working as a nurse, and my girlfriend was like, "Let's do a Whole30." And I was like, "Okay." So I looked it up online, saw the criteria, what you're supposed to do, and it took me three months to be ready to give up- Yeah
all those foods, and that, that was the way I looked at it. I'm just giving all these [00:14:00] things up. I'm just gonna white-knuckle it for 30 days. Mm-hmm. And it took me three months to do that. So people- Yep ... just sometimes aren't ready, and that's okay. I feel like you're still there. You're around.
They can look at your website. They can dabble in learning a little bit more about this because really what it comes down to is your mindset and your habits. Yeah. I'm 55. I've been doing things for my whole adult life. I know. It is hard to change- It is hard
habits, but you can do it. Yes. People do it all the time, and when you have a good guide and someone helping you along the way, it's so much easier than just- Yeah ... like white-knuckling it or something. You definitely don't advocate for that, and that's one thing I love you talk about in your book. This is the great thing about writing this book too, kacey, is that- you speak to women in this book, but I think anyone could get anything- Oh, yeah ... anyone could get it out of this book. And when you read it, you can hear yourself and feel yourself in those things- Mm-hmm ... that you're talking about, [00:15:00] right? So- Yeah ... those things are resonating for you, then just start to b- get curious.
What are your symptoms? What- Mm-hmm ... are you thinking that, you could potentially change based on the recommendations you give in here? Because- Mm-hmm ... you talk about a lot that this is like a step-by-step process. Do you wanna talk- Yeah ... about that a little bit more? Because what we
The, definitely the way I was trained, not in school so much, but in like further certifications, is like you give people a really extensive protocol. They have to follow it to the T. They have to buy all the supplements. They have to take everything perfectly, and then magically at the end, they're better, and that's not really how it works.
Yeah, that do- that doesn't happen. Yeah. That doesn't happen. So- So I, I talk a lot about small changes can lead to really big shifts, and there's a great book, Atomic Habits. You know, that's what he talks about, is sometimes just small little tinkering things can make such a big shift. And a lot of times my patients are like, " That's all I have to [00:16:00] do right now?"
And I'm like, "Mm-hmm. Yes, this is all you have to do right now" And because that gives them a little motivation of, okay, I did this thing, I did this thing, and now I know that I can do this, right? And I have people that do- don't do any functional medicine testing, any functional medicine- Really anything, and we've tweaked little things here and there, and they have improved.
So ultimately, I don't think it requires this huge protocol to go through, and that honestly does not work because the body has to be ready to heal. I believe that the body is designed to heal if we give it the right instructions and the right information. The body is designed to heal.
If you look at a cut, you get a cut on your hand or something okay, it heals, right? It should, right? So it, it should heal because our bodies are designed to heal. And the big thing I think about is it, there has to be some sequence to it, though.
Because for me personally I [00:17:00] didn't know there needed to be a sequence. The program I was in to train me didn't really teach it as a sequence. It was kinda like you said "Oh, just do this, and this, and do it all at the same time." And I did those things, and
Especially with my gut I tried to work on my gut first, and I just kinda wrote off the whole my cortisol curve was completely flat and I had no cortisol, and I depleted even further when I just launched straight into gut work. I eliminated some foods from my diet . I was doing some different supplementation work, things like that, and it depleted me even further because, gut work can be a little bit taxing on people, too. And so w- that one little bit more of strain to my system just put me over the edge even further. So that is why I know now, because of my own experience again, and what I see now in my patients and people I work with, is there has to be a sequence.
There has to be a sequence of w- work through things first. And I will [00:18:00] always come back to nervous system first, because if the nervous system is not doing what it needs to do and we're in a sympathetic overdrive, or to be really honest, a- an extreme parasympathetic drive then we're not going to heal.
So I have a specific way I work with people through, That's why my framework is reset, repair, rebuild, because you have to reset first, and there are things specifically you can do to reset the nervous system to get those systems more on board, to get the rhythms of your body more on board before you can go into repair work.
And for sure, before you can go into more okay, let's rebuild some resiliency. Let's help your body function at its fullest and finest, and, help you to respond to things better and easier, and with less- breaking. Mm-hmm ... so that's why I do the framework the way I do it is to help people to understand that there has to be that reset first or you'll just deplete [00:19:00] further.
Yeah. I love that. I had to learn that the hard way in my practice, too, and honestly it was on myself. Yeah. I put myself on one of those strict protocols, and then I literally couldn't finish the protocol. I couldn't take- Yeah ... all the things. I felt terrible, and I was like, "What is happening," right? So it's really, I think one thing to think about with the gut, because everybody says the gut is so important, and it is of course so important.
We're not saying it's not important, but the gut needs nutrients, right? And that, a lot of times can come from your food, but if you don't have the digestive capacity to pull those nutrients out of your food, you're not gonna get very far. And so- Yep ... that's one of the things I love that you use hair tissue mineral analysis, because what that really does is it looks at your mineral balance and so much more than that.
You can really get a good picture for hormone physiology, hormone balance in the body, right? And see what the body needs for support. And so that's why your framework is just so beautiful, because it really is just supporting [00:20:00] those areas of the body to function. And we, it's like instead of a med for this or a med for this or a supplement for this particular thing, we're just giving the body what we know it needs to do, and then the body knows what to do, kinda like you already mentioned.
Yeah, I think we can get just in the same mindset with functional medicine as conventional medicine of, oh, you have this thing, so here's, do this supplement, you know? And that's the same thing. You're just, you're not- A med ... you're just giving a med, right? So- It's a huge- No ... problem right now.
It really is. It is. And I, , a lot of my listeners know that I teach at the Nutrition Therapy Institute, and students email me often asking about their friends or themselves, and they have spent thousands of dollars and gotten these extensive protocols or not been able to finish it or are not better at the end, you know?
And so they're just feel lost, and they don't understand what they should be doing. And I just think that we are going about this totally wrong. I think that- Mm-hmm ... we need to remind ourselves, especially in our [00:21:00] culture and our society the, advent of technology is wonderful. We all use it.
We're using it right now, but, and that's great. Yep. But, when I get off this call right now, I'm not gonna g- stay connected to my computer. I'm gonna go outside. I'm gonna do something else, and that was a habit change that I had to make for myself- Mm-hmm ... because it's really easy to be like, "I have so much more work to do.
I'm just gonna work on my work here on my computer," right? But- We have to teach ourselves, teach our nervous systems how to be able to be on when it needs to be on, down regulate it when it needs to be down regulated. And I love that you do the cortisol test because it's just such a good, simple way to see.
Yeah, when I was actually, But- I was just laughing because when I was writing my book, I felt myself doing that, 'cause I had given myself this deadline because I knew if I didn't, I would just kinda keep letting it
Anyway, so I was reading my book out loud when right before we were, like, ready to put it out there. And so I was reading it the [00:22:00] final pass through, and I got to the end, which is the resiliency rebuild part, and my husband was listening. And I just, I had to start mocking myself as I was reading because I was like
He was laughing 'cause he's "You aren't doing any of this right now." And I'm like, "Yes, I know. I know." It was a big, it was a big eye-opener of, stop pushing through. And so the nice thing is the book's been out a week now, and so I've really taken a step back and to just restore myself and put those things back into place that I had let fall.
And, just life happens. So recognizing- Yeah ... getting back on track I talk about n- with that with one of my stories in the book, one of the patients I had worked with she had gone to every specialist. She had gone to see the endocrinologist and the rheumatologist and all the ologists and she had been to the ER multiple times in the middle of the night waking up with palpitations and heart racing and all these things.
And she did so well. She came in . She was frustrated because of [00:23:00] the whole let's just wait and see thing. And then we did all her testing and we did her protocols and we did all the things, and she did great, and she was doing wonderful. And then something happened and her sleep just completely got so horrible and she started feeling it, and she's "What do I do?"
And I'm like, "We gotta get you sleeping again." And it was really cool to just see how fast everything came back online because she had rewired that and rebuilt that. And, it didn't require the entire protocol again. She had rebuilt resiliency enough inside of her that she was able to bounce back from that a lot quicker.
So- That's what I love for people to understand is, once you start getting more and more systems back online, your tree is not going to bend. It's gonna bend without breaking, you know? So yeah, I have a wonderful tree analogy- ... in the book. I'm gonna leave that to, people can read that for themselves, but I love that so much 'cause I talk so much about the roots of the tree, you know- Mm-hmm ... and the, all that. So that was [00:24:00] really cool to see that. Yes, I think that it's important to think about this as a framework versus a protocol. And also, I really like to help people with things that are gonna help them for the rest of their life.
Mm-hmm ... this is not white-knuckling it for 30 days or 90 days or a year or anything like that, and then just go back to the way- Mm-hmm ... that you were. And if that's how you wanna operate, that's fine. Just I would say I'm not for you. I would assume Dr. Giese isn't for you, just like she mentioned earlier.
And so it's really, that understanding and the confidence that you get when you've been through the framework and you understand what to do, because we don't know what life is gonna throw at us, right? And so it's a perfect example with your client of, how something happens, and then you're like, "Okay."
And she had- Mm-hmm ... you there for support, but at some point- Mm-hmm ... she can do that by herself, too, like five years- Mm-hmm ... from now, 10 years from now, right? Mm-hmm. Yep. That's the beautiful thing is really teaching people to [00:25:00] understand that and to take control of your health. That's what this whole podcast is called, Harness Your Health.
Yes. This is the whole thing- Yes ... in my mind. And I do think that is part of the issue in conventional medicine and what is... I, how I word it is we've just been conditioned by the healthcare system that you have to go in and get your diagnosis, and then you have to get your medication. And there's so much reconditioning that thought with people that come in because it's, doesn't...
you're not going to get better if that's the whole thing you're relying on. And that's just the truth of it, you know? We see that every day with patients that are just getting sicker and sicker despite more and more medications. ... Anyway, I could get all off on that conspiracy, but- I'll just keep that in.
It's such a important point, right? And I tell people all the time, We're not saying that conventional medicine needs to go away. Conventional medicine is very important for lots of things. If you- Yeah ... need surgery, if you have an accident, if you need to be hospitalized, [00:26:00] right? They're gonna- Mm-hmm
get you back to being home or repair- Mm-hmm ... whatever's broken or whatever. Those kinds of things are, have gone really well with conventional medicine. We obviously have- Yeah ... great advances, and they're saving people's lives more than ever. But what you're talking about is you all of a sudden develop diabetes, Type 2 diabetes.
You and I know, and maybe some of our listeners know, that takes decades to develop. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And so what you're talking about is someone who goes on metformin or a medication for that, and then when I was in nursing school, we were taught that was never reversible. Now we know that is not the case.
Mm-hmm. So- ... it's really about meeting the person exactly where they are. Maybe they are on metformin. Yeah. But, you can help them with how to get to the point where you don't need that medication anymore. Mm-hmm. And then working with your prescribing doctor to get off of it, if that's appropriate.
And you can use that for a lot of other meds. Cholesterol meds- Yes ... high blood pressure meds. So it's [00:27:00] really just also for people to realize that just because you're on meds doesn't mean you're too far gone, right? ... You can definitely get better and that it's just a process, a different process than someone maybe that's not on medication.
And I do talk about this in my book. There's a whole spectrum of people that are very ill and people that are very well, and, how I categorize that is people that are very well are people that their chronological age is increasing. We can't help that, right?
I'm not saying we're never going to die, but I'm just saying our chronological age is increasing, but our biological age is staying young, you know? And that's my goal for people, to be well. And if people are willing to do the work, they can get well. But I also to say, I alluded to this earlier
The difference of conventional medicine and functional medicine is not that one is better than the other. I think they can be used together especially to just put little things in place for those people that are [00:28:00] mostly just doing conventional medicine. Because in certain circumstances , Yes, the medications are controlling disease processes, so that is better than being completely ill.
You take those medications away, that person is just getting sicker and sicker. So I talk about that a lot with my patients. Sometimes we do need to use the medications to control things so the disease is controlled. But at the same time, we have to recognize that , medications can be making it worse as well.
And oftentimes I, it... my family laughs at me because if we're watching normal TV, which hardly ever happens, but if we are, , and the commercials come on, the medications that are... I just laugh because almost all the medications that are being advertised, other than some of the weight loss meds and things like that, are all immunomodulators, whether they're about psoriasis, eczema, Crohn's disease any type of autoimmune process, they're [00:29:00] all immunomodulators.
And I'm like, okay, so that's a really big red flag that we are having inflammation and immune system issues, and then you can boil that down to what's happening with blood sugar, and what's happening with cortisol, and what's happening with the nervous system and the gut. I'm never gonna beat that. But, it's just why are we not recognizing that every new medication is an immunomodulator? So that's just my take on that. Yeah. That could potentially come partially from the cancer world, too, because, really no new chemotherapy drugs are developed anymore.
They are all- Mm-hmm ... drugs that are developed that are in that kind of category, right- Mm-hmm ... of using your immune system, using your body in other ways to get around your cancer, which has been life-changing for the oncology community. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But my kids always laugh too, because they're like...
What I always say is you shouldn't see a commercial on a TV and then go to the doctor and be like, "I wanna be on this medication." Mm-hmm. That's not really how it should work. Yeah. No. In my opinion. [00:30:00] Not at all. So it just seems like a crazy way to go about getting the word out about your drugs and- Yes
yeah, not really what we want to be focusing on. So you mentioned inflammation, and in your book you talk about how inflammation is not a root cause, and I was like, "Amen." Yeah. Please, can we talk about this? Yes, we can. And I think the other thing I wanna... maybe goes along with this that you've insinuated at, but maybe I'll just explain it in the way of also people talk about hormone balance, right?
Mm-hmm. There are priority hormones for the body, like insulin and cortisol. Mm-hmm. So I think that plays into the inflammation. And maybe this is too much of a question at once, but I think you know where I'm headed. Yep. Yep. So inflammation is... So many people stop at you just have inflammation," and and then there's a thought of, "Okay, I'll just take an anti-inflammatory, I'll take some turmeric,, and lower my inflammation." And- there's so many things driving that inflammation, and [00:31:00] it's the foundational things which I say there's the foundation four, which is, what are we eating?
So what are, what's our nutrition? And then what is our activity patterns? Are we super sedentary or are we super overactive? People that I probably shouldn't say, but sometimes we don't need to be doing CrossFit at 5:00 AM. That is the one of the- Not if your Fred. Not if your cortisol is zero.
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So what are we... How are we moving? I lump in muscle mass and all that to that. And then what is our sleep? No one's going to get better if they're not sleeping. I say that all the time to my patients. If you're not sleeping, your expectations of how you're going to feel and how well you are going to be need to be pretty low, because you have to sleep.
And then the stress piece, and a lot of times people hate when I say that because they think, "Oh, you're just saying I'm just stressed," and I'm like, " No, I look at stress in the sense of what are your external stressors, , job and life roles and things like that, and then what are your internal [00:32:00] stressors?"
For me personally , It's overthinking and rumination of thoughts and that is very straining on the whole system, on the nervous system, for sure if we don't learn to quiet that down. And then I also say,, stress is metabolic stress. And then metabolic stress is one of the harder ones, because it's perpetuating the entire cycle of what's happening with cortisol and then blood sugar getting released so we can run from that bear all day.
And then insulin has to be involved in that, and then cortisol does its whole thing with the immune system. And then if the adrenals are becoming activated, now we've got adrenaline being released, and now our heart rates are up, and we feel anxious and, then ADHD is an issue. We can't think, and it just perpetuates the entire mess.
That's when I talk about the metabolic mess. And ultimately, it comes down to what's happening at the level of the cell. Is the cell healthy? Is the cell wall healthy? Is the insides what are we... Are we getting our supply in the cell so we can make [00:33:00] our product? Are we having too much waste?
Those kind of things that just perpetuate the entire metabolic mess that happens. That's what I call inflammation. That is what's driving inflammation. And so it can sound like, "Oh my gosh, I need to do a billion things in order to quiet my inflammation," but that's where I meet people is what is your biggest issue
if somebody's "Yeah, I sleep fine," then I go, "Okay what's the next thing? Is there something we can cut out of or add to your nutrition or, what do we need to cut back? What do we need to change? What is the one thing for you to do your next step to start to lower the inflammation to improve the cell health?"
and all that. And I think that's where hormones do come in. Cortisol's a hormone, insulin's a hor- all these hormones that are there, and I talk about that in my book about each one of them kinda do their own thing. And, cortisol's more of the rhythm keeper, and insulin's this, metabolic manager of everything.
And thyroid, I call the thyroid a people pleaser because it's just trying to appease everyone, and it will sacrifice itself, [00:34:00] and all of those things are affected by each other. , Even the sex hormones like testosterone and estrogen and DHEA, and all those things they just all affect each other, and so it kinda contributes to the whole mess.
So I don't know if I answered your question, but - I think it's well said. It's complicated, right? It is. And so it's hard to... I think just the more we explain it, the more we give examples, it helps people to understand, 'cause even practitioners are confused about this stuff, right? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
And I remember when I was in nutrition school and they would talk about hormones all the time, and oftentimes they were referring to sex hormones. And I was like, "But you're saying hormones." I get it that we're just oversimplifying, but there are so many hormones, and literally the balance of hormones isn't really the goal.
The goal is- Mm-hmm ... for each hormone to do its job appropriately- Mm-hmm ... and for it to interact well with other hormones, right? And you- Yes ... can't whack mole hormones very well. So that's why the blood sugar discussion and the [00:35:00] nervous system discussion is so important, because those are the priority, and
a lot of other things come in place, right? Mm-hmm. Once you get those- You know, I tell my patients every day, what do I hear all the time? I have no willpower and I have no motivation. Mm-hmm. And I tell them, it's very hard to have willpower and motivation when your blood sugar is doing funky stuff.
It's very difficult. Even just swinging 30 to 40 points, and they're staying in a normal range, even that swing is exhausting because it's affecting cortisol and DHEA and insulin , and then that affects the cell membranes, which affect can your hormones even dock to the receptors?
And so one of the first things I always talk about with people is getting their blood sugar under control, because it is very hard to feel good when the blood sugar is going crazy. And it's not just one thing. It's not just diet that affects that, but sleep can affect our blood sugar. So many different things affect insulin and blood [00:36:00] sugar and all that stuff.
So anyway that is the first area I try to stabilize is is the blood sugar. Yeah. I think people really See other things that they didn't even realize once they get their blood sugar under a little better control. Mm-hmm. They're like, "Wow, this is amazing." It could be the afternoon energy slump, it could be the awake and focus in the morning.
Mm-hmm. There's any myriad of things that- Yeah ... it can affect, for sure. For sure, yeah. I love that. And it's so hard because the conventional system, this is an area where I talk about labs in my book because the conventional system is so skewed with normal labs. And, I have very optimal goals that I want for people, and they're very picky.
And, one is the blood sugar needs to be in fasting, it needs to be in the 80s. And an A1C optimal is 5.0. Yeah. And so I often think, why are we still just trying to manage diabetes down to a 6.5? That person is still having significant insulin issues and blood sugar [00:37:00] and insulin resistance, and that whole picture.
And I'm gonna get off topic here for just a second, but part of my training when I did my functional medicine certification was I was introduced to Dr. Dale Bredesen, and I was so excited to... I was like, oh my gosh, I... How is this not mainstream? I don't understand this. But, you know, Dr. Dale Bredesen is a neurologist that has studied Alzheimer's for 20 years.
He has a whole protocol prevention of cognitive decline, which is PreCODE, and then ReCODE is reversal of cognitive decline, and he has a whole protocol for what people can follow in order to help prevent cognitive decline. And yes, they're the same protocol for reversal of cognitive decline, but we all know it's much harder once somebody has pretty significant cognitive decline.
The brain reserve is not where it was, 10 or 20 years prior, so it's much, much harder to get control of that. But [00:38:00] what Dr. Dale Bredesen talks about first and foremost is blood sugar. He even titles Alzheimer's as type three diabetes.
And it's like that is the first thing we have to start thinking about with Alzheimer's is what is happening with diabetes. What is happening with blood sugar. Because if insulin can't attach to those receptors and get the blood sugar from outside the cell into the cell has no fuel.
And so first part of cognitive decline is get your blood sugar under control, and it's not a 6.5. Yeah. A1C of 6.5, it is let's shoot for at least a 5.5, maybe even down to a 5.- two. So anyway, that's a long ways around the corner to say, blood sugar is so powerful in improving so many of our issues downstream when it comes to vascular health and neurologic health.
And I think that the conventional system definitely has missed the boat a little bit with [00:39:00] this, and it literally affects everything. Mm-hmm. We know that the body is - connected intimately in every way, but there's literally not one organ, tissue, system in the body that's not affected by blood sugar.
So people start to see things quickly too. And there's- Mm-hmm ... so many different levers you can pull to work on your blood sugars. Like you were saying- Mm-hmm ... before, meeting someone exactly where they are and going through the list. Do you do this? Okay, great. Check it off. Do you do this?
Oh, no, you're not? Okay, let's focus on that, right? Mm-hmm. It's that one thing at a time, and then those things building on each other. You talk about in your book, the daily anchors, and I just wanted to mention a couple of them. Obviously, a lot of people know about circadian rhythm. I talk about it a lot.
Viewing morning light. How do you see that in the nervous system regulation paired together? Yeah. So nervous system regulation is what we classically think about as that [00:40:00] whole sympathetic, parasympathetic balance, and so many of us are running in sympathetic overdrive all day long. And when that's happening, the adrenals, the cortisol thing is just going crazy.
And I talk a lot about DHEA, because DHEA has to be there to help buffer cortisol. And so even in somebody with a lower end cortisol, if their DHEA is super depleted, which happens over time with chronic nervous system activation cortisol's going unopposed basically. That is why I talk so much about the nervous system first because if our nervous systems are going haywire, then everything is off downstream.
It's hard to regulate blood sugar. It's hard to sleep good. It's, all those things just get off. And so when you talk about the daily anchors, those are simple things. They sound too simple, and I even mention almost insultingly basic to somebody that's really struggling.
Yeah. But [00:41:00] installing these daily anchors, I've seen over and over again help with blood sugar, nervous system, sleep, motivation, willpower. And they're simple things like getting morning light, making sure you're not hitting the snooze button. The snooze button is so terrible for the whole cortisol picture all day.
I don't know if you've ever noticed, but when you hit the snooze button, you are so tired all the whole rest of the day, whereas if you don't, you might not be as tired. And the reason is because of that initial cortisol spike that we get in the morning, and we miss that if we hit the snooze button.
So installing those daily anchors, especially how many people are using coffee for breakfast, that's- Yeah ... super hard on the nervous system. It's super hard on cortisol. So just getting some protein in before we drink our coffee, the morning light, the installing those things to go to bed, wake up at the same time.
Those are huge to regulating your circadian [00:42:00] rhythm, which ultimately regulates hormones, which ultimately regulates blood sugar, which ultimately regulates the nervous system. And then our weight can respond to that and our brain fog improves because our brain's getting fuel again.
And we maybe have a little more passion for life again. We maybe feel a little more present in our daily life, and maybe not as irritable with our family. And that's what I see over and over again, is those kind of things of "You know what? I'm not getting as irritable, as I was," because we tend to get too hard on ourselves about that.
So anyway, those are the big things that I would say with that. Yeah. You mentioned that they're very simple, and maybe just people brush them off 'cause they sound too simple, right? But I would also argue that if someone is dealing with health issues that maybe are escalating, or maybe it's a cancer patient.
Everyone knows I was an oncology nurse. Those times you feel out of control- Mm-hmm ... and you feel like "There's nothing I can do about this," and that is absolutely not true. [00:43:00] And the things that you can do are these types of things. Yes. And so you don't need to start every anchor on the first day.
You start one anchor, you get it under your belt, make it a habit, and then you start the next one. And you can pick and choose from them, too. They're not really in an order. And so I think that kind of thing is what I really want people to hear, too, is these things are simple, but they are very effective.
Mm-hmm. And this is how your body is wired. Mm-hmm. It's not like we're just making this up. It's literally the flow of the body, the 24- Yes ... hour rhythm of the body. There's a lot of research about that, and so I think that people, once you know, you know, right? Mm-hmm. So once you use some of these anchors and rhythms and you feel different, then you're like, "Oh, okay, I get it now."
Yeah. But it's not what we're told. And it's made fun of on social media. I have to be very careful because If I come across a doctor's page [00:44:00] that are, they're making fun of the wellness industry or functional medicine, and I get it, there's some really bad stuff going on out there.
I get it. And I talk a lot about how I kinda fit in the middle of helping people work through the noise of the wellness industry, and then also have the science to back up my protocols and my things that I do. But, I actually had another doctor comment on my page, and
I had commented on something on one of his videos, which to be really honest, I should have read his comments and not... And realize that's not my people. But I commented something about the whole evidence-based things, propaganda that is repeated over and over again by conventionally mindset doctors.
Mm-hmm. And I just said, "You know, sometimes the evidence is not a randomized controlled trial. Sometimes the evidence is that person that's sitting right in front of you that's getting better." [00:45:00] And he reposted my comment, and then that video got even more comments. Mm-hmm. And I finally just had to delete it and just stop looking at it, because somebody even said, " she has wellness in her name.
She must be a quack." Oh. And I'm like, that is so sad that wellness is equated with quackery. And I get it. I understand why that's happening, because there is a lot of that quackery stuff that's going on. But part of it is because we do talk about these simple things that can shift the needle.
Our toolbox, my toolbox is so much bigger than it used to be. I very rarely refer anyone to specialists anymore. Not that I don't think that they're in the right place to, to do what they need to do, but if someone's truly needing to get better I've been there. I've done that. I've referred them and they've not gotten better.
They... I've referred them, they've come back to me for more [00:46:00] support. The whole return to your PCP, yeah. They don't know what's wrong, so just go back to your PCP. And I've done that, and I very rarely have to refer anymore because we dive into those root causes. I think when people hear us talking about these simple things, it's made fun of a lot of times because it's very hard to do a randomized controlled trial- When somebody's installing,, this installing is the, just the word I use, but installing these six anchors or whatever.
You know, it's very hard, like Dale Bredesen, he talks about it's very hard to get a research a randomized controlled trial together because his protocol is not one thing. There's not one variable that you can enroll people in and have a placebo group. And so it is seen as there's no evidence to back this up, and I'm thinking there's plenty of evidence for me.
I have plenty of people that have gone through this that we've just put one little thing into [00:47:00] place. It literally might be something as simple as stop drinking sugary beverages, and that person feels better in four days , so . i get so crazy when I start thinking about this whole evidence-based.
It's just so frustrating because I'm not saying that what I do is quackery and woo and all that. I'm just saying it's real hard to study this other than, yeah, they're getting better. They are getting better. That's the evidence. The person Feels better, and that's what they care about, right?
Mm-hmm. They just came to you 'cause they need to feel better. They're not fine, and they wanna be fine, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I think part of the problem with the whole evidence-based thing, when people throw that back in your face, is number one, how do you study... How do you get money with the way that the system works now to make, to do a study, like a randomized controlled trial study for something that is free and/or
Nutrition ? This is talked about in the nutrition circle all the time. [00:48:00] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I think the evidence-based method is really important for things that could potentially harm people, right? Mm-hmm. Like medicine dosing of medicine, things like that. But when you're talking about something that's not gonna harm someone, like light in the morning-
like eating protein before they drink their coffee- Yes ... that's not gonna harm anyone. You don't need evidence for that. We can say that we have 50 clients, 50 patients, whatever, who have gotten better with this strategy, and so I'm gonna keep using it, right? So that's part Of my mission with this podcast, is it's not us against them. Mm-hmm. We have to think critically about what we're talking about, and if we're talking about drugs or medicine, then we should be thinking about it in a way of safety and appropriateness. And if we're thinking about some of these lifestyle habits that can be so helpful to you, just think about it in what can I start first? What's gonna impact me the most? What's gonna- Mm-hmm ... support my body the most, right? And- Go from [00:49:00] there. I also will just say that I follow this guy who talks a lot about how you know you've made it when you get your first hater.
So I'll just say that you have made it. Yes. Yes. Because, you know- Yes ... once we get o- outspoken and loud about these things- Mm-hmm ... kinda like you were talking about at the beginning, there's gonna be pe- people who disagree with us. And I think that also- Yeah ... in the way that the internet and social media is people get on their pedestal and they don't have to- see you and talk to you to your face, and so it's a lot easier to say things and especially in a certain way. So- Yeah ... good for you for putting it out there. I actually just saw a quote about this, and it was like, " If the national parks can even get one-star reviews," if you just go read them sometime, it's so funny. The one-star reviews for national parks are hilarious. So I'm like, okay, if the Grand Canyon is getting one-star reviews, then okay, I'm probably gonna get some haters, so That's hilarious. I have [00:50:00] never heard that before. Yes. I'll definitely check that out.
Is there Anything else you wanna share with listeners? I would like for you to tell people how they can find you and, what their next steps might be. Maybe they bought your book, but then now they want to work with you or explore working with you. What does that look like?
So ultimately, I will say I want people to read my book, obviously. I wrote it from a place that can truly start a transformation. It is what I want everyone to read before I even start working with them, because it helps them to understand the language of it's okay to say you're not fine.
It's okay to stop pushing through. Those things are so connected to the things we feel, such as our brain fog our weight issues, our confidence issues the body confidence concerns our passion for life. And ultimately I had to think through what were my goals for this book?
And there's a [00:51:00] reason why it says reclaim the real you, because so many of us have lost that through the years of pushing through, pushing harder, because we think that's the thing that's we're supposed to do, and it's not. It makes it worse, okay? And I want people to be able to function in their daily life, to be present for themselves and be present for people they love.
I want people to be able to laugh again. I want people to be- passionate about their life, and to be able to fulfill whatever purpose that is that they feel that they are called to do. And it's very hard to feel like that if all the things we've talked about are going haywire. And so that's why I say you're not fine, it's okay to admit you're not fine, but you will be fine.
Mm-hmm. And even just admitting that I think just takes so much shame off of us that we can go, "Okay, yeah, I c- I can be [00:52:00] fine." So I ultimately say that's the first point, read the book. I am offering more access to functional lab testing because it can get very difficult to get functional lab testing.
So right now I have my adrenal optimization test, and that is a four-point cortisol. It's so much better than just having your doctor draw that one-point cortisol during the morning. So many things can be different with that. But it measures a four-point cortisol, but also what is it in relation to your DHEA.
And then it's not just a test, there's educational resources inside the member portal with videos, help you talk through, how can you correct these things, what do you do next kind of things. How your metabolism's Involved in that, how your hormones, how your brain, how all those things are involved with that.
So there's Videos inside there, and then I also do HTMA testing, which is the hair tissue mineral analysis testing, and we've already alluded to that. It can be so [00:53:00] powerful to see what is being stored in your tissues, and to do that, we can look at the hair. And this is another thing that's oh, that's that's kinda weird.
And I'm like, but it's so helpful. There's so much research behind it. So I can talk all day about that, too. So hair tissue mineral analysis. And then I am working on my group program, which is gonna be... it's Resiliency Reboot. It is a, going to be a 12-week program to take people through the reset, repair, rebuild framework, and it is a group program.
I have found people just- get tremendous results when they work in a group because they have that accountability and the encouragement to go along with it. So groups are super powerful. I've done so much work in groups the last five years, and it's really cool to work in groups. And that's how we met, right?
We met in a group. Exactly. Yeah. And then if people wanna work with me one on one right now to work with me one on one as a [00:54:00] doctor, , it does have to be in Oklahoma. That's where my licensure is. That's if they want me to be their actual doctor, where I can have prescription authority and write prescriptions, that is something we have to do in Oklahoma.
But I can also be a coach or consult, like a consult with you telemedicine virtually. I just wouldn't be classified as your doctor in that situation, and I wouldn't prescribe medications. I would still be able to do testing and protocols and things like that, but just wouldn't be able to do actual prescriptions, yeah. Yeah. So if you had a person you were working with in that capacity, like I live in Colorado, if I'm working with you in that capacity and I'm on medication, then I would just go through my primary care doctor or the prescribing doctor to talk- Yes ... about those meds if the case came- Yes ... situation.
Now, obviously you're knowledgeable on all of them because you use them- Yes ... as regular- Yes ... work, but- And the main medications would be hormone therapy. I believe [00:55:00] that hormone therapy is extremely powerful and needed by so many women. I can talk about the Women's Health Initiative another episode maybe.
But, Okay ... I do mention it in my book. I do feel like because we've lived such depleted lives, our DHEA is so low that when we get into those - perimenopause and menopausal years, there's no DHEA to make our hormones, and there's a whole pathway, and we can talk about that another time. But, that's the main thing that I use in my practice, is hormone therapy. And I would just give guidance of "This is what I would recommend for, your primary care doctor." Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. This has been amazing, kacey. I appreciate all of your time and energy and wisdom. I, like I said in the beginning, the book is really easy to get through.
It is very enlightening. I definitely learned some things too. And so I would recommend that everybody go out and just buy it, buy a copy for that person in your life that's telling you that they're not fine. Yes. [00:56:00] Yes. That you're hearing them say all the things that they're struggling with, because it's I would say an epidemic, if you will, of people who are just not feeling well.
For sure. Yeah.- Thank you so much for having me. It was great to see you Thank you.
That was such an important conversation with Dr. kacey Wallace. What I hope you're taking away from this is that if you don't feel like yourself right now, you are not alone, and you're not stuck. But the way forward may not be what you've been told. So many people are trying to fix their health by doing more.
More supplements, more protocols, more restriction, when what the body actually needs is the right support in the right order. Resetting your rhythm, supporting your nervous system, creating the conditions for your body to respond, and from there everything else becomes more effective. If this conversation resonated with you, I highly recommend checking out Dr.
Wallace's book, You Are Not Fine. [00:57:00] It's a simple but powerful way to start understanding what your body might be asking for. You can also learn about her work through her practice Anchored to Wellness and connect with her there. Her website is drkaceywallace.com. And if you're sitting with this and thinking, "Okay, but where do I start?"
This is exactly why I created my Health Foundations assessment. It helps you to identify your body's priority to, for healing so you can stop guessing and start moving forward with a clear direction. You can find that in the show notes. If this episode was helpful, make sure you're subscribed to the Harness Your Health podcast and share it with someone who needs to hear that they are not alone in their journey.
Thank you for being here, and I'll see you in the next episode
The information shared on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. I am not a medical doctor, and this content is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, [00:58:00] or prevent any disease. Please consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making any decisions related to your health, especially if you have a medical condition or are taking medications
