Episode transcript (unedited)
Andrea Nicholson
Welcome back to the holistic health bites podcast today. I am joined with special guest Kaytee Hadley and she’s going to share some of her own personal journey as well as some of the things she’s learned along the way as a health care practitioner.
Kaytee Hadley
So welcome Kaytee. Thank you so much for having me. It’s, it’s great to be here.
Andrea Nicholson
Awesome. Thank you so much. And if you will just take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got here kind of what people might want to know about you.
Kaytee Hadley
Whenever I’m asked that or prompted with that question, it was like, I can’t ready to strap in. This is a journey.
So I am a functional medicine dietitian that’s specializing in gut health specifically supporting folks who have had chronic GI symptoms.
I’m talking Being the IBS or the mysterious symptoms that you’ve had for 5, 10, 15, sometimes 50 years on your go-to.
So it hasn’t really been a linear journey to get here, but I think I’m sure you can relate to this.
I think everybody, practitioner who’s in the functional or holistic or alternative space, is here because of their own journey.
You don’t really just for most people, you don’t just stumble upon it. It’s a search for healing. And my story is no different.
I had chronic GI symptoms, depression, anxiety, infection, starting at a really young age. Like I’m talking first grade, second grade.
And it was always, you know, my parents were told she’ll grow out of it. And I never did. And it got worse and worse and worse.
And you know, you talk about this right because of the gut brain connection, the two were feeding into each other.
My gut issues were making my depression worse and my depression was making it hard to make healthy choices and just it was all connected and no one really understood that at that time.
And this all sort of culminated to the point when I was 16 and I attempted suicide. And from that point on, you know, at the time it didn’t feel like a major turning point.
It just felt like. It just kind of felt the same, but looking back, it really was and my trajectory sort of changed and it was because of a health care practitioner.
And it was a simple fact that she told me it was actually my therapist and she said, you know, what you eat can affect your mental health.
And I thought, well, that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. And, you know, we know that to be true now, but at that time, I had never heard
It wasn’t really talked about. And so I sort of went on this journey to trying to heal my brain, to heal my mind.
And what I didn’t realize was how much it was going to turn into this whole body approach. And so I, you know, dabbled in fitness and studied nutrition and psychology and eventually, you know, lifestyle medicine and ultimately, functional medicine.
And what I realized was I didn’t have this chemical imbalance in my brain. I wasn’t destined to be this way like I had been told you at 14.
My doctor told me you’re going to be like this for the rest of your life. Listen, how do you tell a child that?
Right. again, no discussion around, well, let’s address what’s going on in your physical body. And so long story short, I was able to sort of put all these pieces together, looking at my lifestyle, my nutrition, my movement, my sleep, and looking deeply.
But my gut and all of these imbalances that were going on and, you know, of course, the emotional trauma, I mean, there’s so many different facets, right?
To wellness. And I was ultimately able to find healing for both my body and my mind. And what I was so shocked to realize in becoming a health care practitioner is the story that I experienced around just being told.
You’re going to have to live with it. It’s so commonplace, especially for women and especially with GI health. so here I am to tell everyone, you don’t have to live with it.
Andrea Nicholson
Yeah, you absolutely don’t. There’s always answers. that’s one of my main messages that I like to share with people too is there’s always an answer.
So just because you haven’t found it yet doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Keep fighting, keep pushing, keep asking questions, keep trying new things, be open to all.
All the possibilities. And somewhere along the way, you will find answers. Hopefully it doesn’t take a long time in many years.
lot of us have gone through ourselves, but keep looking, keep fighting, keep trying. There are answers out there. You can add a minimum improve things, if not completely reverse them.
Kaytee Hadley
Yeah, exactly. And it’s really moving from that approach of symptom management to addressing, identifying and then addressing what’s actually causing the symptoms.
think symptoms are literally a symptom of what’s going on. So, I mean, it’s just so stupid to be honest when someone’s told, oh, your symptoms aren’t being caused by anything.
Well, that literally is illogical because they’re coming from somewhere. just means you haven’t found it. And so often with GI, we’re not doing the right tests.
are such limited tests. with the diagnosis of IBS is just this sort of waste basket name for us. I was given the diagnosis of IBS when I was in middle school and every time I try to see a new health care practitioner try to get answered, I can’t tell you how many GI specialists I saw.
They just kept saying, well it’s IBS. And then I later found out, well, IBS means you ruled out everything else and they still can’t figure it out.
And let’s be honest, we didn’t rule everything out, right? And two, over 70% of IBS is caused by SIBO, small intestine bacterial overgrowth.
So there are root causes, but we’re not looking in the right places. And to be honest, we’re just being lazy.
and by we, mean like as health care practitioners in the system, and it’s not because health care practitioners aren’t trying their bus, but we just we have a system with seven minute appointments like how much can you really dive into.
So we have to kind of move out of that model if we’re going to get real answers and address that root cause to find healing.
Andrea Nicholson
Yeah, and there’s probably not just one Underlying thing, like even if it is that small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, like it is in so many cases, what led to that?
And what led to that? I mean, there’s so many other factors. There’s not just going to be one solution because you probably don’t just have one problem.
There’s probably sleep issues and stress issues and toxin issues and nutrient deficiencies and, you know, lack of sunshine and lack of movement and all of these things also play in.
So we need to stop looking at And the one singular solution, when these are pretty complex problems that the solution doesn’t have to be complex, doesn’t have to be comprehensive in, you know, this big overwhelming process, but it’s probably going to be more than one thing.
Kaytee Hadley
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that’s another issue that we run into is, you know, I work with honey folks who’ve been given the diagnosis of, you know, crumbs or something that is related to what’s actually going on, right, versus IBS isn’t really related.
& People Haley. starts And… So then they’ve done the things for it, but like you said, it’s not a holistic approach.
It’s not looking at lifestyle. It’s usually a pharmaceutical. then there’s no kind of thought of, well, is there anything else going on?
And 90 plus percent of the time, there’s multiple things. There’s multiple things. Because I think what people, and what we don’t think about enough is just how much everything is connected.
You know, just as we know the mind and the body connected, you know, we have a specialist for the kidney and the skin and the, you know, all these different specialists, which is great.
We need people who have really in-depth knowledge, but sometimes we just have to take a step back and say, okay, but if you’re God’s not functioning properly, what else is not functioning properly?
Not only what’s contributed to that, but what are the different Food sensitivities, nutrient deficiencies. I mean, there’s so many.
So we have to think bigger picture. And also, like you said, the solutions don’t have to be super complex.
Sometimes they’re very simple once we identify what all is going on. Now, doesn’t mean it’s easy, right? lifestyle changes.
it was easy, everyone would do it. But it can be simple. And I think a big part of that is having the right people.
Most people don’t have enough support in the way that they need it, right? How many people on my hand have felt like they weren’t heard by their, who was supposed to be their support team or their goals weren’t really aligned.
And so it’s really important to find that person who’s not only seeing the big picture like you are, but is supportive of the way you want to go about it.
Because if you want to do lifestyle and you’re being offered pharmaceuticals or vice versa, I just got a phone call today from somebody who said, hey, do you.
Do you prescribe medication for weight loss? I’m not going to be the best person to support that person in their journey.
And that’s okay. But that’s important to know and important to find that good match.
Andrea Nicholson
Yeah, absolutely. And then the support network in your own personal life as well. I think so many of us are just like, you know, weight loss is a great example of this where, well, I just want to lose 10 pounds or I want to lose 50 pounds or whatever that is.
But we don’t dig deeper and really make it clear to everyone around us why that matters so much. Why it’s so important that you be on the same page, that you do things that help support me on my journey, that you don’t do these things that make my journey harder.
We need to really communicate these things with our practitioners, with our loved ones, with our coworkers and our friends and whoever else is going to have an impact on this journey, we need to be willing to say the hard things and really stand up for ourselves so that it’s not harder than it needs to be.
We need that.
Kaytee Hadley
it starts with getting really crystal clear for ourselves. Again just using that weight loss exam Pog hard rooftop scale for most people right at and if that’s getting in the way which it really, really does, then you’re being prevented from so much.
And so if you can get really granular about what is that vision? What is that life that you’re really striving towards?
It’s so much bigger than just that simple goal. And then to be able to communicate that is so important.
And there’s so many different types of support, right? There’s emotional support. There’s like the tangible support like, you know, if you’re working with a team and their parents not supportive, how are they going to go grocery shopping and or financial support?
And then there’s the guidance support and all of them. Are so incredibly important. And, you know, unfortunately, oftentimes it is really hard for friends and family to get on board.
I think that we live in sort of a culture right now that frowns upon making decisions to take care of yourself in some circumstances.
So if it kind of goes against the grain, if it feels like an inconvenience for other people. And I think also sometimes, know, are friends and family feel like they then have to reflect on themselves like, Oh, man, Andrea’s taking care of now like, Oh, am I not doing that?
Why am I not sleeping well and eating well? I’m doing the thing. And then we sort of act like a reflection, like a mirror.
And that’s hard for people. But there’s also so much room for change and improvement once we know how to communicate and can kind of come up with a plan together.
I mean, that’s so key. I’m so sick of hearing like, you know, people just need more self-control and they just need to get over their excuses.
I work in fitness, I’m like, hey, but those excuses are real. This person is a functioning adult. there are obstacles, I don’t know what world you’re living in, right?
So to really focus on and get crystal clear on what those obstacles are so that you can literally climb over them or go around them or remove them, to find success.
I mean, that’s so important in the journey.
Andrea Nicholson
Yeah, I think just speaking to that obstacle piece, so many people think it should be easy. It should be simple.
I’ve made my decision and this is the path I’m taking and like the cloud should part and everything should just magically happen.
No, obstacles are going to come up. Challenges are going to come up.
Kaytee Hadley
We need to plan for those. Part of the process.
Andrea Nicholson
Yeah, some things are going to come up randomly that you couldn’t possibly have predicted. You’re going to have a death in the family or you’re going to have, you know, whatever, a project at work comes up.
Something’s going to come up that you did not see coming. But most of the time, our challenges and our obstacles are things we knew were coming.
We knew the holidays were coming. We knew the vacation was coming. knew family was coming to visit. We knew all of these things.
And we failed to plan in advance how we were going to navigate that situation. So the more you can actively do that, the less you’re leaving to chance and to willpower.
You plan ahead, willpower doesn’t matter. not going to just find it like a bad penny on the sidewalk. You have to plan for these things and be very strategic in your decisions.
And then you’re being that much more prepared for those things that you couldn’t have predicted.
Kaytee Hadley
Well, I think it really comes down to the mindset of what kind of a change is this. Is it related to, is it more of a kind of a trend diet, a short term, you know, put abandoned on it?
I mean this for, you know, sort of everything, whether you’re just trying to get healthier, whether you’re dressing a specific, you know, health condition like, you know, a GI balance.
Or are you really looking for a sustainable solution because they’re going to be very different approaches? there may be some crossover in terms of what you’re actually doing, they’re going to be incredibly different approaches and incredibly different mindset around it.
And at the end of the day, action has to come first and then emotion follows. So, you know, there’s a lot of times where we don’t feel that motivation or we feel like now is not a good time.
But the reality is if you’re going for something sustainable, then that’s always going to be a part of the equation and that’s okay.
That’s totally okay. And the purpose is not to give you some crazy plan that’s, you know, looks great on paper but it’s just so incredibly unrealistic.
You’re setting yourself up for failure. It’s really You come up with a plan to gather and then take one little step at a time.
Sometimes the lowest hanging fruit is truly so simple to get you feeling a little better so that you can start doing more.
Andrea Nicholson
Yeah, and I don’t think it needs to be super complicated. I think you can pick the lowest hanging fruit, and then once that just becomes who you are, pick the next lowest hanging fruit and pick the next one and the next one.
And you can just baby you step your way into these things. It’s generally when you just dive straight into the deep end that people fail because it’s overwhelming and too complicated and too much too much too fast, too big.
And so we just need to take a step back and pick one thing. Start there. Go for a walk.
Go to bed earlier. Pick one thing. It doesn’t matter. Just pick something and start there. I think that’s great advice.
So what do you see as maybe some of the top mistakes that people are making when they come to see you and they’re just finally at their like wits end and.
They feel like they’ve tried it all and they’ve done everything possible and nothing is working. What are some of the things that you’re like, well, as a professional, I can see where you’ve gone wrong?
What are some of those mistakes that people are making?
Kaytee Hadley
There’s a few that come to mind. The most obvious one is people feeling like they’re at what’s end because they say, I’ve tried everything and I say, okay, let’s go through everything you’ve tried.
What worked? What hasn’t? One time I worked for someone who said this and this individual was not related to GI.
was migraines and he had migraines literally his entire life. And he meant with me in his mid-20s. I mean, it was debilitating.
was most days out of the month. Couldn’t hold a consistent job. There’s just so much pain. Relationships were obviously suffering.
He was suffering and it was awful. So I said, all right, come to our first session with literally everything that you’ve tried so we can kind of see where we’re at.
And he sent me a multiple page PDF of medications. I said, okay, tell me more about this. Okay, well, you know, they generally work for little bit and then they don’t work.
All right. Have you ever, you know, have you ever talked to someone or worked with someone to find food triggers?
No, no one’s ever talked to me about that before. Okay. Has anyone ever talked to about the role of circadian rhythm?
No. What about movement? No. What about stress? Well, I’m I know that stress triggers it for myself. Okay. What about structural alignment, spine, know, all this scap?
No, never heard of it. And this individual had been told that there was nothing more that could be done.
And after a few months, he was literally migraine free. I mean, that again, it goes back to what we’re being told.
Well, so I think. I’m very careful to let people know, like, this is not your fault. We tend to sort of, again, we tend to kind of blame people sometimes in the way that our media speaks about health and if you’re not feeling great, like, what are you doing wrong?
And the reality is that it really comes down to an individualized approach and so much bigger than a pill.
And something else that I tend to see is this sort of, so people who are mindful of wanting a more natural approach.
So instead of taking a pharmaceutical, they want to take herbs. So we’re trading this pill for the ill for the herb, for the symptom.
And while I’m all for managing symptoms, 100%, we’re still taking the same approach. We’re still taking a really surface level approach.
Now, is it more natural? Yeah. But it’s not getting to the root of it. And so, So talking to people about, you know, when we first meet, what are the suspicions that are coming to mind, know, and hearing their symptoms and their post medical history and, you know, how food affects and then whatnot.
And then we can start talking about, well, what, what could be going on under the surface before we even start testing, right, to help guide us.
And for so many people, their minds are just blown because they’re like, oh, I thought you were just going to, you know, talk to me about a low five.
And why I didn’t give any some other, it’s like, I didn’t realize that we could actually find out more information.
So I think these are just some, some mindset shifts that people often go through because it’s just not talked about enough.
You know, you don’t know what you don’t know. And I was absolutely in that place when I was, you know, in my healing journey.
Andrea Nicholson
Yeah, and I’m 100% in there too. I’ve also fallen into the bucket of, well, trade medications for, you know,
Which I agree is better, it is more natural, is generally less side effects and all that, but like you said, it’s not getting to the actual root cause.
You’re still macking the symptoms. I’m a big believer in temporary use of supplements to help the body kind of get back on track.
But ultimately, it’s your lifestyle that’s going to keep you there. It’s the quality sleep, it’s the exercise, it’s the stress management.
It’s the stress Getting sunlight and drinking good water and minimizing toxin exposure.
Kaytee Hadley
These are the things that are actually going to keep you there.
Andrea Nicholson
The supplement might make you feel better in the temporary, just like the medicine did. But it doesn’t fix the problem.
It’s all those other things that are actually the problem that are contributing to the original cause. And therefore, those are also the fixes.
So I think that’s a great message. So in your journey and in your practice now that when you’re working with these gut clippers.
I know you work a lot with the 5R protocol. Can you kind of just walk everybody through what that means?
What does that look like? You know, how does that help and just sort of that whole picture?
Kaytee Hadley
Yeah, so the 5R approach to gut health is really just a functional medicine framework. The framework has to be tailored and individualized, but it’s a really nice way to think about the different steps that we need to take.
Now, I’ll talk about what they are, but just keep in mind if you’re listening, that it’s not necessarily one and then two and then three.
It can, again, it depends on what’s going on in your body in terms of how we put the pieces together, but they should all be examined.
So the first R, and whenever I say this, people are like, what are you saying? What is this word?
It’s like literally the letter R. So the first R word is remove. So we need to remove anything this should be there, anything that’s disrupting the body.
And the gut. So for me, one of the things I had to remove was parasites. This isn’t even no one wants to think about, but unfortunately they do happen.
have no idea how I got parasites, but I had two of them. So remove something that anything that shouldn’t be in the gut.
Also, removing foods that aren’t right for you and your body. So foods that are going to be triggering you right now.
This is where that individualized approach is really, really key. When you’re being triggered by foods, there’s a lot of fear that comes along with that because you don’t know what foods are going to trigger you and when and then you tend to eat less and less and less foods.
So instead, we want to identify what are the foods that are actually triggering you. So we can take those out and then expand your diet.
It’s not to be a restrictive long term at all. But if we can get those foods out to let your gut heal and let your body heal, reduce inflammation, all of that, that’s really powerful.
So that’s what we’ve Remove the other thing that comes to mind could also be pathogenic bacteria like in SIBO.
again, something else I had. I had two types of SIBO. This was after 15 years of being told there was nothing wrong.
We haven’t even gotten to the extent of everything that was there. I had two types of bacterial herb. I had a pathogenic bacteria, two types A whole bunch of the rest.
So that’s the remove. Then we have replaced. So anything that’s missing that our body really needs. Now, commonly in our gut, because of whatever imbalances are occurring, our body can’t produce enough, maybe stomach acid or digestive enzymes, things like that to actually help us digest so that we can get the nutrients from our foods.
you could be eating an incredible diet. But if you can’t digest and absorb and then assimilate those nutrients, you’re going to be depleted.
So that’s another thing that we’ve We want to replace these nutrients so, so, so common to have nutritional deficiencies.
It’s almost a guaranteed. And, you know, when I look at, you were talking about this in a podcast you did a couple of weeks ago, when we look at labs, you don’t just want to look at what’s the quote, unquote normal, but we want to look at what is the optimal level for functioning, and so we can replace nutrients to get back to that point.
The third R is repair. So, we need to repair the gut lining. This is also something I had what’s called leaky gut, or intestinal permeability, which is essentially where the cells of the gut, they should kind of be like Velcro, and they become loose.
And so, we can get protein molecules getting through, bacteria, things like that, and that can cause food triggers, and inflammatory response, and immune response.
And this can show up all over the body, aches and pains, fog, know, stomach upset, and we have to repair that gut.
And then also need to re-inoculate. This is the one that everyone gets stuck on right now. I have all over the media.
We’re always talking about probiotics. I can’t tell you how many of you like work with where the medical advice they were given was to take a probiotic.
They took a probiotic, some of them it helps some of them, it made it worse. So re-inoculating the gut, getting that healthy balance of bacteria, our guts like a community of bacteria.
We need to make sure that that’s healthy. But that doesn’t necessarily need your stroke. So I just want to put that plug there.
Like there’s a very specific approach to that. And then the fifth R is rebalance. And this is where we’re really looking at our whole lifestyle.
How is our sleep, our stress, our exercise, all of these different pieces. How are they contributing to our gut health?
Because to your point earlier, while it’s great to know if you have SIBO or LIKI GA or X, Y, or Z, the next question is why?
And so much of it comes down to our lifestyle. Look, if you were born via C-section and then you had to take antibiotics as a kid, you can’t change your past.
But you can absolutely work to repair that and then work on rebalancing your lifestyle now. And so that fifth R is really that sustainability piece to bring it all together.
So again, so that’s the final approach. And we have to use it as a framework to really individualize the approach.
Some people might need to work more. Or on two or three of them, someone else maybe it’s all five.
And so by identifying what are the specific imbalances that are going on, you can restore that by focusing on this.
Andrea Nicholson
I love it. That’s a great explanation of how that whole framework comes to be and all the different components that play into that.
I’d love to know a little bit about what are some of your favorite tools to actually identify what’s going on.
How do you find out if you have parasites and all of these other imbalances or over growths that are happening?
Kaytee Hadley
So there are many different options depending on what the symptoms are. And I always kind of hesitate when I get asked this question at first, because I want people to know that even if you don’t have a massive budget, you can still get a lot of answers.
And many, many providers rely very heavily on testing. But I really take an approach of what’s going to work for the individual. I do not see myself as I never tell someone what they need to do. My goal is to really support people. You shouldn’t have to go through 10 plus years of education like I did to understand what the heck is going on in your body. So my role is really to help distill down the information and talk to you about presenting you with options and all of those options have pros and cons, right?
A stool test might be great, we’re gonna get all these different information about X, Y, and Z. A con might be for someone the cost, or I live with roommates, and I don’t know that I feel comfortable doing a stool test at home like that’s weird, right?
So there are so many different pieces that we really do have to consider in terms of identifying what are the best tests, so there’s a lot of options and has to be again, personalized. Okay, so common ones that I use, I do use a stool testing. So this is literally where a kit is shipped to your house, and you take a little sample with a little tiny spoon and mix it up and ship it back. And this gives us a lot of information not just about parasites and you know, things like that, but also about how well are you digesting protein, carbs, fat? Do you have inflammation in the gut? You know, how is that microbial balance? Are you having some kind of immune reaction in your gut so that can give us a lot of information. It can also tell us things people always shocked by this can actually give us insights to how well are you detoxing, how well is your gut microbiome supporting your hormone balance?
This is something I see all the time with hormonal imbalances that have been in part contributed by this this gut dysbiosis. So that’s one really great test that I use with a stool test. We’re looking more at the large intestine which isn’t a very end of our GI system. It doesn’t tell us a whole lot about what’s going on in this small intestine.
So I also use things like SIBO breath testing, which is to look at if there’s bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine. I also use testing to look for fungal overgrowth. This is really really common and very hard to test for, but shows up a lot. Also nutritional deficiencies so this could be a blood draw again, kit is shipped to your house you take it to a blood draw center, maybe up in a company goes along with the kit. So looking at things like direct markers of how high or low are your nutrients that are stored in the body, but also what we call organic acids, which tells us a little bit more about how well are the pathways actually functioning? Because sometimes we run into the issue where we technically have enough in our body, but our bodies aren’t using it. properly. And so then we have to dig into that more. I also sometimes will run testing like heavy metals. If someone you know, for example has mercury amalgams or recently had them removed that can play a role. What else there’s so many different ones, I would say the stool tests SIBO test nutritional deficiencies. Those are the ones that are most common kind of foundation since we’re talking about gut health.
And what’s really interesting and frustrating is that these tests are so widely available and so well supported by literature and clinical experience and patient success. And yet they’re not available for most people when you go to your primary doctor or your your gastroenterology gastroenterologist. I mean I can’t tell you how many again how many gi doctors I went to and that no one ever talked to me about SIBO that was something I learned about way later on. It was like white, sick presentation of SIBO no one ever talks about it. I know they have the testing, but most of them aren’t even really educated on it.
Similarly, stool testing that we do conventionally is very limited. I mean, even the parasitology alone is like you know, giardia, you know a couple of your really common ones. But, you know, one of the parasites I had was incredibly common, and I was never tested for it before. So we have sort of versions of these tests that are not very comprehensive. And I think the danger of using them is that then people think they shouldn’t look at that anymore. Like oh well I had a stool test from my from my doctor last year and nothing came up. Okay, well let me see your stool test. Okay, they tested you for five parasites and calprotectin like, you know, that’s that’s nothing right. We roll that IBD but what about everything else? So there’s just there’s so much there that can be looked at, again, depending on what you want to do what your symptoms are, what your budget is, and so forth.
But I’ve also worked with folks who are like, look, I’m going to spend everything I have to work with you and I can’t afford testing right now. It’s so okay, we’re going to work with that and there’s plenty of different now it’s not as straightforward. We’re going to have to do some finagling and prepare to take a little bit more time. But if you can really, if you know where to look. And if you’re in touch with your body. This is so important. We you know, we live in as a woman I’ve only ever been a woman in our culture, so I can’t speak to what it’s like to be anything else. But I know that there is a lot of messages about don’t listen to your body. Oh If you’re hungry, you know drink some water if you want the cake, eat an apple. You know if you’re not feeling tired, like just push through it like just a lot of messages around not listening to your body. And instead I encourage the opposite…really practicing mindfulness around your symptoms and how you’re responding physically, mentally and emotionally to the different therapeutic strategies that we’re trying because that’s a really good representation of the direction we’re headed. And so if if you can do that, then using your own response, and again, some guidance can absolutely get you get you far as well.
Andrea Nicholson
Yeah, I think that last part is a huge component that so many of us need to reconnect to our bodies. We really need to start listening again and paying attention to am I truly hungry? Am I truly lacking sleep? Am I not getting good quality sleep even though I feel like I’m asleep all night long. You know, am I thirsty? Do I need you know, whatever that is? We really do need to get back into being in touch with what our bodies are trying to tell us. They will tell us what they need. We just have to be listening and we have to be willing to actually do that thing. So I think that’s a really powerful message and, you know, it takes practice. It’s not an easy thing to do. But it’s free. If you get good at it. You can do a lot just by listening to your body. I think that’s a tremendous way to go. And you know, I’m like you. I love testing. I love that cold, hard and solid, objective data. But I think we can also go a long way just by paying attention to what your body is telling us. What are your symptoms, when do they come up? How often do they come up? How severe are they what else do you have? All these things that seem like they might not even be related? Like maybe you do have migraines and joint pain and fatigue? Well, maybe those are all coming from the same thing. Yeah, maybe not. Maybe they’re coming from three different things, but we need to really dive in deep. And I know sometimes those comprehensive questionnaires and conversations can be like, Oh, why are we talking about this again? But it’s in those detailed conversations that we pulled together some of that information and that might just be the key to get you the targeted answer that you’re looking for. So I think that’s great information that you just shared on both the testing and the not testing. So I think that’s a good approach.
Kaytee Hadley
I was gonna say even people are always shocked to hear that symptoms in your fingernails or in your mouth. You know? Do you get canker sores? Do you have a fissure down your tongue? Do you have a scalloped edges? Do you have a red tot like your white spots on your neck? Like all the nitty gritty things that just feel normal? Because we’ve only ever lived in our body that when you start asking questions about it or pointing it out, it’s like, Oh, wait. I was working with a woman recently. She was so sweet. And she said something about when she wakes up or yeah, when she wakes up and has to leave fingers and I said hold on let’s talk about that. So started talking about it and she was like, Wait, other people don’t don’t experience that. She had never lived in anyone else’s body. So how would she know in you know in what capacity you usually talk about that? So you know, my conversations with folks usually my initial conversation session is 90 minutes to two hours because I’m just talk just tell me everything and people always like I feel like I’m rambling. Like trust me. You are not rambling. Everything is irrelevant. And you never know what that tiny piece of information is going to be that missing piece because it really is a puzzle.
Andrea Nicholson
Yeah, and I think so often, like you said we don’t even know the things that we’ve always experienced, that aren’t ideal. That’s just all we’ve ever known. I was that way when I was younger, I had no idea that I was technically officially chronically constipated. All I ever knew it was my normal I didn’t know it wasn’t until I really learned what normal healthy, you know, adequate bowel movements are that I went, Well, I’m nowhere near in that bucket. And well, you just don’t. You don’t even know it. So these conversations can be so enlightening to pick up on things that you think are totally normal. And that everyone is experiencing or that are at least normal for you. And just because they’re common for you does not make them normal and certainly does not make them ideal or optimal. So it is painful as it can seem to get into these deeper conversations. This is where those nuggets come from. When you really dive in and pay attention to those little tiny things and you know, like the white spots on your nails. It’s like oh, that actually means something. Yeah, a lot of times it does. It can be something that innocuous that actually gives you all of the answers you need. So I think that’s a great tidbit. Do you have any final words you’d like to leave everybody with
Kaytee Hadley
I just gonna leave folks with this kind of message of hope. You know, if you feel like you’ve been struggling for a long time or if you haven’t felt heard you haven’t felt understood. If you feel like you’ve been just kind of getting by. But you know that you’re not living your best life. There is so much more and you know, speaking from very personal experience it’s worth it to keep looking and it’s worth it to keep trying. And it’s not easy, but you deserve it. You know you deserve to to be able to I don’t know for me that one of the big turning points is wanting to go on a backpacking trip. And knowing that I couldn’t do it if I was gonna have you having to run to the bathroom every hour. Like we’re what backpacking for two weeks. There’s no way so stay stay in touch with with why, with what it is that’s driving you. And don’t be afraid to keep looking. If you’re working with someone and you feel like hmm, I don’t quite think we’re aligned. That’s okay. And you deserve to get the kind of support that you need to reach those goals. And again, it’s possible if you’ve been told to just live with it. I want to tell you to give them the middle finger and to walk away because you do not deliver that. It is not there for no reason. It is there for a reason and you can absolutely find feeling
Andrea Nicholson
Well that’s a great message to leave everyone with and I 100% agree. There’s always a way through whatever challenge you’re facing and take this as your sign that now is the time if you’re listening to this podcast and this is your time to start taking action on it and find someone who will help you. And if that one happens to be Katie, how do they reach you? How do they find you? Yeah, absolutely.
Kaytee Hadley
So my website is the best place to find me. It’s Kayteehadley.com I spell my first name KaYTEE. Like Kaylee, but Kaytee, Kayteehadley.com And I’m on there’s a link on there to schedule a free a free call. Working with someone for your health journey is very intimate, very personal decision. So I’m happy to get on a call and just chat hopefully provide another perspective. Talk more about what that would look like. And, you know, get the ball rolling, keep the ball rolling.
Andrea Nicholson
It’s fantastic. And of course, we will link up all of that information in the show notes so that you can just click right over to Kaytee’s website. Thank you so much for sharing all of your amazing wisdom and information today and I think everyone got a lot of great information and now some action steps that they can take, whether it be things they can do on their own, or practitioners that they can reach out to so thank you so much for your time and thank you everyone for listening and we will catch you again on future episodes.
