264. Madison Brecka: On Mold Illness, POTS, Endocrine Disruptors, & The Toxic Load Crisis

The average woman applies 180 chemicals to her body every single day, and most of them are quietly disrupting her hormones, her cycle, and her fertility. In this episode, I’m joined by my daughter, Madison Brecka, who went from caregiver syndrome and mystery illness to becoming one of the most passionate voices in the clean living space after dismantling her own toxic environment from the inside out. CLICK HERE TO BECOME GARY’S VIP!: https://bit.ly/4ai0Xwg Connect with Madison Brecka Instagram: https://bit.ly/4u2DM1E TikTok: https://bit.ly/4vLXaBE Thank you to our partners A-GAME: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: http://bit.ly/4kek1ij AION: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4h6KHAD AIRES: "ULTIMATE20 " FOR 20% OFF: https://bit.ly/4a3Duze BAJA GOLD: "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3WSBqUa BODYHEALTH: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: http://bit.ly/4e5IjsV COLD LIFE: THE ULTIMATE HUMAN PLUNGE: https://bit.ly/4eULUKp CYMBIOTIKA: "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4tjyluP GENETIC METHYLATION TEST (UK ONLY): https://bit.ly/48QJJrk GENETIC TEST (USA ONLY): ⁠https://bit.ly/3Yg1Uk9 GOPUFF: GET YOUR FAVORITE SNACK!: https://bit.ly/4obIFDC H2TABS: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4hMNdgg HEALF: 10% OFF YOUR ORDER: https://bit.ly/41HJg6S PEPTUAL: “TUH10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4mKxgcn SNOOZE: LET’S GET TO SLEEP!: https://bit.ly/4pt1T6V WHOOP: JOIN & GET 1 FREE MONTH!: https://bit.ly/3VQ0nzW Watch the “Ultimate Human Podcast” every Tuesday & Thursday at 9AM EST: YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPQYX8 Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3RQftU0 Connect with Gary Brecka Instagram: https://bit.ly/3RPpnFs TikTok: https://bit.ly/4coJ8fo X: https://bit.ly/3Opc8tf Facebook: https://bit.ly/464VA1H LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4hH7Ri2 Website: https://bit.ly/4eLDbdU Merch: https://bit.ly/4aBpOM1 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/47ejrws Ask Gary: https://bit.ly/3PEAJuG Timestamps 00:00 ​Intro of Show 02:31 Madison Brecka’s Back Story 12:36 Being Diagnosed Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome 13:53 Mold Detox Protocol and Environmental Audit 20:32 Control over Our Environment 24:44 What’s Exciting Madison? 26:42 Harmful Effects from Fragrances, Phthalates, Parabens 31:17 The Toxic Load 34:23 What’s Next for Madison? 35:59 Connect with Madison 37:21 What does it mean to you to be an Ultimate Human? Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not provide medical advice. It is not intended for diagnosing or treating any health condition. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional before making health or wellness decisions. Gary Brecka is the owner of Ultimate Human, LLC which operates The Ultimate Human podcast and promotes certain third-party products used by Gary Brecka in his personal health and wellness protocols and daily life and for which Ultimate Human LLC and / or Gary Brecka directly or indirectly holds an economic interest or receives compensation. Accordingly, statements made by Gary Brecka and others (including on The Ultimate Human podcast) may be considered. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  I am probably the cover girl of caregiver syndrome. So driven to not say no to people and patients that I actually wasn't even consciously aware of how much pain that I was in.

• 0:09Gary Brecka?

  As these symptoms started to grow, you just leaned in and just with your own stubborn willpower, just push through these days.

• 0:17Speaker 00

  I need to be there for everyone and feeling that caregiver guilt, but at the same time to be a caregiver, you have to take care of yourself. I was also living in mold. And then finally, one day I woke up and I'm like, I'm fed up. I'm going to take the line that self-care is not selfish and I'm going to figure out what's going on.

• 0:31Gary Brecka?

  Now it all made sense. The inflammation, why even some of the physicians in our circle didn't catch it. We finally had the villain.

• 0:38Speaker 00

  You didn't realize how much of a bath you are in in toxins until you start to go down the rabbit hole.

• 0:44Gary Brecka?

  They call this the toxic load. It sounds like fear mongering, but basically what you're trying to do is just get around the system, back to the basics.

• 0:51Speaker 00

  And we're being naive by applying so many products and kind of turning a blind eye to fragrance, parabens and phthalates.

• 0:57Gary Brecka?

  I'm really proud of you because maybe my message inspired you, but you really went on this journey by yourself. What's next for Madison Brecka?

• 1:04Speaker 00

  I am working on something that has taken over a year. I have a lot of great minds behind it and.

• 1:23Gary Brecka?

  Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brecka, where we go down the road of everything, anti-aging, longevity, biohacking, and everything in between. Today may be the most special podcast that I've ever done in my career, maybe in my lifetime, because this is not only a special guest for you, it's a special guest for me. My firstborn child, Madison Brecka, is on the podcast today. And we have had such an amazing journey, not just as father and daughter, but recently on her health journey, her own health journey, the problems that she solved in her life, which we're going to talk about. We're going to get into everything, pots, elders, Danlos, mold.

• 2:07Gary Brecka?

  And we're going to talk about how a career that she fostered from a very, very young age has now manifested into something very, very impactful. So I am so excited to have you on the podcast, Maddie.

• 2:17Speaker 00

  I'm so excited. I'm a little nervous.

• 2:19Gary Brecka?

  Well, you've talked to your dad for years.

• 2:21Speaker 00

  I know, but I'm always behind the camera. So I've sat in on millions of these and to be front facing makes me a little nervous. So please be nice to me in the comments.

• 2:29Gary Brecka?

  Okay.

• 2:31Speaker 00

  But I figured I'd give a little background on myself and then we could dive in on this amazing journey that we've had. So ever since I can remember, I have like photos of me at six years old with a stethoscope.

• 2:42Gary Brecka?

  Yep.

• 2:42Speaker 00

  Um, I was always that super nerdy kid and even in high school, I became president of something called HOSA, which if you don't know, it stands for Health Occupation Students of America. So don't get more nerdy than that.

• 2:54Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 2:54Speaker 00

  And we would go and compete in different sort of public speaking competitions. There was like a bioengineering department and I remember just being so intrigued by medicine back then, but no one was talking about preventative. Regenerative was kind of not really even on the horizon. So I went into school for biomedical sciences and I ended up pivoting and switching and getting a degree in health science on the preclinical track. And I got a minor in health service administration because I figured I'd eventually open up a clinic. And I still was a little naive in college over the education that they were providing us. You had just started your wellness clinic. So I remember I was part-time working as a waitress to keep the lights on and then full-time student.

• 3:39Gary Brecka?

  Driving the tin can.

• 3:41Speaker 00

  Driving the tin can, by the way.

• 3:43Gary Brecka?

  Which was a beat up.

• 3:44Speaker 00

  Horrible.

• 3:44Gary Brecka?

  Which is a beat up old Toyota truck that.

• 3:47Speaker 00

  2003.

• 3:48Gary Brecka?

  It was a hand me down of hand me downs.

• 3:50Speaker 00

  And I was taking it to classes and then taking it to go waitress. And then in my little minor spare free time I had, I was checking your invoices for $10 an hour. And I was so excited because that would, it was like amazing back then. And I was going through the invoices. So from doing that, I was learning, okay, this patient got testosterone and when they took testosterone, they took this. And I noticed how you were prescribing just based off with the physicians by checking invoices. And then COVID hit and my whole plan was to.

• 4:23Speaker 00

  Go be a physician assistant, maybe get into derm, PA, cardiology. And then we moved back home and I started really getting immersed in the regenerative medicine space. We started doing genetic testing and blood work.

• 4:38Gary Brecka?

  You worked in the clinic full time?

• 4:40Speaker 00

  Full time in the clinic, more like 18 hour days in the clinic.

• 4:42Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, those were dark days, man.

• 4:44Speaker 00

  We were doing COVID testing.

• 4:45Gary Brecka?

  Lots of red eyes on Frontier Airlines.

• 4:48Speaker 00

  Oh my God, it was crazy. We were doing, I remember we were taking red eyes there, red eyes home, opening up the clinic, working, invoicing, making sure you were getting on the Zooms, making sure that they had their orders. And then a lot of our patients, as they got more well-known, they'd have like 15 staff members. So I'd know the patient, the assistant, the house manager, where the packages were going, what they were taking, when they needed to cycle it, as well as learning everything is like at the same time. And being immersed in it was so much more educational than the four years of undergrad that I had. And then I went to nursing school so I could practice medicine, so I could touch patients, do IVs, do blood work.

• 5:29Speaker 00

  And I remember being in nursing school and feeling such a morality pull. So I would watch you and the physicians pull people out of Alzheimer's, pull people out of arthritic pain, help someone that doesn't have any sort of light at the end of the tunnel with depression and anxiety. And then I'm going and sitting in the lectures where they're just over prescribing SSRIs, over pharmaceutical souping these poor patients. And it was such a tug and pull because I'm learning this new way of life and I just wanted to scream at these, not at these professors, but I wanted to scream and be like, there is another way to handle these patients, to handle their, their kind of path that they're putting them on.

• 6:11Speaker 00

  And I started to really realize that a lot of these physicians aren't spending time with the patients. They're coming in, they're seeing 60 people a day, you've got 15 minutes, they're looking at your chart as they're walking in. And it was really disheartening. And then we got into, I'll never forget it. I would send you my quiz questions all the time and be like, look what they're teaching us.

• 6:30Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. Oh, she would. She'd screenshot them all the time and be like, dad, they want to prescribe folic acid.

• 6:35Speaker 00

  I'm like, what are they doing? Cyanocavalebin? And like, and I remember, I don't know why this one question stood out to me so much is I was in my OB, diet rotation, so like mother, baby, labor. And one of the questions was when you have a failure to thrive infant, so an infant that isn't. Thriving, they're not gaining weight, they're, they're weak. What do you prescribe them? What do you tell the mom to do? And the answer was add vegetable oil and rice, like rice powered powder to their bottles. And I about flipped my desk. There is no way you are telling a failure to thrive infant to drink seed oils. And the thing that was so disheartening is I was like, well, now we're screwed from the beginning because now it's hitting the next generation. And I remember just having a massive wake up.

• 7:19Speaker 00

  And I mean, at the same time, we were working full time. I was in school full time. We were traveling full time. And I was like, this really has to change. And I've been in the business now at this point for some time. So I was very educated in the regenerative space, but it really was a step back for me to realize that what we're doing and the platform that you have is really going to change lives because what they are offering, the normal American is, pardon my French, but a little bit of horse shit.

• 7:49Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 7:49Speaker 00

  It was so irritating.

• 7:51Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. You've never seen somebody hate anything in their entire life more than COVID testing. I just have to throw that out there because we had this clinic and it was called Streamline Medical Group and we got it open, got it started and it was just, just starting to thrive and patients were coming through the door. We'd just become profitable. We made $79,000 total our first year in business. And Madison and her two brothers and Sage's daughter, Lena. So we have a mixed family of four. We were all living in this beautiful house and there came a time where we, we actually faced not making payroll. So the kids got pulled out of private school, put into public school. We sold the house. We moved into a single story rancher.

• 8:36Gary Brecka?

  We went from four cars down to one car.

• 8:40Gary Brecka?

  And then when COVID hit, it was such a nightmare because I remember we were all in the clinic and it was so busy. And then all of a sudden it just evaporated and no one was walking through the door. The phone wasn't ringing. It was a ghost town and it was that eerie time where the writing was on the wall, but nobody wanted to say it. And we're just kind of looking around the room and like we, we, we all knew that the ship was kind of sinking. And then we pivoted and turned it into a COVID testing center. Madison, Madison was our main. She was the one responsible for taking the swab all the way down the back of your throat.

• 9:22Speaker 00

  Fertile fingers.

• 9:23Gary Brecka?

  I hate it.

• 9:23Speaker 00

  If I have to see another rapid antibody test, I'm gonna throw up.

• 9:26Gary Brecka?

  I've never seen, I've never seen fits of crying in anger.

• 9:29Speaker 00

  The worst part was the insurance and taking their photos and filling out these papers and you spend hours doing it and then all of a sudden they wouldn't get reimbursed and someone and then you're on the phone fighting for like a $69 test.

• 9:40Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 9:40Speaker 00

  Just so we could keep the lights on. But COVID for me, I remember was the first time where I was like, oh, this is the real world and you have to be an adult. Because I remember you called me and you were like, you need to come home and you're not going back to school. School's shut down. Me and Cole, which is my brother, moved in together and we just immediately got thrown into what felt like a career. Like we were running clinics. We were helping. We were 12, 18 hour days, six days a week. We recruited some of our friends to come in and help us pack stuff up on the weekends. And when I look back, I remember you, you told me one time and I was like, I am exhausted. All my friends are getting their stimulus checks and having fun and we're working. And you looked at me and I'll never forget it. And you're like, you're gonna remember being in the hunt and you're gonna miss the hunt. And I'm gonna be like, there's no way.

• 10:24Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, we talked about it now.

• 10:26Speaker 00

  Being in the hunt. And I look back at it now with such like an endearing point of view. I'd miss, it was such a fun time because the family was like, okay, well, we gotta put food on the table. So how are we gonna do it? And we had such, I wouldn't say like an overnight success, but that year from 2020 to 2021, we then, you know, we're half Naples. I moved to Miami full time. We just got connected with some of our most amazing patients and all of a sudden, it was like, what we were doing was working and the word was getting out. And then Dana was obviously a massive pivotal point for us, selling the company, growing, scaling to almost all 50 states was such a remarkable accomplishment in such a short period of time.

• 11:08Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 11:09Speaker 00

  And then what happened was, is we had this skyrocket success. Obviously, we're overworking and.

• 11:15Speaker 00

  I am probably the cover girl of caregiver syndrome.

• 11:18Gary Brecka?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 11:19Speaker 00

  I am.

• 11:20Gary Brecka?

  Yes, you are.

• 11:20Speaker 00

  I'm working on it now.

• 11:21Gary Brecka?

  I'm glad you're gonna throw this out there, cuz.

• 11:24Speaker 00

  I was telling everyone else what to do. I was obviously under the guidance of a physician, but what supplements to take, what peptides to take. You need to get eight hours of sleep. You need to track it on your aura. You need to track it on your whoop. You need to prioritize yourself. Self-care isn't selfish. And then I was coming home crippled in pain, exhausted. I was getting up at 6:00 a.m. cuz that's when a patient wanted to see me, staying up till 2:00 a.m. cuz that's when another patient wanted to see me. I couldn't say no. And I had a breaking point. It was almost like weirdly a perfect storm. So I had moved into a new apartment in Miami. And it was a relatively new building, so I didn't assume anything could be wrong with it. There was no writing on the walls.

• 12:06Speaker 00

  And I started having extreme fatigue, joint pain, POTS episodes, which is where my heart rate would get extremely high. I mean, it was getting to like 140s, 180s while I was sitting.

• 12:18Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 12:19Speaker 00

  There was times when we would be having meetings in my dad's living room, and I'd have to go excuse myself, and I would pass out in the bathroom floor. So many times that we would have an oxygen cannulas there just so I could come back to. And I remember meeting, we were obviously going down the rabbit hole. I met another amazing physician in California who diagnosed me with something called EDS, which is Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

• 12:43Gary Brecka?

  Much more common and undiagnosed than you think.

• 12:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, and when I got that diagnosis, it affects the collagen. So I have, I'm very hypermobil. And all these little things that had happened when I was younger, my little injuries and stuff, all kind of made sense now that I got that diagnosis. And then we also figured out that I had POTS, but we couldn't find the root cause of the POTS.

• 13:06Gary Brecka?

  It seemed to come out of nowhere, and it seemed to come on fast. And it was like you got hit by a truck, like you. Every day you were just complaining about your joints like you were 90 years old and arthritic. I remember you had swelling around some of your joints. It was driving me crazy that I couldn't get to this root cause. Headaches, pots, I mean, Maddie would actually faint. You know, and pots is positional orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, but she didn't need to change position in order, which is why I'm such a resident expert in it now. You didn't need to change position to start feeling faint.

• 13:39Speaker 00

  No, and then it wouldn't be anxiety driven either because we're having a conversation. We're talking about work. That's my whole life is work. We work with the family. So Christmas is work, Thanksgiving is work, all of our dinners revolve around work, but we love it. It's amazing. It's the best thing ever. And it would just happen out of nowhere. And it was so frustrating because I was helping so many people and I wasn't, I almost didn't accept it. It was like I compartmentalized the pain by being busy and I compartmentalized the fatigue by being wanted. So, I mean, to be in my early twenties in some of these celebrity homes that I watched growing up, it felt like so surreal. How could I let them down by not being able to show up? So I was just driving myself into a wall.

• 14:22Speaker 00

  And then we found out that the apartment I was living in had a leak above before I moved in and the water had gone behind the walls. So I was also living in mold. And then finally one day I woke up and I'm like, I'm fed up. I'm going to take the line that self-care is not selfish and I'm going to figure out what's going on. We did the vibrant wellness urine test, a bunch of blood work, and immediately we found, as soon as we found out the mold, we canceled my lease, moved out. Unfortunately, I had to throw everything away, all my furniture. I got an amazing new place. We are so blessed and be able to leave that environment. And I started a detox protocol and I started being hyper vigilant about my entire environment. So mentally and physically. I went through and I audited

• 15:07Speaker 00

  my circle, my friend group, what I was consuming on social media.

• 15:13Speaker 00

  I don't even have a working TV in my house because I was just mindlessly listening to things and stupid YouTube videos and stuff to fill the void. And so I audited my circle, what I was consuming, and then I extremely audited my environment.

• 15:27Gary Brecka?

  Your environment. I really remember this. You really went down the rabbit hole. You were super intentional. But we finally had the villain. When we got that mold and mycotoxin back, I mean, the fungi, the mold, the mycotoxin, the ochratoxins, the aflatoxins, now it all made sense. The inflammation, the diffuse joint pain, why even some of the physicians in our circle didn't catch it. And I've been such a believer and been so deep down this rabbit hole because of what you went through. Because some of these diagnoses like POTS, okay, so this is positional orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, but it doesn't, that's a thing, but now what do you do? Right?

• 16:08Gary Brecka?

  And you had all of this joint pain, and we realize, you know, you had joint pain and water retention swelling, but now what do we do? So we finally had the villain. And I do remember, obviously because I was part of it, but you were so intentional. Like, when that light switch went on, it went all the way on. And you, I remember some of your circle that you dissociated yourself with, and I remember that you started putting yourself first and being very intentional about your water, about your air, about your environment. You became like this little resident expert nerd in your environment.

• 16:44Speaker 00

  I got obsessed.

• 16:45Gary Brecka?

  I was so proud of you. I was like, the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

• 16:48Speaker 00

  Yeah, and it was, and I took a step back and I took a break for a second, and I was realizing that it was naive of me to think that burning myself to the ground is the best version of me for the patients that I was servicing, for my partners in a business I was starting, for my family, for my friends, because I wasn't the best version of myself. And being that fatigued and in that much pain, you're also not absorbing the information that you can absorb. I feel like I've gotten so much smarter now from having, you know, not as much inflammation in my brain, my joints have gotten better, my, I would say I'm like the happiest I've ever been right now. Like, it's, my emotions are stable, my periods are regular, I feel like I'm now really practicing what I preach.

• 17:33Speaker 00

  So there was a little bit of an internal struggle as well of... I need to be there for everyone and feeling that caregiver guilt. But at the same time, to be a caregiver, you have to take care of yourself.

• 17:44Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 17:45Speaker 00

  And I remember you said something to me once about the airplanes. And you said, if an airplane is going down, they always tell you put the oxygen on you first and then on your kids. And I'm like, that's a great way to look at it.

• 17:55Gary Brecka?

  Mm hmm.

• 17:56Speaker 00

  Because you're not not saving the child, but you need to save yourself to protect them.

• 18:00Gary Brecka?

  Mm hmm.

• 18:00Speaker 00

  And so that's how I kind of started looking at my life. And when I got my new place and I got all new furniture, I was so intentional about anything that walked through that front door. I can't really control the environment when I'm out and about, but I can control the environment I live in. I have a clean mattress. I sleep on organic sheets. I have a shower head and

• 18:20Gary Brecka?

  It filters the water.

• 18:21Speaker 00

  That filters, yeah. I have a filter shower head. I have a red light bed. I put my cats in the red light bed because they're now gonna live forever.

• 18:28Gary Brecka?

  She sends me pictures of her and the cats like on her, on her stomach.

• 18:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, they're being biohacked too. I put them on peptides. Um, the food I eat is clean. Yeah, it's called peptides. Amazing. And I like sauna and take the charcoal binders. I did everything clean, cleaning supplies. I got all caraway pans. I went, there's not a microplastic in my house that you can find. I got rid of all the candles that were toxic and it was, you didn't realize how much of a bath you are in in toxins until you start to go down the rabbit hole. And I remember reading and being like, the toothpaste, and then I need a bamboo toothbrush. And it's like, there's so many little things.

• 19:12Speaker 00

  But I think as a regular person, just start small. Start where you put something on every day. Start with your skincare. Start with your deodorant. Start with the shampoos and conditioners because that's an everyday thing. Then you can move on to, to the more expensive things, unfortunately, which is like the sheets and the mattresses and stuff. But I think that that's a better investment than even a vacation. For me, it was, you spend one third of your life on the mattress. I know you've talked about this a lot. That I should really invest in what I'm sleeping in.

• 19:42Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 19:43Speaker 00

  And what I'm putting on my skin and what I'm putting in my mouth and also what you're listening to. I now only really do podcasts. My boyfriend jokes, I've never seen any movie or any TV shows. I'm like so out of date.

• 19:54Gary Brecka?

  You used to be so current, too.

• 19:56Speaker 00

  I used to be so current. I used to be up to date on every drama of people I didn't even know. And it was just filling a void in my head for no reason. So now I'm very intentional on the content I consume and obviously like everything else in my environment. And making that switch has really, I think, benefited everyone else around me as well. Not to sound arrogant or egotistical, but I now show up as the best version of myself. I think I'm, take the best care of the patients that I have. I think I show up as a better friend, a better girlfriend, a better family member.

• 20:28Gary Brecka?

  This is, this is by the way, so true. And, and I think, you know, Ehlers-Danlos is not, uh, it's a connective tissue disorder. Um, and Ehlers-Danlos, and there's probably quite a few people that are listening to this that, that have this strange myriad of symptoms and they're being treated for migraines, which you used to have, diffuse joint pain, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, you know, all these catchall phrases and diagnoses, which are really just terms for groups of symptoms. Okay. If you have gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, irritability, cramping, you have irritable bowel syndrome, but it doesn't get you any further to fixing it. And, you know, as, as

• 21:08Gary Brecka?

  you went through this, um, and I think this problem that you solved, which was so personal and you had to hit the wall before we really solved it, um, has made you so passionate and purpose driven now. It's like I've seen a whole new side of my daughter, um, come out and serve the world. And so for those of you that are listening to this and, you know, you, you, you're suffering from any number of these conditions. You know, very often you can't get rid of the underlying condition. So you still have Ehlers-Danlos.

• 21:42Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 21:42Gary Brecka?

  But you don't suffer from it because your toxic bucket has been emptied. And I think that's really the overarching theme of what you did is that we actually have more control over ourselves and our environment. And if we have a condition that we are suffering from, we can control its manifestation. You're never going to outlive or outbiohack Ehlers-Danlos, but you can make it inconsequential, which is essentially what you did. And you, I got to tell you, Madison, I mean, you're a completely different human being. I mean, she's always been so bright and so driven. And I think that worked against you as these symptoms started to grow.

• 22:26Gary Brecka?

  You just leaned in and just with your own stubborn willpower, just pushed through these days.

• 22:34Speaker 00

  Yeah. I mean, they were long days.

• 22:36Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, they were long days.

• 22:37Speaker 00

  There were long days.

• 22:38Gary Brecka?

  We would see clients and then you would lay down in the backseat and just cry all your way to the next client's house. I'm like, this is awful.

• 22:44Speaker 00

  I remember being in school and there's this one and we'd go to LA and we'd have meetings. And I remember there was an American Airlines flight. It took off at 10:36. I landed at like 7:04 and I would go straight to my 9:00 AM lecture. That was from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. I don't know how I did that. I remember I would sleep in my car during lunch break because I was just so driven to get this education. I was so driven to not say no to people and patients and invoices and the family company that I actually wasn't even consciously aware of how much pain that I was in and how much my joints hurt because I was just keeping my mind so busy that at the end of the day, I'd be in so much pain, I would just go to sleep.

• 23:19Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 23:19Speaker 00

  And so really taking the time to be more self-aware, self-aware of how I was feeling, what I was in taking, again, my environment, not to keep, you know, beating a dead horse, but. Making that subtle change was such a drastic

• 23:34Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 23:35Speaker 00

  thing for me and obviously getting the diagnosis. I tell everyone, just be your own patient advocate. Go out there. There's so many more tests on the market than there even was when I was searching for answers. And next year, there'll be a million more. You can just get data.

• 23:49Gary Brecka?

  That Vibrant Wellness Total Toxicity test, I have no affiliation with Vibrant.

• 23:53Speaker 00

  Saved my life.

• 23:54Gary Brecka?

  Saved her life because, yeah. Big shout out to Vibrant. But it, it, when those things were pegged all the way over in the red. You know, you have this sort of green, yellow, red line and these normal ranges and it was pegged all the way over in the red and was all the way down this list of mycotoxins. You know, then our clinic director, Dr. Sarda at the time, who was actually skilled in this, but was, was disconnected because she was working more with the clinic and remote patients and wasn't really seeing Maddie. When she saw that, I mean, it all made, all made sense. And, and, and again, I think you, we have more control over how we manifest symptoms for certain chronic conditions than, than we think.

• 24:37Gary Brecka?

  So for somebody listening to this, um, that's looking for the, the place to start. I mean, this, this started for you in your early twenties. You're 27 now. Um, and it's really shaped your passion now and your, and your purpose. Like you are a huge advocate. What, what's really exciting you right now?

• 24:58Speaker 00

  What's really exciting me is how accessible being clean and toxin free is becoming. There's a lot of companies now in the market that offer clean mattresses, clean sheets. There's a lot more education on removing plastics. You can drink out of glass. Even the airports I'm seeing are having

• 25:15Gary Brecka?

  Air filtration.

• 25:16Speaker 00

  glass bottles now, which is so great. And then I'm really passionate about the toxic load on actually the average woman. We put on 180 chemicals a day between our perfumes, our makeups, our shampoos, conditioners, our lotions.

• 25:30Gary Brecka?

  Wow.

• 25:30Speaker 00

  Deodorants. So I'm really passionate in that space. I think there's a big hole in the market. Through the education that I was, you know, self educating myself on removing things out of my everyday, I found that there's a big greenwashing going on in the cosmetic space. They're allowing a lot of things like titanium dioxides into clean products. There's even a massive lip serum out there that's colored with lake dyes. Most of them actually are, but this one is labeled clean and had yellow lake six and silicones in it. And we're watching what we eat and watching putting microplastics and microwaving our food, yet we're putting silicones and dyes on our lips constantly. So there is such a

• 26:13Speaker 00

  room for growth. I think there's such a hunger for clean stuff that the market's finally listening. And I think it's going to be a little bit easier. I was talking to someone who was gluten free, just funny enough, the other day. We were talking about how many more options there are to be gluten free now, because there's so much education behind it. And I feel like as we evolve, we're going to finally be able to truly go back to living as little of a toxic load as we can in such a toxic environment. So I'm really excited to see what the forefront is for for clean living.

• 26:43Gary Brecka?

  What are some of the consequences of things like phthalates and parabens and fragrances? You know, especially for women that are applying these things to their skin, they're spraying them. I mean, let's not forget that your thyroid is right here in the middle of your neck. You're spraying them on your neck, you're washing in them. What are some of the consequences that either, you know, that you have actually suffered from?

• 27:06Speaker 00

  Well, I think people hear the word fragrance, phthalates, parabens, and it's just a buzzword. They're not really aware of what they are, but they're endocrine disruptors, which again, people don't really understand that. But the endocrine system is your thyroid, it controls your hormones, and a lot of these synthetics mimic estrogen. They mimic different hormones in your body. So it's really actually starting to affect infertility. It's affecting your cycle. It's affecting your ovulation. And mixing it with birth control, don't even get me started on that. Is a disaster. And we're wondering why we're having such an infertility epidemic. And personally, I think a lot of these autism rates and things like that are from paraben, phthalates, and fragrances being introduced to a baby. So if you think

• 27:50Speaker 00

  about spraying a hormone, an endocrine disruptor, on your neck and your hands, and you're breastfeeding, or you're putting a lotion on, it's obviously not conscious of the mother or the friend or the aunt that's holding the child.

• 28:02Speaker 00

  Go on, you want to smell good, you're meeting your friend's baby, they're hanging out with it. It is now constantly being introduced, this tiny little baby to endocrine disruptors. That long-term effect has never really been studied. These are fairly new chemicals.

• 28:15Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 28:16Speaker 00

  And so, we have all these kids with thyroid issues. We have these kids with getting early menstrual cycles, which is crazy, a little as like seven, eight, nine, which is unheard of. And I think a lot of it stems from the beauty and the wellness industry. And we're being naive by applying so many products and kind of turning a blind eye to fragrance, parabens and phthalates. I think that is one of the best things that you can do for your health, but also your partner's health and for your children's health. And if you're trying to conceive, remove all of that out of your cabinet. And I'm hoping that with Maha and through a lot more podcasts, I mean, I love the Skinny Confidential. Lauren talks about endocrine disruptors and fragrance all the time.

• 28:59Gary Brecka?

  Yes, she does.

• 28:59Speaker 00

  That people are really going to take a movement towards it.

• 29:02Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, you know, just a peek behind the scenes, I mean, this girl, when she goes down the rabbit hole, I mean, she studies so intentionally. Like, I go over to her house and her laptop is sitting in the middle of this sea of like research articles and different products. And, and she's, you know, she, she goes down the rabbit hole of phthalates and then parabens and then fragrances. And, and then tries to find products that don't have any of those things and intentionally import those into her life, get the other ones out of, out of her life. And I just, I'm, I'm really proud of you because you, you solved an issue really on your own. I was so busy building the platform and getting the message out there.

• 29:44Gary Brecka?

  Maybe my message inspired you, but you really went on this journey by yourself. Because I couldn't control what you were putting on your skin or what you were bathing in. And it just shows people that when we take agency over our lives, and it's not like you need to do this tomorrow, right? I understand water filtration is expensive, mattresses are expensive. Things like, you know, the shower head in your, in your, in your shower. And I think one of the comments that you made to me made a lot of sense. And you said, you know, Dad, Now that I've gotten these things out of my life and I've replaced them with with different products, um, my budget's actually gone down.

• 30:20Speaker 00

  It has.

• 30:21Gary Brecka?

  So I think that's the polar opposite of what people think.

• 30:23Speaker 00

  People think it's this crazy expense, but I'm telling you can find clean products. You can actually make your own perfumes using essential oils and a whole oil that you can get on Amazon if you want to try there. Um, I tell my friends who are like, always texting me on what I should wear and not wear and eat and whatever.

• 30:40Gary Brecka?

  She's become the authority now for all of her friends.

• 30:43Speaker 00

  All of my girlfriends send me links. Can I take this? What's this? What's your opinion on this supplement? But I have a trick called the empties. So you're eventually going to run out of your toothpaste. When it becomes empty, replace it. You're going to buy a new one anyways. So just go to a clean brand. So instead of going into your bathroom and into your pantry and throwing everything away and spending thousands of dollars on replace it, just do the empties. So when your toothpaste is done, okay, let's switch it. When your shampoo and conditioner is done, you're gonna have to buy a new one. Let's just switch to a clean brand. Um, when your deodorant's done, okay, let's go buy a new one. And I have found that, um, these clean brands are also becoming more readily accessible. Instead of just having to order it from some mundane website, Amazon, Target,

• 31:23Speaker 00

  Sprouts, Walmart even I've seen has starting to get some clean brands in there. Um, you know, I've, I even saw at Walmart the other day when I was in Tennessee grabbing something that they had a plant-based, um, dry shampoo powder. So it wasn't aerosol. It was clean. It had no parabens, phthalates. The brand started with an O. I wish I remembered the name. And I was like, smiling to myself. Here's a $7 dry shampoo. Amazing.

• 31:46Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 31:46Speaker 00

  You're gonna buy it anyways. So kind of doing the empties trick allows you to digest making the small changes. And I'm telling you, once you get through all your empties and you make the change, you'll never go back. I'm so sensitive to fragrance now. It's so crazy. When I get into an Uber and I see those Christmas trees hanging up, I get sick. Oh, the worst thing ever. So I think just auditing slowly as you run out is the most, you know, budget friendly. But honestly, my budget has gone down.

• 32:14Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 32:14Speaker 00

  There's different companies that have just one concentrate for cleaning supplies like Branch Basics, which I think is at Target. And that one concentrate does my floors, does my bathroom, does my dish soap, does my hand soap, like everything.

• 32:27Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 32:28Speaker 00

  And so I've gotten really intentional about, again, everything in my apartment. And it's gotten cheaper, actually, which is crazy.

• 32:35Gary Brecka?

  They call this the toxic load, you know, and, and it's not like, you know, it sounds like fear mongering, but basically what you're trying to do is just get around the system, you know, back to the, back, back to the basics. And I love the, I love the plan of just waiting until something is emptied and replacing it then. So you don't get overwhelmed by saying, I've just got to go in and basically throw everything in my house out. You know, you can do it, you can do it slowly. And I don't know anyone that's gone through this because you've inspired so many people to go through it. And there's so many of your friends in your circle that are doing the same things. Not a single one of them has had any kind of negative result. I mean, they're all talking about how their skin has been cleared up and how their menstrual cramps have eased.

• 33:18Gary Brecka?

  And, you know, their bleeding cycle is, is different. I mean, so many benefits that you wouldn't link back to all these things that we're applying to our skin and our, and our environment. It's back to the old adage that when a fish gets sick, the first thing we do is clean the tank. I use that analogy all the time because it really visualizes for people that, yeah, it makes sense. You look in there, it's dirty water, it's murky, it's, it's cloudy and makes sense why the fish is sick. And, and this is exactly what led to the exacerbation of, of all of your symptoms. So what's, what's on the horizon for medicine, Breck? You're, you're, you have so much knowledge about this space. You,

• 33:58Gary Brecka?

  you solve the problem in your life, which I think makes people, it drives people and makes them passionate and purpose driven. And I've seen that in you. I'm very proud of you for that.

• 34:09Speaker 00

  Thanks.

• 34:10Gary Brecka?

  It's, there's nothing, there's nothing, I'm going to get emotional, but there's nothing better for a father than to watch their children.

• 34:19Gary Brecka?

  Grow up to be better humans than they are. But um, so what's next for Madison Brecka?

• 34:26Speaker 00

  Well, I guess you're just gonna have to wait and see.

• 34:29Gary Brecka?

  I'm trying to draw it out of her. She's refusing.

• 34:31Speaker 00

  I am working on something that has taken over a year.

• 34:34Gary Brecka?

  Okay.

• 34:35Speaker 00

  I have a lot of great minds behind it.

• 34:38Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 34:38Speaker 00

  And I'm really excited to, I think, fill a hole in the market.

• 34:42Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 34:42Speaker 00

  And when I bring this baby to the world, it has been a lot of blood, sweat and tears. And a lot of research papers all over the place and a lot of late nights and early mornings. But it is such a passion project that I can't wait to share it with the world. And I'm excited because I think it's going to be a product that truly makes a difference in the market. And I get so inspired by even just my younger brother doing H2 Tabs is he really found a gap in the market. But he made a product that is helping.

• 35:10Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 35:10Speaker 00

  And that was important for me, too. I didn't want to just do another, I don't know, pump and dump for random supplement or something that was just going to be a get rich quick scheme. This for me is going to be a legacy brand. It's going to be a credible brand. It's going to be a lifelong brand. It's going to be a generational brand. It's going to be a unisex brand. And I'm excited to give a little piece of it to the world soon. And for you to meet this world I'm building.

• 35:35Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, you have been a psychopath about developing this. So I mean, it's, you have been so intentional and so focused. And you know, almost, almost to the point of extreme that I'm, I'm excited for you.

• 35:50Speaker 00

  I'll give a little hint. So the body knows what it needs. It just needs the essentials. So.

• 35:55Gary Brecka?

  Okay.

• 35:55Speaker 00

  There's something coming.

• 35:56Gary Brecka?

  That's all, that's all she would leak out. So where can my audience find you? If they want to know more about you, if they want to follow you, where can they find you?

• 36:05Speaker 00

  Right now I'm on Instagram at M Brecka. And then while I'm building this world, we have a lot of content behind the scenes. Because again, I want to take you along on the journey. So.

• 36:13Gary Brecka?

  If they follow you at M Brecka, they'll.

• 36:15Speaker 00

  They'll see it all. The world is coming out there. And I eventually want to start posting on YouTube and getting the messaging out there and getting myself out there. Maybe not being so nervous, be in front of the camera and sit behind the camera.

• 36:27Gary Brecka?

  You're doing so good, Madison. You're so well spoken.

• 36:29Speaker 00

  Please be nice to me again in the comments. It's the first time.

• 36:32Gary Brecka?

  You know, he's gonna be mean to you in my comments. My, my team will, my team will bully them. Yeah, Malia goes, I will delete them. We'll bully them. You know, I am, this is one of the proudest moments in my entire life. You know, watching you and your brothers kind of following the footsteps, grow up in the business, but then really catch the bug on your own. Cause I feel like you can, you can teach your kids just about anything, but you can't give them a passion. And you've gotten so passionate about this. It's, it's, it's, it's very strange, even sitting across from you as a, as a, as a grown woman. You know, we've been doing date nights since you were four years old. Now you're 27 years old and I'm just watching you grow into this amazing flower that is really just pollinating the world with positivity.

• 37:16Gary Brecka?

  You know that I wind down on my podcast by asking my guests the same question. So what does it mean to you to be an ultimate human?

• 37:23Speaker 00

  So I'm going to take a token out of your book. If you don't know this, he starts all of his team meetings and Q1 reviews. And we just had one like three days ago. And you always say to give without the expectation of receipt. And I think that makes you an ultimate human. I think learning and educating and giving out, I mean, I've seen you work hundreds of hours for no gain back, just to educate. So don't start crying. Cause I'm gonna start crying. You're tearing up. I'm gonna tear up.

• 37:52Gary Brecka?

  You're literally.

• 37:53Speaker 00

  So don't look at me. But giving without the expectation of receiving is something I live by. When my friends text me late night and they have a question, I'm going to give them the answer. When patients text me, I don't need to charge you a consult fee. Like just give without the expectation of receiving and it will open doors for you. It will build relationships for you. And that's the true way to change the world and be an ultimate human. Okay, now we're both tears. So we gotta go and I need to call you.

• 38:23Gary Brecka?

  Oh, that was great. I just lost my total train of thought.

• 38:27Speaker 00

  All right, the end.

• 38:28Gary Brecka?

  All right, the end. Maddie, thank you so much for becoming the ultimate human.

• 38:33Speaker 00

  Be nice.

• 38:37Gary Brecka?

  Oh, guys, and until next time, that's just science.