99. Dr. Jess Peatross: The Hidden Toxins Making You Sick + The Kill-Bind-Sweat Detox Method

What happens when a traditional doctor discovers that everything they were taught in medical school is keeping patients sick? In this episode of Extend, Dr. Jess Peatross joins me to discuss the hidden toxins that could be behind your symptoms. We discuss why 95% of people don't get enough fiber, the "kill-bind-sweat" protocol that's gone viral for detoxification, and why your "normal" blood work might be missing the real problem. Dr. Jess also shares her shocking experience losing her medical license for questioning vaccine protocols. Dr. Jess Peatross is a traditionally trained internal medicine physician who worked as a hospitalist for seven years before transitioning to functional medicine. She's the founder of Wellness Plus, an online platform helping people detox safely from environmental toxins, and Aegis Formulas supplement company. She specializes in treating complex chronic conditions involving mold toxicity, parasites, heavy metals, and environmental toxin exposure. We Also Discuss: Why Traditional Blood Work Misses 95% of Chronic Disease Causes How the "Kill-Bind-Sweat" Protocol Detoxes Your Body Safely The Vibrant Total Tox Test That Reveals Hidden Environmental Toxins Why Parasites Are More Common in America Than You Think How Modern Energy-Efficient Homes Create Perfect Mold Conditions The MTHFR and COMT Genes That Determine Your Detox Ability Why 95% of People Are Fiber-Deficient and How It Drives Disease The Microscope Method vs. Modern Parasite Testing Limitations How to Test Your Home Environment for Hidden Toxin Exposure Why You Must Fix Your Nervous System Before Any Detox Protocol Thank You for Our Sponsors: NextHealth: Your destination for cutting-edge health optimization from IV therapy to hormone balancing. Explore at https://www.next-health.com/ Learn more about Dr. Shah: Website: https://www.drshah.com/ Clinic: https://www.next-health.com/ @nexthealth https://www.instagram.com/nexthealth/https://www.instagram.com/darshanshahmd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darshanshahmd/ Learn more about Dr. Jess Peatross: Instagram: @dr.jess.md https://www.instagram.com/dr.jess.md/ Website: https://drjessmd.com/

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

• 0:03Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Welcome to Extend with me, Dr. Darshan Shah, a podcast dedicated to cutting-edge science, research, tools, and protocols designed to help you extend your health span. Having become one of the youngest doctors in the country at the age of 21, and trained and board certified at the Mayo Clinic, I've accumulated three decades of practice as a board-certified surgeon and longevity expert. Over that time, I've discovered that a mere 20% of health knowledge yields 80% of the results when it comes to your health span. We're living in a new era where we are creating a new healthcare system, no longer focused on disease management, but achieving optimal health and vitality. Join me as I interview world-renowned experts, offering you a step-by-step guide to proactively avoid disease, and most importantly, extend your health span.

• 0:49Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Dr. Jess, thank you for joining us today on the Extend Podcast. Really excited to learn from you today. Thank you for being here.

• 0:59Speaker 01

  Thank you so much for having me, Dr. Darshan. I think it's my honor to be here, of course.

• 1:03Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right. So, Dr. Jess is an incredible, deep functional medicine expert. And you know, I just, I just had a podcast released today of myself on the Ultimate Human Podcast, you know, with Dr. Gary Bracken. We drove in into toxins and mold and all of these symptoms that people have when they're struggling with their health and they just can't find anyone to listen. They just can't find anyone to say, there's something else going on here that typical Western medicine doesn't test for, or normally ignores for years, that deteriorate the quality of your life. And it's so fantastic that there are doctors like you out there that are bringing more attention to these symptoms, these struggles that people are

• 1:46Dr. Darshan Shah?

  happening. And not only are you bringing attention, you are also providing them with protocols to treat them. And so, I'm just so excited to dive in with you.

• 1:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, same. And likewise, sir. I mean, thank you for your contribution as well of doing the same.

• 2:00Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah. And so, I would love to just get, just launch in just real quick, Dr. Jess. Like, you're a doctor. Can you tell us a little bit about your story and what brought you to functional medicine? Treating these symptoms?

• 2:11Speaker 01

  Sure. So, you know, I was, I am a traditionally trained medical doctor. I went to school at the University of Louisville, um, in Kentucky for internal medicine. And really did residency, finished, worked in a hospital for almost seven years as a hospitalist. And, um, really drank the Kool-Aid, believed everything they taught me, got my flu shot every year. Was a good little doctor, did all the protocols that they recommended. And, you know, it took me years till I saw cracks in the system. And at first I thought, gosh, I wonder if anyone else sees that discharging patients on forty medications isn't real health? Or does anyone else see that they're giving, you know, factory farmed meat and processed dairy?

• 2:56Speaker 01

  And there's, um, Coca-Cola and Pepsi in the hospitals? Like, it doesn't, things weren't adding up for me at that point. It just, something clicked in my head and I just started to see it. And I thought, maybe these other doctors don't see what, don't, they don't see it. I'm sure they'd love to know this information, right? They'd love to know this. But that wasn't my experience sadly. When I went and I started to kind of be a little bit more disruptive, people told me to shut my mouth. And in fact, I, I know, I was a little rowdy. I'll admit, I, I wrote in the electronic medical record, this patient who is being admitted to my service has been on Prevacid, which is a proton pump inhibitor for acid reflux for almost a decade. And the package insert clearly says six months to one year. And why has no one talked to this patient about their diet or food sensitivities or anything like that?

• 3:39Speaker 01

  And so, you know, when I wrote that in the chart, I wrote it in the chart. The primary care doctor called the lead hospitals to complain about me. And they said that I was a liability. And in my perspective at that time, I felt like they were the liability for this patient. And so they sent me down and they said, you know, this isn't the first talking to I've had before. They sent me down and they said, you know, if you don't stop writing this in the chart, you can't work for us anymore. And I was in a position in my life where I didn't have, I wasn't married, I didn't have children. So I just said, okay, I quit and I bounced. And, um, it was kind of a rude awakening for me. I don't know about you, but for me, I got, I came, I realized very

• 4:20Speaker 01

  Very rapidly that there isn't a ready-made built-in system for doctors that don't go through medical school. In medical school, we're a little coddled. You know, you graduate, you I started working at hospital, my malpractice insurance was taken care of, my 403B, like paychecks, I didn't have to worry about anything, right? All that was done. But when I left the system, I had to become a businesswoman and an entrepreneur. And I had to really start knowing about tax structure and S corps and LLCs and all these things. They don't teach you in medical school.

• 4:53Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 4:54Speaker 01

  And so I made about a fourth of what I used to make. So it was a it was

• 4:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I took a big pay cut myself, Dr. Jess, when I went into this field, massive pay cut. But I just said, I just have to practice this kind of medicine because people need it, right?

• 5:08Speaker 01

  Bravo.

• 5:08Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And so it takes people like yourself, Dr. Jess, to have the courage to go out there and bringing this information to people.

• 5:16Speaker 01

  I think that struggle that we went through is part of the journey for a lot of doctors. You know, we don't have it hard when we graduate school most of the time. And so to really learn what you're made of, that you can use your brain for other things besides medicine, and learn how to be a business person and entrepreneur, just like you have and I have, is is part of the journey. It's part of the struggle. It's part of realizing who you are.

• 5:39Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right. It's so important for people to realize, like, look, like, a lot of people say, oh, they're just trying to sell us snake oil, is like what people say a lot. And it's like, I don't need to sell you snake oil. I can make 10x more money just being in the regular medical system, doing surgery every single day on people that, you know, more and more people need surgery. It's like an endless stream of surgeries that I could have done on people. And this was a massive pay cut. This was a massive, you know, earthquake in my life to quit traditional Western medicine and not take insurance anymore. I don't think people realize, like, the reason their insurance is so expensive is because those dollars are being

• 6:19Dr. Darshan Shah?

  spent in a ridiculously irresponsible way, without even getting to the cause of what the problem is. It's like taking your car to a garage to get Fixed and they just break more things and they don't even look at the cause and just keep fixing, you know, things on you forever. Right? And so it's like you never, you never get your car truly fixed. The minute you drive it off and drive for another couple of weeks, something else breaks and something else breaks. Right?

• 6:45Speaker 01

  It's so true. I'm so glad I resonate so much with what you're saying. I mean, if people only knew, you know, there's never been one published study or study that I know of on a person on more than five pharmaceutical medications at once. And so we don't even really know how much of these people's side effects and consequences are coming from things like prescription meds and, you know, other drugs and.

• 7:06Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, especially 10 years of previs.

• 7:08Speaker 01

  Me, give me a break.

• 7:10Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That, yeah, exactly. And like, you know, I think these drug companies, they want people to be under meds, obviously forever. And they have zero instructions or education on when someone gets taken off the medication. Right? We just assume it's forever and that's terrible.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  It's terrible. And, you know, the system has really, it doesn't look at the body as a whole. It separates us all into these specialties. Right? So this doctor, you know, there's, we, we both know well, the chart wars where, you know, cardiologists and nephrologists, you know, heart and a kidney doctor arguing the chart about which organ system is more important. And really the body doesn't work that way. It works as a whole. And so when you discombobulate the system and you separate it into different divisions, people are very, we're too busy. We're too busy to call other doctors and collaborate half the time. We're too busy to really look in depth and brainstorm about these people. We spend like eight minutes sometimes with people. I mean, I can't even find out where someone lives half the time in eight minutes.

• 8:09Speaker 01

  So it's just really, the system is really set up for us to fail and not to get to the root cause for people. And it's a procedure based system. So we get, the hospital pays for surgeries, right? It doesn't pay to talk to people or educate them. It does not.

• 8:24Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right, right. Exactly. I mean, and, and, you know, all the money is in doing more diagnostics because you get paid for diagnostics, you get paid for procedures. Pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies get paid for people being on drugs. And so it's definitely, there's no incentive to get people off of drugs, out of the hospital and canceling their surgeries. Right now, and I always say like, look, I'm not trying to be negative on the Western medical system. Thank God it's there.

• 8:49Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 8:49Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You get hit by a bus, you get diagnosed a stage four cancer, have a heart attack, God forbid. Thank God we have emergency rooms at hospitals to take care of us. But it was never built for chronic disease reversal. It was never built for multi-system disease processes. It was never built for some of the things that we're going to talk about today that are indolent infections and toxic exposure. It was never built for that. And so we need to build another system.

• 9:19Speaker 01

  I think you're my new best friend. That's what I think. I mean, really, I could have said the same thing. Amen to that because there's no more truth than that, guys. Like, that is the truth right there. It's built for emergencies, but it's not built for your longevity.

• 9:33Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right, exactly. So let's continue with your story, Dr. Jess. Sorry, I always get in my soapbox on this.

• 9:37Speaker 01

  No, I love it.

• 9:39Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So you went out there, you started a practice, you were struggling, you had to become an entrepreneur, and then you had kind of a shakeup in your life.

• 9:45Speaker 01

  I did. I had a real big shakeup in my life. It's been a wild ride. So, you know, at that time, I was chatting a naturopath. This was in Monterey Park in East LA, as well as working at Whittaker Wellness when it was still open and learning and training with all those guys too. And that was in Newport Beach, so I spent a lot of my time driving back and forth with making very little money. I went to the Gerson Institute. I learned about coffee enemas and juicing and things like that for cancer. One perspective, it really taught a lot about environmental toxins, sort of ripped the blinders off of my eyes, if you will. And then I went to Institute of Functional Medicine. I got trained in ozone therapy and a lot of other things along the way that have added to my education. And, you know, then I ended up starting a supplement company.

• 10:30Speaker 01

  And, you know, in the end, shareholders came and took it from me and sued me for three and a half years for that. So that was one shakeup of my life. The next one that happened was I was in California working, and I had just moved there in 2016, right when they passed SB 277 and SB 276 shortly thereafter. And I worked at a naturopathic clinic. I was the only medical doctor there because I just aligned with how they saw the body and their perspective. And they, let me just say here, chiropractors and naturopaths have been some of my greatest teachers. So thank you if you're out there listening. You've been there. I'm a medical doctor who's thanking you at this point in time. So it's been very integral to my learning. So I was working at that clinic, Nurse Medical Center, which is wonderful in San Diego.

• 11:14Speaker 01

  And I was tag teaming with a pediatric naturopath, Dr. Ilana Rumel. And she was seeing the patients and children and then writing the note. I was also writing a note, signing off on it and giving a vaccine exemption if I saw fit for any sort of fragile child. Because in California, under SB 277276, they made it mandatory to receive all 72 doses of vaccines before the age of 18 to attend public school. And in my, truly in my belief system, truly, I believe that people have so many genetic and epigenetic expressions today that if we're really, truly practicing medicine, we have to look at everyone as bio-individual.

• 11:54Speaker 01

  And their traumas and toxin bucket and all that stuff adds to what is methylated on their genes or what is epigenetically turned on or off, just like keys on a piano that are pressed. And so if we don't look at that and we're just giving someone blanket medicine, that's bad medicine. And I feel like we saw that in these past few years with COVID. We saw how the vaccine really hurt and damaged some people and caused myocarditis. It's coming out in the studies, plus more. And some people handled it. You know what? Some children are like that. And, you know, all children are like that. We're all different. And can you imagine how that might be different in a developing immune system? Because in vaccines, they are targeting the immune system. We are trying to target and increase immunity against a certain antigen.

• 12:38Speaker 01

  And so if we tag the immune system too much, AKA 72 doses of vaccines, according to the CDC, there are some children whose bodies cannot handle that. And they cannot detox the adjuvants that are in vaccines, like polysorbate 80, gentamicin, you know, monkey, recess monkey cells, certain other things, right? Aluminum sometimes if we're considering ardisil. And so, you know, California didn't take that lightly. So when they passed SB 276, they actually had the Health and Human Services Department start subpoenaing patients' medical records without their permission to open them up to check the integrity of the vaccine exemption. And no one told you who they were. You just thought it was maybe for a divorce case or something between the parents, right?

• 13:20Speaker 01

  So when that happened, they then opened an investigation on hundreds of doctors and retroactively punished us by not, sometimes I didn't sign a chart in time or didn't have the exact physical exam they wanted. They got us on minutia a lot. And then they came after me. I had the same fate as like Bob Sears and Dr. Bob Sears, Dr. Kelly Sutton, Dr. Z in San Diego, who wrote the most vaccine exemptions in San Diego County at the time. And they got us all on everything. So when they came to me, you know, I said, I said, you know, I could take their punishment. And it was three years probation. You had to pay yourself and the medical board's legal fees and a law they had just passed. And you had to do about 60 hours of their reeducation and then a stipulated license

• 14:04Speaker 01

  with no exemptions. And then all the other exemptions that I did for fragile children were null and void, which was the rule.

• 14:12Speaker 01

  So, so instead of doing that, I decided I don't make money seeing patients. That's not how I'm making money anymore. I did it because I liked to see patients. And so I decided to surrender my medical license willingly. Now, the California, the Board of California actually put on the site disciplinary surrender, which means I surrendered it into discipline, not that I was made to. But that was very tricky wording on their part. But, you know, I felt like that was the bigger play. I really wanted to media blitz them. I really wanted the public to know what was going on because this happened before COVID and I could see that they were coming for the adults next, you know? So I wish that more people had been brave enough to interview me during that time, but most people were not.

• 14:54Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right, right. I'm so sorry you went through all of that. You know, unfortunately for you, it's a completely different world out there now with the scrutiny placed on vaccines. And I had a pediatrician come on the podcast a couple of months ago talking about vaccines and how are the, the way we prescribe vaccines and the rules around vaccines are based on incredibly old science. And in 2025, there's a lot of these diseases. We're vaccinating for that. Number one, the vaccines cause more harm than protection. Number two, the those diseases are not even relevant anymore in 2025, and we can diagnose and treat them very effectively.

• 15:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And the rare, rare time someone gets something, you know, and and we need to do a complete revaluation, a re scrub on vaccines. And like you said, make it an N of one decision every time on who gets what when.

• 15:52Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 15:53Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You know, I'm very nuanced about vaccines myself. I think that, you know, there are some vaccines that protect the public from diseases that spread very easily, like measles. And then there's other vaccines that are just designed to protect the individual. And then you really have the ability to decide N of one, like, is this a protection that's needed? Is it a dose of a vaccine that is going to cause more harm than good at this time in life? I mean, there's so much that we have to sort through, and you were doing that sorting, and then you got punished for it.

• 16:23Speaker 01

  And so is Dr. I think it's Ken, yeah, Dr. Ken Stoller, who was in San Francisco, who was vaccine injured himself and was genetically testing children. Look at Dr. Paul Thomas, who really conducted the first head to head study in his practice of, you know, tens of thousands of children who are vaccinated versus unvaccinated. And, you know, he was told there were too many confounding factors in the study that it was not relevant. And then they took his license, tried to. They punished them, right? So it's like, there's a lack of comprehensive review on on vaccines. There's never been a head to head study on vaccinated versus unvaccinated children because they say it's unethical. I mean, I know plenty of mothers who would probably volunteer their children for that, to be honest. But, you know, there's lots of things that I don't agree with, like, you know,

• 17:07Speaker 01

  they'll actually approve a vaccine by taking the older vaccine that's been approved and do this backwards approval process, you know? So I just think a lot of it needs to be, like you said, rigorously studied and redone. And I'm not, I'm not saying, you know, everything, throw every, the baby out with the bathwater. But where is the science that should be eternally questioned, rather than just safe and effective rhetoric? That is, you know, parroted to us regularly, especially during COVID.

• 17:33Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, it's so true. And look, like, I think. All of medicine needs to have a reevaluation at this moment in time. I think the same is true of prescription medications. We put people on medications that cause more harm than good in some patients. Doesn't, you know, the effect that it's supposed to have doesn't have the effect. And there's so much we need to rethink here. And I think it's really up to the individual to ask the questions, to ask about what should I be following in my testing to see if this is really helping or not, and really understand their own individual biology. And I'm, I'm hopeful that we're at a moment in time that we can have this revaluation. And just like Western medicine, we said, like you said, don't throw away the baby with the bathwater.

• 18:14Dr. Darshan Shah?

  There are some vaccines that are needed, that have good science, that are probably beneficial for a majority of people. But we, if you're not in that majority, what do you do? Right? And, and I think that's where you kind of were saying, like, let's, let's evaluate. And let's see if this is right for you.

• 18:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, let's dig in. Rather than get mad and say, no, they're fine. Let's, if they're fine, let's do the research. Why not?

• 18:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right, right. Well, good. I'm, I'm so happy to hear that you're back in practice. You're in Florida.

• 18:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:45Dr. Darshan Shah?

  We are going to talk today about some of these more enigmatic functional medicine topics that I think are really important for people to hear about. And so I would love to kind of dive in with you on kind of the patient that comes to you now with a cluster of symptoms that no one can figure out, right? How, what do they, can you kind of walk us through, like, what does that journey look like for the average patient that comes to you? What are they coming to you complaining about? And then what do you do next as a doctor?

• 19:16Speaker 01

  I feel like we might have a similar population of patients that we share. But in general, it's usually a female ages, you know, 20 something to 50 something. And they have this constellation of symptoms that they've been given pretty much no hope for. And it'll be vague symptoms like brain fog, fatigue, joint pains, bloating, digestive issues, maybe severe feed fatigue where they're almost in bed all day. Right? They typically have a lot of different trauma that may have happened in their childhood. That set them up kind of more opportunistic for these things and continued trauma throughout adulthood along with, you know, there's always a combination of something emotional or big traumatic that happens along with a physical exposure or reason for it, call it the perfect storm.

• 20:01Speaker 01

  And they will have these symptoms for years with no one being able to figure out what it is, running autoimmune panels, regular blood work, being admitted sometimes and giving all these labels or I C D ten codes, which for me aren't root cause. It's just a label that determines what usually medication or pharmaceutical that you'll be classified as giving, as being given. So, you know, for me, I like to start with people's nervous system because the autonomic nervous system controls everything from pupillary dilation to sexual responses to immunity function to metabolism and energy and fuel storage. So if this, if it's off completely and you're in sympathetic overdrive or flight, fight or freeze as opposed to

• 20:46Speaker 01

  um, parasympathetic, which is rest and digest, then you're not, you're going to be constipated, you're going to be bloated. There's not a pill to fix all those problems, right? I can have things that biohack it and help a little bit, but we really have to change sometimes people's thinking, which is very difficult and their hope um, in their, in their body because it's really hard to heal a body that you hate or you don't feel safe in. And so I start there, things like GABA sometimes can help GABA with L-theanine, SAME, depending on people's um, MTHFR status and if they have a slow COPT, which is the warrior gene. So I like to kind of dig into that a little bit, depending, depending on what type of B vitamin they need that they need is dependent on their genes. Really giving them high dose minerals help ground the nervous system because this helps the neurons fire properly.

• 21:31Speaker 01

  You need charges to build a potential for nerves to fire properly, which come from minerals. If you don't have that, then metals can replace them, right? So we start with the nervous system to kind of balance people out and then I like to do what's called opening drainage, which means making sure that people can have bowel movement two to three times per day. I mean, normalize talking about poop, right? It's very important because if you can't poop, my friends, then you're going to recirculate. Like toxins and feel like you have the flu and then we won't be friends anymore. So, you know, I like to make sure you're sweating within 10 minutes in a sauna. That you can, you know, tolerate things like caffeine and alcohol if you have a cup. You know, or that you can fast because that's the liver's job to break down glycogen into glucose to sustain your blood sugar.

• 22:16Speaker 01

  That your bile is moving and you're sleeping. Okay. You're feeling kind of rested in the morning. When all those things are opened up, I know you're ready for whatever we find on your test. And we always find something, as you know, you know, heavy metals, some sort of plastics or pesticides or phthalates. Mold toxicity, sometimes parasites, right? People think you can't get those in America, but you can. They don't parasites don't care about borders. Right. And then other things. So we usually find something or a multitude of things that are a plethora of things that are causing people's mysterious symptoms.

• 22:51Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right. That's so great, Dr. Joss. So, you know, I think for the listeners, men and women, but you're right. I think the majority are women because women are more attuned with their bodies. I think in their symptomatology, so they come see us more often about these. But if it's a plethora of just weird symptoms and your typical doctor's not giving you the answer. And don't get also kind of fooled by they saying to you, I checked your blood test and everything looks normal. Usually those blood tests are very superficial blood tests. In medicine, you know, we use CBC and chem profiles and they sometimes don't change until things are really, really bad. And so we have the technology now to directly test for these toxins, to test for immune responses.

• 23:35Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And we should, we should be doing that. And so I think I like your kind of starting point, the nervous system. Cause these are all quite quick, easy wins too, for people to start going down the path, right? On their own, right?

• 23:49Speaker 01

  I, of course, and I see a lot of people with histamine issues, my cell, I'm sure you do too. That inflammation, that nervous system mold response that causes that, that hypervigilant histamine response, that has to be calmed down before you can move forward. They react to every protocol.

• 24:04Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 24:05Speaker 01

  So I'm sure you see that.

• 24:06Dr. Darshan Shah?

  We do, we do. And so if someone comes in with these symptoms and you're, you're checking for histamine response, toxins, parasites, mold, and also histamine response, right? Is there a panel that can give you all this information all together? Or is it like symptoms combined with multiple panels? Well, what's kind of the diagnostic protocol there?

• 24:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure. So everyone that comes to my clinic, I do have them do a total tox test by Vibrant Wellness. It doesn't cover everything you just said, like I can't look for histamine response in there, but it does cover heavy metals, mold or mycotoxins. And then I love their environmental panel because it does include Roundup Ready or glyphosate, does include other organophosphate pesticides and plasticizers and phthalates and things like that, even looks for BPA. So that's kind of a nice one for me to start with people. And it's a drop ship urine kit, so it's a little bit more convenient as well. I also have them just do a regular blood panel, but it is a CBC and CMP, which I tell people hasn't changed in the last 30 to 50 years. So take it with a grain of salt. But we also include inflammatory biopsy.

• 25:12Speaker 01

  I do a full thyroid panel, including antibodies. I do ESR, homocysteine, CRP, hemoglobin A1C, vitamin D, and full iron panel, full cholesterol panel. So, you know, I'm able to see nuances in there if there's a need for B vitamins, if there's a lot of inflammation going on in the body, what the iron is doing. You know, how well are they absorbing fat soluble vitamins? So I can tell a lot from that combined with a total tox for people. Oftentimes, you know, if there's hormone specific problems, I'll do something like a hormone zoomer or Dutch test. You know, if they have, you know, histamine issues, that's more like kind of a diagnosis of exclusion for me, right? They'll have, you know, histamine in the brain is brain fog and, and histamine in the gut is bloating and loose stools.

• 25:55Speaker 01

  And histamine in the skin is eczema and rashes and hives and. Examen the bladder is interstitial cystitis. And so I can kind of see these muratic symptoms that doesn't look related. And if you can learn to pattern recognize, as you know, we do, then you can pick up when, oh, this is a histamine problem for you. Now, why are you having that? The number one reason is nervous system dysregulation and number two mold or combo of both. Right? Parasites can do it too in SIBO, but that's usually what I see it come from.

• 26:24Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right, right. And for the, you had mentioned a little bit earlier that you're also checking the Dutch test for hormones, which I love as well. And I think, you know, hormonal dysregulation for men and women can lead to many of these same symptoms, especially after, you know, in your mid to late 30s. So it's really important to check for that, too.

• 26:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, don't I know? I had personal experience with that. I mean, I think I probably suffered for years with like waking up and just being tearful in the morning. And I'm now, for anyone listening, on bioidentical hormone therapy myself and went through that whole journey. It's really changed my life.

• 27:00Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 27:01Speaker 01

  So, yeah, if you guys are listening and you feel that way, then you should really look into something because I suffered for years. So don't be like me. But the Hormone Zoomer, the Dutch test, it tells us so much. I can see instantly when I look at those tests as to why someone might have a breast cancer diagnosis.

• 27:17Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah. And what about, you had mentioned COMT, MTHFR. These are all genetic predispositions to lots of issues. And they can be very helpful to have these genes looked at and see if you do have an abnormality there. Is there a genetic test that you like or use?

• 27:35Speaker 01

  Well, I'll tell you, I like the 10x that Gary Bracka has used with a lot of people. It's very simple for people to read. It's very easy for me to read, too. I also like Genetics Protocol by Dr. Courtney Hunt. I think they both do a really great job. And I know Dr. Tyler Pansner, he also has a genetic test, too, that is very good. And that can really just help me look at a few key genes that I know are going to affect their methylation, their detox, their ability to calm down and regulate their nervous system, as you know. And that helps me kind of direct care because I truly believe that you can't just do blanket green pharmacy with everyone.

• 28:11Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right, right. Absolutely. And what's important about those genes, you're not just looking at one gene, you're looking at pathways. So MTHFR is very popular now because of Gary Brekka and others that, you know, people are wanting to check for that gene, but it's really the whole pathway you need to be checking for. And so I think people need to know that working with a doctor like yourself or Next Health Clinics, we can evaluate the whole pathway and still find where we can support your genetics or genetic abnormalities without, you know, and that'll really help form the basis of future treatment protocols as well.

• 28:48Speaker 01

  Yes, it's a very good point, actually.

• 28:51Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 28:55Dr. Darshan Shah?

  This episode was brought to you by Next Health, a health optimization and longevity clinic located in Los Angeles, Manhattan, and soon to be opening in Montecito, Nashville, Miami, and many other cities in the United States and Canada. Next Health is the Apple Store of wellness, where you can optimize your health span and lifespan using cutting-edge technology. I actually founded Next Health eight years ago to give my patients a place to go get extensive biomarker testing done and provide them with all the tools that I use to get my health in order. The longevity circuit in Next Health using hyperbaric oxygen, sauna, cryotherapy, and LED light is a game changer. In addition, the doctors at Next

• 29:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Health measure thousands of biomarkers and put into place a longevity optimization plan using advanced tools like ozone, plasma exchange, and peptides. Go to www.nex.health to check it out.

• 29:53Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Can I ask you about the parasites and the SIBO and the stool testing? Is there a stool test that you are using a lot of?

• 29:59Speaker 01

  Yes, you know, I really love vibrance testing. I use their GutZimmer, but I will tell you, a lot of these tests, like the GI map, the GutZimmer, you know, GI map is PCR, which we can see the limitations from the last few years with the PCR test. And then, you know, the GutZimmer has a little bit more zoomed-in technology that uses a array technology from Silicon Valley. So I like them, but Again, they only test for a handful of parasites when there are thousands of types of parasites. So I feel like it's missed a lot on the test. And so I found a MD PhD who runs a company called parasites.org. And they do the old, can you imagine the old, old school way of looking into the microscope with the naked eye? And looking to see themselves, right?

• 30:42Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Wow.

• 30:43Speaker 01

  Like, yeah, so I will often combine that if the patient has the means. And that way you're able to kind of get a better look, right? And it's, I find a lot out there. I mean, they look for eggs, larvae, things dividing, all of that. So it's a little more accurate.

• 30:59Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That's awesome. I did not know that existed that there are people still looking under a microscope. Wow, that's awesome.

• 31:06Speaker 01

  Yes, I know, right? I see. It's so old school. It's perfect. And they also are using other technologies too, obviously, when they run the test. But that's something that I think is a missing art in parasitology.

• 31:18Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, let's start there. I think, you know, parasites is something that we have not really explored in this podcast yet. And I'd love to just start there. What are some of the symptoms that people can feel if they do have a parasite problem? And what are the next steps besides just the testing? What was the name of that website, by the way?

• 31:37Speaker 01

  Parasites.org.

• 31:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Okay. And can a person get the test themselves on that website? Or do they need to go through a doctor?

• 31:43Speaker 01

  They can, actually. They can, yeah. So it's nice. It's a stool test. So they'll send it to your house and you just do it yourself, stool test. But, okay, for parasites.

• 31:53Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yes.

• 31:53Speaker 01

  So there are some, some questions that I ask everyone. And I like to start people with a parasite cleanse if I do any sort of detox first. Because a lot of the animal studies have shown that parasites can hold six times the amount of heavy metals that you think a regular fish can hold. We've also seen mold spores, we've seen retroviruses interplay with the immune system and things like strongyloides and the HClV virus and things like that. So we know that there's an interplay of frenemies, if you will, within the toxin bucket. And some, so when people have parasites or overrun by them, I do think it's more of a terrain issue, right? They're full of toxins and trauma, the parasites, so they're digesting metals and things.

• 32:31Speaker 01

  So it's a stress on the body. Parasites are nocturnal. They are replication and reproductive cycles often mirror, you know, the new moon or full moon. And so people will have insomnia or feel more amped up around the full moons. It's a stress on the body. They're nocturnal when they're moving around. So people will clench their crying their teeth at night. Or it's called bruxism. And this can be a sign of sleep apnea. It could be a sign of stress. It could be a sign of parasites too. So don't forget that one. Usually the inflammation kicked up by parasites can cause people to have a lactose intolerance or dairy sensitivity. They'll often have muscle twitches and fasciculations, intermittent rectal itching. That's a good one.

• 33:09Speaker 01

  Digestive issues, bloating, acid reflux. They might have a ton of food sensitivities or have whittled themselves down to an extremely restrictive diet because of said food sensitivities or reactions. And they always have leaky gut. Sometimes they'll have a high secretory IGA, which is the immune cells that are in your mucous membranes. And it's the, it's like they, they don't find it on some of these stool tests. But then you'll see the secretory IGA kicked up. So it's like their bodies make an army to something that it's seeing, but the test isn't catching it.

• 33:39Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 33:39Speaker 01

  Um, and so that's just some of the symptoms that I'll see people with parasites have. They're very specific, right?

• 33:45Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right, right. Interesting. And what are the most common parasites that people can have?

• 33:51Speaker 01

  Well, thirty percent are microscopic, things like amoebas, giardia. You know, we hear about that. It's a typical board question for us. A camper hikers out and drinks creek water and then gets, you know, stomach issues and that's always giardia. And in blastocystis hominis is another one. It can even interfere with thyroid function a lot. Strongyloides is one that's really bad. I had a mentor that actually had that. Sore, fatigued muscles, just extreme fatigue and brain fog, digestive issues as well. And you know, you have to remember parasites just don't stay in the gut. Oftentimes, depending on what kind you have, they move throughout the body, the liver, the bile ducts, other places. So people have systemic symptoms from this and histamine releases as well.

• 34:32Speaker 01

  You know, and then I, you know, people can often have, you know, helmets, worms, things like that. Um, we do see that as well. I see it a lot of children. Pen worms, which are extremely contagious, the whole house will often get it at that point. So there's a lot of different things that present. And that's why we ask a myriad of different questions to try and catch which type of parasite you might be suffering from. I mean, if people have Lyme disease, we see co-infections with Babesia, which is confused as malaria on a blood smear. It's a microscopic parasite that gets said red blood, red blood cells. And it causes night sweats and fatigue. Um, and lots of different um, symptoms for people, shortness of breath. And so um, this is a parasite that runs with Lyme, right?

• 35:15Speaker 01

  Microscopic guys. So, and we see this very commonly with Lyme.

• 35:18Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Wow. And then is the um, depending on the parasite you have, is the treatment going to be different or the same for anyone with parasites? Or how do you go about the treatment protocols?

• 35:28Speaker 01

  For sure. So it really, if we can locate it, sometimes I'll know people have parasites and I can't always catch it. Or you know, sometimes they don't have the money to afford the test I need, right? So you still have to kind of treat as is. So I try and do everything holistically. I try and do everything with herbs if I can. I don't mind a good fenbendazole, ivermectin protocol for some people, right? The studies are now showing the benefits, obviously. But normally I do things like a mimosa pudica seed, which is a really sticky seed from India. Um, that kind of swells up like a kid's sponge in the bath and it grabs everything. So it's the gut scrubber. And that helps with yeast, bacteria, and parasites. I use a lot of things like wormwood, cloves, black walnut hull, podiarko, ouva ursi,

• 36:12Speaker 01

  and things that really can go deep and penetrate in the cell like artemisian or wormwood. And I try and cover my bases and switch things up throughout the course of cleansing some people for three to six months sometimes. So I get all the different life cycles, right?

• 36:26Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah. And so interesting, I think, um, you know, that I've seen many, not many, a few, not enough, very few, uh, protocols online that people can buy the, all the supplements and the items you talked about, uh, put together. Do you have anything put together like that, Dr. Jess, for parasites?

• 36:44Speaker 01

  I do, actually. So I have a platform, a do it yourself platform called Wellness Plus that launched in two thousand twenty. And it's Really showing people how to calm the nervous system to then open your drainage pathways and then finally do a detox safely without feeling like crap, right?

• 37:00Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 37:00Speaker 01

  And, and so, um, people, we have that for mold parasites, anything on there. And it's really just about emptying your toxin bucket and coming back to your old self. Um, because people don't, they think they're just getting older. They don't realize, um, how toxins are ubiquitous in the environment. And then if you're toxin overrun, you're going to attract a pathogen for cleanup because you are part of the ecosystem. And if they only knew that the power was in their hands, I just, I just think as doctors, yeah, we can do better. We can teach them.

• 37:29Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, yeah. I think, uh, what was the name of your platform again?

• 37:32Speaker 01

  Wellness Plus. So it's wellnessplus.com. Yes.

• 37:35Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Wellnessplus.com?

• 37:37Speaker 01

  Yes, you got it.

• 37:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Great. And if someone is experiencing these symptoms, they can come to your platform, get educated on it, and you have suggestions for treatment as well.

• 37:45Speaker 01

  Yes, we do. Absolutely. We have a whole kind of handholding care program. And it's actually recently launched. So, yeah.

• 37:51Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I love it. Oh, congra- I'm gonna have to check it out. Congratulations.

• 37:54Speaker 01

  Thank you so much.

• 37:55Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Can we talk a little bit about, um, just, uh, let's talk about toxins in general, environmental toxins in general. One of the things that you talk a lot about is sauna and you have a protocol there. And I'd love to dive into your explanation about environmental toxins and this protocol of yours.

• 38:12Speaker 01

  Yes. So I mentioned that they are ubiquitous in the environment and that's true. And my theory is a lot of people are sick because of things that are inside them that don't belong inside them. Um, we also have to make sure we're eating well and ingesting healthy water, all that kind of stuff. Putting good things into us, antioxidants. But you know, there are a lot of things like metals and plastics, microplastics, pesticides that can really wreck, wreak havoc on a system. And so if I think that, gosh, things are entering the system through, absorbing through the skin, through breathing mold sores or whatever through the nose or pesticides, you know, eating things that we shouldn't be eating that cause inflammation, then, you know, how do we get those things out? Even if I gave people a magic limitless pill that fixes everything in their body,

• 38:56Speaker 01

  guess what? That pill would still have to go through your body, be processed and assimilated and released through your liver. Or your kidneys. So if your liver and your kidneys aren't working, then the pill isn't gonna work. Right? So then, things enter the body. How do we get them out? We have to work with the body's innate detox pathways or drainage pathways. So if you aren't pooping, I can guarantee you have brain fog, my friend. You aren't releasing, you poop to release toxins. That's why we, you know, so if you, um, you know, you're probably have an estrogen problem too, because you're not pooping out estrogen. You know, if you're not sweating, you know, you can, there's studies I can show you where you can sweat out heavy metals. You can sweat out pesticides. You can sweat out flame retardants.

• 39:38Speaker 01

  And so if you're not sweating, you probably feel like you glisten, but it's not healthy. Because it serves to cool the body down. It also releases toxins that is are ubiquitous every day that you're breathing and absorbing through the body. You know, the liver is one of the biggest filters in the body. And in America, it's usually the problem child. So, you know, usually people need a little bit of TLC in the liver. And I hate it when doctors say, well, you have a liver and kidneys. You don't need to detox. What is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease? That is a stagnant liver.

• 40:09Dr. Darshan Shah?

  It's a massive problem right now, too. Is that, you know, I think eighty percent plus of people have metabolic syndrome. And one of the problems there is a non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. And it's crazy because, you know, when I trained thirty years ago, we saw liver failure and we did liver transplants on people. It was mostly due to hepatitis and alcohol. Never saw non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. And now it's the number one cause of liver transplantation.

• 40:36Speaker 01

  Isn't that sad?

• 40:37Dr. Darshan Shah?

  People that don't drink, they get fatty liver from toxin buildup and metabolic health abnormalities.

• 40:44Speaker 01

  That's so sad, actually. We just didn't ever see it. I kind of remember the beginning, beginning of my career when it was first coming out. We were like, wow, what's this? You know, it was rare to see. It's really, it's sad now because, you know, it's linked to things like high fructose corn syrup and mercury. And things that are completely, um, avoidable for people if they're educated.

• 41:03Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 41:04Speaker 01

  So, so I really get tired of the rhetoric rhetoric about, well, you don't need detox. You have detox organs, like the body's just a machine that can't get overwhelmed. Or there can be traffic jams or minerals or metals are replacing minerals or whatnot in the body. You know?

• 41:18Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, exactly. That's such a good way to explain it. So what's the kill and bind portion of the kill bind sweat? Sweat is on it.

• 41:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. And that, you know, that was viral without me expecting that online. It sounds like I'm an S and M doctor or something. Yeah. So, so kill means, um, this is after everybody's drainage is open. Right? So when you're everybody's drainage, you're pooping, you're sweating, your liver, your bile are going. You know, you're sleeping better. Okay, time for the detox. So kill bind sweat is a great kind of practical, generalized detox that the majority of people can understand and do and afford. So kill is we use herbal antimicrobials. I really like a few different companies, but I look for things like the herbs I mentioned to you earlier for people. Um, and I usually look for broad coverage. So sometimes that includes one or two kill products.

• 42:08Speaker 01

  And then I have people wait about thirty minutes to an hour and take a binder. Now, this is after I've already replaced their mineral stores. So they're re mineralized. I'm not stripping minerals with bentonite and zeolite clay. I'm often using fulvic and hemic acid binders. And then finally you put them on a sauna. You can take a binder before the sauna, a binder after. And what the body does is say, oh, we're pulling things up and out of the fascial lymph tissues. We're mopping things up, right? Toxins up, but then we're sweating them out. So you start to sweat sooner in a sauna with a binder. Body is very intelligent, right? So, so I can do this three or four times a week with people, not, you know, so we don't want to de mineralize them too much with sweating and binding. But if you're in mold, this is a great way to release mold spores.

• 42:50Speaker 01

  This is a great way to release environmental toxins or other pathogens because they can't stand the heat a lot of the times. Right?

• 42:57Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So interesting, yeah. So for people that are suffering with these type of problems, then, um, they can also probably learn about this protocol on your website. And they can get some of these items to take before and after sauna, right? Is that, is that kind of how you're putting it together for people?

• 43:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. And then there are some people tell me, you know, I never sweat or I feel awful. What do I do? Start slow, like start five minutes in a sauna and tack a minute on each week. Or, you know, get in a hot bath, go outside and walk, any way you can just sweat. It doesn't necessarily have to be a sauna. So don't paint yourself in that one box.

• 43:32Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Got it, got it. We have a few more minutes. I'd love to touch on mold. You know, I also use that vibrant total toxin test and I find so many people have mold, um, different aflatoxins, other toxins from mold. And there's a certain percentage of people that are out there, um, shouting from the rooftops that mold is not a problem. We've been evolved to live with mold as humans. And I just would love for you to kind of talk about that in the last few minutes we have and how you think about mold.

• 44:01Speaker 01

  I think they're, they're, they're right and we're right. And let me explain the nuance here. So, um, you're right, mold is evolved with us. I mean, parasites are as old as we are. You know, how can they be the problem? The problem is our modern living, um, and we're building houses that are energy efficient, which is great for energy efficiency, but it's horrible for mold growth and lack of airflow, which is not how nature intended. In fact, nature keeps mold in check by airflow. And, you know, then we're using toxic building materials in the paints, in the adhesives, in the particle boards, and we build the houses outside, exposed to the environment where it rains on, on the wood halfway through building.

• 44:41Speaker 01

  Um, so it's really the way that we are building the houses and the materials that we're choosing to build them with. And this is promoting the growth and stability of mycotoxins and mold, in my opinion.

• 44:54Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, yeah, it's so true. I mean, the way we live right now in these homes that are erected with, um, like you said, in the outside, so right there, the, the wood gets rained on, it can get mold. And then we just put a house around it and then we. Paint it with flame retardant chemicals and paint and carpet it with, you know, with with the same chemicals on the carpet and then outfit the furniture with all of these chemicals.

• 45:22Speaker 01

  Flame retardants, spray them, spray them. At least they won't catch on fire and we smoke cigarettes on them, but they have flame retardants.

• 45:28Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly. And then we live in these homes and we keep the windows closed all the time, never opening them and not letting any of the outside air in, just recirculating all of that stuff. It's just, it's no wonder we're getting more sick, right?

• 45:43Speaker 01

  Yes, it's no wonder. And so we spend eighty percent of our time indoors. And if you don't have quality, you know, air quality that you want there, it's a problem. Or you live in a humid area, you live on the beach, or you know, where the ocean's extremely corrosive. These people are having to remediate almost every year.

• 45:59Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 45:59Speaker 01

  Um, right? So it's, we have to look at how we are living in society and how we are working against ourselves and nature.

• 46:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right. And what can someone do if they've found that they have these mold toxins in their urine test?

• 46:14Speaker 01

  Yes. So I always liked, you know, the one drawback with something like the vibrant urine test is that you can't tell if it's a past or current exposure.

• 46:23Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Correct.

• 46:23Speaker 01

  Right? And so I really like to take, have the person, if they can have the means to do so, get an environmental relative moldy index test or ERM test, which is developed by the EPA. My favorite company is in, it's a silly name, but Envirobiomix. They have a number eight test on there, which looks for gram positive actinomycetes, which is also almost a bigger problem, mold, endotoxic gram negative bacteria, which can grow in water damage as well, and the mold test, right? So it looks, covers all three of our bases. And it helps me match up what I see on the vibrant total tox test, the mold in the body with the house. And that way I can say, okay, it's your current house, it's a previous house. And now we have to check and make sure the mold isn't colonized in your sinus cavities or your gut.

• 47:04Speaker 01

  Cause then you can turn into a little mycotoxin making factory if we aren't careful and to carry it with you after you leave the exposure. Right? So I like to kind of match it up that way with people. And then if we find, oh, it's a previous exposure, it's a current exposure, sometimes I'll check a Marcon's nasal swab to see if they have mold mold in their nose, right? That's a good one, too. And then I often will open drainage and then binders are very important for me, too. Getting people out of the exposure is very important for me because avoidance is the number one rule of environmental medicine. And there are many people that won't get better until they're able to leave the exposure. I hate, it's the worst part of my job, actually.

• 47:40Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah. I bet, yes. The hardest part is getting people to leave the exposure for sure.

• 47:46Speaker 01

  It's hard.

• 47:47Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah. What binders are you using for mold?

• 47:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I really love fulvic and hemic acid binders. So I often use Cell Core Binders. My company, Aegis Formulas, will be launching a binder in this fall. So, so we will also have have a binder out that I'll be using, too. And every now and then I'll do something like a zealite or bentonite clay or an activated charcoal, but those are my least favorite. I think they strip more than people who are constipated. And, you know, we can't have people constipated during mold detox.

• 48:19Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right, right, exactly. Wow, I wish we could talk for like another hour, Dr. Jess, but you're so full of incredible knowledge here. Thank you so much for giving us all these really actionable tips. And, you know, I'm, I'm really excited you shared your website where people can learn more and dive deeper into this.

• 48:37Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on. It's your great interview. It was my pleasure.

• 48:41Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Thank you, Dr. Jess. Can you just quickly tell people where they can find you on social media as well?

• 48:46Speaker 01

  Sure. So I post a lot of free information on social media. If that's your guys' jam, it's on Instagram, it's D R period J E S S period M D. And then there's W plus by Dr. Jess, which is my Wellness Plus Instagram account, where we also post a lot of free information. I have DrJessMD.com, my regular website, regular website, WellnessPlus.com. And then my supplement company, which is A E G I S Formulas.com.

• 49:14Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Perfect. Dr. Jess, thank you so much for joining us today.

• 49:17Speaker 01

  Thank you for having me.

• 49:18Dr. Darshan Shah?

  All right.

• 49:21Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Thank you so much for listening to the podcast today. Please remember to subscribe if you liked this episode and give us a good review and share a link with your friends. It really helps to support all of our efforts. I also want to remind you that the information shared on this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult with your healthcare provider or physician before making any decisions or taking any action based on what you hear today, especially if you have any underlying health conditions or on any medications. Your doctor knows your personal health situation the best, and it's always important to seek their guidance.