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Today’s episode is all about all things minerals and gut health, why you should care about minerals, minerals and stress, and why they matter.
Leah Brueggemann is a Functional Diagnostic Nutritional practitioner, specializing in hormonal balance for women. She helps women balance their hormones naturally with nutrition, lifestyle and finally getting to the root issue. She has helped over 300 women get painless periods, stabilize their moods, get pregnant and finally able to lose weight. Leah has a passion for helping women connect to their cycle, and reclaim their health.
In Today’s Episode We Discuss:
- Why minerals matter directly for gut health
- How minerals indirectly affect gut health
- Potassium and how it affects our daily lives
- Why you need cofactors to absorb the minerals and supplements you’re taking
- Primary, secondary, and tertiary minerals
- Why you shouldn’t be scared of Salt
Quotes:
“ Basically, they affect every aspect of your life, you know, water balance, nerve activity, muscle contractions, energy production, enzyme production, think about them as like your little spark plugs.” Leah Brueggemann
“ And the more stressed you are, the more depleted your potassium gets.” Leah Brueggman
“And I think it’s so good for everyone to be aware that just going and taking random supplements or random minerals is not necessarily going to be super helpful. In fact, it could be super harmful.” Dr. Heather Finley
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Transcription:
SPEAKERS
Heather Finley
Leah Brueggemann
Heather Finley 00:01
Hey, welcome to the love your gut podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Heather Finley, I know what you’re thinking, how am I supposed to love my gut when all it does is hold me back. I thought the same thing before I found relief from my own gut health issues. I dedicated my life to getting into the bottom of my own gut issues. So I can help women just like you transform theirs. Now, I’m here to guide you through your own gut health journey. We do this through identifying your root causes and making sustainable and transformative changes. As a result, you can unleash your true potential. My goal is to empower you with the information and tools you need to love your gut, so it loves you back, right here on this podcast.
Leah Brueggemann 00:47
Where the hunters we’re not like the prey, so you can’t like poop on the run, like horses can. So if you aren’t slowing down enough to like, let your body feel safe. And like, yes, we’re gonna have enough time to actually have a bowel movement this morning. It’s just not going to happen. And I see this often with people that are like very regular poopers, you know, like, at the same time every day, and their schedule gets changed for some reason. And they’re like, why am I not pooping? Because you have to give your body that routine. Welcome back to the letter gut Podcast.
Heather Finley 01:23
Today I am joined by Leah, and we are going to talk all things minerals, and gut health minerals and stress minerals and adrenals. And why you should care about minerals and why they matter. So Leah, thank you so much for joining. And why don’t you just tell us a little bit a little bit about yourself and why you got into the functional health space.
Leah Brueggemann 01:46
Ah, I’m so happy to be here and talk about gut health because it’s so important. Well, so I was not always in the functional health space. I, when I was growing up, my mom was in holistic health all the time, like homeopathy, like all these foods, I thought healthy eating and supplements were dumb. Like, that was just me growing up. And then I ran into a lot of health issues. When I graduated college, actually, hello, stress basically ruined my life. And I had so many gut issues, so many hormonal issues, I was diagnosed with fibroadenomas, which kind of started my whole journey. And that’s when they were the only option, you know, the doctors gave me was to surgically remove them. I was like, Okay, I’m gonna go look for something else. And that’s when I kind of started going into the health space. And after years, literally, of trying random things and doing random doctors, I was like, Okay, there’s gotta be a better way. And I started learning myself instead of just like going to random people. And I was able to finally get to like the root of what was going on which stress was such a big word, I feel like people get so annoyed, they’re like, tell me this supplement, like, ah, you know, you have to manage your stress. And that’s when I got into the health space. And then I went on to become a functional practitioner, because there’s just you have to keep learning. And at that point, when you start feeling better, like, my digestion was better, I was able to regulate my periods, my skin cleared up my fiber adenomas are gone, which is like, amazing, when you’re told your only option is to like have them surgically removed, like you can’t do anything about it, then you just have to share. And so then I started talking about hormones and minerals and all of that. And I actually got introduced to minerals from a fellow practitioner. This was before I got certified. I ran a hair mineral analysis with her. And she did my analysis and sent me my results. And I was just mind blown. I I never knew minerals were like these like little magicians in your life and how they affect everything. And so I was hooked. And so I run hair mineral analysis with my clients all the time now because I truly think that minerals are the building blocks to basically everything. Yeah, I love it.
Heather Finley 04:28
And just to kind of to rewind a little bit for anyone listening tell us what a fibro adenoma is.
Leah Brueggemann 04:36
Oh, yeah, so those are benign breast tumors. So, you know, when that’s like already a shock in itself, like when you’re doing a self breast exam and you find a lump and I’m not talking like a little lump, like mine was the size of a golf ball like a golf ball. And so then when I went into the doctor freaking out because breast cancer runs in my family, my grandma, both my grandmas have had it and my aunt has had it. They found that one and then they’re like, Oh, you have a Tod and I was like, but they are benign. But to get them you do, there is a benefit to getting a biopsy because you can have simple or complex, so complex does increase your risk of breast cancer. So always good to you know, make your decision and talk to your doctor. But I’m like so excited. You know, it wasn’t an overnight like fix, but minor gone. And I’m like, I will stand by that.
Heather Finley 05:36
That’s amazing. Well, thanks for clarifying. I think just so that everyone knows what they are and so that they can be aware of it. Their story is obviously amazing to hear, you know how you went from stressed to feeling the way that you do now, like super empowered in your health, and now helping other women help them to transform their health. So tell us why minerals matter, direct, or gut health.
Leah Brueggemann 06:07
Okay. So, when you think about minerals, like they are essential for your growth, they’re essential for healing. Basically, they affect every aspect of your life, you know, water balance, nerve activity, muscle contractions, energy production, enzyme production, think about them as like your little spark plugs. And your mineral levels can actually affect your stomach acid levels, which then in turn is going to be affecting your digestion. And mineral levels also affect basically how your body handles stress, like, can it calm down, can it relax, and it affects your metabolism. And so if they are not balanced, no matter how much work you may do in that area, you’re not going to see the results. And one of the biggest ones that I see is if your stomach acid is not where it should be like if those minerals are not there, you guys, you could be eating all the right foods. But if you don’t have the stomach acid to digest and absorb it, well, you are not pulling the nutrients that you need. And so whenever I see the minerals that are low that affects stomach acid, which is sodium, cobalt will also affect it as well. I see your other minerals are low as well, because you are not pulling the nutrients from your food. And this is often why you may feel like i e all the right foods, or the right foods. Like why am I tired all the time? Why am I bloated all the time? Why have I no energy to wake up in the morning? So I’m like, Okay, let’s look at your minerals. Are you absorbing your food? That’s so important.
Heather Finley 07:55
Yes. What are the first steps of digestion besides obviously chewing and salivation? Yeah, stomach acid. And so I think a lot of times people are so focused on oh, I need to take a probiotic or I need to take herbs to quote unquote kill my SIBO or I need to like think about the small and the large intestine but they forget about the stomach and then even like liver, gallbladder, pancreas, which could be a whole nother podcast for another day. Yeah, if you aren’t digesting your food, then everything else downstream suffers. So it’s really really important to pay attention to so Okay, minerals matter directly for gut health tell us how they matter indirectly for gut health.
Leah Brueggemann 08:40
So indirectly would be two different ways. One, I would say for sure, in terms of like stress and relaxation. So potassium is your stress mineral. And the more stressed you are, the more depleted your potassium gets. And it’s kind of this fun little circle where you just have to crack it in half, you have to manage your stress, but then you also have to be focusing on foods that are going to bring your potassium. Because I feel like we’re just stressed like everybody is just stressed and you’re so used to it, that you never go Oh, I feel stressed today. It’s just your life. And I rarely, I rarely, if ever see any less potassium levels at optimal range, because you’re we’re just stressed. So paying attention to that is really, really important. Focusing on foods that are high in potassium is really important. It doesn’t have to be I know everyone always thinks bananas but like avocados you know, coconut water, coconut milk. You know stinging nettle tea are all great ways to get potassium in. And managing your stress as well is super important because See, if you can’t get your stress levels down, get that potassium up, right, your digestion is never going to be great because you’re gonna be in this fight or flight. So potassium is really, really important. Magnesium is really important in this also, think about that. It’s like you’re kind of like your relaxation mineral, you know, if you’re low on that you tend to have PMS, you know, period issues, anxiety, muscle cramps, restless leg, all that fun stuff is typically tied to magnesium. And so if your magnesium is low, then you’re going to be having issues with all of the above relaxing. But it is important, though, to see we all are tying in together, you need potassium for magnesium absorption. So all your minerals work together. And this is why don’t guess when you’re supplementing like, yes, add in these foods that are rich in potassium and rich and magnesium. There’s no harm in that. But I wouldn’t just like listen to these symptoms, and then like run off and grab a supplement, because you need cofactors to basically absorb them. Magnesium needs potassium. So if you’re low in potassium, and you’re like, Well, I’ve been supplementing with magnesium and it does nothing for me. I’m like, Okay, well, quality is important, but you also need that cofactor to build it up. So I would start first with your food. Leafy greens are really high in magnesium, if you have digestion issues, cook them. No raw ones. raw cacao, you guys can get some like really dark chocolate.
Heather Finley 11:44
It’s really good stuff. My favorite.
Leah Brueggemann 11:48
Yes. And then you also need B vitamins. So to absorb your magnesium. And this is something that I actually see tied in with h pylori. So Cobalt is a form of like your vitamin B 12. And when we see it off in your hair mineral analysis, either super high or super low. We know a few things. We know a your livers congested, so that’s going to tie into your gut health 1,000%. But then also, why is it low? It’s typically low because your stomach acid is so low that you are not utilizing it and absorbing it. Okay, so we’re going back to that sodium for a second. But often the reason why specifically Cobalt is low is due to H. Pylori, which is the bacterium that loves to take up residence in your stomach, and it lowers your stomach acid levels. And so this is where you want to make sure you’re looking at that full picture of your minerals and your overall health because, yes, do you need sodium? Yes, do you need potassium, but if you have this fun little friend hanging out in your stomach, like you can be giving yourself all of the correct minerals, but it’s not going to overpower H. Pylori, you have to get rid of that. And H Pylori, for a lot of people, you know, gives you those symptoms of like indigestion and bloating and heartburn and all that fun stuff. But I also like to call it like the kissing issue because you pass it through saliva. Yeah, yes. So if you get rid of it, like your husband has to get rid of it. Anybody you’re kissing has to get rid of it. Otherwise, you’re just gonna pass it back and forth. And so I always hate when I have clients where I find H. Pylori, and I’m like, I’m so sorry, your husband didn’t realize he was also getting a protocol, but he is
Heather Finley 13:53
the thing thing with our clients, we’re like, okay, so here’s the deal. Yeah, you have this which likely means potentially your spouse partner, whoever has this. So you know, if it keeps coming back, that’s probably why. Yeah, but yeah, it’s often a chicken or egg with this H. Pylori and stomach acid issue like stomach acid that caused the problem was that h pylori, that causes low stomach acid, but either way, you really have to treat both. So you’re thinking about how do I get rid of H. Pylori, and how do I optimize my minerals so that I can maintain adequate stomach acid levels? Yeah,
Leah Brueggemann 14:35
I agree. And, I mean, I think it’s so simple to just start with your food, you know, like, I think everyone’s like, Oh, I’m not gonna like go get this test. I don’t want to like buy these supplements right away. Just start with your food, and then build up from there. Because if you start doing your food and you’re like, okay, not noticing a difference here, then you know, okay, either we need to know go a step stronger or Maybe you do need to look into like gut pathogens or H Pylori and see what may be affecting your absorption. But food is so powerful when used correctly. And so I rule of thumb I try and have everyone always have like a potassium rich food with every snack and meal, just a whole list, I’m like, choose your favorite like, it doesn’t have to be the same. But try and focus on getting in that potassium because it’s getting depleted throughout the day, based on your stress level. So you need to be focusing on replenishing it through your food. Go get yourself a really good Celtic sea salt, and sprinkle a little bit of that in your water use that on your food, not talking about that like white salt that says like added iodide that you get from the grocery store, get the actual Celtic sea salt with the black flecks in it that has your minerals, it’s such a good way to get your sodium in. So that can be really, really helpful. Use that on your foods, sprinkle a little bit in your water, especially I feel like I don’t know how you feel about this. But like when people are like I get bloated when I drink water, or it goes right through me always add a little bit of sea salt to your water, it just helps kind of help your body absorb it a little bit better go through your system a little bit slower. So I find that to be really helpful. And then focusing on getting your magnesium rich foods and just we’ll start in with chocolate, but really chocolates. It’s the best. But leafy greens are also high in magnesium,
Heather Finley 16:40
because some good potassium rich foods. So I think everyone probably is like, oh bananas high. And there’s many other foods that are high in potassium. So what are your personal favorites.
Leah Brueggemann 16:53
So my personal favorite because of ease of getting it in is coconut water. I will say though I despise coconut water. So it’s kind of like it gets 20 Do I truly hate the taste of coconut water, but I drink it daily. So I hide it. So I’ll put it in my smoothie. Or I’ll put it with my electrolytes or anything where I can just hide the flavor of it, but it packs a punch of potassium. So I love coconut water. Another really good one is stinging nettle tea. If you’re a tea drinker, that’s a really good one. squashes are really high in potassium, which is really, really nice. And then one that’s really high and also goes into the disgusting category is celery juice. And I know people always like oh, drink celery juice, because Medical Medium decided to make that super famous. But I don’t drink it for that. I rarely drink it, but I would drink it for potassium. It’s really high in potassium. Yes,
Heather Finley 17:55
it’s not going to cure cancer and whatever else it’s going to do, but it is a rich source of potassium. Yeah,
Leah Brueggemann 18:03
so those are, those are my favorite ways. I also will do like an adrenal cocktail. That’s an amazing way to feed your adrenals. So you’re also going to be helping your stress and helping your energy and it’s in it’s high in potassium. So there’s so many forms of an adrenal cocktail. So you can just take your pick. But one of my go twos is the five ounces of OJ with like two ounces of coconut milk with a fourth a teaspoon of cream of tartar, and fourth to a half a teaspoon of Celtic sea salt. So you’re getting your vitamin C, your potassium and your sodium, which are all the minerals that your adrenals need. So it’s really helpful for energy. But then it’s also another great way to get your potassium in. And so that I do have daily as well. It’s a great thing to do before you go for that coffee, saying,
Heather Finley 19:01
I personally love that exact combination that you just, I taste like a creamsicle it does suit childhood. I’m like, This tastes like the popsicle that I used to love as a kid. So it’s a super, super good. So we talked about it a little bit earlier. But tell us a little bit more about why you shouldn’t just focus on one mineral like how they work synergistically together, why it’s important to really kind of zoom out and focus on the whole picture versus zooming in and focusing just on sodium or just on potassium or magnesium.
Leah Brueggemann 19:41
That is a slightly loaded question. So when you’re thinking about Yeah, when you’re thinking about your minerals, you have primary, secondary and tertiary minerals. Your primary minerals are calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium. So the These are the ones that need to be brought into balance first before you really mess with any of the others, because they directly impact all of the others. So if you try balancing, you’re like, oh, I need a little bit of St. Grey, I need a little bit of chromium. And you try supplementing with that without focusing on your four main ones, you’re just going to keep having to go back and rebalance those, because the four main ones are affecting everything else. So it’s really important to start with your first main four, and build out from there. So calcium and magnesium tend to go higher and lower together. If you’re having trouble absorbing calcium or magnesium, or calcium, you’re typically having trouble absorbing. Magnesium just tends to go together, sodium, potassium tend to go together as well. They typically are either low together, or they’re high together. So you always want to take a look at them as the four main ones and address them together.
Heather Finley 21:04
Hey, I know you’re absolutely loving this episode. But I have to interrupt real quick to ask you a huge favor. My mission is to empower as many women as possible to find relief from their digestive symptoms, and you are a part of that mission. And the best way that you can help me to pursue this nation is by going over to iTunes, and giving us a five star rating and review so that more people can find this podcasts. Now back to the episode.
Leah Brueggemann 21:32
Now, each one uses the other one as like a cofactor. So like magnesium uses potassium to help absorb it. You know, calcium and potassium are your thyroid mineral. So it helps your body absorb your thyroid hormone. So you always want to look at them together as well. So randomly supplementing is not going to help you here. Because if you do one without the other, it’s basically like really expensive poop at that point, right? You’re not going to be utilizing anything. So that would be my first reason why. And then the second reason why is I see a lot of times, people will, especially with COVID, I see this with COVID, people will be supplementing with their secondary minerals, zinc as an example. And vitamin D, which is not really a mineral, I kind of look at that more in the hormone category. But it can really affect your minerals in a not so great way. And so unless I see a hair test, I don’t typically recommend zinc supplementation, because zinc can drive out metals. And if your body is not balanced and strong enough to release metals, then you’re going to have a ton of side effects. One of them we call is the copper dump, because zinc and copper work synergistically. And if you have copper toxicity, when you supplement and bring zinc up, it’s going to push copper out. And this if your body is not strong enough, if those four main minerals are not strong enough and balanced enough, and your body’s like I am not ready to release this, you’re going to be getting anxiety, a ton of skin issues, you’re going to be getting a ton of digestion issues, and you’re going to have super low energy, you’re like What is wrong with me. And all you’re doing was trying to make sure you didn’t get COVID. But seriously, I see so much copper dumping from people that are either post COVID, or they’ve been trying to prevent it with zinc supplementation. And then vitamin D. I mean, it depends, I guess, on your perspective of vitamin D, but I live on the perspective that you know, Vitamin D is not, you know, just the supplement, you have to be able to methylate it and use it. And vitamin D supplementation can drive up calcium. And calcium when it’s high is going to be affecting your metabolism. It’s going to be affecting your thyroid. It’s going to be excuse me affecting your sleep, anxiety. And so I feel like when you start trying to randomly supplement like this and you just are like I heard so and so say that if you have like a hypothyroid you should be on vitamin D. If you don’t want to like get sick, you better be taken zinc or someone said that, you know if I have like lines on my fingernails, that means I’m zinc deficient and you start randomly supplementing without knowing the whole picture. You can just cause chaos with everything else. And I think that is often why you’re like stuck on means don’t work for me, because you’ve just tried to piecemeal it together without looking at the whole picture. So that makes sense.
Heather Finley 25:08
Totally. And I think it’s so good for everyone to be aware that just going and taking random supplements or random minerals is not necessarily going to be super helpful. In fact, it could be super harmful. So I want to play out a little scenario that’s super common with people with digestive issues. So the scenario is, you’re constipated. So you’re taking magnesium, usually magnesium citrate, to help move your bowels, and you’re increasing the dose, increasing the dose, increasing the dose? Why am I still constipated? And I’m taking so much magnesium. This is a super, super common problem. Tell us why that happens.
Leah Brueggemann 25:57
Again, you go back to are you even absorbing it? Like if you’re just taking all this magnesium? And you’re like, why is it not working? Well, maybe you need to be working on your stress hormones, or your stress minerals instead, because that was the issue. If you keep over supplementing with magnesium, and you don’t have those cofactors, right, so you’re not even utilizing it. But then you aren’t even focusing on what the root issue is. And that is like, you have been focusing on drinking coffee to get your bowel movements going. And you grab your coffee, and you run out the door with your drop your kids off. And you’re eating a protein bar on the way that has like a bunch of gums and fillers. And then you go from there to your work and you’re running around like crazy. In you’re like, why am I not pooping? It’s like, well, you’re not giving your body time to poop, literally. So that’s when that’s where I think the band aid system really shows that it like doesn’t work. Because the issue of why you’re not pooping is not because you’re super low in magnesium, right? It’s because your body is so stressed that you’re not digesting your food. Okay, so that’s where you kind of have to, like, look a little bit at the full picture. And, yeah, maybe it may be helpful to take magnesium if you’re feeling a little constipated. But you also may also want to make sure you’re getting in some soluble fiber with that. And you also may want to make sure that you take a bath that night and relax and maybe do some abdominal massage and just get your body in a place where it feels okay, you know, you are not. We’re the hunters. We’re not like the prey, so you can’t like poop on the run like horses can. So if you aren’t slowing down enough to like, let your body feel safe. And like, yes, we’re gonna have enough time to actually have a bowel movement this morning. It’s just not going to happen. And I see this often with people that are like very regular poopers, you know, like, at the same time every day, and their schedule gets changed for some reason. And they’re like, why am I not pooping? Because you have to give your body that routine?
Heather Finley 28:21
Yeah, totally. You can’t poop on the run like horses can I think that’s my new driver, quote.
Leah Brueggemann 28:28
It’s important to remember, it is
Heather Finley 28:30
so true. I we talk so much with our clients about a morning bowel routine, which is exactly what you just described, you know, some kind of abdominal massage plenty of water with minerals in it, and taking the time to sit on the toilet and do some deep breathing so that you can have a bowel movement. It’s amazing what just like a little bit of routine can do. Okay, and then last question that I have is, can you explain a bit about vitamin C as it relates to the adrenals and gut health?
Leah Brueggemann 29:06
Yeah, so Vitamin C is your vitamin that you can’t store. So you actually need to be taking it in every day through your foods through your supplements, it’s not something that you can store. So that would be number one. And your adrenals need vitamin C to function. And studies actually have shown that Vitamin C helps support progesterone production. So that’s cool. So I would start like, if you can’t store it, right? And then you need it for adrenal for your adrenals to function. It’s one of those vitamins that your adrenals needs just like sodium. You need to be taking it in every single day, through your food through supplements, otherwise, like you’re gonna get super depleted. it okay. And then it also, you know, you always hear about vitamin C, or like it’s so good for your immune system. And it’s really more so like, it’s not something you store, so you need to be taking it in every day. And I have also seen Vitamin C helps move your digestion along. So that’s really awesome as well. Like, if you are low in vitamin C, you know your adrenals are suffering, you’re stressed, you may not also be pooping enough, either. So making sure you’re getting it in through your food through supplements, your adrenals will be happy, you’ll be pooping better, and you also won’t get as sick. But more so I’m not really sure to directly impacts your immune system. I think it more so just helps your gut, which then helps your immune system. But that’s just Lea.
Heather Finley 30:52
Well, I mean, it makes sense, right? You’re good? Yeah. How’s your immune system? Yeah, it improves your adrenal glands improves all of that. So I mean, the whole process makes sense. Yeah. So this was super helpful. I think everyone now is going to be so inspired to focus on their minerals. Yeah. And minerals to their foods focus on getting minerals from their foods. So well, this is super helpful. So we’ve learned about why minerals are important for gut health, why they’re important for stress. And then several of the minerals that are super powerful in improving not only stress, but also digestive health. So just to kind of sum it up, if someone is really struggling with digestive symptoms, stress usually is accommodating with that. Or accompanying that. Where do you start? Or what how, if someone’s listening to this episode, what should they be thinking about? Or what are some action steps that they can take to really start addressing this? And you’ve already given some really good tips? But just to kind of wrap it up for someone with some Yeah,
Leah Brueggemann 32:07
I would say, kind of, first of all, just look at your food that you’re eating every day, like, are you getting a variety in? Are you eating in a super rushed state, you know, because you do have to digest your food to get the minerals from it. So I would, I would start there. And then I would start implementing like a daily adrenal cocktail that we talked about. So great way to get minerals in and from your food, you’re not even like starting to randomly supplement. And then I would actually focus on getting in potassium rich foods, and then sprinkling a little bit of Celtic sea salt on your food, and your water. Because those are your adrenal minerals. And I feel like if we can just help your energy, and you know, help your stomach acid, you start to feel a little bit better. So then you can start going in search of maybe what your next steps would be. That’s what I would start with. Okay,
Heather Finley 33:06
so I know that there’s probably someone listening who thinks she’s telling me to just add salt to everything, but we’ve been told to not eat salt. Why is everyone so scared of salt? And why should we not be scared of salt?
Leah Brueggemann 33:20
So everyone’s so scared of salt because you are told to eat low sodium foods, which is true if you’re getting your sodium from the package from the store. You know, if you’re eating a ton of processed food, if you’re eating a ton of like, the eye denies white salt. And the reason why is you’re basically getting sodium there with zero minerals, zero minerals. So you know, that’s not great, you’re gonna you’re gonna get like super bloated, you’re gonna get a ton of water retention, not great for your heart and all that kind of stuff. But when you’re talking about true like Celtic sea salt, like sodium, and it’s in its pure form, you need sodium, you need it for your adrenals it’s literally necessary. Okay. So when you’re getting it with all of those minerals in it, you know, Celtic sea salt has like 72 minerals in it, right? The ionized white salt that you’re getting from the store has has 00. So if you’re getting that high quality salt with all of the minerals, then you’re getting these minerals, and then you’re getting sodium to feed your adrenals. And then you actually notice the opposite, you’ll actually notice less water retention, you notice better digestion. So it’s the quality here, super important. And then where you’re getting it from is super important. So I wouldn’t be going in like pulling packages off of you know, the freezer and being like, oh, it has 75 grams of sodium boss. I need to get my sodium and for the day, that’s not the sodium we’re talking about. We’re talking about the sodium from the Celtic sea salt with the mineral All set. Those are where the benefits are not from the package fits.
Heather Finley 35:03
That makes sense. My last question for you, because this is called the love your gut podcast, what is your favorite way to love your gut? I have to pick one. One thing, you can choose multiple.
Leah Brueggemann 35:18
Ah, okay. So, I mean, I mean a pig to one is going to be to sit into my food. Because I used to be such a run around person grabbed my food on the go. And yes, sometimes that still has to happen. But I like to sit and stimulate my vagus nerve and eat in a rest and relaxed state is one of my favorite ways to love my gut. And then my second way is actually honestly, staying on top of my minerals, because I was the person that didn’t experience completely happy digestion until my minerals were balanced. And so it was like, I felt like I was eating all the right foods, I felt like I was managing my stress, but I would still get randomly bloated. And when I was able to get my sodium to the correct levels, my potassium to the correct levels, is when I finally was able to have no more bloating. So I eat and chew my food, and a rest and relax state and I stay on top of my mineral. So I do exactly what I told you. I do the same thing with my Celtic sea salt in my water. And then I just regularly test my minerals to make sure I’m supplementing correctly.
Heather Finley 36:37
So I noticed that that was last question. But really quick, how often? Because someone might be curious, how often should someone test their minerals?
Leah Brueggemann 36:48
I really think that depends on how available it is to you. Because like I can run it myself. So I try and run it every three to four months, because that is when like, you can see a change every three to four months. So that’s why I personally do it that often. If it’s not as available, I would say at least twice a year. Because you know, you’re doing it through your hair. And so you do need to have that growth. So you need at least three months in between every testing. But then you also need that time to like implement your protocol and be consistent with it. So I said if you are touching base with your mineral levels, twice a year, I think that would be a really good start. Yes, super
Heather Finley 37:33
helpful. Well, we get tell us where everyone can find you connect with you. And you guys make sure to tag her and send her a DM if you are interested in learning more about what she does. Yeah, so
Leah Brueggemann 37:46
you can find me on Instagram. It’s just at Lea underscore B ru e g, basically on all the platforms like that if you want to come hang out on Tik Tok, which is a wild space. So maybe we’ll connect on Instagram. But Instagram is a good place. I also have a podcast with Dr. Heather is going to come on as well. So you’re all welcome there as well.
Heather Finley 38:14
We will link all that in the show notes. Thank you guys for listening today. And thanks again for joining me, of course. Thanks
Leah Brueggemann 38:22
for having me.
Please note that this episode is not a substitute for medical advice. And you should always consult your healthcare provider prior to making any changes.
I’m giving your gut a thumbs up because you just finished another episode of the love your gut podcast. Thanks so much for listening in to this episode. I hope it was helpful. I know you feel like you’ve tried absolutely everything to get to the root cause of your gut symptoms. And if you ask me, I think it’s about time we find a long term solution. My gutTogether program is a life changing program that will help you finally understand what’s going on in your gut and the steps you need to take to find relief. Visit DrHeatherfinley.co/guttogether for more information so that you can start transforming your gut today. And as always, remember to love your gut so it will love you back.
