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About Our Guest- Dr. Elena Villanu
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Dr. Elena Villanu is an internationally recognized crusader for ending the global chronic illness & mental health crisis by educating both the public and health professionals that mental health & other chronic illnesses are actually a body or brain health issue and not a disease. Dr V has been featured in multiple occasions on FOX news, MSN, Healthline, Houston Chronicle, Anxiety and Depression Secrets Docu-Series, and several other documentaries.
Dr. Villanueva teaches on stages around the globe on evidence based approaches for finding the underlying causes of chronic illness and brain related diseases and conditions and how to use holistic approaches like genetic based nutritional and amino acid therapy, botanicals, and other natural options to restore brain-related disorders and other chronic diseases..
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Full Podcast Transcription
Elena Villanueva 00:49
There\’s nothing that\’s more scary out there than to be labeled with a diagnosis. And then you attached to that diagnosis. And being told like well, there\’s really nothing we can do. But here take these medicines, they might make you feel better. There\’s nothing worse and there\’s nothing scarier than that. And we want to pull people out of that hole and let them know like you\’re not broken. There are answers there are solutions. Come and take our hand and let us pull you out of that hole out of that hell that you\’re in. Let us show you a different way.
Diva Nagula 02:10
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of From Doctor to Patient. Today I am joined with Elena Villanueva. She is an internationally recognized crusader for ending the global chronic illness and mental health crisis by educating both the public and health professionals that mental health and other chronic illnesses are actually a body or brain health issue, not a disease. Dr. V has been featured in multiple occasions on Fox News, MSN, Healthline, Houston Chronicle, Anxiety and Depression Secret docu-series, and several other documentaries. Dr. V teaches on stages around the globe on evidence based approaches for finding the underlying cause of chronic illnesses, brain related disease and conditions and how to use holistic approaches like genetic based nutritional and amino acid therapy, botanicals and other natural options to restore brain related disorders and other chronic diseases. Dr. V, thank you so much for joining us today. How are you this morning?
Elena Villanueva 03:26
I\’m doing great. So great to be here. And yeah, I\’m just really enjoying the shift in the weather.
Diva Nagula 03:35
Yeah, aren\’t we all? So apparently, there\’s also a total solar eclipse that\’s going on right now. So people might be feeling this energy that\’s shifting above us.
Elena Villanueva 03:45
Yep. That\’s a lot of energy going on in 2020? For sure
Diva Nagula 03:49
For sure. For sure. So tell me, you know, how did you get into the specialization of brain imbalances? Was a passion of yours going through school? Or was this something that just kind of, you know, found you during your exploration of medicine?
Elena Villanueva 04:08
That\’s a great question. You know, previously, no, this was not a passion. It\’s not even something that I even considered or thought about. I was a sports medicine specialist. I traveled around the world and I worked with Olympic athletes. And I mean, I was having a blast, I would go to Olympic National qualifiers, and I was doing all biomechanical type work with people and really, really loving the work. And then I ended up getting really sick, and it didn\’t happen overnight. It took time. But like most people, I just shoved my symptoms under the rug, you know, didn\’t really pay much attention to what my body was trying to tell me. And with the perfect storm, the perfect combination of things that transpired over the course of several years, and then ultimately, a few events that happened prior to to me completely crashing, those were, you know, those were the triggers that ended up taking me into a place where I had pretty much full blown dementia in my 30s. And, you know, I mean, complete memory loss, I couldn\’t form my words, I couldn\’t talk. I didn\’t know my son\’s name. I mean, it was really very frightening. I thought I had had a stroke, I was having massive anxiety, to the point where it changed my physiology so much, that I ended up with blood pressure so high that they were surprised that I didn\’t die from the blood pressure. It was like, you know, 195 over 187. And it was all anxiety, panic attack, you know, and that ultimately led to me trying to take my life more than twice because I was made to feel that I was broken, and that there were no answers or solutions. It was like, oh, well, you know, you\’re just stressed out, go home and take the Xanax and take this antiviral because it might be a viral thing that\’s affecting your brain, we don\’t really know. And I was thinking, oh, hell, I am not going to live like this, like, you know, and, and I\’m still here, I was unsuccessful, and taking my life. And there were some amazing stories around how that didn\’t work for me when I tried that. And an amazing journey, back to regaining my memory and regaining my full capacity and myself and get, you know, getting healthy, and optimizing. And that journey, that journey, is what took me into this direction of helping other people because there\’s nothing that\’s more scary out there, then to be labeled with a diagnosis, and then you attach to that diagnosis. And being told like, well, there\’s really nothing we can do. But here, take these medicines, they might make you feel better. There\’s nothing worse. And there\’s nothing scarier than that. And we want to pull people out of that hole and let them know like, you\’re not broken, there are answers, there are solutions. Come and take our hand. And let us pull you out of that hole out of that hell that you\’re in. Let us show you a different way.
Diva Nagula 07:24
And when you were diagnosed with this was really a diagnosis of dementia. What mean? Was
that what you were labeled with?
Elena Villanueva 07:30
Now? They didn\’t label me with that? Because I was in my 30s. They just went…
Diva Nagula 07:37 I don\’t know.
Elena Villanueva 07:38
We don\’t know what\’s going on. And I\’m looking at them with tears in my eyes. I can\’t talk because I can\’t find my words. So I\’m writing down, like, What the hell\’s going on? Why can\’t you figure out what\’s going on? How did the brain scan not show anything at all? You know, and I went to three specialists, I went to two neurologists and one ENT, had brain scans done, CT\’s
Diva Nagula 08:07 Nothing showed up?
Elena Villanueva 08:09
Nothing was showing up. They just wanted to send me home with medications.
Diva Nagula 08:13
What about other diagnostic tests, like conventional tests that Western medicine typically has
you do?
Elena Villanueva 08:20
They did do some blood work. And my cholesterol was around my total number was around like 57. It was right under 60. And they couldn\’t believe it. And they said, Well, you need to eat more fat. And I was like, I remember writing down like, that\’s all I eat. That\’s all I eat. Like I eat Mediterranean diet. Like I drowned my food in olive oil and coconut oil. And I\’m doing that all the time. And there was no answer for that. Well, it\’s like, they didn\’t even hear me. I\’m like, that\’s all I eat. Plus, I was having a lot of hormonal issues. And I\’m just like, my whole body had gone completely like imagine, you know, the starship, it\’s been bombed, right? All the alarms are going off. And there\’s all these things that are happening, you know, you\’re losing cabin pressure, the oxygen levels are going low, you know, the lights can\’t turn on, it can\’t auto navigate anymore. Like all these things are happening. That\’s what was happening with me like my entire body was lighting up with all kinds of symptoms. The neurological ones are the ones that we\’re focused on right now. I had all kinds of symptoms, and really, really no answers. I mean, it was like, that was a wake up call to me. That our impression that Western medicine is the most advanced medicine in the world and the best model in the world. That was a big wake up call to me that they didn\’t know what the hell that they were doing.
Diva Nagula 09:42
Right? And interesting, like for me when I was practicing as a interventional pain doctor, in my past life, I typically would have these people come to my my practice, and if it was something that I couldn\’t figure out, you know, I would punt and I would label them as having some sort have mental disorder, or psychiatric illness or summarization of some sort, you know, where I really couldn\’t figure out the issue at hand. And I would just punt. And unfortunately, I look at things a lot differently now, because I have a lot more knowledge. But what are some things and symptoms and signs that you\’re look for, as a practitioner, or patients can look for, where they need to come see a provider, like yourself, to get tested and checked out?
Elena Villanueva 10:29
So that\’s a really good question, and let me back up for a minute, I wanted to clarify what I said a minute ago, when I said that Western medicine didn\’t know what the hell they were doing. Western medicine is by far the most advanced for life saving, I mean, if you\’re bleeding out, or you get into a car accident, and you break half the bones in your body, like, wow, we can we can do miracles.
Diva Nagula 10:56 100%!
Elena Villanueva 10:57
Seriously, I mean, we have led the world in that kind of stuff. And, and it\’s amazing, it\’s the sick care model. Wow. Like we lead in that the health care like true health care and prevention and understanding how to reverse these chronic diseases that we\’re being told that you know, what you have this, like, you\’re just gonna have to live with it, here\’s some medication to you know, to modulate your symptoms or whatever, that\’s where we have failed. So I just kind of wanted to make that clear for the listener. But the type of people that we see, our perfect client, are the ones who have been diagnosed with some sort of a chronic disease, chronic illness, we\’ve even seen recurring cancers, chronic diseases, any type, like autoimmune, anything across the spectrum of autoimmune, neurodegenerative, mental health, including Lyme disease, those are the ones that we see. If you have been struggling with whatever it is, and you\’re not getting better. And your doctor solution is to switch the medication for the fifth time, the 10th time, add another one to your already growing list. And you\’re like, I\’m not doing this anymore. That\’s us, that\’s when you come and see us, I mean, optimally, we would like to see people in the very beginning, but you know, people are very, very stuck in their model. And they typically will start out going to whatever their insurance will pay for, not realizing that they are being put in a very limited model, with very limited help, where even if the doctors wanted to do more testing, or this or that their hands are tied behind their backs, they know that if they do perhaps what they really wanted to do, that they\’re not going to get paid for it. And they might even get a slap on the back of the hand, from the insurance company saying that\’s not the standard that we have laid out for you. You need to do it this way. And that\’s all we\’re going to pay for. And people don\’t realize that they don\’t realize that it is a sick care model. And it\’s not designed to give the doctors the flexibility and the freedom to practice what they really know. And the doctors that are still in that model that\’s what they\’re stuck in. And, you know, we\’ve been seeing doctors, you know, physicians, and people of all different practices that are jumping out of that model as fast as they can. Because they\’re realizing that that model is taking people to a really, really bad place. Ultimately, these people are dying with these diseases and these symptoms. And so a lot of practitioners are jumping out of the model, and they\’re doing what we\’re doing at Modern Holistic Health. In fact, we actually launched MHH Academy last year. And we are actually teaching other physicians, nurse practitioners and other doctors how to do these evidence based approaches, and use non pharmaceutical options that actually work. And we\’re able to show them how to use these options, you know, using evidence based approaches so that these physicians can see that these botanicals and these natural things actually do create change.
Diva Nagula 14:16
Right, and they work. Yeah, and let\’s let\’s dive into that more. So are the folks that come to you, or they experiencing a whole spectrum of brain related disorders like anxiety, depression, brain fog, you know, things that you were experiencing when you were experiencing your health issues in your 30s? Or are they all like a compendium of symptoms, and they all have these symptoms, or is it one or the other?
Elena Villanueva 14:40
It\’s really interesting that you asked that question that\’s very insightful. You know, it doesn\’t matter what they have been diagnosed with. Or sometimes they haven\’t been diagnosed yet. They are just still a plethora of symptoms and the doctor doesn\’t know what\’s going on hasn\’t labeled it for them yet. When you look at the symptom sheets across the board, You see a lot of common denominators, you see things like like, it doesn\’t matter what the diseases or what the issues are. The common denominators are fatigue, sleep issues, some sort of metabolic issues, they\’re usually starting it or they\’re well into some sort of a metabolic issue. They\’re having hormone imbalances. They\’re having mind racing, brain fog, memory recall issues, some worse than others, like they\’re different on the scale as to how bad it is. Depression. So yeah, I mean, we actually see the same thing, like somebody can come to us with Lyme disease, and they can have the neuropathy, so the nerve based pains depending on what strain of Lyme it is, right. And they could be having the extreme fatigue, and the body pain that\’s very similar to fibromyalgia. So they were diagnosed with fibromyalgia for the last five years before they finally figured out what it really was, was the strains of Lyme disease infection. But then on top of all those body pains, we\’ve seen some that are literally in psychosis, like they\’re having major, major, mental health related issues secondary to those infections. We\’ve seen people with Hashimotos. And they present with a lot of the same stuff, maybe not quite all the nerve pain, but everything else that they\’ll have. So like across the spectrum, no matter what people come with, if they were all able to look at each other symptom sheets, they\’d be like, oh my gosh, like we all have symptoms.
Diva Nagula 16:49
You have developed what\’s called the balanced brain body restoration mastery program. Tell us
a little bit more about that and how it works.
Elena Villanueva 17:52
And so we\’ve really pulled away from that doctor patient model, when I first started in functional medicine several years ago, it was very much that doctor patient model. But, we find that that doesn\’t work. We need to get people motivated and taking responsibility for their health and the journey that it\’s going to take to get them back. Because it\’s not a 30 day program. It\’s not a 90 day challenge these people that are this sick, it takes them about a year to get a turnaround, some of them it can take two and that doesn\’t mean it takes that long for them to start feeling better. But it can take that long for them to complete their journey. And what I found is that by educating them and teaching them in a maybe a more simple way, what we\’re teaching the physicians and the nurse practitioners, when we teach them, this is not rocket science. We teach them how to discover what the underlying causes are of their problems, and how to address those underlying causes and then how to you know what their body needs so that it can heal itself and then optimize and then we teach them the timeframes, the expectations of how long it\’s going to take, when we want to do follow up testing. So for example, with mold toxins, which are called mycotoxins, right for the listener, for mycotoxins and environmental toxins we test for those we find across the board like 99% of people are having these. Their body is so toxic with these types of environmental toxins. And these environmental toxins are known to cause all of the things that we\’ve been talking about. All of them from autoimmune disease, like total immune dysfunction, metabolic dysregulation, cancer, we all know that they cause cancer, but what about mental health issues, neurodegenerative diseases, central emotion peripheral nervous system damage, right? And we\’re seeing these chemicals. So we\’ll teach people like, oh, look at all these chemicals that we have found in your body, you\’ve got really high levels of glyphosate, you have 24D, that was used in Agent Orange, let\’s try to figure out where you got exposed to that in the first place, because that stuff is stuck inside of your body. And then we teach them so we we help them find stuff. And then they\’re like, oh, my God, we found stuff, we found stuff. This is why I\’m sick. I\’m like, yeah, this is why you\’re, let\’s get this stuff out of your body and watch what your body does, when we get it out. Then the next step is, which is some look, okay, we\’ve got all this stuff that we have found in your body, these are all known to be underlying causes of all these symptoms you have, we\’re going to retest every four months, so that you can see that what you\’re doing is working. And you can track that against your symptoms. And you can watch the progression because this is not going to happen in 30 days. And it\’s not even going to happen in six months, it takes an average of nine to 12 months to get this stuff out of your body. Even if we triple your detox supplements, your body can only get it out so fast. So then we teach them we\’re going to retest every four months. We teach them how they\’re going to do it, how do you use all these supplements, these natural things that have been around since the beginning of time that now we can get them in capsules, we don\’t have to go and you know, forage for them in the forest, you know, we can go find this stuff now, online, and through our practitioners, and we teach them how this stuff works, how to mitigate detox responses, how long it takes, and how we\’re going to use the data to take us along this journey. And that\’s pretty much how we do it. And using this approach where we\’re teaching people, we\’re teaching them, it\’s working very, very well, because now, as they get better, they know what to do with their spouses and their sisters and their brothers and their parents and their kids. And they\’re not having to run back to that insurance model. That is, you know, not always going to serve them the best.
Diva Nagula 22:03
Right. And it\’s interesting, you have a very full and thorough approach in a lot of people, you know, our society, we are in such a hurry. And for us, we\’re always thinking about a quick fix, specifically when it comes to our health. And that\’s typically how Western medicine is. It\’s like, you have this issue, you have this issue, whether there\’s blood pressure or depression, take this pill, and it\’ll improve, in a short period of time, and then when people are coming to you, and you give you expectation, it\’s going to be a 6-9-12 month process. I mean, it\’s great that you manage your expectations. But I would imagine that you\’re getting a lot of pushback?
Elena Villanueva 22:44
Sometimes we do, but not as much as we used to. And let me tell you why. We know that by
the time people find us, they\’ve usually been sick, five to thirty years.
Diva Nagula 22:56
And have gone to every doctor, yeah.
Elena Villanueva 22:58
Already tried everything. And we put a lot of education behind it. So in the fall of 2019, I told my husband, I need to put together a PowerPoint presentation and I need to educate people on what the most common underlying causes of pretty much all disease is. But we\’ll just focus on mental health and neuro-degenerative disease, we\’ll just start it there. And I want to educate people by showing them labs,showing them studies showing them how these underlying causes affect people very, very specifically. And then showing them case studies of people we\’ve worked with so they can actually see how long it took to clear these toxins, for their symptom sheets to go from 10, which was the worst on all their symptoms down to zeros. I want to educate people and he said, you know, go for it. So I started putting together all this information Diva. And it was crazy. It turned into this, it turned into like six hours of material. So we had to split it up and make a five part series out of it. So we split it up. And we made a five part series, each one being just slightly over an hour long. And we called it the mental health masterclass series. And we launched it in October of 2019. And it went haywire. We had no expectations. Like we just were like this is going to be great, at least with people who actually come to us. We can send them that and we\’ll have them watch it, whatever. But yeah, I mean, E
it went gangbusters. And as of 2020, we\’ve had well over a million people watch this. And they have come back and said, this has given me hope I wanted to take my life. Thank you for this education. We\’ve had practitioners, physicians come say, oh my god, this is absolutely amazing. Can you teach me this? Can you teach me this because I showed the data and the scientific studies published studies showing everything that I was talking about. So it wasn\’t just me saying it. And then I showed case studies of actual clients that we\’ve worked with and we usually had, I think in each day, we even had a testimonial from one of the case studies like they would get on. And we would do a little interview and I\’d say, Tell us about your journey. And so when we educate people, and they can see it, by the time they come to us, they know that this is going to take longer, they know it\’s not going to be a quick turnaround. And like I said, they\’ve already tried the quick fixes, and they\’re worse than they were before.
Diva Nagula 25:28
Yeah, you know, I really want to appreciate that. Because that really manages and sets expectations. And then not to mention, you have probably a lot of experience with a lot of patients who have gone through the process and have gotten better. So there\’s proof that your system works. And let\’s take a little bit more time and talk about the educational process. Like a lot of people, I wouldn\’t say a lot of people, but more and more people are aware of leaky gut. And it\’s all over. I mean, you can\’t go online without coming across leaky gut syndrome. But now, you know, we\’re facing and your expertise, leaky brain. And you also do advanced brain chemical testing, you know, specifically neurotransmitters. Can you talk to us a little bit about what leaky brain is and what neurotransmitters are and which ones you test for?
Elena Villanueva 26:19
Yeah, absolutely. So just like leaky gut, is basically a term that we use for the permeability of the membranes that occurs when, when you have either infections or toxins or different types of imbalances in that gut microbiome or gut ecosystem. And everything that\’s inside of our gut needs to be contained in that system. All right. And I explained to people, our gut isn\’t the only system like that, we have our blood brain barrier, we have that. And that is also designed to protect and only selectively allow things through into the brain tissue. We also have our vascular system, that\’s an amazing one, too, the blood needs to stay inside of that vascular system. And if, this is such a great example, if the blood starts leaking out of the vascular system, that\’s typically what we call a hemorrhage, there\’s a tear somewhere, there\’s something going on in there, it\’s highly toxic to the body. When blood gets out of that vascular system, like we have to have it, it\’s our life. It\’s one of you know, people call blood, it\’s our life force, we have to have that. But if it gets outside the vascular system, because of a tear, what happens, you die. If you can stop the bleeding fast enough, you still have a lot of damage control that you have to do, because blood, when it touches the tissues, when it gets outside the vascular system and starts touching the tissues. It\’s like battery acid to the tissues. It causes massive inflammation, a lot of damage to the tissues. People are usually surprised to hear that people think you know that, that the biggest issue is the loss of blood. Well, yeah, of course, that\’s a big issue. But anybody that\’s ever hemorrhaged, even if it\’s a slow hemorrhage that happened to me once when I was really young, I ruptured a, it was an ovarian cyst. And so there was a little bit of blood inside my body. And it just caused this massive swelling. And, you know, I remember learning that like, wow, I never thought I didn\’t know that it was like toxic to the rest of our system if it got out. So we have many different systems in our body, and they need to stay in their containment, these systems need to stay intact. When you have permeability of the membranes, or the system that we call the gut system, i.e. leaky gut, it will lead to leaky brain, it will every every single time, the gut brain system are intricately connected. And so you know, you damage the membrane of one, you\’re going to damage the membranes of the other as well. And this takes me back to why a lot of people are unsuccessful at healing their gut, because we see so many people who say, oh, my gosh, I tried, you know, Josh Ax\’s, his gut repair, like, you know, six years ago, and I did it for like over a year. And I felt better for a little bit, and then it came back. And so then I tried this next one, you know, then I tried this next one. And I\’ve been doing gut work for years, and it seems like if I don\’t stay on it all the time, I can\’t seem to get better. I don\’t know what\’s going on. And so we go well, let\’s let\’s look under the hood, and let\’s do some testing and see what\’s going on. Because all the supplements, all the protocols you\’ve been doing, like those are spot on, they should have helped you and if they\’re not we need to we need to figure out why. So we\’ll get the lab results back and we\’ll see that there\’s like a ton of mycotoxin so there\’s mold toxins. The person has, you know, Clostridium, your stealth infections, Clostridium infections. They\’ve got h-pylori, they\’ve got environmental, you know, chemical toxins in their body. And I tell them, look, this is why you have not been successful in healing your gut. And they say, well, I just don\’t don\’t understand, wouldn\’t the supplements work. And then I give them this example. Imagine you come off of your bike, you\’re riding downhill, you come off your bike over the handlebars, and you just go sliding across the pavement, and the entire front of your body has road rash, this happened to my kid once. So it\’s just a really good example. And I mean, you\’ve got like flesh showing in some areas more than others. And it\’s just like, really bad. And you\’ve got dirt, and leaves and gravel. And who knows what kind of bacteria is in all these open wounds? What do you have to do in order for this contained system, this skin system to heal? What do you have to do? And they\’re like, well, you got to clean it. I\’m like, exactly, you got to clean that up, you got a road rash with just dirt and debris and bacteria and all kinds of stuff in there. If you don\’t clean it, what\’s gonna happen, oh, my God, it\’s gonna get worse, I\’ll probably end up with gangrene. It\’s just going to keep getting worse. I\’m like, exactly. Well, it\’s the same thing inside your gut. Imagine your gut having road rash on the inside. And your gut is, if you spread it all out, looked at the surface area, it\’s the size of a tennis court. And you\’ve got to clean that up, you\’ve got to debris it, we got to get rid of the mycotoxins, we got to get rid of the H. pylori, the clostridia. The these medications that you\’re taking, by the way, cause bacterial imbalances in your gut. So what can we do to help your body so that you don\’t need these, you know, this particular medication anymore? And then let\’s get rid of this mold. And let\’s get rid of these chemical toxins that are in your body, then your gut will heal. And it\’s like mind blowing for these people. They\’re like, that\’s why. And I\’m like, yeah, that\’s why your gut hasn\’t healed for the last seven years. And they\’re like, is this why I now have all these other symptoms too? And I\’m like, yeah. Because, you know, if one system in your body goes down, and you can\’t get it fixed, it\’s going to take down all the other systems, it\’s like one Domino falls, all the other dominoes are going to start to fall, for some people, it happens faster. And for some people, it happens slower. But ultimately, if one system goes awry, and you don\’t get that fixed, it is going to affect every other system in your body, including your brain.
Diva Nagula 32:31
Additionally, I mean, a lot of these are related to toxins that they\’ve acquired over the years, infections that they\’ve acquired over the years, multiple other reasons. But interestingly enough, sometimes a person\’s DNA can predispose them to having these conditions. Can you talk to us a little bit about that?
Elena Villanueva 32:49
Absolutely. You know, we have focused a lot on like infections and environmental toxins. In my series that I have, in the mental health series, as well as our inflammation series, we talk about all the most common underlying causes. And we\’ve already hit two of them extensively today, environmental toxins and infections. But you\’re right, we\’ve got genetics to look at, we also have food and lifestyle. And then we have heightened emotional experiences, emotional traumas, lifetime experiences, and we can even consider generational traumas that are passed down, that we know that that affects not only your biochemistry for up to three generations, it actually can affect your genetic expression. So your parents could have had some big emotional trauma, like maybe they got put into a concentration camp, you know, in World War Two. And, and the family to this day is still struggling with, you know, like suicide, or some sort of chronic disease, and it\’s like being passed down. And when we trace it back, we can see that this happened, you know, this heightened emotional experience happened, and it\’s literally changed the genetic expression over the course of three generations. So, yeah, we look at genetics, and we look at genetics for a few things. Whenever we talk genetics with people, the first thing that we like to tell them is, your genetics gives you 99% control over your own outcomes. Your genetics do not control your outcomes. And we were raised that way, we were raised to think, oh, it\’s all in my genetics. And I\’m here to tell you that that is no longer true. That\’s outdated information. When we know when you know what your genetic engines are telling you, that\’s like getting the operations manual for the starship or for your car. Because each car is different. And each car needs a different kind of oil. It\’s got a different maintenance schedule, different kind of filters, different kinds of tires, different kinds of belts, different kind of spark plugs, right. Our bodies are the same way. And if you can look at your genetics, you can understand your exact operations manual, everything, it\’ll tell you everything from what kind of foods you should be eating, to what type of exercise is going to benefit you. Because some people are out there running 20 miles a week thinking that that\’s the best exercise for them. And it\’s literally killing them, because it\’s creating the wrong kind of stress in their body, they need to be doing yoga, and dancing, and other types of exercise. We can also look at the genetics to show us how a person\’s inflammatory engines, or their immune engines are working, because you and I genetically, could have some variations in our methylation genes and our detox genes and our immune system genes. And that we can be exposed to the same chemical 24D, for example, and you appear to be healthy until you turn 80. And then all of a sudden, you\’ve got metastatic cancer, it\’s all through your body, and bam, you\’re you\’re gone within like two weeks after your diagnosis, but you lived pretty healthy & symptom free up until then. And then you got somebody like me that we\’ve had the same exposures but different genes, and I start struggling with depression and anxiety. When I\’m 10. By the time I\’m 15, I\’ve got massive hormone issues. By the time I\’m 25, I\’ve got type two diabetes, right. And so it\’s where that link, that weak link in the chain is what I say. But let\’s just think about this, like none of us are weak, we don\’t have weak links, it\’s just varying, you know, how our links are made, how our genes are done. And by looking at that, we can help be more specific and more targeted with the protocols that we do with people. So let\’s say you know, you\’ve got 24D, I\’ve got 24D but depending on our genetics, I may need to take like really high dose of methylfolate and methyl B12. Because my methylation genes, I have so many snips in those genes, that we know that when we start detoxing me, it\’s going to cause a problem, we need to get those engines working, and 250 other engines that those methylation genes drive for us. And so yeah, the genes can really help us not only in helping to be more targeted with our approach for, for showing people how they can heal their bodies. But then once we show them how to get back to baseline then those genetic maps can show people how they can optimize and slow the aging process down even reverse the aging process.
Diva Nagula 37:34
And really love the multifaceted approach not only to diagnose the patient, but also to treat the patient. And I think that\’s what\’s really needed when we\’re talking about, you know, proper health care. I\’d love to like, end our show by talking about a success story of one of your your patients, if you can think about one like what, what did they come in to see you for how long were they suffering? And then now i\’d love to just elucidate the transformational process.
Elena Villanueva 38:04
Oh my gosh, absolutely. I\’ll give you two because they\’re totally different ages. The first one that comes to mind is a woman out of California. And she is in her early 50s and when she came to us almost two years ago, she was barely able to walk. So she was using a walker. And she would be in a wheelchair part of the time, she could walk just a little bit, but pretty much she was getting to the point where she couldn\’t walk anymore because of Parkinson\’s disease in her early 50s. That\’s scary. I\’m 49. You know, it\’s just like I was like it really like when she told me what was going on. I just wanted to reach through the screen and grab her and say you come stay with me. I\’m going to take care of you because I felt like this deep connection because we\’re so close in age and I was thinking oh my god, I can\’t even imagine right. And she was having trouble talking, a lot of tremors and she had been taking some medications from her doctors from her neurologist, one of them being a L-DOPA because, you know, typically, what, what happens when you get diagnosed with that all the doctors say, oh, you\’re not making enough dopamine. That\’s why you have Parkinson\’s. Let\’s give you this L-DOPA. Did they even test to double check what her dopamine was? No, because it\’s not gold standard in the medical insurance world and of course, they\’ll say, oh, well that, you know, that\’s just not accurate. Well, you know, we find that it\’s fairly accurate actually. And so we started testing her. She had mycotoxins. I read a lot of mycotoxins. She had heavy metals. She had some really high levels of chemical toxins that are known to adversely aka severely affect both central and peripheral nervous system function leading to cellular apoptosis of the neuron. You know, when you look at these chemicals, they\’re known to do that. And she get really like scary high levels of this stuff. And so when we ordered her genes so that we would better know how to work with her and optimize her and carry her through the process. And we work with her, and within a year, and I have her showing on my case studies in this five part series, she was able to walk, she didn\’t need her Walker, she didn\’t need her cane and it was it was a long process. And we had to, we had to give her enough information so that she could convince her neurologist to get off the L-DOPA, because what we found was that the mycotoxins and a cluster D infection that she had, those two are actually known to inhibit the dopamine converting enzyme that converts dopamine into epi nor epi. And what happens when, when this occurs, dopamine levels go sky high, and it fries the brain in very simplistic terms, it fries your brain. So it was making her worse, the L-DOPA was making her worse. And so we had to talk with her about it she knew that her doctor was gonna say, Oh, hell, no, you need to stay on this. And I told her, I said, position it this way, say, Doc, what we\’ve been doing for the last year hasn\’t been working, I can always jump back on it, the bottles sitting right in my kitchen. But I want you to give me your blessing, like I want to be able to stop it. You know, I want to get off the L-DOPA and I want to see how I do? Well, she ended up working with her practitioner, she started lowering her dose got off of it, and she got better. So it wasn\’t a low dopamine issue. And only by testing were we able to figure that out. And we also wanted to make sure and rule out that there wasn\’t a genetic issue causing this inhibition of the DBH enzyme or this dopamine converting enzyme. It can be a genetic thing where there\’s an engine that\’s not working quite right. That\’s a very, very rare, it\’s like .002% or whatever. Like it hardly ever happens. It\’s usually from these chemicals. And so that\’s one story. And that\’s huge. Can you imagine, I mean, at that age already not being able to walk and I mean, it was just it was so scary. And then we have a 21 year old. He\’s also on our series, and he does a little video testimonial, and we show his entire case study. 21 years old. He\’s getting ready to graduate. He has one semester left. He\’s graduating in aerospace engineering. So super smart kid, right? Like that\’s not an easy degree to get. And when he came to us, he had suicide ideation. He had really bad OCD. And he had a lot of depression, mind raising anxiety, he had a lot of aggression and anger. And the doctor started him on Prozac when he was 10 or 11 years old. Can you believe that? Like I hear that, and I just get so angry. I get so angry. I mean, oh my god. So he had been on different medications. As you know, it\’s very rare that somebody will stay on the same SSRI, or same antidepressant over the course of the years. The doctors change them, they change them up. Well, when he came to see us, he was on 300 milligrams of Zoloft a day 300 milligrams. And he was skeptical about what we do. But his mom had seen our five part series. And I sat and I talked with him. And I was able to really talk on his level. My husband is also an aerospace engineer. So we were able to really talk on the same level. And I was like, look, we\’re data driven, the data doesn\’t lie. Let us show you the data. And I convinced him to watch this series so that he could watch our five part masterclass, he watched it and came back and said, alright, let\’s do this. I\’ve got nothing to lose, let\’s let the data drive our decisions. And we did it. And now he\’s in a wellness program with us. And he is successfully weaning off of his meds. You know, we needed to get his body in a healthy place first, before his body was ready to be able to not need those medications anymore. And it took a little bit over a year to clean up his body. It took a while. He feels great, though. And you know what foods was one of those problems. Food was killing him. And it wasn\’t we were able to show him on, you know, labs, that every time for example, if he was eating gluten, it was causing a massive immune response in his brain. And when we were able to show that in a lab, then he was like, oh my god, and he doesn\’t mess around now with the glue and he doesn\’t say well, I\’m 90% gluten free because he knows that that\’s toxic to him. It\’s not toxic to everybody like it is to him. But it can be to some people, and he had some toxins and some other stuff going on. And he\’s doing extremely well. But he actually will go on and speak on podcasts. And, you know, sometimes we\’ll have people who want to do a program who are like around his age. And he will get on the phone and talk with them and share his story. So he\’s a really wonderful ambassador for the work that we do.
Diva Nagula 45:25
Oh, wonderful. I\’m so glad that both of these patients are doing so much better. Where can people go to find out more information about you know, the balance your brain program and your five part series.
Elena Villanueva 45:37
Go to modernholistichealth.com. And that\’s our website, we\’ve got all kinds of awesome information there at modernholistichealth.com, and from there, there should be a pop up or something that shows up where you can register for our five part series. And so you can do that. And if you don\’t see that, you can just give us your email, we can send you emails on different things that we have going on the different offerings, different, whatever. And you\’ll get an opportunity to sign up for our series through that as well. Yeah, so just go to modernholistichealth.com and check out our website. We\’ve got so much information on there.
Diva Nagula 46:22
Elena, thank you so much for joining us. It was a pleasure talking with you about all these
issues. And I really appreciate, as well as other people appreciate, the work that you do.
Elena Villanueva 46:31
Thank you so much. I really appreciate getting on with you. And we would love to reciprocate and have you on our podcast as well. tribe talk, you know, is our podcast and we are working you know, just like you to really just teach people and give them real information that can be life saving. So thanks for having me on today.
Diva Nagula 46:54 Thank you
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