The issue I have with surgery is it doesn’t acknowledge the reason for those lesions forming in the first place. So to me, it’s an indication of an imbalance. I look at it as your body, put it there, so your body can unplug it. The whatever’s causing that imbalance. We’ve got to figure out what is that. And then we work on that and supporting the body and providing for the body.<inaudible> my own hands.
And with stem naturally,<inaudible> Welcome. Everyone. Other episode have a sister and her Mister today, we have Melissa Turner with us. She is a leader in the endometriosis community. Her reach technique, she’s able to help women with endometriosis. She’s actually one of the first women to start writing about endometriosis. She has transformed the lives of thousands of women around the world and taught them how to manage and eventually welcome,
Melissa. Lovely To be here. Thank you guys So much for joining us. Yeah. So we’re so happy to have you, we’ve heard you talk about endometriosis on numerous other podcasts. And we were like really looking forward to have you on here and just really teach our community about endometriosis, especially because it’s a condition that’s many times confused with PCOS as well.
Many women don’t know if they have endometriosis or PCs. So I think it’s going to be really, really insightful. Yeah. Fantastic. It’s always good to spread the word and get women more informed about what could be going on with their bodies. Yeah. I have many women listening are curious to know maybe if they do have, and or maybe they’re going from doctor to doctor trying to figure out the reason for some.
So if you, if we want to start this off by talking about some of the signs and symptoms of endometriosis and how someone would know, if that’s something they’re struggling with, The biggest sign is, is really pain is one of the biggest indicators and not all women do have pain, but probably I’d reckon if I was to put a figure on it,
I’d say probably 80% of women with endometriosis have pain and that pain typically comes with your monthly. But of course, when you have PCAs, there’s not that consistency with your periods. So sometimes it can be odd to actually see if that is a factor. Pain can also come with six or so deep penetrative sex can often be painful. And there’s other overlaps with endometriosis that are found with particularly that gestion.
So there tends to be the jest of issues. There tends to be IBS type symptoms, which where this is where often that misdiagnosis can occur, where women have those digestive issues and they put it down to IBS. Meantime it’s, it’s often endometriosis. So, but the biggest one is really pain. Is the biggest indicator. Do you mean like pain every single day?
It depends. I’ve have had women who have pain every single day. And I know for myself, I used to have pain every single day, but normally it’s around the monthly, you know? So before your period, during the period and after there’s also a lot of inflammation, so there’s a lot of bloating around their time as well. That was a big sign for me because I used to have incredible bloating just afterwards where I literally looked like I was three months pregnant.
And I remember, you know, people pointing it out to me saying, oh, you know, what’s going on? Are you pregnant? You know? Yeah. Luckily people don’t really ask that question anymore, but you know, when I was growing up, it was kind of, it was always a little bit embarrassing for me and, you know,
feeling really conscious of that. So yeah, but that is a key indicator. Cause it, it is a sign of inflammation and endometriosis is very much an inflammatory condition as we have discovered<inaudible> so yeah, seeing that overlap is quite interesting. And I guess we should have said this in the beginning, but it sounds like you basically, you have endometriosis,
but you were to like reverse your symptoms and kind of like thrive with endometriosis, if that would be the correct term. Yeah. I mean, you, you know, you’ve gotta be mindful of the terms you use at the end of the day. I don’t feel that I have in a ritual anymore. I don’t experience pain. I don’t have any of the symptoms anymore.
And I was diagnosed with stage four endometriosis. I went through very much the conventional approaches and tried all the hormone treatments. I was on the contraceptive pill for many years and injured seven surgeries. And yeah, it was really after that last surgery that I just went, I just can’t anymore. It just wasn’t an option anymore and had to find a different way.
And, and I not always dismissed sort of the natural approaches to me, it just felt whimsical or, or weak, you know, I didn’t really think that it was powerful enough considering I had stage four. You know, I felt that, oh, there’s gotta be something more powerful that can help me with us. And, but once I started adjusting my diet and started looking at those aspects and really noticed a difference and made me so excited because I was like,
wow, just by cutting out gluten, I can dramatically reduce my pain. And it was quite unbelievable, you know, and I still, I’m sure you guys get the same where people are like, how can it be so simple? You know, but you know, it’s, it’s yeah, we dismiss natural. But really when we think about it,
our bodies were made out of nature, you know, from single cells we were made. So, you know, why do we not trust in these natural abilities? Yeah. I think sometimes like Western medicine is so effective that we always believed that like, you know, like Asian or surgery or, or anything of that nature is really the best way to kind of,
you know, help with the condition. But like you said, sometimes the natural approach a diet can actually be even more powerful, but it’s sometime for gods to just cause of how effective like Western medicine can be. Yeah, definitely. I know I dismissed it. And you know, really unfortunately with surgery, we are creating an inflammatory response simply through that process.
So it actually a slightly counter-intuitive, I’m not dismissing surgery. It certainly has its place. But with me, for instance, I was literally on a surgery Merry go round. I went in every year and a half and it was like clockwork and I never considered that as, as a factor. So when you’re cutting into the body, the body is going to try and heal that.
And so there goes inflammation ramping up and the goes, adhesions ramping up. And unfortunately those are two of the key contributors to endometriosis itself. So, you know, and that’s really the struggle sometimes. Can you explain what’s going on with endometriosis and how I want to say how surgery could help or why surgery is suggested? Yeah, so basically what’s happened and I’ll really try and simplify.
This is there are simply dispersed cells in the wrong space. So that’s really the simplistic version of it. So you’ve got these cells they’re called endometrial cells and they dispersed themselves inside of the abdominal cavity. So they’re not mean to be there. So they sit outside of, of the organs typically. So outside of the bell, outside of the bladder, on the outside of the ovaries,
pretty much anywhere in that abdominal cavity and what happens is those cells grow and fluctuate as we do with our monthly. And because of that, they get sticky. You know, so if you mentioned it’s it’s blood and it’s stagnant and it’s not moving, it gets sticky. And there is an inflammatory response towards those cells. So the immune system basically goes,
all these cells are in the wrong place. Let me try and heal this area. And it drives inflammation to them. And in that inflammatory response, that’s where a lot of that pain comes from, but that’s also where then those lesions naturally fluctuate and grow and also adhesions form. And it’s the adhesions, which are actually really the bit that causes a lot of long-term damage.
You know, so adhesions between organs causes restriction, the inflammatory response might cause like the fallopian tubes to become blocked and there might be restriction on their ovaries. You know, so all of that would have an effect on an ability to get pregnant, but also you can imagine the pain that would be associated with that. So the minute you start restricting organs,
you know, you struggle to go to the toilet because now suddenly the bowel is restriction and it can’t naturally, it’s supposed to pulsate if I can say that, you know, so to, to try and evacuate basically. So the minute you have restriction in that area, you’re going to have pain in that area. The same with the bladder, you know,
now where you would use surgery is if those adhesions are so severe, that that is restricted, you know, to the point where it becomes difficult to go to the toilet, or it might restrict the kidneys or, you know, and that’s where it can become quite dangerous. So that’s where surgery would be required. And I’m so curious, what does the surgery due to the adhesions?
So basically what they try and do is, is they minimize those adhesions. So they’ll actually cut the adhesions so that those organs can move freely. Again, depending on the type of surgery, they, they will also go in and try and remove the endometriosis lesions themselves. Wow, There’s different types of surgery. So there’s ablation where they literally burn off those cells.
And you can imagine that that would create further, you know, sort of inflammatory responses for the body to try and heal. But there’s also a type of surgery called excision surgery where they actually remove the cells. You know, they describe it as removing the cells from the brute. The issue I have with surgery is it doesn’t acknowledge the reason for those lesions forming in the first place.
So there’s a lot of discussion and sometimes arguments about how this came about. But to me, it’s an indication of an imbalance and I look at it as your body put it there, so your body can unpack it. The whatever’s triggered that reaction, you know, as no different to PCO S whatever’s causing that imbalance. We’ve got to figure out what is that.
And then we work on that and supporting the body and providing for the it’s, not that, you know, the diet changes and the things that we do. It’s not a simple mathematical equation of, oh, let’s take out gluten, let’s take out dairy, and then that’s going to equal healing. It’s not as simple as that. And I’d love to say that it is,
it’s really about what is driving inflammation and yes, gluten and dairy are some of the triggers and how do we support the body? And that is the question I actually pose to my subscribers a lot more because there’s very much the restrictive mindset of let’s cut everything out, let’s cut out dairy, let’s cut out gluten, you know, but then what are you eating instead?
And so, you know, how do we encounter Easily replace gluten and dairy with more processed? Exactly. Yeah. Inflammatory foods. Yeah. If you don’t do it right. Cause it sounds like even if you have surgery, if you don’t get the root cause as, as you mentioned, it can basically create that, create the adhesions over again, surgery and surgery.
Yeah. Yeah. And so then we get to scenarios where women are having hysterectomies is, and, and going down that extreme in the hope that that will resolve it. Yeah. That’s actually common in PCO as, too, like a woman being offered hysterectomy is without actually giving proper guidance on, you know, like what effect that has on their body down the line.
And it’s, it’s, it’s very, very, it can be very unfortunate. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s, it’s such a drastic, Drastic. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and it’s, and it’s like, we haven’t even given the body a chance, you know, let’s try some of these natural approaches and really the doctrine of medicine of first do no harm.
Let’s really look at that. And how can we first do no harm and try all these natural methods and okay. If they don’t work fine where we can still opt for those, if need be. But, you know, I feel like there’s sort of this jump straight to that. And, and it just feels a little bit unfair. Like the body has the opportunity,
you know, when it’s given a chance. So I wanted to mention that there was a study that showed that going gluten and dairy free for six to 12 months dramatically improved endometriosis. And it’s so interesting to think that, you know, six to 12 months is a long time when people, the first thing was jumped to surgery, they haven’t given that chance yet of like six,
12 months to really try to commit, not just to gluten and dairy free, but the other things that we’re going to talk about that can reduce inflammation. And just for anyone who’s listening, who might have endo, or is still discovering whether they do, you really have to take a period of time in your life to really focus and hone in on these things,
if you to go the natural route. Cause it’s not overnight, it’s not like a quick, like two week diet that may or may not help work because it takes time to get used to, it takes time to be consistent to see the results. Yeah. I mean, even six or 12 months has even a long time when you consider like, you know,
how long we all live and how long, like the benefits it has on you for the rest of your life. Six to 12 months. Connection should be short when you think about it that way too. Exactly. I mean, you know, a lot of these women have endometriosis symptoms for years. You know, I’ve had clients who literally were in such agony that they couldn’t even hold themselves up.
And they would go through that every single month, over 10 years. And they never got, you know, this is the other side, the diagnosis process. Isn’t great for endometriosis. You know, they, they are looking at ways that they can avoid having the surgery as the only form of diagnosis. There are, you know, new technologies coming out now,
but you know, generally it can take women that long to even get a diagnosis. So they just enduring this pain and just pushing themselves through that. And we get it, we often put it down to, oh, that’s just, women’s stuff. You know, you get pain during your period. That’s just normal. That’s all women have that, you know,
because I guess our moms had it and our grandmothers had it. And so, you know, we do think that that’s just part of being a woman, but pain is not normal. And hormone imbalance is not normal and it’s not normal to have premenstrual syndrome. And it’s not, you know, these are not normal. These are all signs that your body is actually saying,
Hey, I’m not quite happy here. Can you help me? You Know, It’s very interesting because I’ve read and tell me if this is correct, you have to have the surgery to know if you have At this point. Yeah. I did find some, there was some new information coming out that they now looking at other ways, you know, so potentially either sort of almost like a pap smear type situation or blood tests,
you know, they are looking at different ways. They’re trying to find ways because obviously that surgery in itself, like I said, is a trigger. You know, my sister, she never had any symptoms. Her, you know, she, she didn’t even know she had endo and then they discovered a cyst that was quite enlarged. And so she decided she wanted to have the sister moved and obviously they go in and then they discovered she had endo as well.
And she said she hasn’t, her body has never felt worse. Like, cause she didn’t go down the whole path that I did, you know, but she said, she’d never experienced pain before. And since she’s had the surgery, it’s actually worse, you know? So it really is a case by case, you know, I don’t want to put the false information out there that women shouldn’t have surgery,
but it’s really being much more aware of the risks and the long-term consequences that I think, you know, I know for myself it was such a light decision at the time. Oh yeah. Let’s just, you know, half a day, you just go in, they cut you open. You know, I, I don’t think I really thought about it that much.
And I was quite young, you know, so I was very, I didn’t have the strength to really question. And I think women are a lot more informed now, you know, women, a lot more insistent on understanding what’s been done to their bodies, but at the time when I had it done, I was just like, oh, well he’s an expert.
I’m just going to go with whatever he says. And I did that for 15 years, you know? So, but that’s, I think why I do this work because to me it’s so important that we are more aware and more informed and really the power of natural methods needs to get out there. And that’s why I’m so excited when I find others who are sharing the same.
Absolutely. Absolutely. You’re completely right. It’s really about the awareness. Like of course, like you said, it doesn’t mean that no one should, no one with endometriosis should get surgery. It’s more about just being aware of your options and you know, other paths you can go down before having that surgery. And speaking of, I guess maybe we can dive into some of that for our listeners who are now like maybe more aware of endometriosis.
Could you kind of dive into what areas you focus on when you’re treating endometriosis, as well as like how you found gluten dairy to like really help with the inflammation and other symptoms of it. Did you hear about that sister who took Obasi tall and finally got her period after a year of not having one And credible. I see those kinds of messages on Instagram a lot.
How does that even happen? Well, Obasanjo helps with healing, insulin resistance, a common root issue that most PCFS sisters have. And by targeting insulin resistance, we’re seeing sisters kick those crazy cravings. Finally regulate their periods opulate and improve their ed quality. Each packet of opacities has a 40 to one ratio of myo-inositol and de Cairo. And NASSA tol this ratio is similar to the ratio that should be found in the body.
But with women like me who have S this ratio is often imbalanced. So taking us tall can be super effective in treating insulin resistance, starting from the root of the issue. Awesome. It tastes like nothing. So just warn me when you put it in a cup, so I don’t drink it. You got it. BU check out the link in the description to get 15% off your order.
So basically I use a reach technique, which is something I developed because I found people would say, oh, I’m using a natural method. And then when I started asking them what that involved, it would often not be what I would consider a natural or more the right term is a holistic approach. So, you know, just shifting, like, as you guys know,
you know, cutting out dairy and gluten and maybe taking some supplements, isn’t really a holistic approach that is, you know, it’s, it’s sort of 10% of the possibility of what you can do to support your body. So the reach technique is an acronym and it stands for are, is replenish. So it’s really, that is my shift. It’s not about cutting out.
It’s really, you know, I have the saying, it’s not about restriction. It’s about replenishing, you know, so it’s, it’s nourishing the body. Like what foods can we eat that really provide maximum nourishment? And that’s the shift in mindset? It’s not, oh, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t because you know, just by that mindset in itself,
we’re saying, well, because I have this condition on now can’t eat these foods. Well, that’s not a very nice way to look at life or, you know, you’re not going to feel very excited about food if, if that’s how you’re looking at it. Whereas if we look at food as all, it’s an adventure, what can I find out there?
That’s highly nourishing for my body? How can I provide for my body and really sourcing out the foods that are maximum in minerals and vitamins and phytonutrients and all the, I describe them as tools that your body needs to function. Well, you know, so if we look at a silly example, let’s say you have to change a tire and I gave you nothing but a screwdriver.
You would really struggle to remove that tire. You know, and it’s the same with the body. If we’re saying, okay, I want you to have normal hormone balance. I want you to feel well. Or once you have energy, I want you to have, you know, like be able to have good metabolism and all these things, but yet I’m not going to give you all the right tools to do the job.
I’m just going to give you a couple of tools. Well, your body’s going to make do, because it does, but you’re not going to feel great. And so this is where it’s really like, okay, what can we find? What are the amazing tools out there that we can give the body? And it’s amazing when you do that, how the body does get rebalanced,
it has the ability to fix itself because it’s now got what it needs. So often when you start looking into disease, it’s deceased, there is an imbalance, there is something that’s missing. And so a lot of the time it’s simply that there’s not the right nutrients. And what I found with endo was there was some distinct nutrients that were missing. One of them is selenium for instance.
And when I looked into it, they actually give selenium to cows because endometriosis, isn’t just something humans struggle with. They give it to cows because obviously it’s part of the, they need to have, you know, cows making babies little carbs, you know? And so to ensure that they give them selenium because they worked out that that was one of the key minerals to ensure that it wasn’t something that would develop.
Yeah. Yeah. So there’s many, many nutrients that we need and you know, there’s many that are efficient with endo, Just to clarify, before we move on. So cows can also get endo. Yeah. Yeah. So I, there’s a really old blog on my, on my website About so entrust, Because I was like, you know,
I basically started my blog in 2013 and it was all about my journey in how to heal myself and I have searched through anything, any information I could find. And I found this really ridiculous correlation with selenium, given to cows. I’m So surprised. I’m so surprised that they’re giving selenium to cows, but they’re giving women surgery. What is happening? We Are giving the cows the natural method,
but we’re not, you know? Yeah. Well, because surgery is expensive on a cow profitable when it’s What a shame. Huh. Sorry. What was your website and your blog? Just so we could, I mean, I want you, I want you to tell the audience at the end as well, but just for anyone who wants to go ahead and read that blog right now,
where could they find it? Oh, I’d have to give you the link because I don’t know the exact link of that particular blog. There is a search box on my blog page. So it’s Indo empowered.com, but there is a search box there so they can always just search selenium or, you know, probably even cow Might Even come up, but I can share it with you guys often.
So yeah. So then really once we’ve done replenishing and really honed in on the diets and really looking at foods that are highly nourishing and specifically, you know, with the focus on those nutrients that tend to be deficient with endometriosis. The other ones I found was iron iron is a big one, which, you know, that’s where a lot of the fatigue will come from.
And the periods often become heavier when there is an I it’s sort of this weird loop. The body does this quite often, when there’s a deficiency, it actually exacerbates the symptoms that actually triggered more of that deficiency. So it’s kind of this catch 22, Would the iron help with like the pain symptom of the periods? Not particularly it’s more the heaviness.
So when there’s a deficiency, there’s actually more heavy blood loss, but because the blood loss then also causes more iron deficiency, you know, weird loop. So it’s really about looking at what is the trigger for that iron deficiency. So, you know, yes, we can go down the path of, oh, let’s replenish the iron, which is one step.
But I always like to go a bit deeper and say, well, why is there an iron deficiency? And what I found interestingly is it’s comes back to liver. So the liver health and supporting the liver. So that’s where we really look at, you know, going a little bit deeper in terms of supporting the liver and healing, the liver and those imbalances,
and that links back to ornament, hormone imbalances. I’m sure you guys know as well is looking at the liver health. So yeah, so that’s really replenish. And then we move on to E which is exercise. Exercise. I feel is pretty self-explanatory. Most of us are aware that we should be moving the body. But when we look at endometriosis in terms of what the condition is from a Chinese medicine perspective,
they describe it as a stagnation or blood stagnation. And when you look at it, it’s almost like a dirty puddle that’s sitting in the abdomen. You know, the blood’s not able to get out freely. There’s not enough movement in that space. And when you spend 90% of your time sitting, you can imagine how easy that is from a surface level to create.
You know, so I’m really looking at how are you moving your body? How are you creating circulation and a good lymphatic flow, which is essentially like a waste removal of that space through, through movement. It doesn’t necessarily have to be exercise itself. That creates the movement though. Obviously that’s something we encourage, but it can also be massages and using different tools to create that circulation.
I would imagine it’s maybe like low intensity workouts since like a lot of endometriosis women. Like the symptoms you mentioned is like pain. The adhesions I’m assuming, correct me if I’m wrong, that it wouldn’t be like a intense form of exercise that could exacerbate those symptoms. Correct. Yeah. The biggest thing worth with high intensity is actually a drives cortisol. And that kind of stress response is not something we want to encourage stress in itself is going to drive inflammation.
I have had women where they’ve found it beneficial as a release. So it does depend a little bit on, on personal situations. But in general, I found more types of slower tuning into the body type of exercise, where you’re able to switch off and you’re not pushing the body. You know, there is very much a thing that, you know,
we need to exercise hardcore and go hard out to get results. And I actually recently did an interview with someone who she found she had fibromyalgia and she found that, and she’s a personal trainer and she just found she couldn’t do it. And so she formulated a form of exercise that she’s still able to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight without that forcing and that pushing,
you know, so we often have this idea that we need to go hard out to get results, but that’s definitely not the case. You know, an often with high stress, you’re actually compounding the weight gain because your stress and particularly woman, I don’t know if that’s so true for men. I think women in general, when we feel stressed that a,
it causes the period to become unbalanced because it’s, it’s almost like, you know, the body is protecting itself. It’s going, this is not a good time to have a baby. So I’m just not gonna have my monthly. And this is not a good time to lose weight because I need that protection. I need that sustenance to keep myself through this extremely challenging time,
because that’s how your body is perceiving that stress is I’m going through a challenging time. I need that. You know, It’s a really good analogy that I would make is it’s almost like your body thinks you’re being chased by a tiger or some sort of a dangerous thing. That’s like a predator almost. And it’s basically like activating, it’s like survival mechanism when it’s,
when that’s activated, it’s not gonna want to be fertile or it’s not going to want to have a regular period. So yeah, it makes olds. Yeah, exactly. And so the next part of the reach technique is something I called a firm and it’s, it’s really looking at affirming our love for ourselves, affirming our ability to heal and looking at a lot of those stress responses and what is actually the true trigger of stress.
So, you know, oftentimes women will come to me and be like, oh, I’m so stressed. I’ve got so much to do at work. And I’m feeling like, you know, my boss is always on my case and I’m not getting through it. When you look at that stress and look at the stress response, we all go through stuff in life.
And it’s interesting to look at how different people experience different situations and why is it that some people perceive something as highly stressful and others find it exciting or, you know, they may not find it quite as stressful as you know, somebody else. And that all comes actually down to how we perceive something, you know, how we view life, how we view ourselves and,
you know, through my own experience, I discovered that a lot of that came back to beliefs about ourselves and our ability to actually cope with situations. You know, so for me, a lot of it came down to believing I’m not enough. And so I’ve got to do more. What I’m doing is not enough. It’s not good enough. I’ve got to keep pushing,
I’ve got to keep doing more and not trusting, you know? So it’s a very interesting one when we look at stress, because often we think, oh, it’s the external things that are causing the stress. It’s the, you know, my boss or it’s the traffic or it’s whatever, but actually it’s our personal perception of those events. That is something that we,
we can control and there’s power in that. So That’s so true that some kind of mental dialogue that everyone has subconsciously, whether we notice it or not, whatever it is, we have to figure out what it is in order to understand the why we respond to things a certain way. Yeah. So true. Yeah. And you know, it’s, it’s,
it’s so fascinating when we start to uncover some of those beliefs and free some of those beliefs and also really look at, are we telling ourselves negative things all day long and expecting to feel good while you’re not, you know, that is all driving anxiety that is all driving. Unfortunately, that inflammatory response anger is a huge one. You know, a lot of the time there’s a link with anger and the liver health.
So once again, in Chinese medicine, if there is liver issues, they put it down to anger and obviously the two Interloop. So when the liver is struggling, you’ll tendency to feel anger is also heightened. So looking at well, why am I feeling angry? Am I feeling cheated in some way? Why do I feel that way? You know,
coming back to the things that we know on a surface level, you know, how could we be grateful for this day and how can we be grateful for this life and what is working well within our body and how can we nurture the body and really shifting our way of looking at healing and the journey of healing. And rather than this rushed kind of anxious approach of,
oh, I have, you know, I’ve got to research this and I’ve got to spend a set up till two in the morning, looking this up. And, you know, I know those all do well From Experience, you know, but actually just trusting, trusting that the body wants to heal and it can heal. And it’s really about nourishing.
And it’s a very different approach than looking at it as a problem, because this is something that I was to see, it’s a problem I need to fix this problem in my body. Well, when you look at it as a problem, you guess where your heads basis at, you know, it’s, it’s not honoring the body, it’s a negativity a lot of times.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, so, and that’s really the, the a and then we look at the C, which is the Keens part, and that is quite a large part of the process. There are typically a lot of imbalances when there is nutritional deficiency then ever terribly then also causes other imbalances. So they can be parasites in the body.
They can be, you know, worms in the body. They can be poor liver function, Porter just of health. All of these things contribute to a high toxin load and, you know, further imbalances, like there’s also links with mercury and lead and, you know, even root canals, all these things are attributing to toxin load on the body.
And so we look at quite a lot of different protocols in terms of cleansing the body and rebalancing the body. The reason that I created the reach technique in the order that I have is because a lot of the time when we provide the body with the right nutrients, it actually has the tools to be by repair a lot of those imbalances by itself. So sometimes,
you know, there’s this huge push towards cleansing, and I’ve got to do a detox kind of thing. Your body knows how to do that. It’s not that silly. It knows how to detox itself. The reason we might need those support mechanisms is because actually your body doesn’t have the tools that had, has to have to do those detoxes. You know,
so maybe it’s a deficiency actually, which needs to be addressed first and then naturally it can detox. So I know for myself, I went down all these massive detoxes and they were quite horrendous. Not much fun at all. Yeah. I mean, they can be, they can be so enticing. Cause it’s, it’s, it’s like a, it gives you like a step-by-step process to quote unquote,
like detox the body and feel better. But I think like when you, with your approach, when you’re going through replenishing the body exercise, affirming your cleansing part, once you get to it a much more simpler process, because like you say, you’ve already like set up the body with the right tools to be in that process. Yeah. And the body is more supported by that stage.
You know, it’s stronger by that stage, it’s able to go through those details. Cause so a lot of those are very testing on the body and very trying, you know, if you’re going through things and you’re, let’s say you’re doing a parasite cleanse, well, you’re not just killing off the negative, you know, bacteria or whatever it is.
You’re actually detoxing a lot of the good stuff as well. And you can feel really terrible if you’re not supporting yourself with the right nutrients at that point. You know? So that’s where a lot of people go through extreme reactions to detoxing, you know, and they go, oh no, no, that’s part of the detox. You’re supposed to feel like that.
And it’s like, oh, you don’t have to. Yeah. So what about H in the reach technique? Did we cover H no, we haven’t. Yeah. Yeah. So H is help and support. And so really looking at making sure that you have a community, you have other people around you, you feel supported in your decision to approach this naturally because there is still very much this pressure,
you know, even from friends or family or, you know, people around you who will be like, oh, but why this is, you know, you need to take this more seriously and you need to do these, you know, sort of more hardcore things. And, you know, the sort of idea that it’s very whimsical. And so having a community and having examples of people who’ve overcome,
what you wish to achieve is the key thing here. You know? So I get asked that on a daily basis, oh, can this really work? And, and so having those examples, hearing stories of women who’ve overcome, things that you didn’t think was ever going to be possible is really, really important. I didn’t have that. You know,
when I started on my journey, there was nobody talking about endometriosis. I had no examples of women who successfully treated the, all I ever heard was, oh, no, you need surgery and take more painkillers. That’s all I ever heard. And so having other voices in your head of what’s possible, I think is really important because the messages that we hear influence how the body responds.
So if we’re constantly being told, oh no, no, no, there’s nothing you can do. Just take more painkillers or, you know, the messages of doom and gloom. Unfortunately, that’s what we’re going to believe. Filling us our heads up with things that are positive and filling our heads up with possibility and hope is much more powerful than we give it credit.
I mean, there’s a reason why they have placebo in studies because the mind is very, very powerful. And placebo basically means, you know, you give somebody a drug that doesn’t have any action on the body, and yet people still experience positive change. It’s so interesting to think that they can give some bigger pill and tell them it’s for whatever. And then it actually does that without it even having any substance to the,
to the supplement or whatever is Exactly. And that’s why I love placebo placebo any day. You know, we can believe that something can heal and it does then brilliance. You know, why would we want to take something that potentially could harm the body that has side effects? You know, so I think if we can find those stories and hear those stories from others,
who’ve achieved what we wish. And the more we can hear those the better, I mean, I’ve got some amazing stories on my website, on the website, it’s called seeds of hope. And it’s literally all these stories of women who, I mean had one story of a woman who literally she had stage four endometriosis and she had that diagnosed surgically. And then she did all my protocols and my treatment.
And she went back and had another surgery and they literally seeded did not look like the same person. They said The endometriosis is not even barely there. And that’s amazing Really using natural methods. And this was somebody who had the, you know, the one I told you who had such extreme pain, she couldn’t hold herself up. You know, it would come like labor pain.
That’s how intense it was for her. You know? So I think the more we can hear that, and the more we can confess that the body is, it’s a mystery. You know, we don’t know, we don’t know why these things happen. We don’t have clear indicators of why endometriosis develops. I mean, I can throw out some theories out there from my own experiences and research,
but they don’t know I’m 100% on any of these things as, so yet the treatments that are offered, if you don’t really understand it, then how can you therefore then suggest a treatment journey? Like, to me, it’s like, well, we don’t really know. Let’s just give the body all the good stuff. Like let’s create an environment where the body can heal.
So let’s minimize stress. Let’s provide nourishment, let’s move the body in a healthy way. Let’s look at the mind and really believe that it’s possible. Let’s look at all the benefits we can provide and then trust that the body knows what it’s doing and trust that it can, you know, so yeah. I love your approach. I think that’s wonderful.
And I can totally see why it is so successful, especially the H part. Yeah. ’cause like cities believing, like when you hear other, other people would end up, like, they’re actually able to like, you know, get rid of their pain and they’re actually like how they want to live pre endometriosis. It just makes them believe that they can do it themselves,
or almost goes back to the placebo effect of like bleeding in something can actually just help you even better because it like tells yourself that I can actually do this. If we could believe in the natural method, as much as we are convinced of the conventional method, then we would all be in a better place because It’s such a secondary thing. When in fact it should be the primary thing,
the primary way of treating an inflammatory condition like endo or PCLs. And I was going to say that when I had PCLs, I honestly had no idea that it could be reversed naturally. And I was like doom and gloom. Like, I couldn’t even imagine, even if I heard like stories of people who have gotten their periods back regular, this that I was like,
it won’t happen for me. Like there was a moment where I really thought like that just, this is how I am, I’m broken. And here we are. And it’s like, if somebody initially when I was diagnosed just said, listen, you just need to crack the code for your body. You just need to investigate your health. Here are some options you can try and get started with.
I would’ve had a completely different mindset and not wasted time suffering. Yeah. I mean, really reach was something I came up with. Like I said, I just, I couldn’t explain what holistic means. You know, holistic from a naturopath perspective is really the whole package. It’s not one thing, you know, there’s this idea that, oh, I just need to shift my diet and move my body.
And yes, that, that will get you very, very far. But if we’re stressing out at the same time, like I literally have had clients who I told them, okay, well, we meter just your diet. So we’re going to cut out a few of these foods that aren’t really contributing to health, and we’re going to incorporate these other foods.
And then I would like you to do yoga every day, you know, and I’d give them a little bit of an indication of what to do. And they literally would make it to do list. They were so stressed out about finishing their to do list. And I was like, this is really not what it’s about. It’s about looking into your body and going,
okay, I need a breather right now. I’m feeling a bit stressed. I’m just going to take a five minutes space. I’m going to go sit outside. I’m going to listen to the birds or whatever, but it’s, it’s really about nourishing and nurturing the body. And it’s a very different way. And it’s so hard to switch that because we’re so into this idea of,
I need to go externally to fix this. I need to take something I need to, you know, do something dramatic, like a detox, you know, meantime, all you need to do is just relax for a minute, just take a chill pill, just, you know, honor your body. And that’s really hard to explain to people, you know?
So yeah. So that’s really a holistic approach. And that’s what the principles of natural empathy are based on is, is this whole picture and creating an environment for healing rather than approaching it. Like, like I said, you know, like an issue, like a problem. So what made you sort of change your idea that you could heal? I guess I don’t remember finding anyone who was like Instagram wasn’t popular at the time when I was diagnosed.
So it wasn’t like this mainstream thing, the natural pathic approach, but I was just so like repulsed by the conventional approach. It was. So to me, like I was told to just accept that my body is like this and you know, maybe I just won’t lose weight or these are, you know, symptoms I’m just going to have to deal with.
And birth control was my only option. Like I really just like recoiled at the idea because I was studying nutrition and I firmly like, just naturally believed, like, there is always a way to naturally heal your body because we’re not special. Like we’re natural as well. You know what I mean? Like we are equal to the, I, I really like,
I don’t understand like some kind of like special creature on this planet that doesn’t deserve natural approach. No, like there’s a time and a place for conventional as well. But like my natural first line of approach in my life was always natural medicine. And so then I started looking for naturopathic doctors near me. And when I went to them, I realized like they were really healing.
People. Like people were walking out their door, thriving from whatever inflammatory condition that they had, because they were really looking into like micronutrient deficiencies and gut dysbiosis and diet and lifestyle and everything that like plays into a person’s overall well-being. And I was like, this is healing. What is going on here? Like, what have I been doing that also took a while,
but because it’s like, you know, I was young and like a person needs like coaching and handholding and community and like everything that you mentioned, oh, you need like that, that support, you know, it’s hard to do that right off the bat. It’s like a multi-disciplinary approach. You need your naturopathic doctor and the yoga instructor and maybe a therapist and a friend.
And like all these factors by the time I like put all the pieces together, it took time, you know? And so with our approach, we try to cut the time. And Just like you, you have your reach approach 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, like, you know, no wasting time. Yeah. It’s interesting though, because the mind is actually the bit that needs to catch up,
you know, I often get this, it’s like, you get those extremists, like, oh, I’m type a and they want to get in there and they want to change everything overnight. And it’s like, it’s the mind that actually needs to catch up. It’s it’s the trust. It doesn’t come that quickly. We need to experience a pain-free period before we can actually think,
wow, this does work. Yes. You know, I mean, for me, that was the first thing I was, I couldn’t actually believe that I had a pain-free period. The first time I had it, I was just like, this is just phenomenal because I’ve had it for so long. And it becomes your reality, like that becomes part of your life.
And like, almost part of your identity is I am this broken person as you describe it, you know, it’s like, I am this broken woman and it really angers me. And it really upsets me when I hear a woman who described themselves as I’m an endometriosis sufferer, or, you know, they brand themselves, they literally brand themselves now and stuff.
And it’s like, you don’t need to identify yourself as that, you know, this can be something that parcels, this is something that you went through that you overcame, you know, it doesn’t need to be part of who you are as a person. And yeah. And, and sort of really looking at that and really looking at also the there’s sort of this interesting thing about that.
I know I answered where it was almost part of my identity wanted to be that victim, you know, part of my identity wanted to be that, that broken woman, because I got a lot out of that indirectly, you know, I didn’t want to acknowledge it at the time, but it was certainly something that I was like, Hmm, I can get out of things I don’t want to do or have something in my life.
I can blame it on the endo or yeah. Yeah. I mean, I’m in pain. I can’t make it to tonight’s dinner or something. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was kind of a great one to get out of things, you know, and I didn’t realize I was doing that, but it was on reflection that I kind of had to think about that.
Like, what am I getting out of this condition? What are the benefits of this? Because on some level it’s very hard to let go of it and not to have that identity attachment to it. So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, anyone can be more than like, no one should think themselves out, just a person who has endometriosis. Like you can be more than that.
Of course. And you can overcome it and, and like just enjoy life and not think of it as like how, how does endometriosis affect my day-to-day? So I really love your approach and how you’re really helping with like each step of the reach program and how you’re helping people’s mindset about it. I would love it if, if you share where people can find your reach program,
where people can find like your website, your blog, any other platforms that you have. So if you go to Indo empower.com, you can find over 500 articles on my blog and we have a free introductory course all about what endometriosis is. So we actually break it down into three categories of, of the key areas that we focus on. One of them being inflammation,
which we discussed today, and then there are different programs available. So depending on where you’re at in your journey. So whether it’s diet, whether it’s wanting to shrink cysts, we have all sorts of different programs available. And yeah, and it’s, it’s really about feeling empowered is I think the biggest thing is, is getting knowledgeable and feeling empowered, what you can do to support your body rather than what you Amazing.
We will put all those in the episode description. So listeners, if you would love to, if you would like to work with Melissa Turner, just check out the description of this episode and you can go directly to her websites and blog. And thank you again for being on this episode. I think this was the first episodes we ever had about endometriosis. It definitely opened our eyes.
I’m sure many of our listeners who may have endometriosis as well. It opened their eyes as well to a new world of, you know, treating there and the mature. So thank you again for being here today. Awesome. All right, sisters, thank you for listening to today’s episode until next week when we’ll be back with another one. So let’s take care of Bye.
If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you have to come check out the sisterhood. It’s my monthly membership site, where sisters just like you are learning how to move through the stages of PCO S from Sage one cold and alone at the doctor’s office to stage five, nailing the PCs lifestyle, gluten and dairy free, get ready to finally feel in control of your body.
