What’s up Unleashed Humans! On this episode I had the amazing pleasure to interview Jennifer Fugo who is helping hundreds to thousands of people eliminate poor skin and poor digestion. Not only is she one of the most intelligent guests I’ve had, but she truly understands the human boy better than most medical doctors, as she treats each of her clients as an individual with specific needs.

She covers how she takes a person from sickness to wellness by first understanding each person’s history on an extremely detailed level and by ordering specific tests to precisely determine what is causing a person’s gut dysfunction leading to skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis and rosacea. If you didn’t know, skin issues are some of the hardest conditions to mitigate because most people think that it is either caused by an external irritant in our environment or from food allergies. Now, these can both lead to chronic skin issues and gut dysfunction, but you will learn from Jennifer, that it isn’t that simple and that fixing your skin and gut is much deeper than what you’ve been told.

 

It was an absolute treat to have Jennifer on the show as I learned some things myself and I am sure you will benefit greatly from listening to this episode. Jennifer is an amazing resource to have and I am thankful to call her a colleague and friend. Without further ado, lets jump right into the show!

 

Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS:

 

1:50 - Jennifer talks about her battle with Eczema and Gut Dysfunction. For the longest time she thought that having bathroom issues was normal. She had developed circular rashes on her legs with chronic fatigue, headaches and couldn’t get out of bed. She realized that a lot of her issues were stemming from Gluten. She also quickly noticed that her Eczema was coming from large amounts of stress during her professional nutritional training. She went through the gauntlet of seeing doctors for her skin and nothing seemed to help.

 

8:36 – Jennifer talks about the things from inside the body are the real reason why people have poor skin. She talks about both physical and emotional stress that creates inflammation of the skin. Skin conditions can stem from 15 different reasons. Things like having thyroid dysfunction, low functioning liver detoxification, general stress, exposure to environmental allergens and food sensitivities. Jennifer believes that food allergies is not the major cause of skin inflammation. She says that gut issues, thyroid conditions and vitamin deficiencies come way before food sensitivities. Jennifer really thinks that testing is important

 

13:39 – Jennifer talks about lab testing and the mindset of why you should get lab tests. Jennifer likes having her clients go back to their primary care doctor to order fairly standard tests through Quest or LabCorp. Things like a CBC panel, fasted CMP panel to look at the kidney values and liver values. If someone is very itchy then maybe a plasma histamine is a good test to see how much inflammation you might have. She orders tests like Vitamin B12 + Folate, Vitamin D, Serum Vitamin A (for skin, eyes and thyroid) and a full thyroid panel (free t3, free t4, TSH, reverse t3 and thyroid antibodies). She also orders red blood cell magnesium aka erythrocyte magnesium which is not the same as serum magnesium… We want to know how much magnesium is inside our red blood cells which we need to power our cells for the creation of ATP. She likes to order Red blood cell zinc because zinc is important for healing. She also likes to order homocysteine panels.

 

17:30 – Jennifer talks about how she breaks down her clients as an individual like a cube. She looks at all the angles to a person’s life, health, history, drug usage, illness history and based off that, she decides how to test them and which route of care to go. She talks about how the current medical model is not conducive for health but in their defense medical doctors are under a very stringent watch. Medical doctors are under a tight radar to practice within their scope of care and are dinged if they order too many lab tests. Jennifer says it isn’t too late and that you should never give up.

 

24:20 – Jennifer talks about having health NOW is vitally important. Preventative care starts NOW not later. People wait too long to be healthy. There is a window for a person to return to maximum health. When certain things go wrong, it isn’t always possible to return to full health.

 

26:45 – Jennifer talks about the foods that people with Eczema, digestion issues and autoimmune diseases should stay away from. HOWEVER, people need to stop being fearful of foods. She does not put people on elimination diets unless a food absolutely creates a poor response like running to the bathroom right after eating it. She does not like taking foods away from someone because it perpetuates the fear of food in people. She would rather remove the issue at hand, rather than the foods. She talks about how gluten, however, is the only food that has been clinically shown to increase gut permeability.. meaning it creates leaky gut. Jennifer is more interested in getting to the reason or weakness in your body that is creating the issue first.

 

34:12 – Your gut microbiome directly communicates to your skin microbiome through short chain fatty acids (butyrate) which helps to acidify the microbiome. Butyrate in the gut communicates with the skin and when there are not adequate amounts of Butyrate.

 

36:10 – Jennifer talks about what she does with someone with SIBO and Candida Overgrowth. Jennifer talks about how SIBO can be a long and complicated road that might need to be co-managed with a doctor. She helps people with Candida by making sure they have enough water, possibly implementing S. Boulardii, reducing sugars and making sure that they are pooping a lot. Jennifer stresses how getting the bowels moving is the most important part in eliminating Candida. Being stopped up and constipated will hinder someone’s ability to eliminate Candida. She says how the Candida diet doesn’t actually work. She speaks about how SIBO is directly related to Rosacea.

 

42:40 – Jennifer talks about why having enough stomach acid is vitally crucial. Having low stomach acid can lead to SIBO and malabsorption of foods. Having low and high stomach acid actually show the same symptoms. Jennifer talks about The low stomach acid test – Mix baking soda with water and drink on an empty stomach. If you get small burbs or no burps at all, this can mean that you have low stomach acid.

 

45:55 – Why ant-acids were never meant to be used long term and are extremely unhealthy for your body. They can severely affect your b-vitamins. Chewing your food enough and slowing down while you eat will allow you to generate enough digestive enzymes and acid for healthy digestion. Listen to your body for symptoms that are sending you red flags that you are not digesting food like you should. Things like brain fog, memory issues, gastric distress, diarrhea, skin inflammation, depression, lethargy and social isolation.

 

52:02 – Jennifer speaks to the emotional, psychosocial and traumatic turmoil that adds to skin issues. She speaks about how both her and I are supposed to be poster kids for what it means to be healthy. During our professional training we both hid from people and our colleagues to avoid embarrassment. We both found that it completely consumed our life and likely made us worse for not being more open about it. She talks about how you need to learn to love yourself, no matter how bad it has gotten. Jennifer speaks to how severe emotions can run with skin conditions. There are people who threaten to kill themselves due to the emotional turmoil they put themselves through.

 

59:20 – Jennifer talks about the cost of skin medications and how absurd it is. How these people have to stay on these medications the rest of their lives. She speaks to how health care should be better for chronic skin conditions and the causes for skin issues rather than giving band aids like steroid creams. “Nobody has a steroid cream insufficiency.”

1:02:10 – Jennifer talks about how there are some serious side effects to using steroid creams which can affect your adrenal glands. People’s skin can become addicted to corticosteroid creams and most of the time can lead to worsening of your skin issues.

 

1:03:54 – Jennifer talks about the top 3 things someone should do for Eczema. First She says not to use coconut oil and use Jojoba oil instead. Second she says to get enough protein in your diet with 70-80 grams of protein daily. Thirdly she says to listen to the natural skin show to learn more. Fourthly she says to check out your stomach acid levels.

 

1:06:21 – Jennifer’s last meal would be homemade fettucine with Bolognese sauce from Italy

 

1:07:15 – Jennifer’s last week of life would be a trip to Florence Italy

 

1:07:45 – Jennifer’s one piece of advice – hug the people in your life because we are not guaranteed tomorrow. Love and give thanks for those in your life. Freak accidents happen every day. You should tell them you love them. Tell people how you feel because it might be the last chance you get.

 

 

Thank you for listening to this episode, I hope you got a lot out of it. If you haven’t already head over to www.theunleashedhuman.com/unleashed to get your free copy of my book to supercharge your life. That’s it from me. Have an amazing day Unleashed Humans. Speak soon!

 

Jennifer’s Contact Information:

Websites: http://www.skinterrupt.com, https://www.jenniferfugo.com

Healthy Skin Show Podcast: http://skinterrupt.com/podcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GlutenFreeSchool

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gfreeschool

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/follow/gfreeschool

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/gfreeschool

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=jenfugo

 

 

Low Stomach Acid At-Home Test → https://gfschool.clickfunnels.com/low-stomach-acid-test-optin

 

Having appropriate levels of stomach acid is key to a healthy gut. Unfortunately, 95% of my clients have low stomach acid (even though they have heartburn or no symptoms at all!). Low stomach acid can make a mess out of your digestion, and in turn, wreck your gut and your skin. Here’s how to do this free test at home to discover whether you’ve got low stomach acid and what to do about it.

 

 

Dr. TJ Woodham:

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