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Is there a gut protocol sitting in your inbox right now, or a supplement order still in the box on your counter? If you’ve been calling yourself lazy or undisciplined for not starting, this episode offers a more accurate explanation. Dr. Heather explains functional freeze, a nervous system state that lets you keep up with work, family, and every deadline while the one thing that’s just for you stays untouched. She shares her own story of staying stuck for months on a decision she already knew she needed to make, and explains why years of protocols that didn’t work can teach your body that hope is risky. She also covers how this same protective state affects digestion, and why more willpower tends to keep you stuck. You’ll walk away with five simple ways to start moving again, gently. What you’ll learn in this episode: The three nervous system states and what freeze actually isHow functional freeze hides behind productivityWhy repeated failed protocols make starting again so hardHow your nervous system state affects digestionFive small steps to help you get unstuckIf you’ve been sitting on a decision to get support for your gut, gutTogether pairs functional testing with a practitioner in your corner, check-ins along the way, and (in VIP) weekly live calls and nervous system coaching. Learn more and apply with this link.  Find the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!

You felt amazing after the antibiotics, the iron infusion, or the SIBO protocol, and then six months later your symptoms were right back where they started.  On todays episode, Dr. Heather explains why results fade even when the protocol worked. She also covers why more information so often leads to more confusion, and shares a personal story about what actually created lasting change in her own life this year. What you'll learn in this episode: Why a protocol can work and still not lastThe three places Dr. Heather looks for the "leak" in recurring gut symptomsHow the nervous system affects your ability to hold onto resultsHow to tell when discomfort means change course and when it means keep goingWhat lasting gut health actually looks like during travel, stress, and the holidaysMentioned in this episode: Episode 65 (for a deeper look at motility and minerals) Find the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!

What if something else is getting to your iron before you do? This week, Dr. Heather picks up where last week's episode left off. She explains why your iron panel works like a balance sheet: it can show you what's in the account, but it can't always show you who's spending it. Then she walks through the three hidden suspects she looks for first when a client's ferritin refuses to budge. One of them is among the most common infections in the world, and most people who have it never know. They can all go unnoticed for years, and none of them show up on a standard iron panel. You'll learn: Why "absorption is the problem" is a correct conclusion that still leaves most women stuckThe three suspects that can quietly drain your iron, and the clues that point to each oneWhy your body sometimes hides iron from you on purposeWhy treating off a symptom list can make things worse, and what order of testing makes sense insteadFind the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!

Dr. Heather's ferritin was 9 four months postpartum, and she had a doctorate in clinical nutrition at the time. She still couldn't fix her own labs, and she spent months doing exactly what you've been doing: assuming she had the wrong iron rather than the wrong theory.  This episode takes apart the belief that almost every woman with low ferritin is operating under. Low ferritin, therefore more iron. It's the most reasonable belief available, it's what your doctor believes, and for some women it works perfectly. If you're still listening to podcasts about your ferritin, you're not one of those women.  Dr. Heather explains how ferritin works like savings, and taking iron is making a deposit. You can walk into the bank every week and hand them twenty dollars, and if you're spending more than you earn, your savings will not grow.  Then she covers the three places the deposit disappears, plus the reframe for anyone who finishes this episode feeling like they wasted two years and four hundred dollars on supplements.  What you'll learn in this episode: Why the belief that iron fixes low ferritin keeps women stuck for years, and how it converts every failure into a reason to try the same thing againWhat your ferritin number actually reports, and why it can't tell you anything about the cause on its ownThe three places your iron goes missingWhy some women feel worse on high-dose iron rather than betterThe four blood markers to hold out for if your provider will only run a handfulKeep listening Start with Dr. Heather's Story Ep. 99: Why Iron Wasn't the Answer for My Low Ferritin The full Iron & Ferritin Series Ep. 112: Why You're Not Absorbing Iron (Even If You Are Supplementing) Ep. 113: Why Your Iron Is Stuck & Ferritin Is High Ep. 114: How Jessica Increased Her Ferritin by 20 Points in 2 Months  More on where the deposit disappears Ep. 100: Why Constipation Is Blocking Your Iron Ep. 108: Why You're Still Constipated: The Low Stomach Acid Connection Ep. 104: The Hidden Link Between SIBO, Iron & Ferritin  More on the minerals that move it Ep. 125: Iron, Copper, and Gut Irony Roundtable Ep. 121: Why Minerals Fix What Protocols Can't with Lisa Pitel-Killah Find the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!

Round two with the gutTogether team. Macy and Tyler are back, and this time we're talking about the iron and ferritin cases that have filled our caseload for the last six to eight months. If you've taken iron for months and watched your ferritin barely budge, or you've had an infusion and ended up with brand new GI symptoms, this conversation explains exactly why that isl.  We get into the iron recycling system, why copper and ceruloplasmin quietly run the whole operation, what gut infections do with the iron you take, and why ferritin sometimes drops before it climbs.  Plus the question we get in our inbox constantly: should I just get the infusion? Timestamps  01:50 Pattern one: the iron supplement that doesn't move the needle02:30 Your iron recycling system, and when iron is truly the problem03:40 Iron is a delivery system, not a faucet04:20 Almost every low-ferritin client also has GI symptoms05:00 Pattern two: copper, ceruloplasmin, and iron recycling07:20 Why copper becomes biounavailable (stress, liver, hormones, exposure)10:00 Retinol, vitamin C, and the easier fixes11:00 Zinc mega-dosing and the copper fallout12:40 Minerals work like a symphony13:10 High ferritin, wonky ferritin, and the Goldilocks range15:30 Why one lab in isolation will mislead you16:10 The gut infections we see most in ferritin cases17:00 The string of pearls: digestion before absorption19:00 How pathogens sequester iron20:20 Iron infusions and the GI symptoms that follow22:20 The macro minerals that influence iron regulation23:40 Under-fueling, unaccounted losses, and dietary variety26:00 "Should I get an infusion?" What her labs actually showed28:20 What women are self-prescribing for iron30:00 The takeawayFind the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!

Have you ever wondered what it was like to sit "behind the scenes" with the gutTogether® team? Today's podcast episode is a "must listen"! Dr. Heather sits down with 2 of the gutTogether® RD's to discuss the 6 common roadblocks they see when working 1:1 with clients. If you've ever felt like no matter what you do, you can't get over your symptoms, this is a good one!  (and make sure you stay until the end for some bloopers!) Find the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!

You can count the cost of your gut issues in supplements, copays, and elimination diets. But the biggest cost has never shown up on a single receipt, and chances are you've never once added it up. On this episode, I'm talking about the bandwidth your symptoms are quietly taking from you every single day. I'm sharing what surprised me most about my own healing after twenty years of GI issues, the moment I realized how much mental energy my symptoms had been eating, and what my clients tell me they actually got back when their bloating resolved (hint: nobody ever says "my bloating score improved"). Find the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!

Nine out of ten babies in the US are now missing one or more of the keystone bacteria their immune system needs to develop properly.  Stephanie is a PhD scientist, co-founder and CEO of Persephone Biosciences, and a mom who built her company's biggest study after a pediatric researcher asked her a question that stopped her cold: if you can fix the microbiome of cancer patients, why not fix it in babies? That question led to MyBabyBiome, the largest microbiome study of US infants to date, and to the discovery that something has shifted in how babies acquire their earliest gut bacteria. We get into what "missing" actually means (as in, undetectable even with modern DNA sequencing), why C-section babies are twice as likely to be affected, why breast milk alone doesn't always fix it, and why Stephanie now tells clients that the most important inheritance you can give your kids is your microbiome. We also cover why the probiotic on the shelf at Whole Foods probably isn't doing what you think it's doing, and why it's genuinely not too late to shift things as an adult, even if you've had gut issues since childhood. Dr. Stephanie Culler, PhD, is the co-founder and CEO of Persephone Biosciences. She earned her PhD in Chemical Engineering at Caltech, where she focused on gene therapies for cancer, and spent the first several years of Persephone's existence developing microbiome-based cancer therapies before shifting the company's focus to infant and toddler gut health after becoming a mother. She led MyBabyBiome, the largest study of the US infant gut microbiome to date, which found that 9 out of 10 US babies are missing one or more keystone Bifidobacterium species linked to healthy immune development (published in Communications Biology, 2025). Persephone Biosciences makes Bloom (for infants 0 to 12 months) and Thrive (for toddlers 12 months and up), synbiotics that pair specific Bifidobacterium strains with human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) and vitamin D. Connect With Stephanie:  Persephone Site (use code LOVEYOURGUT30 for 30% off your first order)LinkedInFind the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!

Minerals are often the missing link in any health related concern AND the biggest needle mover for individuals who have "tried everything".  If you've done the SIBO protocol, the parasite cleanse, the supplement stack, and your body still isn't responding, this episode is probably the piece you've been missing. Lisa Pitel-Killah is the founder of Vykon Customs and one of the people I trust most in the mineral world (I did my HTMA level one and level two training with her), and in this conversation we cover why minerals have to come before every other protocol, what's actually driving estrogen dominant symptoms that never show on a hormone panel, the truth about calcium supplements and constipation, how to think about binders like humic/fulvic and zeolite, and the clinical reason most gut protocols plateau before they should. Whether you are an individual struggling with health concerns or a practitioner curious about minerals, this is a great listen!  Connect With Lisa Vykon Customs Website Lisa Pitel-Killah on Instagram Vykon Customs Instagram Lisa's podcast (The Human Optimization Podcast) Enjoyed this episode? Screenshot it and share it on Instagram and tag me at @drheatherfinley, I'd love to know what landed for you. Find the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!

There's a parasite moving across the country right now so Dr. Heather went down the rabbit hole to give you a clear way to think about the 2026 Cyclospora outbreak.  If you've had a stomach bug over the last couple of weeks that seemed to clear up and then came roaring back, this one is worth your time. That relapsing pattern is one of the biggest clues for this particular infection, and it's the thing most people miss. Heather breaks down what Cyclospora actually is, why this outbreak has been so hard to trace, what genuinely lowers your risk at the grocery store and in your kitchen, and exactly what to do if you think you have it. Including the one thing that actually clears it, and the honest line between real treatment and the supplements that only ever play a supporting role. Supplement support options (some ideas to have on hand or to support your body for prevention or treatment)  Therasage Ozone Bubbler (DRHEATHER for 10% off) PLEASE NOTE: this episode is NOT medical advice. Consult your provider if you are experiencing symptoms or need support.  Find the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!

If you've accepted the 2pm crash as just "who you are," this episode is going to challenge that. That afternoon wall with the brain fog, the chocolate craving, the counting down until bedtime, isn't a personality trait. It's your body telling you something. And in most cases, there are very real, very fixable reasons behind it. In this episode, we're talking about what's actually driving your afternoon energy crash: blood sugar instability, mineral depletion (magnesium, sodium, potassium, iron, and copper), and what it actually means to be hydrated. Plus, four simple habits to try for the next 30 days, and a few mineral-rich mocktail recipes to replace that third cup of coffee. And if you've already tried all of it and you're still crashing, that's exactly what HTMA testing is for. Instead of guessing what your body needs, you get the data. Find the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!

Think about the last trip you took. Were you actually there for it, or were you running a quiet background math equation the whole time, tracking what you ate and wondering if you'd be too bloated for dinner? For a lot of people with gut issues, travel is something to survive rather than enjoy. But here's what's interesting: some of the women Dr. Heather works with who struggle the most at home actually feel better on vacation. They eat foods they normally avoid, skip their usual protocol, and come back more regular and less bloated than they've felt in months. In this episode, Heather breaks down the actual physiology behind both experiences, why travel throws your gut off and why it sometimes fixes it, and gives you a practical plan for your next trip so you can be present instead of managing symptoms the whole time. Resources Mentioned Download Dr. Heather's free mineral guide for travel-friendly electrolyte supportTravel" resources on the blog for more tips and resourcesFind the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!

If you dread the week before your period and your labs keep coming back "fine," this episode is for you. In this episode, Dr. Heather walks through a real client case: cycle-linked headaches, heart palpitations, fatigue, and itchy skin that had been written off for years. She was already taking magnesium and nothing was technically wrong. But every month, the symptoms showed up anyway. What her HTMA revealed had nothing to do with hormones. Within a few weeks of targeted mineral support, the headaches were gone, the palpitations were gone, and her energy was noticeably better. In this episode you'll learn why minerals are upstream of hormones and why a normal hormone panel doesn't tell the whole story, what it actually means when you're already taking magnesium but still symptomatic, why the luteal phase amplifies symptoms when your mineral reserves are depleted, and what the sodium-to-potassium ratio reveals about years of chronic stress that nothing else captures. Interested in HTMA? Click here  Find the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!

In this practitioner focused episode, Dr. Heather Finley breaks down what Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) actually measures, why it captures things that standard blood serum testing misses, and how practitioners can use it to understand a client's cellular mineral status, oxidation rate, and toxic metal burden.  She also addresses the hard questions about HTMA validity directly, including the lab variability research, the lack of a universal clinical standard, and AMA non-recognition. Topics covered: how HTMA differs from bloodwork, the Big 8 minerals and significant ratios, oxidation rate and metabolic typing, hidden copper toxicity, HTMA validity and the JAMA studies, lab selection (TEI vs. ARL), and how to start using HTMA in clinical practice. Find the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!

Most people think about magnesium for constipation and digestion.  What if the problem isn't that you're deficient in magnesium? What if the minerals you already have can't actually do their jobs? That's what copper does. And it is one of the most overlooked minerals in functional nutrition. In this episode, Dr. Heather covers the copper-zinc-iron-thyroid connection and why it matters so much when it comes to constipation, low ferritin, slow motility, and fatigue that doesn't budge. What you'll hear in this episode: Why minerals don't work in isolation and what happens when copper is lowThe seesaw relationship between zinc and copper, and why long-term zinc supplementation without copper can backfireHow copper supports stomach acid, digestive energy, and gut motilityWhy iron supplementation doesn't always work (and what the actual missing piece might be)Ceruloplasmin: the copper-dependent protein that acts like a traffic controller for ironHow copper and zinc both connect to thyroid physiology, and how that links back to constipationThe zinc-copper-iron-thyroid-constipation chain, explained step by stepCopper-rich and zinc-rich foods, and why oysters are in a category of their ownWhat we look for on HTMA and why we read minerals as a pattern, not in isolationResources and links mentioned: Minerals & HTMA Practitioner training on June 18HTMA testing For practitioners: On June 18, Dr. Heather is teaching practitioners how to identify mineral patterns using HTMA and other functional assessments, including how copper and zinc impact ferritin, why some clients don't improve with iron, and how minerals affect thyroid and gut function. Details in the link above. Find the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz!  Take the quiz here! Connect + Next Steps Want daily education, stories, and gut-friendly support? Follow Dr. Heather on Instagram Ready for personalized 1:1 support and a clear plan? Apply for gutTogether® Want a chance to win a free HTMA Bundle? Leave a rating & review and email it to [email protected] with [PODCAST REVIEW] in the subject line! We choose a new winner every month!