# Ep. 11: From Rx to Root Cause: How I Healed Chronic Acne Holistically with Grace Harvey + Taylor Dukes

An episode of [Grounded Wellness by Primally Pure](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1768354655), 20 Nov 2024, 48 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/11070acb8/podcast/play/117237497/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-2-20%2F420446169-44100-2-06c9ecd5698f1.mp3

In this episode, Bethany sits down with her assistant, Grace, (known and loved by many of you following her insane acne-healing story), and her functional medicine provider, Taylor Dukes. After nearly a decade of taking prescription acne medication, Grace decided to heal her skin from the inside out and discovered conventional treatment was fueling imbalances in her body. Tune in to hear about Grace’s 30-day holistic acne-healing experiment, how functional testing helped her discover the root cause and what kept her motivated, even when she wanted to give up. This episode is packed with honesty, empowerment, and relatable advice about addressing the root cause of any health issue. Episode Resources: Grace’s Acne Journey: Follow: https://www.instagram.com/thisisgraceharvey/ Healing Acne Holistically Part 1: https://primallypure.com/blogs/blog/healing-chronic-acne?_pos=4&_sid=5fb93f9f7&_ss=r Healing Acne Holistically Part 2: https://primallypure.com/blogs/blog/holistic-acne-treatment-protocol?_pos=6&_sid=5fb93f9f7&_ss=r Taylor Dukes: Follow: https://www.instagram.com/taylordukeswellness/ Learn: https://taylordukeswellness.com/tdw-community Shop: https://shop.taylordukeswellness.com/collections/all-products Explore more from Primally Pure: Shop: https://bit.ly/4e1HzVv Blog: https://bit.ly/4gAeIsY

## Transcript

[0:01] Welcome to Grounded Wellness, your go to podcast for
[0:04] simplified and trusted information on how to live a
[0:07] more non-toxic and holistic life.
[0:10] We are your hosts. I'm Bethany McDaniel, founder of
[0:13] Primarily Pure biohacking enthusiast and mom of three.
[0:16] And I'm Courtney O'Connor, holistic esthetician with over
[0:19] 15 years experience in the healing power of touch and
[0:23] holistic skin care rituals. In this episode of Grounded
[0:26] Wellness, I'm sitting down with my assistant Grace, whose
[0:29] journey with acne has become quite popular within the Primary
[0:32] Pure community. Grace didn't want chronic acne
[0:35] to be her story, but she's owned it proudly and impacted
[0:38] thousands of people with hope in a tangible action plan for
[0:42] addressing the root causes of acne.
[0:44] Her appearances on Instagram were so highly requested by the
[0:48] Primary Pure community that we knew having her on Grounded
[0:51] Wellness was an absolute must. Grace's story brings deep
[0:55] restorative hope and enlightenment that you are not
[0:58] broken and every issue in your her body stems from a root
[1:01] cause. We're also going to bring in
[1:03] functional medicine provider Taylor Dukes, who helps us
[1:06] unpack exactly how she helps Grace get to the root cause of
[1:10] acne for her unique situation. Let's dig in.
[1:18] Hello, everyone and welcome to Grounded Wellness.
[1:21] We are here at the farm and I am with my assistant Grace and my
[1:25] good friend and Grace's functional medicine provider,
[1:28] Taylor Dukes. Welcome guys.
[1:30] Thanks for having us of. Course, have you guys tried your
[1:33] liver smoothie yet? I work for you and have liver
[1:36] smoothies all the time. I.
[1:38] Wasn't sure about it. But it's so good.
[1:41] Yeah, you like it. I'm so glad.
[1:45] Yeah. It's my favorite way to mask
[1:47] that livery taste. Otherwise, I just don't get
[1:50] around to, like, cooking actual liver and getting it in that
[1:53] way. Right.
[1:54] Yeah. But this is a good way to
[1:55] disguise it. Let's dig right in to Grace's
[2:00] story. So, Grace, you started working
[2:03] for me about a year and a half ago now.
[2:05] And when we met, you didn't really have any obvious acne,
[2:09] but you were on several prescription medications at the
[2:12] time. Take us back to when your
[2:15] journey with acne and breakout started and just walk us through
[2:18] all of that. Yeah, so I started having acne
[2:21] at your typical like turning point age, like 1314 years old,
[2:26] when you're just going through puberty and you're becoming kind
[2:28] of like a teenager. And it was just at the time,
[2:31] just a few pimples, nothing crazy, but society has just kind
[2:36] of this like set up where just when you get acne, the first
[2:39] thing you do is go to a dermatologist.
[2:41] That's just kind of how it works.
[2:42] So I did that. My parents suggested it and I
[2:45] mean, they didn't know any better either.
[2:46] But right away I went there and off the bat I was on steroid
[2:51] cream. So a dappling is where we
[2:52] started. And then as my acne got worse,
[2:55] because as we know, that's not going to heal it.
[2:57] It's just going to kind of mask it.
[2:59] I transitioned into Clindamycin, phosphate, tretinoin and rounds
[3:03] of doxycycline for years, and I only stopped it about nine
[3:08] months ago, I think now. And so that's almost a decade of
[3:11] steroid creams and medication. Wow.
[3:13] And we're going to get into more of your perspective, Taylor, but
[3:17] I real quick want to hear from you on this idea of prescribing
[3:22] antibiotics to treat. What are your thoughts on that?
[3:25] They're all fired up because it's one of those things that I
[3:28] feel like a lot of times we suppress symptoms, you know, and
[3:31] just put a Band-Aid over it, even if it's a prescription, it
[3:33] just kind of suppresses. It doesn't actually get to the
[3:35] root cause of why the acne is occurring.
[3:37] But in this situation, not only does it suppress it, but it also
[3:39] makes it worse because we know that when we're taking
[3:41] antibiotics for long periods of time and in Grace's case years,
[3:45] which that's a lot of other people's stories, it's not only
[3:47] suppressing it, but it's also making it worse.
[3:50] You know, it's messing up the gut microbiome, it's leading to
[3:53] Candida and fungal overgrowth. And so I'm really passionate
[3:55] about it. Yeah, I mean, me too, because
[3:57] the same thing happened to me in high school.
[3:59] I was prescribed several rounds of antibiotics for acne.
[4:02] And it not, you know, it's something that you have to like,
[4:05] continue to take. And because like you said, it
[4:08] makes it worse. It disrupts the gut.
[4:09] And then so what's the solution? OK, maybe just do the same thing
[4:13] again and then just keep doing it.
[4:15] And even though it's it's totally not a solution at all.
[4:18] And I just, it's shocking to me that dermatologists are still
[4:22] running that same broken play almost 20 years later.
[4:25] Like, what are we doing here? For sure, Grace, talk to us
[4:29] about the moment that you decided to ditch all of your
[4:33] prescriptions and heal your acne naturally.
[4:36] At the time I had been working for you probably for about 7-8
[4:39] months. And when I first started working
[4:41] for Bethany, it wasn't like super frequent.
[4:44] It was kind of just random hours, random days.
[4:47] But as we got probably to like 6-7 months is when I started
[4:49] working for you a lot more and I started to really be influenced
[4:52] by your lifestyle and the things that you have to say, the things
[4:55] that you did. And what did you think of
[4:56] everything at first? Because in the beginning, I know
[4:58] you were in our home off and on because you were also helping
[5:01] with my kids here and there. Was it was it just so weird to
[5:04] you? Like how we ate and all the
[5:06] different things that we did. Yeah, it was definitely like,
[5:08] weird. Oh.
[5:09] My God. Wow.
[5:13] Okay so everyone who is listening and not watching, we
[5:17] are recording at a farm, a live working farm and a branch just
[5:21] flew right into Taylor's face. Little caught off guard, but I.
[5:29] Like crying loud. Oh my gosh.
[5:33] Funny, because it was. Bethany weird.
[5:35] It was be weird. Yes, that was funny.
[5:40] Yeah, I mean, so yes, but also like I have always been like
[5:46] pretty open minded. So I kind of wasn't like I
[5:48] wasn't being super judgy. I was more like curious, like
[5:51] wait, you don't have a microwave?
[5:53] Why? What do you do instead?
[5:55] Like just cuz I wasn't used to things like that and it was just
[5:59] like a lot of random gadgets like APEMF mat.
[6:01] What is that? Never heard of that in my life.
[6:03] So like, I just have a lot of questions for you.
[6:05] Yeah, I remember not. I liked that you were just very
[6:07] curious. Yeah.
[6:08] Like I wanted to learn, I wanted to try.
[6:10] I was like always open and down for it.
[6:12] Whatever. Yeah.
[6:13] OK, So you were kind of getting exposed to this different
[6:17] lifestyle and you you saw the video.
[6:22] Yes, so there was this one specific video on Instagram that
[6:24] Bethany posted on the primary pure Instagram and it was all
[6:27] about Trenton Owen and like the negative effects that Trenton
[6:31] Owen has long term on your body. And I at the time was on Trenton
[6:35] Owen and I had been on Trenton Owen probably for two or three
[6:37] years and it had been working for me.
[6:40] I think that's another thing that's unique.
[6:41] A lot of people turn to holistic healing because things aren't
[6:45] working, but I didn't have that problem.
[6:47] Like it would work like some, it would work for at least a few
[6:50] years and then I would need a transition, something else.
[6:52] But like for me, like that was fine.
[6:54] Like it did work. So I didn't really have any
[6:56] reason to change except for that video being so specifically
[7:01] targeted at what I was doing and why it was, was going to be bad
[7:04] for me long term. And so I was just like, huh, All
[7:06] right. Like, I mean, my acne's been
[7:08] gone for a while anyways. I'm not a teenager anymore.
[7:11] Like I could just swap. I like work for primary pure
[7:13] anyways. Like let's just start using
[7:15] primary pure. And so I just, I just did like
[7:17] literally overnight. So walk us through the process
[7:20] of switching to entirely non-toxic skin care.
[7:23] What did that look like? Was it hard to make some of
[7:26] those changes? Were you nervous?
[7:29] I wasn't nervous, I was just like cool new thing moving on
[7:32] with life until like a couple weeks in when some more pimples
[7:36] started showing up. But again, mild at first.
[7:39] So I was just like OK like it's probably a purging period, skins
[7:43] adapting to something new. And then like it got to week 4
[7:47] and it was just still a few more pimples.
[7:50] Like it's just like the purging didn't seem to stop after the
[7:53] two to three weeks that we had kind of been expecting.
[7:57] So that's when I went to you and was just kind of like, hey,
[8:00] like, should I use any different product lines?
[8:02] Like what? What do you recommend?
[8:04] I remember that and I was really proud of you for approaching me
[8:08] and talking through what you were dealing with with me.
[8:11] Was that difficult for you to have that conversation with me?
[8:15] How did you feel in that moment? It was like kind of difficult.
[8:21] I don't know, it was, it was very like random.
[8:23] It wasn't something I've been planning to ask you necessarily.
[8:26] And it also didn't all happen in one conversation.
[8:28] Like we had a couple like leading up to it where I had
[8:30] just been telling you like, oh, just so you know, I swapped my
[8:32] products and just kind of like giving you updates.
[8:35] And so it was more just like, hey, like, do you think I should
[8:37] stick with this line? Should I maybe change from a
[8:40] cream to a serum? Like just little things like
[8:42] that? And you hearing those questions,
[8:45] even though they were just kind of little minor questions,
[8:48] prompted more suggestion and I felt like it was a pretty
[8:50] natural conversation, honestly. Yeah, it was.
[8:53] And so at this point, when we when things were not improving,
[8:57] they were starting to get a little bit worse, we after
[9:01] several conversations, decided to dive into this 30 day
[9:04] experiment. Yes.
[9:05] So tell our listeners what the 30 day experiment entailed.
[9:09] The 30. Day experiment.
[9:11] Well, it wasn't 30 days. Start there.
[9:13] Didn't end up being. 30 days did not end up being 30 days, but I
[9:15] remember being so excited when you first had the idea.
[9:18] We were just in the CVS parking lot after filming one of our
[9:20] Instagram reels. And you had said, you know what,
[9:24] Like here, let's have you, like I said, swap the cream for a
[9:28] serum. Let's start with that.
[9:29] I want you to start using the clarifying mask as well.
[9:33] And it was just primarily pure at first.
[9:35] And then when we left that conversation, drove off our
[9:38] separate ways. I got a voice memo from you.
[9:39] And you're like, Grace, I have this awesome idea.
[9:42] Actually, we should do an experiment with you and we can
[9:46] document the whole thing and it'll be so cool.
[9:48] And we'll have you change your diet.
[9:50] We'll have you get rid of all your cleaning products.
[9:52] Like any toxic products, toss the toxic things like we'll work
[9:55] with branch basics, we'll work with Primal Pastures and we'll
[9:58] work with Primal Peer and we'll just do, we'll just do
[10:01] everything and we'll document the whole thing and see where
[10:03] you go from day one to day 30. And I was like, I was like,
[10:07] yeah, let's do that. That's so fun.
[10:09] What a cool idea. Yeah, I remember being really
[10:12] excited about that too, because initially you had swapped your
[10:15] products out, but you were still, you know, eating the same
[10:18] types of foods that you have been eating, the same, same,
[10:21] same lifestyle habits. So we really just changed a lot
[10:25] when we decided to do that 30 day experiment and you were like
[10:28] gung ho. That's what I loved.
[10:30] Like you were so all in to make these changes and you were
[10:33] committed and it made it really fun to go through that process
[10:37] with you for sure. But as we know, things continued
[10:42] to get worse even after we had made all of these positive
[10:46] changes to 1st the products, then diet and lifestyle, you
[10:50] know, so many things. So what did that feel like?
[10:56] Like I remember we were both confused.
[10:58] You were, and you know, you were starting to get pretty
[11:02] distressed. You had an engagement on the
[11:05] horizon. Like I remember.
[11:08] I remember you got extensions as a confidence booster.
[11:11] And you were telling me that there were some moments where it
[11:13] was just really hard to even leave the house because things
[11:17] had gotten so bad. So tell us about what that was
[11:21] like and how hard that was for you.
[11:23] Yeah, I think it was definitely disheartening just because we
[11:26] were both so confident at the beginning that like 30 days and
[11:30] you're going to notice these changes.
[11:32] Like you're just like, this is so tried and true because it is
[11:36] like we know now and I didn't know at the time, but I
[11:38] definitely know now like diet is so linked to acne, gut health is
[11:43] linked to acne and that is like the perfect place to start.
[11:46] And on top of diet, I had these like very trusted products with
[11:49] primarily pure. We know the process like our
[11:52] quality of ingredients is top tier branch basics is like the
[11:56] cleanest of the clean with like we were using like really high
[11:59] quality stuff too. So it was almost like I can't do
[12:02] better than this. Like how is this not working for
[12:05] me? Like what's going on here?
[12:06] And so it was definitely disheartening.
[12:08] And I had never had acne like that in my life.
[12:11] Like obviously I've struggled with acne for years, but that
[12:14] was next level. Like if you guys have seen
[12:16] photos on Instagram and if you haven't, you should, you should
[12:19] look because it's crazy. Like it was everywhere and it
[12:23] was places I've never gotten it before either.
[12:25] So it just felt like like so weird and like abnormal to see
[12:29] my face look like that, to feel the pain.
[12:31] It was painful. I didn't want to leave the house
[12:33] because of the look of it, but also just like it hurt.
[12:36] Like, all I wanted to do was constantly live in a face mask
[12:39] and, like, lay down like there was nothing really I wanted to
[12:42] be doing. And so yeah, it was it was dark
[12:45] times out there. But I also knew that I was in
[12:47] the best care. Like, I had you as my support
[12:49] system. And like, pretty soon after this
[12:51] starting getting worse, you brought in Taylor.
[12:53] And so there was hope on the horizon.
[12:56] But, and I knew I like, had to stick with it because I was
[12:58] already this far in. Like, I'm very stubborn.
[13:00] So I'm not going to turn back at this point.
[13:02] Like otherwise I would have had to just go through this to like
[13:06] have to maybe do that again. Like if I ever wanted to be off
[13:08] of this medication, Like there's going to have to be a process.
[13:11] Right. And some of the things that you
[13:13] were on like with with this engagement, you know, coming up
[13:16] and then the wedding, it was kind of like you knew you also
[13:19] wanted to start a family in the future.
[13:21] And some of these prescriptions that you were on, you would not
[13:24] have been able to continue on. How do you want to just, you
[13:26] know, like start a family? So, yeah, it's it's something
[13:29] that I remember you telling me, like you, you know, you knew
[13:32] that this would have to happen eventually.
[13:33] Eventually you would need to get to the root cause of, right?
[13:35] So like, why not now? That was the big thing that kept
[13:38] me going, Yeah, cuz I was like if I could be on those products
[13:42] while I was pregnant, like which I'm not pregnant by the way at.
[13:45] All or close with the announcement?
[13:47] No, but you know, Lord willing in the future, like I knew that
[13:52] eventually this would happen. And so, yeah, definitely had to
[13:55] keep going. And I know also you mentioned
[13:57] that several people in your life were like, once it started
[14:00] getting worse, they were like, you just need to go on Accutane.
[14:03] Yeah. Like what was that like, hearing
[14:05] that from loved ones? You know, part of me felt bad
[14:08] for them just because, like, now when I hear about people who
[14:12] have done Accutane or who are on steroid creams and antibiotics,
[14:16] I honestly, like, have pity because I'm like, I've been
[14:18] there. And it's just so sad because I
[14:20] know what's happening. And like, I mean, Lord
[14:23] willingness isn't going to happen to them.
[14:24] But like, they're just so many stories of people who are on
[14:26] that stuff who then end up having such severe problems down
[14:29] the road. And I just like, feel bad.
[14:31] And I just want to sit and, like, spitball facts at them as
[14:33] to why they shouldn't do it. But that's not always
[14:35] appropriate in the setting. So I knew that wasn't for me.
[14:39] I never considered Accutane, but when people would say that, I
[14:42] would honestly just, like, get sad.
[14:44] Like, I wish you guys understood.
[14:45] Like, I wish I could sit and explain it.
[14:47] And now I'm so blessed with opportunity to sit and explain
[14:50] it. But at the time, it just kind
[14:52] of, yeah, just kind of felt bad that that's they thought their
[14:55] only option or my only option. So we talked about how this was
[15:00] confusing. We weren't sure like why we were
[15:02] doing all the right things. And now with the information we
[15:05] know like it, it makes sense why things weren't getting better
[15:08] right away. But we had to do some testing to
[15:12] figure that out and so. There's a pig.
[15:15] A lot of pig. Pig approaching us.
[15:17] So we brought in Taylor Dukes at this point, like when we just
[15:22] realized that there had to be deeper things going on that we
[15:25] needed to get answers to. And so we were following this
[15:28] plan, not seeing the progress that we wanted to see.
[15:31] And then you came into the picture.
[15:33] Taylor, can you walk us through some of the tests that you ran
[15:37] on Grace and what you discovered from those?
[15:40] Results anytime whether someone comes to me with bloating,
[15:43] Constipation. And by the way, I had a private
[15:45] practice. I don't have a private practice
[15:46] anymore. And so I think I had stopped
[15:48] working with patients at that point.
[15:49] And Bethany was like, hey, I have this situation and I was
[15:52] like, yes. And I was like, I'm so down.
[15:55] But anyway, all that to say, when I worked with patients over
[15:58] the years, there's always a why, you know, and you have to ask
[16:01] the why question. So whether it's acne,
[16:03] infertility, bloating, Constipation, there's always a
[16:05] reason. And I feel like when people
[16:07] don't make headway, that's when I say it's time to test and not
[16:10] guess because you could be guessing and spiraling and
[16:12] reading blog posts. And I know a lot of people
[16:14] identify with that because they're trying to go down rabbit
[16:16] trails or Instagram accounts. And it's like, no, you know,
[16:19] everybody's different. And so on.
[16:20] Grace, we did a lot of tests because we were determined.
[16:24] And at this point, you had the wedding on the horizon, right?
[16:27] Oh gosh, I think actually no. I.
[16:30] But it was approaching. It was hating the.
[16:32] Engagement at this. Point.
[16:33] Got it. OK, but it was pretty.
[16:34] Close to the engagement when Taylor came into the picture.
[16:37] Because I do remember feeling like, you know, true root cause
[16:40] healing can take a long time. But if there's a pending wedding
[16:43] engagement, like, I'm not sure it's gonna heal in this amount
[16:45] of time. Yeah.
[16:46] And so anyway, all that to say, we did stool testing, which is
[16:49] gut testing. We did nutrient testing, but we
[16:52] did hormone testing. We did food sensitivity testing.
[16:56] Anything else? Oh, we did adrenal cortisol
[16:58] testing. Yeah.
[17:00] Yeah. So we're talking about like what
[17:02] we found. Yeah.
[17:02] What did we? So Grace did a lot of tests and
[17:05] we really cast out the net. And really, I don't do that many
[17:07] tests in the beginning. I usually start with one or two,
[17:09] usually a gut test because that will tell so much.
[17:13] But because of the wedding and just having a timeline, I felt
[17:16] like let's just cast the net. We don't have time to wait.
[17:18] Let's just figure everything out and personalize the protocol.
[17:21] And so I remember getting your school test back.
[17:22] I think I sang all voicemail one.
[17:23] I was like your Dick. I got it.
[17:26] And I played it for Grace, yeah, right away.
[17:28] And we were like, so excited there were.
[17:30] Answers on the opening line was you guys, Grace's gut is no
[17:35] bueno. And we were like, yes, it was.
[17:38] Like it could have been such a bleak test text message to hear,
[17:42] but because of everything that Grace had gone through and
[17:45] because we hadn't had answers, it just felt like, OK, great,
[17:48] now we have. Something to work?
[17:50] Direction to work. Yeah.
[17:51] And that's where a lot of people in kind of the integrative
[17:54] medicine world, you know, sometimes they go the holistic
[17:55] route because they're desperate and it's like they've been told
[17:58] nothing's wrong and their labs are normal when they're going to
[18:00] traditional doctors or dermatologists or whatever, you
[18:03] know. And so people are always so
[18:05] thankful. They're like, thank God I have a
[18:07] parasite, you know, like. Finally.
[18:09] You don't want to rejoice when something's wrong, but you are
[18:11] grateful because you have answers.
[18:12] And so I do remember a voice. I'm knowing y'all being like,
[18:14] I'm so pumped. There's so much wrong with her
[18:16] gut. Yay.
[18:18] Because that to me is like, there's so much hope because
[18:21] it's discouraging. You're eating healthy, ditching
[18:23] the toxins, doing all the right things, and you're getting worse
[18:27] and. I think it's interesting too.
[18:29] Most people immediately with acne they go to hormones, but
[18:32] her hormones were okay. And I knew that from the
[18:34] beginning. And I will say it's part of the
[18:36] way that I practiced just after being in this world for 1012
[18:38] years. It's like I do have a lot of
[18:40] discernment, like I can sit with the patient and I do need labs
[18:43] to back it up sometimes. But I'm like, I feel like this
[18:45] is the issue, this And I've just had enough experience to piece
[18:47] the puzzle pieces together, but I just knew.
[18:50] I was like, I feel like Fungal's at play here.
[18:52] I feel like her gut's at play even though you didn't have a
[18:54] ton of gut symptoms. Which, no, yeah, that was
[18:57] another thing that was weird is I feel like the only thing I had
[19:00] that I noticed was acne. But we come to find out there
[19:03] was more but it. Was an alarm system that.
[19:04] I saw. But we all manifest different
[19:07] issues in different ways, right? So that was just where you were,
[19:10] your body was vulnerable was acne and your skin and versus,
[19:15] you know, if someone else's gut was super messed up, they might
[19:17] have experienced it in a different way.
[19:20] Sure. And I remember.
[19:22] So getting back to the gut test first you had dysbiosis, which
[19:25] is just a fancy word for overgrown pathogens, pathogenic
[19:27] bacteria. You had Candida fungal
[19:30] overgrowth, you had two parasites which it is really
[19:33] crazy because it's so hard to catch a parasite on a
[19:37] traditional stool test. They only the one that I use
[19:40] it's which is the best stool test in my opinion.
[19:42] They have only 5 or 6 parasites and you tested high for two of
[19:47] them which was crazy. Because it's hard.
[19:49] To catch parasites in the ova cycle and the, you know, and
[19:52] just different things like that. And then it just happens to be
[19:54] in that bowel movement, right? And just so this was confusing
[19:56] to me at first, but I so just to clarify, when you say 2
[20:01] parasites, two types of parasites, two different types,
[20:03] but like probably a lot, however many you know, little parasites,
[20:07] you know, it's not like. They're not tested too that we
[20:10] don't even know, right? Some you can test via blood,
[20:13] some you can anyway, there's lots of different ways to test.
[20:15] But she had two positive parasites, fungal overgrowth,
[20:19] bad overgrown bacteria. Your digestion was super
[20:22] compromised, which also I'm really passionate on.
[20:25] It's not just what you eat, even if it's high quality, it's what
[20:28] you digest and absorb. And so she ended up finding out
[20:30] that she was super nutrient deficient in a lot of different
[20:33] nutrients, which would make sense.
[20:34] She wasn't absorbing. And then I'm trying to think
[20:37] what else? You had a leaky gut for sure,
[20:39] which was then causing you to react to a lot of foods.
[20:42] And so food sensitivities are different than allergies.
[20:45] Allergies are true, like hives, swelling of the tongue, you
[20:49] know, that's more a serious reaction.
[20:50] But food sensitivities can still cause a lot of issues.
[20:54] Sorry our geese friends are chatting over here, but yeah,
[20:59] you had a lot of food sensitivities.
[21:00] You were off the charts. And gluten, even in dairy.
[21:04] I remember peanuts and then. Eggs and some fries.
[21:07] Things like pineapple, Yeah. And like bro.
[21:09] Which is just an indicator that you have a leaky gut.
[21:12] And I when people have food sensitivities, I'm like, don't
[21:14] avoid it forever. This is just, you have a leaky
[21:17] gut. It's permeable.
[21:18] Things are getting into the bloodstream that aren't supposed
[21:19] to be there. So that's why you heal and seal
[21:22] the gut. But yeah, you were reacting to a
[21:23] ton of foods. I definitely saw cortisol
[21:25] patterns of someone that's been long term stress burning, you
[21:29] know, the candle at both ends. You were depleted of your B
[21:31] vitamins, which can also be related to stress.
[21:34] So yeah, just overall super nutrient depleted, lots of gut
[21:37] issues. Stress definitely had been at
[21:40] play. And I'm trying to think, what
[21:42] else? Yeah, leaky gut.
[21:43] How big of a a role did the years of antibiotic usage have
[21:48] in all of the gut disruption that probably.
[21:50] One of the biggest contributing factors to the acne, which is
[21:53] what I said in the beginning of the episode, I get so fired up
[21:55] because not only does it suppress it, it actually fuels
[21:57] it and makes it worse. And so in Grace's case, you
[22:00] know, it had disrupted her good gut bacteria.
[22:02] It allowed the pathogenic kind of the bad bugs to overgrow and
[22:06] then it had allowed her your secretory IGA, which is an
[22:09] immune marker. It's kind of the army of your
[22:11] gut. It goes to defends pathogens.
[22:13] That was suppressed. So that's why you were came into
[22:15] contact with parasites and they started affecting you.
[22:18] Yeah. And yeah, it was just the
[22:20] perfect storm. But I think the leaky gut, the
[22:23] way that your gut became the way that it is, is because of
[22:25] chronic long term use of antibiotics and maybe diet too.
[22:27] I mean, that was for sure. For sure too, yeah.
[22:29] Anyone who's listening, please send this episode to your
[22:33] dermatologist friends because there is no way this should
[22:37] still be happening. How is this happening?
[22:39] This is. Like one of the acne, Like the
[22:41] third? No, like treatments for acne.
[22:44] Yeah. So Taylor, talk us through then
[22:47] the protocol that you had Grace go on to fix these specific
[22:50] things that we now had answers on.
[22:52] Yeah, and I'm not going to lie, because I remember and I didn't
[22:55] know you and I didn't know the whole situation in the context,
[22:57] I kind of just came in and was like, yeah, let's do it.
[22:59] This is what I do and I'm thankful for answers, but I was
[23:01] like, this is a lot, but this is a lot.
[23:04] I don't normally order that many labs at once.
[23:06] We usually tackle one thing at a time, but we wanted to rule out,
[23:09] is it hormones, which actually Grace's hormones, that was not
[23:12] your issue. You did have some issues
[23:14] metabolizing and detoxing certain hormones that we needed
[23:17] to do some support for. But in your case, like that
[23:20] wasn't the issue. You know, a lot of people think
[23:21] it's just hormonal acne. And so I remember being like,
[23:24] OK, Grace, this is a lot and I don't normally put people on
[23:27] this much of A protocol, but we're going.
[23:29] And so we put you on definitely nutrients you were deficient in
[23:32] like magnesium, B vitamins and Omega.
[23:37] And then we also put you on the one which is my supplement.
[23:39] It's like a food base, just broad spectrum, covers a lot of
[23:41] bases. We put you on digestive enzymes
[23:44] and then the gut protocols. I like to do one at a time
[23:47] because it's too much to do everything at once.
[23:49] You got to kind of tackle each one at a time.
[23:50] So we did parasite protocol and then we also in multiple
[23:55] parasite protocols. After that.
[23:56] You kind of post dose it with the full moon.
[23:58] And then we did the overgrown. It was very specific herbs to
[24:03] Grace's overgrown pathogenic bacteria.
[24:05] I'm trying to think what else we do.
[24:07] We did GI immune support, right? Yeah, which is a good.
[24:10] It's like, it's not a dairy free colostrum because you can't get
[24:14] dairy free colostrum, but it's basically concentrated
[24:16] immunoglobulins that were dairy free for her because she
[24:19] couldn't tolerate dairy. And then yet.
[24:22] Yeah, exactly. And that's the thing.
[24:24] When we heal people's guts and we rebalance things like you
[24:27] should, you were created for your body to handle these
[24:29] things. It's abnormal to not, you know,
[24:31] when everyone's like, I'm in an elimination, elimination diet
[24:33] forever. That's questionable.
[24:35] But I do think that our food is not what it is, what it used to
[24:39] be too. But anyway, so it was a lot that
[24:41] you were on. And then we did also, I said,
[24:44] hey, here's the deal. You know, I'm a nurse
[24:45] practitioner and I very rarely use prescriptions, but I do have
[24:49] my license and there are about 10 meds that I've prescribed in
[24:51] my practice. And I couldn't prescribe for
[24:53] Grace because I'm in Texas and she's in California.
[24:55] But I said, I really want you to go talk to your doctor about
[24:57] getting a 30 day antifungal prescription because her markers
[25:01] were so high. And you can do candy to fungal
[25:03] protocol diets and supplements and herbs, which we did do.
[25:06] But sometimes you just got to hit it.
[25:08] Yeah. And hit it hard.
[25:09] And it doesn't disrupt the gut like it does, you know,
[25:13] antibiotics. And so I said just go see if you
[25:15] can get this prescription through a doctor.
[25:16] And you did. Yeah, I walked in with some like
[25:18] that was actually funny because they're like not used to people
[25:22] coming in knowing exactly what's wrong with them and what they
[25:24] need, like. What dosage and how long?
[25:26] Yeah. And I was like, this is what I
[25:28] have. Here's my test.
[25:29] See that this is high. I need this specific
[25:30] prescription I need for 30 days. And they're like, how do you
[25:33] know all of this? And I was like, oh, because I
[25:36] have been seeing like a functional medicine practitioner
[25:39] and they were like, well, if it's for acne, we have a
[25:41] dermatologist like on site. And I was like no, no, no, I
[25:44] want this. Yeah, you got to advocate,
[25:46] though. Yeah, you have to advocate and
[25:48] it was a really unique experience because for years I
[25:51] would just go to dermatologists and doctors where you just kind
[25:53] of sit in and say yes to whatever they tell you.
[25:56] But this was like very reversed. But it I mean, they listened
[25:59] like I did kind of have to be like strong in it.
[26:02] And when they at first were like, we suggest this, like you
[26:06] have to say you say no and you have to know your facts and do
[26:10] your research. But yeah, that was fun.
[26:12] I'm proud of you for advocating. And I was like, we're gonna find
[26:15] a way, but I can't really do that not being licensed in that
[26:17] state. But yeah, so she did
[26:19] incorporate. And that's what I want people to
[26:20] hear me say is I'm not anti prescription.
[26:22] I'm not anti medicine. I think it has a time and place.
[26:25] But I am anti throwing antibiotics in the name of acne
[26:28] treatment, you know? And so in this situation, she
[26:31] did take a prescription and that was only one and it was for 30
[26:34] days. And but the rest of it was herbs
[26:36] and supplements and diet and lifestyle and nervous system
[26:39] regulation. It wasn't, you know, it was
[26:41] majority healthy, holistic, but we did have to use one
[26:43] pharmaceutical and that's OK. There's times and places.
[26:46] Right. Yeah.
[26:46] OK. And I want to talk about ozone
[26:48] too, because we did incorporate ozone therapy into your healing
[26:52] protocol. We used ozonated olive oil on
[26:55] your skin and we also did ozonated water, a lot of
[27:01] ozonated water in the mornings, you and I.
[27:03] Do you want me to touch on that or do you want to?
[27:06] Yeah, I was gonna say Bethany Ozone is still new to me and I'm
[27:09] still learning. But yeah, you know, so you
[27:12] should touch on. OK.
[27:12] And Taylor, Taylor is well versed in ozone as well.
[27:15] So let me know if my understanding is you can fill in
[27:17] any gaps she knows. So fill in any gaps in my
[27:20] understanding of ozone, but ozone is O3, oxygen is O2.
[27:23] So ozone is oxygen with an extra molecule and it so pathogenic
[27:28] bacteria cannot live in oxygen rich environments, but good
[27:32] bacteria thrive in oxygen rich environments.
[27:34] So ozone is great because that extra molecule goes in, attaches
[27:38] itself to pathogenic bacteria and destroys it.
[27:42] And so that's why the ozonated cream that we used on your skin,
[27:47] we added that in. What?
[27:48] When did we add that in? Probably like two months or so
[27:52] after I had been like straight primarily pure products.
[27:55] So it was fairly early on. It wasn't like.
[27:58] So because of the strong fungal component that helped a ton with
[28:03] your acne. I remember when you started
[28:05] using the ozonated olive oil. Yeah, I feel like that made a
[28:07] big difference. And then taking the ozonated
[28:09] water, drinking the ozonated water internally also helped to
[28:14] kill off some of the the Paris or I don't know, but the.
[28:17] Engines, yeah, actually bad, but you're supposed to be there that
[28:19] were causing. Issues.
[28:20] Yeah. So I feel like that was a
[28:22] helpful piece as well. And fasting.
[28:26] Let's talk about fasting a little bit.
[28:27] So that was funny because I fasting like came really easy to
[28:31] me. So I fasted for the goal was a
[28:34] week. I made it four days.
[28:36] It was my first ever attempt but your.
[28:37] Goal was three days and you exceeded it.
[28:39] Oh my God it was a week. I was like I'm near to a week 4.
[28:42] Days. That's impressive.
[28:43] Yeah, but I've never, I've never even fasted like intentionally
[28:46] at least one day before. So it was like my first ever
[28:49] attempt. I did feel like very clean
[28:52] afterwards, like like you said, fasting, it cleans out your body
[28:56] right? Can you speak to that?
[28:57] Yeah, it activates autophagy and autophagy is your body's like
[29:00] self cleaning mechanism. So it kind of clears out all of
[29:04] the old or malfunctioning cell parts and replaces them with
[29:07] newer, better functioning cell parts.
[29:09] So I think I remember seeing a difference in your skin after
[29:13] you did that four day fast. I feel like it helps things.
[29:17] Yeah, move things along. I.
[29:19] See so did y'all do just water fast?
[29:20] Yeah, it was just water and electrolytes.
[29:22] Yeah, your salt. I love.
[29:26] It I also remember just watching you, watching your skin,
[29:30] watching your face and just seeing your face shape like
[29:33] transform throughout this journey.
[29:35] That was kind of wild. Yeah, that was something I
[29:38] didn't quite notice right away until I started looking at the
[29:42] pictures, like over the weeks, because I would take an update
[29:45] picture every every week. Upsides the front and yeah, like
[29:51] I lost a ton of inflammation in my body.
[29:54] I never felt like I had it in the first place.
[29:57] It just was my body shape and my body type.
[29:59] And but you look at like I was in a wedding in August and I
[30:03] look at my photos from that wedding as a bridesmaid.
[30:06] And then like I was in another wedding just recently, like 3
[30:10] days ago, and like the difference, like my whole body,
[30:12] I feel like just skinnyed out. Like it was all information.
[30:16] It wasn't even like excessive weight gain.
[30:18] It's just information. Yeah, yeah.
[30:20] After going on Taylor's specialized protocol for you, a
[30:25] lot of things started to change kind of at the same time.
[30:27] I feel like Taylor's protocol, the ozone, the fasting, like all
[30:31] of that was when we were kind of like, OK, let's pull in every
[30:34] measure we can because we are on a timeline and this needs to, we
[30:38] need to fix this. Yeah.
[30:40] And so how did that feel? You continued doing everything
[30:43] you had been doing, so none of that changed, but everything
[30:47] started to change in your skin like really quickly.
[30:51] Yeah, so I got engaged in December and that's honestly
[30:53] when my acne was at its peak, which was a bummer.
[30:56] But also like it was sweet that my fiance did not care and loved
[31:01] me in the moment was still special, but it definitely
[31:03] wasn't ideal. So I wanted to push off like our
[31:06] engagement photos like as long as possible.
[31:08] I didn't want to do it right then because I didn't love it.
[31:10] But by February, that's. January is when we connected.
[31:13] Yeah. Well, we can did the testing I
[31:15] think like December ish and then like started the protocol in
[31:19] January. That's what I remember because I
[31:20] remember being like, Oh my gosh, if she has a short engagement, I
[31:25] don't know that we're going to see this much headway.
[31:27] Yeah, but you were encouraged cuz you're like I've seen well.
[31:30] It was quick, honestly, like I think it was quicker than any of
[31:33] us expected because February was the engagement photos and you
[31:36] couldn't even tell by February, like insane.
[31:39] And then, I mean, I was wearing makeup for those photos, and so
[31:43] there was some things I had to cover up.
[31:45] But even February, like February is when the main change
[31:48] happened. And then by my wedding, which
[31:49] was June, I feel like there was like hardly anything.
[31:52] So we were so thankful for that and blessed.
[31:56] Like, it did happen really quickly.
[31:57] Yeah. You're happy with the state of
[32:00] your skin on your wedding day. Yes.
[32:01] And like I tell people who ask me now like they were like, are
[32:05] you like fully healed? Are you ready?
[32:06] And I'm like, no, I think I'm still healing for sure.
[32:08] But now it's just, it's just a long game.
[32:12] And the little pimples I have now are so minor and like, I
[32:15] don't care. Like, whereas I used to maybe
[32:17] have cared, like now that I've like felt the worst of the
[32:19] worst, it's really just minor changes now and like keeping up
[32:22] with a clean diet and clean living and yeah.
[32:25] So I want to ask you about that. Have you changed anything?
[32:27] Are you still following all of the same diet and lifestyle?
[32:31] You know, choices that we, yeah, we've had you on.
[32:34] There yeah, I'm not going back like the way that I eat now is
[32:37] the way I'm planning to continue to eat.
[32:39] And if I do reintroduce things like dairy, like I would just go
[32:42] for high quality raw dairy, things like that, which we've
[32:45] talked about on this platform. I am never going to go back to
[32:48] toxic products. Like there's just there's just
[32:50] not a need like now that I know like what it does to you long
[32:53] term. And I've learned and I've gotten
[32:55] made relationships too with these brands and these people
[32:58] like I trust them. I know what they're doing behind
[33:00] the scenes and that time want to continue to live.
[33:03] I think change wise, like my protocol ended, like it gets to
[33:07] a point where it ends. So I'm not taking all of the
[33:09] herbs anymore, but I am still taking the vitamins.
[33:13] I'm just going to keep up with those because they're just good
[33:14] for you. And yeah, like digestive
[33:17] enzymes. I'm still taking them.
[33:19] I was going to ask you if I need to or not.
[33:20] It's probably. Introduction time.
[33:22] It's probably not considering recalibrate.
[33:24] Yeah, I'm like, I've just been like so used to this that I'm
[33:26] like going to keep it up until until I'm told like you can do
[33:30] it again. You can re change things up.
[33:32] Which I think you can, and I really do.
[33:33] You think that you've done so much work that it's like, now
[33:35] it's time for the reintroduction of things.
[33:37] Yeah. And And then you can observe,
[33:39] you know, how you feel. And you've been so disciplined.
[33:41] And I think that's also something worth noting on this
[33:43] episode. Like, Grace put in a lot of hard
[33:45] work. This wasn't just like, oh, do
[33:47] some tests, take some supplements.
[33:48] Like this has taken a lot of discipline, changing of a
[33:51] lifestyle. But it's not only worth it for
[33:53] your acne, but for your overall body.
[33:55] And like you said, Lord willing, if you want kids like your
[33:57] genetics, we have the ability. It's called epigenetics.
[33:59] You want to get nerdy? We have the ability to affect
[34:02] the expression of our genes with the choices that we make on a
[34:04] daily basis and the chemicals that we're exposed to.
[34:06] And so I think like, what a blessing that this happened and
[34:09] you knew Bethany and all this because it's not just about your
[34:11] skin, it's about a ripple effect that's going to affect
[34:13] generations to come, like currently and your husband's
[34:15] health. And yeah, but it took a lot of
[34:16] hard work, right? And just.
[34:18] So much, even just in taking the supplements day-to-day, like you
[34:21] have to be very specific on the timing.
[34:23] It's like 2 hours before you eat or 30 minutes like 30 minutes
[34:25] after. Like I had a schedule like a
[34:27] daily schedule for like 6 months at least.
[34:29] And then the full moon, we come around and we change it up.
[34:31] Change it up. Yeah, the parasite cleanse,
[34:34] which is fun. I'm like Grace, you know your
[34:37] next level when you have the full moon marked on your
[34:38] calendar. Cuz I saw her at the farm dinner
[34:40] in April and I was like, Oh yeah, we're full moon cleansing
[34:43] right now. Yeah, we're like a mid
[34:44] influencer dinner and I'm like putting my herbs in my water.
[34:48] Grind, don't stop. Yeah, yeah.
[34:51] I really am so proud of you for sticking with this.
[34:53] I know it would have been easy to give up at times.
[34:56] No one would have blamed you. But you didn't do that.
[34:58] You persevered and you have shared your journey publicly and
[35:01] acne is such a personal thing, but you've been so brave in
[35:05] sharing this with, you know, thousands, thousands, 10s of
[35:08] thousands of people and your story has been so popular
[35:11] amongst the primarily pure community.
[35:13] Your reels that you've done sharing your story than some of
[35:16] our most popular reels. You've gotten so much support
[35:19] from the community and have inspired so many people.
[35:22] Has it been scary at all to put your story out there or how does
[35:26] that felt for you? I.
[35:28] Don't know, I've always been pretty like bold, like I wear
[35:32] like just my personality type, so not super scary.
[35:35] There have been like a couple confrontations or like
[35:38] conversations where I have excuse my way out of like I have
[35:41] a lot of like family members who are like in the medical fields,
[35:44] not your type of medical field. And it's like, maybe I just
[35:47] won't bring that up or I like won't say anything here.
[35:49] And I hope to grow in that one day to like know enough to be
[35:52] able to speak to that and have those conversations with them.
[35:55] But yeah, just kind of like navigating the waters, like when
[35:57] to speak and when not to speak, yeah.
[36:00] So have there been any like words of encouragement from
[36:03] people that have commented on your post or just anything that
[36:06] has really stuck with you? Or has anyone like reached out
[36:09] to you separately for advice? So many people have, which is
[36:13] just like exactly what I had been hoping for, and I'm just so
[36:16] thankful. I mean, even just yesterday at
[36:19] the spa, Danielle was telling me how two people came in this week
[36:24] and who were like, hey, I want to start doing like what Grace
[36:26] did. Like, we're so inspired by her
[36:28] story and hearing people say that and telling other people
[36:30] about that, telling me about it, That's just that's even more
[36:34] like healing myself was big, but like speaking to this world and
[36:37] like telling everyone about it. Like, that's really why I stuck
[36:40] it out too. And I remember when I was in the
[36:42] depths of despair with the worst acne hiding my room.
[36:46] I remember I was like searching the Internet, like, has anybody
[36:49] done this before? Like, do we know for sure this
[36:50] is going to work? And like, there was nothing like
[36:53] I had no one to ask who it like dealt with this before and
[36:56] spoken about it. And so I really do feel like my
[36:58] stories, like one of the first, if not the first to be so public
[37:01] and like, you know, explained thoroughly and.
[37:05] I, John Grace has you. You have done that on our blog,
[37:08] if anyone's interested. Yeah, Grace has two really
[37:11] comprehensive blog posts. Walking through her entire
[37:14] journey, exactly what she did. Because we talked about some of
[37:18] the protocol, but we didn't cover everything.
[37:20] Like, you were grounding every day.
[37:22] You were, you know, walking outside in the morning and
[37:25] getting like, morning sunlight in your eyes to regulate your
[37:27] circadian rhythm. Like there were so many little
[37:29] things, right, that you also did just to support whole body
[37:32] health, right? Because like we talked about,
[37:34] like your skin is a part of your whole system.
[37:36] And so we want to really just optimize your body as a whole,
[37:40] optimize your cells. And there's a lot that goes into
[37:43] that, right? So.
[37:44] It's a whole lifestyle change. It's very layered, but it's very
[37:48] doable. And I think having kind of like
[37:50] an older sister figure to walk you through that, like that's
[37:52] what I. Want my body, Said older sister.
[37:53] And not mom. Oh.
[37:55] Gosh, no, she's. Like for sure older sister vibe.
[37:58] That's the older sister vibe. OK, good.
[38:00] Maybe even younger sister vibe. Oh my gosh.
[38:03] Yeah. But yeah, so that's that's the
[38:05] person I want to be and I want to answer all the questions and
[38:09] talk to everyone about it, whether that be just grassroots
[38:11] people I know, whether that be Instagram DM, whether that be
[38:14] podcasts, blogs, like whatever. Like I just want to even it's,
[38:17] it's encouraging to one person. Like it's so worth it.
[38:20] I remember you saying you were looking for stories like that
[38:23] and you, there were some, but they were like, you know, here's
[38:27] here's a few. Like the before picture was
[38:28] maybe a few pimples and this is what I did to heal.
[38:31] Or maybe it was someone that had pretty bad acne and it was like,
[38:34] oh, I went on Accutane. Yeah, it's like.
[38:36] Lots of Accutane story. Yeah, the transformation, the
[38:40] natural transformation of your skin is insane and.
[38:44] And being documented, that's awesome.
[38:46] People, like you said, I could have before and after, but it's
[38:48] like the process, the journey, the changes that is significant.
[38:52] Yeah, week by week photos. So you can even see like what
[38:55] was I doing that week and why did it make such a difference in
[38:57] this time period? Like we can really nail it down
[38:59] because we went into it with the mindset of it being an
[39:02] experiment and it turned into way more than we ever expected,
[39:05] but we got. It.
[39:07] You're a sign out of hopefully many more months of just living
[39:11] like this. Grace, what would you say to
[39:15] anyone who finds himself in a similar position that you were
[39:19] in that is maybe feeling discouraged and embarrassed?
[39:24] What words of encouragement would you offer?
[39:27] I think like validating the feelings first just because a
[39:30] lot of people were like, you don't actually look that bad.
[39:32] And I kind of would like giggle because like we knew that it did
[39:36] look bad. Like that's just a reality check
[39:38] and being able to feel my. Daughter was always honest.
[39:40] Like my 8 year old. Yeah, I remember you saying you
[39:44] were. Yeah.
[39:44] She was like, she was like Bethany June told me that my
[39:47] skin looked better today. And so that's how I know it
[39:49] actually does because she's like one of the few people that's
[39:52] always honest with me. Yeah, Like I would.
[39:53] Walk in the room and she'd be like, oh, you're acne.
[39:56] And I'd be like, oh. Which is not which was like I
[39:58] had to talk to her about some of that, but but.
[40:01] That's all day like they just is that.
[40:03] My. Yeah, no, they just call it up.
[40:05] They've never had a pinball. Yeah, they don't understand.
[40:07] And like my children's ministry at church, like the kids would
[40:09] swarm me. They were three-year olds.
[40:11] That's the class I would work in.
[40:12] And they'd be like, do you have bug bites on your face?
[40:14] You have bug bites on your face. And the group, like I was like,
[40:18] kids are brutal, but it's just because they don't know that's
[40:20] so. But yeah, so validating that
[40:22] like, you know, it's painful and it's not like your best start,
[40:25] your best look today. Like I appreciate the validation
[40:28] instead of people just pretending like, oh, it's fine
[40:30] and brushing it under the rug because it wasn't fine.
[40:32] And like I wanted to hear people's thoughts, especially
[40:35] people who were had the same mode of thinking as me, like you
[40:38] guys. Encouragement, I think just
[40:41] encouragement that everybody's different.
[40:43] So just because something specifically worked for me
[40:46] doesn't mean it's going to work for you.
[40:48] Get tested. Like there are tests that will
[40:50] give you answers and like know that it's going to take time and
[40:53] just be faithful to it. Like there is light at the end
[40:56] of the tunnel. You're not a lost cause.
[40:58] It's just a longer journey. But you're going to be so
[41:00] thankful you did it this way in the long run.
[41:03] And I think like in some cases, the bare minimum, like what we
[41:07] started with may work for a lot of people, but because you had
[41:12] these deeper issues that needed to be addressed with the
[41:14] medication, with the herbs, you know, with those really targeted
[41:17] things, you know, you, your situation required that testing
[41:22] and probably a lot of other situations too.
[41:24] But I think that so I think that it's good for people to to know
[41:28] that, you know, if they're trying everything and nothing is
[41:31] working, it's like, OK, it's probably time to start working
[41:34] with a a professional. But I think a lot of people too
[41:37] don't know where to turn. So I was so thankful to know
[41:41] Taylor and that she was willing to help us.
[41:44] But like tailor for anyone who doesn't just know of a
[41:48] functional medicine provider, like how would someone go about
[41:51] finding finding someone to work with?
[41:53] I would say if you, no matter what state you're in, there are
[41:56] two really great resources. It's ifm.org and a four M and
[42:00] you can go and find a practitioner near you.
[42:02] And I feel like if you've done all the things and you're eating
[42:05] clean and ditched the toxic products and all that, then
[42:09] definitely it's time to like, try to get some answers.
[42:11] I'm not saying go here right away unless you have the means
[42:13] and you're motivated and you're like, I've done all the things
[42:15] for a long time, Let's do it. But yeah, you can find local
[42:18] providers. And then something I'm so
[42:20] passionate about is, you know, I've had my private practice for
[42:22] years. And this is actually part of my
[42:24] story too. I had really bad acne due to gut
[42:26] issues, a lot of other things too.
[42:29] But it was something that's like, so I'm so passionate about
[42:32] because I've walked it, right? And so for me, I remember being
[42:35] the desperate patient, not knowing what to do, literally
[42:38] searching on the Internet late at night, getting down rabbit
[42:40] trails. And so yeah, I'm so passionate
[42:43] about it. So working with a one-on-one
[42:44] provider is amazing. But you know, I had my private
[42:46] practice for years and we can only work with people in Texas.
[42:49] And I just felt so limited, you know, as my Blogger and my
[42:52] Instagram. And I'm so passionate about
[42:53] education and people would reach out about testing or access to
[42:56] things. And so God put it on my heart to
[42:58] create like a little community that, you know, it doesn't just
[43:00] have to be patients. It's not a private practice,
[43:03] it's not what it is, but it's an online community where like
[43:05] minded people can connect. And within that community we
[43:08] have access to lab testing, you know, and I remember I had a
[43:12] huge wait list at my practice and I remember thinking someone
[43:16] approached me like, have you ever thought about a program?
[43:17] And I was like, Nope, that's that's that's hokey.
[43:19] And there's no one-size-fits-all.
[43:21] I'm never doing that. And the more I thought about it
[43:23] and prayed about it, I was like, OK, I would only do a gut
[43:26] program if I could do a stool test and still personalized
[43:28] protocols. And so I did end up creating a
[43:30] gut program because it was like, OK, I can't work with everyone
[43:33] one-on-one and I can't do A1 size fits all program because as
[43:36] you all have learned from Grace's story, it is so
[43:38] personalized. And so through that gut program,
[43:40] the only way I was able to say I can do this is through educating
[43:44] through all the modules of toxins and diet and all of that.
[43:47] But the biggest thing for me was we have to do a stool test and
[43:49] everybody has to get personalized protocols.
[43:51] And so, you know, we do offer that now.
[43:53] Like did you did you make your way to?
[43:55] Say it's amazing you guys, if you haven't done it Well, we're
[43:59] like in the middle of it because my husband and I, we just got
[44:01] married and like he has his own health journey.
[44:03] We're walking and so we were like, let's do it together.
[44:05] And we've been like taking notes.
[44:06] Like it's like a thing like weekly nights where we go
[44:09] through the Taylor Dukes Get Your Gut Right program and we
[44:11] sit with our little notepads and we like take notes.
[44:13] And it's so good and so fun. Like you learn so much.
[44:17] It's fun, but yeah, you know, it's like I'm passionate about
[44:20] getting people access to testing.
[44:21] And then we have nurse practitioners, nutritional
[44:24] therapy practitioners within that community that can do
[44:27] consoles to say, hey, let's personalize this or let's tweak
[44:29] this. And so, yeah, but if you want to
[44:32] work with one-on-one with a provider, those two websites are
[44:34] great resources to try and find someone in your area because
[44:37] sometimes you can work with nutritionists and naturopaths in
[44:40] different states. But when it comes to like a true
[44:42] like nurse practitioner, physician assistant, MD, they do
[44:45] have to be licensed in the state in which you live.
[44:47] So and. That's really good advice.
[44:50] I want to touch on genetics again too.
[44:52] You mentioned that earlier and I think that's such an important
[44:54] point that your genes are not your destiny.
[44:56] So we're all prone to different things, but that doesn't mean
[44:59] that we are destined to them. And I remember going to a
[45:02] dermatologist in high school for my acne and asking, is there
[45:06] anything else I could do, anything I could change, you
[45:08] know, anything I could change about my diet or lifestyle other
[45:11] than just taking these medications?
[45:13] And she looked at me and she said, no, your acne is genetic
[45:17] and there's nothing you can do to change it.
[45:19] And we of course know that is not true now with epigenetics,
[45:23] but I think a lot of people still see it that way.
[45:25] Yeah, I've gotten things like that too.
[45:27] Like, and it's just so disheartening when you're in
[45:30] that room and you're told that, and it's so confusing when you
[45:32] get out of that room and you hear that there actually are
[45:35] things and you're like, why did they say that?
[45:36] Like how did they not know? Well, it's hard when you're the
[45:39] patient and you're deferring to the expert, you know, you feel
[45:41] like you're at the mercy of them, which and I'm, I want to
[45:43] be the first to say I am not knocking medical professionals.
[45:46] It's our medical system and I was conventionally trained.
[45:48] You know, I had not gone this functional medicine route if it
[45:51] had not for me and my story and getting sick, you know, I was
[45:54] desperate and I actually thought it was hocus pocus.
[45:56] My parents were trying to take me to this integrative and I was
[45:58] like, no, that is so weird. I didn't learn about that in
[46:01] nursing school. That's not evidence based and
[46:03] sometimes it takes a lot of these integrative doctors, you
[46:06] know, they're sick and that's how they get into this because
[46:08] the medical system failed them. And so I'm the first to say I
[46:10] don't knock our medical system. It does frustrate me, but I
[46:13] mean, I don't knock our providers.
[46:15] They just they're not taught that, you know, and so
[46:17] unfortunately they don't know about the connections to these
[46:19] things. But what I always tell people is
[46:21] advocate for yourself. Find a provider that does know
[46:24] about the gut skin connection and that does care about the way
[46:27] that food can affect our body and does know about epigenetics
[46:30] because they are out there. But yeah, you're not gonna find
[46:32] it through your traditional specialist.
[46:35] And unfortunately, yeah, they just don't know.
[46:37] They're not trained. They don't have the tools in
[46:39] their tool belt. But when they really like when
[46:42] they come down hard on patients and they're like, there's no
[46:44] evidence. That's what frustrates me.
[46:45] I'm like at least be open minded because if you don't have the
[46:47] answers then like you know, there has to be something else
[46:50] out there. Well.
[46:51] Thank you both so much for coming here, for joining us
[46:54] today. Grace, thank you again for being
[46:55] so willing to Share your story with the world.
[46:58] Where can people find out more? Follow along with you and find
[47:01] some of the content that you have created for Primary Peer.
[47:04] Yeah, we'll definitely primary peer Instagram at primary peer,
[47:07] my personal Instagram. I want to start posting more and
[47:09] have been at this is Grace Harvey and my blog posts are
[47:13] really comprehensive like Bethany mentioned earlier.
[47:15] So link in the show notes. Yeah, link in the show notes on
[47:18] purelifeblog.com. We'll link those.
[47:21] You also have a great highlight on our Instagram that walks
[47:25] through a lot of your journey as well.
[47:26] Yeah, yeah. And Taylor, what about you?
[47:28] Where can people find you and learn more about you and
[47:31] functional medicine? Yeah, so I have an online
[47:33] website. I'm really passionate.
[47:34] We have a blog, everything from recipes, but a lot of it's
[47:37] educational content. And so just
[47:38] taylordukeswellness.com I have an online store of our own
[47:42] supplements and it's shop for amazing.
[47:44] Shop. Dot Taylor dukeswellness.com.
[47:47] And test it. She's living proof.
[47:51] And then of course, I have an Instagram at Taylor
[47:53] Dukeswellness. So I'm just so passionate about
[47:56] education and equipping people. And though I won't be able to
[47:58] work with everyone one-on-one, and I've kind of just, I made
[48:01] peace with that a long time ago. It was hard of me because I'm a
[48:03] helper, right? There are so many free resources
[48:05] that we provide, even with our, you know, it's not free.
[48:08] It's $39.00 a month, which is pretty cheap.
[48:10] But it's our online community, you know, I'm just like, how can
[48:12] we get creative to help equip people and support them and.
[48:15] So yeah, yeah. And even just on your Instagram
[48:17] and your e-mail list, you're always sharing so much good
[48:19] information. Thank you both.
[48:21] Yes, of course.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.