Healing The Source Podcast

Dr. Jennifer Simmons spent 17 years as a board-certified breast surgeon before walking away from conventional practice to become a functional medicine doctor. She's the author of The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer and host of the podcast Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jenn. In this episode, she makes the case for rethinking how we screen for and treat breast cancer, from the surgeon's chair to the other side of it.

• Why routine mammogram screening isn't delivering the protection it's marketed on
• What dense breast tissue actually means for your risk and your screening options
• Radiation-free alternatives to mammography, and how they work
• Whether hormones actually cause breast cancer, and what the research really shows
• Is HRT safe, and who should (and shouldn't) be taking it

Sponsored By:

→ PUORI | Go to https://puori.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE and use the code HEALINGTHESOURCE at checkout to get 32% off your first Puori Grass-fed Whey Protein subscription order and get a free shaker worth $25.

Resources:

Dr. Jennifer Simmons' website, follow her on Instagram, listen to her podcast, read her book.

Follow the host, Claudia, on Instagram, check out Elham's Castor Oil 100% Organic Castor Oil, and enjoy her deep-dives on Substack

Lauren Papanos MS, RD, CSSD is a Functional Endocrine & Performance Registered Dietitian and former Director of Performance & Clinical Nutrition at UCLA, specializing in women's thyroid function + hormones. Lauren helps women understand why they still feel off despite 'normal' lab results, using functional nutrition to uncover the thyroid and hormone imbalances conventional testing keeps missing. Her journey mirrors what so many women in your community are experiencing. She overcame hypothyroidism, PCOS, and ovarian dysfunction, restored her health naturally, and went on to have a natural pregnancy. She has 10+ years specializing in thyroid and hormone health, with 5,000+ patients treated worldwide.

In this episode, we talk about:

• The real differences between an underactive and overactive thyroid
• Why workouts can leave the body wrecked for days afterward
• What a genuinely useful thyroid panel looks like, beyond TSH
• Mold exposure and its impact on thyroid function
• Why low-carb diets often backfire on thyroid health
• Postpartum thyroiditis and why it's mistaken for postpartum depression

Lauren's new book, The Thyroid Breakthrough: An Active Woman's Guide to Feeling Better When You've Tried Everything, is up for pre-order now, and releases in January 2027.

Sponsored By:

→ PUORI | Go to https://puori.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE and use the code HEALINGTHESOURCE at checkout to get 32% off your first Puori Grass-fed Whey Protein subscription order and get a free shaker worth $25.

Resources:

Work with Lauren, follow Lauren Papanos on Instagram, and listen to her podcast

Follow the host, Claudia, on Instagram, check out Elham's Castor Oil 100% Organic Castor Oil, and enjoy her deep-dives on Substack

This episode is about a pattern I've now lived through twice: losing my voice, not from screaming at a concert, but from swallowing something true and watching my body take over where my mouth wouldn't. I walk through both stories, a recent one and an older one from my acting days in college, then break down what's happening physically in the larynx when this hits, what German New Medicine says is underneath it, and why I think this shows up so often in women specifically raised to choose agreeable over honest.

I also give you the exact protocol that got my voice back in two days instead of two weeks, from what went in my nebulizer to what I prayed about.

If you've ever lost your voice and had a doctor blame a virus with no explanation for the timing, this one's for you.

In this episode:

• What laryngitis actually is in the body, and the difference between acute and chronic
• What German New Medicine says is really happening in the larynx during a voice loss
• Why the throat holds this same weight across so many traditions, not just this one
• The link between recurring illness and viruses that never leave, they just go dormant
• Why women in particular carry this pattern, and how using your voice functions as a health practice
• My full recovery protocol

Sponsored By:

→ PUORI | Go to https://puori.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE and use the code HEALINGTHESOURCE at checkout to get 32% off your first Puori Grass-fed Whey Protein subscription order and get a free shaker worth $25.

Resources:

Follow the host, Claudia, on Instagram, check out Elham's Liquid Gold 100% Organic Castor Oil, and enjoy her deep-dives on Substack

Your nervous system runs on minerals. Magnesium, potassium, zinc, and sodium handle nerve signaling, fluid balance, and stress regulation, and chronic stress burns through them faster than most people realize.

This week:

• Why stress and mineral depletion create a loop that repeats until you interrupt it
• The signs your minerals might be low, including a few that get mistaken for anxiety
• A myth check on sodium, and why "less salt is always better" doesn't apply to everyone
• Food swaps that rebuild your mineral foundation without an overhaul
• A mineral broth recipe I come back to on the weeks that ask a lot of me
• A mineral bath ritual to help your body downshift out of fight or flight
• Food first vs. supplements, and how to know which one you need

Sponsored By:

→ PUORI | Go to https://puori.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE and use the code HEALINGTHESOURCE at checkout to get 32% off your first Puori Grass-fed Whey Protein subscription order and get a free shaker worth $25.

Resources:

SALT: Vera

ELECTROLYTES: Kaizen, Seeking Health

EPSOM BATH: Salty Tub, Ancient Minerals, Rowe Casa Organics

MYCOTOXIN-FREE COFFEE: Purity, Kings, LifeBoost

Follow the host, Claudia, on Instagram, check out Elham's Liquid Gold 100% Organic Castor Oil, and enjoy her deep-dives on Substack

Your house might be doing more damage than your diet ever could. Helen Christoni, SVP of AirDoctor and AquaTru, joins the show to break down what's hiding in your air and water, and how toxic load builds up over years without anyone noticing.

In this episode:

• The hidden stressors sitting inside a home that looks completely clean
• Why indoor air quality is often worse than what's happening outside
• What to check about your tap water before you assume it's fine
• How cumulative toxic exposure shows up as fatigue, brain fog, and hormone symptoms
• What matters most if you're trying to conceive, pregnant, or newly postpartum
• Low cost changes you can start this week

This one covers a lot of ground. If you care about root cause health, this is required listening.

Sponsored By:

→ PUORI | Go to https://puori.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE and use the code HEALINGTHESOURCE at checkout to get 32% off your first Puori Grass-fed Whey Protein subscription order and get a free shaker worth $25.

Resources:

Get your water (AquaTru) and air filters (AirDoctor) from Ideal Living

Follow the host, Claudia, on Instagram, check out Elham's Liquid Gold 100% Organic Castor Oil, and enjoy her deep-dives on Substack

Three days after moving, I couldn't get through my new hallway without having a panic attack. This episode is the real story behind why we left LA County for Ventura County: the sirens and traffic that wore down my nervous system for years, the mold infested building that made the final decision for us, and the parts of moving stress, the blood sugar crashes, the decision fatigue, the research on why your home is more than just a place to sleep. If you're in the middle of a move, or still recovering from your last one, this one's for you.

Sponsored By:

→ PUORI | Go to https://puori.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE and use the code HEALINGTHESOURCE at checkout to get 32% off your first Puori Grass-fed Whey Protein subscription order and get a free shaker worth $25.

Resources:

Follow the host, Claudia, on Instagram, check out Elham's Liquid Gold 100% Organic Castor Oil, and enjoy her deep-dives on Substack

Nicole Woodruff, OTD, OTR/L, is an Occupational Therapist, pelvic health specialist, educator, author, and the founder of Intuitive Therapies & Pelvic Health in Tampa, Florida. She specializes in helping people navigate hypermobility (hEDS/HSD), dysautonomia/POTS, chronic pain, and pelvic floor dysfunction. After facing her own journey with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, pelvic health challenges, and a complex postpartum recovery, Nicole became passionate about bridging the gap between traditional rehabilitation and whole-person healing. Her work focuses on helping clients move beyond symptom management to rebuild trust in their bodies through education, nervous system regulation, lifestyle strategies, and compassionate, evidence-based care.

Sponsored By:

→ PUORI | Go to https://puori.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE and use the code HEALINGTHESOURCE at checkout to get 32% off your first Puori Grass-fed Whey Protein subscription order and get a free shaker worth $25.

Resources:

Follow the host, Claudia, on Instagram, check out Elham's Liquid Gold 100% Organic Castor Oil, and enjoy her deep-dives on Substack

Here's the episode you've been looking for about nicotine: the good, the bad, the ugly. THE NUANCE!

Nicotine is having a wellness moment. Zyn pouches, vapes, nicotine patches — people who would never touch a cigarette are using them daily and calling it biohacking. And the focus hit is real. But here's what nobody is stopping to ask: why is it working? And what does it mean that you need it to feel that way?

In this episode, we break down what nicotine is actually doing in your brain, why it stops working the longer you use it, and what your body is really signaling when nicotine gives you that hit of clarity. We get into acetylcholine — one of the most important and undertalked neurotransmitters in your nervous system — what depletes it, why so many people are running low without knowing it, and what rebuilding it actually looks like through food and foundational support.

This one is for anyone who relies on nicotine, caffeine, or any stimulant to feel sharp, focused, or like themselves. The signal your body is sending is worth understanding.

Sponsored By:

→ PUORI | Go to https://puori.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE and use the code HEALINGTHESOURCE at checkout to get 32% off your first Puori Grass-fed Whey Protein subscription order and get a free shaker worth $25.

Resources:

Beef Organ Complex

Liposomal Glutathione discount: HEAL10

Phosphotidylcholine discount: HEAL10

Optimal Focus discount: HEAL10

Follow the host, Claudia, on Instagram, check out Elham's Liquid Gold 100% Organic Castor Oil, and enjoy her deep-dives on Substack

If you've ever felt like your anxiety, depression, or inability to calm down is just who you are — this episode will change how you see your brain.

Angie Noack is a licensed professional counselor and Senior VP of Business Development at Braincode Centers, where she specializes in brain mapping and neurofeedback. She has a deeply personal story that led her to this work, and the way she explains how our brains get stuck — and how they can actually be retrained — is one of the most eye-opening conversations I've had on this show.

some things we got into:

— why you can't think your way out of anxiety no matter how much therapy you've done

— the ADHD misdiagnosis epidemic and what's actually going on in those kids' brains

— why SSRIs don't heal anything, they just cover it

— Bipolar vs Borderline Personality Disorder

— what social media and dopamine are doing to our brains (and our kids' brains)

— how neurofeedback literally rewires your brain without putting anything into it

— simple tools you can use at home today to start regulating your nervous system

Sponsored By:

→ TIMELINE | Timeline's clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $99, with the exact same science and formula. And my listeners can still get 20% off when you go to https://timeline.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE

→ PUORI | Go to https://puori.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE and use the code HEALINGTHESOURCE at checkout to get 32% off your first Puori Grass-fed Whey Protein subscription order and get a free shaker worth $25.

Resources:

Glow Kids book

Metabolical book

Follow the host, Claudia, on Instagram, check out Elham's Liquid Gold 100% Organic Castor Oil, and enjoy her deep-dives on Substack

If you've been following a low-histamine diet for months and still reacting, this episode is going to reframe everything.

Most histamine protocols treat this as a food supply problem. Avoid the aged cheese, take the DAO enzyme, cut the fermented foods. But for women whose symptoms track with their cycle, flare before their period, or seem to be getting worse despite all the right interventions, the food list is never going to be enough.

We go deep into the work of Dr. Ray Peat, biologist and physiologist, to make the case that histamine excess in women is fundamentally a hormonal and metabolic problem. Estrogen directly multiplies mast cells and activates them to release histamine. Progesterone stabilizes them. Thyroid function governs the entire hormonal environment. And a gut producing endotoxin feeds back into estrogen production in ways that keep the whole cycle running.

We cover:

• Why estrogen is the primary upstream driver of histamine excess in women
• The estrogen-histamine feedback loop and why it intensifies around your period
• What thyroid function has to do with histamine and why it's almost never addressed
• Why seed oils and low-carb approaches may be worsening the problem
• The gut-endotoxin-estrogen connection
• The heavy metal and liver piece that changed everything for me personally
• What Peat actually recommended, and what to bring to your provider

Resources

→ PUORI | Go to https://puori.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE and use the code HEALINGTHESOURCE at checkout to get 32% off your first Puori Grass-fed Whey Protein subscription order and get a free shaker worth $25.

Follow the host, Claudia, on Instagram, check out Elham's Liquid Gold 100% Organic Castor Oil, and enjoy her deep-dives on Substack

My hormone supports: Raena discount code: HEALINGTHESOURCE10

-Thyroid test

-Full hormone test

-Dessicated thyroid

-Progesterone cream

-Sheep thymus

My favorite salt: Vera Salt discount code: CLAUDIA