START | STOP | CONTINUE

In this podcast, Dr. Rodney and Karen talk about their process of evaluating their progress and health for the year. Let us know if you want a copy of the sheet to process your own progress to Start | Stop | Continue. We are happy to send that to you.

START - Dr. Rodney is now a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner

Dr. Rodney enrolled in Functional Medicine University in October of 2023. We began to implement it in June of 2024 with the help of a comprehensive database that compiles the history and symptoms. The result is a road map of what testing to do first and specific protocols to address the most urgent health needs first.

We are seeing amazing results in those who are sticking to lifestyle changes and supplementation. If you would like to get more information simply call 972-802-8812 for a consultation.

Another START was to challenge ourselves to eat 9 cups of vegetables of varying colors every day. This has been a total game changer for our digestive system.
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STOP - Exposure to Plastics

We are increasingly becoming aware of the danger of all the plastic that surrounds us. For that reason we did the following:
Threw out plastic ware and no use glass storage containers
Stopped using water bottles and provide filtered water in a glass dispenser in the office
Increased our sauna use to get rid of the toxins
Used more reusable shopping bags when at the grocery store
Pursued gardening more seriously so our vegetables are organic and plastic free

CONTINUE - Our health pursuit with simple life-long habits

We continue to eat most of our meals at home and love spending time at home and with our grandkids. We travel 2 miles to the office and go home every day to eat our lunch there. Karen takes a nap while Dr. Rodney cycles.

We continue to connect with life-long friends through travel.

• In April we took a road trip to Iowa to celebrate the life of Dr. Rodney’s brother Reid. We had so much fun with family there.
• In June we traveled to Santa Barbara for the anniversary party of Karen’s bestie in college and her husband.
• In August we went to Cerrillos, Costa Rica where we spent a week with Karen’s best friend from high school in a beautiful tropical spot in the mountains. 

Dr. Rodney is now a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner who would love to help you with your health issues. You can fill out a comprehensive questionnaire that gives you a road map on what root cause issues to address first as you begin to get healthier.

Call 972-802-8812 to set up an introductory call to Root Cause Solutions at Stance for Health.

Functional Medicine works in every system to get you to your healthiest and to boost your longevity.

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Our website is: https://www.stancechiropractic.com/podcast

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Transcript

START | STOP | CONTINUE

[00:07] Dr. Rodney: Welcome to Stance for Health podcast with Dr. Rodney and Karen Wirth, where becoming healthy is not complicated.

[00:16] Control your health by focusing on six areas of life that we teach you so you finally have the energy you have to do what you want instead of being a victim of your age.

[00:27] I have over 20 years experience working as a chiropractor and Karen is an author, speaker and longevity coach.

[00:34] We've seen how a tiny change in your habits today can open up your life to a powerful future. Start today and take your stance for health.

[00:52] Karen: Welcome to Stance for Health.

[00:55] This is our Start, Stop, Continue for 2024. And you might be wondering what the Start, Stop, Continue is.

[01:07] It's something that we use here in our practice that I developed as a corporate trainer because it can show you where you are.

[01:17] What do you need to start? What do you need to stop? What do you need to continue?

[01:22] So we have basically a form and if you're interested, just tell us in the message below that you want to go ahead and receive a PDF of this. We're happy for you to do this.

[01:37] This is for anything in your life. But in our sense, we call it take charge of your health today. What are you going to start? What are you going to stop?

[01:46] What are you going to Continue? So for 2024, what did we start, Doc?

[01:51] Dr. Rodney: Oh, so many things.

[01:54] It's amazing what can happen in a year. The number one thing that comes to mind was a carryover from 2023 was Functional Medicine.

[02:06] Karen: Right. You started studying in October of 2023.

[02:10] Dr. Rodney: Right.

[02:11] Karen: And tell us what Functional Medicine is.

[02:13] Dr. Rodney: Well, Functional Mmedicine, you think of any time people want to get to the root cause of a disease and what they can do about it, that doesn't mean burning or cutting out or, or just, you know, chemicals or anything like that.

[02:32] We. That's an alternative method. Not that those other things I mentioned don't come into play, but it was an opportunity for me to, to help more people with the time left that I have on this earth.

[02:47] And the opportunity presented itself. I'd seen it and heard it in different ways from different docs, so pulled the trigger.

[02:55] Karen: And I had become very in involved as far as reading Mark Hyman's book called Forever Young. Because as a longevity coach, I'm constantly looking for ways that we can help our health partners boost their longevity.

[03:12] Like the Blue Zones, which is where you die young at a very old age, die quickly, but you live without disability.

[03:23] And so we actually got to start with some of our health partners that began their journey in functional medicine. How's that going?

[03:33] Dr. Rodney: So far so good. We've seen some increasingly exciting results. Of course we had a little bit of a. We, we've made some mistakes, but we've also helped to correct those mistakes as we move forward.

[03:45] But that's true of anything. I, in fact, I think that's why they call it practice.

[03:49] Karen: Well, when you say mistakes, no one's been hurt. What do you mean by that?

[03:56] Dr. Rodney: I just in, in, in. I'm glad you asked that. Just in procedures and protocols, the ability.

[04:04] Karen: Maybe some false starts in a direction and then quickly revamp looking at it and starting in another.

[04:11] Dr. Rodney: I'd say that's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no one's been hurt.

[04:16] When I say practice, I'm not pulling out a knife when I say it and we're not, we're not using chemicals. So the only, the only thing that I would add to that is the opportunity to help more people rather than just assuming that my, my tool chest only includes body work or only includes neuromusculoskeletal fascia, although those are still powerful and I, and I still adore doing that and look forward to that.

[04:45] And that's, you know, we still do that multiple times a week.

[04:50] It's just, it's just another way to help people. And that's what I'm excited about.

[04:54] Karen: Me too.

[04:55] Dr. Rodney: Simplified by the functional medicine approach that.

[04:58] Karen: We're using and I am excited about the research that's available to us. It is incredible that it is well sourced and trusted, vetted sources of the research because anymore it's getting harder and harder to know whether the research that you're doing online is a proper source.

[05:21] And so that's really been exciting to me because I love to do the research. There's so, so much to learn. And as we look forward to it, we're like going, wow, this is something real exciting.

[05:35] We're already seeing some results. We have tell us about our one that we really are excited about. We're excited about everybody. But I mean some people that are willing to make lifestyle changes and see quick results.

[05:52] Dr. Rodney: Well, that was case in point. We'll, we'll call her K for short just to protect her because she doesn't tell, she didn't tell us we could use her name.

[06:02] And she'd had this really unusual skin rash.

[06:07] Karen: Yes.

[06:07] Dr. Rodney: And they gave her obviously steroids to help her get over it quickly. But she still has some residual effects from it and some, some things about her skin that she doesn't appreciate just by Virtue of the way she looks or looked after the use of the corticosteroids.

[06:26] But her diet has changed just by virtue of her diet. That was a game changer for her.

[06:33] Karen: And she stuck with it.

[06:35] I think as a coach, I am loving this because of the testing. It's not just like with us. We'll talk more about that later. About the continue where we just changed on a dime.

[06:47] Most people find it difficult to make those kind of changes, but Kay did not. She quickly started following and seeing great results.

[06:58] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. And she's just one of those people that, you know, when she heard the information, it just clicked. It just made sense to her. Yes. Especially you know, by virtue of the way we.

[07:08] We talk to talk to her about the. The gut blade gut brain barrier and the blood brain barrier, how they're connected.

[07:16] Karen: And how that can affect your skin. And it. Her complexion has completely cleared up. So pleased.

[07:23] Dr. Rodney: Yes.

[07:24] Karen: And that's been a wonderful thing that we've started. One other thing then we've started eating more veggies.

[07:33] Dr. Rodney: Heard a.

[07:34] I've heard several teachings from Dr. Wall. She is on staff at the University of Iowa. Teaches other medical doctors how to be better doctors.

[07:44] And some of the things that she has said will stick with me for the rest of my life, I think. I don't know how. She's just such a gripping speaker because she's got the skins on the wall.

[07:54] She. Yeah, she does went through it. She went through. Actually she's been healed or called it remission of MS. That's right. Yeah. And she's been on all kinds of different shows and speaking and things like that.

[08:08] And probably the big takeaway from what you're saying is the challenge.

[08:13] Karen: Yes.

[08:14] Dr. Rodney: To eat nine cups of varying colored vegetables per day.

[08:19] Karen: And that is a challenge even as healthy as we eat. But what we have found a little bit personal here. But what we have found is great movement in the morning.

[08:34]  Is that TMI, Doc?

[08:37] Dr. Rodney: Well, I mean she comes right out and says. I mean she just comes right out and says it. She. She's not afraid to talk about ****.

[08:47] Karen: Oh yeah. She even describes it and shows pictures.

[08:50] Dr. Rodney: Pictures of it. This is the way. This is what it should look like. But moving right along. No pun intended.

[08:55] Karen: And so that is part of what we have started and are committed to. And if you're interested in that rejuvenation lifestyle, will be coming out with a cookbook that's going to help you with that.

[09:08] That's. That's something Future for. For 2025. I think so. Let's talk about. It's a start.

[09:16] Stop, Continue.

[09:19] So we've got our start, which was Functional Medicine, which by the way, Doc has a skin on the wall now. Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner.

[09:29] Dr. Rodney: Well, you always have to, you know, when you go to a doctor's office and if they're not, you know, too proud. Well, most of them are pretty proud of their, of their diplomas and whatnot.

[09:40] Karen: We have them in the waiting area.

[09:43] Dr. Rodney: And, and people want to see the skins on the wall.

[09:45] Karen: Yes. Because you want to know that they know what they're doing. So he has that and, and we have the benefit of, you know, so the stop. What did we stop this year?

[09:59] 2024.

[10:00] Dr. Rodney: How many? I don't know how many because we.

[10:02] Karen: Are in 2025 right now.

[10:04] Dr. Rodney: How many different times? Yeah, we're recording this on January, in January, early January, 2 January as a matter of fact. And I over the time we're listening to functional medicine training and then reading articles from different sources, talked about phthalates and phthalates in your food.

[10:25] Basically what I'm talking about then is microplastic plastic down to the, in some cases molecule.

[10:33] Karen: Yes.

[10:33] Dr. Rodney: How I. And just what it does. Was there anything that you were thinking about with that?

[10:37] Karen: Well, with that it's affecting hormones, it's affecting your brains, it's affecting so many things.

[10:44] Dr. Rodney: Sure.

[10:45] Karen: And so once we know something, we do not want to be hypocrites if we're talking about it. This has been a, been a double edged sword, which is wonderful because we don't just talk about that.

[10:59] The stuff that we're talking on here, it's not just a talking point, let me put it that way. This is literally a lifestyle change for us. So we said, well, let's start changing plastic.

[11:09] Let's start minimizing, using less of it. It is hard to do.

[11:15] Dr. Rodney: It is even this right here, though, it's made of metal, actually has a plastic top. Right.

[11:23] Karen: So you're touching the plastic?

[11:24] Dr. Rodney: Well, no, well, it's coming in contact with the plastic.

[11:28] Karen: But, but now there are certain plastics that are.

[11:31] Dr. Rodney: Okay, I. There, there's some debate out there.

[11:34] Karen: Oh, is there? Of course.

[11:36] Dr. Rodney: What's considered acceptable plastic?

[11:38] Karen: Well, and I think you're, you have a plastic straw in there. So we need to, we need to look at that. So see even in that. So it's not perfect, but do the best that you can.

[11:48] So we started out on one of our Costco. They're not giving us a commission. But one of our trips to Costco, they had a whole box full of glass containers to store food. And we bought one and, and decided, ah, let's just get another one. The second trip to Costco and we threw away. Drum roll was raised with it. And it was almost something that was hard to part with, but we actually threw out all of our Tupperware or our plastic wear, I guess I should say. Tupperware is an older name, so we've done that.

[12:26] We also used to hand our health partners a. We had little bottles of water for them to drink.

[12:33] Dr. Rodney: Sure did.

[12:34] Karen: Found out what's going on with those particular plastic bottles.

[12:37] Dr. Rodney: The challenge with them is, number one, that they sit for a long period of time. It's not that the. You mentioned the good plastic, bad plastic. Well, it's not awful plastic.

[12:48] It's harder plastic. So it doesn't tend to, it doesn't.

[12:52] Karen: Leach into the water.

[12:53] Dr. Rodney: But the problem with it is it's, it's the shelf life, how long it sits. And then it's in a warehouse, it gets heated and then that tends to increase the leaching of the plastic.

[13:03] Karen: And there is some research out there and some articles out there saying that that could be a cause for women getting breast cancer because the plastics change the hormones.

[13:15] Dr. Rodney: Well, it's such a, such a topic. You mentioned. Basically anything if it affects your blood and it's, it's, it's going throughout. It's. That's a key point. That's the, that is basically the river that the endocrine system uses to dump hormones in, into.

[13:33] For the bloodstream for transport to target tissue in the body. And plastics compete with that.

[13:39] Karen: Wow.

[13:40] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[13:40] Karen: So another thing that we've done then is we now have filtered water in a glass container and little paper cups for, for our health partners. Or they can bring their metal tumbler and fill it.

[13:52] We don't mind as long as they're getting lots of water so that they can flush out these toxins. So we're going to the sauna as many times a week as we can get there because.

[14:05] Why does that help with that?

[14:07] Dr. Rodney: Well, there was a.

[14:09] I don't know if it was an episode. What episode it was, but it was on Limitless.

[14:16] Not, not the movie, but it was actually really good science. With Crimson. Chris Hemsworth on National Geographic.

[14:25] Karen: Yes.

[14:25] Dr. Rodney: And very, very good about what sauna use and cold exposure use is for. And it's the proteins that your body actually produces in defense of shock or in the event that it thick thinks it's going into shock.

[14:42] So it mobilizes these proteins to kill unwanted cells or to rejuvenate those that can be rejuvenated.

[14:51] Karen: I love it.

[14:51] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[14:52] Karen: And so we do that as often as possible. Another thing that we're doing is reusable shopping bags.

[14:58] And so we're eliminating some of the plastic that's just floating around.

[15:05] And the final one on that one is I have a raised bed in a community garden. And so I'm working really hard to get us more fresh produce that never sees plastic.

[15:19] And so I was thinking the other day, guess what I put it in when I harvested it.

[15:24] Plastic.

[15:26] It's so hard to break that.

[15:28] Dr. Rodney: Doc and I that going back. Yes, it is. And you now you re mentioned plastic. And so that made me think about the article that I was reading about a restaurant.

[15:40] I don't know if you want to do a negative shout or not, but the there's so many restaurants out there. It just encourages you to that where you can find plastics so that it actually changes the texture of the food to make it more palatable.

[15:55] The use of. They use plastic. They actually add plastic to the ingredients.

[16:00] Karen: And it's not not put on the ingredient list as plastic. It's put on there as emulsifier. And it looks like maybe we could do a whole podcast on this and do deep research.

[16:12] But that was enough for us to make that change. And it's been great.

[16:16] Dr. Rodney: And that is part of the changes that we made in 2024 too, was hearing that there's really no safe place necessarily unless you know for sure to eat out.

[16:28] Karen: Yes.

[16:29] Dr. Rodney: It's real hard to avoid those plastics, those emulsifiers, the other acronyms that are out there.

[16:38] Karen: Wow. Well, that was our big stop for the year. I'm sure there were others as incremental things because, you know, that. Is it five years ago? Yes, 2020.

[16:50] Dr. Rodney: It was January of 2020.

[16:53] Karen: We made a huge change in our eating to cut out lectins and went very strict keto. We've now added a lot more good carbs, the ones that your gut buddies need.

[17:08] And we've just continued to eat at home. Very little eating out, because as Doc says, it's hard to find a place that's okay and that's part of it. We continue to simplify this with the foods that we can eat.

[17:25] And I'm ready to help other people do this. People think this is hard, but it's not. Why is it not hard to us now?

[17:34] Dr. Rodney: That's a great one of the parting statements I made to One of the health partners as she was leaving this morning was that it's basically like breathing in and breathing out.

[17:45] What if you had to think about that?

[17:47] So in some ways it becomes so habitual that it is like breathing in and breathing out. You just realize it's life to you and you don't want to go back.

[18:00] Sometimes the tediousness of supplementing is a problem.

[18:04] Karen: Oh, yeah, I have to confess.

[18:07] Dr. Rodney: But that's a continue. We're just going to continue to supplement.

[18:10] Karen: I have a little bit of a tickle here. You might hear it. It's because I was just noticing, why did this happen? And I had skipped supplements for about a week because been healthy pretty much all year.

[18:24] This is the first time that I've had anything and been around a lot of people, the sneezing and all of those things.

[18:31] So, you know, the thing about the continue is that as you start something, as you stop doing something and then start something new, like you say, it isn't a habit yet, but stance for health is about creating small changes that then become a habit.

[18:51] And it's one of those things that now when we go to our family gatherings over the holidays, they can't wait to see what desserts I'm bringing. And they love them and they're going, oh, that was so good.

[19:03] And the chips that we eat and the things that, that we do because we supply those, we aren't looking at the leeks and onions from Egypt that, you know, scripture, you know what I'm talking about.

[19:14] We're. We're not against leeks and onions, by the way, because they're actually good for you. But what it was, was instead of embracing manna as they were in the wilderness, they were looking back at the old way, but not realizing that they were in bondage, not realizing that they had so many things going against them.

[19:34] Dr. Rodney: Them.

[19:34] Karen: And a recent Bible reading has been that if as they went into the promised land and if they followed the ordinances of the law, none of the diseases that they suffered in Egypt would be upon them.

[19:49] And that really hit me, Doc, because I realized that what we want to do is we want to continue to be vibrant in our health and continue to work on our longevity and purpose in life so we could get to do what only we can do well.

[20:09] Dr. Rodney: And as we wind this down, I think about the book that we're still reading. We're more than halfway through this book called Grit from Angela Duckworth, and it's about to more fully answer your question.

[20:23] Just read that book as to why this has become more like flow.

[20:29] Karen: That's true.

[20:30] Dr. Rodney: As she has mentioned in her book. So at first, you know, the practice, you know, the practice of it seems a little bit clunky, but as you, as you, as we continue to do it, it becomes more of a flow for us.

[20:42] Karen: Yes. And the other flow that we've done is travel. We've continued to travel.

[20:48] One of them was not as much fun as some of the years before because it's been a year of grieving.

[20:58] Doc's brother passed. And in last October, still a hole.

[21:04] Dr. Rodney: It's really a fresh void.

[21:07] Karen: And then in April, we drove to Iowa with niece and nephew, which was a blast. That was so fun. A road trip so that we could honor his life. And then we got to go to.

[21:20] Dr. Rodney: Costa Rica and Santa Barbara.

[21:23] Karen: Santa Barbara.

[21:24] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[21:25] Karen: Lifelong friends. See, that's part of the longevity lifestyle is reconnect with people you have not been in touch with. Especially those lifelong friends, the ones that are stand out. The ones that you could go into their house and open their fridge and see what they.

[21:45] If they have anything you can eat that you didn't bring. And then we got to go to Costa Rica and then back again to Austin because. Because our friends moved from the Santa Barbara area to Austin and get to see them again.

[22:04] We are so blessed. But we are blessed that you are listening to this podcast. Thank you. We just got another award for a number of downloads and we're so grateful to you for listening.

[22:17] Dr. Rodney: Thank you for listening.

[22:19] Karen: Yes. And we pray that it is of help to you and most of all gives you glimmer of hope that you don't have to just sit there and go, well, there's plastic everywhere.

[22:30] I just give up. No, do your part. Whatever little bit you can do. Eat the right way, make the right habits, begin to do all those things. And if you want more information on functional medicine, let us know because we cannot wait to help you take your stance.

[22:52] Dr. Rodney: Thanks for listening.