Wellness with Vanda
A women's health podcast where we'll be talking about hormones, mindset, motherhood, & everything in between. The host, Vanda, is a functional medicine nurse coach that helps women overcome hormone imbalance so that they can achieve optimal wellness. In her private practice she specializes in HTMA testing and DUTCH testing. Throughout this podcast she shares tips for boosting energy naturally, improve mood, recover from mom burnout, ways to increase fertility, ways to improve sleep quality, tips for pregnancy, tips for navigating postpartum and the fourth trimester, and more!
Wellness with Vanda
Signs & Symptoms You Need an HTMA Test
Ever wondered why your energy dips or why you're experiencing those pesky mood swings? Our latest episode peels back the curtain on Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) testing, illustrating how this powerful tool can pinpoint the nutritional and mineral imbalances often at the root of such symptoms. We wade through the tell-tale signs your body might be sending you, from muscle cramps to hair loss, and how HTMA can help you understand and address them. It's not just for those with a laundry list of ailments either – even the health-curious can unearth valuable insights into their body's unique needs.
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Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. I think this is the 14th episode, and today we're gonna be talking a little bit more about HTML testing and specifically like what are some of the symptoms that you might be experiencing that would indicate an HTML test might be helpful for you? Probably one of the most common questions I get in DMs or in emails is like I have this going on. Will HTML testing be helpful for me? So we're gonna dig into that today.
Speaker 1:I don't really have any personal updates to share today. I don't feel like we've just really been enjoying the fact that the sun has been shining the last few days. I'm sitting down on Monday to record this before it'll go out on Tuesday and so the end of last week, like Thursday I think, it started to be really nice and the temperatures were nice and we were able to take the kids outside in the afternoons and, like Saturday this weekend, it was really nice. Sunday it was nice, but the wind was kind of cold, so we didn't spend as much time outside on Sunday as I maybe would have liked if it had been just a little bit warmer, but it's so nice for us and the kids to be able to get outside, have some sunlight, get some fresh air and just have something to do other than be inside the house, cause we're definitely getting sick of the wintertime, the darkness, the dreariness I'm sure, like everybody. So that's really what we've been up to. So let's get into it. Like I said, this is one of the most common things that I get asked about when someone is considering HTMA testing, and I totally get it, because it's like you don't want to make the investment in purchasing the testing if it's not gonna help you and I do always I think I said this in the last episode like there's really not a situation where I don't think that HTMA testing could be beneficial because of the huge amount of knowledge that you get from an HTMA test. You just learn so much and you get so many different data points and insights into different body systems and how they're working that it's just a really great, like overall well-rounded test.
Speaker 1:But specifically with the clients that I work with specifically, there are some common themes in, like symptoms that people are experiencing that come up that I'm like yes, we could definitely get some insight as to why that might be happening with an HTMA test. So that's kind of what I wanted to go through. Today I have a list of I don't know like 10 or so, maybe eight, I don't know symptoms that are common. People come to me and we get HTMA testing on them and we're able to, like, identify a root cause, a reason as to why they're having that symptom, and then we can make a plan for how we're gonna address it, since we know what's causing it. So I'm gonna run through this list. Some of them I might expand on others, I mean, I'm just gonna read through them.
Speaker 1:So, first and foremost, number one thing absolutely is fatigue, tiredness, sluggishness, like just not feeling like you're very motivated to do anything. You're just like I'm worn out and tired all the time. That's definitely the number one thing that people come to me with and then see positive results from what we implement based on their results. Now some other things, and this list is like in no particular order. I just wrote down some things Ponstipation, muscle cramps, bloating bloating is a big one Feeling cold all the time, or like temperature, like feeling like they're struggling to regulate their temperature.
Speaker 1:They're either like hot or cold. Headaches, period pain and PMS of course, that's a big one Acne, hair loss and I feel like I had one more, but those are definitely, but definitely the most. Oh, the other one was mood swings, which obviously that goes along with period pain and PMS. Sometimes, but not always. Sometimes it can just be mood swings and fluctuations or changes in anxiety or depression that people will come to me with and we get some insight into why they're experiencing that with their HTML testing. So there's different markers for each of these that we look at, and I can't really I don't want this podcast episode to get to be like 45, 50 minutes long again, like last week's did, when I did that deep dive into my recent test results. I definitely shared some insights there linked to specific symptoms. So if you haven't listened to that episode yet, definitely take a listen to it.
Speaker 1:But let's just take like fatigue, for example. There are many different things that can contribute to fatigue. So first of all, we're gonna be looking at the insight we get into your metabolism, so that's gonna be like your calcium and your phosphorus. We are also gonna wanna look at your sodium and your potassium. We're also going to wanna look at your copper and your iron lots of different things. We would then look at the thyroid ratio and then probably also wanna look at your blood sugar ratio, so like that's just off the top of my head, without even having a test in front of me, to really go line by line and say like, yeah, this would have an indication for fatigue or not. But there's so many different markers that we get. We get insight on each of these symptoms and, like I said, the list that I shared is not an exhaustive list by any means. It's just the things that I most commonly see in the clients that come to me.
Speaker 1:But I mean, the main thing that I want people to take away from this is that you don't have to have this huge, long laundry list of symptoms in order to like justify I don't know that that's the right word but to justify wanting to get an HTML test for yourself. Some people come to me and they're just like you know. I don't know, I feel okay, but I would like to feel better if I can. I'm just curious about my health and I would like to know where I stand. I think that this is fascinating and it's just something that I would like to do. And then I do have clients that come to me and they have this huge, long laundry list of symptoms and they're like. You know, it just started out as one or two things and progressively I've just gotten worse and worse and I have more symptoms, and more symptoms and everybody is just telling me that I'm fine and they don't really have any solutions for me, but they also don't have any answers for me and I'm frustrated. And in both client case types there we have positive outcomes at the end. So you know, if you are feeling like some people feel like they.
Speaker 1:I'm guilty of this sometimes, like in other areas not necessarily this, but sometimes people think that they have to be like bad enough or worse off enough in order to like justify wanting to get this test for themselves or giving themselves permission to invest the money to purchase the testing Cause, even though it's not as expensive as other functional tests out there, it is an investment and you know, none of us want to be spending our money on something that we feel like is wasteful by any means. So I just think that, like it's totally okay for you to want the testing just because you want it, or feel like you need it because you're not getting answers other other places. Either way, you're still able to get so much information and learn so much about your unique body, in the unique way that your body is utilizing its resources, and even like what those resource stores are, so that you can better support them. It's just the amount of information that you get is invaluable. And something that you know I'm really trying to be even more diligent about now in my practice is teaching people how to take a food approach with supporting these minerals, not just supplements, because as great as supplements are and I do think that they are necessary, especially when we're trying to feel large gaps or we're trying to really replenish something that is super depleted and probably has been for a long time supplements are not meant to be taken forever and you don't want to base all of your nutrition in your mineral status and your vitamin status off of supplements. You really want it to be coming from your just normal day-to-day nutrition and working to optimize that nutrition. So I'm not really sure how to spell down that rabbit hole of explaining that thought, but you know it's. It's really nice when you get your care plan, which is what I create for you after I do the review of your htma test, and I outline for you some supplement recommendations and then I also call out like specific foods or food groups that you would benefit from incorporating more of. And then there are you also get access to like some recordings of some nutrition information from me. That's just like generalized, that applies to everybody.
Speaker 1:So I'm gonna wrap up this episode because I feel like my pregnancy brain is kind of scrambling, feel a little bit like a squirrel, but to just kind of run through this list again and again, this is not an exhaustive list, but these are just some of the most common signs and symptoms that people come to me with that htma testing. I have absolutely seen it to be helpful and insightful and identifying a root cause in in getting to what the problem is. So we've got fatigue, hair loss, acne, headaches, temperature regulation issues bloating is a big one constipation, muscle cramps, anxiety, depression, mood swings, pms. So hope that's helpful. If you are ever curious about whether or not htma testing would be right for you in your situation, please feel free to reach out to me, because I have these conversations with people all the time and I really, once I'm able to ask you a few questions but, like what's going on with you, I can give you a really good recommendation for what I think would be helpful and why I think it would be helpful, and I know some of us need that reassurance before we choose to make an investment in something. I totally understand that.
Speaker 1:So for today's mindset minute, I honestly have not been working on my own mindset as much lately because, to be honest, I have just been so tired with this pregnancy and I just haven't left a lot of time to do like other things. I haven't been journaling in the mornings like I do sometimes, and I definitely haven't been doing it before bed, because when it's time to go to bed I'm ready to go to sleep. So I dug into the resources that I have available for my clients. One of those is a Word document full of like journaling prompts, and one of the ones that I have in there is it's talking about how important gratitude is and finding the little joys in every day and like making that such a habit for yourself that you do it subconsciously. So you know that takes a lot of practice and it takes a lot of training of our brain to do that without literally sitting down and thinking about the things that brought me joy today. But the way that you train your brain to do that automatically without you having to sit down and write it down is by starting with sitting down and writing it down.
Speaker 1:So if you're listening to this podcast episode when it goes live, which would be in the morning time for most people you're going to want to do this tonight, kind of at the end of your day, like late afternoon, nighttime. Whatever, you're not going to be able to probably do it right off the bat. First thing in the morning you might be able to, but maybe not. But anyway, the exercise is to is to make a list. This can be I prefer handwritten for things like this, for journaling and such, but you can also just like pull up the notes app on your phone and make a list. It doesn't matter Whatever works for you, but it's identifying 10 things that brought you joy in this day.
Speaker 1:And the key here is, like 10 things might sound like a lot and if you're focusing on big things, that might be hard to come up with, but the goal really is that you're finding the little things that are just like happening around us, that you know we take for granted a little bit or that we don't acknowledge our like special things, but that makes us happy. So I was trying to think of some examples before I hit record. Like one of the things that just like is no big deal really, I guess is like I don't know if that's sorry to say that, but it's just like something that happens this time of year. But it brought me joy this weekend was while we were outside playing with the kids, several different little flocks of geese flew over and like there, I know that that means that like spring is coming, they are flying back north for the spring and summer months and I just really enjoyed watching them fly and like they did something really cool that I had never seen them do before. You know, normally you just see them and they're flying in their like V formation and they just go.
Speaker 1:Well, there were several different little groups, I guess, of these, like small V sets of these geese and kind of like right over top of our house. They all just kind of like gathered up and for a while they just were flying in a circle and of course they're like squawking the whole time and making a scene and whatever. But they just I don't know I have no idea. I need to Google like what they were doing, why they were doing it. I have no idea, but it was kind of like several of these little flocks gathered together and then eventually they all kind of just formed into these, like two larger these, and then they proceeded on about their way go north and like I pointed it out to the kids and my kids were probably like, why should you talk about these birds? But I don't know it.
Speaker 1:Just that brought me joy in my day to see that. It brought me joy to know that that is a sign that like spring is coming and man, I'm so excited for spring and summer and more sunshine and nice pretty days. So yeah, and then today like I was driving in the car and you know, like I just meant our neighbors were outside working on their farm and like you could tell like it's 50 something degrees today here, so it's not super warm but it's also not freezing cold, and you could just tell that like they were enjoying being outside and it being a little warmer and it not being so freaking cold, trying to get their farm work done, and like that brought me joy. So it doesn't have to be anything extravagant, it doesn't have to be anything that like you are doing or is being done for you. It can be things that you like observe in other people or in animals or nature or whatever it might be, but you know, to just find 10 things in your day that brought you joy and write them down and give them acknowledgement. So that's my challenge for you this week Do that tonight and then try to keep it going.
Speaker 1:Try to do it for the next week and then see if you catch yourself throughout the day subconsciously even just being like oh, that brought me joy when something nice happens and that will, like I said, that will help train your brain to look for those things subconsciously throughout your day and, you know, eventually will lead to you feeling a little more grateful and happy overall. So that's all I've got for you today. I will talk with you guys next week.
