#386 ADHD, Autism, Eating Disorders and PANDAS with Erin Falco, RD

This week on The Less Stressed Life Podcast, I’m thrilled to welcome Erin Falco, a functional medicine dietitian specializing in pediatric nutrition, mental health, and autoimmune conditions. I met Erin at a national registered dietitian conference and LOVED her presentation because it was loaded with case studies. 

Inspired by her son’s journey with PANS/PANDAS, Erin shares how she helps families tackle complex conditions like ADHD, autism, eating disorders, and anxiety by addressing nutrient deficiencies, gut health, and inflammation.

Erin highlights the critical role of targeted nutrition in mental health, with case studies that showcase life-changing transformations, including a nonverbal young adult with autism who spoke his first words after dietary and mitochondrial interventions. She also shares how hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has been a game-changer in her and her son’s healing journeys.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• The difference between PANS and PANDAS and how infections can trigger mental health symptoms
• Key nutrient deficiencies like zinc, omega-3s, and cholesterol that impact brain function and mental health
• How gut imbalances, like clostridia overgrowth, can drive symptoms of OCD and anxiety
• The role of mitochondrial support in improving symptoms of autism and ADHD
• How hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) reduces inflammation and supports healing for neurological and autoimmune conditions

ABOUT GUEST:
Erin Falco is a functional medicine dietitian specializing in mental health, pediatric nutrition, and autoimmune conditions. Certified in Functional Medicine for ADHD and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, she integrates targeted nutrition and therapies to support healing. Erin is also dedicated to educating healthcare providers and mentoring dietetic interns. Outside of work, she enjoys surfing, yoga, and creating allergen-free recipes with her family.

Subscribe to Erin's newsletter at the bottom of her homepage to access her FREE Mental Health Guide!

WHERE TO FIND:
Website: https://www.roothealthnj.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roothealthnj/

WHERE TO FIND CHRISTA:
Website: https://www.christabiegler.com/
Instagram: @anti.inflammatory.nutritionist
Podcast Instagram: @lessstressedlife
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lessstressedlife
Leave a review, submit a questions for the podcast or take one of my quizzes here: https://www.christabiegler.com/links

NUTRITION PHILOSOPHY:

• Over restriction is dead; if your practitioner is recommending this, they are stuck in 2010 and not evolving
• Whole food is soul food and fed is best
• Sustainable, synergistic nutrition is in (the opposite of whack-a-mole supplementation & supplement graveyards)
• You don’t have to figure it out alone
• Do your best and leave the rest

SPONSOR:  
Thanks to Jigsaw Health for sponsoring this episode! Try their MagSoothe or MagSRT for better sleep and less stress. Use code LESSSTRESSED10 at JigsawHealth.com for 10% off—unlimited use!

Transcript

[00:00:00] Erin Falco, RD: knowing your child and then also knowing my patients is really important because I'm seeing what works, but then we're still needing to figure out what that underlying issue is. He could be sitting next to a kid who has strep and he's a strep carrier. So that could essentially trigger something,

[00:00:14] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm your host, Christa Biegler, and I'm going to guess we have at least one thing in common that we're both in pursuit of a less stressed life. On this show, I'll be interviewing experts and sharing clinical pearls from my years of practice to support high performing health savvy women in pursuit of abundance and a less stressed life.

[00:00:44] Christa Biegler, RD: One of my beliefs is that we always have options for getting the results we want. So let's see what's out there together.

[00:01:02] Christa Biegler, RD: today on the less stressed life. I have Erin Falco, who I saw present at a conference last month on nutrition things behind anorexia nervosa, but she also works with children and specifically with an emphasis in mental health. So she actually has some, this beautiful breadth of knowledge to share with us today.

[00:01:20] Christa Biegler, RD: She. Did lots of things before she ended up where she is now, which is in a private practice. She has a large private practice with an emphasis on nutrition for mental health, has worked with autism, ADHD, eating disorders, PANS and PANDAS. These are like big, these are big time issues and conditions.

[00:01:37] Christa Biegler, RD: So I'm just thankful that she is here. She's certified in functional medicine and ADHD. And has completed a fellowship in integrative and nutritional psychiatry. She is a dietitian that previously worked in GI and eating and feeding disorders and mental health for 10 years before going off onto her own in private practice.

[00:01:56] Christa Biegler, RD: So she comes with a lot of experience and we're excited to talk about cases and fun stuff with her today. Welcome, Erin. 

[00:02:02] Erin Falco, RD: Thank you 

[00:02:02] Erin Falco, RD: so much. 

[00:02:03] Erin Falco, RD: I'm excited to be here. 

[00:02:04] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. You don't just jump into private practice and be like, I want to work with pandas. You just don't. There's actually a really small amount of people that I know that work with that.

[00:02:16] Christa Biegler, RD: And so tell us how that happened for you. 

[00:02:20] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah. So I was practicing as a registered dietician with a medical doctor when I came right out of school and I was doing more gastrointestinal feeding disorders. And just basic nutritional counseling with hyperlipidemia, diabetes, et cetera. And then when my son was five years old, he had an acute onset of severe anxiety, restrictive eating and Tourette look like looking symptoms.

[00:02:45] Erin Falco, RD: It actually looked like he was having a seizure. So we went to about 12 doctors and couldn't figure out what was going on. And it led me to a functional medicine RN actually, and it was like two hours away. And we got this appointment and through all of this specialized testing, she found out that he had an underlying autoimmune issue.

[00:03:09] Erin Falco, RD: And so we were digging deeper and he had Lyme's disease and celiac disease. And then also on top of that, when I was looking at his medical records, cause we obtained that from the pediatrician, it was the perfect storm of having vaccines when he was sick. So he had an MMR, vaccine while he had flu and strep and he was placed on four rounds of antibiotics and two months time. And that was like the perfect storm. So all these underlying factors that we did not know about. And then on top of that. The strep. The flu, the vaccine. 

[00:03:48] Christa Biegler, RD: That's so tricky when we have that and that sometimes just happens. And it's not supposed to happen, we're not supposed to be doing that.

[00:03:54] Christa Biegler, RD: But sometimes with public health, they're like, let's just do this at this time, because they're there. And I don't, who knows what your story is, but it's really that's a, that tough thing. And hindsight's always kind of 2020. Do you think that the celiac, I've seen celiac triggered by foodborne infections and pathogens.

[00:04:08] Christa Biegler, RD: Do you think the celiac was triggered by an infection also? Do you have it in your family history or anything like that? 

[00:04:14] Erin Falco, RD: So interestingly enough, I was like, Oh, that's weird. Who has celiac? So I never had gastrointestinal symptoms, all neurological. I would fall asleep right after I ate. I always had like low iron levels, but I also never went to the doctor because we never had health insurance.

[00:04:29] Erin Falco, RD: So I didn't have health insurance until I was adult, actually married. So prior to that, I always went to the doctor. I was actually a strep carrier. So you learn a lot about yourself because I had 42 strep infections as a senior in high school. And I didn't get my tonsils out until I was like 25. But I was a strep carrier.

[00:04:49] Erin Falco, RD: And then also I realized through my own testing at the same time, I said who has celiac? That's interesting. He had the genes. We tested that as well. And then I wound up having the labs were positive for celiac for me. No GI symptoms. So I was like, okay, let me go get an endoscopy. So I got an endoscopy and my villi, the microvilli on the intestine that are supposed to stand up straight.

[00:05:13] Erin Falco, RD: They were completely flat. 

[00:05:15] Christa Biegler, RD: Oh, 

[00:05:15] Erin Falco, RD: I was the one, I was the one who had celiac and never knew. So 

[00:05:20] Christa Biegler, RD: yeah, that's really tricky, isn't it? 

[00:05:22] Erin Falco, RD: Yes. 

[00:05:23] Christa Biegler, RD: So you found out about the same time you were unraveling all of his stuff. So did you do some, the blood testing for celiac as the first line check? 

[00:05:33] Erin Falco, RD: I did. I will say that most people don't come up positive in blood.

[00:05:38] Erin Falco, RD: It takes a very long time for that to become positive in labs. So a lot of times there's false positives or false negatives. And so there's, if there's symptoms, of course, a lot of doctors will say, Oh, okay, let's test, but you don't have to have traditional symptoms. So iron, we look at iron in labs to see vitamin D markers, nutritional markers that are severely low that can give us some insight to possible celiac.

[00:06:02] Erin Falco, RD: And then there's specific markers like endometrial IgA. which is like a good gold standard for celiac in the labs. A lot of times the kiddos though, do not have positive markers. And then when they finally do get an endoscopy at some point down the road, then they are positive. So it's. It's tricky. 

[00:06:22] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, it is so tricky because you're validating that tests, tests are always tricky and imperfect and the gold standard is the endoscopy and that's not what you're going to want to do on a child first. No. And there's so many things that could create low D and low iron also, like just many things.

[00:06:40] Christa Biegler, RD: Biproducts of inflammation. So that makes it super tricky. I wonder. So you work with ADHD quite often. And so this often comes up gluten removal comes up a lot with ADHD. So I'm curious in practice with kids, how you are managing or assessing for gluten issues. If the blood testing has not always and even getting a blood pool on a kid is not very enjoyable, right? 

[00:07:06] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah. I feel like the, by the time the parents come to me after they've seen several providers, they're like let's try anything. I usually will try one approach at a time if they're not wanting to do testing. Cause sometimes it could be where The lining of the intestine is compromised. And as a result, that food protein is a problem or inflammatory.

[00:07:27] Erin Falco, RD: So it could be either that or they might have, they might be creating neuropeptides. So an example would be something called gluteomorphin. Morphine, it acts like a drug on the brain. So like an opioid like response. Exactly for me. I had those but if they're not willing to do testing some parents are willing to take it out and see if that helps And a lot of times it does but other cues besides the blood i'll look at skin So you'll see the hyperkeratosis like the chicken looking skin on this where eczema is a good sign You but if we're not doing testing for gluten, then I'll do a stool test or urine test and see if there's any like bacteria or yeast because that can block absorption of nutrients and then also of course, like our large food proteins and gluten is just a large food protein and so is casein.

[00:08:20] Erin Falco, RD: Those are like big components for inflammatory process for the GI tract. So as a result of the. The lining of the intestine being compromised, the food proteins are hard to break down, and as a result, they can become inflammatory. 

[00:08:33] Erin Falco, RD: And we know that our gut and our brain is connected, so if something's going on in the gut, we know that, there's going to be inflammation in the brain.

[00:08:40] Erin Falco, RD: So it really just depends on where the 

[00:08:43] Christa Biegler, RD: And then the end question, which is really months down the road after they remove it is do I need to remove this? And that's where they may at that point want to do some testing or not do some chat. People really land at different places. I totally get it.

[00:08:56] Christa Biegler, RD: Okay. So with your son with his pandas Let's talk about that process. That was pretty rough. You saw 12 doctors before you went to the functional RN and then alongside him, you had what I see all the time, which is everyone is like, Oh, I want to check this on me as well. And let's go back to his story a little bit and then tell us kind of some things that happened next.

[00:09:16] Christa Biegler, RD: What were some things that you did that were really big game changers and Tell us about some of that process, the challenges, the successes. We learn a lot more through the challenges. So what was that like unraveling things for him? 

[00:09:29] Erin Falco, RD: We went through this whole phase where we were super scared.

[00:09:32] Erin Falco, RD: And as a parent, that's why I started working with pediatrics, actually, is because of my son and started delving myself in this area because I just don't want parents to feel what I felt. And, we still feel like that because with pandas and pans, There's always going to be an autoimmune challenge.

[00:09:49] Erin Falco, RD: So when there is a virus or infection that comes in, with pandas or pans, it affects the nervous system. So healthy neural tissue. So there can be flare ups and sometimes you're like, oh my gosh, I see that he's ticks. I is severe anxiety. He's got OCD symptoms. He's. You know acting differently And you just want to go to school.

[00:10:09] Erin Falco, RD: You won't shower whatever and you're just like, okay what do I do in this moment? And you don't always know because it's okay now I gotta rush and figure out what the cause Is it strep? Is it mold is an environmental? Issue right now. Is it that he has rsv and I have no idea because his symptoms are different Because he doesn't present normally so it was really I will say that it was a real challenge for the first year You right away, he did beautifully.

[00:10:35] Erin Falco, RD: They actually The doctor, the nurse put him on an antibiotic, actually, which I really didn't want to do because he just had all these antibiotics, but she convinced me to do one round, and then she switched him to herbals, and we did like a combination of detoxifying agents, and then anti inflammatory, anti inflammatories, nutrition, and then herbals, and right away, like probably within two weeks of starting that treatment, different kid.

[00:11:04] Erin Falco, RD: Relaxed, eating, sleeping, going to school. So it was night and day. But then in between, you have a lot of flare ups. And that's what's really scary as a parent. It's just what does he have now? What's going on? And without doing testing all the time, especially on a young child, you're not going to keep testing his blood all the time.

[00:11:25] Erin Falco, RD: Cause that is traumatic itself. 

[00:11:27] Erin Falco, RD: But then you just learn I, I actually delved myself into the area so I could learn for my son. And that's why I'm such a good provider. I feel because it's like you, I went back to school and I was like, I can't believe I don't know any of these things, especially the nutrition stuff.

[00:11:42] Erin Falco, RD: I'm like, I didn't learn any of this in school. I'm sure that you might have experienced the same. 

[00:11:47] Christa Biegler, RD: I hear that from pretty much every clinician, especially they're like, I didn't learn any of this. I'm like, I know no one did. And to your point, when you've had, you become a great clinician in an area when you've dealt with that symptom or that condition, because you understand it at this intimate level that no one else could, right?

[00:12:06] Christa Biegler, RD: Even your, I don't care if you're seeing your GI doctor or whoever, like if they haven't had the issue, it's just different. It's just a more intimate, it's like having a baby and trying to talk to someone who's never had a baby. If you haven't experienced it. How could you like, it's just different.

[00:12:18] Christa Biegler, RD: That's all. It's just 

[00:12:19] Erin Falco, RD: absolutely. And you know what, there's other pieces to it that, you learn about yourself through it and also just like genetically, like I have a very family, a very strong family history of addiction in my family and mental health challenges.

[00:12:35] Erin Falco, RD: And so I, when something gets triggered in your own child, you're just like, Oh my gosh, I, the first thing I think is like my family. 

[00:12:43] Erin Falco, RD: I 

[00:12:44] Erin Falco, RD: know that I need to like work on preventing that at the same time. So through this journey, besides like the infections and viruses and all of that, there are changes that happen.

[00:12:53] Erin Falco, RD: He's 10 now. There are other changes that you're like, okay, hormones are changing. This is changing. 

[00:12:57] Erin Falco, RD: So there's been a lot of 

[00:12:59] Christa Biegler, RD: what's normal and not normal. I was just navigating that with someone recently was working up around like some diagnosed ADHD. And it was like, The kids are like having trouble focusing and doing this.

[00:13:10] Christa Biegler, RD: And it's what is normal and not normal, right? There's, 

[00:13:14] Christa Biegler, RD: and 

[00:13:14] Erin Falco, RD: I feel bad. Like the other day he was just like, every time I see something happen and he's mom, stop staring at me because I'm traumatized from that experience. And I think that's all parents out there, like we're just always on edge and like all the messages that I get in between, in between parents appointments or patients appointments is like, what do I do?

[00:13:36] Erin Falco, RD: And I like feel for them. I really know because it's just wow, 

[00:13:41] Christa Biegler, RD: There's a whole nother level to, I actually make a joke frequently, like 75 percent of my job is emotions and the other 25 percent is. Yeah. The other stuff. And it's probably more like a 50 50 split, but I was just having a voice dialogue messaging conversation with a client and I was like, okay, so we have to peel apart these two parts.

[00:13:59] Christa Biegler, RD: First, your emotions of wanting to know everything right now, right? Because we're just humans. And then we have to be logical and scientific about how we're approaching these things. So you lately, we have done Some an episode on pandas with Dr. Emily, or I think she's a nurse practitioner, a Maybe it's Dr. Emily Gutierrez out of Texas. And it was quite lovely. And you just ran through some of the hallmark symptoms of pandas diagnosis, but maybe you could. Tell us the difference between pans and pandas quickly and how this starts to set off alarms for parents really quickly Just so we're all on the same playing field. 

[00:14:38] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah, so we now know that it doesn't have to happen just in pediatrics So I know that's the typical name pediatric acute neuropsychiatric Syndrome associated with streptococcal infections. So that's like The pandas with strep and then you have PANS, which is pediatric acute neuropsychiatric disorder.

[00:15:00] Erin Falco, RD: So that can mean a lot of different things. Usually a child has an underlying autoimmune issue. Generally from the start like underlying and then what happens is there's a misdirected immune response when a virus or infection or pathogen comes in, whether it's environmental, whether it's an infection or a virus pants can be a lot of different things like mycoplasma molds, lime, different co infections, food allergies, all the things.

[00:15:31] Erin Falco, RD: So just really just depends on what that trigger is. And then of course you've got genes, and then the perfect storm for some sort of acute trigger, and even trauma. There's just so many different things, and that's what makes it really complicated. And I also think that's why it's really hard to find specific people who work in this area.

[00:15:52] Erin Falco, RD: More like mainstream medical doctors are just, a lot of the doctors that I'll try because I don't prescribe meds. I'm not a doctor. I use herbals and supplements and homeopathic remedies and food as medicine. But it can be challenging to work with some providers because I really need, sometimes I really need their support.

[00:16:14] Erin Falco, RD: So in my area, New Jersey, there aren't like a lot of providers and the ones that do work in this area, you can't see them for a year, the wait lists, but a lot of my patients, fam, The parents want to be in person and sometimes the referrals that I have, I built a really great referral network to doctors that from going to all these wonderful conferences especially like Dr.

[00:16:35] Erin Falco, RD: O'Hara, Dr. Song. I love referring to them, but I've also seen them at a million conferences. I've learned a lot of information from them. Dr. Debbie Hamilton, I work really closely with. So there's a lot of physicians I really trust and I can work with. But it can be really challenging to work in this area, especially as.

[00:16:54] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah, 

[00:16:55] Christa Biegler, RD: a lot of 

[00:16:55] Christa Biegler, RD: emotions. It's just a lot. And when I heard you presenting and talking about some of the things that you were dealing with, and actually I'll probably prompt you, I just remembered such a good case study you shared at the conference I saw you at. And so I'll prompt you about that in a bit.

[00:17:09] Christa Biegler, RD: But first I'll summarize that when we're talking about a diagnosis, I will say like the emotional roller coaster is people want the diagnosis because they want the answer. And then they realize the diagnosis is very much a tip of the iceberg. And you would probably agree. I don't know, but like a diagnosis isn't always necessary, right?

[00:17:25] Christa Biegler, RD: You can have a set of symptoms and then it's still, you still have to go through layers of we're just onions. And so even with your own son's case, there was a lot of, Layers of onion stuff, although when you're doing the right things, the turnaround, like there was positive feedback. The other beautiful thing that I have to highlight is that there was also failures.

[00:17:45] Christa Biegler, RD: You called them flares, right? And it's that's just part of the story too. And if you don't acknowledge the good stuff in between that little bit of a roller coaster, it could feel really disappointing, which just feels that emotional negativity bias. So I just offer that because I think the thing that makes, The area that you're working in so challenging is that there's emotions on steroids here.

[00:18:05] Christa Biegler, RD: I think it's like really, 

[00:18:07] Erin Falco, RD: there's a loss of hope sometimes. Cause you're just like I can give my son really high doses of fish oil to decrease the inflammation right now for this flare. And I don't necessarily know the trigger. So I'm, Also guessing sometimes, right? Unless I'm testing and that test could take back, take some time to come back.

[00:18:28] Erin Falco, RD: So knowing your child and then also knowing my patients is really important because I'm seeing what works, but then we're still needing to figure out what that underlying issue is. He could be sitting next to a kid who has strep and he's a strep carrier. So that could essentially trigger something, but I wouldn't know that he's actually suffering from.

[00:18:48] Erin Falco, RD: Strap. 

[00:18:48] Erin Falco, RD: Because I wouldn't know until, unless he has that, some symptom. 

[00:18:53] Christa Biegler, RD: Let's dispel the statement you've used a couple of times, which is being a strep carrier. If someone's Hey, she says that she had strep 42 times. Instantly someone came to my mind. What would you say to the person that's like, how do I know if I'm a strep carrier? 

[00:19:06] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah. So we naturally all have good and bad bacteria. It's necessary to have a nice balance of Healthy like a symbiotic relationship in our intestine, right? We're supposed to have yeast. We're supposed to have certain types of bacteria, even strep. We're supposed to have a little bit of that. But when it gets overgrown, or it's more opportunistic, and That you I just naturally carry more of that types of bacteria 

[00:19:32] Erin Falco, RD: Lives, it'd be just I just carry more of that, then you could be considered a struck carrier just naturally produce more of that type of bacteria.

[00:19:40] Erin Falco, RD: And there's so many different struck strains. Keeping that struck down and keeping the good guys up. It's not as easy as we think it is. 

[00:19:47] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm sure that it's an ongoing balance that you have to play with a little bit with. So that makes sense. Let me jump to, before I forget, this story that you told, if you can remember at the conference that you spoke at last month.

[00:20:01] Christa Biegler, RD: I think you were mentioning, let me see what I remember. You were talking about a case, and I think the woman had. extreme something. I don't know if she had anorexia. There was extreme mental health stuff where she came to see you one time. And I think you pulled some labs. I don't know if you pulled labs or not.

[00:20:18] Christa Biegler, RD: She saw you one time and then disappeared. But then she ended up inpatient in the hospital. And the provider called you because You were the only person in like a recent span that she had seen as a practitioner. And there was a really it was a very interesting summary of give her this, test her for this and give her this.

[00:20:36] Christa Biegler, RD: And then she was like quite a bit better. And it's such a fascinating story. Will you tell that story a bit? 

[00:20:40] Erin Falco, RD: Thank you so much for remembering, by the way. I appreciate that. Yes. I've never had a case like this, actually. So that's why I have tons of cases, but this case really stood out. 

[00:20:52] Christa Biegler, RD: I love case stories, case studies. 

[00:20:53] Erin Falco, RD: Oh, 

[00:20:54] Erin Falco, RD: okay. I'm like, I would love to just like present cases all day long. Yeah. So I had this patient who was she has, had the diagnosis of anorexia and I ran her vitamin panel. I ran B12. I ran some folate. I ran a marker called homocysteine, which kind of tells us if there is a deficiency in B12.

[00:21:15] Erin Falco, RD: It's like one of the gold standards for seeing if there's a B12 deficiency. So I ran that and it was the highest possible level that I could see. And I recommended her to do B12 shots. And at the time, literally, I only saw her once, and she was like, I don't, she was petrified of shots, she had severe debilitating anxiety, also, which is common in B12 deficiency.

[00:21:41] Erin Falco, RD: A few weeks go later, come by, or go by, and then the doctor calls from this inpatient, and he's see this patient, she's got severe psychosis, and She said that the only person that she saw, and I was the first dietitian that she saw, for her eating disorder. And she didn't even see a therapist.

[00:21:58] Erin Falco, RD: She said that you said there was this marker in her labs, I'd like to see her labs. So I talked to him about it, he's I have no idea what you're talking about. So I said, if you just give her the B12 at this dose, and I gave him a, The dose that I would recommend.

[00:22:13] Erin Falco, RD: And then he called me back and he said within three days, she was completely like, that's all they did. She refused medication and they just gave her the B12 and she was fine. 

[00:22:25] Christa Biegler, RD: It's such a dramatic story, right? And because if she had accepted the medication stereotypically, they would be like that's the answer, right?

[00:22:34] Christa Biegler, RD: Of course, right? So it's such a, it's such a dramatic case study story. I, as right? Because it's it's so rare that like a nutritional nutrient would be the only intervention for such a crazy situation, right? For such an extreme scenario. And so I just like wonder what happened to that doctor, right?

[00:22:52] Christa Biegler, RD: If he was like my life feels different now. 

[00:22:56] Erin Falco, RD: I know. I think I don't know about you, but I like take every opportunity I can to educate someone who doesn't know because it helps everyone. And I'm like, I was always that dietitian in the hospital too. When we worked in the hospital for clinical rotations, I'd chase the doctors down this is what I recommend.

[00:23:13] Erin Falco, RD: Or, because I was like, we need to make, we make it, we have such a large impact, 

[00:23:16] Erin Falco, RD: And now that we know more, we have, The opportunity to educate as many people as we can so that everyone can be helped. 

[00:23:23] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. 

[00:23:24] Christa Biegler, RD: Look at your nutritional biochemistry and then have a conversation with the doctor about it.

[00:23:28] Christa Biegler, RD: And they'll be like Oh, I don't know why they're giving them 50, 000. I use of vitamin D too, when your kidneys don't even. Yeah, when the kidneys don't work and it gets converted to D3 at the end, like they're just doing that because they don't know anyway. So it's a great experience. So delve into nutritional biochemistry in your area that you're actually recommending those nutrients.

[00:23:47] Christa Biegler, RD: And I'd like to point out also, cause people, wonder about nutrients or they may believe that there's micronutrient testing. There are some, there are not a huge, it's not unfortunately we don't universally agree about pretty much most tests that you've mentioned. And so I'd like to share that because if you go in, and so this is a bit tricky.

[00:24:07] Christa Biegler, RD: And so I just want to offer that, that people may say I went in and I had labs and everything was fine. Okay. They checked like a couple of things. And so anything that you just mentioned, but especially those nutrients, you can ask for those nutrients in the blood nutrient the accuracy of nutrients.

[00:24:22] Christa Biegler, RD: in blood can vary. So I'll just mention that was a big umbrella statement. But those are available. Those are possible to be drawn and then you have to know to ask for those, but there's a lot of nutrients that you really can't draw. There's a couple functional labs that offer large micronutrient panels, but just universally, we don't actually agree about that.

[00:24:43] Christa Biegler, RD: Most nutrients pretty much at all. So I'll just offer that if you have any comments, they're fantastic as well. But so what's cool is you were able to do blood for those particular tests. So it's you got to take what you can get sometimes. And sometimes the getting is great. And sometimes it's not. 

[00:24:58] Erin Falco, RD: Absolutely. I think it's nice because patients are already willing to pay out of pocket for labs, if they're not able to get it from their doctor, because they're just not feeling well. So this person in particular, I just. Wrote the labs and I only saw them once. I actually wrote the labs and I was lucky enough to be able to see them.

[00:25:16] Erin Falco, RD: And then didn't want to do anything with them. 

[00:25:18] Christa Biegler, RD: And 

[00:25:19] Christa Biegler, RD: most likely I'll just offer like my experiences. It's not expensive to do those particular labs. Very cheap. Actually, compared to even what even if you would go in part of the reason that maybe the provider doesn't draw those besides not knowing or understanding them is maybe it wouldn't be covered by insurance and when you run anything through insurance, the cost is like super duper inflated to this crazy amount.

[00:25:41] Christa Biegler, RD: So you might as well just go order them on your own. 

[00:25:44] Erin Falco, RD: Yes. 

[00:25:44] Christa Biegler, RD: I had experience anyway. 

[00:25:46] Erin Falco, RD: No, you're right. And that's why I've had patients who I'm saying, let's go get these covered, let's see what happens if your doctor writes these. And then they'll say, oh yeah, my doctor said that they're not going to get covered.

[00:25:55] Erin Falco, RD: I'm like, okay here's this, all of these labs will cost 200 if you get them done. And then they're like, oh my doctor said that they'll, yeah. They might not get covered, but I'm going to go through my insurance. I just want to risk that. It's okay. But then they get these bills and they're like thousands of dollars.

[00:26:10] Erin Falco, RD: And I'm like, Oh no, I wish that we, 

[00:26:12] Erin Falco, RD: I know. 

[00:26:12] Christa Biegler, RD: This is a good story right here. It's good to mention, like you can order labs inexpensively on your own. If you're ordering there's multiple places online you can order from, and it's probably cheaper than even trying to run them through your insurance.

[00:26:23] Christa Biegler, RD: So it's a crazy world. Here's your tip of the day. Which we're thrilled to be able to share. So this is good. Okay. And one more thing about your son, how old was he when your journey started with Pants and Pandas? 

[00:26:34] Erin Falco, RD: Five. 

[00:26:34] Christa Biegler, RD: Five. So now he's 10. So you've been going through that for about five years.

[00:26:37] Christa Biegler, RD: So amazing. Okay. Once you started to understand Pans and Pandas the box was just wide open. Like you could do anything after that. And tell me a little bit about, There's some other conditions that you work with a lot. Now, you worked with eating disorders before. We just mentioned briefly an eating disorder story and maybe we'll come back to that around nutrient deficiency or maybe I'll go there first.

[00:26:57] Christa Biegler, RD: Nutrient deficiencies in eating disorders. There's several things that you look for both. So this is a cool topic that never gets talked about on this podcast. We just talked about some blood labs that you did, but there's also. Like you can look at a person and see that there are some nutrient deficiencies.

[00:27:11] Christa Biegler, RD: And we never talk about that here. So would you want to talk about nutrient deficiencies in respect to disordered eating and anything, like maybe four points of interest or whatever you feel like that people can do looking at themselves for a nutrient, like a nutrition focused physical exam a little bit.

[00:27:27] Christa Biegler, RD: Do you want to talk about that a little bit? 

[00:27:29] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah, absolutely. I love the nutrition focused physical exam. I spent a good time speaking to other RDs about this and teaching about this. So I like to look at the tongue that tells us a lot of things, especially about the gut. So typically if there's, a thicker tongue that can be related to niacin deficiency, or if there's a white coated tongue that can be related to dysbiosis in the GI tract.

[00:27:53] Erin Falco, RD: And when there's dysbiosis, especially yeast, that blocks absorption of other key nutrients that are important to regulate our nervous system. So meaning helping us to relax, have happy thoughts, to sleep, have a normal appetite. One of the key factors I always see in anorexia, but other populations as well, is zinc deficiency.

[00:28:18] Erin Falco, RD: It's one of the most common nutrient deficiencies. And it's not stored in your blood. It's very difficult to test for. It's stored in our cells. And their tissue membranes. So it's really impossible to get an accurate reading in labs. But you can look at fingernails the white dots on the fingernails.

[00:28:38] Erin Falco, RD: One of the key components of zinc deficiency. You can also do a test strip or a aqueous zinc solution. So the aqueous zinc solution is fun because you just put it in your mouth, you switch around for 30 seconds, and if you taste nothing, then that means there's zinc deficiency. And why that's important is because zinc is crucial as to help us with our stomach acid to break down key enzymes.

[00:29:06] Erin Falco, RD: Through our food. So protein digestion, very difficult, carbohydrate, even fat digestion, all really difficult without adequate amounts of zinc. 'cause zinc helps our digestive enzymes and digestive enzymes are what help us to break down and use our food for fuel. It's not just about what we're eating, it's about how we're using the food. 

[00:29:29] Christa Biegler, RD: Nothing works when your digestion works and no, pretty much. I just don't see people having good stomach acid, period. Stress will deplete stomach acid, like right away, there's multiple nutrients that are implicated. And that was a takeaway. And so you had when you were speaking, you had another doctor that was speaking and his entire thing.

[00:29:47] Christa Biegler, RD: And his whole book is about zinc and maybe anorexia relationship. And he has a very disruptive kind of statement, is it the chicken or the egg? Which one first? Is the zinc deficiency potentially even causing anorexia because the symptoms are so similar. It almost reminds me, I wonder if I can jog this from my memory.

[00:30:04] Christa Biegler, RD: It almost reminds me of COVID symptoms, it's yeah, it was like the same thing. I think it was also zinc deficiency. Maybe it was a zinc deficiency. And then they would talk about COVID symptoms. I think that's the same thing. Yeah. I think it was, I think it was all the same stuff.

[00:30:17] Christa Biegler, RD: And it was like, here's all these post COVID symptoms. And they oddly are also zinc deficiency symptoms, but to your point, like testing is a little bit tricky. And that was a takeaway I took from that presentation. Yeah, this is a problem, but we haven't really been able to test it. Erin, do you use HTMA testing in your practice? 

[00:30:34] Erin Falco, RD: I do use that. I do use that pretty often. 

[00:30:37] Christa Biegler, RD: So a while back, my college aged daughter shared with me that she was tossing and turning and waking up several times per night after a period of stress. We started her on magnesium and her sleep immediately improved. I personally think magnesium should be your first thing to try if you're having trouble sleeping or staying asleep, especially tossing and turning, and it's a no brainer if you have any restless leg issues.

[00:31:02] Christa Biegler, RD: The thing about magnesium is that there's a lot of types of magnesium that will give you symptomatic relief, but I like to steer my clients and loved ones to a more absorbable form of magnesium, because most big box magnesium is magcitrate, and that will push bowels, but it can be damaging to your teeth if it's used daily and it's not the most Rather, Jigsaw Health makes one of my favorite great tasting magnesium powders called MagSue that has magnesium glycinate, my favorite calming and absorbable type of magnesium. It's available in both a Great Tasting Powder and to go packets, and they also make a product, that's great for slow release, especially if you have restless legs, called MagSRT.

[00:31:43] Christa Biegler, RD: So, if you are not falling asleep easily, or if you have disrupted sleep, you can try at least 200mg of great magnesium, like MagSoothe or MagSRT. Especially if you have restless legs, it works better to take this at least 20 minutes before you go to bed to allow it to kick in and you can get a all of Jigsaw's amazing products including MagSooth at Jigsaw Health with the code LESSSTRESS10.

[00:32:08] Christa Biegler, RD: Now you can use LESSSTRESS10 as many times as you want with every order at Jigsaw Health, which is honestly pretty unheard of with coupon codes. So enjoy the magnesium from Jigsaw with my code LESSSTRESS10.

[00:32:23] Christa Biegler, RD: I found it really great for certain nutrients and really good results, but then I thought about the symptom profile.

[00:32:29] Christa Biegler, RD: So I started looking up clients that I was like, I feel like they fit this. Let me go look at their zincs. And they looked so good. And I was like, I think I'm going to have to be doing, I think the only option is to do zinc assay testing. Which is what you just described. 

[00:32:42] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah, safe to say if you're working with an eating disorder population, they're all zinc deficient.

[00:32:46] Erin Falco, RD: So you can add zinc in no problem. If someone has digestive issues, add zinc in. If someone doesn't have the appetite for meat or they have sensory disturbances around food, you can safely add zinc in. So it's just something you have to be careful because it's a metal and you have the dosaging has to be right.

[00:33:03] Erin Falco, RD: And you do it for a certain amount of time. 

[00:33:04] Christa Biegler, RD: And it 

[00:33:04] Christa Biegler, RD: will often make your stomach hurt if you're not eating with it typically as well. 

[00:33:09] Erin Falco, RD: Yes, you usually have to have it after you have your meal. 

[00:33:13] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. And This is my thought, but you can jump in wherever you want here. It has a balance with copper. And I just want to caveat here, like it would be a test and then I wouldn't just stay on that forever either. 

[00:33:27] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah. Cause copper and zinc seesaw. 

[00:33:29] Christa Biegler, RD: Exactly. It's like usually how I was trained in an originally, although, even stuff I learned when I was doing different comprehensive micronutrient testing, you start to just challenge over time, and there's different philosophies, but what I learned was I think a 15 to one ratio of zinc to copper.

[00:33:43] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, to address that would be to, you can do a balance of the two of them, one capsule as well. 

[00:33:49] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah. And even if you just have a little bit of the copper in the multi, if you're doing a multi that sometimes I feel it can be helpful. Yeah. 

[00:33:55] Christa Biegler, RD: Usually it's one or two milligrams or three milligrams approximately that you're looking for, which, just to give people a starting point.

[00:34:02] Christa Biegler, RD: It's not something crazy. Okay. Did we get through? The nutrient deficiencies you wanted to briefly mention around anorexia before I go to some other conditions that you work on. 

[00:34:12] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah, so we talked about zinc, which is a key one. The other one I would say essential fatty acid deficiency, so omega 3s.

[00:34:21] Erin Falco, RD: Most people have a deficiency in omega 3s anyway. 

[00:34:24] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah. But, 

[00:34:24] Erin Falco, RD: Most of the time in anorexia there's And omega 3 deficiency as well. So dry skin like eczema. Yeah. Dry hair. Those are some signs as well. And sometimes besides that low cholesterol as well. Not low cholesterol, high cholesterol.

[00:34:41] Erin Falco, RD: I'm sorry. Low cholesterol is more ADHD, actually ADHD and autism is low cholesterol. Most patients with anorexia will have higher cholesterol levels. But that's just the way that the body is, storing fat. That's, which is really important cholesterol is very important for our brain. We want as much cholesterol around our brain as possible because it's important for our hormones and also for our neurotransmission and our neuroplasticity. 

[00:35:07] Christa Biegler, RD: Very essential. Yeah. I was going to say dry skin, dry hair also. So very easy ones. It gets used up a lot in the inflammatory process also. So I think it's just one of those things that there's some nutrients that you test and or like when people do self test for stomach acid, like It's never good.

[00:35:24] Christa Biegler, RD: It's never good. So I just skip testing at this point. It's no one is ever adequate. When you have the signs and symptoms, I think that, that trumps it. And that's going to be a question I want to get to later is testing is a great, and then sometimes you're like, I don't really need this test.

[00:35:35] Christa Biegler, RD: Like I could just look at you and be, as well. So you just brought up low cholesterol being, a biomarker that shows up in autism and ADHD, which are the other conditions that you deal with, work with in your practice. What do you want to share about this? Or maybe you want to think of a case since you love cases as well.

[00:35:51] Christa Biegler, RD: Maybe you want to think of an ADHD case recently. 

[00:35:54] Erin Falco, RD: That 

[00:35:54] Erin Falco, RD: was okay. So this kiddo has presented more with OCD symptoms, but, I like to, I don't like diagnoses by the way, I always like to put air quotes on them because it just describes how our brain is working, right? We all have different brain neurochemistry and it just makes sometimes that's how I like.

[00:36:14] Erin Falco, RD: Think about it. But this child came in with acute onset OCD as well. But it wasn't actually in fact there was actually more nutritional. So we did labs, no infections or viruses, even though I know that can be clinical. But there wasn't anything recent either, but in his labs, his cholesterol was like a hundred and we wanted over one 65.

[00:36:35] Erin Falco, RD: So there can be a difficulty with cholesterol metabolism. Actually, I think I might have, I shared this case in the presentation that I gave. But anyway.

[00:36:45] Erin Falco, RD: That's okay. So this kid, he had a hundred cholesterol and then also there was clostridia, which I didn't find out until a little later, and bacteria can impact cholesterol metabolism.

[00:36:56] Erin Falco, RD: Yes. So especially clostridia actually but no, he had really low cholesterol and I actually gave him. a mitochondrial multivitamin first, and then to get some nutrients on board. And then I gave him really high doses of omega 3s, and then while the testing was coming back, and he also had, sorry, to go back, he had really low iron as well, which can also happen with low cholesterol.

[00:37:23] Erin Falco, RD: Nutritional mark, so nutritionally, and there was most likely some sort of genetic snip in cholesterol metabolism as well. And then on top of that, he had some clostridia. So we treated all those things, but literally within three weeks, new kit, no OCD symptoms. Like he would line up all the cars and wouldn't, wasn't able to like transition at all.

[00:37:48] Erin Falco, RD: And wouldn't had the, the lights like up and down a certain amount of times, 10 times, the spinning of the fan, you'd have to count 25 times. So if we can go to the next step, none of all of that was. I love that 

[00:37:59] Christa Biegler, RD: you 

[00:37:59] Christa Biegler, RD: said three weeks, because I always think like three weeks is if you're doing an intervention, usually you'll see something typically within a few this is my belief I've seen many times.

[00:38:07] Christa Biegler, RD: What I remember from your presentation was that you talked about Clostridia being implicated with OCD.

[00:38:12] Erin Falco, RD: Yes, definitely impacts dopamine metabolism. So dopamine is that excitatory neurotransmitter that's a lot of times contributes to that diagnosis. And that's where we get the tendencies. 

[00:38:27] Christa Biegler, RD: I wonder, 

[00:38:28] Christa Biegler, RD: I would imagine that the cluster radio also can pop back with some ease.

[00:38:34] Christa Biegler, RD: We talked about this with strep, but just knowing how things go with people. Every time I've seen OCD again, that diagnosis walks through the door. I always feel like there's some other gut imbalance at play and typically it improves. But then sometimes what I will offer to people is that, and especially this is part of the emotional rollercoaster.

[00:38:54] Christa Biegler, RD: Is you want to resolve things and never deal with them again and your story very clearly illustrated like that's actually not the situation you're becoming fluent in a set of things, and you're learning how to deal with them, like you're learning how to manage them so you don't, your life doesn't feel out of control.

[00:39:11] Christa Biegler, RD: That's largely what you're doing. You're not trying to. Stick your head in the sand and outsource it to Erin or whoever. It's like you're becoming a person who can write the manual about it. It's it's like a little bit of a shift that we have to have sometimes because you don't just, shut the book and it's I don't have that issue anymore.

[00:39:28] Christa Biegler, RD: It's Oh, I might have, if I'm seeing some OCD symptoms and they were previously resolved, what might that tell me? Oh, that might tell me maybe that I have some imbalance that I might need to clean up a little bit. And so there may be testing involved at first, and then you might learn to trust your own intuition about that and realize, maybe I don't need the test to prove that I have that.

[00:39:48] Christa Biegler, RD: Why don't I do the intervention and see if that resolves things. 

[00:39:50] Erin Falco, RD: Exactly. Especially since you start to realize even your own. History and then the trends, which is why we always do that full, history from birth, right? What happened since what's happened? That happened like 10 years ago, but that could still be affecting you 

[00:40:05] Erin Falco, RD: now.

[00:40:05] Christa Biegler, RD: Really, to be able, I need to come up with a really good prompting template for that. Some people come in and have this beautiful like timeline and some people don't do it as well. And it's If you understand your own timeline, it's you don't like it unlocks so much for you.

[00:40:20] Christa Biegler, RD: It's here's your test right here. Just tell me your history. Yeah, exactly. There's a lot there. That's beautiful. Okay. ADHD, OCD, clostridia, cholesterol, anything else about that particular case? Are we good there? Was maybe going to say that you probably looked at urine testing. Yeah. Organic acids to find that the clostridia was elevated. 

[00:40:41] Erin Falco, RD: Yes. And the stool together. I always like to do the urine and the stool just in case in the urine. I want to see if it's colonized in the GI tract and then also, yeah, what kind of strains and what the good guys are doing.

[00:40:51] Erin Falco, RD: And if there's inflammation and all the things, digestion, absorption. 

[00:40:55] Christa Biegler, RD: And I will offer That I'm sure Erin would agree with is that every clinician will interpret testing a little bit differently and sometimes the test I do think that kids have more honest tests, generally. Okay, this is my impression with testing children and adults like sometimes you just do not see all the things but it's just a quick snapshot in time.

[00:41:15] Christa Biegler, RD: So I'll just mention that, but I see a lot more like crazy stuff and kid GI tests than I do in adult GI tests. 

[00:41:22] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah, I do too. I'm glad that you brought that up. It just really, yeah. 

[00:41:25] Christa Biegler, RD: I just tell people like kids are more honest and I think that adults have more history and layers of things.

[00:41:31] Christa Biegler, RD: The more inflamed that the GI is in an adult, sometimes the more unremarkable their stool test is. 

[00:41:38] Christa Biegler, RD: And then I have to throw it out and just move on with my life. I know. It's 

[00:41:42] Christa Biegler, RD: challenging. 

[00:41:43] Christa Biegler, RD: You know what? 

[00:41:44] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah, you just made a good point. Sometimes when you're doing the stool test, let's say they have SIBO.

[00:41:49] Erin Falco, RD: We might not be getting all the stool from the small intestine because you're doing it, and they might be constipated. You're like get that part of the stool. So how do I know what's going on there? It can be really tricky. 

[00:41:59] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. And you have biofilm formation over time. So things like you have to allow the symptoms to play a greater role than the tests.

[00:42:07] Christa Biegler, RD: And I hope that becomes more like, that's going to be my mission moving forward is like empowering people to understand that because. That's a thing. It's we tend, in general, what I notice is that we are trying to outsource things and that's understandable because we're like, I don't get this.

[00:42:23] Christa Biegler, RD: I need help. That's reasonable. That's reasonable. Our end goal is that we do want to understand things that's these are skills we get to build. So that way we can help ourselves in the future. A lot of people. I see this sometimes people come in or I've seen this clinicians do this and this isn't, I'm super neutral.

[00:42:40] Christa Biegler, RD: I just don't think it's a, and I'll be all, so I'm just going to talk to you about it for a second. So there's a urine test that you just, you know, that showed one, one way of clustering issues, some nutrient markers, shows some digestive markers, organic acids test. It's easy for kids to do. It's very popular.

[00:42:58] Christa Biegler, RD: for kids to do. There are some fungal markers on that and sometimes people use that as hey, maybe there's a fungal situation here. I tend to, I don't always pull mycotoxin testing because sometimes I'm just like, yeah, this is clearly mycotoxins from symptoms. But sometimes I do if we need to get on the same page or just need to rule some things out.

[00:43:17] Christa Biegler, RD: And I do find I like The urine mycotoxin testing after testing multiple tests and people and if you have any thoughts on that, cool, do you do, you've only really mentioned, I feel like you only mentioned mycotoxins one time and I talk about them quite a bit so I'm curious if you do much testing for mycotoxins or if you rely on organic acids. 

[00:43:36] Erin Falco, RD: I do sometimes do mycotoxins if I feel like the patient's symptoms are there, as well as doing an oat panel. Cause I like to see what their body's doing also. I'm not someone who likes to guess right off the, if we can test, let's not, let's test. Unless I have a lot of history, if someone's coming in from another physician or provider that already has like tons of testing, I'll just go by that.

[00:43:57] Erin Falco, RD: But I wouldn't say it's like my first go to especially with the kiddos, there are a lot of other layers. See, I say, I see both adults and kids, but I find that I'm seeing more kids recently. So it's not like my first to go, but if the family is all, they're all having like weird symptoms and sensations, I'll definitely test the kid for mycotoxins as well.

[00:44:16] Erin Falco, RD: But I usually pair that with other tests at the same time, not just stand alone. 

[00:44:20] Christa Biegler, RD: I agree with you. That's a good point is it's almost a second level thing. There's just some things that I wonder, I'm sure you see this too. It's like the comment about zinc and omegas. It's you start to see things and you're like, I cannot unsee this thing that is there.

[00:44:35] Christa Biegler, RD: You mentioned your son having Lyme earlier and that's also tricky testing wise also, cause that is not necessarily going to show up as positive. Are you doing Lyme testing or not really? 

[00:44:47] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah, I am for patients, I can't say that I won't treat them.

[00:44:50] Erin Falco, RD: I treat their gut. I train their immune system. I treat, the digestion absorption. So I support that part of it. I don't. like use herbals or use medications obviously to treat why myself, but I will support them from a nutritional standpoint and from a detox and from a GI standpoint.

[00:45:10] Erin Falco, RD: I just don't think that's an area I think I will ever go into. I just find it really complicated and very difficult, but I will also use. have a hyperbaric oxygen therapy in my office and it was a game changer for me and my son. So we use that and a red light in conjunction, and I might be dabbling in a little bit of methylene blue.

[00:45:30] Erin Falco, RD: my son. Sorry. Going back he actually had CDC positive and alternative positive. So not only just once but twice. So he actually is a rare case. Not rare, but it was actually CDC positive. The standard testing and that of course he had the alternative as well.

[00:45:51] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah, 

[00:45:51] Erin Falco, RD: a lot of my patients will do the alternative testing and I'm like, Oh, wow. Co infection virus. Like I'll use a specific, I don't know if we're allowed to use specific panels or anything on the podcast that we use, but, Oh, okay. Yeah. Sometimes I'll, just use the vibrant and I find that helpful.

[00:46:07] Erin Falco, RD: And then I'll just refer to a doctor that I feel comfortable with, but I'll do all the other things with them. 

[00:46:11] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Yeah. I will not treat. I don't have people really walking in the door for that either, but I've interviewed, I've talked to a lot of people who've dealt with it and people have different opinions and things, but we align pretty well there.

[00:46:23] Christa Biegler, RD: So just curious what you're doing. Let's take a quick detour to talk about HBOT being really helpful for you and your son before we Yeah. tie this with a bow with autism conversation. Sure. Funny enough, the other person I interviewed on Pandas is obsessed with HBOT and I was about to get one at that time and then it just keeps resurfacing the last couple of months.

[00:46:46] Christa Biegler, RD: Yes. I should get an HBOT. So tell us how it was amazing for you. Tell me about how it's amazing for you, your son, and how it's going implemented into practice. Yes. 

[00:46:55] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah. HVAT is really good for energy basically, but it helps your mitochondria, the energy of your cells. And so for me, I had a few concussions actually one was surfing and one was on the bumper cars at great adventure.

[00:47:09] Erin Falco, RD: And the first concussion I woke up one day, I didn't know, I wasn't sure if I had a concussion from the bumper cars or not, but the next day I stood up and I literally fell over. Like I know I got up and I was like, Oh my gosh. And I was really sick. The rooms were spinning. My blood sugars were like 40.

[00:47:26] Erin Falco, RD: I had to put like a marker on it. Yeah. I literally went to all the different doctors. I was like, what do I do? And but I actually, I eventually I went to this conference, like post concussion. And while I was there, I like. Want a certain amount of money towards the hyperbaric chamber. And I was like, okay, like I have to get this.

[00:47:43] Erin Falco, RD: My son has Lyme, and then I figured, I found out that I had Lyme. Actually. Through all the things. And I'm like, oh my God. So I went into the hyperbaric chamber and it was like right before I went to Portugal actually. And I was so worried about not being able to feel good because my legs were minor.

[00:48:02] Erin Falco, RD: I think this was like a trigger. The concussion was a trigger and then it just brought out all these things. I was so sick. I was so tired. My legs were just like killing me. I like hardly could walk. It was terrible. And so I was lucky enough to, be gifted with some of the money for the hyperbaric chamber and I bought one and I was like, if anything, I'm going to use this and then I'm going to donate treatments because I'm so grateful.

[00:48:27] Erin Falco, RD: So I did, I started donating treatments to pediatric cancer patients and then patients who couldn't afford it, I would donate some treatments to them as well. But. I love that. Let me just use this as my giving back. So I did 40 treatments right in a row right before I went to Portugal.

[00:48:43] Erin Falco, RD: And I just felt better and better after every treatment. And yeah, like , I think, cause I only, I really didn't do much other than that, and a little bit of herbals and stuff like that. I think that's really what helped me recover. Yeah. So it changed my life. But now I use it like when I'm having a little brain fog or something.

[00:49:03] Erin Falco, RD: I'll just jump in and I'm like, okay, I'm good. 

[00:49:05] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, we're doing a specific HBOT episode in the next month, but how about your son? When you had him do HBOT, what did you see? 

[00:49:13] Erin Falco, RD: For sports you, he would always complain, Oh, I'm really tired. I feel like I, and I, you would see it on the field.

[00:49:19] Erin Falco, RD: So he'll go in if he's has an injury. But also just, I used to use it for him more often. I wish I had one at home. I don't, but just to get into work frequently, but yeah, you can notice the difference between like just the energy and then also just, it helps him to relax a little bit more. I noticed like right after, I feel like he's always in like a Herxheimer reaction, but right after he's like more relaxed too. 

[00:49:41] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Super cool. Okay. Another condition that you treat is autism and we're having fun with case studies. So if you want to offer any case study around autism 

[00:49:50] Erin Falco, RD: I have a really 

[00:49:50] Erin Falco, RD: good case study. 

[00:49:51] Christa Biegler, RD: Perfect. 

[00:49:51] Erin Falco, RD: Very good case study. Okay. So I actually presented this at the New Jersey Dietetic Conference with Dr.

[00:49:57] Erin Falco, RD: Richard Bowles, who is. Great. The owner of I can use the names, right? Of the companies. Okay. He is the owner of neuro needs. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that company. Okay. So he's pretty much one of the only ones in the country who does the full genome sequencing. So he has like a hundred published papers on the mitochondria.

[00:50:18] Erin Falco, RD: Very on mitochondrial disorders, but autism is a mitochondrial disorder. So one day I went to this conference. And I saw him speak, and I actually didn't understand, being honest, I really didn't understand everything that he was saying, but my takeaway was, okay, nutrition, mitochondrial disorders are nutrition related, so these keys that we need for nutrients to be used for a brain and for a body are the keys that are important to use for spectrum disorders, okay, for speech, language, etc.

[00:50:49] Erin Falco, RD: Sure. 

[00:50:50] Erin Falco, RD: So there's this the supplement that's mitochondrial cocktail. And I'm like, let me try this with my son. My son used to have a hard time reading in school. So I gave it to him and I was trying to think on him first. He's am I getting big? But I tried it on him and I actually took it myself.

[00:51:04] Erin Falco, RD: And I started noticing that he was doing better in school. I'm like this is interesting. I took it away. And then I noticed that he wasn't doing as well. And not just that, but like little things. I'm like, wow, he's talking more, he's more elaborate, he's more specific about his conversations, he's got a little bit better auditory processing.

[00:51:23] Erin Falco, RD: And even with myself, I'm like, wow. I had this child, this not child, he was a nine He was 20, 22 at the time who came in non speaking and he was actually coming in for constipation and severe anxiety. So his mom referred by a psychiatrist. And so he was on a medication and the parents are not working anymore.

[00:51:45] Erin Falco, RD: Plus he's really constipated, non speaking. So I said, all right, he's never been on a gluten and dairy free diet before. I'm going to, Put him on that, and then I'm gonna, let me use this supplement, this mitochondrial supplement. So I gave it to him, and a month goes by, and then he comes in, and he's sitting in the waiting room, and he says, Hi Ms.

[00:52:06] Erin Falco, RD: Erin, and he's never spoken a day in his life. 

[00:52:10] Christa Biegler, RD: Oh my goodness. 

[00:52:11] Erin Falco, RD: I know. 

[00:52:12] Christa Biegler, RD: Were those the first words? 

[00:52:14] Erin Falco, RD: Yes. So I said, I don't know what happened here. I have no idea what happened. So I call 

[00:52:22] Christa Biegler, RD: Was the guardian 

[00:52:22] Christa Biegler, RD: with him? 

[00:52:23] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah. 

[00:52:24] Erin Falco, RD: Oh yeah. They were like crying because they were like, he's doing so well. We, he's starting to speak.

[00:52:30] Erin Falco, RD: We don't know what's happening there. I didn't know that was going to, I didn't, wasn't expecting that. I thought I was decreasing inflammation. I was like getting his bowels moving. I'm like, let's work on anxiety. So I said, Oh my gosh, I need to figure out what's going on here. So I called the company and I'm like, I called one of the owners, Chris, he's one of the owners, and I said, am I able to talk to Dr.

[00:52:51] Erin Falco, RD: Bowles by any chance? I know that this is like a long shot, I don't know him, but I saw him speak at a conference, and I really need to talk to him. I get him on the phone, super nice, and I was like, okay, I gave him the supplement, I don't really know what happened, I'm not sure if it's a combination of all the things, but what happened?

[00:53:06] Erin Falco, RD: He goes, Erin, he has a treatable gene. I said, what do you mean? So I was like, okay, what do I do next? And he is okay, you're gonna test for this snip, you're gonna, you're gonna test this, you're gonna test that. And I'm like, okay. So I did it and we found out like some of the snips that he just needed more support with.

[00:53:23] Erin Falco, RD: So I started using those interventions and he's doing great. He is social. He's ma he's, he was making eye contact. He wasn't making eye contact the first time either. Making eye contact. Tactile is great. He's writing. He's going to school. He's riding his bike. He's hanging out with his neighbors. 

[00:53:40] Christa Biegler, RD: Oh my gosh, he has a whole new life at age 20. 

[00:53:43] Erin Falco, RD: Whole new life. Yeah, I've been seeing him for a while now still seeing him, but Yeah, they let me speak at the com I actually reached out to him because the New Jersey dietitians Asked me to speak on something for pediatrics, and I said, I would love to, but I really want to speak with this doctor.

[00:53:59] Erin Falco, RD: So I only talked to him that one time, and then I was like, Hey, by any chance, would you come to New Jersey? I know you live in California, but you can't speak with me. He's absolutely. He like flew to speak with me. And he talked about the science because it's all nutrition related. The mitochondria is nutrition.

[00:54:16] Erin Falco, RD: So what a big impact we can make as dietitians. If we just know a little bit more about how nutrients affect the brain. And so while I didn't know much then. Now I know, like I delved myself into it. 'cause I'm like, I can't not know. Like I can, when you game over, right? 

[00:54:33] Christa Biegler, RD: It's like 

[00:54:34] Christa Biegler, RD: you cannot, once you cannot unknow the end. 

[00:54:36] Erin Falco, RD: No. So I had to share that story. Thank you for letting me tell you that. 

[00:54:39] Christa Biegler, RD: I love it. Love it. Oh, 

[00:54:41] Christa Biegler, RD: I think we produce. Do part two on all case studies, the end but that was such a blast. And we covered, 

[00:54:48] Erin Falco, RD: thank you. 

[00:54:49] Christa Biegler, RD: We talked about, how this all started because of a painful experience that you had was the catalyst for all of this and the catalyst for all your patients lives.

[00:54:59] Christa Biegler, RD: So let's just let that sink in for a second that very often our pains are the like. Actual catalyst for maybe our mission, our purpose in the world, right? So not to be gone over too quickly. We talked a bit about Nutrition focused physical findings efficiencies in anorexia while also touching on nutrient testing we talked a little bit about being a strep carrier.

[00:55:24] Christa Biegler, RD: We talked about infection, secondary infections. We talked about mitochondria. We talked a little bit about Lyme and mycotoxin testing. We also talked about autism and ADHD and OCD and cases related to that. So that's quite a, really who knew we could get through so much in an hour and what a blessing where Erin, where can people find you online? 

[00:55:45] Erin Falco, RD: Roothealth. com and our Instagram handles.

[00:55:52] Christa Biegler, RD: For some reason, I think I cut out right then. Okay. Yeah. Perfect. Is there anything else that you like? Would want to tell people if they're listening to this, maybe especially a parent going through emotional challenges, trials is there any message you would want to give them as a provider or as a parent to them?

[00:56:10] Erin Falco, RD: Yeah, as 

[00:56:12] Erin Falco, RD: a parent and a provider, I would say don't give up. If there's something in your gut, I feel like moms know more instinctively than dads do. Sorry dads. But there's just this gut feeling that we have. We carried our kids and it's just instinctual that we know that there's something going on and I just would never, you never give up.

[00:56:32] Erin Falco, RD: There's always something and don't let anyone tell you that it's normal. 

[00:56:37] Christa Biegler, RD: Yes. I love that. 

[00:56:38] Christa Biegler, RD: It's one of my mantras to say there's always an option. There's always an option. And what I hear you saying is like, Oh, you just don't let it you're like, I'm going to go find it. So you're a girl after my own heart and soul.

[00:56:49] Christa Biegler, RD: We enjoy some of the very same things. So thank you so much for coming on today. 

[00:56:52] Erin Falco, RD: Thank you for having me.