The Health-Productivity Connection

In this enlightening episode of The Tarryn Reeves Show, we dive into the intersection of health and entrepreneurship with Dr. Ailina Ismail, a Melbourne-based functional medicine practitioner. Dr. Ailina specializes in helping busy, ambitious women reclaim their energy, clarity, and balance by addressing the root causes of fatigue, brain fog, and chronic pain. Together, we explore actionable steps for entrepreneurs to optimize their health and sustain high performance in both business and life.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Dr. Ailina’s Journey
   • From conventional GP to functional medicine expert.
   • How raising children on the autism spectrum sparked her quest to explore root-cause medicine.
2. The Foundation of Entrepreneurial Health
   • The importance of addressing mind, trauma, and emotions.
   • Sleep, stress management, and gut health as key pillars of well-being.
3. What is Functional Medicine?
   • A holistic approach to treating the whole person, not just symptoms.
   • The difference between conventional ranges and optimal health ranges in bloodwork.
4. Common Entrepreneurial Health Challenges
   • Fatigue, brain fog, and burnout.
   • Chronic pain and its connection to lifestyle factors like movement and stress.
5. Practical Techniques to Improve Health
   • Simple breathing exercises to activate the vagus nerve.
   • The importance of eating a rainbow of natural-colored foods.
   • How small movements can counteract a sedentary lifestyle.
6. Overcoming Stress and Enhancing Relationships
   • Practical ways to manage stress, including box breathing and short breaks.
   • The importance of building supportive relationships and a strong community.
7. Nutrition for Entrepreneurs
   • Quick and healthy snack ideas like protein balls and veggies with hummus.
   • The impact of gluten and casein on gut health and autoimmune conditions.
8. Tips for Better Sleep and Recovery
   • Sleep hygiene practices: reducing blue light, creating a calming environment, and considering melatonin.
   • How to quiet an overactive entrepreneurial mind at bedtime.
9. Three Free Actions to Improve Health Today
   • Trigger the vagus nerve through breathing.
   • Incorporate more natural, colorful foods into your meals.
   • Commit to daily movement, even if it’s just a short walk.

Book Recommendation:
Dr. Ailina recommends Young Forever by Dr. Mark Hyman, a guide to achieving a vibrant, healthy quality of life as you age.

Connect with Dr. Ailina Ismail:
Website
Instagram
Facebook

Join the Conversation:
If you loved this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review. Let’s continue to inspire and empower entrepreneurs to thrive in both health and business.

Transcript

Tarryn Reeves Full Episode with Intro Outro

Tarryn: [00:00:00] Welcome to The Tarryn Reeves Show, where your journey to empowerment takes center stage. I'm your host, Tarryn Reeves, best selling author and publishing expert. Together, we'll dive into the hearts and minds of visionaries, disruptors, and trailblazing leaders to explore the most compelling and thought provoking ideas in life, business, and marketing.

Let's inspire, impact, and ignite. This is the Tarryn Reeves show.

Welcome to another episode of the Tarryn Reeves show. Today, I'm joined by Dr. Ailina Ismail from Melbourne. So someone in the same country as me, which is lovely. Now, Dr. Ailina helps busy, ambitious women in their twenties to fifties who feel constantly [00:01:00] drained, weighed down by chronic pain and battling brain fog.

Many of her clients have a hunch that. Thyroid or hormonal imbalances might be at the heart of their symptoms, but many struggle to find answers through conventional doctors. And I certainly know that I have been there on my own journey. Dr. Ismael steps in to provide the clarity and support they need, offering a fresh approach that helps these women reclaim their energy, focus, and balance.

Welcome Dr. Ailina. 

Ailina: ThanksTarrynyn. Thanks for having me on your show today. I'm so glad to be here. And I hope at least if anyone listens to my podcast show, if you get even one little diamond point from it, that will help you in your health journey. Um, I'll be really grateful. 

Tarryn: And that's the beauty of it, right?

And this is the beauty of sharing our wisdom and our stories on podcasts and social media and books and things is that what a gift to be able to give somebody, if you can change somebody's life for the better, and it can just [00:02:00] literally be a sentence or a key takeaway. And I find that just so, so magical.

And I definitely know that people are going to get value from you today. So let's start by you telling me a bit about your journey and what inspired you to really focus on helping entrepreneurs optimize their health so they can be more productive. Cause that's so important. 

Ailina: I'm an entrepreneur myself.

So I have been through the steps of getting to where I am now. And my perfect healthy, my motto is to be fit, sad and 30 at 55. Oh, I love it. Yes. Again, it's not easy. You need to do a bit of hard work, but do you know what to do, right? Sometimes people are just like, Oh, I want to start, but I have no idea where to start.

I'm too tired. Body aches, um, brain fog. I go to my practitioner, everything they say that my bloods are fine. So it's always this constant battle. And I think [00:03:00] you just have to advocate for your own self, right? It's your body, it's your health. You want to grow old healthily, watch your kids grow up, bring kids.

So it's just that lifelong journey of finding what health means to you. What are your health goals? And then move from there. And as an entrepreneur, you're owning your own business, obviously, then you got to look at that, but then that takes, there's lots of stress in that. Then you've got to think of your family.

You've got a family, you've got kids, extended family. So there's so many factors involved. And how I started in this was like, I'm a conventional GT, by trade, like that's how I studied. I studied in South Australia for English uni, and then I have two kids on the spectrum. So there's always this mom jilt about, Oh my God, I'm not doing enough.

Maybe it was my fault. Is this how they turn out? So there was always this quest about looking for more, but I don't think I learned much about autism [00:04:00] when I went to medical school in the nineties. It was like, I had to start from scratch and I found that conventional medicine sometimes doesn't have the answers for everything, especially chronic illnesses, right?

Don't get me wrong if you're involved in an accident, like a motor vehicle accident, broken bones, or you've got a heart attack, you still need drugs, you still need surgery, and that you can die. So that's important in acute management of illnesses. But there's so much more. There's so much chronic illnesses out there.

Autism is huge. It can affect someone's whole life, even their parents as they watch the kids grow up. So that's how I started on my functional medicine journey to look at root causes. In autism, for example, multifactorial factors, there's genes, there's the environment, there's your gut, what you're putting into your body, so all of that, and how to address it because in conventional medicine, most of the time, if you have a child diagnosed with [00:05:00] autism, it's like, okay, she can't verbalize.

Let's send her to a speechy or speech pathologist upon this, not from Australia. She can't ride a bicycle. Let's go and see an OTN. So on. When I started studying about functional, that's where I started. And then I started seeing the moms because the moms were getting really fatigued from taking care of the kids, finding out resources for how they can help their kids.

But then they were not taking care of themselves. And some of them are entrepreneurs just like me and how they had to juggle family with kids on the spectrum. Then let's take care of the marriage for the look at their business. And that's how I think it's so important. To use health as a foundation for entrepreneurial success.

Tarryn: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And correct me if I'm wrong. So functional medicine is more holistic approach to medicine than I suppose our Western conventional medicine. Is that correct? 

Ailina: In a way, because if you've got diabetes in [00:06:00] conventional medicine, it's like, here, take this script. It's a pill to find ill.

Oops, you're sure that's not well controlled. The next time I see you take another script and we add on, right? And then what if drug A causes gut symptoms, diarrhea, something. Okay, we'll change. And then this one causes dementia and it just goes on. It's like one thing to solve a thing and then you get side effects and you're gonna solve that side effect.

It works sometimes, but some people can't tolerate and then we're like, okay, how about functional? So functional then looks at why did you get diabetes in the first place? There's in your lifestyle, stress, sleep, nutrition, exercise and movement, and yes, to treat the body as a whole, right? So I have patients who go and see an endocrinologist with their diabetes.

No, I'll give you a different example. So I go see someone who goes. to see their orthopedic surgeon. Maybe they've got a back problem, a disc. And then he suddenly, surprisingly checks their blood pressure. It's like through the roof. And then [00:07:00] they say, okay, go back to your GP and ask her to refer you to a cardiologist.

Okay. Because As specialists, and it's not wrong. That's how we were trained in medical school. When we sub specialize, the orthopedic surgeon will know so much more than me about bones, and then they sub specialize more. Someone might just do a hip, someone might just do a miss. So when they see your blood pressure going up, it's like, Oh, I should refer it to someone who knows about the heart, right?

So, yeah, it's so compact when the nice, but our body isn't. 

Tarryn: Yep. So interesting. Okay. So how's this obviously such a pivotal thing for people in general, but I also think like being an entrepreneur myself, taking care of our health has to be one of our top priorities because if we take a sick day, the company is paying us, like we're paying us, right?

There's no outside source that is keeping our job running, that is keeping our business running, that is keeping our employees paid. We're at the top of the [00:08:00] chain. And so if our health declines, then technically, After a period of time, your business will decline as well. And then obviously the family and that flow on effect.

So I do believe it is such a pivotal factor. What specific health aspects do you think that entrepreneurs should really prioritize? What are your top three or top five? 

Ailina: I couldn't do three. I could do five. Let's suggest at the base when I address. issues with my patients, I have this, what they call a pyramid of dysfunction.

So imagine at the bottom of the pyramid, we need to nourish our body. So that's the first phase. Don't look at crazy things like what's your microbiome doing in your gut and do all this expensive poo test. Let's look at first, mind emotions and trauma. So if there's so much things going on, if you've got Transgenerational trauma is huge now, if there are things there that you have, some people just shut it off, right?[00:09:00] 

They don't realize that it's a problem until it becomes a problem and it could be a big problem. somatic problem. It could be psychosomatic, meaning the stress mentally then affects you physically. So you need to get that sorted out. Then there's sleep. Oh my God, sleep is like one of the easiest, but sometimes hard to do for certain people.

If we don't get enough rest, Yes, we've got meetings, we've got agendas, we've got to do this, but if you don't get that rest, your body doesn't heal. And then the next day just becomes harder and harder and you start thinking, okay, let me sleep just five hours on weekdays because I just got to do all this business proposal and on the weekend I'll crash for 14 hours.

Doesn't work that way. The body doesn't work that way. The third would be the stress. We've talked about stress. The first was mind, trauma and emotions. And the fourth, when people say, everything starts in your gut. So a lot of people now say, everything, every chronic illnesses, you got to start in the gut.[00:10:00] 

True, but with a caveat. And sometimes, How may we say we can speak the truth? There's the truth and then there's the unspoken truth and then there's the unknown truth. And the unknown is mostly in these terms in terms of the gut. Can you imagine the gut is like from your mouth? Right to your anus, I call it from your gums to your bum.

And we forget sometimes we just want to look at the microbiome, if anyone knows that word, it's where you look at a bacteria in your large intestine. You're forgetting the upper GI. So how you chew, how your acid breaks down the proteins and kills the bad bugs. So we look at acid. Helicobacter is huge in the stomach.

We look at pancreatic enzymes. We look at all of this before we go further. So all of that is usually the base of the pyramid. You've got to get those simple things. Maybe the first three is more lifestyle change. And maybe you need to see someone for the upward GI symptoms. But [00:11:00] that's where we should start as the base of the pyramid of dysfunction.

Tarryn: In your experience, this is sounding like a rather time consuming and perhaps a costly exercise to get all of these things sorted out. Am I wrong in saying that? Probably. Depends on how 

Ailina: deep you need to go, right? Yes. So I always work on blood work. So if new patients come to me and they say, I'm tired, I'm stressed, all my bloods are normal.

I'm like, can you please show it to me? Or if it's been more than six months, can we do another round? Cause I interpret blood work from a functional point of view. Cause there's in conventional range, you're either healthy. And then if you pass that more than five and you're on six, you're unhealthy, you've got disease.

Whereas in functional, it's like we're still working within the realms of healthy ranges. Then there's an optimum range, right? That's what you want to strive for. And then maybe we should start [00:12:00] to monitor it. And then there's a range of, oops, you're at risk before you get to these, right? Yeah. So that's the difference.

And yeah, you can just do blood. So that's why I said you don't have to go crazy. All the things out there now, C E P O, organic acids and all that basic, starting basics. With the hydrochloric acid test, you can just test it with, it's a subjective test, it's not, but it works most of the time. Just think apple cider vinegar and all that stuff.

But yeah, it doesn't cost much. You just have to know what test. 

Tarryn: Yeah. Yep. Yep. That's so refreshing to hear. I'm only asking because I had an experience not that long ago. I have a one year old now and an eight year old and obviously run my own publishing company. And after I had my daughter, I was tired, unreasonably tired.

Tired. And I went to my doctor five times. I was like, there's something wrong with me. She's like, there's nothing wrong with you. They tested my thyroid. They tested my hormones. They tested everything. Nope. You're fine. Then I went [00:13:00] to see a GP, but what did he call himself? I can't remember what he called himself.

And he did all of these tests and things. And then he's like, no, you've got this, this, this, this, this, and this. And like. 5, 000 later, I was like, Oh my God, what do you mean? And I was like, I'm dying. What's happening? I'm sure it was just like a little thing, but I suppose you just have to find the right person.

So functional medicine sounds like a very achievable pathway for entrepreneurs to reclaim their health and probably something that people should look into regardless. Just get a functional medicine checkup. We go to a GP for a checkup. Why would we do a functional medicine checkup? Right? That sounds reasonable to me.

Fits your 

Ailina: own body, right? Yeah. You've got to advocate for your own health. Yes. And the cost depends. Like I get patients who come in. I want everything. I'll pay for it. I want the probe, I want the food tolerance test, I want everything. I'm like, okay. But then there are people I say like, you have to pay for the [00:14:00] consult, they have to do the test.

I said, why don't we just start with basics, just start with basics sometimes. Phase one could be three months, could be two years, everyone's at a different But in the health journey, and for you, that might be all you need because the body heals itself. You don't have to do crazy things. Sometimes you just have to fix a few basic parts, foundation, and then everything falls into place.

I always work with the client because if not, finances then becomes another stress point, right? You don't want stress. Yeah. We want to be happy. 

Tarryn: That's right. We want to be happy and fit and five at 55. Yes to that. Well, common health challenges among entrepreneurs. I would say that the main three would be like fatigue, brain fog, burnout.

What would you add to that? 

Ailina: My three major pain points with the clients that I see in my audience is definitely fatigue, [00:15:00] tired all the time, the brain fog, and body aches. So, could mean chronic pain, doesn't have to be joints, could just be muscle aches, because when you look at fatigue, it can either be mental fatigue, it can be peripheral, so muscle, and it can be sleep.

So, it's definitely, Those three are usually encompassing most of the people, yeah, that I see. And it's a common, common center. 

Tarryn: Yeah. And all of those things really impact decision making and then obviously our ability to grow our businesses, right. And just to operate. At optimal capacity, if you like. Now I'm interested in this muscle pain that you were just mentioning.

Is that because you find entrepreneurs sit for a while or is it because we store stress in our muscles or what do you think that's about? Could 

Ailina: be either of those, because yes, there's a study to show that in our adult life, we spend 18, one eight, 18 years of our life sat down, meaning. [00:16:00] Goodness. Yeah. And we're always in front of the computer.

We probably average on that more than 18 years. It's sad. But that's how life is coming. And a lot of people work from home, right? Yes. Um, two days a week I work from home, three days I'm at my practice. So yeah, and then we don't move that much. So definitely then our muscles become deconditioned, right? We are not pushing ourselves and then the muscles start to waste away because, A, you're not using it.

Or just slowly die down. So that's one. Can't remember the second one. What I talk also about nutrient debt. So magnesium is huge for muscle. You gotta get the right magnesium. But yes, water. Water is so important for muscle fatigue. Yeah. Because that's how muscles function. They need water, they need salt.

And vitamin D. Everyone's low in vitamin D, and the issue is the reference ranges that labs put on as normal is pretty low. In Australia, normal, most labs, [00:17:00] I'm sure in New South Wales, I've got some patients from, I think you guys use Sullivan's. Mm hmm, right. Yeah, normal is 50, and optimal ranges in functional medicine is 120.

Oh, wow. That is quite a difference. It's very different with pregnant women. Most midwives levels are a hundred, which is good because the baby needs vitamin D for skeletal growth, but it's just normal everyday people that will come to me. I had one patient recently and she said she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome.

And I'm like, okay. I've been diagnosed with that too. She's only late 20s and with conventional chronic fatigue syndrome is basically we've done everything we think we know what to do, everything has come back normal. So we'll just label you that. So guess what her vitamin D was? 17. 

Tarryn: One seven. It's supposed to be 150.

120. Optimum. 20. Yeah. What a simple fix though, right? Like. Decided? [00:18:00] Well, yeah. But also just knowing that. That's the tiny little thing. Instead of walking around with this label and just having to live with fatigue that gets worse and worse and worse, spend some time in the sun or take a vitamin D supplement or whatever it is that you need to get back to optimal range.

That's life changing. I know. And it's so simple. It's just a 

Ailina: black case. Not rocket science. Nothing. Yeah. Don't have to spend with Medicare. You get the first one free. And unless you're pregnant or you're, there's so much Medicare rules. If not, the doctors get into trouble. Unless you're pregnant, then it'll be free.

Or unless you're 70 years old and you're osteoporotic, then it's free. And by then it's like, oops, it's free. a bit too late. Yeah. So you can still do this blacklist. It's true. You can pay for them. It's not a big deal. It's 30 something bucks, but the information can be life changing. So simple. 

Tarryn: Oh my goodness.

That poor woman. Thank God she found you, right? That's horrifying. Now, let's talk [00:19:00] about stress because specifically with entrepreneurs, I think our society is crazy stressed regardless, but I can only speak as an entrepreneur myself. What are some practical techniques that entrepreneurs can use to manage their stress and prevent burning out?

Is it just taking care of your nutrition, your sleep, and those simple baseline pyramid that you were speaking about? 

Ailina: Definitely sleep, because when you sleep, you produce, your brain produces growth hormones. That's when you heal, right? So obviously, if you don't have enough sleep, whether you can't fall asleep, or you can fall asleep and you don't stay asleep, so you keep waking up, so you can't maintain, adds up into stressing.

You get mental stress, and then obviously your muscles are not resting, but then you get inflammation. So So, slightly different from cutting your hand and you see that the skin is red and inflamed. This is all happening in your body, so it's like inflammation that you can't see. And it presents as stress, [00:20:00] it presents as fatigue, so very, very important to have that rest.

Like, I reached my major burnout during 2021, during COVID, and I couldn't do anything else, had to just go work and come back, work and come back, oh my god. That was crazy. 

Tarryn: So were you still a GP at the time of COVID? Yeah. That must have been an experience. In Melbourne, especially. Yeah, exactly. Oh, you poor thing.

No wonder you burnt out. 

Ailina: So did my thyroid. Oh my goodness. And then basic things you can do, just get up from your seat. If you're working from home, you set your own time. Do it like in 20 minute blocks. Set a reminder on your phone. Don't have a jarring alarm. Sometimes I do. Just like the simple one and like, oh, okay.

20 minutes. Go to the bathroom, go to the post box, just move, just to chill a bit. If you can't, there's some meeting going on, all you have to do is put your fingertips [00:21:00] together, each like index to index, cause that will trigger your vagus nerve. And then just do the simple box breathing. So say like someone's talking on Zoom and you're getting Zoom fatigue and it's getting stressful but you can't breathe.

Switch off the video like sometimes I do. So just do that under the tape like you can't see it. And then inhale slowly for four. Hold for four. Slowly exhale for four. Hold for four and do it four times. That triggers your vagus nerve, one of the easiest things to do. And that then gets you into that rest digest mode compared to your flight and fight.

So those are things you can do just from Being in work, home office kind of thing, right? Easy, stress, and, or just moving your chair. Now, nowadays there's lots of chair exercises. All you have to do is just twist your body, stretch a bit. Wolfman helps to also reduce the stress. That would be my favorite piece.

So 

Tarryn: movement and breath and those very [00:22:00] simple little things and any busy entrepreneur can do those tiny little things. Right. Now, for those who are listening who don't know what the vagus nerve is, the vagus nerve is like the boss nerve of the nervous system, isn't it? 

Ailina: The 

Tarryn: biggest 

Ailina: nerve in our body. Yes.

And it goes from your brain and it touches all the organs, it touches your gut. So there's the gut brain connection, it touches your thyroid, it touches, yeah, all the organs. It's just the one that tells everyone to calm down. So when you trigger that, it sets off your parasympathetic, or rest and digest, you calm down, compared to your flight and fight.

Like, when you see a tiger coming, obviously that's when your flight fight response goes up, because you need to run or you'll be eaten by the tiger. But what's the opposite? The vegas is the opposite. 

Tarryn: Yeah. Okay. Now let's talk about nutrition. So I'm guilty of this when I get really stuck into something, I forget to eat and I'm terrible because my metabolism is crazy fast and then I get hangry.

But if I'm in the zone, I do forget to eat [00:23:00] sometimes. And then I'll look up and I'll go, Oh my gosh, I'm so hungry. What are some nutrition tips for boosting focus, reducing brain fog, and are just like healthy quick fixes for those of us who are time poor? 

Ailina: It happened to me today. So I had this main talk that I was gonna give to some physios and exercise physios and it was at 12.

But then I'm like rehearsing my talk and I'm like, okay, I'll eat later. So quick honey. Honey is good for a quick sugar fix. Yeah, because it works fast. So I do that normally before I train. But yeah, if you have time for it. Now there are companies that can sell honey in like a small sachet. I can give you the link.

So that's just, it's not an everyday fix. Don't do it every day. Don't follow what I did. And then I go for a talk and I was like, Oh, I gotta walk the talk. So I better do some, uh, work up cause it was at the gym. So that will cut. And I come back to him and my husband says, can we eat? And I'm like, miss breakfast, miss lunch.

Not good. [00:24:00] Not good. Okay. So, but the honey kept me going. The adrenalin kept me going, but you can't do this all the time, right? Cause then your body goes and think, Oh, If she's starving, starving, it goes into starvation mood, then everything slows down. You're trying to conserve fat, so then you put on weight, your thyroid's not happy, because your thyroid is like this gland that sits on your trachea, it's your sentinel gland.

A lot of people describe it as a butterfly because it's got the two lobes. But imagine this butterfly, it's got these two antennas on top and it's like sensing your environment. It's then lots of toxins, fumes, things that you apply on your face, personal care products, and all of this will then like make your body more stressed.

So quick fix would be protein balls, so anything protein is good. So a boiled egg, I can boil some and leave some at your desk or just pick it up from the fridge if you're working from home. Protein balls are easy, you [00:25:00] can build them in batches. Those would be the top things. And then like, if you want to cut your veggies and have it with deep hummus, those would be really good.

Snacks. Yeah. To keep your brain moving. So you get like a brain fright and you're just working. Sometimes you can, but after a while it gets really fatiguing. So that would be good. And then of course, when you have more time, eat a rainbow of food, right? Rainbow colored food. So the green veggies. The red apple, what, carrots, orange, pineapple, yellow, if you can have it, a rainbow of colored, natural colored foods, not artificial.

In a day, that is so good. A purple eggplant, but theoretically, that's what we want. Ideally, we can't, but if you can have three or four colors of natural colors a day, that's good. Nutrition tip. Don't overthink. Oh my god. Someone is doing really well as keto. I'll do keto. Someone or someone else like [00:26:00] paleo and then there's autoimmune and There are places for those diets But you gotta speak to someone and you shouldn't be on any diets longer than what eight weeks twelve weeks Because now you're gonna like create a eating disorder.

Can't eat that, can't eat this Right. 

Yeah. 

Ailina: So it depends on, like, everyone's had different needs, but those are the basic ones. I'm wondering, what's 

Tarryn: your opinion on gluten? 

Ailina: Do you 

Tarryn: really want to know? I really want to know. Give it to me straight. 

Ailina: So many things. But it doesn't happen to everyone, right? So just remember this.

Then it's not all bad. So some people can eat bowls of pasta. Not a problem. Other people, and the two top ones that I only see is related to autoimmunity. So autoimmunity, autoimmune diseases are on the rise. There's lots of factors for that. And what happens Is that your immune system thinks one of the organs.

[00:27:00] is an enemy and it starts attacking it. How does it happen? So one in four women in their lifetime will get an autoimmune disease and we know that the most common one is Hashimoto's, which is when the immune system attacks your thyroid and your thyroid function goes down. Then you start being tired, body aches, your period goes haywire, you fall asleep.

feel down, you eat a bit, but you put on, you get constipated. So there's lots of symptoms. And going back to the root cause, it's actually, there are studies showing that gluten and casein is right behind, because casein is the protein in dairy. not lactose free, not A2 free or A2 milk. Those are different.

Lactose is a sugar, A2, A1 is a different protein, but casein. And casein's in most dairy products, right? Yogurt, milk, cheese. Yeah, but it doesn't have to be a forever thing. So in gluten, it's, with body outright and in [00:28:00] certain people who are then more susceptible to autoimmune disease because they've got family history, genetic predisposition, and now the environment.

Clifton and casein can be inflammatory to the gut lining and some of these molecules Like particles in this gluten, your immune system, there's two thirds of your immune system sits in your gut wall because they know, the body knows that if there were anything bad to get into our body, it's what we stuff into our food.

It can inhale a foreign body, we can cut our skin and bugs get in, but mostly it's the gut. Yep. So in certain people, when gluten gets to your gut, it starts off a reaction that annoys the gut wall. Some people can get leaky gut, some people they're just reacting to the particles in the gluten, and so it passes in from your gut.

gut barrier into your blood vessel. 

Now, 

Ailina: in the gut wall, there is, uh, [00:29:00] the immune cells, as I said, two thirds. So now imagine your army sipping quietly in the trenches doing its own thing. And then suddenly it's gluten and to your immune system, it's public enemy number one. Right. So it attacks it, goes back to sleep.

But the problem is you're eating continuously this gluten every day, pasta, bread, oats. And now the immune system's all revved up, like, Oh my god, so much enemy, gotta attack, attack, attack. Now your immune system can't seem to rest, and it then turns around and looks at your thyroid. Your thyroid looks a bit like gluten, like what we call molecular mimicry.

And that attacks the thyroid. Or it might attack your joints and you get rheumatoid arthritis. Or it might attack your skin and you get psoriasis. And once you get one, you're bound to get another autoimmune disease, especially if you've got a family history. Mom's got thyroid problems, or mom's got, brother's got type 1 diabetes, if you don't address the root cause, which is the gluten.[00:30:00] 

So then, do you extend gluten for life? Maybe. Depends. I always say give it eight weeks, 100%. Know gluten, be really strict, know what's going in your food. If you go to restaurants, make sure they are, their kitchen's not contaminated. And C, sometimes we don't realize what gluten does to you, and one of the main things is actually brain fog.

That's a number one symptom that in certain people, gluten can present us. So then go off it, and then, oh, some people feel better, some people don't. Then I say reintroduce a bit and then some people know when they reintroduce it that it could be gut, could be headaches, could be just tiredness. So everyone's different.

Is it for everyone? No. If you do think you have a intolerance, that you have the symptoms, then give it a go. Or if you're gonna get autoimmune disease, we do know with autism, the gut brain connection, gluten is a huge inflammatory component in the brain's inflammation. So yeah. [00:31:00] Lots of different reasons why we call it gluten free.

Tarryn: Yeah, interesting. Now there's something that I suffer with personally and I know that I'm not the only one as an entrepreneur. It's when we lie down for sleep at night and suddenly our brain takes over and it's like, Oh, I need to do this, this, this, this, and this for this part of the business and this Team member need this, and I should do this, and what about this social media person?

Oh my gosh, that's a great idea for a new masterclass. How? And I swear I've got undiagnosed ADHD because, like, my brain is next level. Sleep and recovery are so important, but sometimes we're unable to switch off. Other than the box breathing, cause I know that's a great technique. What are some other ways that we can quiet that entrepreneur that never sleeps in our brain so that we can get that adequate rest and recovery?

Ailina: On the top of my head, things like. tire your body physically. So some people like to work out in the evening and then [00:32:00] they can make sure the usual sleep hygiene things. Everyone says, never put your TV in your room. Stop all those. Cause like, Oh, I got the idea, right? Like, as you said, a tech idea that you go on your phone, the blue light's not good.

So you just have to like make it a habit of not using gadgets. Have a set time, like say you want to go to sleep at 10, then you slowly get rid of all this external stimulants. Don't drink coffee, obviously. Some people like it pitch dark. Some people want to, you just have to find what works for you. So like a nightlight, some people like white noise.

So I've got one patient who, she has to have the fan even in winter, but it's like facing elsewhere. She just needs that white noise. So those are all the sleep hygiene things that I'm sure a lot of people know of. Um, And then some people like melatonin, like to help. And a lot of people like, Oh my God, it's dangerous.

I don't know. Melatonin is one of the most, the highest super antioxidant. So [00:33:00] it's a very good anti inflammatory. And for some people, you might need that. Cause say you've been doing this for years, right? And you need to reset cause your circadian rhythm is so bad. so used to that, then maybe you need something to reset that circadian rhythm and you probably have to go on melatonin before the silent sleeping meditation that I don't really recommend, they are addictive and all that.

Melatonin, you can just stop like that if you want. So that would be one. And, like, you could, there are things in between melatonin and sleep hygiene, so there are certain supplements. There's this company that produces, one of the ingredients is lavender, but if you were to take lavender oil, you would never survive.

It's the most disgusting thing. So this company has made it into, like, capsules and so you can smell the lavender and then you swallow it. You might get lavender burps but that's like one of the natural things. The 

Tarryn: most relaxing smelling [00:34:00] burps that you would probably do. 

Ailina: But some people have said by that supplement so some people Refuse to do a melatonin, that's fine.

I said, let's try this. Epigenics is the company and I've kept good results with that. It's not just lavender, it's got lemon balm. And I think Melissa likes it. Magnolia. Yeah. Interesting. 

Tarryn: I haven't heard of that before. I have heard of melatonin, but I haven't heard of the lavender capsules, how interesting.

Okay. Now there's one other aspect that I'm sure we haven't talked about lots of other aspects, but one aspect of being an entrepreneur is our relationship with. Others are close family, our friends, because what I have found is that unless you are an entrepreneur or have been in the entrepreneurial space, people don't understand what you do.

And they don't often, it's going to sound harsh, but they don't often respect what you do either because are you were from home? Are you do your own business? And they just think that you float around drinking mojitos all day. I don't know. [00:35:00] I don't know what they think that we do, but we We work really hard, right, for creating a dream.

It's not like, it's an entirely different beast to being an employee and working for somebody else. But I think that our relationships and our connections with those around us need to be super supportive and nurturing for us to be emotionally healthy, which then obviously flows onto physical health and success in the business, right?

What is your take on that? What's your opinion? Relationships, so important, 

Ailina: right? Yeah. So it's not like, sometimes you eat well, not sometimes, you can't choose your family, right? You can choose your friends. So just gonna leave with what you have. But you want a really, like, obviously if you've got a partner, a spouse, I find that's been one of the anchoring factors for me, like I've got a very supportive husband.

So that's important because then sometimes you need him to mind the kids. So when you've got Zoom, I say, make sure everyone else is quiet. So [00:36:00] that's so important. So that's your immediate family. Your kids must understand. Cause sometimes like, well, it's Saturday, let's go do things. And I'm like, I got this Zoom thing.

It's this summary, but you ask, I'm just going to do this for just a few hours. So they, like, I say, easy to educate our immediate family. It's harder for extended family who don't see us all the time and then they look at the bigger community, right? Our friends and then people around us, our neighbors and all that.

So we have to find That relation, is it easy? Like that balance of how, yes, we have this relationship, but at the same time, please respect that I can't be a people pleaser. You can't say yes to, oh, you're going to go to this wedding and that thing. And it's like, you have to, cause I was always like that.

Sometimes I tried, but now I'm much better. I've gone through a lot of coaching. So people pleasing used to be huge. And I know it's a huge thing when a lot of people, we don't want to offend, especially [00:37:00] if it's our close friends. Friends or family or something you have to say no to things because you got to look at the big goal at the big picture.

What do you want your business to be one year, five years, 10 years. And sometimes there might be things that you have to sacrifice. So you just have to pick and choose what you can do. And at the same time, you do have to have like a core group that will support you no matter what and easier said than done.

But yeah, if you've got a spouse or siblings that maybe And then you have to ask because sometimes, hey, maybe you need to do something and your husband's busy. Maybe you set up a thing with your close friend. Hey, can you take care of my kids this time? Babysit. Next time we'll take turns. So offer that because when you offer, your friends might say, Oh yes, we can do it.

So you have to keep looking for a group of people that will support you. And there's no harm in asking. They probably say no, but then you keep looking because you must always have that backup. [00:38:00] You can work alone, but there will be a time where everything will just break down. It's just so hard. You need a very good relationship, a good connection with people around you.

Tarryn: Yeah, I couldn't agree more and that's sometimes hard to build, but so worth putting the time and energy into. Now for entrepreneurs wanting to reclaim their energy and their mental clarity and maintain their healthy, high performing lifestyle, give us please three instructions. What are three actions we can take right now, immediately, that's not going to cost anything.

That's not going to take a lot of time. Three things to do right now. 

Ailina: I'd probably talk about two. So the first would be triggering your vagus nerve. I think that's such an easy, free thing to do. The second would be eating a rainbow colored food. So I always have those snacks, but natural food colors at your fingertips.

Maybe go shopping. Do this meal prep [00:39:00] thing. I don't know meal preps. It's too hard. But always have that idea. Okay, you're going to Kobuzi, go to the supermarket, get those things that are healthy, that are colored. They all are high in polyphenols. So those are chemicals in the plants that are anti inflammatory and all that.

So easy. Don't have to cook them. You can just chop them up and have them. And the third is movement. So go for a walk. I have patients who are like, Oh my God, I'm just I can't roll out my couch. I come back from work and I'm just sitting on my couch. Everything's too tight. I say, okay, your goal is to, for the next week, can you just walk to the post box and come back and then start from there?

Because movement, after 10 minutes of walking around your neighborhood, if it's safe, your endorphins start to be released by your brain. You'll feel good hormones. And then you're like, maybe I should have done this earlier. So that's, that's free watching. Walk the dog, if you've got a dog, go out there, put on some headphones, listen to music.

That also calms you down. 

Tarryn: Yeah. 

Ailina: Leave my tree. 

Tarryn: So trigger the [00:40:00] vagus nerve, eat a rainbow and get some movement. Quick clarifying question on number one with the vagus nerve. What is the fastest, easiest, way to trigger the vagus nerve? 

Ailina: Breathing. Okay. I actually had an interview with a somatic coach just off the top of my head.

She says usually nose breathing is better than mouth breathing. So that will trigger your vagus nerve. Yeah. Amazing. Okay, 

Tarryn: so to keep being healthy and having that high performing lifestyle that aligns with our long term business success, those are three super easy things that we can do. And I've learned so much today.

Thank you so much for your time, Dr. Aelina. Now before we go, we have a tradition on this podcast called the book drop. We want to know what book do you recommend that has either impacted you personally or on a professional level that you would recommend to others and why? [00:41:00] 

Ailina: Has anyone heard of Dr. Mark Hyman?

He's like one of my gurus from the start. So you can Google him, Mark Hyman, and his book is called Young Forever. And it's not about, oh my god, being like, uh, bodybuilder, uh, crazy stuff. He's now 60 something, I think. Just how to be healthy so that you have a good quality of life as you grow older, right? I had the opportunity to meet him.

He came to Brisbane in 2018. That's when I, he was giving a lecture from the Institute of Functional Medicine. So he's amazing. He's got his own company. They do blood work, but that's in the U. S. You can get those things in Australia too, but. He's got a book also called WTF, what the food because processed foods and he calls his food because you know how everyone's saying he calls it vegan because a lot of people say [00:42:00] oh it's paleo good, it's vegan good.

So he combines it and says it's vegan. Yeah. That's what got me into functional medicine. 

Tarryn: Beautiful. Amazing. Okay. Thank you so much for your time and sharing your wisdom today. And if anyone is looking to get more healthy, which I think that we could all benefit from, go and find Dr. Ailina. I will put her website and her social links in the show notes so that you can go and easily find her.

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Thank you everyone.

That's a wrap on today's episode. If you love the insights and inspiration, don't let it end here. Hit subscribe to stay connected and turn your visions into reality alongside our community of changemakers. I'm Teryn Reeves. Thank you for joining me. And remember, your story has power. See you in the next episode.