When Home Makes You Sick: Rebuilding Your Health Naturally

We explore how purpose, nature, and body literacy can transform chronic illness, reframing diagnoses as changeable states and immune “autoimmunity” as a stuck pattern that can be guided back to balance. Practical tools span mold testing, herbal supports, and daily lymph care that keep healing simple and grounded.

Chapters

• 0:00 Values, Nature, And Healing
• 0:39 Meet Magic Barclay
• 1:04 Why Become A Healer
• 1:47 PNEI Of Trauma Explained
• 3:00 Diagnosis As A Label
• 4:19 Systems Thinking And Root Cause
• 6:00 Rethinking Autoimmune
• 7:01 Immune Types And Balance
• 7:43 Mold Exposure And Health
• 10:10 Testing Homes And Remediation
• 14:36 Pathogens 101: Virus, Bacteria, Fungus
• 16:16 Treatment Pitfalls And Balance
• 16:56 Herbs And Foods That Support
• 17:46 Lymphatic System Essentials
• 21:11 Three Parting Principles

• values of nature and family as anchors
• PNEI linking mind, nerves, hormones, and immunity
• diagnosis as a label, not identity
• immune types and why getting stuck drives symptoms
• mold exposure signs, testing with agar plates, remediation
• herbs and foods to balance terrain during treatment
• lymphatic drainage through movement, rebounding, self-massage
• three takeaways: no blame, trust nature, honor progress

Transcript

Values, Nature, And Healing

SPEAKER_00 0:00

One of my highest values is nature. I need to be around animals. I need to be around trees. And I never really knew the importance of that. Now in my healing journey, it's becoming more and more evident.

Meet Magic Barclay

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Hi, friends. Welcome to the New Normal Big Life Podcast. We're bringing you natural and integrative health information and stories about nature that we hope will inspire you to get outside an adventure, along with a step-by-step plan to help you practice what you've learned, create your own new normal, and live the biggest life you can dream. I'm your host, Antoinette Lee, the Wellness Warrior. Let's get into today's topic. Imagine searing down cancer, Lyme disease, a stroke, diabetes, heart attack, and hypoxia. All by raising two children as a single mom. That's Magic Barclay's reality over the past decade. Yet, to functional health mastery, she's not just surviving, she's thriving. Magic, welcome to New Normal Big Life.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Thank you. It's great to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

So, like me, you've had a long health and healing journey, and you've made nature the center of your healing process. Can you tell us about your connection to nature?

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Yeah, look, one of my highest values is nature. I need to be around animals. I need to be around trees. And I never really knew the importance of that. Now in my healing journey, it's becoming more and more evident.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

So fast forward, and now you're a practitioner. Why did you decide to become a healer in the first place?

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Because the answers weren't there for me. You know, I was seeing people that were telling me things, but it wasn't helping, or they were telling me it was all my fault. So it spurred me to learn more about my own body.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

So what is the PNEI of trauma?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

PNEI is a psycho-neuro endoimmunology, particularly of trauma. So it's P psycho is what you think and feel, N is your nervous system, E is your endocrine system, and I is your immune system. And they all work hand in hand.

Family As The Why

SPEAKER_02 2:07

So when you were going through some of your health challenges, because you've had a lot, can you tell us what that journey looked like and feel free to talk about what those challenges were or not if you just like to keep it high level?

Diagnosis As A Label

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Yeah. So look, the journey for me was really spurred on by another of my top values, which is family, my children. And getting sick just wasn't really on the cards. And leaving them certainly wasn't what I wanted to do. So they were my impetus to seek answers and to find healing. And for me, you know, cancer, Lyme disease, heart disease, and now diabetes, they've all given me blow after blow, but I'm still here because my kids are my passion, my nature is my passion, and those two things together keep me going.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

You know, I've talked to so many experts lately who, in addition to saying you need to make lifestyle changes and to possibly do some type of therapies, like physical therapy or uh uh take medications or surgery, but uh more and more people are also saying, and you need to ensure that you'll are passionate about something, that you find your why.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

100%. If you don't have that why, you're just gonna go through life aimlessly. And when you're battling chronic illness, you really need something to hang on to. You need that anchor. And so for me, nature and my my kids, my anchor, if I didn't have that, I would just be blowing from thing to thing. And we see that with clients and patients that have gone from practitioner to doctor to practitioner to doctor with no real answers because they don't have an anchor.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

So let's talk about diagnosis. How do you define a diagnosis?

Systems Thinking And Root Cause

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Yeah, great question. A diagnosis is a label, it's not who you are, it's not what you are, it's what you're dealing with. It's just a label, it's just an addition. Like I can take my jacket off and change my outfit, my label will change as well. And so once you get through one, you may get another, but it's important to know it's not who you are.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Oh, that is so true. I absolutely a hundred percent agree with it. So you talk about how important it is for people to understand their body in terms of their diagnosis. So, for example, a person with heart disease or high blood pressure or diabetes needs to understand the metabolic system, for example. And a lot of people really don't know what the major, 13 major systems of the bodies do. Why is this important?

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Look, first of all, we need to know that no body system works alone, they all work together. So when something goes wrong, it's not just one system, they're all backing each other up. So once we look at that, we can say, okay, this happened. How did it happen? We look for root cause. The main thing we need to do is not blame ourselves. And so many of modern medicine's doctors will tell you that a metabolic condition is your fault. It's because you're not eating right. It's not you, you're not exercising well enough. You're not doing this, you are doing this. It's not your fault. It's your body's reaction to a series of things that has happened. Yes, some of them you can make changes, but some of them you can't, like high stress. Now that's just as important as what you're eating and how you're exercising. So, you know, we really need to look at the big picture and know that we need to support all 13 body systems together.

Rethinking Autoimmune

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Autoimmune disease is so prevalent. And uh, you talk about this a lot. What exactly is an autoimmune disorder?

Immune Types And Balance

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Okay, first of all, what it's not is your body attacking itself. Your body doesn't do that. It's not designed to do that. It's attacking a pathogen or it's uh attacking an imbalance. It's addressing an imbalance. It's not you, your body attacking itself, your immune system turning on you. That just doesn't happen. What it is, is it's collecting data from, you know, decades, years, you know, whatever, however long that you've been alive, it's collecting data and it's responding to that. So, what autoimmune is, is one of the several immune types, and yes, we have several, getting stuck and your body trying to address that. We are supposed to cycle in and out of each immune type. We're not supposed to get stuck. Autoimmune is a stuck immune system.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

So, what are the other immune types?

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Yeah, so you've got TH1, which is infection fighting, you've got TH2, which is driven by parasites, pregnancy, and vaccinations. And they're meant to do that because it's nurturing and anabolic. You cannot fight something in that. And then we have TH17, broken barriers. We have TH9, TH22, and it goes on and on. We have TH3 or T Reg, which is our regulation system where we're supposed to sit in that one and then jump in and out of the others. So we really can't say the immune system is a blanket system, we are supposed to jump in and out.

Mold Exposure And Health

SPEAKER_02 7:42

So one of the things that a lot of people don't realize could be affecting them is mold in their homes and even in their the workplace and vehicles. If you don't have an airtight seal, for example, around the light fixture in the back window of a truck, for example, you can get mold or moisture that comes down through the window in little drips. You don't even know it until it's pooling underneath your seat or storage area. And then suddenly you're like, why does my vehicle smell funny? And that funny odor may not click in your head that it's mold like it would if you smelled that in your house. Can you talk about how mold can affect your body?

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Yeah, so mold affects your body on a number of levels. Now, it affects your immune system, of course, because it drives one of those. And it affects your endocrine system because it can mask your hormones or change your hormonal profile. It can affect your nervous system because we know mold is a decomposer. That's what it's meant to do. It decomposes you too. And one of the weakest points is the myelin sheath around your nerves, but it affects your P, your limbic system. So we're coming back to the P and Eye here, right? But we're working through all of them, and that is it changes how you think and feel without you even knowing. And you mentioned an airtight seal. This is important if it's your light in your car. It's not important if it's your house because we've done the opposite. We've made our homes airtight with no airflow. And the biggest thing that fights mold is airflow. So you won't find mold out in the open because it doesn't like airflow. So we need to make sure that we have access to windows open, you know, particularly to stop condensation. And we need to really look at what is encouraging mold. Dark, damp, yes, that encourages mold.

Testing Homes And Remediation

SPEAKER_02 9:55

Well, we bought this cabin where I'm sitting right now about two years ago. And maybe an hour after being in here, I said there's some mold someplace. And the reason I know is because I have an allergy. And so I was becoming sicker and sicker by the day. And we had to hire an industrial engineer, which was quite expensive, but to come in and investigate our home for the potential of sick home syndrome, which we did have, and it was very expensive to mediate. But if we had not known that we should even check for mold and check for other things that create this sick home syndrome, we could have gone many, many years suffering conditions that doctors can't even figure out what's going on because it'll be a complex diagnosis where you have multiple underlying things all overlapping with symptoms. So, how important is it for people to inspect their homes and what can they do to determine whether or not they have a mold problem?

SPEAKER_00 11:04

It's very important. And, you know, I see so many people around the world that say, Oh, I painted the walls, you know, I washed them down with bleach and then I painted them, or I cut out that piece of plaster or sheetrock, it's all gone. No, it's not. It's still there. You're changing the colour of it by bleaching it, but it's still there. Or I moved house. Okay, great, but you took your furnishings and your clothes and you and your kids and your pets. Guess what? You've all got mold in you. You're taking it with you. So you really need to address it properly. Here in Australia, I use a fantastic company that uses all natural products to get rid of mold and it gets to the spores, so it neutralizes the spores. There's companies all around the world that do that. You really, really need to be testing. So you need to be using like an agar plate. You hold it up to the ceiling and then you pop it back in the container and you can watch that mold grow on the agar plate. That's how you know you've got mould. But you know, the first sign is you can usually smell it, and if you can't smell it, then you feel sorry, you start to feel really unwell. You might get a sniffly nose, or you might get scratchy eyes in the morning. Guess what? That's not normal.

Listening To Immune Signals

SPEAKER_02 12:22

Before we cover the next topic in this episode, I want to introduce you to the adventure sports lifestyle with what I call a micro story about an adventure that I've had. The adventure sports lifestyle and my deep connection to nature is essential to my good health. So here's the story. I love early fall. It's a time when you can still harvest fresh tomatoes and basil to make end-of-season caprei salad and harvest cinnamon girl pumpkins to make your friend Lisa another Northwood woman's pumpkin bread recipe. I did that. I hope this inspires you to get outside and adventure alone with friends or the people you love most. For me, I started to feel the sort of a gastrointestinal upset to the point where it I was juggled over in pain. And for me, that was a clear sign that I don't normally have gut health issues. That was a clear sign that I had been exposed to mold. So knowing your own body is really important. Talk to us about how we can treat our immune system and are there things we can avoid to keep our immune system healthy.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Look, your immune system, as I mentioned earlier, jumps in and out of different types. What it's really important to note is if you're prevalent in one type, so I'm usually a TH2O. That's my kind of default. When I jump out of TH3, the first thing I do is jump into TH2. So I'll start getting allergies. I'll start to react to certain foods. You know, it's really important to understand that you now don't drive that. So there are certain things I can and can't eat when I know I'm in a TH2 response. Same if I'm in TH1. If I've, you know, got some sort of bug and I've got a fever and sweats, then there's going to be certain things that I'm going to avoid. There's lots of information out on the internet about that, you know, about all the different types of foods to avoid. But if you're at all in doubt, get in contact with us and we can send you some information.

Pathogens 101: Virus, Bacteria, Fungus

SPEAKER_02 14:31

And how would listeners contact you? We can drop it into the show description.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Yeah. So our website is www.holisticnaturalhealth.com.au. It's W in front of the holistic because it's we treat with holism. And it's dot AU on the end because we are based in Australia. But it's really important that, you know, coming back to the immune system, that we listen to our body. There are certain things you are going to crave to eat when you're stuck in a certain type or you're in a certain type at all. And then there's certain things that you'll know to avoid. And so really start tuning in to what your body's telling you.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

What I find so amazing is that what you just said about you will crave certain things. What I notice is if I'm taking uh a new supplement, because I almost never take any prescription medications, but when I'm taking a new supplement, if it's not very bioavailable, and I work really hard to try and select the most bioavailable, the most easily absorbable supplement, but sometimes maybe there's something else going on in my body and it feels like the supplement is not very effective, I will start to crave black pepper. And black pepper makes things, supplements, for example, more bioavailable, more easily absorbed. So I I really know what you mean about starting to crave things. Let's talk about pathogens. What are they and what do they do inside your body?

Treatment Pitfalls And Balance

Herbs And Foods That Support

Lymphatic System Essentials

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Right. So there are three major groups of pathogens. We have viruses. Really important to know, you cannot catch a virus. The RNA of each virus is already in you. And a virus or a viral infection is that RNA being signaled to start a fight on something. There's bacteria, good bacteria and bad bacteria. The good bacteria that living in our gut help create neurotransmitters to make us feel good so that we don't get depression or anxiety. And then we have fungus, which are the decomposers like mold. Mold is a version of a fungus. And so these fungi have one job, and that is to break things down. So, you know, just like the rotten apple in the fruit basket, it gets moldy, the fungus grows, it's going to continue onto the other apples if you don't remove it, take it away. So these are the three big arms of pathogens. Now, one other one that we have nematodes, worms. And really important that we understand they're not all bad as well. Okay. So what a pathogen does is it needs to change the environment of the host. The host is you or your pets or, you know, your fruit in your fruit bowl. That's the host. It needs to change the environment of the host to be able to complete its function, to perform its function. So a virus is usually something that is a detox situation, so like a cold or a flu. That's usually our body detoxing itself. Things like Epstein Barr are viruses that can completely debilitate your body on every body system. And then we have the bacteria, good and bad. The bad are like staph and strip and a few others. And then we have the fungus. Not all bad, they are meant to clean up.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

So when a patient goes in for a medical treatment or some other intervention for a pathogen, how does that sometimes, how does the treatment sometimes destroy your immune system?

Movement, Rebounding, And Drainage

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Yeah, so the big three viruses, bacteria and fungus, are supposed to work in together. They keep each other in check. So viruses eat or kill bacteria and fungus, bacteria eat or kill viruses and fungus, and then fungus eat or kill viruses and bacteria. And so it's really important that you comprehend that if you're going to go after one, the others will become imbalanced and they may flourish. And so this is what we often see people on antibiotics will get a fungal infection called thrush because they have killed some of the good bacteria. And so now the fungus are flourishing. So anytime you go in for a medical treatment, super important that you're balancing your body. You're not just treating one of the big three, but you are responding to support the other two.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

And what can we do to balance our bodies? Let's say we know that we're going to get an antibiotic. What can we do to create some balance?

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Yeah, so you want to be using things like herbs, you want to be making some teas. If you're going to be taking an antibiotic, a great antiviral and an antimicrobial is lemon balm. It's also known as Melissa. Or thyme is a great one. You can make a thyme tea. You want to be eating things like garlic, turmeric, and ginger because they support nearly every system of the body, and they'll support the other organisms that need to fight back and keep that balance. So, really important that you look to nature. Obviously, you know, when you need an antibiotic, I'm not saying don't take them, but maybe look for a more natural antibiotic.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

So let's talk about the lymphatic system because it's so important to our overall good health.

Three Parting Principles

Sponsor: Magnesium Stories

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Yeah, the lymphatic system is the system of the body that modern medicine seems to forget exists. And it's our waste removal system. So anytime you have an injury, a bug bite, a scratch, anything like that, your lymphatic system has to work to remove the waste. And it sits just under our skin. So I have lymphedema, which is a blocked lymphatic system. I have it under my chin. I've always got this pad of fluid. Really important to know where that's coming from. Would I just treat this pad of fluid? No, I'm going to go to the next section, big section of the lymphatic system, which is around the clavicle or the collarbone, to make sure that I can drain properly. Now, the lymphatic system does not have its own pump, and this is where things can go wrong. It actually sits really close to the circulatory system, which we know has a pump called the heart. So we need to keep moving because the more our heart is requiring to pump the circulatory system, the more we're going to move the lymphatic system. And so, really important to keep moving. The worst thing you can do is stand still, stay still. Even if you're not feeling well, I've currently got a knee injury. I'm constantly walking. Now, modern medicine would say on a knee injury, don't go walking around. Well, guess what? I know the swelling's only going to go down by moving the lymphatic system.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

I want to encourage everyone, in addition to moving your lymphatic system, to support your lymphatic system. And glutathione is the master antioxidant that will help reduce the inflammation that can be caused by a block. Do you have any other difficult people can use? Even if you're not diagnosed with luminotic fluids.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Definitely. So there are several things that you can do, but one thing I have is a mini tramp, and I have like a little uh bar to hold on to. And no matter how bad an injury I have, I'm on that mini tramp every morning for about 10 minutes. A mini tramp bouncing. Yeah, yeah, just sitting there bouncing or standing there bouncing. And it doesn't have to be big jumps, it's just bouncing on you know your toes, basically to start pumping that lymphatic system. You mentioned glutathione. Now we can't use glutathione properly unless our gut is healthy. And a lot of our big lymph nodes are near the gut, so around our belly button. And under our rib cage on the left side, we have the biggest lymph nodes, the sternochyle. So it's really important to be moving that. So when you're in the shower, just start rubbing around your belly button and, of course, rub up towards your neck because that's where the body is drained to. And so by rubbing your belly button and going, you know, different directions around your belly and then coming up to the bottom of your ribs, you're automatically stimulating that lymphatic movement.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Oh, that's great to know. What more do you want to leave listeners with?

Sponsor: Adventure-Ready Food

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Yeah, look, there's three things that I tell people all the time. First of all, whatever's happening to you is not your fault. That's really, really important. As soon as you get out of that blaming and shaming phase, you can get on with the healing. Second of all, nature has answers. And if you need help finding those answers, definitely contact us, but there's lots of information on the internet. Let's go back to the basics, back to the old ways, because it worked. And third and final, appreciate where you are and how far you've come. It doesn't matter what you're dealing with with your health. You are amazing. And you have come so far, and you did not ask for this. You're still fighting it and you're still winning. Really, really important.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

Oh Magic, thank you so much for those words of encouragement. It's been so lovely to have you here.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Thanks for having me.

Disclaimer And Closing

SPEAKER_01 24:50

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