Adding Nutrition to Chiropractic Therapy for Better Health with Dr. Stacey Francis on The Healers Café with Manon Bolliger

stay awake. And then a child and a young girl, a child and a mother walked across in front of me. And I thought, you know, this is way dangerous. So, I delved deep into nutrition and tried to find out about what was going on with myself. I reached out to lots of different resources, lots of different practitioners that we’re working more holistically, because chiropractic doesn’t mean holistic, doesn’t mean nutrition. In school, you should see the bad behaviors they do. So, chiropractic does not mean healthy across. You know, it’s just what we can do with the nervous system. But then I took it further and learned all about nutrition. And I was able to balance my blood sugar, correct my thyroid correct anemias and brought myself to a really great point in health, where now I’m teaching people and teaching practitioners and teaching patients and just empowering the people around me. Wrote a book on it just so that I wouldn’t have to repeat myself all the time. It’s been it’s been a wonderful journey, and I’m just very grateful.

 

Manon Bolliger  03:49

Well, it’s interesting that you say, you know, a chiropractor, and I’m not picking on them. But chiropractic training isn’t holistic, it’s a piece of the pie. Right? And if you don’t…

 

Dr Stacey Francis  04:06

Its holistic with that holistic, like, you have to choose to do the nutrition, you have to choose to do the biochemistry, like we were taught it, but do you apply it? So that’s a choice.

 

Manon Bolliger  04:20

Right. And then also looking at, if you’re like, in your case, I’m more maybe you could expand on this receiving because as a student, you would receive treatment, right? I’m assuming it’s sort of like my training was as a naturopathic doctor, which I would say is also holistic, but not whole-listic. So, I would agree with you though, we have nutrition, Chinese medicine, you know, homeopathy, we have quite a few things and naturopathic manipulation I think is how they’re currently calling it. But there’s more are actually the healing process right, then even the sum total of these parts, it’s how do you investigate what is going on? Right. And I think so if you bring us through a little bit the model of chiropractor. How is it missing the W H whole?

 

Dr Stacey Francis  05:22

Well, that’s a great question, you got to understand that chiropractic has a lot of different ways in which people can utilize it. And some people will do an activator technique, some people will do adjusting technique. Some people do X ray, some people don’t some people just do the upper cervical. So, chiropractic itself is really about the nervous system. And so just like any other specialist, they specialize in the nervous system, where all of us are trained to be physicians to diagnose and to treat. And so, when we are diagnosing a lot of chiropractors choose to refer out for anything that doesn’t fit into what they choose to practice. I choose to practice it more holistically. So that means when patients come in, oftentimes, I do a really long intake. So, they fill out lots of forms, but they also sit with me, and we talk, and they get to share everything. And the most common thing I hear is I’m not being heard, I’ve told my doctor this so many times, I’ve had the same symptoms, so many times, I’m not being heard. Or they’re just not sending me to the right places, and they’ve run out of resources. So that’s where I come in. So, if I don’t have the tools, I will find who does, and we will move you forward however we can. But looking at all the systems of the body is very important. And it helps us figure out what’s going on, but also do it in a more natural way. We really, as a chiropractor, I don’t utilize medication. So, I’m not an MD I’m not a DO, where medication would be added on and sometimes used first, which you and I both know, we’d rather not. And the patients that come to us are knowledgeable enough to know they’d rather not. And so, we try everything else before resorting to medication. Of course, medications, therefore, first line therapy for not first line therapy, but for first aid. And so of course, we’re going to utilize that if necessary. But we’re definitely first line therapy would be food, environment, mental status. And so that’s how we begin.

 

Manon Bolliger  07:54

So, do you have…I love examples, I’m just wondering, I’m putting you on the spot. But that’s how it is. But a patient that like, has gone to a general practitioner, but didn’t get heard. And what it is that they were trying to, you know to address and why. And then how they went to a regular chiropractor that was not holistic, tried to address through the so-called nervous system and still missed it, and then ended up with you like a journey. I don’t know, I can think of several examples in my practice where it’s like, or I really over the years woke up to this reality, which at first, I didn’t know existed. Do you have examples like that so people can really see. Yeah, go ahead.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  08:49

So, a patient came in, she had fatigue and brain fog. And when I say brain fog, her head was hitting the desk at 3pm. She couldn’t focus on her work. She felt like she had cotton balls in her brain, right? She just couldn’t keep her eyes on the page and kept rereading the same sentences. Fatigue, she just couldn’t keep her eyes open at times. So those two symptoms is what she came in with. And she said, I’ve been to my medical doctor so many times about this. And we’ve tried, you know, he’s taken my bloodwork, and he says my thyroid is fine. I don’t have iron deficiency. My glucose is fine. I don’t fit into what he is prescribing for me. He keeps looking. And the last time I came in, he offered me an antidepressant.

 

Manon Bolliger  09:48

Yeah.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  09:49

Right. So, at that point, she said I chose to see a chiropractor and I’ve seen quite a few chiropractors, because I was told that since my brain fog has to do with my upper cervical spine, that would help, and it does help temporarily. But it doesn’t help long term. And I’m wondering what else is missing. I was wondering if you could help me. I heard you’re more thorough. Thats where I came in.

 

Manon Bolliger  10:20

Yeah.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  10:21

So, when I came in the first thing I did was I asked her for her labs that all her other doctors had done. And so, we looked at those. And when they said, they checked her thyroid, what they meant is they checked TSH with a reflex to T four. Now, the audience doesn’t know this. TSH is a communication from the brain to the thyroid, and it stops there. And if that is out of range, then and only then will they also test the thigh…the main hormone that the thyroid produces, which is T four. So, she had one test, but the cascade for thyroid is very long. And oftentimes, you either can’t convert from that main hormone T four to T three, which is the active hormone, or more commonly, especially where I live in the United States, you have an autoimmune reaction to your thyroid, causing your thyroid to have…to be irritated. And so, you will display hyper or hypo symptoms. And hyper symptoms will be sweating all the time, rapid heart rate, thinner demeanor, where hypo would be gaining weight around the middle, don’t know why. Fatigue, dry hair, losing the outer thirds of your eyebrows, like they’re getting thinner, cold hands, cold feet, things like that. So, you can bounce back and forth. If you have this autoimmune to your thyroid, which is actually a GI issue. It’s a gut issue. It’s not a thyroid issue. And so that’s what we investigated on her, because it wasn’t even showing up that the tests were even done. And iron, they did iron, but they didn’t do ferritin and ferritin is stored iron. And ferritin is the first marker that will show if your iron deficient or you are not utilizing your iron properly. And so, we’d look there. And when we look at blood sugar, we don’t just look at glucose. We look at hemoglobin I one C, which is an overview of the last three months, we look at insulin, because insulin is often high first before glucose, right? We look at all these things, we look at inflammatory markers. And so, when she came in, she did have high thyroid peroxidase enzyme, which is an enzyme that we know the immune system is attacking her thyroid. And so, then I asked her, what’s your diet like? Want to hear what her diet was like?

 

Manon Bolliger  13:22

Okay, go ahead.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  13:23

I know hold on here. cereal for breakfast. Right pasta for lunch. And what does he have for dinner? Like, hmm, oh, and she had like, chicken but rolls always had rolls on the side for dinner. Gluten, every meal. I said how’s your GI system. She’s like, I’m always bloated. I don’t have stomach aches, but I’m always bloated. I feel like I’m always distended. We identified that she had a gluten sensitivity on top on top of all that, but that was a game changer for her just removing gluten. You know, Dr. O’Brien says if you and anyone any human being eats gluten, it causes a transient leaky gut, a temporary leaky gut no matter who you are. And only 7% would have celiac but so many more 80-90% have non celiac gluten sensitivity. And it’s the transient means you have this leaky gut for a minute when you eat gluten, but then you stop, and it heals. It heals between the next meal if you have a really healthy GI system. And so, you don’t have symptoms and you’re not considered gluten sensitive.

 

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Dr Stacey Francis  15:57

But if you have a harder time recovering, then you’re gonna have more leaky gut causing more openness of within the GI system getting into the bloodstream, triggering the immune system, which is how this started for her. And so, we backtrack, and we cleared all that up. We gave her support where we needed to give her support. And she did just fantastic.

 

Manon Bolliger  16:24

Yeah, it’s I mean, that’s a great example. And I I’m not surprised that the first one ends up with antidepressant because that’s been all my cases what hasn’t been able to be figured out, it’s basically rather than saying, let’s go to other forms of therapies that are out there, other perspectives on health, it’s like, let’s first assume that you’re depressed, right?

 

Dr Stacey Francis  16:54

And these stop people from complaining.

 

Manon Bolliger  16:58

Well exactly. That’s, I think the order and also gives them something if they believe in, you know, and, and some people, you know, I’ve had people saying, Do you think I am, you know, like, am I deluding myself, am I you know, it like the white coat syndrome has a big impact on people, you know, and it’s, it really can play havoc with their own, you know, innate knowing that that’s not the problem. But when you’re told, you should take it, you know.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  17:30

And I agree that there’s a place for everything. And I’m not downplaying the need for antidepressants for the people who feel like they need antidepressants.

 

Manon Bolliger  17:41

Of course.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  17:41

When that is given because a doctor has run out of tools. It’s not a healthy thing to do for a patient by giving them something that is hard on their liver hard on their kidneys, hard on their nervous system. addictive.

 

Manon Bolliger  18:02

Yeah, no. And I do think it’s part of being a doctor, if we stretch the definition to being those that are in practice helping people. I mean, it would be really good to know what other modalities or other therapists do before choosing that route, right? I’ve often thought that that should be our obligation, and including those that are in what they call alternative or complementary, we really need to know when is the time and when is it a good idea, you know, to refer to a chiropractor, or to refer to, you know, even like a physiotherapist. They do their thing, but not at all times, right? Sometimes you need to do other things before that you’re not just rehabilitating, right? So, it’s like a real understanding of what’s available. And where it comes in to help. I’ve often had this vision that I’d write that one be like, everyone has to read the, you know, all the disciplines and what they are, so that at least we have, and the patients to they have to know and then be able to ask those kinds of questions. You know, do you where do you think I should start? You know, I think it’d be…

 

Dr Stacey Francis  19:24

And that is why I do appreciate social media because it does give people some education of what else is out there.

 

Manon Bolliger  19:32

Yes, it’s true. Yeah. And how they look at the at the body and the person Yeah, yeah, very interesting. Okay, so your focus you said is on nutrition at this point, I mean, nervous system as far as how do they intertwine? How do you like…would you have ended up or did you do chiropractic’s with, for example, this last person you mentioned.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  20:09

So, you’ve got to understand that the nerve supply goes everywhere to all your glands, all your organs. For them to be healthy, you need the nerve supply getting there adequately. And as a chiropractor, and specifically a kinesiologist, this is what I do is right, I identify weak muscles. And I use muscle testing to determine imbalances in the structural system. And so, when I muscle test, I will first do just an overall muscle test. So, I’ll test your legs in different avenues so that you can…I can see this muscle versus this muscle, this muscle which one’s strong, which one’s weak, if I find a group of weak muscles, I will trace the nerve supply back to the spinal cord, look for rotations or compressions in the spinal column. And correct those using a chiropractic adjustment. And as soon as that adjustment has taken place, I can go back to that weak muscle. And suddenly it is strong because now the nerve supply is getting to where it needs to go. And we’re able to move forward, we know it’s getting to where it needs to go. So, if you have any sinus issues, we’re going to look in the upper neck, if you’re having lung issues, we’re going to look in the mid thoracic, if you have any GI issues, we’re going to look in the lumbar spine. But I look at everything every time to evaluate what is strong, what is weak, where the nerve supplies go and where it’s not going. Get it there. So, we know you’re getting everything you need for that organ system plus nutrition as well.

 

Manon Bolliger  21:45

And how impactful. Let’s go back to depression, which in this case, this particular patient did not have. But some do, or they have anxiety or that type of, you know, mental emotional situation. how impactful do you think that is, or that you’ve seen in your practice on your structure.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  22:14

So, it’s extremely, but I never beat the way I practice, I never separate them. Now I always do both. So, I’m not going to tell you I did an adjustment, and they were no longer depressed because I don’t stop just with. But when you have the nerve supply, getting to where it needs to go, your sympathetic nervous system can calm down, you can get back into parasympathetic, you can get back into rest and digest from fight or flight. You can calm down your nervous system to the point where you can start functioning better your vagus nerve works better, your GI system works better and where you create serotonin, you can create the neurotransmitters you need to feed your brain so that you have mood modulation.

 

Manon Bolliger  23:14

Right. So, you’ll be able to address that with the structure. But then you keep going holistically, right. Basically, it’s not like…

 

Dr Stacey Francis  23:26

So, if their GI system is off because they don’t have the right probiotics or any probiotics because they only eat white food, then we’re going to supplement them with something that’s going to help that. If they don’t get enough fiber, we’re going to talk about increasing fiber rich foods. We’re going to talk about not having sugar and having you know, a lot of bacteria and yeast that’s growing in their gut that’s going to affect their brain, right? It’s gonna affect mood, anything that affects the brain is going to affect the mood. And sometimes it’s not depression, sometimes it’s anger. Sometimes it’s frustration, irritability, like that gets more undiagnosed than depression.

 

Manon Bolliger  24:06

Right. Yeah, it might be also more obvious. On some level.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  24:13

They chalked it up more to a personality trait.

 

Manon Bolliger  24:16

Exactly.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  24:16

Then a disease process so there is nothing to treat.

 

Manon Bolliger  24:20

Yeah, that’s true. So, you have a food, what is it a food guide or what is your tell us a little bit.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  24:29

So, we didn’t talk much about this. But fatigue comes from a blood sugar imbalance. And so, in my book, the Supercharged Method, which this is what it looks like, you can find it on Amazon. It tells you how to eat to balance your blood sugar, and I’m gonna give you a quick trick. Okay, it’s a one serving of protein, two servings of above the ground veggies, things you’d put in your salad every three to four hours in a 12-hour time period. And we can talk all about why that is, but I gave you a meal plan so you can put things together and create one serving of protein, two servings of vegetables every three to four hours in a 12-hour time period to help you balance your blood sugar in order to help you with your energy balance.

 

Manon Bolliger  25:21

And the fat in that is from the protein or are you adding olive oil?

 

Dr Stacey Francis  25:29

So, you’re starting with a protein and two veggies you see on the card, you’re gonna have that that’s your base, you gotta have the minimum of that. Fats are often in proteins, your chicken, your fish, your salmon here, they have some fats in there. So not overly worried about that. But you’ll see on the worksheet that you’re going to add to that meal, not on its own, you can add up to two fruit a day. You can have up to have your vegetables like potatoes or rice or grains a day. And you can add more healthy fats. Olive oil, olives, nuts, seeds, tahini, olive oil, avocados, all the great fats but no industrial oils. No refined sugar, no processed foods.

 

Manon Bolliger  26:19

And do you mix, like the vegetables under the ground?

 

Dr Stacey Francis  26:27

Those, under the ground are the ones that you add to the meal. But you can’t count that, you gotta count two vegetables.

 

Manon Bolliger  26:41

Okay, yeah. Good. Yeah, cuz there’s some theories that you should eat the alone. And not with meat and I’ve heard so many different ones.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  26:50

Right. And so, the reason I did this particular way, is because I needed it to be super easy and flexible. It’s the first step for most people. Once they get down a very good eating habit that doesn’t include processed foods, that doesn’t include sugar, they’re not having a candy bar on its own. We do it in steps in the book. Like, if you’re a fast-food eater, we’ll take you there, and we’ll talk about what to eat there before we like, like baby steps. But once you’ve established a really good program, and it hasn’t gotten you right, where you need to be, that’s where you employ other strategies.

 

Manon Bolliger  27:31

See what’s missing and isolating. Exactly. Yeah, that makes sense. So, I’m smiling because I’m actually on a holiday in Mexico, and I was thinking the birds, you know, when you say not to eat any of the, you know, processed foods and all that stuff. But I’m looking at them, you know, they still have these containers of sugars. You know, some of them so called for diabetics, you know, that come in pink, and then there’s the yellow ones, and the blue ones. And then the, the white, you know, sugar that’s also fully processed, right? But you’ve got these birds coming, you know, and they try they, they take the package, and then they break it open. They will not touch any of the colored packages at all.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  28:26

That’s so smart.

 

Manon Bolliger  28:27

I know they’re so smart.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  28:28

I wanna be that smart.

 

Manon Bolliger  28:31

They do the other sugar. But, you know, just see how they do that. It’s like, you know, they take it, you think they’re gonna eat the whole thing? No, no, no, they’re actually finding a place and they will not touch the others. I thought I should add that. Great. Well, okay, so I mean, our times like almost…like it is up actually. So where again, we will put a link, of course in the description, but where do people find this download or this…

 

Dr Stacey Francis  29:06

The link you’ll find because you’re gonna share that. But if you’d like to work with me, I’m happy to work with you. And you can find me at specificwellness.com And, of course, you’ll share that as well. And just reach out I’d love to work with you on whatever health issues you’re struggling with and help you get to your goals.

 

Manon Bolliger  29:30

All right. Okay. And you are situated where again?

 

Dr Stacey Francis  29:34

I’m in Metro Detroit, Michigan.

 

Manon Bolliger  29:37

Okay. So, I suppose because of the chiropractic and kinesiology it’s in person.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  29:43

Well, that part would be in person. I do functional medicine. Not in person. I do that.

 

Manon Bolliger  29:47

Right. Okay. Okay. Yeah, well, at least that’s a…it’s a start, for sure. And then it can all be built.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  29:54

Oftentimes like if I feel like you need if you don’t already have a chiropractor and you walk out to pardon you need that support. I can help you find some it’s similar too.

 

Manon Bolliger  30:04

Locally. Okay, well thank you so much.

 

Dr Stacey Francis  30:07

Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day.

 

Ending

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