Most of the people I work with tell me they don’t really feel thirsty. But losing just 1–2% of your body’s water can dull your focus and concentration. So in this short episode, we’re not just talking about it. We’re doing it.

Grab a glass of water (yes, right now) and drink along with me. This do-it-while-you-listen format is inspired by Cas Aarssen of the Clutterbug podcast, who gets her listeners decluttering a drawer while they listen. I put three bags in the Goodwill pile during one episode, so I know it works.

In this episode:
• How much water to aim for (the half-your-body-weight-in-ounces starting point)
• Why your container and your water quality matter: glass or stainless steel, testing your tap water, filtering, and adding electrolytes
• Why “drink when you’re thirsty” doesn’t work for a lot of us
• The simple swap: water first, coffee as the reward
• My plus one: the warm lemon-ginger water I’ve been drinking outside in the morning sunlight for about five years

Your one thing this week: figure out how many ounces your glass or bottle holds, and find a way to track it.

(If you have a heart or kidney condition or have been told to limit fluids, check with your doctor before you increase your water.)

Want help finding the root causes behind your own brain fog? Schedule a free consultation.

01:00 Why I’m back (and why health coaches deserve some credit)
03:29 What I learned from a decluttering podcast
05:40 Pause and go get your water
06:45 Container, water quality, and electrolytes
07:35 “I don’t get thirsty”
08:40 Your first move of the morning
09:54 The plus one: lemon, ginger, and sunlight

Get to the Root of It with Laurel Brennan, MOT

Wynne Sisk did her homework. She asked her doctors. She asked the doctors in her family. She asked women who already had implants. She even cut one open and stomped on it to see whether it would leak. Then she got breast implants as a birthday present to herself.

Months later, part of her thyroid and 13 lymph nodes were gone. They were removed for a cancer that turned out not to be there. Then came the joint pain, the itching, the sleepless nights, and panic attacks, one after another. Her memory scared her most. At 40, with her grandmother’s early-onset Alzheimer’s in the back of her mind, she couldn’t remember whether her daughter had even had a birthday party. Then an elevated CA-125 sent her to the hospital for an ovarian cancer workup. The results came back normal, and nobody could explain why.

The breakthrough didn’t come from a specialist. It came from her husband, sitting next to her on the couch: “Let’s go backwards.”

In this episode, Wynne and I talk about:

• Why “I did my research” wasn’t enough, and how the question you type into Google changes the answer you get
• The cascade of symptoms that seemed unrelated: thyroid, gut, skin, sleep, memory, anxiety
• Living through two cancer scares, and the not knowing
• What it’s like to be treated as if you’re making it up
• How a three-hour phone call with a stranger and a Facebook group changed everything
• What to ask a surgeon before explant surgery, and what it cost her out of pocket
• What healing has looked like since
• What she does every day now: food, movement, and sleep

This is the timeline approach we use in functional medicine. You go back and look at what happened before the symptoms started, and you find the connections a 15-minute appointment never will.

So listen to your body’s whispers so you don’t have to hear it screaming.

Connect with Wynne:
Instagram: @greenmissionpossible
Facebook: Wynne Sisk

This episode shares one woman’s personal experience and is for education only. It is not medical advice. Breast implant illness is not a formal medical diagnosis, and research is ongoing. The FDA does require breast implant labeling to note that some patients report systemic symptoms such as joint pain, fatigue, and confusion. Talk with a qualified healthcare provider before making decisions about implants or explant surgery.

So many of you have asked me about Lyme disease and mold, and today I'm bringing you someone who has studied - and lived - them both.

Tricia Soderstrom spent two years chasing a diagnosis while her joint pain, fatigue, and cognitive fog got dismissed as "normal pregnancy stuff" and then "just getting older." When she finally tested positive for Lyme, her doctor gave her the real news: she'd likely had it a long time, probably had co-infections too, and this wasn't going to be quick.

In this episode, we get into:

• Why standard Lyme tests miss the diagnosis roughly 70% of the time — and why a negative result doesn't mean you're in the clear
• What co-infections like Bartonella and Babesia are, and why they change your treatment entirely
• What happened when Tricia's kids started showing symptoms too, and how a single dose of "prophylactic" antibiotics can quietly sabotage future testing
• Four and a half years on antibiotics with zero nutritional support — and what she wishes she'd known before starting that protocol
• The mold connection neither of us expected: how it can make Lyme symptoms worse, and why "the inspector said it's fine" isn't always true (we've both heard that one)
• Learning to live outside again without holding your breath every time you walk through the grass

If you've ever been told "your bloodwork is normal" while your body told you something else, this one's for you.

Find Tricia at aboundinginhopewithlyme.com, and follow her @aboundinginhopewithlyme on Instagram and Facebook.

You can find Laurel Brennan @rootcauseology and www.rootcauseology.com