Heal Your Seasonal & Food Allergies | Immunology Expert Dr. Tania Elliott, MD

Summary

Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark Episode: Heal Your Seasonal & Food Allergies | Immunology Expert Dr. Tania Elliott, MD
Host: Turning Point USA
Release Date: June 20, 2025

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Introduction

In this enlightening episode of Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark, host Alex Clark engages in a deep dive into the complexities of seasonal and food allergies with renowned immunology expert, Dr. Tania Elliott. Dr. Elliott brings her extensive expertise to unravel the scientific and societal factors contributing to the rising prevalence of allergies, offering listeners actionable insights to manage and potentially mitigate these conditions.

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Understanding Allergies: Definitions and Differences

Dr. Tanya Elliott begins by clarifying what constitutes an allergy:

“Allergies are an abnormal reaction to something that's normally occurring in the environment. It's an immune system response.”
[02:08]

She differentiates between food allergies, food intolerances, and sensitivities, emphasizing that true allergies involve immediate and sometimes severe reactions, unlike more nuanced sensitivities.

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The Peanut Allergy Scandal: A Historical Perspective

Alex introduces the topic of food allergies, specifically peanut allergies, highlighting their significant rise in the United States compared to other countries.

“The incidence of peanut allergy is about 10% of children in the U.S., whereas in countries like Israel, it's only 0.2%.”
[02:49]

Dr. Elliott explains that early introduction of peanuts in Middle Eastern countries, often through teething rings, helps train the immune system, reducing the likelihood of developing allergies. In contrast, the U.S. once recommended delaying peanut introduction until after age two, inadvertently increasing allergy rates.

“It was an accidental flaw in this recommendation to not introduce peanut early on in children.”
[04:56]

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Factors Contributing to Rising Food Allergies

Beyond dietary recommendations, Dr. Elliott identifies additional factors exacerbating food allergies:

1. Early Antibiotic Use:

   • Antibiotics in mothers during pregnancy and in infants before 12 months disrupt the microbiome, essential for a balanced immune response.

2. High C-Section Rates:

   • The U.S. has a higher rate of C-sections, which bypasses the baby’s exposure to beneficial bacteria in the vaginal canal, increasing susceptibility to allergies.

“Introduction of early antibiotics and overuse of antibiotics skew the microbiome, killing off good bacteria necessary for a proper immune response.”
[05:33]

“C-section rates are really high, and we can get into the reasons why they’re through the roof in this country when they’re not medically necessary.”
[07:32]

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Adult-Onset Food Allergies: Causes and Concerns

Addressing the perplexing issue of adults developing allergies to foods previously tolerated, Dr. Elliott points to factors like:

• Antacid Use:

  • Proton pump inhibitors alter stomach acidity, affecting protein breakdown and potentially triggering allergies.

• Increased Alcohol Consumption:

  • Similar to antacids, alcohol can disrupt stomach pH, leading to abnormal protein digestion.

“The way the shellfish protein is broken down by the body because your stomach lining and your pH is messed up makes it look foreign.”
[07:38]

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Debunking Social Media Myths: Food Intolerance Tests

Dr. Elliott critiques the proliferation of at-home food intolerance and sensitivity tests, which often lack scientific validation. She distinguishes these from legitimate allergy tests that require clinical oversight.

“Food intolerances and sensitivities are much more nuanced, and there isn’t a good test to diagnose them.”
[08:51]

“These tests are a waste of money. They are not relevant.”
[12:14]

She advocates for maintaining a food diary to track symptoms and working with healthcare professionals to identify genuine food sensitivities.

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Seasonal Allergies vs. Colds: Key Differences

Transitioning to seasonal allergies, Dr. Elliott outlines how to distinguish them from common colds:

1. Absence of Fever and Swollen Lymph Nodes:

   • Allergies do not typically cause these symptoms.

2. Symptom Timing:

   • Allergies may improve indoors or after showering, whereas colds can cause continuous malaise.

“Allergies do not cause a fever or swollen lymph nodes.”
[19:15]

3. Duration of Symptoms:
   • Allergic reactions can persist for weeks or months, unlike the short-lived nature of colds.

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Managing Pollen Season: Practical Tips

To combat spring pollen, Dr. Elliott recommends:

• Avoiding Hairspray and Fake Eyelashes:

  • These can trap pollen, exacerbating symptoms.

• Wearing Protective Gear:

  • Sunglasses, wide-brimmed hats, and staying outdoors when pollen levels are lower.

• Showering Regularly:

  • Especially after being outdoors, to remove pollen from the body and hair.

“Shower at night or right when you get home to rinse all that pollen off.”
[20:23]

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Long-Term Health Impacts of Untreated Allergies

Ignoring allergies can lead to severe health issues through what Dr. Elliott describes as the Atopic March:

1. Eczema in Children
2. Nasal and Sinus Issues
3. Asthma
4. Obstructive Sleep Apnea
5. Right Heart Failure

“We're going to see more allergic diseases progressing to chronic conditions like obstructive sleep apnea and right heart failure.”
[21:32]

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Immunotherapy: Building Tolerance to Allergens

Dr. Elliott discusses immunotherapy as a solution for both food and environmental allergies:

• Oral Immunotherapy:

  • Involves gradual exposure to allergens to build tolerance.

• Xolair (Omalizumab):

  • An injectable medication that downregulates allergy receptors, reducing the severity of allergic reactions.

“Oral immunotherapy trains your immune system to no longer be allergic by giving you small amounts of what you're allergic to.”
[13:49]

“Xolair is approved for chronic hives and asthma, and now for food allergies, helping to mute the immune response.”
[15:12]

She emphasizes consistency in treatment to maintain tolerance and highlights the breakthrough potential of such therapies in reducing life-threatening reactions from accidental allergen exposure.

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Navigating Over-the-Counter Allergy Medications: Avoiding Scams

Dr. Elliott warns against the cluttered and often misleading over-the-counter allergy aisle:

• Mislabeling and Redundancy:

  • Products like Allegra come in various labels (e.g., Allegra allergy vs. Allegra hives) despite containing the same active ingredients.

• Ineffective Ingredients:

  • Phenylephrine, an oral decongestant, offers no better efficacy than a placebo and has been pulled from shelves by the FDA.

“Multi-symptom allergy medicines often contain ineffective ingredients like Phenylephrine, which the FDA has pulled off the shelves.”
[23:19]

Dr. Elliott recommends focusing on proven antihistamines and avoiding unnecessary multi-symptom formulations.

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Diagnosing Mysterious Allergies: The Detective Work

Sharing her clinical experiences, Dr. Elliott illustrates the intricate process of identifying obscure allergy triggers:

• Case Study: Bedbug Allergies
  • A patient with unexplained hives was eventually diagnosed with bedbug bites, influenced by factors like menopausal changes affecting body temperature.

“It was bedbugs, and her husband didn’t have them because her core body temperature was more attractive to the bugs.”
[40:03]

• Allergic Reactions to Partners:
  • Though rare, Dr. Elliott mentions cases where individuals are allergic to their partner's semen, highlighting the diverse nature of allergies.

“You can be allergic to their semen. It’s a thing.”
[41:39]

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Future of Allergy Prevention and Treatments

Looking ahead, Dr. Elliott remains cautiously optimistic:

• Food Allergies:

  • Continued advancements in immunotherapy offer hope for reducing the severity of allergies.

• Environmental Allergies:

  • Increased pollen and pollutants may exacerbate irritant allergies, presenting ongoing challenges.

“There’s hope for food allergies with new therapies calming the immune system, but environmental allergies are likely to remain a growing issue.”
[42:07]

She also expresses concern over current practices like nut-free schools, predicting a potential rise in allergies due to lack of early exposure.

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Final Advice: Empowerment Through Knowledge

In conclusion, Dr. Elliott emphasizes the importance of self-care and informed decision-making in managing allergies:

“Prioritization of self-care and putting yourself before anyone else is crucial for healing and functioning optimally.”
[46:03]

She encourages listeners to educate themselves, track their symptoms, and seek professional guidance to effectively manage and overcome allergic challenges.

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Connect with Dr. Tania Elliott

• Social Media: Dr. Tanya Elliott
• Website: Contact Dr. Tania Elliott

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Note: This summary excludes promotional and advertisement segments present in the transcript, focusing solely on the informative and content-driven discussions between Alex Clark and Dr. Tania Elliott.

Transcript

[Alex Clark]

There is a real scandalous scientific story behind how we got to Every kid.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Has a peanut allergy in the United States. There was a recommendation made by the American Academy of Pediatrics that said, do not feed peanuts to your children until after the age of two. The science at the time thought you should avoid things so that you don't get an allergy. When you introduce things early on within the first 12 months of life, you are less likely to have an allergy.

[Alex Clark]

Ever wonder why peanut allergies became such a thing? Or how to beat severe spring allergies? Today we're joined by someone who's made it her mission to help people understand the deeper story behind their symptoms in both seasonal and food allergies. Dr. Tanya Elliott. A self proclaimed science nerd since childhood, Dr. Elliott knew by age 7 that she wanted to be the doctor in her family. She went on to complete her internal medicine residency at Mount Sinai Hospital and specialize in allergy and clinical immunology at Winthrop University Hospital. Now a leading voice in Dr. Elliott is here to help us decode what our bodies are really telling us. She's been featured everywhere from the Today show to Good Morning America and even Fox News. Watch this episode on real Alex Clark YouTube channel or culture Apothecary on Spotify. You can pause right now and leave a five star review. If you do this, which takes only a couple seconds every time you listen, it immensely positively impacts this show. Which by the way, let me remind you, we do for free. Follow the show on Instagram at Culture Apothecary and also Twitch. Join the Cute Servatives Facebook group. You're going to meet a lot of like minded women who also love the show. Please welcome allergist Dr. Tanya Elliott to Culture Apothecary. Are seasonal allergies normal or a sign that something is wrong?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Allergies, the definition of an allergy is an abnormal reaction to something that's normally occurring in the environment. So it's sort of like an immune system response. So sometimes people have an autoimmune issue where your immune system attacks their own cells. This is an immune inflammatory response where you your immune system is recognizing something as foreign that it shouldn't be recognizing as foreign.

[Alex Clark]

So I want to get into both food allergies and seasonal allergies. Today I want to dive into food allergies first. There is a real scandalous scientific story behind how we got to every kid has a peanut allergy. Can you kind of tell tell us about that?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

So let's first talk about the incidence of Peanut allergy in this country, which is about 10% of children. Now, let's look at the incidence of peanut allergy in another country, like Israel. The incidence of peanut allergy is 0.2%. Why is there such a difference between the incidence in this country versus other countries? The key is that peanut is introduced in teething rings in Middle Eastern countries and in Israel. And so it's introduced very, very early on, within the first couple of months of life. When you introduce things early on, within the first 12 months of life, you are less likely to have an allergy. So what happens in the United States? In the United States, there was a recommendation made by the American Academy of Pediatrics that said, do not feed peanuts to your. To your children until after the age of two. So what happens? We don't introduce peanuts. And interestingly, older siblings are eating peanuts, right? They're having their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and everything. So the initial way that babies were getting exposed to peanut was through the skin. Now, it's important to understand when you're exposed to something for the first time through the skin, your skin is the largest immune organ in your body. So when you get exposed through the skin, the body's like, oh, this is something foreign. This is a bacterial infection. This is a virus. This is something weird. So because peanut was around surfaces and the big brothers and sisters were eating peanut or whatever, there was exposure to peanut through the skin. Then when it gets introduced after the age of two, the body says, oh, what's this? This is that weird thing that got introduced through my skin. And the body then has that abnormal reaction to something that's normally occurring in the environment. So it was an accidental flaw in this recommendation to not introduce peanut early on in children, and partially because there was concern that it might be a choking hazard, and partially because the science at the time thought you should avoid things so that you don't get an allergy. And what we've learned now about the immune system is early exposure is what actually trains your immune system to properly recognize what is foreign and what is not foreign.

[Alex Clark]

So it was bad science.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

It was unknown science, right? It was like, this is what we were operating on. We didn't quite understand how the immune system worked. We didn't understand the immune markers. We're talking, like 20 years ago. And think about all the advances in science and immunology and the ability to do laboratory testing to understand how we make antibodies. Right? And so there was an assumption, Maine, that introducing peanuts early would lead to allergy. And then we Found that it was just the opposite.

[Alex Clark]

So is this type of situation playing out over and over again with all different types of food? Is this why we're seeing this uptick in everybody has a food allergy now, or is it something else, in your opinion?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Well, it's one piece, so that's relating to peanut in particular. And however, why are food allergies on such a rise in this country? And there are a couple of other factors. One is introduction of early antibiotics in moms who are pregnant and then also in babies before they're 12 months of age, because that skews the microbiome. So the microbiome plays a role in all of this and it kills off all the good bacteria. That good bacteria is important to have a balance and then create a proper immune system response. So introduction of early antibiotics and overuse of antibiotics. And then the other fact contributing factor for food allergy is increased amounts of C sections. And the reason there is you are bypassing the baby's initial exposure to the good bacteria in the vaginal canal. And so when you do that, these babies are more prone to have allergic disease.

[Alex Clark]

Okay, this is fascinating because the United States has a higher C section rate than basically anywhere else, correct?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Yes.

[Alex Clark]

Wow. Because I think a lot of people, and I mean, I don't know, maybe there's some truth to it, but I think a lot of people, especially my audience, wants to blame the food allergy thing on vaccines, but I feel like I agree with you. I think it is the antibiotics. I. I think the C section thing is interesting. And I think the not exposing them to peanuts till a lot later makes more sense to me.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Those are the three major factors. And like, the C section rates are really high and we can get into the reasons why they're really high. But sometimes women were just saying, like, well, out of convenience or like, I don't want to have to have a vaginal birth. That sounds painful. Or I am a high powered, very busy woman and I don't want to. I want to schedule my birth. Yeah, right. Yeah. And so we've just seen for lots of reasons and perverse incentives and reimbursement rates and all of that C sections through the roof in this country when they're not medically necessary. And there are consequences associated with that. I would say the biggest factor as it relates to why we're seeing more allergies actually ties to the microbiome. So we're finding more and more things pointing to the microbiome in your gut.

[Alex Clark]

How do you explain an Adult developing a food allergy suddenly to something that they've eaten their entire life, no problem.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Yeah. We usually see it in shellfish allergy in particular. And the leading theory right now is twofold. One is increased use of antacids, and the other is increased use of alcohol. So what happens is lots of antacids. Right. That proton pump inhibitors, they basically inhibit the production of acid in your stomach. Alcohol also messes with the PH in your stomach. So what happens is you're eating these foods, and then suddenly the way that the protein is broken down is different. So for shellfish allergy in particular, and we don't know why it happens with shellfish and not as much with other allergies, but the way this shellfish protein now gets broken down by the body because your stomach lining and your ph is kind of messed up. It looks foreign. And so that's why you tend to see shellfish allergy in adults that are more likely have taken either antacids for a prolonged period of time or alcohol.

[Alex Clark]

Okay. This is my biggest fear because seafood is my number one favorite.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

So just keep eating it. Yeah, okay.

[Alex Clark]

Because I do. Like, that is if I had to give up everything, I can only choose one type of food to eat the rest of my life. It would be seafood.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Eat it every day and you won't develop an allergy, too.

[Alex Clark]

Okay, good. I'd see. I hear these horror stories and I get really freaked out. So that's good to know. What is the biggest misconception you see spreading on social media about food allergies?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Well, food allergies and food intolerances and food sensitivities, I think. And people are like, oh, I must have a food allergy. I need to go get a test to find out what I'm allergic to. You'll know if you're allergic to a food because your face is gonna blow up. I don't know if you've seen this movie Hitch with Will Smith where, like, he eats something and all of a sudden he's like, his whole face blows up his lips. Like, that's what happens when you have an allergy and it happens within minutes to hours. A food sensitivity or a food intolerance is much more nuanced. And. And there isn't a good test to diagnose it. So I think the thing that irks me the most are companies that are saying, figure out what you're allergic to. Have this food intolerance test, this food sensitivity test. There's no data to support that you're not Going to suddenly uncover an intolerance or uncover an allergy. As it relates to allergy, you would know. And so you eat something. Every time you eat it, you have a reaction. Then you come into the doctor's office, or you can have a blood test and then that is a confirmation of your allergy. But there is no test where it's like we would just order a whole food panel and then something is positive. And then we say, oh, you've been, you know, eating cheese your whole life, but this test just came up positive. You're allergic.

[Alex Clark]

Okay, well, now wait a minute though. Then what about the igg ige baloney?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

You heard it here.

[Alex Clark]

Okay, finally I bring this up with like every guest that I have because it's so frustrating to me. I took this freaking test and, you know, it was a blood test or whatever, and it had 15 things that came up for me that were like food irrit or. Or. Or whatever that causing inflammation that I needed to get rid of.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Irrelevant.

[Alex Clark]

Every single thing was what I eat every day. There was nothing on there that I never eat. There was no cheese or anything like that because I don't eat cheese.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

I've never liked it because that probably doesn't react well. So you avoid it. And so you already kind of know.

[Alex Clark]

Like, well, the only thing on this whole list, because it had. Also it's interesting because I have an autoimmune disease. So it's like the thing, the. All the food that I'm supposed to be eating, like cinnamon and garlic and things that are really helpful for autoimmune, those are all coming up for me because I eat them a lot because it tells. I'm supposed to. Well, I don't ever any type of way when I eat these foods at all. The only thing. But I, I did what they said. I eliminated everything. The only thing on that list that I, like, got rid of and then tried to reintroduce after like three months was eggs. And immediately I threw up. So I was like, maybe this one was legit. I don't know. But the whole test itself was very confusing to me and I felt like a prisoner trying to navigate what to eat, you know, when you have to avoid garlic, but I also can't have gluten and all these things. It was like, awful. Awful.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

These tests are a waste of money. They are not relevant. If you have an autoimmune disease in particular, your body just makes random antibodies. That's just what it does. It's insignificant. It's called a sensitization we don't understand the clinical relevance of it. The best approach for somebody who has a food intolerance or a food sensitivity is to keep a food diary and say, here are the things that I'm eating for a two week period of time and here's how I'm feeling. And then don't even try to interpret it, just document it. You can even use one of those apps where you take pictures of your food that's more of like a calorie counter, just to kind of track what it is that you're putting into your body. And then like, oh, this day I felt bloated, this day I had headaches. To say, whatever. Like you're just kind of, you know, tracking your symptoms. Then you work with someone who can put those two things together to say, okay, now we're going to come up with an elimination diet based off of the most likely things. Right. So that's an approach. Another approach is to just say, look, I will tell you the top 10 foods that are irritant that most people are reactive to and let's cut out those things. So egg would have been on my list. Soy would have been on my list. Wheat would have been on my list. Right.

[Alex Clark]

Dairy. Yeah.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Right. So we, we would do an elimination diet. We would choose those nine things that are the most likely things. We'd see how you feel and the goal is to have you feel at your baseline, at your optimal, like, you know how feeling your best, and then we slowly reintroduce those foods. So we would do all of those things and, and saved you $300 and not have you gone through that test. That's just super confusing.

[Alex Clark]

Holy cow. Wow. My life is a lie. Okay, so what's the deal with cross reactivity and food allergies? Like why might somebody be allergic to shrimp? And then they'll also react to crab or whatever.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Yeah. So that is how similar the protein structures look. So those are your crustacean shellfish. So shrimp, crab and lobster. So if you're allergic to one of those, then there's a high likelihood that you're allergic to all three.

[Alex Clark]

Okay.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

And then there's some cross reactivity with non crustacean shellfish. So about 10% of people with a crustacean shellfish allergy. Shrimp, lobster, crab, will also react to oysters or clams or calamari or mussels. So that's like we just kind of have these charts and these statistics based off of what we see in the population for peanut allergy in particular, it's interesting because 30% of people will. Will react to tree nuts, but specifically hazelnut. So you have a peanut allergy. You may also react to hazelnut, but peanut's not actually a nut. It's a legume. And so it's in the soy and lentil family. So lots of people don't realize that about 10% of people will also have an allergy to soy or lentils. So that's important because lentils, for example, are not one of Those, like, top 10 food allergens that you would even think of.

[Alex Clark]

How safe and effective are oral immunotherapy treatments for food allergies, like those with peanut allergies?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

It depends. But generally speaking, so there are FDA approved, like, peanut powders and things. They're pretty safe. There are also a lot of doctors that actually create oral immunotherapy. But let me explain to you what oral immunotherapy is into your audience because it could be. It's a really interesting concept, but it's essentially giving you small amounts of what you're allergic to and training your immune system to no longer be allergic or no longer react. So it's helping you to build a tolerance in a natural way by giving you small amounts of what you're allergic to. So there are companies that actually have, like, the peanut protein, but lots of doctors actually just take, like, PB2 protein powder and they dilute it down into like, very, very small concentrations and they make little mixtures in their offices. I'm not kidding. And then they give you small amounts of it. Obviously, they've got their, you know, their protocols or what have you. It's safe. It wouldn't be safe to do this at home, right. Where you're like, oh, I'll just take a little bite of like a Reese's peanut butter cup or something. Like, don't do that. But the science is such that you slowly train your immune system to no longer be allergic. The risk is if you take too much, you're still at risk of having a reaction. But these things, we're talking about the equivalent of like, a hundredth of a peanut. And then we're building you up to be able to tolerate, like, a quarter of a peanut.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Now, the thing is, you need to be on that immunotherapy every day consistently, otherwise you lose that tolerance. There are other therapies, though, that are now available that I like a lot better than doing the immunotherapy, the food immunotherapy, because the challenge is, like, you Know if you're allergic to peanuts and a couple of other things, like what are you supposed to do, like be taking these multiple powders and mixtures and tinctures like every day. So there is a medicine, it's called Xolair and it's approved for the treatment of chronic hives, it's approved for the treatment of asthma. And what it essentially does is it down regulates all the allergy receptors that you have in your body, so your body's just less allergic in general. And data has shown that now it has FDA clearance for food allergies. So it's really good, especially for kids if they've got like multiple food allergies. It's an injection once a month that basically calms down your immune system. And the key is like these kids are not going to be cured of their allergy. What we're playing for here with food immunotherapy or these injections is an accidental ingestion. And your body being okay with that to say, like, oh, I accidentally ate a cookie that's a little bit of a peanut or I don't have to worry as much about cross contamination in a factory because I know that my allergy response is essentially muted. And that's what we're playing for. So today there isn't like a complete cure for these things, but there is like the tempering of the immune system so that you don't have a life threatening reaction from an accidental ingestion.

[Alex Clark]

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[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Three key ways to figure out the difference because there's lots of similar symptoms and overlap, right? You've got your runny nose, your post nasal drip and your cough. Also, the reason why it's confusing is if you have poorly controlled allergies, you're more likely to pick up a virus and develop an infection. But three ways to tell the difference. So allergies do not cause a fever or swollen lymph nodes. That's number one. The second relates to the timing of your symptoms. So when you have a cold like you're in bed for a week, you feel crummy. When you have allergies, you have some relief when you come inside or right after you take a shower. Or like, if you've got indoor allergies, when you go outside and get some fresh air, or like when you're no longer around a cat, it goes away. Right? Whereas cold and flu symptoms, you're, like, stuck in bed. You feel like crap for that period of time. So the timing of your symptoms and then the last is the duration of your symptoms. So if you have seasonal allergies, you're talking about symptoms for weeks to months where you're kind of feeling crummy and miserable. Cold and flu lasts only about seven to 10 days, no longer than that.

[Alex Clark]

What is a trick that everyone should know for surviving spring pollen season?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

So there's a couple of things you can do. Number one, don't wear hairspray when you go out. If you, like, really suffer from allergies because pollen will get stuck in your hair anyway. And then if you have hairspray, it's like. And it sticks on.

[Alex Clark]

Oh, my gosh. Wait, that's such a game changer, right? The good thing about living in Phenix is I have zero humidity. We don't have to do very much hairspray, but other places definitely do.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Yeah. Fake eyelashes. Skip the fake eyelashes in the spring because palm will get stuck in your lashes. And you know when you have fake lashes, you're not like, rubbing them and then they all fall out, right? And you're, like, really careful about touching them, and then you have pollen stuck in your lashes. Wearing glasses instead of contact lenses. Or if you want to wear your contact lenses, wear sunglasses. But again, the pollen will get stuck to the lenses too. So wide brimmed hat and sunglasses when you go outside, showering when you come home and showering at night. Like, I don't understand how people are out and about all day and then they just go to bed. Like, take a nighttime shower. You could shower in the morning also, but take a nighttime shower. Otherwise you're tracking all that pollen and wherever else, like, you're picked up throughout the day, and you're just plopping that in your bed. So shower at night, Shower right when you get home. Rinse all of that pollen off of you.

[Alex Clark]

You've said that allergies are often kind of brushed off as, like, minor. No big deal. If somebody has allergies and they are not treating them or do anything about them, how can that impact their health long term?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

So we call this the atopic march or the allergic march. So first, it'll start off as, like, eczema or something in Kids, right? And then it progresses to your nasal passages. And then from your nasal passages in your nose and post nasal drip and sinus issues, it can progress to asthma. And then when your asthma gets poorly controlled, you can end up with obstructive sleep apnea. And when you have obstructive sleep apnea, you can end up with right heart failure. So everyone thinks like, oh, allergies are just a nuisance. Oh, it's just my allergies. And people don't realize the association with chronic disease. 1, 2 impact on your sleep, impact on your productivity at work, Increased number of missed work days for people with allergies. So you feel miserable and then it manifests as like, you're not able to function as well.

[Alex Clark]

Is there any way for people to like, get over allergies, like to dogs or grass or anything?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

So immunotherapy that we were talking about for food, there is immunotherapy, like for environmental allergies. And there are three main ways to get it. One is an injection, two is drops under the tongue, three is tablets. But it's all the same process, which is giving you small amounts of what you're allergic to and building up your tolerance over time. So with allergy shots, like, let's say you're allergic to like dogs, cats and pollen, they can put all those allergenic proteins into a shot. And then once a week you go to the doctor's office for six months, and then after that, once a month for anywhere from two to three years. And then like you're done and you're cured of your allergies with the drops. If they're allergic to just dogs or just cats, you can get them up to their quote, maintenance dose. They put it in like a little sugar thing, and then you're essentially like cured of your allergies or at least 80% improved in your symptoms.

[Alex Clark]

What is the biggest scam when it comes to over the counter allergy meds?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Over the counter allergy aisle is like the craziest place. Like, I'm like overwhelmed and I'm an allergist and I'm like, what are these things? So here's a great example. Allegra. Sorry, Allegra, they have like Allegra allergy and then they have Allegra hives, as if it matters. It's the same Allegra. It doesn't matter. We give anti histamines for people. So what you find are like these, this additional labeling of allergy medicines, and it's all the same stuff. I'M not a fan of the multisymptom relief. The other big one that was like huge in the media is phenyl effrin, which is a oral decongestant, which was put in like, so treated, you know, allergy treatment, cold and flu treatment. And it's no better than placebo, so the FDA actually decided to pull it off the shelves. But it's in all of these multi symptom cold and flu formulas and lots of different allergy formulas. Phenylephrine. So like Sudafed pe.

[Alex Clark]

Right? We're right bad.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

You can take a sugar pill.

[Alex Clark]

Oh, it's fake.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

It's sick.

[Alex Clark]

Wow. Okay, so then what are you doing? What are you taking? Or how. Or maybe you're not taking anything. Maybe you have like a different thing you do for allergies or you don't have allergies. I don't know.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

So I do have some allergies. I did do immunotherapy, sublingual immunotherapy for grass pollen and tree pollen allergies. So that's like giving me small amounts of the individual trees and grasses I'm allergic to. Two drops under the tongue every day. It's like I keep it next to my toothbrush and I've seen a significant improvement. I'm one year in significant improvement in my spring allergy symptoms. So that's one thing. The second thing is I like to hang a little fresh eucalyptus in my shower and it just like opens up the nasal passages. The third thing I love to do is take a pot of hot water, bring it to a boil and add some fresh ginger and then I just breathe that in and it has a natural anti inflammatory effect on your nasal passages, on your sinuses, on your lungs. And then nasal saline spray. Neti pots work too, but it feels like really weird for me where I like pour. It feels like a magic trick, like pouring stuff in one nostril and then it's like coming out the other. But nasal saline spray is like, great. I just like sprayed and I'm washing out my nasal passages throughout the course of the day. Just like we wash our hands. I'm like washing out my nasal passages and it works wonders.

[Alex Clark]

You know what I just realized? This is the reason neti pots don't work for me, because I have a deviated septum.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

It could, if it's not like it's supposed to be like, whoops.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah, it doesn't do that.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Nothing. Probably just gets stuck.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah, that's what it is. I didn't know I had that until very recently and I just put that together because I've always told me, like, I don't know, it doesn't work. So my mom's got this little garden. Tomatoes, herbs, the whole backyard homestead vibe. Problem is, everything ripens at once and she can't eat 17 zucchinis in a week. That's where her harvest right home freeze dryer saves the day. Instead of letting food rot or stuffing her freezer full, she freeze dries it. And now she's got jars of summer tomatoes, crisp green beans, even basil. All shelf stable and ready for soups, pastas or stews whenever. It's like capturing your garden at peak flavor and then saving it for a rainy day or for next February or for 10February from now. And if you're not into gardening, same deal works with grocery store sales or farmer's markets. Stock up now, preserve it and you'll thank yourself later. No waste, no freezer burn, just good food. Ready when you are. Harvestright.com Start saving your harvest the smart way. Harvest right.com Pregnancy is one of the most nutritionally demanding times in our lives as women, and your body needs targeted support at every step. That's why I'm so excited to tell you about Just Ingredients New Prenatal Line these three new products are formulated with bioavailable nutrients designed to support women through preconception, pregnancy and postpartum. As your body's need for key nutrients like folate, iron, dha, choline, and calcium increases during pregnancy, their prenatal choline is thyroid, thoughtfully formulated to help fill those gaps. Around 90% of pregnant women are not getting enough choline, and many prenatals leave it out or only include very small amounts. That's why Just Ingredients made sure to include a highly absorbable form, Vitacoline, to support both maternal and fetal health. Plus, the prenatal has over 25 essential vitamins, minerals and botanicals, including nourishing whole food, fruit and vegetable blends. So when it comes to supporting your baby's brain and eye development, DHA and EPA are a must during pregnancy. Just Ingredients Prenatal DHA is sourced from algae, so you get all the benefits of those essential Omega 3s without the fishy taste. And since iron competes with other nutrients for absorption, their prenatal iron is offered as a separate supplement. It's made with Ferrochel, a patented and highly absorbable form designed to support healthy iron levels and red blood cell production during pregnancy. These three new supplements are designed to help support both you and your baby throughout every stage of the pregnancy journey. You can purchase the prenatal now at Just Ingredients Us and use code Alex for 15% off your. That's just ingredients us code Alex. And don't forget to follow Just Ingredients on Instagram for ingredient education and healthy living tips. Okay, you had some air purifier videos that went super viral. What should people actually look for in an air purifier when they're buying one to help with allergies? And what were you saying in this video?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

That like, so this was a really good, it's a good question. Number one, you want to make sure the air purifier is the appropriate size for your room. So like don't get a little tiny air purifier and then put it in your living room and think it's going to do anything. So you have to make sure that it's like, it'll tell you the like measurements and the square footage and stuff. So you have to do a little math but make sure it's the appropriate size for the room. The second is you want to make sure you have an activated carbon filter if you're wanting to get what we call volatile organic compounds out of the air. So these are these off gases and stuff. Whether it's like from mold or it's from composite wood furniture or any plastic furniture and stuff like that. Like people don't think about their indoor microbiome and the air that you're breathing. And we spend 90 of our time indoors. And so like if you're, there's paint or again you just buy new furniture. Do you ever have like a smell to your furniture?

[Alex Clark]

Oh, 100 I I.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Those are toxins.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah. A very old episode I did a couple years ago which was all about like having a non toxic home. They were talking about that like the worst thing you could do ever is buy a new couch and immediately put in your living room. Like buy a new couch, have it like sit outside if you can, if the weather permits, like have it set outside for a couple days before moving it in and all this. And that your furniture's got to air out and off gas?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Well, you know, it's crazy. It's like, why don't we have better furniture standards? Like why is it that there can be like off gassing and all of these chemicals and it comes from like the composite furniture, it's the adhesive glue that's in there, these things, even chemical flame retardants that your mattress is treated with or the couch is treated with. Like this all gets suspended back into the air and can be very irritating. So anyway, the air filter should be activated carbon to get rid of those volatile organic compounds that are circulating around as well as like small particles like smoke and things like that. Then you also want a HEPA filter as well, because that's what's going to capture the allergens. So you want it to be those two things. If it's not, what can happen with an air filter or air purifier is it sucks in this air, it doesn't have the proper filtration system, and then the air goes back up and like recirculates with all that junk inside of it. So you really want to be careful with your air purifier.

[Alex Clark]

Well, someone tell RFK we need a furniture chemical division of maha.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

I think it's the same thing. It's like we're talking about the ultra processed foods, we're talking about the synthetic fragrances present in cosmetics and the preservatives are in cosmetics. And then the third bucket is the stuff that we're bringing into our home.

[Alex Clark]

Bringing into the home and also building our homes with.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Exactly. And there's stuff that's allowed in carpet and no standards.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

In California they at least have a standard that says this contains something that will be harmful to your respiratory health. But it's the only state that even requires it.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah, we, we need to look into that.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

And at least it's a label. I mean, it's a label. We're still not saying you can have it, just as you have to make people aware of it. Right, but why is that only the stand in one state and then everywhere else? You don't require that.

[Alex Clark]

Good questions you're asking. Not okay, how reliable are at home allergy tests compared to what you do in the clinic? And then when should people skip the DIY kits?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

So the science has gotten a lot better with the DIY allergy kits. But like, let's start here with you can have a skin test or you can have a blood test. Right. And then within blood tests, you can have either a blood draw or you can have a finger prick test. Right. So the DIY kits that you can have in your own on in your home are a finger prick test. So this is a newer science, but it's gotten really good where you squeeze a little bit amount and you put it on blotting paper and they send it to the lab. There have been validation studies that show that certain test kits are almost as good as having a Blood draw. So, like, the science has gotten pretty good. So basically, like, directionally accurate. Right. If it's a positive test, you can trust that you likely have what we call sensitization. And then we correlate that with your history. So there's value in just the finger prick tests. Right. Blood draw versus the skin prick test that we would do in the doctor's office. Pretty much equivalent. We used to say that a skin prick test that's done in the doctor's office. And what that is is we give you. We take the tiny allergenic proteins, we drop it on your skin, and then we literally prick your skin. We, like, scratch your skin, and then you get, like, all these welts on you. We used to say that that was more likely to pick up more allergens or more allergies. Now the science is such that we say the blood test is just as good. And the benefit of the blood draw test is that you don't have to stop taking your allergy medicines in order to do it. Because when you're taking something like an antihistamine, like a Zyrtec or a clarity in or something, and you have the skin prick test, it'll blunt the response. You won't react because you have anti histamines in you.

[Alex Clark]

You. I'm sure that you've had to help solve, like, some really mysterious allergy situations before. So how do you play detective when the allergy trigger isn't super obvious?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

It's like, why I became a doctor. It's like the most fun thing. Cause you just have to listen, and you have to, like, be really attentive and be like, okay, what were you doing on this day? Like, who were you with? Where were you? What were you eating? What were you wearing? Like, it's so multifactorial. I've had people react to, like, their wool clothing, you know, and they thought, oh, my gosh, I had hives from a food. And it was like, no. I was wearing this new, like, angora wool sweater that I just got from, like, Brazil or whatever. And, like, you know, it's like, what's. Where's the location of your rash? You know, have you eaten those foods again? And then not have an allergy? Okay. So that the foods are ruled out. So it's real detective work. When it comes to food allergy. The hardest ones to diagnose are spice allergy. And about 2% of the population will have that. And I mean, like, you're allergic to garlic powder, onion powder, cinnamon, some kind of spice.

[Alex Clark]

What A horrible hell to live in.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

So we've had to go to, like, restaurants and be like, okay, what's the ingredient list? And, like, compare the list. Was there a different chef on that day? Did you run out of a particular oil? Did you run out of it? Did you swap out a spice? And, like, interview people? But it's, like, really fun. You're partnering with the patient, and then you're using your expertise to be like, okay, well, what about this? Like, let's go down this rabbit hole together. Let's go down that rabbit hole together. And you kind of just like, look at things from every angle to identify what the trigger is. And then the other thing that's really important is, like, to have access. And it's sort of why I got into digital health and telemedicine, because it's like, I want to know exactly when this reaction happens. If it happens again, like, call me. FaceTime me. Right? So we're able to be like, oh, my gosh, it happened again. Where are you? Okay, FaceTime me. Let's look around. Let's assess the situation. And then you're able to be like, it's that hanging tapestry you have in your bedroom that's, like, whatever, full of dust that's probably triggering your symptoms. Like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe we didn't realize this, because I was asking you about carpets, and I wasn't asking about a tapestry you had hanging. So stuff like that, where you get the environmental context. You're, like, there with the patient.

[Alex Clark]

Did you have a severe allergy? Is that why you decided to become an allergist?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

No, it was most. Well, I'll tell you a little bit of lifestyle, right? There's not, like, huge emergencies. So that's one piece which, like, I don't care what anyone doctor says, like, they think about, like, what their life's going to be like, right? So is that piece where I wanted something where I had, like, a lifestyle where I wasn't, like, in the emergency room or in the operating room or in the hospital all the time? And then the second was, when you're an allergist, you're also an immunologist, right? So you really understand the basic science of how the immune system works. So we don't really talk about that much, but we deal with, like, really rare disorders, what we call primary immune deficiencies. We can understand why certain people are, like, more prone to different types of infections where they may have deficiencies in certain immune system cells and things like that. So that was Super. Like, I like to geek out on that stuff. And then I loved, like, the whole diagnostic dilemma.

[Alex Clark]

And you also have two little kids. What are you feeding your kids in their first year of life to make sure that you're strengthening their immune system and helping with allergies and stuff?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Anything that's not a choking hazard. And if it's a choking hazard, I smush it up. Yeah. And I also. The other things.

[Alex Clark]

Off limits.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

No.

[Alex Clark]

What about honey?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Great. I mean, unless you're like, a concern that, like, you're feeding them raw honey and then there's a risk of like, some sort of infection or something like that, or, you know, you want to be, like, concerned from that perspective as their immune system isn't developed. So you don't want to like, introduce things that maybe, like, haven't been pasteurized and stuff like that, because they're more prone to picking up a virus, developing an infection. But other than that.

[Alex Clark]

So are you anti raw milk for.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Kids under one, there's always a risk benefit. Right. Some people would say, like, well, I appreciate the immune benefit. Right, great. Also understand that there's a risk of infection. Like you. You make that decision, you make that choice. Yeah, right.

[Alex Clark]

Does stress amplify allergies?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Oh, my gosh. Think about what happens when you're stressed out. Doesn't you, like, your face get all red and you get all flushed because you have a dilation of your blood vessels opening up of your blood vessels. And then all the blood. Sorry, all the blood rushes right to your face, to your cheeks and everything. We've seen people who break out in hives or have, like, worsening of their allergy attacks due to stress. Absolutely.

[Alex Clark]

So I'm getting my hair done the other day, just catching up with my stuff stylist in mid trim, she goes, alex, you're gonna die. I just found this new seed oil free snack. Obviously. I stop her right there. I mean, I'm all ears. I'm thinking, well, what is it? Something new, something revolutionary. She looks me dead in the mirror and she goes, masa Chips. I was like, stacy, I have been eating these for like two and a half years now. Where have you been? But honestly, I get the excitement. These chips are the real deal. Masa chips has just three ingredients. Organic nixtamalized corn, grass fed beef tallow, and Redmond's real salt. No preservatives, no seed oils, no sketchy chemicals. They're crunchy, they're thick, they don't shatter mid dip. And that beef tallow, oh, it's Packed with nutrients, supports skin and brain health. It's actually amazing tasting. It's what your body wants. We need more healthy fat. So join me. And now, Stacy, my hair colorist in the chip revolution. Use code real [e-mail] to get 25% off your first purchase. That's masachips.com code real Alex Clark for 25 off your first purchase. If you told me a year ago that I'd be putting beef fat on my face, I would have laughed. But here I am, fully converted and I'm loving it. The truth is, beef tallow is blowing up in skincare right now and I do not normally like it, okay? But I do like what Primally Pure is doing because they are doing it unlike anyone else. There is a reason it's doing well for people and it's the fatty acid profile, which is identical to basically almost completely to your own skin. It's nourishing, it's non comedogenic, the primary pure one, and it actually works. Other beef tallows. I'm not using it. I'm not going to use it. I don't trust it. It's totally different. Whatever Primally Pure is doing, I don't know, but they're doing it the right way. Because I've tried so many natural skincare brands. Primally Pure is the first one that's actually clean and actually effective. Like it does something. Okay, here's what I'm going to tell you and I don't care cry about it. When you are just slathering beef out on your face, it does literally nothing. Nothing primly pure. Yes, they're using a little bit of beef tallow, but they're actually using other ingredients that really do stuff too. So you're getting the hydration from beef tallow, but you're getting ingredients that do things to help with anti aging. And it's founded by Bethany, who is a mom, a wife, a hottie, a former acne sufferer who ditched toxic prescriptions and healed her skin with simple ancestral ingredients. Every product is made from down to earth, easy to pronounce ingredients like essential oils, herbs and clay sourced from ethical regenerative farms. So even the packaging is echo conscious and biodegradable. Thousands of five star reviews agree that Primally Pure is the real deal when it comes to clean skin care. If you're ready to swap the junk for skincare that works, go to primally pure.com use code Alex Clark for 15% off anything in your order that is primally pure.com code Alex Clark for 15% off. What is a case that really stumped you in your career but felt amazing to solve?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Well, it felt amazing for me, but not as much for the patient. So I had this patient. I was in private practice on Park Avenue, and she was like, I'm getting hives. I keep getting hives everywhere. And she would come in and it would look like she had, like, these welts on her body. And we, like, couldn't figure it out. She's like, I've tried different, like, food elimination diets. I've changed all my detergents. We did, like, every test under the sun. Environmental allergy testing, food allergy testing, you name it. Patch testing, which evaluates you for, like, an allergic reaction to, like, a personal product, everything. We couldn't identify what the triggers were. Then one day, she comes in, and I'm looking at her hives, and I'm like, I don't know if those are hives. Like, and they had, like, this very interesting distribution of, like, linear. One hive, the next hive, the next hive. Right? And I'm like, oh, my God. I think these are bedbugs. And I so. And you know what I had. I made an assumption on her because she was, like, always dressed really well and always talking about these fancy vacation she was going on, and she had her Chanel bag and all this, and I was like, surely she, like, couldn't have bedbugs in her fancy new year. 100%. So.

[Alex Clark]

Whoa.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

It was bedbugs.

[Alex Clark]

That's juicy.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

And she was. And what was crazy? Like, the reason why originally we sort of ruled it out was because her husband was sleeping in the same bed as her. They did everything together. Like, why wouldn't he have bedbugs? But the truth is, it relates to somebody's core body temperature and her core body temperature. She's going through menopause. Was warmer, and the bugs just liked her better.

[Alex Clark]

Wow.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

And so he was totally fine, and she had bedbugs.

[Alex Clark]

Has anybody ever been allergic to their partner?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

You can be allergic to their semen.

[Alex Clark]

Really?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Yeah, It's a thing.

[Alex Clark]

Tell us about that.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

How'd you.

[Alex Clark]

Has somebody, like, figure that out and.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Like, that's what you can have anaphylaxis to.

[Alex Clark]

And then what happens for those married couples?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Well, you. You can get immunotherapy if. Oh, my God. So inclined to take small amounts of what you're allergic to.

[Alex Clark]

Right? That's wild.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Yeah. It's a truth.

[Alex Clark]

I was just kind of being funny.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

I know there's no way. But it's a real thing. Whoa.

[Alex Clark]

Okay. Are we nearing a future at all where allergies can be completely prevented or cured?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

There's hope for people with food allergies, as I mentioned before, to provide them with therapies that can calm their immune system down so you don't have to worry about accidents, accidental ingestions. And that's like around the corner. The first therapeutic has already been approved. It's already used for the treatment of other allergic diseases. So there's like value there. I don't think in terms of environmental allergies that it's going well or food allergies it's going to get any better. For environmental allergies, part of the problem is it's not even like a true allergy to something, it's an irritant because what happens is this pollen. There's more and more pollen in the air. We've had above average temperatures, more rainfall, so pollen season is lasting longer. The pollen will then bind to things like diesel exhaust and other pollutants in the air. And so it's irritating to everybody. So we're probably going to see more of what we call like irritant allergy versus like a true it's in my blood allergy antibody. So that's one where I think environmental allergies and like our outdoor air quality, we're going to continue to have challenges. Same thing with indoor air quality. The second piece I'm going to say right now that concerns me is all this nut free stuff at schools.

[Alex Clark]

Yes.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

We're going to make the same mistake that we made with peanut allergy because we are removing nuts from places. So what happens? Parents are like, well, I'm not gonna buy a snack that has nuts in it because I can't even bring it to my kids school. I'd have to have it labeled like, forget it. I'm just not gonna have nuts in my house. Right. And so we're essentially creating like populations of children that avoid nuts. So what's going to happen? We're going to see an increase in nut allergy. If someone is not allergic. Right. They're not going to breathe nut from the air because somebody three tables over is eating something with hazelnut in it. It's just like not how that works. Same thing with peanut. You would have to be like, have a paper bag over your head and have someone spray a bunch of peanut powder into the bag in order for you to react to it. It'd be like saying like, I'm not going to let my peanut allergic child walk down an aisle at the supermarket because there might be some foods there.

[Alex Clark]

Well, they don't serve it on planes anymore, you know.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

So here's the concern I complete. I'm an allergist. I absolutely respect that we want to like, avoid children with not allergies having accidental ingestion. Right. And we also don't want to stigmatize children with not allergies where they're like, oh, you're at the special table. But like, how about we use proper, like cleaning and hygiene. How about we just have like, just conversations about, oh, I have an allergy, I'm going to sit here or whatever. Right. And like destigmatize it that way as opposed to removing nuts from our environment. Because I'm telling you right now, you're going to have more nut allergies.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah, Yep. I think you're exactly right.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

It's the same thing that happened with peanut.

[Alex Clark]

Yep.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Don't, don't introduce it into the environment and see what, remove it from the environment. See what happens.

[Alex Clark]

What is one simple action that every listener can take today to get a handle on their allergies or boost their immune health with no doctor needed.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

If it's environmental allergies and just doing a nasal saline spray, like, think about, I wash my hands when I wash out my nasal passages. It's as simple as that.

[Alex Clark]

That's helpful. Yeah. So what is your social media?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

It's Dr. Tanya Elliot.

[Alex Clark]

Very easy and you have all kinds of content on there, talking about all this kind of stuff. Lots of tips and tricks for those people that are really trying to be allergies. Is there anything that people should know about actually working with you in a personal capacity as their doctor?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

The biggest thing is, like, I'm really big proponent of health education. So if there's a topic that you're interested in that you want me to do the detective work for that you want to learn more about, is it metabolic health, is it weight loss, is it longevity, is it whatever, like DM me and let's get into it and I'll do the research, we'll do a post about it and I want to empower you. Right. I think the biggest thing to avoid your allergies, to feel healthier or better, is empowerment with knowledge. It's the biggest thing you can do for yourself.

[Alex Clark]

Now, I ask every single guest this at the end of the show, if you could provide one remedy to heal a sick culture, physically, emotionally or spiritually, what would it be?

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Oh, my gosh. That's such like a hard question, but it's such an important one. I think it's prioritization of self care and like putting yourself before anyone else. Because if you're not showing up as your best version of yourself or if you're playing small, you're not doing a service to your loved ones, to yourself or to society.

[Alex Clark]

I love that. I love that. Dr. Elliott, thanks for coming on Culture Apothecary.

[Dr. Tanya Elliott]

Thanks for having me.

[Alex Clark]

Who's ready to tackle spring allergies or give their baby peanut butter? Remember Peanut Butter Baby? If you learned something new or just have thoughts, join the Cute Servitus Facebook group. And please leave a five star review and tell others why they should listen to Culture Apothecary. We're on a mission to heal a sick culture two times a week, every Monday and Thursday at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern, where New guests bring their own unique remedy. Subscribe to Real Alex Clark on YouTube and follow me on Instagram at Real Alex Clark. Also, there's Show Merch [e-mail] you can use code Alex Clark for 10% off. I am Alex Clark and this is Culture Apothecary.