Root Cause Healing: Interview with Laurie Hammer, FNTP

welcome back to another episode of

Christian Natural Health today I'm very

pleased to have Lori Hammer with us Lori

is a functional nutritional therapist

and neuron Nutri nutrient specialist uh

who focuses on helping clients with

brain toxicity depression anxiety eating

disorders and autoimmune conditions her

journey of overcoming personal health CL

challenges through holistic methods now

drives her passion she's dealt with

cancer celiac disease bulimia and

depression and now she helps clients

from around the world both virtually and

in person she offers and practical

insights for women dealing with anxiety

depression and the overwhelming demands

of life Welcome Lori thanks for joining

us thanks for having me Lauren yeah for

sure so I'm really curious about your

personal health Journey particularly

cancer but also bulimia depression it

sounds like you've overcome quite a lot

and I understand that your faith played

a really big role in all of this

absolutely tell us some of the journey

and I assume that also then became a

victory story for you to then take what

you've learned and help other people so

tell us a little bit about what you've

been through yeah so my first deep dive

into this alternative natural Functional

Health World um was when I was bulimic I

had struggled with bulimia for about 12

years and um you know did the counseling

route you know did all those kind of

things and it just wasn't getting any

better and I was actually probably in

the verge of like killing myself to be

quite honest with you so I had a nursing

professor and um she tried to get me

into some eating disorder programs and

honestly they didn't think I was

suicidal enough and I didn't my weight

was more stable than anybody that they

would L into the program because I was

bimix so I wasn't like anorexic and you

know um those type of things so I was

still eating but I was binging and

purging multiple times a day anyway I

thought well if I move away everything

will get better right and so I moved

away from where I was going to school so

I quit school and I moved away I became

a nanny and you know life did not get

any better but one day I received in the

mail an article from the same nursing

professor and it said it was an article

about a place in California called

recovery systems and it says that you're

addicted to what you're allergic to and

if you read the article it was talking

about you know people with eating

disorders and very specific addictions

that they would gravitate towards the

things that were actually harming them

because you get an endorphin dopamine

Rush those types of things yeah so I

called out to this place because she's

like you need to call this and you need

to call this now so I did and then I

went to an outpatient program with them

and I discovered that I did have celiac

disease I had yeast overgrowth I had

autoimmune issues thyroid adrenal issues

and then I discovered that my brain was

severely deficient in nutrients because

I'd been bulimic for so long and it was

probably deficient before that which is

one of the triggers right you know um

that I was trying to overcome right and

so I they boosted my brain with very

specific amino acids and all of a sudden

the craving cycle stopped and then the

depression lifted and the anxiety lifted

and then I was able to stop you know

this whole binging and Purge cycle and

then with counseling um excuse me then

with counseling then you could work

through things that needed to be work

through and I realized there wasn't as

much to work through as I needed to work

through once my brain was balanced right

because then you can think appropriately

respond appropriately to stress and

before I went out to recovery systems um

I had given my life to Christ and so I

had like I said I was a nanny and I had

surrendered I'm like okay God something

has to change you know and then I heard

the gospel like I'd never heard it

before yeah um at their church so that

was really amazing and so that was my

first dive into um this beautiful world

of Health that I'm that I'm now in and

so that was quite a journey and then if

we want to fast forward that a little

bit Lauren once I um was pregnant with

my daughter and I was the healthiest

person I knew at the time and so shortly

after her birth there was a growth on my

leg and I'm like this is weird so I'm

putting all my you know crazy stuff on

it thinking I'll just take care of this

this will go away yeah and we did that

for like four months and then my mom's

like I think it's melanoma I think it's

you know something really bad you need

to go get that checked I'm like whatever

I don't have cancer I'm the healthiest

person I know and then um finally they

went on vacation and she's like you

better have that checked by the time I

get back so literally two days before

they came back I went to the doctor CU

I'm like I got to have this done because

You Know M said crap yeah yeah and

they're like oh it's probably some I

even forget the name that they called it

but just some growth from hormones you

know those kind of things I'm like fine

whatever well I went to get my stitches

out two weeks after that and they're

like it's really bad like this is a very

rare fast growing form and it's a level

three out of four and you know then they

just gave me the whole thing that I

needed to do next and I remember going

out to the car my husband didn't go with

me because I was just getting my

stitches out you know my baby was at

home and I had an eight-year-old son too

and I went to and I went in the car and

I put my hands on the steering wheel

because it's something you never expect

to hear right like you have cancer it's

really rare we were really not sure what

we're going to do with you but these are

the next steps and the doc's like there

really isn't any like treatment for it

you're gonna have to go do experimental

treatment and this whole big thing and

I'm like whoa okay so I went to the car

and I'm like okay God like you know my

heart you know my desire you know My

Philosophy right and so I'm just very

confident that you're going to provide

me a way out of this you either have to

heal me 100% or you have to open doors

for me to see people who have the same

philosophy that I do because I can't do

what they're going to be asking me to do

yeah and um so he did both he

miraculously healed me yeah from a very

rare fast growing cancer like Mayo

Clinic hadn't seen it in over 20 some

years like it's that that r yeah wow I

know and um they they sent it off to

several other places as well just to you

know test it and everybody's like yeah

this is what it is we haven't seen this

forever and um so I ended up with a pet

scan the cancer was nowhere it was gone

within a week and then he opened doors

for me to see exactly what I asked for

for other health

practitioners who could dive deeper than

I understood at the moment to get to the

root cause issue because cancer just

doesn't happen right there's always a

reason for it and so that sent my my

faith a lot deeper of course and then um

you know open lots of doors for me to

learn so much more through this whole

process yeah wow that's amazing so I

really like backing up to your the first

part of your story uh the fact that

you're describing how with mental

emotional conditions sometimes it starts

on the spiritual or the mental level in

terms of abnor bad thought patterns and

whatnot but sometimes it's physical not

always and I think people have a

tendency to compartmentalize and say

it's all physical or it's all all

emotional all but yeah it's very

individualized and the Very fact that

like counseling wasn't working for you

because it wasn't getting at the level

of the problem in that particular case

so you had actually go to the physical

element in order to to turn things

around yeah I mean God created US Body

Mind and Spirit we have to address all

three exactly and you also need to look

and see in anybody's specific situation

at what level does the the the problem

exist and I I also believe I'm not sure

if you agree with this that uh when

there's mental emotional imbalances even

if it does start there eventually it can

end up creating an 100% of the time yes

yeah so it's like it might be down here

but where did it actually originate and

that also is like ask God for wisdom

send ask him to send you who can answer

those questions for fabulous I love it

so uh in your like in retrospect so

there was celiacs you were already not

absorbing a lot of the nutrients like as

a result um and then so the bulimia do

you feel like maybe Celiac was root

malabsorption not getting nutrients that

were necessary and then you ended up

with yeast and then there was

inflammation from that and then you

probably ended up with not enough

building blocks for the

neurotransmitters and then from there is

that kind of I I think there was just

yeah that whole spiral effect of it all

and you know you get into the teenage

years because that's when it started so

I've had all these years of not good

nutrition I mean we lived in a farming

Community we had our own garden I mean

we had like decent food but we also you

know ate popyes and Twinkies so I mean

there was lots of things there right of

course of course we did at that point in

time so I yeah I think it was definitely

a cumulative effect that led to the

anxiety depression and then I I had just

a lot of social anxiety I was very

nervous you know a lot of my life and

just you know family Dynamic things so

yeah and then the the whole binging and

purging so that way you're getting this

nice little dopamine hit but you're also

deing it and you're not putting in the

nutrient in uh building blocks in order

for you to turn things around right so

when you went to the functional Clinic

that you went to what kind of test I

mean I know Celiac testing thyroid

cortisol what did they do in terms of

determining which amino acids did you

need was that like urinary

neurotransmitter or what did they do for

that no no they do the actual the same

process that I do now because it works

so well um so I use they use a form

excuse me a questionnaire to ask me you

know do you have all these symptoms and

so then they rated those based on the

questionnaire and then we just trialed

the amino acids very therapeutic doses

of them under the tongue and then you

have a good response you're like then

that's what we're gonna yeah so you get

your starting dose by the time you're

done with the appointment and then um

you kind of tweak that over the next you

know two three months to make sure

you're stable and then you g work on the

other things that are the root cause

issues awesome yeah yeah and so then a

after your absorption issue is dealt

with then theoretically you don't need

to stay on the mega doses of acids right

okay actually fixing root cause love it

yeah yes yeah and so if you're if you

don't mind saying when you started doing

a deep dive after the cancer

miraculously went away praise God for

that yes what kind of answers did you

end up getting in terms of what door got

opened that allowed this to happen in

the first place if you were like the

healthiest person you knew what was

really on yeah the biggest thing was uh

toxicity issues what I figur so yeah

lots of toxicity issues going on so I

you know took a deep dive into that and

I incorporate that in my practice now

too awesome yeah and I I like what you

said about the fact that cancer doesn't

just happen which is true for everything

like God made our bodies to heal

themselves and to continue to run the

way that he made them and if they break

there is always a reason for every

action there's an equal like there your

your body is all there's no cause

without an effect or there's no effect

Without a Cause like there's always

something to find and I think if you

don't believe that if you think that

things just break for no reason you're

not going to look for the answer if you

don't think there you're just looking

for a Band-Aid and you really need to

look for the root cause and that's why

you know so many of these cancers come

back absolutely absolutely I would love

to say one thing when I went to these

functional practitioners you know they

did some um testing on me and one guy

asked me he said did you take acutane at

some point in your life and so for those

of you who don't know what Accutane is

it's it's a a drug for an antibiotic for

really severe acne and yes I have very

bad cystic acne I'm sure I had PCOS at

the time but we didn't know that back

then um and I said yeah how did you know

that he goes because it's still in your

system and this was you know when when I

had the cancer diagnosis I was 33 and I

hadn't taken Accutane since I was 16 oh

my goodness yeah so to say for them to

say that these drugs just go out of your

system and he's like no there's there's

an issue he goes like this is like rat

poison to your body you know it's just

that toxic he goes and it's still in

your system this is one of the things

that you know we're going to want to

Monitor and get out of your system like

take it out because that was one of the

worst times of my life was on that

medication that sent my anxiety and

depression even deeper and as you well

know because it really messed up my

microbiome my gut which messes with your

brain sure yeah absolutely so something

that you said in like be before we got

on here was that you kind of start with

the brain before the gut which side note

I love that because I feel like the gut

like start with the gut first is kind of

a buzzword and sometimes it's true but

it's not always true so I like that you

necessarily automatically go there but

can you explain a little bit why why do

you start there well because we're we're

top down people so our brain our central

nervous system controls everything in

our body so if that's jazzed up we don't

do anything with it we're still stuck in

sympathetic mode we still have these

really crazy thoughts that raise our

cortisol levels all those kind of things

we can't fix the gut because we haven't

calmed down the brain enough for the gut

to go I'm able to breathe and heal right

you can't digest well your your thoughts

your brain is always on fire sure so if

we take the fire out of the brain we

calm the brain down and you're able to

just

relax then you can digest then you can

heal the gut right yeah I like it so um

and then you got you took all of the

things that you learned for you and you

put it into functional nutrition

functional medicine um tell me a little

bit about how you or if you do

incorporate your faith into what you do

with your clients now as well is that

still something that's part of oh

absolutely absolutely so I mean I pray a

lot with my clients you know I I pray

before the appointments you know if I'm

struggling with figuring out what to do

with them you know I pray about that and

ask for wisdom from the Holy Spirit um

so yeah it's just it's integrative and

usually when things go wrong is because

they didn't do that yeah that often is

the case I mean that's just life in

general right for sure absolutely and

how did all of this I mean you mentioned

briefly that when you got especially the

diagnosis that you went a lot deeper

with God and I think a lot of times when

we're in crisis that of course is like

oh I really need to turn to him like

kind wakeup call but tell me how that

changed from before all of this even

when it seemed like things were going

okay to when you got that and you

suddenly started buckling down and

digging deeper how did your relationship

with God change um I just learn to trust

him more yeah yeah learn to trust him

more and I will be really honest like

the cancer diagnosis isn't really

what what changed that it was the after

effect of everybody else's unbelief so

dealing with everybody else's fear and

unbelief that I was healed um was the

most challenging piece and just hanging

on to the Lord during that time because

um if Christians don't believe that

you're healed they're kind of Relentless

I'm just gonna be honest oh yeah so and

I wasn't prepared for that I just

thought you know when I'm like I knew to

the very merrow of the merrow of my bone

that I was healed when they said it was

nowhere the Holy Spirit already told me

that right right and so I I'd had that

I'd had that Revelation I had that

experience and um nobody else had right

and so they just thought I was crazy

maybe I had a death wish you know and so

navigating all those things yeah was

what really drew me closer to God to

like stand on his word to stand on what

he told me and just to know that I knew

that I knew that that I was healed and

um learning just to take to separate

myself and just take that time and just

kind of bask in his love which I don't

think i' had ever really done before

yeah you know just to let him love on me

in a way that I had not experienced

always was there I was just so busy I

was just so you know all those kind of

things but just learning learning to

rest in him was the bigest thing

interesting so I want to dig into that a

little bit more so you you're surrounded

by people who are telling you this isn't

done and go back and do all the things

that they told you to do probably like

go the route um so you mentioned

separating yourself does that mean like

did you distance yourself from the

people that were pushing some of that

just so that their fear didn't rub off

on you essentially yes yes so that makes

so much sense and if this is such a

dicey question I feel like because um on

one hand we're told not to forsake the

assembling together with other believers

right so there's that and yet at the

same time if you're surrounded by

believers who aren't believing what you

are and they're actually detrimental in

that regard how do you how do you

navigate that how do you determine to

like still keep yourself in Fellowship

but at the same time keep yourself

separate enough that other people's fear

doesn't jump on you like how did you

well the Lord just gave me you know

several really good friends that are

like we believe you and we're standing

by you so and my my husband never he I

don't know that he initially believed it

but he wasn't negative about it so he

would say well if Lori believes it then

that's what I'm supporting sure oh good

oh awesome so that was that was huge so

I mean I wasn't forsaken by everybody

and it was and it was because you know

people loved me so much and they didn't

want anything to happen to me so you

know came from a good place yeah yeah it

came from a came from a good place I

even had a healing party with one of my

my friends she's like when you're healed

because she was standing she goes when

you're healed we're having a praise

party and so as soon as I got that

information that night we had had a

praise party and so you know we went and

got really great food and we invited

people to church and all those kind of

things but I have family members that

wouldn't even come sure yeah no and I

could believe it I'm I'm thinking of a

story of a friend of mine so like friend

of a friend so this isn't somebody I

personally know but uh where she got a

cancer diagnosis it was very it was

terminal and they had a healing prayer

service that doubled as a going like a

goodbye and I thought okay I mean I know

they they they loved her and they it was

coming from a good place but it was like

that if if we're asking for healing we

shouldn't also be saying goodbye because

we're talking out of both sides of our

mouth so I was curious to know like what

do people do when they're in a situation

like that but it sounds like you know

God God met the need before you had it

and made sure that you had the the

support you needed I love it that's

great yeah because he's always a good

god he's a good God and he gives good

gifts and if you trust him for like all

of the wisdom and all of the support

that you need and he knows that you need

the emotional support of around us too

to help us like raise our arms like like

you know Aaron and like Moses yeah Moses

yeah exactly awesome so tell us a little

bit about like the people that come to

you now and where do you start with them

whether they're virtual or in person is

there any difference in terms of how

know not where I start um because I

always start with the brain right so 99%

of the time that's what you do whether

you're in my office or virtually um if

you're virtual I just send you a

supplement kit and then we do it

virtually so yeah awesome okay and

you've got a big podcast yourself too

right I do I love my podcast so take

back my brain take back my brain okay

awesome and so you just kind of do a

deep dive in all of these various

different topics so yeah yeah okay

awesome very cool so what have I not

asked you that you want to make sure you

leave with our

audience um I always just want to leave

people with hope like God created our

bodies yeah to heal if we give it the

right Tools in order to do that right um

and so to always have hope you know I

have so many people come like I've tried

everything well none of us have tried

everything course right so there's

there's a miraculous healing that I've

received and there's also things in my

body that it's taken a while to heal and

so um why does one happen over the other

I don't know right so we just have to do

everything we know how to do in the

natural right until the supernatural

happens amen

yeah um and so there's always hope God

always provides a way um for all of us

and um he's just so so good Lauren he's

just so good amen absolutely where can

people go to learn more about you just

go to Lor hammer.com awesome and all of

my socials on there my podcast is on

there everything you need is on there

fantastic so I will link to that in the

show notes and thank you so much Lori

this has been really than for having me

been wonderful

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