Robyn's Opinions and Recommendations

Robyn recommends AnnMarie Skin Care and products from The Spa Doctor

For foundation, don't use products containing mineral oil, which are generally the low cost tanning oils and foundations as well as many other skin products. If you’re going to use facial powder or foundation, choose “bare minerals” instead—still not nontoxic, but far better than mineral-oil products.

When choosing cosmetic products, look for natural, greener products at your health food store instead of a discount store like Target or Wal-Mart. Although standard markets are increasingly boarding the organic foods bandwagon, they are slower to offer nontoxic personal care products. 

Brands like Kiss My Face, Vita Bella, All Stop, Burt’s Bees, Garden of Eve, and others are vigilant to avoid endocrine disruptors, heavy metals, and poisonous chemicals in their products. But many who call themselves “nontoxic” eliminate one toxic ingredient for another. So it’s imperative to know what toxic ingredients are and always read labels.

We also have a great resource called the Genius Guides which include a wallet card for Toxic Cosmetic Ingredients you should avoid. 

An infrared sauna in your home is like having your own personal retreat, wellness center, and de-stressing zone!

Read Robyn's report on why her infrared sauna is possibly her most important, high-impact health purchase in the past 5 years

Sauna pricing and information.  

Group buy pricing for Influence Saunas is available all year, but extra freebies and additional special offers are only available during our annual sale event. 

Below are 4 of Robyn's posts regarding skin cancer and what she did about her own skin cancer. 

How To Get Rid of Skin Cancer Naturally

Wanna see my skin cancer??

What I Did About My Skin Cancer

Skin & Your Cancer Risk by Dr. Tami Meraglia

Robyn purchased the black salve and Sangre de Drago  she used on her own skin cancer from https://www.herbhealers.com/.

Disclaimer: please consult with a trusted healthcare professional before you make any decisions for yourself. We do not give health care advice. This is Robyn's story and I do not suggest you do what she did. It’s not for everyone. You should, however, know your options, the pros and cons.

One of the more frustrating diet plans, to me, is the blood type diet. The idea is that you have a certain blood type because your ancestors were from a certain place, so they adapted to a specific diet. You are then instructed, based on having O, A, B, or AB blood, to eat according to the prescription. Vegetarian, highly carnivorous, a mix of the two, grains or no grains, etc.

The diet has no real science backing it. Only a very dubious theory.

The theory collapses when you consider that every indigenous population of the world has all the blood types: A, B, AB, and O. It’s also highly problematic when you consider how much genetic mixing and nomadism we’ve had in recent centuries. Few people have both parents going back to the same origins

You may feel better because the author of the nutrition program eliminates gluten from the type O diet. That will make everyone feel better, as grains have been hybridized and are causing many people problems.

And he tells all type A’s to eat vegetarian, which is actually a good diet for most, if not all, people.

(As always, I refuse to take a stand on whether a limited amount of animal protein is good or desirable or at least acceptable—but it’s clear that more plants, and less animals, is across the board, more environmentally sustainable and more health-promoting.)

And you may feel better because regardless of your blood type, you’re told to eliminate processed foods such as white flour.

Read the complete article on my opinion here.

What does Robyn think about the Autoimmune Paleo Diet? (That Izabella Wentz recommends for Thyroid issues.)

The AIP diet may be worthwhile, short term, while the gut heals...and I’ve discussed this with Izabella, who like Paleo (she’s young, and I’ve spent about 18 more years on this planet studying diet than she has…) but while it’s good in that it bans dairy and processed food...it’s too much meat for me.

I do NOT feel good eating like that. And if you read “How to Not Die”...you’ll understand why. Best health book of 2016 and there are 130 pages of references to the studies Dr. Michael Greger, MD cites about the power of the plant-based diet.

Izabella is fantastic, and her work is life changing...but Paleo is a fad, and I believe that AIP is a fad too...some good things there, but banning legumes and whole grains? That’s just going way too far!

Most of Africa, with no access to American processed foods, eats just grains and vegetables and they have virtually NO heart disease or cancer, or neurological disease or auto-immune.

I’m actually about to be on my friend Dr. Alan Christianson’s program (he’s an adrenal and thyroid and hormone expert), an NMD, talking about how I reversed my own auto-immune disease with a plant-based diet.

I was recently talking to one of our new employees, who did AIP and felt terrible. Try it if it resonates with you, but remember, it’s just another new fad diet.

There is no substitute. Take your Vitamin D3 + K2 in the winter, great idea—but we still need sunshine. Human beings had no problem getting regular sunshine until the past few generations. With the shift away from an agricultural society, populations, in general, now spend the majority of their time indoors.

Turns out, it is a misconception that people should stay out of the sun and/or slather themselves with sunscreen. In fact, the #1 correlate for cancer risk is how far from the Equator you are! The further away, the less sun, the higher the cancer risk. High Vitamin D levels actually correlate to low cancer risk.

Lack of sunshine is also a perfect recipe for depression. In the last two decades, a diagnosis of “Seasonal Affective Disorder” is practically an epidemic. That’s because people who live far from the Equator, with long, overcast winters, are living in conditions that few humans ever have—totally indoors. Our biology demands sunshine and everything that comes with it—hands in the black dirt, grounding us, feet in the grass, breathing clean air, and feeling the warm sun on our skin.

Don’t wash that Vitamin D off when you come inside. It takes hours for it to internalize, as hormone, and work with calcium to build bone.

I had Sibo several years ago and I have done a lot of research in regard to this condition. Most dr/nutritionists recommend high fat, high protein. Staying away from highly fermentable carbs. What are your thoughts?

These food fads….the obsession with artificially inflating fats and/or proteins….make me sad, since it was proven long ago, by many studies, that these are fads harmful to human health. A very obscure book you might want to read on this subject that will convince you quickly, with data, is Carbophobia by Michael Greger, MD.

There are 10s of millions of people alive right now on the planet that have essentially 0% cancer and heart disease…..who eat TWICE as many carbs as Americans do.

That’s because “carbs” like Twinkies and bagels, and “carbs” like the whole grain faro and cassava, grown in Africa, don’t even belong in the same class of foods! It’s the diet and processed food industry that has taught you categorize foods by protein, fat, and carb.

The fact is, we should sort foods by whole foods, and processed foods…...and 90% of our disease would disappear, if we valuated them that way. The healthiest people on the planet, now and always, have eaten 80% carbohydrate. It’s the TYPE of carb that matters.

The good kinds have lots of fiber, and are high in micronutrients. (p.s. THOSE are the deficiencies killing Americans. A total deprivation of micronutrients and fiber! ZERO people in the U.S. have a protein deficiency. It doesn’t exist.)

We don’t diagnose, treat, or prescribe of course….but the food we eat (or don’t) is at the root of all inflammation. Inflammation is at the root of all disease.

So it makes sense that while we may ALSO do other things besides address the diet…we HAVE to address the diet piece. This is a very low-inflammation diet. Whole grains and legumes, are good foods, sometimes we may need to take a break from them to give the body space and time to heal and help tame inflammation for a bit, but just know that they are GOOD foods, says 10’s of millions of Africans, Indians, and other people who don’t eat meat OR processed foods, and have approximately ZERO heart disease and other inflammatory conditions.

We don’t take a stand on brands.

However, avoid copper, Teflon or other coatings, and aluminum.

We like stainless steel, and there are probably other products that are stable so that metals don’t end up in your food, but we aren’t sure about some of the marketing claims out there.

http://www.naturalleavening.com for sourdough and other starts

The best water kefir grains HERE

I use Trevor Cates’ Spa Dr organic line and also Annmarie Skin Care...and at night just coconut oil as my moisturizer.

I like the people who make primal pit paste. The coconut oil ones work well for some people, but not for me.

I use only the crystal stick.

A natural alum is NOT the toxic alum compounds in commercial deodorant and not a problem...after all, it’s a natural compound found in mineral water and even some foods, and the body needs/uses all those elements...the problem is the synthetic unnatural compounds the body reacts badly to.

You can get a crystal stick for deodorant at any natural products store.

Wondering your thoughts on bone broth? Are the things it supposedly provides such as collagen etc...needed if you are trying to stick to vegetarian/vegan?

We are actually producing our own bone broth protein. Robyn’s friends Josh and Jordan produced the Ancient Nutrition line you see everywhere, but the chickens are fed GMO corn, or at least they can’t guarantee or prove they’re NOT. (They approached Robyn about working with her.)

We think that collagen products are highly processed, but bone broth is a whole food that has been known for hundreds of years to strengthen human bones and ligaments and joints, as well as sooth the GI tract.

So, we’re bringing a monkfruit-sweetened, grass fed bone broth to market. We’re pretty excited about it, because not only is it really nutritious, but the vanilla and chocolate are out of the world, taste-wise. Coming VERY soon!

Just Great Stuff Organic Greens

About kombucha, I just don’t trust the storebought kind, and in fact, while I teach you HOW to make it, it’s not my cultured food of choice. I recommend it for people trying to wean off soda, but otherwise, it’s fermented sugar water and not a great path to health.

Grass fed butter is actually good for you in some ways.

Margarine definitely yes get rid of that.

Virgin coconut oil is a good alternative.

Check this video out for more information.

I’ve not seen any study comparing creams to hydrocortisone. That’s a steroid, with the same immune-suppressing effects that you would have if you used steroids orally.  

But when my children were small, I switched to Eucerin cream, which helped a lot with itching, redness, etc., with a temporary skin issue.

And remember that longer-term skin issues are generally related to a gut / liver issue…..so of course we recommend detoxing the whole body.

I like Better Body Foods (costco, organic version)

And also Garden of Life (health food stores).

I don't know Orgain.

I look at labels and don't buy if I see anything at all that I don't like in it.