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Women In Wellness: Jaclyn Downs of Functional Nutrigenomics On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People ’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Anything that brings enjoyment while getting you moving is critical for health! You can find all kinds of workouts on YouTube, even 3-minute ones. Three minutes is better than no minutes! Finding a physical activity that you love to do outside will be even better because you are getting sunshine and fresh air. I love bicycling and roller skating on trails and ramps!

As a part of our series about “5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jaclyn Downs.

Jaclyn Downs is a Functional/Genetic Nutritionist that specializes in reproductive health and addressing root causes of infertility. She is the author of the upcoming book, “Solving ‘Unexplained’ Infertility: Your 12 Week Functional Fertility Plan.” Her website is JaclynDowns.com

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the story about how you first got involved in fitness and wellness?

My father has been in the nutrition industry since I was in elementary school. The things he told me about nutrition just made sense to me, and I learned at a young age that diet and lifestyle choices are what create health and happiness. As a young adult, I knew I wanted to work with helping people, educating them on how to upgrade their diet and lifestyle choices to achieve their health goals. It’s been an evolutionary process to get to where I am today, but since that time as a young adult, I went on to become a certified yoga instructor, become a health coach, attend grad school for a Master’s degree in Holistic Nutrition, and get certified in Nutrigenomics.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

I had a client that had been trying to get pregnant for a few years, even having gone through two sessions of assisted reproductive therapies prior to meeting with me. After a few sessions, I had her do a 5-day food log. She was already mostly gluten free because she noticed when she ate gluten, she experienced some discomfort and imbalance. I noticed that she ate dairy freely and frequently. I discussed with her that a high incidence of people that are sensitive to the proteins in gluten are also sensitive to proteins in dairy, as the immune system can react similarly to them since they are similar in molecular structure (the scientific term is ‘molecular mimicry’). She said she had done a 30-day dairy elimination challenge in the past and did not notice anything. She still decided to do two tests that would be indicative of immune system reactivity to both wheat and dairy (called Wheat Zoomer and Dairy Zoomer tests). Her Wheat Zoomer test came back indicating a moderate reactivity to various components of gluten, which was not surprising. The Dairy Zoomer showed extremely high levels of reactivity to multiple components of dairy across the board (with the maximum amount in quite a few markers). Dairy was lighting her up with inflammation every time she ate it! Her reactivity was systemic, which is why she never noticed symptoms, like GI disturbance or issues with the skin or sinuses. This test was so very interesting and revealed a major source of fertility-derailing inflammation that may have otherwise gone unnoticed! This reinforced my philosophy of “test, don’t guess.”

Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?

At my brick-and-mortar office in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, we have a large percentage of clients from the Plain community (Amish, Mennonite, etc.). Most of these people do not use computers, and word of mouth is their internet. As a complimentary service to our in-house clients, people are able to bring in their first morning urine and saliva samples to be analyzed. Our trained office staff tests these to monitor things like pH, or to know if someone may be spilling things like glucose, ketones, blood, or protein in their urine (via a simple dipstick, nothing fancy, nothing diagnostic).

I had a new client call in to my office, inquiring about bringing samples. She asked whether she should bring her husband’s samples in. My staff asked why since he was not a client. She said so that we could test his sample to see if we could find any reason why they weren’t getting pregnant. Someone in her community must have told her that I work with people experiencing fertility challenges and mentioned taking samples into the office. But my office does not handle THOSE KIND OF SAMPLES!!

I quickly learned to have my office be loud and clear about those samples being urine and saliva samples, and only those kinds of samples were ever to be brought in!

Can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the fitness and wellness field? In your opinion, what is your unique contribution to the world of wellness?

As I said, I’ve been interested in the wellness field since I was a child (I am currently 43 years old). I’ve seen health and diet trends come and go, and with them, learned what the strengths and weaknesses of those trends were. I was blessed to be introduced to epigenetics and nutrigenomics, as well as functional nutrition, when they were relatively new and unknown by most people. These are the cutting-edge modalities that create true health by addressing root causes, rather than merely providing a “band-aid” for the symptoms. Through utilizing functional lab testing, genetics, and a super detailed case history, I am able to understand each of my clients’ biochemistries and effectively personalize and tailor their protocols for success.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Aside from my husband’s support for wanting me to pursue my passions, I would have to say my two colleagues, Robert Miller and Emily Givler. Because of their brilliant minds and passion for research, they have been instrumental in the knowledge that I have to share with clients and therefore play a big part in my confidence as a practitioner. A quick story about this success is due to their cutting-edge research and findings on nutrigenomics, they have spoken at many large conferences where lots of internationally renowned doctors and authors speak and attend. I was able to meet many of these people, one of which was cardiologist Dr. Stephen Sinatra. When I was needing beta-readers for my book, I reached out to him, and he was more than happy to beta-read it. He absolutely loved the book, gave me a few suggestions, and wrote me an incredible review that I am free to use on the cover and with marketing!

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. We all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables, eat less sugar, exercise more, and get better sleep etc. But while we know it intellectually, it’s often difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. In your opinion what are the 3 main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives?

  1. Deeply ingrained beliefs of not being worthy. This comes in the forms of self-sabotage and lack of willpower. This can create habitual behaviors that are so very hard to rise above because they’ve been a part of someone for so many years, even generations.
  2. Not creating boundaries. This can lead to ‘being a martyr’ that puts everyone else’s needs before their own, not leaving any time for cooking nourishing meals or moving the body in a loving way. This ties into convenience being, in my opinion, the downfall of our health and environment. When you “don’t have time,” you reach for convenience foods and products that are highly processed, devoid of nutrients, and often laden with toxins and hormone-disrupting, earth-polluting plastic.
  3. Information overload. There is a bewildering array of information on every topic these days, especially around the topic of nutrition and health. You can find information that is in direct opposition to something that makes sense, which somehow also makes total sense. Additionally, much of the information that gets the most exposure is put out by wealthy entities, or organizations that front for them, that just want to push their product or agenda. This makes it hard to know what is truly good for us. Spoiler: There is no one right food, supplement, diet, or form of exercise that works for everyone. This is where true self-care comes into play: investing in yourself and talking to a practitioner or professional that is going to see you as an individual case and tailor to what your needs are, rather than trying to fit a boxed protocol on you because it worked for lots of other people.

Can you please share your “5 Non-Intuitive Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”? (Please share a story or an example for each, and feel free to share ideas for mental, emotional and physical health.)

Even though I specialize in epigenetics and creating individualized protocols, there are foundational things that people can/must do for health that are beneficial for everybody, despite what their genes say. Most of them are inexpensive or completely free! A few of these universal, key actions to implement are:

  1. Get Outside! Our bodies require sunshine and to be connected to the earth! You would think this one would be intuitive for us humans that evolved living outside most of the day, but somewhere along the way in very, very recent history, that’s gotten lost.
  • Sunlight — We are solar-powered beings designed to thrive on sunshine! We evolved to wake with the sun and be outside much of the time. The skin, the largest organ of the body, requires sunshine for health. But the skin is not the only part of our bodies that greatly reacts to the sun’s rays. The retinas in our eyes are photosensitive and connect directly to various parts of the brain, activating many biochemical and biophysical reactions in the body, including adrenal function, hormone production and secretion, and regulating our circadian rhythm. Our bodies had known what time it was long before clocks and watches, and our bodies depend on this innate sensing for optimal health.
  • Earthing — Also known as ‘grounding,’ this is something that can be done at the same time as getting sunshine. Humans have spent most of their time on earth, literally grounded on the earth. We slept on the earth and our feet were directly on the earth, exposed to good microbes (the largest pores on our bodies are on the bottoms of our feet). It makes sense that being so close to nature is what grounds us, both literally and figuratively. This is not just a topic that only crunchy hippies endorse. There are articles in scientific journals on the benefits of ‘grounding (earthing).’ These papers show that grounding reduces stress, anxiety, depression, pain, and inflammation.

2. Setting boundaries — I mentioned this in the section above, but it is so important I wanted to unpack it a bit more. We can’t just ‘avoid stress’ like many blogs and articles say to do. But we can learn how to say no to things that are stretching us too thin or that we just plain don’t really want to do.

3. Support and tone the vagus nerve — The vagus nerve is often referred to as the “gut-brain superhighway.” It connects the brain to the gut/microbiome and internal organs (and vice versa) and regulates nearly every major organ in between. The vagus nerve is a primary part of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) that regulates involuntary bodily functions and stimulates the “rest, digest and repair” (also called “feed and breed”) states that occur when the body is at rest and in a stress-free state. Stimulating the vagus nerve to improve vagal tone has shown to provide numerous health benefits, like improving digestion and lowering blood pressure and heart rate. In fact, the FDA has approved vagus nerve stimulation for therapeutic use in chronic inflammatory and autoimmune conditions due to its anti-inflammatory properties.

Here are some easy ways to stimulate the vagus nerve, which I’ve taken from a section in my book:

  • Gargle until your eyes water, which is the cue that the vagus nerve has been stimulated. Gargling contracts muscles in the back of the throat, which activates the vagus nerve. Put a sticky note on your mirror by your toothbrush to remind yourself to get into this habit.
  • Sing or hum loudly — again, this activates the muscles in the back of the throat. Also, humming (or saying “Om”) causes vibration around the ear, where branches of the vagus nerve run through.
  • Cold exposure — anything from cryotherapy to splashing cold water on your face. One practice that you can ease into is ending your shower by turning the faucet to the coldest setting before getting out. Ideally work your way up to a full 3 minutes or longer! Even if you have to start with 3 seconds, that will still provide benefits and is better than not doing the cold water at all.

4. Mindful breathing balances your autonomic nervous system (the balance between ‘fight or flight’ and ‘rest and digest’) If you are not breathing into all lobes of your lungs, you are mildly asphyxiating yourself. When I used to teach yoga, I invited people to be mindful of their breath, both on and off the mat. I would say “We can live weeks without food, days without water, but only a few minutes without air. That’s how important it is.” Give your cells the gift of oxygen! Stand tall, lengthening the spine, energizing your shoulder blades down towards your tailbone. This posture allows for more air to oxygenate your blood and cells. The easiest breath you can do to balance your ANS is to focus on having a longer exhale than inhale, and then holding the exhale for a moment before inhaling. You can also do a quick internet search for some other mindful breathing techniques for relaxation, such as Ujjayi breath/ocean breath, box breathing, and alternate nostril breathing.

5. Epsom salt soaks — most people only are aware of the benefits of Epsom salt soaks due to the magnesium component, but Epsom salts are magnesium sulfate. While magnesium is my favorite mineral and is essential for many functions in the body, sulfate is a molecule that is critical to our health! It aids in the detoxification of drugs (including acetaminophen), mycotoxins (toxins from mold), thyroid hormones, food additives, and heavy metals. Cholesterol, hormones, neurotransmitters, and vitamin D, along with many other vitamins, must be sulfated for transport in the blood. I love that something so plain and inexpensive can be so incredibly beneficial to our health! If you are not a bath-taker, doing a foot soak is good enough!

As an expert, this might be obvious to you, but I think it would be instructive to articulate this for the public. Aside from weight loss, what are 3 benefits of daily exercise? Can you explain?

  1. Stress reduction — Exercise allows us to release stress from our physical bodies (as well as oxygenate them), and the endorphins it releases help us to feel better mentally and emotionally.
  2. Lymphatic flow — The lymphatic system is like our body’s sewer system. It collects waste, toxins, dead/damaged cells, and cellular debris that the body wants to get rid of. It also plays an integral role in immune system function as well as maintaining fluid balance. Since the lymphatic system does not have a pump like the circulatory system does, to move lymph, we need to either move our bodies and contract our muscles, or else do manual lymphatic massage techniques. Lymph is a watery fluid, composed of lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) and exists in the fluid surrounding cells. If lymphatic fluid is moving well, it will transport toxins and cellular waste to lymph nodes for destruction.
  3. Cardiovascular health — Just like all the other muscles in the body, the heart is a muscle that needs to be worked. When we get the heart pumping, oxygenated blood more easily flows throughout the body and nourishes cells. This can help create healthy blood pressure, healthier resting heart rate, and decrease chances of stroke. Increased blood flow to the brain improves memory and thinking ability, as well as combatting neurodegeneration.

For someone who is looking to add exercise to their daily routine, which 3 exercises would you recommend that are absolutely critical?

  1. Stretching keeps the muscles flexible and healthy, which allows us to maintain healthy range of motion in the joints. If the muscles aren’t strong and flexible enough to support the joints, this can lead to joint injury. Stretching will also help to prevent injury from sudden or excessive movement.
  2. Strengthening muscles provides numerous benefits and doesn’t have to involve weights. It can be your own body weight resistance. Everyone knows that strengthening the muscles will improve muscle mass. When we build muscle, this increases metabolic rate and therefore burns more calories. Strength training exercises also create flexible joints and stronger bones. Weight-bearing exercises put a temporary stress on your bones, which sends the message to them to get stronger. Another awesome benefit to strengthening muscles is that it increases insulin sensitivity and encourages healthy blood sugar levels. This is because when we use muscle, glucose moves from the blood into the muscle cells.
  3. Anything that brings enjoyment while getting you moving is critical for health! You can find all kinds of workouts on YouTube, even 3-minute ones. Three minutes is better than no minutes! Finding a physical activity that you love to do outside will be even better because you are getting sunshine and fresh air. I love bicycling and roller skating on trails and ramps!

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?

Writing my soon-to-be published book, “Solving ‘Unexplained’ Infertility: Your 12 Week Functional Fertility Plan,” has actually impacted me far more than I would have originally thought. I’m not a patient person and I have always been hasty with all things, especially things that I am excited about. But you can’t create an impactful, educational, and engaging book in a hasty manner! I started writing my book about three years ago, which had a couple large interruptions, like moving homes and getting cancer (and beating it). It has forced me to be methodic, thorough, and patient with the process.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I am going to give a similar answer that I gave to this question in my “I Survived Cancer and Here Is How I Did It” interview with Medium.com, and that is to be able to inspire change in the corporations and companies that are creating cancer causing materials and toxic waste.

While I teach my clients to upgrade their purchasing choices for food, water, air, home and body care products to limit the plethora of health-deteriorating toxins they contain, this is really only like throwing pebbles into a pond; it creates ripples, but no real change unless it’s done consistently by many people. I would love to be able to get the powerful corporations and companies to empathetically understand that their products have been making people (and the environment) sick and/or causing death and be able to get them to re-evaluate their purpose.

I’m thrilled that organic and “eco-friendly” products are becoming more popular (although, so is “greenwashing”), and that our consumer purchasing power has the ability to cause a company to change, but I would love to be able to inspire these companies to take more initiative instead of following purchasing trends. With their financial power and media influence, they could create change on a much faster and far larger scale.

Additionally, I’d get them to see the long term picture of their current model; if we continue to “shit in our nest,” our earth will not be habitable, and their profits are going to sharply drop as the population the drops (or cancer bills increase).

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

“It is impossible to feel grateful and depressed in the same breath.” While everyone gets down on things from time to time, I have been blessed to not have experienced long-term depression, and it may be due to holding this quote very close. Whatever may be challenging or depressing in my life, I know that there are millions of people that would jump at the chance to trade “problems” with me. Although I have seen people struggle to come up with even one thing they are thankful for, most people stick with the big ones, like health, family, and home. I could go on and on about how grateful I am to be able to speak, see, hold a job, have functioning legs, ride a bike, have a bike to ride, sleep on a bed (and one with sheets!), read, have the social ability to have friends, hear the cicadas on a hot summer day, go to a grocery store whenever I want to, have water at the turn of a knob (and access to filters), and be able to make the hundreds of small choices I unconsciously and consciously make each and every day.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

Woody Harrelson. He is using his status to inspire people to create a better earth. If the earth is laden with toxins, all living beings will receive those toxins. Many of these toxins are known endocrine disrupting chemicals (intersex/hermaphrodite frogs are not uncommon these days) and cancer-causing agents that are in our food, water, and air. Woody’s been doing eco-activism since before it was “cool.” I liked him on cheers as an actor and hunky celebrity, but once I learned about his activism with Earth First!, I was smitten. Then to find out that he was an avid yogi and cyclist like myself, how could he not be at the top of my list of people I’d like to have a meal with?

What is the best way our readers can follow you online?

Instagram- @FunctionalFertilitySolutions

Website — JaclynDowns.com

My book, Solving ‘Unexplained’ Infertility: Your 12 Week Functional Fertility Plan, is currently about to go into publication stage. It will be available for purchase digitally and hard copy, as well as audio versions.

Photo credits: Linette Kielinski, Kielinski Photographers

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

Women In Wellness: Jaclyn Downs of Functional Nutrigenomics On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.