From Fibromyalgia to Feeling Fantastic

Today is July 2nd, 2026. I'm Jackson Larkin here with Lois Wigert. And I always do have to start off the call. I'm not a doctor, so I'm not going to diagnose or prescribe anything today, but these are Dr. Perers's recommendations based on your most recent CMA results. Um, and so, Lois, I always I love going through everyone's

um through their chart and different emails and paperwork, whatever they've sent in beforehand, but I always like to hear from each patient first, just from themselves. What have they been what's been going on with them lately? Why did they feel the need to get tested again? What symptoms are they dealing with? So, in your own words, just tell me a little

bit about what's going on. Um, I'm hearing an echo when I talk. Are you hearing the echo? Uh, you hear an echo when you talk. I only hear when I talk. Yeah. I don't know if that matters. As long as

you're not, I guess it's okay. But I can hear. No, for sure. It's It's annoying. Um, I know that's [clears throat] I switched over to a headphone on mine. It's not supposed to echo, but sometimes it does. Let me see. Should I grab Go ahead and talk. No, it's okay. Do you hear an echo at

all? Well, it's Yes, I'm talking. There's an echo. Oh, I think it's actually because you were in there twice. Okay, try talking again. Okay, no more echo.

Okay. Yeah. And then even on my end there's no echo. I'm not gonna wear headphones if I don't have to. No. Okay. Okay. Perfect. Yeah, it's I think it was just glitching out this whole time. So, this is actually really good practice run for us because I want to use this platform

to be able to do like podcasts with other people, but we definitely need to work out glitches and things, whatever happens. Okay. Um Okay. So, right back to where we were. You tell me in your own words, why'd you get the testing done again? What symptoms are you dealing with? Um well I since the very first

Spectrasel back in the day um you know I've been getting them about every 18 months or so. So it had been I think almost two years actually since my last CMA. Uh so really it was just I wanted to see where I was at because I feel like I I'm

uh you know overall just continuing to feel better and better. Sorry. And um let me put that on silent. [clears throat] And so, um, uh, just kind of wanted to see where I was at based on previous, you know,

testing and how how we're doing. So, I was hopeful because I felt like I was feeling really good and and I feel like when we got the results, it it was probably the best CMA I've ever gotten. Um, you know, I had no deficiencies and like nothing even like a borderline

deficiency, you know. So, I was pleased. I was I was uh hoping that that was what was going to be the you know that how I was feeling was going to be reflected in the in the test and I feel like it it was. So yeah. Oh no, it's fantastic. I was

looking back at your past years once and the last one was like mid 2024 or something and uh yeah there definitely were a lot more deficiencies on there and different things that were popping up and so it is I do love to see that over time yeah things do kind of get better. first time I've never had, you know, I've had zero

deficiencies and like no borderline even. I was like, this is great. Yeah. Oh, that's that's really fantastic. Um Okay. Well, that's great. And I know we talked in person a couple weeks ago or a week ago or whatever. Um but just to for the recording of this

video, too, lately you've been much more active. You've been able to work out much more consistently. Um and tell me a little bit about more what you're doing with that. Well, so I uh so it's I've been consistently working out with a trainer, lifting weights um two hours a

week with a trainer and um I and that was the thing like just wanting to see I'm feeling better. The the one thing that I was struggling with was the recovery and um I still just you know kind of decided that that was just something that I was going to have to

deal with. Uh but since adding in the catalace, I'm not even really having that heavy duty um three days of, you know, struggling going up and down the stairs [laughter] because my my legs are so sore from lifting. So, um

I shake and kind of quiver [laughter] after those really intense workouts. Yeah. Well, and I live in a I live in a three-story townhouse. I have four flights of stairs. So for me, I notice it all day long. Every as I'm going up and down, up and down, every

step it reminds me. [laughter] Oh yeah. Yeah. So that's been really fun. So yeah. Um okay, that's I'm glad the the VR Catalyst is working really well for you. That's fantastic. And maybe for if people are watching this later, um a little bit about your

backstory. you have a long history of dealing with fibromyalgia and just with all the pains and the gut issues and all just everything that comes with it. And so after years of dealing with it, you've really got a good handle on everything. Um and so much so that much like myself

too, I finally was able to start working out and recover consistently and just live consistently for the first time maybe ever. Um, and so I'm so glad when people find that success as well. And definitely you're leading the charge on that, talking to thousands of different people, hundreds of people every single

day about it. Yeah. Yeah. And and I want people I mean, I always tell people when we're when, you know, we're talking that I do do it about every 18 months or so. Every 18 months to two years just to keep tweaking things. And my last CMA was not great. You know, I had kind of gone

backwards a little bit and I was like, "Oh, what's this about?" So, um, yeah. So, I mean, it's just kind of fun to see. I added all those, you know, supplements in the last time and obviously they they got filled. [laughter] So, that was good. No, that that's fantastic. I know a lot

of times people ask about how how these different uh deficiencies pop up and so Dr. Perser always talks about how a lot of things are just rooted in genetics. That's why this is kind of root cause protocols that we're dealing with. Uh but then at the same time too um trauma

epigenetics definitely is a thing and so certain traumatic events even a basic car accident or something can definitely trigger something and throw everything out of whack. And so for a lot of times with patients if they struggle and if they're getting repeat CAS and not getting better there's there's something your body's

still working through. Um and you know what the year before all of that my mom passed away. There was a lot of, you know, stress and, you know, dealing with my dad. And so it makes sense when you look back on what was going on. I was just, my body was burning through everything. Yeah.

Just trying to in survival mode, I think. You know, totally, totally. There's finite resources at any given time. And so it goes into that. Unfortunately, a lot of people tell me they're they feel like they're in constant fight orflight mode. And that just I feel so sorry for them

because they that your body just never can relax and it just busts through everything. it. So, I I understand. So, I want to make a couple notes on what did come up on your CMA, even like the very very like less than borderline or whatever, just a couple things that kind of popped up that we would point at,

especially in the stage of optimization that you're in. This is what's perfect. Um, so even though cleanest CMA I've ever seen with you and that you've ever seen, that's fantastic. [laughter] There's still a couple little things that we can continue to tweak, which is really fantastic. That's why we love getting this test done. So, specifically

with your weightlifting um and for helping with recovery, you have several amino acids or a couple amino acids at least that are just a little bit are just kind of working their way a little bit towards maybe getting to be borderline. And so those amino acids are

the building blocks of all the different muscles, all the different proteins and everything throughout our body. And so that's why you'll see a lot of big bodybuilders and other people working out in the gym. They have their BCAAs, their branch chain amino acid drinks and things. they're pounding every day at the gym because that's what builds your muscles.

And so to help with your recovery even more, you might be already taking a collagen product or something like that. Um I don't Are you taking the Horbach amino acid complex or have you ever done that? I am actually. I've been taking that. It was for a year. I've been taking those for a year

and I take three every day. So that was something I was actually gonna ask about. Do I need to in increase that? Do I just keep going steady at that three a day? Okay. Yeah. So, what's so fun to see that over this last year since you've been taking those, look how much more you're you've

been able to recover. They work. [laughter] Yeah. I take those ones every single day, too, because it works. So, in your case, at least for the next little while, I would bump up to four a day. The full dose is three tablets, and I would just do four just because you need just a little bit more. Just a

little bit more. Um, and then see if those recoveries are even easier. Um, okay. Another one to point out or just a quick question for you with your blood sugars throughout the day. How do you how do you feel about them or do you ever have any drops or dips or anything?

I do. That's a struggle that I've had my whole life and that's a whole another, you know, I have eating issues trying to eat enough food, especially now that I'm lifting. So, I super focus on on protein. Um, right.

And um, but yes, that is that's an ongoing issue. Better. Yeah, it has been in the past, but it's still something I'm dealing with. Yes. Yeah. So, there's a couple of your deficiencies that do play into blood sugar levels. And really, it's insulin

receptor functionality is based kind of the root of what's going on with it. And so, your chromium again, and all yours are just very extremely borderline. nothing is severe or anything, but these are just the little things, the optimization tweaks that we can do. So, chromium is one of those. Your omega-3s

um is one, and that's interesting. Your other omegas are great, but your omega-3 specifically is another one that's And I am taking the omega Omega. I take that every day, so maybe I need to bump that to two. I would I would Yeah.

Um you really you're not going to overdo it with those omegas. They're really really good for all of us. Um, and then the one other one I'm trying to find it on the list here is enositol. Um, and I can't find it on the CMA page. It might be on the antioxidant side. Oh,

nope. There it is. Right on the bottom of other nutrients. So, anositol again, that one's just tipping. It's below borderline. And so, it's not even one we'd really point out normally, but just because chromium and that omega-3 are are poking out just a little bit, too. and knowing that you have a little bit

of blood sugar related issues, those are those couple more that we can just add in a little bit more, tweak it for a little while. And so those are the ones we can add in maybe even for several weeks and then you can back it back down or stop them in general too and just see see if that does help with your your

blood sugar. Chromium anositol bump my omegas to two. Yeah. Yep. [snorts] And that'll be helpful. Okay. Um, one one interesting thing too is your glutathione and glutathione is

one that you take. I was going to qu ask you about that because I take that every single day and I take a triple dose daily. Yeah. So, I was going to ask you about that [laughter] clearly burning through it and I'm using

what taking but like it's still not enough. And so, I would say keep doing the dose that you're doing. You you're feeling good with it. Um, but just know that your body is, like you said, it's burning through it. So, especially being more active, muscle building is going to it expends a lot of

energy and so that creates a lot of oxidative stress and damage at the end of the day, lots of inflammation. And so, that glutathione is there to help recover forward. So, on those heavy weightlifting days with the catalace, take a little bit, maybe an extra one or two capsules of glutathione. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Well, honestly, because I've been out of

the capsules because we were having trouble with it. So, I've only been taking the liquid. I was taking the liquid in the morning. I take a big dose first thing in the morning and then I was taking like two capsules in the afternoon, but I I haven't because I was out of it. So, um hopefully that's coming in soon and

then I can do that. But I will I will take um extra in the afternoon of the liquid. Perfect. Perfect. That I think that'll really help too just with recoveries and just give always your body that boost of it. Glutathione as we know the master

antioxidant. It's used across every system in our body. Energy production, uh, detox and even immune system functionality. It's everywhere and our body loves it. It uses it. Even a couple of your amino acids are two of the precursors to glutathione. And you also,

I think serene was one that just popped up or sorry, selenium was one that popped up and that's another selenium is a big part of the homo the homocyine transuleration pathway in the production of glutathione. So you have a couple of those precursors that are a little bit out of whack for your glutathione as

well. And more than anything, maybe that's why it's showing as a little deficient because you b your body is busting through it. Have you have you had any sickness or any kind of anything lately? You know, it's so funny that you asked that because your mom and I were actually talking about this not

[laughter] very long ago, but I was like, I haven't been this winter especially like I have not I did not get sick at all this year. Yeah. So, I I think that's the first [laughter] time I can ever say that I never got the flu. I never got a cold um because my immune system has been so

compromised in the past. And so, we were Yeah, I I I didn't get sick this winter at all. So, [laughter] yeah. And maybe it's that catalyst that's helping with that especially, too. So, really cool. Yeah. No. Um otherwise, I mean, your whole CMA

is looking great. Um, yeah, glutathione probably would have been the biggest one and we talked about that is just kind of in those bumping up those aminos just a little bit more. Well, I've got you on the call, too. I I want to explain to you because then this is something you can help explain to other people just the two pages of the

CMA where we have the front page, which is the the nutrients and how deficient we are in them, but then the antioxidant profile on the back, how it shows highly protective. A lot of times when I jump on these calls with different clients and different patients, they get so confused by that because it's kind of

backwards. And so the way that I like to explain it is well the way that they run the test specifically is that they isolate white blood cells. So lucasytes and neutropills and then they feed all of these different nutrients to those cells. And so based on the ratios and

the rates that they actually feed on those different nutrients, they can tell how deficient those cells were. And so similarly with the antioxidant profile um it you feed those cells those different antioxidants and see how protective each of those antioxidants are to those cells.

And so and they have their mechanisms or whatever that they're able to track exactly what's going on with that. So when we see a highly protective antioxidant on that second page in our mind that's a deficiency. Your cells are saying hey we love that antioxidant. Please you you can give us some more. We won't we won't mind that. That sounds

great to us. That's a deficiency. Um, and so a lot of times people get confused and it's it's just a backwards way of testing versus a blood serum level where they just take your blood out and see exactly measure how much is in that sample. This is just a different way, a different approach and that's what makes

this testing so unique and so cool. Nice. Yeah. Awesome. It is. It's amazing. I I just can't believe how good this one is. I' I've been very happy. [laughter] I'm so happy for you. It's so fun. And what's great is that you're feeling great, too. And so it's so cool to have

that validation. Your cells are saying, "Yep, we're doing just fine. We're doing great." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm excited. I told your mom before when we were when we were there doing it, I was like, I'm really excited because I feel I'm feeling great. So, let's see this. My

expectations came through. [laughter] So, that's good. That's wonderful. Well, generally, that's pretty much what we do with these appointments. Um, otherwise afterwards I'm like we you probably have gotten already, we send you your updated supplement guide. It's a little smaller

on screen. Um, and also I with my patients and clients, I've been sending we have like our CMA textbook essentially. It's 200 pages of all the different nutrients that the CMA looks at and just great information on each of them. I created a little app that just

isolates each of those and pulls that information. So, it's a much more personalized little PDF uh for each patient and so I'll send you that as well. So, you can take a look at that and and just see. That's awesome. Yeah, that's a new thing. I've never gotten that before. That's Yeah, I I just started doing that and so it's only gone out maybe to 10 or 12

different people, but I it's really useful for me. I love it. [laughter] So, yeah, I hope other people will love it, too. Just got to get Dr. Perfer fully on board. We can start sending them to all the different patients, right? Yeah. Um otherwise, Yeah. So, generally in an appointment, we would do a 10-week

follow-up and just track how things are going, if you've had any issues starting the different supplements. I mean, you're already well on your way with everything that you're doing. For brand new patients, a lot of times it gets daunting where here's 30 new supplements you have to start and they're like,

"Oh, no." [laughter] And so, that's what I always try to reassure them, breaking it down to, let's just focus on these first five and see how you do this next month. and just adding in bit by bit. Start slow, go or start low, go slow as Dr. Pcher always says and just let your body

intake it all and work through it. Uh so yeah, it's so here's a question because um my sleep has improved because I I used to use the inositol every night. Yeah, I probably haven't for over a year

because I didn't feel like I needed it. Should I add that back in then? Yeah, I mean it definitely can help. It's one of those ones that just helps kind of cool and calm things down. Do I Melatonin popped up on your antioxidant profile and do you take any melatonin

right now? Well, actually since I saw that I started taking it. I I don't typically use melatonin just because um I I I was waking up with those heavy like the hangover in the morning and it was and I just I didn't like it. So, I was just

using pharmagaba and inosinl inositol, but honestly, um I'm not even I'm not using either of those regularly, but it sounds like I need to add the anositol back in. And then the far I've us been using the Pharmagaba just like as needed. If I'm

having trouble falling asleep or something, I'll grab one, you know, take chew a couple up. But, um yeah, not even something that I need on the daily. Yeah. To fall asleep. So that's good. Do you do you take any magnesium? Right now I take three forms of magnesium every

night. So I do the citrate, malate, what's the other one? Is it glycinate? Yes. Glycinate. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. So that that's perfect. That's

what I recommend to most people. Just getting on a good blend of all those top magnesiums. You don't want to do magnesium oxide. That one works much more as a laxative and so not quite what you want for falling asleep. But these other versions of magnesium, magnesium's incredible the way that it just calms

the nervous system down, right? Especially the different versions work really, really well. They've been it's a little gummy, a sugar-free gummy product I found about a year and a half ago that myself and my wife Selena takes every night. And lately with my new newborn son, I can't

take it because I have to wake up sometimes in the middle of the night otherwise that those magnesium the blend it knocks me out even deeper than melatonin ever did. And so but with no hangover. That's what I love about it. Well, that's Yeah, that's I mean like I can I fall asleep pretty pretty well

now. I mean my my sleeping had been a challenge for 30 years, you know, um since since I gave birth to my last child. [laughter] So, so um I feel like in the last year or yeah, I would say that I just but I I mean I relied heavily on pharmagaba and

anositol. Um and now I just don't even but sounds like I need to tweak that a little bit. Yeah, add it back in a little bit and just see if it helps. Definitely with being more active, weightlifting and everything, your sleep and recovery at night is incredibly important. You could

potentially even do some if you can handle those glutathione capsules at night. It really helps your body at night to recover. Yeah. Um all those different reparations. So yeah. Yeah. And I'm I'm lucky it doesn't seem to bother me. That's great. Yeah. I can it doesn't jack me all up

and keep me awake. So yeah. No. Perfect. Okay, Lois. Any other questions? Anything else? [sighs and gasps] I think that's it. I think that we covered it all. Yay. Okay. That was so fun. I'm glad I'm glad it was fun to review your CMA, too. And

just uh and you know, it's so funny. I was like, I kind of wish I don't know where I have them somewhere, you know? I don't know where they are, but I was like, oh, I wish I could just grab them and compare. So, I'm I'm glad that you did that.