Dr. Tabatha Barber shares her expertise and insights on personal transformation and healing. Through her holistic approach, she guides individuals on a path toward achieving a balanced and fulfilled life.
Key Points
- How to incorporate Faith into Your transformational weight loss program
- Reconnect Your Body, Mind, and Soul for Lasting Weight Loss, Sustained Energy and Unstoppable Strength
- How to love yourself for personal transformation and healing
Our Guest – Dr. Tabatha Barber
Dr. Tabatha Barber has dedicated her life to giving women a voice and a choice when it comes to their health and well-being. Overcoming struggles as a young girl, including self-esteem challenges and the hurdles of being a high school dropout and teenage mother, she emerged as a successful physician through faith and perseverance.
Her unwavering commitment to women's health is evident through her triple board certifications in obstetrics and gynecology, menopause, and functional medicine. As the driving force behind her thriving medical practice, Dr. Tabatha and her team provide compassionate support and care to women nationwide. Through her podcast, Gutsy Gyn supplement line, and her international best-selling book Fast to Faith, she shares insights into the importance of gut health, hormone balance, mindset, and most importantly, nourishing the soul to truly heal and become whole. She is a beacon of light in a sea of medical darkness.
Dr. Tabatha’s Resources: https://fasttofaith.com/resources/
Dr. Tabatha’s Site: https://www.drtabatha.com/
Dr. Tabatha’s Insta: https://www.instagram.com/thegutsygynecologist/
Dr. Tabatha’s FB: https://www.facebook.com/DrTabatha
Dr. Tabatha’s YT: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheGutsyGynecologist
Dr. Jill Carnahan, MD
Dr. Jill Carnahan is Your Functional Medicine Expert® dually board certified in Family Medicine for ten years and in Integrative Holistic Medicine since 2015. She is the Medical Director of Flatiron Functional Medicine, a widely sought-after practice with a broad range of clinical services including functional medical protocols, nutritional consultations, chiropractic therapy, naturopathic medicine, acupuncture, and massage therapy.
As a survivor of breast cancer, Crohn’s disease, and toxic mold illness she brings a unique perspective to treating patients in the midst of complex and chronic illness. Her clinic specializes in searching for the underlying triggers that contribute to illness through cutting-edge lab testing and tailoring the intervention to specific needs.
A popular inspirational speaker and prolific writer, she shares her knowledge of hope, health, and healing live on stage and through newsletters, articles, books, and social media posts! People relate to Dr. Jill’s science-backed opinions delivered with authenticity, love and humor. She is known for inspiring her audience to thrive even in the midst of difficulties.
Featured in Shape Magazine, Parade, Forbes, MindBodyGreen, First for Women, Townsend Newsletter, and The Huffington Post as well as seen on NBC News and Health segments with Joan Lunden, Dr. Jill is a media must-have. Her YouTube channel and podcast features live interviews with the healthcare world’s most respected names.
The Podcast
The Video
The Transcript
210: Resiliency Radio with Dr. Jill: FAST TO FAITH: Reconnect Body, Mind, Soul w/ Dr. Tabatha Barber
Dr. Jill 00:00
Hey guys, I am so excited to announce that the movie that you've been waiting for, the documentary Doctor/Patient, is now available for rent or purchase at DoctorPatientMovie.com. Check out the trailer here.
00:13
Dr. Jill: When I really knew something was wrong, was when I started having trouble walking up the stairs. I was supposed to be grateful and happy and healing and well and thriving, but I did not feel that way. I was so sick. Like always, I wanted to find an answer, and I had to figure it out. And I had to figure it out to save my own life. So I dove in.
00:38
James Maskell: Jill is the leading voice in biotoxin illness and chronic conditions that are driven by toxicity.
00:43
Bree Argetsinger: Oh my gosh, you're dealing with mold? You have to work with Dr. Jill Carnahan.
00:47
Patient 1: Dr. Jill is the first person that actually began to shed some light on the problem.
00:53
Dr. Jill: What I do is listen to the patient, and we together talk about what else is possible.
00:59
Patient 2: I don't know why I'm crying.
01:02
Patient 3: She saved my life.
01:06
Dr. Jill: The deepest lessons and most profound insights come in the suffering, come in the dark moments. Self-compassion is the healing transition that shifts something inside of us. It's actually the thing that we need most in order to heal.
01:26
Narrator: Doctor/Patient—available now at DoctorPatientMovie.com.
Dr. Jill 01:36
Hello everyone and welcome to Resiliency Radio, your go-to podcast for the most cutting-edge information in functional and integrative medicine. I'm your host, Dr. Jill, and in each episode, we're going to dive into the heart of healing and transformation. We talk to innovators, leaders, and medical researchers—amazing, amazing people who are changing the space and sphere. My goal is to empower you in your personal journey for transformation.
Dr. Jill 02:02
Hey guys, if you haven't heard, of course, your head is probably in the sand but my movie Doctor/Patient is now out. So be sure to check that out: DoctorPatientMovie.com. You can share it, you can gift it, you can rent it. And I really, really would love to hear your feedback once you've had a chance to take a look at that.
Dr. Jill 02:18
Now, today I am so excited about my guest, Dr. Tabatha. Dr. Tabatha Barber has dedicated her life to giving women a voice and a choice when it comes to their health and well-being. Overcoming struggles as a young girl, including the self-esteem challenges and hurdles of being a high school dropout and teenage mother, she emerged as a successful physician through faith and perseverance. Her unwavering commitment to women's health is evident through her triple board certifications in obstetrics and gynecology, menopause, and functional medicine. As the driving force behind her thriving medical practice, Dr. Tabatha and her team provide compassionate support and care to women nationwide.
Dr. Jill 02:55
Through her podcast, Gutsy Gyn supplement line, and international best-selling book, Fast to Faith, she shares insights into the importance of gut health, hormone balance, mindset, and most importantly, nourishing the soul to a true healing path. And this is one of the reasons I am so excited!
Welcome, Dr. Tabatha, to the show!
Dr. Tabatha Barber 03:13
Oh my gosh, thank you, Dr. Jill! This is going to be an awesome, much-needed conversation because we need to really heal the body, mind, and soul, right? We need to connect all three.
Dr. Jill 03:28
Yes. I want to hear your story. But I'll just frame this for the listeners. As you know, if you listen to my podcast, I have people from all walks of life and all backgrounds. One thing I feel like I bring to the world is this unconditional love and acceptance. But at the core, I have a deep, deep, deep faith, and it drives everything I do. So I could not be more excited to talk to you about that relationship with God—how it's transformed your life—and your book and your practice. And most of all, [I'm excited] that we could just leave our listeners today with a sense of, “How do we find that deeper purpose and meaning?”
Dr. Jill 04:01
So, let's start with your story because story drives everything. And you have quite a story. I'd love to go way back as far as what was in your bio and then how you got into medicine.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 04:11
Oh my goodness. I was actually on a phone call earlier today because I'm trying to get my life turned into a TV series. That's how wild it's been. And I'll just say that God has been guiding me the whole way, and I had to acknowledge that. I got to a point where I could no longer take credit for the blessings I was receiving. He made it clear that we are on this mission together to reach women and help women understand what's happening in their bodies and take back control of their bodies.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 04:50
I was a wild child. I didn't bow down to authority. I wanted to do whatever I wanted to do. I was going to be a rock star. I was going to marry Tommy Lee. Thank goodness that didn't happen! But I found myself pregnant in 11th grade. I ended up marrying my child's father. We were married for almost a decade. But there was a lot of tragedy during my pregnancy and delivery because I was assigned to an old doctor on the verge of retirement, and he made it clear that I was a second-class citizen. I was on Medicaid and food stamps. He would say things like, “I'm getting paid 20 cents on the dollar to take care of you.” So I was afraid to say anything because I felt like I didn't even deserve to have care.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 05:50
I went through all kinds of procedures and took all kinds of pills, and I had a very traumatic delivery. Unfortunately, he ripped me from front to back, and I've never been the same. I had a very traumatic forceps delivery. While I was going through that repair, I was just looking at my daughter, and it all made sense to me: “You cannot let your brand new baby ever go through what you're going through. You've got to figure stuff out.” And God made it clear to me, like: You have to get your crap together and figure this out.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 06:31
So I went back. I got my GED. I got into a community college and eventually went on to become a doctor. But I developed Hashimoto's through that. After my delivery, I went through radioactive iodine treatment. I had no idea what I was signing up for. So it was just one thing after another of these things being done to my body.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 06:57
I didn't use my voice. I didn't know I had another choice. So that's why I am so passionate. I'm on a mission to help women speak up for themselves and to know that even if you aren't given the options from your doctor currently, that doesn't mean they don't exist. Even becoming a doctor myself, I didn't know all the options. It wasn't until it failed me and I had to find functional medicine. You can relate to this, right? We only give the options that we know. So I'm here to say there's more to this story than a pill for an ill.
Dr. Jill 07:38
Dr. Tabata, I love hearing your story, and I love hearing your authenticity in the journey because you went through great suffering. What I hear there too that's so common to our listeners is this shame—what you went through, no one should have to feel that feeling—and it comes from either people gaslighting or belittling. Sadly, our medical system is one of the biggest players in making women feel shame in their bodies, shame in their choices, or shame in [saying]: “I need help here,” “I need answers,” or “I need a different way.”
Dr. Jill 08:11
I hear that in your journey, and it's so powerful to see how that's transformed. Now you're helping hundreds of thousands of women out there. First of all, what led you into medicine? You clearly told that story, but that's a huge jump to go from where you were and then into medicine. That's profound. I want to hear that story too.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 08:30
Yes, absolutely. If you're listening to this and are stuck in a life that you don't love or are feeling lost, your purpose is out there. Sometimes it's coming from your struggles, your pain, or your tragedies. You've got to dig deep down and say, “Why is this happening to me?”—because I truly believe life is always happening for us.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 08:58
I had a choice after that delivery, after having my thyroid burnt out: Am I going to just work at the gas station and this is my destiny? Or am I going to change my future for my daughter and myself? I decided to be brave and just go for it. I had no idea what that looked like, but you just take the very next step that you can possibly see.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 09:29
For me, my mother-in-law was in nursing school. I think she was maybe 42 years old at the time, which I thought was old, looking back. But she was restarting her career. So I thought, “Okay, I'll go to nursing school because that's what she said was a good idea.” For the first time, I realized: “I like science. I'm actually good at school.” I was always a C, D, or E student because I didn't care; I wasn't interested. I got two years of straight As at this community college, and I realized: “I want to be the one in charge.” I said to one of my professors: “I don't want to be a nurse. I want to be the doctor. I want to give the orders. I want to make the decisions.” He said to me in that moment: “You can. You can be the doctor. Go to Michigan State. I'll write you a letter.”
Dr. Tabatha Barber 10:20
That changed everything for me, because I was not seeing more possibilities than being a nurse. I wasn't believing in myself, and he gave me this new way of seeing the world. Looking back, obviously, that was God intervening and speaking through him. I went on and I became a doctor because he put that spark in me. So what we say to each other absolutely matters, and that's what I love to share with women: If something's on your heart and you're feeling like you want to say something to someone, you might not even know why, just do it because you might spark the biggest, most important shift in their whole life.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 11:12
Fast forward 20 years: I'm a practicing attending physician. I'm on top of the world, so to speak. I'm chief of staff. I was chief of the department for 10 years. My patients love me. And Jill, I was dying! I was so miserable, I was barely surviving. I got to the point that I couldn't walk away from the OR table because I was in such excruciating back pain. I literally would just hang there in half until my back released and I could move and walk out of the OR. It was because I was giving to everyone and completely neglecting myself.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 11:55
A huge part of that was that's part of your training [when] becoming a doctor. You ignore your bladder. You ignore your hunger. You give to everyone else. But it was also my Catholic upbringing. I had all this shame around the fact that I needed to take care of myself, so I just didn't. I lived on doughnuts and Mountain Dew and whatever was at the nurses' station to get me through that next delivery or that next surgery. I was slowly killing myself.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 12:25
It wasn't until I had a failed back surgery. I took six weeks off like a good patient. The third night on call, I re-injured and couldn't move. I was stuck in a delivery, and I couldn't function. I just thought: “Okay, I don't know what needs to happen. Let me go back to the surgeon.” Do you know what he said to me? “Oh, it's no big deal. Back surgery is like Lay's potato chips; you can't have just one. We'll just put some rods and screws in there. You might herniate above or below. You might need more surgery.” I was like: “Time out! What are you talking about? I'm 40 years old. You want to do more surgery?”
Dr. Tabatha Barber 13:05
And I did the unthinkable: I quit working for four months. I went on this journey. I found Dr. Amy Myers and Dr. Mark Hyman, and I just started listening to podcasts and reading books. I had no idea this whole world of health and wellness even existed because, as a doctor, you might not realize this listening right now, but we are trained in disease and diagnoses. We are not trained in health and wellness. I didn't know how to make people healthy. It was a foreign concept. So once I found this whole new world, I couldn't go back. I healed myself. I never had a second surgery. I've run 10Ks since then. And I couldn't no longer be an OB-GYN. I just couldn't do that Band-Aid medicine anymore. So now my new mission is: Tell women the truth. Tell them what's happening.
Dr. Jill 14:09
Wow! There are so many points I want to touch on in your story. It's so exciting. I love that you shared. And many of my listeners know this because we talk frankly about medical education—the good and then the not-so-good. And we both know that. We're traditionally trained. But so many patients are frustrated with the lack of answers. And it's literally ignorance in the sense that most doctors really want to be healers. They really want to help.
Dr. Jill 14:36
I'm sure you and I have both experienced this: Most of our colleagues in functional medicine, including both of our stories, when we come to the end of what regular medicine can provide, either [with] an illness in ourselves—like [what happened with] your back, [or] for me, it was breast cancer, Crohn's disease and all the stuff I've been through—or a loved one that we have or friends or family, and we don't have the answers, then we're like: “What else is possible?” And then if we can encounter functional medicine, I love that you said that it's like we get the virus—we joke about the virus of functional medicine—and then we can't undo it. You can't go back.
Dr. Jill 15:08
When I moved out here to start my functional medicine practice in Colorado, I was going to moonlight—urgent care—to make some money because I wasn't making any money in the first year of my practice. But I was like: “I don't think I can do that because I'm just going to be prescribing antibiotics and blood pressure medications.” There's nothing wrong with that, but when you know that there's a root-cause way to go deeper and reverse illness that we were taught is irreversible, it's unethical, right? [laughs]
Dr. Tabatha Barber 15:32
Right. I actually tried to do functional medicine on Fridays in my OB-GYN office. I got the administration to let me do this—hour-long appointments; they let me bill for time—and it didn't even last two months. They were like: “Nope, you're not making enough money. You can't do that anymore.” And I was an amazing surgeon. I'm just going to be honest: People came from far and wide because I was an advanced robotic surgeon. I loved advanced, difficult endometriosis cases, fibroid cases, and prolapse surgeries. But what I realized was that I wanted to talk to them about their diet and their stress and all of these things, and I didn't want to do surgery anymore. I didn't feel right about it. As much as I loved that, I knew I had to give that part of my life up and start this new journey.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 16:32
It's really scary. I come from nothing. I was the first person in my family to graduate from a four-year college. And here I am with this fancy 401k, this beautiful salary, and this established life. I gave it all up for who knows what? Like you said, you didn't make any money. I had no guarantee of anything. I was risking it all, but I knew it was the right thing to do and that God was going to take care of me.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 17:04
If you're feeling like “I can't,” I have so many patients, honestly, who are stuck in their health crises. It's because they hate their jobs; they hate their relationships. Something needs to shift, but they're afraid. And I promise you, it is so much better on the other side. You have to take that leap of faith and go for it. And it's going to be okay. I promise you.
Dr. Jill (pre-recording) 17:30
Hey, everybody. I just stopped by to let you know that my new book, Unexpected: Finding Resilience through Functional Medicine, Science, and Faith, is now available for order wherever you purchase books. In this book, I share my own journey of overcoming a life-threatening illness and the tools, tips, tricks, hope, and resilience I found along the way. This book includes practical advice for things like cancer and Crohn's disease and other autoimmune conditions, infections like Lyme or Epstein-Barr, and mold- and biotoxin-related illnesses. What I really hope is that as you read this book, you find transformational wisdom for health and healing. If you want to get your own copy, stop by ReadUnexpected.com. There, you can also collect your free bonuses. So grab your copy today and begin your own transformational journey through functional medicine and finding resilience.
Dr. Jill 18:27
Oh, that is such a good word because I know so many people listening right now are hearing us and are like, “Yes, but it's scary.” And it is scary. There's a chapter in my book called “Believe, Act, Wait.” And you know how it is to write a book. We're going to talk about your Fast to Faith book. And I hope if you're listening out there, you will get a copy of this book. It's profound and so powerful. But one thing in the “Believe, Act, Wait”—you know how it is, as you're writing your book, it's almost like therapy because you're writing out your story. I didn't even realize this pattern in my life until I wrote it in the chapter and it's this thing that over and over happened. So it's: Believe for the impossible, like something God promises you. Like, could you be a doctor?
Dr. Jill 19:06
I was the same way. I grew up in a farm family in Illinois—no doctors, a few nurses. No one had set that precedent. And like you, it was a chiropractor who said—I love chiropractors, so this just came from him, but he was an old school [one]—”You're too smart to be a chiropractor. Go to medical school.” So that was—just like that person who spoke into your life—my permission to do something different. And I did and it was terrifying.
Dr. Jill 19:31
But that belief has to be there first. You and I both had this belief in something greater, something that maybe seemed a little impossible. And I will say, if you're listening, that always the great things that God wants to do in your life seem impossible to us, and that's where he wants us in that faith. So yes, “believe.” “Act” is: Do what's in our power. You went to Michigan State. I went to medical school and did the applications and all that stuff. You do it in your power. And then the “wait” part is the part where we can't fulfill that, where we need God to show up. And I'd love to hear maybe an example or two of how you felt that God has shown up.
Dr. Jill 20:06
If you're out there thinking about your impossible situation, you need to believe it's possible first. You need to believe in your heart that you can do anything you set your mind to with the help of your higher power and God in your life. And then second, you need to do what you can, which is the act. You have to step forward; you have to step out.
Dr. Jill 20:21
I described it like if you're in a fog and you have just stones on a pond and you're taking one step. You can only see one stone ahead of you, and then the next one appears, and then the next one. But you have to have the faith to believe that the path will reveal itself. And then the “wait” is the miracle part. For me, it's prayer, like, “God, I need you to show up!” Do you have any stories like that of where you did the “believe,” “act,” and God showed up in a big way where we couldn't accomplish it?
Dr. Tabatha Barber 20:46
Oh my gosh. Almost on a daily basis, honestly. And I'll tell you, the more you are open to receiving God's blessings and you do trust and lead your life in a faithful way, the more you're going to see it, the more you're going to recognize it, and it's going to happen more and more.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 21:13
When I started my online fasting program, I would teach women how to fast. It would be eight weeks. They'd have amazing results. Then they would go back to their normal lives, the weight would come back on, and they wouldn't feel good anymore. It wasn't until I added the faith piece that women really understood how to surrender to God, get their strength from a higher power, and stop relying on their own willpower or things that aren't sustainable in the long term. So I started seeing these transformations.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 21:54
In one of the first groups I had, I had a 70-year-old woman who had uncontrolled diabetes. I think her hemoglobin A1C was 8.5. It's supposed to be around 5 or something like that. My fasting program is a progressive fasting program, so it teaches you how to break up with sugar and how to go from being a sugar burner to a fat burner. And it's this stepwise approach of breaking up with snacks and getting fat adapted and it leads up to a three-day water fast. She was so committed to believing in her body again because we had all these conversations about how she had given up on her body and she didn't think she was going to shift. We got her to believe by reading scripture, by getting into the word every day and [by] hearing what God had for her that she was like: “Okay, I'm all in; I'm going to do this three-day water fast.” She came out of that a new woman. She was unstoppable. She couldn't brag about herself enough. She rechecked her hemoglobin A1C. It was 6-something.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 23:13
That was the turning point for me: If you teach people how to believe in themselves again and rely on God for their strength, they can do anything. And to watch people reverse diseases, heal, and feel amazing again… I think she could only go outside for an hour max a day to [later being able to] go to her son's graduation multiple states away and feel great. That instilled in me: “You're doing the right thing. Keep going. Be patient.” Because I want everything on my time. I want it yesterday—right now. And God is like: “You have to just trust me. I'm lining everything up in a way that you don't even understand. So just trust my timing.”
Dr. Tabatha Barber 24:03
I ended up creating a method out of that called the FAITH IT method because it was so powerful to see. If you lead with faith, you get into a fasting lifestyle, you ask God for what you want, and you ink it down, like you were saying, because you get so much clarity… It stops being this jumbled mess in your brain, and you're like, “Oh yes, there's the solution!” And then you trust God's timing. These acts are so powerful. They can create massive shifts in your health.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 24:40
I've been trying to teach women: You've got to FAITH IT. Stop faking it till you make it. That doesn't work. You've got to FAITH IT, and you have to get into action because action creates clarity and it shows God that you're serious. He wants to partner with you and give you all that you dream of having.
Dr. Jill 25:03
Yes, and even more. It's always like this or something better.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 25:06
Always! Always! That's the amazing part—our believing.
And what I see over and over again in my practice—we're seeing people from all over—is they're giving up or they're assuming that getting well and healing is an outside job, like somebody's going to do it for them, someone has the answer for them. I explain [how] when I was a surgeon and I would cut through your skin, your fascia, and your uterus or remove an organ, I would put the sutures in to close you back up, but I didn't heal you. Your tissues grew back together on their own. I just put them next to each other. Your body does the healing. You have to look back to yourself and give your body what it needs. That is where you're going to see all the changes that you're looking for.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 26:07
So for anybody listening, I know it sounds almost like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, but you have everything you need to heal. It's all within you. You just need to tap into it. Click your heels, tap into God, and honestly, if you want to change your body, if you want to heal your body, you have to change your mind. It all starts in the mind. And if you can get control of your mind and shift that, you can change anything about your physical body.
Dr. Jill 26:41
Oh, I love, love every word that you're saying. And I know there are people out there listening who needed to hear this today. One thing as I listened to you that comes to mind is that both you and I went through medical school. And in order to survive, literally our medical education is: Suppress your needs—like you said. It's so common, like: Don't eat; don't pee. See how long you can stay up. How long can you go without food? There's this almost underground current of bragging rights.
Dr. Jill 27:05
And you remember the days. At least for me, if you're sick, you come into work. This was pre-COVID. Unless you are dead or in the ICU, you are reporting to work. I remember having cyclical fevers with my Crohn's up 101.5. I was in the ER working—until I passed out. [laughs]
Dr. Jill 27:23
And what that breeds is why I'm speaking to those women out there or anyone listening: We are suppressing. Our body gives us these signals like, “Oh, there's a little bit of heartburn” or maybe “My stomach's upset.” Those are signals that something's not right or that maybe we're imbalanced. And you and I have this story that's [been] so similar [where] for many years, we are just like: Shut up, body; we need to perform; we need to show up. And we did a really good job, right? The same as you; I could relate to your story.
Dr. Jill 27:51
But part of your healing and mine and what you're teaching women is: How do you reconnect with this beautiful, beautiful creation that God has given us?—because it has all the information we need. Do you want to talk a little bit about that? Also, there's shame and hatred towards our bodies. As women, we have parts that we don't like. And I love that you're talking about: How do we engage with our bodies, love ourselves, love this creation that God has given us and also start to listen to ourselves for clues on how to heal?
Dr. Tabatha Barber 28:20
My goodness, yes. You cannot heal a body you hate. That's what I was trying to do for so long. I was mad at my body because it couldn't function sleep-deprived or on garbage Frankenfoods that aren't nourishing; they're depleting. All the things.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 28:41
And you hit on something really important. All those symptoms are messages. They're warning signs. Your body is trying to tell you something. Your body has incredible innate intelligence and is always trying to be in balance and get into healing. That's what it does. That's its job. And we are preventing it because we keep adding in the insults and the injuries. We don't give it what it's screaming for.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 29:11
In Chapter Three, I talk about “Find your intuition” because you used to know what those signals meant when you were a little girl. I remember getting stomach aches when I could tell somebody was sketchy and I shouldn't be around them or [when I felt] like, “This is a dangerous situation.” Your body does tell you. But we have been ingrained, like: “Ignore that! Push through. Keep going. Just ignore.” We do the same thing with periods and in our girls and ourselves. You're having heavy, painful periods? [People tend to say], “Just drug it; just get rid of that symptom,” when your body's screaming at you: There's a problem! You have estrogen dominance. There's a problem. You have gut dysbiosis. Something is happening. You have mold toxicity. But we don't listen. We just cover up the symptoms.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 30:09
Maybe you just need to get the book and go straight to Chapter Three and read about this because our gut has a whole separate nervous system that is talking to us through the vagus nerve. If we could just get back in tune and figure out, “What is our body saying to us?” that is power. That is part of how you take back control. And I teach women the difference between, say, sugar cravings, which are coming from your addiction to sugar or gluten… I had a gluten addiction. The bad bacteria or yeast that it's feeding are sending you these signals. You need to break up with them and kill that off, and then you can get some clarity around what your body is saying and also start to discern that we don't need to give in to every fleshly desire.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 31:02
Could you imagine if we did that with sex, drugs, or other things? That's where people get into trouble. Yet, we okay it when it comes to sugar and those types of things and alcohol. We really need to get that into check because it's destroying our health, absolutely. So [it's about] getting some discernment around that and learning to maybe ride the hunger wave.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 31:28
A lot of people are surprised to hear about ghrelin, our hunger hormone. Yes, it goes up and we get hungry, but it's a pulsatile hormone. It comes back down 15-20 minutes later. If you ride that wave and you don't give in, you're not going to be hungry in half an hour. So maybe you don't need to eat every time you feel that way. Maybe you need to really take back control and honor your body.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 31:59
I really started to figure out: “Where are you taking me with this whole thing, God? Teaching women how to tap in and read scripture for their faith, where does fasting come in? What are you saying about our body?” I did some deep diving and really tried to figure all this out. When I came upon 1 Corinthians 6, it was a slap in the face. It says: “Do you not know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? You are not your own. You were bought at a price; therefore, honor God with your body.” And I was treating my body like a garbage can. I was dumping in it whatever, I was abusing it, and then I was yelling at it and mad at it because it wouldn't perform. And God is saying: I gave you this body for this earthly experience for a reason, and you are not taking care of it. There's a problem.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 33:02
So I would invite you to evaluate: How are you treating your body? What is your mind saying to your body? Does your mind need to be cut off at the knees? Is it talking crazy? Is it saying things like “You're so fat,” “You're so old,” or “You're so slow”? Those are all lies that we have to get rid of. We have to reprogram your mind if you want to change how you're feeling and how you're functioning without a doubt. It's all very possible, but it takes some truth. It takes looking at yourself and being honest with: What am I saying to myself? How am I treating my body? What is happening? And am I ignoring my body and it's actually screaming at me? We can figure all that out and you could be unrecognizable a year or six months from now.
Dr. Jill 33:58
Wow, such great tips and information!
Now, fasting, we've talked a little bit about. And of course, your book is Fast to Faith. How did you incorporate the fasting?—because there are a lot of people out there talking about that, and it's powerful. I love your perspective because it's almost like a discipline. And God teaches us to fast, so it's from the Creator. But in that, if you feel ashamed of your body or you feel like you're not enough or all these wrong messages and you start to fast and get control over your hunger, to me, it seems like it would be very empowering. Is that what you found? Or, how did you find that to be so powerful in your book and in your program?
Dr. Tabatha Barber 34:38
Yes, absolutely. It's so powerful. I came upon it when I was lying in bed for five days after I re-injured my back and I couldn't move. My husband was carrying me to the toilet. That was about the extent of me moving. I opened the Bible. Well, first I realized about day three or four, like, “Oh my gosh, I don't think I've really eaten anything.” And I thought, “Hmm, that's interesting.”
Dr. Tabatha Barber 35:10
Then I started to remember my internship and my surgical residency training. One of the first things that you're taught as a surgeon is to write NPO orders, meaning you tell the nurse, “Do not feed my patient again until I tell you to.” There were a few reasons for that, but one of the biggest reasons is that when you eat, you are using resources. You're using energy. So if you've just had surgery, we don't want to feed the patient. We need you to heal. All your energy needs to go toward healing, so we just leave the gut alone. And my body was unintentionally fasting, trying to heal me.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 35:56
So I was like: “What does God say about fasting? I do lent. What's that about?” Then I started studying and realized that whenever God wants you closer to Him, or He wants you to heal, or He wants you to have more discernment, He wants you to get into that fasting mode. And really, it should be a lifestyle because that is how our body was created to function. We did not exist with grocery stores on every corner and DoorDash thousands of years ago. We had to go times without food on a regular basis, and then we would eat.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 36:38
What I have found that works amazing for women is this feast-famine cycling, where you're eating the carbs and then you're not eating the carbs, because we're not little men. We can't fast like little men. Husbands will do it. They'll drop 30 pounds and feel amazing. Women will struggle the whole time and be hangry and jittery, maybe lose five pounds, and then give up. It's because we need to do this carb cycling, and we need to do it in a way that doesn't tell our thyroid we're starving because that will downregulate in a hot minute and would be like, “Oh, she's starving us to death; hold on to everything even tighter,” and [it will] downregulate your metabolism.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 37:21
We have to learn how to do it in a way that encourages our body to thrive and to function. That's why the progressive plan that I'm teaching has seemed to be the game changer, especially in menopause. Menopausal women thrive with fasting. Their brain works so good. They have so much more energy. Everything functions beautifully. I love seeing that transformation. But you've got to do it the right way. And I promise you, your body was created to live this way. It honestly was.
Dr. Jill 38:00
That's such a great explanation, too. I remember, years ago, hearing patients come and say, “Doc, if I didn't eat, I'd feel great,” because they would always have this after-meal [discomfort], [what] we call postprandial fatigue or brain fog or not feeling well. And then I learned about LPS—of course, you know—endotoxemia, which is how all of us, even those who are healthy, to some extent, dump these bacterial coatings into our bloodstream after we eat. The food and the fats that we eat carry that. This LPS stuff is underlying diabetes, obesity, heart disease, insomnia, mood—you could name 101 things, and it's so common. It's so cool that even God's word and his instructions fit with the physiology. It's like, “Of course!” But it really is even more powerful that way because it makes sense.
Dr. Jill 38:47
Are there any contraindications? Obviously, pregnancy or whatever. But are there a few times when a woman would maybe want to be more cautious about fasting?
Dr. Tabatha Barber 38:56
They usually say definitely pregnancy and breastfeeding. And if you're trying to get pregnant—you're in those fertile years and that's your goal—you don't necessarily want to do it at any extended fasts if you're actively trying to get pregnant because it can interfere with your period. But if you're not getting pregnant because you have medical conditions, you might want to do this before attempting to get pregnant because it can heal so much.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 39:28
That's the incredible thing: When you fast, all those bad bacteria and yeast start to die because you're not feeding them the sugar and the things that are keeping them alive. And the cells in our intestines, in our gut, start to heal. They're turning over every 48 to 72 hours. If you aren't disrupting them and destroying them with the foods… I love to call them Frankenfoods because that's not really food. Or even some people with food sensitivities will start reacting to normal healthy foods, like you said, because they have an overgrowth of bad bacteria. They're having inappropriate immune responses. They're having these endotoxins destroy them. So all of that stops and gives your body time to heal.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 40:22
We haven't even touched [on] the topic of diabetes and insulin resistance, fatty liver, and all of that. That's a whole other thing. Our standard American diet is destroying us. Ninety-six million of us have prediabetes. I see it every single day. And women are frustrated: “Why can't I lose weight?” “Why am I waking up in the middle of the night?” “Why do I feel terrible?” Because your insulin is being produced 24/7. Every time you eat, you've got to produce more insulin. Your cells don't hear the signal, you've got to make more, and you're stuck in this vicious cycle. And fasting helps stop all of that. It's so powerful!
Dr. Jill 41:08
Wow. And like you said, I'm sure you see far-reaching [examples]. Do you have any examples of maybe a story or two of a patient that maybe it was something like Hashimoto's or something that seemed unrelated that resolved as they were doing your program?
Dr. Tabatha Barber 41:21
Oh my gosh, migraines are the biggest, most common thing I see because women go decades with these migraines or they get new-onset migraines in menopause. Oftentimes, it's related to this chronic increase in intestinal permeability—a.k.a. leaky gut—reacting to foods inappropriately, having these endotoxins go into the bloodstream, and all the systemic inflammation. When they stop that vicious cycle, they're no longer getting the headaches, the eczema, the brain fog, and the fatigue. It can be really powerful.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 42:02
I myself put my Hashimoto's pretty much into remission. My thyroid still needs support because they tried to kill it off, essentially. So I'm on levothyroxine and liothyronine. But my TPO antibodies were just over 900—they didn't even give me a number; it was too high for a number—and now it's like five. That is so powerful to me because I lived with this uncontrolled Hashimoto's up until about five years ago, when I really dialed in the fasting lifestyle and obviously removed gluten 100% and just focused on an anti-inflammatory diet. But it really was the fasting that took it to the final level of calming my immune system because, like you mentioned, every time I ate, I was exhausted. I wanted to sit on the couch and not function for the next two hours. I was like, “Something's definitely wrong with my gut.” So I got into this pattern of feeling better when I didn't eat, functioning better.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 43:18
I need to watch it because I will regularly go up until 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. without eating because I function so much better. I'm like, “Oh, I need to get that fat, protein, and fiber in.” So I have to watch that. But it really is a testament to the fact that when you're in a fasted state, your body can thrive. It really can.
Dr. Jill 43:50
Yes. Gosh, I can see how there's so much power in stories. And, again, this program makes so much sense. One other thought was that we're not taught this in medical school, but autoimmunity is considered. I remember my doctor telling me that I had Crohn's disease: “This is lifelong. You're going to need immune-modulating drugs,” and there's a spiel. And now I talk about—as you are—reversing the irreversible, which is almost any autoimmune disease, and curing the incurable. So these things that we're taught in medical school are just static or lifelong states, with your program, I'm sure you're seeing these reversing—things that were considered irreversible. Even diabetes, right? Of course you're seeing that!
Dr. Tabatha Barber 44:28
Absolutely. Definitely diabetes. Definitely fatty liver. Positive ANA markers—women are on the path to systemic sclerosis and things like that, and we are making those antibodies negative. That means your immune system is no longer attacking your own body inappropriately. To me, that is so exciting and so powerful. Your immune system was just trying to protect you.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 44:59
That's what I want to get across to people: Your body is always working for you, not against you. We think: “It's betraying me.” I hated my body for everything it was doing, and it was trying to protect me from all of the stuff I was bringing into it and how I was living. Once you can get into a relationship where you're honoring your body, you're like: “Thank you for that warning. Thank you for protecting me. Thank you for downregulating my thyroid. I don't want to gain weight and have constipation, but now I know what's happening, and I can go and investigate and figure it out.” So if you just come at our body from a different place—a place of love and respect—you're going to make way more progress than if you just keep being angry and feeling like it's failing you because it's got amazing innate intelligence. And it's not failing you; it's reacting and responding appropriately.
Dr. Jill 46:05
So well said. Just a couple of last questions. The first one is, looking back at that young girl who went through so much, and yet those things transformed who you are, what would you say to that young 15- or 18-year-old girl?—or whenever that was in your life.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 46:22
Oh my goodness. I would have told her to stop eating all the gluten, dairy, and sugar way long ago. I wish I would have learned that before 40 because that destroyed so much of my life. I was in a lot of pain for a long time. So I would definitely give her that advice. She probably wouldn't have taken it. [laughter] But honestly, to always ask why, to keep searching for answers, and to be in a mind of curiosity. Not being angry, not being frustrated, but being curious. Like: “God, what are you trying to tell me? Body, what are you trying to tell me? What can I learn from this trial, this tribulation?” And just be content knowing that God's got you and there's something greater on the other side of all of that. And you're going to make it through. You are. I promise.
Dr. Jill 47:22
Oh, so good! These are fantastic sound bites. The last question, which you kind of alluded to. Not everybody who listens to me has faith like you and I do, and that's okay. But I wonder about that woman out there who's like: “Yes, that's great for you ladies. You know God's power and you've seen it.” And you and I both could tell story after story after story. What do we say to that woman who is like, “I don't know if I have the faith; I'm not sure”? What could you tell her?
Dr. Tabatha Barber 47:48
Oh my goodness, I'm so glad you asked me this. Like I mentioned, I was raised Catholic, and I was given a lot of beliefs. I got angry at the church. I remember being about 20 years old and someone I knew committed suicide. They didn't acknowledge her in church that Sunday. They didn't mention her name, and her entire family was sitting there. I just thought: “It wasn't for her. I know you think she sinned, but it is for her entire family that's sitting here grieving. We need to acknowledge them.”
Dr. Tabatha Barber 48:31
That really set into me the difference between religion and spirituality, religion and faith. You can keep religion. That's up to you. I love when people find a church home because community is everything and that's what I'm trying to grow—this sisterhood of women—because we thrive in community. I believe that's how we were created to be. But sometimes organized religion can really get in the way of your faith and your spirituality.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 49:04
I would invite you if you're listening to this: Don't be afraid to start talking to God in an honest way, like [to] the father you never had. [For] a lot of us, our fathers didn't show up the way we wanted them to, if at all. God wants to be that unconditionally loving father who is a provider in giving you guidance and direction, teaching you, and holding your hand the entire way. But because we don't understand that kind of perfection and love, it's hard for us to even accept, acknowledge, or seek any of that.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 49:50
Once I really acknowledged, like, “Oh my gosh, you do want the best for me; you put these dreams in my heart; you do want all of this to happen,” like, “Let's do this together; let me rely on you,” everything started to shift. And it was me having real, authentic conversations with him, like: “I'm struggling, God. I don't get this. I'm sad. I'm angry. And I need you to come in right now and show me some semblance of hope. One next step. Something.”
Dr. Tabatha Barber 50:27
And if you start getting into an attitude of gratitude and thanking Him before it's done, that's what really shifted me. As soon as I'm conscious and awake in the morning, I start rattling off the gratitudes. “I thank you that you're giving me an amazing day. I thank you that I'm going to have a fabulous connection with Dr. Jill. I thank you that my patients are healing.” I thank Him as if it's already done. Literally, I tell you, those things start to be done because that is energetically what happens. Quantum physics isn't made up. It's actual science. And that is what happens. You attract those things that you are thankful for. So play around with that. And I can teach you that.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 51:18
We ended up creating Fast to Faith as an app because the program was great, it's online, but it's only run twice a year live. And the book is great, but you're on your own. So I was like: “We need an app where these women are coming together and I'm pouring into them and teaching them the FAITH IT method and how not to be afraid of the Bible.”
Dr. Tabatha Barber 51:45
In the Bible, God is talking to you in this very moment. It's not for men 2,000 years ago. It's a living, nourishing word that will speak life into you whenever you ask. If you can get that, that's going to change everything. It's incredible. So give me seven days. We have a free seven-day trial on the app and you might be surprised how easy it is.
Dr. Jill 52:14
Oh, Dr. Tabatha, that's a great way to end, and it's so powerful. I'm reading a book called Power ss. Force. It's not a religious book, but at the core, it's quantum love and unconditional acceptance, not only to those around us but to our own bodies. That's the transformation. That's the higher energy. And that's what God teaches us versus rules and regulation and judgment and all those. It's very different energy. And I'm sure that you're speaking to some women who have had the latter experience and maybe been turned off to that. But talk to God. I love that. That's simple. You can all do that. And test Him; He's pretty good for that. [laughs]
Dr. Tabatha Barber 52:49
Yes. But don't treat Him like a genie in a bottle. He's not there to just make your wishes come true. He is there to guide and direct you and give you an amazing life. And sometimes what you are asking for and what you think is best for you actually isn't because He sees everything. He sees things you're not seeing, and He might be preventing you from major heartache or heartbreak. You think it's a bad thing that you didn't get what you wanted, but there might be something even better. So you've got to just keep trusting and believing. I promise you.
Dr. Jill 53:30
Amazing. If you haven't already, while you're watching the show, bought the book, you need to go out and get it. But where can people find you and your programs? And if you're driving, don't take this down. This will be in all the show notes. But for now, go ahead and tell us where people can find you.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 53:43
Yes, it's super simple. DrTabatha.com. It's three A's, no I. And Fast to Faith is FastToFaith.com or go on the Fast to Faith app. Try it for seven days. I just want to pour into you and show you what's possible, especially if you're at the halfway point in your life and you're like: “Man, things are starting to look different. My kids are growing up. Things are changing. I don't love my job anymore.” There's a whole new future for you. I promise.
Dr. Jill 54:14
This episode has been one of my favorites.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 54:17
Yay!
Dr. Jill 54:17
Aw, thank you so much, Dr. Tabatha.
And everyone out there listening, thank you for joining us for another episode. Of course, you can find this on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, anywhere you listen to podcasts, or my YouTube channel. And if you want the transcripts, you can find them all at JillCarnahan.com.
Thanks again, Dr. Tabatha. This has been amazing.
Dr. Tabatha Barber 54:34
Thank you.
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The product mentioned in this article are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The information in this article is not intended to replace any recommendations or relationship with your physician. Please review references sited at end of article for scientific support of any claims made.
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