About Linda
Linda Favreau, CNC, is attended the Natural Healing Institute of Naturopathy, specializing in nutritional genetic consulting and environmentally acquired illnesses (i.e., Lyme, Mold, CIRS, CFS/ME, Autoimmune, Autism, GI, Retroviruses, and Cancer.) She is passionate about ​helping others unlock the root cause behind their acute and chronic illnesses. Linda founded ‘Nutrition and Your Genes’ to help communicate her research to others in the areas of epigenetics and nutrition; better known as 'nutrigenomics.' She believes in the importance of epigenetics and takes a functional and integrative medicine approach without ignoring the underlying infections. However, she goes a step beyond and takes a biological medicine approach which focuses on the millieu!
Her nutritional programs are 'bio-individualized' for each person; derived from biochemical and physiological knowledge for the purpose of promoting good health while recognizing the individuality of each client. She has healed many of her own health issues and wants to help others d​o the same. 'Let's get happy and healthy!'
Linda's Story
Linda continues to study the work of Dr. Ben Lynch and is a certified practitioner listed on his Seeking Health Physician's Directory page and a member of his Seeking Health Institute. She attended Sterling's MABIM Conference on the 'Integration of the Functional Medicine Approach to Genetics' in conjunction with MTHFRSupport.com and is listed on Sterling Hill's Practitioner's List. She is a member of Functional Genomic Analysis (formerly MethylGenetic Nutrition AnalysisTM) and is listed on their Health Care Professional Directory page. She trained with Opus23 at Dr. D'Adamo's Genetic Center of Excellence. In addition to Dr. Ben Lynch, Bob Miller, and Dr. D'Adamo, she relentlessly follows an additional 20+ practitioners who regularly research, publish, and/or share their nutrigenomic and epigenetic findings; i.e., Dr. Neil Nathan, Dr. Roberts, Suzy Cohen RPh, Dr. Zenker, Dr. Stephen Genuis, Dr. Rostenberg, Dr. Stephanie Seneff, Chris Shade, PhD, Dr. Mercola, Dr. Dale Bredensen, Dr. M. Fossel, Dr. David Perlmutter, Dr. Kara Fitzgerald, Dr. Yasko, and Dr. Steven Gundry, Dr. Schaffner, and one of her mentors, Dr. Klinghardt.....just to name a few. This is a fast moving exciting new field; what was true yesterday, may not be true today, and Linda stays informed and up to date.
Linda is a CNC, Certified Nutritionist Consultant, and resides in Newport Beach, California. She is attending the Natural Healing Institute, College of Naturopathy, in Encinitas, CA, where she is studying to be a Nutrition and Holistic Health. In addition, she studied and is certified in ART (Autonomic Response Testing) with the Klinghardt Institute; completing all 3 courses of ART I, ART II and ART III.) She has multiple certifications with Dr. Ben Lynch at Seeking Health. She has a Bachelor’s Degree and two Lifetime Teaching Credentials from the California State University in Long Beach and her Master’s Studies was in Human Development at La Verne College.
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I want to share something with you---I am a healthy survivor of what we call 'immune dysfunction' along with 'environmental acquired illness,' known as Chronic Lyme Disease, co-infections, viruses and retroviruses; a very complex multi-faceted, immune suppressive, bacterial infection; better known today by many as a 'tick borne illness.' Lyme is difficult to test and diagnose; there are many false negatives. I also sustained a mold injury. In addition, I have compound homozygous MTHFR mutation (ugh!) That means my detoxification pathways were extremely compromised! I have been searching for answers for many years. Over a twenty year time span I was diagnosed by allopathic doctors with insomnia, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome; the typical Lyme diagnosis. Then, years later, the floodgates opened; heart palpitations (discovered after a near death experience scuba diving in the ocean off Catalina Island), then Hashimoto's, tinnitus, vertigo, encephalopathy and debilitating anxiety and depression, the list goes on. But these were merely terms for a 'traditional medical diagnoses;' just labels for a labyrinth of descriptive symptoms (for 'immune dysfunction and undiagnosed environmentally acquired illnesses.') And then, I turned it all around! Yes, I said, I turned it around, and you can too!
Intuitively, I knew that there was a root cause for the litany of health conditions I was experiencing. I kept searching. I thought I had a healthy lifestyle. I exercised 3X a week for over 30+ years, ate nourishing whole foods, took my supplements, kept my weight under control, and tried to have a little fun to alleviate stress....and still I was so very exhausted and experienced debilitating 'cognitive dysfunction' these last few years. I got regular medical check ups and all my lab results were considered 'normal' by allopathic standards. What was going on? Normal? Did conventional medicine fail me? What is the root cause for these ailments? It was a 'stealth' pathogen, viruses and retroviruses. By the way, most of us have stealth pathogens, but you may not have discovered it as of yet...but they are there!
A few years ago, I personally discovered what I thought was the Lyme (Borrelia burgdorferi) spirochete, while viewing my live blood analysis using dark field microscopy. Wow! While looking at my blood sample under this powerful microscope, I saw the spine chilling 'super spirochetes' swimming erratically out of my oxygen deprived blood cells. They were tenacious and virulent, after 45 minutes without oxygen, under a hot lamp, they kept swimming with such velocity! The newly evolved Lyme bacteria were like 'morphed spirochetes on steroids!' I was astonished and devastated. I began to cry. I knew the challenges that lie ahead for me. I soon conducted blood tests through IGeneX Labs and sought out Dr. Klinghardt's Autonomic Response Testing (ART.) Not only did I have the Borrelia burgdorferi, but I had a myriad of co-infections, as well as a litany of viruses and parasites...too many to list here. Once the immune system is compromised, microbes just seem to pile on! Then, there's pleomorphism...a topic for another day. This is what caused my extremely severe chronic fatigue, encephalitis, and loss of vitality for so many years. But, NEVER GIVE UP!
Lyme is NOT an East Coast disease; it's a worldwide pandemic. (The CDC once said 400,000 people a year became infected with Lyme. That's now been revised; the truth is about 500,000 to 1M a year and climbing!) I found Lyme, or shall I say, Lyme found me, right here in Orange County, California, walking my dog in O'Neill Regional Park over 30 years ago! (I confirmed my suspicion through biofeedback.) I never pulled a tick off my body! So, how did I get it? Lyme can be carried by a variety of vectors; spiders, fleas, mosquitoes, lice and ticks. Surprisingly, many people have the Lyme spirochete in their body; some of us become ill, and some DO NOT. Why? It depends are your immune system and this is where genetics and epigenetics play an important role. It's NOT about 'killing the Lyme,' it's about rebuilding and strengthening the immune system! Lyme is a neurotoxin and an 'immune suppressive disease,' which means we need to eliminate the heavy metals, environmental chemicals, bacteria and mold toxins.....it's that simple.
My Lyme journey led me to interviewing multiple practitioners; MD's, ND's, DO's, Kinesiologists, Acupuncturists, Biochemists, Chiropractor's, as well as Integrative, Alternative, Holistic and Functional Practitioners, and more importantly, a therapist to help me with my childhood emotional trauma (see ACE's: Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire and the book, Childhood Disrupted, by D. J. Nakazawa.) I experimented with various treatments, changed my diet and supplements again and again; continued to detoxify, worked hard to improve my immune system and spent bucket loads of money, I didn't have. I researched online and interviewed specialists, read over 100 books about Lyme, chronic illnesses and autoimmune diseases, not to mention the hours I spent with my arms wrapped around my computer as I tried to stay awake to view a multitude of podcasts, webinars and online conferences that would reveal the secrets of how to heal from Lyme.
Chronic illnesses, autoimmune diseases and cancer have many parallels. Once the immune system is compromised, the mitochondria are damaged, your body begins to attack itself and break down. Essentially, tick borne illnesses can evolve into a multi-systemic infectious or autoimmune disease......your body is in state of 'cell danger response' (CDR; Robert Naviaux, Md, PhD.) Simply put, an intruder diverts the electrons, the cell voltage drops, and there is a decrease in electron flow within the mitochondria. As soon as they sense this drop, the mitochondria react---almost instantaneously decrease the oxygen consumption. Then, the oxygen concentration within the mitochondria rises, making cellular redox chemistry more oxidizing---they do this to shield the cell from further injury. This is the mitochondria's protective mechanism that has been going on since the beginning of time. Isn't that fascinating?
However, we CANNOT rule out our genetics! Specific genetic patterns lay the groundwork for roadblocks in our biochemical pathways that lead to increased zonulin, toxic ammonia, NOS uncoupling, hydrogen peroxide, peroxynitrites and hydroxyl radicals (which inevitably suppress the immune system and may cause chronic illnesses like Cancer, Parkinson's, ALS, and Alzheimer's.) We cannot detox effectively if our methylation isn't working! Learn more in my article, Lyme and Genetics, my Lyme Clinic page, and about specific SNPs on My Blog.
I continually research for new discoveries and new practices. I investigated many of the methodologies of well known Lyme Practitioner's such as Dr. Klinghardt, Dr. Cowden,
Dr. Buhner, Dr. Horowitz, Dr. Rau, Dr. Nathan, Dr. Burrascano, Dr. Ross, Dr. Minkoff, Dr. Anderson, Dr. Holtorf, Dr. Douwes, Dr. Patel, Dr. Rawls, Dr. Marco Rugiero, and Dr. Shoemaker (for mold/CIRS), to name just a few, for what would be the best approach for me, and inevitably, for you. No two Lyme patients are the alike, everyone is unique, depending on their body's terrain, emotional experiences, inherited genetics and a lifetime of toxic exposures. And again, here's where genetics, epigenetics and nutrition/supplementation come into play. What genes and biochemical pathways compromised me and set the stage that led me to chronic neurological Lyme and potential chronic illness or an autoimmune diseases? Let's find out.
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A little more about genetics, cancer and neurological disease:
Prior to discovering I had Lyme, I had lost my mother and two best girlfriends to female related cancers, and another friend to a brain tumor, two other friends to blood related cancers, one to liver cancer and another one to pancreatic cancer! What the hell is going on? As a result, I have been studying and practicing anti-cancer nutritional methodologies for over 30 years. My declining health and their deaths led me to pursue my dream of being a Holistic/ Functional Medicine Practitioner. During this time I began to study nutrigenomics and epigenetics. Twelve years ago I was researching my variant SNP reports and discovered I had the 'compound' heterozygous MTHFR, and just as important, MTRR, DHFR, PEMT, SOD, NOS, COMT, APOE, NRF2 and VDR among a litany of other undesirable, but common variants. This can set the stage for chronic illness. We all have some 'loss of function' genes, but some of us are worse off than others. Genetics may affect our health 20-25% of the time, but it's when these SNPs start 'expressing,' they can cause 'metabolic chaos,' according to Functional Medicine guru, Reed Davis, CNT.
Lyme (or any chronic illness) thrives in a 'chaotic system.' However, I agree with Dr. Perlmutter, and I am quoting from his book, Grain Brain, that 'we can change the expression of more than 70% of our genes that have a direct bearing on our health and longevity.' Wow, 70%.....that's huge!
'Genes are not your destiny, but they are your tendency!'
It wasn't until I discovered Dr. Ben Lynch's StrategeneTM approach to plotting one's SNPs on biochemical pathways and Bob Miller's Functional Genomic AnalysisTM that everything finally made sense to me! Now, I believe, armed with theses two strategic approaches, and a MTHFR Support Variant Report, a 'bio-individualized approach to nutrition,' and my own chronic illness journey, I can help others unlock the mysteries of their genetic make-up and help them heal themselves from within. Along with this wealth of knowledge and my first hand experience with chronic illness, I understand the challenges you might be facing and thus approach my personalized consulting with empathy and compassion. Reach out to me and let's get started!