Meet Allison Evans

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Hello, hello everyone, and welcome to another Beauty of Breathing episode. And today I have Allison with us. I know that you guys have heard about Allison before. I'm going to introduce her to you guys. So, Allison, hold on, let me make the screen smaller so I can see. All right, perfect. Uh, presenting to you guys Allison Evans. She is the co-founder of Brent Basics, who is passionate about helping others discover the life-changing benefits of clean living. By removing toxins from her home and diet, she overcame chronic pain, severe PCOS. I have that, moh exposure, and Lyme disease. And today, she's a proud mom of four, something she was once told it wouldn't be possible. Allison inspires others to experience the power of pure and believes in the body's God-given ability to heal when we simply get out of the way. You can follow her on Branch Basics Instagram. Today's topic is stuff the toxins and heal. Thank you, Allison, for agreeing to be here with us today.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to be here. I um just absolutely love what you're doing. And gosh, sitting next to you side by side with your huge big smile that I know you've worked hard so hard for, I'm gonna have to like be extra big because mine seems so simple.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

I have the palate of an eight-year-old child and you're fully expanded.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Oh my goodness. I know most of us, it's funny now, you know, after we get exposed to whatever it is, I just do feel that our challenges in life are directly related to our purpose. So whenever we start going into whatever field it is, if it's toxins, if it's sponsored expansion, tongue ties, malofunctional therapy, all of a sudden we start seeing things with a different lens, and it's so hard to unsee them.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

And with each child, because I'm I've had four children, they're I've been able to approach their oral, myofunctional issues, whatever it is, in a different way. And so I'm thinking, gosh, if I just had like 11 kids, by the end I would have it all figured out. You know, we always party in an expander, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Anyway, and when I had Zoe, Zoe's 11 now, and Benny's five. When I had Zoe, I didn't know any of this stuff. And this child, she would choke on milk. I think two or three times, she just turned purple as a newborn, and I had to turn her upside down and get, and the milk was coming out of her nose. I had to suck her nose to get her to breathe again. It was

Early Health Struggles And PCOS

SPEAKER_00 3:26

very scary, and I had no idea what was going on. They had she had you know the the witch hour or the colic for those who do not know what's wrong with how the baby is, or something you can do.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

You did you got a bad baby?

SPEAKER_00 3:41

How many times do we hear that? And I do believe that moms are going to change the world. I do, you know, by and that's why I think that we both do what we do in different uh uh specialties in different lenses. Um we are so passionate about what we do because it has changed our lives as mums, as business owners, as uh wives, mothers, just as women. And we know that there are so many people out there in similar uh places in life.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

So well, and that's why we started Branch Basics. My aunt always said we want to start the company to prevent people from one day saying, Why didn't somebody tell me this? Because a lot of the times it can be so much more simple than we realized, or if we had just started earlier, or if we had just gotten ahead of something, you know, the way that our body over time starts maladapting to everything from what you guys are doing with breathing, you know, dysfunction in the mouth and narrow palates and you know, just you know, dysfunctional tongue stuff, and then all the way to what we are doing with just using conventional products and not thinking that the things that we're putting in on and around our bodies are actually affecting us. Um, and so it's like, let's just get back to basics and help people understand because it can just totally change the trajectory of our children's lives and our own lives.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

I love that. And before we start, I do want to ask if anybody can relate to anything that you hear today. Please share this with a colleague. We and a friend, we're going to leave this open on our Instagram. And if you're here live, we're live on Instagram right now. Go ahead and hit on the little airplane button and invite three other people who you think are gonna benefit from this talk. So to start, Allison, your journey to healing is so inspiring. Can you start by sharing what first slide did you explore toxin-free living and how it transformed your health? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

So I grew up here in Houston, Texas, and standard American diet, standard American, you know, uh airway dysfunction, everything, everything stacked against me. Um, conventional cleaning products, synthetic candles, dryer sheets, perfumes. Ah, there's so much soy formula. You know, my mom was told, in fact, because I she kept getting mastitis. Well, of course she did. I have like an Eiffel Tower tongue tie. My tongue doesn't fit in my mouth. You know, I mean, it's like it all makes sense now. Like my poor mom, she called La Ledger League in like 1985 and they said just keep trying. It's like she cut, I couldn't get my tongue around her nipple. Anyway, so it all started with that. Um, so I had my period in sixth grade. I never had another period again. So in high school, I went to an endocrinologist here in Houston, Texas, and I was diagnosed with the worst case of polycystic ovarian syndrome he had ever seen. So cis all over my ovaries.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

And I remember asking, because I've always been kind of that type A. I want to do better. What can I, how can I improve? What can I know? And I remember asking, this was 2002, um, what can I do about all these cysts? And they said, absolutely nothing. It's genetic, it's becoming more common. You know, don't worry about it. Um, they put me on birth control and I was put on that indefinitely.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Yeah. Girl, it sounds so much like my story.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Yeah. It's crazy how relatable this is to so many women, sadly. So fast forward to college, I come down with this mysterious pain that started as, you know, oh, I'm just like kind of tight. And then by the end of my sophomore year, I mean, I am on painkillers, muscle relaxers, antidepressants, sleeping pills, everything, steroid injections. And um, we couldn't figure out what was going on. So my aunt comes in the picture and she starts asking me questions that nobody had else nobody else had asked me. So, what is your three-day diet diary? Um, what cleaning products do you use? Do you have a pesticide person that comes and sprays your apartment building? Uh, do you paint your nails? Do you use hairspray? Do you use Clorox? Um, had you recently moved or remodeled? Were you exposed to mold? And I'm thinking, like, what does this have to do with my health? You know, I've had all these,

Toxic Load And Daily Exposures

SPEAKER_02 8:01

I was traveling all over the country and I live in Houston, Texas. I have access to the best medical center, you know, one of the best in the world.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

You're doing Houston.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Exactly. I'm like right down the street. Um, but she explains to me that we all have this threshold of um toxic burden, essentially, right? And so we all have this certain amount of strength and resiliency, but there is a point where that threshold is reached and we reach spillover. So that can be eczema and allergies and behavioral disorders as a child, all the way to autoimmune and cancer and neurodegenerative disease as an adult. We don't just wake up with these issues, it's the daily micro doses of exposure that lead us to where we are. So she's like, you know, asking me about symptoms. I'm thinking, well, everyone else around me is using these products. I've been using these products my whole life. Everyone's healthy. And she's like, but are they healthy? You know, just because it's common, is it normal? And so I'm like rethinking my whole life. So I was able, just by getting rid of my Splenda, hundred calorie packs, wow, you know, daily, not daily, weekly nail visits with my college friends, opening my windows, not using dryer sheets. These are just kind of like low-hanging fruit that I started doing. And I was able to cut back significantly on the drugs that I was on. So by the end of it, I'm like, okay, what is this? This has been about a year and a half now of me living this lifestyle. And I beg Marile, she lives in the Texas Hill country. I said, please let me come visit you and live with you for the summer. So Kelly, my co-founder, my best friend, and I go and live with Marile in Hunt, Texas, where the floods were in Texas this summer. And we lived there for eight weeks, and that was when everything changed. We started eating real food, and I thought I had been eating real food my whole life. I don't think I've gone a day of my life eating an entire day of real food. So we're chopping. I'm like, I don't know how to chop. I'm like, I mean, I feel like would have served me better than learning finance or learning like I didn't even know how to food for myself. So I'm living in her home. It's completely free of toxic fragrances. And I want to just diverge for a second and tell Mariley's quick little bit of Marile's story because without her story, there's really no context for why we're even here. So she had two catastrophic events in her life. The first one opened her eyes to the importance of our diet. And then the second one opened her eyes to the importance of our environment. Because really, what we've understood now with science is that genetics loads the gun, but our choices pull the trigger. And so without being overwhelmed by that, we can actually feel empowered and there's a message of hope because we can actually do something. All these other doctors I've been going to, there was nothing that I could do. It was about family history and genetics and, you know, and which drugs measure the symptoms. Exactly. Exactly. So the first event that Marilyn had in her life, she lived here in Houston, Texas. She was essentially facing kidney failure in her 20s. And she had exploratory surgery. And the doctors said after the surgery, there is no way that your kidneys will ever get better. You need to have a transplant, get on dialysis immediately. And she loved doctors. She wanted to be a doctor. She was in pre-med at school, but she looked at them and she said, I am so glad you're not God because I do not want to be subject to what the medical field has to offer for me today. What if in 10, 20, 30, 40 years there's a discovery and I had already taken my kidneys out? So she just said no. And they're looking at her like, Are you crazy? Well, within a couple of days, this idea of using food as medicine comes across her plate. And basically, she started having this very specific medicinal diet. 10 days later, all of her numbers are in range. Her kidney numbers are perfect. She avoided dialysis, avoided a transplant. Wow. She's been on a prescription drug since and she's 74. Okay.

Eight Weeks That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_02 11:57

So fast forward to the early 90s, she's now in her 30s. She has one son who's my first cousin, Douglas. He's exposed to a banned pesticide in school. He's dropped off at school at 10 years old. He is obedient. He's coordinated. He's brilliant. He is um just a well-adapted child. He is picked up from school that day after being exposed to this pesticide. His lips are blue, his lip nose is rolling up like BBs. He can't spell a three-letter word, walk a straight line. You have to whisper because his brain had been so damaged. So that started a seven-year journey of basically the doctor said he'll never recover. He is a bubble boy. Keep him comfortable, give him 16 minutes a day. And again, she had that same feeling. I have so much respect for you, but this is not my story. My son will recover, his brain will regenerate. Well, now we know about neuroplasticity and the body's ability to heal and the brain's ability to reverse all of these things, this damage. But then we didn't. And so she kept him in, you know, she removed all these things from her home that he was reacting to, but they had to sleep outside in a cot because he couldn't come inside their home. So one day she's praying. She's like, God, what is it about my house? Why can't he come inside? Why is he so triggered? And she had this idea of this box, and it had all of her favorite perfumes and cleaning products and all these things. And she had packed it all up. She wasn't using any of it, but it was no, it was just in this box behind the closet door. And she removed it. And the next day, her son comes in. She didn't tell her husband. She didn't tell her son. And her son said, Mom, I don't know what it is, but I can stay in the house. I'm not, I'm not feeling like I have to leave. And she's like, Okay, didn't say a word. No way. This has to be a coincidence. This is crazy. The next day she's at the at the uh grocery store and she's going down the cleaning product aisle and she has this moment where she's like, All of these bottles are sealed shut. They haven't been used yet. I can smell them. That box, that box was her son's cleaning aisle because he was so severely damaged. His brain and his immune system were so compromised. He was so sensitive. So that was actually the crux of his healing. He ended up fully recovering. He was able to sleep inside. He was the first homeschooled child to be accepted into the U.S. Naval Academy. He graduated with top honors. It was his story incredible. He's now 45. He has three children and he is healthy and he does not have to really, he can live a you know a regular life. He's not sensitive. Um, so that's the home that I'm entering in the 2000s, or let's see, early, let's see, 2000 and it's about 12 at this point. No one's juicing, no one's grounding, no one's talking about any of these things. Like back in that those days, we were drinking orange juice and grapefruit juice. And Marile's like, okay, this is a kale, and this is how you get juice out of a kale. We're like, we don't even know what a kale is. So her home was free of all synthetic chemicals, all synthetic fragrances, all no pesticides, no dryer sheets. We're using castile soap to clean our clothes. She divorces us from our clothes. We don't smell anything. We're like, what are you talking about? She's like, you can't be around any of those clothes. You're not gonna heal. So that was really those eight weeks changed everything. We, our bodies were dumping toxins like just like a deluge, right? And so I am symptom-free. I have not been on a prescription drug since I left her home in 2012. I ended up going back to that doctor that I had been to in 2002. And um, let's see, all of the cysts were gone. So it was a crazy recovery. I ended up getting my period back a year later. I woke up, I had my period, and we've had four kids since then. Wow. And it really was about removing, it wasn't about this intense treatment plan or intense cleanse. Like it was removing toxins and allowing my body to run in the direction of healing. Because if we have a scab and we we wake up every morning and we just agitate it, it's never gonna heal the rest of our lives. But if we leave it alone, it's gonna heal. Our bodies know how to heal.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Wow, this is incredible. What some stories, and I can so relate when I was 13, I got my period,

Food As Medicine And A Son’s Recovery

SPEAKER_00 16:11

and I also got diagnosed with BCOS, and I didn't have a period for a whole year. And then when I would have a period, it'd be like a whole month, and then I wouldn't for a while. Then it, you know, and the same thing, that's I was 14 when I moved to the United States and by myself with my uncle and my aunts. I wasn't with my parents because I wanted to go to high school here as an exchange student. And my mom took me to the doctor and they put me on very, very strong uh birth control pills just to try to fix the COS. Y'all, I gained 30 pounds in like a month, it was insane. I just swole up completely. And the thing is that my mom wasn't with me every day, you know, and you don't really see that change. However, I just moved to the US, also, where the food is not as healthy as Brazil. I'm not walking around like I am in Brazil. All of these things are happening. So they thought, you know, it's just because she moved there, just because, but it was a mixture of everything and how unhealthy my body got. Uh, but surprisingly, I do eat a lot healthier and I am, you know, uh aware of toxins and these kinds of things. And I don't really have many of PCOS symptoms uh compared to somebody who has those. But you have overcome some major health challenges: chronic pain, PCOS, mold exposure, Lyme disease. I have so many patients with both of those.

SPEAKER_04 17:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Which part of your clean living journey made the biggest difference for you personally? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

You know, it's hard to say because when I my eyes were open to this lifestyle in 2000 and let's see, that was about uh six or seven when my aunt comes into the picture. Um, I went all in. But that's my personality. You know, I was so miserable. I was in so much pain. People say, Oh my gosh, I had to wait till this product is finished, or I know it's bad for me, but I'm gonna use the rest of it. Or I know that it's I realize that it could be contributing to my child's asthma or eczema, whatever it is, but I just bought it. So I'm gonna make sure that I don't waste it. And I personally don't understand that unless you just aren't symptomatic. I think if you're so symptomatic and you're so desperate and you're at the bottom of the valley, you're gonna do anything because the cost of whatever products it is is not nearly as much as the cost of the pain that you're going through. Um, and so I was so desperate that I went all in. I was like, if someone can help me, so it's hard to really say, other than I would say removal of these conventional products I was using every day, the synthetic um fragrances. We say the they're the new F word, because really just your laundry. Like, let's say you're using a synthetic fragrance in your laundry detergent, it is on your clothes, it is on your towels, it's on your sheets, it's on your pillow. You're never escaping it. When you're naked in the shower, you have a washcloth that had your laundry on it. I mean, what you launder your clothes with is coursing through your veins, it is in your bloodstream. And so I think a lot of the things we're dealing with today, like so many of the moms that I talk to, their six-year-old daughter is having breast butting or pubic hair. Their eight-year-old has their period. And when they get rid of these synthetic fragrances and plastic food storage, that's a huge deal too. Even BPA-free is still so estrogen PS and BPF and BPB, and you know, there's all the different dollars. So synthetic fragrances in your laundry, in the candles, and the bath bombs, and the stickers, all these scratch and sniff things. Once you get rid of that in your plastic food storage, a lot of times pubic hair will fall out, the breast budding will will look at that, the period will stop and then come back at a normal time. Our bodies want to heal, but when we have all of these hormone-mimicking estrogens that attach to our receptor sites, it throws off our endocrine system. So I would say that's probably the biggest is the synthetic fragrances today.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Wow. Uh, for someone just starting out, what are the first three steps you would recommend to begin reducing toxins in their daily life without feeling overwhelmed? So you mentioned a couple of tossed the toxins, which is such a powerful phrase.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

Yes, yes, exactly. Um, fire your pesticide man. If you have pesticide, if you have a pesticide person coming to your home, I'm sure he's lovely, but he doesn't need to come anymore. I live, you know, south, and so that's a very common thing. My neighbors have the mosquito misters around their backyard. These are some of the most toxic chemicals. They were never meant for the home. They were actually invented for chemical warfare, and now they're being used inside of our homes. Pesticides are designed to kill. That's a side. I C I D E means to kill. So they're not just killing pests, but they are undermining every single health effort that we are taking. And they're silent killers. You don't smell them, taste them, see them, feel them, and yet they're there and they seek lipid dense areas of your body. So the fattiest part of our bodies. And what is the fattiest part? Our brain. So that's why they're connected to behavioral issues, brain fog, all the way to Alzheimer's and ALS, Parkinson's, et cetera. That's why um golf courses have a high incidence of men that have Parkinson's.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

I live right by Houghton Head Island.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Yeah. And listen, I'm living next to a golf course. That's where we're moving. I live in Houston, Texas. I can't escape it. But you can you can control what you bring inside of your home. So you don't need to spray inside of your home and disinfectants. Like that's, I think, the next thing, and that's connected to pesticides. Because if you have a disinfectant in your home, most likely there's an EPA registered pesticide in the disinfectant unless it's alcohol-based. And those disinfectants are not necessary. And what's happening is we're killing the germs and viruses and bacteria that are bad, but we're also decimating the good bacteria that we need to increase our immunity. So when we're exposed

Synthetic Fragrances And Hormones

SPEAKER_02 22:21

to these germs and viruses and bacteria at school or at work or whatever it is, we have the ability to fight it off. But when we're killing them all the time, then um we're our low, our immune system is lowered. And most of the time, they only kill 99%, right? And what is the 1% that's left over? The strongest. The bad one. The bad ones. And then they're mutating, and then we're wondering why we're resistant to the antibiotics that we take when we actually need it. So I would say pesticides, disinfectants, synthetic fragrances, if you can make those three switches, and I haven't even talked about your pantry or your fridge. So no one should, you're not gonna meet that much resistance, right? And I always tell people if you do those three things, your whole family has been given a liver cleanse and they don't even know it.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Know it. Wow. How do you balance clean living with the realities of family life, especially as a mom of four? Any tips for making it practical and sustainable?

SPEAKER_02 23:19

Yeah. Um I am a big proponent of not having fear around this. You need to meet yourself where you are, give yourself grace, start with, and that's why I like to start with the food storage and fragrances and switching away from disinfectants. And again, that doesn't mean you have to not use something to remove germs, right? But the CDC says soap and water, a mild surfactant, you can even use alcohol, hydrogen peroxide. So I'm not saying that you have to have a bunch of germs in your house. But um, the way I balance it is by just not having fear around it. So I think that the fear that we have around these toxins sometimes can be more toxic than the actual toxin itself, right? So start making these swaps. Once you start feeling the difference, you're realizing, oh my gosh, my kid isn't breaking out as much. My husband's not using his inhaler as much. I'm realizing that I'm when I'm running in the mornings, I can run faster and longer. My lugs don't feel as burdened. I mean, you almost start getting addicted to it and let yourself be attracted to it. It's almost like contagious. Like once you make one swap, you're like, what else? What else did I believe my I could be doing differently? Like mascara, for instance, you know, something we wear every day. Like, start with the daily things. The non-toxic world of makeup is amazing. And these swaps, they work and they look great. And so that's the great thing about the age we're living in today is there are so many wonderful alternatives.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

Yes. Can you explain a little bit how toxin exposure can impact hormones and fertility? Many people don't realize the connection between the two.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

Yes, yes. I've kind of touched on this, but I'll say again that a lot of times we have this testosterone

First Three Swaps To Start

SPEAKER_02 25:06

blocking estrogen in our bodies because we are exposed to so many synthetic estrogens today, mainly in the form of plastics and synthetic fragrances.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

Um, synthetic fragrances contain phthalates, that's what makes them stick, right? So they stick in the air, they stick to our upholstery, they stick to our clothes. I mean, they have the staying power. Um, but if we can switch over to high quality essential oils, or if we just go fragrance free, yeah, that alone is going to make such a difference. But um, even take, excuse me, tampons. You know, I have people who say, oh my gosh, once I switch to um organic tampons instead of ones that some of them have a scent in them, the conventional ones have a ton of pesticides in them, and just that one switch, they're saying they don't have menstrual cramp. So sometimes it's really these simple things. So if we have young children, especially young girls, but also young boys, because things like undescended testes, you know, the rate of endocrine-related cancers in men and women is astronomically high. And that's what's so crazy. We're the most advanced country in the world in terms of our medical system, yet we actually come in last in terms of health performance. And I think it's because of all of the different toxins that we are bringing inside of our home, using on our bodies. Um, and so yeah, I mean, I would say removal, removal, removal because you can run and you can go get all the testing in the world. I have a good friend who has a daughter who she called me and she had pubic hair at six years old. They had done all these different tests with her endocrinologist. The doctor said, this is becoming more common. There's nothing you can do about it. Of course, she immediately calls me. She's like, Allison, I know you're gonna disagree. What would you say? She goes, I'm already using a purifier. I have organic mattresses, we eat clean, we use branch basics. What is it? And I said, Go to her room and take out every synthetic fragrance. And she calls me, she's like, I couldn't believe it. I don't buy these things, but party favors, they have bath balls. Yeah. Some of the shoes the kids are wearing. There's a brand I'm not going to mention, but they prints in the shoe.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

And I'm like, and it's a Brazilian brand. And in Brazil, it is so extremely expensive. But in Brazil, it is so difficult. Berthume for them is something like you can't talk to a Brazilian over not wearing perfume. Like it's it's bad. And they put it in a way that like they want everybody to smell.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

Yes, yes, there's a Spanish brand as well. I know, I know what you're talking about, and there's that alone, though. She did it, and six weeks later, all of her pubic hair fell out, and she went back to the doctor and her numbers were normal. So that's a perfect example of how it's not about a lot of times, it's not about getting a program or a treatment plan or having a procedure or taking an antibiotic or a medication, whatever it may be. It's about looking at the things that we're exposed to every day, removing the offenders and allowing our body to reach that homeostasis and balance.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

I love this. So, after we remove all these things that are um impacting our health without us even knowing, uh, what do we do afterwards? Branch Basics has become a trusted name for safe, effective cleaning. What inspired you? Let's go back a little bit. You mentioned in the beginning, what inspired you to co-found the company and how do you ensure transparency in your products?

SPEAKER_02 28:38

Yeah. Oh, I love that. Um, right. So after that summer, we were on fire. We were listening to Marilee consult with people from sunup to sundown. And it was, you know, she became very well known in the chemically sensitive space because of her son's story and his ability to essentially reverse through a severe autism spectrum. It was wild what happened in those seven years. And she said, if I only knew what I knew in those last couple of years, if I only knew that from the beginning, it would have never been seven years. This is before the internet, this is before anyone was talking about toxins, you know. And so um, after listening to her consult, this theme, this common theme, was all about removal, removal of mold, removal

Grace Over Fear At Home

SPEAKER_02 29:21

of synthetic fragrances, removal of candles, removal of artificial sweeteners, removal of processed foods. It wasn't always about adding all these things. And so we thought we're gonna spend money so we can educate people on this idea that our bodies know how to heal, that as long as we are breathing, we can heal, we can be improved. And this is not to say to not go to your doctor or to not do a procedure. It's to say if you're doing that, also do this. Yeah, it's only support, it's a catalyst, it's like an enzyme for whatever path you choose. If you choose chemotherapy, this is gonna help you heal. So um, we wanted to start a company to educate, and we found that people were overwhelmed because at first we were like, get this air purifier, get this organic mattress, get this infrastructure. You know, again, this is like 2010. People are like, y'all are crazy. Crazy. Our sorority sisters were like, please pray for Allison and Kelly. They're talking about ES blockers. But we found that everyone cleans, right? That is a perfect place to start. And ironically, some of the most toxic products that we bring inside of our homes are our cleaning products. So, in efforts to create a safe environment for our family, our home is sometimes a thousand times more toxic than the outdoor air after we have used cleaning products. That's so sad. You know, and so we thought, okay, we're going to provide this cleaning product for people. It would we actually in the beginning did a third party, like a white label because it was a certain concentrate that Marilyn had been using for 20 years with all of her clients and her son. And then we ended up reformulating and creating our own formula in 2016. But it was really about that. We're a we're a product education, we're an education company first and a products company second. And um in terms of transparency, I mean, listen, it took us over a hundred iterations and over 18 months to come up with our current formula. And there's not a product in Whole Foods that would meet our standards. What sets us hard is that our preservative system is so clean. Potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, methyl isothylozenone, um, you know, uh my gosh, I'm totally phenoxyethanol. These are these are products, these are ingredients that you're going to find in most every green non-toxic cleaner. But sadly, even though it's a small amount, these are daily use products and they can irritate the lungs, the skin, the eyes. And they were never allowed in our formulation. So I think that's what really sets us apart is that

Fertility, Endocrine Disruptors, And Kids

SPEAKER_02 31:56

we're a concentrate system. One product can be diluted with these empty bottles that we provide to clean virtually every single thing in your home, uh, from your laundry, removing your eye makeup, cleaning fruits and vegetables, your floors. Because when you really go back to it, like a common mild soap or surfactant is able to clean pretty much everything. But we as Americans fooled into thinking we need an oven cleaner, we need a toilet cleaner, we need, you know, and that's just not the case. And so we really want to change that narrative and really help people understand that um it's about getting back to basics.

SPEAKER_00 32:33

Oh, I love this. Let's talk a little bit about mold and environmental toxins. They are a growing concern, especially on the airway field. What advice do you have for families dealing with mold exposure and chemical sensitivities?

SPEAKER_02 32:49

Have I talked about removal yet? No.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Right? Um, but really, you know, it's kind of crazy how many people don't even know they have mold. I mean, I see patients every day, and every time that I mention mold, because I'm seeing all of the symptoms in kids, you know, they're always stuffy, they've tried everything and nothing works. I'm like, well, how about mold? Oh no, no, it's a brand new home. I had a patient the other day, five million dollar house just built. The child was okay for a month in the home, and all of a sudden the the symptoms returned. And they found mold in the ice maker.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

They had a specific that is so common.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Yeah, and I mean a beautiful brand new home, but they had uh, you know, a set-aside, you know, ice maker, huge kitchen, and they found mold in there, so they ended up they tried to remove it and ended up removing the whole the whole thing because they couldn't manage the mold in there. So there may be mold in your home that you don't even know. Also at school, uh at grandma's house, you don't know you know what are the places that your children are uh going to every day that may be impacting their breathing and their health. Uh, we usually recommend them getting on Amazon, you can get a little kit uh with Petra dishes. Yes. So you open these petra dishes in each room for about an hour and then you close them up and you let it grow. And these companies usually will kind of have a guide to tell you what type of mold it is. Yes. And then there are amazing companies out there that can help you remove it.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

But I would say that is a huge, huge source of um, you know, essentially that overflow that I was talking about in the beginning, where we reach that threshold, that daily exposure to mold is going to undermine all those health efforts and it's going to create the brain fog. And the thing about mold is that everyone in your family can manifest a symptom differently. So it's sometimes so hard to connect it. You're wondering, gosh, like why do I have dry, itchy eyes all of a sudden, or I have an afternoon fatigue and I need my, you know, coffee or coke or whatever energy drink. Why is my son having eczema? Why is my daughter having outbursts and ticks and a little bit of an OCD all of a sudden? And you're like, this is so weird. Everyone, I'm I'm being attacked, you know. But it's like, it could literally be your ice maker, you know? Yeah, it's wild. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

Um, you mentioned that that little boy all of a sudden got really sick after something was sprayed in school. How do you know? How do we try to manage that?

SPEAKER_02 35:28

Yeah. Well, for him, the exposure was very obvious. A lot, I mean, other kids were injured. I mean, the chloridate was a pesticide that is now banned and it was used that day. It was used the night before underneath the auditorium floor, and then the children were in the auditorium and there was a flood, and so the water came up. So it was a very extreme case. Um, one of the teachers was severely damaged. Um, but you don't, you really don't. I mean, the thing about I send my kids to school, we do a half homeschool thing. And I I would encourage anyone that's listening to talk to the teacher about the products that are being put on your children's hands every single day and being sprayed around the classroom every single day. If there are candles or air fresheners or Clorox wipes being used on the desk right there in front of them, um, we have on our website a free school toolkit. So it basically empowers you with studies from the CDC that you can cite in speaking to the teacher or the administration about switching to a more mild surfactant or a, you know, something like Branch Basics. Um, because that does matter, especially if your kids are at school five days a week. They're spending so much time there. And so it's it's a little bit out of sight, out of mind. But if you're dealing with behavioral issues or skin issues or sleep issues, there is definitely reason for

Why Branch Basics Began

SPEAKER_02 36:52

approaching the teacher and saying, hey, you know, my kid's a little more sensitive. I always like to blame it on myself instead of acting like everyone is affected, even though they are. But you end up helping everybody. You say, listen, you know, these studies show that it's actually better to remove germs using uh spraying and then removing with a microfiber cloth versus just using something to kill, and that's actually increasing that's where teachers and admin really start perking up their ears. They're thinking, we don't want people to get sick, you know, because they everyone wants the best for our kids. We're simply we're having to undo years of misinformation.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

Exactly, and it is super difficult in daycares and schools that they think that they have to use is very strong products and they're probably making things worse. Exactly. My goodness, there's so much information, and I know so many people are relating and they're already running to their bathrooms and throwing so much stuff out right now, which I'm gonna do right after this because I still have stuff that I'm thinking about right now. Yeah. Um, but if anybody is interested in looking at the products that you guys offer, and can you talk a little bit about what types of products you guys have? Yeah, what do they go into for you?

SPEAKER_02 38:01

We have a whole system, um, but it's actually super simple. And I'm as I'm describing it, you're gonna think this is complicated. But if you go to our website, it makes so much sense, and especially when you start using it. Um, we have a concentrate that's 32 ounces, and then we sell empty spray bottles that go along with it. So, or empty bottles. We have three spray bottles, all purpose, streak free, and bathroom. We have a foaming hand soap bottle, and then we have a laundry bottle.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

Hey, she's good. My kids are with me half of the time.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

Yeah, she could probably describe this for me as well.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Hey, baby, I was going to say something earlier. If your kids are telling their friends about toxin things, and you know, because my children, uh Zoe, all the time she looks at me, she's like, Mommy, bare mouth breathing. Mommy, I think my friend has a tongue tie. So I was wondering what your kids do. Hey, honey. Oh, they're adorable.

SPEAKER_02 38:54

She says, You make me wear mouth tape. Yeah, but she wears and she she's fine with it. Um, anyway, so you have a whole system, you use that concentrate, and then the each of the bottles have a dilution line on it. So you fill it with water and then a little bit of concentrate, depending on the bottle. Um, and it's so easy. We also sell an oxygen boost that, Francis, we sell an oxygen boost that is like an oxy clean, and you clean the grout and you know, your pots and pans, you can add it to your laundry. Um, we just came out with a laundry powder because some people are like, okay, I don't want two steps, I want one step. But you can use our concentrate in the as a laundry, you know, detergent. And then we have dish taps. So it's a whole system. You never have to buy the spray bottles again. And then we have tens of thousands of people on subscription. So they're only receiving the concentrate and the oxygen boost for like every four, six, or eight weeks. So you don't need you know, something new for every cleaning job. You really just need one thing.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

I absolutely love the concept, and I cannot wait to try it myself. Allison, thank you so much for spending this time with us today. I know it's eye-opening for so many families out there and a huge component that we need to be looking at uh also with our area issues that we talk about all the time. So thank you so much for being here with us. Any last word.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

So honored. I'm sorry I did tell my children not to come in, but sometimes children are always if you watch any of my videos, my kids are always here with me.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

It's all good. We're a mom's party.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

Okay, thanks for having me, guys.

SPEAKER_00 40:29

You're welcome, everybody. Have a wonderful day, and we'll see you on the next episode of Beauty of Breathing. Make sure to follow us and share this with another mom friend. We love you. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Yay.