Are Your Breast Implants Causing Your Health Issues?

Episode 70

Podcast Drop Date: 

11/12/2025

Amber Warren, PA-C, sits down with Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS, to share her breast implant, explant journey. Rachel discusses the symptoms she experienced, including fatigue, brain fog, and hormonal changes, how her body and nervous system were affected, and the steps she took to reclaim her health naturally.

This episode is essential listening for anyone exploring breast implants, considering explant surgery, or seeking holistic health solutions. Gain insight, guidance, and real-life experience on navigating recovery and improving overall wellness.

Transcript:

Amber Warren, PA-C: Welcome to the Functional Medicine Foundation's podcast, where we explore root cause medicine, engage in conversation with functional and integrative medicine experts, and build community with like minded health seekers. I'm your host, Amber Warren. Let's dig deeper.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay. Welcome back everybody. Thanks for joining us. Today I'm here with Rachel Harrington and I'm so excited about this conversation. This has been a long time coming. But Rachel is a pediatric certified occupational therapy assistant and the founder of the Sensory Project. She is also the co-host of All Things Sensory by Harkla Podcast and owner of Sensational Brain, offering professional education, children's books and programs for kids. On this episode, Rachel shares her health journey that led to breast explant surgery. So all things breast implant illness, which I'm honestly very surprised we have not had this conversation on this podcast. It's an important one. It is so important. So thank you so much, Rachel. We're so excited to have you. And I definitely want to hear more about what you do professionally as well. But let's start with just let's hear your journey of breast implant illness and how it led you to getting an implant. Let's hear it all.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah. So I got my implants in 2016.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: And it wasn't. It was only because I was, like, something I always thought about. It was just always in the back of my mind. And I went into the surgeon and he said, wow, you have great boobs. And I was like, okay, thank you. Let's continue, you know. And, you know, long story short, 2020 hit. And I just, you know, you start learning a little bit more. And I was pregnant with my son and I just started I just started hearing things. And then 2022 came. I had my daughter and she was a nightmare. Not a nightmare. She was a struggle. She had a hard time sleeping. I was very sleep deprived. And in early 2020, well, I guess late 2022, early 2023, I started working with a psychologist who specialized in women's ADHD because I was like, I have zero executive functioning skills. Yeah, I can, I am missing things. I am struggling and and we went through all the checklists, we did all the things. She interviewed my husband and she's like, okay, you have ADHD. And I was like, really? And then I told her, I actually I have implants as well. And she's like, okay, well, that's really important to know. I'm starting on this big health journey. My thyroid was kind of wonky. I had some weird things, some mold stuff.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: And I mean, I really went down the rabbit hole. My poor husband, it's a miracle. He's just like, wow. Like wow. So I thought if I get my implants out, my ADHD will be improved. I'll be able to complete a task from start to start to finish. I won't feel the need to start 47 businesses every week. I'll be able to put my laundry away. All those executive functioning skills. So my daughter nursed for two years and I knew that after I was done nursing her, I was going to get my implants out. And so this was May of 2024, and I met with a surgeon here locally, didn't get a good vibe. I started listening to Doctor Robert Whitfield's podcast, and I said, this would be interesting. Booked it. And literally it's my impulsivity where I was like, this is what we're doing. And November, six months after I stopped breastfeeding. Wow. I got them out. And I mean, that's really like where it started. It was kind of an ADHD thing. It was a mold thing. It was a thyroid thing. My doctor was like, this could be a factor. It could be your implants. And they felt a little wonky. And I just didn't feel good in my body. And I was like, I think this is what we need to do.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah, none of us want to go and say, this is breast implant illness. Go get them out. It'll fix everything because that's going out on a limb. And we don't have, unfortunately, great diagnostic testing for breast implant illness. We have ways we can put the pieces of the puzzle together with lab testing. And of course, that includes thyroid testing and hormone testing and gut health and toxin testing. But yeah, there's no definitive way. So I, I don't know any practitioners that say, yep, you for sure have breast implant illness. Get it out. Um, or get them out, I should say get it out. So yeah. Can you get it out? Just get it out. Can you tell us? I did not know he had a podcast. Yes. I've listened to him speak on stage. And what is the name of his podcast? Because a lot of listeners would be intrigued.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Breast Implant Illness.

Amber Warren, PA-C: That's the name of his podcast.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: I think that's what the name of his podcast is.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Awesome.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah, I will double check that for sure. Okay. But I think it's breast implant illness. And I found his Instagram too. And I just started going.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay, what's his Instagram?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Breast implant illness.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay. Awesome. Yes. That's really easy for people to find.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: May have switched to Doctor Robert Whitfield. I think he has two different Instagrams. But if you're interested, go and watch the videos of the Explant and open the capsule and see. And like, that is so eye opening. And once I started going down the rabbit hole of watching these videos.

Amber Warren, PA-C: You're like, I can't keep these in me. Yeah.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: And when you hear the symptoms and people over, you know, are explaining the different symptoms that you're, that you're seeing and hearing, you're like, check, check, check check, check. And I just started writing things down in my notes app. And.

Amber Warren, PA-C: What are some other symptoms that I mean that you can come up with with breast implant illness. We've got chronic fatigue. Yep. Brain fog.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: The brain fog.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Hair loss. Dry skin. I mean, that's also thyroid related.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Um, for me it was a lot of eye floaties, which I attributed to mold, which I thought we were moldy from the inside out.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Did you have mold in your implants? Because he sends them for testing?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: No, I didn't. They weren't terrible. My right had a really hard capsule.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Interesting.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: And it was like the video that he sent. If you guys want to show it, you can pull that bad boy up some good B-roll. You can show that. Um, it was really hard. And you could, like, crunch it open, and it's like, that's inside of me. Like it was mind blowing.

Amber Warren, PA-C: And yours weren't that old.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Eight years.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. I had a client today who was 30 years. Yeah. And I'm like, okay.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: I've talked to a lot of people because I've shared about it on social media and moms at the gym that I work at, and they are like 17 years, 20 years.

Amber Warren, PA-C: I'm like,oh my gosh.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. Don't they say they have like a life ten years?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: What I was told and I when I got them in, I never thought that I would replace them. I think I just thought I'd get them out and just move on. So, yeah, I mean, going under for surgery every ten years. That's unreal to think about.

Amber Warren, PA-C: It's pretty invasive and traumatic for your system. Um, what what kind of fears did you go into surgery with, or did you or were you just so confident going in and being like, I know this is exactly what I need to do?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah, it's a lot of prep work in advance. A lot of diet changes, a lot of supplements.

Amber Warren, PA-C: If you work with a good practitioner.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yes, exactly. Ideally, you know, you're kind of detoxing beforehand. High protein diet. Um, I mean, I was gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, fun-free, food dye-free. All the things free I still am. And I was beforehand, but I was just I hit it really hard. Um, but going into surgery, I think my biggest concern was how am I going to pick up my kids? Um, you know, because I have young kids, my daughter was two and a half and my son was four. So that was really hard. And then, you know, you're laying on the table and you're like, I hope I wake up after. It's like, you know, think about that.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Especially as a mom.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah. And it was never a concern of like, how am I gonna look afterwards? You know, my husband, we joke. We have a very good, positive, joking relationship. And the other night when I was, you know, reviewing our our questions we were going to cover today, I was like, how's how's your mental health after this? How are you doing? He's like, I'm still recovering. I'm just kidding. No, but that's that's a big part of it too. And like, if you don't have a partner that's on board.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Absolutely.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: I mean, don't do it.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: You know.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. That's going to be hard on your marriage. Yeah, there's lots to be built up on that.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: But so I guess going into it, it was never we talked about fat transfers. I have zero fat to transfer. So that wasn't even.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Does Dr. Whitfield do that?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: He does.

Amber Warren, PA-C: He does that okay. Yeah. So that was not an option.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Not an option. No and I didn't I don't think I would have had it been an option. I think I just wanted to start fresh, get down to baseline, see where we were at. And you know, on the bright side, this is what I told my husband. I had two kids back to back. I breastfed them both for a long time. I basically got a free lift, you know.

Amber Warren, PA-C: I love that. I mean, glass. Glass. Glass is half or half full. I love that approach.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Exactly. I was.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Like.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Otherwise, you know, who knows what we'd look like, and I wouldn't get a lift.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Maybe it worked out.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Well for you. Yeah. So what was that recovery like?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: It was long.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: It was hard.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Was it? Yeah. Pretty painful.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: I'm at almost a year next month. Okay. A year next month.

Amber Warren, PA-C: And you do it all over again.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: I would, would you? Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't get them in. Oh, no, I can't say that because at my phase of life, it's what I wanted. I was young, I was 24. I'd gotten married the year before. I was like, yeah, I'm young. I'm not gonna have kids for a while. Let's do it, you know?

Amber Warren, PA-C: Right, right.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: So I don't want to say that I wouldn't have done it, because in that phase of my life, I was like, all for it.

Amber Warren, PA-C: It felt like the right thing to do. Yeah.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah.

Amber Warren, PA-C: So tell us about the health changes and the things you started to notice improvement and like the time frame.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah. It wasn't overnight for me. I know a lot of people go under and wake up and they're like, wow, I'm a new person.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Agreed. I hear that a lot. Yeah.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: And I think it's good to hear those stories. But also, I think it can be a little misleading. And if you don't have instant results or if it's harder, you know, it's frustrating. You're like, I just spent all this money all this time. So mine was definitely a slow burn and the eye floaties were gone immediately.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Really? Okay.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: They've come back here and there, but I definitely noticed, like, if I have, like, moldy food, you know, or like Starbucks coffee or something like that, I definitely notice, like that symptom come back for the time period, but I can breathe. I can take a deep breath.

Amber Warren, PA-C: You had shortness of breath.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah. And it wasn't like shortness of breath. It was like, I can't get like, a fulfilling deep breath, if that makes sense.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yes it does.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: I'm sure people listening will probably. They'll probably.

Amber Warren, PA-C: It'll resonate with them.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah. So I definitely felt like a weight was lifted off my chest. Um, working out feels so much better now. Just like moving. Just like my posture feels better. I used to always have this sore spot, like right in the middle of my back, and that was gone immediately. So I feel like that was a big, like overnight change. Like I just always had this tension in the middle of my back. I don't have that anymore.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Tell us about the process of like getting your thyroid healed.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: That's been that's been an interesting journey because before I got them out, I was kind of like a pre Hashimoto's type category, which was really shocking. And then after I got them out, I retested and things were looking good. Good. And then my last labs probably a couple of months ago a little like pre Hashimoto's ish again. And so trying to figure out if that's just like the detox protocol because that's also been one of the hardest parts is the detox protocol, following. And you know, I'm just I'm not a pill taker. I struggle with taking pills. So that's been hard.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Did they implement, have any practitioners implemented IV therapy as part of the like ozone or high-dose vitamin C or phosphatidylcholine for detox support?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah, I do vitamin C. I do a high dose of vitamin C. Um, I'm on selenium now, so just trying to support that. Um, I did do an IV before I got them out, but I haven't started that process. Okay. Um, and then I was doing the what? How do you pronounce it? Phosphatidylcholine.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. Phosphatidylcholine. Yeah. He uses that as part of his protocol, right. I thought so.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yes.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay. Yeah, but you were doing that orally.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Maybe I wasn't.

Amber Warren, PA-C: So it's either so it's either.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: It's B's, DK,Glutathione.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yep. Good.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Um, and there was, um Oliveira I was taking they have a Oliveira supplement. That was helpful. But really, I mean, the hardest part has been like the actual detox, the cell detox afterwards that they recommend.

Amber Warren, PA-C: We were talking about that offline a little. How you just didn't tolerate it. It was making you sick and feel weak.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah. And, you know, I lost a lot of weight after surgery, too. And, you know, my appetite was all over the place, so I feel like I'm finally, like, getting to a point where I feel good and like I can eat a good meal. I've put weight back on, which is good. And, you know, putting muscle back on. And I don't feel like I'm as, I don't know, just fragile, I guess. You know, like I feel stronger.

Amber Warren, PA-C: That's awesome. It feels good as a woman to feel strong. Yeah, it really does.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Very empowering.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Exactly.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. That's awesome. Any other health benefits you noticed?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Um.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Think about. I mean, this is a good. This is like a year out is a good time of reflection.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: It's a good therapy session.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. Yeah. It's good.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah. I think the brain fog has been, I feel like there's always been like a looming cloud behind my eyes. And that has been very helpful. And I think, too, you know, I talked about the ADHD symptoms and the executive functioning. And while I don't think that those completely went away. I definitely feel like I have a better skill set now to handle them and communicate and ask for help, and the whole process has been great for just learning that aspect of like, I need help, here's my strategies. Here's what we are going to do.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Awareness. Yeah.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah.

Amber Warren, PA-C: What advice would you give to women that are say they've been reading about breast implant illness in the last year or so. They're really scared to jump in, whether it's because they have a spouse who is hesitant or they're hesitant, they're worried about how their clothes will fit and how their body will look, or just about the recovery in general, or just the invasiveness of the procedure. What advice would you give those women?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: I think all of those fears are valid, and it's really scary and overwhelming when you're trying to make this decision. But I think if you think about the long term goal and the end goal and just trust the process, that it's a long process and you may not feel better overnight, but I mean, I'm a year out and I feel great. So I think that if you if you can just trust the process and openly communicate to your partner and say, this is what I'm feeling, this is why, and you have that conversation, if it doesn't go well, I mean, that could be a sign, you know, maybe bring your partner to the the pre-op appointments and bring them in to the process so it doesn't feel like they are,

Amber Warren, PA-C: Not involved.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Because that's honestly a big part of it for a lot of women too, is, you know, how will my partner view me and, you know, will I feel confident in my clothes and you might not for a while.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: I struggled.

Amber Warren, PA-C: I'm sure it's an adjustment. Yeah.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah.

Amber Warren, PA-C: After ten, 12, 15, 20 years.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Exactly. You look in the mirror and you see what you see and you're used to it. And then you have new scars and.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Things are different. And different is okay. I mean, I think different is great.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Well I mean and to me it's kind of a celebration of health like.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah.

Amber Warren, PA-C: This is the scars I carry and the changes in my body are I did this, I did this.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: For myself.

Amber Warren, PA-C: For myself. So I can show up better for my spouse, for my children, for my friends, for my clients.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Exactly.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. That's so cool.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Anything else you want to share about your journey or. Or just about, I mean, to me, breast implant illness. Because I think it's important for people to recognize, like, is this something I could be dealing with? It's it's your body reacting to something foreign in it that it's not used. So it's your body attacking something that's non-self. And that can present itself in so many different, so many different clinical manifestations, um, from joint pain to muscle pain to, yeah, maybe a little bit of fatigue, flu like illness to a full blown autoimmune disease like Hashimoto's or Lupus. Um, so it really can be it manifests itself in the body in so many different ways.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah. And I would never, I never thought of classifying myself as having breast breast implant illness. I just thought of myself as struggling with these symptoms. And if this is one piece of the puzzle that I can take out, then I can address these other areas if they're still a concern.

Amber Warren, PA-C: So true. Yeah. And it's part of just your your body's total toxic burden.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Right. I mean, our buckets start to fill over. And now, unfortunately, a lot of women probably can't get away with having implants like we could, you know, maybe even eight years ago when you got them in or 20, 30 years ago, like some of my clients, it's like, yeah, I mean, you weren't, our buckets weren't as full.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: But also you think about MTHFR, like, had I known I was MTHFR.

Amber Warren, PA-C: You are.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Sensitive already. I can't detox like I probably I don't want to say I wouldn't have done it, but I would have thought about it a little bit.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. Yeah. With more knowledge brings wisdom and better ability to make decisions.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah. And thinking about it as a foreign object, like our bodies don't want foreign objects.

Amber Warren, PA-C: They're going to reject it. Most of the time.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Or you can get away with it for a little bit, but then you're. Yeah.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: You're the toxic burden. You know, it's there's so much that we're trying to filter out and it's a lot. And our little bodies get tired.

Amber Warren, PA-C: And it was maybe even just the nervous system of having children, you know, and just how your nervous system has shifted and changed because instead of worrying about your own health, now you're worried about these, these two little ones that are your heart with arms and legs running around. And so your perspective and how your body reacted might have just shifted.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: And I think I think that's a really important piece to bring up because I noticed a huge shift in I mean, that's what I do for work is sensory and primitive reflexes. Like I noticed a huge shift in my own nervous system, my own sensory preferences after having kids. And I think it almost like flipped me into that state of fight or flight.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Guarantee, it did.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: You know and the lack of sleep and the being pulled in 47 different directions, like just the just the mental to do list.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Allostatic load builds. Right. And then all of a sudden you're like and and with breast implants, this is probably no longer something that my body can tolerate.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Exactly.

Amber Warren, PA-C: And it shouldn't have to fight against.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Exactly. Trying to work with my body, not against it.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Amen. So this is actually a really good segue into what you do professionally. Yeah. I want to hear more about it.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yes.

Amber Warren, PA-C: So tell us about The Sensory Project.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Oh my gosh. Okay. The Sensory Project started in 2017. And it is the beautiful thing about pivoting like that's my main lifestyle is just pivoting. And we started making custom weighted vests for kiddos with sensory needs. And you know, I've just started sharing my journey. The kids that I work with, my own kids, how I view my own life with a sensory with I say with my sensory goggles on. And I've kind of I've always loved primitive reflexes and kind of shifted into primitive reflexes because it's at the base of the pyramid of of learning. Right? If we don't have an integrated sensory system, we don't have integrated primitive reflexes. We send kids to school with, you know, we say, okay, go learn, go control your eye muscles, go socialize. But they have all these missing pieces at the bottom of the pyramid and they're struggling. And so it's just a bottom up approach of let's integrate these infant reflexes that we're all born with, and they're designed to keep us alive. Let's integrate them. Because kids aren't crawling, Kids aren't rolling. They aren't. They're missing these milestones, which those milestones are there for a reason. And so when we skip those and when we're in containers and things like that, it can negatively impact those reflexes from integrating. So that's what I do now is I educate I have a continuing education business as well. Um, I travel and I do a lot of speaking and teaching and continuing education, and I have a little clinic where I see a handful of clients, and it's just it's fun.

Amber Warren, PA-C: And what ages do you work with?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: All ages. I figured babies through adults.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah. One of my, um, one of my friends is a police officer, and I tested his reflexes, and I have never seen a moro reflex like his startle reflex. Right?

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: You lay baby down, they startle. Right. That needs to be integrated. And so when you see that, I mean, it makes sense in in an officer, right? I mean, they're, they're just kind of always on. And they have to be.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: But he's mentioned that it's negatively impacting him. And the door slams and he has a really big reaction. I'm like, we gotta we gotta get crawling. We got to do your exercises. And I said, you know about your son. We need to. We need to get him crawling. Yeah, yeah. I wrote a program about crawling because it's for kids of all ages and adults as well. And so it's just if you're stressed out, if you're nervous, system is disorganized, get down on the floor and crawl. It brings both sides of the brain together.

Amber Warren, PA-C: So you really do have adults just get down on the floor.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: I do. My mom is 70, she's 70. She had trigeminal neuralgia. She did the program. Um, my husband's grandparents. I mean, I'm sure there's other people who just don't tell me, but these are the people in my life who tell me, like, wow, this has actually been helpful. And it almost takes you out of that, like instant state of fight or flight and gives you a chance to process before you react, among other things.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Oh, you're so just making me think about my 11 year old because he's like, all the tags on his clothes have to be cut.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yes.

Amber Warren, PA-C: He has to have blankets on his bed a certain way on his body, um, not only the side of the blanket, but layered on a certain way.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yep. Yeah.

Amber Warren, PA-C: He's going to be coming to see you.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah. Need some heavy work? Start crawling. I always say, if you can't do anything, just get down on the floor and crawl every day.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Really?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Seriously!

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: It integrates your primitive reflexes. It provides proprioceptive input. It improves your vision, your ocular motor skills. It brings both sides of your brain together.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay. Like crawling. Like how often a day?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: I would say, like, do a couple of laps in the morning, do a couple of laps before bed. I'm doing like the program.

Amber Warren, PA-C: When you say laps. Like just around the bedroom?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah. Down the hallway.

Amber Warren, PA-C: It doesn't have to be 100 yards. No. Okay. No, I.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Say like a couple minutes.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Make it a fun game. Like, the.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Kids love it when you get down on the floor and crawl with them.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah. I know it sounds so weird to say and think about it.

Amber Warren, PA-C: But now that you're talking about it, it makes so much sense. How we know the nervous system develops and functions.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yes. And I mean, crawling is as innate as blinking. Right? I mean, I always have, you know, my friends, anyone who's pregnant crawl while they're pregnant. It gets baby in the right place.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yes.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: For labor. Like, that's always my go to advice. Have you crawled today. I don't know, it's it's it's like I don't want to say a cure because it's not a cure. We're not curing anything. But it's like my cure all, but not actually curing things. Just, that's just what I say.

Amber Warren, PA-C: But you're getting things back in line.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yes.

Amber Warren, PA-C: You're balancing out.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yes. And I'm writing a book for adults to to integrate their primitive reflex.

Amber Warren, PA-C: So you have a book for kids?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: I have books for kids. Um, The Jungle Crawl and The Dino Crawl, and they're just like fun interactive books that you read and you do the movements and the movements are all beneficial for sensory and primitive reflexes.

Amber Warren, PA-C: How can people find out more about you?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: I say Instagram is a great place to start.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay, and what's your Instagram?

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: I have two the Sensory Project 208 and then Sensational Brain is another one.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Cool.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yeah.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay. Thank you for sharing both sides of your story, just how you impact the world and how you've walked your journey of health. And it's just so exciting. Yeah, I think there's there's just a lot of women and now parents and family members that kind of need to hear your story. So yeah, thanks for being a light and thank you. Just sharing your story and sharing your love with everybody.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, CPRCS: Yes.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Thank you Rachel.

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