Resonance – Episode 46
Verbatim Transcript
Speaker: Viktoria Levenberg
Guest Speaker: Elise Vezmar
Viktoria Levenberg: Seventy percent of people being dismissed. I mean, that’s massive.
Elise Vezmar: I started running out of my energy reserves. I aged so fast. I said, you know what,
alright, I’m gonna become an integrative health practitioner. So that’s what I dove into. The
protocol that I developed is truly transformative. The one thing I wish every woman who’s ever
suffered with fatigue could know is that there is hope and it can be reversed. And I’ve done it,
and it’s possible. It can be a process, but you don’t do it alone. So that’s the best part.
Viktoria Levenberg: Have you ever felt exhausted, fatigued, and running on empty, but no matter
what you did, you just still feel like you’ve been hit by a bus when you wake up in the morning,
and it just seems to never end? Like you just cannot find that life force energy that you once had,
and even worse, you can’t quite put a finger on what’s going on?
Well, in today’s episode, I’m gonna introduce you to Elise Vesmar. She is a nurse, an integrative
practitioner, and an expert in all things chronic fatigue. And she is going to speak to you about
how you can overcome chronic fatigue so that you can finally have more energy, more life force,
and get back to doing the things that you love.
Let’s begin. This one is so important.
Viktoria Levenberg: Welcome to Resonance, the podcast for high performers and entrepreneurs
who want to do life, work, and success differently. I am your host, Viktoria Levenberg, and I’m
obsessed with efficiency, productivity, and planning in a way that harnesses your energy and your
natural rhythms, while keeping you in alignment and integrity. Because I have figured out that
lasting success is not about the hustle. It is about being in resonance. Let’s begin.
Viktoria Levenberg: Alright, this episode is probably one of the most important episodes that I
have brought out on Resonance in the existence of this podcast, to be honest. And I had no idea
going into this conversation that it would touch me on such a deep level. And I think that is
because there’s, you know, a personal reference that I really strongly have and relate to this,
where so many of us are plagued with fatigue, with exhaustion, with that heavy feeling, and just
this inability to move forward no matter what.
And some of you even listening to me speak about this right now might be like, oh yeah, like I
resonate with that. I just feel like I’m shattered.
Often we’ve also just been told to suck it up, buttercup, and that’s just how life is, and you just
gotta move on. Or this is normal, it doesn’t get any better. Or there’s something wrong with you.
Or you’re gaslit into thinking that you know, you’re making things up, where it’s not the case.
Because chronic fatigue is a real thing, and Elise will speak to in just a moment around how it’s
really hard to diagnose. And especially in kind of the Western medicine model, it’s still very much
in its infancy as to how well it’s being understood and researched.
And you know, personally, myself, I am really lucky and so, so grateful for this. Like, I am really
naturally energised and buzzy by nature. Like I just wake up and I’m ready to go. I’ve got so much
life force energy emanating up and through me. And that’s something that I’ve been gifted with
from the beginning. And as I kind of went down my own holistic health route and learned to
optimise, you know, and work with my cycles and all those different things, it’s just skyrocketed.
And so today was a real eye-opener for me as to how I take it for granted. Because if you’re lucky
like me and you’re also quite energetic, you know, you’re gonna get a lot out of this conversation.
A. To empathise with people in your life, and how to maintain this energy level as you progress.
And as Elise puts it as well, staying young for as long as we can. Because age is just a number, and
there are so much we can do physiologically to help navigate that.
And if you are unlike me, who’s naturally buzzy, if you naturally gravitate more to the lower
energies, plus you’re dealing with a lot of stress, plus you’ve got a lot on your plate, plus there’s
so much that life is demanding from you, and you’ve got a demanding job, and the kids, and the
family, and the responsibilities, and it just feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders,
and you can only hear everyone desperately seeking your attention, then chances are there is a
big part of you that will resonate with what Elise is about to share.
And I will honestly admit, I’ve been in this holistic health space for quite a long time now, and I
know a lot. But I also don’t know anything because, you know, it’s sort of the more you learn, the
more you realise you don’t know. And I even had a whole course and program on nervous system
health and all these things. And yet today, as I was listening to Elise speak, I was gob smacked at
some of the things that I heard for the first time today that I never truly comprehended, never
understood to the depth that I got to receive from her today.
So tune in. This is about to blow your mind. And by the end of this episode, you will know exactly
how to overcome chronic fatigue so that you can have more energy, more life force, more
vibrancy, and feel alive again, and be active, and do the things that you love with those you love.
Because that’s what life is all about, and that is what we all deserve.
Without further ado, enjoy this episode introducing Elise Vesmar.
Viktoria Levenberg: Welcome to Resonance. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. It
is such a joy. And I’m really excited because, you know, we’ve not really interacted much. So
you’re actually one of the first guests I’m bringing on where I’m like, I mean, I like her vibe. I like
what she’s about. So we’ll find out, hahaha.
It’s like really just meeting you for the first time here today, which is actually a first for me, I think.
So happy anniversary to me, and also welcome to you. Please tell me more about you, you know,
who you are, what you do, and introduce yourself.
Elise Vezmar: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for having me on, especially, you know,
someone that you interacted with just a little bit. It’s always fun getting to know new people.
So my name is Elise Vezmar. I am a registered nurse, and I’m also an integrative health
practitioner. And I specialise in chronic fatigue in women. And that’s really where my heart’s
passion lies.
And I found it to be an overwhelming problem that we face in today’s society. And it’s most of
the time—statistics show most of the time—it’s dismissed. Up to 70% of the time, this thing that
affects every aspect of our lives, every moment we live in, is dismissed.
And so I felt really called to serve women in the way that I know best, which is through
integrative medicine. And it all started with my sister, actually, which is really cool.
Viktoria Levenberg: Okay, I love that. And we’ll definitely get into that in just a moment as well,
because I feel like there’s quite a bit of a story there. And you know, I always find that there’s
some kind of personal experience we tend to have with whatever it is that we then end up
providing as medicine to the world. And whether it’s that for ourselves or for our loved ones.
And it sounds like 70% of people being dismissed. I mean, that’s massive. And I can’t wait to nerd
out on the science here. So without getting too far ahead of myself, I do want to ask you one
question that I always find gets such an interesting answer. And that is, what is one of the things
that doesn’t show up on your bio?
So like, if someone were to meet you here for the first time and they were to search your socials
or your website, they wouldn’t know it unless they listened to this episode.
Elise Vezmar: Oh, there’s actually two things, okay, which is really fun for me. The first is that I
have been a passionate skydiver and absolutely love doing it. So much fun. I’ve been quite a few
times, and it’s one of the most memorable experiences of my life. But you won’t find that
anywhere.
And then the second thing is that I was a flight nurse on a helicopter for a couple of years. And I
don’t promote that much because, you know, it was fun, it had its place and its time. But yeah, so
I’m kind of obsessed with all things up in the air.
Viktoria Levenberg: Wow, that is so cool. And like, I can only imagine how much more agile and
like how regulated your nervous system would have to be, like how resilient you would need to
be to be doing what you’re doing. I mean, nursing in itself is already pretty stressful, but like up in
the air with the unpredictability and the environmental stimuli, and skydiving—what?
Like, I know. Oh wow. Do you still do it now?
Elise Vezmar: I do not. I do not. That part of my brain developed a little bit more. The frontal lobe
developed a little bit more, and suddenly I actually became afraid of it, which was really
interesting.
Viktoria Levenberg: Wow, that is so—yeah.
Elise Vezmar: I think it had a little bit more of a higher price. Like, uh-huh, there was more—it
was higher stakes for me. It wasn’t just I’m single doing whatever. It was like, oh shoot girl, you
have a family.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah, there’s more at stake, as you say. And that’s very, very normal and to be
expected. One of my really good friends actually is a hobby skydiver, and he took me on my first
skydiving adventure, which I had just recently a couple years ago in Switzerland. And it is wild.
Have you ever—yeah—done, is it skydove? I don’t know, is the grammar correct? Like, have you
ever skydived in Switzerland?
Elise Vezmar: I have not, you’ve got me there, hahaha.
Viktoria Levenberg: Well maybe that’ll tempt you. Maybe that’s like, oh, that one’s worth it. Do
you like a little tandem? You know, you don’t have to do it by yourself.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh, I love that. Okay, so tell me more about your story and how you
got to working on chronic fatigue. And like you mentioned your sister, that there was a little bit
going on there. Yeah, tell me more.
Elise Vezmar: Yeah, so my origin story of sorts has a couple of different points to it. So when I was
working as a flight nurse, we worked 24-hour shifts, and that was incredibly taxing on the body.
And so we would go for almost 36 hours without sleep, and we did that twice a week.
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh my God.
Elise Vezmar: And so very, very quickly I started running out of my energy reserves, and my body
started paying the price. I aged so fast. Like, and if I was ageing on the outside, can you imagine
how fast I was ageing on the inside?
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh my goodness, yeah.
Elise Vezmar: So it kind of piqued my interest into this world of—mm-hmm. And this was before I
became an integrative health practitioner, so that’s kind of what started. So I started doing some
deep diving into how can I best care for myself.
And so that led to this interest in kind of finding, oh gosh, there’s this whole other realm. Because
I had lived just solely in the Western medicine world. I’ve never experienced anything outside of
traditional Western medicine. And so for me it was really interesting, very eye-opening, and I got
to see there’s this whole other world out there.
So I kind of just hobby-dabbled in it for a little while, and then I kept seeing women in my work in
the hospital, because I worked—and I still do work—in the recovery room. So I’m the nurse that
wakes you up from your surgery.
And women were having organs and body parts removed because of a failure. And I’m gonna say
it, I’m gonna say the thing that nobody wants to hear: a failure of the Western medical system to
keep up with what we are learning so much faster on the integrative or functional or
naturopathic side.
But Western medicine is roughly 20 to 30 years behind, right?
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Elise Vezmar: Mm-hmm. And so I was having these conversations with these women who are
getting their adrenal glands removed from their bodies because a doctor doesn’t have the tools
to maybe not manage it in that way.
Viktoria Levenberg: Wow.
Elise Vezmar: And I was like, this is devastating, right?
And so at that same time, my younger sister—she had been diagnosed with chronic fatigue
syndrome and fibromyalgia. Which, as for anyone in the chronic illness community probably
knows, the two are very closely linked. They’re kind of—
Viktoria Levenberg: And for those—yeah. And for those who aren’t in the community, can you
also just give a brief overview of the definition of chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia? Like for
someone who’s like, oh yeah, it sounds—yeah. Because there’s gonna be a lot of people listening
who are like, I get it, but I don’t.
Elise Vezmar: Yeah, absolutely.
So chronic fatigue syndrome—now this is not—you can have all the symptoms but never have
actually gotten formally diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, because it has very specific
symptoms and you can’t find it on a blood test. Which is one of the reasons why it’s so hard to
diagnose.
But the hallmark of chronic fatigue syndrome is that you have post-exertional malaise, or PEM.
Viktoria Levenberg: Okay.
Elise Vezmar: And that is when after any sort of activity, you crash. So it’s that push and crash
cycle.
And so what that can look like for a lot of women is they get a little bit of energy and they go do,
oh my God, I’m gonna go do all the things on my checklist for the day. And then they cannot get
up off the couch for the next two or three days. Sometimes two or three weeks.
Viktoria Levenberg: Right.
Elise Vezmar: And so it’s like whatever precious little energy your body was able to harness, you
have spent, and now you’re in energy debt.
And so that looks like not being able to do what we in the Western medicine world call your
activities of daily living. Meaning you’re unable to shower and cook—you have to pick between
the two.
So those are some of the hallmarks of chronic fatigue syndrome.
And then fibromyalgia is a neurological condition that affects all of the nerves in your body, and it
is accompanied with severe pain. And so people with fibromyalgia experience muscle pain, all-
over body pain.
And then you combine it with chronic fatigue syndrome, and you hurt and you can’t get up off
the couch, and this is your life as you know it for the rest of your life.
Right, and it is so—the impact is so profound and it’s debilitating. And there are not enough
people in this world that are actively fighting against—mm-hmm—they’re allowing women to
just accept that this is the way that it has to be for the rest of their life.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah. And it’s so, as you say, heartbreaking that this is so common. And it is
so hard to diagnose, which naturally anything that’s hard to diagnose and that you can’t get in
black and white with a blood test is really hard to get any traction on in the Western medical
system.
Like I had a personal undiagnosable skin condition that no one could explain, and it was the same
thing, right?
And the push-crash cycle that you’re speaking about—particularly the people who will be
listening to this podcast who are really ambitious, high-achieving, high-performing humans—
well, like uh-oh, I think she might be onto something here.
And you mentioned women, and also it does often affect women, but it also spans across all
genders, right?
Elise Vezmar: Yeah, that’s correct. Yeah. It is more commonly diagnosed in women, but men are
not excluded from that. And that goes back to what actually causes chronic fatigue. It’s not
specific to women.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah, yeah. And I have a little spidey sense that there might be someone in
my life who meets the criteria that you say as well, which I’m just like, oh, okay.
Tell me more about your sister’s story, and then we’ll backtrack to how can I help them.
Okay, so sister got diagnosed with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, which you were saying go
hand in hand. We’ve now defined those. And then what happened?
Elise Vezmar: So you cut out just a little bit there, but I think I—
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh yeah, and then I said, and then what happened?
Elise Vezmar: And then what happened, okay.
So she was going to college. This was about fifteen years ago. So she was going to college, she
was getting a degree, and she would be taking—you know, she’d have her college exams come
up. And of course that leads to a ton of stress.
She was working full-time as well, and she was going through the push-crash cycle. And so she
would be debilitated after every single exam.
And I watched her quality of life slowly get chipped away at. And as a sister, it’s absolutely
heartbreaking to witness.
And she’d been to a ton of different specialists. She had gotten a little bit of traction. She’d gotten
a diagnosis. They’d done some therapy to work on her body, and it moved the needle a little bit.
But as soon as she would get sick—oh my gosh, probably once a month at least—and so then she
has a child, right? And so that puts a ton of stress on the body. And you know, time is moving
forward now. It’s been a decade. She still has to work, but now she has a little boy who’s relying
on his mother who can’t get out of bed.
Like how are you supposed to support your child?
And so it has this huge impact on her life.
And one day she called me and she was so, so upset. And she’s like, “Elise, I don’t know how I’m
supposed to keep going like this.”
You know, I’m 33 years old. Like how is this the rest of my life?
And so it got me all sorts of fired up. And because I’m a nurse—
Viktoria Levenberg: I love this little cheeky “all sorts of fired up.”
Elise Vezmar: And because if you know anybody that’s a nurse, we kind of—we’re a little—you
know—we don’t take no for an answer very well.
Viktoria Levenberg: I had a couple nurses on the podcast before and oh, that was a spicy one. I
loved it. Yeah. I love me a good nurse.
Elise Vezmar: Yeah, so we’re a very determined breed. And so I thought, you know what, I’m
gonna see if I can figure this out.
And so that’s what led me there. That and seeing all these other women in my life.
I said, you know what, alright, I’m gonna become an integrative health practitioner. So that’s
what I dove into. In February of 2023 is when I started my school, and I graduated.
And I text my sister one day and I was like, “Hey, I think I’ve got something figured out.” Because
there was so—I learned so much. Oh my gosh, I learned so much.
And I said, “I think I might have something figured out. Would you be willing to work with me and
let’s see what we can do about your fatigue?”
And bless her soul, she’s my sister, and she was like, “Of course I’ll work with you. It can’t get
worse.”
Viktoria Levenberg: I was gonna say.
Elise Vezmar: So we’ll be okay, uh-huh.
So I started a very specific protocol. So we went step by step by step. And no joke, we worked
together for three months.
And about six weeks in, she texts me one morning and she said that she woke up literally
Viktoria Levenberg: And this was her exact words were, “I woke up buzzing with energy.”
Elise Vezmar: Oh.
Viktoria Levenberg: And I cried.
Elise Vezmar: Oh.
I cried. I was so happy. It was one of the happiest days I’ve ever had, because it was like, I’m onto
something. I have found traction.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Elise Vezmar: Oh my God, this works.
And so it kind of just took off from there, and then word of mouth spread. And before I knew it,
my business was up and running. And you know, I’ve helped women go from spending their
entire weekend on the couch to doing a couch to 5K twelve weeks later. It’s been huge.
Viktoria Levenberg: Wow.
Elise Vezmar: Yeah. It’s truly— the protocol that I developed is truly transformative. It’s… it’s
wonderful.
Viktoria Levenberg: And I see that in your smile. I mean, you know, as you were sharing that
transformation for your sister, it’s really interesting because the person who I’m thinking of in my
life and I are like polar opposites in that sense. Where I’m very grateful and lucky that I naturally
wake up buzzing with energy, so this is just my default state.
And as someone whose default state is that, it is really difficult to sympathise with someone who
might be struggling with these symptoms. Right?
But there’s hope, because there’s a way to get them there. And so would you be open to sharing
some of your inside secrets to the protocol? Like what did you do? Tell me.
I’m like, get the popcorn out, girl.
Elise Vezmar: So it really, after a lot of trial and error, it really— I found the lynchpin of what I
believe to be the lynchpin to chronic fatigue. And that is found inside of, and the origin point for
this is inside of the nervous system.
Everything. All of this stems from the nervous system.
And specifically, it stems from the vagus nerve and the signals that the vagus nerve is receiving,
not sending, receiving from the body.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Elise Vezmar: And when the body is stuck in a chronic fight-or-flight state, which most of us are
day after day, month after month, and year after year, what I found is that there is something
called the rain barrel effect.
And that was taught by my mentor, Doctor Stephen Cabral. And the rain barrel effect states that
we have life stressors, and that’s the drops of rain inside of a rain barrel.
And it’s always just one drop at a time, but it collects up over the years, because you don’t empty
the rain barrel. And so it fills up, and at some point in time there is one drop that is going to send
the rain barrel overflowing.
And that one drop could be a divorce, a death in the family, buying a home, getting a virus of
some kind. For some people that’s like mono or Epstein-Barr.
It’s something that triggers a nervous system. And it goes into this fight-or-flight. And then
unbeknownst to you as the person suffering, you cannot get back out of it.
Viktoria Levenberg: Wow.
Elise Vezmar: So you spend your time, whether you’re sleeping or awake, in this fight-or-flight
state.
Viktoria Levenberg: So it’s nonstop?
Elise Vezmar: It’s nonstop.
And you may be able to turn it down a little bit, but you’re not able to switch into that rest-and-
digest state, which is critical for healing and regeneration of the body.
So what happens is when you go to sleep at night, first of all you’re wired and tired. So your
brain’s on, you can’t turn it off, but you are bone tired.
And then you toss and turn. You finally get to sleep, you toss and turn, toss and turn. You wake
up and you are just as tired as when you went to sleep.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah.
Elise Vezmar: That is the hallmark of being unable to access that rest-and-digest part of the
system.
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh my God.
Elise Vezmar: Yeah. And people call it stress.
Viktoria Levenberg:This is bigger than stress. This is so much bigger. Like I teach on stress, I teach
on the nervous system. This is bigger.
Elise Vezmar: Yeah, it’s—wow. And so it affects everything else downstream.
So in my protocol, you must start with the nervous system. And I have several different methods
that I teach.
But because I’m the nurse plus the integrative health practitioner, I love a good activator or
supplement or something of that kind.
And so I found in my research, and this is what I had my sister use, something that activates the
vagus nerve and calms the system.
So even if you physically cannot calm down, we utilise this herb to calm the body down so that
we can turn off what is known as the cell danger response.
Because the vagus nerve, when it turns— because I like to think of the vagus nerve as this chief
security officer. She’s always scanning for threats.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah.
Elise Vezmar: What’s going on?
Viktoria Levenberg: It’s like TSA at the airport.
Elise Vezmar: Yeah. And normally she’s like— I imagine her with her glasses down on the bridge
of her nose and a clipboard.
Viktoria Levenberg: Excuse me, you colored outside the lines right there.
Elise Vezmar: Yeah, exactly.
And so she’s like, “Oh my God, I see a threat. Lock it down.”
And our cells go, “Okay, okay, alright, fine, whatever you say.”
And that’s called the cell danger response. And that was discovered by Doctor Robert Naviaux
out of San Diego State University.
And if the cells turn off their energy production, your mitochondria stop producing energy.
Viktoria Levenberg: Holy—yeah.
Elise Vezmar: Right. Your mitochondria stop producing energy.
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh my God.
No wonder you can’t get off the couch.
Elise Vezmar: It’s not that you’re crazy. It’s not anxiety. Anxiety might be a side effect of having
chronic fatigue.
Depression— it’s not depression. Those are symptoms or side effects of this.
But it’s a physiological shutdown.
It’s like being in standstill traffic. You can’t go anywhere.
Viktoria Levenberg: It’s like literally nobody home.
And I’m personally having so many mind-blown moments learning this from you as well, because
so often in the nervous system healing world we talk about your parasympathetic and
sympathetic nervous system state.
But what you’re telling me here is that with chronic fatigue, it is constant sympathetic. So it’s not
even chronic stress. This is beyond chronic stress.
This is like if you are on the couch, you’re still in the sympathetic nervous system response. You’re
just in freeze or flop.
Is that what you’re saying?
Elise Vezmar: Yes.
Viktoria Levenberg: Wow. That is next level. That is so— yeah.
Oh my God.
And you said something earlier as well that I just wanted to clarify. Because you spoke about the
vagus nerve and not about the signals that it sends to the body, but the signals that it receives as
well.
Because again, I know that we often speak about the nervous system and the vagus nerve and
how the vagus nerve regulates your blah blah blah.
So what did you mean when you kind of specifically were like, no, it’s about the signals that it
receives? Can you elaborate on that as well?
Elise Vezmar: Absolutely.
Viktoria Levenberg: Alright, maybe you're tired. Maybe you don't have the time to get extra
sleep. Maybe life's just a lot right now, and maybe the demands are getting too much, but you
need a quick fix right here, right now.
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If you can carve out 15 minutes in your day, I can guarantee you you will feel more energised, and
I have a little nifty-giftie for you. I would like to offer you a free Yoga Nidra recording. The link is in
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Elise Vezmar: So for those that may not know, they’ve heard of the vagus nerve and there’s all
this hype around it. But it’s the tenth cranial nerve.
And it wanders down your head, and it takes a nice little path, and it wanders through your chest,
and it touches your heart and your lungs, and it ends up in your stomach, right in your gut.
And it is a super communication highway.
And so if your body is locked down and in a state of fight-or-flight…
Viktoria Levenberg: Which it is when you have chronic fatigue.
Elise Vezmar: Right. Then, I'm trying to think of the easiest way to explain this then, because it is
sending signals, but the the signals it's receiving are more important than the signals it's sending,
right?
So everything shuts down when you are in fighter flight. Your digestion slows, right? So I I'm not
gonna take us down too far of a tangent, but for example, this is what happens when you're in
fighter flight and your digestive system slows down. What does that mean? It means that the
food in your stomach sits there for longer, which means it starts to rot, which means you get
heartburn, which means it has a— it takes longer to get into the small intestine, and when it does
get there, it's sitting there longer.
Uh huh, which is giving you all sorts of wild, wild symptoms. And at the same time, most of us
have this sneaky little condition that we don't know about that impacts us severely, and that's
called leaky gut.
Right, and leaky gut is when that— the cells of our gut lining have opened up just enough to
allow toxins, bacteria that has no business being there but is there now because it's been slower,
right? Toxins, bacteria, food particles, and Lord knows what else into the bloodstream.
Well, then the bloodstream goes and the lymphatic system goes, “Uh oh, uh uh. You don't belong
here,” and it sends out all of these messengers to go kill the bad guys.
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh my God, yes.
And then you've got your autoimmune response.
Elise Vezmar: Ding ding ding, and that's where your autoimmune response comes in. But your
body is, guess what, already still in fight or flight. It cannot do this.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah.
Elise Vezmar: It has to, right? So yeah, the signals it's receiving from the gut alone are, “Oh my
God, we've got this huge problem.”
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh huh.
Elise Vezmar: Because the immune system is attacking the body, trying to fight off what has no
business being in the bloodstream, so it's stressed.
And when your gut lining is compromised, you're not— it's such a big cycle— you're not
absorbing your vitamins and your nutrients. They're just— so you're wasting them, right?
So hey, guess what? When you're trying these random supplements that you heard your
favourite TikTok influencer talk about, and you're like, “Nothing works.”
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh huh. Yeah.
Elise Vezmar: It's not going to, cause you have to solve that. You have to solve for that issue as
well.
So chronic fatigue is a multi-system, multi-organ systemic issue, and it's systemic dysfunction.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh huh.
Elise Vezmar: So you cannot just work on the nervous system alone. You have to work on— and
this is the other part of my protocol— right, is— sorry, I have a hair.
Viktoria Levenberg: You're all good. Hahaha.
Elise Vezmar: You have to work on and address detoxing the body to get rid of those toxins that
are already creating more work for your body, and your body cannot afford to expend any more
energy.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm hmm.
Elise Vezmar: So you have to work on clearing the toxins, and then you have to work on repairing
and healing and sealing the lining of the gut and rebalancing the bacteria.
And when you do that, guess what? Your bloating goes away. Your reflux goes away. And your
immune system doesn't experience— doesn't have interactions with those bacteria, proteins,
and all those things because we've sealed and sealed up the lining of your gut so it's no longer
compromised.
So we're not tapping into the immune system all the time and requiring it to send forth troops to
deal with another problem.
So the the total picture of it is you have all of these things coming at you from all these different
angles.
And so the— what I've called my protocol is the PowerHER protocol. And the first phase is calm,
and that's where we calm the nervous system. We tell the body, “Hey, hey, hey. It's fine. It's okay.”
Viktoria Levenberg: And you mentioned a herb there. Do you mind sharing?
Elise Vezmar: Yeah. I use matured hops extract 3.
Viktoria Levenberg: Huh.
Wow. Three matured hops extract. First time I'm hearing of it. I was expecting you to say
something like ashwagandha or something like that.
Elise Vezmar: No, no, no.
No no.
No no no.
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh, I'm like—Okay,
Elise Vezmar: Ashwagandha does amazing, amazing things, but that works more with the adrenal
glands, not the actual vegus nerve.
So the adrenal glands, that's a that's a whole another podcast right there, but um—
So matured hops extract 3 works by using bitter. It activates the bitter receptors in your tongue
and in your gut, and that signals to the vagus nerve, cause once again the vagus nerve is all about
receiving messages.
And so it signals the Vegas nerve to go into rest or digest, but it does it without making you
drowsy, which is really great. So you can take it— I take it twice a day, in the morning and in the
evening.
And it works to, even if you've had a hectic day, to kind of just push you— it's gonna nudge you
into that rest or digest.
Viktoria Levenberg: Like you said, step 1 calm. Okay. So step 1, and I apologise, I interrupted you,
but I was just really curious about the herb.
Keep going. Step 2.
Elise Vezmar: Step 2 is replenish, and that's where we're going to remove the toxins from your
body using a functional medicine detox, right?
And that— that right there— and I I generally have people do— my clients do that about week 5,
right? Cause we need to give the body time to acclimate.
And that is where people's energy starts to skyrocket, because we've removed the toxic burden,
we've told the system to calm down, and now we're getting our liver to work not better, but more
effectively.
And we're also starting to give the body the exact nutrients that it requires. And so those cells are
starting to wake up a little bit, and they're like, “Hmm, okay.” And then we give it a little bit of
food, and it's like, “Oh, maybe I could do this.”
So that's really where we see that big push.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh huh. I love that. And by the way, for those listening who don't know, liver
is your biggest detox organ. So by the liver working more effectively, it's like helping the body,
um, detoxify and and basically flush out any of the junk that's been causing the inflammation
you've been talking about. Yeah, yeah. Cool.
Elise Vezmar: Exactly, exactly.
Uh, and then the next step is that we move on to nourish, which is step 3. And that's where we
use a specific functional medicine protocol that works to rebalance the gut bacteria.
Because we know most of us have far more harmful gut bacteria than beneficial, which leads to a
whole mess of problems.
And so it also— so we rebalance that. We then heal and seal the gut lining, which allows that,
once again, that systemic inflammation to calm down, cause we're not tapping into the um
immune system.
And then step 4 is called thrive, and that's where we lean— hahaha.
That is where you've done so much work, but it doesn't just end there because we still need to—
it's a lifelong journey towards keeping the body as young as you can for as long as you can.
And I have a very specific way of doing that. I use act, herbal activators that actually work on the
little genes in our body. We have switches, okay? And sometimes they're on and sometimes
they're off. Sometimes it is just genetics.
But either way, I work with a group of herbal activators that switch on the genes to produce a
thousand times more of your own antioxidants. What does that do?
Viktoria Levenberg: Cool.
Oh my God. Hahaha, sorry. Explain to the listeners what that does. I'm a fellow health nerd, but
people might be like, what?
Elise Vezmar: So why that is so impactful and why it is an integral part of my program is because
oxidative stress, which is also a contributor to chronic fatigue syndrome and a myriad of other
things, oxidative stress is like your body rusting, like collecting rust—
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah.
Elise Vezmar: —on the inside. And it's prevalent. We can't get— we, you know, we can't really
avoid it.
You can eat your anti-inflammatory diets. That helps. But the reality of the situation is we really
need to combat it at the cellular level and at the epigenetic level.
So what that means is when we turn that switch on, it's like eating more blueberries than you
have in your entire life, right? And it tells your body, it signals your body to make more of its own
master antioxidants, which is glutathione.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh huh.
Elise Vezmar: Okay. And studies have shown that having high levels of oxidative stress is the
leading cause of chronic disease inside of the body, uh huh, period.
Uh huh, end of story.
Yeah. So if we want to have longevity and have energy to accompany that longevity—because I
do not believe the lie that energy decreases when you age. I don't believe that because I had a
client, she is now 72, going on 73, and after working together she said she has the energy that
she had in her fifties.
Elise Vezmar: Wow.
Elise Vezmar: So, and it's because we're working on energy and the actual physiological functions
of the body at such a minute level. It's so much deeper than just take your vitamins, you know,
and maybe some turmeric, right? Those are wonderful things, but it's how we combine them and
in the order in which we combine them that prevents chronic fatigue relapses, right? It promotes
longevity and it will eventually decrease the risk of any development of chronic diseases.
Viktoria Levenberg: Wow. I'm like gobsmacked by your protocol, and I—whoo. I mean, like, I don't
have chronic fatigue and I wanna take it, you know.
Elise Vezmar: That's the best part. That's what I tell people. They're like, “Oh, I don't have chronic
fatigue.” And I was like, “Great, let's not get it, okay? Let's—”
Let's—yeah, exactly.
Let's be preventative.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yes, exactly.
Elise Vezmar: Absolutely. Cause prevention is so much easier than recovery.
Viktoria Levenberg: Exactly, exactly. And we—you know, some of us need to learn the lessons
that we need to learn, and that is choice. Life is choice. But I love this, you know, this four-step
process. It sounds so simple, it sounds so doable, and yet so well thought out and actionable.
You know, it's like calm, replenish, nourish, and thrive. And from everything that I heard you say,
it's like you've combined your experience of, you know, decades as a nurse and all the things that
you've been doing with this additional almost like this missing ingredient that you obtained when
you went down the integrative health route, inspired by your sister's story.
That's like a lot of this stuff—and I've been in the health world for a bit of time—a lot of the stuff
that you've shared today is new to me. So like you're onto something gold here. And that is, it is
such a privilege to have you on this podcast because, um—haha—funny that like it's called
resonance for a reason. You know, resonance is basically our parasympathetic nervous system
state.
Elise Vezmar: Yeah.
Viktoria Levenberg: Um, and so that is just such a beautiful synchronicity. Um, and wow. Like I
just see the ripple effect that you have had and that you get to create in so, so many lives as well.
And so tell me what it's like to work with you. You know, like let's say someone's just heard this
and they're like, “Wow, I identify as someone who either has chronic fatigue or I am a A+ student
and I wanna be preventative and not get it in the first place.” Like what does that journey look
like?
Elise Vezmar: Haha, yeah. Well for the woman that has a diagnosis or just suspects that she has
chronic fatigue, the very first thing—there are two things that we talk about first. And the first is
that there is hope.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh huh.
Elise Vezmar: There is hope. This does not have to be a life sentence. So we need to embody that
belief first. So you need to believe that healing is even possible. So that's step number one.
And then step number two, I advise any of my clients that have some sort of chronic illness that it
generally takes as many months as you've had it to reverse it.
Viktoria Levenberg: Okay.
Elise Vezmar: So while we will have that initial energy boost—and that lasts, absolutely—but if
you have other conditions that are associated with that, it does take a little bit more time. So it's
not—I—there is no magic fix and there is no overnight quick fix either. But this is an overhaul that
lasts for the rest of your life. And to me, that's more important than something that I can give you
in 12 weeks. Yeah, but is it really going to be what's best for you and your long-term health?
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh huh. And what would you tell the person who's like, “But I've had this for
20 years and you're telling me it's gonna take me 20 years to heal?”
Elise Vezmar: It might take 20 months. It might. It might truly. And that's where the kind but no-
nonsense nurse comes out and I'm like, “Uh huh. I will be there every step of the way.” That's the
best part.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah.
Elise Vezmar: I'm not gonna leave you alone. We're gonna figure out things as we go along. And
the beautiful part of it is we can do some functional medicine testing, which is so fun—and I nerd
out on that so much. I love it when my clients do testing.
Because it's a privilege to be able to look and find that there are other things going on, and then
we can work on those as well, right? And so it can be a process. But you don't do it alone. So
that's the best part.
Viktoria Levenberg: Exactly. And logistically speaking, you mentioned a few herbs here and there.
So do you work with people all over the world? And if yes, like how can they get access to these
herbs? You know, again, I'm just asking as a prospective potential client myself, hahaha.
Like, “I will add that one to the bucket list”, hahaha.
Elise Vezmar: Um, so yes. Because I do all of my—my practice is virtual, so I have the privilege of
being able to work with women all over the world. And that has always been my dream, is to be
able to touch many more lives than just in my intimate circle.
And so the other thing is that I have done a lot of research to figure out, okay, if I cannot—you
know, some people have a hard time getting some of the stuff over in Denmark, for example. I
had a woman I worked with over in Denmark, not exactly able to ship to her country.
So we got creative. And she had friends in Germany, and we could ship it to Germany, so that's
what we did. You know what I mean?
Viktoria Levenberg: Awesome, yeah.
Elise Vezmar: So we find a way to make it happen.
Viktoria Levenberg: You find a way, yeah.
Elise Vezmar: Absolutely, absolutely love it. But most of the things that I use, either I have also
been able to find a really high-quality dupe that is normally on Amazon. Amazon can deliver if,
you know, we're like—the client really wants it. They're like, “I have to have it.”
Okay, I've done the research and I found something that's as close as humanly possible. Because I
will never, ever suggest something that I have not tried myself and that does not have research to
back it up.
Right? So I'm not just gonna be like, “Sure, you could—I mean you could take this.” No, no, no. It
needs to have actually had either clinical trials done, patents pending—which means they've had
to prove that it does what it says it does, right?
So patents pending is one of my things I hold dear and close to my heart, or it needs to have
gone through extensive, extensive research.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm hmm. Wow. Like that just sounds like you're truly—this is where the
nurse side of you comes out—is like the care and the love for your patients. I can tell right away
it's like, “Oh, she's gonna tuck me in and give me everything I need.”
Elise Vezmar: And then I'm gonna be your cheerleader, and I will also probably kick your ass
somewhere along the way.
Viktoria Levenberg: All of which we need, which is incredible.
Um, and you know, like I would just love to hear from you then, Elise, as you kind of bring this to
a close. And let's say someone's listened to this episode and there's a lot of wisdom that you
shared. If there was just one thing that they could take away from today's episode, what do you
wish that one thing would be?
Elise Vezmar: Oh, it's the one thing I wish every woman who's ever suffered with fatigue could
know. And it's that there is hope and it can be reversed. And I've done it, and it's possible.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm hmm. You've done it. And your clients have done it. Your sisters have
done it.
Elise Vezmar: Mm hmm.
Viktoria Levenberg: It's possible.
Viktoria Levenberg: It's possible, yeah.
Elise Vezmar: It's possible. And that seed of hope—and I have so much gratitude in my heart to
being called to do this. Yeah.
And I am so grateful to be able to talk about this and have such a profound impact. Because not
having fatigue is life-changing.
It's a gift. It's a blessing. It allows you to spend time with your family. It allows you to say yes to
yourself, to opportunities—whether that's in business or your personal life.
It allows you to repair relationships.
It can allow you to go back to work so that you don't have financial stress anymore.
And the ripple effect is not just you. It's in your children who see a mom that can get better, that
is tough and can make it through. And it's paving the way, I believe, for hopefully chronic fatigue
management and reversal to become mainstream, because that is my wish.
Western medicine gets on board with this. But if not—and if the gaslighting still continues—I will
be here every step of the way doing my part to combat it as best I can on this side of it.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah. And you are. And you are doing an incredible job of it.
You know, just by showing up and doing your work and you know, like running a business ain't for
the faint of heart and and ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
You know sometimes…
Elise Vezmar: The funniest thing I've ever done, ha ha ha
Viktoria Levenberg: yeah tell me about it sometimes I'm like what have I gotten myself into and
then you see the results that your clients get is like oh that's right that's why ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Elise Vezmar: Exactly that's so true.
Viktoria Levenberg: And I genuinely believe that there is this pioneer way shower, trail blazer
energy that's required in so many different fields. You know like for you with chronic fatigue, for
me I'm sort of you know in productivity. There's so many people that are doing these incredible
things that might be um not traditional and not you know they might be gaslit and not broadly
accepted.
And so that just means that we quietly get to get more people on board and help more people
and the results speak for themselves. You know it is it's it's the what is it, the proof is in the
pudding as they say yeah.
Ha ha.
Um and so if someone would like to work with you, they wanna learn more about you, where can
they find you?
Elise Vezmar: Absolutely. So I am on TikTok, that is my favourite place to hang out, and so I am on
TikTok um you can find me under Elise Vezmar, V E Z M A R. Um and that I also have a link in my
bio that takes you to, I have a bunch of free resources in there. I have a, one of my favourite
things is there's a optimal lab guide.
And it tells you hey this is what your lab should be and if they're not let's have a conversation
right, love it. Um I also host webinars and that's where I actually dive really deep into the science
behind the nervous system and and more of the nitty-gritty of it.
Um and I'm also really proud to announce I just launched my membership for women with
chronic fatigue.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah congratulations, that is so special.
Elise Vezmar: It is, it is. So it's called the Power Her Collective. And so that is where we get
together and we do the work of reversing chronic fatigue and I bring um, I'm gonna be bringing
on guest experts to do workshops inside of there to bring their own flavour and their own
specialty into cause there's so many different modalities to compliment the work that I do.
And so next month I'm bringing on a yoga nidra expert who does chair yoga for the woman, I
know, for the woman who's too tired to do yoga or hurts too much or whatever the case may be.
So yeah I'm really excited to bring her on. Um yeah yeah.
So you can find me on TikTok at Elise Vezmar or on Instagram or Facebook under Twin Rivers
Health.
Viktoria Levenberg: Awesome and we'll make sure to link all of that up in the show notes as well
so that is in there. Um and this question for anyone who's listening, um can they join the
membership without having gone through your program first? Is that available as well?
Elise Vezmar: Yes yes.
Viktoria Levenberg: Awesome. So it's open to anyone.
Elise Vezmar: It's open to anyone at any time.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah amazing.
Elise Vezmar: And I'm running a special right now um because I just like being generous so I
thought you know what, I'm actually going to give my program away for free inside of the
membership.
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh my god that is huge.
Elise Vezmar: Oh um.
Viktoria Levenberg: So, this podcast episode will air in a couple of weeks time. I think we're due
to air on May 4th. Will that still be available to people?
Elise Vezmar: Yes yes, I'm keeping it open for a few more weeks. Yeah so you can get in.
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh my gosh get in, get in now like it's basically the memo. Don't wait. Stop
everything you're doing, pause the episode and get in now before Elise shuts this down.
Elise Vezmar: Yeah it's a you know I wanted this to be for the woman that you know either she
can't work or she's just really struggling right now. I wanted healing to be accessible and so I
thought well what better way than to offer it inside of my membership.
Viktoria Levenberg: So wow that's amazing, that is really generous. You truly are you know such a
kind soul and you are hmm, your passion your love for this, the way you love to nerd out on the
things that you're creating and sharing is just it's so evident. You know when that energy ripples
through.
So um cool, we've got you on the TikToks, we've got you on the grams, the Facebooks. I'll make
sure to link all the freebies and the membership details in the show notes. And um I love that
you're bringing a yoga nidra expert on board as well. Actually part of my background is in yoga
and um yoga nidra as well, I love it, it's changed my life.
So um get into the membership that's for sure.
Um and one last question as we wrap. Um for those who are listening to this podcast who
identify as male, I know you predominantly work with females. There is hope, that was your key
message. Where would you direct the males listening to this episode?
Elise Vezmar: Well if they don't mind, if they don't mind being in a membership with women you
can come on in.
Viktoria Levenberg: Awesome. Yeah so there's nothing like in your protocol that like the male
physiology wouldn't respond to. You're open to working with them, it's just your predominant
audience is women.
Elise Vezmar: Yes.
Viktoria Levenberg: Awesome, I just wanted to clarify that cause I'm the same you know. I speak
about periods and cycles and I've got a man inside of my beta program right now and he's
incredible. So it's open to all.
Elise Vezmar: Absolutely yeah, everyone is welcome.
Viktoria Levenberg: Amazing. Thank you so much for coming on. This has been such an absolute
pleasure and like so many mind-blown emoji moments. I already know exactly who I'm gonna be
sending this episode as soon as this airs, hahaha.
That's like hahaha.
Um and we'll have to bring you back to speak about adrenals because you mentioned that could
be a whole conversation on its own and it's something that I have a personal connection to in my
health journey. So yeah that would be a pretty cool one to explore if you're open to it.
Elise Vezmar: I love that because I'm like oh let's pull up labs and look at this this this cause then
we can talk about the cortisol spike and curve which is like one of my favourite things.
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh my gosh.
Exciting. Well we can chat about that cause I can just see how lit up you got. Well I'm conscious it
is late for you, your kids probably wanting a little tuck in for none.
Elise Vezmar: I hear a little mama coming from the top of the stairs.
Viktoria Levenberg: That is really cute. So we're gonna let mama get back to the family. Thank
you so much for coming on. It's been an absolute privilege and a pleasure and I'm just so so
grateful for you, for the work you're doing and to have the opportunity to bring your voice to
more people. It's an honour and a privilege.
Elise Vezmar: Thank you, thank you Viktoria. This has been so wonderful. Thank you for having
me.
Viktoria Levenberg: This one was a goodie and there were actually quite a few moments during
our conversation where I was tearing up again as alluded to previously, just because of the deep
personal connections that I was making to people in my life who are going through these
challenges and who get to have a better life. There is hope for them to have a better life as well.
And so if there's one thing that you do today, and maybe this is for you or maybe it's for someone
else in your circle, whether it's a family member, a friend, a colleague, send this to someone who
needs to hear this. If there's someone you've noticed has been kind of off their game, showing
up quite tired, just no matter what they do they're always talking about how exhausted they are,
be a good friend, be a good colleague, be a good family member. Just be like oh hey, I listened to
this cool episode.
Um because it could change their life. Don't underestimate the power of that one small action
and the ripple effect that it potentially has on the trajectory of their lived experience.
And you know that was really my biggest takeaway and I love that Elise said this in her um wrap
up, is that there is hope. There is hope. This is something that has physiological scientific
explanations and with science you get to also solve for it.
And the solutions that she provides will last you for the rest of the life um, will last you for the
rest of your life. And so you know check out Elise's work. You know she's all over the socials, join
her membership, get her freebies, all the things. It's all gonna be linked up in the show notes just
below this video or the podcast episode depending on what platform you're listening or watching
and tuning in from.
I know that I will be diving into her stuff like I'm so intrigued. This is really up my alley. Um and
also I just wanted to point you to another episode of Resonance that if this kind of got you
intrigued you might also want to listen to the episode I posted about detoxifying your body.
Um and there's a few of my kind of tips and hacks that I share as well that are natural, holistic,
and might help with um alleviating some of that toxic load from your system. But remember that
is only step two. So Elise speaks to a really important step one which is calm, which if you're like
in this chronic fatigue state she's the expert, go see her.
And if you want something to listen to in the meantime there's another episode I'll point you
towards.
And if I had to summarise this conversation in one sentence or kind of one reflection is please
don't wait for a diagnosis to get help.
You get to do this. You get to have someone support you. You get to receive that assistance that
you need because chances are if you knew what to do you probably would already would have
done it by now. So please don't settle.
Look for the possibilities. Look for the success stories of people who are going through the exact
same thing that you've been going through and look at what they've been able to achieve.
And I think that's really such tremendous power of being in a community, being in membership,
where you are alongside other people who are literally experiencing the same symptoms and
transformations as you are. Like there is nothing more precious than realising, like oh it's not just
me, I am normal.
You know that I've just not been supported in the right way.
So yeah without further ado, I will leave it at this. Thank you so much for listening to this week's
episode. I am so so grateful for you and so so grateful for bringing Elise into our world. And until
next week go well, have a beautiful rest of your week, and I'll see you soon. Bye for now.
Viktoria Levenberg: If you're a high performer or entrepreneur who's got big dreams and you've
developed strategies to get you closer to those dreams, but you feel like there are also parts of
you self-sabotaging your success.
I built something just for you. It is my signature Achievement Archetypes Quiz that is absolutely
free, takes less than two minutes, and it will give you instant feedback as to where your Achilles
heel is. That is your natural self-sabotaging behaviour when it comes to productivity, planning,
efficiency, and organisation.
And it gives you your next right step and the solution you didn't know you needed. You'll find the
link in the show notes just below. Make sure you find your achievement archetype and let me
know what it is.
As a fellow achiever I will be the first to put my hand up that I have now mastered my Achilles
heel and I can't wait for you to do the same.
Viktoria Levenberg: The views and opinions expressed by guests on Resonance are their own and
do not necessarily reflect the views of me, Viktoria Levenberg, LVNHealth, or anyone working
within the LVNHealth brand. This space welcomes a diversity of ideas, experiences, and stories,
and part of Resonance is learning to take what aligns and gently leaving the rest.
Also, while I am a National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach and deeply passionate
about well-being, this podcast is intended for educational and inspirational purposes only.
Resonance does not substitute personalised medical, psychological, or therapeutic advice. Always
seek guidance from qualified professionals for any physical, emotional, or mental health
concerns.
