Watch the documentary for free:
www.vaxxed3.org
Learn More:
https://childrenshealthdefense.org
Dr. Scott Vrzal is giving listeners $50 off his Functional Muscle Testing online courses! Use coupon code LTH here: sownutritionalsystems.com/functional-muscle-testing
https://sownutritionalsystems.com/functional-muscle-testing
Get Dr. Scott Vrzal's Book, The Headache Advantage: 7 Pain Patterns as Tools for Total Body Transformation
Check Out My Latest Book: Addicted To Wellness
https://www.learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness
Get The Minerals Your Body Needs: TakeYourSupplements.com
https://takeyoursupplements.com
Dr. V's Website: www.HeadacheAdvantage.com
Get my ebook and audiobook here: https://learntruehealth.com/op/addicted-to-wellness-ebook.
Get my course, The 7 Foundations of Health, here:
https://learntruehealth.com/sp/7-foundations-of-optimal-health
Get a physical copy of my book here: https://learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness.
The Vibe: https://learntruehealth.com/vibe coupon code LTH - LearnTrueHealth.com/vibe
Dr. Ellen Kamhi's website: http://www.naturalnurse.com
Get my ebook and audiobook here: https://learntruehealth.com/op/addicted-to-wellness-ebook.
Get my course, The 7 Foundations of Health, here:
https://learntruehealth.com/sp/7-foundations-of-optimal-health
Get a physical copy of my book here: https://learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness.
The Vibe: https://learntruehealth.com/vibe coupon code LTH - LearnTrueHealth.com/vibe
Get the NEW free IIN sample class and health coach experience: https://learntruehealth.com/coach
Enroll in the next Health Coach Training Program! Use coupon code LTH when signing up to become a health coach.
Dr. Ellen Kamhi PhD RN AHN-BC RH(AHG) provides CE eligible certification educational modules in Herbal Medicine, Essential Oil Therapy, Homeopathy, Energy Medicine, and all aspects of holistic medicine, and supports individuals on their path to incorporate Herbal and Natural Therapies into their Life and Career. She is a respected Consultant in the Nutraceutical Industry providing Formulation, Education and Regulatory Review. Ellen Kamhi is actively involved, along with Dr. Eugene Zampieron, ND, with Natural Alternatives Health, Education and Multimedia Services, and leads EcoTours For Cures™, which brings participants to indigenous areas to experience the ancient healing arts of traditional cultures. Dr. Kamhi is available as a speaker and consultant. for your organization.
For details, call (954) 418-2388 or http://www.naturalnurse.com/contact
FINAL CYBER SALES UPDATE! Get these 5 holistic cyber sales before hey are gone!
Analemma Structured Water Devices (whole house unit, gardening unit, personal size unit)
End of the promotion: Friday 6th, December
https://learntruehealth.com/structuredwater
Discount code rate: 25%
Discount code: lth25 (applicable to all products)
My Two Interviews About This Structured Water:
https://learntruehealth.com/rejuvenate-cells-with-structured-water-mario-brainovic
https://learntruehealth.com/healing-waters-science-of-structured-analemma-water-with-dr-eric-laarakker
MY FAVORITE DETOX & RECOVERY SAUNA:
Use coupon code LTH at https://learntruehealth.com/sunlightensauna
Cyber Week
December 2-6
Up to $1,000 off, including FREE shipping
https://learntruehealth.com/sunlighten-saunas
BEST ORGANIC MATTRESS FOR THE BEST SLEEP OF YOUR LIFE!
Organix Bed's Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale
20% off mattresses + free white glove delivery (up to $2,018.60 in savings).
30% off bundles of 4+ accessories with free standard shipping.
Discounts auto-apply with this think
organixbed.com/learntruehealth
Sale Dates: November 27th - December 4th
Life Spa Ayurvedic Supplements:
Starting Wednesday, November 27th through Thursday, December 5th will be 20% off site wide at https://learntruehealth.com/lifespa
https://learntruehealth.com/quantum-healing-bridging-ancient-wisdom-with-modern-science-dr-john-douillard
IIN: Institute For Integrative Nutrition
HUGE CYBER SALE! Get 30% off when you enroll in any IIN course using LTH discount code! https://learntruehealth.com/coach
Get my ebook and audiobook here: https://learntruehealth.com/op/addicted-to-wellness-ebook.
Get my course, The 7 Foundations of Health, here:
https://learntruehealth.com/sp/7-foundations-of-optimal-health
Get a physical copy of my book here: https://learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness.
The Vibe: https://learntruehealth.com/vibe coupon code LTH - LearnTrueHealth.com/vibe
Get the NEW free IIN sample class and health coach experience: https://learntruehealth.com/coach
Enroll in the next Health Coach Training Program! Use coupon code LTH when signing up to become a health coach.
Dr. Jodie Meschuk's Website: www.thewarriorcenter.com
Get my ebook and audiobook here: https://learntruehealth.com/op/addicted-to-wellness-ebook.
Get my course, The 7 Foundations of Health, here:
https://learntruehealth.com/sp/7-foundations-of-optimal-health
Get a physical copy of my book here: https://learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness.
The Vibe: https://learntruehealth.com/vibe coupon code LTH - LearnTrueHealth.com/vibe
Get the NEW free IIN sample class and health coach experience: https://learntruehealth.com/coach
Enroll in the next Health Coach Training Program! Use coupon code LTH when signing up to become a health coach at https://learntruehealth.com/coach.
https://learntruehealth.com/vibe coupon code LTH - LearnTrueHealth.com/vibe
Get the NEW free IIN sample class and health coach experience: https://learntruehealth.com/coach
Enroll in the next Health Coach Training Program! Use coupon code LTH when signing up to become a health coach at https://learntruehealth.com/coach
Check out Lindsey Baillie's website:
https://www.saltoftheearthskin.com
Get the free IIN sample class and health coach experience:
https://learntruehealth.com/coach
Enroll in the next Health Coach Training Program! Use coupon code LTH when signing up to become a health coach at https://learntruehealth.com/coach
To Dye For The Documentary:
Website: https://www.todyeforthedocumentary.com/podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/todyeforthedocumentary
FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dyefreefamily
Instagram -@todyeforthedocumentary
Details, free course sample, and more: learntruehealth.com/coach
https://learntruehealth.com/coach
Coupon Code LTH for all IIN courses gets you a BIG listener special discount!
Check Out My Latest Book: Addicted To Wellness
https://www.learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness
Get The Minerals Your Body Needs: TakeYourSupplements.com
Check Out My Latest Book: Addicted To Wellness
https://www.learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness
Get The Minerals Your Body Needs: TakeYourSupplements.com
https://takeyoursupplements.com
John Gusty's websites:
https://theredpillrevolution.com
Special Audience Giveaway:
NaturallyBetter4you.com
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in
this program are those of the guest speakers and do
not necessarily reflect the views or positions of
the host or podcast.
Get The Minerals Your Body Needs: TakeYourSupplements.com
https://takeyoursupplements.com
Check Out My Latest Book: Addicted To Wellness
https://www.learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness
Adam Sud's website: https://www.adamsud.com
Check Out My Latest Book: Addicted To Wellness
https://www.learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness
Get The Minerals Your Body Needs: TakeYourSupplements.com
https://takeyoursupplements.com
Dr. Jeremy Ayres's Websites:
https://theredpillrevolution.com
Special Audience Giveaway:
NaturallyBetter4you.com
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in
this program are those of the guest speakers and do
not necessarily reflect the views or positions of
the host or podcast.
https://learntruehealth.com/red-pill-revolution-navigating-the-lies-of-modern-medicine
In this episode of the Learn True Health podcast, Ashley James interviews Dr. Jeremy Ayres in a thought-provoking and controversial discussion that challenges conventional health narratives. Dr. Ayres shares insights designed to inspire listeners to question deeply held beliefs and explore alternative perspectives on wellness and healing. With a focus on evidence-based approaches, this episode offers an opportunity to rethink modern medicine and consider empowering paths to true health.
Highlights:
Intro:
Hello true health seeker and welcome to another exciting episode of the Learn True Health podcast. We have a very controversial and interesting, thought-provoking deep-dive today with Dr. Jeremy Ayres. He’s going to say some things that I think are going to shake up some belief systems. I think some of his topics are so controversial that some people may find themselves upset or may find themselves deciding to question their own belief system and go deeper.
I just want to say that anything that he says that goes completely against your current knowledge or belief system, approach it with an open mind, ask yourself, am I upset because it’s challenging my dogma, or am I upset because I think it is hurtful, or am I upset because I’ve never heard this before that it’s completely opposite to what everyone around me believes.
We just question our own belief system. I’m not saying that I believe everything he says. I’m saying that it’s worth having thought exercises. I believe it’s part of personal growth to listen to an opinion different from yours and to just keep your mind open and then go deeper and see what evidence is there for that. Is it true? Is this the truth? Can I find evidence to support this? Why does he say these things? He does a lot more information. We didn’t go super deep on some things he says. I love to have him back and have him explained why he said the things he said. Although there are his books you can dive into. There’s plenty of videos of him online and articles. He’s been a doctor for many years. He doesn’t say anything without a basis. He doesn't just state something that’s an opinion. He comes to conclusions based on enough evidence. You can find this same evidence that he’s found and I'm sure you can reach out to him as well and he will provide you with that evidence.
This is a wonderful exercise to challenge our belief system. I’ve had my belief system changed doing this podcast for the last eight years and it’s really enriched my life. I’ve allowed old beliefs to be shed away in light of new evidence, new information, and I find that it actually builds us up.
I hope this information builds you up. I hope the information exposes you to ideas that empower you and that give you a path to building yourself up. I want to let you know that if you are new to seeking true health that I have published a book that I’d love for you to do. It's called Addicted to Wellness. It’s a workbook so it’s where rubber meets the road. It provides you with the foundations of health in a way that is fun and doable even for the busiest of people. Please check it out. You can go to learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness or type in Addicted to Wellness by Ashley James on Amazon.
Thank you so much for sharing this podcast for those you care about. I have a feeling this is one of those very shareable episodes because we’re going to start to think about friends and family and colleagues that need to hear this information, especially those who have been lied to by their doctors. the doctors don’t even know they’re lying. Again, this is what we’re going to be talking about today. But if you’ve a friend or a family member who is sick and is suffering, who’s sick of suffering, who just doesn't’ want to suffer anymore but they are on multiple medications and the medications are making it even worse not better and they’re not getting to the root cause, their doctor’s not helping heal themselves. This is going to be a wonderful introduction to why it is the way it is and that there is a different way how we can guide people there. I encourage you to check out my book because there’s a lot of evidence-based actionable steps to building our health up and I’d love for you to have those tools on your tool belt. Learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness is the book. Enjoy today’s episode.
Welcome to the Learn True Health podcast. I’m your host, Ashley James. This is episode 526.
Ashley James (0:05:02.426)
I am so excited for today's guest. We have on the show with us, Dr. Jeremy Ayres. naturallybetterforyou.com is his website, spelt anyway, that's really smart. naturallybetterforyou.com. Dr. Ayres is an osteopathic physician who combines the best of naturopathic, chiropractic, and osteopathic care. He's famous for the book he co-authored, The Red Pill Revolution. It's criminal how the medical industry and the food industry has taken us prisoner and it's like the Matrix, you can't see the Matrix, but you're a prisoner of the Matrix. This is where we live. We live in a world where our health is controlled by major corporations who profit from us being sick. Of course, if you're listening to this, you are interested in stepping outside of the mainstream to look for how to achieve true health. I know with our guests oday, this is a missing piece that has been missing for you and for all of us. Dr. Ayres is gonna fill us in on what we need to know in order to help our body's ability to heal itself. Welcome to the show.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (0:06:24.430)
Well thank you very much for finally getting me on here because we've had some technical issues a few times but we're here now.
Ashley James (0:06:32.636)
Yes, I'm very happy to have you on. We have been trying to get this interview for a while and today we did it. I'm so committed to getting this information out there. I've been screaming from the rooftops for years and then I come across your message and it was so refreshing to see another person saying almost the exact same thing I've been saying, but you also have been in the trenches as a doctor. so you have a unique perspective. I’ve interviewed over 500 doctors the last eight years, and many of them are actually medical doctors, MDs. I was always surprised, what does it take for an MD to wake up, reject the system that they spent over half a million dollars investing in their education, and then move towards holistic plant -based or, herbal-based medicine, functional medicine, and almost reject the drug-based medical industry. So often I'll ask them, what happened in your life? Every single one of them said, I got sick or my wife or my dad or someone in their life is either themselves personally or someone that they dearly loved. They realized that the allopathic drug-based, pharmaceutical-based medical doctor system had zero answers to helping support the body's ability to heal itself and had zero capacity to reverse disease and get someone out of a disease state and live their optimal life, optimally healthy. That's when they went, my gosh, I can't believe I've been lied to because they all said the same thing. They said, many, many years of medical school that we're taught all the answers. If it's not taught in medical school, it's not even worth knowing. What a bunch of lies and manipulation that there's so many doctors out there that their hearts are in the right place, but they've been brainwashed by the medical industry. So I'm so excited to have you on the show today because I want to go deeper and have people understand the history of the modern medical system that it's only about 130 or less years. It hasn't been around that long. When we look at how we think it's always been this way, we're born into this system. It hasn't always been this way and we have to understand that we have been lied to since birth. So I'm very excited to go down that rabbit hole with you. Then we're going to talk about the problem, unpack that problem. Then we want to talk of course about the solution, which you have a wonderful solution.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (0:09:12.348)
Where to begin with all that? Because what you've said is profoundly right. Probably most of your audience is aware that you are profoundly right. If there's anyone listening for the first time by chance and just listened to you and thought, what a wacko, let's start there.
I'm 55 years young and I didn't one day wake up and decide to pick every controversial subject and do the opposite to what everybody else has been told or thought was correct and right so that it would make me more money and win me more popularity and friends because as you know the opposite is true. I could have made myself a great fortune if I'd have gone a different route for example. So there is a reason why doctors like myself have chosen this path, which has been bumpy and arduous and challenging at times. The bottom line to that is I was brought up by a wonderful mother who passed away last year, accelerated by certain medical interventions that have happened in the last few years. Maybe we can touch on that. But, nonetheless, I was brought up by a wonderful woman, a very simple woman in many ways, and she hated bullies and liars. I didn't realize she was prepping me for my adult life, and certainly she didn't either, but prepping me for my adult life when I realized that the system per se is the bullies and liars. I was brought up like most of you, so-called educated, believing that the politicians, what they're saying were true and how things were run and that doctors were there to help you and so forth.
At 12 years old, cancer came to our family for the first time. It was my brother's wife's mother who had breast cancer and she went on to pass with that. Now at the time, I was told that she died from breast cancer and I probably think my brother and his wife would still say that. What I saw was the fear and as a 12 year old boy, the fear and the grief and the upset and the anger and how it caused problems with relationships as her mother went through what she did and then finally passed.
At 12 years old, I remember thinking, this is just wrong. Something's got to be done about this. This is terrible. Then I went off on my merry way, growing up until I was about 21, 22, where I represented Great Britain in canoeing in the Olympic training squad. I hurt my back very badly and I've never liked doctors. I don't know what it was. I just didn't feel comfortable ever going to a doctor, talking to a doctor, being in a doctor's office.
So I hurt my back very badly. It was the Olympic year. There was this portly chap, who looked more like a British butcher than an osteopath or a healthcare professional. He was an osteopath and I didn't know what the hell that was at the time, but he wasn't charging very much. He said, well, I can help you come along to my clinic. So off I went, well, struggled to get in my car and drive there, could hardly walk. He had a sort of production line clinic, which was lots of booths with separated by curtains and lots of student osteopaths. It was a bit like a commercial factory really, nonetheless, I came into there and he asked me to take my clothes off down to my boxers, and I wasn't ready for that one, examined me and then handed me over to an Eastern European woman with more muscles and facial hair than me at the time, who then proceeded to massage me into near tears, of course, I'm English, so we don't complain. We construct a carefully written letter the next day, rather than like Americans or Canadians who might speak up. So there I am laying, crying, thinking, when will this torturous thing end?
Then in came Ron Johnson, this osteopath, and put me in what I thought was a pseudo sexual position at the time, no explanation, and adjusted my back and this loud crack and all the pain went away. That was it. I went, I've got to do this. That was the moment. It was from there on in these memories of 12 years old and the cancer that came into my family came back and I went off with this determination that I must become an osteopath and something's got to be done about this terrible disease. It was as naive as that, thinking that there would be some university course or something that will teach you. As I expand on the story, but as you well know, the more I studied and as I became an osteopath and the more I researched, the more I realized the opposite was true. The closer you got to the information, especially the closer you got to speaking about it, the more trouble you got in. So very quickly, by my mid 30s, I realized that this game is rigged. I think the first book I came across that explained it well was Dirty Medicine. The author had had several attempts on his life. Me at that time, it was like, no, this has got to be exaggerated.
But when you pull the layers back and you apply the original journalist method of following the money, we're talking about medicine, the biggest business on the planet by a mile. According to the Fortune 500, they're way ahead of any other company and profits and money generation.
When you are asking, if anybody says, well, come on, that's just rubbish. You have to just go and ask anybody in any country where you have lived in the last 50 years, have you become healthier or sicker as a people? Everybody this is pre-convid, and that's what I call it, and I'm willing to explain why I call it convid, but pre-convid, everybody would say, well, we're sicker, much sicker. If you go back to follow the money, who gains?
So what you have to at least start to be open to looking into rather than accepting is that this is not a healthcare system. It's a business model. It's an extremely successful business model. It's a bloody dirty one too, because they have done everything possible to silence and ruin critics and any medical doctor that has woken up and come to realize what they're actually in will know what I'm talking about because they're absolutely professionally crucified till they shut up and tow the line or go off and do something else. So I don't think it takes that much for people to realize that this is actually a business and not a healthcare system.
Ashley James (0:16:35.741)
That book, Dirty Medicine, is that Martin Walker who wrote it?
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (0:16:42.408)
Honestly, it was 30 years ago, I'd have to go and check, but it was just the beginning of many, many books that started to show me. In fact, most of the best stuff was written a hundred years ago, which is about the time that the Rockefellers who were into oil were being basically investigated for a monopoly on the oil.
Actually, they had a monopoly on the petrol and pumping station. That's where their monopoly was, selling it once it was refined. so they decided to diversify into pharmaceutical drugs, which weren't really abundant then. The doctors and naturopaths and chiropractors, and osteopaths and herbalists and homeopaths were sort of level pegings. If anybody was the snake oil salesman, it was the allopaths and the chemists at the time, actually.
Rockefeller employed Flexner and began to produce the Flexner Report, which basically did a classic hatchet job of saying, well, some of it was true, I must say, but basically a classic hatchet job of we must standardize all education always for the patient's benefit. They love that marketing line. But what they actually did was create a situation with a lot of backhanders and bribes and upfront and behind the scenes to create a situation where only those with enough money could comply with the new regulations to educate people, whether it be chiropractors, osteopathy or what have you. So you had to go to them for a handout. If you took one of their grants, you had to take one of their members onto your board. So it didn't take very long before so-called natural medicine was pretty much eradicated
It was turned into a poor man's cousin of what it used to be. so-called modern medicine, allopathic medicine, correctly, became the market leader legally, protected, financially funded, and that's how it became and established the world leader all around the world as so-called primary healthcare.
Ashley James (0:18:56.912)
Let's go deeper. Let's unpack this because not everyone knows about the Flexner report. Not everyone knows about this history. This is the history of modern medicine that we need people to understand because if you understand the history, you'll understand that we have been manipulated and lied to our entire lives.
So what did medicine in America and Britain and Canada, let's say all the Commonwealth countries and in the United States, what did medicine look like before the Flexon report, before allopathic, the drug-based medicine, the drugs being coming from the petrol industry?
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (0:19:44.652)
Well, it was a pretty level playing field and probably you could say a true free market existed. So if you were good at what you did. People got to hear about it. If a medicine was good, people got to hear about it. You can trace this all the way back even to Dr. Jennifer Daniels work and the slave medicine, particularly pure gum turpentine. Today pure gum turpentine is sold as a paint stripper. Back in the day, it was used as a very effective parasitical medicine and it earned its reputation by being effective and people doing this work and they didn't really need to know why it just worked.
I think a best example is if you go to something like the Spanish flu, which to this very day is in every website and history book as a foreign virus that came and killed 50 to 100 million people, which is absolute nonsense, by the way. The actual truth of the matter is that they didn't have the technology nor do they now, either, but they certainly didn't have the technology to find a virus.
It's always foreign because that's scary to Western people, some dirty foreign thing. At the end, World War I had ended early. so there were a lot of very toxic vaccination vials left. so the largest marketing pre-covid or convid, the largest marketing campaign to scare the world into taking all these going out of date vaccinations because all their men and women were coming back from foreign dirty foreign countries and you're to need to be protected and it was actually the mass vaccination that started all these differing symptoms of very serious illness and the allopaths of the time were treating them with aspirin and arsenic based medications which then put them into sepsis and also pressed their organs of detoxification and that's what killed 50 to 100 million people.
Homeopaths had about a 0.1% fatality using homeopathy. So they were actually extremely popular and a true free market as people started to see the way. As you will see, history has recorded that a flu virus came, this invisible thing, and that was the cause and it couldn't be further from the truth.
Ashley James (0:22:23.738)
This reminds me of when we look at polio and I apologize for not knowing the exact dates, in the fifties? I think the children were being doused and showered in DDT. They're fogged. There's pictures of children dancing with DDT, like being thrown around like flowers. They were being doused in it, showered in it. DDT was being dropped from airplanes and it was horrible. DDT poisoning mimics the exact same symptoms as polio.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (0:23:06.160)
Because it’s polio.
One of my most famous sayings whenever I do a podcast, I’m trying to plant seeds that stay there. You’re not sick, you’re tox-sick. T-O-X-$-I-C-K. When you start to critically look at things without an agenda of being right or wrong and especially being open to being wrong and when you remove the outcome from your investigations, particularly if it's financially beneficial to you, when you remove all those barriers and you look at it, once we started spraying DDT, fogging on these children and people, polio came along. What it was, it was these incredibly toxic neurological chemicals going into these children. I actually like the polio one because it's the one that people with angry countenance attack you over with vaccination science, which is also another joke when they go, well, what about polio? They show you a graph where the vaccination started and polio was eradicated. What they don't realize is one of the most common tricks of this very dirty business is once the polio had begun to set in, which was caused primarily by DDT, and was eradicated when they stopped using it and sold it to third world countries instead. When they stopped using it, polio symptoms started going down. Plus, they ordered the doctors to give five other different diagnoses other than polio. So when you look at a graph and it looks like it's radically going down because of the vaccinations, it's because they stopped spraying DDT and they weren't allowed to call it polio unless they reached a very, very strict criteria. So five other different diagnoses came in. Bob's your auntie, especially this time Bob's your auntie. Bob's your auntie. You've got this beautiful graph to show the world and shut up quacks. You're all stupid and just go and do something more interesting.
Ashley James (0:25:22.266)
I heard another thing about the Spanish flu and that at the time they were still dialing in aspirin. They had no idea what dose to give people. Now, for those who don't know, aspirin is an extract from willow bark. So, and then of course they've done something chemical to it to be able to patent something, I don't know. This is your wheelhouse, not mine.
What I do understand is if you were to take enough willow bark, make a tea out of it or a tincture. If you take enough willow bark, there's a constituent naturally in nature. This is why natural medicine is so cool. That if you took too much, it would cause you to purge. You would start throwing up. You would expel too much willow bark but they figured out how to isolate the thing in willow bark that blocks pain and remove the thing that causes you to throw up if you take too much of it, if you take the toxic amount. They took that out, they took the safeguard, the natural safeguard built in nature. They took that out and they had no idea how much dose they should give someone. So at the time they were giving people toxic doses of aspirin.
I have a client, he had an abscess. It was Friday and his dentist couldn't see him till Monday. He took a whole bottle of aspirin, because he just doesn't read bottles and thinks it's fine. He had called me and said, I can't see and I can barely hear, I've almost have no hearing. I'm like, okay, you need to go to the emergency room, natural medicine is not going to help you at this point.
You took a whole bottle that is lethal. That's what I learned about how dangerous it is that you could go into a pharmacy or even into Costco and buy a bottle of aspirin or a bottle of cough syrup. If you complete that entire bottle in a weekend, you can die. You can easily die. They sell things over the counter that if someone took the whole bottle or most of the whole bottle, they could die.
Back in the Spanish flu, MDs were giving people as much aspirin as they wanted to because they had no idea what the dose was. They were essentially playing with us and using us as guinea pigs. A lot of the negative outcomes from quote unquote the Spanish flu, were also contributed to the fact that they overdosed people on aspirin. like you said, that shuts down the among three systems, such down detox pathways.
They were using us back then like guinea pigs. Interesting how we can kind of look through history over the last hundred years and see how they have used us or just over a hundred years now and see how they have used us as guinea pigs in medical experiments.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (0:28:25.415)
Yes, well, as I said, if you put yourself in a critical thinking mind and look at the actual evidence, which is pretty well hidden now. You have to use a search engine like Yandex, which is a Russian search engine to go and even find a lot of the documented stuff now, because corporate Google and Brave and all the rest of them are so controlled. Perhaps even the time machine couldn’t go and find these documents. The evidence is overwhelmingly there. The aspirin, which of course is Solicilates, was suppressing their organ of detoxification from the already poison of all these multiple vaccinations that they'd put into these people. So it was adding injury to insult. That's what they would die for. Very often, sepsis, which is where they would turn black and things, but most of the deaths were actually pneumonia as they suppressed the lungs and fluid build up and they died from that but it was all toxic shock.
When you see this, or you see the evidence where this is absolutely accurate, and then you look at every single modern day history book or medical book that is still sprouting the same, you have to ask yourself why. Then when you come back into the well, follow the money, it becomes very, very evident that these are not talking about the good people that are trying to be doctors and nurses and don't know what I'm talking about yet. You have to start realizing that doctors have been deliberately designed to be drug dealers. Those drugs are very, very toxic. I mean, you can't be deficient in aspirin. Most people, the word medicine is a positive word, if a medicine makes a healthy man sick, it can't make a sick man healthy.
So we've got to start sort of once again teaching people and that's what I do on my membership site at naturallybetterforyou.com but we've got to start teaching people how to think again. I don't want anyone believing me. That's how my mentors taught me. They taught me how to think. They taught me how to ask better questions and they taught me where to look. After 30 years of looking at, I would imagine just about every alleged previous pandemic. I can hand on heart tell you it was caused by either chemicals or heavy metals or vaccinations or medical whatever and then killed off by the intervention, the treatment.
Ashley James (0:31:03.059)
My mother died because of drug-based medicine. So I know how you feel when you share with us that your mom's death was accelerated by what we are exposed to when we enter our body into the mainstream medical system, you said you might share with us a bit about what happened to your mom.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (0:31:29.071)
Yes, well, my parents were ordinary folk, good folk, hardworking folk, decent folk. They found it very difficult. They're of the generation of trust the doctor. So they found it very difficult to embrace anything I had to say because if what I was saying was correct, why doesn't my doctor know it? That kind of attitude. So I had to learn to have a relationship with them that allowed them to do obviously whatever they choose to do, even if I believe it to be wrong or know it to be wrong. So I watched them. When my mother went, for example, 10, 15 years before she passed, I think it was 20 years actually now.
She was diagnosed with osteoporosis like most postmenopausal women. They haven't got the hormones. They haven't got the fats. She'd bought into the low fat diet. So she had weakened bones and she said, doctors put me on calcium supplements. I said to her, well, if you take those, you'll end up with a calcified heart or valves. Sure enough, five years later she did and she had to have open heart surgery, which she nearly died and somehow she pulled through.
It was never again the same. Then she went on a load of drugs, the old favorite statins and hot blood pressure. They also put her on a PPI, a proton pump inhibitor, which you shouldn't put them on for more than 12 weeks. She was on it for 10 years. So it ripped even more calcium out of her body. My father, my mother fed him. So he got brought into the low fat diet. He loved his fat. We grew up with fat, animal fat and things and he got sold on that myth and I saw his brain start to deteriorate and then they put him on statins and I saw his brain radically deteriorate into diabetes and dementia and then they put him on those drugs and then of course, convid came along and my brother who's a good man, we're estranged from each other for reasons of kind of things I'm talking about now but he did his duty what he thought was good.
He made sure that they both got their vaccinations for the COVID. That's when I saw them radically decline. My mom had a stroke, sorry, a massive clot soon after. My father's dementia exponentially increased or deteriorated, I should say. Then my mother finally had a massive stroke as well. You know I'm sure, Ashley, we are seeing post these vaccinations, which aren't even legally vaccinations, we are seeing more strokes, heart disease and so-called turbo cancers and other complications that we've ever seen in history.
Ashley James (0:34:13.226)
It is disgusting what they have done to us. It is criminal. So many people can't see it though. They can't see it because, and you said like, trust the doctors. Your parents were brought up to trust the doctors. I'd like to dive into that. Did you uncover through the last hundred years, the PR marketing that they did to brainwash entire generations of people to blindly trust doctors and the pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (0:34:47.702)
Well, as I started my research, and dove deep and had several good mentors, including Harry Hawes, a brilliant original osteopath in his 70s was my first mentor and then Barbara Wren, a just genius of her time, naturopath, where she was able to show me that we're not dealing with disease, we're dealing with dis-ease. She explained it in such a clear way of how you accumulate toxicity and as the body attempts to get rid of it, if it can't, it throws up fevers and it creates an environment where bacteria can be found and the bacteria is not an infection, it's actually more like a janitor trying to clear it up.
So if you start, and it's very simplistic, of course, at this point, but if you start trying to suppress that and using toxic drugs to take away those symptoms and the body's ability to cleanse, the body will have several attempts at doing that. Finally it will go, well, I can't do it. I've got to do something with it. I'll dump it over here in a tumor or a cyst or dump it in the joints and you got arthritis or rheumatoid or dump it In this tissue. When, as you go and start to investigate this and you start to see how doctors and nurses have been trained and you start taking case histories, and I've taken tens of thousands over 30 years, you come to see without doubt that their dis -ease progressed as they had more and more quote unquote treatment. Then when you do a case history and show people that they can start to see that actually it hasn't been good medicine.
Now I want to say before I go any further, I worked for a few years with a brilliant pharmacist called Graham Atkinson who woke up to use such terms during convid when he was actually a UK government advisor. So very high up in pharmaceuticals and he thought the pandemic had truly arrived and that many people were going to die from it. He was involved in setting up protocols and a vaccination center. He was sitting there as a proper data scientist, realizing that what the government and it's the same around every country, but what the UK government and what the UK tell a live vision, quote unquote, media were saying was not playing out in real life in what he was seeing.
As a data scientist, the data wasn't what they were saying. So he stepped forward to speak about that. As we know, those kinds of people got absolutely professionally crucified, not welcomed and all that's interesting, show me the data, but absolutely crucified professionally to the extent that he had to leave his profession and was very ill. That's when he came to me and I helped him recover from that.
We did a lot of work together and he started writing a book which unfortunately hasn't finished and he sort of stepped back for a while because he's had quite a battering as you can imagine. He was going to write a book that I was going to write the forward to called The Baby and the Bathwater. Now the baby is what's good about modern medicine and the pharmaceutical industry and of course there are some good things. It's a small and beautiful baby but the bathwater is more like a filthy sewer.
There's a lot and that's what was a lot to let go of. Doctors and nurses and many of them are wonderful people trying to do wonderful things. They have been put into a system that they didn't realize how trapped they were going to become. For example, prior to the HIV and AIDS deception, I'll call it that for the moment. They had quite a lot of autonomy when things came in to look at and get tests and make different decisions and second opinions and that sort of thing. They had quite a lot of autonomy and old school doctors were still there and were pretty good as a whole. Around about that time, so-called evidence medicine, evidence-based medicine started to sort of rear its marketing head. They were trying to create protocols and standardizing and computerizing diagnosis and records. So what happened is, and this is certainly what's going on in modern day, if you have a certain amount, it's test, test, test, test, give a label, a diagnosis. By the way, diagnosis is made up of three words. DI means to, AG means not, and NOSIS means to know. So it literally means two people not knowing what the hell's going on. That's very, very advantageous to them and very, very scary for you because people write to me from all over the world, my clients are worldwide, and they write to me, what's the cure or remedy for this? My answer is always the same, knowledge. The very, very first thing that I'm doing with them is undoing what I believe is a very powerful spell because they say, I have, and then they fill in the blanks of what disease label or syndrome they've been given. What's happened is once you put that label in the system, the system is now coded and it has protocol. So the doctors are restricted to this protocol or this protocol and they're very limited. If they go out of that, they'll lose their license. So they're really becoming autonomous. I can't pronounce that word properly, but they basically almost lost their autonomy of making decisions and they got more and more restricted. That's the wet dream of the pharmaceutical industry, that you won't even need doctors at some point. That's what AI more coding is trying to achieve that you won't need them. You can go straight to an AI and put in your symptoms and have a blood test or whatever it is and it pops out this label and here's the medication. Thank you very much. That's the trajectory that they want to get to.
Ashley James (0:40:50.430)
There's two lenses we can look through. We were raised to look through the lens of allopathic drug-based medicine. We wait to get sick and we go to the doctor on high that's on a pedestal and he's going to save us. We've given them a savior complex that every doctor is Jesus Christ and the pharmaceutical industry is God and we are the lowly sinners. It's a religion that they bow down to. It's complete dogma.
We've bought into it because when we are sick, we are terrified, we are scared. It is such a relief to think that there's some big hospital or some big clinic that I could go to, that you could go to, and that the saviors will save us or take our children to it, or take our husband or loved ones to their mom. That they're gonna save us. So it's a child-like mentality that the adults will save us. We've been raised in this system.
Look at Hollywood. Hollywood, all the media that we were raised in, all the movies, the TV shows, it glorifies drug-based medicine, that it's our savior. They shine this beautiful light upon drug-based medicine and all the miracles of modern medicine. Then they poo-poo and coined alternative medicine, the vast majority of therapies out there that were here before the pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical drug-based medicine is largely derived from petroleum. These chemicals do not belong in our bodies whatsoever. What drugs do?
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (0:42:38.617)
Correct. Shock Horror? How many people know that most medicines are derived from petroleum? They don't.
Ashley James (0:42:46.093)
No, they don't. So, I like that you pointed out there is a baby. Listen, of course, of course, of course, of course, there's a baby. I'd rather you get on some drug that temporarily saves your life rather than you die. I'd rather you go, obviously you're in a car crash, please, please go, go to the ER. Don't go to your acupuncture. There's of course, in intelligence to this, when you take a body that has chronic illness to an MD, they don't have the answers for you. They do not, because drugs suppress, manipulate, alter the body. They do not help the body come back into balance. There's life-saving drug-based medicine and I appreciate that it exists. When you take a chronic illness to an MD, it's like you're taking your car to your plumber. It’s just like the old saying, if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail and that is exactly what an MD has. I looked at the way MDs are trained because if you look at the last hundred years and you see it, it's been very methodical how they developed the MD training system. It is almost identical to how they train soldiers.
Think about doctors when they go and they have 24 hour shifts. So we've deprived them. This comes back to MKUltra and looking at how do you brainwash people? How do you train out the old behaviors out of someone and train them with new behaviors and new ways of thinking? They are sleep deprived. They feed them really crappy food. Think about hospital cafeteria food. There's absolutely no good reason why doctors should, while they're getting trained, work on 24 hour shifts. It is inefficient. Our brain doesn't work optimally. Would you want to be in a hospital bed and a doctor's been awake for 23 hours? Do you really want someone being awake for 23 hours talking to you? I mean, truckers aren't even allowed to drive for 23 hours. You're not allowed to drive for like, I think something more than 16 hours because they can cause accidents on the highway. Do we really trust an MD who's been awake for 23 hours to be able to take care of us when a trucker would cause a car crash? It is ridiculous. Maybe they get a little nap here and there, but they're not optimal. So it's completely inefficient. If you think about it from a standpoint of like, well, doctors are supposed to heal us. Then why do they have this system set up the way it is? It's because that's how they train them and manipulate their brains just like they do with soldiers to get them to become good little soldiers, good little MDs.
So we look at how they're trained and then we look at what they're trained, what they're trained in, what are they're taught? They are taught, for example, you cannot regrow cartilage once you have arthritis, you always will have arthritis, you can't reverse it. Once you have dementia, you can't reverse it. Once you have these issues, you have to go on a drug, you can't reverse it. Over and over and over again, they are taught that once someone is sick, they can't reverse it, they need drugs, they need drugs, they need drugs, they need drugs.
They're taught that diet is just, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you eat. Over and over again, I've heard this from doctors, it doesn't matter what you eat. From my clients who are their patients, they go in, I had a client with colitis go into the hospital and they said, you should eat pizza and milkshakes because you need to gain some weight. They fed him, he's colitis, he has inflammation throughout his entire digestive tract, which is likely caused by his diet. And they gave him the very thing, because they want to remove half his intestines. They gave him the very food that exacerbates the problem, then put him on steroids for the rest of his life. It's ludicrous. The thing is, this is education. Now, who designed their education? That's where we have to crawl back and go. The people who invented these drugs in the first place, the companies that sell the drugs, were the ones that created the education, just over a hundred years ago. That's why it's so important. You can tell us the exact timeline, but around the Flexner report, that's when it all began. They only funded the colleges and the universities. They only funded them.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (0:47:17.055)
Correct. It was an aggressive business model takeover. There's no doubt in my mind or anyone's mind when you look at it. I mean, just to share something with you and then I'll expand on what you just said. I had a very frightened woman, a single mother with a nine year old come to me four weeks ago that had just been in hospital for two weeks with gallstones and jaundice. She was going to have her gallbladder removed on Thursday. It was a Monday.
The words from the surgeon were, if you don't have this removed, you'll die. We went through her case history and of course they'd put her on completely the wrong diet, no fat and high carbohydrate and high grains. Anyway, I dispelled the fear, made sense of how she got there, that also she'd harbored a lot of anger. The liver in Chinese medicine is a lot of resentment and holding onto anger. That's what the Chinese say, gallstones are. By the way, we're four weeks in, she's lost two stones, never felt better, never looked better.
I asked her the other day, if you hadn't had this episode that you went into the hospital scared literally nearly to death, would you go and see a doctor today? The answer is no, I feel fantastic, better than I've ever felt. We're only four weeks in. So when you get back to what they're taught and how they're taught, and you're absolutely right, they are overwhelmed with study.
It's quite well understood that most medical students are cheating. I understand from Clive Decarle that the first lecture at Harvard Medical School is 50% of what we're going to teach is wrong. We just don't know which 50% that is. I believe it is the Lancet, and I'll have to double check my facts on this, but one of the major medical journals, the main editor, I'm pretty sure it is the Lancet, but the main editor two years ago said, he's now convinced that 50 % of the studies, if not more, are completely false. Most doctors and nurses and what have you go in with maybe a career more than a vocation, but certainly with honorable intentions to help people then before they know it, they're in massive debt, they're under massive pressure, there's a huge social status to becoming a doctor or a nurse and they very quickly learn, I know because a lot of doctors have spoken to me, that if they start asking the wrong questions, they get very heavily chastised and you quickly learn shut up and do your job and just shut up. Otherwise you're out before you even become a quote unquote doctor or nurse. The facts are, and you're absolutely , by the time they actually get into the job, they've been sort of like a soldier traumatised into a certain behaviour. They disassociate with human beings and they just become patients, not everyone but mostly, because they have to see too many of them in a short period of time and basically they become drug dealers.
Ashley James (0:50:26.535)
That having the debt over their head, I mean, once money is involved, people's morals are challenged.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (0:50:26.535)
They're compromised. During the convid area, we discovered that on average a local GP was making about 50 to 60,000 pounds extra on the vaccination program. That almost doubled their income.
Now, my first mentor taught me the great Harry Hawes. It's a rare man or woman, but it's a rare man that will make the right decision when money is involved for someone else. I'm not saying they're bad people, but human nature is going to go, thank you very much. This is what through my 30 plus years, the horror of discovering how dirty it is and how loaded it is, although that's changed many, many doctors and nurses since convid. Seeing what went on there and the reality of what that really was and what it certainly wasn't, many, many are starting to see and talk to us. What we want is we want people to have open conversations. I'm internationally known for getting people for the most part. We don't succeed with every case because sometimes they've just been too damaged usually by medicine, but mostly we get people well and we teach them how to get well. What we want is people to come up to us, doctors, nurses and go, that's interesting. How did you do that? We had a conversation.
I interviewed, she's a great fan of mine, a great, great advocate of mine, Valerie Warwick. She was a whistleblower, an American whistleblower oncologist nurse of 18 years. I interviewed her about 10 years ago, I think it was now. She was fresh out of waking up and seeing what modern oncology really was. She actually got a lot of heat for becoming a whistleblower for quite some time even the FBI were looking for it at the time. I asked her a question, why did it take you so long to see what you're actually doing, which is not treating people. You are literally poisoning them to death. She said, because you apps, and I know people that are in, if there's doctors and nurses listening, I know they will relate to this because I've spoken to so many of them. She said, you believe you're in the best of the best. You believe you have the cutting edge evidence -based science and knowledge. If there was something outside of you would have been told or heard about it. They're also equally told that anything outside of that is quackery. So she was happily, I mean, really happily an oncology nurse, even though, all these people were passing and those that appear to survive, I think survive in spite of the treatment. Usually those that actually do have treatment and survive, they change a lot of things in their life. That's at least what I've found.
She said it was one patient one day, she looked at him and he had all the symptoms of scurvy, vitamin C deficiency. She went up to the nutritionist, or I think it was, and all the dermatologist wanted to, can't remember now, but she said, isn't that scurvy? He said, yes. She said, well, why don't we give him some vitamin C? We're not allowed. That was the first straw.
The second straw was when she found out that oncologists make most of their money from prescribing chemo. That was the final straw because she realized, and it was well known on the oncology wards, when someone wasn't going to make it, like this person's going to die. They would prescribe more chemo frequently, which makes no sense unless you're looking at it for financial gain. If you knew, if the whole ward knew, if the family knew, this person ain't going to make it. What you would do is make them more comfortable. You would entertain them, prepare them for their death and have their family around them and their priest or whatever it is and just prepare them for this rite of passage to the other side that does exist. But they wouldn't. They'd prescribe more chemo. So that was the second straw that broke her very rapidly. She saw what she'd been doing. Of course, she had a lot of guilt to process and she's a wonderful woman Valerie Warwick.
Ashley James (0:55:17.474)
Actually, I had her on my show episode 141. This was years ago and I loved talking to her and her experience where she actually saw a few people who were sent home to die and then they came back a few months later, totally cancer-free. That's what woke her up because she's like, wait a second, what did you do? They're like, we went to Tijuana or we went to some clinic somewhere else. I did all these different alternative therapies and she had gone back to her bosses, the chemo doctors and said, hey, what did they do? They got better. Shouldn't we do that? They were all just, no, no, we're going to keep cut burning and cut burning poison. We don't want to know. They're like, la la la la la, like putting their hands over their eyes and ears. When they see someone reverse their cancer naturally, they don't want to know about it.
It's wild. I've coached many people to get so healthy they no longer have type 2 diabetes. That's something that I overcame and that's one of the reasons why I do health coaching because it's like, Type 2 diabetes is so easy to reverse naturally. It's so easy to reverse naturally. It really is. It's so worth investing the effort into doing it for yourself. It's amazing. It actually transforms when you stabilize your blood sugar. It's not just okay to stabilize blood sugar. Your inflammation goes away. Your sleep gets better. Your sex gets better. Your mental health gets better. Emotional health gets better. You wake up, you jump out of bed full of energy. Your eyesight gets better. Every aspect of your life. Then you've increased your longevity and decreased your chances of heart disease. I mean, it's wild. So I can't tell you how many times I've lost count that my clients go back to their doctors. They no longer have Type 2 diabetes. They're throwing away the insulin or the metformin or whatever. They are going back to the doctor for some blood work. The doctor who's been quote unquote treating their diabetes for many, many years now sees that their A1C is amazing, like 4.7 or something, just amazing. Every blood marker is wonderful.
When the patient says, do you want to know what I did? I'm not taking any of your drugs anymore. I'm not following your advice anymore. It didn't work for me. Do you want to know what I did? The doctors don't want to know. They do not. They just put their hands over their eyes and ears and say, nope, good day. Go away. They don't want to know. They don't want to know. The money motivation. The fact that they're into a system now, they're so deep in a system. How much guilt and shame would have to come up for them if they realize that they've been doing the wrong thing for thousands of patients. If they've been profiting off of keeping their patients sick, the people they actually care about. A lot of doctors like their patients and they've been keeping them sick because they've been poisoning them because they have the wrong tool because they themselves have been deceived. Can you imagine how much humble pie you'd have to eat to be able to come to terms with that, people can't come to terms with that.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (0:58:43.008)
We all will meet our maker and we all have a soul whether you believe it or not, you're going to find out you do. It's interesting that oncologists were interviewed apparently and 90% of them wouldn't take the prescriptions that they give to their oncology patients, and I think that's very, very telling. I think it's a very positive time actually, Ashley. I think there is since convid and I probably should define that for people because you there might be someone listening going but my mum died or my dad died or my aunt does it and it's and it's almost certainly not from a virus that didn't exist and that may come as a great shock but any virus but certainly no SARS- CoV -2 virus has ever been properly isolated.
It's all computer models called silica which is shocking to most people when they hear this but and the pandemic which wasn't was driven by false data from a pcr test and it's not pcr has never been a test Kary Mullis, the inventor, nobel prize winner, made that very clear who conveniently died as covid-19 begun but he was very clear this is not a test and if you amplify it which they cycle it several times past 25, it becomes science fiction. The data that was provided for the media and the authorities on the pandemic was cycled 45 or more times. So it was complete utter nonsense.
Even at 45 cycles, it doesn't show a virus or an infection. It just pings certain markers and then that was a positive test and that got put down as a pandemic, but it wasn't. That's why I call it. During that time, at the beginning, many of the doctors and nurses believed wholeheartedly there was a pandemic, even though strangely enough, the hospitals were almost empty. This is why you saw all these incredibly well choreographed and practiced dance routines that the doctors and nurses found time to do during the hospital.
This is also what woke up Graham Atkinson because just the doctor surgeries and the hospitals and the paramedics were sitting around, twiddling their fingers. It wasn't overloaded, quite the opposite. Actually I'm jumping ahead here, but that's the beautiful thing about now, the actual data that's coming out, the true data, that's what's actually gonna hang these criminals by their own data and true science. Nonetheless, what it has given, at the beginning, I would argue 90, 95% of medical professionals would have probably lynched us for talking how we were talking during then, even though we've been historically proven and time stamped to be correct. Now there is a huge groundswell of doctors and nurses talking, knowing what happened. They've realized, and I know they're listening and watching podcasts similar to this and Dr. Jack Cruz's and the Dr. Kemper's and Dr. Chaffee's and Dr. Saladino's and similar like doctors that have basically stood up and started being true doctors. I think we're in a very exciting time. I mean, it's said that no army can defeat a thought that's time that's come. I believe, worldwide and because of technology like this and this beautiful platform that we can talk on with each other in different countries, I think the world is very much waking up and coming together and starting to see that some very nefarious stuff has gone on and I don't think you can defeat that because it seems to me, enormous energy is being employed to try and quell, this shall we say red pill revolution which of consciousness which is why we named the book, The Red Pill Revolution.
It's a consciousness revolution. People are listening and thinking and they're starting to take action. Are there a lot of people that are not on this page? Of course there are. Historically, it's always been that way. In traditional revolutions, not that we want a traditional revolution that is violent and forceful, but in traditional revolutions, it's well documented that only 10% of a population stood up and said, we're not having any more of this and did something. The 60 -70% of the population followed them, outed a regime and then went back to following the next regime or the next religion or the next political ideology. Where we're at now, hence the Red Pill Revolution and we also wrote the Red Pill Food Revolution, which is equally brilliant, where we're at now is people are around the world getting onto the same page. I would say from a numbers point of which is always in motion, it is way past 20 -30% of the world population have worked out that we've just lived through the greatest crime ever perpetrated against human beings and I believe very positive things politically and medically and legally and humanitarily are going to come together. I certainly don't believe we're gonna build back better. If we are gonna build back better, it's gonna be without them, the parasites, the criminals and the liars.
Ashley James (1:04:20.053)
It's a tall order, but that's why I'm here. I'm here to call them out and to educate the masses that you don't need to be sick, that suffering is optional, that there are answers for you that have been suppressed, you've been lied to about the quote unquote alternative medicine out there.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:04:48.055)
Yes, their words, I hate that term. True medicine. Well, true medical philosophy, because there's a lot of really good people out there practicing allopathically with true medicine, but they're misguided. Once you have the true philosophy, which is fundamentally, your body doesn't know how to work against you. You can prove this, even if you're a complete dumb ass.
If you cut yourself, your body immediately goes to work to try and stop the bleeding and start knitting together that wound as it does in nature for animals in the wild and short of infection, there's lovely remedies, both pharmaceutical and natural to deal with that. Short of that, the body is trying to deal with it. It only knows how to protect you. If you look at so-called autoimmune diseases, which don't exist because the body doesn't know how to attack itself.
It does attack foreign particles that are in the cells and tissues, but these conditions don't exist in nature. You don't have lions walking around with rheumatoid arthritis. These are man-made diseases or modern man-made diseases. When we start with a philosophy, how many people out there have lost people to horrible illnesses? When I say something like the body doesn't know how to work against you, you wouldn't blame them for going, “what?”
When you start to look at how poisoned, and we've talked about a few things like polio, when you start looking at all the chemicals and poisons that have gone into people, and we've been through a time where people don't even know what food is. We have to define what food is overfed. I mean, we're the only animal on the planet that doesn't know what to eat.
So when we take the philosophy, which is really robust, and describe medication or medicine as nurturing, nourishing and healing, then it's quite easy to start putting together what is true medicine, even pharmaceutical and what isn't. I mean, you wouldn't study a poor man to get rich. You'd study a healthy man to get healthy. So we've been studying sick and sickness. No wonder we've gone wrong.
Ashley James (1:07:03.050)
Well, that's even with labs. The MDs look at lab results differently than a naturopathic physician does because the MDs are looking for, are you sick enough for me to give you a drug? There's normal parameters they look at. So are you in the normal parameters? What are the normal parameters are a consensus of the average American.
So the average American is not healthy. If we took across, it took all the Americans, I'm just using America because this is where I live. You could say Canada, you could say Great Britain. As long as there's a country that's exposed to feed instead of food and the American diet and lifestyle and media, then they have the same problems.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:07:57.457)
Yes. Well, the Western world is calorie rich and nutrient starving.
Ashley James (1:08:02.794)
Yes, our food's anemic. It's anemic. First of all, the farming practices over the last hundred years have made it so that the soil is depleted. We don't have the key nutrients. If you eat a plant, a lot of times it's hydroponically grown. There's zero minerals. Our body needs 60 essential minerals. We're not getting the nutrients we need. People don't sit down and eat fruits and vegetables every single day. They're not getting access to wonderful vitamins. If you ate a conventional apple for example, because you think an apple a day keeps the doctor away. The average conventionally grown apple has 50 different chemicals on it. 50 different man-made petroleum-based garbage toxic junk that is killing us. It's killing our microbiome and our gut. It's causing cancer. Just as an example, I keep saying United States. Most of my listeners are in the US anyway. Look, turn around and look at statistics. One in three people have cancer, one in three people have heart disease, one in three people have diabetes or pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome or obesity. You're looking at around 70% of the adult population is on at least one prescription medication. Don't even get me started on pain meds.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:09:23.800)
I want to get you on pain meds. I love listening to you. You go girl.
Ashley James (1:09:29.636)
Our bodies are on fire. Even if you try to eat healthy, if you're to eat a conventional, quote unquote conventional, this is just like saying, we have to choose organic and organic isn't even clean. There are less chemicals sprayed in organic, but there's not zero. You have to grow your own food or find a biodynamic farm somewhere to try to get the cleanest food you can.
Point being, if it comes from a factory, if it comes from a package, if there's a list of ingredients, you're likely killing yourself. Seed oils are one of the worst things to ever be added to the food chain.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:10:11.456)
Yes, catastrophic seed oils. For those listening, I'm sure they do know, commonly marketed as vegetable oils, and they've never come near a vegetable.
Ashley James (1:10:23.686)
Can you imagine? This is my zucchini oil.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:10:25.892)
Well, let's just do that one quickly in case your audience doesn't know. America, even if this is controversial to your current view or understanding, but America was thriving as we over here in Europe on animal fats and dairy fats. Butter and lard and tallow or beef dripping as some people know. McDonalds cooked in beef dripping and KFC or Kentucky Fried Chicken cooked in tallow.
The sugar industry heavily, because they were starting to get some flack because they are a major culprit in causing so much problem, paid a lot of money for the lipid hypothesis. I'm jumping around a bit in timelines here, but the lipid hypothesis and Ancel Keys that saturated fat causes heart disease and high cholesterol cause heart disease which is absolute nonsense. Ancel Keys then went off to live in the Mediterranean, eating an almost carnivore diet and died just over 100 years old. What happened was Procter and Gamble got hold of the rights to take cottonseed oil and turn it into what they call Crisco. Now, prior to that, cottonseed oil was a byproduct of obviously cottonseed manufacturing and processing, and the animals wouldn't eat it, so they were making lamps and soaps from it.
As that industry changed, they weren't making much money. So Procter & Gamble took it, hygienated it, and made it look like lard and called it Crisco. I would imagine everyone in America has heard of Crisco. Then they did another magic marketing trick where they produced a color cookery book, a recipe book, and gave it away for free. Well, that was unheard of in those times. Every food that the traditional American housewife was making with tallow beef dripping or lard was replaced with Crisco and it was modern and it was clean and it was portrayed that granny was a bit old fashioned and this is the new way. Slowly but surely, they moved away from those fats into this absolute poison. We saw this massive skyrocket in heart disease and cancers and autoimmune and the seed oils.
If I had to take one thing out right now, it would be seed oil. Sugar is not great, but don't get me wrong, it is a major contributor to the massive increase in consumption in a hundred years. It's ridiculous. The consumption, yes, in everything and the consumption is just huge, but the seed oils have got to take a huge responsibility for the decline in Western health and the profits of the petroleum pharmaceutical monopoly.
Ashley James (1:13:25.222)
What about cholesterol? It's bad for you. We can't have cholesterol. We should all have low cholesterol.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:13:34.428)
Well, I know you by your tone, that's not true, but this is again, what Ancel Keys did, and he was paid to do it. Again, we don't have science. We have scientism for the most part going on BS science, bad science is what it is. What's the new religion? I mean, during convid, it was trust the science. Well, that's an oxymoron. The very nature of science is to challenge science and come up with something better if you can disprove it. So to say trust the science shows we've moved into a religion.
Ashley James (1:14:07.733)
Trusting science is what the bullies said. It's they're saying, shut up, get in line, take our shots, eat our food, do what we say, don't be a tall poppy, don't step out of line or else we will cancel you so publicly and so hard. So trusting science was a threat from bullies.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:14:29.160)
Well, hence my mother raising me right. Naturally better for you and the whole naturally better ethos is to ask questions. Do not trust what I'm saying. How healthy is that? Anyway, back to Ancel Keys, as you well know, he cherry picked data to produce a graph with some sort of lineal line which he used to show the countries that eat fats. He didn't even define the fats, by the way, from seed oils to vegetable oils or olive oil to animal oils, just cherry picked it, came up with a look here, here's the proof, and the lipid hypothesis and saturated fat and cholesterol causes heart disease was born. As I said, he went off and ate practically a carnivore diet and lived to over 100 in the Mediterranean. If you put his data back in that he took out, there's no correlation. There's no evidence. There never has been. They actually picked and this is the, you got to love these people and many things, but stupid is not one of them. They literally plucked a number for cholesterol out of the air and said, if your number this, you need to go on cholesterol lowering drugs, which is one of the biggest selling drugs and profits of all time. Every five years they lower that number. So they increase their market share.
Ashley James (1:15:54.464)
Exactly and I've heard the interview from the scientists who had to come up with this number, they said, we needed enough of the population in the United States to be on statins to see if we could make a difference. So we looked at the average, like how many Americans do we have? So they looked at the average cholesterol levels and they said, okay, if we say it's 200, then we get this many millions of people on this drug, just to back up, cholesterol is so important that every cell in your body that has a nucleus makes it. Even if you were on the potato diet, even if you're a raw vegan and you're not eating any animal sources of cholesterol, of course, don't touch any oil with a 10-foot pole. If you didn't eat any, only ate, let me say walnuts or something, your body will make cholesterol, not only does your liver produce it, because everyone thought it was just the liver, it's every cell in your body that has a nucleus. It is needed for your brain. 70% of the white matter of your brain is cholesterol. The myelin sheath that protects your nerves is made of cholesterol. Every cell wall, 37.2 trillion cells in your body, every cell wall is made of cholesterol. Sex hormones and stress hormones are made of cholesterol. Bile is made of cholesterol.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:17:12.315)
Well, let me just jump in there actually, because you said something really critical that I don't want to be missed because you're so knowledgeable and passionate. I love it. Just take the sex hormones. Sex is a big thing to people. If you don't have enough cholesterol coming in, you can't go through the hormonal pathways to get over to making the sex hormones in the first place. So all these problems that have manifested in the Western world from infertility to not knowing even what bloody gender you are can be connected to the lack of cholesterol and saturated fat and these hormonal pathways being interrupted.
So when you put those back in, quite profound things can happen to people. If you don't put them back in, the body will take the cholesterol from you. So 60, 70 years ago, dementia, Parkinson's, these sort of things, which are really type three diabetes and a lack of having cholesterol. The body will take it from your brain. That's why we see all this dementia and this neurological decline as you get older. It's starving for cholesterol. When you injure yourself and the body is injuring itself constantly, the first emergency response is cholesterol. I know you know this is an analogy, but some people may not have heard it. It's like seeing houses on fire and there's always firemen there putting it out and making the assumption or the association that the firemen are the problem. Get rid of the firemen, no more house fires. It's the opposite. I know you know this.
Again, back to the philosophy and simple critical thinking, if you apply that without a financial tag to the end result and only a benevolent tag to the result, you've opened yourself up to being a real human being again. See, doctor, the word doctor originally means teacher. We were supposed to teach humans where they've gone wrong and correct it. That's what we've got to get back to. That's why we're called naturally better, by the way. We've literally got to go back to a naturally better future. We've got to go back to go forward.
Ashley James (1:19:33.324)
So naturallybetterforyou.com is the membership. I definitely want to talk about that because I want my listeners to keep learning from you. You are docere, the doctor meaning teacher. I love that you brought that up. That is the original root word, docere, which means that you go to your doctor so you can learn. How much have you learned from your MD?
How much have they sat down with you? That's why when I go see my naturopathic physician, it's an hour long health lecture in a good way. I love it. I like absorbing wonderful knowledge from them. I have never seen an MD for more than 15 minutes, probably five minutes. Come in, I think it's absurd. I'm a little jaded. They come in holding the prescription pad, staring at the chart, not even looking up from the chart because the nurse weighed me and took my blood pressure and they're looking at the labs, looking at the chart, holding their prescription pad in one hand and asking me if I want a drug today. That was my last experience with an MD. I really try to avoid them at all costs. Your doctor should be your teacher. Be willing to fire your doctor and seek a better one.
Don't be like our parents and grandparents, the silent generation, just trust authority, blindly trust authority, don't shake the boat, don't make waves. I don't want my doctor to not like me.
First of all, they work for you. Be willing to walk away from them and find a better one. I abhor the fact that now, because of how certain states have these medical charts that they log into—I know with Washington state, I don’t know about other states—I’m in Washington—that now, any doctor you go to logs in and sees my chart and can see all what the other doctors say about you. They might say that you're difficult because you ask questions. You're not even hurting them, but you're not challenging them. These are almost like bully tactics. It's like you ask questions, and now you're a difficult patient. So this follows you.
Seek out holistic doctors. This is my biggest set of advice when doing a little head hunting for your team of holistic health practitioners that are going to support your body's ability to heal itself. You want to ask them questions like, do you believe my body can heal itself? Have you helped other people get so healthy they get off these drugs if you're on drugs? What is your philosophy of healing? You want to ask them questions and listen and here are they coming from this reductionist way where we have to, well, first we have to look at your liver and we have to see how’s that, and then we have to look at this lab and then we have to look at this, like they're putting you under a microscope and they're not looking at you as a whole.
If your doctor doesn't ask you what you eat, go find another doctor because what you put in your mouth, it's just ludicrous. Let's say you put I don't know, you put six cups of food in your mouth a day, six to eight cups of food. Let's say just measuring a certain volume. They think that has nothing to do with your health, but a tiny, tiny little pill the size of a pea—that's the fix? So something this tiny is going to fix everything? But all the stuff you're putting in your body, shoving in your face hole, has nothing to do with your health. If you don't see a doctor who is concerned about what you eat and wants to help you, get your body to the point where it is really healing itself
Supporting the body's ability to heal itself, getting out of its own way, and stopping throwing fuel on the fire—to continue the analogy of the fire—the body's on fire. Help those firemen inside you, give it what it needs, and then stop doing what hurts it. Get out of its own way. The two philosophies we've talked about: either you've got the MD, drug-based allopathic medical system philosophy, which is that you've been reduced to parts that we look at and we have to wait to get sick and then put you on a drug or the other philosophy, which is where Dr. Ayres is coming from and what he teaches in his membership, which is naturallybetterforyou.com and his book, Red Pill Revolution. I'm excited to actually dive into it, I haven't read your Red Pill Food Revolution.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:23:54.259)
Yes. The Red Pill Food Revolution, I think it's, and I would say this, of course, but I honestly believe it's the best book ever written on food, the history of food, how we got here and the important crossroads we're at.
Ashley James (1:24:09.800)
I'm very excited to read it. I definitely want to read it. The other lens that doctors look through—which we've talked about—is your body as a whole. Everything affects your body: how you sleep, how you move, the people around you, and the things you put in your mouth. Every aspect of your life is your health. That’s what true health is. That’s why the podcast is called Learn True Health. It’s mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical.
It’s energetic; it’s everything. A holistic doctor looks at every aspect of your life and helps your body come back into balance. A holistic doctor believes your body can heal itself.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:24:47.782)
Well, because it's the truth, and I’d rather use the term ‘a true doctor.' Their job is to get rid of you in the nicest possible way, of course. I love the old Chinese philosophy: you pay your doctor to keep you well, and you stop paying them when you're sick. Now, if we applied that philosophy to America, Canada, and the UK tomorrow, watch them change.
Ashley James (1:25:14.058)
My mentor, Dr. Joel Wallach, was raised on a beef farm. He saw that his dad would feed the calves pellets packed with supercharged nutrition—vitamins and minerals. He looked at the ingredients and would actually put the calf pellets in his pockets and munch on them because he observed something. This man is so intelligent; he said, we keep the animals so healthy they don't get sick to lower the cost of your hamburger or steak, right? If we took agriculture and applied the same approach to medicine that we use on our own bodies, your steak would cost $3,000. You’d have to wait, not give the cow any nutrients—just give it junk, wait for it to get sick, and then treat it with a bunch of drugs and allopathic, drug-based medicine. That would be incredibly expensive. Now, I'm not saying the farming industry is perfect; there are many unhealthy practices.
Back then, 70 years ago—he’s in his 80s now, I think 85 or 86—what he saw was that there are two systems of medicine. One system keeps costs down by keeping animals healthy to avoid the doctor. The other, the human medical system, keeps profits high by keeping people sick and away from being healthy. Two very, very different systems.
That influenced him growing up and becoming the naturopathic physician, veterinarian, and researcher that he is. He saved my life. That’s why I’m so passionate about this. I’ve interviewed him twice on the show because I was sick and suffering under the drug-based medical system, as many people are. I was able to escape—like Pavlov's allegory of the cave—I escaped, and now I’m coming back into the cave to help others.
I know I’ve probably upset some people because they still want to stay in the cave. Dr. Ayres, I’m sure you have people upset with you all the time. I really appreciate that you’re willing to run back into the cave with me and help wake people up. Tell us about naturallybetterforyou.com and your membership.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:27:38.994)
Well, I will do the work because, in the membership, we’ve got over 1,200 people from all over the world, and the word ‘community' is spoken about all the time. When I started the membership two years ago—because I normally do one-to-one consultations and packages that way—I thought I was going to unleash a mental asylum. When you work with someone, there are layers of trauma and toxicity that surface, and there’s a lot to guide them through. I thought if I did this on a larger scale, it would be chaotic, like unleashing a mental asylum.
The opposite has happened. It’s a fantastic community. The membership site and our forum, where they can actually speak and video chat with each other, has been formed. I work with someone called Graham Norbury, commonly known as Norbs. He’s a Jack Cruz specialist, deciphering the work around EMFs, light, and circadian rhythms.
Together, we’ve combined 30 years of my work into what is called the ALL CAPS protocol, which they follow in a 90-day challenge. Graham and I have produced over 60 vlogs, where we walk in the beautiful Lake District—one of the most stunning parts of England—and talk for 30 minutes on various subjects, much like we’ve done today. These vlogs have become known as epic, very entertaining, interesting, and helpful to people.
As well as live Q&As every other week and a host of other things that we also do there and other functions. It’s a beautiful place where we can privately teach what I can’t always teach publicly. We’re witnessing immense healing worldwide. As you’ve experienced in your own journey, it’s profoundly life-changing
Ashley James (1:29:33.334)
I'm so excited. What kind of results? Can you share any testimonials, or what kind of results do people see from learning and following you in your membership?
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:29:47.210)
Yes, well, there are testimonials, and actually betterforyou.com is sort of a landing page for the podcast because people can remember it. Most of my testimonials are on jeremyayres.com, which is also where you can join the membership. I've got 30 years of testimonials, and you name it, it's been healed. I suppose most of the people coming into the membership have chronic dis-ease, named conditions, auto-immunes, weight problems, type 2 diabetes—all the things that are addressed once you start teaching people that you're not sick, you're toxic, and that food is medicine, being outside and light is medicine, and that trauma gets trapped in the body and that's why you've manifested. Once you start teaching them these things and they start applying and following it, we just see miracles over and over again because, as I say, and as I was taught, and as I teach here, your body doesn't know how to work against you, and anything that it's manifested with a scary label is still it trying to protect you.
Ashley James (1:30:55.234)
I know we're wrapping up, and I'll definitely make sure all the links to everything that you shared are in the show notes of today's podcast at learntruehealth.com. I want to make sure that you explain—you touched on, but didn't really follow up with—the explanation of that: the COVID virus, which has never been isolated, neither has any other virus out there been isolated. If we don't know that it's a virus, what was it that people had? I had, quote-unquote, covid a few times in the last four years, which I treated naturally, very successfully, with the exact things that were being banned. I had great outcomes.
I know many people had the sore throats, coughs, fever, hard breathing, sudden plummets in blood pressure, and in oxygen saturation. So, what were we experiencing if it wasn't that?
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:32:10.446)
Well, first of all, there were actually so many varied symptoms and conditions in the beginning when the media started to explain it. Same thing that happened in the Spanish flu. There were just so many different types of manifestations. I would suggest to you that the ones that actually had breathing problems because the oxygen wasn't getting to the right place were caused by metals, mainly graphene, which are arguably being sprayed in the air, getting in, and then the amplification of either 4G or 5G networks.
The hotspots of people getting sick initially where 4G—and there's another one, I think it's called 3C, I can't remember—which is a very horrid frequency that is transmitted from these towers, but certainly 5G. What it did was cause the hemoglobin not molecule to not fully form, and so it wasn't carrying the oxygen properly. This is why hydroxychloroquine worked in many cases, sometimes within minutes for people, because hydroxychloroquine, which isn't an antiviral drug—which is why you had professors of virology going on the tele-live vision and saying to people, ‘This can't be a proper medicine because it's not an antiviral'—because it wasn't viral.
What the hydroxychloroquine was doing when the hemoglobin was damaged by electrical EMF frequencies was repairing that hemoglobin molecule so the oxygen could be carried again. Now, if you didn't get that kind of medication and it was that problem, they then ventilated you, intubated you, and under the pressure of the oxygen, they damaged the lungs and upped the oxygen further until the lungs basically were destroyed.
That's where you had a lot of the deaths, on average 13 to 15 days. If you were on a ventilator, you died, but you were labeled covid-19. If you had terminal cancer and died and had a PCR test at your death, you were labeled a covid-19 death. If you were in a car accident and died and had a positive PCR test for covid-19, you went on the books as a covid-19 death.
So many crimes of data have been deliberately and knowingly perpetrated, at least by a certain fraction of the people, certainly the politicians as well, that we have to now undo all of those lies and all of those poor people that lost loved ones under circumstances like every other pandemic that we've witnessed, that probably could have been prevented.
And if they were already terminal or had comorbidities that were going to end their life, they certainly didn't die from a virus that's only ever been found in a computer.
Ashley James (1:35:13.846)
Episode 445, The Invisible Rainbow, that interview I did talks about how every single major sickness, either an epidemic or pandemic or even localized major illnesses like that of Manhattan—the day they switched over from analog to digital back in, I think it was the late '90s, early 2000s, around there—the island of Manhattan.
The entire island experienced sickness, and many people had several serious symptoms like migraines, dizziness, pain, and flu-like symptoms. He actually goes back and shares in his book. It's fascinating. The book is super—I could not put that book down. It was, and you'll gain some muscle carrying it around. I think it's something like four pounds. The book—it's such a good book.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:36:14.222)
Yes. It's a brilliant book. Yes, it's a historical book because it has shown every development, and we didn’t touch it today, but I’m glad you brought it up. Every development of modern illness and certainly pandemics has been linked to an upgrade, shall we call it, in technology.
Ashley James (1:36:30.958)
Wild. Of course, I mean, every cell in our body is affected by frequency. Why wouldn't our cells be affected by radio waves, microwaves, and cell phone towers? Why wouldn't we be? We have an electrical system in our body–and we're mostly water, which carries the signal. It's just very ignorant to think that our bodies wouldn't be affected. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I'd love to have you back if you want to kind of go down a rabbit hole of any of these topics. We could dive in deeper. I'd really love to have you back on the show.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:37:13.190)
Sure. Well, firstly, thank you for inviting me. Thank you for sorting out the technological problems that we endured, and I'd love to come back, Ashley, you're clearly passionate, and you're clearly knowledgeable. Thank you for all the work you've done.
Ashley James (1:37:27.272)
Absolutely. Please go and check out naturallybetterforyou.com. Of course, I'm going to make sure all those links are in the show notes of today's podcast at LearnTrueHealth.com. There was something though—you did have an audience giveaway, which is probably on that website: the Anti-Dependency Guide and Post-Vaccination Detox Protocol. Just want to say that again: Anti-Dependency Guide and Post-Vaccination Detox Protocol.
I can't tell you how many people have reached out to me and said, ‘How do I detox from this?' My answer has been a time machine, because I don't know how to help you once you have become a GMO. I just feel so bad for the people who regret what they did in the last three years. You have a post-vaccination detox protocol that you're giving away to listeners. How do they access it?
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:38:18.884)
Well, if you go to naturallybetterforyou.com, the downloads for those documents are there. I may update it in the near future as we become even clearer. What I wrote is correct on the causes and what was causing these terrible problems. We have a task ahead of us.
Ashley James (1:38:37.539)
Yes. For listeners who found certain things that we said that’s interesting or off-putting and they want to know, they want to know sources, they want to know, give me some proof, give me the sauce, point me in the direction. I invite you to reach out to Dr. Ayres. He's been a doctor for many years and he could definitely point you in the direction of the evidence. We question. Science is to challenge and question and then look at the evidence without having your own belief system in the way. Put the belief system to the side. Come at it with an open mind, willing to let your belief system be challenged. If you're not willing to let your belief system be challenged, then that's dogma. That's a religion. That's not science.
So be willing to look at new evidence. I wish we approached politics the same way. We all just stop saying like all one party is good, all one party is bad? It's like the world doesn't exist like that. The world's made up of people with good intentions and people with nefarious intentions. I wish that we would hold politicians to the same, to the fire. Just don't trust them just because they're in your party. That's ludicrous.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:40:04.145)
I think that time, I honestly think that time's coming. I'm actually writing a book at the moment called Make America Healthy Again. If anyone is out there unwell, you can contact me on any of those websites for a Zoom consultation and Ashley, you're doing a fantastic job.
Ashley James (1:40:23.221)
Thank you so much. I can't wait to have you back on the show. Please, everyone check out naturallybetterforyou.com. When you reach out to Dr. Ayres, make sure you mention that you're one of my listeners because he'll know that you're a good one.
Dr. Jeremy Ayres (1:40:36.433)
For sure. Thank you so much.
Outro:
Are you tired of guessing your way through supplements, feeling like each choice is just another shot in the dark? Unlock your health potential at takeyoursupplements.com. Here we don't just sell supplements, we customize wellness. Connect with a true health coach who tailors your nutritional path based on your unique health goals and challenges. From fatigue to vitality, from confusion to clarity. Start your transformation today. Visit takeyoursupplements.com and discover how feeling amazing is just one free consultation away. That's takeyoursupplements.com.
Website- Naturally Better For You
Website- The Red Pill Revolution
Check Out My Latest Book: Addicted To Wellness
https://www.learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness
Get The Minerals Your Body Needs: TakeYourSupplements.com
https://takeyoursupplements.com
https://learntruehealth.com/how-seeking-holistic-health-saved-my-life-david-dehaas
Grab Ashley James's book Addicted to Wellness and transform your health! Get it here: learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness
When I was 19, my health hit rock bottom—I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and infertility, conditions I never imagined facing so young. This pivotal moment propelled me into the world of holistic health, a journey that led to incredible transformations not just for me but for countless others. Join me, Ashley James, as I chat with David DeHaas from the Whole Body Detox Show about my new book, "Addicted to Wellness," and the magic of holistic healing.
Highlights:
Intro:
Hello True Health Seeker and welcome to another exciting episode of the Learn True Health Podcast. Today's a fun episode because I'm the one in the hot seat. David DeHaas from the Whole Body Detox Show interviews me on Episode 179 of his show. So I have taken that Episode 179 from the Whole Body Detox Show, David DeHaas being the host and I am placing it here so that y'all can listen to our interview. I was just jumping on his show and I was checking it out this morning and his latest interview, which he published earlier this month, was with Andy Wakefield.
I had Andy Wakefield on my show a few years ago. Be fun to have him back because Dr. Wakefield certainly has some more information and he's been in, I think, a few more documentaries since, so that'd be fun to have him back. I love when I get to come together with like-minded people like David DeHaas. David DeHaas has also been on my show. He runs an amazing detox clinic. I think it's in Idaho. Forgive me, I'm pretty sure it's like it's so close. Idaho is like next door to Washington state, but people actually fly in from out of state, from out of country. They fly in to do, he has a week long and I think he has like a 10 day or two week long detox where they feed you and they do a whole series of colonics and they rebuild your gut, and him and I have had some really interesting off air conversations about how people have come back from the brink and he's had some really interesting experiences with doctors. When doctors wake up when their own medicine fails them and I have a lot of those interviews. If you've been listening, over 500 interviews, I have a lot of holistic doctors who started out as medical doctors in the allopathic, drug-based medical field and then they themselves came up against some illness and their system of medicine couldn't help them and that's when their brain exploded and they went my gosh, we've been taught a lie. We've been taught this lie which is prevalent. We are all bathed in this lie and that is that the MD drug based medicine is the only legitimate medicine out there, that you should always go to an MD. That type of doctor and every other type of doctor is a quack, or every other type of doctor is a quote unquote, and I'm doing little air quotes, alternative, meaning something less than not helpful, something less than and , maybe those alternative doctors might like massage you or something, but they're not legitimate because they don't give you drugs and it's been a lie that they've been feeding us. It's PR marketing that they've been feeding us for over 100 years. I'm not going to go deep down this rabbit hole today, but you can. It's a pretty interesting rabbit hole to go down.
So these doctors wake up when they realize that their system of medicine doesn't have all the answers. Not every system does. That's the point. We should not give the power to any one system, and I'm pretty sure that applies to everything in life. Don't give all the power to one type of school system, to one type of food manufacturer, to one type of government. Don't give the power and all the control and all the attention to one system, because that's not how life works. We should have access to, and the freedom to have access to, many types of therapies and healing.
So MDs that wake up and go, wow, I need to go outside of my system of medicine to find the answers. Then they find holistic medicine or functional medicine and then they heal their body and then they become a born again holistic health expert and they jump on podcasts like mine. Well, David DeHaas, the host of the interview you're about to listen to, he's had several of these experiences where very prominent MDs come to him unable to eat almost anything. Their gut is totally destroyed, they have eliminated most foods in their diet because they no longer can tolerate food and they get transformed by going to his clinic. They do something like 10 days of colonics and juicing and all the other wonderful therapies to rebuild the microbiome at David DeHaas' clinic and they're able to then walk away after ten days or two weeks, able to eat almost anything and tolerate it, and it's so cool. It's so cool that we can do that level of intense healing. So, anyways, there's my plug for David's clinic and his podcast, the Whole Body Detox Show. You can also check out David DeHaas' episode on my podcast as well. I had him on a few years ago and it was wonderful to have him on. then it was great to reconnect when he saw that I had published my book recently this year and he said come on my show and let's talk about it. So this interview today is a great conversation about holistic health and we dive into some wonderful ways in which we can help support the body and healing itself.
If you haven't seen my book yet, please check it out. Go to learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness that's all one word learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness or you can just go to Amazon and type in Addicted to Wellness by Ashley James. It's a workbook. It's a lot of fun.
I have taken the accumulation of the last 12 years of working in this industry, in the holistic health field, working with thousands of clients. Before, I worked in the holistic health field, I worked with clients for 20 years. I can't believe that. You kind of like look back and you go, my gosh, like in my mind the 90’s were 10 years ago. I'm an 80s baby and it's just wild to think that I've been working with clients that long. I was working, as I want to call it, life coach. I was doing breakthrough sessions with people using neuro linguistic programming and timeline therapy. So I've been working with clients for a long time and this book is an accumulation of all my knowledge from 20 years of working with people and over 500 episodes talking in depth with holistic health experts.
The book I made it fun. I made it light and I made it impactful. So if you want to take your health to the next level, no matter where you are, this book meets you where you are and you will be able to, through a series of fun challenges, take your health to the next level. So Invite you to jump on it, to try it. Even if you have five minutes a day, even if you have 10 minutes a day, you can do this book. If you have a busy schedule, you can do this book.
I wanted to make it so that every single person could fit it into their life. So get it Addicted to Wellness. Get my book. It's a workbook, so you get to actually do things. That's where rubber meets the road. You get to experience health changes as you build up your body, and that's what we talk about today in today's episode, among other things. So enjoy today's episode. Please check out David DeHaas' podcast, the Whole Body Detox Show, and please share my podcast with those you care about. This is a grassroots movement. My goal is to help over a million people to get their health back, and I can't do it without your help. So you are part of that. You're the ripple that helps turn this ripple into a tidal wave to help as many people as possible to learn true health.
Welcome to the Learn True Health Podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James. This is Episode 525.
David DeHaas (0:08:34.737)
Good morning everyone. David DeHaas, your host of the Whole Body Detox show from Living Waters Wellness Center, where miracles begin by healing from within, and today I have a very kindred spirit on the show today Ms. Ashley James. Ms. Ashley James has a podcast of her own called Learn True Health. You've done what some over 516 plus episodes and growing, does a fantastic job, so you can check that out. She's an entrepreneur, podcaster, author and we're having on because she just wrote an amazing book called, Addicted to Wellness. Ashley is a bit like me. You went through a lot of a health journey. There's a picture of it right there. A journey, much like myself, and we had to figure out how to save our lives, and she did.
So we're here teaching others. Amazing! She's also a massage therapist, a Reiki master, trained in neuro holistic programming, timeline therapy, hypnosis, nutritional coach. She went after it and grabbed all the different things to put them in her toolbox or wellness toolbox so she can help others, which is awesome. Ashley James, welcome to the show.
Ashley James (0:09:44.683)
Thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here.
David DeHaas (0:09:46.763)
Everyone has their unique story, from sickness to wellness, and you've got one amazing story. So maybe give us a little bit of background and we'll get into your book here a little bit.
Ashley James (0:10:00.718)
It's like rags to riches to rags to riches. So when I was six, when I was really young, I didn't know any better and I thought this is just how life is, but I would always have a sore throat, I was always tired and I'd wake up in the morning unable to open my eyes because my eyes were crusted over and I'd have to peel away the crust in my eyes. They were sealed shut.
I just remember being really tired and the constant sore throats and that was my life until I was about six years old. then my mom, she had been put on antibiotics for the common cold, basically, and ended up staying on antibiotics for several months, because this is just in the 80s, what doctors did, and I guess some doctors to this day still do that.
So she ran her own business and didn't take the time like a weekend just to relax or a week just to like let her body recover. So she went to prescription after prescription to overcome an infection and gave herself a wicked case of candida. She finally discovered a naturopathic doctor who actually did colon hydrotherapy in his clinic. This is Dr. D'Adamo the original, not his son, but Dr. D'Adamo back in the eighties had a clinic in Toronto, Canada, where I'm from, and my mom went to him, got some colon hydrotherapy and also cleaned up her diet and she started to get better. So she intuitively said, well, if it's good for me, it's probably good for my daughter.
I remember, at six years old, being in his clinic. I remember looking him in the face as he took a drop of my blood and figured out I was an O blood type, looked at my eyes for urology, looked in my ear, examined my throat because I had that constant sore throat. he looked at me and he said you are allergic to milk, yeast, wheat and sugar. Stay away from them. Now, even at the age of six I knew that were the ingredients. Those were the ingredients in my favorite chocolate bar, Coffee Crisp. If you're from Canada, you know Coffee Crisp. To this day I can still remember what it tastes like. It tastes like what it sounds. It's crunchy, it's chocolatey, it's coffee flavored. Who wouldn't love that? I said to him, when can I eat a Coffee Crisp? he said once every blue moon. At the time I thought a blue moon was every month.
So I got excited, but I soon found out it meant once in a very long while. We came home and my mom tore through the kitchen, got rid of all the processed food, all the wheat, all the dairy, all the sugar, and we ate basically paleo, like what Dr. D'Adamo coined the O blood type diet, and overnight my sore throat went away. My energy, I couldn't even say it came back. I had it for the first time and I no longer woke up feeling sick. I no longer woke up with sore throats, I no longer woke up with sleep in my eyes. I would wake up, jump out of bed and just go, go, go, go go, just twelve hours straight and then go right to sleep and I had amazing health. That was from six to thirteen.
At thirteen, I rebelled and I started eating like all my friends. My mom was really strict around food, and out of love, but also coming from fear and just as a parent now I see how important it is to teach children why that food is good or bad and not just restrict without knowledge. So I ran towards all the food I was allowed to eat, and I gave myself chronic infections, type 2 diabetes, chronic adrenal fatigue, polycystic ovarian syndrome. Did I mention type 2 diabetes, and infertility. By the time I was nineteen, I was infertile and the doctor said, after doing a battery of tests, that I'd never have kids. So I was so sick from thirteen to nineteen. I created all these illnesses in my body and I was just feeling so horrible.
David DeHaas (0:14:06.600)
Were you seeing Dr. D’Adamo then?
Ashley James (0:14:08.606)
No, my mom switched back to an MD and that MD ended up killing my mom and that was a big wake up call for me. I don't know why she didn't. I guess he got so famous. He ended up not being in the Toronto clinic and so she started seeing another naturopathic clinic and maybe didn't like that guy as much.
I really wish she had stuck with holistic medicine, because she'd still be here today and my life would have been very different. I wouldn't be sitting here with you. But this is my story. We have to learn from our past and also appreciate our story so that we can appreciate who we are, where we are now and then build the future we want. So let's learn from the past.
Processed foods are how I develop those illnesses, and eating clean and then lifestyle changes and finding the right supplements. So supplements are like the mortar but the bricks. You can't out-supplement a bad diet. You can't out-exercise a bad diet right. You can't give yourself enough colon hydrotherapy when you have a bad diet.
It all comes down to using your food as medicine. You're building your body. You're building every cell in your body with what you're eating. So I had to dial in how I ate. I had to go through emotionally, mentally, spiritually and physically the transformation to be able to shed those illnesses. I did. I learned what I needed to do. There were many dark years where I would cry myself to sleep, where I was constantly hungry, just going on, the blood sugar swings, feeling out of control, and my liver was so inflamed that anytime I did go on a diet my liver would just stick out. It would be painful.
David DeHaas (0:16:00.329)
Oh wow, I was like that at one time I didn't know what was going on.
Ashley James (0:16:08.465)
I finally figured out that it was heavy metal toxicity, probably because my body had a really hard time detoxifying. I've been MTHFR and so I had to really support gentle liver detox, support my liver and in doing that. But every time I went to lose weight, I could taste heavy metals in my mouth and that and my eyes would burn. I could taste heavy metals in my mouth.
I think it's from the accumulation of secondhand smoke and drinking soda. I don't know, just any kind of exposure to heavy metals. We have so much exposure to heavy metals we don't even realize. If you also have a problem with detoxifying, then they get accumulated in the body. I had accumulated a lot and I’ve spent the last seven years working on detoxifying the heavy metals. I have a sauna, Sunlighten Sauna, which I absolutely adore and that we can sweat out the heavy metals gently. I have a PES, which is an ionic foot spa, a Platinum Energy System. I've had people on my show, Learn True Health Podcast discussing how they work, very gentle detox without having to do things like chelators. I do also love Chlorella, which there's only a handful of companies I'd recommend. One of them is EnergyBits, and I did have Catherine Arnston, the creator of EnergyBits, on my show as well. So those are really good episodes to check out. so just through these different modalities I was able to detox the heavy metals.
But before that, back in 2008, when I was at the peak of my illness, my husband and I watched a documentary and he wanted to help me, but we just didn't know. You get to this point where you're sick, of being sick, but all you know is MD medicine, all you know is go to the doctor, they maybe do blood work and then they give you a drug and that just wasn't cutting it. I was just getting sicker and sicker under the watch of the MD.
I'd remembered when I was six, I went to holistic medicine. I had to go back before my rebellious era and remember what I had learned when I was very young from the naturopath. When we watched this documentary, it was about eating whole foods, avoiding processed foods, and eating organic. They had interviewed the original CEO of Whole Foods and he said vote with your fork, shop the perimeter of the grocery store, eat organic.
We did that. We didn't give up dairy yet, we didn't give up meat yet. We just shopped the perimeter so we stopped going down the aisles and we chose only organic. So some would call that like the pseudo paleo diet. You're just eating fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds. We were doing meat and dairy, but we chose organic and dairy, but we chose organic.
In that one month of primarily cutting up processed food and eating organic, my chronic infections went away. I still felt like crap, but I no longer needed constant antibiotics and I thought, wow, we did one change and one of my major problems went away. So what's the next step? We just took these baby steps where we did one change, kind of like a challenge, okay, for the next few days we're going to do this, for the next week or next month we're going to do this. We did one challenge of another and some things didn't work and some things did, but that's how we figured it out and we eventually cut out all dairy.
Dairy is the hardest, because we're actually chemically addicted to dairy, many people know this. For those who don’t, mother's milk, cow milk for a calf, goat milk for a kid, in order to make the infant want to drink it, put forth the effort to find the nipple and suckle. God in his infinite wisdom made breast milk addictive. Then we take milk from another species, we concentrate it into cheese. The thing that triggers the brain, the addiction in the brain, is in cheese, in concentrated form. So we are addicted to dairy and that's the hardest thing out of all the animal products to kick is cheese and dairy.
So we decided to go dairy free, reluctantly, and overnight my husband's adult acne went away within three days. He had cystic acne covered his entire back. It was really gross. It was constantly exploding and painful and he was ashamed and never went shirtless because of it and he had pitting all over his back, his face, but it was mostly in his back and in his chest too. A hundred percent of his acne, within three days of removing dairy, went away. He had never in his entire life not drunk dairy or eaten cheese. So that’s a little challenge.
David DeHaas (0:21:39.233)
We were supposed to have raw milk and of course there was Hershey's chocolate which was advertised heavily on the tv and I love my milk with my Hershey's chocolate. So you got pus with sugar and I always had acne, I had allergies, I had all this stuff and no wonder I had all these allergies. No wonder I had all this problem. My mother took me to what I call a drill, fill and build dentist, from age five on he's got two more cavities, Mrs. DeHaas.
Ashley James (0:22:10.520)
Oh, you mean, you have a boat payment, Mr. Dentist.
David DeHaas (0:22:14.396)
Yes, and here, have a lollipop on the way out. Some more sugar. Food is even worse today. It's really bad chemicals, just pure chemicals.
Ashley James (0:22:34.067)
We go down the cereal aisle. My mom was super strict about cereal in our household. There couldn't be any sugar in it and we had options like there were a lot of options for zero added sugar. I challenge you to find a zero added sugar cereal. I can only find one that's gluten free, also, because we don't eat barley and oats in our home. My son is actually allergic to them, but that's what Dr. D'Adamo told me: Don't eat those.
What I've seen with my mentors, I've been trained by several naturopathic doctors and they say 100% of their clients benefit from removing those grains because we're not cows. We don't have the stomach processing power to process, just like eating dairy. Eating cheese is not necessarily healthy for you, but we feel good eating it because we're addicted. So we keep doing it and we're habituated to the damage. You have to remove it for a while before you go. Oh wow, my migraines are gone. Oh wow, my stiff joints are gone. Oh wow, my vision's getting better. You start to see things clear up, the inflammation goes away and things you thought were completely unrelated, like, oh, my dry eye is gone, completely unrelated, but that's a sign of inflammation and you remove that food that is constantly insulting the body.
David DeHaas (0:23:56.078)
When you went to Peter D’Adamo, did he offer colonics? Did he offer them to you as a child?
Ashley James (0:24:02.368)
No, I was a child, no, he didn't offer. I’m really actually was interested in it. My mom would tell me stories because she'd come home from her colonics and I'd be super interested. I have actually interested in holistic health since I was six. My mom had a newsletter from Dr. D'Adamo and I would sit on my mom's bed and she would read it to me and I remember in the 80’s she read me an article he wrote about probiotics and I was fascinated. Acidophilus was like the only thing they knew about back then. I was super fascinated. She read another one about antioxidants and oxidative stress. I imagine the bullet pierces, the loose molecule bouncing through the body just like harming the DNA. He wrote this beautiful article about it and I was just fascinated. I was fascinated about how the body works in health, from that holistic standpoint.
David DeHaas (0:24:59.600)
Think about this, in 1992, Newsweek, on its cover I was selling nutritional supplements and they were just starting to talk about free radicals. People would say, DeHaas, you're just a free radical yourself, that's a rock band, blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean they just dismissed it like that's stupid. What are you talking about, free radicals? What's an oxidant? Of course now it's common knowledge. Most people do know what an antioxidant is, but it is very interesting how, in 40 years, 30 years, basically, we finally got to accept this.
Ashley James (0:25:35.297)
The mainstream will catch up very slowly.
David DeHaas (0:25:39.903)
The community, basically slamming it, saying, there's nothing to that, you don't want those vitamins, that's just a waste. That was crazy!
Ashley James (0:25:47.096)
The same doctors only a few years before were recommending camel cigarettes. So we just have to remember how far we've come since our grandparents or since our parents' generation. The American Medical Association was fine with recommending camel cigarettes. So just got to like, take their advice with a grain of salt and then question everything, question everything.
One thing that Dr. D'Adamo did in his colonics that I haven't seen done anywhere else is he added a cactus enzyme that would break down the biofilm, and I was always fascinated about that and I haven't seen anyone else do that. So my mom told me I was like I'd ask her what they add to the water? One of her friends was from Japan, because there's a little viewing window to see what's coming out of you and they watched a giant worm come out of her, I guess from eating sushi or something.
David DeHaas (0:26:46.611)
Yes, all the time, all the time. Wild Hookworms, liver flukes. We got a whole manual down here. A book of pictures of clients have snapped the picture when they're doing their colonic and as they've seen the bugs, or at home in the toilet a lot of time it comes out, we loosen them up and they go home and they poop. It’s fascinating.
You go do a test. If you go to a doctor and get a test, 98% of the time it's going to be negative because they only test for five. The bugs don't want to come out on a poop and say hey, here I am. They've buried themselves in the coastal lining and they're attached. You got to go after them with all things zippers, herbs, our pulse frequency machine and then the colonics to flush them out.
Ashley James (0:27:32.817)
I wonder why they don't show up on colonic or colonoscopies, or do they?
David DeHaas (0:27:41.224)
I don’t know. I've never done a colonoscopy.
Ashley James (0:27:45.179)
Right and nor should you. There's a lot of people that die doing just regular colonoscopies. You turn that camera the wrong way, they're piercing your colon. Also the anesthesia, you could die from the anesthesia there's complications.
David DeHaas (0:28:04.451)
We've had clients come back and say, my friend, they did it, they pierced it or I don't know why, but they can't get it totally sterilized and they got a bug from a foreign country from the equipment and it killed it.
That was a my gosh story number of years ago, not four years ago, I guess not too long ago, anyway, yes, so there are some risks with that, but we do have clients now that come and do colonics, colon hydrotherapy before they go do colonoscopy, because it's just so much easier than sitting on a toilet all night drinking the toxic goop that they give you so that's good
So you went on your healing path. Of course you said you're taking antibiotics constantly. Oh, that's so bad for the gut.
Ashley James (0:29:00.895)
It is. Actually, Dr. Joel Fuhrman has a really good book. I had him on my show and he talked about this one fact that's in his book. I'm going to remember the name of it it's fast food genocide. Within the first few chapters of the book he talks about the cancer rates go up with every dose of antibiotics.
David DeHaas (0:29:26.646)
Yes, we had a doctor here who went through our 10-day healing retreat. She has 10 straight years of antibiotics. She can only drink what I'm drinking today during this interview, cucumber juice. It tastes great too, but that's all she could eat. When she got done with the 10-day healing retreat, she could actually eat. She said, David, I ate a steak. Last night it tasted so good.
She’s doing colonics, a lot of colonics. In fact, when she moved to Boise, she told her husband I'll only move to a city that's got a good colon hydrotherapist. So they scouted out cities, they scouted us out first, but how sad.
I mean so many people have been like that, like you, they've been on constant antibiotics. My dad recently had a kidney infection like kidney stone last year and he had a stroke and he had some things going on and they just started giving him antibiotics.
I said and of course I'm not there, I'm five hours away and of course now what he's pooping? He's got diarrhea all the time. When I finally just got that changed around. Now we've got a constipation issue but he was like he was shitting his. I mean, he was just David. I crap my pants all the time.
He's so upset and he's afraid to go out in public, so he doesn't. and hasn't been out in public for a while and about six months and because of that he said, hey, I was able to fart today and I didn't poop my pants.
Good win dad.
Ashley James (0:31:05.431)
So I have a family member who was on several courses of antibiotics and then got chronic diarrhea to the point where she also couldn't go outside, and the times that we had to take her to a doctor's room or something, it was like running down her leg. It was so sad and you lost all your dignity. It's just so sad. I had an interview about lactobacillus reuteri with Dr William Davis, who wrote the book Wheat Belly. I've had him on my show three times. It was the second interview I did and at the time I was recovering from PTSD, from losing my daughter, and I figured out, through the help of a friend who was a psychologist, what I was experiencing was PTSD. I'm interviewing him and he's talking about how lactobacillus reuteri is native to humans and should be in your gut but it is not in your gut in the modern world because one course of antibiotics wipes it completely from your system for the rest of your life.
And it gets passed down through mother's milk. So if your mother was on one course of antibiotics before you, let's say you've never had antibiotics, but your mom had antibiotics, then you don't have lactobacillus reuteri. So just think about how many people who are living in the modern world, who are not living in Nepal, in the mountains. They've never had antibiotics. I don't think we could find someone whose generations you could count, all the generations going up, who's not had antibiotics. So it's very rare to have lactobacillus reuteri naturally in your system, but it should be there. Not having it means that we naturally don't make as much serotonin for the whole body. Serotonin converts to melatonin. Melatonin is an antioxidant for all the cells, not just the brain, and that's just one of the effects. It also increases collagen production. So now we have a lot less collagen production. So it goes down the list. So if you take it and how you take it, is you make a yogurt out of it.
I figured out I have made over 200 batches of this yogurt with cashews. I figured out if you're allergic to cashews, you can try it with other like, it does not taste good. I'm sorry. The coconut version, the soy version, doesn't taste good. The cashew version tastes amazing. It tastes awesome and it's a 36 hour ferment. I have it. It's free on my website, just lactobacillus reuteri yogurt, cashew yogurt, on learntruehealth.com.
I made it for this family member and three days later she called me up and she said make me more because this is the only thing that stopped my diarrhea. It ended her diarrhea. So I went and did a little bit more digging and I found out that, obviously, we know your good microbiome gets wiped out when you do antibiotics. Well, one of the side effects is that chronic diarrhea and one of the solutions is lactobacillus reuteri. So we reintroduce the lactobacillus reuteri into the gut and it calms everything down. It gets the gut making serotonin again, gets the gut making collagen again, like it's helping so much. So it ended the diarrhea for her.
Then it had for me, surprise, surprise, it helped me overcome the depression. I noticed that within the same day I took it. The first one I made was out of soy milk, because I had a hermetically sealed soy milk so I just fermented that it tasted horrible but I drank it and I've never taken an antidepressant but I told my friend who's a mental health counselor after three days of drinking, I go, if antidepressants worked, I feel like I'm on one right now. I am feeling happy for the first time in over a year, I was just feeling happy in my body. So there's something to that lactobacillus reuteri and it's just one, one of the thousands of healthy gut microbes that we're supposed to have in our gut. So there's so much to support the gut.
David DeHaas (0:35:33.815)
Think about the colon, five to seven feet, small intestine, about 25 to 30 feet, the surface area the size of a tennis court. There's so much surface area and all these little bugs, good bugs, bad bugs, and it gets tipped out of balance so easily by. You go to one doctor, you got a little infection, here's an antibiotic. Next thing you know, you've taken six rounds and in some cases people get C diff and they actually die from C diff. So now, there's actually companies paying you for good poop. Now they're making tablets.
When I first got into this business, I met a doctor and he was so excited about what I was doing. True story. I've talked about this before on the show. His dad was dying in the hospital in California and he worked at the hospital here in Boise and his dad had C diff and his dad was just, just get me home, Mark, just get me home I just want to die at home.
So he's doing some research and he discovered I could put an implant back in his colon intestinal tract. Maybe that makes a difference. So he went to the hospital and he made his proposal. He says let's do a fecal implant. There's one doctor there from Europe that says, hey, no problem, I'd be happy to do it. We do that in Europe all the time. The doctor there says no, it's too much risk, infection, blah, blah, blah. He says darn it.
So he went home and he got a very healthy person, his daughter. She pooped in a bag and he took it to California, put it in a blender, blended it up and put it down his dad's feeding tube. He says, David, it was instantaneous, like bam, he was like a different guy. He says it was incredible. He's like you just saw a wilted plant in the dirt, dirt over it, and this thing just pops up like a plant staring at the sun.
We went back home and he said he lived six or seven more months. He lived at home. He did die. He says too bad, I didn't get to it sooner. Then that was 2009, we haven't been open very long since 2010 probably and within about two years, I started seeing more and more on the internet. Now you can actually buy poop pills. I saw an advertisement on, I think, instagram one day hey, we'll pay you for your poop if it's good enough, right, yes, yes.
Ashley James (0:37:51.846)
So I interviewed Sarica Cernohous on my show many years ago. I've been doing this show for nine years, so this is probably like six, seven, eight years ago and Sarica is wonderful, she's still practicing. So she was down in Arizona I think Flagstaff and she was so sick, couldn't eat any food. You hear it time and time again, just have to do the elimination diet, then they can't eat anything, and she learned about how important the microbiome is. So she started to eat tiny, tiny, tiny doses, micro dosing, different live culture fermented foods and a variety. Variety is the key. You're talking, like less than a teaspoon at each meal sauerkraut, kimchi, whatever she made. You can ferment almost anything. I have an amazing salsa recipe in my book. Amazing salsa recipe little plug for my book. That's a three-day pico de gallo ferment and it is delicious. So she was fermenting everything.
David DeHaas (0:38:55.257)
Addicted to Wellness is the book. Where can I get the book, Ashley?
Ashley James (0:38:55.257)
They can go to learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness. That'll take them to the Amazon link where they can purchase it. And they could just go search Addicted to Wellness on Amazon.
David DeHaas (0:39:12.708)
Yes, keep going.
Ashley James (0:39:15.314)
So Sarica Cernohous, she rebuilt her gut microbiome and now her people are trying to pay her for her poop. She won't sell it. They're offering her thousands of dollars per bowel movement and I'm like she's making three bowel movements a day like she could just poop and be a millionaire and I don't know why she's not selling her poop because, in a way she's helping people. I can also see her standpoint because she's giving into the system, that's not actually helping people. What's really helping people is teaching them that they can do the same thing that she did. So now her gut microbiome is in the top 99 percentile for the most diverse gut microbiome and what we have the average American has the Homer Simpson of gut microbiomes. There's very little diversity and our gut microbiome is actually making us stupid. It is dumbing us down.
David DeHaas (0:40:20.466)
Ding, ding, ding ding. I've been saying that, preaching that, for the last couple of years. On the Talk Radio show we're on here, KIDO Talk Radio. You watch all the crazy liberals, republicans, all of them. I mean there's so much stupid being said everywhere and I've been saying it's our food, we got glyphosate that's killed our soils. We had Jim Zamzow on not too long ago talking about how we recover soils because they destroyed the microbiome. You see what's coming out of people's mouths. They can't think.
I remember we covered a gal speaking of that, to your point. She dropped out of college. She had a hard time studying. We meant to retain memory. We'd have to make notes for her Happiest gal ever. We'd make a nice list. She would do great work, smile, happy, glad to be here. She was going off. She's an LDS member and she was going to go on a mission. I told my wife, I said this gal is sick, not sick. We're not sending a letter to go away until we do a 10-day cleanse for her.
So I gave her a 10-day cleanse. I remember day eight, she had to speak at her church and she was really nervous. She hated this. She did not want to speak in front of it. She was so nervous. She came back. I said hey, how'd your speech go? She goes, it went amazing. She goes, David. People come up to me and they say, "Whoa, where'd you learn to speak like that? You're better than any of the missionaries. She goes, “David, I can think”. She cleaned out her body, got her colon, small intestine healed and started restoring, got that transverse colon that's where 90% of your serotonin gets made. She’s a different person, different person full time.
Ashley James (0:41:55.740)
I love it. I love it. Yes, so we can rebuild our gut, eat small amounts of fermented foods. I have a whole chapter in my book on rebuilding the gut
have you ship me some of your salsa and your ferment.
David DeHaas (0:42:08.143)
Have you ship me some of your salsa and your ferment. So are you shipping now?
Ashley James (0:42:12.750)
It's easier for you to make it in your own kitchen because you can regulate, like, how much of each, if you want it to be spicier or not. It's super easy to make. It's crazy easy. The hardest part about fermenting is mentally getting over the fact that you're leaving things out of the fridge. You're not hurting yourself. The salt slows down any bad microbes, but the good microbes thrive.
David DeHaas (0:42:43.835)
Do you get a little like a little yogurt maker and use that?
Ashley James (0:42:47.042)
Are you talking about the lactobacillus reuteri yogurt? Yes, so there's a type of instant pot that not all instant pot models. There's one instant pot model where you can manually adjust the temperature, because it has to be under 109, ideally between 100 and 108 Fahrenheit. So I set mine to about 203. I have a yogurt thermometer and I check the batch. Sometimes I have to, like, up the temperature, down the temperature. You don't want it to hit over 109 because then it kills the lactobacillus reuteri. You just want it to be over. If it's 100, good. If it's 107, good, so just that range.
It has to ferment for 36 hours. In the last hour of fermenting it, the population doubles. At 36 hours, don't stop at 35. You got to be 36. I actually find it's easier to do it because I do these really large batches, and then it lasts for several weeks for the whole family, and so it's yes, it's delicious. Then, as far as making the salsa, you put the contents in a mason jar, put like a mesh over the lid and leave it for three days and it is the most delicious thing you've ever tasted and it's full of wonderful gut microbes.
David DeHaas (0:44:11.564)
Yes, that's a big thing. We had a lady on our show. Clearwater Cultures met her in the show. She actually lives in Idaho County, where I grew up, and she makes soaps and different things. I went to her house where her little manufacturing facility is and she's got all these different big old pots fermenting, all these different things, a lot of different products you can buy from her.
We interviewed her way back. That's been a couple of years, three years ago, I think, Clearwater Cultures, shout out to her. It came to her, divine intervention that we need to keep our microbiome on our skin as well. We think about our gut. That's fascinating, and that's your book, Addicted to Wellness, get it at learntruehealth.com?
Ashley James (0:44:52.616)
Yes. Learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness. If they go to my website also, learntruehealth.com, they'll see a little link to go get the book?
David DeHaas (0:45:05.083)
They can buy it directly from you rather than giving money to Jeff.
Ashley James (0:45:10.220)
Actually it does. It directs straight to Amazon, because I publish through Amazon, which just makes it super easy for me and I like that we can use these days, like Amazon KDP, which is how you self-publish through Amazon. It makes it really easy to allow anyone to publish a book and then we get this information out there.
David DeHaas (0:45:35.564)
It's sad we've got all the information at our fingertips today. I mean we got so much. We have these smartphones, so much information. I mean I go to bed at night. I'm trying to keep my eyes open and my ears open. I fall asleep listening to podcasts and educational information. I'm just an information junkie, but it's just so sad where most people are unable to learn everything I've learned. I've self-learned throughout my life, learned throughout my life. Back in the day, before fax machines, you actually went to a library but no, it is what we've got.
Ashley James (0:46:11.468)
We have information overload. And the problem is knowing what direction; because, for example, one of the things I do is I show people how to reverse diabetes and no longer have insulin resistance so I can guide you to no longer have type 2 diabetes and within three to four months you will not be diabetic on your blood work. You'll feel like a million bucks. You'll feel amazing. But then it takes about a year to completely correct the insulin resistance so that you now have insulin sensitivity and you can eat whatever carbs you want. You can eat bananas all day long. You can eat potatoes all day long. Your blood sugar will be amazing. You'll feel like a million bucks.
You listen to my podcast. I will show you how to do that. Then you go listen to someone else's podcast who tells you to be a carnivore and eat nothing but meat. Do the meat diet. Poop once a week. Carnivore diet is where it's at.
The only way to reverse diabetes is to not eat carbs. So you get completely opposite information and the problem is that there's conflicting information for every single thing out there. So health is confusing. I believe there's also a concerted effort on the pharmaceutical front to confuse people because if we knew how to heal our bodies, we wouldn't need the most of the time
My biggest advice is to question everything, no matter how good someone sounds, no matter how good I sound. Question everything. Be the most open minded skeptic you can be. If it sounds weird don't throw it away. Listen to it.
I dive into the information, dive into the studies, and then find the doctor saying the opposite.
Dive into their studies. It's wonderful to really look and think for yourself and keep that open mind. It's OK to look at the opposing information, just like I wish Republicans looked at the Democratic information. Democrats looked at the Republican information with an open mind. We should all come together as humans wanting to build a better world, not just like. Well, I'm right, because my mom told me I should be a Democrat. It's just religion. People are buying into dogma without allowing themselves to learn.
So open your mind, take in new information and then be willing to try and experiment. I did over 30 diets, I experimented on my body and I noticed the result. I can tell you that carnivore diet looks really enchanting and it's so foul. I know a few people who now can only eat meat because of how they've eliminated everything and now they're stuck, they don't have the microbiome to handle themselves like they've got parasites and they're stuck and they don't know how to get out. The problem is, a lot of people get stuck in when you go down that rabbit hole of elimination and they don't know how to come out the other side and heal themselves. So best thing to do is to take in different sources of information and then be willing to experiment, write down your results and then try the different thing
So in my book I give challenges every week for 13 weeks. There are one to four challenges that you can try and then you write down and every day, morning and night, it still takes like five minutes in the morning, five minutes a night. You write down your results. It's guided questions. So there's 32, 33 health challenges. Each one builds a foundation of health and you try it and you experience it for yourself and you write down your results and you watch over seven days as your body transforms with that health challenge, and then you could choose to continue doing that health challenge or you could say, hey, this isn't for me, but each one it will transform you.
So my one, for example, is proper hydration, and everyone kind of just glazes over when you start talking about drinking water because it's free, because everyone thinks they are drinking enough water but most Americans are chronically dehydrated and most of the symptoms of chronic dehydration are being people are taking either over the counter drugs for or being prescribed drugs for.
So I give a hydration challenge and in that seven days every cell in your body will be fully hydrated. By the end of the seven days you will see miracles happen and one of them is, a 25% increase in cellular energy production. So if you go to stimulants, coffee, or sugar for energy at any point in your day, you likely are dehydrated. So do that one challenge in my book and notice that you will have a 25% increase in energy production.
David DeHaas (0:51:23.986)
I’m a little tired, my wife says to me, do you need some amino acids? Have some water. I go, my brain’s awake now okay, alright. Let’s go!
One of the things we do here, Ashley, we teach people how to muscle test. People call me. They always call me hey, Dave! Such and such is going on, says yes, and, remember, muscle test, yes, yes, that's power. I tell people the first day, you can walk away now and you can start figuring things out, if you embrace this.
I love having the book. You start out, Good morning. Today, I'm grateful for- you have gratitude. Gratitude is so important that our cleanse as well, and your goal intentions. So you have this journal, because what we all do is we forget I don't know.
Ashley James (0:52:21.774)
This is the page every morning during a challenge and every night during a challenge.
David DeHaas (0:52:25.575)
What choices did not serve me, what challenged me the most. Good choices I made. You rank yourself good, better, best, what you had for lunch and dinner. We forget, we get going and we forget and I love it. Change your thoughts, change your world and this is not an overwhelming book, folks. This is really nice. I love the font size.
Ashley James (0:52:48.309)
Yes, I made it so you don't have to put on your readers.
David DeHaas (0:52:50.846)
I love it, especially since I don't like straining my eyes, and it's very simple and you get into just going through week two, week three, week four, just a couple steps forward. If you miss a week, so what, just pick back up,
Ashley James (0:53:05.317)
Yes. Do it at your own pace.
David DeHaas (0:53:06.854)
Great explanation about high antioxidant foods. You did a really nice job of laying this book out. Other sweeteners, what's other choices you could use for sweeteners, cause we all like to have a little sweet taste.
Ashley James (0:53:21.668)
Yes, so every week we're choosing a different challenge, and you're talking about the week where we challenge ourselves to either go completely sugar-free or switch to healthier sweeteners as one of the four challenges in that week. Not every week is a physical thing, we have weeks that are about mental health, emotional health, in some cases, spiritual health. So there's physical health challenges, but then there's also mental, emotional health challenges as well.
David DeHaas (0:53:51.472)
Yes, and you've got back here at Restored Home Hydrotherapy. You've got power showers, the cold contrasting showers, so you got a little bit for everyone. I mean I would say to listeners, you probably won't do everything, some things resonate, some things won't, but, in this health journey we didn't come with a manual when we were born, unfortunately, we needed a manual.
This is a good way to start on that track and, of course, listen to podcasts, like what Ashley and I do is a great way to quickly and easily. I think back in the 90s if I would have had just a few of the podcasts were out there, I know I spent so much money. I probably spent 200 grand plus all the money I lost because I was sick.
Every Friday I would go away and go see my guru and go to the hot springs. Friday was just toast, non-productive, not to mention how tired I was. I remember how Huggins looked at me when I was doing my dentistry and he says I don't understand why you're even awake, David, your blood chemistry says you shouldn't be awake that.
Ashley James (0:54:53.345)
That was me too. That was me too. I had a holistic functional doctor in 2009 who did my cortisol levels.
They always spit in the tubes all day long and she had been to the Olympics twice and her and I are still friends. She's in her 80s and she runs marathons in the desert in Las Vegas. She's amazing, I love her. That is normal, right, being able to run marathons in the desert is normal in your 80s and that's what we all should be aiming for.
She looked at my cortisol levels and she said, your highest cortisol during the day is everyone else's cortisol when they're sleeping. The only time I've ever seen cortisol this low was right after I did the Olympics. She bounced back. That was my normal. She was one of my guides to help me get back on track and she actually gave up her medical license when she realized that being a doctor was a drug dealer. She wanted to be a functional doctor, so she decided to give up her license so that she could practice functional medicine.
David DeHaas (0:56:12.152)
They're addicted to the standard of care.
Ashley James (0:56:13.219)
Exactly. Her husband is a chiropractor and they run a clinic together and they're wonderful. Shout out to Dr. Jenny Ross Wilkinson. She's awesome. She showed me that my normal energy levels were everyone's energy levels when they were sleeping. I also couldn't process human language in the morning. I was so depleted, so exhausted. My husband talked to me and I actually couldn't understand what he was saying.
So that was right around the time that we were doing that challenge where we went organic, but it wasn't until I met Dr. Wallach and he showed me minerals, and then I woke up within five days of taking the essential nutrients my body was missing and also cutting out.
He has 12 foods that he had me remove which are the cause of stress to the body and also stop blocking proper digestion absorption. Then he got me on the right minerals, so just cleaned up how I was eating, guided me that way, and then everything came back online and that's when I decided to turn around.
This is about 2011. I turned around and said I want to do this as my career. I want to help people get better, and yes, so it's been wonderful. So before 2011, I was doing neuro linguistic programming and timeline therapy with people doing coaching, largely helping people to end chronic pain and also end anxiety. I have a technique where I turn off. I teach people how to turn off anxiety, completely, turn off anxiety by getting to the root cause in 90 seconds and then so for many years I was helping people on the emotional, mental level, but I didn't have the tools for physical. So that's the book. The book is everything that I learned, that it builds the foundations of your health, and done in a way that's so fun. No matter how busy you are, you can plug into this book five minutes a day, 10 minutes a day, 15 minutes a day, whatever you have, and you will be able to build your health as a result.
David DeHaas (0:58:22.883)
And you can't complete a journey if you don't start taking a step, guys, and you've only got one body, one time on earth, to make this journey. How well do you want to live?
Live your best life, and this is a great tool to put in your wellness toolbox, as we call it, is having a little guide here to guide you through this, with some great suggestions about hydration and everything. It’s very complete. This thing about keeping yourself accountable because we all forget we get busy, we get stressed. This thing about keeping yourself accountable because we all forget we get busy, we get stressed. Next thing you know, you're grabbing a soda or a beer and sucking down some glyphosate or whatever, because you get stressed.
Well, what if there was a tool? What if you had a tool in your toolbox you could pull out to counteract that? You're all going to mess up, but I did many, many times.
Ashley James (0:59:15.378)
Also because you track your symptoms in this book easily. It's a fun and easy way of doing it. You'll see your progress every month. We do a monthly check-in and you actually see your progress. I have had two clients on separate occasions both forget that they had chronic migraines because once I helped them get healthy again, they forgot. That's why they came to me in the first place and then I asked them both two different people on separate occasions. I said how, how are your migraines? They said what migraines? I got their migraines gone by them following the steps. So we forget sometimes.
David DeHaas (0:56:53.431)
I've interviewed people after 10 days and I said well, what did you experience? They go through all these things. I said wasn't there something else? Was there something else? This one gal I remember the reason why she came to me because she couldn't squeeze her hands. I say remember this. I'm squeezing my hands. She goes yes, I forgot about that one. That was really big.
Ashley James (1:00:13.995)
Wow! Can’t write, can’t drive, couldn't open doors, couldn't put on clothing, but then she forgot because it came back. This is what happened. The part of the book is like checking in and being like, for example, this water challenge really is working because, wow, now I'm pooping three times a day or now my headaches are gone or now my stiff joints are gone. Now I have more energy.
You look back, can you remember what you felt like seven days ago? No, can you remember when you ate two days ago? No, like we don't. We don't necessarily remember how we felt. So when we make health changes, a lot of times it's like throwing arrows in the dark and we forget to keep doing the healthy thing. Keep doing the new habit, because we forget how good it made us feel and how it's helping our body be healthy. So that's why the book is so important to help you track that, so you can check back and go, Oh, I really should keep doing this new health habit, because it is making such a profound difference.
David DeHaas (1:01:17.248)
Yes, it's awesome. Addicted to Wellness. The healthy addiction 12-week workbook for creating a lifelong love of wellbeing. Guys, once you go two or three steps forward, half a step back, no big deal, just keep trudging forward.
Have yourself a way to kind of keep yourself accountable. Learn something new every day and let's get those bodies detoxed and back to wellness. Ashley, thanks for being on the show. Is there anything you want to add?
Ashley James (1:01:40.848)
Oh, I love being here. I also think listeners should check out the interview that you had on my show, which was amazing and I loved it. So listeners can go to learntruehealth.com, use the search function, anything you want to search. I think I just published 520. So, yes, we've got lots of interviews with amazing experts.
David DeHaas (1:02:03.587)
I’ve around 200 something
Ashley James (1:02:06.924)
Well, just keep going, just keep chugging along. I had a mentor who when I started had over a thousand. So I was like, oh, thousands, a good number to aim for. I'm halfway there.
David DeHaas (1:02:21.078)
I couldn't believe how many I've done. It seems like yesterday I started, now, each week it's always a scramble. I don't interview everybody every week like you do. I go solo a lot, so it's always coming up. I've heard myself speak and say this stuff over and over and over and over. So you're sitting here alone in the studio talking to yourself, always trying to keep something fresh and new and always staying up on it. A lot of good episodes over there, for sure.
Ashley James (1:02:47.904)
I think, since you have clients in your clinic, even if they could come up with questions for you to answer, that would be great content. They could give you questions and then you could answer it in the podcast or you could even have them interview you and pick your brain, live. That would be cool. They don't necessarily have to be on video if they don't want to, they could be on the other side of the camera asking you questions and then you basically go live in a little classroom because everyone would be different. Then you don't have to preplan.
I know I would be curious to hear, like, how you answer things if it's coming from a client who's sitting there. The best interviewer is someone who's genuinely curious, and that has been my gift, apart from God's divine guidance, when I interview people, I'm just genuinely interested because I was sick and suffering and I got that my health got better, and I'm always looking to learn and help myself.
The purpose of my show, as is the purpose of your show, is to reach as many people as possible and to help them learn what it is to achieve true health, and that's why I named my podcast Learn True Health, because it is about this journey of learning what it is to achieve true health and how to get there and how to build your true health, and that's mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
As a fun side note, I had a client who says he was born with the gift of seeing angels and guides and he's Catholic and he says he would be in church and he would see angels in the church. I think it's phenomenal and he has some amazing information. We were actually I did a live interview with him and I was in his office, and when I hit record, he goes like you were just surrounded by angels guiding you.
He goes like all of a sudden they just came and I was like you know what so many times people compliment me and being a good interview, I don't even think like I'm there. I feel like I'm just a listener of my own show and I'm a fan of my own show, but when I'm sitting there interviewing, I feel like I'm being guided when it comes to asking questions. So the questions pull out the information, and the information is what we're here for, right. So you're a great interviewer and a great guest and it was wonderful having you on my show and it was wonderful being on your show, so thank you.
David DeHaas (1:05:22.714)
Yes, thank you as well. So, yes, I always just say a prayer. Give me the right words. That's my prayer. Give me the right words I need to say, and then I just go.
I love it pretty well, I do. I love making notes, I do. Now I've started scripting more things. you'll be, I'll be laying there at night and things will pop to my head go, oh, that'd be a great one, that's some great questions, then y'all remember that one and of course, no, don't remember you will not remember it, I've got better speaking the phone like no, and we got it.
Ashley James (1:05:54.414)
I don't actually prepare ahead of time for my interviews because when I'm scripted or when I have a bunch of questions written down, I'm too much in my head, I get discombobulated. When I'm present in the moment with a guest, I'm just super curious. I just want to pull the information out of them. I want us to extract and learn as much as we can from that person, so I'm way more present to them. Then the questions come to me and so many times my listeners say that was you just asked the question that I was on my mind. You said exactly my question. I can't tell you how many times people have said that to me. That's where divine guidance comes in which is really exciting.
David DeHaas (1:06:34.356)
I just did an interview not too long ago and I read the book and I read everything and I wrote down all kinds of questions and then, of course, I got an interview and then the questions were there and we just started rolling.
I got done. I looked down and went, oh, I hit them all. I didn't even look at them. Well, what a pleasure to have you on the show today. Thank you so much. Ashley James, Addicted to Wellness. Get it at learntruehealth.com for a slice of Addicted Wellness, or go to Amazon and put in the search terms. Get the book and start your journey towards wellness. Until next week, my friends have a blessed week.
Outro:
Are you tired of guessing your way through supplements, feeling like each choice is just another shot in the dark? Unlock your health potential at takeyoursupplements.com. Here, we don't just sell supplements; we customize wellness. Connect with a true health coach who tailors your nutritional path based on your unique health goals and challenges. From fatigue to vitality, from confusion to clarity. Start your transformation today. Visit takeyoursupplements.com and discover how feeling amazing is just one free consultation away. That's takeyoursupplements.com.
Get Connected with Ashley James
Check Out My Latest Book: Addicted To Wellness
https://www.learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness
Get The Minerals Your Body Needs: TakeYourSupplements.com
https://takeyoursupplements.com
Dr. Glenn Livingston's Free Book Defeat Your Cravings:
https://www.learntruehealth.com/defeatyourcravings
Check out Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson's Free Masterclass:
brightlineeating.com
https://learntruehealth.com/achieve-peace-over-food-with-neuroscience
Susan Peirce Thompson, Ph.D. is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester and a renowned expert in the psychology of eating. She is President of the Institute for Sustainable Weight Loss and the founder of the worldwide Bright Line Eating movement. Her first two books, "Bright Line Eating: The Science of Living Happy, Thin, and Free," became New York Times bestsellers and instant Hay House favorites. Her work weaves the neuroscience of food addiction with powerful insights from Positive Psychology, IFS, and 12-step Recovery to outline a roadmap for achieving true integrity and self-authorship around food. The Bright Line Eating mission is to help one million people around the globe discover lasting food freedom and have their "Bright Transformations" by 2025.
Join us for an enlightening journey with Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson as we explore the intricacies of overcoming food addiction and achieving wellness. This episode provides a wealth of insights and practical tools to help you gain control over eating habits and cultivate a healthier relationship with food. We discuss the concept of Bright Line Eating, a program that emphasizes clear, unambiguous rules to resist temptation and maintain a structured approach to eating. Discover how this method, inspired by Roy Baumeister's work on willpower, can help you achieve consistent results and prevent the shame spiral often associated with poor eating choices.
Highlights:
Intro:
Hello True Health Seeker, and welcome to another exciting episode of the Learn True Health podcast. I have some quick things I need to share with you in regards to this episode. So for those listeners, I do the exact same thing, so I don't blame you. For those who like to skip it, skip the intro, let's just jump into the interview. Don't do it. I'm here to share something with you.
So this episode today I actually recorded it a while ago and then Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson and her team reached out to me and asked me to hold off on publishing it because they were about to launch and they hadn't launched the membership yet, or there was something. There was something that they were going to launch with a book or something, and it kind of got put to the side and I just kept going and kept doing interviews and publishing. Then she reached out to me and said, hey, I'd love to do another interview. I was, oh well, we haven't published the first one. I've been actually really excited for a while to publish this one, and so I'm publishing this one first and then I'm going to publish the one I just did with her, which both of them are valid and they build on each other.
If you are looking for real results-based tools to overcome food cravings, food addiction, at any time where you feel you're not in control of your cravings or your eating, or if you have been struggling with weight loss and if you feel sometimes you can control food, but then there's other times where you end up getting two dinners or you kind of think back and you go geez, I actually ate multiple meals today, more than three. I had two lunches, two dinners and then a snack or some.
Food addiction shows up in different ways for different people. But if you don't feel in control and it doesn't have to be all the time but if there's some time where sometimes it's late night eating, sometimes we choose to skip meals and then we feel we're stuffing our faces late at night. So if you ever feel this lack of control or that you're constantly thinking about food and you'd feel you don't have peace around food and peace in your body and you want to get to a healthy weight and a healthy relationship with food, this episode is for you.
In addition to this episode, definitely tune in for my part two of this interview with Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson, which will be published soon, and I also want to share that I have a few other resources. This is something that I'm very open about in the show that I have for years. Been working on my relationship with food and I've come a long way actually, just editing the show today and cleaning it up in order to publish it.
I was listening to what I shared and some problems I'm still struggling with and some problems I've actually overcome even in the last few months since we had this episode. So it was really neat to hear that I have made strides and we're always growing, and sometimes it's hard to recognize how much we have grown just because we're always thinking about what we don't have. When you take an account of where you were and where you are now, you actually see how much, how far you have come, and that's something that I focus on in my book and I'd love for you to get my book. I love the title because I've been healing and growing from my own addiction brain and what I love about my book is that we harness the power of addiction in a positive way and get addicted to wellness in a good way, in a way that is sustainable and balanced and healthy and really motivating.
So my book is fun and light and super informative and you can pick it up and do it five minutes a day, ten minutes a day. I just today had a reader tell me that they picked up the book and just in the introduction it motivated them to go from walking to jogging and they increased their miles and they feel they're back on track in their fitness routine just by reading the introduction. They found it so rewiring for their mindset and that's so cool. It's exactly what I intended.
So definitely check out my book, learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness because as we're working on reframing and restoring the negative addictions, we can also build positive ones, ones that get you jumping out of bed, going, man, I am craving that walk or that swim or that bike ride, or I'm craving that green smoothie, or I'm craving my mental wellness and the things I do for my emotional, mental, spiritual or physical wellness.
That's such a positive mindset to move towards and focus on what you want versus constantly battling what you don't want. That's the thing we kind of get bogged down into when we're learning to heal from addiction. We focus on a lot of what we don't want. I don't want to be tired, I don't want to be cranky, I don't want to be craving, I don't want to be constantly saying no, I don't want to. I wish I could just have peace, , I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't. So anyone who is looking to work on addiction or has been working on addiction, you'll find that it just kind of gets exhausting and we tend to really beat ourselves up and when you get my book, Addicted to Wellness, it's so much positive reinforcement, but not that sickly sweet, just kind of sugarcoating a mud pie. It's legit getting deep inside yourself and realigning your focus to be on what you want and moving towards what you want and then having these small wins that really build momentum and get great dopamine hits from those small wins. So check out my book. I'd love to actually hear what you think of it as you go through it. Please feel free to reach out to me. You can email me ashley@learntruehealth.com. You can also come to the Facebook group Learn True Health Facebook group. You can also leave me a five-star review on Amazon. I will totally read that and to get the book you can go to learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness.
There's another book I really want you to know about and it's free, one of my favorite guests of all time, Dr. Glenn Livingston. He also teaches overcoming food cravings and food addiction in a slightly different way, but it's interesting how there's crossover between Dr. Glenn Livingston and today's guest and yet I think it's really a good idea to learn from both of them. So you're going to get the message on a deeper level and I feel that they really complement each other. You can check out his free book called Defeat your Cravings and it is a great book. It's a workbook. There's no space in the book to fill out anything, but you can have a journal beside you as you read it and you could even just be reading it on your phone, digitally, and you could go to learntruehealth.com/defeatyourcravings to get that free book.
I love his interviews. We've had him on the show several times. I've been on his show, so that's Dr. Glenn Livingston, and I have several other episodes with different guests touching on this subject of ending food addiction and healing that part of us. But it is the ongoing process where we're building our strengths and I love that all the guests that I've had give us different tools that fill this wonderful tool belt. So you can go to learntruehealth.com and type in addiction or you can type in food addiction and you'll see a lot of episodes pop up. Chef AJ is one of my wonderful guests where she shares her story of overcoming and what she did to get there and what she teaches. She teaches a way of cooking and eating for those who have food addiction. So all those guests I feel complement this picture and Dr. Susan Pierce Thompson, coming from the neuroscience background, has figured out a way that gets such great results. You're going to love today's interview and be sure, obviously, to keep listening. Make sure you're subscribed and getting notifications so when my next episode comes out with her with the updates that you will have it. Enjoy today's interview. Please share it with those that you know want to have inner peace when it comes to their relationship with food and their relationship with their body.
Ashley James (0:08:56.892)
Welcome to the Learn True Health Podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James. This is episode 524. I am so excited for today's guest. We're handling a topic today that most of at least America, most modern countries are struggling with this problem. So pretty much you throw a rock, you're going to hit someone who's going to want to hear what our guest has today.
Reading about everything you do, and especially the research, I got to tell you there's a part of me that's like, this really sounds too good to be true. So I can't wait for you to show us that it actually is true and how amazing it is the work that you're doing.
Dr. Susan Pierce Thompson, welcome to the show. Now you have a PhD and you're a professor and you're a researcher. I want to dive in. What is this amazing thing that you have created that is going to help impact over a million lives?
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (0:10:06.525)
Yes, Ashley, thanks, it's so great to be with you. It's called Bright Line Eating, and it's an approach to food and eating and life that it's pretty radical, it's pretty unusual, and I basically take everything you ever heard about how to lose weight and I turn it on its head, which if you just think about it even superficially makes so much sense because if you look out there, half of Americans are trying to get their eating in check and lose wait. Obesity keeps climbing unchecked and just climbing and climbing, and climbing, with a ferocity that's just horrifying and our collective solution to it is, let's normalize bigger bodies, and just stop hating ourselves and fat shaming each other but really the problem is bad, health-wise, mobility-wise and nothing is working, nothing is working. People are trying all kinds of things and nothing is working. I've just got a very different approach and the research shows it's phenomenally effective. So, yes, I look forward to talking about it with you, and I know you go deep in these, in these episodes. So, yes, yes, exactly, here we go.
Ashley James (0:11:24.969)
Yes, well, let's start by understanding a bit more about you and how you and so are you the inventor of bright line eating? Did you name it?
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (0:11:34.414)
Yes. Well, I mean, I don't know what your spiritual beliefs are, but it felt to me like it named itself. I don't know if God named it or whatever. I was in my morning meditation, 18, 19 years now. I've been meditating for 30 minutes every morning, and I was meditating on January 26th, 2014 and suddenly, a booming, clear mandate, was it just filled my meditation, write a book called Bright Line Eating, and I'd never heard the words in that order before. I don't think anyone had.
I knew what they meant, though, because I had been reading a book recently before that called Willpower, by Roy Baumeister, who's a very venerated psychologist just a really well-published, well-cited psychologist and he wrote this book called Willpower, and toward the end of the book, there was a chapter on using bright lines to resist temptation. So he was talking about Eric Clapton and sobriety and a bright line for alcohol. So a bright line is a legal term. It's a clear, unambiguous rule that you just don't cross. It's a standard that you apply consistently to get consistent and reliable results. So, in the temptation domain, if you're going to be the designated driver, you'll be better off that night saying I'm not going to drink any alcohol. That's a bright line. As opposed to gee golly shucks. I'll be sure to drink moderately tonight, which is a very fuzzy line and you never really know if you've crossed it , and so you could end up getting in trouble with the I'll be sure to drink moderately approach.
Ashley James (0:13:18.461)
Yes, so after dinner I brush my teeth and floss and then, three hours later, if I'm hungry, I say, nope, I brushed my teeth. I'm not eating anymore because I'd rather go to bed on an empty stomach and actually let myself sleep, and I feel so much better the next day than if I go, well, I can brush my teeth again. I'm going to go back downstairs and go to the kitchen and fix up a 9pm second dinner.
Then the next day I feel UGH, it could be a super healthy meal, it could be, I'm going to go down and make a salad, whatever it is. I'm still digesting. When I go to bed, my body doesn't go into that deep, deep healing mode and restorative mode. So then the next morning I just feel it yes.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (0:14:08.203)
So you have a bright line.
Ashley James (0:14:09.928)
I have a bright line, I brush my teeth, I floss. Because flossing is a real pain in the butt, but also having to get, I mean, thank God I'm knocking on many items that I think are made of wood now. I've never had a dental procedure, like drilling deep into a tooth and root canal. I saw my husband get a root canal and that cured me of never flossing. That is my bright line now I will floss because I saw a root canal. You should just go on YouTube and watch a root canal. You will floss twice a day.
Then I say to myself I brushed my teeth, I spent the 15, 20 minutes it takes to floss and now I am not eating, after 6 or 7 PM and that's really helped me. The next day I feel better about myself. I woke up. I have more energy because, when I wake up, feeling gross because I ate late in the night, I beat myself up and that self talk, and then you want to go and eat things that are not as good for you to make you feel better. That little kid in you wants to go and and put your hand in the cookie jar to self soothe from all the negative self talk about the bad day you had before. So, yes, crazy spiral.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (0:15:35.115)
It's a shame spiral, yes, and then you eat more to assuage that shame and comfort yourself and numb it out. Yes, I think that's a cycle that a lot of people get in with their eating. I also noticed that if I eat later into the evening, I don't sleep as well. My aura ring tells me. So I wear an aura ring and I like it. My stats aren't good and my brain will say, did something disturb your sleep last night? My heart rate will be up and it'll gradually come down over the night. But it takes hours for it to come down.
I like to eat my dinner pretty early, I eat around five usually, sometimes six. Life gets lifey and sometimes I eat later. I don't care particularly, but I will notice I never eat after dinner. I'm like you. I eat three meals a day with nothing in between. So meals are a bright line. The four bright lines, just so people know, are sugar, flour, meals and quantities and quantities so that you eat enough. Actually a lot of people if they're trying to clean up their eating they make the mistake of way undereating, and that's terrible. I help people lose weight, but I make sure that they eat enough, and enough of the food. So I actually advocate a digital food scale, believe it or not, and I think I'm crazy, but, oh my gosh, look at the people, the bodybuilders and stuff people whose physiques are noteworthy. They're all weighing their food. I promise you. It's so easy to get off track, unless you're pretty clear. So, yes, those are the bright lines, but, I came real, if you asked about how I came to all this, and it really goes way back before that moment in 2014. That was the birth of Bright Line Eating, but there was a lot that came to that point, so we probably should go back.
Ashley James (0:17:27.093)
Yes, let's go all the way back. Well, you have a PhD, let's go. Let's go all the way back. What motivated you? What happened in your life that made you want to go down this road through education and research?
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (0:17:38.899)
I was into school as a kid. I had dreams when I was a kid of visions of going to Harvard and so forth, but what happened was I went off the track when I was a teenager by getting into drugs. I like drugs because Iike to party and Iike to experiment, and my first drugs were psychedelics and I had a great, mind opening, incredible experience that way. But I also drugs because they would keep my weight off and solve my eating problem, which I already had. I already had a very addictive relationship with food as a kid and I didn't think of it in those terms, but absolutely I was addicted to sugar as a kid and eating in general. I weighed more when I was 11 than I weigh now and I started to get concerned about it in high school. So I started doing drugs and the drugs escalated.
So by the time I was 16, I was addicted to crystal meth and that resulted in me dropping out of high school. Yes, a lot of drug induced psychosis, like real schizophrenia, real intense psychiatric issues. I stopped crystal meth, thank God that's the devil's drug right there. It's really really nasty stuff and I never went back to it. But then I just got into cocaine, and then freebasing, and then crack cocaine, and so by the time I was 19, I was a high paid call girl prostitute and I was smoking up the proceeds in the crack house regularly, just smoking away my life. I hadn't been in school in years and I was pretty far from a PhD in anything. I hadn't even graduated high school.
So I had a moment of clarity in the crack house on August 9th 1994. I had my head shaved, Sinead O'Connor buzzed short and I had a blonde wig on my head and it was a Tuesday morning actually I'd been there in the crack house smoking crack all weekend long, and now it was Tuesday morning. So I'd been up awake for days, smoking and I just had this moment where suddenly I came to consciousness. I'd been awake, but I wasn't conscious, really, not really. I wasn't aware and I came to awareness and suddenly I just looked around. I was in San Francisco, where I'm from, and I was in this seedy, pay by the hour or day or week or month type hotel, just really a nasty place. It wasn't my room, it was this guy, Joe Brown's room, and there was a couple kicking heroin over to my side. They were twitching, like a fish on the deck of a boat. They were just flopping out from heroin withdrawal and there was still more crack rock on the table. So it wasn't that we were out of drugs or anything like that. I was paying for it for everybody like we had. I had a lot of money in that, we had a lot of drugs and my consciousness opened up into a clear awareness of who I was and what I was doing and what my life had become and it felt like such a creeping non-choice.
My life had just kind of gone that way. I think the drugs just gradually took over more and more of my life and I didn't really choose in the way we typically think of choices. I didn't really choose to end up there, it was just sort of, there I was and anyway, what happened was, I got the gift of a deep knowing that if I didn't get up and get out of there that second, that is all my life would ever be. I would just go through cycles of addiction and drug use and prostitution and that was going to be the rest of my life. Not that I would die, but there's that I would keep living that and try to quit and go back to it. I just knew if I didn't get up and get out of there then that was it for me and I just grabbed my jacket and I walked out the door. The thing about addiction is it's so pernicious, and I didn't have any tools for recovering. But I now believe in a very benevolent, higher power, mysterious force of the universe. I don't know how it works or what to call it or whatever.
But by a fluke that night or by a miracle, depending on your point of view that night I had a date, a first date, with this super cute guy that I'd met at a gas station at three in the morning a few nights prior and he took me to a 12-step meeting for drug and alcohol recovery that night on our first date. I'm not kidding, this guy was a sex addict. He was four years, clean and sober, and he knew I was a call girl. He used to drive as a chauffeur for a call girl and so that's. He saw my pager and he knew what I was up to. So he was a sex addict. He wanted to go out with me and he took me to this meeting and I'd never been to such a thing before. But I got a 24-hour coin because at that time I was 28 hours off the crack pipe and I've been clean and sober since that day, so I haven't had a drink or a drug in 27 years, thank you God. What happened then actually was I just got really fat really fast, I just my addiction, just hopscotch to food and before I knew it I was hitting Taco Bell and 7-11 for pints of ice cream and Safeway for boxes of pasta and English muffins and candy bars and I just ate my way into obesity by my mid 20s.
Meanwhile, I dove into academia. So I went to San Jose City College and crushed it there and transferred to UC Berkeley and crushed it there. 4.0 spoke at the graduation and I majored in Cognitive Science because I wanted to study the mind and the brain and I yes, I wanted to learn what was up with my brain, how my brain took me so far off the rails. So when I finished at UC Berkeley, I got into every graduate school I applied to. I wasn't done. I was still fascinated by the mind and the brain and I got into every PhD program I applied to and I ended up with a PhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences in one of the top schools in the world, with a PhD in brain and cognitive sciences in one of the top schools in the world.
I did a postdoc in psychology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, for two years, and then I came back to the States and I was a psychology professor for 16 years and I taught a course. I became an expert in the neuroscience of addiction, and food addiction in particular, and for many, many, many years I taught a course on the psychology of eating and the neuroscience of food addiction. I lost my excess weight and finally, started my real food addiction recovery journey when I was 28, right on as I was graduating from finishing my PhD and moving to Australia for the postdoc right at that juncture is when I lost my weight, I was 28. So I've been in a slender, right-sized body for me. I have no judgment about what size anyone else wants to be, but for me I had a lot of weight to lose to be in a body that felt right -sized for me.
I've been in a in a right-size body, or I’d like to call it a bright body, for 18 years now and I published studies and I help people lose their excess weight and I teach people about the neuroscience of food addiction and then when my morning meditation, when God said, or the universe said, or I thought, whatever it was, however, the idea came to write a book called Bright Line Eating. That started the Bright Line Eating movement and since then I think 1.8 million people have joined the Bright Line Eating email list and we have a membership where people join and the program, the success plan, just guides them on their journey. It's brilliant, it's really effective. So there, that's the story.
Ashley James (0:26:09.398)
I was crying through part of that. I don't know if you could hear me.
Here it’s like, oh, we have this PhD. She’s like, okay, I was a crack whore.
I love you, I love you. Okay, I went to this clinic with these three different naturopaths and one was maybe 30 pounds overweight, had a bunch of tattoos, dyed hair and she was super fun, she was dressed, super fun, and she kind of got the most clients. Then there was one that was a bombshell. She's a size zero. She's an athlete. There's not an ounce of fat on her, she's perfect, she dresses perfect, she looks perfect and all three of them were highly qualified doctors but she'd get the least amount of clients.
Then our doctor was kind of in the middle. She was kind of in the middle between the two of them and we talked about this dynamic and what “in the middle”, she told us, it's really interesting, but the reason why women would gravitate towards the woman that was had the tats and was a little heavyset I mean not unhealthy by any means, she was still within the range of healthy, because she was tall and she was muscular, but she wasn't the petite athlete, which is what we perceive as the healthiest. The women wanted to work with her because they wouldn't feel judged and they'd feel that they were understood, because they're working with someone who understands them and who's struggled and or been through the ringer, and she's lost 50 pounds and kept it off. That's the doctor that they wanted to work with, more than the doctor who's never been fat never, never looked to have ever struggled with a body issue, and what's funny is that the skinny one was, I worked my ass off, I got up at 5:38. I spend 90 minutes in the gym, I prepare all my food. I work so hard. I've worked so hard my entire life to maintain this, but she looks like on the outside that she's never struggled, and so it's just interesting that from the outside, oh, this PhD, what's this PhD who is so uppity in the world of education? What's she know about my struggle, and here you are, I've been there and your struggles have probably been worse than the average listener, and so, now we can really relate . Gosh, I hope so. I mean now we can really really relate. Now we're like, okay, now she knows my struggle. If I struggle with cookie addiction here, you've had every street drug I'm like okay, I can listen to her. Your struggle gives you credibility.
What really hit me was just yesterday I was listening to I don't know if Jacob Israel on YouTube. My husband turned me on to his really interesting Christian perspective. He's kind of if you were into conspiracy theories, research, looking for signs and Christianity and he pulls things and gives really interesting perspectives in a beautiful way, like very heartfelt messages. But he said something yesterday and it really struck me as you were talking. He says your low point, the lowest point, if someone who's listening is struggling and at their really low point. You have to remember that is your testimonial, because some people are suicidal and in this last year and a half I've been through one of my lowest points in my life.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (0:29:47.533)
Yes, I think a lot of us have. The last couple of years have been hard.
Ashley James (0:29:51.539)
I lost my daughter during childbirth and she died. She died four minutes before she was born and I got to hold her for hours. The medical examiner came and was going to take her away and I'm like, nope, I got to hold her for hours and hours and I can still feel her and hold her in my arms and she'd be 15 months old now.
So in this last year, I gained 40 pounds with struggling with the hurt and working through it. I'm working through it. Then, since about March, I've lost, I think, 11 or 12 of those 40 pounds. So I'm on my way back down and I'm being intentional and making that bright line, brushing my teeth and then saying, nope, no more food. Because at night, when things are quiet, that's when the emotions kick in. I've just and I've noticed this with my clients as well, but that's really when we do most of our comfort eating because during the day, I can not eat all day long. I get super busy. I'm a crazy busy mom and then it's at night that it's where we can eat three dinners through the course of four hours .
So, yes, when he said your lowest points are testimonies you have to remember, for those who are struggling or maybe in your future struggles, when you're at your lowest point, you can't see a bright future, you can't. So when you were in that crack house or whatever you were in that moment, those low points, that's your testimonial to the people now that you're helping, so that for me like, I'm coming out of my low point, I can help people. I can help people because I can share where I've been and where I am now. Look, we're going to have a bright future. You just have to know that. Your testimonials now, so rise up.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (0:31:53.573)
Yes, I love that. It's so important. I think it's the 12 step model of like you tell the story of going down and hitting bottom, and it's not just a story of, like you said, perfection, and look at me, I'm perfect. It's really struggling profoundly with something, hurting yourself, falling down again and again and again and then triumphing. It's the transformation journey, the point where things change and then you're heading back in a positive direction. I feel it's really what people need to hear is that people suffer. Life is difficult. I think that's the first line of M. Scott Peck's amazing book, The Road Less Traveled. Life is difficult. Period.
I think you're so right about that people and what we struggle most with is where our medicine is for others. It's that special medicine that's given only to those who've experienced that same difficulty in all its tragic fullness. Those are the ones that have the medicine for others, because you can't relate to someone who's never had that particular struggle. I have three children. I have never lost a child and so I don't have that medicine in that way for what you've been through. I had twins who were born at one pound and I went through one pound each and I went through four months in the NICU, with one of them almost dying all the time from health complications due to that prematurity, and so I have experience for someone who's going through that of okay, I know what it's to to show up in the NICU every day and stare at your baby through a little glass box, and so I'm so with you. I so agree.
Ashley James (0:33:50.914)
Mary Lou Henner, I don't know if you know her. She's this iconic red headed actress. She was in Taxi. She has a photographic memory. She actually has not only photographic memory. She can remember the date. Let's say, you met her 19 years ago. She'll tell you the date and the time, what you were wearing, where you met, the weather, what was in the news with the headlines. It's crazy! But I've actually spent some time with her, a few times, and she has this great story which, I'll sum it up, is choose your heart. No matter what you're going to do, it's hard. It's hard to like going out and eating junk food is hard, it's the instant gratification, but then, the next day, I feel poopy and that's that's hard, and then I beat myself up and so it's, choosing the foods that you're addicted to is hard, just like choosing the drugs.
Going out and buying drugs and alcohol and getting sloshed, that's hard. You're choosing instant gratification, but you're hurting yourself, so that's hard. Choosing not to do it, that's hard. So she goes, it's going to be hard. All your choices are hard. Choose your hard. Be cognizant of choosing the hard that's going to lead you down the path you want to go and that there's so much more reward and internal satisfaction when we choose our heart.
Your program, which I want to get into the research because you could say you cure everything, but the proof's in the pudding. Prove it to me. What is it, Missouri? The Show-Me State? Prove it to me. But first I want to talk about this idea that people have lasting results. Anyone can lose weight on the grapefruit diet. Anyone can lose weight on the “I only eat three pieces of cheese a day”, I don't know, whatever but that's not lasting, that's not sustainable, and that's not healthy. Most of the diets out there are not healthy or sustainable. But your program is designed to help people get to a point where they have lasting results. So why is your program different from every other diet out there?
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (0:36:13.087)
Yes, great question. It's different in some pretty major ways, major ways. So first of all, we educate people about addiction and I just need to say food addiction is real. You'll hear out there that it's controversial, blah, blah, blah. It's really not to neuroscientists who study addiction in the brain, you can just hold the brain scans up. Here's the brain that's been eating too much processed food. Here's the brain that's addicted to heroin. Here's the brain that's addicted to cocaine. Here's the brain that's addicted to alcohol. It's the same. It's dopamine downregulation in the nucleus accumbens. So when you eat things like donuts, for example, what happens is too much dopamine floods into the brain and the receptors thin out, they down-regulate, they get less numerous, less responsive, and then you have to keep eating like that in order to feel normal, just in order to get through the day without your skin crawling.
So I teach people about addiction and the reality is actually not everyone is susceptible to addiction even at all. One third of people and one third of rats, one third of mammals in general are not susceptible to addiction, meaning they won't even get addicted to heroin. You can inject them with heroin over and over again, you can send them home after back surgery with opiate prescription pills and they won't have any trouble weaning off as soon as the pain is gone. Then other people get hooked. So one third of people are highly susceptible to addiction. Addictions of all kinds. One third are moderately susceptible and one third are not susceptible.
I teach people about food addiction, which is the same, it follows the same profile. So I have a quiz people can take on a scale from 1 to 10. It tells them how susceptible they are to the pull of these addictive foods. I'm a 10, God bless me. You might have guessed that already. But if you're higher on that scale, from 1 to 10, if you're up there on that scale, you're going to need a different approach. What you'll find is that when these people actually, that they eat one bite of dessert and they put their fork down or their spoon down and they're, oh, they just savor it. They're like that, hit the spot, that's all I need. I kind of my head cocks to the side like a dog and I'm just like, what, because for me I need to eat the whole thing and then some. The one bite of dessert experiment, it never works for me. It does not hit the spot.
Ashley James (0:38:57.621)
Does it open up a gateway where let’s say you're at a restaurant, you have a little dessert, and then you go home and now you're making dessert because you don't have anything in the cupboard. So now you're like, because I don't keep junk food in the house, so I've invented. I'm going to take a banana and I’m going to microwave it or heat it or whatever. Then I’m going to put some peanut butter on it. I have these sugar-free chocolate nibs, like the ones that I use when I bake for my son. I’m going to put that in it. Now you put maple syrup on it. Now I’m going to microwave it. I just take a bunch of pseudo healthy things and I’m like, I have to make a dessert.
Well, I used to be addicted to sugar until I did a massive sugar fast. I would read labels. I wouldn't even buy a hot sauce if it had sugar in it and it was about 30 or so days. Then I noticed the draw wasn't there for me anymore and now I can do the one taste.
I used to be the, I have to eat the whole thing and then some, and now I can have one taste and be okay. But if there was a piece of cake and I had one taste, I told myself I'm just going to have a taste and I had a taste, and if it got taken away I'd be okay, it's not in my eyesight, but if it kept sitting there, 20, 15 minutes later, I'd be okay, now I have to have another bite. But I noticed that my need, that urge, has almost gone away, a hundred percent, whereas it used to be. I used to be a 10 out of 10 for needing sugar, and now I could take it or leave it. It's weird. So I feel I've almost healed that part of my brain. Can you do that? Can someone recover to the point where these substances, no longer are a draw to them?
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (0:40:40.713)
Yes, great question. So the way it works, Ashley, is that yes and no, or yes with an asterisk. So when you take the quiz so you go to foodaddictionquiz.com, you'll notice the instructions say I want you to think back to a time in your life when your eating was at its worst not a day, but a stretch of time, a few weeks or whatever, and I want you to answer the questions as if it were that time, and so you would maybe test out as a 10. But you could take the quiz again as you are today and you might test out as a six or something, and so that would measure the degree of healing. But here's the thing, they say, once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.
It is true, once a food addict, always a food addict. What that means is you will always have to be more vigilant than someone who never had the issue to begin with. For example, not keeping a cake in the house, because if it's there, you're going to eat it and then eat some more, and then you're going to rewire your brain before you know it for that pattern. So the way it works in the brain is that behaviors and addictions wire up slowly over time with neural energy. It's electricity and it forms fiber tracks in the brain, so it wires up the brain kind of like the electricity is water flowing over dry land and it's grooving a riverbed in the brain. So like the water flows and eventually it grooves a river and it can be the Grand Canyon. It can groove a massive swath of land away. Now, if you dam the water upstream, you can dry out the riverbed absolutely and not have any activity flowing through that old pattern at all anymore. But what happens is the dry riverbed is still there. So if you let water through, it doesn't take hardly any time at all to clear away whatever bushes or grasses have grown up and before you know it you have a Russian river again. So you need to be careful. There's a lot of lines of research that show this, that the brain remembers, and so you're going to have to be more vigilant.
But recovery is absolutely possible and I live in the world right now, someone who has no food issue at all, I just have to follow a few simple rules to keep like the rules of the sort of I don't eat after dinner, I don't keep cake in the house, things like that, my bright lines. I follow my bright lines and I have utter freedom. I have three kids. I serve cupcakes and cake at my kid's birthday party and, Sir, I'll cut the cake, I'll get frosting on my hands and it’s like I have paint on my hands.
I don't have any urge to lick my fingers. I go to the sink, I wash it off, no issue at all, and it looks like plastic to me. I don't have any draw toward it, but that's because I follow my bright lines. If I started to get involved again in a world where I ate cake and ice cream, I would be absolutely obsessed by it.
Ashley James (0:44:02.146)
Now, something you pointed out earlier is that if we give up a substance. I'm just going to say substance, because it could be alcohol, drugs or food or pornography or sex or whatever.
If we give up the substance that we're addicted to. Oftentimes people trade it for another substance and they don't realize it, because it's socially acceptable for an alcoholic to then start eating donuts every day. Every alcoholic who's clean and sober I have known, is incredibly addicted to baked goods and sugar. This one man who was the boyfriend I had 20 plus years ago was a super, super nice dad, and he was always surrounded by halloween candy. It was January, how do you have Halloween candy? It’s August, how do you have Halloween candy?
He'd buy enough Halloween candy to last him a whole year and he'd be surrounded by at least those giant bags of Halloween candy. He'd have at least two of them right by the couch and he'd always be sitting on the couch watching some kind of sports. He was a really sweet man. He'd smoked like a chimney. He was a destructive alcoholic, abusive, destructive alcoholic. He gave it up because he realized he was destroying his family's life and his life and he never drank another drop until the day he died. But every day he did copious amounts of caffeine, sugar and cigarettes, and so these other substances, just, from the neuroscience standpoint. He was still running the same program, just choosing different substances that were destroying his body in a slightly different way. It wasn't destroying his life because he was sober, but even when you're on that much sugar, you're not actually sober, you don't truly have control of your brain.
I had Dr Joan Ifland on the show, who talks about processed food addiction. What I thought was really interesting is that she talked about when we're in addiction, maybe you can elaborate on this, people have characteristics and they don't realize it. I'll just speak to me, let's say when I have PMS and I'm snapping at my family. I feel normal. There's nothing wrong with me, but all of you are suddenly pushing my buttons and incredibly irritable, you're irritating, all of you people are irritating me. Then a few days later, I’m oh okay, I was the one that was hypersensitive and everyone was acting normal.
People who are within addiction get quick to anger, quick to blow a fuse, and it could be just that they have traded alcohol for sugar and now they're sober from alcohol, but they're still running the same neural programs of addiction. They're still chasing the dopamine having these highs and lows of dopamine, and they're still highly irritable, short fused with anger. That's what I grew up with. My parents, my mom especially, was incredibly short fused and so I grew up in a household where there was addiction, they were sober, but she'd be addicted to the weirdest things like red jujubes and then she'd come home and have some alcohol, but it was never to the point of slurred speech or anything like that, but she'd have red jujubes all the time, and my dad definitely had food addiction. So the two of them I'd see their personalities and the amount of quick to anger, quick to being irritable, snapping, so there's an experience that your family has around you when you're in that addiction brain.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (0:48:00.560)
Yes, well, what you're talking about is cross addiction and it's a very real thing. I mean the dopamine receptors.They want their excess dopamine and they can get it from drugs or alcohol or food or pornography or gambling or any number of things. I think a lot of people, like you say, quit alcohol and they go to sugar. I mean, if you think of the molecular composition there, what's alcohol made out of but sugar and grain really so the sugar and flour of baked goods is very molecularly similar. In the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous it even says a lot of us have found that some sugar will do the trick if you're having an alcohol craving, and so that's encouraged.
For some people, depending on how bad their alcoholism is, that can be a harm reduction approach. I'll just eat sugar. But you’re very right that it's triggering the same receptors and, yes, they want their hit from somewhere. I've been in recovery now for 27 years and the reality is that recovery is real and it's a long, slow process. Those receptors will heal faster if you don't deluge them with anything. If you don't drink caffeine, if you don't smoke cigarettes, if you don't eat sugar and you don't get into relationships with a bunch of infatuation, and new relationship energy hitting those receptors, that'll do it too. You don't watch pornography. But I certainly haven't managed to do that and I don't know very many people who have. But over time you can kind of step yourself down and wean yourself off. I'm in a place today where I am mercifully free from all addictions. I don't smoke cigarettes. I don't drink caffeine. I'm just in a state of freedom, but I'm not always there. Sometimes I'll be back on caffeine.
My God, a few years ago I started smoking cigarettes again. I was outside a meeting and there were all these young, good looking people in a circle smoking a cigarette and I just bummed a cigarette. God bless me. I have three kids at home. My husband hates cigarette smoke and suddenly I had to buy a pack after that meeting and I smoked up most of that pack within the next 24 hours, I'd smoked up that pack. It felt like I wanted to puke. Now I was in a state where I was sneaking out of the house to smoke cigarettes and to get back in the house.
I had to sneak in the house, strip down my clothes, throw them into the washing machine, go into the bathroom, get into the shower, wash my hair, brush my teeth, just to emerge to see my family, and I would do that multiple times a day and my life got so unmanageable. Then I'm out in the middle of the night smoking cigarettes in the snow, snowflakes falling on my head and I'm smoking eight cigarettes and then going back in and showering and washing my clothes, and then I quit. Here's the kicker, Ashley. I quit a few weeks and a month or two off cigarettes, free, mercifully and then I'm outside a meeting and I bum another cigarette and I went through that cycle four or five times over a year or two. I finally quit for what I hope, god willing, will be the last time, on April 7th of 2018. So over four years now without a cigarette, merciful, so grateful.
Ashley James (0:51:43.712)
What kind of bright line could you create to not hang out outside of your meetings and bum cigarettes?
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (0:51:49.924)
No, no, not a puff of a drag of a cigarette. None. The bright line is no cigarettes. So meetings are important and healthy and I still go to them, but no cigarettes. I read a book, I think it's Alan Carr's, The Easy Way to Stop Smoking, I think, and it really really helped me psychologically to just remember that what a drag of a cigarette does is it predisposes you to need the next puff of a cigarette, that there's nothing relaxing about it. Cigarette people who smoke cigarettes are more anxious, more agitated, all it does is make you need the next cigarette. So the part of me that looks at people smoking and thinking, oh, they have it good, they're just hanging out and smoking I think, no, no, no, they're tortured, they're going to leave that social circle and need another cigarette and another one and another one. I'm the one who's free. Thank God I'm free. That switch helps me.
Ashley James (0:52:41.120)
If you look into how they used PR to transform smoking from being back in the golden era of Hollywood when everything was black and white. It was Edward Bernays and he's fascinating. People should definitely watch documentaries on Edward Bernays. I believe he was the nephew of Sigmund Freud. Don't quote me on that. I think he was related somehow, maybe a cousin of Sigmund Freud, but Edward Bernays, he is the modern father of PR and back I don't know, maybe it was the 40s somewhere, this is before I was born. So this was back in black and white everything, and they don't have TVs yet.
Only the bad guys would smoke. So you go to the movies, it would be a Western and the bad guy, the bad guys with guns, chasing down the other cowboys with the Indians and all that stuff. The bad guys would be the ones smoking and I don't know, maybe the Indians would have peace pipes or something in the movies, but it was always this macho bad guy thing. Or maybe there'd be a movie about these car racers and it would always be just these cool bad guys, and so men were, oh, it's this macho thing. Women were, ew, I don't know, I'm not going to smoke. That's manly, that's gross. Edward Bernays was hired because the tobacco industry realized they were pretty much missing out on half of the population. The women wouldn't smoke. Then what he did was he linked smoking to the women's freedom movement. You are free because women, they didn't have careers.
You could be a teacher, you could be a nurse, or you could be a homemaker, you could be a secretary, but yes, but until you have kids, then you have to be a homemaker and so, he linked it to you are free, you're a woman, hear me roar, you're so sexy, you're like Marilyn Monroe, you're so sexy, sexy women.
So in Hollywood, all of a sudden, all the sexy women who are free and jet setting and shaving their legs was a new thing, because women didn't shave their legs either and the razor companies wanted to literally double their sales. So all of a sudden they made women look like they were prepubescent by shaving their legs. Women never shaved their legs before that and they got to double their sales of razors, double the sales of cigarettes. Because they tricked, they brainwashed an entire civilization into thinking these were sexy ideals. But if you go a few years before, just a few years before, women had hairy legs and that was considered sexy, hairy armpits, that was normal and sexy. Women didn't smoke. I mean, this was in America. I'm sure women smoked in Europe, but it was just in our culture.
Because I don't drink alcohol and it's not because I was ever an alcoholic. I've never really done it. I was a bartender and taking care of drunk people just really turned me off alcohol. I mean, I was a bartender. I can appreciate a good drink, but I don't like it. This is nothing about alcohol. When I'm on vacation, I go to the bar or like you're at a restaurant or whatever and there's a bar there, I'll look at the pretty shiny bottles, and then I'll look at the menu and there's these fun looking drinks and I'm almost glamorized by the PR of alcohol. You're going to look cooler, you're going to feel cooler, you're going to be one of the hips. You're going to be in.
This is what's going to make you one of the cool kids, and I'm almost glamorized by the PR of alcohol and I snap out of it and I go, well, that's gross, it's not good for my liver. I start listing off this as my bright line. I can start listing off all the chemicals in a cigarette, all the bad things, how my body has to detox the alcohol. I could talk myself out of those things. But that little part of my brain is, ooh, that'll be fun, let's go on a bender. That doesn't sound fun to the rest of my body. But how much of addiction is influenced by the media? Like you said, I look at these cool kids smoking in a circle. I'm like, oh, that looks fun. That's the marketing you grew up with.
You don't realize it, but when you were a kid, the shows you watched had all the cool kids smoking. The movies you watched, I mean, when I watch old stuff with our son and old movies that I used to watch when I was a kid, and all of a sudden people are smoking and I just want to turn it off because I can't believe how much smoking there was in the 80s or the 70s. And all the cool and hip kids and everything, I don't want that getting into my seven-year-old son’s brain but that's what we grew up with. How much addiction have you seen in terms of neuroscience is affected by, because it's like mirror neurons? It's controlled brainwashing by marketing.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (0:58:06.534)
It is, and Ashley, I love the cigarette analogy. Then let's think about it in terms of food, because our society is in a collective food addiction trance. We have been so conditioned by the big food industry to think of food as celebration, as fun, as entertainment, as relaxation, as self care, as indulgence, as everything that's good in life. We're under the spell. They are pouring billions of dollars into our orientation toward food in that way so that when someone moves into your neighborhood, you bake them cookies or bring them a pie or bring over some food to say welcome to the neighborhood if you're a good neighbor.
We don't think about bringing over flowers, or fresh cut flowers from our garden, or apples off our tree, or anything like that. We think of bringing over processed foods. Just think about birthday parties and what you have to serve at a birthday party, or kids menus in a restaurant. The kids' menu is absolutely the most processed food, and we've gotten to the point where now two thirds of the calories that our kids are consuming are classified as ultra processed foods. They were born in factories, made out of chemical industrial ingredients and poured into bags. Two thirds of the foods that they are eating are ultra processed, and we've got a long way to go in terms of detoxing our minds about what food is and the role that it should play.
The reality is that food isn't the best connection, celebration or entertainment. As a matter of fact, it's distracting from the real connection, like when you're just eating and they're eating, and you're eating and everybody's just face down in the food. There's less laughter, there's less eye contact, there's less genuine connection. We're just all eating together, and yet most gatherings focus around food as opposed to things that would foster real human connection. We've got a ways to go, Ashley.
If you think about the role of food in the media, and especially commercials. The addiction piece comes in around cues. The addiction reward centers of the brain focus on the cues that predict rewards, the cues that predict a hit, the sights, the sounds, the times of day, the brand name, outlets and so forth and anyone with an addictive brain is going to wire up and be drawn toward those cues and then get their hit after that. So the media giants know it, the food companies know it and they market their materials. Basically, they put people in fMRI machines to make sure that both the taste formulations and the commercials advertising their products hit the addiction centers in the brain optimally, that's what they're testing for. They know they're hooking us and they've got us by the short hairs really.
Ashley James (1:01:34.244)
I actually interviewed a food chemist. I think she helped make one of the Doritos, one of the flavors of Doritos, and she explained, because I was like, how evil are you guys, do you guys have a secret evil cackle like an evil scientist? Do you put your fingers together, you clasp your hands and put your fingers together, they go, (evil laugh), that's what I imagine they're doing, and she goes, no, none of us have that in the culture. In the lab, we all geek out on how we can make these chemicals hyper palatable. How much sodium can we pack in? How much sugar can we pack in to get that balance, like you said, to hit those dopamine receptors to absolutely do maximum damage, to do maximum addiction, iImpact, and do it in a new way, in a new flavor.
She left that industry realizing how much damage she was doing, and now she basically teaches people how bad all the processed food is, just like Edward Bernays did to smoking, cigarettes were already highly addictive, now, the chemicals that they spray on it are even worse.
My husband said something yesterday about quitting. He said quitting Marlboros is harder than any other brand. I said why, he goes, because the chemicals they use, it’s like you're not just detoxing from just tobacco, you're coming off of whatever, all the stuff they put on. They get to put chemicals in those cigarettes in addition to the tobacco. It blows my mind because they need to make them hyper, hyper addictive, as addictive as possible. Your food is the same if you buy it. You need to eat plants, not food that comes from plants. If it came from a plant. There's a room with a bunch of evil food scientists that want to make the food so crazy that it tricks your brain into needing more of it. That is sick because you said the cross addiction, let's say you get that bag of Doritos and now you've had the bag of Doritos and a few hours later now you need to come up with something to now get your dopamine up, because that jacked up your dopamine. Now it comes crashing down. Maybe it's 10 hours later, I don't know how long it would take. But now you're going to go for another substance. It's not necessarily to go for Doritos every time, but you might cross addict over to now you're going to pick up a pack of cigarettes, if you haven't smoked since college but now you're going to go get a pack of cigarettes, or you haven't had any while you have some sugar and now you're off buying some ice cream. Now the next day you're getting some alcohol. So that's the slippery slope is that when we use processed food, even if we're thinking we're using it in moderation, it is designed to mess with our brain so much that we're more likely to cross addiction into other substances.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:04:51.042)
Yes, totally, and it's interesting what you said about plants. If you think about it, heroin, cocaine, sugar and flour, they're made the same way. Think about what a drug is, what makes something a drug. Where does heroin come from, Ashley? Pop quiz. Where does heroin come from?
Ashley James (1:05:08.952)
I'm going to really get this wrong, but I think it's gasoline in the coca plant?
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:05:14.041)
No, so cocaine comes from the coca leaf.
Ashley James (1:05:18.179)
Poppies
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:05:21.622)
Yes, yes, exactly. So cocaine comes from the coca leaf, which is a bush in the Andes mountains and hikers pluck off the leaves and put them in their cheek and chew them. There's literally a published scientific paper saying it's not addictive. It does make the inside of the cheek a little numb and it gives people a little bit of a lift, maybe, like drinking half a cup of caffeinated tea or something but it's not addictive when you just chew coca leaves. However, if you take the inner essence of that plant and then refine and purify it down into a fine white powder, you've taken a harmless plant and you've turned it into a drug. It's the same with the poppies. You can eat poppy seed bagels. If you eat a few poppy seed bagels, you will fail a drug test. You will fail a drug test, but you won't get addicted, it won't harm you. But when you take the inner essence of that poppy plant and you refine and purify it into a fine brown powder, you've created heroin. This is what sugar and flour are too. I eat corn, I eat beets, I eat wheat, like wheat berries and boil them and it's like rice kind of. I eat wheat, I eat rice. But you take the inner essence of any of these plants and you refine and purify it down into a fine powder and you've created a drug out of a healthy plant. So that's what a drug is by definition. That's how we make them.
Ashley James (1:06:56.029)
We have to look at everything that goes into our body and ask ourselves, was this processed to make it more addictive? Or is this in its whole plant form? Because you could eat two to four cups of broccoli a day. I mean, besides getting a little gassy, you're going to feel great, and there's no negative impact on the brain. In fact, there's lots of positive impacts on eating, on eating vegetables. Okay, so we want to set up some bright lines in our life. Let's say not eat things that are made from flour, which is my addiction. I think right now it is pasta, and I'm gluten free, so it's brown rice pasta. It sounds so innocent, but it's made from flour and I know that is my addiction now, because when I think about cooking, I'm like okay, well, I'm going to start with the pasta and I'm like no, let's just eat brown rice and vegetables.
So I know I definitely get an addiction hit, when I get to have pasta and then when I just do the brown rice and vegetables, I don't get any hit. In the process of cooking food, I love cooking and I make these great stir-fried vegetables. I'm whole food, plant based, so I'm making these vegetable stir fries and the brown rice and everything, and my brain the whole time is telling me this isn't going to be fun.
I've got fresh ginger grated in there and I love using some stuff that makes it spicy. I like spicy food or I love curry. I put curry in there and I don't cook with oil. I'll put a little bit of broth at the beginning to saute or water, and then a spoonful of arrowroot powder at the end. It's made with stir fries but it gives a great mouthfeel and it's a prebiotic, so it's really good for the gut.
But the whole time I'm making it, my brain is telling me this isn't fun, let's go make some pasta to put with this, or this isn't fun let's go add all these other things that aren't good for you. The whole time my brain's like this isn't going to be satisfying, this isn't going to be fun. It's the addiction brain talking to me, yes, but when I sit down and actually eat it, it's delicious, I'm happy, and when I'm finished eating, I'm satisfied. Does your program address that? As you're following your bright lines, your addiction brains are doing its best to get you to break those lines. What can you do to quiet that chatter?
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:09:45.519)
Yes, great question. So, way back in this conversation you asked what's different about Bright Line Eating? So I started talking about first, we teach people about the addiction and I think we've covered that food addiction is real. Not everyone is equally affected. But now I think we've come to the point where it's like, what do you do if you are affected and you've got that brain that's trying to hijack your eating pretty much at every turn? The answer is that a structured approach to eating is going to be the road to freedom. For people who don't need it, putting a bunch of structure on their eating feels just unnecessary and if you have an addictive brain, you might really balk at making your eating structure. But when you do it you'll find that you have freedom. So, just like you said, when I actually sit down and I eat the meal, I'm satisfied and I totally enjoy it and it feels great.
So in Bright Line Eating we have a food plan and we write down our food the night before. This is a big kicker. You write down your food the night before. Now we don't do this alone, we do this in the Bright Line Eating community. There's a membership. It's just a monthly membership. It's super affordable and it's really, really effective. So you get with a group of people. Every health attempt that is done with others is way more likely to succeed. so you write down your food the night before and then you commit it. You can commit it to a buddy, you can commit it into the Bright Line Eating group community. We have mastermind groups and just different ways that people can connect up with others.
But you commit what you're going to eat and your food plan is categories and quantities. So, for example, you're plant-based and you're talking about cooking stir fry for dinner. You would have vegetables, you would have a protein in there, so you could have tofu or tempeh or beans or what have you? Nuts or whatever, and once you've lost the weight you need to lose, you would have a grain of brown rice or whatever as well, and a fat. So you could do nuts for your fat serving. You don't have to do oil or anything like that. But you've got these categories and certain quantities and that, so you would commit the night before. Actually, you'd be writing down I'm going to have 14 ounces of stir fry vegetables, I'm going to have four ounces of tofu, I'm going to have four ounces of brown rice and I'm going to have half an ounce of sesame seeds for my fat and sesame seeds are great in a stir fry, you'd have written that down the night before. What happens is, at first it feels like you could feel the parts of you really wanting to break out of that structure and balking against it.
Ashley James (1:12:43.909)
It's like an unbroken horse, an untamed horse. My brain now is like, I'm not going to do that. You can't tell me what to eat tomorrow. I want the freedom to choose. That addiction brain is giving you the middle finger now.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:13:00.629)
Totally, and that is a rebel part and usually if you have a strong rebel part of you, often that comes we get that, honestly. I don't know if you had a parent that was rather (inaudible – 1:13:13.353)
Ashley James (1:13:17.420)
Maybe you haven't listened to my episode, but I love my mother and she was nicknamed and I hope no one is offended by this and I love my mother. She passed away when I was 22. She was my best friend but she was nicknamed by other members of our family as the Nazi because she was so controlling. It was insane growing up in my household and I thought that was normal because as a kid you think your household is normal until you visit other people's households and all the other moms I'd visited. I was like, you guys are like aliens. This is so weird.
But my mom was so controlling around food. It was scary. She actually stood up in a restaurant once and screamed at me in front of everyone. It was very uncomfortable. I was 12, and I thought I made the selection. I ordered the grilled fish with a side of steamed vegetables and a side of rice, because that sounds like something you'd order in a restaurant, and that's what it came with. I just said I'll take the fish, and she stood up and yelled at me. I was athletic. I did not have an ounce of fat on me. I did sports every day when I was 12. I was incredibly fit. She was so scared I'd be overweight because that was her mental thing for herself. So she projected it onto me. Carl Jung teaches us, we project our unresolved material onto our people closest to us in our life.
I get how much pain she had in order to treat her family this way, but for a 12-year-old who's already insecure, going through puberty, she stood up and yelled at me because there was rice on my plate, and it took me years before I was comfortable with eating rice. In whole food plant-based, they're like, eat as much rice as you want, especially if it's brown rice. This is healthy for you. I'm okay, are you sure, though? Because I was told that rice was literally made by the devil.
Incredibly controlling. So it's just the fact that I'm this highly rebellious part of me, which I recognize in a lot of my friends too. So it's interesting, the pendulum swings. If our parents are really really strict with something, then we kind of swing the other direction and become really lackadaisical with our children, and then the lackadaisical children then swing the other way and become very strict with their children. So we need to heal. We really need to heal so that we are more balanced with our children. I'm consciously doing that with food around my son, because I’m constantly catching myself being my mother, who isn't when they're a parent?
But at the same time, I want him to make good food choices for himself, and so I let him have a little bit of sugar and then we talk about it. What is it doing to your body? How do you feel? He doesn’t like how he feels when he eats too much sugar, and so he chooses not to eat too much sugar because he hates feeling sick. So, yes at age seven he's got it. That took me into my 30’s to get but being conscious of it.
So the fact that you said that because I've got this rebellious thing, it's because of how I was raised I imagine a lot of listeners do as well, and that's why I am so vulnerable on the show, sharing my what I go through, because I want I want you to be able to to come out and share how this works and how we can heal, because I know the listeners are going through the same or something similar.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:16:49.821)
Totally, and this is probably a good place to mention that in Bright Line Eating we do our inner work on this stuff we eat over. There are reasons we eat. We're eating often as a coping strategy to handle emotions and life, and we do something called internal family systems work. So I don't know if you've heard of IFS, Ashley?
Ashley James (1:17:13.295)
I've heard of it, but I don't know much about it, so please go on.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:17:18.099)
Yes, so it's often called parts work. So the idea here is that we have parts of us. We're not just one unified consciousness with one unified desire and one unified way of reacting to the world. We have a highest self, our authentic self, which is we know we're operating from that place.
They call it the eight C's when we're calm and clear and compassionate and confident and connected and curious and courageous and creative, that's when we're in our authentic self. When we're anything other than that, calm, clear, connected, compassionate place when we're anything else, we're in a part of us. So when there was a part of you that was raising up giving me the middle finger for talking about writing down food the night before, that's a part that's not calm, clear, connected, curious, compassionate. It's rebellious.
So there are different parts. There's wounded parts, which we can all relate to, wounded parts, and then there's protective parts. The rebel part is a protective part. It's protecting the wounded, the wounded child who was over controlled as a kid, and a rebel protector part came in. So we have protective parts that are trying to get ahead of our wounding. So a rebel part would be a manager part that's trying to make us not be wounded in the future by over controlling influences, and other types of manager parts are controlling, trying to organize life and the world to be just so a lot of us with food issues have a food controller part that tries to restrict or control our food to the extreme, get all the ducks in a row, in order to help us lose weight or to get our food together and that controlling part is often in polarization with a food indulging part, and the indulger protectors are swooping in after we're wounded, trying to numb us, distract us, soothe us, comfort us.
Ashley James (1:19:30.431)
That was my dad.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:19:31.584)
Okay, there you go, you had the controller and the adulterer in your mom and your dad.
Ashley James (1:19:36.623)
Absolutely. It would happen just like that, my mom would come down on me for food, my dad would take me out for ice cream. It was like, here, let me, let me soothe you and at the same time he was soothing himself.
It was a beautiful dynamic and so I have this really big love for food because when I was three years old, my dad took me. It was one of my first memories with my dad just spending time with him. I think it was the first time I ever just spent time with him. On my third birthday, he took me out to an authentic sushi restaurant and I fell in love with Japanese food.
Then he took me out to dim sum and he wanted to share with me his world of food addiction and so he brought me to these really unique restaurants and I completely fell in love with the food and, at the same time, I was feeling love from my dad, because that was where we connected and we also had our little dopamine hits at the same time. So we're shooting up heroin together.
So we're using together and so these foods, especially really greasy foods and typically Asian foods he gravitated towards and greasy chicken. For me. I realized it was actually on the show as an episode with a woman who kind of decodes food addiction much different from you. She doesn't talk about bright lines or anything like that, but she did talk about understanding our stories and our family stories around food. I realized that at the time I wasn't whole food plant-based, I was still very addicted to chicken, eating it every day, and that wasn't helping with my weight. It's really funny about chicken.
They say eat chicken breast for weight loss, but at the same time they also tell bodybuilders to eat chicken breast to gain weight. So I'm like, oh well, that is contradictory, which one is it? But for me, if I eat chicken, I just start gaining weight like crazy. It's really weird. But I was addicted to it and I didn't understand why. She asked that question and all of a sudden I was like snapped back to every happy memory with my dad and even a few with my mom, and there was always chicken in my mouth and in my hands or chicken wings or something, and it was, oh, I associate because both my parents died in my 20s and I miss them both.
I was the only child. I love my parents and I sympathize now with their pain, because I can look back and see, especially as a parent, their flawed behaviors were really their cries for help and their pain. They were beautiful, complex and incredibly intelligent, incredibly successful. They both had their own businesses, separate from each other. They both independently became millionaires and they both built beautiful businesses when I was a teenager, and in my 20s, I watched them become incredibly successful but also very self-destructive.
I see that the specific foods that I had the greatest addiction around, chicken and Asian food that it would bring me right back to the emotions of feeling safe and loved by my parents, who I missed, and so I had that addiction brain going on, but I also had that anchoring, that association with those past emotions.
Glenn Livingston, who I had on the show and he also asks questions to help people make food rules, his program is great and your program also seems much more complex. So different but similar, which is beautiful because you're seeing that these bright lines work and he asked questions like, well, what can you do in your life besides eat chicken and still have the same emotions and get the same outcome.
So, yes, I can sit here and meditate in a happy memory, remembering my parents and just feeling my love for them, and I don't need to have food in my hands or my mouth to do it. So I can still recreate and fill that need or I can go spend family time, bonding time with my family, not around food, because you talked about how when we all kind of get together and eat, it's we're at a feeding trough. I look up at my husband, my son and my mother-in-law and we're not talking, we're not connecting, our eyes are down. I feel like we're a bunch of cows at a feeding trough during our family meals. There's no emotional connection here, whereas if we played a board game together or went for a walk or nature, bird watching or something together that didn't involve food, it's much more emotionally satisfying to do a conversation together.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:24:12.066)
Yes, food is a poor proxy for most of the things we use it for. Food is a poor proxy for connection. It's a poor proxy for entertainment. It's a poor proxy for comfort. It can fill those needs to some degree, but not, well, I just want to say, for the listeners who feel I'm an ascetic around food, that I'm into denial and purity, and not enjoying food. That couldn't be further from the truth. I love my meals, I enjoy my food and what I do, though, is I eat, because I follow this structured way of eating.
I'm in alignment with my eating. I'm in alignment with my body. I'm not obsessed or owned by food anymore, and my meals are like a hot shower. I love taking a hot shower, but I don't think about it obsessively before or after. I'm not looking forward to it all day long. If I think to really enjoy it, which I often do while I'm in there, I take a very long hot shower. I live in a part of the country where we have ample water, which I'm really grateful for. I live near the Great Lakes, where there's a big chunk of the world's fresh water and, yes, I take a long hot shower every day and that’s like my breakfast, lunch and dinner. I sit down with my meal, take a deep breath, and just think, oh, this is awesome! I love this food, I savor it, it’s delicious, it hits the spot. I’m satisfied afterwards and then I move on with my life and I’m not thinking about it in between. For me, that's food neutrality. For me, that’s a healthy relationship with food and that’s what I help people achieve.
I used to teach this college course on the psychology of eating and I used to draw a big circle up on the board and I would say imagine, this is a pie chart, everyone. This is a pie chart and I want you to carve out a slice that represents the proportion of your life focus, your thinking, your energy, everything you're about, like your thinking and your focus and your energy that relates to your food. You're eating, your weight, your exercise, what you've eaten or not eaten, whether you're on your plan or off your plan, how many miles, how many calories, how many pounds, what percentage of your life is not. And Ashley, I’d tell you I would have slender, regular weight, lovely, college gals start to cry. I would just say I noticed you're having a reaction to this exercise. What's happening for you? She would just carve out almost all but this tiny sliver and she would say 95%.
So the way we eat in Bright Line Eating is the antidote to that. If I do that pie now. I don't know what it would be. 10%, 15%. It takes some effort. I got to focus. Do I have enough blah in the fridge? I got to go to the grocery store and I worked out and blah, blah. But mostly my life is about my life now. I have my life back. I don't need to be thinking about making my food sexier. I don't need to. It's in its place.
Ashley James (1:27:39.695)
Yes, I'm not there, I want to get there. The needing to make the food sexier. I know this food’s delicious because I love shiitake mushrooms. They are so delicious I put them in everything. I'm looking forward to those shiitake mushrooms and I got some lion's mane mushrooms. My gosh, the mouthfeel of these things is insane. I love them and they're also really good for your brain.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:28:05.412)
Mushrooms are so healthy, ridiculously healthy.
Ashley James (1:28:08.097)
That's what I made for dinner yesterday. I did a three-mushroom, I did oysters, and what's cool about oysters is when you cut them, they're like little scallops, you cut them so they're circular. It kind of tastes like scallops, not taste, but it has that mouthfeel. It's a little meaty, yes.
So I did a three-mushroom, I did oyster, lion's mane and shiitake stir fry with onion and tofu, and then my hot sauce because I'm addicted to hot sauce. I read this study that it's really good for you on many levels and I'm down for it. It's anti-parasitic, it helps the body. Anyways, so many good things about hot sauce and I'm sold. So now I realize I actually can't eat a meal without hot sauce. Now, I'm wondering if that's an okay addiction or not, but it's fun, it's fun to put on food, and in moderation, I guess. It's so delicious.
But there's that part of my brain that's saying the whole time, so I'm in a part this isn't going to be good enough, this is going to be yummy enough, and it won't. That part wouldn't be satisfied until there's, I don’t know, peanut sauce, and noodles, or chicken. That stuff that's not optimal for me and I know the next day I'm not going to feel good having eaten that meal. So there's this part of my brain that isn't happy until I've adulterated a healthy meal to make it unhealthy and I just tell it to buzz off. I tell it to buzz off. But I'm really looking forward to the day that I can cook a meal in peace, because now I'm not cooking in peace. But I've come a long way because I look back to where I was in 2010, living off of the dollar menu at fast food restaurants, we hit a rough streak financially and we thought that we would save money eating at the dollar menu and turns out you actually have to eat way more. We'd end up buying like 10 burgers, we each have five, dollar meal burgers. We'd feel horrible then. Very soon after, we really hit a good stride with healing foods. It was good that we hit that bottom and experienced that. Also just how crazy addictive the dollar menu is, that at pretty much any fast food restaurant.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:30:38.644)
I did a study recently that you can eat for way cheaper than the dollar menu on Bright Line Eating. People say that healthy food is expensive but not all. For example, in Bright Line Eating, you have a serving of fruit at breakfast and a serving of fruit at lunch, in addition to, obviously, a lot of other things. But for serving a fruit, you can have a pint of organic raspberries out of season for $7 or you can have a banana for 12 cents or whatever.
Beans and rice and bananas and cabbage, oh my god, cabbage can be so good. You get the whole cabbage and you slice it up and you cook it in some vinegar with some salt and pepper and it cooks down and this really cheap cabbage can yield a whole week's worth of vegetables, practically. There's so many ways to eat inexpensively. The dollar menu is not. It's not the way to go.
Ashley James (1:31:40.816)
It's not. But the person I was back then highly, highly addicted to processed foods could not say no to sugar. It was a daily thing. My blood sugar was out of balance. I was incredibly sick. It kind of ramped up to my late 20s and early 30s. I had polycystic ovarian syndrome. I was told by an endocrinologist I'd never have kids. And the thing is, every MD I've ever been to, said you can't cure that. I'm like, watch me, and my last few blood tests I've had showed everything's normal and I had really bad polycystic ovarian syndrome. I'd had three cycles a year, infertility. I was told I'd never have kids and I conceived naturally twice and we have our son.
I also had out of control diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and I had pica or cribbing, so my body was completely void of minerals. Then, I got on this healing journey. I got on these really fantastic supplements that filled those gaps. I started eating healthy. I cut out processed foods and I just watched as things transformed.
Just the first month of all I did was shop the perimeter of the grocery store and eat organic. I wasn't even avoiding things I'm allergic to like dairy, and I was eating meat. I was eating dairy, but I was only shopping the perimeter of the grocery store, so I wouldn't buy anything in a package and then a cereal box, none of that, and I chose organic. That first month my chronic infections that I was on monthly antibiotics for went away, and that was in 2008. That was my first big health wake up. That was like, oh, I can solve something with food. It's interesting because all the doctors I've gone to say I have to be on all these drugs for the rest of my life. But look, I can make a health change. One, one change, well, two. I chose organic and shopped the perimeter of the grocery store, still wasn't eating healthy, frying up big steaks and stuff like that but it was steak and vegetables as opposed to a bunch of packaged foods, and choosing organic and so, just getting the process, getting the pesticides out of my life, boom, all my infections went away.
I also had chronic adrenal fatigue, so bad that in the morning, I couldn't process human language. It took me about an hour to two hours before my husband could speak to me. I couldn't even understand what people were saying. It was really weird. My cortisol levels were incredibly bottomed out, but it was food. Then, like I said, supplements just to fill in the gaps. But it was food changes. Everything melted away and MDs told me I would have these problems for the rest of my life.
Of course, in addition to all these health problems, then I would have food addiction. But I didn't even know because I was self-soothing, because I was in so much pain from out of control diabetes, from polycystic ovarian syndrome, from chronic infections, from chronic inflammation. I was in so much pain that food was just what I could use to soothe. Thank God I don't like alcohol because I would have become an alcoholic just to numb the pain. So I understand people out there, because 70% of the adult population is on at least one prescription medication. They don't need to be on and so we've got at least 70% of the population feeling so sick in their body they're turning to processed food to self-soothe. So it's like you said some one third of the people aren't necessarily susceptible to addiction, but that doesn't mean they're not going out and self-soothing.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:35:27.755)
Yes, bad habits. I mean you can eat a lot of processed food just out of liking the taste and mouthfeel and out of bad habits, and the difference there is that without necessarily getting a lot of support around it, if you just really make up your mind to do differently, you can. So addiction is where you're really trying and you still continue to harm yourself in the same way.
Ashley James (1:36:02.561)
That's a good distinction to understand. My father-in-law was an alcoholic and he smoked cigarettes and then one day I think he got into a minor car accident or maybe he drove home drunk, and that was his wake up call. He was always drunk and always had a cigarette in his mouth. This was I don't know in the 70s, when it was acceptable, and he just snapped. He just goes, I'm not going to drink anymore. Boom! No backlash. No addiction. Then he decided he was going to stop smoking because I think it was affecting his cycling times. He was kind of a professional cyclist. He just went boom! He just stopped and anything he had ever been seemingly addictive to other people. He could just stop and have no cravings and be done with it. So I thought he was really weird. But you're telling me one third of the population is like that. Okay, because that's definitely not my experience of life.
It's interesting because listeners who are those people where the addiction brain isn't a thing for them. Please have compassion for your family members who are struggling with addiction, who say they're going to stop and they can't and they say they're going to stop and they can't because it's easy to get angry at them and say, well, you're not trying hard enough, you're just lazy, but they're having an internal fight that is so hard. They don't want to destroy their lives and their family. So please have compassion and even though you don't personally understand that, you could put yourselves in the shoes of understanding that there's an internal struggle going on.
So you have these people who have food addiction. They try to diet over and over and over again, and that keeps failing. Then they blame themselves. But because the underlying problem is processed food or food addiction in general, mostly processed food is the culprit and so they've got food addiction. Now they hear about Bright Line Eating, is this a 12-step program? What are the first few steps? Someone's coming in. They're not even 24 hours sober yet, they just finished their last bag of Doritos and they log into brightlineeating.com. Walk us through the first week of food sobriety.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:38:26.684)
Yes, sure. So someone goes to brightlineeating.com, they sign up for the membership, they do a free trial, so they haven't paid a dime and they're just going to give it a try, and the first thing that happens is they'll get a warm welcome message from me and they'll get to create their password and log into the system, which is super easy, and then we'll walk them through getting started. They'll get to download the food plan, they'll need to buy some supplies, they'll need to get a digital food scale, a food journal, some things like that, and they'll need to clean out their kitchen, like really clean out the cupboards, clean out the kitchen. There's guidance on that. It's fine if you live with people who eat differently than you. They don't have to do Bright Line Eating but then maybe have a conversation about like, okay, can we keep the pies off the counter? Maybe we could put them in this cupboard or here's a place where all those foods can live and you can access them freely, and then they just won't be out for me on the counter. That kind of thing.
Two or three or four or five days, for some people, one day, they're all set up and they're ready to start. Then, we have like a day one experience where, it's kind of ceremonial, you start and we have a meditation called the Crossing the Line Meditation, where we guide them to really step over the line and step into a world where they're committed on their Bright Line Eating journey and they really begin. They write down day one in their food journal. They write down what they're going to eat the next day and they start their day one. The game is really you write down your food the night before and the next day you eat only and exactly that, and then you start setting up morning routines and evening routines to support that. You start to form your place in the community. You find a buddy. You join a mastermind group. You start to get connected in a community.
After the first couple weeks, what will happen, Ashley, is someone will have lost if they have weight to lose when they come in and not everybody does but they'll have lost a significant amount of weight. Often they'll be stunned by how much they lose in just those first couple weeks and their brain will have already healed so much that their hunger will be lower even though they're losing weight. Their hunger will be down statistically. Their cravings will have already subsided significantly and they'll start to have this automaticity that comes in.
What's happening, Ashley, is we're wiring their brain so that the part of the brain that governs eating is no longer the, what do I feel like I want? something sexy? or what am I choosing at the moment? Part of the brain which is very vulnerable to willpower depletion and looking for a fix from our food and we're starting to use the same part of the brain that executes brushing teeth for most of us, which is a part of the brain that just kind of does it. Whether you're tired or in the mood doesn't really matter whether you're traveling or you're sick or whatever, you just brush your teeth. That's the part of the brain that we start to access by this pattern of writing down the food the night before and then the next day eating only in exactly that. It's kind of like you’re starting that habit of after dinner I brush and floss and that pattern starts to get really anchored in.
Two months after they've started, what happens is they've now lost one and a half times clinically significant weight loss after two months and then after a few more months it's three times clinically significant weight loss. So we measure it typically as a percentage of starting body weight, but we're talking about enough weight that their joints aren't hurting anymore. Their inflammation is way down. You were talking about all manners and I can't make medical promises or whatever according to the regulatory bodies, but what we see is people who are on insulin are getting off their insulin. What we see on average is that people who are on all manner of medications are starting to phase off their medications. That's not a promise to anyone, it's just a prediction on average from what we see. Cravings go down after the first two months to levels of little to no cravings anymore ever. Hunger goes down to little or no hunger ever. This is published research that we've published in peer reviewed scientific journals. We also see people at every age of the lifespan losing weight equivalently like in those first two months, women in their 50s, 60s and 70s are losing the same amount of weight as women in their 20s and 30s, which you might think. Well, that's not possible, because it's harder to lose weight as you age, and everybody knows that. Well, the reason it's harder to lose weight as you age is that estrogen, which goes down in both men and women. In the 50s and 60s it plummets in both men and women, but because women had more estrogen to begin with, the difference is more striking for a woman's body. Estrogen has a facilitating effect on insulin, which helps to smooth out the edges as you eat processed foods made out of sugar and flour as you eliminate sugar and flour from your diet, it doesn't matter as much anymore whether you have the estrogen to facilitate your insulin and so with sugar and flour out of the equation, what that does is, it levels the playing field. Women in their 50s and 60s postmenopausal women are losing weight just like they were 20 and 30. Again. So that's really exciting.
A lot of people come with thyroid issues. They think they can't lose weight just like they were 20 and 30. Again, so that's really exciting. A lot of people come with thyroid issues. They think they can't lose weight, or autoimmune conditions or PCOS, like you and I had. I have Hashimoto's thyroid too, and it really works across the board. Within two or three months, people are on their way, they're hooked, this is their life, and what we call them are bright lifers. Bright lifers, they're just doing it for life. We published results showing that two years later, they're maintaining every pound on average, on average every pound that they lost when they started Bright Line Eating two years later, published in the Journal of Nutrition and Weight Loss in 2001.
Ashley James (1:45:29.694)
Wow, congratulations.
I read a study once where they took people who've always been of the healthiest weight possible and people who are obese and I think kind of being a neuroscience study people who have always been of the best body weight for them, the healthiest they have almost no pleasure derived from thinking of food before they eat it, and when they ate food the pleasure was high, high, high, high. And then they went on with their day. It was like, I don't know, I don't think about it.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:46:17.248)
It was like my hot shower analogy.
Ashley James (1:46:22.835)
You don't sit there like getting off on thinking about your hot shower that's coming up. Although, I could think about a nice hot bath and I can't wait for that. I have this tongue scraper and I love using it, I can't believe the stuff. I use it twice a day. Everyone needs a tongue scraper. Go, run, buy it now.
I had a listener ask me in our Facebook group, why can't I just brush? I'm no, no, no. Someone else said because you're just brushing all the bacteria around, you're not actually removing it, but you're removing this biofilm that the bacteria lives in on your tongue. It's pretty crazy and I love doing it. It's the best part of brushing teeth, but I don't think of it throughout the day.
I gain maximum pleasure while I'm doing it, like for the 30 seconds I'm doing it to get, let's see all the crap coming off my tongue twice a day. It's really cool, and how clean my tongue is afterwards. It feels like your mouth doesn't feel good until you've cleaned your tongue. Go do it. It's amazing. But it's just this metal, round, u-shaped thing you just scrape your tongue with, but I don't think about it throughout the day.
So the study, they found that, the ideal weight people who've never had obesity issues don't derive pleasure from thinking about food, but when they're eating it it's orgasmic. The obese people, they poked them up to machines, looked at brain scans and saw that they derive quite a bit of pleasure. Not as much pleasure as the skinny people did from eating food, they would drive, but still substantial pleasure just from thinking about the meals they could have, like chicken wings, hot dogs, whatever. But when they went to eat it, the obese people were disappointed because the fantasy was better than reality.
My husband told me a long time ago, when you're not married and you're dating around, let me tell you, he goes. He's a happily married man. The fantasy of what you can do with women as a man, because in their mind you're the God of the bedroom, and if you live in that fantasy world, you're always disappointed from reality. So that's the same with pornography. If you avoid pornography and you avoid this fantasy world, then the actual real thing is amazing and when you actually get to go do it in the bedroom with your spouse, it's amazing.
That hit me because first of all, I thought everyone thought about food throughout the day, I thought that was normal. That's what made me go, wow, I really do think about what am I going to cook later? It's pleasurable. I love cooking, but it's making up these meals in my mind and I realized, wow, I do get more pleasure from the fantasy of what the food is than when I sit down to the meal. So your program gets us to the point where now we've rewired the brain to be all the skinny people.
We have the preset of what we're eating that day, and then we don't fantasize about it and then we start to drive more pleasure when we're sitting down to eat. So it’s as if you're getting people to rewire their brain to become skinny people. Have you ever heard of, they take the mice, who are always, always skinny, and they take obese mice and then they give the fecal transplant of the skinny mice to the obese mice.
They all eat the same and get the same exercise. But the obese mice become skinny and the skinny mice become obese just because the microbiome changes. It's like you're taking a fat person but giving them a skinny brain way of making their brain be skinny brain people and having skinny brain habits.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:50:25.236)
Yes, totally, and the research you were talking about is what addiction scientists would call the distinction between liking and wanting.
So, the liking and the wanting systems are very different in the brain and as addiction wires up, what happens is your wanting goes up and up and up, but your liking, once you have it, goes down and down and down and that changes over development as you wire up an addiction and it is its own kind of torturous hell.
To live in a world where you're wanting food, wanting food, wanting food, but then when you eat it it doesn't give the payoff and then you're thinking, oh well, now I need something sweet, now I need something salty and you're eating but you're not even liking it that much. But you still want it and the elbow wants to bend and the mouth wants to chew and you still want to be eating and you're wanting and wanting but not even liking. If you haven't had an addiction it doesn't make sense but that is the experience of it and that is exactly what Bright Line Eating does. It heals that. It heals it and it's rigorous and it's not for everybody, but it works. If you have weight to lose and you want to have a brain that doesn't torture you about food anymore, it works.
Ashley James (1:51:41.050)
It sounds very empowering. In terms of getting people back into their place of feeling freedom in their body, freedom in their life, freedom in their brain.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:52:03.764)
What else can you be doing in the world? Ashley is the person who's going to solve cold fusion like it isn't even working on those equations right now because they're starting Atkins for the third time this year. Think about how much wasted potential is buried underneath all of this obsession about what we've eaten or not eaten, whether we're on our plan or off our plan, how many miles, how many calories, how many pounds, what we're cooking, what we're eating. The food that we're wanting to eat. There are so many. I mean it's like two billion people now in this world are overweight or obese and food obsessed.
Ashley James (1:52:41.900)
I'm very, very, very grateful. My son, his body shape is just like me as a kid. I was thin and muscular and athletic, and he is the same way and he could take or leave food. In fact, when he's playing with his friends, I'm like, can you please eat your lunch? He's like, no, I'm busy playing. It's only when the world has calmed down there's nothing more fun to do. He keeps asking like, okay, are we doing something more fun? I'm like, no, now it's quiet time and let's eat our meal. Then he's hungry. He's not hungry until there's no nothing else to do in the world, whereas me now, as an adult, I'm like, well, the food is the fun. What are you talking about? Let's go, let's go eat, but as a kid I watched him. He is just go, go, go, fun is fun all the time. He could take or leave food, so I'm so grateful for that.
But clothing doesn't fit him and I think this is crazy because I have to go out of my way. I go to kids clothing stores and I have to order online their special sizes for, quote unquote, skinny and slim, the skinny, slim fit, because I am telling you, he is not. We go to an amazing pediatrician, a naturopathic pediatrician. She measures him, she says he's healthy and healthy rangers, he's not unhealthy weight or anything. He's growing, he's so tall now I can't believe it. He just grew up to now he's in eight-year-old clothing. He's seven and he just went another size up. Yet I have to go out of my way to find clothing that fits him, because the average child now is obese and he has a lot of friends that have more weight than I saw as a kid in the 80’s.
And that is because, like you said, most kids now eat processed food. When I was a kid it was kind of an oddity, I didn't know I had a choice. The parents go, my kids only eat macaroni and cheese, or my kids only eat hotdogs. When I was a kid I didn't even know I had a choice. I had to eat what my parents ate, and so we sat down and we'd have grilled fish and we'd have wild rice or we'd have legumes, we'd have grilled chicken, we'd have a Caesar salad with grilled chicken. Those were pretty much the staple meals in our house, were vegetables, some kind of lean meat and steamed vegetables and some legume or a little bit of complex carbohydrate in there, but that's how I grew up eating and I don't remember eating much processed food at all. Maybe on my birthday I could get that. Once in a blue moon was processed food, and now children are once in a blue moon having a vegetable.
Imagine this generation. Yes, we have adults who need to lose weight, but I think you need to make a bright line for the parents who want to help their kids heal, because now we have seven-year-olds with processed food addiction brain and twelve-year-olds with processed food addiction brain who are going to rebel and who are sneaking sugar. I even have a friend whose daughter steals. She's 10 or 12 years old. She will steal. When they're at Target, her mom has to pat her down because she will always find hidden candy bars that she's stealing because it's that processed food addiction brain that we've given our children, because they've grown up mostly eating foods that have hijacked their brain. So, yes, we need this for us, we need the Bright Line Eating program for us, but we also need a gentle one for the children to help the children heal and maybe the children could just heal when we start actually feeding them real food like teaching them to listen to their body. We have to be gentle.
So my husband once a year does a fast and he's aiming for 40 days. This time he's done 28 day fasts and it's water only fast and he's fantastic at them. But today's day eight, and what I noticed, because I've been more conscious, I would say actually since my interview with Jonah Flynn, so this was maybe March or February and because of the last year, I really did turn to food as one of my mechanisms for handling grief and then I acknowledged that on the scale. Now, I'm coming back down and being much more conscious of how I'm eating and I wasn't going off the rails either last year. If I'd gone off the rails it would have been 80 pounds, not 40 pounds, but my husband has been fasting for the last eight days.
I have observed myself and I realized it has been so much easier emotionally to cook healthy. The thing is he also eats whole food, plant based, and he will eat whatever I eat. So he's sitting there like, oh let's crack out the whatever processed food, but just having to be responsible to feed multiple people, cause I mean I'm feeding our son, I know what to feed him, but just to be responsible for, or sometimes it has to be like, oh, let's just go eat out and then giving into that. It's kind of being with the person you used to be with, because he and I used to have food addiction together, go to the dollar menu, get off on that together many years ago. He showed me his sugar addiction back when we were dating. We sat down to watch a movie while we were dating at his house, and he cracked open the family-size, family-size, this is a thing of ice cream so big that it requires a handle. Have you seen those? It has a big round lid and it's a tub of ice cream. The tub has a handle that's like a bucket of ice cream.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (1:58:56.137)
No, no
Ashley James (1:58:57.543)
It’s in Albertson’s. It’s crazy. He told me every weekend he'd polish one off single-handedly and he was so excited to share it with me. I did not do dairy, so then I did dairy with him and that was a disaster. But it made me see, wow, this is an addiction. He's inviting me into it.
Sometimes he'll pull me into that and be, let's go eat out at a restaurant. Yay! It's easy to give in. If he had said let's go get a pack of cigarettes or let's go do this addictive party together, when you've got an accomplice. So now that he's not eating for over a week, I haven't had an accomplice and it's just been me and it's been so much easier. I just want to talk about this, how does your program help people who have a spouse or have kids that they have to cook food for, that isn't on the program. How do they heal their addiction and have to be surrounded by the substances that they're craving? Because you said there's a point of willpower that your program helps to remove by planning what you're going to cook the next day. But now let's say you've got the spouse who wants the bad food and you have to cook for them also.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (2:00:22.286)
Well, I won't lie, sometimes that can be hard. What I have found is that if you're cooking for a family, typically you can prepare what you're going to eat, which in the initial weight loss phase, for dinner, for example, is going to be some protein, some vegetable, some salad, some fat on that, and you can prepare that and then also add, for example, a big pot of pasta and some bread and butter for the family, and they can eat that, and you're having the protein vegetable salad that you've also made. So you don't need to cook a whole separate meal. Typically you can just add, typically, a big pot of starch of some kind for the family to add to that. So that's typically what I recommend.
This isn't 1950 anymore. Other people can also cook for themselves as well. But I mean, that's the way I always did. It is have done it, and I have three kids and a husband who none of them eat the Bright Line Eating way, and so these days we do some sort of mix, because my kids are older and my husband can cook, and so we do some mix of I'll cook or, or everyone will fend for themselves, or we'll go out to dinner, or if I'm cooking, I'll cook what I'm going to eat and I'll add, I said, another component or two for other folks.
Ashley James (2:01:52.292)
In your program when you're planning for the next day. Can you plan for eating out and would you look at the restaurants, choose a restaurant, let's say, your family's going out because we're getting together with friends or other family members. Would you choose the restaurant, look at the menu and already choose what you're going to order and how are you going to order it to be on program?
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (2:02:12.244)
Yes. So you can pretty much eat out in any restaurant and do Bright Line Eating and you're still looking for the same categories of food. I don't always choose in advance what I'm going to eat, because sometimes you arrive and the menu's changed or whatever, and so I would just commit a Bright Meal out, but in the restaurant I'd be looking for the same, protein, vegetable salad kind of thing. If it's a Thai restaurant, I'm ordering vegetables and tofu or whatever.
Ashley James (2:02:47.478)
Well with Thai restaurants, I love that if you don't see anything you like, you can order, the side menu always has steamed vegetables and brown rice, and I've done that where I've said can I please have a big thing of steamed vegetables, big thing of brown rice, and then bring me soy sauce or something, or sometimes even they'll steam tofu, which I mean steamed tofu, to me is delicious, but I'm I'm one of those people.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (2:03:11.466)
Yes, me too.
Ashley James (2:03:14.742)
It’s Bragg's liquid aminos and I'm all good. Okay, we've been teasing the listener the whole time because we've been saying we would talk about the statistics. I want to talk about statistics. Let's wrap this up by really talking about your studies, because you even said that your hunger goes down statistically, and you emphasize the word statistically, meaning you are tracking people's results. Do you have any more data or more studies to share with us about your program? Also that people have lasting weight loss, because what I said earlier anyone can do any diet, but how do we have lasting success to being as healthy as possible? This isn't about weight loss. This is being as healthy as possible and feeling mentally and emotionally healthy, along with physical healthy.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (2:04:11.058)
Sure. I've mentioned the studies before, but I've got one additional one to mention, but I can give you the numbers. By two months after doing Bright Line Eating, not only have people lost weight, but I just want to emphasize, when most people lose weight in most ways, their hunger and their cravings go up. Because that's what happens when you deprive the brain and the body of enough food to survive. The brain compensates by making you hungrier and crave more, but not when you do it the Bright Line Eating way.
The difference is you're not eating processed foods, you're not eating sugar and flour, and you're eating enough whole foods and vegetables to create enough bulk and you're weighing it. People typically don't eat enough vegetables unless they weigh it. So know you're good. The amounts and the fact that you're using a digital food scale to make sure you're eating enough it's not about restricting quantities. It's about making sure you're eating enough. It dupes the brain into feeling you're getting ample food, so you're losing weight.
By two months in your hunger ratings on average are down to 1.5 out of five, that's average, little to no hunger anymore, ever, and craving levels are below that, below 1.5 out of five. So hunger and cravings go down.
I mentioned that people at every age are losing weight equivalently, which is just a miracle and a blessing. If you're over 50, you're just like, yay! So after two months, people on average are losing 13 to 17 pounds after the first two months and three months after that, that's doubled. Those weight loss results are maintained years later, literally two years later, on average, zero pounds regained. We have people in our Bright Line Eating who have been around now for about seven years. Our first program rolled out a little over seven years ago and we have people maintaining their weight loss all that time.
Then the study that I didn't mention actually has to do with a study we did after COVID hit, where we looked at the well-being metrics of someone, psychosocial metrics, things like energy, perceived social support, which means like, are you feeling lonely in the world or are you feeling deeply supported and connected? If you had an emergency, do you have people who would come over to your house to help? Do you have enough support in life?
We looked at depression, days of bad mental health versus good mental health, levels of depression. We looked at these metrics and what we found is that after two months of doing Bright Line Eating, people have more energy, less depression, fewer days of bad mental health and their feeling of feeling loved and connected and supported in the world has gone way up. But then we looked at that during COVID, I'm talking about the heat of when COVID was first rocking the world. We're talking April, May, June of 2020.
We looked at those months versus before COVID hit and versus after COVID had been around for a while, and what we found was that those effects were actually heightened during the worst catastrophe. So, in other words, people experienced a lifting of their depression, but even to a greater degree. During the worst of COVID, people experienced more energy, but to a greater degree. People experienced feeling more loved and connected in the world, but to a greater degree, meaning that Bright Line Eating as a community and as a way of life is so conducive to well-being that during a catastrophe or an emergency. The effect was amplified because people had a community to lean into all the more and a program to lean on to get them through the worst times. Ashley, I've been thinking about you over the last year. Food can help us cope to some degree but we've been talking about it, it's a poor proxy for real support and connection and coping. When people have Bright Line Eating to lean into, they flourish extra during the hardest times. It's quite remarkable.
Ashley James (2:08:54.512)
I love it. I love your program. I love that it's science-based. I love that it's holistic, because it's looking at every aspect of your life and you're showing that it brings in that joy and satisfaction throughout someone's life. So that is truly holistic. That is what true health is. To me, that's the definition. My husband, he's the one that titled the podcast. But the idea of it being true health, the True Health Podcast, the true health is all aspects of your life are in that balance, that have joy and that have health. So it's not just physical, it's not just mental, it's everything. It's emotional, it's social, it's spiritual, it's every aspect. So the fact that you have this very well-rounded result is beautiful.
I'm so excited that we brought this information to the listeners today because, just statistically, we have helped some lives today and even if we help one person to get out of that torturous suffering, this has been an incredible success. So I feel so blessed that you came here today to share this information. Thank you so much.
Of course, the links to everything that Dr. Thompson does is going to be in the show notes of today's podcast at learntruehealth.com, including brightlineeating.com and the link to the membership. Is there anything you'd like to say to wrap up today's interview and please, I want to say, come back on the show when you have more studies, more information. We'd love to have an ongoing conversation, because what it sounds like is you are always refining and making this even better as you study this further.
We're never done. We're always developing and you've developed a fantastic system through this constant evolution with your community and being totally geeking out on neuroscience. I can appreciate that. So definitely come back on the show, but is there anything you'd like to say to the listener to wrap up today's interview?
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (2:10:59.806)
Yes, I guess I just want to say there are a lot of people out there and maybe you, dear listener, are one of them who really have tried so hard to change the way you eat, to turn the corner with your health, to start taking care of yourself better, but the food just keeps being an issue. I just want to say you're not alone. It really is a real thing. It's addictive in the brain and you're not alone. I just want you to know that I have walked the path of that struggle and I see you, I feel you and you got this. You got this. So come check us out at brightlineeating.com. We would love to see you. There is a roadmap that works. There's a path that works.
Ashley James (2:11:44.612)
Brilliant. I'm so happy that we're helping people. I say we because I was here too, but you are helping people today to end that suffering and get on that roadmap to success. I geek out on personal growth and development. That's one of my favorite things, so thank you so much for coming on the show. Let's have you back.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson (2:12:05.148)
Thanks, Ashley. It'd be great. I'll come back anytime and it's just been delightful talking with you. Thank you so much.
Outro:
Are you tired of guessing your way through supplements, feeling like each choice is just another shot in the dark? Unlock your health potential at takeyoursupplements.com. Here we don't just sell supplements, we customize wellness. Connect with a true health coach who tailors your nutritional path based on your unique health goals and challenges. From fatigue to vitality, from confusion to clarity Start your transformation today. Visit takeyoursupplements.com and discover how feeling amazing is just one free consultation away. That's takeyoursupplements.com.
Check Out My Latest Book: Addicted To Wellness
https://www.learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness
Get The Minerals Your Body Needs: TakeYourSupplements.com
https://takeyoursupplements.com
Dr. V's Website: www.HeadacheAdvantage.com
https://learntruehealth.com/headache-migraine-pain-dr-scott-vrzals-guide-to-root-cause-solutions/
In today’s episode, we dive deep into the world of chronic headaches, exploring their hidden causes and pathways to relief with expert Dr. Scott Vrzal. Specializing in natural approaches to pain, Dr. Vrzal shares insights on how headaches reveal clues about our body’s health—from digestive imbalances to emotional blocks stored in physical pain. Join us as we explore the surprising connections between emotions, nutrient deficiencies, and detox pathways, uncovering how holistic health practices can not only relieve headaches but restore balance and vitality to the entire body. This episode is packed with actionable tips and wisdom for those seeking true relief and long-term health.
Highlights:
Intro:
Imagine a life vibrant and full of energy. Now make it a reality with takeyoursupplements.com. Ditch the trial and error of supplement selection. Our trained health coaches are here to craft personalized health regimen that truly works for you. Visit takeyoursupplements.com and learn how easy it is to start feeling better today. Your health is an investment not an expense. Visit takeyoursupplements.com today and get a health free consultation.
When I heard about these specific supplements over 12 years ago. I heard about them back in 2010 and the first thing that went through my mind was, “That sounds too expensive!” That time I didn’t have a lot of money but I also had a ton of health problems. It wasn’t until years later that I finally gave it a try and I couldn’t believe I limited myself because I had decided somewhere that it sounded too expensive without even doing the research. It turns out I was able to fit it into my budget and I started feeling better immediately. Within five days of taking these supplements I began to get my energy back, my chronic adrenal fatigue began to go away, within three months, I no longer have Type 2 diabetes, within two years I no longer have polycystic ovarian syndrome, and I was able to conceive naturally. I was told I’d never be able to have kids when I was nineteen after a battery of tests with an endocrinologist.
When you have these health goals and have these health dreams and they’ve been crushed by a doctor or crushed by family members, or crushed by your own belief system, I invite you to break through that, and to challenge anyone including yourself who’s ever told you that you can't have perfect health, that you can’t have optimal health, because at takeyoursupplements.com, we have some amazing health coaches that want to show you the way to support your body’s ability to heal itself.
Your body is amazing and miraculous. We grew from these tiny cells into 37.2 trillion cells. Your body has a God-given ability to heal itself and what we have to do is give it the raw building blocks it needs to build healthy cells and that's what the coaches at takeyoursupplements.com are here for. They're here to show you the foods to avoid, the foods to eat to nourish your body and the supplements to fill in those nutrient gaps so your body and every cell is getting every key nutrient it needs to create optimal health.
I'm working with these supplements for over 12 years now with my clients, with my family, and with myself, and I can't believe how many illnesses and how many health challenges I’ve seen people overcome, and you can too!
Go to takeyoursupplements.com. Give it a try. The only thing you have to lose is all of your health complaints. Takeyoursupplements.com
Ashley James (0:03:13.690)
Welcome to the Learn True Health Podcast. I’m your host Ashley James. This is Episode 523.
I am so excited for today's guest. We have with us Dr. Scott Vrzal. This is a topic near and dear to my heart, and people who are sick of suffering are going to be singing your praises. My heart is so full now because I know that some of my listeners are just so done with the suffering and the pain. Today, you're here to deliver the information that they've been praying for so that they can no longer be in pain. Welcome to the show.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:03:57.351)
Well, thank you. Yes, that's why I got into it, because I was suffering and I wanted that victory for others.
Ashley James (0:04:03.427)
Exactly. That's why I started the podcast also. I started this podcast eight years ago because I was suffering for so many years from several major medical issues and I used holistic medicine to get better. After being with MD medicine for so many years and under the MD's care, I got worse, not better. I felt sicker, not better, then found true holistic medicine. There's a lot of people these days that call themselves holistic that aren't. You have to buy or beware. I found my mentors and not only did they help me get better through true holistic medicine, true holistic medicine is supporting your body's ability to heal itself and getting out of your body's way. Stop doing the things that are hindering your body from achieving homeostasis, then giving your body what it's missing in order for the body to do the healing, your body wants to heal. It wants to come back into balance. These simple changes make such a profound difference, in the instance of headaches, sometimes no matter what we try, even when we go to holistic practitioners, the pain is still there and we're left so frustrated or the imbalance is still there. That's why we want to come to Dr. Scott V. I know you like to be called Dr. V.
A little plug, your website is headacheadvantage.com and we're going to get into how you help people, of course, we want to talk about your story and what led you to this but before we do, I got to share a little story about a headache in my life with you and because you had asked before we hit record, you're like, so do you have any headaches? I'm like, well, let's hit record so we can get started. My husband who has never suffered from headaches unless we lived in Las Vegas and he forgot to drink water. You do that once or twice. The dose dehydration headaches are the worst. You do that a few times, you learn your lesson. You learn to always travel with water with you, other than that, he never suffered from headaches. Two years ago, he moved in with his parents for five months and lived in a bed beside his dad and did 24-hour hospice care until his dad passed away. He and his dad didn't have the best of relationships. His dad never said, I love you. He was a very stoic person. On his deathbed, he said to my husband, my husband was 54 years old, heard I love you from his dad for the first time. It was a beautiful experience. They both bonded.
I believe it was a very healing, cathartic experience. When he passed away, we weren't all torn up. We had spent a lot of time processing it. It wasn't a sudden thing. It was slow and we pretty much did our grieving and our processing while he was going downhill.
the day he died, my husband had to get a root canal, which was botched. So they extracted the tooth. It was tooth 15 all the way back molar 15. This was about two years ago. He proceeded to develop constant chronic headaches. Now we go to a naturopath. It's been the naturopathic doctors, we eat super clean.
He goes to a really good chiropractor, acupuncturist. We went down the list, and could not figure out what was going on. We went from practitioner to practitioner. We tried everything, homeopathy, everything. Some things worked a little bit temporarily. He had all kinds of different facial massages. He went to three different types of manipulative massages and these headaches would come on around 11am every day, almost every day. Sometimes it was every other day.
Sometimes you get a break and it'd be every three days, but this was for two years. They were so bad. I describe it like a migraine in his neck and it would radiate. It was a tension headache. It would radiate up into his head, typical of either a scalenes trigger point or sometimes it would move and be an upper trapezius trigger point, a very typical radiating pain pattern.
Also he had ischemia in those muscles. The muscles were really hard, like hard as a rock, and we would strip them and get heat on them and everything, but we couldn't get the pain to go away. No practitioner could figure out what was wrong other than he had this problem that would come on and then release six to eight hours later. He would have this pain, but it was like a migraine because he could barely drive. He could barely talk. He'd be wincing. Then afterwards it was like an old neurological event. He would be left completely exhausted, the rest of the day could not function, like just zero function. So he was going through a migraine and that it would exhaust him. Also it would take all of his effort, all of his concentration away.
I was talking to so many different naturopaths and trying to figure out what's the next course of action because I knew that there was an answer out there and one of my good naturopathic friends said, you should try going to Dr. Jeff Harris, who does prolotherapy and he also teaches it. So my husband's been seeing him and now he went from one headache every day to a headache every three days to two a month.
With the prolotherapy and we're onto something because the prolotherapy that Dr. Jeff Harris went, there's something going on with your spleen channel, tooth 15, my husband has a giant scar by his spleen because he had an accident, he almost lost his spleen when he was nine. Also the headaches would start at the same time in Chinese medicine as the spleen time.
It's interesting because every problem a husband's ever had has always been on his left side. That's where the headache is. That's where the spleen is. The problem is, it would add up. He's had a few sessions and just with a few sessions, it's gone from I said, one every day or one every three days to only two a month. We still don't know a hundred percent why. But I definitely feel the trigger was the botched root canal when they pulled the tooth, everything leading up to that. Now we also have explored, is it the stress of doing palliative care for several months with his dad and being in a weird bed and being in weird positions, having to pick up his dad off the floor and all the things that could go wrong there. But the headaches didn't start till after the dental stuff, so that's my headache story is that we tried everything. One thing we saw that temporarily would shift it a bit is fasting. Well, of course you're getting rid of all the kinds of foods that inflame, even though my husband eats clean, for example, corn, which I know could be inflammatory for some people, he might have it sometimes in his diet.
We don't know what's giving him inflammation. When you fast, it's like this amazing elimination diet and you're left, wow, I feel so much better. Well, you might've been eating 90% good and 10% bad and what's bad for you might be fine for someone else. It didn't 100% go to his headaches, but we saw a huge shift. We knew that inflammation was a stressor that played a role, but it was multifaceted and it's fascinating and we couldn't quite figure it out. I'm super interested in talking to you today because I know that there are people out there suffering from headaches and a headache doesn't just have to be in the head. It can start in the neck and radiate up like I said with my husband but there's so many different ways that we can approach it to help the body. But the most important thing I feel is to listen to the body and figure it out. Why is the body speaking this language? ? Why is the body saying, Hey, I'm so out of balance, I'm creating pain and let it be a lesson. Let us learn from the body so that we can support the body to heal itself. I know that's what you do. You've unlocked the secrets to listening to the body around headaches and how we can stop them. My first burning question is, do you also help people end migraines?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:13:14.543)
Absolutely. It all comes down to the location of the headache. In your husband's example, you said left-sided predominantly, but then a lot of what you were talking about sounded all the way up to suboccipital on both sides. Is it both sides or left?
Ashley James (0:13:31.296)
No, it was typically left side, and sometimes now with all the therapy he's done, it stays in the neck, but it's like a headache in the neck. But sometimes it radiates just the upper trapezius trigger point, which is on the left side of the occipital, all the way around the parietal, the temporal, and then kind of above the eye.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:13:58.638)
So a left-sided headache is going to be a stomach issue. Stomach, pancreas, and spleen in acupuncture are all related and have their own emotions. The first and foremost in there is over-sympathetic. Certainly, your husband's having to take care of his dad. There was some strain there. Praise God, they were able to kind of get some resolution.
Unfortunately it was at the end, but that saves him a lifetime of challenge just solving that emotion to finally hear I love you from his dad, which we all need to hear. Dads, make sure you're doing that if you're listening. Left side of the headache is going to be a stomach potentially spleen issue. So we'd want to look at what else in his life beyond the emotions.
Clearing, treating, desensitizing for those emotional challenges are going to help the stomach and the pancreas function better and the spleen, again, they're all in acupuncture related, especially emotionally, that stomach meridian does a ramhorn around the left side of the eye and down the neck as you described into the scalenes and so on. The other potential and why I asked, whether it was all left-sided or both is the overzealous response to stress inhibits the thyroid and can cause the suboccipital, so when it's all the way up the neck and the back of the head, what people would typically call a tension headache, tends to do with that chronic cortisol secretion and ultimately under-functioning thyroid. We want to facilitate thyroid function in that case and the consequences of the chronic stress. That make sense?
Ashley James (0:15:47.478)
Yes, totally, and it's so exciting that you are the expert. You're the headache guy. Everyone who has chronic headaches needs to know that you exist and then go get help from you.
I was just two days ago talking to a friend of mine who is also in the holistic health space. She was telling me about a client. She goes, I have a client who's had headaches since he was born and both his mother and father have chronic headaches also. The father now is on dialysis because he's been put on pain meds for so many years. She goes, could it be that there's mold in their house? We're trying to figure out why this whole family who lives under the same roof, why did they all have headaches? I’m like, it might be, but there's so many factors. There's so many different reasons, but it's fascinating that the whole family suffers from headaches. Obviously we're looking at something that impacts all of them. It could be food, it could be mold, there could be so many factors. Have you ever seen a whole family have headaches?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:17:08.709)
. So our first question in that sort of situation is how is the head? How are the family doing when they're away from the house? If they go away to Disneyland for a week do all their headaches go away, symptomatically or historically, then that helps us know that yes, it's something in the house. I mean, certainly their diet's going to change when they travel. But I mean, yes, mold, there's obviously many different types of mold. But I mean, one of the most common things is mold compromises the immune system and can set up any number of symptoms.
Yes, we see that often and often with the testing that we do we can even narrow it down to where in the house, in their bedroom window there's mold, or those types of things that are compromising a person's health.
Typically in that scenario obviously we want to remediate and get the mold out of the house but then strengthen the lungs because the lungs are chronically compromised from being challenged with the mold so we want to do vitamins A and vitamin C certainly are typical anti-antioxidants to facilitate lung function, or even lung tissue, if you will, in a supplement to rebuild the lungs to help it handle the environment, especially while they're trying to remediate, while they're trying to get that mold out of their environment. Just out of two of those yesterday, clinically, that we had to address. The fun story on that I saw several of them, but one gal said, you have mold in your bedroom. She said, no, you're crazy. That kind of thing is often we hear. She didn't really believe it or hadn't seen it and then she went home and checked the window where it kind of narrowed it down to pulled back the drapes and realized that there's a black stripe of mold down the middle of the window that's over their bed and realized she sneezes, she was sneezing twelve times every time she walked into the room and she'd wake up in the morning feeling doo-doo because she was sleeping with mold, inhaling mold all night. The good news is that it was an easy fix to just clean up the mold in the window and live happily ever after.
Ashley James (0:19:19.321)
. Also do a little bit more investigating because it might be deeper with mold. It's typically what you see is the tip of the iceberg.
I have a few really interesting interviews about mold remediation. Listeners go to learntruehealth.com typing in mold and listening to those. I have at least five episodes with mold remediators that will just blow your mind. But I was also thinking about that family and what people often don't think about is that a lot of food sensitivities are passed down genetically, food allergies, food sensitivities, but also the microbiome.
We share the same microbiome just because of exposure to one another and microbiome, which is from our mouth to our anus. It's not just in the big colon, and your microbiome is in your skin too, but as far as your digestion is concerned, it is the entire digestive tract has a microbiome. It's about six pounds of bacteria and either good or bad microbes, depending on what you feed.
You eat junk, you're feeding the bad army that lives inside you. You eat good, clean food, you're feeding the good army. But the thing is, it's so fascinating. I have two interviews about this with the Viome experts. You can type in Viome at learntruehealth.com to listen to those. That the bacteria in your gut digest your food and produce chemicals. Now, some of these chemicals are really helpful and some of them are harmful and you can actually then have a reaction. It's not necessarily that you're allergic to that food, but your microbiome is producing a chemical from that food that then makes you sick. If you're all eating the same because you're under the same roof and you share the same microbiome, it might not even show up on a blood test that you're allergic to that food. But when you remove that food, you start feeling better.
So, there's food, there's also because we typically as families eat the same or very similar, we typically also suffer from the same nutrient deficiencies, plus with genetics, your genetics can determine what nutrients you're processing more of. I just got some genetics testing back and I think it's fascinating that my body burns through B12 and folate at a much faster rate than others do. So I have to be careful and make sure that I'm on top of those nutrients for myself.
Your genetics, like, one person, and I see this all the time, I see my clients, the wives will say, my husband can eat anything and he doesn't feel sick and then I eat the same thing and I'm throwing up, I'm so sick or I feel miserable when I eat the way my husband eats.
His genetics are completely different. His microbiome, if you're fairly newlywed, are completely different. You could live under the same roof, but there's so many factors. Do you have a checklist that you go through? How do you go through all the factors that could be leading to headaches?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:22:29.633)
So much in that statement you just had I mean first we want to kind of shine light on the fact that that biome you're talking about the lactobacillus organisms are the main producers of B12 or methylcobalamin, which is the main nutrient along with folic acid and B6, but those are the main nutrients that drive that methylation pathway that is so often deficient in the genetic tests you're talking about. That's kind of how that correlates the whole biome with the proper detox of the liver, for example, that methylation pathway gets inhibited by stress, gets inhibited when we're deficient in B12, which again is made from the microbiome, the gut microbiome. so that is also, methylation activates the tumor suppressor gene.
The long term consequences of having say the B12 deficiency and under functioning methylation is opening the door for the big ugly stuff, unfortunately, that's how this whole body concept comes into play. We can take B12. Let's correct that. But ultimately, eat your vegetables. Your green leafies and the foods that are going to feed those lovely lactobacillus organisms that are then going to be in your bodies, if you will, to make the nutrients that you need to thrive and to flourish and to stay young.
It all comes to the whole body concept really comes together. To tie that in, as you were asking, with headaches. The reason the book is called The Headache Advantage is because for me, clinically, a person will come in with a list of 15 symptoms, for example, one of my burning primary questions is what area of the head hurts? If they've got a whole list of say digestive related symptoms and pain in the left pectoral muscle and bicep tenderness and all these other areas that are physically related to stomach and then they have a left-sided headache, I know that stomach is going to be the be-all or the keystone to get rid of a lot of these other symptoms that are going to be tied to it. They could have colon-related symptoms and it's going to manifest as low back pain, all these other things, but if their headache is on the left side, I know that fixing their stomach is going to take care of all these other symptoms. So, it saves me some pursuit and helps narrow down the pursuit of where the chief weakness is in that person's physiology. It makes the clinical certainty and the effectiveness of our natural healthcare just kind of go through the roof utilizing that information.
Ashley James (0:25:11.647)
When you say fixing the stomach, is this the metaphorical stomach? Is it the traditional Chinese version of stomach or is this the Western version of, yes, there's something literally wrong in your stomach, or are you talking about all of digestion?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:25:30.671)
Yes, great question. In this case, we're talking about stomach specifically. I talked about digestion as a whole, if they have symptoms of digestion all up and down the track, if you will.
But when it's a lesson and when their pain is on the left side of the head I know as you called out, fixing the stomach and fixing means either a structural change. Chiropractors are going to adjust t5 or c1 if there's allergies related to it. So we have the structural aspect and we've got the nutritional needs. Are they eating something that's compromised in the way the stomach's functioning or do they simply need nutrients like thiamin, vitamin B1, calcium, zinc. Some of the nutrients to help make stomach acid or have they had an emotional overload of over sympathetic, low self-esteem, disgust type emotions that laid down accumulated and compromised the way the stomach functioned. That's the fun, the art of natural health care is identifying the structural, the nutritional, the emotional triggers that are causing in this case, the stomach to not function up to par and then manifest as symptoms of a left -sided headache. That's what I call fixing the stomach is incorporating the structural, the nutritional, supplemental, emotional triggers.
Ashley James (0:26:51.844)
A lot of people discredit emotion as having anything to do with physical health. But as you just pointed out, that emotion directly impacts whether we're in that sympathetic fight or flight response, in which case when we're in that response, the body is shunting blood away from our core, away from our organs, and it's limiting the acid production.
What I tell people when I'm explaining the stress response, I'm like, have you ever been stressed out and either you're not hungry or if you force yourself to eat, it's sitting a lump in your stomach. Some people when they're under stress, they'll even throw up because their stomach, it just shuts down. It's shunting all your resources to your limbs and we're supposed to run away from the bear and then it's supposed to shut off. But now we're constantly triggering that stress response and our emotions trigger it.
We could be sitting safely in our home, but we start watching TV or looking on our phone or even just thinking about something stressful and we trigger that response. We don't even realize we're turning our digestion off and that wreaks havoc on the whole body.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:28:06.605)
Absolutely, and every organ has associated emotions. A lot of those come from acupuncture thousands of years old that correlated all of that. We talked about the stomach with over sympathetic, low self-esteem, disgust, gallbladder, which tends to relate to -sided headaches.
Those are going to be more your liver emotions of anger, frustration, resentment. So that's where chronic illness really becomes a challenge and becomes more chronic, if you will, because they've got chronic stomach weakness, for example, then they're going to store more emotions in that area, in that now weak link, if you will.
To give you kind of an example of emotions, they totally affect it. I mean, I see every week people or new patients that have seen other chiropractors and blame ever since I've had, I got rear ended 20 years ago, I've got this chronic neck pain and it's just my plight and becomes their identity. Unfortunately that's because nobody had addressed the emotional component. they'll get adjusted, get their chiropractic or their massage and feel good for a bit. Then when they see another Red Honda or whatever car rear ended them, it brings back that emotion and puts them back into that fight or flight weakness that then causes again, the weakness of say the neck extensors and leaving them back into their headaches or back into their neck problems. We want to have tools to release that. Even if it's thinking about the accident or the first thing you remember here in skid marks or whatever, think about that as a person gets adjusted or as they're getting their massage. Your listeners that are doing bodywork, how often do they see a person break into tears for no quote known reason?
Ashley James (0:29:53.916)
What do you recommend for people that recognize that a major issue is trapped unresolved negative emotion from the past? What tools do you recommend they use to gain resolution and release those trapped emotions?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:30:16.049)
There are a lot of great tools. The tool I use clinically is an approach called neuro emotional technique or NET, super well documented, proven out approach on the ONE foundation, O-N-E ONE foundation.
They've done the research of pain patterns and even tested cholesterol and inflammatory markers and watched them go down by desensitizing people to these chronic effects or the physical manifestation of emotions. That's what we use clinically on my Dr. Scott Vrzal Instagram page I've shown a couple videos of how I kind of apply that so that a person can clear their own emotions by touching over the pulse points on the wrist. They'll basically help a person cover every organ and then doing a gentle flexing of the chin with the hand on the forehead That's a way to clear clear emotions for you the person the consumer that has the emotional triggers in other words if you feel your blood pressure going up when your spouse says something that rubbed you the wrong way you can do this approach by again touching the pulse points, putting the other hand on the forehead and doing each side of the pulse points. That clears in general every organ.
There's also tapping approaches and other approaches that people can use to self-desensitize to these emotional manifestations because unfortunately, the body physically stores emotions. Let's talk about the nutritional component that goes along with that though. In general, my statement is you want to be more rock-like than sponge-like. So to be more rock-like, we want to keep our minerals up. Minerals come from rocks, so minerals make us more emotionally resilient to shed off the back of a duck.
When those emotions come along, having a good mineral reserve will help us shed those emotions and not physically store them. Whereas if we're eating sugar that leeches zinc, that leeches minerals, our system's acidic, we're going to be a lot more prone to physically store those emotions. Then, you're going to be more sponge-like.
If you're eating the sad, standard American diet that has a lot of processed foods and trans fats, then that person's going to be a lot more prone to store every emotion that comes down the pike and they end up with that chronic physical illness. Whereas the person that's eating a lot of organic food eats organic because it has thousands of times the amount of minerals in it, literally thousands of times the amount of minerals in it. Pesticides also are the toxic metals that compromise mineral status. When we eat organic, we don't get pesticides, we get those minerals. That can help us be more rock-like and resilient when the emotional stress happens. Think of the calmness of a person that seems totally chill, even though their dad died, their mom died, that sort of stuff or the work goes bananas then that person that's eating calm and alkaline is going to handle that emotion much better. The other obvious kind of trigger is exercise.
Exercise allows us to raise dopamine levels at runner's high that we get with exercise. Exercise raises dopamine that tells us, hey, everything's okay. This is a good season. We're cool. It also allows us to sort out and collect our emotions, if you will. I'm a crazy avid cyclist. When I'm out on my bike, I'm listening to books, I'm listening to your podcast, things that feed my mind with healthy, beneficial stuff but it also gives me the opportunity to sort through the triggers, the stressors that have happened and kind of categorize them, if you will, and solve them mentally. Exercise and organic vegetables are a great way to prevent the physical storage of emotions.
Ashley James (0:34:15.864)
Oh my gosh. I love everything you said. I have a few things to share as well. I lost my mom back in 2002 and I wanted to grieve healthfully. I was devastated by losing her. She was my best friend and I was 22 and I didn't know how to grieve healthfully. I really woke up to this realization that we are not given tools to process emotions healthfully to have conflict resolution healthfully. I looked back on my years from K through 12. I grew up in Ontario. Actually at the time we had in high school, Grade 13, can you imagine being held back the entire province of Ontario for many years. We graduated when we were 19 from high school because we did, it was called OAC, which was grade 13 but so for my 13 years, this is before I went to college, I was in college when my mom died, but just looking back on the standard 13 years that kids are in or 12 or 13 years, kids are in school and realizing that not one class, it wasn't mandatory. It's not even known. It's so off the radar that we could be teaching children how to process emotions healthfully, how to grieve healthfully, what happens when there's loss in the family, and now they're introducing new things that are teaching children, but they're not teaching them real emotional life skills. They're still not teaching them how to. You're going to eventually lose someone, how to grieve healthfully, how to gain conflict resolution. You're going to have a fight with your friend or your spouse or a family member, eventually, or, a gas attendant, you're going to eventually have a conflict with someone. How do you manage that? How do you do it healthfully? How do you maturely de-escalate, communicate?
These are things that I had to go and find. I had to seek. I went on this excursion and I discovered, well, Landmark Education, which is a company I highly recommend. Now they're all online. They used to be all in person, which is cool because no matter where you are in the world, you can take their live training. They teach amazing life skills for communication. I took all their courses and it helped me improve so much my abilities to communicate and process emotions. I just think it should be taught to everyone. Then I discovered as a result of Landmark Education, I discovered neuro-linguistic programming. I went into that. I became a master practitioner and trainer of neuro-linguistic programming, but I was lucky enough to have found the creator of timeline therapy and studied under him.
Timeline therapy, I have not found something that's more effective than timeline therapy at helping people to consciously have an experience of the unconscious mind of going back to the root cause of the event, gaining resolution and releasing the emotion.
I'm excited to look into your NET because I'm always interested and I believe that the more tools, the better. I highly recommend you check out Timeline Therapy because it is phenomenal. Within 15 minutes someone can have, I'm just saying 15 minutes arbitrarily, it could be 5, it could be 45, it depends on the person, but in one sitting, someone can go back and even the most horrific, tragic, what they think they could never resolve, they can walk out of your office having 100% resolution, feeling so good about that memory and no longer having the negative emotion when they think about that memory but actually positively gaining these skills and these positive lessons from the memory, and that's what helps resolve.
When we get a new perspective and we learn the strengths that we gained from that, the body lets go, and we no longer have negative emotions. That's so freeing because holding onto anything negative, especially when you perceive someone's done something to you, it's like shooting yourself in the foot. You're hurting yourself. You're not hurting them. You're not hurting the person that hurt you. You're just hurting yourself by holding on. We don't let go until we gain that resolution.
Those three systems helped me to fully heal from losing my mom. In doing so, I was able to help clients because that's why I got to start. I can't believe it. Everyone needs to know this. That's what led me down the path of working with people. Then that's when I found holistic medicine because I was suffering physically and there's got to be more to life than just an MD telling me to get on drugs and that's what led me to the podcast, but I see that, what we need, what everyone needs to know is that there's a direct connection between your emotions and your physical health and that they're not separate. I just love that you're shedding light on that and that sometimes headaches can even manifest because there's unresolved emotional conflict inside.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:40:05.546)
There's so much to talk about in that statement. I mean, for starters, the lung, the emotions associated with the lung are grief, sadness, yearning. A lot of the stuff we go through and I share your emotional thing. I lost my mom in January. She went into the hospital just before the holidays, just before her 79th birthday. It was a very short three week challenge for her and she was done.
I had a lot of stress with that, but I was okay with it in the fact that I knew I was confident that she left no strange relationships and I was able to get to her and be there to say goodbye and that sort of stuff. Again, taking care of myself and having these tools to get through the grieving process, kind of tie that back to your situation as I've kind of listened to your podcast and stuff. It sounds like the loss of your mom was about the time you were transitioning from your younger years. Sounds like you grew up in a pretty healthy environment and then started kind of going wayward if you will and eating more of the processed foods. That situation was then used in your life to redirect and now look at the tens of thousands of people that are benefiting from that change, that shift in trajectory in your life. So that kind of brings us back to one of my favorite statements that really will help us shape the paradigm of when these stressors happen.
I look at everything happens for us and nothing happens to us. If we look at these challenges, you lost your mom. Obviously it hurts. The other statement that goes along with that is pain is intended to elicit change. If we've got the pain of loss of our mom and our mutual experiences there.
I was already a nutcase about changing lives but I told my mom 25 years ago how it was going to go for her based on the diet sodas that she was living on and the lifestyle choices that she was making. They were not conducive to a healthy life and she was following the medical model and getting her methotrexate shots and all the other craziness for her arthritis and brain was starting to go.
She totaled three cars in 18 months with driving the wrong way on an on-ramp and just kind of losing it that way. Fortunately she was super adamant about not being dependent on anybody and she went out quick. Other than the three weeks stay in the hospital, it was quick for her. Having that resolution in my mind that, hey, it kind of went the way she wanted to, but there were predictive factors in there that just strengthened my resolve to be.
People that are making these choices, this is the consequence, this is the outcome. Learn from The Headache Advantage. Learn from where your pain is and learn to listen to that pain because your body's telling you to make a change in your life. Every pain physically in the body is going to relate to an organ system that is trying to get your attention. Every muscle has associated glands or organs, so we can use that physical pain, whether that's back pain that's associated with the quadratus lumborum and bottom muscle that kind of attaches from the ribs to the pelvis, that muscle spasms out, the intestine is not happy. The thumb will get sore when the intestine is not happy. When you have those pains, then is there a grief situation? Am I eating too much corn or wheat or dairy that's compromised the intestine? Then maybe it's a food journal. You realize, okay, every time I eat pizza, my back hurts, or whatever that situation is. Learn from the pain that, again, your body's trying to elicit change with that pain. Learn from what your body's trying to tell you so that we can change the trajectory and flourish and have the quality life that is intended.
Ashley James (0:44:09.941)
I want to say that when you experience pain, even just to view it as a gift, because pain is temporary and it's as horrible and uncomfortable as it is, it is the largest motivator, like you said, for change. It's shining a light on something and if you act fast enough and find the right holistic doctor like Dr. V, get his book, it's coming out soon, The Headache Advantage. Your website also is headacheadvantage.com, by gaining this understanding and then diving into, okay, where's this pain located? What's triggering it? Going through and figuring out what the root cause is, make the correction quickly instead of it going deeper because if it's a nutrient deficiency, it only gets worse. If it's stress, things only get worse. We want to listen to pain when it first comes up and not wait because the longer we prolong it, the harder it is to support the body in recovering. Catch it quickly, listen to the body.
I love that you're exposing that there's a way that we can hear the body. Listen to the symptoms of the body. This is what I was taught by one of my mentors is the body speaks in symptoms. If we listen to those symptoms, we can catch things really early and make small corrections instead of waiting for the really big problems then you have to make really big corrections. I've met so many people who develop cancer and they're always surprised. But then when they started really going down the rabbit hole of healing, there were warning signs that they ignored. I can only speak to what it is to be a woman, but I know women ignore, I think men do too, not everyone, but women ignore because they put everyone else first. They’re like, I don't have enough time for this. I'm taking care of my husband. I'm taking care of my kids. I got to drive them to soccer. I've got to cook dinner. I've got to clean. I just came home from work. I get it. You have taken on the responsibility of other people. You are the executive function of an entire household of people. But if you stop functioning, everything grinds to a halt. You really do need to prioritize you. Listen to those symptoms. If your body is crying out, it's time to put the pause button, ask for some help from friends or family members to take over some of your tasks so that you can carve out the time that's needed to take care of you.
You had mentioned nutrient deficiency, and I think that's really important to bring up the minerals. In fact, I have two interviews, one Kristen Bowen episode all the way back in 294 and an episode with Dr. Joel Wallach, one of my mentors who's absolutely amazing, episode 435. With Kristen Bowen, she sells a magnesium soak where you absorb grams of magnesium from it. It is phenomenal. 76% of people reach full cell saturation within a month of soaking daily in this magnesium soak. She offers listeners a discount. Her website's really cute, livingthegoodlifenaturally.com and use coupon code LTH as in Learn True Health. Use coupon code LTH to get the listener discount. She gives us a great discount. Get the magnesium soak, do it every day. Just get a basin, just put your feet in it. When you're watching TV, reading a book, even when you're at your desk, just put your feet in it and soak every day for 30 days. Within the first day, you'll notice a difference.
Most people have amazingly deep sleep and then such great energy. One of the things I learned from her, and I've learned many things, she's come back on the show about four times so you can listen to her, all the episodes I did with Kristen Bowen. But she said that if we're magnesium deficient, pain receptors cannot turn off. That we need magnesium for the pain receptors to even close. I had pain in my foot the other day. I was , I know what I got to do. Did a foot soak, immediately the pain resolved. This is so cool. Magnesium is so cool. it's the most needed of all the minerals. There's 60 minerals the body needs, but it's the most needed.
We always think calcium is the most important. It's not. It's not. Magnesium and zinc are more important than calcium in terms of how many enzymatic processes are used. The body needs magnesium to make over 300 hormones and proteins and 1800 enzymatic processes. It's crazy. People are walking around completely deficient in minerals, especially in magnesium, because the farming practices of over the last hundred years have depleted.
Our food supply of minerals. I love that you're stressing, eating organic, and finding farms. If you can find a local farm that does biodynamic farming, that remineralizes their soil, that also is so helpful. Dr. Joel Wallach has amazing books that'll blow your mind on utilizing minerals to support the body's ability to heal itself. That was episode 435. I love that you brought that up because when we're deficient in one of the 90 essential nutrients, the body just starts to break down. I described this to my clients. It's like the workmen showed up to build the house, but the lumber didn't get delivered. Your body wants to heal itself, but if the lumber doesn't show up, your job is to deliver the lumber, your body or the workmen, they want to rebuild. They want to build healthy cells. If you don't deliver the lumber, they're not rebuilding healthy cells and you begin to break down and then pain.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:50:24.894)
I agree 100%. You just called out the two primary mineral deficiencies.
You talked a lot about- magnesium is so calming. I often have people doing that soak or take a magnesium supplement at bedtime so that'll help colon function and the calmness as you so eloquently described. But then zinc that you mentioned, we also need to talk about that. Our soils are depleted in zinc, sugar leaches zinc, stress leaches zinc. Zinc helps us break down that stress hormone. It helps us make stomach acid. I alluded to that earlier. Helps us make and break down most of the estrogens, most of the hormones and it's prolific in the immune system. With the whole viral challenge that we went through over these last few years zinc got a lot of press. Fortunately people are starting to recognize that zinc deficiency is real. So a physical symptom of zinc deficiency is the white clouds in the fingernails. Those listeners look at your fingernails if you have the white clouds it takes two months to grow out from cuticle to tip.
If you were sick or super stressed or eating too much sugar two months ago, you'll have a white cloud near the cuticle of one or multiple fingernails. That's a sign that you've got really significant zinc deficiency. We want to load up on good quality forms of zinc made from organic vegetables, obviously, so pumpkin seeds are a simple solution. Pumpkin seeds are beneficial for most blood types. There's a whole nother discussion, but pumpkin seeds are great for A blood types and O blood types, which is 84 % of the population. They're great for the prostate gentlemen. I mean, pumpkin seeds is an easy snack to kind of start bringing that zinc level back up. But most people need to supplement because it's so profoundly deficient in current living.
Ashley James (0:52:13.261)
That's if the pumpkins were grown in zinc rich soil. I like to tell people when you think of spinach, we think of Popeye, Popeye the sailor man, and he ate his spinach. What nutrients do you think of? What element do you think of when you think of spinach?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:52:33.533)
Great point. Yes, iron, folic acid, yes.
Ashley James (0:52:39.809)
Folic acid or folate we should say can be there. Folic acid is not in nature but we think of iron. Most spinach is grown hydroponically. So there's actually zero minerals, almost zero. I don't know if you noticed, though, if you're older, if you consider yourself a seasoned person on this planet. I'm not going to put an age out there, but there are people who are old enough to remember what a carrot and a tomato tasted like. They taste like carrots and now they taste like cardboard. You have to go back in your memory when you were a kid. You remember biting into something and being like, I could sit here and eat carrots all day. I go to a local farm and I get them fresh out of the ground and they taste like back in the 80s when carrots taste like carrots. They're candy. I just sit there and I eat them raw like candy. I just can't stop. It's so delicious. It's so good for you. If your produce tastes cardboard, guess what? Probably no minerals in it. I'm just going to say if it's grown in minerally rich soil, you want to become a raw vegan. You just can't get enough. It's so good. It tastes so good. You just want to eat it raw right out of the ground.
I love pumpkin seeds for many reasons. They're also anti-parasitic and they're a really good source of protein and a really good source of healthy fats, but whether there's going to be enough zinc in them, I don't know. It just depends on whether that soil even has zinc in the first place. Because plants can grow. All they need is NPK. Plants can grow without most of the minerals, but you can't as a human, we need 60 minerals. Plants don't need them to grow produce. I have grown a vegetable garden. I remineralized the soil and it's like the garden of Eden. These things grow like I poured steroids into the ground. They grow beautifully. There's different kinds of zinc. There's the picolinate. There's the, I'm going to totally butcher this, the bisglycinate. What do you recommend is the best type of zinc if someone were to buy us a zinc supplement?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:55:03.870)
Yes, I use whole food based supplements that are basically going to be, if you will, organic pumpkin seeds vacuum dried into a zinc supplement. It's more as it would be found in your former garden.
Ashley James (0:55:20.198)
Got it. Digested by the plant. It's plant derived and digested by the plant. But the company that you sell, do they test to make sure that there's actually zinc in the pumpkin seed?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:55:34.134)
Absolutely, I mean, it may not be pumpkin seed. They're using high zinc vegetables that they grow in their own organic farm to produce the supplements that I typically would recommend for zinc.
Ashley James (0:55:47.870)
Got it. You can't say exactly what kind of zinc, because it's the kind that comes out of the ground. It's not picolinate or any of those. Okay.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:56:00.752)
Right. I hate to say, but call it lab grown almost, if you will, so taking zinc that we're going to want to balance it with the copper and the magnesium chromium that all helps it synergistically function. That's part of why I prefer supplements that come from the organic farm, ultimately. Because it's going to digest better, it's going to not create other deficiencies. If we over consume zinc in a synthetic form, it can create deficiencies of other nutrients. Vitamin E is a great example of that. Vitamin E is found in walnuts and organic nuts and that stuff. But if we extract it out and do d-alpha-tocopherol, then it creates a functional E deficiency and then that person is going to have back pain or potentially cardiovascular weakness from creating a functional deficiency by not having the selenium and other synergistic nutrients that go along with E in that case or zinc as we described.
Ashley James (0:57:07.426)
We've touched on some important subjects. Your environment that you live in can play a role, like, mold, for example. There's also EMF exposure. I have several episodes about that. There's environmental, there's emotional, there's whether the food you're eating can play a role, the nutrient deficiency can play a role. There's these different layers.
When someone comes to you and you've talked about this, they come to you and the first thing is, well, where's the headache? We talked about the left side. Let's talk about the right side. If someone comes in and they have headaches always on the right side, what is that an indicator of?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (0:57:51.579)
The gallbladder is a right-sided organ, similar to the stomach meridian, but the gallbladder starts right behind the eye where the V, on the outside of the eye, goes down the side of the head. It goes down both sides, but again, the gallbladder is a right-sided organ. When the gallbladder doesn't function, when it's congested or, if emotionally we talked about anger, frustration, resentment, if that's been stuffed away, compromisingly the gallbladder functions, then that's going to set the stage for a right-sided headache.
Physically, the muscle that sports the back of the knee, there's a little tiny muscle called the popliteus muscle, that gets weak and tender and creates instability in the knee when the gallbladder simultaneously is compromised. These are other areas that would physically manifest, if you will, when the gallbladder is not functioning properly. Then we want to look at food triggers potentially, glyphosate. I mean, here comes a whole other episode. Glyphosate inhibits bile production so then they end up with bile stasis or congestion, which is a very common trigger to set up right-sided gallbladder headaches.
Glyphosate is the toxin within Roundup that is used to kill wheat, the crops of wheat, corn, soy, oats right before harvest so that they can harvest it all at the same time. It all comes back to the manufacturing processes, but that inhibits bile production. That also obliterates the intestinal lining. That is the most common trigger I see to set up right-sided headaches. Certainly then we've got the balance of omega-3s to omega-6 fatty acids. There's some ratio in there that a typical, sad, standard American diet tends to have more omega-6s as opposed to the omega-3s that the body really needs for anti -inflammatory. Omega-6s are good, nuts and seeds, we need them, but most diets have too much of those, and so that inverse ratio can also congest the gallbladder, which then leads to constipation and other things that go along with poor fat metabolism, even nutrient-wise. B6, pyridoxal 5-phosphates, the active form, functional form of B6, that also helps facilitate methylation again where a lot of the bile is made and facilitates the functioning of the bile. If a person's had chronic gallbladder problems, and they've had their gallbladder removed, typically we want to replace that bile. My canned joke is until the gallbladder goes back.
Ashley James (1:00:20.939)
Yes. So, the rest of their lives. When I have a client and they start telling me about certain issues that sound like a fat deficiency, a healthy fat deficiency, I'm like, do you still have your gallbladder? Almost always they say no. Then I'm like, okay, so let's, we need to back this up. Your gallbladder was so important. God gave you a gallbladder for a reason that it would store all the bile and then when you ate food, the fat in your food was not water soluble fat. You see oil kind of floating on top of water? It's not mixing together. Even though your stomach would produce the enzymes to break down the lipase, to break down the lipids, to break down the fat in your food, whether you're vegan, there's even fat in apples and potatoes. t's in small amounts and it's a different kind of fat, but there's fat in plants. There's fat obviously in animal products, but regardless of what you're eating, there's going to be some amount of fat and that fat is important for the body. There's a good kind, like you said, pumpkin seeds, great. then there's bad kind, anything fried, not good for you. Fried, bad, just giving you an example, there's a big spectrum of fats that are not really helpful and then fats that are extremely unhealthy and very damaging.
Then there's fats that are super healthy for you. But you can't digest them because they're not water soluble. The stomach then empties the small intestine. The bile is supposed to then empty out the blood is supposed to squeeze and let all that bile mix with the contents, those liquid contents now of what you just ate. It emulsifies sort of what a soap does. The digestive enzymes that break down fat allows them to then blend with the fat. If that process doesn't happen, no matter how much fat you eat, you're digesting one hundredth of what, I don't know, because the liver, is just dripping, just drip, drip, drip instead of squeezing a tablespoon or an ounce or whatever it was, however much bile it was squeezing into the contents. It's doing such a small amount of bile now that you're barely able to digest. Here's the kicker. What I've learned from naturopaths is that usually a bile problem was already a healthy fat deficiency to begin with because we need healthy cholesterol to make healthy bile and buildup of gallstones is a lack of healthy cholesterol. What I've seen naturopaths do is actually help the body slowly increase through supporting the digestion and healthfully increase the healthy cholesterol production, which then breaks down the gallstones in the gallbladder, and then that restores function.
If you can catch this early enough, this is again where the pain matters. If you start to have little aches and pains or, I ate a fried egg and then I get a little gallbladder attack, it's small. If it's small, you run to a naturopath. You run or run to an amazing chiropractor with an extensive knowledge such as yourself. We run and we do what we can to support saving the gallbladder because if once you've had it removed, you need to be on and your surgeon will not tell you, which is a crime. Every surgeon who's ever removed a gallbladder that doesn't tell their patient that they need to support their body with basically exogenous someone else's bile or an ox bile or whatever, or sometimes people get, I think there's papaya enzymes or something, but I haven't seen that work as well. I don't know. I'd like to hear your feedback on that. But basically you have to take it exogenously. You have to take it from outside your body instead of your body making it for the rest of your life because that was removed. MD medicine does not tell you that. I think it's, I really do think it's on purpose. I don't think the surgeon is doing it on purpose, but I think the whole system, the education system is designed to not have the surgeon tell them and then they go home and get sicker and sicker and sicker and sicker and get on more drugs and more drugs and more drugs and more drugs and just more hospital stays and they become a cash cow for the mainstream medical system, which I'm on my soapbox again raving about how angry I am that this system is designed to keep you sick and make your loved ones suffer when it's needless and it doesn't have to be that way. When you have a client come in, they've got right-sided headaches and you're beginning to detect gallbladder problems. You're there quickly to help them make some nutritional changes, make some dietary changes to get that back on track. But when someone comes to you and they no longer have their gallbladder, what kind of supplementation have you seen works best?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:05:45.736)
Yes, so replacing the bile salts so they no longer have the storage mechanism of the bile. Typically I have a person taking one to two a night of I use a product called Cola Cal, but something that, or we have several others as well that physically contain bile salts. Unfortunately people have probably known the taste of bile salts when they've drank too much and threw up. That's bile actually that they're tasting. We need to replace those because it's not being stored. Typically bile is recycled from pre-absorbed back up through the intestine into the liver and recycled.
Part of the other part of the mechanism with bile is that it's taking the toxin. The liver takes the toxins that it's taking out of the bloodstream, puts it into the bile to then eject into the colon to get rid of when we eat good fats. That's another mechanism that we need to consider that those toxins are potentially part of the reason that the gallbladder is congested. Another mechanism that takes place is as bile squirts down the bile duct, there's actually a release of eosinophils, an immune modulator that helps kind of antibacterial, if you will.
I kept finding that gallbladder was helping people's immune systems. How's this working? and Dr. Goodheart, the founder of Applied Kinesiology often talked about bio being the most dense antioxidant available. There's that benefit of antioxidants that also facilitate the immune system. We've got all these little interplays that go along, go in the body that is just so profound and exciting as we start learning these mechanisms and how they all interplay.
Ashley James (1:07:27.335)
I geek out. I'm so excited. It's so interesting. I had a guy on my show a few years ago. I've had him on a few times and he's a really interesting fellow. He was an acupuncturist who became a high school teacher. He doesn't have a ton of money, but he has invested about, I think $40,000 of his own money into lab tests that he does on himself before and after 30 day fasts. Every year he does it during the summer, because he’s a teacher so he can take the summer off. He does a 30-day fast and he's really trained in fast. He's been doing it for a long time. I don't recommend someone jump into a 30 day fast if they've never fasted before. Listen to episode 230 to learn more about fasting and how to do it healthfully. Dr. Alan Goldhamer is an amazing guest on episode 230.
This is why it costs so much money. He tests for the things that are not normally tested for. He tests for obesogens and forever chemicals, microplastics, all the things and glyphosate, all the pesticides, everything that is incredibly harmful that we've been wondering how can we get this out of our body? How can we detox this? Because it just is stored in our fat.
He's not an overweight person to begin with. He doesn't have a lot, but even people who are skinny still have fat and their body is trying to store all these chemicals. He would do this every year and he would experiment. One year he just did fasting and then he puts it up on this website just so people can see. Then the next year he incorporated sauna in some supplements. Then he put those results up.
The time that he has had the single handedly, the best result with permanently removing and lowering the needle, permanently removing all across the board, all these very harmful man made chemicals that are get stored up in our body that cause cancer and epigenetically change our gene expressions for really nasty stuff is when he added a binder.
It was explained to him by a camera where some PhD guy goes, bile. The bile we've been talking about. Bile is a wonderful thing that digests our fat like you've said, a wonderful antioxidant, has so many properties. It is also the mechanism in which the liver uses to remove all these chemicals from the body. But bile is so precious, it gets reabsorbed in the intestines, most of it gets reabsorbed. Now our body thinks that we're living in the Garden of Eden. We're eating super clean. There are no such things as chemicals. So if that were the case, if you were never exposed to these chemicals, most of it would get reabsorbed and then through the fiber that you're eating, some of those toxins get out, because we pretty much everyone, unless there are listeners, everyone eats crap.
Everyone eats 15 grams or less of fiber. Everyone's constipated. People are reabsorbing the forever chemicals right back up into their body and also the estrogens, the estrogens are broken down and then reabsorbed because people are constipated and they don't eat enough fiber, they don't eat enough binders. During his 30 day fast, he took binders so that with the bile, which your liver's always, even if you're not eating, the liver is going to still have to get rid of stuff. It's still pumping bile out. He took binders and it lowered significantly across the board, all of these chemicals, which just goes to show bile is very important. Digestion is super important. If you're constipated you are reabsorbing toxins. Fiber is so important because it's helping bind, helping get rid of those toxins from the liver all the way out of your body without being reabsorbed and I thought that was fascinating because we don't think about how we get rid of this? We're eating glyphosate. Even if you go out once a month and you eat some kind of fast food or restaurant food, you're eating tons of manmade chemicals. Even if you eat clean most of the time, and then some of the time you go eat from a restaurant, you are absorbing these chemicals. So it's so important to consider. We've got to help the body get it all the way out of the body. It’s wild.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:12:16.459)
Absolutely. It's such an intricate mechanism and it reminds me of a gal that I actually evaluated up on stage at a seminar I was teaching and then she kind of hit me up a year later that she was about to have her gallbladder removed. Yes, and this is a health practitioner. This is a qualified natural doctor and she tried everything else and was trying to figure out what was going on. I ran a quick evaluation and it turned out her ovary was dysfunctional. So the body was overproducing cholesterol to compensate for the hormonal problems and the hormonal deficiencies. We put her on a supplement to rebuild that ovary and her cholesterol stabilized, her gallbladder corrected. I kind of wondered what happened with this gal because I hadn't had follow up with her again. Then she came up on my Facebook page where she hit me up and did this whole testimony about how we saved her gallbladder, hormones corrected, and so on. It kind of brings it back to the cholesterol we were talking about a minute ago. A couple of things that are often missed as far as triggers for high cholesterol are hormonal deficiencies because that cholesterol is the building blocks for most of those hormones, including the stress hormones and, the girl hormones. So if those are deficient in the body, then the liver's going to overproduce cholesterol as a compensation to correct them.
It’s not so much that it's plaquing up the arteries or those things that most of us have been led to believe it's the deficiency of hormones that the body's trying to compensate for. Hypothyroid, low thyroid is another very common trigger for the body to overproduce cholesterol as a compensatory mechanism to try and find homeostasis when things are out of balance.
Ashley James (1:14:12.749)
Yes, cholesterol is really important. Most people have taken on the mainstream just because, listen, we need to question everything. We've been taught cholesterol is bad, it causes heart disease. I'm not going to because I want to hear from you, the guest, but I could talk for at least an hour on how that is such a sham, such a lie.
Cholesterol is needed because 70% of the white matter of the brain is made of cholesterol. Every cell in your body that has a nucleus makes cholesterol, not just the liver, the liver only makes about 30%. It is such an important nutrient for your body that every cell wall is made of cholesterol. You said, sex and stress hormones are made of cholesterol. The myelin sheath of the nerves that protect the nerves are made of cholesterol.
It's so, so vastly important and also bile is made of cholesterol, to emulsify fats so we can absorb them. Many reasons why we need just any nutrient, too much, not good. Too little, not good. Goldilocks. We need to have that Goldilocks.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:15:26.497)
Perfect bottle of boiler porridge.
Ashley James (1:15:28.633)
Yes, we got to have that Goldilocks for every nutrient in the body. We're kind of running around stressed out. I don't know, just whatever animal you could think of. We're just running around very animalistic, being stressed out and kind of ignoring our body then self-medicating with either over-the-counter pain meds, coffee, alcohol, sugar.
I was just talking to a woman yesterday. She wanted an example of how a very simple change can make a profound difference. I said, I'm going to take water. Everyone ignores the importance of water. If you drink 5% less water than your body needs, you have a 25% reduction in your energy production in ATP. Cellular energy production goes down and then you're tired. What do you do? You probably have headaches. What do you do? You pop some
Tylenol or Advil and then you drink some coffee while you dehydrate yourself further. Then you have another slump. Then you eat some sugar or maybe go for some sugary frappuccino. Then you're completely tired, wired, super stressed out cortisol through the roof. You drink alcohol at night because it's a socially acceptable way to “calm down”. Now you're in a vicious cycle every day of doing tasks that dehydrate you. Sugar, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, alcohol, caffeine every single day. You're setting yourself up for exhaustion, burnout, poor sleep, tired wired, and then you're stressed out. Then you lose your capacity to handle stress. So you start snapping at people, but you don't realize you're the problem. You think everyone else is a jerk and then you're affecting your hormones and your digestion and your hair starts falling out. Every single aspect of this in the mainstream is acceptable.
Go, go get over the counter meds too, to medicate, self-medicate, go do sugar, alcohol, caffeine to self-medicate. If we just got off that bandwagon and started drinking enough water, all those things would be thrown away and we'd have great skin, great sleep, great energy. Our joints would stop aching. That's a simple one change. I know you teach us hundreds of things. One change, one little change can change your life and that takes calming down, taking some breaths, calming down and starting to listen to the body connect in and ask, what does my body need? What is my body asking for?
Okay. We talked about left-sided headaches, right-sided headaches. What if the headaches are on both sides, right in front of the eyes or behind the eyes, I should say.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:18:10.928)
Great question. I'd like to go back just to finish up the conclusion or conclude the discussion on cholesterol. If people are listening to this and they're truly concerned about cardiovascular risk, a much better thing to look at is going to be high homocysteine. That's an inflammatory marker that can be tested in lab tests. Homocysteine is something that should be recycled and broken down, kind of we're talking about with bile, but it should be broken down. It breaks down into pathways in the liver called methylation and sulfation to keep pathways that are often compromised in people.
Physically, if you're concerned about cardiovascular risk, when homocysteine is high or elevated, physically on the body, it's going to manifest as the little red petechiae, they're called cherry angiomas. If it looks like somebody took a red felt pen and polka dotted here and there, or you see those starting to manifest on the body, they may even be as profound as a mole size or raised red dot. It's not cancer answer risk per se, I mean the dermatologist is not going to say, we need to remove this. But that is a sign that your body's overproducing homocysteine and that is way more directly related to cardiovascular risk. So when homocysteine levels are up above nine, nine, five, the higher that is, the more relevant, the more risk there is for cardiovascular disease and the more likely it is to be a fatal event. If you're truly concerned, you've got the family history of cardiovascular challenges, look at your homocysteine, it's so much more directly related to risk than cholesterol. Is cholesterol 50% or half the people with high cholesterol don't have any cardiovascular problems. You don't have to have low cholesterol, but still have cardiovascular problems.
Homo-assisting is almost a guarantee based on that number of what the risk is. It's very modifiable. The reason we don't see it in the big pharma world, is because it's nutrients like B6 and B12 that help break that homo-assisting down to reduce the potential of plaquing. What that, again, those red dots, the petechia, the cherry angiomas, those are indicators that you're setting down. You're setting the stage for plaque in the arteries and that's way more relevant to what the risk is going to be long term for cardiovascular problems. Just to kind of give the listener a to do, to know something else to look for to have that long term quality of life. Now to take it back to your question, the bitemporal headache, if they've got pain on both sides, that is a hormonal issue that typically most of the time tends to have to do with estrogen metabolism. Again, we go back to some of those liver pathways, methylation, sulfation. There's another pathway called P450. Sorry to use terms like that, but these are key pathways in the liver that break down estrogen when we're done with it.
So if one of those pathways in the liver isn't functioning properly, then the person doesn't break down estrogen, then they're going to be a lot more prone to cancers, and to these other hormonal swings and high cholesterol and temporal headaches. The muscle that physically will get weak and tender when estrogen metabolism is compromised, or in other words, the ovary is not functioning properly, it's called the gluteus medius. It's kind of the top of the butt region. That muscle will get weak when the ovary or in the male, the gonads are not functioning properly and so that'll affect the way they walk in kind of a shuffle if you will, a lateral list during their walk. There's an acupuncture point right on the outside of the elbow that's going to get very tender, think tennis elbow. That is a sign that hormonal regulation is out of balance and so we want to look at mechanisms to break down estrogen more appropriately. Nutritionally, it might be that corn, we mentioned corn earlier in the podcast, that corn is a massive trigger for ovarian cysts and it will literally create damage in the ovary. Sorry, this might rub some people, but from a blood type perspective, O blood type females that are drinking coffee, another massive trigger for ovarian dysregulation and setting the stage for some bigger problems to come. Coffee is fine for other blood types for the most part, but corn and coffee are the most common triggers I see to set the stage for this bitemporal headache showing up on both sides.
Ashley James (1:22:44.942)
Oh my goodness. That just blows my mind. Going back to what you said about homocysteine, just, we got to go a little bit deeper there. What nutrients would be good to make sure that we're getting. I know folate, B12, what's really important to help the body to, is it to break down homocysteine or just lower the production of it? What are we supporting to get it lower? What causes it? What's the most common cause to be high? Just walk us through this since you kind of presented us with this. The most important thing to look at for heart health, it's this little truth bomb. Yes. Let's unpack that truth bomb.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:23:40.679)
You laid the stage talking about, we call it energy drinks, sodas, things like that are going to leach alcohol. A hangover is the functional deficiency of B6. Pyridoxal 5-phosphate is the active form of B6 that drives the methylation and sulfation pathways. Again, homocysteine is something that should be recycled through the body. These two pathways in the liver that don't function properly, when they don't break it down, then it continues to elevate. That's where the plaquing, the big risk comes from if we're doing things again, sodas or sugars that leach the B vitamins. Zinc is another nutrient that helps drive these pathways. Methionine, the best sources of methionine are beef, tuna and eggs. If we're eating beef, tuna and eggs, then we have the methionine amino acid to facilitate that methylation pathway to then break down this homocysteine, to break down the estrogens so that we are less prone to have this significant cardiovascular risk.
Ashley James (1:24:51.482)
Do you happen to know any vegan sources just for those listeners who don't eat those animal products?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:24:58.219)
That is a great question and I run into that often. Unfortunately, it's only found in those foods as far as I know. Often, I mean, my favorite example of this is a third generation hardcore vegan that unfortunately had MS and was in a wheelchair and was unable to walk, she had ulcerations all up on her feet and shins and everything. What we had to do for her was give her a methionine supplement to offset that significant methionine deficiency. She was an O blood type. I mean from a blood type perspective, an A blood type will do much better that way. An O blood type is more dependent on the methionine. Again, because it's beef and that's a big need, in the O blood type for that detoxification process. Often it ends up being taken an amino acid supplement that has that methionine in it if it's a vegan.
Ashley James (1:25:55.791)
Got it. I think it's really important to recognize that food is medicine. We should be using it as medicine. The body goes through seasons. I've had a few interviews where the doctors talk about how they'll use a vegan, very clean vegan diet. Listen, oreos are vegan. I'm not saying all vegans are healthy but to call it a whole food plant based diet where whole food, meaning it's a single ingredient, like there's broccoli. You can recognize everything on your plate. There's no chemicals, there's no weird stuff. You could actually pronounce every single ingredient that's on your plate. It came from a farm, not a manufacturing facility. No lab grown stuff.
Whole food plant-based, very nutrient dense, lots of good fiber. There's a lot of benefits to a whole food plant based on a mix of raw and cooked for those varieties of the enzymes and the different types of fiber. Because when you cook something, it changes the fiber. You're feeding a different gut bacteria. There's lots of fun stuff that you can play with. What I've heard from several doctors is that they use it like a cleanse, like a season. You might do this for a few months, few weeks, few months, few years.
Then there's a time where some people require animal products or you could, like you said, find it from a supplement. But if we're using food as medicine and we're being pragmatic, not dogmatic around diet, but pragmatic, I want to give my body exactly what it needs. A lot of people just run around and shove the food in their mouth that tastes the best.
If you're allowing your taste buds and your dopamine response to guide your diet, you're going to end up a statistic. We have to be more calculated. You wouldn't just put any fluid into your gas tank. Why are you doing that to your body? Sorry to give you a little shame session there, but not calling anyone out in particular, but just do a little internal check and go, because I do this to myself every day. What do I feel for dinner?
Wait a second. It's not about what I feel. What's fun? It's what my body was asking for. Sometimes it's a big smoothie. Sometimes it's a big salad. Sometimes it's something else. But listening to my body and going, what is my body asking me for? What nutrients should I be giving my body? I'm not saying that everyone should be vegan or everyone should eat meat. I'm not dogmatic when it comes to diet but a lot of people haven't explored the healing benefits of a whole food plant-based diet or as Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Joel Fuhrman will point out, eat mostly plants, just Nutritarian style, eat mostly plants, eat a variety. If anything, treat animal products as a condiment rather than the main event. So many people gain such benefits from that.
But thank you for pointing out that we don't see multiple generation vegans, if they're not being smart about their nutrients, we don't see them have great outcomes. But we also don't see Americans in the South that eat fried food for multiple generations of good outcomes either. It goes both ways. We have to be cautious about how we cook our food, what we cook our food in, whether it's nonstick Teflon or plastic, in the microwave, that matters too.
Again, I'm on my soapbox raving about, it's kind of, once you wake up to this, it's everything's trying to kill me. Everything's dangerous. My friend just literally woke up when she was in a grocery store reading packages and she had that aha moment. She texted me angrily. She's like, how do you do this? Everything's dangerous. Everything's killing us. How do you do it? How do you not get angry every time you go into a grocery store? It's liberating when you learn what's healthy for you and what your body needs. I am super excited for what we're learning from you. I have to have you back on the show because you're a true holistic doctor. I've had a string of interviews where they claim to be holistic and then they talk about, well, you could get this drug. I'm like, are you kidding me? Or they're treating supplements like it's a drug? There's a big difference in the philosophical lens that you view the body. We have a God-given ability to heal. That our body is constantly wanting to heal and let's make sure we're delivering the lumber, then also getting out of our own way. Stop feeding it what hurts it. Stop putting us in an environment that hurts it. Do the responsible thing of cleaning up the emotions, lowering the stress, making those lifestyle changes, and then delivering to the body the nutrients it does need within the Goldilocks zone, and also doing the right labs just to check in. But you know what? You could probably listen to the language of the symptoms, the language of the body speaking. You said, if you start to have those little red dots on you, or those little things that look freckles or look moles, but they're red, hey, that's high homocysteine, that's early warning signs of heart disease. Let's catch it when it's a whisper. Let's catch it when it's that first pain before it's the big nasty.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:31:38.655)
Can I add a little thing to kind of follow what you're saying? One of the symptoms of zinc deficiency is lack of smell or taste. A lot of people had that during the virus we just went through. The person that eats the sugar, for example, and then ends up zinc deficient, they need more sugar to offset, to give flavor to their food.
Whereas a person like us that's eating a plant-based diet and getting proper zinc levels, that food, the organic vegetables are actually going to taste good and taste better to us. The child, for example, the mom's allowing them to eat crackers and sugar and junk for food, they're going to be zinc deficient. So those plants are not going to taste good to them.
One of my solutions, moms, we carry a couple of different forms of liquid zinc. To then start getting that child's zinc levels up, their immune system's going to function better, they're going to handle stress better, and their palate's going to expand, and they're going to start actually appreciating those good, healthy foods that actually you consumed when you were in your youth, that your mom was feeding you. Those are foods that are going to flourish and thrive and build health. Similarly, adults, if we're eating trans fats and a lot of fried type foods, the liver being stressed out will actually crave more of that and it creates that whole conundrum, that vicious cycle of pursuing the things that are making a person more and more unhealthy. That's how that vicious cycle goes where a person just starts going downhill because they get so far disconnected from their body that they start craving the things that are making them worse. That's part of our job, as clinicians is to help break that cycle, get them eating the healthier foods and kind of suck it up if you will initially to eat the healthier foods and start redeveloping that taste for the things that are going to allow us to flourish instead of taking us down that ugly, terrible quality of life road that Ken and Sue.
Ashley James (1:33:43.743)
We just touched the surface. We just discussed a few different headaches. We didn't even go into what if it's the back of the occiput? There's so many different types of headaches. We didn't even really get into migraines. I want to definitely have you back on the show. It would be so cool. Now you've got a book coming out. You got a website for people to check out. Let's talk a bit about how my listeners who want to stop suffering, how do they connect with you?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:34:12.895)
Thank you. Last name is Vrzal, V-R-Z-A-L. I post things on social media, on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Periodically little one minute quippy fun triggers about this type of stuff that we've discussed today. Certainly the most beneficial aspect or an area is headacheadvantage.com, headacheadvantage.com on that site. It's neo. It's young but on that site there are links to the seven different patterns of headaches and you can click on that link and it'll list out some of the food triggers or some of the potential supplements that you can take to hand in each of those patterns. I put kind of a little Q&A to help direct to what the best supplement would be to solve those headache problems that's there and then you put your email on there then I can let you know when the book is officially available which is at the timing of this recording about a month away.
Ashley James (1:35:12.381)
Yes, I'm going to be publishing this today. In about a month, your book's going to come out, which is really exciting. It's going to be called Headache Advantage. We're going to be able to see it then. Now you have something called How to Handle Stress Better. Tell us a bit about that. Do we sign up for your email and get it or is that just on your website?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:35:13.291)
That's one of the chapters, the frontal headaches typically have to do with chronic cortisol production. Either the body's not breaking that cortisol down properly, which opened up another Pandora's box, but often things like Lyme disease can compromise the body's ability to break down that stress hormone and set the stage for a frontal headache. What a person would get when they enter their email is a link to that chapter going into how to modulate that stress response a little more healthfully.
Ashley James (1:36:12.833)
Cool. You know what? I personally have some people I'm going to be sending to you the second we get off of this recording. I know my listeners. I bet you guys are thinking of some friends, some family, some coworkers, or like hey, my cousin's mom. Everyone knows someone who has headaches. Now, do you also work with people that have chronic pain in other areas of their body, or do you just specialize in headaches?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:36:43.639)
Chronic pain, the whole body tells a story. The reason I focused the book on headaches is when I started out trying to write a book that covered the whole body, but it was way too all encompassing, ominous.
The book would never be done because I'm learning every day. When I kind of realized I got into healthcare because of my own headaches, unfortunately, about 50% of the population suffers with headaches. When I did the research, unfortunately, no one talked about headaches in this regard. We mentioned migraines. For me, migraine ultimately, as far as everything I've seen in the literature, migraine ultimately just means it's debilitating or it's gnarly.
It all comes down to the location. I mean, my original title for the book was Headaches, Location, Location, Location, because location is everything. Where the position on the head that the pain is, that tells us the story of what the trigger is. But yes, that relates to the head, then there's all these other physical manifestations in the body or on the body in the body that are going to also relate to that same area. That's how we think. L5 does central low back pain goes along with that frontal headache, overzealous stress response we talked about, knee pain, weakness in the inside of the knee or ankle weakness, plantar fasciitis or bunions, those are all signs of chronic cortisol secretion. We can pull all that together. I guess that's the long answer of yes, I deal with chronic illness, the whole body. I got into healthcare because I'm a fitness junkie. That's how I lab test everything on myself. But by default, I mean, chronically ill people are talking to chronically ill people about what's going on. That's our niche. It’s helping those people that need it so desperately.
Ashley James (1:38:38.728)
Can you be my new best friend? You're speaking my language. Yes. Okay. I've got one for you. I recently, a month ago started doing two workouts a day and, I guess maybe I didn't stretch enough, which I'm totally ashamed of, but I developed something super weird. I have a friend who's a podiatrist. I saw him, he's an amazing sports podiatrist. If there's any listeners in the Seattle area that have a foot problem, I got you, I got a guy for you and he's okay. This is not common, but what's happened is the muscle that lifts the toe is getting entrapped on the interior. The inside, not the outside, the inside part of the ankle, I’ll take a few steps and then all of a sudden it's excruciating pain because it feels like my joint is crushing my tendon. He’s like yes, it is. I'm like okay. I've been doing more stretching, which is helping. Obviously seeing my chiropractors, great. I've been doing all kinds of stuff, anti-inflammatory stuff, phototherapy, that's all helping, but it's not gone 100% away. I'm going to seek out physical therapy, but I was wondering, you talked about ankle, high cortisol. What would you say to someone or me? What would you say to me? What did I do? 1:40:10.999
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:40:11.166)
Is the pain in the big toe specifically?
Ashley James (1:40:15.502)
I don't feel any pain just sitting here. I'll just be walking and then the joint will crush the tendon. Also what's developed, because I started walking on the outside of my foot, which shortens that tendon, so it stops happening, but don't ever do that. Don't walk on the outside of your foot, because now I'm getting a shooting nervy pain, around the big toe. Everyone told me not to do that, and then I did it. I'm not doing that anymore.
It's such a bummer because now I can only do the bike for cardio because even the pool messes it up and he's like you can't do the treadmill. You can't walk. You can't go do the pool. I'm just stuck doing the bike, which is a bummer because I like the variety. Also I can't be more active. I have to kind of like not do things until I really heal this.
That is a good lesson to learn. Don't go zero to 60 in any fitness protocol whatsoever. Just slowly ramp up. I thought I was there. I thought I was ready to do two a day and apparently I wasn't. Yes. I'm super motivated. Yes, but my body was nope, a little too motivated.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:41:38.079)
Good on you. I love your motivation. That's all great.
We have good news for you. Liver two is an acupuncture point at the area you were talking about in between the two between the big toe and the second toe.
Typically it's a liver problem that causes that big toe to hurt. What I was referring to was bunions and plantar fasciitis. That's all an adrenal problem or adrenal fatigue, a typical mechanism that sets most of those problems up. But when it's specifically the big toe, it's poor functioning of the liver. I found it to be specifically related to glutathione production. There's a key pathway in that liver that functions to help the detoxification and immune function and it's very antioxidant dependent.
I'm just confident that what I do know of you my new best friend is that I imagine you're getting plenty of those but we'd want to look at things to facilitate that glutathione reduction technically or but glutathione production you do the right thing and that toe pain literally would go away in minutes, that's the good news and the beauty.
I've had that kind of toe off tenderness on my big toe in the past. I have a liquid glutathione product I've used and literally the minute it touches my tongue, the pain is gone in my toe. That's how profound this kind of stuff can be.
Ashley James (1:42:58.831)
Interesting. I have a phototherapy patch. I don't know if you heard about this. I've had a few interviews about it. Is the liver channel up by the chest. Is it?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:43:20.902)
Yes, there's a glutathione point.
Ashley James (1:43:24.407)
It's LV14. I know LV3 and that's by my foot, which I've been stimulating, but I have a patch that stimulates the body to produce more glutathione. I typically put it up by LV14 because that's like this gateway for the liver, but I'll try putting it down in between those two toes, that little tender spot.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:43:54.807)
There's a glutathione reflex over the liver. If you put your left hand over the liver, so your long finger's going to be at the spleen 21.
Your second knuckle is probably going to be probably that LV14 point you were talking about. That is kind of where the body refers pain when glutathione is not functioning properly. I would think putting that patch there should be super, I mean you'll know, you put it there, within minutes your toe's going to tell you whether it's the right place or not.
Ashley James (1:44:27.879)
I'm going to try it. This is so much fun. You see, this is why people want to dive into this and advocate for themselves and learn this because stuff happens. Maybe you sprained an ankle or something, and then all of a sudden so many things that you can do and homeopathy is another fascinating thing.
One of my family members has a symptom in the middle of the night. I get up, turn my flashlight on, because I want to turn the lights on, turn my flashlight on, and run to the bathroom. I have this big cabinet full of homeopathic remedies. I grab one and give it to them and then boom, it's better. It's the coolest. I'm half awake doing it. I'm, yup, that worked. Okay, go to bed. You only needed one dose. My husband once had this trapped gas feeling. He woke up in the middle of the night and this was a few years ago, but he was just like, I can't come out on both ends. It's just trapped gas. He felt so weird. I'm okay. I looked it up, grabbed the homeopathic, gave it to him and immediately it just came out both ends. I feel so much better. You burped and farted. How cool is this?
Homeopathy is amazing and weird and almost instant for so many people. Then that's the least invasive, least toxic thing. If it doesn't work, you got the wrong remedy and that's okay too, because it's not hurtful. The body's going to just come back into balance. This is what I love about holistic medicine. We can go down all kinds of rabbit holes. You could do acupressure. You said, you can push on these points on the body and you can stimulate a specific response.
You can change the little things in your diet specifically and shift the body. We can do things gently to make profound changes.
Dr. V, I want to have you back. This has been a true pleasure. I'd love for you to come back and teach.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:46:30.986)
I love to. Can I throw a quick thing out just to make sure listeners don't miss the fact that sweet wonderful Ashley listeners just confirmed that she can do this in your sleep. Don't miss that aspect, huh?
Ashley James (1:46:41.295)
Well, I was half asleep. I got my little phone out and I know what websites to go to and look up the remedies and I have the remedies here and am half asleep. Well, I don't know about you, but as a mom, I always got one ear listening if my son's going to cough or my husband's going to snore or whatever. We're just wired to be the herbalist, the healer of the whole house? So we're just listening for everyone.
It might be annoying to people, but the second my friends do come to me and they're like, what do you think I should do for this? I give them a whole health lecture. They're like, I can't believe that. How do you remember these things? I'm passionate. I'm so passionate. But I think at the end of the day, this is the gift God gave me. It took me a long time to find it. I think everyone is born with a gift and this is the gift that God gave me as my passion for helping people to help their body to come back into balance. Now my new best friend, it also is the exact same. God gave you the same gift too. How cool is that? Love it. Love it.
Thank you for coming on the show. Definitely going to have you back, especially when you launch the book in about a month. We'll have a big book party. So, headacheadvantage.com listeners, definitely check it out.
Can you work with clients like telemedicine? How does that work if they want to work with you?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:48:13.891)
I do, yes. In fact, the gallbladder gal doctor that I was telling you about, we actually did telemedicine while she was the passenger in a car, of all things, and was able to figure out that it was her gallbladder, and we solved that.
Yes, I do telemedicine. I have several docs in my office as well that are all doing the same work, and most of them came to me as interns and kind of came up through the ranks that way. I say that because at this point, I tend to be booking about two months out, which is good news bad news. But yes, I still very actively treat people all day, every day, and try to do this book stuff on the side.
Ashley James (1:48:55.367)
Nice, nice. Well, good for you for duplicating yourself and for finding true holistic-minded doctors who want to support the body's ability to heal itself. I’m kudos to you. If they go to your website, headacheadvantage.com, is that where they can find information about doing the telemedicine at your clinic or is there a different website?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:49:20.979)
My office website is drvrzal.com. That's the office website.
Ashley James (1:49:28.715)
I'll make sure that the links to everything that Dr. Vrzal does is in the show notes of today's podcast at learntruehealth.com. It's been such a pleasure having you. Is there anything left unsaid that you just really want to make sure you leave us with?
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:49:43.949)
It comes down to listening to your body. Listeners, your body's trying to tell you a story. Pain is intended to elicit change. When you have pain, it's not a deficiency of aspirin or Advil or Tylenol. It's your body yelling at you to go forth and learn.
Listen to what it's trying to tell you so that you can thrive. I mean, it's your early warning that God forbid you've got a cardiovascular incident not pending, looming. Your hormones are not functioning, so you're going to create mutated cells. Learn from what your body's trying to tell you so that you can thrive and enjoy this blessed life we have.
Ashley James (1:50:31.037)
Love it. Awesome. Well, can't wait to have you back on the show. It's been such a pleasure.
Dr. Scott Vrzal (1:50:35.443)
So fun. Thank you. Appreciate the opportunity, Ashley.
Outro:
These are the same supplements that I have been using myself personally, my family and my clients for the last twelve and a half years. This is the same supplement that helped me to overcome my chronic diseases. I used to have type 2 diabetes, chronic adrenal fatigue, chronic infections, polycystic ovarian syndrome, infertility, and I don't have any of those things anymore infertility, and I don't have any of those things anymore. The holistic doctors that informed these supplements discovered that the root cause of disease is a lack of key nutrients. There are 90 essential nutrients the body needs and we're not getting them from our food anymore because of the farming practices of the last hundred years. So, no matter how healthy we eat, we're still missing what our body needs to create optimal health. Because you listen to this health podcast and you're looking for health solutions, you will love working with the team at takeyoursupplements.com. These are health coaches that overcame just like me, overcame their own health issues using, of course, eating healthy, healthy lifestyle. But the key, fundamental thing that they added were these supplements. These supplements encompass all 90 essential nutrients and when you talk to your health coach, they will help to customize a plan specifically to your needs and your health goals. You will start feeling amazing right away. Within the first month of taking these supplements, everyone notices better sleep, more mental clarity, better energy, overall sense of well-being that takes over their life, and they are so happy that they got on these supplements. I want you to give it a try. There's a money-back guarantee and there's amazing health coaches waiting to help you at takeyoursupplements.com and it's free to talk to them. So what are you waiting for? Go to takeyoursupplements.com right now. Sign up for a free consultation and in a month, you could be feeling on top of the world, just like I did.
I was so sick, I felt so horrible and I overcame that. I had to obviously make healthy choices around every area of my life. I had to change my diet, I had to change my lifestyle, but I needed to fill in those nutrient gaps, and that's where takeyoursupplements.com comes in. They help you to make sure that you're getting all 90 essential nutrients, so every cell in your body, all 37.2 trillion cells in your body, will be bathed in all the nutrients that they need so that you can live an optimal life full of health and vitality at any age. Go to takeyoursupplements.com and talk to one of them today. They can help you right now to begin to make that health transformation. That's takeyoursupplements.com.
The Headache Advantage: 7 Pain Patterns as Tools for Total Body
To book a free session to discuss experiencing this technology with me, visit learntruehealth.com and click Work With Ashley James in the menu!
https://www.learntruehealth.com
Get The Minerals Your Body Needs: TakeYourSupplements.com
https://takeyoursupplements.com
To experience the technology covered in this interview book a phone call with TakeYourSupplements.com
Check Out My Latest Book: Addicted To Wellness
https://www.learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness
Dr. Shawn Tassone:
Americas Holistic Gynecologist | Tassonemd.com
Tassone Advanced Gynecology | Drshawntassone.com
Author of The Hormone Balance Bible https://amzn.to/3VF9m7j
Discover the power of holistic health and self-advocacy as we navigate the complexities of hormone replacement therapy with holistic gynecologist Dr. Shawn Tassone. We explore the transformative potential of taking charge of your health, emphasizing the importance of holistic approaches such as dietary changes, lifestyle adjustments, and alternative therapies like acupuncture and chiropractic care. With Dr. Tassone's personal journey as a backdrop, we uncover how personal experiences with loss can ignite a passion for integrative and functional medicine, empowering you to support your body's natural healing processes.
Highlights:
Supporting the Body for Optimal Health
Thermography for Pain Relief and Healing
Patient Symptom Evaluation and Treatment
The Power of Maca in Health
Benefits of Maca on Hormones
Exploring the Mystery of Plants
Fasting Before Chemotherapy for Cancer
Temporary Testosterone Increase for Muscle Loss
GLP-1s and Changing Eating Habits
Empowering Women Through Social Media
Intro:
Hello True Health Seeker and welcome to another exciting episode of the Learn True Health Podcast. Today we have an interesting discussion with a doctor and PhD as we navigate the world of hormone replacement therapy and navigating our own care in this system that is not perfect and really requires us to be diligent when it comes to our own advocacy, which, if you're listening to this podcast for a while, you are well aware that we need to stand up and do our own sleuthing, do our own research, do our own detective work and educate ourselves on how to support the body's innate, god-given ability to heal itself.
Your body wants to heal itself, and that's the first philosophical shift that takes place, that first belief system shift from the standard model of wait to get sick, then go to a doctor and they give you a drug and you go home and yay, you're better, which that's not how it works, as we know from experience. Yay, you're better, which that's not how it works as we know from experience, you're not better. Even the so-called cure has a list of side effects. It causes stress on the body and really was that drug ever the cure? In the first place, it was suppressing something, killing something, shifting something in the body. But is that what the body needs to heal itself? Now, yes, there's times when you break an arm, you get a cast. We definitely wanted that support, and a cast is a wonderful example of supporting the body's ability to heal itself. It takes a lot longer and it's a lot harder for a bone to heal without the support of the cast. So there's times in modern medicine where that support is wonderful and necessary.
Now, if we took that same philosophy and went well, how can I support my body to have more energy, to maintain a healthy weight, to grow healthy muscle, to have healthy digestion and bowel movements, to have healthy hormone levels sex hormones, stress hormones, all the other hormones How can I support my body's ability to maintain and achieve optimal health? We have to look outside modern medicine to gain these answers for a variety of reasons, and we talk a bit about this in today's interview, and one thing that I wanted to let is that it's totally worth going down this one rabbit hole If you are sick of being sick and you are looking to support just like a cast supports the body to heal the bone so that it keeps it stable, allows the body to heal, and then we remove the cast, because a cast left on too long becomes a hindrance, So if you're looking for holistic medicine, meaning how can I support the body as a whole? Because the body is constantly trying to come back into balance, it is constantly trying to achieve homeostasis and something as simple as a small change in your diet can make this huge difference or small change in lifestyle, like an increase of even by 20 ounces of water a day, going to bed an hour earlier, getting 20 minutes of walking just these little, tiny additions. In some cases it's herbs. In some cases it's seeing a holistic practitioner for other therapies, like chiropractic and acupuncture, there's all kinds of different kinds of frequency devices out there, like PEMF. These are all supportive to support the body in doing what it already is trying to do, which is come back into balance.
Now I've had several episodes on why is the body so out of whack in the first place? We've got crazy or over 80,000 man-made chemicals since I was born. In your lifetime there have been 80,000 man-made chemicals added to our air, water, food, added to the soil and it's really scary. Why are we so out of balance? Well, think about how your grandparents ate. They ate whole foods, not from boxes, not from factories. They ate from farms. Now the farms use so many chemicals. So just to give you a few examples, we used to walk more, we used to play more, we used to rest. When we rested, we really rested. When we played, we really played. We used to have large family support and now we're isolated alone, stagnant and filling ourselves with man-made junk and we're constantly in stress mode because of all the things we're taking in, all the media that we're taking in.
So the body's in stress mode and it is depleted of sunlight, fresh air, clean water. Depleted of nutrients. I have some wonderful interviews, like with Dr. Joel Wallach. Highly recommend listening to that. When it comes to the 90 essential nutrients the body needs. The body needs 90 essential nutrients every day for optimal function and that episode, episode 435, is wonderful to listen to. Highly recommend going back and listening to episode 435, if you haven't already.
Now, 18 months ago, almost two years ago, I was introduced to and I'd heard of it before, but my skepticism went up. I'll say on the show, I'm the most open-minded skeptic and I think it's good to be that way. You probably are too. I'm willing to listen to what sounds really woo-woo, sounds really out there, out there. But I'm going to use my critical thinking, but I'm going to make sure that I don't allow my preconceived ideas or my belief system cloud the new information coming in, like allow myself to be open. So my skeptic pops up and I go, wow, I'm rejecting something just based on my skepticism alone. Sometimes things sound too good to be true and we often just negate it. That probably is not real, it's probably fake. It's probably snake oil, and there is a lot of snake oil out there.
But I started to see thousands of people getting results and there's over a hundred studies that show powerful results, and they had a money-back guarantee. So I was like, okay, I'm going to give it a try. It's a technology. It's a wearable technology. It's quite affordable. They could charge a lot more for this, which I was really surprised about. It's very affordable, it's a wearable technology and it stimulates your body, your body wanting to heal itself. It stimulates it and there's no side effects. It's safe for infants. It's safe on pets. It's safe on any, any anyone, any age, any size, and you don't absorb anything. It's not a molecular medicine, it's a frequency medicine. So, with that said, I tried it. I got huge, huge results, which I was really shocked because of how skeptical I was. But there's a money-back guarantee, so I was going to give it a try and I couldn't believe how well it was working, not only for myself, my son, my husband, and my other family members. Then I got my friends to try it and it all worked for them. Then I started introducing it to my clients and now I have over 200 clients using this successfully and getting great results.
They're getting so healthy that their doctors are taking them off of their medications, and that is my goal. My number one goal and I've probably said it 100 times on this podcast over the last eight years that this is my number one goal is to help you get so healthy that your doctor takes you off your meds because you no longer need them. Now, whether you need them in the first place is another thing. That really is person dependent, but I think people are being over prescribed drugs and under prescribed lifestyle changes and dietary changes and the things that we're lacking.
Dr. Joel Wallach, the man I had mentioned, who's one of my mentors. He will often say, like you didn't have a drug deficiency, you had a blank deficiency like a calcium magnesium, B12, whatever the nutrient was. People will have deficiencies in those, but the symptoms show up in a way that the doctors will prescribe drugs or that there needs to be a necessary diet change. I've seen Dr. Wallach get people so healthy using natural medicine. When I say natural medicine, I mean as close to nature as possible. I've seen him get people so healthy their kidney function returned and they no longer needed dialysis. I have seen him help people save limbs, gangrene in the feet about to be amputated. He helps them and now they no longer need their feet to be amputated and now they no longer need their feet to be amputated. I have seen him reverse all forms of disease, all common, the most common diseases you can think of. If you could think of a disease, he's helped people reverse it using natural, as close to nature as possible, holistic medicine.
So when I say holistic medicine, I mean supporting your body's ability to heal itself, because your body is constantly striving for homeostasis and it wants to heal you. It wants you to be as healthy as possible and we are getting in our own way by making silly choices like staying up late and eating sugar and drinking alcohol and the regular stuff that we do that we don't know, because everyone does it, but everyone's sick. Everyone around us is sick. Everyone around us 70% of Americans are on at least one prescription medication. That should tell you something. We should not be this medicated and yet we are.
So I'm on my soapbox letting you know there is a holistic, very effective, very affordable type of technology and you can listen to two interviews about it, episode 496 with Trina Hammack and episode 517 with David Schmidt, who's the creator of this technology. It's been around for 20 years, so I started using it, started using it with my clients and got just such good results. My clients have their doctors take them off. Their doctors like after the labs are showing, oh, you no longer need this thyroid medication. Okay, we're taking you off that. Unbelievable! I have a few clients who their fractures healed in half the amount of time needed and they freaked out. I've had clients text me their x-ray report saying that the doctor couldn't believe how quickly they were healing. So your body wants to heal itself and this is a technology that stimulates and helps your body get over the other side.
Really, really exciting stuff decreasing inflammation in the body, decreasing pain, increasing muscle mass, increasing healthy bones, healthy joints. There's women who've reported after their DEXA scan, after using this technology for about a year, sometimes half a year, as little as half a year that their DEXA scan showed that they're no longer in osteopenia or osteoporosis. So it's really, really exciting stuff. But there's, like I said, about 100 studies and in addition to that, I've spoken with many doctors who are holistic doctors, who are using this technology with their clients and with their patients, and they're seeing these results. The people are feeling better. But it also shows up in the lab. So something that's energy medicine, frequency medicine, is now showing up in the physical realm because labs are changing, and that's really exciting.
So if you want to check it out, listen to those episodes, but then book a free session with me. I love chatting with you guys. You can go to my website, learntruehealth.com. In the menu, click on work with Ashley James, select the very first thing at the top. It's a free, about 20 minute, sometimes a bit more if you have more questions, I'll sit there longer on the phone, if you have more questions. About 20 minute phone call where we discuss this type of technology and I can help you order the kind, because there's different ones the kind you need and I'll show you how to use them so that you place them correctly on the body, on the meridians of the body, for you, for the outcomes that you're looking for. It is phenomenal.
The cool thing is there's a money back guarantee. I haven't had someone yet who didn't feel a shift in themselves, that they didn't feel like it got results. I also don't believe in silver bullets out there, like, oh, this works for everyone, I think we're so unique that I'm not going to say everything's going to work for everyone. So if it doesn't work for you, the cool part is you can get your money back and there's no risk. There's no risk, but I've seen so many people get such great results that I'm singing this from the rooftops that if there was a natural way to support your body's ability to come back into balance without side effects, with no risk and it's affordable, then you would want to know about it. That's why I'm recording this for you, letting you know you could also share it with your friends and family, and even pets! Amazing.
I've seen so many things with animals. I saw one animal who, in 10 days of using two specific patches for this stimulating and healing. Their milky eyes went away. The glaucoma in their eyes went away. They got their vision back. I watched as a dog with hip dysplasia went from being in excruciating pain within minutes, you could touch the dog down by their hips and within two weeks the dog was able to jump back on the bed to help its owner, it was a service dog and this dog wasn't able to jump before because of how much pain it was in. Everyone around this dog is saying it's a new dog, that the dog is just completely out of pain, is jumping around, it's happy, it's running. It wasn't doing that before.
I had a client who had a puppy who was dying. They had no idea why they spent $7,000 on this dog, and had no idea why. I told them what patches to put on the dog and three days later they texted me back and said the dog is completely back to normal. Do not know why. The vet had no clue why this dog was sick in the first place, but they spent so much money on this dog with medications and oxygen tent, everything. The dog was just wasting away. Went from lying there all the time just wasting away. Three days, less than three days, the dog was eating again and just up and at it. I've seen people use this on horses. We have actually a lot of studies done with horses and how quickly it gets them out of pain and decreases inflammation.
Now it's really cool and anyone who wants this, sign up for a talk with me, a little chat with me, a free chat with me. Go to Work with Ashley James at learntruehealth.com and I can share.
They take a special camera that 's called thermography and the camera can measure your heat in your body and inflammation. You could see it visually and there's video thermography of people who put the patches on and you watch as the inflammation leaves the body and you watch as the person, like the entire body, decreases in inflammation and the person's out of pain. It's so cool. This helps with sleep. This helps with hormone balancing at the hypothalamic, pituitary,\ adrenal access. It's really cool. So I mean, I could go on for days about how cool this stuff is, but I wanted to let you know. If you didn't know about it already, you're going to want to try it.
Learntruehealth.com. Sign up for a free chat with me. Work with Ashley James in the menu bar. I'd love to help you with this and go check out those two episodes David Schmidt 517 and Trina Hammack 496. I'd love to be your guide to helping you to purchasing these and how to apply them, because we use this in conjunction with Chinese medicine protocols, so you're going to be able to increase your vital life force energy. It's one of the first things we do after we balance the polarity of your body and we do a protocol for decreasing inflammation, and then we increase your vital life force energy and then we do a protocol that opens up all the different among three systems and balances every system in the body. It's really cool. People notice away better sleep, more energy. They just feel like they can go, go, go. So if you're dragging, you're going to want to try it.
Ashley James (0:17:23.374)
Welcome to the Learn True Health Podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James. This is episode 522.
I am so excited for today's guest we have on the show, Dr. Shawn Tassone, who is an MD and they want to become holistic, they want to look at the body as a whole and help the person and the patient as a whole and see them as a whole person instead of just a broken down pieces Like I'm just going to treat your uterus. You're looking at the person as a whole and you're looking at how can we help your body come back into balance instead of well, I got my prescription pad here. What drug can I throw at you today?
So I'm thrilled to dive into this world of holistic gynecology and first I'd like to know a little bit more about what guided you towards going holistic. I'm always interested. Was there an event where you went, hold on, my traditional MD training isn't enough here. Was there a specific event, or was it just like a series of events that led you to want to explore holistic medicine?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:18:43.005)
Well, thanks for having me on. I get asked that question a lot and sometimes you get attacked online for using certain words like holistic or integrative, functional, whatever, and that's because they are slightly overutilized. If I might share that, I think that it is a marketing technique in a way, but also I think it is a moniker that gives you an idea of who the person is and what they believe in. I would say that my journey began when I was a second year resident, I guess. So I was a resident OBGYN living in Oklahoma and basically one day my, my mom had to have surgery because she had this ovarian mass and it ended up being cancer and so so here I was, a second year resident and I knew a lot about cancer, knew a lot about ovarian cancer.
But this was my mom, and what I found was that over the five years that she survived, she eventually succumbed to it when she was 57. I realized she'd call me like the day before chemo, she would be all excited and happy because they load you up with steroids. So you feel good and you got a lot of energy and everything. Then the next day when the chemo kicked in and she had joint pain and all the stuff that goes along with nausea, vomiting I realized really quickly that I couldn't even help my own mom. I couldn't help her live a healthy, productive, happy life, and so I watched her over the years just succumb to this process and just not really have a great quality of life. When she died in 2004, I went on this journey as you do.
I'm an only child, so, as I went through this on my own, and as you find yourself in these spiritual crises, you often go to Sedona, which is where I went and I was living in Tucson at the time, so I was only like three hours away. Anyways, I was in Sedona and I was waiting for my significant other at the time who was getting a massage, and I was reading this book called Eight Weeks to Optimum Health by Andrew Weil. At the time, it was 2005, he was talking about all this crazy stuff like fish oil, coq10, vitamin d and oh my god, all this stuff, and I was like whoa, this stuff is mind-blowing. So at the end of the book it said hey, if you're a doctor and you want to learn more about helping people heal and blah, blah, blah, we have this fellowship. It just so happened that the fellowship was in Tucson, which is where I was living, because it was at the University of Arizona. So I just didn't even think about it, I just applied.
I didn't think I'd get in, it was late in the process. Anyways, I got in, did the fellowship for two years. In that fellowship there was an eight-week module on spirituality and health. That was another conk on the head. It just woke me up and then I just decided I needed to go deeper into that aspect. So I did a PhD from 2009 to 2015 and got a PhD in philosophy and in those six years visited indigenous shamans in South America and just looked at different ways to heal. I think I was trying to just figure out what else is out there, what else is there in this world, and this all culminated into the practice that I have today.
Ashley James (0:22:38.109)
My gosh, I so connect with your story. My mom passed away in 2002 of cancer. I'm an only child and that also led me down my road of being motivated to learn how to support the body's ability to heal itself, how to prevent disease, and how to come back into balance. Then my dad died six years later of a broken heart, and so I've watched both my parents die very young. My mom was 55, very, very young. My dad was in his early sixties. They could still be alive now. If there were just a few different choices. If they had just seen a different practitioner.
My mom's cancer was actually caused by and this is relevant to our conversation today was caused by a hormone that her doctor had put her on, and it was a synthetic hormone that was taken off the market in Canada, where we were in Canada at the time. The week she was in the hospital, the week before she died. So I was living in the hospital with her while she was in palliative care, listening to the radio, hearing the news that the very drug that had put her in the hospital that had ended her life was being taken off the market for causing too much cancer in women and the prescribing doctor ended up also getting cancer and she was sort of a very famous doctor in Canada, she's like Dr. Oz of Canada, always on the TV, always on the news. She ended up going on to write a book about it, about her experience. She got cancer but then she caught it quickly and survived and wrote a book about it. Whereas my mom and many of her patients died from that synthetic hormone that she had been put on that this doctor was pushing every single woman my mom knew that was going to the same doctor was being pushed.
I remember the day my mom came home when she was first put on that drug. My mom exercised seven days a week, she took supplements. She ate very healthy, she really watched her health and my mom was a very strong, emotionally strong woman. She came home crying. This MD said to her she put the fear of God in her and said if you don't get on this drug, your hips will break because you don't have enough estrogen. Your hips will break and you'll fall over and you'll die. This MD put so much fear into my mom that she, like fear-forced her into getting on this drug. My mom wasn't on any drugs at the time. She was very natural-minded, and that one decision ended her life prematurely.
So I think there's a lot of people out there that are scared of using hormone replacement therapy in a healthy way, because they don't know, is it healthy. I know that's one of your main things is helping women to bring their bodies back into balance, and sometimes the tool in your tool belt is bioidentical hormones, so much different from synthetic. But I'd love to dive into that concept of like, when, when hormones are out of balance, when is it necessary to bring in hormone replacement, and are there other alternatives that we can do that you see as effective, like herbs?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:26:14.921)
First of all, the concept of hormone imbalance is hotly criticized by many of my OBGYN colleagues that are quote-unquote influencers online. They will say that hormone imbalance isn't a real thing, it doesn't exist. The reality is they're getting caught up more in the semantics of the word imbalance because theoretically, yes, a woman is always cycling, hormones are always in flux, they're up, they're down, they're all around. But that being said, we know where the hormones are supposed to be at certain times in the cycle. So any self-respecting physician that is, quote-unquote, an expert in women's health would have an idea of where the levels should be at certain times in the cycle. So when you draw the blood, then that isn't where it's supposed to be. So I do think that they get caught up more in the semantics and shooting things down than they really seem to care about the actual balance. What's funny, if you look at an issue, say, like polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is an imbalance, you have high estrogen, high testosterone, low progesterone, insulin resistance, there's all kinds of things. If that isn't a hormone imbalance, then why is the number one go-to treatment for most of my colleagues' birth control pills, which are hormones which override the ovaries, shut the ovaries down and shut down the imbalance. It's contradictory to not see it that way. It's just that they get caught up more in the word.
So let's say, bioidentical. You mentioned the sham organization that I call, The North American Menopause Society doesn't like the word bioidentical and it's because they didn't come up with it so they changed it in their wording. They call these hormones, body identical, which just goes to show you the hubris of the physicians that they need to change a word that has been used for 30 years because it wasn't their word. It's the same thing, it means the exact same thing. It's just that they didn't come up with it.
So when you look at bioidentical, synthetic yes, those two things are different. The thing about bioidentical is there's multiple variations of dosages. Estrogen, progesterone, testosterone are all bioidentical. Then you get the confusing piece of bioidentical versus synthetic, FDA approved or not. A lot of physicians will say bioidentical hormones are not approved by the FDA, which is totally wrong. They are. It's just that the pharmacies that compound bioidentical hormones aren't FDA approved, but the actual hormones that are utilized are FDA approved. So there's a lot of misinformation out there. Let's just put it that way. Tons.
Ashley James (0:29:24.293)
So when it comes to a patient who is coming to you and you draw their blood, their labs showed that their hormones are not really like them to be. Is your first tool, bioidentical hormones or do you find that you can get really good results with diet, lifestyle, herbs first?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:29:54.716)
It depends. So when I see a patient that's new, obviously I'm going to get a set of labs and then I'm going to sit with them and go over their issues like what symptoms are they having? A lot of docs will say you don't need to test, I just go on symptoms. I mean whatever. That's fine if that's the way they want to do it. My thing is I would like to use the labs to coordinate with the symptoms. What exactly is going on, because some symptoms overlap. I mean you could have somebody that has fatigue, could be low thyroid, could be low testosterone, could be high thyroid, could be cortisol. There's so many different things that overlap.
To just say that you are psychic and you can just tell what the imbalance is based on. What the patient's telling you isn't necessarily true. Then maybe some of the things that she's telling you in the order that she's putting them in may not be the real order. Maybe she's just saying them as they come up or, maybe she's not telling you something. I think having as much information as possible would be the best. So, getting labs done. Getting a good history is always the first place to start, and then it's based on the numbers. What I always will tell people is hey, these are the things that are low. These are the symptoms that I would see associated with this. Does this resonate with you? Sometimes it's like yes, across the board, and then sometimes it's like this, yes, I do feel fatigued, but I don't really have a decreased libido or whatever, and so they'll tell me how they're feeling and then I'll just base the therapy on them and what they're trying to achieve.
Ashley James (0:31:45.970)
Every doctor I've ever been to my first visit. It's so funny that everyone they're like, aha, I know what your problem is, it's thyroid. I look at them before they do labs, everything could be a naturopath, an MD, but every doctor I've been to in my first visit they think that they're delivering news, like, I am such a smart doctor, I know what your problem is. They always tell me, just based on what I look like and the symptoms or whatever I share, what's going on with me. They always think it's thyroid and I have to break the news.
Every lab I've ever done, my thyroid is perfect. They don't believe me. It's hilarious, it's like that gaslighting, it's hilarious. They don't believe me. They're like well, we're going to run these labs just in case. I just want new labs. Every aspect of my thyroid health comes out perfectly pristine and they're like, well, oh yes, your thyroid is normal.
It's just really funny. Yes, we should listen to the symptoms of the body. Yes, you want your doctor to listen to you, but at the same time they like to jump to conclusions because they're like, oh, this checks off this box. Therefore, it must be this so, yes, you've got to have labs to show what's going on. So yes, you've got to. You got to have labs to show what's going on. Do you trust all labs? Are all labs fairly accurate or are there ever times when you're like well, maybe they didn't calibrate or maybe they messed up somehow, maybe we should go with a different lab? Or do you feel like, across the board, we're getting pretty much the same result, no matter what lab we go to?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:33:26.311)
They can be wrong, sure. If I saw a lab that had a weird thing, if it was something I wasn't expecting, like DHEA or something was way high, like four times normal or something weird like that, then what I usually will do is repeat it. If I get two that are that, then I usually will believe it at that point. But if it's an anomaly, like something that I've never seen, like my God, that's crazy.
Ashley James (0:34:03.205)
I just always wonder if the machines themselves, if they're not calibrated, or if we should go with a completely different company and see if we're going to get the same results?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:34:12.877)
That can always be an issue. I'm saying it now, but I usually never say never, or always there's usually something that can explain it. If not, then that's why we draw labs again or do other tests, with the example I gave, if the DHEA was still elevated, then I would probably get an ultrasound of the adrenal glands to see what was going on. Lab error is easy to figure out because you repeat it and it goes back down to normal. But, yes, there's somebody that has to make sure that the machines are running appropriately. So, yes, if they did it wrong, if they didn't zero it or whatever it is that they do, that could definitely affect things for sure.
Ashley James (0:35:20.561)
So, when a patient comes to you, you get the labs, you've talked to her, you've got what she's expressing, what her symptoms are and you've confirmed looking at the labs. What are your next steps when you see something's low, something's high, she's complaining about certain symptoms, what are your next steps with her?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:35:44.374)
Well, usually when they come in, I've already done their labs. So they have the labs and then they have then we go over their symptoms. So it's a matter of me sitting down with them and finding out what's bothering them the most. I try to get the order of things, like what's really bothering you and then what are some of the minor things. Usually when they come in for that first visit, we're ready to go, like, we have everything in place, where we've got all the stuff that we need, and then I just sit down and it's not like it takes a lot of work, because most women, like I said, by the time they've come in they've seen five other people.
So they're pretty easily they can tell me what they're feeling, because they've rehearsed it and they've said it a hundred times and they're used to talking about it. So it's something that usually over time it just comes out and I'll talk them about the symptoms of each of the imbalances that I see, and usually, there's a lot of head nodding and stuff like that going on where they're like yes, that's me, or I'm not feeling that at all, but usually pretty close. Then it's just a matter of figuring out the dosage that they need, the route of delivery that they need and what's going to work for them.
Ashley James (0:37:12.728)
So your next step, then, is to give them a prescription.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:37:19.334)
Yes, if they need it, I mean usually I'll make recommendations, prescription medications, supplements, whatever it is that they would benefit from, based on their symptoms, for sure.
Ashley James (0:37:35.223)
What lifestyle and dietary changes have you found to be the most effective at helping women balance their hormones?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:37:47.229)
Lifestyle changes. I mean, obviously, sleep is huge, probably number one. Some things you can't really change, like age. Sometimes the hormones are off because of your age and there isn't a whole lot you can do about that, but if you're using supplements and whatnot, I go through those to make sure you're on the right ones.
First of all, a lot of people are on supplements that don't do what they think they're doing and they're spending money on stuff they don't need and they're not using the ones that they do need. So we'll go through all that and base it on that too. We sit down, get a feel. Some people don't like supplements. I had a lady the other day. She can't swallow pills. So I'm not going to give her 17 pills to swallow because it's not going to work for her. So it really varies. Then some women don't want to use a topical cream, they want to use a sublingual tablet. I think the main thing that I like to do is really give people options, options, options. That's what's important.
Ashley James (0:38:55.226)
In terms of diet, have you found that there are any dietary changes that help to bring hormones back into balance?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:39:06.033)
I didn't really get into that. But yes, so like the things that I look at with hormones and some of them may not resonate, some of them do. But I have six areas that I look at. One is spiritual practice whether that's getting outside or journaling or meditation, whatever that is, depends on what the issue at hand is. Obviously hormonal modulation, so actually giving you the hormones.
A third one would be what I call the woo factor, whether that's essential oils or acupuncture, some sort of outside the box treatment that might have a little nugget of research on it or something that you could try. It may not work but it's worth a try and it's not going to hurt you. Nutrition, obviously super important, limiting processed foods and really focusing on good lean proteins, fats and limiting processed carbohydrates. Exercise is always great, depending on the imbalance might be resistance training, might be high intensity interval training, it might be walking. It really just depends on what the imbalance is. Then the last step that I look at is always the potential for using supplements.
Ashley James (0:40:27.239)
You had mentioned the woo factor, which then you said was outside of the box. That might be outside of the box of mainstream medicine, but that's inside the box of this podcast. Outside of the box of mainstream medicine is where I like to look and shine the light on, because we find that has, in many cases, the least amount of side effects and potentially the greatest amount of support, given that we're looking to support the body's own ability to heal itself and come in back into balance and also remove what is hindering the body from coming back into balance.
Inside the box of what you call the woo factor, can you share with us what you've found to have the greatest impact? Or do you have any stories where you've seen herbs, essential oils, acupuncture, chinese medicine, where you've seen that through labs or your experience, you've seen it bring the body back into balance.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:41:38.988)
I would have to say the number one thing that I see all the time is maca, I've been affiliated with maca for probably eight or nine years now. There’s a naturopath out in Oregon named Tori Hudson and I was given a talk at one of her conferences and there was a company there called Symphony and they have this product called Feminescence that I was really just interested in some of the claims they were making. The interesting thing about maca is it's grown in Peru. There's 13 different phenotypes of maca, different colors, different types and you could take yellow maca in part of Peru and grow it and it'll do one thing. You can grow it in another part of Peru to do something completely different. So these women that are using powdered maca, like in their smoothies and stuff in the mornings I hear stories all the time about how it didn't really do much. The problem is, when you have a powdered substance like that in bulk, you don't know what's in it, and what I found was that if you use a really clean maca like Feminescence or something what I noticed was, even women that don't want to go on hormones for whatever reason, they would get some relief, like whether it was better sleep or, the hot flashes would go away and what I've seen and this is just in my practice women tend to if they repurchase a supplement, it's maca across the board. I mean, probably 75% use it and like it and keep using it because they just find that it's so amazing. So if I had to pick a substance that I like the most, I would definitely pick the maca as number one.
I would say things that really also baffle me. I don't pretend to understand them, but acupuncture is amazing. We know acupuncture has so much data on fertility. I mean it's been researched extensively. Women that do this get pregnant faster, that have issues with fertility. I think part of the thing with something like acupuncture is just that it decreases stress. I mean, I do think that anything that's going to help you I mean I know it sounds funny, but it's like if you lay on a table for 45 minutes and just relax that could be part of it. Now I don't pretend to know the meridians and I have friends that do this for a living and they explain it much more eloquently than I do, but it makes sense to me that that would make things better. I don't understand it. I don't understand all the nuances behind it and everything, but it is something that I refer women out all the time for acupuncture and then I think the herbal stuff that's out there, Chinese medicine to me is probably the best thing ever, because these medicines they're medications in China. Here, when I go to this guy here in town and he has like a whole wall of drawers and when you tell him what your things are, he starts pulling on these drawers and he uses the actual herbs, and you get them weighed out and then you're supposed to go make a tea with them, It's pretty astounding and you don't just get it done. I mean, it's like it's a process, but these medicines have such power in them that I think it's one of those things that you just have to look at and go, okay, this guy knows more than I do then you go from there. But I do think, like maca, chinese herbs, chinese medicines for which I would refer out to somebody that specializes in that acupuncture. Then you can get into the essential oils. I think essential oils are tough because there's so much out there about them, there's so many people that are selling them and doing all these things, but it's like, do people really understand the way these things work, and I think those are extremely powerful as well.
Ashley James (0:46:06.622)
I interviewed Dr. Anna Cabeca, Episode 326, and she raves about maca, and it ended up maca was one of the things that really helped her in her health personally, so she ended up creating a drink. So the mighty maca drink. She might even give my listeners a discount. My listeners know to use coupon code LTH. Whenever they try to purchase things that are promoted on my show. I seem to remember she might have offered a discount, but, I drank it once, she sent me a sample. It was delicious. I was surprised because I was expecting healthy things don't taste good, and so it actually tastes really good.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:46:50.601)
I will tell you, maca doesn't taste good, there's something else in there that would make it taste great.
Ashley James (0:46:57.803)
Yes, probably like a buttload of stevia or something, whatever's in there, I was impressed that it didn't taste bad. I think I was expecting maca to taste bad. As far as essential oils go, that's the sticky wicket is that you can overdo it. It's a very concentrated form of herbal medicine and I have experienced that. I've known other people who have experienced overdoing essential oils but when you use them correctly, you're using concentrated plant medicine.
I've got a few interviews. I don't remember the numbers at the top of my head. But Dr. Z, he specifically does not tell us which brand he likes because he wants it to be more about the information and not about the sales. So listeners can go to learntruehealth.com and type in essential oils to find that episode. But there's so many resources out there when it comes to essential oils. Just know that less is more. Start small, start slow. It's very concentrated and just to understand, to use it with precaution so that you don't overdo it.
That concept for acupuncture, if you're just lying down for 45 minutes, you'd be relaxed anyway. I would debunk that because we go to sleep every night, we lie down eight hours or more or less, or give and take eight hours a day and we're still totally stressed out. But you get acupuncture and within 20 minutes and less than 20 minutes for me I am totally zonked out, like you put drugs in me, like an anesthesiologist came by and filled me up with some, something that makes me high as a kite. I can really feel my nervous system go into that parasympathetic rest and digest state and it's wild, it's absolutely wild.
You can do acupressure on yourself if you wanted to, if you want to just try it at home. But there is something to those meridian points, those acupuncture points on the body, and with my clients I've actually been able to help them with just acupressure get out of. I've had several clients get out of a panic attack with acupressure and that was phenomenal and I was on a video call watching them as they just their tension melted and you could just see them, their physiology come out of that panic attack, just really interesting how that we can use it even in our own home to bring down the nervous system back into state of rest and digest.
So the hormones you've been talking about things other than sex hormones. You've been bringing up thyroid and cortisol. But as a gynecologist, are you more concerned about sex hormones or, as a gynecologist, you're looking at all hormones in the body?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:49:59.508)
I think the hormones that I look at are obviously estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, thyroid, DHEA, vitamin D and cortisol. Those would be the big ones. I will look at insulin too, obviously.
Ashley James (0:50:24.314)
I love that you brought up vitamin D as a hormone, because that's not discussed well enough. What are the levels you want to see your patients like when it comes to their blood work? What levels would you say are ideal for vitamin D?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:50:39.051)
Vitamin D, probably 60 to 80, somewhere in there. Unfortunately, there's a lot of people out there that overdose themselves on vitamin D and you have to remember that vitamin D is fat soluble, so it will sit in your fat cells so you can’t eat too much of it. So I always want people to remember that. The point being is that 5,000 units a day usually is a good amount. Some people take more than that, but I wouldn't take more than probably 50,000 units a week. But yes, vitamin D, most people are low, but that's why some people I do see are a little bit on the higher side.
Ashley James (0:51:23.792)
What do you do holistically, naturally, to prevent disease? What are your main things that you make sure you wake up and do every single day to keep your body in balance?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:51:40.266)
I'm horrible, I die. I probably don’t do that. I am probably a bit of a hypocrite, but sometimes the doctors are probably the worst patients I do think that sleeping for me and men, don't have a menopause, but as I've aged I've really noticed that sleep is really hard for me and I can tell you that I do feel a lot better when I sleep better. So I would really focus on the sleep hygiene piece for me. Cold room, dark, if that's what you like, sound machine no, sound machine, whatever it is. Then in the mornings, you see people doing these cold plunges all the time, and women don't necessarily need to do those every day. I think if you do them every day, you could potentially give yourself a cortisol spike, which may not be something you want to do but maybe two, three, four times a week.
But if you don't have a cold plunge, when you're in the shower. What I usually say is turn the water as cold as you can, get it for up to a minute, and you can always work your way up to it. What that's going to do is one thing, it's going to just kick start you. It's going to wake you up more than any coffee ever could, but it's also going to give you a little bit of a reset with your adrenals. The other thing and this is a fun one is you can eat one or two squares a day of good cacao chocolate, at least like 67% chocolate.
I did a YouTube video a while back where I ate chocolate from milk chocolate all the way up to 100% cacao. I think I had eight or nine of them. Man, what an adventure that was. You start getting up around 80%, 85%. I know people out there that eat 100% every day. I don't know how they do it. It's like I remember one day when I was a kid. I was like I don't know, I was probably eight and I wanted my mom to make cookies and she wasn't doing it. She wasn't doing it and I was like really wanting this powder. I was like I'm going to just eat the powder and the thing was I thought it was like the stuff you make the chocolate milk out of that has the sugar in it. But this was just powdered baking chocolate. So it was like just eating fire. It just burns and I remember crying, the chocolate was all dripping out of my mouth.
It was a similar experience when I did the chocolate tasting because I was like, oh my god, this is horrible, but cacao is really good for your blood vessels. It's good for a lot of things. So I say, a cold shower in the morning, try to focus on your sleep and if you want to do something, that's a treat you can do, 67% or higher of cacao.
Ashley James (0:54:55.179)
Well, I would challenge you to try to get the 100%, but at least 80%. This is what I like doing. Get a chocolate that has no sugar added okay, so it's that like super dark chocolate, but hear me out, it's going to taste good, then you get dates, I wouldn't do more than like five, six dates a day. Less is more. A small amount is good, a lot might not be great, but get a few dates, take the pits out and then get your dark chocolate and you cut the date in half, or in a quarter, and then you cut your chocolate and you shove the chocolate in the date and then you dip that. This is optional; you could dip it in a seed or nut butter, like almond, or cashew. There's all kinds of different ones. You could do sunflower, or if you don't have any nut butters, you don't need to. As a kid, you liked, peanut M&Ms versus regular M&Ms, and then you pop that in your mouth and you chew, and the sweetness of the date will offset the bitterness of the chocolate and then you get that wonderful high from the really antioxidant-rich dark chocolate without the processed sugar.
So that's my little go-to, and you're not eating a ton of it, you're just maybe eating two or three squares. Also know the timing is really important, because if you do it late at night it can affect your sleep. So it's actually better even though most chocolate cravings happen later at night, it's better done earlier in the day.
I don't know how much caffeine is in chocolate, but I'm one of those people that if I even eat two squares of dark chocolate, I notice it. It affects my sleep, I don't fall asleep. So you have to watch that. Anything I can do to eat something that doesn't have anything processed in it, like processed sugar, as minimal processed as possible.
How about Vitex Berry? Have you explored or worked with your clients who come to you and say, listen, I want to do everything I can to balance my hormones naturally, to support my body, to balance hormones naturally, instead of getting a hormone replacement, even though it is bioidentical. Do you ever have patients come to you and say get me on some herbs first. Have you seen that Vitex Berry can move the needle?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:57:39.968)
Vitex can be good for women that have low progesterone. It's a claim to fame. The research, as with all supplements, is not super strong, but there are a lot of women out there who will resume ovulation or that will start having more progesterone production. The thing about Vitex is it doesn't contain any hormones. The benefits from the Vitex are actually from what it does to the pituitary gland. So it goes a little bit higher than the ovaries, obviously, and works on that pituitary axis and what it does is the production of the hormone, luteinizing hormone.
Luteinizing hormone is a pituitary gland hormone that indirectly increases the progesterone production. So with Vitex you can get an indirect response. Now I used to use a lot of Vitex until I started working with maca and once I started working with maca, I stopped with Vitex because I felt like the maca worked on much different levels. Vitex is going to work more specifically on progesterone, but the maca helps all the hormones rather than focusing on just one.
Ashley James (0:59:13.456)
Wow. Could you explain a bit more as to what maca does to the body? That helps all the hormones. Is it just because it's high in antioxidants, or is there a certain phytochemical reaction in the body?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (0:59:29.262)
The problem with maca. There's been quite a bit of research, especially by the company Symphony that does Feminescence. There isn't a definitive reason for it, like we don't know exactly, but it's obviously a natural antioxidant. It does help produce more glutathione and something called superoxide dismutase, which is a strong antioxidant, and we think that this may have something to do with it. I think one of the earlier studies that was done around 2006 showed that it can help modulate the hypothalamic pituitary axis. We don't know the exact mechanism of action, like they haven't been able to tell you. They haven't isolated why it does what it does, which is fascinating because you would think we could but that's what I'm telling you.
If you take, let’s say, black maca versus gold maca, one might be good for men, the other one might be good for a woman with PCOS. You might also have one that's good for menopause. So it's really interesting. Let’s say gold maca works for PCOS, but you take the gold maca and you grow it in another part of Peru, it might do something totally different. So you really have to have an understanding of the plant. Like I said, there's 13 different phenotypes of maca and what's fascinating is, if you talk to some of the indigenous healers and the farmers that farm this stuff, they used to use it years and years ago for, like hundreds of years ago, for women that had issues with their periods, like painful periods, heavy periods. They would eat maca or they would make tea out of it and they would get better. So it is just like anything else in this world, these companies that find things based on talking to the indigenous healers who like, yes, we use that bark of that plant. The interesting thing if you look at it and this is a totally different topic but if you look at a plant like ayahuasca, which is a vine, just sitting there in the forest, how did they know that eating that vine, you didn't just eat it, but you got to boil it for eight hours. If you boil it for eight hours, it'll give you this psychoactive thing. However, if you just took ayahuasca, there's a chemical in your stomach called MAO monoamine oxidized that will break down the ayahuasca in about three seconds. So you get absolutely no effect. However, there's this other vine that grows next to the ayahuasca, that if you boil that with the ayahuasca, there's a chemical in that vine that blocks your monoamine oxidase. So you have this psychoactive experience. How did they know to do that? If you ask the shamans because what I did when I lived, I'm like how the hell did they know to do that? How did you figure this out? And they're like the plants, tell us and so I do think there's this, I don't know, this unseen, unknown language of these plants that they're there for a reason, many of them, most of them and we just haven't figured it out yet. We've been living with plants for thousands and thousands and millions of years. They're there for a reason. It's like why do we have cannabinoid receptors in our body? Why do we respond to marijuana? Marijuana is not an essential element in our diets, but yet we have all these receptors in our body. There's something there and it works for pain. I don't know, but the maca thing is fascinating and I really respect the plant. I just think it's amazing.
Ashley James (1:03:47.953)
I have an interview about ayahuasca, episode 379, with Teresa Vigarino. Super interesting. For listeners who don't know a lot about ayahuasca. Really interesting to listen to Teresa's experience. She went down to Peru, had the experience. She's been back several times and now she takes a tour once a year. She found a really good center because she had some sketchy experiences which led her to find a trustworthy one. But she shares her experiences in great detail in that interview, episode 379.
It is so fascinating that when we look at Indigenous medicine, the medicine that's been here for thousands of years, and, of course, if you look at the world through the lens of the modern medical system, the average MD and I'm not bashing medical doctors, but we have to just take look at the stereotypical, let's say, MD. Look through the world through their lens, and plant medicine is poo-pooed, it's looked down upon, it's primitive, and we brush it aside because it's unscientific and it's primitive. Here we are with our modern, proven, double blind placebo, chemically created, pristine, sterile medicine. Then we're going to come swoop in, prescribe you a pill and save the day, kill everything, kill all the bacteria, sterilize the body and that's the key, that's the trick, and we know now very quickly, we've learned that MD medicine isn't the best, it isn't the entire picture of medicine. It's a slice of the pie and it has its place and it has its strengths and it definitely has its weaknesses, which it doesn't want you to know about.
In the last four years, people have gotten canceled, taken off of YouTube for trying to point out the weaknesses, So they do a lot to try to protect. The AMA is not in your best interests. The FDA, all these big organizations not always out in the best interests of our health and healing.
We just have to look at it a little bit cynically, but look at it through the bigger picture lens. How about we look at the world through the lens of like these shamans, for example, or indigenous healers? How about we look through the lens of a 5,000 year old form of healing, like, we go to Asia and India and we see these types of methods or we go to Peru and what we have been doing as humans for thousands of years, and now, through their lens. So they look to the earth, they listen to the plants, they support the body's ability to come back into balance and now stand on their feet for a minute and look at our world.
How crazy are we to think that we're smarter than plant medicine, that we're smarter than God, that we're smarter than how we've been living for thousands of years, to come in and, within the last hundred years, create chemical, petroleum-based medicine and say that every other form of medicine is quote unquote, alternative and outside of the box. So the quote unquote alternative has actually been here a lot longer, been proven, and even in the modern day world, we can't even figure out why, for example, maca even works but we know it works.
So it's worth stepping out of our own perspective and looking at it through the lens of someone else to see where we've been wrong, to see where we could learn and grow. I invite everyone to step into the shoes of someone who's in the politically opposite spectrum of you and actually genuinely try to learn. Look at your own political views through someone else's eyes. Try to learn what we are missing, what's in our blind spot. What's in the blind spot when you step into the feet of a different healer that doesn't necessarily grow up in the MD medical system, and what we see is we can learn so much from the earth and the plants. And what I love about herbal medicine, it just drives me crazy. It's so cool that when there's poison in nature, that within yards of that poison is the cure. If you believe in God, which I do, that has this amazing, world that has been built for us that the cure is close by. If you don't believe in God, but at least you believe in what you see, you believe in the earth. The earth was set up in such a way, in harmony, and we're supposed to be in harmony with it that the cure is close by to the poison. So it's so cool, it's so cool that with ayahuasca, the earth told them, or the plants told them, like, hey, take this vine, take that vine, boil it for eight hours, have a good time. I just love that it's amazing.
When you were traveling and studying with the indigenous people? What did you see that they do to keep their bodies in balance that we could really learn from?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:09:41.598)
You want the dark truth.
Ashley James (1:09:46.534)
Yes.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:09:47.270)
They die. I mean, I know it sounds dark, but really that's the secret, what they do. The Huichol, who are a group in Guatemala, they are the original peyote shamans, and if you go, if they allow you in, harvesting the peyote buttons off of a cactus, it's just the little circles that grow on top of the cactuses and then they dry them and grind them up and you can do peyote. In order to be a part of that harvesting process, which is very spiritual, they walk through the desert and the cactuses only grow in a certain area.
They will tell you that in order to do this, in order for them to let you in, you have to die, you're like okay, I'm already here. So what's this mean? Basically what it means is you go out into the desert and you dig your own grave. It's really fascinating when you do this, because even when you're dying metaphorically, you still have the same character flaws before you even got there. So I'm like okay, I got to do this, I'm going to do this.
But typical Shawn, when I'm doing stuff like that, or building Ikea or whatever, I'm cutting corners. I didn't make the biggest grave ever. Then at night you have to get in. They cover you with a piece of plywood and they cover the plywood up with dirt. They tell you you can bring in whatever you want, anything. So I'm like cool, I'm going to bring in a book, I got a flashlight, I got all this stuff and I get in there and they put me in.
The first thing I did was turn on my flashlight and I realized immediately that I didn't bring my grave big enough. I'm like, holy cow, this is tiny. So I turned off my flashlight because I was like I can't even look at this, it's too confined. But what happened was, over the night they sang. They sing all night while you're there so you can hear them. It was interesting because I realized all the stuff that I brought into the grave didn't matter, didn't matter. I couldn't use any of it. I'm dead.
What mattered was the songs, because it kept me tethered to the place. It kept me tethered to the land, to the people. What I realized was the singing, at least for me, were all the people that were still alive, that were talking about me, like I remember when dad did this, or yes, he was a great doctor or whatever good friend. That's what meant something to me, not all the stuff, it was the people.
Then in the morning you're born again, you come out of the ground and you're Jesus, you're reborn. So it was quite a profound experience and I think that experience in and of itself was profound enough for me to have really just moved on and gotten whatever I needed out of it. I had a great experience with the curandera in Mexico about depression and there's all spiritist hospitals in Brazil and there's all these different things out there that you can experience, for us to think that we have this one way of doing something is a bit ridiculous and narcissistic, I think, on our part. But the medical system, we can’t bash it but it is there. If you have appendicitis, you need your appendix out, so it's got its place.
Ashley James (1:13:56.451)
It absolutely has a place within our society, but it’s like a parasite. It tries to take over and be everything and cut out and all the other things.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:14:08.116)
You're seeing that right now in psychedelic medicine. So what are they doing there? There's ketamine clinics on every corner because of all of the people that are going to Costa Rica and Brazil and all these places to do ayahuasca. They're not stupid. It's business and they see this as a business. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't start seeing ayahuasca coming out like with a capsule or something but what's going to happen is when you reduce this down to business and you take out of it the spiritual aspect, the guided part of it you can't.
Like you said, this lady had a bad trip. Well, because it's shady. If you go to somebody that can actually take care of you and walk you through this process, it can be profound. If you're just some American 25-year-old that's bored and you just want to experience the high, well, that's the wrong reason to do it, unfortunately. That's why a lot of people do it because they're bored. But some people get it. I had a friend that did mushrooms and for four hours she sat in front of a mirror and her reflection told her how horrible she was. So you need to have a guide, you need to have somebody there that can help you get through that, like I did with the people that were singing.So you don't have that negative side effect but yes, modern medicine will co-op stuff. That's just what we do.
Ashley James (1:15:36.834)
Yes, so it really is up to us as individuals to advocate for ourselves, to seek out information. Well, I'm sure everyone listening is on the same page. If you're listening to us, you're actively seeking information because you realize you cannot blindly just wait to get sick. Go to the doctor, they hand you a pill and then you're all better magically. That's not how the life works, although that's how Hollywood has painted it. So when we know that Hollywood and the media, the TV, is funded by the pharmaceutical industry and the mainstream medical industry. We've been fed this one lens, this one perspective. Yes, if I have a broken arm, I am not going to my naturopath, I am not going to my acupuncturist, I am going to the ER. Right, like I'm going to a medical doctor.
But for complex, chronic imbalance, MD drug-based medicine fails us. It fails us over and over and over again, and that is because the body wants to heal itself, wants to come back into balance, and it's missing. So they're missing nutrients, there's certain lifestyle choices that are negatively impacting it. So there's things that we can do to support the body to come back in balance, and that's where I am wanting us to learn more about that, like what can we do to get our body back into balance? Naturally, yes, there is. What is wonderful is that there is available to us and that you can help your patients with. That is bioidentical hormone as needed. But I'd love us to get to a point where we don't need a prescription, where we're supporting us coming back into balance because the body really wants to. It's constantly trying. So what is holding the body back and why are so many women having hormone issues? Do you ever think about that or like to explore that? Why are we so sick?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:17:43.188)
You mean outside of menopause.
Ashley James (1:17:46.864)
Yes, just why are more and more women experiencing hormone related issues?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:17:53.740)
Well, menopause. I think the reason that we still have such a problem with that is because what happened was, if you look back 300-400 years ago, the average lifespan was like 46 or 44. So we didn't really have a big menopause issue because women didn't live that long. We started living longer, extremely longer, like the 80s and 90s, so much faster, like in 100 years. The lifespan has increased so dramatically that evolution hasn't really had a chance to catch up yet. So we have menopause. Now, maybe 300 years from now, menopause will move from 50 to 60 as the body evolves, if we didn't do anything. So that's one thing.
Perimenopause, women that are younger, like I see the number one hormonal issue I see across the board in every age group is low testosterone.
Low testosterone in menopause is understandable because, again, the ovaries make 50% of the testosterone, so it's going to go down. But in a younger population 18 to 35, why is it low? I can tell you why. Number one is because of birth control pills, and I don't mean to rag on birth control pills. I think they're fine for birth control, but what they do is they raise a protein in your blood called sex hormone binding globulin, which then drives down your testosterone. So younger girls, low testosterone and doctors will joke, well, that's just another reason why they work, because the young girls that are on them don't want sex because their testosterone is so low. When you get into that late 20s, mid 30s to 50, the low testosterone is more than likely from probably obesity, neuroendocrine, disrupting chemicals in the food supply and water, stress, not sleeping, just pretty much a conglomeration of living in the times that we live in now and the country that we live in.
Ashley James (1:20:11.661)
That concept that we didn't really live that long. I think that's only one part of our heritage, though have you considered looking besides white northern Europeans when we look at other cultures, like the blue zones, where we see that other cultures actually live much longer, and to this day, there are certain cultures where women have far less hormone imbalance than we do in the West.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:20:39.813)
I would debate the blue zone thing. The blue zone, at least what I've read. It's an interesting concept but it's never actually been proven. If you look at people like, say in Greece, they eat better diets. I mean, they eat more olive oil, they eat more fish, but they also eat quite a bit of meat. They just don't eat the processed garbage that we eat.
There might be more to the dietary aspects than maybe the age, but I think that what's interesting is, we can get caught up in blue zones or whatever, but it doesn't. I don't think it changes the fact that you could go into, say, a blue zone like Santorini or wherever one of those places, and you can eat exactly the way they do it. It doesn't mean you're going to live longer. You might have a different lifestyle. I think it's a combination of where do they live? Are they walking everywhere they go? Are they eating that food? What genetic makeup do they have? I mean, that a lot of these things are multifaceted, not just one thing, and that's part of the problem in this country. I feel like we try to adapt everybody else's stuff because we don't have our own thing. A friend of mine, she puts on quinceañeras, 15 year old women in Mexican culture have quinceañeras. 15 16-year-old Jewish people have bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs. White general white people like my kids. There's no ceremony when you're 15 or 16. You can have a sweet 16, I suppose. So we're looking for something. It's like we don't have any culture. I don't know how else to explain it, but we're always looking outside of ourselves, I guess, to find these answers. The reality is, you start with your family, you can change things in your own group and live the way that you want to. Like I said, you can mimic the Mediterranean diet and you can start instituting those changes and walking more.
If you go to New York City, you don't see a ton of obese people because they walk everywhere. They literally walk everywhere. When I was there, I think my steps were like 20,000 steps and I didn't do anything different than I would normally do. But you just don't drive, you walk. I live 14 miles from my office, so I'm not going to walk to the office, but I mean I would if I could. But yes, I just think it's a combination of things, but I really feel like most of this, for our country anyways, is probably dietary and just that we're not as active as we could be.
Ashley James (1:23:34.649)
Yes, walk more, stop eating processed crap.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:23:38.255)
Well, we know people that eat less live longer. I mean that's pretty simple, not like starving yourself, but people that don't eat as much food live longer. I mean we've known that for a long time. Look at the prolonged fasting thing. Giving your gut that rest and having autophagy and the stem cell production is super helpful and I think you can get that by not starving but cutting back on things for sure.
Ashley James (1:24:08.030)
I have a great fasting interview, episode 230, with Dr. Goldhammer. He talks about that, the autophagy, and just a three to five day water fast once every few months is like turning on the dishwasher at night before you go to bed, but for the body and it's pretty phenomenal. He had one person, a woman, who had cancer riddled through her whole body. Her oncologist sent her home to die. She did a 30 day water only fast at his fasting clinic, medically supervised, and when she walked out of there she was cancer-free and he ended up publishing this as a study or whatever you do when you publish these things and just really interesting that the autophagy for some people is powerful enough to the body, wipes out tumors.
Not for everyone, but for some people. Then there's really interesting studies around fasting before chemotherapy. I am not in any way promoting cut, burn and poison medicine for cancer, but for those who choose the chemotherapy route, because I'm also pragmatic and I believe that whatever tool is best for you, you should go for the best tool for you but understand the pros and cons. You got to clean up the mess after chemotherapy. But what's interesting is that there are studies. This is fascinating. They did this in mice before. They did this in humans, but they studied it, they published it. It's out there. It's probably buried though, but you could find it if you looked hard enough. That fasting before, I think it was a two-day fast, it wasn't that long before every round of chemotherapy, significantly reduced all of the side effects to the point where some people didn't lose their hair, didn't get the nausea, like really interesting. Also it targeted the cancer better. Then there's this type of chemotherapy called metronomic chemotherapy, I don't want to say microdose, but it's a far smaller dose. They attach it to a sugar and then they get the cancer to be super hungry and then the cancer gobbles it up. So it's more targeted. So then they use fasting. It is so interesting how we can use fasting in conjunction with certain medicines. But I'd rather go natural. I'd rather prevent cancer in the first place. That's a big thing. Look around you in terms of what the statistics are. I like saying this on my show because it's real. It's a really quick wake up call. One in three people are obese, have diabetes or prediabetes, have heart disease, and get cancer is one third of each population are having this or about to have this problem.
Then look at what the average person is doing. What are they doing? What are they eating, What are they consuming? Do the opposite. Walk, try walking instead of driving everywhere. Eat whole foods instead of eating packaged foods. Go to bed early instead of staying up late and Netflix. Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing and see if you start feeling better, because it is the accumulation of what we eat and what we do that has led us down this road of disease.
Now you brought up obesity. Can you talk about and shine a light on the GLP-1 pros and cons? There's medications out there, but I also hear that there's certain things we can eat naturally to support GLP-1. What is GLP-1? Why are people in an uproar about it, and I'd love for you to go into teaching us a bit about this.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:27:53.465)
About which aspects in particular?
Ashley James (1:27:58.202)
Well, for example, for people who don't even know what GLP-1 is.But there's GLP-1 medications and then there's some natural things to raise GLP-1. There's people saying it's great. There's people saying it's horrible that we lose muscle mass.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:28:12.809)
Keep in mind the GLP-1s are naturally occurring peptides. They've been around for a long, long time, probably forever. They just were discovered.
The issue in GLP-1 is a glucagon-like peptide that is made usually in the small intestine and the cells of the small intestine usually in the small intestine and the cells of the small intestine, and, whether or not you believe that there's a lot of companies out there that are now capitalizing on it. So if you see a supplement that says GLP-1, like blah, blah, blah, to me that's just marketing and I find it somewhat atrocious because they're trying to sell a product.
The GLP-1s, though they've been used in diabetes for decades and what they noticed was that people that were using these were basically losing weight. The only reason that it recently took off was because of Kim Kardashian. I mean, she started using them, and my guess is that the celebrities have been using these for years, and just didn't talk about it but it caught on because of the attention that it got. What's interesting is, like I said, Semaglutide and Terzepatide, Ozempic and Manjaro, they are naturally occurring compounds. You can find them in nature, you can buy them. You could buy Semaglutide on your own. You don't need a prescription for it because it's a peptide. The problem is, what happened was so when, when you hear all these controversies, like remember a while back, the diabetics can't get it. All these people are using it for their weight loss and the diabetics can't get it. How horrible.
Well, the reason that the companies ran out wasn't because they ran out of semaglutide, they ran out of the pen. So when you patent something, you cannot patent a naturally occurring compound. So you can't patent estradiol , it's not patentable. But you can patent the way that it's delivered. You could use gel or a mist or whatever, but the actual medicine that's in there isn't what's patented. So semaglutide isn't a patentable medicine. What was patented was they come with a pen that has a button. You push the button and it gives you the device. Well, because of COVID, they ran out of the plastic and they ran out of the devices, but the product was still there, and so there's plenty of this product around.
What's the other one? The rates of thyroid and pancreatic cancer. Well one, pancreatic cancer was never an issue. But number two, the thyroid cancer that was shown in the study, was in rats. It's never been reproduced in humans, so that was another fear thing.
Then, lastly, the muscle loss. Anybody that loses 50 pounds, let's say they did Atkins low fat whatever they did, and they lost 40 pounds. On average, about 12 pounds of that would have been muscle wasting, 14 pounds maybe with Ozempic. So it's the same. It's because of weight loss, because most people when they lose weight they're in a caloric deficit. There's no way to really lose that much weight and not have some of it be from muscle density. There's just no way. I mean, you could inject yourself with testosterone and do some heavy lifting and do lots of protein, but in order for you to go into enough of a caloric deficit to lose and we're not talking about people that are losing 10 pounds, we're talking about people that are losing more weight.
The problem is that this got pushed to the forefront. This is again my theory, but you have a lot of people out there that make a lot of money on weight loss programs, coaches, nurses, doctors, whatever and if they weren't on board with prescribing those meds, or they couldn't prescribe those meds, they were losing a lot of business. So to come out and start trashing this medication that I believe has really helped a lot of people, and I think, if used correctly, obesity might be a thing of the past. I think chastising folks saying it's a crutch, the way I look at it is it's a tool, it's another tool. There's lots of tools out there which may work for somebody, may not work for somebody else.
But I don't think we should be judging people, like Oprah, she used Ozempic but she didn't talk about it for like a year and a half. Why, why? I don't understand why. Why is it so bad? The fact that you people should just be happy you lost weight, you're healthier, you're down 40 pounds, it should be a happy thing, not critical saying oh you cheater, why did you do that? That part I don't understand.
Ashley James (1:33:23.028)
Yes, it scares me though, the amount of muscle loss, I guess with any weight loss. You're saying that the muscle loss with other diets is similar to Ozempic?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:33:35.858)
If it was just somebody doing something at home, if you're just like I'm going to do Atkins, you're going to lose muscle mass. It's going to happen, and it's going to be about 30%, or probably 20 to 30%. The thing is, if you hired like a trainer, health coach, somebody that could help you with your food and then with your weight, and you were on testosterone yes, you wouldn't lose maybe half of that, but if it was just like a run-of-the-mill person that just did a diet, you're going to lose muscle density. It happens with all weight loss programs.
Ashley James (1:34:17.339)
With women who are wanting to lose weight and build muscle. Would you ever prescribe testosterone for them during that period even if their testosterone is normal, would you help them by increasing their testosterone temporarily while they're working out, so that they could prevent muscle loss, or would that be too detrimental?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:34:41.270)
It depends on how high. Most women that I test are low. A free testosterone, the range might be 0.2 to 6.4. That's a 32 fold range. So let's say you come back at 0.4 and then you get put on testosterone and you're up to two and a half. You're still in the lower half of normal. I could almost triple your testosterone and it would still be normal.
So there's a lot of play there with testosterone and as long as the levels aren't too high for too long, you won't usually get the negative side effects. If it's too high or too high for too long, you could have voice changes, hair growth, you can actually have the clitoris enlarged. Some of those things are permanent, they don't go away. So it really varies. I wouldn't want to make somebody super physiologic for an extended period of time, but helping them with muscle loss is fine, but most women that I treat don't go and get a DEXA scan before and after to know how much. They're just looking at how their clothes fit.
Ashley James (1:35:57.407)
Right, but the older we get our muscle, the amount of muscle we have really plays a role in our long-term health and in our longevity. I was told this many years ago by a functional MD. She was actually in the Olympics twice. Amazing woman. She's in her 80s now and still regularly runs marathons in the desert. This woman is super healthy and she says you must protect your muscles and she told this to me in my 30s. She goes, build your muscle now, protect it, because when you're in your 80s it could be, for example, just one bout of pneumonia. The amount of muscle you have in your body is the difference between whether you live or die, and your strength is so important when you get into your 80s if you're to prevent a fall. It's a difference between whether you're going to be cycling and walking or whether you're going to be in a walker or worse, bedridden, and so that's just the idea that we would lose so much muscle with a drug but, like you said, it could also be with other extreme diets where there's a great calorie deficit and of course, we want to help people gain balance and lose weight healthfully.
That's interesting though you're saying that in certain circumstances like taking the GLP-1 protocol, getting to a healthier weight and while also doing everything you can to protect your muscle doesn't have long-term negative side effects, because we've seen people have been using it for years.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:37:37.140)
Well, I mean, we have data on diabetics. The problem is, diabetics have other health concerns. So are we going to know because of the millions and millions of people that are now using this stuff? I saw another podcast where this person's a micro dosing now there and people just make stuff up and so I don't know if people are getting the doses or if they're getting legitimate product, because there's generics out there now and there's compounding pharmacies, and so it's one of those things, where it's hard to tell, because, people are using all kinds of stuff now. Should they be on it for years and years? Probably not. My goal is to just get their weight down and then wean them off the medication, but you also have to look at it like what if they were pre-diabetic? Or what if they had high cholesterol, high blood pressure? You now have a system where they've lost 35 pounds and their cholesterol is better, they're off all their blood pressure meds. I mean, yes, they lost a little bit of muscle density, but maybe they're going to live longer because their heart is healthier.
Ashley James (1:39:01.076)
Yes, there's other metrics that you're looking at. Have you seen anything natural? I know, of course, we're going to question everything and be suspicious of natural products in the market that make health claims, but I've seen interesting information around allulose that it increases GLP-1. Have you seen anything natural or something healthy for the gut that increases GLP-1 in the body that you would say is worth looking into?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:39:32.752)
I have not. No, but like I said, this area is so new. Allulose has some activation constructs in the neurons in your brain and those neurons respond to GLP-1s. So what it's thought is that allulose can potentiate the ability of GLP-1 to activate neurons in the brain. But that would be the only thing I could think of there that it wouldn't help you lose weight, but it might help brain function, and that's the other thing too. With more weight comes more inflammation, more inflammation, Alzheimer's, all kinds of stuff. So I think there's a lot of potential issues with GLP-1s. I mean, we may find that certain probiotics can help GLP-1 production. I just think we're so early on in the process. I do feel like what they're finding with these GLP-1s too, is there's people that are quitting gambling, drinking. There's a lot of weirdness around addictive behaviors because that's what I've noticed with GLP-1s, it curbs your appetite a little bit, but it also gives you the ability to think differently about food. You're not feeling the need to like to eat everything in sight. But you also can say okay, I'm standing at the fridge, it's 10 o'clock at night, I want ice cream. Are you hungry? No, I just want it. Okay sorry about that. Can you do two tablespoons, or do you need to eat the whole container? I think I can do two tablespoons. Before I even had that discussion, now it gives me the ability to think it through, and then by the time I've done that, I don't want it anymore, anyway, I kind of talk myself out of it.
I can't tell you how many women that I see, who during COVID and whatnot, would have two, three glasses of wine a night, and basically, that's probably 600 calories. Not to mention the alcohol is not good for you, but they stopped drinking because they just weren't even thinking about it anymore, and so it's one of those things where, I think it's going to make a lot of big differences in different ways if we could just get past the negativity on it.
Ashle James (1:42:27.564)
And if and if we can also create a system that protects the muscle loss as much as possible.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:42:37.216)
There’s going to be other peptides out there and they are not regulated so we can't know for sure if you're getting a good product and then the government comes in and shuts them down. Don't think for a minute, though. There isn't a company that's already looking at that. I guarantee you somebody's going to come out with something that can spare the muscle density, or they'll combine it with testosterone or something like that. If the women that I have on GOPs I usually also have on testosterone.
Ashley James (1:43:14.345)
Like you said, some nutritionist, health coach, guiding them with a healthy diet and going to the gym doing weights, because the only way to build muscle is to stress the muscle. So you got to get the weights in. Even if you start with bands, do it in a way that you're not going to injure yourself. The most common thing is people injure themselves within a month of joining a gym because they're using the weights too much, too long, too hard. Whatever they're doing, they're not doing it correctly. That's why it really is worth it to start slow build up. I just talked to a doctor yesterday about this. He says it takes six months before your tendons and ligaments get strong enough, because every time you go to the gym, you're there, you're strengthening them as well, and it just takes longer for the body, especially the older we get to adapt to our new fitness level. So it's best to get some fitness in every day, even if it's 20 minutes, just some fitness in every day, because we atrophy, and that is the scary thing is, our culture is conducive to atrophy. We just video gaming, netflix, binging, driving, everywhere, we atrophy. If you're not using it, you're losing it. So get in the gym or go for a walk, just do gentle daily and and progressively, slowly build the difficulty up.
I am one of those people that goes in guns blazing, doing the hardest exercise and then injures myself then I'm out for six weeks. I could have just been doing simple little stuff for the six weeks I was out because I was recovering from the injury. So don't go in guns blazing, it's that marathon idea, not the sprint. Every day, get some movement, slowly increase the weights and then, after you're used to it, do the stronger stuff. You're building muscle. Strength is using the muscle. So we got to use it.
You have a book, and this book looks fascinating, The Hormone Balance Bible. Tell us about it.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:45:30.448)
Basically, it's a culmination of all of the things that I was talking about with my mom and all that stuff and the culmination at the time also I was reading a lot of Caroline Mace and Carl Jung and Sally Hogshead and they use a lot of archetypes. So to tell stories.
Basically when you write a book, you have to show the problem and then you have to fix the problem. Well, I found that if I talk to women about low testosterone, they would get it to a certain degree. But then if I started telling stories because I'd sat with 40,000 women and I listen and I love stories, and so what I noticed was similar threads, and so what I did was I came up with these 12 most common hormone imbalances and I put them into archetypes. So low testosterone would be the nun, high estrogen would be the queen, low thyroid is the underdog, and the book talks about these imbalances in a way that makes it easier to understand.
So, like I would notice that a lot of women, when I would tell them these stories, would just start nodding yes, that's me or crying because oh my god, you're the first person that's ever put it into words me and it was funny because it wasn't me, it was just all these other women I had listened to. Then I came up with the shines protocol, which I briefly described earlier, which is a spiritual practice, hormones, infoceuticals, which is the woo factor, nutrition, exercise and supplements. So each of those 12 imbalances has its own shines protocol and put it into a book talked about, obviously, lab testing as well, what each hormone does and why, and it ended up being I don't know 500 pages, but it's a lot of information, it's a reference and, yes, it's a culmination of all these years where I was learning all this new stuff.
Ashley James (1:47:41.964)
That is so cool. I love that you gave each persona life so that we could identify and go wow, like I get it, that makes sense.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:47:53.970)
Well, I think that's how I connected people to it. They just got it. It was like light bulbs.
Ashley James (1:48:00.506)
Where can we go to buy your book, The Hormone Balance Bible?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:48:04.582)
It's on Amazon right now. It came out a couple of years ago with HarperCollins. It's on Amazon. I think it's $15 or $16 right now. You can also find me on Instagram. I post there sometimes twice a day, usually a topic of the day. I also have a great YouTube channel where I do YouTube live every day, talk about different hormones and balances.
What I found fascinating was I had no idea, but the demographic of women. The majority that are on TikTok are over 65. Fascinating for me, for my group, I did a post two months ago about a study that had come out that showed women that are over the age of 65 that were on estradiol had lower rates of lung, colon and breast cancer, they had less dementia and they had less morbidity by 19%. This was a study of 10 million women. I mean it went like I've never had something go viral in my life and that one had like almost 300,000 views and it’s just crazy, and it just showed me the power of the internet. There's so many people out there looking, and women especially, because they're getting gaslighted all the time. Oh, you're too young, oh, you're too old. Testing is stupid. So many things that you're told and all women want is help and an answer. They just want to get back to their lives.
Ashley James (1:49:37.360)
So do you teach through your instagram lives ? Do you teach women how to stop getting gaslit by their gynecologists, by their medical doctors?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:49:50.502)
I'm starting to get a little bit more into that aspect of it, because I have this thing that I hate called lazy medicine, which is where doctors will just say stuff to get you out of their office, oh, I don't do lab testing, hormones fluctuate all the time. Well, that's a fancy way of saying just I don't want to deal with it and get out because they just don't want to look at the labs and whatnot, and that's fine, that's their choice. Usually right now it's just being persistent, and I've had women ask me all the time how do I get a doctor to do this? You don't. You don't get a doctor to do anything.
If they're not going to do it, then you have to find someone else, and that's not your job. Your job is not to change their mind. Your job is to get what you want, and there are people out there like me that order stuff all the time and that do hormones and that are educated. It's just a matter of finding that person, which can be difficult. But the beautiful thing now is, since covid, we can get licensed in multiple states so that we can do telemedicine. So I'm licensed in like 27 states so I can see women across the country.
Ashley James (1:51:07.123)
Interesting. You have two websites. One of them is for people to book appointments and then the other is for just some great, more great information. You want to tell us about your websites.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:51:19.929)
So my website, Dr. Shawn Tassone, D-r-S-h-a-w-n-T-a-s-s-o-n-e is basically if you want to make an appointment, it just gives generalized information. tassonemd.com is my fun website that's got the book, it's got the quiz on there. If you don't want to get your labs tested and it's midnight and you're bored, tassonemd.com/quiz. Obviously I'm going to ask for your email, but you'll get an answer. You'll get one of those 12 archetypes and at least it gives you an idea of where to start. Nothing is obviously as good as labs, but I can't tell you how many times I've had women tell me how accurate they felt the test was. So I'm proud of it. I think it's a great quiz and something that can certainly open your eyes to certain things for sure.
Ashley James (1:52:20.747)
Is there ever a chance they get the, “You're perfect, there's nothing wrong with you” as an answer.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:52:27.755)
Not unless you answered every question, that you didn't have a problem. But I guess then you wouldn't be taking the quiz in the first place.
Ashley James (1:52:34.161)
Right, yes, “You're great! Go home!” You have a podcast, Confessions of a Male Gynecologist. I just love the title. How did you come up with that?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:52:45.909)
I don't know. I guess you always try to think of things that are a little bit off or edgy. I also am acutely aware, because I'm reminded daily of the fact that I'm a man in a woman's world and 75% of OBGYNs now, I think, are females, so we're a dying breed and, you get people all the time no uterus, no choice, no opinion, blah, blah, blah. I get it, I know where it comes from and I understand it. But to negate all the 50,000 women that I've sat with, because I have learned from that and not to mention the training and all that. But I think I was looking for something to be a little cheeky and allude to the fact that I am a guy and maybe I know some things you don't.
Ashley James (1:53:46.091)
To be a good male gynecologist, you have to actually work harder because you don't have a uterus. You don't have a female cycle, you haven't experienced it. So you do have to in some ways to be a good one. You have to work harder as a man to be a good gynecologist. Also, I think you do have an interesting perspective because you haven't lived in it, so that you really have to listen and be present, I mean, to be a good one, which sounds like you're a good one. So I wouldn't throw away all the male gynecologists.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:54:26.709)
No, I'll tell you what. There's a lot of something I don't do that I couldn't do that I've seen women do. I've seen women say stuff like oh, she says she has a bad period. I have a bad period. She thinks she has a bad period. You tell me your period hurts. I'm like, okay, I get it. I can't compare it and I wouldn't because I can't, but I think it can go both ways too. If the female thinks you're a complainer, I don't think that because I don't have anything to compare it to. Also, the flip side of that is that proverbial end of one just because you know your uterus…
Ashley James (1:55:06.731)
it doesn't mean you know other ones.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:55:08.462)
Yes, so it's the same argument. Well, you're not her, so you don't have a choice, and it's an interesting concept, for the most part I don't have to be a woman to understand that perimenopause and menopause sucks and that you're having issues with sleep. Sure, I can do it, but yes, I get it, I understand it.
Ashley James (1:55:29.956)
Well, I'm intrigued and I know my listeners will be as well to check out your podcast Confessions of a Male Gynecologist. It does sound intriguing and you're edgy, so that's fun. You could be like the male gynecologist Joe Rogan, Yes, I think you could do it. You sit there with a cigar.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:55:55.319)
I would actually do that. I would do that.
Ashley James (1:56:01.055)
You should get on this show. You've got the edge.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:56:03.892)
Well, we're in Austin, but I don't think I'm on Joe's radar.
Ashley James (1:56:07.768)
Not yet. With a podcast like that Confessions of a Male Gynecologist I think you could do it.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:56:16.710)
We shall see, I'll do it.
Ashley James (1:56:19.516)
Yes, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. Is there anything left unsaid? Is there anything you wanted to make sure that you said to wrap up today's interview?
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:56:29.328)
The main thing is don't give up. I say it all the time. It's frustrating. I get it. Sometimes you got to see four or five doctors.
There was an article that just came out in the UK a couple weeks ago that said women in the UK have to have 10 visits at a physician's office before they get diagnosed with menopause. Totally ridiculous. But it is what it is, if you give up, then you're not helping to pave the way for the women that come behind you. The more that you speak up, the more that you say no, the more that you make demands.
You're doing that not just for you, but that doctor is going to learn eventually, because if they've got five women in there in a day or 10 in a week that are coming in demanding these things, they're going to start looking into it and why? So you can. It's an educational thing on your part too, and think of it also as being there for the women that come behind you.
Ashley James (1:57:30.740)
Be willing to fire your doctor and go find one that will treat you the way you want to be treated and also look into the things you want them to look into. So don't don't try to force the doctor to do something they're not willing to do because they wouldn't even be good at it anyway.
What are they going to do with labs if they're not even willing to run them? They're going to take one, look at them and be like, okay, what are they going to do there? That's not their wheelhouse, go find it. I love saying you don't take your car to the plumber, you don't take your car to the electrician, we do this all the time, we go to the wrong specialist or to the wrong doctor. So it's okay, go to different doctors, get different opinions, get a second opinion, get a third opinion. Find the right team that's willing to listen to you and work with you and, yes, advocate for yourself. If they're not receptive, walk out of that office there. Don't put them on a pedestal. You're employing them, not the other way around. So you're allowed to fire the doctor and go find one that listens to you and you can say that Dr. Shawn Tassone said so.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:58:44.297)
I don't want to be as dramatic as firing them, but just go somewhere else. How's that?
Ashley James (1:58:50.773)
Okay, then they won't learn if you don't fire them, they'll never learn. They need to know that they've been fired by a handful of women until they start waking up.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:59:00.309)
Yes, that's true, it works.
Ashley James (1:59:02.785)
Thank you so much for coming on the show. This has been such a pleasure and all the links to everything that Dr. Shawn Tassone does, is going to be in the show notes of today's podcast at learntruehealth.com. Truly a pleasure to dive into this topic with you and if anything groundbreaking comes about, I'd love to have you back on the show to continue teaching us.
Dr. Shawn Tassone (1:59:23.992)
Sure. Sounds great.
Outro:
Are you tired of guessing your way through supplements, Feeling like each choice is just another shot in the dark? Unlock your health potential at takeyoursupplements.com. Here we don't just sell supplements, we customize wellness. Connect with a true health coach who tailors your nutritional path based on your unique health goals and challenges. From fatigue to vitality, from confusion to clarity Start your transformation today. Visit takeyoursupplements.com and discover how feeling amazing is just one free consultation away. That's takeyoursupplements.com.
Get The Minerals Your Body Needs: TakeYourSupplements.com
https://takeyoursupplements.com
To experience the technology covered in this interview book a phone call with TakeYourSupplements.com
Check Out My Latest Book: Addicted To Wellness
https://www.learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness
In this episode, Ashley James interviews Dr. Vaughn Cook, creator of the ZYTO technology, to explore the cutting-edge intersection of technology and holistic health. Dr. Cook delves into how energy medicine, voice analysis, and quantum-based tools like the ZYTO Hand Cradle are transforming health assessments. They discuss how these non-invasive approaches provide personalized insights into the body’s wellness, helping practitioners guide patients toward balance and healing.
Highlights:
Supporting Holistic Health Practitioners
Energy Medicine Technology
Evolution of ZYTO Scanning
Voice-based Health Assessment
Hand Cradle for Practitioners
EVOX for Emotional Healing
Clinical Validation through Case Studies
Non-invasive Health Monitoring
Quantum Field and Energy Healing
Ashley James (0:00:00.000)
Welcome to the Learn True Health Podcast. I’m your host Ashley James. This is Episode 521.
I am so excited for today's guest. We have Dr. Vaughn Cook on the show. This is such an interesting topic. I feel we're finally into the years of Star Trek. We're living in the future. I was such a Trekkie as a kid and growing up. I love Star Trek. I love the idea that health and technology could come together and that we could use technology to end all disease and end all suffering. That was such a neat concept. a few years ago, I saw the ZYTO at a chiropractic office and I was like, what is that? then Jennifer Saltzman from takeyoursupplements.com, who I'm a huge fan of and I rave about their services. They really are just a wonderful mix of holistic health practitioners and coaches that are committed to helping people get their health back through nutrition and supplementation. They've been using the ZYTO in a new way. I said, I need to learn more about this becauseI tell my listeners, I'm the biggest open-minded skeptic. So my first reaction is skepticism. then I go, okay, well, let's stay open -minded, let's go deeper. Usually when I do, I'm pleasantly surprised at what I find.
So you have a technology that now we can use through an app on the phone, along with our holistic health practitioner, when you go to takeyoursupplements.com for example, and they can hook you up with this and it scans you and tells you, in such a crazy detailed way tells you where you're off in your body and what we can do to support your body to come back into balance. I've scanned my husband, myself and my nine year old son and it was eerily accurate. So I can't wait to dive into the science. So excited to have you on the show, Dr. Cook.
Dr. Vaughn Cook (0:02:27.575)
Hi Ashley, it's good to be here.
Ashley James (0:02:30.712)
Yes, absolutely. I pretty much laid it out. This is the technology that shows us how we can come back into wellness. we're living in the future with Star Trek like- technology now. But , my first reaction is skepticism, because you're telling me that with an app and with what I hold in my hand, my smartphone, that we can learn about what my body needs and how we can support the body's ability to heal itself, that little skeptic, and I know some of my listeners might be skeptical, but of course open-minded, because they're listening, and curious also, wanting to know how can they learn how to bring their body back into balance. So I want to jump all the way back to the beginning of ZYTO. How did you get into this because it's a super cool technology.
Dr. Vaughn Cook (0:03:24.454)
Well, I got into it about 40 years ago. When I was a teenager, I developed horrific allergies and they went away and then they came back. In the early 80s, my wife and I moved our family to Las Vegas, Nevada. When we got there, my allergies came back with a vengeance.
I had a neighbor who was a dentist and he said, it's probably just something in your yard you're not used to that you're reacting to. So he said, I have this interesting technology I use in my clinic as a hobby. Break a twig off of everything in your yard and bring it down to my office tomorrow at five o 'clock when I close and I'll test you and we'll see if we can figure out what's going on. So the next day I had three big grocery bags full of twigs. I walked into his office and he pulled this piece of equipment out of his cupboard and it had a meter on it and a metal plate on top. Then he handed me a ground, a little hand mass that had a wire that went into this device. He would then put a twig, one at a time, on the metal plate on the top of the device and then he would poke my finger with a stylus and when he did that the meter would then go up and the machine would make a funny sound.
He explained to me that what he was doing was measuring the energy flow through my acupuncture meridian at the particular point that he was probing and the energetic influence of the twig on top of the instrument, its effect on my body would be reflected on my body's response as indicated by the meter and the sound. It was a totally goofy experience. If I hadn't been suffering from allergies as bad as I was, I probably would have gone, this is crazy. The other thing is this guy was a credible guy. I knew him and he was legit. So it was like, well, it might be nuts, but if it's good enough for him, I guess I can sit through it.
At the end of the experience, after we had tested every twig, he said, the only thing that you're showing a reaction to is Oleander and Pyracantha. I thought, well, okay, those are two things that we didn't have where we moved from, so it's possible those are the culprits. Then he went over to his cupboard again and he got another instrument out and he got out a little three ounce amber dropper bottle and a fifth of vodka. He poured some vodka into this little bottle and then he put the little bottle in a well. This new instrument he pulled out had two wells on top. He put this little dropper bottle with the vodka in it in one well and he took the Oleander and the Pyracantha twig and he put those in the other well. Then he twisted some dials on the front and he said, okay, what this machine does is it will transfer the energy from the twigs at a homeopathic potency and it programs it onto the water molecule and the alcohol molecule in the vodka. It was strange. I was a fairly open-minded guy, but this was just weird. It sat there for about five minutes, and then he said, okay, here's your remedy. Give me the bottle, he said, put 10 drops under your tongue three times a day. So I went home and faithfully did that because I wanted to get rid of my allergies, I was willing to try anything. On the 10th day, my allergies shut off completely. It was nuts, it was like God stuck his finger up my nose and turned off the valve. It was that dramatic. I thought, wait a minute, I've had allergies for so many years, nothing works like this. It's got to be that the Oleander and the Pyracantha have just gone out of bloom and there's no more pollen. So I went out in the backyard where the Oleanders were and they were still going crazy. I went out front, the hedge along the driveway where it was covered with Pyracantha and they were still blooming.
The only explanation was it had to be this magic stuff that he gave me. That was my introduction to energy medicine. it was so dramatic that I then inquired of him and said, tell me more about this. It turns out that what he was doing is a technique that was developed in Germany. It's called Electro Acupuncture according to Voll or EAV. Reinhold Voll is the doctor who developed it and then it came to the states in the 70s. There were a few clinics that used it, but it was mostly just, the Mavericks and they were doing interesting things. But I then met Bill Roberson, the name of the dentist and he introduced me to a doctor named Fuller Royal who had a clinic there in Las Vegas. Then Fuller, I got to know him pretty well in his clinic and he introduced me to a guy named Roy Curtin. See, I'm giving you all the names and genealogy here, Ashley. Anyway, Roy had a company that had taken the EAV manual technology and had computerized the library. So they had developed a way to represent Oleander or Pyracantha with a digital code.
Then instead of having the twig and putting it on the test plate, you would go into their computerized database and you would activate the code that represented Oleander or Pyrakantha. it would create the same effect as putting the twig on top of the test plate, on top of the metal plate. so that revolutionized the whole EAV world in a significant way. so I ended up going to work for Roy and his company for a while and then I left and started my own company and developed a similar technology and I started that, gosh, it was in the late 80s and it's just evolved since then.
So in the course of time I've built several different devices that we've sold to primarily health professionals. The reason is because with the EAV technology, back in the days when we had to take the stylus and actually probe the acupoint, the learning curve on that was fairly steep. Some people could learn how to do a point test in a couple of days, most people it took a couple of weeks. You had to commit yourself to the process. Meaning, if I brought EAV into my practice and didn't use it on a regular basis, I just would never get proficient enough to make it work well. So it was the doctors who were interested in that kind of stuff who really we sold the equipment to. Everybody said, gosh, would it be so easy if you just would invent a glove and we could just have our patients put their hand in a glove and then we could run all the tests that way. So they didn't have to point test. Eventually we didn't do the glove but we did what's called a Hand Cradle. I don't know if you saw the Hand Cradle Ashley.
Ashley James (0:11:54.736)
Yes, I have. I have seen it at chiropractic offices. That's really interesting. I've never used the Hand Cradle myself, but I have used your most latest technology. I said, it was a very accurate, really interesting experience. Well, I'm sure we'll get there. Let's go back to the Hand Cradle because I'm really enjoying this, this history lesson of this technology and how it's been evolving.
That made it a little easier, more accessible for the practitioners. So instead of having to learn the acupuncture points and know when to touch each one with the machine, now the patient comes in, puts their hand in a cradle with different metal pads, and then it can read them, essentially, read their energy signature, maybe explain a bit how that works.
Dr. Vaughn Cook (0:12:42.443)
I'm just pausing because I'm trying to think of how much geekiness to give you. Vole, the original developer of EAV, had a student, his name was Schimmel. Schimmel didn't like the idea of going from point to point because that's what Vole technology does. If you want to measure the large intestine,
You go to the large intestine meridian and there's a point on that meridian. It's called the control measurement point. It basically gives you the entire picture of the large intestine on the left or the right side. If you want to test the heart, you go to the heart meridian and you test the points on the heart meridian. So you can test points all over the body. The reason it works, frankly, is because acupoints are hardwired to different parts of the body.
There is a point that has a more direct connection to the valves in your heart. There's another one that has a connection to the bundle of his and one to the muscles. So you can get a very detailed electronic assessment or exam of your patient by just measuring those points. If what the points are, you get pretty intuitive and pretty uncanny in your ability to diagnose. Schimmel didn't like the idea of going from point to point. It was just cumbersome and it took too much. So he developed an alternative technique. He developed a technique where you would take a sarcode. A sarcode is a homeopathic remedy made from healthy tissue. So if you want to test somebody's heart, you would take a sarcode for heart and you would put that on the test plate and then you would just test one point and you test that one point over and over again because all you needed was just access to the body. He learned the most significant part of the measurement was called the indicator drop. Your body is a capacitor essentially and your organs hold energy. When you challenge the body with the Voll equipment, you're putting electrons into the body through the hand mass, and then you're taking them out of the body at the stylus when you touch the acupoint. the part of the body that that acupoint is most closely associated with will act as a capacitor and the ideal reading is one that goes up to 50 on the scale and stays at 50. What that's telling you is there is a proper amount of electron flow through that part of the body, and the body has the ability to sustain that flow over time. But when you get an indicator drop, when you touch the point, the meter goes up, goes up, then as you hold the pressure on the point, the meter drops. So it goes whoop, and then it goes whoop. See, I'm even making sound effects here for you. What that tells you is that that part of the body is not functioning in a healthy capacitive way, and the resistance is going up and the electron flow is dropping, and so it indicates a chronic problem.
So that's the difference between acute and chronic in EAV. Anyway, Schimmel developed this technique where instead of going from point to point, he would put the sarcode on the test plate and then he touched the point and watched the meter. If the meter dropped, then okay, that's an indication we got a problem with heart, okay? Then what he could do is he would take remedies and he could put those on the test plate at the same time the heart sarcode does on the plate and he would then repeat the probe until the meter responded in an optimal fashion. When that happened, then he would say, okay, there's a problem with the heart and these remedies correct that problem. So here's what I'm going to prescribe to you as the patient.
Ashley James (0:17:26.803)
So that could be herbs, that could be supplements, that could be...
Dr. Vaughn Cook (0:17:31.939)
Yes. Could be drugs, could be anything, yes.
Ashley James (0:17:35.475)
But that really takes a lot of knowledge. First, just understanding the body, understanding remedies, understanding what the body might need. The practitioner is still very much the computer. The tool at the time was an incredible tool, but it wasn't intelligent in and of itself. So you still needed really smart practitioners. Because if a practitioner like an MD who's not trained in supplements or herbs or lifestyle medicine, if they only have drugs, they only have one slice of the pie. So even if they had this machine, they couldn't really serve that patient because they didn't know all the available possible remedies for that person. So the practitioner had to be really well -versed to be able to correctly identify what that person's body needed.
Dr. Vaughn Cook (0:18:28.881)
Well, honestly, that was one of the fun things about EAV was you learned that stuff really fast. For example, homeopathy. I'm an expert in homeopathy and I got that way in six months. The reason it only took me six months is because I was using EAV equipment instead of going in and memorizing the remedy and the rubrics, et cetera, I would just test and I'd say, okay, here's the energetic profile of this patient, and this remedy balanced it. So now I know that that matches. So it's a fast way to get a lot of knowledge, and honestly, that makes it kind of fun. But at the same time, not every practitioner likes to do that. It's not necessarily the most lucrative practice you could run.
Ashley James (0:19:27.428)
Well, you're helping people get better and then they don't come back, but they might send all their friends and family.
Dr. Vaughn Cook (0:19:31.964)
Well, that's true, but let's say that you're a chiropractor and you're making significant money adjusting people and then you take time to do this kind of assessment, you could probably adjust four or five patients while you're seeing one with the EAV equipment. So, you would get incorporated into practices. A practice like that may say, hey, we're going to hire a technician. They'll run the EAV equipment, et cetera. But. yes, you did have to know more. The biggest challenge frankly though was the point testing because when you're mechanically applying a stylus to an acupoint, you can manipulate the response. If you push hard, you'll get more electrons and the meter goes up. if you don't push as hard, you don't get as many electrons and the meter doesn't move as much.
So the practitioner was actually part of the circuit. A good practitioner would develop the ability to know where the point was, apply the stylus in a consistent way, and once applied, they would hold the pressure constantly and give the meter a chance to move. But in the process of becoming a good practitioner, you also became incredibly intuitive. It was because you were dealing with the body's energy and you would just gain an incredible sensitivity to the energetic situation or status of your patient. You would even get to the point where as you move the stylus to the point, you would know what the meter would indicate when you actually probe the point, you would know what's going to happen before you even did it so that was also one of the interesting things about it, but it was one of the challenging things about it too, because a patient who might be skeptical would watch this and they would experience the doctor pushing the stylus at the acupoint and they would see the meter change and they'd say, you just pushed harder or you just didn't push as hard.
The reason they would say that is because if you push on a point that's compromised, in other words, the part of the body that's associated with that point has a problem. The probing will actually be painful. So it can be an owie experience and then you put the remedy on the test plate or you bring it up on the computer and that's the balancing remedy, the pain goes away. So a patient, even though you're pushing as hard as you were, the patient will say, you just didn't push as hard, because it didn't hurt. Well, the reason it didn't hurt is because we've got the remedy in the circuit now.
But that was problematic because if somebody is not convinced that what you're doing is legitimate and you recommend a course of therapy to them, they're not going to follow through. if they don't follow through, they don't get the benefit. Unlike prescriptive medication where sometimes you say, hey, take this pill and it's going to make your headache go away, natural remedies sometimes take a couple of weeks to work. So you have to have a patient buy in and willing to follow through. If they think that the experience was bogus in the first place, they're just not going to follow through.
So, and that wasn't much of a problem really, because most people, , were me who would come into my clinic. They were there looking for help. Even if I said something that they thought was goofy, they're going to follow through because they want the help. Anyway, so we're back to Schimmel. Schimmel had developed this technique called using filters where you put the sarcode on the test plate.
When we got into the computerized library, we had the ability to use either technique. So you could use a direct Voll technique or you could use the filter technique. You could load a virtual item into the circuit and leave it there like a heart. Then you could go look for a solution or you could not put it in and just test on the heart meridian.
I'm thinking now as we progress forward, the biggest challenge as a manufacturer of the equipment, I was a clinician, I used it, but I was in the business of building this stuff and selling it. The biggest problem was the learning curve. It was a matter of finding practitioners who would be willing to commit themselves to the point of becoming experts and proficient.
Honestly, I just got tired of teaching doctors how to point test. I mean, I taught so many doctors how to point test and I was a guinea pig for a lot of them and some of them were pretty brutal as they were learning how to do it. I thought there's got to be a better way. So, I developed the Hand Cradle and the way the Hand Cradle started was I just built a model out of clay and the challenge was, okay, what are we measuring and how do we interpret the data? Because my background was EAV and I knew that forwards and backwards and up and down. I thought, well, the Hand Cradle is really just going to be the next evolution of EAV. So we're going to have things like an acute response, and a chronic response. We're going to have an indicator drop. We'll have all of those things we had with EAV. So I started to work on the Hand Cradle, and it didn't take me long to realize, no, we don't have any of that stuff. Now, let me tell you a little bit more about the Hand Cradle. It looks like a big mouse. It basically, when you look at it, that it's something you're supposed to put your hand on and it has at the palm, there's a conductive plate at the palm, that's the ground, and then there are five conductive plates that you put each of your five fingers on, and the computer then that runs the Hand Cradle, it runs an inquiry. So it'll measure the energy flow between the ground and your thumb and then the ground in your index finger, and then the ground in your middle finger, your ring finger, and your pinky. It does that over and over again, 50 times a second. What we're looking for is the relationship between each of those points. In other words, we're looking for the coherence that exists between them. When we take the measurement off of the Hand Cradle, we measure a baseline. So we say, okay, your baseline coherence is X. Then what we do is we introduced a stimulus, and the stimulus would be whatever you've selected to be in the circuit. So something out of the database in the computer. Then we measure the coherent state again, and that's called the response. Then we calculate, well did this stimulus make the baseline move to a more coherent or a less coherent position? If it moved to a more coherent position, we give it a plus. If it moved to a less coherent position, we give it a minus. Then we can also determine how plus or how minus.
So let's say that I'm in Bill Roberson's office again and he's using the Hand Cradle. Well he could say, okay, let's just load in all the plants and run a scan. Maybe he's got 300 plants. We run about two items a second. So in 150 seconds, he'll go through a list of 300 plants and he'll see the scores for all 300 plus, minus, and then how plus and how minus. He can say, all right, the ones that are the most minus, those are the ones that created the most decoherence when they were introduced into your energy field. So we're going to start with those. It may have been Oleander, it may have been Pyracantha that showed up, but it gives him now the information that he needs to begin me on a journey of healing using energy medicine techniques. So the measurement process, I mean it took about six months to figure out the algorithm that actually does what I just explained. When I got done, I realized that you cannot measure acute, you can't measure chronic, because we can't see an indicator drop. All we're getting is pluses or minuses on coherence. What we really have with that Hand Cradle is we have a very sophisticated automated kinesiology machine that tells you yes, no, and it tells you how yes and how no and it runs a comparison so you can see that you really like this, but you really like this better.
So the value of it is, there's really three values, I think. The first one was it cut the learning curve down to zero. I mean, you can learn how to run a software program in probably 30 minutes if you're comfortable with computers. You don't have to master point testing because the practitioner is not part of the circuit. That's the second advantage. The second advantage is no patient is going to be saying, you pushed harder because nobody's pushing. The last thing is it gives you more speed. I got pretty fast with EAV, but that's just because I did it a lot but I'm way faster with the new technology, with the Hand Cradle, because it runs at computer speed. It runs a lot faster than I do.
Ashley James (0:31:12.759)
So let's go through some examples. Let's say a woman has a hormone imbalance and she hasn't got any labs. She doesn't want to be put on drugs necessarily. She just wants to know how she could bring her body back into balance and maybe her cycle’s off or she's got PMS or she thinks she's going into pre-menopause but something's up. Is that too general? Not really knowing what the problem is or can someone use this technology sort of having a general idea of what the problem could be, but the root cause might not even be in hormones, it could just be something disrupting hormones like stress and then what's actually creating the stress. So you have to go upstream to find the root cause. How would you know what to plug into the ZYTO software for the Hand Cradle?
Dr. Vaughn Cook (0:32:06.123)
Well, there are two approaches. One approach is a practitioner will say, I don't want to know anything about the patient until we run the scan because I don't want my interpretation to be biased by what they're thinking. My approach is just the opposite. I want to know what the patient is thinking, what they're experiencing. Do you have a diagnosis from somebody else? What is it? I want to know those things because, when the results come in, I want to be able to relate the results I see to what they think in a way that makes it understandable and credible for them. Back to your question, a woman comes in and she's got hormonal issues, I do acupuncture on her. Acupuncture is really good for that kind of stuff, but there's lots of things that are good for it. I need to say Ashley, the technology is not approved and frankly it's not researched enough for me as a manufacturer to make a claim that it is diagnostic or curative. So yes, you can do what I'm going to tell you here in a minute, but let's say that a doctor ran a ZYTO scan and the woman was having these problems then something happened, she decided to sue the doctor and they went to court. the attorney said to the doctor, well, how did you come up with your diagnosis? He said, well, I ran the ZYTO scan and that's what it indicated. Well, that's not a legitimate defense because the ZYTO technology is not approved to diagnose any particular disease. The reason it's not is because we have not pursued approval because it would be too overwhelming. It's more valuable to a practitioner to have a tool that points you in the right direction than something that gives you the diagnosis. So if I run a scan on a patient and it shows certain things, I'm not going to say, this means you have this disease. It means, well, let's look here first and let's see if we can start to solve your problem by applying what we're seeing. Then if I have to go to court and they say, how did you establish your diagnosis? I would say, well, it was the intake process and it was the labs that I ran and it included the ZYTO, but I made the diagnosis. That's the proper answer there.
Ashley James (0:35:13.497)
Right. Yes, it guides you. Then you as a practitioner would want to follow up with labs to confirm your findings. You do have FDA, your FDA cleared as a wellness scanner. I know you kind of had the lawyers behind you whispering in your ear just now, you can't say this diagnosed treats, cures or whatever, but it guides and gives information in a really non-invasive way. then of course a practitioner would want to continue down the road of labs and discovery. Can you tell us a bit about the FDA clearance you do have?
Dr. Vaughn Cook (0:35:45.207)
Well, the Hand Cradle is registered with the FDA as a GSR device, Galvanic Skin Response. That's what it does. It just measures galvanic skin response.
That doesn't mean that we can make a diagnosis. It just means we can measure galvanic skin response. When I make the disclaimer, when I let you know that this is not diagnostic and it doesn't treat disease, that's not a tongue in cheek disclaimer. It's really true. A doctor cannot make a definitive diagnosis based on a ZYTO scan. It doesn't do that.
I'll tell you how it works in my practice. I run a scan and if I suspect something, then usually I just run a clinical trial. I don't necessarily back things up with more lab work. If I see something that I think is serious, I'll refer people to someone with more expertise in those areas than me. But most of the time, if you get an energetic profile of a patient with sufficient detail, you will have enough guidance to be able to build a clinical trial that will have a positive impact.
Let's go back to Bill Roberson and his scan and he made the remedy and he said, well, it's probably Oleander and Pyracantha and here's your remedy, let's give it a try. So he doesn't have to say you're allergic to Oleander and Pyracantha, he's just saying, this is what I'm seeing, let's see if this fixes the problem because if it does, that was probably the problem. So you can run a clinical trial without doing a ton of lab work as long as you're not doing something that is dangerous to the patient.
Most of the time, that's what I do. So I'll get a profile through the intake process, through a physical exam. You can know your patients pretty well, of course, with experience, you get better at it, but that's how it works. What we're getting with the ZYTO technology is we're getting an energetic picture of what we call biological preference. So it's not the same as diagnostic information. It's no, your biological preference is that you don't like this or you do like this. If it's a supplement and you do like it, well then let's try it and see if it helps you improve your health.
If a supplement shows up or a remedy or an herb or whatever, that's where the practitioner's knowledge comes in because if you see somebody who comes in and they're having terrible pain and they're having spasms and you test them and magnesium shows up, you go, well, that makes sense. So let's give you some magnesium. But if something weird shows up that you don't have any knowledge of, you might go and study it. See, and that's the cool part. You then study it and you go, I'll be darned. It does actually have an impact on that stuff. So now you're smarter. We're looking at biological preferences and that helps establish then the clinical trial that you might run with a patient.
Ashley James (0:40:04.617)
That's fascinating. Thinking about frequency and the kinesiology or like the body is able to communicate its biological preferences. I really would love some more magnesium, or I really would love some more leafy green vegetables and all the nutrients inside that, or my body does not like coffee or my body dislikes mold, it's having a strong reaction.
Years ago, I read the book, The Cancer Cure That Worked. That's a really tiny book. You can read it all in one session, but it'll blow your mind. How he had discovered that using frequency, he could explode cancer cells. For example, he figured out the frequency of that cancer, the specific cancer in a mouse, then using frequency nullifies it. He would do that with other illnesses. He'd figure out the frequency of that illness and then nullify it with the exact opposite frequency.
All of his research was taken from him by an unnamed government agency and destroyed. It's just wild when we see that so many times when we're onto something big like this, it's wiped out. I sincerely hope that you are protected, your technology is protected, that no unnamed government agency comes after you.
This isn’t new, this concept, the concept of frequency and even kinesiology is something we've actually been doing for quite a while. There's different ways that different practitioners have tapped into this. I've experienced that Nate type of acupressure and using the vials and frequency to retrain the body.
I didn't have a hundred percent positive experience with Nate and actually I don't know anyone who has, but I just still thought it was really interesting. I've had several practitioners use kinesiology on me and my family very accurately. You say, for example, hold up your arm and then you're going to hold this supplement and I can tell you what it is. Then my arms just cannot stay up. It just drops. I lose all the weakness. All the weakness returns to my arm. Then gives me a different remedy.
My arm's super strong. I've had that experience where the body is very clearly communicating what it wants and what it doesn't want. So you've created this in a way that's super easy for a patient and for the clinician to work together instead of having to hold the person's arm and push on the person's arm. Then that person thinks, well, you could just be pushing harder or using that device, or the early on the Voll, where you could just be pushing harder.
This takes all the guesswork, plus it's so quick that you can go through so many plans. I don't know if it was the exact same, and this is back in the 90s, and I sat there for three hours as this machine ran through. I had to wear these electrodes on my body and on my fingers. This was so long ago, it was the late 90s. It took the computer hours and hours and hours to process. Then it gave me this reading: Here's the foods you shouldn't eat and here's the foods you should eat and here's the supplements you should take. So it's been this concept of tapping into the body and the body's biofeedback is really cool. It gives it credibility. It's not new. That's always been inside the body and practitioners have been looking at different ways of tapping into it. You've tapped into it in a way that is very replicable. Now, when did the Cradle first come out? Because you've had it around for a while,
Dr. Vaughn Cook (0:44:26.534)
Yes, I think I started working on it in about 2000 and I think we had it built and released in 2004. So we've had it out for 20 years.
Ashley James (0:44:42.670)
Yes, 20 years, nice. So in that time, you've evolved the software, you've gotten a lot of great feedback, obviously you as a practitioner as well. It's great that you so readily work with the technology that you've had a hand in creating. You've evolved this technology though recently, and I want to talk about its recent evolution into the app that I have had the experience with. Can we talk about that?
Dr. Vaughn Cook (0:45:13.771)
Yes, yes, we were always looking for better ways to accomplish the objective. The objective is to determine biological preferences so people can make smarter decisions on an individual basis.
When do we start this? It could have been seven years ago anyway. We started working on a new technology that allows us to create unique scans without hardware. The first thing we did was we developed a scanning algorithm. That's just a mathematical formula that says, okay, if you start here and go down this list, rank these things according to a response. But in order to make it unique, because if that's where we stopped, every time you run a scan, it would be exactly the same, because our mathematical formula is set, it doesn't change.
In order to make it unique, we had to have some real-time biometric input that would modify that algorithm in a way that for you it would be different than it is for me, and for you it would be different today than it would be yesterday, or is going to be tomorrow. So we looked for other feedback loops that we were familiar with, and I will tell you, we have one technology, it's called EVOX.
That's been around for 15, 16 years. We've got a lot of experience with it. So what it does is it, it does perception reframing and we use voice as the primary input and the primary feedback loop. It turns out that voice is topic specific and voice requires your entire anatomy to make.
If I'm going to say something, I have to think about it. Then I have to engage my thorax and my vocal mechanisms. Sometimes I move my hands and I might put some body language in there. But by the time you actually hear the voice when I'm expressing, all the information, all the perceptions, all the beliefs about that topic are carried in the energy of my voice. You may have had the experience of listening to somebody speak and you go, eh, this just doesn't sound quite right. There's something goofy here. When you have that experience, more often than not, what you're sensing is that the words you are hearing do not match the energy that you're feeling.
In other words, this person is probably either lying or they're hiding something. You can pick that up. Well, what happens with EVOX is that the most common clinical application is that every disease process has an emotional component.
Most of those emotional components exist because of a perception that we have. If we can reframe the perception, then it will release the emotional component to the health condition. So to give you an example, I remember a woman who came into my clinic, she had chronic low back pain and had it for 20 years at least. She had been all over the country. She spent thousands of dollars trying to get relief and nothing worked.
So when she came into the clinic, we put her on a program, we're going to do the right remedies, the right supplements. We're going to do some acupuncture massage and we're going to do EVOX. So we had a particular protocol we put her on for perception reframing.
It turns out that this woman, when she was a child, was born into an incredibly dysfunctional family. As a child, she took on the perception that it was her fault. So as the child who was the recipient of all this dysfunction, she felt responsible. I don't know if this is actually the case because this EVOX is not psychoanalysis. You don't get into people's heads. But based on my experience with this patient, I think that she was holding on to her low back pain because it was her subconscious way of punishing herself for the dysfunction that she experienced as a child.
As soon as that perception was reframed, all of our therapies started to work. In three weeks, frankly, in three weeks, this woman was out of pain. Well, why couldn't anybody else do this? Well, she probably went to some really smart places and they did some really incredible things. But the problem was she sabotaged everything that happened because she had to hold onto the pain as punishment. Well, that's what perception reframing does.
So we had a lot of experience with voice and we knew that voice was absolutely unique. so we built a technology that used voice as the primary biometric input that was then appended to our algorithm. So when you would run the scan, we would then prioritize the results in a way that was unique to you at that point in time. Then we took it a little bit further and we said, well, if we can do this with voice, we should be able to do this with other biometric inputs. Well, it turns out that your pulse rate is uniquely biometric, the variability in your heart rate is unique to you at any moment in time. Your blood pressure is unique. There's all kinds of things and all of these things, it turns out, can be read by pointing a camera on a phone at your face and the camera then records this information. It takes about 30 seconds.
We then take all of that information, we turn it into a mathematical attachment that then gets appended to our scanning algorithm, and boom, we run the scan that way. I think that's probably what you experienced. You pointed at your face and the little circle went around and said, hey, we got your reading and away you go.
Ashley James (0:52:43.324)
Going back to what you said about your patient with the chronic back pain, I had a similar experience about 16 years ago, I worked with a client who came in with absolute chronic back pain and they wanted to do some major surgery, fuse her back and I palpated her lower back and her quadratus lumborum on one side was hard as a rock and cold.
It was ischemic, there was no blood flow. It was just minimal blood flow. The other side was soft and pink and malleable.
I had recently dived into the world of Dr. John E. Sarno's book, Healing Back Pain, where he figured out that there's no anatomical reason why people should have back pain and even the surgeries were a failure, but they noted ischemia. They noted that there was an emotional component that was unconscious to the patient but when you get to the root cause and you, you said, you do the reframing and you get to resolve and release that negative emotion, the unconscious mind lets go of the muscle. The unconscious mind is holding on to, is creating the ischemia, is creating the chronic pain. So I did a whole breakthrough session with her, did emotional work.
I'm a master practitioner and trainer in NLP and timeline therapy.When we got to guilt and I noticed every time she talked about things that she felt guilty about, her pain would go up. because I'd always ask her, and what on a scale of one to 10, where's your pain? So when we got to releasing guilt, her pain went from an eight to a zero. I went, okay, can I feel your back? She stood up, lifted her shirt up so I could palpate the lumbar spine. I saw they would go from white to pink. I saw the blood flow come back in and I felt her back and both sides were warm.
That was the day she ended. Now she has been on Tylenol 3s for over 15 years daily. She no longer needed her pain meds and it was so cool. That was my first experience helping someone out of chronic pain from an emotional event.
When you say that by this technology that listens to your voice, that it could then help us pinpoint where the unconscious trauma and help reframe them. That is so beautiful because how many people are walking around on meds when their problem lies in the emotional mental body.
We have layers of our consciousness, layers of our healing, layers of our existence. We have an energetic body, spiritual body, we have a physical body, mental body, and emotional body, and yet most medicine is just in the physical body. But that's not necessarily where the root is and where the healing needs to be. So we should really not discredit the work we could be doing on the energetic level, emotional level, mental level and spiritual level. So many times healing takes place there. Then as a result, we have healing in the physical body.
I love that this technology is something that's readily available. Now, talking about the scan. So yes, Jennifer Saltzman at takeyoursupplements.com gave me access to the scan. If anyone listening wants to try it, please go to takeyoursupplements.com. You can talk to Jennifer for free, you can have a free consultation with her. She's wonderful. She makes using this technology affordable and she's just a pleasure to work with and all the other coaches there are as well.
She gave me access to this app and it was very easy to use. Then after 30 seconds of holding my phone, it has to be a newer phone. It can't be a 15 year old phone or whatever. It has to be a newer one. It has a better camera, but it then showed my pulse rate, my breath rate. It listed off all these things. It's reading those micro movements, even though I was being as still as possible. It was reading so many things about me, but there's more than just the metrics there that we can see.
It started telling me, where in my health I'm weaker and I could use some more support and where I'm doing well and it linked me to specific herbs, essential oils, supplements, and even therapies that would best serve me to come back into balance. It was very insightful. So can you tell me a bit about how a technology that's observing my face for 30 seconds could be so insightful?
Dr. Vaughn Cook (0:57:57.105)
Well, it's the same approach. What we're looking for is biological preference. So again, it's not diagnostic. When you look at that report, we're not saying, you've got a problem in your heart or you've got a digestive problem. What we're saying is your response to this item, we call it a library item, but as we scanned all of these items, you showed a less than optimum result.
In other words, your biological preference for digestion, let's say, that was your weakest link or that was your lowest response. Therefore, we're going to pay more attention to that because the answer is, why do you respond that way? Then we look for the opposite with supplements. Okay, what supplements are you showing a high biological preference for? Then we can match the two up where, well, if we put this supplement in the circuit with this digestive component or these digestive components, what kind of an effect does it have? If it has a normative effect, then you'll see that the biological preference goes up in the digestive side. We say, okay, well, that's a positive influence.
So, the recommendation is this supplement. Again, it's not saying, you have this disease and this cures it. It's just your biological preference indicates to us that you're weaker here and this supplement resolves that weakness.
Ashley James (0:59:42.517)
What's interesting about working with Jennifer Saltzman at takeyoursupplements.com, she had determined what she thought would be best for me. Then a lot of it was confirmed with, based on her, the questionnaire where we go through and we figure out, the symptoms of your body is a language. Your body is always speaking to us. Our body is always communicating. We just have to know how to hear it. So some of the things she already intuitively knew based on those metrics would be good and then it was confirmed in this scan. Then there were a few that surprised both of us, but made sense once we looked at it. It was, yes, that would actually be a really good therapy or supplement or herb or whatever it was listing off. But it was detailed and really interesting.
How often could someone get a scan? So let's say you get a scan and you integrate the top five supplements or herbs or essential oils, and then you go for some of the top holistic therapies that are listed as the most beneficial for you at the time. You're doing that on a regular basis. Would they rescan once a month, once a week, every day? How does that work to optimally guide us?
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:01:06.503)
I would say you want to do it maybe every four to six weeks. Here's the reason. Your body moves energetically very quickly. Energy is the most yang component of your body, which means it's the fastest to move. Your tissue is the most yin. That means it's the slowest to move. When you introduce therapy into your being, you're going to move your energy very quickly. But it might take two weeks for your tissue to make the change.
So if you're scanning, and the scan is an energetic scan, we're taking energetic information and then converting it into this algorithm to make the scan. So if I scan today and I started a supplement regime, and then I scanned tomorrow and changed my supplement regime and then scanned the next day and made a change appropriately, I would actually make myself sick because my body would never catch up to my energetic position. So when a patient comes in, if I'm going to give them some supplements that are intended to last for four weeks, I don't want to do another scan on them until they've had a chance to take all those supplements because some people respond quickly, but most people, it can take up to two weeks for supplements to actually start doing their work. The other reason is I don't want patients to come in and if I scan and say, you need some new supplements and they haven't finished the ones I gave them, they're going to think, he's just trying to sell me a bunch of supplements. That's not the purpose. The purpose is to help you get better. Let's give your body time to use what's recommended before we look for a new recommendation. The short answer is every four to six weeks is enough.
Ashley James (1:03:18.325)
Yes, I thought it was really interesting. My son, the top five things were actually herbs and essential oils, nothing to do with supplements for him. That was really neat to see. My husband was a combination of herbs and essential oils. I had some supplements that I'd already been taking and then a few more plant extracts. So it's not always, here, you got to take your vitamins. , it's not for everyone. It's different, which I thought was just really neat because again, that skeptic in me is going, this 30 second camera scan on my face. What are you going to tell me? Surprisingly a lot. I want to understand a little bit more about this technology because I can grasp that if my hands are on a cradle and there's five finger pads on the ground, I can understand, okay, the computer is doing these frequencies into my hands and it's a galvanic skin response and it's testing my physiology against these frequencies of these different therapeutics. I can understand that, but I still don't 100% understand how the camera scanning my face is testing me against that. Can we go a bit deeper? Is this proprietary?
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:04:43.950)
Well, no, we can go deeper. It's really a continuum. You mentioned it earlier, most of what medicine does is it just addresses the physical body. It doesn't look at any of these other things. But we all access all of those things all the time in our daily lives. I mean, your son may walk in and you look at him and say, wow, you don't look like you feel well.
He doesn't have to say, hey, I'm not feeling well. You can see it. You may know intuitively what you need to do to help him feel better because you have a connection with him and it comes through.
As a practitioner who uses energy medicine on a regular basis, I mentioned earlier, you get really intuitive. I don't have to touch a patient to tell you where the problem is. I can just run my hand half inch and inch above their body, and as I run it down, I'll tell you, that's a problem, that's a problem. That has come just from, I mean, it may be something I was born with, but it's come in a lot in just practice.
The subtle things are as meaningful as the grosser things. The emotional health is a telling indicator, just like the physical health is a telling indicator, the symptoms. Symptoms are just the body's best attempt at dealing with the current situation. So the reason when you get a cold is because you manifest the symptoms of a cold, which is your body's best attempt to deal with the cold.
Emotional symptoms are the same. Energetic symptoms are the same. So you can measure things at these more subtle levels. But remember, what we're looking for when we take that data that comes out of the camera, we take your pulse rate, we actually take your blood pressure, we take your heart rate variability, we take your respiration. All of those things are unique to you at that point in time.
That data then is appended to our scanning algorithm, which then runs the scan that determines your biological preferences. So we're taking the input that we get from the camera, and we're then applying it in a way that creates the scan.
Ashley James (1:07:24.361)
Is it scanning your eye at all, like your geology or is it scanning meridians or blood flow, micro blood flow to parts of the face? What is it reading when it's observing the face?
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:07:43.368)
Well, there are multiple points on the face that it targets. Then it reads changes in things that occur at those points. Mostly it's blood flow. Mostly it's respiration. But there's a tremendous amount of information you can pick up from those inputs.
Ashley James (1:08:03.375)
So it's picking up information, but maybe you could explain. So it's different from the Hand Cradle because the Hand Cradle, my understanding is this is a bit of a biofeedback, It's giving a stimulus and then testing the response.
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:08:17.765)
Right.
Ashley James (1:08:19.581)
In the face scan, is it doing the same thing or is this simply gathering information? How does it do that biofeedback where it goes, Ashley likes lavender essential oil or Ashley would really benefit from more magnesium. How does it read that? Because we're using our own smartphone to scan our face.
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:08:41.625)
The difference is it's a different algorithm. The Hand Cradle uses an algorithm that is a stimulus response. The new technology, the link, uses the real-time unique biometric input to append an algorithm that will then run the scan in its completion, start to finish. Then the scan, because of the way the algorithm is built, then after the fact, we go back and run the comparative scan. So instead of doing it in real time, it's all done after the fact, if that makes sense.
Ashley James (1:09:23.762)
I mean, I understand the words that are coming out of your mouth, but how I understand kinesiology, I am not the expert in this. You're the expert. I just want to make sure all the listeners grasp it. So with kinesiology, you say, okay, body, do you like magnesium? The body goes, yes, I like magnesium. It's giving that response back, that biofeedback is happening. So you're saying that it's testing it after the fact?
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:10:01.036)
Yes.
Ashley James (1:10:02.799)
I don't fully understand how that works, but I'm so eager to figure it out. If you could maybe break this down a bit so I could understand it.
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:10:14.806)
It's kind of like Schrodinger's cat. We lean more and more as we continue to develop the technology. We lean more and more onto the quantum concepts and quantum applications. So it really is the experiment with the cat. If you open it, the cat dies, and if you don't, the cat lives. But you can run things in a way that time is, I'm trying to think of the right way to say this, time becomes less of a factor.
Ashley James (1:11:05.229)
Fascinating. The observation of the universe changes the outcome. That's what they see in quantum physics. So when it scans the face and then it runs the algorithm it doesn't matter about time so much because then it's seeing this is the response to these things, which blows my mind, but I believe in quantum physics. So I'm all for this.
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:11:33.707)
Yes. The other cool thing about us is at a conscious level, we process about 200,000 pieces of information a second. At a subconscious level, we process over 400 million pieces a second. So we're at least 2,000 times smarter than we think. In other words, the smartest part of me is the part of me that I don't have any conscious connection to. Because we're tapping into quantum fields and making applications from those theories, we're not talking to you consciously. We're talking to you subconsciously. So you can give us information that may be timeless. We can create a scan that then warps time in a way that the scan comes out with information that's valuable, because we do show you your biological preference and to some degree cause and effect. Again, it's not diagnostic. We're not trying to tell you you have this disease and this is the cure. All we're saying is your biological preference indicates you're weak here, you like this, if we put the two together, this is what happens to your biological preference.
Ashley James (1:12:52.774)
Why is there a need for us for a re-scans if there's no need for time?
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:13:02.018)
Well, we're not completely timeless, Ashley. Yes, and I think that as we evolve as humans, we might become more timeless in our concepts and applications. But I do find, as a person, I do find comfort in getting an update that I can see at a conscious level and making conscious decisions about. So I think it's all part and parcel the same.
Ashley James (1:13:39.825)
So I love that you thought, hey, how can we take this to the next level? Everyone has a smartphone in their hand. How can we make it really accessible? This is before the pandemic when everyone was doing telehealth. You started developing this. So this is something where you can work with a practitioner anywhere around the world. That's really neat. That makes it very, very accessible. Can you give some stories of success or recent experiences where this technology brought great insight and helped that person get closer to their true health.
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:14:22.562)
I remember a young woman who was probably in her, I guess she was in her early 30s. She was very compromised, very weak. She had been to a lot of places and she got temporary help, but nothing seemed to work.
I ran a scan on her and it was obvious to me that she was so weak that it would be very easy to over-treat her. So what I ended up doing, I ended up scanning her acupoints. I took the acupoint that was showing the most positive response. In other words, this points to the one that she was really most interested in having treated.
Then I took my smallest needle and I put that needle in that point. About five minutes later, I took the needle out and said, okay, you're done for today. Come on back. Now see, I was treating this woman energetically. So the next day I had her come back in again. If I was treating her with supplements, I would not have done it this way. But I was concerned about over-treating her with any kind of supplements. So the next day I had her come back in. I did the same thing.
Then I moved into some homeopathic remedies, and then I moved into some supplements. Well, this woman, I'm trying to think how long it took us to get her turned around, maybe six, eight weeks.
I didn't see her every day. I did the next day and the day after that. But then I said, okay, come back in three days. So maybe twice a week I was seeing her. I was just spoon feeding her baby steps. We took her from a basket case to back to full functioning. She was actually suffering from chronic fatigue is what it amounted to. It was just a different approach to chronic fatigue.
Another woman, a young woman in her late 20s came into the clinic. We were doing a fair amount of EVOX work and she had heard about it. She came in because her marriage was on the rocks. So I did a scan on her and the supplements that showed up and the scan results made me suspicious that she was suffering from some kind of mood disorder, some depression. I said, have you had any depression? She said, yes. She said, I had my second child about six months ago and I've been suffering from postpartum depression ever since. I said, okay, well, these remedies make sense. We'll give you these.
Then we did an EVOX session. There's a particular protocol that's called transgenerational perception reframing. I won't tell you the whole protocol, but the bottom line is it turns out that her mother was the first person that we wanted to reframe. So she went through the process, reframed on her mother, and went on her way. She had the supplements, and I said, okay, I'll see you in a week. She came back a week later.
She looked better. She had more shin in her eyes. She had more light in her eyes and her complexion was brighter. I said, hey, you look better. How are you feeling? She said, I'm feeling better. But she said a funny thing happened last week. When I went home, my mom called. Then she stopped and she paused to see if I would react. I didn't react. Okay, your mom called. Then she said, and we talked for two hours. She stopped again and looked for my reaction. I didn't react because I've got four daughters and they can talk to their mom for two hours too. So what? She said, no, you don't understand. She said, my mom and I hate each other.
If she calls me on the phone, which never happens, in 30 seconds we're screaming at each other. So the fact that she called the day I went home was crazy. The fact that we could talk for two hours was a miracle. Well, that's what happens when you do perception reframing. It actually changes your energy posture, which then changes your field position in the zero point field and all kinds of amazing things happen.
But we got her past the depression. Her marriage hit solid ground and it was good. Her husband owned his own business and I think they were having some financial problems, but that was resolved. We got her past the postpartum stuff and she was a happy camper.
It's a lot of fun to do holistic medicine because you see changes in people's lives that are beyond just the symptoms. It's really gratifying. I love what I do.
Ashley James (1:19:56.697)
Could practitioners learn how to do EVOX and then do it virtually, not in person? Or do you have to be in person to do EVOX with them?
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:20:10.164)
No, all of our technology can be used remotely, including EVOX. So with EVOX, I could be here in my clinic on my computer. You could be at your home, and we could run an EVOX session between the two of us.
Ashley James (1:20:30.368)
Oh my gosh. That's so neat. Years ago, and her name escapes me, I did an interview with this woman who was a PhD and she had figured out that she created a computer program that could listen to anyone's voice and the computer program would say, what's up with that person? So if someone's about to have a heart attack or someone has, for example, cancer or some sort of real major disruption in their body. It could pick that up in the voice. That's why I started to learn, there's so much we don't see, but that makes sense because you said, you can hear someone and get a gut feeling something's off or, I think it's 64, 68% of communications unconscious that we're observing micro changes in the face. There's blood flow changes as we talk, as emotions go through us. There's different blood flow will enter different parts of the face that micro muscles will tighten and relax. We don't do it consciously. But unconsciously we can perceive that in others and we can hear it in people's voices. So it's so interesting that we could tap into and listen to someone and get this deep information about what's going on in the unconscious in order to help them come to some major healing.
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:22:03.372)
Yes, it turns out that words are probably the least significant aspect of voice. People who are listening to us, they know what part of the world you were born in because of your accent, and for me too. They know that you're a woman and I'm a man. I bet they could guess our age within five years. They know our general state of health and they know what kind of a mood we're in. They know if we're enjoying this conversation. All of those things, we don't have to express in words. That just comes through. It takes maybe three or four words, and you can know all those things. So the voice has an incredible amount of information.
Ashley James (1:22:47.646)
A few months ago, my husband's family, who is from Chile and speaks Spanish, came to visit for a few weeks. I don't speak Spanish. I know how to ask for where the bathroom is, but that's pretty much it. They were trying to be polite and speak English, when the family was talking amongst themselves, they were always talking Spanish. I couldn't believe how much I could understand based on body language, based on the tone of their voice, based on how they were looking at each other. I could really pick up on a lot of the communication. I played a game of guess what they're talking about. A few times I interjected and answered a question in English accurately, because the mom was asking the daughter or something like that. I would interject and be like they have this on the menu or the bathrooms over there or we're going to go do that after this activity and they'd look at me and then they'd scan me with their eyes up and down. Does she understand us? I had so much fun with that. It's really interesting how much you can pick up when I'm just going to see how much I can perceive. See how much my unconscious mind can let me know about this communication.
Then I also just didn't care if I got it wrong. I was just going to jump in and pretend. I knew what they were talking about and I couldn't believe how many times I got it right. So there is so much more to our supercomputer between our ears than we even understand. We're just scratching the surface and understanding. I love that you're tapping into this with people.
Where do you see this technology going? Where do you see the evolution of this taking us?
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:24:46.457)
Well, hopefully to a healthier place. The goal really is to improve the quality of life for patients and practitioners, and that's the goal. If we can improve physical health, emotional health, mental health, that would make the world a better place.
Ashley James (1:25:09.194)
How accurate is the ZYTO app scan? Have you tested it against labs and been like well, is that person really deficient in this? Or is there a way that you have figured out the accuracy of it? Are there times it's wrong when it comes to like, it'll say, you have unresolved anger, resolve it. Well, I don't feel angry. I don't know why it would say that, or is that really unconscious and it's deep in there and it's letting me know that there's something I don't even know about myself. So I'm just wondering, through the years have you tested its accuracy?
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:25:55.395)
Validation is primarily clinical. The challenge is that energy precedes everything else. You probably have said, I feel I'm coming down with something. Lo and behold, two days later, you got full on symptoms. Then you say, yes, I feel I've turned the corner. I feel better. then two days later, you're better.
Well, when you say I feel, that's because you're sensing your energy shift. There isn't a lab that can test an energy shift. There may be, but we haven't looked for one. But what we're doing is we're measuring energetic input. So the most valid evidence that we are accurate, within an acceptable degree is that clinically the data is validated. In other words, the person comes in with cramps, magnesium shows up, you give them magnesium and their cramps go away. That's clinical evidence that the information we got was accurate or had value. So what we tell people is, I can guarantee that the information is consistent because it's based on solid mathematical formulas that don't change. The thing that we don't claim is, again, to be diagnosing a disease or identifying a treatment for a disease. But we do get data that has value clinically because over the years we've been doing this, our customers and my own experience, it bears it out. It does have value. You get coincidental stuff, you mentioned with your son or your husband. You run the scan and you go, I'll be darned. This makes a lot of sense. I mean, you just see that. You see that kind of stuff.
Ashley James (1:28:09.532)
Yes, and there's no harm in it. There's no invasiveness whatsoever. Everything it's recommending is helpful. So you're either going to get positive results or no results, but at least, it's not taking a pharmaceutical and having negative results. We're moving in a positive direction with some good feedback. We're just looking for what's the body communicating? How can we listen to the body in a new way, in a deeper way and help it come back into balance? I love that you say, it's really picking up on that energetic field, which is where everything starts, and then we're helping the body come back into balance. We're also helping the energetic body come back into balance.
I've had that experience. I had a client, we just helped her energetic body come back into balance and all her physical symptoms went away within 24 hours. Boom! She had been suffering for six years and all it took was an energetic shift. That was just wild wild. The symptoms are late but the treatment wasn't physical, the treatment was energetic. So it's just really fascinating. A lot of people who don't understand that our body is an electrical being, it sounds like new age. For some people, it's anti-Christian. It's new age. This is what the Bible warns us against. I'm , I am all for making sure that what you're doing is in alignment with your religion. I happen to be a Christian. But I also understand Jesus lay hands and healed and he said, you are going to do this too. You will do greater things. It's like our birthright as Christians is to do healing. So we have to recognize that we're not just physical meat sacks, that we are these spiritual beings living in this beautiful body that was gifted to us by God, that's my belief.
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:30:29.041)
Yes, me too.
Ashley James (1:30:31.578)
Know that you are more than this meat sack. You are so much more. If you've never had an experience with the energetic realm, if you've ever landed in a clinic or a hospital where they had to attach electrodes to you, guess what? They were measuring energy in your body. It's just amazing. We of course have energy in our body. They talk about how much electricity it takes to run our brain.
I can't remember how many batteries, but it was a handful of D cell batteries, what the body has to produce to run the nervous system. Of course we're electrical beings. So we have a physical body, but we have so much more than that. We are so much more than that. Just make sure that the medicine that you're using addresses not just your physical body, but it's bringing your whole being back into balance.
I love that this is another way to guide us, to listen to the body and guide us. Dr. Vaughn Cook, is there anything else you want to make sure that you convey that you share about the technology, the ZYTO, the EVO? So you've got the Hand Cradle. There's also this app. So those who are listening who are practitioners can plug into this and use this technology, either in person or virtually with their clients. Then for those who are not practitioners who want to experience this for themselves, please go to takeyoursupplements.com. They'll make it very affordable, very affordable for you to experience this and to be guided also by the practitioners and health coaches to help you determine what path to go on in terms of supplements and diet and lifestyle to support your body's ability to heal itself. Speak to those who are super interested. Is there anything else you wanted to make sure that you conveyed today?
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:32:40.590)
Wow, we had a fun time, Ashley. I think we've conveyed a lot of stuff. I guess it works. Maybe that's the final message. That's sometimes the most amazing thing about it, is that it actually makes a difference. It actually works in a clinical setting. For people who just want to have better health, it does make sense to listen to your body on an individual basis.
Ashley James (1:33:11.927)
Right. It's such a non -invasive approach, it's worth giving it a try. It's worth exploring. I love that. Just be willing to try new things and see what happens. So thank you so much for coming on the show. This has been such a pleasure. I'm very much looking forward to having you back when you come out with new technology that you want to come share with us. We would love to have you.
Dr. Vaughn Cook (1:33:42.333)
I'll make a note of that Ashley, it'll be fun to be back.
Outro:
These are the same supplements that I have been using myself personally, my family and my clients for the last twelve and a half years. This is the same supplement that helped me to overcome my chronic diseases. I used to have type 2 diabetes, chronic adrenal fatigue, chronic infections, polycystic ovarian syndrome, infertility, and I don't have any of those things anymore infertility, and I don't have any of those things anymore. The holistic doctors that informed these supplements discovered that the root cause of disease is a lack of key nutrients. There are 90 essential nutrients the body needs and we're not getting them from our food anymore because of the farming practices of the last hundred years. So, no matter how healthy we eat, we're still missing what our body needs to create optimal health. Because you listen to this health podcast and you're looking for health solutions, you will love working with the team at takeyoursupplements.com. These are health coaches that overcame just like me, overcame their own health issues using, of course, eating healthy, healthy lifestyle. But the key, fundamental thing that they added were these supplements. These supplements encompass all 90 essential nutrients and when you talk to your health coach, they will help to customize a plan specifically to your needs and your health goals. You will start feeling amazing right away. Within the first month of taking these supplements, everyone notices better sleep, more mental clarity, better energy, overall sense of well-being that takes over their life, and they are so happy that they got on these supplements. I want you to give it a try. There's a money-back guarantee and there's amazing health coaches waiting to help you at takeyoursupplements.com and it's free to talk to them. So what are you waiting for? Go to takeyoursupplements.com right now. Sign up for a free consultation and in a month, you could be feeling on top of the world, just like I did.
I was so sick, I felt so horrible and I overcame that. I had to obviously make healthy choices around every area of my life. I had to change my diet, I had to change my lifestyle, but I needed to fill in those nutrient gaps, and that's where takeyoursupplements.com comes in. They help you to make sure that you're getting all 90 essential nutrients, so every cell in your body, all 37.2 trillion cells in your body, will be bathed in all the nutrients that they need so that you can live an optimal life full of health and vitality at any age. Go to takeyoursupplements.com and talk to one of them today. They can help you right now to begin to make that health transformation. That's takeyoursupplements.com.
Get The Minerals Your Body Needs: TakeYourSupplements.com
https://takeyoursupplements.com
Check Out My Latest Book: Addicted To Wellness
https://www.learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness
Get Jeremy's Book: bestpodcastbook.com
Jeremy's website: https://commandyourbrand.com
In this episode, Jeremy Slate, founder of Command Your Brand, shares his journey from wrestler to powerlifter and discusses the importance of supporting holistic health practitioners amid growing censorship and misinformation. He highlights how search engines are delisting holistic health websites and emphasizes achieving natural health without pharmaceuticals. Jeremy also offers insights on maintaining motivation, mental toughness, and the value of camaraderie in fitness. Additionally, he explores how holistic practitioners can effectively communicate their message using alternative platforms like Rumble despite challenges from censorship and pharmaceutical influence.
Highlights:
Supporting Holistic Health Practitioners and Wellness
Censorship of Alternative Health Information
Evolution of Podcasting Platforms
Censorship Concerns on YouTube
Importance of Personal Engagement in Media
Leveraging Media Opportunities for Growth
Improve Communication Skills Through Practice
Intro:
Are you tired of guessing your way through supplements, feeling each choice is just another shot in the dark? Unlock your health potential at takeyoursupplements.com. Here we don't just sell supplements, we customize wellness. Connect with a true health coach who tailors your nutritional path based on your unique health goals and challenges. From fatigue to vitality, from confusion to clarity. Start your transformation today. Visit takeyoursupplements.com and discover how feeling amazing is just one free consultation away. That's takeyoursupplements.com.
Ashley James (0:00:40.006)
Welcome to the Learn True Health podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James. This is Episode 520. I am so excited for today's guest. We have Jeremy Slate on the show. Him and I have become friends through the years. He has a company called Command your Brand. Before he got into helping people me and other holistic health practitioners to market themselves, he was a competitive powerlifter and at some point pulled a tank. We're going to talk about that. We're going to have some fun today talking about different concepts, but I think it's really important that we definitely discuss how to support holistic health practitioners and anyone in the holistic health space, because in the last few years, they have been under attack.
Now I don't know if you have gotten your tinfoil near you, but I'd like you to go ahead and fold your little tinfoil hat with me, because I know I always sound like a conspiracy theorist when I say this. But when you look deeper, you see that Google has delisted major health websites.
Dr. Mercola, do you remember him completely disappeared. He's still there, but Google just will not let you find him, he used to be the number one search for many years. He's an amazing database of health information and so many other holistic doctors in the last four or five years have been delisted and what has replaced it is mainstream media, pharmaceutical based medicine but the people you who are listening to the show you want to figure out how to get so healthy that your body doesn't need drugs, .
You want to get so healthy that you live to be 99 plus years old in the prime of your health even then, and I'm friends with people in their 80s who still downhill ski and run marathons and it's possible and you can do it. Jeremy Slate's going to be one of those people as well. Jeremy, it's so good to have you on the show.
Jeremy Slate (0:02:50.700)
Hey, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me and it's funny you talk about people in their 80s downhill skiing. You should see my six year old hit double black diamonds. She is incredible.
Ashley James (0:03:02.106)
That's so awesome. I love the idea that throughout life, no matter how old we are, we want to be able to just do whatever we want. You want to go skiing? Great. You want to go swim, you want to go bike, you want to go run a marathon. Part of health is not having limitations, not being limited, and wherever you are in your health journey, get up and start moving. I actually started 75 Hard. Have you heard of that, Jeremy?
Jeremy Slate (0:03:30.512)
My cousin just did that not long ago. He lost 50 something pounds. I'm really proud of him.
Ashley James (0:03:34.048)
Yes. People do lose weight and gain muscle, but that's not why I'm doing it. I'm doing it for the mental toughness which is the whole purpose of it. It's two 45-minute workouts a day, no matter what, and then there's a bunch of other rules and what's really interesting is do that voice that that says, oh, I don't know, I'm too tired or I'm too busy, and that goes out the window because it becomes your priority, no matter what, to schedule two 45-minute workouts, no matter what you got going on and it's been wild. I feel amazing. I feel absolutely amazing. My husband joined me in doing it and I can tell you that the freedom you get mentally when you commit to building your health and taking your health to the next level is so worth it. There's this personal, emotional, mental, physical and spiritual growth that comes from putting your health first.
Jeremy, at some point in your life you put your health first, you're a competitive powerlifter and you pulled a tank. Tell us some stories that came from that time in your life.
Jeremy Slate (0:04:44.871)
Well, I think it's important to understand how I got there . So I was a wrestler in school and I'm not a big guy. I'm 5'7 on a good day, usually probably 5'6 more realistically and I wrestled 119 until by the time I graduated I wrestled 140. But to keep a growing high school kid at that weight, what I was doing was not healthy. I was eating large quantities of food and then throwing up that food to stay on weight.
So I was not taking good care of myself. So by the time I graduated the thing I really wanted to do was take better care of myself. So I actually got into lifting because I want to take better care of myself. So eating better, working out better, and the thing I found was I'm more of an ecto mesomorph, so I'm actually really predisposed to build muscle but stay lean. So I found out, the more I did, the better I ate, the more muscle I gained. And by the time I was 20, 22, somewhere around 21, 22, I was 215 at 8% body fat. So I was a house.
It made going to theme parks really rough because, number one, I got really angry if I couldn't bring my little cooler to every place and number two, I had to wear Under Armour shorts because if my thighs rubbed it was a real pain in the butt. But for me, it was a really big part of my life. I had a lot of fun doing it. And you mentioned pulling the army tank. I pulled an 80,000-pound army tank on the back of an 18-wheeler to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project. Again, I'm 165 now. I've upped my caloric intake a little bit because I'm trying to get back to about 180, because it's a healthier weight for me. So I'm not lifting weights now as I was then, though I'm still working out just as hard. At my top I was benching 455 on a single, squatting 705, and then deadlifting 635.
Ashley James (0:06:42.920)
I can't even fathom that. I have trouble lifting my son who feels I'm lifting a tank. He's nine years old. This kid's growing a bean, but it just gives you perspective that wherever you are, pick something up and lift it and then go, no matter how heavy this feels. In a year from now this is going to feel like a feather.
Jeremy Slate (0:07:10.836)
And I think that's a vital point, because when you're in good shape, people are like, what do you do? What do you bench? How do you get that? And the thing I always tell people is the number one way you get strong is first of all, eating , that's vital. If you're not putting enough fuel in your body, you're not going anywhere. But the other thing is it's simple, it's called linear progression. What does that mean? Two and a half pounds to five pounds a week for ten years in strength and you'll get strong. But it's going to take you three years, four years, five years, ten years to get strong. So if you're willing to put in the time, put in the effort and take care of yourself, you're going to do very well. But you progress forward in a straight line, improving a little bit every time.
Ashley James (0:07:52.584)
I love that and stick with it. Set a goal and stick with it, because it's so easy to get discouraged if you don't see results fast enough. I like to focus on results that have nothing to do at first with measuring something because if you think, oh, I'm going to gain a pound of muscle or I'm going to lose a pound of fat, and then you get on the scale and you haven't, and scales are so inaccurate, because what's it measuring? If you haven't taken an extra bowel movement today. That could be just poop weight. And those scales that have the little metal pads and then they tell you this is your percentage, those are so bogus.
Jeremy Slate (0:08:36.363)
The body fat percentage scales are worthless. The best way is a caliper. Calipers are actually effective, but the scales are worthless because a lot of them actually read the water content as your body fat. So if you drank too much water that day, it’s going to be stupid too.
Ashley James (0:08:52.771)
I know, I went through some really good workouts this week and I gained two pounds overnight. That could be anything, that could be water retention. But my app said, because I have one of those stupid scales, it was actually gifted to me by a company that wanted me to promote it and I have to test it first.
Jeremy Slate (0:09:14.026)
Oh, I'm one of those two. I don't promote anything I haven't used.
Ashley James (0:09:16.702)
I don't promote anything I haven't used, but I also definitely don't promote things that I don’t believe in and haven’t helped me. And this thing told me just this morning that I gained two pounds of fat overnight. I'm sorry. I meticulously measure what I eat, my input and my output, and I just laughed. And so, normally, if you go on a scale and you're exercising every day and you were gaining weight and gaining weight, you would give up, or you'd say this isn't working, or you'd try a different diet and you'd switch gears. But that input is incorrect, and so at first your body is going to go haywire and because you got inflammation, you've broken down some tissue, because you're doing new activities, you're sore. And the water in you has changed, you're drinking more water, you're releasing excess stagnant water, there's all kinds of changes, but a scale isn't a great measurement of your progression, at least in your first few weeks.
Jeremy Slate (0:10:15.853)
On the weight side, I've tried every app out there. I'm not a big fan of doing things on smartphones. I literally have a spiral notebook. I have a stack of spiral notebooks that I've used the last 20 years of my life, where I track what a workout was and I'm meticulous in the way of okay. So I got five reps of that, but, the fourth one, I had a spot. Or the fifth one I had a spot, or, I wasn't as strong today. So if I'm not as strong that day, but I know in order to go forward I have to get two extra reps, I'm going to do a rest pause, meaning I'm going to re-rack the weight, I'm going to wait 30 seconds and I'm going to do one rep, re-rack the weight, wait 30 seconds, another rep. So you have to figure out what are the things I’m doing to advance myself too. If you don’t know what you did, week after week which is one of the number one things people aren't tracking in fitness. They don't know what their workout was last week and the little things matter, was this hard? Were you not in the right slot for the exercise? And what I mean by that, most people bench press too high, where they're pushing everything with their front delts and you wonder why they blow out their shoulders. The slot is actually right below your pectorals where the bar should actually be hitting your chest. So these are all things that are important, because if you're not tracking these things, you can't improve.
Ashley James (0:11:29.149)
I love that. So it's good to track what you have done. How do you keep the motivation? I'm talking about the scale. Don't use the scale in the first few weeks of starting a new program because you don't know what it's measuring. Whether it's measuring water or your poop, or you changed your diet. There's so many things and you don't know if you're measuring added muscle or weight loss. But a woman, one time of her month could be five pounds heavier just from water retention, it ebbs and flows. So a scale is not a great thing to look at. What are really great metrics that help people stay motivated in the first few weeks of a new program?
Jeremy Slate (0:12:14.561)
That's tough because it's also my viewpoint on it as I've gotten older has changed a lot. When I was younger, I weighed everything and I checked every calorie and I was neurotic about it. I remember going on a date when I was seventeen and I freaked out that they put breading on my chicken and I was so embarrassed when the girl just got up and left. So, the way I've looked at food and the way I've looked at what I do has changed dramatically. And I've tried to take a look at, does what I'm doing work for me? I've looked at ratios of food I'm eating. What's my ratio of carbs, my ratio of proteins, my ratio of fats? Most people don't eat enough fats.
But when you're looking at how you're doing, the two things I'm looking at is I'm looking at body fat percentage check with a caliper. I'm not checking it weekly, because if you're checking it weekly or daily, it's going to fluctuate way too much. Check yourself every couple of weeks. I'm also looking at how am I looking in the mirror? Am I seeing my shape changing? I also think weight is a really, really bad indicator because, once again, as you mentioned, are you carrying more in your intestines that week? Are you carrying more water? Did you drink less water? Do you have too much salt that you're retaining water? Those things to me aren't a good indicator. I'm looking at how am I looking in the mirror and if I'm continuing to see physical changes. I'm also checking measurements.
What are my measurements looking like? My measurement around the chest, my measurement around the waist, my measurement around the hips. If you're checking those things, they're really good indicators to me of how you're doing.
Ashley James (0:13:38.883)
Yes. I like to go internal also. Check internally for how you are feeling emotionally. Also, remember, emotions aren't facts, so if you just woke up on the wrong side of bed, that doesn't mean your entire day is ruined. But just check in with yourself and go, do I need to do some deep breathing and just release this. Am I happy? Am I grounded? Am I content? Am I sore all over? Am I happy that I'm sore all over? Am I pissed off that I'm sore all over? Sore from your workouts?
If you're sore from not working out, then we definitely want to make some changes, because just waking up sore in the morning, if you didn't do anything for the last few days, that soreness is probably inflammation, it's probably stagnation and our body is just screaming out, begging for us to move in a way that brings joy back into our body. And it could just be pickleball. Find a bunch of friends to go play dodgeball or go play tennis. I went to Goodwill the other day and bought some tennis rackets for five dollars each and my son and I went and played tennis and now he's obsessed with tennis. It's so cool. It doesn't have to look like going to a gym. It just moves your body in a way that brings you joy and there's just so much inner peace that comes from that.
Jeremy Slate (0:15:01.225)
What I would say too, especially early on, camaraderie is important and it's really easy to quit something when you're on your own. As I mentioned, early on, and I know my fitness journey and his fitness journey changed a lot. One of my best friends went on to become an IFBB pro and he was a big little guy, he was 5’3, but he was 260. And I learned a lot about working out and we were also hyper competitive because when we started we were both around the same weight, so I had to beat him and he had to beat me. So I think that's also important to have somebody else. Number one is going to hold you accountable because if I don't show up, I'm letting somebody else down because he could need a spot that day, he could need help that day. He could need whatever it is. The other thing is you can get in a little bit of competition and competition is also going to push you to be better.
Ashley James (0:15:52.414)
Make sure you don’t push yourself (inaudible- 0:15:52.138) injury. That’s what happened when my dad got competitive and he blew out his ACL doing something stupid being competitive in the gym. He never recovered from that. It's so easy to be cocky, and do something beyond your limits. So when you get competitive, make sure you're still staying within the confines of your current.
Jeremy Slate (0:16:20.488)
Well, that's something I've learned after 30, frankly. As we're recording this, I'm going to be 37 next week and I learned after 30 to listen to my body a lot more, because there are certain days where when I was younger, things didn't feel exactly right that day. Maybe I was sore in a certain part of my body or maybe I had a stiff hip or whatever it is, and I went in and beat through it.
If I don't have it that day and I'm not saying it from like, I'm trying to find a reason not to go but if I don't physically have it that day, what effects can I cause? What other injury can happen? And that's how I tore my UCL because I went in on a bad day, I've had other injuries because I went on a bad day.
You have to also really get in tune with how your body's doing, because you can if you're not doing well that day, and once I once again I said not from like, oh, I'm tired and I don't want to go to the gym, but it's a no, if there's something physically that doesn't feel right, it's a good reason to go fight the next day.
Ashley James (0:17:23.128)
I like to check in with my body and go what does my body need? Do I need to do more stretching? Should I swim? Should I walk? What is it? And when I say walk I mean like power walking where you're getting your heart rate up and you're finding a hill to walk up. But sometimes it's just put on some headphones and just wander through some trails, check out local parks, local trails and get back into nature or get on a bicycle. Go buy a bicycle on Facebook Marketplace if you don't have one anymore. Remember what it was being a kid? I feel like I want to go get rollerblades again. I just remember in the early 90s I lived in my rollerblades. So there's all kinds of ways you can move your body. It doesn't have to be always in the gym or always in an exercise class, or always just sitting in your cubicle or sitting at your desk.
Jeremy Slate (0:18:19.190)
It's also making it a group thing too. I have two kids. I have a third on the way. We're actually closing into my wife's eight months pregnant, so we're getting pretty close to number three coming. One of the things that we've always done, we do family bike rides together. I have a trailer that goes behind my bicycle. The five-year-old has to ride her own bike now, but I tow the kids behind me and stuff that. So also making it a group activity, I think is really helpful too, because once again you don't have to be beating yourself up and going up and down hills, but a bike ride is a great family activity where you're doing something together.
Ashley James (0:18:55.529)
Love it.
Are you tired of guessing your way through supplements, feeling like each choice is just another shot in the dark? Unlock your health potential at takeyoursupplements.com. Here we don't just sell supplements, we customize wellness.
Connect with a true health coach who tailors your nutritional path based on your unique health goals and challenges. From fatigue to vitality, from confusion to clarity. Start your transformation today. Visit takeyoursupplements.com and discover how feeling amazing is just one free consultation away. That's takeyoursupplements.com.
You wanted to come on the show today because there was some stuff you wanted to share for those who are in the holistic health space, and I think you have a unique perspective because you help people like myself and other holistic health practitioners. You help them with your company, Command Your Brand. You also have a podcast of your own. Tell us a bit about your company, what it does, and your podcast. Create Your Own Life Podcast. I'd love to talk a bit about what I was getting into, about how we've been delisted. So many holistic health practitioners have been delisted and what can we do to combat that?
Jeremy Slate (0:20:16.751)
So, Command your Brand, we're a PR firm for the podcast space. We help people to get their stories down and help them find the right shows and run them on a campaign over a year. We help them get out there and get their message out there. I'm a big believer in the man who created podcasting and what he has to say about it, and that's Adam Curry, and he says podcasting is the last bastion of free speech.
And I think it's a place where we can still say what needs to be said and still do it in a long form. You can't handle a lot of the conversations we have to have in two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes, these are long form conversations. That's how we actually get to a solution at things because iron sharpens iron. A good argument forces another argument to be better and get us to a better place, hopefully. Or good information hopefully forces us to get better information.
But when we're told you can't talk about a certain method or you can't talk about a certain way of doing things, well, how are we going to improve people's health if we can't talk about certain options? We just go to a medico that says the allopathic school I went to says you do these five injections and this and whatever, and you're done and for some reason you're not better. And you wonder why we need to be able to talk about these different things. Because, number one, there's different ways to treat people. Number two, bodies are very, very different. I've struggled with ear infections my whole life, so I've had a lot of stuff that I've had to do that a lot of people haven't had to do with how I handle my nasal cavities and everything else. So bodies are different. We need to be able to talk about how we can help them, and being told in traditional media your viewpoint isn't acceptable here and what you have to say isn't acceptable here isn't okay with me. And that's one of the number one reasons that, after this whole experience of the last couple of years, the pandemic and everything else I started talking about a lot more health topics that mattered to me and a lot more edgy subjects.
I have a bunch of episodes that we've done, I had Del Bigtree on, I had Peter McCullough on. I had a lot of these episodes on. They're on my Rumble channel. We don't put them on YouTube.
So I think it's important to understand number one, it's a great place for free speech, but it's also understanding what are the platforms out there, how to utilize them, and how do you get the most out of them. Because I have a lot of friends that say I went on YouTube and they did XYZ to me and now I can't talk on YouTube, and I think you don't have to agree with the rules and you don't have to like them. But I think to go hard charging and just say I was and YouTube banned me is also not the way to do it either. I think you have to understand what they'll allow you to say there. Use it for the abilities to grow and then find other places, your audio show and rumble and things like that, where you give people the full story. But I think to cut your communication lines is also a bad idea.
Ashley James (0:22:58.365)
And I have so many holistic health friends who had their lines cut and I learned, I adapted. I came very close to it. I definitely interviewed some people who were saying and here's how you treat C-19 and I know you don't want to say it like, blank, fill in the space.
If I say capital C, everyone thinks cancer. But I have a ton of interviews with holistic health doctors who help their patients cure cancer. Not once did YouTube give me a red flag and I thought that was interesting. But the moment you have a doctor saying I have published a study with 500 of my patients where we were able to cure C-19, and that episode gets banned and then, and it was sick.
Jeremy Slate (0:24:04.313)
Even the interesting thing about it too, actually, is they're going backwards and they're removing things from years ago. So, I interviewed a doctor. I don't know if you put this on YouTube or not, so I won't say the name of his therapy, but it's a specific type of cancer therapy. Because I know the key. If you say the word, the word is actually banned. You can't say it. They went back and deleted my episode from three years ago. And one of the number one ways he promoted it was YouTube. So you do have to figure out, we don't have to like the rules.
Ashley James (0:24:31.612)
We have to know. Can you hint at who he is or hint at the therapy?
Jeremy Slate (0:24:37.424)
Oh, I can say his name, it's Dr Patrick Vickers, but I can't say the name. Ok, , say the name.
Ashley James (0:24:40.782)
Okay, I know I've had him on my show too.
Jeremy Slate (0:24:44.309)
The actual word that starts with the “g”.
Ashley James (0:24:45.921)
Starts with the “g”. Yes, exactly, it's just weird, it's. In the history of the modern medical system, it's not weird because that's how they designed it and protect their interests. But here we are wanting to get our health back, wanting to find the truth, the truth in what we can do to support our body's ability to heal itself. And if you don't know that Google will delist information legit information that helps you heal your body and that's only in the last few years and you don't know that, then you're guided. When you Google things, you're guided to misinformation. Isn't that Orwellian?
They are banning information and they're labeling it misinformation. So that's what we have to deal with as people who are with a platform. I have a platform because I was so sick for so many years and then I used natural medicine to heal, to reverse all my diseases, and I woke up saying, wait, a second, people need to know this. So I started this podcast to interview holistic health practitioners so that people who are suffering, no longer suffer. Can learn from the people who are spreading the true information. But this information is not taught in medical schools and is definitely not now appreciated by Google. Google owns YouTube, so we need to learn how to work within each system like you talked about. Rumble's a good platform is it?
Jeremy Slate (0:26:31.989)
Definitely harder. So it's harder to grow as a creator. That's one thing I will say, and that's why I said, don't cut your nose to spite your face and say I'm going to go say things on YouTube that I know are going to get me banned.
You don't have to like it, you don't have to agree with that. We can hope it changes in the future, but YouTube is really important and where you should put your more vanilla content so that you can use it to attract an audience and grow, and that's virtually valuable. Rumble, they've done a very great job protecting free speech. It's a great place to have these conversations, but at the moment, discoverability as a creator is very difficult. So you want to be there. You need to be there to back yourself up. Odyssey is another great platform out there as well. And that's the real piece of advice I want to give people out there that are creating their own content, if you're a host and not a guest is to have your different places you publish. You should be on YouTube, you should be on Rumble, you should be on Odyssey, but understand, your much more vanilla content is what's going to be on YouTube so that people can find you. Give people an opportunity to find you and then give them your great advice in these other places.
And if you're concerned about the audio, going back to Adam Curry, he's come out with a new system for podcasting called Podcasting 2.0. And it's actually podcasting built on the blockchain and it's very cool because, number one, it's uncancellable because the audio is built on the blockchain. So there's some really great apps out there for it. So just Google Podcasting 2.0. And I think it's newpodcastapps.com or something that is the website he has. But anyway, just Google it and Google Adam Curry. But it's cool as well because it also allows you to support creators. They actually get money for the amount of time you're listening or you can send them tips or stuff like that. So you want to look at different ways you can protect yourself and the content you're creating.
Don't become platform dependent. Because I have a lot of friends that know what you can and can't say on YouTube. But they've gone hard charging out and say, well, I'm just going to be right, well, how right are you now that you can't talk at all? So you have to use it for acquiring audiences. But just understand what you can say where and when my audience sees that I've skipped an episode, they know it's on my Rumble feed, or they know it's on my Odyssey feed or whatever. So I think it's just really important to understand that, because use the system for what it is, but get your message out. You have to heal people. That's why people do this.
Ashley James (0:28:49.182)
Yes, I have not seen iTunes, the Apple podcasting app. I have not seen them censor. I personally haven't seen people in my space. This was maybe six, six or seven years ago. At the time, 95 or more percent of my downloads of the podcast were coming from iTunes and I thought that was interesting. I posted it to as many places as I could, but it was primarily iTunes. And now the latest statistics is that Spotify is about half. It's like 50-50, give or take. So Spotify is quickly coming up to compete.
But about six, seven years ago, iTunes said we're going to transcribe everything but keep it in house so that our search engine is more robust. And I love that and I definitely noticed an uptick in my downloads because someone could type in muscular dystrophy or asthma or whatever they're typing in, and if I haven't, if my guest mentioned it or talked about it, but we didn't put it in the title, that episode could still come up for them to listen. So I thought that was cool. But now with AI, every company has AI, so they're all probably doing that. I'm just wondering have you seen any censorship around the bigger podcast directories like Spotify or iTunes.
Jeremy Slate (0:30:32.398)
I haven't, and I guess the one thing I'm excited about is with Spotify putting so much money in Joe Rogan and understanding what that means for them. To me, it also means they're investing in free speech, so I think people are dying to get it and I think the audio platforms really get it. It's YouTube, I think the major problem with them is they have this new partnership with the WHO, so it's affected. Health it's affected. Are you aware of this or no?
Ashley James (0:30:58.216)
Okay, back up. Let's just pretend that I'm not aware of this. Okay, cool. For all the listeners who just gasped with me, wait a sec. You mean the World Health Organization as part of the UN, which wants to create one world government, has made a deal with YouTube?
Jeremy Slate (0:31:21.304)
YouTube did and I don't remember exactly when, so I would encourage people to go look this up. They can probably find the press release. They did a partnership with the WHO where information that's not approved by the WHO will be removed from YouTube for misinformation.
So to me, that’s a little bit concerning, because number one, you have to look at what the WHO wants and what pharma companies and everything else fund it. So I think that's a major concern. So health providers especially have really gotten hammered on YouTube and that's why I said, it's a place that you want to use it for what it's worth, but you really got to be careful what you're talking about, in there.
So to me, that's where I've seen the biggest censorship. I've also seen people censored in search specifically because if you're concerned about search censorship, search for what you want to search for and then search for it in either incognito browser or the Brave browser and you'll get a good idea if they're actually altering your search results a lot of times. So there's search and YouTube are the two major places we're seeing it and the WHO partnership is very concerning. So I would definitely encourage people to go look that up.
You mentioned Dr Mercola has really gotten hammered. What's the name of the other doctor I'm thinking of? He does a lot of keto stuff. It's suddenly jumping out of my head, but anyway, there's a lot of doctors that if you can see large accounts and you go to their account and you look at their average views per episode for the last six months, you can typically see when things changed and when YouTube started suppressing more because you can see their numbers drop dramatically. So to me you want to be there for discoverability, but audio is where you're safest now.
Ashley James (0:33:06.277)
Do you know about Codex Elementarius?
Jeremy Slate (0:33:08.946)
I do not but I'm interested. Tell me. I love Latin words, so you got me.
Ashley James (0:33:16.453)
You definitely want to go down this rabbit hole. When my mentor in 2005 taught me what Codex Elementarius was, Dr. Rima Laibo and, if you can find her, I think it was back in 2005. She gave a talk. So it's in the smallest format, videos from the early 2000s or mid 2000s. They're very small because they're not in high resolution, and she gives a good 45-minute talk on what Codex Elementarius is. It stands for food code and it sounds wonderful at first. It's a 15,000-page book, or maybe it's 1,500. It's thick enough. It's a giant book but the first hundred or thousand pages or whatever, it's just a giant book. I've never physically held it, obviously because I can't remember how many pages it is, but it's huge.
The first few chapters seem really good. And what it is? It's part of the UN and World Health Organization. They want to get every single country in the world to agree to this codex, to take it on as law. And at first, as you read it, hot dogs should be kept at this temperature and eggs should be kept at this temperature, and chicken. And so you're reading through it, going oh, we're standardizing for the health of the world, so no one has these foodborne diseases. That's great.
But when you get through it it's basically outlawing any natural medicine. Over-the-counter vitamins gone, in any dose other than negligible. So Australia signed it years ago and overnight high dose vitamins became something a class one felony drug. I lost touch with him but I was friends with a man who owned a supplement company and he said it was a SWAT team practically came down from the ceiling to shut him down and he lost his business overnight, and that's why one of the companies I work with for my clients in Australia we have to have the supplements shipped in from New Zealand, it's weird.
So certain countries have already signed it and America was resisting it. But how they get the countries to sign it is through treaties, and so they're trying to do it through NAFTA forever. If it does come to America and I believe Biden has been one step closer to having us basically be under Codex Elementarius, which it will then make homeopathy outlawed it will then make homeopathy outlawed, things acupuncture and anything holistic that isn't basically done from a doctor outlawed. So look into Codex Elementarius. And the reason why I have zero trust for the World Health Organization is this has been their number one mission for years. I believe it started after World War II, but it is. It's part of getting every country under the same umbrella of control and as someone who is now, I feel I have the American spirit within me. I moved to America from Canada and I'm never going back. I am an American. I'm throwing the tea in the harbor. I am saying no, I want my freedom.
Jeremy Slate (0:36:54.638)
See, I don't understand why somebody didn't go get themselves a straw and drink the tea in that harbor, that would have been the amazing part that nobody thought of, anyway.
Ashley James (0:37:02.840)
Well, that was very salty tea. You got there, which means something else now.
Jeremy Slate (0:37:08.716)
The doctor I was thinking of before I forgot was Dr Eric Berg, if you look at his traffic. It's been cut not even in half, but into a third and his subscriber numbers are huge, but anyway, continue
Ashley James (0:37:19.331)
That should be part of his marketing campaign.
Jeremy Slate (0:37:21.350)
It is right now. He just did a whole campaign, but he did it on Rumble.
Ashley James (0:37:24.712)
Of course. They have banned me. Look at my numbers going down. It's not because I suck.
Anyway, these are one of the things. That's why I said at the beginning, put on your tinfoil hat, because I know to the people who haven't woken up to this I sound like a crazy person. They're probably still not listening.
So those who are still listening, congratulations. Were doing this little matrix thing, but when I learned about it in 2005, my mind was blown. Are you kidding me? And that's around the same time, I started to learn how bad fluoride is. If you understand 1984 George Orwell and how he wrote it, everything they say is one thing is actually another and it's this inverse war.
This inverse war and languaging, because I was studying neuro-linguistic programming and part of me studying it was to understand the languaging. Listen to the news and politicians, but listen through the lens of understanding that they talk in constant presuppositions and linguistic fallacies and when you gain that level of clarity to hear the lies through their teeth, you start to see how much every single thing, food companies, drug companies they don't have our best interests at heart and we need to be very discerning. We need to be very discerning when it comes to taking any advice, even from me. Be discerning.
Some people hear the World Health Organization, they get all warm and fuzzy because they think this organization loves me, loves the world, and just wants good for us. They're wanting to take over so that they can protect me. And this is how people feel about government agencies. There's many of them out there that are unelected. You didn't elect them. You didn't elect these people who are making decisions, which of your freedoms they can take away.
Jeremy Slate (0:39:43.608)
That's why I think it's also important as a practitioner and as somebody that's actually helping somebody, because, let's face it, a lot of these pharma companies aren't. It's important to understand what platforms to be on, but I think it's actually a viewpoint that's really important to change, but first and foremost, to all of us. And that's realizing, I'm going to be ultimately successful or ultimately responsible for my success or failure. Because I think a lot of times people don't understand the media cycle . The media cycle stuff's happening all the time, 24 hours a day. They're not out there looking for good stories. They want to tell you the next thing in your house that can kill you at 10. They want to tell you what to be scared of, what to be afraid of. They'll talk about you if you do something that's illegal or perceived to be illegal.
So what you need to understand is I'm going to take full responsibility for getting my story out there, understanding this environment we're currently in. So you have to get out there. Understand the platforms and what to say and where, but also, you need to promote yourself. You need to get your story out there. You need to find other places to speak, other people to speak to. You need to be the one to do it. Whether it's a live on X, whether it's something on Rumble, whether it's a (inaudible- 0:40:54.966) you're doing with someone. You need to take 100% responsibility for getting your media message out there and not relying on them to find you, because, number one, they're trying to silence you and number two, they're not looking for you.
Ashley James (0:41:10.667)
I love that. I have some holistic health practitioner friends who gave up, when they got silenced or when they got delisted, and they are in victim mode about it.
Jeremy Slate (0:41:20.613)
I was talking to a very cool chiropractor a couple of years ago and he's like, you guys do good work, but I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing until they acknowledge me for what I'm doing. I'm dude. It doesn't work that way, that's not how media works and it has the power to catapult you.
Ashley James (0:41:36.815)
So talk to the holistic health practitioner, the health coaches. There's so many health coaches that listen to this show, naturopathic doctors, acupuncturists and I've worked with many naturopathic doctors. They're amazing at what they do. Most of them are not great at business. They're not great at promoting themselves and a lot of health coaches actually are really uncomfortable with promoting themselves. So talk to those people who are just starting out. What actual steps could they take that would help them to be heard, to be seen, especially in this climate where there's so much censorship?
Jeremy Slate (0:42:13.621)
I think number one, you just got to get over that, and you got to be like, okay, if I’m going to do this, if I’ve got one big mission I’m going to be okay with getting heard and getting seen. I think that’s one part of it.
But also to communicate more because you're going to get better at it. So, whether that's going to Toastmasters, whether that's finding small groups you can speak at, whether it's just talking to more people, if that's the gradient you need to work on, start communicating more and getting more comfortable with it, because to make this work, you have to communicate. But I would say the other thing that is a major thing people are cutting out and it's something I've been talking about this for years actually, and it's actually for me how I started getting notoriety 10 years ago and it still works today is called the small pond strategy. Everybody's a big fish in a small pond somewhere. What does that mean?
I grew up in a small town, five-eighths of a mile in size, nothing happens there. Babe Ruth used to play golf there. That's about it. We don't have a grocery store, we have a regional high school. We don't even have a high school, so nothing happens there, but that's a huge benefit. Why? Because there's a small newspaper that goes to every house in that town and every house in the county. So I know if I write a press release on a Tuesday, they're most likely going to pick it up and run with it on Thursday because there's not a lot of news to talk about. So as long as I'm writing releases and sending to them, it's going to end up in there.
Now, a lot of these small newspapers because they're newspapers. They still appear in things Google News so you can get a backlink to your story online as well as in a written form. Definitely, take pictures of the written form, post it on all your socials, tell people about it and talk about it.
Now, the purpose of a press release is what I don't think a lot of people understand. A lot of people think because they've had somebody cold email and be for $1,000, I'll get you on Yahoo News. That's not a real press release and it's not a real piece of media.
The purpose of a press release is to tell the media about what you have to say, so they reach back into you and want to do something with you. So that's how I got one of my first television spots. We had a producer for a television network here in New Jersey, read a press release that was printed in the newspaper and say, oh, podcasting. I don't know a lot about that. Let's interview this guy and learn about it. So that's how I got on television the first time.
So if you understand that power and start to take a look at what are the small ponds I'm a part of it could be your rotary group. Maybe they have a magazine. It could be. I used to live in a lake community so they had this really cool color magazine that went to every house in the community so they ran a piece about me. It could be your university, it could be the other small newspapers or things in there. But find these small ponds you're a big fish in or can be a big fish in, because they're much more obtainable. And once you start to build those media pieces number one you're going to have more confidence because you have some media pieces. Number two you're going to get clearer on your story because you've been communicating. But you can also use those pieces as credibility. So when you approach other media, you appear much more credible and I think that's a great place to start. That a lot of people are missing. Everybody cuts out local, but it's the most attainable thing early in your career.
Ashley James (0:45:15.764)
And the fact that it’s physical, the pendulum is swinging back. We’re wanting to hold something. Digital is just white noise at this point. I have a friend, she's actually a really close friend of mine, my midwife. She purchased a 35 year old magazine called Midwifery Today. So now she runs it. She runs Midwifery today.
Back in 2019 they stopped publishing physical copies and went to just purely digital. This is actually a global magazine. Midwives around the world would subscribe to it. It's really been missed. It's a quarterly magazine and the subscribers are saying, bring back the physical. We don't, we don't want to sit on our phone or our computer and read articles. We want to physically hold this publication.
I love that idea, find publications that are your little pond and get published. It's a wonderful sense of accomplishment and great backlinks, like you said, because oftentimes there's a digital version. Anytime you can get someone else to link to your website, that is great. That's good SEO, off-page SEO, and then what else? Give us some other first steps.
Jeremy Slate (0:46:46.825)
Well, I think one of the major things too that's really important as well. If you're looking at podcasts, if you're looking at other media, they want to see you've done media and I think that's the really important thing to getting some of these early pieces. So you should have a media page on your website Mine's jeremyryanslate.com/media, if you guys want to see an example, and you can go over there and see all the different places I've been in media, all the different things I've written, all the different people that have talked about me, because it shows your credibility.
So, number one, you're giving somebody the chance that if they do stumble on your website, they're going to possibly reach out to you if you show them you're credible. But number two, when you're doing outbound pitching to the media whether that's podcasts or TV or radio or print or whatever it may be they want to see you're credible. That's one of the number one things and it's great to see you saying things about yourself. But third-party credibility is what shows actual credibility.
So it's really vital to have those things on your website to show people you're credible, because I will tell you could have some great hit rates out of the box if you're reaching out to podcasts and things like that. But for most shows and whatever they want to see, you've done it. They want to see you're legit because they get a lot of inbound. And I think something that's important as well is differentiation. A lot of people are communicating the exact same thing. You need to communicate how what you're doing is different from others in your space, because there's a really great book out there. It's called Positioning the Battle for your Mind. It's written in the 80s by Al Reese and Jack Trout, and when we're in branding, positioning is using yourself or your brand as for something or against something. So, the Pepsi Coke thing, they compare themselves to each other. Or the one I hate the most but they say it all the time is, our business is the Uber of blank. They're taking something people are familiar with and they're comparing themselves to it. So you have to find your differentiator and you have to get yourself the positioning, because if you don't have those things, your brand just slips through and people don't quite understand you. So get some media credibility, start establishing your positioning, but also find what is your differentiator, what makes you different?
What is particular about your method or your way of doing things? Is there a certain approach you have in testing? I know there's some practitioners that do heavy blood testing before they'll ever work with you. Or there's other practitioners that might do muscle testing. It's something my mother-in-law does a lot. She does a lot of muscle testing for deciding what people need vitamins-wise. So what is it that makes you different that people can really buy into and see as legit?
Ashley James (0:49:16.390)
What does your mother-in-law do?
Jeremy Slate (0:49:17.757)
She’s a chiropractor. My wife worked for her mom for years before she started this company with me. So we have two, two beautifully unvaccinated children, and we're very into taking care of our family.
Ashley James (0:49:32.032)
Love it. Do you know what kind of chiropractic she practices?
Jeremy Slate (0:49:36.981)
I don't know the exact method she does, but she does extremities and stuff too, which I know a lot of them don't. So I used to have a lot of hip problems because she adjusts me one to two times a week. A lot of hip problems, a lot of sciatica problems. I haven't had sciatica problems in ten years, so she's a great chiropractor.
Ashley James (0:50:00.529)
A great chiropractor is worth their weight in gold. Amazing. I have been to so many chiropractors. If you don't like the results you're getting after a while, find a new one. Not all chiropractors are created equal. Certainly not.
Jeremy Slate (0:50:17.531)
I know she's not cranial sacral, but I don't know what her exact method is.
Ashley James (0:50:22.492)
There's many kinds, and almost no one knows what they are, unless they're into chiropractic.
Jeremy Slate (0:50:29.898)
You could ask my wife. She knows everything there is to know about chiropractic.
Ashley James (0:50:33.834)
Well, I'm a groupie, I'm a holistic practitioner's biggest fan. I love naturopathy. That's why.
Jeremy Slate (0:50:41.055)
That’s why I'm so passionate about it, because I've been with my wife for over 15 years, so it's always been something that's been really important to me, and I was into chiropractic before we even met.
Ashley James (0:50:49.680)
So great. I love your advice. This is wonderful. So we talked about some things people do when they're first starting out. Let's talk to the listeners. Now for the listeners who aren't holistic practitioners and you're still here, fantastic, by the way you want to be sharing this episode with your holistic practitioners you love, because I always do this. I'm so into marketing, because marketing is how we can help people. So there's people who are, oh, money is the root of all evil and marketing sales is bad.
Jeremy Slate (0:51:34.656)
I would tell them to read Atlas Shrugged, and there is a wonderful quote by the character, Francisco de Ancona, where he said it is not, it is not money, it is love of money. So anyway,
Ashley James (0:51:44.192)
Perfect. My point is that people who despise marketing and sales. It's a skill and you have to use sales to convince, for example, convince your children to not do drugs. We use sales all the time and it's about sharing an idea. And for me, sales is actually about how I learn. You're selling me an idea, you're selling me a belief, you're selling me a system. It's how we communicate. It's a skill in communication to open people's minds and beliefs up to new ideas or new ways of being or a new belief system, and then motivating them to want to try that.
If you have diabetes, whether you're going to pay me money or not, I'm selling you a concept that you can be free of diabetes, type 2, that you can heal your insulin resistance, that you can have insulin sensitivity and be healthy and balanced. And we can do that within a matter of months. Now, when I say, sell this, isn't you handing me money I want you to take on this belief system. So when I learned that marketing and sales is how I am going to help people, the masses out there who are sick and suffering. That's my avenue to get to them so that I can help them no longer be in pain.
It's an amazing tool and, just like any amazing tool, it can be used to hurt people and it can be used to manipulate or it can be used to help people. So it's a tool. Don't be angry at the tool, just just know that the more you learn the tool of marketing, the more you can use it for good and you can use it to help people, because every holistic practitioner who is listening wants to help people and they have a way, they have their own system for helping people and they need to get that out there, need to to sell and market it so that people can go oh, I want to try this. I understand the that there's a benefit to me and I want to try this.
So it's just that concept. So, for those who have a well-established practice, they have an established practice, but maybe they're stuck in their ways or maybe dipping their toe a few times, maybe had some failures, they tried a YouTube show or they tried a podcast and they had a few failures, or they had an email list and everything just flopped, and so 99% of their time they're really just focusing on doing their business the way they know how, but they don't know how to expand, they don't know how to help the masses. So what would you tell them? What are some actual steps they can take to start to gain success and gain momentum?
Jeremy Slate (0:54:44.954)
I think the first thing is you've had some failures, and I get that. I've been there. I've had some failures. I got kicked out of iTunes for a little bit because I changed my title to something but then they brought me back. So I would say, first and foremost, you have to just acknowledge those failures, what they are. Yes, it happened. Now you say what can I learn from this? What can I learn from this? What can I learn from what happened here? And then you have to take a look at your purpose. Is your purpose bigger than this failure? And I'm guessing it mostly is, or you wouldn't be doing what you're doing.
So once you have that out of the way, I would say one of the number one reasons that I see failure and it's whether you're doing it internally or whether you are working with a company to do media, is people aren't involved enough in their own media research or outreach and brand growth.
Be a personality on social media. Connect with people. I have had so much success connecting with people on X and direct messaging people on X, where maybe my PR team has gotten me in front of the producer, but then I get in touch with the host and we're able to do it together. So I think a lot of times you have people running a company that will have a hands-off viewpoint, and we have to really have a hands-on viewpoint because this is becoming such a persona-driven online world and, frankly, you have to understand, especially with big podcasts, they get so much inflow and they get so much inflow from a lot of weird people. So just by getting out there communicating and showing people that you're not weird and that you're intelligent and you want to help people, you can actually help yourself get a foot in the door. So I would say, you have to be a part of your own media outreach, even if you have somebody doing outreach for you, and start building those relationships, start taking any relation, anything you can get.
I had somebody reach out to me yesterday and say, oh my gosh, I would love to do a live stream with you. Can you do it tomorrow? And I looked at my calendar and I'm yes, I can, absolutely. So you want to take every opportunity that you can get and you need to be a big part of that. Be willing to hustle, be willing to move, because if you create a little bit of uncomfortableness now, number one, it's hopefully so you don't have to be uncomfortable again. But number two, you have to realize nothing stays exactly the same forever. You're either growing or you're dying. And if they're going to start censoring, well, you have to auto create that. You have to figure out how I am going to do that and don't get hit by the loss. Figure out how you're going to create more. Does that feel too much a coaching session or are you getting where I'm going with that?
Ashley James (0:57:04.716)
No, I get it. I love it because I think it's really important that we should spread out to as many different platforms as possible so you're not dependent, like you said, dependent on one platform.
End of 2010, my husband and I moved to Seattle from Las Vegas and he had a job lined up. He was a foreman union carpenter for 20 years. He had a job totally lined up, so we were cool with moving and then we got here and the company went belly up and we're sitting here. It's December and we have enough money for one month. Because we expected to roll into our roll into the next thing we're doing and what we had just done for all of 2010 is build a house. We were guided. It was divine guidance. It was the weirdest thing. We were guided to build bat houses and sell them on eBay and that's what we lived on. We built and sold 350 amazing bat houses. It’s beautiful.
I was totally into bat conservation. It was 115 degrees during the day. We turned our garage into a wood shop and we got all these different machines to make these bat houses from Craigslist and we just had a blast. I mean, this is back when we weren't parents yet, so it was just the two of us. And then all of a sudden, we're sitting here, it's December and we don't have the job that we had lined up, which was 100% lined up, totally disappears. We could either go get jobs or we could keep doing that thing where we sell stuff on eBay. And we figured out that this was again more divine guidance, but we were just divinely guided to figure out that we could buy jeans for a dollar and sell them for between $15 and $25. So we would go to the thrift stores and get dollar jeans and we would look for quality, and these jeans were worn four times, if anything, people would pay more because they're broken a little. And we washed them, measured them, pictured them and posted them on eBay and we got to the point where we had 1800 pairs of jeans in our apartment and we would post a hundred a day. Some months we sold upwards of 10 grand.
We worked seven days a week and we had a blast. We did that for about three years, living off of eBay, and that was our only source of income. Back then eBay and PayPal were one and that's the only way you could get paid. Now they've split off and there's other ways you can take payments, but at the time you could only take payments through PayPal. So if PayPal had a disagreement with you, they could shut you down. If eBay had a disagreement, they can shut you down. There’s a few of those but-clenching moments we could not make an income very quickly if eBay decided to shut our store down.
I had this very intense realization that we've entered into a moment in our society where we become so dependent on technology. It's a faceless technology. There's no safety net and your life is dependent on it. I mean, let's say there's a solar flare. The power goes out, you can't access your money, you can't cook food, you can't drive your car. Yes, we are so dependent on electric run machines, but when you have your marketing, for example, only TikTok or only YouTube, or you run your marketing only on social media or only on one platform, I'm talking about one platform. That platform when it delists you and Google goes, we don't like what you're saying, we're going to make sure people can't find you, even though you have a website, we're going to make sure people can't find you. Overnight, you lose a significant amount of traffic, income or even a way to gain income.
So that's why diversity and the whole, don't put all your eggs in one basket, that's what I learned. More and more, our lives are dependent on technology, but we often will trust that again, it's like blindly trusting our parents. I love this platform and this platform loves me and wants to take care of me. No, they don't. This platform does not care about you and they could destroy your life if they cut you off, basically, just like a parent would cut a teenager off. So we have to be really resourceful and that idea of that small pond. Coming back to the small pond, what can you build? What roots? What marketing roots can you grow so that, if one platform shuts down, your business doesn't dry up?
Jeremy Slate (1:02:34.440)
Can I add one more thing to that too?
Ashley James (1:02:36.846)
Yes, please.
Jeremy Slate (1:02:38.052)
Just for me personally right now I'm on the biggest PR push, you and I have talked about this a little bit offline but I'm in the biggest PR push I've ever had in my entire business career and I've been on some of the biggest podcasts I've ever been on. We have some even bigger ones coming, and the thing that happened was my master's degree is in the Roman Empire, something that no one cared about a few years ago and then suddenly this trend picked up on TikTok and we ran with it. And I think that's what's really important is, when you look at PR and when you look at media opportunities, you have to be agile, and when you see an opening, you got to run as hard at it as you can, because right now these opportunities are popping up and it's been great. This is going to dry up at some point. So you have to make hay while the sun is shining, so you have to be constantly looking for media opportunities. If you see something, commit as fast as you can, run at it as fast as you can, because media opportunities and the media cycle go fast, that's what's happening now. For me, this has been a long media cycle. This doesn't typically happen. At some point it's going to dry up. But you have to find those opportunities for yourself and when you're getting them, grab them, go for it, make it happen.
Media opportunities and knowing what is the pulse in my industry, what is the pulse in what's happening, are other media starting to talk about my industry. Maybe they don't understand my industry. I don't even have to be the smartest one in my industry. I'm not. As I mentioned, I don't even have a PhD. I have an MA, so I know enough about it, but I'm one of the few people that's able to communicate it to regular people, so I've been able to run with it. So it doesn't even have to be your industry. It could be other people talking about your industry. When you find the PR opportunity, double down and go fast.
I find right now looking at trends on X is really good. I constantly have people on my team looking at TikTok. Also, we want to register for helpareporter.com. There's a free version, there's a paid version, but there's people looking for media opportunities because you could find the right one for you where you can start using media opportunities to get others. I've been able to approach certain podcasts and I was on this, this and this one. They're like, oh, wow, okay cool, let's talk to you when they wouldn't talk to me before. So when you find your media opportunity, run fast, find that opening and use those opportunities to get your future opportunities.
Ashley James (1:04:57.777)
I love it, and all of this is for the greater good. All of this is to help people. Making money is a direct reflection of how many people we can help, how many people we can take out of suffering. And there's people who are suffering, who are thirsty. They're thirsty for this knowledge and they want to know how they can turn their health around.
I remember being in my 20s, suffering every day, crying myself to sleep, feeling I was dying. I'd have these adrenaline dumps and I would feel I was dying. In my 20s, when you're supposed to be out, partying, having fun, living life, just like that. You think of your 20s. That's when you're supposed to be, just having the time of your life.
I was trapped, a prisoner in my body, sick, so sick Type 2 diabetes, chronic adrenal fatigue, chronic infections, polycystic ovarian syndrome, infertility and I would have these just horrific adrenaline dumps and I would lie there with my heart pounding and I'm like, this is it? I'm leaving my body, this is my life, I'm no longer going to be here. And then there were moments, several times a day, where I would be so hungry. Even though I just ate that and it was actually hunger for minerals. I didn't even know that that was pica or cribbing, I was just starving for nutrition, but it would drive me crazy and I was so hungry for this knowledge and I went to doctor after doctor and they had nothing for me. They had poison and I can't tell you how many of my clients come to me and their doctors have them on poison when their body is starving for nutrition.
Jeremy Slate (1:06:44.457)
You need to learn to read a label too, because even with our kids, food dyes just drive them insane, it's just so vital, that type of thing.
Ashley James (1:06:52.123)
Food is very sick. My mom was really strict around, which I'm so thankful for now because I gained the tool really early. We weren't allowed to have sugary crap in the house. Once a year, on my birthday, I could eat whatever I wanted, and so I ate the sugary cereal, had pizza and popcorn and all the gross stuff. Popcorn's not bad, but microwave popcorn or whatever. Whatever I wanted, it was just going nuts, one day a year and other than that we didn't have anything processed or sugar in the house. It was really strict and I grew up in a health food store. If I had cereal, it was just rice puff, no sugar added, and going down the cereal aisle. It is very hard for me to find a healthy cereal. We don't eat cereal in the house all the time, but for my son who wants one, good luck finding one that isn't that. For me it's gluten-free. He's allergic to gluten and oats and I wouldn't feed that to anyone anyway. But find an organic cereal that doesn't have sugar in it. There's only one I can find. It does not have any sugar. It is very difficult and then anytime I do find a different brand, it's quickly removed from the shelves. It's so weird. It's even Whole Foods won't sell it anymore. They'll sell the same brand. But this one brand has a Cheerio alternative and it's made of lima beans or something I don't know, lentils. There's no sugar. And then they have the strawberry and the second ingredient sugar, and chocolate and the second ingredient, sugar.
And some of these, most of these cereals, the first ingredient is sugar. What are we feeding our kids? And all the dyes that cause cancer, that cause the brain to be hyperreactive. You and I and I'm a little older than you, so my listeners might be a little older than you. We grew up in the 80s where we trusted these brands. We saw all the commercials that made us very comfortable to trust these brands. The brands have changed, the ingredients have changed. They are not the same as they were in 1980. They are not. So we have to remember, you get your reading glasses out. If you need reading glasses, turn over the freaking box and it drives my husband nuts. I'm a food detective. I will spend 90 minutes grocery store shopping If I have to go down the aisles. I will turn over the box and I will read every label and I've gotten really fast at it now because I just scan it and if you can't pronounce, if there's multiple syllables that you can't pronounce, or if it's fortified, just put it back because it's fortified with artificial. Oh, b vitamins. Oh look, it has B vitamins. It must be so healthy. These are artificial vitamins and a lot of times they actually block your ability to detox and block your ability to uptake actual B vitamins. I've done interviews on that. So I'm just looking for a real food, a real ingredient, nothing added, nothing taken away, and it's very, very, very difficult. I went on a sugar fast a few years ago and I was looking for hot sauce. It was almost impossible. I couldn't believe it. Everything I picked up off the shelf has sugar. The sugar, there's 25 different words for sugar, so you have to know what they are, so you have to google them and look for them and cross-reference them.
Jeremy Slate (1:10:16.022)
Even a lot of the artificial ones too. They may have quote-unquote zero calories, but they still stimulate your blood sugar in the same way that a sugar would too.
Ashley James (1:10:23.499)
Yes. What we're being sold out there, everything, literally everything in the grocery stores, on TV, in the media, is designed to make you unhealthy and to get you hooked on drugs because we're cattle on a conveyor belt of sickness on a conveyor belt of sickness and we are actually trapped, the entire country, the entire world, trapped inside an unhealthy farm.
If you imagine a chicken on a conveyor belt this is what we are in, and to break free from it, you have to be diligent, you have to think for yourself and you have to completely go against the grain, and I love to say this, the statistics. Look at the statistics in your country, United States, for example. Look at the statistics of cancer, heart disease, diabetes. Look at the statistics of the disease and what people die of and when they die and even younger. Look at the statistics. One in three people are getting cancer and heart disease. One in three people have diabetes or prediabetes. You're in a room with two other people. One of you is sick, and it's growing. 70% of adult Americans are on at least one prescription medication. That means that 70% of people wake up feeling crap and they take artificial, man-made chemicals, petroleum-based chemicals, to alter their body because they are so sick they need to do that, or they think they need to do that.
Jeremy Slate (1:12:09.457)
Voices need to be loud too, because, I was looking at yesterday, what really surprised me Ashley, one third of the Fortune 500 companies are medical and pharma companies. How shocking is that one third of the Fortune 500.
Ashley James (1:12:23.543)
And that's because we've allowed it to happen. We stayed on the conveyor belt. We've let them feed us poison every single day of our lives, through the media and through the food they serve us, and we just gobble it up, because they're hiding our dopamine receptors. I’m one of those people that question everything. It must have been really difficult raising me and my parents, they're both in heaven, but I tip my hat off to them because now I have a defiant child, and defiant in a good way. Why is it this way? Why do we have to do it this way? Because it's the way we do it. No. question everything. Don't let them force feed you garbage through your ears, through your eyes and through your mouth. Don't let them force feed you garbage. So when you question everything, we're fed garbage and we have to break through, when I say we, I mean holistic practitioners. We have to break through this wall of constant garbage that people are intaking into their minds and bodies. We need to break through and say, hey, if you're sick of suffering, come over here. There's another way we got to break through. It's your job as a holistic practitioner to help heal this world and for those who are listening who aren't holistic health practitioners, I'm handing you the mantle. It's your job to get, to help, to support, to inspire and uplift your holistic health practitioners, your chiropractor, your naturopath, your friends, anyone in the holistic health space, me included. Please share my podcast. We are getting this information out so that we can break through the system of constant, disgusting, toxic mind control. I feel like I'm sounding like Alex Jones at this point, but we have to break through from this. I love what you're doing. I love what you're doing with your company. You have some amazing holistic practitioners that you help promote. Is it commandyourbrand.com or commandyourbrandmedia.com?
Jeremy Slate (1:14:50.859)
We have both. So because originally when we started this company way back, we bought the (dot)media because somebody was sitting on the (dot)com for 12 grand and then eventually , we kept growing and whatever and we negotiated to actually eventually buy the URL at less than 12 grand but still at a higher price. Yes, it is (dot)media or (dot)com.
Ashley James (1:15:08.489)
Very cool. Do you want to let us know what it looks like to work with you? I’d say if you’re established, if you have the money to invest in a company that is going to help you with your marketing Jeremy is very ethical. I haven't ever hired him, but I have interviewed so many of his doctors and we've been working together for years. I've been on his show, he's now on mine and I've interviewed a lot of his doctors so we have a lot of communication. I’ve gotten to know Jeremy and I feel his heart is in the right place. I trust that my listeners, if they hired you, you would take care of them. So tell us a little bit about what it looks like to work with you, and do you have any case studies you want to share, maybe clients we would know?
Jeremy Slate (1:16:06.619)
I know you know Dr. Mike Haley that was on your show. I think he's actually in your top 10 episodes list that you have in your site somewhere. But Dr. Mike Haley was a great client. But the way things typically work with us is number one, we are working with people that are a little bit more established. So if you are brand new, we have some awesome training courses. We get such incredibly good feedback about our training courses and I want to help you, no matter what level you're at. So we also have our team help a lot if you have questions on those. So if you're brand new, if you want to get started, if you need help, we have some great courses. So commandyourbrand.com/courses can help you with that.
If you're looking to work with us as an agency, we really are working with people that have a team. They are established, they're doing well, but they need to get that message out more to the right people. So our clients typically work with us over a year and we have a bunch of clients that have been with us for years. I think we just had somebody sign for their fifth year in a row, which has been awesome, but that's typically what we do and we're different than a lot of PR agencies that you pay them a monthly retainer and you may or may not get something.
We do work on a fixed number of podcasts and what we found is we found that 24 is a good number to do in a 12 month span, because any more than that, you get burnt out and you're also looking at, well, are these even the shows for me? And then I think any less isn't really the critical mass and the reason we do a year is we used to do six months and what we found is PR it's slow. So initially you're not going to see the impact that you're looking for in months one, two, three, four.
But, you start to hit critical mass around five, six, seven months, and that's why we want to be able to continue to build off of that. So that's what it looks like to work with us. We're trying to make a great impact. Dr. Haley, you mentioned you work with. I don't know if your audience has heard of Dr. Anna Cabeca, but we've worked with her for years.
Ashley James (1:17:58.560)
Yes.I've had her on the show a few times. She's awesome.
Jeremy Slate (1:18:00.967)
Dr. Taz we've worked with. We've had some really, really cool holistic doctors.
Ashley James (1:18:05.127)
Love it, love it. And when you say 24, you mean?
Jeremy Slate (1:18:12.488)
We guarantee 24 placements and typically what we find is the effort that it takes to get 24 different podcasts usually yields more than that, because we want to exchange in abundance, we want to give people more than what they paid for, but we do guarantee the number of placements that we're going to do because, my wife comes from PR world, I come from a health and fitness world and I was also a high school teacher for a bit.
So we don't like how the typical PR world works if you pay a retainer and you may or may not get something, but you paid for my time and isn't that great. We want you to pay for the actual product you're getting and that's why we're trying to change how PR works. But we're also trying to help this podcast world grow and that's why, we also have a lot of courses to help podcasters too. I think this space is the direction the media is going. I think it is really the last bastion of free speech, like I said earlier, and we need to support it and we need to push it.
Ashley James (1:19:01.022)
How can people do your courses?
Jeremy Slate (1:19:04.959)
So if you head over to commandyourbrand.com/courses or if you shoot an email over to josh@commandyourbrand.com, you can have a conversation with Josh and he can find out exactly what you're looking for help with and then help you decide what's the best course for you. And also Josh and our team will help you if you have any questions as you're going through your course journey.
Ashley James (1:19:26.763)
Okay, cool, and these are courses we pay for.
Jeremy Slate (1:19:29.370)
They are paid courses. We have a lot of great free training too. If you want to go over to our YouTube channel, I literally dump my entire brain over there. The amount of stuff I'm giving out for free really isn't fair, but if you want to go and check it out, there's some. I have a video on how to automate your podcast over there using AI. So if you want to go do it, please go check out our YouTube channel, because I really do want to educate people.
Ashley James (1:19:48.644)
That's awesome. We're going to make sure the links to everything that Jeremy Slate does is in the show notes of today's podcast at learntruehealth.com. You have given us so many cool things to think about and some great actionable steps. Tell us about bestpodcastbook.com.
Jeremy Slate (1:20:06.781)
As we talked about today, I think the number one way to get yourself out there is through your voice, and I put together a really awesome book called Command your Brand: Grow your Income, Impact and Influence in a New Media Landscape, and I go through exactly what you need to do to outline a PR campaign using podcasts and to make a really big impact. So, bestpodcastbook.com, it's not 100% free. We do ask you to pay for shipping, but the book itself is free. And if you're like me and you to actually have a physical book I don't do eBooks, I just can't do it so, bestpodcastbook.com, just pay shipping, we'll ship you the book free of cost other than shipping, and it will help you to really start to build a campaign for yourself, really get some motion going. And I want you to get your voice out there. You have a duty to get your voice out there and help people.
Ashley James (1:20:55.047)
I love it. It's funny, I think, about the Bible stories, Jonah. My son loves the Jonah story and when I was a kid, I was like, it's not fair. But it's so funny now as a parent because I'm telling my son, go do this, like go get dressed. And then he comes five minutes later and he's still naked. I'm like, why aren't you dressed? Go get dressed. He's, oh, I forgot, ok. And then he runs back to his room and five minutes later, why aren't you dressed? And it's just so funny how, he's not resisting me but he's just being a kid.
But the Jonah story, if you don't know it, God asks Jonah to go to this place where we're very uncomfortable, for him to speak. And speak to these people and try to get them to not be completely depraved like, hey, it'd be really great if you stop sacrificing children and sleeping with each other in a wedlock and murdering and stealing and God really wants us to love each other and not do all these bad things. And he's like I would rather run away and hide from God. And of course, you can't do that because God is omnipresent and omnipotent. And it's just really funny the story how he eventually goes okay, fine, I'll do it. And this is sort of when you run away from your life purpose. So it's like here you are, you're a holistic practitioner. Your heart is overflowing with this passion to help people. God put you on this planet to help people. And then he's like okay, now you need to go and speak to the masses. And you're like I'm afraid of that. So I'm going to hide. How's that working for you? You're not going to get swallowed by a whale, but how's that working for you? It's not. You need to go do something uncomfortable and speak to the masses. When I wrote my book. I'm uncomfortable. I'm going to put this book out because I'm speaking to the masses in a different way.
I am being Jonah, finally saying, okay, fine, I'll go speak to the masses, even though it's going to be really uncomfortable because I'm going to have to convince them that all the horrible things they're doing are not great and that's not what God wants. And I mean it worked out in the end. But this is a metaphor for how much we resist our own life purpose when you have to go out and do something uncomfortable in order to get your life purpose out there, in order to connect with people and help people, and that's where we are. So be Jonah after the whale, spat him out and go, okay, fine, I'll be uncomfortable and go talk to people and get on other people's podcasts, like Jeremy talks about. Write articles. Go talk to local groups. I've given talks at churches. Go get yourself out there.
Jeremy Slate (1:23:52.186)
So much easier to do that than to go to Nineveh. I have to say that. Jonah was doing a big thing, we just want you to go to your Rotary group and talk to somebody.
Ashley James (1:24:04.111)
But public speaking feels like death to some people. I've seen some studies where people are more afraid of public speaking than death and the thing is we have this idea. This is something I learned from Landmark Education. They have their second major course. They teach an advanced course and in it you learn that you've been afraid of groups of people, they have this hive mind, when actually everyone is terrified of you. Everyone's walking around terrified of everyone else and it's hilarious.
So if you can’t get over that, when you're speaking to the public, when you're speaking to a group of people, or if you're speaking into a mic and you're thinking thousands of people are listening, they're just individuals who are just as worried about you judging them as you are worried that they're judging you. And also remember it's none of your business what other people think of you and that is truly freeing. But you have a purpose in life to go help people and I love that, Jeremy, you're helping get their voice out there, get it heard, especially in the very tumultuous times we're in. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Is there anything you want to share to wrap up today's interview?
Jeremy Slate (1:25:19.258)
No, I would just go back to something I said earlier, and I think it's to take 100% responsibility for your own success and failure. And that means get involved in your own media campaign, get your attention out there, promote to people, look for any opportunity you can. If you do that, you can make a change. I'm going to be honest with you, as we mentioned, since you're helping people with the truth. What's going to happen? You're going to get some blowback. That's fine. Keep pushing.
You're going to have people in your life that maybe even love you and care about you to say oh man, why are you doing this? You're going to find, the longer you go, the longer you push, eventually that pushback will turn into admiration, but it doesn't, if you stop. So you have to keep going. You have to keep pushing. Have more conversation, create more media opportunities, talk more, because if you communicate more, you're going to get more comfortable with it. You're going to get better at it. People always ask me how do you get to be a better interviewer? Do a thousand interviews, you'll get better at interviewing, just communicate a lot, it's really, really important.
Ashley James (1:26:20.614)
Go back and listen to episode one, episode two and three of my podcast. Go back and listen to my first 20 episodes. I was shaking in my boots and I know I've gotten better. I'm very comfortable with it now versus 500 episodes ago.
But I love that. Go listen to my first few episodes and you don't have to be perfect to start, just start. You will grow the muscle along the way. Thank you so much, Jeremy, for coming on the show. It's been such a pleasure. bestpodcastbook.com go check out the book. Just pay for shipping and commandyourbrand.com/courses also. If you want to check out the courses, email josh@commandyourbrand.com. Thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been a pleasure. Keep sending me the really good holistic doctors. Everyone you sent me has been gold. This has been great.
Jeremy Slate (1:27:27.155)
That's amazing. I'm just really excited too. I know I was just talking to somebody else about and we may have to connect them with you, but they're talking about food dyes. I'm just excited.
Ashley James (1:27:35.899)
Let's do it. Let's do it. It sounds great, awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the show, it's been wonderful.
Jeremy Slate (1:27:43.547)
Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
Ashley James (1:27:45.865)
These are the same supplements that I have been using myself personally, my family and my clients for the last twelve and a half years. This is the same supplement that helped me to overcome my chronic diseases. I used to have type 2 diabetes, chronic adrenal fatigue, chronic infections, polycystic ovarian syndrome, infertility, and I don't have any of those things anymore infertility, and I don't have any of those things anymore. The holistic doctors that informed these supplements discovered that the root cause of disease is a lack of key nutrients. There are 90 essential nutrients the body needs and we're not getting them from our food anymore because of the farming practices of the last hundred years. So, no matter how healthy we eat, we're still missing what our body needs to create optimal health. Because you listen to this health podcast and you're looking for health solutions, you will love working with the team at takeyoursupplements.com. These are health coaches that overcame just like me, overcame their own health issues using, of course, eating healthy, healthy lifestyle. But the key, fundamental thing that they added were these supplements. These supplements encompass all 90 essential nutrients and when you talk to your health coach, they will help to customize a plan specifically to your needs and your health goals. You will start feeling amazing right away. Within the first month of taking these supplements, everyone notices better sleep, more mental clarity, better energy, overall sense of well-being that takes over their life, and they are so happy that they got on these supplements. I want you to give it a try. There's a money-back guarantee and there's amazing health coaches waiting to help you at takeyoursupplements.com and it's free to talk to them. So what are you waiting for? Go to takeyoursupplements.com right now. Sign up for a free consultation and in a month, you could be feeling on top of the world, just like I did.
I was so sick, I felt so horrible and I overcame that. I had to obviously make healthy choices around every area of my life. I had to change my diet, I had to change my lifestyle, but I needed to fill in those nutrient gaps, and that's where takeyoursupplements.com comes in. They help you to make sure that you're getting all 90 essential nutrients, so every cell in your body, all 37.2 trillion cells in your body, will be bathed in all the nutrients that they need so that you can live an optimal life full of health and vitality at any age. Go to takeyoursupplements.com and talk to one of them today. They can help you right now to begin to make that health transformation. That's takeyoursupplements.com.
Websites
Socials
Visit TakeYourSupplements.com to book your free consultation
Dr. Laurie Marti's Website: www.lauriemartimd.com
https://learntruehealth.com/understanding-disease-reversal-through-gene-expressions/
In this episode of the Learn True Health podcast, we delve into the complex world of genetics and health, focusing on the vital connection between gene enzymes like MTHFR and overall wellness. Our expert guest unpacks the role of supportive genes and explains why some people experience heightened anxiety, sleeplessness, and racing thoughts after taking high doses of B vitamins.
We also explore the powerful impact of diet on both brain and gut health, revealing how certain foods and synthetic supplements could be exacerbating underlying genetic issues. Plus, we discuss the importance of listening to your body's signals and how genetic testing can provide actionable insights to improve your health. This is a must-listen for anyone looking to optimize their well-being through a deeper understanding of their genetic makeup.
Highlights:
Intro:
Are you tired of guessing your way through supplements, feeling like each choice is just another shot in the dark? Unlock your health potential at takeyoursupplements.com. Here we don't just sell supplements, we customize wellness. Connect with a true health coach who tailors your nutritional path based on your unique health goals and challenges. From fatigue to vitality, from confusion to clarity. Start your transformation today. Visit takeyoursupplements.com and discover how feeling amazing is just one free consultation away. That's takeyoursupplements.com.
Ashley James (0:00:41.012)
Welcome to the Learn True Health podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James. This is Episode 519.
I am so excited for today's guest. We get to dive into such an interesting topic today with Dr. Dr. Laurie Marti. Welcome to the show,
Dr. Laurie Marti (0:01:00.283)
Thank you.
Ashley James (0:01:02.689)
So we have a mutual friend, and that's how I discovered you, an amazing woman near and dear to my heart. Jessica does mental health counseling, but she looks at the body as a whole, very holistic mental health counseling, helping her clients to overcome addiction around anything you're addicted to. A lot of substance abuse, though. People who want to overcome substance abuse and alcohol come to her, but what I love is that she looks at the body as a whole and helps her clients as a whole, and that's, I'm sure, why she finds this topic so fascinating and why she told me that I really needed to interview you. Because, although you come from a traditional medical doctor, allopathic background, you discovered that holistic medicine, functional holistic medicine, there's this whole world, amazing world of science-based ways of doing things that isn't just waiting for someone to get sick and giving them a drug, and I love that.
I love it when MDs they see the light and they're like, wait a second. This system is incomplete without seeing this whole other side of things. I definitely want to dive into all the fun stuff we're going to talk about today, but first I want to know can you tell us, was there an aha moment as a medical doctor when you went, wait a second, have I been lied to? Was I lied to my entire time in university? Why is this whole other piece missing? Did you have an aha moment?
Dr. Laurie Marti (0:02:41.395)
I think I've had a few of them. There's never just one. So I graduated in a family practice and started doing that for my first few years of my career. I was actually home with my first child and on maternity leave.
I don't even know if I'd been practicing for three years at that time. I just said, I almost don't want to go back, but I have all this student loan debt, so I know I have to go back, but I'm not really happy in what I'm doing. One of the things that really bothered me was just within the medical practice that I had three partners and I was obviously the new young partner.
I always got the most difficult patients because that's where they end up going, is to the new person in the practice. I would order a lot of blood work on them because I'm like, I don't know how to help you if I don't know what's really going on with you. I would actually get chastised by my partners by ordering so many tests. How am I supposed to figure out what's going on with them?
Well, fast forward to me on maternity leave, and there was a company that was looking for a practitioner that wanted to specialize in fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, and it was this moment where I was like, wow, that's an interest I've had since my residency, because my residency senior project was on a fibromyalgia patient.
During that time off, I interviewed with them and during that process, they introduced me to working with more holistic therapy because they had found that treating patients with fibromyalgia, which is a chronic pain condition, really was amenable to a more holistic approach. I had never been introduced to any of that. it just opened up this whole new world to me. Long story short, I ended up quitting my practice in family medicine and working for that for a couple of years, and then, just wanted to go out on my own and start my own practice and it really expounded from there because I didn't want to be restricted to just working with those types of patients. I had known about naturopathic doctors but I didn't really understand what they did and so it was just by being able to incorporate all of that into the allopathic realm and having this all encompassing view of every patient was just an amazing experience. so I opened up my own practice, it was 2007, and I have not looked back. I've just learned more and more as I've gone along.
Ashley James (0:06:07.085)
Oh, 16 years. So you've been diving into the holistic space. How does an MD learn all the holistic stuff? Obviously you do your own reading, but do you go through functional medicine? Do you take those courses or do you pick the brains of naturopaths? How do you get this training? For those who are listening who are medical doctors I just want to know more. I want to dive deeper. I've interviewed so many MDs who've become holistic but the medical doctor training is designed to make you see people through the lens of medicine of reductionism. So you're looking to reduce people into their parts, that's part of MD medicine. Being a diagnostician, MDs are amazing. The problem is then the tools they're given are like, here's all these drugs. So it's just an incomplete view of the body. So many MDs that have come on my show said that they thought their education was complete because of the way their education has been presented to them and how much money and time they had to invest in their education, that what they had been taught was the most important aspects. Everything else was kind of just secondary. That functional stuff over there is not as important or poo-pooed. If you graduated from Harvard, I had interviewed a woman graduated from Harvard Medical. She said they made us believe that we were taught the most important things. So we are trained to poo-poo everything else. Then, MD drug based medicine had no answers for her when she fell ill and she had to turn to holistic medicine, which then gave her life back. It was like being pulled out of the matrix. She had this massive wake up and she's like, oh my gosh, there's this whole other aspect. So in realizing as an MD being pulled out of the MD matrix and realizing there's this whole other world you want to plug into, unless you went back to college and got a naturopathic degree. How do you navigate in the world to piece together all the information you need so that you can really help clients on a holistic level? So how do you do that?
Dr. Laurie Marti (0:08:43.375)
That's a great question. There's a whole industry built around that now, one of them is called A4M. It's basically a regenerative medical group, which they have members, because it's a membership organization. But they actually put on seminars where you pay a fee and you just go and you do classes from experts in different areas of different fields and you can learn as much as you want. I did that at the beginning because I had obviously so much to learn. but I tended to focus on hormonal therapy.
You can tailor your practice to what interests you. I think I always had an interest in hormonal medicine, and then obviously these chronic conditions where they were very underserved in the allopathic community. I really felt like there was something lacking for patients that had been diagnosed with these conditions that were considered when nothing else was found to be wrong with them, it had to be in their head, it had to be psychological, and that probably bothered me the most.
Yes, I just spent a lot of hours doing formal training. You can get advanced degrees in that, but it really isn't necessary because it's really just about the knowledge. It's not like you absolutely have to have those certificates on your wall. You just have to have an interest in it and you have to put the time in to learn it because that's the most important aspect is understanding that there's different roads in any field and how you get there is you can make that your own and so you just need the background information.
But yes, it's good to know that there's this growing interest in MDs learning this other side of medicine. I was surrounded by plenty of other MDs who were in my similar space. So it's a lot different than it was back in 2007. This is definitely a growing area. I think the more that we have pandemics and things like that, you're just going to see this grow more and more.
For example, long COVID, it's almost chronic fatigue syndrome that I've been dealing with for years. But when you have these things come to the forefront in allopathic medicine, it's nice having that background because you realize that it's the same underlying processes are there. so you can take that knowledge that you've learned, even though it's something new that you might be exposed to, all that baseline information is there.
Ashley James (0:11:57.856)
What's really interesting is part of this movement was ignited by Dr. Oz. I think that's so funny, like looking back, cause I can think back to like Oprah and how she would bring things to the table to discuss like menopause. Before she had that first episode talking about menopause as she was going through it herself, you didn't talk about it. It was a hidden backdoor conversation with your doctor. It was almost shameful to bring up and she brought it into the light and brought Dr. Oz on. Then he had his own show. As they explored, just tip of the iceberg conversations about things that were outside of the allopathic realm, little holistic nuggets here and there.
Their patients would go to their doctors saying, oh, I want you to run this test, I want you to look for this. The doctors didn't have any training in that. In America you can choose your doctors, you can shop for your doctor. In socialized medicine, it's a little harder, but here you can go shop for your doctor and so you can fire your doctor. If they don't have the extra training, you can fire them and go get a new one. So all of a sudden there was this need for medical doctors to go get additional training. Go get some functional medicine training. Start to understand what's going on because it's now in the mainstream. It was now being talked about. So I just loved watching that movement take off. We still have a long way to go. I'd like to see functional medicine be taught in medical school, but then that would be helping the patient get so healthy where they would need drugs and that would cut the profits of big pharma.
Dr. Laurie Marti (0:13:48.363)
Yes, there is definitely a strong push with the pharmaceutical industry and training. So yes, I don't think that's something that's going to be introduced anytime soon.
Ashley James (0:14:02.170)
Which is a telltale sign that we need to think critically when we choose the companies we buy food from, the companies we buy medicine from, the companies we buy supplements from, and the doctors we choose to see.
We need to not just blindly trust authority. We can't walk around in fear either. We need to take a step back and make sure that we're choosing the people who have the best training and also the companies who have our best interests at heart and not just profits. So I love that allopathic drug-based emergency medicine is available for us to save our lives should we need it, God forbid. It's like taking your car to a plumber. If you take a chronic disease to an MD who only has training in drug-based medicine because they don’t have the training to see how we can help the body heal itself.
So that's my soap box. I say it every day, but you live it every day as an allopathically trained MD who now specializes in functional medicine, which is so exciting.
So let's talk more about the work you do. You started out, like you talked about fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue and , there's like Lyme disease and that whole rigmarole of where you say we've been underserved. So true.
Then of course, the hormones, but it comes down to if we chunk down and we look at cellular health and we look at brain health, there's stuff going on. We look at liver health, there's genetics and epigenetics.
When you look at all of these different syndromes and the diagnoses and you look at the body and how the body's functioning, what's going on that's disrupting the function of the body so it presents these symptoms?
Dr. Laurie Marti (0:15:57.854)
Well, that's a big question because there are so many things that can cause dysfunction in the body and it's not always really clear from the initial assessment of an individual. But that's where my biggest mantra is, each person is an individual and what makes us unique is our DNA.
So at the very core of us, we have a genetic makeup that gives us strengths and weaknesses. then from that, we have our life experiences and our exposures, whether that be toxic exposures. I think most of us would agree that probably in the last few decades, we've been exposed to more toxins than ever before in the things that we eat and the things that we breathe.
Thank goodness more and more people are starting to read labels and starting to think critically about the things they put in their body. But our DNA puts us at that part of us that we don't know what our weaknesses and strengths are. So that's really where it begins.
Then based upon your exposures in life, stresses, the things that just happen because of life, as we get older we become less resilient. So I think as you go through your decades of life there are different things that become apparent as problematic. Whether that be hormonal things or pain or fatigue, these things can happen at any age. But then obviously as we get older, then there's these different facets of just our life with our hormone changes and things like that make us more vulnerable to the deficits that we may have that we don't even know about.
Health is a journey. We don't really think about our health until it's not working. Then, we try to ask someone to help us figure it out. I think that sets a person into looking if they are satisfied with the answers that they have or do they feel like they have more questions. That's when people will seek out a more thorough investigation. I think that more and more people are becoming aware that there's other practitioners out there that can help figure out what's going to give them their healthiest experience. I think it's just an all encompassing world, when you think about what happens in our life in terms of what we consider good health and bad health and disease and pathology.
I think people have to get to a point where they feel like they need to ask for help. I think that that's really the start is when do you start asking help or asking those questions?
Ashley James (0:19:31.531)
Yes. That's such a good point, because, what popped into my mind is my mom who she was like the epitome of health to me. She worked out seven days a week. She took her supplements. She was meticulous with her diet. She'd cheat once in a while. Like she'd eat red jujubes and she knew red dye wasn't good for her, but it wasn't like she overdid it anyway. She'd have like three red jujubes and that was her little guilty pleasure. She had some alcohol, like one or two servings, a few times a week kind of thing. So she had a little guilty pleasure, but she felt like she made up for it by how strict she was with her diet. Like she followed the diet plan that her naturopath gave her just meticulously and had the discipline to exercise but she ignored these little symptoms that came up. She ignored this whole little digestive feeling here, a little tired there, a little kind of funny feeling near her liver, she chalked it up to the fact that she had moved to Naples, Florida. They'd gone through the stress of moving. She was acclimating to a new climate, eating different food, meeting, making new friends, doing different activities. She just kind of pushed it off to the side until she was diagnosed with stage four liver cancer. A few months later she died. She ignored the symptoms because she was healthier than most. So those symptoms weren't maybe if she was not healthy, maybe she was eating junk food every day and just really didn't take care of herself. She would have noticed sooner but she ignored those symptoms. So, at what point are you a hypochondriac? At what point are you making a smart move by getting checked out because you feel the symptoms? So for her, it wasn't a big deal until all of a sudden it was.
My dad, on the other hand, largely ignored major red flags for heart disease and died suddenly of heart failure. So, that’s blatant. I'm going to ignore major, major red flags. But then sometimes the body is speaking in whispers. So at what point do you go what? This isn't optimal health. I should probably look into how I could optimize this. So is it that I'm a little tired in the morning? Is it a little bit of brain fog? Is it like I notice I can't do as well in the gym?
I had a friend, we were part of a coaching program. He was an amazing coach. He‘s been a chronic smoker his whole life. Then he quit and did Iron Man's and his coach noticed that his times on his running were getting worse. That’s the only symptom he had of lung cancer. He ended up overcoming lung cancer. Lived for many, many years. Died very, very elderly. I don't remember if he was in his eighties. He lived a full life. That was his only symptom. So luckily he caught it early enough.
When do we listen and go, I want to optimize that. On the other hand, we've been told our whole life, oh, you have that because you're a woman, you have that because your mom had that, you had that because you're in your 40s or 50s or 60s, you have that because you're black or you're white or what. We're just told these ridiculous things, these lies by our doctor that, oh, you're fat because your family was fat, or you have diabetes because your family has diabetes, or you have glaucoma just because that's what happens when you're 70. Like they're blatant lies.
This is why, again, I kind of get on my soapbox with MDs that tell their patients, you're just going to have to be sick because this is how it is. It's not true at all. Your genetics don't dictate your future. They help educate us on where it might go but it has to accompany your lifestyle.
So we look at the patient who has been told there’s a certain way their whole life, or maybe they just believe it because their mom or their grandma said, this is just how it is. Even the mainstream media, everyone, all women have period cramps, like these lies. If you were in absolute perfect health, you would notice no difference. You would just all of a sudden be like, oh, I got my period today. There would be no PMS. PMS is a sign that things are out of balance and we should be listening. So I'd love for you to share, what symptoms do you want people to listen to and take seriously and know that they can optimize those at any age?
Dr. Laurie Marti (0:24:23.603)
Well, I think that is absolutely critical. Unfortunately, the exposures that we have in our medical community is that you don't really ask those questions. So when you're a teenager, you may go in for a sports physical. You're not really encouraged to expound on anything. It's a form you check off. What child is going to admit anything's wrong. That's where we have to change the paradigm, even if it's only not going to the doctor, even if it's among the population, our health is something that should be a topic of conversation.
I think it's never too early to say, you know maybe I should do a comprehensive stool test to figure out how my digestion is because who doesn't have a bloated belly every now and then, or react in some funky way to something they ate, and I'm not talking about food poisoning, I'm just talking about, gosh, that did not agree with me, and it's something I've eaten before. Just having that awareness that if something happens that is not a completely random event, but it keeps happening. That's when you have to do something about it.
For example, normally most of my patients are adults, but I will end up seeing their teenagers or their children only because maybe they've kind of had some random things happen and maybe it's not right. Most of the time we blow off young people's symptoms because they're young and they should be healthy. Come to find out a lot of things that teenagers suffer with acne, just food sensitivities, those things are not normal. However, we've begun to normalize that. The problem is that when you start normalizing those kinds of symptoms or signs, things that you see and experience, that's when you have to start saying, this is not normal. Maybe there is something I should look deeper into.
So it doesn't have to be I'm passing out or I have some real severe symptoms or something like that. It can be just what we consider normal everyday teenager issues or things in our life that we just think are normal for our age. If you just have something that is just happening over and over, maybe don't just consider it normal. Maybe it is something underneath.
I've done testing on over a thousand patients and I can tell you that nobody's normal. Nobody has completely normal tests. I've checked my own tests and they're not normal. So, it's all in how you just take that next step and say, I'm not going to accept this is the way that I exist. If I can improve upon anything, maybe it gives me a longer life or maybe I'll have more energy or so it's just about not normalizing everything and having those conversations with your friends and family and your connections.
Ashley James (0:28:15.421)
One of my naturopathic mentors told me about his favorite movie of all time, King of Hearts, 1966, in which during the war, this whole town is emptied out and the psychiatric patients in this asylum escape and they flee down into the town and they take over the town. All the people are, for a lack of a better term, crazy. They're having a lot of fun. They takeover the bakery, the restaurant, the inn and everything.
Then a soldier comes in and can you imagine you walk in and everyone feels as if they're normal because they're all there, but they're acting as if they've taken on these roles. He walks into this world thinking that they're all townspeople. He described the reason why this is favorite movie, because he goes, this is what it's like to be a patient in the MD medical system.
Everyone's in agreement. They're all crazy and they're all in agreement with each other. So you have to get like we were the outsider coming into this world and we've been told this is just how it is like acting and children are normal. It's not, it is not. First of all, we got to look at blood sugar. We've got to look at the gut biome. We got this list of things we got to look at, like food sensitivities but go even beyond why is there a food sensitivity? What's going on? Is there a leaky gut? Like go deeper. So we have taken a population, got them incredibly sick and then said, because so many people have sickness, it's normal. The very first step in healing is to shift our mindset and pull ourselves out of the matrix of the brainwashed way we've been taught to think.
We have absolutely been taught to think this way. I hate acting like a conspiracy person with my tin foil hat, but I'm making tinfoil hats for everyone. So passing them out right now. When you look at the history of the modern medical system, it was completely 100% orchestrated and influenced those who sold pharmaceuticals at the time over 100 years ago. It has since been not a days gone by that the pharmaceutical industry has not had control over the education of medical doctors and the number one sponsor of all media are the pharmaceutical industry which is petroleum-based. That's a whole fun rabbit hole to go down of true history not a perceived conspiracy, but a real conspiracy. A real conspiracy is when someone or a group of people get together to conspire to do illicit things or to do things that aren't ethical or aren't right. This is absolutely not right because they control the media that you've been bringing into your brain since you were born. Also your parents. But your grandparents or great grandparents. They were before this and they might have had a garden with herbs. They had animals. They did a regular deworming of the animals and then they took the same herbs as well. This is something that's been lost, but it was 100 years ago plus we had a lot of things that we knew to do. Now we also did a lot of really weird stuff, like eat things with lead in it. Paint our body with arsenic or whatever, we had weird things we had. So at least we've gotten rid of the not so healthy things. But if we go back, we see that our ancestors incorporated nature into their medicine.
Dr. Laurie Marti (0:32:11.885)
Well, there was less of a dependence on a system. Again, there's probably multiple theories on what's behind it, but the idea is that we become more inclined to be part of this dependency of people taking care of us. Like we don't take care of ourselves anymore.
But I think that's starting to change. See, I really do feel there are more and more people asking questions, which is where it starts. It starts by being inquisitive because I think we have been told to obey and don't ask questions and just do what you're told but I think people are starting to say, we can follow the rules, but maybe we ask questions along the way. I think it goes beyond even health in that realm but it's about people just using these really big brains that we have and not accepting status quo's because as we become a society that's sicker, we dig ourselves into deeper holes.
I think people are finally starting to wake up and say, maybe there is an alternative way, maybe that we start being more self-sustaining, that we don't ask for help, or depend on organizations to help us. Use those resources when you need them, but also realize that we have a responsibility to ourselves and our families to make sure that we're in the best health possible. In doing that, it does require some work. It requires you to do some research to think outside the box because you're not going to get that if you just go to your doctor's office, you're not going to get that. So it's about people having a different mindset and saying, I'm just going to start asking different people different questions and maybe I start learning some new things and some ways that I can help myself and meet the right practitioners that are going to help me in this journey of empowering myself. That process is really powerful. It really teaches you not only how to take care of yourself better, but how to take care of others better and just a community spirit in that, because I think our health is about community too. We need to heal ourselves, but in the process of just eating better and sourcing out better foods and things like that, we are making those connections that can all help us be healthier.
Ashley James (0:35:22.225)
It does matter the environment because I've had clients before where they're the only one eating healthy and everyone else is going to Sonic's or going to Starbucks and Sonic's and Jack in the Box and McDonald's and they're all kind of laughing at her wanting to go to bed early and get up early to go for her walks or make her smoothies and all the changes she's making versus the clients have had where the whole family is doing it with her or 100% on board or their husband's like, yes, make me a smoothie too.
It’s so much easier when the people around you are on the journey with you, or at least supportive of your journey and not questioning you or putting you down. I can't tell you how many clients have had with that choose to cut out dairy. Then someone in the family is like, you need dairy and you're going to hurt yourself if you don't. They get really indignant and angry at them because they think that they're going to die if they don't eat dairy. Then they literally, on the same day, go through the drive through and eat fried food. That's okay, but how dare you not drink the mammalian excretions of another animal?
We need to respect and honor our friends and family when they're trying to make health choices. But what I explained to my clients is that when people get upset, especially those who are close to you, when they get upset about your changing, it's just holding a mirror up to themselves and they don't want to change.
People with addiction also get very angry because they don't want to give up their sugar and alcohol or whatever they're addicted to. So, if you choose to give those things up, if they don't want to make changes, they get angry at you for making changes because they don't want to feel threatened.
It's really interesting to make a health change and declare it to your friends and family and then just watch and see who's supportive and then who isn't and I get that it's their stuff, but we have to kind of set ourselves up and make sure we have our healthy boundaries in place because it's really interesting who comes out of the woodwork to sabotage us. It's their stuff, but still we need to protect ourselves.
Earlier, you talked about how nutrient deficiency and toxic exposures are largely on the rise, that's something we've seen in the last 40 years create chronic illness. Then there's this whole aspect of genetics, which you love to get into. I'm really, really interested to talk about MTHFR, which is just one of the many genetic things that we could talk about, but I'd love for you to explain, from your standpoint as a physician working with a patient or client, what is the difference between someone's genetics and someone's epigenetics when it comes to helping them support their body's ability to heal itself and create optimal health.
Dr. Laurie Marti (0:38:30.620)
The very first thing I do with any person that first comes to see me is I get an assessment of their environment because you can find out all you want about their genetics. But if their environment is in a negative space you will find that their genetics aren't even if they have strong points they are not necessarily going to work for their benefit. So that concept of epigenetics is that you have certain genes and gene mutations that we're born with, but these exposures, and either good or bad, will affect the expression of those genes.
So that's what's really amazing about this whole idea is that people have for so long said, well I have this genetic problem or that's this genetic predisposition. So I guess I'm going to die of this or, or it's my parents had this and now I'm getting it. So, there's nothing I can really do to change it. Well, we've realized that's not the case, that there are factors that can improve upon these weak areas in our genetics and we can make them function better. In that process, people learn that they aren't subject to the outcomes that gene or that group of genes might cause for them disease-wise, if they pay attention and they take care of their nutrition in a way that optimizes those. So the way that a lot of these genes work is even if you have a mutation in an enzyme, you can take nutritional cofactors that can improve upon the function of that enzyme. if you do that, then you reduce the risk of the potential outcomes of that mutation.
So you had mentioned MTHFR, that's actually the gene that got me interested in genetics because I had read this research paper about fibromyalgia and how this chronic pain condition was affected by this gene, which I know I had heard about in medical school, but it was nothing that was a big topic of discussion. So it was something that I was familiar with, but didn't really know anything about and that definitely led me down the rabbit hole of just understanding that particular gene but then of course, there's a whole host of others that can affect it. so, just in this process of learning how we can understand what our genetic makeup is, but we can improve upon it based upon different factors that we can support. I think there's just a huge educational piece in this because people are learning this stuff or hearing about it for the first time. It's pretty science-oriented, you can really get into the weeds in it. Part of my job is to bring it down to a level that I think people can utilize that information and apply it in their own lives, take that information and do something positive with it.
Then,what I do is I support that with blood work and looking to see, to show people that they're making a difference. The choices that they're making both with their lifestyle and with their choices in what they eat and the supplements that they take, they can see in black and white how these things are changing within their body from their blood work and that really encourages people.
Ashley James (0:42:40.355)
Can you give us some examples?
Dr. Laurie Marti (0:42:42.361)
Are you talking about a specific blood test?
Ashley James (0:42:45.697)
When you've worked with a specific client, obviously don't mention their name, you saw these genetic things and you saw how their gene expressions were expressing epigenetically, and then you supported them with the right cofactors and then they themselves felt results and you could also see those results on labs and also in their demeanor.
Dr. Laurie Marti (0:43:13.535)
Yes, so I wouldn't even say a specific one, but I would say, in general, I will see patients that don't sleep very well, or maybe they have mood issues, depression or anxiety. I will identify that they have certain gene mutations like MTHFR.
One of the things that we do is you want to promote the use of certain vitamins that are specific for supporting those enzymes. What people start seeing is that, wow, I'm sleeping better. Then there are biomarkers, there's blood markers that you can check that actually start out abnormal when they haven't taken those supplements. Then they'll see over the course of three to six to nine months that those numbers are coming down. They're also seeing that maybe not as anxious, they're getting more energy, just their mood seems more stable. A lot of people do these genetic tests now. We talked to several people who have done them, and they'll find out they have a gene mutation, and there's plenty of information on the internet out there about them. Oh, take these B vitamins because they're going to help you. What happens is, they don't know the dosing or, they haven't really been instructed on how to take those things. So they end up being very anxious and this was the worst thing I ever did was take these B vitamins and I was supposed to take them because I have this gene mutation.
Well, obviously, these gene enzymes do not exist in a bubble, theere's other genes that affect, for example, MTHFR. So it's important to understand the supportive genes in that particular realm because some people, if they start taking B vitamins in a very high quantity, and I mean, some of the dosages out there are quite high, and all of a sudden they aren't just really, really anxious. That's usually the biggest thing. They're not getting any sleep and their mind is racing. It's just because they don't know that there's other genes that are malfunctioning, that you've revved up a system that hasn't been very active, and now you've over activated it. So there is a process with this where you don't want to just go at this without guidance. It's very, very important to understand how these genes influence each other and that you have to really personalize it. That's what I do is I work with people to personalize their supplements, their treatments so that they don't make those mistakes of feeling their mental health has really taken a nosedive because they started taking vitamins. So this is the educational piece that I was talking about because, like I said, there's lots of testing that people can do without a doctor ordering it for them. But it's important to know the ramifications of taking certain treatments and supplements when you have these gene mutations.
Ashley James (0:46:58.058)
I have MTHFR. I know there's different ones that I don't remember the name of the one I have but it's interesting because I have had liver problems that I have figured out certain things exacerbate my liver and certain things really, really help. When I take high levels of B vitamins, and this happens to my husband too, we both get very irritable and argumentative. So we typically dole out our supplements and take them together. This was years ago, we were hitting the upper limits of B vitamin dosages and the days that we did we’re at each other, we’ll playfully bicker in a very loving way, but we were just really irritable. I was, I don't like how I feel. I feel uncomfortable and irritable. When I take very, very high doses of B vitamins, which I don't anymore. Back then they weren't methylated. That makes a big difference for me also.
You can't just go to Trader Joe's and buy B vitamins or whatever. You can't just buy whatever's off the shelf. It's not going to be the highest quality, the most bio available. It's not going to be in the right ratios and it's definitely not going to be methylated. So there's just so many things.
I remember way back in the day, 15 years ago, going to Trader Joe's and buying all my supplements because I believed in vitamins. I thought, oh, this is good for me. It did not have a negative effect. So people will often try to save money. They'll hunt around like, oh, these vitamins over here at Walmart are cheaper. I'm like, well, you're actually wasting money and not only are you wasting money, there's like a net negative because now they're actually hurting you. Whereas I really do believe in quality supplements and diet and looking at everything as a whole. But when we go to take our supplements, we really have to make sure. I think even less is more.
Start at a slow, low dose and slowly work your way up and find where you feel best because I did that and I was, wow, my dose was like a hundred pound dose, instead of, doing like the full body weight dose and some people, they just excel, or even a child's dose, I know a woman who does like doses almost the amount that an infant would be given and she can't do anymore and she's like, I feel amazing when I just do this much. This is what her body needs. Just this little extra booster of the cofactors.
This is why when it comes to buying your supplements, I highly recommend going to takeyoursupplements.com getting a free consultation with one of our true health coaches because the supplements that we use in our protocols are all methylated and they’re grouped together in complexes in the way that all the ratios are in balance and they’re all designed to support your liver, support your detox pathways, and support optimal health and nutrition for every single cell and because they’re dosed by body weight you can begin slow and slowly increase and increase until you find the perfect dose for you and the coach that you are assigned to will show you how to do that will show you how to take the supplements that are best for you and that support your body’s ability to heal itself and support your liver to detoxify and your methylation pathways. It is a huge game changer. It’s life-changing. So go to takeyoursupplements.com. Sign up for the free consultation and give it a try. They will also show you how to get free shipping. They will show you how to fit it within your budget if you have a budget. For example, if you are in such a tight space with your money that you’ve less than $50, there is a plant derived, trace mineral supplement, it’s a liquid, it’s about $25 then there’s tax and shipping on that and it is life-changing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people just on that one trace mineral supplement. They see a huge shift in their health because we are so depleted in minerals. Of course if you can afford more they have an amazing complex that is all vitamins and trace minerals, and extract nutrients from plants and antioxidants, and it’s all methylated, all the minerals are plant derived so plants have already digested the minerals so the body can absorb them. I haven’t found supplements like in any other company. I’ve been working with them for over 12 years, with my clients and with my family and myself getting great results. They also have a money back guarantee so there’s nothing to lose. There’s everything to gain. Go to takeyoursupplements.com.
I want the listeners to have a strong grasp on this concept of epigenetics, because with genetics, we all know you're born with your eye color. That's it. We can't change your eye color. You have freckles, she doesn’t have freckles. This is what we're born with. That's genetics that's baked into the cake.
And then there's this epigenetics, which is like super fascinating and this world where things can be turned on and off. For example, exposures to toxins can negatively impact our epigenetic expressions to turn on cancer. We don't want that. Plastics, there's so many environmental things that can turn on the genetic expressions for several generations.
The mouse studies found five generations after BPA exposure took five generations to correct itself and the mice that were exposed to it even though they ate the same food, became obese. These are called obesogens. That's so frustrating because so many people are walking around like, I'm doing the best I can. I'm eating super well. Why am I struggling? Well, do you eat out of plastic? Let's start with looking at the parabens and the best phenol A and all that, all those obesogens, the cumulative exposure. So clean up, clean up the toxicity in your life, in your kitchen, in your cupboards, even drinking out of Starbucks cups, the little plastic thing on top, just because it says BPA free doesn't mean the chemicals are not in it. It just means one type of chemical. There's still like nine others that could be in there? It leeches into our food, especially when the food or beverage is hot. So you have these negative epigenetic expressions we can turn on. Then you have these wonderful, healthy gene expressions we can turn on by the right nutrition and bringing down toxicity. Can you educate us about that for those who this is such a new concept for?
Dr. Laurie Marti (54:38.754)
I think we're starting to really understand how our offspring is an adaptive process. We can see that just if you look at human height and different things like that, there's different aspects that things will change over generations depending on your exposure. So it's not that we haven't seen that in action. People could point to different things within cultures where things just get passed down. So there's this idea that we have this really amazing adaptive response in our bodies. For example, there might be a time when we won't be able to eat gluten anymore.
So this was really not anything up to probably 30 years ago. I mean, I grew up eating gluten. It wasn't a problem, but my own kids have problems with gluten. You look at these different things, whether it be the chemicals in the environment, herbicides, pesticides, and you look and it's like,
I don't think I gave them a bad gene, but just that whole idea that they may pass on to their own offspring the inability to eat gluten. It's not anything that I would have given them. So there is this idea that things in our environment can change our genes good or bad, so that our offspring then take on that gene expression. So that's kind of the idea of what some people call biohacking or where you say, okay, I've identified these genes and if I support them in an optimal way, maybe my offspring and generations to follow, it will not be as much of a problem. But the other aspect to this is that we have seen certain genes will adapt because of certain environmental factors. We've seen that in sickle cell disease the people that have sickle cell are more resilient to malaria. For example, so we know that those type of things can also be passed on based on those environmental exposures but the idea that we now, because the genome has been mapped, and that we can identify these different genes, if we intervene on a certain level, well, we may change the dynamics of health to come. So what we do now, the choices that we make now, the different advances that we can make in our health now, and like you said, getting rid of fragrances and things that so many of the chemicals that actually, like you said turn off some of these genes. If we can eliminate some of those things in our lives that actually promote those deleterious effects on our genes, then maybe in the future, we have a much healthier population.
Ashley James (0:57:50.695)
So are you saying that continuous exposures to certain things over generations, the body adapts as a theory? Did the bodies adapt based on their malaria exposure by developing sickle cell? Is that a theory?
Amazing. In the last 100 years, and this is even before genetically modified food, in the last 100 years, they changed wheat and modified it the way they did the agriculture. The way they harvested it and pollinated and cross-pollinated. They grew wheat that contained more and more and more gluten. So food in the last just three to four generations has a tremendous, measurably huge amount more gluten. I don't remember the exact number, but it was something crazy. It was some crazy number that it has increased.
We've always eaten ancient grains. We've always had some very small amount of gluten in our diet, but now it's this very strong exposure, just like we've always had arsenic. Arsenic's been in our food, but in very, very trace amounts. If you concentrate it, it will kill you. if you concentrate it, but not to the point where it kills you, it will poison you and it will be heavy metal poisoning. You can live with it your whole life, live a shorter life, be chronically sick, and it is not be great. So at some point, gluten, it tipped the scales, and it's a net negative. So small, tiny amounts for thousands of years was fine. Then they concentrated the amount of gluten that the plant makes.
Now, it's interesting, in certain European countries, they eat the bread just fine. They come to the States, they eat the bread, they get incredibly sick. That's because the amount of gluten changes, some people can concentrate gluten, like vegetarians or vegans and in China, they'll take gluten and make a meat-like substance out of it. So some people eat just like concentrated gluten and they're fine. Whereas other people, like your children, like my whole family, we don't respond well to it. So are you saying that over time, because of the exposure, our epigenetics will adapt so that we can't eat it anymore?
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:00:30.722)
Yes, I believe that's the case. Right now we see it really prominent in young people. I'm 51, so I kind of miss that because I think some of the major herbicides and things like that, the genetically modified stuff really, I think I missed some of that in my youth. My kids generation, they're being exposed to it on every level of different foods, even well-made foods, not just processed foods. I think what's happening is, yes, we were going to end up having their offspring might not be able to eat any form of gluten. I think that that's something that is starting to happen, but which is a real tragedy because wheat has been around for millennia and it's actually full of really healthy B vitamins. It's a real tragedy that we're getting to a point where we're allergic to wheat because of the gluten content. But what's really interesting is you can find forms of wheat that are non-hybridized like the ancient forms of wheat. But people who are gluten sensitive can't even have those. Which yes, so we've gotten to the point where even if they eat the stuff that's been around for millennia, they can't eat it anymore because their gut has no ability to process it. even if you take digestive enzymes, it still doesn't fix it because the inflammatory process has already set in.
Ashley James (1:02:24.953)
Oh man, I interviewed a guy, Dr. John Doulliard, and he wrote a book called Eat Wheat. when I saw that, I was, oh no, I'm doing an interview with a guy who's selling everyone to eat wheat. I was, okay, let me dig a little deeper. I'm not going to like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It turned out it was brilliant. It was a brilliant title. This was back in Episode 505, this whole book actually is not just go eat wheat and that's the healthy thing for you. He's saying to use food almost like a diagnostic tool. There's ways to measure your health and then go eat wheat, see how you feel. Like cut wheat out for 30 days or 60 days and then eat some, for example but using food to measure your health. If you eat wheat for that day after cutting it out for a while and you feel horrible, you don't sleep well or you're inflamed or your joints are achy, it doesn't have to be digestive, it could be brain fog, then we need to look deeper because there's more stuff going on. But I just thought that it was really interesting that we could use certain foods as a way of measuring our own health and lack thereof and where we can strengthen our health. So, their genetics don't change like eye color, hair color, that kind of thing that you're born with. But then there's this entire beautiful world of epigenetics, which we can influence. So that gives you a bit of power. We can influence. So, back when I was a kid, they were talking about genetics as a standpoint. Nope. Well, but heart disease might be genetic. So, you might be passed down and that's it. Your grandpa had it. You're going to have it. Your dad had it. You're going to have it. That kind of thing.
First of all, lifestyle is absolutely a hundred percent if you have a really, really healthy lifestyle, it doesn't matter what your genetics are because you can intervene. But it's good to know where the weak links are in our body and our health. Then there's epigenetics that’s something we can influence and turn on or turn off in our lifetime. That's the empowering thing. That's where we come to you and we go, okay, what can we do? So when someone comes to you and says, I don't want to feel sick anymore, do you do epigenetic testing? How does that work?
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:05:01.901)
So usually what I'll do is I lay it out for people what options that they have for testing. Some people just are not comfortable doing genetic tests, and I understand that. I mean, to each their own. I usually tell them that having some information about genetics is a key aspect to what I do, because I use it like a roadmap to figure out what other testing might be most useful for that person. So I really try to assess right away what their comfort level is. Then some people just want to do everything and that's great. They like data, because data is a huge part of what I do, it's like collecting data.
There's a lot of people who understand that and they want to take advantage of that. Other people are just a little bit scared of, not necessarily what they might find, but just that maybe they shouldn't be looking in those areas and I don't know how to explain it, but everybody has their comfort level. So what I try to do is really look at their family history and from the things that their grandparents, their parents, aunts and uncles may have dealt with, that gives me a clue because there are obviously some hereditary aspects to general health. Then once I have that, then I can point them in the direction of where they may want to go. I think when people were first doing these tests, a lot of people were using the commercially available ones, the more hereditary family ancestry and things like that. Everybody has their own take on doing genetic testing. Personally, I like ones that are actionable. So it's not just enough to find out that you don't have a rare condition because most people don't have those rare conditions.
Mostly genetics to me is something that needs to be actionable. How can I use this information to better myself and better my future? Is there something that I can clean up in my life that I should clean up because of my genetics? For example, just myself, I have really high cholesterol and I figured out that I have genetics that I don't process saturated fats well.
Well, I was eating a lot of dairy and cheese. So those were all things that I had to change because if I didn't, I would end up with probably type two diabetes, which is what my grandmother had and both of my grandmothers. It was something that I did not want to become my grandparents. So I was, hey, I have this information. I'm going to do something about it. So I just started working on differences in my diet. So that's where I will utilize, and I recommend genetic testing where you can understand the nutritional aspect of your genetics because I think that's the single most, the simplest way to really make a difference right away, as well as your long-term outcomes. So those are what I tend to recommend. Like I said, some people want to do it, some people don't, and if they don't, I say okay. So what we'll do is we will just do blood testing. I can do comprehensive stool testing. I love looking at the gut. I think outside of genetics. This is really interesting because even mainstream medicine is really picking up on this. I will never forget my allopathic side. I get email blasts and things like this from the big medical societies and things like that. I want to know what they're promoting and one thing that I heard about and I think it was just this week, it was a trivia question. Where is most serotonin made?
Ashley James (1:09:30.646)
I know the answer.
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:09:32.782)
Yes, I bet you do. I already knew it was in the gut, but that was the answer. 90% of it is made in our gut, serotonin, and 10% is made in the brain. Yet how do we address people that have mental health? Well, we try to manipulate their neurochemistry. Shouldn't we be manipulating our gut chemistry? That's mainstream medicine is finally picking up that our gut is an area that's really, really important. So really, I would probably say I try to get 100% of my patients to collect a stool sample. I know people probably raise their eyebrows and good thing I do telemedicine because sometimes I don't see that. But it is definitely like some people are kind of go, well, that seems weird. But oh my goodness, I have learned so much through just understanding people's general health through the function of their gut. That's just something that people are really receptive to it. Once they see that, they're like, oh my gosh, I'm like that.
Obviously I'm reacting to gluten. I have a gluten antibody response. Those are things you wouldn't believe how powerful that is to get people to stop eating gluten at least temporarily at least until you can clean up the leaky gut. The fact that we have biomarkers to check for leaky gut, these were things we didn't even know we could test for. In fact, the problem is the allopathic medical community doesn't even know some of these tests exist.
Ashley James (1:11:19.121)
They don't even believe in a leaky gut. They're still going around poo-pooing it.
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:11:25.193)
So the thing is, and this is just a process, the more that I think patients become aware of these things and are doing these things. Their regular doctors are going to be exposed to this, whether they like it or not, because the patients are going to say, hey, I did this test, and so I think even the patients enlighten the doctors a lot.
Even with me, I listen to my patients so much and I let them guide quite a bit of what they do. I obviously give them information, but it's a two-way street. I think that allopathic medicine has been very paternalistic, it's a one-sided thing, and you chastise the patient if they haven't been doing what they needed to be doing for the last year or when you're not happy with their blood work. That's not the right approach. The right approach is to make it a two-way street and say, hey, here's the education, here's what's going on with you, consider this like a baseline. The choices you make are going to influence. I keep patients accountable by redoing some of these tests. So that they can see, because I can only guide them. I can't be with them every day to coach them and say, you got to do this or don't do that. Give them the tools and then they're going to make much better choices about things if they just understand the education or if they have that educational piece and they understand the consequences of not doing those things or the benefits of doing the things that they should be doing.
Ashley James (1:13:08.979)
Well, they're motivated because they paid you and they went through the process of paying for these labs. Also they came to you for a reason. They're not feeling well and they want to get better. So many people are walking around not even believing they can get better. That's why I love doing my podcast because my listeners are getting on a visceral level, oh, my body can heal itself. My body was designed to constantly see homeostasis. I'm going to help it get there. Imagine we're climbing. I say there's no Mount Everest of health. I have this joke because I have overcome so many things in my past. So many illnesses in my past, and yet I'm still on a health journey and I'm never going to be done. I'm never going to reach the top and put my flag on the top of Mount Everest of health and say, I'm done. There is no getting done, but there's these peaks and valleys. There's these plateaus. When I say plateau, I mean, in a good way, You're standing there, yay, I got to this part of the mountain and you can look out and observe your new level of health and then look back down the mountain, wow I used to be down there I'm here now and then you go up the mountain a bit and all of a sudden now you dip down a bit. This is not where I want to be. I got to keep going up
So for me doing a self check, checking in with myself and listening to the symptoms of my body, listening to my body say, these are my energy levels. This is my brain function. This is my sleep. Just checking in and I keep track of my monthly cycles and anything that would accompany that, keep track of bowel movements and just anything out of the ordinary, anything, just listening to my body, just tuning in, listening. Again, not from the fear standpoint. But from the thank your body, this is the language that you speak. Now I've been trained to listen to those symptoms and help just like you have and help them guide us and for someone who has not no training in what these symptoms might mean, you want to go to someone who's been trained, but just listen to them. The best thing to do is do a mood food journal. When I say journal, I don't mean like you're writing paragraphs about what you did that day, just very quick, write down, like score your sleep, score your energy level, score your mental health. I'm feeling great today, or I'm feeling super motivated or I'm feeling miserable, I'm feeling sad, I'm feeling down on myself, I have tender breasts, or I'm constipated, or I have a headache because I didn't drink enough water yesterday. Jot these little bullet points, and write down things you put in your mouth. You don't have to measure it, but just be like, today I ate strawberries and yogurt, and I had waffles, or whatever. Today I went to McDonald's and ate junk food. You write it down.
Look at it and go, wow, every day, oh, I have a headache because everyday I drink wine the night before. You can look at the obvious ones but there's some not so obvious where I figured out that I couldn't eat eggs anymore. Eggs cause heart palpitations for me. It was the weirdest thing. I ended up doing a Viome test, in which I had the CEO of Viome and one of their top scientists in a separate interview talking about how they test. They also collect stool samples. It's a home kit. So it's easy. You're not scaring my audience. My listeners are like, they'll be fine. They'll go do the stool sample, it'll be fine. It's actually not that hard to do. It's pretty simple. They make it super easy. They do over 100,000 gene expressions of your microbiome. So they're not testing your genetics. They're testing the genetics of the bacteria that live in your gut. I cannot believe what I learned. I am blown away by how cool just that test alone. I can imagine like the stool tests that you do and the looking deeper into your genetic expressions based on what you eat or what you don't eat and how that's going to shift your body and shift your genetic expressions and looking for what kind of co-factors we can support and like making sure that you don't have leaky brain. There's all kinds of cool stuff that we can look at. I love that we can take someone and help them to find what kind of diet they need. When you work with people, and you're doing the stool testing, what's the most important thing you make sure you look at? I know everyone's different. For me, I want to make sure you're drinking enough water because so many people walk around chronically dehydrated and yet everyone knows they should drink enough water, but no one drinks enough water unless you carry a water bottle and I don't mean a plastic one with you all the time, you are not fully hydrated and or make sure they get enough sleep. There are these foundations of health that the majority of people don't take seriously, but are critical to our health. Are there some major foundational things you make sure to check with everyone?
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:18:25.811)
Well, I mentioned the stool test, and I think within that, leaky gut has got to be one of my favorites. If I find it, if it's abnormal, there's a whole lot that's going to be corrected if you can correct that. Because what we understand about inflammation, once inflammation is in the gut, if it's self-contained, you may have just gut symptoms.
Once that inflammation starts leaving the confines of the intestinal system, that's when you start seeing all these other things that we wouldn't even necessarily associate with our gut. So you might see skin problems, you might see like we call it brain fog, just not thinking clearly because once these inflammatory compounds start entering, crossing the blood brain barrier and start entering into our brain we start having a lot of mental cognitive issues.
Then mood issues and of course that affects sleep. Then if you start affecting sleep you start affecting cortisol and our adrenal health. So there's a cascade of things that can happen if you have a leaky gut. You could also look at like MTHFR being a foundational thing too, but there's something very dynamic about the way that our gut has this barrier function, and when that barrier function breaks down, our bodies really become out of sync, whether it be hormonally or we think that almost all chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmunity is all built upon this idea that these inflammatory compounds are leaching into the rest of our body. That's why I ask all my patients to do a stool test, a functional stool test, and like I said, one more, I can test the leaky gut function because if that's present, then that needs to be healed.
Typically, there's a protocol, with some food eliminations and different healing factors and things like that, that can help, but it's then you start assessing, okay, what are you eating that is contributing to this? What are you doing that we can modify? What can we do to start this healing process and then stop this outflow? If you can stop that process from leaching out into the rest of the body, that's going to make a huge difference on so many other areas, like I said, that may not even feel like it's a gut problem.
I've actually found skin conditions are some of my favorites to deal with because when you're talking about things that fluctuate mood and things like that, they're all happening internally. When you have something external and you start seeing it get better and that you can actually see, oh, I ate the wrong things. I started eating gluten again. There goes my acne. When things are on the outside, you pay attention to them a lot more. So again, people can be self-accountable, especially when they see those things. But yes, that leaky gut concept, I've been doing this a long time, seeing patients and working with chronic illnesses. I think the prominence of gut health and this permeability issue that we call leaky gut, that is becoming one of my go to prominent factors. If that can be fixed, a lot of other things can be fixed.
Ashley James (1:22:27.890)
So that's one of your foundation things. So water, sleep, those are for me. I could give you supplements up the wazoo. That’s one thing if you choose to go to bed at 9.30 at night and you have poor sleep, but if you choose to go to bed at one in the morning, then you've got to choose to go to bed on time. So these are foundation things. So many people just disregard it because it's like, ah, whatever, I want to stay up and Netflix and chill or whatever. I don't like drinking water. Whatever their excuse is, there's no amount of drugs or supplements or natural remedies that are going to get you to optimal health because the body doesn't function on poor sleep and dehydration.
So once we cover those foundation things, and there's a few others, definitely a few other foundation things. It’s like, I don't care if your car is a million dollars. A million dollar car or a $30,000 car, there's no gas in it, it's not going. Same with your body. So there's foundational stuff.
Then that next level is foundational, like functional testing. We got to check everyone for this because it's so prevalent. I know that they say almost 50% of the population just depending on ancestry has MTHFR to some degree. That's something that everyone really should know about themselves. We're in this day and age, we can get the testing. It makes such a huge difference. Can you explain what MTHFR is? What is this process of methylation and why should we know if we have, if our body has trouble with methylating and what that all means?
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:24:19.719)
Yes, so now you even mentioned it, you've heard it's about half the population. I've even heard it might be even up to 80 percent, but again that might be epigenetics. Our genetics may actually be getting worse over time where more and more people are having mutations in this gene. But what it really is MTHFR, a gene as an enzyme is a protein and it utilizes certain nutritional cofactors to basically do this methylation function in our body, and has many different categories of what it's involved in. So it's involved in DNA repair. We can actually repair our DNA. When it doesn't repair, that's when things break down and people get cancers. So we have this ability through methylation to actually repair our DNA so that we keep things like cancer away.
So mutations and methylation would facilitate a problem in trying to do that repair. It's also important in detoxification. So through our liver, our kidneys, elsewhere in our body, and that's because one of the end products of methylation is called glutathione. Glutathione is one of our most important antioxidants in the body. If you don't have enough of that, you're going to have problems getting rid of toxins in your body. Like you said, there's a whole host of environmental toxins that we're exposed to, whether it's in the foods or the air or even like molds, for example, these are things that we utilize methylation to eliminate. We have great resilience in our bodies up to a point. The more that there's a problem with this methylation, the more that this is going to be impaired. It also is important in turning on and off other genes. So we have a checks and balances system in our body using methylation so that we don't let things go unchecked. So we have different pathways that we have to be able to control. Methylation is one of the ways we do that, it is just that whole checks and balances. It also is involved in neurotransmitter synthesis. So making things like dopamine and norepinephrine and epinephrine and serotonin. We use methylation and these compounds to make these very important neurotransmitters that run most of our cognitive processes, but also functions in controlling our blood pressure, for example. So that is all part of methylation as well. It's also an important part of our immune system. It might be from making different immune types of cells, but also with that antioxidant glutathione, that's a big part of our immunity and being able to eliminate different pathogens and things. So really, that's why it is considered a foundational part because it just involves so many of these different aspects. I didn't even mention hormones. It's not that it's involved in hormone synthesis, but it can affect it, for example, your liver's not working really well because maybe it's got a lot of toxins and you're not eliminating. Well, you also break down your estrogens there. So what we find is that if your methylation process is impaired in your liver, you will find that you'll become estrogen dominant, which is not just a problem with women. Men also have problems with estrogen dominance, especially now with plastics because they are estrogen mimickers. You get this buildup within the liver of these estrogenic compounds and you're not eliminating them properly. then that leads to a whole host of other types of problems.
Some women, it might be PMS, it might be different types of cancers, breast cancer, ovarian cancer. We know it can put strains on other hormone systems. So for example, the adrenals and the thyroid. So there's this massive interplay that happens because of what's happening at the core process that we call methylation.
Ashley James (1:29:13.384)
Methylation. Can you explain it? So I understand that there's an amino acid that we eat, methionine. Our body makes some assisting from that as well. Then our body grabs those molecules and adds that to the serotonin then it becomes melatonin. So the body is converting serotonin to melatonin. Melatonin isn’t just for sleep it actually only but 10% is used for sleep the rest is used as a cellular detoxifier while we sleep. So it’s really important not to disrupt melatonin production where sleep hygiene comes in, but also go to the gut and make sure we’re not disrupting serotonin production. So again, come back to the gut. We've got to go back to the foundations of our health, if you're not sleeping, well, could it be in the gut? Could it be in our methylation? It could just be the fact that you're staying up too late, staring at screens and drinking coffee late at night. It could be an absolute 100% lifestyle, but we could geek out on your labs and see what's going on.
So could you explain, so we understand this idea of methylation, like it grabs this molecule and attaches it, and that's methylation. Then people with MTHFR have a problem with that, so everything kind of gets backed up in the system. I want everyone to understand this more and why it's such an important thing, or one of the many things that we could have tested just so we know more about ourselves, and then we could take information from you to help us understand how we could eat and not eat and the nutrition we should take in and maybe limit to best support our ability to methylate and detoxify.
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:31:13.035)
So one of the most important things that I try to teach patients, and this is if they know their MTHFR status, okay, because it depends on whether they want to know that gene or not, but once you know that you have an abnormality in that gene, it's important the type of B vitamins that you get.
So methylation is a process, it's methyl donations. So you have a methyl group that is a carbon atom attached to three hydrogen atoms, okay? Certain compounds become what we call methyl donors. So they donate this methyl group to another compound and it turns into something else. This process of putting on the methyl group, taking off the methyl group. That's methylation at its very bringing down that science to that level. One of the most important methyl donors, we think of, well, methylfolate. So we think of this, the folic acid in the body is a B vitamin, and that is very important for the process of this methionine, homocysteine, I think of it like a cycle in order to have a balance in this cycle you have to have the presence of methylated folate. What happens is if you have a mutation in MTHFR you can't methylate folic acid. Now if you have a diet full of green leafy vegetables you are getting natural folate. Okay you've already that natural folate is already in that methylated useful version. But say for example you eat a slice of bread and that bread is fortified with B vitamins. Now fortified grains, they put folic acid in it. Synthetic folic acid is not methylated. So if you're eating foods that are fortified and they have fortified a lot of different things now it's not just wheat, okay?
So if you eat folic acid, it is so strong that it is more strongly bound to our receptors because when we eat these things, then we absorb it and then our, it goes to find a cell and that method, that folic acid needs to enter the cell. Well, folic acid can block the receptor, because it's stronger than the natural folate. So even if you eat a lot of green leafy vegetables, it'll be blocked out if you had, so if you had a sandwich, for example, and it had folic acid in it, and even if you had lettuce on it, or some green leafy lettuce, and you had natural folate, you're going to be blocked. You're not going to absorb the natural folate. So that's why one of the paramount things that I tell people to do is get rid of folic acid and that's in a lot of supplements too. So that's why it's really important to know what supplements you're taking in because you may actually be harming yourself by blocking out by basically that folic acid, which is so strong, that synthetic version, so strong that it's going to block the absorption of the natural folate. Then you get these problems with DNA repair because you're not getting the folate. The diet and supplements are really critical once you understand what MTHFR does and why you have to be careful about putting certain compounds into your body that are going to negate the effects of other good things that you're doing.
Ashley James (1:35:10.601)
What about cobalamin versus methylcobalamin? So B12, getting a methylated version of B12 versus, I don't know, what's the difference between cobalamin? Does cobalamin exist in nature? Is that, again, just like folic acid, a synthetic thing?
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:35:28.543)
Yes, cobalamin, it refers to the basic core compound chemical, and there's different forms of cobalamin. So the most common form that you would see when you pick up a B12 supplement is cyanocobalamin, which as the name, it's cyanide. It's a cyanide molecule. The small amounts probably don't help people unless you can't detoxify very well. Now, that form of cobalamin is not in its methylated version. So the idea is if you get methylated vitamins, you bypass the methylation process so that you don't then depend on these faulty genes. You're automatically already getting the form of those vitamins that your body can't do.
If you didn't have an MTHFR mutation and you took cyanocobalamin, you would be able to get methyl groups donated to that. You would be able to utilize that B12. Obviously there's an argument about the other components of that cyanocobalamin that are not good, but you could do it. There are other forms of cobalamin. There's one called hydroxylated cobalamin and there's an adenosyl cobalamin and they all have slightly different functions like the adenosylcobalamin is often used for like mitochondrial support, which is the energy producers of our cells so you can really tailor the different types of b12, but the methylated cobalamin is going to be your powerhouse B12 option because again that's already got the methyl group on it. So it's already going to be able to do its function in the body.
So that's the real core important part about the MTHFR is being able to methylate these compounds, folic acid, B12, but if you have a dysfunctional gene, you really need to take that in those already methylated versions.
Ashley James (1:37:42.394)
In my mind, I'm seeing like IKEA furniture coming into the body every day. If you're taking the cheaper supplements or the ones that aren't methylated or the synthetic ones, your body has to then do a process that has to build something. So it's like the IKEA furniture comes in and you have to, now you have to build the table. Here's the building blocks. So your body has to take a donated methyl group added to it to build it. Now it has the table. Whereas when we don't have MTHFR, it's as if we've been giving IKEA furniture, but we don't, we're missing a piece.
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:38:26.218)
Yes, I mean that's a very good analogy because it's basically making it easier for your body to utilize those nutrients without having to go through all these steps in order to be able to utilize those nutrients. But that also it's a two-edged sword because if you have a lot of toxins build up in your system and all of a sudden you start taking these methylated B vitamins you’re going to start mobilizing those toxins that's why there's a start low, go slow type of thing, because people don't know how toxic they are. We're all carrying around a certain burden of toxins, some more than others, but once you start mobilizing those toxins, it can make you feel sicker. So in the early phases of this, it's really important to use lower dosages and to be gentle with it because not everybody has the best outlet of their detoxification process. That's why the gut is such an important part of this because that's a big area of waste elimination. So in order for you to eliminate toxins, you need to have a healthy gut where you have that ability to eliminate. So that's why sometimes people they want to focus on MTFHR but if you don't have a healthy gut system, you're going to mobilize these toxins and you're going to feel very, very sick if you do not have a way to eliminate, especially like people who are constipated. Oh my goodness. Those folks have a really, really rough time taking the methylated B vitamins because they're mobilizing these toxins. They become like toxic overloaded and it begins to make them feel very, very sick. So depending of course, upon each individual and how sick they are to begin with, especially if someone comes in and they're pretty sick to begin with, those are people you have to be very gentle.
Ashley James (1:40:35.545)
Yes. Exactly. Start slow. Also the testing upfront really helps because then you know how their body is going to process stuff or not process stuff. So you talked a bit about these artificial things, if we took supplements that were like lower quality and that's something that can block methylation or that it just kind of gums up the works because our body cannot methylate these things.
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:41:03.567)
It will definitely block the absorption of the necessary active vitamins. You won't be able to take up these compounds. It would literally block those cellular receptors.
Ashley James (1:41:18.843)
So, this is incredible because taking folic acid, which is what all mothers are told while they're pregnant to take to prevent neuro tube defects. We all think there are two defects like where the spinal cord is sticking out of the back, god forbid, the spine is not made properly in utero, and now part of the spine is bulging. That's major. Then there's minor ones like cleft lip. Then we can go even further now because so many people having MTHFR and so many prenatals have the artificial synthetic folic acid, which what you just shared, for people with MTHFR blocks the ability to absorb and uptake and utilize folate, which we know it causes if you don't, if you have a folate deficiency, your baby is not being built properly. What we see is now a huge uprise in tongue ties and lip ties that is believed to be part of the folic acid blocking folate, we’re like, oh, no big deal, let's just go clip their tongue tie, clip their lip but that's something on the outside, but what happened on the inside? There could be other things going on the inside, just like you talked about. Skin conditions are so fun to help people heal. But if you've got rashes on the outside and scaly skin and itchy and flamed and you've got this stuff on the outside, we have skin on the inside of our body. Think about all the other parts of our body on the inside where there's the same kind of tissue. If you are on fire on the outside, imagine what's going on the inside.
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:43:15.076)
Oh yes, if you see it externalized, there's a war going on inside, for sure.
Ashley James (1:43:21.812)
So we have this really huge juggernaut of a problem where the supplements that women are being given to prevent problems actually can contribute to causing them because a large majority of our population has MTHFR issues and then we've got on top of these synthetic supplements. Now some of my listeners I'm sure are saying, well, I'm just not going to take supplements then I can avoid this problem. Is that the answer?
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:43:52.126)
Do not take supplements? No, because again, it depends on your diet, a big part of that, especially if you're eating fortified grains, you're going to be getting that folic acid, like you're taking supplements and you didn't even know it. That's part of the inherent problem. Fortification wasn't, we didn't always have that. That's also kind of newer and relatively. So it's important for people to realize that, yes, if you do have these deficits, depending on what your diet is. I would say most people probably don't get a healthy amount of greens in their diet. There's complications with that too. Some people get kidney stones. They can't have high oxalate foods, for example, so they do have to limit some of their green leafy vegetables.
Sometimes supplements just become a necessity because you've eliminated so many things out of your diet. For example, if we were talking about wheat. How taking wheat out of people's diet actually eliminated a lot of the B vitamins that were in it. So you have to supplement those B vitamins or if you're vegetarian, it's very hard to get adequate amounts of vitamin B12. So, the diet is very critical in determining how many supplements you need, but that's where the blood work helps. One of the biomarkers you had mentioned earlier with the methylation process is homocysteine. Homocysteine as well as glutathione, even methionine, all these things can be measured. But homocysteine ends up being a great biomarker in the blood for determining your methylation status.
Essentially with folks that have higher home assisting levels, they're going to need more supplements in the form of these methylated B vitamins. The amount of supplements that you need really needs to be tailored. That's where the testing can help determine what those needs are. So the answer is not giving up all your supplements, but the answer is doing smart supplementation. We've gotten to a point where there's no excuse for not having smart supplementation because we have so many tests that can help guide that.
Ashley James (1:46:28.365)
Also it's not just about your genetics, it can be about the genetics of your gut talking about the high oxalates, it's really interesting that you can help support your gut health and build up a healthy microbiome. There are certain microbiome bacteria that actually help our body process the greens in such a way that we don't develop kidney stones.
I'm so proud of myself because I can eat 12 pounds of spinach a day and I will never ever get kidney stones because I am one of those people that have absolutely no problem with processing it but it's not my genetics it's my gut microbiome. So the cool thing is the more you work on your gut health the more little rewards you. If you've ever played video games. It's like getting these little achievements comes up and pops up. For me, when you build your gut health, it's like you're achieving, because you populate, you grow a robust microbiome. So let's say now you only have a thousand different types of bacteria in your gut, but as you build a healthy microbiome and focus on your gut health, you could build it to 10,000, or you could have a variety that's really robust, and then you get all these little achievements, because the new healthy bacteria come in, they’ll help you digest your food, and make compounds for you. So just imagine all these little achievements popping up like, oh, you got the gut bacteria that makes it so that you're skinny.
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:48:06.211)
Well, that's the beauty of the testing. It's amazing the research that they've done to make the tests so that we can identify these areas. So one of my favorite tests is called the GI Map Test. That's the functional GI evaluation stool test. They measure what they call commensal bacteria. Commensals are your keystone, your foundational bacteria. The science has gotten so good in this area where we can actually identify if you don't have enough of certain bacteria, the commensal bacteria, it will set you up for things like leaky gut. So we are really getting to the point where you can take supplements of certain targeted probiotics. It's so funny because people go and they'll buy any probiotic, acidophilus, I heard that's a good one? Well, some people have plenty of lactobacillus, which is in the acidophilus, lactobacillus family. They don't need that. But what they are lacking are some of these other lesser known commensals, which some of them provide the mucin layer which is really critical as a barrier for preventing leaky gut. There's other ones that produce short-chain fatty acids. It takes the carbohydrates, the vegetables and fruits that we eat, and these bacteria convert these compounds into making these other compounds called short-chain fatty acids, which are real key for keeping our colonicides basically are intestinal cells like tight and not leaky and creating this healthy barrier with a healthy immune system and so we've gotten to the point where we can actually target these very specific areas and it makes a profound difference in all the things down the way and the fact that we have access to that now. I think it lends itself to a whole new future of what we consider health and preventative medicine and restoring function that we've lost or that we've damaged through. So even though we can't necessarily control the toxins or, I mean, we can control to some degree, but some things we just can't. If we can make ourselves more resilient through optimization of our microbiome and taking tailored appropriate supplements, we become much less vulnerable to these things that we cannot control.
Ashley James (1:51:16.069)
I love it. We could talk all day. We could keep going and chat all day because I'm so fascinated to learn more and more and more about it. MTHFR is just the beginning. There's so many other epigenetic factors to dive into, but because it's so popular, like you said, it could be 80 percent of the population. It's definitely over 50 percent. It's so common and it’s becoming more common. We need to look at, which is so interesting how we've changed our food because when I was a kid, the cereal aisle looked a lot different than it does now. Let's just put it that way. Like we have in one generation changed our food so much. We're eating most of our food from factories. I had a doctor talking about how over 80% of a child's diet is processed food. over 80%. There's some children who don't eat any actual food. It's 100% from go-gurt and chicken nuggets and craft dinner or whatever. Children are being fed so much of this which is processed and fortified with substandard, the lowest quality, synthetic B vitamins. Then, we see MTHFR on the rise and we're wondering, gee, could it be because we have messed with nature? We've messed with our diet so severely, we made it so manmade, so artificial? In one generation, it's just pretty bizarre. Now our bodies are adapting and revolting in a sense. But this affects every area of our life. This affects the brain health, affects our gut health, affects, like you've even said, our skin. It can affect hormones, everything. We see children who are eating this way, and then they have developmental issues, and they're put on like Ritalin or something, and they're diagnosed. I have seen children who appear as if they are on a spectrum, let's say ADHD or Autism, they're on some spectrum, and then they're given very clean, healthy food, the right supplements through holistic medicine. A few months later, they are no longer displaying any of those symptoms. So my question is, was that diagnosis correct? Are they actually someone who has ADHD or is autistic? Or is it that humans will express different symptoms when their body is pushed into this toxic way?
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:54:03.067)
Well, I think that was a perfect example. Because I actually talked to a lot of parents of children who have been diagnosed with ADHD. I'm like, they should probably have some genetic testing done. Because my guess is they might have an MTHFR gene mutation and they're eating processed foods, and they're eating folic acid, and that's probably creating imbalance within the neurotransmitter synthesis system.
So they're getting the erratic, just like you were talking about, irritability when you took too many B vitamins. Well, the same process can happen in kids whether it be dyes, yellow dyes or whatever, these things all promote this aberrant, imbalanced methylation process and so they end up diagnosed with these mental conditions that are actually brought on by the fact that they are being bombarded with these chemicals including what they would think of as synthetic vitamins that are okay to take but they're not in some people they're very sensitive and yes that's why I still can't believe we still put food dyes in things. There are genetics that you can analyze that actually where some people, I actually have that. I have a sensitivity to yellow food dye and ADHD diagnoses are much higher in people with yellow food dye sensitivities. So when you're eating things like a Cheeto, it's no wonder that you are not getting any real nutrition out of that, but you're bombarding yourself with food dyes as well as synthetic folic acid.
Ashley James (1:56:05.799)
Yes, and excitotoxins, it's not healthy for the brain. It's absolutely not healthy for the brain. But we feed children junk, and then put them on a drug. It's so sad. The whole mainstream says this is okay. There's known carcinogens that are acceptable on our shelves, in food, in our grocery stores, in America.
So really, we need to stop trusting. My first step is to stop trusting because as children, we watch Kellogg's, for example. Oh, Tony the Tiger or whatever. We saw Fruit Loops, we saw this cute little cartoon. We have McDonald's, oh, Ronald McDonald. Oh, look at him, I love him so much. I'm a kid. Being brought up with all these commercials. They were smart. They knew what they were doing because they had programmed children to build such a deep inherent trust of their General Mills of whatever company Nestle was.
Then you're 20 years old, walking through the aisles of your grocery store, buying your own food. you look up and you're anchored into these good emotions for Tony the tiger and General Mills and all these companies that do not have your best interests at heart. They are beholden to the shareholders and the profits and they need to buy the cheapest ingredients. Absolutely possible.
Then they need to figure out how to make it be so addictive that you'll keep eating it. It's not for our best interest, but we have been programmed to trust and love these companies. So any time you buy something from a box, it comes from a factory. We need to question what's in it. Understand reading labels. Understand what's in it. So fascinating that what's put in our food is blocking our ability to detoxify and also blocking nutrients from coming in and making us further nutrient deficient.
We could talk for hours. It's been so great having you on the show I want to make sure listeners know that they can go to your website. You do telemedicine consultations so you work with people all around the world? How does that work with you?
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:58:30.902)
There are regulations within the license. I'm only licensed in the states of California and Washington. So, I have to restrict my appointments. I use Zoom or FaceTime for video when people would like video with the audio. I wish I could expand to other states. It was nice during the covid pandemic because they kind of opened up, loosened a lot of the restrictions and telemedicine really grew during that time. But unfortunately that's ended. So patients have to be physically within the state. If you were to travel to Washington State or California, I could have an appointment. So it's a really weird thing.
Ashley James (1:59:28.378)
Can someone hire you in a different capacity? Instead of a patient doctor relationship could they hire you to consult them and to just answer your questions, but not as a doctor? Not as their doctor, I should say.
Dr. Laurie Marti (1:59:41.984)
Yes. I haven't really explored that. That has been something I've been looking into because obviously once you establish a doctor-patient relationship, then you really are under the confines of the licensure status. But yes, I'm exploring different things like that. Also many states actually, if you have a practitioner, even a chiropractor or anybody that is willing or able, because a lot of states are allowing even alternative practitioners to order testing and things like that, not just naturopaths, but other providers as well. So if you have a provider in a state that is not Washington or California, I can work with them, guide them, so that's an option for a lot of people in other states. If they just have a practitioner that's willing to work with me. So I wouldn't be able to order the testing per se, but I could help with the interpretation of it.
Ashley James (2:00:49.860)
Got it. So if they're working with a chiropractor or osteopath or naturopath or any kind of doctor that ordered the labs, could they bring the labs to you and you could talk to them about it or would you have to go between as their practitioner?
Dr. Laurie Marti (2:01:04.618)
I think the practitioner might have to be present on some level, whether they were at the office or something with them. But yes, I think that's the restriction because the states all have their own laws around those things. There has to be them present. But like I said, I'm trying to explore other things.
The licensing process is very, very daunting. To get licensed in all 50 states is just impossible. It would be very expensive too. A lot of the states are allowing a limited license so that you could practice telemedicine in that state without having to get a full license. So those are things that I'm also exploring because I've had to turn away a number of people that would love to just get this testing done. They just don't have anybody that can interpret it for them. So, I am doing that process. But like I said, in the meantime, people can take a trip to California or Washington and as long as they're physically in the States, then I can do the appointment.
Ashley James (2:02:24.502)
Got it. Regardless where someone is, they should reach out to you anyway, just in case, because by the time they've heard this, maybe you have discovered a different avenue of how you can best support people. I just wonder if there's a way, maybe look into this, if there's a way that you can not as their doctor, but it's just as a consultant to answer general questions around something or help someone like point them in the right direction, help them at least decide what labs that they should go do with their chiropractor or whatever, but someone who's like, they're stuck. They're like, I'm stuck. I've done, I've gone this far. I kind of had a loss and maybe like, you could be hired as a consultant to do like little detective work with them. I wonder if that's a possibility because I've seen so many doctors that do, and maybe they're just breaking the rules or I don't know.
Dr. Laurie Marti (2:03:15.513)
Well, and I think that there is probably a lot of that. It's very hard to really police a lot of that, but exactly, no way. Like I said, I am exploring other things because I just feel there's a real deficit. There's a hunger for this knowledge. People really are interested in knowing about it and like what direction to go. I want to be able to provide that in whatever way makes sense for everybody involved. So, I am exploring that.
Ashley James (2:04:00.303)
Cool, well then listeners should check your website out. I'm going to have the link in the show notes, it's with today's podcast at learntruehealth.com so they can go to it and here's the link. It is your name md dot com, so, it’s lauriemartimd.com. Just want to make sure that in case someone's listening and they're driving or something, just go to learntruehealth.com where the show notes are and check out all the information there.
Dr. Lori, it's been so great having you on the show and having this conversation. I think it's really important first of all, our mindset and then knowing that there's a path, knowing there's a way that people who have fibromyalgia no longer have to have it. For some people they've been told you're just going to have it your whole life. You can get to the point where you're no longer in chronic pain. Like Lyme, I know people who've completely, 100% reversed all symptoms of Lyme and no longer have those co-infections and they're feeling amazing. They went from like being bedridden to like just running marathons. We can overcome. The body can overcome. The cool thing is that there's stuff that Dr. Laurie does able to help us with. We figure it out, get to the root cause, look at our epigenetics, uncover what's going on, make sure we're giving ourselves the nutrition, that there's a game plan. We got to make sure we're taking ourselves to the doctor and always always believe your body wants to heal itself and can heal itself. We just have to learn what to give our body to help our body heal itself and that's why functional medicine doctors are so important because they're here to help us figure that out and I love it. I love it. Thank you so much for everything you do and is there anything you want to say to wrap up today's interview? I know you've said so much but is there anything that we left unsaid or you want to make sure that you say before we wrap up today's interview?
Dr. Laurie Marti (2:05:59.783)
Well, I did want to reiterate, I don't want to discourage people that aren't in California or Washington. I do have a contact. Contact me on my website. Send me an email. If you're not in Washington or California, just send me an email, explain your situation. I will look into what options that might be possible. I'll look into it. So just don't be discouraged if you're not from one of those states because I'm really working on trying to expand to help as many people as I feasibly can, because we're under a lot of assault in our world and we need to be more resilient. I think just understanding having some education in this space is so empowering to every individual. If you're interested in exploring those things, I will do my best to try to help.
Ashley James (2:07:11.119)
Love it. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. I feel like it's so empowering and enlightening for those to know that there are these avenues. There's these pathways. It's worth diving in and exploring because it can be for so many people life changing.
Dr. Laurie Marti (2:07:28.055)
Yes, I agree. Thank you again for having me.
Ashley James (2:07:32.467)
These are the same supplements that I’ve been using myself personally, my family, and my clients for the last 12 ½ years. These are the same supplements that helped me to overcome my chronic diseases. I used to have type 2 diabetes, chronic adrenal fatigue, chronic infections, polycystic ovarian syndrome, infertility. I don’t have those things anymore. The holistic doctors that informed these supplements discovered that the root cause of disease is a lack of key nutrients. There are 90 essential nutrients the body needs and we’re not getting them from our food anymore because of the farming practices in the last 100 years. So no matter how healthy we eat we’re still missing what our body needs to create optimal health.
Because you listened to this health podcast and you’re looking for health solutions, you will love working with the team at takeyoursupplements.com. These are health coaches that, just like me, overcame their own health issues using, of course, eating healthy, healthy lifestyle but the key fundamental thing that they added were these supplements. These supplements encompass all 90 essential nutrients.
When you talk to your health coach, they will help to customize a plan specifically to your needs and your health goals. You will start feeling amazing right away. Within the first month of taking these supplements everyone notices better sleep, more mental clarity, better energy, overall sense of well-being that takes over their life and they are so happy that they got on these supplements. I want you to give it a try. There's a money-back guarantee and there’s amazing health coaches waiting to help you at takeyoursupplements.com and it’s free to talk to them. What are you waiting for? Go to takeyoursupplements.com right now, sign up for a free consultation. In a month you could be feeling on top of the world just like I did. I was so sick I felt so horrible and I overcame that. I had to obviously make healthy choices around every area of my life. I had to change my diet. I had to change my lifestyle but I needed to fill in those nutrient gaps and that's where takeyoursupplements.com comes in. They help you to make sure that you’re getting all 90 essential nutrients so all 37.2 trillion cells in your body would be bathed in all the nutrients that they need so you can live an optimal life full of health and vitality at any age. Go to takeyoursupplements.com and talk to one of them today. They can help you right now to begin to make a health transformation. That’s takeyoursupplements.com.
Website – https://www.lauriemartimd.com/
The North American Academy of Neural Therapy
naant.org
Dr. Jeff's website:
jeffharrisnd.com
Get My New Book Addicted To Wellness:
https://www.learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness
learntruehealth.com/addictedtowellness
25% Off Sale on My Favorite NON-TOXIC Medical Mattress:
BEST SLEEP OF YOUR LIFE!
https://www.learntruehealth.com/organix
learntruehealth.com/organix
https://learntruehealth.com/neural-therapy-and-the-five-levels-of-healing-with-dr-jeff-harris/
What if your chronic pain could be alleviated by targeting an old scar you never thought twice about? Join us as we welcome Dr. Jeff Harris, a leading expert in neural therapy and renowned naturopathic physician, who shares groundbreaking insights on this cutting-edge treatment.
Highlights:
Intro:
Hello True Health Seeker and welcome to another exciting episode of the Learn True Health podcast. This is going to be an amazing one. Dr. Jeff Harris, naturopathic physician and one of the world's leading experts in neuraltherapy, is here with us today. You can go to naant.org, that's North American Academy of Neural Therapy and check out the conference that's coming up April 4th through 7th. Every practitioner needs to know about this, as you're about to hear in this interview, and I just wanted to make a quick shout out also that my book I published it last month In case you didn't know, you got to grab your copy. The reviews are just so beautiful.
I spent a lot of time very intentionally designing this book, using everything I learned from my over 500 interviews with holistic experts, as well as my over 12 years of experience working with clients to help them achieve their health goals and their goals around joy, fulfillment and leading an overall better, happier life, more satisfied life. I made it very simple to use. It's a workbook, so you use it 10 to 15 minutes in the morning, 10 to 15 minutes at night for 12 weeks and you will build foundations of health, no matter where your health is right now, whether you're just starting on your health journey, you're frustrated, you want to take your health to the next level, or whether you're like me, you're a health nut and you're always looking to improve. There's always room for improvement. No matter how old you are, there's always room to become even healthier, right, and no matter how young you are, there's always room, no matter how busy you are. If you say you don't have enough time. That is exactly why you need my book, Addicted to Wellness. It will help you get the wins, collect the W's every day. You'll stack win upon win upon win in very quick ways.
That'll motivate you and a lot of us kind of get stuck sometimes or we say, fall off the bandwagon. Oh, I hear this so often from clients. I used to drink more water, I used to exercise, especially when I'm hearing, the feedback I'm getting, it’s the pandemic. We're all kind of like coming out of our caves right from the last four years, and so many people have told me that they they felt like they were on track with their health prior to 2020 and we had so many disruptions that a lot of good health habits disappeared and some unhealthy habits, new habits got created or exacerbated.
So with my book, Addicted to Wellness, I will guide you and teach you and you will learn. But not cerebral, it's not so like head knowledge, it's where rubber hits the road kind of knowledge, the experiential kind of knowledge, where you'll start tapping into yourself and it raises more self-awareness, and so you'll feel more and more motivated and excited because you're going to go, oh wow, I did this little change, this one little health habit today, this one little thing, and I got more energy, I got more mental clarity, I had better sleep, I had more stamina, I had more joy, I felt better in my body, I had less pain or no pain. I can teach you these little habits that you implement and you track. And it's so simple. You could do it anytime. If the busiest person in the world can do this book, so you can do it.
So if you want to take your health to the next level, you raise your hand. Who wants to take their health to the next level? If you want to take health to the next level, get my book. It's fun, it's simple and it is the foundations of health that everyone is missing.
You're going to find there's some things in this book. You're like, hey, I already do that, cool, and you'll learn a little bit more about the benefits of the activities you already do. And you're like, hey, that's so great, ok, keep doing that, and you're going to find that there are foundations of health and health habits maybe you didn't even know existed or you thought were too complicated or you didn't know how to implement.
And I make it super simple. I take something profound and meaningful for your health and I make it simple so that you can do it each and every day to build yourself up. And the feedback that my readers are giving me they've already started the health challenges. They're already seeing big wins, huge gains. So I want you to get my book because I want you to achieve those health gains too, and I do it too. This was part of my health journey as well that using the concept of these small, doable but profound weekly challenges, to start to build moment. So you're going to find that you get great moment and it's a wonderful gift as well to give to a friend who's suffering, because the book matches wherever you are, whether you're, like I said, a health nut, or whether you're just starting out, it's going to match where you are and it's going to help take your health to the next level.
You can go to learntruehealth.com and click in the Menu. It says book Addicted to Wellness. Just click there, grab it off Amazon. Come join the Facebook group, the Learn True Health Facebook group. I'd love to see you there. I'd love to hear from you. If you have any questions, we're here to help. I know you're going to enjoy today's podcast.
Dr. Jeff Harris is an amazing naturopath. He's been practicing for over 30 years. World's leading expert in neuraltherapy. It's phenomenal. I can't wait for you to hear it. You can go to jeffharrisnd.com ND as in naturopathic doctor. jeffharrisnd.com is his website and to check out more information about the conference, naant.org North American Academy of Neural Therapy conference April