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Category: Detox

HealthBootcamps posts under the Detox category.

  • Interview with Dr. Tony Jimenez on his book “Hope for Cancer”

    Interview with Dr. Tony Jimenez on his book “Hope for Cancer”

    Dr. Tony shares with Reena Jadhav the 7 principles of beating Cancer at any stage. His new book “Hope for Cancer” is a culmination of over 20 years of treating primarily stage 4 cancer patients with non-toxic and often non-invasive therapies. This is a “must watch” for anyone interested in learning what works for beating cancer.

    Empower Your Cancer Healing Journey!

    Over two decades of Hope4Cancer’s treatments, patient successes, and knowledge all brought together in one comprehensive cancer guidebook.

    For more than 25 years, Dr. Jimenez has dedicated his life to the study, clinical research and implementation of integrative, non-toxic therapies that target not only the cancer, but also the biological terrain that encourages its growth.

    Be prepared to discover a whole world of cancer treatment that is working for patients world-wide without compromising their health and immune system in the process.

    Learn first hand from the patients who reversed stage IV diagnosis and the therapies and protocols they used to do it.

    Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Hope4Cancer Treatment Centers, Dr. Antonio Jimenez, shares his life’s work in this easy to understand full-color textbook. Get an in-depth knowledge of all 7 Key Principles of Cancer Therapy and how to apply them to your life for healing and prevention.

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    FEW TAKEAWAYS

     

    1.13-  What were the reasons for writing this book?

    – Understand the 7 key Principles of how to approach cancer.

    • 2.59 Hope for Cancer Centre’s found globally.
    • 4.09 Provide hope through love, generosity and faith to those who have chosen a healing pathway outside of conventional medicine.
    • 4.52- patient population- Stage 4 cancer who have either failed therapy or treatment does not exist.

    5.42- 4 Year Cancer survival statistics

    8.32- Key principle- Remove fear and empower your healing journey.

    9.12 –  Chapter 1- Fundamentals of Cancer and healing.

     – Heal the whole person. Treat the person with cancer not cancer in the person.

     – Cancer is a complex disease, needs a whole body approach. Cancer is rarely a local disease.

    12.36- Negative thoughts can kill you faster than bad germs.

    13.22- Chapter 2- What causes Cancer?

    1. Mind, thought process, negativity and stress
    2. Dental- gum disease affects immune system
    3. Immune system- autoimmune issues, heart disease
    4. Micro environment- radiation
    5. Heavy metals
    6. Water pollutants 
    7. Food- Processed sugary foods, gluten , dairy
    8. Sedentary lifestyle

    8 hrs of sitting is equivalent to 1 pack of cigarettes.

    28.30 – Some Screening tests for Cancer-

           – Bioresonance Frequency Technology

           – 24 hour Urine test- check hormones

           – Epigenetics

           – Dutch test

    37.19- Seven key principles of cancer therapy 

    1. Cutting edge nontoxic therapy
    2. Full Spectrum Nutrition
    3. Detoxification
    4. Immuno Modulation
    5. Microbiome
    6. Oxygenation
    7. Spiritual and emotional

    39.70- Vit D deficiency how much do you need.

    42.18- the importance of Vit C and the optimal dose

             – Acts as a free radical, antioxidant and kills cancer cells

    44.33- Benefits of a Mistletoe 

              – Decreases metastatic potential

              – Upregulates the  immune system

              – Improves quality of life

    45.59-  Immuno modulation

    Key to curing cancer. Boosting your immune system

    50.40- Full spectrum nutrition 

     – We are a food body first, not a  supplement body.

    – Resonant towards food

    – Some nutritious supplements:-

    Green tea, cur cumin, resvetrol, ginger.

    • Bananas decrease colon cancer by 40%

    57.0 -Detoxification

    Milk thistle, Breathing correctly, sweating are a few suggestions.

    58.4 – Oxygenation

    – Hyperbaric oxygen one hour day helps with driving oxygen into the tissues and the cells

    – Ozone therapy

    1.01.27- Micro biome

    -Detoxify heavy metals

    -Infrared sauna

    1.02- Ritual on spiritual and emotional healing

    – Being positive

    – Believing 

    – Avoiding secondary gain

     


     

    Dr. Antonio (Tony) Jimenez, BIO

     

    Dr. Antonio Jimenez, M.D., N.D. is the Founder and Chief Medical Officer of world-renowned Hope4Cancer Treatment Centers, currently operating in Mexico (Tijuana, Cancun), Colombia (Barranquilla), and Thailand (Bangkok). A globally recognized leader in integrative oncology, Dr. Jimenez received his M.D. from the Autonomous University of Guadalajara Faculty of Medicine in Mexico. For over 25 years, he has dedicated his life to the study, clinical research, and implementation of integrative, non-toxic therapies.

    Known worldwide for his development of the 7 Key Principles of Cancer Therapy, Dr. Jimenez is an accomplished speaker who has been featured at events including the Global Cancer Symposium, The Truth About Cancer Live Symposium, and the Anti-Cancer Revolution, to name a few. Throughout his career, he has traveled to more than 70 nations learning, training, and researching innovative cancer care methods and technologies. His experience and expertise has seen him successfully pioneer effective non-toxic treatments such as Photodynamic Therapy and emerging immunotherapies. Often referred to as “Dr. Tony”, he provides his patients with a lifelong structure for healing built around science, education, and empowerment. 

    Awards:

    The Truth About Cancer Lifetime Achievement Award, 2016


    LET’S TALK HEALTH 
    Watch, learn, then come over let’s talk! It’s easier to heal together, we are waiting to welcome you ?

    healcircles


    ARE YOU SERIOUS ABOUT YOUR HEALTH?

    Then we have a gift to encourage you! Click here for our founder’s Free Health Journal. it gives you 30 days of free weekly tracking of your moods, diet, meds, symptoms, notes, goals and gratitude.

    free health journal


     

    Reversing Auto-immune Disease With Dr. Will Cole

     


     

    KEY LINKS:

    CONTACT:

    Dr. Antonio Jimenez,

    e: support@hope4cancer.com

    t: +1 619 669 6511

    WEBSITE:

    hope4cancer.com

    SOCIAL MEDIA:

    facebook.com/Hope4CancerMexico

    instagram.com/hope4cancermexico

    pinterest.com/hope4cancer

    Liked what you heard? Love what I am doing with my mission of spreading the truth about how we can live healthier, happier and longer?

    Then please SUBSCRIBE, RATE AND SHARE with your loved ones!! They will thank you for it 🙂

    Till next time, wishing you health, love, and joy!

  • Interview with Dr. Todd Ovokaitys on his book “Growing Younger”

    Interview with Dr. Todd Ovokaitys on his book “Growing Younger”

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    GET THE EBOOK FREE!

    Simply enter your email below to receive a pdf copy of Dr. Todd’s book.

     


    Dr. Todd Ovokaitys, BIO

    Dr. Todd Ovokaitys was first in his class in high school and won the coveted Bucky pioneer award. He was also at the top of his class at Northwestern University with the highest possible grade point average and after two years was one of 26 people accepted into an accelerated undergraduate and medical training program at Johns Hopkins University and Medical School. He then completed specialty training in Internal Medicine and subspecialty training in Pulmonary and Intensive Care Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital. He was assessed by a faculty committee as “the best of all the residents across the board.” He was inspired to move to California to understand energy medicine and shortly after the journey had a vision of communicating with the pure consciousness of DNA. This has resulted in co-inventing a laser based interdimensional platform which has numerous US and international patents granted in the areas of nutraceuticals, agriculture including cannabis, and especially stem cell biology.

    He also pursues and provides training in the area of psycho-emotional medicine, getting at the core root of any condition, physical or psychiatric, that can offer lasting relief. These discoveries have the potential to be a part of what may revolutionize and personalize the practice of medicine. He is also the composer and at times co-conductor or soloist of the Lemurian choirs that create patterns of tones and information that can accelerate the expansion of consciousness.

     


    LET’S TALK HEALTH 
    Watch, learn, then come over let’s talk! It’s easier to heal together, we are waiting to welcome you ?

    healcircles


    ARE YOU SERIOUS ABOUT YOUR HEALTH?

    Then we have a gift to encourage you! Click here for our founder’s Free Health Journal. it gives you 30 days of free weekly tracking of your moods, diet, meds, symptoms, notes, goals and gratitude.

    free health journal


     

    Reversing Auto-immune Disease With Dr. Will Cole

     


     

    KEY LINKS:

    CONTACT:

    Dr. Todd Ovokaitys,

    e: drtodd@gematria.com

    WEBSITE:

    gematria.com

    SOCIAL MEDIA:

    facebook.com/GematriaProducts

    twitter.com/GematriaProdInc

    instagram.com/gematriaproducts

    Liked what you heard? Love what I am doing with my mission of spreading the truth about how we can live healthier, happier and longer?

    Then please SUBSCRIBE, RATE AND SHARE with your loved ones!! They will thank you for it 🙂

    Till next time, wishing you health, love, and joy!

  • Book Interview “The Rain Barrel Effect” with Dr. Cabral – Healing from Autoimmune & Chronic Disease

    Book Interview “The Rain Barrel Effect” with Dr. Cabral – Healing from Autoimmune & Chronic Disease

    Watch Video Interview

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    FEW TAKEAWAYS

    What is the Rain Barrel Effect?

    • Metaphorically we all have a rain barrel. Throughout life, we accumulate toxins, heavy metals, antibiotics, and viruses.
    • When the rain barrel filled to the top we start experiencing symptoms.
    • Chronic autoimmune diseases are the overflowing rain barrel, manifested over time owing to some nutritional deficiencies and toxicities.
    • Symptoms- Grogginess upon waking, brain fog through the day, difficulty sleeping through the night.

    What can we control?

    1. What we eat- eat organic. Avoid the dirty dozen.

    2. What we put on our skin- our skin is porous absorbs toxins. Use clean fifteen

    3. The water we drink and use.

    Use a good quality filter for showers and water consumption.

    ( Recommendations- Berkey water filters- removes volatile organic compounds, aqua filters)

    4. Electrosmog- electromagnetic waves and frequencies can disrupt our DNA.

    EMF proof your bedroom.

    5. Pharmaceutical drugs can contribute to toxins. Side effects can cause inflammation and disruption in the gut biome.

    Symptom manifestations of toxic overload-

    1. Fatigue
    2. Muscle weakness
    3. Mood and depression
    4. Learning disability’s 
    5. Blood sugar issues
    6. Digestive issues
    7. Reproductive issues

    Effects of certain toxins-

    1. Aluminum found in water affects your nervous system and cause skin issues. There is a link between dementia and Alzheimer’s disease

    2. Chlorine kills good bacteria

    3. Fluoride, although protects your teeth was consumed, is harmful to the gut.

    Tests available and treatment available 

    1. Hair and urine test – checks 75 biomarkers
    2. 7-day detox program to reverse chronic disease. It helps to decrease inflammation, restores hormonal balance.
    3. 6-week heavy metal detox

    Dr. Stephen Cabral, BIO

    Stephen Cabral developed his passion for health & wellness after going through severe health complications at the age of 17. He saw over 50 different doctors, tried over 100 different treatment protocols, but still saw no hope of recovery.

    It wasn’t until he met an “alternative” health doctor who explained to him how he got here and how he could become well again, that he began his recovery process. It was at this young age that he knew his life would be dedicated to helping others rebalance their bodies and renew their health

    Join HealCircles to get free trusted support for greater health!

    healcircles

    Are you serious about your health?

    Then we have a gift to encourage you! Click here for our founder’s Free Health Journal. it gives you 30 days of free weekly tracking of your moods, diet, meds, symptoms, notes, goals and gratitude.

    free health journal


     

    Reversing Auto-immune Disease With Dr. Will Cole

     

    KEY LINKS:

    CONTACT:

    Dr. Stephen Cabral,

    email: support@StephenCabral.com

    WEBSITE:

    StephenCabral.com

    EquilibriumNutrition.com

    SOCIAL MEDIA:

    facebook.com/drstephencabral

    twitter.com/stephencabral

    instagram.com/stephencabral

     

    Liked what you heard? Love what I am doing with my mission of spreading the truth about how we can live healthier, happier and longer?

    Then please SUBSCRIBE, RATE AND SHARE with your loved ones!! They will thank you for it 🙂

    Till next time, wishing you health, love, and joy!

  • 5 Crazy Things Intermittent Fasting Did to Me (and how I got through them!)

    5 Crazy Things Intermittent Fasting Did to Me (and how I got through them!)

    By Reena A Jadhav

    I love snacking! Grazing all day on nuts, Ferraro Rocher, Nutella, cookies dipped in tea …give me little sweet treats (like a child) all day long and I’m blissed out.

    Well, then this happened.

    In 2017, I almost ended up dying, 28 symptoms attacking me daily, and had to figure out an exit strategy from the grave.

    After a mini PhD in healing, I decided to embark on intermittent fasting with 2 large meals and herbal tea the rest of the day.

    I wanted the promised land of reduced inflammation, gut healing, mitochondrial recovery, organ rejuvenation, mental clarity, sleep through the night and beating away of sugar cravings.

    I could almost envision the new me through the shimmering mirage, all healed and rash free. No more swollen fingers like stumps or big hives on my cheeks. No more funky black lines on my palms or bathroom runs 10 times a day!

    I was so ready to get my life back. To heal.

    So I deeply thought through which day to commence my march to super health (I didn’t want vacations or parties to interrupt my carefully crafted design back to health). March 1 seemed like a great day for new beginnings.

    So it was that on March 1, 2017, I began an intermittent fast (IF) that would take me through an adventurous rocky road of recovery. A topsy-turvy roller coaster …did I mention hate scary rides?

    Here are the 5 crazy things I wish someone had told me when I first started! Why? Because any challenge can only be won with preparation. You can’t go into a battlefield without a plan and resources. Knowing where the mines are will get you to the end goal of not eating for 14 to 18 hours. I stumbled around for months before getting into the rhythm of a dinner by 7 pm and lunch at 12 pm. Here’s how I did it!

    5 crazy things about intermittant fasting no one tells you (and how to get through them!)

    So here are my top tips for ‘body maintenance’ and to your body thriving!

    1. Cravings -this fasting is NOT helping!
      They tell you IF kills cravings. What they don’t tell you is that fasting first pumps up the cravings and only if you defeat the dragon do they go away. My first week of IM was actually not so bad the second week of not eating after 7 pm brought out the sugar beast in me like never before. I would wake up with the strangest cravings for Baked Alaska and Chocolate Halwa, delicacies I had not devoured in decades. I got worried I was pregnant! My family freaked out and there were many times when my husband would restrain me while my daughter quickly grabbed the cookie box/chocolate bag/ice-cream carton out of my hands and hid it or threw it away. It got very ugly. It turns out the hormone ghrelin is the troublemaker here. When you start any kind of fasting it rises and rises and rises, creating that sense of desperate hunger. But it soon settles down into the new norm. To get through the rough few weeks of my battle with ghrelin I adopted the “honey on tongue” trick- I would put a dab of raw organic honey on my tongue and savor it till the desire to eat an entire cake would vanish. Another trick that worked was herbal cinnamon tulsi tea with monk fruit sweetener. So get ready to find your “honey on tongue” trick that will get you through the ghrelin spikes.
    2. Binges – food frenzy coming on!
      Apparently, IM should shrink our stomachs so we eat less. Clearly, my stomach didn’t get that WhatsApp alert. Till today, my daughter is horrified at how much I eat at, what I call, “feeding time”. Ever gone to a zoo and watched animal feeding? See how all the animals get so excited and eat voraciously, without stopping to breathe, until all the food is gone? That’s the new me. At 12 pm sharp I eat everything in sight. I always ate like a bird, according to my family. Now I eat like an elephant. It’s almost like my body knows there’s no food coming for 14+ hours and its time to hoard. The first few weeks I would eat less and be starving within an hour. My digestive juices were trained to wake up every hour on the hour due to my grazing habits. They were so confused when no little snack would show up. They would go nuts, demanding something to digest. It was quite an exercise in willpower! Which I really didn’t have much of those first few months- I was constantly in the pantry eye worshiping what I would eat at the next meal. It was quite comical for my family to watch, as they tell me. Then I got smart and started overeating and adding heavier proteins that would take longer to digest. Another great addition was psyllium husk that bulked up the meal. It took almost a month to retrain my digestion to only wake up at 12 pm and 5 pm but it eventually worked!But I still eat for about 1.5 hour each meal in quantity and variety that continues to horrify my 14-year-old!
    3. Chirpings – wake up at 4:30 am!
      I’ve never been a morning person, I love hitting snooze, snuggling in deeper and getting just a “few more minutes” of sleep. IF killed that indulgence, fast! Within 3 weeks I would wake up at 4:30 am like an alarm, without an alarm, and be wired without caffeine or sugar. I would try to get back in the dream state only to have my mind fully awake and ready to rock and roll. Something truly magical happened to bring my body into a balance that it hadn’t had since my middle school days. I had so much energy that I would go for a run and come back singing ready to get to work! No caffeine or banana chocolate chip muffin needed.With my dinner ending by 7 PM, I learned the trick that if I went to bed by 10 PM I would miss the hunger cycle. But if I was up at 11 PM I was back in the pantry starving and binging. So I changed my night owl routine just to stop myself from raiding the pantry. This one small change, I believe, kickstarted my tsunami of healing. It turns out that our body is naturally designed to wake up at dawn but in order for it do that it needs to work through the complex clean up and rejuvenation cycle. Which requires us to be in bed by 10 PM. Ayurveda also recommends finishing dinner 4 hours before sleep time to allow the body to focus on rejuvenation instead of digestion at night. So, if you want to sail through your IF transition then schedule bedtime at 10 PM and you’ll see amazing results!
    4. Feelings – anger, sadness, fatigue, cold, hot
      I’ve always been an even-keeled, low key, stable emotions kinda woman. No throwing things or wanting to ram into cars on the road. That all changed with IF. The first month I felt a gamut of emotions I had never experienced before. From road rage to sobbing for brownies…from freezing to melting …it was all very confusing. And painful enough to make me want to give it all up. My body was fighting the change with all its might. There’s science that supports emotional healing as the body heals, which means lots of deep down hurt wells up and then disappears.My family was fighting the change with all their might. They just wanted the old “Mom and Wife” back; this new one was a firecracker. The cause of all this mayhem? A combination of low blood sugar, blood flowing to fat stores, dehydration, hangry hormones and more. It was all very touch and go for a while. But I’m not known to give up, no matter how tough the climb. So I persisted with constant deep breathing and meditations. Something called Tranquil Mind herbal helped tremendously. So did baking, not working out and cutting down my commitments.  Recently, I interviewed Susan of Brightline Eating on my HEALTHIER podcast and she shared the science behind willpower as well as recommending not working out during fasts and transitions. So if you’re going to embark on a successful IF protocol long term, skip the exhausting gym visits and slow down your pace the first few weeks or months…or till your body settles into the new rhythm.
    5. Rumblings – shouldn’t my digestion be better?
      I remember the first week facing off with the loud sounds my belly made all the way from 8 am till 12 pm. Until I fed it, it made a fuss like a child!I hoped it was just a few days of drama but it lasted several weeks. Annoying and a little embarrasing frankly.My digestive reset took close to a month and gave me everything from bloating to constipation, both known side effects of IF.  Constipation I resolved through psyllium husk which also kept me bulked up between long meal breaks. Funky cramping tummy I fixed through herbal mint and tulsi teas. So there you have it! You have been informed of the perils that lie ahead in your journey to an IF lifestyle as well as simple tips remedies. Overall the benefits outweigh the drama and justify the upheavel this change inevitably brings with it. But …IF not for everyone and certainly not forever. So, 3 to 4 days a week I tell my body when to eat and the rest of the days I listen to what it wants! For me, its become a happy celebration of health and indulgence. How about you? I would love to hear your IF stories, so do share with me on social media or in comments below!

    Finally, get the MTFHR test done to determine if your liver could use additional support.

    If you already have a chronic illness, prioritizing detoxing is critical. Our body cannot restore and rebuild if it’s fighting off invaders. What’s amazing is that the moment your body is free of toxins it literally blossoms! Your energy will go through the roof, your skin will glow, you’ll see better, you’ll smile more, you’ll poop at least twice a day effortlessly. (Yep, you wanted to know about the pooping, right?)

    More importantly, you’ll know you are on the path to being disease free!

    If you need help, we’re are always here with a Health Bootcamp for you!

    Follow Reena on Twitter @reenajadhav Linkedin www.linkedin.com/in/reena or Facebook Reena Jadhav

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  • Diet for Health

    Diet for Health

    This is Step 6 of the article I wrote, 7 Step New Health Pyramid, which you can read on this Page >>

    By Reena A Jadhav

    We truly live in the best of times – and the worst of times.

    We have never had so much abundance and variety available. Mounds of delicious, addictive, affordable foods from all over the world are tempting us 24/7/365.

    But the price of this abundance and excess is, guess what? Obesity and chronic disease.

    Think about how the animal kingdom eats – horses eat hay, birds eat seeds, bees eat pollen. You don’t see bees chomping down hay or horses licking pollen off flowers. They instinctively know what their bodies need and are happy eating just those foods. (Have you ever seen an obese bee?)

    We have the same innate intelligence… however, we also have a problem: a brain that fears starvation and wants us to stock up. Our brain also loves dopamine rushes which – unfortunately – food provides in abundance. This creates a deadly combination of addiction and overindulgence (for me it was sugar, chocolate, flour, and butter).

    Living in our world of rich Starbucks aromas and cheap Krispy Kreme donuts we are all paying a heavy price for overindulgence.

    So you need to ask yourself, “is this food my fuel – or my funeral?”

    And there’s a bigger, hidden issue. (Yes, another problem.) We don’t know what’s healthy and what isn’t. Do we?

    One day coconut oil is good for you, another day it isn’t. Yesterday eggs were causing cholesterol but today they don’t. It’s enough to make us all throw up our hands in confusion as the so-called “experts” change their minds.

    Fake health news is everywhere. Companies fund studies (with top researchers of course) to support the “health” benefits of their poisonous products. Greed has beaten integrity and it’s impossible to know the real truth around research any more. No, a glass of wine daily is not healthy (not that you want to hear that!).

    And then there are the thousands of additives, chemicals, and GMOs, plus of course glyphosate, which all lace supposedly healthy foods with poison. It’s like having an evil stepmother at every store, feeding us their poisoned apples with a smile. Berries may seem like manna from heaven – but only if they don’t come gift wrapped in glyphosate which will obliterate your microbiome and create disease.

    False advertising is rampant, tricking us into thinking we are eating healthy. There is nothing natural about “natural flavors”. Packages have big bold words about health – and tiny print that reveals toxic chemicals (like carrageenan). Eating healthy can feel like a lot of hard work.

    Foods created in a lab – designed to be addictive – are everywhere. Addictions drive so many of our daily food habits. From that morning Starbucks run to the packets of chips you just can’t put down, we don’t stand a chance against all this masterful manipulation!

    As if that’s not enough, we’re not all the same. One person’s medicine is another person’s poison. An apple a day may keep the doctor away for you but it creates inflammation for me (fact – per my FIT test). Our bodies actually tell us quite clearly when something doesn’t agree with them, but we’ve lost touch and no longer listen to their whispers. At least, not until they start screaming out loud – and then we take pills that we’ve confused with “cures”.

    Eating out of season is yet another confusing experience for your body. Our physiological needs change with the seasons – yet we eat exactly the same all year round. We fly in blueberries from Mexico and lychees from China. We eat pumpkin in summer and plums in winter. Worse, we eat complex, heavy, hard to digest meals as the norm rather than the exception as they are so easy to procure. What would have taken half a day to cook (and hence only cooked weekly or monthly) is now available any time, anywhere.

    Take a moment to read those points again. Then pause to consider this: your right to healthy food has actually been taken away from you.

    If you want to eat to create health, you are going to have to break out of your current state of acceptance and trust. How many of these dangerous beliefs do you have?

    • Believing that all fruits and vegetables in the grocery store are equally healthy (they are not, buyer beware!).
    • Believing that the newest fad diet (right now it’s Keto) must be the cure-all because so many famous people are touting it. (It never is – just yet another marketing ploy to sell more of something.)
    • Believing the claims of the labels on your food (no, you can’t trust them – you need to read the fine print and ingredients list).
    • Believing that manufacturers have your best interest at heart (of course not – they care about their profits and bonuses way more than your health).
    • Believing that your doctor knows about nutrition and has the answers to everything (there are still MDs out there saying that nutrition has nothing to do with cancer).

    Are you wondering if I’m a conspiracy theorist who made all this up? Let me assure you that what I’m sharing was distilled from the 75 interviews I conducted with renowned MDs on the Healthier Podcast. From Dr. Mark Hyman to Dr. Zach Bush to Dr. Joseph Mercola, these doctors are all desperately trying to get this message out: buyer beware of your food choices today!

    If you are overwhelmed with what to do next, here’s my very simple plan that I started following two and a half years ago. I completely reversed all my symptoms (28, remember!) and experienced food as medicine first hand. Ok, ready to eat to heal? Here’s how you do it!

    1. Get Personal
      Figure out which foods are medicine – or poison – for your body. (It doesn’t matter what works for anyone else!) The shortcut for this is food sensitivity tests. I’ve done Viome, FIT, ALCAT and the common insurance covered food allergy test. The harder way is to keep a food diary and start with an elimination diet. Then as you add food items back in, see which ones make you lethargic and tired or symptomatic (gas, bloating, rashes, headaches). Exclude those completely.
    2. Buy Quality
      Eat only what’s grown organically, locally and in season, at least five days a week. There are wonderful local farmers’ markets in each town and that’s a Saturday morning date I never break. Once you start eating local produce you’ll never go back to packaged grocery store produce – it just doesn’t taste the same, not even the organic produce. It’s harvested too early, coated with wax and has been sitting around for a month before you buy it. Freshly plucked vine-ripened foods have a whole different taste and texture that you will crave once you try them. (This is a healthy craving!)
    3. Cut the Packages
      Eat less than 10% of your daily food out of a package. If it’s bought in a package it’s been processed. If it’s processed it’s not creating health. See how long lettuce lasts when not packaged vs packaged. There is something that’s added to packaged organic foods that makes them last so much longer. Because adding chemicals, that sounds like a great idea, right? And I’m not putting that inside me if I have an option.
    4. Cut Down
      Eat less. Give your body 4 to 6 hours of breaks in between eating meal. Time to process your food. To clean out the junk. To take some rest and recover. Overeating is an epidemic – portion sizes in America are out of control. Restaurants have been using larger portions to attract more customers and the outcome has been obesity and addiction. No one needs a venti latte or a “supersize” meal. We are not exactly running marathons daily. (More likely sitting in the car or on the couch.)
    5. Get Fasting
      Fast one day a week to help your body “reset” itself. Traditionally, most cultures used some kind of fasting. Now we all seem to be eating non-stop! But science now supports intermittent fasting as a path to longevity. Really, we shouldn’t need science to tell us that eating less (but high quality) food will make us live longer! It’s common sense – which we have all but given up on (preferring to worship at the altar of research, letting some ‘expert’ tell us what to think).
    6. Go Simple
      Eat simpler meals. Don’t combine too many different foods in one meal – instead, eat larger quantities of fewer types of food. Make it easier for your body to digest what you’re eating and you’ll feel a surge of energy after meals instead of looking for a pillow.
    7. Go Raw and Natural
      Try to eat half your meal as raw salads and fruits which have structured water to charge you up. In winter eat more warming soups, in summer more salads.
    8. Read, Read, Read
      If you’re going to buy packaged food, read the ingredients list first. If you can’t pronounce it, or it sounds like a chemical, take a breath – and put the package back. It takes a little getting used to but then it becomes a habit. My 13 year old doesn’t buy anything without first reading the label. Now we’re so efficient that in an instant she knows whether to even read the label or not – she just looks at the number of ingredients and puts it back on the shelf!

    Your diet should be a priority, not an afterthought. What you eat creates your reality. Your joy – or misery – is linked to your food. So why not eat to LIVE – to create a longer happier healthier life?

    It’s worth the time and money.

    You’re worth it!

    And we are here to help you with our programs.

     

     

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  • Detox for Health

    Detox for Health

    This is Step 6 of the article I wrote, 7 Step New Health Pyramid, which you can read on this Page >>

    By Reena A Jadhav

    Every second that we are alive we are being (in)toxicated! Think about it: we’re living in a toxic soup of chemicals. In our food, in the air, in the stuff we touch and even in what we hear, see and feel. When you suddenly want to accelerate and ram into the car in front, that’s a toxic thought that creates a cascade of chemical reactions.

    The simple math for health is this: what goes in must come out. Our bodies are giant processors that take stuff in, suck out the nutrients we need, and throw out what’s harmful or unwanted. Your body is a brilliant self-cleaning machine (like some kind of super robot – only, you know, wetter) with a whole system of outputs – sweat, breath, urine, and poop. Most of our critical organs such as the liver, kidneys, lungs, lymph, skin, and the digestive system passionately scrub and squirt and clean all day long.

    Even the trillions of bacteria in the gut have the fun job of gobbling up whatever comes hurtling down the tube and digesting it into a waste matter that gets pooped out.

    Without such efficient cleaning, we would be a large stinky swamp! And sometimes we are…

    From bad breath to smelly gas, sour sweat, and weird growths, we have all experienced bouts of toxicity without realizing that’s what it is.

    Trouble really begins when crap starts to build up. And up. And up.

    And what goes in sometimes, somehow gets stuck. (Lovely!)

    This trouble is called toxicity and it’s the root cause of chronic illness and most disease according to Ayurveda (an ancient science of health from India). Ayurveda calls this toxicity Ama and recommends a serious 7-day program called Panchakarma to rid the body of toxicity from all layers.

    All layers?

    Yes, toxicity builds layer by layer. Initially, the toxins sit superficially ‘on the surface’ (a bit like a coat of paint) but with time, the toxins move into organs and then cells, disrupting normal cellular function and creating havoc. Like a car engine can’t function with residue, nor can your body function with toxins circulating all over.

    I had colon cancer at 35 years and an autoimmune crisis at 45 years – yes, that was my party of 28 symptoms. After months of research, I was able to self-diagnose myself with the MTHFR gene mutation (which afflicts a significant number of Asians) which makes it hard for the liver to do its job. When the liver is backed up you end up basically dying, little bit by little bit. That was me, with my deluge of symptoms coming from auto-intoxication and a gut that no longer digested anything properly. I had SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth – sounds delightful, right?) and gut dysbiosis adding to my toxic overload. My sugar addiction didn’t help. It took me 15 months to clean out the toxins that had been layering on for decades.

    But I had asked my doctors on multiple visits about my mild annoying symptoms from indigestion to bloating to fatigue – only to be told to take some Tums and get more sleep. This drives me crazy. Guess what? There’s no test for toxicity. MDs are NOT trained to notice the subtle signs of toxicity that don’t show up on regular tests. These can be addressed pretty easily with minor changes and regular maintenance. (Yes, like a car.) In fact, I have begun writing an anthology called Deceived: what you don’t know and your Doctor isn’t telling you to reveal more such information and actionable tips from World’s leading doctors.

    12 TIPS TO KEEP TOXINS OUT

    So here are my top tips for ‘body maintenance’ and to your body thriving!

    1. Got Gas?
      If your guts are gurgling at you, or you’re bloated like a balloon, it might sound funny but take it seriously. It’s creating the worst kind of toxicity that causes disease. Find the root cause and fix it! The root cause could be food intolerance (you can get tested for that), low stomach acid (take a supplement with each meal), stress (don’t eat while working), low enzymes (you can take a supplement for this with your meals too), overeating (eat smaller portions), SIBO or Candida, and fix your Leaky Gut with Restore.
    2. Take Time…
      To keep your body’s cleaning mechanisms working, eat your meals at least 4 hours apart. Don’t snack as that interrupts the complex digestive process kicked off when you eat a meal. Don’t eat after 7 pm or 8 pm latest, as your body’s overall cleaning is done at night and if there’s food to be digested that process stops.
    3. … and Take a Break
      Fasting once a week is a cultural tradition that makes a lot of sense to me now! It’s the quickest way to cleaning out any crap and giving your body a day off to recover. Intermittent fasting of 16 hours daily is also a proven way to address everything from obesity to diabetes.
    4. Boost Your Body
      Dry brushing your entire body and then oiling it before hopping in the shower will transform your daily ritual into a cleansing one. A weekly bath with Epsom salts or dead sea salts is another great way to pull out toxins sitting close to the skin.
    5. Heat it Up
      Sauna is my fun way to detox! Your skin is your largest organ for cleansing, so take advantage of it. Even the ancient Romans did it religiously. Join a gym or buy one for your home. A weekly sauna can be the easiest way to pull out toxins hanging out in fat cells and tissues.
    6. Breathe, Baby
      Deep breathing first thing in the morning or Zach Bush’s Nitric Oxide Dump workout are simple ways to push out toxins via the lungs. Most of us are shallow breathers and the culprits are technology and stress. You have to train yourself to take slow, deep rejuvenating breaths all day long. In fact, one of the reasons we yawn while sitting for long periods is carbon dioxide build up. So mindfully breathing correctly all day is another simple way to keep your body humming.
    7. Touch It…
      Massages are another fun way to get the circulation system working correctly and get the toxins out.
    8. …Move It!
      Our lymph system is the only design that’s a bit flawed (in case God is accepting input on Human 2.0). It doesn’t work without movement. Trampoline is a great way to get all the toxins stuck in our lymph moving out of our body. A lymphatic massage is another fun way to deal with the sludge.
    9. Sponge It, Baby
      There are some great food options such as Chlorella, Spirulina, and cilantro that literally pull out toxins from our gut. Supplements such as milk thistle and magnesium can also be critical to supporting the body’s detox efforts.
    10. Are What You Eat
      Imagine trying to clean your home without a powerful vacuum… yup, total nightmare! Cleaning our body can be so much simpler with nature powered vacuum, which comes in the form of fresh herbs, fruits, and vegetables. Add a couple of these daily to have a spotless interior: Lemon/Lime, Broccoli Sprouts, Spirulina, Chlorella, Alfalfa, Wheatgrass, Kale, Olive Oil, Brussel Sprouts, Sauerkraut, Ginger, Turmeric, Coriander, and Fennel. Or take a shortcut and try this Detox tea!
    11. Switch Off
      Do a digital detox daily or weekly – or at least monthly. Shut down all notifications and schedule a short time interval to check and respond to messages. Turn off all technology an hour prior to bedtime and don’t touch your tech in the morning until after (healthy) breakfast.
    12. Switch Out
      Do an emotional detox where you identify people that trigger you negatively and disconnect from them for a day or a week. Give your emotions a break from negativity and schedule time to build positive emotions through gratitude journaling or watching cat videos (or whatever makes you giggle!).

    Finally, get the MTFHR test done to determine if your liver could use additional support.

    If you already have a chronic illness, prioritizing detoxing is critical. Our body cannot restore and rebuild if it’s fighting off invaders. What’s amazing is that the moment your body is free of toxins it literally blossoms! Your energy will go through the roof, your skin will glow, you’ll see better, you’ll smile more, you’ll poop at least twice a day effortlessly. (Yep, you wanted to know about the pooping, right?)

    More importantly, you’ll know you are on the path to being disease free!

    If you need help, we’re are always here with a Health Program for you!

    Click here to read my next post Step #7: DIET>>

     

     

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  • New Health Pyramid: 7 Steps to Unleash Better Health

    New Health Pyramid: 7 Steps to Unleash Better Health

    By Reena A Jadhav

    What if everything you believe about health is upside down or just plain wrong?

    What if there’s an unbreakable set of rules that govern your health?

    Could that explain why you’re sick even though you eat well and exercise? Or why you can’t lose that extra weight, or reverse diabetes, or get your blood pressure and cholesterol under control?

    Read the key points and article below for the 7 Step Sequence for Better Health!

    Key Points

    • I created this Health Pyramid in order to share the methods I used to heal myself from 28 symptoms.
    • Having “faced off” and won against both cancer and an autoimmune disease, I propose a New Health Pyramid. It’s based on not only my own experience but also thousands of hours of interviewing some of the best doctors, healers, and functional medicine practitioners in the world.
    • My Health Pyramid has 7 steps, of which 3 form the foundation without which the top 4 topple
    • Food is the last step on my pyramid; getting to Calm is the first step.
    • Why do some people escape disease but others catch everything? It is because the base of their pyramid is strong.
    • Our body has two goals: to keep us alive and to procreate. Sickness only comes when the body starts losing the battle to stay alive.
    • What battle? Our body is battling stress, chemicals, lack of nutrients. sleep deprivation and more every minute of every day.
    • On a daily basis we are either in “sick zone” or “heal zone”. When “sick zone” exceeds “heal zone”, we get sick and then diseased.

    After all, despite the billions spent on disease management and specialty diets, we are still a nation of sick, fat, unhappy citizens.

    I am here to tell you: it is not your fault. It’s not. You are an intelligent, committed person actively seeking health and fitness. And yet, everything you do seems to fail. You try again and again, in a new way – a “better” way – hoping that, his time, it works. You start that hot new diet “guaranteed” to work. And it does work, temporarily. Then it fails. You get more and more frustrated until, at some point, you binge on everything. You feel sick and guilty. And then the cycle starts again.

    Sounds familiar? That was me, too.

    It is true that, to thrive, your body needs the fuel of healthy food. However, if you are already sick or symptomatic, fixing your diet is not the first step on your path to healing. It is the last step. No matter how much broccoli or bone broth you eat, you cannot heal if the other critical elements of health are not in place.

    My “wow” moment hit when I realized that good health is a pyramid, with a strong foundation to support the peak. A wobbly foundation causes the pyramid to crumble, leaving us with symptoms and sickness.

    This is why our diets fail. The food we eat is but the capstone of a large, complex structure that, if left unattended, will crumble beneath a diet and cause it to fail. The key, then, is to establish and strengthen the foundation before building upon it, layer by layer. Diet is, in fact, the last element in the process of health.

    What I have learned through healing myself and from interviewing top doctors is that there is a formula for healing. You can’t randomly address one factor – like diet or exercise – and wonder why you fail to heal your disease or to lose weight. There is a reason why a vegetarian can contract heart disease while a smoker with terrible habits can live to 90 years old. We once thought it was their genetic luck, but we now know that genetics influences only about 10% of our health. The rest is in our control.

    I had thought I would reverse my 28 symptoms one by one. First the hives, then the angry outbursts, then the hair loss, then the bladder urgency… but that’s just not how the body works. My journey to health has taught me that the body heals in waves, not symptom by symptom. What is fascinating is that our body can heal lightening fast once it is in what I call the “Heal Zone.” And thus our mission is simple: get in the Heal Zone – and stay there!

    The Heal Zone requires three core elements which compose the foundation of our pyramid: Calm, Sleep, and Nutrients. These are the components of the pyramid which support the structure of your good health. So – if you can keep calm during the day, sleep well at night, and give your body the nutrients it needs, diet and exercise will naturally fall into place. You won’t have to battle cravings or stuff yourself with leftover pizza at midnight. You will have the energy to walk your 10,000 steps every day. You will feel satisfied by a healthy diet, without binging or craving. You will feel energized, motivated, and happy.

    Your body is a miraculous, self-healing machine. If you follow the right formula, it can be rebuilt, and you can be reborn healthier, younger and more resilient.

    You can choose to be reborn healthier.

    You can choose to be reborn younger.

    You can choose to take back your life.

    All you have to do is follow the right formula. That formula is my new Health Pyramid.

    There has never been a more urgent time for humanity to put our health first. Despite the $2.3 trillion in annual health spending, over 50% of US adults have a chronic illness. Over 50 million people suffer from an autoimmune disease, and it is forecasted that 1 in 2 newborns will be autistic by 2025. This means that, potentially, half of your grandkids could be autistic. You are either, dear reader, sick, about to be sick, or the caretaker for a sick loved one.

    My Health Pyramid has answers.

    Some Myths & Mistruths

    • The understanding that our good health is primarily a function of our good diet is just plain wrong.
    • The belief that an extreme solution to our symptoms is the only option (such as steroids for knee pain) is a myth.
    • The trust in our doctors as the infallible experts who can unfailingly heal us when we fall sick is misplaced.
    • The body is the most sophisticated, complex, interconnected, dynamic living system on Earth, with only one purpose – to keep us alive.
    • The symptoms and sickness we experience are merely the “red light” on your dashboard – blaring loudly to tell us that something is wrong, and we need to pull over.

    Pull over now. Read this article and do a quick check of your “engine”.

    Reena’s 7 Step Health Pyramid

    My 28 Symptoms

    If you read health books or listen to health podcasts, I know how you feel.

    Overwhelmed. Confused. Should you eat vegan or meat only? Is eating eggs ok now? I thought coconut oil was saturated and terrible – but now, I should put it in my coffee?

    When I had my second health crisis in September 2016, I acquired 28 symptoms that conventional doctors just couldn’t figure out. I had been tested for EVERYTHING. My doctors said I was the “healthiest sick person” they knew. Yes, I was severely underweight at 95 pounds. Yes, I had unexplained hives, rashes, and black lines tormenting my skin. Yes, my eyesight had rapidly deteriorated. But, they said, those symptoms could be psychosomatic. My tests were clear. One doctor prescribed anti-depressants. Another suggested steroids. The day a doctor told me I might only have 5 to 10 years, living with these 28 symptoms, I broke. His exact words were, “Look, this is your new reality. You’re getting older. Get used to it.”

    So, of course, I decided to ignore all of them and fix myself. I embarked on a journey to get my health (and my life) back. The first step in my mind was figuring out why my body was so angry at me.

    That’s how I saw it. My body was literally freaking out, screaming and throwing tantrums at will, like a small child in crisis.

    I could yell back, duct tape it, ignore it – or, I could try to listen and understand the issue. There had to be a trigger.

    Because of the way that I got sick, I had always assumed that there was only one trigger. One day I was dancing on the edge of a swimming pool in Cabo; the next I was in an ER with my eyes swollen and face puffed up. That was the first symptom.  Within a month, there were 27 more.

    So I decided to get an unofficial degree in healing. But then, as I dove into research, forums, books, and interviews, I ended up with severe migraines every night. There were way too many very sick people who weren’t getting better – and every new article from a renowned expert contradicted the last one I had read. One night, looking at all my notes on the computer, it hit me that this process was becoming counterproductive. I needed an answer to my health crisis, not a mess of conflicting sensationalized information to constantly sort through.

    In times of crisis, we all fall back on what we know best.

    In my case, that was chocolate and startup principles. So I dove headfirst into gooey deliciousness while trying to apply the golden rules that had granted me success in my career:

    1. Don’t believe, hypothesize.
    2. Know your starting point.
    3. Experiment a lot; test and track; then analyze.
    4. Small changes often make a big impact – so try everything in small doses.
    5. There’s a tipping point to everything; find the tipping point to my health, and then move on.

    That was it. Those were the five things I was going to do until I reversed all my symptoms and got back my health. I was going to do this forever if that’s how long it took. I refused to consider the options of steroids or antidepressants or living with my symptoms for the rest of my life.

    Fifteen months later, I got back my health.

    My rebirth came with profound personal insights, and the shocking revelation that everything we believe about our health and the reasons why we get sick is just plain FALSE.

    Having been urged by so many to share my experience, I decided to write this article to summarize what I now know and believe.

    Why We Get Sick

    There is no single trigger to a full body meltdown. Our body is a beautiful, strong, complex machine designed to keep us alive and to procreate. It’s not about to fall apart from some pollen, or milk, or gluten. Despite all the crap we throw at it, for years, it fights back valiantly until, one day, it fights back a little less vigorously. Then, another day, our body can’t rebuild the gut lining as well. It starts to slowly lose the fight. That’s when symptoms start – aches, nasal drips, migraines, gas and bloating, fatigue, or mood swings. And then finally, one day, with a heavy heart, it’s forced to accept defeat. You are granted a diagnosis of diabetes, or cancer, or heart disease, lupus, thyroiditis… And those are the lucky ones. Some simply die of a sudden heart attack.

    Just as we humans have different capacity to fight, so do our bodies. A skinny Indian like me will lose pretty badly fighting a trained boxer. Similarly, we are all born with a different innate capacity to fight off sickness and stay healthy. Some never get cancer no matter how much they smoke. Others, like me, get cancer despite being a healthy vegetarian for most of my life. Cancer can take six to ten years to develop. Heart disease and diabetes take decades too. No one falls ill overnight. We all pay the price for neglecting our bodies early in our adult lives.

    So, if you or a loved one you know is sick, here’s why: their body is overwhelmed with triggers, and no longer has the strength to fight back.

    How To Heal

    The greatest insight from my own healing experience is this: everyone can heal.

    You can reverse all of your miserable symptoms and rediscover a youthful life full of vigor, zest, and excitement. It doesn’t even take that long. The sooner you react, the faster you get back to the baseline of health – which is where your body thrives.

    The Health Pyramid is my way of sharing what I believe are the true priorities for reclaiming your health. Our culture’s focus on diet as the tool to achieve good health may have been true decades ago when everyone went to bed around 10 pm and the word “stress” was reserved for military personnel in times of war. Today, the food we eat is the last step in achieving true health. Let’s dive into the pyramid so I can share what I believe should be on your priority list.

    Step #1: CALM

    Click here to read my post on Step #1: CALM.

    Step #2: SLEEP

    Click here to read my post on Step #2: SLEEP.

    Step #3: NUTRIENTS

    Click here to read my post on Step #3: NUTRIENTS.

    Step #4: JOY

    Click here to read my post on Step #4: JOY.

    Step #5: MOVE

    Click here to read my post on Step #5: MOVE.

    Step #6: DETOX

    Click here to read my post on Step #6: DETOX.

    Step #7: DIET

    Click here to read my post on Step #7: DIET.

    No one should suffer from preventable and treatable diseases. No one should live a half life due to their diabetes or heart disease. These seven steps may have a loved one! Please share and let’s get healthier together!

     

     

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  • ProLon Fasting Diet Review

    ProLon Fasting Diet Review

    Fasting is being hailed as the potential new cure for diseases. I’ve interviewed quite a few doctors on it from Dr. Coneally (check out her BEAT CANCER Program) to Dr. Joel Kahn (check out his HEART HEALTH Program) and got inspired to try out Prolon. This is my personal experience with trying ProLon 5 day fasting mimicking diet.

    There are various types of fasts- from intermittent fasting to water fasting to fasting for 48 hours and more. I have been doing intermittent fasting unwittingly most of my life. I was never a breakfast eater and typically was done with dinner by 7pm except on the weekends. After Dr. Zach Bush raved about the 5 day water fast in one of my interviews, I actually considered doing it. But not eating even for 1 day no longer works for my body. So 5 days was clearly impossible.

    Then I heard about ProLon (and read the book The Longevity Diet) which is fasting mimicking, meaning you get food on this fast! I decided to try it and share my experience. So here goes- watch each video for all that I experienced and learned in my 5 day journey. Post your questions below and I will answer or get them answered by the ProLon team!

    #Video: Opening the Box

    Watch this video to learn why I decided to try the ProLon fasting mimicking diet, what’s in the box and how it works.

    Read Transcript Here >>

     

    #Video: DAY 1 with Reena

    Check out how my Day 1 went on the fasting mimicking diet called ProLon. I will also share the answers to questions such as can we drink green juice on this fast or eat psyllium husk, cholera, and spirulina? How about drinking herbal teas? Check out the video for answers and more!

    Read Transcript Here >>

     

    #Video: DAY 2 Review

    I share my experience with Day 2 of the 5 days Prolon Diet by Dr. Longo. This diet is scientifically backed to lower blood pressure, lead to weight loss around the belly, trigger stem cells and more. I also share about the promising research on cancer and fasting mimicking diet, and more!

    Read Transcript Here >>

     

    #Video: DAY 3 Review

    Check out what happened on Day 3, the issues, symptoms, and strategy to get through the day without breaking down!

    Read Transcript Here >>

     

    #Video: DAY 4 Review

    Check out how I made it through Day 4! Strategies, tips, issues and more. The Prolon diet is scientifically proven so its worth the temporary cravings and hunger pangs.

    Read Transcript Here >>

     

    #Video: DAY 5 Review

    Check out my experience during the last day of the diet! What you need to get through it and what option HealCircle.org offers for anyone considering doing the fast.

    Read Transcript Here >>

     

     

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  • Gut healing formula & Ancient Healing Techniques with Dr. Grasser

    Gut healing formula & Ancient Healing Techniques with Dr. Grasser

     

    HealthBootcamps iTunesHealthBootcamps Soundcloud

    Read the Transcript Below the Questions and Highlights

    Stressed out and not losing weight? Then this podcast is for you! Dr. Grasser is one of the world’s top experts in Ayurvedic practice and integration of Functional Medicine. In addition, he is a primary care physician and is trained in functional medicine. With his wide knowledge, we chat about his insights regarding issues that lead to gut issues, and how it adds to anxiety and stress.

    Dr. Grasser is one of the world’s foremost experts in the integration of Functional Medicine and Ayurveda. Dr. Grasser supports his patients through his extensive experience in Western Medical practice as well as his deep knowledge of the alternative healing systems of Ayurveda, Yoga and Functional Medicine.

    Dr. Grasser is a graduate of Stanford University and Dartmouth Medical School. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico, Department of Family and Community Medicine. Dr. Grasser is also an Active Teacher In Family Medicine as recognized by the American Academy of Family Physicians. He has been Board Certified by the American Board of Family Medicine since 2003, and through his extensive and continuing practice in obstetrics at St. Vincent, he has been blessed to attend the birth of hundreds of babies. He is currently working towards becoming Board Certified in Integrative Medicine.

    Dr. Grasser is certified to practice Ayurveda Medicine by Albuquerque’s Ayurvedic Institute, where he studied under the tutelage of world-renowned Ayurveda physician Dr. Vasant Lad. In addition to his full 2-year course of study at the Institute, Dr. Grasser completed advanced clinical studies under Dr Lad’s Gurukula Studies Program in Pune, India, and additional clinical hours at AVP Ayurveda Hospital in Coimbatore, India. He has served on the Board of Directors of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association since 2013. Dr. Grasser has studied yoga extensively since 2001 in the tradition of BKS Iyengar.  He incorporates the principles and teachings of the sister sciences of Ayurveda and Yoga into his daily life and practice of medicine. Dr. Grasser has also completed courses of study in Functional Medicine through the Institute for Functional Medicine. He is currently enrolled in a two year course of study with the Academy of Functional Medicine and Genomics, for which he serves on the Board of Advisors.   He believes that Functional Medicine is a modern approach to healing which embodies many of the principles of Ayurveda and other ancient healing traditions.

    Dr. Grasser is an active staff member in the Department of Family Medicine at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he has also practiced obstetrics since 2001. He works with patients of all ages and health conditions as their primary care physician.

    Join HealCircles Gut Health Circle to get free trusted support for healing your gut.

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    Check out Dr. Zach Bush’s podcast interview where he reveals the secret mineral that fixes leaky gut in hours. How can a naturally found compound fix our mood, reverse gluten sensitivity, and resolve food allergies? If you are serious about your gut health, this interview is a must!

    Check out Dr. Marv’s 4 Week Gut Reset Interview where he reveals his unique 4-week Gut Reset designed to heal your gut on a healthier podcast with Reena Jadhav. Specific stress reduction technique, supplements, sleep, diet and more.

    Are you serious about your health?

    Then we have a gift to encourage you! Click here for our founder’s Free Health Journal. it gives you 30 days of free weekly tracking of your moods, diet, meds, symptoms, notes, goals and gratitude.

    free health journal


     

     

    Key Questions answered and highlights:
    ———————————————————

     

    1. What made you want to go get more knowledge, especially Ayurveda and integrative function medicine? (01:56)

    – ‘I had to find a way to integrate ancient wisdom with modern science, and along the way I discovered functional medicine’

    – Functional medicine is a greate ‘marriage’ of Ayurveda and western medicine

    2. What do you believe is the biggest difference between the conventional primary care medicines practice today? (04:05)

    – There is a Practical and Spiritual Difference

    Your typical physician is constrained by:

    1. Structure of western medicine, as structured in the primary care medicine

    2. Practical Health Care Setting — medicine and delivery

    – Ayurveda is a consciousness based system

    – It takes into account more than just the consciousness of an individual, but also the entire universe

    – It opens up the concept of spirituality, love, holistic understanding, community, etc.

    3. What are the top illnesses that you deal with, and what are you most successful in holistically? (06:54)

    – Most often we see are lifestyle related conditions

    Top diseases are:

    – gut/gastrointestinal issues

    – anxiety and depression

    – fatigue

    – autoimmune disease

    – brain function such as dementia and other neurological diseases

    4. Why do you think we are seeing an increasing growth of gut issues especially in teens? (07:55)

    – Just like in a factory, you will have issues with inputs, machinery, and outputs.

    – We have to excrete what isn’t beneficial to us and is toxic

    – This is same for our thoughts

    – We have to be able to process them for them not to build up toxicity

    – If we’re overwhelmed in our nervous system due to stress and anxiety, then it will translate down to the gut. There will be changes in the gut microbiome.

    5. When you have gut issues, what’s the first thing you prioritize — input, output, or detox? (12:07)

    – You can fix everything through a program addressing input, output, and detox.

    – But, you have to remember the ideal treatment protocol and the reality of what people can achieve.

    – If we’re not being sensitive to what’s doable to the patient then we’re not helping them

    – Reducing the toxic inputs is the easiest place to start

    – It may cost a little bit more money since choosing healthier food is a little bit more expensive

    6. What are your top do’s/don’ts to heal the gut? (13:19)

    – It’s more of the when, where, how and why of eating

    – Eat fewer meals; You can eat once a day

    – If you keep eating frequent small meals, you ask your body to shift

    Do’s:

    1. Pay attention to hunger

    2. Eat a lighter, earlier dinner

    3. Eat a heavy midday meal

    4. Eat a carb-heavy breakfast including refined carb

    Don’ts:

    1. Anything artificial – colorings, additives

    2. Preservatives

    3. Seed oils – sunflower, canola, etc.

    4. Liquid sugars/Added sugars – soda, iced tea, etc.

    5. Flour

    7. What’s the latest time to finish dinner? (20:07)

    – If they have a disease to work with, eat and finish an hour to 2 before sunset

    – Eat a light dinner

    – You want to go to bed hungry

    8. “Everyone should be a vegetarian/vegan”, juice cleanse, and detox practice, what are your thoughts on that? (23:44)

    – Just thinking about nutrition/health for an individual, being a vegan is not natural

    – The closest to vegetarianism is Hinduism

    – A natural diet includes animal products

    9. Let’s talk Detox (26:59)

    – Elimination Diet is a good exercise to clean up their system for a period of time, at least 3 weeks

    – It’s good to eliminate food that have too much caffeine, chocolate, alcohol

    – Support the detox mechanisms of the body

    – We can obtain amino acids from vegetables for detoxification

    – Do not do prolonged depletion type cleanses such as master cleanse, water cleanse, juice fasting

    – They reduce macro and micro nutrients when doing these cleanses

    In an elimination diet, take out:

    – gluten

    – dairy

    – soy

    – corn

    – nightshades

    – shellfish

    – citrus

    – caffeine

    – alcohol

    – seed oils

    – added sugars

    Herbs to help:

    – Triphala

    – Aloe to move bowels and help hydration, stress reduction

    – Rhubarb

    – Don’t drink too much water with a meal as it violates an ayurvedic principle

    – Stay hydrated in between meals

    – We exhale toxicity in our breathing, like in Prayanama

    SIBO

    – overdiagnosed

    – Bacteria from large intestine going to the small intestine

    – It tends to reccur

    – Stress reduction is important in bowel disease

    10. How do you treat anxiety and depression? (41:52)

    – Treat gut function

    – Treat inflammation

    – Neurotoxicity is a trigger in anxiety and depression

    – Support bile flow can help reduce neurotoxicity

    – It is important to have meditative practice

    Basic Components of Meditation

    1. You need to be in a quiet space to avoid distraction

    2. You need to be in a comfortable position

    – Yoga posturing is designed to prepare the body to sit for meditation/breathwork

    3. You need to have a repetitive focuse, a phrase or breath

    – You can try “All is good”, “I am beautiful”

    4. Don’t judge yourself


    TRANSCRIPT:

    This is auto-generated and may have mistakes. Please listen to the interview for accuracy.

    [00:25] Reena Jadhav: Hi everyone. I am excited to have with us today Dr Eric Brasseur, who was the world’s foremost expert on the integration of Ayurveda and functional medicine. He founded his integrative medicine and now you’re ready. The practice in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Nice. He attended Stanford University, Dartmouth Medical School, and the University of New Mexico family practice residency as well as the Irb, the institute, which is actually by Dr. Lot for those of you listening to this podcast and is a clinical assistant professor at the University of New Mexico. He is board certified in family medicine, trained in functional medicine through the Institute for Functional Medicine, certified by the Academy of Functional Medicine and genomics for which he serves on the advisory board. He hosted the Irb, the summit in Twenty 15, which is the largest ever online irb that he serves on the board of directors of the national irb. The institution also offers online programs and consultations throughout the world. You can learn more about him at Dr Grasser, Dr. Grasser, welcome.

    [01:32] Dr Grasser: Thank you, Reena for having me. It’s my pleasure.

    [01:34] Reena Jadhav: Oh, it’s our honor. I’m so excited to meet a primary care physician that is also trained in functional medicine and Integrative Medicine and has knowledge of ancient healing traditions like Ayurveda. So first of all, I want to thank you for expanding your horizons and becoming truly holistic, but I have to ask you, you have amazing pedigree, Stanford, Dartmouth. What made you want to go get more knowledge, especially Irv, that integrative and functional medicine?

    [02:06] Dr Grasser: Well, that’s a great question. I mean, I would have to say that my introduction to a holistic healing systems and eastern philosophical knowledge and vedic wisdom was through yoga, like for so many people now in North America, we get introduced to yoga, you know, Yoga classes that are primarily focused on yoga posturing, what we call Asana. But then after we’ve gotten in the door, we start to realize what a vast system yoga really is in terms of its philosophy and its teachings and spirituality. And then being already in the medical profession. Uh, I discovered Iyer Veda, a sister science of yoga, and serendipitously found out that one of the greatest schools of our bid in North America was a 60 miles from where I was living here in Santa Fe. That being the arbiter institute in Albuquerque. So I went down and met Dr Lott and really was impressed with him, of course in the institute and decided I needed to study western medicine and work in western medicine for some years longer just to solidify that skillset.

    [03:13] Dr Grasser: But once I felt ready, I went ahead and quit my job and went down to Albuquerque, uh, and to India and study with him. And then after that I realized, well, now what do I do? I, the light’s gone on and I cannot just go back to practicing a reductionist form of medicine, which unfortunately is the way western medicine is in this country. And I had to figure out a way to integrate the ancient wisdom with the modern science and along the way kind of discovered functional medicine took my first course in that and basically kept hearing our vedic wisdom being restated in a modern scientific way and thought this is a great marriage of the two. And that’s when I ended up opening up my practice here in Santa Fe, uh, as an integrative practice.

    [04:05] Reena Jadhav: What a journey. What do you believe is the biggest difference between the way conventional primary care medicine is practiced today and for a patient coming to see you instead? The practices more of an integrated holistic approach?

     [04:21] Dr Grasser:  Well, I mean the, so there’s practical differences and then there’s maybe more a spiritual differences, if you will. Obviously the practical differences are that your typical primary care physician is constrained both by the structure of Western medicine as it’s practiced in the primary care setting and constrained by the structure of the practice setting. Uh, so both the medicine and the delivery setting are both constructive and that that physician or nurse practitioner, physician’s assistant has to follow sort of an algorithmic, a evidence based ideally, although we can talk about how not evidenced based a lot of what is done is, but they, they’re trying to follow algorithmic standard of care medicine and they’re doing this under the constraints of, of the business model basically. Uh, and that, that’s true whether they work in a federally Qualified Health Center, uh, uh, a large, uh, managed care clinic or private practice.

    [05:30] Dr Grasser: Uh, there are, there is financial constraints and we all have to follow coding and billing rules and coding and billing rules. Actually a, probably more than most patients realize guide the way the care goes. And it’s a reductionist system because you’re basically trying to make somebody look like a set of potentially unrelated symptoms and diagnoses to justify the medical complexity that allows you to get paid. So right there, the system actually feeds back to the fact that Western medicine is reductionist science in and of itself. And the main difference between that and a system such as Ira Beta is that our bed is a consciousness based system and it takes into account the consciousness of more than just the individual, but the entire universe and how, uh, this consciousness, this, this universal consciousness, a was distilled into the individual, a person a and it therefore sort of opens the playing field to be able to introduce concepts of spirituality, love, holistic healing, understanding, community, all these things that, uh, unfortunately there’s just not time nor money structure for in the traditional Western approach.

    [06:54] Reena Jadhav: So what are some of the illnesses that you deal with that and what have you been most successful at treating holistically?

    [07:05] Dr Grasser: Yeah. Well, I think this could be said of pretty much any primary care doctor working in our culture that most of the things we see the most often are, are lifestyle related conditions that are manifesting as physical symptomatology or disease patterns. Uh, the top being, you know, got gastrointestinal health issues, anxiety and depression as well as, um, fatigue issues of autoimmunity, which is on the rise. And then brain function issues of, of brain higher cognitive function, including a, ultimately a lot of, uh, dementia and neurologic diseases. Let’s start with gut because I think yeah,

    [07:53] Reena Jadhav: universally is a problem. It’s exploded. Why do you think we are seeing such an explosive growth in gut issues by the way? Especially in teens?

    [08:04] Dr Grasser: Yeah, I mean, I think that, uh, there’s a few things here. So one, uh, and I think have a lot in terms of detoxification because I teach classes on detoxification. You have issues with inputs, you have issues with the, uh, the, the machinery, and then you have issues with outputs. So just like in any factory, if the factory is going to keep up and producing the product, they need adequate input of raw materials but, and an, a minimal input of a, of toxicity and then well functioning machinery and then adequate outputs to create the finished product. And we do the same thing in, in our gut where we take in food and beverage and we have to process it within our machinery and we have to excrete what is not beneficial to us. And what is toxic. And this is true to some extent as well with our emotions and our thoughts that we have our sense organs that take in sights and sounds and smells and experiences, and we have to be able to process them and we have to be able to sort of move them through so that they don’t build up and create toxicity.

    [09:15] Dr Grasser: And so why are we having so many gut problems? Well, one is, of course the inputs are toxic. Our food is not real anymore. Not only the, what of what of eating, but I talk a lot about the, where, when, how, and why of eating Iyer Veda has massive amounts of wisdom on what to eat, but also how to eat, when to eat it, to eat it. And then also, you know, trying to clean up our detoxification systems, which are also overburdened by toxicity from environmental chemicals, from a allergens, and then helping our outputs in that we need to Poop and pee and sweat and breathe. Uh, the way we release toxins. So that’s a huge issue in terms of just the, the, the in the end, the out and the machinery, that processes, but also because of the incredible connection between the gut and the brain, uh, which we’re discovering more and more about all the time, uh, the enteric nervous system found in the gut the presence of the immune system which is concentrated in the gut and even more interesting things that are just coming out about the lymphatic system that goes all the way up into the brain and even the Vegas nerve which connects the brain and the nervous system down to the gut and how things may actually be moving straight from the gut to the brain through the vegas nerve.

    [10:41] Dr Grasser: Uh, there is a, you know, that means it goes both ways. So if we’re overwhelmed in our nervous system due to stress and anxiety and depression, uh, and uh, an, uh, you know, uh, demands that are placed on us, uh, that are, that are impossible to achieve, then it’s going to go translate down to the gut and we’re going to have changes in our gut ecosystem and microbiome that then go and implicate in, are implicated in all kinds of other organ dysfunction. And as you know, Reno, fascinatingly Iyer Veda has been speaking about the central role of the gut and it’s, you know, for it’s 5,000 or more year tradition. And when we do detoxification treatments, uh, the classic ones, uh, known as a punch of Karma detox vacations, they all involve moving disease, uh, uh, first into the gut from the peripheral tissues and then out of the gut through techniques such as purgation and induced vomiting and a enemas. Uh, so, uh, you know, uh, when I hear all these new things being learned about gut and how it’s so such a hot topic and so central to health, I just sort of chuckle and think that our Beta was way ahead in its knowledge of, of, of using the gut as a healing a portal.

    [12:06] Reena Jadhav: So true. So the question always is, well, when the whole, that’s a mess. What’s the first thing to prioritize? So how do you do first fix the input, the output or the detox?

    [12:17] Dr Grasser: Um, well, no, I mean you can fix everything through a program that addresses all three of those elements, but also we have to remember there is an ideal treatment protocol. Um, and then there’s the reality of what people can achieve, uh, and, and if we’re not being sensitive to what’s doable by the client or the patient, then we’re not necessarily helping them. Um, and so, you know, I think that that reducing the toxic inputs is probably the easiest place to start because it generally doesn’t take up much time in the patient’s life. Uh, it may cost a little bit more money because a healthier food and avoiding toxic foodstuffs is sometimes a little bit more expensive. It doesn’t have to be extremely more expensive, but removing toxic inputs, so not, it’s not what, you know, instead of do this, do that, just don’t do this and don’t do that.

    [13:23] Dr Grasser: Well, interestingly, they wouldn’t all be, don’t eat this. Uh, some of them would actually be more of the when, where, how, and why of eating. Um, and so I try to get people to eat fewer meals. Okay. I tried to get. Well, it depends. Well, okay. So if you had to just say one. Okay. Two to three would be the broad answer to that. A Vata types will want to eat more, possibly three and even a snack cuff, a types, uh, it can get away with two meals, one meal, even the Ayurvedic Wisdom says the cuff is going eat once a day and practice somewhere in between. So fewer meals so that the meals are spaced out so that the hunger is actually building prior to eating. Because you remember that when you eat, you move your body into the parasympathetic nervous system, the rest and digest.

    [14:17] Dr Grasser: Whereas when you’re trying to do your regular day to day life, whether it’s a mental focus because you have a desk job or whether it’s physical activity because you have a more active job, active lifestyle, uh, you still need, that’s more moving in the direction of sympathetic which is the fight, flight or freeze. And so if you keep eating throughout the day, frequent small meals, you keep asking your body to shift over into digest, absorb and assimilate mode, uh, and then it detracts from, you know, sending blood flow to the muscles so that you can do your physical labor or you’re or you’re gardening or your sports or whatnot. And also it takes away from higher cognitive functioning because you don’t really need to be doing complex math when you’re trying to digest a meal. So fewer meals. I’m paying attention to hunger so that you don’t eat when you’re not hungry.

    [15:13] Dr Grasser: And also generally for people it’s eating. I’m a lighter earlier dinner, which ideally is matched with a bigger midday meal if possible based on their lifestyle. Um, so that’s, uh, a, a schedule thing that’s not, I take this out of your diet, it’s to do this. And then I also try to get people to move. A lot of folks eat a fairly carb heavy breakfast, uh, and including refined carbs. So, you know, the standard American breakfast may include everything from toast and jam, a coffee and milk, cereal and milk, orange juice, a muffin or a Bagel. Okay. All these things that are high in refined carbohydrates and they require your body, therefore to release insulin, uh, to move the blood sugar from the blood into the cell. Whereas when you wake up in the morning, your cortisol actually is at its peak because cortisol helps you get going and get on with your day.

    [16:17] Dr Grasser: And Insulin. Cortisol are like a seesaw and you want to support one and sort of repressed the other. Whereas if you eat a big carb heavy breakfast, you’re actually asking for insulin release at the time when cortisol is up. And so the two can kind of compete with each other and the body can get confused, a rather move to a heavier protein and healthy fat breakfast. And if you’re going to do more refined carbs like pastas and breads, move them to later in the day when it’s okay that your insulin goes up somewhat and then you get, you get into rest and digest, you get sleeping, you go to bed, which is what our ancestors used to do. They didn’t stay up til midnight because they didn’t have light and computers and all that. So, um, there’s a shift in the macronutrient ratios to match the circadian rhythms of the day.

    [17:05] Dr Grasser: And then there’s also, like I said, I’m a reduction in the number of meals, uh, so that we can properly digest in between, uh, now if I had to say take out these top foods, I mean clearly anything, artificial, artificial colorings, artificial additives, preservatives, things that are frankenfoods and many of us have heard. If you don’t know what the ingredient is on the label, you probably don’t want to be buying that food product. So there’s that. And then I also think that, you know, removing a seed oils, uh, is, is important. Um, most of the seed oils, like sunflower, safflower, corn, canola, they are rancid, potentially rancid by the time we even get them off the shelf and they were not traditionally eaten as new nutrition, uh, and so, uh, clearly, um, not just removing hydrogenated oils and, uh, and trans fats which are kind of man men made a types of fat fats which are given, you know, put in food stuffs to preserve them so that they don’t spoil, but also kind of minimizing the seed oils that you eat.

    [18:16] Dr Grasser: Um, because these were not traditionally used for nutrition unless you’re sourcing them extremely clean so that you’re not worried about rancidity. And I got to look at what people are eating. I mean, if they’re eating liquid sugars, I get rid of those right away. I mean, so does, uh, uh, Arizona ice tea. Uh, you know, all of these beverages that may sound healthy if you don’t actually look at the fact that they’ve added sugar to them. Um, fruit juices can be too much sugar for people, uh, that, that then is a burden on the, uh, on the endocrine system that you have to actually figure out what to do with that sugar load when it gets into your bloodstream. Uh, so refund, you know, that’s I, I called them added sugars to some extent. Um, so if it’s not naturally occurring in the, in the food product, in the, in the food, then it’s an added sugar in.

    [19:10] Dr Grasser: It hides under some 50 names that you have to kind of learn because it’s not just going to say sugar on the label. It might say Brooke toast or high fructose corn syrup or maltose or corn syrup solids or you know, and, and you got, you got to kind of be a detective in figuring out what’s, what, what’s in there. And it hides. I mean they add sugar to all kinds of things. Catch up, salad dressings, sauces. If you go out to eat and you’re getting a, you know, some sort of food that has a sauce on it, it tastes good. I’ll say it probably has sugar in it, probably has added sugar and so those are two of the big ones in terms of what I try to get people to eliminate or are added sugars and then, and then flower is the next level, a refined carbs that have been stripped of their nutrition. Uh, and, and then seed oils.

    [20:06] Reena Jadhav: Quick follow up questions. First one you mentioned, donate too late. What’s the latest that you recommend? Typically someone finished their dinner by.

    [20:14] Dr Grasser: Yeah, I mean it gets to, it depends on whether, you know, is there this, are they healthy and trying to get more healthy, what I call the well getting weller, uh, or are they, are they imbalanced and have disease process going on. If they’re, if they’re dizzy, if they have disease they’re trying to work with or they’re overweight or they have heartburn or acid reflux or indigestion, bloating, gas, abdominal pain, then I basically try to get them to eat and finish, uh, even a potentially an hour to two before sunset. Um, which in the winter is challenging because at least where we live, it gets dark in the winter at five, 5:30. Um, and so that doesn’t always work well with people’s work schedule. Um, you know, you can do get away with a little later in the, in the summer months because again, the circadian rhythms of your body are dictated by the light and dark cycles.

    [21:13] Dr Grasser: But certainly I would say in comparison to the bedtime, you have issues. You probably want to be done eating at least two and a half hours before bed. Um, that makes sense. And even if you can’t move the dinnertime up too much, just eat a lighter dinner. You want to go to bed hungry. Oh, interesting. Okay. If you’re not hungry when you’re getting ready for bed, then you ate too much, too late. But we all kind of get in this hat. Well not all of us, but a lot of us get in this habit of, uh, well there’s dinner and then there’s. And then there’s desert, a bedtime snack. I mean, sure, there are unique circumstances where I will have somebody eat a protein snack closer to bed and that’s often with, there’s diabetic issues where they’re making too much. They’re kicking out blood sugar from the liver in the middle of the night because he didn’t have enough in the bloodstream to fuel them through the night.

    [22:06] Dr Grasser: Or if somebody has insomnia and they’re waking up at three in the morning, occasionally that’s from a relative dip in blood sugar that could be mitigated by a small protein snack closer to bed. But for the most part you want to go to bed hungry. And um, I personally know that I suffer from this challenge being, having busy work day and I’m also an intermittent faster so I don’t eat breakfast. I intermittently fast between about eight PM and, and noon or one the next day. But I get, if I don’t get a good lunch and I’m sort of behind the caloric curve and then I’m trying to catch up. And so I do this thing where I get home and I snack. Well, you know, I’m helping my wife with dinner and then I, you know, I don’t get enough dinner because I was behind the curve and then I’m like continually eating and wanting to eat until 9:00 PM and then I’m not hungry when I go to bed. So I need to sort of reflect and shift the behavior, what we call in yoga pose and repose a, so you assess and then you say tomorrow, uh, I pro, I need to eat less for dinner because I wasn’t hungry last night when I went to bed.

    [23:18] Reena Jadhav: Clearly, very smart to think about living according to the circadian rhythm and really managing your diet based on when the sunsets, which is very hard to do in real life, but it’s a great philosophy to follow. Let’s talk about that. That’s input. Let’s talk about vegetarian as I mean the input before we move to detox and output. So there’s, there’s been some controversy around should everyone be a vegetarian veganism versus eating some protein? Where do you come out on that?

    [23:52] Dr Grasser: Okay. Um, well I come out on,

    [23:57] Dr Grasser: so obviously, uh, putting the ethical and moral considerations aside for a moment and just thinking about nutrition and health or shall I say, health of the individual. So things like veganism are not natural. Uh, they, they are not, they’ve never been tested over long periods of time. I mean, granted, sure, we have people that have been Vegan for 40 years, uh, but we don’t have large base large population based studies on the longterm population based outcomes with the something like veganism, nor do we have it for something like a Paleo, what’s called a modern paleo style diet, a much higher in fat, uh, and, and potentially protein but not always in the low carb diet. We don’t have long term data in populations that have done this because we can’t find people that are 80 years old that had been eating this way for 60 years of their life.

    [24:52] Dr Grasser: Furthermore, veganism and vegetarianism never evolved naturally in any culture. The closest thing to vegetarianism culturally as Hinduism and the reason that they don’t need animal products, uh, with the exception of, you know, like cows products is for spiritual, unethical reasons. Um, so we evolved into humans because of eating animal products that allowed us to survive on, um, with a shorter gut and it allowed us to fuel in ever growing frontal brain, which is the part of the brain that allows us to do higher functioning like language and math and do the way we were driven from our pre homosapien ancestors towards our current human physiology was through introducing animal products. So I think that it is, if you want to argue what’s a natural diet and natural diet does include animal products. Uh, but there are, there also have been, you know, cultures cultural. If you look at diets according to geography and according to cultures and ancestry, we certainly have certain diets that are super high in animal products and fat take say the inuits in northern North America. Uh, and then you have cultures that have much lower fat diets like people living on the plains in Africa. Um, and so there is obviously different diets with different macronutrient proportions in different proportions of animal versus plant products can all be healthy

    [26:28] Dr Grasser: and, and I would say we don’t have a lot of data, for example, that says that veganism from a micronutrient perspective is dangerous. I mean really if you look at the literature closely on Veganism, you’re not really risking macronutrient deficiencies with the exception of possibly vitamin D and vitamin B, b 12, uh, but we just don’t have the longterm data to say like, is this, is this a healthy, what’s this gonna do to, to, to, to bone health later in life? What’s this gonna do to dental health later in life? Okay, let’s talk detox. Well, I think it’s always a, a worthwhile a treatment to go on a, some sort of elimination diet. Um, you know, we have classical elimination diets in the functional medicine world. The tend to take out a set of foods that are, that are, if you look at a population that are, that are the top foods to which people have sensitivity or true food allergies, as well as taking out foods that are not nutritive foods, that have qualities that may be, um, unhealthy, such as too much stimulants like caffeine or chocolate, uh, as well as uh, alcohol.

    [27:41] Dr Grasser: Uh, and so, uh, uh, an elimination diet is a, is a good exercise for people to sort of clean up the Diet for a period of time. I like people to do it for at least three weeks. Uh, I think you need that amount of time to really, to really let the system kind of a relax from, from potentially toxic inputs. And then you want to support the detoxification mechanisms in the body, which interestingly, if you actually look at the biochemistry of how we detoxify, do rely on a fair number of compounds, most of which can be obtained from Fido nutrients from vegetables, uh, as well as a amino acids that are necessary for detoxification. So, you know, adequate levels of healthy protein are, are important for, for proper detoxification. This means not doing a prolonged, a depletion type type cleanses, like a water fasting or juice cleansing or the master cleanse.

    [28:44] Dr Grasser: I mean, these things, they just don’t make sense from a biochemical detox vacation standpoint. Um, and so yeah, I mean they don’t because they’re depleting. Um, and uh, and, and so when you look at, well, they’re depleting in the sense that they, they reduced the, the nutrients that are taken in a, of both macro and micro macro be like if you take a juice cleanse, you’re going to get a fair amount of micronutrients if you do variety of plants and vegetables, fruits and vegetables, but you’re actually going to be probably, um, to deplete in, in amino acids. So, which are the building blocks of proteins that are required, especially for phase two detoxification in the liver, which is where most of our detox occurs, although it occurs in every cell in the body. Um, and so if you really look at the science to support a detox, you’re going to want to, um,

    [29:45] Reena Jadhav: you’re going to want to take in

    [29:47] Dr Grasser: you adequate amounts of protein. Now people say, well, what about an hour Beta when I go for Punch Karma? And they basically give me a bunch of Medicaid again and then I can’t eat anything for days. And then they build my backup starting with Rice water. And I know when I did Punch Karma in India for 21 days, I lost, I lost 12 pounds. That’s a ton of a different theory. Uh, and also you have to remember that there are people that are not candidates for punch Karma there two week, uh, there are two depleted already and they would not be fit to go through conch Karma. So there is a depletion aspect to Poncha Karma, uh, but, uh, outside of using punch Karma, which is also often a traditionally only done for people that had, you know, a significant disease state or a significant imbalance of their constitution. Whereas regular people who are relatively healthy, uh, would just follow seasonal eating patterns and they would, you know, do what are called lightning therapies and building therapies, London in Broome, Hannah, uh, and, and these would not necessarily involve the intense detoxification protocols like in Punch Karma, so we have to remember that, um, although we may feel like, you know, taking a bunch of things out and going on some sort of fairly extreme diet for a period of time may make us feel like we’re cleansing.

    [31:17] Dr Grasser:  It actually could be damaging to your system because you’re depleting too much just at the time when you’re actually trying to detoxify better.

    [31:26] Reena Jadhav: That makes a lot of sense. You said, so one thing is as a nation, I’m assuming that means sort of looking.

    [31:38] Dr Grasser: Exactly. So the big ones are the ones that um, you know, end. So it’s, it’s, it’s things that tend to get a lot of people have sensitivities to or true allergies and that often keep bad company. Um, and so, you know, when I run people through an elimination diet, I take out, like you mentioned, gluten, dairy, soy, corn, nightshades, shellfish, citrus, caffeine, alcohol, and then I also try to get them to really watch out for seed oils and take in very minimal added sugars. I don’t 100 percent eliminate added sugars, but very small amounts of things like honey and maple syrup, a, just because, again, Iyer Veda, remember, speaks about six tastes of which suite is one and that it’s not completely evil, it’s just has to be taken in, in, in context and in balance. So much patient or A. Yeah, absolutely more constipation and diarrhea. Um, well, okay. So I think it’s important,

    [32:40] Dr Grasser: um, ideally prior to the detoxification, but prior to doing a to doing the concentrated detoxification. Uh, and I will say, you know, just to, to, to back up just one bit here, um, I do think there’s a value to doing these types of detoxes, but there isn’t western science to back me up on this. Okay. So I’m not going to stand here and say that there’s all this evidence that people, if they do a spring, a detox or cleanse, uh, that, that you know, that there’s all this evidence that they’re going to live longer, but, um, so just as an aside, but output. So I try to get them to poop at least once a day prior to initiating the program. And there’s a variety of ways that that can be done in classically in our beta. We used a lot of old creation or oiling of the gut to help, uh, not only, um, with bowel movements, but also the pole, the Dosha is, which you might call a, you know, excess.

    [33:39] Dr Grasser: And the Alma, the concept of Alma, that’s ama to pull it into the GI tract, but you know, there’s all kinds of mild laxatives and, and things that people can use. So triphala is a classic ayervetic remedy has three herbs in one, uh, one of which is a purgative. That’s the Tucky aloe can help move the bowels, a certainly adequate hydration, adequate fiber exercise, um, and um, and also stress reduction because a lot of constipation is due to anxiety, uh, as, as can be loose stools as well. Um, what western medicine just throws in this category of irritable Bowel Syndrome, um, and then, you know, rhubarb can work as well, including in the elderly population where you don’t want to, you got to be a little bit careful about some of the harsher laxatives. Um, and then, so once you get pooping, uh, you then also want to do, um, you know, you want to be urinating properly and supporting the kidney function, so hydrating adequately, not drinking too much fluids with the meal because that violates an ayurvedic principle, but between the meals, making sure you’re adequately hydrated, especially a, and then some, like I said, sweating therapies like the detox baths, uh, as well as breath.

    [34:58] Dr Grasser: Remember, we exhale toxins through not just carbon dioxide, but we also exhale toxicity in our breathing. And so teaching people to do basic breath techniques, a Pranayama, uh, from the yoga can ayervetic traditions are important as well, and have many other benefits. Okay. So starting with, um, okay, we can start with CBO, CBO. This is a one of a two gut conditions that I think is a over diagnosed and over popularized the other being leaky gut, which of course we have no hard evidence that it really even exists, but I think it explains a variety of conditions under one name, a cbo we learned about in really in the surgical literature, uh, especially after somebody has had a, a portion of their gut removed or altered, uh, and there was therefore a change in the anatomy and in the, in the mechanics of the gut.

    [36:02] Dr Grasser: And you allowed a sort of a reflux or a movement upward of bacteria that generally live in the, uh, upper large intestine refluxing into the lower small intestine. It stands for small intestinal bacteria, bacterial overgrowth. A. So likewise, just like you don’t want the bacteria in your colon to, to be predominant in your mouth or in your urinary tract. You don’t want them pushing up into the small intestine because they will create, um, needed. Their properties are different, they’ll create a gases that you don’t want to have to deal with in the small intestine and, and, uh, and then these can be detected through breath tests. Uh, so CBO is a tough thing to treat. Uh, I think that, um, you know, the, the standard approach is, will kill off some of those bacteria. I’m just like, if you had a, you know, a dirty bathroom, you would just pour bleach on everything, uh, but the problem is when you take away the, a antibiotic, if you will, they, it tends to recur.

    [37:09] Dr Grasser: And so you’ve got to also help keep things moving into, in the right direction. Uh, so the peristyle cysts in the gut that occurs, that Ayer Bedo beautifully described as upon a value. The downward moving wind, uh, needs to be supported through a, I generally will use a pro pro motility herbs that help move things along. Ginger being one of the best for that. Uh, and then also, um, mechanical treatments such as visceral massage from a good body worker. A in case there’s valves that are getting stuck, uh, and also if you know, the, the intestines can move around quite a lot in our abdomen and if they get kinked or shifted, that can also be helped by a visceral massage therapist. So Cbos a tough one to treat. I have to, I have to say, and um, um, and I think that, uh, it’s, but I also think it’s kind of overdiagnosed, um, crones, uh, diseases a, uh, you know, one of the two main, uh, inflammatory bowel diseases along with ulcerative colitis.

    [38:16] Dr Grasser: These are, uh, these are somewhat serious conditions because they can have both symptomatic effects where, you know, there’s a lot of pain and bloody bowel movements and diarrhea, but also, uh, they can be a risk factor for cancers of the, of the gut as well. And so it’s important for anyone with colitis to be under the care of a qualified medical professional. Uh, but, uh, because inflammation is a big component of it, I tend to use a very strict anti-inflammatory style diets, much of which we’ve already talked about under a different name. So avoiding seed oils, refined carbohydrates. And a lot of the foods that may create an inflammation, um, and, and using, you know, fair amounts of phytonutrients in the forms of vegetables and fruits and then I’ll use certain gut healing compounds and anti inflammatory gut herbs from Boswellia to turmeric to glutamine and other like medical foods that are combinations of gut healing compounds and herbs just kind of combined into one powder that people can use.

    [39:37] Dr Grasser: A fish oils also have some evidence for helping colitis. So they’ll make it three fats which are quite anti-inflammatory. Um, and then, uh, I will usually try to put people on high dose probiotics mostly because I have anecdotal evidence that they help, not because I’ve seen too much in terms of the larger studies on them for, for these conditions, but there is even prescription strength. The probiotics that are super high colony counts that I’ll try to get people on. Stress Reduction is also really important in, in inflammatory bowel disease. Um, because people will certainly tell me that they flare up when they’re under higher levels of stress.

    [40:23] Dr Grasser: And so that’s a great disease for a lifestyle management. I mean, a great evidence there, of course the gut microbiome is a huge topic now just to remind listeners that our guts are really only 10 percent human cells. They’re 90 percent nonhuman organisms, the majority of which are bacteria, but also viruses and parasites and yeast, uh, live in the gut. And so they, uh, that ecosystem has a kind of a brain of its own that actually will communicate with other organs in our body and other systems in our body and in and dictate. I mean, we. And now I’ve evidenced that the gut microbiome tells our brain things. Um, and so a lot of it could be just a shifts in the gut microbiome, uh, that are, that are creative, that are sort of allowing inflammation to be upregulated. But then you, it’s a question that chicken and the egg, like, is it the gut microbiome that’s driving it or did we do it to the gut microbiome based on what we put into our bodies or the fact that a good microbiome was not established in childhood to a number of things which gmos could be part of that and antibiotics and births.

    [41:46] Dr Grasser: And a whole host of things, lack of breastfeeding cetera.

    [41:55] Dr Grasser: Yeah. Um, so certainly it, it, it never hurts, uh, with, with, with anxiety and depression to improve the, uh, other organ function. So treating gut dysfunction, treating inflammation, uh, and then also neurotoxicity is something that I’m interested in as a, uh, as a trigger or, or a confounding variable in, in anxiety and depression. So, uh, there are a lot of things that are toxic to the brain, uh, both, uh, external toxins that we’ve already talked about and also even just bacterial endotoxins that a certain types of bacterial bacteria make that then can go up into the brain. And so part of how we detoxify, um, things that can end up crossing the blood brain barrier is through normal detoxification pathways in the liver. And then the creation of good healthy file that flows from the liver into the small intestine and then binds toxins and carries them out through the stool, through, through bowel movements.

    [43:08] Dr Grasser: Um, and so supporting bile flow, uh, with certain compounds and herbs can also actually help, uh, reduce neuro toxicity and then help anxiety and depression. But also while we’re doing that functional medicine type approach, it’s so, so, so important for people, I think to have some sort of meditative practice, you know, you probably interviewing a lot of people for the podcast, for videos on your site, et Cetera. Um, you talked to a lot of practitioners and I talked a lot of practitioners on my podcasts and when I did the iron status summit, and just time and time again, practitioners are talking about the benefits of meditative practices, uh, as, and, and it doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t have to mean that you’re identifying with some other culture or religion or spirituality. Meditation can come in many forms. Uh, and it’s very simple. Uh, and if, if we still have time, I can talk real briefly about just basic components of meditation.

    [44:18] Dr Grasser: So a lot of people are familiar with the worker. Herbert Benson, who was a Harvard md who wrote a book called the relaxation response that I believe came out in the early seventies, maybe even the late sixties. And they went ahead and studied a bunch of cultures who engage in meditative practices. Whether it was a Asians that sat for formal meditation or whether it was a people all over the world who were Christians that prayed, or Muslims who prayed, they wanted to look at what we’re a parallel concepts among the different cultures, meditative practices or prayer practices. And they kind of distilled it down into really that you only need four things to start meditating. You need a quiet space, uh, because that minimizes distraction. You need to be in a comfortable position. Uh, and if you look at the yoga teachings of a, just to remember that yoga, Asana, yoga posturing is really designed only to prepare the body to sit for meditation and then meditation to sit for, or shall I say, to sit for breathwork, Pranayama, and meditation.

    [45:28] Dr Grasser: So you’ve got to make sure that when you’re meditating, you’re comfortable. And if that means laying down with your head on a pillow, that’s okay. You don’t have to be seated in some, you know, Lotus pose, uh, to be able to meditate. So a quiet environment, comfortable position. You can do this walking meditation while you’re hiking in the woods a while you’re walking to work while you’re driving, even as long as you pay enough attention to the road. Um, number three is you need to have some focus, some repetitive focus. So it’s either the breath focusing on the slow, steady inhalation and a slow steady escalation, or it can be some phrase that’s being repeated over and over in your head. Either a mantra of prayer or if people don’t have anything they can identify with there. I just say try all is good. Just repeat that.

    [46:20] Dr Grasser: All is good. All is good, all is good. Or it may be you’re saying like if you have self esteem issues, I am beautiful, or something like that. So you repeat that. And then the fourth thing is you don’t judge yourself. So you don’t judge the outcome. You don’t judge the process. So I tell people, you know, when I sit to medicate tate because I’m a pit to guy, I’ve got a busy brain that’s always going. I start thinking about my grocery list. So what I tell people is that’s okay. Yes. Think about the grocery list, just don’t plan the grocery shopping it, you know, another words, pretend that you’re outside of yourself watching your thought process and just sort of with a, with a quizzical, a nature. Just say, well, okay, so the grocery list came into my head. Let me let it wash over me like a wave of ocean wave, and then I’ll wait for the next wave going back to the breath, going back to the mantra, going back to the prayer, and then you think about, uh, that, uh, you know, that you left, you’re a computer, you’re on, you want to shut it down, that’s fine.

    [47:29] Dr Grasser: Just let that Passover. You don’t think, okay, I’m going to do that immediately after I get up. Or, or tomorrow morning, I’m going to do that this time. Just observe the thoughts waving, washing over you and that. And that’s all you need to do. If you have those four ingredients, they found that, that, that actually was created, the relaxation response. It lowered blood pressure, it improved heart rate variability, and it’s just anybody who’s not trying to do a meditative practice who has an anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, or for that matter, just about any ailment is missing out on something that’s a free easy and uh, and powerful. I have a membership based medical practice, which means people pay me a small monthly fee to be my patient and I do member member lectures and q and a’s a every two months. Uh, I get my invite all my members and I do a talk and I just did one on brain health last earlier this month.

    [48:31] Dr Grasser: Um, and it’s, it’s a, it’s a really short answer, but, um, there’s a variety of things that I, that I put into place for people that’s like a brain healing protocol. Um, in some of the. Probably the, the most powerful things are again, meditative practices. Number two, learning new things. Okay. So people have heard about, oh, well, if I just do crossword puzzles, you know, I’ll exercise my brain and I see a lot of older patients in the hospital. I go in and, oh, t hey’re doing the crossword puzzle. Yeah. I’m trying to prevent dementia. Well, doing a crossword puzzles, actually recalling, trying to recall things thatyou already know that’s not as potent as learning something new. So new language, getting into an know, making a new friend and, and figuring out that person and how to get along with them. I’m taking on a new task, learning a new hobby.

    [49:27] Dr Grasser: If you’re not somebody, if you’re somebody like me who’s kind of a white collar guy, like go learn how to do woodworking. Know because you’re using new, you’re creating new neuronal connections in your brain, new skills and new techniques, um, that you didn’t have refined before and that actually is going to be quite protective. Uh, I do like fish oils for brain health. Uh, they’re highly anti-inflammatory. Medium chain triglycerides like coconut oil, cross the blood brain barrier easily. There’s some nervine tonics that we use in our Beta, like Ashwagandha Bacopa, um, that are, you know, have some evidence for, for brain function. The detox is, again, important to prevent neurotoxins from building up in the brain. Uh, and then one test that if you want the information, uh, is called the Apo e gene, uh, because the people with a apo e type four are at much greater risk of Alzheimer’s disease and some people want to know this information because some people don’t.

    [50:29] Dr Grasser: So consider what you’re going to do with the information if you ask your doctor to order that test, but it greatly increases your chance of Alzheimer’s and, and it might motivate you to actually do some of these things that have been proven to, uh, to prevent and slow the progression of dementia. How has your practice, what do you mean by monthly subscription? How does it work? Insurance. Yeah. So, okay. So basically, um, people, uh, my patients pay me a small monthly fee, uh, which is they’re paid, they’re paying for an enhanced experience, uh, in that, uh, I have a small practice, I have longer visits with my patients than, than is typical in primary care will much longer. Um, and then also I provide a membership meetings about six times a year with a lecture, like I mentioned. Uh, I provide them access to me 24 hours a day with my cell phone number as well as a secure patient portal so that we can do like email messaging back and forth, um, and uh, and, and that, and that is what’s covered by the monthly fee.

    [51:44] Dr Grasser: Also will do things like teach them meditation and, and review their diet and supplements. The regular medical care is still covered by the patient’s insurance. Um, and I still billed the insurance for the visits, whether it be Medicare or commercial insurance. And then I also have patients on it. Uh, I have a subset of patients on, uh, that are part of what’s called a medical cost sharing community, which is an alternative to health insurance where again, you pay a monthly fee to the medical cost sharing community. The money’s all pooled and then it’s used when the, when somebody in that community needs services, but they work with me on, again, on a membership base. But that medical cost sharing community will actually subsidize their membership with me because I am in partnership with them as the premier practice. Um, and so they’re basically getting what I call slow medicine or a term that I like to use called meaningful medicine.

    [52:40] Dr Grasser: And so many of my patients after I did this, a change in my practice model said this feels like the way it used to feel when I was younger. I was a kid and my family doctor used to, you know, know me, know my family and then I have, you know, I have a comprehensive level memberships, a little more expensive, but I also will do home visits with that too. So I have a set of people that are fairly confined to their home that I will see at home as well. They also take care of my patients when they are hospitalized because I still do hospital medicine as well.

    [53:12] Reena Jadhav: And Are you available for telemedicine? So if you’ve got folks out in California that are interested in you, is that something you.

    [53:19] Dr Grasser: Yeah, so I can do iyer Veda over telemedicine. Um, due to telemedicine

    [53:26] Dr Grasser: laws. I cannot practice western medicine via telemedicine. Um, they would have to come see me at least once a year in person, but I can do an integrative Ira Beta consults over skype and phone, and I do. I do do that on a routine basis and then often with that, I can educate them on how to navigate getting tests and whatnot through their local physician.

    [53:50] Reena Jadhav: Got It, got it. That makes a lot of sense. This has been incredible. Dr Grasser you, you are doing something amazing in terms of bringing the holistic practices, the ancient traditions, functional medicine into your practice. I really do believe that you’re pioneering and one of the doctors at the forefront of what I hope will become the future of primary care medicine in, in our country, at least.

    [54:15] Dr Grasser: Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Reena.

     

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  • Detox to Rid Allergies, Weight, Fatigue with Todd Caldecott

    Detox to Rid Allergies, Weight, Fatigue with Todd Caldecott

     

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    Read the Transcript Below the Key Questions and Highlights

    Todd Caldecott is a Medical Herbalist and a Practitioner of Ayurveda. He is also the Director of the Dogwood School of Botanical Medicine. He also wrote Food As Medicine which provides a practical and lucid model of what food is, how it impacts your health, and how to make the best choices in your diet

    In this podcast, listen as he gives us tips and important information in order to get rid of Allergies and Fatigue as well as Weight Loss. There’s also additional information regarding dairy products and menopause!

     

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    Here are the Key Questions answered and highlights:

    ———————————————————

    1. What is the purpose of detox according to ayurvedic principles? (01:27)

    – Ayurveda doesn’t use the word “detox”

    – Detoxification is a natural process we are constantly engaged in

    – Every cell participates in detoxification

    – In Ayurveda, Shodana means purification from the impure doshas of the body.

    2. What do you recommend for people who want easy and light detox? (04:55)

    – Avoid all components of the Standard American Diet (SAD)

    – Since our bodies are always detoxifying, remove all obstructions that would impair the detoxification process.

    3. What would you add to the program? (06:08)

    Eliminate the following:

    – Flour products

    – Refined Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners

    – Dairy with exception of butter or Ghee

    – Fried Food, especially deep fried

    – Reduce Animal Products — beef, pork, fatty meat

    – Increase your vegetable or plant consumption

    – Detoxification can range from a Water Fast to consuming a Simple Diet

    – We put our tongue in charge of our diet, instead of the stomach.

    4. Is there anything beyond food that Ayurveda recommends in terms of detox? (12:09)

    – The Endiputhory organs: Lungs, Bowels, Liver, Kidney — 5 Channels of Detoxification.

    – The liver is the body’s chief organ for detoxification

     5. How about emotional detox, is that something Ayurveda talks about? (14:31)

    – Detoxification is the process of letting go

    – In Ayurveda, ‘sweet’ is represented in the concept of love.

    – We’re using sweet foods as a proxy for love, to get our emotional need.

    6. How do you help your patients find the time and re-prioritize their life? (22:41)

    – It’s not me, it’s the ‘we’

    – ‘What do I want to create in my life?’

    7. Any parting tips on the detox? (26:00)

    – In Food is Medicine Program, there’s a 4-hr lecture on detoxification

    – Triphala helps purify the body of waste

    – Ayurveda helps someone restore their balance

    – You can take Triphala all the time. However, don’t be reliant on it.

    8. What do you think about dairy? Do you recommend it? If not, what alternatives do you recommend? (29:09)

    – There are 2 species if a cow, and they produce different types of milk

    – The European species produces milk which contains an A1 tasting protein.

    – A1 produces inflammation in the body

    – The milk from the Indian species contains A2 protein.

    – People are more able to deal with A2 milk than A1 milk

    9. What do you recommend for someone who’s trying to be dairy free in the US? (32:15)

    – Soya is not a milk, Soy milk is a bean

    – Goat milk, Sheep Milk, Water Buffalo milk are good alternatives

    – Milk has bacteria in it

    – You should not consume milk out of the fridge cold, it should be heated up

    – As soon as milk is cooled, Ayurveda says it should be purified or heat it to sterilize it

    10. Almond milk, cashew milk, etc. What are your thoughts? Are they okay to drink? (35:40)

    – They’re starch-rich extract on nuts which are low on protein

    – These does not contain much nutrients, but starches

    – It doesn’t contain protein and fat

    11. What are your thoughts on artificial sweeteners, specifically Stevia and other natural ones? (36:44)

    – There can be no real benefit in consuming artificial sweeteners over choloric sweeteners

    – Stevia can be helpful in helping one keeping sugar level down

    – Rather than sweeteners, train the body’s orientation towards sweet

    – Address the unmet emotional needs, then the body’s desires will be lessened

    11. Beans, Legumes, Soy, Corn — What are your thoughts on that? Are those good or bad for us? How should they be prepared? (40:10)

    – For someone with an autoimmune disease, remove grains from your diet slowly

    – Use fermentation

    – When you fail to prepare these food traditionally, you have higher risk to disease

    12. What are your top tips for someone who has begun the process of menopause going through all the symptoms? Is there hope? Is there a remedy? (42:55)

    – There is a paradigm shift.

    – In menopause, ovaries begin to shut down

    – There is a loss of estrogen and progesterone

    – The body then starts to store up fat, leading to menopause

    – If they’re storing up fat in a healthy way, the butt and thighs get bigger than before

    – The fat becomes the storage for estrogen

    – The body is trying to liberate estrogen which causes a hot flash

    Remedies for Menopause:

    – legumes

    – vegetable sprouts such as brocolli sprouts, alfalfa sprouts

    – Black Cohosh

    – Sage, which is also one of the best remedies for hot flashes

    – Shatavari herb

    – Dong Quat

    13. What about the Weight gain in menopause? What do you recommend? (49:05)

    – Don’t worry about the hip and butt

    – Women should have a waist-hip ratio of less than 8; the circumference of their waist should be 80% or less than the circumference of their hips

    – If you maintain that, you will reduce your risk of cancer, diabetes, dementia, risk of suicide, sleep apnea and more.

    – This is the best clinical indicator for health

    – The fat around the body is mostly due to insulin, not estrogen

    14. What’s your response to someone who says ‘My kids have allergies’, ‘I have allergies’, ‘I have seasonal allergies’, ‘What can I do to be allergy-free’? (54:46)

    – Support your liver function

    – If you have seasonal allergies, Ayurveda’s Nasya says that in the morning, take a few drops of sesame oil and put it in nostril. The oil will bring down the mucus out through the mouth.

    15. How quickly can they heal? How quickly can they be relieved? (59:47)

    16. What are your thoughts on Spirulina and Chlorella? (1:05:55)

    – There isn’t a history of people eating blue-green algae or spirulina
    – Spirulina contains neurotoxins that chlorella doesn’t have
    – Overtime, it can cause disease

    – Listen to your body


    TRANSCRIPT:

    This is auto-generated and may have mistakes. Please listen to the interview for accuracy.

    Reena: What is the purpose of detox according to Ayurveda principles?

    Todd: Well, I really didn’t use that word detox so we have to do a little bit of translation of terms and understandings as well. I think there’s a lot of confusion about what detoxification is and in natural medicine circles and its implications for a scientific understanding versus that of it’s used or understood in Ayurveda and their systems of traditional healing. So if we if we first just look at the word from a scientific perspective detoxification. One thing that becomes clear is that we’re always detoxifying that detoxification is a natural physiological process that we are constantly engaged in and there are specific organs but every cell participates in this process of detoxification we have specialized cellular structures put like the endoplasmic reticulum for example it kind of functions like the liver of every single cell so every cell participates in this detoxification because when a cell absorbs nutrients and it utilizes nutrients there are waste products that have to be dealt with as a result so detoxification is just a normal part of our of our human physiology. When you hear people being skeptical about detoxification, say from a skeptical scientific side, they do not really understand the actual science behind it and all that we be saying from a natural medical perspective is that there are ways that we could enhance that natural physiological process. There are lots of claims as to what could be done with detoxification and what kind of results can be obtained. There are lots of different types of methods and not all the necessarily may be as valid as the other, so, it does take a fair amount of effort to sort through the warp and weft of all these different techniques and beliefs and perspectives to kind of come up with one that has a basis in both tradition and also can be supported by a scientific understanding. In Ayurveda there’s also a concept of detoxification although we use a different term we use the term shodhana which is purification and specifically it doesn’t refer to the purification of wastes from the but rather the purification from the impure doshas. These are homeostatic imbalances that arise within the body through improper diet you know poor lifestyle habits environmental factors. It disrupts these homeostatic mechanisms and then measures are undertaken to purify the body of those in doshas. Now, that isn’t exactly the same as purifying the body of wastes because what you’re doing essentially is you are trying to restore some into the state of homeostasis to a state of balance and that’s not exactly what we understand through the concept of detoxification but it does have a similarity there.

    Reena: What would you recommend someone who is listening in and says, “You know I want to do some easy light detox.” What would you recommend?

    Todd: Well, the simplest recommendation would be to avoid all those components of what we call the standard American diet. There are a lot of diets out there, a lot of books written on diets and they all claim to get all these great results. If they do get results, one of the commonality is that every one of these diet books recommend is to avoid eating all those components of the standard American diet, all those convenient junk foods, fast foods, refined foods, that comprise so much of our diet that we get used to eating on a regular basis because they’re cheap, they’re convenient, they’re easy, but those need to be eliminated. For a lot of people, just eliminating that itself can serve as a very powerful detox because remember, our bodies are always detoxifying it. What we want to do is we want to remove the obstructive elements in our diet that would impair detoxification we don’t even necessarily in many cases need to speed it up or to make it more efficient in an active way we just need to remove the encumbrance is that allow it to be dysfunctional.

    Reena: What would you go to the program?

    Todd: I would say is that for if you’re looking at it like a supposed to standard American diet, I would eliminate all the flour products from their diet. I would eliminate all sweeteners and refined sugars from their diet. I’d remove dairy from their diet with exception a little bit of butter or ghee. I would remove all fried food from their diet and especially deep fried foods and I would also eliminate much of the animal products that they would be eating not necessarily eliminate all the meat that are consuming but we would reduce a lot of it and we would choose certain types of animal products certain types of foods which are lighter that aren’t so heavy, so, we would avoid beef and pork really greasy heavy fatty meats and if meat was still to be consumed it would be smaller amounts. It would be leaner, it would be lighter so like fish poultry, etc., but just much smaller amounts.

    Reena: So you would allow you would allow meat so you wouldn’t just say it needs to be a vegetarian diet you would allow meat?

    Todd: It depends, what I’m saying is that, what the everyday diet of what people eat in America these days is a disaster, and if you just eliminate all those industrialized foods from the diet, that alone will serve as a very powerful detoxification. If you made no other change but to eliminate all those fast processed foods from your diet, you just eliminated them, be surprised how much of that actually comprises a person’s everyday diet, it’s huge and one of the things you’ll be noticing is that well, I’m eating a lot more vegetables that I’ve ever ate before on this diet so certainly increasing your vegetable plant consumption is going to be a major part of this as well. It might be that a vegetarian diet is appropriate depends on individual. Like in Ayurveda we’ve got different constitutional types. A lot of the combinations and different disease (Ayurveda terms) types that conform to those doshas. So, someone has very thin, skinny body type you can’t put them on a profound detox, you can’t put them on a one-week water fast, they won’t do well, they’ll be counterproductive. Likewise, someone who’s naturally very corpulent and in Ayurveda we call them kapha body types, just making some minor tweaks in their diets and removing certain foods might not be enough to initiate the kind of detoxification or cleansing response that we want. Our detoxification could range anywhere from something like a water fast to just consuming a simple diet. Then what constitutes that simple diet that could be just a very healthy version of the diet that they’re consuming now or it could be something that is even a little more Spartan, so one example you’re familiar with it you mentioned it before is Kitchari. Kitchari is rice and mung bean soup and this is a component of the graduated diet. So, eating something like kitchari for one to two weeks while not being an optimal source of nutrients, can be very powerful way to cleanse and detoxify not because the food itself is necessarily orientated towards that but because when you’re eating rice and dal, and just rice and dal on a regular basis, no matter how good you make it taste after eating and every day, all day, for three or four days, you’re pretty much sick of kitchari and dal and rice, like that’s it! Like in most people it’s like “ah! Enough!” What happens is that, if you keep eating it you’re just gonna be eating enough to satisfy you. You’re only eating if you have an appetite. Iit’s like “Oh I’m hungry. Oh… Just rice and all. I guess I’m not that hungry.” Well okay now, “I’m really hungry I’m gonna eat some rice and dal but I’m I’m not gonna over eat it. I’m not gonna eat so much that I’m going to eat too much of it. I’m always going to be eating just enough to meet my energetic needs and that’s it.” So, it helps to retrain your relationship with food because a lot of us now, we like to call ourselves foodies, we enjoy eating out, enjoy exotic flavors and one of the issues is that we end up overeating and we sort of deranged our taste orientation. We put our tongue in charge of our diet instead of our stomach and there’s a saying in Ayurveda that he or she who controls their tongue controls their life because the tongue itself is a metaphor for desire and it’s desire that usually brings us our biggest problem in life. They call it, desire versus aversion, we’re always compelled by these two and what orientating your diet towards eating these simple foods does is it reduces the influence of the tongue and its ability to commandeer your diet and just gets you back to eating the food which your body needs to function This is the one of the benefits also of undertaking in detoxification is it helps to serve as a reset. Over the years I’ve taught classes out of town and people come from out of town, they’re living in hotels and living in a B&B and they are eating here and there and they’re going to coffee shops and very often they complains like, “I don’t know, I’m just like my diet is like a chaos. I just can’t control anything.” Following a simple regimen like this can be very healing because it provides the required stability that the body is looking for of simple easy digestible nutrients that aren’t going to over stimulate the desire for food.

    Reena: Is there anything beyond food that I really recommend in terms of detox?

    Todd: Well once again, Ayurveda doesn’t really advocate for this process of detoxification like you find in the West and natural health circles. It’s not the same process, it’s a different process, so there are herbs that we will use to reduce the doshas and once again this is about restoring homeostasis so it’s hard for me to talk about it from a strictly basis of Ayurveda. If I sort of just extend beyond Ayurveda and just talk more generally about natural health and will include some science within it and some natural health practices. When we look at the body, the body has natural mechanisms of detoxification so every cell has this capacity for detoxification. There are certain organs that are more focused on that particular act and these are the Eliminatory organs, these would be the lungs, the bowels, the liver, the kidneys, the skin. These are the five channels of elimination We can engage in a number of practices that we could utilize to up regulate the function of those different organ systems. For example, if the liver deliver is the body’s chief organ of detoxification and so if we want to support this process of detoxification there are herbs, there are things that we can take that support that process for the liver. There are all kinds of herbs, most of them tend to be kind of bitter in flavor to up regulate the synthesis and excretion of bile. Others might contain sulfur to help with different facets of hepatic detoxification. There are many herbs that people will take on a detox, you can get them on a in a kit, you can get a product from the store, and you look at the herbs if it’s a well formulated product then it’s going to be containing herbs that traditionally are active on these different organ systems. Herbs that help to up regulate liver function, herbs that would help to up regulate kidney function, herbs that help to up regulate bowel function, etc. There’s a cornucopia of herbs that you could take in other substance that could help support all those different organ systems.

    Reena: How about emotional detox, is that something that Ayurveda talks about?

    Todd: Ayurveda is has its own particular cultural context and people function very differently in India than they do in Western society. People maintain a lot more intimate contact with each other, their family relations are usually a lot tighter, there isn’t the same boundaries around personal space that people have here in the Western world, people have a lot more religious or spiritual faith per capita than people would have in the Western world. They have different societies and different needs in that regard. Also, you might have noticed being Indian yourself that the pace of life tends to be a lot slower in India. People don’t tend to move so fast, they can, it’s like Mexico and it’s like any kind of warm tropical climate. As it gets warmer people tend to move a little bit more slowly just to you know not overexert themselves and create all this excess heat. We don’t really understand that at all, we have fractured society, we don’t have very strong family units, we are very affluent in the West so we have no reason to be dependent upon each other, so we just tend to keep to ourselves. It’s all these impediments to creating emotional connection in our Western society that, yeah for sure, we have to address those issues. Detoxification is a process of letting go. Williams Woodworth said “If the world is too much with us and we’re just too active and too engaged then our body can’t let go of those toxins, body can’t let go of those ways.” Now remember I had a patient once, a Jamaican woman and she was suffering from constipation and we’re talking about maybe some of the reasons for it and then she told me that under her bed she had a whole bunch of boxes and old books that she hadn’t gone through in years. I said, “Well, why don’t you go through that. You’re lying in bed, you’re thinking about all that stuff there and that’s kind of creating this this state of emotional tension so why don’t you do that.” So, she did that, she came back and says, “This guy’s right as rain!” because she dealt with that emotional congestion for her. It was just stuff under her bed, but for her represented something that she need to let go of. And you think about issues like constipation and people who hold onto their stool yeah for sure there is this issue of holding on that needs to be addressed this capacity to just let things go and allow the flow to happen not something that we in the West are very good at, we need to retrain it. One of the key things in any detoxification program, and this is true for Ayurveda, is that you can’t be working you can’t be trying to function like normal, you have to make some significant change because of all your energy is being taken up by your brain doing these different activities and all these worries and concerns there’s no energy left over for up regulating detoxification. So go on a holiday, go to your cab and take some time off of work. Do whatever you can to reduce the input and this will allow more energy to increase the outputs.

    Reena: Yeah absolutely! I think we’re all running so far so fast so hard that the concept of rest, relaxation, timeout, rejuvenation almost seems quaint. As I listen to you as I listen to some of the other amazing docs and healers we have on our podcast, it just reminds me that it’s almost like we need a lifestyle redesign. That with the lifestyle were leading, unless we redesign the whole lifestyle like this piecemeal approach, isn’t going to work. I mean that’s what I did, I completely redesigned my entire 15 months of life to 100% heal but that’s hard to do as well, and it’s almost like our entire society needs to redesign its lifestyle. That’s not easy to do because we live in a highly complex world charged with media coming at us at all times, I mean you can’t watch a show without a dripping cheesy pizza staring at you or a Cinnabon or some chocolate KitKat break .How do you not go straight to the pantry and stuff your fat and sit up your face so it’s not easy I think living in the world we live in and not over indulge across the board.

    Todd: Well we have to look at where it’s coming from, because a lot of people one of the reasons why they engage in these behaviors and most of these negative food behaviors are focused around eating sweet foods. Last time we talked about the manifestation of quality and how that’s important in Ayurveda. When we think about eating sweet food, in Ayurveda, sweet is represented by the feeling of love. When someone’s being sweet to us, when a baby is breastfeeding and drinking the sweet milk, when we’re engaged, when we’re in a new relationship and we feel the sweetness of that love, or the connection you might have with your child when you’re hugging them, all the sweet quality is something we all need to sustain ourselves and because in our Western society is so fractured we’re lacking that sweetness. What we’re doing is we’re using sweet foods as a proxy for love, to get our emotional needs met. I think it’s fairly obvious. Imagine a young woman who broke up with her boyfriend and she gets a container of Haagen-Dazs ice cream and puts on a rom-com and eats the entire container. It makes her feel better initially. Why is she doing it? She’s trying to create or recreate that sweetness in her life. Many of us are driven by that, and what I try to do with my patients is get them to realize that they have a deeper need for love and connection. That their desire for these sweet foods and junk foods, these are impulse foods, is a proxy for some unmet emotional need and so we look to find ways to meet that need.

    Reena: That’s very profound. I know it’s going to change how I look at my sugar cravings because I’m a complete sugarholic. It’s the big joke in the family, don’t leave any cake or cooking around because it will not survive Reena. If you look inwards and you say, “Well I guess I need a lot more sweetness than I have in my life.” then I guess again back to the whole lifestyle redesign you redesign your life to bring some more sweetness into your life. It sounds good to everybody, who wouldn’t want to have more emotional sweetness in their life? The question though is, how do you prioritize and make time for it, because that’s the other thing. If you look at a typical 30 plus 40 plus year old person who’s got a career, who’s got kids, who’s married, there are so many priorities in line before you get to the I need to bring more sweetness into my life that you never get to it. Like in a to do list that’s a mile long and you’re at the bottom of that to-do list and I think something that I’m starting to hear and I’d love to get your thoughts is, how do you rearrange that to-do list and say “Nope. I am a priority and so my needs come first today and I’m going to prioritize.” How do you help your patients find the time and reprioritize their list?

    Todd: When it comes to sweetness, it’s usually not an isolated individual experience. It’s usually not necessarily just about getting your needs met but can be about getting a broader need met. One of the ways to help people that are suffering from depression and just feeling lost in life, is to get them to volunteer and spend time with others who are less fortunate than they are, and they give that energy and it makes them feel incredibly happy and well, that they’re making a difference in people’s lives. Sweetness has a natural drawing-together energy, it’s like a gravitational pull. It’s about we, it’s not about me necessarily. It’s about reaching out and connecting and that’s why I think in places like India very often, interactions with people are often so sweet because people maintain that perspective. It is about the we, it’s not about just me, but in the West we’re kind of conditioned to think like that. We have to achieve for ourselves and it’s the fight for the top. So ultimately, what it should do, hopefully, is bring up some of these existential questions; one of which might be, what am I going to value on my deathbed. We’re all going to die, but what do you want to be thinking about is that, “I sure glad I excelled in my career and I got all things checked off of my to-do list” and “I got a lot of money even though one of my kids talked to me” and “I haven’t talked to my brother in 25 years”. It’s like what is the experience of your life that you want to have at the end of your life. Is it going to be one where it was just about a bunch of items on a list, or will it be about the memory of creating connection with others and the love that you generated over your lifetime. Most people it would be the latter, that’s what you want to be remembering at the end of your life, those are the things which are going to be significant to you because when you’re ill and infirm, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a whole bunch of money. What if you have people that love you and are taking care of you and it’s genuine, it’s not because you’re paying them. Such a feeling of gratitude will arise within your heart and so we can’t look at this issue without addressing the broader existential one, which is what do I want to create in my life? Is it just a bunch of numbers that quantitative model or is it that qualitative model that we’re after. I think for most people ultimately it is the latter, we want to have the quality of life. We know that isn’t necessarily tied to income, it isn’t tied to possessions. There’s a certain amount of possession and a certain amount of income we need but a lot of people are overachieve in that area and don’t get the other needs met as a result.

    Reena: Question 1: What do you think about dairy? Did you recommend it? and if not what alternatives do you recommend?

    Todd: What’s funny you know because every Indian physician that’s comes out of India will extol the virtues of dairy because all the classical texts of Ayurveda do as well. They talk about it as being one of the best most nourishing foods for human beings. It may seem a little counterintuitive because we’re talking about a baby food for an entirely different species of animal, but I don’t get caught up in that too much because humans do all kinds of weird things that might not necessarily seem exactly natural. We have some allowance there for, innovation. They’ve been consuming dairy in India for thousands of years and it’s been an important part of the diet for a very long time; however, it’s very clear that when people consume dairy here in the West, they get sick and unwell so early in my practice, 20 years ago, if someone was consuming dairy and had a myriad number of health issues it was an easy thing just to remove the dairy and probably they’re gonna come back in a few weeks feeling 50% better. How can it be that people’s experience in the West is so different than that traditionally ascribed in Ayurveda. It has to do with the species of cow that would get the milk from, there’s two species of cow Bos indicus from India and Eastern Africa and Bos taurus, which is from Europe and they produce genetically different types of milk. Bos taurus, the European species, which is we also have here in North America produces milk which contains an a1 casein protein, and this a1 casein protein is digested and metabolized in a different way it produces inflammation in the body; however, the milk from the Bos indicus, the indian desi cows, they call it, contains none of this it’s an a2 milk. So there’s this distinct difference between a1 and a2 milk and you’re starting to see that in the media now some recognition of this difference. Certainly my own experience has been that people are much more able to deal with a2 milk in terms of digestion in terms of any kind of adverse effects than they are with the a1 milk. That’s a big shift, and I myself, super allergic to dairy, I mentioned in the last interview that if I consume even like a tablespoon of milk or the conventional a1 milk I will get joint inflammation for 3 or 4 weeks. I know that because I was in India and Nepal I was consuming dairy there every day large amounts of it that came back on my flight stop to Frankfurt and I had a little piece of camembert cheese my flight back from Frankfurt and I came home to have joint pain for a few weeks after I ate that. So there’s a big difference between these two different types of milks.

    Reena: What alternatives do you recommend for someone who’s trying to be dairy free in the US and what do you think of sheep’s milk, goat’s milk, soya?

    Todd: We shouldn’t call soya a milk it’s not a milk and milk is a substance that’s produced by mammary glands, it’s got protein, fat, sugar, vitamins and minerals. Soy milk is just a bean that we you know we prepare as a broth and it doesn’t have anywhere near the same diversity of nutrients and it should not be called milk, so we called it soya bean juice it might be a lot less popular. It’s not really milk, however if you’re looking to consume milk and you have problems with conventional milk, then typically goat milk or sheep’s milk, water buffalo milk could be good alternatives. It’s important thing to remember about milk is that it’s an ecology. It has bacteria in it and that you shouldn’t just consume it like just right out of the fridge-cold. All milk should be heated up before consumed if not consumed fresh from the cow itself. If you’re just right there while the cows being milked then you can drink that milk, but as soon as it cools to the local ambient temperature or is refrigerated, Ayurveda says that it is exceptionally bad for the body and needs to be purified and home pasteurized. It’s just like you would might make some like a chai masala at home where you bring the milk to a boil and there’s still a simmer for five or ten minutes that helps sterilize it. That also helps to make it more digestible so a lot of people’s milk issues can be attributed to, like kids would come out home from school and they’ll open the refrigerator and open up a milk carton, “glug, glug, glug”. Cold milk with all this bacteria in there. We think that pasteurization kills bacteria but it doesn’t kill all the bacteria, if it did kill all the bacteria then your milk wouldn’t putrify after a week or so. Flash pasteurization only kills some of the bacteria that would turn it into a clabber, which is kind of a yogurt like substance. They kill that bacteria, they bring the milk to a temperature about 72 degrees Celsius for about 10 or 15 seconds, it kills all those fermentative bacteria but it leaves the heat tolerant future factor bacteria intact. So you can actually measure the bac kill cell count of conventional pasteurized milk and see that it contains a significant amount of unhealthy bacteria that you’re swallowing down every time you drink the cold milk. Regardless of what you do with the a1 milk, it’s an amino reactive substance, so if you are reactive to milk then you’re probably still gonna be reactive to it. A lot of lactose intolerance, isn’t lactose intolerance, it’s a reaction to the protein in milk, to the a1 protein.

    Reena: That clarifies a lot so that’s one theory and of course I’m assuming you mean nut milks are not milks either. Almond milk, cashew milk. What are your thoughts on those though, are they ok to drink?

    Todd: Well, what you’re doing when you’re making those things, is you are mostly washing off the starches. There’s starch rich extracts of nuts that usually are low in protein. If you ever made your own homemade almond milk or cashew milk, you soak it and then you blend it up and then you strain it out. Mostly what you’re getting is the starch, so it’s usually just a starchy substance which doesn’t contain much in the way of nutrients except for starches. Not so good for your blood sugar. I’m not saying that you can’t have it but it’s like eating white rice. It’s just sort of empty of a lot of nutrients that you need, and if you were using it like a milk, as a source of protein. You would be mistaken, because it doesn’t contain those.

    Reena: What are your thoughts on artificial sweeteners and then specifically stevia and some of the other natural ones that have been getting a lot more attention including monk fruit?

    Todd: Well, the research on natural sweeteners is a little murky. It’s hard to get a good handle with regard to the overall impact if you want to come from a scientific perspective. There’s some research that some artificial sweeteners could be carcinogenic, they could be neurotoxic but the science on them isn’t clear. There’s some research that shows that could be the case, other research that shows that that’s not the case. The fact that these artificial sweeteners that have been approved for general use in food and beverages suggests that, least for the regulators, there’s enough confidence that they’re not problematic, but for someone like myself, I’m not confident about it. I’m just referencing some experiences that I’ve had. You drink something with Aspartame and get some kind of mild headache or some kind of weird feeling in your head. There is a reason why that might be happening, because aspartame contains high levels of phenylalanine, and when you take any amino acid highly purified and consume it in large amounts, it will displace the absorption of other amino acids in our brain. Amino acids are what we use to manufacture many neurotransmitters, so you could be altering the neurochemical balance of your brain by consuming some of these artificial sweeteners like aspartame. Also aspartame has a methyl-ester so it’s source of methyl alcohol and no one recommends you ever consume methyl alcohol because it’s toxic, so that’s also concern as well. Part from the specific toxicities of these substances which are a debate, however one thing that’s clear is that whenever you eat something sweet regardless of whether it’s actually calorically sweet or not, it still induces a similar response in the body. The brain still responds to it like it’s sweet and still induces the same kind of metabolic problems that we see with eating caloric sweets. We actually see that there can be no real benefit to consuming artificial sweeteners over caloric sweeteners because they still induce the same kind of insulinemic response they still induce an insulin response.

    Reena: Even stevia?

    Todd: Even Stevia can do that. Stevia can be very good at helping wean someone off of sugar and get their sugar consumption down. It’s probably better overall but still you’re taking very powerful substances that are tricking the body into thinking that it’s consuming something sweet and the body’s still gonna respond like you have consumed something sweet. Rather than just using replacements for sweet ideally, what we do is we train our orientation towards sweet. That’s why we can’t leave behind the emotional components of what sweetness represents, because once again people are used to consuming these foods because they have some other unmet emotional need. If we can address those things, then this desire for sweet isn’t all-consuming.

    Reena: What about grains? When I say grains I mean beans, legumes, soy, corn, what are your thoughts on that? Are those good for us? Bad for us? How should they be prepared?
    Tood: That’s a subject for a very long lecture because there’s so many types of grains and different methods of preparation. Just generally speaking, if I’m dealing with someone with autoimmune disease, then I’m definitely removing cereals, grains, legumes from their diet, absolutely. If I’m not seeing those issues and digestive issues, then we are allowing cereal, grains but they need to be prepared. I mentioned in the last interview that one of the primary ways that we do this is to use fermentation. If we don’t use fermentation there’s some other method or preparation. For example, they been eating corn in Central America for thousands of years, but they always mix them alize the corn. They would collect the ashes from a fire and they would put in some water and so it becomes a very alkaline substance, then they would put the corn in there and they would cook it. What this very alkaline substance does is, it breaks down the corn and deactivates some of those antinutrient factors so then you can make what’s called the masa, which then you would then use to make tortilla, but when you don’t do this and corn isn’t part of your diet you end up getting a disease called pellagra. It’s characterized by the four D’s. It starts with diarrhea followed by dermatitis and dementia and then death and if you look at the four D’s they’re remarkably similar to the progression of celiac disease. What’s interesting is that when you fail to prepare these foods according to their traditional methods you put yourself at risk of disease. This is one of the things that we really need to undertake is that whatever cereal grain or legume etc., that you’re consuming look to the culture of its origin and how it was traditionally prepared and followed those practices as best you can.

    Reena: I had no idea that that celiac disease’s progression was similar to something that people have been experiencing under different names and different cultures. It is interesting how its cycle, like it all comes around and if we do things that break the rules of nature we pay the price, it’s just the names change, the labels change, the titles change. It’s like you’re suffering from this illness that you would have suffered from 5,000 years ago if you were breaking the rules of how the body is meant to live.

    Reena: What is Ayuverda’s or what is your top tips for someone who’s begun the process of menopause going through all the awful symptoms? Is there hope? Is there a remedy?
    Tood: Absolutely! it’s a profound time in a woman’s life. Women are perhaps even more so, than men, are directed by biology. I don’t think that many women would argue that their emotions and their state of mind is not affected by their menstrual cycle. Even if you are relatively balanced, you can still feel it when you’re PMS-ing and when you’re ovulating. All those different changes that happen in the ups and downs of all of that and what’s happening with menopause is that, that is being removed, that’s no longer becomes the paradigm by which you self-identify. It’s a kind of alchemical process where there’s a significant transformation within the woman. One thing that happens very often for women, is that they suddenly discover that they don’t really need men anymore. If they were heterosexual though, they’re like “well, I’m not ovulating and I’m not menstruating. I’m no longer spending every month generating this party in my belly to host a baby and most the time I don’t get pregnant. Now I have menopause, I’m not another slave to biology anymore.” A lot of relationships start to go through some problems or some changes right around this time, as the woman realizes that the paradigm has shifted for her. That’s usually significant. It is something that for a lot of women I think can be a real challenge because they’re like “why do I feel so differently. I don’t feel the same.” Because you’re not. You’re undergoing this sort of alchemical process or change that’s huge. It’s one of the biggest changes that will happen in your life. What we know from a physiological perspective is that your ovaries begin to shut down and you’re no longer synthesizing or releasing the hormones estrogen and progesterone. Both of those hormones are associated with all the secondary female sexual of characteristics that make you feel like a woman. The loss of them has a big impact upon that feeling or that being a woman. What the body does to compensate or right around this time is it tends to start storing more fat. Leading up to menopause the body starts to store more fat and if it’s storing fat in a healthy way then you’ll typically notice that your butt in your thighs are getting a bit bigger than they were before and hopefully not your belly because that’s different, that’s induced by insulin and cortisol. It’s estrogen which stimulates this fatty accumulation and you store estrogen in your fat. The fat becomes an organ for storing estrogen and your body will induce these thermogenic hot flashes to increase metabolism to release the stored estrogen within those fatty tissues, or to convert the androgens, which are still being secreted by your adrenal glands, which then circulate to fatty tissues and are converted by an enzyme into estrogen. Fat becomes the source of estrogen for you in your peri and postmenopausal life. We see that a lot of women when they go through menopause if they can carry a little more fat on their butt and their thighs that they tend to have a lot easier time with menopause. It’s usually the women that are quite thin and skinny, they have a harder time with it. That’s a hot flash. That’s why you get hot flashes, your body’s trying to liberate stored estrogen. If you have a lot of hot flashes, your body’s trying to liberate estrogen that might not be there because you might be a skinny body type or your body hasn’t stored enough and so we need to supplement or support that loss or that deficiency. Fortunately, there are some fantastic herbal medicines for this and there are also good foods as well that are naturally rich in what we call phytoestrogens. All those legumes, if they’re properly prepared, can be very good source of phytoestrogens. Vegetable sprouts like broccoli sprouts, alfalfa sprouts also can be a good source of phytoestrogens. There are herbs also that we can use to help regulate and manage menopausal symptoms, herbs like black cohosh, sage. Sage is one of my best herbs for reducing menopausal hot flushes, very good for that. Just a regular garden sage, you can just prepare it as a regular herbal tea or you could use it in formulation as a tincture. It’s what we call a refrigerant, it cools the body down so it can help to manage especially an hour before you go to bed, it will actually go a long ways to help mediating the flushes, but we have to give the body something else that’s nourishing because you’re losing this feminine essence so we have to support that. This is why we also use herbs, the indian herb Shatavari, which you might have heard of before, which literally translates to “she who has 100 husbands.” It helps to support that declining feminine essence, essentially and it also can help boost estrogen status. Another herb that’s really good for this is the dong quai, the Chinese Angelica sinensis, peony root is another one’s good for this. I’m just giving you a few herbs there that can be a part of a protocol to help a woman manage this transition, but it is a transition, it is the normal stage of life it is not a pathology, like it’s typically viewed in Western medicine and hence there are really useful traditional ways to support this transition and make it as seamless as possible.

    Reena: What about the weight gain in menopause? That seems to be another really big issue. I’m understanding now sort of the physiology behind it but what can women who are putting on weight not able to lose it, what do you recommend?

    Todd: I don’t worry about the hip and butt fat, I mean if you think that age, 55, you should have the butt of an 18 year old girl, I can’t do anything about that. That’s just not gonna be the case, well it shouldn’t be the case. There is a difference between being obese and unhealthy versus having a little extra padding on your butt and your thighs, that would be a source of estrogen for you. One of the things that I will say is that all women throughout their lifetime should maintain a waist to hip ratio of less than 0.8. That means that the circumference of their waist, which is the measurement goes around your bellybutton well just below your ribs and above your hip bone should be 80% or less than the circumference of your hips, and that measurement is taken across your pubic bone and across the greater trochanter that bumpy part of your hips that sticks out at the side. Take those two measurements, measure them and your waist should be 80% that of your hips. If you maintain that you will reduce your risk dramatically of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia, risk of suicide, sleep apnea the list goes on and on and on. It’s actually the best clinical indicator. It actually outperforms BMI and outperforms any blood test. It is the best overall predictor of Health. What I’m saying then, is that as a woman you want to maintain, to whatever degree your body naturally has it, that feminine hourglass-like shape. Now some women are very curvy and someone in are less curvy, but all women are gonna have some kind of curve there. If they grew properly and they just don’t have it some kind of genetic abnormality women have this natural hourglass shape you should maintain that throughout your entire life. Just accumulating a bit of fat on your butt and thighs is not going to throw that off, but if you’ve got that apple shape, if you’ve got that weight accumulating around your middle and your perimenopausal/menopausal, that’s an indicator for a dramatically increased risk of all the diseases that affect us in the Western world. So you want to make sure you undertake measures to address that, but that fat that you accumulate around your belly that’s all induced by insulin not estrogen and that relates mostly to the overconsumption of sweet foods. It is interesting that a lot of women who are going through menopause they start to gorge on those sweet foods because they’re not getting that sweetness met within their life. So instead of making those changes that they need to make in their life to get that they’ll just you know eat ice cream and pastries and you know wonder why they’re getting fat so there needs to be sort of a recognition of what’s happened to their bodies and what their physiological and emotional needs are.

    Reena: Got it, but nothing specific like herbs or any other dietary changes that you would recommend for someone who’s menopausal that’s going through some tremendous weight gain issues?

    Todd: Reduce the amount of carbohydrates that you’re consuming. Follow that diet that I recommended earlier, which is eat a fat-protein rich breakfast. Avoid eating many carbohydrates throughout the day, introduce some carbohydrates for your evening meal. Otherwise avoid sugars and get your emotional needs met through creative release, through hanging out with other women. This is something I think that becomes really important for women as they go through menopause, is to have this connection with other women that are going through a similar experience. I think hanging out a bunch your girlfriends playing djembe, can be way more nourishing than sitting at home with a container of ice cream, wondering why your husband isn’t paying attention you.

    Reena: So true. What great advice there. Girl-power. Let’s start some heal circles in different cities. That’s one of the things we’ve done, we’ve started a heal circle monthly group that comes and meets together and it’s just once a month and we talk, we share, we meditate. It’s just been fabulous.
    Renna: Last question for this interview, allergies. So the’re rampant, more and more kids are getting them. What’s your response to someone who says “My kids have allergies. I have allergies. I have seasonal allergies. I’m popping pills. What can I do to be allergy-free?

    Todd: Well that was me. I was like that I was allergic to everything. I hated this time of year, May, as a kid I hated it because I was just mess. I was sneezing all the time and you know you sneeze 40 times in a row, you get a sore throat, you feel like you’re sick. So every spring it would come along I just feel like I was sick. I get like a two or three month cold. I don’t have that problem anymore. I don’t have that issue but I don’t eat also the foods that I used to eat, I don’t eat any flour products, I don’t eat any dairy, I avoid sugar for the most part, I don’t have the same amino reactivity. One thing is, that imagine if you have seasonal allergies there’s always pollen that’s floating around, and your mucous membranes are heavy and sticky and capture that pollen as you breathe it in and out of your nose and they get stuck in the mucosa. If you eat really sticky heavy congesting foods your mucosa, mucus is going to be a lot sticky and heavier and it’s going to catch all that pollen and not let it go so by changing the quality of your diet you actually are able to resist the pollens from activating an immune response. It’s apart from the fact that all those foods just kind of set off your immune system so that all it takes, like the straw that breaks the camel’s back, is just this one external influence of pollen to just allow everything to just go into a state of disorder. Allergies are like building block, let’s say you need to go over a threshold of 100 to have an allergic symptom; stress accounts for 20%, let’s say that what you’re eating accounts for another 70%, so there you’re just at a hundred, and then pollen comes along, boom! You’re right over the threshold. Some of those things you can remove and some of those things you can’t. You might be able to reduce your stress but probably not completely but you could end up reducing a lot of the foods that you eat that are problematic. I figured this out when I was 18 that I’ve I didn’t eat dairy and flour in the months leading up to hay fever season I wouldn’t have any hay fever symptoms. I figured that out at a fairly young age, because it was so debilitating for me, it just wasn’t worth it. It could be a challenge though, because some people just really like those foods and have a hard time giving them up. It’s like a person that eats the foods and gets heartburn every time they eat that food but they keep eating it. It’s like they know that it causes heartburn but they keep doing it to themselves anyway. Ultimately it’s like, what do you prefer in your life, that five minutes of gustatory satisfaction or days of feeling unwell. For me it was a pretty easy assessment to make. Avoid those flour products, dairy products, sugar, absolutely. Support your liver function because your liver is the organ which is detoxifying all these substances, and if it’s overwhelmed then the substances that are coming into the body are not going to be properly processed and it’s going to increase the overall inflammatory load. You want to support the function of the liver, that’s the way a lot of traditional herbs work as well. If you have seasonal allergies, like in your nose, there’s a technique that we use from Ayurveda that’s really good for this. It’s called Nasya. What you do is in the morning when you get up is you take a few drops of sesame oil, two or three drops of sesame oil and instill them into each nostril. Each time you do it just snort that oil back into your nasal pharynx and that oil will come down the back of your throat, and it will bring with it mucus and you just want to like expectorate that mucus out to your mouth. You follow that by yoga practice called Nadi Shodhana on Aloma voluma which is alternate nostril breathing. This technique takes literally three or four minutes a day, but if you do that in conjunction with those dietary changes, you won’t have any seasonal allergies. I’ve treated this many times, very confident in that basic technique.

    Reena: Really so the nasty oil that I’ve typically used, is the one that I purchased, the doctor lads Nausea Oil, I just get it off of Amazon, it has like four or five things in it. You’re saying it could be something as simple as just sesame oil, that you just take a dropper and pour in your each nostril, is that correct?

    Todd: Yep!

    Reena: Wow I didn’t realize it was that simple. Let’s say there’s someone who’s listening and has severe allergies and they say that you’ve inspired them Todd, they’re gonna fix their diet, they’re gonna get rid of the dairy and the grains and the sugars and the white flours and they’re gonna go in this very healthy diet and they’re gonna do the sesame oil in the nose because they’re gonna watch some videos in YouTube and they’re gonna do they’re Nadi Shodhana exercise. How quickly can they heal? How quickly can they start to see relief?

    Todd: In a matter of weeks typically they should start seeing results within a week and I would say by two or three weeks they should notice a very big reduction in symptoms and by a month they should be symptom free. Now that might not be every single persons case, some people might have very long-standing issues but when the correct measure is applied it’s like a key in a lock, and everything just follows suit. It’s not that difficult to promote those changes. It takes a lot of mental conditioning because people aren’t usually aware of how significant it is to stop eating bread, because it’s such a go to food for them, like they come home from work, they’re hungry, have some bread. When you remove that from their diet they’re like, “There’s nothing else to eat!” Of course there’s lots to eat but it doesn’t feel like that initially. It takes some retraining of the mind and that’s a bigger process. If someone is seeing me as a patient and I can walk them through all these steps and absolutely it’s just a matter of weeks, for someone doing on their own that doesn’t have that support, it may take them a little longer, or there’ll be some issues that arise that they have to work through, but nonetheless if they just follow that basic protocol, avoiding sugar, flour products, dairy. If they just did that for me and did nothing else, didn’t even bother doing the nausea oil or nadi shodhana they will get significant results. There’s also some additional things, I mentioned herbs that they can take. For years I prescribed a really cheap effective Chinese patent formula called Pe min kan wan, it’s it helps to break up all the congestion in the respiratory system. So it’s pe min kan wan, it’s P-E next word M-I-N next word K-A-N then W-A-N, which means tablet, pe min kan wan. They’re very cheap. You get them off Amazon. They also go by the name nasal clear and you can take we’re between 3 & 5 of those little green pills 2, 3 times a day while you are engaged in this weaning process and that will provide some very good herbal support to relieve off your symptoms.

    Reena: Will that also help with things like red eyes, itchy allergy eyes, or is it primarily for congestion?

    Todd: Absolutely. It’s the same allergic reaction, so I don’t get that either. When I was a kid, eating all those foods, we had cows. Our backyard used to be a border on a pasture and I cut the lawn and I would just be feeding the cows the grass. I would just be covered in hives, sneezing my head off. I can literally stick my head into fresh-cut grass, I don’t have any reaction to it whereas before it would they would send me into an allergic spiral.

    Reena: That’s incredible that the body gets so sensitive to something so basic as grass and you do a few things and it just calms down. It sounds so simple, given that there are billion dollar industries that are built around helping people with this issue. You made it sound so simple Todd.
    Tood: Consider this one thing. What is wheat, wheat is a grass, so if you have allergies to grass stop eating it.

    Reena: There you go, how profound is that.

    Todd: You’re overloading your body.

    Reena: Yeah, absolutely. Well there’s a whole fad around drinking wheatgrass.

    Todd: It’s a different thing, the grass itself doesn’t contain the same amino acid substances as the seed itself. We talked about that a little bit last time but nonetheless I know that if I have wheat grass, I feel in my body and it’s not necessarily a positive thing. I think some people take it because it actually induces an allergic response and they get kind of pepped up that kind of stimulated from this allergic response. It’s the same effect that sometimes people get from taking spirulina, some of these other green foods that might be a little toxic to us, they get a kind of a stimulus response effect. It’s really just the nervous system going to a little bit of overdrive but it’s not necessarily a good thing.

    Reena: So spirulina, I had not heard that about spirulina. I’d absolutely heard about wheatgrass and how if you have allergies to wheat you really shouldn’t be drinking wheatgrass juice no matter what the new fad says but I had not heard the same around spirulina. I’ve heard that both chlorella tablets and spirulina are fantastic in terms of anti-inflammatory and healing and having micronutrients. I guess we have one more question for you. What are your thoughts on those two?

    Todd: Well we all live in the same world and we can’t say that people’s experiences of reality could be so different so as to create all this confusion. But spirulina is a blue-green algae, it’s a contaminant of fresh water supplies, so that public health officials who are given the task of ensuring healthy safe water, when they see blue-green algae growing in our aquifers then they shut down the water supply. Then they purify that water. They tell people and their dog owners, don’t let your dog go into this lake because there’s a blue-green algae bloom. So it’s a contaminant of water on the one hand and then on the other hand it’s the proposed superfood. So how can we live in the same reality and say that both are true. The reality is that, if you were walking past a lake and it had blue-green algae growing in it, you wouldn’t stop there to get water out of it. You’d be like “Ooh! I’m not gonna get water from that! So slimy and green.” You want to get your water from a fast flowing glacial Creek, it’d be great that’s what you want but not from some you know congested slow-moving body of water that has all these things. Yes, stagnant pond. You wouldn’t want to do that. The reality is that there just isn’t a history of people eating the blue-green algae in any significant way, now that said I don’t have the same problems with the green algae, with the chlorella. I don’t see any issues with that but on scientific basis we know specifically that the blue-green algae can contain the neurotoxins that the chlorella does not have. This is my concern, is that the blue-green algae has one particular neurotoxin called BMAA. It’s a well-defined neurotoxin that’s established in the medical literature and as far as I know all the companies that are producing spirulina do not test for all the different toxins that are naturally found in spirulina, they don’t publish them, they don’t have any like standard limit for acceptability etc. It’s a little bit like the Wild West, so I might not be against spirulina if those manufacturers could absolutely say that they tested their product for all the different types of neurotoxins that are naturally found in spirulina, or potentially found in spirulina and ensure that they’re not in there but they’re not doing that and that’s why I caution people against them.

    Reena: Got it and would the effect of that neurotoxin be immediate or overtime?

    Todd: Be over time and it would cause like an ALS-like symptomology, like Lou Gehrig’s disease. We’re talking severe problems. I’m happy to send you a paper on it, there’s a landmark paper that was written on it.

    Reena: How are these things being allowed, I mean it’s really unfortunate that something that could cause such severe long-term reactions is allowed to be sold with no supervision whatsoever and is openly marketed and supported by a lot of really famous popular people. So of course a lot of people like me that listen to them saying “hey if this so-and-so is recommending spirulina, I’m gonna add it to my diet” not really understanding that there might be some severe repercussions down the road, according to what you’re sharing.

    Todd: Absolutely! I actually wrote a blog on this and I’ve tried to publicize it and let people know I’ve spoken out against blue-green algae many times. It’s not to say that I’m a hundred percent against it but I have a lot of concern about where it’s sourced how it’s manufactured and what kind of testing that they use. I can tell you that the hype around it, because blue-green algae started off as a multi-level marketing product and that’s why there’s this persistent hype around it, because it still has that same kind of hard sell to it, that this is the one thing it’s gonna change your life. It’s just it doesn’t do it. I haven’t seen it and because I’ve been with that for thirty years. I’ve seen people take it and it not make any change and sometimes make some deleterious changes to their health. Here’s the thing, you know that I’m affiliated with Ayurveda. Ayurveda has been around for thousands and thousands of years when you look at a thousand years of time it’s not that many human generations. Not much time for people to get something right, so my general thesis is that if it hasn’t been around for a thousand years I just willing just to trust it. That sounds like maybe a little obtuse, but the thing is that, yeah a thousand years isn’t that much time to really test if something is true. That might seem kind of weird to say because in medicine and we have all this evidence, but one thing you understand about medicine is that medicine has about a 40-year shelf life, which is to say that clinical truths only lasts about 40 years before they begin to fall apart. You see this all the time, like this is the state of the art for treating this particular disease, 40 years from now I’d be like “You know we were doing it completely wrong. We had it backwards.” They will never admit like that but it’s like “Yeah we don’t do that anymore.” We don’t do electroshock therapy for PMS like we used to. We don’t use HRT anymore for a menopausal women like we used to. The thing is you have to understand that if something hasn’t been around for a long time it hasn’t really stood that test of time and that’s why I appreciate Ayurveda and other truths and its methods so much because they’ve been vetted by generation after generation to determine whether or not they’re safe and effective. Something like Spirulina, it doesn’t have that history behind it. It’s really something it just came about in the 1980s as a get rich scheme for some people that would harvest the blue-green algae in Klamath lake, which is sitting on a migratory bird group which is full of bird poop. The fecal coliform counts were super high in the original product. It’s just to have to go on and on about it, but I think it’s important when you’re placing your faith in natural medicine make sure that it isn’t misplaced by a flash in the pan. Make sure that it has empiricism behind it because if it doesn’t have the science behind it, necessarily, then you want to make sure that it is the long-held traditional practice.

    Reena: Yeah. That it really goes back to what were your ancestors eating. What was their diet and lifestyle like at least from an Indian perspective. We have a very rich tradition and culture and it is lost now to those of us who’ve not been in India. I wasn’t raised in India and so my exposure to it has been minimal but whenever I would visit it was very clear that they all kind of had some you know, the way they ate their food, when they did their food, what they mixed with what. Sort of the whole meal was very structured and apparently it was all based on word of mouth. Kids learning from parents how to cook their food and when to eat what. A lot of rich history in eating the right way for health, that is certainly lost to a lot of us, and I think you’re reminding us again go back to basics, go back to the trusted source of information for your own personal help. I may be looking to my Indian tradition but someone from Europe might be looking to their tradition to seeing what foods were eaten in their culture and maybe someone from Mexico or Spain is going to go back to their tradition. So really going back to your own ancient traditions and cultures in terms of eating for health, is that a fair statement?

    Todd: It is, but we live in a global culture and I’m inspired by that. Look at me, I’m a white guy with blue eyes that practices Ayurveda, certainly isn’t a part of my family tradition. I think that we have so much to teach each other. I don’t see distinct borders around ethnicity and geography. I think that we can all benefit from that knowledge and then, of course we always need to relate it to our individual self. Given that I’m Northern European heritage there are some things that are practiced in Ayurveda or India which might not necessarily be ideally appropriate to me but it doesn’t mean that I should just follow, the ancient traditions of England or something, even if they could be unearthed, much of that has been lost. Because there’s been so much damage to traditional knowledge that it’s a patchwork and we have to bring it together, so I’m inspired by all these different global traditions and we have to pay attention to individual factors. Of course our own ancestry is important, but even more than that ancestry just our own individual experience is important, this is where it comes down to listening to your own body. There’s no substitute for that. It’s your body, you listen to it, you are the best one to determine whether or not something is appropriate or inappropriate, so you need to listen to your body.

    Reena: Great words of wisdom Todd you’re amazing thank you so much for taking all this great time to share your insights, share your learnings. Thank you so much and keep doing the great work you’re doing and we’ll post all the links to your site, to your books, and to some of the herbs that you mentioned in the show notes, but again I want to thank you so much for your time.

     

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