Learn True Health with Ashley James

Episodes About Fasting Mentioned In Today's Episode: 230: https://www.learntruehealth.com/fasting-for-healing 369: https://www.learntruehealth.com/cancer-causing-chemicals 390: https://www.learntruehealth.com/modified-fasting Self-talk episodes: https://www.learntruehealth.com/?s=self+talk Go here to check out the answer to our broken health insurance industry  learntruehealth.com/healthcare   503: From Self-Talk to Autophagy: Ashley’s Inspiring 5-Day Water Fast Experience   https://www.learntruehealth.com/from-self-talk-to-autophagy-ashleys-inspiring-5-day-water-fast-experience In this captivating podcast episode, Ashley and her husband Duffy delve into their transformative experience with a water-only fast, shedding light on its profound effects on their minds and bodies. They explore various intriguing topics, including the power of self-talk, the remarkable process of autophagy, the intricate workings of the addiction brain, and ultimately the liberating sense of freedom they discovered through this challenging yet enlightening journey. Tune in as they share their insights and reflections, offering a fascinating perspective on the holistic benefits of fasting and its impact on overall well-being. Highlights:  Ashley's first five-day water-only fast Power of self-talk and overcoming resistance Autophagy and its healing effects Insights into the addiction brain Discovering freedom through fasting Intro: Welcome to the Learn True Health podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James. This is Episode 503. [0:00:13.9] Ashley James: Hello, true health seeker, and welcome to another exciting episode of Learn True Health podcast. I just finished my first five-day fast, and I know my husband is shaking his head. He feels like I'm really late to the party. How many fasts have you done? How long have you been fasting?  [0:00:33.7] Duffy James: At least, maybe, half a dozen, or maybe more. I don't know, eight? [0:00:37.1] Ashley James: Yeah, we kind of lost track. But when did you start fasting?  [0:00:40.3] Duffy James: It was right after I stopped eating meat since early 2018. My first one was around July mid-2018, I think.  [0:00:55.2] Ashley James: I remember one that you did in 2020, February of 2020. I remember that one because it was like 17 days, and that stuck in my mind. I remember what we were doing. It was right before all the COVID shenanigans, and that was a 17-day one. How was the longest one you've done? [0:01:17.9] Duffy James: I can't remember if it was 21 or 28 days now because I don't keep track of it. [0:01:23.0] Ashley James: You just kind of go, and then the days go by. [0:01:25.1] Duffy James: Yeah, they do.  [0:01:27.3] Ashley James: So my husband has slowly become way more of a fasting expert than me. [0:01:33.6] Duffy James:  Not an expert. I just can do it. It's system muscle, right?  [0:01:37.2] Ashley James: Yeah, well, so this has been, I guess, my third official fast in my life. I did when I was a kid because I had to because they were doctor's orders. Actually, I wasn't a kid; I was thirteen. And that was the doctor's order, though, because I had a stomach bug. And he's like, you have to stop eating. I'm like, what? And then I did it, and I was fine. I was just hungry all the time, but I was 13. [0:01:58.6] Duffy James: Well, it wouldn't work now because you don't take orders from doctors.  [0:02:00.9] Ashley James: Yeah, I don't take orders from doctors. I do take advice from holistic doctors. [0:02:05.1] Duffy James: True. But you don't want medicine—those kinds of doctors. [0:02:08.8] Ashley James: Yeah, those kinds of doctors. Then they also had me on antibiotics. So it was my first time ever to be on antibiotics, actually. I was thirteen, and it's totally my fault because I binged on Halloween candy against my mother's wishes. And that's what you get when you rebel and eat too much sugar. [0:02:26.5] Duffy James: You have an addictive personality. Is that what it is?  [0:02:27.7] Ashley James: Yeah, and you also happen to have an addiction brain. But I learned my lesson. So, yeah, I just finished my first five-day fast, and I've gotten a lot of insights, and I wanted to hit record and share it because I thought it would be really helpful. But I wanted to just jam with my husband Duffy here because he's done so many fasts since 2018. How many years did you think you did?  [0:02:55.1] Duffy James: I think, two. It's been two.  [0:02:58.0] Ashley James: Yeah. I mean, sometimes when you just don't eat, you're just like, I don't eat today. And you will just do it. And then sometimes it'll be like, I didn't eat yesterday, so I guess I'm fasting. [0:03:13.0] Duffy James: And I don't feel hungry anymore.  [0:03:14.7] Ashley James: Did you feel hunger before fasting?  [0:03:18.5] Duffy James: Yeah. Even on the first couple. But these last few I've done, it's just like, okay, I'm not going to do it, and then I don't, and I don't feel any hunger or any shift until my body starts slowing down for not having enough fuel.  [0:03:35.3] Ashley James: I wanted to definitely ask you a few questions since you've done so many fasts, and now it's transformed your body. It transformed more than just physical. It has transformed your relationship to food, your relationship to hunger and hunger cues, and food doesn't have that hold on you as much as it did. So I definitely want to ask you a few questions. But I'd like to share some of my stuff.  Okay, so before I get into my story, I wanted to say to listeners because I know there's going to be one, just like my mother-in-law freaking out right now because on day 2 of my fast, she goes, “What about the people who die of starvation?” And she's looking at me, and I'm like, “Do I look like I'm going to die of starvation in five days of not eating?” But for someone who's never missed a meal or never has missed a day of eating, for so many people who eat three meals a day, the thought of not eating is crazy. It's ridiculous. And Duffy did that. He's making gestures with his hands, like putting his hands by his head and going ‘boom.' [0:04:39.3] Duffy James: I think I could do that because I have a face for podcasts.  [0:04:42.5] Ashley James: Yes, and you have a voice for podcasts too. But it's definitely a mental shift, and I resisted fasting so much. But I had Dr. Alan Goldhamer on the show back in Episode #230. I remember that because that is Duffy's, one of his dad jokes. What is keto, the joke? [0:05:06.5] Duffy James: You already said it.  [0:05:08.4] Ashley James: Well, I didn't say the joke.  [0:05:09.2] Duffy James: What's the perfect time to go to the dentist?  [0:05:10.9] Ashley James: It's what? [0:05:11.8] Duffy James: It's at 2:30.  [0:05:12.3] Ashley James: 2:30. Tooth hurty. Yes, your tooth is hurting, so tooth hurty, yeah. So, Episode #230 with Dr. Alan Goldhamer. He runs a fasting clinic, and he's a holistic doctor. It's really interesting this whole episode because he talks about an example, one of them being a woman who came to his clinic with end-stage cancer and left his clinic a month later without cancer. So what happened? What happened in that one month? And he talks about autophagy and this amazing process of how the body, after 30 hours of fasting, is digesting pathological tissue. It's like turning the dishwasher on. We need to clean out our bodies and clean out the pathological tissue. And we were actually supposed to fast. And he talks about how we, as humans, fasted regularly out of necessity before we figured out how to store food, so our body went into healing mode as a means of survival and cleansing. And so he reassures us that anywhere from one to five days is completely healthy under normal circumstances. I mean, if you're on a bunch of medications, you should definitely speak to someone, like speak to the naturopathic physician or licensed doctor that's also hopefully holistic-minded that can guide you through it.  [0:06:43.6] Duffy James: Usually, a lot of churches can help too because that's part of the. [0:06:46.9] Ashley James: Oh yeah, that's why we keep hearing our church say stuff like, you got to fast and pray, fast and pray.  [0:06:54.4] Duffy James: We got the fasting part figured out.  [0:06:56.4] Ashley James: We definitely got the fasting part figured out. I always wondered why fasting and praying. Is it just because you're sacrificing yourself? Is it because it really prepares the mind? [0:07:05.6] Duffy James: It changes your frequency, right? Remember, that's what got me started in fasting. It's that episode you did with the woman, I don't know her name, but she talked about the different energies of food and how that animal is like the lowest frequency that you can get your body.  [0:07:21.4] Ashley James: Robyn Openshaw?  [0:07:22.2] Duffy James: Oh, okay.  [0:07:23.2] Ashley James: Yup, Robyn Openshaw came on the show a few times, and one of them was Episode #390, and in Episode #390, she talked about how we can do modified fasting for people who are maybe on medications or can't do full water-only fasting. There's a way to do modified fasting or eating a little bit, but it's under a certain amount of calories so that you still trigger autophagy which is the healthy, programmed cell death star. I'm sorry, that's apoptosis. Autophagy is the healthy cell cleansing where the cell digests its own pathological tissues and digests scars and cysts. This has been published in clinical observations, but in some cases, tumors are even known to be digested by the body during an extended fast.  Another really interesting episode I did was with Troy Reicherter, and this was Episode #369. That's another one to check out if you're interested in learning more about fasting. He does a 30-day fast once a year. And you got him beat because you do two fasts a year. You're not doing a full 30-day fast, but you do two or three weeks fast. [0:08:38.0] Duffy James: It's kind of three. I think there was a year that I skipped because I think I've done eight. So, however many that is. [0:08:46.9] Ashley James: Well, okay, eight very long fasts compared to me. [0:08:51.9] Duffy James: Well, now that you're doing it, I'll probably do it more.  [0:08:54.1] Ashley James: We'll see.  [0:08:55.7] Duffy James: We'll see because you've had success.  [0:08:56.4] Ashley James: I've had success, and I'm looking forward to doing more. Let me walk you through my fast and why I did it. Sometime about a week ago, maybe it was in church; I can't actually remember when it happened. But I got a voice saying, you're starting a fast on Friday. And I'm like, okay.  [0:09:22.9] Duffy James: But what was the date? [0:09:24.7] Ashley James: I don't remember. Do you remember when I told you I was going to start the fast? Because I was like, it might have been last Monday, but I got a message. [0:09:38.7] Duffy James: Oh, that. I don't think you shared that.   [0:09:41.0] Ashley James: No, I know. That's why you're looking so surprised because I haven't told you this yet. But I got a definite divine… [0:09:47.5] Duffy James: Request? [0:09:49.9] Ashley James: Command? I don't know.  [0:09:52.4] Duffy James: Well, you have free will.  [0:09:53.0] Ashley James: I do have free will, but it was definitely like a strong suggestion. But it wasn't an internal voice and nudge. It was a spiritual nudge. It was a divine nudge. So the Holy Spirit said, “Hey, guess what? You're doing a fast on Friday.” And I'm like, “Alright, I'm ready.” And the thing is, every time I thought about doing fasting, I would always come up with excuses like, “Oh no, I have an interview next week.” There are no five days in which I didn't have something on my plate, and I'm like, “Well, I have to have to be eating for this.” That was my first excuse. My brain would come up with all kinds. So the body doesn't want to fast. Your brain wants you to keep eating, and it doesn't like the idea of fasting. So it's going to tell you all kinds of things. So my brain was like, “Well, you have an interview. You can't do it. You have this business phone call. You have these client calls. You can't not be eating.” [0:10:56.1] Duffy James: You know what I'm thinking of? It's how your dad was a master salesperson. So you got him in your head, selling you. You've got his skills in your head, so you can talk to yourself at a master level.  [0:11:13.9] Ashley James: I have my own sales.  [0:11:16.1] Duffy James: And then with all your training, and all.  [0:11:17.2] Ashley James: Yeah, you know, like the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. I've got a little salesman on one shoulder. It's my body speaking to me like, “Okay, these are the reasons why you're not going to do it. I'm going to totally sell you on not doing it.” So your brain can be pretty convincing. And then the other reasons were like, “Well, you have to cook every day for your family. You can't do that. You can't fast, and there are lots of reasons.” But something happened, and I think it's been working on me for a while. I don't know if you've ever had that experience where you feel like the holy spirit's working on you for a while, and it's suggesting, nudging, and bringing things to your attention, putting videos in front of you, or putting whatever it is in front of you over and over. You feel like it's maybe whittling away layers of, I don't know… [0:12:07.2] Duffy James: Pulling out the spiritual earplugs.  [0:12:09.3] Ashley James: Yes, yeah, and those layers of resistance of, “No, I don't want to change. I like being comfortable. I don't want to be uncomfortable.” So I'm just going to say the holy spirit said, “Go fast.” And it was Friday. It was just very specific. So I said, “Okay.” And I looked at my schedule, and it's like, “Well, I guess we'll see how I feel. I might have to reschedule this. I might have to reschedule that.” But you know what? I'm ready. I've been thinking about it for a long time. [0:12:38.7] Duffy James: I was really excited for you when you told me. I would have been way more excited if you told me about the spiritual nudge. [0:12:45.1] Ashley James: Right.  [0:12:47.2] Duffy James: I get what it was for now. [0:12:47.6] Ashley James: Yeah, it was for now. He's smiling. I wish you could see him. He's proud of me. That's cool. So here we have this, “Okay, I'm going for it.” I did not want to tell Duffy because I'm then committed. Once I tell my husband, he's going to feel like, “Where's this fast?” if I back out, if I chicken out. [0:13:09.8] Duddy James: I'm going to hold you accountable.  [0:13:10.5] Ashley James: I know. So I told him pretty much right away, though. Because I remember, I think we were standing in the kitchen, then I was like, “Hey, so by the way, Friday, I'm starting a fast. [0:13:19.8] Duffy James: Yes, you were pretty excited. [0:13:21.6] Ashley James: And I knew the second I said it, it was real. So I had to do it as soon as possible before I chickened out. And then Thursday, I had plans to go to the spa with my friend to celebrate something that happened in her life, and I really overdid it. We spent like three hours in the hot tub and then in the sauna. And I was chugging water the whole time, but I was acting kind of invincible, and that's not recommended. Usually, when I do infrared, it's for thirty minutes, not for three hours. So I came home very dehydrated with like a heat stroke headache. I pulled out all my holistic stuff and got myself on the mend. But that was an interesting way to start a fast because the next day, I was kind of wrecked from being in a sauna and a hot tub for three hours, feeling a little bit hungover. But I was committed. I was like, “Okay. Now I'm starting my fast.” I've been drinking water. And so all day Friday, I just felt really awful and hungry, and at some point, the headache from the heat stroke went away. And then the headache from not eating took over. [0:14:31.9] Duffy James: Yeah, Friday was pretty rough for you.  [0:14:33.4] Ashley James: Friday was rough. But all in all, it wasn't unmanageable. I never needed it. I don't go on pain meds. I have to be feeling really bad to go to an over-the-counter. Yeah, I would have to be really, really bad. CBD cream on my neck and shoulders helped, magnesium soak, and doing a PS really helped. I used the phototherapy patches. That really helped. And I used bioactive carbon supplements through Dr. Jay Davidson. He is amazing. Go listen to his two episodes. I don't have the numbers pulled up right now. But if you type Jay Davidson in learntruehealth.com, you'll listen to him. He created a carbon supplement that soaks up toxins, and it really works. I took four of those capsules, and within twenty minutes, I felt it sucking away the toxins, and I started really feeling better. You can check that out by going to learntruehealth.com/cleanse.  So all of these things — I'm pulling out all the stuff, and of course, the phototherapy patches were so helpful. Hunger was manageable. It was just drinking water, but what was really interesting was every fifteen seconds, my brain would say, “Hey, it's time to eat. You're hungry. It's time to eat. You're hungry.” I wonder if you've ever had self-talk that was insistent, like your brain and body are going,” It's time to eat.” And then I would say — I would think this in my head, “No, I'm fasting.” And then my brain will go, “Oh, yeah.” Fifteen seconds later, “It's time to eat. You're hungry.” And I always had this constant OCD thought. I had to constantly remind myself. It was really interesting. I had to constantly remind myself, “I'm fasting. Oh yeah,” over and over again. It was like noise in my head, just constant noise. And so this was it. But on the first day, I was like, this is impossible. It was just like the chatter. Like, “I'm hungry,” and I had to keep saying, “I'm fasting. I'm fasting. Drink water, drink water.” The next day, Saturday, I was feeling pretty good. I was a little tired in the morning, but I was in a good mood, and I noticed that it was only every forty-five seconds I had to tell my brain that we were fasting instead of every fifteen. I felt just a little bit light-headed, not too bad, and it would come and go, and it was totally manageable. And then we ended up taking our son to the park. We went for a long walk with our friend and her kids, and I felt great the whole time. I thought I brought enough water. Always bring more water than you think you need because I brought what I thought was enough water. And then our son spilled half of a jar, and then he drank the other half. So I ended up running out of water, and so I'm like, “No, I got to get home.” [0:17:29.3] Duffy James: That's one of the main things I like about fasting. It's so easy to get water in. You just chug it. [0:17:37.1] Ashley James: Yeah, you got to drink it. Also, I want to know how much my fast was helped by drinking the structured water from the analemma; all the water I stirred with the analemma. And I have an episode about that, with structured water. You can check it out on the website as well, learntruehealth.com. You can find it there. And so, Saturday, I came home, and I had a tiny, maybe 1 out of 10 headache. I drank some water. I even went to the grocery store to get some supplies for the kid who never stops eating and is growing like a weed. I came home, and I just felt good. And then, Sunday, I was on top of the world. That was just day three. [0:18:29.6] Duffy James: I believe that's the high. [0:18:31.5] Ashley James: I was on top of the world, and I was just really full of energy. I was actually surprised at how full of energy I was. And we ended up going to church, and I couldn't believe that I stood, we sang. I felt so good. I felt so full. And I noticed something shifting because that constant, “You're hungry. Eat. You're hungry. Eat,” was gone. Maybe three or four times that day, it was like, “I'm hungry.” And I was like, “Yeah, but we're fasting.” Okay, and I'd drink some water, and it would go away. The hunger doesn't stay. It would come, and it would be painful. Not painful, but it would be uncomfortable, which is what we don't like. We don't like being uncomfortable. Our body doesn't like being uncomfortable. But that's something that we need. We need to be uncomfortable at times to push, grow, and learn.  So Sunday, this is day three, I just felt amazing. And I noticed these moments where my mind was empty in a good way; that I was just being in the now. And I kind of lost the capacity, somewhere around day two, to fully multitask. Women can sometimes listen to the radio, listen to kids talking, text, do three or four things at a time.  [0:19:54.8] Duffy James: Yeah, I see you do that. I still don't believe it. I don't know. I can't. I'm, like, one channel. [0:19:57.2] Ashley James: I can do it. Usually, I can multitask. [0:20:04.6] Duffy James: I know. I still won't believe it when you do it.  [0:20:06.5] Ashley James: I know. I can do it. But on the fast, there was only one channel. And so, when I was driving, our son started talking to me, I'm like, “No, no, no, I'm driving. I can only focus on driving. I can't also focus on you talking.” And I just noticed that this single channel took over. And that's where I think the praying, the fasting and meditating, or fasting and praying, comes in because there's no chatter. There's no chaos going on in my brain. It was peaceful in my brain. Other than the occasional, like my body nagging for food. [0:20:43.0] Duffy James: When your brain has changed its state, it's in a break state. [0:20:46.4] Ashley James: It is a break state, yeah.  [0:20:47.8] Duffy James: And on a slower time frame.  [0:20:52.1] Ashley James: So then Sunday afternoon, evening, I started getting this huge rush. Now, I was also wearing the phototherapy patches, which I definitely think was one of the reasons why I had this huge rush of energy, and I spent hours picking away at the house, cleaning, running around, and Duffy just wanted me to sit down and chill with him, and watch some TV which he normally does not. He very seldom.  [0:21:17.3] Duffy James: I needed you in the evening to slow down. [0:21:19.1] Ashley James: Yeah, he was trying to get me to slow down so he'd put on something on TV for me, and I was like, “No, we're cleaning. I want to run around.” And I got really productive. I also noticed that I was very hot like I was making a lot of heat in my body. So it was like burning off energy, and I just felt happiness, peace, and I felt fulfillment. Not full of food, but I felt full of spirit. So then, I don't know what, I hit a wall. So Sunday was the best. That was day three. Originally I was only going to do a three-day fast because I wasn't told how long the fast was supposed to be. I was just told you're starting to fast on Friday. And originally, I was going to do three days, and then Duffy's like… [0:22:02.3] Duffy James: Well, you don't get the benefits until day five. [0:22:04.9] Ashley James: Well, come on. You do get some benefits on day three. The big stuff happens on day five, like the human growth hormone spike and the stem cells spike. There are some great benefits for 5-days. To be honest, there was, I think, a part of me that was kind of terrified because we have a friend, who's a naturopathic doctor, and she's afraid of fasting because a long time ago, she had a boyfriend who fasted, and then she had to rush him to the hospital. This was back before she was a doctor, and she didn't know what was going on and so she's afraid of fasting. She's like, “Don't ever fast. It's so bad for you.” She was so afraid of it. And I've talked to so many doctors there since then who were saying, “Yeah if you do it properly.” Sure, some people can experience some issues, but for the most, it's very safe. There are ways to get around issues and start slow. Don't do more, like Dr. Goldhamer says, don't do more than a five-day fast. Like he says, one to five-day fasts is totally safe to do at home as long as you're in fairly good health. You're not on a bunch of meds. And then my husband's like, “No, I'm just going to listen to my body, and I'm just going to keep fasting until… [0:23:19.3] Duffy James: Yeah, I didn't really have any trouble. Something comes up, usually, and it's like, I should probably get back to food. I think every time I end it, it's because of some external circumstance. But I wanted to keep going. But it was like, in my best interest to eat.  [0:23:34.2] Ashley James: Yeah. But it's usually like two or three weeks, and then you refeed. So, something happened yesterday, and I hit a bit of a wall. Wall in that, I was hoping the energy I had on Sunday would continue. And that was not the case. My body wanted to rest, and maybe that's because I was kind of coming out of the third day. I'm coming into the 5th day, the fourth day. There were some big transitions for me, and my body wanted to rest. And so we went to the park; I brought my lawn chair, and I sat in the sun, put my feet up, and closed my eyes. My friend, we were talking, and half the time, I couldn't even keep my eyes open. I was yawning, chugging water, yawning, watching the kids play, and just relaxing. And what I noticed is that that level of peace deepened, and I had really just a deep and full sense of peace. That's when I was like, oh yeah. I get the whole meditation, praying, or fasting thing because I'm already there. I'm already halfway into meditation, just sitting in my lawn chair, just relaxing into my body. There's definitely an experience of emotions, an experience of the spiritual aspect of yourself and of life. And I started to reflect on the things I've been working on, on myself, and the things I'm improving. I'm healing, and I'm grappling with the idea of an addiction brain and how I would look at food, like preparing food for our son or you. I'd look at food while I was on the fast, and I'd look at it, and I go, you know, there's this part of me that it's like, there's never enough. There's a pit inside, and nothing will satisfy that pit, and I think that's the addiction brain, right? Like nothing will satisfy that, and it was an interesting observation. I kind of looked at this from different angles throughout the years, but to look at it from a fast, it's like it's okay. It's okay not to try to fill that unfillable void.  [0:25:53.7] Duffy James: It's a totally new perspective for your brain.  [0:25:56.3] Ashley James: Yeah. And also, it's like looking at a part of me that I'm ashamed of. Because in society, it's definitely not respected to have an addiction brain and to talk about it, right? And so, I feel vulnerable talking about it, but at the same time, it's like I'm also working on it. I'm looking at it like, when did this start? And I was asking myself, when did this start? As a kid, I remember I did not care about food. I did not think about food as a kid. [0:26:30.7] Duffy James: But when you usually talk about it, you'd say, “I turned into a teen. I started to rebel.” It was high school when you'd buy french fries in the lunchroom. [0:26:39.0] Ashley James: That's exact. And that's when I was at the park and with my eyes closed, just with the sun and the breeze, and just being with myself; it's like the fast gave me the ability to not have any mental capacity for handling tasks. I was not a taskmaster. So I just sat there, and I was just with myself. I remember as a child, I just ate what was put in front of me, whether I liked it or not. I wasn't happy when they fed me fish. I didn't like picking the bones out, but I ate it because I didn't think that there was a choice. And they would put food in front of me, and I'd eat it. Sometimes I'd like it, and sometimes I didn't. Once in a while, we'd go to the restaurant. I liked that. But during my life, I wasn't even thinking about food, overeating, emotional eating, or caring about it. And then, right around thirteen, when I had the antibiotics because I rebelled and ate the candy. That's my first experience with antibiotics. And so, just looking at the shift, and then I saw in my teenage years how my mom would put me on a diet after diet even though I wasn't overweight.  [0:27:51.0] Duffy James: And so, that might have messed up your metabolism that you're learning now. [0:27:55.7] Ashley James: Yeah. And then going towards food, because I had this void in me, the hurt and the rejection, and all that stuff from my parents and from being an angsty teenager, food is the drug and can be used like a drug. But now, coming out from the fast, it's like, I can see more clearly that part of me. When it's going like I just want 100 bowls of that food, or whatever it is, there's that part that's just there's no satisfying it. And can I quiet it? I don't always have it. But it definitely became loud in the fast because I wasn't eating. And that's what it wants. It wants to be fed. [0:28:51.8] Duffy James: But I think what you'll notice when you start eating as you're refeeding is that your relationship with food will have been completely reset. And the cravings, or at least this is what I noticed, that the food cravings or the need to eat out of boredom or anything like that, I felt like I had a completely new perspective on it. And I could just not be interested in it like I was for the same reasons that I was in the past. So it will be interesting to hear if you noticed that too. [0:29:27.4] Ashley James: Well, my second official fast, which was… [0:29:31.4] Duffy James: What were your two experiences? [0:29:34.2] Ashley James: So this is my third fast. My first was when I was thirteen. My second was right when we got the Sunlighten sauna, and our son broke his arm, right? That kind of happened right around the same time. That was 2017. So in 2017, I did a 3-day fast, and then I broke the fast because our son broke his arm. We had to go to the hospital, so I wanted to eat something so that I could handle the mental hula hoops I needed to go through because we were going to a children's hospital.  So overall, I had a really good experience. I noticed fears coming up around food, like interesting thoughts, and they weren't me. Sometimes it's like your thoughts, aren't you right? And so, I've become the observer of these thoughts, and I'd say, “That's interesting.” Like, this is an interesting thought because this thought was recurring. So I'm like, okay, so there's something to work here and uncover. It would help that I'd say, “Hey, this is a thought that I keep having, but it's not me. I don't own this thought, but it is a pattern, so there's something going on. And this thought kept coming up like, almost a few saying something like, “What if this doesn't fix me?” These are the fears. I know it's illogical, right? Fears aren't logical. But I kept going. This is interesting. So I go to the kitchen, and I cook you guys some food. I wouldn't eat, and then the chatter would come back. “Oh, I want to eat that.” And I'm like, “Well, how much do you want to eat it? Like, how much do you want it?” It's like, “I want all of it.” That void is like I want unlimited amounts. So the void, the addiction, the craving, or whatever it is, is like there's none. And I kept looking and going, but there was no amount that would satisfy that craving. So I don't need to try to satisfy it because there's no amount that would. The fear was something like, what if when I refed and got back to eating, it's all going to be the same? You know what I mean? What if this doesn't change me, or will this work? It was a weird, interesting thought. And I was like, okay. So I'm just observing this. I'm observing this thought because it's an irrational fear, right? But it was interesting because I guess these voices — not these voices. They weren't voices like a possession or demon or something. It was just more like the voices of this draw, this pull, this addiction. I keep calling it addiction because it's the best way I can describe it. Maybe I could call it a relationship I have with food and my self-talk around food. And so I just got to examine it.  So anyways, I had dinner tonight. This is my refeed, and it was a very small meal because it was like I did three steamed carrots and a little bit of mashed potatoes. I ate slowly. I chewed. And I noticed that I got full really fast. I mean, that's predictable, right? But I put the food down, and there's still food in the bowl, and I'm like, I'm fine. I'm done. And that's something I expected. I expected to do that. But there was peace. There was peaceful eating, and there was peace afterward. [0:32:59.8] Duffy James: But did you notice that when you set it down when you haven't finished it, you felt complete with it, instead of needing to feel complete with an empty dish? That was my thing because when I grew up, you ate everything on your plate, and it had to be done that way. So I think I had been programmed to finish my plate no matter what, and then the fasting showed me a feeling of need in the moment, instead of the need my brain is telling me or my programming is telling me to eat, to clear the plate.  [0:33:34.6] Ashley James: Not until too full. Like, we would just eat too much. And you know, the studies with longevity are that those who eat nutrient-dense food, low calories live the longest. They have the least amount of disease, and we can survive on way fewer calories. I know calories are not a good measurement for food because really it's about nutrient density. We don't need as much, and there's something beautiful about eating simple. And a lot of people rebel when I talk about cutting out oil, cutting out sugar, cutting out flour, cutting out salt. “What am I going to eat?” Or cutting out meat, or eggs, and dairy. [0:34:14.6] Duffy James: It seems when you're cutting out all these things, you have to buy or worry about, or it will go bad, or all these things. You just have to worry about so much less. [0:34:26.0] Ashley James: Just try. Try cutting out these foods. They're left with, “Well, food is not going to taste good.” [0:34:32.8] Duffy James: It's better.   [0:34:34.0] Ashley James: Well, it does. But first, you have to adapt your palate to that. And a lot of times, people's addiction brain comes up, or their relationship with food, and their rebellion with food, and how they seek pleasure and comfort from food — that comes up. And it's a big conflict because they want to stay comfortable instead of making themselves uncomfortable to get healthy. So it's a challenge, but it's interesting. Ask anyone who wants to be healthy. Ask them, “Are you willing to give up these foods in exchange for these foods and just eat vegetables, fruit, starchy vegetables, and some non-gluten grains? Can you eat brown rice, kale, and broccoli? First, they think it's going to be gross. I'm not going to get pleasure. What about the holidays? And that's just like me and the self-talk at the beginning of every time I thought about doing a fast. That self-talk comes up. It's like, “What about this? What about that? I couldn't eat that way. I couldn't do it.” It's like, why not? It's because of your relationship with food.  And so I was going into this fast. My intention really was to go into the experience. Everyone talks about how cool fasting and praying is, or fasting and meditating. So I wanted to know what's up. Does fasting really help prayer? Or does it feel like you're more connected to the source? And certainly, I did when I prayed because it's the only thing happening in my mind. It was the only thing happening in my body. I was so in the moment. That's another thing I haven't talked about. I was so in the moment. It's like the past melted away. The future melted away. I did not know what was happening in five minutes. I did not know what was happening tomorrow, and there was no anxiety about it, no worry about it. There's no thinking about the future. I was so in the now. My body was so present. I was just melted. It was like I melted away, and I just became the observer being in the moment. Even when we were cleaning, talking, walking, or just sitting, whatever I was doing, I just felt like I melted away, and I was just being in the moment. I had long stretches where there were no thoughts in my mind, and it was so peaceful. I was just in the moment, and I wasn't even trying to. That was just an effect of the fast. So I was like, there's something really cool about this. But everything came to the forefront and was really loud, so I could examine it easily.  [0:37:16.2] Duffy James: That's a good way to put it. [0:37:18.9] Ashley James: Yeah. It allowed me to mull over things like, “Oh, what's going on here?” Sometimes our worst enemies are our habits have created our own health problems — the things we choose to eat, the habits we choose to do, and the things we choose not to do. [0:37:39.8] Duffy James: And supporting those toxic systems that want you to eat toxic food. [0:37:43.9] Ashley James: Right, yeah. And all of that can be let go, and there's going to be resistance in your head. I don't know who it is. I don't know if it's the ego or if it's the unconscious, or if it's some kind of programming, or if it's the body, or if it's the dopamine you're seeking. Whoever it is, there's something in us that fights change, that fights the uncomfortable, that fights taking away little pleasures that are hurting us. And that fast brought forth a lot for me to process. So it was worth it. I really loved it, and I love that I had my husband here to cheer me on. And also, I can complain to him and say, “I'm hungry,” and he's like, “Keep going. You can do it.” And I'm like, “I know, but I'm hungry.” And then I would drink some water, and we would do something else. Oh, today, I'm on my fifth day, he gave me a foot rub, and that was really sweet of him. So thank you.  [0:38:45.9] Duffy James: You're welcome.  [0:38:48.3] Ashley James: So, your experience with fasting, did you have any ‘aha' moment that you can remember?  [0:38:53.8] Duffy James: I think the reset with the relationship with food, and it's more of a body experience instead of a mind or brain experience. [0:39:06.1] Ashley James: Yeah, cool. Anything you learned from refeeding after your fasts? [0:39:12.2] Duffy James: Oh, that. I suck at that. I go straight for food. I take the pain.  [0:39:18.7] Ashley James: It's not good for you. [0:39:19.5] Duffy James: It's just easier for me to do it that way. I know you freak out about it. [0:39:24.5] Ashley James: I definitely support him in refeeding by making him soups and smoothies, and what he's supposed to eat like soft foods for a few days, and then he's like, “Whatever! I want a burrito.”  [0:39:38.4] Duffy James: I was like, “When I'm done, I'm done.”  [0:39:40.6] Ashley James: You can't just go for a burrito. You need to not eat salt. You have to definitely make sure you avoid any form of added salt.  [0:39:51.1] Duffy James: But that's just my personality.  [0:39:52.6] Ashley James: I know, I know. For me and for the listeners, do you have any advice for people who've never fasted? [0:39:57.6] Duffy James: Well, do it. You just start. For any length of time, just pick a length of time and go for it.  [0:40:07.5] Ashley James: For those who've never fasted, how do you get over the initial hunger? How do you get over the initial feeling of being tired? How did you do it?  [0:40:16.3] Duffy James: Brute force. This is what's happening, and any pushback is ignored.  [0:40:25.9] Ashley James: I kind of felt like I had to dig deep into that. I know deep down I'm really powerful, and I can do whatever I really, really put my mind to. [0:40:36.3] Duffy James: I'd use a whole lot of won't power. I just won't do it.  [0:40:42.7] Ashley James: Right. I'm just going to drink water and not eat. [0:40:47.0] Duffy James: Right. Just set the intention and go.  [0:40:48.4] Ashley James: And warn your family that you might be grumpy because there were a few times I was hangry and… [0:40:53.5] Duffy James: You weren't that bad. [0:40:55.1] Ashley James: I know. But I wasn't sweet. [0:40:59.4] Duffy James: I can't see that any other way, so I don't know. [0:41:01.6] Ashley James: Look at this kissing up to me. Love it. Did you observe anything in me during my fast that I haven't talked about? Were you surprised I did five days?  [:41:19.0] Duffy James: No, I knew you could do it. I was bummed when you ended it because I was like, “Oh, go for seven,” because it gets better. [0:41:27.4] Ashley James: Tell us about how it gets better after day five. [0:41:30.3] Duffy James: I just remember it gets better. I need to journal because I don't. [0:41:36.2] Ashley James: Oh, you need to journal. You need to journal.  [0:41:42.2] Duffy James: There's no need to edit. [0:41:44.4] Ashley James: I'm not taking that out. It is down. You said it. It's on. [0:41:49.7] Duffy James: It's been said before.  [0:41:52.7] Ashley James: It's been said. That would be so cool. You should totally journal during your fast.  [0:41:56.5] Duffy James: Yeah, maybe I will.  [0:41:58.0] Ashley James: And that's why I'm doing this. This is my journal, by the way. You could do an audio journal if you wanted to.  [0:42:03.0] Duffy James: Click play, episode 510. [0:42:10.4] Ashley James: I think this is going to be 503. I'm not sure. I got to look. But yes, I'm going to play it for you, and you're like, “See? Listen to yourself. You say you need to journal.” Why are you sticking your fingers in your ears? What have you said in the past? This marriage didn't come with earplugs? [0:42:28.6] Duffy James: No, I did not.  [0:42:29.2] Ashley James: No? Alright. Well, I do remember on your fast that somewhere in week two, you're just kind of so happy. And you've never had moments where you can't drive. You act like yourself, which is great because I'm down to one channel. I can only do one task at a time when I'm fasting. And you, you're great. You do the dad stuff. You drive our kid around. You do stuff in the business. But in week two, I do notice that you sort of kind of got cold. [0:43:13.3] Duffy James: Oh, one thing that I did notice with two of the fasts that I've done that are longer than a week, is I was not strict with what went in my mouth. The gummy supplements we have, I would take a couple more. I would take a handful of cashews; that won't hurt anything. And that's a slippery slope. That's a lot harder to cheat. It's very hard to recover. Whereas if it's a strict fast, it's actually easier. You're not taunting yourself. So that would probably be the biggest advice. Don't even cheat a little bit, even though it's still considered fasting if it's less than 300 calories a day. [0:44:19.2] Ashley James: I think it depends. Yeah, somewhere around 500 calories. It's like if you're going to eat complex or starchy carbohydrates, it will take you out of ketosis. But there are certain foods you could eat. It's more of individuals. I know someone who could eat asparagus or zucchini, and it takes them out of ketosis. Whereas another person could eat a potato and they're still in ketosis. [0:44:42.3] Duffy James: I just found it was best not to. It's a slippery slope.  [0:44:47.0] Ashley James: Sometimes, occasionally, you would have an electrolyte drink or clear vegetable broth with no sodium, just for electrolytes, and you felt fine. But anything beyond that would put a monkey wrench in the whole thing, and then it would make the fasting really hard. You kind of got grumpy. [0:45:13.8] Duffy James: Yeah, and then I'd give up. I know I said they ended up external. There were two of them. Now that I'm thinking about it, I sabotaged it. I did not, really, because it wasn't like six cashews. It was only five. [0:45:30.9] Ashley James: Yeah, you justify it. Those are the voices in the head. I know we're justifying it. This is just this. It can totally be fine. And those little voices, you got to observe them and then talk to them. Glenn Livingston, I had him on the show, like, five times, and he's amazing. You should definitely check out his episodes. Glenn talked about how we have this inner. He calls it his inner pig, and I call it my inner brat because I totally have a brat that's like, “I want what I want when I want it.” And Duffy definitely has his own inner brat that we all do. Is it a brat?  [0:46:16.4] Duffy James: Uh-hm. [0:46:18.0] Ashley James: Yup? And sometimes, we get stubborn, and we just want what we want when we want it. There were a few fasts I noticed where you got cold. Your hands got cold. Do you always get cold during fasting or just sometimes?  [0:46:37.6] Duffy James: I think so. That's just part of it. [0:46:40.8] Ashley James: I noticed I was cold. Actually, I was cold today. I wanted slippers on my feet, and I did notice that I was getting cold. So that's part of it. Nothing to worry about here. Cool. And sleep, was sleep deeper for you on fasting? Because I noticed some nights, I was in a deep sleep, and some nights it was almost like I felt I was still awake. I think I was detoxing. I noticed I felt like I was awake half the night.  [0:47:08.3] Duffy James: I'm not as in-tuned in my sleep as you are. I just do it. Whether it was good or bad, I slept. [0:47:19.5] Ashley James: So when is your next fast?  [0:47:21.5] Duffy James: I don't know. Do you want to do it together on your next?  [0:47:25.7] Ashley James: Ah, yeah. But this isn't going to be like… [0:47:29.4] Duffy James: Would you ever do five days or not?  [0:47:31.3] Ashley James: I'm probably going to do five days again.  [0:47:32.2] Duffy James: I want double digits. It's more fun. [0:47:33.5] Ashley James: Oh, I don't know. I'll work up to it. [0:47:35.1] Duffy James: Okay. Well, I'll do it with you. I'm getting on the next one. [0:47:38.8] Ashley James: Yeah, sure. I'm very happy about this fast, and I'm glad we could come on and share about it. It's an interesting experience. I like that I set an intention. I like that the universe, God, Holy Spirit, whatever we call it, was like, “All right, you're ready. Let's go.” So it does kind of help to have a higher power telling you, calling your name. But then, just the observation of what's going on mentally, what's going on emotionally — and the best thing was when I could become the observer instead of buying into the drama. If the brat was still freaking out in my brain about how hungry I was, or how I just wanted to eat, or “I'm so grumpy today. I just want to eat.” Well, I could just watch that and go, “Wow, this is an interesting behavior.” [0:48:34.5] Duffy James: I think the biggest thing is the change in perspective because it's completely different.  [0:48:38.4] Ashley James: Well, like today, when I had dinner to break the fast, it was a very small amount of food. I felt satisfied. I put the bowl down. There's still food in it, and I took a breath, and I felt my whole abdomen. I just checked in with it, and I went, “This feels right. This feels good. This feels right. This is good. Okay, cool.” And I noticed because we've been having this talk with our son who's fighting us on eating healthy. Well, we don't serve him junk food, but I'm trying to get more vegetables into him, and he's like, “I don't like vegetables.” He's decided he doesn't like them. [0:49:12.7] Duffy James: Can you blame him?  [0:49:13.8] Ashley James: I love vegetables. They're so healthy.  [0:49:15.6] Duffy James: I don't. [0:49:15.9] Ashley James: I know. Dude, you can't be a vegan that doesn't like vegetables. [0:49:20.7] Duffy James: But I do it.  [0:49:21.7] Ashley James: I feed him vegetables. So, I'm having these conversations with our son, who's like, he didn't want to eat dinner tonight. He's like, “I don't like the taste of this,” and he starts crying. He's eight years old. He's like, “Oh, please don't make me eat this.” I'm like, “I'm not going to make you eat it. But yeah, we made this, and we don't want it to go to waste, and it's healthy for you.” And so I negotiate with him. “What else will you eat? Pick another vegetable.” And I keep talking to him about how it doesn't need to taste good to make it healthy for you. That's just enjoyment. That's just a bonus. But it's okay to eat something that isn't the tastiest thing in the world, as long as it's healthy for you and it's building your body. So I don't love cooked carrots. I really don't. It's not on my top 50, and yet that's what I cooked, and that's what we had in the fridge. And I was like, fine, I'm making it. And I ate it, and I enjoyed it. It's not my favorite. I don't love it, but I'm like, I'm just going to be here in the moment chewing this food, feeling it, and asking it to nourish my body. And I'm going to be okay with and be at peace with eating food.  I already eat super clean and healthy. I'm very, very good about the food. But I did in the past find that I was choosing meals based on the pleasure factor instead of the health and nutrition factor. Even though I was still eating whole food, plant-based, super clean, and organic, I still noticed that cravings would come up there. Like, oh, you know, don't eat that, eat this, because of the pleasure. I'm like, that's not what I want. I want to be able to make food choices based on how good it is for me and be okay with the different levels of pleasure I may or may not get from food. So that was another thing that I got out of this fast. Yeah. Awesome.  [0:51:19.2] Duffy James: Well, thanks for having me on.  [0:51:20.9] Ashley James: Yeah, thanks for coming on. Maybe we'll have you on again.  [0:51:23.8] Duffy James: Yeah, we'll see how when my arm heals. Maybe I'll come on again.  [0:51:30.4] Ashley James: Well, welcome to the 500s. [0:51:32.1] Duffy James: Yeah, thank you. It took me that long to bring up the courage to do it.  [0:51:36.5] Ashley James: But I think you said one sentence in an episode, like, maybe twenty episodes ago. So yeah, good job.  I hope you enjoyed today's interview with myself. I hope you enjoyed today's conversation with my husband, Duffy, and me. I was talking about our experiences with fasting. When I recorded this conversation that you just listened to with my husband, Duffy, I had just finished my 5-day fast, and it had been a few hours after my first meal breaking the fast. Now, I'm sitting here about to hit publish. I wanted to update you. So it's been two days now into refeeding. A really interesting development — I thought the hardest part about fasting would be hunger. But the hardest part is refeeding. I just want to go back. I just want to jump back into regular food, and you can't. You really shouldn't. The longer the fast, the more gentle you should refeed. And as Troy Reicherter said in our interview, Episode #369, where he tells his story, he fasts one to three times a year doing these really long 30-day fasts. So you definitely go back and listen to Episode #369. He's been on the show a few times. Interestingly, he has spent over $40,000 of his own money and invested in blood testing because he wants to prove that we can use fasting to get rid of forever chemicals out of our body and to take out these chemicals that are known carcinogens, known as cancer-causing. So you can go back and listen to that Episode #369.  One thing he tells is a story about how he got a little cocky. He had to fly to Asia. I believe it was a funeral he was going to. He is kind of distracted. He was just wrapping up a 30-day fast. And on the flight, he ate a bag of peanuts or whatever they gave, like pretzels or whatever they gave out. And I've seen the video where he's like, “Oh, I'm at the end of a fast. It's fine. I'll just eat regular food.” And the problem with that is, and Troy explains to us in the interview, our kidneys, while we're fasting, are so efficient. Then when we stop eating food, they concentrate our electrolytes. So they'll concentrate the salt and the potassium. They'll concentrate the wonderful electrolytes. And those who have kidney problems, if you're on medication or have any organ issues, you definitely want to talk to a doctor.  You know, you could talk to Dr. Alan Goldhamer. That's Episode #230, and you can contact the True North Medical Center. That's his center, and it's a non-profit. It's a live-in center where you go and stay there. You can stay there for a week, for a month. He's had one man do a 100-day fast with him successfully, very healthily because you're constantly monitored by doctors. It's on my bucket list. I really want to go there. It's just a matter of money, and maybe when our son is older, so I would feel comfortable leaving my family to go do that or maybe taking my whole family if we could afford the expense of it. Last I looked, it was something like $180 a day, which is room and board. And when you're not fasting, they feed you amazingly healthy, delicious food. They have classes, and they teach you, and you're surrounded by holistic doctors who are all there to support you in your success. So it sounds wonderful. For me, it's just like a vacation. Like, I want to go to a fasting clinic where it's like a little fasting resort in California. But the True North Medical Center has Dr. Alan Goldhamer and other doctors you can call and do a consultation. Just go to their website. Just Google True North Medical Center and you can talk to them. So if you're concerned like, “Hey, I have these issues, and I'm wondering if fasting is good for me or right for me,” there are doctors who are really well educated on fasting. A lot of doctors aren't educated on fasting. So they would just kind of tell you what they think, but they wouldn't have the background, the science background, or the clinical experience to inform you correctly.  So having said that, Troy ate some peanuts. Now, remember, the longer you fast, the more your kidneys are being very smart in that they're reclaiming the sodium and concentrating it, so instead of you urinating it out, it's keeping it, putting it back in the blood, And so, when you start refeeding, you want to eat soft foods like steamed vegetables, or broth, soups, juices, smoothies. But you want to make sure that it's soft. There's no added salt, no sodium added. I mean, if it's naturally occurring, like a carrot, there are five micrograms of salt and sodium in it. Okay, it came from the ground. And you do this for several days and slowly until you can eat solid foods again. Well, he just fasted so many times. He was like, “Oh, what could this do? It's just a bag of peanuts.” And you are on this very long flight, coupled with maybe the stress, and maybe he's not drinking enough, and even just flying tends to kind of bloat people — well, he almost died. He ended up with his whole body becoming a balloon. His fingers became like sausages. He couldn't close his fingers. His feet wouldn't fit in the shoes. He ballooned out, and I think he told me he ended up going to a hospital or almost did, and then he realized, “Oh yeah, I broke my fast with possibly the saltiest snack in the world, with peanuts from an airplane.” That's a really good indicator, a really good warning.  So it's so important whether you are doing a one-day, three-day, five-day, seven-day, whatever water-only fasting you're doing, you want to make sure the whole time that you're healthy with your electrolytes. If you start to get cramping or have any of those symptoms where you may feel like your electrolytes are a little off, I hear that diluted coconut water is a great natural electrolyte without fully breaking the fast. And so is the sodium-free broth. Not low-sodium, not regular broth, but clear, no sodium, vegetable broth. There's only one brand I can find, and it's at Sprouts. And so I buy up a few and keep them around for when Duffy's on his very long fast. When he does several weeks, he likes to drink one once in a while and just a little bit to keep him balanced.  So, I refed and slept the last two days. And you know, five-day fast refeeding takes like two days. It's not that big of a deal. I'm back to eating solid foods again. I noticed that I eat slower. I chew more. I mean, I'm asking myself to chew more, but I also chew more because I'm really enjoying the flavors. I noticed that during the fast — I didn't mention this in our conversation when I talked to Duffy — I noticed that through the fast my sense of smell was heightened. Or maybe I did talk about it. I can't remember now. Because Duffy and I did mention — he says he has kind of, like people who say, they quit smoking and all of a sudden they can smell food again. They can taste food again. It's not like they couldn't before, but now it's just that everything's elevated. And that's what I feel, like my senses elevated, but I was expecting that to not be as intense and in a good way. And what's great is, now, two days after the fast, my sense of taste is elevated, and I am so chewing, and I'm going, “Wow, what's that flavor?” I made a salad, and I'm like, “Oh, what's that flavor? What was that? That was a tomato? What was that? That was some cilantro? Oh my gosh.”  I noticed that I'm happier. I'm just happier in my body. Not that I was sad before. I'm generally a very cheerful person. But I have this peace, and I'm not going to say it's gone completely, but the intensity of the self-talk around food is calmer and more peaceful. Once in a while, my self-talk is a little judgy, like, “How many of those are you going to eat? I'm like, “Wow, a judgy voice in my head.” I'm going to eat one because I'm going to just feel my body and see how I feel. Even if it's healthy food, it's like, I could eat a salad, and this little voice in my head is going, “Wow, you're eating so much.” I'm like, “Where did you come from?” But I can hear those voices now instead of it being like this constant frustration, and the fast brought them forward. So now I'm working on the self-talk. And I've had interviews, by the way, on self-talk. Type in ‘self-talk' at learntruehealth.com. I've had some mental health counselors come on and talk about working with self-talk and, why did we develop negative self-talk, and how to calm it, how to heal that or get rid of it. I've had different guests come on. So I've been leaning on those tools and listening to the self-talk; I'm going, “Wow, this is really interesting.”  It's much calmer. There's much more peace in my head and in my heart. But in my body, there's a feeling — and it's so cool because I didn't know this would continue — but since the fast, I feel elated. It's very similar to euphoria, but it's not ungrounded. I feel grounded. I feel in the now. I feel at peace. My cells are buzzing with happiness, and I'm eating good food. Everything I've been eating has been pretty much vegetables, really healthy stuff, a little bit of fruit here, and I've got a lot of vegetables. I just made the most delicious white beans with garlic. They're so good. And I just had a little bit, and I'm going, “I can't believe how good this tastes.” I can feel my body is just happy. So I really wanted to share that with you. So if you're someone who has been just frustrated, struggling with their emotional health or their feelings around their body, please try it. Just try it for whatever you can. If it's right for you, do it. It's beautiful. It's similar to when I switched to whole food plant-based, and I started going, “Wow, I'm feeling happy. I'm feeling happy.” Every day was like layers and layers of inflammation went away, and also the gut microbiome and everything. My body just felt more and more happy with my choices.  I love how Duffy mentioned cognitive dissonance. And when you have cognitive dissonance, there's that really uncomfortable right before the shift where you make your behaviors be in alignment with your values. That's uncomfortable to be there because part of you wants to keep doing the old behavior, but you know it's not right for you. For example, eating meat with something, or eating cheese, or eating pizza, or whatever. It's just, “I like it. I don't want to give it up, but I know it's bad for me.” And then if you do give it up and instead you replace it with amazing delicious, whole foods, and then a week since that, you're going, “Wow, I didn't know this could taste so good. I didn't know I could feel this way. I didn't know I could feel this feeling I have in my body 24/7.” It is way more important and worth way more than a slice of pizza. Like, a slice of pizza and beer gives you what? Fifteen minutes of pleasure? And then, the rest of the day is this constant background noise of misery because the body is suffering, and that spills over into emotions. So your physical health, your emotional health, your mental health, your spiritual health, all are connected. And when you do something for one, it helps the other. There is one more thing I wanted to share, and that is that when I was talking about my three-day fast that I did back right around when our son broke his arm, it was almost at the three-day mark, and I didn't know he'd broken his arm. I know he had a fall, and then we put him down for his nap because he was a toddler, and everything seemed fine. And while he was down for his nap, I had this intense voice in my head, kind of similar to this voice that told me to do this fast. And this voice said — and it wasn't me, it wasn't a voice in my head because I was actually doing really well. I was totally congruent. It was right around day three, the time when everything started getting really good in fasting because your body switches over from burning glycogen, which is our sugar stores, to burning fat for fuel, which is ketosis. This isn't the ketogenic diet. This is the actual state of ketosis, which is burning fat for fuel and making ketones for your brain, and for your body, for fuel, instead of relying on what you're eating, which is glucose.  So our son's down for a nap, and this voice says, “You have to eat right now.” I can't remember exactly what it said, but it was like, “You break the fast.” I think the voice was ‘break the fast' because I remember it was like a very short sentence. It was very clear ‘break the fast.' And yeah, that was it. And then I was like, “Okay, I'm listening to this voice.” Because it had been just like within hours of being on a three-day fast, I was like, all right, you know, it's not much for refeeding. I'm just going to serve myself what Duffy was eating, which I think was mashed potatoes and vegetables. It was something soft anyway. So I was like, okay, I'm just going to sit down and eat some of this. And I did, and right as I finished my meal, our son started screaming. He was waking up from his nap screaming, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, that's intense.” And then I went and got him, and then that's when we realized, oh, wow, yeah, there's something wrong. He couldn't move his arm, and that's when we rushed him to the hospital. And then Duffy asked me, like, “Why'd you break your fast?” And I'm like, “Well, it's good that I did because I needed the energy to be up half the night, waiting in the hospital, and x-rays and the doctors and everything that had happened. I don't think I could have really been there and been present while fasting, or at least it wouldn't have been fun, like, it was fun anyway. It was much more manageable, having had a meal going into that situation.  I didn't mention that in the previous conversation that you just listened to because it just didn't come to mind to say that. But I didn't break the fast after we knew his arm was broken. I broke the fast right before we knew his arms were broken because I got a clear message that told me to do it. I don't know if you've ever had that, where you've had a voice not your own, but a familiar and not a threatening voice not your own, say something with a very clear message to follow it. I've heard some people say, “Yeah, I heard change lanes, and then I almost died in a car accident,” or, “Marry that woman.” Sometimes we are guided divinely, and we just got to listen. Listen to our intuition, which is listening to our own self, but then sometimes we receive divine guidance, and at least that's my experience of life.  So thank you. Thank you for being on this journey for me. And if you do decide to fast, come into the Facebook group. I'd love to hear about your experience. The Facebook group, you could just search Learn True Health on Facebook, or you can go to learntruehealth.com/group, and that will take you to the Facebook group. We have a wonderful listener community that's there to support you in your success, and I love answering your questions. The group comes together, and we all help each other as we're growing on this journey.  I've mentioned here at the beginning of this episode the three episodes you can listen to for more information on fasting and the science behind it — Episode #230 with Dr. Alan Goldhamer, Episode #269 with Troy Reicherter, and Episode #390 with Robyn Openshaw. So you can go ahead and go to your favorite app for listening to episodes, listening to podcasts, or you can go to learntruehealth.com and search for those. Thank you so much for being a listener. Thank you so much for sharing my podcast with those you care about. I don't know if you know my story. I was sick and suffering for so many years. I had multiple diseases. I was told by doctors I'd never get better, and I turned to holistic medicine. I was able to get my health back. I was able to reverse and end all those diseases, including I was told I'd never be able to have kids. But we have an amazing son. And it sparked a fire in me to want to help drive a passion for helping people to no longer suffer the suffering. It's so horrible that so many people out there have health problems, and there are answers for you. And the answers aren't readily available because the mainstream medical system is by profit, not by results. So, if you're new to this podcast, if maybe someone shared it with you, come on this journey with me. Through my interviews, let me show you how to no longer suffer, how to take control of your health and your life, and learn true health.   Get Connected with Ashley James!   Facebook Facebook Group Instagram Twitter Learn True Health Podcast on iTunes Free Your Anxiety! Take You Supplements

Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering 90-Year-Old Dr. Henry Buchwald exposes what's broken in our current medical system and brainstorms how to fix it.   Go here to check out the answer to our broken health insurance industry  learntruehealth.com/healthcare   BOOK: Healthcare Upside Down: A Critical Examination of Policy and Practice https://amzn.to/3pgKSUI   501: The Most Comprehensive and Affordable Health Coverage https://www.learntruehealth.com/the-most-comprehensive-and-affordable-health-coverage In this podcast episode, Ashley James interviews Dr. Henry Buchwald, a 90-year-old physician with extensive experience. They acknowledge that the medical system is broken and driven by profits rather than patient outcomes. Dr. Henry suggests that individuals can take action by voting with their dollars and engaging in consumer activism. They can choose alternative healthcare plans or insurance options that offer better coverage and are more affordable. The episode emphasizes the need to support healthcare solutions that prioritize patient well-being over profit and to seek out individual doctors who can provide personalized care without being constrained by administrative demands. The aim is to shape and reform the broken system through collective action and make it more patient-centric. Highlights:  The current medical system is broken, with the United States spending the most on healthcare yet having poor outcomes. The system is driven by profit rather than focusing on patient well-being and true healing. Dr. Henry Buchwald, a 90-year-old physician, suggests individual actions to combat the feeling of helplessness. Consumer activism can be exercised by voting with our dollars and making conscious choices in purchasing health insurance or alternative healthcare options. There are affordable alternatives to traditional health insurance plans that offer comprehensive coverage with no network restrictions. The broken medical system benefits companies that profit from keeping people sick rather than helping them get better. Seeking out individual doctors not bound by administrative constraints can lead to more personalized and holistic care. By collectively engaging in consumer activism and supporting healthcare solutions that prioritize patient outcomes, the broken system can be reformed to provide better care. Intro: Hello, true health seeker, and welcome to another exciting episode of Learn True Health podcast. I know you're like me, and you are here because you believe that this medical system is broken. There's something wrong. There's something very wrong. We spend the most in the United States than any other nation on our healthcare, and yet we have some of the worst outcomes. It's a for-profit industry, not a for-results industry. It's so corrupt and so sick, and yet as individuals, we feel so helpless. Who are we against these giant industries that have made billions on our backs? They have made billions on keeping us sick and preventing us from knowing the true nature of healing. Because they have to find a drug for that, right?  So I have an amazing guest here today. He's 90 years old. He's been practicing medicine for sixty-three years, as a physician, as a surgeon, and as a professor. He's written an intriguing book where he shares his sixty-three years of experience, and he saw the system changing. We're not saying it was perfect sixty-three years ago, but it has certainly gotten worse. My guest today is Dr. Henry Buchwald. One of the things that he suggests, which I thought was really interesting, that we could do as individuals to stop feeling so helpless against them — the 99% against the 1% — well, together, we can vote with our dollars. Another way to say it is consumer activism. But you don't have to go and get out there with a picket sign and march around. When I say activism, a lot of images come to mind of protesting together. We can protest with our purchases. We can choose to buy health insurance or alternatives to health insurance that are even better, that are cheaper, and give us better coverage.  And that is why I was so excited about this, when I talked about it in Episode #50 because not every single state has it yet, but most of the states in the United States have this alternative to health insurance that is so incredibly cheap, and it's so incredibly affordable. I think it starts at $78 a month for individuals, and it is $600 or something a month for the average family. It's so comprehensive; there's no network. You can go to any state and go to any physician or any doctor, and you'll be covered. If you are like me and you'd like to put your money towards anything that has to do with helping to solve this problem, solve the juggernaut that is the broken medical system. And when I say broken, it's by design. It's broken when you look at it from a patient standpoint, but it is working very well for those companies who wish to make a profit off of our illness and not help us get better, either. They keep us sick because that is the most profitable thing for them to do.  So, I'd love for you to go to learntruehealth.com/healthcare. Check it out and let me know what you think. I am very excited about it. You can purchase for your family an alternative to health insurance that is taking your dollars, and instead of putting it into an insurance company, it's putting it into a healthcare plan that is more comprehensive. They'll give you more coverage. It gives you more freedom, and it takes the profit away from the problem. Now, you can also go out and find licensed naturopathic physicians and osteopathic physicians, and other forms of working with a physician that is not buying into or putting your dollars into the problem, which are these clinics or these hostile networks that are run by the doctor's answer to the administrators. Instead of them being able to practice medicine, they have to adhere to the administration that they are being hired by.  So instead, go find individual doctors. Seek out the holistic-minded doctors that are not part of those networks. I sit with my doctor for an hour, sometimes 90 minutes. I mean, this is amazing care for the same price because many of these physicians are covered under insurance. Or, as I pointed out, go to learntruehealth.com/healthcare, and you can get an alternative to health insurance that gives you even better benefits for cheaper, and that is because what's popping up now are the answers to this problem, which is finding the care you deserve. I don't want to put my money towards those health insurance companies that are part of the problem. I don't want to put my money towards clinics or those clinic networks or hospital networks that are part of the problem. That's why I go seeking individual doctors that don't have to adhere to or answer to an administration. And I go seeking health care that doesn't pay into the problem. So if we all get together, it's called consumer activism. If we voted with our dollars, we could help to shape this broken system, to turn it right side up, so that it can be focused on patient outcomes first, which is what we deserve. And that's what we talked about today with Dr. Buchwald. I'm so happy you're here. Please share this with those you care about and share this with those who are just sick and tired of being squished by the boot of this broken medical system, this for-profit medical system. It's really disgusting that these companies are getting away with it, and we've let them. But it happened so slowly that we didn't really see it coming.  And now we listen to a 90-year-old doctor who's like, “Hey, wait a second. It used to be better, and we need to make changes because it's getting worse and worse and worse.” They are able to squeeze more and more profits out of us and get less and less results. Actually, they get results. They're just really bad outcomes. I want to see all of us be healthy, and we all deserve the best care possible, and that's not what we're being given here. [0:07:10.4] Ashley James: Welcome to the Learn True Health podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James. This is Episode #502. I am so excited for today's guest. We have with us an amazing doctor, Ph.D., surgeon MD, teacher, healthcare pioneer, patient advocate, and author. For over 60 years, you've been in this field advocating for us and speaking out about the injustices in the healthcare system, Dr. Henry Buchwald, it's so good to have you here, and I can't wait to talk about your book, Healthcare Upside Down: A Critical Examination of Policy and Practice. We're seeing this as patients. We've been personally experiencing this, and we talk about it all the time on the show. How many times did we go to a doctor and, like we talked about before we hit record — “Oh, your disease is just a little bit. Let's wait till it becomes worse, and then we'll give you a drug.” Well, why not practice prevention? Well, there's money to be made. I believe that when people go to medical school, their heart's in the right place. I don't think that they're evil. I think the system is broken and designed to make a profit. The number one goal should be designed to help people live long, healthy, happy lives. But it's not designed that way. It's designed to make a profit first. And this is the problem. It is the moment that there's money involved then their corruption can pour in.  So before we jump in to talk about your book, I'd love for you to share with us what happened in your life that made you want to become a doctor. Was there an “aha!” moment when your eyes were opened, and you realized, wow, this system is completely broken? [0:09:06.1] Dr. Henry Buchwald: Well, thank you, first of all, for having me. It's a pleasure talking with you. I never wanted to be a doctor when I was young. I wasn't one of these kids who said, “I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to be a doctor.” I liked learning. I like two things — athletics and learning. So as I went through school, every subject interested me. And when I went through college, Columbia College, everything interested me. My friends were going to medical school, so I said, let's go to medical school. The other area which interested me the most in college was philosophy of religion. And I spent some of my courses at the Union Theological Seminary with the great theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. But I didn't want to become a philosophy or religion teacher. So I went to medical school. Everything in medical school interested me. And then, finally, when I got into surgery service in my third year of medical school, I was at an externship in Cooperstown, New York, and I went to Columbia University Medical School College of Physicians and Surgeons, now called the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. And they had a rotation in this wonderful little place in Cooperstown, New York, Mary Imaging Bassett Hospital. So when I went there, it all jelled. Surgery seemed to fit me and, pardon the pun, like a glove. One day, my wife and I were at the lake where we lived close to Lake Otsego, and I listed all the things that were good about medicine, internal medicine, and so on. She said, follow your heart. And it took me about one second; I said surgery. Surgery has always been my aspiration from thereon in. After my service in the Strategic Air Command on flying status as a flight surgeon, I went to Minnesota, finished my residency, and I've never left there. I am now at Emeritus status, having been a Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering and the first Wangensteen Chair in Experimental Surgery. During this time period, medicine and the practice of medicine changed. Looking at it from two ends — let's say, three ends — in the beginning, administration served the profession. The doctors, the nurses, the medical schools, the hospitals — administration was there to facilitate. The medical professionals — doctors, nurses — were independent. They did what they and their patients disseminated could be done or should be done.  And let me get to preventing disease in a couple of minutes into this. And the patients felt they were patients. They went to a doctor. They were being taken care of. And this was epitomized in the patient saying, “My doctor.” What does that mean today? That has changed. It's no longer “my doctor.” It's a conglomerate. It's a bunch of robots. There is no “my doctor” anymore. And the doctor would say, “My patient.” It doesn't mean it's a possessiveness of a patient. It means, “I take responsibility for you.” And so that has been shattered. So if we look at the three elements again, the patient — and this is one of the chapters in my book — the words precede the actions. George Orwell, in his book 1984, knew this. So the patient is no longer called a “patient.” It's called the “client.” That's a business term. And the doctor is no longer called a “doctor.” The doctor is called a “provider,” and the doctor is no longer an independent entity. Essentially, all doctors, except rural physicians or those that work for government agencies, are employees. And then, finally, this administration that used to be the facilitator has become the dominator. The administration is in charge, and they run healthcare like a business model. Actually, I used to go to a nursing station. It's now called a firm.  And so the changes come, in my lifetime, from a doctor-patient relationship where the patient was a patient, the doctor was a doctor, and the administrator was a facilitator, and it's now turned. That's why I called the book Healthcare Upside Down. Now, the administrator sits on top and dictates what's going to happen to the employee provider, and the patient is left out of this. There are so many examples. For instance, if you call your “doctor” today, you don't end up talking to him or her. You talk to a robot, and probably the robot sends you to another robot, and then they send you to an inquisitor who wants to know everything about you. And really, do you ever talk to the doctor? And then, finally, you might be told, “Well, there are lots of providers. Doctor so and so could see you in two months. But in the meantime, you can see so and so.” Why? Because it's a business model. Because the second so and so has an opening. So you got to fill it to make the money to pay this person.  And so, it has changed. And what I provide in this book is not only an analysis of how it's changed in the teaching, in the medical school, in the clinic, and in the hospital. I take on COVID, socialized medicine research, public health, etc., and end up with ten recommendations of maybe how to change this and put healthcare right side up. But the whole idea of the book is to draw attention to the fact that things have changed. And to do this, I don't want it to be my opinion. So throughout the book, everything is verified with statistics, with facts. I don't want statistics to be boring, but statistics have to be looked at, and I'll just give one. We have the life expectancy of a third-world country. And every country in Europe, Western Europe or Australia, New Zealand, and your home state Canada has a longer life expectancy. And within our own country, we have disadvantaged populations — native Americans and African-Americans. In every category of world statistics, how we do with heart disease, etc., diabetes, we're nowhere close to the top, except in one category — cost. Our healthcare takes 17% of our gross national product, and the nearest neighbor is at least 4% or 5% further down, and that is Switzerland.  So, we are upside down, and I don't see any American would tolerate this in any other area. I'll give you an example. If you wanted to take your kids to the ball game, and you called and said, “I want a ticket,” and the person at the other end said, “Yes, we'll send you two tickets, but we'll tell you what day you can come. We'll tell you what teams are playing, and we'll tell you where you'll be seated.” Wouldn't you go? You wouldn't buy a car if the dealership would say, “No, I don't care what you think. You're going to get that car.” But we do this today with health care. We pay for it. That is “we” — everyone pays for it in one way or another; taxes, private insurance. And yet we have no say in what happens. And this transition has come about in my lifetime in medicine. And so I thought, okay, I'm no longer young. Can I at least write a book about it to call some attention, and maybe America can wake up and say we can do better?  [0:19:10.3] Ashley James: I hope it's okay for me to say you're 90 years old. Is that correct?  [0:19:14.2] Dr. Henry Buchwald: That is absolutely, and I hope to be older.  [0:19:19.1] Ashley James: You don't look a day over 75. So you're doing something right. And what I love is that you're standing on your soapbox saying, “Hey, there's something to learn here.” We need to look to the wisdom of those who have come before us, and you, in your lifetime, have seen the change. It's easy for us to believe that how it is now is how it's always been. And that's a fallacy that keeps the wool over our eyes. Well, this is just how it's done. And yet it is not the best way. It's the most profitable way for those in charge and at the expense of us, at the expense of our mental health, emotional health, and of course, our physical health. Our physical health is degrading, and also our financial health. That is, half or more than half of all bankruptcies in the United States are because of medical bills. And yet we have the worst outcomes of all first nations. Like you said, we're the equivalent of third-world nations when it comes to our health outcomes in statistics, and yet we pay the most as a country. We pay the most than any other country in the world, and we get the worst outcomes. How is that even possible? Well, it's possible because, like you said, it is turned upside down; it is a for-profit industry.  Now, I had my first experience when I was a teenager, and I needed medication temporarily because I had bronchitis or something, and I didn't know as much about holistic health as I do now. So I got a prescription. This is back when I lived in Canada. I remember paying $20 for it. I got so upset because, in Canada, it's supposed to be covered. Healthcare is supposed to be “free” because almost half of our paycheck goes towards paying for these social services like free universal healthcare. And the pharmacist looked at me and said, “Honey, in America, this exact same medication costs $400. So your $20 is not a big deal.” And I went, “Oh, I didn't know that.” And then, when I was visiting the States, I tripped on something. I twisted my ankle and went to the hospital. They took a good twenty X-rays. I thought this was complete overkill because, in Canada, you're lucky to get three. Usually, you only get two X-rays for something like an ankle or a leg. You got one angle, and you got the other angle. That's all you need. There are only two planes. Why would you do more than two? And they kept doing so many X-rays, and it dawned on me. I'm like, this is a for-profit country when it comes to healthcare. And in Canada, it's a “how much can we save on the medical.”  So in Canada, the pressure on the providers, the pressure on the doctors is, where can I cut costs? So it is still money-driven, and the outcomes are not incentivized. Like, how can I make my patient the healthiest person? Let's focus on that only, even if it costs a bit more. In Canada, no, you got to cut costs. So you only get two X-rays. You don't get three, even if three was optimal. It's not about optimal. It's about cutting costs. And in America, it's about making money. So we're going to take as many X-rays as we can because we can get more money that way. Neither system is perfect because neither system puts the patient first. [0:23:15.6] Dr. Henry Buchwald: Absolutely correct. It diminished, but we used to have an exodus from Canada for surgery. And why? Because they were on our waiting list. And a waiting list in countries with so-called socialized medicine, such as Canada, has several purposes. One, it delays costs, and also, there's a sort of hidden hope that maybe you die in the meantime and you won't need the surgery. And so we had an influx of people who could afford to come down to Minnesota for heart surgery. And neither system, I won't even say perfect, but neither system is adequate. One thing that people in this country don't realize is that 60% to 65% of our healthcare is socialized medicine. If you count the armed forces, the VA system, the NIH, the Indian services, and above all, Medicare, and medical assistance, you come to about 60% to 65%, and the rest is paid for by private insurance. And these private insurances, their CEOs take home 20 or 30 million a year or more, and all their staff takes home a lot of money. Where does that money come from? If you have a business model, the business model provides the money. But the money is going to that top administrative group of people. And if you look at the Fortune 500, many of the top companies are in medical care or pharmaceuticals, instruments, and so on. And so they're getting the money. It means the providers themselves — the doctors, the nurses — are not getting the money. And the money is not going into actual patient care. I'm a great believer in capitalism. And if you wanted to invent a hula hoop that's better than any hula hoop that's ever been invented, and you become a billionaire by selling it, that's wonderful. But I just don't think that people at the top administrative level should profit from denying or overdoing healthcare for the actual patients. I don't think socialized medicine is the answer, and I don't think our current system of insurance medicine is the answer, either. [0:26:25.4] Ashley James: Is there a country out there that's doing it right?  [0:26:28.7] Dr. Henry Buchwald: I don't know. Socialized medicine may work for some countries that have a smaller population and a uniform population. Every time you look at that, you find some countries, for example, Austria. Most of the Austrians are happy. The people are happy. The doctors are happy. But there are flaws in it. Is there a perfect system? Probably none. As I said at the end of my book, I gave sort of ten suggestions. I can't change the healthcare system. But I give ten suggestions, and one of them is healthcare through not government per se and not-for-profits per se, but through some sort of fraternal organization. For instance, a huge fraternal organization is the postal workers and the Teamsters. Why shouldn't these groups self-insure or work through a group that will offer what they need, like a USAA? I belong to USAA because I'm a veteran, and their insurances are excellent policies, and it's a fraternal organization.  These things can exist. And the unions, when they meet with management, and management says, “We can spare you some dollars.” If we eliminate, let's say, obesity surgery or eliminate this; they have to say, “No, we have to treat all diseases. We have to do this, and you guys have to take less, and we'll maybe pay a little more.” So if the people who are the end beneficiaries of healthcare can maybe get together in their fraternal groups, maybe this is a way of financing healthcare. But the current system is upside down, and if you just say it's a business model, it's a failure of a business model. What business should succeed by charging the most and giving something that's inferior? That's not good business. [0:29:16.0] Ashley James: That's broken into parts because if we look at it, right now, we're talking about health insurance or healthcare coverage. And that's one piece of the pie that's broken, but there are other pieces of the pie that's broken, and of them is, like you said, the organizations that employ the doctors themselves dictate how the doctors should provide care. It's called the practice of medicine because doctors should be allowed to practice it. In the last few years, we came across something we've never before had, in that doctors got their hands tied. They were not allowed to practice medicine when it came to treating patients with COVID-19. The institutions that employed them said, “You are not allowed to provide these drugs. You are not allowed to do this. You're not allowed to do that. This is the only way we're doing it.” And that made a lot of people very uncomfortable because providers and doctors have always been allowed to practice medicine. But the firms and the institutions that employ them, or the hospital networks that employ them, are the ones making the rules. And so the doctors found themselves with their hands tied, unable to help their patients the way they saw best.  The doctor should be empowered. They should be given the power to make the close calls because they're eye to eye with their patients, looking them in the eye and going, “I think that this is what would work.” And the doctors are the ones who've gone to medical school, who can read the latest literature, who can be up on the science. Medical decisions should not be made by people who don't have that science background. Instead, the decisions were being made by the institutions, the firms, the hospital networks, by administrators, not doctors. And that scares me. Can you speak to that? That section of healthcare is incredibly dangerous, people are dying, and people are suffering because the doctors' hands are being tied and the medical decisions, in some cases, are being made by administrators. [0:31:28.0] Dr. Henry Buchwald: I agree with you. Forget all the controversy about COVID-19. But administrators in just ordinary times have come to dictate what operation should be done because of time in the hospital and what drugs can be used. Administrators like to get people into the hospital. Let's say a surgery patient — obviously, I know the most about surgery — comes in, let's say, the night before a surgery, oh there's a lot of money to be made. There are X-rays, there are labs, there's everything. That is great. And then comes surgery. Oh, there's a lot of money to be made. But then the patient is in bed for a day or so and recovering and then paying. That's not much money to be made. And so there is a push to get the patient out of the hospital. From the administrator's point of view, let's get them into the hospital, and then let's get them out as fast as possible. And this is being sold as this is the best thing for the patient. It may not be the best thing for the patient. It may not be the so-called “doctor,” now the “provider vendor” would like to do. But often, their hands are tied. And so many days after a gallbladder, one day you're out, and so on. Making individual decisions have to be justified over and over again rather than thwarting a rule. You have so many days to get this kind of patient out, so many days to get this kind of patient out. It was very different.  Let me give you anecdotes of a retelling. When I was a medical student at Columbia, my wife had the flu. And I somehow talked about it or mentioned that my wife had the flu on rounds. And a distinguished professor of medicine, Dr. Pereira, overheard me. At 8:00 that evening — and we lived in a fifth-floor walk-up — on the door, there was a knock. I opened the door, and there was Dr. Pereira with his little black bag. He said I heard your wife may have the flu. I came to listen to her lungs if that's okay with you, and make sure she doesn't have pneumonia. And, of course, I welcomed the man in. He saw my wife, and he left. As he left, he said, “I expect that when you graduate, you will carry on this tradition of taking care of other physicians. So there was “medical courtesy.” But today, there are at least three or four laws on the books that do not allow doctors to do pro bono work or give medical courtesy to fellow physicians or to anybody. I mean, I know in my practice that patients who couldn't pay, I didn't charge them. But today, that's against the law. Unless you do it in an organized fashion. If your institution says, “We, as an institution, are going to help this Native American tribe,” that's okay. But you, as an individual, once again, the independence of the physician, cannot say, “Hey, listen. Forget about it.” My first patient I misdiagnosed. I had two months before I needed to go, or wanted to go, to the school of aviation medicine to get into the air force on flying status. And so I went in what sort of a locum tenens in a community up in the mountains of New York, and a woman came to me and had lymph nodes at the back of her neck. And coming from a specialty institution, I said, “We have to go to the hospital and get some tests tomorrow morning.” And in my mind, I said, she may have lymphoma. The next day she called me, since I couldn't go to the hospital, “Can you come to my house?” And I thought, terrible, terrible. So I went over, and she had a big rash. She got German measles from her kids. And so I was wrong, and I was happy to be wrong. She was not a wealthy woman. She was in an impoverished area, and I didn't charge her for that. So it was a different time, and nobody would put me in jail for not charging her. So that has changed. So many rules, as you said, or even laws, are placed upon the practice of medicine today. And, of course, one of the main things that have become so evident is the loss of a physician, the loss of a personal doctor.  And again, if we look at personal experiences, 1st of February 2016, I was thrown from a horse. Now, I've been riding horses all my life, and I was on a ranch, and usually, I went on roundup sitting and rode a lot. And anyway, for the first time in my life, the horse threw me. And I had eleven broken ribs, a comminuted scapular, a displaced lung was pushed over, and so on. So I was in the hospital for thirty-three days, half of which was in intensive care and then in rehab. Well, in intensive care — this was a hospital — every day, a new person would show up, usually a very, very young person, and he would say, “How are you?” And I would say, “Well, all right.” And he would say, “Good. Bye-bye.” And I never see him again. There was never a time somebody came over and said, “I am in charge of intensive care, and I'm your doctor.” It never happened. And then, when they transferred me to rehab, it was wonderful. The same hospital, but it was wonderful. It was run by an old man, relatively at the time. He was in his sixties and seventies, and I asked him, “How come this is so different on both sides?” And he said, “Well if they ever try to change my division, rehab, I'm leaving.” So, I was in that transition period. And that's what's happening. I never had a physician at the time. It would have been nice to have had a physician.  [0:39:33.2] Ashley James: The gentleman who was in charge of the rehab, can you illustrate how your care was there versus the ER, where people were just coming and going? “How are you doing? Okay, bye.” And there was no point where you could communicate with the same person through your care in the hospital. There was not one liaison for you. It was just a bunch of random doctors and healthcare providers, which is very disorienting. But that's the experience now when people go to the hospital. And then you get upgraded to rehab; tell us what that care was like. [0:40:18.4] Dr. Henry Buchwald:  Well, first of all, at 7:00 or so every morning, he showed up in my room. He made rounds. And we at least had a small conversation. He outlined the program where I would get out of bed, walk again with a walker, and then walk without a walker. He assigned me physical therapists, mostly people who would walk me, and then exercise therapists, who were superb and who were happy. And the same person came back the next day. I got to know them; they got to know me. It really helped me with rehabilitation there because this man was in charge, and everybody worked on the plan, and I had therapists who knew me and worked with me. It wasn't such a thing that every day I saw a different face, who really didn't care about much of anything, and I would see somebody else the next day. It was because he was an old-fashioned practitioner.  [0:41:43.2] Ashley James: And you saw the same team. You were part of a team, right?  [0:41:46.4] Dr. Henry Buchwald: Right.  [0:41:48.2] Ashley James: And they had a goal for you, and it was a team of health providers working with you, for you, the patient, to get you to the end goal. You all were working together towards that goal, and you felt supported. [0:42:02.6] Dr. Henry Buchwald: Absolutely. I think you said it perfectly.  [0:42:06.5] Ashley James: So you said this was the transition time. You've illustrated what it looked like 60 years ago in medicine, where we could see it on black and white TV like Leave it to Beaver. Like, you go to your family doctor, and your family doctor sees your parents and sees your grandparents. It was the same practice and the same doctor. You had the same dentist, and you saw the same nurse. It felt very reassuring that someone knew you for most of your life and was able to guide you through your transitions in life because they really knew you, and they knew your family. They knew your medical history as opposed to the telemedicine or going to a clinic, and they're complete strangers. They're not really checking in on your health records. Your health records are incomplete. They really don't know your health history, and it's like getting in and out as fast as possible. He can't see a doctor for more than fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes would be amazing. People usually see doctors for nine minutes or less. And they don't really know you. How can they provide care if they don't really know you and your medical history, and you're not just a bunch of labs on a piece of paper? There's more to you. And so that's what healthcare is now. But back then, someone really knew you. And there was definitely a sense that people were happy. No, not everyone. It's not right to paint a picture that everyone is happy. But they were happier people in healthcare as teams, working with you towards goals to better serve you, the patient. And now it's the opposite. It's upside down, like your book illustrates.  I'm sure it happened slowly because I think people would have really revolted if, overnight, this healthcare system had changed. But can you say approximately when did you start to see red flags that it was really going south? [0:44:07.1] Dr. Henry Buchwald: I should say it went slowly. It never went overnight. As you said, people would have revolted. I think maybe twenty years ago, it started this pattern. I think in the 21st century, we started the top-down administrative rule of medicine, the loss of independence of the medical staff, and the feeling by the patient that they really didn't have a doctor. They had some sort of conglomerate. Do you know what I'd like to do if you would let me? Can I read you a couple of paragraphs from the end of my book, from my epilogue? [0:45:06.5] Ashley James: I would love that. Yes, please. [0:45:08.6] Dr. Henry Buchwald: Alright. “The opening moment of life, birth, involves healthcare for mother and child. Growing up and achieving adulthood involve healthcare. Being able to live a mature life, to work, to love, and to have children, is dependent on healthcare. And the final chapter, aging, can be realized and even made pleasurable by healthcare. Healthcare therefore enters and comes to life from beginning to end. Healthcare is not a commodity but a necessity. Healthcare needs to be treated with respect. The establishment, practice, and financing of healthcare affect everyone. It should not be neglected by anyone and must be the concern of all of us.” “I've been a doctor for sixty years, and during those years, at times, I've also been a patient. I've held the hands of my patients. I've been the one whose hand has been held. I have received trust and given trust. The therapeutic decisions my patients and I reached were not subject to the interdiction of a third party. I do not want to have my life's role as a physician and surgeon by joining the process usurped by an ‘administocracy.' I coined that word. As a patient, I do not want to hold hands with a robot and confide my health problems to a faceless entity. As a doctor, a patient, and a person, I reject the currently shattered doctor-patient relationship. Healthcare is upside-down like I said it, right side up.” That's the end of my book. [0:47:06.5] Ashley James: I love it. How can we best navigate this broken system? [0:47:12.4] Dr. Henry Buchwald: I don't know an answer to that. I mean, when I first wrote the book, my daughters and my wife said to me, “So what? What are you going to do? All you've done is complain. You've put down the facts in this, the statistics to back up the complaints, and you've told the truth and all that. But what are you offering?” And I said, “Well, I look upon myself like the little boy in Hans Christian Andersen's story of The Emperor's New Clothes. Here comes the emperor walking down the street, and he's naked. His retainers are holding an invisible rope, and a little boy says, “The emperor has no clothes!” And then I always loved the line in that book which says, “Hear him, hear him!” And I am hoping that people will hear me. Then I said, “Okay, I'll write a chapter with at least some suggestions.” And so the last chapter are ten suggestions. The role of medical schools, the role of individuals, the role of bodies of professionals like the American College of Surgeons, American College of Physicians, AMA, the role of government, the role of politicians, and most importantly, the role of media, people like yourself, to get the word out there, and then the role of fraternal institutions that I touched upon, and the final thing is, the role of everybody. This is not something that people can say, “Well, it's not my concern.” It doesn't matter how young you are. It doesn't matter how healthy you are. The odds are, one day, you're going to be a patient for something. And if that's true, what kind of care do you want? And if you're in the healthcare profession like I was, or I still consider myself to be in, I always considered it a calling. It was a calling for me. It wasn't a job. And I took joy in my work, and people have asked me, “What were the happiest moments for you?” I said, “My family.” And “What was the next happiest moment for you in your life?” I said, “Being in the operating room.” I love being a surgeon. I love taking care of people.  Today, if that is missing, how can people be happy in the field? But with that comes what we've talked about. For instance, I not only show in my patients before we elected from surgery as a joint decision. But I saw them at the moment of surgery in the morning. I was in the hospital at six, and I saw the patient. I saw the relatives. People don't do that anymore. And then, after the case, if the patient was still half-asleep, I went out to see the relatives, and I talked to them. And then, I would see the patient when the patient woke up. And then, before I went home, I would make rounds and see the patient and again talk to the relatives if they were there. And that's the way I practiced. It was a calling, and it gave me joy. That's missing when you don't have patients but you just have clients. And you do things as a big amalgamated group. Well, I don't have to go see a patient. The nurse will see the patient. I don't have to do this. Somebody else will do this. And today, that's very true. Surgeons are kept in the operating room because that's where they can make the money for the whole group. And so we have people who can't make that much money in doing something over a period of time, and they can do the other things that a doctor really should be doing, holding the patient's hand. [0:52:18.5] Ashley James: Right. There's a big billboard in the university district in Seattle that has a picture of a doctor, and it says, ‘This is the number one surgeon in Seattle,' or ‘This is the number one doctor in Seattle.' ‘Come to our hospital network because this is the number one doctor.' And I spoke to a doctor in the area, and he goes, “You know how they determine that he's the number one doctor?” And I'm thinking, “Outpatient outcomes? He must be incredible. You must be divinely guided to having the best outcomes.” And he said, “No, that's not determined by outcomes. It's not determined by patient care at all. They determine who the best doctor is by how much money he makes for the hospital system.” So when you're sold on, ‘we have the number one doctor,' ‘this is the number one doctor in this hospital,' that's the one you don't want to see you. You want to see the worst doctor, according to the hospital, because they're not going to put you through needless tests.  Another thing that the doctor said to me is, “If you can help it, never go to a hospital in the last week of the month because, just like police, you definitely don't come to a complete stop at stop signs and don't speed in the last week of the month because cops have quotas. Some of them are given quotas for how many speeding tickets they have to write and how many citations they have to give. And doctors and hospital networks have to fill a certain percentage of beds and a certain amount of MRIs. They have to accrue dollars and profits. And so if you come in, they're like, “Well, you know, we could have handled this with an ultrasound, but I'm just going to send him in for an MRI.” It wasn't medically necessary, but it would have filled his quota. They might do that. They're incentivized because they have a mortgage to pay, and they have been put under pressure from the system that they belong to. The organization that they belong to — the firm — puts pressure on the providers, the doctors, to not put the patients first in every aspect of our healthcare system. It is how much money can be squeezed out of these patients and out of the insurance. And the insurance is going to do the opposite and try not to provide the care also. So we're left really kicked to the curb.  And then you touched on it — that we have the underprivileged, the victims of the system. We're all victims of this broken system. And even further, the statistics show Native Americans, African-Americans, the list goes on and on, especially the disabled, the elderly, that they have worse outcomes because they're marginalized. They're not listened to. African American women, when they go to a hospital to give birth across the board, have worse outcomes and more deaths than any other race. I'm thinking, what is going on? But if they do home births, they have just as much success as any other race. So it isn't that African-American women genetically will just die more or have more infections. In general, it's that the healthcare system is not listening to them. It's treating them differently than those of other races.  So what is up with the underprivileged in the medical system? I know I'm asking for help. I'm asking, how do we navigate? But maybe where you could help us, because again, how we fix this problem is we have to stop feeding into it. And that's kind of dangerous because what are we going to do? Stop paying for insurance? Stop going to the hospital? They know they've got us. They've got us by the neck. But we have to figure it out. Maybe we've got a lobby. Maybe we've got to elect the right people. Maybe we've got to write letters. Maybe we have to stand up and start taking action and do whatever we can.  I like the idea of finding insurance that isn't traditional insurance, like healthcare. I actually just did an interview about this. It's like a health insurance alternative that actually covers everything, but it's a nonprofit. Listeners can go to learntruehealth.com/healthcare for more information about that. So I like that idea of not putting your dollars into the evil system, the broken system, I should say. And we can't go to the hospital if we need a hospital. But maybe we got to do research and find a hospital network that's smaller, that has better outcomes, that has less pressure on the providers to make money rather than put the patients first. But maybe you could help us with this. How can we self-advocate? As a doctor, I'm sure you appreciate when someone says, “Hey Doc, I have a few questions,” and they start self-advocating. Can you teach us how we should self-advocate while we navigate this broken system? And especially those who have been made out to be victims of this system, in that they typically have worse outcomes. How can they self-advocate? [0:57:48.9] Dr. Henry Buchwald: I don't know if I have any answer to that. I guess, reasoning. I guess, conversation. I think you need goodwill, and you need people at the other end who are willing and able and have the moral commitment to do better. To sort of give you an example: when I was in medical school, usually all major teaching hospitals associated with the medical school, such as mine, Columbia Johns Hopkins, where my wife's uncle was a cardiologist, had three distinct areas geographically. One was private and at Columbia Presbyterian in Harkins Pavillion. It catered to celebrities. I took care of several celebrities, or I was a card in the wheel as an intern. But they had private rooms. They had a fancy restaurant, etc. And then there was semi-private, and those were people who had insurance and maybe had two people or four people in a room. And it was very obvious they had a doctor, or in my role as they were under a surgeon's care. And then there were the ward patients. There were twenty-four people in a ward or more, like twenty-eight, separated by curtains, and they were given the care of the house staff, who were sometimes better than anything else. But primarily, they had no private doctor, and they had essentially no insurance or very little insurance.  Then I came to Minnesota, and under Owen Wangensteen, one of the greatest names in American surgery, I went on the surgery service, and there were only rooms for four people, and for very sick people, one to a room. And I said, “Which is the ward? Which is semi-private? Which is private?” And they said, “There is no such thing. Everybody is treated equally.” The house staff is responsible for everybody, and the attending staff, the senior sergeants, are responsible for everybody. So when we made the rounds, we could enter a room where there would be a patient who had insurance, a patient who had zero insurance, and a patient who was extremely wealthy, and we had no knowledge of what their financial situation was. The attending — and then I came, of course, I was the attending. I was the professor — would go to each bedside with the same house staff, and we treated each patient equally. Whether I was paid as the surgeon or not paid at all, every patient was treated equally as a patient. And so here was an institution that in 1960 was doing that, and other institutions had to follow suit. We have to get away from this business model, and we have to do it on a patient model. [1:02:00.3] Ashley James: I so agree. I am glad that you're opening up this conversation so we can examine it and we can say, “Hey, this isn't acceptable.” It's been going this way for a while. I know you said it's been the last twenty years. But in looking at the healthcare system, right around Nixon's era, doctors were practicing medicine as best they could to help cancer patients. And some of them were using juicing, liver cleanses, the things that supported the liver, and what you would call alternative medicine. They were doing that in conjunction with the medicine that they had access to at the time. And then there was this war on cancer that came out, and all of a sudden, if it wasn't pharmaceutical, it wasn't allowed. And only oncologists — so we've developed this — that only oncologists are allowed to treat cancer. And they're only allowed to use what is allowed to be used. They can't go outside of that.  There are things that, in Europe, they're allowed to use, like ozone therapy, and they have studies to back it up. It's not quackery. And they have these chambers that they put them in, that increase oxygen, and they're finding that they're getting really good results. In conjunction with everything they're doing, they're increasing their usage of these different alternative modalities that are proven successful and have better outcomes. And like you said, we see better patient outcomes across the board in Europe, and yet those are not allowed in the hospital systems here. So who is at the top saying, “This is not allowed.”? When we look at the government and the rule-makers, they're being lobbied by those who are making that money — big pharma. The pharmaceutical industry is also making sure they have their foot in the door, stopping anything that could help positive patient outcomes if it means cutting profits for them.  So you've talked about how it's a broken system on multiple fronts. We have policies that are driven by administrators to make profits for the company, the institution, the hospital, or the clinic institution. We have enough time in the hands of the doctors. We have the pharmaceutical industry with their foot in government and policy-making also to make sure that we're not cutting profits for the pharmaceutical companies. And then we have the insurance, which is equally as corrupt because they're seeing where they can cut their costs, meaning their costs are our care. So at every level, it's broken.  One of my mentors is an old-school naturopathic physician, and before that, he was a large animal vet, pathologist, and research scientist. He's slightly younger than you. I think he's eighty-six right now. He grew up on a beef farm in Missouri, and he saw it as a kid that we would feed calf pellets which had lots of minerals and vitamins to prevent them from getting sick. And he said to his dad, “Why don't we make sure we're taking all the nutrients we need so we can prevent getting sick too?” Because if you had a cow that was undernourished and they got sick, and then they got an infection, then it would drive the cost of beef up, and your burger would be $50 instead of $12. They keep the cost down by making sure the cows are as healthy as possible, practicing preventive medicine. But where's our preventive medicine now? Now, it's “Wait till you get sick enough so I can put you on a drug.”  So the entire thing is upside down because they're making profits off of us. If we flip it back, right side up, like your book talks about, where you put the patient at the absolute top, and everyone is serving us, and the ultimate goal is to make us healthy, money will happen. Everyone will get paid. It may not be millions of dollars for you guys, but everyone will get paid. Just make sure the patient is the healthiest and the happiest. And that's the number one goal. That's what we would love, but that's not what we have. And so we have to fight for it because we got blindfolded somehow, and slowly they slipped in and started creeping in more, and they saw, “Oh, we can make more money, and we can make more money.” How far can this go? How much can they bleed us? I mean, how obvious is it? Like you said, we're paying the most money in the whole world, and we have the worst outcomes. How far can they take it? I think they've taken it far enough. So I'm glad you are bringing the fight and enlightening us and showing us that we can stand up because we have to go back to the way it was because the way it was, we definitely had better outcomes. And you've looked at the statistics in the last sixty years since they've made these changes in the last twenty years. Can you look at patient outcomes in America? As a result of this slow shift into making healthcare completely upside down, can you see the outcomes are even worse as a result? [1:07:31.9] Dr. Henry Buchwald: I think you just have to look at COVID. We're still in COVID. When we reached the million mark of deaths, dead people from COVID, that was the largest per capita. I don't know if I can believe the statistics from China or from Russia, but in all other countries where you can believe the statistics, the European countries, New Zealand, etc., we were way ahead. Why should our medical system, our care of people, our prevention, — as you keep saying, prevention, prevention, prevention — why should we have the largest number of deaths per capita? Would you say it is so true that whatever makes money rules politics, and politics ruled the day in so many areas? It's ridiculous the state that we treated COVID. We're still having COVID. But we didn't do well with COVID. Maybe it's going away. Other things have gone away. The Spanish flu went away without vaccination. Maybe this will go away. I hope so. Or maybe we'll settle in like the flu season every year or common colds. But certainly, as a nation, we didn't do that well. And here was a national emergency, and we didn't do very well at all.  [1:09:27.3] Ashley James: I had a doctor on my show a few years ago during the pandemic, Dr. Brownstein. He's been a medical doctor practicing for over thirty years, or it might be forty. He's very well-versed in being a family physician, and he has some alternatives that are soundly in science. He recommends certain nutraceuticals to support the immune system in addition to other preventions. And while you're going through any kind of viral experience, upper respiratory viral experience, he has some stuff he's been doing for his entire practice, and he gets great results. So he wrote a blog about it. He has a blog. He's had it since the nineties, where he explained, “Hey, everyone. Here's what I'm doing in my practice.” He had five hundred patients with COVID. All five hundred of them survived. Maybe if he'd treated a million, five hundred is still a small subsection of the population, but he had such great results. He published it, just sharing the information, and the government contacted him and said, “You can't do that.” And he said, “What do you mean I can't do that? I've been sharing my blog talking about natural medicine in conjunction with everything else I do as a physician since the 90s.” And they said, “No, you're not allowed to say that there's a treatment for COVID. You're not allowed to.” And he goes, “What are you talking about? I'm practicing medicine.” They said, “You have to take it down,” and then they started to take legal action against him, so he sought a constitutional lawyer. The constitutional lawyer said, “Under any circumstance, I'd say fight this.” But the government is saying no one's allowed to say you can treat COVID because they would lose the Emergency Use Authorization. The vaccines back then weren't approved, so they were still in the Emergency Use Authorization. And therefore, if there was a proven treatment, they would lose that. So this was legal. This was political.  Again, this was not a doctor being allowed to practice medicine. So he ended up writing a book about it. But he had to take his entire blog down. And this is where we see again an example that doctors should be allowed to utilize all their tools, not just pharmaceuticals, and not just what the government wants, which is administrators making decisions and not doctors making decisions. When it's safe, it's proven is healthy, it's effective, we should be allowed to have access to that information. So we should be allowed to make these decisions and be given this information. But the information was prevented by the government because they were protecting the Emergency Use Authorization at the time. So we see the corruption, and we need to protect ourselves as individuals. We need to fight and stand for what we believe. We definitely want to buy your book and check it out. Of course, the link to the book is going to be in the show notes of today's podcast at learntruehealth.com — Healthcare Upside Down: A Critical Examination of Policy and Practice. I think we should buy it for our doctor, although no one has a doctor anymore. So buy it for the next doctor you see. Leave it in the waiting room at your clinic.  I actually see naturopathic physicians go through medical school just like MD's. What's really interesting is in the states and provinces where they are licensed to be physicians, the insurance covers them, and you're allowed to see them for sixty to ninety minutes at a time instead of that 15-minute window for MD's. So, when I see a naturopath, I see her for a full hour, and I appreciate that. I have to seek out and build a relationship with a doctor that sees me twice a year that we check in with my lab. I want that model that you, as a doctor, grew up in, that model where you see the same doctor. So as a patient, I recommend you go out and find a physician that isn't in a big network, either a naturopath, an osteopath, or a medical doctor, that's in their own clinic or at least the smallest network possible. The smaller the network, hopefully, the policy that's tying their hands. Either that or find one that's independent. You got to go out of your way sometimes to find someone as independent and then advocate for yourself. Ask questions, like you said. Be curious, and ask questions. Another thing is, be willing to fire your doctor. As long as your life isn't in danger, not in the ER bleeding out, and you're not in an immediate medical situation, it is okay to fire the doctor. If you don't feel you're getting the best care, fire that entire institution and go find another clinic or find an independent doctor.  I also had a gentleman on the show recently who's an advocate because his daughter was killed by the policy in a hospital, and he is working with lawyers and speaking out. And he says the best thing you could do is research all the hospitals in your neighborhood, in your area, or find an independent hospital. Find a hospital that is in the smallest network possible and look at its outcomes; just do your research. Know the clinics, know the hospitals, so you can make the right choice when you go to the right one. And definitely be willing to talk to the doctor and ask questions.  When I was at the ER with my son a few years ago, they started putting needles into him, and I turned and said, “Wait a second, I need informed consent.” And she turned to me, and she actually was surprised, and then happy, and I was so relieved because I thought maybe a doctor would be angry at me for saying that. And she goes, “We're administering magnesium” because we came in with respiratory distress. And then she proceeded to explain, “This is not a drug. We're putting magnesium intravenously. And then, every time they did something to him, she came to me, and she said, “This is what we're doing. These are the possible side effects. These are the alternatives.” She gave me true, informed consent, but I had to ask for it. And I believe we should ask for it. Ask for the known side effects. What are the alternatives? What kind of outcomes do you expect? And we should work with the doctors to advocate for our own health.  I'm very happy to have you on the show and to expose this information. Is there anything that you came here to say that you didn't get to say yet? Is there a message that you definitely want to make sure that you hit home with us? [1:15:58.7] Dr. Henry Buchwald: Well, I agree. Everybody has to think this over, and let's just say, is this what we want? And I think the answer is no. And then how can we make it better? Again, I don't think the individual can. I think I've seen individual doctors revolt against individual patients. They don't get anywhere. You have to use your group. Now it could be a professional group, like the American Medical Association, and it could be a union. A major union that says, “Listen, our job is not only to get the highest wages and shortest hours. Our job is to get the best healthcare.” And they have to become knowledgeable and negotiate for that.  So I guess my message is for every American to realize that we're not getting our money's worth. To get our money's worth, you have to do something about it. And probably the best way to do something about it is through some fraternal organization. And a little sidebar to that, I'm for entrepreneurs. As I said, I believe in capitalism. Now let's just say an entrepreneur says, “I'm going to start a medical center where you will see individual doctors. They will be your doctors. I'm not going to take an exorbitant multi, multi-million-dollar income home. You don't have to do the first thing you do, come in and pay a co-payment before anybody will even say hello. I'll do all that. And I think that person might get a tremendous following and make money for themselves, for the organization and have happy patients, and do medicine right. Entrepreneurship and capitalism can come in and win this day. They just don't have to be greedy for the top but give what they are supposed to give, and then everybody will be served. So certainly, I'm in no way against business in medicine, but it has to be business first for the patient and not for a client. Thank you.  [1:18:55.3] Ashley James: Yes. And the clinics and the hospitals that organize that model will transition to move to them. If someone invents a better system that is pro-patient, they will get all the business. So if anyone's listening that has the capacity to do that, go do it because people will navigate towards that. People want to vote with their dollars. And right now, people don't even know that there is an alternative, that there's a better way. But we need to invent a better way, and we need to fight for it. I need to get your book and read it to really understand and have the full picture — Healthcare Upside Down: A Critical Examination of Policy and Practice.  Dr. Henry Buchwald, it has been so amazing to have you on the show. Thank you so much for advocating for all of us. [1:19:43.9] Dr. Henry Buchwald: And thank you ever so much for having me. It's been a great pleasure.  [1:19:49.5] Ashley James: I hope you enjoyed today's episode with Dr. Henry Buchwald. It definitely gives us a lot to think about and how important our individual choices are because, collectively, we can make a difference. We can fight back; we can push back. And if you'd like to fight back and push back, provide your family or just yourself, if you're single, with better healthcare, if you live in the United States and you are sick of paying into a system that's broken. Check out learntruehealth.com/healthcare and check out the previous episode, Episode #501, for more information.  You can always reach out to me through our Facebook group, the Learn True Health Facebook group. Come join it, reach out there, or you can write me ashley@leantruehealth.com. I'd love to hear from you. If you do decide to jump in and purchase that healthcare for yourself, then let me know. I'd love to hear your results. I have been talking to some others who have that coverage, and they've been sharing with me amazing stories about how well they've been treated. They are able to go to any doctor they want, in any state they want. They can get any surgery. They can go to any hospital, get any surgery.  I have a friend where the surgeon wanted to do a specific kind of surgery with a newer apparatus that's 3D printed, with surgical material, and it would have been a much safer, shorter surgery. It would have meant faster healing time, and recovery time, that for the rest of her life, she'd be better off, and the insurance company said, “No, we're only going to pay for this type of surgery.” We have to cut her open six inches and do a bunch of other stuff that makes it twelve weeks of recovery, and they would not cover that. The surgeon went to battle and fought them and fought them, and the insurance company said, “No.” And if it had been this alternative to health insurance, learntruehealth.com/healthcare — if it had been that one, the one we talked about in Episode #501, they would have covered it, and it would have actually been cheaper for her. This is just mind-blowing that we've been conned by these industries, and they keep squeezing us and squeezing us.  I've been paying for health insurance for so many years. It has been over nine years, and every year I noticed that I was paying more for my family. I'm paying more, and not just because we're getting older, but seriously paying hundreds of dollars more for less and less coverage. And in the last year, it was ridiculous. It went up several hundred dollars per month, and it felt almost like they cut our coverage in half. It was crazy, and they're going to keep squeezing and squeezing us because they can, and we need to push back. I'm calling for a healthcare revolution. We need reform. We have to stand up for ourselves and do it ourselves because the people we elect into office are bought by these industries. And so we have to vote with our dollars.  Collectively, we have the power to overthrow a corrupt industry. And I've seen it time and time again. When consumers decide to cancel culture, cancel that old thing, it goes down the tubes. So with our dollars, we can, as collectively, make the right choices. If all of us follow our values and put our money towards the practitioners, the healthcare, that alternative to insurance — for example, if we put our money towards maybe smaller run clinics, individual clinics, instead of the group clinics, where we're going to actually receive better care, more individualized care. If we collectively do that, we can overthrow it.  So make sure that with every purchase you make, put it towards something that you believe in. Buy organic. Buy local. Connect with local farms. Buy from them. Put your money towards things that are going to build your health and also build the health of our future. So it's learntruehealth.com/healthcare. Check it out. Let me know what you think. Thank you for being a listener, and thank you for sharing these episodes with those you care about. And if you haven't already, go back to this Episode #500 because that was a really amazing episode filled with some wonderful stories of success. And who doesn't like to hear stories of success? I know I certainly do. Stay tuned. I have a bunch of episodes I'm going to be releasing, and they've all been really great interviews. So I can't wait for you to hear them. Have yourself a great rest of your day.  Get Connected with Dr. Henry Buchwald! Website Books by Dr. Henry Buchwald Healthcare Upside Down: A Critical Examination of Policy and Practice Surgical Renaissance in the Heartland: A Memoir of the Wangensteen Era

For all the details visit learntruehealth.com/healthcare    501: The Most Comprehensive and Affordable Health Coverage  https://www.learntruehealth.com/the-most-comprehensive-and-affordable-health-coverage In Episode 501 of the Learn True Health podcast, the host, Ashley James, introduces Megan Williams, who discusses a better and more affordable alternative to traditional health insurance in the United States. Megan explains that she discovered a system that offers comprehensive and affordable coverage aligned with holistic and preventive healthcare values. They discuss the challenges of navigating the healthcare market and the benefits of this alternative system. Megan highlights that the system is non-profit and aims to provide a solution without someone profiting from it. They address concerns about coverage limitations and the simplicity and effectiveness of the program. Highlights:  The importance of having access to holistic and preventive medicine that aligns with our values Introducing a system that offers affordable and comprehensive health coverage The challenges faced by self-employed individuals and the flaws in the current healthcare system A non-profit, non-insurance alternative that aims to provide a solution for healthy individuals seeking alternative healthcare options The system offers freedom and control over healthcare choices, including access to chiropractors, naturopathic doctors, and telemedicine services. The need for accessible and affordable healthcare options [00:02.1] Ashley James: Welcome to the Learn True Health podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James. This is Episode 501. Intro: I am so excited for today's guest. We have Megan Williams on the show of the system. I've been looking high and low, for years, for a better way to do health insurance because I'm self-employed. My podcast is my income and all the other things I do like holistic health coaching. I'm self-employed, and so for years, I've had to buy my own health insurance, which usually our family of three pays $1,400 a month for an okay health insurance. It's not that great because we still have to pay $9,500 out of pocket before we really start getting coverage. It's just been very expensive, and we can only see our chiropractor ten times a year. We can only see our naturopath a few times a year. We get one free visit a year, and then everything else is just pretty much out of pocket. It's been very stressful to have to pay for our own health insurance.  Talking to a lot of my friends, even their health insurance is covered by their jobs, and it's really not that great. A lot of my friends either end up buying secondary health insurance to try to pat on and compensate for what they have, or some of my friends simply don't have health insurance at all. I have one who just had surgery to remove a benign tumor, and she doesn't have health insurance. It's really scary out there. Her husband's work provides health insurance, but the insurance they sell to the employees is so incredibly expensive and has way worse coverage than I have at $1,400 a month.  I'm from Canada, originally, so this concept of paying for health insurance and having to go on the market every year and go on the exchange — I have a broker that I talk to — and having to shop for your health insurance to get locked into for a year; it's been super stressful. I look at spreadsheets and compare them all. But at the end of the day, I've never had a good experience with any health insurance company since I've been self-employed back in 2010, so I've been looking and looking and looking. I have a friend who was in a health share system, and she had some good experiences, she had some bad experiences. I've talked to a few other friends that have done more alternative styles. Some had really great stories; some were okay. And nothing was as bad as the traditional health insurance that we have now. But I've been looking. There's got to be a company out there. There's got to be a better way. Because I want to have access to preventive, holistic medicine. This is what I invested in. I invest in my health. So I want my health insurance to also be something that reflects my values. I know that a lot of my listeners want a type of health insurance that reflects their values of focusing on freedom of choice, focusing on being able to make holistic preventive medicine affordable.  That's how I found Megan Williams. So in walks, Megan teaches me all about this amazing company, and I'm really, really, really excited. This is for people in the United States. I get it, my Canadian listeners. Maybe you'll just find this interesting simply because it's like looking at a different planet when it comes to how it works in America. But most of my listeners are in the United States, and even if you do have adequate coverage through your work, you might have kids that have outgrown your system. If they're 27 years old, that can't be in your coverage anymore. And there are so many people that don't have good health insurance simply because it's unaffordable.  Megan, I'm really excited to have you today because you're going to teach us about your system that helps us to have affordable coverage that's comprehensive and that aligns with our values so that we can go see a chiropractor. We can see our licensed naturopathic doctor. We can get the lab work once a year to look at everything and make sure that we're on the right track — everything that I normally go to, all the cool stuff I normally go to. And then, of course, having the whoopsie daisies in life, like the ER visit because your kid broke his arm or something like that; that's all covered as well. So I'm very excited to talk to you today because I think that this is a tool that's going to help so many of my listeners, and it's so needed. And it's so frustrating and heartbreaking for people who don't have the coverage, especially the coverage that rewards them for making good healthy choices, like holistic and preventive health care. Now, listeners can go to learntruehealth.com/healthcare to check out this system and see if it's right for them. I was first amazed by the amount of money I would save. It is like a fraction of the cost, and I actually thought the numbers were wrong. I was like, this can't be right! There's going to be a glitch or something. It's way more affordable. And I've always kind of looked at health insurance like it's a racket, like there's someone at the top making a ton of money, jumping into piles of bills and swimming in it, like that cartoon duck that swims through his money. I just imagine there's this evil billionaire sitting at the top of the food chain, collecting all the money because health insurance is so crazy expensive. And so here we have the system that you provide and teach us about, which allows us to pay a fraction of the price and yet have more coverage and better coverage than what I've been paying for years. So I'm really excited to get into it at learntruehealth.com/healthcare. Definitely, for listeners, this is a need. I know you'll love it.  Megan, please share with us how you have been doing with this and with all of your clients, helping them. I know you have a ton of stories. I'd love to hear a bit about how you got into all this.  [0:06:34.5] Megan Williams: Absolutely! Well, first, Ashley, thank you for having me today. I love sharing and giving value, and you have been doing this for years, which is so exciting that you've got so many people who have been blessed by your insights. And just listening to you, you are an expert already at all about it. You know, even though I know you claimed to be Canadian, you definitely have the terms down as we Americans do. That, dang it, it stinks when you are an independent contractor, and you have to pay for yourself. And you hit so many points that I think are difficult points for so many of us. You hit how much it costs every month, and then can we even afford the out-of-pocket deductibles and copays that come along with that. Even when employers are offering it to try to retain their clients, they're getting priced out of good plans, so you're getting subpar. And many providers, doctors, and hospitals don't even want to work with it. Then the fact that you even mentioned that there are brokers out there that are trying to be solution-oriented and make a little bit of money trying to help people like you and me in the marketplace. But the problem is if you're looking at the price point, you're cutting out all the care. And so this has been something that really is difficult, and just like you, I've been an independent contractor for the last 17-plus years. Prior, I taught high school, and my husband was in law enforcement. So those are “jobs that give you benefits,” right? So you're thinking, “Oh, this is great. I get these benefits.” But there are so many fine little gotchas in those contracts that we've learned over the years.  Let me just give you a little background. I have been offering solutions for high prices for a lot of different essential services for the last 20 years. My husband and I really love helping people. We love bringing them more value. We love getting to have great relationships, just like you. And what was so interesting is we were introduced to our healthcare option here with Impact, and we knew that we were not going to offer something that would not really be a solution. Like, money is number one. It's like a house payment; you have to pay for it, right? Or you have to knock on wood and pray nothing happens. Like you just said, so many people go without it. And Ryan and I were not going to even say one word about it unless we knew it was going to be a good solution.  So I would love to hit some of the points that you talked about and why this is so great. But I do want everyone to understand that I get it. I get what people are paying for. I get what people are not wanting to pay for. I'll give a great personal example, and then we'll get into the benefits of this. So we had healthcare through our great providers, that are the ones paid for, and I had twins back in 2010. I had to take one of my boys to get an x-ray because he was crying, and he never cried. He was like the happiest baby ever. He's about ten months old. We got there; I called the insurance company and said, okay, where should I go? What's your “in-network”? And we go over to this facility to get an x-ray. The doctor saw us for literally maybe 8 minutes after the x-ray. He told us he just needed a sling, and his little collarbone was broken, but that's how you repair it. A few weeks later, I got a bill for $13,000, and I was like, are you kidding me? So I called up this big major insurance company that's supposed to be included. All the stuff is supposed to be included. They're like, “Oh, well, if you have gone to the hospital at this entrance, then you would have been a network. But because you went to their outpatient on the other side of the building, that wasn't in our network.” And I said to them, I am paying you $2,400 a month to have healthcare, and you're telling me that you're not going to help me work this out? They're like, “No, it's out of network. So you're responsible for this.” Now that's normal. Out-of-network for a family can be close to $22,000 a year. I was ticked. I canceled my insurance that day. I called the little outpatient I thought hospital and worked with them, and I ended up paying cash and renegotiating prices. Mind you, this was 13 years ago, and I thought this was ridiculous. Well, I was like, I don't want healthcare. I'm not paying for this; I'll just pay cash with cash as king. At that point in 2010, you could just pay cash. You didn't have to do it. And then the government changed the rules, and you were fined if you didn't have health care. At first, the fines were not that expensive, and then once you made too much money, the fines became out of control. And so they then instilled this idea of affordable health care. But the problem is anybody in this country who makes a decent living cannot get the subsidies. Or they can get subsidies until they show that they made more income, and then again, you have more fines. So it's this broken system.  And so, again, Ryan and I were looking. We have been praying for solutions, and we have tried everything. We've gone with big disabilities. We've gone with low payments, but then it has a lot of piecemeal coverage, and then we pay cash for things. But ultimately, with three boys, there's no way we can live life like that. And so when we were introduced to this, we were blown away. I will tell you, first off, everybody, the neat thing about this option in this group share program is that it is a non-profit. So there isn't someone at the top trying to make all the money on us. That got me really excited that nobody owns it because it's not a company. It's a non-profit, non-insurance alternative that gives us a solution. And so, just like you were saying, Ashley, that for most of us who are generally healthy, we were paying into a broken system — a system that is 3% or maybe 5% of the country that really needs health care. But the rest of us, we are healthy and are looking for alternatives. We want to use chiropractors. We want to use holistic ways. And even today, I had a good friend call me. She's been in our program, but she's been so afraid to use it because she thought there were gotchas. And then she used our telemedicine which we have unlimited access to everyone with $0 provider fees, and she was blown away. She's like, “In two minutes, I was talking to a doctor, and I told her what was going on, and they got me two prescriptions in one hour. I was worried for nothing, and it was so simple.” And I started laughing, and I said, “I know. We are brainwashed to think it is going to be complicated, and it's going to be difficult.” And what our group has done is modernize this, made it affordable but giving us, just like you said, the freedom and control back to us.  [0:14:05.2] Ashley James: Right. So there's a monthly fee that you pay which is a fraction of normal health insurance like I'm paying $1400 a month for ‘okay' health insurance, which is not that great. I'm frustrated that we have to pay out-of-pocket $9,500 before we start really getting coverage. Our family, knock on wood, or knock on my Sunlighten sauna, which is right beside me — that's wood; I know that's wood — thank God, we're in good health. You know we have the oopsies that happen once in a while, and that is why we have insurance. But like I said, I want to go to my chiropractor. I want to go to my acupuncturist. I want to go to my licensed naturopathic physician and to my holistic providers, and I want them paid for. I'd love to have access to quick telemedicine to speak to a doctor, just to be like, “Hey, should I go to the clinic with my son? He's got a weird rash.” And you know that it's free. I'd love that. The gotchas are something that is looming in my mind; like that sounds too good to be true because it costs so little, and you're getting way better coverage. I have a friend with a different company who is in a sort of a healthcare thing. And it was like, “Well, if you do this, then we'll drop you.” And so the fear is, is this something that is in a regulated industry? Can they just drop you if they decide to? So we definitely want to talk about those red flags, these elephants in the room.  But one thing that I first want to talk about though is this idea of in-network and out-of-network. What you described happened to us similarly, but this is back when my husband was a foreman union carpenter. This was about 13 years ago, also in 2010. And so the carpenters' union, I thought, had good health insurance. He had an oopsie, and we went to the hospital. He had to have an emergency experience at the hospital, and it was a hospital that was in-network. Then we get the bill. And the anesthesiologist, although working at the hospital at the time, was out-of-network. How is this possible? So we had to pay the entire everything for the anesthesiologist because they wouldn't cover that bill. And yet I'm like, how is this possible? We went to a hospital that was in-network, and my husband got rushed off to an ER, and any of the practitioners in that ER could not be covered by the insurance. And I hate that. And when I gave birth to our son, we got a $5,000 bill within weeks of giving birth. I'm like, I did all the work. What is going on? You guys didn't do anything. I did all the work. So I hate it that you have to pay every month. I don't use the word ‘hate' often, but I just loathe this system that makes us feel like we're indebted slaves. It is not freedom, and you get surprise bills, and if you don't pay them, they're going to send you to collections really quickly. And it's a surprise! We get to charge you with whatever we want because it's out-of-network, and we decide what's in there, and you don't know beforehand, even though you do all the research. We could switch out an anesthesiologist and put in one that was out of network, and you don't get to decide.  So this idea of in-network and out-of-network feels like a total scam. So the company that you're working with, that you're telling us about, there's no such thing as out-of-network? [0:17:57.3] Megan Williams: Correct, and it's amazing! So the main point that I'm just going to hit, and then we're going to hit all these points you just said, is yes, there are no network providers. And now, no provider network in general. So if something happens and you end up on a vacation at a hospital with your finger cut and they've got to do stitches, there's no triple the price because it “was out-of-network.” You can go to every doctor, every provider that you like and you're used to. And even if they've never heard of our group, Impact, what's neat is we have what's called an EDI number, and that EDI number is what they have in their systems for every network. So we have our own licensing. Currently, we are in 47 states, so that we can have service then in all states and all the countries around the world if something should happen. But the neat part is that they will not triple the price because you're “out of network,” and that is really nice. The other great thing is because it's comprehensive medicine, anything you go to the doctor for, even before your deductibles are met, they do what's called reference-based pricing. And so, again, they are working to be our advocates.  So that's what's so neat about it. It is that we've got an amazing price point, and we're going to explain how that works. We're going to answer that question that you just asked about. Could they kick you out for no reason? No, because we've got guidelines that are our legal standing, that makes this work for everybody, and you go in totally transparent, and you know exactly what you're going to get without any gotchas, no provider restrictions, which is huge. So again, no double or triple prices, and we've got this advocate with Impact that's going to work with us and help us every step of the way, which is so unique in this industry. It just doesn't happen anymore. You know, it's just all about the bottom line, and for us, it's not. And so I think the neat thing is when we really are trying to help as many people as possible, and it's inclusive.  So a lot of the background about sharing groups that we've heard is they're all religious-based, while ours is under the umbrella of love thy neighbor because that can be any religion. So we have no religious affiliation. Everybody is welcome. And really, there is no denying being part of our group. The big thing is we do have a 36-month pre-existing, and we'll get into that in a little bit. But what I want to explain to everybody is we're looking for generally healthy people. All of us who don't go all the time and will love the idea of alternatives. Well, because of that, the only thing they look at is the oldest member of the household's age and how many members are going to be part of the group. So it will be one, two, or three and more. So you could be a family of eight, and it's the same price if you're a family of three. If you add more children, it doesn't hurt you. Again, that's kind of unheard of too.  So like you said, the average American's paying $1,800 a month for decent health care coverage, with a $10,000 family deductible and $22,000 out-of-network. That's what we're used to. Usually, you get a 20/80 split when it comes to your co-shares and things like that. Well, let me explain how ours works.  [0:21:28.9] Ashley James: Could you just explain what 20/80 is? So let's just slow it down. Normally what people are paying — so like I said, our family of three is paying $1,400 a month, and we have to pay out of pocket $9,500 in a year before they start really covering things, and we have a few things. Like I can go to see a chiropractor ten times a year, and after that, it's out of pocket. Like, I have to pay 100% of it, basically. So I've got a few things, but it's like you're just buying car insurance. You're just hoping you don't get into an accident, but you're glad if you have it because it's going to sort of help for the big stuff. So the 80/20 split, can you just explain that? That's the standard health insurance that we are not happy with. It's like a train wreck. It is a broken system. Okay, broken system explanation.  [0:22:23.9] Megan Williams: Yes. So the way it works in traditional health care is you have it as a deductible, and usually when you go to the doctor, you have to pay a copay or provider fee upfront. So then you get the full bill. So you pay your provider fee then they send the bill to the insurance. The insurance reprice as is. If you have not met your deductible, then you pay that repriced bill to the doctor, and they apply it. The problem is, as you are starting to utilize that, then you get to a place where now you've met your deductible, and you have to pay 20% of the bill, and they then will cover 80% of it. Well, normally, that doesn't have a limit. So let's say a child, heaven forbid, gets cancer, and you meet your in-network deductible of $10,000 for the year and even some out-of-networks because, again, like we just heard with sweet Ashley, is that the anesthesiologist was not in-network, so you have to pay that price. So they try to tell you, “Oh, max out of pocket, it would be $12,000.” Or, in her scenario, it was $9,500 if it was in-network. Out-of-network, that max might be $22,000. Well then, after that, heaven forbid, your child has to continue getting therapy and continue being in the hospital off and on, you then pay 20% of those bills, and if a bill comes to a million dollars, you are now responsible for 20% of that. And what we've found is most of the bankruptcies in the United States come because we cannot afford this healthcare. When something tragic comes, and, like you said, these oopsies turn into something really big; now we're in a big bind.  Well, the neat thing with our guidelines and the way that they have set us up for price point is it is the oldest member of the household. So in my family, I'm the oldest member of our household, and we have five members of our household. And so, our price point is determined as I age, not by what medical expenses have happened in our family, which is huge. But we also know that no matter what threshold we pick — I'm going to explain in just a minute how this works — you get to pick four options. One is the amount of your deductible, which we call a primary responsibility amount, and then you pay your monthly rate, or what we know in traditional health care is called premiums, and you decide if you want to pay less every month and have more exposure on the backend with our deductible. Or would you like to pay a little bit more for your monthly premium or standard rate and then have a household deductible that's much lower? And then once you meet that, we would then have a 10/90 split, but it maxes at $5,000 for the whole family for the year. So that same million-dollar incident would not cost a family more than the amount they picked for their deductible, which thresholds are $2,500, $5,000, $7,500, or $10,000 and $5,000 in your kosher amount. So you could be as little as $7,500 for the year to $15,000 for your whole entire family. And you know going in that if something happens, this is all that I would come out of pocket besides my monthly rates. And that is a huge place to start from, where most of the time, we start at, like you said, $1,400 a month. It's piecemeal. We don't really know what they're going to cover and what they're not going to cover. And then all of a sudden, we have bills coming out because some were in-network and some were out-of-network, and it is a colossal tough situation.  [0:26:25.5] Ashley James: You said the million-dollar — God forbid, knock on wood and knock my Sunlighten — medical bill, which would be over $200,000 for average healthcare, your health care caps off after you pay your deductible. It caps off at that $5,000.  [0:26:47.0] Megan Williams: Yes. [0:26:47.5] Ashley James: Per family.  [0:26:49.3] Megan Williams: Yes, which is so incredible. [0:26:51.5] Ashley James: It's amazing! So like you said, the 20/80 split, it's a 10/90 split that gets capped at $5,000. That is insane, and I love it. It's so freeing for so many families. I just looked it up; 66.5 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States are caused by medical bills.  [0:26:51.5] Megan Williams: That's right. [0:27:14.9] Ashley James: Really, it's really sick. It is a broken system that keeps us so stressed out and so stuck. The way the financial system is going, the way our food costs have risen, we've got to get more creative when it comes to saving money and still being healthy. This is a perfect system to do that. This system is the perfect system because I order, for example, as your standard — I'll make sure the link is in the show notes — as your standard is a produce company that gets organic fresh from the farm kind of thing, and you can also do both. I buy brown rice and beans in bulk. I save a ton of money doing it. I buy my sprouting seeds in bulk. I get frozen organic produce and fresh organic produce through them, and they get it directly from the farm, and they promised that it's not radiated, that there's no Bill Gates spray, that new kind of spray they called Apeel, which has been around for a while for the last few years. That's not sprayed on their produce. So they're fantastic. I've been buying from them for years, but when my friends were like, “They're a Christian-based company,” I love it when a company is like, “Hey, these are our values, and we just want you to know that we're not going to poison you.” That's how I save money because even though I'm pinching pennies, money's tight, and I'm not going to sacrifice my family's health. So I will still continue to buy organic, and I'm just going to find more and more creative ways to do so. I'm throwing my own potatoes in my backyard. That kind of thing. So I'm buying from companies that I can buy in bulk and save money and looking at how I can cut costs, but not cut care, and not cut quality. And what I love about your company is that it's a fraction of the price, and we're getting even better care.  Now, I know you have so much to talk about. But I got to tell you my absolute favorite part, besides the fact that you're not going to get surprised by $200,000 bills. So there are no surprises when it comes to bills. But what I love is that you have so much more access to holistic health providers. So, let's talk about what you do get to do with this insurance. Do you call it insurance?  [0:29:53.4] Megan Williams: We don't. We call it healthcare or health sharing or a non-insurance alternative. And it's very nice because the only thing about our platform is it's a five-year-old group that's been around for five years. But what's so neat about it is they took this modern approach, and the CFO and the board have come together from past experience of what works and doesn't work — what are people wanting, what are they looking for, what do they need. And even to this day, there are some things holistically that we can't share yet. But there is so much more available here than I've ever seen, which is incredible. I absolutely love it. So I'll give a great example of that.  With our group, everybody in the entire group gets a wellness visit, and they get $150 of labs without having to pay into their PRA or deductible that comes first. And then, as you are getting treatments and you're working with new situations, they will actually share or apply visits up to fifty per member for either chiropractic, physical therapy, mental health, things that they might need like respiratory therapy, the things that sometimes are overlooked. And if we were doing them, it would prevent other things from happening, right? And I really like that because my chiropractor and I had worked out a way to be affordable and be able to use him because my children are so athletic. We tend to have things pop out and hurt. My knees have popped out. We've been in and out of the ER for a lot of stuff, and we have found that utilizing our chiropractor has prevented a lot of these issues. Well, when we came to Impact, we were really thrilled to know that each person got to come by and visit. So let's just say we pay cash $200 for our chiropractic visits as a family every month — I'm just going to use that number because it's a round number. It is easy, right? Maybe it was $100 a visit. Well, what we worked out with Impact is we pay the hour $100, and then our chiropractor's staff then sends the paid invoice with the correct codes of treatment to Impact. Well, Impact then worked with him and said, okay, listen, this is a new treatment, so we need these codes. They worked out the correct code, so everything was right. And then, they could take that bill of $100 and apply it to our deductible. So things that I had been paying cash for years, 10-15 years now, actually got applied to our PRA. So then one of my sons needed physical therapy, a new therapy for an injury that he had. Again, we were able to take that physical therapy bill, get the code, submit that to Impact, and have it applied to our PRA. Before, we would just go and have that therapy done without getting any type of application to it. So it actually went to something, and that was huge. Oh my gosh, that was huge.  And then, over time, we had other preventive care that when you're in your forties, you need. And those were getting applied. But the amazing part was, in some of the scenarios, they would readjust those prices, and in some of them, it was just what we paid cash. But it got applied. And so, very quickly, we had chosen as a family, we were paying, just so everybody knows of our background; we had gotten it whittled down to about $1,800 a month for healthcare with a $10,000 family deductible. Now on Impact, we pay $605 a month with a $2,500 household PRA or deductible. So very quickly, $2,500 between five people and little incidents adds up quickly. And it just made it so nice because as things were coming in and different processes and bills were coming in, Impact kept all that transparent. They worked with all the different providers. Over the last year, we have seen checks come back for things we paid for in cash with that 10% taken out because they're like, “No, you've met this PRA now. We got to make sure you guys get your money back.” So everything's doing the right by us, and that was huge.  [0:34:35.2] Ashley James: As I said earlier, when I looked into how much our family of three would be paying, it came out to be about $600 with, like you said, the $2,500 household deductible. Now with the insurance I had, it was $9,500. So that was a huge difference. And I was paying $1,400 a month, and now they're closer to $600 with you guys. I was sitting there going, something was wrong. I didn't input something correctly. There's got to be a glitch. This is amazing paying for it, and I love that you called it a non-health insurance alternative because that sounds like my latte. It's like I'm going to have the non-dairy alternative. It's better, and it's healthier. This is like that — the healthier, non-insurance alternative. This is the holistic non-insurance alternative. It just sounds like my entire diet. It's like, I'm going to have the non-meat alternative or whatever.  [0:35:42.2] Megan Williams: Yes, it's so true. It feels like that. You're absolutely right. So for those of us who are used to non-traditional, this is a perfect solution. Now, there are scenarios, Ashley, 100%, that we're not the right fit. But it's not all or nothing. And that's some of the things that really blew my mind as I was helping families trying to find solutions. I'll give a great example — we had a mom who has been diabetic since she was born, and she needed very specific medicine, and it was very, very expensive. And so, on the marketplace, there are some great plans that are out there. But again, it's nice. Like you said, there are brokers who actually helped. And so, in our hunt for helping people find solutions and really trying to find the best so people can come to our group, we have made some really great strategic partnerships. So this family comes, we look at the price point, we look at everything it covers, and she goes, “Oh my goodness, this is perfect for my husband and kids. They don't have any issues. This is what we've been looking for.” Well, they were a family of four, and what we did was we were actually able to put the entire family in our group with Impact. She worked with a broker that we knew and got great diabetic coverage for what she needed because that was pre-existing for her. But she can utilize our group as her secondary. So she gets her wellness visits, you know, included. She gets her normal thing. She gets all the benefits of the discounts for our prescriptions, but she gets what she needs with traditional. So, yes, they're paying a little bit more. But if they had kept the family on that traditional plan for the four of them, it was going to be $2,800 a month. Instead, she could have that plan for right around $600, and the family, including her, could be with us. They were a little older than us. So it's about $650 a month with a $2,500 deductible. Well, that was still $1,200 less than the $2,800 they would be paying if they were all on traditional. So it's not an all-or-nothing scenario.  We've had people who have high blood pressure. It's pre-existing. With us, any of those bills or doctor visits about high blood pressure would not be applied to the deductible or to sharing. But if they had a heart attack, or they ended up in the hospital thinking they were having a heart attack, that would be shared with the group because that pre-existing does not affect future cardiac and vascular events that could come up. So again, it's not an all-or-nothing for individuals with us. It just is; what do you feel comfortable with? We sometimes have where the parents don't even come to Impact. They stay with their employees' coverage, and their children come to us because it's so much more affordable to mix-and-match per se. So again, this is the non-traditional approach, folks. It's not all or nothing. It's crazy, right? I mean, they pay into any type of chiropractic, physical therapy, vision therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, or respirational. They look at mental health. They want to help us. With preventative ladies, we all get our preventative care and work with all of those things, and they'll share in it. It is big. They have limitations, but the limitations can be for a favor and/or protect us from people abusing the situation. So it's really neat how they word our guidelines. And when you go to Ashley's link, you can look at the guidelines and see the transparency of it, which is huge. It's fantastic, so we love that. [0:39:38.2] Ashley James: So it's learntruehealth.com/healthcare. You definitely want to check that out. I love that I can go to my chiropractor every two weeks and not have to worry about it. I like to see my naturopath once every six months. I don't have major health issues, but I really like to check in twice a year. I like to do some blood work if we feel like we need to. Pretty much I like to do blood work once a year. But if there's anything coming up, I like to just check in on it. I like knowing that I have access to these other services, like physical therapy. I got to tell you physical therapy for women after giving birth is the most life-changing thing. I have an interview about pelvic floor therapy, and it's not just for women. If men are having trouble urinating, have pain during sex, and pain during evacuation, they can also have a disruption in their pelvic floor. So I had this great interview about pelvic floor therapy. I've seen three different pelvic floor therapists. I had one before my second pregnancy and two after. And one of them did a type of massage. Yes, it's a vaginal massage. They wear gloves and everything. What she did was she broke up scar tissue. I didn't even realize that this was the problem, and it corrected everything. It was amazing. I could walk properly. My chiropractor pulled me back together because my pelvis was twisted. But it's really interesting how scar tissue, after giving birth vaginally, can throw off the whole pelvic floor, which throws off the glutes, which throws off the hips, which throws off our gait. It is all connected, and I ended up because my crappy expensive health insurance wasn't covering it. I had to pay $5,500 out of pocket for all the PT I got, and it was so frustrating. I am paying so much money for health insurance, and on top of that, I have to pay for the care I need because I was in pain, and this might be TMI. Well, my listeners know me. But intercourse for seven years was painful, which doesn't make it fun for the husband because he's like, “I don't want to hurt you.” But that was the scar tissue left behind, and that was the stitches that the doctor did without really consulting me, and it caused so much scar tissue that it wasn't fun. It was no fun experience for the last eight years. And then I had the PT, and it was like everything down there was reset to pre-having kids. I couldn't believe it. And then, finally, there was no pain during intercourse, and it was like, I didn't realize how much I missed not having pain down there until it was reset. But this is pelvic floor PT, not covered by a lot of very expensive health insurance companies, and here we have something. These are licensed physical therapists. This is a legitimate service. This is a legitimate physical therapy, and it can be covered by this non-insurance, healthier alternative.  [0:42:55.3] Megan Williams: That's right. No, it's really true. So let's talk about maternity because that's one of the big questions. I have a new member family that is young. They have two children. They want to have another one, and they have been looking. Her husband changed jobs, and with the new job, healthcare wasn't really a viable option for them and their family. They're like, “It's not really providing us care. It doesn't do what we want.” And she just happened to see one of our posts on Facebook, and she sent me a message. Her mom and I have been friends for years, and she's like, “We really want to have another baby.” I said okay, stop right there. If you come to us, we need to get you in the system fast because you need to be a member for one year before that baby is born. So she's like, okay. So she's been a member for one month, and she's been waiting for three months. “So four months total before we started trying for another baby,” and I started laughing, and I said, “Yes, because with our program, you guys, you get up to $150,000 towards any single pregnancy event that is shared in the group.” The neat part, just like you said. Afterwardsafterward, physical therapy would be something that would definitely be shared with the group. You can also pick which kind of doctor you can be performed with. So you can go to a facility. You can have a midwife come to your house. You can have a water delivery as long as the midwives/PA are all certified and registered in that state for delivery as long as they're properly licensed.  Now this is a huge option because so many people now are looking for alternatives for that. It is great. And then, of course, the newborn will become a member and be added right when they're born. So it's perfect. And then they get extra visits that first year and then up to the age of six. They get all their visits, and all that stuff included that is shared with the group to make it very affordable for us. And so I think that that is a really huge blessing because, like you said, these doctors, in and out of network, all of a sudden emergencies happen, and you get these extra bills. And that's not what you want to be focused on when you have a baby. That is a fantastic added benefit. For our members, they really want us to recover, and they want us to have great options. And absolutely, that type of therapy would be included because it would fall under physical therapy. So it's fantastic. [0:45:29.8] Ashley James: Absolutely. I'm so excited. As far as people with pre-existing conditions like asthma, for example, they can still use your non-insurance healthier alternative, but when it comes to their pre-existing condition, it is not covered for the first 36 months.  [0:45:52.5] Megan Williams: Correct. In our guidelines, let me just say it exactly right so everyone understands — so pre-existing medical conditions are conditions that are known signs, symptoms, testing, diagnosis, treatment, or other use of medicine occurring within the last 36 months. Now asthma would be something that would be pre-existing because it's been diagnosed. But at the same time, the nice thing about asthma is that besides having a prescription and being aware of it, there's no long-term effect. So a lot of people would say, okay, I could come to this group. I know my prescriptions are going to be discounted because I'm not part of the group anyways, but maybe if I have a special respiratory scenario, if they've just been recently diagnosed prior to coming to the group, that would be considered pre-existing. But some people haven't had treatment. They may have just been on medicine for the last ten years but have not had any type of diagnosis or treatment per se in the last 36 months. So anything new coming up would not be considered pre-existing.  I'll give an example that happened to me personally. So I have acid reflux from having twins. They always say when you're pregnant, you have heartburn. Well, let me tell you, when you have twins, it has nothing to do with the hair on their head because my two are bald. But it definitely was something that I got, and then I continued to have it off and on for the last thirteen years. Well, when I was with my last traditional insurance, they saw on my doctor's notes that I had gotten a prescription for heartburn, and they told me that it was pre-existing. And if anything ever comes up — an ulcer, esophagus cancer, anything — we will never cover those things because you have a pre-existing. Now mind you, I've gotten medication once in the last six years, but it was in my records. So I came to Impact, and at that point, I was so mad that I didn't get prescriptions for it. So I haven't had a prescription for that for years. I just use over-the-counter stuff every once in a while because it's there. Well, on my application, when we become members, you fill out things that, have you had any issues? So I put in acid reflux because I'm honest. Well, then later, I talked to Impact, and I said, listen, I have acid reflux. I take medicine for it every once in a while. I said, is that a pre-existing? They said, no, it's not a pre-existing condition in a sense; it's for your future care. So I thought, okay. Well, I went in to be scoped for both my colonoscopy and endoscopy. I think it's how you say it, through your throat, to make sure you have no cancer. Guys, when you're in your forties, they care. They want to make sure, and it runs our family, so I had to go get checked. And I've been avoiding this for years, by the way. Well, the doctor goes in and realizes I have a herniated esophagus. He did some different things during the procedure that helped immensely. And I'm sure he put it on the bill, but what I did realize on my bill is I got all of that shared “covered” with the group, and it was not considered a pre-existing.  And so that was a huge thing for me to see that they said, “Okay, you might have gotten that prescription years ago, but we're not going to hold it against you even though I'd still take medicine for it.” And I think that that was huge. That was a really big thing. So again, it's not all or nothing. And when anyone joins our group or wants to even ask, they can talk to Impact prior to joining and ask all their personal questions and feel super comfortable about those answers just in case. So it's really nice for them. [0:49:56.3] Ashley James: So they can go to learntruehealth.com/healthcare, and that's where a lot of the information is, and they'll be able to find the phone number to talk to someone. [0:50:09.6] Megan Williams: To request, absolutely.  [0:50:12.5] Ashley James: To talk about pre-existing. So I'm a little confused, and if I'm confused, then there's got to be a lot of listeners who are confused. Again, I'm a Canadian here. [0:50:20.9] Megan Williams: Yes, I know. I know. [0:50:22.4] Ashley James: That's making sense to me, right? You know an American can walk into a Canadian hospital and get care and not be kicked out. But I'm not saying their system is any better. The healthcare system is broken because it's all about pharmaceuticals and profits. And in Canada, it's not about profits. It's about cutting costs. So, it's, again, a broken system. But we're doing the best we can to navigate a broken system by choosing freedom of choice, which is why I love this non-insurance healthy alternative to insurance because we can have the freedom of choice to choose our practitioners. There's no network. And I want to talk about this. You can go to a different state, and if you're in a different country. You'll get coverage, and you're protected under this umbrella, which is what insurance is supposed to do. But I love that you have the freedom to choose your holistic, licensed practitioners, and that makes me so excited.   So let's just talk about this just so we can fully understand it. If someone has a pre-existing condition, and then they join this wonderful non-insurance healthier alternative to insurance after being with you guys for 36 months, are there pre-existing conditions that are covered or pre-existing conditions that are never recovered?  [0:51:46.7] Megan Williams: Okay, so let's use an example. So the condition has to not have had a treatment or a diagnosis or any signs and symptoms testing in 36 months. So I'll give an example of my friend who had shoulder surgery. So she just had a treatment. She had a shoulder repair a year and a half ago. She joins Impact. She knows if anything comes up with this left shoulder of hers, physical therapy, or she goes and gets more treatment on it, that would not be shared with the group. Now, Impact would help reprice any of those expenses. They would help be the liaison. But because that experience happened within 18 months, it's still in that 36 months. Now, let's say she doesn't have any issues. Her shoulder's been fine, and we finished 36 months, even though she's only been a member for that 18 months because now the total amount has been 36 months of that time of treatment, diagnosis, surgery, whatever — now, anything that comes up from that shoulder would be shared with the group. It would be able to not be all out-of-pocket expenses. And so, it's not about being a member for 36 months. It's when did that sign, symptom, and diagnosis happen. So, I have a friend who had a heart attack, and he has a big family. They were paying $3,200 a month for the health care for their family of eight, and they were able to come to Impact for $700 a month. And his biggest concern was I had this heart attack. While he gets a screening every year, he has not been on medications. He has not had a diagnosis. He has not had treatment for that heart attack for more than thirty-six months. So, according to Impact's guidelines, it's as if it never existed.  [0:53:49.8] Ashley James: Got it. [0:53:51.3] Megan Williams: So even though he gets a screening for it, that's not a treatment or test. See the difference. So that's why this is so neat because, for example, if you've been diagnosed with cancer and it's in complete remission, and you're only undergoing testing for surveillance purposes, as long as that cancer hasn't been treated for 36 months, it is as if it never happened.  [0:54:19.7] Ashley James: Now, let's say he did, for example, had his heart attack and then immediately joined, and let's say it's an ongoing problem; it's a pre-existing condition because it's within the first 36 months he has joined. Is it like 10 years, 20 years, or 30 years that forever it's not covered, or is it just not covered for the first 36 months? [0:54:50.5] Megan Williams: I'll give another example of someone who had a heart attack on New Year's Eve. He has joined Impact while still getting treatment and medicine for that. So that portion, he gets an employee stipend for his medical. But his wife does not. So they decided to both come to Impact because the medicine that they prescribed him was $700 a month. Through Impact, though, because he's a member, it's only $73 a month. So even though he has traditional health care that's going to cover his pre-existing heart attack scenario and all the testing and treatments he is still going through, he's almost done. The doctor's like, “I can't believe how well you're doing.” Let's just say that by October, he no longer needs to have treatment or medicine; they'll just do a screening because everything's looking great. From October now, the clock will start for 36 months. So even though he's been a member since January, that one condition, the clock starts once the treatment stops.  So it's not about membership. It's about when the treatment stops before you come. But he wanted to be a member, and it's his actual secondary as a member because he wanted the medication discounts that our group got him. So it was worth it because he saved $600 a month on the medication even though he's paying for a secondary with his wife with this. Actually, this is her full coverage, and it's his secondary. But they're both on Impact because he wants those benefits. So again, it's not all or nothing. But the nice thing is, yes, he has a heart attack, but if he had a stroke, that has nothing to do with the heart attack. Or if he got colon cancer, that has nothing to do with the heart attack. So all those things would be shared with the group and have “coverage.” [0:56:53.6] Ashley James: And so in a few years, let's say he's heart attack free, the heart's fine, cleans up his diet, listens to my podcast, learns how to prevent and reverse heart disease — that's a really great episode with Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, How to Reverse and Prevent Heart Disease. Just so you know, if you know anyone with heart disease, this is the book. The interview is amazing, obviously, but the book is phenomenal because he performed the world's longest study using food to reverse heart disease. Within two years, they've taken photos, and they show you that there are four blockages in the heart. These poor people who are too sick; they were on death's door and too sick to have stents put in or have surgery. They were within weeks of dying. Too sick to do anything else, so he was like, okay, well, let's just try a diet. And he gets them on a whole food plant-based, no salt, sugar, oil, flour, or alcohol diet. And there is also stuff you have to eat that increases heart health, that helps the endothelial lining of the cardiovascular system. It's like science. You're eating six times a day of all these different foods that are all heart-healthy, and he gets people to go from four blockages in the heart to zero blockages in the heart. Angina pain is gone in the first month. Blood clots in the leg are gone very quickly. It was absolutely amazing.  So anyway, let's say one of your guys has a heart attack, buys your non-insurance, healthier alternative to insurance, and gets this coverage, and then he cleans up his life. He doesn't have any heart health issues for 36 months, even though it was his pre-existing condition. But 36 months of no health problems around the heart, according to you guys, it's no longer a pre-existing condition, and should he have heart issues in the future, like five to ten years down the road, then it's covered? [0:58:55.3] Megan Williams: Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. You got it! [0:58:59.1] Ashley James: Yey, I understood it! The Canadian's got it. [0:59:02.7] Megan Williams: Now you did perfect. And I love that podcast because I have friends who need to listen to it too.  [0:59:08.4] Ashley James: Yes, all your friends need to listen to my show. Absolutely. It's amazing. Our body has a God-given ability to heal itself. We can heal ourselves. I reversed five major diagnoses, and so can you. Your body can heal itself. We just have to stop doing what everyone else is doing because everyone else is sick. Just go become a black sheep, go against the grain, cannot eat like everyone else, can't stress out like everyone else, right? Listen to my show. [0:59:37.7] Megan Williams: It's so true. Well, that goes to this whole thing of thinking outside the box. So then a lot of people ask me all the time, and they go, “What about the providers? Will they even work with us? Because most people haven't heard of Impact.” Let me give you a little scenario. Most marketplace plans are just the bare minimum. So what that means is the provider might get 70% of what medicare pricing is, or 80% or 90. Sometimes they're lucky. With the Blue Cross Blue Shield, they still get 100% on certain things. Well, the new thing is when Impact looks at reference-based pricing, they're not trying to get the cheapest thing that nobody wants to work with us. They actually start their pricing with 150% of medicare pricing. So now, the doctors like working with us because the price point isn't insulting them, which is so good too. And again, when you're thinking outside the box, half of these medical professionals have just been beaten up. They've been told that they're not worth what they think they are. And we'll say, no, you're worth it, and we want to work together to find solutions. So when you are talking about how your body can heal, we can also heal these relationships with doctors and facilities. All of us, because we're coming to the table, not just trying to find solutions for us, but also for the providers. That's a really good place to be because it's about solutions, and that's what makes it so nice. You know what I mean? So I really love that. I love that your listeners listen to outside-the-box thinking, but in this scenario, just like in yours, it's a win-win because we got to be smart. We got to make everybody feel important. So we're cutting the cost but not the care. The providers are not getting gouged and say, “Oh, we don't care that you have 20 years of experience. We're not going to give you what you deserve.” No, we're going to help you get what you deserve.  [1:01:46.4] Ashley James: It's not a pyramid where there are these shareholders at the top going, “Mwahaha, I like sitting on and swimming through bags of money.” All the other traditional health insurance companies gouge the customers, and they gouge the providers. They keep the profits for themselves and are just evil. And we have you guys, who are the non-insurance, healthy alternative to insurance. Why should listeners go to learntruehealth.com/healthcare? You created a great website that explains this a lot. You can play with the quote and see how much your family would be paying, or individual. Maybe you're not a family member, just an individual. You're a single person. How much you'd be paying, play with the quote meter — but what else will they see at learntruehealth.com/healthcare? [1:02:38.3] Megan Williams: Well, what we love is we really wanted everyone to understand why this is so different. And so, on the homepage, I do a 7-minute video that breaks down all the benefits of our program and helps you feel comfortable. But then we included videos that Impact has made over the years about important facts and why this is such a smart, different way of thinking. But on it, you could even see testimonials. You can see what groups could pay. We work with businesses where they've been priced out of healthcare options for their employees, and so they're losing employees to other companies. And we have an entire page where you can get a quote for your company. We also have wonderful videos that explain going to the doctor and how we work with everybody and their no-network restrictions. It is very transparent. But when you're on the guideline little page, the overview is directly linked with our share group. So it's updated as they make legal changes. Everything is transparent. Everything is there.  And what we love is that you don't have to try to figure it out. I have a lawyer who's in our group, and when he read the guidelines, he's like, “Oh my goodness. This is one of the best-written documents I've had.” Because if it's not in there, they're going to share it. They're very specific about what is a concern and what's not a concern. And as you said, we can play around with the pricing. Our individual starts at $73 a month, families at $250 a month with a family of two, and then, of course, three and more. We are not trying to make this difficult. We want everyone to feel very comfortable. So, when you're on our site, you can even request more information and hear from Impact themselves and/or our associates because we've had so much experience as members of the program to help out as well. We run live events that you can register for and learn more about. And, of course, working directly with Ashley's group and this community, we really know that we'll be able to give great solutions, and it's really nice for that too.  [1:04:58.5] Ashley James: I just love that you can get all the coverage you want, and it's cheaper than your car insurance. Well, at least it's cheaper than what I'm paying for car insurance. And I'm a good driver, and knock on my Sunlighten sauna; I haven't had any tickets. I don't know; I think I was in my twenties the last time. Oh, I mean, I had a parking ticket a few years ago. But other than that, I haven't had any traffic violations. Knock on my Sunlighten sauna; I haven't had any traffic violations. But car insurance is expensive, and you guys are cheaper than my car insurance. I'm shaking my head thinking about how many Generation Z people, young professionals — I'm friends with some of them — who don't have health insurance because they're like, “Well, I can't afford them.” $73 a month? Yeah, you can.  I have a friend who's a chef, and he's like, “I can't afford.” Half the year, he lives out of his truck because he loves to travel. He works at resorts, out in Vail ski resorts, and then the rest of the year, he is traveling and having fun, and he's just like, “I can't afford health insurance.” I can't wait to tell him it's $73 a month. He can absolutely afford it. And then when he cuts his thumb off or whatever, then he does something stupid while in the kitchen, or burns himself, or something. I mean, he's traveling, and what if he gets chased by a bear? He's traveling all throughout the country, living the van life half the year. I'm thinking he would love this type of insurance, so he could go to any licensed provider in any state and be covered.  How cool is that, that you can choose where you want to go. Your location doesn't matter. The insurance that I've had for many years, that I've been buying for many years, the traditional insurance — I couldn't even go to the other side of town. It wouldn't cover me. I had to only go to this one hospital network. It's just ridiculous. They say you're covered pretty much in every ER, but then if you're transferred from the ER into care, it's just ridiculous. The traditional system does not work. And I love that you can even do your non-insurance alternative to better insurance. You can do this as a secondary, which gives you even more coverage. So, anyway, I like the savings. I like the savings, and I like that I can now see more of my providers. That's super exciting. Tell us a little bit about traveling. So you could choose to go see a doctor or clinic in a different state. And also, what about traveling, like you're in Mexico or you're in Cancun? Tell us a bit about how that works.  [1:07:42.1] Megan Williams: Absolutely. So the neat thing is, there are no provider restrictions. We had a young member who was diagnosed with cancer in the Arkansas area, and the doctors just weren't a good solution for this type of cancer. And so, he ended up going to Dallas with his family and getting all of their coverage. Well, after the repricing and everything like that for the year — I mean, we're talking a couple of million dollars of procedures — the out-of-pocket for the group was only around $280,000 for the year because the markup is so absolutely insane. Well, the new thing is if you were just traveling and you have an emergency, that also is covered. So you can have planned trips in America and go to any provider as long as it is not elective. So still today in healthcare, elective surgery is not covered. So sorry, ladies. Facelifts, botox, and all the little fun extras that people might pick, like hormone therapy, those things are not covered. Same with out of the country. So if you planned a specific surgery out of the country because it was cheaper, those are also not covered. But if I'm in Mexico, which I was a couple of weeks ago, and having a situation with coral that I needed to go and run to an emergency room quickly, I got that bill, and I could submit it to Impact. And yes, it was shareable with the group, and yes, it would be covered. So you could be traveling anywhere in the world, and if you end up in an emergency situation, those bills are going to come back through the group and get shared. And the nice part is there is no lifetime limit. So if you end up having a big scenario, you're not kicked out the next year because you cost the group too much money. That's very important.  The other really great thing is, right now, we do have a yearly or annual limit per member, not per household, of $500,000. But what they found in the last five years, even with these huge expenses with the reference-based pricing, we aren't even getting close. I had a friend who was out golfing and all of a sudden had abdominal pain that he thought he was dying. They rushed to the emergency room to a hospital. He thought it was an appendix. Well, he ended up having a ruptured spleen, and he was in the hospital for five days. The entire bill came to over $152,000. It was actually four days, and then he was out on the fifth day. It was $152,000. Well, with the reference-based pricing, it came to $36,000. So he didn't even meet his max limit of the $5,000 10% co-share because they were able to reprice it so much lower.  And so, this is a really great thing because, again, you've got advocates. And he said the best part was the little lady in billing at the hospital who came in and said, “Don't worry, Mister Chris, we've got everything. We've talked to Impact, and everything's being paid for a hundred percent. You don't have to worry about a thing. I'm working with them. You just get better.” And then, when he got home, he had a message from Impact saying, “Hey, we know you've had the surgery. We hope you're feeling better. If there are any questions or any bills come, let us know. We'll help take care of everything.” [1:11:08.1] Ashley James: What?? [1:11:09.9] Megan Williams: What is that? Because this is more personable, it really is about making it a better scenario.  [1:11:19.8] Ashley James: I love it. I was a little slow in catching the numbers. So it's a $150,000 hospital bill. How much did he have to pay out of pocket? [1:11:31.0] Megan Williams: Well, I actually even have this on one of our Zooms, and we were working on some of these kinds of examples so people can see. While he was repriced to $36,000, he paid $150 for the provider fee for the ER. So he paid $150, and then he still had about $1,588 left on his deductible or his primary responsibility amount. He paid 10% of the co-share of that $36,000. So out-of-pocket for that entire expense, he paid $5,200 and not $152,000. [1:12:14.4] Ashley James: So $152,000 — that's like buying three brand new cars — got down to a $5,200 hospital bill when the whole thing was said and done. Now let's say that happens to one of our listeners who joins, who goes to learntruehealth.com/healthcare and checks out the cool Zooms and the videos and does the quote. They join their whole family in. If something, God forbid, happens to them and they need this kind of emergency medical help, and then they get on the other side of it, and then they get the bill — so it's $52,000 — do they have to pay that all at once? Can they do a payment plan? How does that work?  [1:13:02.2] Megan Williams: Very good question. So the nice part is once Impact has negotiated and they send in their portion that they pay, then legally, the hospital — that includes all the providers; this list had everybody on it from the anesthesiologist to the pharmacy, when he was leaving the hospital — once they accept that reference-based price, then that bill is locked. They can never come back and ask for more amount. But Impact then would send you, “Okay, your portion is this.” And then they send you where to send the bill. And absolutely, you can call their facility and say, “Okay, I'm making plan payment.” And you might pay $1,000 for the next five months, and then you'll be done. So the nice part from my experience is, with them getting the lion's share of what they really needed and then you paying your percentage, they work with us as humans to make those payments. [1:14:07.8] Ashley James: Who are you paying that to? Are you paying that $5,200 to the hospital, or you're paying it to Impact? [1:14:11.4] Megan Williams: Yes. [1:14:12.4] Ashley James: Okay. You're paying it to the hospital. So you can negotiate with the hospital and pay $200 a month instead of $1,000 a month?  [1:14:19.9] Megan Williams: Yes. [1:14:20.5] Ashley James: You can make it manageable. Yeah. Okay.  [1:14:23.0] Megan Williams: But they got the big amount. So they are feeling the burden off their shoulders. So then they are so much better at working with us. The problem is when people say, “Oh, I have a two-million-dollar bill, and I want to pay you $200 a month.” No, that's not how this works. So absolutely, that's what's so nice about it. But the best part is that they legally can never come back and say we want more money from you. So the nice part of having someone like Impact as your advocate, and it's in the system legally, they can't come back and say, “Oh, we changed our minds. We don't want to just accept $36,000. We want you to pay $50,000.” They cannot do it because they accepted that price and took the money from Impact. So that's what's so nice about having a person like this and not just being cash-paying where you could get screwed because you don't have an entity that is your facilitator. Impact has a legal team, and they know all the rules. They know how the system works, and it's a fantastic peace of mind. [1:15:30.9] Ashley James: Now, something you don't know about me is that twenty years ago, I was an insurance salesman. Funny enough, it took me this long to actually think about this and go, “Oh yeah, I used to sell insurance.” I mean, it was twenty years ago, a totally different lifetime ago. It was door-to-door. It was a combined, and this is in Canada. I don't know if you've ever heard of combined health insurance, but this is, again, twenty years ago. It was either they had accident insurance, and they had sickness insurance. For Canadians, our health insurance is like you pay almost half your paycheck to social services. It's like we get taxed through the nose. It was just crazy. It's like something between 46% and 48% of your paycheck is bye-bye every month, just paying all the social services. Healthcare is not so great in Canada, but again, pluses and minuses all across the board, I don't think Canada is better than the United States or vice versa because it's a very different system, and the system's broken no matter where you go. So you got to think holistically and go to the right providers. But there I was in Canada, and I was selling door-to-door insurance. What it was is you paid $14 a month, and then if you broke a bone, they would give you $1,000, or they give you $1,500. If you had a car accident, until you've missed some work, for every day you're in the hospital or ICU, they would give you $5,000. They would basically be giving you money to get injured. Obviously, don't go buy the insurance and then injure yourself. I've actually met some people who had injured themselves and received the payouts. And they're like, “Yeah, this company is amazing. They really do pay out.” And then they had sickness insurance. So if someone was in the ICU because of an infection, or in the ER because of infection or whatever, if they had to miss work basically and that they live in the hospital because of the infection, they got paid every day a certain amount. There was a limit, though. There was a cut-off. It's like you can only have this many days in the hospital that we're going to pay. So we're going to pay thirty days, for example, because it wasn't a traditional health insurance. It was just more like an accident or sickness insurance. It was more like your paycheck insurance. It's what it was, which I thought was an interesting safety net. Because life happens not to everyone, but life happens, and it's great to have a safety net.  Anyway, that was an interesting experience. I got to see that world while I was kind of figuring out life, and I did it for a summer. It was interesting. It wasn't my cup of tea, but I'm meeting a ton of people and learning about the industry, which was interesting. And so the thought that came to mind, I know this is not that, but is there a limit to how many days someone could be in the hospital? Like you said, you get to see fifty providers a year with all these different services. So all these services are covered, but is there a cap, or they're like, “Sorry, you've been in the hospital for fourteen days now. You're cut off.” Is there any kind of gotchas like you said? [1:18:53.0] Megan Williams: I love it. I was going to say, I know exactly what you're saying. So this is a great thing to be paired with something we call in the United States, disability insurance, or, like you said, paycheck insurance, like Aflac, where they'll match, or you can get reimbursed for those copay provider fees and things like that. But what's neat is if somebody is in the hospital, like we add another friend who's been in Impact and she was in the hospital for almost a month, and Impact shared everything with the group and repriced it all. So there isn't a limit to those kinds of things. There is an in-patient limit or things that are not eligible, like in-patient rehab or residential drug alcohol treatments. So they give a specific list that is not eligible at all, and it's normal things that they don't share or cover in normal insurance. But there are no limits if someone ends up in the hospital for a month because of whatever disease is going on. Like this little boy, who had been relocated to the hospital in Dallas for months at a time, there is no limit on that. Like I said, with a repricing, then they have not met that limit for the annual amounts either. And so I think that what we can really know is that they're going to do their very best to make sure that we're taken care of.  Now, there are some limits for home care as well. So, some of the things they do share into are forty visits for a member who has home care. So, let's say they have an RN who has to come to the house, and they're in their homes, that is limited to forty visits for the year per member. And if someone needs transportation, like air ambulance and things like that, they are limited to $25,000 lifetime limits for those kinds of things. Usually, an ambulance is about $500 to $600 of usage. So that gives you a lot to work with. But there are some specific limits. Anything that is a limit, they specifically tell us in the guidelines. And if it doesn't say in the guidelines, then there's not a limit, which is really cool.  [1:21:16.9] Ashley James: Oh, I like it. [1:21:19.7] Megan Williams: Yes, it's very transparent that way, and that's a great question, Ashley. [1:21:24.5] Ashley James: And all these details can be found at learntruehealth.com/healthcare. I love that you lay it out. You made the website so easy to understand, and you've got the videos, and people, like you said, can read through everything, see what the limits are, see what the limits aren't. And if it isn't listed, it's not a limit. Even though it doesn't provide rehab facilities, for example, it does provide mental health. So someone could go to a licensed mental health professional and work on healing through addiction.  [1:22:04.7] Megan Williams: That's right. Absolutely. [1:22:06.0] Ashley James: It's not that we're saying those people are screwed. It's just you're not going to pay for the Betty Ford clinic experience.  [1:22:14.8] Megan Williams: Correct. As long as people are honest about it. We're looking for people who are making wise choices. So, for example, my husband always says if someone wants to go skydiving, good for them. There's no limit here. But some insurance companies won't care or cover any skydiving accidents. But my husband says, the way they worded it in Impact is, let's say I wanted to go skydiving and I decided to throw my shoot out first, then dive to my suit and put it on. Well, that was negligent behavior. And therefore, when you are hurt, injured, or killed, they're not going to share into that because it was stupid. Like if you're using illegal drugs, that's stupid. But if someone happened to get in a car accident and they had been drinking, yes, those are going to first go to your car insurance, but Impact is going to share in those medical expenses as well because those kinds of accidents do happen. They weren't trying to be grossly negligent, if that makes sense. So they do have a little provision that protects people like us who don't want people to do stupid things and think that then we'll share it. But I mean, hey, you got a little life. Have fun and go river rafting and do fun things, or have a life. It's really nice because even motorcycle accidents are covered up to $125,000 per incident, which is a big deal. It's a really big deal. We had a young man who's 17, whose friend ran into him and severed his toe, he almost lost his life, and Impact has shared to the whole entire situation, even though he was on a dirt bike. He wasn't being negligent, and it was an accident. And I think that that's also very important to understand that there is a difference between negligence and accidents, and they work with us and help us, which is fantastic.  [1:24:12.3] Ashley James: Love it, love it. And another thing, again, I've been looking for this solution for years, and I had not found and had not been satisfied by all the other companies I've seen until I found this company. I was like, finally, this is exactly what I've been looking for. I'm so excited. So, my friend who's in a health share, it's a Christian health share company, and at first glance, it looked good. And then I looked further, and it was like, well, you have to be this BMI — body mass index — meaning, you have to be skinny in order to be a member. We're going to weigh you. So I get it; they just want healthy people. And if your cholesterol is at this level, you can't be covered by us. And if you join us and you're skinny but then you gain weight, you're going to get kicked out. And so that kind of health share company, I felt, was too restrictive. It wasn't giving freedom of choice. What I love about yours is, let's say someone is obese and they're working on themselves to be healthier people — and one-third of the American population is overweight or obese, so that really limits you if you were to not allow those people to join — and so there is a small, increased fee. I saw that, and I thought that's amazing. It's worth it for someone who's overweight, who knows they're overweight. They're doing their best. They're looking at being as healthy as possible because weight loss should be a by-product of a healthy lifestyle. It's not the goal. It's the by-product of the goal being to be as healthy as possible. [1:26:00.0] Megan Williams: That's right.  [1:26:00.6] Ashley James: So eat healthy, exercise, lower your stress, get good nutrition. The weight is going to come off, and you're living healthier and healthier and healthier. And even skinny people can die of a heart attack. [1:26:13.5] Megan Williams: That's right. [1:26:14.9] Ashley James: But the point is that you guys don't exclude people who are overweight. Or let's say everyone in the household, except for the dad, is overweight. You're not excluding the whole family because one member is overweight. The people who have some weight that they want to lose, they get to pay a little bit more, not an exorbitant amount. Just a little bit more, and then they get to be covered. And I thought, how inclusive is that? I love that you would include people of all faiths. You include people of all bodies and health. I love that you don't charge people more because they have a large family. So a family of eight or a family of three, they've got enough expenses if they've got five kids, or they've got six kids or seven kids. They've got enough expenses, and you're not going to continue to gouge people who have so many kids. Typically, kids don't have a lot of health issues compared to adults. Hopefully, fingers crossed, they will listen to my show and follow all the wonderful health tips. So I really love that.  I love that you can travel. You can travel to different providers in different states. You can go to different countries and feel rest assured. I used to buy travel insurance. Being Canadian, I used to pay for and buy for a few hundred dollars. I'd be traveling. Every three months, I go down to the States because I was doing different conferences and stuff like that. This is back in my twenties, and I would pay upwards of $500 for coverage, and I never had to use it. I never used it. But I didn't want to be in the States without health insurance because I just knew that that was a bad idea. So I bought traveler's insurance every time I went somewhere outside of Canada before I moved to the States. And just to know that you're covered is so reassuring. That is so cool.  [1:28:09.8] Megan Williams: Yeah. It really is peace of mind, and that's what we're trying to do with our group. And, Ashley, I think all of your listeners are the kind of people who want that. They want to have choices and freedom, and that's what we're really trying to give. And what we love is grassroots movements like this being able to share with people and let them make an educated decision for themselves. What is the right fit? I love it. You're individuals, and you're a tribe, I want to say, or educated. They want to have better options and solutions, and you are giving them that every single day and I love that. I think that's fantastic. [1:28:50.1] Ashley James: I think I know the answer, but I want to check. So vision and dental supplements are things that are not included? [1:28:58.0] Megan Williams: That's correct. A lot of times, everyone thinks in insurance, you have to have dental and vision. Well, you can get a policy for that very easily anytime, anywhere, from any group. So what Impact has chosen to do currently is that if it has a medical connotation, like you were injured and you need surgery on your eyes, or your mouth, or your jaw — I had a young man whose roommate hit him in college. He had to have jaw surgery. The dentist came in and did that reconstructive surgery. Those are, of course, all shared. But when we're dealing with just having our teeth cleaned and our eyes looked at, that is not part of this group. But it is definitely something that people can find in America with tons of different brokers, and that's not a concern. I use Costco for one of mine, and I've got a great family dentist that works out stuff as a small business owner for other business owners. So again, those are things that are not on our guidelines because they're not as expensive to manage for a family.  [1:30:06.6] Ashley James: But if it was like an abscessed tooth or like an eye infection, would that be covered?  [1:30:11.9] Megan Williams: Yes, because the eye infection would come from something that was medical usually. And so then it starts at a medical. Now, the neat thing is, you don't have to go to a doctor to get a referral to another doctor to have this be “covered.” If you were having infections, you could go right to that kind of doctor, like my sister, who has been a member, and her knee started bothering her. She went to a specific orthopedic that she had heard was the best, and she didn't have to see seventeen doctors beforehand and spend all the extra money. She just went right to him and started doing work with them. [1:30:49.7] Ashley James: I love that. My friend is from a different company. She's with a health share company. She has stenosis in the neck. She was in a car accident years ago, and stenosis is like the bones are closing in around the nerves. So she had pain going down her arm, and every few years, she gets a CT scan. She has not gotten surgery for it, but she's debating and does everything natural to keep it at bay. She's doing a really good job managing the pain. But she found a search, and she's like, “I'm really interested in just cleaning up the bone spurs that are pushing on the nerves.” And their insurance is like, “No, you have to do it in this order. You have to see this doctor before you see this doctor. You have to get this scan before you see this doctor.” And it was so confusing and so annoying. She couldn't just go see the guy. She had to do all these other things first, and they wouldn't even cover her to see him until she had met their criteria.  So I love the freedom. Like we said at the beginning, this gives freedom of choice and allows us to navigate the whole medical system, which is weird. It allows us to choose the providers that are holistic that are preventive, that help us to gain our health, to build our health up. You should only ever see a doctor who believes that you can build yourself up and you can become healthier. And if they think that you're sick and you just need to be on drugs and you can't get healthy, then you need to get a second opinion or third opinion and see holistic doctors because they believe your body can heal itself. So the fact that we have the freedom to do it and the freedom to even cross state lines, I love it.  Now, another thing you do is you also help companies to create plans. So it's the whole company. Suppose you have someone, like, for example, a listener who has ten employees, or fifty employees, or five hundred employees; they can talk to you. And also, if we have a listener who is an insurance broker, they can talk to you. We can hook you guys up with Megan, and she can talk to you because insurance brokers love to provide this. And also, small businesses love to provide this because it's cheaper for everyone and gives better care, gives better coverage, so everyone wins. So Megan can talk to you. In addition, you've been doing this for twenty years. This company has been around for five, but what you've been doing even before this is you help business owners, you help families, you help professionals to cut costs of other services. And so I'm excited about there too because we're living in a day and age right now where I am unwilling to eat conventionally-grown food. They call it conventional. It's the weirdest thing. It's like conventionally grown should be organic. They should call conventional food pesticide-laden. But it's all marketing. Obviously, we're all paying more for food. I'm paying more for organic, clean food, and prices of everything have gone up, and they're going to continue to rise. Unfortunately, this is just the state of affairs.  So for us to be able to afford being healthy, we have to figure out how to save money. And Megan showed me how to save hundreds of dollars on other things that I paid for already, which I'm really, really excited about. So, Megan does that. That's what she does for businesses; she does it for families. And this one thing, though, is what I was looking for, which is the ability — the learntruehealth.com/healthcare — to get the coverage that you want at a fraction of the price and take those several hundred dollars that you would be saving. Like, for me, it goes from about $650 for my family that I used to pay for $1,432 or something. So I take that savings of hundreds of dollars, and I put that aside in my savings account, and I then get to put that money towards the things that are healthy for us, like supplements, and just to save it for a rainy day. Because it's in my budget, keep it for when our family needs the help it needs. And just a peace of mind that we get that we're not shelling out $1,400 plus a month to a broken medical health insurance system. [1:35:31.4] Megan Williams: It's so awesome. That's it, exactly. [1:35:32.4] Ashley James: Yeah, I love it. I love it so much. Yes, exactly. Megan, it's been so wonderful having you on the show.  [1:35:37.4] Megan Williams: Thank you. [1:35:39.5] Ashley James: I love the stories that you shared. I feel like this was God-driven. Bring me to you at the right time, and I think this message is landing for people at the right time. Now, here's another question. Usually, to buy insurance because this isn't insurance; it is an alternative to insurance. It is better than insurance in many ways. The insurance industry has an open calendar period where you can only purchase, like in January. You could only purchase from December 15th to January 15th. That's the open calendar. And if you get dropped coverage, you don't have coverage until January or until the end of December. So you're SOL if you're not able to stay covered. And some people lose coverage halfway through the year because they're changing jobs or it got too expensive; they lost their job. This covers you right away, right?  [1:36:36.1] Megan Williams: That's right. Yeah, there is no open enrollment. There is no time frame. You can sign up on the last day of the month and have coverage the very next month as long as you do it by 10:00 at night. But the nice thing is, yes, absolutely. We don't have to be worried. Now, there are people, even with small businesses, that may have signed contracts, and they have to wait until open enrollment to turn that off and bring their whole company to us. But we can start with new employees that are coming in, and we can get them coverage right away. We can also do it with families. So I started the minute we got it. I started June 1st. I didn't have to wait until October or November to get on it again. And it's just amazing that they look at every scenario that can happen for families, individuals, and businesses, and they are finding that solution. So absolutely no restrictions. Let's get you signed up right away, everybody, and get you the best plans. And you can cancel your other health care the next month. So you can pick a four-month window when you go in to sign up for when you want it to start, and it gives you time to turn off your other insurance that you had before. [1:37:50.7] Ashley James: Oh, that's so cool. So you say next month. So let's say it's the end of June, and I sign up, then at the beginning of July, I am covered, or do I have to wait until August? [1:38:01.3] Megan Williams: Nope. It's the next day. [1:38:06.3] Ashley James: If I signed up on the last day of June, let's say at 6 pm, I go to  learntruehealth.com/healthcare and I sign up, then the next day, which is the 1st of July, I'm covered? [1:38:24.2] Megan Williams: That's right. Absolutely. It's that good. It's that quick, and it's amazing. And the process to sign up takes less than ten minutes for an individual. When you have a family of more, then they have a few questions about everybody's health, and you do need to know your kids' heights and weights. But that is about what takes the longest. What we love is that it can work for anyone who's a resident of the United States legally and is welcome to be a member as well. So there are no restrictions on that either. So, you can get signed up right away, your kids can, and it will take you about 15 minutes to be in the system, and you're good to go for the next month.  [1:39:06.0] Ashley James: That was actually a question I didn't think about. So you can be abroad, just living in the States, and you don't have to be an American citizen? [1:39:15.1] Megan Williams: Yes, as long as you're here with the correct documents, like a green card. [1:39:21.7] Ashley James: Or a visa, a student visa. Can it be students from abroad? [1:39:25.9] Megan Williams: Yup. [1:39:27.0] Ashley James: Oh my gosh.  [1:39:28.3] Megan Williams: Yup, employees. All sorts of things, and even in scenarios where the oldest member of the household isn't a citizen and maybe their spouse is not, but they're younger, that household can get coverage, including the non-resident. It's kind of crazy. It's very, very good. So Impact will help in any of those scenarios. Get the right documentation uploaded so they can have coverage for sure. [1:39:53.9] Ashley James: Awesome. Listeners, go to learntruehealth.com/healthcare. Check it out. Share with all your friends who need this kind of coverage. I'm very excited that this is something that we can use to go to the kinds of practitioners we want, that we're not restricted by networks or by state lines, and that we can go and see that amazing naturopath in other states. Or we can go get the care we need in a different state, in a different county, or whatever, and that we can get telemedicine. There are just so many things that we can get, and it's just amazing that it's way better and also way cheaper. That's what I want from everything. I want everything to be way better and way cheaper.  So, thank you, Megan, for coming on the show. This has been so exciting. I just know this is going to help. I can feel it. I can see my listeners. I know that this is going to be the answer to so many people's problems. Like we've discovered, 66.5% of bankruptcies are from medical expenses. How many people are suffering, either spending too much or they don't have any coverage at all, and not having coverage is dangerous because then we ignore the little thing. We should do blood work every year. We should look at the labs but with a good holistic practitioner that can examine them and go, “Okay, you're not optimal. Let's get you optimal. Let's make these slight changes to diet, lifestyle, and exercise. Let's make these changes and help you get optimal.” So, my thing is holistic health is about addressing every part of our life, including preventive medicine, and helping us become optimal in every aspect of our health. And we can't do that if we keep our heads in the sand. We can't keep our heads in the sand. We have to look. And they say women live longer than men. I think it's because we're willing to look, and men are like lalalala. No, if I don't look at it, it doesn't exist. Lalalala. I'm just going to ignore it. You can't do that. We can't ignore what's going on. We have to listen to the symptoms of the body because that is the way our body communicates things to us. Then we also get labs just to check and see what's going on. But when you go to a holistic practitioner that's licensed, they can help guide us and keep us healthy and make the right choices so we can have optimal health and get so healthy we don't need medications. That's my goal for everyone, and we can accomplish that. Now we can accomplish it with cheaper coverage. So love it, love it.  Thank you so much, Megan. I'm so excited. Definitely, check out all the videos that Megan made at learntruehealth.com/healthcare. And then, for those who want to contact you directly, should they be business owners that want to get all their employees, they want to offer it to their employees?  [1:42:57.3] Megan Williams: There will be a place on your site in the link where they can request information, and we will work directly with them to help them. But definitely, through your link, everyone utilizes the link to get connected. So we can know what kind of mindset you're coming from, and we'll have the best solutions for you.  [1:43:16.1] Ashley James: Because you're going to take care of my people.  [1:43:18.1] Megan Williams: That's right.  [1:43:19.1] Ashley James: My listeners, you're going to take care of them. Thank you, Megan. Thank you for taking care of my listeners. I want to make sure that we help those in need, and that's why we're here. So, I appreciate you and what you do. And I know that I really want to have your husband on at some point because he's got some amazing stories. So I will be hearing from him at some point. I'm just telling you I'm going to interview him, so now you know. [1:43:48.4] Megan Williams: Perfect. You know I love that, and he'll give us a whole different insight into this. For those of you who aren't convinced yet, you'll want to be part of this group when it's all said and done. It'll be great. So thank you again for having me, Ashley.  [1:44:00.7] Ashley James: I appreciate you, Megan. Thanks so much. Get Connected with Megan Williams Website Instagram Facebook Facebook Group

Testimonial #1: Mary Official Member of the LTH Listener 500 Club! Mary recommends listening to the following: Episode 443 Dr. Laura Kelly, Treating Osteoporosis and Osteopenia Naturally https://www.learntruehealth.com/treat-osteoporosis-and-osteopenia-naturally   Episode 294 Magnesium Soak with Kristen Bowen Be sure to use coupon code LTH at livingthegoodlifenaturally.com to get the listener discount! https://www.learntruehealth.com/magnesium-foot-soak   487 Catherine Arnsten Chlorella and Spirulina (Recovery Bits are Chlorella, Energy Bits are Spirulina, Vitality Bits are a 50/50 blend of each) Be sure to use coupon code LTH at EnergyBits.com to get the listener discount! https://www.learntruehealth.com/487-mitochondrial-self-healing-superfoods-high-potency-chlorella-spirulina   Episodes 292 and 293 PES Ionic Foot Detox with Kellyann Andrews https://www.learntruehealth.com/creating-wellness   Episode 343 Debugging Your Health with Susan Luschas https://www.learntruehealth.com/debug-your-health   Episodes 178, 358, and 390 with "Green Smoothie Girl" Robyn Openshaw https://www.learntruehealth.com/high-vibration-foods   Testimonial #2 Katrina Reeser - Breast Implant Illness Survivor!  Katrina recommends: Episode 457 Breast Implant Illness (AKA Forgine Object syndrome) https://www.learntruehealth.com/breast-implant-illness-signs-symptoms-treatment   Follow Katrina on IG! IG: Bii_warrior_ https://www.instagram.com/bii_warrior_   Testimonial #3 Linda Valdez  Linda recommends: Takeyoursupplements.com helped her father-in-law get out of pain, improve his cognitive function and come back to life!   Magnesium Soak Be sure to use coupon code LTH at livingthegoodlifenaturally.com to get the listener discount!   Chlorella and Spirulina Be sure to use coupon code LTH at EnergyBits.com to get the listener discount!   Medicinal Aloe Vera Drink: Learntruehealth.com/aloe   Testimonial #4 Mellissa Lee Diaz Migraines are Gone, Perimenopause symptoms are gone, and improved immune health.   Mellissa recommends: Episodes 292 and 293 PES Ionic Foot Detox with Kellyann Andrews https://www.learntruehealth.com/creating-wellness   Sunlighten Sauna:  Be sure to get my listeners' discount when buying your Sunlighten Sauna! https://www.learntruehealth.com/sunlightensauna   Analemma for increasing/improving hydration Be sure to use coupon code LTH for the listener discount! https://www.learntruehealth.com/structuredwater    Melissa also had great success using the supplements she got from Takeyoursupplements.com.   Testimonial #5 Morgan All symptoms are gone after using the Phototherapy Patches to correct polarity.    To get on the phototherapy patches, please schedule a free call with me (Ashley James) https://learntruehealth.as.me/phototherapy   Testimonial #6 Dana (read by Ashley) Episode 479: https://www.learntruehealth.com/479-our-amazing-grace-whistleblower-reveals-how-he-lost-his-daughter-to-medical-malpractice   Episode 107: https://www.learntruehealth.com/jj-virgin-miracle-mindset   Episode 477: https://www.learntruehealth.com/proof-of-heaven-neurosurgeon-shares-his-journey-into-the-after-life-dr-eben-alexander   Episode 224: https://www.learntruehealth.com/safe-vaccines Also, be sure to listen to the follow-up interview with Dr. Paul Thomas: https://www.learntruehealth.com/study-outlines-key-factor-in-chronically-sick-vs-healthy-children   Episode 245: Sunlighten Sauna https://www.learntruehealth.com/sunlighten-saunas Be sure to get my listeners' discount when buying your Sunlighten Sauna! https://www.learntruehealth.com/sunlightensauna   Episode 294 Magnesium Soak with Kristen Bowen Be sure to use coupon code LTH at livingthegoodlifenaturally.com to get the listener discount! https://www.learntruehealth.com/magnesium-foot-soak   Episode 484: Ozone https://www.learntruehealth.com/484-at-home-ozone-therapy-for-immune-mitochondrial-health-eileen-durfee Be sure to use coupon code LTH at https://www.learntruehealth.com/ozone for the listener discount!   Episodes 401 & 474: Medicinal Aloe Gel Drink https://www.learntruehealth.com/the-benefits-of-taking-aloe-vera-gel and https://www.learntruehealth.com/aloe-the-magic-formula-for-achieving-optimal-gut-health Be sure to use this link to get the listener special: https://www.learntruehealth.com/aloe     Testimonial #7 - Listener gets off nine medications! Listener shares in the LTH FB group how she quickly got her health back and got off of 9 of her ten medications thanks to the advice followed in the episodes as well as the wonderful guidance and supplements she got from Takeyoursupplements.com.    Episode 366: Earthing and Grounding with Clint Ober https://www.learntruehealth.com/grounding-and-earthing   Episode 402: Dr. Stephen Sinatra Earthing and Grounding https://www.learntruehealth.com/earthing-grounding-benefits-heart   Episode 294 Magnesium Soak with Kristen Bowen Be sure to use coupon code LTH at livingthegoodlifenaturally.com to get the listener discount! https://www.learntruehealth.com/magnesium-foot-soak   Testimonial #8 Natalie is beating Type 2 Diabetes Episode 233: https://www.learntruehealth.com/reversing-diabetes   Episode 489: https://www.learntruehealth.com/mastering-diabetes-how-to-reverse-insulin-resistance-and-restore-insulin-sensitivity-with-robby-barbaro   Episode 492: https://www.learntruehealth.com/healing-insulin-resistance-and-diabetes     Testimonial #9 - Ruth and ending anxiety's control over her life Check out episodes on how to eliminate anxiety: https://www.learntruehealth.com/?s=anxiety   Schedule a call to work with Ashley James: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=12204555&PHPSESSID=3o6ua8405rd85stonlituathiv   Testimonials 10, 11, 12 & 13: Heavy Metal Detox with Platinum Energy System Call Kellyann: 1-877-225-3388 - 8:30 am to 5:00 pm PST Visit https://platinumenergysystems.ca   Interviews about PES Ionic Foot Detox with Kellyann Andrews Episode 292:  https://www.learntruehealth.com/creating-wellness   Episode 293:  https://www.learntruehealth.com/balancing-ph   Episode 329:  https://www.learntruehealth.com/stories-of-success-through-detox   Episode 330:  https://www.learntruehealth.com/holistic-habits-and-success-stories-part-two   Episode 396: https://www.learntruehealth.com/emf-heavy-metal-detox   Episode 454: https://www.learntruehealth.com/small-changes-in-daily-habits-can-make-the-biggest-difference-for-a-clean-and-functioning-body-mind-and-spirit   500: Stories of Success and Tools for Optimal Wellness https://www.learntruehealth.com/stories-of-success-and-tools-for-optimal-wellness/ In Episode 500 of the Learn True Health podcast, the host, Ashley James, reflects on the journey of reaching this milestone. She expresses gratitude for the listeners who have shared their healing testimonials about improving their health through holistic methods, shares her story of healing from chronic illness, and discusses the importance of taking small steps towards better health. Ashley emphasizes the body's innate ability to heal itself, highlighting the complexity and interconnectedness of its processes, and encourages listeners to challenge limiting beliefs and take control of their health by understanding the root causes of their diseases. Through testimonials, Ashley demonstrates that small steps can lead to significant improvements, no matter where someone is on their health journey. The episode concludes with gratitude for the listeners and a reminder to continue sharing and learning together. Highlights:  Magnesium soak and its benefits Experience with the Platinum Energy Systems ionic foot soak Using ionic foot soak and RECOVERYbits for faster recovery from illness Breast implant illness survivor's journey The positive impact of takeyoursupplements.com PEMF (Pulsed Electromagnetic Field) treatments Managing perimenopause with Sunlighten infrared sauna Using phototherapy patches to adjust polarity [0:00:02.6] Ashley James: Welcome to the Learn True Health podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James. This is episode 500. Intro: Hello, true health seekers, and welcome to Episode 500 of the Learn True Health podcast. This is very exciting. I remember the day I decided to do this podcast and one of the people I really looked up to had over 800 podcast episodes, and I thought, man, if I could get to 800, that would be amazing. Of course, now he's like 3000 episodes. But 500 feels like a milestone, and I think I got the hang of this now. After about seven years, I think I know what I'm doing. It's amazing. One foot in front of the other, and you can be a complete beginner at anything. Anything you want to learn, anything you want to do, just set your mind to it and put one foot in front of the other. You could be an absolute and complete beginner, not knowing what you're doing. Just like me, I had no idea, and I just put one foot in front of the other and learned as I went, and look at me now. Look at me now. So here we are, Episode 500. We have some amazing testimonials lined up today. I just love it. In the last few months, I've spoken to over 100 listeners and heard your stories. And a lot of people are super shy to get on the microphone. They'll tell me their story. They gush and cry and tell me these amazing stories of healing, amazing success stories of people turning their lives around. They're so grateful, and then it's like the scariest thing in the world is to get on the microphone. So I commend those who did get on a microphone and share because I get it; public speaking is scary for a lot of people, and thank you. Thank you for submitting your testimonials and for all those that were too shy but have had amazing results with everything. I know thousands of listeners have learned from the podcast. Just thank you for continuing to share these episodes with those you care about. That's really where the rubber hits the road. It is when we can take an episode and share it with a friend or text with a friend and be like, hey, check this out. I've listened to you. I thought of you. This made a lot of sense to me. This podcast, or this information, has really helped me. Maybe I could help you too if you give it a try.  Just opening people's eyes and minds, and hearts to the idea that our body has an innate God-given ability to heal itself, that we grew our cells from a single cell. I mean, think about it. The sperm and the egg came together and made one little cell, and now we are 37.2 trillion cells. A cellular biologist, I heard one say, when you actually study the cell, like PhD-level studying individual human cells, there's more complexity in our cells than the entire city of Manhattan; that there's more going on. It is like thousands of these genetic expressions because we can epigenetically have expressions turned on and off. We can have enzymatic processes, we have the Krebs cycle, and we have electrons going here and there. We have mitochondria producing cellular energy. We have detoxification. Nutrients are coming in, and hormones are signaling. It's just amazing how there's so much going on, and yet we could really nail it down to something very simple. I had a guest say once he was dying in the hospital. He himself is a doctor, and he was dying in the hospital of liver failure. His doctors said go home, put your will together. You've got two weeks to live. And as he sat there, he thought, well, I know how the body works. Let's just chunk it up to each individual cell like a house, and the house needs groceries to come in and garbage to go out. And as long as we get the groceries in and the garbage out, what is stopping the groceries from coming in, and what is stopping the garbage from coming out? Then he thought about everything he had to do to get the garbage out and to get the groceries into every cell in his body, including his liver, where the liver failure was, and he lived a good fifty years more. So we can make this concept simple and take these beautiful simple baby steps no matter where you are in your health.  I remember I was so incredibly sick. I was on prescription drugs and constantly on antibiotics; I had Type 2 diabetes, chronic adrenal fatigue, chronic infections, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and infertility. I was a mess. I was hungry all the time. I was gaining weight out of control. I couldn't exercise. I actually had this weird thing where I constantly twisted my ankles. I was inflamed. I was in pain. I had headaches. I couldn't think straight. And this was in my twenties. We're supposed to be having fun in our twenties, and I felt like I was dying. I feel like a prisoner trapped in my own body. My body was so ill that I would just cry. I haven't talked about this a lot in the podcast, but there were moments, and I remember them well, where I felt as if I was dying. My heart would start racing out of nowhere. I had this feeling like I was leaving my body. I hope you've never had this before. But I felt like I was leaving my body, and my heart would be racing. And I had this weird sense of dissociation, like my body became distant from me, and I'm like, what is going on? Usually, what would happen is I'd be lying down, and I would get really scared. I was young. I was in my twenties. I'm like, what is going on? And I wasn't drinking or doing drugs or anything like that.  What I finally figured out later on in life, once I started studying holistic medicine, was I actually had adrenal dumps. So I'd have cortisol dumps, and that's part of the process of going into complete adrenal fatigue and burnout. You'll have these moments where you are having these huge dumps of adrenaline. And so I'm actually having these adrenal dumps, but I'm lying down, and what's causing it? Where is it coming from? I don't know. At the moment, I had no idea, but what I figured out was I could do some deep breathing. I would get in the shower, do hydrotherapy, do hot and cold, and do some deep breathing, and I could calm my body down. I felt like my body was my enemy. It was an unpredictable enemy, and it was a scary place to live. And now, my body is my home. My body is my friend, and my body and I love each other. We've been through a lot together, and I feel so comfortable in my skin. I'm so grateful for the health journey I've been on. I'm so grateful that I was able to turn my health journey into a tool, into something that could teach others, because I want to reach into all of your earbuds and your speakers and your phones. I want to reach in through there, hug you, hold you, and let you know your body can heal itself. If the doctor told you, you had this because of your genetics, because of your age, because of your race, because of your sex; I want you to say no, thank you. I don't buy into this belief system. You aren't sick because of your age, race, sex, genes, or whatever it is. That's not the cause of it. You can actually turn off Type 2 diabetes. You can reverse that type 2 diabetes. If you have Type 1, you can get your body so healthy that your insulin needs to go down. Like within the parameters of Type 1 diabetes, we can even improve health. So I have seen people reverse major health issues that MDs told them were life sentences. If I had believed the MDs, I would have never taken the necessary steps to no longer have Type 2 diabetes to no longer have PCOS. I was told after a battery of tests by an endocrinologist that I could never have children. And thank God I did not buy into her belief system because I believe the body has a God-given ability to heal itself, and all we got to do is bring the groceries in and take the garbage out.  Now, inflammation; well, inflammation is not the root cause of disease. It is present in most diseases. But what causes the inflammation? We have to go even further upstream to figure out what caused the information. So inflammation is like a flood. If you've ever turned on the weather news and seen a part of the world where there's a flood happening, maybe after a hurricane, and people are sitting on their roofs, nothing good is happening. The groceries are not coming in, and the garbage is not going out. That's inflammation. Inflammation is a flood that surrounds the cells and makes it hard for the cells to get the groceries in and get the garbage out.  So think about the little steps we can take every day; sometimes, this whole idea of holistic health seems so big. Like, oh, I feel so sick. How could I make these major changes and get on the other side of this? And people don't even believe they can. But my goal for episode 500 is to show you that some people were incredibly sick and took little baby steps, just like me, and got on the other side of it. And some people were listeners who didn't have a lot of health issues, but they thought they were in perfect health and even improved their health. So no matter where you are, you can get that. No matter where you are, you can take your health to the next level, even if you are bedridden. I have a client who's currently bedridden. And just with some holistic health changes, she's even improved her health, and I'm so excited. I'm going to have her on the show at some point, sharing how she was knocking on death's door at absolute rock bottom. And she is now improving her health in leaps and bounds. It is so exciting. If she had listened to her doctors, she would have died years ago. So don't let other people's belief systems tell you you can't heal yourself. I know it seems cliche; never give up, keep at it. But the truth is, if you believe you can't, you won't even take the first steps. So you have to believe your body has the ability to heal itself, which it does. And so we've just got to take one foot in front of the other and take the steps.  What I love about the testimonials that you're going to hear today, some listeners share the episodes that made the biggest difference for them, and they share the tools, and even some wonderful insights and daily habits that they do that make a big difference in their lives. So you can listen to other listeners and hear what they're doing and check out the resources. Of course, all the links are going to be in the show notes of today's podcast of learntruehealth.com. So be sure to check out the show notes, or wherever you're listening from; iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you're listening from. You can click on the show notes or click on the details of today's episode, and you should be able to see all the links there.  Thank you so much for being a listener. Thank you so much for sharing this podcast with those you care about. Health is so important. It's not just physical, right? It's not just eating salad and exercising. Health is emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, and energetic. It exists on all these planes. And health is as much the health of your relationships, the relationship you have with yourself, your experience of the world, your career, your family life. Every aspect of your life could be considered part of your health because nothing happens in your body in a vacuum. Here's an example: you could have thoughts that affect your physiology, and every day they do. What you think about affects your physical health. You could say that everything about your life is your health. So if there's a part of your life you want to improve, let's improve the health of that part of your life. And that's what my show is about. Learn True Health is about improving every aspect of your life holistically because it all matters to you. Every aspect of your life matters. By improving the parts of your life that are not the best; so maybe for you, it's physical health, mental health, spiritual health, or the emotional health of your relationships, right? Every aspect, whichever one you want to work on and improve, that's going to affect the overall health of your life and your experience of your life. So let's do that together. Keep sharing this podcast. Keep listening.  The first testimonial up is Mary entering the LTH 500 Club of Learn True Health listeners because she has now listened to 500 episodes of Learn True Health podcast. So she's just like me. And I know I have a few more of you out there because you guys have been in the Facebook group saying I've listened to every episode and are super excited. So go back and check out all the other episodes that make a big difference for people. And I love Mary's advice. She's got some great advice.  Enjoy today's episode and learn from everyone else, and check out the future episodes because I've got at least 20 lined up in the hopper ready to publish that I'm looking forward to you guys hearing. Jump into the Learn True Health Facebook group. Just search Learn True Health on Facebook, or go to learntruehealth.com/group to find the Facebook group. It's so supportive there. Anytime you need any help, you can reach out to me there. It's a great community. I love answering and helping answer questions, and helping people as well as the other listeners chimed in, and we all learn from each other. So it's a wonderful place. So when you have questions, it's a good place to come for resources as well. The search function on my website is a great place to go as well. You can search for different topics on learntruehealth.com. Now there are 500 episodes for you to lean on, learn from, and enjoy.  [0:14:40.9] Mary: Ashley, dear friend, this is Mary. I want to thank you for helping me, and my loved ones have better health. I would consider myself a generally healthy person. I just turned 50 in November, and I've been eating well for a long time and exercising lightly. What you gave me are tools to help my health and life be even better. Actually, there's a request from my friend. What can I do about osteoporosis and osteoarthritis naturally? I dug in and started to do my research and found your amazing podcast. I started with Episode #443 with Dr. Laura Kelly and her book The Healthy Bones Nutrition Plan and Cookbook. I learned so much from your podcast and was especially amazed to learn that you also need magnesium to hold your calcium. I purchased two other books—one for me and one for my lonely library. In the book, there was a recipe for magnesium spray, and I had the thought; I remember Ashely mentioned something about a magnesium soak she loves. I searched and found Episode #294 with Kristine Bowen from Living the Good Life Naturally. I was amazed at what I learned and quickly devoured the other three episodes by Kristen and was convinced to try the magnesium soak. I bought the magnesium soak and didn't expect to have anything happen. But I wanted my whole family to try it, so I soaked my feet too. I didn't notice anything right after soaking. But the next morning, I realized that I had slept through the night for the first time in ages. I found that soaking in magnesium has helped take some of the swellings away from my fasciitis and my shoulder, and I can sleep on both my left and right sides now because my sinuses are clear. And my knees don't bother me when I climb the stairs or try to chase the dog in the yard. I can tell my body is less inflamed. I'm so grateful for this. I even explain the magnesium soak to just about everyone I see. It's easy to share your podcast so that they can learn more about it for themselves. I never recycle an empty magnesium bottle. Instead, I put enough in it for two magnesium soaks and give it to someone I think could benefit from it. In fact, in my notes, I realized I've helped at least fifty people experience magnesium soaking in just the last year. In December, I had the privilege of making the pilgrimage to Logan, Utah, to pick up my magnesium order in person. On the way, I wanted to stop and share it with a dear friend of mine. She hesitated to have me come because she was sick. I told her I'd be fine because I use magnesium and chlorella. Well, I had a wonderful visit with her while soaking her feet and giving her some chlorella to eat. In the form of recovery, that's two. Not long after my visit, she reported that she and her family were healthy and cleared to go on their international trip. She thanked me for sharing these tips with her.  Looking further into your podcast, I found the Platinum Energy Systems ionic foot soak from Kellyann Andrews. Your first episodes with her are #292 and #293, plus four more. I was intrigued and decided to purchase the PES ionic foot soak system for our family. First of all, Kellyann is amazing. She will spend as much time as you need to complete your first ionic soak, even if it's an international call. She's so knowledgeable, patient, and kind. I've had a wonderful experience working with her. I know I can email her or call her with any questions I have. That's the kind of help and support you get from the products you recommend on your podcast. It's so awesome.   The ionic soak helps me move along much better. After my first soak, I felt so energetic, even though it was later in the evening. I woke up the next morning wanting raspberries though it was February. So I dropped my son off at school and went to the store to get raspberries and chlorella. Chlorella was another tip from Kellyann. I bought and ate the raspberries and some of the chlorella. Suddenly, my body felt better. My guess was my body wanted more antioxidants to help clear the toxins that the PES ionic foot soak had undrowned and needed to clear out of my body. I've continued using the ionic foot soak for myself and my family members. It's been so helpful. In June, I became sick and realized, wait, how about I soak in magnesium? The magnesium made a big difference. That made me realize how to use the ionic foot soak in recovery.  I learned about recovery in several episodes with Catharine Arnston, but my favorite episode is probably #487, where she talks about both the RECOVERYbits and ENERGYbits. So I used the ionic foot soak and RECOVERYbits two days in a row, and it really helped me recover quickly from being sick. My fever broke after the first session with the ionic foot soak, and most of my aches went away too. I've used this ionic foot soak on my parents too. My mom loves it and has noticed that the neuropathy in her toes isn't as bad after each use. She's also hooked on the RECOVERYbits and ENERGYbits too. She finds that she can stay on top of her arthritis pain mainly by using the magnesium soak and the chlorella. She used to have big bottles of Tums and ibuprofen that she'd buy. But now she doesn't use them much at all, and she's almost entirely off of her blood pressure medication too. Recently, her hairdresser commented on how quickly her hair has grown. My mom thinks it's due to the recovery, but I wouldn't doubt it. I feel so blessed to be able to share these helpful things with her. I have been introduced to so many wonderful people on your podcast. I often turn to Susan Luschas' website debugyourhealth.com from Episode #343. She has so much information there. I love the science, and she certainly has it. It's easy to share Susan's website with others, and she's really good about answering questions too.  You also introduced me to Robyn Openshaw, the GreenSmoothieGirl, in Episodes #358 and #390. I liked what she had to say, so I went to her podcast live to listen for more. She has a recommendation for a dentist in our area, Michelle Jorgensen, at Total Care Dental. My son was told that he needed his wisdom teeth out, and if so, I wanted it done right. So he went for an evaluation, and as it turns out, he doesn't need them pulled. Thank goodness for an honest evaluation. I decided to go with Total Care Dental for a new patient exam as well. I was thinking I had pretty good dental health, which I do. But they were able to do an upper and lower jaw CAT scan, and the things that they could see there were amazing. My ex-dentist couldn't see them on the X-rays that he'd been taking for years. I had two cavitations from my wisdom teeth being pulled over 25 years ago and a failed root canal. They cut off to see that my airway was small, probably due to inflammation from the cavitation infections and the root canal. I also have a moderate tongue-tie. I've since had two mercury fillings replaced at their office. The failed root canal was pulled, and the tooth cavitation was cleaned out. I've been amazed at how much happier my body is. It's like I got a metabolic reset. My body knows how to handle food, and it's been incredible.  Before I had the two mercury fillings replaced, I started on Dr. Jorgensen's detox protocol, glutathione, vitamin C, releasers, grabbers, minerals, and vitamins. By the end of the first day, I had a major headache. This happened three days in a row, so I stopped the protocol. Then later, after listening to one of your podcasts, I had an epiphany. I didn't have enough grabbers. I started the detox protocol again, and this time I added fifteen RECOVERYbits three times a day to the regimen. This time I had no headache. Once again, Ashley, you helped me figure out how to use the tools in my help toolbox even better. I purchased at least a dozen other products you've recommended. I've been very impressed with each one. Each one has been very high quality and improved my family's health. I appreciate your recommendation. When in doubt, use coupon code LTH. Thanks for the money savings too. Your podcast has served so many helpful gems. Many of the things I've learned from your podcast are completely free. Some of the free, or at least low-cost health hacks that I've added to my life because of you are: I sun dry my mushrooms for extra vitamin D and use them often; I make my own sauerkraut and other fermented fruits and try to eat some daily. I do more deep breathing with a longer exhale, and breathe as much as possible through my nose, even during exercise. I try to approach things in life with curiosity and love. I'm better at acknowledging my emotions and allowing space through them. I check my morning PH to see if my body was building or breaking down during the night. I avoid fluoride. I drink filtered water. I even gave our children [inaudible 0:22:32.2] for Christmas. I include more omega-3 in my meals. Now, I have no more cracked skin, even in the dry winter. I keep my cell phone on the desk instead of in my pocket. I try hard to go to sleep at an earlier, consistent time. I walk through the yard more often with my bare feet. I try to go out and greet the sun in the morning. I try to spend more time in nature. I eat more plants and grow more sprouts.  I recently joined Learn True Health Facebook group and have been amazed at how responsive and helpful the community is. I appreciate connecting with other like-minded people and look forward to contributing and learning even more in this group. I enjoy sharing these podcasts and insights with my family and friends. They may think I'm nuts, but I'm enjoying better health because of you and your podcast, and I want to pass it on. Thank you for sharing, teaching me, and being the open-minded skeptic that you are. Thank you as well for being my friend. I've listened to all of your episodes, several of them, multiple times. I'm looking forward to being an official member of the Ashley James Learn True Health Podcast 500 Club. So thanks for inviting me. Thanks to you, my sleep is better. I feel more energized. I've lost weight, which I wasn't even trying to do. I've learned so much from you and your podcast. My health and the health of my family and friends is better because of you too. Congratulations on your 500 episodes! Keep up the excellent work, and always remember you are loved. Sending you and your wonderful family love, happy thoughts, prayers, and birthday wishes to you, Ashley. Your friend, Mary D. Thanks again, Ashley. You're amazing. [0:24:08.8] Katrina Reeser: I started listening to Learn True Health with Ashley James back in the summer of 2018 when I first started having systemic symptoms, numerous doctor visits, 911 calls, ER visits, lab scans, and testing procedures. The specialist couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, and I just got sicker and sicker. I was determined to figure out what was wrong with me. I stumbled upon Learn True Health that summer. Not knowing what was wrong, I listened to every podcast Ashley put out. Using the knowledge she shared, listening to her podcast gave me hope and comfort. All the while, I was learning. This continued from 2018 through 2021. Still learning, in the fall of 2021, I became bedridden. I had nothing but time to listen, learn, and use what Ashley and Learn True Health was sharing. My health came to a point where I had lost 45 lbs in 4 weeks, so sick with systemic symptoms that I couldn't lift my head off the pillow. Specialists and tests still showed nothing. I prayed a prayer like no other. God, let me die or lead me in the direction of what was causing my illness. The next day I stumbled across breast implant illness. I knew then and there that after reading the list and the symptoms, that was what was wrong with me. I met with a plastic surgeon two weeks later and had an emergency explant on December 1st, 2022. Almost immediately, the symptoms were gone. I have been healing and detoxing over the past year. I truly believe that Ashley James and Learn True Health podcast and using all the information I learned from her many podcasts, is why I heal so quickly from all of my systemic symptoms. I was so healthy once the implants were out. This past year I continued and still listen to her podcast every week. I'm always learning, and I feel like she is one of my closest friends, and I haven't even met her. Thank you, Ashley, and Learn True Health for educating me and giving me hope and healing. I never gave up. I created an Instagram after I explanted — bii_warrior_ — in hopes of spreading awareness, educating others, and mostly giving hope, like Ashley gave me hope when I thought there was no help left. Thank you, Ashley.  [0:26:28.8] Linda Valdez: Hello, my name is Linda Valdez. I just wanted to share some thoughts about the Learn True Health podcast. I've been listening to the podcast for years, and I've learned so much. There's a wealth of knowledge there on everything health. As of yet, I have not had to face a serious diagnosis. But I do work on improving my health, especially as I get older. But I have friends and loved ones who have had various serious diagnoses. Often I share what I've learned from the podcast.  Recently, we had my 89-year-old father-in-law move in with us. When he came about five months ago, he was on about 12+ medications. He's kind of out of it; he has early dementia. He also had a very painful hip and knee joint for years that was not improving. I heard about takeyoursupplements.com on the podcast. So I reached out and got him started on the vitamins and minerals. We also weaned him off of most of his medications. Three months later, he rarely complains of any pain. He is alert. He has conversations with us. He jokes and laughs. He walks much better, and he has literally come back to life. It's really been an incredible change.  I often share episodes with my patients from the dental office I work at. Many have begun using the magnesium that Ashley recommends from Living the Good Life Naturally or taking algae from the ENERGYbits to help them detox, or they are using the aloe vera from Haley's. People listen to the podcast, learn how it can help them, then they order the product, and it improves their health. I'm amazed at how we can heal our own bodies if we just know how and what to use. The podcast has been that link we need to get there. I can't say enough of how grateful I am that Ashley has put together this podcast and websites that are so easy to navigate and find what you need. I love listening to her on the podcast, explaining what's been said so that anyone can understand it. She has shared her family and some very personal things in her life. I feel it makes her real, as if I know her personally. Thank you, Ashley, for all you do. Please don't quit. This world needs more people like you. [0:28:56.6] Mellissa Lee Diaz: I'm Mellissa Lee Diaz, and I've been listening to the Learn True Health podcast for a couple of years, and I just briefly wanted to share my testimony of all of the health benefits that I have personally received throughout that time, and following protocols from the people that Ashley has interviewed. So I have struggled with migraine headaches for about 18 years. And I've also most recently been diagnosed as being in perimenopause. So I have also been having hot flashes, mood swings, anxiety, sleepless nights, and whatnot. I have been listening to the protocols from Dr. Kellyann, who has a foot detox that I decided to purchase. I would say, a few times, after doing my foot detoxes, my migraines started to decrease rapidly. I also decided to purchase one of the Sunlighten brand infrared saunas that have also played a huge part in perimenopausal symptoms. I no longer have hot flashes. I've been sleeping a ton better. I have also had lots of less anxiety. I've also done something that wasn't actually brought up by Learn True Health, but I did want to suggest that Ashley do an interview with someone that offers PEMF treatments because that is something that I did, that is a holistic protocol on a machine that is an electromagnetic field generator. Again, it's PEMF. And I also received a ton of health benefits by going that route as well. So I'm hoping that at some point, she'll be able to interview someone that speaks on PEMF because that is also another major influence that I've had, positively affecting my health in an amazing way.  Most recently, I also tried the analemma stick crystal that you put in water. And I've noticed that I've been much more hydrated than I was previously. And I can actually taste a difference, not in the taste of the water, but in the texture of the water, and it seems to give me major hydrating benefits. And I've also gotten sick way less this year. I think I might have battled one cold in a total of 18 months. So there's something to be said for all of the benefits. I have been migraine-free as of now from doing all of the things that people have suggested on her podcast. I haven't had a migraine in six months and counting. I also have today no symptoms of perimenopause whatsoever. I sleep amazingly. I stay hydrated. I have little to no body aches. And honestly, I have felt better now at 46 years old than I did when I was 30. So kudos to you, Ashley. I am so very grateful for your podcast. Keep going. I love this holistic advice that you give people, and I have been totally blessed by your show. Thank you. [0:32:13.1] Ashley James: Thank you, Mellissa, for that. I wanted to make a little side note and tell listeners that Melissa has had seven children. So for a woman who is in her forties and has had seven children, she feels better than she did in her 30s, using holistic health and these simple tools, one at a time. Sometimes it's drinking more water, getting a structured water device, and drinking more water. Sometimes it's detoxing. I love the PES for detoxing. And I also know that Melissa takes the supplements from takeyoursupplements.com, and if you go to takeyoursupplements.com, there's a video of her and her gorgeous daughter giving a testimonial in a video form that she did a while back. The supplements there, I know she has been on for quite a while because she actually used them for her last and final pregnancy. Although I don't know, maybe she wants to have more kids, which she'd probably say she's done after seven. But she did take those supplements during her last pregnancy. I remember her telling me that it made that seventh pregnancy the easiest and the best pregnancy out of all of them and that she just kind of flew through that pregnancy, and actually, it was like the healthiest baby. I mean, all her babies are healthy. It was the healthiest. It was the easiest birth and the healthiest baby. It was the healthiest pregnancy, and she really attributed it to all the wonderful advice she got from takeyoursupplements.com.  Those supplements that she's on are the same supplements I've been taking for 12 years. My family takes the majority of it. It is liquid plant-based, plant-derived, bioavailable minerals and other nutrients that fill in the gaps in her diet. So, no matter which eating style you choose to do, it's really hard to secure our minerals because the farming practices of the last 150 years don't remineralize the soil. So it's easy to accidentally get vitamins and eat enough plants. So if you're on a diet that doesn't include enough plants, if you're eating the same American diet, you're definitely not getting enough vitamins. If you eat really healthy, you can accidentally get all your vitamins. It's very hard to get all your minerals, unfortunately, because of the farming practices. So a lot of times, people walk around minerally deficient, especially in magnesium and zinc, but they don't know it; there are only symptoms. It's really interesting how the body speaks in symptoms.  And so, takeyoursupplements.com, you fill out the form, and they talk to you for free, and they're trained by the same naturopath I worked with, and it's amazing. Actually, the head coach there is Jennifer Saltzman, who's been on the show three times, and she has the world's biggest heart. She wants to help you, but only if you're ready. If you're ready to get healthy and you want to take your health to the next level, and you want to fill in the gaps of your nutrient deficiencies, talk to her. Go to takeyoursupplements.com. I love those supplements. They're safe because they are dosed based on body weight. They're actually safe for anyone at any age. I know that there are pediatricians that use it for infants, infants, and up, basically. One of my mentors designed the supplements, and I love the science that went into designing them. They are really beautiful in that they're all balanced. So nothing is high doses of anything. It's all very balanced, and it's what the body really needs. If we lived in the Garden of Eden, that's basically the nutrients we would be getting from our food. If we had just the perfect soil, this is what we'd be getting anyway. So I really do love the supplements from  takeyoursupplements.com. Next up is Morgan. She left it as a voicemail when she gave me a call, and then afterward, I asked her permission to share her voicemail with you guys. And she said, sure. So, as of now, I have about ninety of my clients using the phototherapy patches that I talked about in Episode #496 with Trina Hammack. Since Episode #496, I've had an amazing personal experience with the patches. My clients have had amazing experiences, and Morgan is one of them. She in the first week of using the patches, had a complete reversal and elimination of these crazy symptoms that she's had for the last several years, and it's been wonderful. We're having these really cool experiences with my clients. I have some words like, it's subtle. I have some words like, yeah, I noticed more energy. Wow, I'm getting deeper sleep. Oh yeah, my aches and pains are going away. I have an amazing couple who are using the patches, and one of them has several fractures, and it's healing much faster than the doctor expected. It triggers, through the phototherapy process, our body's ability to optimize certain physiological functions, including increasing stem cells and increasing glutathione-balancing hormones. It's really neat.  I have one client who was eating Tums and drinking Pepto-Bismol like it was candy because of how bad her heartburn was. And she reported to me that after three days of doing the phototherapy protocol for supporting gut health, she no longer needs to take the Tums and drink the Pepto Bismol. Yes, we're supporting the body's ability to come back into balance. So it's not anything you're absorbing, which is so neat. It's just a frequency medicine that's gently pushing the body back into balance and asking the body to optimize certain processes. I know it sounds totally wild. There are over a hundred studies around it, proving that it does what it does. And these are double-blind placebos and all that. There are these super cool studies, and then they've been around for 20 years. So it's not like this new fly-by-night kind of thing. It has been proven.  So if you're someone that would love to try this out and support your body's ability to heal itself, increase stem cell production, and gently bring the body back into balance and it is safe for all ages. It doesn't go against any medication, so it's safe, and all those scenarios, which are really neat. It's gentle, and we see amazing results. Like I said, I have ninety clients wearing these and experiencing phenomenal results, like the testimonial you're about to hear. And if you would like to try the phototherapy patches, I'd love to talk to you and help you order the right ones to get on the right protocols for you. You can go to my website, learntruehealth.com. And on the menu, it says, “Work with Ashley James.” So go to learntruehealth.com and just find the menu, click on “Work with Ashley James,” and it's the first option as you scroll down. You can book a free consultation with me, and I will answer your questions about it. I'll also send you a big email full of really cool videos and stuff you'll geek out on. If you like my podcast, you'd love the email that I can send you with all this information. And I can invite you to our hidden Facebook group of practitioners so you can learn the protocols and you can see the testimonials; it's wild. We have bald men and women growing their hair back. We have age spots going away, wrinkles going away, and waddles under the neck tightening because one of the patches stimulates collagen production. So we have a full-on facelift, breast lift, and neck lift protocols. It's not medicine. It's not surgery. It's not anything the body absorbs. It's just phototherapy. It's patches that change the frequency of the photons our body admits back to us to stimulate a specific function. I could send more information. All I could say is I've got several really cool science videos that go into explaining this, and it does kind of feel like we're in Star Trek, basically. I love it.  There's a combination of these patches I wear. When I started wearing them, I was consistently able to do 5 minutes on the rower at the gym. And after I started wearing them, I went from 5 minutes on the rower to the next day, 23 minutes on the rower. I was consistently getting kind of exhausted after 5 minutes. You know, when you push yourself, and then your body's like, okay, I need a break. I need a few minutes. I hit that lactic acid wall at 5 minutes. And then, the next day, I did 23 minutes. I was like, woah! It wasn't like I went from 5 to 6 minutes. I went from 5 to 23 minutes. And there's something said about these phototherapy patches that have been really cool not just for me but for all my clients that get on it. So if you want to try it, definitely reach out to me because I love it. I love the results we're getting, and it's wild. Listen to this testimonial. You can hear about how wild it is.  [0:41:36.3] Morgan: Hey, Ashley, this is Morgan. Hey, I just wanted to tell you how incredible the patches are so far, and just adjusting my polarity, which was running completely backward. It has made such an incredible shift in my life in such a short time. In probably the past six years or something, I've been going from practitioner to practitioner, trying to figure out all these crazy symptoms that no one could explain, anything related to grounding or anything that increases the earth or water element. I would be riddled with anxiety and have massive bloating and this kind of dizzy feeling. It's hard to explain, but I just felt like something was so off. And after adjusting the polarity, everything shifted. I can drink water again, which I couldn't do before, like with any minerals. I'd have to do reverse osmosis because I couldn't handle any kind of minerals. They would make me just feel so out of whack. And I'd have urgent urination and just an intense rapid heartbeat. I can be around trees again and listen to music again. Before, I couldn't handle anything that had a heavy bass or many kinds of music. Even a female voice was too grounding to listen to. Sleeping was insane. I couldn't sleep because every time I lay down, I would just have really intense symptoms. Even walking into my house, because it's on the ground level, with lots of trees in the yard, would throw me into a dizzy state. I can do breathing, meditation, or stretching. All of those things were too grounding. Even reading and writing were really tough.  So anyways, long-winded, but those have all shifted in just one day or two days. It's doing the polarity switch. So I just wanted to tell you that I'm so grateful, and I broke down a couple of times this weekend in tears out of just straight gratitude for this technology and healing message that you're sharing with people. So, thank you so much. I do have a couple of questions about the next steps, so I'll just email you about that. But I just so appreciate you and wanted to let you know. Thank you so much. Okay, hope you're having a nice day, take care. [0:44:11.7] Ashley James: This testimonial is from Dina. She shared it in the Learn True Health Facebook group, and it made me cry. I love it. It's a true testament to the power of the body's ability to heal itself with natural, holistic-minded medicine and how we can take all the great information from hundreds and hundreds of amazing guests and use it in everyday, real applications to save our lives, to save the lives of our loved ones. So here's what she says. [0:44:46.8] Dana (read by Ashley): How has Ashley and the Learn True Health podcast helped me and my family? In more ways than I can count, each and every day, in some large or small way, but for this post, I will rely on two major scenarios where Learn True Health has guided me and my family through important decisions. Get comfortable. This is going to take a minute. Hospital scenario: let me start by talking about a medical illness where Learn True Health insights guided me just one day before my eighty-year-old mom was hospitalized with COVID-19. I had coincidentally listened to Episode #479: Our Amazing Grace, wherein a father, Scott Schara, described how his daughter's fatal experience, which began as a COVID admittance to the hospital, could have been avoided. The interview left the listener with a heightened awareness in, a perspective to be cognizant of a hospital's transparency and the operational protocols often based on revenue streams instead of the patient's positive health outcomes to not implicitly, without question, trust the white coat; to not allow hospital staff and doctors to bully or belittle you in your role as advocate for your loved one; to ask uncomfortable and difficult questions of doctors and nurses and so on.  My mom was in the ICU for ten days, and my sister and I took alternating 24-hour shifts as her advocates. As the 10-day ICU ordeal began to unfold, I watched in mounting frustration and then in dismay as an eerily similar scenario to that which Scott had described unraveled before my eyes. My sister and I asked a lot of questions as to each physical protocol and each medication. We were not argumentative or disruptive but wanted to understand. Some of the nurses and both doctors in my mom's case clearly did not want us in the room. My sister and I were repeatedly bullied and were actually yelled at on multiple occasions. The supposed life-saving prone positioning protocol ordered by the pulmonary doctor was not being carried out by the nurses in the least. And the deadly mixture of drugs prescribed in the case of Scott Schara's daughter was being duplicated in my mom's case, even though the package inserts indicated not to mix them or use them for several days together. About midway through my mom's ICU case, it became clear to us that we needed to transfer our mother to another hospital. We were successful in arranging that transfer.  Also, early in the ICU scenario, other LTH episodes came to mind that bolstered my own endurance in my difficult role as an advocate. I recall Episode #107, where JJ Virgin describes her role as an advocate for her hospitalized son. Helping me advocate for a critical patient can be rigorous and exhausting, and how JJ Virgin knew in Episode #107. She had to keep up her own wellness routines in order to have the strength to continue in the advocate role. She talked about ways in which she supported her health and stamina during the long hospital hours by doing things like climbing hospital stairs to replicate high-intensity workouts and using the corridors to get in her steps. She talked about making sure she did not give in to the convenience of inflammatory hospital cafeteria food and how she prioritized sticking with her own foods and supplements. She also talked about how she used her knowledge as a functional medicine practitioner to support her son's recovery by doing things like bringing in nutritional supplements and healthy foods for him.  So, I took many cues from JJ Virgin's hospital survival kit in Episode #107 of the Learn True Health podcast and replicated her practices in my role as an advocate and part-time hospital dweller. In addition to bolstering my own health, I supplemented my mom's hospital protocols with vitamin D and other nutrients. For example, I brought in thermoses of bone broth. She didn't have an appetite for many solid foods. Another episode that helped me during this ICU time was Episode #477: Proof of Heaven, with near-death experience survivor Dr. Eben Alexander. From day one of my mom's ICU stay, the pulmonary doctor's outlook for my mom's survival was bleak. She had severe pneumonia. So facing what might be a fatal outcome, I came prepared to read to my mom passages from Dr. Eben Alexander's book, Proof of Heaven, in the hope that I could minimize her fear of death and of what might come next and offer some level of comfort that if death was what she was facing, she could at least visualize a place of love and safety as Dr. Alexander described in his near-death experience.  Alternative childhood vaccine scenario: The first episode I've ever listened to on Learn True Health podcast was forwarded to me by my daughter, a first-time mother, five months in. It was Episode #224: Safe Vaccines, wherein Dr. Paul Thomas describes the pros and cons of childhood vaccines, promotes parental informed consent, and offers a vaccine schedule alternative to that of the CDCs. This episode was so informative that it started me and my daughter on an in-depth journey into the world of childhood vaccines which, after a study period of about six months, led my daughter to quit her job and stay home with her daughter in order to have the freedom to choose an alternative vaccine schedule without the strict daycare vaccination rules governing her decisions as they relate to her daughter's health. Ashley's episodes on homeschooling also gave my daughter the courage to embark on this journey that she had never before considered for herself. My own health journey: I'm presently diagnosed with mycotoxin illness, which, if not eradicated, would likely lead to one or more of the following; cancer, kidney damage, liver damage, Alzheimer's, or Parkinson's. The only remedy is detoxification by supporting all of my body's functions and elimination pathways. In addition to my clean diet and supplement regime, I have learned of some other excellent health-promoting modalities through Learn True Health, which I am now using to amplify my overall resilience in detoxification ability. These include infrared energy therapy Episode #245 with Sunlighten sauna, daily magnesium foot soaks for maximum cell saturation and overall mineral support, Episode #294: Magnesium Foot Soak, the use of ozonated water and ozonated oils to eradicate biotoxins and pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, parasites and molds in Episode #484, and the medicinal drinkable aloe gel for reducing gut inflammation in Episode #401 and #474 and starving any cancer cells that may be taking root in my body as a result of mycotoxins. Many, many thanks go to Ashley James. Her quest to share important, empowering health information is quite a calling. She is an excellent podcast host, as well as a self-informed and certified nutrition and health coach. I completely trust Ashley James and recommend her podcast to friends and family every chance I get. [0:52:44.2] Ashley James: I loved reading this. The first time I read it, I was crying. I couldn't even finish it. The tears were filling my eyes. I was just thinking about her mom and how that could have been a really bad outcome. That could have been a devastating outcome and a horrible way to pass alone in a hospital if it wasn't for her family advocating intensely for her. And I weep for all the families who lost loved ones in the last three years who were left alone, neglected in the hospitals. I know that there are nurses and doctors out there who have really big hearts who care, and there are also a lot of really burnt-out nurses and doctors. And the worst thing is the hospital protocols are horrendous and are not designed to support our overall health. I don't know if her mom would have lived if she hadn't heard that episode on my show where she learned how to rigorously advocate and how to look for the signs of malpractice, essentially. She did an amazing job. Her whole family did an amazing job supporting her mom. And the fact that they were able to have such a positive outcome is why I do this. I do this show so that your mom's life can be saved, so that your dad's life can be saved.  I couldn't save my parents. I lost my mom when I was twenty-two to cancer, and I lost my dad six years later when I was twenty-eight to sudden heart failure. And that should not have happened. They should have lived. I didn't know at the time what it would take to prevent and reverse heart disease and cancer. And through my own personal health journey in the last fifteen years, and then the last seven years doing this podcast, if I had a time machine, I could go back, give my parents this information, and they would still be alive today. Think of all the loved ones that you can take all the information from my show, and you can help yourself and your children, your friends, and your family to live long, healthy, disease-free lives in optimal health regardless of where you are now, regardless of how old you are now, regardless of where your health is right now. Every day you can build your health. Either you tear it down, or you build it up. Every day, every decision, every meal, every glass of water, every walk, every time you go to bed at a decent hour, just every little thing that seems insignificant, is actually monumental. And then the little things add up. If you can make it a game and make it fun, you know, let's see. Can I get to sleep before 10? Can I get it with 120 oz of purified water? Can I get my 10,000 steps in? Can I get 50 grams of fiber from a variety of plants throughout the day? Can I have three healthy bowel movements a day? Can I get out in the sunlight first thing in the morning? These little things can become a game. Can I walk outside for 5 minutes or 20 minutes with my bare feet on the ground or in the grass? Obviously, make sure you don't step in dog poop or walk in pesticide-laden grass. These little things — hydration, nutrition, fiber, sleep, moving your body in a way that brings you joy, grounding or earthing, loving yourself, watching your own personal self-talk, correcting it — so you become nurturing inwards and nurturing outwards, and decreasing stress, getting out of the stress response, having tickle fights with your partner, your kids putting on comedy shows, doing zumba in your living room to 90s music, or rock and roll or whatever. Have fun and do the little things, and every single day you will be building yourself up. Make it a game and see how many of these fun little activities you can incorporate.  Take a little account of yourself. Go write down everything, every symptom. If you want, I can give you this if you email me or you message me on Facebook, or if you email me at support@learntruehealth.com. I'll send you my symptom inventory checklist. I can also include it in the show notes of this podcast. But the symptom inventory checklist is phenomenal for doing a once-a-month check-in. You just write every single thing you don't like about your health, every symptom, even the ones you were told that you have because you're a woman, or because you're a man, because you're older, because you're young, or because of your genetics, whatever excuses they've given. If you could have a magic wand or Aladdin's lamp, come and grant your wishes and remove every single symptom and bring you optimal health; you think about it from that standpoint. You write down everything you don't like about your health, and you grade it — intensity, duration, and frequency. Then, once a month, you come back to this list, and you'll see if things are getting worse or better or staying the same. When I work with my clients, they are surprised at how this list changes just in the first month alone. I've had clients cut this list in more than half in the first month of working with me when we adjust supplements and diet and lifestyle changes, and we get to the point where there's nothing on their list. There are no symptoms that they are unhappy with. They get to a point in their health where they're happy about every aspect of their health, their body, and their emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical health. So this is a great way to keep track.  I've actually had two clients who forgot they used to have chronic migraines before working with me. And how do you forget chronic, almost weekly, daily, or monthly, really intense and often recurring headaches or migraines? I reminded them. I asked both of them on two separate occasions, two different clients. How are your migraines? And they both looked at me like, what do you mean? I had to remind them. And they're like, oh yeah, I forgot. I forgot I used to have daily headaches. I'm like, how do you forget? But this is what we do. We just forget. So if you write down your symptoms now as you make these healthy changes, you might forget how bad you felt, and then you get this great health routine, and then you think, well, I could stay up late. I can do whatever. I can drink some alcohol. And then we build these habits, and then we can fall out of our habits. And we forget how great we feel when we're in these habits.  So keeping track of that, we can go back and say, okay, I have a motivation. I have a reason to stay on these healthy habits because they've built me up. They've removed all these symptoms, and I don't want to go back to the way it was because I could recreate type 2 diabetes. I could go to McDonalds every day. I always pick at McDonalds, but you know, insert fast food restaurant. I could just eat the way everyone else is just eating a standard American diet. And sure enough, I could recreate type 2 diabetes. I don't have it anymore, but I can recreate it. So we can turn disease on and off with nutrient deficiency, with stressors in life, with living the sad life, the standard American diet life. We can turn disease on, and we can turn it off with these health changes. The whole podcast, all 499, now 500 episodes, is about the little changes you can make to support your body's ability, the God-given ability you have to heal yourself.  And if you believe you can't heal yourself, then you have already lost because your belief system matters. It does take you believing that your body can heal itself. If you don't believe, you won't even take the first step. So you have to believe, and you have to visualize and see yourself healed. See you that you want to have in the future, and see that future you and believe it as if it is now and real, and go, “Okay, future me, I'm going to I'm going to see you soon, and I'm going to do the things it takes to be there and do that.” And then you have to forget everything every MD ever told you because everything they tell you that has to do with limiting your own body's ability to heal itself, you've got to throw it out the door and say no, I do not take that in. That is not my belief system. I believe my body can heal. Because if I believed what the MD said, I would still be sick because I would never have taken the first step. The next testimonial comes from the Learn True Health Facebook group, and it's more of a visual thing. So I'll describe it to you. It's an image of a Facebook message that I got from one of our listeners, and she shares an image of a large ziplock bag filled with ten big prescription bottles, and she says, “Check this out.” All the things that she's been doing since listening to the Learn True Health podcast, she goes, “This was my bag of prescription drugs that I had to take before the Learn True Health podcast,” And she goes, “and this is now.” And it's one drug in the big bag instead of ten. So she's removed nine. Her doctors have taken her off nine prescription drugs since listening to the Learn True Health podcast. And I said, “Woohoo, congratulations! That's so awesome. May I share this?” And she goes, “Yes.” And I said, “What is the last drug?” She says, “Blood pressure. But I'm conquering that too.” And she shared what she has done to get off of nine of her ten drugs. You can see this if you go to the Learn True Health Facebook group. You can see this post there. Just type testimonial in the search bar of the Facebook group, and you'll see it. But she says that she did grounding or earthing, and you can learn more about that by going to the Learn True Health podcast and listening to Episode #366 with Clint Ober. It's fascinating — grounding and earthing — and also Episode #402 with Dr. Stephen Sinatra.  She also used the magnesium soak, which I love. If you take oral magnesium, you're getting only a tiny percentage of that actually is getting in your tissues. Oral magnesium is the hardest way to absorb magnesium. And the best way, besides paying for very expensive intravenous, which is not achievable for most people to do long-term, is soaking in the magnesium in this undiluted magnesium soak is amazing, and you reach full cell saturation. About 70 to 60 percent of people reach full cell saturation within 30 days of soaking every day. You soak for a minimum of 20 minutes, a maximum of an hour, and you just put it in a bowl with your feet. You don't even have to have a bath to do it. I do it when I'm watching TV or when I'm just relaxing and doing some work at the computer. I can put my feet in the bowl there, and I can also do it in the sauna. So there are plenty of ways of getting it in while you go about your day. As long as you can sit still in one place and keep your feet in a bowl for 20 minutes, you're good. And that is several episodes with Kristen Bowen, but the first episode worth listening to is Episode #294 of the Learn True Health podcast. She gives a great discount, that coupon code LTH when you go to livingthegoodlifenaturally.com. That's her website. She has very high standards for ingredients and makes sure that everything is pure and ethically sourced. Everything that she sells, she uses herself. She uses it with her grandbabies and her family. I just love connecting with ethical, like-minded people and supporting these small businesses that are committed to helping our health. So Kristen is one of those women who will do everything she can to help you, and she suffered so greatly. I'm not going to do any spoilers, but I will tell you, you've got to listen to Episode #294. She was in a wheelchair, under 100 lbs, barely able to talk, having thirty seizures in a day, and she was on death's door. That was about twenty years ago, and now she is vibrant and healthy and has a huge beautiful family. And she's a grandma of so many amazing kids and a mom to amazing kids, and she's the founder of a beautiful and wonderful business. So I love that it provides people with a great workspace and then provides the customers with high-quality ingredients. But the magnesium soak is like no other, and you cannot get it from Epsom salt. It is not even comparable, and she talks about that in our interviews. You can't reach full cell saturation with magnesium flakes. It doesn't work with Epsom salt. You can't reach that full cell saturation, and she goes into explaining why. That is Episode #294. Then you can go to the Learn True Health website or wherever you listen to Learn True Health and search for all the other episodes with Kristen Bowen because we have several of them. Remember to use coupon code LTH on her website, livingthegoodlifenaturally.com, and grab yourself a few jugs of her magnesium soak. Also, I love the cream. I love the muscle cream. Those are delicious as well. That's great for local applications. If you just need to relax some tense muscles, it definitely works. And then our listener — just for privacy's sake, I don't share her name — she was kind enough to share this information so that I could pass it along and give people hope. The last thing she did to make these changes and get off her nine out of ten medications very quickly was she went to takeyoursupplements.com and signed up to have a free conversation with Jennifer Saltzman. Jennifer has been on our show several times, but you can listen to the latest one, which is Episode #458 of Learn True Health podcast. I have been on these supplements for 12 years, and so is my husband. Our son's been on these supplements his whole life. And I've had the creator of the supplements on my show twice. They are phenomenal, and they're plant-derived. They are very bioavailable. They're all in balance with each other, so there are no high doses, and it fills in the gaps of our nutrient deficiencies that we have because of the farming practices of over 150 years. They do not remineralize the soil, so we are left with anemic plants. You can eat spinach, but the spinach could have zero iron in it, literally zero iron. And even though we were raised to see Popeye and think we're getting our iron when we eat our spinach, well, spinach used to contain high iron just like Brazil nuts can contain selenium, but it doesn't mean they do. Because you can grow plants in water and sunlight, and some NPK does not need to take all sixty minerals. Our body needs sixty minerals. But the farmers do not remineralize the soil, so that's a really big problem with modern farming. And then in addition to that, we treat our crops with the types of pesticides like Glyphosate, which is a chelator. This is not the only one that does this, but it binds to the minerals and heavy metals and carries it away. And the way we farmed, the way we till the soil, the rain washes away the nutrients, and we're left with anemic plants. Of course, now, a lot of plants we buy are grown hydroponically, especially if you're buying your microgreens. I buy these power greens from Costco in a big bag. It says organic, but you know as you're eating them, you go, this is too clean. This just looks like something that was grown in a factory, not something that was grown in the ground that contains minerals. So it is really important to get our minerals, and I love the liquid minerals that takeyoursupplements.com can provide you with.  So those are the three biggest things that she did. She grounded herself, or she did earthing and walked outside barefoot. You can also get a crowning mat or mattress pad for indoor use, but it's free if you just put your feet barefoot outside. I even had a listener, and I loved this; this was so great. After hearing this episode, the grounding episode, I think she was in Minnesota when she went outside in the middle of winter and dug some snow until she found the grass, bundled up, sat in a lawn chair, and put her feet directly on the grass. And I'm like, that is my kind of woman. And she's like, “I am earthing right now. I heard this episode, and I'm going to earth right now. I'm not going to wait for springtime.” And that's the kind of passion you need to have when it comes to gaining true health. When we put our feet barefoot, directly on the soil, directly on grass, plants, or the earth, we are getting back to earth's potential. You are releasing electrons which are free radicals that are causing damage to your body. You are releasing excess electrons, and you're getting back to the earth's potential. That's what we're supposed to be. Think about if you've ever gone camping as a kid, if you ever slept outside, or maybe when there are power outages, and how good you sleep. You sleep so well when we're not around all this wi-fi and electricity, when we're touching the ground, if you've ever slept on the ground, besides the fact that the ground is hard and you use a mattress, or maybe you've taken a nap outside. Just go lay down in the grass and let yourself connect with the earth, in that you are releasing electrons and getting back to the earth's potential, which is discussed a lot in Episode #366 as Clint Ober talks about the several studies that he funded to learn more about the effects on the body of doing earthing and grounding. So you're going to love to dive into these episodes if you're like my listener and you're carting around a gallon bag full of prescription drugs, and you don't want to be on prescription drugs anymore. You want to be so healthy that you don't need to be on these drugs. If you want to be so healthy that your doctor says, “Well, we got to definitely take you off these. What are you doing on them?” If you want to be so healthy that your body is drug-free, that your body has just energy abound, that your body heals itself quickly, that you bounce back quickly from colds or flu, that you jump out of bed in the morning, that you have a full day that you feel like in love with life on every level, then you want to listen to and do what all the other listeners are doing that they were able to cut their prescriptions. I once helped a woman cut her prescriptions. And how she had two drawers full of prescriptions and cut them in half just by making tiny changes. And she could have done more, but she just did a few tiny changes. These are suggestions that are shared in the podcast and suggestions that I love to follow. She made these suggestions, and it's madness that MDs don't have these tools. To help you get so healthy, you don't need to be on meds. That's not their training because the system is designed to sell drugs. Now, I appreciate and love MD-based medicine when we need it. Allopathic, drug-based medicine for emergencies is wonderful, and it's the best thing we got. But when it comes to chronic health, they only have drugs. And you have to go to a functional medicine practitioner or holistic health coach to even find the information on how to support your body's ability to heal itself, so much so that your body gets so healthy that your doctor takes you off those drugs that you no longer need to be on drugs. And that's the kind of doctor you want to see. You want to see a doctor that says, “Yes, let's get you so healthy. I don't know enough how to get you so healthy, but if you get healthy, I want to take you off these drugs. There are some doctors that won't even take you off your drugs if you get healthy. You got to really watch out for that. So interview some doctors and find one that goes, “Yes, I want you to get so healthy that you don't need to be on drugs.” And look at how simple this was for her. She stood outside with bare feet in the grass. She's soaked in magnesium. She took some supplements. She made a few dietary changes. She started moving her body in a way that brought her joy. She started hydrating herself, and she cut down her pills by 90%. Her prescriptions got cut down by 90% in a matter of months. How amazing is that? That's so cool.  So I just love all the testimonials that are shared in the Facebook group. I love that we can make such a huge difference in people's lives. I am so proud of Natalie, who is our next testimonial. Natalie has been listening for, I guess, over a year now. She was struggling with prediabetes even though she was doing a lot of healthy things that kept creeping up on her and creeping up on her. And then finally, she ended up with an A1C of 9.6, diagnosed back about five months ago, where she was in full-blown diabetes. And she was just so upset at herself. She'd been listening to the podcast. She'd been making a lot of good health changes. But one thing that hadn't changed, even though she was eating very healthily, was she was still eating foods that we'd see cause insulin resistance. And so, I encouraged her back in December to listen to Episodes #233, #489, and the most recent #492, and especially to get the Mastering Diabetes audiobook. I love that audiobook. They come on and give updates. So, when you buy a physical book, it's like the author can insert updates, maybe if it's an ebook. But what's great about the audiobook is that they don't come on and give some updates as new science and stuff come out. It's one of the guests I had in those episodes. He is a Ph.D. who wrote his thesis on insulin resistance. The whole premise is how we can use the food you don't eat and the food you do eat to heal insulin resistance and support the body's ability to heal itself and become so healthy that the body naturally loses weight, lowers triglycerides, develops healthy cholesterol and develops balanced, healthy blood sugar.  So Natalie came to me a month after being on the program. It's only a month, and it does take time. So don't expect to be completely done in one month. One month is just the beginning, and that's the hardest part. The first month is the hardest part because, a lot of times, people are battling. They don't even realize how intense the food addictions and cravings are when they cut out those foods. So Natalie went through her first month of eating a super clean way and battling what we all go through when we cut out the foods that our bodies are addicted to. And at the beginning, she had an A1C of 9.6 back around January of this year. And in April, so four months later, her A1C was 6.7. I am so proud of her. This testimonial that she gives, she recorded in January, a month into her program. She was already seeing success, but I got an update today from Natalie, and I want to share it with you because I want to celebrate with you her success and just how proud I am of her. She's really been struggling for years like so many people, even though she makes really healthy choices. She doesn't eat the standard American diet. There are so many things she does right. And that's the frustration. We can feel like we're already doing so much, and then we're still unhealthy. Sometimes it just takes a few simple changes. Sometimes it takes a major overhaul. But being willing to look at your numbers now and go, “Okay, here's where I am, and here's where I want to be, and I'm going to get there. I'm going to close that gap between where I am and where I want to be.” I talked to her a few times back in January, and she felt defeated at times because things were not progressing fast enough. I said, “Just keep at it.” And she was not happy with me. She wanted me to join the pity party with her, and I totally understand that. When you just want to complain with someone, and then you want them to join your pity party, and I'm like, “I'm not having it. You are going to keep going. You're going to keep doing this.” I was her cheerleader. She wanted me to get out the violin for her, and I'm like, “No, you keep doing this, and you're going to be amazed at your results.” And here we are, only a few months later, like five months really into it. She said she didn't start getting super serious until February. So I'm going to give her the five months into it because she really did start about five months ago. So here it is in May, she said, “I was super serious starting in February.” But she started easing into it at the beginning of January. But here are her numbers so far. So please, I want you to put your hands together for Natalie. I'm so proud of her. When she started back in December, when she came to me, her fasting blood sugar was in the 180s. That was waking up in the morning, not having eaten for 8 to 10 hours, and it was 180. Now it should be below 100. A good fasting blood sugar is between 60 and 80. And hers was 180. Now her fasting blood sugar is between 90 and 100, and I'm so proud of her. Now, she's not done yet. She's still helping her body heal itself. But look how far she's come and not even six months. It's not even half a year. Look how far she's come. Her blood sugar, when at two hours post meal, used to be in the high 100s or the low 200s, usually around 200. It's now between 120 and 150, two hours post-meal. So I'm really, really proud of her. I'm so excited to see what her A1C is going to be in a few months because she's trending in such a great way. But another really big change for her is her weight. At the beginning of this, she was 250, and now she's 190. She's lost 60 lbs. You have to get between 10 and 20 lbs. When we lose weight, when we adapt to a healthy eating lifestyle, a lot of that is water weight. That's inflammation. So it might not all be adipose tissue that the body is losing. But she definitely has dropped her body weight when she's eating vegetables like crazy. Basically, she's eating just lots and lots of wonderfully healthy, healing vegetables. She sends me pictures of some of her meals, and I'm drooling. And Then I send her pictures of my meals, then she says, can I come over because your food looks better than mine? I'm like, hey, we're just eating our medicine. But the fact that in such a short period of time, she was able to get such traction and remind her today was great. Because sometimes we're just in the thick of it, and we're staring at the scale every day, we're looking at our labs, or looking at a glucometer, and it doesn't feel like it's budging, right? We're making all these healthy changes, and the progress is so slow it is frustrating. And the addiction brain wants us to give up and just go eat the thing that we're addicted to because we need to have that pity party. The addiction brain is going to latch on to anything to tell you you're not progressing fast enough, so you might as well have a cheat. Well, this isn't working. I might as well go eat some chips, or chocolate, or ice cream, or whatever Chinese food.  What I'm telling you is to imagine yourself wherever you are a year from now, having achieved the goals that you have for yourself and every day working towards them; surely and steadily, you will get there. And I kept telling Natalie that, and it came to fruition. And here she is, coming out of diabetes like a champ, feeling amazing. She now can believe that she can see herself at her ideal weight, feeling so confident. But in her first month, her numbers started to come down and level out a bit, and what she did see right away was energy. That's one of the first things we get when we start eating super healthy. She said, “Oh my gosh, my energy is really good. I'm really feeling it. And my body composition is already changing.” So listen to her testimonial and listen to this woman back in January, who was just starting her journey, still a little unsure about it all, but trusting the process and doing it. And as you listen, just remember that a few short months after she had recorded this, she had lost 60 pounds and shed several points off of her A1C. Three points off of her A1C. I love it. And now her fasting is under 100, and how exciting is that? So big congratulations to Natalie.  And this is what I live for. I live for helping people to get on the other side of it, whatever they're facing, help them get on the other side of it, and get their progress back on track. I love doing blood sugar coaching. It's one of my favorite things to do. You can go to bloodsugarcoach.com if you'd like to check out working with me. I'd love to chat with you about it. You can message me on Facebook or email me at support@learntruehealth.com. I love doing health coaching. Everyone is unique. Everyone's life is a bit different, and I love to plug into someone and listen to their health goals, figure out where the roadblocks are, and help them create habits that stick and strategies that get them there. So if you want to be like Natalie and see significant progress in a few months, then I'd love to be your coach.  So, listen to Natalie, and give her a big round of applause. If you see her in our Facebook group, tell her how proud you are of her because I'm certainly proud of her. Natalie, thank you so much for coming here today. And as a listener of the Learn True Health podcast, you wanted to share to encourage others. You've been through your own health struggles. Natalie came here today to share some of her stories and to help and encourage those who feel like they are stuck, or they're suffering, and they feel like they're at a dead end in their health. So Natalie, what were your health and your life like before you discovered the Learn True Health podcast? [1:26:07.5] Natalie: Well, you know, I thought I was pretty healthy. But as you listen to the episodes and then you hear about all the things that you could need, like magnesium, and that when you're tired, it isn't that you need more coffee. You're actually either not getting the nutrients you need or you're not getting the exercise you need. You start to really rethink about how healthy you really are. And then, when I got diagnosed with diabetes, that was just such a hard hit for me. I knew I'd been working hard to try to be healthy, and I had prediabetes, and so I was like, no, I got this. But then that does kind of came as a hard blow, and I think if it wasn't for your podcast and really starting to implement the changes I really needed to do, your heart changes. But I wanted to do it. I mean, it's like the proof is in the pudding.  As soon as I started implementing some of the changes from your podcast and other great advice from your guests, it was just like you could just see it. My blood sugar started dipping down, and I started getting into those normal numbers that I needed. My energy and all the things I thought I was so healthy, I was just like, look at the inflammation. Look at how much it went down. Look at how my energy is up. I can go up a flight of stairs, and I'm not so winded anymore, and that's only from just small changes. I can't imagine how many more changes I can implement and how much better I can get as I keep listening to you and the things that you have to share with us. The way that you come about talking in the episodes, it's just like you're talking to me. Like, you're talking to a friend. I just understand you. And you also shared a lot of things from your life, and I just feel like I know you on a personal level, and it just makes it so much more relatable to me and to my struggles too. [1:28:10.0] Ashley James: Thank you so much for sharing that. What I love that you shared is that so many people are suffering, but they think that they might already be healthy. And when we dive down this rabbit hole through all the episodes that we've done, all 499 episodes, and we start really realizing that there's a whole level of health we don't even realize we're missing. And so with you, within a short period of time, implementing some of these changes, some are easy, some are hard, your energy has improved, and your body composition has changed. You would describe it to me that you once were feeling like you had lost the battle. And through implementing these small daily changes, now you're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Now you're seeing that you can recover your health. There is going to be a Natalie, soon in the future, that doesn't have diabetes and that you're well on your way.  [1:29:12.3] Natalie: Exactly! I am one hundred percent agree. Again, it's not easy. It's not easy to do the changes because they take real work. And I think the other part of the podcast is it keeps you motivated because you hear the person talking about the changes they made, or there's a sharing of what you can do. And you said, yeah, I can do that too. I can make one more step. I can do one more thing. It's like stacking things. You can't do all of them at once, but little by little, you can add a little bit more, and a little bit more, and that gets you closer and closer to that healthy person that you want to be.  [1:29:47.8] Ashley James: Awesome! I love it. Thank you so much for sharing that, Natalie. And I can't wait to see where my podcast takes us — takes me, takes you — and where our health goes and grows and improves through the next 500 episodes.  [1:30:01.4] Natalie: Thank you for having me.  [1:30:03.6] Ashley James: This next testimonial is from my dear assistant Ruth, who has been working with us for years. She's amazing. I am so grateful to have her in my life. I saw her struggling during the last few years, especially in 2020, when so many people were in fear. Not everyone knows this, but I've been teaching health coaching and neuro-linguistic programming, which is a combination of behavioral psychology and cognitive therapy. I help people reverse and end anxiety's control over their life. So I have techniques that I teach. One technique takes 30 to 90 seconds, just depending on the person. We turn anxiety 100% off at the moment. When it comes back, you got to do the technique again. So every time anxiety comes back, you got to do the technique, and then it turns it off, do the technique, and then it turns it off. But I teach people how to gain control over their lives again, so anxiety is not controlling them and running rampant. And I also teach tools so that you can rewire the brain to no longer create anxiety. And I have at least a dozen interviews that you can find. Just type in Ashley James anxiety, or Learn True Health podcast anxiety, or just go to learntruehealth.com, type in ‘anxiety,' and you'll find some wonderful episodes where I teach these techniques for free — how to eliminate anxiety. And if you want hand-holding, I can coach you. I can do coaching. You can go to ‘Work with Ashley James' in the menu of learntruehealth.com, and then you can schedule a time to chat with me. You can hire me as your coach if you'd like to work with me. I've been doing that since 2005. I've been helping my clients using your neuro-linguistic programming and timeline therapy to end anxiety's reign in their life, to just completely dominate anxiety and be able to have control over it and learn how to turn it on and off, which is phenomenal.  So with Ruth, she started experiencing anxiety. And for a lot of people who normally aren't anxious people, they'll go through a traumatic experience, and then they have anxiety, and they don't even know it's anxiety. So they're having panic attacks, and they don't even know it's anxiety until someone says, hey, that might be anxiety. And this was happening to Ruth. She thought she was dying, which, you know, I've had that before. I've had a panic attack, and I thought I was dying because, at the moment, it doesn't feel like it's in your head. Your heart's pounding, and your palms are sweating. Your chest hurts. It's hard to breathe. You're dizzy. It feels like a heart attack. And yet it starts with our thinking, with our stinking thinking. So I sat down with her and taught her some of these techniques, and she was able to gain control over her anxiety. Just being given the ability to understand when it's anxiety, and then given the tools, you can choose to do the tool to turn the anxiety off. It is so empowering for people to know, wow, I've control of this. It doesn't have control over me.  And so Ruth wanted to get on and share with you her story. So, if you know anyone who has anxiety, please find my episodes; just pick one of them. Just go to learntruehealth.com and type in anxiety. Pick one of my episodes. So I teach these techniques and share them with those you care about because everyone needs to know these tools. It's so important. It's like, we weren't born with a manual, and I feel like if we had been born with a manual, that would be in the first chapter — here's how you turn off anxiety. It's so important. I teach how to manage stress and how to understand it. It's really hard to understand and process our emotions in a way that allows us to navigate this world so that we're not a victim of it. You look for those free resources, and then if you'd like to hire me and work with me, if you want that one-on-one, I'd love to do it with you. It's a big passion of mine. I've been doing it for a long time, and I love helping people to get on the other side of it. I also do timeline therapy, where we get to the root cause and release the unresolved trauma in the body. We release anger, sadness, fear, hurt, and guilt so that the Gestalt, the entire chain of all the past, unresolved negative emotions, are completed, released, and resolved. You'll be able to think back to your past, and you won't have negative emotions come up for you because you resolved them, and your body lets them go. This technique is very powerful. So if you want any of that, check out those episodes I did. And then, of course, you can reach out to me if you'd like to schedule time to work with me.  [1:34:36.8] Ruth: Hi, my name is Ruth. I am Ashley's assistant. I've been working for Ashley for the past six years, and I'm very thrilled to share with you my testimony about the incredible treatment that I received from Ashley to help me manage my anxiety. First, let me give you a short background about how my anxiety started. It was in July of 2020. We were five months into the pandemic. The virus was slowly getting closer to my home, and the death toll in my country was continuously rising. The media talked about COVID and death every day. A lot of people that I know, like my relatives, close friends, and loved ones, started to get sick with COVID-19. Unfortunately, some of them were not able to survive the virus. My worst fear was for my family to get sick because I thought back then that there was just a little to no chance for a person to survive if they got the virus. So I started to worry for my family's life, especially for my senior parents, for my parents-in-law who are seniors as well, for my husband, for my kids, and for myself. At that time, I thought COVID was synonymous with death, so I was totally over-thinking. So that thought kept repeating inside my head until I could not control it anymore, and I started to have panic attacks. I felt palpitations. I felt light-headed. I'm having a hard time breathing. I couldn't sleep. I didn't want to go out of the house. I didn't want other people inside my home, even family members that we didn't live with. So I knew within me that there was something that was not normal. So that was the first time that I ever felt it. So I didn't fully understand what anxiety was, like what's going on inside my body when I feel anxious. Why did I find it difficult to breathe when I felt afraid? Why did it feel heavy on my chest? So aside from my anxiety about COVID, I also started to overthink my symptoms.  So back then, again, I didn't fully understand what was going on inside my body. I thought I was having palpitations. I was having difficulty breathing because I was having heart problems. I started to overthink again. I actually thought before that I was just about to die. So it was a never-ending trail of overthinking. So I went to a doctor. I asked for something to help me sleep or relax because my head was really aching. It's been days since I last slept, and I didn't feel really good. The doctor prescribed a medicine to help me sleep, but that didn't help me at all, actually. It made me feel worse. So I decided to also see a cardiologist. This was during the height of the pandemic, so it was really a struggle for me to finally take a step out of my house and leave my comfort zone. But I was really paranoid. Most of the time, I was wearing two layers of masks, one surgical and one N95, plus a face shield, and I was also wearing gloves. So I was asked to take some laboratory tests like ECG, x-ray, ultrasound, and blood tests, which all came out normal. So I thought, okay, so you know, I don't have a heart problem. Then why do I still feel the symptoms? Why can't I still sleep? So that's the time when I finally decided to ask for help from Ashley. Right there and then, she called me up; she helped me to understand my symptoms and realized that it was anxiety and not a heart problem. She taught me how to control my breathing and how to recognize when I'm having an anxiety attack. She patiently listened to my fears and worries and explained to me the science behind anxiety and how my body reacts to it. She gave me strategies to help me cope and manage my anxiety. And she helped me to see the reality and accept it. She taught me that it's okay to feel anxious because it's part of being human.  So all these helped me to gain control of my anxiety and cope with it better. But you know, though sometimes I still have anxiety attacks every now and then, I'm happy that I can manage it now a lot better. So I'm glad that I took the step and opened up to her. I am truly grateful for her help and guidance in helping me to understand and manage my anxiety. [1:39:44.1] Ashley James: Kellyann Andrews has been a guest we've had on the show at least six times that I can recall — Episode #292, #293, #329, #330, #396, and #453. Each time, she brings a wealth of information about making the body so healthy that disease can't live in it, creating balance and pH, getting rid of heavy metals, and getting rid of excessive lactic acid. And as she describes it, it's making your fish tank so clean and healthy. Clean up the fish tank so it's crystal clear, and then the terrain of the body is so healthy that disease doesn't live there. Her device, which we've had guests talk about and even in testimonials here, has talked about Platinum Energy System. I love it. Our family uses it. I've had great results with it, personally. It helped me overcome acute mercury poisoning. It also helped me to detox heavy metals, and it was an essential component of my recovery from heavy metal toxicity.  I've also used it in times with my whole family and with my friends when we experienced a low immune function. It really helps get us back up on her feet fast. It's such an impressive technology, and she, of course, shares about it in the episodes that I just mentioned. So you definitely want to check out my episodes with Kellyann Andrews. She shared with me some testimonials from our listeners, those that have been written to her, and I thought it was so cool that she has permission to share these. So I wanted to read a few of these to you. It is this neat. It is actually just such a really cool device to have. You're going to love hearing these stories. So I'm going to leave their names out. So I'll just say the first initial. This is from A. [1:41:41.1] Testimonial A (read by Ashley): My experience with Platinum Energy Systems has been nothing but positive since bringing one into our home. Five weeks ago, I underwent an invasive surgery and had 10-year-old breast implants removed. Along with all the medications they had me on and the amount of toxic waste that came from the old implants, my body was feeling extremely overwhelmed. I was suffering from a massive migraine for one week after my surgery. When I was finally feeling good enough to sit up and soak my feet, I did two sessions back-to-back. The amount of metal that had sunk to the bottom of the base after my session was like nothing I'd ever seen before. With that, my migraine had reduced by 70 percent. The following day, I did two more sessions, and again, an alarming amount of metal was dumped out of my body. I was relieved. Up to 95 percent of my migraine was gone after four sessions, and after a good night's sleep, I woke up, and it was gone.  The Platinum Energy System has been, without a doubt, one of the best investments I have ever made. You can truly feel relief through the body. I've actually done it before. I've done about maybe twice. I think I've done back-to-back sessions where at the end of the 30 minutes, I was like, nope, I need to go again. And it was definitely worth it. But most of the time, after the 30-minute session, I feel like junk just got sucked out of me, and it is the coolest feeling. You'll feel so light. Your legs feel so light like things just got sucked out.  [1:43:14.0] Ashley James: Now, here is one from a woman. I'm just going to say her initials, A.M. [1:43:20.1] Testimonial A.M. (read by Ashley): As a certified lymphedema therapist, massage and bodywork therapist, yoga teacher, and Ayurvedic Wellness consultant, I do my best to help my clients live in their bodies with more ease, comfort, and energy. In terms of detoxification and rejuvenation, the Platinum Energy foot bath system is the single best tool I have ever integrated into my practice. There are few things that act upon the tissues as effectively and quickly as this does. I am incredibly relieved by the truly remarkable results in my own health since making it part of my regular self-care regimens, such as a decrease in tension, lethargy, gastrointestinal bloating and digestive distress, anxiety, and sleep disturbance. With the drainage effect of the foot bath, I can feel all my lymphatic tissues and inner organs release that heavy tension of stagnant energy. There is a palpable cellular sigh of relief and a feeling of lightness throughout my body that would make a whole lot more sweat, effort, and time to achieve without the foot bath, and I would probably not do it as effectively. If you haven't tried this, you must. If you're a practitioner thinking about getting one, just do it. Talk to Kellyann, and she will help you. [1:44:38.6] Ashley James: I know Kellyann is wonderful. In our Learn True Health Facebook group, you could probably type in PES or Platinum Energy System or Kellyann, all one word, into the Facebook group search and find dozens and dozens and dozens of testimonials for people saying Kellyann is amazing. She spends so much time on the phone with you. She's so supportive. She has such a huge heart, so I just love, love, love her help.  Now, this is from a person with the initials OI.  [1:45:10.1] Testimonial OI (read by Ashley): Platinum Energy Systems is a game-changer. For the past five years, I have been trying out different approaches to functional medicine and holistic modalities. Some were effective, and some were not. I'm a person with an autoimmune that has affected me more or less my whole life, and in the past years, has had some chronic health issues. When I heard about the PES on one of my favorite podcasts (Learn True Health) about the science in holistic approach behind it, I knew I had to get the system to try it for myself. I must say it was like the icing on top of all the detoxes and modalities that I have tried to help my body heal. The PES was so gentle yet impressively powerful. The first day I did it, thanks to Kellyann's patience and phone support to set up the system, my body that night felt an instant charge. I actually had energy and didn't crash into bed like I normally do. Slowly, I started noticing the constant stuffiness in my nose cleared up. My brain fog was gone, and I was more alert and energized. When I wake up in the mornings, I feel refreshed and don't find myself dragging out of bed like I normally do. I felt a difference when I stopped using it for regular maintenance. It's important to use it at least once a week to help your body stay maintained and supported. [1:46:34.3] Ashley James: Now, listeners can go to platinumenergysystems.ca and check it out there. But really, give Kellyann a call. Her phone numbers are on the website. It's also in the episodes I talked about — Episodes #292, #293, #329, #330, #396, and #453. And, of course, those will be linked in the show notes of today's podcast at learntruehealth.com. You can also just search Kellyann at learntruehealth.com, and those episodes will show up. The last testimonial is from H, who consistently uses the PES with her eight-year-old son.  [1:47:12.1] Testimonial H (read by Ashley): We can't believe our eyes as to how well S is doing. I really am astounded. He's never done this, well, consistently, without taking steps back again. I do believe in the science of the foot bath, but I never dreamed it would be as dramatically helpful to him and this quickly. Don't get me wrong, we have a long way to go, but it's just so dramatic. The school can't believe it and is baffled by how he's improved in the past few weeks. Just to list some of the things that have improved, the most noticeable is temperament. He would quite frequently be irritable and have a dysregulated mood, but he is dramatically more mood stable and easygoing, and less rigid about things. His speech is coming along wonderfully. He has a lot more interaction in attempting to play with his sister and classmates at school. He has much more focus, can gain his attention, and keep it more easily. Generally, there's more of a glow about him, and his complexion is better. We're just thrilled and so happy that we decided to try your system. May you continue to change people's lives. [1:48:17.9] Ashley James: That's how I feel about it. I went to take a friend whose son was about four or five at the time. This was a few years ago. You couldn't understand him. His speech was so slurred. It was like a mouth of marble. It was really hard to understand him, and we had him sit with his feet in the PES. It's not even the full session. After about 20 minutes, he started talking, and you could understand him, and the mom was freaking out. She was filming it. He was able to spell his name and was able to say, ‘My name is,' and he and you could understand him. I'd been hanging around this kid every week because our kids would go play together. We'd go to the same gymnastics classes. I'd seen this kid every single week for months, and after one session, it was like his brain just cleared up. Maybe it brings out inflammation. I don't know what it does so quickly. But it went from not being able to understand his speech to having a completely clear speech, and that was such a mind-blowing experience. I first learned about this device in my episode with Dr. Klinghardt. So you can go back and type in heavy metals Dr. Klinghardt in learntruehealth.com. He talked about how he uses this as part of his routine in addition to using the Sunlighten sauna, which I highly recommend, in addition to using the ENERGYbits, chlorella, which I highly recommend. And, of course, I get great discounts for the listeners at energybits.com, coupon code LTH. There's a great discount for the Sunlighten sauna when you mention Learn True Health. And then, when you talk to Kellyann about the Platinum Energy Systems, you have to call her to buy it. She gives a huge discount to listeners, and that was so, so cool of her to do that. So she really, really does take care of you. She talks to you for a long time and makes sure you're fully set up before you buy it, after you buy it, when you're setting it up, and when you're using it. She's very supportive and gives a great discount to listeners. So she's just absolutely wonderful.  But I first learned about this through Dr. Klinghardt, who will take people who are on the spectrum, do heavy metal detox holistically, and then they're no longer on the spectrum. They're no longer showing any symptoms of heavy metal toxicity in the brain, and they're no longer showing any of the symptoms. So, then the doctor says, well, I guess we must have misdiagnosed them. And that's the thing. Are we misdiagnosing most children nowadays because what we actually have is heavy metal toxicity as one thing? So this is what Dr. Klinghardt proposes, and he talks about it in his interview with me, that a lot of the neurological stuff their kids are being diagnosed with and treated for is incorrect. They're being misdiagnosed, they're being mistreated, and we need to clean up. As Kellyann says, we got to clean up the fish tank. You clean up the fish tank, and everything works better. So clean up the internal environment of the body, and everything works better. This machine helps, and it's so gentle kids can do it. It's so effective; we see results in the first session, which is so exciting. Awesome.  I'm so glad I could share this tool with you because I love finding game-changers. I love finding diets that are super healing for the body and reverse major diseases and sharing these game-changers with you. I love finding tools, devices, supplements, and lifestyle changes. Sometimes these things are free. Go put your feet out inside in the grass, as Clint Ober talks about in our interview about earthing and grounding. That's something you could do for free. Get your feet out there on the dirt or the grass outside as soon as you can every day, especially first thing in the morning. If you can walk out on the lawn, that's even better, as long as there are no pesticides and all that stuff sprayed on it. That is free, and so healing for the body.  All my 500 episodes are filled with ways that you can support your body's ability to heal itself. Some you have to pay for, but I always try to get you a discount as much as I can. For the most part, everything that I found that are real game-changers that make a huge difference, I get the company to give a discount. And then there's lots of great, free advice. I got this one episode that teaches you how to walk better, that'll take the wear and tear off your knees, and it's called chi running and chi walking. I think I did that one year ago, but that one still sticks with me. When I go walking, I still do what he taught. And it's funny because it's not a visual thing. He's just describing it, but you have to feel it. So you just go for a walk, put on that episode, and then as you're walking, do the steps that he tells you to do; you change your center of gravity and change your gait, and you will take the wear and tear off of your limbs and joints. He does Iron Man's. He does his 500 miles in the desert Iron Man. I think he's in his 70s or something, but he's figured out how to because no one teaches us this. No one teaches you how to walk optimally. How do you position your body to walk? Everyone's got bad posture, right? And imagine if we were taught how to have good posture and how to use our core. How do we use this body we've been given optimally?  So my episodes are filled with amazing advice. Lots of it is free. Some of it you got to pay for, but I get you a discount. And between everything you learned in the last 500 episodes, you're going to find so many game-changers. You're going to take your life to the whole next level. I'm so excited to be here with you on that journey. Join our Facebook group, the Learn True Health Facebook group, as we help each other. I'd love to see you there. And as always, you can reach out to me. You can email me at support@learntruehealth.com. I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to see you in the Facebook group. Thank you so much for being a listener. Thank you so much for sharing these episodes with those you care about. We are going to change the world together, one episode at a time, with everyone we care about. If you can imagine if every episode we shared with a handful of people that we know would make a big difference, that will spread like wildfire. And I want to turn this ripple into a tidal wave and help as many people as possible to learn true health. Get Connected with Ashley James! Facebook Facebook Group Instagram Twitter Learn True Health Podcast on iTunes Free Your Anxiety! Take You Supplements

Gut To Glow Supplement by Dr. William Davis: Learntruehealth.com/glow 10% off first orders: LTH10 15% off subscriptions: LTH15   Phototherapy: To work with Ashley James and try the phototherapy, Go Here: https://www.learntruehealth.com In the Menu, click Work With Ashley James   Online Health Coach Training Program: CHECK OUT THE FREE SAMPLE CLASS:  https://www.learntruehealth.com/coach I love IIN; the Institute for Integrative Nutrition is where I took my Health Coach Training and where you can transform your life and become an Integrative Health Coach! The whole program is online and designed for busy people, so anyone can do it!   Free 7-Day Holistic Doctor Course by Ashley James: FreeDoctorCourse.com   Join the Learn True Health FB group: https://www.learntruehealth.com/group   The Best Coherent Structured Water Device: Use coupon code LTH at https://www.learntruehealth.com/structuredwater   499: Gut to Glow: Improving Health, Skin, and Collagen with Lactobacillus Reuteri https://www.learntruehealth.com/gut-to-glow-improving-health-skin-and-collagen-with-lactobacillus-reuteri   It is a pleasure to have Dr. William Davis back on the show today! We discuss the importance of gut health and how it can help us look and feel younger. He has devised a convenient supplement that people can take in lieu of making the Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt. We are exploring this solution and how it can benefit us. Ashley James & Dr. William Davis Highlights:  Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt for depression How phototherapy patch complements other modalities Lactobacillus reuteri supplement helps the gut and has anti-aging benefits Dr. Davis' supplement increases collagen production. Intro: Hello, true health seekers, and welcome to another exciting Learn True Health podcast. Episode 499. Oh my gosh, it's almost episode 500. And you guys must be like, where's Ashley? Because it's been weeks since I posted an episode. Since I posted the episode about the phototherapy stem cell patches, my phone has been blowing up. It's been amazing. I've talked to so many listeners. I've had so many client calls every single day. My calendar is full of amazing conversations with the listeners and with my clients about the phototherapy patches. I've had at least thirty clients get on the patches, start using them, and get on them. They had outstanding results using the phototherapy patches in helping their body address different issues, which is exciting. I've been pinching myself because how does something so small have such a profound effect? And that's because it's frequency medicine which is fascinating stuff. You'll want to go back and listen to my recent episode about phototherapy stem cell patches with Trina Hammack. And if you want to have a free phone call with me, go to learntruehealth.com, and in the menu, it says Work with Ashley James. Click on that, and the first option is to sign up for a free phone call with me to discuss the stem cell phototherapy patches. And if there's anything else I can help you with and send resources to answer questions, please jump on a phone call with me. I'd love to help you. There are some amazing results that we've seen. I had one client with all of the crazy symptoms that she's been experiencing in the last six years. She'd been suffering horribly from weird symptoms that no one knew what they were from. And in about a week using the patches, we corrected her polarity. And she was just so excited that all of her symptoms went away. I'm beyond excited for her because you imagine feeling dizzy and out of it and having all these weird symptoms for six years, not knowing what's happening. And then we use a very gentle yet powerful frequency medicine. When I say gentle, it can be used on babies. It can be used on animals with great success. So it's gentle for everyone, animals and humans, regardless of our size or age. And it doesn't disrupt medications. So there's no contraindication like medications or anything like that. We see fantastic results. I have personally had some amazing experiences.  I have a family member who now has benign tremors. She doesn't have Parkinson's. She's had a battery of tests several times by neurologists, but they don't know what's causing them. But she has a tremor so bad she couldn't hold the newspaper and read it. She can't drink, can't eat soup, because it would just all go everywhere. Her hands and arms would shake uncontrollably. She's had that for a few years and tried many things. We started patching her a few months ago. And she's had great success with correcting a lot of stuff. She has a better sleep, energy, less pain, a happier mood, and better digestion. Everything is getting better and better. And then, about three and a half months into patching, she started noticing that her shakes were diminishing. And just the other day, she could hold the newspaper and read it. It's just a dream come true because she thought she'd never be able to do that again. Her handwriting is improved. She used to do calligraphy, and she hasn't been able to do anything for years with her hands.  So this is giving people freedom. And what's cool about the phototherapy patches is that they complement many other modalities. It complements taking your supplements, and herbs, eating healthy, and exercising. It doesn't add anything to the body. It puts a frequency in the body that asks the body to perform a healthy task more. So the glutathione patch increases glutathione by 300% in 24 hours within the moments of putting on the stem cell patch. People's pain diminishes and sometimes goes away completely, and their inflammation decreases. They're turning on thousands of dormant gene expressions. So this is an epigenetic thing. It turns on healing genes to help the body in amazing ways. So many people who start using the patches to support one thing end up seeing many other things improve.  And then, just for the first aid benefits, I accidentally got kicked in the face the other day. My son, who has been doing Taekwondo for a long time, is a good kicker. And he was kicking the blankets off of him at full force as I was coming in to wake him up in the morning, and he didn't know I was there. And boom, I got kicked in the face so bad that my head spun, and I had a bleeding nose immediately. I had all the concussion symptoms, which was scary for a minute. I immediately took one of the patches designed for first aid use and put them on my nose. The bleeding, inflammation, and swelling stopped. I thought that was so cool. I put the patch for inflammation on the back of my neck with the stem cell patch lowered down on my spine. And then, for the rest of the day, I was using the patches around my head, which you put inside a hat so you can take it off. It's pretty cool to do that. And I used the protocol for concussions. And then, that night, I went to bed with five of the special protocol called brain bouncer, and five of my favorite patches, the ones that decrease inflammation. They do a bunch of other things, but it feels so good. That's my favorite patch. And it's funny because my mom's friends, whenever I give them this patch, they go, “This patch makes me not yell at my kids.” Because it just makes people calmer and happier and puts them in a better mood. It actually helps balance dopamine in the brain and brings down inflammation. So you feel like you can handle more stress without getting frazzled. Well, I put five of these on my head and went to bed that night. And the next morning, I woke up, and 100% of my concussion was gone. My brain was back to my usual self. How cool is that?  Now I've seen testimonials in our wonderful secret Facebook group of practitioners. It's like a team of practitioners that I've been learning from and working with and all of their clients. And even though it feels like an intimate community, it's actually close to 55,000 people, but it's a secret group. So if you want to be in the group, let me know. You must email me or book a free session, and I'll get you into this group. And in this group, people share their protocols and testimonials. And I see people in this group who've had major brain damage and bad concussions where eight months later, they're still in the fog and suffering hugely. They start using the patches to bounce their brain and support healthy brain function. And within ten minutes, they start feeling the fog lift, and the brain returns to balance. Hundreds of studies on these patches show that we're reversing early-stage dementia. There are so many benefits around neurology, but it also helps with fertility, hormone balancing, addiction behaviors, and 66% deeper sleep, which they did studies on this. The list goes on and on. The thyroid is the easiest thing to support the body's ability to fix. We're supporting the body's ability to help itself become healthier. I have seen many people reverse their hypothyroidism to support their body's and thyroid's ability to come back online and produce healthy new thyroid tissue in weeks. It's so exciting what we can do for the body. There are testimonials of people with heart damage and heart disease also reversing that.  So anyway, the list goes on and on. It's very exciting. So if you're wondering where Ashley has been, it's because I've been busy every day, seven days a week, weeks and weeks ever since I published that episode, chatting with amazing listeners and clients and helping everyone get on the phototherapy protocols. So if you want to try it too, I'd love to help you. The things we're helping people with have been amazing. Everything I've ever discovered in the last twelve years, this is the coolest, most effective, most versatile health tool. The thing is, eating healthy is really important. Moving your body in a way that brings you joy is really important. So many things are important to your health, and we must ensure we cover all the foundations. You can't out-patch a bad diet. You can't take phototherapy patches and handle a nutrient deficiency. We must eat healthily, move our bodies, drink a lot, and hydrate. But if you do all the fundamentals and you're still frustrated with not getting on the other side of a health issue, you should try the phototherapy patches. You want to join that Facebook group. And if you don't do Facebook, you'll want to talk to me, and I'll hook you up with the protocols. The protocols supercharge your results because we're utilizing acupuncture points in addition to the phototherapy. So we're putting the patches on acupuncture points, and we see outstanding results. So go to learntruehealth.com, and in the menu, see Work with Ashley James, and book your free conversation with me; I'd love to help you.  Let's finally get to today's episode now that you know what I've been up to in the last few weeks. I had a birthday, by the way. I'm 43 now. After the age of about 35, birthdays are surreal. You're like, I remember my parents at this age, and they seemed really old. I totally do. I totally remember my parents in their 40s. I thought 40 was really old. And I'm like, oh, 40 is not really old. 90 is likely old. I have to change my mindset. 90s is old and 40s is young. So this episode is wonderful. I love Dr. William Davis. He has been on the show before and twice, actually. So this is his third time. And he shares with us some amazing stuff he's been up to since his last episode with us.  We talked about Lactobacillus reuteri about a year ago, which profoundly affected one of my family members. It helped them get on the other side of a major health issue. It also helped me overcome the daily post-traumatic stress panic attacks that I had due to still being in grief from losing my daughter. And the day I started eating the Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt, the daily outbursts of crying and sobbing uncontrollably stopped. And it's so cool that it had such an immediate effect. I've never been on antidepressants, but within three days of eating that yogurt, it felt like what I imagined being on antidepressants would be like if they worked. It just felt like the cloud had lifted in my spirit. And I felt like there was a chance at joy. There was a chance at happiness. And that was such an interesting experience to have such a strong emotional response to a gut-healing food. We know serotonin is made in the gut. We know that the nerve that runs from the gut to the brain has this connection. We know that there are neurotransmitters in the gut and that there's a huge connection between gut health, brain health, and emotional health. I felt it so profoundly and so quickly.  So having Dr. William Davis back on the show today, we discuss how he figured out how to develop a supplement that people can take for those who don't want to go through the hassle of making the Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt. And it is a hassle because you have to get a special instant pot or you have to get a special yogurt maker that holds things at 100 degrees Fahrenheit for 36 hours. You have to sterilize your equipment. You have to get either organic dairy or make it with cashews, which I like. I've experimented with making it with soy, coconut, and cashews, which seem to work well. And then you have to make, mix, and blend it with a high-power blender like a Vitamix. So there are so many steps to doing it. I have made this stuff every two weeks for the last year, so I'm used to it. But it is time-consuming, and you must have all that equipment. So for some traveling people who just want the benefits but do not want to go through all that, he figured out how to isolate and make this beautiful supplement. They call it Gut to Glow. At first, I thought it was a skin supplement, like a skin cream. But what it is, is it's a wonderful Lactobacillus reuteri supplement that helps the gut but also has anti-aging benefits. Women and men also see that their skin looks much younger because it increases collagen production. And that's something we discussed in this episode and the previous one about Lactobacillus reuteri. One of its benefits is that it increases or stimulates collagen production in the body or stimulates that.  So we talk a lot about gut health in this episode, but we also talk about his supplements. If you'd like to try his supplement, go to learntruehealth.com/glow. He gave us two coupon codes. One is 10% off your first order. And that's LTH10. Then if you ever want to get on auto-ship to order it monthly, he gives 15% off to our listeners for the subscription. And that's LTH15. Go to learntruehealth.com/glow to check out his supplement. And enjoy today's episode. Dr. William Davis is amazing. I have really enjoyed his work. I love his books. They are so informative, and he's so generous with his information. He has a really caring spirit. He wants to help people get healthy. He filled this entire episode with wonderful tidbits of health information. So enjoy today's episode. And if you have any questions about all the cool things I do, I'd love to work with you if you want to be one of my clients. If you'd like to get the phototherapy patches, go to learntruehealth.com, and click on the menu Work with Ashley James. Sign up for a free session to chat. Have yourself a fantastic rest of your day, and enjoy today's episode.  [0:16:57.0] Ashley James: Welcome to the Learn True Health podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James. This is episode 499. I am so excited about today's guest. We have back on the show Dr. William Davis, who's one of my heroes. So it's just so wonderful to have you back. Welcome back to the show. [0:17:19.7] Dr. William Davis: Thank you, Ashley. Thanks for having me back.  [0:17:20.5] Ashley James: Absolutely. I know Dr. Davis was in Episode 167. We talked about his book Wheat Belly, which was so cathartic for me because my whole family went gluten-free 12 years ago, and it made such a massive difference in our lives. And it was so big, but everyone around us was laughing at us and telling us we were crazy. It was right around when we discovered your book. Finally, there's more validation for us that what we're doing is right. And look, there's so much science behind it. And now, of course, everyone's heard of being gluten-free. But back 12 years ago, it was still so unheard of. It makes such a big difference to remove something in the body that is inflaming the gut. And it just affects everything because inflammation in the gut cascades to our neurotransmitters, affecting our brain and how we think, feel, and behave. It does cascade into our whole life. So for those who've never tried going gluten-free, I'd suggest at least 30 days of no barley, wheat, rye, and oats and see how you feel. I love the takeaway from that episode. Dr. Davis was teaching us that we could use a glucometer even for those who are not diabetic. Use a glucometer to monitor how our body responds to our foods to keep our blood sugar within those good ranges. And then let that be your guide to choosing really good healthy meals. So there are so many great takeaways from Episode 167.  And then we had you on again just a year ago, Episode 476, about the Lactobacillus reuteri. And your most recent book about healing the gut was amazing. My listeners have been raving about that for the last year. We have a Facebook group community where we all make that yogurt together. Since my whole family is allergic to dairy, I've been experimenting with all the different plant-based ways to make Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt. I've made over 30 batches in the last year. I perfected making it with cashews. I tried soy, coconut, and cashews. It's delicious. I have that recipe I can share in this episode's show notes and the Facebook group.  I'm excited to hear what's happened in the last year for you and everything you've been doing and producing something really exciting for the listeners. I know they're going to love it. I have to share something with you. Your episode with us a year ago had two huge impacts on my life, and that is when I interviewed you. I don't think you knew this then, but I didn't even realize what happened until I talked to a psychologist friend. I was having post-traumatic stress, PTSD attacks. I was still recovering after losing my daughter. And when I interviewed you, I was breaking down and cried every day. And I'm a very positive person. I'm just the opposite of depressed. I'm just always happy. That's my normal personality. So to break down crying every day, a little something would happen. The glass would fall over and spill, and I would melt into a puddle. I had no idea what was happening, and I was not functioning like I thought I should be.  And then I did the interview with you about the Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt, and I was so excited. I immediately ordered all the supplies, and I made it within days. The only thing I had in the house was an open tin of soy milk. I do not recommend making the Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt with soy milk. It was not delicious. But I drank it or ate it. However, it was curdled. So it could have been better, but I took it in. And that day, I felt something shift in me. And the daily breakdowns of crying stopped. Three days after being on it, my counselor friend was talking to me, and she said, “How are you doing”? I said, “Well, I'm not on drugs, and I've never been on antidepressants, but I feel like I'm on an antidepressant.” I feel like the sadness is lifting. I'm feeling like a new person. That Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt was such a game-changer for me.  [0:22:05.8] Dr. William Davis: That's great.  [0:22:08.5] Ashley James: It was huge, and the PTSD attacks stopped. Those big attacks stopped, and what I've had since are just tiny events where I might feel overwhelmed or like I need to take a breather and do a little grounding and calm my nervous system. But it's manageable. I went from unmanageable to manageable with the Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt. We go into great detail as to how it affects the body. It increases serotonin. That's episode 476 for those who want to go back and listen to all the benefits of the Lactobacillus reuteri. And I also recommend getting every single one of Dr. William Davis' books. It's all incredible. And you also now have the gut-healing one on audio that came out last year. So that's fantastic.  But here's the second story. I told you there are two. I have a very close family member who, for years, suffered from such bad chronic diarrhea. They could not leave the house most days. They go through cycles where it is so bad that they can't go from the living room to the bathroom. They'd have an accident along the way. And there were times when they did have to leave the house, and their pants were stained with diarrhea. It's so sad for this person to have that level of intensity. They tried everything. They went to various doctors, eliminated some foods, and nothing worked. And I gave this person a batch of the Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt you taught us to make, but I made it plant-based because it is delicious. It's cashew yogurt. They'll like it anyway for breakfast. It tastes amazing. And so it's wonderful to tart. It's as creamy, and I thought this person would benefit from helping with sleep. This person was not sleeping well, and I thought it would help them sleep. It has also been known to help people lift that depression, and this person was going through some stuff and not feeling great emotionally. So I was thinking about those benefits. Three days into eating it, they call me and say, “I need another batch. I never want to run out of this stuff. My diarrhea is gone”.  It has been almost a year or about nine months since I gave it to them. And I have been supplying them for the last nine months. Every two weeks, I make that person a big batch that lasts two weeks. I make a huge batch, and we all eat it. But they don't want to be without it because this is the only thing, and there's no pharmaceutical that has stopped their diarrhea. There's been no food change that stopped their diarrhea. The only thing that's ever worked has been this. So it's given this person their life back. Now they're doing up to three exercise classes a week, and they can go and just be so much more productive. So you have changed my life, and you changed their life. I know you've changed thousands of lives, and I want to thank you. And many listeners in our community are making the Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt and sharing about it in the Learn True Health Facebook group. So we're having much fun with everything we've learned from you. So thank you, I appreciate you. And I can't wait to hear what you have been doing the last year since we had you on the show. So what's been going on in your world?  [0:25:46.8] Dr. William Davis: Those are some pretty incredible stories. You know, you can see why I get so excited about this, just restoring this microbe that virtually all of us have lost. That is this microbe that all other mammals carry. Squirrels have it, and dogs have it. Camels have it. But we've lost it. Indigenous humans have it, you know, people not exposed to antibiotics, chlorinated drinking water, etc., glyphosate. They all have this microbe, and we've lost it. And you know, these wonderful experiences we're all having, like the ones you describe for yourself and your friend and other things people are experiencing, reflect just how necessary this microbe was. But the thing that gets me excited is the social effects of reuteri. So we boost the hormone oxytocin. If we believe the animal evidence from MIT, we've tried to reproduce that evidence. We're having a hard time measuring oxytocin. Measuring oxytocin has been for decades a very difficult thing to do. And we're struggling to do it also. So we still need to corroborate in humans. But if we believe the animal data from MIT and some other places, that reuteri tells your brain to release more oxytocin, the hormone of love and empathy. And so what people are experiencing, as you have experienced, are emotional and social effects. Mostly it increased the intensity of love and affection, generosity, and my favorite is accepting other people's opinions.  Now, when you think about that, this is all occurring at a time when we've lost that microbe. Almost all of us have lost that microbe. And thereby presumptively, the ability to provoke oxytocin release at a time we're witnessing record social isolation. Even pre-pandemic, this was true. So record social isolation, record suicide, even pre-pandemic, divorce, shootings, and political discord. Humans have always been evil to each other. There's no question about that. But it doesn't seem to think things have gotten worse. Now, that's hard to prove, except that people who get the reuteri restored, as you and your friend and your followers have, will tell you, “You know what, my relationship is better.” I had this one woman come on and say, “You know, my husband is normally not a guy who expresses his emotions very clearly. One time I was sitting across from him, he said, I've always liked you. But I like you more now. Come here and sit next to me.” Little things like that. Or people say, “I'm in line for coffee at Starbucks, and I find myself introducing myself to strangers.” In other words, these little things in social interaction change. And people are getting rid of depressive thoughts and suicidal thoughts. I'm not suggesting it as a cure for everything. But we've pushed the needle towards better social behavior and connection to other humans. And there will be better skin, muscle, libido, sleep, etc. But the thing that really excites me is the change in the social fabric. [0:29:12.2] Ashley James: Now, when we talked in Episode 476, what they saw in the animal studies was that when we have the correct amount of Lactobacillus reuteri in our gut, our body produces more collagen.  [0:29:29.5] Dr. William Davis: Once again, if we believe the mouse studies and limited human evidence, as some of our own evidence too, by the way, in our first human clinical trial, there is an increase in collagen in the skin, in the dermal layer, the dermis. So in our clinical trial, we did something called high-resolution skin ultrasound to measure the thickness of the dermis, and we got a 14.5% increase in dermal thickness over three months. That's with a product and not just with reuteri. You know, these studies are very difficult and very expensive to perform. So we can only do limited numbers of people. But with a combination of reuteri and some other things, we get an increase in dermal thickness consistent with what they saw in the mouse studies and the limited human evidence. So in the mouse studies, there was a huge increase in dermal collagen, dermal thickness, and thereby loss of wrinkles. And they did take ladies. Remarkably, they had volunteers submit to puncture wounds in the forearm, which is tough to persuade somebody to accept a puncture wound. But these ladies did that. And while healing time in mice is accelerated dramatically, it cuts healing time by 50%. So healing is much faster. It was more like 35% in humans, but still quite substantial. If you think about that and if this holds true in future trials, there might be when incisions after surgery, burns, or injury, we can accelerate healing time. That's something I'd like to see explored over time. [0:31:11.4] Ashley James: Well, if we can speed up the healing time of the skin, that also decreases the chances of getting an infection, right? Because when the wound is open, we're more susceptible to infection, especially for burn patients, as you said. But if we could take something like a salve that speeds up healing time by 35%, that's worth it. So that's going to help prevent infections.  [0:31:43.9] Dr. William Davis: And it gets even better because we have to be careful in those animal studies. We extrapolate from animals. But so far, everything that's been in this instance where we talk about reuteri and oxytocin and the pieces examined in humans have proven true. What we've seen in mice has held true. We need to explore more, but many of the observations made in animals have also held true in humans. Things still need to be corroborated in humans, though. It was a huge improvement in the immune response in these mice, both in wounds and systemically. So one of the things that happened in the mouse study was something called thymic involution. All that means is the thymus gland, right in front of the heart underneath your sternum, reaches its maximum size and capacity to produce T lymphocytes or T cells that protect you from infections, including viral infections. It reaches its maximum size in T cell productivity at age 15. And then, every year after that, it shrinks. So that by age 70, it's only 10% of its original size and capacity to mount an immune response. And this is a big part of why you can die of flu at age 72 but not at age 18. So, when they gave elderly mice reuteri, they watched the thymus gland restored to its youth. So the reversal of the thymic involution would be very different. It's a tough thing to reproduce in humans. We could try that, but we don't have the budget. I'm hoping somebody does that study. Because when you have a thymus that's restored to youthful capacity, you're protected from things like pneumococcal, pneumonia, flu, and cancer because T cells are responsible for the process of immunosurveillance that is looking for cells that have mutations in them and uncontrolled growth or cancer in other words. The whole reuteri oxytocin thing will be the subject of many examination studies in the coming years because it is so exciting.  [0:34:02.0] Ashley James: For those that have yet to listen to episode 476, a really important point to understand is that, as humans, we're supposed to have Lactobacillus reuteri. It's like we're supposed to have three arms and walk around with two arms. And we all think we're supposed to have two arms. We have all been missing an arm. As you said at our last interviews, if you have one course of antibiotics, it's wiped out. It's passed on through breast milk. So if you were bottle-fed, if your mother, grandmother, or even yourself as a child had antibiotics, even like you said, glyphosate drinking tap water with chlorine. There are all kinds of ways we can kill it. It's quite sensitive, as good gut bacteria go. But we're walking around, as a species, largely missing this piece to the puzzle. And this is where we're walking around missing part of ourselves. What we understand now about the gut, and maybe you can talk a bit about this, is that we're just beginning to understand the microbiome, and we thought the microbiome is about 6 pounds, right? Give or take about 6 pounds of bacteria that live inside our gut, but it's also all over our body. There's a microbiome surrounding our whole body that, like cell-to-cell, we're more bacteria than humans, and these bacteria in our cells help digest our food and assimilate certain nutrients for us. And that if we were completely sterile and had none of these bacteria, we could not survive. It would not be a healthy lifestyle; we need it all over our bodies. [0:35:56.0] Dr. William Davis: You're absolutely right. I cringe to think how little we knew before we started thinking about the microbiome. I have a new granddaughter, about nine months old, and I watched the baby's mom go through prenatal care, delivery, and early infancy. I saw all the things that she was not told. This girl comes from a wealthy family with no shortage of resources, yet she was told virtually nothing. She got five antibiotic courses during the third trimester and after delivery, so I had to educate them. For instance, if a woman has vaginal dysbiosis, that disrupts the microbial composition of the vaginal canal, which is at least a third of the entire female population on this planet. The vaginal microbiome is much more definable than the gastrointestinal microbiome. It's much simpler. That microbiome is meant to be dominated by specific Lactobacillus species, specifically Lactobacillus crispatus.  If a woman lacks that microbe and allows perforation, which is very common in species like gardnerella or atopobium, you have problems. You're more prone to vaginal infections like candida infections, you're more likely to have a miscarriage during pregnancy, and you're more likely to deliver your child prematurely. Because when you have that vaginal dysbiosis, it's inflammatory. It inflames the cervix, and the cervix tends to relax prematurely. And as you know, if you deliver a child at 30 weeks, that's a catastrophe. That child's going to be in the ICU. It's prone to necrotizing enterocolitis, psychological, etiological, and social deficits and learning impairments. So, why not correct vaginal dysbiosis. It's easy to do. I saw many things not being done. We may have touched and passed on this idea that a very specific species, Bifidobacterium infantis, has been lost by moms and is also not passed on to the babies, which might be passed on at vaginal birth and then also through breastfeeding. If the baby does not get that microbe, it does not grow as well as it should. Neurological growth is impaired. The babies are more likely not to sleep well and have more regurgitation of breast milk or formula. It has more bowel movements, diaper changes for mom and dad, and more health problems. They are more prone to diabetes, obesity, and asthma. But suppose you restore infantis to that child, especially if the mom is breastfeeding, Bifidobacterium infantis would allow the child to metabolize human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). In that case, that baby has accelerated neurological maturation and has a better immune response, has 50% fewer bowel movements, thereby 50% fewer diaper changes, is more likely to sleep through the night, has less asthma, less Type 2 diabetes, less obesity, and has a higher IQ. That's how important getting the microbiome can be. [0:39:20.4] Ashley James: Oh my gosh, all the moms listening just perked up. Now, if our kid's already born and they have some of those conditions, what can we do to help them? We can give them the Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt. But is there a specific yogurt we could make for them, or could we ferment something to help them once they're born? [0:39:47.4] Dr. William Davis: You raised an important issue that is hard for many people to get their arms around earlier. I encourage people to avoid the idea of treating things. That's what they do in medicine, right? They treat high blood sugar and they treat high blood pressure. Never once asked me why that condition emerged in the first place and what we could do to correct the whole situation. So, I encourage people to avoid this idea of treating things. If you treat somebody's high blood sugar with drugs, that person will still have heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, blindness, amputations, gastroparesis, etc. What if, instead, we address the factors that allowed those conditions to emerge in the first place, regardless of the label? Regardless of whether the label was asthma, hypertension, coronary disease, cognitive impairment, rosacea, psoriasis, ulcerative colitis, or Type 2 diabetes. Let's address the factors that allow those conditions to emerge in the first place. So we got to go back to the old conversation. We do wheat and grain and sugar elimination. As you've experienced yourself, the underlying cause for so many health problems, despite being pushed on us by government agencies, dieticians, and doctors. So getting rid of these things that never belonged to the human diet, in the first place, corrects common nutrient deficiencies. We're supposed to eat magnesium by drinking water from rivers and streams. We can't do that. It's got sewage. [0:41:26.2] Ashley James: Especially now, with all that runoff from Ohio. If the listeners may not have known, there was a massive chemical spill, and my friends are just across Lake Erie. And they were telling me, for a week, they could taste the metals. They could taste the chemical smell in it. Even indoors, they could taste and smell it. And now they're saying the air is safe to breathe. The water and the soil are all safe there. Everything's safe. But my friends, who are 200 or even 400 miles away, say they can taste and smell it. This has been ridiculous for days. If you look at the streams from that area in Ohio, that runs off into that basin, into what's in Mississippi, and then goes out into the Gulf of Mexico. And there's our fish or shrimp. If you eat seafood next year, the fish and shrimp will have those chemicals. And I'm terrified of what we're going to face. Is this going to be like Minamoto, Japan, back in the 1930s, where children are born with multiple arms and eyes? It took them 20 or 30 years until they figured out that it was the mercury poisoning the downstream from all the factories dumping the mercury. This is another disaster they're covering up. We have to be very careful with the water we drink. It is tainted, right?  As you said, we can't get our minerals just from drinking clean spring water because there's no such thing as clean spring water anymore. There are eighty thousand man-made chemicals in it. Since I was born, 80,000 man-made chemicals are now in our air, food, water, and soil. It's just prolific. And they say here in Seattle that we detect mercury from the ashes falling on us from China's coal mines and energy factories. So this isn't just, “Oh well, I'm here in this state, or in this province, and it's pretty clean here.” Now we are affected by what everyone puts in the air. For me, this isn't a political thing. I don't care what political affiliation you have. We can all agree on one thing: pollution is bad for us. Let's not talk about global warming because then people politicize it. Let's all agree on one thing. Pollution is bad, and no one wants to drink the water from Ohio after the accident recently. So the point is, pollution is hazardous and harmful for us, killing the microbiome of the soil and our bodies. And we can't get the nutrients, as you said. I know I went off on a tangent. You were talking about the body's most important mineral, magnesium. It is used in over 1,800 enzymatic processes in the body. It is incredibly important, but we can't get it from nature anymore because of pollution. So, I went off on a tangent, but it's relevant because we can't be naive. We have to take the wool off our eyes and realize that our lives are under the constant stress of the pollution surrounding us and that stress is killing the body's microbiome. So we have to be proactive in supporting our body's microbiome because it's under constant stress from everything around us. Okay. Back to you, sorry. I got on my soapbox. Okay, I'm getting off. [0:45:06.5] Dr. William Davis: But I couldn't agree more. You are right. It's a scary world out there. But with this idea, rather than treating things, we will address the factors that allowed diseases to emerge. There are more than four, but the four that played significant roles are magnesium, iodine, omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamin D. Now, the great thing is, you combine those four and also throw in the diet, and you reverse this very fundamental processes of insulin resistance and inflammation. Those processes lead to obesity, hypertension, heart disease, and stroke. So you've addressed the wide swath of human disease just by doing that. As you know, we all should go to the microbiome, the gathering, and testing microbiome, because what's happened with a lot of people is overexposure to antibiotics, toxic heavy metals, industrial compounds, chlorinated drinking water, and other prescription drugs like stomach acid-blocking drugs, statin cholesterol drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs, food additives like preservatives. They kill microbes and food and then you.  The mucus barrier is very important. Many food additives disrupt the mucus barrier, like ice cream's mixing agent polysorbate 80. And so this onslaught of things that disrupt the human microbiome, among the effect is that we lost literally hundreds of healthy species that were doing good things for us. One of the effects that I think should be discussed more and that we have to start talking a lot more about is that healthy microbes keep unhealthy microbes at bay. Those unhealthy microbes, like E. coli, salmonella, and campylobacter, are mostly fecal. Many people recognize those microbes because they are also the microbes of food poisoning. These microbes proliferate, and then they do something extraordinary. They ascend into the 24 ft of the small intestine, and the small intestine is not well adapted to having fecal microbes. It has a thin and fragile mucus layer protecting itself, unlike the colon, where microbes are supposed to be, which has a two-layer and much thicker mucus barrier. So fecal microbes make their way into the 24 feet of the small intestine. They only live for a few hours. So when they die, trillions of these microbes shed their by-products. But there's one that's really bad, called endotoxin, which can penetrate the mucus barrier to the intestinal wall and enter the bloodstream. When endotoxin enters the bloodstream, it is called endotoxemia.  But that is the crucial process that has been corroborated numerous times in clinical studies. Now we understand how microbes in the gastrointestinal tract can be experienced as depression in the brain, Parkinson's disease or Lou Gehrig's Disease or Alzheimer's, dementia, muscle and joint aches of fibromyalgia, or rheumatoid arthritis, or skin conditions like rosacea or psoriasis, or metabolic conditions, like fatty liver, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity. In other words, we now understand that microbes in the GI tract play a role in virtually all common chronic modern diseases. [0:48:51.0] Ashley James: How would we know if we're over-toxic with endotoxemia? How would we know that we have endotoxemia? You've mentioned a bunch of different things. But if someone wonders if their depression is endotoxemia, would you say go for a lab test, or are there easier ways of telling?  [0:49:13.7] Dr. William Davis: There are a number of ways. One way is to look for what I call telltale signs. Telltale signs would be food intolerances. If you say you can't eat eggplant or other nightshades or histamine-containing food like cheese or wine, or legumes or nuts, maybe not a hundred percent but close to 100% of food intolerance, all these things modern people are experiencing that your grandmother's not. Those are all from this process. So it's called small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). And that's the price that causes a high level of endotoxemia. So if you have any food intolerance, think plain SIBO. If you have fat malabsorption, you see fat drops in the toilet. That's a very high likelihood of SIBO and endotoxemia. So if you have certain conditions that are virtually synonymous with SIBO and endotoxemia, such as restless leg syndrome, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn's disease, celiac disease, and autoimmune or neurodegenerative condition, or fatty liver, there's a very high likelihood. At first, I thought this was a rare process until I did two things. One is a consumer device now, and it's called the AIRE. It came out in 2018 and was invented by a Ph.D. engineer in Dublin, Ireland because his wife had irritable bowel syndrome and she was told to go on a low FODMAP diet. When you limit fibers and sugar in a person with IBS, they have less bloating and diarrhea. We saw how often she got tripped up when exposed to something fibrous or sugars and had bloating, diarrhea, etc. So he invented this device to detect hydrogen gas on the breath because that's produced by microbes when they are fed fibers and sugars. Well, I got a hold of this thing. I called him and said, “Angus, that's not really what this thing is.” This is a mapping device to tell you where microbes are living in the gastrointestinal tract. There is a specific way to use it based on timing. That's all on my Super Gut book on my website https://drdavisinfinitehealth.com. It's about $150 to $200, so it's not cheap, but it's far cheaper than a test you can do in the lab or clinic using a similar technology. The AIRE device is superior to the lab or clinic version because you're blowing directly into the hydrogen gas detector with the AIRE device. When you do this in a clinic or lab, you blow breath into a vial, trying to capture the smallest molecule of hydrogen gas. It's very easy to escape. So the AIRE device is superior.  I started having people test for hydrogen gas using this timing issue. What you do is get a baseline level of 0 to 10, and you have a horizon of 4 units. So you get a baseline level. Let's say it's 1.2. You eat something that microbes eat, like inulin powder, which is a good one. It's a prebiotic fiber you put in your coffee. So drink your coffee with inulin and test every 30 to 45 minutes. And if you have a rise, let's say at 45 minutes it is 9.8, then you have microbes that are way high up in your GI tract. Producing hydrogen gas is normal from the colon, but the colon is 24 ft down or more from your mouth. It can't make that 24 feet in 90 minutes or 45 minutes. So any positive reading before 90 minutes, you know microbes live in the upper GI tract. After 90 minutes, we can't tell the difference between the distal small bowel disruption of microbes and colonic microbes. But doing this test, I was shocked. It was the exception of those who tested negative. People were testing positive left and right. So I returned to the scientific literature of all the studies where they took some conditions and asked what proportion of people with this condition tested positive for SIBO. One easy example is a fatty liver. So in the US, with 330 million people, we know that 50% of the US have fatty liver and are on their way to cirrhosis. Based on the published science, 50% of people with fatty liver have tested positive for SIBO. So if there are 330 million people, half have fatty liver. That's 160 million or so. That's 80 million people there alone. How about irritable bowel syndrome? We know 60 to 70 million people in the US have irritable bowel syndrome. A proportion tested positive for SIBO. It varies from study to study, but it's around 40% or 24 million people. Add up all those other conditions like obesity, Type 2 diabetes, autoimmune conditions, and neurodegenerative conditions, and you have over 150 million people. There's some overlap, of course. How about an obese Type 2 diabetic with fatty liver? There will be some overlap, so it's not an exact number. But you can see, you can get very high numbers very quickly. So the bottom line is it is common. It is, in fact, very common by my estimates. It's somewhere around 1 and 2 people, 50%. [0:55:00.3] Ashley James: You know, when we look at labs, there are these ranges that say if it's normal. And I question normal, especially hearing what you've just shared because normal doesn't really indicate healthy. We understand what a healthy range is. But naturopathic physicians will look at labs differently than how MDs have been taught in school. And it's interesting because there's normal, which is like, okay, so what's the average population? The average population is in this range. Well, I don't want to be part of the average population, especially if most have endotoxemia. And then, in the naturopathic realm, they typically look up what is optimal when they're looking at lab ranges. They're looking for how to get you to be absolutely in the optimal range. It doesn't sound like optimal is common among Americans. We're talking about Americans, but many other countries are catching up with America regarding our diseased state. 70% of adult Americans are on at least one prescription medication, so we have a very sick nation. We as a nation spend the absolute most on health care. I laugh, calling it health care because it's disease management. Of course, you wrote a book about how the medical system is failing us. So we have to learn, and that's why we're here. We're learning from you so that we can take charge of our health. If most of the population is so sick and has endotoxemia, that is not how we want it to be. We must make decisions to go against the norm to have optimal health. We have to do something different than what everyone else is doing to achieve optimal health.  Going back to the idea that endotoxemia comes from the small intestine, how much does a leaky gut play a role in this? Is the endotoxin being deposited into the small intestine? Is that traveling up into the small intestines because of our diet? Can you go upstream and help us understand what is causing that? Let's say we're super healthy people just doing healthy things. We're exercising or drinking clean water. We're trying to eat as healthily as possible. We're avoiding the polysorbate 80 and ice cream. We're avoiding drugs as much as possible and keep being as healthy as possible. And yet, endotoxemia still exists. So what is causing that to happen? What is causing it to travel up and then die in our small intestines and release the endotoxins to be absorbed into our body? What are we doing wrong? [0:58:11.0] Dr. William Davis: So, all those factors we discussed disrupt the microbial composition of your GI tract, such as repeated antibiotics. It's not uncommon that by age 40, most people have taken 30 courses of antibiotics. Glyphosate and other herbicides, pesticides, carbonated drinking water, halogenated hydrocarbons — all those things conspire to kill off numerous microbes. That also hints at a solution here. So as you know, if you have SIBO and endotoxemia, that's 30 ft of trillions of microbes that don't belong in the small bowel. If you took a commercial probiotic, would it go away? No. You might reduce some of the symptoms of bloating or some of the diarrhea, but you'll still be left with 30 ft of fecal microbes. And so I asked a different question, a conventional solution. If the mainstream doctors even knew what it was, and most of the time, they'd say things like, “Did you consult doctor Google again, Ashley?” Or, “There's nothing wrong with you. Don't waste my time. There is no such thing.” All these silly answers because they're not keeping up with the science. That's always been true. It takes a generation for the current practicing physicians to catch up with the science. I know you, me, and your listeners are unwilling to wait twenty or thirty years. That's how long you must wait for John Q's primary care to catch up.  So I asked different questions. If SIBO was 30 feet of microbes, including 24 feet of the small intestine, what if we chose species we've lost that have two characteristics? One, they colonize the small intestine. That's where SIBO occurs and produces what is called bacteriocins. These are natural antibiotics effective against the species of SIBO, like E.coli and campylobacter. So I chose three. I chose a strain of Lactobacillus gasseri and Lactobacillus reuteri. Those two colonize the upper GI tract. Gasseri produces up to seven bacteriocins and reuteri up to four. I also threw in bacillus coagulants because it's got a good track record for eradicating irritable bowel syndrome. And by the way, it is the most delicious yogurt you'll ever make. We make yogurt from this, different from what you get in the grocery store. I regret calling it yogurt. It looks and smells like yogurt, but it's not yogurt. It is a fermentation vehicle. So we get these three microbes and co-ferment them together for 36 hours. It's a very unusual extended fermentation. That was a method I developed and we formed something called flow cytometry on the yogurt to count the microbes, and we get somewhere around three hundred billion microbes per half-cup serving.  And so these microbes that we've lost, used to colonize the upper GI tract and produce bacteriocins, are a big part of why we've got SIBO. Now, the good news is there is this anecdote of the forty or so people who made this SIBO yogurt. 90% now test negative by the AIRE device. Even the conventional antibiotic for SIBO, Xifaxan, is only about 50% to 60% effective. I had hoped and would have been thrilled with 50% effectiveness. I did not expect 90% effectiveness. Now we will do a formal clinical trial down the road to validate this. If I said the solution to SIBO is to take out your intestines or some awful thing like that, we better be damned confident of what's going on. But what if the solution is something akin to yogurt? And so I've drifted towards this kind of thinking. If you think you have SIBO, make the SIBO yogurt. This can sometimes happen with the reuteri yogurt. I suspect that's what happened in your instance when you got rid of some of the dark feelings, and your friend got rid of diarrhea. It was probably because of SIBO eradication, the reuteri upper GI colonization, and bacteriocin production. I have a microbiologist friend. Oddly, I just moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to suburban Chicago. But in this general area, especially in Wisconsin, there are numerous and the largest probiotic manufacturers in the world. It's because of the dairy industry and fermentation. But there's a microbiologist, and his name is Suresh. He told me that he sometimes uses Lactobacillus reuteri to clean his fermentation vats that they use to produce microbes. I said, “Really? Come on!” So I called another microbiologist friend, Dr. Raul Cano, from Cal Poly Tech, and said, “Hey Raul, Suresh says he cleans his fermentation vats with L. reuteri. Does that sound right to you?” He says, “Oh yeah.” That's how potent a micro reuteri is. Ironically, it's also extremely susceptible to common antibiotics like Amoxicillin. So if you took Amoxicillin, maybe 20 years ago, for an upper respiratory infection, it killed off your reuteri and some others. That opened the door for small intestine colonization and endotoxemia. [1:03:36.5] Ashley James: To clarify, with the microbiologist using the L. reuteri to clean their devices, is it because it digests other bacteria or somehow fights them off? How does it effectively help to clean the devices? [1:03:59.2] Dr. William Davis: The pharmaceutical industry constantly looks for new antibiotics. Do you know where they're discovering them? From microbes as bacteriocins. We don't have to get involved with the pharma people, but it tells you these bacteriocins are potent and specific for fecal microbes. So I think that's why we're seeing many people normalize their breath hydrogen gas. They wouldn't be that interesting if all they do is normalize your breath hydrogen gas. I'm also seeing that something normalized your hydrogen gas and then says something like, “I lost 73 lb in your program, but I hit a plateau. I could not lose the last 35 lbs. I now lost it.” Or, “I was a Type 2 diabetic. My hemoglobin A1C was 11.7, which is terrible. I did your program and dropped the 6.1%. Much better but not perfect, which is 5.0 % or less. I normalized my SIBO hydrogen gas. It's now 4.7%.” Or, “My rosacea is 80% better on the program, but it's not gone. I have occasional flare-ups. I got rid of the SIBO and endotoxemia.” I see case after case of residual health problems finally going away for good. [1:05:21.6] Ashley James: Oh, I love it. So many listeners are in that spot where they hit a plateau. They'd cleaned up so much of their lives and got good results, and then that plateau happened. But it could be better. Especially the “Oh, I can't eat this, and I can't eat that. Now I can eat this.” And I know some people who can only breathe air. I have one friend who had to resort to the carnivore diet. She loves vegetables, but now she has just reverted to being unable to eat anything except meat. She really would love to be able to tolerate vegetables. I did get her to read your book. I know that she started off with making the cranberry juice ferments, and I need to talk to her and see how that went because I had sent her to you to start studying from you. Lactobacillus reuteri is like nature's version of an antibiotic, which will help clean up the area of an overgrowth of something we don't want.  [1:06:36.4] Dr. William Davis: Exactly! And it colonized the upper GI tract. In other words, it goes where the battle is waged in the small intestine and produces those bacteriocins. By the way, maybe your listeners want to know about that juice you're talking about. So I call that Saccharomyces boulardii sparkling juices. It's so easy. If someone's new to fermentation, it's a really easy and simple way to get introduced to it. You get some juice. Hopefully, it's real juice. It just can't have any preservatives like potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate. Nothing like that, just juice. Preferably a pulpy type juice like apple cider or mango. Empty one capsule of Florastor. It's a commercial probiotic and includes the fungus Saccharomyces boulardii. It is the cousin of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, used to make wine and beer. So empty one capsule, cap it, lightly agitate to mix, loosen the cap, and put it on your kitchen counter. In 24 hours, you're going to see it bubbling. It's producing vast amounts of carbon dioxide. So keep that cap loose because it can explode if you don't. At 48 hours, you have beautiful sparkling juice. The microbes have reduced sugar content by about half, but some sugar is still in it. So use small portions, no more than a quarter cup, several times daily. It's one of the most powerful things you can do to help rebuild a broken microbiome. If you must take a course of antibiotics, this juice is the best thing to protect your gastrointestinal microbiome from further damage. [1:08:20.7] Ashley James: What I love about that is it so affordable because that one bottle of the Florastor will last you a lifetime. If you're making this juice with one capsule and then drinking small amounts throughout the day, you can use it for a long time. So many people spend $30 to $50 per bottle of probiotics and keep having to buy it every month. Whereas you teach us how to take it and then culture it so that we're only buying one bottle every six months and culturing it to way more than what was in that bottle. Like when we make Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt, we culture it so much. [1:09:10.0] Dr. William Davis:  Good point, Ashley. You're right. You save money because you make the next batch from a bit of the previous one. And you're exactly right. You can do this with probiotics also and save a ton of money. One of the things we need to know is there are ten different microbial species in your probiotic. Several batches, in relative proportions, are going to change. I generally tell people that when you're about seven, eight, nine, or ten batches in, start over again. So you go back to the start if you want to continue. Let's say you plant backyard zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We know that zucchinis are aggressive and will eventually take over the garden. It happened with microbes. They are competing with each other, and it's going to change relative proportions. So when you're several batches in, think about starting over again. But you're still saving a huge amount of money. [1:10:07.2] Ashley James: Got it. I've been thinking about skin, knowing that bacteria live on it and that we used these antibacterial soaps in the past. Even things with fragrances can disrupt the microbiome. And now, I understand that our skin's microbiome is very delicate and really needed. Some women have acne that goes away by focusing on protecting the skin's microbiome. You mentioned the rosacea going away, but at the back of my mind, what about people with eczema and psoriasis? How does restoring the microbiome help them as well? [1:10:54.7] Dr. William Davis: I urge people to start with the basics: diet and nutrients affecting insulin resistance and inflammation. That also plays a significant role in skin conditions. But you're right. SIBO, endotoxemia, and dysbiosis confined in the colon also play a role. If you have a condition like psoriasis or rosacea, what needs to be clarified is how much benefit there is to addressing the skin microbiome directly. There is some preliminary evidence that when you have a skin rash like eczema, there is an imbalance in the relative proportion of the normal skin inhabitant called staphylococcus epidermidis. And there's an increase in unhealthy microbe, staphylococcus aureus. We still need better information, but believing that you can restore staphylococcus epidermidis and other healthy microbes in the skin is tempting. It could further impact the skin rash. [1:11:58.5] Ashley James: When we say that your skin is a reflection of your gut, and your skin is a reflection of what's going on inside you, and often we see that by removing gluten grains, the skin improves. Even with the Lactobacillus reuteri supporting a healthy gut microbiome, we see skin improvement, just like your studies showing that the dermal layer is increasing. We have an increase in collagen production. We see outward beauty, and there are anecdotal stories about women noticing wrinkles going away. We see the skin become more vibrant when our internal health becomes more vibrant. I don't want to look fifty when I'm fifty. I want to look super healthy because I worked hard on it.  Don't we all want to look super healthy on the outside when we're doing so much to be healthy on the inside? I want everyone to feel amazing inside and have that outward reflection. I don't think he was joking, but I got mistaken for being in my twenties at the bank the other day. He thought I was the daughter of my mother-in-law. He was shocked to hear my age, and I was on a high rest of the day. But I have also been doing a lot to be healthy for many years, and it's paying off. I see it in the mirror.  You talked in episode 476 about the women who noticed that they looked younger and more vibrant when they looked in the mirror after correcting their gut health and introducing Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt into their lives. I want to dig deeper into this. You have done some human clinical trials, and you were talking about something you invented that has Lactobacillus reuteri in it for the skin. Can we get into that? [1:14:07.1] Dr. William Davis: Sure. Many ladies are making the Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt, but they keep saying, “I'm sick and tired of making the yogurt. Do you have some way I can just buy it?” Or, “I'm traveling and don't want to bring my yogurt-making apparatus.” So I formulated a product that included Lactobacillus reuteri and added components like marine-sourced collagen hydrolysates and hyaluronic acid. That combination has been working very well for us. We had a preliminary trial, and we got very nice results. We did a formal clinical trial and did measures like high-resolution skin ultrasounds and did see improvement in dermal thickness as well as the investigator dermatologist and participant ratings on such things as moisture, glow, and luster.  We got very nice results and will continue to explore and validate all these kinds of effects, but I'm very encouraged by what we see in our preliminary trials. It is consistent with all the things seen in the mouse trials and other human evidence. So we're on the right track to providing a product called Gut to Glow that contains Lactobacillus reuteri with added components to stack the odds in favor of better skin.  We know from other people's science that there is much evidence that collagen peptides reduce skin wrinkles and make your joints better because joint cartilage is mostly collagen. There is good science to tell us that when you ingest collagen orally, it gets to the joints and the skin and the hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is the body's master moisturizer. So you take it orally, and it gets to the skin, moisturizes the skin dermal layer and not just the epidermis, like a topically applied hyaluronic acid, and it also adds to joint lubrication. I believe we're going to start seeing evidence that hyaluronic acid also has beneficial effects on the brain because the brain has a lot of hyaluronic acids, and so do the uterus, cervix, and vagina. Dryness is a problem for ladies in their late 60s and 70s. Hyaluronic acid is a major component of the female reproductive tract. So, we will have to validate these kinds of effects over time. But so far, even in preliminary evidence, we've had some very nice results. [1:16:41.3I] Ashley James: While listening, I thought, is this a face cream? What's going on? So you've created a way to take it internally. It's a supplement, and we see results on the skin. But when you see the skin getting better, we also know it affects the skin on the inside, right? Because the lungs are related to skin tissue, the gut is related to skin tissue. They're very related to its use of collagen, and it won't affect the skin on the outside. It's going to also play a role in helping on the inside as well.  [1:17:25.6] Dr. William Davis: Absolutely. It is reuteri, after all. We use a different strain than the one that was used in the MIT studies, and we're validating how much this one microbe does. We did some animal work, and we're doing some human work with that strain. So much more must be explored, but we see very positive effects. So many more clinical trials are planned, all the way to budget. But we see some exciting early effects as you've experienced in your friend's experience and some of your listeners. So that's why I cringe to think how little we knew just a few years ago.  When you factor in all the effects of the microbiome, you know almost nothing about health. But it plays a huge role in all aspects of health. We are seeing big effects on many emotional and mental issues like anxiety. One of the biggest effects of endotoxemia is anxiety. Also, fungal overgrowth in the gastrointestinal tract is a common symptom of anxiety. I see people being prescribed Xanax and other anti-anxiety drugs when, a lot of the time, it's overgrowth either of bacteria or fungi or both. And we see dramatic reductions in anxiety. Not from the Gut to Glow. This is just addressing the overgrowth of bacteria and fungi. So we see dramatic effects on the reduction of anxiety and depression.  [1:19:00.5] Ashley James: Yeah, I know you have to be careful when formulating and selling a supplement to make medical claims. And I know you need to be very careful with your language. But we can look at the effect, what each ingredient is, how all the science around it, and the results you would get from it. And then, we can hope to get that same result by taking a supplement with those same ingredients. I'm excited to hear more about your clinical trials. Is there anything else you can share specifically about your clinical trials or upcoming projects you are working on around this?  [1:19:44.8] Dr. William Davis: I can't say everything until our patents are filed because of some intellectual property issues. One of the things we saw in our first human clinical trial was an unexpected dramatic change in body composition. So we're going to explore that. And I'll talk about that in the coming months or years as we surpass these patent protections. Suffice it to say that we have the capacity, I believe, or will in the future, dramatically affect the body shape. [1:20:15.7] Ashley James: Wow, that is very cool. Please share your hypothesis around why you believe that effect happens.  [1:20:27.5] Dr. William Davis: I did design a very elaborate clinical trial. It won't get done for another six months because it's costly, and we will look at things like DEXA for body composition, baseline, and follow-up. So we can measure endotoxin; it's called LPS serum. I believe that we're going to see an improvement in insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is the fundamental process that drives risks for diabetes, heart disease, dementia, cancers, and other modern chronic conditions. If you can improve insulin resistance, you greatly impact that person's health. So we need to document if there is a change in insulin resistance. I think there will be, but we need to prove that. You know these very popular drugs, Wegovy and Ozempic, are called GLP-1 agonists because they reduce blood sugar. But you may have heard that people are scrambling for these drugs because they lead to weight loss also. They work because they're GLP-1 agonists. That's one thing we also have to explore. Do we have a GLP-1 agonist alternative? We have yet to find answers to many things, but we will explore clinical trials.  [1:21:49.5] Ashley James: That's so exciting. We need a listener who just won the lottery to just donate a million dollars. We need someone with just a few million dollars, and it's burning a hole in their pocket. If I won the lottery, I would be spending for some really cool clinical trials. I think it will be a lot of fun to fund holistic clinical trials that could help revolutionize the world and the whole planet as we know it. If we could introduce everyone to these seemingly simple aids, tools, and solutions, make the Florastor juice, or try some of the Lactobacillus reuteri to correct their gut and endotoxemia, many people would get off of anxiety and sleep meds. Many people would get off of antidepressants or antacids. Just think of all the things that people could correct.  This is something that a lot of my listeners know already, but maybe some don't, but every time we take a drug, it depletes the body of key nutrients because the liver and the kidneys have to process it, and it forces the body to do something. It forces a physiological effect. It's not gentle, and it's not natural. And so a lot of times, these drugs people take deplete the body further and further when the body was already depleted, to begin with. I see a world, my kind of Utopia, where everyone is so healthy they don't need drugs, or 90% fewer drugs because we're so healthy, we don't need them. Think about people with chronic pain.  You mentioned fibromyalgia. A friend had a morphine pump surgically installed in her body. That's how much pain she was in. This was fifteen years ago. She brought me into her bedroom and showed me her two drawers in her bedside table dresser. She opened both doors and said these are all my meds. And she goes, “Most of these are pain meds.” She was not overweight, ate very healthily, and she was in chronic pain all the time. And I heard about how certain key nutrient deficiencies can exacerbate and sometimes even trigger chronic pain. And so I got her some vitamins and minerals, especially selenium. There's been a link to low sodium levels leading toward exacerbating that chronic pain known as fibromyalgia. I preached to go gluten-free, but I don't know if she did. Within a few months of doing that, she told me, “You know, those two drawers, just with the changes, I got rid of one drawer.” Fifty percent of her meds were reduced in months by taking some minerals and vitamins. And maybe she did listen to me and got rid of the gluten. If we can make that change. If we could just increase certain nutrients or correct the gut and someone could eliminate their meds by 50% or 75%, their quality of life is going up and up and up. So that's my vision for the world; to have the tools you teach in your books and on your website. And then now, I love you've created the Gut to Glow formula so that we can help people restore themselves from the inside to glow on the outside. So I get the marketing, and I like the name. It's simple, and it's catchy. I like it.  [1:25:56.6] Dr. William Davis: You make an excellent point, Ashley. That is the unintended adverse consequences of pharmaceuticals. Even drugs that people thought were benign, like stomach acid-blocking drugs, or statin cholesterol drugs, are now known to have very serious impacts on health and on the microbiome. So stomach acid-blocking drugs turn off stomach acid and allow oral microbes. The mouth is second only to the colon in the density of microbes. Think about that when you're kissing somebody. So when you lose stomach acids, oral microbes populate the stomach and duodenum, and fecal microbes ascend in the small bowel. This is all from just blocking stomach acid, likewise statin cholesterol drugs. Even if you're slender and young, it turns your gastrointestinal microbiome into the microbiome of an obese Type 2 diabetic. And that's the presumptive reason to explain why there's a 30% to 50% increase in your likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes when you take a statin cholesterol drug. [1:27:02.9] Ashley James: Oh my gosh. Yes, we did have a conversation in one of our interviews. It might have been the first interview we did about statins. Because I get on my soapbox with them on how absolutely horrible they are for our health, and the benefits are so minuscule in relation to the horrible effects of statins, and you were able to outline that. What people don't understand is that it harms the liver. It makes the liver not produce the cholesterol our body's trying to produce, and it doesn't actually correct. Heart disease isn't caused by the cholesterol. Cholesterol is wrapped up like smoke. You see smoke in anything and call that there must be a fire. It's like smoke is causing the fire, right? It's the other way around. There's inflammation. There's our whole lifestyle that's leading to that disease. Taking a statin is just going to disrupt so many functions. Everyone thinks that they need to lower LDL. With your background, what is the best way to help the body lower LDL cholesterol, have good healthy cholesterol, and be free of heart disease? [1:28:27.5] Dr. William Davis: I tell people to get a big black magic marker, cross out those numbers, and ignore them. There is a lot there to talk about. But the real tragedy of focusing on cholesterol is that it took everybody's attention away from the real causes of heart disease. You're exactly right. Statin cholesterol drugs reduce cardiovascular events in a very minor way. They help a little bit, but what about all the other causes you mentioned, like insulin resistance, inflammation, vitamin D deficiency, omega-3 fatty acid deficiency, and endotoxemia? Those are all very important causes that any cardiologist hardly ever mentions. So, what I do is throw away cholesterol testing. We do the real test, which is lipoprotein testing, like an NMR Lipoprotein testing. We measure insulin resistance, like fasting glucose, insulin, and hemoglobin A1C. We look at your vitamin D status with the 25-hydroxy vitamin D. We look at your thyroid status with TSH, T3, T4, and Reverse T3 thyroid antibodies.  You can add other things, but if you just do those basic tests, you will see that cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease. In the 1950s and 1960s, cholesterol was meant to be an indirect marker for the factors, like lipoproteins which are the fat-carrying proteins in the bloodstream, that actually cause heart disease. During those times, it was very difficult to measure lipoprotein. So they devised very crude indirect methods to quantify them, and they said, measure cholesterol. It was not meant to be the cause. It was meant to be an indirect marker. But it became viewed as the cause because it makes a lot of money for the pharmaceutical industry. When you focus on cholesterol, this outdated house of cards, you start to come away with false lessons. That's why 80 million Americans take statin cholesterol drugs, but there's been no reduction in heart disease incidence. And that's why your local hospital can add on a hundred million dollar new cardiovascular wing because heart disease remains hospitals' number one money maker. So the dirty little secret is my colleagues like that there continue to be lots of heart disease because they're not focusing on the real causes. The truth of it is, managing cardiovascular risk is easy and almost free and does not require a drug in 99.9% of people. [1:31:03.5] Ashley James: I love it. Thank you so much for clarifying that because our friends and family need to hear this. The second you go to a hospital, you go to your doctor, and you're over a certain age, they automatically want to put you on a cholesterol med. I feel the pharmaceutical industry sends those doctors to Jamaica once a year or something, there's got to be some kind of incentive because of how prolific it is. It depletes the body of CoQ10, and it bruises the liver, which produces healthy cholesterol. People end up with neuropathy, and they're falling down, breaking their hip or whatever, because they're not able to feel. I have an uncle who can't feel his hands and feet and has not been able to feel them for years. He's been on statins for years, and I've been begging him to please get off them. And he's like, “No, my doctor is smarter and knows what he's doing.” Then he just falls down all the time because he can't feel his hands or feet. It's the neuropathy from taking the statins, and it's just mind-blowing. Everyone is just keeping the wool over their eyes. “Nope, my doctor knows what they're doing. I'm not going to question anything. I don't want to be accused of listening to Dr. Google.” It's like, “Advocate for yourself.” This is a for-profit industry, right? Like, people question the dealership more when they're buying a car than they do their doctor when they are being put on a drug.  [1:32:26.8] Dr. William Davis: Very true. That's a critical thing to understand. It is exactly a profit-making venture. Sadly, it shouldn't be that way. But what's put first in the healthcare system is revenue and profit; it's not health. [1:32:45.4] Ashley James: So I know we've got a bunch of black sheep salmon swimming upstream, kind of listeners who are ready and willing to do what it takes to regain their health. But our friends and family love their statins, and the damage has been done. And, of course, all the drugs people take also disrupt the microbiome. Because it affects the mitochondria, we're really just only beginning to understand everything. I feel like a hundred years from now, we'll look back and look at these drugs like we do now, when we look at leeches and end up bleeding the body. Like in the 1500s and 1700s when bloodletting was all the rage, and now it's like drugs are all the rage. In a hundred years, it's definitely going to be microbiome-based medicine. That's for sure.  I see that we're going into an era where we will be using light as therapy and phototherapy, and we will be using the microbiome and supporting using different healthy bacterial strains to balance the body. Especially if you can take one and increase your collagen. It's amazing that you can make your skin beautiful. How long do people start to notice a difference in their skin? That must take time. Like when you take certain supplements for hair, skin, and nails, it's not right away because the body is doing triage work on the inside. And then maybe three months down the road, you start noticing better hair, skin, and nails when you're taking those kinds of supplements with niacin and the different biotin in those kinds of things. But how long do people see results when they take the Gut to Glow formula?  [1:34:26.4] Dr. William Davis: We've seen subtle changes at four weeks that become more marked at eight and then twelve weeks of the fine, low volume wrinkles like crow's feet around the eyes, and the smile line. Those tend to recede visibly by twelve weeks. The deeper wrinkles, like nasolabial fold along the sides of the mouth, the big ones, or the forehead wrinkles, those require more volume, so we don't know. Our clinical trials have only gone to twelve weeks or three months. We don't know just how much you can expect long-term, but I predict that they'll have an effect longer-term. But we're seeing an introduction to fine wrinkles at twelve weeks, increasing skin moisture so much that they are telling us they don't need to use as much moisturizer on the face and hands anymore, and there's a kind of glow. I think that's the increase in sebum, which is the moisturizer of the skin. That's among the earliest effects. The increased moisture can happen within days, visibly by four weeks, but more so by eight to twelve weeks.  [1:35:30.4] Ashley James: You've mentioned the other areas for females, like vaginal dryness when we age. Are women noticing that by taking this, they're noticing they're less dry in other areas?  [1:35:44.6] Dr. William Davis: We haven't looked at that in our clinical trials because it wasn't among the endpoints we're looking at. Every week, I have a two-way Zoom. Like last night, I did it for two hours with ninety-eight people. I casually asked them, are you experiencing an increase in vaginal moisture? Let's talk about this for a moment. As ladies get older, through menopause, particularly in their late 60s and 70s, it becomes universal that a woman will experience what the gynecologists now label as the genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM). The three facets are loss of libido, vaginal atrophy, dryness, irritation, discharge and pain, and urinary complaints like urge incontinence. You pee when you cry, cough, or repeated urinary tract infections. So it's lost libido, vaginal atrophy, and urinary problems.  I believe we can address the whole thing, but that's another formulation I created. I can't tell you fully. I'll probably talk about that when I'm back within the next year. [1:36:51.5] Ashley James: Well, come back in a year and update us.  [1:36:56.0] Dr. William Davis: But I will tell you, I think the reuteri may be key here. So we have no clue or data. I'm going by what is known from some other people's science that the reuteri, I believe, is a key component for ladies to regain vaginal moisture. And it doesn't hurt to throw in hyaluronic acid because the cervix and vagina are largely hyaluronic acids.  [1:37:21.7] Ashley James: Love it. Well, I can't wait to hear about stuff happening in the next year. We'll definitely have you back on with this. We should do an annual meet-up over the minds and hear all the updates. [1:37:35.5] Dr. William Davis: I'd be happy to, Ashley. [1:37:36.3] Ashley James: I will start hunting for a millionaire to invest in more trials for you. I'll let you know when I find one. I'm sure there's one out there that is excited as me and wants to get where these clinical trials are going. That would be fun.  When we talked about making the Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt, you were clear that it needs to be made with something that contains fat. And I remember looking around, going at plant-based options. I need to make sure there's something really fatty, so I came upon cashew yogurt. It works really well with the cashew [1:38:12.7] Dr. William Davis: I'd love to see your recipe, by the way. [1:38:13.4] Ashley James: I will gladly share it. It's amazing and so delicious. As I said, I've made over thirty batches, so I played with and perfected it. I make it thick, like Greek yogurt. I tried coconut yogurt with coconut cream. Honestly, it was disgusting. The soy one was even worse, but I got the results. I felt it was the worst thing I've ever eaten/drank. It was like liquid, so I just drank it. It was the worst-tasting thing ever, but I was willing to do it because I felt amazing. But now I've perfected the cashew yogurt. It's thick, like Greek yogurt. It's so delicious, I'm actually salivating right now thinking about it.  But when you said it's really important that we make Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt with a fat component, that surprised me. I guess it shouldn't surprise me, but it does because I always think we need carbohydrates when we ferment. So to hear that, we got to make sure that there's some fat in this, and for me, it's a plant-based fat coming from cashews. But, can you explain why a Lactobacillus reuteri or why this particular formula requires us, when we take or ingest it, to have fat?  [1:39:37.5] Dr. William Davis: I think what's confusing is, most yogurt is low-fat or nonfat. I reject the whole notion that we should limit fat, and so I use organic half and half, which is 18% fat because I think we should get that. Dairy's got tissues, but the most beneficial component of dairy is the fat, ironically. So it's just part of my rejection of the low-fat notion. But you actually don't need fat. You can ferment, for instance, salsa which is very low in fat. Hummus is also a good vehicle. I've never done the cashew, so I'm dying to see your recipe. People always ask, “I don't want to do dairy. What else can I do?” I've been suggesting coconut milk, which makes an okay yogurt.  [1:40:24.0] Ashley James: It's gross. I'll share mine. You'll love it. It's delicious. You'll want to do it instead of cow milk. Does the body need to have fat to utilize Lactobacillus reuteri, or is it just because you see fat as a healthy component of our diets that we shouldn't shy away from it?  [1:40:52.3] Dr. William Davis: As you pointed out, the microbe just needs some kind of either fiber or sugar. It doesn't really need the fat. But you need fat. A total of forty years of this ridiculous experiment in cutting total fat and saturated fat to show us how harmful that is, in some ways, I'm grateful that the government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry screwed up so badly because it shows us what happens. Because we now have an epidemic of unhealthy humans — obese, diabetic, with autoimmune diseases, and greater cognitive impairment all because of misguided dietary advice, absurd pharmaceuticals, and a predatory food system. [1:41:43.4] Ashley James: Oh, that's so well put. I was just explaining the predatory food system the other day. I do it all the time, but the other day I was talking to a personal trainer who's super into health, and he said, “Yeah, I can't get my kid to stop eating Doritos.” I'm like, “Wait for a second, you have Doritos in your house?” And so, I had to back up in a super loving way. Just something to understand, if any food comes from a manufacturer, that company has hired food scientists to make it hyper-palatable and to tickle your brain as cocaine does. If it comes out of a package, every single company has figured out exactly how much salt, monosodium glutamate, red dye, how much of everything it takes to light your brain scan up, like the Fourth of July, so that you will keep eating their gross excuse for food. We're addicted as a world to these processed foods that are highly Frankenfoods. But they light up our brains and make us feel good, and we think, “Oh, we feel good. We got to keep eating this.”  And as Dr. Joel Fuhrman says, cocaine can make you feel good too, but it's not good for you. So stop thinking that food that makes you feel good is good for you and focus on foods that don't come from manufacturers but from a farm. Eat food that comes from a farm, not a manufacturer, and you'll be doing so much better with your health. I had a food scientist on the show, and she explained that crazy world behind the scenes of how they will look at brain scans. This is like the company that makes these things like Doritos. They will do these neuro studies on exactly how much of each of these ingredients they need to put in to make you as addicted as possible, to make the dopamine go up as much. So we got to be really careful. And then how much do all those chemicals affect the gut microbiome? Whatever we eat is not only feeding ourselves, but it's feeding the bacteria in our guts. You have to be careful because what you feed in your gut is what you're going to get in your life.  [1:44:03.6] Dr. William Davis: I couldn't agree more, Ashley. Modern processed food is a disaster.  [1:44:10.8] Ashley James: I'm spinning thinking about the possibilities. So in your book, there are many other things to look for. I love that you have this table of different strains of bacteria, and it's almost like you're looking at a pharmacy for your gut. If these are your symptoms, you go for this. If this is your problem, then start with this. Athletes can take a different probiotic for this function. I'm thinking about kids because kids don't necessarily need Lactobacillus reuteri. Maybe they do, but can kids benefit from taking Gut to Glow? Or is there a different strain that would be better for them? Or maybe tell me who would benefit most from taking the Gut to Glow formula with the Lactobacillus reuteri in it?  [1:45:13.0] Dr. William Davis: I look at the Gut to Glow as a convenience for someone who doesn't want to make the yogurt and wants a better skin effect because of the added components or does something like travel and doesn't want to bring their yogurt-making apparatus. But there's another question here. Who needs reuteri? The only group I think that should not do the yogurt as written are pregnant ladies because when you approach the two weeks or so prior to delivery, the density of oxytocin receptors goes up to a hundredfold in the uterus in preparation for delivery. That's why, say you want to deliver your child on Wednesday, August 23rd at 8 a.m., you're instructed to come to the hospital, and they put an IV, and they give you the oxytocin injection, and it causes uterine contraction. So it's probably not wise to get that super duper high counts of reuteri, and thereby presumptively oxytocin in a pregnant woman.  But when you think about it, if all primitive humans have reuteri, if all mammals have it and we're the exception, and by the way, there is evidence to show us that only forty years ago, the majority of people had reuteri. Now almost nobody has it. So I think having it is good for everybody, even a pregnant woman. What I don't know is the three hundred or so billion microbes in the yogurt for a half-cup serving. Is that advisable? Probably not. And so what I tell ladies who are pregnant or of childbearing age, or children, is you can make the yogurt, but do a mixed culture yogurt. Think about if all you grew in your 10×10 backyard garden are tomatoes, you can have a lot of tomatoes. What if you grew tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, and squash, how many tomatoes will you have? You have far fewer. So you can do a mixed-culture yogurt. One easy trick is to start with your reuteri. You can start with capsules or tablets, or you can get some reuteri yogurt from someone else or probably a batch of your own, and then get a commercial yogurt with four or five other microbes and mix them together. So you have maybe four or five or six different microbes, and you won't get those super duper high counts that are perfectly safe for kids or for a pregnant lady. [1:47:55.6] Ashley James: Oh, that's brilliant. Now I have noticed since I've been eating it for the last year that I can eat it for a few days and feel the effects for weeks. I feel most of that euphoria, and then I feel it slowly drop off, and then I eat some more. So I don't eat it every day now. I used to, but now I wanted to see how long this lasts. And it does last. I feel like it lasts for a few weeks, and then it drops off. We talked a little bit about this. I want to know if there's any more science that you follow up on all the recent studies around it. Have we figured out, or are we any closer to figuring out how to repopulate the gut with Lactobacillus reuteri so that it sustains itself? [1:48:49.0] Dr. William Davis: It's a fundamental question. It's a very critical question that we don't have an answer to. So if mom gave you reuteri by passage through the birth canal and breastfeeding and barring exposure to things like antibiotics, you will carry that microbe for a lifetime. But if you get it from yogurt or a capsule, you get it for a few weeks at best. What's the difference? Microbes live in communities, just like humans do. In other words, we don't live by ourselves. We have partners, families, co-workers, neighbors, and communities. Microbes are the same, though it is called guilds or consortiums in the microbe world. We don't know yet who else is supposed to be in the reuteri guild or consortium. So I think the probiotic of the future, or the way we'll do it in the future is reuteri with maybe seven other species that are required, for reuteri to take up permanent residence. So you can take that capsule for maybe a week, and you'll have it for a lifetime. But so far, no one's worked out the details.  [1:49:54.3] Ashley James: I was fascinated to learn that there's a type of bacteria that's very common in the gut that digests and eats candida. Candida is its food. Candida is needed in the body, but 90% less than everyone actually has it. It's food for these bacteria. It made me think; so, when your body is imbalanced, your little bit of candida, which is the food that's growing like grass for cows. It's like the grass growing in your body to feed this bacteria that's really healthy for us. And it made me think maybe that Lactobacillus reuteri is supposed to eat and digest something and it's missing also. Like there's this wonderful colony, like the microbe guild that that lives together that feeds each other and balances each other out and protects each other.  And we've really messed ourselves up in the last generation. From my grandma to where we are now, we've just been messing up the entire human race by wiping out so much of our microbiome. I wish I had a time machine and could go a hundred years in the future and see what kind of advancement in understanding how we can restore the gut. But I can't wait for the day that the labs figure out what's the perfect balance for that microbe guild so that we could really get a leg up. But you're on the right track with teaching us how to ferment and bring it into our bodies within food in such a natural way.  I really feel like you, out of all the doctors out there, have your finger on the pulse of restoring the gut and thus cascade effect of restoring the whole body. So thank you so much for everything you do. I love your work and I love your books. You're so easy to learn from. Like I told you many years ago, just discovering your work was so cathartic for me because finally, it's validation. I'm on the right track with removing these grains from my life and seeing such a positive result. That brings me to one of my last points, which is that some people say, “Well, I don't feel a difference when I removed wheat. So, therefore, I'm not allergic to it. I don't have to remove it.” And I think that that's a misnomer for a lot of people if you don't do an air quotes here, but like feel a difference. I don't think that you're supposed to feel how good an apple is for you when you eat an apple. I'm studying the nutritional aspects of how that pectin is helping you and all the things that are feeding in your gut. You don't feel it. It's not an emotion, just like stress is an emotion, but you could die from too much stress, right? So you don't necessarily feel the body. I am definitely noticing for me the feeling of oxytocin and feeling balancing for me, but some people don't feel anything. Like with changing their diet, they don't feel it at first. But can you give us some hope and some encouragement and say how long should someone sick and going grain-free, for example, or removing the gluten grains, or trying Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt. Is this something like, giving it a shot for three months, and then measure some noticeable outcomes? Can you give us some some hope because so many people will try something for a few weeks and say, “I didn't feel a difference.” So then they just stopped. [1:53:46.5] Dr. William Davis: You're right. There's a mixture of perceived benefits, but there's also a lot of unperceived benefits that occur below the surface. So, for instance, my whole thinking on wheat and grains began to start when I took wheat and grains out of the diet because people had heart disease. By the way, this was born out of fifty-five clinical trials. This is not just some anecdote. What I saw on people with coronary disease is that the most common cause for coronary disease, heart attacks, angina, and sudden cardiac death, is an excess of small LDL particles and not LDL cholesterol, that crude indirect marker, but the actual lipoprotein particles themselves or small LDL particles. These are small particles are not recognized by the liver and so they persist in the bloodstream for 5 to 7 days compared to large LDL particles that lasts for 24 hours. Small LDL is much more prone to oxidation, much more prone to cause inflammation when it gets access into the wall of an artery. In other words, the small LDL is this little evil thing, perfectly crafted to cause heart disease.  When you eat one bagel or slice of pizza, you've got oodles of small LDL for a week. There's no way for you to tell that. You have to do an NMR lipoproten analysis to find that out. So that's one example of the many non-perceived effects of consuming grains. When you stop eating wheat, grains and sugars, and small LDL drops from say, 2000 volume to 0, you won't be able to tell that. Likewise, if your blood sugar drops from a pre-diabetic range to the normal or ideal range, you can't tell that either. If you're exposed to the gliadin protein of wheat that increases intestinal permeability in everybody, not just celiac people, and thereby increases endotoxemia and raises blood sugar and blood pressure and plays with your moods, anxiety, depression. You might not be aware of that. You might not believe that that was due to the fact that once you stop eating grains, a lot of those effects go away. So, there's a lot of things that happen that people don't understand and don't recognize that it's being due to the grain consumption or lack of reuteri or whatever. So, I think it's a mistake to say, “I don't feel any different. Therefore it must not be doing good for me.” Because you'd have to do a more deep exploration to understand the full impact.  [1:56:24.1] Ashley James: Got it. And so it's better to just take the science, take what you've shared and just go with it. Make those changes and give it time instead of judging it too quickly. Because you don't necessarily feel all those physiological changes. But eventually, down the line, people notice their body composition changing. People notice those inches going off. Sometimes you don't see pounds going off but you see inches go off. Sometimes it's just the body shifting and you just give it time. I feel so good off gluten and off those grains. I feel so good with Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt. For me it's fantastic. And I'm so happy that you formulated this Gut to Glow because there are people out there, like you said, who can't make the yogurt for whatever reason. Their life is super crazy and busy or they're traveling, and they just want to keep getting the benefits of it.  So you've produced something that's going to help everyone, men and women alike. I think men like the effects of looking good too. But also you said, it helps joints there with the known ingredients that help joints. So overall, everything's good. I want to have you back a year from now or less when you've got these studies and these other things that you're working on down the road. Any other projects you can share with us? You're so busy. I was curious to know if you have ideas for the next book, but I know you're really focusing on this. So, is there anything else, any other projects that are in the pipeline? [1:58:11.0] Dr. William Davis: I'm thinking about a number of things. One of the things that's changing my life is the fact that people like you and me, other podcasters, YouTubers, and bloggers, have all been blacklisted by major media. I believe it's because the big pharma pump so much money into media. That if you write a book on health and nutrition, you can't get on TV anymore. And so that hurts book sales, of course. I've even had publishers say to me, “You know, if we can't make money publishing books on health, maybe we won't publish books on health.” That's the impact that the pharmaceutical industry has had. So what does that mean for the future of books or other things?  By the way, I'm so appreciative of what you're doing and other podcasters and bloggers. Because if we're all, not just me, blacklisted from major media, how do we get the word of truth out to the people? That's what you're doing. So that's why I support what you're doing, because we have to get this word out to people. So does that mean if you want to write a book on health, do you have to not use a title that suggests about it? I've been playing with that idea. It's still a lot of fun writing books and get your message out and it's a great way to learn something; to sit back in your chair and read about some new ideas because it's not going to come from the doctor. We all know that the last person to consult on health is the doctor. I'm talking about mainstream doctors. The naturopaths, chiropractors, and functional medicine doctors do get it, but the John Q mainstream doctor does not understand it. So how do we get that message out? So, I'm thinking about several books, but we got to somehow work around this off of blacklisting process.  [1:59:57.7] Ashley James: Okay. I've got a title for you; Wink, Wink. This is definitely not a health book. Just make the title Wink, Wink, and have you winking in a lab coat with a stethoscope. That's the next book, and then I'll write your foreword or something. I love it. Well, I'm going to make sure I share my cashew yogurt with you which is super delicious. [2:00:27.4] Dr. William Davis: I'll give proper credit. [2:00:29.9] Ashley James: Oh, fantastic. I love it. It's a win-win for everyone. You know, I played around and did some batches with adding other strains that are in your book and it was fun doing that. So not just L. reuteri but also playing around with the other strains and I highly recommend that listeners go and check out everything that Dr. Davis has written and done in his website. Of course, the links to everything is going to be in the show notes with today's podcast of learntruehealth.com. We're going to make sure that we link the Gut to Glow formula so that listeners can get it. And all the links there, including all the books is going to be there in the show notes and in the description of this episode, wherever you're listening from. If you're listening on your Apple podcast or Spotify, Rumble Library, or wherever you're listening from in all the alternative spaces that we're on as well, just look in the show notes in the podcast app and you'll find all the links. I'm going to make sure they're all there. Thank you so much for coming on the show. It was so great chatting with you and I'm just such a huge fan of all your work. Thank you for being so approachable and so open and willing to educate us. The root word for doctors is “docere”, which means teacher. That surprises people because our experience is like the old school teacher that would slap you with a ruler; the very not approachable teacher. That's like going to the doctor. You are I think what they meant when they came up with the word “doctor”, the “docere” and the idea of teaching us health. And that's why my podcast is called Learn True Health. As doctors, you're here to teach us, achieve it, find it and create your health. So thank you so much for being such an advocate for us to gain our true health. I so appreciate what you do. I can't wait to have you back on the show. [2:02:29.1] Dr. William Davis: Thank you, Ashley. Anytime. It's my pleasure. [2:02:32.7] Ashley James: I hope you enjoyed today's episode with Dr. William Davis. He's amazing. I love him. If you want my Lactobacillus reuteri cashew yogurt, delicious recipe, please go to learntruehealth.com and you'll find it there. It's also in the show notes of today's podcast. You can also go to the Learn True Health Facebook group, and you'll see the recipe there, along with comments and conversations in the group with other listeners. You don't have to make it out of the oven cashews. You can make it out of other ingredients. And if you want to discuss that, you can jump into the larger Learn True Health Facebook group. And we can chat about other methods to make the Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt. Or if you just want to get the benefits, do it without having to make two yogurt. Definitely check out Dr. William Davis', Lactobacillus reuteri supplement, which he calls Gut to Glow. You could go to learntruehealth.com/glow and use coupon code LTH10 for 10% off your first order or 15% off your subscription with coupon code LTH15. You can book a session with me to chat about the amazing phototherapy patches if you want to increase your body's glutathione production, stem cells, balance your sex hormones, your stress hormones, your thyroid regrow joints, arthritis, lowering inflammation of bone density, increase bone density. People are seeing wear and tear on their body. There are studies showing that this increases bone density. People are getting out of osteopenia and out of osteoporosis, and increasing muscle mass and endurance. People are having an amazing experience. I am especially loving it. I'm loving the amount of energy. I feel like I'm a seven-year-old again. I've tapped into this never-ending deep well of energy. I've been enviously looking at kids for the last seven years wishing I had that abundant energy, and now I do. That's from the phototherapy patches.  If you want to try that too, let's jump on a call together. I'd love to talk to you. Go to learntruehealth.com and up in the menu, you can find where it says Work with Ashley James. Sign up for a free phone call with me to discuss the phototherapy patches. You can also email me at support@learntruehealth.com. Connect with me on Facebook, but it's best if we talked and you jump on a phone call with me. Book a session to chat about it so I can help you specifically pick out the right patches for you based on your health goals.  Awesome. Well, thank you for listening and watch out for our next episode. Episode 500 is around the corner and soon will be filled with beautiful testimonials and stories of success from our listeners who have been impacted by the Learn True Health podcast. If you have a testimonial and you'd love for me to share with the listeners any kind of positive impact that my podcast or my guests have had a difference in your life, please send it to me. There's still time to submit your testimony, as you can submit an audio testimonial, a video testimonial. Just turn it into it audio or you can email me one and I'll read your testimony on. You can put it in the Facebook group. You can email it to me at support@learntruehealth.com and I'd love to hear from you. Have yourselves a fantastic rest of your day, and I just want you to know I love you so much and I appreciate you so much, and I want you to feel your best. I want you to be as absolutely optimally healthy as you can be every day, building up, healthier and healthier and healthier. That's what I want for you, and for me too. So, we're all building healthier bodies. We're not aging, or we're not going downwards. We're going upwards. We are building ourselves up at any age. We have so much absolute potential at any age to build healthier bodies. And that's what I want for you, and we're doing it together. So thank you for sharing these podcast episodes with those you care about so we can help everyone we love through Learn True Health. Get Connected with Dr. William Davis!   Website Facebook Twitter Instagram Spotify Books by Dr. William Davis   Super Gut Undoctored Wheat Belly

The Best Coherent Structured Water Device: Use coupon code LTH at https://www.learntruehealth.com/structuredwater   Phototherapy: To work with Ashley James and try the phototherapy, Go Here: https://www.learntruehealth.com In the Menu, click Work with Ashley James and book your Free Phototherapy Discovery Session.   498: Rejuvenate Cells with Structured Water, Mario Brainović https://www.learntruehealth.com/rejuvenate-cells-with-structured-water-mario-brainovic Mario Brainovic, CEO of Analemma Water, is a leading expert on the astonishing science and impact of coherent water. He explains the overall benefits of why all living things should drink structured water. Ashley James & Mario Brainović Highlights: Reversing cellular age through drinking structured water Difference between regular tap water and structured, coherent water Results of using Analemma Water Using GlycanAge testing as an accurate assessment of your overall health and wellness How to measure mitochondrial energy in the body The correlation between the state of your microbiome and the state of your water Intro: Hello true health seekers, and welcome to another exciting Learn True Health podcast episode. Today's finally the day I'm publishing the long-awaited structured water episode. I've been hinting about this episode in our Facebook group to our wonderful listener community and talked about it in a few episodes. I've been using this device since Thanksgiving with remarkable results. We get into that in the interview. But as I do with all these wonderful experts and companies I interview about holistic health devices and supplements, if there's something I want to try out and love, I want to share it and ensure I get a coupon code. So here it is, coupon code LTH as always. And you can buy yourself one of the structured water devices by going to learntruehealth.com/structured water. That's learntruehealth.com/structured water. Or you can look in the show notes of today's episode, and you'll see it right there in the description of this episode's show notes. Wherever you listen from, the link will be right there. So be sure to use the coupon code LTH to get your discount.  I was shocked by the results that I got. This has been my favorite magic trick to play. It's a great parlor trick to play on your friends. Take the device, and use it for 1 minute on their glass of water. Pour two glasses of water so that they can drink the regular water first, and then they try the structured water that's only been treated for one minute with this device. It requires no batteries or electricity; you can travel with it. You have to be careful not to break it. But other than that, I've been traveling with it. I've been sharing it with my friends, and everyone is amazed. Make sure that you treat the water. For about a cup of water, you must use the device on the water for one minute. For me, I drink out of a mason jar, which is quite a bit of water that's close to 30 oz of water in here. I like to stir with the Analemma for a good 2 minutes. Just know that when you do buy one, the instructions say to use it for 30 seconds; don't do that. Maybe in America, we use huge glasses. This was initially designed in Europe, and I think everyone has 8 oz glasses there because all of us in America have 20 oz glasses or more, especially my listeners who are well hydrated and drinking out of 30 oz mason jars like myself, you need to use the device for about 2 minutes which is neat. As you stir the water with it, it changes the structure. All of the molecules line up in a way that becomes a coherent crystalline structure. Just watch as you're stirring it at a slow, nice pace, and in about 1 to 2 minutes, you will see the viscosity of the water change, which is the coolest thing, and then I know it's done. I just watched, and I could see the viscosity change. Then when you put it in your mouth, the water feels different. It tastes sweeter and feels different in your body.  So I'm so excited for you to hear from one of the experts working with this company. And he also talks about the studies that they've published. They have crops and have huge yields just from using this water. Since this interview, I have done a little experiment where we've been feeding our plants this water. We do not get much sun up here in the Pacific Northwest, and are almost at the Canadian border. And here we are in the lowest amount of sunlight. My plants are going nuts. I have this big window where all my plants are, and they only get sun for a few hours because it's facing west, and there's an obstruction. So they only get about four hours of sunlight. Since I started Analemma water, they're growing. These small house plants are not supposed to be that large, but they have grown inches. So I've been watching them sprout up like crazy. It's been so cool to see that.  And we talked today about how using structured water makes mitochondria function and makes the bacterial cultures in the soil and our body improve health. The cascade effect goes on and on. Ensure you use coupon code LTH because I want you to get a discount. But this device is affordable compared to all the other structured water devices. And this one maintains the structured water. So use it once, and the water is structured forever. Whereas other devices only temporarily structures water. It is really interesting.  I know you'll love the science behind it, which we will dig into today. Please share this episode with all your friends who love to hydrate or who don't like to hydrate. Now they should because this makes water so delicious and changes its feel. It makes people want to drink more water. It's such a fun little tool to improve our health and the health of our pets and plants. They're coming up with systems for agriculture and noticing that when the farmers collect the seeds and reuse them, by the third generation of those plants, they're saying they need almost no pesticides and chemicals. The plants become so healthy that they require less and less of those things. Imagine how much we could impact the world if the whole planet did this.  It's exciting what you can do for your health. The implications are exciting if we continue with this technology. So that's learntruehealth.com/structuredwater. Use coupon code LTH, and come into the Learn True Health Facebook group so that we can chat about this as you use the device. I want you to know that if you don't notice a difference with it, it means you're not using it or stirring it long enough. I've talked to at least a dozen people, and when they use it for a good one to two minutes with their water, they notice the difference. So, that's the one troubleshooting thing I would say. If you already bought it, you've got to use it for at least one to two minutes in your big glass of water. In my case, it's a big jar of water, and I use it when cooking. I treat the water before making coffee or tea. Something so cool is that we noticed it changed the flavor. It made it more delicious. So there's something about it that's super neat.  So, enjoy today's episode, come to the Facebook group, and let me know your thoughts. Let me know what your experience is with structured water. I can't wait to hear from you guys and wait for you to hear today's episode.  [0:07:30.2] Ashley James: Welcome to the Learn True Health podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James, and this is episode 498. I am so excited about today's guest. We have on the show Mario Brainovic, the CEO of this fantastic technology that my husband and I have been using in our house for a month and a half now. It is our new favorite thing. My husband will only touch or drink water if this device has first touched the water. My husband is obsessed. He loves it so much. I do too. I got some of the water right here. I'm just so mindblown by what you've created. By the way, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for coming today, Mario.  [0:08:22.0] Mario Brainovic: Thank you so much for having me, Ashley. [0:08:25.9] Ashley James: Before we dive into you explaining what this is and the science and story behind it, I want to take a quick moment to share my story of being introduced to the Analemma. Your office reached out to me before Thanksgiving. I received an Analemma, and I was very skeptical. This concept of stirring something in my water for a minute, completely being transformed and restructured, and changing the magnetics of the structure on a molecular level all sounds too good to be true. I say in the show that I have a very open mind to try new things, but I'm also incredibly skeptical. So with my skepticism and open-mindedness, I said sure, why not. Let's try it. Then a good friend of mine comes over, sees the box, and says, oh, you got one, too. I love mine. And I'm like, wait a second; I know people who have this? It turns out that I have friends who already have an Analemma, and they love it. They're using it in their water and seeing a big difference. I was like, oh, that's interesting. So I went and used it. When we first received it, I stirred water for a minute, took a sip, and I said, what is going on? No way. And so then I grabbed just regular filtered water, and I compared. I could not believe the mouth feel. The water completely feels different when you use the Analemma. It feels like all the molecules are lined up in your mouth. It just goes down smoother, and drinking water with no resistance is easier. It's the weirdest thing to say, but it feels silkier and easier to drink. It just goes down and has a sweetness, so it does change the water experience.  We even took our Analemma to friends' houses when visiting them. It's been our new favorite health toy. Whenever we go for dinner or hang out with friends, we bring it and do this magic trick. Okay, give me two glasses of your water. We will stir this for one minute in one glass, and then you'll try to see which one you like better. Everyone loves the water and can't believe how different it feels. As I walked up the stairs today to get to the office for this interview, my husband said, “Make sure you tell them this is my favorite thing.” There's another thing he's been doing called phototherapy patches, but he goes, “This thing is amazing. Please tell them how much I love it.” Of course, I am going to tell him that. My husband is such a good sport doing all the health stuff I do. I've been introducing him to many things throughout the 15 years, constantly getting him to do healthy things. He is a good sport and dragged along with it. But now he will not let us drink water unless treated with the Analemma. It is so easy to do. It blows my mind. I fill my jars every morning and spend a few minutes stirring the water for the rest of the day. I'm standing there thinking, “How does this work?” I've seen the science and everything on your website, but I still need help understanding it. So I'm so excited to have you today. The biggest thing I got excited about was the study that showed that drinking this water for three months reverses cellular age. So I can't wait to get into that. I noticed I had results when we started doing it right after Thanksgiving. Like everyone, the holidays are a bit stressful. This is our first holiday season without our father-in-law. My dad died fourteen years ago, right after Christmas, and this was the anniversary of his death. So there are just a lot of emotions going on around Thanksgiving. And during the pandemic, I had a child and lost her. So even though I did a lot of emotional work and healing, I had this low-grade constant sadness in my heart. I hadn't changed anything else at the time. Everything's been pretty much the same and with even higher stress because it's going into the holiday season. But three days into drinking the Analemma water, I did a check-in and realized that sadness had gone. It was replaced with low-grade joy and a sense of completion, happiness, and fulfillment. I can get upset and frustrated because I'm home-schooling a seven-year-old, and that's expected. But even when I am a little upset or frustrated and all these other emotions, I feel happiness beneath all that.  Have you seen anything around your specific structured water affecting people emotionally? You also studied brain waves, so I want to get into that. Listeners can go to learntruehealth.com/structured water to check it out and use coupon code LTH. By the way, thank you so much for giving our listeners a discount. I appreciate that. I'd love to understand how you came about discovering this. How does it work?  [0:13:55.2] Mario Brainovic: Thank you for sharing your beautiful story. We are receiving so many stories from all over the place from people using it. Stories are remarkable, and hearing what this water does never gets old. To be honest, we all in Analemma feel that we are serving this water, not the other way around, when we realize its profound effect on all biological systems. We tested it on humans, animals, and plants; the results were always remarkable. We see that it is a blessing, and when you see it that way, you cannot own it. We are stewards of it and want to do everything in our power to get it to as many people as possible so that they can get the benefits. Not only that, we will go into all of the details. There are profound environmental effects of this water. We can catch up on that as well. I love how this water enriches whatever you expose it to. So I'm grateful to be part of this project, and I'm so happy when I hear the stories. All of the work that we are doing is beyond justified, so thank you, first of all, for sharing your story. [0:15:22.9] Ashley James: Absolutely. I started this podcast because I suffered for so many years from health issues. Through natural medicine and good nutrition, I was able to reverse type 2 diabetes, chronic adrenal fatigue, chronic infections, infertility, and polycystic ovarian syndrome. And the doctor said you'll never reverse. This doctor said I would never not have the polycystic ovarian syndrome. I was told numerous times I'll always be on medications. Now I'm free from medicines and super healthy. I still have health goals, and I'm still working on myself, and I want to help end the suffering of so many people. So when I find something that is easy, affordable, and has profound effects, why not? I think we should all be drinking healthy water.  I took chemistry in high school and loved it. I'm from Ontario, Canada, and at the time, we had Grade 13 in high school, which was the equivalent of a first-year university. I took OAC Chem, which was like first-year university chemistry. I remember understanding and learning about the magnetics of water and how the H2O molecules are very magnetic. And so, understanding that most people drink water through a bunch of 90-degree angle pipes, the molecules have become chaotic, right? So we're not meant to drink water that's been through the system it has been through. But even water straight from the ground isn't necessarily structured either. So I'd love for you to explain the difference between the regular tap water from the city and structured water. [0:17:21.1] Mario Brainovic: Yeah, now we are getting into the whole magic of things. First, I would like to emphasize that most people aren't aware that 99% of our molecules are water. We are 70% water in mass but 99% in molecules. So that shows you immediately we are very clever H2O. That shows you there is something magical and extraordinarily important about water, and nobody talks about it. So as you mentioned, water at this point is everywhere, and we tested all kinds of water. It exists in the chaotic state of H2O. Molecules in water move chaotically. They crash into each other constantly. All of this happens at an atomic level, so nobody knows it. Two scientists, Dolf Zantinge and Dr. Eric Laarakker started working on it, and I joined the team a bit later. So we found a way to bring order back into that chaos. I will explain the science of it. Since water is a broadband absorber, receiver, and energy transmitter, it will pick up the dominant frequency. So, however, colloquially speaking, you treat water, the vibration, the frequency, and the structure will form that particular structure. As you mentioned, water goes through a piping system, dramatically killing the water's vitality. So, we managed to create a dominant positive frequency in the water. This is what we call mother water. It takes one full year for us to create this special water and put it in a crystal vial. Crystal serves as a superconductor, but it's not there. So it creates a barrier between the mother water and the water you are swirling the Analemma through. But frequency-wise, it's like it's not there. Any H2O molecule that comes into close proximity to the mother water starts to mimic its exact structure. So then you have exactly the same water as the mother water inside the vial. Water enters this special liquid crystalline structure, and we call this full spectrum coherent state. So it's very different from the other works of several scientists who developed some form of structured water in various ways through a vortex, seeing through magnets, or using crystals.  There are various forms of how you create a structure. But the main difference between Analemma Water and all these other structured water is its stability. With all the other structured devices we tested, water goes back into chaos within a couple of minutes in half a day with almost all of them. With just one treatment of Analemma, just one swirl in the glass of water, that water will stay in that very particular state virtually forever. So we have tested it for five consecutive years, and it always remains in a state of coherence.  So that stability is where it's very special. This very particular structure has a profound effect on all biological systems. Now, I can jump into the remarkable studies we made. The fastest result you will have with this water is in brain waves. We did this double-blind study with identical and genetic twins because this is the golden standard. These two people are genetically identical, so we gave one twin regular water and Analemma Water to another. The doctor administering the test didn't know which one was which, and the twins didn't know which one was which, and we were observing the changes in the brainwaves. As soon as you sip this water, there is an almost instant change in your brain waves. The left and right hemispheres of the brain start to communicate much more efficiently, and there is an instant cooling effect on the brain waves, which is extraordinary to observe. We repeated the test a couple of weeks later and gave Analemma Water to the other twin to see what would happen. The results, again, were very distinctly the same. So your brain waves will change instantly as soon as you sip this water. So this is the first and the fastest effect or impact this water has on human biology, and then we can go into all of the studies that we did, the long-term effect of drinking water. It's really profound.  Then we decided afterward to pick a test that would definitively prove that something biologically remarkable happens when people drink this water. So we were going about various tests, and we came upon GlycanAge. GlycanAge measures the biological age in contrast to chronological age. There are various other tests that you can do. But what I love about GlycanAge is that it gives you a pretty accurate assessment of your overall health and wellness. Why? Because through the state of glycans, you can see your immune system's state. Glycans regulate the activity of T cells. So T cells are the number one cells of our immune system. So whenever a pathogen like viruses, bacteria, or fungi invades our body, these cells are the ones who capture and destroy the pathogens. So if your glycans are in good shape, you have a powerful immune system. The other thing about GlycanAge is that there are two kinds of glycans, pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory. This balance is crucial for overall health and wellness. Now everybody knows, and I know your audience is familiar with low-grade inflammation. It is the number one cause of any chronic disease we develop throughout life. If you experience changing glycans, that means your overall health is changing for the better. So we did the baseline test with everyone in this study. We measured their biological age, and I have just discussed the final score of all these. And then they just drank a liter and a half of Analemma Water per day without changing anything else in their world. They didn't change their exercise regime or diet, and we did another test after three months. In almost every single person in this study, there were between one and twelve years of biological age rejuvenation. Their whole system regenerated on a cellular level, which was remarkable. It clearly proved that when you drink this water, there are really powerful changes in your biology. [0:25:44.4] Ashley James:  After only a few months? [0:25:46.4] Mario Brainovic: Only three months. [0:25:49.6] Ashley James: Many people will drink more than a liter and a half. I drink about 4 liters of water a day.  [0:25:54.3] Mario Brainovic: And you can imagine what effect that would have on your biology. [0:25:58.7] Ashley James: I feel it, and it's pretty amazing. My husband and I both feel it. So whenever our seven-year-old son asks if he can have some water, we hand him one, and he says, “Is this structured?” [0:26:15.1] Mario Brainovic: I love what you mentioned. It's like, you cannot miss it. Once you take a swirl of Analemma through the water, you cannot miss the change that happens. Water enters this very special coherent state. And just like you eloquently explained, you cannot miss the change in the water.  [0:26:34.9] Ashley James: You taste and feel it. A friend said, “I don't know if it tastes different, but why does it feel different in my mouth? Oh my gosh, this water is feeling different in my mouth. This is so weird.” You can exactly feel the change. [0:26:54.6] Mario Brainovic: I can explain why.  [0:26:55.1] Ashley James: Okay, good. Why? I thought it was maybe magnetics. But it feels like all the H2O molecules are lined up in a row instead of being chaotic. That's my explanation.  [0:27:07.5] Mario Brainovic: Most definitely. You've explained it very well. But I would like to add that when you bring the water into a highly structured coherent state, the true power of water is unleashed. You can look at it like if you have a light bulb; it has five watts. It will give you some light. But if you have a 5-watt laser, it will drill a hole through your table. So laser is a coherent form of light. The true power of water is unleashed when you bring it to a coherent state. So our early studies were always on plants. There is this special method, a delicate technology that can capture light. Every living organism exudes light biophotons, and we have this device to capture every single biophoton. The more light you exude, the more vitality you have.  In our early study, we had a big greenhouse in the Netherlands where we did many tests. We grew tomatoes that we watered with regular water and with Analemma Water. And we realized that tomatoes grown with Analemma Water exude 60% more light. They have 60% more vitality. If you eat that tomato, all that energy will end up in your cells. But then we didn't want to stop there. We wanted to see how that correlates with humans. So we did a double-blind, placebo-controlled study measuring the rise in ATP levels. We're talking about mitochondrial energy, or the energy in your cells. We used this method with luciferase. Luciferase is an enzyme that catalyzes light production in bioluminescent organisms. Due to its extraordinary sensitivity, we can measure the intercellular ATP level in animals and humans. And we did the baseline tests, and people again just drank a liter and a half of water a day without changing anything else in their world. After two months, we did another test, and there was a significant rise in ATP levels. So the entire mitochondrial energy in their body increased by over 20% just by drinking the water.  So then, I can return to the studies that we did because there is a great correlation between all of our studies. We're very passionate about the quality of soil because this is a huge agricultural problem in the world today. The soil is almost completely destroyed everywhere, and they cannot revive it. They cannot bring it back to life. Then whatever you grow on that soil will not have the nutrients necessary. We took completely depleted, destroyed soil and watered one part of it with regular water, and one part of it was watered with Analemma Water. Nothing happened with the one we watered with regular water. Everything stayed the same. But there was a huge explosion in the biodiversity of the microbiome in the part we watered with Analemma Water. And so much so that the bacteria that exploded in the soil started to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere in the soil where it belongs.  So the soil became fertile. You could grow any food on it again. This inspired us since the microbiome changed the soil. Let's see what's going to happen with humans. So we did a double-blind, placebo-controlled study where we measured the dysbiosis index of the microbiome. So dysbiosis index describes the degree of deviation within the microbiome, taking into account all the bacterial phyla and species and their Wayne factor. And we had an absolute improvement of 38% in the dysbiosis index of the microbiome just when people drank this water. [0:32:02.0] Ashley James: Oh my gosh, this is blowing my mind. [0:32:05.5] Mario Brainovic: In the last decade, there has been so much research in the connection between the state of your gut, your microbiome, with basically any area of your health — mental health, physical health. The state of your microbiome has a powerful effect on anywhere in your body. We proved that when you drink this water, the state of your microbiome improves significantly.  [0:32:36.1] Ashley James: I interviewed Dr. Igor Smirnov in episode 161 several years ago. He's a Russian, and he has been doing studies for years on different structured water. Not yours, but structured water in general. What sparked his interest was that the people in Chernobyl who experienced radiation were sent to various hospitals. And one hospital, in particular, was up in the mountains, and an artesian well fed the hospital. And those people miraculously got way better than anyone from Chernobyl who went to another hospital. Russia was like, what's going on? Why is everyone getting better over here, but aren't getting better in every other hospital? And they finally figured out that their water was naturally structured in some way from the pressure coming from the earth. Of course, not everyone can access an artesian well up in the mountains. We need to figure out how to recreate that. That's what you've done in a very affordable way. I've seen these machines, and as you said, these machines not only keep the water structured for days and days. It's structured temporarily, and then it falls apart. These machines are worth $500 to $1,500. I've looked and seen it. But what piqued my interest was what Dr. Smirnoff said: they see antioxidants in structured water that were mopping up the radiation in these patients. I don't know if that was true, but it did something. Maybe it was because it was protecting the mitochondria. So I'd love to know, have you noticed, or have you had studies where you're seeing that structured Analemma Water has an antioxidant property? [0:34:46.9] Mario Brainovic: I can tell you that the study of it is remarkable. Dolf Zantinge, one of Analemma's founders, was CEO of the largest Dutch telecom. So he's very familiar with the EMFs and the effects of radiation of EMFs on human biology. We did several tests with Analemma Water and 3G, 4G, and 5G radiation, and the results were really interesting. There are many effects, but I can speak of the one we thoroughly tested. So when you use your cell phone for two minutes, there is a profound chaotic effect on the state of your brain waves. We've tested and seen it every single time. But what we did was we gave regular water and Analemma water to some people after a couple of minutes of using the cell phone. Nothing happened with their brainwaves for the people who drank regular water. Their state stayed the same. Whatever happened, they stayed there. But as soon as people start drinking Analemma Water, as I mentioned, there is a cooling effect on the brain waves. The brain waves came down from the chaos into a coherent state. [0:36:28.0] Ashley James: That was fascinating. When someone has this change in their brainwaves, what do they experience?  [0:36:34.3] Mario Brainovic: In my experience, I can just share because many people wrote us, and we have a lot of testimonials from people. It's very personal. Every single person is unique, and they have their own unique response. So as you mentioned, you clearly shared your experience. We received so many various experiences from people. They all have their own path and experience with it, but every single time is extraordinarily positive.  [0:37:14.5] Ashley James: Can you share some testimonials that stand out for you?  [0:37:19.3] Mario Brainovic: There are a lot of them. We don't want to go into all the details because this has yet to be designed to treat and heal people. We were advised not to make health claims in that particular way. But I can tell you that many people had incredible physical, mental, and emotional results in various ways. When you drink this water, this water is in this very special coherent state. As I mentioned, 99% of our molecules are water. So we enter this very special coherent state. When your organs, tissues, bones, and mind where electromagnetic beams enter a state of coherence, effects will be experienced on any level. So it's just a matter of time.  [0:38:21.9] Ashley James: Does it make water more conductive? [0:38:24.2] Mario Brainovic: We had this really interesting experience. We developed this technology with one professor in Austria. So we asked him to create a device that would immediately show on the spot which water is which. During his research, he found this correlation between the sun and water. Water changes electromagnetically daily due to the sun's position towards the Earth. So water is an electromagnetic phenomenon; it changes. So we realized that the electromagnetic potential of water is anywhere between 150 and 300 millivolts. But when you swirl the Analemma through the water, that potential jumps up to 300 %. And that's very measurable. So, that's where you can see the difference. The difference is not just in taste, which ends our studies. We have done 15 studies up until now. So all of our studies confirmed that. But the whole energy about it is remarkable when you swirl this little stick through the water. It really changes dramatically. [0:39:46.4] Ashley James: Why sell the Analemma device, which allows us to make as much water as possible? It's like teaching a man to fish instead of giving him a fish. You are giving us the tool that, for the rest of our lives, we can make all of our searches with water. It is very generous that you do this, and as I said, this is such an affordable device compared to all the other ones I've seen out in the market. So you guys are being very generous because you could have created your own Evian water, or an Analemma bottled water, from some source and structured it yourself because it maintains its structure. You could have sold it worldwide in bottles. [0:40:27.6] Mario Brainovic: Just so you know, this is all intentional. So we are aware that we could put this five times the price and it will be sold exactly the same way. But we wanted to keep it affordable to almost everyone on the planet. Just like you mentioned, this is something that we are now exploring. We will bottle it, so if you are somewhere in the cafe and don't have your Analemma, you can order one and get it. But we wanted to make it affordable to people.  Our mission statement is to make all bodies of water on this planet coherent. We have already developed technology that we can install in the wells of the biggest rivers. Because we know we've proven that the microbiome and the water would change, will enter this coherent state, and all the life down the stream would thrive. And not only that, but all of this water will enter the oceans, and then the oceans will become coherent. And then we would have a coherent planet. Just like our body becomes coherent, if all of the water on this planet, which is the earth's blood, becomes coherent, we are part of the earth. Even though it's not good for our business model, we don't care. The main thing is this water has the power to change the world for the better. So we're having these greenhouses issues and CO2, which we try to solve but cannot solve. But, as I mentioned, if we water the earth everywhere with this water, the soil's microbiome would change, and those bacteria start to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere. [0:42:31.2] Ashley James: And into the soil, which will feed the plants, right? If you think about farming, we're having a massive global crisis because of the drought. But before the drought, we see that farming practices have contributed to the drought. They remove the topsoil, intended to keep the CO2 in the soil. It's supposed to be there to feed the plants. The decomposing matter creates CO2, which is supposed to be in the soil to feed the plants. So it's part of the fertilization cycle of plants.  Because of the mass farming practices of the last hundred years, farmers scrape away the topsoil and turn the soil over, which we now know destroys the soil's microbiome and releases CO2, a fertilizer for the plant. It's supposed to be in there. And by turning over the soil, they're killing the microbiome. They're making a very artificial environment and then treating it chemically to force the plants to yield high. But because of all this, the water runs off and does not stay in the soil when it rains. And then when it gets hot, it is supposed to evaporate, creating more rain, right? So it's supposed to be that cycle, but it's runoff now. And so, then we have droughts globally. Then, we're cutting down forests to feed the cattle. Large forests, for example, help to make rain because it's how nature works. So with all that, we have removed topsoil, turned it over, and now we've affected how the earth makes rain, which has then caused drought. This is just one contributing factor. But now, the farmers globally are having many issues, and we're not even touching the supply chain issues, diesel prices going up, and all those other issues that are compounded. But what we're looking at is the health of the soil needs to be re-established. Now this information is increasing, and farmers are saying, “Oh wait, I should do more biological farming. So, I don't turn and never move the topsoil.” So some farmers are trying to understand that is a better way to go. But right now, if they could feed the soil your coherent, structured water, that would immediately begin to revitalize the soil's microbiome. The healthy bacteria of the soil suck the CO2 back into the soil, feeding the good plants. So it's all this beautiful dance. And I know you said we're part of Mother Nature. We came from the earth, right? The minerals of the earth are in us. We must remember that we drink water from the earth and we eat food from the earth. So the earth's health represents the health of our bodies. And I love that you're taking this globally. That was beautiful. In 2004, I saw “What the Bleep Do We Know!?”. That's a great documentary. Everyone should watch it. They showed the studies with water that they did in Japan and how by simply yelling at water or loving the water, or basically talking to the water or emitting an emotion at the water and then freezing it, they would see that the energy, the frequency of love, for example, would create these beautiful structures. And a frequency of hate would create these ugly mucky structures. But they did it repeatedly, and it would get the same result.  My husband and I did it too. We got a bunch of ice cube trays, yelled at one, and loved the other. It was wild. We got that to see that little experiment in our freezer. But just the idea of simply expressing a vibration of emotion to water, that the water would hold on to it like a memory. It's like a hard drive for a computer; the water remembers. [0:47:40.0] Mario Brainovic: It's incredibly like the computer, as you mentioned. Dr. Eric Laarakker, one of our founders, intends to prove that water is a bio-quantum computer. So, as I said, water is a broadband absorber, receiver, and energy transmitter. Whatever you send out to it, it will stay there. You mentioned the work of Japanese scientist Dr. Masaru Emoto. He was the pioneer that helped people understand that there is so much more to water than meets the eye. You mentioned your own kind of experiment. Do you know what he did that anybody can do? You take rice and put some water in it. He just expressed love to this jar with water and rice, and in the other one, he expressed anger or hatred. Just after a week, the one you express love to has this beautiful fermented smell, and it's completely intact. It has a beautiful smell, and you can actually eat it. But the other one where you said, I hate you, or you were angry at, started to decompose heavily with a bad smell. It's the same rice. The only thing that changed is our electromagnetic energy, which we focused on. Dr. Masaru Emoto clearly explained the importance of kindness. As you mentioned, we are very clever H2O; when we are kind to each other, we send something, and that individual's water holds it. So whatever you send out stays there, which is profound. And there are many kinds of religions in the world. Like in Christianity, before you start to eat food, you say a prayer because that prayer profoundly affects the state of that food. And then we eat it. And then this food has a profound effect on our biology.  I must mention one more study, which was an “Oh, my God” moment for us. In our early research, we were studying the effect of our water on seeds. So we took seeds, and we watered with regular water, and some seeds we watered with Analemma Water. Those seeds that we watered with regular water didn't exude any biophotons. They were just dead. There was nothing there. It would be just a flat line. But we started to observe this sinusoidal shape for the ones we watered with Analemma Water. So we began to see these peaks and valleys of biophoton emission. We were thinking, “What is this? What is going on there?” And we realized that it coincides with the tides. So we realized that this water connects you to the natural movement and rhythm of the Earth. So it moved with the tides. It opened our eyes that this connects you electromagnetically to something more significant. We always think like we're confined to this body. But when you drink Analemma Water, you get connected more profoundly. [0:51:45.5] Ashley James: Talking about the prayer, that makes sense because, in prayer, you're bringing in gratitude and love. If you're being authentic with your prayer around the table or over your meal, you're exuding love and gratitude. And because your water on the table holds the memory of the frequency of the emotions, it can be influenced by the frequencies. Have you guys done a study where you've hated on water? Like, love was done with some water, hated on the other water, and then treated it with the Analemma. So after one minute of swirling the Analemma in the water, does that overwrite the hate? [0:52:45.8] Mario Brainovic: We have yet to actually do the study because we have too much reverence towards water now. We don't want to treat it that way. But definitely, all of our research proved that water is going to react to the dominant frequency. That's why exposing water to the highest positive frequency is important. That's why prayer comes in. But we managed to create the mother water with an extraordinarily positive effect. As I mentioned, we try to push it into chaos in many ways but have yet to manage to. So we radiated it and did all kinds of things with it, but it remained stable. So that's where it's incredible. I can tell you one more thing. It is actually progressive. What we did is that we watered tomatoes with Analemma Water. We took out seeds, replanted them, and we did this for three generations. After three generations, these tomatoes almost don't need any pesticides. They become so resilient. I always invite people to do the test by themselves. If you have Analemma already, or if you buy it, you have to buy two basil plants. I did this, and it's remarkable to observe. So anybody can be a little scientist. You water one basil plant with regular water and one with Analemma Water. After three weeks, you cut their water supply. What's going to happen after two days is the one watered with regular water is just going to shrivel down completely. And you can see the difference in the basil plant watered with Analemma Water. You will clearly see the resilience of the plant. So if you just put a couple of drops of Analemma Water into it, it will return to a hundred percent vitality. And the one you watered with regular water will have difficulty bouncing back. We received so many emails when people used Analemma Water on plants. People tried to grow a plant in their apartments, and they changed or shifted spots and couldn't get plants to thrive. But when you use this water, you are assisting that process in a remarkable way. I can tell you one interesting thing. During the GlycanAge study, since we realized the correlation between water and the sun, we asked all the participants in the study to expose the Analemma to the sun every now and then. This lady has this small meter-by-meter or a bit larger kind of garden, a very short plant. And so, in the middle of it, she put her Analemma daily. After a month, she sends me a photo. It's like you drew a circle around the Analemma. All the plants grew an inch and a half taller than anywhere else. So it was tough to ignore if you knew what it meant. This is the effect it has on plants. All of our studies clearly showed the great correlation between any biological system. So whatever we proved on plants worked exactly the same on humans. I have another amazing anecdote. For many years, we used this big greenhouse to test our water. So one Dutch farmer picked up the whole greenhouse and continued using the water. So he started to grow this particular kind of cucumber. And this kind of cucumber always gives fruit ten to twelve weeks within a year, and that's basically it. Now, he's at twenty-four weeks to grow. Usually, it gives yield, it gives fruits ten to twelve weeks, and then it cannot anymore. Then you have another cycle. So he doubled the cycle.  Now, we are actually creating because we know that if we're going to change the world, we need to change the agricultural system and we need to change the food people eat. So you are definitely aware of this. But you know, spinach had 80% more nutrients fifteen years ago than now. So you have to eat five or six times more spinach just to have the same amount of nutrients you received from spinach ten to fifteen years ago. We really want to change this. So now we developed an agricultural system for Analemma Water and are investing a lot into studies. Farmers are only interested in two things: shelf life and yield. But we want to prove that if they use this water, they will have a higher yield and a longer shelf-life because the fruit's vitality will be higher and stronger. As a result, everybody will get healthier food, which is our goal. You know when you eat cucumbers, fruits, and veggies, you will get that vitality and nutrients.  Just to come back again with this study that we did on soil, the microbiome change, and the mineral retainment. So you mentioned that all the minerals go out. When you water the soil with Analemma water, all the minerals stay in the soil. And then the plants can pick up those minerals and nutrients, and it all ends up in the fruit. So one of the powerful avenues we are exploring and investing a lot in now is agricultural studies. We have irrefutable proof that when you use this water in agriculture, you're not going to just exponentially increase the nutritional value of the fruit and the energy of the fruit and veggies. But you're also going to increase yield and shelf-life. [0:59:43.9] Ashley James: Absolutely fascinating. I had a guest on my show who's an organic farmer in California. I will definitely hook you guys up. He would be totally interested in joining your studies. He has acres and acres of fruit trees and all kinds of amazing organic stuff that he does in Northern California, so I'll definitely be hooking you guys up. I want to make sure we stay in touch. I want to know about your studies around farming. I think we need to change something.  I saw a video the other day. It was speaking to both sides of the political spectrum. Globally, people want to “stop global warming” or “stop climate change.” They are really concerned about this. And then, there are other people who just want their nine-to-five job. I just need to survive. I just need a paycheck. I just need to get through. I just need to protect my family and earn money. I'll do whatever I need to do to help my family. I'll push the button that makes more black smoke go into the mixer pollution and the world, as long as I can get a paycheck to feed my family. And so, we have these two groups of people clashing, and the speaker was talking to them. But he was talking a little bit more to the people who want to end pollution. I see both sides. I'm standing in the middle going, I want to end pollution not because of anything political. I want to end pollution because it's horrible for our health. It's horrible for our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and the health of all the amazing animals.  We are supposed to be stewards of this land. If you take the Book of Genesis seriously, we are supposed to be stewards. We are supposed to be here to protect this land. We were gifted this land. The Book of Genesis is in many religions, not just Christianity. But if you think about it, we are stewards. We're either going to destroy this world and thus destroy ourselves. But at the same time, I completely understand those people who just need to pay the bills or feed their children. Because currently, millions of children are dying of starvation and malnutrition. And it is horrible. So this man says to these two groups of people, “We are not going to solve it by fighting. We will solve it by creating new technologies and advancements that will solve these problems in a way that solves both people's problems.” We need to make technologies affordable for the person who's starving of malnutrition, whose daughter and son are starving of malnutrition. We need technologies that will heal the water, the soil, the land, the sky, and our food supply and make it affordable so that the millions of people who are sick and suffering or malnourished will have access to this. And then when we do that, these technologies that we create will heal the planet and help to heal malnutrition.  So he makes this big 3000 ft view. It's like, we need to stop fighting and start advancing technologies that heal the planet. And what you have is the technology that will help heal the planet because it will make it so that agriculture doesn't have to pump thousands of tons of chemicals into the water supply. If you say within three generations of this tomato plant, they don't need pesticides. If it heals the soil, making the microbiome of the soil come back to life, so now we don't need to pump a bunch of fake chemicals for fertilizer or pesticides. We can have these plants and soil within a few growing seasons just by structuring the water. We don't have to add any more chemicals.  [1:04:17.7] Mario Brainovic: I agree with you. And not only that, as I mentioned, if all the rivers and bodies of water become coherent, everything is part of one ecosystem. What happens there doesn't happen over here. No, whatever happens everywhere happens to every single one of us. That's why I love what you just mentioned. We are people, and we are fighting. We are in a chaotic state like the H2O molecules are now. But if we learn from the water, when we join hands like H2O molecules joined hands, the true power of water is being unleashed. So when we unite in one mission, we can heal the world in one generation. It will not take more than that. [1:05:11.5] Ashley James: I love your vision and the work you're doing. I am obsessed with the Analemma. I feel so grateful that you guys reached out to me. And I've just had so many confirmations that this was the right thing, seeing that friends already had Analemma and were using it. My husband and I, our son, and everyone we've introduced it to have noticed the difference.  I introduced Analemma to one of my engineer friends, who is like this amazing Tesla-genius level. He said, “This makes water wetter. This makes the water more absorbed into my cells. So there's something about the charge. Can you speak about that? Does it make water wetter or better absorbed into cells and the body? [1:06:20.3] Mario Brainovic: As mentioned, the true power of water is being unleashed. So when you drink this water, you bring much more energy through your cells. And we did this double-blind, placebo-controlled ATP level study, where we measured the rise in cellular energy. So your entire body's cellular energy increases by over 20% within two months. So there is a phenomenon happening in your body. More energy is absorbed. Not only that, people had various experiences. You will start drinking less if you don't need as much water. If you need more, you're going to start drinking more. Every body has its own kind of rhythm. But you find coherence within yourself. This is what happens. And I also mentioned this seed study where you become electromagnetically part of this larger ecosystem. We are one planet. We are one being. And when we start to live that way, everything is included, and nothing is excluded. And then there isn't going to be any conflict, and we will be able to solve any problem this planet has. [1:07:49.1] Ashley James: I love it. Awesome. I know there must be something proprietary about this, but can you tell us or teach us about the mother water you described as being in the device too? Can you explain how you created it or came about discovering it? Again, I don't want you to share it. I'm not asking for proprietary information.  [1:08:13.2] Mario Brainovic: I can't share too much. I can say that we are not using vortexes, magnets, electricity, or crystals in that particular way. We have a very particular system, as I mentioned. It takes one full year to get it. It's all mechanical processes, and there are several phases in which we go about it. And when you go through the last phase, the water enters into this very highly structured, coherent state that it doesn't come out of it. [1:08:49.3] Ashley James: Love it. Reading about the device and how to use it, it says that it will maintain that charge, and definitely, this is something you could pass on to generation after generation. [1:09:04.3] Mario Brainovic: Yes, you have to take care of it very much because it is fragile. So if you drop it, it will break. So you really have to take care of it. We will be coming out with the whole house Analemma, so we have already developed it. It will come out very soon. So you can install it in the piping system of your house, and all of the water you have in your house will be coherent. Because we have incredible results and people are returning to us, we will study bathing with it. When you bathe, just stay in the water for 20 minutes, and they have phenomenal results. So if you fill the bathtub with it and lie in it for 20 minutes, the results are extraordinary. So we will do a study on it to have science behind it, and it's not just anecdotal.  But that's one of the ways; you don't even have to use a whole house system which will be coming out very soon. You can jump on the website, and you can jump on the pre-order system because we are still not out with it. But then you can install it in the piping system of your house, and all the water is coherent. And I'm telling you, you will see results when you shower with it or bathe in it.  [1:10:29.2] Ashley James: You can cook and garden with it if you have a hose.  [1:10:31.3] Mario Brainovic: Everything. [1:10:34.0] Ashley James: I have a friend, and we brought it over to her house and showed her how to use it. She got excited, and she bought one immediately. And then she goes, “Okay, so how do we make it so it comes out of all my pipes?” I also have a friend who was already lined up to buy it. I contacted your office, and they told me that you were in the process of coming over the whole house system. And she is probably your first customer to buy it. She's all lined up and ready to go. I could see the benefits of it.  I understand that lawyers have told you not to say things that sound like you're treating anything. I respect that, and I don't want you guys to get into trouble for saying that people get healed from the water for anything specific. But could you share any anecdotal stories about bathing in the water? [1:11:35.1] Mario Brainovic: We have to keep with this water is not intended to heal or treat. But I can tell you we received so many results in many ways. Some are extraordinarily fast, and some take a bit of time. But the results are awesome. As I mentioned, our studies are done on healthy people. So we always have to do studies that prove that even when you're healthy, your health gets even better. With the studies we already did, we proved biological age, and we proved the ATP levels where your body's entire energy increases. We proved the state of your brain waves and the microbiome. We will go into other studies because we already know the inflammation and everything. So we are going to do many studies. But as I mentioned, we don't want to go into any healing effects of this water. We don't want to claim, and we don't want to say anything. This is just water, as God intended. Let's just go that way. [1:12:47.3] Ashley James: You're not claiming it's a medical device, which is important because you don't want those restrictions put on.  [1:12:55.5] Mario Brainovic: No, this just changes the state of water and profoundly affects biology. It's in the area of general health and wellness, and that's basically where we are sticking to. So we are not going to claim anything else. If you start using the water, you will have your own personal experience with it. If we mention the whole tub experience, you'll already know since the skin is the body's largest organ. And then, since this water gets absorbed intensely and much more powerfully, all this energy ends up in your cells. And not only that; there were people who actually carried Analemmo, even though we told them not to do it because it can break, they carried it around their necks and had incredible results.  As I mentioned, when this lady put her Analemma in the small garden, you see its effect. Because a lot of people asked us to, we are going to start creating pendants. So you have it in a crystal, drop-shaped small container. It will have a mother water inside, and you have it around your neck. It's near your heart area, and you know the heart pumps blood all over. We will also do some studies to prove that if you wear this, it will have a special effect on your entire biology. But as I mentioned, we always stick to general health and wellness. So we've proved that you will have awesome results when healthy people wear it.  [1:14:53.7] Ashley James: I love it. So speaking of plants, I don't know how to describe plants, but in my kitchen, the window jets outwards, and there is a ledge with two shelves to put plants. So it's like this little solarium that jets outright by the sink. So I can look out, I can see the sky. It allows me to see more and have all my plants. We live in a townhouse that doesn't get any sunlight at all, except for this one window. And so, all my plants are huddled there, and then we have a little patio courtyard with all my plants out there that can withstand more extreme temperatures. Although we live north of Seattle, it doesn't get that extreme. But that's where we also place the Analemma, right above the sink, right by my plants. I also have been feeding my plants Analemma Water. And since doing that, one of my plants doubled in size. I don't know what it's called, but it's a cute little plant that has been an inch and a half tall forever. And then now it's huge. I thought Analemma was helping a bit. It could be because it's springtime. I don't know; it's not even springtime yet. It's January. So it's getting the least sunlight and has doubled in size in the last month and a half. So, that's interesting. I'm just trying to think about how my plants have been reacting since I've kept the Analemma there and kept feeding them the water.  My mother-in-law had a houseplant that was just limp, yellow, and almost dead. She would throw it out, and I said, give it to me because I like reviving plants. I don't have a big green thumb. Most time of the time, I kill them. But I just want to see if I can revive it. And I fed it with Analemma Water and put it outside in the sunlight. So within a few hours of feeding it the water, the leaves poofed back up.  [1:17.4] Mario Brainovic: Yes, that's the effect. Analemma has a powerful impact. I love what you did with it. People worldwide send emails with pictures of what Analemma did for their plants.  [1:17:19.3] Ashley James: I wonder about pets too, like people with fish tanks with plants in them. I think aquariums would want to use it, and also dogs and cats.  [1:17:33.1] Mario Brainovic: We will now do an extensive study on animals. We already know that the results are there. We tested so many times. But we're doing the proper study to document all the effects. And we will also create a water feeder for dogs and cats so owners can buy and pour the water in. Animals will get all the benefits. So the biological age of the animals is the number one thing. So we already know that there is a profound effect on biological age. [1:18:12.5] Ashley James: So your pets will be with you longer and won't be as geriatric.  [1:18:21.9] Mario Brainovic: Exactly. It's the overall health and wellness of the animals and their lifespan.  [1:18:26.9] Ashley James: I love it. Thank you so much for coming to the show. I want to ensure we touched on all the important information you came here to share. Is there anything else that you want to make sure you share today?   [1:18:39.9] Mario Brainovic: Jump on our newsletter because we are constantly doing new studies. That's the way you can follow our progress. I would love to come to your show again when we do more studies to share because I love to share with people like you who are dedicated to bringing light to the world.  You could choose to do anything with your life and your time. And you decided to bring health, healing, and the best of the world to people. I admire that. Thank you so much for doing it because you are becoming a beacon of light. And we need to make a network on the planet. Then we are actually contributing, exactly like you were doing. So, thank you for that.  [1:19:38.5] Ashley James: Absolutely. Thank you. I'm going to own that beacon of light for the world. You know, I suffered for so many years, and then I was able to reverse that, and I wanted to end the suffering. I want to help and spread this information. That's why we call it Learn True Health because we learn that this whole level of health is out there that's not being taught. This is true health. We have access to true health, but we have to almost unbrainwash ourselves from the mainstream media, Hollywood, all the junk out there, all the processed food junk out there, and the culture that says eat a pint of ice cream. Go drink a bottle of wine if you're stressed out, or your boyfriend broke up with you. If you feel bad, go to the gym and exercise for twelve hours because you don't feel good about your body. It's just like, where is this love for your body? Where's this balance? Where's the true healing where you can move your body in a way that brings you joy, and not because you're not moving your body because you feel guilt or shame, right? How about love? Why not do things just because you love your body? There are just so many nutrients out there that will heal disease.  One of my mentors did a $25 million federally funded study in the 60s and 70s, where he discovered the cause and cure for nine hundred diseases that cross species lines. He discovered the cause of cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy and then was blacklisted from all research institutions that get money from big pharma. That's when he became a naturopathic physician, helping and healing people with food supplements and nutrition. He helped me see that we've been fed many lies since we were infants, even starting with just formula.  Now, I love that there are formulas for most mothers who can't nurse. I couldn't nurse. But we were told as mothers, when formula came out, that it was more nutritious than mother's milk. And now we know that is wrong because mother's milk is a probiotic, is the child's immune system, and is so protective of the child. I'm glad the formula exists for those who need it. But to convince women that it was better than nature, that same tactic has been used against us for everything: from food, from how we view our body to how we view health; that chemical man-made thing is better than nature over and over again. And so true health and Learning True Health is about uncovering the information you share today that will allow us to reclaim our health, transform our temples, transform our bodies as God intended, and be truly healthy.  So thank you so much for doing the work that you're doing. I love that it has the potential to transform the planet and transform our lives. Blessings upon you. I am so excited about your work, and I can't wait to have you back on the show, especially when you have more to share about the studies you're doing about bathing in this coherent, structured water and agricultural studies. I'd love to have you back for that as well. I'll make sure I hook you up with my farmer friend, who was a guest on the show. I know he'll be interested in this.  It has been such a pleasure, Mario. So let's stay in touch, and thank you again for coming on the show and sharing with us today.  [1:23:33.7] Mario Brainovic: Thank you so much for having me. Let's stay in touch. I'm going to send you everything that we're doing. We're constantly doing a lot. So I will send you all of the studies that we are doing and thank you for being the beacon of light that you are and for sharing the relevant information exactly. I love everything that you just mentioned. So we need to return to the natural ways of health and not get diluted by all the information coming out. We need to return to the natural sources of health, and water is one of the important ones. Thank you for having me.  [1:24:21.8] Ashley James: Wasn't that an amazing, mind-blowing episode? I am so excited for you guys to try the Analemma and see how you like it. They have now launched the ability to sign up for the home system pre-order on their website. I can't wait to get my home system because I want to bathe in this water. I want to know what this feels like. It feels so good drinking this water. I have taken the Analemma, held it to my heart, and held it close to my body for a few minutes. I'm very in tune with energy, and I can feel it. I feel so good. It's almost euphoric. I really feel good when I'm holding it to my body. It's structuring all the water inside me.  My husband juices daily, usually celery juice with lemon or lime and ginger. And then sometimes we will add beet, carrot, or cabbage. But most of it is celery. If you've ever had celery juice, it is kind of gross. It's not my favorite of all the juices. After juicing, he stirred it for about two minutes. It was a big jar of juice. He stirred it for about two minutes with the Analemma and then said, okay, try this. And, oh my gosh, it changed the flavor of the juice. It tastes amazing. It's not because of stirring it vigorously but because of the device. So we've done this several times with our juice, and it's so delicious. There's something about it. Our body loves it. I cannot wait to bathe in the structured water and see the results there as well, shower in it, take that hose, and use it in the garden.  So the system they're selling for $1,800 gives us a 10% discount. The coupon code is LTH. So, you could use that home system, and your entire house, garden, and everything would have access to it. So you don't have to stir your water anymore. Now everything coming out of every faucet in your house is coherent, crystalline structured water. It's really exciting. I can't wait to hear the effects from listeners, especially the bathing, the idea of getting all the skin benefits, and how that will help people. And then, of course, the garden. If we double our yields and the results we get in the garden, it will really make it worth gardening. It's just amazing to get delicious fruits and vegetables every summer.  So thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for sharing this episode so we can help as many people as possible to learn true health. Go to learntruehealth.com/structuredwater and use coupon code LTH and get the Analemma for yourself so you can structure your own water you cook with and drink. Also, sign up for that pre-order for your whole house unit. After you try the Analemma, you'll say it really works. I can't wait to experience it for my entire house, and it's also a sneaky way to get into the rest of your family, right? You don't have to do anything. You just hook it up to your house, and then that's it. Anytime we can add something that improves our health without having to think or do something, it is so worth it. Awesome!  Thank you so much for listening, and stay tuned for the next episode, which will be with Dr. William Davis. It was amazing. I just finished that interview today and can't wait to publish it. That will be episode 500, and that's the testimonial episode. So, please get your testimonials in. You can record them on your phone and shoot me an MP3. I'd love two to five minutes of you sharing what changes and improvements have been in your life because of the podcast and the guests. I'd love to hear your testimonials. It might not seem like a big deal to you, but for the listeners who are suffering, it would mean so much to us to hear stories of hope and inspiration and to hear stories where people have improved their health. So if my podcast has made a difference in your life, please share that with me. You can either write me an email. I would love to hear an actual MP3 of you talking. Don't worry about sounding perfect or being perfect. It's not about being perfect. It's just about being yourself, and everyone will love it because hearing the results of how you've improved your health can cascade and can ripple out and help many other people. We want to help as many people as possible. So please email me at support@learntruehealth.com with your testimonial so I can include that in that episode. Thank you so much, and have yourself a fantastic rest of your day.   Get Connected with Mario Brainović Website Facebook Instagram YouTube TikTok

Check out Chef Mark Reinfeld's upcoming courses and online culinary trainings: Learntruehealth.com/nourish Phototherapy Patches: To work with Ashley James and try the phototherapy, Go Here: https://www.learntruehealth.com In the Menu, click Work with Ashley James The Best Coherent Structured Water Device: Use coupon code LTH at https://www.learntruehealth.com/structuredwater   Online Health Coach Training Program: CHECK OUT THE FREE SAMPLE CLASS:  https://www.learntruehealth.com/coach I love IIN; the Institute for Integrative Nutrition is where I took my Health Coach Training and where you can transform your life and become an Integrative Health Coach! The whole program is online and designed for busy people, so anyone can do it!   Free 7-Day Holistic Doctor Course by Ashley James: FreeDoctorCourse.com   Join the Learn True Health FB group: https://www.learntruehealth.com/group   Ozone Machine: https://www.learntruehealth.com/ozone Listen to episode 484 for more info on why and how to use ozonated water made in your home for energy and mitochondrial function: https://www.learntruehealth.com/at-home-ozone-therapy-for-immune-mitochondrial-health-eileen-durfee   High-Quality NAD Brain Supplement: Use coupon code LTH at https://www.learntruehealth.com/nad   Listen to episode 460 about the benefits of high-quality NAD on cellular function, energy production, and mitochondrial health: https://www.learntruehealth.com/nicotinamide-adenine-dinucliotide-supplement-nadovim-nad-the-missing-link-to-energy-brain-function-and-longevity     Sunlighten Sauna - the sauna Ashley uses, loves, and recommends: Be sure to ask for the listener special! https://www.learntruehealth.com/sunlightensauna   Listen to episode 245 to learn from the founder of Sunlighten Sauna as to why this sauna is the best tool for your health journey: https://www.learntruehealth.com/sunlighten-saunas   The World's Most Effective Magnesium Soak: Use coupon code LTH at livingthegoodlifenaturally.com   Listen to episode 294 to hear Kristen Bowen share her story of recovery and discovering the world's most absorbable form of magnesium: https://www.learntruehealth.com/magnesium-foot-soak   Ashley's Favorite Spirulina and Chlorella: Use coupon code LTH at EnergyBits.com   497: Healing Deliciously: How To Nourish Your Life Through Food https://www.learntruehealth.com/healing-deliciously-how-to-nourish-your-life-through-food In this episode, Chef Mark Reinfeld teaches us how to make plant-based healing food to prevent cancer and other diseases. He will also discuss the benefits of using food as medicine, which can benefit our overall well-being. Ashley James & Mark Reinfeld Highlights:  Holistic Doctors Make Healing Delicious Nourish Your Life Through Food & Living Beyond Cancer How to take healing foods and make them so that your kids want to eat Benefits of increasing nutrient-dense foods in your diet How to make plant-based foods taste good Marinating a Portabello mushroom with balsamic How the Doctor and the Chef works Intro: Hello, true health seeker, and welcome to another exciting episode of Learn True Health Podcast.  We have such a fun episode today with Chef Mark Reinfeld. He is a whole food plant-based chef, and he married an amazing woman who is a naturopathic physician. Together, they marry holistic medicine using food as medicine and all the science behind that, with delicious culinary recipes. How amazing is it that we can nourish our bodies and use food as medicine to heal every cell in our body and bathe every cell in nutrients?  I have been doing this podcast for seven years. March 1st will be the 7th anniversary. But way back in the day, I interviewed an amazing doctor on his deathbed, and basically, the doctor said, your liver is in absolute failure. Go home to finish your will and say goodbye to your loved ones. Your life is over. And he sat there on his hospital bed, ready to pack up his stuff to go home and die, and he thought to himself, wait for a second, I understand how the liver works. I know how the body works. And he just got this vision. There are over 37 trillion individual cells in your body, and here he is about to die. He's thinking, every cell in my body is like a house. My body is like a county. Your body is like Manhattan with all these individual homes; each home is a cell. There are certain things every single cell needs. It needs to bring in the groceries and take out the garbage. And something's gone wrong on a cellular level for my body. My body is not bringing in the groceries and taking out the trash. That very simple idea is what he went home with. And he goes, how can I help my body? And what did he have to lose? He was dying anyway. Then he said, okay, I'm going to do everything I can to support my liver to decrease inflammation because inflammation is like when there's a big hurricane, and now there's a flood around your house. The groceries can't get in, and the garbage can't get out. That's what inflammation is. It's a flood around your cells, not letting the good stuff in and the bad stuff out. And there's an order to things. So he got rid of the flood between every house in his body, and then he started to bring in the groceries and take out the garbage. He supported all three systems in his body, including the different detox pathways. And he lived for many years, went on to write many books to all the doctors' amazement, and to helping other people heal. And I love that image, which has always stuck with me.  This is what our guest today does. He helps you make mind-blowing delicious food that helps the body bring the groceries in and take the garbage out. Anytime you can make it healthy, easy, delicious, and fun for you and the whole family. That's a big win. So you don't have to be vegan or want to be vegan to listen to this episode. Our chef today teaches using a whole food plant-based diet. Everyone can benefit from increasing nutrient-dense foods in their diet. Doctors show, and it has been proven in many studies, that increasing antioxidant and polyphenol-rich foods in your life can prevent cancer, decrease many diseases, and improve outcomes. Plus, it brings so much flavor with all the spices and herbs in healing the body. Mark is here today, and he's going to share with us some amazing recipes and ways of thinking about eating and adjusting your life so you can get in even more nutrition, more nutrient-dense foods, get those groceries in the cells, and take the garbage bags out of the cells. Mark is about to launch two courses. He's also working with other holistic doctors; one is called Living Beyond Cancer. We talked a bit about that; the other one is called Nourish Your Life, and both sound delicious.  You can go to learntruehealth.com/nourish to see more information about Mark's upcoming courses. They are starting very soon, so if you're interested, you'll want to jump right in and check them out. That's learntruehealth.com/nourish. And of course, the links to everything will be shown in today's podcast at learntruehealth.com as well as whatever podcast directory you're listening to us from. You'll be able to go into the show notes of the description in this episode, and you should be able to find those links.  I have had such an amazing time since I published the last episode. On the previous episode if you hadn't listened to it, I said, hey listeners, if you want a call with me, you want to talk about the phototherapy patches, then sign up for a free conversation. I have been slammed from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. talking to people, and it's been amazing. So many of the listeners are trying the phototherapy patches, and now the listeners are reporting back to me who bought them because they got on them and we are getting some incredible results. There are some testimonials about getting thyroids to come back online. There's a very easy protocol for detoxing the thyroid and then turning the thyroid back on with the stem cell patch. In talking to some other practitioners and looking at the testimonials, I'm seeing that women in as little as three weeks are needing to go back to their doctors, get tested, and needing to be put on lower medication. And in some cases, completely taken off their thyroid meds in as little as three weeks. Now, any improvement from something that supports the body's ability to stimulate, the body's ability to heal, is amazing. The glutathione patch increases glutathione by 300% in 24 hours. The stem cell patch boosts stem cells in the body, turning on thousands of gene expressions. We are seeing some tremendous results.  I've got these people reversing osteoporosis and osteopenia. People are gaining muscle. People are healing concussions, like chronic concussion post-concussion syndrome. They're seeing that their brain is coming back online. Brain fog is going away. The stuff is returning back to normal. I have seen great things around anxiety and sleep. For me, my energy is through the roof. And now I'm leaving just a bucket of sweat on the gym floor because I'm pushing myself so much harder because I have the energy for it. I have this abundant amount of energy that feels just like childhood. This is the kind of energy that I've been wanting. Have you ever just sat around the saddle and looked at kids or grandkids and go, where do they get the energy from? And then remembering when you had abundant energy like, oh I wish I felt that way. Well now, I feel that way, so I love it. And if you want to try it, I'd love to help you. I'm just in awe of the results we're getting, and I'm having so much fun helping the listeners. We've had some amazing conversations. I've connected with some beautiful people who are like friends for life now.  So if you would like to chat, go to learntruehealth.com, and click “Work with Ashley James” on the top. The first option is the free photo therapy session where we'll have a conversation. It says it's 15 minutes, but most of these phone calls have been longer because of all the questions people have, and I am totally fine with that. I've been adding a little time in between the calls just in case they go over. So bring your questions to me. I'd love to chat with you. And if you're shy or you just don't have time to chat, because my schedule is being booked up pretty fast, and you want to talk sooner, you can always email me at ashley@learntruehealth.com. I'd love to chat and help you. You could also message me on Facebook. You can come to Learn True Health Facebook group at learntruehealth.com/group to find us. Come join us and talk to me. I'd love to hear from you.  And get on those phototherapy patches. There's a money-back guarantee. For me, I love things that are no risk. And I figured out the way you can order these packages to get the best benefit. It saves you $70. I'd love to help you make sure that you order the right patches for the right protocols, and also save the most money because I'm all about saving money. I have purchased over a hundred different holistic things in the last ten years, and I love experimenting. And you know, it's the spaghetti test. Most things are pretty amazing, and in the things that aren't, I want to get my money back. So I love that this company stands behind its guarantee, which is awesome. Thank you so much for being a listener. Thank you so much for sharing this podcast with those you care about. Together, we are helping people to end needless suffering; so that holistic medicine can bring them health and vitality. Sometimes it just takes a little shift in the right direction, and the body is going to take over and start running with it, and I want everyone to have true health.  That's what we're doing here today. So take what Chef Mark says, as a sign to try out new vegetables, try out new flavors, and try out new things. Look up certain foods, spices, and herbs that nourish and heal the body, and see how you can play around with them. He's got some amazing books, and we talked about recipes. If you want to learn how to conquer your kitchen and own it, you'll definitely want to take some of Mark's classes. You can do that by going to learntruehealth.com/nourish.  I promised in the last episode that this episode would be about structured water. I apologize, but stuff got turned around. People made requests, and I'm publishing this episode. So you're just going to have to wait one more week, and then I will publish the water episode. The structure of our episode will blow your mind. It's awesome. So watch out; you'll want to listen to the next episode. And without further ado, enjoy today's episode.  [0:11:19.7] Ashley James: Welcome to the Learn True Health podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James. This is episode 497.  I am so excited about today's guest. We have with us an amazing vegan infusion chef, Mark Reinfeld. It's so good to have you on the show. Our good friend, who's been in the holistic health space for many years, introduced us. And what I love is Mark has such a talent for taking plants and making them amazing and so delicious. He teaches how to take healing foods and make them, so your kids want to eat them; they taste so good. What I also love is that Mark not only has a partner for life in your wife but because she's a naturopathic physician, you guys partnered together in business. And that gives us such an incredible compliment because there are so many doctors out there, and I've read lots of those healthy cookbooks for the doctors trying to come up with the recipes, and it's like something horrible. Their information is sound, but they tell you to eat plain oatmeal or whatever. It's just so gross. Whereas you take your amazing culinary skills and then couple them with your wife's wonderful information on using food as medicine. And together, you combine that so that people can heal their bodies while still enjoying the food on their plates.  It was so funny because yesterday, my son was eating something; I can't remember what it was, but he goes, why is everything healthy for me taste bad? That's just such a funny thing. He was parroting what we often say, like, drink this medicine or aloe juice. And then he paused, and he goes, it doesn't taste bad. I like it. But he chooses to eat raw vegetables. I cannot cook him a vegetable. If I steam him some broccoli, he looks and goes, what did you do to my broccoli? He just wants to eat plain raw food. I can't even use these tools to make things taste good.  But we have Mark here who has all these skills, and I want to hear your ideas so that all of us in the kitchen can spice something up and add something to our dishes tonight. So I'm not saying everyone has to be a vegan, but everyone can benefit from adding more nutritious foods. And you're here to teach us how to spice it up, so welcome to the show.  [0:14:09.2] Mark Reinfeld: Thank you so much for having me, Ashley, I'm excited to be here.  [0:14:13.2] Ashley James: And I hope that after today, I've learned some tricks that I can take to the kitchen, and my son will never say again, why is my healthy food always have to taste like this? He knows the buttons to push on our kids. It's so funny how family does that. And then he sits and eats it all anyway, so I know he likes it. But I want to make something taste amazing, and I know you can help us.  And what I also love is what's coming up, and I want to make sure listeners know about it. You are launching two courses with your wife on February 15th and 16th. One is called Living Beyond Cancer. So we'll get you to talk more about that because nutritional oncology is coming into this and setting your life up in the kitchen to maximize the healing for someone facing cancer and recovery. And then you also have Nourish Your Life, which is soon being launched, and just taking these principles of using everything you put in your mouth as your healing, but also doing it in a way that's just so delicious.  You've been a chef at restaurants, and you have won awards. My friend raves about you. So I'm very excited to have you on the show today. So before we jump in and learn some tricks in the kitchen from you and about your wonderful programs that are coming up, what should we know about the life of Mark, this vegan chef? What should we know about you to be oohed and aahed?  [0:15:57.3] Mark Reinfeld: Well, that's a great question. Plant-based cuisine has been my passion for many years, to show people how to make plant-based foods taste delicious. So, a lot of times, we could learn about how important it is to include more plants in our diet and not know how to go about it, or sometimes the food just doesn't come out that good. For me, if the food doesn't taste good, no matter how much intellectually we might know how important it is, I don't think you can make those long-lasting changes. So for me, it's one of my missions to show people that everyone has the capability within themselves to create food that tastes good and they enjoy. And so I've been doing that for decades. As you said, I've worn many hats, from running a restaurant to writing several cookbooks that we can talk about to running the kitchen at major vegetarian festivals. So, I've been around the block for over 25 years in this field. I love sharing what I have picked up along the way with others.  [0:17:15.7] Ashley James: I love it. Didn't you run a restaurant in Hawaii? [0:17:22.7] Mark Reinfeld: We did. I went to Hawaii for a two-week vacation, and we wound up staying there for eight years. So it's one of those longest recorded two-week vacations in history, and a group of people turned an internet cafe into a vegan cafe. And I have had several years of consulting and menu and recipe development experience. So when I landed, it was the perfect storm, and we opened the Blossoming Lotus Restaurant on Kauai shortly after I arrived through our mutual friend, who was also involved in the restaurant.  [0:18:00.6] Ashley James: Since you're so good at menu creation, I was hoping you could create for us a Learn True Health podcast menu that we can make in our kitchen for people who might be afraid of cooking vegetables, afraid of bland food, and maybe even have some picky eaters. So what is super healthy but delicious that we could whip up for beginners? [0:18:27.9] Mark Reinfeld: For our listeners right now? [0:18:31.5] Ashley James: Yes, just something at the top of your head. Please think about the first thing that comes to mind that's easy to make but delicious.  [0:18:38.8] Mark Reinfeld: Pestos are the first things that come to my mind and are one of my favorite things to make. They're really easy to make. There are a lot of fresh herbs, and you can use garlic and green onion. I like spicing it up with some chili peppers or crushed red pepper. And those could be over either a simple roasted vegetable dish or with noodles. So we'll talk more about my go-to meals, which I call a monk bowl. This is also through our friends who shared that with me many years ago, using a combination of a green and a protein. You could whip out these simple meals. And if you have this lovely pesto sauce, it's a winner. [0:19:25.9] Ashley James: So, I am oil-free and gluten-free. And what I like to do when I make pesto; I learned this from one of my friends because she has a gardener husband, who often brings or harvests too much arugula, if you can imagine too much organic homegrown arugula. But there it was. They could get quite spicy. And so he's harvested these pounds and pounds of arugula. So she took arugula and some of the nuts you put on this thing. What are they called? [0:20:08.6] Mark Reinfeld: Pine nuts. [0:20:09.9] Ashley James: Pine nuts, thank you. She only did a few pine nuts. She did a lot of arugulas, some raw garlic, a few liquid aminos, nutritional yeast, and then some pine nuts. But not a lot of pine nuts. She blended it like crazy, put it in jars, and kept it for so long that it fermented. It was delicious, and it lasted for a while in the fridge. But we would take that, scoop it, and slap it on our bowls. So that's my favorite pesto. But see how it's so easy. You can do pasta with basil, but you can also do it with other herbs. You can play around with it. But, as you said, play up the spiciness, and that's fun.  [0:20:56.2] Mark Reinfeld: You could also do an oil-free pasta. I like to put some avocado in there too. That gives it some of that oil. And it's one of the ways that I encourage people to get creative and break out of the recipe trap by viewing recipes as templates or the underlying formula. With the pesto like you mentioned, you could replace the basil with arugula, or you could also use parsley or cilantro. So there are tons of ways to make pesto. [0:21:28.0] Ashley James: I sometimes hit that wall where I'm just burnt out. I have a great selection of things in the kitchen, but I get stuck in that trap where I repeatedly cook the same few meals. What is a great unique recipe, maybe from one of your books? We can talk about your books. What's a great recipe that shakes it up and gets people out of their food routine where they got burnt out? [0:22:02.4] Mark Reinfeld: That is a great question, too. Depending on the type of dish, I like getting creative by using a seed and a nut crust on dishes. You could do an encrusted portobello mushroom. I like doing it with tofu cutlets, where you could use things like macadamia nuts or hemp seeds to make these flavorful mixtures that could then be added to give that texture of a crunch to different vegetables and tofu as well. So the super firm tofu is my go-to for that.  [0:22:41.7] Ashley James: I love it, and I love that idea of a portobello because I like marinating portobellos with balsamic and then roasting them in the oven with other vegetables. They've got a flavor that a Portobello will absorb. This was way before I became plant-based. A vegetarian friend once told me she ate a portobello mushroom at some event. It was like a vegan wedding. She goes, that portobello was marinated like it was steak. She said it was so delicious. And she talked to the chef, and they did marinate it as if it were steak. So they chopped up some onion, garlic, and all these herbs in a balsamic and wine and had them all soaking in there. I don't know for how long, but as long as you would marinate a mushroom. Then they roasted them or grilled them, and it was just mouthwatering. My husband, a meat eater, just woke up about 5 or 6 years ago and said I would never eat meat again. It's just that something switched his brain, and I would have lost that bet. If someone had told me when I met my husband that he'd one day not eat meat because that's all he ate and he hated vegetables, he just switched like 100% overnight, and his personality went from 100% meat. He will tell a joke about vegans all suddenly becoming one. And so I had to learn on the fly because I cook all the food in the house. I had to learn how to cook this way. On day three, I served him something, and he said this tasted so good. He goes, vegetables taste so good. If you had told me that this would taste as good, I would have quit meat years ago. It has worked for him. In the show, I don't like pushing any diet dogma. I believe in using food as medicine. If you can find healing by introducing more nutrients into your diet, that's great. And so we look to power couples, like you and your wife, where you're combining medicine and culinary skills to help enrich our health through making delicious food. So I've put you on the spot long enough. [0:25:01.6] Mark Reinfeld: That's good, and I'm reflecting on it also. One of my really big tips is to create global spice blends or to utilize global spice blends, which is a big part of vegan fusion cuisine, which is my cooking style. And so, it could be as simple as purchasing the Caucasian mix, Ethiopian mix, or Moroccan mix. There are a lot of pre-made spice blends, and I love sharing how to make global spice blends that open the door to a whole world of cuisine for people. So if you're in a culinary rot, getting familiar with some of these spice blends, you could turn simple stews and soups into this whole array of world cuisine. So that's another one of the ways to break out of a routine. [0:25:54.0] Ashley James: I have never actually gotten into Ethiopian food, and everyone kept telling me to try it. So I bought some Ethiopian spice blend and put it on plain potatoes from the instapot. I cut up some potatoes, steamed them, sprinkled them, and was blown away. I've never had these flavors this way, and it's interesting how the spices overlap with India. Because of the spice trade they were creating, there's that overlap. It wasn't curry. But there's a bit of overlap with some of the same spices they used in Indian food. But I loved it. I love that idea. In America, we are so used to doing more Italian or BBQ. But then, jumping over to two different cultures and trying their herbs, you could cook the same food, like potatoes, add those herbs, and bring it up to a whole new level. Or sometimes, eat steamed vegetables, then sprinkle some herbs on them. It doesn't have to be super complicated. Sometimes I'm just in a rush, and I throw a bunch of vegetables in and steam them, and then I can choose whatever spice blend to sprinkle on top, which changes the whole experience.  [0:27:16.3] Mark Reinfeld: Yup, it's one of my big tips.  [0:27:19.2] Ashley James: So, as you and your wife have worked together, can you tell us how that has worked in terms of helping people reclaim their health? How does the dynamic of a naturopathic physician and a chef bringing their skills together work? [0:27:40.7] Mark Reinfeld: We formed our business called The Doctor and The Chef, which makes sense given she's a doctor, and I'm a chef. It's like pairing plant-based cuisine with natural remedies and plant-based nutrition, and it's like a return to the origins of medicine. As you said, food is medicine. You touched on it earlier by saying a doctor alone can tell you what to eat and maybe why to eat it. But combining that with the chef, who has decades of experience, can create the flavors people enjoy, making it sustainable. That's what we love doing, as we like taking people from wherever they're at from the beginning. So in our course, we start with me pointing to the kitchen. That's where the kitchen is. And then we get to the kitchen and the knife; this is the sharp end of the knife. So this is where you hold the knife. So we start with background zero and then guide people to make these changes stick. So that's what it's all about for us. Food is a core part of what can bring us health, mental clarity, and energy. And so, utilizing the principles of plant-based nutrition and making it taste good is the absolute winning combo. [0:29:14.3] Ashley James: Has your wife ever been into plant-based nutrition? She's a doctor, so she's got to look at the science behind it, right? So tell us a bit about how she decided as a doctor that this is the best way to help people heal.  [0:29:29.4] Mark Reinfeld: She has a unique journey. She went to a naturopathic medical school in Portland, and they are not so much into plant-based nutrition there. In her studies and reading, she realized the importance of plant-based foods and the phytonutrient and creating a healthy microbiome. And there are also other aspects of why people eat more plant-based. And so, it's the combination of her nutritional knowledge, understanding, and other beliefs surrounding preserving the environment. So when we met, she studied for years to get her doctorate and then realized I needed to learn how to cook. I need to know how to make the food, and that's what my calling has been. That's how she came to it. And then realize the importance of showing people the need to reclaim our health. And a big part of that comes from learning how to prepare our food. It's wonderful if you have access to prepared food in your community or good restaurants that you can order from. But nothing compares to the kind of love and attention you could put into creating your own meals, and you could decide how much salt to put in. So, things like that help control your health. [0:31:10.5] Ashley James: You're making a good point that most people eat takeout or go to restaurants. I have a form that all my clients fill out when they start working with me. It asks what percentage of their meals are home-cooked. I very rarely ever see where it says 100%. Most people are between zero home-cooked meals, and there are a few people who say I eat 100% take out, then there are some people who go; even though I eat at home, I'm eating one hundred percent packaged pre-made foods. I have to open a can to eat or microwave something from the freezer. And then some people say, okay, about 75%. So it's rare that I even get someone saying 90%. Then usually, when I start talking to them, they usually realize that even though they wrote down 90%, it's more like 50% of their meals are eaten out, like every morning it's Starbucks and then breakfast sandwich, and every lunch is Subway sandwich. So, that kind of thing, like wait, I'm only eating seven meals at home a day which is my dinner, and then half of that I'm bringing home takeout.  It really adds up, and I think we have a blind spot. Like when we stopped looking at our bank account. Have you ever done this in your life at any point? There are a lot of people who are responsible for their bank accounts. But have you at any point, maybe when you were a teenager or in your twenties, don't look? And if I don't look, there's money in there, and we don't get in touch with the numbers. So when we go unconscious of certain areas of our life, like going unconscious with our finances or going unconscious with our eating, that's when drama happens, right? Like you've got drama from bills or drama from health because we are eating more and more processed food even though we may not admit it to ourselves.  And with the problem with processed food, especially eating at restaurants, you can attest to this as a chef and someone who's run restaurants. The restaurant owners are not bad, but they don't think about your health. Like, I've got to make sure I select the highest quality oil, and I have to make sure I pay the most for this organic produce that's locally grown and the most nutritious oil. They're thinking about the cheapest oil possible, especially because prices have doubled for restaurants and the cheapest GMO pesticide-filled foods, and then they put oil in everything. You get rice from a Mexican restaurant, and it is covered in that very cheap oil, and it's very unhealthy, and we know now it causes cancer, right? This is where I had to have a little come-to-Jesus talk with myself last year. You don't see the chain of custody even when you're ordering out and think you're making good choices. You don't know the quality of this food if it's GMO or not, or if it's organic, or talking to be organic if the restaurant doesn't say it's organic. And then, on top of that, it's covered in these low-grade, low-quality oils. So anything that isn't you cooking from scratch, you don't know the chain of custody, and the quality is just not there. That's filled with pesticides, and we don't know. [0:34:50.7] Mark Reinfeld: Agreed.  [0:34:51.8] Ashley James: It comes back to, we need to arm ourselves with really quick, simple, delicious healing recipes so that it is almost as easy as ordering takeout. It's like a door dash. It seems more complicated than just dashing into the kitchen and throwing something together this delicious. We need that. But when we start to feel better, we understand why it's so important. Then committing to 15 minutes in the kitchen every day, or 20 minutes in the kitchen every day, then that's like, okay, now I can be on board. We got to start shifting over to increasing more home-cooked meals. So I love that it's what you're doing because I've had doctors tell me this: I can't come home with you and get you to do these changes yourself. I could tell you what to do based on your lab results, based on the science of the studies, but I'll see you in six months, and good luck. But you're taking the patients, and you're like, alright, here's a chopping block, and here's an onion. Let's get going.  [0:36:08.3] Mark Reinfeld: Definitely, yeah. We have two kids, so quick and easy is my mantra in the kitchen. I want to get the meal done in 20 minutes, and as you know, the books are called The 30-minute Vegan, and there are four books in the series. So for years, that's been a priority. And never more than now, with two kids and a pretty busy lifestyle, it's all about minimizing the dishes and maximizing the flavor. [0:36:39.3] Ashley James: Many people think the word vegan means healthy, and it isn't. There are a lot of unhealthy vegan foods. I talked to many clients who said, ” Oh, I was vegan, or I was vegetarian in the past, ” and it made me worse. Way back when I was a teenager, I tried to be a vegetarian. The word vegan didn't even exist in the 90s. As far as I was concerned, it was vegetarian. I tried to be a vegetarian a few times, and each time within a month, I'd gain weight. I was feeling horrible. And I thought I was making the right choice because all I was doing was eating fast food without meat. So I was eating pizza. And I knew that dairy was not good for me, but I was like, pizza is vegetarian, and that's healthy. This is coming from a sixteen-year-old who wants to try vegetarianism. And I tried to get it at nineteen and twenty. But every time, I got more and more unhealthy. So then, that means eating meat is healthy. But I ate way more processed food because I lacked culinary skills, so I switched over. Many people think vegan isn't healthy, and it doesn't mean you're healthy. So what you're doing is helping us learn how to include super nutrient-dense foods into our lives in a way that will be incredibly healing for us. I'm going to put you on the spot again. I'll prepare myself to take a deep breath. Since you have two kids, what recipes do you have that are kid full proof? What are some excellent, go-to recipes for anyone with a picky eater or kids? [0:38:42.0] Mark Reinfeld: I'll share that. I want to comment on the going vegetarian thing. A lot of times, that is the case when people say they went vegan or plant-based, and it didn't work for them, and on further inquiry, they became pastatarian, and they were eating a ton of pasta, and Oreos or vegan, for instance. So that's an excellent point. And as far as kids, one of our sons will eat anything literally. Like he'll eat fistfuls of cooked spinach, our other son will contemplate a grain of rice from six different angles before he eats it. So I put him in the picky eater category. And for us, it's trying to discover what works for him. It's like a balance of the mental health side of it, to not wanting to put pressure on them or have the dinner be stressful. He happens to love the way I cook tofu. So I do a simple marinade with tamari and a little oil. You can leave the oil out and roast it at 375 for about 20 minutes; he loves eating that. The vegetable that he does like is steamed broccoli. It's just discovering that he does like his hummus sandwiches. Like your son, he likes raw vegetables. He's comfortable eating half a dozen cherry tomatoes. So as parents, we're just trying to nurture the foods that he does want to eat and do our best to get the good foods in. He likes avocados too. So we're fortunate in that there are some healthy foods that he does want to eat. But you probably know the hiding trick, also. So if your kid doesn't like avocado, and if he likes peanut butter and jelly, you could get a thin layer of avocado under the peanut butter. There are ways to sneak the food in, and that's our strategy. I wish I had more to share. [0:40:58.7] Ashley James: No, that's great. I like it. I have snuck some things. My son is almost eight and is open compared to other children. But I've made some fun things. He's allergic to avocados now, which is sad because he loved them when he was younger. But who knew that somebody could develop an allergy to avocado? I used to make avocado chocolate pudding, and you can also do the same with yams. You know those yams that are nice and orange, right? And I would bake them till they're done being baked. And then, take the skin off and throw it into the food processor with some plant-based milk and some date syrup or stevia maple syrup. The maple syrup is my favorite because it gives a little smoky flavor or the date syrup. You don't have to put a lot because the potatoes are already sweet. You don't have to put in a lot at all. You could try it without, and then just put organic cacao powder and blend that. And you do not need to put in a lot of plant-based milk at all. I blended that like crazy, and then I would serve him bowls of this for dinner. And he's like, hahaha, I get chocolate for dinner, and I'm like, hahaha, he's eating an entire sweet potato, the entire yam. But he likes it as it is anyway. But it's so much fun. If you want to blend some gentle greens like spinach, it is really easy because it's such a gentle flavor to mask in there.  I used to make “ice cream” in the summertime, where I'll take frozen fruits and a little bit of coconut milk from the can so it's nice and thick. I'll blend some greens with the banana and the blueberries well, making this wonderful, rich sorbet. That's, of course, with the vitamix except it's green. That's how I do it with spinach, kale, or whatever. But I can't do it on kale because it has a distinct flavor. But I get lots of greens in there. And then I'm like, look, it's mint ice cream. Yeah, it's fruity, and he eats it. It's a great way to sneak the vegetables in as well. He always likes it, but if sometimes I overdo the vegetables, he looks at me like, this is more green than usual, and he now knows. He knows I'm getting more vegetables in him. But he will readily eat a bowl of raw vegetables. He'll attack the kale on the way home or sometimes while we're still in the grocery cart. He'll sit in the grocery cart and start eating the kale before we have even paid for them. We're going to be paying for them. It's by the bush, not the pound, so it's okay. But he'll attack the raw leaves, so I feel blessed. But he is also a picky eater. Roasting vegetables is your friend because it can get super delicious, easy, and quick. So that's a lot of fun.  Now, you talked about microbiomes. Your wife is interested in helping people build their health from the ground up, knowing that gut health is the most important thing. Do you have any recipes she encourages her patients to use to build a strong microbiome? [0:44:39.4] Mark Reinfeld: Her main suggestion is variety. So we do an exercise to see how many different foods you can eat in a week. And that, from her perspective, is one of the best ways to create a healthy microbiome. [0:45:03.3] Ashley James: Love it. Is that a variety of cooked and raw? How did she go about bringing that up?  [0:45:09.6] Mark Reinfeld: It could be cooked and raw, and it ties into the question that you also mentioned about the kids doing superfood smoothies, and our kids love that too as a great way to get nutrients and a variety of ingredients in. So we put some of the superfoods like hemp seeds and chia seeds. So we do maca powder and other greens to get both varieties in starting our day. So that's the other one of my recommendations, along with the spice blends, for how people could get started using those superfood smoothies. [0:46:00.7] Ashley James: Love it. Yeah, you can ramp up the smoothies. I've had Green Smoothie Girl, Robyn Openshaw, on the show before, and I've been on her show. She was sick. It was in her early twenties. Since she had a child that failed to thrive, she remembered what her grandmother had done. This is like, did they even invent blenders back then with her grandmother exactly doing concentrated drinks with vegetables? This was before the word smoothie was even created. And she remembered hearing the story about what her grandmother was doing, and it helped her. So intuitively, she went to the kitchen, threw vegetables and fruits into a blender, blended it, and just started drinking it. Her child, a young toddler, saw her drinking this and wanted it. And then she's like, oh, I don't know. So she tried not to give it to the kid to see what happened. And the kid's like, no, I want this. And she's like, okay, like reverse psychology on the toddler. And the toddler loved it. And so she gave it daily to her toddler, and the toddler went from failing to thriving fully. And she got her health back.  All her children and the whole family grew up having these green smoothies. But the variety of what you put in it is essential, like just rotating everything. She raised a bunch of kids, and the first thing she did before she cooked dinner was chop up a ton of different vegetables, make a big vegetable platter, and just put it on the table. And I love this idea, especially for teenagers. It's like when you're hungry when you come home from school or work. Imagine if there was just this beautiful vegetable platter, with some other dips already made for you, and you could sit there and snack. Even though some of her kids ended up rejecting healthy stuff, wanting fries instead, and being picky eaters, they all would snack on and graze on all the vegetables. So by the time she was finished cooking, they had all gotten a bunch of vegetables in them.  So, I tried this with our son, and it works. I tried this with my husband too. So I would chop up a bunch of carrots and all the kinds of raw stuff and put it in containers and a timer on the go, and I'm like, grab your carrots.  [0:48:36.9] Mark Reinfeld: That's a wonderful idea. That's great.  [0:48:38.9] Ashley James: Grab your carrots and celery sticks. It's just great because sometimes we'll be going out to run errands, which turns into an entire day out, especially when I go grocery shopping. I'm hungry and tired and don't want to sit and cook. I want food now. The worst habit to get into is running your errands and then using that as an excuse to eat takeout, especially if you've gone through all the trouble to buy all this healthy stuff for yourself. So always have freshly cut vegetables put away and prepared for you, and then grab them on the go, especially just apple slices sometimes. We will snack on them in the car and between our errands, and then we'll feel really good and be energized. And I'll likely want to cook a nice, big meal when we get home from all the errands or running around. So just these little tiny habits such as taking a few minutes can save you a ton of money because eating out is expensive. [0:49:42.7] Mark Reinfeld: Grocery shopping when you're hungry is off. My wife can always tell when I will pick up all these random items that I normally wouldn't, because I was hungry when I was shopping. So that's a good tip. [0:49:58.5] Ashley James: We're like hunter-gatherers, right? So we're just hunter-gathering in the grocery store. And of course, if you're hungry, that part of your body is like I'm just going to gather more. Whatever it is, I'm just going to gather more of it. My wallet has definitely felt bad, so you had to eat before you go grocery shopping. That's a good one. So you guys have been teaching people for years how to transform their habits in their kitchen to heal their bodies. Now you got these courses coming out, and I want to touch on both of them, but Living Beyond Cancer is near and dear to my heart. My mom died of cancer. One of my best friends died of cancer. I've seen so many people, and I also know people who have survived. Not to be so grand, but I've had several friends who beat cancer. But I've seen the amount of suffering that people go through and how important food can play a role in their healing. So tell us about your course that's coming up. What led you guys to want to pair with an oncologist to create this course?  [0:51:09.2] Mark Reinfeld: It's a deep topic that is not to enter lightly. My wife lost her brother to cancer, and I've lost family members to cancer. Dr. Robert Ellis is a board-certified medical oncologist and integrative medicine specialist. He's a third-generation oncologist. His grandmother was an herbalist who specialized in it. And so he's been in practice for 30 years. The course is focused on remission and survivorship. So it's really geared towards maximizing and enhancing life when you're in remission and during survivorship. He actually took a course of mine several years ago in Portland, and he recently retired. We created a course together for continuing medical education. He's part of the Oregon Society of Physicians, Osteopaths, and Surgeons. We did a CME course together, where he would lecture on plant-based cuisine for half the day, and then we would take the doctors and nurses into the kitchen. I would show them these simple tools that I share on how to make the food taste good. So that's how he reached out after he retired, and wanted to work together again.  Ashley and I developed this nourish program, and so we thought to combine forces to create this program, Living Beyond Cancer. Basically, it uses all the recommendations from the American Society of Clinical Oncology in the National Institute of Health, and also the recommended lifestyle modifications of MD Anderson on survivorship. A lot of it relies on proper nutrition. So the course focuses on the first pillar of plant-based nutrition which is what Ashley and I specialize in, and Dr. Ellis has had a lot of success bringing in the other pillars, which are mindfulness and exercise. He likes to say that the way to maximize survivorship is going from the couch to the kitchen to learn how to cook. The couch to the cushion to create some form of mindfulness and stress reduction practice, and then the couch to 5K where you build up, to where you could walk up to 5K. So we're really excited and honored to be working with Dr. Ellis, and it is a matter that's near and dear to our hearts. [0:54:19.1] Ashley James: That's brilliant. So listeners, you definitely got to share Living Beyond Cancer with all your friends and family who are battling cancer or who are on the other side of it and now rebuilding their bodies after battling cancer. It's such a juggernaut. I have had many interviews with holistic health professionals, including oncologists who kind of gone rogue. I've had at least one oncologist who had his license taken away because he was too busy helping people cure themselves and not radiating them. So you always want to find the doctors who are being mavericks in their field while getting results because the status quo is not good. The survival rates are not acceptable. I want 100% success and the body has an amazing ability to heal itself, and we've seen that. There are outstanding results you can get, but you have to go outside the conventional system to get them. Even just outside of North America or I should say Canada and America because in Mexico, there are a lot more choices there, but out in Europe they use treatments in their hospitals that science has proven to work and oncologists are not legally allowed to use them here. So why would a country not let doctors use therapies that are not drug-based, are cheap to administer, and have incredible results that do not harm the patients? And yet only allow them to do surgery, radiation, and drug-based therapies that have horrible side effects. And speaking with an oncologist, she said that chemotherapy has a 2% chance of giving you a different kind of cancer, like leukemia, for example. If you want any kind of chemotherapy, and I'm sure it's different between each one, but just across the board, that's two out of a hundred people. At first, it doesn't sound like a lot, but it actually is a lot. Because if there is a 2% chance that there's a bullet in the gun that you're holding to your head, you're not pulling the trigger. I don't care if it sounds like a little, but two percent is a lot. And yet there are natural treatments that are incredibly effective, that have no negative side effects like causing other cancers, and they are illegal to use or administer for the oncologist to even give out here in the United States. So it is a for-profit industry. We're being censored to the point of not being given all the information in the mainstream. That's why I do what I do to spread this information. But hospitals in Europe are doing treatments that are not being allowed to be done here, and they're doing them successfully. It just breaks my heart to think of how many grandmas, moms, dads, and brothers are suffering, because they go to the oncologist and the well-meaning oncologist who wants to help are limited in what they can offer you because of the way the system is setup. They are limited in what they can offer you.  So here we have, putting the power back in the hands of the people. You're doing Living Beyond Cancer. But, of course, that is giving them the tools to slowly build their life back and get walking and heal themselves, decreasing stress and increasing nutrients from their food. So this is good.  I saw it over and over again when one of my friends battled cancer. It's a long story, but she battled it for a long time holistically, and she ran out of money, got too tired and tried chemo and radiation, and died almost immediately from that. But she lived for quite a while doing it. She lived with it for a long time. And then the radiation just puts holes through her body. I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy. But she noticed that on the months that she was stressed out, all her numbers would get worse and her tumor would hurt, and it would grow. Then in the months that she really focused on eating healthy and exercising, just like walking in the woods, and decreasing stress, all her numbers would get better because she got blood work every month. Her tumor would shrink. The inflammation around her tumor would go down. Her pain would go away. It was just remarkable. One stress that would happen, and it was, boom! Everything would be just like losing a fraction of all the good stuff. So, stress is such a huge role and so is your nutrition. It plays such a huge role. So I love that you addressed that in your course.  [0:59:40.7] Mark Reinfeld: He is like, you have your personal mission, and I have mine. Dr. Ellis has devoted his life to helping people navigate this landscape. He is a really amazing individual. Every time I talk to him, I'm inspired, specifically by this survivorship. And looking at the recommendations from major health institutions like MD Anderson, this fits with the recommended lifestyle modifications. So it's not like a fringe type of thing. These are things that major organizations recommend. And we're just really honored to be able to work with him to bring some of this information out. [1:00:33.1] Ashley James: The major holistic alternative therapy treatment centers are out there. I'd love to have him on the show. I'd love to pick his brain. Definitely set that up; for sure, it's so cool. [1:00:50.2] Mark Reinfeld: Yes, definitely. He'll light you on fire. He's very inspiring. [1:00:55.2] Ashley James: Nice! We'll do that. So those who are listening and want to take a course, Living Beyond Cancer, and work with an oncologist that will light them on fire and get them super excited and take all the steps to healing their body and learning those tools, you want to check that out. The links to everything we're talking about today will be on the show notes of today's podcast at learntruehealth.com and in the podcast's description, wherever you're listening from. The next course is Nourish Your Life. This is similar to the first one and not for people overcoming or rebuilding their bodies after cancer. So who is Nourish Your Life for?  [1:01:35.5] Mark Reinfeld: This is for anyone who wants to incorporate more plant-based foods into their lives but needs help figuring out how to do it. So we developed this course, as I mentioned, for wherever people are at. We meet them where they're at. We do a 90-minute Zoom interactive presentation once a week for six weeks. And Ashley, Dr. Budai presents the nutrition side and gives people a basic understanding of plant-based nutrition. Do you often need that fortification of whether I am getting enough protein or calcium? Or what are the healthy fats? So it's a good solid understanding of plant-based nutrition. Each week of the program, I go through a really ground zero. This is the sharp end of the knife. This is how you stock your pantry. This is like a basic equipment list you could use to start. You could go with just a knife and a cutting board. So I like to encourage people to make it easy to move into this. So we set up a membership community where people can ask questions.  Our mission is to help people sustain a plant-based lifestyle or include more plants in their lifestyle, whatever that turns out to be. As you said, the vegan police are not present in any of our classes. Everyone is welcome. I love seeing people light up when they realize I can cook. I can make this food taste good. I can prepare healthy food for my family. Ashley and I have 45 years of combined experience living a plant-based lifestyle. We share much of what works for us, and it becomes second nature. So the course is for anyone wanting to include more plants. We work with doctors who are busy cardiologists. As you know, there are more studies and research that are coming out to show that a lot of the major health challenges that we are facing as a society, particularly cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, and certain forms of cancer, can be prevented and reversed by including more plant-based foods in our diet. So busy doctors don't have time to show people what to do. They could say you need to eat more plant-based or reduce your meat consumption, but people must learn how to do it. So it's for anyone advised by their doctor for these conditions to include more plants. So that's who we love working with and helping. [1:04:52.3] Ashley James: I've had cardiologists on the show who have reversed heart disease, unclogged arteries, using a whole food plant-based oil-free diet. But even the word plant-based, I think, is like the word vegan. It does not mean healthy because I can get a Beyond Burger or whatever burger. It falls into the vegan junk food category if you want to eat that. If you want to try it, go ahead. Beyond Burgers is safer than the other ones because the other ones have GMO ingredients or weird lab-based ingredients. But all those “plant-based” foods got these fake alternative meats, which is the same as going out and eating at a restaurant. You don't really know the chain of custody. They're not choosing the highest quality ingredients for you. You are way better off learning how to make your own lentil burger at home.  I have done some amazing experiments. Be willing to burn food, like me. I hate wasting food, but be willing to make something bad and throw it out because you've learned. It's like you are Edison, and your meal is the light bulb. And you will get it the more you try, I promise you.  [1:06:26.2] Mark Reinfeld: I like to say there are no mistakes in the kitchen.  [1:06:29.1] Ashley James: There definitely are when you have many hungry family members waiting for you. But this is why you practice on your own time or make a backup meal if you're experimenting. It's so funny because I always experiment. My husband looks at me sideways, like, am I the guinea pig today? I'll hand him something, and I keep smiling at him, but in the back of my mind, I want to say you might not like it because I burnt it or overseasoned dinner. He's taught me just to shut up and smile at him and wait till he says something. [1:07:05.5] Mark Reinfeld: Like I used to say, there are no mistakes in the kitchen. If you go to a restaurant with a smokey navy bean soup, someone may have burnt the navy beans earlier in the day, or you could call it rustic if it doesn't come out quite the way you wanted it to. So I really like that. In all my classes, I encourage people to keep a positive attitude, be gentle with themselves, and keep trying. I like the Edison metaphor. That's great.  [1:07:41.9] Ashley James: So I remember these burgers I made were so good and were just three ingredients. I know it's all ⅓ of something, like ⅓ brown rice, ⅓ black beans, and ⅓ quinoa. I just blended it together. You can probably do ½ cooked brown rice, ½ of some bean, and then blend it. And I added a bunch of chipotle-style Tex-Mex kind of spices and squished them into patties on a parchment paper baking sheet. I baked them until they were crunchy on the outside but not burnt. I sliced a bunch of avocados, and I also had in the fridge a mango salsa, which is from Costco. This is the one thing that I didn't do. It's a little bit spicy. Then I took a beautiful purple cabbage, and I took the brawl leaves off. So that became the burger. It was so easy to make.  It was really beautiful because of the purple leaf. And then I put the patty in the leaf and the greens. So you got the purple, the green, and the brown, and then I covered it with this beautiful salsa. You pull over the purple cabbage and eat it. The burger is still hot, so you have the hot burger and a little bit of the crunch. And then you have that sweetness and smoothness of the avocado and the cold crunch of the cabbage. It was delicious. We had guests over, and I'm just throwing something together, and we'll see what happens. And we ate all of it. Everyone wanted seconds and thirds. It was so beautiful. I would take that over Beyond Burger or some Frankenstein, lab-created fake meat. Just try rice and beans. [1:10:08.0] Mark Reinfeld: You'd be great as a cookbook author because that perfectly describes the food. You used a lot of good descriptive adjectives.  [1:10:16.7] Ashley James: Nice. All right, maybe I have a future in that. Thank you.  [1:10:21.6] Mark Reinfeld: The purple cabbage is funny because my sister got my son to eat purple cabbage just by calling them cabalicious chips. Somehow now, he likes purple cabbage just because they're called that. [1:10:39.9] Ashley James: Yes, you do have to play around with words with kids for them to like it. And that is funny. Last night, he really wanted to eat bok choy. I didn't have any, but I had napa cabbage. I'm like, here, I bought you his cousin. And I handed him a bunch of washed leaves of napa cabbage. He looked at me, ate it, and said, yeah, this thing is related to bok choy. [1:11:06.0] Mark Reinfeld: Very cool.  [1:11:07.1] Ashley James: You got to play with it. And I like that idea of variety because I've heard from many doctors that different plants' fiber feeds the gut bacteria. And so it really is that variety of both cooked and raw from organic sources. That would be great if you could get more than thirty of that variety. Some indigenous cultures live off the land, and they're not vegan. If they get to kill a pig, which doesn't happen often, most of their diet comes from foraging, and they eat over a hundred different varieties. And these are the tribal people that we're discovering have the most diverse gut microbiome and are the healthiest. And those microbiomes are missing from the Western world because of antibiotics, like lactobacillus rotor, which has been completely wiped out from the Western population because even one dose of antibiotics will wipe it out. They have seen the correlation between eating more variety of plants with a more diverse microbiome, which leads to a stronger foundation of health.  [1:12:22.2] Mark Reinfeld: It might have been thirty a day.  [1:12:27.8] Ashley James: Oh my gosh. We must have Dr. Ashley on the show when she returns from her trip. I would love to have her on the show and have her share some of her science and what she loves about using plant-based to heal the body. You did talk a little bit about your books. Tell us more about your books. Which one is your absolute favorite? If we could only get one of your books, which would be the life-changing of all of them? [1:12:53.3] Mark Reinfeld: That's a good one. That's a really tough question. It's like asking who your favorite kid is. The first book, which is out of print, which I co-authored with Bo Rinaldi, Vegan World Fusion Cuisine, is the summation. At the time, that was a life workbook, a culmination of years of traveling and culinary exploration. It was magical when Bo and I met; he'd been traveling and was accomplished on his own. That book is out of print. If I had to say a book that's most readily available, it would be Healing the Vegan Way, which has over 200 recipes and contributions from many leading plant-based doctors and nutritionists. So many of them you would be familiar with. There are oil-free variations and gluten-free variations for all the recipes. It also has a nutrient reference chart that talks about which nutrients are essential for which body systems, like the cardiovascular, skeletal, and nervous systems, what the plant source of those nutrients are, and which of the recipe in the book provide those nutrients. So it's a fantastic reference guide.  I know you asked me for my favorite, but the last book was the one that I co-authored with Ashley called The Ultimate Age-Defying Plan. It has a foreword by Dr. Klaper. And with that book, some recipes are seven ingredients or less. So it's straightforward and easy to follow. It also breaks it down based on the crucial nutrients for each body system, where and how to get them, and what recipes provide them. So that's the one I'd like to give as a giveaway. It's The Ultimate Age-Defying Plan.  [1:15:06.3] Ashley James: Oh, that is so nice of you. I'm so excited. Will you give us a link so we can download it?  [1:15:12.4] Mark Reinfeld: I could send you a copy. But it's like a giveaway to someone. [1:15:22.4] Ashley James: Okay, so here's the thing. You're going to give away that book, seven ingredients or less, which you've written with your wife, a naturopathic physician, where you're making nutrient and healing recipes. I want listeners to go to the Facebook group learntruehealth.com/group. From there, I'll make a post. It'll be pinned to the top, and I'll ask you guys to say something, and I will have my son pick a person. I want to avoid having my bias pick the person. It will be random. But I'll open it up and say, okay, scroll through here. He can read now. I used to do this when he couldn't read, and he would pick people based on their profile pictures. Now, if your profile picture has an axolotl, he'll probably pick you. But right now, whoever wants to be part of the giveaway, I'll have him pick someone, and then we'll get your address and send you the books. That's really generous, thank you. So off the top of your head, or you can grab the book, can you share a recipe or two from that book? I love the idea of the seven ingredients or less recipes.  [1:16:55.7] Mark Reinfeld: Can you pick a type of dish that you would like? [1:17:03.9] Ashley James: Do you have sections like salad, appetizers, entrees, and then desserts? You can open up the book randomly in different places. [1:17:17.8] Mark Reinfeld: So here's a berry chia bowl with pomegranate I just opened to. It uses fruit-sweetened chia pudding with pomegranate, cacao nibs, cardamom, strawberries, and sweet and spicy plantains, an amazing food. It has chipotle powder, allspice cinnamon, cilantro, and lime juice. We have a macro meal using vegetable stock with the sea vegetable arame, roasted veggies, and adzuki beans. I have a pecan sage holiday loaf recipe, so you say it's making a casserole. I do list optional ingredients. The core ingredients are seven, but there is more if you want to do more. I have a chili peach pepper jam or ruby sauerkraut. [1:18:35.6] Ashley James: I'm still back on the first recipe. So, I have this gift. I thought everyone could do this, and my husband pointed out that only some people do this. If you list ingredients, I can taste them. It's like synesthesia. Not only can I taste ingredients, but I can taste them when you mix them, and I can taste the final product when it's cooked, and in my head, I can taste it. I thought everyone could do that. So you're listing off these ingredients, and suddenly you throw in that cardamom, and I am drooling. [1:19:04.4] Mark Reinfeld: That's one of my desert island spices, the stuck on a desert island with one spice. Chipotle powder is probably my one spice, but cardamom is a close second. [1:19:18.2] Ashley James: Cardamom is so underutilized in the American diet, and you don't need a lot. There's just something about it. So you've got some really amazing, powerful flavors in these recipes. I'm also hearing the healing modalities in each recipe. You're going through pomegranates being incredibly high in antioxidants. They found this micro-blue zone in the United States where pomegranate was growing along the southwestern United States where the railroad was. Those from Asia brought over pomegranates, and as they built the railroad, they would spit the seeds out. So along the railroad, it's just miraculous, like Johnny Appleseed but with pomegranates. They found that they were just in this area, and it usually was poor farm towns where they lived off the land. So they were foraging all these pomegranates and eating them. And those who were growing up eating pomegranates their whole life, that micro blue zone, had more people living disease-free beyond one hundred, than those only a mile or two away that didn't have access to the pomegranates. I'm not saying it's the silver bullet to everything. But they're so good for you. So you can add them to your breakfast a few times a week. I love the cardamom with all those other flavors. I want to get your book now.  Do you have any stories you want to share with us? You've been in this so long, and sometimes when we get in it, we forget how cool it is for someone to say, hey, I'll try using food as medicine. I'll try going plant-based, but not the twinkie plant-based, and the pasta kind of plant-based. It's the plant-based that's like, I'm going to play this game called “how much nutrition can I pack onto my plate every day,” as Dr. Joel Fuhrman talks about the nutritarian diet. So he's not necessarily saying you have to go vegan. So he's saying you must crowd your plate with the most phytonutrients, vitamins, and minerals you can possibly crowd your plate with and see how you feel after doing that for a while.  That's why I love it because it's not about dogma. It's not about telling people they can't eat meat. It tells you you can eat these foods that contain antioxidants and are amazing for your gut, energy levels, and skin. So the list goes on and on. And as you said, some people are healing heart disease, healing their bodies from very common illnesses like type 2 diabetes, using this food.  Do you have any success stories of people who reluctantly started eating this way, knowing they needed to heal their bodies, and then shared their results with you?  [1:22:50.2] Mark Reinfeld: I do, actually. If you have 4 hours, I could keep talking about them. There are so many, but I'll start with the latest one. In my classes, there are people from all walks of life. I had a cattle rancher take my class, and she did a video testimonial. I don't think she realized what she was saying. She was saying on camera, well, everyone knows we should be eating less meat. It was one of those funny moments. But starting recently, in the class I'm doing, we have a retired Navy officer who then went into Homeland Security and retired. He basically found out he had diabetes, and his doctor said you're going to be on medication for the rest of your life. He did some research and came upon The China Study. He's not vegan, but he mainly ate plant-based and reversed his diabetes. He is no longer considered a diabetic. That was over a couple of year period. And then he returned to his doctor and said that my only change was changing my diet. They nod their head and say, that's great. It's like what we talked about earlier about the institutions and the recommendations that doctors have to make based on certain protocols. It's really frustrating when you see how many people's lives could be enhanced by making these changes to diet and lifestyle.  I have this retired firefighter whose doctor said he had diabetes and needed to go on medication for the rest of his life. He was in Taiwan, where he called his wife and said, we're going vegan, and we're going plant-based. So he changed his diet and went back six months later to his doctor. The doctor was like, I've never seen anything like this before. I don't know what you're doing but still keep at it. He reversed.  Another student came; he was very overweight and had diabetes. He was really concerned about taking my class, and he came. After the first day, he texted me and said his blood results had never been this good. And that was just after one day of eating plant-based, and then he went on. His story and the firefighter's is in the Healing the Vegan Way book. But he went on primarily raw foods, and he reversed his diabetes. Another woman, who was only thirty years old or in her late twenties, had really high cholesterol, and her doctor said she needed to go on statins. And this is what you will deal with for the rest of your life. So she went plant-based.  I've literally lost track. That's just off the top of my head of people who have made positive changes to their health. Even if it's not 100% vegan, it's just becoming, like you said, crowning it out, eating more plant-based, more nutrient-dense, and healthy plant-based foods. Things are slowly gaining traction, specifically with heart disease and cardiovascular disease. This is a very positive way that you can make changes for the better in preventing and reversing many of these diseases. [1:26:55.2] Ashley James: Dr. Esselstyn is one of the doctors that published the world's longest study on reversing heart disease using diet. His book is incredible. I recommend just getting it for any of your family members who have any inkling of heart disease. Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease is the name of his book. I had him on the show. He was doing autopsies on twenty-year-old soldiers during the Vietnam War when he saw that heart disease was already occurring in them. So you can imagine that heart disease starts in our teenagers from the food we eat. I'm not pointing the finger and saying meat is bad. But, again, I don't want to paint this as a black-and-white thing. I'm not a vegan police. I'm saying that the standard American diet, filled with fried food and really bad, low-quality oils, is just saturated in all the food. If you want to eat healthily, buy rice and beans at a Mexican restaurant. It is filled with cancer-causing, heart-clogging oils. And this isn't my opinion. This is the science. So Dr. Esselstyn figured out a way to reverse even up to four clogs in the heart. He had people with clogged sewer on their deathbeds and eating this way. It was a very simple way at first because he didn't have recipes. He was like, you stop eating all these foods and only eat these plants. And, of course, it was just plain and gross, and no one knew how to eat delicious back then. But those who stuck with it all reversed the heart disease super fast.  I had a client who was going to lose his job, and he loved his career. But his career required him to be within certain parameters with his blood pressure and cholesterol. Even though he was healthy, muscular, and super-fit, his cholesterol and blood pressure were through the roof, and he was very quickly going to be laid off from his career. So he was desperate, and I gave him all this information. Here's what Dr. Esselstyn says, and you can choose to follow that. But I've seen him get the fastest results in one month of eating this way. His blood pressure and cholesterol were within normal parameters, and he got to keep his job. And he loves his job, so for him, it was worth it. And just that kind of how quickly someone can reverse the health condition or can get back into normal parameters; I'm so excited to see that.  You mentioned statin, and I have to say this because many people don't know this. I had a doctor on the show who's not plant-based. He's a cardiologist, a research scientist Ph.D., and his name is Dr. Fleming. He invented the Fleming test or the Fleming method. He's been saying for 30 years that the beginnings of heart disease and cancer are the same. The beginnings are the detection of inflammation. He's very upfront about being pro-drugs, but he can't deny the evidence that food affects our health because so many doctors say, ” Oh, you have to be on a drug. Diet's not going to affect that. Really? So food doesn't affect our health, but drugs will? But he believes that food plays a role in healing. But he looks at it from the medical standpoint. So he invented the test that hospitals use to detect heart disease, the quickest and the soonest way when it is in the earliest stages of heart disease and long before you've seen massive clogs in the arteries. And his whole thing is understanding that the beginnings of heart disease start years before as inflammation and that he sees that the foods we eat are causing the inflammation. So we need to create a diet that decreases inflammation and can reverse these illnesses.  But here's the thing about statin drugs. Long ago, they were saying cholesterol is the cause of heart disease. Dr. Fleming and other mavericks in the research world were being canceled. So there's cancel culture back then because they said no, it's not. It is a symptom of it, as it happens later down the road. But we see inflammation early on, and then cluster occurs down the road. It is not the beginning cause. It is something that happens because of heart disease. Cholesterol deposits aren't the actual cause. It happens because of heart disease. They were saying giving people statins is not going to solve the problem. So we need to back up and go down earlier up the stream to the origins.  Back when they first introduced statin drugs up until about 10 years ago, so for at least 20 years, they required that you had to get a blood test every six months to make sure that your liver wasn't being too damaged by the statins. This is how statins work. Your body makes cholesterol. So I get my fat from wholefood plants, so I'm eating an avocado, not the avocado oil. I'm eating flax seed and not the flax seed oil. I'm eating an olive instead of olive oil. But I choose not to eat super high fat foods all day long. So I'm eating naturally low fat. Cholesterol is so important to us. It's the building blocks of your sex hormones, your stress hormones. It is what protects our nervous system. It's the myelin sheath that goes around like an installation around our nervous system and it makes up every single cell wall in the body. We've got over 37.2 trillion cells that require cholesterol to make the cell wall healthy. So we need to have healthy cholesterol. If you don't eat it, your body is going to break down the food you eat and make cholesterol. The liver is responsible for doing that.  So the doctors would take your blood and go, oh look, bad cholesterol. We have to lower your cholesterol. And instead of saying, by the way, maybe you should stop eating pro-inflammatory foods that are oxidizing your cholesterol causing LDL. Low density lipoprotein is a sign of oxidation in the body which is a free radical damage, like increasing antioxidant-rich foods and getting your fat from healthier sources, getting some good exercise in there, as well as all the lifestyle changes you can do. They just said okay, we're going to create a drug that damages your liver so much. It bruises your liver so much, it ceases to function correctly and it stops producing cholesterol. But they didn't tell you to stop eating it. This doesn't make any sense to me because if the problem was too much cholesterol, they never said stop eating the cholesterol, or stop eating the foods that cause the inflammation, and that cause the oxidative stress to the fat that's loaded with lipoprotein. They're saying, let's just damage your liver. If the pharmaceutical company was completely like this, it's so obvious that they showed their hand. How obvious do you have to be? These doctors have good intentions to help you. I've asked every cardiologist I had on the show if statins make a difference, and they say they do more harm than good. There's only one study that shows that if you took statins after your first heart attack, you'll be less likely to get your second heart attack. But I'm like, by the time you're having your first attack, there's some major damage and we need to reverse some stuff. But all these cardiologists said, statins do not prevent the first heart attack. It's damaging the liver.  But you brought up statins, and I think it's a really good point to take a step back and say, wait a second. I need to question everything I've been taught about food, healing, and medicine. I have to start thinking for myself and start looking around with what's working. And what we see work is taking that nutritarian approach of using the most nutrient-dense rich foods or fiber rich foods and adding those to our plate. That's what we're seeing really works.  [1:36:57.4] Mark Reinfeld: It's like the future of medicine is returning to the origins of medicine and Hippocrates saying, let food be your medicine. I think you come full circle to realize the important role that choosing the right foods plays in our overall health. [1:37:14.7] Ashley James: Isn't that wild? Do you have any go-to recipes for your own healing? If you have a headache, do you like to reach for the coconut water? Or if you injured yourself, do you make sure to add turmeric to your food. Do you have any first aid foods that you incorporate in your life?  [1:37:37.2] Mark Reinfeld: I would say making turmeric milk, or gold milk. My sister has done a lot of healing and has come across studies of the core foods to include and the turmeric milk is definitely one that I noticed helped me pass through if there's something going around here. I just dose up on the turmeric milk. You can make a really simple tumeric paste with powdered turmeric and a little ground black pepper. And I like cardamom. Whenever I could put cardamom in something, I do. So I put a little cardamom and cinnamon, and some cayenne in it as well and you could just mix that with water to form a paste. I feel having some warm plant-based milk helps me kick the latest thing that was going around.  [1:38:44.4] Ashley James: I love that. I do something really similar and we call it moon tea, but I make a concentrate of it. I can send you my recipe. This is after me playing with it. But I'm going to try adding cardamom. I haven't done that. But I'll add some ashwagandha, some mushroom powder, and also ginger and clove. They are antiviral and antiparasitic. And ashwagandha is so great for sleep. So I do all that and I make a concentrate. I take a scoop of it, put it in hot water, and then a little bit of coconut milk. You can add a little bit of date syrup or stevia if you want. My favorite is a little bit of maple. I'm Canadian, okay.  [1:39:35.4] Mark Reinfeld: Maple syrup is my go-to sweetener too. What form is the ashwagandha? Is it the powdered form?  [1:39:43.8] Ashley James: It's powder.  [1:39:45.3] Mark Reinfeld: Okay.  [1:39:46.2] Ashley James: If there's a better way, tell me, because I just buy a big bag of organic ashwagandha powder.  [1:39:51.8] Mark Reinfeld: Okay, that's cool. Yeah, we have the tincture.  [1:39:54.1] Ashley James: Okay, yeah. You know you're definitely getting a more concentrated amount. I already sleep really well, but I go to bed on my side and I wake up on the same side when I drink the stuff. I don't know if it's just because of the turmeric that's anti-inflammatory or it's coupled with the ashwagandha. I have an amazing bed that absorbs all the pressure points, and doesn't cause any pressure points. I have a whole interview about this technology that they invented originally to cure bed sores. So I can actually fall asleep and stay asleep for 8 hours on my shoulder and on my hip and and have no pain the next day. But I'll fall asleep in one position, and I'll stay asleep the whole night. If I drink this stuff, it's like I did not move the entire night.  [1:40:50.3] Mark Reinfeld: I love to check that out. That's amazing. The food is crucial and the sleep is very important. And that reminds me of something called The Nourish Plan, and we go through that in in the book, The Age-Defying Plan. But sleep is definitely a core principle for health. Pushed in a corner, I might even say sleep is the most important. They all fit together, but I'm glad you touched on the sleep topic.  [1:41:31.2] Ashley James: Yes, the S is in the beginning. You have to come up with the word that meant nourish but started with an S. [1:41:36.5] Mark Reinfeld: Well, that's what the S is for. [1:41:40.5] Ashley James: Can you tell us what the other ones are for? [1:41:44.6] Mark Reinfeld: Yeah, the N is for nutrition. So that's looking at the food and energy and phytonutrient that comes from plants. O is for oxytocin, which is just feeling the happiness hormone and feeling that sense of joy and connection. The U is for use it or lose it. So that's where the movement and the exercise or whatever can fit into your life. It doesn't have to be pumping iron all the time. The R is for relationships. So it's the importance of our fast-paced, digital culture, like the real importance of having that connection to others and the support of friends in your community. We all have our own stories to share the. The I is for intention, and that's where the mindfulness comes in and just bringing intention into how we live. I think that's an ongoing exercise for all of us. The S is for sleep. If there was a way to put S first, I might. Then the H is for hydration. It's the importance of water. Hydrotherapy is something that's really big in our house; the hot and cold with water, steaming, and just drinking good quality water. That's our Nourish Plan. [1:43:30.1] Ashley James: I love it so much. The S and the H are competing for the number one place. So one of my mentors has been practicing for 35 years, naturopathic physician, Dr. Molly Niedermeyer. She used to be the dean of Bastyr Naturopathic Medical College and she's delivered over a thousand babies. She's an amazing woman to pick her brain and I was fortunate to have her as my doctor for several years and I've learned so much from her. This is a tongue twister. She said 5% reduction in hydration leads to a 25% reduction in energy production. By the way, it takes a week to become dehydrated. Like if you didn't drink enough water and drink too much coffee that one day, but if you repeat that for seven days, and you have chronic dehydration. And it takes seven days of drinking half your body weight in ounces, plus any extra to recoup from sweating from exercise and from stressors like caffeine. But it takes you seven days. It's not just one day of drinking enough water and it's good. You have to do it every day for seven days and now you've recovered from chronic dehydration.   Imagine if you just drank 5%, that's like maybe 5 ounces. So 5% is not a lot. If you think, oh I drink 70 ounces, I'm good. I drink 60 ounces, I'm good. But if your body even needed 65 or 70 or 80 ounces, and you're missing just 5% of your hydration, it leads to a 25% reduction in your body's ability to produce ATP which is cellular energy. It also reduces your ability to clear toxins away from the cells and to bring in nutrients.  I had a doctor on my show who was on his deathbed and he used this thought process to heal his body. All the doctor said, go home to die, and he used this one process. He was in sepsis and his liver was in liver failure. He was really bad and he said, okay, I understand how the body works. I need to think about how to make a cell healthy. It's like every cell is a house. Take out the garbage, bring in the groceries. The cells have inflammation around it. So the groceries can't get in and the garbage can't get out. It's like a blizzard has come in, and surrounded each house. And now the organelles inside the house are stuck in going. I can't get the groceries in, and the garbage out. That's what sickness is.  So he had to break it down and he used hydration as one of his ways. And to everyone's amazement, he lived and thrived after that. I got to do everything possible to bring down the inflammation. So I hydrate so I can get the groceries in and the garbage out.  [1:46:34.3] Mark Reinfeld: Wow, that's a great metaphor. That's a great story.  [1:46:37.3] Ashley James: So your food and your nourish plan is getting the good groceries in, and getting the garbage out. And that's fantastic. I love that, and I love that you bring in intention as well. We don't realize that mindset is everything. If we're not moving towards the way we want to be, we're like an untethered boat just bobbing around in the ocean. We start to feel like we've lost a purpose. If we know where we're going, and we know that it's possible to have healing, which it is.  And many listeners know, but some new ones might not, that I had chronic adrenal fatigue so bad, I couldn't process human language in the morning. I was a wreck and I had type 2 diabetes. I was hungry and had to eat every 45 minutes. I had out of control blood sugar. I cry every day because I was a prisoner trapped in a really sick body. And this was in my twenties. My twenties were supposed to be going out partying and having fun. I was just sick all the time. It was holistic medicine that I was able to also reverse polycystic ovarian syndrome. I was told after a battery of tests that I'd never get pregnant. And we have an amazing son. I was able to reverse polycystic ovarian syndrome. It's no longer in my blood work and I no longer have the symptoms of it. So I was able to reverse infertility, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and type 2 diabetes. I was able to reverse chronic adrenal fatigue. That was the easiest, fastest thing to leave my body; and its nutrition. So if I can heal my body using food, so can you. And also, filling in the gaps with those wonderful supplements. It's like the mortar, food is the brakes. You can't add supplements on a bad diet. But also sometimes we need that extra support from herbs and minerals. So I love that.  I'm going to just jump into your books and I can't wait to add more cardamom to my diet. That sounds delicious. And we're doing a giveaway on the Learn True Health Facebook group. We've talked so much today, but is there anything we haven't talked about today that you really wanted to make sure we touch on? [1:48:53.1] Mark Reinfeld: One thing I'd like to say is what I've come across in just tuning into this idea of purpose and what our role is here. For me, like I mentioned, I just love showing people how to create plant-based food that tastes amazing. And so, I came out with these seven culinary keys to create amazing plant-based foods. If we have the time, I could just do a quick overview of them. But this is consolidating 25 plus years of working with them.  So the first is palate development. This is something that develops over time as you learn to develop the subtle flavors of food. So I like doing palate development exercises with people, of tasting garlic all the way from raw to burn or tasting water with different flavors, like salty, sweet, sour, or pungent, so you can develop your palate over time.  The second key is this template recipe format where you learn to see the underlying formula of a recipe. Once you see that underlying formula, you could see that by changing the different components you could create a new recipe. And that NOURISH course we offer; there maybe twenty-five or thirty recipes we share, but you're actually learning hundreds, and even thousands of recipes when you implement that template recipe format. The third key would be the global spice blends that that we talked about. It is just the simple act of stocking your pantry with these blends. Like you said, you could take a baked potato and create world cuisine just by adding those different spice blends.  The fourth would be world sauces. So it's really diving in and getting creative with your sauces. They could just be things like barbecue, Thai peanut, pesto, sweet and sour teriyaki. So, once you start adding all these world sauces into your repertoire, your creations really take off.  And then the other step I call is veganizing, where if you love your bacon cheeseburger, there are ways to create plant-based alternatives that could satisfy the craving. These might be in the transitional food categories that I don't recommend all the time. Like a vegan mayonnaise, is not the same nutrition as a shot of wheatgrass. But if it helps you overcome a craving and you're heading towards that, a whole food plant-based diet, I feel that they play a role. The sixth key is superfood nutrition. This is what you talked about, adding nutrient-dense superfoods, as well as raw foods, just to maximize the vitality of your meals. Then the last would be experimentation.  And the three most important thing is our practice, practice and practice, and you touched on that also. We're just experimenting in the kitchen, use different ingredients and techniques, and over time, you'll see your skills and your confidence and creativity will definitely start to expand in the kitchen. [1:52:25.0] Ashley James: I love it. Many people have heard of this, but I feel like I'm kind of late to the party, but there's something called ChatGPT, and it said, open source AI software, meaning you don't have to pay for it. So my husband and I had a lot of fun playing with it, and I typed in give me ten recipes. So I asked for recipes, and what it did is just gave me a list of ingredients, and it said, you got to experiment yourself with the different ratios. But this is more like an idea instead of sticking exactly to recipes. It's more like, throw in the pan and see what happens. And I asked it to give me ten dinner ideas for whole food, plant-based diet. This is an AI, an artificial intelligence, but it's crazy. I had so much fun. So here, I just typed it in because I couldn't find my chat before, which had some really delicious, and I was reading it like, my mouth was watering. But here we have quinoa stir-fried with vegetable and tofu. You don't need a recipe for that, because you could choose Italian seasoning or you could choose maybe curry, and there are different kinds of curries in the world. But I could make Japanese curry kind of gravy, or I could do pesto. So here we have quinoa stir-fry with vegetables and tofu. The second one is lentil soup with bread, chickpea and vegetable curry, roasted eggplant with humus and whole grain pita, stuffed bell pepper with rice, beans, and veggies, spaghetti with marinara sauce, of course, and roasted vegetables, sweet potato and black bean tacos, avocado and tomato sandwich with whole grain bread. It just goes on and on. My last one is grilled portobello mushroom with baked sweet potato and steamed greens. I didn't mean to let an AI replace you. That wasn't the point. Although you should feel a little threatened. The AI is coming after the vegan chefs, I'm just saying.  But if you need these ideas, there are so many out there. But for me, when I look at recipes, I'm looking at how much dense nutrition profile does this have? I'm not going to choose the one with pasta and the the pita bread and all that, because those foods don't contain a lot of dense nutrition. Those are fun to eat, sure. But I'm looking for the dense nutrition and anything that has lots of vegetables and lots of flavor. That's why I like your recipes because you've got your wife looking over shoulder going, okay, we should add the antioxidant-rich foods into this recipe. So I love that you got this doctor at your side going, all right, I really want you to create a recipe that has this many antioxidants in it. It's like, let's get at least 30 vegetables a week. I thought it was funny because you said per day, and I'm like, 30 plants a day kind of sounds like more than 15 minutes in the kitchen. That's like, you have 30 seconds per plant. [1:55:45.0] Mark Reinfeld: Well, picture how many could be in a nice salad. You could hit 15. [1:55:48.8] Ashley James: That's true, exactly. I love it. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I think the point is that for people who feel intimidated by the kitchen, there are so many resources for you. And in a very short period of time, you could go from not knowing how to cook, or not liking cooking, to really enjoying it. Because when you make delicious food and your family loves it, you start to feel healthy because of your food. It is a super big motivator. But we have to start with really simple, delicious, and nutritious recipes, and that's what you started with, to teach us the habit in the kitchen to build our confidence up. [1:56:36.6] Mark Reinfeld: Totally. That's what it's all about for us.  [1:56:39.6] Ashley James: Awesome. Well, good luck with the launch of your two courses that are coming up really soon. I'll make sure all the information is in the show notes of today's podcast, learntruehealth.com, and in all the podcast directories as well, so that they can check it out. It's been such a pleasure having you on the show and please, I look forward to having your wife on the show. And I definitely want to interview anyone that you recommend because you are so well-connected with all the amazing holistic doctors that are helping people heal their bodies, especially with food.  [1:57:10.3] Mark Reinfeld: Thank you so much, Ashley. It's been a pleasure speaking with you and I've learned a lot from you too. So thank you for all these tidbits.  [1:57:18.2] Ashley James: I hope you enjoyed today's episode with Chef Mark Reinfeld. And I am still drooling thinking about that cardamom in that dish, and I just love how he pairs some of those flavors. I love that he's thinking about people who are just starting out in the kitchen and especially those of us who are trying to get our health back. We're already tired. We already got a million things to do, but we know that eating out really deteriorates our body. It does not build us up. We're either building up or we're breaking down. That's how the body works. It's either going in one direction or going in the other. This myth of homeostasis, if we never achieve homeostasis, we're always trying to achieve it. We're always moving closer to the mark or away from the mark. So if you think about like, oh I'm too tired to cook, I get it. I have spent way too much money eating out. There's the cost on your wallet, but there's the cost on your long-term health. Your cells now have to figure out how to build new healthy cells with this limited amount of nutrients, because we are not getting the optimal quality nutrients when we eat out. We just aren't.  And so the best thing to do is to learn how to make simple meals. Now, I do. It takes me about 15 minutes from start to finish, to make delicious multi-vegetable meals, and it just takes practice and takes getting in the kitchen. The biggest thing I could say is, if you are feeding yourself or even if you're feeding your family and you only have enough time to cook once a day, you should make more. Double the recipe, or triple the recipe. Cook like you're cooking Thanksgiving, and cook a much larger portion. You can always freeze it. You can always portion it out. Leftovers taste better so you can heat it up, and eat it for lunch the next day. Heck, I've eaten dinner for breakfast the next day. It just saves you so much energy and time. Because if you're prepping everything once and you already have it out of the fridge, you're already cooking it. All it takes is just two more minutes to prep a little bit more of the same vegetables and the same foods. My biggest thing is I always triple or quadruple recipes, have leftovers for three days, and then it's just easy breezy, lemon squeezy.  So check out Mark's stuff. Go to learntruehealth.com/nourish, and see his beautiful recipes and know that everything that he does is approved by a naturopathic physician who is very hypocritical of the work because it's his wife's of course. She's looking over his shoulder and telling him what she believes are the healthiest foods to heal and nourish the body. And then he comes up with the amazing flavors. If we can enjoy health, then that's perfect. That's exactly what we need. So speaking of which, I'm going to go eat the leftovers. I cooked at lunch and I made enough so that I can have the same meal for dinner, because I wanted to save myself some time and energy and be able to do other things around the house, including publishing this episode. So, I'm going to publish this episode and go eat my delicious lunch part 2, for dinner. Have yourself a fantastic day and watch out for the next episode because it will blow your mind. Get Connected with Chef Mark Reinfeld!   Website Facebook Instagram Twitter LinkedIn TiktTok

To work with Ashley James and try the phototherapy, Go Here: https://www.learntruehealth.com In the Menu, click Work with Ashley James   496: Phototherapy Patches Ashley James & Trina Hammack Trina Hammack explains the benefits of using biophoton therapy patches to increase stem cell production and metabolism, lose weight, and stimulate the body's ability to burn fat healthfully and detox. All these things and more will be discussed in today's episode. Highlights:  Biophoton therapy patches A protocol for pain and decreasing inflammation in the body as a whole Cutting-edge technology stimulates the body's ability to make new peptides and create new stem cells. A technology that stimulates your body's own healing mechanisms Energy patches can increase your fat burning by 23% Holistic medicine and healing the body Intro: Hello, true health seeker, and welcome to another exciting episode of Learn True Health Podcast. Today is fun because we have Trina Hammack back on the show to share some amazing technology my husband and I have been using along with some other family members and friends, and we love it. The results are outstanding. I've been studying this and diving into it. As you listen to this episode today and want to try this technology, you can book a session with me where I can help you figure out exactly what protocol you need.  Go to learntruehealth.com, and right at the top, it says, “Work with Ashley James”. When you click on that, the first thing at the top will be Free Phototherapy Discovery Session. It’s a 15-minute phone call. Book it, and then I can help you pick the proper protocol. This doesn't make much sense because you haven’t listened to the episode. I just wanted to arm you with all the information you needed. So as you're listening, if you say, “Ah, this is really for me. I want to try it, ” then you can go ahead and book a call with me, and I'll help you through it. And I have access to many excellent practitioners who have been using this type of technology. This technology helps increase stem cells in the body, muscle mass, bone density, and collagen. People's cellular age is getting younger. People have more energy and more endurance. For those looking to increase metabolism, lose weight, and stimulate the body's ability to burn fat healthily and detox, all these things and more we discuss in today's episode. Suppose you are interested in using a type of phototherapy that's easy to do, you don't have to buy a machine, and you can do it at home in such an easy application compared to all the other big machines that people have to invest in to do phototherapy; this is amazing. I'll not say much more because you'll learn about it in the episode. I just wanted to ensure you had all the necessary information to take action when ready. So go to learntruehealth.com at the very top, click “Work with Ashley James,” and then from there, sign up for our free 15-minute phone call, the Free Phototherapy Discovery Session. If you have any questions, you can also feel free to email me at ashley@learntruehealth.com. Enjoy today's episode and share it with your friends who want to get a leg up. So maybe they've hit a wall, hit a plateau, and they want a cutting-edge, they want to get on the other side of something, they have a fantastic protocol for pain, a fantastic protocol for decreasing inflammation in the body as a whole. Be sure to share this episode with your friends who have pain or inflammation or want more stem cells, youth, muscle mass, and bone density. We’ll discuss all these things and many more in this interview. Share this episode with friends interested in the cutting-edge technology that stimulates the body's ability to make these new peptides and create new stem cells. It's wonderful because it's not something you have to add to your body. It’s something that stimulates your body's healing mechanisms. So it's right up your alley if you love holistic medicine, as I do. Excellent. Enjoy today's episode, and have a fantastic rest of your day. [0:03:43.6] Ashley James: Welcome to the Learn True Health Podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James, and this is Episode 496.  I am so excited about today's guest. We have the functional practitioner, Trina Hammack, on the show. Oh man, the things you do are so exciting. Trina, was it Episode 156? She blew my mind. We talked about getting rid of mold and mold toxicity in the home and how hidden mold can disrupt so many functions of the body, throw the immune system off balance, and throw detoxification off balance. And because of her, I went down the whole rabbit hole and interviewed several other experts on mold, and I had two experts from Green Home Solutions on the show. And so people listening, or like, “I have mold in my home, and I'm sick,” you guys have got to go back and listen to Episode 156. Then, of course, you can go to learntruehealth.com, type in mold, and find all those other interviews.  But Trina opened my eyes to many cool things about healing the body. We need to take back our health. We need to put our foot down and say, “I am done with waiting to get sick and going to a doctor who will put me on a drug that keeps me sick. I appreciate drugs for the ones that work, and when we need them, they are there. But I want to say 90% of drugs on the market are not only not helpful but also toxic. They’re harmful because they create a mentality that we wait to get sick and then get put on a drug when holistic medicine is out there. Every bite of food we take is our medicine. Everything we drink is our medicine. Every activity we do in our life is our medicine. There are so many herbs and supplements. There's energy work. And when I say energy work, there's science behind it, like frequency-specific microcurrent. I have a fantastic two-part interview on that, which speeds up the healing time after surgeries. So much, so that sports teams like the NFL use them to get players back on the field faster. These are multi-million-dollar industries, and they use them in their locker rooms and physical therapy. So, Trina, you use many of the devices and the incredible healing modalities that are so far out to me. They are so far out because we don't see them in the mainstream. Hollywood does such an injustice because you watch Grey's Anatomy and all these shows like Hollywood emergency medicine. But really, Hollywood has painted us a picture of the Western medical machine. This big machine is where you wait to get sick. You go to the doctor. They'll send you off for tests through machines or blood work, and then you'll get put on drugs. But medical doctors are not trained in holistic medicine and healing the body, getting the body so healthy, and supporting the body's ability to heal itself. They're not trained in that. So we're missing. That's only a fraction of the pie of medicine. But that's the only part of medicine we are exposed to daily, right? It's like, 5% of medicine is that type of medicine, and yet we’re exposed to it as if it's 95% of medicine. So there's the oldest medicine out there that's holistic, supports the body's ability to heal, and gets you so healthy. You no longer have diabetes and heart disease, which is reversible, and polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is reversible. How do I know? I reversed it. I used to have really bad PCOS. An endocrinologist told me I was infertile and I’ll never have kids. Guess what? I have an amazing son and don't have polycystic ovarian syndrome. I don't have diabetes and chronic adrenal fatigue anymore. I don’t have chronic infections for which I was on monthly antibiotics. Many things are reversed, and I've helped many people reverse other issues. Trina has as well. There are thousands of people that Trina has helped. So I know I'm on the soapbox. I’m coming in hot. I'm super excited today because Trina introduced me to something I've been using on multiple friends and family members for over a month. I've seen some mind-blowing results, and I've been super excited to share them with you guys. I wanted to try it, and we've been using it daily. And we've seen some phenomenal results of importing through science. Trina, I'm so excited to bring this to the listeners today because those listening are sick or suffering. They have friends and family who are sick and suffering, and they want to end that suffering. Some people have already changed their diet. They're already on supplements and doing healthier things, moving their body in a way that brings them joy. They're doing a lot of things. They cleaned up their home. They got rid of all the toxic chemicals underneath the sink, and they stopped using those cleaners. They’ve stopped using cosmetics that have all the horrible things. They got rid of processed foods with dyes, chemicals, and pesticides. So they've cleaned up their lives, and maybe they're still sick. They still have some issues. They are still tired and still in pain. And what you're here today to share has taken people's health to the next level. Even people who've tried everything and they’re still sick. So I’m excited.  This is one of those keys that maybe you haven't cleaned up your life, but you want to enhance your body's ability to heal itself while you're going through and cleaning up your life. Or, as I said, you're on the other side; you've already cleaned up everything, but you still have some nagging issues that aren't moving, and you're like, why am I doing all this stuff?  Today, Trina will share something that will make a difference in your life. So welcome back to the show, Trina. I'm super excited to have you here today.  [0:10:05.6] Trina Hammack: Thank you so much. I love getting together with you and sharing with your listeners all this fantastic information they may still need access to.  [0:10:18.4] Ashley James: So, diving right in, because it's been a few years since you've been on the show, I want to know what has happened in the last few years. When we had you on the show, you were helping people to detox mold out of their bodies and out of their homes and helping people regain their immune systems, immune function, and detox pathways, clean it up after mold exposure. You also help people with other chronic diseases like Lyme disease and many other chronic issues. So what has happened since then? Catch us up.  [0:10:55.8] Trina Hammack: Yeah. So back then, when we were talking about mold, my whole family, including the dogs, were going through cleaning up for the mold we had been exposed to. And I had been exposed since I was five. Having genetic SNPs is challenging for me to get rid of mold. So I colonized it. So for me, it’s work. And so when we did that interview, we were in the middle of cleaning up our own systems. We were doing well, but I didn't realize how much better I could be until I was exposed to a technology developed for the Navy Seals twenty years ago, and we started using this technology. At first just with my family, and this was after our interview. So I wish I had known about it back then to tell you about it, but here we are now. So I started using biophoton therapy technology to help my body detox differently than supplements and binders, and other therapies didn't cover this detox component. So when we started using this therapy, we started feeling better faster. My brain function became even more precise. My energy became more on-point and robust, and so did my stamina. So everything started to take on a new level of healing once I started using these biophoton therapy patches. That's what we were doing right after we spoke. Everything just turned on a dime from then on. We got better and better.  [0:12:40.4] Ashley James: You’re a functional practitioner. You have a clinic, and you work with clients. You started using it with your family, and then you started using it with your clients. What happened then? Please give us the timeline.  [0:12:54.5] Trina Hammack: So it was crazy because when I first heard about this, I was, sure, yeah, right. I'll bite. I had tried everything, but I still wasn't where I wanted to be. I was close, but it wasn't enough for me. So anyway, I hear about these, and I’m like, I’ll buy it. I bought them and started using them. And almost immediately, I started getting my energy back. My allergy symptoms from mold were getting better. Then I started doing some detox processes, and I kept improving. So my whole family was using them, and they were getting better. We used some of them on dogs. I would see immediate changes because our dogs are mold poisoned too. I was committed to using them just for my family for a while. And I wasn't going to bring them into my practice yet because I needed to vet them. So anyway, I haven't used them with anybody. Then one day, one of my clients in his 70s came in, and he was mold poisoned. He had Lyme, and he didn't sleep well the night before. So he went in, sat down, and couldn't speak to me. He was like, comatose. I can't even believe he got to the office. I was like, oh my gosh, do I call 911, or what do I do? And then it came to me, just in a flash, to use the biophoton therapy brain injury protocol on him. So, I took these biophoton therapy patches, stuck them on the inside of a ball cap in a certain configuration, and I just put it on his head, and I don't know what to do. I'm just going to Hail Mary in here. And I put it on, and in under two minutes, this man had color back on his face. His eyes lit up, and he started talking up a storm as if he had just woken up. He was just normal, and I was like, holy crow. Oh my gosh. And I said, hey, just wear the hat the rest of the week. You’ll probably get a good week's wear out of these patches. Just wear it and let me know what's going on. So I text him later in the day. I said, hey, how's it going? And he said, oh, I ran errands all day. I went surfing. Okay, here we go. So that was the first person I used them with within my practice. I still wasn't convinced. I'm like, okay, we'll see. And the second person came in; she had been a practitioner here, and I hadn't seen her for a while. She had gotten mold poisoned. We found mold in her home, and it triggered Parkinson's. My heart just dropped when I saw her. She was tremoring, and she had a shuffling gait. Her speech was prolonged, and she had two frozen shoulders. And she came by, and I'm like, what do I do, because I didn't know enough yet. I knew enough to put this brain hat on her for the brain injury, and it was incredible. Her tremors stopped instantly. Her speech cleared up, and her gait opened up. I'm like, wow, I just watched it before my eyes. Oh my gosh.  And then I patched her shoulders, and it took about two minutes, and she could lift them straight up in the air pain-free. She couldn't even take off her jacket a few minutes before because she couldn't raise her arms. And at that moment, I said, all right, everybody who walks in the door is going to get patched. And it's so true. We have excellent proprietary protocols that combine acupuncture and biophoton therapy for everybody who comes. When you know how to use them, it's incredible. You can see the pain disappear in under a minute. I've seen it disappear in ten seconds. I've seen inflammation go down before my eyes. There are so many ways to use them. So I’m beyond grateful that we have access to these protocols to know what to do with these patches.  People may wonder, what the heck is biophoton therapy? Well, these patches were invented for the Navy Seals twenty years ago. David Schmitz created these to help them with their strength and stamina for being in the submarines for days. They had sustained energy and brain function. They heal faster and all this stuff.  And so these patches get activated by the heat and light from your body when you put a patch on. You're not absorbing anything into the body which is not transdermal, which is fantastic. There are no contraindications when you use them if you’re on medications. So I use them on babies, all the way to older people with no contraindications. The light from your body will activate the patch, depending on which patch you put on. Hey, this stem cell activating patch; let’s put that on and raise your copper peptide levels so your body can make more stem cells and use them wherever you need them. Or let’s put on this carnosine patch to raise carnosine for tissue healing. I put a stem cell patch on an elderly dog this morning who had been traumatized from being at a puppy mill. I put the patch on underneath her collar, and I watched her eyes transform right before mine. The fear just melted away. It's fantastic technology. I'm beyond grateful for having found this because it takes every single protocol I do here and allows the person to take fewer supplements and move energy through their acupuncture meridian system, which is like your electrical system. So when you start moving energy through that system, it takes things to another level.  [0:19:42.9] Ashley James: You talked about light and heat that activate the patches. So I started digging into the science. I said this before on the podcast; I am an open-minded skeptic. I'm a huge skeptic, but I'm also equally as open-minded. I feel like I should go in and try new things. I thought everyone did this. Have you ever had the experience where you thought everyone thought the way you think until you meet someone that thinks so opposite you? You think that this is just normal human behavior. And then, like, oh wait, no. This is a gift. This is my unique gift; maybe a lot of people do it, but many people don’t.  So, I have a family member who never wants to try new things. She wants to go to the same restaurant. She never wants to go to a new restaurant and only orders one thing off the menu. The first thing she's ordered the first time she goes, she will never deviate. She hates change. I am the opposite. I will never order the same thing twice on the menu. I also don’t want to go to the same restaurant. I’m just using it as an example; I try not to eat out. I love trying new things. Instead, I'd try something new that may disappoint me, then stick with the same thing all the time. For me, that's learning and growing. And of course, if something works, like I make a delicious salad, I will repeat that delicious salad. Of course, I’m going to do that. So if something works with me, like there are a few supplements that changed my life twelve years ago; I'm still taking them. I'm not going to stop just because I want to try something new. If something works, I'm going to keep it. I love trying new things, but I'm also skeptical about new things, so that I will use my critical thinking. Anything to do with patches, I've been skeptical. It was introduced to me a few years ago about these nutritional patches that promise you that you can get all your vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and all your fatty acids or mega fatty acids from putting a patch on your body, and your body would absorb everything. And I'm looking at you like, okay, so you're telling me that my body will get something that should be like a handful of things, right? And it's going to fit on a tiny sticker, and you're putting it on my body. So I've been very skeptical because there's been a lot of patch companies out there that have said that they are nutritional patches. That's why I've been very unsure about that. Although I believe we can absorb certain nutrients through the skin, like transdermal magnesium. It’s amazing. We can absorb certain nutrients that go through the skin. Absolutely.  And then you and I have been friends on Facebook since you came to the show. I've loved everything you've shared. Back last February, almost a year ago, you shared some science about these patches helping people with stenosis and spine issues like the degeneration of the spine and the disks, and how there was science to show and that there have been studies that people are regrowing bone density and healthier bones. Their pain is going away, like things like that. I had two friends with stenosis, and I said, give me that information. I want to share it with them. So I started to look into this. Then life got busy, and I kept going and didn’t think about it.  And then, a few months ago, my son was very hyper when sitting down and doing some homeschooling. He's free-range, like how a boy should be. He'd instead climb a tree than sit and read a book. Is there anything we can do to calm his nervous system enough to concentrate? We do not feed him sugar, and he acts like we do. He eats a very clean, safe, and healthy diet. I was trying some homeopathy and acupuncture. Everything helps a little bit. I noticed a slight improvement here and there. It's just a seven-year-old boy, and getting him to sit down for a few hours and focus on stuff he’s interested in isn't necessarily fun. But I was getting frustrated, like, is there anything we can do to calm his nervous system?  Since our daughter died, I have been doing a lot better. But I noticed for my nervous system, it's much easier to be frazzled, to a point where I would get overstimulated quickly. This is part of healing from post-traumatic stress, and I would feel like my nervous system is just shot. Have you ever had that experience? Like, I need to lie in a dark room without noise. I don't want anyone to bother me for fifteen minutes. I need a break. So I never had that before. I'm an extrovert; I want to be with stimulus. I love stimulus, but the last few years have been difficult, coupled with trying to get a kid to calm down. He's enough stimulus as it is.  So I reached out to Trina because she had been posting some really interesting information about this technology, and I said, hey, could this help a kid to calm down and concentrate? She says, “Oh honey, boy, I have some cool stuff for you!” Plus, our son has allergies, and we need to understand where they came from. Maybe it's mold exposure because we did have a moldy bathroom, and he did grow up with a moldy bathroom. We didn’t know it until we did that interview 156. But he grew up as a baby and a toddler with mold exposure. That could be the cause of his allergies and asthma, which we have under control.  But I was talking to Trina about this stuff, and other things started to come up. Like, well, I have this other family member with these problems. No matter what we do, she can't sleep; she has insomnia all night. But she has to nap all day long. It's just like flipped. She has constant worry, and she's unmotivated. Her hands are shaking. She's got all these different issues. My husband and I started listing all the things he wants to heal. And then, I started listing all the things I'd love to improve in these areas of my life.  And so Trina’s like, let's get you on these specific protocols. So I'm like, let's do it. So let's try it and see how it goes because they have a bit of a money-back guarantee. So let's try and see how it goes.  Our shipment comes, and this is just at the end of November and the beginning of December. That day that our package arrived was perfect timing. I look back, and I always think God lightens things up perfectly to have these experiences to learn from. That particular day, my nervous system was so fried. This happens once every three or four months, which could have been better. Our son was hyper and loud, and then my husband was loud, or whatever was happening. I told both of them I needed to lie down for fifteen minutes. I don’t want anyone to talk to me. And, of course, they did not listen to me. They were following me into the bedroom. I’m like, leave me alone. I need a few minutes to lie down. My nervous system is very fried right now. So please, I just need to reset. So they finally left me alone. I was lying down doing some breathing, just like, what is going on? Why am I so on edge? It’s almost like PMS when you feel like you're on edge. So that's precisely what I felt.  So then our package came, and we got on a video call with Trina. I'm like, this is where I'm at right now. I am really on edge. My nervous system is fried. I feel pressure and tension in my body. And Trina goes, okay, you're going to make a hat. So we got a baseball hat and stuck the patches in specific places for the head. And my husband put the hat on my head, and it felt like you grabbed the knob in my brain and turned it down 75%. I'm like, what just happened? I felt everything come down like you just turned all the knobs down. Within about three minutes, I said I felt out of my body. I'm feeling very calm. I’ve become the third person, observing myself, feeling relaxed, and that pressure is gone. My nervous system’s not fried. I'm not as frustrated. I was 500% frustrated before you put on the hat, and it all came down. Then I can hear my son and my husband. I could tolerate their presence, whereas I couldn't before. For me, that's part of the healing with whatever residual is going on from post-traumatic stress, which, as I said, I've been getting better and better. I had been the worst it had been in a long time. And so putting on that hat was like me showing you contrast within minutes. I could not believe it, but I felt it right away. That was a good experience, but I’m not 100% sold. Let's try a few other things. And we did try a few other things.  My husband loves them. He will not go a day without them. He loved them. So the day his dad died last April, my husband has been doing hospice care. He moved out of our house and moved in with his parents and lived beside his dad, doing 24-hour hospice care for five months. He got interrupted sleep and wasn't eating great. I kept coming over and trying to cook for him and stuff. He was just not in a great position, throughout his neck or whatever he did.  My husband had to go in for an emergency root canal on the day his dad died. However, they had his neck in the root canal for like seven hours. It was crazy. Whatever they did caused him to have daily, almost migraine-level headaches. I'd touch his upper trapezius muscles, and they would be hard as a rock. It would radiate pain up into his head and eyes. It’s a typical upper trapezius trigger point headache. It would be debilitating. He'd have to lie down and couldn't function. So we went to the chiropractor. There were several chiropractors we went to. We went to acupuncturists. We did craniosacral therapy. We did intercession with prayer work and laying of hands. We did emotional work. Everything helped a little bit. He took anti-inflammatory supplements. I did a massage. We would do heat. Everything would work a little bit, and then it would come back. He went from daily headaches to once every second day, but it was like clockwork. Oh, today's a day I'm getting a headache. Tomorrow I won't have a headache. The next day, I will have it again. We just knew it, and then it went once every three days. And then we got to the point we were doing all these therapies, that it would be six days with no pain and the seventh day with pain. And they would come back again. The headache has been three times this week, and it might be two in the next week. But it was consistent from April to December when we got these patches. We made a little progress with all these therapies, throwing everything at him. I even listed everything we threw at him, but he still had them.  So, we get these patches and do the pain protocol. There's a patch for decreasing inflammation and patches for pain, and we put them on. And by the way, he stopped taking drugs like Advil and Tylenol. So every drug you could think of, he tried. I don't like taking pain meds, but he was in so much pain, he just needed some relief, and no pain meds touched the pain. That was bizarre. It wouldn't make it go away. So he just stopped taking them. He's like, well, the pain meds don't work. So I'm going to have to deal with it. But we kept being in action, trying to get rid of this headache.  So as I said, we got these patches. His shoulders get increasingly tense, and he can feel the headache coming on. So we put the patches on, and he said, within minutes, he felt like he took Advil, but it worked; it kicked in. It feels as if he had taken pain meds, which were supposed to take away the pain. So we would put them in a specific pattern on his upper traps, and we played around with their placement of them. These patches would reduce the pain significantly within five to six minutes of having them on. Sometimes, if he did it soon enough, like at the beginning of a headache, it would just feel like it wouldn't manifest.  [0:33:14.4] Trina Hammack: Wow.  [0:33:15.4] Ashley James: And he's been doing that. He doesn't do the pain patches every day. He does the patches for increasing stem cells and decreasing inflammation, having energy flow correctly, like you said, through the body and the meridians. He's doing the patches that stimulate the body's ability to heal itself. His headaches have stopped.  So I'm trying to think back to his last headache. It's been a few weeks since he said, oh, I feel like one is coming. This was about three weeks ago, right before Christmas. He put the pain patches on, and it was gone. So he hasn’t had one fully manifest in many weeks. But, as I said, it was daily, then weekly, and multiple times a week. Sometimes we would go six days without one, but that was rare. It was like two, three, four times a week. And these patches have been the single most effective way of getting rid of it. The second thing with him was making repetitive motions involving his foot, which would hurt. What's funny is my husband, and I usually get the same problem. So he broke his foot, and I had a different injury that hurt my foot. But he’s like, I'm going to try these patches on my feet. So we looked up the protocol because, as you said, there are over eighty specific protocols. So we looked up the protocol, he did it, and he said, I didn't think I'd be able to walk. Today was so painful. And within minutes of putting it on, he's like, I can walk. This is amazing!  And then I hurt my foot. You could see the inflammation on my foot. This was two days before the Christmas concert. I'm in the choir, and we were going to sing. We were doing a huge Christmas concert for over a thousand people. I was going to be standing for hours. They took our seats, so we had to stand the whole time. I was terrified. My foot is inflamed, and it's excruciating. I'm not going to be able to do this. Then the day before the Christmas concert, we were doing a full-day practice, so I had to stand for two days. So, I put these patches on to decrease inflammation and pain. You know the feeling when you had an injury, but it was like two or three weeks ago, and it's just a little achy, but it's getting better. That’s the feeling I got after a few minutes of putting them on. This stuff is fantastic. It’s amazing! I rarely have injuries or pain, so I don't often need to use something for pain. But that was, for me, incredible. I also put patches on my back because I just wanted to ensure that I didn't have any back stiffness from standing for two days straight in a restricted place in the choir. I was able to stand, and I had abundant energy. I was able to do the whole thing. I thought I’d be shot because standing and performing for two days is exhausting. Afterward, I was like, hey, let's go out. Let's take the kids out to the play area. Let’s do this, let’s do that. I didn't even want to go home afterward. I just had so much energy for the rest of the day. So that’s what this has helped me with. It has helped me with this abundance of endurance, even beyond what I get from supplements and all these other things.  So then, I woke up with a headache. When you wake up, you're just like, ” Oh, I slept wrong. I barely get headaches, but I'm like, hey if this is working for Duffy, my husband, I'm going to try it for myself. The headache was getting worse and worse, so I finally put the patches on. It was around noon, and I had a playdate to take our son and other kids to the park. I don’t even know if I can handle a car full of kids, driving them for twenty minutes to a park. You don't want a headache and a bunch of kids screaming in a car, yelling, singing, or whatever. They’re not going to be quiet. So that’s one thing we know they’re not going to do.  So I put the patches, just like I've been doing on my husband for his headaches. So I put them on, and within a minute, it felt like I had taken drugs like Advil or something. It felt like something had kicked in. As I'm driving to the park, I notice the headache is gone, but the tension’s not gone. All I'm feeling is a lot of tension in my shoulders, but there's no pain anymore. By the time we left the park to come back home, the tension was gone. And I was like, this is so cool. So I've had to experience it personally where the pain is gone away. My husband's chronic headache is significantly better; he hasn't had one in weeks.  Then our close family member went from feeling distressed, worried, and afraid daily. She's on multiple medications for it. She's just feeling overwhelmed with dread. She doesn't sleep at night but naps all the time during the day. So with this family member, I was like, let's patch you up. So we did the protocol for anxiety, and she felt calm, and the worry subsided. We've done the protocols for balancing the vagus nerve, and she functions better throughout the day. We did the protocol for sleep, and then we did the protocol for energy. She typically naps after every activity. She'll go grocery shopping and take a nap. Then she’ll clean the house and take a nap. She naps all day long. We will visit her, and then she'll be like, I did lie down and took a nap. So it's just been nap, nap, nap. This last week, she had a lot to do, and we're going to do the patches for adrenal function and increasing energy in the body and the flow of energy in the body. So we do this. The entire day, she did a bunch of stuff with no naps. She's sleeping better, and she's waking up happier. There are fewer occurrences of feeling dread and worried. It’s far less, and she's generally in a much better mood. Then we're watching her because of this, and she’s starting to make better choices for herself and no longer wants to drink alcohol. She wants to actually go out and socialize and wants to go to exercise classes or be with friends. We're just starting. Because it shifted her mood, she's making these progressively better choices for herself, and we've seen this. For our son, we put the hat on him, but he keeps it on for only a short time. I asked him, what do you feel when you have this on you? He goes, this is my idea hat. It gives me so many ideas. My mind is filled with these amazing ideas. I want to draw and create. So he calls it his idea hat. But we do keep it on him a bit. Although he is fantastic at schoolwork, we noticed he could sit down and do more math. And that was a thing for me; if I could get him to sit down and complete his math work, that's his least favorite thing to do, although he's good at it. He could go from doing one or two pages of math work in an hour to six to nine pages in an hour. The math work only gets more challenging and not easier. So I see on several levels that it is working.  A friend of mine's stepfather is on daily dialysis, and they did some blood tests to see his stem cells. I'm not sure why; I will get more information about it. But she said he's been using the patches and seeing great results. He’s been wearing the patch that increases stem cells in the body. So I have a few friends who have been using them all, noticing more energy, getting better sleep, and generally functioning better. But I love that I have more stamina, and I generally feel like I'm in a better mood, and my nervous system feels like it's healed. It feels like it's functioning better. I haven't had any more occurrences of PTSD since starting to use it, and that's been over a month that I've been using them.  [0:41:50.2] Trisha Hammack: I have the biggest smile on my face hearing your stories. I think it’s incredible. It's just so wonderful to restore your health and see results quickly.  [0:42:04.2] Ashley James: This morning, I put on a new patch that I've never tried before. We just got it in the mail, and it's for mood enhancement. I wasn't in a bad mood, but I'm like, hey, give me the new batch. I want to see what it does. So all of us, even our son, is like, I want to try. We all woke up in a good mood. It's a Saturday morning, and we all feel great. But I want to try it.  I guess I’m sensitive to energy, and I feel things. Some people would call this a placebo effect, but I did not believe so. I love trying new things because I'm also so skeptical. I don't think that they're going to work or not work. So I don't know if it's going to work. I even said to Duffy as he handed it to me, I'm in a good mood, and I don't even know if this will do anything. So I put it on, and almost immediately, I go, wow, I can feel a lightness. I feel this lightness in me that feels nice.  Because we eat fruit or something for breakfast, I’ve gotten into the habit of every morning, before, during, or after breakfast, where we'll just be sitting on the couch with our son doing English work, and reading together. We just get it done. Let's get some schoolwork out of the way before we start our day. We're sitting there and both in such a good mood together. I’m not saying that we aren't usually, but it was just, wow! This is the mood enhancer one, and it is neat. So I'm wearing it today for the first time and experiencing it, and I'm looking forward to trying it out with some other friends and seeing how they like this one.  But what I liked were the protocols. I have talked to several friends doing these patches for a while. They weren't taught because they're not part of this group that has these proprietary protocols of over eighty different protocols that combine Chinese medicine, acupuncture points, and where you put the patches. And I have played around with them, and it makes a big difference where you put them.  You talked about how they are activated. And when I looked into the science, I was like, am I absorbing anything? What's going on? Why is this working? Why is it working through hair? You put the patches on a hat. Why is it working through hair? The body emits light. We can't see the light spectrum, but specific cameras, like night vision cameras, can pick up this light. Our body emits a light wave, and the patches are designed to bounce back this light wave back into the body at a specific frequency, stimulating the body to create these new peptides and new stem cells. It naturally triggers the body, which is called photon light therapy. And that's precisely what it does, so you’re not absorbing anything.  You wear them for twelve hours, and most of the time when you're wearing them, people don't see them because they're under your clothes. So I'm okay with wearing them where people can see them because I'm getting results. Then I’ve had people go, oh, what’s that? I say it’s like acupuncture. And I start talking about it, and they’re super interested. So I loved that. Most of the time, people don't even see them because they’re on your back, under your belly button, or on your shoulder, so they don't see it.  So do you want to talk more about the science behind it? Because, yes, it was designed originally for the military. It's been around for twenty years, and people have had phenomenal results. I love that this company has invested so much money into science. There's proof that this increases bone density, health, and muscle mass.  Oh, I've got one more testimonial. So ever since my last pregnancy, I've had a problem where my right leg is far weaker than my left leg. I've gone two months with physical therapy, weekly chiropractic, and acupuncture. I've been throwing everything at this. I thought going to the weekly physical therapy, and all the exercises they give me would fix it. Every doctor I visited said, “Oh yeah, this is because this is pinching this nerve. You have to stretch this out and strengthen this.” And I've been doing it all. But we live in a two-story townhouse, and walking up the stairs, I've been taking it one leg at a time. Because this leg is so weak, I just thought it was bizarre, but it’s ever since the injury from that pregnancy. Sometimes, it'll take me a few minutes to get up because I'm just going to force myself to use the weak leg to strengthen it. It’s like the signals from the brain are not getting to the muscles. Something's not working right. I don't know. Is it weak muscles? Is it an impinged blood supply?  Every doctor had a different explanation. And it’s not that big of a deal. I don't have pain from it. It's just more of an annoyance because every time I walk up the stairs multiple times a day, it reminds me that something is not whole in my body. That brings on thoughts of shame and guilt, like, what am I doing wrong? Like, I’m such a healthy person. What's going on? I need to work harder on this. Walking up and down the stairs has been a struggle.  A week after wearing these patches, we were doing a bunch of laundry, and I remember we had the music on. We were all in high gear, like, let’s clean the house. And I ran up the stairs. I get to the top landing and like, what just happened? I just noticed that the weakness in the leg was gone. This reminds me of the time when I went from being super weak with both my legs to having the energy signals get to the muscles. The muscles are working. This is great. Ever since I started wearing these patches, I've noticed that I can run up and down the stairs and that weakness in the right leg is not there like it was. As I said, it was so bad that I had to take one step at a time. So that’s my other testimonial. They have hundreds of studies on increased muscle mass and increased bone density. So there are effects of anti-aging, looking younger and better.  I just realized I'm doing all the talking. I need to end the talking, but I'm just excited. I've waited over a month to share this with the listeners. I'm going to stop talking. Tell us more about the science behind it.  [0:48:52.0] Trina Hammack: I taught science way back in the day, so I love that this is backed by real science. A research study is on increasing glutathione levels in the body or hormones or strengthening your DNA. There is study after study that backs this up. You can't deny it when you also bring in experiences like this and see it happen before your eyes. What was going on with all the examples you gave was that there were blockages in the acupuncture meridian flow. You open that flow back up, and then energy could move. So then you felt better, the pain went away, and brain function returned. The website has studies about osteoarthritis and double-blind placebo pain relief studies. The studies continue, and David Schmidt is entirely dedicated to having this backed by true science.  So you know, we are emitting infrared light. You can't see it, but it's there and activates this crystalline structure inside the patch, which has amino acids and certain frequencies of peptides. I look at it like a frequency device, like my frequency-specific microcurrent, my BEMER, or my SCIO. It’s a frequency type of medicine that you can do at home. You don't need to have fancy schmancy equipment. You can slap a patch on it and feel how things shift as the energy opens up in the body.  Many people are chronically ill because their energy is running backwards through their bodies, and they don't even know it. It would be like the equivalent of the electricity going backward through your house and blowing out your fuse box. And when you're in a chronic situation like I was when we were moldy, you couldn't quite snap out of it. This helps correct the flow, so it moves in the right direction. And we have a system that you know about now, where we check that energetic flow. We can check to see if it's running backwards or not, and then we can correct it with a specific correcting polarity patching protocol.  I learned about this one the hard way. We were up at our house in Mount Shasta a few years ago, and it was in the summer, and our AC system went out upstairs. Downstairs was okay, but upstairs went out, and it was 115 degrees. I went into vertigo for three days, and literally I didn't know about polarity and that I could change it with a patch. I had just started using the patches. And so, for three days, I'm lying in bed. What do I do? And then, I reached out to a senior practitioner or the one who writes all our protocols, by the way. She's a master at this and said your polarity is backward. And so she had me do this simple protocol with five patches I put on for fifteen minutes, and then guess what? Boom! It was gone. My vertigo was gone after three days. It’s because the heat triggered my nervous system to go into overload, and my energy started running backward, so I had vertigo. It was incredible. So now I teach all my people, as I taught you, how to check and correct their polarity and then re-train the body so that the energetics run the right way through your system and your meridian and open up blockages. When you got pain, you get a blockage. We can open that up and get things moving again. So we go through a little process of opening up and correcting the polarity, and then we start building a foundation, get the brain function going, and get your adrenals and kidneys stronger. You can see inflammation go down. The adrenals help to keep the inflammation down. Mine were trashed, and my kidneys from mold. And a lot of moldies have really poor energy. The first one I ever did was an adrenal kidney protocol, and I felt better.  [0:53:48.6] Ashley James: I love that protocol.  [0:53:50.3] Trina Hammack: Isn’t it amazing?  [0:53:51.2] Ashley James: I love it, yes. I didn't want to do the polarity thing. I don’t want to jump right into that. I did the polarity thing because you told me to. I don't know why; maybe it’s my intuition, but I was super excited and totally drawn to the kidney adrenal protocol. I can’t wait to do that one. And then there's the other one I really want to jump into, which is the metabolism one that increases muscle mass, supports the body, burns fat, increases energy, and increases leg muscle mass. So I really want to get to that one. But you told me there's an order to things. We want to ensure that we’re getting the polarity together and the energy up in the body, like the adrenals. So we want to ensure that the body’s detoxification pathways are open. And you can get to this other fun one.  So I have gone through the steps. I'm glad I listened to you because I felt a shift and difference each step of the way. But I love that energy one. And now, I like doing the advanced energy protocol one, and I get even more to that one.  [0:55:00.9] Trina Hammack: Yeah.  [0:55:01.8] Ashley James: I feel it. As I said, I survived two days of standing and singing with that one. We've been a very professional choir, and it was intense. It was like doing a marathon for singing, and I could not believe I was like, go, go, go. I felt so great. Even the next day, I didn’t feel like I was thrashed. I didn’t feel like I’d been through something big. I was like, okay, another day. I was expecting to feel trashed from being so active. Being onstage, singing, and standing for hours to perform in front of a thousand people, takes a lot out of you to give it your all. I was expecting to be trashed. I did that protocol and felt amazing the next day, the next day, and the next. It didn't even affect me.    Oh, one more thing. I keep thinking of testimonials. We did a really intense walk around Greenlake. It was 2.8 miles. My butt was burning because I was trying to keep up with my husband. My husband is almost 6 ft 7 with very long legs. One stride of his is a one-half stride of mine, so I was keeping up with him. Our son was on a scooter, so we were trying to keep up with him because if we didn't, he would be chasing the ducks in the lake any second. Oh my gosh, it’s like having a golden retriever. We take him to the park, and I look at all the people with their pets. Our son is intelligent, loving, and smart, and people often think he's ten or eleven years old just because he's so mature. But you bring him to a park with a bunch of dogs, a ton of ducks, and a shallow lake, and he wants to go chase. It was January, and it was cold, and he asked me, did you bring my towel? It seemed to me he was going swimming. I'm like, sweetie, you can't go in the lake. No! So he is off chasing the ducks, petting the dogs, and running down the dock. There are several docks. He thinks he's going to go swimming. So we had to keep up with him. So we're like pumping our legs, which is a great exercise. It's like the car right in front of you, but it’s us chasing our son for 2.8 miles. My butt was burning. You know that feeling when it is like you’re anaerobic and making lactic acid?  [0:57:31.6] Trina Hammack: Oh, yeah. [0:57:32.5] Ashley James: And we were go, go, go, go. And then I thought I would feel this the next day. Then the next day happened, and this was just this week, but I didn't feel it. I thought for sure I was going to feel soreness or something. Then I’m like, sometimes it’s not the next day, but the day after. And the day after was Thursday. I thought, for sure, I was going to wake up feeling sore on Thursday. I woke up on Thursday, and no problem. I'm like, what? I don't even feel that I walked. I was doing 2.8 miles around this lake, chasing our son, and I didn't even feel it. That was huge because, before these patches, I'd go to the gym and feel it. At least you’d feel like you did something the next day. I didn't even feel like I pushed myself. I'm going to have to force myself harder. So I know I am doing all these other things, like eating healthy, taking supplements, and doing everything, but I would still feel sore after a workout even with all these good things I'm doing. Since I started patches, I don't feel sore after a workout. There you are; that's another thing I just realized that was different.  [0:58:41.7] Trina Hammack: I’ve got another one for you. My husband had two wisdom teeth and a molar taken out 48 hours ago, and in under 24 hours, all his pain and inflammation were gone with just patching. You can't even tell; it's just incredible. He slept off the anesthesia, and then we had him all patched up. There was no inflammation or pain. He'll heal a million times faster. It’s pretty incredible. [0:59:20.2] Ashley James: I love that. Do you have any other stories of success from your clients? I remember that there was a baby I saw. I know you have this private Facebook group for listeners; if you want to try these patches, you might do it. We can get you on that. We could add you to the Facebook group. But there is a woman who had a baby with teething, and she took before and after pictures. She said it was four minutes. And she put the patches on the baby’s jaw for pain and to calm the nervous system. The baby went from full-on freak out from teething to sleeping in four minutes of wearing the patches. So to hear that your husband has no pain inflammation and feels great… [1:00:08.6] Trina Hammack: Three teeth were extracted. It was intense, and we didn't take any pain meds. We just patched it. But I have one gal come in, and she had neuropathy in her thighs from chemo, and she was bone on bone in her hips, and she would wear these tiny high heels or these tall high heels that were skinny. And I’m like, how do you do that? She was in constant pain in her hips, and her thighs were on fire with pain from the chemo. And so she came in and didn't know how to patch yet. That's why she brought her patches over, and I patched her thighs. And the next thing I know, she's standing up and down, no problem. She had a hard time sitting in her chair; the next thing you know, she was up, down, up, down. Like, hey, how are you doing? Oh, I'm great! And she didn't even think twice because the pain was gone and just disappeared. So we opened the channels and got the energy to move, so it wasn't stagnant and moving backward. Another gal called me, and she had patches. She called me freaking out with major panic attacks and anxiety and said, I don't know what to do. She couldn't even think. So I had her do the anxiety protocol on the wrist, and we got two of them placed on the phone. They're six, and we only had two on, and she said, hey, can I already be feeling better? She was already calm with two of the six patches. They can work that fast. I've seen swollen ankles. I still do Rolfing bodywork, and people will come in with sprained ankles. I'll pop a patch on there, and you'll watch the inflammation go down. And you can see the ring where the inflammation was in a matter of minutes and then where it is now. You're getting things to flow, and I see it every day; we use them. We have an excellent protocol for people in our weight loss program to help them burn more fat. Studies show that the energy patches can increase your fat burning by 23%. Hey, who wouldn't want that? We incorporate them into almost every protocol, whether people are moldy, have anxiety, or have a lot of GI issues. We’ve even seen parasites come out. [1:02:47.1] Ashley James: I’ve got another one for you. I just remembered. Okay, so my husband is a trooper for tagging along with all my health stuff. But he's also a guy. We have this joke because he'll do something like your stereotypical man, and I'm like, why did you do that? He's like, a was being a typical man. He kind of like that he’s got a cape on. When I met him, he didn't have fat on his body. But he always looked like Bart Simpson. He would have that big, bloated gut. But he is so tall that you don't see it. He's always got this nine-month pregnant gut, despite not being overweight. And he's changed his diet throughout the years, which was at first like pulling teeth. He had an addiction to dairy. Who wants to give up cheese? But he did, and then he saw the results. He stopped being gassy. He's like, woah, that's amazing. He gave up gluten. He lost 25 pounds of water weight. He’s like, wow, I feel so much better, so I’m not going to diet anymore. So one at a time, we took away sugar. That was the first thing we took away from him.  When he met me, I got him off alcohol, and he was an alcoholic. I don't have any alcohol in the house. I'm an oddity. I just think alcohol is poison. If you're going to drink, just maybe once a year. So it was alcohol and sugar. Caffeine is kind of an on-and-off thing for him. He's like, give me this one thing, okay. It’s just one pleasure that I have left. So we've taken away everything gluten and dairy. He got progressively healthier with his choices, like adding more vegetables. And it's funny because he got really upset with me the other day because I added more vegetables to his meal, and he's like, what are you doing in my dinner? I look at him, and I’m like, you are vegan. He's chosen to be vegan. Vegetables are the only food you have. So why are you angry at me? A few minutes later, he says this tastes pretty good. But he doesn't love eating all the vegetables. Like, he's still a guy, so he just wanted to have his beans and make it taste like a taco; you still want him to eat that. But we know he's had some gut issues, and we had him tested for SIBO, and things like that, for small intestine bacterial overgrowth. I just suspected candida for a long time. I interviewed an amazing doctor on candida, Dr. Michael Biamonte. So Duffy decided to work with him and his telemedicine. He decided to do the Candida diet even though he's vegan. So this is eating non-starchy vegetables. That's his life right now, and he's doing it. So he stopped eating all the foods that bloat him. So he's doing this Candida thing. But right before he started on this, he would eat like four bowls of rice or something starchy like a bowl of rice and beans or potatoes. His gut would be hard as a rock, and you could knock on it. It would be hard, and he’d be just so uncomfortable. And it's all gas and inflammation in there. Even though he's eating organic, clean whole foods, it was still feeding the candida, and we had him tested by Dr. Michael Biamonte. Sure enough, it was just tons of overgrowth of candida that's been the problem. But right before he got on the Candida Diet, he ate a bunch of rice, and of course, he was totally bloated. I've been studying the patching protocols. As you said, our group has over eighty patching protocols, and I've been studying them. I said, hey, there's a gut health one, and he goes, I'm going to try that tomorrow. He got super excited. Now we know, like clockwork, if he eats four bowls of brown rice, he will be hard as a rock bloated the whole day. It's not like there’s a day he eats rice and isn't bloated; it's every time. So he puts the patches around his bloated stomach. Another thing, we never hear any noise from his stomach, like gurgling or anything. We usually don't hear anything yet, which is surprising because it looks like it's just full of air. And you start to hear the stomach making noise after putting the patch. It has lots of gurgling like something's moving, and we're like, what's up with that? And then he's, like, I will eat the same stuff I did yesterday and see if I react. He's so excited, and he’d go to the kitchen, like, let's do some science experiments. And he eats the same food he ate the day before, and his stomach stays soft. It didn't bloat, and he got super excited.  Now, he's in the middle of his candida protocol. He’s doing well and not bloated. Of course, he's not using the foods feeding the candida, and he's been taking all the supplements that kill candida that strip the biofilm out of his body. But he's been doing the gut healing protocol, which he felt the difference. And he loves the energy protocol. He loves the anxiety and sleep protocol, and there's one for the pineal gland. So he walks around with the patch on his forehead, like, no shame. And he loves sleeping with that one. He's having so much fun with it. As a man, he does not look pleased and said I took them away. But I have shown him the information; he says I can't drink alcohol after knowing what it does to my body. And I can't eat sugar after knowing what it does to my body, or milk or something like that. I can't do these things to myself. So he's chosen to eat healthier and healthier, taking away all these bad choices in his life. Now, he’s just loving it. I've never seen him more excited with two things — the patches and structured water we've been using. Those are the two things he's super passionate about, and I've never seen him take it off. I think if you give someone like a family member, even a husband who doesn't like to do health stuff, and you provide them with a result, like, let's take away a headache, let's give you more energy. Let's give you better sleep. If you do that by just putting some patches on them, they get excited about it and want to keep doing it. And it's an easy shift.  So like I said, our family member, who we've been giving these patches, started feeling so good. She started making better choices for herself. That's motivating because we love our family so much, but we can't make them do healthy things as much as we want to. But if they are feeling better and better, sometimes they make better choices for themselves. [1:09:55.6] Trina Hammack: Yes, they want to and may not even understand why. But it makes you want to strive to improve and make better choices. I see it all the time, yeah. My husband patches, and he's bone on bone on his knee, and he's a golf marshal. So he's in there on the golf course all day long and in zero pain. So yes, there's got to be something going on here. They recently came out with these two aromatherapy mists, which have been shown clinically to raise testosterone levels.  [1:09:55.6] Ashley James: What? [1:10:36.3] Trina Hammack: Yeah, and guess what? You said earlier that the base is structured water, herbs, and some essential oils, which you spray on your wrist. There's one at night, and you breathe in seven or eight times. I thought I was sleeping well, and I was, but when I started using the one before bed, it took my sleep to a deeper level, and now I have more lucid dreams. It’s pretty cool. So I thought I was at the top of my game with my sleep; now, it's even better. I can't wait to go to sleep because it's just amazing. So yeah, we have some great tools at our fingertips, and I love sharing these.  [1:11:26.8] Ashley James: I'm not a vain person. I only wear makeup when I have to, and the makeup I have is clean, with no toxic makeup. I can't cry with this mascara because mascara’s made of tree bark; I don't know what. But when I wear makeup, it's clean, non-toxic makeup. I'm very picky, but I only wear it if I have to. I don't even like washing my face. I just rinse it with water. I don't like disrupting the microbiome of my body. Some people use soap on their face twice a day, or cleansers and stuff like that. You're just stripping the body of the oils.  I grew up being a tomgirl, like a real nature-crunchy person. And I believe in letting natural beauty shine through. So when I look in the mirror, I don't want to see a bunch of wrinkles. I'm in my forties and don't want to look like I'm in my 50s. So when I'm in my fifties, I want to look like I'm in my 40s. I want to keep protecting the skin, so I'm 5% vain. But when I look in the mirror, I know my health shines through in my skin. And I want to have clear, beautiful skin. So I like feeling moist skin, especially in the winter when it's really dry. I like putting moisturizer on.  I found it hard to get good-quality moisturizers because I'm very picky with ingredients. There are only a handful of companies that I trust, and I've tried. They did come out with this one, and I always ask, why wouldn't a health company come out with a face cream? I'm like, why? Why don't you guys do that? You guys are not in the beauty business. You're in the healing business. So when are you coming in with face cream? And I have seen this with other holistic companies; they do this. So why are you guys not doing this? And then I tried the cream, and like, oh, it's because you guys got something this good. So I'm just going to try the cream because I saw some testimonials, and one was a video testimonial of a gorgeous woman. By the way, she has no makeup on, and her skin is amazing. And then she says her age is seventy-five. I'm like, what? She's been using this like forever, and she looks like she might be in her fifties. She's gorgeous, and you would not believe that she's seventy-five. Like, okay, fine, I'll give this a try. And the cream works in conjunction with a patch that stimulates the collagen and elastin and stimulates the skin to hold more water, be moister, and have fewer fine lines and wrinkles. But just structurally, on a cellular level, be healthier. There's a day cream and night cream, and I tried it out. I am in love with the smell of it. First of all, it's great and very hydrating. It's not oily. But I'm in love with the scent. It's just like five different essential oils, and it's very light. You can't smell it if it's on someone five feet away from you. It's not like perfume. It's just like a hint of essential oils. So my husband comes up to kiss me and asks, what is that smell? And he starts muzzling me and kissing me all over. He was, what is that smell? We’ve been married for almost 15 years, and this is the first time I've ever worn an aphrodisiac. He loves that. I have to put it on now because he comes to bed, and he's like, oh, you're wearing it, and he smiles at me. Whatever blend of essential oils it is, it is an aphrodisiac, and I love it too. It smells like maybe a little bit of Rosemary and vanilla, and there's this hint of orange. I can't quite place it. But it's not like this artificial smell, which I'm so thankful for because I don't put artificial fragrances on my body. It just smells like nature, though it was an aphrodisiac. So there's like a little bonus. But I love how it feels on my skin, and I love the results, and I'm looking forward to fifty when I'm seventy-five. [1:15:30.5] Trina Hammack:  Me too, I love it. It's so light, and I don't like smelly products. If it stinks, it's out. I'm not going to use it. And the patch that comes with it not only repairs skin and increases collagen. This is the only product I know that has been shown clinically in research studies to lengthen telomeres. And when you lengthen your telomeres, you are reversing the aging process. That combination is just brilliant. It's just beautiful.  [1:16:05.1] Ashley James: Yeah, what they discovered about telomeres is that it's the length of the end of the chromosome. And they figured out that telomeres are like when you cut down a tree and see the centrifugal rings, and you can count the rings, like, how old this tree was when you killed it. When you cut it down, you can see how old it was. That's like telomeres but in reverse. So they have a certain amount of length. Then as we age, every time the cell has to split and create new cells, the telomeres shorten. And the shorter the telomere, the expiration of your life is nearer your cellular age. So you're aging greater and greater by the shortness of the telomere. So if you lengthen your telomere, you are reversing cellular age on a DNA chromosomal level.  I've been looking into telomeres for at least ten years now, as more and more research is coming out. And I find it fascinating that there are certain foods, key nutrients in extracts, and concentrations that have effects on telomeres. But then to take this phototherapy and be able to stimulate the body, the peptides, and whatever it's doing throughout the body to increase the telomeres; that's phenomenal. You can read all the science papers, and we'll link that in the podcast's show notes. So people can see the results better, like fewer fine and wrinkles and more muscle mass. And then they can even see a DEXA scan. There are so many testimonials of people with stronger bones, that they can see it through the cellular age-reversing. They can see in the mirror, and they can see it in the labs as well.  [1:17:50.0] Trina Hammack:  When they came out with their second stem cell activating patch, I'm like, okay, yeah, we'll see. I'm skeptical even though I've been using them and was in love with them. The second patch that came out was for strengthening your muscles and increasing stamina and strength. So I said, let's see what happens if I do a really hard spin class and how I feel afterward. I picked the most challenging class I could find on my Peloton and put both kinds of stem cell patches on. And I sailed through that class. Then I just got off the bike and carried on. I used to crawl off the bike and say, hey, sweetie, where's my shake? And I just got up and kept going. My strength, stamina, and all of that have been phenomenal for my overall health and athletic ability. It's just been amazing. [1:18:51.6] Ashely James: Oh, you were going to teach us how to do polarity.  [1:18:57.6] Trina Hammack: Yes, so we talked about how energy runs through the body. So I do a lot of frequency work here, correcting frequencies that are off when you're ill. Your body, organs, or glands may not be coming at the right frequency, so I'll use frequencies to correct them. Well, patches do that too. But if you're chronically ill like I was with Lyme, mold, and even ovarian cancer, my energy was running backwards.  And there's a simple way to check to see if your polarity is backwards or if it's correct. You can do it right now. It takes about 30 seconds to do. You stand up and put your feet together so they're touching. I usually do it barefoot. And then you take your dominant hand, place it palm down a couple of inches above your head, and just close your eyes. Relax your body and breathe, and feel which way your body wants to sway. Does it want to go from the left to the right for back circles? What way does your body naturally want to go? And then once you get that, flip the palm so it faces toward the ceiling, relax and see which way your body wants to sway. For most people, their energy will be reversed and go every which way except correct. Now, with correct polarity, if your energy runs properly through your body, when you have your palm facing down above your head, you should sway forward. It may be a little sway or a big one. Once I corrected it, I sway big now. But face down with the palm, you go forward and face up with the palm, you should sway backwards. Any other combination tells you that your polarity is incorrect.  So we use our correcting polarity protocol and follow it up with a protocol called 4 Gates that many acupuncturists use. It’s common for them to get energy moving in the right direction. You want to teach your body to move in this direction continuously. So the longer I patched, the harder it was to throw me off and to reverse my polarity. It just doesn't happen anymore. Or, as when I was sick with mold, I was reversed quite a bit and had chronic pain. So I had anxiety through the roof. So I put my patches on, and it would stop on a dime just like that. So, checking and correcting your polarity is essential to ensure you get the most out of your protocols.  [1:21:55.6] Ashley James: You've been doing this with your clients. What do people notice when their polarities are corrected? Do they come back and tell you?  [1:22:04.7] Trina Hammack:  They are more relaxed, have less pain, and feel more grounded and centered. They’re sleeping better. Their chronic issues are starting to shift. Like I say, it's like your electricity is running backwards to your house and blows out your fuse box and your nervous system. So this helps diffuse that static in your nervous system, making you feel calmer and more centered. You can handle the day more efficiently. It's like what you were feeling. You can see the overwhelm. You start to hold that more and more. You start holding your polarity correctly, and everything starts to be easier. Then you want to make changes, like your family member. As she starts to feel better, she starts to make better choices. You see a lot of shifts like that. And they start feeling better overall.  [1:23:12.6] Ashley James: So, there are the skeptics. I know I've had, for example, some Christian listeners who feel weary of anything to do with energy work. I fully agree that there is evil in the world, and there's good in the world. As Christians, we've been warned not to go down this path. So, for example, don't go down the new age path because there are a lot of bad spirits if you go down this path and want to stick to a righteous path. So when we go into holistic medicine, it is a buffet. It's a free-for-all. If you are one religion, you might end up stepping into an area where you wonder if it’s a gray zone. When it comes to energy work, although some people doubt, for example, the use of crystals, pendulums, and things like that; for some people, they're like, rock on. Others, especially Christians, and Catholics, are like, no, that sounds like contacting spirits, and I'm not into that. No way. I'm not even going to touch that with a ten-foot pole. For many people, anything to do with energy work, I'm going to say, it’s not what I'm doing because I'm nervous I might accidentally step over into the gray zone. So I want to be respectful of everyone's religious and spiritual beliefs. This energy we were talking about is not spiritual, and I am a spiritual person. I am a Christian. But I've experienced energy in my life in many capacities. This is not the spiritual energy we’re talking about. Although if you're communing with the Holy Spirit, then rock on. That's an energy I want to be part of.  So for those who are into Reiki, that's a form of energy work. So there are all kinds of “spiritual healing” and energies. This is not what we're talking about. This is actual physical energy. You can't see it with your eyes, but it's like you look up in the sky; and I'm going to tell you that there's air current right now, like the air stream is above you. You cannot see it with your eyes, but it's there. And with specific equipment, we could test and show you that the air stream is above your head and that there's an air current. So you have energy flowing in and around your body, and there's a way to test it.  So if you were to, God forbid, go to the ER because you have some symptoms, such as heart or brain issues, they would hook you up to machines, and these machines would read the energy signatures from your heart and your brain. So we have energy that can be picked up and read by machines in a hospital. So it's a state-of-the-art Western medicine.  Then we have energy that flows to the body that's part of a 5000-year-old or more ancient way of healing that has been proven repeatedly to be effective in terms of acupuncture. So in traditional Chinese medicine, they've observed for thousands of years that the body has a flow in which we can see veins flowing through the body. We can see blood flowing through the body and invading our arteries. You can see lymph flow. And then this is something you can't see, but we definitely experience. Because when you go to acupuncture, and they put a needle in your wrist, you'll feel it somewhere else in your body because it's connecting.  I have a great side story. When I was pregnant with our son, he wanted to come out feet first. He's always wanted to hit the ground running, which is his personality. And so he wanted to come out feet first, and he was facing forward. So, if you can imagine, his feet were down, and he was facing forward. He'd push his head up to my heart or push it out. But that's how he was, and he's a long kid, like 22 inches. He's a big boy inside me. He wasn't heavy. He was 70 pounds or something. He wasn't heavy, but he was long. And he was coming out feet first, and I did not want to have a C-section.   I had a midwife that then transferred me to an OBGYN at 36 weeks. So I'm almost at 40 weeks. I'm almost at the time of delivery. And this OB is like your traditional Western medicine method. She has a drug pad in one hand. She's an OB and says you should go for acupuncture. I nearly fell off the table because I was not expecting that. And she goes, many studies show that acupuncture is very beneficial for reversing a breech pregnancy. So I found an amazing woman. Her name is Jasmine Bay. If you're in the Seattle area, she's well-known as the woman to go to if you are pregnant. She does a little family medicine, but for the most part, she does acupuncture for pregnancies. So she flips babies, basically.  So I go down, and she puts two little needles in my ankles. I was lying on the table and propped up a bit, so I was more like sitting back on the table. And she says these points are the energy points that travel up. It's like a button on your body that travels up. The energy travels up into the uterus and tells the baby to spin the energy in the other direction. The baby feels it, and it turns. I'm looking at her like, are you kidding me? Again, I'm an open-minded skeptic. I love new things, but I'm also not believing at the same time. So when things were happening, I was like, this is so cool. I'm just sitting there believing it would work because I didn't want to have a C-section. As I'm lying there, it's been less than 15 minutes, and our son pushes his head up like something out of an alien movie and turns halfway. And we watched it happen. He pushes up and turns. And by the time we got out of there, he had turned the rest of the way. We hadn't even reached home yet; he finished turning the rest of the way and stayed turned in the correct position. I've loved acupuncture my whole life, but that was like, are you kidding me? I was sold.  So, when it comes to energy channels in the body, I believe they exist, and I've experienced them personally. And using these photon therapy patches and specific patterns to go along with acupuncture protocols gives you incredible and better results than if you just put the patch wherever you wanted. So even though they've done studies and shown that the patches work no matter where you put them, when you put them in conjunction with the meridian and energy points, we're seeing much more significant results in our group.  [1:31:00.2] Trina Hammack: Yeah, that's for sure. I have everybody in my practice go into the group and learn these protocols because there's no other place to get them. This is the only group on the planet that has them. And I feel like God led me to this group, honestly, so we would have these resources to help more people. And on another side note, I had acupuncture while in labor. My acupuncturist came to the hospital. He put in two needles, and I stood up, and my water broke just like that. So I'm like, oh, thank you, David.  So yeah, it does work. Pregnant women use these patches to help them through their pregnancy for many reasons. And those points on the ankles that your gal stimulated with the needles, we do not patch those for pregnant women because we don't want them to have the baby early.  [1:31:58.7] Ashley James: Yeah, absolutely. It's good to work when you're using this in certain circumstances. It's good to work with someone trained in them and who studied the protocol. I've been studying the protocols; you've done it for years. And then we've access to this community of practitioners who do these protocols. And I love that this group shares testimonies. I love using the search function in the group and going through testimonial after testimonial.  There are over fifty thousand people in this group, and they're sharing so many testimonials of success. And then people come in and ask their questions to you, like, hey, I've got this problem. What should I do? And then there's a bunch of practitioners that jump in and share what patching protocols have worked for them. So that's how I figured out how to do the foot thing. Because I was like, I don't know if I'm able to stand, and I went into the group, then I typed in the foot problem I had, which was different for my husband since it was more of an ankle. But either way, it's close enough. But for both of us, it worked. And it's the same with headaches, digestion, energy, and sleeping. So it goes on and on. So I'm very excited about this.  Are there any of the stories you wanted to share? Was there anything else you wanted to make sure that you conveyed? [1:33:18.1] Trina Hammack: I like to empower my people with knowledge and tools that they can do themselves. I want them to be the strongest they can be so that they can do what they need to do in their life. And this is one of the best tools you can have at your fingertips that doesn't cost you a bazillion dollars to buy, you know, a new piece of equipment or something like that. Put one little patch on sometimes, and it can change everything. It's so empowering to know that you have this knowledge, and I'm so grateful that I gave them a try because, you know, I am a healthy skeptic. And I know that every day, my health gets better and stronger, and if something comes up, I've got a tool I can use and take with me everywhere. I patch everybody. I patch everything. And that little dog this morning, just watching her eyes change when I put this patch on her, and you could see it was like she was running around for years in PTSD. So when I met her and put the patch on, it just dissolved. [1:34:33.7] Ashley James: It does calm the nervous system.  [1:34:37.0] Trina Hammack: Oh my God. And then I put it on the woman whose dog it was. And I watched the same thing happen to her. And everybody in the pack is going to get better that way. Do you know what I mean? So, give it a try. It's incredible. Empower yourself with this technology. There's a lot to learn, but you can also keep it simple at the same time.  [1:35:05.9] Ashley James: Yes. So that's why I'm here. I want to help you guys. And so if anyone wants to try this, if you heard it and something resonated with you, and you want to give it a shot. First of all, I love that they have a money-back guarantee and that they stand behind it. I've worked with a handful of companies that do that, and I remember how much money I wasted on supplements and different things. And then when it didn't work out, and then it's like, there are so many companies that won't stand behind their stuff. So, when there's a company that 100% stands behind its stuff, I'm more willing to give you a try. It makes me suspicious of companies that don't stand behind their stuff 100%. So I love that. But I want to work with anyone who's listening and wants to try this. So I want you to work with me.   If you go to learntruehealth.com and then in the menu, you'll see Ashley James. You click on “Work with Ashley James,” then set up a 15-minute free discovery call with me, and we will chat. I will help you pick out the proper protocols for you. I'm working with Trina, and then I'll get you into that private Facebook group where you can see all the protocols. You don't have to learn it all. I'm learning it all because I work with people as a health coach. But you can go to that group and learn for yourself. Type in your issues and then try it from there. You can sign up for a free talk with me, and I'll help you get on it.  And Trina's always here to help. Trina even said that she'd be here in any capacity. I could always message her and say, hey, I've got a listener. It's this problem. What kind of patching protocol would help based on your experience? And you've been great because there was this one time right when we got our patches at the beginning of December; I remember we were out at a Christmas party, and one of my friends was crying. She's like, I don't know why I am so depressed all day. I'm in tears. This was a beautiful happy Christmas party we hosted for our homeschooled kids, and the kids had so much fun, and she couldn't stop crying. So I pulled her aside, and we sat down together. I was a shoulder for her and listened to her. There was so much going on for her. I guess it's because her family ostracized her and had a big fight with her extended family. So I messaged Trina, and I'm like, okay, I've got a mom that can't stop crying. What should I do? And you're like, take a deep breath. It's going to be okay. I know; I'm just so excited. So we put the patches on for the vasovagal, for the vagus response to calm the nervous system. And this was right at the end of the party, so we were out in the parking lot. I put it on her, and I said okay. I hugged her and said, “Okay, you let me know how this works for you. She messaged me, and she goes, it's all gone. She goes, I don't know what came over me. I couldn't stop crying all day long and was so overwhelmed by sadness. After I put on the patches, it was just like she was back to her usual self. She's like, yeah, I feel like that's all gone. And she's been in a much better space since then. I want to use them too, progressively, as I work through and heal things, grow, and get healthier and healthier. But it's also cool to have something in the medicine cabinet for emergencies, like dental surgery, or if someone just fell. It's having arnica at hand, something that decreases inflammation and takes pain immediately, and calms the nervous system immediately if you have an emotional upset. Just having some go-to for intense situations in life and seeing how fast it helps is phenomenal. So listeners, if you are interested, contact me and get on my schedule. Let's chat, and let me help you get hooked up with this. And then, for whatever reason, you're uncomfortable because sometimes people are shy being on the phone, and I get that; you can email me at ashley@learntruehealth.com. If you don't hear from me, that means that it went to spam. I'm going to check my spam, but email me again. You can also find me on Facebook. You can go to the Facebook group learntruehealth.com/group. It gets you there. You can message me on Facebook, or you can email me. You can go to learntruehealth.com, go to the tab, the Ashley tab in the menu, Ashley James, and then “Work with Ashley James.” And from there, you'll be able to sign up for a phone call. If you want a phone call, an email, or a message on Facebook, I'm here to help.  I'd love to see you guys be able to experience these results. And then for those practitioners, because 20% of my listeners are practitioners, health coaches, dentists, and many outstanding practitioners, this stuff's incredible. I want to see dentists use the patches. Can you imagine if you could decrease anxiety right away? Put the patches on the specific protocol on the wrists, and it decreases anxiety right away. If you put the patches on the jaw, it helps to reduce pain and inflammation right away. I could see this affecting the dental industry hugely in such a positive way. And you could sell retail as a practitioner. But I'd prefer to help people get the wholesale discount, which I did, and I want you to as well. But again, as you said, it's not like you're buying an expensive energy machine, right? Like, I wanted to buy the BEMER mat that you lie on, but it's thousands of dollars. And I opted for the Platinum Energy System foot detox spa and the sauna instead, which was thousands of dollars. I would love a frequency-specific microcurrent machine, and I'd love the SCIO. I'd love all those machines that are thousands of dollars. And these patches are so affordable. It's not like buying giant machines and they get the results like these giant machines. So I do love that. That's so great.  Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing. Is there anything else that you want to share? This is stuck in my mind because I'm sure some listeners went, what? But you mentioned ovarian cancer, and we didn't talk about whether it was gone, so I want to check in with you.  [1:42:09.1] Trina Hammack: 15 years ago, I was diagnosed with aggressive stage 3 ovarian cancer. And I'm, like, wait, what? I mean, I am like you. I was a Big Sur mama, and I was eating clean. And I've got all of this technology. I'm a holistic practitioner now of 27 years, but fifteen years ago, I got this huge tumor diagnosis, and I did not understand what was happening. Anyway, so they took it out, and I refused chemo. I did a holistic therapy program with Hope for Cancer and am good friends with the medical director there, Dr. Jimenez. I've been fine ever since. From that experience, I learned German New Medicine which is the emotional part of any disease. And so that was my blessing, my silver lining in that. But honestly, it's a walk in the park compared to Lyme and mold.  But I've been great. I never did chemo, and I didn't do radiation. Yeah, it's done. It was an emotional trigger. It was a repair phase of an emotional trauma. The one thing that I like to tell people is anytime you feel symptoms, whether it's a pain, inflammation, or sore throat, ask yourself what you just let go of. So what did you resolve to have your body go into this healing phase? Then you can use patches to help you smoothly transition through that healing phase and get better faster.  When the body goes through repair, that's when you have symptoms. When it's in a conflict or has some conflict, you don't know that it's breaking down or building up some tissue. But when you let go of that emotional problem, it's like after being through a really stressful time, like, the finals. You're stressed out, and you get a cold or the flu afterward. It's because your body is in a phase, and that's when we use microbes to help us repair. But now you have tools to help you get through that, to keep your immune system stronger, so there's less body breakdown while you're stressed.  But thank you for asking. I'm really good. I got to learn all about German New Medicine and help people on that level now too.  [1:44:44.9] Ashley James: Yeah, I learned about Dr. Hamer in 2005 when I was studying neuro-linguistic programming, and what a rabbit hole to go down. [1:44:53.1] Trina Hammack: It sure is.  [1:44:53.7] Ashley James: It is such a beautiful rabbit hole. So I'm so glad you offer that, along with all the other tools you offer in your functional practice. So let's make sure we plug you as well, trinahammack.com. And, of course, the links to everything we've discussed today will be shown on today's podcast at learntruehealth.com. And I can't wait to help you guys with this. If you want to get and try these patches for yourself, and try these protocols, please contact me. Let me help you get on it and try it for yourself. And thank you for coming on the show. I would love to interview your friend there at Hope for Cancer. So I hope you can hook me up with him. I'd love that. [1:45:37.1] Trina Hammack: I'll hook you up, absolutely.  [1:45:38.6] Ashley James: And I want to interview more people like scientists associated with these patches, dig deeper into the science behind them, and go down this rabbit hole.  [1:45:54.0] Trina Hammack: Let's get you hooked up with the founder. [1:45:56.6] Ashley James: Yeah, let's do that. That would be a lot of fun. Awesome. Is there anything else you want to ensure the listener knows about today? [1:46:06.9] Trina Hammack: I think we're good. I feel complete. How about you?  [1:46:13.2] Ashley James: Yeah, nice and cool. Awesome.  [1:46:16.2] Trina Hammack: Thank you so much. [1:46:16.8] Ashley James: This has been fantastic. I'm looking forward to helping everyone interested in taking their health to the next level. Trina, you're welcome back on the show any time because you're such a fountain of knowledge, 27 years being this amazing practitioner, the healer, and your fellow country mom, that you are. We appreciate that. Absolutely. I think it's essential to help people heal from all their emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual issues, get to the root cause, and support their body's ability to heal.  We help people remind themselves that they have the power. The word, empower, is not the right word to use because the root of the word empower means they don't have the power. You're lending them your power. But truly, they have the power within them. The body has the ability to heal itself. You're just reminding them. You're their navigator.  And what I love about these patches is that they stimulate the body's healing mechanisms. And so we're stimulating the body to heal itself, but of course, accompany that with good nutrition and everything else you do. But it just accelerates it and takes it to this whole new level. So I'm already doing all these other healthy things, and it took it to the next level.  And then my family member, who's not doing anything good or not doing anything healthy, like drinking alcohol, and eating whatever she wants, is a standard American kind of person; it helped her so much. I'm like, holy crow. So it helps both people and animals. As you said, you can patch horses. You've patched cats and dogs, and they have no placebo effect. Like, they think it's going to help them. So when you see that their limping goes away, their pain or anxiety behavior goes away after putting them on these animals. Even a patch has been designed specifically for horses because of how effective they are. And think about it; this is no drug. We're not putting something in the body. We're just stimulating the body's own healing mechanism, which is phenomenal. I love it. It should be in everyone's medicine cabinet. Everyone should try this and use it. This is a key that has been missing for so many people, so I'm really excited. I can't wait to talk to the listeners and help them get on it. And thank you so much for coming on the show. So if you ever have anything you want to come on the show and share about, you're welcome to come back. And maybe next time, I will actually let you talk. [1:49:05.5] Trina Hammack: Hey, I loved hearing all your stories because it's only been a couple of months since you guys used these. I know where you started, and it was so great to get filled in with Duffy and Brave and your family member and stuff like that. So thank you for sharing all that.  [1:49:24.1] Ashley James: Remember you told me I love new patchers! Because we started getting excited, and we're texting each other, you're like, I love new patchers. I thought to myself, and I can't wait to say that to someone else. I can't wait till I am helping other people, and they're like, I'm getting these results! And I can't wait to say to them, I love new patchers! It's just so cool to pass something on to someone that makes such a big difference and helps them. So just the one thing, like taking his headaches away. He was debilitated from constant pain for almost an entire year, from April to the end of the year. And like I said, it's every other day, at least once a week, then three or four times a week, and sometimes daily. And now he doesn't have that. How cool is it to have something you don't have to put anything in the body? So you stick something on his body, and it takes away the pain within minutes.  If we could take away people's chronic pain with just that one thing. But it does so many more things than that. [1:50:33.9] Trina Hammack: You have nothing to lose by trying something new. And if you don't like them, send them back. Honestly, my people don't because they get it. So you have nothing to lose. And why not try? That's how I look at it.  [1:50:54.2] Ashley James: Love it. Thank you so much, Trina. And I look forward to having you back on the show.  [1:50:58.8] Trina Hammack: Thanks, I can't wait. [1:51:01.3] Ashley James: I hope you enjoyed today's interview with Trina Hammack. Wasn't that amazing? I just looked at the calendar and realized that my husband and I have been using this technology for 56 days. Since using it daily, I have been jumping out of bed way earlier than I used to. My sleep was already good. I've been on a healing journey for many years. I am incredibly clean, but I'm still healing my body. I still have a ways to go before I am a hundred percent satisfied. So I've got my own health goals that I'm working on But I noticed that it improved my sleep, which was already good. We're just cool. It improved my energy, which was already good. Then it increased my strength. I can run upstairs. I have more strength that I feel my muscles are just stronger, and I'm lifting heavier things. It just feels easier. And my body composition has changed, which is interesting. I put clothing on, and I'm like, wow, that is fitting differently. The scale is telling me, but I'm also losing inches. My husband goes and hugs me and goes, woah; your body is shifting and changing. And it's fantastic. So my body composition is changing. They did studies and found that the specific protocol that I'm doing increases the body's ability to burn fat by 23%.  There are so many studies that you can look into if you want. Just send me an email at ashley@learntruehealth.com, and I can share the studies with you. Or you can book that session with me. Go to learntruehealth.com, and at the top, it says, “Work with Ashley James” click on that, and the first session at the top, you can book our free 15-minute phone call, and then I can help you. I can help you get on the protocol that you want. If you're interested in trying this out, I'd love to help you. Also, the company, which I really appreciate, stands 100% behind its products, and they have a money-back guarantee. That's something I look into when I work with any holistic company. I look at many factors, including reviews and quality control, how long they've been around, the studies that they have published, and labs that are published about them. And then I look if they have a guarantee. Because if they 100% stand behind their product and will give you your money back, then that is amazing. And this company has such a good money-back guarantee. They really believe in their product, and I can see it for myself. So it's 56 days that I can really feel it. And I'm so excited that I was turned on to this by Trina.  So if you want to get involved, I'd love to help you experience it yourself. Go to learntruehealth.com, chat with Ashley James book, and book a session with Ashley James. And then, boom. Let's have a discussion, and let me help you. And I've got access to Trina and many other holistic practitioners in our group that work with this technology, and I've been learning so much. I've been helping some people already with this and having some really fun results. So I'd love to help you as well. I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day. Enjoy the rest of your day, whatever you're doing. Have a wonderful time, and I look forward to the next episode because I am super excited to publish it. And I've got a few more episodes until episode 500. That's going to be an amazing testimonial. So if you have a testimonial of health and healing that you'd like to share, I'd love to hear it. And I'd love to share it with the listeners because we're in the business of helping people to end their suffering. So, if you have a story of the success of healing, please share it with me. I'd love to share it on episode 500. That's coming up. But pay attention to the next episode because there's another thing I'm excited to share with you. We're just kicking off the year with so many remarkable technologies. So stay tuned, and make sure you subscribe to get notified. I'd be publishing that episode soon. Excellent. Thank you so much for sharing my episodes with your friends and family. That's how we grow, and that's how we help as many people as possible. I want to help over a million people to learn true health and end their suffering, and to be able to finally gain the knowledge that they need to be able to be truly healthy in their bodies. So, thank you for spreading this information and helping your loved ones. And if you want to join our community, we have a free Facebook group. I'd love for you to be part of it as well. You can go to learntruehealth.com/group, which will take you to the Learn True Health Facebook group, and I will see you there. Get Connected with Trina Hammack!   Website Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube Linkedin

Your Three Action Steps: 1) Please share your testimonials by emailing support@learntruehealth.com 2) Get the foundations of health at FreeDoctorCourse.com 3) Structured Water! Check it out and use coupon code LTH at: https://www.learntruehealth.com/structuredwater   495: Unlock Mental and Emotional Freedom, Dr. Dain Heer https://www.learntruehealth.com/unlock-mental-and-emotional-freedom-dr-dain-heer Our emotions are constantly on the move, rising and falling as we try to navigate through life. Our reactions to what's happening in our world may cause us to hold ourselves back from going after what we want (or are afraid of) which creates discord and imbalance in our lives. In this episode, Dr. Dain Heer speaks about tools and strategies to help us work through this process of emotional healing so that we can create more balance in life and feel happier! Highlights: Access Consciousness Anti-consciousness Tapping into awareness of the future Finding your inner authentic voice On the issue of suicide Asking yourself, “who does it belong to?” POC and POD Intro: Hello, true health seeker, and welcome to another exciting episode of the Learn True Health podcast and welcome to 2023. I know we’re in full swing now. Can’t believe this is the 12th day into 2023. I feel amazing, by the way. I’ve had a really amazing New Year’s. Very cathartic and I can’t wait to share more with you in the next few episodes as kind of my story will unfold. But I do have a few things I want to tell you that are really important before you get to today’s interview, which is phenomenal, by the way. I’m really excited about the techniques that he teaches in today’s interview. I think it’s beneficial for everyone to hear.  First of all, episode 500 is coming up. It’s a pretty big deal. I’d love to hear your testimonials. For episode 500, I’m planning a testimonial episode. I’ve had some really great ones shared with me. And if you have a testimonial, and what I mean by that is, you’re in healing journey and if anything you’ve learned from the Learn True Health podcast or our Facebook group, anything you’ve learned from me or my guest has helped you along your journey, I’d love to hear your testimonial. You can record yourself. Just put your phone on you and record yourself and then shoot it to me. You can email to me, support@learntruehealth.com or you can find me on Facebook. If you go to Learntruehealth.com/group, that’ll take you straight to our Facebook group. Feel free to join it and you can hit me up there and give me the testimonial. Or you can type it out if you like. Or transcribe it. Or just record an audio, however you want to get me. Your testimonial – I’d love to have it and it could be two minutes long or ten minutes long. Either way.  The reason why I’m collecting these testimonials for this episode, for episode that’s coming up, episode 500, is when I was suffering and throughout my life there have been moments where I was at really low points. Hearing stories of success because I couldn’t see my way out of the darkness, of the pain, and seeing people who had been through what I had been through or in a similar experience and then come out the other side and they were thriving, seeing them succeed gave me hope to keep going. And I want to give that hope, I want to extend that hope to those who are suffering. I suffered for many years and the suffering didn’t have to happen, and that's the part that angers me but motivates me, right, because the suffering is optional. But when I was going through it, it wasn’t optional. It was what I was going through. And I found the tools and the resources to end my suffering, to heal my body emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually, I was able to overcome those things. That's why I do this podcast, to share these tools with you to help you and your suffering, to help you get on the other side of your healing. Now, healing is a journey whenever done, right? You don’t just go, “Oh, I’m done, I’m healed.” You're always growing and so am I. But I’d like you to get a point where life is like living is easy. Like it’s not uncomfortable to be in your own body, right? Living is fantastic. I want you to be on that side of the river with me, right? So I’m going to help you. We’re going to build that bridge to get on that side. Because right now, I’m on that side. I’m still growing, I’m still healing. I still have health goals. My life in my body is no longer suffering.  So, with testimonials, you get to hear from real people, real listeners who have been able to cross that bridge and get to the other side. I want you to have the same thing. I’ve got some great testimonials about migraines, hormones, digestive issues. There's even one testimonial where a listener was able to save her mom’s life. Just big stuff. So, no matter how big or how small you think your testimonials, if you have one, please share it with me. I’d love to include it in that episode. Let’s help inspire those who want to be able to get on the other side but maybe just they can’t see their way out and let’s help motivate them and encourage them to get to that place.  So anyways, who doesn’t love a great success story? Who does not love that? I cry, I weep, tears of joy and love and gratitude and praise. So happy to hear people’s transformation stories. So, please, share them, support@learntruehealth.com, I’d love to hear them. The next thing I want to let you know. This is the beginning of the year and a lot of people are looking to create new health habits. I’ve got a fantastic free course for you that I designed with some naturopathic physicians. We filmed it. It’s called Freedoctorcourse.com and I mean it, it is free. There's no strings attached. It’s just I filmed it with some of my favorite local naturopathic doctors and they give you the foundations of health that they do with all their patients that if you’re missing even one of these, you could be suffering needlessly. What’s crazy is that medical doctors will actually try to medicate these symptoms and the symptoms are like dehydration, for example, right? Just absolutely crazy that there's medications out there to treat symptoms that are completely resolved when we cover the foundations of true health. And that is what is offered in Freedoctorcourse.com. So go to Freedoctorcourse.com, put in your information and you’ll get 7 emails from me, one every day with a video from a naturopathic physician teaching you and other foundation of health, easy steps that you can take and such a great time of year to do it to solidify your new health resolutions. Right? We all want to feel better. No matter where you are on your health journey, you need these foundations of health. So there they are. Freedoctorcourse.com, go to that, check it out. Lastly, I have a story, I’m going to keep it short because I want you to get to this great interview. I’m going to be interviewing the creators and the scientists around this thing. But I was going to wait until I did the interview which I’m going to be doing next week. But I can’t wait. I have to tell you about it. If you’ve been a long-time listener, you’ve heard me say I’m the world’s most open-minded skeptic, right? I think that's how we need to be. We’re discovering new things, right? We have to use our critical thinking, right? Not just blindly accept anything but at the same time, be open-minded enough to at least take in new information especially if that information is so new. I think there's little bells and whistles that go off in our mind. It’s like oh, that sounds so new, it’s probably not true or it sounds too good to be true. Well, sometimes in holistic medicine, there are things that really work and they do sound too good to be true. But then there's a lot of I don’t want to say snake oil but there's a lot of not-so-great stuff. So, how do we navigate that? Well, we got to really get in touch and listen to our heart, listen to our intuition, take in all the information, look at the science, look at the results, and then try it on for ourselves. As long as there’s no negative side effects, try it on for ourselves as long as we feel like it’s safe to do, and then see what kind of results we get. So, that's what I love. I love experimenting with new herbs and new supplements and new machines and new habits. Like, I’m going to skip breakfast or I’m going to skip dinner or see what happens in my body, or I’m going to drink even more water, or I’m going to try a new exercise. Just you’re always experimenting trying new things. Get new health habits and try them on.  So, I was introduced to this company and I’ve heard of structured water for a long time. I even have an interview on it which is amazing. I have this amazing interview. He’s a little hard to understand because I felt he had a very thick accent but if you strain really hard, you get some great information when you listen to him. He’s a Russian scientist who discovered with this group of scientists that discovered that structured water is what had the people in Chernobyl had them survive. So, there's a certain amount of people from Chernobyl who had radiation poisoning sent to this one particular hospital up in the mountains and he tells the story and they drink structured water. The other people were sent to other hospitals. Well, those people all suffered how we would predict with radiation poisoning. And yet, the ones that drink structured water did not, and they got better. They were like, woah, what’s going on? Like, this is the clear night and day difference. They finally discovered that it was structured water that they were drinking, that it’s very specific places in the world where it comes up, it has to be under pressure, underground, and they’ve been trying to recreate it. If you’ve been into the health space, I’m sure you’ve heard of structured water before. Well, there's lots of machines, there's lots of expensive machines, there's all kinds of things out there that you get for structured water. I was introduced to this one company and, you know, I’m skeptical but I’m open-minded so I’m going to try it, so I tried it. And I really didn’t believe I was going to notice a difference. You simply use it in your glass of water. So, I fill up a big mason jar of 24 ounces, 30 ounces of water, and I use it. I swirl this thing in the water for a minute and then I drink it. I did not have a belief it would work because I was like, come on, really? I’m going to stir something in my water and it’s going to structure it. Well, sure enough. And you could stir water with a spoon or a knife or a chopstick. It’s not going to change the flavor of it. It’s not going to change how it feels in your mouth. Well, I used this device in the water for a minute and then I drank it. I was like, what just happened? Then of course I get another glass of water, pour it out of my filter to compare. Straight out of my filter I drank it, I’m like, okay, yeah, that's what water normally feels like in my mouth, normally tastes like. And then I drank the structured water again. I’m like, I cannot believe this! So, then I go grab my husband and our son, and I go okay, blind test. They don’t know which one is the structured water. I’m like, “Drink this, now drink this.” And they both were like, “What is this? This is amazing.” In one minute of using this device. And I’ve done this with every friend that’s come over. It’s been the funnest magic trick to do when friends come over, is the blind test. “Okay, drink this water, now drink this water, and tell me which one you like better.” The structured water tastes wetter. It feels different in the mouth. It tastes a bit sweeter and more natural just like more how water should be and it goes down your mouth like when you swallow it, it feels like everything is in alignment. And this has blown my mind. So, I have a friend who also has the device and she says she’s loved it. So, I started sharing this with my friends and every single one of them has gone like, “I have to get this. This is crazy. This is so good.” Three days of using this, and this is the big thing for me because I don’t know if you know my stories, you might be a new listener. Listeners who have been listening for a while know that we’ve been through a hard time. Our family, we lost our daughter, and I’ve been doing a lot of healing work. What had been sort of in the background for me had just been like this low-grade sadness, just like really almost like a static noise sort of just always there, somewhere in my heart, just low in my heart, just always there, three days of drinking this water. One of my friends said, “How are you doing?” I did an internal check and I went, “It’s gone. It’s gone.” Wait, what? For the first time in two years, I was able to answer, “I’m actually doing really well, thanks for asking. Like I feel really good.” There was just this congruency in my body three days of drinking this water. I feel so good and my husband is like, refuses to drink any water other than using the structured water. You can use it in your cooking. It changes the flavor of your coffee, by the way. If you structure the water before you make coffee with it. So, we’ve been doing it since right around Thanksgiving is when we got this device. I wanted to give it like a good enough trial before I introduce you guys to it because I like to experiment and see if something really resonates and really helps. Well, the studies around this structured water is that it reverses cellular age and people had their cellular age reversed up to 12 years younger in three months of drinking this water. I feel amazing. I know I’m doing a lot of health things, right? It’s hard because you’re doing so many different things, you don’t know which one is the one that's doing it. But I hadn’t really changed anything right around when I started using this device to structure my water. And I haven’t stopped using it. And I feel amazing. I’m a big water fanatic, I think we all should drink over 100 ounces of water a day that's purified water. But it makes me want to drink water more. It makes me enjoy drinking water. And there's a huge difference when I use it. Also, it affects well water too because I went to a friend’s house, we tested it on her well water and sure enough, I thought well water might already be just naturally structured coming from the ground. Sure enough, it changes well water as well. It feels wetter and it just goes down your throat easier and it changes the flavor of it like more enjoyable. Anyways, enough about that. Look forward to that interview. I’m going to be doing that interview next week. We’re going to get into the science of why. It also changes brain waves. It makes them healthier. They’ve been doing studies for about 12 years now on this particular device, but there's so much science around structured water. It’s really fascinating. So, check out this device that I love and of course, I asked them if they would give our listeners a discount. Learntruehealth.com/structuredwater. That's Learntruehealth.com/structuredwater. Use the coupon code LTH as in Learn True Health. Check it out for yourself. What I like about this is it’s actually way cheaper than all the machines out there probably because it’s manual and it’s not a machine that you're stirring your water with it. Check it out. So far, I really enjoyed communicating with this company and I’m really looking forward to having their scientist and their founders on the show and just digging into like why is it that the structured water, first of all, how is it that in one minute of stirring this device in your water is going to change it so much and how is it that it’s affecting people reversing their cellular age, affecting their brainwaves. How is it that it affected my emotional body, my energetic and emotional body, and that residual sadness that wasn’t going away went away. How is that?  So, very excited to bring you that information. Go to Learntruehealth.com/structuredwater. Use coupon code LTH, try it for yourself. It is the most affordable structured water device I have found which is great. Yeah, I want to know your feedback. Come to the Learn True Health Facebook group and let me know what you think about this device. Now, remember, testimonials, I want them. Please give them to me because episode 500 is coming up. Then, Freedoctorcourse.com, go get the foundations of health. I want you doing those things for your benefit and share it with your friends and family. Enjoy today’s interview. It’s a fantastic episode. I really, really loved it. It resonated with me and I hope it helps you as well. Have yourselves a fantastic rest of your day and enjoy today’s interview. [00:16:17] Ashley James: Welcome to the Learn True Health podcast. I’m your host, Ashley James, this is episode 495. I am so excited for today’s guest. We have on the show with us Dr. Dain Heer. Boy, this is going to be one of those episodes where you’re just going to sit back and you're going to feel like a transformed person by the end of it. I’m excited for 2023. The last few years, I just want to, I don’t know, I kind of want to put it in that little box in my mind like was that the dream like Dorothy waking up and being like, it was a dream but you were there and you were there. So, let’s just all wake up and 2023 will be like this beautiful technicolor life. Let’s take everything that we want to transform and work on that but in a really positive way see ourselves in the future having achieved those transformed goals. And we have with us an amazing expert to help us get there. Welcome to the show! [00:17:20] Dr. Dain Heer: Ashley, thanks for having me. [00:17:22] Ashley James: Absolutely. Now I’d love to hear just a little bit about what had you become the expert you are now. I know that sort of started out as a chiropractor which I absolutely love chiropractic care. But so many chiropractors I have interviewed have gone on to do so much more and it’s really cool that you can take that as a foundation and then go and do like emotional work and healing and energy work. There's so many modalities that can come about from that foundation. [00:17:57] Dr. Dain Heer: Yeah, it’s wonderful. Chiropractic is sort of a gateway drug for possibilities. It’s like, “Hey, you want to learn chiropractic? Hey, how about some other stuff now?” For me, I was a chiropractor, I was living in Santa Barbara, starting my second practice 22 years ago. I felt like I didn’t even do chiropractic very well. I had studied so many different techniques, you know, emotional, untwisting the tension from the dura, I mean, and about 30 others. I was at a point in my life where I was done because I was going to every weekend workshop I could. I was reading every book I could on personal development, self-help, money, relationships, all the stuff. And what would happen for me is I’d go to a weekend workshop and I’d feel like I finally had the answers by the end of the workshop and I was finally going to be able to create the life I wanted and then by Wednesday of the following week, it would all go away and the universe would cave in on my head again. It was literally a Wednesday after one of these workshops 22 years ago where the universe caved in on my head when I thought I had finally found the answers I was looking for and I said, “I’m done. Universe, you have six months. Either my life changes or I’m out of here.” I literally set a date to end my life. I knew how I was going to do it. It wasn’t around anybody’s birthday. It wasn’t around a holiday. I didn’t want people to mourn for me. I just wanted to get out of my suffering. A week later, I came across an ad for something called Access Consciousness that I had never heard about before. It said Access, all of life comes to me with ease and joy and glory. I got furious, I threw the paper away. Because my life was pain and suffering and gory at the time. I happened to see this little add in the paper the following week and I learned along before if there’s something you hate or something you love, there's something in it for you. So, I called and I was thinking nothing was going to happen. Called and made an appointment and had this girl come to my office for a session. I went into this session angry, depressed, suicidal, looking forward to leaving the planet and I came out with a sense of gratitude for being alive that I will never forget.  In contrast, everything else that I had done up until that point, it didn’t go away. I got a tool to use each week because I started doing these sessions once a week and what would happen is, when the universe wanted to cave back in on my head, I would use the tool and it would expand back out and I would have that space again. Then, I would get the session and then my space would expand more. And I started walking around with something that very few people seemed to have or allowed themselves which was actually a sense of space no matter what happened. So, I could go through the trials and travails of life and observe it rather than be in the middle of it. That was 22 years ago. Few months after that session, I met the founder of Access, a man named Gary Douglas and he came for a chiropractic session in my office and we became fast friends and started creating this body of work that changes every day and grows every day based on how much more quickly can we help you create change. Because Access is about accessing, the knowing that each of us has within us. When you access that, you start to create the life of your dreams that you always knew was possible. There's stills ups and there's still downs but the downs are far less and the ups are far greater and that starts to become the new trajectory for your life. [00:21:54] Ashley James: So, you want to unpack a bit about what this is? Is it energy work? Is it meditation? Is it talk therapy? What is it? [00:22:03] Dr. Dain Heer: Yes. It is so many things. I mean, we have probably 8000 tools at this point that are different ways of handling things in the trenches of life. But its basis is that the only time we create a difficulty in our lives is when we function from less than the consciousness that we are. So, what it’s about is actually undoing the unconscious and anti-conscious points of view that we have which is all the places where we stick ourselves. When you do that, the being that you are actually is conscious. In certain spiritual circles, they talk about having a higher self. Well, that never sat well with me because inherent in that point of view is you must be the lower self. What this is about is accessing your being, the part of you that actually knows. It’s like if you ever had a choice come up and you knew not to do it, and you did it anyway. And it turned out just as poorly as you know it would, well, that's an acknowledgement that we knew ahead of time, we can perceive these things. So, part of what Access does is there's a part of that’s verbal processing, there's a part of it that’s hands-on which is the session that I had which is this thing called The Bars, which is a light touch technique that’s done on the head and we’ve done scientifically valid studies and found that it decreases anxiety, stress, and depression at an average of 87% with one session. So, there are also body processes to change things in your body by getting your body more conscious. So, it’s got a lot of aspects to it. Describing Access is kind of like hey, describe the universe in three sentences. It’s like, it’s really big. [00:24:08] Ashley James: This sounds a lot like neurolinguistic programming or timeline therapy. Or there's a lot of other modalities that I know of. Does it pull from other modalities or is it 100 percent its own unique thing? [00:24:21] Dr. Dain Heer: Nope. It’s 100 percent its own unique thing. [00:24:26] Ashley James: You mentioned the term “anti-conscious”. I understand consciousness, I understand the unconscious mind or the subconscious mind. But what is anti-consciousness? [00:24:36] Dr. Dain Heer: Well, let’s actually unpack the unconscious or subconscious. Because what we call our subconscious mind can actually oftentimes be our consciousness in action. See, we have done ourselves a dynamic disservice by equating cognitive and conscious. They are not the same. Cognitive is mental. Conscious is your connection with everything and the awareness you would have as an infinite being. So, if we look from that perspective, I’ll give people a moment to digest that sentence. Kind of one big sentence there which is that we as beings are conscious. In other words, we have infinite knowing, we have infinite perceiving, we have infinite receiving and infinite being. Those are the four aspects of an infinite being, but those are also what we would have as the consciousness we are. So, unconsciousness is actually where you allow yourself or enforce upon yourself to be unaware of something. Anti-consciousness is where you actively choose against the consciousness that you are. This is what I see with a lot of people is for example, in that case, of you know, everybody out there, think of one thing that you knew not to do and you did it anyway. Then think of how it turned out just as badly as you knew it would. Even though you went through the check box, you listed out your pros and cons, or it looks so good it must work out well. Well, that's a combination of unconsciousness and anti-consciousness. The unconsciousness is I’m going to make myself unaware of the future this will create because each of us has an awareness of future. The anti-consciousness is “Oh, I just got the awareness of the future and I’m going against it now.” That’s what gets created when you function from less than the consciousness of you which occurs in either of those forms. [00:26:49] Ashley James: I feel like a lot of people might be questioning you on this awareness of the future, like, “I’m not psychic, I can’t predict what other people are going to say or do or how they're going to respond.” Then, how do we tap into our awareness of the future and check in with ourselves and make sure that we’re not actively choosing against the consciousness that we are? [00:27:17] Dr. Dain Heer: Well, that definitely takes practice because look at it, we’ve all grown up being taught that there are right and wrong choices and the way to know how to choose what’s right is to write down if you're going to do anything, you write down the list of pros and cons, and if the pros outweigh the cons, then you do it. But I’ve seen a lot of people who got married to people who the pros appear to outweigh the cons who suffered dynamically for years. So, what else is there? Well, when you say a lot of people would say “I’m not psychic,” I know and yes, you are. I totally get it. I was functioning from the same place, so I totally understand. I totally understand if I say hey, you have this awareness of future. And people would resist it like I did. You know when I first heard that too, I was like, “You are full of crap!” So if you think I’m full of crap, I totally understand. In fact, probably the most common thing I hear is “I thought you were full of crap when you said this but I found out you’re not.” I’m like, yup, I get it. I understand. It takes practice. But here’s the thing, is let’s take psychic out of the card reading, future predicting type of thing and let’s acknowledge that it’s awareness of the energetics that occur but also that will occur. So, you don’t necessarily know what somebody else is going to do or what they're going to choose. You could probably predict it with some reliable probability but that's not actually the point. The point is actually getting the sense of I choose this, what space or lack of space will it create for me? A great question to start practicing that is if I choose this, what will my life be like in five years? Not look like because you can’t see it. The future is wisps and whispers of energy. I made a concerted choice to even bring up this topic because I do realize how out there it can seem for some people. But unless we start to realize that we are aware of the energetics, the fundamental sort of sense of lightness or heaviness of what our choices create, we’re going to keep ourselves in the dark thinking that we have no clue what to choose. That's one of the biggest things sticking most people right now. I say right now, it’s probably been forever, is the idea that they don’t know what to choose because they don’t know what the outcome will be, so then they go to their minds to try to figure it out and they go through the checklist and then it still doesn’t work out well. And yet, if you recognize that even while you're doing the checklist, even while you're exploring whatever the subject is, you will have a sense of whether it’s light or not. See, what’s true for you always makes you lighter. A lie for you will always make you heavier. The more you choose the things that are actually true for you, whether they are for anybody else or not, the lighter your life gets over time. So, like if for example, well, right around 22 years ago now, I got engaged. Why did I get engaged? Because I had a desire to get married at the time? No, I didn’t but I knew that my girlfriend at the time desired it and in a sense required it because that was the next step we were supposed to take and she needed that for me to prove that I loved her. Because I’m a bit of a romantic, okay, I’m a total freaking romantic, don’t tell anybody, that's just between us, okay, even while I was planning this wonderful way of asking her to marry me, I felt like the walls were closing in. I knew not to do it. I did it anyway. Well, that was like opening Pandora’s box. There was so much heaviness associated with it. But I was going to be the right man who was doing the right thing. So, my previous conclusion about what I needed to be for someone created the place where I couldn’t look at the effect or wouldn’t look at the effect that it would create even though energetically it was right in my face. We ended up breaking up about three months after because I could no longer go down that path because it just got heavier and heavier and heavier and heavier. The thing is, I knew before I chose it. Which is why I’m bringing this up to people and I also realized, you know, to a certain extent, people, if they're listening to a podcast or they’re usually thinking they're going to get some slightly different version of what they already know. And we’re greater than that. We actually have awarenesses. It’s easy to reject something because it doesn’t match what you thought it was but that's the recipe for keeping the same life that you’ve always had. This conversation is about let’s embrace that we might have more awareness than we think and let’s use it on our behalf. You don’t have to throw out anything. Anything that you’ve learned, anything that you know, because what’s true makes you lighter, a lie makes you heavier. If I say something and it makes you lighter, take it. If I say something and it makes you heavier, feel free to leave it. It’s your choice, it’s your life. But we are greater than we have ever acknowledged or given ourselves credit for. And us trying to pretend that we’re normal, trying to pretend we don’t have the level of awareness we have is killing is, literally.  [00:33:16] Ashley James: I’m going to play the devil’s advocate for just a moment because I think it will help us better understand. What if 20 years ago, those feelings that you had were not your tapping into understanding your future, but were coming from a place of your unconscious limiting decisions or negative emotions or negative beliefs about yourself like marriage is hard, I’m not loved, I’m going to screw this up, or I’m going to be trapped or whatever. People come up with these limiting decisions that they end up living by that they’ve created through their childhood. [00:33:56] Dr. Dain Heer: Totally. [00:33:58] Ashley James: And people will often live as if these unconscious negative beliefs are the truth, right? [00:34:05] Dr. Dain Heer: Totally. That's what Access changes. That is exactly what Access changes. I’m really grateful you're bringing it up because this is a thing that so many people don’t realize that they're just living the negative beliefs that they grew up with and basically bought as theirs. That they just basically climbed into the box of somebody else’s limited reality and they're trying to decorate it better. So, it’s like absolutely, I’m 100 percent with you. [00:34:40] Ashley James: Because when people, they're coming from a negative belief and then they try something, they go to do something but they're still believing they can’t or it’s going to screw up, I’m going to screw up, I’m not good enough, I’m not loved, whatever the thing is, and then when it does mess up, they're like, “See, I knew it. I knew I can’t do it,” and they're finding the evidence that they can’t do it. They’re finding they’re living through evidence and proving evidence that they can’t do it. People will live from their unconscious beliefs as if that's reality. Then, they’ll go on proving. So let’s say an unconscious belief is I’m not loved or if it’s like a marriage thing like they saw their parents struggle and divorce and maybe they've seen broken marriages, they grew up in a broken home, they believe that they can’t do it, I can’t do it. Whatever it is about relationships, they can’t do it, or I’m bad at relationships, no one loves me, whatever their belief is, it’s unconscious. They're not consciously aware of it, but what they're aware of is they’re constantly finding evidence to prove their belief system is true and they're negating, the unconscious mind is negating. Distorting, generalizing, negating the proof that they are loved or the proof that anything that goes against their belief system. So, if they go and they go “Well, I couldn’t possibly do this marriage thing. I’m feeling trapped, I’m feeling like the walls are closing in,” and they call it off and they're like, “See, I knew I couldn’t do it.” But it wasn’t them predicting the future; it was them fulfilling their limiting beliefs or their negative beliefs that they’ve created, that they're living by, and then they're constantly finding evidence to support that their negative beliefs are reality when in fact they're not.  [00:36:40] Dr. Dain Heer: Like I was saying, those negative beliefs, those limiting beliefs are actually what Access changes. The thing about looking at the future is you're not predicting the future, you are having an awareness of what that choice will create. In other words, the energetics of what that choice will create. So, with this, for me, what I did was I started using these Access Consciousness tools because the thing is, when something is heavy, we know it. We just know it for whatever reason. And what Access gives you is a way of changing that. So, because what we tend to do is we tend to lump all kinds of things together. It’s like we’ve got the love we didn’t get from mom and the love we didn’t get from dad and like the insecurities you’ve grown up with and the future we’re looking at that we don’t know that we can do and we put it all together in one thing, it keeps us from getting clarity on what’s actually going on.  So, I totally agree with you about our past limiting points of view that we’ve adopted and most of those, we have adopted and bought from other people who had a similar point of view, so we don’t really even know what our point of view is most of the time unless you're willing to explore it. What happened for me was that’s exactly where I was functioning and it was so heavy, I went, “I need to do something.” So, I started asking some questions like what is true for me here that I haven’t acknowledged. What will my life be like in 5 years if I go through with this? What choices do I have available that I haven’t acknowledged? And what is it I’m trying to create here and for whom.  Then we also have another thing in Access which is a way of, well, basically changing anything you want to change. It’s called a clearing statement. It’s based on the idea that the “conscious“ part of us, I hate to put it in those terms because I would like all of us to be conscious. But if we were totally conscious, we wouldn’t create difficulties. But we have this way of changing your limiting points of view and also unlocking the fix points of view that keep you from getting in touch with what’s true for you. I don’t normally go into it on an interview like this because yeah, it’s a lot of weird words and I’ve got a 20-minute video explaining it online, so I usually just point people there so they can have access to it if they're interested. But for me, it’s something that I use every single day because let’s face it, stuff comes up in the world we live in, you know. [00:39:32] Ashley James: Well, I definitely want the link to the 20-minute video and I’ll put it in the show notes of today’s podcast at Learntruehealth.com and any podcast directory wherever people are listening from, they can just look in the description and I’ll make sure that that link is there, so 20-minute video, I’ll make a little note of that. How can someone tell the difference between the unconscious sort of limiting points of view or the limiting decisions, negative beliefs that they’ve been living by or they created themselves or they adopted from their surroundings either from marketing, from their friend’s family. They’ve been living as though that's the truth and letting that sort of be their guide stone. How can they tell the difference between that which when they make decisions based on that guide stone, they’re coming from definitely a place of scarcity and fear and cutting themselves off, right? How can they tell the difference though between that and that connecting with the part of themselves, connecting with whatever you want to describe it, people would say god, universal energy, their higher self as you’ve said some people call it that, but connecting with that within you, your intuition that knows what’s going to create more space, lightness, a better future for yourself, how can you tell the difference between those two voices? [00:40:57] Dr. Dain Heer: Once again, it takes some practice. The thing is, we live in a world where it’s like okay, give me the one answer that will solve my life and it doesn’t work that way. You’ve got to go on a journey where we’re willing to actually uncover and explore but the beginning of that is, ask this one simple question. What will my life be like in 5 years if I choose this and get a sense of whether it’s lighter or whether it’s heavier, whether you have a sense of more ability to breathe like more relaxation, more space, and/or if it seems contracted. Or of contraction of any form, and that's also different for all of us. But the thing is, it’s like when we’re choosing something that is what we’ve been conditioned to choose what other people require, it’s an energy we can learn to recognize. I mean, let’s face it, for most people, before this conversation, they didn’t really have it sort of pointed out in black and white. Like here’s one of the things that may be going on. So, it’s got to be a bit of an exploration of okay, and maybe one thing that would help is write down a couple of things that you’ve chosen in your life that just turned out way better than you could imagine. Get the moment where you chose that and get the sense of that. When I say the sense of that, it’s like hey, how was that? Like, what were you being in that moment? Be with that for a minute because that, for you, it’s unique to each of us, you know. There may be commonalities or similarities but it’s unique to each of us. But what were you being in that moment? Like, just get the sense of your space, your headspace, how your body felt. Be with that for a moment and then look at a couple of things that you’ve chosen that you knew you did it because you were supposed to. And look at the space you are choosing now or the lack of space. A lot of times people will say “Yeah, I feel like I’m just all in my head” or “I feel like there's a band around my head when I think about that.” And yeah, it’s because we’re trying to use our computer to figure it out rather than letting our being access what it knows. We all have so many obligations and expectations from others that we’re spending our lives trying to fulfill, thinking that somehow, if I can just fulfill all of their expectations, then I’ll get the love that I want, that they won’t judge me anymore, that I’ll be a good person and not a bad person. All of these things are ways of opening the door to judging ourselves. And in Access, we have a definition of consciousness which is where everything and everyone exists, and no one and nothing is judged. I guess a definition, a description, however you want to put it, and from that, you realize that if you’re judging you, you're not doing a kindness to you but that’s what we’ve grown up with in our entire world so it creates a place that when we go to choose something especially something we consider a large choice, we put our judgement system on overdrive most of the time, and you’ll notice if you look back at something that you choose that seemed to have space and relaxation to it that turned out wonderfully, usually it’s because it wasn’t a significant thing for you. So, when we have things we consider significant or big choices, we go the exact opposite of the way that will work. We go into more judgment, more trying to figure it out, more trying to understand it, rather than basically expanding out, getting some space for us as beings to approach the situation.  [00:45:13] Ashley James: I’m trying to relate to what you’re saying but I’ve done so much personal growth work in my life and like thinking about all these major issues, I’m going, well, what I do is I usually, whatever the outcome is, I always try to learn from it. So, whether I’m like, okay, well, it didn’t turn out the way I wanted, but look at all the things we learned and look at all this growth and like now I know more of how to navigate this and so we’re always asking ourselves what’s good about this. My husband and I are always kind of going through what’s good about this. But the one thing that when you said take one thing that turned out really well and what was the moment, it was when I decided to say yes to my husband to marry him. I totally get back in that space and get right in my body in that moment. There’s so much possibilities, infinite possibility. There’s maybe one percent fear like what is the future going to bring? I don’t know. But there was so much love, so much possibility like oh, this is beautiful. It’s a beautiful space. It’s expanding, it’s light, it’s energetic. It’s exciting, thrilling. And that's like we were just talking today because a friend from 10+ years ago, coworker I had many years ago reached out and he just this morning shared with me that he is struggling in his relationship and doesn’t know what to do. I look at my husband and I’m like, you know, him and I always think about and talk about the things that we don’t like, the things we want to improve, the things we’re kind of frustrated with in our life, the messes in our life. But I said, you know what, I’ve been taking for granted the things that are amazing because like our relationship is amazing. I feel like I have the most solid relationship in the world and so I take it for granted. There's people who really want this and I have it. I started to think about all the things that wow, I’ve taken for granted so many things that are really working in my life because I’ve always just been fixated on the few that are not working. And that you're right when you think about the things that are working and the choices you’ve made that make it work, it’s a totally different feeling in your body. It’s a different feeling in your body.  So, now it has shift. My choices and beliefs around the things that aren’t working so that I can have that on the same frequencies with the things that are working. Right? [00:47:23] Dr. Dain Heer: Yeah, exactly that. I think that's the thing that like you said, one of the questions we have in Access, well, there's a few. One is what’s right about this, I’m not getting. Because also, it’s like every choice I make, my point of view is all is well that ends in more consciousness. Which is more awareness. Like you said, I made these choices, they didn’t work out well, but I look at everything I learned. And I have a similar point of view and also, it’s like how great would it be to be that space like when you said yes, to be that space with all of our choices. This is what I see people being able to step into, is they're no longer in conflict with themselves when they start to have a sense of who they actually are. And unfortunately, we live in a world where people think they are the image especially now, especially since the onslaught of social media, and I’m sure it was there before that in other ways, but people unfortunately are trying to uphold this image of who they are that’s primarily for other people. But they have to buy into it to a certain degree to try to see it as a reality and it’s really destructive because we’re far greater than that. And what would it be like if we could have a lot more space and a lot of our choices, number one, occur from that space that you're talking about when you said yes to your husband. But number two, also have the result. Because when you're doing it from that space and you choose, that's usually the result. It turns out awesome, it turns out greater than you can ever imagine. And you’re correct, we have to get in touch with how does this feel in my body, like how am I sensing this? Like, what is that? And okay, so if you’ve had a time like that, then go there and then bring it here to the degree that you can to apply it to this situation and then see what you see that you didn’t see otherwise.  [00:49:31] Ashley James: So now that we’ve established that you can feel in your body, and some people are more aware, more kinesthetic, they're more in tune with their feeling, and some people, they're going to have to work on this, right. But when you maybe just sit quietly for a few minutes and be with yourself, be with your breath, and think about, for example, like reflect on how you felt and the space in you, inside you, when you're making choices that turn out really well, that you felt totally in alignment with, there's no conflict, there was just feeling of congruency in your body, and then versus the times when you felt a lot of conflict, your incongruency, and yet you did it anyway, sort of like, I don’t know, I’m walking out and it’s a sunny day and my intuition says bring the umbrella, and I’m like, I override that soft voice in my head that says “bring the umbrella”. And I’m like, I don’t need to bring the umbrella, it’s sunny outside, right? Or I’m about to go to the car and the voice will say to bring a pair of batteries. I’m like, “I don’t need batteries. This doesn’t make sense.” And then later on in the day, I needed the batteries or I needed the umbrella. I’m like, “Oh, I was supposed to listen to that voice.” I don’t know. Why do I override it?  But when you follow that voice versus when you don’t follow that voice or you make decisions when there is incongruency or like you said, almost like that feeling of less space closing in on you maybe, or darkness, or whatever it is, we start to establish that feeling. When we’ve established that feeling then, let’s say we have a choice we need to make, maybe start with some smaller ones about major life choices, like what to make for dinner, when we are sitting with ourselves and we’re feeling the incongruency, what’s an exercise we can do to find that authentic direction, the authentic voice inside us that’s like hey, this is the direction we’re meant to go and that this is authentically me? [00:51:27] Dr. Dain Heer: Well, first is, you want to ask who does this belong to? When you're having that mental staccato, you know, the snare drum in your head or the out-of-tune band as your monkey mind goes into high rev, you want to ask who does this belong to. One of the things we’ve found in Access is that 98 percent of our thoughts, our feelings, our emotion, our stress, our anxiety, our depression, our suicidal thoughts, our anger and our fear, and our doubt, and all kinds of other things, are actually things we pick up from other people. And if we extend that a little bit further, what you realize is a lot of us for doing any sort of healing or personal development work, a lot of us have the awareness that I’m acting just like my mom, I’m being a slightly better version of my mom or my dad or both. And we realize that we seem to have the same limitations with money, we seem to have a similar thing in relationship. So, we can ask. There's a tool. We even have a free app. It’s called Who Does This Belong To? So if you're in the middle of like you can ask it to any thought, feeling, and emotion, or any one of like the weird energies and when your mind starts going, if you go, who does this belong to? If it lightens up at all, it’s not yours. Just return to sender with consciousness attached. And one of the biggest things that we can do for ourselves is look back over our lives, and one of the questions I ask people is, what percentage of who, what, where, when, why and how you are, or that you think you are, did you buy from your mom and your dad before the age of two? People get up into the hundreds of thousands of percent and which is interesting because you would think there should only be able to be a hundred percent, I guess we just buy it over and over and over, it’s kind of like if you think about your family life and all the energies that were around, we were aware of all of those, but nobody ever pointed it out as us being aware of something. It was always like, “oh, when I’m around mom, I feel this way.” “When I’m around dad, I feel this way.” “When I’m around both of them, I feel this way.”  Well, those were all energetics. It’s kind of like we grew up swimming in carrot soup and if you swim in carrot soup for 15, 25, 35, 45, 55 years, somebody pulls you out, you look like a carrot, you smell like a carrot, you taste like a carrot, but you're still not a carrot. But we’ve been swimming in the carrot soup of all of these thoughts, feelings, and emotions and points of view thinking that they belong to us. This is a way of undoing that. It’s one of the things I use to heal myself of depression 22 years ago. Any time any of that would come up, I’d go, who does this belong to? And it would lighten up a little bit and I’d go, okay, not mine. I just tune my radio to that frequency. So, I’d be like, okay, return to sender with consciousness attached.  Well, you can do that also with things that you bought a long time ago. And let’s say you're having one of those moments where things are not light, you're trying to look at a situation and it’s not, just go, “Who does that belong to?” Whenever I bought this as mine when it wasn’t, POC and POD, which is the short form for the clearing statement which I mentioned earlier, just POC and POD all that. POC and POD. POC and POD. POC and POD. POC and POD. And return to sender. What happens is, probably about 85, maybe 90 percent of the time, you get some lightness, you get a little bit more space which allows you then to grab on to the thread of your reality so you can start to get to the lightness that you get to when you're functioning from what’s true for you. [00:55:35] Ashley James: You brought up suicide and I think it’s really important to talk on this a little bit because it’s the second leading cause of death for ages 10 to 14 and 15 to 34. This is in the 2020 statistics. It’s a major issue that we’re seeing. Maybe social media is playing a role in increasing this, but you mentioned that if 98 percent of our thoughts and even like suicidal thoughts are not our own, they're coming from other influences, we need to sit down and sort of who’s me and who’s not me. Because so many children are being fed this negativity. Whatever they're being fed, it’s causing them to want to take their own lives. What can you say or what techniques do you teach or at least begin to unfold for us that can help people or we need to recognize that “wow, I’ve been thinking about some pretty dark things, I’ve been going to some dark places,” “wow this is not me, this is not who I am, this is coming from outside”? [00:56:49] Dr. Dain Heer: Well, I’m glad you brought it up because it is such a big issue and becoming greater every day. If you look at the statistics after COVID, the world suicide rates rising like skyrocketing. So here’s the first thing we have to recognize about a lot of those that are getting to that place or think they might be. These tend to be the sensitive individuals in our world. It’s part of the reason I brought up who does this belong to out of the thousands of tools we have in Access and ways of changing things. Because somebody who’s sensitive, and here’s the other part I need to address also, is so often it’s the sensitive people of the world that are the ones that feel like it’s their responsibility to take the pain and suffering of the world on their shoulders because they perceive it so dynamically and more than people who don’t have that level of sensitivity. So, a sensitive person, if we look at this idea, and a lot of people when I say 98 percent of your thoughts, feelings and emotions aren’t yours, people are like “yeah, you're crazy,” I’m like, “I know, I thought so too.” So I started using it on myself and I started finding it works with almost every single person that I do it with. We have over a million people that have gone through Access Consciousness classes at this point. And so many of them have gotten freedom from this. But if we can recognize that those people who get to that place are sensitive, what does that mean? Well, their awareness of well, everything around them, energetically, is off the charts. So, for a “normal” person although I hate that word, for a normal person, their volume knob for picking up other people’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions and their depression and all of that, their volume knob might be at a 1. For some of these highly sensitive people, it’s up at 1000. So, what happens is, very few people recognize this. See, I see this sensitivity as a gift now because I’m one of those people. But also, it used to seem like a curse because I was always the one that was like, can’t you tell that these people are angry? And they're like, “What are you talking about?”  So, they’ve been so invalidated and there hasn’t been anybody to come along and say “You know what, you’re sensitive,” or ask them. Actually, I would never tell somebody anything about them. I always ask them a question. But if somebody would come along and acknowledge that they have this level of dynamic awareness and what are you aware of, and how much of this is your awareness, how much of this is something you're perceiving, and how much of it is something that’s actually being generated from within you. I will ask people who are going through this. And I can’t tell you the tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of times where I’ve assisted people going through what seemed like depression or anxiety or suicidal thoughts or “I just want to die.” It’s always got a component of them having this level of awareness. One of the things I ask them is, what’s the difference between I’m sad and I’m perceiving sadness? Of course, perceiving it is “it’s there, I’m here”. I am sad is now “it’s here and I am in.” This is one of the crucial distinctions that we haven’t been taught to make that really, our entire perspective could change if we recognize that there's a level of sensitivity that a lot of people have and nobody has ever acknowledged them for it. They just want to take them and get rid of it and put the people on drugs, etc. And there are a number of people that I’ve worked with where they were experiencing something like suicidal thoughts, depression, whatever. They were convinced of the utter wrongness of them because that's the other thing that goes along with this. They’re very sensitive to that energy, that vibration of wrongness that people walk around with and they always want to try to take it away. They don’t want other people to feel wrong. So, when I say, okay, are you having this or are you perceiving this? They go, “What?” I’m like, okay. I run through the thing with them about sadness. And they go, “Oh.” And I say, so, are you having this or are you perceiving this? They go, “Oh my gosh. I’m perceiving so much of it. It feels like me.” I’m like, “I know.” Then our next step then is to create the distance between I guess I’ll call it distance, to create the awareness in their world of exactly like you said, what is theirs and what is not theirs. It’s why we develop this idea of if you ask who does this belong to for three days to every thought, every feeling, every emotion, every yuck, every stuck, every weird twisted energy, every mind going crazy, and if it lightens up at all, it’s not yours, return to sender with consciousness attached. At the end of three days, you walk around like you're in a walking-talking meditation. Literally, no thoughts in your head. Like I can walk through any city in the world and I’m glad I have this because I travel a lot facilitating classes and have no thoughts in my head. You know, it’s just in Rome, just enjoying Rome, there was none of the monkey mind because if you’ll do that for three days, you start to break the machine that makes you believe that everything you perceive and are aware of actually belongs to you.  [01:02:52] Ashley James: And is generated from you. Right? Like, oh, the sadness is me. That makes so much sense. So my background being in neurolinguistic programming and in Time Line Therapy and hypnosis, as you're talking, I’m reminded of Dr. Milton Erickson who he’s sort of the creator of the modern-day, very ultra light state of hypnotherapy where you would just be in conversation with him. And through a conversation, he could put you in a light state of trance and he can slow your heart rate down, slow your breathing down. He would watch your pulse. He was very talented at observation because he had polio twice. He had to learn how to walk three times in his life. He would sit there, as he was crippled and recovering, he watched his younger sibling learn to walk for his first time and he became hyper aware of certain things. Like he could look at you and could tell you what your pulse is because he could count the pulse on your ankle or your neck. So we’d watch people and as he used hypnotic language patterns just in conversation, like you said, the “normal” people, would be talking to him not really feeling any kind of a different conversation. Okay, this guy talks a little slow. But within minutes, your heart rate would be lower and you would walk out of a session with him much more positive, focused on positive things. He had one man come to him who said “I have to stop drinking. I’m ruining my life.” And this is back in I think in the ‘70s. It was long time ago and he said to the guy, this is in Arizona or in New Mexico, somewhere in the desert, “I want you to go and look at a cactus and tell me how it can survive without drinking water.” He just gave him a thought. Just something to think about, something to look at, and years later, a woman came in and said, “I have to meet you.” And he’s like, “Okay, I have an appointment too but I guess I can meet you now.” She’s like, “No, no, no, I just have to meet the man who told my dad who was beating my mom and destroying our lives and a complete drunk, who couldn’t keep a job. He was told to go look at a cactus. He quit drinking, sobered up, moved us to California, got a job and became an amazing dad and husband. I just had to meet the guy that told my dad to stare at a cactus and his whole life changed.”  But it’s like a perfect example of this input coming Dr. Milton Erickson, right? It’s an input. It’s outside of us. It’s a conversation. It’s thoughts. But it’s not our own. It didn’t generate from us. And he’s inputting stuff and your critical faculty is allowing it and you’re allowing these thoughts in. Then, it makes positive changes. Well, the same can be for negative. Right? We’re allowing in hypnotic language patterns. Anytime you turn on the radio, watch the TV, listen to other people, go through a grocery store and over here, other people talking, these are all hypnotic suggestions you're allowing in. If you can’t tell the difference between the external world and your internal world. Then you perceive all that external stuff as you. And that would make anyone incredibly depressed and sick especially if they have more empathy, they're more empathetic, they're leaning, like you said, they're sensitive. You use the word “sensitive”, I use the word “empathetic.” But people who are more perceptive, those people are a sponge for everything around them and the if they don’t have the tools like you teach these tools, they’re thinking it’s all self-generated, it’s all them, and they cannot tell the difference. There’s no barrier, there's no boundary between who they are and the outside world. That would be horrible. You think about those who have autism, like over stimulus, it’s just agony inside them. There is no separation between this outside stimulus and the inside world, and it’s just like clattered. Just disruptive of the nervous system. But that's what we’re going through too, all of us. Because we’ve allowed the hypnotic language patterns of the world, the hypnosis of the world to enter us and confuse us and trick us into thinking that that is who we are. So, excellent. Excellent idea to do. It’s kind of like needing to do the laundry in my bedroom. I don’t know if anyone is like me but there's a laundry pile here on the floor, there's a laundry pile on the bed, there's a laundry pile on the dresser. But it’s like you need to kind of go through the laundry and be like, oh right, there's all these piles of clothing I need to kind of like sort and figure out which is the dirty, which is the clean, which gets hung, which gets put in the drawers. We need to do that inside ourselves. We need to sort the laundry in our own heart, in our own mind, in our own thoughts. And go, is this me? Is this really me? Those beliefs you’ve been holding onto for so long might not be me. [01:07:56] Dr. Dain Heer: In fact, most of them are not us, which is a little confrontational for some people to hear, but when you're functioning from something that’s not truly you, it’s always heavy. It doesn’t have a lightness, it doesn’t have any peace to it. And yet, we keep trying to take those things and find a way to rearrange them in our head or think if we just do something different or we’d be something different or we say something different and we think something different, then somehow it’s all going to become light rather than going through your house and going, “Holy crap, I have 2000 pieces of laundry and only six of them are mine.”  [01:08:36] Ashley James: Well, yeah, right, because I’m doing the family laundry. But this is like doing the world’s laundry. You're driving down the street listening to the radio and people are throwing their laundry at you. [01:08:45] Dr. Dain Heer: Totally. How many times have we had that? As another acknowledgement of this, it’s like, how many times have you been having a great day, things are wonderful, you're happy, you're on cloud 9, man, you're driving to work and all of a sudden you get this ping or this something where you're like, “Oh my God, I’m afraid, or I’m angry,” or, “Oh, I don’t like my husband,” you know, where you probably don’t have that one because of your relationship which is awesome. Okay, but a lot of people do because they're primed for it. It makes sense to them that that could be something that they would feel and then what do they do? They go back and look over their day and look to the last day and look for the moment that justifies that emotion. But what if it’s just somebody driving by you having that very intensely and they're throwing their laundry on your car and in your car? And this occurs all the time and nobody is talking about it. Even when I say it to people, they're like, “Oh, that couldn’t be the case. Somebody would have told me by now.” I’m like, that's why I’m here. I’m telling you. And they’re like, “Oh, it couldn’t be the case. That's just too big. That's too much.” I’m like, “No, it’s actually what goes on.” And I am blessed to work with people and see this concept as it dawns in their world change the exact physical and mental and emotional thing that’s going on for them. But  [01:10:19] Ashley James: But there's also past unresolved events where we’re holding on to this gestalt of negative emotions from the past, negative emotions that we created, that we had a response to something. It could be anger or sadness. Then, we’re holding onto it and caring it with us. This was years ago, but I remember very distinctively we’re driving on St. Rose Parkway in Las Vegas with my husband. I say something and his response was not what I expected. It was like frustrated, angry, kind of combative. And I’m like, wow, what I said did not warrant that. I look at him and in an instant, I wanted to engage in a fight and defend myself. But instead, I paused and kind of took a breath, and this was years of personal growth work. I was like, oh, finally, I can put a pause in between and go, wait a second, interesting response, not what I expected. Where is this coming from? And he goes, oh, because he kind of started picking a fight with me. He thought I was going to engage in this fight and I just sort of backed off and went, “That’s not mine. I don’t own this.”  [01:11:29] Dr. Dain Heer: Cool.  [01:11:31] Ashley James: And it was silence for a few stop lights and then he said, “I was just talking to my ex-wife. Whatever you said, however you said it, whatever angle your face was, whatever it was, I was in a conversation with my ex-wife and I was fighting with her. You were not in this vehicle with me. It was my ex-wife.” And I’m like, wow! That's really amazing that sometimes we’re bringing our past and projecting it onto the current person or current experience, and it’s nothing to do with the now. How does that play into this role of who does this belong to? Because what if it belongs to us but it really doesn’t belong to this circumstance or the person we’re talking to? [01:12:13] Dr. Dain Heer: Yeah. So a couple of things with that. I just want to acknowledge your response to that because let’s look at the other side. Had you chosen to resist and react, now we would have a fight on our hands that had nothing with either of you, which is where a lot of people are living and then it gets so twisted that it creates such separation. This is always when that occurs. If the fight or if the disagreement or the argument actually has a basis, then if we’re interested of course in becoming more aware, we can almost always get to what’s actually underneath it, if we’re willing to be vulnerable enough and go there. But if it doesn’t, it creates this weird twist that leaves a really bad taste in both people’s mouths and once again, nobody’s ever looked from this place of what if it’s not mine. So, to address your actual question, I just wanted to point this out because I know a lot of people have had arguments with people where they're like, what did I do wrong? What? And this actually explains it and this is why for me, having access to these tools is so valuable which is what is this, what do I do with it, like what is this really? And is it mine? Is it theirs? What do I do with it? Can I change it? And if so, how? So, another thing that can be helpful in this regard is who am I being? Or, who is this person being? Where you're doing something and you know it doesn’t feel like you and that time you’ll know because we’ve learned, like he said, he was having an argument with his ex-wife, and that was probably something where he learned to be a particular thing for someone based on whatever was considered love in his family or hers, which isn’t necessarily love. But we will do the strangest things because we had people who said they loved us and yelled at us. People who said they loved us and judged us. People who said they loved us and abused us. So, we’re like, “Oh, I love you, I’ll do the same thing because that's love obviously.” And so, we can ask, who am I being and how old am I being. Then, if it’s a who am I being, get the sense of like, wow, I sound just like my mother right now. Or, this is exactly the energy I saw my mom and dad have with each other. Okay, cool. Well, everything that is, POC and POD which is that clearing statement thing, which goes back to the point of wherever that was created and undoes the polarity of it, allows it to dissolve. So, that can be who am I being, how old am I being. We have so many instances, so many situations we have been involved in over the course of our lives. It doesn’t have to be a really big thing. But if you ask how old am I being, oftentimes you’ll get a sense of an age and then an energy of a situation which is like okay, and then you go, okay, so what happened? Oh, okay, two. What happened at two? Oh, my parents got divorced. Okay. So, what part of this are you playing right now? Is this truly you? Oftentimes that acknowledgment of “it’s not really me”, because the thing that we will fight the hardest for, the thing we will get most intensely defensive about and for, is the thing that we bought when we were younger that is not ours. And it’s very intense when we do that. So, asking these questions can start to give us some awareness, adding this clearing statement to it and we now have awareness. The clearing statement allows us to undo everything we’ve aligned and agreed with, resisted and reacted to. Everything we’re avoiding and defending that holds it in place as though it’s ours when it wasn’t.  [01:16:33] Ashley James: When someone is in an intense emotion, I’m going to use myself as an example, because this is first thing that came to mind, but like, I’m homeschooling and I get super frustrated and I know these are not my emotions. I know they’re my mom. I act like my mom so much when I get in a state of frustration. But in the moment, it’s like, it lit up in my neurology. I’m feeling it in my heart. Like my heart is beating and I’m just feeling it through my body. And I want to get back to me. I want to stop being my mom and stop playing that role, I’m going to get back to me. But in the moment, it’s like I got my adrenals going. It’s kind of like asking her to slam on the breaks, right? So, what do you have as a technique for doing that state change, doing that shift? Like, you're shifting from the fifth gear to the first gear, right? And so, in the moment though, there's a little resistance like I don’t want to give this up. There's like this righteousness, right, in a not-so-great way. This is like getting a little pay-off, like a little payout from being this charged at people. But we know in the back of our mind, we’re now like, hey, you're acting like your mom now, this isn’t really healthy. So, you have some awareness that you shouldn’t be doing this but at the same time, you're asking your neurology to like, okay, shift down to first gear. What do you have as a technique for helping us to get back into who we are, our authentic self, and separate from and kind of like send it with love back to sender, getting back to who we are and acting from those emotions, the intense emotions? [01:18:21] Dr. Dain Heer: So, number one, we’ve got to have the willingness to not be right in that situation. We’ve got to go “okay, I realize I’m trying to be right here.” And then, do that thing of “Am I truly being me? If not, who am I being?” Two other things you can do. Number one, you go POC and POD everything I did to buy this as mine when I wasn’t. POC and POD everything I’ve created and uncreated as a result. And now return to sender and then POC and POD all that. POC stands for going back to the point of creation of the thoughts, feelings, emotions immediately preceding the decision or the point of destruction of the same, because we can create limitation in two ways. We can create a limitation, a fixed point of view, or we can destroy in that moment what’s true for us and take on something that's not, which is what this is.  The next thing you can do is use this tool. Everybody out there, you can take some upset that you still have in your world that’s been there maybe for the last few days or weeks, and just do this interesting point of view. I have this point of view. Which is Point of View, by the way. IPOV. Interesting point of view, I have this point of view. Usually, what will happen is it’ll shift a little bit and then again, you go, interesting point of view, I have this point of view. It’ll shift again. Interesting point of view, I have this point of view. Interesting point of view, I have this point of view. Interesting point of view, I have this point of view. Which is what you were doing when your husband was having an argument with his ex while you were there. It was like interesting point of view, it’s okay, no problem, no reaction, no resistance. What this does is it takes us out of our resistance and reaction that we think we are justified for going into when somebody pushes our buttons or brings up something that’s intense.  Another part of it, we can say interesting point of view, they have this point of view a few times, so that we’re more willing to be in allowance of their point of view. Then, the last one is, interesting point of view that I have this point of view, that they have this point of view. Usually, that creates space.  [01:21:01] Ashley James: Brilliant. Luckily, we transcribe all these episodes, so listeners, go to Learntruehealth.com. It takes us about two weeks or so after we release the episode to all the podcast directories, but you should be able to go back to Learntruehealth.com in a few weeks and we’ll have the transcript up. So, we can go through and read this and then, copy, paste, put it in your cellphone, put it in your notes and put it on sticky notes, put it around the house. And practice it. I just love this idea if we could just clear out the internal laundry. Like you said, you went around Rome just with no thoughts in your head and it’s not that you weren’t there. You were there but you weren’t carrying the world in your head. It was you were just enjoying yourself, you cleared out everyone else. Just you and your head. That's so nice. It’s so peaceful. What a vacation, right? Just you and your head. And how happy we would be removing 98 percent of the world’s depression, suicide, anger, addiction, all this stuff going on. The conflicts that are out there on purpose, right, because the media feeds off of your fear and creates conflict. Right? Instead of unity. And how much of that have we taken on? So just imagine a world where it’s only you and your head and your own feelings instead of taking on the world.  Beautiful. I love it. I know you have to go. Thank you so much for coming on today and sharing this wonderful information and all the links to everything that Dr. Heer has is going to be in the show notes of today’s podcast at Learntruehealth.com. I want to make sure that you come back because this whole time, I’ve been thinking, man, I’d love to do an episode with you around addiction and addiction brain and helping people who are at this stage in their addiction when they're ready to give it up, they want to, or they’re fighting it, and they still keep having those internal fights and they want those tools. I feel like it would be great to have you back on the show for those who are actively working on healing their addiction brain. [01:23:08] Dr. Dain Heer: Cool. Thank you. [01:23:10] Ashley James: It’d be great.  [01:23:10] Dr. Dain Heer: It would be my pleasure. [01:23:11] Ashley James: Yeah, thank you so much. It’s been great and I can’t wait to talk to you again. [01:23:15] Dr. Dain Heer: I look forward to it. Thanks, Ashley. Ashley James: I hope you enjoyed today’s interview with Dr. Dain Heer. Wasn’t he amazing? I just love his work and I can’t wait to have him back on the show to dig deeper into this wonderful topic. Sounds like he’s got a lot of even more tools that he can share with us. I want to make sure that you remember. I want your testimonials, so please, give them to me if you have one. You can email me support@learntruehealth.com or come join the Facebook group at Learntruehealth.com/group to get into the Facebook group, and then just message me there or share it with the group there. Remember to go to Freedoctorcourse.com to get the foundations of health, all free. Then, check out the structured water device. Go to Learntruehealth.com/structuredwater. Use the coupon code LTH. Check it out. If you get one, I want to hear what you think, come into the Facebook group and let us know. I’d love to hear your journey with it and what kind of results you get with it. Awesome. Have yourself a fantastic rest of your day. Thank you so much for sharing this podcast with those you care about and helping to end people’s suffering because this suffering is needless and I want people to have that experience of true health inside them mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually. I want that for them. So let’s keep sharing this podcast and helping as many people as possible to learn true health. Get Connected with Dr. Dain Heer!   Website – Dr. Dain Heer Body Whispering Playbook Dr. Dain Heer Podcast – https://drdainheer.com/podcast/   Books by Dr. Dain Heer:   Body Whispering Being You, Changing the World Return of the Gentleman

If you've ever thought about becoming a Health Coach or Functional Holistic Practitioner, now is the time! Right now, you can save up to 35% with only $49 down! CHECK OUT THE FREE SAMPLE CLASS: https://www.learntruehealth.com/coach I love IIN; the Institute for Integrative Nutrition is where I took my Health Coach Training and where you can transform your life and become an Integrative Health Coach! The whole program is online and designed for busy people, so anyone can do it!   Free 7-Day Holistic Doctor Course by Ashley James: FreeDoctorCourse.com   Join the Learn True Health FB group: https://www.learntruehealth.com/group   Ozone Machine: https://www.learntruehealth.com/ozone   Listen to episode 484 for more info on why and how to use ozonated water made in your home for energy and mitochondrial function: https://www.learntruehealth.com/at-home-ozone-therapy-for-immune-mitochondrial-health-eileen-durfee     High-Quality NAD Brain Supplement: Use coupon code LTH at https://www.learntruehealth.com/nad   Listen to episode 460 about the benefits of high-quality NAD on cellular function, energy production, and mitochondrial health: https://www.learntruehealth.com/nicotinamide-adenine-dinucliotide-supplement-nadovim-nad-the-missing-link-to-energy-brain-function-and-longevity     Sunlighten Sauna - the sauna Ashley uses, loves, and recommends: Be sure to ask for the listener special! https://www.learntruehealth.com/sunlightensauna   Listen to episode 245 to learn from the founder of Sunlighten Sauna as to why this sauna is the best tool for your health journey: https://www.learntruehealth.com/sunlighten-saunas     The world's most effective Magnesium Soak: Use coupon code LTH at livingthegoodlifenaturally.com   Listen to episode 294 to hear Kristen Bowen share her story of recovery and discovering the world's most absorbable form of magnesium: https://www.learntruehealth.com/magnesium-foot-soak     Ashley's Favorite Spirulina and Chlorella: Use coupon code LTH at EnergyBits.com   Listen to episode 487 and hear the latest science behind healing algie https://www.learntruehealth.com/mitochondrial-self-healing-superfoods-high-potency-chlorella-spirulina   Dr. Biamonte's website: www.health-truth.com  Join the Learn True Health Facebook group: learntruehealth.com/group   494: Why Rx Drugs Are Destroying Emotional and Mental Health We've been conditioned to believe that emotional and mental issues are the result of chemical imbalances, but that's a myth. An overwhelming number of people are taking prescription medications for emotional health problems, and the numbers are growing at an alarming rate. That's because, in many cases, pharmaceutical drugs fail to address the root cause of emotional issues. The drugs we take to treat the symptoms of a condition could be causing more problems than they are treating. Join Dr. Michael Biamonte and Ashley James as they dig into why this is the case and how you can cure your emotional and mental health problems today! Ashley James And Dr. Michael Biamonte Highlights: The relationship between gut health and emotional and mental health The chemical imbalance myth Neurotransmitter testing Hormonal imbalance Heavy metal toxicity The madness of marketing Panic attacks and anxiety Intro: Hello, true health seekers, and welcome to another exciting episode of the Learn True Health podcast. Today, we have back on the show Dr. Michael Biamonte. He was in episode 486 and 488 where he taught us all about candida and how you can get candida back into balance. A lot of people say get rid of candida, kill candida, but what we learned from Dr. Michael Biamonte is many people have candida overgrowth and we need candida but we probably need 90 percent less candida than what we have and when it runs rampant in the body, it affects our brain, it affects every organ, it affects every system. It just kind of takes over and everything dominoes in the body. So, you could have bad sleep, you could have cravings, you could have weight gain, you could have hormone dysregulation. You could have brain fog. The list goes on and on and on. Of course, there’s digestive issue that happen like diarrhea and bloating and in some cases, constipation, and we see it affecting our ability to focus. So, those who have ADHD symptoms. Right? Our ability to learn, our ability to concentrate. Motivation, our motivation in life. Our feeling of drive, our feeling of sense of purpose, sense of fulfillment from life. This can get actually very existential. When we see the body as a whole, this is a holistic podcast – welcome, if you're new to Learn True Health podcast – this conversation is that the body is not broken into parts. Modern medicine, when you go to a regular doctor at any given clinic, a medical doctor, their education has trained them to see the body broken into parts. So, you go to the liver specialist over here, the heart specialist over here, the endocrinologist over here, the brain doctor over there, and it’s great that we have specialties. You know, if you have a broken arm or need to be put back together after an accident, God forbid, I’m so thankful that we have this type of medicine. However, what we do see, if you get a 30,000-foot view, is that modern pharmaceutical-based medicine is horrible, has an absolutely horrible track record for helping us to heal from chronic illness, for helping us to get the body back into optimal health. How often do you see people actually get off of drugs, get off of pharmaceuticals and get so healthy they don’t need them and get even healthier before they went to the doctor? In most cases, they get put on more and more and more medications the older they get. Not less and less. This is the unfortunate truth, is that it is a for-profit industry and it’s a big juggernaut. But when you come to holistic medicine, you come to the side of holistic medicine, now of course there are good and bad… I don’t want to say bad doctors. There are far more competent doctors and far less competent doctors just like there are more competent mechanics. We are fallible, we are humans. Right? Don’t put anyone on a pedestal ever. We have to understand in holistic medicine, let’s assume we are seeing and referred to very competent and experienced holistic doctors, what we’re seeing is, the philosophy that guides them is completely different from Hollywood portrays as medicine. They look at you as a whole. So, when we talk about mental and emotional health, we have to also see that physical health plays a role in that. Because something like candida in those past episodes, 486 and 488, with Dr. Michael Biamonte, we talk about how candida overgrowth and in other episodes where we’ve had experts on small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and fungal overgrowth, parasites, all kinds of stuff that affects the gut, we’ve had many. I have at least 20 episodes that you can go back to and check out when you go to Learntruehealth.com, scroll down from the homepage and you’ll see Choose Your Own Adventure and you can find the digestive stuff and parasites, and all wonderful fun things to dive into. That all these very physical, tangible things, have an effect on the intangible like our emotional being and our mental health, our sense of who we are and how we are right now in the moment can actually be affected by what’s going on in our gut.  So, we look at the body as a whole and we look at your whole life as a whole. We look at everything impacting you. I think it’s so gratifying to have a practitioner look at you and wanting to see all of you and saying “hey, I know you’ve expressed to me that you’re feeling a lot of stress, you’re feeling a lot of sorrow, or you’re feeling grief, or you feel anxiety,” and not discrediting those emotions and also not discrediting that there’s other aspects of your life like the role you play, the roles you play in your life and everything in your environment, and all of that, looking at your life as a whole and including your physical health. Let’s get some lab work done but let’s also talk about your spiritual health, your spiritual life, your mental and emotional health. Let’s talk about your environment, let’s talk about your relationships. So, looking at everything as a whole.  That’s what Dr. Biamonte is here to discuss today, this wonderful viewpoint—looking at mental and emotional health from the holistic standpoint. Some of what he has to share today is going to rock your world, it was absolutely fascinating. I think I said the word “fascinating” 20 times in the interview because of how fascinating it was. I feel like I’m Spock, “That’s fascinating.” He shares some crazy statistics. I want you to really let them sink in. He kind of pulls us out of the matrix today in this interview. He shares with us stuff that we just let slide like the effects that certain drugs have on the human psyche and have on suicide rates, and yet, we just let these pharmaceutical companies slide, we just let it all side like the status quo is fine, everything is fine; meanwhile, everything is burning down. And I so hope that what he shares with you today helps you, gives you another piece of that puzzle that helps to direct your life so that you can learn true health, create true health in your life. My husband has actually started working with Dr. Biamonte on a personal level doing the candida protocol. We’ve done some labs with him. First of all, let me tell you. I am as impressed with him in my interviews as I am working with him as a doctor, because my husband lets me in on their telemedicine calls. He’s a very caring, fantastic doctor, right to the point. Functional medicine, I should say. He really does deal with functional medicine. I’ve enjoyed the labs he’s had my husband do and the analysis of those labs, really interesting. And now, my husband is starting the diet and the supplement protocol, so I’ll keep you guys posted on how that goes, but so far, working with him has really been great. Definitely give him a call if you’re called to, if you find he’s interesting because so far, I’m really impressed and, well, the proof is in the pudding so we’ll see how my husband does after a few months on the protocol. I’ll let you guys know. There’s a few resources I want to make sure that you are aware of. Especially if you're new to the podcast or newer to the podcast, I haven’t mentioned it in a while, but I have this great resource I built out with some of my favorite holistic naturopathic doctors. You can go to Freedoctorcourse.com. That's Freedoctorcourse.com and I filmed a 7-day beautiful free course, less than 10 minutes a day kind of thing but it gets right to the point, the foundations of health. These are fantastic naturopaths and they have some great advice. This is actual steps that everyone will benefit from no matter what health issues you have – mental, emotional, physical, spiritual. It deals with the foundation of things that we should absolutely be doing to build our health no matter what. So, definitely check that out. Freedoctorcourse.com. Every day I email you one of the videos we made along with some great homework and tools for you. These are things that I often remind myself, “Oh yeah, I need to go back and do these things.” These are the basics but if you're missing one, it’s like missing a tire on your car. Your car’s not going to go anywhere. So, you have to have these foundations to have fantastic health. The next thing I really want to make sure you know about. Because so many of my listeners end up becoming holistic health coaches, either for their own personal growth and their own health goals, or they’re just drawn to it and they want either add this to their career, have it as a hobby side career, or they want to completely transition into doing full-time holistic health coaching. Check out Learntruehealth.com/coach. That's Learntruehealth.com/coach. You get a sample class from Institute for Integrative Nutrition. That's where I went. It’s an online program designed for very busy people. So, if you're like, for example, full-time job and a mom or a dad and you’ve just got a lot on your plate, you can still graduate from the program. It takes a year. You do about 20 minutes a day. Sometimes if I was really busy, I would just accumulate all of my lessons for that week and do them all on a Sunday. Oftentimes I’d listen to them where I was cooking, doing laundry, driving. So, if you listen to a podcast, you could absolutely a year from now, be a holistic health coach. If you want to become more of a full-time student, it’s about 40 minutes to an hour a day. They have a six-month accelerated program. So you could check either one of those out, but I love that they designed it knowing that usually, it’s not someone’s career, you jump out of high school and go, “I’m going to be a health coach,” boom. You know, 17, 18, 19 years old taking the course when you have all the time in the world. Usually, it’s not your first career and it’s something that you already have an existing career, you're super busy and you have to somehow fit it into your life. What I love about the IIN, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition’s health coach training program, is your life gets transformed while you're doing it. You learn from amazing… it’s like if you love my podcast, it’s like my podcast TED Talks, like each week is digesting 3 or 4 amazing TED Talks on health and then they give you homework that you get to apply to your own life. So, each week you're adding almost like the foundations of health but you're adding more and more to your life. Holistic health coaching is looking at your life holistically. It’s not just dietary theory. Yes, you do learn a hundred dietary theories in that course but that’s not even important. As a health coach, you're really helping people to get to their health goals by listening to them and drawing out of them the answers that they’re most of the time already in them. Then you help them crowd out their plate when it comes to eating, helping them bring joy into their life in every area of their life, so helping to identify what areas are missing joy. If you in your life are missing joy in certain areas of your life, you should definitely check out the sample class and consider “could I bring joy to every area of my life through this program?” Because that’s what I loved about the program, is it really helped to unfold and bring forth joy in each area of your life. It has you look at under a lens in a different way each area of your life. So you end up at the end of the program feeling much more fulfilled, satisfied, and joyous in your life as a whole in your body, but also in your world, in your relationships. They say almost half, I think it’s like 47 percent of people that do the program just do it for their own personal growth, so I thought that was really cool. Right now, IIN’s having an amazing sale. I don’t know when it’s going to end, it’s going to end soon so you should go to Learntruehealth.com/coach and just check it out and see. Right now, they're offering a big discount and they are offering to sign up for I think it was $49 or something just to get started just as the down payment. Sometimes, a few times a year, they do these sales so it’s great to check out. But if you're checking this out and that sale is over, what I want you to know is that when I took the program, I asked them if they would give a discount to all my listeners because I talk about it so much and I’ve actually interviewed many of their teachers. So, they do give a great discount. Make sure you mention the Learn True Health podcast with Ashley James and say, “Hey, Ashley James said I’d get a discount. Make sure you give it to me.” So, yeah, check that out. Let me know if you have any questions. You can always ask me questions in the Facebook group, in the Learn True Health Facebook group. I’d love to see you there and answer questions. Every day I’m in that group answering questions. Not just me but there's other holistic health professionals in the group. Every day when someone asks a question, there's a bunch I was jumping in to help and give our feedback. Feel free to join the Learn True Health Facebook group. You can go to Learntruehealth.com/group to join the Facebook group. Make sure you check out the free sample class from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition for their health coaching program. You go to Learntruehealth.com/coach. If you want the free class that created with some of my favorite naturopaths, you can go to Freedoctorcourse.com and you’ll be given the 7-day class. It’s absolutely free. Something that I created out of love for you guys because it’s so needed. This is the foundations of health. Everyone listening should do those things that you learn in the 7-day course and everyone sees a benefit from doing it. So, I want all of you guys to have that benefit. I love you. I know you and I personally don’t know each other or maybe we do because I’ve actually met several of my listeners. But if you are struggling and you need help, please join the Facebook group because I don’t want to struggle. What I want you to know, especially if you're a new listener you might not know this, I suffered for many years. I cried myself to sleep. I’d burst into tears often at how much I suffered. I had major chronic illnesses throughout my 20’s and it was very difficult. I know what that feels like. I don’t want you to suffer. If you're suffering, I don’t want you to suffer anymore. I have seen people recover from so many conditions they were told where “unrecoverable.” I believe in your body’s ability to heal itself. I believe that you can improve your situation no matter what. It has to start with you believing and so I want to let you know I believe in you and I believe in your body’s ability to heal and take these resources, take the free sample class from IIN and see if you get something out of it. Definitely take my free course and come join the Facebook group, ask for help. Pore through the answers. You can use the search function in the group. You can also use the search function on my website Learntruehealth.com to find many resources. There are so many resources out there in the holistic world. You have to dig for them. But we’re here to help. The Learn True Health Facebook group is here to help you because we’re a whole community. We’re actually a community of over 5000 listeners and we’re here to help each other.  So, suffering is needless and suffering is optional. This is what actually a few of my guests have come on the show and said. Suffering is optional, let’s make it optional. Let’s make it optional by discovering the tools, sharing the tools. As I constantly am uncovering these amazing holistic tools, I bring them to you because I know that they're going to help. Now, what I’m planning for episode 500, and it’s been on my heart for a while now, is I’d like to do a testimonial episode. I received so many testimonials of people who have shared that through this podcast learning from the guests and from me. Their lives have been transformed, their health has been changed. In some cases, they actually saved a relative’s life, which is huge. There's one woman who saved her mom’s life. Her mom would not have lived if it wasn’t for this podcast. How big is that? So, if you have a testimonial listening to this podcast, please send it to me. You can send it to me. Support@learntruehealth.com. Come into the Facebook group and share it. I’d love to see it there, and other listeners would love to see it there too. You can message it to me on Facebook. I’d also love to include it. I don’t have to include your name if you're uncomfortable with that. I’ve been collecting testimonials so I can create that episode. I think it’s so important. I know when I was suffering, hearing testimonials really helped. When I lost my daughter last year, I think the biggest thing that helped besides my connection with God was hearing testimonials of women who had lost their children and they're living, they're living their life, they’re happy, they were able to heal from it because at the time, I couldn’t see a way out. I couldn’t see that I could heal from it. So testimonials have, even though you might discredit your testimonial like “oh, who am I, my story is not so big,” but if you were suffering and now you're no longer suffering, sometimes that right there, that little story you have, is actually huge to someone else. It’s lifechanging to someone else. So, when I heard, my midwife was sharing with me some other women that she had worked with who like “oh yeah, this mom’s third child diet and now she has three more and she’s so happy.” Just those kind of stories, those type of testimonials might not seem like a lot but for those who need to hear them, it really helps. So please, if you have any kind of transformation, any kind of story of healing, please reach out to me because your story, even though you might not think it’s important, it could be lifechanging for someone else. And that's what I’m about. That’s what this podcast is about – it’s about helping as many people as possible to learn true health. So, thank you so much for being a listener. Thank you so much for sharing this podcast with those you care about and thank you so much for sharing your testimonials with me so I can create that episode, episode 500. Whatever holidays you celebrate this month, you know, can be stressful a lot for many people. I recognize that you might not be listening to this episode in December although I’m releasing it in December. I want to wish you peaceful, gentle healing and loving holidays. Since I do celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas for those who celebrate Christmas and for those who celebrate anything else. I wish everyone to have gentle, peaceful, loving season to let the stress go and replace it with love and peace in your heart and in your life and in your environment around you. Because we don’t need stress. That is not healthy for any of us. So, I love you all and enjoy today’s episode.  [00:19:23] Ashley James: Welcome to the Learn True Health podcast. I’m your host, Ashley James. This is episode 494. I am so excited for today’s guest. We have back on the show Dr. Michael Biamonte. What I love about today’s interview is we’re going to do some major myth busting. This is like pull you out of the matrix. We’re going to take you out and show you that you’ve been raised in a system that teaches you that you need drugs to suppress, to change, to manage your brain chemistry, your biochemistry. And when it comes to mental health and emotional health, the word “health”, they shouldn’t even be allowed to use the word “health” because it is so far from health. When it comes to emotional and mental health and prescription drugs, and I’m so excited to have you on the show to talk about this topic today. Dr. Biamonte was in episode 486 and 488. In those two episodes, we really did a deep dive into candida and gut health. Now there's a large correlation between gut health and brain health, and I definitely want to touch on that since that is one of your expertise. But you did mention in episode 488 that one of your favorite things to do is to take your patients or your clients and to help them get so healthy that they're off all their meds especially when it comes to mental and emotional medications. So, looking forward to doing a deep dive there. Welcome back on the show. [00:21:03] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Thank you very much. I’m happy to be here. [00:21:05] Ashley James: Excellent. Now, listeners can go to your website which is health-truth.com and of course, the links everything that Dr. Michael Biamonte does is going be in the show notes of today’s podcast at Learntruehealth.com. I’d love to know because your expertise has largely been around gut health or getting candida back in balance in the body instead of having an overgrowth of it for so many years. At what point while you were practicing and working with people and helping them, at what point did you go “Wait a second. I can help people get emotionally and mentally healthy” to the point where they're no longer on all these meds? [00:21:47] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Probably in the late ‘80s when I started to see a correlation between several things. First was constipation. I had so many patients tell me “Gee. Since my constipation is handled and I’m no longer constipated, I feel so much happier. My mood is better. I feel lighter as a person. Not physically. They were speaking about more of their own being. They just felt lighter and happier.” So I started researching this and it also was part of my research into candida. I found the correlation between neurotransmitters and the digestive tract. I didn’t know that the body shuttled neurotransmitters and hormones in and out of the bloodstream to the digestive system and back and forth. Sort of like the body will the digestive tract as a holding tank for neurotransmitters and hormones and then pull them back into the bloodstream when needed. When I understood the mechanism, it made sense as to why these people were now telling me that since they're not constipated, they feel so much happier and quite a few of them went off their antidepressants as a result of that. Some of my colleagues said “Well, that’s probably because their thyroid function improved.” But I actually did find the reference. Unfortunately, I forgot which book it was, but I think it might have been a book by Dr. Whitaker where he went over the fact that the body does pull these neurotransmitters and hormones back and forth in the digestive tract and out of the digestive tract, and you can’t do that if you have dysbiosis. So, you have to have a normal functioning digestive system in order to be able to do that. The other correlation I started to see was in people who had very high copper levels, and that goes back to Dr. Pfeiffer’s work at the Brain Biocenter in Princeton, NJ where he had cited that schizophrenics were very high in copper. He basically laid out that if he detoxed a schizophrenic from copper, his schizophrenia would go away and a lot of his mental health issues would go away that a lot of this was copper toxicity.  I started hearing more and more from these people who were copper toxic about their mood swings, about how they try to sleep at night and they had racing thoughts and they just couldn’t shut it off and couldn’t go to sleep. It matched a lot of the, well, not a lot but some of the data that I was seeing in psychiatric books, of course they had no idea it was being caused by copper toxicity. But sure enough, when these people were detoxed from the copper, these symptoms would go away.  So, I guess that was probably the initial thing that set me off on this. But once I armed with that knowledge, I knew there was a lot more. I knew I was just basically scratching the surface. I knew there was a lot more and that’s what led me to dive into it much deeper. I read a book in 2015 which really helped put this together for me. It’s called Deadly Psychiatry and Organized Denial by Dr. Peter Getzsche. He presented data suggesting that psychiatric drugs kill about half a million Americans and Europeans over the age of 65 per year. He also pointed out that in terms of long-term outcomes, people in less developed countries have far fewer problems with mental health and problems with drugs. Obviously, the answer is because they don’t have the availability. As you and I were saying once, on one of the podcasts, people nowadays, their availability to just go to a psychiatrist or even their medical doctor and say “I’m depressed, give me a pill,” they can do this very easily. We were discussing also that our grandparents growing up had tough times. You’d come to this country and back in those days, times were tough. They had to struggle and bring themselves up by their bootstraps. They couldn’t just go to a doctor and say “I’m new to this country, I’m having trouble getting a job. Give me a pill.”  [00:26:07] Ashley James: I have family members, I have friends who they're struggling and their doctor very quickly got them on multiple meds, depression, anxiety, and sleep meds and just thinking back to my grandmother who had to bury several of her siblings while escaping the war in a train with no heating, Just like the horror stories, right? And she was never on any psychiatric meds. She lived a full long life, a beautiful life. Kids, grandkids. Our grandparents and great grandparents had, in some cases, much harder times than we’re going through, not to belittle the struggles that we go through. But they didn’t have access to these drugs and these drugs, in many cases, are band-aids. I’d rather have someone, if a drug could stop someone from committing suicide, I’d rather have them be on that drug. But what we’re seeing is actually the opposite. We’re seeing that in a lot of cases, going to the drug ends up being that band-aid that then doesn’t let them go through and do the emotional and mental healing. [00:27:14] Dr. Michael Biamonte: And the growth. Their own personal growth at the same time.  [00:27:20] Ashley James: Right. And then, we’re still seeing the suicide rates go up and in our youth right now, I believe suicide is the first or second. Either the first or the second leading cause of death in ages I think it was like 12 to 25. It’s very scary and sad how rampant this problem is becoming. I can’t help but think that, obviously, there's gut issues. We have an over toxic world. There's 80,000 new man-made chemicals in the last 40 years. The environment, the milieu, the day-to-day existence is toxic compared to what it was one generation, two generations ago.  So, we are facing a different world. Our biology is facing a different world than our grandparents. But at the same time, we have to look back and go, how is it that for many generations, we could live through the tough times and grow and learn and support each other and create an ecosystem of support and growth? Then now, we are more isolated than ever. We are more depressed than ever. We have incredibly high suicide rates. The first thing we’re given when we go to a doctor is a drug that has a bunch of side effects. [00:28:38] Dr. Michael Biamonte: That's the swing that we’ve had in the last 50 years where instead of self-reliance, we have entitlement—and entitlement also offers people these drugs, unfortunately. [00:28:50] Ashley James: So, the purpose of having you on today isn’t to make people who are on these drugs feel guilty. That's the exact opposite. [00:28:55] Dr. Michael Biamonte: No of course. [00:28:57] Ashley James: You help patients all the time to get so healthy that they’re no longer on these medications and that they also feel freedom and they feel amazing again emotionally and mentally. I want to clarify something you talked about before we move on to how you go about doing this. When you said around the world 65 and older, I think you said, what was it, like 2 million people die of psychiatric drugs. [00:29:23] Dr. Michael Biamonte: What I was referring is that in the developed world, and the developed part of the world as opposed to the underdeveloped, you have so many more people dying from psychiatric drugs than you do in the underdeveloped parts in the world. It’s primarily because the drugs are unavailable in underdeveloped parts of the world. The book I was talking about before was Deadly Psychiatry and Organized Denial by Peter Gøtzsche. He talks about psychiatric drugs kill approximately half a million Americans over the age of 65 every year. That's horrifying! [00:29:55] Ashley James: Wow. What is killing them exactly?  [00:30:01] Dr. Michael Biamonte: What’s killing them is a combination of things. But it’s in part the side effects of the drugs. The drugs cause various side effects in the cardiovascular system and completely damage the gut health. So, then you have whatever problems you then want to postulate from gut health coming from that. You also have mass suicides that have occurred in these people. The FDA trials for Prozac, they covered up. And I know they covered it up because I have the actual reports from Eli Lilly. They covered up so many suicides that occurred in people on the Prozac trials. Why that occurs, you still hear it nowadays on TV. You turn on the TV and the big joke is the pharmaceutical commercial goes on and it lists a hundred million side effects that you could have. They have children playing in the park on the background, you know. But it’s understanding how the drugs works, gives you a better understanding of why people die from them and why there are suicides. The typical antidepressant, your SSRI, which is an uptake inhibitor of serotonin, it doesn’t work by boosting your serotonin. It boosts by restricting it. Prozac actually stops your brain’s reabsorption of serotonin in order to make the serotonin receptor sites in your brain more acute and more excitable. So, it’s creating a deficiency to try to make something create like a sparring effect. The idea behind the drugs is that if you block the brain’s ability to reabsorb serotonin, then the brain has to do a much better job with the amount of serotonin it has. That works in some people. But in other people, it doesn’t work. It causes a crashing serotonin deficiency which is why of the side effects you’ll hear them talk about when they discuss Prozac or SSRI side effects is suicide or extreme massive depression. [00:32:08] Ashley James: If you're stopping, blocking the cells from uptaking the… I mean, could see maybe if they did that temporarily like give you Prozac for a week and then take you off of it to try to resensitize the cells, but to keep you on it, how would keeping you always on it resensitize the cells to uptaking serotonin? [00:32:29] Dr. Michael Biamonte: It doesn’t. Which is why these drugs ultimately are a failure. It’s in part a lot of politicians and bureaucrats that work in the industry have allowed this go on. There's the chemical imbalance myth. I call it a myth. But you hear these for years. You’ve been hearing the doctors quote that this chemical imbalance exists. Well, I can tell you about the chemical imbalance from the viewpoint of really scientific viewpoint of someone who tests. But in big pharma and psychiatrists, they for decades have claimed that the mentally ill have this chemical imbalance but yet, there has never been one single test or one single study that’s ever confirmed anything that they’ve said. In the British Psychology Society, there's a report in there, very interesting. It goes on to say that the chemical imbalance of neurotransmitters such as serotonin has remained unproven. Now, I can tell you, however, from the viewpoint of someone who actually tests people that when I test people who come to me who are on these drugs or who have these issues, we will occasionally find a person who does have the serotonin deficiency. So, I can say, I am at liberty and I can say with authority that I can find a chemical imbalance in some of these people. But I’m testing them and the difference between myself and other practitioners, particularly psychiatrists, is they never test anyone. They don’t even know that these tests exist. But I can occasionally test someone and find their serotonin is low or their cortisol is too high or I can find some type of neurotransmitter imbalance and thank God for the work of the late Dr. Gottfried Kellermann from Neuroscience Labs who formulated an entire line of nutritional supplements that are all based on some of the patterns that you find in these neurotransmitter urine tests that are available by Functional Labs. His nutritional formulas are aimed at normalizing these imbalances. If your dopamine is too high, your dopamine is too low or whatever, your serotonin, he developed formulas which you can use on people that actually would balance it. He’s not doing something that’s hokey pokey where he has supplements and they’re starving the brain of these nutrients. He’s actually giving the person the precursors of these nutrients. He discovered that there are many herbs that work to excite those neurotransmitter receptor sites. So, he can accomplish with his formulas a natural way of going about what these drugs are doing in a destructive way. [00:35:28] Ashley James: Fascinating, what you just said. You said psychiatrists don’t test. [00:35:33] Dr. Michael Biamonte: No. I dare anyone to email or call in on this show who’s had a psychiatrist, not a functional medical doctor. I have never heard of, and if you go through all the psychiatrist data, if you go through the DSM-V, you look at all these books, you're not going to find any mention of any testing that's recommending or any protocol for testing. It doesn’t exist. They don’t do it. [00:36:01] Ashley James: So they go based on your symptoms like “oh yeah, I can clearly see this person’s depressed,” or, “I’m diagnosing this person with bipolar based on what they’re sharing with me and their behavior,” and then they just put them on drugs and they don’t test them to see could there be a different imbalance. There's one of my naturopathic mentors often find some people who are misdiagnosed with bipolar who have out-of-control blood sugar swings. [00:36:26] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Or hormonal imbalances. That's another huge one in women. In women, PMS. They're constantly putting women on all these psychiatric drugs for PMS. Where the woman would be better off taking zinc and vitamin B6. She would get more relief from her PMS doing that than taking these drugs.  [00:36:45] Ashley James: Fascinating. Yeah, since the last two years, I upped my zinc and I have noticed that I don’t have any symptoms. I always get surprised when my period comes because I have zero symptoms. [00:36:59] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Well, zinc and B6 are cofactors to progesterone. They help mobilize progesterone. Normally, when you think of PMS, you think of high estrogen to progesterone ratio or estrogen dominance. And B6 and zinc help smooth that out. They help bolster progesterone. [00:37:16] Ashley James: Wow. That's just fascinating. So, when comes to you and they have depression, what’s your first few questions for them? [00:37:30] Dr. Michael Biamonte: My first few questions is why. Why do you have depression? What’s the situation? Who’s involved in this situation? A lot of times, they’ll rattle off names immediately. “Well, I’m depressed because my business partner is doing this.” “I’m depressed because my spouse is doing this or my child does this or my neighbor does this…” A lot of times they’ll just ring it right off. In that situation, I encourage them to handle the real-life situation they have and not take a pill and go hide in the closet. When a person can’t come up with what it is, then we will do different testing if that's their main problem. A lot of times you get patients with candida come in and they talk about depression very often. So, if that’s the case, we’re going to treat the candida and see if the depression goes away in that line. But let’s say the person just comes in, he’s depressed, he doesn’t know why, he doesn’t really have any other outstanding physiological symptoms. Well, sure, then we’ll go ahead and we’ll do a neurotransmitter test. We’ll check out his blood sugar, check out his hormones, and 9 out of 10 times we’re going to find there’s a physiological reason which flies in the face of the gene finding theory that for years, psychiatrists have been saying that genetic factors have a substantial role in mental illness and even says in the DSM-V but yet, in actuality, there's no evidence that this is true. As a matter of fact, what was his name, David Kupfer several decades ago said we’re still waiting to discover biological and genetic markers for mental illness. They still haven’t found this. That was in a taskforce that I think he was the chair of. So, they throw these things out, these things become catchphrases. Chemical imbalance. Genetic defects that lead to mental… they throw these things that they become catchwords but when you actually pull the string and look into them, there is no evidence behind them that they exist.  [00:39:42] Ashley James: Tell us a bit more about the neurotransmitter testing that you do when someone has depression and you're suspecting that there might be an imbalance. [00:39:53] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Well, we do a urine test that they're available through several labs. I believe Great Plains, Doctor’s Data, and Genova Labs easily offer them. Those are the bigger labs. They offer, it’s a urine collection. The urine collection goes to the lab, the lab looks for the neurotransmitters. There’s a certain amount of interpretation skill needed because sometimes, high levels of neurotransmitters in urine can indicate a loss of the neurotransmitter. So, let’s say you find a high amount of serotonin. The high amount of serotonin may not mean they have a lot. It might mean they’re losing it. But there's usually a pattern involved in that. Like very often, you’ll see the person has high cortisol which blocks serotonin, so you can see they have high cortisol and then high serotonin. Well, in that case, you know that the high cortisol is blocking the serotonin and causing a loss of it. So, that's what I mean by there's a certain amount of interpretation skill. But for the most part, when you do that test, it lays out all the neurotransmitters and show you the ratios between the ones that are very important that work together. It lets you see what’s high and what’s low. So, then you have an idea if there’s any actual evidence and reality that the person has an imbalance with the neurotransmitters. More often than not, when we find these imbalances and we put them on the right nutritional support, they feel better.  [00:41:17] Ashley James: Interesting that high cortisol blocks serotonin. I’m just trying to think of why that would be because your body needs to be in fight or flight mode and not in like super happy mode. [00:41:27] Dr. Michael Biamonte: No, it’s a matter of the receptor sites. Cortisol jams up the serotonin receptor sites.  [00:41:33] Ashley James: They fight for the receptor sites. [00:41:35] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Yeah, cortisol blocks the receptor sites so the serotonin then can’t go and attach itself to the receptor site that easily. So, it’s not being utilized so it then builds up and then it’s excreted in your urine.  [00:41:48] Ashley James: So, someone who let’s say have high cortisol because they’ve been chronically stressed out and it doesn’t have to be emotional or mental stress, it can also be physical stress like the body’s fighting let’s say a chronic candida infection. Their body is in a state of stress, they have higher than normal cortisol levels. Maybe they're also not sleeping well at night, maybe they're using alcohol to manage their “stress”, so they're doing things that increase cortisol and then they go to a doctor and they say “I’m really depressed and I have sleep problems” and the doctor puts them on an SSRI. Their body is making enough serotonin but maybe even trying to make more serotonin, but the cortisol is blocking it and then they take a drug because the doctor did no testing at all to figure out the root cause. Then they're taking an SSRI that’s then blocking the serotonin further, pushing them further into being out of balance.  [00:42:46] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Yes, this is true. I’d give you one from the backdoor. There was a patient I had for years. She finally moved away, she moved to California but for years, I was treating this woman. Every September, her hormone tests would start to go out of balance. I asked her millions of questions as to what’s going on and she never came up with the answer until finally, I asked her, well, what’s different about this time of year than any other time of year. Then she suddenly blurted out the L’eggs Mini Marathon. So I said, “alright, tell me more.” She says, “Well, every year I run the L’eggs Mini Marathon in New York City, so I start training for it in August and the race is in October.” That was exactly coincidental with when her cortisol and other hormones started to go out of balance. So, from the training she was doing, the running she was doing, which you could say an excess of what the average person would do, that was raising her cortisol. So you see, it could be something that innocent.  [00:44:01] Ashley James: You need to do the deep dive. This is why it’s so dangerous at times to go to a traditional medical doctor or go to a head doctor and say, “I got depression” without doing the deep dive. These band-aids are causing more damage than good. [00:44:23] Dr. Michael Biamonte: A colleague of mine wrote an article called Why Your Insurance is Making You Sick. Backtracking on the whole thing, he was pointing out that people will go to their doctors their insurance will cover. A lot of these doctors don’t know what they’re doing, so by engaging in the doctor that's going to be covered by their insurance, they're actually getting sicker because they're not going to the doctor who would find out what was really going on.  [00:44:48] Ashley James: Ha! That is so sad. So, we talked a bit about depression. What other mental health situations have you been able to help resolve to the point where they’ve been able to get off all their meds? [00:45:02] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Well, we can go down the list of the names—bipolar, schizophrenia. They're all basically, as someone like you who’s read the DSM, basically these are all made-up situations for the purpose of being able to find a drug to sell. If someone really wants to get into this, there's a video you can watch called Marketing Madness. If you go to the website CCHR.org, you’ll find this video. It’s maybe 3 or 4 hours long and it rips apart the entire scam of psychiatric medications and the whole scam of psychiatry, it breaks it all down to the point where you appreciate the title, it’s Marketing Madness. They’re marketing insanity and the solution they have for you are these drugs. As the old saying goes, the two worst things you can ever do is number one, kill the patient, and number two, cure them. Because if you cure them, then he’s off your list to sell the drugs to.  But to answer your question, you know, I don’t like to get into the terminology. The terminology is only good for recognition. Everyone can agree upon a recognition of a set of symptoms perhaps. But one of the major things that I’ve practiced as a clinical ecologist, because I consider a lot of what to do to be clinical ecology, we work with a lot of children with autism. There is a definite set pattern in what happens with autism. It’s very simple. In fact, it’s too simple. It’s so simple that people can’t believe it. But the components of autism start out with a child who’s born, who’s genetically compromised as far as his ability to detoxify. Then you put that child in an environment that’s toxic or you give him silver amalgam fillings in his mouth. Or you vaccinate him with thimerosal. So, you then make this child whose detoxification is compromised toxic. He can’t detoxify. It affects him neurologically. A lot of these things like thimerosal and the vaccinations, and then if the child is repeatedly put on antibiotics, he develops candida. Now, from candida he develops leaky gut. So, now he’s autoimmune, he’s got candida. Now, the parents are wondering, “Gee, he reacts strange to foods, this child. He’s got this autism, he has this neurological… but he reacts crazy to different foods.” And it’s not all the time. So, now you mix candida in there, which candida is the big wild card, you never know what’s going to happen next. And it’s that the formula for it is that simple. The child develops candida, develops leaky gut, he becomes chemically sensitive. He becomes allergic. And here you have your standard profile of the autistic child. And it can be reversed, and it has been reversed. I worked for many years with Jenny McCarthy. Jenny McCarthy was a patient of mine for years. As a matter of fact, Jenny McCarthy wrote the liner chronicles on my book The Candida Chronicles. She wrote the back page. We find as we found with many children, you find that they’re either mercury toxic or copper toxic. Because thimerosal, it’s an alloy, it’s a combination of copper, mercury, and zinc. Now, zine is more of a nutritional element, so the body has a better chance of using up the zinc that might be in the metal. But it’s not true of mercury. Mercury has really no biological functions at all. It’s strictly a toxin. Copper can have biological functions. It’s an essential element. But when it rises to high, it becomes just as toxic as any other heavy metal.  You start with that. It’s right there. You have loads of trouble. But that explains why. See, years ago, this is the thing that only thinking people can arrive at if they sat down and mudded over this a bit. A hundred years ago, the environment, as you were stating earlier in the show, was much cleaner. You didn’t have the environmental challenges that we have nowadays. So, maybe 150 years ago, something like that, children who were born with these problems detoxifying weren’t challenged by their environment. They weren’t vaccinated. They didn’t have amalgam fillings in their mouth. So, their poor detoxification abilities were not being challenged. That's why these new diseases developed. That's a little microcosm of why it happens. That's why we have illnesses now we didn’t have 100 years ago. The environment is more toxic. And instead of coming up with new drugs to cover up the symptoms of these things, what the people should be doing is they should be taking companies like Monsanto to test for developing all these harmful chemicals that really haven’t been tested and their safety has never really been assured or guaranteed, and they throw them on the market and they're all over the place. Anyone who’s done any weed killing with Monsanto products is going to know that by now. Soldiers, people coming back from Vietnam, I can’t tell you how many vets I’ve had who were exposed to Monsanto’s Agent Orange, who came back with all types of problems with their lungs and their heart. We had to develop an Agent Orange detoxification program for these people so we could detox them from this chemical. When they start to detox from it, it’s amazing the changes they go through. It’s really amazing. But eventually, they start to feel better and their chemistry is improved. That's the thing. Anybody can feel better. You can shoot up heroin and feel better. The real bottom line is, do you get healthier? Is there scientific evidence in your bloodwork that your chemistries are improving? That's what we look for. That's what should be done. What I’m talking about should be the industry standard. And it’s not. [00:51:21] Ashley James: There's another thing that Monsanto did, and my friend is involved in a lawsuit. It has completely destroyed her life. It’s left her in a wheelchair and left her daughter incredibly sick as well. This is just a small town outside of Seattle. There was an alternative school called Sky Valley, and there was an old building maybe built in the ‘60s or ’50s or ‘40s, something like that. But it was an older building. Children were dropping dead, children were getting cancer, teachers were getting cancer. One of the teachers entire jawbone just died suddenly. Crazy horrific things happening. In this town 40 minutes away from Seattle, what they come to find is that Monsanto made these chemicals, construction chemicals for the ballast, for the cocking, it’s through the entire building and it’s very hard to clean up. They said that they cleaned it up but the school board did a coverup. Then, they said, “Okay, it’s safe to come back into that school.” It wasn’t safe. Now, there's a huge lawsuit going on, massive lawsuit, and I think the teachers, they have several different lawsuits. The teachers have one lawsuit, the parents have another. And the teachers won. But they settled that at court or something. Anyways, it’s all messy. It’s been going on for years. But what I discovered, and I’ll find the article and link it in the show notes. The Associated Press did an amazing… it takes like an hour to read this article. It’s so well-researched. They did this amazing expose where they traveled around the United States and discovered that these dangerous older school buildings, very dangerous for the health of the children because it is killing the children, mostly still exists in impoverished areas now. Monroe isn’t impoverished, it just is an outlier, but most of these buildings that are full of these toxic chemicals that are causing horrific neurological damaging cancer to these children, but the children were susceptible because they're smaller I guess, but also the teachers, most of it is in impoverished areas, most of it is areas where there’s larger groups of people of color, and they know that the buildings are toxic but they don’t have the budget to do anything about it. Because they all feel very powerless in this situation, no one is stepping up to fight back.  So hopefully, with these lawsuits, it’ll be enough to sort of get everything rolling. But here’s the thing. We walk around trusting the building we’re walking into is safe because we live in the United States or we live in Canada or we live in England. You live in a country where you expect that the building you work in, the house you live in, the car you drive, the food you eat, the air you breathe, the water you drink, we expect blindly trusting that this would be safe for us just like the medications we take. We have so much trust. Sometimes I guess we’re very naïve in that. Without living in constant fear because that wouldn’t be healthy either, we need to do our own due diligence. I have a whole episode on toxic construction materials and how to have a nontoxic building versus toxic buildings. It’s all very fascinating. Same with food and how to have healthier food, how to have healthy water.  But when it comes to when you already have the toxicity in your body and you have these symptoms, you don’t even know. You don’t know that you have high copper. And that could be why you're feeling depressed or feeling off or feeling lethargic or having the brain fog. Then we go to the wrong doctor. They don’t do the test, they just rattle off some symptoms, they put us on whatever drug the drug rep told them is good for those symptoms. And we still have the toxicity. We still have the underlying problem. We get worse and worse and we end up feeling guilty and shame that we’re broken, and a lot of times, not all the time but many times these people feel like they're a burden on their friends and family and the world would be better off without them. [00:55:54] Dr. Michael Biamonte: And unfortunately, I can never leave a conversation on this subject without mentioning this because it’s something that really, I took very seriously. When President Obama was running for office, his New York campaign summit was right next door to me. We helped them out in the beginning, we offered them, you know, they needed a table, they needed a chair, they needed this and that, we very easily gave it to them. The people there asked me about what we did. I asked them, what is the senator’s viewpoint about Monsanto and about GMO foods. I was told quite overtly that he was intending on outlawing GMO foods and getting rid of Monsanto and blah, blah, blah. This was great. Then several years later, while he was president, he signed the Monsanto Protection Act. The Monsanto Protection Act, if you look it up, limits the liability that Monsanto has. So, when you're talking about these people suing Monsanto, there's only a limited amount that they could get because this act kicks in and it reduces the liability Monsanto has. Monsanto has no liability at all. You can’t sue them and say that any of the GMO foods that they make made you sick. You can’t do that. In terms of all these chemicals, there's limited liability.  So, when we start looking at who we’re going to vote in office, we also have to really take a look at this. Who’s going to protect people like Monsanto? Who’s going to protect the person on the street that you're talking about?  [00:57:37] Ashley James: My church has become very politically active, which is unlike a church, right? Lately, churches have been silent. Something my church has brought up is, you know, the churches that were silent in Germany, the Nazis actually went after the churches first. Not everyone knows the history of this. How is it that such a horrific thing could overtake a country? They went after the churches first. They threatened them and kept them silent. You keep your worship inside the church, you don’t do anything outside the church. You don’t do anything active. You just do your little thing inside the church and stay silent. So many churches have stayed silent. [00:58:20] Dr. Michael Biamonte: There's a formula, do you know that? You can find this. The Nazis, they actually had a formula of what you did to take over a country or to demean the people. That is one of the first things you do, is you go after religion, you silence the churches. The next thing is you take their guns away from them. Then you make them toxic. That was quite common from when the Nazis attacked the country. Prior to their attack, they would dump fluoride in their drinking water.  [00:58:50] Ashley James: Wow. Which is a neurotoxin, right, in high doses. And it causes people to be docile. I don’t know all the symptoms but I also know that it disrupts thyroid function. [00:59:05] Dr. Michael Biamonte: You then start starving them of protein because starving them from protein makes them less aggressive. You take protein away from people, they lose muscle tone, their testosterone drops, they become less aggressive, less motivated. So, they had it all down, the Nazis. They had their whole formulation down. And unfortunately, you're seeing a lot of that getting repeated nowadays in trying to control people. [00:59:32] Ashley James: With our church, our pastor said, “I don’t care what side. Republican or Democrat, I don’t care. I’m voting for the individual person that I believe is going to do the most good that’s going to help the most people, that's going to, for example, outlaw GMOs or not help these big organizations like Monsanto.” Unfortunately, we have to go based on trust because like you said, you were told one thing and then he did another. And protecting these major organizations that are causing and have a history of causing a huge amount of toxic damage to the world, it’s sick and wrong and very sad and I’m not for either side. I’m pragmatic. I want to see a better world. [01:00:25] Dr. Michael Biamonte: I agree. I’m a libertarian. I’m registered as a libertarian.  [01:00:31] Ashley James: The idea that what we deserve is we deserve health. It’s a right. I want that for everyone. I want a cleaner, healthier, safer world for everyone. I know you talked about not wanting to necessarily go based on labels because that is the box they like to put people in just to give them drugs. But when it comes to suicidal thoughts and ideation and wanting to help someone to avoid suicide, have you ever had clients who you felt might be suicidal and are there any common things that are associated with that or imbalance is associated with that that you can help them with?  [01:01:14] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Yeah. One of the first things you’ll find is that they're on an SSRI. So getting them off the SSRI and getting them on 5HTP or any of the precursors to serotonin is very important because you want to make sure they're not suicidal due to extreme dips in their serotonin. Usually, you want to get them out of their environment because unfortunately, people with these conditions are prey for other people around them to crap on essentially. So, getting them out of their environment is just as valid a therapy as anything else. So you get them good nutritional support, you get them out of their environment, get them into some other area where they're dealing with people who are not constantly invalidating them or causing them trouble, you’ll see a tremendous improvement in them and it’ll be safe. [01:02:07] Ashley James: Dr. Hammer, he did Meta-Medicine. Dr. Hammer saw the centrifugal rings on the brain scans when not using the contrast dye and determine that the edema on the brain was specific areas were associated with specific… he did over 30,000 cases, were always related to specific parts of body. So, breast cancer, that sort of thing. He determined that a trauma would have had to happened in the last four years that would have triggered it. His biggest intervention was to take them out of their environment. So many times he’d see, if he took someone and moved them to a different country, just take them away from the friends or the family or the job or whatever it was that was stressing them out or triggered them that they were able to heal much quicker and in some cases, go into full remission. It’s so interesting. [01:02:58] Dr. Michael Biamonte: The present time and environment of the patient acts as a constant restimulation to their illness from the time the illness was probably conceived going forward. So, it’s a valid form of therapy to change their environment but to hopefully to a better one. You wouldn’t want to take sick person and put them on the titanic. That wouldn’t be the right idea to change the environment. But that’s the concept. You get them away from the re-stimulators that are occurring in their environment. You get their nutrition improved to the point where they’re at least not going to be eating toxic food or not going to be in a toxic environment and then if lucky enough, if there's a practitioner like myself there, you can test the person and find out that if there are any extreme toxicities, there are tests that are offered by Great Plains Labs. Great Plains Labs offers a test which will check you for mold toxins, will check you for environmental toxins, will check how well you can detoxify. You can also look at neurotransmitter panels and do all these things and you can get a lab done for a person. The person would be in remarkably better shape in just a few months. [01:04:13] Ashley James: I feel like we have to touch on this subject although it is such a sensitive one. A friend of mine lost her child who was a teenager to suicide less than two years ago. This child who was born a female decided they were not a female and did a transition to appearing as and functioning as a male. We see that the suicide rates for those who feel that they weren’t born the right gender, again, I want to be very sort of sensitive to this subject because the suicide rates are incredibly high and the statistics are that even those who transition, even those who get operations, the suicide rates remain high. Have you had any experience working with those and is there anything that we can do to help them? [01:05:14] Dr. Michael Biamonte: I have actually more experience than you would think. It’s remarkable that in some of these people that make the transition, some of them are totally fine for their entire lives, they have no problems. Others do have these issues and you would have to then say, well, then obviously this is not the answer. If this was the answer, they wouldn’t still have these compulsions to harm themselves.  But then on the other hand, I’ve seen that there are some people physically who don’t handle the transition well physically from a biological standpoint and metabolic standpoint. Their bodies just don’t do well at all. They will reject the hormones that they're taking. They can seem to never can find the right balance or dosage of any of the medications. But yet, there are others I’ve seen that did fantastic. So, I think we’re down to this is what the psychiatrists don’t want to hear. But what you're down to is rolling up your sleeves, sitting down with the person and digging in and finding out what’s really going on as opposed to having them come in your office for 10 minutes, hearing their problems and giving them, as you said before, the pill that the drug sells and says it’s the right one for them. [01:06:32] Ashley James: It takes doing the deep dive because we’re complex. We’re complex. I heard once that the functions with inside a single cell are more complex than the city of Manhattan. So, if you think about if you’ve ever been to New York City and you see just the honking and the noise and the deliveries and the taxis and just everything going on, that is a simpler system than a single cell. We have 37.2 trillion cells in our body, we’re an incredibly complex ecosystem that is affected by energy. The energy of objects nearby, we’re affected by water, we’re affected by the air we breathe. It’s so sensitive. You climb up to Mt. Everest, your muscles will begin to seize, right? We need a perfect homeostasis. When something throws us off, it’s enough to throw everything off-kilter and yet, we think that we can go into an office, spend 10 minutes with someone, take a drug and it’s going to just solve the problem. This is the marketing we’ve been told. It’s ridiculous. We should be and practitioners should be willing to do that deep dive with someone and not be afraid to do the deep dive with them.  [01:07:46] Dr. Michael Biamonte: To really appreciate what you're saying, I again would have to mention to the listeners to go on the internet and go to CCHR.org and look up I think it’s a 3 or 4-hour video called Marketing Madness. Once you start watching this, you cannot stop. The data they give you is absolutely mind-boggling and they uncover and reveal the entire scam which is the whole psychiatric profession and the psycho pharmaceutical industry. It’s just incredible. I guess it’s no coincidence the LA Times back in the ‘80s published one of these inserts that you could pull out. It was all about psychiatry. The interesting thing I learned from there just off the bat that I found very curious is that as a whole and a group, psychiatrists have the lowest SAT scores. Psychiatrists have the highest rate of suicides out of any profession. Psychiatrists also have the highest rate of being convicted for felonies out of any profession.  [01:08:58] Ashley James: Wow. [01:08:59] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Interesting.  [01:09:04] Ashley James: And we bring our lives to these people. I don’t think that their entire profession is evil. But we just have to remember that they’re fallible, that we shouldn’t put them on a pedestal like we’ve been taught to do, like the marketing has taught us to worship these drugs and worship these people. Now again, if there's a drug that would stop someone from being suicidal, I’d want them on it, right? [01:09:34] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Yes, until you figure out as you said earlier. [01:09:36] Ashley James: Right. If someone has to check them, and I’ve had friends who went, they have five kids, they are like, “I am going to kill myself today and I don’t want to do that,” and they’ve checked themselves into the hospital, they spent two weeks in the hospital, be put on some lithium or something, put on some kind of medication, and then they're like, “Now, I got to get my life in order.” A few of my friends have done it but one friend in particular ended up finding, she found a few support groups, she changed her entire lifestyle, she had to change her diet, she had to do a deep dive into her life. She still has five kids and she has a sixth one on the way and she moved across the country. She’s done a ton of changes. But she changed her diet, she’s seeing a therapist. She’s going to two different support groups. She’s removed a lot of addictive behaviors out of her life. She had to do the work. But sometimes it starts with going “I’m about to break and I really don’t want to leave my children, but it’s like I don’t see an end to this and I’m going to check myself in.” Then you have to do the deep work beyond that. Sometimes it does take that immediate intervention.  Unfortunately, some people wait till it gets that bad. But hopefully, listening to you, we’re not going to wait to get that bad that we can make diet and lifestyle changes and even contact you. So you work with clients around the world, you do telemedicine. Health-truth.com. [01:11:08] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Let me add this. Don’t be complacent about your environment. I’ve had quite a few patients over the years who under my treatment were improving but they then moved. They told me that moving made a bigger difference in their health than actually what I was doing with them. When it was examined, when I looked at that, it’s interesting but there are certain things you’ll find. If someone lives in New Mexico in Nevada, that area, where nuclear testing takes place, traditionally, when we do tissue mineral analysis on people, and the test comes back showing high levels of uranium. Now this is not that they're radioactive, this is inert uranium. The first thing I ask is well, do they live in New Mexico, Nevada, that whole area? Ninety percent of the time, they do. There's a high amount of uranium that's inert, it’s not radioactive, but there's a higher amount of uranium in those areas that people will absorb. Uranium, even though it’s inert and not radioactive still has physiological effects. It affects adversely your digestive system, it affects you neurologically. There's a whole list of uranium toxicity symptoms.  Also, another patient I’ve had for quite a long time, she had some strange elements showing and had beryllium, which is something you don’t see that often. She had high levels of beryllium and chromium and different elements showing. We never could figure out what it was and one day, she happened to realize that about every six months she would notice that the cars in her neighborhood and the windows of houses in the neighborhood had this white film on them. So, she collected the film and she had it analyzed and she found that this film was high in beryllium and chromium and all these elements that we find in her. So, she then started to investigate and she was very active in her community, she was active politically and the school board and everything. She researched where this was coming and sure enough, there was some industrial complex about six miles from where she lived that was dumping this stuff in the air. [01:13:39] Ashley James: Oh my gosh. [01:13:43] Dr. Michael Biamonte: I have dozens of other similar stories. But the moral of all these stories is don’t become too complacent about where you live if you're ill. Investigate if you're ill. If your area has any history of chronic toxicity, if there's anything in the water, if there's anything that’s in the water, eventually it’s going to make its way to the land. If you're doing gardening or you're doing any kind of work like this where you're getting in the dirt, you're going to start absorbing this stuff. It doesn’t have to be in the air although the air is the easiest carrier. But check out your environment to see what’s going on there. Because your environment might be making you sick and you don’t know what your doctor doesn’t know. [01:14:28] Ashley James: I’m reminded of this. You might have heard this. Let me know if you have. But there were these guys that went to I believe it was Papua New Guinea and they were doing trading. They gave them a bunch of corn and grains that these people had never eaten before. This population didn’t have a history of mental illness but after they gave them, I mean, besides what you get from being a cannibal for those certain areas, but in terms of like bipolar or schizophrenia, they noticed that they were having mental health issues after being exposed to like rice and corn. Same with Hawaii that the ancient Polynesians who had never had grains, they didn’t eat grains, that wasn’t in their diet, they ate tubers and fish and lots of fruit. They were given grains and mental health which had never been recorded in their history was then found. They took these findings and they did an experiment in England with a psychiatric ward primarily that had schizophrenics, they removed grains from their diet and saw that many of the went into remission and had either less or sometimes no schizophrenic episodes just from removing grains from their diet. [01:15:53] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Yes, these are very, well, at least to me, pretty well-known stories. That especially you’ll read in the books of the doctors who are very anti-gluten or anti-grain. It’s very true. Very true.  [01:16:06] Ashley James: Do you think that their major component is that it’s not feeding the candida that is having an impact on the brain becomes of the connection, the leaky gut, like you had mentioned before that there was these neurotransmitters in the gut, but also, that there’s a nerve that goes straight from the brain into the gut? [01:16:29] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Well, that would be presuming that these people had candida which we don’t necessarily know that they did. So, we would have to look at really… the most obvious thing is these people right off the bat, when they’re eating grains, they’re probably blood type O’s. So initially, you're introducing a fluid which probably hasn’t been in their genetic line because these foods are not native to those areas. Once you do that, you don’t really know what’s going to happen because it’s like putting someone on another planet. You don’t know how they’re going to react to the food. You don’t know if the food allergy is going to cause like extreme irritation or break down their intestinal lining, which is leaky gut is then going to… leaky gut is known to cause many psychiatric-like symptoms in people. So, we could stop just there. But when you go further and you look at allergies that you can get from grains, they’ve been well known to affect the brain. Pfeiffer, again going back to Karl Pfeiffer from the Brain Biocenter, he did quite a lot of work on that, quite a few of the people who I would tend to call the earlier pioneers in nutrition, did a lot of work showing that grains would affect people in this manner. So, like I said, you're introducing something to a line genetically which it’s not native to. These people never had it before. You don’t know how they're going to be affected by it.  [01:18:04] Ashley James: Right. Is there anything you’d like to say to those who have or are struggling right now with emotional issues, maybe they're on medication or they’ve been considering medication, is there anything you’d like to say to them directly? [01:18:24] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Yes. As you’ve been hearing through this broadcast, going on these medications is haphazardous and dangerous. That's not your first choice. Regardless of how society looks at these things, how they're accepted, when you really get into the scientific aspect of it, it’s not condoned. You really want to take a look at the things we’ve talked about here today. This is where you want to go first before you start taking medicines which the fact the insurance company pays for them and the fact that they're advertised on TV doesn’t mean they're safe, it doesn’t mean they're good. We can start advertising heroine on TV and have your insurance company pay for it. That doesn’t mean it’s good for you either. So, I would say to them, please look into the things we talked about today. Make that your priority because a pill doesn’t fix your life. If you have a problem in your life, handle your life, don’t take a pill and go hide in the closet.  [01:19:32] Ashley James: There's one thing we didn’t touch on and I want to make sure we touch on it, and that's those with panic attacks and anxiety. Oftentimes they feel like they're dying. I’ve worked with several clients who they have to go lie down and their heart is pounding, their palms are sweating, they feel like they're dying and they're terrified that they're dying and so they end up popping a pill. Can you speak to those who have anxiety and are choosing to be on anxiety meds because they feel like otherwise they die? [01:20:00] Dr. Michael Biamonte: Well, the first thing you always do is go to your doctor and you want to see if there's a tumor, benign or otherwise on your pituitary gland or on your adrenal glands. You want to have your adrenal hormones tested. Not a blood test in the morning where it’s one take. You want to do several blood work over the period of 24 hours or you want to do a 24-hour urine test which is going to measure your adrenal hormones to see if there's any surge in the hormones. You want to look to see how your magnesium levels are. Most importantly, you want to look for toxic metals. Because metals like cadmium, lead, arsenic, nickel, and iron, when any of these are in excess, they stimulate areas of the brain particularly the amygdala of the brain which when you overstimulate that area, you end up having the panic attack-like symptoms.  You want to look for physical causes. Just simple being medicated is not handling your problem. As you would assume, if there's an underlying problem there and you're not addressing it, well that underlying problem you're not addressing today, in 20 years from now, can multiply exponentially to give you all types of other problems.  [01:21:18] Ashley James: It’s reassuring to know that there's a path that with working with someone who does functional medicine like yourself, that you work like an engineer and you go through and do a deep dive and help that person become balanced again in their body. Now, they still have to do the work in their life. There's emotional and mental work to do, and you're going to make sure that you help them with the balancing of their body so that they no longer have this. We have to really listen to the symptoms of the body as the language of the body, the body is speaking to us if we have depression. We have problems sleeping, if we have outburst of anger or panic attacks. We need to take these symptoms seriously and go, okay, we’ve got to go through and is there something in my life externally, is there something in my self-talk internally, is there something in my biochemistry that's going on or physiologically what’s going in. We got to do a deep dive. It takes the right practitioner. Like I love saying, you don’t take your car to an electrician. You don’t take your car to a plumber. You want to take your body to the right practitioner for the certain condition. So, I love medical doctors for emergency medicine. If I have a broken arm or if I have certain types of infections, if I need emergency surgery, that's when I want allopathic medicine. But when I have a chronic situation, I want to go see someone who does a deep dive into functional medicine. That's why I love the work that you do and I think you're an amazing practitioner and I’m so excited that I’ve been able to share you with my listeners because I know you help so many people. So, thank you so much for coming on the show, Dr. Biamonte. Of course, listeners can go to your website, health-truth.com. Is there anything you’d like to say to wrap up today’s interview? [01:23:09] Dr. Michael Biamonte: No, I think that's it. But I do agree with you. If I break my arm, I’m not going to run in the house and start eating yogurt and think something is going to happen miraculously. You want to go to somebody who’s going to be able to address the problem correctly. There's so much on TV, people are so brainwashed by these companies, so, it makes it more difficult. But I completely agree with you. Your summation is people, they have to hold that to their hearts and their minds. [01:23:40] Ashley James: Absolutely. Well, thank you again for coming on the show and talking about this very much needed conversation. I really appreciate the work you do and please come back anytime to continue to teach us. I love learning from you. [01:23:56] Dr. Michael Biamonte: You're more than welcome and I certainly intend on doing so. [01:23:59] Ashley James: Wasn’t that a fantastic interview with Dr. Michael Biamonte? I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and I hope it really helps you to gain clarity and direction on mental and emotional health. There are so many resources out there and I’ve seen so many people heal anxiety, depression, and bringing themselves back into balance. Even bipolar, I’ve seen people to bring back into balance where they feel even-kill again.  Use the search function on my website. I do have a lot of other episodes about these especially anxiety. Please go to Learntruehealth.com and just use the search function, type in anxiety, see all the episodes that come up. Lot of episodes, lot of great information, lot of great resources and tools. This is just the beginning. It’s just pulling you down the rabbit hole through the matrix, out of the matrix, down the rabbit hole. Then, I want to just arm you with all the resources and all the tools that’ll help. Make sure that you go to freedoctorcourse.com, get my Free Doctor course from holistic doctors who look to give you the foundations of health and then make sure you go to Learntruehealth.com/coach and get the free sample class from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition as well. I’m just showering you with gifts today. Make sure you get those. Of course, join the Facebook group, the Learn True Health Facebook group because so many resources, so many people are there to support you. It’d be great to have you be part of the community and join us there. Have yourself a fantastic rest of your day. Thank you so much for sharing this podcast with those you care about. Have a wonderful rest of your holiday season! I have a few other amazing episodes to post before we get to 500, so you still have some time, but if you have any testimonial to share at all, big or small, please send it to me. You can give me an audio, you can give me a video or you could just type it out. You can send it to support@learntruehealth.com or you can also message me on Facebook or put it in the Facebook group, would love to see you there. Get Connected with Dr. Michael Biamonte!   Website Facebook Linkedin YouTube Pinterest Book by Dr. Michael Biamonte The Candida Chronicles