
Neuroveda Podcast for Complex Health
Certified in Ayurveda and Functional Medicine, Nurse Practitioner Gillian Ehrlich, DNP, ARNP, IFMCP interviews guests who dive deeply into the nuances of medicine with the goal of inspiring you to persistently heal in the face of inevitable challenge across the lifespan. This is about ancient & cutting-edge understanding of disease processes and treatments just as much as it is about food, lifestyle, nature, culture, and politics.
Latest episodes

Jun 23, 2021 • 32min
#47: Ilene Ruhoy, MD discusses the her work as the Medical Director of the new EDS Center at Mt Sinai in South Nassau, New York
Dr Ilene Ruhoy is the Medical Director of the new Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Center at Mt Sinai in South Nassau, New York. In this podcast, Dr Ruhoy shares the structure, goals and approach to EDS patient care. Dr Ruhoy lays out the challenges that EDS and hypermobile patients encounter in experiencing connective tissue disorders, getting a diagnosis and the work that is happening at the EDS Center to center complex and chronically ill patient care. It starts with a triad structure binding together clinical practice with the illustrious Dr Anne Maitland, surgery led by Dr Paulo Bolognese, as driving and driven by research. Then, Dr Ruhoy dives into the nature of the connective tissue and reviews one research study underway to evaluate these connective tissues for infectious source but also postulates other potential sources starting with genetic vulnerabilities as acted upon by pollution, trauma and other triggers. This might be a one-two punch that can result in complex and chronic disease.
What is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome? https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/what-is-eds/
EDS Center at Mt Sinai: https://www.southnassau.org/sn/chiari-eds?srcaud=Main

Jun 9, 2021 • 56min
#46 Sharad Kohli, MD: Healthcare work is political work
Health is well beyond just a medical status and is inherently political. Dr Sharad Kohli, MD, has been working in primary care with underserved populations for over 15 years. He shares his story of transition from wanting to provide good healthcare to realizing that health required other services like voting rights, access to healthy food and exercise opportunities. The transition was complete in the further realization that going upstream to work on the criminal justice system, gun rights, immigration and poverty requires attention to provide care that truly targets health. This work was formalized in the non-profit IM4US (www.IM4US.org) which has a yearly conference and continues to support all members of healthcare teams to serve underserved patients well. Further, Dr Kohli reviews their incredible integrative pain program, which focused on complex trauma as a potential trigger for substance use and targeting addiction prevention. He also reviews the importance of community and group visits for building resilience and healing with inevitable cycles of health & illness. It's an uplifting show that touches on decolonizing medicine, looking at personal bias, and presents one real-life model for how good medicine is being offered in one Austin, Texas clinic. Dr Kohli is brilliant, engaging & humble.
Why cultural safety rather than cultural competency is required to achieve health equity: a literature review and recommended definition Elana Curtis* , Rhys Jones , David Tipene-Leach , Curtis Walker , Belinda Loring , Sarah-Jane Paine and Papaarangi Reid https://equityhealthj.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12939-019-1082-3.pdf

May 29, 2021 • 54min
#45: Bela Chheda, MD on Lyme & Co-Infections Testing & Treatment
Why are chronic, persistent infections like Lyme, Bartonella, Babesia and others like long-COVID and Epstein-Barr Virus so difficult to diagnose and treat? Infectious Disease specialist, Dr Bela Chheda, MD, walks us step by step through testing options including Elisa, Western Blot, PCR, Immunoblot (Igenix, Vibrant America), FISH testing for Babesia (Igenix), and some of the uncommonly tested parts of the immune system like the T-cells (InfectoLab). She also reviews how these bacteria can hide deep within tissue compartments and intracellularly, and that they can change themselves to hide from our immune system as well as changing our immune system itself. This flows right into the discussion about treatments with a focus on antibiotics: when to start them, when to stop them, how long they may be used for and what they can or can't do for recovering from chronic persistent infections. Dr Chheda explains why the CDC-criteria for Lyme disease set in the 1990's to target surveillance of population health lacks the sensitivity to find the cases of Lyme disease out there that can be responsive to treatment and discusses the critical importance of interpreting all test results in the clinical context of the individual patient. This one-hour show cracks the nut on how to think about testing and treating of these tricky vector-borne diseases that can trigger a chronic persistent infection that impedes optimal health.

May 12, 2021 • 52min
#44: Nancy Nomellini: On Yoga. "When consciousness began, Yoga began"
Nancy Nomellini is driving the development of the community-rooted Yoga center called Mother Yoga in Seattle, Washington. In this episode, she rips off the assumptions we have about Yoga as something that we go to or do. “When consciousness began, Yoga began.” There is no way which we can escape Yoga. Yoga exists as we exist. Are we living or are we LIVING? There might not be a difference except in our awareness. Can we raise our awareness, attitude & mental temperament to meet this gift of living reality? Join us as we swim around in the science, history, stories and scriptures of Yoga. Nancy brilliantly describes some of the types of Yoga including Hatha (postures, movements), Raja (royal), Bhakti (devotion), and Tantra (rustic, ritual). She shares scriptural descriptions of Yoga pinning these to the daily experience including the dual-non-dualism in the Bhagvada Gita, Yoga Sutras and others. We walk through oppression/justice work and spiritual by-passing. Nancy is a charismatic & engaging story-teller who is unapologetic towards her target of truth. She is solidly anchored within her body, breath, family, history, community and the work of justice, including veganism, while she gathers & weaves these wisdom threads through the joys, tragedies and mundane parts of being alive. This is a show not to be missed. Settle in to your body & breath & let Nancy take you for this ride.
Then donate to her Go Fund Me for community Yoga and join her Yoga classes online & in person in Seattle:
https://www.gofundme.com/manage/mother-yoga-seattle
Mother Yoga Seattle: www.motheryogaseattle.com

May 10, 2021 • 1min
Coming Soon: Gays Making!
Gays Making is the podcast that spotlights LGBTQIA creators, artists, musicians, actor, performers - any and all creatives. Join Grayson Hay as he has conversations with LGBTQIA creators about their art, their inspirations, and how they stay creative in the world.
Premiering May 27th and releasing every other week on Thursdays! Subscribe now where you get your podcasts!
Presented by Partyfish Media 🎉🐟

Apr 30, 2021 • 35min
#43: Matia Jones, Medical and Ecological Anthropologist: health & illness across space & time
Health and healing have history in time immemorial. We all do it- people, animals, plants, communities, and planet. In this episode, Matia Jones, Medical and Ecological Anthropologist, and Gillian Ehrlich, Family Nurse Practitioner, dive into definitions of health and healing across time and space. The conversation covers one of the traditional definitions of health from the ancient Ayurvedic texts as well as descriptions of ‘intactness’ from the Mayan culture. We reflect on the recent conviction of Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd as a type of autoimmune disease, in which the cells of the organism charged with protection and security are destroying other cells they are responsible for keeping safe, which ultimately threatens the viability of the whole organism. There is much to be gained here in terms of reminders that we belong within this body and on this planet.

Mar 17, 2021 • 1h 20min
#41 Richard Boles, MD: Genetics, especially underlying functional disease
Put on your seatbelt because Dr Boles is taking you for a genetics ride you might need to listen to twice! We start at the beginning, talking about Mendel's pea plants, what is DNA, RNA and how does inheritance work. Then, we peel the onion another layer and review mitochondria, which have their own genetic lineage, including how, when and why our inheritances overlap. THEN, we further peel the onion to get into the poly-genetic origins of functional disease. Boom. It's a fascinating discussion that delineates structural vs functional disease and how most of what we struggle with in the modern world is functional disease. AND THEN, we do a deep dive into the genetics that underlie functional diseases like autism, chronic fatigue (CFS/ME), anxiety, depression, OCD, dysautonomia, abdominal migraines and cyclic vomiting syndrome. Dr Boles' adept descriptions make this reasonably understandable as he winds his way through mitochondrial treatments (vitamins, minerals, nutrients and medication options) as well as a clear teaching about channelopathies and why this might be your subtle but persistent problem. He finishes up talking about the company he founded, Neuro Needs, to offer mitochondrial cocktails, after struggling to give children and adults with congenital and acquired mitochondropathies all of the nutrients they needed over the years. Tune in to understand some of the more subtle but impactful aspects of our genotype vs phenotypical presentation in our daily life.
Resources:
To have a consult with Dr Boles: https://neurabilities.com/our-team/
For his Neuro Needs mitochondrial support products: https://www.neuroneeds.com/

Mar 3, 2021 • 1h 4min
#40 Anne Maitland, MD: Mast cells, connective tissue & the nervous system
Why should we care about mast cells? Well, we can’t live without them! Mast cells, part of our innate immune system, are critical to our survival and reproduction. Researchers are just beginning to uncover their complex and important roles, as allergies, asthma, and mast cell disorders have become more prevalent.
In this episode, Dr. Anne Maitland explains connective tissues are the brick and mortar of our bodies, while our mast cells are our security system, and our nervous system is our electrical system. She discusses how day-to-day optimization is required to protect these systems from our environment and how the Western “magic bullet” approach is not enough to address chronic conditions.
We discuss mast cells’ role in COVID-19 and the complexity of our innate immune system, for example in case of food allergies. Dr. Maitland underscores the need for multidisciplinary medicine to address the triad of mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD), and dysautonomia. She ends the conversation by emphasizing the importance of listening to the patient.
The Care of the Patient by Dr. Francis W. Peabody
Center for Healing Neurology's mast cell program

Feb 24, 2021 • 1min
Coming Soon: The Villainous Podcast!
Podcast podcast in my hand, who is the most wicked in the land?
Coming March 15th: The Villainous Podcast, where we seek to find the most dastardly, despicable, and downright vile villain in the world of Disney. Join us biweekly for our Bracketed face off as we have friends, family, and foes defend their favorite villain. Play along at home with your own Rubric of Evil and we will soon discover who is the most evil of them all!
The Villainous Podcast, hosting by Alex Garramone and presented by Partyfish Media, premieres on March 15th wherever you get your podcasts! Follow the show now on Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/thevillainouspod

Feb 17, 2021 • 58min
#39 Arinola Dada, MD: Understanding Autoimmunity
We are blessed in this episode with the brilliant and joyful rheumatologist, Dr Arinola Dada. Through her insightful metaphors, Dr. Dada explains the nuances of the immune system, including the innate and adaptive immune responses, and how and why autoimmunity occurs. She walks us through the multiple cellular check points that our system has to gauge and respond to judge threats and then reviews some of the different ways autoimmune disease presents when these checkpoints fail. The cells 'under attack' can be localized to a tissue- as in the central nervous system with multiple sclerosis (MS)- or can be disseminated throughout the body- like the nuclear material attack of lupus. Then, the conversation turns towards how to think about medicines and treatments, of course including an anti-inflammatory diet, lifestyle, and avoiding toxicity and other infectious triggers as able. We spent the rest of the episode discussing medications: NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), steroids, and then the biologic monoclonal antibody pharmaceuticals that all together constitute the treatments for autoimmune disease.