Neuroveda Podcast for Complex Health

Dr Daniel Krashin, MD, Psychiatrist, also board certified Pain, Addiction and Headache Medicine brings his extensive experience and uncanny ability to make science understandable and applicable to this widely ranging conversation (my favorite kind!).  In the first half, we review how pain and addiction are driven by the reward system in our brain. While this can get called the 'pleasure center', we really feel 'good' when we are 'rewarded' for life working, which has evolutionarily been eating and staying safe. This is akin to PacMan eating a pellet. Life is essentially running around, eating pellets for points, getting chased by ghosts and intermittently gaining powers to chase the ghosts back. Within all of this, we have learned how to short circuit this, like a cat with catnip, with substances. When the life is too stressful, our time horizon can shorten from what's best for us in the future to what will help us survive in the moment and the pressures can be shockingly minimal that drive us to think against our best longitudinal survival. Now in the time of COVID-19, these stressors are even more intense. This is a critical podcast for understanding how your brain works so you can think more clearly about making future choices. In the second half of the podcast, we dive into specific headache treatments especially highlighting 'electroceuticals' like GammaCore (which you can try in our clinic and/or be prescribed), Cefaly, H-wave and others which can be both preventative and abortive for chronic and/or debilitating headaches. Join us for this conversation that is both broad & deep. 

Dr Stephen Bezruchka, MD, MPH, is an emergency room doctor turned public health renegade who has devoted the last 25 years to seeing ‘the country as the patient’. Economic downturns in developed nations seem to prevent us from working ourselves to the bone and result in more time home with family, which research shows actually extends our lifespan. This contradictory insight is where we start. Most of us were squeezed for time and money prior to this pandemic. Now, what are we left with? How do we move around fear to find each other and intentionally move forward with our social and political structures? Spoiler alert: do what you love, do what you can do well, and do what you can for an extended period, preferably without being paid. But there’s lots more between our start and our conclusion, all anchored by Dr Bezruchka’s command of the social and political history of the United States & global events. Get ready for an intense and deep dive into our social, political and health realities. Resources:  Dr Bezruchka's faculty page: https://globalhealth.washington.edu/faculty/stephen-bezruchka The Population Health Forum: http://depts.washington.edu/eqhlth/index.htm The Effect of Economic Recession on Population Health: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2734206/pdf/1810281.pdf

We are in desperate need for conversations about how to anchor and possibly reinvent our lives and identity towards something beyond our usual social networks as required by this quarantine and Coronavirus pandemic. Matia Indigo Jones rooted her training and research in medical anthropology with an emphasis on social and environmental justice as preventative health and a dissertation in institutional and municipal food policy as it supports food sovereignty. She is unique in her approach to modern life in that she tip-toes thoughtfully into social media but spends the majority of her time with her phone off and her hands in the dirt. In this session, Matia shares her reflections and insights on the possible benefits of Coronavirus (“It’s not as deadly as Ebola or Spanish Flu & has the potential to serve as a capacity-building exercise for all of us for true threats like climate change.”), how to engage in moment to moment gratitude (“My identity has shifted into one who senses instead of one who does something.”) and she gives some essential tips on starting a Victory garden and extols the virtues of eating spring weeds- cheap, plentiful and nutritious. Join us for thinking differently about this new social landscape, within which the natural world remains unchanged and, as always, awaits us with open arms.

Patient advocate Janee Penington-Watson join Podcast for Healing Neurology host Gillian Ehrlich for this special podcast episode to share our current best understandings & advice for all aspects of this pandemic including how to gauge exposure & risk, testing options & realities, prevention support as well as possible interventions, including those along the cutting edge to keep an eye out for based on the science we currently know about this virus. This is one of two parts to address COVID-19; please see podcast #11 with Matia Indigo Jones for the social, behavioral and mental health aspects of rising to meet this global challenge. COVID-19 newsletter: https://us4.campaign-archive.com/?u=42f960988e6a7bd9df6d3287e&id=e4e9eaa302 Resources: Are there 2 strains instead of one? https://www.newscientist.com/article/2236544-coronavirus-are-there-two-strains-and-is-one-more-deadly/ Types of coronavirus: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/types.html Testing: LabCorp started testing as of March 5th& is rolling out more widespread testing now. It can still take 4-6 days to get results. N95 ‘reusable’ use: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/hcwcontrols/recommendedguidanceextuse.html CDC page about testing:  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/testing-in-us.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Ftesting-in-us.html COVID-19 tracking project: as of 4pm Friday March 13th: 16,500 tests done, 1,953 (+), 13,419 (-) and 1,130 pending; https://twitter.com/covid19tracking Great article about testing: https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/3/12/21175034/coronavirus-covid-19-testing-usa Testing in Washington state as an example, came out of Dr Helen Chu’s defiance of federal instructions to move forward with Coronavirus testing despite an eventual ‘cease & desist’ from the feds funding the Seattle Flu Study. https://mynorthwest.com/1758762/coronavirus-washington-seattle-flu-study/ MedScape intervention options: https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2500114-treatment

Ryan Smith discusses the world of peptides, from creating them to their diverse effects on biology. He explores specific peptides like neurocognitive and mood enhancers, immune system boosters, repair peptides, and cosmetic products. Learn about the benefits, administration methods, costs, and future trends of peptides in medicine and skincare.

“It’s an odd panacea, this plant-based diet” which seems to reverse so many different chronic diseases like heart disease, auto-immune disease, common cancers and others, improve symptoms and really hone athletic performance. Learn the juicy details about how to get started and make it inexpensive and easy: no meat, dairy, added oil, minimal salt & sugar. Find Jane’s recipes in The Engine 2 Diet, The Engine 2 Diet Cookbook, Plant Strong & the Seven Day Rescue (authored with her brother, Rip Esselstyn), including her “Lightening Bowl” with lime, jalapeno, rice noodles, rice vinegar & veggies- yum! Hear her tricks for sauces, salsas, a million types of hummus, her favorite kitchen equipment and learn what a Tovolo is. Also hear how ‘plant-based diets’ are under fire from the industry that wants to bring you ‘plant-based foods’ that don’t have any measurable fiber, the indication of plant material, and why junk-food vegan diets are not the same as eating whole, unprocessed foods that get their energy closest to the sun (it’s only a few steps from sunlight to plant vs sunlight to plant to multiple degrees of further processing to a processed gluten-free muffin). “Eating plants gives everyone a chance for a healthy life.” Resources:  Jane's website: https://janeesselstyn.com/ Books & Cookbooks wth her recipes: https://www.elliottbaybook.com/search/site/rip%20esselstyn Well, Now! Camp https://janeesselstyn.com/well-now-camp/ Esselstyn Foundation: https://esselstynfamilyfoundation.org/

Peter Wasowski has over 35 years in the field of medical technology and vascular health per his NASA speaker bio. He is the founder & CEO of Vasper Technologies- Vasper.com- which has produced a physical medicine device based on a recumbent bike that incorporates compression, cooling and interval training and is getting impressive results for muscle strengthening, hormone balance and many other improvements, even in 94-year-old women. Beyond his work with Olympic & professional athletes, Navy SEALS, and NASA, however, he brings a metaphysical approach to health and wellness- the whole performance of the whole being. Listen in today to understand the principles behind Vasper and it's unique benefits for our physiology at every age and stage of life. 

The Cell Danger Response can also be titled as the Healing Cycle. From this class presented at the Center for Healing Neurology in December, 2019, learn about the complexity of cellular signaling. At the perception of a threat (be it physical, chemical, pressure, pH, temperature, or a memory of threat that seems imminent again), the cells initiate a cascade of metabolic changes. There are three stages in this cycle: 1) down-regulation of energy production to re-route resources to contain and neurtralize the threat, 2) re-establishment of local order, 3) the re-connection of long-distance communication between the cells at the site of damage and all the other cells in the body. If the Cell Danger Response gets stuck on “ON”, then we can end up with a whole host of various chronic diseases. Listen in to hear neurologist Dr Ilene Ruhoy, PA-C Deirdre Gately, and ARNP Gillian Ehrlich discuss why it’s so important to complete the healing cycle to prevent and resolve chronic illness. Some links to the work of MD, PhD Robert Naviaux at University of San Diego:  Link to his research lab: http://naviauxlab.ucsd.edu/ 2018 article: Metabolic features and regulation of the healing cycle—A new model for chronic disease pathogenesis and treatment: http://naviauxlab.ucsd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/NaviauxHealingCycle_2018_v2.pdf 2014 article: Metabolic features of the Cell Danger Response: http://naviauxlab.ucsd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/cell_danger_response.pdf

Dr Ilene Ruhoy, MD, PhD, discusses neurology from all angles, including the conventional perspective (which is often right and enough!) of treating neurological symptoms like migraines, seizures and neuropathy with pharmaceuticals, physical therapy and other treatments, and the expanded view which includes immunology, mitochondria, genetics and the ancient understandings now being supported by research including Yoga and meditation. Listening critically to the patient is how she determines her diagnosis and which investigation and interventions to recommend. Dr Ruhoy also reviews the foundations of health as eating, moving and sleeping. She then dives deeply into how we are Circadian beings with the use of rhythm as a treatment for suffering. We end with a second deep dive into the critical role our food plays in our health, especially juicing which is a favorite daily element in supporting Dr Ruhoy’s health, which she started in earnest before, during and since her brain tumor and resection surgery in 2015 leaving her feeling better than she did before cancer. Listen in to find out how to think about our the complexity of our nervous systems as well as the simplicity of ways to start nourishing them with our daily routine.

Keesha Ewers, ARNP, IFMCP, Ayurvedic practitioner with a PhD in Sexology, shares with us research, intense personal stories, and wise insights about the place that sex and intimacy hold within the rest of our life. Specially, Dr Keesha discusses her own research of the HURT study, Healing Unresolved Trauma, which looks at how our neurological impressions of self and other are rooted in our early life relationships. We can take back the reins on our libido & sex life by frankly facing the realities of life, developing healthy boundaries, and changing the culture of conversation towards connection instead of achievement (aka ‘climax’). “Intimacy is where we do our deepest work.” Come listen to how we can get ourselves & each other there (including setting up our children for intimacy success!) with forgiveness work, autogenic training and compassion. Find out more about Dr Keesha and her work at DrKeesha.com.