Latest / Everyday Ancestral with James Barry / The Hidden Vision Crisis Holding Our Kids Back — Dr. Bryce Appelbaum on How Functional Eye Health Transforms Learning, Focus, and Family Wellness

Transcript

The Hidden Vision Crisis Holding Our Kids Back — Dr. Bryce Appelbaum on How Functional Eye Health Transforms Learning, Focus, and Family Wellness · Everyday Ancestral with James Barry

0:00
Hello friends, I'm your host James Berry and welcome to the Everyday Ancestral Podcast.
0:07
I am beyond excited to introduce you to our next guest, Bryce Applebaum, Dr. Bryce
0:13
Applebaum.
0:15
Not only is Bryce a friend, but this is a personal episode for me.
0:19
We as a family were struggling with my youngest daughter in her learning.
0:26
We did not know what was going on.
0:28
We were more observing stuff and price and his vision therapy expertise was what ended
0:38
up being a savior.
0:40
So we personally have benefited from what you're about to hear in many ways as you're about
0:46
to hear.
0:47
So if you're finding that your child is kind of stagnant in their learning, if they're
0:52
younger in there, you're just noticing that they're not like really getting it reading
0:57
lies, then this is the episode for you.
0:59
There might be other things as well, maybe someone's trying to diagnose them with ADHD.
1:04
Before you go down that rabbit hole of pharmaceuticals, please listen to this episode and check
1:11
out Dr. Bryce Applebaum.
1:13
So he is a pioneer in neuro optometry.
1:17
He's passionate about unlocking life's potential through vision.
1:21
His expertise includes reorganizing the visual brain post-concussion to return to
1:26
learn and return to life.
1:28
Dr. Applebaum is on a mission to change the way the world views vision.
1:33
He believed there is more to vision than just 2020 eyesight and his developed programs
1:38
to retrain the brain to revise the eyes.
1:42
Please enjoy our next guests on everyday access to Dr. Bryce Applebaum.
1:49
It is such a pleasure, my man.
1:51
How are you?
1:52
I'm doing great Chef James.
1:54
It is.
1:55
I'm so psyched to be here.
1:56
I've been more excited for this podcast than honestly any of the ones that have been
1:59
on.
2:00
So excited to get rolling.
2:02
I'm particularly connected, not only because you're a friend, but also you have really shifted
2:08
our family a lot.
2:11
You have absolutely freedom to talk about your experience with my daughter because I want
2:16
people to understand that it's personal what we're going to be talking about today.
2:21
And what we're talking about is the eyes, right?
2:24
You're going to hear a vision therapy come up.
2:26
You're going to hear about Bryce being a neuro optometrist.
2:31
But before we get to what that is and what vision therapy is, I want to dig into my personal
2:38
experience with you first.
2:40
And that was that we were seeing our youngest daughter kind of not shifting, like not really
2:47
learning to read despite her extreme efforts.
2:50
Like she is a tenacious child and she just wasn't getting over these homes.
2:56
We were noticing in school that she was just kind of like constantly at a similar level,
3:02
a very low level compared to our other classmates.
3:04
We were also noticing she was getting headaches and a lot.
3:10
And Margaret had the suspicion that it was I related and she thought to talk to you.
3:17
And you just share a bit about how you approached that subject because you talked about it
3:22
in a way that no one brought up, like you covered things that no one has even suggested.
3:28
And I really want the audience to rethink how they, when they hear their child is struggling
3:34
to sit still in the classroom, when their child is getting headaches in school, like I want
3:38
them to just start to actually understand that it may not be what your current, you know,
3:45
conventional doctor is suggesting it is.
3:48
I would go farther say it's probably not what your conventional doctor is saying.
3:52
And, you know, I think I remember exactly where I was talking your wife for the first time
3:57
when she was describing, you know, your daughter rubbing her eyes all the time and preferring
4:01
to be read too, but avoiding reading on her own and the motion sensitivity and like falling
4:08
off the curb when you're walking down the side of the road.
4:10
I mean, all these things that were really sweet made her who she was.
4:14
But I remember thinking like, oh my goodness, you're giving me the answers to the test.
4:18
And yet, like you didn't even know you were, these questions should have been asked.
4:21
And you even know that there's a test out there.
4:23
And with your daughter, it was really, she hadn't learned yet how to use her eyes together
4:28
as an efficient team and she hadn't developed the eye brain body integration that naturally
4:35
occurs for all of us, but often doesn't occur in the most linear, straight path because
4:40
of so many other things and we can talk about those, but really she had her eyes holding
4:45
her back from achieving even closer potential with reading, with learning, with sports,
4:51
with navigating through space, really with life.
4:54
And I'm just so grateful I had the opportunity to help and to work with her and it's so cool
4:59
to see the changes, but the main areas we worked on with her, no child is born with the
5:05
ability to track, to converge, to process information, to have their eyes work as a team.
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It's developed through our life experiences.
5:12
And so it's either learned well or not learned as well as it could be and that's what some
5:15
intervention is needed, but this was really a visual developmental delay yet most people
5:20
don't even know what to look for to find these kind of hidden signs of functional vision
5:24
problems.
5:25
Yeah, and you specifically diagnosed her that she had, and remind me if I'm wrong, but
5:31
she had no depth perception and she was seeing doubles.
5:35
So she had convergence and sufficiency, which is just, you know, complicated language to
5:40
say she had trouble exploring near space to know where to aim her eyes and how to get
5:45
the inside and outside muscles of the eyes to work together in synergy, to then process
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that information in order to do with that information and that impacted her ability to
5:54
see in 3D, you know, she didn't have the depth perception cells that were not born with.
6:00
Again, they come through life experiences and learning from our life experiences and
6:04
she hadn't developed those pathways yet.
6:06
So it made simple tasks so challenging for her and, you know, she was seeing double for
6:12
pretty much all near work, reading, writing, desk work, but yet didn't know that wasn't
6:17
normal.
6:18
Didn't know other kids weren't seeing like that.
6:20
And, you know, when I started doing the testing and realizing, oh my gosh, look at this
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fragile eye coordination and how unstable her visual system is and asking, do you sometimes
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see two of things when you feel like there's going to be one of them?
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Her eyes bugged out of her head and she was like, oh my God, yes.
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And it was one of these like, this guy's got an idea of what I've been going through.
6:41
This is what you're saying it doesn't have to be this way.
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And I mean, that's 9 out of 10 times.
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That's the exact same scenario that plays out in the exam room because parents, we don't
6:51
know what to ask for or to look for other than what we've been exposed to.
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And, you know, there's so many people struggling with unnecessarily with these hidden functional
7:00
vision problems.
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And yet we're looking at structure and a reactive model in most of medicine, especially
7:06
in eye care, where we need to be looking at function and a more proactive model to make
7:10
sure we've got the right skills in place to thrive.
7:13
Yeah.
7:14
Look her heart when we learned that she was struggling in those ways, because I think
7:21
every parent just wants their child to be thriving.
7:25
Well, let's get into, so what is vision neuro optometry and why is it different from
7:33
what everyone else is doing?
7:35
So I identify as a functional eye doctor.
7:39
And what that means is, I look at vision as way more than just 2020 eyesight.
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So we really need to think about eyesight and vision as separate things.
7:49
And eyesight is really just a symptom.
7:51
It's what we have glasses or contacts for and that matters.
7:55
But vision is so much more complex.
7:57
Vision is how our eyes move together and converge and track and focus and process information
8:02
and really how we make sense of the world around us and then direct the appropriate action.
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So really vision problems are brain problems and they're manifesting in the eyes.
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So if we can treat these challenges from brain perspective, so much can be done to unlock
8:19
potential.
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And as a neuro optometrist, what that means is I'm looking at the eye brain connection
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and how we can train that, optimize that and allow for a better rapport with space with
8:35
life to be able to drive more efficiently and comfortably, to read, to learn, to play
8:40
sports, to really just make sense of the world around us and feel confident in space.
8:47
So your father was an optometrist, wasn't he?
8:49
He was.
8:50
He was a developmental optometrist, which similar, but a little different in terms of where
8:56
we've kind of evolved to as a profession and even a specialty now with neuro optometry.
9:01
But yeah, I mean, he, I'm a product of the work that I offer now.
9:05
You know, when I was a kid, I was, I was a mess.
9:08
I was lost on the soccer field.
9:10
I was struggling in the classroom.
9:12
I trouble making friends because I had a difficult time even knowing where to look and kind
9:17
of feeling confident in my own skin.
9:20
And fortunately because of my father who, you know, made me do vision therapy and my
9:24
mother who made me do sensory integration based occupational therapy, that was her profession.
9:29
I attribute all my success in life athletically, academically and personally to what was
9:36
developed for me and the hard work I put in to be able to create these new pathways
9:42
and connections that I really hadn't tapped into on my own.
9:46
So really what you're doing is an amalgamation of what your parents kind of like it's taking
9:51
both of their fields and converging them, huh?
9:55
Absolutely.
9:56
Put them together, putting that on steroids and then also including brain training, visual
10:01
cognitive work, kind of an aspect of reaction time and just overall performance as well.
10:08
And we've created this kind of hybrid approach where it's really integrative and helpful
10:13
for so many aspects of life.
10:15
I think that's what kind of blows people's minds when I share the work I've done with you.
10:20
Because Morgan and I actually came and did some vision therapy work with you too.
10:24
And you actually were able to remove, and I'm going to mess this up, but one of her,
10:30
the aspects of her lens through the vision therapy because she was learning glasses at
10:35
the time, but she had these dual types of lenses, right?
10:39
She had a few things, but she had prism in her glasses.
10:41
I think that's what you're talking about.
10:42
That's what I'm referring to.
10:43
Yeah.
10:44
And so prism just basically moves where something's located in space.
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And so for her, she had trouble, her eyes naturally wanted to diverge.
10:52
So she had prism that moved the world out to where her eyes were so that her eyes wouldn't
10:58
have to point in the same place and converge.
11:01
And it, you know, respectfully was kind of like a crutch that she was really leaning
11:05
on.
11:07
And you know, I remember when she had sent me her records from the last kind of two, three
11:10
years before I had seen her, that prism amount was increasing.
11:15
And so she was adapting to the help that was given, which is very common with normal glasses
11:21
as well, just for I say.
11:23
And then needing something stronger to maintain that same level of single clear vision.
11:29
And literally that was making things worse.
11:31
Now there are times and places for prism and for lenses and things like that.
11:36
But in her case, it was more a brain problem showing up through the eyes and yet being
11:41
addressed from a glasses perspective and not allowing her to use it.
11:47
And when we don't use it, we lose it.
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And so, you know, we did enough work to teach her how to use her eyes to rewire the software
11:54
of her brain to change how she was using vision, but to eliminate that spatial mismatch so
11:59
that she can aim her eyes accurately where something is in space because she has a clear
12:05
understanding of how to use the inside and outside muscles of her eyes and synergy.
12:10
I mean, I just remember it was amazing because we went and came to do an intensive vision
12:15
therapy week with you and yeah, boot camp, and I think by the second day or even later
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that day, but definitely by the second day, we were at a restaurant.
12:26
She was reading the menu without her glass.
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She's like, wait, wait, and she just, she didn't even, it didn't occur to her that she wasn't
12:32
wearing a glasses.
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And then it did.
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And she was blown away how cool the process was.
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Most people would say, well, that's not possible, no matter the timeline, much less in a short
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amount of time.
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And, you know, as we age, certain things change in terms of our body, but just like any
12:50
muscle system in our body, if we stop using it, we lose it.
12:53
And so for her, she blew out the candles in her 40s and then all of a sudden, arms
12:57
weren't long enough and things kind of started to recede.
13:00
But yet with active work, we can make it so at least that doesn't increase for everybody.
13:06
And our brains can be optimized and enhanced in terms of vision.
13:09
But for many people, even reverse what's been in place and prevent it from even changing
13:15
depending on the situation.
13:18
I really want people to hear this that, you know, the way optometrists go to glasses is
13:23
similar to the way that doctors just default to antibiotics.
13:28
Please share with the audience like what should the person listening or the family's listening
13:33
be considering instead of jumping to glasses?
13:37
Well, let me start by saying glasses are not always bad.
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And so it's just one tool in a very large toolbox.
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And often if glasses are going to fix a problem, you know, that can be helpful.
13:51
But so often it's, it's again, the brain, how the brain's using the eyes, so we need
13:54
way more than glasses to, to fix what's struggling or where the, the challenges may be.
14:00
But let's hit five quick areas.
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So, you know, a child who you may be wondering, does my kid have ADD or DHD or dyslexia, right?
14:09
The symptoms of that squirmy with desk work, you know, relying on the ears rather than
14:13
their eyes on the classroom, they're listening to the teacher, but looking like they're not
14:17
paying attention because they literally can't control where their eyes are pointing and
14:21
having the brain turn on to that information at the same time, losing their place with
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reading, skipping words, skipping lines, even just being resistant or reluctant to reading.
14:30
You know, wanting the parent to read to them.
14:32
I mean, those are clear signs that there's very likely a visual developmental delay or functional
14:38
vision problem.
14:40
Absolutely, there's not a blood test that says, oh, yes, you have ADD or ADHD.
14:44
It's based off of symptoms and behaviors.
14:46
And there's a lot of symptoms that go both ways here dyslexia, somebody struggling with
14:51
reading.
14:52
I mean, these are all incomplete diagnoses until functional vision problems are ruled
14:56
out first.
14:57
And it's not like somebody's born missing a portion of their brain that allows them to
15:01
read.
15:02
It's faulty integration of the visual processing centers, the auditory processing centers,
15:07
the language centers and not creating the right pathways and connections there, a child
15:12
with an eye turner lazy eye rubbing their eyes or squinting.
15:15
I mean, those are signs the eyes aren't working well together as a team so much can be done
15:19
there.
15:20
Somebody who has a head injury and, you know, screens are hard to look at.
15:25
It's hard to read, we'll get a sense you overload in environments like the groceries
15:29
to our mall where there's all this input that we can't filter or just dizziness nausea
15:35
headaches.
15:36
I mean, there's so many symptoms there symptoms often improve after head injury because
15:40
our brain learns to adapt.
15:42
But the problems in my opinion, never do.
15:45
It's just a matter of how we learn to bypass them and they only get better if we actively tap
15:51
into the pathways to eliminate the problems.
15:55
But then even the simple as we get older, we all think that cognitive capacity drops
15:59
and vision problems occur.
16:02
And although that's common, that's not normal, right?
16:05
And there's a difference between normal and common.
16:08
So explain that a little bit because I think that's a really key concept.
16:12
I mean, I remember my mom hit a certain age and she got glasses.
16:15
I mean, everyone when I was younger, it's like when they hit a certain age, they got
16:19
glasses.
16:20
It's almost like it's just a default.
16:21
Yeah.
16:22
Your driver's license, so when then when you hit 65, you get glasses.
16:26
So the inside muscles of her eyes are responsible for clarity, our focusing system.
16:31
As we age, and it's typically in our late mid to late 40s, they become more rigid and
16:36
less flexible just anatomically.
16:40
And most people, the first sign of, oh, it's a little hard to read my phone or to read
16:45
the menu, they just run and grab over the counter readers.
16:49
And to me, that is like the equivalent of my knee hurts a little, I'm going to go sit
16:54
in a wheelchair.
16:55
You really stop using the system.
16:57
If that becomes your new normal, then all of a sudden, the things you were doing, you're
17:03
not doing as well without the help and you're relying on the help and then the help gets
17:06
stronger and stronger.
17:08
And so ultimately, I mean, if we're living to 100, 150 years old, we're probably going
17:12
to need some help for up close, but it could be a fraction of the prescription and a fraction
17:20
of the time if we're intentional with this.
17:23
So although it may take us some effort and some strain, use that system.
17:29
Like if something's blurry, stop and make it clear.
17:31
And if you can hold it for five seconds, awesome.
17:34
The next day, try for six seconds and then seven seconds and you can build reserve,
17:38
you can build stamina there.
17:40
But I would say, we want to prolong the need for reading glasses in as many situations
17:46
as possible.
17:47
And we can talk about exercises that can help support that.
17:50
But we're in a very visually dependent world and we're in a world where digital devices
17:55
are everywhere and this is just stepping on the wound and making it that much harder
17:59
for us all to just maintain equilibrium with our visual system.
18:03
Do you think that the use of these screens at such an earlier age than even our generation
18:11
experience?
18:12
Do you think that's going to result in even more eye-straining, more eye issues than our
18:18
experience?
18:19
And maybe you're already seeing it.
18:20
Yeah, it's not, I think.
18:21
It's 100% happening and time is just catching up now.
18:23
I mean, it is kids are being exposed to screens and technology at early and early ages.
18:29
Kids are being asked to read earlier than ever before.
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They have the visual foundation in place.
18:35
And so right there, we're starting early on with dysfunction for adults.
18:40
I mean, screens are catapulted into every aspect of life.
18:44
And I'm not anti-technology, I'm actually very pro-technology and I heavily rely on technology
18:49
for my practice and for our patients to deliver better outcomes.
18:53
But normal visual systems and normal brains are not built to withstand what we're doing
19:00
right now, staring at a screen all day long.
19:03
And what people don't realize is with the right work, with the right brain training, you
19:08
can get to a place where you thrive in this digital world.
19:11
But for the vast majority of people, it requires exercise, just like we exercise our body,
19:16
exercising our visual system.
19:18
I mean, the average adult right now in America spends seven hours and four minutes a day
19:22
on the screen.
19:23
That's average.
19:24
Seven hours.
19:25
And the average eight to ten year old spends six hours a day on the screen.
19:30
James, when we were eight to ten, there weren't even screens around, right?
19:34
It's crazy what's happening and we're now seeing how this is impacting so many aspects
19:39
of social, I'm everything.
19:41
Yeah, everything, right?
19:42
Obesity as well because that means they're not outside playing.
19:45
It is scary and it makes me think, you know, I never made this connection but I don't
19:50
even know how familiar you are with him.
19:51
But Weston A Price was a dentist who noticed that the jaw, the size of the jaw, the human
19:59
jaw was changing and he was noticing like all these facial features on people that was
20:05
changing as the standard American diet changed, as more ultra-process foods came into play.
20:12
And he was like, this doesn't seem right.
20:14
And so then what he did is he closed his practice and traveled the world and actually did a
20:17
whole study on like, well, look at finding tribes before they were influenced by these
20:23
American foods and how their health was actually better.
20:26
In many ways, I think what we're seeing right now is similar.
20:32
Like you're seeing the effects of this technology and how it's negatively affecting us physically
20:38
in our eyes and our brains and yet most people are just, you know, acting like an ostrich
20:44
and sticking their head in the ground going, well, we'll just get glasses and they're
20:47
not really connecting like, wait a second here.
20:50
We need to rethink what's how we're approaching this subject, how we're approaching this technology
20:58
because this is not going away.
21:01
It's not going away and it's going to just be more and more.
21:04
The same parallel with the jaw is occurring with the eyes.
21:08
So nearsightedness or the medical term myopia, meaning far away is blur than it is up close.
21:14
When we landed on the moon in 1969, about a fourth of America was nearsighted.
21:19
Right now it's about 43% of America and it's estimated that by 2050, 50% of the world
21:27
will be nearsighted.
21:28
And that includes countries that don't have access to technology like we have.
21:32
And when there's myopia, the eyeball actually elongates and gets longer, which causes terrible
21:40
risk factors for the stretching of the layers and glaucoma and all this bad stuff and function
21:47
and structure are very much interwoven here.
21:50
But it's crazy.
21:51
I mean, if two individuals right now would have a child and both people were nearsighted,
21:57
their child have a one and two chance of being nearsighted.
22:00
If one parent is a one and three chance and if neither parent is a one and four chance
22:05
because of the environment we are all in and kids not getting enough sunlight and
22:12
be getting outdoors, I mean, it's proven 90 to 120 minutes is protective.
22:17
Too much screen time and too much new work in the dark.
22:20
All three of those we now have data and research and literature to show this stuff's
22:24
bad.
22:25
You're a father.
22:26
You have three kids.
22:28
How do you handle screen time?
22:31
How do you handle this technology?
22:34
And then do they have eye issues?
22:36
I'm assuming if you did that they probably might be susceptible to them.
22:40
So how are you how are you walking your talk at home?
22:43
Parenting is amazing.
22:44
It's also so freaking hard, right?
22:47
And we all have to pick our battles and all through my kids know that the mountain that
22:52
I'm standing on is limiting screen time as much as possible.
22:57
You know, we're in a house where we don't support screen time at an early age, yet absolutely
23:03
there's a time in a place.
23:05
And so for us, it's like if we're traveling on a flight or now as my twins are 10, they
23:12
now get 15 minutes a day, twice a day that has to be earned.
23:18
My six year old gets 15 minutes once a day and they have to spend at least that same amount
23:24
of time outdoors, but they're also wearing what we call digital performance lenses or
23:30
these glasses that they know they can only be on a tablet if they're wearing their digital
23:35
performance lenses and I let them pick the colors and the sparkles so that it's ones
23:39
they like, but these are glasses that are therapeutic in nature, not compensatory meaning
23:44
they give the brain a better opportunity for the eyes to work together by decreasing
23:48
some of the visual stress associated with near and you know, relaxing the focusing system
23:54
in a way that nothing negative happens.
23:57
It's more like a spot if we're lifting weights.
23:59
I was going to say I'm so glad you brought up these glasses.
24:02
They're more than just like blue light blockers, right?
24:05
Way more.
24:06
There's a prescription in them.
24:08
And yet why is that prescription not negatively affecting their eye muscle, whereas sometimes
24:15
subscriptions do as you pointed out earlier?
24:18
So they're the normal ones that take something blurry and make it clear that allows the focusing
24:25
and eye teeming systems to basically lock into that and then almost act as like a way
24:31
to compensate.
24:33
Whereas in this case, it essentially relaxes the focusing system.
24:37
So for some people, they may notice how this actually makes things a little blurrier.
24:42
And it takes the near focal point and this is, I don't want to get too technical here,
24:47
but it moves it farther back.
24:49
So it makes it so that you have to actually relax your focus and kind of engage with more
24:54
of your side vision than your central vision.
24:57
And what's crazy is I mean, I've been prescribing these for 15 years to all kids that we see
25:03
in the practice and about 80% have the exact same prescription, which we've done a ton
25:09
of analytics and data to figure out what is the weakest amount that gives the most improvement.
25:13
But then the other 20% has to be customized.
25:16
But we have tens of thousands of data points to show that this takes the visual stress of
25:20
nearer makes it less terrible for us, especially with screens.
25:24
All three of my kids have done vision therapy.
25:27
My wife is currently in vision therapy for the second time because she wanted to do as
25:32
little as possible just to make things easier.
25:34
And now she realizes that you're probably right.
25:36
Let's just fix this.
25:37
And my son at four years old was showing moderate signs of the exact same profile that I had.
25:46
An alternating eye turn reduced eyesight in the distance, limited depth perception and
25:51
just complete avoidance of any near work in front of him.
25:55
Even though I knew exactly what was happening and what to do, I was terrified because with
25:58
your own kid, it's so different, right?
26:01
Put him in vision therapy at four.
26:04
We took a pause at five.
26:05
We went back in at seven and he's now 10 with HD eyesight in the distance.
26:14
Deep depth perception and is on a and a elite flag football team as the wide receiver and
26:20
has developed the eye hand coordination that it's not because his last name is apple
26:24
bomb.
26:25
We're not.
26:26
We don't have the jeans for that.
26:27
This was all trained for him.
26:29
And so I see every day what happens when, you know, we take a structural approach to
26:35
that case in which point now he would have a constant eye turn.
26:39
He'd be in very thick glasses and probably have a very negative association with school
26:44
and reading and learning because it would have been so much harder for him than it should
26:47
have been.
26:48
And normal human nature is we avoid stuff that's hard for us.
26:52
Even with all that I just shared, I mean, take homes for everyone listening.
26:56
The bigger the screen, the farther the way the better.
26:58
So if your kid's going to want or you are going to watch something, put it on a TV and
27:02
this gives you excuse to go by the biggest TV you can find on sale and get it on the wall
27:06
and then it's less strain on the visual system.
27:09
And also, you know, if you're going to be saying you can never be on a screen, that's
27:15
going to make your child want it even more.
27:17
And I'm sure you have stories about this with nutrition and food and I would love to hear
27:21
parallels with what you've experienced.
27:23
But there are ways to really be supportive and to allow for moderation and balance, but
27:32
also a great teaching opportunity for them to recognize the why.
27:36
And then they can hopefully be making the right decisions for themselves as they mature.
27:40
Yeah.
27:41
Wow.
27:42
So a couple of things to share on this I want everyone to know.
27:44
So Bryce gave me a pair of these glasses he's talking about when we last saw each other
27:50
a few weeks ago.
27:52
I brought him home thinking that they were going to be for me.
27:55
They were not because that's a different story, but they didn't end up looking good on
27:58
me.
27:59
And that has nothing to do with Bryce that has to do with Margaret, but she said they
28:02
look good.
28:03
So I just turned around and said, OK, yeah, basically, I put him on and I said, Margaret,
28:08
how do they look?
28:09
And she said, Oh, yeah, they're really good.
28:10
And I looked at Bryce, Bryce.
28:11
What do you think?
28:12
And his face went blank.
28:13
You can tell like he probably didn't think they look good, but he was like, well, I'm
28:18
not going to supersede his wife.
28:20
Yeah.
28:21
Whatever you say.
28:22
Yeah, but it was so funny because then when I put him on later, Margaret had the biggest
28:26
laugh.
28:27
And she's like, I swear they look good.
28:28
And I'm like, I don't think they did.
28:30
But anyway, what happened was I brought him home and they actually looked great on my
28:35
older daughter.
28:36
See, yeah, who is normally has like a 2020 vision, right?
28:40
So she is the case where we got separate.
28:44
Yeah.
28:45
OK, yes.
28:46
Thank you for that.
28:47
So 2020 eyesight.
28:48
So she is an example of where she hasn't come in for vision therapy, but she was getting
28:54
headaches whenever she was on screens at school.
28:56
And so she took these glasses and started bringing him school.
29:00
She's gotten no headache since none.
29:03
That's amazing.
29:04
And so happy that your wife didn't want to look at you with those on because that means
29:08
they could benefit her.
29:09
And also, I have the perfect color and style for you that it's already already set aside.
29:15
The frame doesn't matter.
29:16
It's what's in the lenses that matters.
29:18
But if you want your partner to look at you and in the solid, right, she'd throw you
29:23
in a bit.
29:25
But I mean, that's, you know, I think even with with Sasha initially, like the terrible
29:31
headaches that she was experiencing, I remember asking like, are these all the time?
29:36
Are these on school days like weekends?
29:38
She's kind of solid and was like, actually, you know, now that we think about it, it's
29:41
just on school days.
29:42
And it's from the visual stress of school and what's what comes with that.
29:47
We don't have the stats yet, but I would imagine the vast majority of kids who are stuck
29:54
inside with the junk lighting on screens where so many school systems now are just giving
29:59
tablets or Chromebooks to other kids and saying, yeah, hang out on this for a while, vast
30:04
majority of kids aren't visually ready for that.
30:06
And the vast majority of people aren't visually ready for that yet as adults, we kind of accept
30:12
status quo and recognize, yeah, I just, you know, back to back zooms, it's taxing and
30:17
my productivity decreases as the day goes on.
30:19
When I get home, the last thing I want to do is read or look at my phone or computer,
30:24
but yeah, that's just life now.
30:26
It doesn't have to be that way.
30:27
Yeah, that's so powerful, everyone.
30:30
So I'm telling you, these glasses work and it's different than what you see on the market.
30:35
It's not just blue light blocking and I, and when I did try them on at that conference
30:39
and we would, we'd been all day under those specific lights.
30:42
I wasn't necessarily looking at screens, but I put them on and I did notice my eyes relaxed
30:48
and then I tried them on later that night and I also, and I was looking into screen and
30:52
I, I noticed the same thing, my eyes were very relaxed and I felt I could easily then
30:58
go to bed, even though I was looking at a blue screen.
31:03
Blue light is, is not bad for us.
31:05
It's gotten all this attention these days.
31:07
I've been joking and saying blue lights, the new gluten, everybody's like, get this
31:10
out of my face.
31:11
I don't want this near me.
31:13
We need blue light.
31:14
We need natural blue light from the sun to help set circadian rhythms and to regulate
31:19
hormones and mood and alertness.
31:22
It's the junk blue light from the screens that are blasting our brains and eyes all day
31:26
long that trigger the receptors in the back of our eye whose sole job is to respond to
31:31
light and send the signal to release melatonin and everything that helps set our circadian
31:37
them.
31:38
When those are always overstimulated, the brain freaks out and starts suppressing the
31:42
release of melatonin and then there's this negative feedback loop and things go south
31:46
very quickly.
31:48
But blue light glasses, you know, the block blue light that are really high quality, the
31:53
block of wide range, those are helpful.
31:56
But these, these digital performance lenses, I would say the prescription that's in there
32:01
is way more important than just the blue light and it's the combination of high quality
32:06
blue light filters, the prescription and then an anti glare filter, specific four near
32:11
screens.
32:12
Resistance screens, these don't work because it's different systems are involved with
32:18
near work versus resting in our natural position in the distance.
32:22
Yeah, I was very clear with you, I was like, you only wear these when you're looking at
32:26
screens up close, but they're working at y'all.
32:29
So we'll put links and whatnot where you can get these glasses but highly recommend them
32:34
if your son or daughter are coming home from school and talking about having a headache
32:40
try these glasses.
32:42
It's a good first entry but we're going to share some other really good entries as well
32:46
from Dr. Price.
32:47
But now you mentioned something that I talk a lot about is human nature and how it's
32:54
kind of in our nature to not want to do the work.
32:58
Oh yeah.
32:59
You're talking about basically like a gym for our eyes, you know, and many of us are just
33:04
like, oh man, another gym, like another exercise, another this, another that, I'm sure you
33:11
face this with your own kids.
33:14
How do you recommend we kind of overcome this human nature?
33:19
I think there's three subsets of people.
33:23
There's the people who have pain points, have the symptoms and they will do anything
33:28
possible to make life better.
33:31
There's the other end of the spectrum who it's like, everything's fine but I'd like to
33:35
optimize and improve anything I can.
33:38
And then there's the middle chunk which is the vast majority of people where they're just
33:42
kind of lost.
33:43
They don't know what's normal, what's not.
33:45
They're not able to self-regulate or self-monitor, maybe they're not able to kind of check in
33:50
with their body and how they're doing and they're just on the go go go mode throughout
33:54
the day.
33:55
And it's that middle group that's really, I think the group you're talking about here
33:58
where like at times it's a lot easier to grab over the counter readers to read the bill,
34:05
to pay the check, to get out of there, to go home and do bedtime and deal with all the
34:09
stuff versus figuring out how to do the work so that that area of life, that area of health
34:17
is optimized.
34:18
So for people with substantial vision problems, they need office-based training and they need
34:24
to work with a doctor board certified in this and they need to reboot the brain.
34:29
And then once that hard work is done, then it's a matter of just maintaining which maintenance
34:35
is very different than doing something for the rest of your life.
34:40
And all the pro athletes I work with, like we have a top three, top five, top whatever
34:45
exercises that they do as a pregame ritual to kind of prime their brain for action in
34:52
their craft or in their sport.
34:54
I think in those cases, it's just part of their pregame ritual and just what they do.
34:58
For people who want to do things more days than not and just kind of be more proactive,
35:05
tying specific procedures or exercises with normal habits that you always do makes it
35:12
so you don't have to think about it.
35:13
You don't have to feel guilty about not doing it.
35:15
You don't have to have it be on your to-do list that just keeps getting pushed off and
35:18
off until the end of the day.
35:20
So I was actually on a podcast late last week and we came up with pooping push-ups.
35:26
Doing focusing flexibility work, we call those eye push-ups, every time that you poop.
35:32
And if you're regular and if you're eating pluck and you're healthy and that's helping
35:37
support digestion, which I know it has for me, doing near-far-focused exercises every
35:44
time you're in the bathroom, two minutes right eye, two minutes left eye, we can talk
35:47
through what it is.
35:48
That's at least one thing that you just know, okay, I'm going to be on my phone for
35:52
four minutes less and I'm actually going to do this and do something to help me.
35:56
Or eye stretches when you're brushing your teeth and you're looking in the mirror.
36:00
Certain things that's just like, yes, this is just what I do and I'm doing this until
36:05
I'm not doing this.
36:06
I love this and it's true.
36:08
Most people are sitting on the toilet just looking at their phones, so if anything, they're
36:11
doing the thing that's making it worse.
36:13
Exactly.
36:14
And then your phone gets all dirty and yeah, so it's, you don't want any of that.
36:18
And the only issue with connecting with poop though is there's so many people that have issues
36:22
around, you know, going to the bathroom that I mean, like, I think of this one person.
36:27
I'm related to her, so she was like, okay, I only poop, you know, every other day and
36:32
I don't want to talk about it.
36:33
Like that's all.
36:34
Like, she was so closed off that that's how she kind of said it to me, but, but doing
36:39
it near-far-focused every other day is better than not doing it any day.
36:42
All right.
36:43
Good point.
36:44
Okay.
36:45
So you just gave two examples.
36:46
One is when you're on, when you're pooping and one is when you're brushing teeth.
36:48
So what is the one exercise you would recommend they do while they are pooping?
36:54
I push ups.
36:55
So everybody take one hand, cover up one your eyes.
36:58
Okay.
36:59
Other hand, take a finger, bring the fingers close to that your eye down your midline
37:04
as you can until it gets a little blurry and then stop and try and make it clear.
37:08
So if you're under 40, you can probably get it pretty close.
37:10
If you're in your 40s, 50s, probably a little farther back, you want to hold it as close
37:14
as you can and really get to a point where you can see the, the fingerprint and kind of
37:19
the pad of your finger and get the detail there.
37:22
Stop, make it clear.
37:23
Hold it for five seconds and really think about looking hard, constricting the focusing
37:27
system, stimulating it.
37:28
You'll notice your pupil gets really small when you're looking close.
37:32
And then you're going to take your focus and throw it out into the distance and look
37:35
as far across the room as you can for five seconds and relax the focus and kind of looks
37:39
off and the people will get real big and then come back to your close finger for five
37:43
seconds.
37:44
They're back in the distance for five.
37:46
So it's kind of a gross stimulation relaxation, stimulation relaxation, same amount of
37:51
time, right eyes, you're doing it with the left eye and most people notice that the distance
37:56
where they can hold that finger is probably a little closer with one eye than the other,
38:00
which means under normal life conditions, you're probably focusing one of your eyes at
38:06
a slightly different plane than the other because it's hard to focus on both at the same
38:10
time and our brains are phenomenal in terms of how we can adapt to not have to do something
38:14
that's hard to not have to use our eyes together as a team, which I have this one on.
38:19
If you remember correctly, yeah, absolutely.
38:22
You do this literally two minutes each eye more days than not.
38:27
Your finger will be able to get closer and closer and closer and even if it's a millimeter
38:30
a week, you're not going to maybe notice that.
38:33
But then years are going to go by and you're not going to have stronger reading glasses.
38:39
You're probably going to be doing a lot more without your reading glasses.
38:42
And this is like a simple as it gets.
38:44
This is like low hanging through.
38:45
This is doing push ups.
38:47
Now if you're trying to say, I want to get in great shape.
38:50
I want to look great naked just doing push ups is not going to get you there.
38:54
But it's taking one system and getting you to have a much better rapport with it and building
39:00
flexibility and stamina with it.
39:02
Okay.
39:03
What's the exercise they can do when they're brushing their teeth a different one?
39:06
I said I stretches a few minutes ago, but I think a better one would be what I call
39:12
a VLR.
39:13
So it's a vestibular ocular reflex.
39:15
Don't worry about the name.
39:17
Cover up an eye.
39:18
Look at your eye in the mirror.
39:20
Don't look away from your eye and then you're going to slowly turn your head to the left,
39:26
slowly turn to the right, but holding fixation the whole time.
39:30
And it actually kind of looks a little weird for some people to see their eye steady as
39:35
everything else is moving.
39:37
And you're going to go side to side, you can go up and down.
39:40
The more you do this, you want to add in the diagonals, rotations, same amount of time
39:44
right eye is left eye.
39:45
That for many people can significantly improve motion sensitivity and sometimes even car
39:52
sickness with a few other things as well that, you know, the vast majority of car sickness
39:56
has a visual component that's treatable.
39:59
But something like that, you're brushing your teeth probably not long enough in terms
40:04
of what we're supposed to.
40:05
And you do this for 30 seconds a minute each eye, your teeth are going to be cleaner because
40:09
you're brushing for longer, but also you're developing a much better relationship between
40:14
these the vestibular and visual systems and also the cervical system as you're doing
40:20
it.
40:21
These are very practical, very doable exercises.
40:25
And I love that you're using what you're in front of, right?
40:29
So you're in front of the mirror when you're brushing teeth.
40:31
So boom, that's what we're using.
40:33
Love it.
40:34
Now, these are just kind of like DIY, you know, first steps.
40:40
You have the more robust step, which is your online program.
40:45
Can you talk about that?
40:46
So it's called screen fit.
40:49
And a lot of people think an online program to help with digital eye strain, what the heck
40:53
are you doing here?
40:55
I know there's two different courses.
40:57
Each course has 30 lessons.
40:59
Each lesson is literally a video of me explaining what to do and then it's put your phone down
41:03
or put your tablet down and do the exercise.
41:06
So it talks through the sequence of 30 lessons, ideally it's one lesson a day, four or five
41:13
days a week, so we're talking six to eight weeks per course.
41:17
And it's a program designed to do specific exercises to help support digital eye strain
41:23
and all the symptoms and problems that come with staring at screens for too long, along
41:27
with reducing symptoms and promoting mindful visual habits for extended screen use.
41:33
We've had 100% of people who've gone through it have seen a reduction in symptoms and
41:38
we've had as young as five and as old as 89 go through it successfully.
41:42
And like you said, this is a DIY program, but a much more robust one and it's kind of
41:46
the equivalent of like following an app to do body weight work at home to get in better
41:52
shape.
41:53
If you follow the work, if you do it and if you don't come up with excuses not to do it,
41:57
you're going to get in better shape, your visual system is going to get in better shape.
42:00
But ideally it's going to a gym or in my case going to the eye gym, working with a trainer
42:06
in my case, a doctor, but with all the equipment with all the tech with all the tools we have
42:11
available to just get into better results faster, but not everybody has access to that.
42:16
And so it's a nice way to help the world in a way where really everybody would benefit
42:22
from it, but not everybody needs it.
42:24
And everyone we're going to give you a special deal for this.
42:29
So everyone that uses the code ancestral is going to save $200 off this.
42:35
So you're going to turn what is a nearly $500 item to a below 300, correct?
42:41
Only because it's near the berries and I love your family and absolutely, I mean, we want
42:47
to make this as easy as possible to do it and $200 office is pretty solid, but you got
42:53
to do the work.
42:54
So don't just buy it and let us sit there.
42:56
And that's really key.
42:57
I mean, I think it's really important to think about that with anything is we don't want
43:02
to, we don't want to pay almost too little for something because then we definitely
43:06
won't do it.
43:07
We want to make sure we do it.
43:08
And this is something the whole family can do, correct?
43:11
Absolutely.
43:12
It's lifetime access.
43:13
I'm not supposed to say that, but we're not going to take it away from you.
43:18
If you have a family of 10 people, if that's the case, God bless you, it's hard to handle
43:23
my three, but you know, everyone can do it and it's almost like a way to hold each other
43:28
accountable and I'll go through your vision exercises before dessert.
43:33
So really great option and thank you for that discount for everyone.
43:37
I think that's going to help a lot.
43:39
And then you have kind of a more robust, like truly, like you won the golden ticket, you're
43:44
paying for it, but it's like this is like everything's accelerated, right?
43:48
This is the Ferrari of what you offer because you basically take what is it like a year's
43:55
worth.
43:56
So it's about three to four months of work minimum in a week's time and a week's time.
44:01
Yeah.
44:02
And it's on this for Sasha.
44:03
And this is why we saw such accelerated results for her.
44:08
I think we did three weeks total.
44:11
Open up.
44:12
There were many months in between them because we would do them during her school breaks.
44:17
And we saw, I mean, major results.
44:21
I think with the last time she was there, she was, didn't you say it was like she had
44:25
gone from like zero death perception to, wasn't she at like 70 years, high 60s or something
44:32
like that?
44:33
I think by the end of the week, she was at like 60, 70% accuracy of where it should be
44:37
for her age.
44:38
And that's from it being like nothing respectfully, nonexistent from anyone.
44:43
I mean, most side doctors, most doctors in general would say, that's just not possible.
44:48
You can't retrain depth.
44:50
We now know that's not accurate.
44:52
You can.
44:53
And we've interpreted the research in the correct way now compared to what was there in
44:56
the past.
44:57
But any brain at any age can be taught new tricks.
45:01
And we saw it.
45:02
We witnessed it.
45:03
And it's been miraculous.
45:04
And then you also, even what you gave us was a blueprint that we could then give to
45:10
her teachers, to her school, to her counselors, to support her specific needs in the classroom
45:18
as well, which was incredible tool.
45:21
I don't know if you even are aware of how powerful that tool is and how important it is.
45:25
Thank you for sharing that.
45:26
To be able to level out the playing field and say, here are some accommodations that
45:31
are going to give her the best chance for success.
45:36
And she needs larger print and she needs instructions that are verbally told to her as
45:40
well as written.
45:41
And she needs to be in the front of the class and all the things that just make it so that
45:45
she has the best opportunity to do her best and to not strain and struggle unnecessarily.
45:53
So that's great to hear that that was helpful.
45:54
Really helpful.
45:55
But we'll just share a little bit about what is that accelerated program look like.
46:00
So we call it a kind of a VIP intensive boot camp.
46:04
And it's a week of work.
46:06
We need at least five days, ideally six days.
46:10
A valuation beginning the week, a valuation end of the week to highlight all the wins and
46:13
areas of opportunity for improvement and what we're going to continue on at home.
46:18
And then it's 12 hours of work during the week.
46:21
It's a lot, but it's a lot that is very carefully sequenced in terms of the learning and spread
46:27
out over time.
46:29
And then into the week we put you on a home program for usually about three months with
46:33
every activity kind of tailored to where you were and where we're going with ways to increase
46:39
the level of demand.
46:40
And then we're also now doing customized virtual reality vision training, which is such
46:46
a game changer where we give each patient a VR headset.
46:49
It's yours to keep when you're done.
46:51
And then we're programming in on the back end the work you did here where our doctors
46:54
go in each week and adjust the settings.
46:57
And you know, for your daughter, maybe it's like she's chopping up fruit that's flying
47:01
at her in this virtual world.
47:03
But what she doesn't realize is we have the ocular set so that she's having to converge
47:08
every time it comes close and then diverge as it goes far and kind of adjusting the settings
47:13
where one eyes a little blurrier than the other and then we shifted and so we're really
47:16
just arranging the conditions to raise to her awareness what she's doing.
47:21
So she can learn how to self correct self-monitor, but get the feedback of this is what it looks
47:26
like when my eyes are working together and the only way I can see the fruit popping out
47:30
is if I flip the switch in my brain that now is accessible and automatic for her.
47:35
And it is an investment everyone, I mean, I'm not going to soften that.
47:39
It is an investment, but it's one that we have positively experienced.
47:43
I mean, it changed my daughter's life and in terms of it's also changed our lives.
47:50
Now what is interesting is getting her to do these exercises.
47:54
So what we found at first she was really keen to do them.
47:58
I mean, when I say it first for the like the first few months, very keen to do them.
48:02
We created like a check off sheet for all of us who are all participating in like these
48:08
are the kind of things we have to do on a daily basis and using what you talked about
48:14
earlier, how they have to your kids have to earn their screen time.
48:17
This is how our kids earn their screen time.
48:19
Make your bed is one for Sasha.
48:22
It's her eye exercises for Seattle, you know, movement.
48:26
She's got to she's got to have some kind of exercise for me.
48:29
It's because I'm I'm on a specific plan right now, like a health plan.
48:33
So mine's like counting my macros and like exercising daily.
48:38
I can't remember the third one now, but I'm doing it.
48:41
Tell me why you love her.
48:42
Yeah, point is is that this is how they're earning their screen time if they even get it.
48:49
What I have noticed though is that Sasha, when those eye exercises, there's a few of them
48:54
that are really hard for her and when she gets to those, she tries to avoid it.
48:58
She wants to just do the ones she knows how to do and that are easy, the little hanging
49:04
fruit.
49:05
This is maybe interesting for you.
49:06
I remember when I was in your office, you talked about throwing a ball to her to have
49:12
her catch it with her hand is actually a form of vision therapy.
49:16
And so recently, when we were at that conference, we got those little juggle balls.
49:21
I said, Hey, Sasha, instead of doing the work you're normally used to doing, let's do
49:26
this.
49:27
And she's loving it.
49:28
Just like switching it up, she's like now, real connecting with her vision therapy.
49:33
That's vision therapy for her because she's taking what she's learning and developing
49:36
and applying it to fast moving space.
49:40
And normal child who doesn't have this awareness of vision, that's forming.
49:43
It's more just like I'm just playing catch and still you have to make conscious decisions
49:48
on where I think the ball is and how to prepare my body to respond to where it will be.
49:52
And for her, that's literally the gel that's kind of solidifying what she's doing.
49:57
And so, you know, maybe it's a type of thing that you're alternating hands or you're calling
50:02
out the hand a split second before she has to make that decision or you know, we're doing
50:09
too at the same time.
50:10
And there's so many ways to increase that level demand, but that's awesome.
50:13
And way to way to kind of be flexible and just figure out ways to trick her into doing
50:18
the work.
50:19
That's great.
50:20
It's working the best is, yes, switching it up like that.
50:23
So, so whereas it used to be kind of more, I don't know, visual for lack of a better
50:28
word, now it's both visual and physical.
50:32
She's using her more of her body.
50:34
But then the other is I think she's craving participation.
50:38
So something that's really powerful when they come to your office is they're actually
50:41
with one of your people, right?
50:44
They're actually actively doing it with someone else.
50:47
And so sometimes at home, she's doing it alone.
50:49
And I think she's really wanting more connection.
50:52
And so the way we're solving it is either we're doing the exercise with her because we need
50:58
it too, right?
50:59
So it's not like it's a disadvantage for us or we're doing the throwing the ball back
51:05
and forth, but we're still participating and I'm finding that that's reconnecting her
51:10
a lot to it.
51:11
That's awesome.
51:12
And maybe that even gets her excited about ball sports and wanting to take a chance because
51:18
she's not worried about whether she's going to be successful or not, she's worried about
51:21
more like is this going to be fun?
51:23
Well, an off-share just as we, and you'd mention earlier that how she used to trip a lot
51:29
and she really did.
51:30
I mean, she used to fall in her knees so much and she would get so angry because she
51:34
just didn't understand why she was always falling.
51:37
And now after the work we did with Dr. Bryce, she is on a cross-country and track team.
51:44
She loves it.
51:46
I'm watching her do these things where she has to jump over through hoops, jump over things
51:51
and stay within the lines as she's running and she's doing it all and what's exciting,
51:57
she's doing it all with a smile.
51:59
She's so excited while she's doing it.
52:02
She may not be the fastest, you know, beating everyone, but she is loving it.
52:07
And I guarantee she would not have been able to do this without the work that she did
52:13
with you.
52:14
So thank you so much, Bryce.
52:16
Beyond my pleasure and so grateful to have the opportunity to help her and your family
52:21
and it's just getting started in terms of how much better life is going to be for her.
52:26
So just so amazing that we got to meet and that you recognized the importance of this
52:32
type of work for her.
52:33
So thank you.
52:35
And I got to say I recognize it for her and I recognize it for my own experience as
52:39
well.
52:40
It does make a difference and I will fully admit that I struggle with doing it.
52:46
And I think though that you have created a lot of really great options and I think those
52:51
two exercises you gave us today will are even also really great options.
52:56
And I think though thing that is I'm going to really take away too is that these are things
53:00
that I can do while I'm doing something else like I can connect the habit.
53:04
I'm finding that really does help me adhere to all these habits I'm trying to support
53:10
it within my own life.
53:11
So I encourage everyone if you're going to start some or start at least with these two,
53:15
these two exercises Dr. Bryce shared with us today.
53:18
The glasses are another one that I cannot recommend enough.
53:23
They have changed my oldest daughter's life in a way that I didn't know they were going
53:28
to do that.
53:29
She's a happier kid.
53:31
She's more enthusiastic about school now too.
53:34
That's awesome.
53:35
And then of course the work you do with Sasha as well and Margaret.
53:38
So thank you for doing what you're doing.
53:40
Where can people find you and continue to dive deeper into your mission and your offerings
53:47
for this world?
53:49
So appreciate all the kind words.
53:51
You can find us at my vision first, which is the name of the practice in Maryland right
53:56
outside DC.
53:57
We've got an office in Bethesda and anapolis Maryland screen fit is on there.
54:02
It's also at screenfit.com.
54:04
And then we're all over social, but Instagram is probably the best one.
54:08
And it's just Dr. Bryce Applebaum.
54:10
But my ancestors wanted to make life difficult for us.
54:13
And Applebaum has spelled EL not Ellie like the apple.
54:17
So sometimes that you have to check that can I share a quick story with your audience?
54:22
Yeah, yeah.
54:23
So I'm from Maryland born and raised and now live in Maryland.
54:27
And if anybody has seen the movie Wedding Crashers, there's a really famous line in there
54:33
about football and crab cakes.
54:35
That's what Maryland does.
54:37
So I pride myself on making a ridiculous crab cake.
54:43
And it's gluten free and it's dairy free and there's no filler.
54:47
It's all crab and then a beautiful mix and assortment of spices and sauces and all
54:52
of that.
54:53
I'm not going to try and pretend like I know what I'm doing to the master chef here, but
54:57
I will tell you I recently started adding pluck to it without telling anybody.
55:04
And my father-in-law, who is the pickiest person I've ever met, who I can't even count
55:10
the amount of meals he sent back at restaurants, which is so uncomfortable and not okay for
55:16
so many reasons.
55:19
He was over about two weeks ago and I made the crab cakes, which he's never even agreed
55:25
to try because he says, I don't like crab.
55:28
Put extra pluck in there and he said, this is the best crab cake I've ever had.
55:33
You better make this every time I come into town.
55:35
And honestly, it's the pluck.
55:38
Thank you for that.
55:39
And now I can finally feel like I've crossed that mountain with him and I don't have to
55:44
now prove it to anybody else.
55:46
Now he'll finally let you marry his daughter.
55:49
Right.
55:50
Twenty-some years after first meeting me, that was the best you do to pluck.
55:56
Yes.
55:57
Pluck and happy hand.
55:58
That's awesome.
55:59
Wow.
56:00
Yeah, it's so funny when I created pluck, I did not know that it was going to do that.
56:04
I didn't know that it would make food taste better, but now we've gotten so much feedback
56:10
from people that say like, that's the only thing I did differently and that night my
56:13
family wanted to eat seconds, everyone complimented me on the food.
56:17
So yeah, I joke now like, yeah, if you want to be perceived as a better chef, just use
56:21
pluck.
56:22
There's no spice or combination of spices that comes even close to the boost that this
56:29
gives literally anything you put it on.
56:31
So I know you're always fine tuning it and making it better and searching for excellence.
56:37
You're already there, man.
56:38
It is incredible.
56:41
And I know I feel so much happier knowing that my family is getting the nutrients that
56:46
they would have gotten otherwise and that they deserve by sprinkling some of that into
56:50
everything.
56:51
Which one did you use, by the way, for the crab cakes?
56:54
So I've done several.
56:56
I've done the spicy, I've done the zesty.
56:59
This is the original.
57:00
That's awesome.
57:01
Well, thank you again, brother, for coming on the show.
57:04
You cannot speak highly enough about the work you're doing.
57:08
It's just, it's truly beneficial.
57:11
I have to ask.
57:12
I mean, before we get off, because I'm just so curious, like you mentioned, you know,
57:17
you struggle a lot as a kid and someone who's experiencing this.
57:21
My daughter, and I've noticed this about you as well, is that you approach these kids
57:26
in a way that I'm now realizing it's because you were that kid.
57:30
You're so gentle with them and you're so on their level, and I feel like you really
57:34
understand what they're gone through on a level that maybe someone else who didn't
57:39
experience what you did as a child wouldn't.
57:43
Thank you for sharing that.
57:44
I really feel like the opportunity that I have is massive, and if I'm not changing every
57:51
person I work with life for the better, like one of us is doing something wrong.
57:57
I know the safer of an environment, it feels like to be able to take chances and to share
58:03
what they're experiencing and also to communicate where the areas of opportunity are, just allows
58:11
us to help that much more.
58:13
I think my super power is connecting just in that environment where I really get where
58:19
the struggles are and all the emotions that come with it and also recognizing the other
58:25
side of that is so freaking beautiful, so to be able to help somebody get there, that's
58:29
kind of my purpose.
58:30
Yeah, well, keep living your purpose because you're doing great.
58:34
I appreciate you.
58:35
Thank you again for joining us, and thank you for joining us.
58:39
Vision therapy, y'all, check it out.
58:41
It works, and it's different from what most people are talking about, so please check
58:47
it out before you make any decisions about glasses, about ADHD medication, about any
58:55
pharmaceutical that someone's recommending about your child, like potentially just be open
59:01
that it could be an eye and brain miscommunication that's happening.
59:07
Check out Dr. Bryce Applebaum's work because he's seen amazing results with his vision therapy,
59:15
with these kids that would normally be diagnosed in harsher ways, so thank you again.
59:21
Appreciate you.
59:24
Thank you so much for joining me on everyday ancestral.
59:28
If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one.
59:33
You can find the show notes, links, and resources mentioned at eatpluck.com, that's e-a-t-p-l-u-c-k-dot-com.
59:43
And hey, if you know someone who'd get something out of this, share it with them too.
59:49
Stay curious, live well, and keep it ancestral.