Latest / Come Together with Ephraim Herschmann / Health Series 3: Dr Alison Levitt

Transcript

Health Series 3: Dr Alison Levitt · Come Together with Ephraim Herschmann

• 0:01
  Welcome to another episode of come together
• 0:14
  the phone speaker when we're live doctor live hello there we
• 0:17
  go we're live welcome thank you so much for doing this thanks
• 0:19
  for having me in your beautiful home I appreciate it having.
• 0:23
  You I'm excited so. Tell me a little bit about
• 0:24
  yourself. Tell me who you are, where you
• 0:27
  mentioned that you're from Montreal originally and what do
• 0:30
  you, what do you do? It sounds.
• 0:32
  Yeah, I have a lot in my little tool.
• 0:34
  My little toolbox is quite full. So I'm a medical doctor and I'm
• 0:39
  trained in family medicine. But before I went to Med school,
• 0:44
  I actually went to India. And I think that set the stage
• 0:47
  of my career path because when I went to India, I got exposed to
• 0:53
  meditation and yoga and food is medicine things at the time.
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  I mean, now it's popularized, everybody's talking about it,
• 1:00
  everybody knows about it. But 30 years ago, 35 years ago,
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  it was sort of the unknown. You know, a guru was something
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  weird. And I got exposed to all that.
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  And then I went to medical school.
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  So I had that already implanted in me that, you know, meditation
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  is really important. Lifestyle is really important.
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  What you eat is going to affect how you feel.
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  And it can also be medicinal. So that changed the course of my
• 1:28
  career. I went into family medicine and
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  I did a residency and I was actually looking for an
• 1:33
  opportunity after that to do something innovative.
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  And I ended up being the first MD to work at a functional
• 1:41
  medicine lab. What is that?
• 1:43
  What is? What is the functional medicine?
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  Abdu, would you like a minute? Good.
• 1:46
  OK, yeah. But if you want be there, yeah,
• 1:48
  so functional. Medicine.
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  So functional medicine, which is now, you know, a really big
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  field in medicine at the time it was sort of unknown and really
• 1:57
  it's root cause medicine. So in regular medicine, what I
• 2:01
  learned in all of my training was people came to you sick and
• 2:04
  you treated them and in with a probably a medication is more
• 2:09
  like, most likely the outcome is you're going to be put on a
• 2:12
  medication. Yeah.
• 2:13
  And in functional medicine is like, how did you get here?
• 2:16
  What led to this? What in your lifestyle, in your
• 2:19
  gut, in your microbiome? Yeah, in your environment?
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  Yeah. Led to getting a disease.
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  And can we reverse that? And how do we do that?
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  And that's fascinating. So that's you were the first.
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  And D to work at this company used to be called Great Smokies
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  Diagnostic Labs, and now it's Genova.
• 2:38
  And I was basically going out and educating other physicians
• 2:41
  and chiropractors about this kind of medicine, like why
• 2:45
  essential fatty acids are relevant to your health.
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  And they're not learning that in Med school.
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  So at that time, no, I mean, even today, they're not really
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  learning. So it's kind of ironic.
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  It's great. So so OK, OK, this is an amazing
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  place to start 'cause I'm gonna go back.
• 3:01
  This is a perfectly. I just got started.
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  I love it. I.
• 3:03
  Know I'm so. Excited.
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  No, I haven't even gotten. To so I know, but I I I this is
• 3:09
  considered as a combination of like a class and a personal
• 3:12
  personal bio, right? How'd you get to India?
• 3:15
  What were you doing in India All?
• 3:16
  Right. Well, so I kind of felt a little
• 3:19
  lost in my life. Like internally, yeah, I mean,
• 3:21
  everything was going fine on the outside, but internally I felt
• 3:25
  like something is happening that I'm not aware of.
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  Like I need to, I need to tell you.
• 3:30
  Interested. So I was 19.
• 3:32
  OK, Gotcha. Cool.
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  And I read this book. It was called The Snow Leopard,
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  and I think it was by Matthiessen.
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  And he went to Nepal to look for the snow leopard.
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  And he went trekking in the mountains and Apurna and he
• 3:44
  never found the snow leopard. But he found himself like he
• 3:47
  discovered more about himself. He.
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  You know, and I thought, that's for me.
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  I need to find out who I am, what this is What what is this
• 3:55
  life thing all about? On a really deep level.
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  Yeah. And so I decided to take a year
• 4:00
  off. I'd been to McGill.
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  I did my undergrad. So I had AI was applying into
• 4:05
  Med school. Actually, I was trying to decide
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  do I go to Yeah, Well, I made an in between.
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  There usually is no in between. You know, you just go from
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  school to school to school to school and then you become a
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  doctor or whatever. I needed an in between.
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  And so I took AI took a time off and I said he's going to go to
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  India. Of course, my my parents were
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  just crazed. I mean, there's a with your
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  life. You're wasting your life.
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  Oh man, sure, sure. And, you know, I was 19 and at
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  19, you don't care. You could do anything, right?
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  You're really powerful. It's funny how you're you feel
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  so strong even though you're so you don't know anything, which
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  makes you. But it didn't matter.
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  I didn't know that at the time. I'm like, I'm just going to go
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  to India. Yeah.
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  And before I left, it was really interesting because I kept
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  meeting these people who guided me towards this ashram in India.
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  They I kept meeting these people who are like, yeah, I've been to
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  this place and you got to go there.
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  So in my back pocket I had, you know, a name of somebody that I
• 5:03
  was a place I was going to go in India.
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  So I left. I was going to go for a year.
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  I was going to travel the world. I was going.
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  To was it like, what was it when you got there and you were like,
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  was it a whole, were you just like when you got there?
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  Was it, Oh my God, can I handle this?
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  And this is so exciting. Or like, what was your initial
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  reaction? To that, you know, I had already
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  been to Africa. I went a year before I went to
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  Africa and had like a wild experience there where, you
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  know, I was 17 and thrown into like an adult position where I
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  was actually working in a safari, like just crazy kind of
• 5:31
  stuff. So I had already even.
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  Already the culture. Shocks, Third world country,
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  Yeah. But India is unique.
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  I mean, it is, you know, you land in Delhi at the time it was
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  it was like just hundreds of people on the streets and
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  incense burning and odd smells and people grabbing at you and
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  there's a lot of beggars on the street.
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  It was it was really overwhelming.
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  But I was so excited, yeah. Because I was going to find
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  myself, right? Like, I was going to find out
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  who I was. And, and actually, before I
• 6:00
  left, I applied to medical school, OK, which gave my
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  parents a little sense of peace. Like, hey, at least he's got,
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  you know, some brain cells that are still working.
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  And then I jumped in and went to India.
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  And then I, you know, went to visit where the Dalai Lama
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  lived. And I started learning about
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  meditation and Buddhism. And I'm like, wow, this is
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  really cool. And then I ended up going to the
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  place that everyone told me I needed to go.
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  And I literally showed up there and I saw all these, I mean, I'm
• 6:30
  going to say white people, like Americans walking down the
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  street with these shawls, like these typical Indian shawls.
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  And I thought I must be at the right place, but I couldn't find
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  the ashram because it was hidden.
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  And I was there for three days. I was staying in AI mean I was
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  living on $5 a day. So I was staying in a really
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  nasty place. And I after the third day of bed
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  bugs, I'm like, I'm out of here. I don't know what people are
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  talking about. And I was walking down the
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  street and coming out of the car was this man with a beard.
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  And he was he smelled beautiful. He looked beautiful.
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  And he's like, come with me. And that was the beginning of my
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  stay in this Austria in India. So you're about to leave.
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  I was about to leave. I gave up.
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  I'm like, this is not happening. Yeah.
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  Yeah. And you know.
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  So what do you learn? What do you teach?
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  How to start? Was it formal classes?
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  Was it one-on-one? No, it was so organic.
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  I mean, literally the reason I couldn't find the place is
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  because it there's no signage or anything.
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  It was just a whole bunch of people sitting around
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  meditating, talking about spirituality.
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  And that's how it was every day. There was like two or three
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  meditation sense sessions per day.
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  And then with the, with the guru, they could be anywhere
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  from 20 minutes to like 5 hours it depending on what the guru
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  wanted to do in that moment. And it was completely
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  unpredictable. And I, I really think the reason
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  that happened that way was because to teach us about, you
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  know, life is not predictable. Yeah, it doesn't come in a slot.
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  And when you're meditating, you think, oh, it's supposed to go
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  this way. And one of the things I learned
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  is meditation goes the way it goes.
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  You don't judge it. You know, that's what prevents a
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  lot of people from meditating is they think I can't because my
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  mind is racing. And then what I learned is that,
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  yes, your mind is racing. Everybody's mind is racing.
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  You just sit. You just sit through it and you
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  watch. You just watch.
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  You just. Do you try to shift yourself to
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  the mindset of like, almost like observing your own mind, you
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  know, like? It's exactly what it is.
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  You're basically sitting. There, you're still watching.
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  You're thinking, Yeah. Yeah, well, you're not curious
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  in, in, in this type of meditation.
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  There's no, it's just observing and knowing that the thoughts
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  are like the wave of the ocean. They come and they go.
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  And where are you in all of this?
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  Yeah, you're just, you're the witness.
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  You're just watching. When I started carrying a little
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  notebook around, a tiny little notebook, it's in the car
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  actually. And it's literally just for when
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  these little sparks of thoughts that like I don't want to lose
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  become like flashing forward. Like when they come forward, I'm
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  like, OK, just quickly get that, get that down.
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  And like, yeah. And it's caused me to spend more
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  time aware of my thoughts. And then the more you're aware
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  of them, I feel like the more I've been able to follow them,
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  you know, like, you know, I, I feel like, almost like imagine
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  if it's a movie set, right? And it's all, it's all dark and
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  it's Seattle. So it's all, you know, it's all
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  misty and you see a shape in the back and you're like, you can
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  either. And like you kind of tell the
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  outside of it what it looks like.
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  You like you want to kind of go like see where, what it looks
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  like in the light. And you start like walking with
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  it past and you, and you find, oh, right, that's what it is.
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  So like, I think a lot of people have a lot of thoughts or
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  experiences that they vaguely recognize and they kind of just
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  come and go and we don't give them a lot of attention.
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  But like, if you just follow those thoughts down a little
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  bit, then like they become a lot more clear and then you start to
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  know yourself more, you know yourself a little better.
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  It sounds like you're talking a little bit about intuition too.
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  OK. Right.
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  Like you, you have, you know, there's, there's a fine line
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  between intuition, like you're feeling something and that, I
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  mean, thoughts are coming and going all the time.
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  Yeah. And some are positive, some are
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  negative, Right. You know.
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  And so I think that the idea of meditation is to understand, you
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  know, I am not those thoughts. Oh, you're not.
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  No. OK.
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  I'm just the witness of those thoughts.
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  Incident. What are you?
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  Well, your space, you're like you're, you're connecting to the
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  energy of your being rather than the thoughts.
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  And So what happens is, for example, if you're a kind of
• 10:46
  person who has a lot of negativity in their life, it's
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  very powerful because you realize, wait, I don't have to
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  identify with every single thought that comes into my head.
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  That is not truth. That is not fact.
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  They're just thoughts. Oh, interesting, gotcha.
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  We think we're our thoughts, but we're not.
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  We identify with every single thought and it makes us crazy
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  because it's just come. It's the incoming is constant.
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  So for not everybody is like this.
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  Not everybody has a wild crazy mind, but they call it the
• 11:18
  monkey mind because it's always working.
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  It's trying to attach, it's trying to do.
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  It's like all these thoughts coming in, if you paid attention
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  to all these thoughts, you would be running your back and forth
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  circles. But if you took a step back and
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  said, wait, I'm not these thoughts, who am I?
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  And that's the point of meditation.
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  Like who are you really? So are you your experiences are
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  you your actions? Are you your relationships?
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  Are you your? According to Yeah, yeah, yeah,
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  yeah, I'm in my life, Yeah, yeah, no, you're none of that.
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  So what then? What are so you're?
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  You're trying to attack, you're trying to recognize that beam of
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  light, that essence that came into, you know, some people
• 11:59
  would call it your soul. Yeah, right.
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  This ethereal essence, if you are not the body.
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  So they would describe it like you're this, you're this
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  essence, you're this light. And then you land in this body
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  and you become Ephron, you become Allison.
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  And the minute you do that, you become identified as that.
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  And then your whole life you build on that identity.
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  But for some people, that doesn't lead them into a very
• 12:29
  positive place or it just you're not finding that sense of peace
• 12:34
  that you want in your life because if you're always seeking
• 12:41
  from the outside, if you're seeking your happiness from the
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  outside, from your spots, Yeah. Good luck.
• 12:47
  Yeah. Right.
• 12:48
  I guess your thoughts are you're processing what's going on
• 12:51
  around you as opposed to coming from within?
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  Listen, if you know who you are, like there are certain people
• 12:56
  that you meet and they're just standing, they're standing in
• 13:00
  their essence, like they, they know who they are.
• 13:04
  They don't need a degree. They don't need to be told that
• 13:06
  they're that they're doing wonderful things that, that,
• 13:09
  that they're amazing. They just know.
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  Yes. And it's not from an ego
• 13:13
  standpoint. They just know they have a
• 13:15
  confidence, they have a sense of peace, a sense of calm, right?
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  I think most people are looking for a sense of calm, a sense of
• 13:21
  peace in their life. And this meditation was a way to
• 13:24
  find that. So eloquently and I think we
• 13:27
  need I think so many people look at that.
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  Oh, I've so many and you know, it's fun.
• 13:31
  I think people I think you had when you were younger and I
• 13:34
  think as you like learn to, I think as you learn like the
• 13:39
  dance that is relationships in the world and like life and
• 13:42
  teachers and like, you know, boyfriends, girlfriends,
• 13:44
  everything. Like you have to adjust to so
• 13:48
  many external forces that you kind of lose track of yourself.
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  And I think a lot of people and then it becomes either scary to
• 13:55
  try to like be alone to, to realize that you don't know who
• 13:58
  you are. And that's what scares a lot of
• 13:59
  people. And then there's the experience
• 14:02
  of if I find out, if I find out who I am and I can't be myself
• 14:07
  homeless, like, you know, I would say hypothetically for
• 14:10
  myself and not hypothetically, but you know, for example, with
• 14:13
  myself, I don't, I don't feel like I'm a salesman.
• 14:16
  I'm not a salesman. It's not like my essence, you
• 14:18
  know, my essence, I said to all I'm thinking about is like a
• 14:21
  sharer is like someone that like relationships and sharing like
• 14:24
  that's, that's I never feel more, I never feel more
• 14:32
  authentic and like I'm fulfilling my potential and my
• 14:37
  purpose than when I'm doing those type of things.
• 14:40
  And then it rejuvenates me and it enhances every aspect of my
• 14:44
  life, you know, and actually brings everything else that I do
• 14:46
  makes it better and more fun and more meaningful and more deep
• 14:49
  and a more pleasant to be around when I'm engaging those kind of
• 14:51
  activities. And when I, if I don't do a
• 14:53
  podcast or I don't do any writing or I don't do anything
• 14:55
  for a week or two or a month, I become like a shell of myself.
• 14:59
  I feel it. And I actually get down and I
• 15:01
  start to recognize that downness in me.
• 15:03
  And I'm like, oh, I need that. I need a fresh dose of writing.
• 15:06
  I need a fresh dose of an open mic to play some guitar.
• 15:08
  I need to do a podcast or two. And I do it, you know, And so,
• 15:12
  but it took, it took me 27, 2020, 627 years to figure that
• 15:16
  out. I'm still figuring it out so
• 15:18
  good. I'm so happy that it.
• 15:22
  I could be wrong, maybe I maybe I'm not getting it, you know, I
• 15:25
  feel it. I feel it.
• 15:26
  If you feel it, you're, you're getting it, you know, 100%.
• 15:30
  It's all about how you feel in your life on a daily basis.
• 15:33
  I mean, that's exactly what I do in, in medicine too.
• 15:37
  It's about making people feel look beautiful and feel good
• 15:41
  from the inside out, you know? But there's a lot of elements
• 15:46
  that go into play. And for you, it's doing stuff
• 15:49
  right that's really important for you.
• 15:52
  For other people, it's managing, you know, their diet or their
• 15:55
  lifestyle or their relationships.
• 15:58
  Everyone has different elements of their life that contribute to
• 16:02
  how they feel and their health right there.
• 16:04
  It's all related, really 100% related.
• 16:08
  But if you can feel good despite whatever's happening on the
• 16:12
  outside, that is a miraculous feeling.
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  And that's not an easy place to get to.
• 16:18
  And I'm not talking about physical health.
• 16:20
  That comes. I mean, just knowing who you are
• 16:22
  and feeling good within yourself, whether you're doing a
• 16:24
  podcast or whether you're married or single, have kids,
• 16:27
  none of that. If you can just feel good and
• 16:30
  know who you are and feel calm and at peace and move through
• 16:33
  life and be giving, like you said, helping people and being
• 16:38
  like the Buddhist, that's a beautiful thing.
• 16:41
  If you're, if you're there at 27, three days, two years. 2929
• 16:45
  yeah, it took me. I started a couple years ago.
• 16:46
  Did you? So when you came, I want to, I
• 16:50
  want to talk about that for a little bit, But when you came
• 16:52
  back, did medical school feel like a cold, like totally
• 16:55
  different universe than like where you came from?
• 16:59
  It's funny because in fact, I think I was, you know, it felt
• 17:02
  pretty culty in India, but at the time I didn't feel like, no,
• 17:06
  you know, it helped me get through Med school.
• 17:07
  I don't think I would have gone through Med school without about
• 17:10
  meditation. I really feel like it helped me.
• 17:12
  Really. Yeah.
• 17:13
  First of all, it helps you focus.
• 17:15
  Like it helped me study. It helped me be like 1 pointed
• 17:18
  in my in my intention. Like I knew, okay, I'm going to
• 17:21
  get through this, I'm going to do this.
• 17:22
  But it gave me a mode of concentration that I don't know
• 17:26
  I necessarily would have had without meditation.
• 17:27
  I was meditating every day and also I wasn't, you know, at the
• 17:32
  time you could be working 100 a 120 hours a week.
• 17:35
  And so if I could get a 5 minute meditation break, it gave me
• 17:37
  energy like it allowed me. So I was really grateful for
• 17:41
  that. And I also had a bigger purpose
• 17:44
  in life and that, you know, when you have a purpose in life, it
• 17:47
  changes everything. Right, right.
• 17:49
  Gives you energy. Just knowing, OK, I'm here to do
• 17:52
  this. That really helps.
• 17:54
  Yeah. That's interesting too, because
• 17:55
  I have a friend. I have a very good friend of
• 17:57
  mine that's actually in Med school now and he's a relatively
• 18:00
  uncommon case, I believe, I don't know, but from my, from
• 18:04
  the people, from the friends that I know in the world that
• 18:06
  I'm from, he's, he's in, he's, he started Med school when he
• 18:10
  was married with two kids and, and you know, and then I have my
• 18:16
  single friends that are in Med school and for some reason he
• 18:19
  seems better at managing his time and making his way from Med
• 18:21
  school. I'm like, how do you do that?
• 18:23
  And he's like, well, I'm not going to let my wife and kids go
• 18:25
  ignore it for 10 years, you know, while I'm trying to get,
• 18:27
  you know, I'm going to medical and residency.
• 18:29
  Like so like I almost have to make it work.
• 18:31
  But I guess it's almost similar to what you're saying.
• 18:33
  Like when you have that thing that's grounding you and you
• 18:35
  have like that purpose that, you know, like this is what I'm in
• 18:38
  school for and this what I'm trying to accomplish.
• 18:40
  This is the purpose of it. Then then you you learn to
• 18:43
  balance everything and not let that slip aside I guess, right?
• 18:45
  Oh, it's a it's a huge driving force, especially, you know,
• 18:48
  family. Yeah, you need to support your
• 18:50
  family. You want.
• 18:51
  If you want to maintain that, Yeah, you have to be 1 pointed.
• 18:54
  Yeah, yeah, so interesting. So that really helped you in Med
• 18:57
  school. I think and residency, I kept
• 19:00
  going back and forth to India as well.
• 19:02
  Oh, really? Yeah.
• 19:03
  It was really pivotal in guiding me.
• 19:05
  And then I kept learning when I was in India, I kept learning
• 19:08
  about nutrition and Ayurvedic medicine.
• 19:11
  And I realized, wow, like, here I am in medical school learning
• 19:14
  about this kind of medicine, and then there's other kind of
• 19:16
  medicines. Like was it formal learning or
• 19:19
  how did you learn about that in India?
• 19:20
  There were, Yeah, well, not, no, it was not formal.
• 19:23
  There were Ayurvedic physicians that I worked with when I was
• 19:27
  there. And of course, you know,
• 19:29
  learning meditation and yoga was all part of what I did every
• 19:34
  day. And that really changed the
• 19:37
  course of my career because I realized, wow, there's so much
• 19:41
  more here than just dispensing medication.
• 19:44
  And I want to be part of that. Yeah, get you out of that box.
• 19:47
  Yeah, it was for sure. Yeah, it was.
• 19:49
  It was innovative at the time and it I didn't know how it
• 19:53
  would manifest, but I just loved it.
• 19:56
  And I loved, you know, thinking that our ancestors have been
• 19:59
  doing this for so many years, even though there's no clinical
• 20:02
  trial on this, there's got to be something behind this, right?
• 20:06
  Like why are they doing this? And, you know, Med school is all
• 20:10
  which is it's warranted. Everything you learn has had a
• 20:13
  clinical trial study. It's FDA approved.
• 20:15
  And then here I was exposed to a whole other world of tradition.
• 20:19
  Yeah. That, you know, my grandmother
• 20:22
  did it and they did it and it and it worked.
• 20:24
  And so I'm going to do it too. And I my goal was to men meld
• 20:28
  The Chew and practice medicine that.
• 20:31
  Way so amazing, so unique it's so cool.
• 20:34
  I I, I feel yeah the more I the more I hear about about, you
• 20:38
  know stories like yours and stories like this I feel like we
• 20:41
  should have for medicine at least like these international
• 20:46
  programs where like, you know we exchange of them great you know
• 20:49
  what we know and like you at least just for a little bit of
• 20:52
  exposure you know and if a student chooses you know says
• 20:54
  it's not my it's not my speed, but like it's good to know that
• 20:56
  it exists and it's out there then great.
• 20:58
  And if some, if it really speaks to you, then that you could
• 21:01
  really implement that into your life and we could have more of
• 21:03
  that, you know. That would be a great idea.
• 21:05
  I mean, my schools, there's so much you have to learn.
• 21:07
  Like I, in retrospect, I mean, for many, many years I thought,
• 21:11
  I mean, I loved what I learned and I appreciated it and I
• 21:15
  condemned it. Like, well, we didn't learn
• 21:17
  nutrition, we didn't learn this, we didn't learn that.
• 21:19
  And I realized there's a lot to pack in.
• 21:22
  Learning the human body is a tremendous task, you know, and
• 21:26
  you've got four years to learn it in school and then, you know,
• 21:29
  X amount of years in residency. I almost wish that part of the
• 21:34
  Med school curriculum included a more like a more unique
• 21:39
  perspective because a lot of what I learned in Med school is
• 21:42
  foundational. And yet I feel like I don't know
• 21:45
  if I ever used that ever on my, you know, And I think couldn't
• 21:49
  we learn a little bit more like nutrition and food is medicine,
• 21:53
  And you're, like you said, be exposed to how other cultures
• 21:57
  dealt with different diseases and ailments.
• 22:00
  That would have been fascinating.
• 22:02
  Yeah. I would have loved.
• 22:04
  Especially especially if they're as rich of history and tradition
• 22:07
  as something like India, you know, like, I mean, America's
• 22:11
  young, you know, like, yeah, like it's a little arrogant of
• 22:13
  us to say, oh, we've been here for 300 years, you got it all
• 22:15
  worked out. We're not going to talk to
• 22:16
  anyone else, you know, like. Medicine is just a few years
• 22:19
  behind. I will say like even to like, I
• 22:22
  remember I was going out and talking to physicians about
• 22:25
  taking fish oils and this was you.
• 22:26
  Know somebody else mentioned me yesterday, actually.
• 22:29
  Fish oils. Yeah, something he recommends
• 22:31
  for everyone's. Day and you know, the
• 22:33
  cardiologist would laugh me off the stage.
• 22:36
  This is when I was working for that functional medicine company
• 22:39
  and it was really hard because I really believed in it.
• 22:42
  There were studies that showed, you know, not a lot, but there
• 22:45
  was some scant studies that showed it could be beneficial to
• 22:47
  lower inflammation. And they just laughed.
• 22:51
  In the meantime, 25 years later, they are prescribing it.
• 22:54
  So medicine does catch up. It takes time, Yeah.
• 22:57
  And it needs people to say it though.
• 22:59
  It needs, it needs a so nice to be done these to be pushed.
• 23:02
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's happening like the
• 23:04
  world right now of medicine is exploding with this, these other
• 23:08
  types. What are you excited about?
• 23:09
  Tell me what you're all excited about now, because I know
• 23:12
  there's so much to be excited about.
• 23:15
  You know, it's so amazing because now this whole world of
• 23:19
  longevity medicine. Exploding.
• 23:21
  It's so great. It's so great, you know, and
• 23:23
  the, the funny part is like, if you look at the basis of
• 23:27
  longevity medicine, a lot of it is sleep, lifestyle, exposure to
• 23:32
  time stands like, so it's, it's, these are basic elements that
• 23:37
  most functional medicine doctors or alternative physicians or
• 23:41
  naturopaths have been talking about for years.
• 23:43
  Oh, that microbiome all of a sudden is important.
• 23:48
  So I love how it seems to all be coming together now with the
• 23:52
  inclusion of like technology. It's going to be groundbreaking.
• 23:56
  I mean, I feel like things are going to dramatically change and
• 24:00
  it's going to, it's going to happen really fast because of AI
• 24:03
  technology. So I think the and you know,
• 24:06
  medicine is going to be medicine.
• 24:07
  I mean, the way I see it is medicine, like allopathic
• 24:10
  medicine that I trained in is always going to exist.
• 24:13
  It's necessary, but it's for the masses.
• 24:18
  Healing. Healing somebody is individual,
• 24:21
  like it's personalized. It's very different than healing
• 24:26
  the masses. And I appreciate the need for
• 24:28
  that. But then if you want longevity,
• 24:31
  if you want real health, you're going to get really personalized
• 24:34
  medicine. And that's the only way to know
• 24:37
  what you need as an individual to be healthy.
• 24:40
  We should have, you should have the option to be a doctor of
• 24:43
  medicine or a doctor of health. And that way, you know, you can
• 24:48
  have a specialist that specializes in particular
• 24:50
  Medicare. Because I feel like medicine,
• 24:52
  like the more that you people talk about it and the more that
• 24:55
  we think about it and the more that we notice its application
• 24:57
  and it's used, it's responsive, you know, like it's just like
• 25:01
  medicine is like no one pre prescribes you, you know,
• 25:04
  steroids in case, you know, you have inflammation.
• 25:06
  They you wait for somebody to get inflammation, you come in
• 25:08
  and you do it. But you can pre prescribe
• 25:10
  someone sunlight. You could pre prescribe someone
• 25:14
  a healthy diet. You could pre prescribe someone.
• 25:16
  Hey, you know what? Yeah, I noticed, you know, I
• 25:18
  mean, I'm trying to tell my dad now, my grandpa, you know, or
• 25:23
  maybe you can tell me if you know, a lot of the recent
• 25:25
  research in terms of Alzheimer's being some kind of, I've heard
• 25:30
  it being described as type 3 diabetes.
• 25:31
  A Yeah. And do you want to explain kind
• 25:34
  of how that works a little bit? OK, sure.
• 25:36
  If you don't mind, if you're familiar.
• 25:37
  With it for meditation for brain disorders, yeah.
• 25:40
  Yes, because my, my so, my grandfather was always afraid of
• 25:43
  it. He goes, it runs in our family,
• 25:45
  but my grandfather was never healthy until probably his late
• 25:48
  50s, early 60s when he had a heart problem.
• 25:52
  He had a double bypass surgery and then he started working out
• 25:56
  after that. But now, you know, within a
• 25:58
  couple of years, his memory is kind of gone.
• 26:01
  And my dad does not really exercise.
• 26:04
  He moves around, He doesn't really exercise and he doesn't
• 26:07
  like do a line, doesn't take care.
• 26:09
  He doesn't take care to eat healthy things.
• 26:10
  And I'm like, Pop, you got six kids, you got 6 grand for kids.
• 26:14
  You're 55, you have the entire world.
• 26:16
  Why would you not be preparing yourself for when you're his age
• 26:19
  that you get to appreciate all of that, you know, get to live
• 26:21
  like that. So what do you, what do you?
• 26:23
  So do you want to explain to me with some what we're learning
• 26:26
  recently? So I just want to just take a
• 26:29
  step back for a second. And then, you know, in medicine,
• 26:32
  ultimately what happens is, you know, you go and you see a brain
• 26:36
  doctor or you go and you see a heart doctor or you go and you
• 26:39
  see an endocrinologist. Yeah, it's very well.
• 26:42
  It's very like in a different boxes for different organs, but
• 26:48
  you know, we're all connected, like everything is connected.
• 26:50
  So if you have diabetes or if you have a metabolic disorder,
• 26:56
  meaning if you have trouble like insulin resistance or elevated
• 27:00
  glucose or elevated hemoglobin A1C, high lipids, it's not just
• 27:05
  about your heart, it's not just about diabetes, but it affects
• 27:09
  everything it affects, You know, we have 60,000 miles of vessels
• 27:13
  in our body, 60. 1000 miles miles of different kinds of
• 27:17
  vessels. OK.
• 27:18
  OK. So you can imagine there's a lot
• 27:21
  of maintenance that has to go on to keep those vessels flowing
• 27:26
  really well. We know that every single organ
• 27:29
  needs oxygen, right? The brain needs oxygen, the
• 27:32
  heart needs oxygen. And you?
• 27:34
  Know breathing so important. It's like what it's.
• 27:36
  Like breathing is so important. I mean, it's it's why.
• 27:39
  Breathing. Is so important.
• 27:40
  Essential and then, you know, thinking of the things that
• 27:43
  could damage these arteries and but the point is it's a highway
• 27:48
  of connections, right. So what affects one thing
• 27:51
  affects the other thing. If you have diabetes, it's not
• 27:54
  just a problem with insulin and glucose.
• 27:57
  It affects the vessels, like the micro vessels.
• 28:00
  And you know what is the number one nutrition, nutritional
• 28:05
  component that the brain needs? It's oxygen.
• 28:08
  Like 20% of the body's oxygen goes to the brain.
• 28:11
  If you can't get oxygen to the brain, it's going to suffer,
• 28:15
  right? If you have inflammation in your
• 28:18
  brain because you have insulin resistance or elevated sugars,
• 28:21
  it's going to create inflammation in the brain and
• 28:24
  that when the brain tries to repair itself, right, it's going
• 28:27
  to damage itself in that process.
• 28:30
  Because it's inflamed. Because it's inflamed.
• 28:32
  OK. And inflammation comes from how
• 28:35
  does what does inflammation occur as a result?
• 28:37
  Well. I mean inflammation can come
• 28:39
  from many different sources. OK diet is one of the most
• 28:43
  common initiating factors is not having a healthy diet.
• 28:47
  So I'm eating hamburgers every day, right.
• 28:49
  I'm eating hamburgers every day, three meals a day or pizza and
• 28:52
  hamburgers every day, Right. So I look like I'm a balloon,
• 28:56
  right. Like.
• 28:57
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 28:58
  Like a swell. You could see like swelling.
• 29:00
  Oh, I don't actually. Let's say hypothetically I were
• 29:02
  too. Yeah.
• 29:03
  And like you can kind of almost like see when people look a
• 29:05
  little swollen from like processed food that they're that
• 29:08
  they're eating or breads primarily, I guess, but.
• 29:12
  So again like so. How does that?
• 29:13
  How does that convert to inflammation?
• 29:15
  Well, if you think about it, so first there's a gut issue,
• 29:20
  right? Like let's start from the
• 29:22
  beginning. So you're putting a processed
• 29:24
  foods and there's hundreds of chemicals in that food that
• 29:28
  alone, you know, that hamburger from wherever you're getting it
• 29:32
  from, unless you're getting it, you know, it's 100%.
• 29:34
  Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we're assuming.
• 29:36
  Not we're going. We're going to eat at a fast
• 29:38
  food place. Yeah.
• 29:38
  That thing is filled with chemicals.
• 29:41
  Yeah. OK.
• 29:41
  That's your starting point. It hasn't even gotten into your
• 29:43
  mouth. And you just imagine you've got
• 29:45
  this hamburger filled with chemicals.
• 29:46
  Now you're going to bite into it and you're going to put that in
• 29:48
  your gut. Yeah.
• 29:50
  And that all these chemicals, some of them are going to be
• 29:52
  absorbed. Yeah.
• 29:53
  And they're going to start creating.
• 29:56
  They have to be filtered out through the liver and the
• 29:58
  kidney. So they're going to hit your
• 29:59
  bloodstream, OK. These are chemicals that are
• 30:02
  hazardous to your health. We don't even know what these
• 30:05
  chemicals do. Actually, a lot of chemicals
• 30:08
  that are in our food are even they're banned in Europe and we
• 30:10
  still put them in our food. Well, hopefully I'll be
• 30:13
  changing. Yeah, hopefully I'll be
• 30:14
  changing. But so now you've got you're
• 30:16
  eating these chemicals, it's going to affect your microbiome.
• 30:19
  Yeah, which really has a huge impact if you don't have a
• 30:23
  healthy GI system. Yeah, that's going to be a first
• 30:26
  point where inflammation can start, OK.
• 30:29
  And then now you have these chemicals floating through your
• 30:31
  body. That's another point.
• 30:32
  We don't know what those chemicals are with.
• 30:33
  By the way, I was scared the heck out of me.
• 30:36
  Someone asked me the difference recently between a chemical and
• 30:38
  a drug. I was like, I don't know.
• 30:41
  They're like a drug. A drug is intended for human use
• 30:45
  and a chemical is not. Well, I mean, that's, well, it's
• 30:48
  almost like the word organic, you know, What does organic
• 30:51
  mean? Like in the food industry, it
• 30:53
  has it. It means like the animal or, you
• 30:56
  know, the produce has no pesticides or chemicals.
• 30:59
  Yeah. But there's a lot of organic,
• 31:02
  I'm quoting chemicals, right, that are used in chemistry labs.
• 31:08
  And so it's really it's kind of like what yours.
• 31:10
  What so it says organic on it doesn't?
• 31:12
  No, no, no, I'm not saying that, OK.
• 31:13
  No, no. Like hopefully the foods that we
• 31:15
  buy that are organic are organic.
• 31:18
  Organic, right? You know, hopefully that means
• 31:21
  something that would be awful if it didn't.
• 31:23
  I mean, there are people who speculate that it may not all
• 31:26
  the time, but you know, we can only do our best, like.
• 31:28
  We could only do our best. We're, we're on this planet,
• 31:31
  there's a tremendous amount of chemicals.
• 31:32
  There's plastics everywhere. We're finding microparticles in
• 31:36
  the brain by the way, you know, so your productive.
• 31:39
  Organs all over the. Place it's affecting all your
• 31:42
  hormones, it's affecting your gut, it's affecting people's
• 31:45
  longevity for the most part. And then you, you know, you add
• 31:49
  on things like like. My plastic water bottle.
• 31:52
  You never drink out of plastic water bottle.
• 31:55
  I know, I know. One of my biggest clips.
• 31:58
  Yeah, I'm sorry. You know, I'm I pick up plastic
• 32:01
  all day long on the beach. Like I'm out there with a bag
• 32:03
  and I'm picking up plastic and I'm thinking why that this is
• 32:06
  devastating. It's devastating to your body
• 32:09
  and and it. Yeah, because they can't pass up
• 32:13
  the four for the 40. The 40 pack of water bottles in
• 32:16
  Costco for $4.00 Pass it up. Pass.
• 32:19
  It up, get a water filter, get a get a canister, fill it up with
• 32:23
  water could. A cooler be better or no because
• 32:25
  it cools with one giant plastic container as opposed to like a
• 32:27
  bunch of little bottles. It has plastic.
• 32:31
  It's no. Good.
• 32:33
  OK, unless you're putting your metal container into a plastic
• 32:37
  cooler. I got.
• 32:38
  You, I would and you know, you've got kids like you.
• 32:42
  So what I tell my patients is, you know, we may not have
• 32:46
  control of what's going on out there, but you have control of
• 32:48
  what's going on in your life and what you put in your body.
• 32:51
  You certainly have a little bit of control of that, right?
• 32:55
  So you got it. At least initiate, like, say,
• 32:58
  OK, in my house, I'm not going to use any chemicals, OK.
• 33:02
  I'm going to, you know, my cleaning products are going to
• 33:04
  be healthy. My I'm not going to drink.
• 33:06
  I'm going to get rid of all my plastic, all my plastic
• 33:08
  containers. I'm just going to use glass.
• 33:10
  Easy. Costco has glassware, you know.
• 33:13
  Yeah, I'm going to get a nice water filter system.
• 33:16
  And I'm going to fill up my bottles before I leave my house.
• 33:19
  Like simple things that you can do to change the course of your
• 33:22
  family's health. You mean you have a baby?
• 33:24
  Yeah, OK. Right, like even the.
• 33:28
  It feels better hearing that from you than my wife.
• 33:30
  I. Love her, she.
• 33:33
  Was like, I want, she was like, you know, she goes, I don't want
• 33:35
  to pressure you. I know that, you know, there's a
• 33:37
  lot of bills in life. She's like, I'd really, really
• 33:40
  like like a water filter. You know how much money you
• 33:43
  calculate. I would love to know how much
• 33:45
  money you spend a year on on water.
• 33:47
  Bottles, I can tell you right now, probably I'd probably spend
• 33:50
  15, probably spend $12.00 a week on water bottles.
• 33:55
  OK, so I probably finished that 340 packs a week, so it's 120
• 33:58
  water bottles. Yeah.
• 33:59
  I don't want to think about the amount of plastic that is.
• 34:03
  Let's not even talk about plastic.
• 34:04
  Let's talk. About water, yeah, yeah, so.
• 34:06
  Don't care about plastic, they care about money. 12/24/12 but
• 34:09
  not really today it's about $36 a month time so I'm spending
• 34:15
  100. I'm spending 120 bucks a year
• 34:17
  100. Dollars.
• 34:17
  Now that's you. You're one person.
• 34:19
  How many people are, you know, let's say your wife doesn't do
• 34:22
  that. Yeah.
• 34:23
  OK. So and then now you have the
• 34:26
  years. OK.
• 34:27
  So how many years are you going to, you know you're going to do
• 34:29
  it for the next 20 years you've done?
• 34:31
  It. Yeah, I've done it.
• 34:32
  I've done it forever. Yeah, OK.
• 34:33
  And now you're going to do it for the next 20.
• 34:35
  So now we're up to a lot of. OK.
• 34:38
  Yeah. So and what's the water filter?
• 34:40
  What's the water filter cost typically?
• 34:42
  Couple thousand to us, Yeah. Couple grand, I mean, you can
• 34:45
  get a whole house water filtration system that's pretty
• 34:48
  decent, you know, for way less than what?
• 34:52
  And OK, so now we're going to add in the chemical, the the
• 34:55
  toxic component. So you didn't just save money,
• 34:59
  but now you're saving your cells from a disastrous ending.
• 35:04
  We don't even know what that ending is actually, because
• 35:06
  these chemicals, this, the idea that we were exposed to these
• 35:10
  PFAS, these long term organic chemicals that sit in your cells
• 35:13
  for years and years, we are. You know what the consequence is
• 35:17
  not. Really.
• 35:18
  But we do know that, like, cancer is rising, heart disease
• 35:21
  is rising, yeah. Yeah, but we know rising.
• 35:23
  We know that whatever we've been doing is not right.
• 35:25
  That's what we. Know, I keep saying to people
• 35:27
  like, OK, when I went to Med school, the number one leading
• 35:29
  cause of death was cardiovascular disease.
• 35:32
  You know, then it was cancer. Still, we have cardiologists up
• 35:37
  the wazoo. We have medications, we have all
• 35:40
  these things in play. And what's still the number one
• 35:42
  leading cause of death? Cardiovascular disease
• 35:44
  worldwide, 18 million people. And it's like nothing has
• 35:47
  changed in a way in so many years.
• 35:50
  Yeah. So we're not.
• 35:52
  What other direction can we look in to change those statistics?
• 35:56
  Because I don't want to become a statistic.
• 35:58
  No, you want to be a bit statistic.
• 35:59
  You want. To be a bit and you're young,
• 36:03
  like you're in a great, you're in a great position because
• 36:06
  there's so much new, there's so much information.
• 36:08
  Like, I know I'm always, always. I'm so excited.
• 36:11
  It's it's such an exciting time. Really so exciting you know you
• 36:15
  have so many tools available to you stay healthy I'm.
• 36:18
  Not like more people aren't getting, you know, I think a lot
• 36:21
  of people are excited, but like hearing all this stuff is just
• 36:24
  hopeful. Like to me, like it's something
• 36:27
  that like people don't want to hear.
• 36:29
  I imagine we've had, like, bad news travels really fast.
• 36:34
  And like, when you have an opportunity for good news and
• 36:36
  they give an opportunity for something exciting to hear,
• 36:38
  like, Oh my God, we're making great research.
• 36:40
  All you got to do is just spend some time outside to go for a
• 36:42
  walk with your friends for 20 minutes, you know.
• 36:44
  Yeah, a couple of times. You know, a couple of times a
• 36:45
  week, like just do that. Like your life will already be
• 36:48
  better. Like you're getting community,
• 36:49
  you're getting exercise, you're getting out there, you're
• 36:51
  getting sunlight. Like I used to get these
• 36:53
  headaches from sitting just at my desk all day.
• 36:55
  And then, you know, and I, I spend probably 2-3 hours a day
• 36:58
  outside now, maybe more. You know, I love it.
• 37:01
  And it just, even if I'm in front of my screen the whole
• 37:03
  time, just the sunlight in general, just being outside
• 37:07
  really, really effects my stamina when it comes to work in
• 37:10
  a positive way, effects how I'm able to concentrate.
• 37:14
  It stops those headaches from happening and I am able to just
• 37:16
  like just keep on going. It's just we're meant to do
• 37:19
  that, you know? You know, yeah, that's where
• 37:21
  that those, our ancestors, you know, they were actually forced
• 37:24
  to do it. I'm not sure they were happy
• 37:26
  about it. You know, getting up early in
• 37:27
  the morning and watching the sunrise.
• 37:29
  They were out working, right? A lot of our farmers are out
• 37:32
  there working. So, you know, looking at the sun
• 37:35
  early in the morning, going out at noon.
• 37:37
  So it registers, OK, it's noon, your body can actually register
• 37:40
  that. Then going out again when the
• 37:42
  sun's going down. OK, now you know, we're going to
• 37:44
  start, you know, calming the body down, secreting hormones
• 37:48
  that are. So it's going to be 3 Jewish
• 37:50
  prayers around the same time too.
• 37:52
  It's early morning as soon as the sun comes up, noon and at
• 37:56
  night after as the sun's going down.
• 37:58
  Imagine if you prayed outside. Yeah, a lot of people do.
• 38:01
  I know I do sometimes. I do sometimes, but I never even
• 38:05
  associated that with that. But that could be part of the
• 38:07
  value of a routine schedule where every day it's a
• 38:10
  combination of meditation and actual, I mean, like, you know,
• 38:15
  different points. You're sure to get outside
• 38:18
  between the point of waking up and getting to synagogue or
• 38:20
  praying. Wherever you're praying or
• 38:21
  whatever you're doing, you're sure to be outside.
• 38:22
  And your circadian rhythm will be, I guess, consistent.
• 38:27
  Oh, I mean, you can definitely reset your circuit.
• 38:29
  Like we have so many issues this in our lives right now with
• 38:33
  stress and sleep affecting our health that, you know, if you,
• 38:37
  if your circadian rhythm is off, if you're not secreting the
• 38:39
  right hormones, like you need more cortisol, when you need the
• 38:43
  cortisol, when you need that energy and less at night when
• 38:46
  you're going to bed, you want that melatonin to kick in.
• 38:49
  But you know, it's fascinating because we like, I'm thinking
• 38:52
  about you saying you go and you pray three times a day, like
• 38:55
  you're committed. Yeah, something in, yeah, there
• 38:58
  was a trigger, a switch went off and said this is what I'm going
• 39:00
  to do. Like I believe in this, right?
• 39:03
  Yeah, I don't did it like it may have.
• 39:06
  No, it came from the value of I have a tendency to be lazy.
• 39:10
  I think a lot of people do, and laziness is my least favorite
• 39:13
  trait in the world. Because it takes every other
• 39:15
  good trait that you have and throws into the garbage.
• 39:17
  Because doesn't make a difference how smart you are.
• 39:19
  Doesn't make a difference how? Talking to the art doesn't make
• 39:21
  a difference how naturally fit you are.
• 39:23
  It doesn't make any of that, none of that makes a difference
• 39:25
  because if you're lazy, you're lazy, you're not going to do it.
• 39:27
  So I part, I started implementing that as a way to
• 39:32
  fight my laziness. And then I mean, you know,
• 39:35
  obviously there is the religious value, the spiritual, emotional,
• 39:38
  religious value to it as well. But one of the real reasons I
• 39:42
  really started working hard is because I did not want like its
• 39:46
  regiment in the face of laziness.
• 39:47
  And then hopefully, and once I'm already getting myself out of
• 39:51
  the out of the just sitting around zone, then that affects
• 39:55
  everything else I do, you know, and my wife asked me to do
• 39:57
  something. I'm much quicker to get up and
• 39:59
  jump up and show her that I care to do it.
• 40:01
  If my kid is crying, you know, my kid calls me or falls down, I
• 40:04
  pop up. I'm like, oh, it's not like, you
• 40:06
  know, go, you know, do your own thing.
• 40:07
  I'm on the couch. I don't want to get up right
• 40:09
  now. And hopefully it creates that
• 40:10
  kind of environment, but it affects everything in a positive
• 40:13
  way, so. It's kind of like that's your
• 40:15
  form of meditation. I guess so.
• 40:17
  Meditation actually comes from Yeah, I want to work on
• 40:21
  meditation. I don't really know quite where
• 40:23
  that is, but yes, we're gonna, we're gonna circle.
• 40:26
  Back yes, you can. You can meditate while you pray.
• 40:29
  Like meditation doesn't necessarily mean sitting in
• 40:31
  cross legged. It can mean a lot of different
• 40:33
  things. You could be sort of active in
• 40:34
  your meditation. The Buddhists do a lot of
• 40:36
  walking meditation. But Oh yeah, I love that you can
• 40:39
  pair. Like if you were my patient, I
• 40:41
  would say, OK, if I you, you go three times a day, you pray.
• 40:47
  Why don't you attach that to going outside?
• 40:51
  So now you're praying and you're looking up at the sky, you know,
• 40:55
  morning, noon and evening. So now you're, you're also
• 40:58
  resetting your circadian rhythm at the same time that you're
• 41:01
  doing something that you're 100% committed to.
• 41:03
  So you know you're going to do it.
• 41:04
  And that's how you create a new habit, right?
• 41:06
  Like and then now we have 2 lifestyle things that are
• 41:11
  dramatically going to impact your health because praying is
• 41:14
  really calming. I'm sure like unless you're
• 41:16
  rushing to get there but. Well yeah, it depends on the
• 41:18
  day. I try to make it calming.
• 41:20
  Yeah. So if you can, I mean, if you're
• 41:23
  rushing through a prayer and you're not feeling it, you know,
• 41:26
  I think it's important to like feel what you're saying or
• 41:29
  praying for. Yeah, I it's a, it's a struggle
• 41:32
  every single time. Is it?
• 41:34
  It is it is because you're plopping yourself out of goes go
• 41:40
  mode. And by the way, meditation would
• 41:43
  probably help with my prayer being more present because I'm
• 41:46
  going I'm I'm shifting without any transition.
• 41:49
  I'm shifting gears without putting my foot, without putting
• 41:52
  my foot on the clutch. And so I so it's very easy if I
• 41:57
  do it the wrong way to stall out, you know?
• 42:01
  Here's the thing. So maybe what you can do.
• 42:04
  So just give me a synopsis. Where are you praying?
• 42:07
  In a synagogue. OK, so you have to go to.
• 42:09
  Yeah, so I drive 15 minutes to the synagogue, 1015 minutes.
• 42:11
  Is that stressful? No, it's very pleasant.
• 42:13
  OK, so while you're in the car driving, if it's pleasant, why
• 42:17
  don't you start taking some deep breaths?
• 42:19
  Yeah, that's what I got to do. You know, you got to take some
• 42:21
  deep breaths. You know, I'm breathing in, I'm
• 42:24
  breathing out. You can, you can say something
• 42:27
  if it calms you down or just focus on your breath while
• 42:29
  you're driving. And that'll immediately get you
• 42:32
  into the present moment so that when you get to the synagogue,
• 42:34
  you don't feel rushed or afraid. And the transition to prayer is
• 42:38
  a natural one because you've already been meditating,
• 42:41
  correct? And focusing on your breath for
• 42:43
  15 minutes. I'll be shifting from 1st to 2nd
• 42:45
  to 3rd to 4th gear. And this way you're not
• 42:48
  shifting, you get in the car and it's not easy like you to to
• 42:50
  focus on your breath for those 15 minutes.
• 42:53
  Try it. It's not an easy fast.
• 42:55
  I do 5 minutes at a time. Typically when I'm overwhelmed,
• 42:58
  I'll do in and out. I'll breathe in for five
• 43:00
  seconds, out for five seconds, for 5 minutes.
• 43:02
  And I'll just, sometimes I'll just focus on where, sorry, just
• 43:08
  like the time like 123-451-2345. And sometimes, you know, like
• 43:14
  that voice of 12345, the counting voice kind of starts to
• 43:18
  slip off to the side and then other, other things start coming
• 43:21
  in. Like what?
• 43:22
  Thoughts. Yeah, the.
• 43:24
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And but it's, again, it's like a
• 43:27
  current being pulled back, you know, very, very slowly.
• 43:29
  And it's a little scary, honestly, to see what's going to
• 43:33
  come because like, you're like, oh, this is like, I don't know,
• 43:35
  I've never been here before. You know, I went to, I went to a
• 43:40
  Grateful Dead cover band in Port Chester and there's something
• 43:45
  about this particular band. They're awesome.
• 43:47
  They're called Dark Star Orchestra.
• 43:48
  And I may have taken an edible beforehand.
• 43:52
  And I'm sitting there and there are lights and use the music and
• 43:56
  I'm a little high and I and it's, you know, this would be
• 44:00
  and like the music was just magnificent.
• 44:03
  And I was like, and the lights, the way they were playing into
• 44:05
  the lights of the concert was matching the tone of the music.
• 44:09
  And I was like, I'm going to try to do some breath work now while
• 44:11
  I'm here. And, like, I almost kind of like
• 44:13
  slipped into like some kind of like, like psychedelic state.
• 44:18
  Yeah. You know, that I was like, whoa,
• 44:20
  like, I'm not ready to, like, go quite there yet.
• 44:22
  And I kind of, like, stopped to pull myself out of it.
• 44:24
  But I'd be curious to see what happens if, like, you kind of
• 44:26
  follow those, follow those paths all the way down.
• 44:28
  It's just a little scary to. There's nothing.
• 44:31
  I mean, actually, those places are magnificent.
• 44:34
  I mean, it's hard to do if you're on a if you're high, then
• 44:37
  you don't know where you're going to land.
• 44:39
  But if you're not, that's a different, that's a different
• 44:43
  thing. And it is kind of scary to let
• 44:46
  yourself go. But those are good places to go.
• 44:49
  I. Know, I know, I know.
• 44:51
  It's. I've never had an experience
• 44:53
  where I was scared to do it and I regretted doing what I was
• 44:55
  scared about. Oh yeah?
• 44:57
  Well, you know. Yeah, but plenty of times I
• 44:59
  haven't done something I'm scared about, and I've regretted
• 45:01
  it, Right, You know? So full story.
• 45:04
  Are you ready for this? Yeah, I've been keeping track of
• 45:06
  the whole conversation. So you have plastics,
• 45:08
  microplastics that are in your gut because you're eating this
• 45:10
  cheeseburger and you got inflammation.
• 45:14
  And so now you're getting inflammation.
• 45:15
  Well, now let's say, for example, a lot of people are
• 45:17
  sensitive to wheat. They have gluten sensitivities,
• 45:20
  not necessary allergies. It's not like you're going to go
• 45:23
  into an anaphylaxis where you need an EpiPen, but sensitivity
• 45:27
  to wheat. So now you've got wheat going
• 45:29
  into your system, you've got these toxins.
• 45:32
  Chemicals that are in these burgers.
• 45:34
  So, but you know, right there, yeah, we haven't even really
• 45:36
  gotten into the body and we're filled with the potential for
• 45:40
  inflammation. So that's.
• 45:42
  So that means that inflamed just means upset.
• 45:45
  It means hurt, damage. What does inflammation mean?
• 45:48
  Inflammation in the traditional sense means like you cut
• 45:51
  yourself. If you cut yourself, your body's
• 45:53
  way of healing is it creates an inflammatory response and then
• 45:57
  cells get into that area that actually heal.
• 46:00
  OK. You know, everyone, people talk
• 46:02
  about inflammation like a fire, you know, and you're putting the
• 46:05
  fire out. OK, But then there are little
• 46:08
  fires happening in your body all the time because of this chronic
• 46:12
  inflammation that are stirring things up that are creating
• 46:16
  damage there to the cells, to your the lining of your vessels,
• 46:21
  creating a potential for a plaque or to your organs,
• 46:24
  creating inflammation in in particular organs and, or you
• 46:28
  know, if you have. Because there's all these little
• 46:30
  fires popping up around your body.
• 46:31
  Correct. And so that's where chronic
• 46:34
  inflammation. And what and.
• 46:35
  And if there's too many fires, your cells can't keep up to put
• 46:38
  them out. So it's activating your immune
• 46:41
  system, right? So your immune system is no
• 46:43
  longer reacting to a virus or bacteria, but it's chronically
• 46:48
  being activated and it's creating damage.
• 46:50
  It's actually creating oxidative stress and it's creating damage.
• 46:55
  And that that ages people. Right.
• 46:59
  It creates the IT creates. It's a setup for Alzheimer's.
• 47:02
  It's a setup for a cardiovascular event because the
• 47:06
  lining of the artery can get inflamed and the plaque could
• 47:08
  break off. So it causes damage in many
• 47:11
  areas. Connections in our body, it's
• 47:15
  almost like the the streets are getting damaged for our like, is
• 47:20
  that, is that like a good metaphor?
• 47:21
  Like if like the like, yeah, like you're chipping away at the
• 47:23
  road and then it becomes bumpy to drive down and you're like,
• 47:26
  OK, I'm not going to take this road.
• 47:27
  Rd. But you know, if you don't take
• 47:28
  that road then the connections in your brain aren't going to be
• 47:30
  as stable or secure. I mean pretty much if you think,
• 47:34
  I mean, I like to use the example of fire because it
• 47:36
  actually makes a lot of sense. So you can have an acute
• 47:39
  inflammation where something happens, you cut yourself, your
• 47:42
  body sends things in there and it puts the hose and takes the
• 47:46
  fire up. But if you have this chronic
• 47:49
  inflammation from so many different things and even stress
• 47:52
  can impede your immune system. So it's not working as well to
• 47:57
  put out these fires like these cascade of events that are
• 48:01
  happening are not. It's not as simple as it's like
• 48:06
  that whole element we're talking about.
• 48:07
  Everything is connected. So if you're eating wheat, for
• 48:11
  example, and you're sensitive to wheat, and now that wheat enters
• 48:14
  into your stomach, it should just be processed in a normal
• 48:17
  person and then your GI tract would work.
• 48:20
  It would that wheat protein would never be seen by your
• 48:23
  blood. It would never cause an antibody
• 48:25
  to be formed. It would never cause a reaction.
• 48:28
  But now we have these chemicals disrupting the lining of the
• 48:31
  guts, and now the lining of the gut can potentially leak things
• 48:35
  that shouldn't be leaked into the bloodstream.
• 48:37
  And now the bloodstream is seeing.
• 48:39
  So you're weakening your butt, your your your, your gut, and
• 48:42
  then think and things that your gut supposed to naturally
• 48:44
  protect and prevent from getting into your bloodstream are able
• 48:47
  to get through. Yeah.
• 48:48
  So your body and your body sees them is foreign.
• 48:51
  Right. And I bet a lot of it is
• 48:52
  foreign. I bet like the stuff that's if
• 48:54
  you I mean I've heard. Some of it is.
• 48:56
  Some of it's not like an allergy to, you know, we shouldn't be
• 48:59
  allergic to our environment in theory.
• 49:01
  Why are we allergic to grass? Yeah, I mean, but we are because
• 49:05
  people's immune systems are different, right?
• 49:08
  But there's some I, we're just talking about 1 area where you
• 49:12
  can get a potential inflammation because you brought up the
• 49:16
  hamburger, right? But it sets off a cascade of
• 49:21
  many events. If you're only eating this and
• 49:23
  it's, and it's filled with chemicals and it's filled with
• 49:26
  something that your body is sensitive to.
• 49:29
  Now your body is more inflamed, whether it's your brain or your
• 49:32
  heart. And now you're set up for
• 49:33
  chronic disease. And that's, you know, in the
• 49:37
  world of longevity medicine, it's like you try to figure out,
• 49:40
  OK, first of all, what's causing that inflammation?
• 49:44
  How do I bring that person back into balance?
• 49:47
  And there's so many elements that you need to look at,
• 49:49
  whether it's, you know, the stress in their life, what
• 49:51
  they're putting in their bodies. Do they have problems with the
• 49:55
  lining of their gut? Are they over inflamed?
• 49:57
  Is their immune system overreactive?
• 50:00
  Are they creating fires all over their body, which is basically
• 50:04
  like your car is rusting, right? So if you have a car, I used to
• 50:10
  use this metaphor all the time when I was giving lectures, like
• 50:12
  everyone takes their car in religiously, right to be
• 50:16
  serviced. People don't do that for
• 50:18
  themselves, unfortunately, until a lot of people, I shouldn't say
• 50:22
  everybody. Some people are very proactive
• 50:24
  with their health, but most people don't react until
• 50:28
  something has happened and then they get active.
• 50:31
  Sure. And then it's a very slippery
• 50:33
  slope, by the way, because then once you start realizing one
• 50:35
  thing, then you start realizing, Oh my God, it's all like you
• 50:39
  said, because it's all connected it.
• 50:41
  But I feel like that actually scares some people off because
• 50:43
  that causes it requires massive overhaul.
• 50:46
  Well, it requires a massive overhaul if you already have a
• 50:49
  disease and not not always, but so that's why in the that's why
• 50:54
  it's good to get Someone Like You in.
• 50:55
  So if we can get people taking care of themselves, learning
• 50:59
  about this when you're younger, how do I prevent this?
• 51:02
  How amazing would that be if you knew what you were genetically
• 51:06
  predisposed to, if you knew, you know, that, you know, drinking
• 51:10
  water out of plastic was bad and you stopped doing if you learned
• 51:14
  that, OK, if I take, if I do this, if I look at the sun in
• 51:17
  the morning and at noon and at night, I'm going to reset my
• 51:19
  circadian rhythm. If I start meditating, I'm going
• 51:22
  to calm my nervous system down so I'm not always in the fight
• 51:24
  or flight mode. I'm going to, you know, take
• 51:27
  toxic chemicals out of my house. There's so many interventions
• 51:31
  that we can do before you get sick that would help.
• 51:35
  You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, I think, I think it
• 51:39
  could be wrong. I think Peter Attia calls in
• 51:41
  Medicine 3.0 like the whole idea of like it's not just treating,
• 51:45
  it's like everything leading up to that to make sure it doesn't
• 51:47
  happen. But then when it if it does
• 51:49
  happen, we have the ability to handle it.
• 51:51
  But don't wait for that to be the case.
• 51:53
  Yeah. I mean, once you're in that,
• 51:55
  once you have a disease, it's much harder to reverse and
• 51:58
  prevent. You know it's a it's.
• 52:00
  Yeah, yeah. So that's what I find.
• 52:01
  So that's so go back to my dad. That's why.
• 52:03
  That's why I'm trying to get him now to do these kind of things.
• 52:05
  I'm like, you don't want that. You don't want to start fighting
• 52:08
  this, It's too late. You want to do this in advance.
• 52:11
  You never have to know about. It yeah, and you know, a lot of
• 52:14
  people, they don't want to change their lives.
• 52:16
  They're really comfortable in not doing what they should be
• 52:20
  doing. You know, it's really hard to
• 52:22
  change habits so that's why some people need a shock.
• 52:25
  They need to. Oh, you, now you go and you get
• 52:27
  blood work and Oh my God, my cholesterol is.
• 52:30
  The shock, what it could do to people is crazy.
• 52:33
  It can change people. You get diagnosed with something
• 52:36
  and that's going to motivate you.
• 52:38
  But the question is, how do you get motivated before that
• 52:41
  happens? Right?
• 52:42
  Like for some people, it's family.
• 52:44
  Yeah, well, I've got a kid who's 2 and you know how?
• 52:48
  Many weeks old, one week OK legit.
• 52:51
  Yeah, I mean, I'm going to be there when my kids, you know,
• 52:54
  get married and have. Grandkids.
• 52:55
  That's my good friends just now. By the way, he lost like I think
• 52:58
  like 115 lbs in like a year because he went to his doctor.
• 53:03
  His doctor was like, if you want, he had his four kids under
• 53:06
  6. I think at that point he had two
• 53:09
  and his wife was expecting right sick.
• 53:10
  If you want to go to your kids wedding this you got to cut the
• 53:13
  shit out. And he and he and he started
• 53:16
  exercising and he started he he got a good amount of sunlight,
• 53:19
  but he started exercising and being healthy.
• 53:22
  Like he just, you know, like, I think emotion, I think like
• 53:25
  eating people become like people turn eating into activity, you
• 53:28
  know, not into, not into something that's just required.
• 53:32
  Like it's not like putting in gas in your car.
• 53:34
  It's like how can we get the purple bubble gum flavored gas?
• 53:40
  You know, like you try to dig into more fun experience.
• 53:42
  Yeah, and you don't want to take that away from somebody.
• 53:45
  So like I try to always find a compromise for people because
• 53:48
  you don't want to take away their pleasures or all of their
• 53:51
  pleasures. And at the same time, you know,
• 53:54
  you want to let them know if you continue doing the if you
• 53:57
  continue behaving this way, you're a setup for.
• 54:00
  And then and then what? Then you're in the medical
• 54:04
  system. God, don't.
• 54:06
  If you can avoid being in the medical system, you know, if you
• 54:09
  can avoid medications and it's, it saves you so much time, so
• 54:17
  much money. That's I think the cause of
• 54:19
  people. The lead cause of bankruptcy
• 54:21
  among individual families or family people being broke in
• 54:23
  America is medical pills. Yeah, that's.
• 54:25
  Really. Medical expenses, It's terrible.
• 54:27
  It's really, that's really terrible.
• 54:29
  I just like there's so many things that we can do.
• 54:31
  And The thing is that people, it's really hard to tell
• 54:34
  somebody that if you exercise, you're going to feel good.
• 54:36
  Especially if you have an exercise and the first time you
• 54:39
  do it, it's really hard and you don't feel good.
• 54:41
  The next day, you hurt and whatever.
• 54:43
  But at some point, that switch goes off and it starts feeling
• 54:46
  good. Yeah.
• 54:47
  And you have to get that. It's really hard to get the
• 54:49
  person to that point. But if you can, like, with your
• 54:52
  dad, like, do it with him or like, just sometimes you just
• 54:56
  got to force yourself. I tell people, hire a trainer if
• 55:00
  you can afford it. Or go to a gym, commit, you
• 55:03
  know, pay for something. And usually people are get
• 55:06
  committed when they pay for a gym membership.
• 55:08
  I'm going to go and start small. Yeah.
• 55:11
  You know, it's, it can be overwhelming taking care of your
• 55:14
  health and this body. And then, you know, you've got
• 55:17
  your your home and your kids and it's a lot.
• 55:21
  Yeah. It's a lot to take in.
• 55:22
  So small steps. Yeah.
• 55:24
  Start small. Yeah.
• 55:25
  You know, And then little by little it grows like, like an
• 55:29
  investment. It's snowballs.
• 55:30
  Yeah, it's snowballs. I don't recognize my house now
• 55:33
  from two years ago. I don't recognize the food in
• 55:36
  it. I don't recognize the cleaning
• 55:37
  material that we use. Oh.
• 55:38
  You like she saved everything. Oh yeah, me too.
• 55:42
  I do. I like to shop.
• 55:44
  Actually shopping for me is like therapeutic.
• 55:45
  Even when I was in college and I'd be like stressed out over
• 55:48
  anything, I'd be like, can't go to my mates, I'm running to the
• 55:50
  supermarket. Like I'd run out and just walk
• 55:53
  me down the aisles, you know. And so I do a lot of shopping
• 55:55
  now and I'm looking and today actually, I was just going back
• 55:58
  from Trader Joe's this morning. I'm looking at my card.
• 56:01
  I'm like, when did I turn into this person?
• 56:03
  You know, like when did I turn into the guy that, you know,
• 56:06
  was, you know, the in college, all I'm putting in my cart was
• 56:09
  beer and like hot dogs. And now I'm putting in like, you
• 56:12
  know, cottage cheese and like kidwa pasta for like my wife.
• 56:15
  And like, what is this? Like this is the this is a trip.
• 56:19
  This is weird, you know, but yeah.
• 56:22
  But I think, I think that the point is that I think it's scary
• 56:25
  for a lot of people to start, but I think it does snowball.
• 56:27
  I think people do find to have an easier time with it
• 56:29
  eventually. And I think we do, you know,
• 56:31
  it's so funny because we, we're, we're, you know, we commit to
• 56:33
  going to work every day, but we can't like it's hard for us to
• 56:37
  commit to doing exercise. I know that work brings money.
• 56:41
  And I'm not saying that that should be ignored, but it's
• 56:44
  interesting what we choose to commit to like 100% of our time.
• 56:48
  And so it's really important to understand, especially when
• 56:53
  you're young and it's easy to think, I'm so resilient.
• 56:55
  Nothing ever going to happen to me because you feel good.
• 56:58
  So like, why do you have to change anything but even small
• 57:01
  changes and then setting up those habits, Like my mom, I
• 57:05
  remember she started, my mom is 89 and she's in amazing shape.
• 57:10
  Amazing. Ridiculous, really.
• 57:12
  Yeah. She's so happy.
• 57:13
  She just stay in healthy shape for a long time.
• 57:15
  She walks every day, like twice a day.
• 57:18
  She's committed to that. She just eats.
• 57:21
  She's not even that interested in organic, but she's very
• 57:23
  wholesome. She cooks all her food.
• 57:25
  She doesn't eat out a lot. My grandfather's the same way.
• 57:27
  And he was so healthy, right? Like simple.
• 57:30
  He he, he, yeah, he ended up he had, he was 91.
• 57:33
  He got a stroke, unfortunately, and he wasn't, he wasn't the
• 57:35
  same after that. But till he was 91, living
• 57:38
  alone, yeah, You know, walk 3-4, two between two and five miles a
• 57:42
  day, you know, into, into his 90s cooked by himself, you know,
• 57:48
  granted simple food, you know, you get you go to the farmer's
• 57:50
  market, you get some, you get some eggs, you get some meat,
• 57:53
  you get some yogurt, you get some whatever.
• 57:55
  And. Where was he?
• 57:57
  In New Jersey, Fairlawn, New Jersey, yeah, yeah, yeah, You
• 58:00
  just stop at local Fairlawn and we just.
• 58:03
  And and. And he and he was sharp as a
• 58:07
  tack and he was smart and he was healthy and he took care of the
• 58:10
  home and he cleaned every day and.
• 58:12
  And he and like people would meet him be like, you look
• 58:16
  better than my 6 year old dad. You, you know, you look better
• 58:19
  than my 65 year old uncle. Like it's crazy, you know?
• 58:22
  I I know that like my mom, she's you're so.
• 58:25
  You, you, you came up. You grew up in a healthy family.
• 58:28
  I really, I actually really did. My mom is from Europe and so and
• 58:32
  she grew up on a Hungary. Yes, so and she grew up like
• 58:36
  part of her, she also went through the Holocaust.
• 58:38
  So she, but she grew up on a farm and so she's very back to
• 58:42
  the earth, organic in living, like she believed, like when we
• 58:45
  were sick, she'd put us in a stroller.
• 58:47
  You got to get fresh air. You got to get fresh air, you
• 58:49
  know, like you got. It so it's really so I'm going
• 58:52
  to like grandfather. Such a European attitude.
• 58:55
  But it's she's stoic. I mean, she's and she loves to
• 58:58
  clean, I think because she likes movement.
• 59:00
  She knows that, you know, we don't, we don't do a lot of
• 59:03
  these things. You know, we are eating packaged
• 59:06
  foods. We're not cleaning.
• 59:07
  We're not. Cleaning.
• 59:08
  Cleaning is such a simple thing and it feels so good.
• 59:11
  I. Know I mean I hate to say it, I
• 59:12
  I loved having someone clean my house, but the same time now I
• 59:16
  when I clean I put weights on. Doesn't need to be deep clean by
• 59:19
  the way, like, you know, like I couldn't like my wife like maybe
• 59:23
  once every couple of months we'll hire just like someone to
• 59:26
  do a clean like a deep clean. Yeah, but I do just wipe down
• 59:29
  counters vacuum fault laundry and like he just like again just
• 59:33
  to move it. You feel great.
• 59:35
  You feel a lot. You feel like you're like.
• 59:37
  Right, but try, I mean try to convince people that cleaning
• 59:40
  is. I think you.
• 59:41
  Could. Yeah, I think you got to, you
• 59:43
  know, you got to get the right people to do it.
• 59:44
  I think I know you do. You got to get people that
• 59:47
  people look up to. And it's like, because I think
• 59:50
  it's all associations, right? It's all like people like
• 59:52
  associate wiping down counters and vacuuming with like a grumpy
• 59:57
  old woman in ATV in a, in a movie or Cinderella or something
• 1:00:00
  like that, you know? You know what I like about
• 1:00:02
  cleaning it? There's a beginning, there's a
• 1:00:04
  middle, and there's an end. Not I'm not talking about
• 1:00:06
  cleaning out your closets. I'm like the floor.
• 1:00:08
  Like if I take on the task of a floor, it's so pleasurable to
• 1:00:12
  like, you know, literally have an ending.
• 1:00:15
  Like a lot of life doesn't have an ending.
• 1:00:17
  And that's what makes it stressful is you don't know
• 1:00:19
  where it's falling. It's such a great, it's such, I
• 1:00:21
  never noticed it, but you're correct.
• 1:00:23
  Because when you're done and you look around and it's like you
• 1:00:26
  feel like you're in a different. Room you did it you clean the
• 1:00:28
  floor I mean a basic task and then I told you I started
• 1:00:31
  wearing weights when I clean and bands on my legs because I my.
• 1:00:35
  Mom does that. And I'm like, this is, this is
• 1:00:38
  great. Like I'm sweating, I'm
• 1:00:39
  exercising now. My cleaning has like many
• 1:00:43
  purposes. Yeah, Yeah.
• 1:00:44
  I actually really, I look forward to it because I know I'm
• 1:00:47
  getting a lot, but I, you know, I understand people are busy
• 1:00:50
  and. I don't know.
• 1:00:52
  I think it's good for you. I think that.
• 1:00:53
  I don't think it's a bad thing to say that.
• 1:00:56
  I think it's part of the. I think responsibility and
• 1:01:00
  meaning and happiness all go hand in hand.
• 1:01:03
  And I think that choosing to take on even simple things adds
• 1:01:09
  to your sense of responsibility, which adds to your sense of
• 1:01:12
  meaning and happiness, which ultimately helps you know, And
• 1:01:15
  it might be a little thing and you're like, OK, poo poo.
• 1:01:17
  But like, you do it. You feel like a better human
• 1:01:19
  being. You know, you know, it's also
• 1:01:21
  like we've gotten away from that organic type of living because
• 1:01:24
  we, a lot of us do, you know, we work so much.
• 1:01:28
  We're in offices, we're in closed spaces.
• 1:01:31
  Some people are really isolated, very different than what our
• 1:01:35
  ancestors did, you know? And I think, like my, I always
• 1:01:39
  think, how do I get back to the basics?
• 1:01:40
  Like, really like finding pleasure in the smallest of
• 1:01:43
  things because if you don't look for them, you don't find them.
• 1:01:46
  Yeah. And then your life, you know,
• 1:01:49
  you have to think what, you know, everyone's saying, what
• 1:01:51
  are you grateful for? Like some people have nothing on
• 1:01:53
  their list, so you got to find the littlest of things, right?
• 1:01:57
  Like to start, you have to start somewhere.
• 1:01:59
  Like whether it's your diet or your gratitude journal or your
• 1:02:02
  meditation or your prayer like or your breathing like just
• 1:02:06
  start. And The thing is you're never
• 1:02:08
  going to be ready. You cannot wait until you're
• 1:02:11
  ready, because if you wait till you're ready, I'm.
• 1:02:13
  So happy it's coming from you and not me.
• 1:02:15
  But that's how. I agree with.
• 1:02:18
  You, I mean, these are your thoughts, I have to say every
• 1:02:20
  day like you have to know, get up and just do it because you're
• 1:02:24
  not going to be ready to start that project ever because you're
• 1:02:28
  I'm, I'm I, I would say I'm kind of type A, you have to be kind
• 1:02:33
  of to get through Med school. And so unless it's perfect, I
• 1:02:35
  don't proceed. And so I'm trying to retrain my
• 1:02:38
  brain. Actually, I'm doing I'm learning
• 1:02:40
  a lot about neuroplasticity, which is amazing.
• 1:02:43
  I love it because up until now I've been in that, you know, in
• 1:02:46
  my personal life, working on my spirituality and I put that in
• 1:02:50
  quotation marks. And now I'm, I'm also using my
• 1:02:55
  neuroplastic brain to help me. So it's not just about
• 1:03:00
  spirituality. It's like I want to change those
• 1:03:02
  pathways that, you know, I've been doing this for a long time
• 1:03:04
  and I don't like this habit. So how do I change?
• 1:03:07
  It yeah. So what do you so so I what are
• 1:03:09
  some things that you do to do that?
• 1:03:12
  So. So first of all, you.
• 1:03:15
  What is actually first, define neuroplasticity in case sorry
• 1:03:18
  just yeah, because I'm familiar with it.
• 1:03:20
  I want to make sure that. Well, so the brain has the
• 1:03:23
  ability to constantly create new neural pathways.
• 1:03:26
  So like who you are today, if you don't like a certain element
• 1:03:30
  of how you think or how you are, you can actually change that.
• 1:03:33
  And I actually remind all my patients, like, just remember
• 1:03:36
  the body wants to heal. Like whatever it's doing,
• 1:03:39
  whether it's inflammation or, or even other things that chronic
• 1:03:44
  diseases, a lot of it, your body really doesn't want to be sick.
• 1:03:48
  Your body is moving towards healing.
• 1:03:50
  Your brain is not just this organ that's sitting there and
• 1:03:54
  it's not changing. It's changing all the time.
• 1:03:57
  So you have the ability to change the way you, you think in
• 1:04:02
  your daily life. If you've been doing, if you've
• 1:04:04
  been taking the same path to work every single day, that path
• 1:04:07
  is ingrained, right? And it gets deeper and deeper
• 1:04:10
  and deeper. Imagine that.
• 1:04:12
  And then over time you could put planks because it's so deep,
• 1:04:16
  it's muddy. You put planks and you make it
• 1:04:17
  even more solid, right? And that's where, you know,
• 1:04:22
  chemicals start to get secreted in your brain.
• 1:04:25
  And that path is really well defined.
• 1:04:27
  OK, I want to go on a different path.
• 1:04:30
  So now how do you do that? How do I create new neural
• 1:04:34
  pathway? So I want to change.
• 1:04:36
  So first of all you have to try something different, you have to
• 1:04:40
  think differently and you have to try something different.
• 1:04:42
  So when I say like, you don't. Do a big thing or could be a
• 1:04:44
  little. No, really small.
• 1:04:46
  They can watch for example. So let's say saves.
• 1:04:49
  Me let's. Afternoon, let's say.
• 1:04:50
  Wait, let's think about, you know, let's say you you think
• 1:04:54
  poorly about yourself, for example, OK, I'm not good
• 1:04:56
  enough. I'm not good enough.
• 1:04:58
  OK, you were born, your parents would say you're not good
• 1:05:00
  enough. You grew up thinking I'm not
• 1:05:02
  good enough. Now that pathway is pretty set
• 1:05:04
  in the brain. So everything that hits you in
• 1:05:06
  life says I'm not good enough. I can't do this, right.
• 1:05:09
  OK, so now I want to change that.
• 1:05:12
  So there have been studies that show that the first thing, one
• 1:05:16
  of the first things that you can do is like, you can cheer
• 1:05:19
  yourself on like a coach and say, no, you can do this.
• 1:05:23
  I started doing it when I jog. Do you I?
• 1:05:25
  Did it when I jog Yeah, that's even more, especially when I was
• 1:05:27
  my parents if you. Have movement and a thought
• 1:05:29
  that's even more powerful and creating neuroplastics like
• 1:05:32
  changes in your brain. One of the, when I, I, I used
• 1:05:34
  to, I grew up in upstate New York in Rockland County and, and
• 1:05:40
  it's very hilly there. And I, you know, I started, I
• 1:05:42
  started jogging just after college and, and I was, you
• 1:05:46
  know, I'd take on these huge hills and then I would say to
• 1:05:50
  myself while I'm doing it, like you have you got this?
• 1:05:53
  You got, I'd say it out loud. I'd hear it over my music on my
• 1:05:55
  headphones while I'm driving up. Like you got this.
• 1:05:57
  The only thing stopping you is you.
• 1:05:59
  The only thing stopping you is you.
• 1:06:00
  You got this, you got this, you got this.
• 1:06:02
  And I would get, I'd even feel like a little pick me up.
• 1:06:05
  Like I feel like my almost like my legs are like almost like a
• 1:06:07
  little like pick up and didn't magically change my performance,
• 1:06:12
  you know, 100%. But it takes time.
• 1:06:14
  Yeah, but it definitely, Yeah, overtime for sure, for sure, for
• 1:06:17
  sure. And even saying the like, what
• 1:06:19
  did you say the only? The only thing stopping me is
• 1:06:21
  me. Right.
• 1:06:22
  So even that has a little negative connotation.
• 1:06:25
  So if you made that more positive, like, listen, you,
• 1:06:29
  you've done this before in your life, you've overcome other
• 1:06:33
  situations, like think about something that you've overcome,
• 1:06:35
  then you go, you can do this. I did that just now, actually
• 1:06:39
  with my I had a fall on panic attack before my son was born.
• 1:06:43
  I wasn't ready to be a dad. Yeah.
• 1:06:45
  I don't know what I don't know. I'm ready.
• 1:06:46
  I don't know what it means to you already.
• 1:06:47
  I don't know. Oh, my God.
• 1:06:48
  And like, I'm afraid, you know, the doctor goes, OK, it's time.
• 1:06:51
  I'm like, I'm not ready to like, we're not asking you like.
• 1:06:53
  And then this time I was about to, you know, I felt that a
• 1:06:55
  similar sensation. And I said to myself, what are
• 1:06:59
  you nervous? You're not going to be ready.
• 1:07:02
  But you've already done this with a kid.
• 1:07:05
  Like I'm not going to. I know.
• 1:07:06
  OK. So like, think about what?
• 1:07:08
  I'm nervous. I'm nervous about the fact that
• 1:07:09
  it's going to be uncomfortable with my wife is.
• 1:07:11
  I'm nervous because I don't want to look anywhere near that while
• 1:07:13
  it's happening. I'm nervous because, you know,
• 1:07:16
  I'm not going to sleep for the first couple of months.
• 1:07:18
  You did that already. What are you so nervous about?
• 1:07:20
  You did that already. You know, I actually had to
• 1:07:22
  write that down to myself. And when it came time, it was
• 1:07:26
  the calmest I've ever It was such a calm birth.
• 1:07:29
  It was such a calm experience. Because you could have gone down
• 1:07:32
  the path of. Being I felt starting, I really
• 1:07:34
  felt the starting and my wife and I talked about it.
• 1:07:36
  I was like, I'm getting nervous. I'm getting.
• 1:07:38
  You created new neural pathways. That's neuroplasticity.
• 1:07:41
  That's neuroplasticity. Yeah, because you could have
• 1:07:44
  easily just stayed in that panic mode and up until the birth been
• 1:07:48
  in panic mode and after the birth been in panic mode and
• 1:07:52
  you're not. So something changed.
• 1:07:53
  Yeah. So you took a you took a
• 1:07:55
  thought, you took a process in your body that says I'm not
• 1:07:58
  going to be ready. I, you know, whatever negativity
• 1:08:01
  you had and you made it something different, that's a
• 1:08:04
  different part of your brain when you take that.
• 1:08:07
  Right thought. I mean unexplored territories.
• 1:08:09
  It's positive. It's part of.
• 1:08:12
  Your brain that's you've accessed a different part of
• 1:08:14
  your brain. Now you have to nourish that
• 1:08:17
  path, right? Because that path is new.
• 1:08:21
  So it's not just enough to have it, I have to make sure that I'm
• 1:08:24
  tending. To now you have to nourish it.
• 1:08:25
  Yeah. And you have to make it hard
• 1:08:27
  wired, Right. Right.
• 1:08:29
  Because it's still fresh, right? Like a path.
• 1:08:31
  If you walk through grass and it's like the first time you
• 1:08:35
  walk, you may not look back and see there's a path.
• 1:08:38
  But if you walk it 100 times, now all of a sudden, oh, I see
• 1:08:42
  that path is worn. So now you work on that thought
• 1:08:46
  process. The next time you have a panic
• 1:08:48
  attack, hopefully you won't. But if you do, you go.
• 1:08:50
  No, I've been here. I know what this is.
• 1:08:54
  I know what to do. I've got this.
• 1:08:56
  I don't need to go here. I've got this.
• 1:08:59
  I know exactly what this is. And actually you can ask
• 1:09:02
  yourself, like, you know, did it serve me?
• 1:09:06
  That's a great question too. Did it serve me?
• 1:09:08
  Right, because a lot of times your body, the reason you went
• 1:09:12
  into that panic mode is because you had an experience it usually
• 1:09:16
  you know, something brought you to that, you think you've had it
• 1:09:18
  before. So you have to think, did that,
• 1:09:21
  Did it serve me to have that? And usually it's did it.
• 1:09:25
  Yeah. Did it help you?
• 1:09:28
  No, right? Never.
• 1:09:30
  Never. Well, actually the only time
• 1:09:33
  that I think it might have is when it comes to being able to
• 1:09:35
  relate to other people. Having a panic attack.
• 1:09:38
  Meaning to be able to say, I know that you've been like, I
• 1:09:40
  know what you're going through empathy, empathy.
• 1:09:42
  It helps my it helps enormously with empathy.
• 1:09:44
  Yeah. Well, that's good.
• 1:09:45
  That's I, I, you know, I understand where you're going
• 1:09:49
  through right? And I, I also, you know, I too
• 1:09:52
  have had these concerns, these fears, these insecurities and
• 1:09:56
  I'm, I, I've been where, you know, I have stood in the same
• 1:09:59
  pair of shoes already. You know, you're going to be
• 1:10:01
  fine and like, or, or, you know, or whatever.
• 1:10:03
  I know it doesn't feel like it, but you're going to, you're not
• 1:10:06
  going to not figure it out, you know, so.
• 1:10:08
  Yeah, that's true. I mean, I actually, I, I so
• 1:10:11
  relate to that because so many times things happen in my life
• 1:10:13
  and I'm like, wait a second, I didn't sign up for this.
• 1:10:15
  Why isn't that this, this doesn't really fit.
• 1:10:19
  And then I'll have a patient come in.
• 1:10:21
  Oh, no way. Yeah, or it may not be right
• 1:10:24
  away. Yeah, maybe a while later and I
• 1:10:27
  go, oh, I know what you're going through and I can, I can help
• 1:10:32
  you move through this. So there's always value if you
• 1:10:34
  can see the value in it, it changes your perspective.
• 1:10:38
  And once you change your perspective, you create a new
• 1:10:41
  neural pathway that's part of neural.
• 1:10:43
  So you're. So you're working actively on
• 1:10:46
  your neuroplasticity now or you're you're OK?
• 1:10:48
  Gotcha. So what is the reason what
• 1:10:50
  you're working? On so right now I'm I'm doing
• 1:10:52
  this experiment with normally I used to myself talk was I OK OK
• 1:10:58
  like I am what whatever I'm capable, I am powerful whatever
• 1:11:03
  that's a lot of the self talk and I realized there's been some
• 1:11:07
  studies that show that the more powerful way to do it is like
• 1:11:11
  coaching yourself as if. You as opposed to I.
• 1:11:15
  You interesting as a powerful game changer when it comes to
• 1:11:19
  neuroplasticity is kind of coaching yourself.
• 1:11:23
  So I, I now I put myself in it because a lot of times, even
• 1:11:26
  when I'm talking to sometimes you know, you have friends,
• 1:11:30
  you're going through something and they can't hear what you're
• 1:11:32
  saying. Even when I'm going through
• 1:11:33
  something, sometimes you just can't hear.
• 1:11:36
  So I say, what would you say to a friend, your bestie, if your
• 1:11:39
  bestie was going through this? What would you tell them?
• 1:11:42
  Now do that to yourself. It's the hardest thing to do.
• 1:11:45
  It's really hard. I had to do that for a breakup
• 1:11:47
  one time when I was in college. More than one, believe me, more
• 1:11:49
  than once. But I've been in college with a
• 1:11:50
  really long relationship with 2 1/2, two years, two years plus
• 1:11:55
  my entire college experience while I was there because I
• 1:11:57
  transferred it. And I was in this relationship.
• 1:11:59
  I remember thinking to myself, like, if my friend came up to me
• 1:12:01
  and told me this whole story and asked me what I would do, what
• 1:12:05
  would you do? Yeah.
• 1:12:06
  And I was like, I don't want to, I don't want, I don't want to
• 1:12:10
  tell them that, you know, but it comes to you, you know.
• 1:12:12
  Then how would you coach them? How would you coach them out of
• 1:12:15
  it, right? Like you really have to set
• 1:12:18
  yourself aside. Like you're going through a
• 1:12:20
  breakup and you'd say, hey, dude, you got this.
• 1:12:23
  Like there's going to be other women.
• 1:12:25
  You're going to be fine like. That studies observed that the I
• 1:12:28
  versus you because I, I, I, I did notice that I, I refer to
• 1:12:31
  myself as you. That's.
• 1:12:33
  Good. Yeah, but I don't know why.
• 1:12:35
  It just kind of felt better. Maybe you watched a Seinfeld
• 1:12:38
  episode? Probably.
• 1:12:38
  I love, I love Seinfeld. Timmy.
• 1:12:43
  Here's a Timmy, right? Timmy fell.
• 1:12:47
  Timmy's in vain. Yeah.
• 1:12:48
  Don't do this in public. This is all about your head.
• 1:12:51
  Everyone is going to do this vodka inside your head, not in
• 1:12:56
  pelvic. You do not refer to yourself in
• 1:12:57
  3rd. First, yes, correct.
• 1:12:59
  Correct. Unless you're in Seinfeld and
• 1:13:00
  then you're OK, then yeah. That's there's a camera on here
• 1:13:03
  Yeah, hilarious. But yeah, they show.
• 1:13:06
  So I'm experimenting with that because a lot of teachers in the
• 1:13:09
  self help world are, are focusing on the eye and you
• 1:13:14
  know, I'm so I'm experimenting with that.
• 1:13:16
  And I know with neuroplasticity, it's also in when you do
• 1:13:20
  exercise, when you have so movement allows more blood flow
• 1:13:24
  to to the brain anyway. So you know, before you want to
• 1:13:28
  study or before you give a talk or something where you need full
• 1:13:32
  blown brain capacity, it's good to do some exercise because it
• 1:13:34
  gets the blood flowing to the brain.
• 1:13:36
  Those 60,000 miles get active, right?
• 1:13:39
  But if you pair it with exercise, so you change, you
• 1:13:43
  have to change the way you think, which is not easy, but
• 1:13:47
  it's practice like anything else.
• 1:13:49
  And now we're going to talk in third person and we're going to
• 1:13:51
  coach ourselves. You know, we're going to say you
• 1:13:53
  can, you got this girl, you got this, you've done this.
• 1:13:57
  So it's important. To do this, why?
• 1:13:58
  But it's it's extra, extra reinforcement if you're doing it
• 1:14:01
  while you're exercising or while you're moving.
• 1:14:03
  I'm taking two studies in neuroplasticity where, you know,
• 1:14:07
  they say when you exercise, if you crossover like you, if
• 1:14:11
  you're doing that, you're thinking at the same time.
• 1:14:14
  And what that does is it creates a lot of neuronal response in
• 1:14:17
  your brain. So it's good.
• 1:14:18
  I teach my patients with dementia or Alzheimer's, like
• 1:14:21
  when they're sorry or when they feel you have memory loss.
• 1:14:26
  One of the exercises that I tell them to do is crossover when
• 1:14:30
  while you're exercising across your body, like across the
• 1:14:34
  midline. Interesting.
• 1:14:35
  Why are you doing any kind of exercise?
• 1:14:37
  Well, just at least some of your exercise should incorporate
• 1:14:41
  cross interesting. Why that if you're because it
• 1:14:44
  it, it enhances brain activity. So now you've added a different
• 1:14:47
  element. Oh, interesting.
• 1:14:48
  So if you're just doing up and down, it doesn't have as much
• 1:14:51
  brain activity as now if you're going across Oh, it's so
• 1:14:54
  interesting. You add a conversation.
• 1:14:56
  So if you're out with your girlfriends or your guy friends
• 1:14:59
  and you're walking and you're talking and you're thinking
• 1:15:01
  that's that's adding more brain activity.
• 1:15:04
  Yeah. So I'm combining all of these on
• 1:15:07
  my own thinking. Well, I don't think there's a
• 1:15:09
  study. I'm thinking it up on my.
• 1:15:10
  I love it, I love it. I'm going to exercise and I'm
• 1:15:12
  going to crossover. I'm going to make sure I do
• 1:15:15
  cross the midline on my body and I'm going to do this type of
• 1:15:19
  thinking. I'm going to coach myself, yeah,
• 1:15:22
  and I'll let you know what happened.
• 1:15:23
  I want to know. I want to know, You know, Steve
• 1:15:25
  Jobs used to do all his business meetings on walks.
• 1:15:28
  He wouldn't do them in office great idea.
• 1:15:30
  You know you know your most intense conversation, big
• 1:15:33
  corporate merger or whatever it is love that go for a walk.
• 1:15:36
  That's what he would say every single time.
• 1:15:37
  Let's go for a walk and they take a 45 minute hour long walk
• 1:15:40
  while they were. I love it.
• 1:15:42
  Yeah. I think fun of me at work
• 1:15:43
  because I'm always ex moving. Yeah, I wouldn't say exercising,
• 1:15:47
  but I always have a stand up desk.
• 1:15:49
  I have a bouncing ball. Amazing desk.
• 1:15:51
  And yeah, it looks weird. I mean, people make fun of God.
• 1:15:54
  It shows life, it shows enthusiasm, it shows life.
• 1:15:56
  It shows. It shows that you're vital.
• 1:15:58
  It keeps vitality. It's better than sitting at a
• 1:16:01
  desk all day, you know what I mean?
• 1:16:03
  If I'm going to have to stare at a computer, I want to be moving
• 1:16:05
  at the same time. I want I want something
• 1:16:07
  productive to come physically health.
• 1:16:09
  Wise, Yeah, yeah, definitely I have to run this.
• 1:16:13
  I'm so sad that I have to run too because I feel like we
• 1:16:16
  didn't. I feel like we're just, I feel
• 1:16:18
  like we're 5 minutes in. So I hope we'll do Part 2.
• 1:16:23
  You can do it soon or hopefully in many parts, as you know, as
• 1:16:26
  the podcast keeps on going and as you keep on learning and
• 1:16:29
  growing. But this is so much fun.
• 1:16:32
  We barely, you barely skim the, you know, we barely skim the
• 1:16:37
  big, the the bucket. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:16:39
  So I hope we can do another, another podcast soon.
• 1:16:42
  But this is so much fun. Thank you so much for taking the
• 1:16:44
  time. Thank.
• 1:16:44
  You so much. I'll talk to you.
• 1:16:46
  Thank you so much.