In this episode of the Ketones in Coffee podcast, host Lorenz, a certified ketogenic health coach, interviews Asher Adelman, a nutritional therapist and fitness coach who shares his transformative journey from suffering severe anxiety and depression to achieving optimal mental and physical health through diet and lifestyle changes. Asher discusses the limitations of traditional psychiatric treatments, the importance of addressing root causes related to nutrition, and offers insights into how dietary modifications can significantly improve mental health.
The conversation includes personal anecdotes, client success stories, and practical advice on leveraging evidence-based nutritional therapy to alleviate symptoms of mental health disorders.
00:00 Introduction to Ketones in Coffee Podcast
00:36 Meet Our Special Guest: Asher Adelman
01:34 Asher's Journey with Mental Health
05:27 The Turning Point: Discovering Nutritional Therapy
12:07 The Impact of Diet on Mental Health
20:46 Hope and Recovery: Asher's Message
28:04 Overcoming Depression with Diet
28:55 The Role of Malnourishment in Mental Health
30:44 Pain as a Signal: Addressing Root Causes
35:09 Challenges in Changing Dietary Habits
37:02 Framework for Nutritional Therapy
40:59 The Importance of Eating Real Human Food
46:11 Success Stories and Client Experiences
51:49 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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Estrella by Audiorezout is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to the Ketones in Coffeepodcast, where we talk about
(00:03):
creating a sustainable, healthylifestyle to the ketogenic diet.
I'm Lawrence, a certifiedketogenic health coach, and I'm
so grateful to have you joiningme on this journey.
Every week we bring in guestswho have the knowledge and
experience to help you on yourown journey to a better health.
This week, we have a specialguest who has been through the
(00:25):
same trials and tribulations aswe all have on our search for a
sustainable lifestyle.
Together, we hope to assist youon your own journey.
I'm so excited for this guys.
We have a very special guest onour podcast.
Our guest today is a highlyqualified nutritional therapist,
fitness coach, and the owner ofPrimal Wellness.
(00:46):
He has a passion for helpingindividuals optimize mental and
physical health.
Improve athletic performance andachieve their desired body
composition.
Additionally, our guest servesas the CEO of life health and
wellness center, a natural andholistic mental health clinic
based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
(01:06):
What sets our guests apart isthat he has personally
experienced challenges withmental health and has
successfully recovered throughhis own self study and training
as a nutritional therapypractitioner.
He is committed to helpingothers achieve their wellness
goals and improve their overallquality of life.
I'm so excited for this.
I'm here with Asher Adelman.
(01:27):
Asher, welcome to the show,ma'am.
Thank you very much.
Good to be here with you.
Asher, it's great to have you onthe show.
And I'm excited to have thisopportunity to speak with you
because as somebody who, youknow, personally had my own.
Vitals with depression andexperience the healing effects
of keto and carnivore.
(01:48):
I'm happy for our listenerstoday.
And we, we get, we got a goodone coming for this guys.
Let's, let's jump into it.
I believe, you know, in thepower of the evidence based
nutritional therapy, as Iexperienced it firsthand, and I
want to bring in experts likeyou to help our listeners learn
about the benefits and how itmay help them achieve their own
(02:10):
goals.
Well, it's goals for themselves.
So looking forward to hearingabout your story and journey
with that in mind, our goaltoday is to, you know, obviously
raise awareness and educate ouraudience of the other effective
treatments that other thanmedications, right?
Asher, you, your health is.
You know, phenomenal today.
I've seen the pictures, youknow, compared to when you were
(02:33):
in your thirties, you credit itto your lifestyle now, however,
I know your journey hasn'talways been easy in your
interviews in the past, you'veshared that you've struggled
with anxiety and severedepression for, you know, early
in life and it.
Eventually became sodebilitating that you
(02:54):
experienced daily panic attacks,but now you're helping others
relieve their symptoms andthrough your methods.
And I'd love to hear more abouthow it all came about.
Can you share some of thebackstory with us?
Uh, yeah, sure.
So I have experienced anxietyand depression at different
levels ever since I canremember, ever since childhood.
(03:16):
I had some childhood trauma,which, you know, I grew up with,
and I didn't know anything else.
So I thought that's whateverybody experienced, and I
thought that was normal.
And I was able to function moreor less up until, I would say, I
was in my thirties.
30s.
And so, and I've always beeninterested in fitness and
(03:37):
working out and exercising and,and eating well.
And I've always been interestedin nutrition.
And I thought that I was duringmy teens and my twenties and
early thirties, I thought that Iwas eating a pretty healthy,
nutritious diet.
And I was mostly for the mostpart on a Mediterranean style
(03:57):
diet.
So lots of, you know, chickenbreast, fish, lots of
vegetables, lots of olive oil,you know, real cheeses, things
like that.
And interestingly, I haddeveloped during my twenties and
thirties, a number of chronichealth conditions, which I, you
know, are very unpleasant, whichI didn't expect to, to, to
(04:18):
happen to me, especially at suchan early age.
And as I mentioned during my30s, my depression and anxiety,
which had been okay andmanageable throughout my 20s,
became worse and worse andstarted getting worse and worse.
At some point during my early30s, I started developing, I
started having panic attacks.
They started off You know,fairly infrequently.
(04:41):
So once every few months, butthen as time went on, they
increased in their severity andin their frequency to, you know,
eventually they ended uphappening on a daily basis, once
a day, a few times a day.
And we're happening at workduring work meetings during
calls and meetings andconversations with, with clients
(05:03):
and coworkers.
So, yeah, it really becamesomething very debilitating and
very, you know, really disruptedmy, my ability to function.
And that was really kind of whenI hit rock bottom, when I wasn't
able to, to function on a day today basis, I had to quit.
My job at the time that was ajob that I absolutely loved.
So I was, you know, it was abummer having to do that, but I
(05:26):
just couldn't function.
Um, so that got me eventuallyafter a long process to
reevaluate and look at.
My nutrition, I'm nourishing andfueling my body, my brain.
And fortunately, that ended upbeing what.
What helped correct andbasically end my, my panic
(05:48):
attacks, my anxiety and mydepression.
And I felt at the time, gosh,I'd have been in my thirties.
So my late thirties, I felt whatit felt like to not feel any
anxiety, to not feel depressed,to feel like you're content in a
good mood, which was a prettycool feeling.
Man.
that is pretty outstanding whatyou were able to accomplish and
(06:10):
how you were able to turn thatcorner.
But what's interesting to me wasyou talked about this on, uh,
your other interviews that youmentioned despite undergoing,
you did say that you underwenttherapy for, for an amount of
years and you didn't experienceany improvement in your
(06:32):
symptoms, which by myself, Iwent through therapy as well.
But what caught my attentionwas, When your therapist
suggested that you takeanti-anxiety medications and you
were strongly against it, andI'm curious to know what your
thought process was at that timeand why you were so supposed to
take any medication to help withyour condition.
(06:53):
'cause I was too, I actuallywent through about four to five
therapists and every time theysuggest it to me, I immediately
run to the run and search onGoogle.
another therapist because I amso afraid of it and I didn't
know at the time why I was soafraid of it, but I didn't want
to take any medications for it.
So how did you view that at thetime when you're processing
(07:17):
that?
Yeah, so good question.
And, and yeah, I was in therapyfor a while, about three months.
For years, I was seeing atherapist on a weekly basis.
I really like my therapist.
He was brilliant, veryexperienced, very good at being
a therapist.
But like many other people, thetherapy didn't fix or correct or
(07:37):
reduce or eliminate my anxiety.
So my anxiety levels were stillthe same.
I understood what might havetriggered and what might be
exacerbating my anxiety.
But the four years of therapydid nothing to help improve my
anxiety levels, nor did it doanything to help, um, Reduce
(07:58):
the, the amount and the severityand the frequency of the panic
attacks that I've beenexperiencing.
And, you know, I'd figured, likemost people, that therapy is how
you get rid of anxiety,depression, etc.
But that's not really the goalof therapy.
The goal of therapy is to helpone cope with.
Their feelings of anxiety tocope with their feelings of
(08:20):
depression to make it moremanageable, but not to end the
depression and the anxiety.
So that was a bit of adisappointment for me because
again, you know, my anxiety andmy panic attacks were going in
the opposite direction.
They were, they were worsening,even though I was in weekly
therapy for four years.
And yeah, my therapist hadsuggested after a number of
(08:43):
years after he saw that I wasn'tgetting better, that things were
getting worse, and that I hadquit my job, and so on and so
forth, so he had recommendedthat I go on anti anxiety
medications, and, you know, Alot of people with anxiety, so
you, you have irrational ormaybe somewhat rational fears of
different things.
(09:03):
And so medications,pharmaceuticals, chemicals were,
were 1 of those things that, um,that I didn't like the sound of.
I didn't, you know, I didn'twant any chemicals interfering
with how my brain wasfunctioning.
I already felt like my brainwasn't functioning well.
Like I, I wasn't in control of,of what was happening to my
(09:24):
brain and I didn't want anyother elements.
To impact how my brain wasfunctioning and to possibly
impact my brain functioning in anegative manner, which, you
know, I knew and know, as a lotof other people do, that
medications don't always workwell for everyone.
A good number of peopleexperience.
(09:45):
Negative and unpleasant sideeffects, some of these
medications can be addictive soyou can, you know, become
dependent on them and are verydifficult to come off of.
So it was those things and Iguess just intuition where,
where I didn't want to, youknow, put those chemicals into
my brain where I was adamantlyopposed to it.
(10:06):
And I'm glad now that I wasopposed to it.
And, but that's not to say thatI didn't try, that I didn't try
medication.
So I did, you know, as a lot ofother people do, I did try and
manage my anxiety through selfmedication through mostly
alcohol.
(10:26):
And so I drank, you know, anexcessive amount of alcohol
during that period of time,those those years.
And just mainly because.
The only time when I feltnormal, when I felt calm and
relaxed and happy and contentand not anxious was after I had
a few drinks.
So when you're feeling anxiousand stressed out and having
(10:51):
panic attacks and depressed allthe time, you want a little bit
of, you want You know, at leasta temporary break from, from
feeling like that every sooften.
And, you know, that's wherealcohol came into play for me.
So, and obviously alcohol, youknow, affects our brain
functioning is, is notadvisable, you know, as a long
term or as a solution foranxiety and or depression.
(11:14):
But, you know, a lot of people,including myself.
You feel so bad all the time,and you feel so hopeless, and so
you want those couple of hoursof feeling normal, of feeling
relaxed.
So, so yeah, but, but withregards to pharmaceuticals, for,
for some reason I was just veryagainst it.
And, you know, one of the thingsI remember, I believe it was one
(11:36):
of the antidepressants, or aclass of antidepressant
medications, where one of themany side, possible side effects
are suicidal thoughts, suicidalideation.
And like, why do I want to takea medication that might make me
feel suicidal?
Like it just, you know, anantidepressant medication that
makes you feel suicidal?
(11:57):
That seems so ironic and crazy.
But, but yeah, I was just, Iknew in my gut that I didn't
want to touch psych meds.
And, and yeah, I never, I didn'tagree to go on them.
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And thank you for sharing that.
That's a brings light into thissituation and it happened so
many times.
And it may be, you know, a lotof people or prescribers
prescribe medications without,you know, knowing what the,
they, they know the cause they,they let you know what the side
(13:24):
effects might be, but they,they, they could be over
prescribing, I believe.
And I've.
had a psychiatrist on the showtell me that these medications
are great for emergencysituations, but it's not a long
term solution for anybody.
Um, and I commend you for justtalking about your story,
because that is huge for a lotof people that just hearing that
(13:47):
from you, having to go throughthat.
And, you know, to.
Talk to me today and talk abouthow you were able to basically
have your anxiety and depressiondissipate.
Again, when I was going throughit, you know, I would, whenever
my psychiatrist suggestedmedication, I would run away
from it and true story.
(14:07):
And I think, yeah, I guess.
You know, I went through fivetherapists before I got to talk
to somebody who practices a CBTcognitive behavioral therapy.
Again, I was so afraid ofmedication and looking back now,
it's so clear why I'm afraid ofit.
But back then I didn't know whyI was so afraid.
But did you feel like it wasgiving up?
Because for me, if I took thatmedication, it, it's, it feels
(14:29):
like giving up for me.
Like, you know, searching forother alternatives before
resorting to any medication forme is the first step.
But.
So having to take medications isgiving up and that's my
situation.
Did you feel that way?
For me, it wasn't, I don't thinkit was necessarily like giving
up because I was in such a badplace and really not
functioning, not able to work,not able to support my family.
(14:52):
And you know, I was prettyhopeless.
So I was very desperate for asolution, even though I was,
like I said, hopeless.
And I didn't think, you know, atthat time I thought, okay, I'm
going to, you know, I'm going tohave to get used to being like
this, to feeling like this.
And not, and I guess I won't beable to hold down a job ever
again.
And then you have to go ondisability and I don't know how
(15:14):
I'm going to support my family.
But.
You know, that was the thought,but, but, but I, I knew at the
time I didn't want to takemedications.
It was just something, it wasjust a gut feeling.
I didn't want any of the sideeffects, negative side effects.
I didn't want, you know, andpart of the anxiety, so you
worry about stuff.
And even though, you know, itsaid that.
(15:35):
Not everybody has experiencesside effects from medications
and that medications arebeneficial for, you know, for,
for a lot of people take them,but, you know, I knew that I
knew and I know that there are alot of people who don't
experience benefits orimprovements with medication and
that there are a number ofpeople that experience negative
side effects.
There are a lot of people that,you know, medications will help
(15:58):
for a while and then we'll stop.
Helping at some point or thebody develops a tolerance.
So you could be having toincrease the dosage.
So, you know, I knew all thisand even though, you know,
there's a chance there was achance that the medications
might work for me and mightcontinue to work for me.
And there's a chance that Imight not have experienced any
side of negative side effects.
(16:19):
But in my state, my anxiousstate of mind back then, I
figured that, okay, I'm going tobe the worst case scenario.
And so whatever side effects canhappen, I'm probably going to
experience the worst sideeffects and I'm probably not
going to experience too much ofa benefit.
So I figured that's just goingto be, you know, I'm going to
end up in an even worsesituation if I take the
(16:42):
medication.
So that was kind of my, mythinking with regards to that.
Not that.
You know, not that it's a, youknow, giving up per se, but it's
just that, okay, it's probablynot going to help me and I'm
probably going to get all thesecrazy, bad side effects.
That that's going to be anadditional problem that I'm
going to deal with on top of theanxiety and the depression.
Yeah, and on top of that, justknowing that, The withdrawal
(17:04):
syndromes that comes after that,right?
It's hard to get off thosethings.
So lifestyle changes.
So during my struggles withdepression, I was open to trying
anything and everything.
And I said this, if I would, wewould go back.
And if you had suggestedanything to relieve my symptoms
without resorting to medication,you know, I did everything.
I explored various, you know,Asian treatments, tried
(17:25):
acupuncture, changed my approachto self care, began meditating,
you know, This is when I waslearning about, you know, self
development and, you know, pushmyself in the gym, but nothing
seemed to work as well aschanging my diet.
And when, when I changed mydiet, everything changed.
My energy levels went up, youknow, my focus and then my
(17:46):
depression, anxiety, just, youknow, non existent.
It was truly a life changingdiscovery for me.
Okay.
How about you?
Can you tell us a little bitmore about how you came to this
realization and how ittransformed your life, you know,
through, through diet?
Yeah.
So as I mentioned, I was in apretty, pretty bad place and
after the four years of therapyand basically, I mean, I
(18:08):
probably would have continued ifmoney wasn't, hadn't been an
issue, but you know, it wascosting me a lot of money
paying, you know, a hundred orso dollars every week for four
years.
and not experiencing any, anyimprovements or seeing any
results.
So, and basically me being outof work, being unemployed, so I
had to stop the therapy also.
(18:29):
And so, like I said, I was in apretty hopeless place and
thought that, you know, therewasn't going to be anything that
was going to help me.
This is just my brain is messedup.
My body's messed up and, youknow, out of control.
And, but, but still, you know, Iwent online and I was, you know,
I'd be reading and looking atthings that might help relieve
anxiety, improve anxiety.
(18:51):
I was, you know, I wasn'tlooking to, to end it.
Or to eliminate it, I waslooking to, to get it back to
where it was before, where Icould function and I could go to
work and, you know, I just hada, where I would just have a
heightened level of anxiety, butstill be able to function and
still be able to work.
And that's what I was lookingfor.
It's hoping for and looking forand so fortunately, and I don't
(19:12):
remember, you know, this isprobably, you know, 11, 12 years
ago, so it's hard to rememberexactly, you know, it's probably
a number of months of likereading and researching and
looking for, for resourcesonline.
And I came across a few webpages or articles about where
those were talked about how somepeople have sensitivities to
some different foods.
(19:33):
And where those sensitivitiescan cause those foods to
exacerbate and worsen ouranxiety levels.
And, and they recommendedremoving some of those foods.
So when I read that, you know,like, just like you, I was in a
very desperate place.
I was willing to try anythingother than psych meds, but I was
(19:54):
willing to try anything else.
So certainly removing some foodsfrom, from my diet was, was a no
brainer.
I did that.
And lo and behold.
Within a pretty short period oftime, my anxiety and mood got
better and better and better andbetter.
My panic attacks stoppedhappening very, very soon
afterwards, probably within, youknow, a matter of a few weeks.
(20:15):
And, like I said, this is, youknow, 11 or so years ago.
And, so in those 11 or so years,I have not experienced a single
panic attack.
I have not felt anything.
A bit of anxiety or depression.
So at the time I was in my latethirties and was really
(20:35):
interesting and really cool tofeel what it feels like to be
happy and content.
All the time, every day, becauseI'd never felt that way ever,
ever since I can remember, man,that's great.
Just great to hear because a lotof people, you know, go through
life, depression, all of theirlives.
(20:57):
And to hear that somebody tohear that from somebody who's
suffered for years and say, Yourelieve yourself of these
symptoms is not a source of amiracle, right?
They don't talk about thismainstream, right?
They don't push this message,but if you hear it from a
(21:21):
podcast, a reputable stores,somebody who actually reversed
their condition, there's hopeand.
You, like I said, you wentonline, tried it yourself,
didn't believe it at first.
And like you said, you, you onlywanted to go back to the way it
was so that you could hold ajob.
(21:43):
It turns out, look at whathappened, right?
You turned a corner, became anutritional therapist, became a
fitness coach, and now you'rehelping people.
You know, do the same and isn'tthat just a miracle for a lot of
people?
There's hope, right?
Yeah, it's been unbelievable.
(22:04):
And like I said, I didn't, I wascertainly not very hopeful and
not very optimistic.
And, but again, I was sodesperate, I was willing to try
just about anything.
And so I tried it and I was verypleasantly surprised that it
actually worked.
And yeah, and, and, you know,I'm sure there are a lot of
people who are currentlyexperiencing anxiety and or
(22:26):
depression and are feeling verypessimistic and very negative.
Nothing's going to be able tohelp me.
But for me, I was in a very badplace.
I had extreme chronic depressionand anxiety for decades and
nothing helped.
You know, I, I thought that Iwould never be able to not feel
(22:47):
anxious and depressed.
And so if it's, you know, soundslike a cliche, but you know, if
it worked for me, I think it canwork for just about anyone
because I was, I mean, I was atrain wreck.
I was really bad.
And like, now, when I thinkabout back then, it's hard.
It's it seems like, like, uh,you know, like, kind of like a
movie.
(23:07):
Like, it doesn't seem like itwas real.
I, you know, I think about thatperiod of time.
Like, I, that, wow, that reallyhappened.
Like, I was really in that, youknow, in that situation, in that
state of mind and, and peoplewho know me now and see how calm
and relaxed and so forth.
I am.
They can't believe that I usedto have anxiety and depression.
(23:29):
Like nobody now can believethat, that I, you know, used to
be like that.
And, and so, yeah, you know,like one of my biggest messages
is there is hope.
And that's 1 of the nice things,you know, regardless of how
severe or chronic or longlasting your anxiety and or
depression has been, no matterhow debilitating it is, it has
(23:53):
been, you can improve it and youcan improve it permanently.
And naturally, without needingto resort to medications, and
that's because for most peoplewith anxiety and depression, the
issue is a brain functioningissue.
The brain is having a difficulttime functioning because it's
(24:13):
malnourished and inflamed due tous not eating a nutrient rich
diet and due to us eatingprocessed inflammatory foods,
which are inflaming the brain.
So it's, it's very, like I said,it's very possible.
And it's, you know, so I, I,the, the 1 message I'd like
everybody to take home is thereis hope, like, nobody should
(24:34):
feel like they're hopeless andI'm confident in saying this
because not all of you guys.
What I've experiencedpersonally, but from working
with, you know, numerous clientsover the past several years who
have been in very severesituations of anxiety and
depression, also not functioningat all.
(24:55):
People with very, very severeanxiety and depression were very
hopeless, just as I was.
And it works for them too.
It's worked for them too.
And I mean, they're allextremely pleasantly surprised
at how quickly they, they feelbetter and how quickly their
symptoms go away and theyimprove.
And so, so I, that's why I'mconfident in saying this because
(25:16):
I've seen it happen over andover and over again with people.
And even people that I think themost interesting cases are with
people whose anxiety anddepression are rooted in or, or
triggered by trauma and PTSD.
So, you know, I think with PTSDand trauma, the, the overall or
the general consensus is, okay,they need therapy.
(25:37):
They need to talk to somebody.
They need to, you know, learn tocope with what happened to them,
the traumatic experience and,and, you know, only that will
help them move forward.
So, I've worked with a bunch ofpeople who have been through
horrific, traumatic.
Experiences like some of theworst traumas that you can
imagine can happen to someoneand who have tried with either
(25:59):
tried therapy for years havetried medications for years.
None of that has worked orpeople who don't want to do
therapy because they don't wantto talk about and relive.
The traumatic experience thatthey've that they've been
through and and even for them,it's.
You know, it's worked amazinglywell again, because you have to
(26:21):
differentiate between the, the,the immediate trigger and the
root cause of anxiety,depression, trauma, you know,
loss, whether it's loss of aloved 1, a job, a relationship,
et cetera, et cetera.
Those are triggers, but they'renot the root cause and that's
why you can have people who willgo through this similar
(26:43):
traumatic experience or loss.
And not deal with anxiety andchronic anxiety and debilitating
anxiety and depression.
Obviously, anyone who goesthrough a situation like that,
it's, you know, horrible and,and so forth.
And, but there are a number ofpeople that are able to continue
functioning in their day to daylives.
And their day to day functioningis not impaired by anxiety and
(27:07):
depression.
Whereas other people have beenthrough a similar type of
traumatic experience.
Do experience, experiencedebilitating anxiety and
depression and are not able tofunction.
And the reason why is, again,because the trauma wasn't the
root cause.
The root cause is, again, formost people, the vast majority
of the people, malnourishmentand inflammation of the brain.
(27:29):
We'll talk about that in asecond here, but I love what you
said there.
Everything, everything else isgreat.
Just, you know, talking aboutthat and how there's really hope
for a lot of people.
The biggest thing you said thereis that you thought that you
were never going to feel better,right?
And now you're here tellingpeople when you were in that
(27:50):
moment, it's easy to feelhopeless, right?
Because when you're in it, itfeels like you're in it forever.
You never I was in it.
I thought I was never, you tellme it's going to get better.
No, it's not.
I'm, I can feel it.
I'm here.
It's, you feel like it's nevergoing to go away, but it will.
Right.
A lot of counts, you know, ifyou're in this community of, you
(28:12):
know, carnivore keto in thiscommunity, you know, there's a
lot of people that have turnedthe corner from major
depressions to.
You know, during depression andsymptoms of depression going
away.
And you're here today telling usthat, you know, it is possible
and there's hope.
You yourself said that you onlywanted to go back to the way it
(28:36):
was, but now you're here,thriving fitness coach and
nutritional therapy is helping alot of people.
And you talk about PTSD and allof these other severe mental
illness.
And you said that it even helpedthose people with their
situation.
And I love that for peoplehearing that if, if so, if I
(28:58):
heard that from, from when I wasdepressed, I would jump on this,
you know, I wouldn't even thinktwice on, you know, trying
anything just about anything nowyou talked about malnourishment
and how that affects, uh, Uh,mood disorders per se, how does
malnourishment, can youelaborate a little bit?
(29:19):
How does malnourishment of thebrain contribute to these
disorders?
Yeah.
So a lot of times, or a lot ofpeople.
Don't realize or forget or don'treally think about the fact that
our brain is an organ in ourbody and just like all of other,
all of our other organ systems,it has requirements for
(29:43):
different nutrients that itneeds on an ongoing basis.
So, different vitamins,minerals, amino acids, fatty
acids that it needs in order tofuel its functioning and enable
its functioning.
So, through, again, poor diet.
and digestive issues caused byand exacerbated by poor diet.
(30:04):
So basically gut dysbiosis andintestinal permeability.
That's how we can be in a stateof malnourishment.
That's how our brain brain canend up being starved of various
nutrients that it needs.
And, and a starved malnourishedbrain has a very hard time
functioning optimally.
And not to say that everybodywho has who has a malnourished
(30:28):
inflamed brain is going toexperience anxiety or
depression.
There are a number of differentthings that that 1 can
experience in this in this typeof situation.
Anything from like, 80 typeissues, focus, concentration to
cognitive type issues to issueswith memory.
To, you know, to migraines, toinsomnia, so these are all like,
(30:50):
and that's the thing is, is Iconsider anxiety and depression
now and the other mental healthsymptoms to be similar to, to
pain.
So, so what is pain?
Why do we feel pain?
Well, we feel pain.
It's, it's a message that ourbody is sending us.
That a part of our body is beingdamaged, and therefore is in
(31:12):
pain, so that we'll fix what'scausing the damage, what's
causing the pain, so that we nolonger experience the pain.
So, and the example I like togive to clients is, if I put my
hand on a hot surface, And myhand is burning, right?
And because my hand is beingdamaged, and so my hand's in
pain, and why am I feeling thepain in my hand?
(31:34):
It's, again, it's a message thatmy body's sending me or telling
me that, okay, look, your handis, is on surface, it's being
damaged, and why am I gettingthis message?
So that I'll stop what's causingthe pain, so that I'll stop the
root cause, the root cause inthis, and the best course of
action.
And this, situation is to takemy hand off the hot surface.
(31:55):
So that's why I'm feeling thepain.
That's why I'm feeling thesymptom.
But the problem is nowadays thatwhat many people do, which is
not an optimal solution isthey'll call their doctor and
say, Hey doc, I got, you know,my hands on a hot surface and
it's in a lot of pain.
It's hurting.
What should I do?
The doctor either says, okay,well, hold on.
(32:17):
Don't move.
Let me send you over aprescription.
And for a painkiller, you cantake the painkiller and your
hand won't hurt anymore.
That's one, one example.
And that's, that's whatbasically psych meds do.
And the other one is, okay,well, hold on.
Don't do anything.
Don't move.
I'm going to forward you on toa, a psychotherapist that I
know, and then I talk to you andteach you how to cope with, with
(32:38):
the pain and deal with the pain.
And so it won't bother,hopefully it won't bother you as
much as it currently is.
And you know, that's thepsychotherapy option and, and
that's why, even though, so it'sunfortunate that the most people
only know about psychotherapyand medications.
(33:00):
And while they can be beneficialfor some people in some
situations, some circumstancesfor many people, you know,
they're not like such as myselfand yourself.
They're not beneficial and theydon't really help.
And again, client after clientafter client.
Most of my clients have been intherapy before.
I've been in therapy for yearsbefore.
(33:20):
Many of them have been onmedications, some of them for
years or decades.
And.
They're still coming to see meto seek my my help.
So obviously the therapy and ourmedications haven't Haven't
fixed the issue because again,they're not addressing the root
cause so get getting back to theexample of the hot surface I
need to take my hand off the hotsurface Which will end the pain
(33:42):
which will stop that thatmessage that my body is giving
me that something's not rightthat something's being damaged
And you know problem resolved soso that really is You know, it
is why, in my opinion, weexperience anxiety and
depression, headaches,migraines, focus issues, ADHD
issues is our body is trying tosend us a message, but and we
(34:04):
need to listen to the messageand fix what's causing the
issue.
Instead of looking to, you know,either cope with or try and
resolve a symptom withoutaddressing the root cause.
I'm laughing, but it's notfunny.
It's just laughable, right?
It's, it's ridiculous.
And I'm gonna borrow that andtalk to, you know, because it's,
(34:27):
it's nice to have that type ofanalogy to explain to people
easier how it works.
And having those simple, youknow, stories that you could
tell like that, you know, it'sso easy to just understand
what's going on.
Right.
It's so funny because you hearthose things a lot.
Right.
And why can't we just deal withthe root cause right.
(34:50):
When you're, you know, When Iwas, when I couldn't sleep for
three straight days, what didthey give me?
They gave me a sleeping pill,right?
And that's not my problem,right?
Looking back, that wasn't myproblem.
I was stressed.
I was depressed.
And I was in, in panic mode thatI couldn't get to sleep.
And, People are going throughthat and if you're somebody who
(35:13):
has, if you're just a little bitclosed minded, Asher, imagine
this, if you're a little closedminded that you didn't went
through this life's change thatyou did when you found out about
these inflammatory foods, ifyou're closed minded, you
wouldn't be here today.
And there's a lot of people,there's a lot of people like
(35:34):
that, right?
They heard something, theydidn't try it because they, they
couldn't understand what's, howcould that help me?
Right.
And they weren't open mindedenough to try other things.
And if you're that person, thenyou wouldn't.
(35:56):
Be able to experience becausethis will, if you wait for the
government to tell you the rightthings, you'll be waiting for a
long time, right?
And you have to realize thatnobody's going to go and save
you, right?
Once you realize that nobody'scoming to save you, not the
government specifically, youknow, coming out with lucky
(36:19):
charms is healthier than steak.
Recently, I tell you, then youwouldn't wait for a long time.
You really have to take controlof your own health.
And this, that's what Asher dida few years ago.
And now he's, you know,thriving, right.
From, from not being able tosustain a job to helping a lot
(36:41):
of people now through reversethe conditions, that's an
amazing, you know, story, right.
And it's.
It's happening to a lot ofpeople.
You just got to be open minded.
Yeah, this has been great.
And I'm sure my listeners wouldbe eager to learn more about how
they can improve their ownhealth through dietary changes.
(37:02):
Can you, Asher, can you walk usthrough the framework you use
for incorporating a focus onnutrition in your treatment for
your patients?
Yeah, certainly.
And, and before I get to that,I, you know, wanted to add.
That it is one of thechallenges, probably the biggest
challenge of what I'm doing isconvincing people to take the
(37:24):
notion that diet impacts ourmental health and mental
functioning, to take thatseriously, because I get a lot
of, you know, a lot of reactionsof like, what?
Like, nobody when they come in,you know, they come into a
mental health clinic, It's justseek help for their anxiety, the
depression, ADHD, or whatever.
Nobody expects to be asked whatthey're eating or to be, you
(37:44):
know, told that diet and howthey're eating has anything to
do with their brain functioning.
And, you know, they're expectingto either get sent to a
therapist or to a psychiatristto get medications.
And so, um, it's a lot ofeducating.
It's a lot of educating aboutwhy.
You know, why nutrition isimportant to, to, to brain
functioning and to mental healthand there's a lot of people
(38:07):
that, so I would say a lot ofthe clients fall into 2
categories, main categories, 1of them would be people who are
just eating like junk food, fastfood, you know, real garbage
process foods and they kind ofrealize, okay, yeah, that's, you
know, not the best idea in termsof, you know, maintaining and
improving one's health.
And then the other group ofpeople are those who are aware
(38:29):
and cognizant of nutrition andthey, they believe they're
trying to eat healthy and theybelieve they're, they're eating
healthy.
And so they'll tell me, I don'tknow, the nutrition doesn't,
that's not relevant to me.
It doesn't have anything to dowith me.
I eat healthy.
That's not the issue.
That's not the problem.
And so I tell them, I tell them,okay, this is a kind of an issue
(38:52):
of the proofs in the pudding.
If you were eating healthy, youwould be healthy.
If you were actually eatinghealthy, you wouldn't be in here
talking to me and seeking myhelp with with health issues
that you're experiencing.
And so, so, you know, there isagainst a lot of educating and,
and there's a lot of pushbackthat I get from people and, you
(39:13):
know, a lot of people, you know,some people get upset that I'm
talking about diet nutritionand, but, but it's to me, I, I'm
okay with it.
I'm, you know, I don't, first ofall, I don't take it personally.
Second of all, I know that, youknow, not everybody just like
with any, anything in life, noteverybody is going to want to do
what you're offering and that'sokay.
But, but I am able to getthrough to, uh, you know, uh, a
(39:35):
certain percentage of the peoplethat I'm meeting with, the
potential clients that I'mmeeting with, who do agree to,
okay, well, let me, let me givethis a try.
Let me see, let me see if thisworks.
And whether it's people who havebeen on a garbage junk food diet
or people who think they'reeating healthy and think that
their nutrition doesn't haveanything to do with their mental
health issues.
(39:55):
So there are people who do agreeto try.
And they get better very much soand very quickly and, and I know
that I'm going to be reaching acertain amount of those people
and really helping them changetheir lives.
And so it's worth it to gothrough nonstop explaining the
same thing over and over againwhere people just think I'm
(40:17):
absolutely crazy for talkingabout nutrition and mental
health and talking about dietand foods and.
So it's worth it to me becauseI'm going to get through to some
of those people and I'm going tobe able to help some of those
people and get them back ontrack, get their lives back on
track, get them back on theirfeet.
And I've helped many people dothat.
(40:39):
And so that's worth.
You know, all of the difficultyand challenges in bringing up
this topic and, and, and tryingto educate potential clients
about the need to, to look atdiet nutrition.
So, so, yeah, that's 1 thing Iwanted to mention with regards
to your question.
So.
(40:59):
The main reason why there's so,so many people with chronic
health conditions today,physical, mental, metabolic, is
because we're, we're not eatinghow our body, our physiology has
evolved over millions of yearsto, to eat.
(41:20):
So we're eating All these foods,quote unquote foods, which I
don't even consider to be foodsbecause a food is something that
fuels and nourishes your body.
And a lot of these Processedfoods don't fuel us, don't
nourish us, don't provide uswith any of the sustenance that
we need.
They're just empty, inflammatorycalories.
(41:41):
We need to get from eating thesebaked foods, which didn't even
exist 50 or 100 years ago, andeat more in line with how humans
have been eating and thrivingfor millions of years.
So what I like to tell peopleis, Eat the foods that a human
would have eaten 50, 000 yearsago during an ice age, right?
(42:02):
Ice ages for millions of years,up until about 15, 12, 000 years
ago, shortly before theagricultural revolution started.
So you want to eat What thehuman would have been eating 50,
000 years ago.
So that's really at the core ofwhy we're experiencing this
explosion in health problems,chronic health problems, this
(42:23):
health crisis, that's justgetting worse and worse and
worse is because we're noteating real human food.
That's, that's the bottom line.
Bottom line is where, where,where the food that we're eating
now is making us sick.
And that's the bottom line,right?
I can know, I can only imaginewhat you go through, just.
(42:44):
You know, client after clientand explaining this to people.
Like you said, people are notconnecting the dots here.
They're not connectingnutrition, food with mental
health.
And I believe that's going tochange, but it's going to take,
you know, a lot of us to reallyspread the message.
(43:05):
And, you know, again, like.
I want to reiterate because ifyou wait for somebody to come
and save you, if you wait forthe news to tell you what to do,
wait for the government to tellyou what to do, that's going to
take a lot, a long, long timefor them to be able to get
(43:28):
their, their act together.
And we might not be even alivewhen that day comes, right?
So if you're somebody who isstruggling, get to, get to
research about.
What is optimal for you, right?
And everything's availableonline and you can try
(43:48):
everything else.
Right.
And you can feel it right away.
If it were, if it's working, ifit's not working, if it's not
working, then move on to thenext, right?
If, but if it's working, thenthat's your cue that, you know,
what you're learning from, youknow, these.
outlets, these media outlets,the government, what the
(44:10):
government is telling you is nottrue.
A lot of it is a lie.
And a lot of it is filled withagendas, right?
And, you know, get to the rootcause, take advantage, take
control of your own health.
Don't even listen to anyoneelse.
Just do your own research.
Be your own experiment.
Do things that you can.
(44:31):
You would feel it, like, youwouldn't get to 30, 40, 50 years
old without having to know whatfoods do to your body.
Like, when you eat something, doyou feel it great, or do you
feel like garbage, right?
It's easy to tell.
Man, there's a lot of educating,like you said, and love, love
everything that you said here.
(44:51):
It's just ridiculous sometimes,it's laughable sometimes.
For, for my last question here,you know, current treatments,
like, You know, psychiatricmedication only work with, you
know, specificneurotransmitters.
We've talked about this earlierand the reason why the ketogenic
diet or the carnivore diet is sohealing is because it, it
(45:13):
affects neuroinflammations aswell.
Not only, you know, you know,affecting with, with, with the
medication, it only affects oneneurotransmitter.
And with these conditions,right.
For some of these severe mentalillnesses, you would need.
You know, more and moremedications to, to relieve your
symptoms, right?
(45:34):
Cause it affects multipleneurotransmitters.
It's just interesting to hearthat, you know, these treatments
have a lot of limitations.
And again, not to mention thefact that it comes with
withdrawal syndromes that youcan't even get off these
medications.
And just, I've had a few peopleon the show that talks about
(45:56):
when they were on medications,it was hard to get off.
And then when they went on theketogenic diet, their brain just
healed, like, their cognitivefunction came back, it was just
amazing for them.
How about you?
Have you ever worked withsomebody who was on medication
and did you ever help somebodyget off those medications?
(46:21):
Oh yeah, I've worked with anumber of people, a lot of
people who have been on psychmeds and, and yeah, a good
number of them have been able totaper down and off their
medications.
To be honest, I don't knowexactly how many because, and
that's one of the things that Ilike about this line of work, is
as opposed to psychotherapistsand psychiatrists.
(46:42):
I don't manage my client'ssymptoms and, you know, for
years and years and years, theydon't stay a client of mine for
years and years and years.
They're a client of mine for amonth or two.
And then I part ways with thembecause, because their issues
have been resolved and they'refeeling better.
And, and so I, you know, don'tusually every once in a while I
(47:05):
hear from, from a client.
So, you know, shoot me a textand let me know how things are
going.
Um, But I don't usually hearfrom most clients.
So, you know, the, the taperingdown and off process of
medications is, is a processthat takes some time.
So, you know, I don't knowexactly how many or how, you
know, things went, but what Iknow is I work for, you know,
with people for a month or two,get them feeling and functioning
(47:28):
much, much better.
And, but I do know that, youknow, and I have had a number of
clients tell me that they've,you know, been able to reduce
their, their dosages and come upmedications.
And this is not only psych meds,but, but other medications as
well, blood pressure medicationsand so forth.
That they'd been taking.
So, and as you mentioned, it's,you know, it's a pretty quick
(47:50):
process.
The, the, the brain and the bodyare pretty amazing in the
capacity they have to heal andto heal quickly when we're
again, fueling and nourishingthem properly and not inflaming
and poisoning them.
And that's one of the thingsthat I tell clients is that you
don't have to change your dietand wait for six months or a
year or a couple of years to seeif you're experiencing an
(48:12):
improvement.
Do it for a month.
Like you'll most people start tonotice.
I mean, even before a month,most people start to notice
after only a few weeks andimprovement, a significant
improvement, but certainly amonth, you know, you don't have
to do it long, longer than amonth in order to know if this
is, And, and that's because mostpeople experience start to
(48:33):
experience an improvement, youknow, by the end of the first
month.
So, so that's the nice thing isthat it's, you know, that it's
fast and works quickly.
And yeah, there are no real, youknow, there's no, you know, real
side effects or harmful thingsthat can happen.
But you know, there's no realside effects to eating healthy
foods and cutting out garbageprocessed foods.
Yeah.
(48:54):
There's only an upside, youknow, even though some people go
through a little bit of atransition period during the
first week or so where theymight have some GI issues, they
might have some other, theymight feel a little bit of
fatigue.
But, but yeah, there's no real,you know, negative downsides to
eating well.
So, yeah.
What does a typical treatmentplan look like?
(49:15):
And how do you work with yourpatients to ensure that, you
know, They're getting, they'reeating the right way.
And, and what are, how do yousupport them throughout that
process?
Yeah.
So, you know, we look at a fewdifferent things.
We look at, you know, what theperson's health status is.
So, you know, in addition totheir mental issues, what, you
know, if they have any physicalhealth issues, any metabolic
(49:38):
issues, any digestive issues,any food sensitivities or
allergies, things of thatnature, and, and then, you know,
You know, what they're willingto do, because not everybody is
willing to, you know, to besuper strict to go carnivore.
And so, you know, we work withthe person if they have any
limitation or specific needs.
(49:59):
And, you know, and we go fromthere, we craft a, you know, a
nutritional plan.
That suits their needs, andthat's going to enable them to
be able to do it to implement itand stick with it.
But 1, that's going to beeffective as well.
And 1 also, that's going to takeinto consideration digestive
issues and digestive issue andfood sensitivities and so forth.
(50:23):
So, we don't have thenutritional plan, let them know
what foods to focus on eating,which foods to avoid meal plan
ideas, recipes.
And then we go through lifestylechanges or improvements that
they can do as well and alsotalk about exercise working out,
you know, exercise plays animportant role in in our mental
health as well.
(50:43):
So, and, you know, so I have the1 type of client is that I work
with our clients with mentalhealth issues, but I also have
other clients that I work withwho, um.
whose main goals are, you know,improving their, their fitness
levels and improving their bodycomposition, losing excess body
fat, improving, you know, energylevels, stress levels, things
(51:04):
like that.
And so, you know, it's the, it'sa similar process for them.
But you know, the plan might bea little bit different as their
goals and their health status isa little bit different.
That's great.
And that's a lot a lot ofinformation here, guys.
So make sure to check out mowellness.
(51:25):
me On on the website.
Where can they find you?
Azure?
Yeah.
So like you said, my website isPrimal wellness.me, dot me.
I'm on Instagram at PrimalWellness and I also have a
natural tallow soaps andskincare product that's called
Spearhead Soaps.
So that's at spearheadsoaps.com.
(51:46):
And so those are the main placeswhere you can find me.
Awesome.
Thank you so much, Asher, forcoming on and sharing your story
here today.
I am just.
Feeling hopeful for a lot ofpeople, the stories that you
told here, it's totally amazing.
And again, no, if I was, if Iheard this story, these stories,
when I was struggling, it willhave been such a game changer
(52:08):
for me.
It would have been such alifesaver for me.
And so that's the, the goal forthe show is to share these
stories.
Hopefully, Somebody can, youknow, pick up on it and
hopefully change your life.
Right.
So thank you so much Asher forcoming on again and all the
links for Asher will be linkeddown in the description box
below.
(52:29):
So you guys check that out.
I highly recommend him.
And if you need any help withyour mental health.
If you're in Vegas, you have aclinic in Vegas, correct?
Yeah.
I have a clinic in Vegas where Imeet with people in person, face
to face.
And I also work with clients allover the world through video
chat, through zoom and thingslike that.
Awesome.
(52:49):
Awesome.
Thank you so much for coming onand sharing your story here,
sir.
I truly appreciate you.
for having me.
It was great speaking with you.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for tuning in toanother great episode here on
the ketones and coffee podcast.
And we've had such a pleasure ofhosting yet another amazing
(53:09):
guest here, guys.
If you're eager to learn moreabout the secrets of succeeding
on the keto drink lifestyle, besure to check out the show
notes.
As a special treat for our loyallisteners, I'm offering an
exclusive opportunity for a freeconsultation call.
Discover how you can achievesuccess on the ketogenic
lifestyle by simply referring tothe details provided in the show
(53:32):
notes.
Take advantage guys of thisunique chance to enhance your
journey to a healthier you.
And stay tuned for morecaptivating episodes.
And until next time guys, keepembracing the power of ketones.
Welcome to the Ketones in Coffeepodcast, where we talk about
(00:03):
creating a sustainable, healthylifestyle to the ketogenic diet.
I'm Lawrence, a certifiedketogenic health coach, and I'm
so grateful to have you joiningme on this journey.
Every week we bring in guestswho have the knowledge and
experience to help you on yourown journey to a better health.
This week, we have a specialguest who has been through the
(00:25):
same trials and tribulations aswe all have on our search for a
sustainable lifestyle.
Together, we hope to assist youon your own journey.
I'm so excited for this guys.
We have a very special guest onour podcast.
Our guest today is a highlyqualified nutritional therapist,
fitness coach, and the owner ofPrimal Wellness.
(00:46):
He has a passion for helpingindividuals optimize mental and
physical health.
Improve athletic performance andachieve their desired body
composition.
Additionally, our guest servesas the CEO of life health and
wellness center, a natural andholistic mental health clinic
based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
(01:06):
What sets our guests apart isthat he has personally
experienced challenges withmental health and has
successfully recovered throughhis own self study and training
as a nutritional therapypractitioner.
He is committed to helpingothers achieve their wellness
goals and improve their overallquality of life.
I'm so excited for this.
I'm here with Asher Adelman.
(01:27):
Asher, welcome to the show,ma'am.
Thank you very much.
Good to be here with you.
Asher, it's great to have you onthe show.
And I'm excited to have thisopportunity to speak with you
because as somebody who, youknow, personally had my own.
Vitals with depression andexperience the healing effects
of keto and carnivore.
(01:48):
I'm happy for our listenerstoday.
And we, we get, we got a goodone coming for this guys.
Let's, let's jump into it.
I believe, you know, in thepower of the evidence based
nutritional therapy, as Iexperienced it firsthand, and I
want to bring in experts likeyou to help our listeners learn
about the benefits and how itmay help them achieve their own
(02:10):
goals.
Well, it's goals for themselves.
So looking forward to hearingabout your story and journey
with that in mind, our goaltoday is to, you know, obviously
raise awareness and educate ouraudience of the other effective
treatments that other thanmedications, right?
Asher, you, your health is.
You know, phenomenal today.
I've seen the pictures, youknow, compared to when you were
(02:33):
in your thirties, you credit itto your lifestyle now, however,
I know your journey hasn'talways been easy in your
interviews in the past, you'veshared that you've struggled
with anxiety and severedepression for, you know, early
in life and it.
Eventually became sodebilitating that you
(02:54):
experienced daily panic attacks,but now you're helping others
relieve their symptoms andthrough your methods.
And I'd love to hear more abouthow it all came about.
Can you share some of thebackstory with us?
Uh, yeah, sure.
So I have experienced anxietyand depression at different
levels ever since I canremember, ever since childhood.
(03:16):
I had some childhood trauma,which, you know, I grew up with,
and I didn't know anything else.
So I thought that's whateverybody experienced, and I
thought that was normal.
And I was able to function moreor less up until, I would say, I
was in my thirties.
30s.
And so, and I've always beeninterested in fitness and
(03:37):
working out and exercising and,and eating well.
And I've always been interestedin nutrition.
And I thought that I was duringmy teens and my twenties and
early thirties, I thought that Iwas eating a pretty healthy,
nutritious diet.
And I was mostly for the mostpart on a Mediterranean style
(03:57):
diet.
So lots of, you know, chickenbreast, fish, lots of
vegetables, lots of olive oil,you know, real cheeses, things
like that.
And interestingly, I haddeveloped during my twenties and
thirties, a number of chronichealth conditions, which I, you
know, are very unpleasant, whichI didn't expect to, to, to
(04:18):
happen to me, especially at suchan early age.
And as I mentioned during my30s, my depression and anxiety,
which had been okay andmanageable throughout my 20s,
became worse and worse andstarted getting worse and worse.
At some point during my early30s, I started developing, I
started having panic attacks.
They started off You know,fairly infrequently.
(04:41):
So once every few months, butthen as time went on, they
increased in their severity andin their frequency to, you know,
eventually they ended uphappening on a daily basis, once
a day, a few times a day.
And we're happening at workduring work meetings during
calls and meetings andconversations with, with clients
(05:03):
and coworkers.
So, yeah, it really becamesomething very debilitating and
very, you know, really disruptedmy, my ability to function.
And that was really kind of whenI hit rock bottom, when I wasn't
able to, to function on a day today basis, I had to quit.
My job at the time that was ajob that I absolutely loved.
So I was, you know, it was abummer having to do that, but I
(05:26):
just couldn't function.
Um, so that got me eventuallyafter a long process to
reevaluate and look at.
My nutrition, I'm nourishing andfueling my body, my brain.
And fortunately, that ended upbeing what.
What helped correct andbasically end my, my panic
(05:48):
attacks, my anxiety and mydepression.
And I felt at the time, gosh,I'd have been in my thirties.
So my late thirties, I felt whatit felt like to not feel any
anxiety, to not feel depressed,to feel like you're content in a
good mood, which was a prettycool feeling.
Man.
that is pretty outstanding whatyou were able to accomplish and
(06:10):
how you were able to turn thatcorner.
But what's interesting to me wasyou talked about this on, uh,
your other interviews that youmentioned despite undergoing,
you did say that you underwenttherapy for, for an amount of
years and you didn't experienceany improvement in your
(06:32):
symptoms, which by myself, Iwent through therapy as well.
But what caught my attentionwas, When your therapist
suggested that you takeanti-anxiety medications and you
were strongly against it, andI'm curious to know what your
thought process was at that timeand why you were so supposed to
take any medication to help withyour condition.
(06:53):
'cause I was too, I actuallywent through about four to five
therapists and every time theysuggest it to me, I immediately
run to the run and search onGoogle.
another therapist because I amso afraid of it and I didn't
know at the time why I was soafraid of it, but I didn't want
to take any medications for it.
So how did you view that at thetime when you're processing
(07:17):
that?
Yeah, so good question.
And, and yeah, I was in therapyfor a while, about three months.
For years, I was seeing atherapist on a weekly basis.
I really like my therapist.
He was brilliant, veryexperienced, very good at being
a therapist.
But like many other people, thetherapy didn't fix or correct or
(07:37):
reduce or eliminate my anxiety.
So my anxiety levels were stillthe same.
I understood what might havetriggered and what might be
exacerbating my anxiety.
But the four years of therapydid nothing to help improve my
anxiety levels, nor did it doanything to help, um, Reduce
(07:58):
the, the amount and the severityand the frequency of the panic
attacks that I've beenexperiencing.
And, you know, I'd figured, likemost people, that therapy is how
you get rid of anxiety,depression, etc.
But that's not really the goalof therapy.
The goal of therapy is to helpone cope with.
Their feelings of anxiety tocope with their feelings of
(08:20):
depression to make it moremanageable, but not to end the
depression and the anxiety.
So that was a bit of adisappointment for me because
again, you know, my anxiety andmy panic attacks were going in
the opposite direction.
They were, they were worsening,even though I was in weekly
therapy for four years.
And yeah, my therapist hadsuggested after a number of
(08:43):
years after he saw that I wasn'tgetting better, that things were
getting worse, and that I hadquit my job, and so on and so
forth, so he had recommendedthat I go on anti anxiety
medications, and, you know, Alot of people with anxiety, so
you, you have irrational ormaybe somewhat rational fears of
different things.
(09:03):
And so medications,pharmaceuticals, chemicals were,
were 1 of those things that, um,that I didn't like the sound of.
I didn't, you know, I didn'twant any chemicals interfering
with how my brain wasfunctioning.
I already felt like my brainwasn't functioning well.
Like I, I wasn't in control of,of what was happening to my
(09:24):
brain and I didn't want anyother elements.
To impact how my brain wasfunctioning and to possibly
impact my brain functioning in anegative manner, which, you
know, I knew and know, as a lotof other people do, that
medications don't always workwell for everyone.
A good number of peopleexperience.
(09:45):
Negative and unpleasant sideeffects, some of these
medications can be addictive soyou can, you know, become
dependent on them and are verydifficult to come off of.
So it was those things and Iguess just intuition where,
where I didn't want to, youknow, put those chemicals into
my brain where I was adamantlyopposed to it.
(10:06):
And I'm glad now that I wasopposed to it.
And, but that's not to say thatI didn't try, that I didn't try
medication.
So I did, you know, as a lot ofother people do, I did try and
manage my anxiety through selfmedication through mostly
alcohol.
(10:26):
And so I drank, you know, anexcessive amount of alcohol
during that period of time,those those years.
And just mainly because.
The only time when I feltnormal, when I felt calm and
relaxed and happy and contentand not anxious was after I had
a few drinks.
So when you're feeling anxiousand stressed out and having
(10:51):
panic attacks and depressed allthe time, you want a little bit
of, you want You know, at leasta temporary break from, from
feeling like that every sooften.
And, you know, that's wherealcohol came into play for me.
So, and obviously alcohol, youknow, affects our brain
functioning is, is notadvisable, you know, as a long
term or as a solution foranxiety and or depression.
(11:14):
But, you know, a lot of people,including myself.
You feel so bad all the time,and you feel so hopeless, and so
you want those couple of hoursof feeling normal, of feeling
relaxed.
So, so yeah, but, but withregards to pharmaceuticals, for,
for some reason I was just veryagainst it.
And, you know, one of the thingsI remember, I believe it was one
(11:36):
of the antidepressants, or aclass of antidepressant
medications, where one of themany side, possible side effects
are suicidal thoughts, suicidalideation.
And like, why do I want to takea medication that might make me
feel suicidal?
Like it just, you know, anantidepressant medication that
makes you feel suicidal?
(11:57):
That seems so ironic and crazy.
But, but yeah, I was just, Iknew in my gut that I didn't
want to touch psych meds.
And, and yeah, I never, I didn'tagree to go on them.
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And thank you for sharing that.
That's a brings light into thissituation and it happened so
many times.
And it may be, you know, a lotof people or prescribers
prescribe medications without,you know, knowing what the,
they, they know the cause they,they let you know what the side
(13:24):
effects might be, but they,they, they could be over
prescribing, I believe.
And I've.
had a psychiatrist on the showtell me that these medications
are great for emergencysituations, but it's not a long
term solution for anybody.
Um, and I commend you for justtalking about your story,
because that is huge for a lotof people that just hearing that
(13:47):
from you, having to go throughthat.
And, you know, to.
Talk to me today and talk abouthow you were able to basically
have your anxiety and depressiondissipate.
Again, when I was going throughit, you know, I would, whenever
my psychiatrist suggestedmedication, I would run away
from it and true story.
(14:07):
And I think, yeah, I guess.
You know, I went through fivetherapists before I got to talk
to somebody who practices a CBTcognitive behavioral therapy.
Again, I was so afraid ofmedication and looking back now,
it's so clear why I'm afraid ofit.
But back then I didn't know whyI was so afraid.
But did you feel like it wasgiving up?
Because for me, if I took thatmedication, it, it's, it feels
(14:29):
like giving up for me.
Like, you know, searching forother alternatives before
resorting to any medication forme is the first step.
But.
So having to take medications isgiving up and that's my
situation.
Did you feel that way?
For me, it wasn't, I don't thinkit was necessarily like giving
up because I was in such a badplace and really not
functioning, not able to work,not able to support my family.
(14:52):
And you know, I was prettyhopeless.
So I was very desperate for asolution, even though I was,
like I said, hopeless.
And I didn't think, you know, atthat time I thought, okay, I'm
going to, you know, I'm going tohave to get used to being like
this, to feeling like this.
And not, and I guess I won't beable to hold down a job ever
again.
And then you have to go ondisability and I don't know how
(15:14):
I'm going to support my family.
But.
You know, that was the thought,but, but, but I, I knew at the
time I didn't want to takemedications.
It was just something, it wasjust a gut feeling.
I didn't want any of the sideeffects, negative side effects.
I didn't want, you know, andpart of the anxiety, so you
worry about stuff.
And even though, you know, itsaid that.
(15:35):
Not everybody has experiencesside effects from medications
and that medications arebeneficial for, you know, for,
for a lot of people take them,but, you know, I knew that I
knew and I know that there are alot of people who don't
experience benefits orimprovements with medication and
that there are a number ofpeople that experience negative
side effects.
There are a lot of people that,you know, medications will help
(15:58):
for a while and then we'll stop.
Helping at some point or thebody develops a tolerance.
So you could be having toincrease the dosage.
So, you know, I knew all thisand even though, you know,
there's a chance there was achance that the medications
might work for me and mightcontinue to work for me.
And there's a chance that Imight not have experienced any
side of negative side effects.
(16:19):
But in my state, my anxiousstate of mind back then, I
figured that, okay, I'm going tobe the worst case scenario.
And so whatever side effects canhappen, I'm probably going to
experience the worst sideeffects and I'm probably not
going to experience too much ofa benefit.
So I figured that's just goingto be, you know, I'm going to
end up in an even worsesituation if I take the
(16:42):
medication.
So that was kind of my, mythinking with regards to that.
Not that.
You know, not that it's a, youknow, giving up per se, but it's
just that, okay, it's probablynot going to help me and I'm
probably going to get all thesecrazy, bad side effects.
That that's going to be anadditional problem that I'm
going to deal with on top of theanxiety and the depression.
Yeah, and on top of that, justknowing that, The withdrawal
(17:04):
syndromes that comes after that,right?
It's hard to get off thosethings.
So lifestyle changes.
So during my struggles withdepression, I was open to trying
anything and everything.
And I said this, if I would, wewould go back.
And if you had suggestedanything to relieve my symptoms
without resorting to medication,you know, I did everything.
I explored various, you know,Asian treatments, tried
(17:25):
acupuncture, changed my approachto self care, began meditating,
you know, This is when I waslearning about, you know, self
development and, you know, pushmyself in the gym, but nothing
seemed to work as well aschanging my diet.
And when, when I changed mydiet, everything changed.
My energy levels went up, youknow, my focus and then my
(17:46):
depression, anxiety, just, youknow, non existent.
It was truly a life changingdiscovery for me.
Okay.
How about you?
Can you tell us a little bitmore about how you came to this
realization and how ittransformed your life, you know,
through, through diet?
Yeah.
So as I mentioned, I was in apretty, pretty bad place and
after the four years of therapyand basically, I mean, I
(18:08):
probably would have continued ifmoney wasn't, hadn't been an
issue, but you know, it wascosting me a lot of money
paying, you know, a hundred orso dollars every week for four
years.
and not experiencing any, anyimprovements or seeing any
results.
So, and basically me being outof work, being unemployed, so I
had to stop the therapy also.
(18:29):
And so, like I said, I was in apretty hopeless place and
thought that, you know, therewasn't going to be anything that
was going to help me.
This is just my brain is messedup.
My body's messed up and, youknow, out of control.
And, but, but still, you know, Iwent online and I was, you know,
I'd be reading and looking atthings that might help relieve
anxiety, improve anxiety.
(18:51):
I was, you know, I wasn'tlooking to, to end it.
Or to eliminate it, I waslooking to, to get it back to
where it was before, where Icould function and I could go to
work and, you know, I just hada, where I would just have a
heightened level of anxiety, butstill be able to function and
still be able to work.
And that's what I was lookingfor.
It's hoping for and looking forand so fortunately, and I don't
(19:12):
remember, you know, this isprobably, you know, 11, 12 years
ago, so it's hard to rememberexactly, you know, it's probably
a number of months of likereading and researching and
looking for, for resourcesonline.
And I came across a few webpages or articles about where
those were talked about how somepeople have sensitivities to
some different foods.
(19:33):
And where those sensitivitiescan cause those foods to
exacerbate and worsen ouranxiety levels.
And, and they recommendedremoving some of those foods.
So when I read that, you know,like, just like you, I was in a
very desperate place.
I was willing to try anythingother than psych meds, but I was
(19:54):
willing to try anything else.
So certainly removing some foodsfrom, from my diet was, was a no
brainer.
I did that.
And lo and behold.
Within a pretty short period oftime, my anxiety and mood got
better and better and better andbetter.
My panic attacks stoppedhappening very, very soon
afterwards, probably within, youknow, a matter of a few weeks.
(20:15):
And, like I said, this is, youknow, 11 or so years ago.
And, so in those 11 or so years,I have not experienced a single
panic attack.
I have not felt anything.
A bit of anxiety or depression.
So at the time I was in my latethirties and was really
(20:35):
interesting and really cool tofeel what it feels like to be
happy and content.
All the time, every day, becauseI'd never felt that way ever,
ever since I can remember, man,that's great.
Just great to hear because a lotof people, you know, go through
life, depression, all of theirlives.
(20:57):
And to hear that somebody tohear that from somebody who's
suffered for years and say, Yourelieve yourself of these
symptoms is not a source of amiracle, right?
They don't talk about thismainstream, right?
They don't push this message,but if you hear it from a
(21:21):
podcast, a reputable stores,somebody who actually reversed
their condition, there's hopeand.
You, like I said, you wentonline, tried it yourself,
didn't believe it at first.
And like you said, you, you onlywanted to go back to the way it
was so that you could hold ajob.
(21:43):
It turns out, look at whathappened, right?
You turned a corner, became anutritional therapist, became a
fitness coach, and now you'rehelping people.
You know, do the same and isn'tthat just a miracle for a lot of
people?
There's hope, right?
Yeah, it's been unbelievable.
(22:04):
And like I said, I didn't, I wascertainly not very hopeful and
not very optimistic.
And, but again, I was sodesperate, I was willing to try
just about anything.
And so I tried it and I was verypleasantly surprised that it
actually worked.
And yeah, and, and, you know,I'm sure there are a lot of
people who are currentlyexperiencing anxiety and or
(22:26):
depression and are feeling verypessimistic and very negative.
Nothing's going to be able tohelp me.
But for me, I was in a very badplace.
I had extreme chronic depressionand anxiety for decades and
nothing helped.
You know, I, I thought that Iwould never be able to not feel
(22:47):
anxious and depressed.
And so if it's, you know, soundslike a cliche, but you know, if
it worked for me, I think it canwork for just about anyone
because I was, I mean, I was atrain wreck.
I was really bad.
And like, now, when I thinkabout back then, it's hard.
It's it seems like, like, uh,you know, like, kind of like a
movie.
(23:07):
Like, it doesn't seem like itwas real.
I, you know, I think about thatperiod of time.
Like, I, that, wow, that reallyhappened.
Like, I was really in that, youknow, in that situation, in that
state of mind and, and peoplewho know me now and see how calm
and relaxed and so forth.
I am.
They can't believe that I usedto have anxiety and depression.
(23:29):
Like nobody now can believethat, that I, you know, used to
be like that.
And, and so, yeah, you know,like one of my biggest messages
is there is hope.
And that's 1 of the nice things,you know, regardless of how
severe or chronic or longlasting your anxiety and or
depression has been, no matterhow debilitating it is, it has
(23:53):
been, you can improve it and youcan improve it permanently.
And naturally, without needingto resort to medications, and
that's because for most peoplewith anxiety and depression, the
issue is a brain functioningissue.
The brain is having a difficulttime functioning because it's
(24:13):
malnourished and inflamed due tous not eating a nutrient rich
diet and due to us eatingprocessed inflammatory foods,
which are inflaming the brain.
So it's, it's very, like I said,it's very possible.
And it's, you know, so I, I,the, the 1 message I'd like
everybody to take home is thereis hope, like, nobody should
(24:34):
feel like they're hopeless andI'm confident in saying this
because not all of you guys.
What I've experiencedpersonally, but from working
with, you know, numerous clientsover the past several years who
have been in very severesituations of anxiety and
depression, also not functioningat all.
(24:55):
People with very, very severeanxiety and depression were very
hopeless, just as I was.
And it works for them too.
It's worked for them too.
And I mean, they're allextremely pleasantly surprised
at how quickly they, they feelbetter and how quickly their
symptoms go away and theyimprove.
And so, so I, that's why I'mconfident in saying this because
(25:16):
I've seen it happen over andover and over again with people.
And even people that I think themost interesting cases are with
people whose anxiety anddepression are rooted in or, or
triggered by trauma and PTSD.
So, you know, I think with PTSDand trauma, the, the overall or
the general consensus is, okay,they need therapy.
(25:37):
They need to talk to somebody.
They need to, you know, learn tocope with what happened to them,
the traumatic experience and,and, you know, only that will
help them move forward.
So, I've worked with a bunch ofpeople who have been through
horrific, traumatic.
Experiences like some of theworst traumas that you can
imagine can happen to someoneand who have tried with either
(25:59):
tried therapy for years havetried medications for years.
None of that has worked orpeople who don't want to do
therapy because they don't wantto talk about and relive.
The traumatic experience thatthey've that they've been
through and and even for them,it's.
You know, it's worked amazinglywell again, because you have to
(26:21):
differentiate between the, the,the immediate trigger and the
root cause of anxiety,depression, trauma, you know,
loss, whether it's loss of aloved 1, a job, a relationship,
et cetera, et cetera.
Those are triggers, but they'renot the root cause and that's
why you can have people who willgo through this similar
(26:43):
traumatic experience or loss.
And not deal with anxiety andchronic anxiety and debilitating
anxiety and depression.
Obviously, anyone who goesthrough a situation like that,
it's, you know, horrible and,and so forth.
And, but there are a number ofpeople that are able to continue
functioning in their day to daylives.
And their day to day functioningis not impaired by anxiety and
(27:07):
depression.
Whereas other people have beenthrough a similar type of
traumatic experience.
Do experience, experiencedebilitating anxiety and
depression and are not able tofunction.
And the reason why is, again,because the trauma wasn't the
root cause.
The root cause is, again, formost people, the vast majority
of the people, malnourishmentand inflammation of the brain.
(27:29):
We'll talk about that in asecond here, but I love what you
said there.
Everything, everything else isgreat.
Just, you know, talking aboutthat and how there's really hope
for a lot of people.
The biggest thing you said thereis that you thought that you
were never going to feel better,right?
And now you're here tellingpeople when you were in that
(27:50):
moment, it's easy to feelhopeless, right?
Because when you're in it, itfeels like you're in it forever.
You never I was in it.
I thought I was never, you tellme it's going to get better.
No, it's not.
I'm, I can feel it.
I'm here.
It's, you feel like it's nevergoing to go away, but it will.
Right.
A lot of counts, you know, ifyou're in this community of, you
(28:12):
know, carnivore keto in thiscommunity, you know, there's a
lot of people that have turnedthe corner from major
depressions to.
You know, during depression andsymptoms of depression going
away.
And you're here today telling usthat, you know, it is possible
and there's hope.
You yourself said that you onlywanted to go back to the way it
(28:36):
was, but now you're here,thriving fitness coach and
nutritional therapy is helping alot of people.
And you talk about PTSD and allof these other severe mental
illness.
And you said that it even helpedthose people with their
situation.
And I love that for peoplehearing that if, if so, if I
(28:58):
heard that from, from when I wasdepressed, I would jump on this,
you know, I wouldn't even thinktwice on, you know, trying
anything just about anything nowyou talked about malnourishment
and how that affects, uh, Uh,mood disorders per se, how does
malnourishment, can youelaborate a little bit?
(29:19):
How does malnourishment of thebrain contribute to these
disorders?
Yeah.
So a lot of times, or a lot ofpeople.
Don't realize or forget or don'treally think about the fact that
our brain is an organ in ourbody and just like all of other,
all of our other organ systems,it has requirements for
(29:43):
different nutrients that itneeds on an ongoing basis.
So, different vitamins,minerals, amino acids, fatty
acids that it needs in order tofuel its functioning and enable
its functioning.
So, through, again, poor diet.
and digestive issues caused byand exacerbated by poor diet.
(30:04):
So basically gut dysbiosis andintestinal permeability.
That's how we can be in a stateof malnourishment.
That's how our brain brain canend up being starved of various
nutrients that it needs.
And, and a starved malnourishedbrain has a very hard time
functioning optimally.
And not to say that everybodywho has who has a malnourished
(30:28):
inflamed brain is going toexperience anxiety or
depression.
There are a number of differentthings that that 1 can
experience in this in this typeof situation.
Anything from like, 80 typeissues, focus, concentration to
cognitive type issues to issueswith memory.
To, you know, to migraines, toinsomnia, so these are all like,
(30:50):
and that's the thing is, is Iconsider anxiety and depression
now and the other mental healthsymptoms to be similar to, to
pain.
So, so what is pain?
Why do we feel pain?
Well, we feel pain.
It's, it's a message that ourbody is sending us.
That a part of our body is beingdamaged, and therefore is in
(31:12):
pain, so that we'll fix what'scausing the damage, what's
causing the pain, so that we nolonger experience the pain.
So, and the example I like togive to clients is, if I put my
hand on a hot surface, And myhand is burning, right?
And because my hand is beingdamaged, and so my hand's in
pain, and why am I feeling thepain in my hand?
(31:34):
It's, again, it's a message thatmy body's sending me or telling
me that, okay, look, your handis, is on surface, it's being
damaged, and why am I gettingthis message?
So that I'll stop what's causingthe pain, so that I'll stop the
root cause, the root cause inthis, and the best course of
action.
And this, situation is to takemy hand off the hot surface.
(31:55):
So that's why I'm feeling thepain.
That's why I'm feeling thesymptom.
But the problem is nowadays thatwhat many people do, which is
not an optimal solution isthey'll call their doctor and
say, Hey doc, I got, you know,my hands on a hot surface and
it's in a lot of pain.
It's hurting.
What should I do?
The doctor either says, okay,well, hold on.
(32:17):
Don't move.
Let me send you over aprescription.
And for a painkiller, you cantake the painkiller and your
hand won't hurt anymore.
That's one, one example.
And that's, that's whatbasically psych meds do.
And the other one is, okay,well, hold on.
Don't do anything.
Don't move.
I'm going to forward you on toa, a psychotherapist that I
know, and then I talk to you andteach you how to cope with, with
(32:38):
the pain and deal with the pain.
And so it won't bother,hopefully it won't bother you as
much as it currently is.
And you know, that's thepsychotherapy option and, and
that's why, even though, so it'sunfortunate that the most people
only know about psychotherapyand medications.
(33:00):
And while they can be beneficialfor some people in some
situations, some circumstancesfor many people, you know,
they're not like such as myselfand yourself.
They're not beneficial and theydon't really help.
And again, client after clientafter client.
Most of my clients have been intherapy before.
I've been in therapy for yearsbefore.
(33:20):
Many of them have been onmedications, some of them for
years or decades.
And.
They're still coming to see meto seek my my help.
So obviously the therapy and ourmedications haven't Haven't
fixed the issue because again,they're not addressing the root
cause so get getting back to theexample of the hot surface I
need to take my hand off the hotsurface Which will end the pain
(33:42):
which will stop that thatmessage that my body is giving
me that something's not rightthat something's being damaged
And you know problem resolved soso that really is You know, it
is why, in my opinion, weexperience anxiety and
depression, headaches,migraines, focus issues, ADHD
issues is our body is trying tosend us a message, but and we
(34:04):
need to listen to the messageand fix what's causing the
issue.
Instead of looking to, you know,either cope with or try and
resolve a symptom withoutaddressing the root cause.
I'm laughing, but it's notfunny.
It's just laughable, right?
It's, it's ridiculous.
And I'm gonna borrow that andtalk to, you know, because it's,
(34:27):
it's nice to have that type ofanalogy to explain to people
easier how it works.
And having those simple, youknow, stories that you could
tell like that, you know, it'sso easy to just understand
what's going on.
Right.
It's so funny because you hearthose things a lot.
Right.
And why can't we just deal withthe root cause right.
(34:50):
When you're, you know, When Iwas, when I couldn't sleep for
three straight days, what didthey give me?
They gave me a sleeping pill,right?
And that's not my problem,right?
Looking back, that wasn't myproblem.
I was stressed.
I was depressed.
And I was in, in panic mode thatI couldn't get to sleep.
And, People are going throughthat and if you're somebody who
(35:13):
has, if you're just a little bitclosed minded, Asher, imagine
this, if you're a little closedminded that you didn't went
through this life's change thatyou did when you found out about
these inflammatory foods, ifyou're closed minded, you
wouldn't be here today.
And there's a lot of people,there's a lot of people like
(35:34):
that, right?
They heard something, theydidn't try it because they, they
couldn't understand what's, howcould that help me?
Right.
And they weren't open mindedenough to try other things.
And if you're that person, thenyou wouldn't.
(35:56):
Be able to experience becausethis will, if you wait for the
government to tell you the rightthings, you'll be waiting for a
long time, right?
And you have to realize thatnobody's going to go and save
you, right?
Once you realize that nobody'scoming to save you, not the
government specifically, youknow, coming out with lucky
(36:19):
charms is healthier than steak.
Recently, I tell you, then youwouldn't wait for a long time.
You really have to take controlof your own health.
And this, that's what Asher dida few years ago.
And now he's, you know,thriving, right.
From, from not being able tosustain a job to helping a lot
(36:41):
of people now through reversethe conditions, that's an
amazing, you know, story, right.
And it's.
It's happening to a lot ofpeople.
You just got to be open minded.
Yeah, this has been great.
And I'm sure my listeners wouldbe eager to learn more about how
they can improve their ownhealth through dietary changes.
(37:02):
Can you, Asher, can you walk usthrough the framework you use
for incorporating a focus onnutrition in your treatment for
your patients?
Yeah, certainly.
And, and before I get to that,I, you know, wanted to add.
That it is one of thechallenges, probably the biggest
challenge of what I'm doing isconvincing people to take the
(37:24):
notion that diet impacts ourmental health and mental
functioning, to take thatseriously, because I get a lot
of, you know, a lot of reactionsof like, what?
Like, nobody when they come in,you know, they come into a
mental health clinic, It's justseek help for their anxiety, the
depression, ADHD, or whatever.
Nobody expects to be asked whatthey're eating or to be, you
(37:44):
know, told that diet and howthey're eating has anything to
do with their brain functioning.
And, you know, they're expectingto either get sent to a
therapist or to a psychiatristto get medications.
And so, um, it's a lot ofeducating.
It's a lot of educating aboutwhy.
You know, why nutrition isimportant to, to, to brain
functioning and to mental healthand there's a lot of people
(38:07):
that, so I would say a lot ofthe clients fall into 2
categories, main categories, 1of them would be people who are
just eating like junk food, fastfood, you know, real garbage
process foods and they kind ofrealize, okay, yeah, that's, you
know, not the best idea in termsof, you know, maintaining and
improving one's health.
And then the other group ofpeople are those who are aware
(38:29):
and cognizant of nutrition andthey, they believe they're
trying to eat healthy and theybelieve they're, they're eating
healthy.
And so they'll tell me, I don'tknow, the nutrition doesn't,
that's not relevant to me.
It doesn't have anything to dowith me.
I eat healthy.
That's not the issue.
That's not the problem.
And so I tell them, I tell them,okay, this is a kind of an issue
(38:52):
of the proofs in the pudding.
If you were eating healthy, youwould be healthy.
If you were actually eatinghealthy, you wouldn't be in here
talking to me and seeking myhelp with with health issues
that you're experiencing.
And so, so, you know, there isagainst a lot of educating and,
and there's a lot of pushbackthat I get from people and, you
(39:13):
know, a lot of people, you know,some people get upset that I'm
talking about diet nutritionand, but, but it's to me, I, I'm
okay with it.
I'm, you know, I don't, first ofall, I don't take it personally.
Second of all, I know that, youknow, not everybody just like
with any, anything in life, noteverybody is going to want to do
what you're offering and that'sokay.
But, but I am able to getthrough to, uh, you know, uh, a
(39:35):
certain percentage of the peoplethat I'm meeting with, the
potential clients that I'mmeeting with, who do agree to,
okay, well, let me, let me givethis a try.
Let me see, let me see if thisworks.
And whether it's people who havebeen on a garbage junk food diet
or people who think they'reeating healthy and think that
their nutrition doesn't haveanything to do with their mental
health issues.
(39:55):
So there are people who do agreeto try.
And they get better very much soand very quickly and, and I know
that I'm going to be reaching acertain amount of those people
and really helping them changetheir lives.
And so it's worth it to gothrough nonstop explaining the
same thing over and over againwhere people just think I'm
(40:17):
absolutely crazy for talkingabout nutrition and mental
health and talking about dietand foods and.
So it's worth it to me becauseI'm going to get through to some
of those people and I'm going tobe able to help some of those
people and get them back ontrack, get their lives back on
track, get them back on theirfeet.
And I've helped many people dothat.
(40:39):
And so that's worth.
You know, all of the difficultyand challenges in bringing up
this topic and, and, and tryingto educate potential clients
about the need to, to look atdiet nutrition.
So, so, yeah, that's 1 thing Iwanted to mention with regards
to your question.
So.
(40:59):
The main reason why there's so,so many people with chronic
health conditions today,physical, mental, metabolic, is
because we're, we're not eatinghow our body, our physiology has
evolved over millions of yearsto, to eat.
(41:20):
So we're eating All these foods,quote unquote foods, which I
don't even consider to be foodsbecause a food is something that
fuels and nourishes your body.
And a lot of these Processedfoods don't fuel us, don't
nourish us, don't provide uswith any of the sustenance that
we need.
They're just empty, inflammatorycalories.
(41:41):
We need to get from eating thesebaked foods, which didn't even
exist 50 or 100 years ago, andeat more in line with how humans
have been eating and thrivingfor millions of years.
So what I like to tell peopleis, Eat the foods that a human
would have eaten 50, 000 yearsago during an ice age, right?
(42:02):
Ice ages for millions of years,up until about 15, 12, 000 years
ago, shortly before theagricultural revolution started.
So you want to eat What thehuman would have been eating 50,
000 years ago.
So that's really at the core ofwhy we're experiencing this
explosion in health problems,chronic health problems, this
(42:23):
health crisis, that's justgetting worse and worse and
worse is because we're noteating real human food.
That's, that's the bottom line.
Bottom line is where, where,where the food that we're eating
now is making us sick.
And that's the bottom line,right?
I can know, I can only imaginewhat you go through, just.
(42:44):
You know, client after clientand explaining this to people.
Like you said, people are notconnecting the dots here.
They're not connectingnutrition, food with mental
health.
And I believe that's going tochange, but it's going to take,
you know, a lot of us to reallyspread the message.
(43:05):
And, you know, again, like.
I want to reiterate because ifyou wait for somebody to come
and save you, if you wait forthe news to tell you what to do,
wait for the government to tellyou what to do, that's going to
take a lot, a long, long timefor them to be able to get
(43:28):
their, their act together.
And we might not be even alivewhen that day comes, right?
So if you're somebody who isstruggling, get to, get to
research about.
What is optimal for you, right?
And everything's availableonline and you can try
(43:48):
everything else.
Right.
And you can feel it right away.
If it were, if it's working, ifit's not working, if it's not
working, then move on to thenext, right?
If, but if it's working, thenthat's your cue that, you know,
what you're learning from, youknow, these.
outlets, these media outlets,the government, what the
(44:10):
government is telling you is nottrue.
A lot of it is a lie.
And a lot of it is filled withagendas, right?
And, you know, get to the rootcause, take advantage, take
control of your own health.
Don't even listen to anyoneelse.
Just do your own research.
Be your own experiment.
Do things that you can.
(44:31):
You would feel it, like, youwouldn't get to 30, 40, 50 years
old without having to know whatfoods do to your body.
Like, when you eat something, doyou feel it great, or do you
feel like garbage, right?
It's easy to tell.
Man, there's a lot of educating,like you said, and love, love
everything that you said here.
(44:51):
It's just ridiculous sometimes,it's laughable sometimes.
For, for my last question here,you know, current treatments,
like, You know, psychiatricmedication only work with, you
know, specificneurotransmitters.
We've talked about this earlierand the reason why the ketogenic
diet or the carnivore diet is sohealing is because it, it
(45:13):
affects neuroinflammations aswell.
Not only, you know, you know,affecting with, with, with the
medication, it only affects oneneurotransmitter.
And with these conditions,right.
For some of these severe mentalillnesses, you would need.
You know, more and moremedications to, to relieve your
symptoms, right?
(45:34):
Cause it affects multipleneurotransmitters.
It's just interesting to hearthat, you know, these treatments
have a lot of limitations.
And again, not to mention thefact that it comes with
withdrawal syndromes that youcan't even get off these
medications.
And just, I've had a few peopleon the show that talks about
(45:56):
when they were on medications,it was hard to get off.
And then when they went on theketogenic diet, their brain just
healed, like, their cognitivefunction came back, it was just
amazing for them.
How about you?
Have you ever worked withsomebody who was on medication
and did you ever help somebodyget off those medications?
(46:21):
Oh yeah, I've worked with anumber of people, a lot of
people who have been on psychmeds and, and yeah, a good
number of them have been able totaper down and off their
medications.
To be honest, I don't knowexactly how many because, and
that's one of the things that Ilike about this line of work, is
as opposed to psychotherapistsand psychiatrists.
(46:42):
I don't manage my client'ssymptoms and, you know, for
years and years and years, theydon't stay a client of mine for
years and years and years.
They're a client of mine for amonth or two.
And then I part ways with thembecause, because their issues
have been resolved and they'refeeling better.
And, and so I, you know, don'tusually every once in a while I
(47:05):
hear from, from a client.
So, you know, shoot me a textand let me know how things are
going.
Um, But I don't usually hearfrom most clients.
So, you know, the, the taperingdown and off process of
medications is, is a processthat takes some time.
So, you know, I don't knowexactly how many or how, you
know, things went, but what Iknow is I work for, you know,
with people for a month or two,get them feeling and functioning
(47:28):
much, much better.
And, but I do know that, youknow, and I have had a number of
clients tell me that they've,you know, been able to reduce
their, their dosages and come upmedications.
And this is not only psych meds,but, but other medications as
well, blood pressure medicationsand so forth.
That they'd been taking.
So, and as you mentioned, it's,you know, it's a pretty quick
(47:50):
process.
The, the, the brain and the bodyare pretty amazing in the
capacity they have to heal andto heal quickly when we're
again, fueling and nourishingthem properly and not inflaming
and poisoning them.
And that's one of the thingsthat I tell clients is that you
don't have to change your dietand wait for six months or a
year or a couple of years to seeif you're experiencing an
(48:12):
improvement.
Do it for a month.
Like you'll most people start tonotice.
I mean, even before a month,most people start to notice
after only a few weeks andimprovement, a significant
improvement, but certainly amonth, you know, you don't have
to do it long, longer than amonth in order to know if this
is, And, and that's because mostpeople experience start to
(48:33):
experience an improvement, youknow, by the end of the first
month.
So, so that's the nice thing isthat it's, you know, that it's
fast and works quickly.
And yeah, there are no real, youknow, there's no, you know, real
side effects or harmful thingsthat can happen.
But you know, there's no realside effects to eating healthy
foods and cutting out garbageprocessed foods.
Yeah.
(48:54):
There's only an upside, youknow, even though some people go
through a little bit of atransition period during the
first week or so where theymight have some GI issues, they
might have some other, theymight feel a little bit of
fatigue.
But, but yeah, there's no real,you know, negative downsides to
eating well.
So, yeah.
What does a typical treatmentplan look like?
(49:15):
And how do you work with yourpatients to ensure that, you
know, They're getting, they'reeating the right way.
And, and what are, how do yousupport them throughout that
process?
Yeah.
So, you know, we look at a fewdifferent things.
We look at, you know, what theperson's health status is.
So, you know, in addition totheir mental issues, what, you
know, if they have any physicalhealth issues, any metabolic
(49:38):
issues, any digestive issues,any food sensitivities or
allergies, things of thatnature, and, and then, you know,
You know, what they're willingto do, because not everybody is
willing to, you know, to besuper strict to go carnivore.
And so, you know, we work withthe person if they have any
limitation or specific needs.
(49:59):
And, you know, and we go fromthere, we craft a, you know, a
nutritional plan.
That suits their needs, andthat's going to enable them to
be able to do it to implement itand stick with it.
But 1, that's going to beeffective as well.
And 1 also, that's going to takeinto consideration digestive
issues and digestive issue andfood sensitivities and so forth.
(50:23):
So, we don't have thenutritional plan, let them know
what foods to focus on eating,which foods to avoid meal plan
ideas, recipes.
And then we go through lifestylechanges or improvements that
they can do as well and alsotalk about exercise working out,
you know, exercise plays animportant role in in our mental
health as well.
(50:43):
So, and, you know, so I have the1 type of client is that I work
with our clients with mentalhealth issues, but I also have
other clients that I work withwho, um.
whose main goals are, you know,improving their, their fitness
levels and improving their bodycomposition, losing excess body
fat, improving, you know, energylevels, stress levels, things
(51:04):
like that.
And so, you know, it's the, it'sa similar process for them.
But you know, the plan might bea little bit different as their
goals and their health status isa little bit different.
That's great.
And that's a lot a lot ofinformation here, guys.
So make sure to check out mowellness.
(51:25):
me On on the website.
Where can they find you?
Azure?
Yeah.
So like you said, my website isPrimal wellness.me, dot me.
I'm on Instagram at PrimalWellness and I also have a
natural tallow soaps andskincare product that's called
Spearhead Soaps.
So that's at spearheadsoaps.com.
(51:46):
And so those are the main placeswhere you can find me.
Awesome.
Thank you so much, Asher, forcoming on and sharing your story
here today.
I am just.
Feeling hopeful for a lot ofpeople, the stories that you
told here, it's totally amazing.
And again, no, if I was, if Iheard this story, these stories,
when I was struggling, it willhave been such a game changer
(52:08):
for me.
It would have been such alifesaver for me.
And so that's the, the goal forthe show is to share these
stories.
Hopefully, Somebody can, youknow, pick up on it and
hopefully change your life.
Right.
So thank you so much Asher forcoming on again and all the
links for Asher will be linkeddown in the description box
below.
(52:29):
So you guys check that out.
I highly recommend him.
And if you need any help withyour mental health.
If you're in Vegas, you have aclinic in Vegas, correct?
Yeah.
I have a clinic in Vegas where Imeet with people in person, face
to face.
And I also work with clients allover the world through video
chat, through zoom and thingslike that.
Awesome.
(52:49):
Awesome.
Thank you so much for coming onand sharing your story here,
sir.
I truly appreciate you.
for having me.
It was great speaking with you.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for tuning in toanother great episode here on
the ketones and coffee podcast.
And we've had such a pleasure ofhosting yet another amazing
(53:09):
guest here, guys.
If you're eager to learn moreabout the secrets of succeeding
on the keto drink lifestyle, besure to check out the show
notes.
As a special treat for our loyallisteners, I'm offering an
exclusive opportunity for a freeconsultation call.
Discover how you can achievesuccess on the ketogenic
lifestyle by simply referring tothe details provided in the show
(53:32):
notes.
Take advantage guys of thisunique chance to enhance your
journey to a healthier you.
And stay tuned for morecaptivating episodes.
And until next time guys, keepembracing the power of ketones.
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