Kelly welcomes Dr. Chiti Parikh, one of the leading integrative medicine physicians in the country and the founder of Integrative Health & Wellbeing at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Parikh's first book, Intentional Health: Detoxify, Nourish and Rejuvenate Your Body into Balance is a comprehensive roadmap that empowers individuals to take charge of their health through five thousand years of science, combining ancient wisdom with cutting-edge science.
She gives Kelly massive insight on simple ways to set intentions with your body that don't rely on fad diets, deprivation or throwing another pill at the problem.
Dr. Parikh addresses:
- Getting in tune with your circadian rhythm
- Why digestion and gut health are actually the most important
- Getting to the root cause
- The power of positivity and how emotions impact our health (it's all connected)
- 28 day reset
- 20 minute Daily Health Ritual
She is full of insight, but puts it all in easily digestible (pun intended) terms for the listeners to get their year started off right!
Book: Intention Health: Detoxify, Nourish, and Rejuvenate Your Body Into Balance
Website: intentionalhealth.io
Socials: @intentionalhealth_
Watch The Velvet's Edge on YouTube!
Email us: theedge@velvetsedge.com
TikTok: @velvetsedge
Follow the podcast on Instagram: @VelvetsEdgePodcast
HOST: Kelly Henderson // @velvetsedge // velvetsedge.com
Follow Velvet's Edge on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/velvetsedge/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Okay, it's the beginning of the year, and I feel
like that is just the time that everyone goes to resets, right,
like resets in every different area of our life. And
I'm constantly talking with you guys about the inner work, therapy,
energy work, all of those things. But that doesn't include
the health piece of this, which is also just a
(00:32):
huge part. Our bodies are the only way we're existing, obviously,
And so I am so excited today because I have
doctor Chitty Perik here and she is one of the
leading integrative medicine physicians in the country. She's the founder
of Integrated Health and well Being at wild Cornell Medicine,
New York Presbyterian Hospital, and her first book has just
(00:54):
come out, Intentional Health, Detoxified, Nourish and Rejuvenate your Body
into Balance. Doctor Peric, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
We were just talking before the podcast and I asked
you how COVID has actually impacted your world, and you
said it even inspired you to write this book. So
can you talk a little bit about it. I know
you were on the front lines during the pandemic and
then you got COVID pretty early on which then turned
into long COVID. So can you tell us a little
bit about what happened there?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, I mean April twenty twenty was an interesting time.
It was I was getting ready to get married. Actually
it was supposed to get married in May. It was
a very exciting time, but things took obviously a different turn.
I ended up on the front lines in New York,
as you know, got hit pretty early on. So I
was in the thick of it, one of the busiest
hospitals in New York and just working NonStop. And I
(01:48):
got COVID, and at that time, it was very scared
to get COVID, right, we still didn't know this seat.
I didn't have much time to recover because I knew
I had to just go right back. There was such
a dire need a few days of rest. I just
went right back. And then finally when the dust settled,
I recognized that, hey, I was running on adrenaline this
(02:08):
whole time. Then I saw symptoms such as I was
just getting tired so much, my hair was falling out,
I was getting short of breath doing simple yoga poses
that I could do, you know, without any problem. And
I was losing weight. E when I was eating healthy.
So I was just trying to figure out what's going
on in my body. And this was before anyone even
(02:31):
knew what long COVID was right very early on. So
I was scouring the internet trying to ask my colleague,
trying to figure out what was going on, but there
were no answers. This is such a random story, but
I was on Amazon, probably ordering toilet paper.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
As we all were during the hour, and.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Randomly this recommendation for an out of print book about
one hundred and eighty five year old Yogi came up.
I have no explanation through this day how that happened.
I wasn't researching anything about that. So I ordered this
out of print book from someone I don't even know
from where I read it. And that's what inspired me
because in the book it talked about the ancient yoga
(03:14):
science of detoxification. It was called kaya kulpook, which means
transformation of your body. That Yogi's used this science to
turn back their biological clock so they could continue their
spiritual journey right, so their body could be in the
best shape, so they could continue meditating and trying to
focus on just spending hours in very ustier conditions. So
(03:38):
inspired from that, I knew the science is something called
Poncha karma, which is a toxification ritual used in iobeta.
It's been around for thousands of years, and that is
accessible to all of us, not just the yogi, right,
So I said, let me just try that. I know
I've helped. You know, a lot of my patients have
done it in the past. I recommended and really helped them.
So I was like, let me just try it. And
(04:00):
for thirty days I did it diligently, and I cannot
tell you within a week into it the transformation I
saw in my body. I mean my hair immediately started
falling out, and I started feeling better, just stronger inside out.
And within a couple of months I was back to myself,
actually even better than what I was before COVID. And
(04:23):
I just couldn't believe it. And I used every Western
medicine technique I could possibly think of, any blood tests,
supplement might I mean naybe. I did it all and
none of that helped. So this really inspired me, and
I said, you know, this is not just about curing
long COVID, but it just reinstated my strong belief that
our body is incredibly intelligent. Everything we need to lead
(04:46):
a long, healthy life is right in here. Right. It's
not in some magic diet, it's not in some superfood
or anything. It's right here. So what I did during
this process was I just got out of its way
and I let the inner healing really come forward. And
that's what inspired me to write the book. But also
the twenty eight day Reset is based on this ancient science,
(05:08):
now simplified it so that everyone can take advantage of
it and help bring their body back to balance whenever
they need it.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah. I mean we talked about this a little before
the podcast too, but one of the main things you
talk about in the book, and we'll get to that
in just a second, but it's just sort of the
mentality of let's throw a pill at something, let's, you know,
try to do the quick fix for things. And just
like you just said, our bodies are our best healers.
I truly believe that, and obviously, thank God for Western medicine.
(05:38):
There are some things that have become accessible to us
because of that that we could have never come up with.
But I just feel like we missed the mark so often.
Is that something you see consistently in the medicine world.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
This is something I see day and data, day out.
And that's what inspired me to start this program at
Cornell near Presbyteritia Hospital because what happened in Western medicine
that it does a really good job at acute conditions, right, Right,
So you get a bad infection, you get to strow, Great,
we can fix it, right. But health is a journey.
It's a big spectrum, right, It's not just those acute moments.
(06:15):
So I always wanted to be the kind of doctor
that people go to, not just when they're sick, but
they go to me to stay healthy. Right, That's what
I really went into medicine for. But our current medical
system or current medical training just doesn't train you to
be the doctor that people go to to stay healthy.
So I to relearn the medicine. I had to relearn
(06:36):
Eastern medicine, to relearn nutrition, functional medicine. I learned acupuncture.
I wanted to expand my toolbox. So someone came to me,
I couldn't you know, I wasn't just fixing the disease,
but I was looking at the whole person, and I
was helping them, giving them the tools, not just matching
an ill to a pill and saying, oh, you got this,
here's the pill for that, right. I wanted to do
(06:58):
so much more than that. I wanted to give people
tools that they can use to stay healthy and get
to understand their body better, rather than just relying on
a doctor or blood test to say this is what's wrong. Well.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
The other issue with that program or that way of
doing things is we're going to the doctor when the
issue is already beyond the point, like we're having the
massive heart attack or meltdown or whatever, and there's all
these things that led up to that point, but we're
like not paying attention to those things. It's just the
big event, you know, exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
So we wait for we're almost like sitting down. So
let's wait, Yeah, really goes wrong, and then we'll fix
it right, right, But what about all the opportunity we
have in this moment to focus on our wellbeing and
not just our physical wellbeing. I strongly believe that we
are not just the body. We are our mind where
our spirit, where our emotions, where our community and all
(07:52):
of these things make us who we are. So let's
focus on, you know, establishing a better mind body connection,
a better emotion state, a better connection with our community
so that we don't end up in that acute state.
So prevention is always better than the cure. So if
our healthcare system's not doing it, us as individuals have
(08:13):
to take ownership and make that our priority.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah. I actually love that autonomy though. It's like taking
the responsibility for your own body. I mean we should
be doing that anyway. Yes, Right, So let's talk a
little bit about the book. It's called Intentional Health. Detoxify, nourish,
and rejuvenate your body into balance. This book is a
comprehensive roadmap that empowers individuals to take charge of their health,
(08:37):
just like we've been saying through five thousand years of science,
combining ancient wisdom with cutting edge science. I think it's
so interesting to read that five thousand piece of that
because I'm like, right, it's always been here, and we
come in and we try to do all these different things,
and it's like, no, let's go back to what was
working in the first place, right.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, And it stood the test of time. Still here
we're still practicing it.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Well, you start the book talking about health intentions, and
when I was first reading that part of the book.
I thought, well, this is like right obviously right, Like
it's one of those things that someone just needed to
say to me to like let it click. But I
think that that can be something that's a little bit overwhelming.
Like as the listeners are listening to this and we're saying, oh,
(09:24):
you know, go set some health intentions, it would feel
intimidating to me. So can you help us just kind
of break it down? Like where do we even know
how to start here?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
So what happens when it comes to health and wellness
that we are often bombarded with these images of perfection,
right we're told we look into a magazine, we look
at social media, we look at billboards, and we are
soul this idea that to be healthy you have to
be doing you know, you're supposed to exercise every day, meditate,
not be stressed, eat a perfect diet, you know, sleep
(09:56):
eight hours, been plenty of water, and the lift goes on. Right, overwhelming,
and we feel like we're always falling short. In Eastern medicine,
the idea of health is never about perfection. There's no
perfect image of health. Idea of health is all about balance.
So that's what I really focus on when it comes
to intentional health and setting an intention that it's not
(10:19):
about an ideal image of what health looks like based
on other people are telling you. It's about asking yourself
the question, what does health truly look like and mean
for me? And it's different for every single person, and
it's different for us at every stage of our life.
What we're trying to do, what health means to us
(10:39):
when we're in our twenties, thirties, forties, fifties is different.
So we have to be intentional about what that dialogue
is with ourself, what truly matters to us. It's not
just about a certain way side or a weight or anything, right,
it's about what does health allow me to do? This
(11:00):
body is our vessel to experience life. Like you said
in the beginning, right, the body is our best ally.
So what do I need this body for? What do
I want to accomplish? What do I want to experience
this body? And let's set an intention to get there.
So it's a much deeper conversation. So I encourage and
that's the first question I asked my patients when I
(11:21):
see him in the office. You know, it's not about
what the doctor tells you to do. It's not about
you know, losing weight or not getting cancer or nothing
like that. It's about what can you control. Because intentional
health setting it intention's all about things that we can control. Right.
I can say set an intention and say I'm choosing
to prioritize my mental health this year. I'm choosing to
(11:45):
focus on my self care, my well being. I'm choosing
to nourish my body with food that brings me joy,
that brings me energy, and that makes me whole. Right.
So the words that we choose to disc health intension
is also so important. So it's about positivity. It's about
(12:05):
setting an intention that is attainable that we can control.
It's not a lofty dream that someone else tells us
to obtain. Right. So it's a deep inner conversation that
we should be having with ourselves on a regular basis.
It's not just at the beginning of the year, right,
but it's something we need to check in with ourselves
all the time.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
When I love the fact that you just mentioned the
positivity piece, you mentioned diets, and this made me kind
of ping to this thought. But everything with a diet
to me has always sounded so restrictive. And when you
frame something at the beginning of it, I can't have
why do you want to do it?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
For me?
Speaker 1 (12:44):
At least I don't get very motivated by that, like
to tell myself, I can't have something just because it's
probably going to cause me to slip or not be
able to follow through with things ultimately. But when I
do something and I set an intention, like you're saying,
like on this podcast, even we set intentions with we
set a word of the year, and that's our intention,
you know, And so everything brings me back to my
(13:06):
word of the year as I'm going through the processes
of whatever it is, work, relationships, anything like that. So
with health, I love the idea of setting something positive
as an act of like self care, self love, as
a way of taking care of ourselves as adults, you know,
and like lovingly, that energy to me feels so different
from a restrictive diet or I can't have this because
(13:29):
I don't want to get cancer exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
And whatever wherever our mind goes or body will follow. Yeah,
So I don't mind my mind to go, oh, that's spread.
I can't have gluten, I can't have dairy. I can't no,
I can't do this. This if our mind is constantly
going there. Our body is confused, and it's it's constantly
being channeled this negative energy or do not, do not,
do not right, instead of I'm focusing My priority is
(13:57):
nourishing my body. My priority is is putting in food
in the body that's going to energize me, that's going
to heal me. Right, every time I eat, I'm thinking energy,
I'm thinking healing. I'm thinking enjoyment, right, not restriction. And
I cannot tell you how important that is. And I
see this every single day in my practice. Right, It's
(14:19):
we become so restricted with our mentality sometimes that we
don't know how to channel that energy the other way around.
So a lot of work I do with my patients
is just changing that dialogue, changing that language that we
are using when it comes to our own health in
our own body. That is so important. I cannot tell
you to follow this diet or do anything until we
have that discussion.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, like the gluten thing. You mentioned gluten, and I
don't do gluten or dairy in my diet. And a
lot of my friends are like, oh, that must be terrible,
you know, And at first it was it was hard,
But for me, I just realized ultimately, I feel so
much better, I have so much more energy, I sleep better,
(15:00):
just don't feel heavy after a meal, I'm not tired.
And those were the two culprits for me of that
it's not for everybody. But once I like realize, oh wait,
I'm not saying I'm not going to eat this because
I can't. It's because I just want to feel good.
I don't actually miss it like it's fine.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
That's and that's how you're able to stick to it. People,
I've seen you give up those things because I restrict
the mentality and then negative image of why you're doing
something versus like, hey, I'm doing this because it's going
to make me feel better. I'll have more energy, Yeah,
I'll have less floating whatever it might be. Right, that's
a completely different conversation that you're having every time you
see something with gluten. Yeah, she's like, no, no, no, I can't.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
I can't, I can't, I can't exactly. Well, we mentioned
how old some of these practices are that you tapped
into to write this book, and so I want to
move into the Seven Ancient Secrets. So in the book,
you deviled seven ancient secrets and you say that you
will learn how your body functions from me. So your
(16:01):
circadian rhythm, the gut, microbiome, these are hard words for me.
Also her metabolism and the mind body connection, which we
kind of touched on as well. But I want to
start with circadian rhythm. What is that?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
So circadian rhythm is our internal body clock?
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Okay, right?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
How does our body recognize what time of the day
it is? What is it supposed to do? Just like
you and I have a schedule to keep right in
the morning, we wake up, we have breakfast, we have
this meeting or this right, same thing. The body does
something different almost every hour. It has a different task
to focus on. So it's important for it to know
what time of the day it is. Is it midnight,
(16:40):
then I shouldn't. I don't have to worry about digesting
food because it's midnight, I'm sleep right Right, If it's lunch,
I don't have to worry about sleep. I have to
worry about digesting this meal. So it needs a very
good accurate understanding of what time of the data is
so it does the right physiological function.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Majority of the diseases nowadays that were seeing are because
our circadan rhythm is disruptive. Really, we're not listening to
o internal body cloth. Actually, just about three years ago,
three scientists received the Nobel Prize for Medicine because of
their work in this brand new field of chronobiology. Chrono
means time and biology all about how circadian rhythm is
(17:21):
actually affecting every single thing in our body and how
common diseases that we're seeing from BCD to heart disease students,
certain cancers can be linked back to disruption in our
circadian rhythm. So I joke with my patients and I say, no,
I don't care about your diet. I don't care if
you go to the gym. Instead, instead of focusing on
(17:41):
just about what you're eating, I would much other focus
on when you're eating these meals and when you're actually exercising.
Because our timing our diet and exercise can actually really
change what health effects does it have? So why would
we not into our inner circadian rhythm align ourselves with
(18:03):
it so we get much better results from everything we're
doing right. So I've see a lot of patients who
are eating a perfect diet, exercising, doing all the right things,
yet they don't feel like they're optimal self. So a
lot of time it comes down to this routine and
keep and sticking to it. Okay, so even if you're
eating a healthy diet, but every day you're kind of
(18:24):
on the run. Today you had breakfast, tomorrow you skipped it,
and tomorrow you know, you had a heavy lunch the
day after a heavy dinner. That irregularity actually is very
stressful for the body. So that's why the first chapter,
the First Asian Secret, is about understanding your circaden rhythm
and synchronizing your routine, your schedule, what the body is
(18:46):
trying to do. When you do that, it's just effortless, right,
Why are we fighting against the body? Why don't we
work with it? So that's where we're starting with when
it comes to circadian rhythm.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
So this would be different for every single person because
your lifestyle is different or I mean, I'm just curious too,
is the wiring of each individual different with this stuff?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
So what's actually genetically wired for us is pretty similar. Okay,
So if you think about it, our cave men and
women ancestors, right, they have light bulbs, they didn't have
computer screens. Their life was essentially tied to that of
the sun. Right right when the sun came up, their
day started, they went out looking for food, they broke
their fast, they found something to eat. They were hunted, right,
(19:38):
and then by the time the sun goes down, their
day is over. They're done eating. They're hiding in their
cave right right. They're not up till midnight party and
going out to eat. They weren't doing that. They would
become a meal if they did that right, right. So
that's how our skating with them has evolved to do.
So I always say we don't work twenty first seven.
(19:58):
Neither does our body.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
It has a day shift and has a night shift.
During the day, it's prioritizing digesting our food and make
you know, extracting all the nutrients from it. And at
night it's detoxing. It's fixing things that are broken. So detalks, repair,
rejuvenation is happening at night. Okay, we have to respect
the daytime duties and the nighttime duties of our body.
(20:22):
So ideal clock, our ideal circaiting rhythm is really we
get up when the sun comes up. We eat three
meals a day. Breakfast supposed to be a bigger meal,
Lunch is the biggest meal, that's one of the digestion
is the strongest, and dinner is actually supposed to be
a lighter, earlier meal. We're supposed to eat dinner, you know,
be done with dinner by the time sun goes down,
(20:43):
and then we go to bed about three or four
hours after that. That's the ideal circadian rhythm. So bedtime
around ten to eleven, wake up time around six seven,
and then you have three meals a day. So that's
the ideal circadan rhythm. That's what we're designed to do
because of our ancestors for thousands of years, that's how
we evolved. So the closer we are to this schedule,
(21:06):
more effortlessly our body functions right. And studies have shown
so i'll quote you this very interesting study I just
read recently was that they took a group of people
who are actually pre diabetics or diabetics, and they told
them eat your breakfast at eight, lunch at noon, and
dinner on four or five and earlier dinner, so longer
(21:27):
intimate fasting, essentially not cutting calories, don't care about exercise,
eat whatever you want, you're just eating it at this
same time. When they did that, because they're more synchronized
with us cir kading rhythm. Their blood sugar went down
about twenty to thirty percent, they're insulin, their weight, all
of those markers just within a week or two they improved.
(21:48):
And then the same group of people they said, okay,
now let's speed it up. Now you're gonna eat your
first meal at noon, then like a lunch or a
snack around four, and dinner at eight. All of those
numbers got worse by thirty percent. Really no change in diet,
Like they weren't changing their diet. The same people within
just a couple of weeks, same exercise level, nothing else
(22:09):
was change just at the time. Maybe that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
This is why jet lag throws your body off.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
So bad, exactly. Yeah, so we are sometimes in that
social jet lag is what we're experiencing when we talk
about new fatigue and things like that. It's a social
jet lag. That's what our sort of modern lifestyle is doing, right,
It's conflicting with our circading rhythm and our genetics how
we evolved. So this is just this is the whole
(22:37):
new field. There's something called chrono nutrition is going to
be the buzzword over the next few years. That's why
when I meet my patients, I don't care about what
you're eating or anything like that the first visit. The
only thing I tell my patients to do in the
first visit is come up with a schedule. Tell me
what time do you want to go to bed, wake
(22:58):
up and eat your three meals, and if you're exercising,
tell me when do you want to exercise. And it
doesn't have to be perfect. Right, if you're a night out,
you don't have to become a morning person overnight. But
the first thing we work on is consistency. Even if
you're a night out, it's fine, just do the same
thing more routinely.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
If you want to go to bed at midnight, fine,
but stick to it. Okay, Right, that's the first step.
And then over time we say, okay, how about we
dial back the bedtime by ten minutes this month, ten
minutes this month. That's all we're doing, and before you know,
over six months or so, you've made a lot of progress. Right,
So first step is routine. Don't try to drastically change
(23:39):
your whole schedule around this. As long as you're doing
the same thing every day, so it's very attainable. It's
very practical.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Well yeah, and I like that you keep saying it
doesn't have to be perfect, because I mean, I know
my schedule is completely erratic. Every day is different, and
so sometimes I'm like listening to something like that, thinking, well,
I couldn't do that consistently. That's just not how my
life works. But I will say, if I have an
intention or a framework that I'm operating under, even when
(24:06):
my day is different or it looks different from the outside,
I can kind of have an idea at least of
something to do consistently for myself within that. And I
think a lot of people probably can if that makes
sense exactly.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
And you don't have to be per ahead, like you're
not supposed to eat your lunch exactly at noon right,
set your side window between twelve and two. I'll try
to get my lunch in, doesn't matter how crazy the
day is. It also helps you prioritize self care, right
because otherwise the work's never going to stop.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Right now.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
This where you're like, no, no, no, I don't want
to miss my window. This is the time I need
to eat and to nourish my body. So it's not
just about sticking two o'clock. It's actually about constantly being
intentional and mindful about your own well being and making
sure putting that first.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, I love that. Okay, let's talk a little bit
about gut health because I have learned over the past
couple of years how integral this is to the whole
our entire health and our entire well being. So you
have a bunch of stuff in the book about this.
Can we talk a little bit about just how important
gut health is.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yeah, gut health is really our entire universe are right
here under our belly book, and we're just scratching the surface. Really,
we're just learning about this. And it's interesting because in
Eastern medicine Iurveda and Chinese medicine is and every disease
starts in the gup.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Yeah, So you know, in Ariveda, there's a thing that
says food that is digested metabolized properly becomes nutrition, and
food that is not digested properly becomes toxic and food
cause of diseases.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Food is the same. So that's why our digestion, our
gut health, the bacteria in our gut are so important
for our aurall well being. And we cannot ignore that. Right,
It's not just about you know, popping a probiotic. That's
that's not what this is about. It's actually understanding our
individual digestion. So in the book, I give you tools
(25:59):
to really understand how strong your digestion is. So if
you ever go to an Arabatic doctor or if you
go to an acupuncturist, there's no perfect diet. They won't
say this is a perfect diet, follow keto paleo vegan
is no thing like that. They'll first assess how strong
your digestion is. So they'll say, if you have a
strong digestion, you can probably get away with eating a
(26:19):
lot of different things, things that are heavy to digest.
But a lot of us nowadays have slightly weaker digestion.
So that doesn't mean that, you know, just because nuts
are good or kale salad is good for you, if
you have a weak digestion, it's going to take a
lot to digest those nuts and that kale. Right, So, yes,
those foods are good, but if I can't digest it,
(26:40):
Remember if I don't digest, it becomes toxic and cause
a disease. That can digest it becomes nutrition it's a
whole different way of looking at our gut, understanding our
unique digestion and matching what we're eating based on what
we can digest.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
How do we know if we if we digest something
well or not?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah, So in the book I mentioned different symptoms, right,
So one of the ways you can assess your gut
health simple way is your bowl moments. You know, often
we control what goes in, but what the report card
comes out the other right. Yeah, so our bal movements
are actually a great indicator of how good our gut
help it. So I always prioritize making sure you have
every single day, daily regular bowel movement, right, So that's
(27:22):
step number one. The second thing is also how do
you feel after you eat? Right after you eat? Do
you feel energized? You're like, great, I feel more energy,
My blood sugar is balanced now or are you feeling
more tired, more lethargic, more bloated? Right, gas, floating, acid, reflux.
All these symptoms are telling you that our digestion is
(27:43):
not optimal or the food we're eating is not really
matching up to what we can digest. Yeah, So it's
all a boy listening to our body and listening to
these subtle signs.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
I kind of think it's funny because our culture has
created an entire holiday around eating food that makes us
tired start Thanksgiving, you know, like we have this thing
that it's a mentality and it's so acceptable that you
go take a nap after Thanksgiving lunch. And I'm not
saying there's anything wrong with that, but I've always or
recently just thought that that was really interesting because I'm thinking,
(28:15):
in my head, the reason we're so tired is because
we're eating food that's not registering with our bods or.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Even just the amount of it, right, it's oa following
our digestion. Yeah. So, but I always tell people, you know,
intentional health is all about balance, and that's what the
twenty eight Day we said it's about. So I always
you know, this is how I practice intentional health in
my life is I don't deprive myself by anything, you know. Yeah,
And my husband and I have big foody So every
(28:41):
year we go on a food pilgrimage, we call it.
So if I'm in Italy, I'm eating all the POSI can, yes,
taking all the wine. If I'm in India eating all
the street food. Right. So would I enjoy it? You know,
I love food. I love to travel. That's how we
experience life, That's how we connect with our family, with
our friends. Nothing wrong with it, But it's all about balance.
(29:02):
So when I come back from that vacation from Italy,
I'm doing the twenty eight devyset. I'm simplifying my diet, right,
So I balance fief thing with fasting. When you do that,
when you strike that balance, it's sustainable. You're not depriving,
but you're also not just putting your body through that constantly. Yeah,
So it's a whole different way of looking at it,
and it also empowers us. It prevents us from feeling
(29:25):
guilty from if we are eating that Thanksgiving meal, and
if you want to be in food coma after, go
for it as long as you know that, hey, maybe
the week after I need to take it easy. Yeah, right,
I need to hit the gym a little bit, or
even it's walking or something. But that empowers you and
your full control. You don't have that guilt. You know,
(29:45):
you're in the moment, not knocking yourself like why am
I eating this? You know, it's like I'm going to
enjoy this, right, and then tomorrow, I'll take care of this. Right.
So that's a whole different way of looking at it,
and it's empowering, but also it's sort of a big
side I feel.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Yeah, well, I mentioned this a little bit at the
beginning of the podcast, but I have a real I
get really worked up about people throwing pills at stuff
without looking at the behind the scenes, Like why do
you feel that way?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Though?
Speaker 1 (30:12):
You know, that's always something I want to ask, And
I've become almost to this place where it's like, I
want to see a holistic doctor versus a Western medicine
doctor if I have the choice, because they'll really look
at the root cause behind things. And you mentioned this
in the book, so talk a little bit about diving
into root causes and the importance of that.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Yeah, so that's what different shaped really exactly what you said,
the holistic perspective on health is we are not just
saying here's a label, here's a pill, right, We're saying, Okay,
this is what's going on. Let's step back, let's do
an investigation. Let's play detective and figure out why this happened.
And these seemingly you know, disconnected symptoms. Maybe there's a
(30:55):
common denominator here just meant that's in different areas of
your body, maybe something deeper down. It's all connected. So
Western medicine is limited to that extent, right, it doesn't
really know how to do a root cause analysis. The
Eastern medicine excels at it. So in the book I
talk about understanding our own unique constitution. So in Irreta,
(31:16):
we all have different sort of body types, and it's
called doshes. So people with something called vata dosha have
certain symptoms, so they're more prone to say constipation, dry skin,
dry hair, more anxiety, sleep issues, they have trouble gaining weight,
and Pitta types tend to get stressed very easily, and
(31:37):
they often get more inflammation, more heat in the body,
and more rendants of the skin, acid reflux, sometimes diarrhea.
And there's some people who are cougher body type, so
they tend to gain weight very easily, hard to lose weight.
They're more likely to suffer from things like depression. And
all these body types have their strong suits. So when
we're balanced, you know, Coppa body type are some of
(31:58):
the strongest, more resilient, most loyal people. A bit of
type are the leaders right and lot the type are
the creatives. So when we're balanced, we tap into the
positive sides of these things. But when we're out of balance,
there's certain things that kind of are weak points. Right,
So understanding our body how it's unique, and understanding the
body type can really help us understand what the root
(32:20):
cause is. And in Chinese medicine we say that there
is external causes of diseases and there are internal causes
of diseases. So external causes are related to our environment, right,
So right nowadays it's go go go. Our senses are overloaded,
so a lot of the fatigue and anxiety we experience
(32:41):
is because of that environment. And there's also a lot
of environmental pollutions. Right, there's toxins and the environment that's
also making us sick. And the internal causes are coming
from poor sleep, poor diet, lack of exercise, a lot
of stress. So if you understand how these things are
going to manifest as a disease, we're going to be
more proactive and pay closer attention to it. Yeah, So
(33:04):
that's the beauty of it. It's understanding the root cause
and paying attention. In a way we not only addressed
the existing condition, but we prevent future diseases from coming
it out.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Well that's the point, right, Like that feel like when
you just go attack the symptom with a like a
pill or whatever, and those things are great, Like I do,
I don't want to sound like I'm hating on Western medicine.
I do think that there is a purpose for it,
and I think that it's great to be able to
take away a symptom. But like if you don't look
at where it's coming from, first of all, it's probably
going to come back. Second of all, taking that medicine
(33:36):
is going to create other issues in your body. So
it's the like big cycle we seem to get in
and we're just looking at all these symptoms and then
before you know it, you're like diagnosed with cancer and
it's like, wait, there was this thing happening the whole time,
and it was just never being talked about our address,
which is like mind blowing to me.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
And that's why I wrote this book intentional. It's all
about it. It's a manual for you to understand your
own body. Yeah, we're never taught that, No, we really aren't.
We're never taught that. We're always told to ignore these
signs and just like wait for things to get really bad. Yeah, said,
how about we use five thousand of years signs to
understand how your body is different and how it affects you.
(34:18):
It's going to be different for someone else. It's not
about hey, that person did that die and last wait
let me try that. Fine, but your body is different.
So how about you understand your body first and match
your diet your lifestyle to suit what it's going to
work for you. You'll get much better results if you do
it that way, right.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, Well, there's a chapter called anti Aging Detox, and
I was like, this is going to be the selling
point big time for people. So talk us through a
little bit about the anti aging detox.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, so that's a little bit of preview to the
twenty eight day Reset. So in detox, in our world,
we're taught that detox is about, you know, going on
a crazy diet or drinking a ton of green juice
or coffee anima, something very extreme. Right, Yes, But in
the book I talk about detox as a function of
doing less, not more. So Remember I said, our body
(35:08):
has two jobs. A day job is to digest food, right,
extra nutrition, and at nighttime it's detoxing and it's resetting, rejuvenating.
So when we're talking about detox and anti aging, it's
about easing off on the digestion. What we're doing is
we're doing long rate, intimate and fasting. We're eating ray, simple,
(35:28):
easy to digest foods, so our body is not spending
all its energy and just trying to break down that
state or the hamburger. Right. Instead, we're eating simple foods,
avoiding things like gluten and dairy because not that they're bad,
but they obviously are heavier to digest. Right, what we're
doing is saving our energy, not wasting it on just
digesting food. Instead, we're using it to detoxify more. So
(35:51):
that's the key. That's what the yogis do to live
a long healthy life. There's no magic herb or supplement
for this, right, there's no magic green juice for this.
Our body can handle it. Trust me, you will do
the best job at detox and anti aging if we
just get out of the way. So the twenty day
reset is all about getting out of the way. Right.
(36:11):
Is not doing anything extreme. It's simplifying your diets, simplifying
your diet, your lifestyle. Right, So being on social media
or talking to people that causes more anxiety, and so
we're what we're doing is avoiding things that are draining
our energy, so we can really focus on detox. It's
actually a very simple concept and easy to implement and
(36:34):
something we should do on a regular basis. In Ioveta,
twice a year, actually a change of season, you're supposed
to do this type of lidy detox. Oh really, it
helps you. Yeah, it helps you transition into the new
season much easily. And if you notice, we often get
sick at change of season right in the fall. And
there's actually a big study I mentioned in the book.
In this study, the researchers looked at people from all
(36:56):
different parts of the world and what they notice that
in the winter in Scandinavia, in Finland, the genes of
people there were shifting that allowed them to fight out
different viruses. Versus a place like Ghana in the monsoon
and rainy season when they get a lot of mosquito
born diseases, their genes were shifting to protect them better
from them. So every season, our body is going through
(37:17):
a significant shift genetically, are metabolically spiritually, I feel like too. Yeah,
So that's why in Airta. There's saying, you know, a
change of season, that's when you kind of take a
step back and detox. So if you notice a lot
of religious holidays like bathing based, like lent a Ramadan,
(37:39):
a lot of those actually fall during change of seasons.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Okay, that makes total sense. Yeah, I've never even thought
about that.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, so just better equips us. So that's like help maintenance.
If we have a car, we get oil change, we
get routine mats. Right, what are we doing for our body?
So twice a year it's a good reminder for us
to say, I'm prioritizing myself here, I'm stepping back, easing off,
and allowing my body.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
What it does.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
So yeah, I mean we do. It's like we take
breaks on the holidays too, so that it obviously is
in our mind to do that. It kind of is
making me think back to the circadian rhythm part of
the conversation too, Because our body knows certain things by
(38:23):
the way the sun comes up or anything like that,
so it's the same with a change of seasons. I
would imagine it's extremely sensitive.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
So our body can sense even a slight change in
the weather, the slightest change in the amount of sunlight
we're getting exposed to. Your body knows, how do trees know?
How do animals? How do bears know to go into hibernation?
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Right?
Speaker 2 (38:44):
They listen to their body, They listen to these subtle
changes in the environment around them, right. So I think
we just need to be more in tune with that
and respect that our body is going through the changes
at different times of the year, so that we can
adjust our lifestyle accordingly.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
And I just love that you're pointing out so much
about the mind body connection here because and you mentioned
this at the beginning of the podcast, but I do
talk a lot about like the somatic therapy kind of work,
because I think emotions and how we carry stress and
all of that ties so much into our physical health,
which you do touch on in the book as well.
But I love the idea of this reset of just
(39:21):
removing it because to me, I hear such an emotional
spiritual component to that as well.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
You cannot separate the two. In fact, you know, if
we nourish our spirit or emotions or mental health, that
will only manifest positively in our body. Whatever is manifesting
in the body, I feel like has a root somewhere
and our thoughts and our emotions and our spirit. So
the reset is not just about drinking green juice or
herbs or anything like that. The reset is all encompassing, right.
(39:48):
This is the time where we're taking a moment or
reflect on our intentions that we're setting what does hell
truly mean? Because I strongly believe that it's not just
the food that needs to be digested and processed. Our thoughts,
our emotions, our traumas or experiences. All of those things
need to be processed. So if we don't allow for
(40:10):
their space from time to time to allow that processing,
we're going to hold it in the worst places that
it's going to manifest. It's discomfort and disease. Right. So
that's what the twenty a dailyset is too. It's not
just about your body, your food or anything like that.
It's also you're taking that time to say, instead of
spending all these hours starting out of computer, I'm going
(40:31):
to take thirty minutes in my day literally just a
fraction of that time that instead of doing this, I'm
going to do something that's actually going to charge my baddy.
Maybe I'll start journaling right, or I'll listen to I'll
spend more time in nature. So figure out what kind
of heals your soul. And it's different for everybody, right,
make space for it, right, And twenty day reset is
(40:51):
a time for you to experiment if you're not used
to it, figure out what suits your soul and stay
with that practice even past the twenty eight daily set. Well.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
And for those people who are listening, here are like
twenty eight days that sounds forever you do talk about
a twenty minute daily ritual that can also be incorporated.
And so maybe that if this the twenty eight day
sounds overwhelming to you, guys, maybe the twenty minute daily
ritual is a good place to start. So can you
talk us through that ritual?
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Yeah, And I'll just say quickly, with the twenty d reset,
it's really about thirty minutes of your day that you're
dedicating to this. The rest of the time you're doing
everything you normally do, it's actually less time, right, And
the time you're getting the thirty minutes from is the
stuff that's actually wasting your energy. Right, So you're real
showing right, which needs to go anyway, if you're creating
(41:41):
new thirty minute of life right, time to do this
you're carving it out of things are actually hurting you
and focus, yah, things actually helping you in for you yeah,
charging your spirit. Yeah, So it's actually doing less, not
more so as much a twenty eight days seems, Daunte,
it's really you know it. It's just the amount of
time that it takes three body to really do deep work, right.
(42:01):
It's not a quick fix. And the benefit of twenty
minute your ritual, the daily ritual, is that all the
benefit that you get from twenty eight days, we want
the body to continue building on it. And this is
your opportunity every single day to bring your body back
to balance. So it's a little cleanup that we're doing
every single day, and we're doing the deep cleaning once
or twice a year, right, So the twenty minute ritual,
(42:25):
and I always quantify everything by time, right, So it
seems daunting. But if you say twenty days is a
long time, but hey, thirty minutes every day, can you
do it? Yeah, that's doable.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
You can do anything for thirty minutes a day exactly.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
And then twenty minutes. Can you give me twenty minutes
in your day just so to maintain all that line up, right, Yes,
so the twenty minutes are split up throughout the day.
So the biggest opportunity that we have is first thing
in the morning and before we go to bed, so
it's not really interfering with your day to day, right,
So in the beginning of the day, I really want
you to spend three to five minutes to setting an
intention before you look at your phone or anything while
(42:59):
you're in bed, I just want you to close your
eyes and set an intention for the day. What do
you want to happen? What's how are you feeling right
that check in and you are giving your mind and
your body direction. Okay, this is what I'm going to
focus on today. This is what's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Right.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
You'll be amazed how much of a difference that makes.
Right and just spending a few minutes doing some deep
breathing grounding yourself in the morning will completely change the
rest of your day. So that's how we're starting, and
I also add in a few things about your oral
health and IRTA that's very important for your gut health
that we're doing in there. Also, from bringing a big
(43:37):
glass of warm water so as you wake up, to
maybe spending a couple of minutes doing oil pulling that
has tremendous health benefits. Right, that's just the morning, and
then in the evening for ten minutes, I encourage you
to do either journaling or a body scan, meditation, gentle
yoga stretches, listen to music, something that helps you stay
ground it right, you pick it's your ten minutes, right,
(43:59):
ten minutes or your body just like you're charging your
battery of your phone overnight. And then during the day,
I only expect you to spend three minutes doing this,
which is one minute of deep breathing before you eat.
Oh okay, so I just want you to kind of
take a minute pause before you eat, take some deep breaths,
(44:19):
and then it's just one minute before each meal, so
three times a day. It's very simple. It's easily doable, right,
But the more you make it part of your life,
I cannot tell you how your digestion, how you're digesting
that food will be completely different just because you spend
a minute centering yourself first.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
That is crazy. That one just got me. So one
minute of deep breathing before you eat and our body,
it helps our body digest things.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
So what happens is the deep Breathing gets your body
out of fight and flight into a laxation. Yeah, activates
a nerve called the vagus nerve that's entirely responsible for
your digestion. So when you do that, you have better
acid production, you have more enzymes, you have better motility
in the guy. So a lot of IDs things that
I see in my practice are often related to just
(45:05):
us being trapped in fine flight. So it's not about
even changing your diet. I say, don't even worry about
changing your diet. All I want you to do is
take a couple of minutes before you eat and eat
your food, slowly, chew your food, enjoy your food. That's it.
I'm not even changing your diet. And I can tell
you more than fifty percent of their symptoms improof just
by doing this.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
That is crazy. Okay, I'm going to start that one today.
I love that one.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
So simple.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
Yeah, it's just so simple, and it's just I love
that it's making you actually or it's making us pause,
because I think that is one of our culture's biggest
problems is that we go go, go, go go, and
it's so unconscious everything we're doing, and this just kind
of brings you back into your body. I know, I
start my day meditating and that has changed so much
(45:50):
for me to set intentions like you're saying in the
beginning of the day, but also to kind of check
in with myself and really, you know, kind of go
through what I want for the day. And you talk
a lot about positivity and not in the way of
like toxic positivity. Let's only focus on the good things,
but how to rewire our brains for that, because we
are in such very divisive time with so much overwhelming
(46:14):
stuff happening, and I think a lot of us are
still processing maybe even what went on in the pandemic
and starting to kind of see some symptoms come up
from that time and everyone's life. So there are three
actionable things that you talk about doing to just shift
into a positive outlook. Can you tell the listeners about
those three things?
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Yeah. So first thing is really focusing on gratitude. So
there's actually a lot of research on expressing gratitude and
I've seen that in action. Actually, in my practice, I
often connect you know, I use a lot of technology
with ancient wisdom. Yeah, So for some of my patients,
I'll actually hook them up to something called heart and
variability monitors, and that's actually recording your heart rhythm and
(46:55):
it tells me when you're stressed or when you're relaxed.
And one of the most positive, like for you know,
amazing things I've seen is I'll tell patients are really
stressed or anxious and they can see their heart rhythm
as beating, where yet normally no say just close your
eyes and just count things that you're grateful for. Who
do you want to think in your life? What are
you grateful for? So I'll just have them close their
(47:17):
eyes and do that for a couple of minutes, and
I cannot tell you their heart rhythm changes completely. And
if I put like a sensor on their head, I'll
see their brain waves change completely. So gratitude is actually
extremely powerful, and the studies have shown just keeping a
gratitude journal for fifteen minutes three times a week can
significantly improve anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and just overall well being. Right,
(47:42):
and sometimes I get better results with that than some
of the anti depressis right right effect. Yeah, So the
first step is just gratitude, and if you start with that,
that will help you focus on what's actually important in life. Right.
So you crowd out a lot of the noise and
come more mindful and aware. So the second step is
(48:02):
just being aware of our thoughts what's going on. It's
not about judging them, it's just saying, this is what's
going on, being mindful, being present, checking in with ourselves.
And then when we do that, the third thing automatically happens.
It allows us to respond to situations rather than react. Right,
(48:24):
So often what happens we're going about mindlessly and just
you know, something upsets us, we just get upset right away. Right, Yeah,
Uber's late, I'm upset. You know, somebody yells at me.
I'm upset. You know my phone's not breaking down, I'm upset. Right,
we're just reacting to all these things without having that
sensation of gratitude, without being mindful. So when we are
(48:47):
have this gratitude expression, when we are mindful of what's
going on, what automatically happens is that we start responding.
So we get that pause and we say, you know what,
Uber's late, It's okay, I'll get there. When I get there.
I can control this. Someone's making me angry, they're giving
me anger, but I don't have to take it. That's
(49:08):
their anger and it let it stay with them. I
don't have to take it. So funny, that's the beauty.
That's the beauty of positivity and rewiring. Yeah, we do
it by gratitude, by being mindful and choosing to respond
not just react.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Yeah, I love those well, doctor Farik, thank you so
much for being here. The book is Intentional Health, and
I'm going to link this in the description of the
podcast for you guys. I'm a big fan. This is
going to start being my gift to people. I love
this book, so I highly encourage you guys to go
out and get it. Where else can people find you
if they want to keep up with your work.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
So you can go on the website intentionalhealth dot io
or you can follow me on Instagram at intentional.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Health Underscore Awesome. I'll put all of that also in
the description of this podcast. Thank you again so much.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
For being here, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (49:58):
Thank you guys for listening.
Okay, it's the beginning of the year, and I feel
like that is just the time that everyone goes to resets, right,
like resets in every different area of our life. And
I'm constantly talking with you guys about the inner work, therapy,
energy work, all of those things. But that doesn't include
the health piece of this, which is also just a
(00:32):
huge part. Our bodies are the only way we're existing, obviously,
And so I am so excited today because I have
doctor Chitty Perik here and she is one of the
leading integrative medicine physicians in the country. She's the founder
of Integrated Health and well Being at wild Cornell Medicine,
New York Presbyterian Hospital, and her first book has just
(00:54):
come out, Intentional Health, Detoxified, Nourish and Rejuvenate your Body
into Balance. Doctor Peric, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
We were just talking before the podcast and I asked
you how COVID has actually impacted your world, and you
said it even inspired you to write this book. So
can you talk a little bit about it. I know
you were on the front lines during the pandemic and
then you got COVID pretty early on which then turned
into long COVID. So can you tell us a little
bit about what happened there?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, I mean April twenty twenty was an interesting time.
It was I was getting ready to get married. Actually
it was supposed to get married in May. It was
a very exciting time, but things took obviously a different turn.
I ended up on the front lines in New York,
as you know, got hit pretty early on. So I
was in the thick of it, one of the busiest
hospitals in New York and just working NonStop. And I
(01:48):
got COVID, and at that time, it was very scared
to get COVID, right, we still didn't know this seat.
I didn't have much time to recover because I knew
I had to just go right back. There was such
a dire need a few days of rest. I just
went right back. And then finally when the dust settled,
I recognized that, hey, I was running on adrenaline this
(02:08):
whole time. Then I saw symptoms such as I was
just getting tired so much, my hair was falling out,
I was getting short of breath doing simple yoga poses
that I could do, you know, without any problem. And
I was losing weight. E when I was eating healthy.
So I was just trying to figure out what's going
on in my body. And this was before anyone even
(02:31):
knew what long COVID was right very early on. So
I was scouring the internet trying to ask my colleague,
trying to figure out what was going on, but there
were no answers. This is such a random story, but
I was on Amazon, probably ordering toilet paper.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
As we all were during the hour, and.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Randomly this recommendation for an out of print book about
one hundred and eighty five year old Yogi came up.
I have no explanation through this day how that happened.
I wasn't researching anything about that. So I ordered this
out of print book from someone I don't even know
from where I read it. And that's what inspired me
because in the book it talked about the ancient yoga
(03:14):
science of detoxification. It was called kaya kulpook, which means
transformation of your body. That Yogi's used this science to
turn back their biological clock so they could continue their
spiritual journey right, so their body could be in the
best shape, so they could continue meditating and trying to
focus on just spending hours in very ustier conditions. So
(03:38):
inspired from that, I knew the science is something called
Poncha karma, which is a toxification ritual used in iobeta.
It's been around for thousands of years, and that is
accessible to all of us, not just the yogi, right,
So I said, let me just try that. I know
I've helped. You know, a lot of my patients have
done it in the past. I recommended and really helped them.
So I was like, let me just try it. And
(04:00):
for thirty days I did it diligently, and I cannot
tell you within a week into it the transformation I
saw in my body. I mean my hair immediately started
falling out, and I started feeling better, just stronger inside out.
And within a couple of months I was back to myself,
actually even better than what I was before COVID. And
(04:23):
I just couldn't believe it. And I used every Western
medicine technique I could possibly think of, any blood tests,
supplement might I mean naybe. I did it all and
none of that helped. So this really inspired me, and
I said, you know, this is not just about curing
long COVID, but it just reinstated my strong belief that
our body is incredibly intelligent. Everything we need to lead
(04:46):
a long, healthy life is right in here. Right. It's
not in some magic diet, it's not in some superfood
or anything. It's right here. So what I did during
this process was I just got out of its way
and I let the inner healing really come forward. And
that's what inspired me to write the book. But also
the twenty eight day Reset is based on this ancient science,
(05:08):
now simplified it so that everyone can take advantage of
it and help bring their body back to balance whenever
they need it.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah. I mean we talked about this a little before
the podcast too, but one of the main things you
talk about in the book, and we'll get to that
in just a second, but it's just sort of the
mentality of let's throw a pill at something, let's, you know,
try to do the quick fix for things. And just
like you just said, our bodies are our best healers.
I truly believe that, and obviously, thank God for Western medicine.
(05:38):
There are some things that have become accessible to us
because of that that we could have never come up with.
But I just feel like we missed the mark so often.
Is that something you see consistently in the medicine world.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
This is something I see day and data, day out.
And that's what inspired me to start this program at
Cornell near Presbyteritia Hospital because what happened in Western medicine
that it does a really good job at acute conditions, right, Right,
So you get a bad infection, you get to strow, Great,
we can fix it, right. But health is a journey.
It's a big spectrum, right, It's not just those acute moments.
(06:15):
So I always wanted to be the kind of doctor
that people go to, not just when they're sick, but
they go to me to stay healthy. Right, That's what
I really went into medicine for. But our current medical
system or current medical training just doesn't train you to
be the doctor that people go to to stay healthy.
So I to relearn the medicine. I had to relearn
(06:36):
Eastern medicine, to relearn nutrition, functional medicine. I learned acupuncture.
I wanted to expand my toolbox. So someone came to me,
I couldn't you know, I wasn't just fixing the disease,
but I was looking at the whole person, and I
was helping them, giving them the tools, not just matching
an ill to a pill and saying, oh, you got this,
here's the pill for that, right. I wanted to do
(06:58):
so much more than that. I wanted to give people
tools that they can use to stay healthy and get
to understand their body better, rather than just relying on
a doctor or blood test to say this is what's wrong. Well.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
The other issue with that program or that way of
doing things is we're going to the doctor when the
issue is already beyond the point, like we're having the
massive heart attack or meltdown or whatever, and there's all
these things that led up to that point, but we're
like not paying attention to those things. It's just the
big event, you know, exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
So we wait for we're almost like sitting down. So
let's wait, Yeah, really goes wrong, and then we'll fix
it right, right, But what about all the opportunity we
have in this moment to focus on our wellbeing and
not just our physical wellbeing. I strongly believe that we
are not just the body. We are our mind where
our spirit, where our emotions, where our community and all
(07:52):
of these things make us who we are. So let's
focus on, you know, establishing a better mind body connection,
a better emotion state, a better connection with our community
so that we don't end up in that acute state.
So prevention is always better than the cure. So if
our healthcare system's not doing it, us as individuals have
(08:13):
to take ownership and make that our priority.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah. I actually love that autonomy though. It's like taking
the responsibility for your own body. I mean we should
be doing that anyway. Yes, Right, So let's talk a
little bit about the book. It's called Intentional Health. Detoxify, nourish,
and rejuvenate your body into balance. This book is a
comprehensive roadmap that empowers individuals to take charge of their health,
(08:37):
just like we've been saying through five thousand years of science,
combining ancient wisdom with cutting edge science. I think it's
so interesting to read that five thousand piece of that
because I'm like, right, it's always been here, and we
come in and we try to do all these different things,
and it's like, no, let's go back to what was
working in the first place, right.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, And it stood the test of time. Still here
we're still practicing it.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Well, you start the book talking about health intentions, and
when I was first reading that part of the book.
I thought, well, this is like right obviously right, Like
it's one of those things that someone just needed to
say to me to like let it click. But I
think that that can be something that's a little bit overwhelming.
Like as the listeners are listening to this and we're saying, oh,
(09:24):
you know, go set some health intentions, it would feel
intimidating to me. So can you help us just kind
of break it down? Like where do we even know
how to start here?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
So what happens when it comes to health and wellness
that we are often bombarded with these images of perfection,
right we're told we look into a magazine, we look
at social media, we look at billboards, and we are
soul this idea that to be healthy you have to
be doing you know, you're supposed to exercise every day, meditate,
not be stressed, eat a perfect diet, you know, sleep
(09:56):
eight hours, been plenty of water, and the lift goes on. Right, overwhelming,
and we feel like we're always falling short. In Eastern medicine,
the idea of health is never about perfection. There's no
perfect image of health. Idea of health is all about balance.
So that's what I really focus on when it comes
to intentional health and setting an intention that it's not
(10:19):
about an ideal image of what health looks like based
on other people are telling you. It's about asking yourself
the question, what does health truly look like and mean
for me? And it's different for every single person, and
it's different for us at every stage of our life.
What we're trying to do, what health means to us
(10:39):
when we're in our twenties, thirties, forties, fifties is different.
So we have to be intentional about what that dialogue
is with ourself, what truly matters to us. It's not
just about a certain way side or a weight or anything, right,
it's about what does health allow me to do? This
(11:00):
body is our vessel to experience life. Like you said
in the beginning, right, the body is our best ally.
So what do I need this body for? What do
I want to accomplish? What do I want to experience
this body? And let's set an intention to get there.
So it's a much deeper conversation. So I encourage and
that's the first question I asked my patients when I
(11:21):
see him in the office. You know, it's not about
what the doctor tells you to do. It's not about
you know, losing weight or not getting cancer or nothing
like that. It's about what can you control. Because intentional
health setting it intention's all about things that we can control. Right.
I can say set an intention and say I'm choosing
to prioritize my mental health this year. I'm choosing to
(11:45):
focus on my self care, my well being. I'm choosing
to nourish my body with food that brings me joy,
that brings me energy, and that makes me whole. Right.
So the words that we choose to disc health intension
is also so important. So it's about positivity. It's about
(12:05):
setting an intention that is attainable that we can control.
It's not a lofty dream that someone else tells us
to obtain. Right. So it's a deep inner conversation that
we should be having with ourselves on a regular basis.
It's not just at the beginning of the year, right,
but it's something we need to check in with ourselves
all the time.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
When I love the fact that you just mentioned the
positivity piece, you mentioned diets, and this made me kind
of ping to this thought. But everything with a diet
to me has always sounded so restrictive. And when you
frame something at the beginning of it, I can't have
why do you want to do it?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
For me?
Speaker 1 (12:44):
At least I don't get very motivated by that, like
to tell myself, I can't have something just because it's
probably going to cause me to slip or not be
able to follow through with things ultimately. But when I
do something and I set an intention, like you're saying,
like on this podcast, even we set intentions with we
set a word of the year, and that's our intention,
you know, And so everything brings me back to my
(13:06):
word of the year as I'm going through the processes
of whatever it is, work, relationships, anything like that. So
with health, I love the idea of setting something positive
as an act of like self care, self love, as
a way of taking care of ourselves as adults, you know,
and like lovingly, that energy to me feels so different
from a restrictive diet or I can't have this because
(13:29):
I don't want to get cancer exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
And whatever wherever our mind goes or body will follow. Yeah,
So I don't mind my mind to go, oh, that's spread.
I can't have gluten, I can't have dairy. I can't no,
I can't do this. This if our mind is constantly
going there. Our body is confused, and it's it's constantly
being channeled this negative energy or do not, do not,
do not right, instead of I'm focusing My priority is
(13:57):
nourishing my body. My priority is is putting in food
in the body that's going to energize me, that's going
to heal me. Right, every time I eat, I'm thinking energy,
I'm thinking healing. I'm thinking enjoyment, right, not restriction. And
I cannot tell you how important that is. And I
see this every single day in my practice. Right, It's
(14:19):
we become so restricted with our mentality sometimes that we
don't know how to channel that energy the other way around.
So a lot of work I do with my patients
is just changing that dialogue, changing that language that we
are using when it comes to our own health in
our own body. That is so important. I cannot tell
you to follow this diet or do anything until we
have that discussion.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, like the gluten thing. You mentioned gluten, and I
don't do gluten or dairy in my diet. And a
lot of my friends are like, oh, that must be terrible,
you know, And at first it was it was hard,
But for me, I just realized ultimately, I feel so
much better, I have so much more energy, I sleep better,
(15:00):
just don't feel heavy after a meal, I'm not tired.
And those were the two culprits for me of that
it's not for everybody. But once I like realize, oh wait,
I'm not saying I'm not going to eat this because
I can't. It's because I just want to feel good.
I don't actually miss it like it's fine.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
That's and that's how you're able to stick to it. People,
I've seen you give up those things because I restrict
the mentality and then negative image of why you're doing
something versus like, hey, I'm doing this because it's going
to make me feel better. I'll have more energy, Yeah,
I'll have less floating whatever it might be. Right, that's
a completely different conversation that you're having every time you
see something with gluten. Yeah, she's like, no, no, no, I can't.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
I can't, I can't, I can't exactly. Well, we mentioned
how old some of these practices are that you tapped
into to write this book, and so I want to
move into the Seven Ancient Secrets. So in the book,
you deviled seven ancient secrets and you say that you
will learn how your body functions from me. So your
(16:01):
circadian rhythm, the gut, microbiome, these are hard words for me.
Also her metabolism and the mind body connection, which we
kind of touched on as well. But I want to
start with circadian rhythm. What is that?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
So circadian rhythm is our internal body clock?
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Okay, right?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
How does our body recognize what time of the day
it is? What is it supposed to do? Just like
you and I have a schedule to keep right in
the morning, we wake up, we have breakfast, we have
this meeting or this right, same thing. The body does
something different almost every hour. It has a different task
to focus on. So it's important for it to know
what time of the day it is. Is it midnight,
(16:40):
then I shouldn't. I don't have to worry about digesting
food because it's midnight, I'm sleep right Right, If it's lunch,
I don't have to worry about sleep. I have to
worry about digesting this meal. So it needs a very
good accurate understanding of what time of the data is
so it does the right physiological function.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Majority of the diseases nowadays that were seeing are because
our circadan rhythm is disruptive. Really, we're not listening to
o internal body cloth. Actually, just about three years ago,
three scientists received the Nobel Prize for Medicine because of
their work in this brand new field of chronobiology. Chrono
means time and biology all about how circadian rhythm is
(17:21):
actually affecting every single thing in our body and how
common diseases that we're seeing from BCD to heart disease students,
certain cancers can be linked back to disruption in our
circadian rhythm. So I joke with my patients and I say, no,
I don't care about your diet. I don't care if
you go to the gym. Instead, instead of focusing on
(17:41):
just about what you're eating, I would much other focus
on when you're eating these meals and when you're actually exercising.
Because our timing our diet and exercise can actually really
change what health effects does it have? So why would
we not into our inner circadian rhythm align ourselves with
(18:03):
it so we get much better results from everything we're
doing right. So I've see a lot of patients who
are eating a perfect diet, exercising, doing all the right things,
yet they don't feel like they're optimal self. So a
lot of time it comes down to this routine and
keep and sticking to it. Okay, so even if you're
eating a healthy diet, but every day you're kind of
(18:24):
on the run. Today you had breakfast, tomorrow you skipped it,
and tomorrow you know, you had a heavy lunch the
day after a heavy dinner. That irregularity actually is very
stressful for the body. So that's why the first chapter,
the First Asian Secret, is about understanding your circaden rhythm
and synchronizing your routine, your schedule, what the body is
(18:46):
trying to do. When you do that, it's just effortless, right,
Why are we fighting against the body? Why don't we
work with it? So that's where we're starting with when
it comes to circadian rhythm.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
So this would be different for every single person because
your lifestyle is different or I mean, I'm just curious too,
is the wiring of each individual different with this stuff?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
So what's actually genetically wired for us is pretty similar. Okay,
So if you think about it, our cave men and
women ancestors, right, they have light bulbs, they didn't have
computer screens. Their life was essentially tied to that of
the sun. Right right when the sun came up, their
day started, they went out looking for food, they broke
their fast, they found something to eat. They were hunted, right,
(19:38):
and then by the time the sun goes down, their
day is over. They're done eating. They're hiding in their
cave right right. They're not up till midnight party and
going out to eat. They weren't doing that. They would
become a meal if they did that right, right. So
that's how our skating with them has evolved to do.
So I always say we don't work twenty first seven.
(19:58):
Neither does our body.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
It has a day shift and has a night shift.
During the day, it's prioritizing digesting our food and make
you know, extracting all the nutrients from it. And at
night it's detoxing. It's fixing things that are broken. So detalks, repair,
rejuvenation is happening at night. Okay, we have to respect
the daytime duties and the nighttime duties of our body.
(20:22):
So ideal clock, our ideal circaiting rhythm is really we
get up when the sun comes up. We eat three
meals a day. Breakfast supposed to be a bigger meal,
Lunch is the biggest meal, that's one of the digestion
is the strongest, and dinner is actually supposed to be
a lighter, earlier meal. We're supposed to eat dinner, you know,
be done with dinner by the time sun goes down,
(20:43):
and then we go to bed about three or four
hours after that. That's the ideal circadian rhythm. So bedtime
around ten to eleven, wake up time around six seven,
and then you have three meals a day. So that's
the ideal circadan rhythm. That's what we're designed to do
because of our ancestors for thousands of years, that's how
we evolved. So the closer we are to this schedule,
(21:06):
more effortlessly our body functions right. And studies have shown
so i'll quote you this very interesting study I just
read recently was that they took a group of people
who are actually pre diabetics or diabetics, and they told
them eat your breakfast at eight, lunch at noon, and
dinner on four or five and earlier dinner, so longer
(21:27):
intimate fasting, essentially not cutting calories, don't care about exercise,
eat whatever you want, you're just eating it at this
same time. When they did that, because they're more synchronized
with us cir kading rhythm. Their blood sugar went down
about twenty to thirty percent, they're insulin, their weight, all
of those markers just within a week or two they improved.
(21:48):
And then the same group of people they said, okay,
now let's speed it up. Now you're gonna eat your
first meal at noon, then like a lunch or a
snack around four, and dinner at eight. All of those
numbers got worse by thirty percent. Really no change in diet,
Like they weren't changing their diet. The same people within
just a couple of weeks, same exercise level, nothing else
(22:09):
was change just at the time. Maybe that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
This is why jet lag throws your body off.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
So bad, exactly. Yeah, so we are sometimes in that
social jet lag is what we're experiencing when we talk
about new fatigue and things like that. It's a social
jet lag. That's what our sort of modern lifestyle is doing, right,
It's conflicting with our circading rhythm and our genetics how
we evolved. So this is just this is the whole
(22:37):
new field. There's something called chrono nutrition is going to
be the buzzword over the next few years. That's why
when I meet my patients, I don't care about what
you're eating or anything like that the first visit. The
only thing I tell my patients to do in the
first visit is come up with a schedule. Tell me
what time do you want to go to bed, wake
(22:58):
up and eat your three meals, and if you're exercising,
tell me when do you want to exercise. And it
doesn't have to be perfect. Right, if you're a night out,
you don't have to become a morning person overnight. But
the first thing we work on is consistency. Even if
you're a night out, it's fine, just do the same
thing more routinely.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
If you want to go to bed at midnight, fine,
but stick to it. Okay, Right, that's the first step.
And then over time we say, okay, how about we
dial back the bedtime by ten minutes this month, ten
minutes this month. That's all we're doing, and before you know,
over six months or so, you've made a lot of progress. Right,
So first step is routine. Don't try to drastically change
(23:39):
your whole schedule around this. As long as you're doing
the same thing every day, so it's very attainable. It's
very practical.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Well yeah, and I like that you keep saying it
doesn't have to be perfect, because I mean, I know
my schedule is completely erratic. Every day is different, and
so sometimes I'm like listening to something like that, thinking, well,
I couldn't do that consistently. That's just not how my
life works. But I will say, if I have an
intention or a framework that I'm operating under, even when
(24:06):
my day is different or it looks different from the outside,
I can kind of have an idea at least of
something to do consistently for myself within that. And I
think a lot of people probably can if that makes
sense exactly.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
And you don't have to be per ahead, like you're
not supposed to eat your lunch exactly at noon right,
set your side window between twelve and two. I'll try
to get my lunch in, doesn't matter how crazy the
day is. It also helps you prioritize self care, right
because otherwise the work's never going to stop.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Right now.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
This where you're like, no, no, no, I don't want
to miss my window. This is the time I need
to eat and to nourish my body. So it's not
just about sticking two o'clock. It's actually about constantly being
intentional and mindful about your own well being and making
sure putting that first.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, I love that. Okay, let's talk a little bit
about gut health because I have learned over the past
couple of years how integral this is to the whole
our entire health and our entire well being. So you
have a bunch of stuff in the book about this.
Can we talk a little bit about just how important
gut health is.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yeah, gut health is really our entire universe are right
here under our belly book, and we're just scratching the surface. Really,
we're just learning about this. And it's interesting because in
Eastern medicine Iurveda and Chinese medicine is and every disease
starts in the gup.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Yeah, So you know, in Ariveda, there's a thing that
says food that is digested metabolized properly becomes nutrition, and
food that is not digested properly becomes toxic and food
cause of diseases.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Food is the same. So that's why our digestion, our
gut health, the bacteria in our gut are so important
for our aurall well being. And we cannot ignore that. Right,
It's not just about you know, popping a probiotic. That's
that's not what this is about. It's actually understanding our
individual digestion. So in the book, I give you tools
(25:59):
to really understand how strong your digestion is. So if
you ever go to an Arabatic doctor or if you
go to an acupuncturist, there's no perfect diet. They won't
say this is a perfect diet, follow keto paleo vegan
is no thing like that. They'll first assess how strong
your digestion is. So they'll say, if you have a
strong digestion, you can probably get away with eating a
(26:19):
lot of different things, things that are heavy to digest.
But a lot of us nowadays have slightly weaker digestion.
So that doesn't mean that, you know, just because nuts
are good or kale salad is good for you, if
you have a weak digestion, it's going to take a
lot to digest those nuts and that kale. Right, So, yes,
those foods are good, but if I can't digest it,
(26:40):
Remember if I don't digest, it becomes toxic and cause
a disease. That can digest it becomes nutrition it's a
whole different way of looking at our gut, understanding our
unique digestion and matching what we're eating based on what
we can digest.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
How do we know if we if we digest something
well or not?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah, So in the book I mentioned different symptoms, right,
So one of the ways you can assess your gut
health simple way is your bowl moments. You know, often
we control what goes in, but what the report card
comes out the other right. Yeah, so our bal movements
are actually a great indicator of how good our gut
help it. So I always prioritize making sure you have
every single day, daily regular bowel movement, right, So that's
(27:22):
step number one. The second thing is also how do
you feel after you eat? Right after you eat? Do
you feel energized? You're like, great, I feel more energy,
My blood sugar is balanced now or are you feeling
more tired, more lethargic, more bloated? Right, gas, floating, acid, reflux.
All these symptoms are telling you that our digestion is
(27:43):
not optimal or the food we're eating is not really
matching up to what we can digest. Yeah, So it's
all a boy listening to our body and listening to
these subtle signs.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
I kind of think it's funny because our culture has
created an entire holiday around eating food that makes us
tired start Thanksgiving, you know, like we have this thing
that it's a mentality and it's so acceptable that you
go take a nap after Thanksgiving lunch. And I'm not
saying there's anything wrong with that, but I've always or
recently just thought that that was really interesting because I'm thinking,
(28:15):
in my head, the reason we're so tired is because
we're eating food that's not registering with our bods or.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Even just the amount of it, right, it's oa following
our digestion. Yeah. So, but I always tell people, you know,
intentional health is all about balance, and that's what the
twenty eight Day we said it's about. So I always
you know, this is how I practice intentional health in
my life is I don't deprive myself by anything, you know. Yeah,
And my husband and I have big foody So every
(28:41):
year we go on a food pilgrimage, we call it.
So if I'm in Italy, I'm eating all the POSI can, yes,
taking all the wine. If I'm in India eating all
the street food. Right. So would I enjoy it? You know,
I love food. I love to travel. That's how we
experience life, That's how we connect with our family, with
our friends. Nothing wrong with it, But it's all about balance.
(29:02):
So when I come back from that vacation from Italy,
I'm doing the twenty eight devyset. I'm simplifying my diet, right,
So I balance fief thing with fasting. When you do that,
when you strike that balance, it's sustainable. You're not depriving,
but you're also not just putting your body through that constantly. Yeah,
So it's a whole different way of looking at it,
and it also empowers us. It prevents us from feeling
(29:25):
guilty from if we are eating that Thanksgiving meal, and
if you want to be in food coma after, go
for it as long as you know that, hey, maybe
the week after I need to take it easy. Yeah, right,
I need to hit the gym a little bit, or
even it's walking or something. But that empowers you and
your full control. You don't have that guilt. You know,
(29:45):
you're in the moment, not knocking yourself like why am
I eating this? You know, it's like I'm going to
enjoy this, right, and then tomorrow, I'll take care of this. Right.
So that's a whole different way of looking at it,
and it's empowering, but also it's sort of a big
side I feel.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Yeah, well, I mentioned this a little bit at the
beginning of the podcast, but I have a real I
get really worked up about people throwing pills at stuff
without looking at the behind the scenes, Like why do
you feel that way?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Though?
Speaker 1 (30:12):
You know, that's always something I want to ask, And
I've become almost to this place where it's like, I
want to see a holistic doctor versus a Western medicine
doctor if I have the choice, because they'll really look
at the root cause behind things. And you mentioned this
in the book, so talk a little bit about diving
into root causes and the importance of that.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Yeah, so that's what different shaped really exactly what you said,
the holistic perspective on health is we are not just
saying here's a label, here's a pill, right, We're saying, Okay,
this is what's going on. Let's step back, let's do
an investigation. Let's play detective and figure out why this happened.
And these seemingly you know, disconnected symptoms. Maybe there's a
(30:55):
common denominator here just meant that's in different areas of
your body, maybe something deeper down. It's all connected. So
Western medicine is limited to that extent, right, it doesn't
really know how to do a root cause analysis. The
Eastern medicine excels at it. So in the book I
talk about understanding our own unique constitution. So in Irreta,
(31:16):
we all have different sort of body types, and it's
called doshes. So people with something called vata dosha have
certain symptoms, so they're more prone to say constipation, dry skin,
dry hair, more anxiety, sleep issues, they have trouble gaining weight,
and Pitta types tend to get stressed very easily, and
(31:37):
they often get more inflammation, more heat in the body,
and more rendants of the skin, acid reflux, sometimes diarrhea.
And there's some people who are cougher body type, so
they tend to gain weight very easily, hard to lose weight.
They're more likely to suffer from things like depression. And
all these body types have their strong suits. So when
we're balanced, you know, Coppa body type are some of
(31:58):
the strongest, more resilient, most loyal people. A bit of
type are the leaders right and lot the type are
the creatives. So when we're balanced, we tap into the
positive sides of these things. But when we're out of balance,
there's certain things that kind of are weak points. Right,
So understanding our body how it's unique, and understanding the
body type can really help us understand what the root
(32:20):
cause is. And in Chinese medicine we say that there
is external causes of diseases and there are internal causes
of diseases. So external causes are related to our environment, right,
So right nowadays it's go go go. Our senses are overloaded,
so a lot of the fatigue and anxiety we experience
(32:41):
is because of that environment. And there's also a lot
of environmental pollutions. Right, there's toxins and the environment that's
also making us sick. And the internal causes are coming
from poor sleep, poor diet, lack of exercise, a lot
of stress. So if you understand how these things are
going to manifest as a disease, we're going to be
more proactive and pay closer attention to it. Yeah, So
(33:04):
that's the beauty of it. It's understanding the root cause
and paying attention. In a way we not only addressed
the existing condition, but we prevent future diseases from coming
it out.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Well that's the point, right, Like that feel like when
you just go attack the symptom with a like a
pill or whatever, and those things are great, Like I do,
I don't want to sound like I'm hating on Western medicine.
I do think that there is a purpose for it,
and I think that it's great to be able to
take away a symptom. But like if you don't look
at where it's coming from, first of all, it's probably
going to come back. Second of all, taking that medicine
(33:36):
is going to create other issues in your body. So
it's the like big cycle we seem to get in
and we're just looking at all these symptoms and then
before you know it, you're like diagnosed with cancer and
it's like, wait, there was this thing happening the whole time,
and it was just never being talked about our address,
which is like mind blowing to me.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
And that's why I wrote this book intentional. It's all
about it. It's a manual for you to understand your
own body. Yeah, we're never taught that, No, we really aren't.
We're never taught that. We're always told to ignore these
signs and just like wait for things to get really bad. Yeah, said,
how about we use five thousand of years signs to
understand how your body is different and how it affects you.
(34:18):
It's going to be different for someone else. It's not
about hey, that person did that die and last wait
let me try that. Fine, but your body is different.
So how about you understand your body first and match
your diet your lifestyle to suit what it's going to
work for you. You'll get much better results if you do
it that way, right.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, Well, there's a chapter called anti Aging Detox, and
I was like, this is going to be the selling
point big time for people. So talk us through a
little bit about the anti aging detox.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, so that's a little bit of preview to the
twenty eight day Reset. So in detox, in our world,
we're taught that detox is about, you know, going on
a crazy diet or drinking a ton of green juice
or coffee anima, something very extreme. Right, Yes, But in
the book I talk about detox as a function of
doing less, not more. So Remember I said, our body
(35:08):
has two jobs. A day job is to digest food, right,
extra nutrition, and at nighttime it's detoxing and it's resetting, rejuvenating.
So when we're talking about detox and anti aging, it's
about easing off on the digestion. What we're doing is
we're doing long rate, intimate and fasting. We're eating ray, simple,
(35:28):
easy to digest foods, so our body is not spending
all its energy and just trying to break down that
state or the hamburger. Right. Instead, we're eating simple foods,
avoiding things like gluten and dairy because not that they're bad,
but they obviously are heavier to digest. Right, what we're
doing is saving our energy, not wasting it on just
digesting food. Instead, we're using it to detoxify more. So
(35:51):
that's the key. That's what the yogis do to live
a long healthy life. There's no magic herb or supplement
for this, right, there's no magic green juice for this.
Our body can handle it. Trust me, you will do
the best job at detox and anti aging if we
just get out of the way. So the twenty day
reset is all about getting out of the way. Right.
(36:11):
Is not doing anything extreme. It's simplifying your diets, simplifying
your diet, your lifestyle. Right, So being on social media
or talking to people that causes more anxiety, and so
we're what we're doing is avoiding things that are draining
our energy, so we can really focus on detox. It's
actually a very simple concept and easy to implement and
(36:34):
something we should do on a regular basis. In Ioveta,
twice a year, actually a change of season, you're supposed
to do this type of lidy detox. Oh really, it
helps you. Yeah, it helps you transition into the new
season much easily. And if you notice, we often get
sick at change of season right in the fall. And
there's actually a big study I mentioned in the book.
In this study, the researchers looked at people from all
(36:56):
different parts of the world and what they notice that
in the winter in Scandinavia, in Finland, the genes of
people there were shifting that allowed them to fight out
different viruses. Versus a place like Ghana in the monsoon
and rainy season when they get a lot of mosquito
born diseases, their genes were shifting to protect them better
from them. So every season, our body is going through
(37:17):
a significant shift genetically, are metabolically spiritually, I feel like too. Yeah,
So that's why in Airta. There's saying, you know, a
change of season, that's when you kind of take a
step back and detox. So if you notice a lot
of religious holidays like bathing based, like lent a Ramadan,
(37:39):
a lot of those actually fall during change of seasons.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Okay, that makes total sense. Yeah, I've never even thought
about that.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, so just better equips us. So that's like help maintenance.
If we have a car, we get oil change, we
get routine mats. Right, what are we doing for our body?
So twice a year it's a good reminder for us
to say, I'm prioritizing myself here, I'm stepping back, easing off,
and allowing my body.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
What it does.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
So yeah, I mean we do. It's like we take
breaks on the holidays too, so that it obviously is
in our mind to do that. It kind of is
making me think back to the circadian rhythm part of
the conversation too, Because our body knows certain things by
(38:23):
the way the sun comes up or anything like that,
so it's the same with a change of seasons. I
would imagine it's extremely sensitive.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
So our body can sense even a slight change in
the weather, the slightest change in the amount of sunlight
we're getting exposed to. Your body knows, how do trees know?
How do animals? How do bears know to go into hibernation?
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Right?
Speaker 2 (38:44):
They listen to their body, They listen to these subtle
changes in the environment around them, right. So I think
we just need to be more in tune with that
and respect that our body is going through the changes
at different times of the year, so that we can
adjust our lifestyle accordingly.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
And I just love that you're pointing out so much
about the mind body connection here because and you mentioned
this at the beginning of the podcast, but I do
talk a lot about like the somatic therapy kind of work,
because I think emotions and how we carry stress and
all of that ties so much into our physical health,
which you do touch on in the book as well.
But I love the idea of this reset of just
(39:21):
removing it because to me, I hear such an emotional
spiritual component to that as well.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
You cannot separate the two. In fact, you know, if
we nourish our spirit or emotions or mental health, that
will only manifest positively in our body. Whatever is manifesting
in the body, I feel like has a root somewhere
and our thoughts and our emotions and our spirit. So
the reset is not just about drinking green juice or
herbs or anything like that. The reset is all encompassing, right.
(39:48):
This is the time where we're taking a moment or
reflect on our intentions that we're setting what does hell
truly mean? Because I strongly believe that it's not just
the food that needs to be digested and processed. Our thoughts,
our emotions, our traumas or experiences. All of those things
need to be processed. So if we don't allow for
(40:10):
their space from time to time to allow that processing,
we're going to hold it in the worst places that
it's going to manifest. It's discomfort and disease. Right. So
that's what the twenty a dailyset is too. It's not
just about your body, your food or anything like that.
It's also you're taking that time to say, instead of
spending all these hours starting out of computer, I'm going
(40:31):
to take thirty minutes in my day literally just a
fraction of that time that instead of doing this, I'm
going to do something that's actually going to charge my baddy.
Maybe I'll start journaling right, or I'll listen to I'll
spend more time in nature. So figure out what kind
of heals your soul. And it's different for everybody, right,
make space for it, right, And twenty day reset is
(40:51):
a time for you to experiment if you're not used
to it, figure out what suits your soul and stay
with that practice even past the twenty eight daily set. Well.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
And for those people who are listening, here are like
twenty eight days that sounds forever you do talk about
a twenty minute daily ritual that can also be incorporated.
And so maybe that if this the twenty eight day
sounds overwhelming to you, guys, maybe the twenty minute daily
ritual is a good place to start. So can you
talk us through that ritual?
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Yeah, And I'll just say quickly, with the twenty d reset,
it's really about thirty minutes of your day that you're
dedicating to this. The rest of the time you're doing
everything you normally do, it's actually less time, right, And
the time you're getting the thirty minutes from is the
stuff that's actually wasting your energy. Right, So you're real
showing right, which needs to go anyway, if you're creating
(41:41):
new thirty minute of life right, time to do this
you're carving it out of things are actually hurting you
and focus, yah, things actually helping you in for you yeah,
charging your spirit. Yeah, So it's actually doing less, not
more so as much a twenty eight days seems, Daunte,
it's really you know it. It's just the amount of
time that it takes three body to really do deep work, right.
(42:01):
It's not a quick fix. And the benefit of twenty
minute your ritual, the daily ritual, is that all the
benefit that you get from twenty eight days, we want
the body to continue building on it. And this is
your opportunity every single day to bring your body back
to balance. So it's a little cleanup that we're doing
every single day, and we're doing the deep cleaning once
or twice a year, right, So the twenty minute ritual,
(42:25):
and I always quantify everything by time, right, So it
seems daunting. But if you say twenty days is a
long time, but hey, thirty minutes every day, can you
do it? Yeah, that's doable.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
You can do anything for thirty minutes a day exactly.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
And then twenty minutes. Can you give me twenty minutes
in your day just so to maintain all that line up, right, Yes,
so the twenty minutes are split up throughout the day.
So the biggest opportunity that we have is first thing
in the morning and before we go to bed, so
it's not really interfering with your day to day, right,
So in the beginning of the day, I really want
you to spend three to five minutes to setting an
intention before you look at your phone or anything while
(42:59):
you're in bed, I just want you to close your
eyes and set an intention for the day. What do
you want to happen? What's how are you feeling right
that check in and you are giving your mind and
your body direction. Okay, this is what I'm going to
focus on today. This is what's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Right.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
You'll be amazed how much of a difference that makes.
Right and just spending a few minutes doing some deep
breathing grounding yourself in the morning will completely change the
rest of your day. So that's how we're starting, and
I also add in a few things about your oral
health and IRTA that's very important for your gut health
that we're doing in there. Also, from bringing a big
(43:37):
glass of warm water so as you wake up, to
maybe spending a couple of minutes doing oil pulling that
has tremendous health benefits. Right, that's just the morning, and
then in the evening for ten minutes, I encourage you
to do either journaling or a body scan, meditation, gentle
yoga stretches, listen to music, something that helps you stay
ground it right, you pick it's your ten minutes, right,
(43:59):
ten minutes or your body just like you're charging your
battery of your phone overnight. And then during the day,
I only expect you to spend three minutes doing this,
which is one minute of deep breathing before you eat.
Oh okay, so I just want you to kind of
take a minute pause before you eat, take some deep breaths,
(44:19):
and then it's just one minute before each meal, so
three times a day. It's very simple. It's easily doable, right,
But the more you make it part of your life,
I cannot tell you how your digestion, how you're digesting
that food will be completely different just because you spend
a minute centering yourself first.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
That is crazy. That one just got me. So one
minute of deep breathing before you eat and our body,
it helps our body digest things.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
So what happens is the deep Breathing gets your body
out of fight and flight into a laxation. Yeah, activates
a nerve called the vagus nerve that's entirely responsible for
your digestion. So when you do that, you have better
acid production, you have more enzymes, you have better motility
in the guy. So a lot of IDs things that
I see in my practice are often related to just
(45:05):
us being trapped in fine flight. So it's not about
even changing your diet. I say, don't even worry about
changing your diet. All I want you to do is
take a couple of minutes before you eat and eat
your food, slowly, chew your food, enjoy your food. That's it.
I'm not even changing your diet. And I can tell
you more than fifty percent of their symptoms improof just
by doing this.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
That is crazy. Okay, I'm going to start that one today.
I love that one.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
So simple.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
Yeah, it's just so simple, and it's just I love
that it's making you actually or it's making us pause,
because I think that is one of our culture's biggest
problems is that we go go, go, go go, and
it's so unconscious everything we're doing, and this just kind
of brings you back into your body. I know, I
start my day meditating and that has changed so much
(45:50):
for me to set intentions like you're saying in the
beginning of the day, but also to kind of check
in with myself and really, you know, kind of go
through what I want for the day. And you talk
a lot about positivity and not in the way of
like toxic positivity. Let's only focus on the good things,
but how to rewire our brains for that, because we
are in such very divisive time with so much overwhelming
(46:14):
stuff happening, and I think a lot of us are
still processing maybe even what went on in the pandemic
and starting to kind of see some symptoms come up
from that time and everyone's life. So there are three
actionable things that you talk about doing to just shift
into a positive outlook. Can you tell the listeners about
those three things?
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Yeah. So first thing is really focusing on gratitude. So
there's actually a lot of research on expressing gratitude and
I've seen that in action. Actually, in my practice, I
often connect you know, I use a lot of technology
with ancient wisdom. Yeah, So for some of my patients,
I'll actually hook them up to something called heart and
variability monitors, and that's actually recording your heart rhythm and
(46:55):
it tells me when you're stressed or when you're relaxed.
And one of the most positive, like for you know,
amazing things I've seen is I'll tell patients are really
stressed or anxious and they can see their heart rhythm
as beating, where yet normally no say just close your
eyes and just count things that you're grateful for. Who
do you want to think in your life? What are
you grateful for? So I'll just have them close their
(47:17):
eyes and do that for a couple of minutes, and
I cannot tell you their heart rhythm changes completely. And
if I put like a sensor on their head, I'll
see their brain waves change completely. So gratitude is actually
extremely powerful, and the studies have shown just keeping a
gratitude journal for fifteen minutes three times a week can
significantly improve anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and just overall well being. Right,
(47:42):
and sometimes I get better results with that than some
of the anti depressis right right effect. Yeah, So the
first step is just gratitude, and if you start with that,
that will help you focus on what's actually important in life. Right.
So you crowd out a lot of the noise and
come more mindful and aware. So the second step is
(48:02):
just being aware of our thoughts what's going on. It's
not about judging them, it's just saying, this is what's
going on, being mindful, being present, checking in with ourselves.
And then when we do that, the third thing automatically happens.
It allows us to respond to situations rather than react. Right,
(48:24):
So often what happens we're going about mindlessly and just
you know, something upsets us, we just get upset right away. Right, Yeah,
Uber's late, I'm upset. You know, somebody yells at me.
I'm upset. You know my phone's not breaking down, I'm upset. Right,
we're just reacting to all these things without having that
sensation of gratitude, without being mindful. So when we are
(48:47):
have this gratitude expression, when we are mindful of what's
going on, what automatically happens is that we start responding.
So we get that pause and we say, you know what,
Uber's late, It's okay, I'll get there. When I get there.
I can control this. Someone's making me angry, they're giving
me anger, but I don't have to take it. That's
(49:08):
their anger and it let it stay with them. I
don't have to take it. So funny, that's the beauty.
That's the beauty of positivity and rewiring. Yeah, we do
it by gratitude, by being mindful and choosing to respond
not just react.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Yeah, I love those well, doctor Farik, thank you so
much for being here. The book is Intentional Health, and
I'm going to link this in the description of the
podcast for you guys. I'm a big fan. This is
going to start being my gift to people. I love
this book, so I highly encourage you guys to go
out and get it. Where else can people find you
if they want to keep up with your work.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
So you can go on the website intentionalhealth dot io
or you can follow me on Instagram at intentional.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Health Underscore Awesome. I'll put all of that also in
the description of this podcast. Thank you again so much.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
For being here, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (49:58):
Thank you guys for listening.
Host
Kelly Henderson
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.